On our latest episode, #145, we discussed Pixar’s latest film and second to come out this year, The Good Dinosaur. As many of you already know, this film was plagued with tons of production issues and was delayed several years before finally getting a release in theaters. And as we discussed in our review, the results aren’t too terrible all things considered. The animation is stunning as always and the film has that Pixar heart that we all love. Where Fantastic Four failed and crumbled in it’s production hell, The Good Dinosaur came out okay. Banged up a little, but okay overall and you have to give Peter Sohn and company credit for that.
The thing that I love most about The Good Dinosaur, is Pixar and Sohn’s approach to it. They knew that it wasn’t going to completely come together so they focused heavily on what they know how to do best. They gave the film heart, while exploring themes that kids can easily grasp onto and hopefully be moved by. The exploration of overcoming fear and what that process looks like for a young kid is fascinating and relatable for a lot of us, especially with how that ties back to familial love. And as a new parent, I can appreciate that.
During our discussion, we talked heavily about why the humor fails in this film and it’s certainly what keeps this film from being great. In terms of where this fits in Pixar’s catalog, it’s somewhere in the middle for us. We liked it better than Cars 2 and Brave but it’s also far from Pixar’s best work and also Inside Out that came out earlier this year.. But where does it sit for you? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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This week on the InSession Film Podcast, Jairo from True Bromance Film joins us to discuss the latest film in the Rocky franchise, Creed, starring the wonderful Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone. We forgo our normal top 3 this week and we review Pixar’s latest film, The Good Dinosaur and we continue our Star Wars Movie Series with Episode IV: A New Hope.
This week’s show was a lot of fun. We had a great time talking Rocky and Creed, which ended up being one of our longest reviews we’ve done on the show. It was absolutely warranted though. And as mentioned above, we finally move into the original Star Wars trilogy and it was glorious.
Anyway, check out this week’s show and let us know what you think in the comment section. Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting of the InSession Film Podcast!
– Creed Movie Review (10:31) Grades
JD: A
Brendan: A
Jairo: A-
– The Good Dinosaur Movie Review (48:56) Grades
JD: B
Brendan: B
Jairo: N/A
If you want to help support us, there are several ways you can help us and we’d absolutely appreciate it. Every penny goes directly back into supporting the show and we are truly honored and grateful. Thanks for your support and for listening to the InSession Film Podcast!
This week on the InSession Film Podcast: Extra Film segment, we discuss two films that are getting a lot of awards buzz right now in Room starring Brie Larson and also Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight.
The awards season is upon us and pretty soon nominations and top ten lists will be everywhere. Room and Spotlight are certainly the frontrunners and for good reason. We had some great discussion and we hope you enjoy these films like we did.
Anyway, have fun listening to this week’s Extra Film segment and let us know what you think in the comment section below. Hope you enjoy and thanks for listening!
– Room Movie Review (4:38) Grades
Brendan: A
JD: A+
– Spotlight Movie Review (39:33) Grades
Brendan: A
JD: A
We try to make this the best movie podcast we possibly can and we hope you enjoy them. Subscribe today on iTunes and Stitcher and please leave us a review on iTunes. You can also find us on Soundcloud, PlayerFM and TuneIn Radio as well. We really appreciate all your support of the InSession Film Podcast.
To hear this Extra Film episode and everything else we do, download our apps on the Amazon Market for Android and the Podcast Box app on IOS devices. The mobile app covers all of our main shows, bonus podcast’s and everything else relating to the InSession Film Podcast. Thanks for your wonderful support and listening to our show. It means the world to us!
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Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to debut a teaser trailer for Captain America: Civil War.
If you somehow happened to miss it, here it is in all its Civil War goodness.
There has been so much speculation surrounding the film, and there’s certainly no end in sight to that. But for all the threads that this trailer leaves open, it manages to confirm one thing:
Marvel is (still) king.
Previously, with the release of the Superman v Batman and Suicide Squad trailers, most of the comic-book movie buzz was focused directly on DC. Rightfully so, because the trailers looked great and there’s still a newness and freshness with the idea of having the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel share a screen together. Many argued that the freshness would propel DC ahead of Marvel in 2016. After all, we’ve seen Cap and Iron Man for the better part of the last 10 years, right?
