Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

By 1984 Kubrick's 2001 was considered a film classic and the forefather of the modern science fiction film. But while Arthur C. Clarke continued the Odyssey on the page it wasn't until 1984 that moviegoers got to find out what happened to Dave Bowman, the star child, and the mysterious monolith. With Kubrick uninterested in making another space film, could any other director fill those shoes, and were they foolish to try? Make contact with Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie on this podcast to find out!

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey changed film forever. Its effects created a visual language that would later be built on in George Lucas' Star Wars, Ridley Scott's Alien, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and countless other movies. Yet upon its release it was widely panned, and to this day the film has divided audiences. Some call it a bona fide cinema classic, others call it incomprehensible. Which side is right? Maybe both? Now join Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob on this podcast odyssey and find out!

Marvel's Avengers film upped audience expectations by bringing four solo cinematic superheroes together for one explosive adventure. Now Fox tries to go one better by bringing two entire superteams together! The catch: they're both the X-Men. In X-Men: Days of Future Past the original X-Men and the First Class cast share the screen with a dozen new mutants to try and save their species from annihilation at the hands of giant robot sentinels. Does this giant cast lead to X-treme confusion or, in the hands of returning director Bryan Singer is this X-ceptional entertainment? Listen to Now Playing's review to find out!

The King of the Monsters was King of the Box Office last weekend. This hotly anticipated reboot of the sixty-year-old monster movie grossed nearly $200 million worldwide, proving audiences still yearn to see skyscrapers felled by the giant lizard with the atomic breath. Now, because you, the Now Playing listeners, demanded it, Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie review the new 2014 version of Godzilla. Will the green lizard get green arrows from the hosts? Listen to find out!

​Stephen King sued to get his name removed from New Line Cinema's film The Lawnmower Man. Then stars Jeff Fahey and Pierce Brosnan moved on to other projects as well. Even director Brett Leonard had other films to make. So why did New Line insist on making a follow-up to the cyber-sexy horror film? And could there be more on-the-nose casting than Matt Frewer, TV's Max Headroom, to play virtual reality computer god Jobe Smith? Jack in, and listen to Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart's review to find out!

​There have been a lot of bad Stephen King films, and a lot of films based on the author's works that are virtually unrecognisable from their source material. But of all the films bearing Stephen King's name on the poster only one drew the horror writer's ire to the point of filing a lawsuit to expunge any connection between him and the movie, and that film is The Lawnmower Man. A tale of a mentally challenged landscaper who, through use of virtual reality, becomes a digital god, The Lawnmower Man combined live action and computer generated images to give the audience something they couldn't see on their home PC. Is this a film worth booting up, or should the Now Playing hosts have followed the author's example and disavowed this film from their Stephen King Retrospective Series? Listen to cyber-gods Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart to find out!

Rhino. Electro. Green Goblin. In 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man the web head had a hard time defeating one bad guy, but now he is up against three. With The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Mark Webb has an even harder challenge than rebooting the film series--he has to up the stakes while setting the stage for Sony to launch an entire Spider-Man cinematic universe of films. With all the movie moguls planning annual films and three bad guys on screen, can Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker still get a story of his own? And after a polarizing first film, does The Amazing Spider-Man 2 show a hero on an upswing, or a downward fall? Listen to Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart's review to find out!

​At a secret military base in Antarctica an evil force has arrived. Now the survivors of Ice Station Erebus don't know who's human, who's a demon, and who's come back for more...from the dead! Is this the best adaptation of King's original "Sometimes They Come Back" short story or should it be left buried in the ice? Listen to Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie's review to find out!

​You can't keep a good greaser down! In the 1950s Tony Reno and his gang died while trying to perform a human sacrifice, but now they're back from the dead to complete their quest for immortality. But...if they're back from the grave aren't they already immortal? And what is two time Oscar winner Hillary Swank doing here? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob, the hosts who ALWAYS come back, to find out!

​Sometimes the dead stay buried. Sometimes they come back. Based on the Stephen King short story from his Night Shift collection, this CBS TV movie introduces us to Jim Norman, a teacher with a troubled history starting a new job at a new school. Jim's few good students start to die and their seats in class are taken by the greasers who killed Jim's brother almost 30 years before. Is Jim losing his mind or are these pesky poltergeists back from the grave? And is this a Stephen King adaptation worth watching? Listen to Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie, the hosts who always come back, to find out!

