Waiting on the mailman to deliver a package to your home can be a tiresome chore. Waiting on the mailman to turn up at his own home so you can put a bullet in him can also be a tiresome chore, especially when the sleepy suburban neighborhood he calls home turns out to be not so sleepy. Take a listen to our hard-boiled tale of a very bored hit man as he kills more than just time while waiting for his target.    Then after the story, Chris and Will answer the question, what’s in the box?!...

Steven Seagal is… Above the Law. Steven Seagal is …Out for Justice. Steven Seagal is… Exit Wounds. Steven Seagal is many things. A Buddhist. A Russian Citizen. The star of countless aikido action movie classics. This episode, we are taking a closer look at three of those movies.  Layered deep in these fascinating films are numerous examples of the noir tropes that we crime fiction and film noir fans know and love. So join us, dear listeners, on a journey through the crime films of Steven...

It’s our post-holiday special! Chris and Will offer up two hard-boiled tales from early in their writing careers… really early. The Deadliest Weapon comes from when Chris was 12-years-old and portrays a family in crisis, battling not just each other, but a terrible illness.  And from the twisted mind of a 9-year-old Will comes a rollicking, action-packed police procedural that breaks all the conventions as it follows our protagonist Detective Benson, a suicidal TV junkie, and his loyal...

Pluto is a good dog, but he’s missing. Dug himself out of the yard like a jailbreak. And Pluto ain’t a teacup Yorkie. He’s a Pit bull who can drag cinder blocks across the yard with his teeth. This ferocious incarnation of man’s best friend had a big fight coming up and now his owner Luke is left without his prized pup. Take a listen as this morally corrupt trainer scours the neighborhood on an odyssey through backyards and cul-de-sacs searching for his best dog. His champion. His Pluto. 

You don’t rob Henshaw’s casino and think he’s going to sit back and take it. He’s ordered The Beefshank, done to perfection. This particular cut of meat is adept at finding people. The thieves who knocked off the safe are about to find that out in spectacular fashion. So have a listen to the exciting conclusion of Will Benson’s crime fiction tale Swimming!  And after the story, we’re chalking up our pool cues and talking about a true classic, The Hustler. A young Paul Newman, well before his...

The casino heist is a go. Has she conned him into it, or is he the final cog needed for an intricate theft they can only pull off in tandem? Find out in part two of our crime fiction tale, Swimming. Then we’re talking about the funniest, and most fun, of the 90’s erotic neo-noir thrillers, The Last Seduction. Linda Fiorentino is a singular force of will, confidence, and sexuality in director John Dahl’s classic portrayal of the most dangerous of femme fatales. Bill Pullman, Peter Berg, and...

A sultry Las Vegas pit boss spies an opportunity at her private game when a handsome high roller dominates the table. Can she tempt him into helping her pull off a lo-fi, high-stakes robbery of the casino? Take a listen to Part 01 of Will Benson’s original crime fiction story Swimming to find out.  And after the story we’re talking about the Coen Brothers’ classic, Fargo. Oh yeah, you betcha! Will and Chris get to the bottom of this Minnesota fable featuring Frances McDormand’s Oscar winning...

Tighten your belts and pull on your suspenders listeners, we're talking “Ace in the Hole”! Kirk Douglas dives face first into his wholly unsympathetic turn as an unscrupulous reporter in director Billy Wilder’s classic, sunbaked noir.  An infamous flop in 1951, time has allowed audiences to realize the brilliance of this critique of American life and the media. Nary an asphalt jungle or shadow laden alleyway are to be found, but this one’s as mean and cynical as film noir movies get. So hop...

Rocky. Rambo. Sheriff Freddy Heflin. If you haven’t seen Sylvester Stallone’s turn as the sheriff of Garrison, NJ, then do yourself a favor and have a listen. Cop Land is the movie where Sly shows off his incredible and subdued acting chops, and it is a pleasure to talk about his character work opposite one of the greatest assembled casts of the 1990’s: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert Patrick, Annabella Sciorra, Cathy Moriarty, Michael Rapaport, Janeane Garofalo, Peter Berg,...

