More Movies Please!

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are forcing ourselves to watch this month’s b-movie bonus episode, a 2019 travesty from Nick Corirossi called Deep Murder.

…

What the hell was wrong with this film? It’s a murder mystery porno without all the naked stuff? And it’s somehow both short and incredibly long (that’s what she said). And they got some recognizable names, but it’s still mostly a torturous, agonizing experience.

You know what? I’m so incensed by this damn movie that I refuse to talk about it anymore. Watch it if you want, but don’t blame us for your mistakes!

Was it brilliant or a blunder? Listen to the dang episode to find out.

That’s it. I’m done with the description for this freaking thing. Sean out!

(Recorded on May 24, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

Deep Murder - IMDb

Deep Murder trailer - YouTube

The Room - IMDb

Jerry O’Connell - IMDb

Tommy Wiseau - IMDb

Sharknado - IMDb

Shaun of the Dead - IMDb

Christopher McDonald - IMDb

Snakes on a Plane - IMDb

M. Night Shyamalan - IMDb

Split - IMDb

Harry and Marv | Villains Wiki - Fandom

Home Alone - IMDb

Macaulay Culkin - IMDb

Joe Pesci - IMDb

The Irishman - IMDb

Goodfellas - IMDb

Say Anything - IMDb

Pumping Iron - IMDb

Follow Us:

Give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!

Our Libsyn site!

Our Instagram profile!

Our Twitter profile!

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are once again joined by the fantastic Eimanne El Zein. This time, we’re trading in the absurd hilarity of The Room and getting into a deep conversation about a sobering 2018 film from Nadine Labaki, Capernaum.

Get ready for a tough film. You know us. We’re not going to sugarcoat things for you. This film is challenging, rough, and sad. Most of the film will feel like a grand and real tragedy, and in many ways it is. This is not a fantasy film; there are too many people living a grueling and desperate life like that of Zain. It’s happening right now as you listen to this episode.

I’ll let you know now, though—there’s some redemption at the end. There’s a glimmer of much-needed hope. Like finding a pool of water after being lost in the blazing desert for days, the ending is restorative.

To get there, you have to cross through a river of agonizing emotions. On the plus side, we’ve also got a wonderful guest to help us navigate those waters. At least there’s that.

We talk about it in the podcast, but it should be put into writing here. The performance that first-time actor, Zain Al Rafeea, give is astonishing. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. There’s an authenticity and rawness with which he imbues his character. It would be an astonishing feat for any actor, but when the person in question is a child? That brings on a new level of admiration. His performance is well worth the heaviness of this film.

There’s a lot to be troubled by with this story’s subject matter. Extreme poverty, lack of compassion, and neglect for human life are a lot to take. We all think it’s a necessary film, though. It’s all too easy to forget that our lives are probably better than we think they are. We lack the perspective we need to appreciate our lives to the fullest. This film can give that very necessary shot of perspective. It’s powerful and worth anyone’s time.

(Recorded on June 07, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

Capernaum - IMDb

Capernaum trailer - YouTube

Nadine Labaki - IMDb

Lebanon - Wikipedia

Zain Al Rafeea - IMDb

Amy Saves Starship UK | Doctor Who - YouTube

Yordanos Shiferaw - IMDb

Alaa Chouchnieh - IMDb

Kawsar Al Haddad - IMDb

Fadi Yousef - IMDb

Cedra Izzam - IMDb

Boluwatife Treasure Bankole - IMDb

Shoplifters - IMDb

Parasite - IMDb

Follow Eimanne:

Eimanne’s Instagram profile!

Eimanne’s website!

Follow Us:

Give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!

Our Libsyn site!

Our Instagram profile!

Our Twitter profile!

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are maybe traveling back in time, but maybe not, but also probably definitely actually traveling back in time to save the lives of the people we love in the 2012 film from Colin Trevorrow, Safety Not Guaranteed.

Yeah, we’re definitely traveling back in time. Unless we’re not.

