Flixwatcher: A Netflix Film Review Podcast

Daryl Bär (Sudden Double Deep podcast, Is Paul Dano Ok?) and Matt Brothers from (Spocklight: A Star Trek Podcast and also Is Paul Dano Ok?) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Daryl’s choice Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the fourth film in the Mission:Impossible film franchise and was released in 2011. directed by Brad (The Incredibles) Bird Ghost Protocol sees Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg reprise their roles as Ethan Hunt and Benji Dunn and introduces Jeremy Renner as William Brandt, with Léa Seydoux and Michael Nyqvist as the villains. Ghost Protocol is notable for its insane Burj Khalifa scene where Ethan has to scale the exterior, an increased role for Pegg as the comedy sidekick for Cruise and no masks. Everyone looks like they’re having the most fun in Ghost Protocol - starting a shift in the tone from the previous films to what would become the Christopher McQuarrie M:I films.   [supsystic-tables id=219] Ghost Protocol scores very highly across recommendabi

Ashanti Omkar (film critic and journalist) and Akin Aworan (The Swinging Palm Tree Podcast) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Ashanti’s choice Rocks. Rocks is a British coming-of-age drama from director Sarah Gavron starring Bukky (BAFTA Rising Star 2021) Bakray as Olushola "Rocks”, a black teenager who suddenly finds herself the sole carer for her younger brother Emmanuel when her mother disappears. Despite being surrounded by her compassionate and close-knit friends, Rocks struggles to keep things together and find a safe space for her and her brother to stay while trying to evade social services. Rocks is both a story of female friendship and being a teenager in Britain today but also a heartbreaking reality of social care and the financial and mental hardships of single-parent families. Empowering and uplifting, credit must be given to casting director Lucy Pardee for bringing together an authentic and energetic group of inspiring actresses who carry the whole film.   [supsystic-tables id=218] With a r

Scores    David Trumble (artist/cartoonist/illustrator) and Simon Williams (You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat film quiz) join Flixwatcher remotely to review David’s choice Collateral. Collateral is a 2004 art house action directed by Michael Mann starring Tom Cruise as a rare villain Vincent, sauve but deadly and Jamie Foxx as cab driver Max who picks up hitman for hire Vincent. It co stars Jada Pinkett Smith as Annie, Mark Ruffalo as Detective Fanning and Javier Bardem as Felix, the drug lord orchestrating the hits. Collateral is both a dialled down and dialled up Cruise all in one. Managing to play the silent and deadly hitman, existing in the shadows of the underworld while demonstrating such expert shooting skills that his tactical draw is used by experts in handgun training. Foxx, who also prepared for the role by driving a taxi, holds his own against arguably the biggest movie star in the world. His lonely Max with failed ambitions forced to assert himself and stop making excuses.   [supsystic-tables i

GLProUK’s Jay Ludgrove (The Jaily Show) and Tony Gordon (How To Write A Tune, Bones Knows) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Jay’s choice Falling Down. Falling Down is a 1993 drama/action film from director Joel Schumacher starring Michael Douglas, in probably a career best as William "D-Fens" Foster. An angry, unemployed, volatile man on a mission to “go home” as he makes a journey across LA leaving a trail of violence while cop-on-his-last-day-on-the-job Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is trying to stop him. Released in 1993 it was misunderstood - read racist as D-FENs targets are African-American, Latino and Korean but watched through 2021 eyes has a lot to say about the MAGA white angry male Trump supporter - blaming problems on immigrants and refuses to see himself as the problem. Scores      [supsystic-tables id=216] Falling Down scores highly across all Flixwatcher scoring categories - a fair few years might have passed since Flixwatcher and guests watched this at a far too young age (why were

Patrick Mills (Pages of Hackney bookshop) and Claer Barrett (FT Money Clinic podcast) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Patrick’s choice Only the Animals. Only the Animals is a 2019 French murder mystery black comedy from director Dominik Moll. A tale of coincidence, mistaken identity and loneliness collide in the lives of our five central characters - Michel, Alice, Joesph, Marion, Armand who are all connected to Evelyne. The story jumps around from the heat and intensity of the Ivory Coast to the snowy and desolate remote French mountains and slowly reveals the chain of events that lead to the disappearance of Evelyne from different perspectives. As the story evolves the absurdity of mistaken identity and pure coincidence is both ridiculous and completely believable. Powered by engaging performances, particularly from veteran French character actor Denis Ménochet and some dark comic moments the near two hour run time zips along nicely. Scores      [supsystic-tables id=215] The non-linear narrative stor

