Movie Madness

It’s Blu-ray time again with Erik Childress and Sergio Mims. They marvel at some new 4K releases by reminding how great Speed is and put up a defense for Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs as well. Sergio talks about one of the earlier variations of a Groundhog Day-esque scenarios and a great Criterion title to catch-up on before its remake. Erik talks up one of the best comedies of the year as well as one of the best anthology films in years. There is talk of Bob Hope, more Mel Brooks, the tempestuous relationship between Marlon Brando and Rita Moreno (in real-life and on screen), and then things get dirty with The Hot Spot and Mike Hammer. Finally, they can’t help but deliver a tribute to Jackie Chan with the release of one of his masterpieces.   0:00 - Intro 2:31 – Disney (Speed 4K) 15:46 – Criterion (Nightmare Alley) 22:18 – PBS (Hemingway) 25:31 – Cohen Media (It Happened Tomorrow) 34:29 – Scorpion (Trackdown) 40:13 – Lionsgate (Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar) 45:50 – RLJE (The Mortuary Collection) 50:33 – Warner

This week’s movie review edition of the show features eight new films discussed by Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy. They each handle a documentary including a new mid-career music tale (Pink: All I Know So Far) and the bizarre mystery of a stamp collection that passes between neighbors (The Penny Black). Steve minces no words of his love for Mads Mikkelsen (Riders of Justice) and Erik catches up on a SXSW title that could be an alternative to the Saw reboot (Sound of Violence). Two more mysteries are in need of solving, one starring Eric Bana (The Dry) and a horror film from the writer of You’re Next, The Guest and the Blair Witch reboot (Séance). They also look back on some true horror featuring interviews with some of the last surviving members of the Third Reich (Final Account) and, finally, Toni Collette hopes to turn an animal into a profit-making champion in the true tale of Dream Horse.   0:00 - Intro 2:33 – Pink: All I Know So Far 11:56  The Penny Black 19:38 – Riders of Justice 26:58 – Sound of V

This week’s movie review edition of the podcast features Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy looking at eight new titles this week. We have mysteries, killers and zombies up and down the show including more long-delayed films such as Timur Bekmambetov’s computer screen thriller, Profile, which premiered on the festival circuit in 2018 and Joe Wright’s The Woman in the Window which was first slated for release in October 2019. There is more terror from a young boy trying to survive an hour with The Djinn, Melanie Laurent running out of a crucial element in Oxygen and Chris Rock out to solve a new string of Jigsaw murders in Spiral: From the Book of Saw. Does The Killing of Two Lovers add to the body count or does Zack Snyder cover the spread in Vegas with his Army of the Dead?   0:00 - Intro 3:38 - Profile 12:25 – The Djinn 20:00 - Oxygen 32:48 - The Killing of Two Lovers 44:59 - Those Who Wish Me Dead 59:54 - Spiral: From the Book of Saw 1:15:35 - The Woman in the Window 1:29:40 - Army of the Dead 1:53:31 – Ou

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy open May 2021 with eight (mostly) new movie reviews. There’s a racially-charged Sundance drama that premiered in 2018 (Monster), the true story of an FBI informant played by Emilia Clarke who got too close to her handler that was made in 2019 (Above Suspicion) the same year when 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot premiered at the Austin Film Festival. They also look at a documentary about Sean Penn’s philanthropic efforts (Citizen Penn), Mena Suvari forced to find stolen diamonds at a storage facility (Locked In) and David Oyelowo’s directorial debut (The Water Man) that shares a lot with a 2016 film. Billy Crystal is also back in the director’s chair for the first time in 20 years (Here Today) and its been over 20 years since we first heard from director Guy Ritchie. Can his latest, Wrath of Man, cool the wrath Erik has carried for his resume?   0:00 - Intro 4:25 – 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bigfoot 11:45 – Citizen Penn 20:06 - Locked In 26:42 - Monster 35:46 –

