Prime of Their Youth

Stand By Me

Director: Rob Reiner

Cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Richard Dreyfuss, John Cusack

Released: August 22, 1986

Oscar nominations:

Best Adapted Screenplay - Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans (lost to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala for A Room With a View)

I was six going on seven the first time I saw an R rated movie. Haha, see what I did there? Yes, Stand By Me was the first R rated movie that I ever saw. I know for a fact that I must have been six or seven when I first saw this because I remember seeing it on video in the basement of the first house I lived in. We didn't move into the second house I lived in until just before my eighth birthday and the movie had to be released on video when I was six. The only thing I remember from my first viewing was that the body of the dead kid really freaked me out, especially since his eyes were open. I think I was around 10 or 11 when I actually remember seeing this movie in its entirety and appreciated it more. I was kind of raised to love this movie because my mom loooooves it (her favorite scene is the "Train!" scene). It's set in 1959 and the characters would have been only a couple years older than her at that time. I'm sure other people of her generation love it too as it encapsulates a certain time period with the setting and music. This movie had to be marketed to the Baby Boomer generation, right? Preteen kids, as much as I'm sure they wanted to see this, wouldn't be allowed (I've never seen four young boys curse so much until South Park came along!)

This movie is based on a short story by Stephen King called "The Body" which I read about 15 years ago. I've only read it once and I don't remember much about it...I know they made a few changes to the movie. Obviously, the novella is set in Maine, as all King stories are, but they changed it to Oregon in the movie. I believe both still have the same small town name of Castle Rock. And I don't remember this, but I guess Chris was the main character of the novella. Being that I've seen the movie at least 30 times, you can probably guess which one I like better. I also think the movie has the better title. I would like to revisit the short story...I just need to locate the book! 

Stand By Me is the quintessential coming-of-age movie and one of the most beloved. It is in my top five favorite movies of all time and I have recommended it in the past to people who had never seen it and they watched it and loved it, naturally! If, for some reason, you have never seen this (blasphemy!!), I highly recommend it. Plus, you should see it before you read this because there will be spoilers. It is about four twelve-year-old boys who embark on a journey the weekend before they start junior high to find the dead body of a kid who was hit by a train named Ray Brower who was their age. ("You guys wanna see a dead body?") They follow the train tracks that will lead them to the area where the body is and along the way they encounter a "vicious" dog named Chopper and his even more vile owner, tell stories around a campfire, have the ultimate train dodge, fall into a lake with leeches (ugh!!!), and philosophize things such as what kind of animal Goofy is suppose to be. It is these four twelve-year-olds going on the ultimate adventure one last time before they drift apart as friends and it is their journey of self-discovering and realizing who they are.

Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), is the main character who is narrating the story to the audience in the "present day" as a forty-year-old (Richard Dreyfus). He loves telling stories and wants to be a writer (as we see he does become later on). His older brother, Denny (John Cusack) died in a car accident four months earlier and his parents are overcome with grief and barely acknowledge Gordie's presence anymore. Gordie and Denny had a very close relationship even though you would think Gordie might resent him with Denny being the Golden Boy son what with him being a star football player. In a flashback, when Denny tells his parents they should read Gordie's new story, his mother seems interested for a second, but then his father turns the subject back to Denny and his football. Gordie has a brutal dream where he's at Denny's funeral and his dad tells him, "It should have been you." He has lots of doubts if his parents, especially his father, really loves him.

Out of the three other boys, Gordie's closest friend is Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) who is the heart of the movie and the unofficial leader of their little gang. Chris is the one to encourage Gordie to continue on with his writing when Gordie thinks it's a waste of time and tells Gordie he can't be held back by him and the other guys who aren't as smart as he is. Narrator Gordie informs the audience that Chris came from a "bad family", but all we know about that is his father drinks and can get on a "mean streak" and he has an older brother who hangs out with a bad crowd. Gordie's dad doesn't like Chris and calls him a thief because he stole the milk money at school, but Chris confesses to Gordie that even though he did steal the money, he did feel bad and gave it back, only to find that he was still accused of stealing it and the very next day the teacher he gave the money back to had a new skirt. It's a very heartbreaking scene when he's telling this to Gordie and starts to break down and can't understand how a teacher could do something like that to him. Because of his reputation, he tells Gordie, "I just wish I could go someplace where nobody knows me." I can totally see why the preteen and teen girls of the '80s loved River Phoenix. He was very swoon-worthy! This was his only movie I saw of his when he was alive, but I saw quite a few of them about eight years after his death and I think this one by far is is best and most iconic.

