It's been a rough year for Ian and David's one-on-one reviews of streaming movies--but they've finally cracked the code!

Writer/director/star Jesse Eisenberg's sophomore effort, A Real Pain, is now in theaters and the guys actually ventured out to the cineplex to watch it together. The result is a hard-hitting and wide-ranging conversation about one of 2024's very best films.

Eisenberg plays David, a New York Internet ads salesman who accompanies his cousin, Benji (Kieran Culkin), on a trip to Poland as a memorial to their recently deceased grandmother. They spend most of their journey on a Holocaust tour, where Benji's manic-depressive episodes lead to awkwardness, confrontations, and disruptions both comedic and tragicomic.

In this spoiler-lite episode, the guys talk about the fine balance Eisenberg and company achieve in creating a deliberate Awards Season Darling that breaks through with frequent moments of un-movielike authenticity--and, as it turns out, is actually worth leaving the house for!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the A Real Pain (2024) trailer.

• Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

• Plus! Listen to Ian and David's other recent (and very raucous) reviews of:

  • Rebel Ridge (2024)

  • Duchess (2024)

  • The Old Oak (2024)

  • What Remains (2024)

Earth's Mightiest Critics pray for a solid horror movie with their round table review of Heretic!

The co-creators of A Quiet Place bring us the story of two struggling young missionaries who knock on the door of a seemingly open-minded elderly man--only to find themselves lured into a deadly puzzle-like test of faith.

Join us for a spoilerific round table revelation, as we talk religious horror, Hugh Grant's heel turn, and take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the Heretic (2024) trailer.

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

  • And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

Happy Hammerween! Today, Ian and AC close out Spooky Season and Scare-a-Thon 2024 with a look at Peter Sasdy's 1971 psychological slasher, Hands of the Ripper!

Eric Porter stars as Dr. Pritchard, an early 20th Century doctor whose interest in the "new" field of Freudian psychoanalysis leads him to care for a young woman named Anna (Angharad Rees). As a toddler, she'd witnessed the slaying of her mother at the hands of Jack the Ripper, and has now succumbed to violent episodes triggered by her past. Blackmail, bedside manner, and bloody murder come to a jaw-dropping head in this surprising late-era Hammer entry.

In this spoilerific episode, the guys talk about the power of minimalistic storytelling; a startling (and admittedly stupid) connection between Jack the Ripper and Three’s Company; and respond to some rather pointed comments from last month's The Lost Continent episode!

Because it's October, the annual Scare-a-Thon is in full swing! For the third year in a row, AC is raising funds for the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project. Support this year's Scare-a-Thon by donating directly to WRRAP!

And keep up with all of AC's "Scare-a-Thon" viewings!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch Hands of the Ripper (1971) trailer.

• Read AC's written review of Hands of the Ripper.

• Order AC's books on essential and obscure horror movies, Horror 101 and Hidden Horror!

• Subscribe to AC's YouTube channel, Horror 101 with Dr. AC.

• It’s not too late to catch up with our 2023 trip “Beyond Hammerland”!

• Check out 2022's year-long journey, "Son of Hammerland"!

• And watch the series that started it all: "Hammerland"!

Halloween is almost upon us, and Earth's Mightiest Critics are passing out treats early with a live round table review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man!

Crank co-director Brian Taylor enters the franchise with a flashback installment, which finds our big, bad BPRD brawler investigating small-town witch phenomena in the 1950s. The film's trailer raised eyebrows earlier this year, perceived as a low-budget departure from Guillermo del Toro's brilliant early 2000's adaptations of the Mike Mignola comics. When it was announced that the movie would go direct-to-streaming, the "skippable" stench became even stronger.

But the EMC aren't afraid of a challenge, and this Wednesday we'll debate the merits and missteps of a film that has actually begun to amass a cult of admirers. Will some of the panelists join in?

Join us for a look at how The Crooked Man stands up to the comics, its big-screen predecessors (including that execrable David Harbour relaunch), and supernatural action movies in general. We'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Bonus! Listen to the EMC's audio review of the 2019 Hellboy.

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) trailer.

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

  • And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

Halloween is right around the corner, and the Accademia Giallo team is eager to "treat" you to a revealing round table review of Alice, Sweet Alice!

A divorced Catholic couple's life is upended when their teenage daughter, Alice, is suspected of killing her younger sister during her First Communion. And wouldn't you know it? Mayhem ensues!

Join us for a "sweet" and spoilerific look at this bizarre thriller starring Brooke Shields! We'll also pull over for the age-old sidebar, "Is this really Giallo"--and take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Because it's October, the annual Scare-a-Thon is in full swing! For the third year in a row, AC is raising funds for the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project. Support this year's Scare-a-Thon by donating directly to WRRAP!

And keep up with all of AC's "Scare-a-Thon" viewings!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the Alice, Sweet Alice trailer.

• Support all of our terrifying teachers' axe-tracurricular activities!

  • Stay studious with Aaron Christensen at Horror101 with Dr. AC!

  • And subscribe to his YouTube channel!

  • If you dare, venture down into Kitley's Krypt with Jon Kitley!

    • And listen to Jon's scary-good podcast, Discover the Horror!

  • Stalk Bryan Martinez in The Giallo Room!

  • Buy J. Blake Fichera's "Scored to Death" Volume I and II on Amazon (mentioned in the show).

• Catch up with classic episodes of his Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers podcast!

• Continue your education with our "Accademia Giallo" Playlist!

We're late into Spooky Season, but it's never too late for some Scare-a-Thon fun!

Ian and AC return with a special 50th anniversary review of Larry Cohen's 1974 family-drama-with-monsters, It’s Alive!

