Xmas Day movies: Wonder Woman and Soul

 

This week on the Box Office Battle podcast we cover the two big movies to hit streamers on Christmas Day: Wonder Woman 1984 and Soul. 

Xmas action movies

 

For this episode of Box Office Battle we talk about Christmas action movies: Cobra, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Fatman.

Reviews: Peppermint, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and Roald Dahl's The Witches

 

For this helping of the Box Office Battle podcast we review the Jennifer Garner action flick Peppermint, the Aaron Sorkin courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, and the new Zemeckis family film Roald Dahl's The Witches. Plus we learn the differences between Jeannette Rankin and Jenette Goldstein, and how to count to twenty-eight!

Surrogates vs Death Race 2

 

Bruce Willis plays a detective trapped in a world where nearly everyone has a robotic avatar in Surrogates. Then we see prison gladiator fights in a...car race movie(?) in the sequel that's a prequel to the reboot of a cult classic Death Race 2. Let's see the potential future with Ving Rhames movies.

U Turn vs Halloween III

 

The podcast is treading into movies where no one wins. First Sean Penn rolls into a small town and finds it impossible to leave in U Turn. Then an evil mask making company plots to turn people into bugs and robots to win an interdimensional war (all without Michael Myers) in Halloween III.

Shoot 'Em Up vs Machete Kills

 

Clive Owen goes gun to gun with Paul Giamatti in the absurd action flick Shoot 'Em Up. Then Danny Trejo goes machete to iron mask in Machete Kills. It's action movies where the preferred method of killing is in the title!

Breaking news on Lorne Michaels

 

The Box Office Battle podcast is breaking a huge story...Lorne Michaels will step down from Saturday Night Live. And we have his shortlist for his replacement.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping vs CB4

 

We made it to the 100th episode! Andy Samberg plays a Justin Timberlake knock off, while JT plays a chef in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Then Chris Rock pretends to be a gangster rapper to rocket to success while Charlie Murphy hunts him in CB4. Then we catch up with original host Zac and talk about filming in the Covid era, reflecting on the past, whether School of Rock is underrated as a Richard Linklater movie, and much more!

Reviews: Hubie Halloween, Borat 2, Bill and Ted 3, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Jesus Rolls, and Scoob

 

This week on Box Office Battle we frankenstein two recordings together to talk about newer releases to streaming. Including: Hubie Halloween, Borat 2, Bill and Ted Face the Music, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Jesus Rolls, and Scoob. Plus, we acknowledge the passing of legend. Sort of. 

House of 1000 Corpses vs House (1985)

 

The podcast covers Horror movies with "house" in the title. First up is Rob Zombie's feature length directoral debut that was responsible for making horror movies more gory: House of 1000 Corpses. Then a man moves into his aunt's haunted house while struggling with a deadline, his missing child, his memories of Vietnam, and Norm Peterson in House.

Club Dread vs Jennifer's Body

 

This week on the podcast Box Office Battle does horror follow ups to the creator's most successful movie that also bombed. First a Jimmy Buffet knockoff has an island getaway where partiers get offed one by one in Broken Lizard's Club Dread. Then Diablo Cody wrote the tale of a teenage girl who gets sacrificed. She returns as a succubus who murders young men and antagonizes her best friend in Jennifer's Body.

Society vs Cannibal Girls

 

This week the Box Office Battle podcast delves into Horror movies where characters are ingested. First a kid feels out of place and fears he might be adopted. He finds out both feelings are true during a goopy melty orgy in Society. Then Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin face off against a town that for some reason props up some Cannibal Girls. The movies just keep getting worse.

Starcrash vs Bad Taste

The theme this week is truly awful movies that involve aliens. Starcrash is a Star Wars ripoff that makes no sense, but does have Caroline Monroe in leather bikini. Bad Taste is Peter Jackson's first movie features people tucking their brains back in and people eating vomit. It's going to be a long episode.

Almost Famous vs Empire Records

 

The podcast for this week's theme is movies about fake musicians that are not about the musicians. First we delve into the Cameron Crow semi autobiographical film about a fifteen year old working for Rolling Stone magazine in Almost Famous. We contrast it with a bunch of teenagers navigating life and drama in Empire Records.

Terry Gilliam Career Retrospective: Part Four

We finish our Terry Gilliam miniseries by discussing Tideland, The Legend of Hallowdega, The Wholly Family, The Zero Theorem, and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

Terry Gilliam Career Retrospective: Part Three

 

We continue our Terry Gilliam miniseries. This episode we rehash Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Brothers Grimm.

