Flixwatcher: A Netflix Film Review Podcast

Kate Leaver (Who’s A Good Dog podcast) and award-winning audio producer Arlie Adlington join Flixwatcher remotely to review Kate’s choice Notting Hill. Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy from writer Richard Curtis, starring Hugh Grant as bumbling Englishman Will and Julia Roberts as Hollywood actress Anna Scott who enters his life after a meet-cute involving orange juice. Is Notting Hill the best rom-com? Debatable for Kate and Arlie yes, for Helen definitely not. Views were mixed, trite and overly sentimental and controversial for its ethnic cleansing of an area of London famous for its Caribbean carnival event or is the character of Anna Scott actually really funny and Notting Hill a quirky take on the regular guy dating a celebrity?   [supsystic-tables id=242] The scores were equally as divisive with Kate and Arlie giving straight fives for recommendability and Kobi and Helen much lower. Its two hours plus runtime was also a turnoff and resulted in low repeat viewing score to give Notting Hill an over

Michael Leder and Jake Cunningham (Ghibliotheque - A Podcast About Studio Ghibli and Ghibliotheque: The Unofficial Guide to the Movies of Studio Ghibli) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Michael’s choice American Graffiti. In a galaxy far, far away in 1973 George Lucas directed American Graffiti. Set in 1962 it tells the story of a group of teenagers on their last night in their hometown (based on Lucas’ own hometown of Modesto) before they go to college. Notable cast members include Richard Dreyfuss as Curt Henderson, Ron Howard as Steve Bolander, Charles Martin Smith as Terry "The Toad" Fields, Cindy Williams as Laurie Henderson and the debut of Harrison Ford as Bob Falfa. American Graffiti couldn’t be more different to what would later be probably the biggest cinema franchise ever, there are no effects, no other worlds, just a group of kids cruising around in Ford Thunderbirds, hanging around at drive-ins, trying to get lucky and unaware of what the arrival of the 1970s and the Vietnam War will bri

Cam the Provocateur and Agent Scott from SpyHards podcast return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Cam’s choice The Untouchables. The Untouchables is the 1987 Brian De Palma’s Prohibition-era gangster film, loosely based on the activities of Al Capone and ‘The Untouchables’ - an enforcement group led by Eliot Ness who helped bring down Capone. It stars Robert De Niro as Al Capone, Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, Andy García as George Stone, Charles Martin Smith as Oscar Wallace and Sean Connery (in an Oscar-winning role) as Jim Malone. Pretty violent for its day - it opens with a child being blown up and there is the notorious baseball bat scene it also plays fast and loose with the real historical moments from the 1930s. But this is De Palma and The Untouchables makes up for historical inaccuracy with spectacular set pieces, for example, Battleship Potemkin homage of the Odessa Steps sequence. The Untouchables is also notable for Connery’s “Irish” accent, voted by Empire Magazine as the worst accent on film, h

Ben and Paul from Have You Scene This? Podcast return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Ben’s choice Oxygène. Oxygène (Oxygen) is. 2021 French science fiction thriller released by Netflix starring Mélanie Laurent and directed by Alexandre (Crawl) Aja. Laurent plays a woman who wakes up in a airtight cryogenic medical unit. She discovers she is trapped and experiencing a medical emergency and has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Assisted by M.I.L.O (Medical Interface Liaison Officer voiced by Mathieu Amalric) she must work out who and where she is before the oxygen runs out. Oxygène is a fairly decent entry in the single person (Locke, Buried, Moon) genre and “significantly better than expected” mostly due to the performance by Laurent who holds her own and commands your attention for its lean one hour and 40 min runtime.   [supsystic-tables id=239] Oxygène was rated solidly on recommendability and engagement from guests and Flixwatcher but less highly on repeat viewing to score a very respectabl

Petros Patsilivas (Caged In: Coppola Connections) and Ariane Anantaputri (A Drip Town Lemory Mane: The Podcast) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Petros’ choice 8 Mile. 8 Mile is a 2002 vaguely auto biographical drama starring Eminem as B-Rabbit, a white rapper struggling to launch his rap career with support from Kim Basinger as his trailer trash mom, Brittany Murphy as his love interest and Mekhi Phifer as his pal Future (loosely based on Eminem’s real-life close friend and rapper Proof). Set in 1995, B-Rabbit hates his blue-collar job and wants to be a rapper but freezes on stage and is humilated. To build his confidence his best friend Future pushes him to enter a revenge rap battle where he succeeds. Lacking in a real character arc, 8 Mile is a standard underdog story and that is elevated by a central performance from Eminem.   [supsystic-tables id=238] Eminem picked up the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Lose Yourself - even though it only features briefly in the end credits - the music

