[School of Movies 2017] We finally his the 90s third renaissance for Disney, and this kicks off a series of two hours plus shows of super detail and perspective on this era. Disney was under new management and after a string of mediocre successes and big failures now aimed to pull themselves out of the doldrums they had settled into following Walt's death. This entailed a storm of creativity with artists being ridden ruthlessly by cold-hearted businessmen. By all rights it shouldn't have...

[School of Movies 2016] We're back on the Disney shows with Daniel Floyd, this time on the cusp of the 90s renaissance. This episode delves lightly into two of the last examples of their Dog/Cat/Mouse fetishism that defined the post-Walt wilderness years. The Great Mouse Detective, originally named Basil of Baker Street (from the novel) is Sherlock Holmes with rodents. Oliver is the Twisty Dickens tale with a cat and a bunch of dogs in a painfully late 80s New York, presided over by...

[School of Movies 2016] Another commissioned show, this one is a heist movie with a stellar cast that we had literally never seen before. It's also rare as unicorn horn in that it's a movie about hacking and tech that DOESN'T make you say "That's not how computers work!" Requiring some veteran perspective we recruited Alasdair Stuart and Marguerite Kenner. The two of them took us through the myriad details of this now-forgotten treasure. Guests: Alasdair Stuart of Escape...

[School of Movies 2016] With all those fantastic beasts rampaging around New York city right now we went back to a movie that turned that concept into big business. Naturally we read way, WAY too much into the story and turn both this film and its little-seen sequel Zathura into deep, psychological learning experiences for the protagonists. This is another commissioned show. Guests: Brendan Agnew of Cinapse

[School of Movies 2016] In 1993 Steven Spielberg directed the movie Jurassic Park, adapted from the book by Michael Crichton. It was a wildly successful family blockbuster. Immediately all studios began a mad dash to replicate that formula. Paramount believed they had cracked it with this film in 1995, written by Crichton in 1980, featuring a cast of genuinely talented actors and seemingly going for an Indiana Jones-discovers-King-Solomon's-Mines-with-rabid apes vibe. However, the...

[School of Movies 2016] On this sad, grim, dark week... here's a stupid movie about cartoon dinosaurs that get smart eating magic cereal! Obviously we'll get political and angry later on, but right now I think what everyone needs most of all is to laugh together, so here you go. This animated movie was released on Thanksgiving 1993, produced by Steven Spielberg, surfing the dinosaur craze of his own Jurassic Park, but actually put into production several years before and mismanaged the...

[School of Movies 2016] This is our show about the initial three Purge movies (I can assure you of more to come).  The premise is pretty simple. In an alternate timeline America has ruled that on one night of the year every crime (including murder) is legal. Over time this has done wonders for their economy and is celebrated by the overtly patriotic, the rich and the insanely bloodthirsty, but proves an annually terrifying span of hours for the poor, the homeless and the vulnerable. This...

[School of Movies 2016] This is a deep dive into the 1978 classic, that became the model for the slasher sub-genre. It's also a scorching critique of the kind of BAD slasher that came about afterwards when lesser directors than John Carpenter misinterpreted what made this film so effective, such as 1981s Halloween II. It's also a damning of the repulsive 2007 remake by Rob Zombie, a tonally confused mess of the most horrible things imaginable stirred into an inhuman slop.  And we finish...

[School of Movies 2016]   The Spooktacular continues as we look at three different ways of telling effectively the same story.  1999. The Blair Witch Project: An incredibly low budget found footage movie that took the world by storm. 2000. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2: A cash-grab meta-movie slapped together by a confused studio hoping to capitalise on unexpected success.   2016. Blair Witch: An in-world sequel to the original released to immense derision to an audience sick...

[School of Movies 2016] This is the 1975 adaptation of the stage musical written by and co-starring Richard O'Brien. In it, a straight-laced, white-bread American couple end up stuck in a Gothic castle full of strange people, presided over by the outrageous Doctor Frank N. Furter. It's a hilarious, toe-tapping musical which has developed a cult following over the years and means a great deal to a lot of people. It's also a bit of a mess and reviewed terribly when it first came out and...

[School of Movies 2016]   This is one of the films of the year. A Japanese fable delivered in stunning stop-motion by American studio LAIKA, the team behind Coraline, ParaNorman and Boxtrolls.  Every single one of you needs to see it.    Joining us are animation experts Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse and Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst. Among other things we discuss the climate for animated films and what it takes to make a hit, which this, tragically, despite its beautiful...

[School of Movies 2016] The second of our commissioned shows, this time we delve into John Carpenter's underappreciated (and downright ignored on release) mythical, gangland, kung-fu adventure Big Trouble in Little China.  Kurt Russel (clearly having the time of his life) stars as the obnoxiously macho Jack Burton, self-styled cowboy hero who gets caught up in a kidnapping involving an ancient sorcerer, warring gangs and elemental magic he couldn't possibly understand. We explore the...

