I’m sorry to defer with you, but you’ve always been in the rec room. Pour yourself a bourbon and advocaat. It’s time to discuss The Shining! We Hate Movies cohost Eric Szyszka returns to discuss our favourite elevated/elevator horror movie, The Shining. Does the lore around how Kubrick treated Duvall border on disrespectful toward her legacy? What is the actual best Stephen King adaptation? And, in all seriousness, what are the biggest ways in which this movie has influenced the horror genre...

After a summer of legendary audio issues, Bree and friend of the show Frederick Blichert cap off the season with a playful romp through a home viewing favourite (“favourite” might be generous for Bree), Urban Legend. The movie obviously apes Scream every chance it gets, which might make it the ultimate movie through which to explore the context of late 90’s blockbusters. In the fun of figuring out exactly what about this movie doesn’t work – when in fact there’s a bit about it that does work...

Climb into the RV and don’t forget to strap in Milhouse! In our first-ever showdown episode, Ted comes back to discuss two of our favourite Simpsons episodes from our rec room eras – and what they say about our childhoods. Ted’s here to discuss the classic boys’ adventure, Lemon of Troy, and reminisces about playground wars, the cliche of boys never growing up, the perfect depiction of an early summer day where time stretches on forever. Bree brings to the table Summer of 4 ft. 2, to discuss...

Welcome to the Jay Mohr Cinematic Universe, where your favourite comedy legends are apparently in mortal danger. Friend of the show Mikey “The Mouth” Stephens, having been heavily bribed and plied with favours and snacks, comes to discuss the infantile attempt at a mafia spoof, 1998’s Mafia! (also known as Jane Austen’s Mafia!, for some reason). Does this movie kind of work? (Mike says no, Bree says yes). What was the magic of the ZAZ-iverse (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker) that was kinda missing...

Well, after last week’s miserable slog through Family Guy, we’ve come to a nice palate cleanser with… oh, American Beauty? Okay. Well, our old pal Mynt showed up to discuss American Beauty, a movie that was considered such a masterpiece in 1999 that it cleaned up at the Oscars and, less than two decades later became almost universally regarded as a joke, mostly because of the you-know-who of it all, but also because of the argument that it was no longer as edgy, profound or as ground-breaking...

Well, they can’t all be winners. Bree and sitcom retrospective expert José look back at the first three season of adult comedy “bad boi” Family Guy – the adult animation juggernaut accused of being everything from a Simpsons clone to one of America’s “worst TV shows for primetime viewing.” The show gained cult status thanks to the DVD box sets that littered many a rec room (hey, that’s the name of the show!) but… did it actually earn it? No, no, this show was just plain bad, even though...

Miss the Euro Cup yet? That’s okay, because we’re taking a European adventure of our own! Bree welcomes returning guest and We Hate Movies host Andrwe Jupin to discuss the 2004 teen sex comedy, Eurotrip. We follow three-and-a-half nobodies around Europe as we discuss the pervasive early-aughts depictions of teen sex and partying (why do all high school students have easy access to kegs? Why are they into G&Ts?), try to figure out what happened to R-rated teen movies, lament that...

Bree reunites with TFTRR video game expert and digital journalist Ted Raymond to talk about the time Mom and Dad (a.k.a. Nintendo and Square) got divorced, and the honour student they made before that happened: Super Mario RPG. We discuss RPG history and the meteoric, early-90s rise of everyone’s favourite plumber, get really, really nerdy about the vaudevillian nature of Super Mario RPG, share our differing opinions about Gino and give our take on the Switch reissue. Oh, and we sing a lot.

It’s the John C. Reilly appreciation hour as Bree and best friend of the show Liz dive into 2007’s Walk Hard! How did such a silly movie manage to have such an impact – temporarily killing the musical biopic genre and the superspoof genre? Does this movie somehow work as a serious movie? How did this movie managed to get such a stacked cast, and will we ever see another movie like this again? Speaking of things you won’t see anymore: cool rock stars, pot jokes and SNL character movies. Where...

We close out the week with Bree’s all-time fave, 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – and our good friend, Rachel Kellogg, has joined us! Yes, Dunst is a supporting player here, but she might be the most tragic supporting actor of all time. We discuss the timelessness of this movie, whether or not this movie is hopeful about love, how Dunst herself influenced the popular character analysis lexicon, and why Elijah Wood is the perfect Weird Lil Guy. Also, we’ve got a Mark Ruffalo...

Brr, it’s cold in here! Bree and Liz head on down to Rancho Carne to revisit Bring It On. We talk about how this movie permeated schoolyard culture, how it taught all us dorky white people about cultural appropriation, how well this would work as a 21st century Netflix series, and how this movie respects its teen audience. Plus, is there a male equivalent of the Bechdel test? Because this movie does not pass it, and we love it.

We’re off to Minnesota for this episode of Home for the HoliDunst! Kelsey Goldman stops by to discuss this cult classic – why does it appeal to queer people so much? Is there a universe in which the Will Sasso stuff has aged well? What is the magic sparkle dust that makes this movie so amazing and has allowed it to go from a critical and commercial flop to a total cult classic? We discuss it all – and also take some time to nod to the maybe-almost-a-good-movie Sugar and Spice.

