Failed Critics

DISCLAIMER: If you've downloaded this podcast in order to torture ears belonging to either you or somebody else with horrendous screeching sounds and unbearably loud-then-quiet distortion, then you've come to the wrong place. Steve and Owen somehow managed to keep the podcast from trying to destroy itself and have produced their first actual audible episode of 2015. Quite the achievement, I'm sure you'll agree. Not only is the sound quality bearable, but our debutant guest this week, Andrew Brooker, chimes in with some great reviews of Foxcatcher, Into The Woods and The Salvation that are well worth a listen.

A happy new year to all of our listeners! Welcome to the first Failed Critics podcast of 2015 with a bumper-crop of brand new releases. As announced earlier in the week, the podcast has undergone a bit of structural reform. The first guests to join Owen and Steve in the new series should be familiar to listeners old and new! Returning after more than a year since his last appearance, Gerry McAuley returns to review new(ish) release Enemy and newer release The Theory of Everything. Not only that, making a...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Like our beloved founder and his gut/disdain for the films of Seth MacFarlane, we're sure that you can't contain your excitement for the 2014 Failed Critics Awards any longer! It's that most magical time if year again, where four people who've seen some films this year are shunned by their family, set up in a dark corner of the house with their laptop and some booze, and talk you through the good, the bad, and the ugly in cinema from the last twelve months. Steve and Owen are joined by Matt Lambourne and prodigal son James Diamond as they attempt to better last week's quiz (not hard), discuss the year's films in a calm and rational manner (considerably harder), and try and make it sound...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome one and all to a very merry penultimate edition of the Failed Critics Podcast 2014! We took a couple of weeks off in a bid to resolve our audio issues, but have returned just in time for Christmas. Joining stalwarts Owen and Steve are our special guests Matt Lambourne and Callum Petch. Foregoing any news this week, mainly in an effort to keep spirits high, we kick off the festivities with a twist on the regular quiz theme. The team run through which Christmas movies they've been watching on the run up to the big day and there's even time to squeeze in a review of the most anticipated December blockbuster The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Peter...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A few days ago, in a galaxy quite close to where you are right now, three people got together to record this podcast! This week, as you've probably guessed already, the team mull over the teaser / trailer / pre-trailer-teaser / clip things for Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens and decide if they're 'clever girls' or just stinky old nerf herders. Also on this episode, we have a review of the first part of the third part of the Hunger Games series with Mockingjay, Part 1; as well as brand new docu-drama about the life of the titular artist, Hockney.

This week the Failed Critics join the Scottish Bafta's in paying homage to Lorraine Kelly, review new releases The Imitation Game and The Drop as well as having a look at the latest series of The Walking Dead and expose David Attenborough.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to this week's super-professional well-researched spick-and-span highly-polished episode of the Failed Critics podcast! The main release review this week is Christopher Nolan's $165m space-time-travelling science fiction thriller Interstellar. A film so long, we extended our podcast an extra 15 minutes with the return of our Spoiler Alert section alongside our regular spoiler-free review. Despite that, there was even time for Owen to take in the first two (well, one and a half) Lord of the Rings films...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I did not hit her. it's not true! I didn't do it, it's bullshit. I didn't hit her-- oh, hi listeners. Welcome to this week's edition of the Failed Critics podcast, full of excessively long sex scenes and soundtracked by MTV Base circa 2002. Following Carole's quiz triumph last week, Owen and Steve were forced to watch the cinematic masterpiece* that is The Room., written by, produced by, directed by and starring the unstoppable sex machine and all round nice guy Tommy Wiseau. (*At least, that's what Carole led them to...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Recorded in Spooky Audio the Failed Critics talk their favourite recent horror movies as well as reviewing Nightcrawler and going cray cray over Marvel's latest announcement.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Welcome all to this week's podcast! As mentioned on the last episode, Carole is taking a break this week so we turned to trusty stalwart James to fill in. He can't do anything to prevent quiz controversy with Owen's inept hosting. But then, neither could Carole. Nor Steve, now that we mention it. Despite James' temporary return, it's actually Steve who somehow ends up being the most sophisticated and intellectual of the bunch. No, really. At least, that's what the guys at EM Foundation thought prior to the podcast as they sent him a copy of the fully restored and fantastic 1930's French poetic realism movie Le Jour se lève for review. And raise the tone of...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"What do you hear when you listen to us?" Welcome one and all to the latest Failed Critics Podcast! This week, Carole looks back at 90's Johnny Depp with Dead Man, Owen dabbles and perhaps even revels in celebrity gossip, Steve discusses the biggest TV crossover since the Flintstones met the Jetsons and the team chat about The Equalizer and Maps to the Stars among other things. It's also Carole's last podcast appearance for a couple of weeks, but don't worry! We'll still be back next week with a special guest...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome all to this weeks podcast This episode has a bumper crop of new releases.. and new-ish releases..! A whopping four films out in the cinema right now receive the Failed Critics treatment. Whilst Carole reviews the latest Woody Allen movie Magic in the Moonlight and the upcoming zom-rom-com Life After Beth, Owen tackles the recent Liam Neeson crime thriller A Walk Among The Tombstones and the totes ruddy spiffing The Riot Club. Amongst all that, the team also found time to talk about BBC's latest Storyville season, the 1989 black comedy The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, and Steve even got in on the new-releases by reviewing the Toby Jones drama, Marvellous, shown on TV this...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Steve returns and carefully edits out a spoiler for a relatively new release as he tries to remember how to host a podcast after sunning himself for a week. Meanwhile Carole and Owen review a couple of new releases, including Pride, and What We've Been Watching ganders at the recent TV and film viewing habits of our intrepid trio.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

