Matt's Movie Lodgecast

The Master of Disaster director Roland Emmerich has returned with a $140 million sci-fi disaster movie called Moonfall. It was a total bomb at the box office with terrible reviews, so we had to see it in IMAX! The stupid plot involves the Moon as a megastructure built by aliens that is now on a collision course with the Earth. Only Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, and John Bradley flying the Space Shuttle Endeavour into the hollow Moon can save the Earth from total annihilation. This hilariously brain-numbing movie drew mixed reactions, but certainly angered one particularly hotheaded Lodgecast host. The movie also stars Michael Pena, Charlie Plummer, and Kelly Yu, with a cameo by Donald Sutherland. Screw the Moon!!

Desktop films meet COVID lockdown films when agoraphobic techie Zoe Kravitz discovers a murder online in Steven Soderbergh's new thriller Kimi. Kimi is a smart speaker much like Siri or Alexa, and Zoe Kravitz's job is to moderate how Kimi is performing. All is well and good until she uses her high tech expertise to pick up the audio of a murder. She is then forced to leave her apartment and confront the hostile outside world. Along the way she has Zoom calls with Robin Givens and Andy Daly, and has to confront Rita Wilson and other villains. We'll let you know how we feel about Soderbergh's latest movie which was written by David Koepp and features a score by Cliff Martinez. It's on HBO Max.

Those Jackass boyz are back for the last time (until the next time)! If you like to hear about boyz getting hit in the nuts, then this is the Lodgecast episode for you! Lots of wieners in the movie. But it's probably a more successful outing than Johnny Knoxville's Action Point (2018), which we covered way back in Episode 11 of the Lodgecast. This movie features Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man, Danger Ehren, Preston Lacy, and some newcomers to the Jackass crew.

Hail Macbeth! It was time for the Lodgecast to take in some theater with Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth. We were tipped off to an IMAX screening and jumped at the chance. We talk all things Shakespeare and Macbeth before we proceeded to this black & white adaptation. While the play is undoubtedly four bones, we had some differing opinions on this version as we hash out what is foul and what is fair about this Joel Coen film. It stars Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. Other actors in the mix are Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, Kathryn Hunter, and Brendan Gleeson.

Scream 5 AKA Scream came out and we went all-in for the Scream film series. Not only did we see the fifth Scream in theaters, but beforehand we watched all four of Wes Craven's Screams in a row! We were well educated into the world of Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, and Ghostface when we entered this one. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette all return for Scream 5, along with a new cast of kids including Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, and Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan). It's directed by the duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Get ready for more slashing and stabbing from the terrorized town of Woodsboro!

Tune in for a Royal Rumble Hawt Take as the Lodgecast argues about one of the most viewed Netflix movies of all time! Writer/director Adam McKay's latest film Don't Look Up sparked much divisive debate about whether its contemporary satire worked or was even funny. The bones are up for debate, but the cast is undeniably great, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, and our boy Timothee Chalamet as Yule. Let us know your thoughts!

A gang of Lodgers traveled to the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood to witness an early screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza in 70mm. We didn't know if we were gonna Lodgecast this one, but after the film we felt compelled to give our first reactions in this hawt take. We briefly discuss our thoughts on writer/director P.T. Anderson before tackling this sprawling film set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973. The movie stars Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, and Benny Safdie. Watch it!

Prepare yourself to get blue pilled! At an AMC Theater in Maple Grove, Minnesota three Lodgers swallowed the blue pill of the fourth movie in The Matrix franchise. We went to the IMAX at the AMC Arbor Lakes 16, which we have learned has since permanently closed! After the movie, as a snow storm began, we piled into a minivan and discussed WHAT is The Matrix, and also WHY is The Matrix in 2021. Director Lana Wachowski has returned and brought back some of the cast from previous matrices including Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lambert Wilson. You'll also see actors like Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and a special Christina Ricci cameo. There's plenty to unpack in this mind-altering episode. Rest in Zion to the AMC Arbor Lakes 16!

Why would Steven Spielberg want to make a straightforward remake of the 1961 Best Picture-winning musical West Side Story? And could such a musical remake be good in the year 2021? The Lodgecast is joined by some magical musical sisters as we try to answer the many questions we had about Spielberg's West Side Story (2021). The Jets face off against the Sharks in Manhattan's West Side, and the movie contains all the classic musical hits written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. The movie stars Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, and Mike Faist. And 90-year-old actress Rita Moreno returns in a new supporting role! As with almost all modern musicals this move was a box office bomb!

Take the cannoli, toss the pizza pie, and slice the garlic so thin that it liquefies in the pan! The Lodgecast is getting extra spicy and Italian in our new episode on House of Gucci! It's all about the day-to-day operations of the Italian fashion brand Gucci. The film is directed by 84-year-old Ridley Scott and stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, a fat-suited Jared Leto, and Al "Dunkaccino" Pacino. We have numerous thoughts about this sensational story of murder, madness, glamour, greed, and Gucci!

