Shows
School of MoviesCasablanca[School of Movies 2026]
'The Lies of Casablanca'. That was going to be my original title for this episode. When I got to sit down and watch this impeccable film on the big screen, it struck me how often the main characters lie; to each other, to themselves, to us... and yet we as the audience are almost always in the advantagous position of being able to clearly discern each lie.
So, Sharon and I delved into a true classic, venerated throughout the second half of the 20th Century, but now somewhat in decline on lists...
2026-01-092h 07
School of MoviesThe Force Awakens Revisited[School of Movies 2025]
It has been ten years since Disney relaunched Star Wars in the cinema, delivering what felt like a special globally-unifying grand, historical event... that a bunch of Star wars fans complained felt too much like the 1977 original special globally-unifying grand, historical event.
J.J. Abrams has proved over the years that he is far better at restarting big, exciting new worlds off with a bang (as he did with Mission Impossible and Star Trek before this) rather than somehow closing them out with anything approaching that same level of satisfaction (as with...
2025-12-262h 52
School of MoviesThe Crow[School of Movies 2025]
Several years ago, Sharon and I recorded an After School Club on this 1994 film, the botched production of which took the life of its young star Brandon Lee. We were scathing and derisory, having never much liked it (and the awful DVD transfer did it no favours) whilst expressing contempt for director Alex Proyas (I, Robot, Knowing, Gods of Egypt).
But this time (actually a year ago on its 30th anniversary) with Willow in tow, in conjunction with watching the appalling remake, we finally took in the 1080p blu ray, and I...
2025-10-311h 05
School of MoviesQuantumania & Brave New World[School of Movies 2025]
This is three After School Club episodes, trimmed and re-edited into one bumper Main Event show. To begin with you have my initial impressions on what is hopefully the last Ant-Man movie, way back in February 2023, then two and a half years rush by in the blink of an eye and suddenly we're in a different kind of place for both Marvel and the world. Revisiting with Sharon, we delve into how this film was positioned and the bait & switch of the final execution.
Then with Captain America 4, AKA The Incredible Hulk 2...
2025-09-052h 16
Business Growth TrailblazersNavigate the Tech Side of Business With Sharon ShawWelcome to the Business Growth Trailblazers Podcast! In today’s episode, we’re helping you navigate tech and keep it from overwhelming your business.Sharon Shaw is an IT professional with over 20 years of experience, a serial side-hustler, and the founder of The Skinny Startup: No Geeks Allowed—a business dedicated to helping women over 40 confidently launch their online ventures without getting lost in tech overwhelm.Over her career, Sharon has explored everything from Amazon FBA and drop shipping to coaching, and in doing so, she discovered a familiar patter...
2025-08-2114 min
School of MoviesBaldur's Gate III (Part 1)[School of Everything Else 2025]
One of the most ambitious projects for our podcast to date, this commission required the purchase of a PlayStation 5 and presents myself, Sharon and our teenager Willow with a massive and exceptionally dense and rich 80-hour tabletop-style RPG to battle through... each on our own individual quests.
To that end, this is the first of three shows covering the celebrated 2023 game by Larian Studios. The second is a session the three of us recorded the day after this one, covering more of our extensive notes and experiences, and the third is...
2025-07-112h 20
School of MoviesFinal Fantasy VII: Remake[School of Everything Else 2025]
It was a long time coming. The remake itself has been mooted as far back as the early 2000s, and the wait for it was half of my life. But then, when this astonishing game finally landed in 2020, a time when we all needed to escape to other worlds, I found myself paralysed with indecision within the game, unable to move for metatextual reasons.
Finally returning to it in 2025 I was able to play through and savour the experience with Sharon and Willow watching along. It is magnificently chaotic and chaotically...
2025-06-202h 29
School of MoviesThe Super Mario Bros. + A Minecraft Movie[School of Movies 2025]
Two of the most successful films of the 20s, both of them built on the winning formula of bewildered people from the real world being plunged into an alternate dimension which allows them to encounter pleasingly recognisable elements from the video games that general audiences like, on their way towards assisting with deposing a tyrannical warmonger.
The problem for us is that Super Mario Bros. is a long-running and beloved series of platformers, kart racers and RPGs, whereas Minecraft is a creative building block survival indie hit gone corporate phenomenon, that wound...
2025-05-302h 20
School of MoviesI Saw the TV Glow[School of Movies 2025]
As soon as we saw this thickly atmospheric, Lynchian lucid nightmare from 2024, Sharon and I knew we had to do a very particular show on it. Since the entire context is trans-anxiety which the majority of cisgender people may find impenetrably mystifying we needed an all-trans/enby/non-cis cast of guests to walk us through the significance.
On the surface it is a story about a chap named Owen who is lonely and isolated child of the mid-1990s, meeting lonely, isolated Maddy and bonding over a mutual obsession with a cheesy...
2025-04-182h 59
Terror Talk - Horror Movies, Psychopaths and HumorVanished in Galveston: The Unsolved Murders of Rhonda Johnson & Sharon ShawIn this episode of Terror Talk Podcast, we dive deep into the chilling and still-unsolved case of Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw, two teenage girls who vanished from Galveston, Texas, in 1971. Their tragic murders remain a haunting mystery, tied to a dark history of disappearances in the region.We break down the case details, the investigation’s missteps, and the eerie connections to other crimes—including potential links to the infamous Texas Killing Fields. Were the right suspects ever identified, or did the real killer slip through the cracks? Join us as we unravel the myst...
2025-03-2620 min
School of MoviesA Christmas Story[School of Movies 2024]
Mostly overlooked when released in cinemas in 1983, it took nearly a decade for Ted Turner to realise this thing was funny as hell, authentic, heart-warming, and a little dark and twisted, only to then screen it hundreds of times on his many networks until America was both in love with the movie and thoroughly sick of it!
Meanwhile the rest of the world is unaware of its existence, and Sharon and I as the only two Brits in on this Yankee secret would like to both illuminate its qualities for the listening...
2024-12-201h 41
School of MoviesThe Dark Knight Rises[Digital Gonzo 2012]
NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say.
The epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s game-changing Dark Knight Trilogy. It’s definitely not as straightforward as film two in the series because many people hate this film already, and an equal amount adore every inch of it.
It’s a tricky balancing act since so much of the most well-crafted and exceptional elements have already been discussed over three and a half hours reviewing Batman Begins and The Dark K...
2024-11-291h 41
School of MoviesInception[School of Movies 2024]
Nolan-Vember evolves to a whole new stage of the man's career, as following the billion-dollar success of The Dark Knight in 2008 he became a household name. This 2010 film, after The Prestige, just four years earlier garnered a mere $109m at the box office totally flipped the landscape of possibility in cerebral blockbuster cinema.
