Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

Jack Nicholson. Alec Baldwin. Martin Sheen. Matt Damon. Leonardo DiCaprio. It's an all-star cast, but how well can these movie icons fake a Bah-stan accent? We get to find out in The Departed, Martin Scorsese's first organized crime film since Goodfellas. This is the film that finally won Scorsese his Oscar, but does the film deserve it or was Scorsese just given a de facto "Lifetime Achievement Award"? Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart have watched the film, so listen and find out!

Howard Hughes--director, engineer, nut-job, AVIATOR. Martin Scorsese re-teamed with Leonardo DiCaprio for their second film, a biopic about eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes and the result is a stylistic, three hour opus. Is this film the Spruce Goose of Oscar Bait, or can it take flight? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob's review to find out!

Only a year after the events of 9/11 Martin Scorsese released a film about the people who built New York--Gangs of New York. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis, this film had Oscar Bait written all over it, and with Cameron Diaz thrown in audience turnout was assured as well. But how well does the movie work, and does it help Leo recover from his post-Titanic career haze? Listen to find out!

Now Playing is taking a trip Back to the Future! Join us as Brock, Stuart and Arnie take a look back and discuss all three films in this beloved time-travelling comedy adventure series. We conclude our series with Back to the Future Part III, released in 1990, where Marty travels to the Old West to save Doc Brown from Mad Dog Tannen's bullet in his back. Does this series end with a hootenanny, or does this movie have us wanting to stick our heads in a water trough? Listen in and find out!

Now Playing is taking a trip Back to the Future! Join us as Brock, Stuart and Arnie take a look back and discuss all three films in this beloved time-travelling comedy adventure series. We continue our series with the first sequel Back to the Future Part II, released in 1989, where Marty and Doc travel to the future, the past, and then further in the past, all to prevent Biff from using the time machine for his own gain. Does this sequel have 1.21 gigawatts of goodness, or does this movie leave us wanting less? Listen in and find out!

Now Playing is taking a trip Back to the Future! Join us as Brock, Stuart and Arnie take a look back and discuss all three films in this beloved time-travelling comedy adventure series. We start our retrospective series with the modern-day classic Back to the Future. Has the original movie stood the test of time, or have Marty and Doc outstayed their welcome in pop culture history? Listen in and find out!

12 years after his last theatrical release, "King of the world" James Cameron is back and once again astounding audiences with bleeding edge special effects in his new epic Avatar, boasting some of the best 3-D filmmaking ever. Does the movie live up to the hype? Is the story worthy of the technology? Arnie, Marjorie, and Stuart critique this film, so listen to find out!

Jigsaw's work is almost complete, but from beyond the grave he must attack some of the nation's biggest problems: predatory mortgage lenders and insurance adjusters. Republicans and Democrats agree that Jigsaw's "public option" is a little too extreme, but do viewers? Listen to find out! And after deconstructing Saw VI we reflect on the Saw series as a whole.

There is a new Jigsaw, and worse he's being hailed as a hero by the police of Generic City. But FBI Agent Strahm is hot on his trail. Will Strahm succeed where Danny Glover failed? Meanwhile, the team building experience from hell for a group of people involved in urban development. Listen to find out what it all means on the latest episode of our Saw movie retrospective series!

At the end of Saw 3 Jigsaw was killed, so why is Donnie Whalburg the New Kid on the Ice Block with a noose around his neck, and will Officer Rigg learn Jigsaw's lesson in time to save him? More importantly, is it worth the viewer's time to see a Saw film without John Kramer as the killer? Listen to find out!

"Jigsaw" John Kramer is dying of a brain tumor, and it's up to Dr. Lynn Denlon to keep him alive while they watch Jigsaw's latest victim Jeff go through a series of tests. Why would Lynn help Jigsaw? Well if Jigsaw's heart stops the bomb strapped to Lynn's head will explode. It's the most intricate Saw movie yet, and we review it on Now Playing!

