The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 380: Underworld: Evolution, Cans of Paint, and Kate Beckinsale
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Mark and David Cross (of the Award Wieners Movie Review Podcast) discuss the 2006 film Underworld: Evolution. Directed by Len Wiseman, and starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Tony Curran, and several cans of paint, the movie focuses on the continuing war between vampires and werewolves that was introduced in the 2003 film Underworld (listen to the episode!). In this episode, they discuss nonstop action, storage containers, and the excellence of Kate Beckinsale. Enjoy!
Make sure to follow David on Instagram (Award Wieners Podcast) and Twitter (@ItsMeDavidCross)
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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The Suicide Squad (2021) – Review: A Funny, Endearing, and Violent Superhero Movie That Will Put a Smile On Your Face
Quick Thoughts: Grade – A – The James Gunn directed The Suicide Squad is pure delight. If you are looking for a bloody, brutal and hilarious superhero movie, it doesn’t get any better.
The great thing about The Suicide Squad is that there will never be a “James Gunn Cut.” You can tell it’s almost exactly what Gunn wanted to make, and he had zero worries about cutting anything down to a PG-13. He got all the songs he wanted, the movie starts with Michael Rooker killing a bird, and it features a man-sized weasel belly flopping into the ocean. The Suicide Squad is pure R-rated well-managed insanity that delivers a healthy dose of shock and heart.
What’s great about The Suicide Squad is how Michael Rooker’s character Savant is quickly recruited by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis – hilariously tired) to join a makeshift Suicide Squad that will be running a secret mission in the small South American island Corto Maltese. Savant is teamed up with Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman – very good), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie – also very good), Weasel (Sean Gunn), Javelin (Flula Borg), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion) and the returning Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). Their mission quickly goes south, and they find themselves battling the entire Corto Maltsian military while another group of Suicide Squaders wade peacefully onto the shores further up the island.
This is where the movie splits into two narratives as Harley is captured and forced to meet with Presidente General Silvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto), who has an interest in Harley and will soon find himself out of his league. The other narrative focuses on new characters Bloodsport (Idris Elba – so good), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior – the MVP of the movie), Polka-Dot Man (David Mastmalchian), and King Shark (voice by Sylvester Stallone) sneaking onto the island so they can capture a scientist named Thinker (Peter Capaldi), and enter a secret laboratory that is home to a wonderfully weird alien. It would be a shame to spoil any of the wild delights that Gunn has in store, just know that there are adorable rats, soldiers ripped in half, and some brutal fights.
The film is a massive improvement over David Ayer’s 2016 movie Suicide Squad because the characters are allowed to have fun, and the narrative isn’t splintered due to reshoots and studio interference. The highlights include Daniela Melchior who finds heart and humor in her rat-controlling character Ratcatcher 2, and Idris Elba who is cranky, funny, insecure, deadly and not afraid to look silly on screen. It’s also cool seeing Margot Robbie thrive as Harley Quinn. She gets some of the best moments in the movie (she kills a lot of people – it’s neat), and I’d love to see her work with James Gunn again as they seem to have an understanding of Harley Quinn and her motivations. Another impressive aspect about the movie is how the finale stays relatively grounded, despite featuring a large CGI kaiju knocking over buildings like they are dominos. You know where all of the characters are, and they all play an important role in battling a large alien who is justifiably pissed off at being imprisoned for 30+ years.
The Suicide Squad is so good because it’s weird, violent, bloody and very endearing. It’s hard to think of the last time I liked the characters so much in a superhero film (Ant-Man and the Wasp might be the last film I loved), and it will be fun to rewatch, so I can discover more Easter eggs and jokes that were missed the first time around.
Final thoughts: I can’t think of the last time a comic book movie made me so happy.
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Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast – Episode 57: Doing the Double, Shark Explosions, and Extra Large Fries
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Jay and Mark are joined by Heather Baxendale-Walsh (@Heather_Kenobi on Twitter) to discuss the ninth chapter on the Deep Blue Sea 3 Blu-ray. In this episode, they discuss sharks in vending machines, extra large fries, and blood explosions. Enjoy!
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Free Guy (2021) – Review: An Entertaining Summer Blockbuster That Introduces Audiences to a Great Guy
Quick Thoughts – Grade – B+ – Free Guy is an absolute delight, and if you’re looking for a fun summer blockbuster to watch, you can’t go wrong with Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, and They Live references.
The Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Night at the Museum, Real Steel) directed Free Guy is a welcome breath of fresh air as it’s not a sequel, remake, reboot or adaptation. The majority of the trailers have focused on the “newness” of it all, and that can’t be argued as Free Guy has the audacity to tell a new story (while still sneaking in They Live, Her, The Truman Show, and Ready Player One references) and be occasionally weird enough to let Taika Waitit go full-ham on his dialogue The PG-13 film written by Zak Penn (Ready Player One, The Avengers) and Matt Lieberman (The Christmas Chronicles) is loaded with fun action scenes, cool chases, and zero jet ski action scenes (I really was hoping for one), and it manages to sneak in welcome doses of snark and heart.
The film revolves around a guy named Guy (Ryan Reynolds), who enjoys hot coffee, blue shirts, Mariah Carey, and chatting with his best friend Buddy (lil Rey Howery) while the bank they work at is robbed every single day. Guy is a non-playable character (NPC) inside the video game Free City, which allows players to murder innocents, rob banks, and cruise around the open world doing whatever they want so they can build their scores. On a fateful day, Guy becomes self-aware when he meets Molotov Girl/Mille (Jodie Comer), a gaming legend who catches his attention because she sings Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” and doesn’t try to murder or rob him. From there, Guy starts leveling up in the game by doing good deeds, and his celebrity grows as the gaming community latches onto his kind antics, and wants to know his gaming identity. This draws the attention of Antoine (Taika Waititi – wonderful), the owner of the video game company, who doesn’t like the direction Guy is taking gamers.
Throw in Joe Keery’s character Keys, who works with Antoine, and developed the Free City code with Millie (which Antoine stole), and you have multiple subplots that all tie together nicely. It’s neat watching Guy level up with kindness, and assisting Millie in her attempt to find the proof that Antoine stole from her and Keys. The idea of the constantly murdered NPC characters uniting together to stop brutal gamers is wonderful, and it would be a shame to spoil anything else (the trailers have already done this, but I won’t).
Another bonus of Free Guy is that it features a totally earnest performance from Reynolds. It’s a welcome departure from his hugely successful Deadpool-shtick (which is very fun), and it’s neat watching Guy develop and learn as he progresses through the film (look out for the cappuccino moment). Also, the costume and production design by Marlene Stewart and Ethan Tobman prove to be super memorable, and there’s no doubt that many people will be cosplaying as Guy in the future, as his blue button up shirt (and henley) will be instantly recognizable. The sets all look great too, and there are a few large builds that look super cool and do a fine job of selling the video game world.
Final thoughts – Free Guy is a lot of fun, and I hope it does well with audiences and critics. The world needs more original films like it.
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MY CALL: This film is a cult classic that plays out well and even yields an earned and satisfying ending. Even though the comedy is overt, it is very dark. I enjoy it still. MORE MOVIES LIKE Cemetery Man: For more horror love stories, try The Bride (1985), Meridian (1990), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993), Let the Right One In (2008), Crimson Peak (2015) or The Shape of Water (2017).
With a brand of humor most closely resembling a toned-down Evil Dead 2 (1987) or Dead-Alive (1992), we open this dark horror comedy as Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) somewhat humorously executes a man who has risen from his grave in the neighboring cemetery. Well before The Walking Dead (2010-2021) coined such terms as walkers, biters, geeks and the like, Francesco referred to his risers from the grave as “returners,” and that’s what they did exactly seven days after their burial in his cemetery. Francesco is charged with keeping them in their resting place… so… killing them again.
Like Romero’s zombie folklore, these undead are dispatched by significant head trauma and Francesco wonders if this isn’t the beginning of an epidemic reaching far beyond the gates of his graveyard. But when a beautiful young woman (Anna Falchi) grieving for her lost husband falls for Francesco, succumbs to a zombie bite and dies, Francesco’s life takes a yet stranger turn.
The zombie effects are quite passable, and the gore is impressive when it’s called upon. I was overjoyed when a school bus of kids rose as zombies to have huge gaping holes blown in their heads. Huge gaping headwounds and massive injuries abound in this film.
The comedy is overt even if very dark. Francesco’s assistant Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro; Brotherhood of the Wolf) removes the head of a cadaver and forms a relationship with it. The sex scene nudity was rather extensive and provided a long one-scene callback to Mathilda May strutting around in the buff in Lifeforce (1985).
Director Michele Soavi (The Sect, The Church) somehow never moved on to do much more. Not sure why. This film is a cult classic that plays out well and even yields an earned and satisfying ending! I enjoy it still.
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Pig (2021) – Review: A Beautiful Film That Features Another Inspired Performance From Nicolas Cage
Quick Thoughts – Grade – A – Pig is a beautiful film that will definitely be included in my year end “best of” lists. I can’t think of the last time I was so engrossed in a movie. Also, Nicolas Cage is excellent, and between Pig, Joe, Mandy, and Color Out of Space, he’s been putting in some great work in movies that place him in a wooded area.