It netted an astonishing $839m, signalling to Hollywood that here was an auteur who could open a summer movie that wasn't based on comics or toys, wasn't a remake or a sequel, a reboot or a prequel or even...
2024-11-221h 11
School of MoviesThe Dark Knight[Digital Gonzo 2012]
NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say.
Part two of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Following the powerful set-up of Batman Begins, the production team pulled out all the stops to deliver an epic crime thriller in the style of Michael Mann’s Heat. This is a story of a city in turmoil and a police force struggling to keep order, up against the ruthless mob. At the center are Batman and The Joker, forces of nature representing order...
2024-11-221h 43
School of MoviesBatman Begins[Digital Gonzo 2012]
NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say.
Finally we get to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. After eight years away from cinema screens, and multiple stalled attempts at relaunching the franchise, Warner Bros knocked the Bat out of the park with the best film so far and arguably the most compelling and mature adaptation of Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego.
Many aspects are discussed and deconstructed including Christian Bale’s intense portrayal, ace cinematographer Wally Pfister’s erot...
2024-11-151h 46
School of MoviesSOM Winter Commissions SeasonThe window for our Winter Commissions season is now open.
Coming up this October we have shows on the first two Psycho films, (as well as touching on the ill-advised Gus Van Sant 1998 remake of the Hitchcock original.) Then a long-planned episode discussing the Horror genre in a new light. And finally on Halloween, we got us a hot, steaming bowl of Beetlejuice.
Following that we have Nolan-Vember, from the makers of Cloon-June. Sharon and I will be talking about four of his films on the Main Event feed: Memento, The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar, and...
2024-10-2401 min
School of MoviesFELLAS... Is it Gay to...?[School of Everything Else 2024]
This is a very special episode, and might be a lot of folk's favourite of the year.
What is a “FELLAS…” scenario?
It feels like most of us will have encountered them in the wild as we doomscroll our way through the doldrums of the Misinformation Age. Simply put, it’s when a man asks other men if it is in fact gay to do something in particular, OR it is when a man (and a very cis man at that) makes an empirical statement pronouncing something in particular that a m...
2024-08-301h 55
School of MoviesDamsel[School of Movies 2024]
This is a special show for Chris Finik. It would have been a relatively straightforward endeavour for Sharon and I to delve into this one. It's a story that feels familiar and contains many of our very favourite elements; A betrayed lady thriving on her own untapped resourcefulness with help from a chain of women begun long ago, a dragon with an AMAZING voice and a Royal Family squatting on an exploitative predatory system that all needs to be burned down. Plus, we love Millie Bobby Brown.
But we went one further...
2024-08-092h 10
School of MoviesBeavis & Butt-Head Do America[School of Movies 2024]
After many years of thinking about how to tackle these two absolute idiots, we found the best angle for us. Ostensibly this is about the 1996 movie, which still holds up today and makes for an appealing, surprisingly general-audience-friendly and brisk hour and 21-minute comedy. This is an achievement, considering their extremely sketchy first incarnation as a pair of cruelly observed Texas teenagers being horrible to frogs.
What Sharon and I do here is fill out the absence of texture in this rare 2D American-animated adult(ish) film by delving into who the...
2024-07-121h 42
School of MoviesRed Eye[School of Movies 2024]
Another unexpected Commission that came out of nowhere. Big thank you to Dean R for requisitioning this. Far less well-known in Wes Craven's body of work than the slashers, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The Hills Have Eyes, Last House on the Left, this one is going outside his comfort zone.
Starting out like a romantic comedy, an aspect highlighted in the trailer, starring the stunning and wildly talented young actors Rachel McAdams (fresh from Mean Girls and The Notebook) and Cillian Murphy (recently of 28 Days Later, and about to play...
2024-05-311h 46
School of MoviesGuest Lecturer: Guillermo del Toro[School of Movies 2024]
This is an idea for a new kind of show that I've been developing. It just so happens to coincide with a period where my voice has been wrecked from illness and I'm trying to limit talking for long stretches so that my vocal cords can heal up.
I've been pulling together an archive of Director's Commentaries from the various discs that nobody seems to want any more. These represent a window of just over a decade wherein we got to hear what was in the heads of the filmmakers. As we...
2024-03-291h 13
School of MoviesStar Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 2)[School of Everything Else 2024]
The conclusion (for now) to this series of shows on the triumphant return of Star Trek.
Season 2 slaloms between unsettling and dark episodes which would feel more at home in Discovery if they weren't so personal to the characters in this rich ensemble... and some of the most hilarious, touching, light-hearted yet heart-breaking downtime episodes which highlight the comedy strengths and the charisma of everyone in the crew. It's bumpy, but so worth the journey.
Kaoru's recommended episodes of the original 1966 series, AND the redheaded stepchild of Star Trek...
2024-03-222h 21
School of MoviesX-Men: Evolution[School of Everything Else 2024]
This was originally going to be an After School Club episode, but a combination of the community discourse regarding the X-Men, and an extremely well-timed trailer drop for the '97 reboot, AND a horrendous cold that has ravaged Sharon and I, along with our timetable, we're making this a Main Event.
If you're a little younger than us, you may well have been the exact right age and state of mind for this early-2000s animated series, which in many ways surpasses the much-vaunted '92 show. It is gratifyingly forward-facing, accepting...
2024-02-231h 04
School of MoviesUndertale[School of Everything Else 2024]
This is one we have been planning and looking forward to for a long, long, LONG time. One of the most significant indie video games of all time, and for our child, maybe their favourite forever (up against Minecraft and Stardew Valley).
In a gaming marketplace overflowing with charming retro-styled games with a dark, absurd sense of humour veiling heart-breaking stories about coping through pain, loneliness and grief, this one shines out as an inspirational beacon. With Earthbound on the SNES as his chief influence, creator Toby Fox set out to...
2024-01-192h 19
School of MoviesFinal Fantasy VII[School of Everything Else 2023]
The first global blockbuster hit in this long-running series from Squaresoft. As we noted before, the excellent Final Fantasies IV, V and VI were not released in Europe (neither were I, II or III) until long after this one, and it was utilising the power of the PlayStation, so this really was the introduction to what a modern-day cinematic RPG video game could be, for an entire generation in 1997.
Playing it today, there are a number of drawbacks, some of which (annoying random battles, slow-progression) are mitigated by Quality of Life...
2023-12-082h 10
School of MoviesGreen Lantern (Remastered)[Digital Gonzo 2013]
This is a special, re-edited, re-release of a classic episode of Digital Gonzo. Back in 2013 we talked all about Green Lantern, under the impression that Warner Bros. & DC had big plans for superheroes over the next decade. And while they have genuinely given more heroes an airing, audiences seem to only be interested in The Bat and the Joker, (oh, and Aquaman, because he has laser-sharks).
