Steven Geekface (So Geeked About Movies) and Kelechi Ehenulo (Confessions From A Geek Mind, Film Stories, VultureHound Magazine) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Steven’s choice The Mask.

The Mask is a 1994 comedy starring Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz in her debut role. Carrey plays Stanley Ipkiss, a hapless bank clerk who lives a very average and unremarkable life. Until he finds a magical mask which transforms him into a rubbery green-faced cartoonish alter ego. Acting as a sort of superhero, he begins to use his new found powers for fighting crime and general silliness.

The Mask was one of three films starring Carrey that came out in 1994 (Ace Ventura and Dumber and Dumber) and was the most successful commercially and critically. It also launched the career of Diaz. It’s mixture of wacky visuals and quotable lines made it a huge hit for cinema kids of the 1990s too.

Scores for The Mask from Steven, Kelechi and Kobi were strong on recommendability, less high from Helen though (not sad Jim Carrey enough). When combined with lower scores in the other other categories gave an overall rating of 3.52. S-ssss-ssss-sssss-smokin!

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Thanks to Episode #258 Crew of Kelechi Ehenulo​ (@kehenulo) and Steven Geekface (@Stevengeekface)

Find their Websites online at https://twitter.com/nnesaga

And at https://www.youtube.com/c/SoGeekedAboutMovies

And at https://twitter.com/GeekMindUK

And at https://twitter.com/SetTheTape

And at https://twitter.com/VultureHoundMag

And at https://twitter.com/FILMHOUNDSmag

And at https://twitter.com/filmstoriespod

And at https://twitter.com/JumpCut_Online

And at https://confessionsfromageekmind.com/

Please make sure you give them some love

For more info on The Mask, you can visit The Mask IMDb page here or The Mask Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

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Rich and Dave from Unequal Sequel return to Flixwatcher to review Rich’s choice Point Break.

Point Break is 1991 action film directed by Kathryn Bigelow starring Keanu Reeves as FBI Agent Johnny Utah and Patrick Swayze as surfer and bank robber Bodhi. In supporting roles are Gary Busey as jaded FBI agent Angelo Pappas and Lori Petty as Tyler the love interest.

Rookie agent Utah is brought in to investigate with Pappas a series of bank robberies by the ‘Ex-Presidents’ - named because of the rubber masks they wear. After some sleuthing they deduce that the gang are surfers and Utah is tasked with infiltrating the local surfers by going “undercover”. It soon transpires that Utah’s new friend Bodhi and his friends are prime suspects and Utah is conflicted in his feelings towards the surfer.

Point Break is undeniably one of the quintessential films of the 1990s. It positioned Bigelow as a mainstream director and is the ultimate bromance action film. Unsurprisingly Point Break scores highly on the Flixwatcher categories - especially recommendability and it scores a very impressive 4.45 overall.

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Thanks to Episode #257 Crew of Dave and Rich from Unequal Sequel

Find their Websites online at https://anchor.fm/unequal-sequel

Please make sure you give them some love

More about Point Break

For more info on Point Break, you can visit Point Break IMDb page here or Point Break Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

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Film writers Hanna Flint (Fade to Black podcast, The First Film Club) and Leila Latif (Little White Lies, Curzon, Total Film) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Hannah’s choice Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia (the adventures of martial artists in ancient China) film. Directed by Ang Lee and starring Chow Yun-fat as Li Mu Bai, Michelle Yeoh as Yu Shu Lien and Zhang Ziyi as Jen Yu. Li Mu Bai, a warrior, asks Yu Shu Lien, the woman he loves, to pass on his sword, Green Destiny, to Sir Te. However, when the sword is stolen, Li embarks on a mission to find it.

It broke records for its box office gross for a foreign-language film and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2001, including Best Picture, and won Best Foreign Language Film. The highest ever for a non-English language film, until it was equaled by Roma in 2018. The film gave a boost in popularity of Chinese wuxia films and led the way for films such as House of Flying Daggers and Hero having success with Western audiences.

Unsurprisingly Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon scores highly from Flixwatcher and guests - with a very, very strong recommendability rating. Slightly lower scores for small screen give an overall rating of 4.39

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Thanks to Episode #256 Crew of Leila Latif (@Leila_Latif) and Hanna Ines Flint (@HannaFlint) from first_filmclub

Find their Websites online at https://www.leilalatif.com/

and at https://twitter.com/artsemergency

and at https://twitter.com/thegoodagencyuk

and at https://twitter.com/first_filmclub

and at https://twitter.com/fadetoblackpod

and at https://www.flintonfilm.com/

Please make sure you give them some love

For more info on Never Rarely Sometimes Always, you can visit Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon IMDb page here or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

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Clare (W-Rated podcast) and Em (Verbal Diorama podcast) and return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Em’s choice Never Rarely Sometimes Always.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a 2020 American drama written and directed by Eliza Hittman. It stars Sidney Flanigan (in her debut) as 17-year-own Autumn who takes a trip from her hometown of Pennsylvania with her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) to a New York City Planned Parenthood to carry out a legal abortion.

