All Episodes (360)
The Last of the Sub-Beacons
A farewell episode marking the end of the free, Free Beacon–hosted show and the move to the Patreon-exclusive subbeacon.com, which JVL hammers relentlessly throughout ("go to subbeacon.com," all one word, no hyphen). The…
Welcome to the New Sub-Beacon!
A short (~10 minute) stinger, the first piece of Patreon-exclusive content, with no main film. The whole bit is JVL trying to sell Sonny and Vic on the three of them hiking an 80-mile section of the Appalachian Trail tog…
The Star Wars Holiday Special
A Thanksgiving-week double feature on the two Star Wars Holiday Specials — the notorious 1978 original and Disney+'s new Lego Star Wars Holiday Special — with JVL, Sonny, and Vic (who's supposed to be the new host but co…
Fatman
The main event is Fatman, the VOD oddity starring Mel Gibson as a weary, elegiac Santa Claus who takes a US military contract and ends up hunted by Walton Goggins's assassin (hired by a spoiled rich kid furious over a lu…
MANK
The main film is David Fincher's Mank, the black-and-white Netflix picture about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the writing of Citizen Kane, and the three hosts split hard. Sonny watched it twice and loves it, uns…
Songbird
The main film is Songbird, the Michael Bay–produced COVID dystopia set in a near-future L.A. where a mutated virus kills 56% of its victims and armed sanitation crews enforce lockdowns. Sonny gives the "big boy" review a…
Ava
The main film is Ava, the Jessica Chastain hitwoman-with-a-conscience vehicle (co-starring John Malkovich, Colin Farrell, and Geena Davis), and the verdict is nearly unanimous scorn. Sonny calls it "disappointing on virt…
'Wonder Woman 1984' (With Special Guest MKH!)
Mary Katharine Ham guest-hosts (Vic's off in Cape May) for a New Year's Eve review of Wonder Woman 1984, Patty Jenkins's blockbuster that landed day-and-date on HBO Max. Sonny and JVL are brutal: the whole plot is a Rube…
'The Mandalorian' Season 2
The main topic is The Mandalorian Season 2, and it produces a real Sonny-vs-JVL brawl. Sonny's big-boy review is rapturous: it's "Gunsmoke meets Star Wars," a space-Western with a lovable Grogu (Baby Yoda's now-canon nam…
'The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone'
The main film is The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, Coppola's re-edit of The Godfather Part III, and the trio agrees the new cut genuinely improves the film without fixing its core flaw. Sonny argues Part…
'Wandavision,' PLUS: A Sitcom Ranking! (Multiple Sitcom Rankings, In Fact)
The main topic is the first two episodes of WandaVision on Disney+, the MCU's experiment that drops Wanda and Vision into a sequence of era-perfect sitcom parodies wrapped around a slow-burn Lost-style mystery. JVL is it…
'Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer'
The main title is the Netflix docuseries Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, about the 1985 investigation into Richard Ramirez's random break-in murders and assaults across Los Angeles, and it splits the hosts s…
'Ted Lasso,' with Special Guest Kristen Soltis Anderson!
Guest Kristen Soltis Anderson joins JVL, Sonny, and Vic for a wholly enthusiastic review of Ted Lasso, the AppleTV+ comedy about an American football coach hired to manage an English Premier League club. JVL's centerpiec…
'Mythic Quest'
The main title is Mythic Quest, the AppleTV+ workplace comedy from the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creators, set inside an MMORPG studio. Sonny is its champion: he calls it the first show to truly capture internet-…
'Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar'
The main film is Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, the Kristen Wiig/Annie Mumolo comedy about two Midwestern women vacationing in a Florida town targeted by an albino supervillain (also Wiig). Sonny is its lone defender…
'I Care a Lot'
The main film is I Care a Lot, the Netflix crime thriller starring Rosamund Pike as Marla Grayson, a court-appointed guardian who runs a scam seizing control of wealthy elderly people's finances and severing them from th…
'Greenland'
The main film is Greenland, the Gerard Butler disaster movie in which a structural engineer and his estranged wife race to a government bunker in Greenland ahead of a planet-killing comet. Sonny concedes it's not great b…
'Wandavision' and 'Coming 2 America'
A double feature: the WandaVision finale and Coming 2 America, the Amazon sequel to Eddie Murphy's 1988 comedy. On WandaVision, Sonny defends his Washington Post op-ed — which called Monica Rambeau's "they'll never know …
'Sentinelle'
The main film is Sentinelle, a French-set (but apparently Russian-produced) Netflix action picture with Olga Kurylenko as a PTSD-stricken commando who goes vigilante after her sister is beaten into a coma and raped by a …
'Zack Snyder's Justice League'
The main event is the four-hour Zack Snyder's Justice League, released on HBO Max after years of #ReleaseTheSnyderCut fan campaigning. Sonny mounts a passionate auteur-theory defense: it's the same basic plot as the 2017…
'The Last Blockbuster'
A two-host episode — JVL is off for Holy Week — so Sonny and Vic cover the Netflix documentary The Last Blockbuster. The memorable stretch is the opening 12 minutes: prompted by a commenter sneering "why do Vic and Sonny…
'Godzilla vs. Kong'
The main film is Godzilla vs. Kong, and JVL is the enthusiast — he reads it as a pro-wrestling arc (Godzilla the heel, Kong earning his redemption, the two finally teaming up against the Mechagodzilla that Apex Cyberneti…
'Boss Level'
The main film is Boss Level, the Hulu time-loop action movie with Frank Grillo (plus Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, and a scene-stealing Will Sasso). Sonny's verdict is that it's "deeply fine" — he likes the Groundhog Day-as-v…
'The Kid Detective'
The main film is The Kid Detective (2020), the indie noir-comedy starring Adam Brody. Sonny pitches it as "Encyclopedia Brown but older" — a washed-up former child detective, still haunted by the assistant he failed to f…
'Mortal Kombat' (2021)
The main film is the 2021 Mortal Kombat, and the verdicts split hard. Sonny's big-boy review: it's not good — its cardinal sin is that a movie called Mortal Kombat contains no actual tournament and keeps breaking its own…
'WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn'
The main title is WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, the Hulu documentary on Adam Neumann's implosion, and it splits the room. Sonny's big-boy review: the subject is inherently compelling but th…
'The Mitchells Vs. the Machines'
The main title is The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Netflix's animated film about a dysfunctional family saving the world from a robot uprising, and it splits the room hard. Sonny really liked it — sweet, funny, with a gre…
'Those Who Wish Me Dead'
The main title is Those Who Wish Me Dead (HBO Max), Taylor Sheridan's survival thriller with Angelina Jolie as a smokejumper protecting a boy from two assassins, and it draws a real split. Sonny is deeply disappointed in…
'The Woman in the Window'
The main title is The Woman in the Window (Netflix), Joe Wright's troubled adaptation of A.J. Finn's (Daniel Mallory's) bestseller with Amy Adams and Gary Oldman, dumped to streaming after reshoots and delays — and the h…
'Army of the Dead'
The gang covers Army of the Dead, Zack Snyder's Netflix zombie heist epic, which Sonny reviews as basically "Ocean's Eleven meets Dawn of the Dead by way of aliens" — he enjoyed it despite disliking Snyder's shallow-focu…
'Marvel's M.O.D.O.K.' (Hulu)
The trio reviews Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. on Hulu, Patton Oswalt's stop-motion Marvel comedy about the AIM supervillain juggling world domination with a crumbling marriage. Sonny calls it "Robot Chicken by way of Marvel" — so…
'Infinite'
This week the trio tackles Infinite (Paramount+), the Mark Wahlberg reincarnated-warriors action film that JVL lobbied hard for after seeing the trailer and pitching it as "James Bond meets the Matrix meets Highlander" —…
'In the Heights'
With Sonny out, Vic and JVL are joined by Commentary editor Jon Podhoretz to discuss In the Heights (HBO Max), Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jon M. Chu's film version of the Broadway musical. J-Pod loves it — copping to a rooti…
'F9: The Fast Saga'
With Vic on vacation, pollster and self-described Fast & Furious superfan Kristen Soltis Anderson steps into the third chair to cover F9: The Fast Saga. Sonny is unmoved, arguing the film is really two movies duct-ta…
'Wolfgang'
The main event is Wolfgang, the Disney+ documentary on celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck: Sonny calls it interesting but frustratingly slight at 75 minutes, too fixated on Puck's abusive-stepfather backstory and not enough on…
'Black Widow'
The hosts review Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson's long-delayed MCU solo outing, released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access. Sonny says the plot did nothing for him but he loved the family stuff — …
Every MCU Movie RANKED
This subscriber-only bonus episode skips the usual film-review format entirely: Sonny, JVL, and Vic spend the whole hour ranking all 24 MCU movies, from Iron Man through Black Widow, working chronologically by release da…
'Gunpowder Milkshake'
The main event is Netflix's Gunpowder Milkshake, the Karen Gillan-led "Lady John Wick," and all three hosts arrive at qualified affection for what Sonny calls nice, empty spectacle: he likes Gillan and Michelle Yeoh, cal…
'Pig' and 'Snake Eyes' (2021)
This doubleheader episode covers Pig (in theaters) and Snake Eyes (2021), with Sonny and Vic raving about the former while JVL delivers a solo take on the latter, having literally sprinted home from the theater to record…
'Jungle Cruise'
This episode's main event is Jungle Cruise, the Disney adventure pairing Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, reviewed with guest host Ryan Kinney of the SSEU podcast sitting in for Vic. Ryan, who saw it with his eleven-year-…
'The Suicide Squad'
The main event is James Gunn's The Suicide Squad on HBO Max, and the trio splits hard on it: Sonny feels almost bludgeoned by the film's nonstop, in-your-face outrageousness, arguing that despite funny turns from Polka-D…
'Val'
The main review is Val, the Amazon Prime documentary assembled from Val Kilmer's own decades of home-shot footage (going back to Juilliard and the sets of Top Gun and Heat) interwoven with present-day scenes of a post-th…
Val Kilmer Draft
This bonus, Patreon-only episode skips the usual opening banter and dives straight into a snake draft of the hosts' favorite Val Kilmer movies, a follow-up to the previous week's Val documentary review, with the rule tha…
'Reminiscence' and 'Paw Patrol'
This episode is a Paw Patrol: The Movie takedown wrapped around a lighter check-in on Reminiscence: Sonny, who caught Reminiscence in IMAX, says the format bought it more patience than it might otherwise deserve, while t…
'Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal, and Greed'
The main event is the Netflix documentary Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed, which all three hosts agree is a dud: Sonny excoriates it at length as "the purest example of Netflix background noise," a petty lega…
'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'
The main review is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which shattered Labor Day box-office records with a $75.4 million opening — nearly tripling the previous best — even while shut out of the Chinese market enti…
'Malignant' and 'The Mysterious Benedict Society'
The main event is James Wan's Malignant, which Sonny reviews as a gloriously deranged experience: a cheesy, badly-acted 90s-throwback horror movie for its first eighty minutes that suddenly detonates into an unhinged act…
'Cry Macho'
The main review is Cry Macho, Clint Eastwood's long-gestating Western about a washed-up rodeo man sent to Mexico to retrieve his former boss's teenage son (and the boy's prized fighting rooster, Macho), which opened to a…
'LuLaRich' (Prime Video)
The main event is LuLaRich, Amazon Prime's four-part documentary on the rise and fall of the LuLaRoe multi-level-marketing legging empire, and it splits the hosts: Sonny, after a lengthy satirical bit casting the film as…
'The Many Saints of Newark'
The main review is The Many Saints of Newark, David Chase's Sopranos prequel, which opened in fourth place at $4.7 million the same weekend Venom: Let There Be Carnage set a pandemic-era record with a $90 million debut. …