Wrong. Maybe?
I also thought that DC might put out better movies in 2016. I’m certainly a much bigger Marvel fan, but having the faces of DC on the silver screen seemed incredible. I’m positive that the first time Bats and Supes stare each other down in the film, we’ll all have goosebumps. It’s something that we comic fans have been clamoring about for a long, long time, and to finally see it come to fruition will be nothing short of magical.
But there’s still quite a bit of magic in Civil War. While we’ve grown accustomed to the characters, seeing them fight each other is harsh and surprising. This seems funny to say, because we all know the plot of the Civil War comic arc – but when it’s seen in live action it’s disturbing.
Perhaps it’s just my inner-child, but the shot of Stark in the Iron Man suit saying “So was I” gave me a big case of the feels. Tony Stark is a character who is cocky and arrogant. To see him vulnerable emotionally (in a non-PTSD way) was new and sad. It gave the film a dark feel, and hammered home the friend-against-friend premise. Then, as Bucky and Cap fight with Stark, it’s not what I’m used to seeing from Marvel. It was dark, gritty and visceral. It gave me a feeling that no Marvel villain has been able to conjure up in me. My stomach was in knots, and I was really concerned.
This film won’t be pretty-boys fighting pretty-boys. If anything, it looks as if the high-stakes emotional consequences will force them to not pull punches. Whether a beloved character dies at the end or not (as it’s speculated), it doesn’t really matter because it looks like the rest of the movie will be plenty unpredictable.
This film proves that Marvel knows what they’re doing better than any of us can speculate. Marvel has now established its ceiling to be greatness (like with Guardians of the Galaxy) and its floor to be okay (Iron Man 3). We’re overly hard on the studio, because we expect everything to be like GOTG – we want to be blown away. There’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever, but it’s important to recognize that Marvel has been putting out good movies since 2008. Most other studios can’t manage this. It’s difficult to make a great film. That’s why we had to endure four not-so-good Spider-Man movies to get the one great one. That’s why the X-Men series has been fluctuating in quality.
Meanwhile, Marvel just keeps chugging along.
Let’s also remember that our fond memories of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy aren’t cannon in our new DC universe. All we have to go off is Man of Steel, which was okay. Does DC’s upcoming film lineup look really good? Of course it does. But, let’s not forget that the Man of Steel teaser is one of the better trailers of the last 15 years – so looks can be deceiving. We have no proven track record with DC, so it’s hard to feel confident.
With Marvel, the exact opposite is true. So far we’ve gotten 12 films, two Netflix series, and two television series, all of which have been decent to great.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This weekend we have a lot to be thankful for at the movies as well. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 will continue to roll I’m sure, a film I quite love so I’m okay with that. However, we also get Creed and The Good Dinosaur, two films we are very much looking forward to and hearing good things about. For our poll this week, inspired by Creed, we want to know which Rocky film you always go to first. What is your favorite film in the Rocky franchise? We are excluding the first Rocky because we figured it’d be the easy consensus, so to make it more interesting, let’s exclude that film.
This week for our Episode 144 InSession Film Podcast: Bonus Content, we discuss The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 further in spoilers. This is more laid back and informal, but it’ll help articulate our thoughts further on the film. Hope you enjoy!
We offer our bonus content for free, but we do encourage and appreciate a small donation of $0.99 as a way to help support the show. Click on the PayPal button below to donate and thanks so much for your support. You can also hear all of our Bonus Content via our mobile apps. See the information below the PayPal button for more details.
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This week on the InSession Film Podcast, we discussed the final installment of The Hunger Games franchise in Mockingjay Part 2, which is of course one of the best franchise in the YA movie genre. The young adult genre isn’t something that always speaks to us, but it still has it’s fair share of great films and great scenes within those films. The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and even The Princess Bride make the genre more respectable than the stereotypes you normally hear about YA films, and we had fun discussing our favorite scenes from within the genre.
