Screeners Podcast

If you haven’t seen Only the Brave, we can’t really blame you; not too many people have, judging by its box office performance. A few of the Screeners watched it anyway, and they thought it was worth at least a quick review, so here it is.

Let’s not kid ourselves, though. We know you’re really here because the second season of Stranger Things just dropped on Netflix, and you want to know whether you should binge it in one weekend or spread it out over two or so. Well, Josh wouldn’t know, because he hasn’t even seen the first season. Please, suppress your shock. The rest of the Screeners don’t live under a rock, though, so they’ll help you decide just how much the rest of your life should suffer in service to Netflix’s release model.

Listen to the episode, then head over to Facebook and tell us how long it’ll be before you’re ready for a Stranger Things episode with actual spoilers.

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No, we’re not crazy; we know the Oscars are almost half a year away, but Daniel’s on a mission to make this a respectable movie podcast. To that end, he’s already sat down and figured out who’s going to win most of the major awards, and he’s typed up a very comprehensive set of notes on the subject. He’s been keeping tabs on all the hot film festivals, so you know his picks are legit.

Oh, and Chad’s along for the ride and knows a thing or two about a movie or two, but let’s be clear: Daniel knows more about next year’s Oscars than Jimmy Kimmel does at this point.

Don’t forget to join the conversation on Facebook if you’ve...heard of any of these movies yet.

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Everyone loves a good Jackie Chan movie, right? Maybe, but can we agree on what constitutes a “good Jackie Chan movie”? There’s a pretty big disparity between the critic and audience ratings for The Foreigner on Rotten Tomatoes right now, but we’re guessing the studio doesn’t care what Roger Ebert thinks if the movie triples its budget at the box office (which it’s almost done already). More importantly, though, what did Chad and Daniel think of it? They’re the only critics who matter anyway...wait, no. What we meant to say was “...they’re the only Screeners who’ll see it anyway”. Yeah; that sounds better.

But wait; there’s more! Maybe those of us who didn’t make it to the theater this weekend had some time for Netflix. Maybe to watch David Fincher’s new show Mindhunter? Is it this year’s psychological thriller hit, or should Fincher just rest on his House of Cards laurels for awhile?

And while we’re talking about the ever-growing stable of shows Netflix has given us, why not pick our favorites? A list of three, maybe...

As always, head over to Facebook to tell us about all the great shows we missed. We don’t know how many Netflix has snuck out there now, but we know it’s more than 15.

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The parade of sequels and remakes marches on with no end in sight. No property is too forgotten or too beloved to be dusted off and unceremoniously subjected to a rewrite without so much as a second thought as to whether it’s even a good idea. The jury seems to still be out on that question for Blade Runner 2049; it has a respectable 88% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing, but it pulled in an uninspiring $31 million on its opening weekend. Can the Screeners bridge the gap between review and appeal?

Speaking of box office returns, though, remember a few months ago when all the hosts cast lots to rank the summer’s biggest hits? After picking The Dark Tower as part of his top 10, Josh was hoping everyone wouldn’t remember, but everyone did. Labor Day has come and gone, so it’s time to tally up the scores. Spoiler alert: The Dark Tower, at $50 million domestic, didn’t make the list.

That’s probably enough for one episode. It might not have been Blade Runner long, but it was long enough. See you on Facebook!

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Last episode’s review of mother! has, perhaps unsurprisingly, stirred up some conversation. In fact, it seems to have inspired one of the most thoughtful emails to drop into the Screeners mailbag yet. They couldn’t pass up the chance to respond to it, so more air time for Aronofsky. No publicity is bad publicity, right?

Once that’s over with, it’s time for some lighter fare. At least, we hope it is—the ”professional” reviews for Kingsman: The Golden Circle aren’t what you’d call “glowing”. It has a colon in its title, so we already know Daniel’s going into it biased. Melody couldn’t see it in time to compare it to the first one, which was her favorite movie since Mad Max or something, so it’s missing its biggest supporter. Can the nearly two-and-a-half-hour spy action dramedy overcome these handicaps to get a thumbs-up from the Screeners? It’ll be a challenge, but Colin Firth hasn’t shied away from one of those yet.

In honor of Kingsman’s genre confusion, this episode’s Top 3 subject is “action comedies”. From Bad Boys to Men in Black, what’s your favorite Will Smith--er, action movie that also makes some of the jokes? Tell us on Facebook, where you’re also free to wonder aloud if Josh even works here anymore.

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So Darren Aronofsky’s new movie is out, and it has a punctuation mark in the title, so it has that going for it. It also has some negative press, to say the least: a Cinemasore rating of F and enough negative audience reaction that Aronofsky himself apologized to a film festival audience before screening it (you probably shouldn’t read either of those links before seeing the movie...).

