Back in 1986, right in between Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop II, Eddie Murphy did a movie for Paramount that opened, made a decent amount of money, and promptly vanished from our collective memory. In this episode you'll hear me and writer / producer Zack Stentz (@musezack) discuss our fond memories of this odd film, and our opinions on how it holds up now.

Early in his career M. Night Shyamalan became known as the "twist ending" director, which reminds me of a great Reggie Jackson quote: "the only problem with hitting four home runs in one game is that now people want you to do it every night."  In other words, this filmmaker painted himself into a "twist ending" corner, at least for one movie, and the result was an oddly beautiful period piece that people still love to complain / argue about. Big thanks to film critic Richard Newby (@richardLnewby) for joining me in this episode.

Nobody mocked Jules Verne when he wanted to travel into the center of the Earth in his stories -- so why does everyone love to pick on The Core so dang much? To answer that question about this movie we have guest host Amanda Smith (@amandasmithsays) of the Disaster Girls podcast.  If this movie ever needs a lawyer, she's who it should call.

What happens when a hard-headed young filmmaker butts heads with anonymous studio executives who hate his movie? In 1983 you'd get something like The Keep, which is half a mess and half a pretty damn good horror movie with a cool setting, some memorable music, and a very curious cast. Joining me for this discussion is filmmaker / DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika (@Lauzirika), and this is a man who knows a thing or two about reconstructing problematic movies. (Looking at you, Alien 3!)

You'd have to be a hardcore Christmas movie fanatic to truly enjoy this wacky Arnold farce from the mid-'90s, right? Perhaps. Fortunately we happen to have just such an Xmas fan in guest host / podcast producer Jordan Kauwling (@cinnamonlafemme), and she's got plenty to say about what she likes about this flick. As for me, well. I'm sort of a Scrooge in this episode.

My pal Jeff Bayer (@bayerjeff) has two little kids, and that's why he's grown to love this big-budget animated feature that made good money, yet still managed to help destroy an entire studio. (sad but true!) Join me Jeff, Santa, Easter Bunny, and the rest of the gang on this goofy episode of Overhated.

It's one of the biggest bombs in modern movie history; financially, critically, artistically, you name it. It's an infamous mess made all the more fascinating by Julie Salamon's fantastic book (and podcast!) The Devil's Candy, and it still stands as a movie that film nerds love to banter about. For example, in this episode I'm joined by film critic / author / old friend Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey), and we pretty much can't shut up. Plus there's a good chunk near the end where we focus on Jason's excellent new book, Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies That Made It.

A few years ago it sure seemed like this follow-up to Casino Royale was the most hated Bond film of all time, but then Spectre showed up and all of a sudden Solace didn't seem quite so unwelcome. Join me and film critic / Bond fan Pramit Chaterjee (@pramitheus) for a discussion about "Casino Royale 2," and how it's not nearly as forgettable as we thought it was ten years ago.

When Steven Spielberg is firing on all cylinders he delivers movies like Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Jurassic Park. But even when he's only firing on 75% of his cylinders he still turns out "lesser" movies like 1991's Hook, which has a seriously passionate fanbase despite being generally regarded as one of his second-tier films. Big thank to film critic Danielle Solzman (@danielleSATM) for recommending this one and joining me for a brief but spirited discussion.

Some call it a horrifying fever dream; others refer to it as a cinematic panic attack. And those are the people who like it! General audiences back in 2017 were clearly unhappy with what Darren Aronofsky was doling out this time around -- but some brave moviegoers, and a good portion of film critics, found a lot to like. And this insane thriller has earned lots of new fans over the past few years. Big thanks to film critic Courtney Howard (@lulamaybelle) for joining me for this discussion!

When is a TV-to-movie adaptation not exactly a TV-to-movie adaptation? When it's a super-meta ball of confusion like Nora Ephron's colorful yet confused adaptation of the classic sitcom Bewitched. This is an oddly unspectacular movie, but with talent like Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, and Steve Carell on board, there's got to be a little bit of gold here... right? I sit down with my old friend and former film critic Eric Snider (@ericdsnider) to discuss this movie, making us the first people to do so in probably ten years.

If you want to do a podcast about historically lambasted movies, you're going to come across the certifiably wacky 1936 propaganda flick Reefer Madness eventually -- and boy does this thing hold up as an unintentional laugh riot. For this episode I'm joined by film & game critic Shaurya Chawla (@_ShauryaChawla), and suffice to say that we continue to be endlessly amused by this very stupid film that thought it was being very serious indeed. 

Horror fans are a ridiculously loyal sort, but for the most part they don't love change. Back in 1982, producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted to shake things up in their Halloween franchise. Instead of just bringing boogeyman Michael Myers back for a third slash-fest, the franchise would now be done anthology-style. As in: each new Halloween movie would be its very own thing. Like Tales from the Crypt did a few years later with Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood.  But things didn't go precisely as planned. 

For this episode I'm joined by Scott Allen Perry (@scottallenperry), who I worked with on Found Footage 3D, but maybe you've also seen him movies like Keeping Up with the Joneses, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, and the seasonal classic known as Santa Jaws.

Scott Weinberg is joined by his “resident Spielberg expert” Erik Childress to preview some of the latest episodes of Overhated. You can listen to them all right now by heading over to his Patreon feed at patreon.com/scottEweinberg. Subscribe for just a couple bucks and you can listen to over 90+ more episodes available right now.

The long-awaited big-screen version of the beloved Star Trek TV series was heralded as a huge cinematic event at the tail end of 1979 -- and it turned out to be a smash hit too. So why does the film seem to have a relatively lukewarm reputation among critics and general movie-watchers? To this day the film is remembered as a bit too long, and a bit too focused on the undeniable majesty of giant spaceships, but the hardcore Trek fans will frequently come to the film's defense; hardcore Trek fans like my guest, film critic Alan Cerny (@alanwcerny).

Sometimes the weirdest movies end up striking a chord deep within your genre-loving soul; for example, this simple sci-fi / horror combo managed to entertain me a lot more than it did most film critics -- and now it's gone on to spawn two certifiably insane sequels that (yep) I also enjoy. So I asked my friend Liam O'Donnell (@liamodin) to join me. Since he co-wrote the first movie and directed both sequels, he's clearly the expert on this knowingly campy genre franchise.

I wanted to get a special guest for this highly-requested cult favorite, so I reached out to the man who wrote it: Philadelphia's own Steven de Souza (@StevenEdeSouza)! We cover all sorts of Hawk-related info. from production to box office to the exceedingly brutal reviews.

I have a list of over 200 films I share with potential guests if they need help choosing a movie for Overhated. But this guest didn't even need the list. She offered up the 2002 vampire flick Queen of the Damned, and I thought "hell, that's a good pick." So thanks to Danishka Esterhazy (@desterhazy), director of the lovably twisted Banana Splits Movie and the admirably amusing new Slumber Party Massacre remake, for a great movie pick and a highly enjoyable chat.

The mid-1990s were a strange time full of strange movies, and this is one of them. It's a future-noir anti-corporate sci-fi action absurdist farce... and I'm here to discuss it with the excellent Akela Cooper, a writer/producer on Luke Cage, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and last summer's horror hit Malignant. (@AkelaCooper)