the m0vie blog

The Mondaylorians – “Andor Episode 4: Mrs Doubtfire in Space!”

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Darren

This week, I had the pleasure of stopping by the podcast The Mondaylorians, hosted by Niall Glynn. I was thrilled to get to talk about the fourth episode of Andor, Aldhani.

It’s a broad and fun discussion, one full of tangents that place Andor in the context of the larger Star Wars franchise and pop culture in general. What is it that makes Andor stand out from shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett, comparable to She-Hulk and Moon Knight. We also talk about the way in which Andor harks back to George Lucas’ original idea for Star Wars, pasting a science-fantasy veneer over both a loving homage to the pop culture of his youth and a biting piece of social commentary. It’s a good chat.

You can listen below, click the screenshot, listen directly at this link or even listen to back-episodes of The Mondaylorians here.

Filed under: Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: andor, cassian andor, Diego Luna, star wars, streaming, Television, the mondaylorians, Tony Gilroy | Leave a comment »

306. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (-#52)

Posted on October 3, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Raymond Creamer, The 250 is a weekly 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.

So this week, Troy Miller’s Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd.

Years before they embark on a cross-country roadtrip, lovable idiots Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas strike up an unlikely friendship in high school. However, they quickly find themselves drawn into their principal’s sinister scheme to embezzle money by exploiting the school’s students to create a privately-funded special needs class.

At time of recording, it was ranked 52nd on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: ableism, cinemythology, comedy, comedy prequels, Dumb and Dumber, dumb and dumberer, gags, jim carrey, jokes, podcast, prequels, racism, raymond creamer, Sketch comedy, spoof, The 250, The Bottom 100, the farrelly brothers, troy miller | Leave a comment »

304. Speed 2: Cruise Control (-#97)

Posted on September 24, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Jason Coyle and Richard Drumm, The 250 is a weekly 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.

So this week, Jan de Bont’s Speed 2: Cruise Control.

SWAT team member Alex Shaw decides to take his girlfriend Annie on a luxurious ocean cruise, planning to propose to her. Fate has other plans, in the form of mysterious terrorist John Geiger, who has a score to settle and a score to pull, hijacking the liner and setting it on a collision course for disaster. Soon enough, it isn’t just Alex and Annie’s relationship that finds itself careening out of control.

At time of recording, it was ranked 97th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: 1997, award, blockbusters, failure, Fox, jan de bont, jason patric, Keanu Reeves, podcast, sandra bullock, Speed, speed 2, speed 2: cruise control, success, The Bottom 100, titanic, water, water tanks, willem dafoe | Leave a comment »

305. Batman Begins – Batman Day 2022 (#126)

Posted on September 17, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Alex Towers and Phil Bagnall, The 250 is a weekly 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.

So this week, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.

Following the death of his parents, billionaire Bruce Wayne finds himself struggling for a way to make sense of the world. Studying under the mysterious Ra’s Al Ghul, Wayne vows to devote his life to a war on crime itself. However, on returning home to Gotham, Bruce very quickly discovers that something very sinister has taken root in his home city.

At time of recording, it was ranked 126th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: afghanistan, alex towers, america, batman, batman begins, Christopher Nolan, iraq, phil bagnall, podcast, The 250, violence, war on terror | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Appealing Fandom of “Star Trek: Lower Decks”…

Posted on September 6, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist last week. We’re doing a series of recaps and reviews of Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is streaming weekly on Paramount+ in the States and on Amazon Prime in the United Kingdom. The second episode of the third season released last week, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

It’s very obvious that Lower Decks is being written by Star Trek fans, andthe show operates in a fairly comfortable register of trusting that its writers and audience know (and care) enough about the franchise that it can effectively race through familiar Star Trek tropes, turning the standard conventions of the franchise into a loving joyride. The Least Dangerous Game is a light episode, but a fun one. It is fast on its feet, and moves with enough charm that it never collapses under its own weight.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Star Trek | Tagged: fandom, Klingon, klingons, Lower Decks, Martok, star trek: lower decks, the least dangerous game | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Rings of Power” and Post-Golden Age Television…

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of The Rings of Power this weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at what is effectively the biggest television show in the world, and what it says about the current state of television.

For the past twenty years, American television has gone through an era described as “the Golden Age”, one rooted in moral ambiguity and uncertainty in shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and The Shield. These were morally complex stories about difficult protagonists that invited the audience into murky liminal spaces. As such, it is interesting that The Rings of Power exists in marked contrast to that paradigm. Instead, it offers a very clear-cut black-and-white worldview.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Amazon, ambiguity, better call saul, Breaking Bad, golden age of television, moral ambiguity, moral complexity, rings of power, Television | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “The Rogue Prince” Lets “House of the Dragon” Reflect the Modern World…

Posted on September 4, 2022 by Darren

I am doing weekly reviews of House of the Dragon at The Escapist. They’ll be dropping every Sunday evening while the show is on, looking at the Game of Thrones prequel as it progresses from one episode to the next.

One of the more interesting aspects of Game of Thrones was the way in which it was a high fantasy series that used the language and conventions of the genre as what felt like a compelling commentary on American identity, filtering the anxieties of the War on Terror through the prism of dragons and free cities. House of the Dragon continues that trend, offering a show that seems to reflect a particularly anxious and unstable moment in American history.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: allegory, america, corruption, decay, fantasy, high fantasy, house of the dragon, identity, metaphor, politics, reflection, rogue prince, rome | Leave a comment »

303. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (#—)

Posted on September 3, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a weekly 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.

So this week, to mark its re-release in Irish and British cinemas, Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Now supervising cadets at Starfleet Academy, Admiral James Tiberius Kirk finds himself reflecting on his mortality. A routine training mission provides an unlikely reckoning when genetically engineered superman Khan Noonien Singh escapes from his exile and vows revenge on Kirk as the man who marooned him. Kirk has lived his life on the assumption that there is no such thing as a no-win scenario, but that philosophy is about to be sorely tested.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250, The Original Series | Tagged: aliens, Harve Bennett, Khan Noonien Singh, kirk, Leonard Nimoy, militarism, Nicholas Meyer, revenge, spock, star trek, star trek ii, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Starfleet, violence, William Shatner | 2 Comments »

New Escapist Column! On How “The Rings of Power” Balances Itself Between “The Lord of the Rings” and “Game of Thrones”…

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Darren

I am doing weekly reviews of The Rings of Power at The Escapist. They’ll be dropping every Friday morning while the show is on, looking at the Lord of the Rings prequel as it progresses from one episode to the next.

The Rings of Power is very obviously a prequel to the events of The Lord of the Rings, and so exists in the shadow of Peter Jackson’s earlier cinematic adaptation. However, it emerges into a very different landscape, twenty years later. Audience expectations have shifted, along with their relationship to the larger fantasy genre. The Rings of Power asks what it means to be a Lord of the Rings prequel in a post-Game of Thrones world, and finds itself navigating the boundaries that have been reset.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Amazon, audiences, elves, fantasy, Game of Thrones, lord of the rings, prime video, rings of power, the lord of the rings, the rings of power | Leave a comment »

302. Requiem for a Dream (#84)

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, with special guest Richard Drumm, The 250 is a weekly 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, Darren Aronofsky Requiem for a Dream.

Four Brooklyn residents navigate addiction and isolation in its various forms, through Summer, Fall and Winter. There is no Spring.

At time of recording, it was ranked 84th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.