Was anyone else as surprised by the way this movie ended as we were? Sure, there’s still the question of what happened to Darius and Kenneth, but that shouldn’t be enough to yuck your yum, as they say. For my money, they rode off into the time-traveling sunset, lived happily ever after, had a wedding where the color theme was black, and had loads of weird babies. That’s just the sort of outcome I want to imagine. What can I say? I guess I’m a romantic at heart.

But yeah, who would have ever guessed that a film with as much saccharine quirk as this one would have an ending that would make us gasp out loud? Time travel—shouldn’t work, right? What evidence do we have that it’s a real thing that can happen? As far as I know, there’s exactly zero evidence to support it, hence the awed gasps we gave.

What are you going to do if you’re Kenneth, though? You’ve got a pair of possibly government agents hot on your tail and you’ve given yourself a mission to save someone’s life. There’s no other alternative but making a real, working time machine.

Yep, you read that right. I’m saying that the real reason we don’t have fully functioning time travel devices is that we’re not motivated enough to make it happen. We haven’t put in the requisite blood, sweat, and tears. If only we could get off our butts and invent the most life-changing technology in the history of all humanity. Damn Millennials with their laziness and whining! Why don’t you pull yourself up by your bootstraps or some other impossible, nonsensical platitude?

Until that day finally happens, I guess we’re stuck with this fun gem of a movie. It’s got a lot going for it. There’s a definite charm to its fairly low-stakes story. You’d have to try very hard not to fall in love with it. If you don’t, though, you can rest assured that I’ll be traveling back in time to help convince you otherwise. You know, when I can get around to making my dang time travel machine.

(Recorded on May 24, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

Safety Not Guaranteed - IMDb

Safety Not Guaranteed trailer - YouTube

Office Space - IMDb

How I Met Your Mother - IMDb

Turducken - Wikipedia

(The hell is this monstrosity? Humanity, you’ve gone too far with this mess!)

Waiting… - IMDb

Ryan Reynolds - IMDb

Luis Guzmán - IMDb

Aubrey Plaza - IMDb

Mark Duplass - IMDb

Jake Johnson - IMDb

Karan Soni - IMDb

Deadpool - IMDb

Archer - IMDb

Garden State - IMDb

Shrek - IMDb

Django Unchained - IMDb

A Million Ways to Die in the West - IMDb

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are discovering that we’re actually highly trained super-duper killer spies. Except we’ve lost our memories and can’t recall our brutal pasts. Also, we’re hanging out with Samuel L. Jackson. Whaaaaaaaattt?! Yep, it’s the 1996 film from Renny Harlin, The Long Kiss Goodnight.

I think I dig this whole sleeper agent/memory loss sub-genre of action films. There’s something so mysterious about a normal, probably meek-looking person who could be your next-door neighbor suddenly transforming into a badass killing machine intent on exacting revenge. Yeah, you do not want to get in their way. They’re now on a mission, and that mission is to kill every dang fool who wronged them in the past.

And just last week they baked you a whole tray of snickerdoodle cookies. Who would have ever guessed?

I guess that explains why everyone is so into weirdo murder mystery podcasts these days. I don’t get it, so I guess they’re just not for me. On the other hand, why are there so many people interested in listening to gruesome stories about people being murdered? And not just one episode. No, instead there are entire podcast shows dedicated to the terrible subject. Entire swaths of the Discovery network of channels are devoted to that stuff. What’s the appeal there?

Perhaps I’ll never know. I mean, I don’t want to make myself feel crazy anxious all the time or have nightmares. No, thank you. Instead, we should all just be happy to watch a pretty campy Geena Davis-Samuel L. Jackson film from the ‘90s. Doesn’t that sentence alone take you back to a time when all action movies had infinite bullets, insane explosions, and a soundtrack that makes you wonder if synthesizers were the only instruments available back then?

