Shows
Marvelous! Or, the Death of Cinema[PREVIEW] Pitt-chatWith Nicole away, Cole and Stu indulge themselves with a two and a half hour conversation about The Pitt, a popular new medical drama. It's just good TV.
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2025-05-0908 min
Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Nicole's Much Needed VacationWhile Stu and Cole were talking about Star Trek Nicole was hanging out in a dive bar watching metalheads mosh to music medieval bards played. Anyways we're talking about Cecil B. Demented and John Waters.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2025-04-1109 min
Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Nicole's Much Needed VacationWhat did Nicole do for her two week break from watching garbage for the enjoyment of other people? Well she went to a film festival to see some good movies and then hung out at a dive bar with metal heads listening to medieval bard music.
Anyways here's over two hours of us talking about Cecil B. Demented and relitigating the state of cinema for the 1000th time, but only on the Patreon.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/ma...2025-04-112h 14Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe Suicide Squad (2021), or "Project Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water"Nicole is still on vacation so enjoy a groundbreaking 'Marvelous!' first time event: A Stu and Cole solo episode. Free to hate-it up we talk about the enigma that is James Gunn, his Guardians rehash plot, the concept of 'rubber edge', bad casting, revisiting gen xcellence, the abuse and misuse of quality source material and classic silver age monsters. Bonus: Extended digressions about some new hospital show. Need a Nicole fix? She discussed this film on It's Giving Camp.
A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black C...2025-04-042h 40Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Screen MemoriesA preview of the first several minutes of our supporter exclusive Patron Raffle episode on James Wan's 'Malignant' (2021), selected by supporter It's Brunhilda!
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2025-02-2808 min
Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaDune: Part One, or Spice WorldStu returns from exile in the desert of the real. Cole gets hype. Nicole is easily amused. Finally, a movie we like: Hints of oedipus, the corrupting nature of power, the difficulties of adaptation, flying above the storm and threading the needle, midcentury freakboys, representation and engaging with art, outer thoughtworlds, women in space, when 'realism' works, when the cgi doesn't suck, and oh how low the bar is in this fallen world.
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim (shout out to Jim!), T...2025-02-212h 25
Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaVenom: Let There Be Carnage, or Out of the Hardy Closet (feat. Andy and Esther)They did it. They made this shit gayer.
This week on Marvelous!, Nicole and Cole are joined by returning guests Andy (@Ex_AnarchoAnon) of TGOFV and Esther (@capybaroness) of Get Cynical/The Lost Broadcast to discuss Venom: Let There Be Carnage, an amazing film about gay couple Tom Hardy and the goop monster that lives in his ass fighting off against a San Francisco polycule comprised of Woody Harrelson in a wig, a woman who yells, and the red goop monster they bring in as their third.
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fis...2025-02-071h 44Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaChristmas Special: The Wizard of Oz (1939)It's a boxing day content miracle! The gang assembles to talk in earnest about a beloved classic, a movie that might not be Christmas themes, but definitely shares those vibes: The Wizard of Oz. Nicole holds court in this special episode about family, technicolor, Hollywood horror stories myths loved and myths dispelled. And in the fine tradition of holiday specials, we're joined by a surprise guest star! Can you guess who? Tune in to find out!
Special Thanks to our Executive Producer Tier Patron Supporters: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda D...2024-12-271h 52Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaHalloween Special: Creepshow, or the (Stephen) King of ComedyIt's a very special Halloween episode as the gang covers the classic EC-comics inspired 1982 George Romero/Stephen King anthology film Creepshow. Our conversation includes: The strengths of the anthology format, the history of moral panics, how much creatively minded boomers hated their dads, EC comics and the comics code, scary Leslie Neilson, and King's memorable turn as doomed simpleton farmer Jordy Verrill.
Special thanks to our Executive Producer tier Patrons: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, Sam, Porridge Fist an...2024-11-011h 55
Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaX-Men: Days of Future Past, or Magneto Bullet TheoryX-Men: Days of Future Past is notable for three things. The first is that it splits the timeline continuity between the old X-Men movies directed by (allegedly) sex pests towards underage boys or adult women with the new ones that will eventually bring us to Dark Phoenix and New Mutants taking Fox's outing with Marvel off a cliff, and in doing so innovates the now lucrative concept of the "multiverse." The second is that aforementioned sex pest towards underage boys (allegedly) is back to directing an X-Men movie and now we have to talk about him. The third is t...2024-10-181h 55Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Diverse Racial Weapons Auction (feat. Ty)In one of our many silly tangents about Steel Cole laments that there aren't enough big third act scenes where the climax is a weapons auction to different stereotypical racial ethnicities, seemingly forgetting about Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Ty is also here.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-10-1102 min
Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaKick Gyatts, or The Reappraisal of Mark Millar By The Coward Java JiggaFinally, our most off topic episode. Like a Millarworld comic we've got dick and fart jokes, imminently dated jokes about what's in the news, and a slight fixation on race in maybe our most off topic episode yet. Maybe in 15 years Netflix will give us like 10 billion dollars to produce a live action version of the podcast that will be canceled after one season. Did anyone else ever watch the netflix released Jupiter's Legacy show?
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Owen2, b...2024-10-041h 32
Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAvatar, or They Done Screwed Up and Let Coal Upload an Episode (ft. John The DiLillo)Did any of you guys get the pandora mental illness? I didn't for the first one but now I think I'd fuck a blue lady if she looked white enough. Do you guys read these? Anyways stu and nicole are having a JO sesh at the local theater so they let me do this and I had to spend like 45 minutes figuring out the login because nobody knows what the podcast email is. Anyways we had a great time with the homie john on this one.
