Matt's Movie Lodgecast

We made it to Lodgecast Episode 150! We wanted to make this a special episode so we reserved the spot for the new robot horror movie M3GAN. Ever since the 4-bone M3GAN trailer dropped last year, the entire World has been abuzz about M3GAN. Who is this artificially intelligent doll turned fashion icon? Well we found out, and accurately predicted that this film is just the start of the M3GAN franchise as M3GAN 2.0 has already been green-lit for release in 2025. This first M3GAN movie stars Amie Donald as M3GAN with Jenna Davis supplying M3GAN's voice. Allison Williams plays M3GAN's creator and Violet McGraw plays the girl who becomes attached to M3GAN. As artificial intelligence rapidly advances and wreaks havoc on our lives and livelihoods, M3GAN will be there to remind us of the terrors we are actively unleashing!

As flash floods spread across Los Angeles, we risked our lives driving through torrential rain to see Damien Chazelle's 3-hour Hollywood epic Babylon. The movie massively flopped at the box office losing over $100 million, and it divided critics and audiences alike who either loved or hated it. It was rated R for severe sex & nudity, violence, drug use, profanity, and elephant defecation. We definitely had to see it on the big screen! The movie is set in the late 1920s and early 1930s as motion pictures transitioned from silent films to talkies. It stars Margot Robbie as a very coked-up aspiring actress, Brad Pitt as an aging silent film star, and Diego Calva as a film assistant who bears witness to the whole extravaganza. The movie has excellent supporting roles including Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Lukas Haas, Katherine Waterston, Tobey Maguire, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze, and even the great Eric Roberts! You might love it or you might hate it, but you owe it to yourself to witness

Lodgemaster braved the icy Minnesota tundra with a duo of extra special guests to witness a cinematic dramatization of the tumultuous life and times of the incomparable Whitney Houston. The pitch perfect cast features Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, Clarke Peters and Law & Order SVU's very own Tamara Tunie. Press play, pop some bubbly and dance with somebody!

There's a new Avatar movie out in theaters called Avatar: The Way of Water. We saw it opening weekend in 3D high-frame-rate IMAX. This movie took James Cameron over ten years to make! Is it better than Avatar (2009)? Will it gross more than any film ever? Who is this "Spider" character everyone keeps talking about? All these questions will be answered as we dive into this epic sci-fi film that ran 3 Hrs. 12 Min. Sam Worthington as Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri are back and married with children, including Sigourney Weaver as their teenage daughter Kiri Sully. Even villain Stephen Lang is back! Kate Winslet, Edie Falco, and Jemaine Clement also make appearances. But the real star is Jack Champion as "Spider". We'll tell you all about "Spider" and much more in our travel review of our epic return to Pandora!

Holy Smokeo! There were two major Pinocchio films that came out late this year and we opted for the most painful one! Director Robert Zemeckis, the genius behind the movie Welcome to Marwen (2018), has returned with a direct-to-Disney-Plus live-action remake of Walt Disney's beloved 1940 animated film Pinocchio. We knew this one was gonna hurt, but we were unprepared for the level of pain Zemeckis was going to inflict upon us this time. Will this $150 million soulless production finally put an end to Zemeckis's career?! Probably not! Tom Hanks is Geppetto, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth is the voice of Pinocchio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the voice of Jiminy Cricket, Keegan-Michael Key is the voice of "Honest" John, Cynthia Erivo is The Blue Fairy, and Lorraine Bracco is the voice of a new seagull character called Sofia. Brace yourselves for Pinocchio and have a Happy New Year! Holy Smokeo!

Merry Chongsmas and Happy Chongnukkah! Yes indeed we did see the lauded new Spielberg film The Fabelmans AKA Spielberg: The Boy Genius Origin Story. Oh man do we have things to say about this film! As it is going to be bulldozing its way through awards season, we have to try to inject some sense of sanity into the Spielberg-worshipping publicity machine. We went into this film with open minds and hearts, but after watching all 2 hours and 30 minutes, we came out with some harsh words for our boy Spielberg. This film is now on VOD so watch it and then hear our take. Or if you can't stomach watching it, just listen to us. And if you loved the film, then hear us out. It'll give you much to talk about over the holiday dinner table. The film stars Gabriel LaBelle as the boy wonder Sammy Fabelman, Michelle Williams as his mom Mitzi Fabelman, Paul Dano as his dad Burt Fabelman, and a horribly miscast Seth Rogen as their friend Bennie. Judd Hirsch also has a small role as Uncle Boris, and there's a very special film

We shed love and light on "Weird Al" Yankovic in this ode to the funny man who played a role in all our childhoods. We introduce this episode with our Weird Al origin stories before we review his new music biopic satire Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The movie is streaming for free on The Roku Channel and stars Daniel Radcliffe as the adult Weird Al, Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, and a legion of other celebrity roles and cameos including Weird Al himself as a record producer. We had a barrel of laughs in this one with mostly glowing things to say. If you're an Alfred Yankovic fan, you have to see Weird: The Al Yankovic Story!

Dine with us on a Tuesday Discount Night as we digest the new black comedy The Menu directed by Mark Mylod. Feast your eyes on actors Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo. Taste each delectable course in this full meal served at this elite dinner where celebrity chef Ralph Fiennes serves up a healthy portion of murder! Savor the flavor of deliciously decadent delights in this spicy hawt take! Yum!

