It's Your Pic

Only 2 things could bring us out of circumstantial retirement: a Transformers reboot or a new Stranger Things season. See you next year.

Blood, guts, gore, skinning, hanging, stabbing, kidnapping, cannibalisms...oh, and we also watched a movie. Something about a baby sheep I think. Matthew Lillard and Jamie Kennedy showed up too for some reason.

We spend this entire episode lying on the hood of our Dodge Dart, looking up at the heavens, waiting for the little men in their fantastic vehicles. Actually, we ordered Ubereats and they're 20 minutes late (and there's probably not a road-worthy Dodge Dart left in the country). When the Zaxby's finally arrives, we watched two very different takes on the alien movie genre: one big-budgeted and star-studded, and one that takes a decidedly more subdued approach.

This month we belly up to the bar, order a sasparilla and settle ourselves at a table for a game of stud...actually, not at all. These two Westerns are a long way from the days of white hat/black hat morality tales. There are no obvious good guys to be found in Leone's revisionist take, or the Coen's Western noir mashup. And for the record, I actually enjoy board games.

This week crime DOES pay, and it pays rather handsomely. We discuss 2 movies, each with a cast of charismatic and hilarious ne're-do-wells. Collin outdoes himself with some in depth research on all things Lupin.

Doesn't everyone think they belong to a dysfunctional family? Maybe that accounts for the plethora of choices when selecting a movie to represent the genre. For me, head and shoulders above the rest, is Wes Anderson's third feature, The Royal Tenenbaums. Collin counters with a new animated dysfunctional family flick, The Mitchells vs. the Machines.

I'm trying to write the show notes and keep getting interrupted because my family thinks the podcast is about as important as you do, so I guess just read the title; we talk about those movies.

We took a 2-week trip out west, and after exhausting ourselves hiking around the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest, we spent our evenings re-watching all the Harry Potter movies. It's one long Good Stuff/Bad Stuff episode as we hand out awards for the best and worst of what we saw this time around.

It's the end of the world on this episode of It's Your Pic. Two post-apocalyptic visions enter, one post-apocalyptic vision leaves. Actually, it's not much of a contest; Furiosa could take Hester Shaw with one arm tied behind her back.

On this episode we look at two very different stories involving iconoclasts, chain gangs, and escaped cons. Collin's main pick is the Coen brother's borderline musical O Brother, Where Art Thou? A movie that I despised on my first watch. My double feature pairing is the 1967 classic Cool Hand Luke.

We didn't want to do it, but the podcast police threatened to insert Me Undies and Casper Mattress ads at 3-minute intervals into all our podcasts if we didn't do a top 5 Christmas movies list. Rather than sacrifice the quality and integrity that we've worked so hard to achieve, we reluctantly complied.

Collin's pick this month is Makoto Shinkai's follow up to the massive hit Your Name, Weathering With You. It's every bit as visually dazzling, but is the story equally compelling? I also break a sweat trying to connect it to Duncan Jones's Source Code. Spoiler talk starts at about the 33:30 mark.

We're tweaking the format and schedule (like we ever had one of those) for reasons. This month is our Halloween show with a sci-fi twist. It's a monstrous double feature with Alien and Cloverfield.

World War 2 for kids / Seems like a pretty tough sell / The French give a try

Skynet tries again / This time Arnie's the good guy / Beast mode Hamilton

Transformers go grim Decepticons have legit beef Elita-1 sighs

Cam's got a tight budget I think my dad drove that car That robot talks funny

This week I'm joined by my good friend, Giffy, to discuss Netflix's Dark. The series just released its third and final season, and we're itching to discuss the labyrinthine plot, time travel head-scratchers, and the show's stealth hero. Be warned: if you haven't seen the show this podcast will be complete nonsense, and spoilers there will be. Also, there are some audio issues, but 98% of the show is error-free.

Top o’ the morning We were hoping for better But it’s foul indeed

What if the boombox Played Fishbone, not Gabriel? Would we all still swoon?

This ain’t Michael Bay Tom Cruise and his plot armor Is H.G. Wells proud?

Nicholson v. Cruise Essential for six degrees Maybe Meathead’s best

MItty dreams away But, when adventure calls him Goodbye Papa John’s

Hello my neighbors I have come from Zamunda Would you be my wife

The kid makes rockets With trash cans, toasters, and tape Likely not legal

We take a break from talking about movies to talk about the only thing we love more – ourselves.