So, what this is is a pared-down and pacier version of the first part of that show with more focus and music. This is then followed by...
2023-11-171h 49
School of MoviesFinal Fantasy VI[School of Everything Else 2023]
There are many reasons why this 1994 instalment in the long-running Square franchise winds up high on lists of the very best RPGs of all time. It is an ensemble piece with an immediately engrossing story and endearing, growing party of misfits, oddballs and freaks.
The concept of an oppressive, evil empire messing with powerful magic to secure its dominance isn't new at all, but rarely does a single self-contained game tell such a world-spanning tale with no one character standing out as the obvious leader. They are all heroes in their o...
2023-10-062h 33
School of MoviesGonzo Adventures: The Tower of the Sorcerer[Digital Gonzo 2013]
The 150th episode of Digital Gonzo.
This was a one-off show inspired by the episode of Community 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'. It's a sit-down gaming session conducted over Skype with myself as Dungeon Master and my guests as a team of adventurers. For this one we were using the flexible, simple ruleset of Advanced Fighting Fantasy by Graham Bottley which itself stems from the gamebooks of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone (The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon) and detailed in the starter book Dungeoneer. This is the first of the two adventures within t...
2023-07-262h 56
School of MoviesIn the Heights[School of Movies 2023]
Lin Manuel Miranda's first big break into the off-Broadway musical scene. This 2021 movie adaptation, directed by Crazy Rich Asians-helmer Jon M. Chu is a squeaky-clean but heartfelt tale of the upper east side of Manhattan and its proud, passionate, talkative, motivated yet frustrated population of first, second and third-generation immigrants. It's a story of inheriting the dreams of your parents and trying to reconcile forging your own path.
This one has been a long while coming. We wanted to do a show on it as soon as the cinema release, but since t...
2023-07-072h 27
School of MoviesBatman Beyond[School of Everything Else 2023]
The DC Animated Universe marathon watch, which began all the way back in 2020 as Lockdown started continues! And this is a show Sharon and I had never sat down to watch before, so it was almost entirely new to us.
I knew this was pitched as "What if Batman was Spider-Man?" but I did not know the circumstances of how that premise came about. Warner Bros. wanted an animated series about a specifically *young* Batman. Toy marketing indicated that kids would engage more with a teenager than they would with a m...
2023-06-161h 46
School of MoviesBlack Adam / Shazam: Fury of the Gods[School of Movies 2023]
This is the second and third instalments of the Shazam Trilogy, we covered the first back in 2021. Now The Rock will assure you that Black Adam is nothing to do with Shazam, but we have comics that say otherwise.
We start with my 2022 first impressions of Black Adam having just returned from the cinema, originally put out as a Patreon Exclusive. Then we follow up with a brand new section where I tell Sharon about Shazam's last movie, at least with this cast and format.
What we said back when w...
2023-05-262h 08
School of MoviesHeckboy[School of Movies 2023]
Most of you will probably already know how much I care about both the comic book character of Hellboy and the magnificent Guillermo del Toro movie adaptations from 2004 and 2008.
However, considering its dismal box office of $55m (on a budget of $50m) and its dismal critical reception (17% RT) statistically speaking most of you did not see the 2019 reboot, and even fewer of you enjoyed it. Directed by Neil Marshal (The Descent, Centurion, Dog Soldiers) and starring everyone's favourite big red violent uncle David Harbour, this as an alternative to the proposed third...
2023-05-191h 44
School of MoviesThe Big Lebowski[School of Movies 2023]
Part III of the Coen Brothers series. In 1998 they pulled together what might in fact be their most beloved film for fans of their oeuvre. Definitely the most eminently quotable, by virtue of a script that is almost a musical in terms of how often phrases and lines are repeated and reprised, layering absurdity upon each scenario and impeccably delivered by an astonishing cast. It follows a California layabout named Jeffrey Lebowski who is mistaken for a local philanthropist of the same name. Chaos ensues.
Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, David...
2023-04-141h 49
School of MoviesDungeons & Dragons: The Cartoon[School of Everything Else 2023]
As the new movie approaches, Sharon and I journey back to one of our favourite childhood animated shows. Beginning in 1983, this was a joint collaboration between Toei Animation in Japan, Marvel Productions in America and DND Entertainment.
It was an attempt to string a loose narrative together of a bunch of teenagers transported to a mythical realm full of D&D scenarios, and being given roles in an adventuring party. It was made at a time when everything was episodic and self-contained, performances were insanely earnest and we all learned valuable m...
2023-03-171h 31
School of MoviesDuelling Pinocchios (Part 1)[School of Movies 2023]
It seems like 2022 was the year of the little wooden boy, with THREE new Pinocchio movies released. There was the Robert Zemekis-helmed live action remake of the Disney classic, Guillermo del Toro's darker, fascist-challenging Netflix stop motion film, and there was the Pauly Shore dub of the Russian one that gained memetic notoriety.
So Sharon and I went back and didn't only just watch those three... we pretty much watched every significant Pinocchio movie ever made. And then we brought in Victoria Luna B. Grieve to talk about their different approaches.
2023-02-242h 01
School of MoviesThe Fantastic Four[School of Movies 2022]
For years this seminal, game-changing Silver Age comic book has seemed damned-near impossible to adapt into a movie, with all four efforts failing resoundingly at getting major audiences to care about Marvel's First Family. And yet Pixar did it twice with the serial numbers filed off and the clear vision of Brad Bird.
So Sharon and I look back on those movies, two that we've covered in the past just based on their own merits (2005 and 2007) and two others whose productions deserve delving into (1994 and 2015), and we compare them against the comic...
2022-12-302h 38
School of MoviesIt’s a Wonderful Life[School of Movies 2022]
Perhaps the oldest film we have covered as a Main Event show to date, as well as one of the most significant from that era. Frank Capra's seminal Holiday classic is often dismissed as syrupy fluff by those who haven't yet seen it, or misremembered as light comedy by those who caught it in fragments over the years without sitting down to really take in what it's saying.
It's neither of those things, and the greatest tragedy is how searingly relevant this 1946 post-war exercise in picking up the pieces of a nation...
2022-12-162h 20
School of MoviesPitch Black[School of Movies 2022]
This one is really rather special and arguably the longest time coming of any of our shows. Pitch Black, released in February 2000 in the USA didn't make it to the UK until November of that year. There's even some confusion in this episode because I wasn't sure if Sharon and I were actually together as a couple when we saw it (turns out we were, just). But significantly, this was our first movie where we left the cinema together on fire with analysis that we were twanging back and forth like verbal badminton.