Jessica Reagan (Best Pick podcast) and Carrie Morrison (Lights, Carrie, Action podcast) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Jess’s choice Kill Bill Vol 1. Kill Bill Vol 1 is the first part of Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman’s homage to martial arts, samurai, blaxploitation, spaghetti western, grind house films revenge epic. Thurman stars as ‘The Bride’, beaten, shot and left for dead on her wedding day by Bill (David Carradine) and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) after she tries to leave and start a new life. Released in 2003, prior to the #MeToo movement and before the stories of the abuse and car crash Thurman experienced during the filming, Kill Bill represents peak Tarantino. With nods to his own back catalogue (Mia Wallace’s ’square’ and Clarence Worley’s sunglasses) as well as the usual suspects (Game of Death’s jumpsuit and motorbike and Lady Snowblood) Kill Bill is a non stop violent and often funny femme fronted revenge epic.   [sups

Matt Brothers from (Spocklight: A Star Trek Podcast and Is Paul Dano Ok?) and Daryl Bär (Sudden Double Deep podcast, Is Paul Dano Ok?) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Matt’s choice Stardust. Stardust is a 2007 fantasy action romance directed by Matthew Vaughn and co-written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. It also boasts an ensemble cast featuring Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Peter O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, Henry Cavill, Mark Strong and Robert De Niro, with narration by Ian McKellen. A star (Danes) falls from the sky and becomes the quest for Tristan (Cox) to bring back for his beloved Victoria (Miller) so he can marry her and three ancient witches - led by Lamia (Pfeiffer) who need to eat the heart of the star to regain their powers and youth.   [supsystic-tables id=236] Stardust scored highly from Matt, Daryl and Kobi for recommendability but less highly from Helen. A lower engagement score from everyone giv

Neha and Caria from Not Having It All podcast return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Neha’s choice The Half of It. The Half of It is a 2020 Netflix American coming-of-age comedy drama written and directed by Alice Wu. It stars Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu a shy Chinese-American, Daniel Diemer as jock Paul Munsky who gets Ellie to write his love letters to Alexxis Lemire’s Aster Flores. Set in the small town of Squahamish, Ellie lives with her widowed father, the station master at the local station. She reluctantly agrees to write romantic letters on behalf of Paul - a modern Cyrano de Bergerac - and finds herself falling for Aster in the process. The Half of It has a lot of heart, it’s impossible not to fall in love with Ellie, watching her slowly fall in love with Aster and form a genuinely touching friendship with Paul. It also resolutely does not follow the conventional paths of teen comedy dramas, which is refreshing for the teen genre.   [supsystic-tables id=235] The scores for The Half of It was very high

Paul Costello and Emma Kathryn from The Yearbook Committee podcast return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Paul’s choice Adaptation. Adaptation is the 2002 Charlie Kaufman comedy-drama directed by Spike Jonze and starring Nicolas Cage as Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald. It also stars Meryl Streep as real life author Susan Orlean and an Oscar winning Chris Cooper as John Laroche. Adaptation fuses fiction - Donald, the relationship between Orlean and Laroche - with real life - Kaufman’s writers block and The Orchid Thief - the end result is a mind bending mash of genres. Adaptation is equally funny and heartbreaking at the same time and often unexpectedly. Cage delivers a career best and received an Oscar nomination as both the doubting and obsessive Charlie and the happy go lucky and dorky Donald.   [supsystic-tables id=234] However, Adaptation is weird and not for everyone and that is the caveat for recommendability scores. A score lower repeat viewing but higher for engagement gives Adaptatio

Simon Williams (You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat film quiz) and David Trumble (artist/cartoonist/illustrator) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Simon’s choice Demolition Man. Demolition Man is 1993 sci-fi action comedy film starring Sylvester Stallone as John Spartan (The Demolition Man), Wesley Snipes as Simon Phoenix and Sandra Bullock as Lieutenant Lenina Huxley. In the year 2032, Spartan and Phoenix are cryogenically frozen after the events in 1996 where hostages were killed and in this future crime has been eradicated in the newly formed San Angeles (a merger of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara). After Phoenix is thawed during a parole hearing and escapes, Spartan is thawed to chase him down and in doing so leaves a trail of demolition. Primarily an action film, Demolition Man is also very funny and quite ridiculous, the myth of the purpose of the three seashells lives on today and holds up as a satire still today.   [supsystic-tables id=233] Demolition Man was a popular rewatch for Flixw