Considering their lack of enthusiasm for the recent Godzilla vs. Kong, Sergio Mims and Erik Childress decided to list some of their favorite monster movies. This extended segment from their Bad Mutha Film Show on WHPK Radio in Chicago offers 20 alternatives to the weak titan sauce in theaters. They include from the world of Ray Harryhausen, inspirations for the current versus, not to mention remakes (and sequels) that outdo the originals. It’s a two-plus hour celebration of giants and tiny things you only want to mess with at the movies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy look at another ten movies this week to close out April. Steve checks in on a documentary about Alan Ladd Jr. (Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies), Brian Tyree Henry is an introvert locked out of his apartment (The Outside Story) and the tale of an Syrian immigrant waiting for asylum in Scotland (Limbo) while Erik talks about a female arm-wrestling comedy (Golden Arm). The pair also discuss Anson Mount as an egocentric assassin (The Virtuoso), jerky teenagers in Dublin (Here Are The Young Men) and junkie Mila Kunis seeking help from mom Glenn Close (Four Good Days). There are also ghosts in the Hudson Valley with Amanda Seyfried (Things Heard & Seen) and more ghosts in a Brooklyn custody battle (Separation). Then finally they close out the month with the latest film in the Tom Clancy universe with Michael B. Jordan (Without Remorse).   0:00 - Intro 4:16 - Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies 17:48 - The Outside Story 24:49 - Golden Arm 30:49 - Limbo 35:34 - The Virtuoso 48

Sergio Mims returns with another look at the latest and greatest in Blu-rays. Along with Erik Childress they catch up on Arrow’s release of Kevin Smith’s Mallrats and Sergio’s lingering love for sword-and-sandal films with Film Detective’s Hercules and the Captive Women. They look at a pair of overseas releases of Paramount thrillers Black Sunday and Breakdown and express their great love for the studio’s long-overdue release of Michael Ritchie’s The Bad News Bears. They still have enough time to talk up a number of Warner Archive titles including musicals Annie Get Your Gun and Broadway Melody of 1940, a trio of Tarzan titles and are then overjoyed to get one of their recent not-on-Blu-Ray titles released, the Bill Murray bank robbery comedy, Quick Change.   0:00 - Intro 3:33 - Arrow (Mallrats) 12:55 – Criterion (The Furies) 17:01 - Film Detective (Hercules and the Captive Women) 25:30 – Imprint (Black Sunday, Breakdown) 45:24 – Paramount (The Bad News Bears) 1:02:57 – Warner Archive (Broadway Melody of 194

There are a couple of great battles in the films reviewed on this episode, but Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy leave no film behind this week before debating their merits. Ten films on the docket including films about pigs with no dialogue (Gunda), werewolves with some songwriting (Bloodthirsty) and Lovecraftian fish people who want to spawn with a couple (The Deep Ones). Ed Helms wants Patti Harrison to carry his baby (Together Together) and William Jackson Harper wants to know why Aya Cash won’t marry him (We Broke Up). A pair of documentaries explore the origins of a unique celebrity (Tiny Tim: King for a Day) and a beloved children’s program (Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street) while Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette and Daniel Dae Kim head to Mars with an uninvited guest (Stowaway). But if battles are what you are looking for get ready for The Mitchells vs. the Machines and the long-awaited “R”-rated adaptation of the video game, Mortal Kombat   0:00 - Intro 2:42 – Gunda 7:54 – Bloodthirsty 15:37 - To

From their WHPK radio show out of the University of Chicago, The Bad Mutha Film Show, Sergio Mims and Erik Childress do another round on the current state of theaters. Where are we headed after Godzilla vs. Kong and is it really the blockbuster titles that we should be looking at to pave the way? Did Paramount make a colossal blunder in moving the Top Gun sequel off the summer schedule and what studio could take advantage of that? They also discuss the closing of the Navy Pier IMAX theater in Chicago and Sergio continues to wonder if Warner Bros. is willing to pull an audible on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune while Erik is skeptical about that and its prospects in general.   0:00 – Intro 4:14 – Godzilla vs. Kong and The Shifting Summer Season 31:13 – Did Paramount Screw Up With Top Gun: Maverick? 50:58 – The Closing of Navy Pier IMAX 1:02:16 – The Dune Situation This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

We’re only halfway through April 2021 and the good movies are few and far between. But Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy may actually have a few recommendations for you this week and it arrives with horror in all its manifestations. There is a haunted house (The Banishing), backwoods farmers (Honeydew) and the woods themselves (In the Earth). But there are also toxic relationships (Monday, Slalom), shadow organizations (Trigger Point, The Rookies) and Ruby Rose running down jobs for a wheelchair-bound Morgan Freeman (Vanquish). But there is nothing horrible about the wonderful Barbara Crampton getting a chance to sink her teeth into a lead role in Travis Stevens’ Jakob’s Wife and the duo expand upon their praise from SXSW.   0:00 - Intro 4:12 – The Banishing 11:14 - Trigger Point 17:19 – Slalom 23:40 – Monday 35:51 -  The Rookies 45:37 – Jakob’s Wife 58:24 – Vanquish 1:12:19 - Honeydew 1:27:59 - In the Earth 1:40:08 – Outro This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers

After the recent film, Malcolm & Marie, went off on a diatribe against film critics, Erik Childress and Sergio Mims decided to look at the way films (and even television) have treated critics of all times. Sometimes satirically, but often as a reaction or a way for filmmakers to enact revenge on those who have taken shots at their work. Are film critics influenced negatively – or even positively – when they are acknowledged in unflattering (or even unfair) terms but those holding a grudge? Can we laugh at ourselves when the opportunity arises or be held to account when justified? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy look at six movies on this week’s show. They review a story of the brutal military service of South Africa (Moffie), what a refugee will do to flee civil war (The Man Who Sold His Skin), a visual landscape brought to you by one of Terrence Malick’s cinematographers (Awaken) and how one survives the night shift at a haunted hospital (The Power). Most of their discussion this week is reserved for how Ben Falcone is failing Melissa McCarthy in their fifth collaboration (Thunder Force) and what happens when a filmmaker tries to mask the classic story he’s really telling by ignoring the more interesting one he’s created (Voyagers.)   0:00 - Intro 1:46 - Moffie 5:51 - The Man Who Sold His Skin 10:15 - Awaken 14:51 - The Power 21:19 - Thunder Force 41:51 - Voyagers 1:03:40 - Outro This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy are back with this week’s movie reviews. Six films in a somewhat lackluster week, albeit a few recommendations. But which film(s) will it be? Can it be another corporate rise-and-fall documentary (WeWork: The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn)? Is Michelle Pfeiffer as a rich socialite the draw (French Exit) or is it Idris Elba as an urban cowboy (Concrete Cowboy)? Maybe its Jeffrey Dean Morgan fighting against Christian horror (Roe v Wade – sorry, The Unholy) or a young Jewish woman in a den of disappointment directed at her (Shiva Baby)? No, surely it’s the long-in-the-works film about the landmark abortion case in the hands of conservative fact-fudgers (The Unholy – sorry, Roe v Wade)? Also, if you are looking for the show on favorite screen villains, that is one episode earlier.   2:31 – WeWork: The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn 11:42 – French Exit 22:31 – Concrete Cowboy 35:16 - Shiva Baby 46:04 – The Unholy 59:35 – Roe v Wade 1:15:41 - Outro Th

As part of their recent show on WHPK Radio, Sergio Mims and Erik Childress discussed some of their favorite film villains. They range from Nazis to Comic Books and Serial Killers to Blaxploitation Adversaries. Evidence is provided of their evil ways and you may even hear one of them meet their deserved demise. What goes into a great villain and why do these choices stand out? The pair discuss everything from James Bond to Athletic Antagonists and this may only be the beginning. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Ten new films get time on the weekly review edition of the podcast. Erik Childress tells you about a Star Trek III reunion (Senior Moment), stealing back Francis Drake’s treasure (The Vault) and what kids sing about at Christian camp (A Week Away). Steve Prokopy covers Nazis in not one, but two historical dramas (The Good Traitor, Six Minutes to Midnight) and also takes delight in The Truffle Hunters. Then the duo decide just how funny Eric Andre’s Bad Trip actually is, look at the new Tina Turner documentary on HBO and watch Bob Odenkirk go all John Wick in Nobody. That is all a buildup to the biggest mano-a-mano this week – in more ways than one – with a title match of Godzilla vs. Kong.   2:47 – The Good Traitor 10:16 – Senior Moment 15:52 – The Truffle Hunters 20:18 – A Week Away 27:58 – Six Minutes to Midnight 35:46 – The Vault 42:58 – Bad Trip 57:18 – Tina 1:11:55 – Nobody 1:24:32 - Godzilla vs. Kong 1:55:24 - Outro This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers

The first fully virtual SXSW Film Festival is in the books and while they are already planning a return to an in-person event in 2022, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy run down over a dozen films that played this year. It was a remarkable year for female-centric stories including standouts by Barbara Crampton, Olivia Munn and Andrea Risborough. Documentaries introduced us to the world’s greatest domino toppler, those who mounted Alien as a stage production and many of the great women in stand-up comedy. Not everything was played for laughs as there were harrowing stories about Demi Lovato and Selma Blair but spirits lifted with musical tales about Tom Petty and the legendary AIR studios in Montserrat. Ironically as honest and laid bare some of these films were, the duo talk about maybe the least transparent doc of them all about a filmmaker who has been anything but shy throughout their career.   0:00 - Intro 1:21 – Virtual vs. In-Person SXSW 8:38 – The Fallout 15:37 – Introducing, Selma Blair 24:13 – Lily To

In an epic episode of the podcast, Erik Childress & Sergio Mims rundown a whole swath of new Blu-ray and DVD titles to add to your library. They talk Cecil B. DeMille epics from Paramount and a whole batch of titles from Warner Archive including one from their Not-On-Blu-Ray show. Sergio talks again of his love for Bob Hope, Billie Holliday and a Criterion title that either inspired Beyonce (or she stole from.) He also has a new commentary track available. Erik reveals one of his biggest surprises of the year, talks the only good Paul W.S. Anderson film and what he feels is the most underappreciated film on the new John Hughes set. He also reveals a major project announcement that is headed your way in a few months. So strap in for hours of movie talk.   0:00 - Intro 3:52 – Film Movement (The Belles of St. Trinian’s) 8:13 – Criterion (Mandabi, Touki Bouki) 16:57 – Shout Factory (Event Horizon) 23:13 – RLJE (Psycho Goreman) 32:44 – Warner Archive (The Man Who Would Be King, Red Sun, What’s Up Doc?, Damn

Come for the killer pants, stay for the most anticipated four-hour director’s cut miniseries chapter play of 2021. Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy review seven new titles on the show this week including Chris Smith’s documentary about the college admissions scandal (Operation Varsity Blues), Benedict Cumberbatch as a reluctant spy (The Courier) and Johnny Depp trying to solve the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. (City of Lies). But that’s not all as we have those blue jeans that want to kill you (Slaxx), A psychological thriller about a young woman looking for her birth parents (Rose Plays Julie) plus Joel McHale and Kerry Bishe as the perfect couple (Happily). But it is all leading up to the big reveal of Zack Snyder’s Justice League and whether or not it leaps the not-so-tall order of improving upon the theatrical cut.   0:00 - Intro 2:25 - Slaxx 8:13 - Rose Plays Julie 14:38 – The Courier 25:03 - Operation Varsity Blues 38:52 - City of Lies 50:46 – Happily 1:03:17 – Zack Snyder’s Justice League 1:37:22 –

It’s a shorter-than-usual review week here on the show and the takes from Erik Childress & Steve Prokopy go from the highs to the absolute lows. These days that usually means Bruce Willis and he is joined by Frank Grillo in the sci-fi effort, Cosmic Sin.  Jennifer Garner won’t say no to her kids in Yes Day, a sleep study turns nightmarish in Come True and living moment-by-moment becomes a nightmare for Anthony Hopkins in The Father. The duo also look at the Discovery Plus documentary, My Beautiful Stutter, Victoria Justice in the erotic drama, Trust, and Tilda Swinton is a one-woman show in Pedro Almodovar’s short film, The Human Voice.   5:54 – Cosmic Sin 17:47 – Yes Day 31:42 – Come True 41:20 – The Father 53:24 – My Beautiful Stutter 1:02:10 – Trust 1:09:01 – The Human Voice This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

From the files of the Bad Mutha Film Show on WHPK Radio in Chicago, Sergio Mims and Erik Childress do their annual rundown of predictions for the Academy Award nominations. Well, Erik predicts and Sergio listens as he goes into why he is not caring about this year’s event. They also decry the Academy’s decision to extend the eligibility period and then look forward on the latest news about the return of movie theaters.   1:42 – Erik’s Oscar Predictions 24:27 - Why Sergio Doesn’t Care About the Oscars This Year 48:28 – Are We Getting Close To Theaters Re-Opening? 1:23:08 – Outro   And be sure to catch up on some potential Oscar nominees Borat Subsequent Moviefilm First Cow The Mauritanian Minari Never Rarely Sometimes Always News of the World One Night in Miami Promising Young Woman Sound of Metal   This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com