Not a Bomb

On this week’s episode of Not a Bomb, the podcast rides a Chocobo (giant chicken) in video game land to discuss 2001’s “revolutionary” science fiction film - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Hyped as the future of cinema, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within used photorealistic computer-animated characters to tell a half-baked story about Phantoms and Gaia. The Spirits Within was going to change cinema forever until it came out and bombed at the box office.

Troy and Brad open the show talking about the untimely passing of director, stuntman, choreographer - Brad Allen. The guys then discuss some of their favorite stories in video games, and Brad tries to explain giant chickens to Troy. Finally, the guys examine if Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is truly a bomb.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. is directed by Hironobu Sakagucki and stars Ming-Na Wen, Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Donald Sutherland, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, and Peri Gilpin.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy

Amazon links - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within | Blu Ray| DVD | Digital |

The redemptive arc has begun for Not A Bomb. After last week’s terrible movie pick, the gang is back to talk about one of the greatest animated films of all time - The Iron Giant. To assist Troy and Brad with this gigantic task, Sammy from Gentlemen’s Guide to Midnight Cinema returns. The “Dadcast” kicks off with some fun 1950 science fiction trivia. Brad and Sammy square off to see who knows more worthless trivia about a very niche time in cinema.

Things turn quite heavy as the guys talk about 1950’s nostalgia, pre-destination, mortality, humanity, school shootings, raising kids, and movies that make them cry. Again, the “Dadcast” is out in full force.

The Iron Giant is directed by Brad Bird and stars Eli Marienthal, Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Vin Diesel, John Mahoney, and Christopher McDonald.

Please check out Sammy's amazing podcast - Gentlemen’s Guide to Midnight Cinema. Rate and review their show wherever you get your podcasts.

If you would like to sign-up for our upcoming newsletter, please sign-up here.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy, Sammy

Welp, we did it! On this week’s episode of Not a Bomb, the gang hits rock bottom. The podcast finds itself, yet again, lost in space. This week, a group of people go looking for some mystery person or thing in space when something scary happens. Sound familiar? The difference this time is that the movie completely sucks and is totally not scary. The film destroying Brad and Troy’s will to live this week is 2000’s sci-fi adventure(?) - Supernova.

This film has all the ingredients of of a bomb. We’ve got multiple directors, studio executive changes, slashed budgets, unfinished scripts, digital “blackface”, years of editing, and sleepwalking actors. All this results in the worst film that Not a Bomb has ever discussed… and we’ve reviewed Solarbabies! The guys examine the history of the Alan Smithee pseudonym and why Walter Hill is credited as Thomas Lee. More importantly, this move is a bomb and you should never watch it! Never ever watch it. We extend our apologies to anybody who was playing along and watched this piece of junk. We are really really really sorry!

Supernova is directed by Walter Hill and stars James Spader, Angela Bassett, Robert Foster, Lou Diamond Phillips, Peter Facinelli, Robin Tunney, and Wilson Cruz.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy

Hey Bombers! Welcome back to this action packed episode of Not A Bomb podcast. On this week’s episode, Troy and Brad are joined by fan favorite, John Nance, to discuss 1997’s martial arts classic - Drive. Get ready for lots of face kicking. We mean a lot!

Since Drive is an American made martial arts film, the gang starts off the show discussing their favorite American Martial Arts films of all time and Troy makes a proclamation towards the end that shakes Brad to his core. We share our opinion on Brittany Murphy’s eccentric performance in the film and discuss our fascination with Walter the Einstein Frog. Yep, a large frog with Einstein’s brain! Oh, and we also discover Brad’s love for bazookas. This is a pretty weird episode. Did we mention all the face kicking?

Drive is directed by Steve Wang and stars Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, Brittany Murphy, Tracey Walter, and John Pyper-Ferguson.

To celebrate our love for martial arts films, Not A Bomb is running a contest to give away a free copy of The Papers Tigers. To enter this contest, please send us an email and tell us about a film you saw for the first time in 2021 that you loved. Send those emails to [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy, John

Hey Bomb Squad, and welcome to a very existential episode of Not A Bomb. On this week’s show the gang welcomes back fan-favorite Jose to discuss the 1983 science fiction film - Brainstorm. Requested by a loyal listener, Brainstorm is directed by special effects legend Douglas Trumball and is the last film appearance of Natalie Wood.

During this episode, the guys discuss everything from faith, humanity, the military industrial complex, pornography, and Showscan. This one really has it all. Once again, Jose educates Brad and Troy on the behind-the-scenes aspects of the movie and Brad continues to make Troy feel old.

Brainstorm is directed by Douglas Trumball and stars Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, and Cliff Robertson.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy, Jose

What’s up, Bombers? Welcome back to another exciting episode of Not A Bomb podcast. On this episode, we welcome the legendary Brian De Palma to the show and examine 1981’s political/thriller - Blow Out. To assist in the heavy lifting of this momentous episode, Troy and Brad welcome back Sammy from the Gentlemen’s Guide to Midnight Cinema. The gang doesn’t waste any time and jumps right into the De Palma discussion, including a look at his earlier student film, Murder a la Mode.

