In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit Good Bye Lenin!, a 2003 german comedy movie directed by Wolfgang Becker and starring Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass and Maria Simon, about a son trying to hide the collapse of socialist East Germany from his mother as she is recovering from a heart attack.

We talk about how the historical and political satire lands with people who are not already familiar with German history and culture, how the satire succeeds by not punching down but rather empathising with the people who lived through the events the movie depicts, the expert use of dry irony, and why this movie remains timely and relevant more than 20 years later, and much more. 

Related playlists:

Comedy movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0UbLhXlobg6OWrwfsEQhkf

2000s movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4OKfR0jJ3YbyEwv4SorfOo

This week we review and discuss Shelby Oaks, a supernatural horror movie directed by Chris Stuckmann and starring Camille Sullivan, Sarah Durn and Keith David, about a woman determined to find her sister, who went missing while investigating the mysterious abandoned town of Shelby Oaks.

We talk about whether the movie's mixed found footage and conventional filming style worked for us, why the ending was the strongest part for us that is not supported by the largely unmotivated mystery that dominates the rest of the movie, why this movie gives Youtube critics becoming filmmakers a bad name, how much slack viewers should give first time filmmakers and what can be expected on a story level from people who have studied movies for decades when they make their own movie, and much more.

Check out our other horror movie reviews here:


https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn

This week we review and discuss The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, a thriller movie directed by Michelle Garza Cervera and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Maika Monroe and Raul Castilla, about a family who hires a nanny only to discover she has a sinister motive and is scheming to break up their family.

We talk about how this movie compares to the original and how the changes it makes impact the story, why the nanny's motivation was broken in the adaptation and not really replaced with something that fits the new focus of the story, why Maika Monroe should not play Batman, we discuss numerous plotholes that plague the plot, and why its ending is so puzzling, and much more.

Check out our other thriller movie reviews here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZMvBTTdz3apWAwvvcU6x5

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit Oculus, a 2013 psychological horror movie directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Karen Gillan, Katee Sackhoff and Brenton Thwaites, about a brother and sister who try to prove that a demonic mirror is responsible for the deaths of their parents 11 years earlier.

We talk about how this movie follows in the tradition of The Exorcist in that is examines supernatural horror through a rational lens and is a more compelling story for it, how the movie benefits from making both sides of its conflict competent so that when one side triumphs it feels earned and satisfying, how this movie shows that the Hollywood ending is a crutch and more movies should have tragic endings, and much more.

Related playlists:

Horror movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn
2010's movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4OKfR0jJ3YbyEwv4SorfOo
Halloween season reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58HVIHc2oHh93OrGsDRuuY

This week we review and discuss Black Phone 2, a horror movie directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke and Madeleine McGraw, about Finney and Gwen who investigate the history of the masked serial killer the Grabber, which leads them to discover a sinister past involving more victims of the masked killer.

We talk about why this movie movie is a perfect example of an unnecessary sequel that lacks direction, why Gwen as the main character can't carry this movie and is set up to fail at this task by the script, why none of the expansions of the Grabber's lore managed to get us interested despite the movie itself not being actually bad and several moments being well done by themselves and why that wasn't enough for some of us, and much more.

Check out our other horror movie reviews here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit 30 Days of Night, a 2007 horror movie directed by David Slade and starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George and Danny Huston, about a small town in Alaska that is invaded by a pack of vampires during their annual month without sunshine.

We talk about how this movie went against the grain at the time by depicting its vampires as brutal monsters that act like pack predators, how the setting of a remote Alaskan town informs and enables the survival horror, whether the ending worked for us and when heroic sacrifices work in fiction, what defines vampires in the first place and why their powers and weaknesses are so varied compared to other horror monsters and how that impacts storytelling, and much more.

Related playlists:

Horror movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn
2000's movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4OKfR0jJ3YbyEwv4SorfOo
Halloween season reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58HVIHc2oHh93OrGsDRuuY

This week we review and discuss Tron: Ares, a science fiction action movie directed by Joachim Ronning and starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges, about ENCOM and Dillinger Systems trying to find a piece of code that will allow their AI creations exist in the physical world, and an AI agent who goes rogue against his creator in search of this code.

