The Midnight Run

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Don't go away, just because you don't like sport. This is not a niche subject. Most sports movies are not about the sport itself. A sports move is about the personal experience in order to achieve. It is about the fine line between success and failure, it is about heroes and villains, great montages, great drama and humour.
We also decide if Gladiator is a sports film and if so, why it would be important to be undefeated in a competitor's career.
Our favourite scenes and performances are discussed along with our top 10s (11 in Matt's case). There are also 3 quizzes, one of which Lewis totally messes up. We reveal our own personal sporting memories, some of which are more painful than others and reveal Matt's darting nickname. 
Magnificently woven amongst that we discuss what wines we would serve if we had to cook each other, the best Carry On films to watch back to back and our own tribute to a close friend of the family that recently passed away.
Just listening to this episode makes you a gold medalist in our eyes.

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What do we want from a comfort film? The answer is it depends on how you feel. Nothing is off the table here and it doesn't matter whether the film is great or not. Jaws and Zulu are great films for example, but we wouldn't consider them comfort movies. The film just has to be right for the occasion. So, what films do we like to watch when we are tired, down, it is rubbish weather or we are unwell? As a result, for the first time in the series our top 10 lists are completely different.
We discuss our favourite characters and scenes to watch to cheer us up and our favourite comfort film actors.  There are 2 quizzes for Matt and the small rubber football is up for grabs again. Our favourite comfort foods and albums to listen to are also revealed along with a 3rd special guest appearance by Ava Jude.
Other topics are the controversial 2nd goal in the 1923 FA Cup Final, what people do in Antarctica, how Barry Manilow got Lewis over a relationship, Errol Flynn's special skill and what Matt listens to every time he gets a new car. 
So, curl up on your sofa in your dressing gown and with your favourite snacks. We hope to make you very comfortable over the next 2 hours.

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With a film back catalogue spanning 70 years, this was always going to be a rich topic for us. Michael Caine is a British film legend, with success in lead and supporting roles and his portrayals of such iconic characters as Alfie Elkins, Charlie Croker, Jack Carter and Hoagie. He has won 2 Academy Awards, but who was he up against? Matt is put to the test with this and another trickier quiz where he has a chance to gamble and win a small rubber football. Matt also has a quiz for Lewis, whose success rate in this series has not been quite so prolific. Picking a favourite scene and performance proved to be difficult and Lewis also manages to get Laurence Olivier and Pele in the same sentence in another category.
Amongst the many great films there have been some that were not quite so great. We both have most of the same films on our lists, but which film made us laugh the most when recalling it? 
We discuss what happened in 1790, John Cleese's BAFTA acceptance speech, giggling in theatre rehearsals, Pringles flavours and TV adverts that spell out gags. We also pick what song we would listen to after a hard and stressful day.
From Alfie to Zulu, you will know what Michael Caine is all about after 2 glorious hours in our company.

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Horror is a genre that we at The Midnight Run have struggled with over the years. There are a large number of sub genres such as Slasher, Supernatural and Psychological, so are we tarring a huge genre with a single brush or are specific types of horror what we really don't care for?
There are lots of good things about horror films however, apart from the majority of them being short.  After all, it is a genre that has produced so many iconic films (Psycho/The Exorcist), scenes (chest bursting/"Here's Johnny") and characters (Freddy/Jason/Hannibal Lecter).
Lewis goes to town on the films he watched in preparation, with 2 films actually making his top 10 but which film remake did he accidentally watch instead of the intended original?
We discuss our horror film upbringing and Lewis states which film he has only ever watched through a mirror and also recounts his scary walk home late at night after watching The Fog.  Lewis also explains his love for Friday 13th Part 6: Jason Lives and devises a fun, but brutal Jason Voorhees quiz for Matt.
Off topic subjects in this episode feature which of the ABBA chaps has the hairiest chest, Matt's obsession with sandwich making and how to deal with the loss of a hamster in a young household.
Have we changed our minds about the horror film genre? We could tell you but then we would have to kill you.