The only travesty about this film is the fact that Geena Davis’s career took a bit of a hit after the one-two underperforming punch of Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. It’s Geena freaking Davis. She’s excellent. I mean, we all saw Thelma & Louise, right? She should have been, and should still be, an international superstar. Okay, she’s not hurting for work, but I would love to see a McConaughey-style renaissance for her. A Davis-sance, if you will. Friends, let’s make it happen! Geena Davis for season four of True Detective!

(Recorded on April 19, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

The Long Kiss Goodnight - IMDb

The Long Kiss Goodnight trailer - YouTube

Audio Hijack - Rogue Amoeba

Stance Socks

Socks - MeUndies

(C’mon, Stance and MeUndies! You sponsor everyone else. Why not us? We like money!)

Lilo & Stitch - IMDb

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - IMDb

Samuel L. Jackson - IMDb

Geena Davis - IMDb

Renny Harlin - IMDb

Lethal Weapon 4 - IMDb

Memento - IMDb

Jingle All the Way - IMDb

Lethal Weapon - IMDb

Heavy Metal - IMDb

Starship Troopers - IMDb

Brian

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are trekking through Central America soon after aliens—yes, freaking aliens—have inhabited Earth in the 2010 film from Gareth Edwards, Monsters.

Add this one to the list of sci-fi films that are content with not bludgeoning you over the head with their action, effects, or questionable performances. Do you know what the cast and crew of this film said to the prospect of making a film like that? “Ah, hell nah!”

Well, they probably didn’t actually use those exact words, but watch this film and you’ll see that the sentiment is the same. This is one of those thinking person sorts of science fiction films. Take your Close Encounters, your Space Odysseys, your Aliens, both one and kind of two. Stack Monsters up next to those and it’s going to feel right at home. Seriously, I think this one can more than live up to the legacy of those other films.

It employs a very Jaws-like approach: because of its small budget, the filmmakers decide not to show you the titular creatures until the very end. They keep the suspense ratcheted up to a maximum. You’ll wonder just what the hell these people are terrified of and you’ll feel their tension because you have no idea either. And then… Pow! They dazzle you with floating squid creatures from the stars!

It’s an impressive feat to make a film that’s mostly a road trip movie between a pair of people and turn that trope on its head. In fact, it also turns the typical monster movie tropes on their heads, too. We spend most of our time with these two people as they just travel, and it’s captivating.

The actors give performances worth noticing. They take what could have been an underwhelming film—because let’s face it, you really don’t see much of the creatures—and they elevate it with their presence. The director punches way above his weight and does excellent work with the budget he’s procured for the film.

I’d call this a subtle, sleeper sci-fi film. It’s subtle. Stick with it to the end because there’s a lot of surprising developments and emotional storytelling that’ll make you glad you did.

(Recorded on May 17, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

Monsters - IMDb

Monsters trailer - YouTube

Don’t Breathe - IMDb

Cloverfield - IMDb

10 Cloverfield Lane - IMDb

The Cloverfield Paradox - IMDb

Starship Troopers - IMDb

Dead Rising - Wikipedia

Alien - IMDb

Jaws - IMDb

Gareth Edwards - IMDb

Whitney Able - IMDb

Scoot McNairy - IMDb

War of the Worlds - IMDb

Christopher Guest - IMDb

Best in Show - IMDb

Killing Them Softly - IMDb

Killing Them Softly | More Movies Please! - Libsyn

Predator - IMDb

Prometheus - IMDb

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are joined by the wonderful Tara Town (of TikTok fame!) on a heartfelt trip down memory lane as we discuss the 1995 film from Kevin Lima, A Goofy Movie.

Do you remember the family road trips of old? The ones that were kind of sprung on you while you were just trying to live your life? I mean, come on, parents. Who did you think we were, some sort of person who likes zipping away to remote and dusty locales without a moment’s notice, all in the name of family bonding or some parental nonsense like that?