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn...2024-09-201h 44Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaX-Men: First Class, or No Darwin No PeaceSo here's a movie everyone misremembers as being really good: X-Men: First Class. Not directed by a serial rapist pedophile or rampant sex pest of adult women, but by certified hack slop directed Matthew Vaughn a.k.a. Matthew Allard de Vere Drummond. It's the first of Fox's nu-X-Men movies in a saga that will end in Dark Phoenix (or New Mutants, however the fuck this canon goes). Basically we watched Star Trek again because this is also a prequel overstuffed with fanservice and weird shit about women. Made to be watched on FX with commercial breaks or by...2024-09-061h 55Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Live Kang ReactionJonathan Majors couldn't stop doing DV and now they're giving an unfounded amount of money to Robert Downey Jr. and his brand new Oscar to come back as Doctor Doom. All that and more Marvel news covered in this Special Report.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-08-3003 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaStar Trek '09, or Imbalance of Error (feat. Seqarts)It's finally time for us to delve into a massive franchise we have yet to cover on the pod: Star Trek. Before J.J. Abrams was handed the keys to Star Wars to run into a brick wall and the hack fraud writing duo Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci gave us whatever the fuck the Tom Cruise Mummy movie was, they rebooted Trek with a glossy blockbuster prequel everyone loved and had absolutely no issues with. Does it really hold up after all these year? Three out of four podcasters say no, it doesn't. (Guess which one of us...2024-08-232h 37Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: AMV HuntersTowards the end of our Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within conversation, we uncovered the gem of all gems: an 18 year old Evanescence "Bring Me to Life" AMV.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-08-1602 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaFantastic Four, or Josh Trank and the Wig of DespairCoincidentally commemorating the 9 year anniversary of what’s been dubbed one of the worst superhero movies ever made, we watched Josh Trank’s 2015 mega-flop Fantastic Four a.k.a. Fant4stic this week. Doomed from the start by the competing forces of a hot young director and a studio trying to compete with the media conglomerate that will buy them two years later, the resulting attempt to reboot the Fantastic Four into darker, Cronenbergian territory was not so fantastic. It’s stinks actually, but who’s really to blame? Josh Trank? Fox? Kate Mara’s wig? With the MCU’s own iterat...2024-08-092h 17Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaGreen Lantern, or Emerald ShittyJust in time for Deadpool and Wolverine, we're turning back the clock to 2011 to revisit Ryan "Reddit" Reynolds of Mint Mobile's greatest superhero shame, Green Lantern. Is it really as bad as everyone's made it out to be in the last 13 years? Yes, actually. But it also represents a fascinating transition point where Warner Brothers is trying to catch up to the MCU with their own attempt at Iron Man. The result is a movie that's simultaneously dated for the time it was released and also innovative in helping to make VFX crunches the standard for blockbuster productions. Plus, we...2024-07-261h 53Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Release the Timberlake CutSomehow in our discussion of Southland Tales we discovered that Stu's a semi-fan of the Justin Timberlake star vehicle In Time.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-07-1902 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaWonder Woman 1984, or Triumph of the Wish (feat. Liz)We end our brief and bitter sojourn into the COVID-riddled landscape of 2020 releases not with a whimper, but with a hateful, unapologetically awful bang. The follow up to the DCEU's critically and commercially successful Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins' sequel Wonder Woman 1984 was reviled and mocked when it was released in theaters and on HBO Max. And if you can believe it, the movie has only gotten worse in the wake of ongoing genocidal events in Gaza. Returning guest Liz (@liz_irl) joins us to help eviscerate this truly abhorrent specimen of liberal Girl Boss #StillWithHer feminism brought to you b...2024-07-122h 16Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe New Mutants, or X-Men, InterruptedRemember that one poster you saw at the theater back in 2017 for that X-Men spin-off that you kept waiting to come out and never did, only to one day find it was playing at a movieplex near you in the middle of COVID? It's The New Mutants, the final installment in Fox's X-Men franchise victimized by both the Disney buyout and being the product of the guy who directed The Fault in Our Stars trying to make a horror movie for Freeform teenagers (among a bunch of other things). And in a shocking turn of events, Cole actually liked t...2024-06-281h 59Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Nicole Flexes Her Gender Studies Masters (feat. Jane Evelyn)I know tons of you probably hate Assassination Nation and anything else Sam Levinson touches but what if I told you there's some insight to be mined from this movie?
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-06-2101 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSonic the Hedgehog, or Chaos Uncontrolled (feat. Andy yet again)It's finally time to talk about Paramount's live action-animated hybrid Sonic the Hedgehog starring Jean-Ralphio as Sonic, every kid's favorite movie star James Marsden talking to another CGI animal, and Jim Carrey as Robotnik on Ozempic. Our favorite boy/Sonic-enthusiast Andy (@Ex_AnarchoAnon) from TGOFV returns once again to discuss the results. Everything basically turns to chaos. Stu literally begged us to end the episode. Don't worry, we talk about Ugly Sonic before that though.
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.
Link to do...2024-06-141h 34Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: How to Lose Your Patrons in 60 SecondsSomehow in the middle of our discussion on Belladonna of Sadness we entered a tangent about Bear in the Big Blue House.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-06-0700 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaBirds of Prey, or I, Harley Quinn (feat. Fabiola Liaño)We're cracking open our brief excursion into 2020 with one of the last movies to get a theatrical run before COVID shut everything down. Women finally got their own Deadpool starring and produced by mega-star of the moment Margot Robbie. Against her better critical judgement, Nicole enjoyed this one for the incredibly flawed and messy thing that it is because women can have a junk food treat sometimes. Cole and Stu basically hated it. To help us break down whether or not women have the right to be annoying, we're joined by returning guest and fellow Robbie Quinn enjoyer Fabiola L...2024-05-312h 34Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTrain to Busan, or Trains, Brains, and Negligent FathersWe're going international baby to see how other countries do their blockbusters! (Super producer and editor Miguel) picked, you (paying Patrons) voted: 2016's Train to Busan, South Korea's hit zombie flick . You're probably more than aware that South Korean movies (and a lot of their recent cultural exports) have been dog walking the slop America's been putting out recently, and for good reason. We talk a little bit about that, but mostly we go off the rails a lot talking about trains.
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, j...2024-05-171h 47Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Tactical Twink-strategy (feat. Angie)This anime bullshit is actually giving us a real political discussion if you can actually believe it. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-05-1003 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSpider-Man: Far From Home, or Batalon RoyaleRight off the back of the milestone of watching/shitting on Avengers: Endgame, followed it up with another Spider-Man movie, and to nobody's surprise it literally doesn't matter. This is an anime beach episode that has no bearing on anything else that happens in a cinematic universe. Spider-Man accidentally drones a school bus driving through the Czech Republic to get back at fakeass Charles Melton for taking revenge porn of him, and somehow it doesn't feel as insane as it should be. Everyone is so fucking tired here! Except for Jacob Batalon. Love that guy, let him be James Bo...2024-05-031h 51Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAvengers: Endgame, or This is (Not) the EndIt's all led to this. 21 movies, tens of billions of dollars made at the box office, a movie going public willing and hungry to return to the trough to see even more purple Josh Brolin. It's the second highest grossing movie of all time (unadjusted for inflation) and the episode you've all been waiting for since the very beginning: Avengers: Endgame. Has enough time passed now to say it sucks?