Squid Game, Episode 1
This is a short Patreon-only bonus episode (~23 minutes, no lengthy how-is-everyone-doing banter) kicking off the hosts' episode-by-episode coverage of Netflix's Squid Game, which Sonny reports was already on pace to bec…
'No Time to Die'
The main event is Daniel Craig's swan song No Time to Die, which Sonny reviews at length as essentially "The Dark Bond Rises" — a beat-for-beat riff on The Dark Knight Rises right down to the hero's apparent death and a …
'Squid Game' Episodes 2&3
This short Patreon-only bonus episode, with no opening banter, dives straight into episodes 2 ("Hell") and 3 ("The Man with the Umbrella") of Squid Game. Sonny is bored by episode 2's wall-to-wall sob-story backstories —…
'The Last Duel'
The main review is The Last Duel, Ridley Scott's Rashomon-structured medieval drama (written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Nicole Holofcener) which limped to a fifth-place opening weekend of $4.8 million behind Hallowe…
'Squid Game' Episodes 4 and 5
This Patreon-exclusive bonus episode covers Squid Game episodes 4 ("Stick to the Team") and 5, with Vic, Sonny, and JVL walking through the show's bloodiest stretch: the overnight dormitory brawl, in which gangsters deni…
'Dune'
The main review is Dune (Denis Villeneuve's adaptation, only "Part One" of Frank Herbert's novel), which topped the box office at $41 million domestically ($220+ million worldwide) and got its sequel greenlit by Warner B…
'Squid Game' Episodes 6 and 7
This Patreon-exclusive bonus episode, hosted by Vic, Sonny, and JVL, dives straight into Squid Game episodes 6 ("Gganbu") and 7 ("VIPs") with no opening banter. Sonny calls episode 6's marble game a "rich psychological t…
'The French Dispatch'
This week it's Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, and all three hosts adore it: Sonny delivers a full "big boy review" arguing the fussiness is the point, since each of the three anthologized stories dramatizes a differ…
'Squid Game' Finale Bonus Epsiode
This bonus episode is a wrap-up of Squid Game's final two episodes (8 and 9), recorded in Vic's basement studio with self-declared "Korea expert" Paul Crookston, a former Sub-Beacon producer whose main credential turns o…
'Eternals'
The gang tackles Chloe Zhao's Eternals, and all three land in roughly the same place: it's a mess. Sonny gives it the most credit in theory, calling it "Marvel's first DCEU movie" for its interest in gods, free will, and…
'Sex, Love, Goop' (Netflix)
This bonus episode dives straight into Netflix's Sex, Love, Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's earnest and deeply strange sex-therapy reality series, and the three hosts land in wildly different places on it. Vic, who watched the m…
'Red Notice'
This week's Sub-Beacon takes on Netflix's Red Notice, the $200 million Dwayne Johnson/Ryan Reynolds/Gal Gadot heist comedy, and the three hosts land in surprising agreement about ninety percent of it while disagreeing lo…
Vic Explains 'Mulholland Dr'
This bonus episode is built around Vic attempting to explain the plot of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, timed to a new Criterion 4K release. Vic's Quadrant scores tell the story of his ordeal: plot an F-minus, duration …
'Ghostbusters: Afterlife'
This early-and-uncensored episode centers on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and the trio splits two-to-one against it: Sonny is pleasantly surprised, arguing that once you accept it as a Spielbergian kids'-adventure movie (mor…
'House of Gucci'
With JVL out, guest host John Podhoretz (editor of Commentary) joins Sonny and Vic to review Ridley Scott's House of Gucci, and the three split hard on it. John delivers the "big boy review," calling the first 45 minutes…
'Hawkeye' Episodes One and Two
This is a bonus episode, with JVL absent, covering the first two episodes of Disney+'s Hawkeye, guest-hosted again by John Podhoretz alongside Sonny and Vic. Podhoretz says the show looks noticeably cheaper than the movi…
'King Richard'
This week's movie is King Richard (Will Smith as Richard Williams, on HBO Max), and the panel is fairly aligned on it being a fine-but-unremarkable Oscar biopic. Sonny calls it a paint-by-numbers, 140-minutes-too-long sh…
'Wild Things' Bonus Episode
This short bonus episode is a rewatch of Wild Things (1998), the sweaty Florida neo-noir starring Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon, Bill Murray, and Kevin Bacon, prompted by its sudden arrival on Netflix. Vic …
'The Harder They Fall'
Sonny and JVL review Netflix's revisionist Western The Harder They Fall, starring Jonathan Majors as Nat Love and Idris Elba as Rufus Buck alongside a stacked ensemble (Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Sta…
'Hawkeye' Episodes 3 and 4
This bonus episode skips the usual personal-catchup preamble and dives straight into Hawkeye episodes 3 and 4, marking JVL's first time weighing in on the show since he missed the episodes 1 and 2 discussion with guest J…
'Spider-Man: No Way Home'
Spider-Man: No Way Home is the main event, and it's a rare unanimous rave: Sonny puts it right up there with Homecoming as maybe his favorite of the series, JVL says he "loved it in a really deep way" and singles out the…
'Hawkeye' Finale
With Vic out this week, Sonny fills in as JVL's lone co-host to close out the Hawkeye season, digging into episodes five and six. Both agree the finale doesn't stick its landings: JVL says the Kingpin material is wildly …
'The Matrix Resurrections'
The Matrix Resurrections is the main event, and both Sonny and JVL tear it apart. Sonny's "big-boy review" lays out three core failures: the film's meta self-critique of corporate cash-grab sequels doesn't excuse it from…
'Knight Rider' Bonus
This bonus episode is a nostalgic rewatch of the classic 1980s series Knight Rider, newly streaming on Netflix, with Sonny, JVL, and Vic tackling the fan-consensus "Goliath" two-parter (season 2, episodes 1-2) in which M…
'Swan Song'
The main event is Swan Song (Apple TV+), in which Mahershala Ali plays a dying man who secretly has himself cloned — memories and all — so his wife (Naomi Harris) and unborn child never have to know he's gone, with Glenn…
Bonus: 'The Book of Boba Fett' Episodes 1 and 2
This bonus episode has Sonny, JVL, and Vic dig into the first two episodes of The Book of Boba Fett on Disney+, and all three arrive at roughly the same place: low expectations, a rough first episode, and a much better s…
'Encanto'
The gang reviews Encanto, and Sonny is fine on it — good soundtrack, harmless kids' fare, no real villain, basically "Scarface, but a cartoon" — while Vic gives it a Quadrant C+ (plot D, duration A, action/violence C, se…
Bonus Episode: 'Diff'rent Strokes'
This short bonus episode is a deep dive into the early-'80s NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, after Vic — pursuing childhood nostalgia — rewatches two episodes ("First Love," with a young Janet Jackson as Willis's girlfriend…
'The Tragedy of Macbeth' (Apple TV+)
The main review is Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth (Apple TV+/A24), his first solo directing effort without brother Ethan, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand and shot in a stark, expressionist black and …
Joss Whedon and Boba Fett
This bonus episode skips the usual how's-everyone-doing banter and dives straight into two topics. First, the New York Magazine profile of Joss Whedon: Sonny walks through the piece at length, framing Whedon not as a Wei…
'Peacemaker'
The main event is James Gunn's Peacemaker on HBO Max, and the verdicts split hard along fandom-fatigue lines: JVL is rapturous, calling it "the Office but hard-R with superheroes" and mapping its ensemble onto Office arc…
'Rounders' Bonus
This bonus episode is a full-length celebration of Rounders (1998), and both Sonny and JVL love it unreservedly, even though they argue about what it's actually about: Sonny insists the movie is really about cutting nega…
'After We Fell' (Netflix)
The main review is After We Fell (Netflix), the third installment of the Anna Todd After franchise (itself a Twilight-to-Fifty Shades of Grey pipeline entry) which Vic pitched and walks the others through plot-wise since…
'Heist' (Netflix)
This short bonus episode, with no opening banter, has Vic and Sonny (and JVL joining partway in) dig into David Mamet's Heist (2001), newly available on Netflix and revisited after Vic's son went on a Gene Hackman kick. …
'Moonfall'
The movie of the week is Roland Emmerich's Moonfall, in which the moon turns out to be a hollow alien megastructure crashing into Earth, and Sonny genuinely loves its committed dumbness — praising the "hard sci-fi" absur…
'Pam and Tommy' Bonus
This bonus episode digs into the first four episodes of Hulu's Pam and Tommy, the dramatization of the 1996 Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee sex-tape leak starring Sebastian Stan, Lily James, Seth Rogen (as put-upon carpenter-t…
'Death on the Nile'
The main event is Kenneth Branagh's Death on the Nile, and the verdicts split along familiar lines: Sonny likes it as a movie about class and money, though he's driven up the wall by how cheap the CGI Egypt looks (the Ni…
'Reacher' (Prime Video)
This short bonus episode is devoted entirely to the new Amazon Prime Video series Reacher, starring Alan Ritchson, with no real opening banter — Vic dives straight in, dubbing the show "Poirot with muscles" and admitting…
'Nightmare Alley' (HBO Max, Hulu)
Vic and JVL skip the usual "how was your weekend" banter, teasing that it's being saved for a "very special" bonus episode, before diving into a long opening tangent covering the Phantom Menace trailer reveal (which play…
The Gang's Big Weekend
This is a bonus episode with no movie review at all — instead Sonny, JVL, and Vic swap stories from their divergent President's Day weekends, which they'd each undertaken separately after discussing plans on the previous…
'The Tinder Swindler'
The main review is The Tinder Swindler (Netflix), the documentary about Israeli con man Shimon Hayut (posing as "Simon Leviev," son of a diamond mogul), who romanced women on Tinder and used cash bilked from each victim …
'The Godfather' Turns 50
This bonus episode marks the 50th anniversary of The Godfather (1972) and skips the usual opening banter to dive straight into the rewatch: Vic caught it in Dolby Atmos on the huge screen at Tysons with his son, marvelin…
'The Batman'
The main review is Matt Reeves's The Batman (2022), and for once all three hosts are in rare, grumpy unanimity: nobody likes it. Sonny calls it a mess that "doesn't work on basically any level," arguing the last 40 minut…
Obi Wan and Decadence
This bonus episode skips the usual banter and personal-updates block and dives straight into two topics. First, the trio picks apart the new Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer for Disney+: Sonny and JVL are openly deflated ("eh," "a…
'Winning Time'
The main event is the first two episodes of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty on HBO Max (which JVL insists on mischievously calling "Showtime"), Adam McKay's origin story of the 1980s Lakers. Sonny loves it —…
A Look Back at the 2012 Oscars
This bonus episode skips a review of the current year's Oscars and instead has Vic, Sonny, and JVL re-litigate the 94th Academy Awards' actual subject, the films of 2011 — on the premise (per a listener's suggestion) tha…
'Deep Water' (Hulu)
The main review is Adrian Lyne's Deep Water (Hulu), his first film since Unfaithful twenty years ago, starring Ben Affleck as a wealthy, snail-raising retiree who tolerates (and may secretly relish) his wife Melinda's (A…
'Fatal Attraction' Bonus Episode
This short bonus episode opens with JVL relitigating Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice after rewatching the theatrical cut with his son G-Money over a boys-only weekend; he's warmed considerably to Ben Affleck's Batman …
'The Lost City'
The main review is The Lost City, the Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum romance-adventure that opened at number one with $30.5 million (ahead of The Batman and RRR). Sonny likes it despite acknowledging it looks cheap, has w…
So Long, Bruce Willis
This is a short, unscripted bonus episode with no movie under review — Sonny, JVL, and Vic drop everything to mark the news that Bruce Willis is retiring from acting after a diagnosis of aphasia, and the whole half-hour …
'Morbius'
The main event is Morbius, Sony's Jared Leto vampire movie, which opened to $39 million, and all three hosts pan it: Vic runs it through his Quadrant system and lands on an NA-or-F for plot ("plot F for fucking stupid," …
More 'Winning Time'!
