Matt's Movie Lodgecast

It's almost summer time and almost time for the Lodgecast to come back from Spring Break 2025! A perfect time to take a look at the brand new merchandise in our store and maybe buy some hawt new threads for those summer dayz and nitez. We got hats, we got totes, we got Salad Dragon definition shirts! We now have shirts and stickers that say “Sexy Certified”! Check out all our new merch in our merch store by clicking the link in the bio or going to lodgecast.com and clicking the top link. All proceeds go to helping the Lodgecast survive like paying for the pricey 4DX screening of Final Destination: Bloodlines we just (barely) lived through. Thank you listeners. You'll hear from us very soon!

We're still chilling on Spring Break 2025, but we wanted to announce that we're now selling some hawt new Matt's Movie Lodgecast Merch designed by Brother Nathan! We got t-shirts, we got magnets, we got mugs, we got stickers, we got tote bags, and much more. Everything comes in all shapes and sizes and variations. Go over to lodgecast.com and you'll see a link up top to "Matt's Movie Lodgecast Merch!". We'll keep adding to the store as time goes on. Love and light to you all in this time of Spring Break!

We're taking a Lodgecast Spring Break! We must give our dear Lodgemaster a much-needed editing siesta after splicing together over 300 four-bone episodes in the last seven years! We'll be recording episodes of notable movies here and there while we rest up, but they won't be released until after our break. Fear not, dear listener; we shall return! Love & Eternal Light!

Celebrate Hollywood and the movies as the Lodgecast presents our Oscar Extravaganza & 2024 Movie Favorites! Host Brother Bischke leads a hard-charging examination of the Academy Award nominations as five prestigious Lodge members lay down their picks for what should win and what will win in twenty-three Oscar categories in under 30 minutes! Then it's onto our special award, where we'll all give our pick for The Salad Dragon of the Year! Then we charge forward to the very serious business of picking our 2024 movie favorites as we all count down from #10 to #1 of our very favorite films of 2024. Some Lodgecast movies make the cut of our best films, but there are many surprises. Have a listen, and let us know what you think!

Kevin Spacey made his comeback movie in 2024 called Peter Five Eight. We've been sitting on this one for a long while but wanted to drop it on you before we take our Spring Break. This neo-noir thriller went directly to video-on-demand and stars Spacey, Rebecca De Mornay, Jet Jandreau, and Jake Weber. Spacey plays Peter who is an assassin who comes to a small mountain community to wreak havoc. "In this town NOTHING is what it seems." We talk all things Spacey in this controversial new episode of the Lodgecast!

The goddess of AMC Theaters, Nicole Kidman, hits the silver screen with the new erotic thriller Babygirl. Whether or not it was erotic or a thriller will be debated in this steamy episode. The film is written and directed by Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) and stars a high-powered CEO, played by Kidman, who begins an affair with young intern Harris Dickinson. Kidman's husband is played by the always sexy Antonio Banderas, and the film also stars Sophie Wilde as Kidman's assistant. We caught this one in theaters with a full audience that was ready for a sexy good time. This A24 movie was a box office success, which will hopefully pave the way for future erotic thrillers!

It's December 31st, 1999. The last party before Y2K. That's the setting for the new A24 movie written and directed by Kyle Mooney. Mooney is known for being a Saturday Night Live cast member from 2013 to 2022. In his directorial debut, he directs Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison, Tim Heidecker, and Alicia Silverstone. Mooney is also in the film, along with somebody special who shows up in the third act that we won't spoil here. The movie features a stacked late 90s soundtrack. This could be a late 90s nostalgia slam dunk, but is it? We'll let you know in this packed episode we assembled for Y2K!

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Does the title of this movie grab your attention? It did for us! We went in knowing nothing about this movie other than it starred Amy Adams. The movie is based on a 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder and directed by Marielle Heller, who also directed Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). Amy Adams is the star, and she is supported by Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Snowden, Emmett Snowden, Mary Holland, Ella Thomas, Archana Rajan, and Jessica Harper. It was in theaters for a minute, where we caught it on the big screen. You can now watch it on Hulu. But maybe listen to our review before you do so!

