Convicted Cinephiles

It's the finale to the year of 2015 as Steve and Matty give you their best and worst with the help of Eric Kimelton and Kyle Brown. What was the worst thing that graced each of our panels eyes? How damaging was Terminator Genisys to Matty? And how many of the guys listed Mad Max: Fury Road as the best film of the year? Listen in to find out!

It's been a long-ass hiatus for Steve and Matty but they make their triumphant return in a brand new episode of Convicted Cinephiles! Tackling the usual year end rundown, the guys are joined by their friends from theKing Falls, Kyle Brown and Eric Kimelton to give their lists of the best and worst of 2015. The episode went way over time so it is split into two episodes, so enjoy the guys giving their surprise picks of the year as well as the mosts that disappointed them so harshly. Convicted Cinephiles is back, friends!

****This episode was recording in April 2015 and released late because of reasons****The guys get to dig into some science fiction for this episode as they head into the deepest and darkest recesses of space this time. Joining Stevil and Matty is Michael Lothian, the host of The League's podcast Mainly Mobile and fellow podcaster Bryce Logan, the host of Let's Watch That and The 4 Eyed Forecast with his co-host Andy Shirlaw. Together, the guys talk some news first as Stevil wonders if trailers are giving away too much plot details, case in point, the new Terminator trailer gives an absolute doozy of a spoiler. What's too much? These are our Staff Picks of the week! Most likely in his lengthy preparation for Mad Max: Fury Road, Matty got to watch a great post apocalyptic gem from director Neil Marshall, 2008's Doomsday. What more can you ask for in a violent action flick? Cannibals, crazy fight sequences and great character actors like Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell chewing the scenery for a little bit. Fant

The Cinephiles get gangster this episode, as the topic is, as stated by Matty, "People Doing Criminal Sh*t". The guys welcome Drex Live's producer Eric to the show, as well as regular guest J.J. Webb for a pretty interesting group of films. The panel starts with something a little different in their usual news department. They talk television! With Daredevil now on Netflix and the return of Game of Thrones, the guys movie watching took a little break to get immersed in these groundbreaking TV series. Then the horrible R word comes out: Reboot. What's getting a Hollywood "re-imagining"? These are our Staff Picks of the week! After checking out the latest Fast and Furious film, Matty has an urge to re watch one of the co-stars Tony Jaa's older films The Protector. The movie is about a young Thai fighter who must travel to Australia to recover his stolen elephant, a sacred animal in his village. This movie is packed with incredible martial arts scenes and awesome one shot sequences. We're a little bummed that th

After almost a month Stevil and Matty return with a new Convicted Cinephiles. This week we explore that fun time in everyone's development as a human being, teen angst! With the help of guests Jstebz and our friend, a guest from our comic show Booked, Noah Dorsey, the panel breaks down four very different films. With stories ranging from Saturday detention to the outright murder of the popular clique in school, we have all bases covered. So alright, alright, alright, let's dig in! These are our Staff Picks of the week! Noah comes equipped with two picks for us this week. Proving it gets better and better with each viewing, it's really a no brainer why Big Hero 6 was the Academy Award winner for Best Animated. It's got a big heart, lovable characters and some really great action. Will this be the kick in the pants Matty needs to see it? Time will tell. For Noah's second pick he suggests a horror film from writer/director Eric England, Contracted, about a woman who thinks she's caught an STI but in actuality is

With the 87th Annual Academy Awards having been presented this past Sunday, the boys welcome the Los Angeles branch of Convicted Cinephiles, Make Believe Picture Company's Kyle Brown and Eric Kimelton back for the second annual breakdown of the winners of the top prize in the film business. Stevil starts off the episode with is curiosity about some street art that showed up in L.A. before the awards and the guys suggest a possible combining of forces with a guerilla art piece that showed up in East Vancouver last year. The highs and lows of the Neil Patrick Harris hosted telecast are discussed and it's pretty well decided, yeah, that Oscar prediction gag was landed flat. David Oyelowo's tux though? Damn, that was sweet. For the awards presented, the Cinephiles weigh in on the big ones. Did anyone see that Big Hero 6 win coming? Is there disappointment over the Birdman sweep and Boyhood snub? Was Boyhood's hype four weeks too late and how angry is Eric over Julianne Moore's Still Alice win? Listen in for the h

After last episodes review of the movies of 2014, we return to our usual format but with a twist. Now at the end of every episode we have a winner! This time around Stevil and Matty welcome Booked co host Jenosaur and our Manchild Sports guy Nate Kelly for a subject that can be very polarizing it the hit or miss department: Movies made from television series. These are our Staff Picks of the week! Jenosaur was perusing the mighty Netflix when she came across the movie that almost never got released. Yes, The Interview gets it's time in the new release section of the streaming service, less than two months after its theatrical release". Was it worth it? Jenosaur says "meh", to her it really wasn't worth the hype, the cancellation of release or starting a nuclear war over it. Really, a war over James Franco? The human race would never recover. Stevil got to check out a lesser known 2014 release from Antonio Banderas called Automata. This film takes place in a devastated future in which the world outside has bee