[School of Movies 2016] This is an unexpected episode covering an absolutely b*****t mental experimental film from 1974 directed by John Boorman. It's set in a dystopian future with the standard class divides and extreme violence, but with so many ridiculous decisions in design and direction delivered in an extremely po-faced, allegedly satirical fashion. Sean Connery is a mean enforcer who was supposed to spend his life running down unruly farmers and molesting the womenfolk, but he...

[School of Movies 2016] We continue our Shyamalan season with his follow-up to The Sixth Sense, a story about a security guard who realises he's been Super his whole life. Since this came about in 2000 it was ahead of the age of the superhero and arguably made some in-roads to legitimising the new wave of comic book to screen adaptations.  Samuel L. Jackson joins Bruce Willis to deliver an everyday hero and a delicate man looking for their places in the world. This was the first...

[School of Movies 2016] This is the first of two episodes covering the brief period of time when M. Night Shyamalan was suddenly an amazing new director.  Sharon and I go deep into this wonderful, delicate, tense, terrifying, heartbreaking ghost story.

[School of Movies 2016] DC continue their epic campaign of not being able to pull together a cinematic universe that many people enjoy being in. There has been much said of Suicide Squad already and backlash across the board. If critics are critical they get it in the neck from one crowd, if they praise it they get it in the neck from the other crowd, if they vocalise their view that it's a mixed bag they get a heady cocktail of flak from BOTH crowds. So here's a mixed bag for you. ...

[School of Movies 2016] We are back to talk about the latest Trek movie, one which is being hailed as the best for many years by some and "Still not good enough" by others. We start off with the question "Why do people hate J.J. Abrams?" because I think it's worth discussing before we get into the first of the alternate universe movies not directed by him. After that we look at many aspects of this confidently delivered classic spacefaring adventure, rounding off by ranking the thirteen...

[School of Movies 2016] This second foray into New Star Trek is hard to get a balanced view on. Those who liked the 2009 reboot found a movie of similar energy and vibrancy but with more flaws, those who hated the new continuity had more of the same to rage about, especially as it turned out to be a not-so-secret remake of Wrath of Khan. Into Darkness reviewed well with an 86% freshness rating but when people talk about it, usually it's in a negative context.  Alex starts off with a...

[School of Movies 2016]   This show covers the 1982 classic and probably most widely loved of the original six Star Trek movies (maybe the first ten... maybe the first thirteen!)  With Leonard Nimoy no longer with us, composer James Horner no longer with us, not to mention DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Ricardo Montablan and who knows who else will follow as 2016 continues its scything away of our heroes, this is a bittersweet experience to watch now. Guests: Kaoru Negisa...

[School of Movies 2016] To get a really good meta conversation going wherein we still managed to focus on the movie for what it was rather than what we wanted it to be we recruited Bob "Moviebob" Chipman. Maybe the most anticipated follow-up since Star Wars and maybe the least wanted reboot, New Ghostbusters had some enormous boots to fill and an immense amount of people to prove itself to. Considering one of the possibilities mooted since 1989 and the deflating balloon that was...

[School of Movies 2016] John Carpenter's remake of The Thing from Another World, based on the novel Who Goes There was woefully unappreciated on initial release, for reasons we will go into on this show. It has, over the next three decades become a sci-fi pop-culture classic, unblemished by greedy meddling studios desperate to wring every penny from nostalgia. Even the remake/prequel, while slavishly loyal to the aesthetic and tone of this one and not endeavouring to actually be *about*...

[School of Movies 2016] In this episode we talk about the first film from 1996, the sequel from 2016 and the state of Britain post-Brexit.  It's thematically resonant with current events since the angle of the first movie is "We can succeed together" and the angle of the second seems to be "Look at these pretty, young people as they save the day for America."  Be sure to check out Bob Chipman's YouTube episode of Really That Good on the first Independence Day, it is superb. 

[School of Movies 2016] This time around Sharon and I take a look at a movie nobody asked for a review of and that most people are either unaware of or just plain dislike. The 1987 attempt to bring He-Man to the big screen. Eschewing a land of swords and sorcery blended with crazy technology in favour of running around American suburbs at night dressed like utter plonkers this film was presented with the task of making space barbarian He-Man real and relevant to teenagers in the 80s. It...

[School of Movies 2016] This is a troubling film for us. My overriding feeling on leaving the theater was not just being pissed off and disappointed, but angry at many of the decisions taken that will leave general audiences cold to this, and unless it does gangbusters overseas will greatly reduce the chances of a sequel that could correct these oversights. But then again, the Transformers movies are increasingly more vile and poorly received, yet clean up worldwide and continuously break...

[School of Movies 2016] This show covers both the 2014 reboot of the Turtles (recorded a year ago and stored in our vault for this very week) AND the 2016 sequel, Out of the Shadows.  It's Sharon and I going back to a series that has had patches of good, flashes of great but never produced a truly brilliant film. It's also been plagued by some horrible decisions on the parts of the creators, hair-brained, patronizing, head-slappingly dismal attempts to cash in again on the four green...