We're all safe from the fires in LA so far! So let the Lodgecast whisk you away to the tundra of Minnesota where we recently watched A Complete Unknown about a young Bob Dylan played by Timothee Chalamet. This movie covers Dylan's early folk period up to his controversial decision to go electric in 1965. James Mangold directs this conventional biopic which also stars Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. We got way into Dylan for this one! Enjoy this Minnesota winter special Lodgecast with some hot cocoa!

Happy New Year! It's the new musical film everyone is talking about, so we figured we'd talk about it. Wicked: Part I! This 160-minute movie covers the first half of this epic adaptation of the popular musical adaptation Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which is based on the 1995 novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which comes from the universe of L. Frank Baum's Oz books which were adapted into the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba Thropp, who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, but it's gonna take a long time for her to get there. Along the way, she befriends Ariana Grande who plays Galinda Upland and encounters Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The film is directed by Jon M. Chu and also stars Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, and Peter Dinklage. In this movie you'll hear hit songs like "The Wizard and I", "Popular", "Defying Gravity", and so much more. Listen to our thoughts and feelings on this fantastical episode!

Merry Chongsmas and Happy Chongnukkah! Back in Episode 134 of the Lodgecast we covered a little movie called "2025 - The World Enslaved by a Virus" and it was a special experience. The movie has received the lowest possible rating on IMDb at 1.0. It was written and directed by the Wesely Brothers. Since then, we've been tracking these bros and they released a new movie called A Law for Christmas which currently has a 1.1 rating on IMDb. We saved it for the holidays and watched this entire movie with a running time of 2 Hrs. 21 Min. The movie stars Savannah Lathem as Gloria Winters who has just become the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. She travels to a small rural town to interview farmers. There she meets the love of her life Christian Baker (Chase Giacomo). The movie carries all the signature filmmaking techniques of a Wesely Brothers production, which we will tell you all about in this stuffed holiday episode! Enjoy!

At age 94, Clint Eastwood is back! He directed the new legal thriller Juror No. 2 to critical acclaim! The courtroom isn't our favorite place to be in movies and we certainly had some issues with Clint's latest and last (?) film. The movie stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, and Kiefer Sutherland. Hang in there Clint!

You might've just missed this recent little supernatural horror movie that dropped onto Netflix called The Deliverance. But the Lodgecast knows that a horror movie directed by Lee Daniels deserves to be covered! We talked about our history with Mr. Daniels' films, most notably Shadowboxer (2005), Precious (2009), and The Paperboy (2012). Then we watched The Deliverance, which did not disappoint, serving up many salad dragons to our delight. The movie stars Andra Day, Rob Morgan, Caleb McLaughlin, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Tasha Smith, Omar Epps, Mo'Nique, and Glenn Close as the unforgettable Alberta Jackson! You're gonna wanna tune into this episode and possibly fire this movie up on Netflix. Movie critics be damned, this movie is a wild ride!

To mark the 30th anniversary of The Crow (1994) and commemorate the passing of Brandon Lee, director Rupert Sanders made his own version of The Crow and called it The Crow (2024). There are existential moments in Lodgecast history where we ask, "What are we doing?" and seeing The Crow (2024) in IMAX was one of those moments. The Crow (2024) stars a tatted-up Bill Skarsgard as The Crow with his girlfriend, played by FKA Twigs. It got bad reviews and did bad box office and was just all around bad, bad, bad. So in our generosity, we've decided to drop this goth bomb on you!

Despite Bischke's strong objections, we finally covered the vampiric ballerina splatterfest ABIGAIL. But don't worry, he's already exacted his revenge…and then some!

