"Mark WahlTURD & the Yucky Bunch" rolls along into 2003, when a much-in-need-of-a-comeback Mark Wahlberg decided to hop on the then popular trend of remaking classic '60s heist movies, with a modern update of the beloved Michael Caine crime caper The Italian Job. Here, Wahlberg and a crew of fellow eccentric thieves (a "funky bunch," if you will) seek to pull off a heist as revenge against a former compatriot who has done them wrong. The movie's action scenes undeniably started a Mini Cooper popularity boom, but what about the rest of the movie? Is it as sexy as The Thomas Crown Affair? Is it as cool as Ocean's Eleven? Why did one of its stars hate being in it? And, most importantly for our theme, did it reignite Wahlberg's flailing movie star career? We discuss all this, and more!

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Here at Failure to Franchise, we don’t like making fun of actors. So trust us when we say our new theme, “Mark WalhTURD and the Yucky Bunch,” dedicated to four failed franchise starters from Boston rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg, is, uh, a tribute. First up, 2001’s Planet of the Apes remake, which was meant to be Wahlberg’s first foray into mega-blockbuster leading man territory. Helmed by beloved Hollywood weirdo Tim Burton, and featuring incredible makeup effects by Rick Baker, the film seemed like a can’t-miss attempt to reboot the classic sci-fi franchise. Instead, it left the series in need of another reboot attempt a decade later. What went wrong? We’re here to figure it out!

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"FebruaRYAN" concludes with a look at 2014's Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Twelve years after The Sum of All Fears failed to reignite the Jack Ryan franchise, Paramount tried once again to tell a new Ryan origin story, with a new "hot young star of the moment" leading man in the role. But this particular Ryan movie arrived in a post-MCU world, when the importance of "IP" had become even more evident, and the concept of - say it with us - "cinematic universes" had become all the rage. How did that affect the approach to Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit? And why did the movie ultimately suffer essentially the same fate as its predecessor? We discuss all this, and more, as we wrap up our look at failed reboots of Tom Clancy's beloved CIA analyst.

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It's out with January, and in with "FebruaRYAN." That's right, this month we're taking a look at Tom Clancy's beloved CIA analyst turned reluctant hero, Jack Ryan. After the successes of The Hunt for Red October, with Alec Baldwin as Ryan, and Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, which saw Harrison Ford take over the role, Paramount Pictures were sure they had a long-running, bulletproof spy-thriller franchise on their hands. And yet, two subsequent attempts to reboot the series were both dead-ends. In this episode, we're looking at the first attempt to relaunch the series with a new origin for the Jack Ryan character, and a new, younger leading man in the role - 2002's The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Affleck as Ryan. Arriving just months after the tragedy of 9/11, this movie seemed advantageously primed to capitalize on the news of the day in order to muster extra attention. But was the film's story a little too close to recent events for the audience's comfort? And was Ben Affleck's recently changing fortunes as a leading man more of a distraction than a benefit?

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"The Mutant GENEuary" wraps up with a movie that is very much not a YA adaptation. In fact, Mutant Chronicles is the long-awaited cinematic adaptation of a popular table-top RPG and video game franchise. After several abandoned attempts to make a big budget studio version of the property, starting in the 90s, fans were finally delivered an independent film adaptation in 2008 that adopted the green-screen aesthetics of recent box-office hits Sin City and 300. Would fans feel forgiving of, or even excited by, the movie's unique look? And would the presence of a couple beloved genre-film stars be enough to make up for the liberties the film took with the source material's story? 

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It's a new year, and a new theme! We're transforming - or should we say "mutating" - the month of January into "The Mutant Gene-uary!" That's right, a month dedicated to mutants, and we're kicking it off with 2020's The New Mutants, the last film released from the original regime of the 20th Century Fox X-Men franchise. Based on a popular X-Men spin-off comic, The New Mutants was meant not only to expand the horizons of what a superhero movie could be, by taking a more horror-based approach, but also to add a new offshoot franchise to the overall X-Men cinematic universe, with a brand new team of young mutant heroes. But after a troubled production and multiple release-date delays, The New Mutants ultimately limply arrived after Disney's purchase of Fox meant the existing X-Men film franchise would be no more. Putting the behind-the-scenes politics aside, did The New Mutants truly deserve its fate? To discuss this, in the spirit of shared universes and comic book crossovers, we're joined in this episode by Joe, Trev's co-host on the Days of Future Podcast: Examining the X-Men podcast, for what promises to be an X-cellent conversation. (get it?)

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"It's Poddin' Time! We're closing out "Failure to Franchise presents Trev & Chris-tmas" with Trev's gift to Chris - a chance to revisit 2017's big-screen blockbuster reboot of Power Rangers. With a team of up-and-coming young actors as the titular heroes, and a couple Hollywood heavy hitters backing them up in supporting roles - including one with an interesting prior connection to the franchise - it sure seemed like Power Rangers was well-suited to cash in on the overall success of the superhero franchise and finally make the long-running kids TV franchise an actual cinematic player. But with criticisms of too-little-action and a perhaps too-serious tone, the film failed to connect in a big way. But do we believe these Rangers deserved another shot at the Morphin' Grid? Stock up on your Krispy Kreme and give a listen. 

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It's once again the most holly, jolly time of the year - "Failure to Franchise presents Trev and Chris-tmas," when we gift each other movies off our long F2F list that we might otherwise not be getting to anytime soon. First up, Chris gifts Trev a notorious box-office and critical flop that Trev has nonetheless always wanted to see ever since it first half-heartedly sputtered into theaters. But...why? Perhaps it has something to do with the film's bizarre origins. After all, how many would-be Hollywood blockbusters can legitimately claim to come from the mind of an actual four-year-old? Well, Monster Trucks can! So strap in and buckle up, as we take this surprisingly star-studded take on the "boy and his pet monster" trope out for a spin around the track. 

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In the return of our "Success to Series" spin-off show, we're taking a look at one of the most popular and unique horror franchises of the 2000s, Final Destination. What is it about the series' pitch-black humor and overly-elaborate death scenes that we find so amusing? We try to get to the bottom of this question, while also exploring the original film's surprising TV origins, sharing our favorite deaths from each installment, ranking the individual films, and paying tribute to the late, great Tony Todd. Plus, we write and share Final Destination-style death scenes for each other! So watch out for falling objects, make sure to step over any tripping hazards, and - whatever you do - don't drive behind any logging trucks while you listen to this in-depth discussion of Final Destination.

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"Noyce-vember," our month-long tribute to journeyman director Phillip Noyce, concludes! So how did Noyce follow up the disappointment of 1997's The Saint (which we looked at last time), you ask? Simple - by recruiting one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Denzel Washington, teaming him with a young starlet on the brink of mega-stardom named Angelina Jolie, and putting them together in an adaptation of a recent hit crime-thriller novel. Sounds like a good plan, right? Except he ended up with another failed franchise starter! What's the deal?? Well, we're taking a look at The Bone Collector to see if it's a truly worthy entry in the "90s serial killer movie" canon, or just another tired Se7en wannabe.

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