Akin Aworan (The Swinging Palm Tree Podcast) and Ashanti Omkar (film critic and journalist) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Akin’s choice Da 5 Bloods. Da 5 Bloods is the Netflix 2020 Spike Lee joint. Paul (Delroy Lindo - unbelievably snubbed by the Academy), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and their squad leader Norman (Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles) are the “Bloods”. A close knit squad of US Army black soldiers during the Vietnam war who after securing the site of a C.I.A plane and it’s cargo of gold, decide to bury it for themselves and in the process Norman is killed by gunfire. Present day a landslide has made the buried treasure reachable and the remaining Bloods plus David’s son Paul head back into the jungle to Repatriate the body of Norman and retrieve their gold. Da 5 Bloods is a mixed bag, the ensemble cast is incredible - Delroy was robbed - but no effect was made to de age the actors for the flashbacks, the contribution by black US soldi

Barbara (Over/underated: a music podcast with Babs and Fran) and Sophie (It’s An S Pod Thing!) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Babs choice Superbad. Superbad is a 2007 coming of age comedy starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as school friends Seth, Evan and Fogel (McLovin), directed by Greg Mottola and produced by Judd Apatow. Determined to lose their virginity before going to college Seth and Evan get invited to Jules party and promise to buy the booze with Fogel’s fake McLovin ID. Of course nothing goes to plan and McLovin is kidnapped by two police officers (Bill Haded and Seth Rogen) while Seth and Evan end up at a bizarre house party in a quest to secure the booze that will impress the girls enough for them to sleep together. It’s difficult to view Superbad’s main narrative of getting girls drunk enough to sleep with Seth and Evan and the endless stream of homophobic jokes as being harmless and of it’s time - it’s questionable how funny it was is 2007. That said Jonah Hill

Liz Campbell and Zach Fortais-Gomm from Realms of Peril and Glory (actual play podcast launching 18 August) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Zach’s choice Shrek 2. Shrek 2 sees the return of Mike Myers Shrek, his newlywed Fiona (Cameron Diaz), Donkey (Eddie Murphy) plus new additions of Puss in Boots (Antonia Banderas) and Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders). Shrek, Fiona and Donkey head to the kingdom of Far Far Away to attend a ball thrown by Fiona’s parents to celebrate their wedding. Shocked to see their daughter and son-in-law as ogres they predictably end up all falling out. Elsewhere the Fairy Godmother is displeased her son Prince Charming did not marry Fiona as agreed by her father and sets out a plan for revenge. Shrek, like its predecessor, parodies other films based on fairy tales, features references to American popular culture and features an endless soundtrack of popular songs and cover versions.   [supsystic-tables id=229] Feelings for Shrek ranged from very high - Zach and Liz

Jake Cunningham and Michael Leder (Ghibliotheque - A Podcast About Studio Ghibli and Ghibliotheque: The Unofficial Guide to the Movies of Studio Ghibli) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Jake’s choice Deep Impact. Deep Impact is a 1997 science-fiction disaster movie starring Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood and Morgan Freeman. Teenage amateur astronomer Leo Beiderman (Wood) spots an unidentified light in the sky and sends it to Dr. Marcus Wolf who recognises it as a comet on a direct path to earth. On his way to sound the alarm his car crashes. One year later, journalist Jenny Lerner (Leoni) accidentally uncovers ELE (Extinction Level Event) not Ellie as she first thinks. Tom Beck (Freeman), the President of the United States announces the news to the world that the comet is on course to impact the Earth in roughly one year and could cause humanity's extinction. [supsystic-tables id=228] Is Deep Impact the last greatest blockbuster of the 20th century? Cruelly barged out of the Box Office by the l

Tremors is the 1990s (not 80s!) monster horror comedy starring Kevin Bacon as Valentine and Fred Ward as Earl, two handymen working in Perfection, Nevada. Fed up with dead end jobs decide to leave but on their way out of town discover a local resident Edgar, dead at the top of electric pylon - apparently scared to dead. They later discover the remains local Shepherd Fred and find themselves joining forces with the remaining residents in a battle against giant deadly land worms.   [supsystic-tables id=227] Tremors excels in not taking itself too serious and the general census is the level of gross and gore falls on the right side of good bad, not bad. This was a first time watch for Scott and he was not disappointed - giving it a straight five for recommendability. Scores for Tremors were high across all Flixwatcher categories to score 3.88 overall. What do you guys think? Have you seen Tremors? What did you think? Please let us know in the comments below! Episode #216 Crew Links Thanks to Episode #216 Crew o