We explore the wild universe of the Alien franchise as we confront its latest installment Alien: Romulus (2024) directed by Fede Alvarez. We briefly talk about Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997), AVP (2004), AVP:R (2007), Prometheus (2012), and Alien: Covenant (2017) before we ascend the sacred Burbank 16 steps to watch this movie in IMAX. We were pleasantly surprised at this interquel, which takes place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). It stars a younger group of actors this time including Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. Facehuggers and chestbursters abound! But let Ian Holm rest in peace!

The day after Election Day, the Lodgecast tried to shake off the post-election blues by watching Robert Zemeckis's new film Here starring Forrest Gump and Jenny (Tom Hanks and Robin Wright). Zemeckis has had quite a run on the Lodgecast with three films: the Lodgecast classic Welcome to Marwen (2018), the remake of The Witches (2020), and Holy Smokeo himself, live-action Pinocchio (2022). Here (2024) looked to be another wild Zemeckis film-in-the-making, all taking place in one room, in one house over the course of decades. Actually millions of years as the film starts with dinosaurs, eventually leading to Native Americans, and then a role for Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son William. It's based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire, with a screenplay by Zemeckis and Eric Roth. Most of the nonlinear story covers a post-World War II family and the ups and downs of their lives from the late 1940s to the early 2000s. Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly play the parents of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Hanks and Wright are severely de-aged and then re-aged over the course of the film using the magic of digital effects. While our reviews varied, this Zemeckis outing wasn't as painful as the previous three!

We recently witnessed Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan in the conservative biopic Reagan! This week it's Dennis Quaid in the gross-out body horror movie The Substance! Way back in Episode Number 9 of the Lodgecast, we covered a little French revenge film called Revenge (2018) directed by Coralie Fargeat. This French film director has returned six years later to give us The Substance (2024). The movie stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid. As we'll say in this episode, if you have the stomach to watch this body horror movie, then watch it first before you listen to all the spoilers in this episode.

Happy Halloween! In our last political-related Lodgecast for quite a while we take on Ali Abbasi's new horror comedy The Apprentice. It's a horror comedy because it is the origin story of American psychopath Donald J. Trump. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, with Jeremy Strong as Trump's mentor Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. Over the course of the film, which covers about 1973-1987, we see Trump devolve from an aspiring real-estate mogul to the pathologically narcissistic, vindictive psychopath we know today. Join us in our election anxiety episode as we try to laugh at the man who has spent the last nine years destroying our country. This episode will be instantly dated so tune in today!

In a very special episode of the Lodgecast, we cover the new epic political biopic Reagan (2024)! For this hotly anticipated film, we took a little Lodgecast field trip to do some research. You'll hear all about it in this episode. In the movie Reagan (2024), Dennis Quaid stars as President Ronald Reagan alongside Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. The rest of the cast is stacked, including Jon Voight, C. Thomas Howell, Kevin Dillon, Mena Suvari, Robert Davi, Xander Berkeley, Pat Boone, Kevin Sorbo, and most importantly, Creed's Scott Stapp as Frank Sinatra. The film was directed by Sean McNamara who has quite the filmography. It's an epic Lodgecast about an epic movie covering an epic President. This is Reagan!

Reverend David A.R. White returns for a fifth installment of the God's Not Dead film series entitled God's Not Dead: In God We Trust. We caught a Fathom Event screening of this during the one week it was playing. It delivered on its promise of being the most political in the series, with David A.R. White running for Congress against the villainous secular congressman Peter Kane (Ray Wise). Scott Baio stars as Kane's even more villainous right-hand man. Isaiah Washington reprises his role as Congressman Daryl Smith. Dean Cain, Mike Huckabee, and the Newsboys also show up. The movie dares to ask "Is God dead in American politics?" Spoiler: David A.R. White wins the election and God is Not Dead! Will David A.R. White rise to the presidency and become the Antichrist in God's Not Dead 6? Only time will tell!