Extra special thanks to Seqarts, our $100 Kevin Fiege tier supporter for April!!
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.
2024-04-192h 30Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Cara Loft - Womb RaiderIt's exactly what you think it is. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-04-1302 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, or The Real Glup ShittoA $4 billion dollar Disney acquisition, Reddit internet flamewars, and three film trilogies of the so-called “Skywalker Saga” have finally led to this: a movie so desperate to backtrack on The Last Jedi and meet its 2019 release date that the end result is something akin to a term paper written half an hour before you’re supposed to turn it in. Rise of Skywalker isn’t so much a film as it is the apotheosis of every single horrible trend in IP blockbuster filmmaking this podcast has discussed since our very first episode, a movie that set out to please everyone...2024-04-052h 14Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaJoker, or How I Got These (Psychological) Scars (feat. Ty)Comedian and friend of the show Ty from TGOF(V) joins us to discuss the most well adjusted and normal practitioner of the greatest art, and its greatest artist: noted non-rapping Insane Clown and sometimes Bats-men pesterer, The Joker. A role now more prestigious than Macbeth, it both won an Academy Award and turned every lonely man that saw it into a spree shooter. Join us as we dive into the sick n' twizted origin story of the clown prince of crime, and maybe crack a few jokes of our own along the way.
If you can...2024-03-221h 15Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Anti-Rape Super Saiyan
We ended up talking a lot about Dragon Ball Z in our discussion of Bitter Moon and the many sex crimes of one Roman Polanski. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-03-1500 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaDark Phoenix, or Professor Baldy's Academy for FreaksIn our first run at the Fox X-Men films proper we tackle Dark Phoenix, a film that turns one of the classic story arcs in comics that turns it into a flaccid two hours of cinematic rice cake. We explore the film's very troubled production history, the career of writer/director Simon Kinberg, and discuss the source material, how commercially oriented film production strips it of everything weird, exciting or interesting, and put two more Xs into the X-Men.
If you can, also consider supporting these organizations in Palestine:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid)
P...2024-03-081h 49Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Our Idea for Big 2We came up with not one but two pitches for legacy sequels over the course of our discussion about Bound. This is one of them.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-03-0101 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaGodzilla: King of the Monsters, or Boston Strong (feat. Andy again)In our first stab at Legendary's Monsterverse, we tackle 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which is really just a shiny American remake of Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, and All Monsters Attack except there are no aliens dressed like a New Wave band and nuclear radiation is net positive for the environment. We've got our favorite Godzilla autist Andy from Those Good Old Fashioned Values back to talk all about our big favorite guy and why this movie isn't good. At least Nicole's home turf of Boston gets razed in the climax. Too bad you can't see m...2024-02-231h 37Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaDetective Pikachu, or Adult Baby Consent MachineWe discuss a pokemon movie that a lot of people where tricked into liking because it had cinematography and a cute little guy. Along the we cover the (mis)casting of Ryan Reynolds, the growing synergy between American and Japanese entertainment industries, adapting anime characters to live action, childhood memories, childhood atavism, Drake, Roger Ebert: Southern Gentleman, and much more in a free-ranging tall-grass episode with some of the weirdest and wildest bets yet recorded.
Please support Peter David's medical expenses gofundme here.
And if you can, also consider supporting these organizations in Palestine:
...2024-02-091h 42Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Nicole Does an English AccentEnjoy Nicole's impeccable posh English accent in this excerpt from our Patron-exclusive episode about the recent 'indie' hit Saltburn and writer/director Emerald Fennel. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
2024-02-0201 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaHellboy (2019), or The Right Hand of Goon (feat. Graham)In 2019 they rebooted Hellboy. Remember that? They rebooted Hellboy. They made a new Hellboy movie. With David Harbour! Remember him? The stranger things guy? No you don't. Be glad! They really messed this one up. The guy who made "The Descent" then nothing else for 15 years was in way over his head. The producers kept trying to make this a Marvel movie. They turned Hellboy into Butthead. All the gore is CGI. It was edited by a a young child with meat cleavers for hands. Eddie Meatcleaverhands (original character do not steal). You know the drill: It's a bad...2024-01-262h 13Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaCaptains Marvel: The Twin FakesWe open 2024 with a deluxe-sized double feature episode as we compare two titanic 2019 superhero releases: Captain Marvel and... Captain Marvel!? Ok, it's Shazam, but realheads know. If you don't, listen to this episode, and find out all about the Captains Marvel, phony pheminism, corporate cuckoldry, bad relatable teen writing, bad relatable grown woman writing, golden age comics, gay wizards, space goblins, and what happens when your endearing superheroic lead is light-bending black hole of negative charisma and so much more!
If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American...2024-01-122h 30Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSpider-Man 2 (The Game), or Cookie Monster Symbiote [BONUS]We're taking a little extended holiday break before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming (talking about capeshit movies). To tide you all over, Cole talked about Spider-Man 2 (the game) with Ty from Those Good Old Fashioned Values along with Gus and Charlie from Most Controversial in a Stu and Nicole-less episode.
If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid)
PCRF (Palestinian Relief Children's Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where...2024-01-051h 11Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaBlack Christmas, or The Pod is Coming from Inside the House (feat. Spencer)Merry Christmas everyone (or Happy Holidays if you're on that liberal anti-Christmas bend)! It's the two year anniversary of the pod, and rather than wasting our time watching Deadpool 2 retrofitted into a PG-13 Christmas edit with Once Upon a Deadpool, we let our Patrons pick what our Christmas/anniversary episode would be about from a curated list of four movies. Beating out Cole's pick for Bon Voyage Charlie Brown by one vote was Stu's choice: 1974's groundbreaking proto-slasher Black Christmas, directed by A Christmas Story and Baby Geniuses 2: Superbabies auteur Bob Clark. To help us out, we're joined by Black Chr...2023-12-221h 26Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaPATREON PREVIEW: Cole’s RantCole loses their mind in this excerpt from our Patreon exclusive book report on the recent hagiography MCU - The Reign of Marvel Studios.