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Determining what we have decided to include as a biopic is the source of much debate in this episode. A biopic should be about a real person over a period of time and not necessarily the specific situation they are in...we think. So does The Queen, Moneyball, Spartacus and The Insider count? Subsequently this was a tough episode to prepare for. We have theories on why so many Academy Awards have been won for biopic portrayals. This made it a very difficult choice for the much sought after accolade of our favourite performance.  We celebrate the fact that we have finally created a Facebook page and welcome 2 lovely, shiny countries to the listening family. 
Off topic highlights are... memorable soundtracks, our "modelling" careers, going to a public toilet, conspiracy theorists, Lewis's favourite sportswoman and what we think are the best song lyrics ever written?
It is worth listening to in order to find out how Matt compares our show to the South Pacific Ocean nation of Vanuatu and what is Pen Behind the Ear?

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A sequel is a film that continues the story of, or expands upon an earlier work. Lots of them are made and although there are undoubtedly gems, many don't seem to be any good. We discuss our opinions on why that is (apart from them earning a truckload of cash) and try to determine which genres are best and worst suited to them. Some right old tripe have been watched in preparation, but which film could Lewis not bring himself to watch?

What do we think of the new Top Gun: Maverick film, which got us out to the cinema again and does it have a chance of cracking our top 10s? What do we want from a sequel and do they have to be better than the original to be great? Which films in particular spoil the first one and which were utter disasters?

As well as a difficult quiz for Matt we also go off topic with advice on how to deal with nerves at parkrun, which 3 men would turn Lewis's head given the right amount of encouragement and which metal group has the best name.

Regardless of the bad ones there are enough rather excellent sequels to result in some  agonizing omissions. A number of genres are well represented in our top 10s and we have the joy of revealing the same film as the number 1 pick.

This is the 15th episode and is a year since we started the series. We hope that it has not diminished in quality like the Robocop films.

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Science fiction films are perfect for the cinema because of the visual effects and the escapism that they provide. The Sci-fi genre, which has produced groundbreaking classics such as Metropolis, 2001, Bladerunner, Avatar and Plan 9 from Outer Space is a complicated one, which raises a debate on what to include and what not in in our top 10s. Our favourite scenes and performances are discussed, as well as a Star Wars themed quiz for Matt. But as usual we go off topic with gems such as how to avoid getting mugged, the criminal record of the kid actor in Flight of the Navigator, going to the cinema on your own, the greatest rugby union try ever scored, how you choose what information you retain in your head and our top 3 Abba songs.
We reveal which scene from a sci-fi film we cunningly recreated on video for our Dad’s birthday many years ago and is there a Star Wars Imperial Guard training camp? The episode is worth it alone for Matt's brilliant Greedo impression (why did you change the scene so that he shot first Mr Lucas?) oh, and does anyone know what a Nuthatch sounds like?

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What makes a great scene and why? A difficult episode for us this time as we have to pick our top 10 scenes of all time. An almost impossible task and Matt does very well to reduce his shortlist from 97 originally.  Are we counting montages? What about end scenes, which prompts Matt into revealing his favourite ending of all time. Does Omaha Beach count? Many aspects of a great scene are broken down along with which murderer still gives Lewis the creeps when remembering scenes growing up. Another different, but scene related quiz for Matt along with divulging which scenes made us cry (Shelley Winters) and which ones are a tough watch. We agree on our least liked scene even though it is in one of Lewis's all time favourites. A special mention goes to the scene in Superman 2 where he goes back to give the bully his just desserts. 

As usual our episode is so much more than that, as we discuss whether we would order a poker style murder if we were powerful enough. Why Ben Gazzara managed to somehow hold his own at the end of Roadhouse. Which song would we sing to intimidate the enemy at the start of a battle and the always controversial "Which Godfather film is the best" (in our opinion).

The final lists are such a diverse mixture of action, drama and comedy that we would be happy to take the films that the 10 scenes appear with us on a desert island. Providing that the island had something to play them on....and something to watch them on…and electricity. 

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What is a romantic comedy? We discuss the ingredients and Matt is put brutally on the spot in the "Yes/No" game, but ultimately a romantic comedy is what you decide it is. Our own interpretations result in the largest number of different films in our top 10s to date. Lewis reveals the record number of films he watched in preparation for the episode and we also welcome 5 new countries to our series of lovely listeners.
Our favourite performances and scenes in romantic comedies feature in the episode, along with a different type of quiz for Matt. But that is not all, as we tackle such subjects as the time that Matt went blank on stage, Rob Reiner's genius run of films, the ending of Groundhog Day and can you really forgive Jack Nicholson's character for throwing a dog down a chute?
It all blends into a lovely, fluffy and amusing piece of entertainment for 93 glorious minutes. A bit like a romantic comedy, without the physical element. We are brothers after all.