This short bonus episode skips the usual opening banter and dives straight into another check-in on Winning Time (HBO Max), the dramatization of the 1979-era Los Angeles Lakers. Vic has fully caught up and confesses he's…
'Everything Everywhere All at Once'
This week's review covers Everything Everywhere All at Once, the Daniels-directed A24 multiverse film starring Michelle Yeoh as an overwhelmed laundromat owner. Sonny loves it unreservedly, describing it as a live-action…
'Tokyo Vice' (HBO Max)
A short bonus episode (Vic opens with a quick Easter Monday check-in) digging into the first three episodes of Tokyo Vice on HBO Max, based on journalist Jake Adelstein's memoir about an American reporter covering the ya…
'All the Old Knives,' Eventually
Vic is out this week (Sonny jokes he's "resting comfortably" at a sanitarium, still shell-shocked by Everything Everywhere All at Once), so it's just Sonny and JVL, who spend the back stretch on All the Old Knives, a Pri…
'Severance' (Plus Some Other Stuff)
This is a short, no-banter Patreon lightning-round bonus episode with just Sonny and JVL, since Vic is still out sick and they're taping back-to-back shows; there's no opening check-in, just a straight run through three …
'The Northman'
With JVL off closing on a new house in North Jersey, Matt Continetti — AEI resident scholar and author of the new book The Right — fills the third chair to review The Northman, Robert Eggers's Viking revenge epic. Sonny …
More 'Tokyo Vice'!
This bonus episode is a no-preamble deep dive into HBO Max's Tokyo Vice, with Vic and Sonny once again joined by Matt Continetti (subbing for a JVL who sits this one out entirely) — there's no opening banter segment; the…
'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent'
All three regular hosts are reunited as Sonny, JVL, and Vic review The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which Nicolas Cage plays a fictionalized version of himself — deep in debt to his hotel, pursuing one last bi…
Nic Cage Movie Draft
This bonus episode is a pure format-break: no single movie review, just Vic, JVL, and Sonny running a snake draft of the best Nicolas Cage performances/movies, a follow-up to the previous week's The Unbearable Weight of …
'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'
Sonny reviews Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which he liked but didn't love, praising it as secretly a Scarlet Witch movie — Elizabeth Olsen carries the emotional weight, grieving the imaginary children fro…
'Winning Time' Finale
This is a bonus episode with no opening banter — Vic, Sonny, and JVL dive straight into recapping the Season 1 finale of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty on HBO. Vic is unreservedly enthusiastic, calling the …
'The Quick and the Dead'
In the first installment of what may become a recurring "hey, remember these movies?" format, Sonny, JVL, and Vic revisit The Quick and the Dead (1995, Sam Raimi) — newly on Netflix — starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman,…
'The Fifth Element'
Vic's ancient laptop dies entirely before the show starts, so JVL and Sonny carry the episode solo, reviewing The Fifth Element on its 25th anniversary with Vic's quadrant scores relayed secondhand from an email. JVL is …
Coming Friday: 'Top Guns'!
This is not a regular episode but a short solo audio note from Sonny Bunch, taped in lieu of a Wednesday show, explaining that the trio's usual episode got derailed. Sonny recaps that Vic had hardware and computer troubl…
'Top Gun: Maverick' and 'Top Gun'
The big topic is Top Gun: Maverick, and all three hosts are smitten: Sonny delivers a "big boy review" declaring it better than the 1986 original on every level — real plot, real stakes, a genuine father-son arc between …
Coming Friday: 'Wrath of Man'!
This is a brief, Sonny-only teaser with no JVL or Vic: he pops in solo to announce that Friday's episode will cover Wrath of Man, the Guy Ritchie/Jason Statham action film he calls one of his favorite movies of last year…
'Wrath of Man'
The main event is Wrath of Man, Guy Ritchie's 2021 Jason Statham vehicle, which throws Sonny for a loop: expecting a quippy Snatch/The Gentlemen-style caper, he instead finds a patient, meticulously composed 70s-grindhou…
Guy Ritchie Draft!
This bonus episode is a straight-up Guy Ritchie filmography draft, with each host picking three films (Vic sneaks in a fourth) and arguing for their haul. JVL goes first and locks up Sherlock Holmes ("the best buddy cop …
Coming Friday: 'Jurassic World Dominion'
This is a brief solo teaser, just Sonny popping in to preview Friday's full episode on Jurassic World Dominion. He gives away his verdict early: it's a bad movie, and while he's not categorically opposed to big dumb movi…
'Jurassic World Dominion'
The main event is Jurassic World Dominion, which both Sonny and JVL admit they nearly walked out of; Sonny opens flatly with "Early on, I just wanted to walk out of this movie. Because really, who gives a shit?" and rips…
Dino Bracket Bonus!