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2023-12-1503 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAlita: Battle Angel, or Cyberbodies and Spaces (feat. Esther)Esther Rosenfield (@capybaroness) from Get Cynical joins us to discuss a movie... we all actually quite liked! The Robert Rodriguez directed, James Cameron produced manga adaptation of Battle Angel Alita (aka GUNNM). In this episode: Earnestness in adaptation, good action, big dick jimmy, modifiable and interchangeable bodies, trans and queer themes, differences between the film and the manga, what seperates 'good' and 'bad' CGI, and much more!
Performance and Selfhood in 'Alita: Battle Angel'
If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee A...2023-12-082h 13Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSolo: A Star Wars Story, or L3R34In this episode: Solo, a film cobbled together from memberberries and reshoots. An annoying bisexual 'sjw' robot. Pansexual Lando. A plot driven around space gasoline. It's a film less interesting than it's troubled production. They fired the Lego movie guys and hired the kid from Andy Griffith, who is too old to understand how digital cameras work so you can't see shit. Seriously, I thought there was something wrong with my TV, but the movie is just Like That. Also: Explicit human on droid sex. Is it the worst Star Wars film? Yes! And that includes the holiday special. 2023-11-241h 56Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaPatreon Teaser: MISSION ACCOMPLISHEDWe launched the podcast in 2021. Since then, thanks entirely to our efforts, the MCU has taken loss after loss. Diminishing box office returns, declining critical support, plummeting audience enthusiasm. Under-performers have given way to flops have given way to fiascos. On the eve of 'The Marvels' disastrous box office returns, we take to the mics to discuss where we are, how we got here, and take a lap in the afterglow of our assured victory over the forces of evil. Ladies and gentlemen: We got 'em.
Like what you hear? Get the full episode and much more...2023-11-2001 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaBumblebee, or Birds In the Trap Sing Travis McKnight (feat. Liz)Special guest and Transformers scholar Liz (@liz_irl) enters the graveyard to discuss 'Bumblebee', the moderately successful and unexpectedly likeable spinoff of the Michael Bay Transformers franchise. In this episode: Franchise refreshes: the softest of reboots and how they try to shed their skins without losing their audiences. Fullmetal Fujoshi: Do girls like transformers? How a background in animation can help make better use of CGI. Is this movie just The Iron Giant + Christine? McKnight Begins: Stu makes an astonishing discovery about the origins and career of director Travis "Chilly Tee" McKnight.
Listen to Chilly T...2023-11-101h 42Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTeen Titans Go! to the Movies, or Baby TalkCole (zoomer with attention deficit disorder) somehow talked us (Nicole and Stu, aging millennials) into watching the Teen Titans Go! movie. Not sure why we did this because we all maybe talked about the movie itself for a total of twenty minutes and somehow milked the conversation to almost two hours? Lotta cartoon talk, some debate over whether a joke can just be "it's a butt," and Cole explains Teen Titans comic lore.
If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid)
PCRF (Pal...2023-10-271h 47Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe Book of Henry, or American MishimaWhy did we buck our own regularly scheduled programming of Funko Pop capeshit and IP pig slop to watch The Book of Henry, from the twisted mind of the demon Colin Trevorrow? Well, because it more or less killed his chances at what would become Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker and effectively nuked a totally separate film franchise than the one he was already dragging through pigshit. Also because this movie is batshit crazy. A "so bad it's good" cult hit in the making? Or, as Cole claims, "the smartest movie ever made"?
Commentary track here...2023-10-131h 24Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, or Sexual TyrannosaurusIt might be the dumbest movie about dinosaurs ever made. Too bored (and, in Nicole's case, incensed) by the first one to bother talking about it, we parachute into the second entry in this ur legacy-franchise-sequel-reboot for all the adult babies that never let go of their childhoods. The dinosaurs are your friends. Your pals. They're literally puppies. They're pedophiles. They're living things just like us, and deserve to live (and exterminate various other species in the process). Come for the dinosaurs, stay for rage-mode Nicole, Science Facts™, the refinement of our critique of 'soy dialogue', and an extended di...2023-09-291h 34Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAnt Man and the Wasp, or Small Soy-diersIt's another Marvel movie, and like most sequels in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant Man and the Wasp doubles down on everything that was irritating and boring about its admittedly okay predecessor. It doesn't stand on its own as a film because it's just a prolonged set up for a plot mechanic in a future Avengers movie. Not too much to say here aside from the usual complaints, so for the first half of this episode, Nicole, Cole, and Stu go back to basics for anyone just joining in on the ride that is this podcast. What are the fu...2023-09-151h 36Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAquaman, or The Water Boy (feat. Graham)Friend of the show and comic artist Graham joins the crew for a thorough filleting of one of the DCU's post-Justice League successes, the gleefully dumb light-hearted sci-fantasy romp "Aquaman." We discuss the origins of the character and his comic iterations, his nemesis Black Manta, the affable screen presence of star Jason Momoa, gestural environmentalism, bad wet-for-dry, big dick willie d, and how Black Manta in the comics has autism. All this and more in this episode jam packed with nautical nonsense and maritime adventure!
Buy Graham's Comic!
