Mighty Movie Podcast

mightymoviepodcast's podcast

Andor Season 2 - Hour of the Wolf 05/21/2025

Andor Season 2 - Hour of the Wolf I have a lively conversation with host Jim Freund about season two of STAR WARS: ANDOR on WBAI's HOUR OF THE WOLF. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/36656430

Review: MARTYR'S LANE 09/25/2021

Review: MARTYR'S LANE A review for Hour of the Wolf, which airs on WBAI 99.5FM in New York. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/20595497

THE ANTENNA 10/01/2020

THE ANTENNA What happens when your TV set can only bring signals from local station WEVL? Turkish director Orçun Behram explores the mayhem in the surreal, political body-horror film THE ANTENNA, and talks with us about how it came to be. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/16239098

BURNING GHOST and A WHITE, WHITE DAY 08/29/2020

BURNING GHOST and A WHITE, WHITE DAY Death abides, but not often easily. In BURNING GHOST, a young man ferries lost souls to the afterlife, until love distracts him from his mission, while in A WHITE, WHITE DAY, a policeman investigates the possibility that his recently deceased wife was having an affair. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/15799103

JOKER and AD ASTRA 10/12/2019

JOKER and AD ASTRA While WBAI's HOUR OF THE WOLF has been (hopefully) temporarily sidelined, here's my unaired review of the intriguing JOKER and the dismaying AD ASTRA. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/11617739

VIDEO: SCARED TO DEATH 11/30/2016

VIDEO: SCARED TO DEATH In a startlingly bold experiment for ToB, we've decided to take the first twenty minutes of the classic(?) Bela Lugosi horror(?) film, SCARED TO DEATH, and treat it to a daringly new concept in film analysis, one that's never been seen before and certainly has absolutely no connection to MST3K or CINEMATIC TITANIC or RIFFTRAX, or anything like that. (And if there appears to be resemblance, well, we came up with it first and our lawyers are going to be in touch with all of those guys in the morning, believe you me.) A few notes: This was Bela Lugosi's only color film, not that it did him much good. Keep in mind that this is a video file. We've adjusted the compression to make it as small as possible, but it'll still take a bit longer to download. Because of the file size, the video quality will be a bit scrubby -- particularly on larger screens -- but should be good enough. And we'd love to actually finish the rest of the film, so if you like what you see, give us a holler and let us know! /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4872518

STAR TREK 50TH ANNIVERSARY 10/12/2016

STAR TREK 50TH ANNIVERSARY Some thoughts on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4739820

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS 10/12/2016

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS Review of Laika's Kubo and the Two Strings. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4739811

THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN 08/06/2016

THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN Let's not mince words about this: THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN is a goofy movie, a Mexican horror-fest with rubber bats, balsa wood coffins, poorly choreographed fight scenes, and a "hero" (the star of THE BRAINIAC, actually) who caps off practically every scene by coming close to wetting his pants. It also happens to be a surprisingly good-looking film, with cinematographer Victor Herrera ripping whole reams from the German expressionist playbook for his set up. Which makes for an unusual ToB episode in which Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale, Orenthal Hawkins, and Dan Persons explore the paradox between production and content as much as they explore the film's copious flaws. Click on the player to hear the show, or right-click the link to download. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4570984

ICETASTROPHE 06/13/2016

ICETASTROPHE Ever wonder what your cats do when you're not around? Sorry to disappoint you, but likely they climb up on the couch and go to sleep. Ever wonder what kind of film Syfy runs when nobody's watching? Very likely it's ICETASTROPHE, a virtual non-entity of a natural disaster movie in which a meteor somehow manages to put an isolated mountain town under a deadly deep freeze and nobody, not even the people being frosted over, cares. Come join the Temple of Bad team of Orenthal Hawkins, Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale (whose formidable editing kung fu saved this show from slipping into the "Lost Episode" category), and Dan Persons as they slap themselves in the face (not to keep warm, just to stay awake), and take on a film that makes your basic snowman look like an icon of flamboyant excess. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4439697

PATCH TOWN 04/27/2016

PATCH TOWN Oh, sure, anybody can look at a ROBOT MONSTER, a BIRDEMIC, a /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4325155

APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD 03/25/2016

APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD Soooo much to cover in one, brief segment! First, I look at the French animated film APRIL AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD, and how it takes on the genre of steampunk in a way few steampunkers dare to consider. Then I have some belated thoughts on the entertaining comic book movie, DEADPOOL, and highlight a standout performance in the gory Turkish(!) horror film, BASKIN. Finally, I celebrate the documentary that celebrates the artist Chet Zar, I LIKE TO PAINT MONSTERS, and alert retro-horror fans to the delights of a new homevid collection, THE AMERICAN HORROR PROJECT, VOLUME 1. Then it's time for light lunch, but that's outside of your realm of interest, isn't it? /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4248281

ZOOTOPIA/CREATIVE CONTROL/KNIGHT OF CUPS 03/17/2016

ZOOTOPIA/CREATIVE CONTROL/KNIGHT OF CUPS Here's a curious thing: A fun, funny, action-packed animated family film that just by happenstance strikes at the very core of the ugliness behind the presidential campaign of a certain, stubby-fingered, orange-American. Couldn't have been by design, not with production schedules for CG animation being what they are, but there it is: ZOOTOPIA -- anthropomorphized animals against Trumpism. Couldn't have come at a better time. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4227780

KING KONG 12/29/2015

KING KONG 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the film that changed the entertainment industry as we know it, the film the rewrote the rules on action entertainment, that dazzled audiences with its innovative special effects, that forever lodged in popular culture the notion that exciting adventures awaited audiences a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/4044576

THE BRAINIAC 10/31/2015

THE BRAINIAC (Sung to the tune of Maniac): /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3906572

THE MACHINE 08/23/2015

THE MACHINE "The Machine, Dan? The Machine? Surely you must mean Ex Machina, the dark, sensual drama about a young programmer falling into the thrall of an eerily human-like android, the film that grabbed so much attention earlier this year. That's the film you're talking about, right?" /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3753325

JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET 08/13/2015

JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET You know, we've always considered as our prime mission an elevation of the level of discourse in movie podcasts. Much like Cahiers du Cinema, we seek to enshrine the world of film as a true artform, analyzing the efforts its creators' invest in fulfilling their unique visions, and exploring how the results serve to elevate humanity's understanding of itself and the universe. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3734898

SELF/LESS - JELLYFISH EYES - A HARD DAY 07/19/2015

SELF/LESS - JELLYFISH EYES - A HARD DAY This is a real "watch this, not that," segment this time. Self/less was the "serious" opening last weekend -- directed by overt stylist Tarsem Singh, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley -- and the worst sin that could be levelled at it was that it was kind of stoopid. But then, the weekend also saw the debut of a couple of more compelling releases: Jellyfish Eyes, a family film send-up directed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami; and the delirious Korean noir comedy A Hard Day. Only thing to do is to give 'em all their due and leave it to my listeners' good judgement. Click on the player to hear the segment, or right-click the link to download. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3682922

THE MIDNIGHT SWIM 07/05/2015

THE MIDNIGHT SWIM You can be forgiven. If your first thought when you hear the phrase, "found-footage mockumentary" is a sincere wish that somebody should have released a Web virus long ago to wipe every copy of The Blair Witch Project off every server on Earth, that's certainly understandable. So I'm aware of the risk I'm taking by going on record to say that The Midnight Swim -- a moody, enigmatic found-footage ghost story about three sisters discovering the ominous mystery surrounding the lake that claimed their mother's life -- demonstrates there's still something new and moving to be discovered in this debased genre. Click on the player to hear my review for WBAI 99.5FM's Hour of the Wolf, or right-click the link to download. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3656504

INSIDE OUT 06/28/2015

INSIDE OUT Okay, right, yeah, sure, sure: Inside Out is a wall-to-wall wonder, good news for anyone who despaired that the animation studio, Pixar -- after numerous missteps -- had lost its mojo, and who, frankly, would've rejoiced in any glimmer of the ol' Pixar verve now. It's better than that, far better. But while you're alternating between laughter and tears ('cause that's what Pixar does), you may not realize how much of a tightrope walk this metaphorical tour of a young girl's psyche is. I explore the challenges faced by the film's creators in my review for Jim Freund's Hour of the Wolf. Click on the player to hear the show, or right-click the link to download. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3642647

