Movie Madness

It’s the first new physical media roundup of 2026 with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski. They include Jim Jarmusch’s love-it-or-hate-it western and Val Kilmer’s Native American murder mystery. They debate the volcano movies of 1997 and remind everyone of Kevin Spacey’s alien movie. One of the great, seemingly forgotten, Stephen King adaptations gets an upgrade as does perhaps the best Steven Seagal film and another of John Woo’s classics. A lot of great action and horror to start the new year.

1:45 - Criterion (Dead Man (4K))

13:19 - Sony (Thunderheart (4K))

20:02 - Kino (Dante’s Peak 4K, K-PAX)

36:07 - Lionsgate (1408 (4K))

44:03 - Arrow (Evil Dead Rise (4K), Under Siege (4K))

1:10:38 - Shout (Bullet in the Head (4K))

1:17:23 – New TV on Blu-ray (Shameless (The Complete Series), Falling Skies (The Complete Series))

1:20:12 – New Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray (Tron: Ares (4K), Shelby Oaks, The Smashing Machine (4K), It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, Naked Ambition, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk)

1:22:47 – New Blu-ray Announcements

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The movie year of 2026 begins in earnest this week on the podcast with Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy looking at ten films, some of which are expansions of 2025 releases. There’s a Harry/Sally-like rom-com (People We Meet on Vacation). Steve checks out a documentary of a famed writer and Holocaust survivor (Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire), plus a pair of true stories with Lucy Liu caring for her schizophrenic son (Rosemead) and the tale of an emergency call from a six-year-old trapped in a car in Gaza (The Voice of Hind Rajab). The true stories continue with Kristen Stewart’s harrowing directorial debut of a woman plagued with memories of sexual abuse (The Chronology of Water), Gus Van Sant’s latest about a 1977 hostage situation (Dead Man’s Wire) and Ralph Fiennes tries to get people to sing during WWI (The Choral). Two varying apocalypses occur with Daisy Ridley discovering that the victims of a catastrophic explosion are only mostly dead while Gerard Butler and his family have to leave their bunker (Greenland 2: Migration). With all that horror this week, the show wraps up with some chimpanzee terror (Primate).

2:29 - Elie Wiesel: Soul On Fire

8:46 - People We Meet on Vacation

22:39 - Rosemead

28:52 - The Chronology of Water

41:02 - The Voice of Hind Rajab

47:52 - Dead Man’s Wire

59:59 - The Choral

1:09:46 - We Bury the Dead

1:18:39 - Greenland 2: Migration

1:25:41 - Primate

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A yearly tradition continues with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski carried over from our time with the late, great Sergio Mims as they ask the question that is the very title of these episodes. Both Erik and Peter have selected 10 titles each of films that are still languishing only on DVD and not in a higher-grade format (at least not in North America.) They include classic modern comedies of the ‘80s and ‘90s, a heist film, and one of the earliest appearances of a beloved comedian and the song that became their staple, not to mention a film based on an album. How about movies from some of the great independent voices of cinema, a coming-of-age film, an animated film nearly canceled by the Russians, and a thriller about a simple plan that turns into a conspiracy all leading up to one of the timeliest calls for a film you can imagine. Are you listening Criterion, studios and all the rights holders? Let’s give these films the releases they deserve and continue to preserve physical media.

