Movies | the m0vie blog

425. Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (#151)

Posted on June 28, 2025 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guest Darcie Faccio, 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, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Vol. 1.

A brutal mass murder at a wedding in El Paso, Texas, leaves a sole survivor: an anonymous pregnant woman, a former assassin who tried to escape her life of murder and mayhem for something more tranquil and serene. However, her old life was not finished with her. Four years later, the would-be bride wakes up and embarks on a roaring rampage of revenge driven by a single objective. She is going to Kill Bill.

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

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: action sequences, Beatrix Kiddo, betrayal, Bob Richardson, cinematography, cultural impact, cultural significance, Darcie Faccio, emotional themes, films, genres, identity, imdb, Kill Bill Volume 2, kill bill: volume 1, morality, Movies, podcast, quentin tarantino, revenge, stylistic choices, stylistic evolution, The 250, themes, violence | Leave a comment »

400. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (#—)

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guest Dean Buckley, 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, the GameBoy Advance Games Ecks vs. Sever and Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.

Two of the best killers in the world find themselves thrown into conflict with one another, against the backdrop of Vancouver. Also, there are two famously good tie-in games available for the movie.

At time of recording, it was not ranked 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: 9/11, Antonio Banderas, ballistic: ecks vs. sever, bottom 100, dean buckley, ecks vs. sever, first person shooter, gameboy advance, imdb, Lucy Liu, Movies, Vancouver, Video game | Leave a comment »

353. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on November 11, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guest Luke Dunne, 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 year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, Joe Chappelle’s Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.

It has been years since Michael Myers mysteriously disappeared from police custody with his niece, Jamie Lloyd. In that time, both have found themselves in the custody of a mysterious cult. When Jamie escapes with her newborn son, Michael is unleashed as well. Haddenfield is unprepared for the madness coming towards it. The town’s fate lies in the hands of Michael’s psychologist Samuel Loomis, Loomis’ superior Terrence Wynn and one of Michael’s survivors, Tommy Doyle.

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 | Tagged: all-o-ween, conspiracy theories, cult of thorn, donald pleasance, end of history, horror, imdb, joey keogh, luke dunne, michael myers, mitchell ryan, Movies, nineties, paul rudd, podcast, slasher, The 250 | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Unfulfilled Promise of “Into the Spider-Verse”…

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. With the premiere of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, it seemed like a good opportunity to consider the legacy of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse five years after it was originally released.

The influence of Into the Spider-Verse can be keenly felt on animated films like The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. However, it’s strange that the movie has had no real impact on comic book adaptations. Despite early adventurous comic book adaptations like Hulk, Sin City or Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the modern comic book blockbuster has demonstrated a lack of visual experimentation that feels very much like a betrayal of the source material. What’s the point in making a comic book movie if it can’t be as visually inventive?

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: animation, blockbuster, Comics, epic, films, live action, Movies, spider man, spider-man: across the spider-verse, spider-man: into the spider-verse, spider-verse, superhero storytelling, superheroes, visual style | 1 Comment »

New Escapist Video! On Phase 4 as Marvel’s Midlife Crisis…

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will typically be separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, with the recent launch of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we took a look back at Marvel’s Phase 4, trying to make sense of one of the shared universe’s most disjointed and uneven phases.

Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: age, Comics, demographics, films, imperial phase, in the frame, marvel, mcu, meaning, midlife crisis, Movies, phase 4, popularity, success | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On Why Television is Perhaps the Perfect Mode of Adaptation for Video Games…

Posted on February 6, 2023 by Darren

This week, with The Last of Us continuing on television, we took a look at the show as one of the most successful video game adaptations to date. In particular, after decades of trying and failing to translate video games to the big screen, does The Last of Us suggest that the smaller screen is the perfect place for them?

Filed under: Television | Tagged: films, in the frame, Movies, Television, the escapist, the last of us, video games | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On 2022 as the Return of Spectacle…

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. With the year wrapping up, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the year in cinema. In particular, one of the big unifying trends in the year’s blockbusters, which balanced a celebration and a fear of spectacle.

This was the year that “movies were back.” Many of the year’s biggest blockbusters were celebrations of blockbuster cinema in its purest form, from the IMAX cinematography of Top Gun: Maverick to the immersive 3D of Avatar: The Way of Water to the breakout international success of RRR. However, there was also an anxiety about the power of spectacle and the toll that it takes, whether on its audience or on its subject. This played out in movies like Nope or Elvis. There was also a clear worry that this might be the end of it all, playing out in movies like Babylon or even Blonde.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar: the way of water, babylon, blockbuster, blonde, elvis, escapist, Movies, nope, rrr, spectacle, the escapist, top gun: maverick | Leave a comment »

319. Whiplash (#42)

Posted on December 31, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guest Richard Drumm, 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, Damian Chazelle’s Whiplash.

Andrew Neiman is a young music student at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory in New York City. A jazz drummer, Andrew dreams of great things, of becoming a legend like Miles Davis or John Coltrane. However, he falls under the influence of band leader Terence Fletcher. Fletcher sees potential in Andrew, and draws the young musician into his orbit. The two find themselves trapped in a toxic push-and-pull relationship, with the stakes escalating quickly.

At time of recording, it was ranked 42nd on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: abuse, aggression, ambiguity, art, bullying, damien chazelle, films, imdb, jk simmons, masculinity, Miles Teller, Movies, podcast, richard drumm, The 250, training, violence, whiplash | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Witcher: Blood Origin”, and What Happens When Television Becomes a Six-Hour Movie…

Posted on December 29, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this week. With the release of The Witcher: Blood Origin on Netflix, it seemed like a good time to discuss an unsettling trend in modern television: the idea that modern shows are really just super-extended movies, and the consequences of that.

Blood Origin demonstrates what happens when a studio treats a television show like a movie. The series was written and filmed as six episodes, but was horrible cut down in the editting bay. Two whole episodes were stripped out of the show, leaving it incoherent and nonsensical. In many ways, this was exactly what happened with Joss Whedon’s cut of Justice League, which was similarly cut down to have a runtime of under two hours. If television shows are just films now, they are subject to the same sort of meddling.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: blood origin, cutting, executive meddling, films, justice league, media, Movies, structure, studios, Television, the escapist, the witcher, the witcher: blood origin, trimming | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Avatar: The Way of Water” is an Archetypal James Cameron Movie…

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the looming release of Avatar: The Way of Water, it seemed like a good time to take a look at Cameron’s aquatic, which might be his most personal and intimate movie ever.

Cameron’s filmography is interesting and varied, working in a number of genres and registers across his career. However, he has a set of familiar preoccupations: water, industrialisation, militarism, environmentalist, parenthood, feminism and so on. However, it’s fascinating that one of the most consistent threads across Cameron’s filmography is an evolving idea of family. Cameron’s epics are often stories of families pulling themselves together in the face of crisis. The Way of Water is no different.

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