Teddy DuChamp (Corey Feldman) is a bit of a psychopath (just a bit!) and is predicted by Chris to not live past 20 (though when adult Gordie is telling the audience what became of his friends, he is still alive). Even though he has a father who beats him and once held his head against a stove and burned his ear, he still loves him. When they come across the vile man who owns a junk yard they trespass into and calls Teddy's father a looney, this angers Teddy immensely and he defends his father, saying he isn't a looney and that he stormed the beach at Normandy. It's no wonder Chris thinks he won't live very long because Teddy seems to have a death wish. He tried to dodge a train ("Train dodge. Dig it.") and we hear about a story where Teddy almost fell out of a tree, but Chris caught him in time. Teddy has the strangest laugh and loves to speak in military lingo. He has one of my favorite lines in the movie when he tells Vern, "Is it me, or are you the world's biggest p***y?"

The junk yard scene also involves a dog named Chopper who is the "most feared and least scene dog in Castle Rock". When I wrote my review for The Sandlot, I mentioned how that movie reminded me of Stand By Me and they had to have inspiration for the "mean and vicious" dog who lives in a junkyard from this film, right?? And just like in The Sandlot where the dog isn't as mean as they had perceived, Chopper is just a golden retriever who isn't as menacing as he is made out to be.


My favorite character is Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell). I. FREAKING. LOVE. VERN!!! I love all the characters and think they're all great, don't get me wrong, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Vern. Vern is HILARIOUS! I laugh every time he's on screen. He's the chubby naive kid of the group who gets picked on by the other kids, especially Teddy. Poor Vern! But without Vern, they would never have their adventure because he's the one who tells them about the dead kid. He's under the porch searching for his jar of pennies (his mom threw away the map he made to locate them...you think he would remember the general vicinity where he buried them, but this IS Vern we're talking about!) when he hears his older brother and his brother's friend talking about how they saw this missing kid, dead in the woods. His brother thinks they should tell the police, but the friend says they'll get in trouble since they "boosted" a car and they'll want to know how they got all the way out there. The kids decide they're going to follow the train tracks that will lead them out there to find the body themselves. They are excited about the prospect of getting their pictures in the paper and maybe being on TV if they find the kid's body.

Haha, here is one of my (many!) favorite scenes with Vern:

Vern is so obsessed with that comb! Later, when they're well into their journey, he asks if anyone brought any food and when nobody remembered to, he says, "What are you looking at me for!? I brought the comb!" And then when they all give their money to Gordie to buy provisions, he only has seven cents! Oh, Vern! ("Sorry Vern, a more experienced shopper could have gotten more from your seven cents.") And when they're crossing the bridge and Vern is crawling on his knees (so funny!) and the comb falls out of his shirt pocket and into the water below and he just looks so dejected and tells Gordie, who's behind him, "I lost the comb."("Forget it, Vern.") In that clip at the end you see Teddy punching his arm and giving him "two for flinching". This will happen again to Vern, but he finally gets to be the one to make Teddy flinch and he is so elated and is gloating that he was finally the one to make Teddy flinch, that in his excitement, Teddy punches him and Vern says, "But....you flinched!" and Teddy just smiles at him and says, "I know...two for flinching!" Oh, Vern, you adorable idiot!

