Year in Review: 2020 - Part 1: Beyond a Dumpster Fire- Episode 201
Release Date: 01/13/2021
We Re-Watched Brain Damage (1988)...Is It The Greatest ANTI-DRUG Movie Ever?
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Brain Damage (1988) might legitimately be one of the greatest anti-drug movies ever made — it just happens to deliver that message through a talking, brain-eating parasite pumping psychedelic blue juice directly into a guy's brain. This week on The Cinema Psychos Show, we're revisiting Frank Henenlotter's wonderfully deranged 1988 cult horror movie Brain Damage. Brian thinks he's found the ultimate escape when a mysterious creature named Aylmer gives him euphoric hallucinations — but there's a catch: Aylmer needs human brains, and Brian quickly discovers just how ugly addiction and...
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We Re-Watched Adaptation…Charlie Kaufman's MENTAL BREAKDOWN Movie
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Charlie Kaufman was hired to adapt a nonfiction book about orchids. Instead, he wrote himself into the script — twice — and made one of the strangest, most self-aware movies ever released by a major studio. Brian and John rewatch Adaptation (2002) and break down Nicolas Cage's dual performance as neurotic screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald, Meryl Streep's Susan Orlean and her obsession with "The Orchid Thief," and Brian Cox's scene-stealing turn as real-life screenwriting guru Robert McKee. We also get into a genuinely compelling theory: what if Donald...
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We Re-watched Hellbound: Hellraiser II...It's a PERFECT Horror Sequel! | Ft. Robert Brian Taylor
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Is Hellbound: Hellraiser II the best sequel in horror history? With Hellraiser back in the cultural spotlight this year — Halloween Horror Nights' 2026 and the long-awaited Hellraiser Revival game both dropping this fall — we figured it was the perfect time to revisit the film many fans consider the series' high point. Film critic Robert Brian Taylor (Collider) joins The Cinema Psychos Show to make the case for Hellbound, arguing it does exactly what a horror sequel should: expand Clive Barker's world without breaking its rules. We break down how Hellraiser 2 deepens Julia's transformation...
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We Re-watched Rocky (1976) and It Was... Weird | Ft. The Silver Linings Playlist Podcast
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Sports Month closes out with the quintessential non-sports sports movie: Rocky (1976). Brian and John are joined by Dustin and Nate from The Silver Linings Playlist Podcast to break down Stallone's underdog script (allegedly written in three days), the real Chuck Wepner vs. Muhammad Ali fight that inspired it, Carl Weathers' criminally underrated Apollo Creed, and a running theory that Rocky himself reads as autistic-coded — "his special interest is punching." Plus: how this movie beat Taxi Driver, Network, and All the President's Men for Best Picture, whether the Rocky/Adrian romance...
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I, TONYA: Nobody in This Movie is Telling the Truth (ft. KT Baldassaro)
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Tonya Harding loved skating. The skating world never loved her back — and I, Tonya (2017) is the mockumentary-style biopic that dares to ask: who's actually the villain here? Brian sits down with KT Baldassaro (MovieRunTime & What If I Don't Like It) to break down Margot Robbie's snubbed performance, Allison Janney's Oscar-winning turn as the worst mom in cinema, Sean Eckhardt's delusional hitman fantasy, and why the Academy has a track record of punishing dark comedy. CHAPTERS: Introduction [00:00] Why I, Tonya makes a surprisingly fun rewatch [02:17] A biopic that refuses to play...
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A League of Their Own (1992): Sibling Rivalry, Sexism & the Best Casting in Movie History
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
A League of Their Own (1992) is the rare baseball movie that isn't really about baseball — it's a sibling rivalry story, a look at 1940s sexism, and (we'd argue) one of the best examples of age-accurate casting in film history. Brian and John break down Penny Marshall's classic: Tom Hanks' pivot from comedy to the dramatic roles that led to Cast Away and Forrest Gump, the Kit/Dottie rivalry that drives the whole plot, what the film gets right (and skips) on race and sexism in the 1940s, and the ending debate that still splits fans. A movie reaction and deep-dive discussion for baseball fans...
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review — The Best MCU Spidey Movie Yet? (Spoiler-Free)
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a beautiful mess — and it might be the best MCU Spider-Man movie yet. Both hosts land on 8/10. We weren't planning to cover this one. Then we saw it, and we had to record an emergency bonus episode. Brian and John break down why Destin Daniel Cretton's Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the most grounded, consequence-driven Spidey film Marvel has made — and why it owes more to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 than to anything in the Home trilogy. Jon Bernthal's Punisher steals the movie. Florence Pugh's "small potatoes" bathhouse scene is already a meme. Sadie Sink shows up...
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The Rutles | The Beatles Parody That Left Paul McCartney PISSED!
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Eric Idle and Lorne Michaels teamed up in 1978 to make the greatest Beatles parody you've probably never seen — and it worked so well that Paul McCartney sent back a real letter saying he didn't find it funny, while John Lennon loved it so much he never returned his copy. This week on Cinema Psycho Show, Brian and John dig into The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, the SNL-adjacent mockumentary packed with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Mick Jagger, and even George Harrison himself. We break down the Beatles history it's spoofing, argue about whether you need to be a...
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Super (2010): Is James Gunn's TWISTED Superhero Movie Really That Awful? | Ft. Josh Axelrod
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
This is a spoiler-filled review and discussion of Super (2010), directed by James Gunn and starring Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page, covering the film's violence, its most divisive scene, and what it means that its director now runs DC Studios. Before James Gunn was directing Superman, he wrote and directed Super (2010) — and it's way darker than you remember. Brian and John are joined by Josh Axelrod, Director of Media & Press Relations at the Lindsay Theater, to break down Super (2010) — and this time, our guest actually came in ready to fight us on it. Super (2010) Quick Facts: ...
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Fargo (1996): The Coen Brothers' "Funny Looking" Dark Comedy | Ft. Katie & Nat of The VHS Club
Cinema Psychos Movie Reviews
Fargo (1996) turns 30 this year. On this episode of The Cinema Psycho Show, hosts Brian and John are joined by Katie and Nat from The VHS Club podcast to revisit the Coen brothers' Minnesota crime classic — including why detective Marge Gunderson spent most of the investigation with almost nothing to go on but a single vague description of her "funny looking" suspect. In this episode: Why Fargo's dialogue rewards a rewatch more than almost any crime film of the '90s Marge Gunderson's investigation, and how one bystander's description of a "funny looking" suspect drives the entire back half...
info_outlineHappy New Year everyone! I promise that 2021 will be much better than 2020 ever wa.....(looks at the news).....well, so much for new years resolutions. How about we take a nice escapism trip to "better times" and look back at how Hollywood was affected by a truly unusual year. Like a massive poop, this episode will be a 2 parter. So be sure to check back next week as we dive into the top best and worst films of 2020. In the mean time, take a minute as you gather your MRE's and stock that bunker as we discuss a truly "unique" year in cinema.
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