Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

Echidna not, we’re back in the Now Playing Arcade Those schmucks Stuart, Justin, and Arnie tried taking an extended break from video game movies but are finally ready to knuckle down and review the hit Sonic The Hedgehog miniseries that broke Paramount Plus streaming records in 2024. Can Idris Elba punch his way into the hardened hearts of the hosts as he trains klutzy deputy Adam Paley to crush the competition at a Reno bowling tournament?  Or does the spin-off screech to a halt without movie stars Jim Carey and James Marsden in the picture? Enjoy a Knuckles sandwich when you Listen Now!

At last, we get the live-action remake of Fox and the Hound. Ryan Reynolds makes a big gambit to save the MCU from the Phase Four doldrums by reviving Hugh Jackman and the rest of 20th Century Fox’s stable of discarded superheroes for a 2024 blowout. But will Disney prune Deadpool & Wolverine from the sacred timeline once the vulgar assassin and his cranky man crush start letting blood and R-rated words fly? Maybe audiences are okay with Professor X’s twin sister Emma Corrin (The Crown) wiping out everything that’s happened since Endgame? Skate uphill with MFs Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie to find out now!

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatheads Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) might shoot fireworks into tornadoes for free on YouTube, but Universal Pictures insists that storm chasers return to the big screen to enjoy the 2024 sequel Twisters. Does sensitive scientist Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where The Crawdads Sing) have the solution to taming these lethal cyclones? Or are her sidekicks Anthony “Hamilton” Ramos and David “Superman” Cornenswet actually profiting from Oklahoma small towns being hit by natural disasters? Listen Now as the hosts put their spin on this second installment!

Funnel of Love Bill Paxton (Aliens) and Helen Hunt (TV’s Mad About You) rekindle their whirlwind romance as they tail tornadoes across Oklahoma in the 1996 blockbuster Twister. Will rival storm chaser Cary Elwes (Princess Bride) rain on their parade by being the first to test new technology that sees inside a cyclone?  And does this unlikely marriage between Speed director Jan de Bont, Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, and producer Steven Spielberg still hold water 28 years later?  Find out if Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie consider this an F5 disaster when you Listen Now!

My Heart Will Go On (but my franchise won’t) Sandra Bullock does her best to keep a Caribbean vacation liner afloat after leech-covered psycho Willem Dafoe wires her boat to Speed 2 collision with an oil tanker in this infamous 1997 sequel. Does director Jan De Bont jump a shark trying to engage Cruise Control and sail this doomed voyage into familiar commercial waters?  And did the mega-expensive production hit the metaphorical ice

Uneasy Riders Keanu Reeves has to keep the Speed of a Los Angeles city bus above 50 mph, or he’ll set off another bomb planted by madman Dennis Hopper in the surprise blockbuster of Summer 1994. Should passenger Sandra Bullock be trusted to take the wheel and avoid all the oncoming gridlock and freeway construction when she can’t keep her eyes off her hunky co-star?  And how did this modestly budgeted action flick become cinematographer Jan De Bont’s ticket to a big-time Hollywood directing career?  You pay no fare to hear the answers to this pop quiz now.

The Cane Mutiny Stephen King turned ABC-TV into the Weather Channel with his three-night prime-time event: Storm of the Century. But record snowfall and gale-force winds are just a tempest in a teapot compared to the destruction caused by Colm Feore (Thor) upon arrival on a quaint Maine island. Can Tim Daly stop the future Frost Giant from terrorizing his community with more success than Wings co-star Steven Weber, who played Jack Torrence in the network’s previous King miniseries The Shining? Listen Now as Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart give you what you want!

Deep Throat Slashes Mia Goth has got that X factor that Now Playing Podcast likes in a Scream Queen, so our Summer 2024 Platinum Donation Drive features the horror trilogy she made with director Ti West (House of the Devil). What happens when our aspiring star tries to shoot an amateur porno at a Texas farm without the Bible-thumping landowners finding out? Is dotty old Pearl (also played by Goth) oblivious to the hanky panky going on in her barn, or just waiting for the right moment to step into the spotlight and make things juicy?  Donate Now to get the uncensored podcast today.

A Tree Grows On Brosnan Pierce Brosnan retires from James Bond duties to write books for Stephen King in the 2011 cable miniseries Bag of Bones. But is the ghost haunting his New England cottage his recently killed wife (Haunting of Hill House’s Annabeth Gish), or a blues singer (Dreamgirls’ Anika Noni Rose) still cursing locals for wrongs received back in the 1930s? And does Mick Garris (The Stand) have anything in his bag of directing tricks to help this quiet story of grief and writer’s block take root as a TV ratings event? Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart spell it out for you now!

He’s the DJ, I’m the Slapper Oscar viewers might’ve turned on Will Smith, but Martin Lawrence is still Ride Or Die for 2022’s Best Actor winner as the long-time co-stars head into a fourth Bad Boys adventure together. Can the Miami cops clear the name of dearly departed captain Joe Pantoliano (Matrix) after he’s linked to drug cartel money?  And is this duo ready for retirement now that eternal playboy Mike Lowery has found a wife and Marcus Burnett keeps having heart palpitations over his snack food diet?  Use the password SKITTLES89 to download this podcast and Find Out Now!

