Although best known for being a wildly popular author, the late Michael Crichton had a rather intriguing career as a screenwriter and movie director. Riding high after successes like Coma and The Great Train Robbery, Crichton set his sights on a satirical noir-ish chase thriller known as Looker. And every member of Generation X saw it at least once on HBO. Big thanks to returning guest Rodney Ascher, who is a director and massive movie fanatic, for choosing this diverting little time capsule of a movie.

If you were a young movie nerd in the 1980s you had to have an opinion on these crazy new Troma movies. And if you wanted to know what a Troma movie was all about, you just had to start with the certifiably insane horror/superhero satire known as The Toxic Avenger. Big thanks to guest Ed Havens (@The80sMoviePod) for suggesting this one, and for bringing some solid historical context.

Good ol' reliable Ben Rock (@neptunesalad) is back, and this time he's bringing along one of the weirdest, wackiest, and ickiest studio-released horror movies, maybe ever. No, not maybe! Thanks Ben, thanks listeners, and you know what?

After seeing what Guy Ritchie did with Sherlock Holmes (twice!) it should come as no surprise to learn that his rendition of King Arthur is a hyper-kinetic, irreverent, and frequently insane movie. And boy did a lot of people dislike that combination. But I'm joined by the legendary Vern (yes, @outlawvern himself) to discuss why and how this flick might be, you guessed it, overhated.

Now this was a fun movie to revisit, reassess, and discuss with my old pal Erik Childress aka @erikthemovieman on twitter.

I know more about ancient Roman dating customs than I do about professional wrestling, so it's a good thing I have not one but two guests who seem to know their stuff, especially when it comes to this widely derided novelty comedy. Big thanks to patron and pal Paul Andolina (@scoochslam) for suggesting and discussing this one, and also to regular visitor Brian Salisbury of Junkfood Cinema, who offers a few random thoughts as well.

Ask a Bond fanatic to name the worst of all the movies and you're bound to get at least ten answers. OK maybe six. But for most of young life, Golden Gun was generally considered to be among the biggest snoozers in the whole franchise. So I talked to Junkfood Cinema's Brian Salisbury about it. He loves these flicks.

I've spent a good deal of my time on this planet defending three very specific movies: Popeye, Flash Gordon, and 1941. I'm pleased to have Erik Childress (@erikthemovieman) join me for this super-sized episode of Overhated, because I still love this bizarre Spielberg comedy more than I probably should.

I could easily devote an entire month of Overhated to the movies of Mr. Roland Emmerich, and I'd be smart to re-invite my guest, film critic Rachel West (@rachel_is_here), because she seems to get the appeal of these crazy disaster movies -- even when they're supremely goofy.

Found footage plus space horror sounds like a perfect equation for someone like me, but I remember walking away from this flick feeling disappointed, confused, and slightly annoyed. But you know who absolutely adores this movie? Prolific author, horror expert, and movie nut Daniel Kraus (@DanielDKraus), that's who(m)! Daniel's next novel is about a man who has to escape from inside a whale, and I cannot wait to read that.

The fourth sequel in the initial Planet of the Apes cycle seems to be a fairly divisive chapter among Ape nuts, and it's pretty easy to see why. Fortunately, I have returning guest Richard Jensen (@theragingcelt) on hand, who can explain what he likes about Apes Part 5, and why.  And yes I'll get to the other Apes sequels eventually.

The box office returns weren't awful, and critics were mostly on the fence about the movie, but how does Ivan Reitman's My Super Ex-Girlfriend hold up today? I have a some personal bias when it comes to this movie, but my guest and loyal patron Shawn Cain (@sdcain) is a big fan.

With a new Dungeons & Dragons movie (finally) hitting the screens, I thought it'd be a good time to look back at a widely ridiculed stinker that virtually everyone seems to dislike -- except for my guest Will Walker, who is a patron, youtuber, and general movie nerd. And somehow... he actually makes a few good points.

Bring up The Matrix and it won't take long for someone to interject with "too bad about those sequels, eh?" -- which is weird because Matrix Part 2 is pretty damn fantastic across the board. My old friend and great writer Scott Beggs is on hand to rattle off numerous reasons that The Matrix Reloaded might be considered overhated, despite being a massive hit.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson was coming off a box office disappointment called Event Horizon when Soldier hit the screens... and this Kurt Russell action flick fared even worse at the box office. Critics trashed it as well. So how does it hold up now? I'm joined by patron and pal Jeremy Wickett, who happens to be a pretty big fan of this film.

It's one of the most reviled sequels ever made... but is it really that bad? That's the question we always ask here on Overhated, and you may be surprised to hear what film critic / returning guest Fred Topel and I have to say about it. Or not. Either way it's a fun episode.

The Broken Lizard comedy troupe hit the big time with their cult classic Super Troopers, but their next movie wasn't received quite as warmly. My friend Peter Hall would like to officially kick-start the cult classic status for this insane horror comedy. Plus we spend some time honoring the great Bill Paxton, praising some of this year's best horror movies, and promoting Pete's new horror novel, The Dead Friends Society!

Every highly successful director seems to have one, and hopefully just one: a "vanity" project that goes over-budget and flops at the box office while critics scratch their collective head and moviegoers simply go see something else. Barry Levinson's Toys qualifies here; in this episode I'm joined by returning guest Laurel Vail, who loves this weird flick a whole lot. 

What happens when you remove the few moments of Christmas-themed sweetness from a franchise otherwise known for wildly over-the-top comedic violence? You get Home Alone 3, which Roger Ebert liked more than the first two. It's true. Big thanks to my guest, film critic Courtney Howard.

The success of Dick Tracy led to a few strange movies: there's The Rocketeer, which is awesome, and The Shadow, which is not, and The Phantom, which is what Junkfood Cinema's Brian J. Salisbury is here to discuss today.