Pretty Montana A family of fisherman But Paul has problems

How bad could it be? It is way worse than you think Trust me – much, much worse

A film in reverse What were we talking about? Nolan loves puzzles

Willis can’t get hurt Jackson can crack like an egg No. No shooting friends

We had no trouble finding plenty of people who hate Forrest Gump. Whether it’s because it won Best Picture instead of Pulp Fiction (which, true, probably should have won), or the perception of it as a “conservative” movie, it sports … Continue reading →

When Collin was a toddler, this was one of our trusty babysitter movies — put it on and you’ve got yourself an hour and a half of peace and quiet. Bad parenting? Sure. But if you’re going to let a … Continue reading →

Before seeing 1917 I thought it necessary for Collin to first see what many consider the greatest war movie ever made. Of course, not everyone thinks that is the case, and we get into a few dissenting opinions. We also … Continue reading →

In part 2 of our Rise of Skywalker discussion, Giffy and I get to what we liked about the 9th and final (?) film of the Skywalker saga. Finally, we talk about the series as a whole and our relative … Continue reading →

I’m joined by a guest co-host this week, Giffy, to discuss the finale of the Skywalker saga. It ended up being a longer than usual episode so I’ve broken it up into 2 episodes. In part 1 we start with … Continue reading →

Collin makes a rather unusual choice this week: a movie about the 1914 Christmas truce that happened between combatants during WWI. It’s a try-hard movie with some really good actors, but does it belong on your yearly Christmas viewing list? … Continue reading →

Despite its robust Rotten Tomatoes rating, The Usual Suspects has its vocal detractors. No less than Ebert famously panned it upon its release. But if loving that final reveal makes me a gullible idiot then I guess I’ll have the … Continue reading →

After making a few billion dollars for Disney at the helm of the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean films, Gore Verbinski got a $135 million budget from Paramount to make an animated cowboy lizard movie. What they got for … Continue reading →

Rarely does a 40-year-old movie hold up this well. It came out the same year as Apocalypse Now and Alien, and it holds up every bit as well as both those films but isn’t near as remembered. My wife says … Continue reading →

It’s a Plus Ultra episode this week as we give thoughts and reviews for season one of the wildly popular series My Hero Academia, and we try to minimize flashbacks to previous episodes. We agree on a lot but have … Continue reading →

This week we tackle Wes Anderson’s second and maybe most beloved movie: Rushmore. We discuss multiple favorite scenes, Bill Murray’s facial expressions, and the importance of Dirk.

The hard-hitting documentary that shocked the world with its uncompromising behind-the-scenes look at the raucous, seedy lives of the progenitors of the British Invasion…well, not even close, really. Substance wise, A Hard Day’s Night is about as insubstantial as they … Continue reading →

We finish up our season 3 discussion with the final two episodes. How satisfying was the conclusion? Where does this season rank? Are we looking forward to more Stranger Things? We get into all that and more.

Four down, 4 to go. We continue recapping Stranger Things season 3. From Burger King bags to people goo, we’ve got it covered.

We continue our season 3 recap with episodes 3 and 4, The Case of the Missing Lifeguard and The Suana Test. Topics include Hopper’s fitness as a police officer, air ducts, and whether or not binoculars make you invisible.

The next 4 episodes will be dedicated to season 3 of Stranger Things. We’ll be recapping each episode, commenting, making guesses, counting the references, and passing judgment. And until it’s all over, Collin is refusing to cut his hair in … Continue reading →

Realizing the impossibility of analyzing Kane in a half-hour podcast, we don’t even try. Instead, we stick to our good thing/bad thing, a few favorite scenes and then we grade it out. http://mentalfloss.com/article/78802/13-classic-facts-about-citizen-kane

Collin picked this movie pretty much at random after a Google search for old movie posters. Neither of us had any foreknowledge of its status as one of the capital “G” Great westerns, nor that Cooper won the best actor … Continue reading →

I gave Luc Besson a lot of leeway when I saw this 22 years ago. La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional had engendered quite a bit of good will. Now, however, in a post Lucy and Valerian world, I’m … Continue reading →

This week Collin dragged me kicking and screaming to see a Pokemon movie. That’s an exaggeration of course; I’d characterize my feeling toward Detective Pikachu as guarded but intrigued. My interest mainly rested on the inclusion of Ryan Reynolds in … Continue reading →

Sometimes it’s just best to go with the obvious. Be warned, we are ensconced firmly in the spoiler zone this week.