Another one of my favorite Vern scenes happens when they've set up camp for the night and Gordie is about to tell them his story about the sabotaged pie eating contest (that always grossed me out so much when I was a younger, but I can handle it a little bit better now!) and tells them the main character is a kid named Davey Hogan and Vern interrupts and says, "Like Charlie Hogan's brother! If he had one." Then he interrupts Gordie once again after he says the main character of his story, nicknamed Lardass, is a really fat kid because of his glands and Vern says his cousin has something like that and is about to tell a story of his own until Chris tells him to shut up. Then once Gordie has finished the story, Vern says, "I like the story! But there's just one thing I don't understand...did Lardass have to pay to get into the contest?" The looks on the other boys' faces just cracks me up and Gordie tells him, "No, Vern, they just let him in" and Vern is like, "Ohhhh! Great story!"

While the boys are following the train tracks, the film cuts back from time to time to the older high school boys, which include Chris's brother, Eyeball; Vern's brother, Billy; and Billy's friend Charlie (that must be the Charlie Hogan who doesn't have a brother named Davey!) among others. The leader of their gang is Ace (Kiefer Sutherland). Both Billy and Charlie, who said they were not going to tell anybody about the dead kid, blab to Eyeball and Ace about him and Ace decides they're all going to drive out to find the kid and hopefully get a cash reward for discovering the body. Ace and his gang like to do things like play "mailbox baseball", get tattoos with razors, and torment the younger kids. Ace steals Gordie's hat at the beginning of the movie, the one that Denny gave to him before he died and threatens to burn Chris's eye with a lit cigarette. He's a real a**hole, that Ace! They reach the dead kid just minutes after the four younger boys have found him. It makes me laugh when Ace mocks Chris after Chris tells them, "We found him first! We got dibs!" and Ace turns to Chris's brother and says, "We better start running, Eyeball. They got dibs!"

The four twelve-year-olds stand their ground until Ace takes out his knife and threatens to kill Chris and Vern and Teddy scamper away. Right when Ace makes his move for Chris's throat, Gordie shoots off a gun. This gun was introduced at the beginning of the journey. Chris swiped it from his dad's drawer and shows Gordie it. We next see it when they're camping out and each kid is standing guard with it after they hear coyotes howling. (And Vern keeps pointing it at every little thing that makes a sound...I was a little scared he might let it go off accidentally!) And then it makes its next and final appearance at this moment. Ace and the others back off, but Ace threatens that this isn't over and he won't forget this. Except that this is the last we hear of the older kids in the movie. I'm sure in the book the younger boys got the s*** beaten out of them! In the end, neither group take credit for finding Ray Brower and they make an anonymous phone call.

There's a very melancholy atmosphere when the four kids return to Castle Rock and say their good-byes and that they'll see each other in junior high. It's like they know that this will be the last adventure they have together before they transition into young adults. Narrator Gordie even tells the audience that he and Chris saw less and less of Vern and Teddy as time went on. The scene where Chris vanishes from the screen after we learn that he had been killed a week ago in the "present day" is more poignant now because of what happened to River Phoenix. Gordie as an adult finishes his memoir by writing, "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

They tried to make the girl version of this movie about a decade later. It's called Now and Then and by all rights I should love that movie because I'm a girl and I would have been the right age to see it when it came out, but I remember disliking it immensely! I honestly don't remember anything about it, just that I hated it, so I should revisit it someday and see if I still hate it or if I was being too hard on it.

Stand By Me celebrated its 30th anniversary a month ago. I found this clip from five years ago when it celebrated its 25th anniversary. If you're a fan of the movie and have never seen this, you'll enjoy it, I promise.

Cowboy, Take Me Away

Brokeback Mountain

Director: Ang Lee

Cast: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid, Kate Mara, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris

Released: December 9, 2005

Viewed in theaters: January 10, 2006

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (lost to Crash (UGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!))

Best Director - Ang Lee (won)

Best Actor - Heath Ledger (lost to Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote)

Best Supporting Actor - Jake Gyllenhaal (lost to George Clooney for Syriana)

Best Supporting Actress - Michelle Williams (lost to Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener)

Best Adapted Screenplay - Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (won)

Best Cinematography (lost to Memoirs of a Geisha) 

Best Original Score - Gustavo Santaolalla (won)

If you've read my review of Crash and watched the last video I posted in this entry, then you know how much I absolutely hate that effing Crash won the Best Picture Oscar over Brokeback Mountain at the 2006 Oscars. And a lot of people feel the same way as me. I want to quote an excerpt from a tome I have called "85 Years of the Oscars" by Robert Osbourne when discussing the 2006 Oscar ceremony:

It was one of the biggest surprise endings in many years.