The best thing about Pig is that you have no clue where it’s going. The trailer with it’s classical music, and eerie score makes you believe that it’s a thriller/psychological drama about a man trying to find the truffle pig that was stolen from him. To a certain extent, that’s true, but the lurid editing (I don’t blame the marketers, they had to sell it) hides how truly soulful it is. If you are looking for a contemplative, thoughtful and beautifully shot experience, I totally recommend you rent (or buy) Pig. If you can, turn off the lights, and enjoy the 92-minute film that features excellent work from Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, and Adam Arkin.
Directed by Michael Sarnoski, Pig tells the story of Rob (Nicolas Cage), a truffle hunter heading to Portland in hopes of finding his pig that was stolen from him by two opportunistic thieves. The thieves were hired by a Portland bigwig, who heard about the pigs mythical ability to hunt down truffles that are sold to the Pacific northwest elite in haughty restaurants that deconstruct pretty much anything. Joining Rob in his journey, is his buyer Amir (Alex Wolff), who drives him to the big city after Rob is attacked and left bloody in his isolated shack (he never cleans himself up, and it’s great). From there, the two find themselves exploring the seedy side of Portland, and it would be a shame to tell you more. Why? Pig is a movie that you should know very little about, because it will take you to places you’d never expect.
The cinematography by Patrck Scola (who has shot music videos for The Weeknd, Vampire Weekend, Alt-J and The Neighbourhood) is beautiful to look at, as it uses doorframe, trees, and Nic Cage’s face to wonderful results. It would be disappointing to not see Scola nominated for any awards because his work is constantly inventive, and the use of focus and depth of field is inspired. Also, the script by Sarnoski and Vanessa Block keeps you engaged as it takes you from the isolated woods to an urban landscape that feels almost as dangerous and foreign as the Oregon woods. It’s also nice that the movie doesn’t go the Taken or John Wick route, as violence is mostly avoided, and aside from a couple beatdowns, the film mostly relies on tense dialogue scenes that are far more suspenseful than people punching each other in their faces.
After Color Out of Space, Mandy, Willy’s Wonderland, Mom and Dad, and Now Pig, Nicolas Cage has been turning in excellent performances in solid movies that have been missed by the mainstream (Watch Mandy now!). The narrative may be that he is stuck in direct-to-DVD purgatory, but that can’t be further from the truth. His work is interesting, unique, and in the case of Willy’s Wonderland, mostly silent. Mandy might be one of the best horror films of the 21st century, and a big reason for that is Cage’s performance, as he’s asked to be an ultimate badass who endures worlds of hurt, suffering, and pain at the hands of supernatural gross people, and cult members who have no clue who they are up against. If you get a chance, check out one of these films, they are well worth your time.
Final Thoughts – Watch Pig. Do it now.
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Quick Thoughts: – Grade – D – Great White is an underwhelming shark film that doesn’t have any bite. The characters aren’t likable enough to carry the film, and the occasionally beautiful cinematography can’t carry the action scenes that rely on contrived moments to create tension.
Directed by Martin Wilson (famed commercial director who made his feature film debut with Great White) and starring Katrina Bowden, Aaron Jakubenko, and Kimie Tsukakoshi, Great White is a shark movie that takes itself too seriously, and let’s itself down when it moves inside a soundstage for the night scenes. The idea is sound, as placing several people (who are either pregnant, wildly jealous, or afraid of sharks after an attack) in a life raft and having them be harassed by sharks is always fun, but the movie falls apart when it isn’t showing us beautiful overhead footage of the Australian Coast.
The worst part about Great White is that you feel horribly for the great whites. In the best shark films like Jaws, Deep Blue Sea and The Shallows, the sharks are comically evil, genetically modified, or oddly vindictive, and they are treated like horror movie villains, and not like actual great whites (who are beautiful creatures). Great White keeps things grounded, which means when the sharks eventually die, you feel bad for them because they were just doing their thing, and they end up getting killed. Also, since the characters are thinly drawn, and only two of them come across as actual humans (Bowden and Jakubenko are solid), the kills don’t mean anything because there is no connection to them. For instance, Benny (Te Kohe Tuhaka), a likable character, dies when Joji (Tim Kano – stuck with a wildly underwritten character) who is annoyed that Benny is assisting his wife Michelle (Kimie Tsukakoshi), pushes him into the water, and before Benny can make it back to the raft, he is killed. So, essentially, Joji is a murderer, who probably should go to jail if he survives the ensuing attacks. It’s unnecessary moments like this that do nothing for the film, and start making you consider laws about shoving people into water and causing them to be eaten by a shark.