2022-11-111h 54
School of MoviesNew Book: The Lights from Distant Bonfires: 18 Gothic Tales (Promo)In case you didn't catch this at the end of the Company of Wolves show yet, Sharon, myself and even Willow have helped put together an anthology of Gothic tales written by members of the School of Movies community.
It's available to buy right now on Amazon and if as many of you as possible buy it at once, talk about it on social media, (and if you want to be extra specially helpful leave us an honest, positive review when you've finished and recommend it to friends) that should help it get some visibility.
...
2022-10-3102 min
School of MoviesJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom & Dominion[School of Movies 2022]
Two films about dinosaurs as a metaphor for our own existential fear of extinction.
We've held back on talking about the second film, released in 2018 because I was waiting on the onscreen consequences of the big decision at the end. While some folks considered Fallen Kingdom to be the worst in the franchise (I even saw a video declaring it the worst movie ever made - clearly somebody who has never seen Swamp Shark) we actually quite like it.
Don't get us wrong, it's dumb as a sack of hammers...
2022-06-242h 00
School of MoviesBatman: Breakdown [Audio Drama][Digital Gonzo 2012]
This was my first full-length audio drama. It was designed to be enjoyed by folks who saw the Nolan films the Arkham video games or the Animated Series. I wanted to write something significant, honest and authentic about the Batman legend and with a lot of help from long-time serious Bat-fan, David Hartrick, I was able to shape a bunch of ideas into a hopefully coherent story. It was originally released a week before The Dark Knight Rises.
None of the cast, including myself were professional actors, but we all worked very hard t...
2022-05-1356 min
School of MoviesSing & Sing 2[School of Movies 2022]
This was unexpected... followed by yet more unexpectation.
When I first saw the teaser trailer for the original film, all the way back in 2016 I thought the dancing pig picture would be inane and perpetually irritating, only to find out from trusted critics that there was way more below the surface. And they were right, I loved it immediately. Ever since then we've been promising to do a show.
So, now we've finally got around to it, as the commission escorted to the front of the line this cheery, toe-tapping...
2022-03-111h 35
School of MoviesTitanic[School of Movies 2021]
This is the big one, folks. This is the movie I didn't realise how passionate I was about until we started engaging our analytical style to it. I've had Titanic in the back of my head as a film I really wanted to talk about for many many years, and I suspect i was waiting for The Abyss and True Lies to hit blu ray so we could do a James Cameron Season, or at least for Avatar 2 to finally emerge. In the end we just had to go ahead and hoist the anchor...
2021-12-243h 09
School of MoviesThe Abyss[School of Movies 2021]
The first all-new show for the James Cameron season, and it's a doozy.
You may have heard stories about the troubled events of the shoot, and what the actors and crew were forced to go through by their hard taskmaster of a director. Or you may not have. Many people, especially in their 20s or below might never have seen or even *heard* of this 1989 film, sandwiched between Aliens and Terminator 2, since it would appear Cameron himself has been trying to keep it buried at the bottom of the sea for more t...
2021-11-262h 26
The PreambleMontana: The Unlikely Fort Shaw Basketball Champions with Sharon McMahonSharon shares a story only the buffest of history buffs will know about Montana in this solo episode. In the early 1900s, Indigenous children were taken from their families to attend residential schools where they were assimilated into European culture - cutting their hair, learning new languages, and wearing European clothes. However, they wanted the women to get just enough physical activity at the Fort Shaw school, so they started a basketball program. The program exploded and became wildly popular, drawing crowds of hundreds of people per game. In this episode, Sharon will tell the story of how these women...
2021-11-1526 min
School of MoviesInterview With the Vampire[School of Movies 2021]
One of the most expensive, vampire films ever made. This first adaptation of Anne Rice's Chronicles ran on star power, lavish costume and set design and a potent strain of existential crisis. It's the tale of Louis, a mourning, bereaved widower who in his despairing malaise meets a sleazy, charismatic, sociopathic vampire named Lestat. For reasons we will go into, Louis decides eternal life would be a splendid idea at this point.
Neil Jordan directs the hell out of this intense Gothic melodrama, which was very important to Sharon as a teenager, a...
2021-10-292h 21
School of MoviesNo Time to Die[School of Movies 2021]
We hadn't planned on doing this one so early, but by the time I walked out of the cinema I wanted to finish off the quintet with the same flourish and passion as this film does. It impressed the hell out of me, and then did the same for Sharon. And when we began recording neither of us knew what the other thought, which creates an unusual frisson.
No spoilers in these notes. But I honestly suggest you see the film before listening. One of our listeners has never seen ANY Bond...
2021-10-082h 06
School of MoviesCasino Royale[School of Movies 2021]
To coincide with the long-awaited release of No Time to Die we decided to go back to the beginning of Daniel Craig's career as 007. A decade ago I covered the first 22 Bond movies with James Batchelor and Gary Blower, over three mammoth episodes, covering each era. That took us all the way up to Quantum of Solace.
But Sharon wasn't on those, episodes and we only had so much time to cover each movie. Plus I'd like to think we've gotten better over the years. So this one is all about the 2006 d...
2021-09-241h 54
School of MoviesThe Suicide Squad[School of Movies 2021]
Militarized slaves are sent to an island to clean up a violent mess with plausible deniability. An instant hit with both audiences and critics on release, this 2021 film is the realization of the John Ostrander-era of the Suicide Squad/Task Force X concept that actually first appeared as far back as 1959 (prior to Marvel's Silver Age of The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and The Avengers.
And yet it faltered at the box office, due to several reasons. Being R-rated in the middle of a pandemic, the sour taste of the 2016 David Ayer film...
2021-08-201h 24
TheChippaMadeThis PodcastsShooting the Shit - Episode #99 - FIRESIDE CHAT - Alex and Sharon Shaw - School of Movies and New Century Multiverse - 2021_0617 This podcast is an interview style show where each episode will have a different person(s) with a different interesting story, job, thing to plug, etc. Depending on how things go I may get people in local bands, businesses, who knows! !!! FIRESIDE CHAT #1 !!! On this episode, Chippa is honored to be SHOOTING THE SHIT with Alex and Sharon Shaw of SCHOOL OF MOVIES and THE NEW CENTURY MULTIVERSE!!! We discuss how Alex and Sharon came to be the brilliant geeky enthusiasts they are today! We also discuss... This interview kicks off a series of interviews with members of The FIRESIDE ALLIA...
2021-06-171h 47
School of MoviesThe Cell[School of Movies 2021]
This one was recorded a long while ago. It's pretty extreme and not for the squeamish. A serial killer thriller from the year 2000 with the customary sub-genre-ingrained fixation on stomach-churning detail.