 The film the press regarded as most likely to score a triumph in the top spot 

[at the 78th Oscar ceremony] was the one that had been

universally praised since its debut, then voted best by the

Producers Guild, BAFTA, and numerous other 

prize-giving organizations. It was

Brokeback Mountain, a poignant tale

by director Ang Lee about the angst-filled

romantic relationship of two cowboys.

But Jack Nicolson's reaction when he opened the envelope

to announce the winner said it all: Crash

Whoa!

Everyone knows that Brokeback Mountain is by far the more superior film. The fact that Crash won the Best Picture Oscar over it, let alone that it was even nominated, is embarrassing! Unfortunately, a lot of Academy voters are older white men who don't always agree with the gay lifestyle and a lot of voters probably didn't even want to give Brokeback a chance. Which is really sad. Believe me, when this film came out, there were a few people I came across who were all, "Eww! That's gross! They're making out!" Of course, I live in Nebraska :::rolls eyes::: Uh, first of all, who doesn't want to see Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal make out? I'd pay money to see that..and I did! But seriously, it's sad (and kind of pathetic) how afraid of this movie some people were of it. Do they really think they'll turn gay or something if they watch two guys kissing each other? I adore this movie so, so much and it makes me sad that people refuse to see it because of the subject matter. It has been ten years since its been released and hopefully people who didn't want to see it back then have changed their minds and given it a chance.

Spoilers ahoy and if you haven't seen this movie yet, you are missing out!

Can we just take a second and applaud Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal for their brilliant portrayals of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist? I feel like a lot of heterosexual actors would not have taken on these roles as they would probably be uncomfortable with having to kiss or portray onscreen sex with another man, so I think it was pretty brave (and smart, in the end) for Ledger and Gyllenhaal to take the roles of the gay cowboys. Let's not forget they were only in their early 20s when they made this movie. It was a big risk and if done wrongly, this movie could have turned out horribly, but luckily they had Ang Lee at the helm. Thank God he won Best Director. Fun fact: he is the first non-white person to win the Oscar for Best Director. I can't imagine Brokeback Mountain with any other director or actors (though it would have been pretty amusing if Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had signed on!) 

The movie spans nearly 20 years, starting in 1963 when Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) meet that summer on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming after being hired by a man named Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to herd hundreds of sheep through the mountains. We see them talking about their families, sitting around the campfire and eating beans, and bitching about their boss. And then after a drunken rainy night, Jack tells Ennis, who is sleeping outside in the cold and rain, to get in the tent and we all know what happens next! As my mom would say, Oh, my! At first Ennis is not having any of Jack's advances, but he is the one to, ahem, take control of the situation. The next morning is a bit awkward and they spend the entire day apart from each other until the end of the day when Ennis returns to camp and tells Jack that this was a one-time thing they did and he isn't queer and Jack replies that "It's nobody's business but ours" and that he's not queer either. They continue their strong friendship and sexual relationship on Brokeback until Aguirre suspects something going on between the two of them when he spies on them with his binoculars and sees them frolicking together with their shirts off and cuts their summer short.

The two say goodbye without any fanfare. There is no hugging or even a handshake. They just have a short conversation about what they'll do for the rest of the summer, then walk off in different directions. We see Jack in his truck looking like he's trying to hold back tears and we see Ennis go in an alleyway and start punching a wall and crying out. It is a very powerful scene.

Ennis marries his fiancee, Alma (Michelle Williams), who he told Jack about and they have two daughters, Alma Junior and Jenny. Meanwhile, Jack moves to Texas where he meets a rodeo queen named Lureen (Anne Hathaway), the daughter of a wealthy man who sells large farming equipment. She is a very forward woman ("What are you waiting for, cowboy? A mating call?") and they marry and have a son.

