Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guests Niall Glynn and Jason Coyle, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.
This week, Rich Lee’s War of the Worlds.
Department of Homeland Security officer Will Radford is struggling to maintain his relationships to his two grown children following the loss of his wife. Radford has latched on to surveillance as a means of control, allowing him to be ever-present in their day-to-day lives. However, a routine shift at his desk takes a turn for the worse when NASA reports some strange phenomena. Radford is about to witness a massive alien invasion through his computer screen.
At time of recording, it was ranked 20th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show Notes:
- Recorded 9th November 2025.
- War of the Worlds at The Internet Movie Database.
- The Bottom 100 at time of recording.
- Follow Niall on Twitter.
- Listen to Niall on The Monday-lorians.
- Follow Jay on Twitter.
- Listen to Jay at the Scannain podcast.
- It’s Morbin’ Time at Know Your Meme.
- Avi Gibson at ScreenRant reports on the folding of “it’s morbin’ time” into Marvel continuity, June 2024.
- Adele Ankers-Rangewrites at IGN about the decision to re-release Morbius in theatres, June 2022.
- Allegra Frank writes at The Daily Beast about Madame Web as a Pepsi commercial, February 2024.
- Guy Lodge discusses the infamous production crunch around Cats at The Guardian, December 2019.
- Tom Hooper confesses to Variety that he only finished Cats eight hours before the premiere, December 2019.
- Carolyn Giardina at The Hollywood Reporter discusses the visual effects problems encountered during the production of Cats, January 2020.
- Nina Starner at Looper reports on the Reddit leaks around the VFX issues with Cats, January 2020.
- Pamela McClintock at The Hollywood Reporter discusses the “patched” re-release of Cats, December 2019.
- Matt Donnelly at Variety reports on the decision to cut the “hole in the floor” monologue from Deliver Me from Nowhere, August 2025.
- Mark Asch at The Atlantic considers the failure of Deliver Me from Nowhere as a biopic of Bruce Springsteen, October 2025.
- Grant Rindner at GQ offers a brief history of Screenlife as a genre, June 2021.
- Izak Bulten at GameRant considers the origins of Screenlife as a genre, October 2021.
- Timur Bekmambetov talks to Deadline about his obsession with Screenlife, September 2019.
- Justin Kroll at Deadline reports on the announcement of a collaboration between Ice Cube and Timur Bekmambetov, September 2020.
- Ice Cube talks to Variety about filming War of the Worlds, September 2025.
- Christian Paz at Vox considers how The Joe Rogan Experience evolved during the pandemic, August 2025.
- Sam Levin at The Guardian reports on Elon Musk’s slander of a diver rescuing children trapped in the Thai caves, July 2018.
- Alex Hern at The Guardian considers Elon Musk’s shift to the reactionary right, August 2024.
- Borys Kit and Mia Galuppo at The Hollywood Reporter reports on Disney’s decision to shelve live action remakes after the failure of Snow White, April 2025.
- Rebecca Rubin at Variety reports on the revival of the live action remake of Tangled following the success of Lilo and Stitch, October 2025.
- Ian Sandwell at Digital Spy considers the postcredits scene of The King’s Man, February 2022.
- Alana Yzola at Wired considers the tech propaganda of War of the Worlds, August 2025.
- Jacob Oller at The A.V. Club considers how War of the Worlds fits with Jeff Bezos’ storytelling rules, August 2025.
- Patrick Aiello swears to IGN that all of the Amazon product placement in War of the Worlds happened organically, August 2025.
- Esther Addley at The Guardian reports on the campaign to “clap for our carers”, May 2020.
- Lottie Elton at Big Issue wonders whether clapping for the NHS meaningfully accomplished anything, March 2025.
- Sirin Kal at The Guardian ruminates on how delivery drivers became an essential service during the global pandemic, March 2020.
- Clark Gregg talks to Dread Central about writing What Lies Beneath, July 2020.
- Greg Noone writes at The Guardian about the challenges facing homeless people in a cashless society, February 2018.
- ITV reports on the suggestion that the British government should issue all homeless people with card readers, April 2019.
- Kevin Roose at The New York Times considers the legacy of Loose Change, September 2021.
- Amy Henderson at the National Portrait Gallery considers the anniversary of Orson Welles’ broadcast of The War of the Worlds, October 2008.
- A. Brad Schwartz at The Smithsonian Magazine considers the legacy of Orson Welles’ take on The War of the Worlds, May 2015.
- Jacob Kuppermann at Long Now considers Dracula Daily, May 2022.
- Joe Wilkins at Futurism considers the ubiquity of AI-generated videos of old women smashing glass bridges, October 2025.
- Harrison Brocklehurst at The Tab considers the idea that these AI-generated videos are convincing observers that they are real, October 2025.
- Folding Ideas discusses the weird algorithmically-generated YouTube videos aimed at kids, November 2017.
- Adi Robertson at The Verge discusses the world of surreal videos aimed at children on YouTube, November 2017.
- Darren Mooney at Second Wind considers House of Dynamite about the breakdown of systems, October 2025.
- Darren Mooney at The Escapist considers the emergence of the now on-brand “buy-o-pic”, April 2023.
- Christie D’Zurilla at The Los Angeles Times reports on the opening of Kevin Hart’s vegan restaurant, August 2022.
- Kevin Hart talks to Bon Appétit about being “a buffalo wing magnet, a sandwich freak and a cheesesteak guy”, July 2014.
- Carly Thomas at The Hollywood Reporter reports on the closing of Kevin Hart’s vegan restaurant chain, September 2024.
- Karina Longworth at You Must Remember This considers the complicated relationship between Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke, April 2023.
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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: aliens, Amazon, capitalism, cia, conspiracy theories, homeland security, Ice Cube, internet, paranoia, rich lee, screenlife, surveillance, surveillance state, tech, war of the worlds |
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