This episode we want our podcast in a thin glass. That’s right, we’re talking about the classic British crime film ‘Get Carter’ starring Michael Caine. Plus, we dive deep into the fantastic book it was based on, the criminally underrated ‘Jack’s Return Home’ by Ted Lewis. And to keep things thorough (and fun!) we touch on the Sylvester Stallone remake from the year 2000 as well as the 70’s blaxploitation remake ‘Hit Man’ starring Bernie Casey and Pam Grier. 

A man awakens from an all-nighter to find himself held captive on a beach, imprisoned in a strange apparatus that spreads him out like da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Who trapped him there, and why? As he struggles to understand, he must fight to free himself before the elements take hold: the scorching sun, angry gulls, the rising tide, and his own ebbing sanity. 

Our next episode is slightly delayed, but fear not, we will be back next week on May 11th with a bonus episode for you. Then in two weeks on May 18th we'll be releasing Episode 21 centered on Get Carter with Michael Caine. We’ll also be talking about the book it was based on by underrated author Ted Lewis as well as the two remakes of the movie, Get Carter with Sylvester Stallone and Hit Man with Bernie Casey and Pam Grier. So tune in next week May 11th for more of The Crime Is Up Podcast....

No one knows how it’s goin down, except for maybe Jackie Brown… and Crime Is Up Podcast! We’re talking about Quentin Tarantino’s 3rd film, which simultaneously gives Pam Grier & Robert Forster their due in one of the most honest love stories of the...

Whose car we gonna take? We’re hopping in with Director Ben Affleck who’s behind the wheel of the best bank robbery movie since Heat!  Episode 19 brings us to The Town with its kinetic action and killer cast starring Rebecca Hall, Blake Lively, Jon...

This episode, we’re on the lam with Humphrey Bogart and Harrison Ford! We’ve got a deep dive into the Bogie led film noir “Dark Passage” and the 90’s classic “The Fugitive”. What made us want to pair these two movies together? Because it could be that...

“Baby, I don’t care.” With that dialogue, Robert Mitchum makes the hard-boiled heart of this film noir classic beat like brass knuckles on a bass drum. This episode we take great pleasure in talking about Mitchum sporting that trenchcoat and fedora,...

What are we prepared to do? Give you a whole episode devoted to The Untouchables, that’s what! We’re doing things the Chicago way and talking all about Sean Connery in his Oscar winning turn as the honest cop helping Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness tackle...

Call it, friendo! This week, we’re unpacking the pure insanity that is Anton Chigurh. Javier Bardem won a well-deserved Oscar for sporting a page boy haircut and portraying a pure psychopath that haunts every frame of this incredible cinematic...

It’s road trip time listeners! We’ve got a deep dive into the grittiest, strangest road trip movie of the 70’s. It’s part violent crime story, part love triangle, part buddy comedy and maybe even part Greek Myth. Featuring a legendary lead performance...

Keyser Soze.  We are accustomed to thinking of him as one of the greatest criminal masterminds in modern movie history.  But did he really manage the greatest trick the devil ever pulled?  Chris and Will have some compelling evidence that might make you...

Rufus may have gotten Alice’s three hundred grand from the P.O. Box, but now he’s got a henchman holding him at gunpoint. Can our hapless hero make it out of this captive situation and get back to his new love without taking any more lead in his belly?...

After being shot, standup comedian Rufus wakes up to discover that he’s been under the care of the very woman who shot him. But who is this mysterious redheaded siren? Why did she shoot him? And can Rufus trust a single word that comes out of her mouth?...

Rufus is a standup comedian who, sadly, isn’t very funny.  But every week he’s up on stage cracking jokes for an indifferent audience and hecklers.  Then she walks in.  A woman so beautiful she stops him cold, mid-act.  And the trouble she brings into...

A group of carpenters uncover something spectacular in the walls of the house they’re renovating: a rare comic book worth millions!  Should be an easy three way split between them.  But their friendship is tested when a workplace “accident” starts to...