Ever had a taxi ride that changed your entire life? Well that's Daddio! In this unique film, Dakota Johnson gets in a cab with taxi driver Sean Penn. Over the course of their journey from JFK International Airport to her apartment in Manhattan, they have a 100-minute conversation about life, love, loss, sex, power, and much more. Daddio was written and directed by Christy Hall. Dakota Johnson plays Girlie and Sean Penn plays Clark, also known as Daddio!

Francis Ford Coppola, you madman! Coppola spent $120 million of his own money to finance his new epic science fiction dramedy Megalopolis, and we just witnessed it in IMAX on Discount Nite! Folks, if you live by a theater that is playing this movie, it does deserve to be seen on the big screen. It is a sight to behold printed on Salad Dragon skin celluloid. An uncompromising, ambitious vision that will certainly draw a wide variety of reactions as it did for us. The cast is stacked with Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Franklyn Cicero, Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero, Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum, Jon Voight as Hamilton Crassus III, Laurence Fishburne as Fundi Romaine, Talia Shire as Constance Crassus Catilina, Jason Schwartzman as Jason Zanderz, Grace VanderWaal as Vesta Sweetwater, D.B. Sweeney as Commissioner Stanley Hart, and Dustin Hoffman as Nush "The Fixer" Berman. It was 50 years in the making, and at 85 years young Coppola has taken us to Megalopolis. See it BIG!

Saleka Night Shyamalan makes her film debut in M. Night Shyamalan's Trap! Saleka is M. Night's daughter in real life, but in the movie, she plays fictional popstar Lady Raven. Her concert is attended by serial killer Josh Hartnett and his daughter played by Ariel Donoghue. Hayley Mills of The Parent Trap (1961) fame is trying to track down Hartnett and trap him at the concert. It's another head-scratching psychological thriller from master of suspense M. Night Shyamalan.

We faced the alt right Borat head-on...so youuuuu don't have tooooo!

Director Ti West completes his X trilogy with his new movie MaXXXine. Mia Goth is back as Maxine Minx from the film X (2022). This time she is an aspiring actress in 1980s Hollywood seeking to put her adult film career behind her. Meanwhile, a killer known as the Night Stalker is roaming around Hollywood killing people and threatening Maxine. The film also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon. The film seems like it could be a sleazy 80s slasher slam dunk for Mr. Ti West, but does he succeed? Tune into this hawt take to hear our reaction.

One of the most talked about horror movies of the year is Longlegs. This hyped horror movie is from director Oz Perkins, who directed Gretel & Hansel, which we covered back in Movie Lodgecast Number 84. In Longlegs, Maika Monroe plays an FBI agent who must track down a serial killer, who might be played by Nicolas Cage. The movie also stars Blair Underwood and Alicia Witt. This horror movie has produced much debate, including on this podcast as opinions were decidedly mixed. Join us as we dissect Longlegs!

J.Lo's fascinating year continues! After covering This Is Me...Now: A Love Story, we were curious to see what she was up to in her Netflix sci-fi action movie Atlas. Jennifer Lopez plays Atlas Shepherd, who learns to stop worrying and love artificial intelligence in the year 2071. She takes control of a giant mech robot and befriends the onboard AI named Smith. The movie also stars Simu Liu, Sterling K. Brown, and Mark Strong.

It's a box office bomb losing over $100 million and scoring an abysmal 10% on Rotten Tomatoes currently. The movie is Borderlands, starring multi-Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett as Lilith and her team of misfits in this sci-fi action comedy based on the video game series. The movie was shot in Hungary during the COVID-19 pandemic by director Eli Roth with reshoots by Tim Miller to give it a PG-13 rating. It finally dropped into theaters here in August and it's a disaster-piece that we had to cover. The impressive cast includes Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black as the obnoxious voice of Claptrap. Don't ever see this movie, but maybe hear what we witnessed. This is Borderlands.

