Catching up on two weeks worth of box office, Erik Childress examines the re-written headlines after Toy Story 4 did not live up to the guesstimators. Are people now low-balling Spider-Man: Far From Home as a result? He also looks at Danny Boyle’s biggest opener to date as well as how the latest horror remakes and sequels are doing and urges you to check out an original one hitting theaters this summer.

Comic book expert Erik Laws returns to the podcast to discuss the final chapter of the current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Far From Home. What are the origins of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio character and how does he fit into Peter Parker’s story? Spoilers are certainly abound in this episode as the Eriks dive deep into the numerous twists and turns of this latest adventure including how such a fun series may have a darker political undercurrent running through it. That leads to some less favorable thoughts about Todd Phillips’ Joker film in what is an otherwise pretty joyful conversation about the direction of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.

Erik Childress & Sergio Mims bypass all but some fun comparative stats on last week’s box office losers. Then they prepare for Toy Story 4 and Erik goes over his new thinking on Spider-Man: Far From Home and what the re-issue of Avengers: Endgame with new end credit footage will mean for its run at Avatar’s record.

Erik Childress and Sergio Mims go into the latest in Blu-rays and DVDs by discussing a film once advertised as one of the scariest movies ever as well as another horror film that was overlooked and is actually much freakier. They also discuss the origin of Batman’s Joker, the “Morgan Fairchild Experience,” two of the great filmmakers in Hal Ashby and Buster Keaton and another who, with only one film, may someday be looked back upon as well.

On this mini-episode of the podcast we check in on the box office. Though The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Dark Phoenix led the way, both could be part of a larger trend of sequel rejection. But is that entirely true or are they just bad? We begin to investigate. Also find out which films they have the most in common with audiences and critics and does Disney have a plan in place for Avengers: Endgame to beat Avatar’s global record?

Steve Prokopy joins this episode to talk about this year’s Cinepocalypse Film Festival at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago which is quickly becoming one of the most noted genre fests in the country. Hear all about special guests ranging from Michael Ironside to Joe Bob Briggs, numerous archival screenings, one of the best horror films that premiered at Sundance this year and how a gory possessed dinosaur film became just another forgotten PG-13 curiosity.

After the event with Tom Skerritt at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, Erik Childress and Sergio Mims can’t help but take another look at the new 4K release of Alien. Also discussed on 4K are the Batman films from Tim Burton & Joel Schumacher which leads into a dive of which of them were actually good. Twilight Time offers up some great westerns, David Lynch and Gaspar Noe get some praise for rough watches and as revenge pictures go, Liam Neeson has an underrated one, Olivia Wilde a much overlooked one and a third tries to beat Quentin Tarantino and fails miserably.

In the first mini-episode of the podcast, Erik Childress serves up a number of unique stats correlating to the recent releases at the box office. Along with Sergio Mims they breakdown the potential failure of Warner Bros.’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters, how Rocketman is faring compared to other rock biopics and while Ma may be part of a success story beyond Blumhouse, Tate Taylor’s ignorance in his oeuvre remains astounding.

For the latest batch of new Blu-rays, Erik Childress and Sergio Mims offer a pair of documentaries about wildly different filmmakers, discuss the latest from Criterion highlighting an action legend and a 60 year-old film that is more relevant today than ever. They also tie-in the cinema moments that traumatized them as kids, how audiences reacted to Alien in the summer of 1979 and the ongoing debate of great art vs. artists with baggage. Then to wrap things up, there is even a defense of Robert Zemeckis’ Welcome to Marwen, particularly in the light of some atrocious sequels being offered from the same studio.

Shout! Factory is one of our favorite companies here on the podcast. Their mixture of genre classics and modern ones is a constant pleasure, no matter the quality of the film themselves. So as their release output piled up over the past few weeks, Erik Childress and Sergio Mims decided to dedicate an entire show to 18 of their recent titles. Vampires, werewolves, witches, serial killers, viruses, giant insects, rats, poison ivy, kung fu and a Manitou. What more do you need? Cause there is more.