This short bonus episode skips the usual review format entirely for a single-elimination dinosaur bracket that JVL dreamed up while sitting through Jurassic World Dominion, with Sonny and Vic serving as his co-judges aft…
'Georgetown'
This week's episode is guest-hosted by Mike Warren (the returning "Mulch Man"), filling in for JVL, who is off moving back to New Jersey, and the film under discussion is Georgetown, Christoph Waltz's 2019 passion projec…
'Elvis'
The main topic is Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, which surprises even Sonny — a self-described Luhrmann skeptic — into loving it; he argues the film isn't really a musical biopic at all but a superhero origin story about the crea…
'Blade Runner' at 40
This bonus episode marks the 40th anniversary of Blade Runner, and the hosts spend as much time arguing the original against Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 as reviewing the movie itself. Sonny is unequivocal that t…
'Minions: The Rise of Gru'
Paul Crookston sits in for Vic this week as the hosts (and box office) turn to Minions: The Rise of Gru, which Sonny declares basically unreviewable as a movie — it's a collection of self-contained, Three-Stooges-style s…
RIP James Caan
This short bonus episode, with Paul Crookston again sitting in for an absent Vic, is a straight-to-business tribute to James Caan, who died at 82 — there's no opening banter, just Sonny announcing the news and the trio d…
'Thor: Love and Thunder'
The main event is Thor: Love and Thunder, and it's a rare unanimous dud: Sonny, who can't stand Taika Waititi's shtick and calls the movie's story structurally broken (you could cut half the plot and change nothing about…
'Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons' (Hulu)
The main topic is Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons, the Hulu three-part documentary, which the hosts find fascinating but structurally frustrating — essentially two separate documentaries crammed into one series. Son…
'The Gray Man'
The main event is The Gray Man, the reported $200 million Netflix spy thriller from the Russo brothers starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, and all three hosts land somewhere between unimpressed and appalled. Sonny is …
'Blazing Paws of Saddles'
This bonus grab-bag episode centers on Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, the computer-animated kids' film JVL discovered is essentially a beat-for-beat remake of Blazing Saddles, swapping in cats-versus-dogs speciesism f…
'DC League of Super-Pets'
Vic is off this week ("family stuff"), so it's a two-hander with Sonny and JVL covering DC League of Super-Pets along with a pile of industry news. Neither is impressed: JVL saw it with his son and calls it forgettable, …
'Bullet Train'
The hosts split hard on David Leitch's Bullet Train: Sonny disliked it, arguing the constant flashbacks kill momentum and the plot is needlessly overcomplicated when all he wanted was ninety straight minutes of people fi…
'Prey'
The main event is Prey (2022, Hulu), the eighteenth-century Comanche-set Predator prequel, and Sonny delivers the promised "big boy review," praising director Dan Trachtenberg's (10 Cloverfield Lane) sharp action staging…
'Licorice Pizza'
Sonny, Vic, and JVL finally review Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza (2021), newly arrived on Amazon Prime, and land in a fond-but-conflicted place: Sonny has rewatched it twice and, despite finding it shaggy and epi…
'3,000 Years of Longing'
George Miller's 3,000 Years of Longing, with Idris Elba as a djinn who is summoned by Tilda Swinton's lonely narratologist, splits the panel hard: Sonny gives a rapturous, borderline-emotional defense of it as a magical-…
'Day Shift'
The main event is Day Shift (2022, Netflix), Jamie Foxx's John Wick-with-vampires action comedy, and Sonny turns the review into a live memory experiment, narrating on-mic what he can actually recall weeks after watching…
'Dirty Harry'
The main event is Dirty Harry (1971), which Vic rewatches and crowns an outright "quadrant killer," handing out A-pluses across the board — plot, duration, and action/violence are all A-plus, with the copious go-go-bar a…
'Confess Fletch'
This week's film is Confess, Fletch, the Jon Hamm-led continuation of the Fletch mystery-comedy franchise, and all three hosts land in similarly mild-positive territory: Sonny, who has never much liked Chevy Chase's orig…
'Andor' (Disney+) (Take 2)
This episode centers on Disney+'s Star Wars prequel series Andor, covering its first three (arguably four) episodes, and the verdicts split sharply: Sonny is withering, declaring the show classic "prequel-itis" where he …
'Avatar'
The episode covers the theatrical re-release of James Cameron's Avatar ahead of the Way of the Water sequel, and it's a movie of wild contrasts among the three hosts. Sonny endures an epic odyssey just to see it — a canc…
'Ambulance' (Prime Video)
The main event is a belated look at Michael Bay's Ambulance, newly arrived on Prime Video, and Sonny is downright euphoric about it, calling it one of his favorite movies of 2022 and awarding it something like "a hundred…
'Point Break' (Netflix)
The main event is a rewatch of Point Break (1991), newly arrived on Netflix, and it's an unabashed love-fest: Sonny, JVL, and Vic all agree the ridiculous Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze surfer-bank-robber movie holds up as …
'Black Adam'
With Vic recovering from having his "Gabriel tooth" (and, allegedly, a second skull's worth of Gabriel mass) surgically removed, longtime listener Ben Parker steps in as guest host for a review of Dwayne Johnson's Black …
Ticket to Paradise
Mary Katherine Hamm (MKH) fills in for the still-recovering Vic as the hosts review Ticket to Paradise (2022), the George Clooney/Julia Roberts romantic comedy set in Bali. Sonny calls it "replacement level" early-2000s …
'Weird'
Ryan Kinney (of the SSU podcast) sits in for the still-recuperating Vic — whom Sonny jokes might have "a third and fourth Gabriel" jump out of his head — as the trio reviews Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, the mockumentary…
'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'
Guest Paul Crookston fills in for Vic (given one more week off before facing a three-hour CGI slog) as Sonny and JVL tear into Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Sonny calls it maybe the worst Marvel movie since Eternals — …
'The Menu'
The main event is Mark Mylod's The Menu (2022), starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy, and both Sonny and Vic love it. Sonny delivers an extended "big boy review" arguing the film is less like The Hunt than a darkly…
'The Fabelmans'
Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans splits the panel. Sonny gives the most generous take, arguing the film has been marketed as a magic-of-movies picture but is really about someone who can only proces…
'Violent Night'
The main event is Violent Night (2022), the David Harbour Santa-does-Die Hard action comedy also starring John Leguizamo as the leader of a mercenary crew invading a wealthy family's compound; Sonny calls it a "definitio…
'Avatar: The Way of Water'
With Vic gone, John Podhoretz ("J-Pod") fills the empty chair alongside Sonny and JVL to review Avatar: The Way of Water, and all three are effectively raves: Sonny calls the HFR 3D Dolby-cinema experience "the most amaz…
Some Housekeeping, and a Best-Of List
This is a solo Sonny episode, a bonus dispatch with no co-hosts and no new-release review. Sonny opens with housekeeping: Vic has officially left the show (and immediately cancelled his AMC A-List membership now that he'…
'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish'
The main event is Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and JVL is thoroughly charmed, calling it a real movie about mortality and midlife crisis delivered with an incredibly light touch, comparing it favorably to Paddington 2 a…
'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'
Sonny and JVL are joined by guest Thomas Lassi, a Swedish listener taping at 4:30 in the morning his time, to cover Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Thomas delivers a deadpan "big boy review" of the plot before all thr…
'Plane'
With JVL off gallivanting on the West Coast, Sonny drafts in Christopher Haberman and Ryan Kinney of the SSEU podcast — who promptly stage a mock hostile takeover of the show, complete with poison-pill threats and a bogu…
'Andor,' Redux
This episode's entire mission is an intervention: guest host Chris Cillizza — filling the third chair, two months into life after CNN laid him off and newly launched on Substack — joins Sonny in trying to talk JVL back i…
'Triangle of Sadness'
Sonny delivers the review solo this week since JVL, battling his second bout of COVID in seven months, punts the "big boy review" to him: Sonny walks through Ruben Östlund's Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness, praisin…
'Break Point'
The main event this week is Netflix's tennis docuseries Break Point, and it lands roughly: JVL is furious, Sonny is sympathetic-but-critical, and Mike (in his debut) splits the difference. JVL rails that the show is aime…
'The Banshees of Inisherin'
Sonny, JVL, and Mike are unanimous raves for The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh's dark comedy about a suddenly-severed friendship set on a fictional Irish island during the Civil War; Sonny calls it darkly funny …
'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'
The movie is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and the verdicts land in roughly the same bad neighborhood: Sonny brands it "the worst movie since the MCU movie before it" and, on reflection, slots it into the bottom tie…
It's Lent! What's that?
A short Ash Wednesday bonus episode with no movie on the docket, in which JVL and Mike "Catholicsplain" the season of Lent to their lone Protestant-raised, functionally unchurched cast-mate, Sonny. Mike lays out the basi…
'Rocky IV' (Amazon, Netflix, elsewhere)
With JVL unexpectedly out sick, Sonny and Mike bump Cocaine Bear (which all three saw and loved) to wait for a full trio discussion, and scramble together a rewatch episode on Rocky IV instead — timely for Sonny since he…
Yo, Adrian
This short bonus episode is just Sonny and Mike, with JVL still out sick and the promised Cocaine Bear review pushed to Friday, so the two spin out from the prior week's Rocky IV talk into a full tour of the Rocky and Cr…
'Cocaine Bear'
JVL is back from a mysterious week off (details teased for the bonus) to join Mike and Sonny on Cocaine Bear, Elizabeth Banks's fact-inspired horror-comedy in which a drug smuggler's dumped stash lands in a Georgia natio…
Stones and Used Cars
This short "grab bag" bonus episode skips movies entirely in favor of two personal sagas. JVL leads with a graphic, profanity-laced account of his kidney stone attack: waking at midnight mid-snowstorm in what he calls th…
Creed 3
With Sonny out this week (he's back next episode), JVL and Mike Warren dig deep into Creed 3, Michael B. Jordan's directorial debut and the second sequel to Creed, itself a Rocky spinoff, following Adonis Creed as a reti…
In a Van, Down By the East River
This subscriber-only bonus, hosted by JVL solo with Mike Warren (Sonny is out, promised back next week), is a single extended shaggy-dog story rather than a review: Mike recounts, blow by blow, his marathon quest to buy …
'Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods'
The main event is Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and after its disastrous $30 million opening (Morbius-level numbers, Sonny notes) the trio picks the film apart. Sonny goes on a full rant: he's fine with the first movie's odd…
Mighty Morphin' Reboot
A short bonus episode built entirely around a trailer Mike's friend sent him for the Netflix Mighty Morphin Power Rangers revival (apparently titled something like Once & Always), which reunites most of the original cast…
'John Wick: Chapter 4'
The main event is John Wick: Chapter 4, and it's a near-unanimous group favorite: Sonny calls it three hours of almost pure, uncut practical action from director Chad Stahelski (himself once Keanu Reeves's stunt double),…
Action Franchise Draft
This mega bonus episode skips the usual opening banter entirely, launching straight from the John Wick: Chapter 4 discussion in the main episode into a three-round, snake-style draft of the best action movie franchises. …
'Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves'
Sonny, JVL, and Mike all loved Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, with JVL going furthest, calling it enormously fun and declaring Chris Pine "the closest thing we have to a modern day Harrison Ford"; all three p…
JVLsplaining D&D to S&M
This short bonus episode is not a movie review at all but a pure tangent: JVL spends the whole runtime "splaining" Dungeons & Dragons to a skeptical Sonny and Mike (the "S&M" of the title), walking them step by step thro…
Super Mario Bros.
With Sonny out sick with COVID (and laryngitis-stricken Mike stepping in solo alongside JVL), the two review The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and while both of their kids adore it — Mike's eight-year-old declares it the best…
Bonus Episode: The Ranking of the Nintendo Games!
Sonny is out sick again ("the Rona"), so JVL and Mike Warren open by rehashing how much they both loathed the new Super Mario Bros. movie before turning the whole show over to a bonus-episode bit: each ranking his five f…
'Tetris'
The trio reviews Tetris on Apple TV+ and all three love it. Sonny calls it “explicitly propaganda for the neoliberal economic order” and admits he almost distrusts how perfectly the movie was engineered to confirm every …
'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant'
All three hosts rave about Guy Ritchie's The Covenant, the "most earnest, least irony-drenched" film of Ritchie's career, in which Jake Gyllenhaal's Special Forces sergeant returns to Afghanistan to rescue the interprete…
Jake Gyllenhaal: The Most Underrated Star?
This short bonus cut, spun off from the main Guy Ritchie's The Covenant discussion in episode 177, is a no-preamble victory lap for Jake Gyllenhaal, with Sonny, JVL, and Mike Warren agreeing he's one of the most durable …
'Air'
The main event is Air, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Nike/Michael Jordan drama, and Sonny is by far the most enthusiastic: he calls it "entertaining as shit" from start to finish and spends a long stretch dissecting it as…
Shoes: Form or Function?