Ennis and Jack continue their romantic trysts in secret only seeing each other about once a year, which does not make Jack happy, but Ennis tells him he isn't able to get away with work and he is afraid of someone finding out about his secret. Jack wants him to drop everything and leave Alma and his daughters and have them run a farm together, but Ennis tells him there's no way that's going to happen because two guys living together could mean a death sentence for the both of them. He tells Jack a story of two guys who lived together when he was a kid and one of them was brutally killed and how his father took him and his older brother to see the man's mutilated body. He said for all he knew, it could have been his dad who killed this man which is terrifying. Ennis doesn't do a very good job of keeping his secret from his wife, however, when he receives news that Jack will be in town and this will be the first time in four years Ennis will have seen him since that summer on Brokeback Mountain. He tells Alma that Jack is an old fishing buddy (obviously "fishing" is code for something else!) and when he sees Jack, he can hardly contain his excitement and they aggressively kiss...right in front of the door where Alma can see them...which she does! Her expression is one of shock, betrayal, and hurt. Michelle Williams' best scene in the movie is when she confronts Ennis many years later, after they have divorced, that she knew he never went fishing because she tied a note to the end of his fishing pole telling him to bring home some fish and when he came back and she asked if he caught any fish and he said he did. She knew he was lying because he obviously never read the note and discovered the note was still tied to the pole and it had never been used. And of course this is when we get the famous, "Jack Twist? Jack Nasty!" line. 

I've seen this film five times now (I own the DVD) and I read the short story by Annie Proulx (and it really is short, about 30 pages) about five years ago. While most movies adapted from novels have to take out scenes, they added scenes in Brokeback such as the Thanksgiving scene, and the scene with Ennis and his daughter at the end. They also added the characters played by Linda Cardellini and Anna Faris. All the well-known lines from the film (you know the ones!) are taken from the text. As I mentioned earlier, I can't imagine anyone else but Heath and Jake playing Ennis and Jack, though they were probably a little too good-looking as the two main characters are described as being plain old Joes. I mean, yes, they're dowdy in the movie and there's nothing glamorous about them, but I wouldn't mind sitting between them around the campfire, just saying! 

Whenever I watch the movie, I always notice a few things I hadn't noticed previously. For instance, the scene when Ennis and Jack are saying good-bye to each other after spending some, uh, quality time on Brokeback, Ennis says something about losing his shirt up there and Jack just mumbles something. Well, of course, we know Jack took the shirt because Ennis finds it in his closet at the end of the movie. (Another great scene). That had flown over my head until now. I also never noticed that Jack never calls Ennis by his name (except at the beginning when they introduce themselves to each other), just calls him "friend". I had especially noticed that when reading the story. Something new I learned recently is about the phone conversation Ennis and Lureen have towards the end of the movie after Ennis receives a postcard back that he sent to Jack with "DECEASED" stamped on it (what a gut punch!) and he calls Lureen to ask what happened. Lureen tells him that he was pumping a tire and it blew up and knocked him unconscious and he drowned in his own blood. While she's saying this, we see an image of Jack being brutally murdered by three guys, either what really happened or what Ennis imagined to have really happened. On a podcast I listened to (there I go again with the podcasts!), I learned that Anne Hathaway had to do two takes of this scene: one where the tire story is true and one where it isn't and Ang Lee sliced together both of them to make the final cut. Very interesting. And very tragic. My take has always been that Lureen knew about Jack's secret life and was lying to Ennis about his death and she knew the real reason how he died.

The relationship between Ennis and Jack is a tricky one and having seen the movies five times and read the story once, this is my own assessment of the two characters: first of all, I don't think of them as being gay or bisexual because I don't think they would label themselves as either one, though technically they would be bisexual since they were both married (and had children) to women. I read somewhere that someone said that Ennis is more toward the straight side of being bisexual while Jack is the opposite and I agree. While Jack was willing to divorce his wife and start a life with Ennis, Ennis did seem to care about Alma and was aware of the consequences if he and Jack shacked up together. He was paranoid that people knew about his secret and even after he was divorced from his wife, he found companionship (for a very short time) in another woman, Cassie (Cardellini). Jack was the only male he had a relationship with, whereas with Jack there's the scene where he attempts to buy a beer for the rodeo clown (before he even met Lureen), the scene where he's in Mexico attempting to fill his void, so to speak, and the scene with Lashawn's (Faris) husband where he hints at them going to his boss's cabin together. Obviously Jack had been with other men. Fun fact: the actor who played that guy is David Harbour whose name I instantly recognized it when I saw it in the credits because I had just watched him in as the police chief in Stranger Things. 

