Kicking the Seat

Earth's Mightiest Critics come alive with a 40th-anniversary review of Stuart Gordon's horror/comedy classic, Re-Animator!

Based on H.P. Lovecraft's short story, the film stars Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West, a weaselly med student whose single-minded focus on conquering death leads to disastrous consequences. His new roommate, Dan (Bruce Abbott), and Dan's girlfriend, Megan (Barbara Crampton), get swept up in a madcap nightmare of undead cats, lecherous faculty, and a glowing green serum whose effects are as unpredictable as they are grotesque!

Join us for a grave-robbin' gush-fest in which we talk spoilers, sequels, and celebrity encounters-- AND take your questions, comments and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

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• Watch the Re-Animator (1985) trailer.

• Check out Ignite Films' new 4K UHD release of Re-Animator, available in several different collectible editions!

• 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 and Pipeline Artists.

  • 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.

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

Join Earth's Mightiest Critics in witnessing the middle of the end of the MCU: Yes, we're talking Thunderbolts*!

Marvel's answer to DC's Suicide Squad kicked off the summer blockbuster season last weekend. And if this gray, introspective, pseudo-artsy take on superheroics is any indication, moviegoers will be trading in their collectible popcorn buckets for pill box organizers!

In the film, a cast of cast-offs from other MCU movies and TV shows must band together to stop a willpower-gobbling threat that has emerged from a top-secret research lab--while also coming to grips with deep-seated trauma and not strangling their teammates!

Join us for a spoilerific look at enemies, empathy, and that eyebrow-raising asterisk! We also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

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• Watch the Thunderbolts* (2025) 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 and Pipeline Artists.

  • 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.

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

Earth's Mightiest Critics left the house to see Until Dawn...so you don't have to.

Join us for a spoilerific roundtable review of a film best described as "Groundhog Day meets...every other direct-to-video horror movie you've ever turned off."

We also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

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• BlueSky

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Show Links

• Watch the Until Dawn (2025) 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 and Pipeline Artists.

  • 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.

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

IndieSeen sells out! This month, Ian and Sujewa welcome Jeff York for a spirited discussion of Adrian Lyne's blockbuster relationship drama, Indecent Proposal.

This (very loose) adaptation of Jack Engelhard's novel centers on David (Woody Harrelson) and Diana (Demi Moore), a young married couple who, after loosing their meager savings in Las Vegas, are presented with a life-changing offer from billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford): $1 million to spend the night with Diana. The encounter and its after-effects may have split the narrative right down the middle--but it united audiences in making Indecent Proposal one of the highest-grossing films of 1993.

In this spoilerific episode, the guys examine the movie in a few different contexts: as a comparison to the source material; as an awkward attempt to fit Lyne's film into the trendy "erotic thriller" niche; and as a bungled telling of what could have been (in more thoughtful hands) a challenging and dare-we-say-"sexy" head-trip for the ages.

They also talk bad casting; Indecent Proposal's unfortunate connection to The Brutalist; and the recently announced news that Redford's Sundance Film Festival is vacating Park City, Utah, after nearly 40 years!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

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• Watch the Indecent Proposal (1993) trailer.

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

• Check out Sujewa's latest podcast venture, This Arthouse Life!

• Watch Sujewa's latest film, Cosmic Disco Detective Rene for free on YouTube!

• Rent The Secret Society for Slow Romance (the predecessor to Cosmic Disco Detective Rene).

• Follow Sujewa on X.

• Check out all the episodes in our “IndieSeen” Playlist!

We're long overdue for a mailbag, so let's dive in together (while also celebrating a certain subscriber milestone)

Join me for a look at the best, the worst, and the ugliest comments I've received since late January! I also respond to your real-time questions, feedback, and SuperChats in the chat!

If you’d like to see your comment read and responded to in this or a future "Don't Read the Comments" video, simply...leave a comment on YouTube, kickseat.com, Facebook, or Twitch!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

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Ryan Coogler has made believers out of Earth's Mightiest Critics!