We had friends we wanted to hang out with! Arcade games we wanted to spend your money on! Knees to scuff and mysterious places to discover and loiter about during the day! We were convinced that spending what we thought were the best years of our lives riding around in our old family sedan with our butthead siblings was the worst thing that ever happened to us!

Suffice it to say, I completely understand what Max was going through in this film. All the kid wanted was to have a relaxing summer vacation with his best pal, P.J., and maybe get to know his crush a little better. Maybe sneak a kiss or two with her, you never know. That is, until Goofy—freaking Goofy!—comes along and throws a monkey wrench into those plans. All this turmoil and anguish just because Max happens to go to a school led by a sadistic maniac of a principal.

Seriously, who threatens the electric chair when talking about a child’s future? That man was unhinged and should not have been let anywhere near children.

Damn it if Goofy isn’t just the most endearing whatever-the-heck-a-Goofy-is, though. Show me someone who’s immune to his endearing, loving, and yeah, I’ll say it, just pain goofy charms and I’ll show you a person with a cold, empty cavern where their heart should be. You can’t help but be won over by him. Is he a little intense? Yeah, and what parent isn’t? He loves his kid and that’s admirable as hell.

This is a blast of a film, even after all these years. If you’re looking for a nostalgia trip, this one is the best place to start.

(Recorded on May 17, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

A Goofy Movie - IMDb

A Goofy Movie trailer - YouTube

Clubhouse

(If you know someone who can invite you to Clubhouse, then you too can have cool conversations with neat people.)

Saw - IMDb

The Shrimp Tails in Cinnamon Toast Crunch Saga, Explained - Time

A Goofy Movie - Rotten Tomatoes

r/blunderyears - reddit

Pauly Shore - IMDb

The Princess Bride - IMDb

Wallace Shawn - IMDb

Disney’s Goof Troop - IMDb

Daniel Ross - IMDb

DuckTales - IMDb

David Tennant - IMDb

Tevin Campbell - IMDb

Little Caesar’s Pizza Pizza Compilation - YouTube

Up - IMDb

Saturday Night Fever - IMDb

The Martian - IMDb

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are oiling ourselves up and driving around some ladies in Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen’s film from 2002, The Transporter. Oh, we’re also kicking some serious ass.

Did I really say “oiling up”? Yeah, of course I did. Don’t you know what kind of film this masterpiece of cinema is? Don’t you understand that it stars the irrepressible Jason Statham, England’s greatest export since, I don’t know, Harry Potter and the forced colonization of a decent amount of the world? Don’t you know it’s produced by the utter madman known as Luc Besson?

This movie has all of that.

It also has a kidnapped Asian woman who is quickly attracted to her white knight savior and his pecs of titanium. It’s got every French film stereotype that can be fit into a film of this length, minus, of course, the baguette eating (although maybe that was happening in the background somewhere). It’s got an intense-looking and very rich Asian man pulling the strings above everything. You can rest assured that he’s menacing.

This movie has every damn thing!

Is there a troubling amount of the wrong kind of Asian representation in this film? Who the hell cares, apparently! This was the early 2000’s! Of course, our main actress is going to want to jump Statham within a day or two of meeting him. Who can blame her? I mean, I’m dead serious about Statham’s pecs. Sterling titanium, they are.

I don’t know, a white guy is writing these words. Perhaps it’s not my place to decide what sort of representation is right or wrong for people of Asian descent. There are more and far better people than I that can comment on this subject. Those voices are out there. Go read a book, why don’t ya?

What can I comment on? Well, this is our b-movie bonus episode, and it’s quite a blast, all things considered. There’s a reason they made two additional Statham-led Transporter films. This is the sort of breezy, action-packed movie that filmmakers excelled at making in the early part of this century. There’s very little substance to be found, but what it lacks in story and character development it makes up for in face-punching and skydiving onto movie semi trucks. Yeah, of course that happens! If you didn’t think it would, then you just don’t know what to expect from a film featuring Statham’s oily pecs.

