Failed Critics

This week's episode of the Failed Critics Podcast will first require a pass key to access. You can find said pass key by looking in the sole of your left shoe for a microchip which can then be inserted into the back of your phone. It will beam holographic cryptic instructions on the whereabouts of the access code before self-destructing in 5... 4... 3... 2... Only joking. Why make the podcast more of a challenge to listen to than it already is, right? There's so secret combination required to listen to the returning Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Andrew Brooker talk all things Mission: Impossible on our latest episode. We start as ever with a tightly poised quiz, before the team swiftly move onto discussing the Tom Cruise led action franchise in a bit more detail. We discuss the overall quality of the movies as well as the ever-popular topic of whether or not Cruise is the last remaining true movie star. There's even a special M:I themed triple bill as well as a full review of the fifth entry to the...

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground. But the game of the Failed Critics Podcast is a bit more accommodating and has more of a flexible work-life balance. Plus it has much less incest too. This episode is part two of our third TV Special podcast, featuring Owen Hughes as host in place of Steve Norman. As in part one, Owen is joined by Matt Latham from The Bottle Episode and Failed Critics founder James Diamond. With the Emmy's chat firmly done and dusted, the team move onto answering some tough, insightful and deeply ponderous questions such as "what TV show did you used to hate but now really like", and "what is the best new TV show of the year". You know, the sort of questions you just don't hear anybody else deal with. We'll be back to our regular output next week with Steve returning to hosting duties as we review Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Failed Critics TV Special revolution will not be televised, brother. Although, it will still be a conveniently downloadable audio podcast. No change there, then. However, what is different, for our third TV Special episode, there's no Steve Norman. Instead, Owen Hughes leapt into Steve's upholstered velvet host's chair whilst it was still warm, swivelled himself around, and read questions from the teleprompter to our special guests for this episode. Owen was joined by both Matt Latham from the TV blog and podcast, The Bottle Episode, and returning to us like the prodigal son, former head-honcho at FC HQ, James Diamond, now co-running the Diamond and Human podcast. With so much content to get through, you may consider saving this episode and box-set binging later in the week with the release of Part Two. Going massively over-time and blowing the entire Failed Critics Entertainment Budget on one two-part special, we just had so much to talk about that we've had to split our TV Special in half. In part...

Welcome one and all to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast where Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are this week joined by special guests Andrew Brooker and Matt Lambourne to review big-budget pint-sized Marvel superhero movie Ant-Man! There's both a spoiler-free discussion on the film and a return of our 'spoiler alert' right after the end credits where we go into more specific details. Also featured on this week's podcast: Owen discusses the 1970's Werner Herzog movie Stroszek; Brooker finally manages to get his hands on The Voices, starring Ryan Reynolds; Matt is back to say a few things to say about Terminator Genisys; and Steve puts him through the Danny Dyer film The Other Half ....with very good reason! There's even time for the group to mull over the Attack On Titan trailer, talk about our latest celeb Twitter follower after the very first Failed Critics meet up and we "react" to the as yet unreleased Spectre trailer. Join us again next week for the return of our TV Special in honour of the...

The last time you might have heard Wikishuffle appear on our podcast was back in April during the Quizcast and, as ever, Steve kicks off this pod with a quiz of his own before the team discuss latest new releases. There's disappointment over Seth McFarlane's controversial comedy sequel Ted 2. The Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominated dramady Dear White People doesn't quite live up to its hype. Even the animated Irish fantasy film Song of the Sea squeezes its way into this edition. Despite this episode being shorter than our most recent efforts, there's still time for: Owen to review the much lauded 1994 sports documentary Hoop Dreams; Phil rewatches The Guest, his favourite film of last year; Chris tries to figure out why this season of True Detective isn't working for him; Jack actually has fun (no, really) whilst watching Minions; and Steve finally gets around to Marvel's Netflix show, Daredevil. Join us again next week as we'll be back to review Ant Man! In the meantime, don't forget to vote for... &n

Come with us yf you want to lyve in a world where there are only 25 letters of the alphabet. Or stay in your regular 26-letter alphabet world if you like? You can still come with us through another 90 minutes of Failed Critics Podcast film chatter. On this episode, the usual voices of Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by the returning Callum Petch to review new releases Terminator Genisys and Magic Mike XXL. Also on this episode, the team take a look over the past week's film news, including the Film4 FrightFest programme announcement and Inside Out smashing a box office record previously held by Avatar! Sticking with the James Cameron theme, Owen reviews his 1989 deep-water sci-fi The Abyss in our What We've Been Watching section; Steve reveals his thoughts on spy-comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service and why Danny Dyer would still make a good James Bond; and continuing along his path to see more cult 80's classics, Callum watches the recently restored Furious, as well as voluntarily torturing...

