Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

Podcasters Justin, Arnie, and Stuart are still shooting daggers at notorious filmmaker Uwe Boll, this time for making them watch a sequel to reviled video game movie Alone in the Dark. Christian Slater dodged a bullet when he passed off the role of paranormal investigator Edward Carnby to Die Another Day villain Rick Yune. Can the new star muster the strength to leave his sick bed and track down the witch that had him stabbed in a Central Park urinal?  And what tricks will occultist veterinarian Lance Henriksen pull from his medicine bag? Listen and find out!

Uwe Boll is easily the most prolific creator of video game movies, but does he also deserve his reputation as Worst Filmmaker Ever?  The Now Playing Arcade takes up the question with a review of Alone In The Dark, a beloved 1992 supernatural PC game that became a 2005 tax write-off for the hack director. Christian Slater stars as a PI who goes looking for lost 30-year-old orphans, and finds Tara Reid logging Native American artifacts in a museum overrun with monsters. Learn if this box office flop is so bad it's good, or just bad, when you listen now! 

It took 14 years for Pixar and director Brad Bird to create a sequel for popular superhero family The Parrs. Now mother Helen (Holly Hunter) steps back into the role of Elastigirl to lead a global PR campaign championing superpowers. But how easily can she change minds on the supers ban when new villain Screenslaver uses television to hypnotize and control the masses?  And how well does stay-at-home dad Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) do raising Violet, Dash, and baby Jack Jack without her? Listen now as Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart dig into Incredibles 2!

George Clooney and his crew are sitting out the latest caper so that little sister Debra (Sandra Bullock) and seven criminally-minded gal pals have a chance to steal the spotlight. Ocean’s 8 finds the girl gang attempting to lift a $150 million diamond necklace, worn to a glitzy red carpet gala by annoying Hollywood starlet Anne Hathaway. But can Debra pull off the sting while also getting revenge on the art dealer ex-boyfriend who put her to jail (Richard Armitage)?  And who in the octet walks away with the hearts of hosts Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob?  Listen and find out. 

It sure looked like Liu Kang (Robin Shou) won the Mortal Kombat tournament last film, but that’s not stopping his demonic foes from continuing their assault on Earth. Now the only way our heroes can stop mankind’s Annihilation is to challenge Outworld emperor Shao Kahn (Brian Thompson) to a rematch. Is new director John Leonetti up for this fight? And could someone please move the Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate Bridge out of the arena?  Things are bound to get messy as Justin, Stuart, and Arnie play referee for this contentious sequel. Listen now!

Video games finally broke through at the box office in 1995 with the release of Mortal Kombat - director Paul WS Anderson’s cinematic take on the popular Midway fighting game. Earth will fall under the control of demons unless Thunder god Raiden (Christopher Lambert) can assemble a team of human martial artists that rivals end bosses Goro, Kano, Sub Zero, Scorpion, and Sheng Tsung.  Is this next entry in the Now Playing Arcade a winner, or will Justin, Stuart, and Arnie receive another hard blow to the head? Find out when you listen now!

One of the most popular characters in the Star Wars universe has gone Solo.  Harrison Ford earned fame and fortune playing an irascible space bandit in four sci-fi blockbusters. Now rising star Alden Ehrenreich inherits the iconic role in a prequel that dramatizes Han Solo’s first mission in the Millennium Falcon. He joins Chewie, Lando, and a band of criminals for a hyperfuel heist on planet Kessel, but will longtime fans be the ones feeling ripped off?  Assume Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart won’t betray you and you won’t be disappointed in their latest podcast!

This show description is guest written by Deadpool.   You know who's big? I am! Not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter! (Okay, I'm big in that way too.) But my first movie was more popular than Jesus! So take that John Lennon! But even with my healing factor I'm not immune to...performance anxiety. The dreaded sophomore slump can happen to anyone. I've got a second movie out and I pulled out the big guns. (Literally. Cable has a ginormous rifle. How does he hold that with those tiny hands?) But even with Cable and X-Force I'm worried-- will Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart think it's as good as the first one?  I'm scared...why don't you listen now and let me know?

Game developer Chris Roberts was on course to deliver the first major science fiction film of 1999 when he personally piloted his massively popular flight simulator Wing CommanderPhantom Menace and The Matrix. Do fighter pilots Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard offer a new hope for genre fans as they clean the cat box of feline space invaders The Kilrathi?  Or should Arnie, Justin, and Stuart quickly eject from this next entry in the Now Playing Arcade?  Listen and find out!

