After our usual summer break, The Pick is back with another batch of episodes that we kick off with 1999’s Mystery Men. What started as an intended tribute to the late Paul Reubens also ended up being a tribute to Smash Mouth frontman Steve Harwell, who also passed away before we recorded this episode. We get into both Reubens and Smash Mouth’s contributions to Mystery Men, as well as the rest of this very ’90s cast led by Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, and Janeane Garofalo. Continue reading →

Since this will be our last episode of The Pick for a little while, it’s overstuffed with plenty to keep you satisfied as we set our sights on Criterion Month. Not only do we review both 2008’s Mamma Mia! and its questionable yet miraculous sequel, we also sneak in a mini-review of Fast X, which is somewhere in between a Little Pick and a Big Pick. It’s an episode that serves as an ode to the fact that frivolous entertainment is nonetheless worthy of discussion and that any actor has the right to star in a musical no matter how underwhelming of a singer they are. Continue reading →

With Fast X currently in theaters, we’re taking a look back at Vin Diesel’s early career, back when he wasn’t exclusively racing cars and being Groot in movies. However, what we didn’t expect when picking Boiler Room was that we’d actually be getting a whole lot of Giovanni Ribisi, which was just as much of a pleasant surprise as this mostly-forgotten film was as a whole. It’s a welcome addition to the “bad dudes being bad” genre of kinetic filmmaking, and also sees us unsurprisingly inducting Ben Affleck into the three-timers club as well as (surprisingly) doing the same for Nicky Katt. Continue reading →

This week we’re talkin’ baseball in honor of the plethora of sports going on now by taking a look at a movie celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, 42. It’s a movie that’s plenty likable but probably could’ve been better if it had been put in the hands of a director more distinct than Hollywood journeyman Brian Helgeland. We also share our thoughts on baseball movies as a whole as well as our favorites (and not-quite favorites) of what very well may be the sport that translates best to movies. Also, John taste tests some new flavors of Doritos on mic, so there’s your trigger warning if you find the sound of people eating off-putting. Continue reading →

If for some reason you’re looking for real sickos content, then look no further than our discussion of the 2003 remake of the furry horror flick Willard. It’s perhaps the most divided response the three of us have had to a movie reviewed on The Pick, since one of us liked the movie quite a bit, and one of us did not at all. We get into both how this Willard relates to the 1971 original and its apparently musical sequel, as well as how the later Willard managed to pull off so many grotesque rat sequences with very little CG. So have a listen, you dirty rats! Continue reading →

Your wish is our command! Assuming your wish was for us to record a somewhat delayed review of an 8-month-old movie that not enough people saw in theaters. This week we’re talking about George Miller’s strange and sultry follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road while also providing a brief history of djinns as well as our own answers to what our three wishes would be. We also follow up our last episode on the 90s Super Mario Bros. movie by talking about the new Super Mario Bros. Movie, which seems to be just a hair better than that prior notorious adaptation. Continue reading →