The Pick: The Money Pit

This episode took us a little while to record, since our own Sean Lemme was busy moving into a new house, not unlike Tom Hanks and Shelley Duvall in this episode’s film, albeit with less destruction. As our lone Hanks-giving pick this year (if you can even call it that considering it’s December), the movie provides a nice snapshot of Hanks’ pre-Big stardom, and is also an interesting early endeavor of Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. There’s also an unexpected discussion of the “just guys bein’ slobs” genre of sitcoms as well as a game in which we try to guess the most bankable stars of 1986. Continue reading →

The Pick: The Addams Family

With spooky season coming to a close, we spend some time in the residence of the ookiest of all families, The Addamses. We do this by first delving into the history of this fictional family that originated with Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoon that was turned into a TV show that has always seemed to live in the shadow of The Munsters. The 1991 movie adaptation is a bundle of unbridled irreverence that is pretty up our alley considering its mix of the macabre and the wacky. It’s also a great movie to revisit this Shocktober if you’re looking for something to scratch that Halloween itch that isn’t necessarily scary, but still loads of dark fun. Snap, snap. Continue reading →

The Pick: Morbius

This time on The Pick it is, unfortunately, morbin’ time. In the midst of Shocktober season, we dive into the recent film portrayal of one of the spookier superhero villains and live to regret it. This is quite possibly the worst movie we’ve reviewed so far on The Pick, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a lively and cathartic conversation while airing our grievances against it and what can go wrong when the people making a superhero movie don’t seem remotely invested in what they’re putting onscreen. Plus, we get another unconventional Little Pick as Sean educates us on the low-profile Brazilian jiu-jitsu career of Sony Spider-man Universe alum, Tom Hardy. Continue reading →

The Pick: The Transformers: The Movie

There wasn’t any specific tie-in or reason really for us to be talking about the 1986 animated Transformers movie, other than the fact that Sean and John bought the movie on blu-ray a while ago and have needed a reason to watch it. Regardless, it gives us an opportunity to talk about the history of the Transformers toys and cartoon show, and how this is such a weird-but-memorable extension of those ’80s childhood mainstays. Also discussed is the eclectic assortment of semi-household names featured in the movie’s cast as well as its undeniably rockin’ soundtrack. We’ve got the touch! Continue reading →

The Pick: In The Line of Fire

After a summer break from podcasting, we’re back with The Pick to talk about one of the more acclaimed movies directed by the recently departed Wolfgang Peterson, 1993’s In The Line of Fire. It’s a movie that somehow we had all not seen until now and that despite being nearly 30 years old, features a lot of characters inferring that Clint Eastwood is too old to be starring in movies. We get into plenty of Clint talk as well as how this pick reflects and plays against a lot of other movies in the actor/director’s filmography. Additionally, there’s an extended conversation about Baz Luhrmann’s delirious Elvis biopic that came out in theaters earlier this summer and is now available to stream. Continue reading →

The Sixth Annual Criterion Month Draft

With July less than two weeks away, it’s about time we draft our picks for Criterion Month once again. This is the annual podcast where the three of us take turns picking what movies from the Criterion Collection we’d like to review on this blog over the course of next month. Most years there aren’t a ton of stolen picks, and sorry to disappoint you, that is once again the case this year. That said, we all had a lot of fun talking about revered movies we haven’t seen yet but are excited to talk about in 30(ish) days of somewhat rushed reviews that are published just in time before the stroke of midnight. Continue reading →

The Pick: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Since it is wedding season, we’re taking a look at the biggest, fattest, Greekest one the movies have ever seen. John’s got some bones to pick with this light and breezy romantic comedy, while also marveling at the fact that it was an absolute monster hit back in 2002. Also, since this is the end of this admittedly short season, we take a look back at The Pick’s past with a quiz delving into the 58(ish) episodes we’ve recorded so far. Opa! Continue reading →