One of the best films of 2020, it feels even more important now as the Wade vs Roe reversal threatens to remove the legal rights for women to access safe abortions across America.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an intimate and powerful female led film about resilience, friendship and choice, without blame and judgment for the central characters choices.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always scores high on recommendability but as it is a film that is a difficult watch the lower repeat viewing scores gives an overall rating of 4.11

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Thanks to Episode #255 Crew of Em (@EmWillDoIt) and Clare (@clareellenhope) from VerbalDiorama and wratedpod

Find their Websites online at https://twitter.com/EmWillDoIt

and at https://linktr.ee/verbaldiorama

and at  https://www.verbaldiorama.com/

and at https://twitter.com/filmstoriespod

Please make sure you give them some love

Please make sure you give them some love

For more info on Never Rarely Sometimes Always, you can visit Never Rarely Sometimes Always IMDb page here or Never Rarely Sometimes Always Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lissi Simpson (development assistant, scriptwriter and director) and Karen Gabay (TV producer, award-winning film-maker, exhibition curator and radio presenter) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Lissi’s choice Baby Driver.

Baby Driver is a 2017 Edgar Wright action drama starring Ansel Elgort as Baby, a getaway driver with tinnitus, Lily James as his love interest Deborah, Jon Hamm and Eiza González as love bird bank robbers Buddy and Darling and Kevin Spacey as Doc, the kingpin of the organised crime syndicate. Jon Bernthal and Jamie Foxx also appear as colourful criminals. Baby is forced to use his driver skills to be the getaway driver to pay back a car he stole from Doc, despite clearing his debt he is forced to do one last job - that obviously goes wrong!

Baby Driver was a longtime passion project for Wright and it clearly shows in the visuals and audio. Sadly, given the association now with disgraced Spacey and Elgort is it less the exciting and exhilarating watch that it was back in 2017 and this is reflected in the recommendability scores. Low scores for small screen due to the soundtrack as much as the action gives a solid overall rating of 4.12.

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Thanks to Episode #254 Crew of Karen Gabay (@KazGabay) and Lissi Simpson (@lissi_SW)

Find their Websites online at https://www.karengabay.co.uk/

And at http://lissisimpson.co.uk/

Please make sure you give them some love

For more info on Baby Driver IMDb, you can visit Baby Driver IMDb page here or Baby Driver Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tatton Spiller and Diane Daniels from Simple Politics (Instagram, Podcast) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Tatton’s choice The Naked Gun.

The Naked Gun is the 1988 police spoof comedy from David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams starring Leslie Nielsen as Det. Sgt. Frank Drebin, Priscilla Presley as Jane and O. J. Simpson as Det. Fred Nordberg. In this outing of the Police Squad! franchise Det. Frank Drebin is in charge of security for a visit of Queen Elizabeth II to LA while at the same time investigating a drug bust gone (hilariously) wrong.

The Naked Gun manages to cram in a multitude of slapstick comedy and visual and verbal puns into its lean 85 minute runtime. Gags which have been burned into the memory of Flixwatcher and guests - who doesn’t recall “it’s Enrico Pallazzo!” or “ice beaver”??!!

Could you make The Naked Gun now? Maybe not! The opening scene probably not but the majority of the humour is very childish rather than malicious. The Naked Gun scores highly across all Flixwatcher categories to score a very respectable 4.21 overall.

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Thanks to Episode #253 Crew of Diane Daniels and Tatton Spiller Simple Politics

Find their Websites online at https://linktr.ee/SimPol

Please make sure you give them some love

For more info on The Naked Gun IMDb, you can visit The Naked Gun IMDb page here or The Naked Gun Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kelechi Ehenulo (Confessions From A Geek Mind, Film Stories, VultureHound Magazine) and Katie Smith-Wong (Movie Marker, Film Stories, New Scientist) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Kelechi’s choice The Harder They Fall.

The Harder They Fall is a 2021 Western debut film written and directed by Jeymes Samuel. Loosely based on real cowboys and outlaws of the 19th-century American West. Rare for Westerns it features a principal cast of black actors which includes Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo and Lakeith Stanfield.

The film opens with an 11-year-old Nat Love witnessing the murder of his parents at the dinner table by Rufus (Idris Elba) Buck and being marked by Buck with a cross carved on his forehead. Fast forward twenty years and Nat (Jonathan Majors) learns of Buck being released from prison and gets the gang together to seek revenge.

The Harder They Fall is a dazzling debut that is as violent as it is energetic and scores very highly on recommendability from guests and Flixwatcher. Slightly slower scores for small screen give an overall rating of 4.37.

