With Insomniac’s highly-anticipated Spider-Man game swinging onto the PS4 next month, we thought now would be the perfect time to revisit some of our favorite superhero films of all time: Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy from the early 2000s, starting this week with the original Spider-Man from 2002. In many ways, this film is the template for the superhero boom we’re living in right now, so thoroughly did Raimi embrace the character’s comic-book origins, but the film is also a product of a different time, and while it’s become fashionable to dismiss Raimi’s films as ‘outdated,’ we would argue that the first two, at least, deserve serious consideration amongst any discussion of the best films the genre has to offer. It’s a great, in-depth conversation on a film worthy of reconsideration, and before that, we also catch-up on a month’s worth of news, Jonathan’s recent move to Iowa and first encounter with Shenmue, Sean’s continuing Monster Hunter adventures, and more.

Enjoy!

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Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:08:55

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Last week, on our special 250th podcast, we began counting down our Top 10 Favorite Games of All Time. We did this once before, way back in 2013, but with 5 years and the better part of an entire console generation having passed, we thought now would be a great time to revisit this topics and remake our personal video game canons. We covered #10 through #6 on each of our lists last week, and this week, we finish the countdown with #5 through #1. It’s a great conversation, filled with more than a few surprises, as we talk about our very favorite games of all time.

Thanks for listening to 250 episodes of The Weekly Stuff Podcast, and we hope you enjoy!

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

250 is a big number. It’s a lot of episodes. It represents somewhere in the vicinity of 750 hours of podcast recording, better known as one full month’s worth of time. And for the occasion, we are revisiting one of our oldest topics: Our Top 10 Favorite Games of All Time. We originally did this topic for episodes 55, 56, and 57 of the podcast, back in 2013, before the launch of the PS4 and one of the most rewarding periods in video game history. Five years later, Sean and Jonathan have completely remade their lists, keeping some favorites, throwing others away, and welcoming in a lot of newcomers, old and new. We’re splitting this discussion into two parts, with this week’s episode covering the bottom half of our lists – #10 through #6 – while next week’s show will cover #5 through #1. These were fun, challenging lists to put together, and made for one of our most engaging discussions ever, as we talk through the games that best encapsulate our personal canons.

Enjoy, and come back next week for Part 2!

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Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

2018 marks the 5-year anniversary of Naughty Dog’s masterpiece The Last of Us, and with Part II on the horizon and having made a big splash at E3 this summer, we thought now was the perfect time to look back on the game that closed out the previous console generation, but in many ways presaged the major creative trends of this one. Alongside guest Thomas Lack, Sean and Jonathan go in depth reevaluating the game after a recent re-play, considering how it has aged, where it transcends its time and technology, and how its gameplay systems don’t just complement the masterful storytelling, but enhance it every step of the way.

Enjoy!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

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Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

We dive deep into one of Hollywood’s best and most interesting modern franchises this week with the Mission: Impossible series. The latest in the Tom Cruise action series, Christopher McQuarrie’s Fallout, is out this week, and we gush enthusiastically over its greatness at length. But as Sean recently went through the first five films for the first time, we also talk about those as well, setting the context for a series that has been around for over two decades and still has enough gas in the tank to deliver its best film on its sixth time out. Jonathan also talks about discovering the incredible work of Chinese director King Hu, Sean tells us about a Spider-Man concept album, and we lament over corporate consolidation in discussing the Disney/Fox merger that was approved earlier this week.

Time Chart

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

What looked like it might have been a quiet week for the podcast turned out to be a very busy one, as a surprisingly eventful Comic-Con brought big news and reveals for Doctor Who, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the wildly schizophrenic state of DC’s film and TV slate, ranging from the awesomeness of getting Batman The Animated Series on Blu-ray to the unintentional hilarity of the awful Titans trailer. We cover all of that in more, and also dive into the very complicated news about Disney’s firing of Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. Sean and Jonathan also talk about Sean’s journey through the Mission: Impossible series ahead of next week’s Fallout, Jonathan continues his review of Octopath Traveler, and Sean regales us with tales of his recent adventures trying to read Spider-Man comic books.

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

This week, one of our biggest projects of 2018 comes to a close as we complete our journey through the original six Star Wars films with Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Easily among the most iconic pieces of mainstream Hollywood blockbuster history, Return of the Jedi is a fascinating experience to watch and discuss in this context, as it represents some of the best and some of the worst Star Wars has to offer, in perhaps the most complicated package we’ve yet broken down in this series. We give it our usual in-depth breakdown, and offer some final thoughts on our entire Star Wars re-watch project. Before that, Sean and I also break down a few pieces of news – including the recent Doctor Who teaser and the reveal of the new Dragon Ball Super: Broly film – while I give initial impressions of Octopath Traveler for the Nintendo Switch and Sean talks about reading an amazing mid-2000s Spider-Man comics run. It’s a jam-packed podcast, and one of my personal favorites of the year.

Enjoy!

Time Chart

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Marvel’s third film of the year arrived this week with Ant-Man & The Wasp, an imperfect and slight film that is nevertheless an absurd amount of fun. We give it our traditional in-depth treatment, but before that, Sean pays homage to two recently deceased creative giants who have had a big influence on him – Spider-Man creator and renowned comics artist Steve Ditko, and science-fiction giant Harlan Ellison – and Jonathan’s brother Thomas joins us for another discussion about Persona 3 Dancing and Persona 5 Dancing, as he’s gone and nabbed all the high scores in those games to go along with his obsessive high scores from Persona 4 Dancing.

Oh, and during the Persona talk, Sean also expressed his desire to see the game’s remix of “Burn My Dread” laid over footage of classic-style Sonic the Hedgehog, and I obliged on the fly. It works amazingly well. https://youtu.be/-Y6G8Hj7VMI

Enjoy!

Time Chart

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

It’s a good-old fashioned grab-bag this week, as we cover a week’s worth of news – including Doctor Who getting a new composer, Halo coming to TV, and Sony’s continued refusal to play nice with others – and discuss the strange grab-bag of old and new games we’ve been diving into to escape the dumpster fire that is America in 2018. We’ve both been replaying The Last of Us, and find ourselves more impressed by it than ever, while Jonathan has been playing Mario Tennis Aces and the Donkey Kong Adventure expansion for Mario + Rabbids. Sean talks the new Dragon Ball mobile game, and offers a surprise impromptu review of a game from several years ago he’s been playing on a whim. And at the end, we call an audible and vent for 15 minutes about the horrible month in politics. You have our full blessing to skip it if you want, but if you’d like to vent alongside us, this is your chance.

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Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:02:52

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

This week, we return to the world of Star Wars in our ongoing series of in-depth retrospectives on the original six films, this time arriving at the best and most iconic Episode of them all: The Empire Strikes Back, a sequel that not only defined much of what we now think of as Star Wars, but created a sequel template that countless Hollywood franchises have since followed. For as widely appreciated and discussed as the film is, there is still a lot to learn from and discover about this great movie, something we strive to do in this discussion. Jonathan also gives his final thoughts on the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion, Sean talks a bit more about catching up with Rise of the Tomb Raider, and we cover a few pieces of stray entertainment news to round out the show.

Enjoy!

Time Chart

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman