Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Wolverine cannot be killed, and it seems neither can his film franchise. Despite tepid fan response to X-Men Origins: Wolverine a second solo film featuring Hugh Jackman was quickly put into production. With creative changes behind-the-scenes and a change to make The Wolverine a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand, it was released with the promise of being "The Wolverine film you've been waiting for." Does it live up to that hype? Listen to Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart's latest X-Men movie review to find out as we bide our time until 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past!

Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, and all their surviving operatives get a sequel in their sixties with RED 2. Do newcomers Anthony Hopkins and Catherine-Zeta Jones inject fresh blood into this franchise, or has the joke gotten too old even for this crew? Listen and find out.

80s action star Bruce Willis may have gotten older, but he's still considered RED - retired and extremely dangerous. Do Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie have a laugh watching senior citizens strap on pistols to blow holes in the CIA's rep, or is this AARP action-comedy D.O.A.? Listen and find out.

Comic book vets Chris Evans and Idris Elba have joined THE LOSERS - a ragtag band of mercenaries out to punish CIA baddie Jason Patric for a failed Bolivian mission. Should Avatar babe Zoe Saldana trust these C-stringers to get the job done, or should she just call the A-Team? Listen and find out.

What is a Pacific Rim? It's a movie pitting giant robots against giant monsters! Transformers versus Godzilla; the Cloverfield monster versus Robot Jox. The concept is not high art. But behind the lens is visionary director Guillermo del Toro, who has crafted fantastical worlds in many of his films including Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth. So listen to Jerry, Stuart, and Arnie's review to find out if this film packs a mean punch!

Has sweet little Natalie Portman been palling around with terrorists? A masked swashbuckler known only as V For Vendetta hopes she'll help him rescue future London from dictators, but has Wachowski script tinkering disfigured this classic Alan Moore comic book as well? Listen and find out.

Viggo Mortensen looks like an unassuming small town diner owner, but to a crew of Philly hoods he's a thug with A History of Violence. Does director David Cronenberg split opinion in his radical reworking of the graphic novel? Listen and find out.

Tom Hanks is a cold blooded killer heading down the Road to Perdition, hoping to deliver his son from Irish mobsters he once considered family. Has director Sam Mendes made a comic book Godfather, or is this an offer that Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie easily refuse. Listen and find out.

With Christopher Nolan's Batman films Warner Bros. set the gold standard for superhero films. The Dark Knight was a box office hit, a fan favorite, and even won an Academy Award for acting. Yet the year after Batman Begins the other World's Finest superhero, Superman, failed to take flight. So when Dark Knight writer David Goyer pitched a new, bold take on Superman Warner Bros. agreed. Watchmen director Zack Snyder was brought in to direct, and the result was Man of Steel. Its opening weekend broke records, but both critics and fans are sharply divided over the quality of the film. Now Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob bring their Superman retrospective series to a close with their review of Man of Steel. Can Man of Steel leap tall buildings in a single bound, or should it be stopped with a speeding bullet? Listen to find out!

With Christopher Nolan's Batman films Warner Bros. set the gold standard for superhero films.   The Dark Knight was a box office hit, a fan favorite, and even won an Academy Award for acting.  Yet the year after Batman Begins   the other World's Finest superhero, Superman, failed to take flight.  So when Dark Knight writer David Goyer pitched a new, bold take on Superman Warner Bros. agreed.   Watchmen  director Zack Snyder was brought in to direct, and the result was Man of Steel.  Its opening weekend broke records, but both critics and fans are sharply divided over the quality of the film.  Now Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob bring their Superman retrospective series to a close with their review of Man of Steel.  Can Man of Steel leap tall buildings in a single bound, or should it be stopped with a speeding bullet?  Listen to find out!

SFor 20 years it seemed Nuclear Man and Lex Luthor really had killed Superman. Every attempt to bring the man of steel back to theaters had fallen through. While fellow DC superhero Batman had a major franchise launch, fail, and reboot, Superman seemed relegated to the small screen with Lois and Clark and Smallville. But director Bryan Singer was flying high after two successful X-Men films, and rather than return for X-Men he had Superman Returns. A continuation of the original two films, Superman Returns has the Kryptonian hero facing off again with nemesis Lex Luthor. Fans did not embrace Singer's vision and planned sequels were scrapped in favor of a complete reboot -- Man of Steel opening this week in theaters! But does Superman Returns deserve its bad reputation? Listen to Now Playing and find out! Then join us next week as we review the brand new Superman film Man of Steel!

Steel may not seem like a Superman movie, but in the 1990s it was as close as Warner Bros could muster. With Batman ushering in a new age of comic book movies there were many attempts to revive the red caped DC hero. Such names as JJ Abrams, Nicholas Cage, Kevin Smith, McG, and Tim Burton all worked on Superman projects, and all failed to come together. As unlikely as it seemed, the only man of steel we would see in theaters between 1987 and 2006 was Shaquille O'Neil in Steel. Based on a character born from the Death of Superman comic story, Steel is a disillusioned weapons maker who dons a high-tech suit to fight crime. The film was no slam dunk but does it deserve a second chance? Listen to Now Playing's review to find out!

Richard Donner, Christopher Reeve, even Richard Lester and the Salkinds, all had declared they were done with Superman. After a disappointing Superman 3 and a disastrous Supergirl the franchise seemed more toxic than kryptonite and the rights were sold off to cheapo genre film company Cannon Films. But despite star Reeves' earlier comments distancing himself from the character, Reeve again returned in exchange for both control over the story and a guarantee his pet project Street Smart would be made. The film ended up a notorious Nuclear Man sized bomb, but is it as bad as is thought? Listen to Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie's review to find out!

It's been four years since J.J. Abrams beamed aboard as new commander of Star Trek promising fast-tracked movies and TV series. But none of that came to fruition and even before Star Trek Into Darkness would reach theaters news spread far and wide that Abrams was moving on to another franchise, Star Wars, leaving questions as to what involvement he'll have with future Star Trek films and stealing some of Trek's pre-release thunder. Finally Star Trek Into Darkness opened this weekend. Was it worth the wait? Listen to find out!

With Christopher Reeve growing tired of wearing tights Warner Bros and the Salkinds attempted to recreate the magic with Supergirl. In her first starring role Helen Slater plays Superman's cousin who has come to Earth to recover the power supply to her dying city. With a witch as Supergirl's nemesis, does this film capture the excitement of Richard Donner's original? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review to find out!

The Avengers broke box office records taking in more at the US box office in the opening weekend than any other film. With such popularity the world was primed for a follow-up. Now, almost one year to the day later, Marvel Studios' next film Iron Man 3 has been delivered, and came in second only to The Avengers in its opening weekend. The new film features a Tony Stark solo mission against his comic book nemesis The Mandarin in a storyline taken from the Warren Ellis Extremis comic arc. But without Jon Favreau directing and without a Hulk can the armored Avenger still shine? Listen to Jakob, Arnie, and Stuart's review to find out!

1983 was a banner year for computing. Microsoft Windows was announced, Lotus spreadsheets were released and the first IBM clone PC was sold by Compaq. And Gus Gorman builds a supercomputer that becomes self-aware, turns humans into cyborg slaves, and tries to kill Superman! This third installment in the Superman film series, this one directed entirely by Richard Lester, relied more on laughs than action, with comedian Richard Pryor taking a co-starring role. How does the mix of comedy, action, and inner conflict work in this Superman film? Listen to find out!

After a series of blockbuster, large-scale films director Sam Raimi returned to his horror roots with Drag Me to Hell. While there is no cabin, no necronomicon, and no deadites, this film feels very much like an Evil Dead movie with geysers of blood and a main character put through physical and psychological torment. Now as a bonus review, Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart are dragged to hell to face the Lamia. Does this film have the impact of Raimi's earlier, more raw horror films? Listen to find out, then DONATE to Now Playing before June 30, 2013 to hear our Spring Donation Drive bonus reviews of all the Evil Dead films as well!

How much would you give up for the woman you love? For Superman the cost of love is his every power as he chooses to relinquish all that makes him super to live a mortal life with Lois Lane. But without Superman what can stop the three Kryptonian criminals Non, Ursa, and their leader General Zod from ruling the Earth? All of this, plus Lex Luthor, is in 1980's Superman II. But do Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob kneel before Zod? Listen to Now Playing to find out as we review both the Richard Donner and Richard Lester cuts of Superman II!

In 1978 director Richard Donner and a team of cutting-edge optical effects artists made audiences believe a man could fly. Perhaps even more impressive, though, is that stars Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, and Marlon Brando were able to bring such performances that adults and children watched a man convincingly and unironically wear a blue spandex unitard. But when Superman took to the screen there was no unintentional laughter, just a generation held in thrall as they watched the first big-budget superhero film--a movie to which all superhero films to this day are still compared. Do Now Playing movie reviews Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart still believe the film flies as high? Listen to this week's podcast to find out!