John P. Ryan and Sharon Farrell star as Frank and Lenore Davis, a happily married expectant couple whose second trip to the delivery room ends in a freakish massacre. Turns out their newborn is a razor-clawed mutant with a thirst for milk, blood, and mayhem!

During the weeklong, city-wide hunt for a creature on the loose, the Davises go through twisted versions of the Stages of Grief, and the audience is treated to the kind of unexpectedly observant, cerebral horror that only Larry Cohen could deliver!

Join the guys for a spoilerific celebration of Cohen's casting, creativity, and character nuance--all in support of the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (donation info below, if you are so moved to participate)!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the It’s Alive trailer.

• Support this year's Scare-a-Thon by donating directly to WRRAP!

• And keep up with all of AC's "Scare-a-Thon" viewings at Horror 101 w/ Dr. AC!

• Bonus Content! As mentioned in the show, you can check out Ian's interview with It’s Alive director Larry Cohen (waaaaay back on the third episode of the Kicking the Seat Podcast!):

• And listen to Ian's interview with Steve Mitchell, director of the Larry Cohen documentary, King Cohen!

Earth's Mightiest Critics celebrate forty years of atrocious fashion and questionable cutlery with a look back at A Nightmare on Elm Street!

But this isn't your run-of-the-mill retrospective: It's the second installment of our remake series, "Here We Go Again!" That's right, we'll be looking at two incarnations of the Springwood Slasher--both Robert Englund's iconic 1984 bogeyman and Jackie Earle Haley's (ahem) noble attempt to resurrect the character in 2010.

Join the Internet's dreamiest panel as we talk Craven, casting, and cowardly cash-grabs! We'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Plus: Ian will talk some of the pros and cons of Warner Bros' recently released 4K version of the 1984 film!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) trailer.

• Watch the A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) trailer.

• Fred-heads can pick up A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) on 4K from Warner Bros!

• As mentioned in the show, you can watch a deleted Elm Street '84 scene that wasn’t included on the 4K release.

• And you can read Ian's 2010 review of the Elm Street remake, which led to the very cool anecdote Ian shared on the show!

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

  • And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

Earth's Mightiest Critics invite you to enjoy Saturday Night on a Wednesday!

This week, we'll look at Jason Reitman's latest film, which follows the nail-biting ninety minutes leading up to the October 11, 1975 debut of NBC's risky variety/sketch show, Saturday Night Live.

Gabriel LaBelle stars as beleaguered producer Lorne Michaels, who must battle skeptical network execs and an unruly, untested cast to bring his vision to the masses. The TV show, which just launched its 50th season, became a pop cultural institution, but Reitman's dramedy invites us behind the curtain to see how close its debut came to catastrophic collapse!

Or does it?

In this land shark-loving, wild and crazy round table review, Ian, Jeff, and Cati dig into the myriad myths, mischaracterizations, and just plain head-scratching story decisions Reitman and company throw into their supposedly true story.

Plus: Ian trips over some dropped names, and recommends some Saturday Night alternatives!

We also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the Saturday Night (2024) trailer.

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

  • And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

Laugh 'til you cry with Earth's Mightiest Critics' round table review of Joker: Folie À Deux!

In 2019, Todd Phillips stunned the world with an Elseworlds take on DC Comics' Clown Prince of Crime. Joker was a grounded, hard-R origin story that, despite a decisive break from the source material, went on to gross over a billion dollars at the global box office--igniting controversy in just about every corner of the Internet.

Despite insisting that the backdoor blockbuster art film starring Joaquin Phoenix would be a one-off, Phillips and co have returned--this time with Lady Gaga in tow, playing a cracked-mirror-universe version of Harley Quinn in a bona fide musical.

The question remains: Is there over two hours more of Arthur Fleck/Joker's story that demands telling? And is Joker 2 a not-so-secret snub of the audience that made the original a dark horse phenomenon?

Join us for a super-serious and solidly sane look at the latest low-key comic book movie! We'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the Joker: Folie À Deux (2024) trailer.

• As mentioned in the show: If you're in the Wisconsin area this weekend, check out the Sawdust City Fright Fest (and say "hi" to Mark, who'll be MC'ing some of the screenings!).

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

  • And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

Nostalgia is a tricky thing, and there's perhaps no better example than Ian and Pat's review of Crumb!

Chronicling the lineage and linework of Underground Comix legend R. Crumb, Terry Zwigoff's 1994 documentary was once one of the guys' favorite films--and it may still be, even if the passage of time and evolving sensibilities make it far more difficult to recommend now than when it was released. Troubled by an oppressive, abusive early childhood peopled by mentally disturbed siblings and parents, Crumb channeled his social awkwardness and innate misanthropy into highly influential counter-culture comics.

Having shunned commercial success and any illusions of fitting in with polite society, we meet Crumb as he and his wife, Aline, are finishing up a move from California to the South of France (where they'll move into a countryside home purchased with a suitcase full of Crumb's old sketchbooks). Zwigoff captures their informal farewells with family, colleagues, and critics--in the process asking audiences to wonder if being a well-regarded artistic genius is worth a life of numbness, doubt, and alienation.

In this spoilerific review, Ian and Pat talk about what's changed in their perception of R. Crumb as an artist; how his work influenced Ian's own creative endeavors; and the eeriness of watching seemingly contemporary sociopolitical themes echoing back through the decades.

Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

• Watch the Crumb trailer.

• As mentioned in the show, check out the trailers for:

  • Comic Book Confidential

  • American Splendor

• As mentioned in the show, you can pick up Crumb on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

• Keep up with Pat at HollywoodChicago.com.

• Listen to Pat's movie reviews on the radio at STAR 96.7.