Ben and Kevin are back with another episode of The Searchers podcast, and they're returning to the Jackie Chan well and finally covering a Jackie Chan movie. If you've been following the pod, you know these two love Jackie and his movies, especially the ones from the 80s. Wheels on Meals (1984) happens to be one of their favorites, so prepare yourself for a kick-ass episode on everything Jackie, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. The Searchers settle which dub of the movie you should be watching...

Chris, Kevin, and Ben review White Tie and Tails (1946), a sleeper from Golden Age Hollywood starring Dan Duryea, Ella Raines, and William Bendix. Politely make like high society and enjoy those finer things in life... suit up and get back to listening to The Searchers! Find a copy on YouTube, HERE. Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. We'll read it on air. Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com...

The Searchers review the 2001 action-comedy 3000 Miles to Graceland, starring Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and Courtney Cox, which has been greatly maligned over the years. We're here to give it a second chance! Or are we? Listen and find out on episode 54! Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. We'll read it on air. Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently...

The Searchers are back with another episode and this week it's Kevin's pick so he chose  John Carpenter's Elvis (1979), which happens to be the pod's second trip into the director's more obscure works. Tune in as we discuss The King, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell's career, and more. Thank ya, thank ya very much. Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. We'll read it on air. Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Follow us on...

Chris and Ben are back with a review of Howard Hughes' Jet Pilot from 1957 starring John Wayne and Janet Leigh. Chris came close to watching this with a group he's part of on Letterboxd called The Collab during their selection of infamously bad productions, which included Arruza (1972), Lowlands (1954), Why is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow? (1994). The Searchers talk about (briefly) early Cold War movies, Howard Hughes and his relationship with cinema, and how Jet Pilot is an extremely...

Even though it's early spring time, The Searchers are watching and reviewing Late Spring (1949) this week, from iconic Japanese director Yosujiro Ozu. Friend and analytical-film mentor to Chris, Daniel Kieckhefer joins the podcast on Episode 51 to discuss Ozu's meditative and subtle nature and why he may or may not appeal to people who watch his films. Comparisons to other Japanese cinema, Alfred Hitchcock, and earlier Ozu works are abound. Check out Daniel's own website The Cinematograph...

For their 50th episode The Searchers return to the genre that inspired the podcast's title and connected the three of them in the first place, The Western, with a review of the The Tall T (1957). Topics discussed during the review include The Ranown Cycle, Randolph Scott's career in the 1950s, A vs B westerns, Anthony Mann/James Stewart collaborations, and more. Cheers to another 50 episodes. Thanks for listening! As of March 2024, find The Tall T on Tubi for free! Tune into the next episode...

This week The Searchers are back covering a classic Korean film. No, not from that Hollywood-glamorized (and overrated) director, Bong Joon-ho! Nothing from directors Park Chan-wook nor Na Hong-jin. Chris, Ben, and Kevin are joined by guest and mailbag-frequenter Odie Arbuckle to explore the dare-we-say classic Korean action film The Terrorist from 1995. Why does no one talk about 1990s Korean cinema? Listen and find out! Watch the film, HERE, on YouTube (1080p), if you'd like to be in the...

Chris and Ben are joined by regular guest Nick Langdon to discuss Sidney Lumet's PRINCE OF THE CITY from 1981. Not our first Lumet outing, and not our first time talking Treat Williams. This episode was a long time coming, and we're happy to have Nick back as always. PRINCE OF THE CITY TRAILER Stay tuned for the next episode, which will feature a special guest whose never been on the show but whose name has been mentioned before! Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]....

Two Hong Kong films in a row (kind of)! Hey, y'all, The Searchers Podcast is back with another one... This week we review Patrick Tam's LOVE MASSACRE (1981). In addition to reviewing the film, the three of us discuss Tam in terms of his mentorship of Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong and other "New Wave" film movements, colors in film, and more. Tune in! To follow along, find the film on YouTube, HERE, as it's most likely the only cut available for audiences as of 2024. Thank you very much to the...

This week's episode is continuing down the tracks on the Hong Kong cinema train, in a roundabout sort of way. Ben is joined by guest John Grace from the Midnight Movie Cowboys Podcast, who graciously provides his knowledge of Bud Spencer and Hong Kong Cinema for the Italian crime-action-comedy movie, Flatfoot in Hong Kong (aka Flatfoot Goes East) from 1975 that was largely set in Asia. This film is the second in a series of movies Bud Spencer made in the 1970s based around Police Officer...

Attention everyone, this is your Trailer Park supervisor speaking. Julian's Christmas contest scheme is no more! You will all have to give all your presents back to me so I can turn them into the authorities. If not, Barb has informed me that I won't be able to get drunk on Christmas Day. And there's no way that's going to happen!  