A short bonus episode spun off from the crew's Air discussion, with no movie review and no opening banter — Mike, JVL, and Sonny dive straight into a freewheeling chat about shoes as function versus fashion. Mike recalls…
'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'
The main event is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and the hosts split three ways: Sonny gives it an enthusiastic thumbs up, calling it a fun "hangout movie" with terrific work from Karen Gillan and Zoe Saldana as Nebula …
What Do News, Sports, and this Pod All Have in Common?
This short bonus episode skips the usual banter entirely and dives straight into a single-topic media-business conversation, kicked off by Sonny after reading Ben Smith's book Traffic and writing his own Bulwark piece on…
'BlackBerry'
Sonny, JVL, and Mike all loved BlackBerry, Matt Johnson's account of the rise and fall of the pioneering smartphone maker, with Sonny declaring it the best of the emerging "brand movie" subgenre — better than Air and Tet…
Phones and Phone-Like Devices, Ranked, Kinda
This short bonus episode, taped right after the guys' BlackBerry review, ditches new releases entirely so Sonny, JVL, and Mike can rank their own personal phone histories by how exciting each device felt at the time. Son…
'Fast X'
The trio is split on Fast X (which Mike insists on calling "Fast 10"): JVL loved it without reservation — "I haven't had this much fun in a movie theater in months" — framing it as the franchise's Avengers: Infinity War …
Car Chase Draft!
This bonus episode skips the usual banter and drops straight into a snake draft in which Sonny, JVL, and Mike each pick their three all-time favorite movie car chases, JVL going first. Final boards: JVL takes Bullitt, Ma…
'Jurassic Park' at 30
For its thirtieth anniversary, Sonny, JVL, and Mike revisit Jurassic Park and all three come away loving it as much as ever ("thumbs down" is JVL's ironic verdict — meaning a resounding thumbs up, with JVL noting that ev…
'Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse'
Sonny gives Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse a rave, walking through its plot at length (the film is really a Gwen Stacy story bookending a Miles Morales adventure about a "canon" of Spider-Man tragedies that Miles re…
The Sub-Beacon Vs. the LIV
This is a short bonus episode, not a movie review, in which Mike, Sonny, and JVL react to the stunning news that the PGA Tour is merging with — effectively being purchased by — Saudi-backed LIV Golf, and all three admit …
'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'
The trio takes on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, set in 1994 New York, and lands in near-total agreement that it's a competently made bore. Sonny's chief complaint is structural: as a prequel featuring both Bumblebee …
'The Flash'
The main topic is The Flash, which the hosts use as the centerpiece of a bleak summer-2023 box office autopsy — Sonny walks through how it, Elemental, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Fast X, and The Little Mermaid are …
'Extraction 2'
The main event is Extraction 2 (Netflix, Chris Hemsworth as mercenary Tyler Rake), which Sonny declares the "platonic ideal of a Netflix movie" — cheap, disposable, and forgettable, but genuinely well-crafted, anchored b…
Road Trip!
This is a short, film-free bonus episode built entirely around Mike's upcoming road trip: he's driving his two older boys and his mother down to a highway handoff point so they can spend two weeks each at "grandparent ca…
'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny limped to a $60 million opening against a reported $200-350 million budget, and all three hosts pan it, if for different reasons: Sonny doesn't hate it — he still finds Harrison Ford…
'Mission: Imposible — Dead Reckoning: Part One'
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One gets a near-unanimous rave from all three hosts: Sonny (after initially misremembering the big car chase as being in Venice rather than Rome) calls it the "non-shitty Fast an…
Tom Cruise, Star Auteur
This is a short bonus episode with no opening banter: Mike, Sonny, and JVL spin off from their main-show review of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One into a straight-through appreciation of Tom Cruise's whole …
'Asteroid City'
The trio tackles Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, and all three land somewhere between admiration and frustration: Sonny gives an extended "big boy review," praising the nesting-doll structure (a TV production, hosted by a …
Wes Anderson Draft!
This short bonus episode, taped immediately after the Asteroid City review, skips the usual opening banter and goes straight into a three-round snake draft of Wes Anderson's filmography. Sonny gets the top overall pick a…
'Oppenheimer'
This episode covers Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer against the backdrop of the record-shattering "Barbenheimer" opening weekend ($162 million for Barbie, $82 million for Oppenheimer, together one of the four or five big…
'Barbie'
Episode 200 tackles Barbie, and the hosts split hard: Sonny found the film a mind-numbing, self-aware toy commercial that never made him laugh despite enjoying Ryan Gosling's Ken and Will Ferrell's rubber-faced Mattel CE…
The Mattel Cinematic Universe Draft!
This bonus episode is a rapid-fire snake draft of Mattel toy movie pitches, with all three hosts leaning into pure absurdity rather than reviewing anything real. JVL leads off with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe …
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem'
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem gets a mostly positive verdict: Sonny loved it, praising the tactile, brushstroke-heavy animation style (reminiscent of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), the novel choice t…
TMNT Through the Years
This is a short bonus episode, taped as a companion to the crew's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem review, in which Mike, JVL, and Sonny skip the usual banter and dive straight into a history of the TMNT franc…
'Arnold'
The main event is Netflix's three-part documentary Arnold, on which Sonny is rapturous — he calls it "pure hagiography and I love it," declares Arnold Schwarzenegger the living embodiment of the American dream, and singl…
Schwarzenegger Draft!
This short bonus episode, recorded straight after the crew's review of the Arnold documentary, skips the usual opening banter entirely and jumps right into a three-round snake draft of Schwarzenegger's filmography, with …
'Strays'
Strays — the R-rated animated comedy in which Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx voice foul-mouthed dogs helping an abused pup named Reggie exact revenge on his abusive owner Doug (Will Forte) by biting off his genitals — earns…
'Gran Turismo'
The main event is Gran Turismo, which the hosts agree is really a generic sports movie wearing a video-game-movie costume — Sonny compares its beat-for-beat structure to Rudy or Hoosiers, JVL says it's so formulaic it's …
'The Equalizer 3'
The Equalizer 3, which just posted the second-biggest Labor Day opening of all time behind Shang-Chi, wins over all three hosts. Sonny, who watched all three Equalizer films back-to-back-to-back in the days beforehand, t…
'The Beanie Bubble'
The main event is The Beanie Bubble (Apple TV+), the Ty Warner/Beanie Babies biopic co-directed by OK Go frontman Damien Kulash and Al Gore's daughter Kirsten Gore, and the trio lands somewhere between disappointed and g…
'A Haunting in Venice'
The main review covers A Haunting in Venice, Kenneth Branagh's third Hercule Poirot outing (with Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver and Michelle Yeoh as the séance medium), and all three hosts land somewhere positive: Sonny give…
Coming Friday: 'Dumb Money'
The main review is Dumb Money, Craig Gillespie's dramatization of the 2021 GameStop meme-stock squeeze, and the three hosts land in very different places: JVL says he may not have seen a better movie all year, loving it …
'Theater Camp' (Hulu)
A two-man show, with Mike Warren off in Hawaii on a childless getaway with his wife, as Sonny and JVL review Theater Camp, the Hulu mockumentary about a scrappy Adirondacks arts program facing foreclosure. Both come away…
'Street Fighter'
JVL delivers the "big boy review" of the 1994 Street Fighter, the Jean-Claude Van Damme/Raul Julia cult disaster he calls "our generation's Flash Gordon" — a movie so bad it's amazing, split into two simultaneous films: …
Taylor, The Creator
This double-feature episode splits time between The Creator and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, with all three hosts — Mike, Sonny, and JVL — agreeing that The Creator is a visually gorgeous but derivative disappointment, e…
'Midnight Run' (Netflix)
The main event is Martin Brest's 1988 buddy comedy Midnight Run, newly on Netflix, and all three hosts land in the same enthusiastic place: Sonny calls it a charming, near-flawless hangout movie even while grousing that …
'Old Dads' (Netflix)
The main review is Bill Burr's Netflix directorial debut Old Dads, and both Sonny and JVL land on roughly the same verdict: frequently funny, especially whenever the central trio (Burr, Bobby Cannavale, and Bokeem Woodbi…
'No Hard Feelings' (Netflix)
The main review is No Hard Feelings, freshly landed on Netflix after its theatrical run, and all three hosts land somewhere between fond and enthusiastic without going overboard: Sonny calls it funny but says "I like thi…
'The Marvels'
With JVL out, Sonny and Mike carry a two-man episode dissecting The Marvels, which opened to a franchise-worst $46 million (worse in raw dollars than even The Incredible Hulk) and, per Sonny, has no ceiling above roughly…
'Moonlighting' (Hulu)
Taped the evening before Thanksgiving with all three hosts a little tipsy, the back third of this episode is a genuinely loving deep dive into the Moonlighting pilot (now streaming on Hulu), which all three watched ahead…
'A Murder at the End of the World'
The main event is the first three episodes of A Murder at the End of the World (FX on Hulu), Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij's Agatha Christie-meets-AI-thriller starring Emma Corrin as hacker/true-crime author Darby Hart…
'The Holdovers' (VOD)
The main review covers The Holdovers, Alexander Payne's Christmas-break dramedy starring Paul Giamatti as a hidebound classics-prep teacher forced to babysit stranded students, newcomer Dominic Sessa as the prickly holdo…
'Godzilla Minus One'
The main event is Godzilla Minus One, the Toho entry that's become the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film ever released in America, and all three hosts are big fans. Sonny loves that this Gojira is played straigh…
'Die Hard'
This Christmas episode is a full-throated love letter to Die Hard (1988), with Sonny, JVL, and Mike unanimous that it's about as close to a perfect movie as exists. Sonny leads the review praising the gallery of vividly …
Reacher Season 2, Episode 1: A Big Man Cometh.