Where it strays more into our wheelhouse is that the plot revolves around a social worker who dives into people's minds and wanders around looking for clues. This drove Sharon bonkers as all ethical practices were cast aside, and the core of this episode is her trying to hold it together as the film gets dumber and more misleading.
I...
2021-06-041h 52
School of MoviesHades[School of Everything Else 2021]
An absolutely phenomenal game which took 2020 by storm. We talk about, among other things, why being trapped inside for month after month just made a game where you're trying to escape the Underworld weirdly more resonant.
There's an astonishing amount of story in there, astonishing art design and aesthetic, some of the most engrossing, multi-layered and sexy characters to ever grace a video game and action that's smoother than the downy fur on Cerberus' belly.
This was also a special session because we recorded with everyone on-camera and since S...
2021-03-122h 19
School of MoviesAli (2001)[School of Movies 2021]
This is our 700th Podcast. I began in April of 2007, and through four generations of my show, myself and then Sharon have covered a hell of a lot of media. Fittingly, this episode is the greatest.
On the twentieth anniversary of the 2001 Michael-Mann-directed biopic of maybe the greatest sportsman who ever lived, we finally go up against Ali in the ring. It's not just a fantastic film, this account of the real life events that took place between his fight with Sonny Liston in 1964 spanning all the way to the Rumble in t...
2021-02-191h 26
School of MoviesThe Christmas Thieves (Audio Drama)For two days only, I am putting out my festive audio drama, The Christmas Thieves, in one handy 107-minute show.
It is a standalone adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' with a New Century Multiverse twist. Effectively the characters from The Princess Thieves are acting out proceedings, much like The Muppets or Scrooge McDuck.
However, it's also canon, and these events take place the December before that much larger story in April 1883. You don't need to have heard any of the other stories to enjoy this (though if you have heard The Princess Thieves y...
2020-12-241h 47
School of MoviesThe Lost World: Jurassic Park[Digital Drift 2015]
The second 2015 re-release from our dino season. You can go back to the separate School of Movies Archive podcast feed that a lot of people don't know about, but it has more than 200 of our pre-2017 shows. On there you'll find our episodes on Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World and at some point in the future we'll tackle Fallen Kingdom.
This one is a weird and tonally dissonant path, relative to the original masterpiece. We uncover the movie of the book that Michael Crichton was pressured into writing after the success of t...
2020-10-031h 18
School of MoviesSchindler's List (Hook & Jurassic Park Revisited)[School of Movies 2020]
A long time ago, around late 2013, Sharon and I recorded a shortish piece on Hook. It was just before Robin Williams passed, and so the file sat in our archive, unreleased, along with the one on Mrs Doubtfire. We just didn't want to be scornful of something he had done during that period of shock and mourning. Eventually in 2015 we combined that section with a new one on the 2003 Peter Pan to make a comparative show, and it did not compare favourably. I put that down to us really liking the Jason Isaacs version...
2020-10-021h 06
The New Century MultiverseUncivil Outlaw: Chapter 17 – The Rift Upon the MountainA great betrayal is carried out, and the world of Century will never be the same.
· Captain Abigail Grey performed by Sharon Shaw
· Doctor James Penrose, performed by Alex Shaw
· And Yagana performed by Theo Leigh and Sharon Shaw
Skies composed and performed by Ross Bugden
Dragon and Toast composed and performed by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com
Make your decision by Dan Phillipson of Shockwave Sound
Many soundscapes including Amaranth and Ghost Town by Tabletop Audio
And many, many thanks to all who...
2020-09-1023 minThe New Century MultiverseUncivil Outlaw: Chapter 16 – Darkness Encroaches
In an eldritch house our heroes begin to hatch separate plans.
· Captain Abigail Grey performed by Sharon Shaw
· Doctor James Penrose, performed by Alex Shaw
· And Yagana performed by Theo Leigh and Sharon Shaw
Dragon and Toast and Smoking Gun composed and performed by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com
Make your decision by Dan Phillipson of Shockwave Sound
Many soundscapes including A Solemn Vow and Salt Marsh by Tabletop Audio
The New Century Multiverse is funded by Patreon. Our $15 sponsors get credit every episode so than...
2020-09-0313 minThe New Century MultiverseUncivil Outlaw: Chapter 15 – …Into the FireOur heroes get closer, and the dangers of where they are catch up with them.
· Captain Abigail Grey performed by Sharon Shaw
· Doctor James Penrose, Jack McCall, Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock and Ellis Alfred Swearengen performed by Alex Shaw
· Dan Doherty performed by Greg Downing
· Doctor Herriot performed by Toby Jungius
· The Nag performed by Spencer Leeb
· And Yagana performed by Theo Leigh and Sharon Shaw
Hit the Streets, Long Note Three, Miri’s Magic Dance, Dragon and Toast and Smoking Gun composed and performed by Kevin...
2020-08-2722 min
School of MoviesA Few Good Men[School of Movies 2020]
A tough and hard episode for a tough and hard year. We don't usually cover courtroom dramas, but this was both a commissioned episode and one of Sharon's favourites as a teen.
A young Aaron Sorkin penned this play about what happens when a certain unauthorised military disciplinary practice goes horribly wrong. It was based on a real life account, and was used to juxtapose the untouchability of the top brass with the scapegoating of young marines who pledged their life to their unit.
We do talk about parallels with t...
2020-07-101h 33
School of MoviesShe-Ra and the Princesses of Power[School of Everything Else 2020]
A completely spoilerific discussion on all five seasons of the modern, second version of She-Ra. I honestly don't know how much someone who has never seen the show will get out of this one, but if you've finished it you'll be in hog heaven.
We have eight minds and voices gathered, and they are all going to talk about 25+ characters over a tightly focused two and a half hour runtime. It may sound too strictly controlled, but I marvelled at how incisive everyone managed to be under these restrictions. This is q...
2020-07-032h 31
School of MoviesThe Phantom of the Opera[School of Movies 2020]
I was six years old in 1986 when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh released this hit musical adaptation of the 1909 Gaston Leroux Gothic novel. Far too young to appreciate it, and yet, thanks to a double cassette tape they brought back and many long periods in my bedroom building things with Lego it became a production that was very special to me.
And then in 2004 when I was 24 the Joel Schumacher film adaptation of that stage musical emerged and was mostly derided. Critics panned it, Phantom fans considered it unworthy and it...
2020-03-133h 40
School of MoviesThe Bruce Lee Season[School of Movies 2020]
This began life as a commissioned show for a PC game called The Stanley Parable, which we had never played, and on our run-through proved to be infuriating to us on many levels; mechanically, aesthetically and philosophically. We were sent back to play the Beginner's Guide, which was even worse, throwing Sharon into frustrated tears.