Thank you for listening! Please co...2023-09-011h 53Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaDeadpool 2, or The Cable GuyWe're heckin back again with another freaking awesome Deadpool movie you little epic piggies to listen to. Just kidding, it's a step-down from the really just okay first one in literally every way possible. The jokes aren't very funny, the action sucks (and got a stunt person killed), all the meta-stuff you're supposed to point at is lame, and the writers were too dumb to realize they pulled a Women in Refrigerators by killing off one of the hottest women to ever do it to even parody the idea into something marginally humorous. We also talk a little bit ab...2023-08-181h 35Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAvengers: Infinity War, or Oh Snap!Sorry for the delay on this one everyone, but on this super special episode of Marvelous!, we finally reach the moment Kevin Feige and his murderers row of enablers and sycophants have built up to since 2008. Hailed by critics and audiences alike and celebrated for its "complex" sneaker-faced purple villain/having the audacity to kill half its cast before the next one (or subsequent movies) revives them anyways, Avengers: Infinity War is the biggest movie EVER until Endgame or any other Marvel movie the marketing tells you it's actually the most important and emotionally wrought film you'll ever see. In...2023-08-072h 06Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaUNLOCKED - Patreon Raffle #1: Valerian and the City of a Thousand PlanetsFor our inaugural Patreon Raffle, Nicole's friend Jack* won and mercifully gave us the option of watching either the defanged RoboCop remake or European mega-bomb Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets starring two of the worst actors we've watched on the pod thus far: sick and dying actor Dane Dehaan from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Cara "Peg the Patriarchy" Delevingne from Suicide Squad. It's also directed by notorious French pedophile/former good movie maker Luc Besson, the man behind Léon: The Professional and The Fifth Element. Based on the influential French graphic novel Valérian and La...2023-08-041h 25Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaReady Player One, or ”Nerdgasm”Steven Spielberg. Colossus of film. Father of the modern blockbuster. Gamer. Ernest Cline. Author. Dreamweaver. Redditor. United, these two titans bring us the ultimate in entertainment product, that last movie ever made, the one where a guy jumps Doc Brown's DeLorean over the Iron Giant while RX-78 Gundam Fights Mechagodzilla. This week, the gang tackles the film that defines the death of cinema: Ready Player One. Nicole has an unprecedented meltdown over the abuse of Kubrick, Stu dissects the truly terrible source material, and Cole theorizes on how this nadir of insular pop-culture self-referentialism led Spielberg from a career...2023-07-212h 01Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaVenom, or Tom Horny’s Wild Ride (feat. Andy)Venom. He's a slime guy, he has big teeth, a Spiderman villain without a Spiderman, cast adrift into the seas of franchise uncertainty. In this appropriately amorphous, wide ranging episode we discuss the Venom character in comics, Tom Hardy's weirdo performance, Sony's jockying for position in it's tense shared-franchise relationship with Disney, the economics of modern franchise blockbusters, Cole gets so high they invent an entirely different movie, and Nicole makes Stu read some depraved fan fiction. It's a wild ride.
Check out Andy's Stream and support Those Good Old Fashioned Values.
Thank you for...2023-07-071h 19Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaBlack Panther, or The Revolution (Will Not Be) CommodifiedIn our most controversial episode yet, we take a look at the only black led movie ever made, the film that ended racism in America and dislodged the cheeto from the throat of its government: Black Panther (no relation). In this exciting episode you'll find: Stan Lee is a wily bastard, Jack Kirby talks like an old man, Afrofuturism as laser-shooting spears, bad cgi doubles, the limits of the liberal imagination, Africa as a fantasy projection for Americans, the lamest civil war since the last marvel movie, great casting, the meaning of diversity in film, conservative contrarian film critic...2023-06-231h 41Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, or Into the Cracker-VerseIn the grand tradition of raining on everyone's parade, we're bucking our usual schedule and revisiting/taking to task the critically acclaimed, Academy Award winning Sony Animation extravaganza Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a film Letterboxd users have rated as better than Goodfellas, Sunset Boulevard, and Persona. While the internet is currently freaking out over trans-coded Gwen Stacy, Nicole, Stu, and resident Spider-Man expert Cole bring some clarity to an admittedly beautiful looking but otherwise bog-standard Marvel movie about multiverses and believing in yourself that's very clearly written by white people trying to appeal to the young PoC Tumblr demographic (s...2023-06-082h 12Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe Last Jedi, or At the Fandoms of MadnessFive years ago, a mysterious and terrible force struck our culture like a meteor - laying waste to fandoms, blogs, video essays and fanfic websites. Now, present day, present time, three intrepid podcasters set out across the irradiated rubble of dessicated dead discourse, into the scorched wounds of a dying film franchise, and sift through the ashes and entrails to bring you the final word on The Journal of the Whills: The Saga of The Star Wars: Episode VII: The Last Jedi - a mildly interesting but entirely mid film that inexplicably drove millions of people insane for no...2023-05-261h 55Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaJustice League, or Two Guys One (Good) CutIn this luxurious, deluxe episode the crew bring you two movies for the length of three: Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021). We outline the troubled production and personal tragedy that led to Snyder's ouster from his superhero magnum opus, and how WB brought in noted male feminist Joss Whedon to work his MCU magic, soy-up the grim epic and bring the runtime down to a svelte one hour, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds. Disaster ensues, then a phoenix rises from the ashes - after fan outcry and studio desperation, a undulturated four hour original cut is produced...2023-05-121h 59Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaUNLOCKED - A Marvelous! Special Report: We Need to Talk About Ezra, or Who Watches the They/Thems?With the release of The Flash on the summer movie horizon, we're unlocking our Patreon bonus special investigative report on Ezra Miller and their crazy ass 2022.
WB-Discovery cancelled basically everything except their upcoming The Flash movie, the basket in which the newly forged juggernaut of classic films, DC superheroes and Shark Week has decided to put all their eggs? Ezra Miller. Once indie darling (alleged) turned blockbuster star (alleged) turned raving groomer psycho (alleged) turned messianic cult leader (alleged). Why, in the era of MeToo, has WB pinned their fate on a powderkeg combination of Jim Jones an...2023-05-052h 04Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTEASER: Cara Delevingne’s EyebrowsThe winner of our first patron raffle, the crew is forced to talk about Valerian, the already-forgotten bankruptcy inducing french pedophile sci-fi epic. In this exclusive excerpt, Cole breaks the simulation on Cara Delevingne's eyebrows.
For the full after-dark exclusive episode, subscribe to our Patreon. Just $3/month provides access to all subscriber-exclusive content, VIP discord events and more.
2023-04-2701 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThor Ragnarok, or Taika This Movie and Shove ItOn this episode Stu and Cole bully Nicole for enjoying things. Cole tells us about Thor and Hulk in comics, and how the MCU films have sold them both short. We discuss how a film that seems to want to be so whimsical and colorful seems to fall so flat, and how director Taika Waititi seems totally apathetic towards if not contemptuous of fantasy and science fiction: The small-minded and unimaginative cynicism that deflates the wonder and spectacle from Marvel's adaptations of it's more cosmic and psychedelic material. Also everything is on a green screen and half the cast...2023-04-221h 39Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Turtle Penis! (w/ Andy) [BONUS]In this special bonus episode, Andy from Those Good Old Fashioned Values joins the pod to walk us through a retrospective on the formative years of this generation spanning cartoon franchise, its origin in independent comics, and a discussion of the surprisingly well-crafted and endearingly corny 1990 live action film. But first, Nicole makes a horrifying discovery about Turtle biology.
Check out Andy's Twitch and listen to TGOFV!
