Podcasters Alex Mattis and Julio Olivera battle popular opinion by praising the movies you hate and trashing the movies you love.
You heard us pretend to be unimpressed by PAN’S LABYRINTH, but how do we really feel about Guillermo Del Toro’s first Oscars darling? Listen to Alex & Julio discuss the film’s ambiguous ending, whether Captain Vidal was just too much, and why we were somehow spared an American remake.
Read MoreWhen it comes to Guillermo Del Toro’s career, it’s peaks and valleys. And there’s no higher peak than his over the top “adult fairy tale” PAN’S LABYRINTH. Listen to Alex & Julio as they poke holes all throughout the movie’s flimsy plot, from Captain Vidal’s inconsistent street-smarts to the ludicrous waste of the most powerful piece of chalk in the universe. You can thank patron Chas Fisher for this one!
Read MoreOur fifteenth Gray Area Episode also happens to be our 150th episode - which is kind of a big deal. So we needed to tackle an appropriately epic movie for the latest Contrarians battle. Doesn’t get any more epic than CAN’T HARDLY WAIT, a bonafide Ethan Embry vehicle, and you know how we feel about Ethan Embry on this show. Alex will be attacking, Julio will be defending, and they’ll both discuss what’s really going on in this classic teen comedy! Did America peak in 1998?
Read MoreThe Muppathon has reached its international finale! MUPPETS MOST WANTED may be fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but there’s a reason there hasn’t been a Muppet movie in the seven years since it landed in theaters, isn’t there? Listen to Alex & Julio as they wonder what hurt the final Muppet film the most: Ricky Gervais’ reputation or the lack of Jason Segel’s star power? Also, can anyone untangle the contradictory mess that is Muppets Continuity? And why does the franchise suddenly hate Rizzo?
Read MoreThere’s no middle ground with movies about Irish people, it’d seem. You either get mushy sentimental claptrap like Sing Street, or the filthiest, most offensive depiction of Irishmen you can think of, like THE GUARD. Listen to Alex & Julio as they discuss the horrors found in Martin McDonagh’s feature film debut: Racism! Debauchery! Generic uses of Mark Strong and Ser Davos Seaworth! And cheap attempts at making Brendan Gleeson sympathetic by giving him an ailing mother!
Read MoreLet’s be real: the noir genre has been dead for decades. One of the main reasons why is that audiences refuse to embrace any imaginative reinventions of the old hard-boiled detective stories - regardless of their quality. Such was the fate of Brian Henson’s wonderfully subversive THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS, which committed the deadly sin of having puppets be sexual and deeply flawed in puritan America. Listen to Alex & Julio as they try to rescue Henson’s misunderstood masterpiece from obscurity in the latest installment of The Muppathon!
Read MoreThe Muppathon continues as Kermit and his friends… graduate college??? Come on, now. How much can we let Jim Henson get away with just because it was The 80s? Listen to Alex & Julio as they discuss THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN - also known as “that 90-minute commercial for the Muppet Babies TV show”. Manipulative Broadway tunes! Outdated celebrity cameos! A disappointing embrace of marriage as an institution! It’s everything a Muppet fan inexplicably wants!
Read MoreWe’re wrapping up the year the same way we started it: with an overblown, overrated James Cameron mega-blockbuster - courtesy of Patron Jamie Russell. Listen to Alex & Julio give AVATAR the Contrarians Treatment and welcome Charismatic Enigma Sam Worthington back on the show! Also: what did Giovanni Ribisi do to get stuck with all that exposition? Could you tell Sigourney Weaver wanted to drop an F-bomb in every scene? And why does Jimmy-C get a pass when it comes to rewriting history? All this, and more… IN 3D!!!!
Read MoreThe second stop in the Muppathon is the Muppet movie with the worst Tomatometer score: THE MUPPETS’ WIZARD OF OZ! But why were critics so hard on this reimagining of the classic story? Were they not able to appreciate the brilliance of Quentin Tarantino’s cameo? Was it too much for them to see Gonzo acknowledge his nipples? Did Ashanti make them realize how unhip they were? Listen to Alex & Julio as they defend this unfairly maligned trip down the yellow brick road!
Read MoreThe Muppathon begins with the only appropriate start: the 1979 film that fooled critics into believing TV puppets deserved to be movie stars. And even if you haven’t seen THE MUPPET MOVIE, you’d be able to guess what happens in it because the franchise has been playing variations on this gimmicky type of road trip for decades. Listen to Alex & Julio as they try to figure out which outdated cameo is the most obscure, wonder about Gonzo’s infatuation with chickens, and overall remain unimpressed by Kermit’s alleged wisdom.
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