Now Playing -- The Movie Review Podcast

In this first installment, the Now Playing hosts watch a film never meant to be seen -- 1994's Fantastic Four. Made on the cheap and possibly never intended for release, this film has become legend to comic book lovers and film lovers alike. Why was this film never released? Did it deserve its fate? Listen to find out!

Transformers: Dark of the Moon made headlines this weekend. Despite Revenge of the Fallen being almost universally hated by critics and Transformers fans alike, the third Bayformers film has kept pace with the predecessors and broken box office records, grossing over $400 million worldwide in less than a week, and breaking the US Fourth of July holiday weekend record. But is the movie any good, or is it yet another example of a lackluster film that sets the box office ablaze due to gorgeous special effects and inflated 3-D and IMAX ticket prices? Listen to our latest podcast as Jerry, Stuart, and Arnie review this latest, and reportedly last, Michael Bay helmed Transformers film. Will a government conspiracy dating back to the Apollo moon mission bring the Transformers' storyline down to earth, or is all that's here what meets the eye? Listen to find out!

Tonight Transformers: Dark of the Moon opens in theaters, several days earlier than originally scheduled, but you can prepare for your Transformers experience by joining Arnie, Stuart, and Jerry as they review the second installment in the Bayformers series -- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. There's more Autobots, more Decepticons, more cute little puppies, and G1 story staples like the Matrix of Leadership and the death of Optimus Prime, but do these callbacks make for a satisfying movie experience? Listen to find out!

Now Playing has a bonus episode for you: BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT, Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart take a break from their Marvel Comics based movie reviews to look at a DC Comics property--Green Lantern! Starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, and Mark Strong, this is DC's attempt to emulate Marvel's Iron Man success with the B-level Emerald Knight. Does it reach Iron Man heights? Is Angela Bassett the new Samuel L Jackson? Listen to find out!

Continuing our Transformers Retrospective Series, Arnie, Jerry, and Stuart look at Michael Bay's 2007 Transformers, affectionately known among fans as Bayformers! Do director Michael Bay and producer Steven Spielberg transform this series into something accessible to non-fans, or does this film lack the All Spark? Listen to find out!

For this first episode we go back to where it all began, with the Transformers 1986 animated theatrical film! The final fight of Optimus Prime vs Megatron, the ascension of Hot Rod, and guest voices including Eric Idle, Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, and Orson Wells, this film was primed to make these robots in disguise bigger than ever...only to flop with only $5 million. Was this box office bomb a gem in disguise, or is this the moment it all went wrong? Dare to be Stupid with our Now Playing hosts and find out!

The final episode in our X-Men retrospective series is here as the latest X-Men film, X-Men: First Class, is released. With Matthew Vaughn, director of the beloved Kick-Ass comic adaptation, behind the camera and Bryan Singer back on the team as a producer and writer this time, the X-Men boldly go where many franchises have gone before--the origin story reboot. But with a highly publicized rushed production schedule and a group of actors who have received acclaim but never had to carry a franchise film before, can X-Men: First Class continue the origin story reboot success of such films like Star Trek, Casino Royale, and Batman Begins? Listen to our review as Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart review this latest film and find out for yourself!

Hugh Jackman has gone solo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a prequel showing Wolverine's life from his boyhood in 19th Century Canada through his memory loss at Three Mile Island. And in place of the X-Men supporting him, Wolverine is now surrounded by such fan favorite mutants as Deadpool, Gambit, and Agent Zero. Do Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob find this trip down Wolverine's memory lane a exciting adventure, or were these memories best left forgotten? Listen to find out!

With Bryan Singer graduating from Mutant High to direct Superman, and taking most of his production crew with him, it fell to Brett Ratner to complete the X-Men trilogy. The war Magneto had foreseen in the first two films erupts when a cure for mutation is introduced. Itis the most bombastic of the X-Men trilogy and very polarizing to X-Fans, but does it Stand up for Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob? Listen to find out!

Professor X, Magneto, and most of the mutants from X-MEN return to the big screen three years after their debut - sporting higher production values, sharper social commentary, an enlarged cast, and answers for amnesiac Wolverine's backstory. Will Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart unite behind director Bryan Singer's grandiose vision, or will the many storylines send them into berserker rage? Listen and find out!

When you think of comic book superhero movies, do you think of concentration camps, human rights, and deep questions, starring both past and future Oscar winning actors? While certainly not the norm in 2000 when it was released, Bryan Singer's X-Men ushered in a new type of superhero film for a new century. With this being the first big-screen live action X-Men adaptation, bringing such comic book legends as Wolverine, Cyclops, Professor X, and Rogue to life and it's success launched not only the X-Men franchise but really set off a renaissance for Marvel Comics superhero films. With 11 years past, does this film hold up? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review to find out!

