Another October week and another ten movie reviews for you from Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy. They look a new rom-com with the star of the recent Strangers films (Maintenance Required) and a new Dakota Fanning horror film from the director of the original Strangers (Vicious). They go back a couple Sundances for a father/daughter story amidst the AIDS crisis (Fairyland), the same era that gave us the inspiration for a new ‘80s remake (Deathstalker). On the documentary front after Raoul Peck scares you into where our country is today (Orwell: 2+2=5) you can curl up with a film about a comic legend (John Candy: I Like Me). Jennifer Lopez takes center stage in a musical version of an Oscar winner (Kiss of the Spider Woman) while Keira Knightley tries to solve a mystery on a yacht (The Woman In Cabin 10). Finally, Channing Tatum is a criminal on the lam in a Toys ‘R’ Us (Roofman) and we go back to the world of the grid, this time with Jared Leto (Tron: Ares)

3:53 - Maintenance Required

13:23 - Vicious

23:37 - Fairyland

30:53 - Deathstalker

41:21 - Orwell: 2+2=5

50:24 - John Candy: I Like Me

59:32 - Kiss of the Spider Woman

1:08:43 - The Woman In Cabin 10

1:19:17 - Roofman

1:30:15 - Tron: Ares

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Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

This week in physical media with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski features films for its rabid fanbases as well as a string of live-action big screen failures and Schwarzenegger battling for the devil. Jennifer Lopez tries to get an Oscar and the world is introduced to Mario Bava. Westerns got a bit of a revival 40 years ago and this week features an upgrade to the best of them as well as Sam Raimi’s attempt ten years later to try to have his own fun with the genre. There is an incredible Peanuts set for all ages and a bookend that includes David Lynch’s derided and reappraised big-screen prequel to his legendary TV show and the film that has been bringing together audiences for 50 years.

5:04 - Criterion (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (4K))

18:14 - Sony (Silverado (4K Steelbook), The Quick and the Dead (1995) (4K Steelbook))

35:09 - Lionsgate (Hustlers (4K))

41:14 - Arrow (Spawn (4K))

46:49 - Paramount (Aeon Flux (4K))

54:02 - Shout (Black Sunday (4K), End of Days (4K), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (4K))

1:14:11 - Disney (The Rocky Horror Picture Show (4K))

1:32:30 - New TV on Blu-ray (Peanuts: Ultimate TV Specials Collection, The Walking Dead: Dead City - Season Two)

1:34:19 - New Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray (F1: The Movie (4K), Nobody 2 (4K), The Bad Guys 2 (4K), I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) (4K), Dangerous Animals (4K), The Last Rodeo, When Fall is Coming, Honey Don’t!)

1:39:51 - New Blu-ray Announcements

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

It is a packed week of reviews on the show with Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy, an even dozen in fact. They include one of the best documentaries of the year (Predators) and a film as bad as The Substance is good (Shell). Steve looks at Daniel Day-Lewis’ return to the big screen (Anemone) while Erik looks at a charming family film about competitive pumpkin gardening (Grow). It’s also October so that must mean horror. So there’s another terror-filled tale about double-booking (Bone Lake) as well as the family that must barricade at home for the terror outside (Coyotes). There’s a scary film from the POV of a canine (Good Boy) and another in the long-running anthology series (V/H/S Halloween). Cillian Murphy works at a home for trouble youth (Steve) and Matthew McConaughey tries to save children from one of the worst wildfires in history (The Lost Bus). Mark Wahlberg takes on a character played by the likes of Lee Marvin, Mel Gibson and Jason Statham in the latest from Shane Black (Play Dirty) and Wahlberg’s Pain and Gain co-star, Dwayne Johnson, plays one of the early stars of MMA fighting (The Smashing Machine).

(NOTE: Apologies for some of the audio quality this week. Not sure what occurred and tried to clean up the best I could.)

3:33 - Predators

15:19 - Shell

21:09 - Anemone

29:23 - Grow

36:07 - Bone Lake

43:54 - Coyotes

54:49 - Good Boy

1:02:42 - V/H/S Halloween

1:11:53 - Steve

1:20:56 - Play Dirty

1:34:32 - The Lost Bus

1:45:22 - The Smashing Machine

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

Collections are the thing in this week’s look at physical media with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski. Criterion has nearly the entire oeuvre of Wes Anderson. Vinegar Syndrome has a pair of Larry Fessenden works while Universal has packaged up a bunch of Draculas in 4K. Kino has a bunch of Dan Curtis and the Airport films while Warner Bros. has Freddy Krueger in a new 4K set. There is also the shorts of Creepshow, the beginning of American Pie and Yorgo Lanthimos plus one of the great action films of the new millennium that you may have missed.