That's right ladies and gentlemen; just two weeks after saying some emotional goodbyes and handing over the keys to Failed Critics Towers, James has come crawling back begging to help out. Luckily for him, Steve's holiday presented the ideal opportunity for a coup d'état and a triumphant return as guest host for one night only. Luckily for you, Owen and Carole are on hand to keep the ego in check, and provide some much needed analysis of the week in film, including the launch of London Film Festival 2014. Elsewhere we review new releases Before I Go To Sleep and The Guest, and Triple Bill sees the team discuss Movie Recasting Decisions.

By the authority vested in me by the State of This Mess, I now pronounce you podcast and listener. You don't have to kiss us if you do not want to. Welcome dear listeners to the Failed Critics podcast, where a hastily arranged 'movie weddings' triple bill is the main feature this week. Partly inspired by Steve's drunken escapades at a wedding reception this past weekend, the team promise that they haven't prepared an emotional speech that lasts for days. Although I can't promise that everyone remained sober and civil without offending each other and coming close to blows over one or two selections.

The King is dead retired, long live the King, King and Queen! With the James-era officially ending with our previous podcast, we begin anew with two new release reviews. We did consider making you wait nine years for us to get back together, inspired by Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, but we just couldn't wait that long to tell you about it. We also found time to review Luc Besson's latest sci-fi thriller Lucy - and we didn't need to reach 100% brain capacity in order to do it either.

Hello everyone. I usually write these in the third person, like a pretentious wrestler or someone with a personality disorder, but I'm dropping the charade this one time to say thank you for listening to this podcast, and any others that you've happened upon over the last two-and-a-bit years. I'm moving on for the time being to focus on other projects, but Failed Critics will always be very special to me, and I hope to come back in some shape or form at some point in the future. In the meantime though, I'm leaving it in the more than capable hands of Steve, Owen, and Carole, and it's typical that I choose to leave just when we've finally got the sound quality sorted!

Really sad news this week as we react to the untimely death of Robin Williams on this week's podcast. Steve, Carole, and James discuss his brilliant body of work, and choose their favourite performances of his for a hastily arranged Triple Bill. There's also reviews of new releases The Inbetweeners 2 and Planes 2: Fire and Recue. Join them next week for the return of Owen, and what is certain to be a very emotional farewell from James in his last podcast as a regular. Expect tears, tantrums, and tequila.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nothing goes over the head of these podcasters. Not even humongous man-eating fish being hurled at them by a terrible sharkrnado. Our reflexes are too fast, plus we have chainsaws for hands. James is absent, but not yet retired. Just lazy. Steve warns against watching the latest b-movie from The Asylum, Sharknado 2: The Second One. Meanwhile, Carole tries to hold it together after the announcement that Studio Ghibli may be closing to give us the low-down on a slightly more up-market Brotherhood, whilst Owen reviews a hundred year old documentary, The Great White Silence, in light of the Sight & Sound's recent awards.