Shows
The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 27-The Way of the DragonEpisode 27-The Way of the Dragon
In 1972 martial arts legend Bruce Lee wrote and directed The Way of the Dragon.
On the surface, a simple tale of a Hong Kong kung fu prodigy sent to Rome to protect his uncle’s restaurant from gangsters, culminating in an epic fight to the death in the Roman Colosseum with seven-time world karate champion Chuck Norris.
The Way of the Dragon is regarded as one of the greatest martial arts movies of all time. But The Way of the Dragon is so much more than this. Br...2025-07-171h 01The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 26-Lock Stock and Two Smoking BarrelsEpisode 26-Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
What do you get if you cross a posh public school boy who wants to be a Cockney geezer, an actual football playing geezer who want to be an actor, and a future action movie star who come from Derbyshire but talks like a geezer for a bit and then talks like an American who sounds a bit like a geezer, or a geezer who sounds a bit like American?
It’s all very confusing.
You get Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie’s geez...2025-06-2649 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 25-The Holy MountainEpisode 25-The Holy Mountain
It’s been a while. Did you miss us?
Did you even notice we had been away?
Well, after a longer than normal hiatus the Punching Up Movie Podcast is back.
And this episode is magic. I mean literally.
The Punching Up duo discuss Alejandro Jodorowski’s cult sensation, shamanistic cinematic odyssey, The Holy Mountain.
Magic, horror, nudity, spirituality, political commentary, freaky production design, nudity, outlandish costumes, more magic, and nudity.
Adam hates it. Damian has mixed feelings.
Magical Mystery Tour, or Tragical Mystical Bore?
The...2025-05-081h 02The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 24-Moulin RougeEpisode 24-Moulin Rouge
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
The moment is here.
The hour is now.
The time has arrived.
It’s our long threatened, much delayed musical theatre episode where Damian unleashes his full fury on Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 cinematic juke box musical Moulin Rouge.
It’s been brewing for a while and Damian doesn’t hold back on Nicole Kidman’s acting and dancing, Ewan McGregor’s singing and acting, and, most of all Baz Luhrmann’s hyperkinetic, coked to the gills, MTV on absinthe editing and directing style.
This is an episode for...2025-02-1355 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 23-January 2025Episode 23-January 2025-Some New Movies
Happy 2025 Movie Lovers and Punching up listeners
Did you miss us?
Well, have no fear, we have a proper, actual, honest to goodness full-length episode hovering in the wings (next week).
But for those of you who simply can’t wait to hear our Punching Up thoughts on….Moulin Rouge (which will be next week), here’s a bonus episode of some chit chat about some of the movies released this January 2025: Better Man, Wolf Man, William Tell Man, Nosferatu Man, and a few others that Damian li...2025-02-0626 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 22-The Best of 2024Episode 22-The Best of 2024
It’s still the Season of Good Will and so the Punching Up Team are going to use their powers for good this time and wax lyrical about which films they loved in this year of 2024.
It’s a long one as there is a lot of affection to go around in this atypical end of the year love fest. And lest we forget that this is still the Puncing Up Podcast, there is still enough room left over to hate on a few movies that have really tested our patience, I’m talkin...2024-12-301h 39The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 21-The Shape of WaterEpisode 21-The Shape of Water
Wanna see a movie where the Creature From the Black Lagoon gets it on with Mrs Brown from the first two Paddington movies?
I don’t.
But Adam (who doesn’t seem to mind a bit of interspecies fantasy love action) has forced me to watch The Shape of Water again.
I find Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 Oscar winning modern fairy tale, unoriginal, twee, borderline plagiaristic, largely miscast and a little bit queasy when it comes to matters of human/ amphibian copulation.
Adam loves it.
But then again...2024-12-191h 10The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 20-The Terrifier FranchiseEpisode 20-The Terrifier Franchise
Damian and Adam
Art we a pair?
I live in Nottingham, England
He lives somewhere over there
Sydney, Australia
But Damian doesn’t like Art the Clown
But I like Art the Clown
Will it be over?