And no, I don’t have an unhealthy obsession with that man’s chest. You have the problem!

Will The Transporter be brilliant, a blunder, or a flunder? Listen on to find out!

(Recorded on May 10, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

The Transporter - IMDb

The Transporter trailer - YouTube

Jason Statham - IMDb

Qi Shu - IMDb

The Meg - IMDb

Luc Besson - IMDb

Léon: The Professional - IMDb

Transporter 2 - IMDb

Transporter 3 - IMDb

The Transporter Refueled - IMDb

Transporter: The Series - IMDb

The Fast and the Furious - IMDb

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw - IMDb

Crank - IMDb

Rubber - IMDb

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are escaping our confined garden shed prisons like the damn amazing champions that we absolutely are in the 2015 film from Lenny Abrahamson, Room.

Just the thought of being trapped in an 11 x 11-foot prison against your will for an agonizing seven damn years is enough to send a shiver through my spine. I can’t even begin to imagine the daily horrors that Brie Larson’s character, Joy Newsome, had to endure. I don’t want to imagine that, either. And yet, she had to not only imagine it but also live it.

She had to deal with the fear, guilt, anger, depression, and hopelessness that comes with this sort of imprisonment every single day for those seven years. She was subject to the craven and disgusting desires of her captor, Old Nick. Within those close walls, she had to live a terrible life that no one should ever be made to live. There was no choice in the matter, and she was never allowed to leave. Not even for a second. A true prisoner.

On top of that mound of awfulness, she was then forced to carry a child, give birth to him, and raise him. If her prison was small before young Jack came along, having to share it with another person undoubtedly made it that much more oppressive. Sure, she loves Jack and would risk everything for him, but people need to stretch to live a good life. They need the sun and the sky and earth beneath their feet. It’s impossible to live a good and fulfilling life when you’re trapped within four concrete walls.

But damn it if she didn’t do everything she could to give Jack the best life she could give him. And when the opportunity to escape presented itself, she did what she had to do to ensure that he had as normal a life that a person can have. When they did finally make it back out into the world, she eventually made sure he had what he needed to grow into a normal kid.

This film is still sticking with me as I write these words. We recorded this episode a few weeks before these show notes were written, but it feels as if I experienced this marvel just yesterday. With each passing day, you’d think this film would fade more and more from my memory, and yet, it’s still there. Fresh as the first moment I watched it. That’s the power of this story.

In the end, it’s not a story about two people being trapped against their will. It’s not even about those same people rejoining the world and learning how to live in it. It’s actually a story about the love that a parent has for their child. That’s a universal and meaningful story and it’s the reason why this film will stick with you for a long time.

(Recorded on May 03, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

Room - IMDb

Room trailer - YouTube

Brie Larson - IMDb

Jacob Tremblay - IMDb

The Room - IMDb

Tommy Wiseau - IMDb

Les Misérables - IMDb

Parasite - IMDb

Shoplifters - IMDb

A Hidden Life - IMDb

A Hidden Life | More Movies Please! - Libsyn

Life Is Beautiful - IMDb

Inglourious Basterds - IMDb

Christoph Waltz - IMDb

Schindler’s List - IMDb

<

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are, um, kidnapping kids and stealing so much stuff from our local grocers? That sounds pretty bad. We’re talking all about it in this week’s episode about Hirokazu Koreeda’s film from 2018, Shoplifters.

Yeah, there’s a kidnapping that happens here. Would it help at all if I told you that the titular family at the heart of this story took in a young girl because she was being neglected and abused at her home? And also that she’s with a family that clearly loves her a whole lot? I hope it will help because that’s all I’ve got.

Look, this is a film full of gray areas. Hell, the entire film is a gray area. This family isn’t exactly what it appears to be. There’s a lot of stuff going on under the surface. All of it is surprising. Some of it is a little troubling. A few moments might even make you gasp. Whoever would have guessed this film would turn out the way it did after looking at its poster? Check out the link to its IMDb page down in the links area to see what I mean.

