Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guests Luke Dunne and Alex Towers, 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, George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
A republic in decline finds itself slipping into fascism in the midst of a public dispute over trade tariffs. When Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi are dispatched to resolve the Trade Federation blockade of the peaceful world of Naboo, they begin an epic adventure that will bring them to the sands of Tatooine, where Qui-Gon encounters a strange young boy that he is convinced as the power to bring balance to the force: Anakin Skywalker.
At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best or worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Donal Sweeney, 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, a special commentary on Mel Brook’s Spaceballs.
A long time ago in a franchise not so far away, the evil Spaceballs travel from planet to planet, harvesting their atmospheres to sustain their own lifestyle. They kidnap Princess Vespa from the Planet Druidia, prompting her father to hire the devilish rogue Lone Star to rescue her. So begins an epic adventure about the power of Schwarz.
At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Brian Lloyd, 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, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.
House Atreides has fallen to an ambush by their old rivals, House Harkonnen. Rumous swirl of the Emperor’s involvement in this scheme. However, as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen schemes to get spice production back up to targets, not all members of House Atreides lie buried in the desert sand. Paul Atreides unites with the Fremen, and charts a course towards revenge.
At time of recording, it was ranked 12th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Luke Dunne and 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, JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, somehow Palpatine returned.
At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist yesterday evening. With the new season premiere of The Mandolorian, it seemed like a good opportunity to look at the thematic ties that bind the series to Andor.
Much of the discussion around Andor has focused on how the show is fundamentally different from so much modern Star Wars. However, it’s also worth acknowledging the overlap that exists between Andor and The Mandolorian. Both shows are built around similar thematic ideas, the exploration of what it means to resist the emergence of fascism. In particular, both shows explore the idea that the biggest challenge facing those who would challenge fascism is factionalism and internal division.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
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 third season premiere of The Mandalorian, The Apostate.
It’s a lovely chat, full of tangents and asides, covering everything from the place of The Mandalorian in the Star Wars canon to the question of whether Jon Favreau is the nicest auteur working in Hollywood. We do also talk about the third season premiere of the show, and the various competing forces that seem to pulling it in various directions, and the question of how the show grapples with the pull of nostalgia and even if it has something to say about the current political moment. Also, we talk about the ethics of using dead bodies in statues.
You can listen below, click the screenshot, listen directly at this link or even listen to back-episodes of The Mondaylorians here.
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the premiere of the third season of The Mandalorian this week, it seemed as good a time as any to consider the long-delayed return of Disney+’s flagship streaming show.
After nearly three years off the screen, The Mandalorian returns with three very different objectives: to reassure viewers that it is still the same show, to fill in viewers on how much has changed since The Book of Boba Fett and to set up a new status quo and a new over-arching plot. It’s a fairly ambitious piece of television, just in terms of logistics, both rebooting the show and also attempting to maintain a strong sense of internal continuity. It doesn’t entirely work, but it also works better than it should.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
I published a new piece at The Escapist last week. With the release of the second season of The Bad Batch, it seemed like a good opportunity to talk about one of the more interesting facets of the series.
The Star Wars franchise has always been intensely political. George Lucas tied the original films to the Vietnam War, and the prequels to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. The Bad Batch feels like a culmination of this trend, a follow-up to the prequel trilogy, released in the wake of the American withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, that is very much engaged with the question of what happens to an army of soldiers at the end of an ostensible “forever war.” It’s a meaty theme for an animated series, and The Bad Batch is at its most interesting tapping into it.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
I published a new piece at The Escapist last week. With the release of the second season of The Bad Batch, it seemed like a good opportunity to talk about one of the more interesting facets of the series.
The Star Wars franchise has become synonymous with the idea of bloodlines, particularly the Skywalkers and the Palpatines. This can lead to a sense that the heroes of this massive saga have to be “insiders”, that they have to belong to a particular grouping, the membership of which is determined at birth. Part of what is interesting about The Bad Batch is that the show is an explicit rejection of that. It focuses on a group of people who are genetically identical to the armies of the First Galactic Empire, but who still find the strength of character to stand against it. Heroism is a choice, not a pre-determined genetic destiny.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guest Andy Melhuish, 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, a special New Year’s Treat. A discussion of the Star Wars television shows: The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor.
the m0vie blog 
384. Spaceballs (#—)
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Donal Sweeney, 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, a special commentary on Mel Brook’s Spaceballs.
A long time ago in a franchise not so far away, the evil Spaceballs travel from planet to planet, harvesting their atmospheres to sustain their own lifestyle. They kidnap Princess Vespa from the Planet Druidia, prompting her father to hire the devilish rogue Lone Star to rescue her. So begins an epic adventure about the power of Schwarz.
At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Continue reading →
Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: bill pullman, comedy, donal sweeney, imdb, John Candy, live commentary, Mel Brooks, mockery, podcast, rick moranis, satire, spaceballs, spoof, star wars, The 250 | Leave a comment »