Terry Gilliam Career Retrospective: Part Two

We continue to deep dive into Terry Gilliam's filmography by discussing his stone cold dystopian masterpiece Brazil, his over budget bomb (but cult classic) The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and his first Hollywood film, as well as first Hollywood success, The Fisher King.

Terry Gilliam Career Retrospective: Part One

This is part one of a series we're doing discussing Terry Gilliam's work as a director. We discuss his beginnings in animation for Do Not Adjust Your Set, Monty Python's Flying Circus, as well as his shorts Storytime and Miracle of Flight. Finally we get to his first features: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, and The Meaning of Life.

Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam vs The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

A villain defeats the world two minutes into the movie and takes on a privileged white a-hole in Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam. Then a thousand year old man races the devil for five souls in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

The Nice Guys vs Scream

A private eye and an enforcer join forces to find a missing girl and investigate the death of a porn star in 1970's LA in The Nice Guys. Then two teenage friends dress up silly and dispense trivia in the delightful Wes Craven romp Scream. The theme this week is buddy movies.

Blood Simple vs Johnny Dangersously

Blood Simple is the Coen Brothers' first film about a husband who decides to murder his wife. Then everything goes off the rails, as the Coen Brothers are wont to do. Johnny Dangerously Amy Heckerling's slapstick take on older gangster films starring Michael Keaton. This week it's subversive noir movies with people kicked in the junk.

Roadhouse 66 vs Odd Thomas

A man picks up a drifter after his car is shot and then faces the shooter at pool, in a fight, and in a car race in Roadhouse 66. Then Odd Thomas can see dead people, Bodacks, and a future mall shooting in Odd Thomas. It's Willem Dafoe movies!

Reviews: The King of Staten Island, Da 5 Bloods, and more!

We review Da 5 Bloods, The King of Staten Island, Mandy, Blood Machines, and look back at Dark Phoenix, and Shazam!

Event Horizon vs Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey

A spaceship returns from hell, and wants to take it's new crew back to it in Event Horizon. Then two morons who will save the world with their music are killed by robots, go to hell, challenge the reaper, and fight back to save the future in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

Crank: High Voltage vs Re-Animator

Crank: High Voltage is the tale of a man in search of his heart. Not a love interest, mind you, but his literal heart. And he'll kill anyone who gets in his way. Re-Animator is the story of Herbert West and miracle death cure. Well...maybe miracle is the wrong word. His nightmare cure. This week's theme is talking disembodied head flicks.

Truth, Trolls World Tour, Onward and more!

This week’s episode of Box Office Battle: Karl couldn’t make it so instead we review movies that we paid for on demand: Trolls World Tour, The Hunt, Onward, and Truth. And Brandon recounts his trip to the makeshift drive in to see The Goonies.

The Young Master vs Nothing But Trouble

Jackie Chan stars and directs a film where a martial arts student is trying to save his brother, and keep himself out of jail, in the 1980 kung-fu flick Young Master. Dan Akroyd and John Candy play a combined six parts in the unsettling comedy, Nothing But Trouble.

The Hidden Fortress vs John Carter (2012)

One of the most beautiful movies ever shot, The Hidden Fortress lost money and forced Akira Kurosawa to find funding outside the studio. John Carter is a 2012 film who's source material helped shape science fiction. It's a showdown of influences to Star Wars.

Mask vs The Elephant Man

Rocky Dennis deals with a bone disorder, an addict mom, pressures from school, and a terminal diagnosis in Peter Bogdanovich's Mask. John Merrick goes from exploitation at a freak show to exploitation by high society in David Lynch's The Elephant Man.

Addams Family Values vs Joe vs the Volcano

Fester is swept away by a widow maker, and children try to murder a baby in the upbeat Addams Family Values. Joe is throwing away his life, figuratively and literally in Joe vs the Volcano. It's a double feature of movies with Carol Kane and Nathan Lane.

CBGB vs Vampire's Kiss

CBGB is a movie about the dumpy owner of the famous club that broke many huge bands like The Talking Heads and The Ramones. Vampire's Kiss is about 90 minutes of Nicholas Cage losing his mind. Cage Rage was never louder.

Audition vs Mother (2009)

Audition is about a widower holding an audition to find a new wife. It slowly dawns on him that she's a killer. Oh, and someone eats vomit. Mother is a Bong Joon-ho movie about a mom proclaiming her son's innocence, and she'll go to any lengths to prove it.

