Screeners Podcast

Don’t tune into this episode for a Jump Cuts or Flickchart segment, because there isn’t one. The schedule’s full enough as it is, since the Screeners are taking on both a Marvel movie and a Danny Boyle movie.

Spider-Man: Far from Home is the first post- Endgame Marvel movie, so it either has a lot to live up to or has some ‘splainin’ to do, depending on your conclusions about Phase 3 of the MCU. If by some chance you lack an opinion on the issue, the Screeners have you covered.

For those of you who just aren’t that into superheroes (or who were into superheroes but had it beaten out of you after 57 or so movies), Yesterday is a movie from the director of Slumdog Millionaire that spent nearly half its budget on securing the rights to Beatles songs. Thankfully, it made at least that money back from its box office opening, but was the gamble worth it? We’ll let you know.

You know the drill—join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter to tell us how pumped you are(n’t) for Phase 4 and how plausible you find the idea of the Beatles’ music being popular when divorced entirely from their haircuts.

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

Pixar’s back at it, so you know at least a few Screeners made it to the theater for Toy Story 4. And just because we really wanted to call him Dr. Pixar, Jeff Salyer’s back to help us place this new entry in the studio’s remarkable history.

Toy Story movies are something just about everyone has an opinion on, so don’t forget to tell us yours! Find us on Facebook or Twitter and join the conversation.

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Special Guest: Dr. Jeff Salyer .

We’ll give you the bad news first: Only two of the Screeners made it to the theater to see Men in Black: International. The good news is that it was Chad and Daniel, so the review will still last an hour. Wait; is that good news? We’re not sure...

Either way, that’s our movie this time around, so “secret organizations” seemed like a good Top 3 to round out the episode. When you’re done listening, head over to Facebook or Twitter to tell us whether you prefer Tessa Thompson to play opposite robots or aliens.

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The Screeners are back in single-review mode, so you know what that means: they have some time on their hands. Prepare for a multi-host brain dump of what’s been on all our various screens lately.

But about that review. To say that Dark Phoenix has gotten a bad rap with critics might be an understatement. At the time of this writing, its Rotten Tomatoes critic/audience score is upside-down to the tune of nearly 3 to 1. Will the Screeners side with the critics or the people? Whom can we count on when the revolution comes?

Now that we’ve had our say, it’s your turn to pick sides. Join the fight on Facebook or Twitter—or, if you don’t care about the X-Men (we’re shocked, after the run of terrific movies they’ve had over the past decade), at least let us know what was missing from our recent viewing schedules

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As is so often the case with Screeners double features, this episode’s juxtaposition is either genius or insane. The best way we can spin it is probably “a little something for everyone”. Our roster this time is Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Rocketman—there; we said it.

Chris wasn’t able to make it for this episode, and he will be sorely missed. Join the other Screeners in shaming him on Facebook or Twitter.

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It might not be the biggest Disney hit from the 90’s getting a live-action reboot this summer (which is a strange thought all by itself), but Aladdin is sure up there. Robin Williams sadly isn’t around to reprise his role as Genie, but Will Smith seems to be doing a passable job so far, if ticket sales are anything to go by. The movie’s doing so well it has a couple Screeners worried about their summer box office ballots.

That’s beside the point here, though. Is the movie any good? Daniel and April will try to answer that one, and you can help by casting a vote on Facebook or Twitter.

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It’s finally happened: the Game of Thrones series finale was this past weekend. Are you mad? We’ve taken a statistically significant* sample of the Internet, and we’re guessing you’re mad. Well, we’ll listen to you if you listen to us. Come join the Screeners for some nostalgia, some ranting, and some...dragons? Sure, why not; we’ll try to get some dragons.

Of course, the “listening to you” bit happens on Facebook and Twitter, so click on over and join the melee!

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

The Matrix movies weren’t violent enough for Keanu Reeves, so he went and got himself cast in a “real action” movie. That was five years ago, and now we have John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum. We’re not sure they needed the colon and the dash, but who are we to argue with marketers as successful as the geniuses behind the John Wick franchise? They’ve made three movies that have been well-received by everyone but Josh, so they must be doing something right.

The John Wick movies represent something of a phoenix-like resurgence for Keanu Reeves’ career, which presents a pretty original Top 3 question: Who else would you like to see make a comeback? Once you’ve listened (or “endured”, depending on how Chris interprets the question) to the Screeners’ picks, don’t forget share your own with us on Facebook or Twitter!

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We promise there will be a movie review at some point in this episode, but it’s been so long since we’ve done a Flickchart segment—before the newest Screener joined, in fact—that we couldn’t resist fitting one in. It might take awhile to find two movies that Josh has seen, but stick with us here.

OK, so the review. The Pokémon Company has conquered the crossover animé and Game Boy worlds, and they’ve tracked the movements of a generation by getting them to trade a real-time stream of GPS data for Pikachu-shaped pixels. Now, they’ve lent their IP to what passes for a live-action movie in the 21st century, Pokémon Detective Pikachu (as if we couldn’t tell it was a Pokémon movie without that lead-in). The only question left is whether a Pikachu-shaped stand-in for Ted will make more or slightly less money at the box office than Avengers: Endgame.

Yeah...it’ll probably be a good deal less, seeing as how Endgame has already made more money than the GDP of several island nations. Still, though, a furry Ryan Reynolds is going to make a dent, right? Don’t forget to tell us what you thought of the movie on Facebook or Twitter!

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No, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is not a sequel to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, despite the titles’ uncannily similar overuse of adverbs. It’s a movie about Ted Bundy from a somewhat new perspective—you know, just in case you needed an escape from the horrors of modern life.

Two Screeners planted themselves on the couch to watch this for you, though, so the least you can do is tune in to see if you should do the same. Once you’ve done that, head over to Facebook or Twitter and see if you can convince Chris that it’s better than Hannibal. Spoiler alert: You can’t.

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