There’s something to be said about the love that’s shared between family members, especially if it’s a family you make and not just one you’re born into. When you choose whom you love and spend your time with, it can mean just as much as a family to which you have a direct relation. Some might argue that it can be a stronger bond, and I don’t think I’d disagree with that view.

This film has a story that’s filled with murky decisions made for tough reasons. It’s no wonder that it won the freaking Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. It’s rare to find a film with such complex depth to it, and when you do you’d better give it all the accolades it very much deserves.

Since watching Shoplifters, it’s stuck in our minds. It’s sneaky that way. It gets inside you and just doesn’t want to let go. It’s not the cheeriest movie ever made—we’re not going to lie about that—but it’s safe to say that it’s an important film. It’s a work of art that demands your attention, your emotions, and your critical thoughts. It’s a lasting masterpiece.

(Recorded on April 26, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

Shoplifters - IMDb

Shoplifters trailer - YouTube

Hirokazu Koreeda - IMDb

Robert Redford - IMDb

The Sting - IMDb

Heat - IMDb

Parasite - IMDb

Avengers: Infinity War - IMDb

Little Miss Sunshine - IMDb

Ocean’s Eleven - IMDb

Cannes Film Festival - Wikipedia

Dexter - IMDb

Shoplifters - Rotten Tomatoes

The Farewell - IMDb

Follow Us:

Give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!

Our Libsyn site!

Our Instagram profile!

Our Twitter profile!

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are trying to stay as quiet as possible because we don’t like getting torn apart by alien monsters in the 2020 film from John Krasinski, A Quiet Place Part II.

Well, we finally did it! At long last, we finally saw A Quiet Place Part II. We’ve had this film on our episode index for well over a year now. We’ve anticipated its release, longed to see it, and agonized over its frequent delays. The COVID pandemic kept all of us out of the theater for too long (although, we’ll gladly take being safe and healthy over seeing any movie). That damn thing meant that we weren’t able to venture back into the tense world of A Quiet Place until now.

Let me assure you, it was well worth the wait.

We got to see this one as it was intended to be seen: in a darkened theater, our noses filled with the salty scent of fresh popcorn, and buffeted on all sides by an impressive Dolby Atmos sound mix. There’s no finer way to enjoy a film like this, and both of us are grateful to have enjoyed it in this way.

We found ourselves impressed with how adept the filmmakers were at continuing the storyline of the Abbott family, while also forcing them back out into the terrifying, deadly world beyond their sand paths. We’re not given a story that feels unfamiliar. Rather, it keeps the tone and tension that was so masterfully done in the first film.

Instead, we’re given new horrors in the form of mad, murderous people. We’re shown what happened to the planet on “Day 1.” We’re given glimmers of hope that there could be a future without these marauding creatures killing everyone they hear. Where the first film terrified us in a relatively enclosed space on the Abbott farm, the second keeps you breathless out in the big, bad world.

We’re thrilled to talk about this film and we’re delighted to have experienced it in a familiar way.

(Recorded on May 31, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

A Quiet Place - IMDb

A Quiet Place trailer - YouTube

A Quiet Place Part II - IMDb

A Quiet Place Part II trailer - YouTube

X-Men - IMDb

Birds of Prey - IMDb

Dead by Daylight

Stranger Things - IMDb

Demogorgon (species) | Stranger Things Wiki - Fandom

The Walking Dead - IMDb

Emily Blunt - IMDb

John Krasinski - IMDb

Don’t Breathe - IMDb

Brad Pitt - IMDb

World War Z - IMDb

The Office - IMDb

Warning beacons of Gondor - Lotro-Wiki.com

Millicent Simmonds - IMDb

Noah Jupe - IMDb

Djimon Hounsou - IMDb

Cillian Murphy - IMDb

Sunshine - IMDb

The Last of Us - Wiki

Support the show