That being said, what Top 3 YA movie scenes would make your list? Here are the one’s that made ours:
*Keep in mind we have different criteria for our lists as well
JD
1) Three Finger Salute – The Hunger Games / Catching Fire
2) Greg’s Final Film – Me & Earl & The Dying Girl
3) Harry & Hermione Dance – The Deathly Hallows Part 1
Brendan
1) A Trip to the Moon – Hugo
2) The Battle of Wits to the Death – The Princess Bride
3) The Resurrection Stone – The Deathly Hallows Part 2
Shaun
1) The Reaping – The Hunger Games
2) Brom Dies – Eragon
3) The Statue Fight Sequence – The Deathly Hallows Part 2
Honorable Mentions (Combined)
Scenes from these films: Harry Potter, Mockingjay, The Spectacular Now, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Fault in our Stars, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Enders Game
Hopefully you guys enjoyed our lists and if you agree or disagree with us, let us know in the comment section below. Despite how we feel about this genre overall, we do quite like the films and scenes we discussed. But perhaps you love this genre more than us and have a bigger variety of scenes. That being said, what would be your Top 3? Leave a comment in the comment section or email us at [email protected].
This week on the InSession Film Podcast, Shaun Duke from Totally Pretentious joins us to discuss the final installment in The Hunger Games franchise as we review Mockingjay Part 2 and going off of that, we also discuss our Top 3 scenes from the young adult movie genre. And finally, we continue our Star Wars Movie Series with the last of the prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith.
Shaun was a fantastic guest this week in his first appearance on the show. We had some great discussion on the Hunger Games franchise and Mockingjay Part 2. And of course we had fun talking more Star Wars, as we finally finished out the prequel trilogy.
Anyway, check out this week’s show and let us know what you think in the comment section. Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting of the InSession Film Podcast!
– The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Movie Review (6:31) Grades
JD: A-
Brendan: B
Shaun: B+
– Top 3 YA Movie Scenes (40:52)
The young adult genre isn’t something that always speaks to us, but it still has it’s fair share of great films and great scenes within those films. The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and even The Princess Bride make the genre more respectable than the stereotypes you normally hear about YA films, and we had fun discussing our favorite scenes from within the genre. That being said, what would be your Top 3?
Main Review – Creed / The Good Dinosaur
Top 3 – N/A
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Help Support The InSession Film Podcast
If you want to help support us, there are several ways you can help us and we’d absolutely appreciate it. Every penny goes directly back into supporting the show and we are truly honored and grateful. Thanks for your support and for listening to the InSession Film Podcast!
This week on the InSession Film Podcast: Extra Film segment, we discuss the great German film, Victoria, known for it’s impressive single take used for the whole movie. And we also discuss the Chinese film The Assassin, which won Best Director and Best Score at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Please forgive us for the football talk at the beginning of the show once again, this week Brendan and JD’s teams play one another so we felt it was appropriate to briefly discuss. The two films we discuss though, are quite mighty films and are two that we recommend checking out, as you’ll hear on the show.
Anyway, have fun listening to this week’s Extra Film segment and let us know what you think in the comment section below. Hope you enjoy and thanks for listening!
– Victoria Movie Review (6:10) Grades
Brendan: A
JD: A
– The Assassin Movie Review (37:13) Grades
Brendan: B+
JD: A-
We try to make this the best movie podcast we possibly can and we hope you enjoy them. Subscribe today on iTunes and Stitcher and please leave us a review on iTunes. You can also find us on Soundcloud, PlayerFM and TuneIn Radio as well. We really appreciate all your support of the InSession Film Podcast.
To hear this Extra Film episode and everything else we do, download our apps on the Amazon Market for Android and the Podcast Box app on IOS devices. The mobile app covers all of our main shows, bonus podcast’s and everything else relating to the InSession Film Podcast. Thanks for your wonderful support and listening to our show. It means the world to us!
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Help Support The InSession Film Podcast
If you want to help support us, we would greatly appreciate it! For more info, CLICK HERE.
This weekend Jennifer Lawrence and company will be back for the final film of the franchise, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. I’ve been a big fan of the franchise since the beginning and I very much look forward to the finale. The franchise has been full of rich symbolism and fascinating characters that have done a great job of representing the film’s themes. Katniss is a strong female character that I tend to resonate with, especially her early motives. Her strength is also her vulnerability, and that’s her ability to love. Her love for her sister and family. Her love for her district. And even her love for Peeta, which comes out of an exhausting, intense and almost deadly traumatic experience. It’s all worked for me and I love how it plays into the films’ overall thematic structure.