This short Christmas-day bonus episode launches a new recurring format — Sonny, JVL, and Mike recapping Reacher Season 2 week by week — with no movie verdicts to weigh in on, since it's a TV check-in rather than a film r…
'The Iron Claw'
The main event is The Iron Claw, Sean Durkin's A24 film about the tragedy-riddled Von Erich wrestling dynasty, and the three hosts land in different places: Sonny loves it as a shameless "male weepy" precision-tuned to h…
Reacher Season 2, Episode 2: The One in AC
This short bonus episode is a week-by-week recap of Reacher Season 2, Episode 2 ("The One in AC"), and all three hosts agree it's the platonic ideal of a filler episode: Reacher accidentally cold-cocks an undercover NYPD…
'Ferrari'
The main event is Ferrari, Michael Mann's long-gestating film (in development since screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin's death in 2009) about Enzo Ferrari's make-or-break 1957 season, starring Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, a…
'Reacher' (Season 3, Episode 3)
A short bonus episode covering Reacher Season 2, Episode 3, which Mike and Sonny agree is a big step up from the filler of the week before, while JVL calls it a "jump the shark moment" and spends much of the episode fixa…
'The Beekeeper'
JVL is off in San Francisco this week, so it's a two-man "dudes chatting" show, and Mike and Sonny both come away loving The Beekeeper, Jason Statham's Gen-X-avenger action vehicle: Sonny calls it "the platonic ideal" of…
'Reacher' Season 2, Episode 4
This is a short bonus recap of Reacher Season 2, Episode 4, with just Mike and Sonny (JVL off this week), and both admit going in that they can barely remember what happened — Sonny compares the show to The Walking Dead,…
'The Family Plan'
Sonny, JVL, and Mike take up The Family Plan (2023), the Apple TV+ action comedy in which Mark Wahlberg plays a retired hitman hiding his past from his suburban family, and split three ways on it: Mike loved it, calling …
'Reacher' Season 2 Episode 5
This short bonus episode has Mike, Sonny, and JVL running through Reacher Season 2, Episode 5, "The Burial," which finally reveals the macguffin (missile guidance chips hidden in trailers) and centers on a cemetery shoot…
'Killers of the Flower Moon'
The main event is Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Martin Scorsese's three-and-a-half-hour drama about the murders of the Osage people over their oil headrights, and only Sonny actually finished it: he calls it "great …
Reacher, S2E6
This short bonus episode covers Reacher Season 2, Episode 6, which Mike declares the best episode of the season so far, with Sonny agreeing it beats the previous week's set piece for coherence; JVL is more begrudging, sa…
'Argylle'
Sonny, JVL, and Mike take on Matthew Vaughn's mega-budget spy comedy Argylle (2024), starring Bryce Dallas Howard as a novelist who turns out to secretly be the real Agent Argylle, alongside Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, D…
Reacher Season 2 Episode 7
A short bonus recap episode on Reacher Season 2, Episode 7, the penultimate installment before the finale. The hosts open by griping that Amazon has rolled out ads on its original programming ($2.99/month to remove them)…
'The Greatest Night in Pop'
All three hosts turn to The Greatest Night in Pop (2024), the Netflix documentary about the making of "We Are the World," with Sonny leading the praise — he calls its 96-minute runtime exactly right and singles out the e…
Reacher Season Two Finale
This short bonus episode has Sonny, JVL, and Mike recapping the Reacher Season 2 finale, and the verdict is unanimous disappointment. Sonny and Mike single out the one genuinely satisfying "feat of strength" — Reacher ho…
'Madame Web'
Mike, JVL, and Sonny take wildly different positions on Madame Web (2024), Sony's Dakota Johnson-led Spider-Man spinoff. Sonny is scathing, walking through the plot's incoherence in detail and zeroing in on the villain's…
'Hail, Caesar!'
The main event is a discussion of the Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar! (2016), joined by special guest Father Harrison Ayer, a longtime friend of the show who says he watches the film three or four times a year and counts it…
'Dune: Part Two'
All three hosts review Dune: Part Two, which topped the box office in its opening weekend with $82.5 million. Sonny is the most positive of the three: he loves the scale and sound design, singles out Javier Bardem's Stil…
'Kung Fu Panda 4'
Sonny, JVL, and Mike all land on the same verdict for Kung Fu Panda 4: harmless, forgettable, and weirdly insubstantial for a premise that should be an easy comedic layup. Sonny — admitting he's never seen a prior Kung F…
'Ghostbusters'
Mike, Sonny, and JVL open with an extended dive into the Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal—his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara allegedly stealing $4.7 million to cover illegal-bookie debts—spinning out Pete Rose and Michael Jord…
'Road House' (1989)
Sonny, JVL, and Mike gather for a rare three-way rave over Road House (1989), the Patrick Swayze bar-rescue classic, watched against the new Jake Gyllenhaal remake. Sonny declares it "the most 80s movie ever made" and th…
'The Omen' (1976)
JVL is off this week, leaving Mike Warren and Sonny to cover The Omen (1976), Richard Donner's Gregory Peck/Lee Remick chiller, and both come away impressed. Sonny frames it not as horror but as a 1970s paranoid thriller…
'Monkey Man'
On Monkey Man, Dev Patel's directorial debut and star vehicle, Sonny hands out a "half-hearted thumbs up," praising the brutal knife-fight choreography and especially Sharlto Copley's scenery-chewing South African-accent…
'Ex Machina'
Sonny, JVL, and Mike are all present, though Vic's absence is keenly felt since, as JVL puts it, this is "the most Vic movie" they could possibly review, prompting running bits where Mike attempts a "Vic Matus" impressio…
'The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare'
Sonny frames The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare as both a real-life Inglorious Basterds/Dirty Dozen yarn about a declassified WWII U-boat sabotage mission and as Guy Ritchie's audition reel for James Bond, arguing the…
'Challengers'
The main event is Luca Guadagnino's tennis-threesome drama Challengers, and Sonny likes it a lot without loving it, praising it as the rare tennis movie to nail the sport's mental game and comparing Zendaya's Tashi to La…
'Unfrosted'
Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix absurdist comedy Unfrosted, a Pop-Tart-origin-story spoof pitched somewhere between Airplane! and Mel Brooks, leaves all three hosts frustrated rather than firmly for or against it. Sonny wanted …
'Planet of the Apes' (1968, Hulu)
The hosts revisit the 1968 original Planet of the Apes (streaming on Hulu), part of their running habit of watching a classic instead of engaging with a lousy legacy sequel. Sonny gives it a fond, qualified review — a ge…
'The Fall Guy'
All three hosts are enthusiastic about David Leitch's The Fall Guy, though each brings a different caveat: Sonny gives it a positive review but complains the Tom Ryder villain subplot never pays off thematically, pitchin…
'Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior'
This episode centers on George Miller's Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, and while the hosts agree it's the film that defined the post-apocalyptic genre's entire visual grammar, they split on how it stacks up against Mad Max…
'MoviePass, MovieCrash' (Max)
Sonny, JVL, and Mike all land in the same place on the Max documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash: a genuinely wild business story told incompetently. Sonny walks through the actual MoviePass math (losing money on every ticke…
'Bad Boys II' (Hulu)
This bonus rewatch episode revisits Michael Bay's 2003 Bad Boys II, prompted by the theatrical release of Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and the trio land on wildly different verdicts. Sonny is rapturous, declaring it "500 stars…
'Inside Out 2'
The hosts are split on Pixar's Inside Out 2, and JVL is the most dramatic holdout of all: he refused to even watch it, using the review slot to deliver a full anti-Pixar manifesto in which he declares he's become "smart"…
'Brats'
Andrew McCarthy's Hulu documentary Brats, in which he revisits the 1985 New York magazine "Brat Pack" article that he believes shattered his career and psyche, leaves all three hosts howling with secondhand embarrassment…
'How to Rob a Bank' (Netflix)
Mike Warren is out this week, leaving Sonny and JVL to fly solo on Netflix's true-crime documentary How to Rob a Bank, and both come away high on it: Sonny praises its tight 87-minute runtime, its original (non-adapted) …
'Beverly Hills Cop' (Netflix, P+)
This week the hosts revisit the original 1984 Beverly Hills Cop on the occasion of its new Netflix sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, and all three land on real affection for the original. Sonny, rewatching for the first …
'Miami Vice'
The trio revisit Michael Mann's 2006 Miami Vice, prompted by a bizarre film-Twitter meltdown over who's "allowed" to love the movie. Sonny is effusive, calling it (alongside Heat) one of Mann's two best films, arguing it…
'Twisters'
The main event is Twisters, which all three hosts enjoy without quite calling it good: Sonny loves it even while granting it's "not a very good movie precisely," relishing its go-for-broke plot — a traumatized storm-chas…
Quiet on Set (Max)
With Sonny "on assignment," Mike and JVL carry the show alone to dig into the Max docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, and both come away rattled. JVL, who never had cable growing up and expected a fun Blac…
'Trap'
With JVL and Mike Warren both away, Sonny hosts a fill-in panel of Kristen Soltis-Anderson (KSA) and Mary Katherine Hamm (MKH) to review M. Night Shyamalan's Trap, and all three land in roughly the same place: the movie …
'Deadpool & Wolverine' (Theaters)
The hosts are split, and mostly sour, on Deadpool & Wolverine despite its status as the highest-grossing R-rated film ever (past a billion worldwide, and it edged out Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us and a stumbling Twis…
'The Instigators' (AppleTV+)
All three hosts love The Instigators, the Apple TV+ Boston heist comedy starring Matt Damon (as ex-Marine Rory) and Casey Affleck (as boozy schemer Cobby), who are hired to rob a corrupt mayor's election-night party; Son…
'The Crow' (Paramount+)
The hosts revisit the 1994 The Crow — streaming on Paramount+ — in the same week the 2024 remake face-planted with a $4.6 million opening. Sonny is the harshest, calling it a bad movie on nearly every level: mediocre act…
'Beetlejuice'
The main event is the 1988 original Beetlejuice, not the new sequel, and the trio splits sharply: Sonny loves it and delivers a mini-lecture on uncredited script doctor Warren Skerrin, crediting him with stripping the fi…
Greg Maddux and The Sphere
This is a main-show deep dive on One of a Kind: The Story of Greg Maddux, the MLB Network documentary that JVL and Mike watched (and adored) while Sonny refused to sign up for MLB TV even for the free trial, leaving him …
'Land of Bad'
The main event is a rare unanimous rave: Sonny, JVL, and Mike all love Land of Bad, the Russell Crowe/Liam Hemsworth military-thriller now streaming on Netflix (after a modest theatrical run), praising it as a "pure uncu…
'Transformers One' (Theaters)
The main event is Transformers One, the animated origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, and the three hosts split hard on it: Sonny, who took his five-year-old, calls it merely fine, dings it for going almost an hou…
'The Wild Robot'
Sonny and Mike both love The Wild Robot, calling it visually stunning DreamWorks animation in the Pixar sentimental mode, while JVL dismisses it as "the prettiest piece of emotional blackmail ever" and launches into a fu…
'Mr. McMahon' (Eps. 3 and 4)
With Mike Warren off, Sonny and JVL spend the episode digging into the Netflix documentary Mr. McMahon, episodes three and four, and both come away more impressed than JVL expected — he calls it "the best conceived docum…
'Saturday Night'
The main event is Jason Reitman's Saturday Night, dramatizing the chaotic 90 minutes before the first-ever broadcast of Saturday Night Live in 1975, with Gabriel LaBelle playing a young Lorne Michaels. Sonny found it amu…
'Woman of the Hour'
All three hosts rave about Woman of the Hour (Netflix), Anna Kendrick's confident directorial debut, in which she also stars as the real 1978 Dating Game contestant who unwittingly matched with serial killer Rodney Alcal…
'The Terminator'
For the 40th anniversary of The Terminator, Sonny calls it "a perfect film" — one that sets out to do a specific thing and does it with total efficiency and no false notes — praising James Cameron's miniature and stop-mo…
No Episode This Week!