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your...2023-04-142h 01Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaLogan, or Children of X-MenWhat if they made a comic-book movie... for grown ups? It's Logan! It's Wolverine! Remember Wolverine? He's old and sad. He says fuck. He chops dudes arms off. Professor X says swears and poops his pants. Everybody dies in the grim dark future of six years from now. We liked it ok, it's good but not as good as you remember, but we get to enjoy some great performances, fun gore, and discuss just what it means to make a 'mature' superhero story.
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our P...2023-04-071h 15Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaWonder Woman, or Waiting for Godot (To Learn How to Act)Nicole reckons with her cringe girlboss past, Stu spergs about how badly they got WWI wrong, new permanent third mic Cole has some wild shit to tell you about Wonder Woman comics lore. How could you take something as wild as a demigoddess created by a Freudian bdsm polycule and turn it into this bland rehash of First Avenger? How could you take a solid cast of stars and character actors and force them into orbit around the dead cold star that is animate mannequin Gal Gadot? Why did people like this movie? All this and much more on...2023-03-251h 59Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSpider-Man: Homecoming, or Peter Parker Custody BattleCole (@java_jigga) returns once again to help us out with Spidey's grand foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and Disney shareholders' wallets), Spider-Man: Homecoming. After a prolonged and ugly custody battle, Sony begrudgingly offered Marvel Studios to share parental rights over their little baby cash cow, and the result is yet another genre pastiche with the visual tactility of a Verizon commercial.
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Pag...2023-03-102h 06Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSpiderman, A People’s History (feat. Cole) [Part 2 of 2]Spiderman expert Cole returns to take us from the close of the 1980s Bronze Age of Comics and into the modern day, with the rise and fall of independent comics, 'adult' subjects, edginess, Marvel's bankruptcy, and the decline of mainstream American comics in the 21st century through the lens of Marvel's flagship webhead. This is the second part of a two part series. Next time, we'll be watching Spiderman: Homecoming - as the friendly neighborhood arachnid is assimilated into the Disney-Marvel Machine.
Click here to check out Cole's twitch stream and other things!
...2023-02-171h 49Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSpiderman, A People’s History (feat. Cole) [Part 1 of 2]Noted comics scholar Cole (@java_jigga) joins us to discuss the History of Spiderman as a character and brand, from his origins in the 1960s, through major lore moments, changes in creative staff, behind the scenes shenanigans, and the long weird history of licensed spin-offs, including a Japanese live-action series from the 1970s that had a formative role in the tokusatsu/sentai genre of television that begat series like Kamen Rider and Power Rangers. Along the way we learn about the long-history of exploitation of artists and writers, the origins of the crossover shared-universe and multiverse approach as a...2023-02-021h 54Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaStar Wars: The Force Awakens, or Oedipal Phallic PowerWe ring in the new year and year two of the podcast not adrift in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but somewhere a long time ago in a galaxy far far away (but still owned by the Walt Disney corporation).
The Force Awakens: woke SJW propaganda, the Walt Disney Company's hollow retread of A New Hope, a Lacanian manifesto in white men's fragile masculinity, or a JJ Abrams puzzlebox that's all set up and no pay off? Stu and Nicole take a break from capeshit to talk about gay ass space wizards and how delusional everyone was in 2015/2016. P...2023-01-201h 38Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaChristmas Special: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), or Grinch BonersMerry Christmas simps!
While our Patreon subscribers will be treated to the much teased Batman Returns discussion like good little girls and boys, you freeloading plebs get a lump of coal in your shit stockings. But isn't every lump of coal capable of being a diamond — or at least an insanely horny and stylistically over-the-top curio of Millennial childhood at the end of history? To celebrate the Yuletide, Nicole and Stu (re)watch Ron Howard's 2000 live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring actual crazy person Jim Carrey. Topics of discussion include: Baby Grinch, Car...2022-12-221h 47Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaGuardians of the Galaxy 2, or The Simple Feels MachineNicole kind of liked this one. Stu did not. It's kind of a movie. It's about found families. It's about feelings. It's fine. It's just fine. It's smooth. It's the vaseline you smear over your baby groot funko pop before you jam it up your ass and it's so smooth you feel... nothing. Nothing at all.
If you enjoy the show please consider helping us out with a positive rating or review, subscribing to our Patreon and joining our Discord Community! Apologies for the late release. Stu, like the cartoon raccoon, felt sad and didn't s...2022-12-121h 43Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaDoctor Strange, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Pronounce ’Synechdoche’The non-event Marvel film formula is perfected with Dr. Strange, a movie so perfectly smooth and spherical it's already become a fixture of neoclassical economics textbooks. All the pieces are here and they're all shiny and grey like a kitchen appliance. Join Nicole and Stu as they try and fail to talk about this movie and talk about everything around this movie, because there's nothing to talk about. There is an idea of a Dr. Strange, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real movie, only an entity, something illusory.
You can get everything Dr. Strange...2022-11-241h 42Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaCaptain America: Civil War, or Marvelous! Civil Discourse (feat. Cathy Brennan)A civil war brews on this very podcast as Nicole and guest Cathy Brennan square off against Stu over whether this movie is terrible, or merely kinda ok. We've got Steve Roger's not-gays, quasi-incest and age gaps, dubious character motivations, contrived plotting and a centerpiece action sequence that takes place entirely in a call of duty tutorial level, Nicole's insasiable lust for Chris Evans, the liberal conception of power, and the titanic behind the scenes battle between smooth-brained executives to make this movie even duller and lamer than it already is. For good and ill (ok it's all ill...2022-11-112h 42Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAmazing Spiderman 1 and 2, or Spiderman Flavored SpidermanA little catch-up two for one episode as Stu and Nicole revisit Marc Webb's Andrew Garfield starring "Amazing Spiderman" films, the movies so bad they convinced Sony to bend knee to the Disney-Marvel imperium. We talk about how Marc Webb turned Peter Parker into a self-insert artsy film kid, how Garfield and Emma Stone have chemistry despite dating IRL, the complete failure of the JJ Abrams esque 'puzzle box' parent plot, how stretching out the origin story into being an hour long doesn't add depth, the madness of casting swaggiest-man-alive Jamie Foxx as a chris-chan type character, Nicole's lust...2022-10-271h 50Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaDeadpool, or Red Dead RedditorWe always complain that these movies don't have enough sex or violence, so they gave us one with sex and violence. It's ok. Some of the humor is funny, some of it has aged badly. Has so much changed in just six years? It's a very 2010s movie. A very Reddit movie. We also talk about how TJ Miller is a freak and Morena Baccarin deserves better. Includes bonus Mario movie trailer live reactions (stu soyfacing dot jpg) and other miscellania.