So we requested from our sponsor that he pick something else. His choice was the Bruce Lee film "Fist of Fury". But having seen that I knew we wouldn't be able to mine from it alone, a s...
2020-03-062h 18
School of MoviesThe Dark Crystal & Age of Resistance[School of Movies 2019]
In this episode we cover both the 1982 Jim Henson movie and the 2019 Netflix series; Age of Resistance. You can listen to our podcast first, it will make both better.
One of the most striking, extraordinary and dignified attempts at the fantasy cinema of the 1980s, the original movie was massively important to few, but Sharon was among them.
There was absolutely no rational reason why Netflix would attempt a show based on a property that didn't exactly set the box office alight 37 years earlier, much less that they would opt fo...
2019-12-202h 27
School of MoviesOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood[School of Movies 2019]
This was an unexpected one. We geared up for a Quick Review mere minutes after coming back from the cinema and then stuff just came flooding out. We send that recording to a few people to see if it was Main Event material and they pretty much demanded we get this out for everyone. So we added new sections and recorded a companion piece round-table session with two new guests (being released this week as a Cutting Class episode).
Quentin Tarantino's ninth film has made critics very happy (garnering massive positive buzz...
2019-08-231h 29
School of MoviesFate of the Furious + Hobbs & Shaw[School of Movies 2019]
It feels like a lifetime since 2015.
Back then, during the tail end of the Obama administration we were enjoying the run-up to new Star Wars movies and Mad Max was about to blow everyone away with one of the greatest automobile stunt-fests of all time.
But also Sharon and I were getting back into the Fast & Furious films very late after drifting away for a while. We were able to appreciate films 5, 6 and then the real life tragedy of 7 with a sharp immediacy.
Since that fairly amazing experience t...
2019-08-092h 12
School of MoviesDark Phoenix[School of Movies 2019]
Time to close the book on the Fox X-Men movies and the podcast series that Sharon and I started in 2014.
If you haven't seen the film (and statistically this is the case) we will talk you through it. We can't spoil anything. There's no surprises TO spoil. It might sound like we're furious and that we hate this thing, but our response is something more like intense disappointment spread over two decades, so that it becomes *expected* disappointment. It stems from a place of frustration that it was THESE people who got...
2019-06-211h 56
School of MoviesThe King Kong Series[School of Movies 2019]
With Godzilla II: King of the Monsters releasing this week, since we've already done a Godzilla show, we decided to cover his opponent in next year's long-awaited rumble of the Titans; Godzilla vs. King Kong.
That meant going back and examining essentially four versions of the same story. A boat-full of humans journeys to Skull Island for spurious reasons, encounter monstrous creatures and are both threatened and occasionally saved by a giant gorilla worshipped by the natives as their protector.
Three of these movies drag his enormous simian ass back to...
2019-06-071h 15
School of MoviesVenom[School of Movies 2019]
Back when the movie launched in late 2018 I put together a 50-minute Quick Review for Patreon. It was so entertaining and full of detail that I've been meaning for a while to expand on it and bring that show to the main feed. So this is that, with 45 minutes of new material added, including Sharon's take on Venom, recorded in early 2019 and my reassessment of what worked about the film.
A space mission crashes back to Earth, bringing with it various gooey aliens of questionable morality. One crazed, underwritten billionaire seeks to c...
2019-05-031h 37
School of MoviesCaptain Marvel[School of Movies 2019]
Maybe our most eagerly-awaited, long-time-coming Marvel's of all finally arrives. And to distinguish this show from a LOT of the lukewarm dude-filled discussion about this movie we have four brilliant ladies talking and smiling as much or as little as they like.
We begin with my own list of every male hero in sci-fi, fantasy and superhero movies since the late 70s and an accompanying MUCH SHORTER list of female leads in the same space. After that I shut up as much as I can and let the women explore the themes, d...
2019-03-222h 12
School of MoviesThe Lego Movie 2: The Second Piece[School of Movies 2019]
We did not expect to be recording on this one so soon. To begin with after watching the movie I thought I could get everything I needed to say into a Quick Review, but Sharon needed to see it and then on the second viewing the layers just kept expanding and expanding outwards until my brain exploded.
The first movie was going to be impossible to follow, and yet somehow this one is more meaningful. We ended up talking with our guests for three hours and I have spent two solid days h...
2019-02-221h 55
School of MoviesCrazy Rich Asians[School of Movies 2019]
One of our favourite films of 2018 arrives in style for this vibrant celebration of an exotic culture. This is the biggest Asian-American cast since Joy Luck Club in 1993, and tells a very different story, about a regular young American woman finding out on an innocuous family trip that her boyfriend Nick is crazy rich.
Now this could have been disastrous viewing for us. Both Sharon and I are automatically suspicious of wealth, if you're a billionaire there's a lot of things you could be doing with your insane level of fortune that c...
2019-02-152h 19
School of MoviesPacific Rim[Digital Gonzo 2013]
This episode was previously published as the final instalment of Digital Gonzo #161, a month before we came back as Digital Drift with Sharon as the co-host.
Passed off as simply enjoyable dumb fun, and about nothing beyond enormous robots hitting big monsters, this movie proved to be absolutely perfect for our style of analysis, being in fact deeply textured, nuanced and detailed. We hope we can redress the balance on this and get my favourite film of 2013 recognized by a few more people as a modern masterpiece in visual storytelling.
My Aud...
2018-07-192h 48
School of MoviesRaising a Geek Child: Vol. 1[School of Everything Else 2018]
The first of our two recorded shows on this subject so far. This was commissioned back in 2017 and Sharon and I began preparing copious notes on how we'd raised Lyra. Those notes became the beginnings of a sprawling self-help book which we planned to turn into audio. Then eventually we accepted that the subject was too big and far too important to just rely on our take.
So we pulled together two round table sessions with parents of geeky children. I go into detail on how that definition works at the be...
2018-03-093h 04
The Self-Employed Life353: Sharon Spano- Freedom From Chasing Time and MoneyDo you know where your concept of time and money stems from? Chances are what you were taught as a child, and believed to be a concrete idea, is hurting both your personal and business life. Luckily this can all be changed. Time and Money are abstract ideas with concrete effects. This leads to a lot of confusion, and most people live in a scarcity mindset. So many of us believe that they have to protect their time and money, but in the end abundance isn't the answer. To live a meaningful and prosperous life you need...
2017-11-2944 min
School of MoviesA Series of Unfortunate Events[School of Movies 2017]
This is a discussion about the books, movie and Netflix series. We kept clear of any spoilers beyond Book 4: The Miserable Mill.
Sharon and I are big fans of all three versions, though the movie has suffered a barrage of disapproval from both readers and general audiences over the years and singularly failed to achieve continuation.