We give you a different kind of Convicted Cinephiles for this special episode. Kyle Brown and Eric Kimelton from In Development join Matty and Stevil for a look back at the movies of 2014. These are our Staff Picks of the Week! Michael Mann's had some issues creating a decent film over the last decade and, according to Stevil, he's still got a way to go because Blackhat still falls short of the mark. A good premise, great cinematography and a likeable lead doesn't save this movie from being mediocre and completely underwhelming. Stevil did a full review on this film you can check out here! Matty is currently studying his ass off to better his mind and career. Doesn't mean he can't take a break to bend that mind with an 80s Gilliam classic. Brazil is exactly that film, a future set film about a man totally bogged down by his mundane life and dreams of an escape. Told in the brilliant style that only the beloved Terry Gilliam can do, this film consistently entrances the viewer and is a staple of the Criterion C

The Cinephiles version 2.5 are back for their first episode recorded in 2015. Still dealing with the departure of co-host Michaela, Matty and Stevil or joined by Casey White and JJ Webb for a completely mind bending podcast to leave all you brains hurting. Recorded deep within a temporal rift, our panel brings you a very special time travel episode. With various means of jumping through time including time machines, possessed evil books and good ol' fashioned "Groundhog Day"-ing, the guys debate the validity of each movie and their methods, while Matty says things the Jage will NEVER forget. These are our Staff Picks of the week! Casey has a very creative way of grouping films together to watch them, whether it be by genre, actor or other such connections. While trying to watch every movie that featured the Rolling Stones classic track "Sympathy for the Devil", he came across the late 90s Denzel Washington thriller Fallen. Also starring John Goodman, this movie gives satisfying twists and an ending that playf

This is a monumental episode of Convicted Cinephiles for two reasons. First, and sadly, this is the final episode of co-host Michaela. We all love here and wish her well, as Stevil and Matty move on as Convicted Cinephiles 2.5. And secondly, for the first time in the established format of the show we're tackling a usual holiday marathoner in a super sized five movie episode! Yes, we are going ending our 2014 with a James Bond cast! We have four of six Bonds recognized, as we bring in Demigod Rob and Shogun Gamer's Casey White to bed women, drive sweet cars, indiscriminately kill bad guys and play with those cool gadgets. Connery would approve! (Lazenby would not.) These are our Staff Picks of the week! After months and months of Matty pushing it and recommending it as a Staff Pick, Stevil finally got around to checking out Alan Partridge (Alpha Papa) and loved it. Brilliant character comedy as only Steve Coogan could deliver it, coupled with supporting work from Colm Meaney and Darren Boyd. Rest assured, this

This episode of Convicted Cinephiles heads to Australia as our friend and Aussie-Canadian Drex joins the panel for an all Aussie movie cast. The guys geek out about Star Wars, Drex is majorly unimpressed with the new Terminator trailer and Matty is subjected to watching yet another soul crushing face stabbing scene in a movie.   These are our Staff Picks of the week!   Michaela brings a film that started as a short film and got the push to become a feature film called Dear White People. The film start Tyler James Williams, who got his start on Chris Rock's Everybody Hates Chris and is now on The Walking Dead. This film was a big hit at this year's Toronto International Film Festival and was a a definite win in Michaela's opinion.   Matty has some good and bad this week. The good is Jon Favreau's Chef, a fun comedy that has a lot of great appearances from stars like Scarlet Johansson and Dustin Hoffman. The bad was a little painful to Stevil. Unfortunately, Matty hated Kevin Smith's latest offering, Tusk, W

Michaela returns with an episode that may be a little overdue, Haunted house films. Personally, we love them. There's so many to choose from! Classic films, cult hits, even some of the newer films are outstanding. So, why did Stevil screw up so badly in his choice? I think he'll chalk it up to bad advertisement. Either way, we have at least three fantastic ghostly films to scare you with. These are our Staff Picks of the Week:   Matty hit the IMAX for the first of his two staff picks, Interstellar. Christopher Nolan dazzles again in this fantastically scientific adventure film that you'll need a degree to full follow. For his other pick, Matty brings the John Carpenteresque The Purge: Anarchy, the big scale follow up to the low budget 2013 original. A synth score backing a Frank Grillo led action suspense film in a style reminiscent of Escape From New York. We love that.   Michaela was on vacation! She should have to be expected to bring a staff pick! Of course, like any good movie fan, she visited a near

While Michaela is on a dream vacation to Hawaii, Stevil and Matty decided to bring in Demigod Rob and J.J. Webb for a road trip show. The boys all confirm their fan boy anticipation for the new Star Wars movie as the secondary title of The Force Awakens is announced. There is a major multitude of both awkward and warranted erections over the new Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer and nobody but Stevil even cares about Furious 7.   These are our Staff Picks of the Week.    Matty brings some awesome zombie goodness with a Nazi twist, as his Staff Pick for the week is Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead. Following up the fantastically insane, gory and funny first film, Tommy Wirkola returns for more fun that got him some international attention, this time with some American cast. They also sew a zombie arm onto the main character. Awesome, right?   http://youtu.be/glIoXwTcG60   Stevil perused Netflix and came across a gem of a documentary that had eluded him in theaters and he just got around to checking it out. Jodorowsk

As a special 50th episode extravaganza, Jstebz joins the table and this time she means business.  Thanks to some friends and Rotten Tomatoes, Jstebz throws down the most difficult movie quiz show of all time. Some of the questions are so difficult, she couldn't even provide an answer.  Have a listen and enjoy listening to your cinephiles get their butts kicked. Bonus: Michaela's buzzer.