We can’t agree
On the obvious future cult classic status
Of Terrifier 1, 2 and 3
Cause Damian doesn’t like Art the Clown
But I like Art the Clowwwwwwnnnnnnn
Get in touc...2024-12-1255 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 19-A Nightmare on Elm StreetEpisode 19- A Nightmare on Elm Street
Are you ready for Freddy?
No, not really. I’m a big horror fan but not a massive lover of Wes Craven’s 1980s classic A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Razor fingered demons with stripy shirts who kill you in your dreams, a telephone that comes alive and licks your face and Freddy Krueger’s elongated Big Bird arms don’t really do it for me. I’d much rather watch Art the Clown kill people with his big black bin liner full of weapons in Damian Leone’s Te...2024-11-281h 09The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 18-RRREpisode 18-RRR
Flying tigers, Indian freedom fighters and evil English scumbags.
Bloody battles, numerous songs, one spectacular dance routine and a very brutal flogging.
What’s not to love in S.S Rajamouli’s Tolly (not Bolly) Wood breakout international action hit?
Nothing, if your Adam (despite repeatedly mispronouncing the director’s name in the podcast).
Plenty, if you are Damian (who only made it through the first twenty minutes on his first viewing).
So, what will it be? RRR or GRRR!?! Tune in and find out.
Get in touch :O) by se...2024-10-3146 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 17-GladiatorEpisode 17-Gladiator
For those about to listen, we salute you.
In this epic episode of the Punching Up Movie Podcast Adam unleashes hell (and a couple of hungry man-eating tigers) on Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s tale of Roman revenge and arena combat.
Adam quite likes Scott but really doesn’t like Gladiator.
Damian likes Gladiator but has an axe to grind with Sir Ridley.
Let battle commence.
Will either of them earn their place in Elysium? Probably not.
But Adam might get into Valhalla on a technicality, because of the amount of t...2024-10-241h 15The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 16-Dr StrangeloveEpisode 16-Dr Strangelove
What could possibly be worse than Peter Sellers? Peter Sellers times 3.
In Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 nuclear war black comedy, Dr Strangelove, England’s greatest comic actor plays three separate characters and Damian Asher doesn’t like it.
Does three times the Sellers = three times the hate from the normally benign Stanley Kubrick uber fan Damian?
Combine that with the usual radioactive malice of myself, Adam Nightingale and will the Punching Up squad accidently trigger a chain reaction of spite that will consume the world in a permanent nuclear winter of white...2024-09-1956 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 15-Bram Stoker's DraculaEpisode 15-Bram Stoker's Dracula
Who is the best Dracula? Is it Bela Lugosi’s suave count, Christopher Lee’s aristocratic Prince of Darkness, Max Shrek’s rat faced Nosferatu… or Gary Oldman’s lovelorn immortal who has crossed oceans of time to romance Winona Rider in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Well, if you're Adam Nightingale it is most definitely not Gary Oldman, as the Lord of the Undead goes twelve rounds with the punching up team.
It’s a long one as Damian and Adam cover all things Dracula and still have oceans of ti...2024-09-121h 08The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 14-Kill Bill Volume 2Episode 14-Kill Bill Vol 2
In the second part of our first two-parter, Punching Up punches up at its first sequel, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol 2.
Damian perpetuates his beef with QT’s roaring, raging, rampage of revenging but narrows his focus to the eponymous Bill himself. Damian doesn’t like David Carradine’s performance. Adam tries manfully to defend the late martial artist movie star who can’t do martial arts, who once adorned yellow face to play a Chinese criminal named Wang Dong and died under very dubious circumstances in a Thailand hotel room (which we g...2024-08-0857 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 13-Kill Bill Volume 1Episode 13-Kill Bill Volume 1
In this episode Damian and Adam don’t so much punch up but chop down, with a katana sword (or to be more precise, a Hattori Hanzo sword), as it is time to kill Kill Bill, or kill Kill Bill Volume 1 (to be even more precise), Quention Tarantino’s martial arts masterpiece of retribution and revenge.