TRIBUTE TO CHRISTOPHER LEE 06/19/2015

TRIBUTE TO CHRISTOPHER LEE No life is forever, not even that of the man who played immortal vampires, mouldering corpses, and psychotic satanists. Christopher Lee had so permanently placed his mark on the world of fantastic film that his death this past week sent a shock wave through film fandom, so assured were we that he’d always be around to bring his wit, gravity, and class to the likes of Dracula, Saruman and Kharis. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3624780

JURASSIC WORLD 06/18/2015

JURASSIC WORLD Seriously critiquing a film that in its first weekend has managed to gross over a half-billion dollars worldwide is not unlike trying to hand-feed a pork chop to a velociraptor -- risks are involved. Nevertheless, there are moments in Jurassic World where it's clear the makers intended something more ambitious than just giving the audience their anticipated, 3D dino rampage, so it only makes sense to dig a bit deeper and determine whether the message transcends its medium. I endeavor to do that in my review for Jim Freund's Hour of the Wolf; click on the player to hear the segment, or right-click the link to download. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3623444

REALITY 06/04/2015

REALITY CATCH-UP WEDNESDAY! Bringing you the Hour of the Wolf review segments that were not posted on their air dates. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3596174

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF WILLIAM ZERO 06/03/2015

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF WILLIAM ZERO CATCH-UP WEDNESDAY! Bringing you the Hour of the Wolf review segments that were not posted on their air dates. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3593979

CHEATIN' 06/02/2015

CHEATIN' CATCH-UP TUESDAY! Bringing you the Hour of the Wolf review segments that were not posted on their air dates. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3592291

SPRING 05/31/2015

SPRING CATCH-UP SUNDAY! Bringing you the Hour of the Wolf review segments that were not posted on their air dates. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3586295

TOMORROWLAND 05/28/2015

TOMORROWLAND Upon reflection, it turns out I've been looking forward to Tomorrowland more than I've been looking forward to any actual tomorrows. Which is ironic, because that is pretty much what this film -- directed by Brad Bird, who co-scripted with Damon Lindeloff -- is about. It is, of course, easier to get excited about the future when you know George Clooney is going to waiting around there for you; but a well-sculpted profile can go only so far in making the dream of jet-packs, hover trains, and interplanetary commuter runs a reality. I give some thought to how well Bird and Lindeloff achieve their mission in my review for Jim Freund's Hour of the Wolf. Click on the player to hear the segment, or right-click the link to download. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3580403

PADDINGTON 05/26/2015

PADDINGTON CATCH-UP TUESDAY! Bringing you the Hour of the Wolf review segments that were not posted on their air dates. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3577058

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD 05/24/2015

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Well, here I am, once again hanging alone around the perimeter while the vast majority of critics and fans are having a veritable orgy of delight over Mad Max: Fury Road. Yes it's a crazy, inventive film. Yes, the action is outsized and breathtaking. And yet my reaction is a resounding, "Meh." How did it come to this? I'm tempted to level that blame at a delayed onset of anhedonia -- the inability to experience pleasure -- but I had a green chile cheeseburger at Bobby's Burger Palace a few days ago and was convinced that there still exists miracles in this universe, so that can't be it. Listen in on my review for Jim Freund's Hour of the Wolf as I try to figure this out. Click on the player to hear the review, or right-click the link to download. /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3572746

Invasion of the Star Creatures 05/11/2015

Invasion of the Star Creatures The good often travels along with the bad. The good in this case: Yours truly has made the move to the lovely city of Philadelphia, a process that led to the extended delay of this episode. The bad: the film we're discussing, of course. The SF-comedy Invasion of the Star Creatures tries to mimic the slapped-together-fast-n-cheap success of Little Shop of Horrors -- with Horrors star Jonathan Haze stepping into the role of screenwriter -- but pretty much blows everything it attempts, most prominently any attempt at humor (unless you think grievously stereotyped Native Americans and a subterranean rewrite of an old Scooby-Doo chase gag repeated ad nauseum is downright high-larious). /episode/index/show/mightymoviepodcast/id/3547187

Mighty Movie Podcast

TOPICS