Now, here's the big question: who knew about their relationship? Obviously, Alma did since she saw them making out on her front lawn. And as I mentioned earlier, I think Lureen had a good idea too. Also, Lureen's father made that comment to his son-in-law during the Thanksgiving scene when he states that his grandson should watch football and be a man, as though he's making a jab at Jack. And David Harbour's character must have known or I doubt he would have made an advance on Jack. And I'm pretty sure Jack's parents had an idea, especially his mother, when Ennis went to visit them after their son died. Hmmm, interesting that all the people who I suspect knew about them (Alma notwithstanding) are all a part of Jack's life/storyline. This makes sense though, since he was the one who was more ready to admit to their relationship. I guess he didn't keep the secret as well as Ennis did. 

The aging of the main characters over twenty years' time was done subtly with changes to hair styles (and a little gray) and make up to add wrinkles. Okay, maybe Anne Hathaway's blonde hair wasn't so subtle, but I was willing to believe Heath as Kate Mara's dad, even though she was born four years after him. She plays teen Alma Junior.  

Watching this movie always make me feel so sad. Not just because it has a tragic ending (and even if Jack hadn't died, I don't think those two would have ever had their happy ending), but just seeing Heath Ledger. He was so good in this; his performance is very subtle and quiet. He gets a lot of praise for his performance as the Joker, which he was brilliant as, of course, and won the Oscar for, but I feel like some people forget this performance because it wasn't as epic or the movie wasn't as big as The Dark Knight. But just the fact that he could take on two completely different roles and just own them is a testament about what a great actor he was and it's such a shame we'll never see what else he could have done. I've mentioned numerous times how much I adored Heath Ledger (I was a total fangirl at first (what can I say? I'm a sucker for Australian accents!), but then when Brokeback rolled around, I realized he was actually a pretty good actor and began to actually respect him an an actor). There have been plenty of celebrity deaths I've been very saddened about and got choked up over, but his was the one that got to me the most. I was in a state of shock when I found and I cried every night for two weeks after he died. It is also bittersweet watching him and Michelle Williams together, since they had a daughter named Matilda who turns eleven next month. Eleven! Where did the time go? 

To take this review full circle, let me just add one last thing (and continue my bitching): five, ten, twenty years from now, nobody is going to remember anything about Crash. But whether if people have seen it or not, like what it stands for or not, they'll at least remember Brokeback Mountain. Oh, sure, some might refer to it as the "gay cowboy movie" (and yes, I love the movie, but trust me, I make stupid Brokeback jokes all the time), but I think in the long run this movie will have longevity. Hell, if somebody ever asks me what movie won the Oscar for '05, I'm going to tell them it was Brokeback. And I'll bet you they'll believe me! Okay, from now on, in my mind, Brokeback Mountain is 2005's Best Picture Winner.

There are about 100 songs that remind me of this movie, so I made this clip video and narrowed it down to two songs! And it is no coincidence that both songs feature the word "cowboy"! Speaking of which, how great is the (Oscar winning!) score by Gustavo Santaolalla? It is instantly recognizable. 

I wish I knew how to quit you, Brokeback Mountain! 

My Favorite Movie Podcasts

As a reader of this blog, you may have noticed that I occasionally talk about listening to podcasts, so I thought I would share with all of you what my favorite movie podcasts are. As we all know, there are hundreds of movie podcasts out there, maybe even thousands! Sometimes, after I watch an older movie and am curious about what other people thought of it, I will type the movie in at the iTunes store and find if there are any podcasts reviews on it. Depending on the popularity of the movie is how many reviews I will find. If I like a review, I will keep tabs of the podcast and will go back and listen to other movie reviews they've done and if I don't, I just delete it.