Chad, Chris, and Daniel aren’t afraid of a little bad press, though, so they’re more than willing to take on a review of mother! What will happen when a self-proclaimed lover of loving things, his protégé, and...Chad talk about the most polarizing movie in recent memory?

After mother!, it seemed like a fitting top 3 theme would be “confusion”, so this episode’s top 3 is informally titled “Movies that make you say...’huh?’” We got a lot of Facebook responses for this one, so we must have picked a winner.

That’s probably enough for one episode; we dare you to go see mother! and tell us what you thought over on Facebook. Til next time!

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In case you haven’t heard (OK; you’ve probably heard), there’s another Stephen King movie out. It’s...It, and It has already beaten The Dark Tower in profits and critical reception. The pre-release buzz was even better—just kidding; we wouldn’t know, since Chad forbade us from reading Dark Tower’s pre-release buzz since he wanted his misery to be pure and fresh as the driven snow.

Anyway, nature conspired against most of the Screeners seeing It in time for an opening weekend review, but Chad and Daniel aren’t about to let you down on this one. The two of them should be more than enough to convince you to be scared of clowns...partially because you should already be scared of clowns. Clowns are horrifying.

On top of the whole blockbuster horror movie discussion, other things the other 3 Screeners are missing out on include Emmy talk (the show’s this Sunday, so Josh should probably start trying to remember his Twitter password now) and the inevitable Top 3. This episode’s topic: coming of age movies. Apparently “movies with sewer clowns” was too specific.

See you on Facebook!

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We’re in a bit of a lull as far as movie releases go1, so the Screeners haven’t found anything worthy of a main event in a couple weeks. That’s not to say all their screens are dark, though. The dog days of summer are the perfect time for a “what have you been watching” catch-up segment.

But wait; there’s more! The Screeners Podcast has been around for about 4 years now with only one major change, so we thought it was about time for another. No, we’re not reverting the first one by firing Daniel (yet...you’re on thin ice, though; stop seeing so many more movies than everyone else). This announcement’s a bit more on the positive side, at least for the sci-fi fans in the crowd. OK; we’ve said enough—you’ll have to listen to find out more.

When you’ve done that, be sure to head over to Facebook to tell us what you think—and what great shows and movies we missed during our free-for-all earlier; we know there’s plenty out there. See you next time!

1 Yes, Josh, we know you think we’ve been in a lull since at least February.

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

We’ve known The Dark Tower was coming since at least the beginning of the year, and the Screeners have been busy doing team-building exercises in preparation for the stress it’s sure to put on their friendships. Well, it’s go time. The Screeners have cleared their schedules; let’s do this.

Stephen King is said to have praised the director after seeing the final cut of the film, but will that be enough for true fans like Chad and Melody? Also, what does Josh think about all this—didn’t he do some background research for the episode?

OK, so maybe the Screeners didn’t completely clear their schedules. They might just need a palate cleanser after that main event, and their Flickchart list has been sitting neglected, like a puppy they’ve forgotten to feed and walk for...a few months. Wasn’t the top movie on that list The Mighty Ducks or something? Let’s fix that.

And that’s plenty for one episode. Everyone take a deep breath, then head over to Facebook to keep arguing.

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The Screeners (or most of them, at least) have another but-those-movies-have-nothing-in-common sort of double feature in store again this episode. Sorry; we don’t get to tell Hollywood what to do; we just report on it.

First up, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Daniel’s already had some fairly...blunt things to say about this one on Facebook, but that won’t stop Luc Besson from writing as many of them as he can. Can another Screener’s enthusiasm salvage the film’s chances in the court of public opinion?

Raise your hand if you expected Cold War-era spy movies to feel timely again. You neither, huh? Well, joke’s on us. Atomic Blonde has all sorts of things that just don’t seem like they belong in the modern world—from unstable geopolitical superpowers, to collusion with Russia, to Charlize Theron talking about how great Mad Max: Fury Road was. Chris and Melody can’t help but love this one, right?

Since the Screeners’ heads are already in a (sort-of) bygone era, this episode’s Top 3 topic is 80’s-themed action movies. Or is it “action movies from the 80’s”? Guess it doesn’t matter; Chris will probably find a way to pick Final Destination or something.

And, of course, Josh had so little to say about all of this that he didn’t even show up for this episode. We’ll hand-deliver any hate mail you want to send him.

Chad and Daniel will review A Ghost Story in another of their famous bonus episodes soon. After that, join us for a review of The Dark Tower, in which we might find out how Josh feels about all that reading he did at the beginning of the year to satisfy Chad and Melody.

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