There's no real episode this week — Mike was traveling for work and Sonny was in Austin for a wedding, so instead of a full show Sonny records a short solo bonus ramble in place of the usual trio banter. Most of it is on…
'Hot Frosty' (Netflix)
The trio tackles Hot Frosty, Netflix's number-one movie of the moment, and land in wildly different places: Sonny is weirdly moved by it, spinning out an extended (semi-facetious) Christological reading in which Dustin M…
'Gladiator'
With Gladiator II looming, Mike, Sonny, and JVL rewatch Ridley Scott's 2000 original and both reviewers end up loving it: Sonny calls himself as devoted a quoter of the film as Joey Pants in The Sopranos and rhapsodizes …
'Return to Oz'
This supersized Thanksgiving episode is devoted to Return to Oz (1985), which Sonny corrects himself/JVL on: it was directed not by Frank Oz but by legendary editor Walter Murch (The Conversation, Godfather Part II), a f…
'Moana 2' (Theaters)
Sonny and Mike (with JVL present for most of it) dig into Moana 2 and, along the way, Moana, after Mike watched the original for the first time this week; both agree the sequel is a disappointment, with Sonny calling it …
'Interstellar' 10th Anniversary
With Mike Warren out, Sonny and JVL devote the whole episode to Christopher Nolan's Interstellar on the occasion of its tenth-anniversary IMAX 70mm re-release, and split hard on it: Sonny drove to a sold-out 8am Wednesda…
'Red One'
The main event is Red One, the $250-300 million Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans Christmas action-comedy about the North Pole's head of security teaming with a rogue thief to rescue a kidnapped Santa (J.K. Simmons). JVL gives …
'A Complete Unknown'
With JVL out sick (Mike insists it's just a cold, not the norovirus going around), Sonny and Mike carry the show alone to review A Complete Unknown, James Mangold's Bob Dylan biopic with Timothée Chalamet; Mike loves it …
'Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary'
The main event is Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary (Max/HBO), the 96-minute Bill Simmons-produced documentary on the soft-pop/rock scene of the late '70s and early '80s, and it's a rare unanimous rave. Sonny loves its structur…
'Den of Thieves' (Max)
Sonny gives the "big-boy review" of Den of Thieves (2018, now on Max), pitched as "dirtbag Heat": Gerard Butler chews scenery as the greasy, corrupt LA sheriff's detective Big Nick, chasing a heist crew that includes O'S…
'Severance' (AppleTV+)
This is a TV-recap episode built around the premiere of Severance season two, so there are no Quadrant grades — instead the trio dig into the show itself, with Sonny walking through the innie/outie premise, Mark's grief-…
'This Is the Tom Green Documentary' (Prime Video)
The main event is This Is the Tom Green Documentary, Tom Green's self-directed clip-show autobiography, which the trio finds more interesting as a document of a bizarre pop-culture moment than as a piece of filmmaking. S…
'Mythic Quest'! (Apple TV+)
The main event is Mythic Quest season four on Apple TV+, which Sonny has loved since it debuted (his favorite Apple TV+ show, edging out Ted Lasso and Severance) but finds these first two episodes merely solid rather tha…
'Severance' Midway Bonus!
This is a rare bonus episode, with JVL sitting out entirely (Sonny notes he doesn't keep up with episodic TV) while Mike and Sonny dig into the first half of season two of Severance, which both agree is firing on all cyl…
SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night
The main event is Peacock's four-part documentary SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night, and the trio splits up the episodes: Mike covers the audition-tape episode (a parade of cringe-inducing early reels from Keenan Thompson, P…
'Dog Man' (Theaters)
Mike solo-hosts alongside Sonny and JVL to tackle Dog Man, the DreamWorks adaptation of Dave Pilkey's mega-selling kids' books, which Sonny (whose own six-year-old loved it) pitches as essentially "RoboCop for kids" — a …
'Conclave' (Peacock)
The main event is Conclave, which Sonny calls a glossy "airport novel" of a movie — silly and predictable through most of its runtime but redeemed for him by a twist ending (the secretly intersex Cardinal from Kabul beco…
'Anora'
The crew tackles this year's Best Picture winner, Anora, Sean Baker's stripper-marries-a-Russian-oligarch's-son dramedy starring Mikey Madison. Sonny gives the deep-dive review, calling it a lesser Baker film than Red Ro…
'Snowpiercer'
The main event is a rewatch of Snowpiercer, and the hosts split hard: Sonny loves it unreservedly, calling it "the dumbest movie that I love" and praising the middle forty minutes of train-storming action (the Yekaterina…
Severance: One Episode Left
This is a stripped-down bonus episode with JVL traveling and absent, so it's just Mike and Sonny diving straight into a full recap of the second half of Severance season two, covering through episode nine ahead of the fi…
David Koepp!
This is a solo bonus episode: with JVL and Mike Warren both out of town, Sonny sits alone in his home office and spends about fifteen minutes riffing on the career of screenwriter David Koepp, the recent collaborator of …
'The Electric State' (Netflix)
The main event is Netflix's The Electric State, and the verdict is unanimous demolition: Sonny calls it a $275 million disaster that looks shockingly cheap, with empty sets, no extras, garish "shot on the volume" lightin…
'Furiosa' (Netflix/Max)
The crew tackles George Miller's Furiosa, now streaming on both Netflix and Max, and lands in surprisingly close agreement: Sonny, JVL, and Mike all find themselves distracted and let down by how fake the movie looks, wi…
'Tommy Boy' (VOD/UHD)
This week's main event is a 30th-anniversary look at Tommy Boy, prompted by its new 4K release, and all three hosts land in the same warm place: Sonny calls it a movie that "no movie has ever benefited more from a 4K upg…
'A Minecraft Movie' (Theaters)
The gang tackles the box-office behemoth that is A Minecraft Movie, now in its second week atop the charts en route to a billion-dollar worldwide haul, and the verdicts split hard along generational lines: Sonny calls it…
'Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'
The gang marks the 20th-anniversary theatrical rerelease of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and the trio splits hard: Sonny is a genuine defender, ranking it the third-best Star Wars film behind Empire and A…
'Havoc' (Netflix)
This week's movie is Netflix's Gareth Evans-directed action pic Havoc, starring Tom Hardy as a dirty-cop-with-a-heart-of-gold caught between crooked partners, a Chinese mob, and a mayoral candidate (Forest Whitaker) whos…
Thunderbolts* (Theaters)
The main event is Thunderbolts, and the three hosts land in three different places: Sonny gives it a straightforward thumbs up, calling it a fun, well-built standalone "hangout movie" with a genuine emotional arc, and pr…
'Andor,' Season 2 (Disney+)
The main event is the second and final season of Andor, which Sonny and Mike both adore while JVL, who only grudgingly watched a handful of episodes at their urging, remains a holdout. Sonny calls it the best-plotted, mo…
'Friendship' (Theaters)
This episode centers on A24's Friendship, and it produces a rare split: JVL refuses to even watch it, having read the trailer description and the Wikipedia synopsis and deciding the premise — a friendless, arm-flailing w…
'M:I—The Final Reckoning'
This truncated, technical-difficulties-plagued episode centers on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise's final outing as Ethan Hunt, which the trio dissects as an unusually idea-driven entry in the franc…
'Lilo & Stitch' (2002) (Disney+)
Sonny, JVL, and Mike Warren revisit the original 2002 animated Lilo & Stitch (only Sonny has actually seen the new live-action Disney+ remake, which topped the box office again despite a steep 57% second-weekend drop). A…
'The Fountain of Youth' (AppleTV+)
The main event is Guy Ritchie's Fountain of Youth (Apple TV+), the John Krasinski/Natalie Portman/Aiza Gonzalez/Domhnall Gleason globe-trotting treasure hunt about paintings, the Wicked Bible, and a family-feud-powered i…
Civ VI (Netflix)
This week's "movie" is a video game: Civilization VI via Netflix's mobile-gaming tie-in, and all three hosts land in the same miserable place. Sonny declares it flatly the worst game he's ever played, blaming both the sh…
Titan: The Oceangate Disaster
The main event is Titan: The Oceangate Disaster, Netflix's documentary about Stockton Rush and the implosion of his homemade carbon-fiber submersible. Sonny calls it a straightforward, somewhat visually dull talking-head…
'F1: The Movie'
Mike is out this week, so Sonny hosts alongside JVL and special guest Kristen Soltis Anderson — the show's resident "Cars Go Vroom correspondent" and a genuine F1 diehard — for a review of F1: The Movie, and the verdict …
'The Lost Park: Jurassic World' (Peacock)
The main event is a rewatch review of The Lost World: Jurassic Park (now streaming on Peacock), pegged to the box-office monster that is Jurassic World Rebirth ($148 million opening weekend). Sonny delivers the meatiest …
'Superman' (Theaters)
The main event is James Gunn's Superman, which all three hosts genuinely loved despite mocking its sheer goofiness. Sonny calls it one of the silliest movies ever built around marquee intellectual property — Crypto the S…
Coming Right Now: 'Caddyshack'
This is a rewatch episode marking the 45th anniversary of Caddyshack, and the three hosts split sharply: Sonny confesses he has never loved the movie, finding its "cocaine movie" looseness and country-club milieu less ap…
'Happy Gilmore 2' (Netflix)
The main event is Happy Gilmore 2 on Netflix, and the trio splits hard: Sonny hated it, calling out the bloated, morbid legacy-sequel plotting (Happy's wife is killed off, a graveyard scene reveals how many original cast…
'The Naked Gun' (Theaters)
The main event is the new Naked Gun reboot starring Liam Neeson, which Sonny reviews as very funny but ultimately a bit slight: he admires its old-school Zucker/Abrams/Zucker joke-density (a gag every few seconds, plus o…
'Americana'
The main event is Americana, Tony Tost's long-shelved modern Western about a stolen Lakota ghost shirt, and it splits the panel: Sonny (with an assist from Mike, who gives the cleaner pitch) explains that Lionsgate burie…
'KPop Demon Hunters' (Netflix)
This episode centers on Netflix's runaway hit KPop Demon Hunters, and the trio lands in three different places on it: Sonny raves that it's the best original animated kids' movie since Frozen or Encanto, driven by genuin…
'Jaws' at 50
This episode marks the 50th anniversary of Jaws, and all three hosts are effusive about it even as they argue over its place in the Spielberg canon. Mike saw the new 4K theatrical re-release at the Alamo and raves that i…
'Spinal Tap'
With the unnecessary sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hitting theaters, the crew revisits the 1984 original, and it's a near-unanimous rave: Sonny calls it "kind of a perfect movie," singling out the Stonehenge se…
Super-Sized Robert Redford (ish) Episode!