3:40 - Criterion (Isle of Dogs (4K), The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (4K) , The Wes Anderson Archive In 4K (Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years))

15:02 - Warner Archive (Black Samson)

20:29 - Arrow (The Good, the Bad, the Weird (4K), Creepshow 2 (4K))

34:08 - Universal (American Pie (4K), Dracula: Complete Legacy Collection (4K))

53:36 - WB (A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection (4K))

1:10:01 - Shout Factory (Mama (4K))

Kino (Dogtooth (4K), Dan Curtis’ Late-Night Mysteries, Airport (4K), Airport 1975 (4K), Airport ‘77 (4K), Airport ‘79: The Concorde (4K))

Vinegar Syndrome (Of Monsters and Madness: The Films of Larry Fessenden Vol. 2)

TV (Touche Turtle and Dum Dum (The Complete Series))

NEW (The Life of Chuck (4K), Becoming Led Zeppelin (4K), Just the Two of Us)

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy play a little catch-up this week but also replay their early review of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, opening this week in case any of you missed it. Before that though they talk about a tribute to an iconic cult film celebrating its 50th anniversary (Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror). Gabriel Byrne reexamines his troubled life (Death of a Ladies Man) while Renny Harlin delivers the sequel to his horror reboot (The Strangers: Chapter Two) and Jordan Peele produces a very confused horror film about football (Him). If Emma Thompson with a Fargo accent trying to thwart a kidnapping on a frozen lake is more your speed they have you covered (Dead of Winter). Or maybe its about June Squibb lying about being a Holocaust survivor in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut (Eleanor the Great). Finally there are also a pair of romantic fantasies involving tests that lead you to your soulmate (All of You) and the latest from filmmaker Kogonada with Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell in a title that speaks for itself (A Big Bold Beautiful Journey).

4:26 - Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror

11:07 - The Strangers: Chapter Two

17:40 - Death of a Ladies Man

23:48 - All of You

33:58 - Dead of Winter

43:23 - Eleanor the Great

56:08 - Him

1:07:13 - A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

1:20:18 - One Battle After Another

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

This week in physical media definitely has a type and Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski are here to let you know what to buy (or choose not to buy) this week. They include a trio of titles from Criterion including a recent Oscar winner. There is everything from Tsui Hark to Dolly Parton plus a dive into the creation of a sequel to one of the best and most successful comedies ever. Variations of zombies are created by Tom Savini, Danny Boyle and Tim Burton. Plus it is a helluva week for a capitulating studio to release a film about escaping the persecution from fascists.

3:55 - Criterion (Read My Lips (4K), The Beat That My Heart Skipped (4K), Flow (4K))

15:15 - WB (Corpse Bride (4K))

24:08 - Sony (Night of the Living Dead (1990) (4K Steelbook))

34:01 - Shout (Peking Opera Blues (4K))

39:12 - Disney (The Sound of Music (60th Anniversary Edition) (4K))

50:45 - Kino (The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, Airplane II: The Sequel (4K))

1:21:45 – New TV on Blu-ray (The Last of Us: The Complete Second Season, Chucky: The Complete Series, Law and Order SVU Season 26)

1:23:34 - New Theatrical Titles on Blu-ray (Superman (2025) (4K), 28 Years Later (4K Steelbook), M3GAN 2.0 (4K), 40 Acres, The Home

1:27:04 – New Blu-ray Announcements

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

No one is being silenced on this podcast and we are keeping free speech going by reviewing 11 films this week. Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy go back to last year’s Fantastic Fest to revisit Alexandre O. Phillippe’s latest essay on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Chain Reactions). Mike Figgis goes behind the scenes of Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project (Megadoc) and there’s another documentary on a filmmaker who would probably be making ones for the Trump Administration today (Riefenstahl). In lighter fare, a virginal Lily Singh becomes a sex-ed professor (Doin’ It) and Josh Duhamel trains a LARPer to become a hitman (London Calling). Someone is killing babysitters again (Night of the Reaper) and Neil Marshall makes his funniest film (it’s not a comedy) (Compulsion). Billy Zane morphs into an iconic actor living in Tahiti (Waltzing with Brando), Lily James plays one of the founders of Tinder (Swiped) and Michael Chiklis plays a 59 year-old college football player (The Senior). Finally, we have an early review of the latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson which is the timeliest film to ever deserve that term (One Battle After Another).