The First Avenger is back in the latest film from the unstoppable Marvel Cinematic Universe. With a mysterious new assassin out to kill Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. turning on him, it's up to the Star Spangled man along with his friends Black Widow and new hero The Falcon to save the day. Is this a good installment in Marvel's Avengers series or just a stalling tactic until we get The Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review to find out!   {Marvel Series} {Avengers Series} {Comic Book Movies Series} {Captain America Series}

​You can't keep a good laundry machine down! We may not have Robert Englund or Ted Levine but the titular, demonically possessed, homicidal clothes press is back for blood in The Mangler Reborn. When two thieves break into a house to rob the owner what they find inside is carnage and chaos. Does this film have any resemblance whatsoever to King's original crisply-folded vision? Listen to Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart's review where it all comes out in the wash!

The first rule of Fight Club is the one that's most broken. Especially in 1999 when this film was new, fans had to share their thoughts and feelings about this anti-consumer culture, revolutionary, subversive, and thought-provoking story. Director David Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls took the story from Chuck Palahniuk's novel and, with stars Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, captured the spirit of a decade. Now, as thanks to everyone who supported Marjorie's participation in the American Lung Association "Fight for Air Climb" the hosts of Now Playing once again break Fight Club's cardinal, redundant rule and break this film down in depth. Step in the ring with Arnie, Stuart, and Marjorie now to listen!

In the last film The Mangler was a killer laundry press. But that film was made in the 20th Century so now, with The Mangler 2, we get a Mangler for a new generation: a killer computer virus downloaded into the security system at a prestigious prep school. Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review to see if this diabolical digital demon is worth watching! And we promise, the Mangler virus is not embedded in the podcast MP3.

Workers keep dying at the Blue Ribbon Laundry Service, chewed up by The Mangler--a giant industrial laundry press. Is the machine broken, or is it possessed by a demon? Directed by Tobe Hooper and starring Robert Englund and Ted Levine, the film has horror icons on screen and behind the scenes. Can their combined talent make the Mangler loads of fun, or have King's Night Shift adaptations pressed their luck too far? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review to find out!

It’s hard to decide what's worst about working at the Bachman Textile Plant. It could be the lack of air conditioning. It could be the boss who coerces female employees for sex. Actually the worst thing about the mill is probably the giant rat-bat creature that lives in the basement and feeds on the workers. Such is the plot of Graveyard Shift, the 1990 film based on Stephen King's 1970 short story. Can a mischief of rats, a giant puppet beast, and Brad Dourif scare Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart to death? Listen to find out!

What do a man trying to quit smoking, a man running away with his lover, and a troll have in common? They're all stories told in Cat's Eye, the 1985 anthology film starring Drew Barrymore. The film has adaptations of two stories from Stephen King's Night Shift collection, and a third newly written for the screen. Are the original tales scarier than the new one? Are these stories even intended to frighten the audience? Listen to Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie's review to find out! Arnie is also reviewing all the original King Night Shift short stories at the Books & Nachos podcast! Head there now to hear reviews of the short stories "Quitters Inc." and "The Ledge" which were adapted in Cat's Eye!

Stephen King has over 50 feature films based on his writings. But beyond the feature films are hundreds of student-made short films based on King's short stories, completely authorized by the author. In an attempt to help student filmmakers King sells non-exclusive rights for one dollar; he calls these films his "Dollar Babies." As part of the contract these films can not be distributed or sold; however, in the 1980s three Dollar Babies were renegotiated and saw professional release. On a direct-to-VHS series called The Night Shift Collection student adaptations of King's short stories "Children of the Corn" (title changed to Disciples of the Crow for film), "The Boogeyman", and "The Woman in the Room" were distributed--the last title directed by Frank Darabont, who would go on to direct professional King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist! So join Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart as they go back to school and review The Night Shift Collection!

Robocop is back! After two theatrical sequels that quickly declined in quality, a syndicated TV series, and a series of TV movies, the cyborg cop is back in theaters with a totally new take on the tale of Alex Murphy. Gone is Verhoeven's ultra-violence and satrical take on 80's business, and instead Robocop is now a state of the art tactical killing machine, dressed in black. Does this new angle on the robot cop work, or should Murphy have stayed dead? Listen to Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart's review to find out!

It's been a long road but we have reached the climax of the Robocop: Prime Directives series. Kaydick and Robocable have infiltrated OCP, planning to use their SAINT computer system to spread the human and machine killing Legion virus throughout Delta City. Only Robocop, his son James, and Kaydick's former lover Anne can stop him. After three cheaply made films, is there anything in this final movie to redeem the series, or does it Crash and Burn? Listen to find out!