So, expect 450 gallons of blood, a million cult movie references, a hundred million needle drops, multiple flying body parts, and attractive ladies naked feet…so, so many attractive ladies naked feet. It’s going to get bloo...2024-07-2558 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 12-Bande a PartEpisode 12-Bande a Part
In the immortal words of Thin Lizzy (or that blues band that played in 48 Hours),
The Boys Are Back In Town.
That's right, Punching Up The Movie Podcast is back.
This week we take shots at one of the pioneers of the French Nouvelle Vague cinema, Maoist essayist and intellectual contrarian, Jean Luc Godard and his supposedly most accessible film Bande a Part.
Will Godard’s fourth-wall breaking tale of two guys, one beautiful girl, smoking, shrugging, dancing and petty crime expand Damian and Adam’s inte...2024-07-0447 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 11-Easy RiderEpisode 11-EASY RIDER (1969)
Two men went looking for a podcast and couldn’t find it anywhere.
On this episode Adam takes a swing at the biker movie, road movie, hippytastic gamechanger that singlehandedly launched the New Hollywood, 1969’s Easy Rider, not realizing that it is one of Damian’s favourite movies.
Will their friendship survive, or will they (in the paraphrased words of the immortal Peter Fonda) Blow It?
Why does Damian like Easy Rider so much?
Is it his innate love of counter culture and the magic herb?
Why do...2024-03-281h 08The Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 10-The DepartedEpisode 10-THE DEPARTED (2006)
What has poor Martin Scorsese done to annoy the Punching Up team?
Our series hasn’t been going that long and this is the third time around for America’s greatest living director.
It’s beginning to look like a lot like bullying.
This time it’s the turn of The Departed, Scorsese’s Boston-based Irish-American remake of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson.
Damian doesn’t like remakes and dislikes The Departed.
Adam doesn’t like remakes but really likes The Depa...2024-02-2254 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 9-Hard Boiled
Episode 9-HARD BOILED (1992)
Can an action movie have too much action?
Punching Up’s Adam thinks so.
Is John Woo’s cop vs triads cult classic, Hard Boiled really better than a dozen Die Hards, or does it suffer from a terminal case of the try-hards?
Adam thinks it does.
Is John Woo really the Mozart of Mayhem, or is he actually the Andre Rieu of Chinese Gun fu?
Adam reckons he might be Rieu, making the case that two hours of wall-to-wall gun fighting (however exquisitely choreographed) can be quite boring.
As always, Damian di...2024-02-0850 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 8-One Cut of the DeadEpisode 8-ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2017)
What happens when the weight of expectations ruins an experience?
Find out in the latest Punching Up episode when Adam and Damian discuss the cult fave from a few years ago, Japanese film One Cut of the Dead directed by Shin'ichirō Ueda.
Who liked it? Who didn't?
Did the old geezers agree, disagree or fall somewhere in the middle.
Most likely they just fell down. In a ditch somewhere. Drunk.
They also discuss their favourite zombie films.
Get in touch :O) Send u...2024-01-1139 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 7-ShaftEpisode 7-SHAFT (1971)
According to the legendary Isaac Hayes, John Shaft is a “Bad Mutha” as well as being a “sex machine to all the chicks,” whilst also being a “complicated man… who will risk his neck for his brother man.”
But is the 1971 Blaxploitation classic that bears his name any good?
While fully and freely conceding Shaft’s status as a cinematic cultural landmark, Adam suspects that the film itself, (to quote John Shaft), might actually be a little bit “Shitty!”
What does Punching Up’s own Complicated Man, Damian think?
Tune in and find out. Can yo...2023-12-2147 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 6-InceptionEpisode 6-Inception (2010)
It’s a Punching Up first!!!!!
Damian has decided to play the bad guy this time and has nominated Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending sci-fi actioner Inception for the Punching Up (TM) treatment.
The normally misanthropic Adam is attempting to defend Nolan’s dream-within-a-dream..…within a dream masterpiece.
So, will it be sweet dreams or will it be lights out for the cerebral blockbuster king.
Tune in and find out.