Russell Crowe is back again with his clerical collar fighting demons! A little over a year after The Pope's Exorcist (2023) was released, a new movie called The Exorcism has been released directed by Joshua John Miller. Joshua John Miller is the son of Jason Miller who played Father Damien Karras in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist! Joshua John Miller was also a child actor who starred in movies like River's Edge, Near Dark, Class of 1999, and Teen Witch. In his directorial debut The Exorcism (2024), Joshua John Miller directs Russell Crowe as Anthony Miller, an actor with a deteriorating mental state who melts down as he's working on an exorcism horror movie. The film also stars Ryan Simpkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, Adrian Pasdar, and David Hyde Pierce. Will it live up to the dizzying heights of The Pope's Exorcist? We will let you know!

At age 79, Aussie director George Miller has released the lively Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. This film comes out almost a decade after the highly regarded Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). It is a prequel to Fury Road starring Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy as young versions of the character Furiosa. Chris Hemsworth plays the villain Dementus, and there's a whole bunch of other demented characters that inhabit this post-apocalyptic wasteland. The film unfortunately bombed, and we'll discuss why, along with giving our review of this expensive action film!

The movie event of the summer has arrived! We saw Twisters in 4DX with motion-seats, wind, spraying water, vibration, smoke, and strobe lights! On a packed discount night at the Regal North Hollywood, Twisters proved to be the perfect 4DX movie that rocked our worlds for two solid hours. After sharing our recently rediscovered love for Jan de Bont's Twister (1996), we headed into the Pepsi 4DX with large Pepsis in hand. From the opening tornado scene, we knew we were in trouble. Twisters is directed by Lee Isaac Chung and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, and Sasha Lane. Deadpool & Wolverine unfortunately kicked Twisters out of 4DX, but if you somehow get a chance to see it in 4DX, DO IT! And if you feel it, chase it! We got twins!!

Forty years after the film Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Detroit police detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) returns for the fourth installment in the Beverly Hills Cop film series. After being burned by Eddie's legacy sequel Coming 2 America (2021), we were cautious about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. We share our love for Eddie in the opening, along with Harold Faltermeyer, who composed the great "Axel F" theme song. This movie was released on Netflix, where it quickly rose to the most-watched film. Many older actors returned for this one, including Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot as Serge. The film also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kevin Bacon, and Taylour Paige as Axel's daughter. The film is directed by first-time director Mark Molloy. We tried to bring some love and light to this one!

It's time to jump in the pool! Chris Pine's directorial debut was in theaters for two weeks tops, but we were able to dive in and experience it on the big screen. In the film, Chris Pine plays poolman Darren Barrenman. He fights for what is right in Los Angeles, which leads him down a path of corruption & real-estate & water & power. Pine assembled an impressive cast including Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephen Tobolowsky, Clancy Brown, John Ortiz, Ray Wise, Juliet Mills, and DeWanda Wise. Poolman premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to wretched reviews, so we knew we had to see it! Never watch this film, but do listen to our take on Chris Pine's Poolman!

Take a nostalgic Lodgecast trip with us back to 2018, when, for a brief period, we paid $9.95 per month to see unlimited movies at any time and in any theater. We watched the recently released HBO Original documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash to learn the story behind that crazy time in American moviegoing history. We find out all about the rise and fall of the MoviePass company and the players behind the scenes. And we mostly talk about our personal histories with MoviePass, including the MoviePass-produced film Gotti (2018) that we covered way back in Episode 14. We also talk about when MoviePass officially crashed during our hawt take of Mission: Impossible - Fallout. It's all love and light as we look back at our MoviePass moviegoing experiences. Rest in Peace $9.95 MoviePass! Long Live the AMC A-List!

Happy 4th of July America! For such a time as this, writer/director Alex Garland dropped his latest flick Civil War into theaters. This $50 million A24 film actually made some money bringing in $120 million worldwide. In the film, the United States is engulfed in a Civil War, as President Nick Offerman has taken authoritarian control over the federal government. Meanwhile, various secessionist regional factions are heading for Washington, D.C. to wreak havoc. Journalists played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson are road tripping while capturing the wartime action. What is the purpose of this film at this time, Mr. Garland? We considered it our patriotic duty to try to figure it out. God Bless the USA!