2:59 – Peter’s 1st Choice

10:38 – Erik’s 1st Choice

14:42 – Peter’s 2nd Choice

22:39 – Erik’s 2nd Choice

28:02 – Peter’s 3rd Choice

36:40 - Erik’s 3rd Choice

42:33 - Peter’s 4th Choice

54:00 - Erik’s 4th Choice

1:00:24 - Peter’s 5th Choice

1:12:00 - Erik’s 5th Choice

1:19:13 - Peter’s 6th Choice

1:30:17 - Erik’s 6th Choice

1:33:33 - Peter’s 7th Choice

1:43:50 - Erik’s 7th Choice

1:52:48 - Peter’s 8th Choice

2:01:17 - Erik’s 8th Choice

2:06:31 - Peter’s 9th Choice

2:22:23 - Erik’s 9th Choice

2:29:38 - Peter’s 10th Choice

2:39:08 - Erik’s 10th Choice

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As we always do to kick off the new year we take one more look at last year. Focused primarily on the positive (with maybe a couple parting shots), Steve Prokopy once again joins Erik Childress to countdown their top ten films along with their runners-up. They are once again overjoyed to continue their yearly tradition and welcome Collin Souter of the Christmas Movies Actually podcast to join them with his list. A lot of great films for everyone to catch up with plus shout-outs of more movies with a number of specialized categories where we honor everything from laughs to music, our best surprises and a few disappointments. May 2026 be even better.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On the final Movie Madness episode for 2025, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy review nine movies for the holidays. They include a documentary about Seymour Hersh breaking the stories on human rights atrocities (Cover-Up) while Wagner Moura is up against political turmoil in Brazil (The Secret Agent). Even water polo has bullies as it turns out (The Plague) and the job market becomes actual murder in the latest from Chan Wook-Park (No Other Choice). Will Arnett separates from Laura Dern and tries stand-up comedy (Is This Thing On?) while Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson get together to perform Neil Diamond tunes (Song Sung Blue). Sydney Sweeney goes to work for Amanda Seyfried’s off-kilter family (The Housemaid) and Timothee Chalamat hustles his way to ping pong glory (Marty Supreme). Finally, James Cameron is back with the third of his Pandora films. Please let there not be a fourth (Avatar: Fire and Ash). We will return Jan. 2 with our choices for the best of the year with Collin Souter.

3:42 - Cover-Up

12:00 - The Plague

20:01 - The Secret Agent

31:07 - Is This Thing On?

45:47 - Song Sung Blue

1:00:00 - No Other Choice

1:09:17 - The Housemaid

1:24:03 - Marty Supreme

1:39:30 - Avatar: Fire and Ash

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski close out the year in physical media with a lot of suggestions for your Christmas baskets. For the more adventurous who don’t mind a little darkness with their holidays you have Paul Thomas Anderson’s adult film industry epic and the booze-filled trip through sin city that won Nicolas Cage his Oscar. There is sci-fi anime, David Cronenberg’s tale of infection and the Wachowskis’ epic journey of conspiracy and souls. Joe Dante’s sprawling dare of a film experience finally comes home…if you can get it. For those who need to laugh, four of the classic Pink Panther films have been upgraded. And for the kid in all of us that we could all get in touch with these holidays, the original Turtles in a Half-Shell get a box set, Tim Burton’s timeless debut with Pee-Wee Herman and everyone’s favorite talking pig are all here for you. All this plus our thoughts on the tragic murder of Rob Reiner.

1:40 - A Tribute to Rob Reiner

5:44 - Criterion (Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (4K), David Byrne’s American Utopia (4K))

17:44 - Warner Archive (On Borrowed Time)

23:14 – Warner Bros. (Boogie Nights (4K))

34:00 - Shout Factory (Rabid (1977) (4K), Leaving Las Vegas (4K), Perfect Blue (4K), Cloud Atlas (4K))

1:07:51 - Kino (Scars of Dracula (4K), Walking Tall (2004) (4K), The Pink Panther (1963) (4K), A Shot in the Dark (4K), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (4K), Revenge of the Pink Panther (4K), Babe (4K), Babe: Pig in the City (4K))

2:15:52 - Arrow (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy (4K))

2:36:02 - Vinegar Syndrome (The Movie Orgy)

2:48:38 - New TV & Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray (Wally Gator: The Complete Series, Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har: The Complete Series, Monk: The Complete Series, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Black Phone 2 (4K), Bugonia (4K), Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Good Night, and Good Luck: Live from Broadway, Hot Spring Shark Attack, Thank You Very Much)

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As we approach the end of the year, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy still have six reviews for this week. They include a documentary about the inventor of Pantone (The King of Color) as well as Mamoru Hosoda’s anime about a princess avenging her father’s death (Scarlet). The Ripley-like influencer from a 2022 thriller is on the prowl again (Influencers) as is the guy from the ‘80s who dressed like Santa Claus and killed a bunch of people but this time with a derivative twist (Silent Night, Deadly Night). The creator of Pushing Daisies and Hannibal makes his debut about a girl who hires a hitman to take care of the monster under her bed (Dust Bunny). Finally, the legendary James L. Brooks’ returns with his first film in 15 years and the guys have very different takes on it.