Before there was X-Men...there was Generation X! For fans of the X-Men who had grown up watching the cartoon and reading the comics there would be a long wait, until 2000, for the X-Men to grace the silver screen in a big budget epic, but first in 1996 FOX aired the TV movie Generation X, a pilot for a TV series that never happened. Based on X-Men spin-off comic of the same name, Generation X sees a new group of superpowered teen mutants attending Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, here run by Emma Frost and Banshee, both featured characters in this summer's X-Men First Class! Starring Matt "Max Headroom" Frewer as the evil dream manipulating scientist Russel Tresh, is this inauspicious start for the X-Men something all fans should track down, or is it best forgotten like a bad dream? Listen to find out!

It has been eleven years since Sydney, Gale, Dewey, and Ghostface took Hollywood, but now they are back home in Woodsboro for Scream 4 where our survivors and a new cast of comely high school students are terrorized by a new Ghostface killer while debating the relative merits of horror reboots. With the Millennials picking up where the now older Gen X cast left off, do threatening prank calls work in an era without home phones, and can writer Kevin Williamson and Director Wes Craven continue to parody slasher films effectively in an age of torture porn? Listen to the latest Now Playing as Marjorie, Arnie, and Stuart review this new release, and sum up their thoughts on the entire Scream series!

This time the review is personal! Novelizations usually deepen a movie’s story. But Jaws: The Revenge is not exactly working from ideal source material. As part of Now Playing Podcast’s Jaws retrospective, Stuart takes a look at Hank Searls’ novelization of the most infamous entry in the franchise. Tasked with turning a screenplay about a vengeance-driven shark into coherent prose, Searls had plenty of narrative gaps to fill. Does the book add logic, character motivation, or even suspense that the film lacked? Join Stuart as he compares page to screen and decides whether this literary take sinks or swims. {Jaws Series}

When Scream 3 came out, it was intended to be the last installment in the Scream series. While we know now that would prove to not be the case, in 2000 Scream 3 looked to be the conclusion of what original Scream writer Kevin Williamson said was always envisioned as a trilogy. And with film-geek Randy coming back from the grave (via videotape) to give us the rules of the trilogy, we know Ghostface is back. But this time Ghostface has gone Hollywood as he is stalking actors on the set of Stab 3, hoping to lure reclusive Sydney Prescott out of hiding. Is the meta-humor horror combination a winning one? Listen to Arnie, Marjorie, and Stuart to find out, and join us next week as we review the new release Scream 4!

Before it was a novella, it was a card game. In 2004, Decipher resurrected the gameplay of the ended Star Wars Trading Card Game and launched WARS, building a brand-new sci-fi universe with creative input from names like Michael Stackpole and John Howe. Gamers embraced it, but the line was short-lived, ending in 2005 before the world could fully unfold. Now that story continues in prose with Healers and Hunters by Nathan P. Butler, the first novella set in the WARS universe. For those who never cracked a single booster pack, can this book stand on its own? Does it reward longtime fans while welcoming newcomers, or is it too tied to a game most readers have never played? Join Arnie as he evaluates whether this expansion of the universe is worth your time.

Ghostface is back stalking Sydney and her friends, this time at Windsor College. In the script, screenwriter Kevin Williamson calls out that "by definition alone, sequels are inferior films". Does that statement hold true for the second installment of the Scream franchise? Listen to find out!

With Scream 4 coming out, it's time to follow the rules of a Now Playing Retrospective series and rule number 1 is Arnie, Stuart, and Marjorie are looking back at the entire Scream series, arguably the most popular horror franchise of the past 20 years. With Ghostface tormenting teens, including Neve Campbell, Jamie Kennedy, Rose McGowan, and Drew Barrymore, and directed by master of horror Wes Craven, does this film hold up 15 years later? Listen in to find out!

Just when you thought it was safe to read on the beach! Books & Nachos is now part of Now Playing Podcast. Before our book reviews were branded as Now Playing Podcast Book Reviews, they were released under a separate show called Books & Nachos. That podcast focused on book discussions, most of which tied directly into films we were covering on Now Playing Podcast. We’ve now merged those episodes into the main Now Playing Podcast feed for easier access and a complete archive. But these older episodes still have the original Books & Nachos intro and credits on those older recordings. You’ve seen the shark. But have you read the book that started it all? Before Spielberg made audiences afraid of the water, Benchley made readers afraid to turn the page. Now, in partnership with Now Playing Podcast’s Jaws retrospective, Stuart returns to dive into Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel. The core story may be familiar, but the tone, characters, and motivations are far darker and more complicated than the fi

He has no powers, no girlfriend, no cool outfit, but /Dave Lizewski can still Kick-Ass in the film directed by future X-Men First Class director Matthew Vaughn. With it's balance of humor and violence, and a foul-mouthed, violent 11-year-old Hit Girl courting controversy the film failed to catch on with mainstream audiences. But is this an underrated Kick-Ass film, or are we three for three with our Marvel Misfits retrospective series? Listen to the final episode in this first part of our Marvel Comic Book Movie Retrospective to find out!