The Kick

For as long as humanity has dreamt of traveling through time, it's also dreamt of time manipulation as a means of preventing terrorism, apprehending warlords in future dystopias and stopping your younger self from killing your older self. But don't take our word for it! This week, we watched a trio of "Fight Crime Through Time" movies, including Demolition Man (1993), Looper (2012) and Deja Vu (2006). 

This episode's special guest is Justin Taylor, an acclaimed author and a Demolition Man fan from way back. He's the writer of Flings, The Gospel of Anarchy and Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever. Follow Justin on Twitter at @my19thcentury and find his work at justindtaylor.net. 

If you're looking to hop around the episode: 

3:05 - Noah and Chance gives their opening genre remarks

10:45 - Justin Taylor on "Demolition Man" 

33:40 - Overly ambitious "Looper" is discussed

49:55 - 17-year-old-Chance standby "Deja Vu" is revisited

Spurred forth by Brie Larson's Oscar victory, Noah and Chance watched "Room" for this mini-episode. Worthy of both tears and cringes as it was, a debate ensued about whether adaptational problems from Emma Donoghue's 2010 novel are severe enough to derail this emotional study of trauma-sick mother and son.

Noah and Chance discuss the Coen Brothers' three kidnapping movies: the wild-eyed "Raising Arizona," the neo-classic black comedy "Fargo" and the new Hollywood tribute spectacle "Hail, Caesar!"

Zooming out, Noah wonders about the brothers' precarious place in contemporary film and Chance speculates about their one-of-a-kind storytelling priorities and areas of narrative neglect.

5:30 - "Hail, Caesar!" Review

16:00 - "Fargo" Review

30:30 - "Raising Arizona" Review

On this week's episode, Chance and Noah tell you about everything but their childhoods. But a little personal disclosure is appropriate as they discuss three movies about therapists and their patients. Plus, Chance invites a counseling graduate student (to whom he's also a live-in boyfriend) onto the show to talk about the accuracy and responsibility-of-representation sides of "A Dangerous Method" (2011), "Girl, Interrupted" (1999) and "Analyze This" (1999). Via drama and comedy, these titles portray psychotherapy from its birth to its cultural growing pains to its absolute exhaustion in the wrong hands. Enjoy, and don't forget to tell us how this episode makes you feel.

8:15 - "A Dangerous Method"

23:30 - "Girl, Interrupted"

41:45 - "Analyze This"

On this week's episode, Noah and Chance dive below the surface and into the high stakes, misunderstanding-wrought world of submarine movies. With a little help from retired navy man and sub expert John Clear, they take on the undeniable plot of "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), the bad movie genetics of "Below" (2002) and the nuclear acting war happening in "Crimson Tide" (1995).

4:00 - John Clear Interview

16:30 - "Hunt For Red October"

32:30 - "Below"

42:30 - "Crimson Tide"

Because they mostly like their suffering beautiful, Noah and Chance review "The Revenant" in this mini-episode. There's talk of Emmanuel Lubezki's gorgeous catastrophes, disagreements over whether Leo's performance is interesting and comparisons to Alejandro Iñárritu's previous outing. Plus, a friend of the program hops on for a segment we're calling "The Kozal Proposal."

Noah and Chance were reunited over the holidays when they spent a few very head-achy days in a dim and borrowed living room. Back together in their Nebraska college town, they rang in 2016 watching three movies (all covered in the 2015 "Trailer Pod," by the way) about trying to reconcile with family before it's too late. Did Liam Neeson save his son from hitmen in "Run All Night"? Did the sellout pop star Danny Collins strut and clown his way into his estranged family's life? Does "Mississippi Grind" even really fit this category? Did Noah and Chance ever leave Nebraska? Questions are answered and Chance's childhood bedroom is revealed. Enjoy.

4:30 - "Run All Night"

19:00 - "Danny Collins"

37:00 - "Mississippi Grind"

Chance and Noah were reunited in Lincoln, Nebraska over the holidays, and three hours of it was spent watching Quentin Tarantino's new time-bomb of a bottle Western. With love for the performances and camera work, they dive into "The Hateful Eight", its narrative incongruities and they ask why his trademark ultra-violence doesn't work so well in the writer/director's eighth film.

As always, a refresher on the rating system:

Good-Good = High quality, high watchability (e.g. The Departed)

Good-Bad = High quality, low watchability (e.g. Schindler's List)

Bad-Good = Low quality, high watchability (e.g. Escape from LA)

Bad-Bad = Low quality, low watchability (e.g. White Chicks)

Follow Be Reel, Guys on Twitter at @bereelguys or write to us at [email protected].

We love a good year-end list as much as the next people who begrudgingly buy into a completist mentality where art and entertainment are ranked. But you can read insightful lists everywhere online and a bunch of the movies on them aren't available to you yet. So, why not absurdly swing the other way? In this episode, we look back at the movies we didn't see in 2015 and review (and sorry about this number) 40 of them, based solely on their trailers. Let us help you pick what you'll half-watch on a Saturday in February from this at once surprising, mediocre and frustrating pool of 2015 movies.

Contemporary Christmas film has a real thing for the coal-getting kids. In our holiday episode, we take on three movies flipping the bird to seasonal propriety through partying, perfectionism and general Grinching. And yet, these films only exist and resolve themselves because of an eventual appreciation for tradition and familial embrace. We watched "The Night Before" (2015), "Christmas Vacation" (1989) and "Bad Santa" (2003). So be good, children, if just for a day.

10:30 - "The Night Before"

23:00 - "Christmas Vacation"

38:30 - "Bad Santa"