Let’s take a trip back to 2004 against the backdrop of a whole lot of bad stuff happening in the world, but a great time at the air-conditioned cinema. Patrick Hamilton stops by to talk Spider-Man 2, one of Dunst’s last significant blockbuster movies. Does Dunst elevate Mary-Jane from being a really hot redhead? Is it hard to write a Spider-Man screenplay? Is this the last time emo will ever make it to a blockbuster OST? We detail the best parts of this movie, the few things that fall flat...

Happy HoliDunst, everyone! Welcome to five days of continuous podcasts about our favourite Kirsten Dunst movies. On the first day, Bree and Mike Stephens take a stroll through the toy aisle and into a simpler time – a time when we were weirdly casual about guns, bomb threats and abject cruelty. Joe Dante’s Small Soldiers was famously panned, but as Bree and Mike look back at this movie, they find that it might be… almost good? There’s some brilliant one-liners, an absolutely charming final...

Happy Halloween! Bree is joined by her old friend Jason Edwards on this special occasion to discuss a spooky, scary… video game? In 2000, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask took players by surprise and alienated a generation of Zelda fans. Or did it? While Majora’s Mask was certainly a departure from the familiar formula due to its altered structure, uncanny valley characters and, of course, its horror elements, the retroactive portrayal of Majora’s Mask as a video game that was unappreciated...

On the season finale of Tales From The Rec Room, Bree is joined by We Hate Movies co-host and film critic Chris Cabin to discuss one of our favourite “dadfernoon” movies, The Dark Knight. Where does this movie fall in the big picture of Nolan’s films? Could he ever take on another superhero movie? Why do dads love this movie so much? Does this movie’s take on surveillance age poorly? Is this movie about good versus order? Also, Eric Roberts!

All aboard the S.S. Hubris! Bree is joined by Chelsea Jupin (chelseajupin.bsky.social) to go to the intersection of Chick Flick Ave. and Disaster Movie Blvd. to re-explore Titanic. We discuss the seemingly endless power of Leonardo DiCaprio, 90s superhunk, being “second VHS” girlies, and how James Cameron is really just girlie in a Titanic phase who was given a blank cheque. Plus, Bree talks about her first movie boobs, while Chelsea reflects on the love of historical dramas sparked by this...

Bree hangs out with friends of the show Frederick Blichert and Mynt Marsellus for a look back at the highly affected, 2007 indie darling Juno. What was the experience like watching this movie as a high schooler versus middle schooler versus young adult? Why did people turn on this movie and the screenplay so much – and was it justified? Is there a possible queer reading of this movie? How does the fall of Roe V. Wade affect the viewing of this movie in 2023?

Bree is joined by self-professed book nerd Maggie Taylor (@maggieolsontaylor) to discuss the coming-of-age book series that shaped us all and then abandoned us, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Is the fifth book a betrayal of the characters? Is Carmen Lowell all of us? Should Eric Richman be in jail forever? Do teenagers even like jeans anymore? And why aren’t there more books about girls just being supportive of their friends? Also, jail for Eric.

Strap in as Bree and Kelsey discuss the okay-est teen movie of 2001 – which might have very well been so okay that it killed the genre all together. We discuss Get Over It, fawn over Kiersten Dunst, ponder what kind of messed up name Berke Landers is and wonder if teen movies are even allowed to be so okay anymore.

Hockey expert Liz stops by the Rec Room with her DVD copy of Miracle. We break down what is generally regarded as one of the best sports movies of all time and discuss why exactly it is regarded as such – and yes, acknowledge the propaganda as well! We break down the Brooksisms, fawn over the f**kboys and ponder: where have all the modern sports movies gone?

Ottawa-based journalist and former Nintendo Power aficionado Ted Raymond joins Bree as they settle into the rec room for a time-travelling adventure with Chrono Trigger! Largely regarded as one of the best RPGs, if not video games, of all time, we discuss how this game influenced our love of video games and storytelling, follow the careers of the Traveling Wilburys of video game production and determine which Final Fantasy game was the undisputed best. "Timeless: A History of Chrono Trigger"

Way way back in the early ‘00s, Mike and Bree discovered a cartoon. Friend of the show and cartoon expert Michael Stephens pops by to discuss the short-lived series Clone High. The series came at a perfect trifecta of sketch comedy, adult animation and teen dramas. And yet, no one watched it. Then some people wanted it back and it came back and was bad. But that doesn’t change the beauty that was Clone High, which might be the best MadTV sketch that never happened. We discuss the animation...

Episode 2 features writer, social media pro, dancer and mom Rachel Kellogg talkin’ Center Stage. We continue riding this late-90s/early-00s wave of teen movies and discuss the highly specific genre of the “elite academy movie,” ponder the difference between this and male-targeted sports movies, dissect the glory days of stunt and dance doubles, make the inevitable Save The Last Dance comparisons, get very alienating as we talk about our dance histories and wonder if this movie is both...