Helen Zaltzman (The Allusionist, Answer Me This! and Veronica Mars Investigations) and Helen O’Hara (Empire Podcast and magazine) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Helen Z’s choice Center Stage. Center Stage 2000 teen drama about a group of young dancers from different backgrounds that join a prestigious (fictional) ballet school in New York City. Directed by Nicholas (Madness of King George) Hytner and stars a mix of actors and dancers. Out of the main characters who are dancers, four are professional ballet dancers (Amanda Schull (her debut) Ethan Stiefel, Sascha Radetsky, and Julie Kent), one is a professional figure skater (Ilia Kulik), one had ballet training (Zoe Saldana in her debut also), and two were actors with no ballet training (Susan May Pratt and Shakiem Evans). Body doubles were used for many of the major dance sequences. Peter Gallagher also stars as the company director and choreographer. Center Stage is essentially a high school drama set in a ballet school. Nothing is ambiguous and

Ben Bailey Smith (aka Doc Brown, Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review) and Robbie Collin (The Independent and also Kermode and Mayo's Film Review) and return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Ben’s choice Booksmart. Booksmart is the 2019 coming-of-age teen buddy comedy and directorial debut of actress Olivia Wilde. It stars Beanie Feldstein as Molly and Kaitlyn Dever as Amy, two best friends and high school seniors, both high achievers they realise the night before graduation they should have partied more. Determined to spend their last night of school partying and being wild. It would be derivate to say Booksmart is the female Superbad, Molly and Amy’s friendship feels much deeper and there is less emphasis on the gross-out comedy. Its strengths lie in its editing - fast and hard - and the chemistry between its two leads and it’s always great to see Lisa Kudrow in anything. That said, Booksmart often feels like several movies at once - partly due to it having four writers - and the amount of characters mean that

Will Roe from The Times & Sunday Times - Who Killed CJ Davis? and Ben Williams from Rokkwood Audio return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Will’s choice The Dawn Wall. The Dawn Wall is a 2017 documentary about free climber Tommy Caldwell who, along with Kevin Jorgeson completed the first free climb of El Capitan in 2015. This was a 19 day climb and is considered one of the hardest climbs in history. The documentary is fairly standard in that we start with young Tommy in the Colorado Rockies learning to climb, then in a bizarre turn of events in 2000, Tommy and his then girlfriend Beth Rodden were captured in Kyrgyzstan by rebels. After returning from the traumatic kidnapping Tommy loses a finger in an accident and his marriage breaks down - it’s then he decides to take on El Capitan. Scores  [supsystic-tables id=212] The Dawn Wall is a story of commitment and determination - plus a lesson in pooping on a cliff face. Not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights! Recommendability for The Dawn Wall is

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! Sam Clements and Louise Owen from 90 Min Or Less Film Fest host Flixwatcher 200 episode specials - first up its Kobi’s choice Ghostbusters. Do we need a synopsis for Ghostbusters?!? Undoubtedly one of the greatest films of all time, written by Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman it stars Ackroyd as Ray Stanz, Ramis as Egon Spengler and Bill Murray as Peter Venkman with support from Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis and Ernie Hudson. Ghostbusters, a childhood favourite of pretty much every 80s child and cultural phenomenon mixes comedy, horror and action with universal appeal. If you’ve been to a kids school disco you’ve probably danced to the theme tune by Ray Parker Jnr. Scores  [supsystic-tables id=211] Unsurprisingly Ghostbusters scores fives across the board for recommendability - Liam H Dempsey on Twitter describes it as his religion. Scoring fours and above in the remaining categories gives Ghostbusters an overall score of 4.73 - making it number

Did you ever wish you were 30, flirty and thriving as a teen?! If so we’ve got a treat for you for Flixwatcher 200 episode special with Helen’s choice 13 Going On 30. 3 Going On 30 is a 2004 fantasy rom com starring Jennifer Garner as Jenna Rink and Mark Ruffalo as Matt ‘Matty’ Flamhaff with Judy Greer and Andy Serkis co-starring. 13-year-old Jenna wants to be popular and grown up, when her birthday party doesn’t go to plan and she makes a wish to be 30 and through the power of magic dust wakes up and her dream has come true. Adult Jenna lives in her dream penthouse works for Poise magazine but she’s no longer friends with Matty, she doesn’t visit her parents and in her own words she is a “tough bitch”. Seeing her life through child Jenna’s eye’s she realises her dream life might not be as good as it seems. Driven by an utterly charming performance of wild-eyed innocence and comedy from Garner and top tier rom com Ruffalo 13 Going On 30 is a notch above your average romantic comedy, even if Kobi remains unim