This is a Robert Redford tribute episode, prompted by his death earlier that week, built around a draft of the crew's favorite films from his career rather than a standard review. Sonny leads off by arguing Redford's big…
'Boogie Nights'
With Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another newly in theaters, the crew rewinds to his 1997 breakout Boogie Nights rather than reviewing a new release. Sonny walks through his own viewing history with the film a…
'The Karate Kid' (Netflix)
Prompted by the arrival of the reviled Karate Kid Legends on Netflix, the trio instead rewatch the 1984 original, and it's a rare unanimous rave: Sonny calls it a shining example of highly competent, visually literate st…
'Tron' (Disney+)
The gang tackles the 1982 original Tron, and the verdict is nearly unanimous derision: Sonny delivers a full-throated takedown, calling the costumes cheap-looking foam-rubber garbage even by 1982 standards (especially ne…
'John Candy: I Like Me' (Prime Video) (Hopefully With Audio this Time!)
This week Mike Warren hosts alongside Sonny Bunch and JVL for a review of John Candy: I Like Me, Colin Hanks's Prime Video talking-head documentary about the beloved comedian, and all three come away charmed rather than …
'Downey Wrote That'
This week's main topic is the Peacock documentary Downey Wrote That, chronicling SNL's legendary writer Jim Downey, and all three hosts came away charmed: Sonny calls it "the perfect length," praising how it lays out Dow…
'Mr. Scorsese' (AppleTV+)
The main event is Apple TV+'s five-part Rebecca Miller documentary Mr. Scorsese, which the trio split up and watched piecemeal: Sonny took the broad overview, JVL watched the episode on the collapse of the New Hollywood …
'Predator'
This episode is a deep dive on John McTiernan's 1987 Predator, with Sonny leading the charge by declaring it a genuine "perfect movie" — an efficiently told, visually sharp action-horror-sports hybrid that nails everythi…
'The Running Man' (1987) (Paramount+)
The main event is 1987's The Running Man, timed to the Edgar Wright remake hitting theaters, and the hosts split sharply: Sonny finds it merely "fine," a cheap-looking, chintzy production that he remembers being better o…
'Now You See Me' (Peacock) (With Audio!)
With Now You See Me: Now You Don't topping the box office (on soft numbers, alongside disappointing holds for Predator: Badlands and Glenn Powell's The Running Man), the crew uses the moment to rewatch the 2013 original,…
'The Wizard of Oz at Sphere'
This is a "field trip" episode rather than a standard review: Sonny recounts seeing The Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas, a 70-minute reconstruction of the 1939 MGM classic in which the original actors have been rotos…
'Zootopia'
This episode is a rewatch/discussion of the original Zootopia (2016), timed to the blockbuster opening of Zootopia 2, which the hosts note has already grossed over $560 million worldwide, including a startling $271 milli…
The Definitive Ten Best Christmas Movies
Skipping the usual dudes-chatting banter, the trio dedicates this special episode to building a collaborative "definitive" ten-best Christmas movies list rather than a competitive draft. Sonny goes first with an eclectic…
RIP, Rob Reiner
This is a shaken, elegiac episode recorded four days after Rob Reiner's murder, built around a rewatch of The Princess Bride as an excuse to eulogize him. Sonny, who wrote The Bulwark's Reiner obituary, makes the case th…
'Anaconda' (With Audio This Time!)
With JVL out for the week, Mike and Sonny do a rare one-on-one covering the 1997 creature-feature classic Anaconda, prompted by the release of the 2025 Paul Rudd/Jack Black remake. Sonny delivers an enthusiastic ode to t…
'Wake Up Dead Man' (Netflix)
The main event is Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson's third Benoit Blanc film, and all three hosts are effusive: Sonny calls it the best-looking of the trilogy (crediting cinematographer Steve Yedlin) …
'Stranger Things'
This is a wrap-up episode on Netflix's One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 and Stranger Things as a whole, and the trio splits hard on both. JVL, who has watched zero minutes of the actual show, sits thro…
'The Rip' (Netflix)
The main event is Joe Carnahan's Netflix cop thriller The Rip, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as maybe-corrupt Miami detectives, and the three hosts land in three different places on it: Sonny calls it "the perfect …
'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'
Marking the 25th anniversary theatrical rerelease, the crew devotes the back half of the show to unanimous, grade-free adoration of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Sonny calls it the best of the trilog…
'Best in Show' (Also: RIP Catherine O'Hara)
This is a tribute episode built around the sudden death of Catherine O'Hara, anchored by a rewatch of Christopher Guest's Best in Show. Sonny calls it consistently, relentlessly funny and singles out O'Hara's Cookie Flec…
'Cool Runnings'
This episode's movie is Cool Runnings, the 1993 John Candy underdog classic about the Jamaican bobsled team, and all three hosts are fans: Sonny calls it one of his favorite John Candy movies and a "perfectly charming" u…
RIP, Robert Duvall
JVL is off this week, so Mike and Sonny fly solo, opening with Mike's saga of coaching his son's short-handed second-grade basketball team (a blowout loss made worse by a rival coach who refused to pull his star player) …
Dudes Chatting: The Episode
With Mike sidelined this week, Sonny and JVL turn in a loose, review-free "dudes chatting" episode that spends its whole runtime on shaggy-dog banter and family-movie mishaps rather than a single verdict. They open with …
'Scream' (1996)
With Scream 7 topping the box office, the crew heads back to Wes Craven's 1996 original, and the verdict is near-unanimous adoration: Sonny calls it the high-water mark of the slasher genre, arguing it "did to the slashe…
Young Sherlock!
With Sonny off in Paris (JVL reports a photo of the younger Bunch child looking thoroughly unimpressed by Rodin's The Thinker), Mike and JVL carry the episode solo to dig into Amazon Prime's Young Sherlock, Guy Ritchie's…
'Project Hail Mary'
With JVL off on assignment, Sonny and Mike hold down the fort to review Project Hail Mary, the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller adaptation of the Andy Weir novel, and both come away delighted: Sonny calls it "one of the …
'Nobody'/'Nobody 2'
Mike is out this week, so Sonny and JVL fly solo through a discussion of Nobody and Nobody 2, the Bob Odenkirk assassin franchise JVL watched on flights to and from Texas. JVL is surprisingly fond of both films, calling …
Super Mario Movies
The gang tackles the new animated sequel The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and the verdict is brutal: Mike calls it possibly the worst movie he's seen in a long time, dozing off twice in the theater despite his second-grader…
'Daredevil' (2003)
With JVL out this week (Sonny relays well-wishes after cracking a fake "leg amputation" joke), Mike Warren and Sonny Bunch fly solo to tackle 2003's Daredevil, and Sonny's verdict lands squarely between two dueling liste…
The Best Breads, Ranked
This is a "zag" bonus episode built around Katie Heaney's (referred to by the hosts, slightly mangled, as "Katie Weaver") sprawling Atlantic piece on the best free restaurant bread in America, which all three hosts rave …
'The Devil Wears Prada'
The main event is a rewatch of The Devil Wears Prada (2006), timed to the theatrical release of its sequel, and Sonny delivers an enthusiastic defense built on his theory that the film is secretly a sports movie — a gree…
'Hulk Hogan: Real American' (Netflix)
The main event is Netflix's four-part Hulk Hogan: Real American, which all three hosts watch and largely admire even as they pick apart its function as WWE-sanctioned propaganda: Sonny calls it a "worked shoot" — an offi…
'Master And Commander: The Far Side of the World'
This episode is a deep dive on Peter Weir's 2003 seafaring epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and the hosts split into two camps: Sonny and Mike are unabashed admirers who praise it as a classy, handso…
'The Sheep Detectives'
The main review is The Sheep Detectives (based on the novel Three Bags Full), a family film about a flock of sheep who solve their shepherd's murder using tricks gleaned from the Agatha Christie mysteries he used to read…
'Marty, Life Is Short'
The main event is Marty: Life Is Short, the talking-head documentary about Martin Short, and all three hosts come away warmer on him than they expected. Sonny says he doesn't quite know how to review it as a movie — it b…
'Masters of the Universe' (1987)
The gang tackles the 1987 Golan-Globus curio Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor, with Sonny leading the charge: he calls it a cheap-button blender of Superman, Star …
'Minority Report'
The main event is a rewatch of Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, timed to the announcement of his forthcoming film "Disclosure Day," and all three hosts land firmly in the same place: this is a genuinely great, top-fiv…
Toy Stories
This is a franchise retrospective ahead of Toy Story 5, with Sonny delivering the "big boy review" of the whole saga: he calls Toy Story 3 the near-consensus masterpiece (he says Tarantino has called it the best film of …
Supergirl (1984)
This is a rewatch/big-boy-review episode built around the 1984 Supergirl, which Sonny, JVL, and Mike all agree is a genuine disaster — Mike says he texted the others mid-viewing asking "what the fuck is this movie" and c…
'Supergirl' (2026)
With JVL out for family reasons, Mike Warren and Sonny Bunch hold down the fort for a review of Supergirl (2026), starring Millie Alcock as a boozy, grief-stricken Kara on an intergalactic pub crawl who gets tangled up w…