Movie Madness

Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 527: Be The Master Of Your Blu-Ray Domain

One last physical media show for 2024 and still time to get those last-minute Christmas gifts. Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski take you through a bundle that includes two of the all-time masterpieces by John Ford and Francis Ford Coppola. Land is very much in the conversation from films by Ron Howard and Michael Winterbottom. There are aliens in the water, in the womb and something else aboard a submarine from WWII. We’ve got conspiracies, punks and missing thumbs plus the films of Steve De Jarnatt. John Wayne and Cary Grant in 4K plus a couple of solid Sylvester Stallone films including one from 50 years ago and another set in the future. Finally, one of the greatest TV shows of all-time gets the 4K upgrade it deserves as the duo recount some of their favorite episodes and moments from Seinfeld.

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 526: Carry On My Kraven Son

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy continue to wade into December’s offerings with nine new films on the slate. They include the directorial debut of Jack Huston (Day of the Fight) and Eva Green leading a team of female operatives against ISIS (Dirty Angels). The director of The Act of Killing does an apocalyptic musical (The End) while the daughter of a synthesizer inventor takes a joyous and complicated journey learning about her deceased father (Resynator). Paul Schrader takes his own trip through the life of a dying Richard Gere (Oh, Canada) while Angelina Jolie takes us through that of opera’s Callas (Maria). 46 years after Ralph Bakshi, Tolkien gets animated again (The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim) or you can stay home and watch TSA agent Taron Egerton face off against terrorist Jason Bateman in an airport (Carry On). Finally, Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff anti-hero line of Marvel movies supposedly comes to an end (Kraven the Hunter).

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Bonus Episode: Awards Madness 2024 (Part 2)

We continue our march through awards season madness as we look at a fresh batch of nominations and announcements that have started to part the clouds a little on how its all playing out. Thanks to LA, Chicago and even lesser on-the-level groups like the Golden Globes and the National Board of Review (whose statistics can nevertheless not be entirely denied) Erik Childress runs you down the current depth charts on the Big 8 categories which can certainly change week-to-week.

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Bonus Episode: Awards Madness 2024 (Part 1)

The Movie Madness Podcast presents this bonus extension of the show with a dive into the 2024-25 awards season. A breakdown of the various groups with their victories and nominations in an effort to present an ongoing State-of-the-Race up until the final Oscar nominations on Jan. 17, 2025. Statistics, commentary and a running scoreboard are in store for you starting with announcements from the Gothams and the New York Film Critics. Strap in cause its going to be a ride.

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 525: Get Some Blu-rays At The Gettin’ Place

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski continue to add to your Christmas carts with a variety of great gift ideas for the movie lovers in your life. They talk about the Coen Bros. big Oscar winner and Fellini’s most beloved film now both in 4K. Peter goes to bat for Abel Ferrara’s vampire tale and a Henry James adaptation from this year. Erik talks the 10th Anniversary of a Christopher Nolan film and offers some defense of Ron Howard’s collaboration with Geoge Lucas and Seth MacFarlane’s debut. A Martha Coolidge film that was part of the Why-Is-This-Not-On-Blu-Ray series finally gets its due and a controversial 1980s horror film gets an upgrade. Finally Peter shows love to a rockin’ high school movie as well the Cracking Collection of Wallace & Gromit.

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 524: It’s The End Of Our Worlds As We Know It

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy have nine films to talk about this week. They include Kyle Mooney’s take on the computer glitch of 1999 (Y2K) and what happens when a supermoon infects the world (Werewolves). Ralph Fiennes completes Homer’s odyssey (The Return) while Nick Frost just wants to take his family on vacation to see a scary Swedish tradition (Get Away). There is the true story of one-legged wrestler Anthony Robles (Unstoppable) and the drug-fueled scribblings of William Burroughs through the eyes of Daniel Craig (Queer). Jude Law gruffly goes after white supremacists in the 1980s (The Order).The potential end of the world is told without words and through animated animals (Flow) while Amy Adams may be turning into an animal in a film that tries to use all the words to define motherhood (Nightbitch).

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 523: Ed Wood, Goodbar, Wim, Werner & A Murder Of Kinskis

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be gone but the physical media buying season is in full effect for the movie lovers in your life. Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski go through the week’s offerings. Sure they include the infamous later films of Ed Wood have been unearthed along with a “Reefer Madness for the Sexual Revolution” plus a goofy Michael Crichton adaptation. But there are also  masterpieces from Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog plus a pair of beloved horror and sci-fi comedies. Not to mention an overlooked film from Sam Raimi and the great pre-South Park musical from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 522: Sail Away Without Moana, Santa or Nutcrackers

It’s Thanksgiving week and the pickings are slim on the movie front. But Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy may have something for you to watch with the family. Hint that it involves a pair of music documentaries focusing on the arrival of Liverpool’s finest to the States (Beatles ’64) to the soothing sounds of the ‘70s and ‘80s (Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary). You can also hear about the latest from David Gordon Green as Ben Stiller attends to his ill-behaved nephews (Nutcrackers) and the new film from the Farrelly Bros. involving Jack Black answering a young boy’s Christmas call as Satan (Dear Santa). Finally, Disney turns one of their beloved films into a series and then back into a theatrical sequel (Moana 2).  

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 521: Hit The Road

Just in time for Black Friday, Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski takes you through a swath of new physical media and collections. They include two of the best films in the careers of Peter Bogdanovich and Guillermo Del Toro (and yes the best from Rob Cohen too.) There’s a pair of underrated films from the great William Friedkin and martial arts collections from Stephen Chow and the Shaw Brothers. Go on the road with Hope and Crosby and take a journey with an underseen adventure story. Not to mention dancing, the Thin Man, a whole bunch of Looney Tunes and one of the most infamous box office tales ever.

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Erik Childress Erik Childress

Episode 520: Who Wants To Get Glicked?

It’s the week before Thanksgiving and there are some heavy-hitters in theaters and trio of new Netflix titles for those stay-at-home viewers. Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy cover eight movies for you this week including a fascinating documentary on a woman who may have crafted the soundtrack to your life (The World According to Allee Willis) and another about a unique love affair involving music and mascots (Adrianne and the Castle). Sylvester Stallone tries to take Jason Patric’s armored car (Armor) while Thomasin McKenzie and Bill Nighy show you who the true mother and father of IVF were (Joy). Denzel Washington’s family adapts August Wilson (The Piano Lesson) and Alan Menken returns to score an all-star cast in a nifty Netflix animated film (Spellbound). Finally, it may not be Barbenheimer but Ridley Scott returns to Rome with a new vengeance (Gladiator II) and the first act of a Broadway sensation finally makes it to the big screen (Wicked: Part One).

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