Welcome to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast where the team are at their most despicable. No, we haven't brought back Brooker and Paul!! I'm talking about the prequel to Illumination's Despicable Me franchise, all about those little yellow goofy sidekicks. Joining Steve Norman and Owen Hughes to review Minions is our animation expert Callum Petch. The team also take a look at action thrillers Everly (starring Selma Hayek) and Eli Roth's Knock Knock (starring Keanu Reeves). We also have a special guest débutante to the Failed Critics podcast in Nick Lay, author of our articles on We Are Many, Dish & Dishonesty and Kung Fury! In a pre-recorded review, he joins Owen all the way from Canada to discuss the micro budget British thriller Through The Lens. Meanwhile, Steve reveals the startling news that prior to this week, he'd somewhat unbelievably never seen The Terminator before, whilst Callum takes over the b-movie duties from Owen to review 80's cult classic Hard Ticket To Hawaii. There's eve

Welcome to possibly the most offensive, extraordinarily explicit episode of the Failed Critics Podcast to date. Which probably suggests our guests this week need no introduction! But for the sake of posterity, hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by Andrew Brooker and Paul Field. To tie into last week's release of Entourage: The Movie, a spin-off from the popular HBO series, "the boys" have turned this episode into a TV Special. Not quite a full continuation of the first two entries to our previous TV Specials (part 1 & part 2), this is more like a TV Special 2.5 with a full third entry coming in the next few months. In it, the quiz gets a TV-make-over, the team talk about what TV shows they've been watching lately and we have a full review of the Entourage film. We're even releasing this episode a couple of days early as it will take you a week to finally finish listening to it as it comes in at an impressive (daunting?) 1 hour and 45 minutes long. Join us again next week as Callum Petch join

Huh? Where's the podcast gone...? ...oh, no... ...IT'S CAMOUFLAGED! No, wait, here it is. And it looks like Steve Norman and Owen Hughes have spliced together some DNA and created a monster of their own in Mike Shawcross. You might think that's an insult, but remember, 'monster' is relative. To a mouse, a cat is a monster. To Hammer Horror, Christopher Lee is a monster. To our audience, we are monsters. Anyway, in this episode we review Colin Trevorrow's new mega-blockbuster box office-record-breaking hit Jurassic World, including both a spoiler free review (as normal) and the return of "spoiler alert" at the end of the podcast after the credits. Also in this episode: we pay tribute to the iconic Sir Christopher Lee, a true legend of cinema, who sadly passed away last week; as well as running through the original Jurassic Park films and the latest Channel 4 series Humans, Steve actually prepared a quiz this week; Mike explains the problems with The Matrix on blu-ray; and Owen raves about the... &nbs

What happens when you reunite the filthy minds of [The Mirror's film correspondent] Paul Field and Andrew Brooker on the same podcast as Steve Norman and Owen Hughes? If you guessed "clean, mild mannered discussion on various films in the cinema" then you'd be wrong. This episode is explicit with a capital E. And a capital X, P, L, I, C, I and T as well. You have been warned! Although there are still plenty of films discussed this week. Together, in-between the carnage, the team manage to put together 80 minutes of semi-coherent chat, starting as ever with a tightly poised quiz (+ results from last week's United Passions defence) and discussing the latest from the world of film news, including Jurassic World's initially poor reception and Hugh Jackman relinquishing his most famous role. We also discuss a number of new releases in the cinema this past week, including: Paul Feig's comedy Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Rose Byrne and Miranda Hart; the confusingly titled studio... &

Dogged this past week by claims of corruption, rigged voting and overweight power mad men running the show... No, it's not Steve and Owen here at Failed Critics! No. It's not even Sepp Blatter at FIFA. It's actually our guest Tony Black, who is joining us from Black Hole Cinema. After an open and equal voting process, Tony won his opportunity to join us this week completely fairly. Owen's new sports car and Steve's new handbag are just mere coincidences. The quiz this week has a slightly tongue in cheek twist as the team try to defend the FIFA backed film United Passions (don't forget to let us know which one is your favourite!) As well as this, the team also discuss: the front runners for the role of Spider-Man in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe film; Owen watches Alpha Papa twice in a week; Tony takes a look at the Kickstarter backed short film Kung Fury; and Steve finally gets around to seeing 22 Jump Street. And as if all of that wasn't enough, there's even time to squeeze in reviews of Brad...

