On Episode #162 of Fear and Loathing in Cinema, Bryan, Dan, and Chelsea strap themselves to the wings of the 2018 Tomb Raider reboot and attempt to survive the turbulence. Starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, the film operates on the charmingly deranged belief that if one adventure-movie cliché is good, then twelve must be better. Deadly viruses? Certainly. Long-lost parents? Naturally. Wild animals, ancient tombs, possible zombies, international conspiracies, and, for reasons known only to screenwriters in a panic, a bicycle courier weaving through city traffic? All present and accounted for in this Tomb Raider.

The post Episode #163 – Tomb Raider (2018) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

On Episode #162 of Fear and Loathing in Cinema, Bryan, Dan, Preston, and Chelsea crack their eyelids open for Wide Awake, the charmingly odd little comedy-drama that spent years gathering dust on a Harvey Weinstein shelf before escaping into the world as M. Night Shyamalan's first feature, long before dead people started chatting with Haley Joel Osment.

The post Episode #162 – Wide Awake (1998) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

Naturally, Bryan, Preston, Dan, and Chelsea tackle the questions that Nolan either intentionally raised or accidentally unleashed upon humanity. What does Tenet actually mean? Why does every explanation somehow require a flowchart? Can human beings learn to invert themselves through concentration alone? And if time truly begins moving backward, are we prepared for the biological implications of backward pooping?

The post Episode #161 – Tenet (2020) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

On Episode #160 of the Fear and Loathing in Cinema podcast, Bryan, Preston, and Dan descend into the beautiful chaos of Reagan-era action mythology, unpacking why every hero in the '80s looked like he survived entirely on black coffee, Marlboros, and trauma. They discuss how Maverick belongs to that glorious lineage of cinematic lunatics, somewhere between John McClane and Martin Riggs. You know, men who absolutely should not have been handed firearms, much less fighter jets, yet were treated by Hollywood as spiritual guides for American masculinity.

The post Episode #160 – Top Gun (1986) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

Episode #159 of Fear and Loathing in Cinema finds Bryan, Chelsea, Dan, and Preston wandering deep into the crimson sands of John Carter, Disney’s enormously expensive attempt to convince the world that a shirtless Confederate soldier jumping around Mars was the future of blockbuster entertainment.

The post Episode #159 – John Carter (2012) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

This week on Episode #158 of Fear and Loathing in Cinema, the gang wades into the warm, cursed waters of Jaws 4: The Revenge, the film that effectively harpooned the Jaws franchise into the bottom of the ocean nearly four decades ago. The episode plays less like a review and more like a marine investigation conducted by four people who cannot believe what they are seeing but are nevertheless delighted by it to a certain degree. Bryan, Preston, Dan, and Chelsea attempt to locate anything resembling a coherent narrative inside a movie where a shark appears to possess not only a vendetta, but apparently GPS coordinates, emotional memory, and the reasoning skills of a mid-level slasher villain.

The post Episode #158 – Jaws 4: The Revenge (1987) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

This week on Episode #157 of Fear and Loathing in Cinema, we found ourselves tumbling headfirst into the glittering, bewildering cosmos of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. To call it a movie feels almost impolite. It is, instead, a kind of cinematic music video stitched together at the exact moment Michael Jackson ceased to be merely human and became something closer to folklore. He's half man, half melody, and half very expensive special effect for 1988.

The post Episode #157 – Moonwalker (1988) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

In Episode #156, the group turns its attention to Murder by Numbers, a 2002 relic starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Gosling, and Michael Pitt. It's a film most people remember the way one remembers a locker combination, which is vaguely, and with no real confidence it was ever correct. The hosts reopen the case file to determine whether the film has aged into something worth defending or remains a curious artifact of its era, like low-rise jeans or un-ironic faith in landlines.

The post Episode #156 – Murder By Numbers (2002) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

There are episodes of a podcast that arrive with the breezy confidence of a brunch invitation. It's light, convivial, and gone before the coffee cools. And then there is episode #155 of Fear and Loathing in Cinema, which arrives more like a subpoena. The subject, as it turns out, was Song of the South (1946), a Disney relic so thoroughly tucked away that it has achieved the status of cinematic folklore in the United States.

The post Episode #155 – Song of the South (1946) With Kevin Willmott and Shawn Edwards first appeared on Boomstick Comics.

Episode #154 finds the panel wading into the tiara-strewn chaos of Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), a mockumentary so dark it occasionally feels like it’s whispering its jokes from the trunk of a car. With a cast that reads like a particularly unhinged reunion, including Kirsten Dunst, Allison Janney, Denise Richards, Amy Adams, Kirstie Alley, Brittany Murphy, and a cheerfully bewildered Adam West, the film chronicles a small Minnesota town whose high-school beauty pageant appears to double as a low-stakes homicide ring. It is civic pride with a body count.

The post Episode #154 – Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999) first appeared on Boomstick Comics.