Merry Christmas from the Searchers! This week, we return to the trading post format and trade 3 Christmas films. Below are the films and the timestamps in case anyone wants to avoid spoilers. Chris reviews Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - 00:00:00 Ben reviews Something from Tiffany's (2022) - 00:21:00 Kevin reviews White Christmas (1954) - 00:39:08 See you next year! (Hint: there may be a special episode before New Years for some greasy listeners!) Submit your mailbags to us at...

This week on The Searchers, Kevin, Ben and Chris discuss the latest film from legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, How Do You Live? Unfortunately it was re-titled by GKids to "The Boy and the Heron," which the three of us agree was a dumb move by the distributor. We meditate over why Miyazaki chose this as his potential last film, and why it was something that pulled him from retirement. Historical trends, modern Japanese culture, personal reflection, the gorgeous animation, and the comparison...

It's time to feel the impact with this review of Jean-Claude Van Damme's Double Impact. Ben introduces both Kevin and Chris to one of his favorite JCVD films from his 80s and 90s stardom. We get into the nitty gritty on the production, select scenes from the movie, the music, and everything Hong Kong. Enjoy the Muscles from Brussels? Well then this one is dedicated to you. How could two Van Dammes be wrong? Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. Thanks! Please rate us a...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!! We all have many things to be thankful for, but for today's episode The Searchers are extra thankful for director John Frankenheimer... well, because he lets us rant about movies for 90 minutes. Listen to guests Nick Langdon and Max join Chris in explaining to Ben their recent project in which they delved into the filmography of the prolific director. Movies discussed include: Grand Prix, Ronin, Black Sunday, The Train, The Challenge, The Gypsy Moths, The...

NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS… spooky season is now over… we’ve now sailed off in our rusty bucket in search of a new destination on which to drop anchor. This time (EPISODE 40!) returning to a breezy and sweet picture by the great John Ford, aka 1955's Mister Roberts starring Hank Fonda. Ford wasn't the only director due to production problems; however, he ended up crafting his Pacific-set perfection with Donovan's Reef a few years later, which we covered long ago on episode 14. Hold fast......

Happy Halloween week, y'all! To culminate our first Horror-Adjacent October, Ben, Chris & Kevin review Dead Heat (1988) starring Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo. The movie follows Roger Mortis, a police detective who is paired up with a new partner named Doug Bigelow. The two end up investigating a series of strange murders committed by criminals who seem to come back from the dead. As they dig deeper into the mystery, they learn of an evil scientist named Arthur P. Loudermilk (Vincent...

Our second episode for 2023 Halloween covers Sonny Chiba in Wolf Guy (1975), and it's Kevin's first Sonny Chiba movie!! Woah! We read two mailbags at the beginning of the episode which gets us into some western TV talk. Afterwards we get to the meat of the discussion with our thoughts on the Toei cult classic, a description given to Wolf Guy by Arrow Video. Topic timestamps for those who use Podbean are available. Thanks for listening. Submit your mailbags to us at...

The gang is all back to talk about our first "horror adjacent" film of the 2023 Halloween season. This week it's John Carpenter's Vampires. Submit your mailbags to us at [email protected]. Thank you!! Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Reviews really do help! Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently watched and to read our individual movie reviews! Ben, Chris, & Kevin Our episode catalogue:...

Ben and Chris talk about two episodes they watched from Sherlock Hound, an anime from the 1984-1985 season inspired by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character. The two episodes are "Little Martha's Big Mystery!?" (小さなマーサの大事件！？) and "The Air Battle Over Dover!" (ドーバー海峡の大空中戦！), both directed by none other than Hayao Miyazaki. Yes, we've touched on him before in a Cinema Crusades episode, but now Miya-san is the center of our attention. We kept this one short, you're welcome! In October, we are...

Christopher and Benjamin return to the well of westerns with their review of Rawhide directed by Henry Hathaway, who most fans of the genre will know as the director of True Grit (1969) among other notable collaborations with John Wayne. Hathaway also dabbled in film noir in the 1940s, so it's no surprise this B&W western was influenced by that directorial style. Rawhide includes maybe the best role of regular western heavy Jack Elam, and a stunning performance from tough and beautiful...

Summer break is over, and kids are going back to school. On this week's episode of The Searchers, we review Painted Faces which is about children going to a very different and difficult school in Hong Kong during the 1960s to train for Peking Opera. Those children included Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. After covering Jackie Chan on episode 2 of the podcast, we're excited to finally be making our way back to Hong Kong cinema with this one. The first couple minutes is an interview...

It's already that time again.. another The Searchers episode out now! This time, Kevin and Ben discuss how Tom Cruise is trying to carry action cinema, heck, cinema in general, on his back alone in his Mission: Impossible series. Did Cruise & team succeed this time around with its 7th installment? Listen and find out. There will be a couple weeks until the next episode is released, so enjoy this and the recently released Roadgames (1981) review with guest Nick Langdon. Be seein' you...