We talk about why this movie didn't work for us on a character and story level, why the unconvincing protagonists are a particular weakness of the movie, why we were bored by the spectacle that should have been the main attraction, why Tron: Ares is not a movie about AI and what a proper treatment of that topic might look like, and much more.

Check out our other science fiction movie reviews here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5EeVLUSNMTrp1spnkKtiQj

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit Ring (リング, Ringu), a 1988 supernatural horror movie directed by Jideo Nakata and starring Nanako Matsushima and Hiroyuki Sanada, a journalist who investigates a series of deaths linked to a mysterious VHS tape.

We talk about how this movie straddles the line of horror and mystery and why it wasn't like other horror or ghost movies we're used to, the numerous things this movie has in common with The Exorcist, whether the investigation that fills the bulk of the movie is as compelling as it could be or whether it relies a bit too much on convenience and coincidence, how the movie's use of technology and normalcy has aged and what a modern movie that does the same thing would look like, and much more. 

Related playlists:

Horror movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn
90's movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bJzTdH4xq7jwuTgStjAMZ
Halloween season reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58HVIHc2oHh93OrGsDRuuY

This week we review and discuss The Smashing Machine, a biopic sports drama directed by Bernny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Oleksandr Usyk, about the life of UFC fighter Mark Kerr and his struggles with loss, addiction and eventual redemption in the mixed martial arts scene of the late 90s.

We talk about our experiences with the movie despite not caring much about the UFC or about biopics, how the movie is stretched thin between multiple topics it doesn't do a great job reconciling, the documentary that this movie seems to be a shot for shot remake of, whether Mark Kerr's fall into addiction and redemption story worked for us, and much more.

Other drama and movie reviews:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZMvBTTdz3apWAwvvcU6x5

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit The Fly, a 1986 body horror movie created by David Cronenberg and starring Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum, about a scientist who has a disturbing accident while testing a prototype teleporter.

We talk about the movie's body horror and the special effects used in Brundle's transformation, why focusing on it in such detail is what makes the movie work and how Brundle's journey through it holds the movie together and why its ending holds up so well, why the story is improved by the lack of a villain, the movie's restraint in blaming science and focusing on Brundle's personal flaws instead, and much more.

Related playlists:

Horror movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn
80's movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0CS9ed77Yswo40gLvmU5qb
Halloween season reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58HVIHc2oHh93OrGsDRuuY

This week we review and discuss The Strangers - Chapter 2, a slasher horror movie directed by Renny Harlin and starring Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath, about Maya, the survivor of Chapter 1, being stalked by the Strangers to finish the job.

We talk about why this movie didn't work for us as a slasher movie, how it is a series of cliches strung together to full its runtime without any creativity or intention and how easy it would have been to build on the premise of the Strangers to do something more interesting, the nature of suspense in movies and how how the Final Girl trope works in a cast with a single character, why the Strangers remakes are indistinguishable from a practical joke, and much more.

Also check out our reviews of The Strangers Chapter 1:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QhEvLQDJTRvqJSRoaqnxP

And our review of the original The Strangers from 2008:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6euIp0uzbixlgdGLtfUZKW

This week we review and discuss Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle (劇場版「鬼滅の刃」無限城編), a fantasy action movie directed by Haruo Sotozaki and starring Natsuki Hanae, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Akari Kitō, about a group of demon slayers who raid Muzan's Infinity Castle where they face an army of demons as well as their personal ones.

We talk about how we experienced the movie as someone who is new to the Demon Slayer franchise and unfamiliar with anime in the first place and how the movie compared to our expectations, whether the storytelling conventions in Demon Slayer worked for us, whether we agree with the criticism of pacing and overreliance on flashbacks and exposition, when you should conclude that a genre or medium is just not for you and how that compares to other movies like that we've tried previously, and much more.

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit the pilot episode of Supernatural, a 2005 supernatural drama created by Eric Kripke and starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles that ran for 15 seasons, about the Winchester brothers who hunt supernatural beings while searching for their missing father.