I think it’s those reasons why I really liked Mockingjay Part 1. I understand that for a lot of people it was “boring” and “slow” and there wasn’t all the action people liked from the first two films. But that’s exactly what I liked about it. We get away from the actual Hunger Games and instead get these really intimate character moments that come to define our main players involved. Katniss’ vulnerabilities, as I mentioned above, have put her in a situation she doesn’t want to be in. She has no desire to be this mockingjay symbol but she also understands the stakes and that everyone is looking up to her. That struggle I found fascinating and Lawrence was great showcasing that conflict. I felt the same way about Deadly Hallows Part 1 in that franchise too. Maybe I just like “boring” character moments more than most, but give me that stuff all day. I love it.
As we anticipate Mockingjay Part 2 this weekend, I encourage you to listen to our review of Mockingjay Part 1 that we did last year on the show, where I go more in depth of why I liked the film. Click here to listen or click on the player below.
With The Hunger Games franchise reaching its conclusion this weekend, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite young adult book-to-film adaptations on Episode 144. We will discuss our favorite YA scenes for our top 3 and for our poll, we ask what is your favorite young adult film?
This week on the InSession Film Podcast, we discussed Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan, which covered the beginning of the British Suffragette movement in the early 1900’s. Inspired by that, we decided to discuss our Top 3 women rights or women empowerment movies. And while some of our picks may seem like movies with just strong female characters, given the context of our criteria, we’d argue that the female roles in these films, blended with the films themes, definitely represent female empowerment. And as mentioned above, we are proud of this discussion and we hope you enjoy it.
That being said, what Top 3 women rights or women empowerment movies would make your list? Here are the one’s that made ours:
*Keep in mind we have different criteria for our lists as well
JD
1) Alien
2) Zero Dark Thirty
3) Mulan
Brendan
1) Thelma & Louise
2) Zero Dark Thirty
3) Boys Don’t Cry
Chris
1) Fargo
2) Kill Bill
3) The Help
Honorable Mentions (Combined) A League of Their Own, The Hunger Games, Erin Brockovich, Juno, In a World…, Vera Drake, Sound of Music, Mad Max: Fury Road
Hopefully you guys enjoyed our lists and if you agree or disagree with us, let us know in the comment section below. Obviously we barely scratched the surface when discussing this topic and there are lot more movies that represent female rights and empowerement. That being said, what would be your Top 3? Leave a comment in the comment section or email us at [email protected].
This week on the InSession Film Podcast, Chris from Cinema Crespodiso joins us to discuss Suffragette, staring the wonderful Carey Mulligan, and our Top 3 women rights or women empowerment movies. And we continue our Star Wars Movie Series with a fun debate over Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
We, of course, go a little long again on this week’s episode and given how much we love Star Wars, it’s probably something that will happen every week throughout our Star Wars Movie Series. And we’re just on the prequels right now. But despite the length, we had some really fun conversations here and our Top 3 this week is probably one of our better top 3 discussions we’ve had, if we say so ourselves.
Anyway, check out this week’s show and let us know what you think in the comment section. Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting of the InSession Film Podcast!
– Suffragette Movie Review (9:59) Grades
JD: C+
Brendan: C-
– Top 3 Women Rights Movies (38:50)
Going off of our review of Suffragette, we decided to discuss our Top 3 women rights or women empowerment movies. And while some of our picks may seem like movies with just strong female characters, given the context of our criteria, we’d argue that the female roles in these films, blended with the films themes, definitely represent female empowerment. And as mentioned above, we are proud of this discussion and we hope you enjoy it. That being said, what would be your Top 3?
Main Review – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Top 3 – TBD
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Help Support The InSession Film Podcast
If you want to help support us, there are several ways you can help us and we’d absolutely appreciate it. Every penny goes directly back into supporting the show and we are truly honored and grateful. Thanks for your support and for listening to the InSession Film Podcast!