With the surprise success of the original Saw, a sequel was inevitable. However who would have guessed it would come out only one year later, or that they would continue being released one-per-year for so long? In this episode, the hosts of Now Playing learn more about "Jigsaw" John Kramer and the vengeance he exacts upon a New Kid on the Block.

When Saw came out in 2004 no one expected it to rapidly become the premiere horror franchise of the 21st century, but since then Saw has laid claim to the Halloween holiday, with each year seeing the release of a new installment in this horror series. It all started with Carey Elwes and Leigh Wannell waking up in a dirty bathroom, chained at the leg, and one is told to kill the other. With Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson, and Shawnee Smith rounding out the cast, does this movie deserve to be the modern day epitome of the horror film? Listen to Now Playing to find out!

With the release of the latest movie in the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the hosts of Now Playing look into Michael Myers' family scrapbook, watching and reviewing all ten Halloween movies. Knights in White Satin, Sherri Moon Zombie in a white dress, and a white horse all populate Rob Zombie's stylistic but thematically confused sequel to his 2007 remake of Halloween. If, as Loomis says, "Bad taste is the petrol that fuels the American dream" then this movie is a dream come true. Listen to the hosts of Now Playing as we conclude our Halloween retrospective series and find out if a sequel of a remake really can hold a candle to the original.

With the release of the latest movie in the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the hosts of Now Playing look into Michael Myers' family scrapbook, watching and reviewing all ten Halloween movies. After a series of sequels with widely varying quality, Michael Myers follows Leatherface to have an extreme makeover for the 21st Century audience. Directed by Rob Zombie this film is a hybrid of Zombie's aesthetic previously seen on screens in House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects, and John Carpenter's original vision. It's part prequel, part remake, and all Rob Zombie, with Malcom McDowell taking on the role of Loomis. But does the remake work, or should Busta Rhymes have returned and the old story continued? Listen to find out!

With the release of the latest movie in the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the hosts of Now Playing look into Michael Myers' family scrapbook, watching and reviewing all ten Halloween movies. Ever wonder what happens if you put Busta Rhymes, Karate, The Blair Witch Project, Big Brother, American Pie, and Michael Myers all in a blender? Well, this is it! It's Halloween: Resurrection and despite having his head chopped off in the last movie, Michael Myers is back to eat more rats (with Fennel!) and kill more people. Is this hip reimaging just what the series was calling for? Listen to find out!

With the release of the latest movie in the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the hosts of Now Playing look into Michael Myers' family scrapbook, watching and reviewing all ten Halloween movies. Jamie Lee Curtis is back as Laurie Strode, 20 years after the first Halloween, but Michael Myers is back too. Produced and influenced by Kevin Williamson, will this movie make you Scream? Listen to find out!

With the release of the latest movie in the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the hosts of Now Playing look into Michael Myers' family scrapbook, watching and reviewing all ten Halloween movies. Michael Myers is back in black...or at least with the man in black from the last Halloween movie, and we learn that Michael is cursed by a thorn and controlled by druids...oh I give up, listen to this podcast to find out if the Now Playing hosts can make sense of this movie, or the Producer's Cut alternate release.

With the release of the latest movie in the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the hosts of Now Playing look into Michael Myers' family scrapbook, watching and reviewing all ten Halloween movies. Michael Myers is back and out for revenge in the fifth installment of the Halloween franchise, but what happened to his neice, and who is the strange mysterious man in the dark trenchcoat? Or the old woman at the barn party? We don't know, but listen anyway as we review Halloween 5!

With the release of the latest movie in the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the hosts of Now Playing look into Michael Myers' family scrapbook, watching and reviewing all ten Halloween movies. After the debacle that was a Halloween movie without serial killer Michael Myers, the makers of this new installment want to be sure the Shatner-masked icon is front and center both in this movie and in its title. But does the return of The Shape also mean the return to the quality levels found in the first Halloween movies? Listen to find out!