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast! Joining hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes this week are Andrew Brooker and Jackson Tyler, sharing their opinion on the latest installment of the Pitch Perfect franchise, as well as George Miller's triumphant return to post-apocalyptic Australia with Mad Max: Fury Road. Starting off the podcast as ever is our quiz - in its new revamped format! With things teetering on a knife edge, will Steve lose and be forced to watch Kill Keith yet again, or will he win and force Owen to watch Kill Keith again? Or, with a bit of luck, will the cursed video-tape that is Keith Chegwin's magnum opus finally be passed on to somebody else so we never have to darken our DVD player with it ever again? We also chat about the 68th Cannes (with an 's') Film Festival, from the end of the McConaissance to institutional sexism. There's even room for Owen to revisit a film talked about exactly 150 episodes ago; Jackson shares his love for Alexander Payne's... &nb

They're heeeerrrrreeeee.... And by 'they', we of course mean 'we'. We're here to host another triple bill edition of the Failed Critics Podcast! This week, Mike Shawcross and Matt Lambourne step into the fold along with regulars Steve Norman and Owen Hughes as they each pick their three favourite child performances in film. From sweary little girls, to doom-bringing seven year old boys, we've covered all of the best young performances that we could fit into 100 minutes of podcast. Amongst that, we did still manage to squeeze in a quick round up of who-won-what at the Cannes Film Festival, which closed this week. In keeping with the Cannes theme, Mike even watched a film called The Beaver that was first screened at the festival a few years back, starring Mel Gibson. And, as if we'd planned it (we didn't), Matt also watched a Mel Gibson movie as he looks back on the original 1979 Australian rampage film Mad Max. Meanwhile, Owen recounts his experience this past weekend at a Q&A with Al Pacino, whilst...

Welcome to another edition of the Failed Critics Podcast where hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are joined by special guest Matt Lambourne. In this episode, the team take a look at the big screen continuation of the long running and oft heralded BBC TV series with Spooks: The Greater Good. In honour of this very British espionage thriller, we have a triple bill where our trio each pick the three films they think sums up Britishness in movies best. Don't worry, there's no flag waving or national anthem renditions here. Just a veritable plethora of poor attempts at cross-country accents, from Danny Dyer to non-specific American. We also introduce a brand new potentially semi-regular section to the podcast where we finally answer the burning questions you've been sending in to us, such as "who would win in a fight, an astronaut or a caveman?", "why does Owen watch 847 films a week?", "why don't we let that handsome chap Callum Petch on the podcast more often?" and more! Yes, more! If you'd like to ask the...

Welcome to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast! Our special guests this week are Mike Shawcross and Andrew Brooker (that we know of, there could also have been a spooky spectre lurking on our Skype call) who join our regular hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes.  We review two new releases, the cyber-slasher Unfriended and the "infuriating" Monsters: Dark Continent alongside our usual quiz, news and 'what we've been watching' sections. The latter of which sees Steve finally complete the Harry Potter franchise, dropping the mic at the suggestion of a proposed...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast as we use our words to describe the eleventh and latest entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron! This week we also celebrate our third birthday (hip hip!) Joining Steve and Owen for this extravaganza is the returning Carole Petts, for the first time on a proper feature podcast this year - although she has appeared on our Avengers Minisodes and reviewed Age of Ultron on the site of course! Also...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the run up to the latest hotly anticipated Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, Steve and Owen have been busy putting together a series of short 20-25 minute long minisode podcasts. With clips from the films, trailers, retro reviews taken from our archived podcasts as well as brand new retrospective reviews featuring a varied mix of different guests for each episode, we’ll be running through all of the MCU movies thus far in chronological order. Welcome to the very last episode in our Avengers Minisode series! Here we take a look back on the second best film of 2014, as...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to the Failed Critics podcast-- or should I say, "quizcast"! For the first time in Failed Critics history, we're teaming up with some fellow podcasters for 60 minutes of quizzing. With our regular host Steve Norman in the quiz master's chair, it was up to Owen Hughes and Matt Lambourne to represent Failed Critics. Up against them, from the weekly film review pdocast Black Hole Cinema, was Tony Black and Matt Latham. The third and final team on the quiz (and the only non-film related podcast) was 

In the run up to the latest hotly anticipated Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, Steve and Owen have been busy putting together a series of short 20-25 minute long minisode podcasts. With clips from the films, trailers, retro reviews taken from our archived podcasts as well as brand new retrospective reviews featuring a varied mix of different guests for each episode, we’ll be running through all of the MCU movies thus far in chronological order. In the penultimate podcast of our Avengers Minisode series, we take a look back at 2014's espionage thriller, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. After a brief cameo from Chris Evans as Steve Rogers...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the run up to the latest hotly anticipated Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, Steve and Owen have been busy putting together a series of short 20-25 minute long minisode podcasts. With clips from the films, trailers, retro reviews taken from our archived podcasts as well as brand new retrospective reviews featuring a varied mix of different guests for each episode, we’ll be running through all of the MCU movies thus far in chronological order. Our eighth Avengers Minisode takes a look back on director Alan Taylor's Thor: The Dark World. With a slightly larger budget than Brannagh's first Thor film, this sequel attempts to expand on...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.