 Kevin Lehane (screenwriter for Grabbers) and Will Collins (screenwriter for Wolfwalkers) from The Best Bits podcast join Flixwatcher to review Kevin’s choice The Karate Kid for episode 200! The Karate Kid is a 1984 martial arts cult classic written by Robert Mark (Taken/Transporter) Kamen and directed by John G. (Rocky) Avildsen. 16-year-old Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his kind hearted single mum Lucille move from New Jersey to LA and while Daniel makes friends with Ali (Elizabeth Shue) by doing so he creates an enemy in her ex-boyfriend Johnny. Johnny just happens to be a student of the Cobra Kai dojo and to take on the bullies Danny learns karate with the help of the eccentric Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). Is The Karate Kid more like Rocky or more like Dirty Dancing? Does it have an appropriate amount of karate for a film called The Karate Kid or is there too much romance? Who will give the lowest recommendability score - film chooser Kevin or first time watcher Helen? So many questions you’ll have to l

Jonathan and Fil from the The Pod Charles Cinecas‪t‬ - the official podcast of The Prince Charles Cinema return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Jonathan’s choice Zodiac.   Zodiac is the 2007 David Fincher drama based on the real-life Zodiac Killer that not only killed but also terrorised the San Francisco police and the Chronicle. James Vanderbilt’s fantastic screenplay is based on the 1986 non-fiction book of the same name by Robert Graysmith. It stars stars Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Chloë Sevigny, Philip Baker Hall and Dermot Mulroney. Ruffalo plays Inspector Dave (real-life Bullitt/Dirty Harry) Toschi as the main police investigator with Edwards’ Insp. Bill Armstrong and Gyllenhaal plays Graysmith, political cartoonist turned investigator and Downey Jr plays Paul Avery, crime reporter at the Chronicle. Spoiler, the Zodic Killer was never caught, Fincher’s Zodiac is meticulously faithful to the real-life murd

 Iszi Lawrence (Terrible Lizards, The British Museum Membercast) and Simon Dunn (setisoppO podcast) return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Iszi’s choice Galaxy Quest.   Galaxy Quest is a 1999 comedy homage and parody of sci-fi of the 70s and Star Trek and its fans. It stars stars Tim Allen as Commander Taggart/Jason, Sigourney Weaver as Lieutenant Tawny Madison/Gewn, Alan Rickman as Dr. Lazarus, Tony Shalhoub as Tech Sergeant Chen, Sam Rockwell as Crewman #6 and Daryl Mitchell as Lieutenant Laredo/Tommy collectively the cast of 1980s tv sci-fi show - Galaxy Guest. While at a sci-fi convention the group are visited by aliens (in human form) and believing the crew to be real enlist their help to fight of the evil alien Roth'h'ar Sarris who has destroyed their home planet. You don’t have to be a Trekkie or a sci-fi nerd to appreciate and enjoy Galaxy Guest. Underneath the parody - there are some solid laugh out loud moments - is a huge heart for fans, who without it the shows and genre wouldn’t be what it is

Sound designers Ben Meechan and Luke Gentry from Sona return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Ben’s choice Super 8. Super 8 is a 2011 alien invasion film directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. It stars Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning in the main child roles and Kyle Chandler, Noah Emmerich and Ron Eldard in the main adult roles. The premise of Super 8 is that while making a low budget zombie film for a competition a group of children witness a train crash. In the aftermath a series of strange events happen in their town - dogs running away and large power outings - leading to the military being involved and eventually an alien appears. Super 8 is the ultimate 80s nostalgia movie - it steals/homages from all the best 80s films like E.T, The Goonies and Stand By Me and in turn is a blueprint for Stranger Things and this is part of its downfall in that none of Super 8 feels remotely original or exciting. There are also at least three different narratives running through it, none explored with

Robbie Collin (The Telegraph and Kermode and Mayo's Film Review) and Ben Bailey Smith (aka Doc Brown, also Kermode and Mayo) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Robbie’s choice Uncut Gems. Uncut Gems is a 2019 Safdie (Josh and Ben) brothers breakout film starring Adam Sandler (in a career best performance) as Howard Ratner, a New York Jewish-American jeweller with a severe gambling problem. Supporting cast features Lakeith Stanfield as Demany, Howard’s business associate, Julia Fox as Howard’s girl on the side Julia, Kevin Garnett as himself and Idina Menzel as Howard’s estranged wife. Deep in debt, Howard sources a rare black opal from an Ethiopian Jewish mine which he intends to sell at auction to solve all his problems. His plan begins to fall apart when Kevin Garnett becomes obsessed with the stone and the repercussions lead to increasingly stressful (and also funny/surreal) encounters in the lesser seen on scene New York. Scores  [supsystic-tables id=205] Not for the faint hearted - Uncut Gems may or

