I Have Some Notes

Jack Quaid may not feel pain in Novocaine, but we did. You'd think after nearly ten years of consuming the most mediocre films Hollywood can disk we'd be somewhat numb by now, but no.

Though, truth be told, Novocaine is a pretty fun high-concept action thriller. You've got a charming young actor and a premise that invites all kind of bloody mayhem. But, as always, we find a way to Monday Morning Screenwriter this into something that will rock the senses.

Having been burned back in the 90s with one of the most infamously bad movie adaptations in history, Nintendo clearly had a one word mandate for The Super Mario Bros. Movie: safe. Make every safe decision you can, don't do anything interesting or take any kind of risk that could reflect poorly on the brand.

And hey, it worked. Super Mario Bros. made all the money and kids loved it. But, what if the Nintendo made SOME choices, and took SOME risks? How much better a showing could this have been for the little Italian plumber?

Josh Skaar of the Talking SMAC podcast joins us once again to find out! Together we work out a stronger arc for Luigi and a really fun and organic way for the Princess to be in another castle. Let'sa go!

Nic Cage stashes his bags in the overhead bin and settles in for his second round of IHSN punch-ups. This was a really fun one as we got to play with a long manifest of colourful characters in a brainless action setting. Steve Buscemi in particular gets an elevated roll in our reimagined pitch. 

For those old enough to be big Troma fans, The Toxic Avenger undoubtedly holds a special place in their hearts. When the remake was released in 2023 those hearts ceased to by mutated by radioactive sludge, instead slathered in the thick, inescapable goo of nostalgia. It comes for us all, my friends.

But honestly, this remake was pretty good. Peter Dinklage mops it out of the park as Winston/the voice of Toxie, serving up plenty of slapstick gore. But like most films, it ain't perfect, and we have fun developing our own mutations of the script. 

The Ghostbusters are back, cleaning up the town! The gang is all here: Ray, Winston, Venkman, Janine…Pheobe, Callie, Trevor, Gary, Lucky…uh, Podcast. Postcast is here. Walter Peck. Oh! The library administrator. You remember the library administrator, he's the guy that says "what has that got to do with it?" Classic.

Yes, it's a nostalgia romp like no other, which makes it oh so hard to believe it didn't work out, doesn't it? But, if there's anyone who can uncross the streams, it's the I Have Some Notes crew.

Listen in to our final (probably) Ghostbusters episode!

We watched a ton of GOOD movies in 2025, and we're going to talk about them! That's right, we do, on occasion, watch films that don't stink and don't require page one rewrites. We sat down for our annual chat about the most engaging and inspiring movies we saw in the last 12 months. Enjoy!

For those who like to skip around, here's the time stamps for the episode:

Everyone has wanted to see Santa do a Diehard, right? Of course! He's the most wholesome, selfless mythical character we've got, and we want to see him kill people. YAY, violence! Boo, children!

Violent Night is a solid romp, but doesn't quite hit the satirical notes it needs to become a classic. We pluck on the film's heart strings to maximize the fun in contrasting holiday cheer with righteous violence.

I.S.S. has all the modules necessary for an epic sci-fi thriller, but if we're reviewing it you already know it doesn't all fit together as intended. We explore the possibility of a few deft edits and key moments that could makes this cold war allegory much more explosive.

We were all set to perform our usual punch-up on the 1983 cult classic Deathstalker, when we hit a snag: the movie sucked. And not in the typical way movies we watch for the show suck. Completely devoid of plot and characters of any notable intrigue, we decided to do something a little different.

As it turned out, an excellent Deathstalker remake was a week away from release, making our punch-up rather redundant when the real thing was about to hit VOD. Instead, we decided to spend the episode comparing and contrasting two B-movies with the same name but very different levels of success.

Final Reckoning may not end up being Ethan Hunts's last appearance, but as far as we're concerned, it's mission complete. There's only so much of the mega star's God complex we can take. Tom Cruise will just have to live without our Monday morning screenwriting, not that the blockbuster deity was asking.

On the plus side, David Rae from Quantum Kickflip returns to accept this last impossible mission. Or at least it seemed that way, until Scott fixed the film in virtually one sentence.