We talk why this is one of our favourite series of all time, what defines an episode of Supernatural and why it works so well to the point of having ruined most horror for us, how this is one of the rare series that actually talks about male relationships when few stories do, how the show walks a fine line between subversion and twists to its influences drawing from folklore, occultism, theology and urban legends when constructing its stories and why getting that balance right helped it stay fresh for so long, and much more.

This week we review and discuss The Long Walk, a dystopian survival movie directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson and Mark Hamill, about a group of young men who volunteer for a march to the death whose winner will be rewarded with immense wealth in an alternate United States impoverished by a civil war.

We talk about how the movie made us care about its characters and feel for their suffering, how the movie is a bleak allegory for life itself and how that is reflected in its characters, the rules of the Long Walk itself and the worldbuilding that underpins the story, where the worldbuilding falls short and why it compares unfavourably to the Hunger Games in that area, the movie's depiction of the ugliness of violence, and much more.

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit The Strangers, a 2008 psychological horror movie directed by Bryan Bertino and starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, about a couple whose stay at a vacation home is disrupted by three masked intruders who invade the home one night.

We talk about what works about the movie and what doesn't, why the first half is much stronger and benefits from attention to detail, how the movie compares to the remake from 2024, whether the movie taps into the fears of a home invasion effectively, whether the nihilism of the violence the movie has been praised for worked for us, why the movie was such a big hit when it came out and if it deserves its status as a cult classic and whether the criticisms of its characters are justified, and much more.

This week we review and discuss The Conjuring: Last Rites, a supernatural horror movie directed by Michael Chaves and starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Mia Tomlinson, about the Smurl haunting case in which Ed and Lorraine Warren come out of retirement to investigate a haunting in Pennsylvania in the 1980s.

We talk about how the movie's style of horror worked for someone new to the franchise, why this movie struggled on a character and plot level for us, the clash between the two halves of the movie that deal with the haunting itself and the legacy of the Warrens and how the movie struggles to link the two as well as make either half of the story compelling, how we felt about the movie's celebration of Ed and Lorraine Warren and whether this was earned, and much more.

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit The Conjuring, a 2013 supernatural horror movie directed by James Wan and starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Ron Livingston, about a family who moves into a haunted farm and needs the help of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren in Rhode Island in 1971.

We talk about our reaction to The Conjuring as a first time viewer and whether the movie's style of horror worked for us, how it compares to the more character focused horror we tend to prefer and why the Warrens are not very compelling people in this movie, how this movie handles the real world hauntings and people it is based on, whether it matters when a movie claims to be based on a real story, if there is an ethical line that a movie can cross and whether there is a point at which a movie is just lying to its audience, and much more.

This week we review and discuss Caught Stealing, a dark comedy crime thriller movie directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler, Regina King and Zoe Kravitz, about washed up baseball player Hank Thompson in 1990s New York who who unwittingly runs afoul of New York City's criminal underbelly while pet sitting for his neighbor.

We discuss how we went into the movie with no expectations at all but were blown away by its quality, how the movie is a big puzzle in which each piece is deliberate, how the movie realises its themes of responsibility and facing your fears, why the main character's arc is one of the best we've seen all year and why this movie shows that taking screenwriting basics seriously and getting them right leads to a better movie, and much more.

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit Cloverfield, a 2008 found footage kaiju movie directed by Matt Reeves and starring Lizza Caplan, T.J. Miller and Mike Vogel, about a group of Manhattan friends who have to survive a monster attack and rescue a trapped friend.

We talk about how some movies just stick with your if you watch them at the right time, how Cloverfield provides several creative set pieces that hold the movie together which is something many modern movies are unable to do, how the movie uses its found footage conceit and handles its exposition better than most movies, the 9/11 influences on this movie and how it is the only American kaiju movie that is about something, and much more.

This week we review and discuss Freakier Friday, a fantasy comedy movie directed by Nisha Ganatra and starring Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Manny Jacinto, about a family that magically switches bodies and has to learn lessons about each other in order to break the curse and return to their original bodies.

We discuss how the movie stacks up to the 2003 movie, whether it is too similar to it or builds on the premise enough, why the choice to turn the movie into an outright comedy hurt the movie, whether we felt anything for the characters and their problems and whether the movie gave us enough reason to, how it compares to other legacy sequels we have been getting this year which have a very mixed track record, and much more.