Fil and Jonathan from The Pod Charles Cinecas‪t‬ - the official podcast of The Prince Charles Cinema join Flixwatcher remotely to review Fil’s choice The Wolf of Wall Street. The Wolf of Wall Street is the 2013 Martin Scorsese-directed film based on the 2007 memoir of the same name from stockbroker Jordan Belfont. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfont, Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend, Donnie Azoff, Margot Robbie as his wife, Naomi Lapaglia, Matthew McConaughey as Mark Hanna (in a quite bizarre cameo), and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham who eventually hunts him down. Not quite a rags to riches tale, more of a moderately successful to an insanely rich tale with very little redemption or morality but plenty of tits, ass, cocaine, and Quaaludes. Feelings for The Wolf of Wall Street were mixed Kobi and Fil were totally along for the three-hour thrill ride of excess and depravity, for Helen and Jonathan it was more like three hours of douche bags being douche bags.   Scores  [supsystic-t

Helen O’Hara (Empire Podcast and magazine) and Helen Zaltzman (The Allusionist, Answer Me This! and Veronica Mars Investigations) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Helen O’H’s choice The Prestige. The Prestige is the 2006 mystery thriller starring Christian Bale as Alfred Borden and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) as rival magicians in London at the end of the 19th century. Based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Priest is also stars Michael Caine as Cutter, Rebecca Hall as Borden’s wife Sarah, Scarlett Johansson as Angier’s stage assistant Olivia and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. After a water tank trick ends in tragedy for Angier their rivalry and oneupmanship increases, Borden loses two fingers during a bullet catch and retaliates by injuring an audience member's fingers and killing a bird during Angier’s show. The arrival of the transported man trick leads Angier to Tesla who creates a machine capable of real magic. The Prestige is largely considered Nolan’s best film by fans, in the opening sce

Brothers Sam and Ben Townsend from Universally Speaking podcast return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Sam’s choice Donnie Brasco. Donnie Brasco is a 1997 true crime drama based on the book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia by Joseph D. Pistone, and Richard Woodley and directed by Mike Newell. It stars Johnny Depp as Joseph D. Pistone, an undercover FBI agent, and Al Pacino as Lefty (“Horsecock”) Ruggiero the Mafia hitman he befriends to infiltrate the Bonanno crime family in the 1970s. According to Pistone, this film adaptation is 85% true to life, which bits though he never revealed. Donnie Brasco was received pretty well on release, however, given the legacy of Goodfellas and The Sopranos it feels pretty pedestrian and unremarkable watched in 2020. It certainly doesn’t sell the glamorous Mafia lifestyle as Goodfellas does. Scores  [supsystic-tables id=202] First-time watcher Kobi wasn’t entirely convinced and it is reflected in the scoring and not even dropping the f-bomb 185 times can ma

Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish (from the award-winning 90s TV programme The Adam and Joe Show) join Flixwatcher remotely to review Adam's choice, Bugsy Malone. Bugsy Malone is a 1976 gangster musical comedy film. The directorial debut of Alan Parker stars child actors playing adult roles with Scott Baio (Bugsy Malone), John Cassisi (Fat Sam), and Jodie Foster (Tallulah) in the lead roles. Except these prohibition-era gangsters use splurge guns instead of bullets and cars are powered by pedals. It’s no surprise Bugsy Malone ended up as an extremely popular school production - even Adam and Joe made their own version at school - so don’t go into Bugsy Malone expecting an acting tour de force, that said Jodie Foster is easily the star of the show. Scores  [supsystic-tables id=201] Bugsy Malone is best viewed as a child, possibly at school, sometime between 1976 and 1990 (probably!), not as an adult in 2020 or if you are Adam’s children. The recommend ability for Bugsy Malone was a mixed score and entirely depend

Jim Daly and Giles Paley-Phillips from Blank Podcast return to Flixwatcher remotely to review Jim’s choice Ghost. Ghost is a 1990 romantic thriller starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg (Oscar-winning Best Actress in this role), Tony Goldwyn, and Rick Aviles. Couple Sam (Swayze) and Molly (Moore) are renovating their Manhattan apartment when tragedy strikes with Sam being mugged and shot - as he is lying dying in the street his ghost leaves his body. Trapped between the afterlife and reality Sam turns detective with the help of psychic Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg) to track down his killer and discovers the fatal attack was not an accident. Ghost received very mixed reviews when released - an unusual mix of genres - romantic drama and dark thriller with some comedic moments from Jerry (Airplane!) Zucker was just a bit confusing. However, it was a HUGE box office success, helped by the now-infamous “Unchained Melody” pottery scene it was the highest-grossing film of 1990. Ghost has aged surprisingly