1:38 - The King of Color

9:09 - Silent Night, Deadly Night

18:46 - Scarlet

26:02 - Influencers

36:59 - Dust Bunny

45:36 - Ella McCay

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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 is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Just a few weeks until Christmas and there is plenty of physical media to fit under the tree as Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski’s roundup this week’s selections. They include a little Powell and Pressburger and some Oscar nominees from Penny Marshall and Mira Nair. There is some more from Dan Curtis, a giant snake and one of Robert Altman’s more obscure oddities. Lionsgate alone has one of the great making of documentaries of all time, Kevin Smith’s hilarious riff on religion and faith plus the film that makes Tarantino lash out on The Hunger Games. There are grandiose collections from the Shaw Brothers and the first name of mainstreamed erotica. Plus of pair of upgrade for Steven Spielberg from one of his glorious double-film years.

1:45 - Criterion (I Know Where I’m Going! (4K), Salaam Bombay! (4K))

9:34 - Film Masters (Lady of Burlesque)

12:24 - Kino (Dead of Night (4K), Dan Curtis’ Gothic Tales)

18:33 - Arrow (Shawscope (Volume Four))

26:47 - Radiance (O.C. and Stiggs)

39:41 - Sony (Awakenings (4K), Anaconda (4K Steelbook))

56:07 - Lionsgate (Hearts of Darkness (4K), Dogma (25th Anniversary) (4K), Battle Royale 4K)

1:25:17 - Paramount (Minority Report (4K), Catch Me If You Can (4K))

1:45:06 - Severin (Saga Erotica: The Emmanuelle Collection 4K)

2:06:52 - New Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray (Good Fortune (4K), I’m Still Here, The Strangers: Chapter 2, Beast of War, Dead of Winter (2025), Rabbit Trap, A Savage Art, London Calling)

2:09:33 - New Blu-ray Announcements

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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 is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy kick off December with 11 reviews for you. On the photography and journalism side Steve has a pair of documentaries to talk about (Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere, The New Yorker At 100) while Erik looks at the story of Christmas Tree sellers (The Merchants of Joy). There is a horror film about the trail of an infamous piece of footage (Man Finds Tape) as well as survivalist Mel Gibson protecting a woman from the cartel after her (Hunting Season). Michelle Pfeiffer goes for mom of the year during Christmas (Oh. What. Fun.) while Dangerous Liaisons meets a fairy tale setting (100 Nights of Hero). An infamous stage musical gets a filmed revival on film (Merrily We Roll Along) and Quentin Tarantino’s multi-volume martial arts epic gets pieced together as one (Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair). Finally the animatronic pizza place characters from the video game are back (Five Nights at Freddy’s 2) and George Clooney is a moviestar going through a three-quarter life crisis (Jay Kelly).

4:00 - Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere

10:23 - The New Yorker At 100

17:53 - The Merchants of Joy

25:16 - Man Finds Tape

34:29 - Hunting Season

40:17 - Oh. What. Fun.

49:22 - 100 Nights of Hero

1:01:09 - Merrily We Roll Along

1:08:09 - Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

1:19:38 - Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

1:29:26 - Jay Kelly

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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 is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Black Friday may be behind us but December has so much to gift your loved ones. Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski have some great new suggestions this week on physical media. Parents have a chance to introduce their kids to the entire collection of Tom & Jerry while dad can revisit their ‘80s memories of Heather Thomas and Kim Cattrall. Speaking of which, Lucinda Dickey’s legendary mix of Flashdance and ninjas gets the 4K upgrade as does one of John Woo’s masterpieces and one of the greatest comedies of all-time.

4:19 - Criterion (His Girl Friday (4K))

15:45 - Warner Archive (Tom And Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958))

22:35 - Arrow (The House with Laughing Windows (4K), Wild Style (4K))

32:47 - Sandpiper (Zapped, Mannequin)

47:24 - Kino (Ninja Trilogy 4K)

1:01:24 - Shout Factory (The Killer (4K))

1:15:37 - New Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray (Chain Reactions, Code 3, Diciannove)

1:16:57 - New Blu-ray Announcements

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

SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE

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 is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.