If you’ve been following MFF for a while, you know that I love pretty much every shark movie ever made (We started Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast). I bought Great White without ever seeing a trailer, and I regret buying it because it does nothing for the genre, as the obviously fake soundstage work (which was necessary for the budget), wonky lighting, occasionally bad VFX, and lack of memorable characters make it hard to enjoy. I really wanted to love Great White, and if I didn’t, I was fully prepared to defend it by saying “A bad shark movie is better than most other movies.” However, Great White is a middling film that does nothing to warrant a cult audience, or “so bad, it’s good” consideration.
Final thoughts – Great White is a subpar shark film that should only be watched by shark movie completists.
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Bad Movie Tuesday: Winterbeast (1986 or 1992, who knows?), a wacktastic, very low budget B-movie loaded with stop-motion monsters.
MY CALL: If you love really bad b-movies with stop-motion monsters, then this nonsense is for you! MORE MOVIES LIKE Winterbeast: The Alien Factor (1978) feels similarly bad and diverse in its creatures. The Strangeness (1985) likewise features some great stop-motion monster fare.
From IMDB: “People are being killed off near a popular mountain lodge, with a legend claiming that the mountain is haunted by a deadly Native American demonic curse.”
Hoooooly shit. Okay, so “scene 1” of this clunky B-movie lets you know from its first line reading that it’s terrible. But it also lets you know from its first creature effects that it’s deliciously terrible as some sort of stop-motion skinless tentacle monster flails about while some possessed mutant peels away a bleeding chunk of flesh from his ribcage. Why does this all happen, you may ask? Haven’t a clue. Next scene! Now a diminutive wheezing skull is chest-bursting out of some guy for about 10 seconds. Why? Screw it! Next scene! Okay now a few dialogue scenes incoherently spewing exposition that doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere. Yeah, this movie is special and I already like it! This is the most wonderful kind of bad.
I’ve got to admit, I love the bad movie charm of some wonky stop-motion critters. A stop-motion giant tree-man stalks some topless woman, then grabs her (she’s now a poorly rendered clay woman) through the window like King Kong and slams her against the house. Then a bug-eyed troglodyte-sasquatch bursts from the ground and drags two women away to their presumed rape-y demise. And a giant four-armed stop-motion alien(?) grabs a man (now another laughable clay figure) and rips off his little clay head. Oh, and a “mummy” rises from a “grave” in the middle of the woods somewhere in the United States. So a lot of sense is being made, for sure.
I’m not complaining or anything, but this movie just keeps giving us little vignettes of stop-motion monsters killing and abducting people interspersed with relatively meaningless lumbering scenes of a few park rangers searching for the missing people. Apparently these are all Native American Gods, totems or monsters of sort punishing people through a curse. The plot is inane, and the delivery is beyond incomprehensible. At one point we see what I can only describe as a spastic Dungeons & Dragons “ogre mage.”
The editing is atrocious and, as warned before the film started, portions of this movie were filmed years apart (and in some cases, with different actors playing the same character or the same actor with very different haircuts cutting back and forth mid-dialogue!). Mid-conservation you’ll see someone walk outside in daylight, then turn around and continue their conversation but the next cut… it’s clearly at night! Ed Wood would proud of the scrappy dedication it took to cobble this Frankensteinian set of 1986 and 1989 shots into a marginally passable B-movie, which even features what I can only describe as an awkwardly long, melancholy-slow, macabre dance number.
If you wanted so bad it’s good, you’ve positively found it. This is solid gold bad movie fodder. Strongly recommended especially to fans of stop-motion monsters.
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Looking for some 2021 movies to watch? I put together a few movies, and also asked the MFF crew to recommend 2021 films that they love as well. The following list is quite ecclectic, and pretty great. We hope you enjoy some of these films!
Nobody – This badass action film might be the most pleasant surprise of 2021. Sure, it was written by Derek Kolstad (who wrote John Wick and its sequels), and stars the always great Bob Odenkirk, however, I had no clue where it was going, and it’s neat how it subverts expectations, and brings the world some really cool brawls. Spoiling it would be criminal, just know that there are bus fights, warehouse fights, and house fights. Talking about this film on the MFF podcast will be a lot of fun because the Blu-ray is loaded with commentaries and extras that will be neat to explore (I make zero dollars by promoting the Blu-ray, I just love when directors/stars go out of their way to include commentaries).