We are drowning in prestige season, so it was time to see one of the most prestigious films of the year entitled Triangle of Sadness. Directed by acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund, this film won the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Set mostly on a luxury cruise, this is a hilarious satirical black comedy making fun of the wealthiest people in the world. It stars Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Buric, Henrik Dorsin, Vicki Berlin, and Woody Harrelson as the drunken cruise ship captain. The Lodgecast recommends seeing Triangle of Sadness!

Happy Thanksgiving! We have a Thanksgiving feast of a Lodgecast today starring none other than Kirk Cameron. It's one of our longest episodes serving up Salad Dragons for everyone. Before we entered this Fathom Event, we went even deeper into our history with Mr. Kirk Cameron. The last Kirk Cameron movie we covered was about homeschooling, but this heartwarming Christian drama is about adoption. It features a Christlike adopted teenage boy played by Raphael Ruggero, and their perfect adopted parents played by Kirk Cameron and Rebecca Rogers Nelson. There's a lot of crying in this movie, but also some comedic relief in the form of a kid named Nate played by Justin Sterner. Once you've had your turkey and stuffing, feast upon our story about a little faith-based movie called Lifemark. Streaming now exclusively on Pure Flix just in time for seeing it over the Thanksgiving holiday with your family!

We had to cover the new David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream directed by Brett Morgen. For this screening, we brought on an extra special Bowie super-fan as a guest. To start the episode, we all talked about our deep relationship with one of the greatest musical artists of all time. Then we proceeded into the IMAX theater to witness this loud, trippy doc on the big, big screen. Certainly not your average talking-head interview rock doc, we were treated to a 140-minute spectacle that features tons of amazing Bowie footage and music. We'll tell you all about it, but needless to say it is recommended viewing for Bowie fans!

Olivia Wilde's new film Don't Worry Darling is now streaming on HBO Max. We saw it a while back in IMAX and gave our gut reactions. Florence Pugh is living in an idyllic 1950s-styled neighborhood, but not everything is what it seems. We've seen this scenario before. Harry Styles plays her husband, and her neighbors include Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, and Nick Kroll. Chris Pine plays the sinister mastermind behind the planned community and his character was apparently modeled after psychologist and author Jordan Peterson. There's a twist in this one that we will spoil, so you've been warned!

With Election Day right around the corner, the Lodgecast drops a bombshell episode covering the new movie from Breitbart News called My Son Hunter directed by Robert Davi. In this cast we'll expose all things Hunter Biden and cover The Laptop from Hell! The movie was filmed in Serbia and stars Brit actor Laurence Fox as Hunter Biden, John James as U.S. president Joe Biden, and Gina Carano as secret service Agent Hound. Emma Gojkovic plays the fictional hooker with a heart of gold who hears Hunter's story and decides to tell all! We will tell you all we saw and more in this highly politicized episode of the Lodgecast!

Episode 140 - Halloween Ends Review by Matt's Movie Lodge

The new horror movie Smile had been haunting us for quite some time. We had seen the trailer at least a dozen times in the past six months, so it was inevitable that we had to see it on a packed Tuesday discount night. Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick) is the star of this supernatural horror film. She plays a psychiatrist who witnesses a bizarre suicide and then is forced to confront her own sanity after seeing many smiling hallucinations. First time writer/director Parker Finn based this movie on his own short film and this one is quite literally a glorified short. But critics and audiences were mostly delighted by the many jumpscares. We'll let you know what we thought in this hawt take! It's almost time for Halloween!

Warning: This is not a very uplifting film or podcast episode. Filmmaker Gaspar Noe has returned with a film about dementia and death starring Dario Argento, Francoise Lebrun, and Alex Lutz. If you saw the last Gaspar Noe movie we covered called Climax (2018), then this is a wildly different experience. We saw this at the dying and now permanently closed Landmark Theatres' Pico. Vortex has been widely praised and with good reason, but it is depressing as hell! You've been warned!

Lot of buzz around the new film Barbarian so we checked it out to get a hawt take. Zach Cregger is basically a first time writer/director who brought this unique horror film to the screen. Set in Detroit (but filmed in Bulgaria), the film stars Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgard who both check into the same double booked Airbnb. We won't say anything more, but if you're a horror movie fan you probably want to check this film out. Lot of surprises in this one that we thoroughly spoil in this hawt take!

The classic Steven Spielberg film Jaws was re-released into IMAX theaters this Labor Day weekend so we decided to see it big! And we took a Lodger to see it who had somehow never seen it before! The 1975 blockbuster changed the course of cinema and it still holds up today. You know all about it, but we'll mention that it stars Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, and a shark named Bruce! John Williams provides the famous score, and it's based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley, who wrote the screenplay with Carl Gottlieb. We'll talk about all things Jaws and get the full reaction of a person who has never seen it!

September 3rd, 2022 was National Cinema Day and we celebrated by seeing the new horror movie Orphan: First Kill. The theater was packed as everyone was pumped to see the prequel to the 2009 film Orphan. It somehow stars the same actress Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther, along with Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland (son of Donald), and Hiro Kanagawa as a hard-charging detective. This horror movie was directed by William Brent Bell and written by David Coggeshall, and was shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Were we scared? Were we knocked out by the twist? We'll let you know as we celebrate cinema in movie theaters!

Director George Miller returns at the age of 77 with his first feature film since Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). This one is called Three Thousand Years of Longing and stars Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. Based on the 1994 short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" by A. S. Byatt, this movie has Elba star as a genie who tells mythical recollections to a lonely British scholar played by Tilda Swinton. The film crosses many genres and was a box-office bomb, and we definitely think you should see it!