Ranking director roomates

This week we're quarantined, so we're breaking from the usual formula. Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas were all roommates. We rank them based off of their top five, along with other nonsense.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension vs Italian Spiderman

An adventurer/neurosurgeon/rock star finds out that aliens have infiltrated society and battles them in Buckaroo Banzai. Then a shotgun toting obese superhero who's worse than the villain saves(?) the day in Italian Spiderman. It's superheros...sort of!

Feeling Minnesota vs Impostor

Feeling Minnesota is about a woman forced to marry a man, so she bangs his brother and runs off with  him. And Impostor tells the tale of a man who may be an alien robot with a bomb built inside him. It's the films of Vincent D'Onofrio.

eXistenZ vs Videodrome

A woman gets shot with a tooth gun and...well...hold on. A man develops a vagina stomach that takes betamax tapes and programs him to...never mind. We're doing eXistenZ and Videodrome. That's right: the movies of David Cronenberg.

Strange Brew vs Beerfest

Max Von Sydow will stop at nothing to control a brewery and his only foil is Bob and Doug McKenzie in Strange Brew. Then the Wolfhouse brothers must win a drinking competition or lose a beer recipe forever in Beerfest. It's movies about making beer.

Hamlet 2 vs Adaptation

Two movies about adapting source material with Katherine Keener for Box Office Battle this week. First, a failed actor writes a sequel to Hamlet and turns his town inside out in Hamlet 2. Then Charlie Kaufman writes himself into his adaptation of an unfilmable novel in Adaptation.

Freaks (1932) vs Freaky Friday (2003)

Box Office Battle covers the most opposite movies with the word "Freak" in the title. Freaks happens when  trapeze artists try to murder sideshow artists. Freaky Friday happens when teenagers and mothers find magic fortune cookies. There can be only one.

Miles Ahead vs Walk Hard

Two fake music biopics this week. Don Cheadle plays a coked out Miles Davis who will stop at nothing to get his stolen album back in Miles Ahead.  Then John C. Reilly plays a coked out Dewey Cox who stop at nothing to get his second wife back in Walk Hard.

Reviews: Atlantics, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Downsizing, and Gone in 60 seconds

This week we do our final reviews episode covering the Oscar snubbed Atlantics, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Downsizing, and the 2000 version of Gone in 60 seconds.

Oscar reaction: Believable, Bad@$$ or Bull$#i+

The Box Office Battle crew goes through all the winners of the 2020 Academy Awards and determines who was deserving of an Oscar, and who was not.

Oscar predications and reviews of Birds of Prey, The Cave, and Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)

Biggs reviews Birds of Prey, Best documentary nominee The Cave, and documentary short nominee Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl). Plus he breaks down who will win in every category of the 2020 Academy Awards.

Reviews: Ad Astra, The Lighthouse, Honeyland, and more Oscar movies

Biggs reviews Ad Astra, The Lighthouse. Documentaries The Edge of Democracy, For Sama, and Honeyland are examined. And kids movies are represented too with The Missing Link, How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Klaus, and Maleficent.

The Last Dragon vs Dragon the Bruce Lee Story

Leroy Green is trying to attain the next level while avoiding fighting Sho-Nuff in The Last Dragon. And Bruce Lee's life is fit into a Bruce Lee style movie in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Also we review Judy, Harriet, Richard Jewell, and Bombshell.

Reviews: 1917, Little Women, The Two Popes, and animated/documentary/live action shorts

Oscar nominated films on the podcast today. We review the Roger Deacon flex 1917, the talkie drama The Two Popes, and the Greta Gerwig adaptation of Little Women. Plus we review nominees for animated shorts, documentary shorts, and live action shorts.

The Room vs Four Rooms

We find out who exactly is tearing Johnny apart in the 2003 "classic" film The Room. Then Mayhem fills a hotel with a hapless bellhop trying to pick up the pieces in the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez directed Four Rooms. It's a podcast about rooms.

Reviews: I Lost My Body, Jumanji: The Next Level, The Laundromat, and Uncut Gems

This week on the review edition of Box Office Battle we review the french animated film I Lost My Body, a sequel to a remake in Jumanji: The Next Level, a Netflix Steven Soderbergh movie The Laundromat, and the Safdie Brothers' new flick Uncut Gems.

Baxter vs Alligator

Two killer animal movies this week. A dog murders his way to a Neo-Nazi owner to find the discipline he desires in Baxter. And then an Alligator, flushed into the sewers feeding off of growth hormone injected dogs, leads to a city wide massacre in Alligator.