Matt's Movie Lodgecast

Despite Bischke’s strong objections, we finally covered the vampiric ballerina splatterfest ABIGAIL. But don’t worry, he’s already exacted his revenge…and then some!

The day after Election Day, the Lodgecast tried to shake off the post-election blues by watching Robert Zemeckis's new film Here starring Forrest Gump and Jenny (Tom Hanks and Robin Wright). Zemeckis has had quite a run on the Lodgecast with three films: the Lodgecast classic Welcome to Marwen (2018), the remake of The Witches (2020), and Holy Smokeo himself, live-action Pinocchio (2022). Here (2024) looked to be another wild Zemeckis film-in-the-making, all taking place in one room, in one house over the course of decades. Actually millions of years as the film starts with dinosaurs, eventually leading to Native Americans, and then a role for Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son William. It's based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire, with a screenplay by Zemeckis and Eric Roth.

Most of the nonlinear story covers a post-World War II family and the ups and downs of their lives from the late 1940s to the early 2000s. Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly play the parents of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Hanks and Wright are severely de-aged and then re-aged over the course of the film using the magic of digital effects. While our reviews varied, this Zemeckis outing wasn't as painful as the previous three!

We recently witnessed Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan in the conservative biopic Reagan! This week it's Dennis Quaid in the gross-out body horror movie The Substance! Way back in Episode Number 9 of the Lodgecast, we covered a little French revenge film called Revenge (2018) directed by Coralie Fargeat. This French film director has returned six years later to give us The Substance (2024). The movie stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid. As we'll say in this episode, if you have the stomach to watch this body horror movie, then watch it first before you listen to all the spoilers in this episode.

Happy Halloween! In our last political-related Lodgecast for quite a while we take on Ali Abbasi's new horror comedy The Apprentice. It's a horror comedy because it is the origin story of American psychopath Donald J. Trump. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, with Jeremy Strong as Trump's mentor Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. Over the course of the film, which covers about 1973-1987, we see Trump devolve from an aspiring real-estate mogul to the pathologically narcissistic, vindictive psychopath we know today.

Join us in our election anxiety episode as we try to laugh at the man who has spent the last nine years destroying our country. This episode will be instantly dated so tune in today!

In a very special episode of the Lodgecast, we cover the new epic political biopic Reagan (2024)! For this hotly anticipated film, we took a little Lodgecast field trip to do some research. You'll hear all about it in this episode. In the movie Reagan (2024), Dennis Quaid stars as President Ronald Reagan alongside Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. The rest of the cast is stacked, including Jon Voight, C. Thomas Howell, Kevin Dillon, Mena Suvari, Robert Davi, Xander Berkeley, Pat Boone, Kevin Sorbo, and most importantly, Creed's Scott Stapp as Frank Sinatra. The film was directed by Sean McNamara who has quite the filmography. It's an epic Lodgecast about an epic movie covering an epic President. This is Reagan!

Reverend David A.R. White returns for a fifth installment of the God's Not Dead film series entitled God's Not Dead: In God We Trust. We caught a Fathom Event screening of this during the one week it was playing. It delivered on its promise of being the most political in the series, with David A.R. White running for Congress against the villainous secular congressman Peter Kane (Ray Wise).

Scott Baio stars as Kane's even more villainous right-hand man. Isaiah Washington reprises his role as Congressman Daryl Smith. Dean Cain, Mike Huckabee, and the Newsboys also show up.

The movie dares to ask "Is God dead in American politics?" Spoiler: David A.R. White wins the election and God is Not Dead! Will David A.R. White rise to the presidency and become the Antichrist in God's Not Dead 6? Only time will tell!

Ever had a taxi ride that changed your entire life? Well that's Daddio! In this unique film, Dakota Johnson gets in a cab with taxi driver Sean Penn. Over the course of their journey from JFK International Airport to her apartment in Manhattan, they have a 100-minute conversation about life, love, loss, sex, power, and much more. Daddio was written and directed by Christy Hall. Dakota Johnson plays Girlie and Sean Penn plays Clark, also known as Daddio!

Francis Ford Coppola, you madman! Coppola spent $120 million of his own money to finance his new epic science fiction dramedy Megalopolis, and we just witnessed it in IMAX on Discount Nite! Folks, if you live by a theater that is playing this movie, it does deserve to be seen on the big screen. It is a sight to behold printed on Salad Dragon skin celluloid. An uncompromising, ambitious vision that will certainly draw a wide variety of reactions as it did for us. The cast is stacked with Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Franklyn Cicero, Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero, Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum, Jon Voight as Hamilton Crassus III, Laurence Fishburne as Fundi Romaine, Talia Shire as Constance Crassus Catilina, Jason Schwartzman as Jason Zanderz, Grace VanderWaal as Vesta Sweetwater, D.B. Sweeney as Commissioner Stanley Hart, and Dustin Hoffman as Nush "The Fixer" Berman. It was 50 years in the making, and at 85 years young Coppola has taken us to Megalopolis. See it BIG!

Saleka Night Shyamalan makes her film debut in M. Night Shyamalan's Trap! Saleka is M. Night's daughter in real life, but in the movie, she plays fictional popstar Lady Raven. Her concert is attended by serial killer Josh Hartnett and his daughter played by Ariel Donoghue. Hayley Mills of The Parent Trap (1961) fame is trying to track down Hartnett and trap him at the concert. It's another head-scratching psychological thriller from master of suspense M. Night Shyamalan.

We faced the alt right Borat head-on...so youuuuu don't have tooooo!