The Men who Stare at Movies Podcast

It's the Men who Stare at Movies' first review of a new movie in almost a year! Wonder Woman 1984 is the long-awaited and long-delayed sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman. Does the new movie live up to the high expectations set by its predecessor? Will Quirky let Jack have a word in edgeways during his rants? Does the whole body possession subplot actually mean anything? Some, but not all, of these questions will be answered by the end of this podcast.

As this is technically a new movie still in theatres, we hold back on spoiler discussion until 13:48, so be aware of that time code if spoilers are a concern.

The Men Who Stare at Movies return once more to cover the first Wonder Woman movie in anticipation for the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984. The movie was a groundbreaker at the time for female-led action, and marked the cinematic solo debut of the most famous female superhero in the history of comic books. Does the first major female-led and directed superhero movie of the modern era still hold up? Listener discretion advised, full spoilers for the whole thing.

It's October, and you know what that means: we have to watch at least one horror movie. Unfortunately, we already watched Cats last month, so The Men who Stare at Movies decided to go back and watch John Carpenter's The Thing instead, something that is not nearly as terrifying. That said, in this episode, we ask and answer the question of if The Thing's impressive practical effects still hold up, and the extent to which it holds up in 2020.

This week, after a long hiatus, the Men who Stare at Movies return to watch the Cats movie from last year for some reason. All faith in humankind, and catkind, was lost as a result. It remains as a reminder that some things are already in the appropriate medium and shouldn't be adapted into film, and also that good special effects are important.

No spoiler tags for this one, as a film generally requires a plot in order to be spoiled. Enjoy!

As usual with these kinds of episodes, full spoilers ahoy, so listener discretion is advised.

Two years after it's release, Quirky finally got Jack to watch Solo: A Star Wars Story. Has the only theatrically released Star Wars film to lose money aged gracefully, or is Disney's attempt at providing an origin story for Han Solo best left forgotten? All we can conclude is that L337 is clearly the best droid in the Star Wars universe.

In this episode, Quirky and Jack explore the Crime Comedy. Following the hitman, Ray, as he reconciles his mistakes in the Belgium city of Bruges.

This film is an interesting take on the Crime film genre with a heavy part of dark comedy.

This episode is full spoilers.

Also, we are going full spoilers, so listener discretion advised if you were one of the majority of people who didn't watch it in cinemas when it came out.

This time, the Men who Stare at Movies delve back into the 2010 Edgar Wright cult classic adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic series Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Is is as good as they remember it? Or has time not been as kind to it as they thought. All we know is that Michael Cera certainly punches a bunch of people until they explode into showers of coins.

As with many of our other retro reviews, we will not be having a separate section for spoilers; this one is discussing the ending and other important plot points from the very beginning, so listener discretion is advised.

Another retro review today, this time, the Men who Stare at Movies are going way back to Francis Ford Coppola's original gangster epic, The Godfather. Does it still stand up compared to the films and shows that it has inspired? And how does it fare from a modern lens?

In this episode, the Men who Stare at Movies decided to go back and rewatch Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, because Tenet might very well be one of the first movies to revive the cinema industry, and therefore it seemed like a good a time as any to go back and revisit one of Nolan's greatest films. We go fairly spoiler-heavy from 8:55, so go back and see the film before listening to this podcast.

Episode 59: Snowpiercer (2013) The pandemic continues and cinemas and new movies are closed for now, so the Men who Stare at Movies went back to streaming to re-watch a great movie from a few years ago whose director is super successful right now, Snowpiercer.

Does the train-bound science-fiction action film remain on a steady track in the modern era? Or has it de-railed compared to Bong Joon Ho's more recent movies? Listen to the review and find out!

Also, if you would like to skip to the bit where we stop dancing around spoilers for how the film ends, that discussion begins at 22:00.