Director Luca Guadagnino returns. After his dark-hearted cannibal film Bones and All starring our boy Chalamet, Guadagnino has made a light-hearted tennis romance starring Zendaya. Challengers features a love triangle between her and Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist. We'll let you know if this movie is sexy! The film features plenty of tennis to the pulsing techno beats of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It's 15-Love-n-Light and the Lodgecast is ready to serve!

It was time to Do The Dune! Part Two! Yes, we got our Dune-themed sandworm popcorn bucket and we test it out live on the air. Then we snuggled in for another trip to the desert planet Arrakis to watch our boy Chalamet get all spiced up. And this time we got way more than just flashes of Zendaya! We rode this sandworm for 166 minutes and we'll let you know our reactions to this epic science fiction film conclusion. Bring on the Dune Messiah and the Children of Dune and even the God Emperor of Dune and the Heretics of Dune! Dune 2 featured a star-flooded cast including Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Lea Seydoux, and Christopher Walken!

The Lodgecast boys and girls of summer have returned from our extended Spring Break! We've been secretly recording while we were away. And one movie we did not miss was the baffling Marvel superhero movie Madame Web! The Dr. Michael Morbius Memorandum states that any Marvel movie that falls below 20% on Rotten Tomatoes must be covered on the Lodgecast. And Madame Web scored an abysmal 11% on Rotten Tomatoes! By the time we got to theaters, the word was out that this film was a turkey, and audiences were primed to laugh at everything Madame Web threw at us. Dakota Johnson delivers a bewildering performance as Madame Web as she tries to spin drama out of the wretched script and awkward pauses. She's supported by Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O'Connor, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, and Adam Scott. Tune into this episode to find out more about this cinematic bomb!

We're taking a Lodgecast Spring Break! We must give our dear Lodgemaster a much-needed editing break after splicing together over 280 four-bone episodes in the last six years! We'll be recording episodes of notable movies here and there while we rest up, but they won't be released until after our break. Fear not, dear listener; we shall return! Love & Eternal Light!

Celebrate Hollywood and the movies as the Lodgecast presents our Oscar Extravaganza & 2023 Movie Favorites! Host Brother Bischke leads a hard-charging examination of the Academy Award nominations as five prestigious Lodge members lay down their picks for what should win and what will win in twenty-three Oscar categories in under 30 minutes! Then it's onto our special award, where we'll all give our pick for The Salad Dragon of the Year! Then we charge forward to the very serious business of picking our 2023 movie favorites as we all count down from #10 to #1 of our very favorite films of 2023. Some Lodgecast movies make the cut of our best films, but there are many surprises. Have a listen, and let us know what you think!

This Is J.Lo…NOW! At age 54, Jennifer Lopez has released her ninth studio album, This Is Me... Now, and along with it, she financed a $20 million romantic musical film that dropped onto Amazon Prime last week! This Is Me...Now: A Love Story is loosely based on J.Lo's life as she falls in and out of love over the past decades. This visual album was only 65 minutes long, but we had much to say about it! Even though he's only in it for a few shots, Ben Affleck looms large over the project as Bennifer crashes and burns in the opening scenes, and J.Lo goes through a decades-long search to rediscover herself and her soul mate Ben. The film features many songs from her new album and many therapy scenes with Fat Joe as her therapist. It also features a whole host of cameos, including Jane Fonda, Kim Petras, Keke Palmer, Post Malone, Sofia Vergara, Jenifer Lewis, Jay Shetty, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sadhguru, Derek Hough, Trevor Noah, Paul Raci, and Ben Affleck as Rex Stone/Biker. Watch it through our eyes if you dare!

Three boys ventured out into a cataclysmic rainstorm to tackle the appropriately waterlogged NIGHT SWIM, starring Kurt Russell's son Wyatt and Academy Award nominee Kerry Condon. Did it scare our fins off or leave us cold in the shallow end? Dive in and find out!