Released after the political thriller phase of the 1970’s, Blow Out, follows a movie sound effects technician who accidently captures audio evidence of a political assassination. The direction, cinematography, acting, and location give the guys a lot to discuss and Troy gives everybody a crash course on split diopter lens shots (yeah, we know……nerd stuff). Additionally, the gang talks about 1966’s Blow Up, 1974’s American mystery thriller by Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation, and all the political events that inspired De Palma to make this 80’s classic.

Blow Out is directed by Brian De Palma and stars John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, and Dennis Franz.

Please check out Sammy's amazing podcast - Gentlemen’s Guide to Midnight Cinema. Rate and review their show wherever you get your podcasts.

If you would like to sign-up for our upcoming newsletter, please sign-up here.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy, Sammy

There can be only one….podcast! And that podcast is Not A Bomb! On this immortal episode, Troy and Brad are once again joined by Josh from The VHS Files to discuss the 1986 action/sci-fi film - Highlander. This cult film from the 80’s had a modest budget but failed to make an impact at the box office. However, VHS sales led to numerous sequels, TV shows, comics, books, and an anime film.

You’re in for a special treat as Brad and Troy do some pretty wonky Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert impressions as well as talk about rasslin’, 80’s music videos, New York vigilantes, Clancy “Mr. Krabs” Brown, The Gathering, and not so epic sword fights. We can’t warn you enough - these impressions are bad….Brad and Troy need help!

Highlander is directed by Russell Mulcahy and stars Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown and Sean Connery.

Be sure to check out The VHS Files podcast! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast listening spot!

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy, Josh

To podcast or not to podcast, that is the question. Welcome back to this very Shakespearian episode of Not A Bomb. On this week’s show, Brad and Troy are joined by Cameron Sauer to discuss the sequel to the greatest tragedy of all time - Hamlet 2. That’s right, 400 years later Hamlet gets its proper sequel starring Steve Coogan and Elisabeth Shue.

A darling at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Hamlet 2 was purchased by Focus Features for a staggering 10 million dollars. Sadly, released as a summer film, Hamlet 2 was quickly forgotten and failed to recoup its production budget.

The Shakespeare bug completely grabs the podcast this week as the gang also tackles Kenneth Branagh’s 4-hour epic Hamlet, which also happens to be a theatrical bomb. This is basically just an excuse to rave about Kate Winslet’s performance as Ophelia.

Hamlet 2 is directed by Andrew Fleming and stars Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, David Arquette and Elisabeth Shue.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy, Cameron

Hey Bomb Crew, welcome back and welcome to season 2 of the Not a Bomb podcast. On this week’s show, Brad and Troy “Friday Night” Sauer, tackle the forgotten 1999 adventure film - The 13th Warrior. Billed as the film by the writer of Jurassic Park and the director of Die Hard (some might even say The Predator), The 13th Warrior is known as one of the biggest box office bombs of all time and was universally panned by the critics.

The 13th Warrior is a pseudo retelling of the epic poem Beowulf and has Spanish actor Antonio Banderas portraying an Arab Muslim traveler who finds himself thrust into an adventure with Norse Vikings. This is one of the most thinly plotted movies discussed on the podcast and really only acts as an excuse to get into the next action set-piece.

Listen as Troy (who clearly had one too many cocktails at dinner) and Brad talk about some of their favorite adventure films, one of the worst trailers of all time, and the concept of the conduit character.

The 13th Warrior is directed by John McTiernan and stars Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, and Omar Sharif.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy

Hello Bombers! It’s time to celebrate the one year anniversary of the Not A Bomb podcast. This week, Brad and Troy discuss Ghostbusters 2, which was actually the catalyst for the podcast. Released five years after the original, Ghostbuster 2 brings back all of our beloved characters while introducing quirky, new ones (we’re looking at you, Dr. Janosz Poha). Our heroes battle rivers of slime, New York bureaucracy, diapers, and the villainous Vigo the Carpathian.

Failing to out gross the original film, Ghostbuster 2 was panned by critics who felt the film too closely resembled the plot of the first movie and the characters lacked any charm or wit. Brad and Troy use the two hour podcast runtime to debunk the haters and prove, once and for all, that Ghostbusters 2 is one of the best sequels in the industry!

Special shoutout to all of the listeners who have made the first year of this podcast so special. Additionally, Brad and Toy would like to thank all of our guests for taking time to appear on our show and share their love for movies that bombed at the box office!

Ghostbusters 2 is directed by Ivan Reitman and stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Peter MacNicol.

If you want to leave feedback or suggest a movie bomb, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Also, if you like what you hear, leave a review on Apple Podcast.

Cast: Brad, Troy