Kicking the Seat

Sixteen years after Grindhouse rocked pop culture with an assortment of faux Z-grade movie trailers, the feature-length version of Eli Roth's slasher spoof, Thanksgiving, is finally here!But is it as grand a feast as fans were promised--or a dried-out bird with stale rolls and cold sides?Join Earth's Mightiest Critics at the Big Kids’ table as we talk spoilers, sequel potential, and how Thanksgiving stacks up to more traditional cineplex fare!Subscribe, like, and comment onthe Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Thanksgiving trailer.Watch the original version of the Thanksgiving trailer (from 2007's Grindhouse). And if you’d like to hear Ian and Mark’s one-on-one review of Thanksgiving, subscribe to Special Mark Productions on Patreon!Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…...And Film Obsessive...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.Keep up with Annie Banks at Chuck Load of Comics....and MoviewebAnd stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

To commemorate the 6oth anniversary of JFK's assassination, Ian and Pat look at a film that leans heavily into the myriad conspiracy theories surrounding the event--and it wasn't directed by Oliver Stone!David Miller's Executive Action came out ten years after that fateful day in Dallas, and centers on a small, shadowy group of well-connected men whose interests are jeopardized by the 35th U.S. President's ideas. Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan star as the weavers of the web, which gets stickier by the minute.In this spoilerific episode, Ian and Pat look at the strengths and weaknesses of a film whose style and audacity were, in many ways, ahead of its time--but whose execution (no pun intended) is uneven at best.And stay til the very end, when things get dicier than a Dallas prisoner transfer!Subscribe to, "Like", and comment on the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Executive Action trailer.Plus! Watch Ian's 2021 interview with Bobby Kennedy III about his film, Fear and Loathing in Aspen (which includes his thoughts on his famous family)!Keep up with Pat at HollywoodChicago.com.Listen to Pat's movie reviews on the radio at STAR 96.7.

It turns out the third time really is the charm! Today, Ian and Don review Trolls Band Together, the latest installment in Dreamworks' wildly successful kids' fantasy about the misadventures of colorful, song-obsessed magical creatures with famously wild hair.The film centers on the secret origin of Branch (Justin Timberlake), who used to be part of a popular boy band comprised of his heart-throb older brothers. They broke up during the first performance of a major tour, and were subsequently scattered to the far reaches of Trolldom (or whatever it's called). When one of the brothers is kidnapped by vacuous pop-star siblings Velvet and Veneer (Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells, respectively), Branch and Queen Poppy (Anna Kendrick) set out to literally get the band back together, thus combatting the dark forces of auto-tuned wannabes!In this spoilerific discussion, the guys talk about Band Together's surprising target audience; how Trolls does Disney better than Disney (especially compared to The Marvels); and how this film may just be bullet-proof against a recent controversy!Subscribe to, "Like", and comment on the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week! Show LinksWatch the Trolls Band Together trailer.Keep up with all of Don's critical ventures!Every Movie Has a Lesson…...And Film Obsessive...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

After numerous delays and several terabytes of bad press, The Marvels is finally upon us! But does Nia DaCosta's follow-up to 2018's Captain Marvel deserve its historically low box office and savage reviews? Looks like Earth's Mightiest critics are divided on this one (shocker!). Butter up the popcorn as we go further, faster, and stronger than any other comics-movie round table!Subscribe, like, and comment onthe Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Marvels trailer.Big-time YouTuber Vito Gesualdi stopped by the chat tonight! Check out his spoiler-free review of The Marvels.Enjoy this flashback to Ian and Vito's team-up on Popcorned Planet's "Nerd Wars" (wherein they argued against Zack Snyder's Justice League)!Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.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.Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.Keep up with Annie Banks at Chuck Load of Comics....and MoviewebKeep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

What's this?! Accademia Giallo is covering a movie from this century?Yes, this month your professors of the perverse examine 2013's The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears! In Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's thriller, a man returns home from a business trip to discover his wife missing. Delving deeper and deeper into a surreal kaleidoscope of half-baked leads, seduction, deceit, and murder, he grows to suspect that someone in the building knows something!Is this November offering a reason to give thanks...or a turkey surprise? Watch and learn!Plus: AC gives a post mortem on Scare-a-Thon 2023!Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears trailer.As an added treat, check out the return of Baron Martino, discussing The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears!Support all of our terrifying teachers' axe-tracurricular activities!Stay studious with Aaron Christensen at Horror101 with Dr. AC!If you dare, venture down into Kitley's Krypt with Jon Kitley! And listen to Jon's scary-good podcast, Discover the Horror!Get devious with Bryan Martinez's Film Deviant podcast!And check out his YouTube show, The Giallo Room!Buy J. Blake Fichera's "Scored to Death" Volume I and II on Amazon (mentioned in the show).And catch up with classic episodes of his Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers podcast!Continue your education with our "Accademia Giallo" Playlist!