Merry Christmas! Celebrate the Christmas holiday with a good Christian movie from director Paul Verhoeven! Travel back to 17th century Italy for some blasphemous fun with a lesbian nun who has mystical visions. The movie is based on the real life nun Benedetta Carlini who is played by Virginie Efira, and co-stars Daphne Patakia, Lambert Wilson, and the great Charlotte Rampling. As with all Verhoeven movies, this one is loaded with sex and violence and many immodest acts. Merry Christmas Lodgecast listeners! We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

Let's get nostalgic with Finn Wolfhard and remember everything we loved about Ghostbusters (1984)! Ivan Reitman's son Jason Reitman directs this sequel to Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989). But this time we ain't in New York City. We're in rural Oklahoma! Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) has passed on and his daughter played by Carrie Coon and his grandchildren played by Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace go to live in Egon's old haunted house in Summerville, Oklahoma. Ghostly happenings haunt the family and familiar Ghostbusters relics appear including Ecto-1, Vinz Clortho the Keymaster, Zuul the Gatekeeper, Gozer the Gozerian, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver! The film also stars Paul Rudd, Celeste O'Connor, and Logan Kim as a character named Podcast. Did this nostalgic cash grab make us Woof hard, or were we delighted at the fan service? Listen and learn as we take Finn Wolfhard's hand into small town Oklahoma!

It was time to Do The Dune! For some reason we saw this movie at 10AM on a Saturday, but we all stayed awake for director Denis Villeneuve's envisioning of Dune: Part One. Based on Frank Herbert's 1965 best-selling science fiction novel of all time, with a budget of $165 million, and a star studded cast, the stakes couldn't have been higher. The entire future of cinema rested upon Dune's shoulders. Did it rise to the occasion and surpass David Lynch's 1984 film? We will let you know in this epic Lodgecast. The movie stars Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem. Omniscient editorial note: Dune: Part Two has a planned release for October 2023 and we will be there!

No More Time to Die! As the Lodgecast survived to witness the 25th film in the James Bond series. No Time to Die was originally supposed to come out in April of 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic until October of 2021. We drove to see it at the brand new AMC Porter Ranch 9 for a very special reason relating to Nicole Kidman. Once there we talked all things Bond, and then took in all 163 minutes of Daniel Craig's final outing as 007. This one is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga with a theme song by Billie Eilish. It also stars Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, Ralph Fiennes, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

Prestige season is in full effect and what better to kick it off than with the Palme d'Or winner Titane! Writer/director Julia Ducournau serves up a healthy helping of French body horror that was consumed and digested in a variety of ways on this contentious Lodgecast. Was it Salad Dragon City, or Salad Dragon Exploitation? A profound and moving reflection on the human condition, or a repulsive and gratuitous tale of violence for the sake of shock value? Or was it all of these things and more?! Titane stars Agathe Rousselle, Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier, and Lais Salameh.

You might've forgotten or not known that 91-year-old Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a movie this year called Cry Macho. Well the Lodgecast did not forget, as we are hell bent on covering every Clint Eastwood movie until his dying day. This time around, Clint plays an ancient Texan rodeo star named Mike Milo who goes to Mexico to find his buddy's 13-year-old son Rafo. There ain't much to this movie, but we will explain to you just how old Clint Eastwood is. Clint is supported by a cast including Dwight Yoakam, Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven, Fernanda Urrejola, Horacio Garcia Rojas, and a rooster named Macho! Stay Alive Clint!

Writer/director Glenn Danzig has returned to the silver screen with his new western horror film Death Rider in the House of Vampires! In Episode 53 of the Lodgecast we attended the LA premiere of Danzig's directorial debut Verotika (2019) with Danzig in the house for a Q&A. This time it was a more subdued affair as we traveled deep into the San Fernando Valley to the Regency Theatres Van Nuys Plant 16 to catch the last screening of Death Rider with an audience of about four other people. We were very curious as to how Danzig would follow up his hilariously puzzling debut Verotika. We shall let you know! Devon Sawa plays Death Rider, and the film also stars Julian Sands, Kim Director, Ashley Wisdom, Danny Trejo, Eli Roth, and Glenn Danzig himself!

For such a time as this! David A.R. White has returned as Reverend Dave Hill in God's Not Dead: We The People, also known as God's Not Dead 4! Way back in Episode 4 of the Lodgecast we covered the third installment of the God's Not Dead series called God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness. Reverend Dave was quite conflicted in that one, but in this one he has a clear mission to save homeschooling from the intrusion of the United States government! It was an interesting night at this Fathom Event at AMC Theaters and we'll give the update on the ongoing saga of David A.R. White. The faith-based film also stars Isaiah Washington, William Forsythe, Antonio Sabato Jr., and Judge Jeanine Pirro!

Halloween fuckin' Kills y'all! The dreaded followup to the wretched Halloween sequel called Halloween (2018) has arrived in theaters. The good news? The kitchen island burned to the ground! The bad news? Michael Myers did not burn and he's out for many more brutal kills in Haddonfield, Illinois. This time the whole town of Haddonfield joins in an angry mob to kill Michael Myers. As Lodgemaster predicted Jamie Lee Curtis is stuck in a hospital the entire movie. But Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Anthony Michael Hall, Thomas Mann, and an entire village of bloodthirsty suburbanites attempt to finish off Michael Myers once and for all. They don't succeed! Halloween Ends comes out October 14, 2022 and we will be there!

It's not every day you get a musical based on a teenage boy suffering from social anxiety. In fact, there are no musicals like Dear Evan Hansen. After winning a Tony Award for Best Actor for portraying Evan Hansen from 2015–2017, Ben Platt is now on the big screen reprising the title role. Platt is supported by a strong cast including Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani, Colton Ryan, Danny Pino, Julianne Moore, and Amy Adams. So why did this lauded coming-of-age stage musical flop at the box office and get panned by the critics? We got a tale to tell in our coverage of this unique cinematic experience!