The 250 | the m0vie blog

130. (ii) Mary and Max (#177)

Posted on May 18, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Andy Hazel, 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 Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max.

Mary Daisy Dinkle is a precocious eight-year-old growing up in the suburbs of Waverley outside Melbourne. One day, on the spur of the moment, she picks a name at random out of a phone book and decides to write to Max Jerry Horovitz, an atheist Jew living in New York City. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that crosses decades, navigating their interwoven lives separated by half the world.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 177th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: andy hazel, animation, film, mary and max, philip seymour hoffman, stop-motion, toni collette, touching | 2 Comments »

130. (i) Mary and Max (#177) – Interview with Adam Elliot and Andy Hazel

Posted on May 15, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, 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 Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This weekend, we’ll be discussing Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max with the wonderful Andy Hazel.

However, Andy actually managed to sit down with director Adam Elliot to discuss the film and his career in general. It’s a fun and wide-ranging discussion, covering a host of topics from the writer-director’s influences to his future plans to the film’s place on the list and even the difficulty securing international distribution. We hope you enjoy, and join us again on Saturday for our discussion of the film itself with Andy.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: adam elliot, andy hazel, animation, Australia, chat, clayography, Conversation, discussion, film, mary and max, Movie | Leave a comment »

129. Avengers: Endgame – This Just In (#6)

Posted on May 4, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Tony Black, This Just In is a subset of The 250 podcast, looking at notable new arrivals on the list of the 250 best movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Endgame.

At time of recording, it was ranked 6th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: avengers, avengers: endgame, captain america, Content, endgame, film, hawkeye, hulk, meaning, Movie, podcast, thor, tony black | 2 Comments »

128. The Avengers (-#68)

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Phil Bagnall, 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 Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Jeremiah Chechik’s The Avengers.

When the sinister Sir August de Wynter discovers a way to harness the weather for his own monstrous ends, there is only one way to stop him. Sophisticated secret agent John Steed teams up with meteorologist Emma Peel in order to prevent the villain from bringing his fiendish plot to fruition.

At time of recording, it was ranked 68th on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the worst movies of all-time.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: cool britannia, Emma Peel, nineties, Peel, phil bagnall, ralph fiennes, sean connery, Steed, the avengers, uma thurman, Warner Brothers | 2 Comments »

127. Akira – Anime April 2019 (#249)

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney and with special guests Graham Day and Marianne Cassidy, 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 Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are proud to continue the tradition of Anime April, a fortnight looking at two of the animated Japanese films on the list. This year, we watched a double feature of Hayao Miyazaki’s Kaze no tani no Naushika and Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s Akira.

This week, the first part of the double bill, Akira, set in the then-distant future of 2019.

In the streets of Neo-Tokyo, an entire generation is left to fend for itself. Against a backdrop of reckless violence and urban chaos, as the city seems ready to burn to the ground around them, teenagers Tetsuo and Kaneda have forged a friendship rooted in desperation and necessity. However, everything changes when Tetsuo has a fleeting encounter with a strange child, and opens doors to possibilities that were previously unimaginable.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 216th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: akira, Anger, anime april, atomic bomb, body horror, graham day, hallucinations, japan, Katsuhiro Ôtomo, marianne cassidy, masculinity, psychedelia, rage, superheroes, time travel | Leave a comment »

126. Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) – Anime April 2019 (#216)

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Darren

This week, the first part of the double bill, Kaze no tani no Naushika, celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary.

Unofficially and retroactively folded into the Studio Ghibli canon, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was only Hayao Miyazaki’s second film. Nevertheless, it demonstrated remarkable confidence. It also signalled a lot of the director’s interests, with its tale of a strong young woman navigating the aftermath of a horrific environmental disaster and trying to prevent a new war from breaking out.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 216th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: animation, anime, anime april, Darkness, environmentalism, feminism, ghibli, graham day, Hayao Miyazaki, hope, Kaze no tani no Naushika, marianne cassidy, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, warriors of the wind, worldbuilding | Leave a comment »

125. V for Vendetta (#153)

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Darren

This time, James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta.

Accosted by “finger men” for breaking curfew, Evey Hammond is rescued by a mysterious stranger who only introduces himself as “V.” As Evey finds herself drawn deeper into the world of this violent vaudevillian figure and as she discovers more and more of his plot to topple the country’s totalitarian regime, Evey finds herself wonder whether this masked figure is a vigilante or villain.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 153rd best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: 9/11, alt-right, bush, conspiracy theories, donald trump, film, george w. bush, hugo weaving, Movie, podcast, politics, revolution, Stephen Rea, The 250, the bush white house, the wachowski sisters, the war on terror, trumpism, war on terror, white nationalism | Leave a comment »

124. Twin Peaks: The Return – This Just In/Daffodil Day/April Fool’s Day 2019 (#∞)

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Darren

This time, a special treat: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return.

Twenty-five years after Special Agent Dale Cooper disappeared from the small town of Twin Peaks in Washington, a series of strange occurrences suggest that mysterious forces are still playing a dangerous game on the mortal plane. What connects a secret FBI task force, a sinister crime lord, an isolated rural community, a set of Las Vegas gangsters, a strange glass cube in New York, and a strange murder in South Dakota? It’s happening again.

At time of recording, it was ranked the ∞th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250, This Just In | Tagged: amy shiels, brian lloyd, charlene lydon, cian, donald clarke, jay coyle, jenn gannon, niall glynn, owain rhys davies, phil bagnall, richard drumm, selected, twin peaks | Leave a comment »

123. The Sting (#100)

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guest Gerry Mooney, 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 time, George Roy Hill’s The Sting.

When a simple con leads to horrific consequences, amateur con artist Johnny Hooker vows to avenge himself on crime boss Doyle Lonnegan. Enlisting the help of over-the-hill veteran Henry Gondorff and a motley crew of small-time hoods, Hooker sets in motion an elaborate con game with potentially disastrous consequences.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 100th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: con artists, film, gerry mooney, Great Depression, Movie, new hollywood, nostalgia, Paul Newman, podcast, Robert Redford, the sting | Leave a comment »

122. Room – St. Patrick’s Day 2019, w/ When Irish Eyes Are Watching (#151)

Posted on March 16, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This week, a special crossover episode with When Irish Eyes Are Watching, an Irish film podcast wherein Alex, Clíona and Séan take at a look at films connected to the Emerald Isle.

The 250 and When Irish Eyes Are Watching are crossing over for a St. Patrick’s Day treat. Lenny Abrahamson’s Room.

Jack has spent his entire life within the confines of “Room”, the space which comprises the totality of his world. He knows every inch of the ten-by-ten space in which he was raised, in which he lives day-by-day with Ma between visits from Old Nick. However, as Jack turns five, he is forced to confront some uncomfortable realities about the world within which he lives and the world beyond “Room.”

At time of recording, it was ranked the 151st best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.