It's hard to believe Kill Bill Volume 1 turns 20 this year! It's even harder to believe that Cole hasn't seen it yet! In this special anniversary edition of "Late Screening", the guys look back on the first part of Quentin Tarantino's revenge masterpiece--in which Uma Thurman plays a former assassin hellbent on taking out her former squad and its mysterious, titular boss.Ian and Cole get into heavy spoilers while talking about Kill Bill's attention-demanding techniques; its prototypical "Badass Female Lead"; and decades-old fanboy fantasies about what a once-rumored third installment might have held in store.Also, Cole plays a futile game of "Which One is Bill?", and Ian makes a case for Tarantino as a master of homage (instead of a rip-off artist)! (Don't worry: We'll be back next year with a look at Volume 2!) Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003) trailer.Keep up with all of Cole's literary goings-on at his website.For more literary wizardry, crack open our "Page2Screen" Playlist!Subscribe to, like, and comment on the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel!

It's Halloween! Join Ian and Pat for a retro review of a movie about robots that dress up as humans and play cowboys and gladiators: Westworld!Though Michael Cricthon's iconic and veeeeery influential sci-fi oddity turns fifty this year, neither Ian nor Pat had seen it until this week. In this spoilerific review, the guys marvel at the film's numerous tendrils, which spread out across the pop landscape in the decades that followed.From The Terminator, to Halloween, to Hostel, to (of course) Jurassic Park and beyond, this futuristic tale of immersive-reality droids gone haywire could be seen as the birthplace of a dozen genre tropes--and that's far from a bad thing! Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Westworld trailer.Keep up with Pat at HollywoodChicago.com.Listen to Pat's movie reviews on the radio at STAR 96.7.

This month, "Beyond Hammerland" takes you into the woods with a review of The Blood on Satan’s Claw! Piers Haggard's 1971 creepy-kids thriller centers on a 17th century English village, in which the unearthing of a monstrous skull unleashes an evil that infects the community's youth. Rituals abound and mayhem reigns supreme as the adults struggle to figure out what's turning their loved ones into lustful little murderers!In this contentious episode, Ian and AC dig into the reasons why Satan’s Claw really worked for one of them--but did mostly nothing for the other.Plus: Learn how you can support this year's Scare-a-Thon cause, the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP)!Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) trailer.Learn more about "Scare-a-Thon 2023" at Horror 101 w/ Dr. AC.And donate directly to the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project via AC's "Scare-a-Thon" link!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"!

We're winding down spooky season with a live 20th anniversary review of Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses!Ian and AC dig up the knotted roots of the Firefly family tree. Before Baby, Captain Spaulding, and Otis went on the lam in The Devil’s Rejects, they ran the titular roadside attraction of deadly mayhem. When a group of hapless thrill-seekers stops for the night, they discover that all the bones, blood, and bizarre creatures inside are far more than realistic special effects!Join us for a look back at Zombie's directorial debut, which was wracked with interference, delays, and rickety release, which all but guaranteed its "cult" status! But what of the movie itself, which some have written off as a Texas Chain Saw Massacre clone? Does it hold up (if it ever worked to begin with), and how does it compare to Zombie's later filmmaking efforts?We get into all of that and more!And since this is a Scare-a-Thon show, we catch up with AC on his month-long movie-watching and talk about how you can help support the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (the beneficiary of this year's fundraiser)!Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the House of 1000 Corpses 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!

One of the year's most anticipated films is here, and Earth's Mightiest Critics have some thoughts!Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert DeNiro in an epic adaptation of David Grann's book about the murder of Osage tribe members in 1920s Oklahoma, and the ensuing FBI investigation.This roundtable review is spoilerific, celebratory, and maybe even controversial (needless to say, not everyone in the EMC has showered the film with praise).We also take your questions and comments in the chat!Subscribe, like, and comment to the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!Show LinksWatch the Killers of the Flower Moon trailer.Check out the Film School Rejects article, "9 Native Filmmakers You Should Know" (mentioned in 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.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.Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.Keep up with Annie Banks at Chuck Load of Comics....and MoviewebKeep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot.And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.