We get a little serious this week on Cinephiles, as we tackle the documentary genre. The Boss Bitch, Jstebz joins us again for an insightful look into the death squads of Indonesia, classic recording studios, the marijuana industry and the good ol' MPAA. First of, we let Matty have the floor for a bit of a rebuttal on the stance he took on the Ghostbusters all female reboot during a recent League Cast, Jstebz would love to see Melissa McCarthy used in a sexier role and calls out Matty on his personal bias affecting other people movie choices for the Convicted Cinephiles episodes. Oh yeah, we get all sorts of cute and cuddly!   These are our Staff Picks!    Michaela is fresh off a bunch of Vancouver International Film Festival screenings and has a couple films in the must see variety and the return of a French new wave pioneer that may be best unseen. Mommy is a disturbing and controversial French-Canadian film dealing with delinquent kids, while Regarding Susan Sontag made her feel like she wasted her life.

When Michaela's away (on vacation) the boys will get View Askewed with a fully Kevin Smith dedicated episode. With the help of In Development's Kyle Brown and Eric Kimelton, Stevil and Matty get to talk about one of their personal favorite director and podcaster with four pivotal films in his career. Before our panel discusses Kev's cinematic universe, they talk about the trailer debut of Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice and Matty gets old and ornery about the rumor of Marvel Studios splitting Avengers 3 into two films. It's a new fandangled technological world and Old Man Dubs is shaking his fist at the young'ns!    These are our Staff Picks!   Kyle's recommendation, The Skeleton Twins, has Stevil jealous because it hadn't hit Canada yet. It also brings up the hilarious gaff a Denver talk show made when the interviewer asked stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig about a full frontal nudity scene that was actually in another of Wiig's films. Matty proceeds to make everyone uncomfortable as he dreams of what t

There was a fair bit of searching for a topic this week as our original idea fell through (a topic to be picked up later). That left Matty scrambling to figure out something for us to talk about. Scouring Netflix, he noticed that Wolf of Wall Street was added and thought "Hey, let's do office movies!" which Stevil quickly informed him "Uh, dude? It's a major stretch to call that movie an 'Office movie'." Was Stevil crushing dreams again for a second week in a row? No, he gave the option of changing the topic to excessive films, but it was too late as Michaela threw down her choice. It was then finalized, this week would be Office films.   Here's what the Cinephiles had to say about their films:   "When the topic of 9 to 5 films was first proposed, Matt and Steve engaged in an epic battle over what films truly fell in this category. Do they need to take place mostly in an office? Can they just be surrounding people's working lives? I decided to go as literal as possible to settle the dispute and picked Nine To

Digging into another subject of almost infinite choices, our Cinephiles bring you an episode dedicated to biopics. With so many great, mediocre and downright terrible selections to choose from, the selection process was a little tough, especially for guest Demigod Rob. Do you know how hard it is to crush a man's dreams of bringing My Name is Bruce? To break a man's very soul by telling them that Bruce Campbell didn't actually fight an ancient Chinese evil? I do believe he's still in a pit of despair, trying to come to terms with this new reality. These are our Staff Picks! Matty tries to reinvent the meaning of "Vietnam classic" with his Staff Pick of the week, with a film that has never been regarded as a Platoon-like film or even classic for that matter. We at The League of Manchildren implore our listeners to watch Universal Soldier and tell us whether you agree with Matty's description of it or if you wonder what thought process even got him to this diagnosis. Michaela brings a film that has been getti

This week the trinity brings you a panel of films with such high-brown comedic writing, that the humour MAY have been lost in translation. Michaela brings a film that, at the time, was an under appreciated Criterion gem. Matty brings the second most hated film of the new millennium and Stevil's choice leads to our entire panel repeating almost the entire film word for word. So, join the Cinephiles as they say with pride: Screw You, That's Funny!

The Cinephiles are back for another crack at the pretentious Criterion cast, this time Michaela gets to take part with the new format. Can't do this without our Criterion buddies Demigod Rob and JJ Webb as we all grab movies from our own personal collections. Rob gets under Matty's skin quickly by picking something that isn't a movie, while Stevil brings a pick that is quickly panned by the rest of the panel as not respected. Michaela's pick leads Matty to an obvious realization of his film tastes but redeems himself with his own cult style pick. JJ finishes of the cast with his insane oddball pick that may have warped everyone's minds. We will all never be the same. Join in the fun fueled by Janus Films!