Now Playing Podcast Presents: The Fast and Furious Retrospective Series

Video games finally broke through at the box office in 1995 with the release of Mortal Kombat - director Paul WS Anderson’s cinematic take on the popular Midway fighting game. Earth will fall under the control of demons unless Thunder god Raiden (Christopher Lambert) can assemble a team of human martial artists that rivals end bosses Goro, Kano, Sub Zero, Scorpion, and Sheng Tsung.  Is this next entry in the Now Playing Arcade a winner, or will Justin, Stuart, and Arnie receive another hard blow to the head? Find out when you listen now!

One of the most popular characters in the Star Wars universe has gone Solo.  Harrison Ford earned fame and fortune playing an irascible space bandit in four sci-fi blockbusters. Now rising star Alden Ehrenreich inherits the iconic role in a prequel that dramatizes Han Solo’s first mission in the Millennium Falcon. He joins Chewie, Lando, and a band of criminals for a hyperfuel heist on planet Kessel, but will longtime fans be the ones feeling ripped off?  Assume Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart won’t betray you and you won’t be disappointed in their latest podcast!

You know who's big? I am! Not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter! (Okay, I'm big in that way too.) But my first movie was more popular than Jesus! So take that John Lennon!

But even with my healing factor I'm not immune to...performance anxiety. The dreaded sophomore slump can happen to anyone. I've got a second movie out and I pulled out the big guns. (Literally. Cable has a ginormous rifle. How does he hold that with those tiny hands?) But even with Cable and X-Force I'm worried-- will Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart think it's as good as the first one?  I'm scared...why don't you listen now and let me know?

Game developer Chris Roberts was on course to deliver the first major science fiction film of 1999 when he personally piloted his massively popular flight simulator Wing CommanderPhantom Menace and The Matrix. Do fighter pilots Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard offer a new hope for genre fans as they clean the cat box of feline space invaders The Kilrathi?  Or should Arnie, Justin, and Stuart quickly eject from this next entry in the Now Playing Arcade?  Listen and find out!

20 years after computer programmer Jordan Mechner released Prince of Persia for the Apple IIe, the Disney Company paid the kingly sum of $200 million to launch his video game swashbuckler Dastan on the big screen. A Middle Eastern Jake Gyllenhaal looks for a way to turn back time after he’s framed for the murder of his adoptive royal father. Does the Now Playing Arcade take a gravity-defying leap forward with the acrobatic hero? Or would Stuart, Arnie, and Justin be more entertained by an ostrich race? Place your bets and Listen Now!  

Ten years ago Marvel Comics gambled their entire existence, using all their remaining IP as collateral, on the idea that they could make superhero films better than anyone else. 18 movies later, Marvel Studios makes their biggest bet yet - a billion dollars that audiences will love “the most ambitious crossover event in history” and one gaudy gold glove!  Is more the merrier when it comes to superheroes on screen, or are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes set up for an epic fail?  Join Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob now as they review Avengers: Infinity War!

No one was better suited to convert the role playing mechanics of the best-selling Final Fantasy series into stirring cinema than game creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.  But dreams of writing and directing the world’s most photorealistic animated movie crashed to earth like a meteor when The Spirits Within landed in theaters in summer 2001. Gaia only knows what podcasters Justin, Arnie, and Stuart will find inside the wreckage of this poetic tale of parasitic alien invasion!  So let down your defense shields and listen now.

32 years after making its debut as a city-leveling coin-op video game, Rampage bursts onto the big screen as a brand new movie. So why are Dwayne Johnson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Joe Manganiello so eager to shut down the Chicago block party being thrown by giant gorilla George, mutant crocodile Lizzie, and massive wolf Ralph?  Join podcasters Arnie, Justin, and Stuart as they try to figure out why New Line Pictures plunked so many quarters into this arcade classic. 

Long before he took on a Rampage of giant gorillas, wolves and lizards, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson led a squadron of Doom-ed Marines to Mars for another blowout with video game baddies. The 1993 first-person shooter Doom changed the way millions looked at their PCs. So why wasn’t the 2005 movie adaptation a similar success? Join Justin, Arnie, and Stuart as they analyze the DNA of this box office bomb to determine if its the handiwork of angels or demons.

Get ready to “clan up” with Arnie, Justin, and Stuart for a podcast review of Ready Player One. Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi adventure imagines the future of entertainment to be pop culture icons of the past populating a massive cyber playground.  Should viewers cough up the coins it takes to slip on a pair of 3D glasses and join gamer Wade Watts (Ty Sheridan) - along with Freddy Krueger, Hello Kitty, Iron Giant, and countless other superstars of the 1980s and 90s - for a virtual reality scavenger hunt? Listen and find out.