Jason Statham is The Beekeeper. Requests were pouring in for us to cover this ridiculous action movie so we did. David Ayer directs and Kurt Wimmer writes (he also was one of the credited writers on Expend4bles). The movie features bees and honey and plenty of bee talk. Statham is an actual beekeeper on the property of Phylicia Rashad. When Phylicia Rashad gets fooled into a phishing scam and loses all her money she shoots herself. This sets Statham out on a John Wick-style quest for revenge. It left some Lodgers laughing and other Lodgers screaming, “Not the bees!”. The movie also stars Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, and Jeremy Irons!

Nicolas Cage recently turned 60! And just when you think he's done it all, he delivers yet another fantastic performance in a movie like Dream Scenario. This dark comedy by Norwegian film director Kristoffer Borgli stars Cage as a biology professor who starts appearing in random people's dreams and becomes famous. It's a wonderful setup for exploring the ins and outs of modern fame. It also stars Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, and Dylan Baker. Another winner from A24! See it!

Poor Things was one of the most anticipated movies of 2023, and it did not disappoint! It is another unique vision from director Yorgos Lanthimos and is currently nominated for 11 Academy Awards. Emma Stone stars in a bravura performance after she is revitalized by an eccentric surgeon played by Willem Dafoe. The cast is rounded out by Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael. It's a must-see!

For this episode, we ventured into new territory. We went to an AMC Screen Unseen mystery movie event. AMC Screen Unseen shows a movie that is coming out soon, but they don't tell you what it is. No one in the audience knows what the movie is until it hits the big screen! A cool idea from AMC, and at a price point of $5, our theater was packed. All we knew was that the mystery movie was R-rated, and that was enough to get us excited. We recorded an intro for this episode where we speculated what this mystery movie might be. Hear our reaction in real-time as we reveal this mystery movie to you and discuss it!

There was a Pet Sematary prequel that came out late last year! A prequel to the Pet Sematary (2019) remake, to be precise, which was a remake of the 1989 film based on the 1983 Stephen King book. So Bloodlines is a prequel of a remake of an adaptation that went straight to Paramount Plus. We covered the Pet Sematary remake way back in Episode 43 of the Lodgecast. Bloodlines scored a woeful 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, which sealed our fate that we had to cover it. This movie is set in 1969 and stars Jackson White as a young Jud Crandall who discovers the secrets of the cemetery. This movie stars some other heavy hitters, including Henry Thomas, David Duchovny, Samantha Mathis, and Pam Grier. The cast is rounded out by Forrest Goodluck, Jack Mulhern, Natalie Alyn Lind, and Isabella Star LaBlanc. While "sometimes dead is better," we're not ruling out future installments of the Pet Sematary franchise!

The Year of the Dragon is upon us! But before we get to dragons, let's get prestigious with Sofia Coppola's new A24 biopic Priscilla about Priscilla Presley. For this 'cast, we got the old Elvis (2022) crew back together to take a new look at The King from his wife's perspective. This movie is an adaptation of Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir Elvis and Me. It stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla and Jacob Elordi as Elvis. We came in with varying degrees of fandom for the films of Sofia Coppola and we left with varying bone counts!

And so we close out the year 2023 with Timothee Chalamet's Wonka. This is a new musical fantasy prequel to Roald Dahl's story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That 1964 book has been adapted twice: the classic version starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in 1971 and the not-so-classic Tim Burton 2005 remake starring Johnny Depp as Mr. Wonka. While this new Wonka movie didn't reach the dizzying heights of Cats (2019), there was still plenty of wacky musical fun to be had. The movie is competently directed by Paul King, who is famous for Paddington and Paddington 2. Wonka co-stars Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Natasha Rothwell, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Grant as Lofty the Oompa-Loompa. Join us for this special Minnesota-based Lodgecast as we inject the liquid chocolate deep into our veins! Wishing you all a wild and wonderful wishy-washy New Year!