Get in touch with us @
punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com
2023-12-1446 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 5a-Flowers of the Killer Moon at Freddy'sEpisode 5a-KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON AT FREDDY'S
Punching Up is back with a mini episode before we launch Season 2.
It’s Punching Up’s first re-match.
For the second time, Damian and Adam have the great man Scorsese in their sights, taking Marty to task for the inordinate length of his latest smash, Killers of the Flower Moon.
His blood still up, Adam takes a brave swing at the Five Nights at Freddy’s and an even braver swipe at Five Nights at Freddy’s fans. Other films also get a mention.2023-11-1816 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 5-Cat BallouEpisode 5-CAT BALLOU (1965)
You can’t accuse Adam Nightingale of not being objective.
In this episode, Adam punches up at one of his favourite actors, Lee Marvin for his outrageous Oscar-winning performance in the comedy musical western Cat Ballou.
Damian and Adam discuss why great actors often get rewarded for awful performances.
But Adam is also hedging his bets as he offers up Lee Marvin’s BAFTA-winning performance in The Killers as evidence of Lee Marvin’s greatness.
And what does Damian Asher make of all of this?
Could it be, for the...2023-08-2459 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 4-Once Upon a Time in The WestEpisode 4: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968)
It’s episode 4 and this time Adam Nightingale takes Sergio Leone’s Italian cowboy epic to task for its torturous length and lofty pretensions.
Damian Asher honestly can’t understand what Adam could possibly have against this cinematic masterpiece. So, is Sergio Leone’s deconstruction of the semi-mythical tropes of the American West completely up its own anus, or is Adam a complete idiot who can’t cope with complicated ideas in his cowboy movies? Listen and find out. The answer might surprise you.
Download the podcast fro...2023-08-1758 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 3-Young FrankensteinEpisode 3: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)
Buggin and mugging with Marty and Gene
The Punching Up Movie Podcast tackles its first comedy, Mel Brook’s 1974 spoof of the classic Universal Frankenstein movies. Adam cannot stand the OTT comedy mugging of Marty Feldman and Gene Wilder but likes the musical comedy. Damian likes the movie but doesn’t like musical comedy, and really doesn’t like musicals. What begins as a reasonably normal episode quickly becomes an impromptu therapy session as Adam helps Damian confront the dark secret behind his deep hatred of the musical theatre genre.
Downloa...2023-08-1056 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 2-Raging BullEpisode 2-RAGING BULL (1980)
Can an actor be too good at their job? Adam Nightingale seems to think so, taking Robert de Niro to task for far too successfully inhabiting the role of the charmless, misogynistic, ultimately alienating pugilist Jake La Motta.
Damian Asher is not so sure.
Spoiler warning! Adam and Damian casually spoil the endings of Godfather II, Nil By Mouth, Once Were Warriors, Once Upon a Time in America and, (obviously) Raging Bull during this podcast. Is that a spoiler record?
Download the podcast from Apple, Spotify or wherever you...2023-08-0357 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastEpisode 1-2001:A Space OdysseyEpisode 1-2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
“In space, no one can hear you yawn!”
Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 ground-breaking sci-fi classic is Damian Asher’s favourite film of all time. Adam Nightingale thinks it is boring. Will this difference of opinion destroy their friendship and wreck the podcast before it has even started? Probably not. It’s only a movie, albeit a visionary one, or a boring one. You decide.
Download the podcast from Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hit us up with a Like or Subscribe if you like or send us...2023-07-2756 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastPunching Up-2001-A Space Odyssey-Trailer2001: A Space Odyssey
“In space, no one can hear you yawn!”
2023-07-2000 minThe Punching Up Movie PodcastPunching Up The Movie Podcast Trailer 1-DamianPunching Up The Movie Podcast
The Punching Up movie podcast takes to task great films from the canon, both cult classics and beloved popular cinematic movies that Adam or Damian may have a problem with.
Each episode they will take on a behemoth and attempt to dissect, rediscover and sometimes disassemble the perceived classic film.
Sick of people punching down?
Then Punch Up with Damian and Adam.
2023-07-1800 min