4:10 - Chain Reactions

14:12 - Riefenstahl

19:47 - Megadoc

31:18 - The Senior

38:47 - Night of the Reaper

44:13 - Doin' It

50:37 - Swiped

57:22 - Compulsion

1:05:58 - Waltzing with Brando

1:14:43 - London Calling

1:21:32 - One Battle After Another

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

This week in physical media certainly plays to the cult audiences that embraced them. That may not include an inspirational Ron Howard sports movie or the unnecessary remakes on the pile but Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski talk you through an early Lizzie Borden film and one of the craziest near-lost crime films of the ‘70s. There is fun stuff too from the film that launched the film careers of Bill Murray and Ivan Reitman to one of the greatest comedies and mockumentaries of all-time. Even Peter is down with this week’s geek offerings from Disney’s revolutionary move to computer animated effects in 1982 to the goofy sci-fi/fantasy from the director of Breaking Away.

5:00 - Criterion (Born In Flames, This is Spinal Tap (4K))

27:36 - Lions Gate (Meatballs 4K)

42:17 - Universal (Cinderella Man 4K, Speak No Evil 4K)

1:00:11 - Kino (Maedchen in Uniform, The Wrong Arm of the Law, Night of the Juggler (4K))

1:21:29 - Disney (Tron 4K, Tron Legacy 4K)

1:40:41 - Sony (Krull (4K Steelbook))

1:56:39 - New Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray (Vulcanizadora, My Dead Friend Zoe)

1:57:21 - New Blu-ray Announcements

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy are back on the review beat with seven new films this week. Steve looks at a documentary about model and photographer Bunny Yeager (Naked Ambition) as well as the conclusion of everyone’s beloved big house (Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale). Corey Hawkins deals with a mysterious offer from Willem Dafoe (The Man In My Basement) and Dev Patel gets put through the folk horror wringer (Rabbit Trap). The film which opened this year’s Chicago Critics Film Festival is one of the best you will see this year (The Baltimorons). Stephen King’s Vietnam-era novel finally gets its adaptation from the director of The Hunger Games sequels (The Long Walk). Finally, 41 years in the making itself, everyone’s favorite dysfunctional rock trio returns (Spinal Tap II: The End Continues)

3:36 - Naked Ambition

9:37 - The Man in My Basement

20:32 - Rabbit Trap

30:03 - The Baltimorons

40:48 - Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

49:29 - The Long Walk

1:02:49 - Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski look ahead in the world of physical media and reveal what you can add to your library this week and next. For those who have seen Spike Lee’s remake, Highest 2 Lowest, Crtierion offers up the Kurosawa original in OK. You may have been issued it when you first bought your DVD player but now you can get the TV sci-fi adaptation with a unique stake in box office history. Universal has upgraded a pair of Best Actress-winning biopics and Warner upgrades a horror original in time for its final sequel. Oliver Stone has James Woods in one of his very best performances. Dwayne Johnson gets 4K’d in one of his few good movies. There are a pair of detective stories including the unfairly maligned sequel to Chinatown. Plus Walter Hill’s prison boxing film is also worth another look

4:20 - Criterion (High and Low (4K), Compensation)

17:13 - Arrow (Lost in Space (1998) (4K))

28:21 - Universal (Coal Miner's Daughter (4K), Erin Brockovich (4K))

45:09 - Shout Factory (Salvador (4K))

55:14 - Warner (The Conjuring (4K))

1:01:50 - Kino (Huckleberry Finn (1931), Father Brown Detective, The Two Jakes (4K), The Lords of Discipline (4K), Smoke/Blue in the Face, The Rundown (4K), Undisputed (4K))

1:56:21 - New Theatrical & TV Titles On Blu-ray (Ballerina: From the World of John Wick (4K), Jurassic World: Rebirth (4K), Elio (4K), Materialists, Ice Road: Vengeance, The Surfer, Clown in a Cornfield (4K), The Ritual, Bride Hard, Little House on the Prairie: The Complete Series (1974-1983))

2:02:51 - New Blu-ray Announcements

CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST

Be sure to check out

Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes

Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL

Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming

Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.

(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)

Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.

The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.