Subscribe to the Patreon and join the Discord. We need weed money to keep d...2022-10-131h 38Marvelous! Or, the Death of Cinema(TEASER) Stu Gets the Podcast CancelledStu gets out of pocket in this excerpt from our Patreon-exclusive bonus episode "We Need To Talk About Ezra".
To listen to the full episode, wherein we discuss the ongoing melt down, messianic delusions and crime spree of DCU tentpole Ezra Miller, please subscribe to our Patreon. All bonus content is available at the $3 per month tier, with shout outs, credits, custom discord roles and other additional benefits available at higher tiers. Shout out to our most recent $5 'Producer' patron, Tankbuster!
Thank you listeners for your support, and your forbearance while we get t...2022-09-2905 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaSuicide Squad, or Insane Clown PussyThere are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this, there is no catharsis. My punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge...2022-09-171h 56Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaBatman v Superman, or It’s Not 1938 AnymoreTwist ending: We didn't hate it. DC Jumps into the Cinematic Universe game ass first and Zack Snyder takes a second crack at Watchmen but with official superman and batman action figures. As we've said about cinematic universes: It makes the sum of it's parts weaker. A decent if overblown Batman vs Superman movie is buried under the unmanageable weight of a rushed Death of Superman movie and a terrible Justice League prologue. Three movies is too much! Listen in as Nicole and Stu discuss how American mythos and self-identity is projected onto superhero figures, how these films continue...2022-09-022h 16Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaWatchmen, or Stu Watches the WatchmenIn delaying their dark fate (i.e. watching the 3+ hour director's cut of Batman v Superman) once more, Nicole and Stu pre-game with Zach Snyder's big-screen adaptation of Watchmen, the definitive Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons anti-superhero comic once deemed unfilmable by Terry Gilliam. More than a decade and several loud, gray, and stupid movies later, how does Snydog's Watchmen hold up? Well, it's not Man of Steel!
And big ups to our wonderful patrons/producers! If you like what we're doing and want to support us, or think we deserve hazard, subscribe to our Patreon for i...2022-08-181h 49Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaPREVIEW Tremble! Tremble! The Witches Are Back... Suspiria (1977) vs Suspiria (2018) Part 2 [WSE #4]Modern dance. The RAF and Baader-Meinhoff. Chest vaginas. Human origami. Abject mothers. Metal rib hooks. Thom Yorke. Mennonites. Eating chicken wings. It's Suspiria (2018), a certified Nicole-core movie (one of her favorites actually) that arguably surprasses the legendary original and paves its own fucked-up way in the process. Is that controversial to say? Do you disagree and want to yell at us? Well you're going to have to listen to the whole episode on our Patreon if you want to make a good faith argument and not get laughed at by Nicole.
For as little as $3 a month, y...2022-08-1007 minMarvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAll of Them Are Witches: Suspiria (1977) vs. Suspiria (2018) Part 1 [WSE #3]
Double, double, toil and trouble, it's the first of our long teased two-parter Suspiria (1977) vs. Suspiria (2018) episode! On this edition of Watch Something Else, Nicole and Stu discuss Dario Argento's original Technicolor nightmare in all its bloody glory. With the color palette of a demonically possessed Disney movie and the gnarliest score ever recorded for a motion picture, 1977's Suspiria is a cinematic assault on the senses the way movies can and should be (i.e. not financed by the Department of Defense or directed by Zach Snyder). Plus, Stu goes on an inebriated tangent about Canadian cable channels because...2022-08-041h 39Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAnt-Man, or Not the Wright GuyThis fortnight on Marvelous!, Nicole and Stu follow up Avengers 2: Joss Whedon Embarrassing Psychic Projection and finish out Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a smaller-scale movie where Paul Rudd plays a bug guy who steals. Like Iron Man 3, it's okay for inflight entertainment, but it's also the Marvel movie that shows just how controlling Feige and Friends are over the studio's productions. Hey, at least Edgar Wright got to make his Kevin Spacey movie! Plus, a brief check in on Thor: Love and Thunder's box office slump and Taika Waititi's ongoing campaign to make everyone sick...2022-07-211h 47Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaAvengers: Age of Ultron, or the One Where Joss Whedon Makes Black Widow SterileIn his follow up to the most reaction GIFed movie ever made, feminist filmmaker Joss Whedon buckles under his own ego and the studio mandated checklist Kevin Feige and co. needed him to fulfill in order to set up Phase 3 movies. This episode of Marvelous!, Nicole and Stu dissect Avengers: Age of Ultron, the divisive sequel to The Avengers where another Olsen twin and not Evan Peters team up with the gang to stop an unsexy robot played by movie sex symbol James Spader from doing evil human genocide. It's a mess.
Please consider supporting u...2022-07-082h 13Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaGuardians of the Galaxy, or Funko Pops Assemble!After the success of Avengers, the MCU was burgeoning into a colossus, and Disney found itself in desperate need of Intellectual Property to enlist in it's conquest of popular culture. They take a risk: A cult director with a pedigree in sicko schlock, a far fletched cosmic setting, and a d-list cast of offbeat throwoffs including a talking raccoon and a tree. What did they get? A smash hit and a money printing machine. What did we get? A perfectly fine mainstream blockbuster. Nicole and Stu take a look at the movie that helped define blockbusters in the 2010s...2022-06-231h 49Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, or The Unambiguously Gay DuoIt's conspiracies and queerbaiting as we get to possibly the most disappointingly overrated and bafflingly well remembered of these movies so far. We discuss a conspiracy thriller without a thrilling conspiracy, the problems with green-screen action and quick-cut editing, how the film inverts the relationship between the US Gov't and post-war Nazis, the continuing hollowness of hollywood 'war on terror' feaux-critiques, and Nicole guides Stu into the weird, wild world of horny fandom, queer readings, and the issue of 'queer baiting'. Are Steve Rodgers and Bucky Barnes gay for each other? It'd certainly make a more interesting movie.