The show, however, has garnered pretty much universal praise. We talk about the differences in approach across all mediums.
Guests
Kaoru Negisa and Debbie Morse of Sequentially Yours
Ty...
2017-11-102h 11
School of MoviesThe Golden Compass/Northern Lights[School of Movies 2017]
This is part post-mortem on the 2007 movie, The Golden Compass and why it failed in such dismal fashion. It’s not terrible, just underachieving, bland, patronising and not really *about* anything.
Our show is also an exploration of the rich and weighty book by Philip Pullman, which is called Northern Lights in England. It is one of the most special pieces of literature to Sharon and I, we named our daughter after the lead protagonist and had been awaiting the movie with Harry Potter levels of excitement. So, you will have it ou...
2017-10-133h 48
School of MoviesEpisode 501[School of Everything Else 2016]
This is one of the films of the year. A Japanese fable delivered in stunning stop-motion by American studio LAIKA, the team behind Coraline, ParaNorman and Boxtrolls.
Every single one of you needs to see it.
Joining us are animation experts Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse and Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst. Among other things we discuss the climate for animated films and what it takes to make a hit, which this, tragically, despite its beautiful direction, tight, well-delivered script, vibrant, fun characters and playful yet heartrending score, is not.
Guests:
Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rins...
2016-09-232h 44
School of MoviesBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justice[School of Movies 2016]
We start off with my initial thoughts on coming back from the cinema. The first 16 minutes is relatively spoiler-free and Sharon asks me the following questions. Then we get to the rotten meat of the whole bloody affair.
Then there’s a considerably more positive ten minute piece from Eric Jones
Then we hit the main event and Bob Chipman joins myself, Sharon Shaw and Jerome McIntosh to discuss the film in a more meta context, including what DC Warner’s options are, moving forward.
00.00.30: First Impressions 00.40.00: A More Positive Response 00.56.00: The Main Even
2016-04-083h 42
School of MoviesSucker Punch[School of Movies 2016]
In the run-up to Batman V Superman, let's take a dive into the mind of director Zack Snyder. Let's look at how he sees the world, how he sees the human psyche and how he sees women.
Prepare for a furious battle of wills as Alex goes in guns blazing to take apart a film he never wants to talk about again, and Lorin Grieve of A Year of Steam defends the movie he loves. Sharon lies somewhere in the middle, but there's a hell of a lot about this t...
2016-03-112h 51
School of MoviesThe Great Mouse Detective / Oliver & Company[School of Movies 2016]
We're back on the Disney shows with Daniel Floyd, this time on the cusp of the 90s renaissance. This episode delves lightly into two of the last examples of their Dog/Cat/Mouse fetishism that defined the post-Walt wilderness years.
The Great Mouse Detective, originally named Basil of Baker Street (from the novel) is Sherlock Holmes with rodents. Oliver is the Twisty Dickens tale with a cat and a bunch of dogs in a painfully late 80s New York, presided over by prostitute-hating mayor Rudy Giuliani. We never see him in the...
2015-01-241h 13
School of MoviesDisney's Robin Hood[School of Movies 2016]
Robin Hood (1973) is 83 minutes of amusing shenanigans. It's twee, minimally dramatic, fun and light with lovable simple characters. It did not restore Disney to the heights of Snow White and Cinderella popularity it had previously reached.
Originally we recorded a paltry ten minute chat about Disney's Robin Hood during our sessions with Daniel Floyd, because there really wasn't much to talk about aside from it being a pleasant experience. We decided to add to this with an in-depth discussion about the impact of this movie on a community that's been going far l...
2015-01-221h 51
School of MoviesThe Fast and the Furious 1 - 4[Digital Drift 2015]
We’re joined by Neil Taylor of GameBurst to get to grips with one of his very favourite series. When we recorded this first show we hadn’t yet seen 5 or 6 (Sharon hadn’t seen 3 or 4 either) so it’s something of a discovery process for us. Find out over the course of the next few episodes if we’re just middling on the car porn, jiggling auto-floozies and machismo-masking-vulnerability or in fact if we end up flippin’ LOVING The Fast and the Furious.
Continuing our road trip through the F&F series, we get to th...
2015-01-022h 28
School of MoviesThe Twilight Saga[Digital Drift 2015]
Sharon and I dived in attempting to review these in a vacuum. Those who hate the movies may hate this podcast because we’re rather kind and enthusiastic. Those that love them will hate this podcast because we call them on the rubbish, the weaker elements and the more troubling aspects (especially in the two-part finale of Breaking Dawn).
Two things are for sure. 1. This is not a great model for any kind of romantic relationship. 2. That dingo's got your baby!
2015-01-012h 32
School of MoviesTransformers: Age of Extinction & The Last Knight[Digital Drift 2014]
0m: The Transformers road trip has lost all but one lone, solitary truck, powering on through a new leg of what may be a never-ending journey. Yes folks, I did end up going to see Transformers 4, and on this show, Sharon asks me all about my experience. Is this a new lease of life for the series? A soft reboot, ditching the former human cast members in favour of all-new ones and setting aside awkward frat comedy for the dilemma of a struggling family. [Sounds great.] Still written by Ehren Kruger and now starring Mark W...
2014-01-222h 08
School of MoviesBatman: The Killing Joke [Audio Drama][Digital Gonzo 2013]
This is an audio drama adaptation of The Killing Joke: written by Alan Moore, and originally illustrated by Brian Bolland for DC comics in 1988.
This show is dedicated to Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, two of my all-time heroes. Their inspirational work is a key reason why I love Batman so much, and their immense talent as voice-over artists is what made me want to produce performance pieces like this. All credit to Alan Moore for his excellent writing. The few minor changes I made were to facilitate the audio format. Also artist Bria...
2013-07-171h 07
School of MoviesMass Effect 3[Digital Gonzo 2013]
This was the most requested Gonzo show in history. For a project of this magnitude we needed a Dynamic Analysis, so the first hour is a collection of audio articles. The second half focuses on the rest of it. There are definitely still issues with combat and structure that affect the gameplay experience regardless of how you felt about its close, but there is also a deep and rich adventure to be had finding everyone and everything in the last hours before the galaxy takes on the Reapers. There were so many people who wanted t...
2013-02-164h 10
The School of Everything Else ArchiveMass Effect 3[Digital Gonzo 2013]
This was the most requested Gonzo show in history. For a project of this magnitude we needed a Dynamic Analysis, so the first hour is a collection of audio articles. The second half focuses on the rest of it. There are definitely still issues with combat and structure that affect the gameplay experience regardless of how you felt about its close, but there is also a deep and rich adventure to be had finding everyone and everything in the last hours before the galaxy takes on the Reapers. There were so many people who wanted t...