Willy’s Wonderland – Between Mandy, Willy’s Wonderland, and Pig, Nicolas Cage has been churning out some truly inventive and extremely memorable films. Willy’s Wonderland features him beating up evil animatronic puppets who reside inside a beaten down restaurant that he’s been hired to clean. The owners of Willy’s Wonderland think he’s just some rube who is going to be sacrificed to these evil monsters, however, once the attacks start, The Janitor (Cage) beats the ever living snot out of the jerky monsters, and causes chaos around the town as they are forced to deal with the aftermath of sending Nicolas Cage into a haunted restaurant. Willy’s Wonderland is pure joy, and I love every single choice that Cage makes.
Summer of Soul – This documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival is lucky to exist, as the footage from the festival sat in a basement for close to 50 years, and could’ve been easily forgotten. What’s beautiful about this documentary directed by Ahmire “Questlove” Thompson, is how it blends epic musical performances, rich narration, and a welcome dose of history to create a thrilling experience. It totally deserved the Grand Jury and Audience Award at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Watch it on Hulu now!
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things – Don’t let the fact that it’s another time loop film scare you away, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is wildly pleasant and entertaining as the leads Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen prove themselves to be likable onscreen presences whom you immediately like. Based on a short story by Lev Grossman (Watch The Magicians now!), the movie focuses on two people who are stuck in a time loop, and eventually meet when after years of thinking they are alone, bump into each other and form an alliance. Together they start exploring their town for perfect moments. I don’t want to ruin the rest, just know that it’s very warm and likable. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
Zanandi Botes (@Zanandi on Twitter) check out her stuff on Cracked –
Werewolves Within – In many ways, probably the most delightful comedy horror of the year (so far). Forest ranger Finn Wheeler (played by the most excellent Sam Richardson who also produced the film) takes up station in the small town of Beaverfield filled with colorful characters in conflict over a proposed pipeline. The tension escalates when a blizzard hits the community, knocks out the town’s power, and forces everyone to take shelter in the town’s lodge. Oh, and there’s also a werewolf ripping people to shreds. The delight comes from how these diverse, eccentric, hilarious folks deal with every single problem thrown at them: From the cold and distant Environmentalist doctor who arguably freaks out more than anyone else, to Wheeler listening to self-help tapes and chanting about his genitals to get some kind of masculine confidence or whatever. It’s a hoot of a satire filled with great acting all around, and the clever ‘Who Is The Predator’ premise swings wildly between its characters just like the VR game it’s based on. With movies like Jim Cumming’s The Wolf of Snow Hollow and now Josh Ruben’s Werewolves Within, it definitely feels like the Werewolf genre is getting some fresh new takes. We’re here for it, howling for more.
Jonny Numb (@jonnyNumb on Twitter) – Check out The Crash Palace Podcast
Werewolves Within – Horror-comedy is a precarious balancing act; for every film that pulls it off, there are just as many that miss the mark. Throw a third genre into the mix, and you have a recipe for disaster…unless you’re the horror-comedy-whodunit Werewolves Within, which exceeds expectations by offering delightful twists on shopworn tropes.
Megan Hofmeyer – Check out the 2021 Mid-Year Ranom Awards Episode!
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar – Why do I love this movie? Cue the Richard Cheese tunes…Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar is a charming, earnest and weird movie. I understand that the sense of humor may not be for everyone but this story really just lives on my wavelength…pun intended 🙂 What is not to love about a Florida beach caper comedy (yea you read that right, and it’s most definitely NOT filmed in Florida) that features beach ballads, two cool ladies that work in the hottest place in Soft Rock, and a super random gag with a horse saddle. Stars and writers, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo bring the laughs with their physical comedy (hello crazy dance party, rope gag and all things culottes) and sharp writing – this is a must see 2021 movie!
David Cross – (@ItsMeDavidCross on Twitter) Listen to the Award Wieners Movie Review Podcast
Pig – Going into Michael Sarnoski’s “Pig” I was under the impression that I’d be watching Nicolas Cage’s version of “John Wick.” What I got, instead, was a bittersweet meditation on loss and a subdued Cage in a completely serious role. Flirting with multiple genres, including revenge and satire, “Pig” follows a recluse truffle hunter named Rob whose prize pig is stolen. With the help of his seller, Amir (Alex Wolff), Rob hunts through the skeezy underbelly of Portland’s culinary scene to find the animal. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Cage stretch his acting chops and “Pig” is a reminder that he’s an immense talent.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 379: Death Becomes Her, Shovel Fights and Twisted Heads
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Mark and Niall discuss 1992 visual effects bonanza Death Becomes Her. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, and starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, and Isabella Rossellini, the film focuses on what happens after people consume an elixir that grants them immortality (a lot of shenanigans). In this episode, they talk about twisted heads, holes in stomachs, and wonderful visual effects. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
Movies, Films & Flix 