The Scribe Who Loved Me Henry Cavill may never get to be 007, but he’s tailor-made for a stylish 2024 Kingsman spin-off from Matthew Vaughn. Is his literary superspy Argylle a stunningly accurate predictor of real-life geo-political events, or merely the invention of lovelorn novelist Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World)?  And what happens when man-in-chair Sam Rockwell lets the cat out of the bag and exposes Sam Jackson, Bryan Cranston, and Catherine O’Hara to be part of a network of powerful secret agents? Find out if Manners Maketh the Manuscript when you Listen Now!

We Don’t Need Another Hardy Director George Miller crafts the fifth installment of his Mad Max Saga into an origin story for one-armed trucker Furiosa. Anya Taylor-Joy (Queen’s Gambit) takes the wheel from Charlize Theron to guide audiences from her green homeworld of Many Mothers to the sandy turf wars between Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) and new baddie Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). But is it wise for the 79-year-old creator to travel down his Fury Road without series icon Tom Hardy in the driver’s seat? Witness Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie make it epic with another podcast review.

Bye Bye Birdie Brandon Lee returns from the grave through the power of The Crow to bring vengeance upon the Detroit punks who ruined his Halloween wedding. But can director Alex Proyas (Dark City) deliver a gritty comic book vision on par with Tim Burton’s Batman after an on-set tragedy prevented his star from completing this 1994 action flick? And how much help does the undead vigilante receive from ghostbuster Ernie Hudson, skater girl Rochelle Davis, and alt-rockers Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, and The Cure? Donate for Silver Level to find out now!

Killers Of the Woodpecking Loon Alaqua Cox leaves New York City to reinvent herself as a Native American superhero, but that won’t stop her bad deeds in Hawkeye from coming back on her like an Echo. Can Maya Lopez restore honor to her Choctaw ancestors by baiting her abusive surrogate father, Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), into a rematch on Oklahoma home soil?  And does the deaf character’s preference to let action speak louder than words translate into the bloodiest Disney+ effort yet?  Hear what Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart think about this 2024 MCU miniseries when you Listen Now

The End of the Road Danny Glover might be too old for Lethal Weapon, but he’s still hip enough to monetize Death Race 4, a new generation turning to the Dark Web for pay-per-view entertainment. But should gambler Danny Trejo bet on longshot action star Zach McGowan (Agents of SHIELD) to outmaneuver champion driver Frankenstein on this new prison roadway?  And does Beyond Anarchy go beyond the craziness of Roger Corman’s original movie by giving grotesques like Matilda the Hun and Nazi Bastard a shot at the crown? 100 points to the first to Listen Now!

Ford Vs Kalahari Convict Luke Goss hits a speed bump on his road to freedom after Death Race 3 relocates the masked driver and his pit crew to a perilous African penitentiary. Can mechanic Danny Trejo pimp Frankenstein’s Mustang so that it withstands the sweltering Inferno of the desert, makes it through sandy terrain and hostile shantytowns, and beats ten other well-armed vehicles to the finish line?  And what are the odds that CEO Ving Rhames will steal back this ratings juggernaut from devious corporate raider Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible II)? Listen and find out now!

The Gangrene Mile Long before Jason Statham strapped on a metal mask and drove a monstrous Mustang around a penitentiary track, bank robber Luke Goss (Hellboy 2) got fans of reality TV bloodsport revving their engines in the 2011 prequel Death Race 2. But do CEO Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) and femme fatale producer Lauren Cohen (Walking Dead) have enough money in their streaming budget to turn shank fights in the prison yard into epic demolition derby carnage?  Find out if Danny Trejo and Sean Bean give this franchise a satisfying tune-up when you Listen Now!

It’s the end of the World as we know it…  … but host Stuart feels fine about wrapping up his six-podcast exploration of Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction saga with a look at the final novel, Chapterhouse Dune. Is the Bene Gesserit homeworld the perfect place to restart a worm farm after the wicked Honored Matres destroyed the original Arrakis deserts? Find out if the beef between the two most powerful Sisterhoods in the universe can be squashed when you Listen to the latest Now Playing Book Review.

The Ride of Frankenstein Jason Statham and Tyrese hone their Fast & Furious driving skills as director Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil) reinstates Roger Corman’s campy bloodsport Death Race as a grim 2008 prison flick. Can a pit crew run by Ian McShane (Deadwood) help a wrongly convicted auto racer stay alive for all three days of the obstacle course, and get revenge on the villain actually responsible for killing Statham’s wife? And what did Oscar darling Joan Allen ever do to wind up in movie jail playing the evil warden? The race for answers starts now!

Make America Race Again Roger Corman re-stages his cinematic Death Race a half-century after ruling the drive-ins of the 1970s. But can new Frankenstein Manu Bennett (The Hobbit) keep pace with his 2050 competition, which includes a pugilistic pop star, a religious zealot from Texas, a genetically altered himbo, and an AI-powered driverless car?  And does the fascism of Chairman Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange) resemble the politics of anyone we know in 2017? Strap on your VR helmet and join fast-talking hosts Jakob, Stuart, and Brock to find out now!