This week on the InSession Film Podcast: Extra Film segment, we discuss Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel in their latest film Youth and also Bradley Cooper taking up the chef hat in his film, Burnt.
One of these films is really good and the other is a little disappointing. Don’t look at our grades below yet and I’ll give you one guess as to which one is the good one. Our Youth discussion in particular was really fun and we hope you like it as well.
Anyway, have fun listening to this week’s Extra Film segment and let us know what you think in the comment section below. Hope you enjoy and thanks for listening!
– Youth Movie Review (6:19) Grades
Brendan: A
JD: A
– Burnt Movie Review (41:34) Grades
Brendan: C-
JD: C
We try to make this the best movie podcast we possibly can and we hope you enjoy them. Subscribe today on iTunes and Stitcher and please leave us a review on iTunes. You can also find us on Soundcloud, PlayerFM and TuneIn Radio as well. We really appreciate all your support of the InSession Film Podcast.
To hear this Extra Film episode and everything else we do, download our apps on the Amazon Market for Android and the Podcast Box app on IOS devices. The mobile app covers all of our main shows, bonus podcast’s and everything else relating to the InSession Film Podcast. Thanks for your wonderful support and listening to our show. It means the world to us!
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Help Support The InSession Film Podcast
If you want to help support us, we would greatly appreciate it! For more info, CLICK HERE.
This week on the InSession Film Podcast, we’ll be discussing Carey Mulligan and her film, Suffragette. For those who saw our post on Episode 142 and expected to hear Spotlight, we unfortunately will not be getting it like we hoped. However, Suffragette is a film we are excited to talk about as well and Mulligan is one of our favorites.
That said, what is your favorite Carey Mulligan film? Vote now!
This week on the InSession Film Podcast, we reviewed the latest film in the James Bond franchise, Spectre. Here at InSession Film, we quite like us some James Bond, and our guest Justin, considers this one of his favorite characters of all time. So, this discussion was a lot of fun and full of enthusiasm. There’s also a fun motif that was unexpected, but bonus points to those who catch it.
That being said, what Top 3 James Bond movies would make your list? Here are the one’s that made ours:
*Keep in mind we have different criteria for our lists as well
JD
1) From Russia with Love
2) Skyfall
3) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Brendan
1) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
2) Skyfall
3) From Russia with Love
Justin
1) From Russia with Love
2) Goldeneye
3) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Matt
1) Casino Royale
2) Love and Let Die
3) Goldfinger
Honorable Mentions (Combined) Moonraker, Thunderball, Dr. No, The Spy Who Loved Me
Hopefully you guys enjoyed our lists and if you agree or disagree with us, let us know in the comment section below. As mentioned on the show, James Bond has a little something for everyone, so maybe your list is different than ours. That being said, what would be your Top 3? Leave a comment in the comment section or email us at [email protected].
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This week on the InSession Film Podcast, Matt and Justin from Simplistic Reviews joins us to discuss Spectre, the 24th film in the James Bond franchise, and also our Top 3 James Bond movies. And with Star Wars: The Force Awakens just around the corner, we started our Star Wars Movie Series with a fun discussion of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Fair warning, this show went a little long but it was a lot of fun. We, of course, discussed a lot of James Bond and why we tend to enjoy this franchise overall. And as big Star Wars fans, discussing Episode 1 was a tough task, but we did our best to explain why it fails as a film.
Anyway, check out this week’s show and let us know what you think in the comment section. Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting of the InSession Film Podcast!
– Spectre Movie Review (5:16) Grades
JD: B
Brendan: B
Justin: B
Matt: B+
– Top 3 James Bond Films (36:09)
Our top 3 this week was an absolute blast. We quite like our James Bond movies and for our guest Justin, it is one of his favorite characters of all time. So, this discussion was a lot of fun and full of enthusiasm. There’s also a fun motif that was unexpected, but bonus points to those who catch it. That being said, what would be your Top 3?
If you want to help support us, there are several ways you can help us and we’d absolutely appreciate it. Every penny goes directly back into supporting the show and we are truly honored and grateful. Thanks for your support and for listening to the InSession Film Podcast!
