Filmlosophers

The Filmlosophers take on the universal mystery of why we saw this movie in the first place with Men In Black: International (2019). This latest entry in the Men In Black franchise has the team shaking their heads as they discuss the vibe and creative direction this out-of-this-world film takes. Are the powerhouse performers Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth enough to help launch this Arquillian space cruiser, or is this film a doomed Boglidite? Tune in to find out in this week’s episode of The Filmlosophers!

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, band together to keep from falling apart at the seams with this week’s review of Dark Phoenix (2019). The final installment of Fox’s nearly 20-year-long X-Men film series (since New Mutants may or may not ever release in 2020) tackles the comic book franchise’s most popular storyline and tries to fix some of what went wrong in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).

Directed and written by Simon Kinberg, the film stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, and Jessica Chastain. Give us a few minutes of your time, and we’ll let you know if that huge stable of talent pulled out a win...or if that cosmic bird needs another attempt at rebirth someday.

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, knock over a few buildings while saving the world with this week’s review of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). As the third installment of Warner Bros. MonsterVerse, the film presents some of the famous kaiju’s most fearsome opponents while setting up the additional mythology leading up to next year’s Godzilla vs. Kong.

Directed by Michael Dougherty, the film stars Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson Jr., David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, Zhang Ziyi and a bunch of monsters “as themselves.” Intrigued? Give us a listen!

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, wonder if there’s anything good left in the world after viewing Brightburn (2019). The highly anticipated film, produced by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, mashes up the superhero and horror movie genres by posing the simple question: what if Superman wasn’t a good guy, even as a child?Directed by David Yarovesky, the film stars Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, and Meredith Hagner. It debuted to mixed reviews and a modest box office haul, but we think you’ll be very interested to hear where we stand...

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, scramble to find weapons in every corner with this week’s review of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019). The adrenaline-fueled “gun fu” action flick closes out the first trilogy of Chad Stahelski’s relentless series with stars Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, Anjelica Huston and Ian McShane.

Parabellum continues the saga of titular character John Wick’s merc marathon run as he tries to elude death from every assassin in the world after being declared “excommunicado” by the High Table. With a fourth chapter already green-lit, it’s obvious that the film series is here for the long haul...but can you stomach the violence long enough to reach the end?

With Eddie out of the office for a week, Filmlosophers Spencer Williams and Chad Riley do a bit of a duet with this week's review of Detective Pikachu (2019). Starring Ryan Reynold, Justice Smith, Bill Nighy and a whole host of Pokemon characters who've made the transition from cartoon to live action.

With a healthy mix of franchise knowledge (Spencer) and no knowledge at all (Chad), we take a look at how this video game adaptation rates in comparison to other nominally successful properties.

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, drag their sorry carcasses out of the theater after repeat viewings of Avengers: Endgame (2019). After 18 previous episodes dedicated to Marvel Cinematic Universe films, everything culminates in this week’s review of the Infinity Saga closeout that rocketed to more than $1 billion at the global box office in record time.Endgame brings the initial 22-film run of the MCU to a point of closure and rebirth, and we’ve assembled all of our brain cells to recount in spoiler-ridden fashion all three hours and five minutes of the film. If you haven’t seen it yet, listen at your own risk - you’ve been spoiler alerted!

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, head back to the start of the infinity loop with this week’s review of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man (2008). The film marked the first official entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, established Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man as a household name and paved the road toward this week’s Infinity Saga culmination, Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Also starring Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Clark Gregg, Iron Man set a new standard for superhero blockbusters and initiated one of the most unique multi-franchise undertakings in the history of cinema.

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, try desperately to escape the flames of the underworld with this week’s review of Hellboy (2019). The remake stars David Harbour from “Stranger Things” alongside Ian McShane, Milla Jovovich, Danial Dae Kim and a whole lot of CGI.

Unfortunately, this slow burning garbage fire of a film is too relentlessly unquenchable even for us. The good news is that we suffered through it so you don’t have to.

The Filmlosophers, Eddie Villanueva, Chad Riley and Spencer Williams, tackle the debate of the modern era with this week’s evaluation of the Netflix effect...and a “mini-review” of one of the streaming giant’s recent releases, Triple Frontier (2019). With a war brewing between Hollywood’s previous generation of upstarts (we’re looking at you, Steven Spielberg) and the new content disruptors (including Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón), how are the rest of us supposed to feel about on-demand home viewing versus the grand allure of a cinematic presentation?

As a small litmus test, we also dive into an abbreviated review of Triple Frontier starring Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona. It may not be the next Roma (2018), but it sure beats most of the Netflix-distributed films we’ve reviewed in previous episodes.