GLProUK’s Tony Gordon (How To Write A Tune, Bones Knows) and Jay Ludgrove (The Jaily Show) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Tony’s choice Fury. Fury is a 2014 war drama written and directed by David Ayer it stars Brad Pitt as Don "War Daddy" Collier, Shia LaBoeuf as Boyd "Bible" Swan, Logan Lerman as Norman "Machine" Ellison, Michael Peña as Trini "Gordo" Garcia and Jon Bernthal as Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis. Set in 1945, the Western Allied invasion of Germany meets fanatical Schutzstaffel resistance - War Daddy and his crew are leading the defence in their tank, affectionately named ‘Fury’. While the storyline is fictional, Fury and War Daddy are authentic - American tank commander Staff Sergeant Lafayette G. "War Daddy" Pool’s experience influenced Pitt’s War Daddy and was filmed in the UK due to the availability of functional Sherman tanks to be borrowed. Heavy on machismo and violence Fury doesn’t shy away from the realities of war and the Second World War specifically (dead horses being eaten).   [

Will Collins (screenwriter for Wolfwalkers) and Kevin Lehane (screenwriter for Grabbers) from The Best Bits podcast return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Will’s choice No Country for Old Men. No Country for Old Men is the multi award-winning (Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars) 2007 neo-Western crime thriller from Joel and Ethan Coen. Based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy it stars Tommy Lee Jones as a local sheriff Ed Tom Bell, Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss - a Vietnam vet who stumbles across a large amount of money from a drug deal on bad and a terrifying Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh - a psychopath hitman hired to track down the missing drug deal money.   [supsystic-tables id=225] No Country for Old Men is violent, detached, bleak but also absurdly funny in places and widely considered the Coen’s greatest achievement in cinema. Less easy to recommend to people than say Fargo, Flixwatcher and guests sco

Paul and Ben from Have You Scene This? Podcast join Flixwatcher remotely to review Paul’s choice Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The Directors Cut is the 1977 Steven Spielberg sci fi classic starring Richard Dreyfus as Roy Neary, the everyman who after a close encounter with an alien spaceship becomes obsessed with the Devils Tower, has a breakdown that cause his wife to to leave him and sets out on a quest to join the aliens. For a film about aliens, actual aliens are mainly absent for the majority of the film and the main focus is on Neary and the French scientist Claude Lacombe,played by French New Wave auteur François Truffaut, as he chases mysterious encounters across the world. Close Encounters features many key Spielberg themes, Light as mystery, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, John Williams theme, fractured family, absent fathers and some classic child peril. Despite its record breaking box office returns on its release and critical acclaim it

Caris and Neha from Not Having It All podcast join Flixwatcher remotely to review Caris’ choice Wild Child. Wild Child is a 2008 teen comedy romance film starring Emma Roberts as the Wild Child Poppy, a spoilt LA brat who is sent to an English boarding school to straighten her out and teach her valuable life lessons. Natasha Richardson also makes her last film appearance as the headmistress Mrs Kingsley and Alex Pettyfer plays the love interest. Wild Child is a mix of a typical fish out of water film, Poppy struggles with British food, locations and finds an enemy within seconds of arriving and a story of friendship with bonding over secondhand clothes shopping. Not only is Wild Child a crime against the chip butty it neither works as a comedy or a romance particularly well. There are some surprising plot turns - involving a completely unexpected act of arson.   [supsystic-tables id=223] Despite Caris’ enthusiasm for Wild Child, Flixwatcher and Neha were unconvinced and scores were low across all the categor

Ariane Anantaputri (A Drip Town Lemory Mane: The Podcast) and Petros Patsilivas (Caged In: Coppola Connections) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Ariane’s choice Army of the Dead. Army of the Dead is the 2021 Zack Snyder zombie heist action horror film. Based on a story he created and a sort of possible sequel to his remake of 2004’s Dawn of the Dead. This time the city of Las Vegas is infected by a new breed of the undead after a collision with an army convey carrying a zombie picked up from Area 51. In an attempt to control the zone, a wall of container blocks is built and a countdown to a nuclear explosion is set. A team of mercenaries is put together by a nefarious casino owner to drop into Las Vegas and recover $200 million from his casino before it is nuked. It quickly becomes apparent that money may not be the motivation for this mission. Army of the Dead’s runtime is two hours and 28 minutes - the plot of Army of the Dead runs closer to about an hour and 30 mins max. Somewhere in it is a fairly ent