Fuds On Film

Another month, another wide mix of films for us to cast shade or anti-shade on, as appropriate. Find out our takes on The Circle, War for the Planet of the Apes, Okja, Baby Driver, Colossal, A Cure for Wellness, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Taste it!

Not everyone knows that Michael Mann's Heat was the second time he's used that material. First time round was a TV pilot called L.A. Takedown, eventually getting its own limited theatrical and home format release. How does it stack up to its more famous sibling?

We take a look at the seedier side of Los Angeles in this episode, away from the distracting, bright lights of Hollywood. We move from noir to 80s excess and beyond as we discuss Chinatown, To Live and Die in L.A., Less than Zero, Boyz n the Hood, L.A. Confidential, and The Limey.

Another arbitrarily selected batch of films line up for inspection as we discuss Wonder Woman, Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge, My Life as a Courgette, A Dog's Purpose, Life, and Passengers. Which will win this month's Palme d'Fud? Tune in and find out!

It's the turn of the other iconic alien-based havoc franchise this episode, as we talk all things Predator - including the much maligned Aliens vs Predator films. What do we make of them? Listen to find out!

1979 saw the beginning of what would become an icon of cinema, and a long-running series that would capture the imaginations of generations of film-goers. And in addition to the birth of all three members of Fuds on Film, 1979 also saw the release of a little film called Alien. Moving between, and often straddling, the horror, science-fiction and action genres, the _Aliens_ franchise has seen 6 main films, 2 crossover spin-offs with the _Predator_ franchise, numerous books, comics and videogames, a boatload of money and the launch into superstardom of three notable directors. Only _Star Trek_ and_ Star Wars_ can rival _Aliens_ for most recognisable and emotive extra-terrestrial species (and most of these are just humans with pointy ears, humans with wrinkly heads, or tall humans in bear costumes). Not even George Lucas’s syntactically-crippled diminutive space frog, beloved though he is, has the same pull on our emotions as the sight of that shining, black, elongated skull emerging from the shadows, ready to strike. The series has been marked out by its willingness to take risks on debutant or up and coming directors, rather than established names, and the fact that, until the most recent entry, each film, while clearly part of the series, had its own particular, distinctive, look and feel, something which has helped keep the franchise from stagnating (at least too badly). I mentioned the Predator cross-overs, and we will be covering those 2 films, along with the Predator franchise itself, in our next episode, but today we’re sticking to the Xenomorphs, and we’ll be discussing the whole series, from Alien up to the recently released Alien: Covenant.

From hugely budgeted action adventures to weird films about poetry, we have you covered with this month assorted grab-bag of films. Listen to our witterings on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Neruda, The Handmaiden, Assassin's Creed, and Paterson.

For no particular reason other than sharks being awesome, we take a look at two of the many films starring these aquatic terrors - the all-time classic Jaws, and the rather less classic Deep Blue Sea.

In an unavoidable change to our regularly scheduled episode, we are bringing you instead a bit of a retrospective of some of our favourite reviews from the first year of our podcast. If you're relatively new to the podcast, we hope you find this informative, and if you've been with us from the start, firstly, thank you, and secondly we hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane, or feel free to instead contemplate something beautiful for an hour and a half.

Two films about beasts, two films about identity politics - it can only mean that we're bloviating about Beauty and the Beast, Get Out, Kong: Skull Island, and Ghost in the Shell. Check it out!