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Thanks to Episode #252 Crew of Crew of  Kelechi Ehenulo (@kehenulo) and Katie Smith-Wong (@KatieSmithWong)

Find their Websites online at https://twitter.com/flickfeast

And at https://twitter.com/filmstoriespod

And at https://twitter.com/NewScientist

And at https://twitter.com/MovieMarker

And at https://twitter.com/theOAFFC

And at https://twitter.com/londoncritics

And at https://twitter.com/GeekMindUK

And at https://twitter.com/SetTheTape

And at https://twitter.com/VultureHoundMag

And at https://twitter.com/FILMHOUNDSmag

And at https://twitter.com/filmstoriespod

And at https://twitter.com/JumpCut_Online

And at https://confessionsfromageekmind.com/

And at https://muckrack.com/katiesmithwong

For more info on The Harder They Fall IMDb, you can visit The Harder They Fall IMDb page here or The Harder They Fall Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Babs and Fran from Over/underrated: a music podcast join Flixwatcher remotely to review Babs’ choice Beats.

Beats is a 2019 American coming of age hip hop drama (not to be confused with the other 2019 called film Beats) that tells the fictional story of a musical prodigy in Chicago experiencing PSTD from a violent incident, who ends up being mentored by a disgraced music producer.

Starring Khalil Everage as August Monroe, the teenage beats enthusiast, Anthony Anderson as Romelo Reese, the ex music producer now school security guard and supporting cast Uzo Aduba as Carla Monroe, Augusts mother and Paul Walter Hauser as Terren, the owner of the record label trying to sign August.

Fran’s expectations were for Boyz in the Hood meets Dr Dre but unfortunately Beats doesn’t reach those heights of greatness, Lacking in big musical moments and despite some nice editing work its hard to get emotionally invested in watching some button pressing and 808 beat creations.

Recommendability scores for Beats were average and its two hour runtime works against it for repeat viewing and engagement to give it an overall rating of 2.59.

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Thanks to Episode #251 Crew of Barbara (@flame_me_up) and Fran (@OUmusicpod) from Over/underrated music podcast

Find their Websites online at 

And at https://t.co/84i7d2rDrA

And at https://linktr.ee/overunderratedmusicpod

For more info on Beats IMDb, you can visit Beats IMDb page here or Beats Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Clements (90 Minutes or Less Film Fest podcast) and Josh Pappenheim (Truly Happily Madison Podcast) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Sam’s choice Les Misérables.

Les Misérables is a 2012 adaptation of the 1985 West End English translation of the 1980 French musical, which is adapted from the 1862 French novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. Directed by Tom (The Kings Speech) Hooper it features a star-studded cast that includes Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert, Anne Hathaway as Fantine (which earned her an Oscar), Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy and Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thénardiers.

Les Mis is a sung-through musical and Hooper made the interesting decision to have the actors sing live, as opposed to synching to a backing track. This may explain to some extent some of the bizarre facial expressions, and extreme emotions and really tests the singing ability of the cast.

On its release, Les Mis was a mega-hit - taking over £8 million in its opening UK weekend and it went on to win multiple nominations and wins at Golden Globes, BAFTAs and the Academy Awards.

With a run time of two hours and 37 minutes, it is a LOT of singing and a LOT of clumsy and cringe-inducing camera zoom in your face. Flixwatcher and guests found it hard to recommend beyond being a fan of musicals and Les Mis scores only 2.88 overall (lower than Cats!).

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Thanks to Episode #250 Crew of Josh Pappenheim (@papsby) and Sam Clements (@sam_clements) from 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest

Find their Websites online at https://twitter.com/truhapmad

And at https://www.90minfilmfest.com/

For more info on Les Miserables IMDb, you can visit Les Miserables IMDb page here or Les Miserables Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meg Fozzard (writer and disability rights campaigner) and Fran Turauskis (On the Outside podcast, Pod Bible Digital Editor) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Meg’s choice Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (OUATIH).

OUATIH is the 10th film by director and writer Quentin Tarantino. Set in a semi-reality of 1969 Hollywood it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, a (fictional) TV actor struggling to break into cinema, Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth Rick’s (fictional) stunt double, Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate who meets an alternative fate and a supporting cast of Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Damian Lewis, Al Pacino and Kurt Russell.

There isn’t so much as a plot to OUATIH, it is more of a series of vignettes that are connected by chance and coincidence rather than agency or narrative. Dalton and Booth are composites of real Hollywood characters and through a series of chance events end up intervening in the Manson Family and prevent the death of Sharon Tate - set up over two hours and 40 minutes,

On its release, it received mixed opinions - praised for being an incredibly detailed and authentic love letter to Hollywood and the acting partnership of DiCaprio and Pitt but criticised for its gratuitous violence against women, the portrayal of Bruce Lee and its long runtime.

Flixwatcher and guests also had a mixed response which was reflected heavily in the recommendability scores giving OUATIH an overall rating of 2.88. Making it the lowest-ranked Tarantino film on Flixwatcher.

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Thanks to Episode #249 Crew of Meg Fozzard (@megrozfozz​) and Fran Turauskis (@FranticT) from On the Outside podcast

Find their Websites online at https://twitter.com/TremulaNetwork

And at https://twitter.com/PodBible

And at https://twitter.com/nftsdigital

For more info on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood IMDb, you can visit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood IMDb page here or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Rotten Tomatoes page here.

If you enjoyed this episode of Flixwatcher Podcast you probably know other people who will like it too! Please share it with your friends and family, review us, and join us across ALL of the Social Media links below.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices