Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

Dolph Lungren trains young gamers to become masters of a zombie universe in Dead Trigger, the 2017 film adaptation of a popular first-person shooter made for smartphones.  Can a Disney star, an MMA fighter, and the no-longer-little rapper Lil’ Romeo blast their way to Terminal City, and rescue the scientist who can cure the outbreak? Or will Cyglobe CEO (and soap star) Tamara Braun whack them for posing a threat to her gun sales?  Help Justin, Arnie, and Stuart answer the call for another trying video game movie when you Listen Now!      

Michael Fassbender learns the homicidal impulses that landed him on Death Row in 2016 can be traced back to the Assassin’s Creed he pledged to free-will-loving vigilantes in 1492. Can Oscar-winning scientist Marion Cotillard (Inception) cure the convict of his violent ways simply by plugging him into holographic re-enactments of his past life hit jobs? Or does Jeremy Irons have nefarious reasons for footing this exorbitant 23AndMe bill? Find out why gamers have such animus for this big-budget adaptation of the popular Ubisoft title when you Listen Now!

  Yakuza director Takashi Miike tries his hand at a different type of video game adaptation by bringing Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright to the big screen. Can the rookie lawyer find the guilty parties in three interlocking murder trials simply by cross-examining parrots and debunking photographic evidence of lake monsters?  And will the fashion police level charges against all those gravity-defying hairdos on display in the courtroom?  Find out if Justin, Stuart, and Arnie offer objections to the latest entry in the Now Playing Arcade when you Listen Today!

Robert Pattinson spent the last two years suiting up as The Batman so that he might score a hit movie for DC, and rescue a Gotham City drowning in drugs, violent crime, and political corruption. Will his plans for urban renewal be thwarted by unhinged assassin The Riddler (Paul Dano), or mob henchman Oz “The Penguin” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell)? Or will Zoe Kravitz steal the show as a limber cat burglar with a soft spot for strays?  Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie can help you crack the code on this dense new Caped Crusader adventure.  Listen Now!    

Nearly 50 years after she left Leatherface dancing in the street, final girl Sally Hardesty returns to face another Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2022.  Can she save a bus full of social media influencers who dared to unlawfully displace the serial killer from his retirement in small town Harlow?  And will Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade) use the survival skills she honed during a school shooting to fight back against the triggered madman once the power tools come out?  Brock, Stuart, and Arnie are abuzz with thoughts about this ninth franchise installment.  Listen Now!           

Tom Holland leaves Spider-Man and the MCU behind to head into the Uncharted waters of a popular Playstation video game.  Will his Nathan Drake solve a series of puzzles that lead to the legendary treasure of world explorer Ferdinand Magellan?  Or will he be conned out of the gold by greedy partner Mark Wahlberg, billionaire rival Antonio Banderas, or a host of femme fatales and modern day pirates?  All you have to do to unlock the opinions of host Arnie, Justin, and Stuart is download the latest Now Playing Arcade installment. Listen Now!    

Sharon Stone could have screwed like a mink, raised rugrats, and lived happily ever after with Michael Douglas. Instead, her icy crime novelist chances implication in new murders and wardrobe malfunctions 14 years later in Basic Instinct 2. Is pasty psychologist David Morrissey right to claim the femme fatale suffers from risk addiction, and will endanger all of London if she’s allowed to write a new book there? Or is the real poison pen being wielded by a tabloid journalist and a dirty cop? You may never come again after you score the latest Now Playing fix.

Michael Douglas has survived many big screen fatal attractions with dangerous blondes, but the slick yuppie courts a date with the sharp end of an ice pick after he beds Sharon Stone in the steamy 1992 thriller Basic Instinct.  Does this femme fatale write novels as a way of planning the future murders of unsatisfying lovers? Or is there a psychotic reader turning bloody acts from her books into San Francisco crime scenes?  Untangle all the double crosses and crossed legs when you join Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart for this kinky podcast review.  Listen Now! 

With “horror holidays” like Halloween, April Fool’s Day, and Friday the 13th routinely being celebrated with 21st Century remakes, it makes sense that someone would dig up My Bloody Valentine in 2009,. Can the censors stop the carnage now that it’s flying into audiences’ faces via 3-D?  And what kills a small town faster - a homicidal maniac stuffing residents’ hearts into boxes of candy, or prodigal son Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) closing down the local coal mine? Find out if the hosts are sweet on this second helping of Harry Warden when you Listen Now!  

Twenty years after a cave-in turned a coal miner into a cannibal, legendary psychopath Harry Warden returns to paint his hometown red in the 1981 original My Bloody Valentine. So why don’t moviegoers associate headlamps and pickaxes with February 14th in the same way hockey masks and machetes signify Friday The 13th? And were the cruelest cuts made by the MPAA, who edited out literal showers of blood in order to give the film an R rating?  Find out if Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie fall in love with this subterranean slasher when you Listen Now.   

Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox are ready to Scream for the fifth and possibly final time as a serial killer in a Ghostface mask terrorizes a new generation of self-aware Woodsboro horror enthusists. Is the 25-year-old franchise still capable of pulling off big surprises like that initial, infamous phone call to Drew Barrymore? And will the new directors enrage or bore Wes Craven purists by slipping some of that fancy pants “elevated horror” into the slasher formula? Find out if this “re-quel” proves legendary when you Listen Now.

Tabloid journalist Miguel Ferrer (Robocop) is on the trail of The Night Flier, a serial killer who drains victims of blood during sunset stops at tiny East Coast airports. Is there any truth to the rumor that this phantom aviator is a vampire?  And if so, is his sleek black jet just a way of impressing those blue haired groupies waiting for him on the tarmac?  Find out if this latest installment in the Stephen King retrospective has more bite than other short story adaptations from the Nightmares & Dreamscapes anthology when you Listen Now.  

100 years before Eggsy joined Colin Firth as a member of the Kingsmen, Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List) and his servants founded the secret spy organization inside a Savile Row tailor’s shop in the prequel The King’s Man. Can director Matthew Vaughn retain his signature mix of balls-out action and irreverent humor while exploring the root causes of World War I?  And who is the mastermind of an imagined supergroup of historical villains including seductress Mata Hari and Russian monk Rasputin (Rhys Ifans)?  Mind your manners and Listen Now!     

Mobster Christian Slater has spent a lifetime outfitting his enemies with cement shoes, so it’s poetic justice that vengeful construction worker Wes Bentley (American Beauty) rigs a newly paved road so it swallows Dolan’s Cadillac and buries the human trafficker alive. Can a standout entry in Stephen King’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes short story collection be successfully stretched into feature length?  And how much will the potty-mouthed Heathers star owe the swear jar should he manage to escape this trap?  Get it in gear and find out now!    

Peter Parker fears there’s No Way Home to his happy life with MJ (Zendaya) after Dr. Strange casts a magic spell that brings all the previous Spider-Man heroes and villains into the MCU.  Is it Tom Holland’s responsibility to fix the messes made by Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Electro (Jamie Foxx)? And were the spoiler-phobic right to avoid all social media before watching?  Find out on another unforgettable Marvel podcast.    

It can be a bumpy ride trying to follow Stephen King works on their journey from page to screen. What happens when the macabre Maine author has a head-on collision with British horror scribe Clive Barker (Hellraiser) in a two story pile-up called Quicksilver Highway?  Can carnival showman Christopher “Doc Brown'' Lloyd make sense of this roadside carnage, as hands willingly sever themselves from their bodies, and a pair of wind-up chattery teeth take a bite out of a hitchhiker?  Listen now as Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob rubberneck at another King adaptation. 

Award-winning acting talent (and Steven Weber) try to wake up the Stephen King retrospective with 8 tales of horror taken from the short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes. What happens when assassin William Hurt (A History of Violence) goes to war with a box full of toys, detective William H Macy (Fargo) meets his maker, author Tom Berenger (Platoon) runs from a phantom in a cursed painting, and snakebitten golfer Richard Thomas (It) is mistaken for dead?  Find out if Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie survive another King TV miniseries when you Listen Now. 

The Umbrella Corporation may have left town (and taken original star Milla Jovovich with them), but there’s still a horde of bloodthirsty zombies ready to welcome audiences back to Raccoon City in the seventh Resident Evil installment. Can estranged siblings Chris and Claire Redfield bring the foster father who poisoned their childhood to justice before he escapes with the infamous T-virus?  And can corporate espionage spy Albert Wesker really hack pharmaceutical secrets with only a Palm Pilot at his disposal?  Find out what’s up with a 90s throwback now.  

Astronaut Matt Damon proves he has the “right stuff” to survive an extended stay on the Red Planet in Ridley Scott’s acclaimed 2015 blockbuster The Martian.  Justin, Jakob, and Stuart continue their look at outer space exploration with an ultra-realistic trip to the nearest colonizable planet. How many scientists does it take to cypher out a solution to getting a marooned botanist back home safe?  And will audiences find the results easier to follow than Interstellar and Arrival?  Link up with the latest Now Playing transmission and find out.

A San Diego couple buy a video camera to document the Paranormal Activity visiting their bedroom late at night, and end up making the most profitable horror movie of all time.  How did raw footage of creaking floorboards and slight door movements scare the bejesus out of audiences steeped in the graphic imagery of torture porn?  And can Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie find any clues revealing the identity of this demon supposedly hiding in the dark? The lights come up on a highly requested series when you Donate for Gold Level this Fall.