20 years after computer programmer Jordan Mechner released Prince of Persia for the Apple IIe, the Disney Company paid the kingly sum of $200 million to launch his video game swashbuckler Dastan on the big screen. A Middle Eastern Jake Gyllenhaal looks for a way to turn back time after he’s framed for the murder of his adoptive royal father. Does the Now Playing Arcade take a gravity-defying leap forward with the acrobatic hero? Or would Stuart, Arnie, and Justin be more entertained by an ostrich race? Place your bets and Listen Now!  

Ten years ago Marvel Comics gambled their entire existence, using all their remaining IP as collateral, on the idea that they could make superhero films better than anyone else. 18 movies later, Marvel Studios makes their biggest bet yet - a billion dollars that audiences will love “the most ambitious crossover event in history” and one gaudy gold glove!  Is more the merrier when it comes to superheroes on screen, or are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes set up for an epic fail?  Join Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob now as they review Avengers: Infinity War!   {Marvel Series} {Avengers Series} {Comic Book Movies Series} 

No one was better suited to convert the role playing mechanics of the best-selling Final Fantasy series into stirring cinema than game creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.  But dreams of writing and directing the world’s most photorealistic animated movie crashed to earth like a meteor when The Spirits Within landed in theaters in summer 2001. Gaia only knows what podcasters Justin, Arnie, and Stuart will find inside the wreckage of this poetic tale of parasitic alien invasion!  So let down your defense shields and listen now.

32 years after making its debut as a city-leveling coin-op video game, Rampage bursts onto the big screen as a brand new movie. So why are Dwayne Johnson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Joe Manganiello so eager to shut down the Chicago block party being thrown by giant gorilla George, mutant crocodile Lizzie, and massive wolf Ralph?  Join podcasters Arnie, Justin, and Stuart as they try to figure out why New Line Pictures plunked so many quarters into this arcade classic. 

Long before he took on a Rampage of giant gorillas, wolves and lizards, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson led a squadron of Doom-ed Marines to Mars for another blowout with video game baddies. The 1993 first-person shooter Doom changed the way millions looked at their PCs. So why wasn’t the 2005 movie adaptation a similar success? Join Justin, Arnie, and Stuart as they analyze the DNA of this box office bomb to determine if its the handiwork of angels or demons.

Get ready to “clan up” with Arnie, Justin, and Stuart for a podcast review of Ready Player One. Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi adventure imagines the future of entertainment to be pop culture icons of the past populating a massive cyber playground.  Should viewers cough up the coins it takes to slip on a pair of 3D glasses and join gamer Wade Watts (Ty Sheridan) - along with Freddy Krueger, Hello Kitty, Iron Giant, and countless other superstars of the 1980s and 90s - for a virtual reality scavenger hunt? Listen and find out.  

These days 

It’s been 15 years since Lara Croft last raided movie theaters, but now a new Oscar-winning actress is picking up the controls and racing into action. Tomb Raider 2018 - an origin story for the scrappy video game heroine - finds Danish Girl Alicia Vikander tracking her missing father Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) to a mythical Japanese island crawling with mercenaries and booby traps.  Listen now to find out if survivors Stuart, Arnie, and Justin have reached higher ground in the Now Playing Arcade.

Angelina Jolie reprised her role as England’s most scantily clad excavator for her second and final Tomb Raider adventure. Cradle of Life finds Lady Croft diving into sunken ruins with Greek sailors, motorcycling across the Great Wall of China with Gerard Butler, and ascending African peaks with Djimon Hounsou.  All in the hopes of beating blackhearted bio-engineer Ciaran Hinds to Pandora’s Box. Listen and find out if this 2003 sequel is plagued by the same problems that made Arnie, Justin, and Stuart deathly ill watching previous video game adaptations.

Movies with action heroes from the 1980s die pretty hard at the box office these days, but Bruce Willis aims to change all that with a 2018 reboot of Death Wish. The aging tough guy stars as a Chicago surgeon who goes from saving lives in the ER to taking lives on crime-ridden streets, after burglars violate his home and family.  Can Bruno take out the bad hombres and make America great again one bullet at a time? Or do hosts Arnie, Jakob and Stuart wish this vigilante died with Bronson? Listen and find out...

Five years after busty British archaeologist Lara Croft stole the hearts of PlayStation owners, the planets aligned to bring the video game vixen to the big screen in the skin of Oscar-winning bad girl Angelina Jolie. The 2001 Tomb Raider movie finds Lara racing against the clock to reach an ancient time machine before its claimed by future James Bond Daniel Craig and The Illuminati.  But will she avoid the pitfalls of other arcade-to-movie flops and flip the arrows green for fellow treasure hunters Justin, Arnie, and Stuart? Listen and find out!