2013-01-264h 10
The School of Everything Else ArchiveBatman: The Killing Joke [Audio Drama][Digital Gonzo 2013]
This is an audio drama adaptation of The Killing Joke: written by Alan Moore, and originally illustrated by Brian Bolland for DC comics in 1988.
This show is dedicated to Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, two of my all-time heroes. Their inspirational work is a key reason why I love Batman so much, and their immense talent as voice-over artists is what made me want to produce performance pieces like this. All credit to Alan Moore for his excellent writing. The few minor changes I made were to facilitate the audio format. Also artist Bria...
2013-01-191h 07
School of MoviesThe Sound of Gonzo: Vol. 4 [Lord of the Rings][Digital Gonzo 2012]
Vol. 4 - Chris Eason & Sharon Shaw [LOTR]
One Ring to Rule them All/The Shire/The Road Goes Ever On
Strider/Beren and Luthien
The Great Eye/The Fellowship
Gilraen’s Memorial/The Ring Goes South
Moria/The Bridge of Khazad Dum
The Departure of Boromir
Theoden King/The Funeral of Theodred
Sons of the Steward
The Host of the Eldar
Haldir’s Lament/Retreat
Theoden Rides Forth/The White Rider/Nature’s Reclamation
Eowyn’s Dream
The Battle of the Pelennor...
2013-01-102h 17
The School of Movies ArchiveMan of Steel[Digital Gonzo 2013]
This was an interesting one to cover. I went into a round-table debate with 18 pages worth of written material (only a small portion of it actually penned by me) and the intention to integrate broadly contributed prepared content with on-the-hoof discussion. Everybody seemed to have an opinion on this movie and many of the same points were covered over and over and over again. The end result was two and a half hours of raw material.
Rather than just releasing that monstrosity to the world I have carefully trimmed it down for pacing and a...
2013-01-071h 16
The School of Movies ArchiveWatchmen[Digital Gonzo 2013]
Continuing our in-depth investigations into the most important big screen depictions of The Superman, this time we’re looking at the 2009 adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal graphic novel, Watchmen. It contains a being of supreme power and a frightened world on the verge of self-destruction. It is also a satirical sideways glance at the otherwise ordinary people who put on masks and take to the streets to fight crime. I finally have a name for this new style. I’ve never been happy with the word “Review” to describe what we do here at Gon...
2013-01-062h 45
The School of Movies ArchiveSuperman Returns[Digital Gonzo 2013]
I’m trying out a new format this week. Rather than the usual round-table discussion this is a series of audio articles on Superman and in particular the 2006 film Superman Returns. This is the perfect film to do this for because it’s hated by so many, liked by several, it opens up the archetypal hero for analysis in a way none of the earlier films did and it had an incredibly protracted development cycle of nigh-on twenty years.
1. Intro
2. Superman Returns: Good, Bad or Both?
3. Kryptonite 101
4. Kevin Smith on Superman...
2013-01-041h 44
School of MoviesThe Return of the King[Digital Gonzo 2012]
The board is set, the pieces are moving and the final battle for Middle-earth begins. In this episode we discuss the thankless task of expertly performing Denathor, Arwen’s ultimate decision and some of the shakier moments in the trilogy. This final film was the product of an insane amount of high pressure, respite-free work for Weta and it is testament to their brilliance that this still became the box-office triumph of the series.
By far the most emotionally draining of all the podcasts in this series and maybe the most complicated editing pr...
2012-12-135h 36
School of MoviesThe Fellowship of the Ring[Digital Gonzo 2012]
The Lord of the Rings begins in earnest. Starting with an epic retelling of Middle-earth history we set out to balance the attention to detail of major fandom with critical analysis, discussions on character development and notable aspects of the production. Setting out from the Shire, this episode will take you all the way to Rivendell meeting Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Saruman, Strider, Elrond and Arwen along the way. The operatic scoring of Howard Shaw remains an emotional touchstone throughout.
Then the Ring goes south, over and under the Misty Mountains c...
2012-11-175h 32
School of MoviesThe Last Airbender[Digital Gonzo 2012]
This one serves as an introduction to Avatar since my estimate is that 97% of you, my listeners have never had the pleasure of this, maybe the finest animated TV series in the world, and I do not use those words lightly.
The Legend of Aang is a story that starts out aimed at kids aged 6-11 but rapidly becomes something far more compelling to all age groups and walks of life. Taking inspiration from eastern mythology and martial arts, but with a fresh, original and very funny energy. Set over three series, which...
2012-11-012h 11
The School of Movies ArchiveThe Return of the King[Digital Gonzo 2012]
The board is set, the pieces are moving and the final battle for Middle-earth begins. In this episode we discuss the thankless task of expertly performing Denathor, Arwen’s ultimate decision and some of the shakier moments in the trilogy. This final film was the product of an insane amount of high pressure, respite-free work for Weta and it is testament to their brilliance that this still became the box-office triumph of the series.
By far the most emotionally draining of all the podcasts in this series and maybe the most complicated editing pr...
2012-02-035h 36
The School of Movies ArchiveThe Last Airbender[Digital Gonzo 2012]
This one serves as an introduction to Avatar since my estimate is that 97% of you, my listeners have never had the pleasure of this, maybe the finest animated TV series in the world, and I do not use those words lightly.
The Legend of Aang is a story that starts out aimed at kids aged 6-11 but rapidly becomes something far more compelling to all age groups and walks of life. Taking inspiration from eastern mythology and martial arts, but with a fresh, original and very funny energy. Set over three series, which...
2012-01-292h 11
The School of Everything Else ArchiveBatman: Breakdown [Audio Drama][Digital Gonzo 2012]
This is my first full-length audio drama. It was designed to be enjoyed by comic fans but also to people who are only familiar with the Nolan films the Arkham video games or the Animated Series. I wanted to write something significant, honest and authentic about the Batman legend and with a lot of help from long-time serious Bat-fan, David Hartrick, I was able to shape a series of ideas into a hopefully coherent story. None of the cast, including myself are professional actors, but we all worked very hard to capture the essence of t...
2012-01-101h 02
The School of Movies ArchiveAlien vs. Predator[Digital Gonzo 2012]
Director of two of the Resident Evil movies and producer of the rest, Paul WS Anderson helmed the first PG-13 foray for these licenses, combining them into one family-friendly Jurassic Park-style romp. If you’ve not seen it the plot could be adequately described on the back of a matchbox or indeed with crude, crayon diagrams. Humans go somewhere they shouldn’t, looking for stuff. They find ALIENS and then PREDATORs show up. The humans go squish and the creatures fight. It’s a right palava.
Josh Garrity of Cane and Rinse, Leah Haydu...
2011-01-1253 min