The Naked Gun (2025), with Matt Pollock
ADHD-DVD
This week, we're back and we brought a friend, as we head back to the cinema for another In Theaters Now edition of the podcast, and bring returning favourite Matt Pollock (@mattysmovies4ever) along with us for the relaunch of a movie that was a childhood fave of both Justin and Matty, but is all new to Hayley, our resident Lonely Island obsessive... It's 2025's The Naked Gun, directed by Akiva Schaffer, written by Akiva Schaffer, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, and starring Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, CCH Pounder, and pod favourite Kevin Durand, with a slew of...
info_outline
Superman (1978)
ADHD-DVD
This week, with the new DCU relaunched under the watchful eye of James Gunn, we take it all the way back to not just the dawn of DC Comics on the silver screen, but what is really the grand daddy of all superhero films period. It's 1978's Superman, directed by Richard Donner, and starring Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter and Valerie Perrine. It is the homework that countless films over the years have copied off of, and combine that with its vintage 70s special effects and a rather tumultuous production, does...
info_outline
The Accountant 2
ADHD-DVD
This week, the numbers man is back and this time he's brought his brother, as we go back to our roots by revisiting the brand new sequel for a movie we first covered nearly three years ago! It's 2025's The Accountant 2, directed by Gavin O'Connor and starring Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J.K. Simmons, Daniella Pineda, Alison Wright and Robert Morgan. Anna Kendrick does not return for this one, but the movie aptly fills the void left by her absence by letting the Wolff Boys bro out for the bulk of the run-time this time around, and Bernthal is particularly outstanding in...
info_outline
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
ADHD-DVD
This week, we say goodbye to one of the greats, as a film franchise that has consistently brought the goods over the last three decades bids a fond farewell in what we trust is its last installment. Yes, it's 2025's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett, Rolf Saxon, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Greg Tarzan Daniels, Shea Whigham, Hannah Waddingham, Katy O'Brian and Tramell Tillman. Two years after we did it the first...
info_outline
Dick Tracy
ADHD-DVD
This week, we're busting out the slammer and potentially wishing we were back in it depending on who you ask, as we team up with the canary-clad copper to take down a star-studded mob in a wildly stylish and outlandishly conceived blockbuster starring a charming old man incapable of doing action scenes, that's been seemingly buried in the Disney vault in the years since. It's 1990's Dick Tracy, directed and produced by Warren Beatty, and starring Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino, Glenne Headly, Charlie Korsmo, Mandy Patinkin, Dustin Hoffman, Seymour Cassel, William Forsythe, Charles Durning,...
info_outline
Reckoning with The Final Reckoning's final trailer
ADHD-DVD
This week, we're breaking our hiatus to break from our format, as we are not breaking down a film this week so much as hyping one up, as we get ready for the movie event of the summer by over-analyzing the final trailer for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. If you're a long-time listener or even someone who's only heard a few episodes you probably know that the Mission: Impossible movies are a permanent hyper-fixation around here, so we had to get together to discuss a preview loaded wall-to-wall with That Guy character actors, including the return of our beloved boy Shea Whigham, and...
info_outline
The Royal Tenenbaums
ADHD-DVD
This week, we're having a ball -- scrapping, yelling and mixing it up, loving every minute with this damn crew as we close out Gene HackMarch with a regal induction into the podcast canon. It's 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by Wes Anderson, co-written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, and starring Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover and the voice of Alec Baldwin. While Anderson launched himself to prominence with Rushmore, Tenenbaums marked the full-throated arrival of a confident new voice in American cinema,...
info_outline
The Conversation
ADHD-DVD
This week, we're tearing up the baseboards and getting funky on the saxophone as Gene HackMarch rolls on with a Coppola classic surveillance thriller that he snuck in between Godfathers. It's 1974's The Conversation, written, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Harrison Ford, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr and Robert Duvall. Needless to say, Hackman is terrific at the heart of an essential 70s paranoid thriller -- though is it really paranoia if you know your fears are true? His Harry Caul is a meticulous...
info_outline
Crimson Tide
ADHD-DVD
This week, Gene HackMarch continues with an outstanding acting showdown between two of the all-time greats of American screen acting, as our man Gene stands tete-a-tete with Denzel down in the briny deep with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. It's 1995's Crimson Tide, directed by Tony Scott, featuring script punch-up from Quentin Tarantino, and starring Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini, George Dzundza, Matt Craven, Danny Nucci, Steve Zahn and Daniel von Bargen. A naval submarine thriller of the highest order, it's the first of five collaborations...
info_outline
Hoosiers
ADHD-DVD
This week, we kick off a March-long salute to the dearly departed king of American screen acting as Hackmonth begins with a classic of the inspirational sports genre, the story of a man who moves to Hicktown, Indiana and whips a bunch of farm boys into state champions. It's 1986's Hoosiers, directed by David Anspaugh and starring Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper. While the circumstances surrounding this theme month are unquestionably sad, it's still a treat to watch one of the all-time great screen presences cook in some of his most acclaimed roles, and there's no question he's...
info_outlineThis week, Spooktober continues with what is widely regarded as one of the most frightening films of all time, as a British master of cinema scares turns his sights to the skies with an eco-horror story that dares to ask... what if birds were jerks? It's 1963's The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, and starring Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Plechet and a young Veronica Cartwright. Time has not been the kindest to this old girl, as a number of sequences that shocked and frightened audiences back in the day now play as laughably funny a lot of the time. Being a Hitchcock film, there are a handful of transcendently great scenes, but few of them involve dive-bombing birds if we're being honest. I guess you can probably tell we didn't love it. Tune in to hear us justify those feelings! Plus: J Mo's been on a trashy horror kick to get in the Spooky Season mood, and Hayley's got a theatrical field report on the Jason Reitman SNL origin picture Saturday Night.
If you'd like to watch the movie before listening us discuss it, The Birds is not currently streaming in Canada at the time of publication, but can likely be rented for free at your nearest public library.
Other works discussed in this episode include Scream, Barbarian, Frankie Freako, Psycho Goreman, Hundreds of Beavers, Love and Monsters, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning: Part One, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, Friday the 13th Part III, Freddy vs. Jason, Clue, The Nice Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Breaker High, The Black Phone, They/Them, The Deliverance, The First Purge, The Time Machine (1960), Singin' in the Rain, The Happening, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, The Mummy (1999), Trap, The Lady in the Water, Old, Shaun of the Dead, and The Mist among others.
We'll be back next week to wrap up Spooktober with this month's nomination for canon consideration: John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), an absolute Halloween classic with timeless and immaculate creature make-up and practical effects, not to mention an iconic lead performance from the king of cool himself, Kurt Russell. The Thing is not currently streaming in Canada, which really goes to show how much the streaming dream is dead. But you can find it in discount bins at your local retailer I'm sure. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!