Sinners is the best film of 2025 so far, and continues a hard-charging streak of smart, game-changing genre pictures that could make this one of the best movie years in decades.

(Jinx!)

Michael B. Jordan stars as twin criminals Smoke and Stack Moore, who return to Mississippi after seven years building their ill-gotten fortunes in Chicago. They enlist several local acquaintances, including their young Christian guitarist cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), to help them open a juke joint at the edge of town. All goes to plan, until three mysterious strangers ask to join in the fun--and don't take kindly to being turned away.

If you don't know anything else about Sinners, please, please, please avoid trailers, spoilers, word-of-mouth--anything that might give away the heart (dare we say, the meat) of the film.

Just go see it (in IMAX, if you can) right away!

Then join us for a spoilerific celebration of the movie many of us have been waiting for.

We'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Sinners (2025) 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 and Pipeline Artists.

  • 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.

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

As Pat says in today's episode, it's not a Good Friday, it's a Great Friday--which is fitting, as the guys review The Greatest Story Ever Told!

George Stevens' epic adaptation of the life of Christ turns 60 this year, and it holds up as one of the most sprawling and "cinematic" tellings ever committed to film!

In the latest installment of "There's No Stalgia Like Nostalgia", Ian and Pat talk about the film's spotty Biblical accuracy and undeniable visual poetry; the wild cast of characters (including Max von Sydow as Jesus, Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate, and John Wayne's infamous quarter-million-dollar cameo as a Roman soldier); and Hollywood's "Jesus curse"!

You'll also learn about the film's different versions--and which one to seek out for the best possible viewing experience!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

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• Watch the Greatest Story Ever Told trailer.

• Keep up with Pat at HollywoodChicago.com.

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

The Amateur is a hilarious new comedy about a CIA analyst whose world is turned upside down when he finds out the Agency isn't trustworthy!

Or did Earth's Mightiest Critics read the latest Rami Malek vehicle totally wrong?

Join us for secrets, spoilers, and your SuperChats (plus regular ol' comments and questions)!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

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Show Links

• Watch the Amateur (2025) trailer.

• Bonus! Listen to Ian's vintage interview with The Amateur star Rachel Brosnahan!

• 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 and Pipeline Artists.

  • 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.

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

Ian and Armond return with a look at Steven Spielberg's first (and wildly underappreciated) theatrical film, The Sugarland Express!

Based on a true story, the movie follows Clovis and Lou Jean Poplin (William Atherton and Goldie Hawn), a couple of married Texas convicts whose young son has been taken away by the court. Their kidnapping of a highway patrolman named Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks) sparks a state-wide police chase--and more wrecked cop cars than The Blues Brothers!

In this spoilerific retrospective, the guys look at this unique bright spot in the careers of both Spielberg and Atherton (who would become known primarily for playing smarmy villains in classics like Ghostbusters and Die Hard), and how The Sugarland Express fits in with the storied history of the American "road picture"!

Plus: Get a sneak peek of their next review!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

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Show Links

• Watch the Sugarland Express (1974) trailer.

• Bonus! For a preview of our next episode with Armond, read his January writeup on Day of the Locust in the National Review.

• Can't get enough Armond White? Check out our "Movies with Armond" Playlist!

• Order the book that inspired these regular movie chats: Armond's Make Spielberg Great Again.

Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza's Warfare is now in theatres, and we can't recommend it enough! Based on first-person accounts of a 2006 attack on US Navy SEALs in Iraq, the film offers a harrowing, on-the-ground look at modern combat.

In this spoilerific review, Ian and Cati dive into what makes this a standout among the war-picture genre--and share their experience of having front-row seats to the Chicago premiere, with the co-directors and star Will Poulter in attendance!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

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Show Links

• Watch the Warfare (2025) trailer.

• As mentioned in the review, you can catch the full Q&A from last month's Music Box Theatre special screening, featuring co-directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, and star Will Poulter!

• 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 and Pipeline Artists.

  • 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.

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