2022-06-092h 11Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThor 2, or Lame of ThronesThor is back for another aimless, dull adventure in Thor 2: The Dark World. Why do they keep shoving Thor's sidekicks on screen with nothing to do? Why do all these movies have pale black-cad bad guys in big pointy black ships? How come Natalie Portman stops being a character twenty minutes into the movie? Did studio interference actually make this movie slightly less terrible? Is genocide only bad if you're not good enough at it? Join Nicole and Stu for all this and much more as we discuss the movie that begs the question "Why don't you jus watch...2022-05-261h 49Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaIron Man 3, or An Achievement in AdequacyNicole and Stu talk Iron Man 3, the most adequate MCU movie yet! It has the most OK action! The least bad politics! A less underused villain cast! It's everything you could ever possibly want in a movie you see on an airplane! Tune in for a in-depth analysis and scathing critique of a movie we both thought was "perfectly fine."
Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the show please consider supporting us by leaving a rating or review on your preferred podcast distributor.
2022-05-121h 39Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaWe Live in A Society: Society (1989) and Heathers (1989) [WSE #2]It's time to take another break from charting the decline of the hollywood blockbuster to take a look at two more movies we love that you should watch instead!* In this episode Nicole and Stu discuss two movies about the monstrousness of the American Bourgeoisie, Bryan Yuzna's 'Society' and Michael Lehmann's 'Heathers' both from 1989 the beginning of the end of history. We're talking imaginative weird creature effects, sick outfits, the rich feeding on the poor, loving our dead gay sons, culture presaging columbine and the era of stochastic violence, how Christian Slater plays the original 'we live in a s...2022-04-301h 52Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaMan of Steel, or Saturday Morning 9/11Nicole and Stu discuss Man of Steel, the superman reboot hastily retrofitted into the genesis of WB and DC's 'Not-MCU' franchise. We talk about the exploitative and ill-conceived use of 9/11 imagery, the bizarre strain of gruesome horror running through the film, the failure of writers Nolan and Goyer to fit The Last Son of Krypton into their 'gritty realistic' Dark Knight formula, the enigma of dumb-smart/smart-dumb guy auteur Zack Snyder, and much more! But hey, at least it looks like a movie...?
Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath f...2022-04-141h 56Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe Avengers, or Slouching Towards A Theater Near YouAt last it comes to this. The terrible beast that tore a path of destruction across the cultural landscape and remade the rubble in it's own image, the ground zero for an era of industrially produced perfectly smooth franchise IP gangbangs. A decade after it's release, what do Stu and Nicole make of Marvel's The Avengers Assemble (not to be confused with 1998's The Avengers)?1 What can we say about writer/director Joss Whedon, male-feminist nerd icon turned pariah?2 What, in the end, does all this superhero stuff actually mean?3
Find out all this and more as...2022-03-312h 03Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaCaptain America, or The Empire YassifiedNicole is simps over Chris Evans and his big feet, Stu is leads the crusade against body fascism, and a man dressed like a flag punches Hitler - It's Captain America: The First Avenger. Join us as we trace the MCU's retconned origins back to WW2 and we discuss the origin point of American Hegemony, the mythology of liberal imperialism, the genre's immanent inability to confront it's own moral contradictions, sperg out over period military tech and much more!
Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you en...2022-03-181h 53Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThor, or What If E.T. Was Sexy?Half of this movie is sexy ET without sex, half of this movie is Shakespeare in Space but without any drama. Nicole wants to know how this movie didn't kill the MCU in the crib. Stu wants to know why Kat Dennings is shilling crypto. The movie is bad. The podcast is good. It's the "Marvelous!" Thor episode.
Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the show please consider supporting us by leaving a rating or review on your preferred podcast distributor.
2022-03-031h 42Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe Mad Dutchman: A Paul Verhoeven Retrospective [Watch Something Else #1]This is the inaugural episode of "Watch Something Else", in which we discuss movies that actually kick ass and recommend that you watch them.
This week (Bi-week? Fortnight?) Nicole and Stu take a partial look at the career of Paul Verhoeven, noted Dutch Christ scholar and sometimes filmmaker. We examine the theological themes, the Christian analogies, and the explicit sex and ultra-violence of such films as Flesh + Blood, Robocop, Total Recall (briefly), Starship Troopers, and Nicole calls for a critical reevaluation of 2000's nearly forgotten thriller Hollow Man. I'd buy that for a dollar!
2022-02-161h 58Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaIron Man 2, or Three Action Scenes in a TrenchcoatNicole and Stu take a look at Iron Man 2, three action scenes in a trenchcoat pretending to be a movie. It's boring. It's meandering. It has a lot of plot threads that don't go anywhere. It's dumb as rocks and retreats from and muddles further whatever meager social commentary even the first film could muster. It's bad! So instead of watching this turd listen to our conversation about it, which is slightly shorter and substantially more entertaining!
Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the s...2022-02-031h 47Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe Dark Knight, or Joker Did 9/11For our first excursion outside the realm of the MCU Nicole and Stu take a look at another 2008 movie. One that was even bigger than Iron Man, even more a reaction to the Bush era, and equally formative on the following decade's blockbusters, in particular defining the style and tone of Warner Bros attempts to build a competing cinematic universe. Is it a neocon tract? Fascist apologia? Or is there more going under the hood with the movie IMDB users once rated the greatest ever made?
Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us...2022-01-201h 44Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaThe Incredible Hulk, or Hulk (Can Not) SmashHe's big, he's green, and he's... remarkably boring. Also he can't have sex with Liv Tyler. In the pod's own troubled* sophomore outing, Nicole and Stu talk about 2008's almost forgotten The Incredible Hulk. We go over the film's production woes, the conflict between the studio, the director, and miscast star Edward Norton, its failures as a movie, and how the media franchise that now rules culture with an iron fist almost sunk out of the gate - a conversation much livelier than its subject.
*Nicole's power goes out
Production by Mig...2022-01-061h 39Marvelous! Or, the Death of CinemaIron Man, or The Empire RedeemedNicole and Stu start at the beginning with 2008's Iron Man. There was no plan. There wasn't even a script. An indie director on the come-up took a long-shot casting a burnt out has-been who's charisma and pathos single-handedly turned a mid-tier action film into a monster hit that would spawn a monstrous cultural behemoth. We take a look at the troubled production, Downey Jr's charisma, and the film's confused politics as it tries simultaneously to critique the military-industrial complex while celebrating American empire and exceptionalism at the close of the Bush Era.
Production by M...2021-12-221h 42