Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey turns 50 this year, and in celebration, Warner Bros has been touring a brand new 70mm print of the classic film around the United States, which arrived here in Denver last week. It’s a marvelous presentation of a masterful film, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to dive deep with one of the greatest films ever made, in one of the most enjoyable and engaging movie discussions we’ve ever had on the podcast. Jonathan also reviews Incredibles 2 and the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion on Nintendo Switch, while Sean talks about finally catching up with Rise of the Tomb Raider and revisiting Dragon Ball FighterZ, and we both talk about a few bits of post-E3 news.

Enjoy! And on a very different current events note, if you would like to assist the families currently being torn apart at America’s southern border, as we acknowledge at the top of the show, I’ve made a donation at this link – which spreads your contribution out amongst multiple agencies doing crucial work to help these broken families – and would recommend you do so as well, if you are at all able: https://actblue.com/donate/kidsattheborder

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

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

The third day of E3 2018 shows brought us Nintendo’s showcase, which was almost entirely focused on the reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch. The game looks like it will deliver the goods and then some – but did the show need to spend over 25 minutes diving into such extreme minutiae? We answer this question and any more as we consider Nintendo’s offerings, before diving into some final thoughts on everything we’ve seen over the past few days. We rank everybody’s shows, list the best and worst games displayed on stage, and discuss the silliest, most impressive, and most surprising moments of this year’s E3.

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

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Day 2 of E3 2018 brought us big showcases from Sony and Ubisoft, and a completely baffling non-event from Square Enix, and we recap and analyze all of it on today’s show. We dive deep with the big looks at Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Spider-Man, and much more, celebrate Ubisoft’s awesome dancing panda, reflect on the unconventional structure of Sony’s show, and try to figure out what the hell happened with that bizarre bit of trolling from Square Enix. And we’ll be back tomorrow to do it one more time with Nintendo’s showcase and our final thoughts on the week’s events.

Oh, and I also cut together footage from the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey trailer with the music from Super Mario Odyssey, and am weirdly proud of how it turned out, so go ahead and give it a look here: https://youtu.be/U1SgxdSZHos

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Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:05:25

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

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

It’s that time of the year again: E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, has kicked off in Los Angeles, and we’re doing daily podcasts this week to catch up on all the news, announcements, gaffes, demos, and reveals from each of the major press conferences. This weekend saw EA, Microsoft, and Bethesda each take their turn at bat, and they’re the focus of our Day 1 podcast. EA saw our first in-depth look at Bioware’s Anthem, Microsoft demonstrated future investment in the Xbox brand and showed off a truck full of third-party games, and Bethesda delivered a warm, funny show that effectively sold us on two seemingly unnecessary games – Rage 2 and Fallout 76 – before dropping the mic several times in a row with the first official confirmation of Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI. We talk about all of that and much more in our customary depth, and will be back tomorrow to discuss Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Sony’s big shows.

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Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:10:18

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

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

With E3 2018 just around the corner, we check in on what we’re expecting from all the major players – Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, and Bethesda – before next week’s big show. This has been one of the leakiest E3’s ever, but there’s a lot left to speculate about in what seems like it’s going to be an eventful convention. We also review the new Persona Dancing games from Japan – Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5 Dancing Star Night – in greater depth, gushing over all the best songs, dances, costumes, and more, and Jonathan tries to explain some very bad Yu-Gi-Oh filler in a segment that quickly goes off the rails.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:02:56

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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

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

After just 5 months, Star Wars is back in theaters with Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, and we have complicated feelings about it! We both like the film to varying degrees, but what both its content and tepid box-office performance say about the current state and confusing future of the franchise gives us an awful lot to talk about. We also discuss the Japanese releases of Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night, the latest spin-off rhythm games from our favorite franchise. Jonathan asks Sean for help with Dark Souls Remastered, we ponder the news of an in-development Boba Fett movie, and much more!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:57

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

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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 month, we reach the end of our journey through Doctor Who history – for now, at least – by diving into the audio adventures of the series’ least well-known but paradoxically most prolific Doctor: Paul McGann, the 8th Doctor, who debuted in a poorly-received TV film in 1996, but went on to star in a broad swath on ancillary material up to and beyond the show’s return to BBC in 2005. For this episode, we discuss one of the 8th Doctor’s earliest adventures, the 2002 Big Finish audio drama “The Chimes of Midnight,” by Robert Shearman, a haunted house mystery that has a lot more going on than one might expect at first blush. It is undoubtedly one of the boldest, most experimental, and most gripping Doctor Who stories ever produced, and proof that the franchise can work just as well in the form of an audio drama as it does on television.

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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 got another major superhero film in Deadpool 2, a surprisingly excellent sequel that is funnier, zanier, and weirdly more heartfelt than the first film, fueled by great performances and excellent direction from David Leitch. We talk about the film in depth, and before that, cover a few recent pieces of news, including a spate of E3 leaks and rumors like Nintendo’s strange potential Pokemon project, while Jonathan gives first impressions on Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux for 3DS and Sean continues his adventures in the literary world of Norse mythology by reading some mythological poetry by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:06

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

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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 a galaxy far, far away for our next in-depth Star Wars discussion, and after going through all three prequels in previous episodes, we finally arrive at the film that started it all: Star Wars, also known as Episode IV: A New Hope. Unlike the prequels, this film neither demands nor requires a critical reevaluation – it’s great, it’s always been great, and most people who have ever seen a movie agree with that – but there are still plenty of avenues to follow in discussing what makes this such a joyous, singular, perfectly imperfect cinematic revelation, and it makes for a fun chat about one of our favorite movies. Jonathan also talks about his recent trip to Iowa, Sean talks a little more Norse mythology, and we go over some recent Nintendo and Xbox news to round out the episode.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:22

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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

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

After giving general spoiler-free impressions last week, we dive deep with the new God of War, discussing the story, characters, themes, and gameplay in a wide-ranging discussion that reveals just how much this game has to offer, intellectually, emotionally, and as a major technical achievement. Jonathan also talks about his recent experiences playing through all of the Donkey Kong Country games, from the Super NES games by Rare to Retro Studio’s 2010 reboot, in anticipation of this week’s release of Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze for the Nintendo Switch. Further adventures with the original Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Sean’s deep dive into Norse mythology round out the episode.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:56

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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