To me, there are three types of movie podcasts: Ones that review brand new movies, ones that review older movies, and ones that just discuss different movie topics in general. I will discuss the ones I listen to in each category.

I admit, I don't go to see movies in the theaters as often as I used to (and that's a whole other topic for a different entry!), but there are plenty of new movies I do look forward to seeing and hearing about from certain podcasts that review the new theatrical releases, so I keep these in my podcast feed and after I see the "new release" on DVD or Netflix (well, I guess by that time it's a new release on DVD or Netflix!), I will always go to the following podcasts to listen to their reviews of those movies, if they have one. And more often than not, if it's an extremely popular movie, they do:

Filmspotting - The two hosts of this podcast, Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larson (or sometimes a guest host if one of them isn't available) review a recent movie, but what makes it more than just a review podcast is that they take a theme of the movie they reviewed and use it to name their other favorite movies with said theme. For instance, when they reviewed Captain Phillips, they each named their five favorite hostage movies. More recently, they had their top five women comic book characters when they reviewed Suicide Squad. I went back in the archives and re-listened to their top five screen redheads after they reviewed Brave. As a redhead, I was tickled by this. Sometimes they'll review a movie from a specific year and then each give their five favorite movies of that year. I remember they reviewed The Breakfast Club and gave their favorite movies from 1985 and gave their favorite movies from 1990 after reviewing Edwards Scissorhands. There have also been tributes to actors after they've passed away. They have done top five best Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams roles. There are so many different categories they've done and it's a great way to discover new movies and it gives the podcast a little something different. One thing I love about this one is that everything is time stamped so if you want to skip a segment you're not interested in or skip the boring sponsor stuff, you can! It's awesome! 

The /Filmcast - That's pronounced The Slash Filmcast. The hosts of this podcast are David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Jeff Cannata (and sometimes a guest) and they review a recent movie. But first they begin with what they've been watching followed by movie news before getting into their review. Like Filmspotting, this podcast is also time stamped and the show notes also tell you what they've watched and what the movie news is so if you're not interested in any of that, you can just skip to the review. They first review the movie without spoilers, then give a warning they're about to dive into spoiler territory. Most podcasts I listen have a spoiler discussion at the end of their review. I have listened to some reviews that don't spoil anything, which I understand, but I appreciate it when the reviewers talk about everything because I like to hear opinions about everything in a movie, mostly including the spoil-y stuff. This podcast has a very catchy opening theme, so bonus points for that!

Film Junk - This has three Canadian guys, Sean, Jay, and Frank who talk about a recent movies, then talk about movie news, movies they recently watched, answer questions from listeners, discuss spoilers, and finish up with new releases on DVD. There used to be a fourth guy, but he's not there anymore, so I must have missed the episode where he left. Sometimes they are joined by one of their friends. Often times, before getting into the review, they'll talk about recent experiences they've had involving going to the movies or buying DVDs. I find these stories so amusing, especially when they're told by Jay, who always seems to have a story about buying DVDs. Since they live in Canada, they often cross the border to buy DVDs in the U.S. since they're cheaper and he always has some story about some kind of hassle he has. It is just so funny to hear him vent about them. These guys are huge movie nerds and get into these really big arguments over what the best (fill in the blank here) is. They also have certain rules for organizing their DVD collection and get lots of questions from listeners about how to shelf a certain DVD. These guys would be appalled if they ever saw my DVD collection because it's just totally random. Of course, I only have about 30 DVDs so it's not too hard to find one I'm looking for! They started doing timestamps earlier this year and that makes me so happy!

Mad About Movies - This is a podcast I recently discovered. It's been around a few years, but I only discovered it within the last year while I've been listening to the other podcasts for around four or five years. It has three guys, Kent, Richard, and Brian who review a recent movie. You've probably noticed that all the hosts of the podcasts I've listened to so far are all male. Sometimes they'll have a female guest host, but for the most part most movie podcasts seem to be hosted by guys. As also with the other podcasts, they discuss movie news and movies they've seen recently. At the end of their podcast, someone will give out a DVD recommendation, or sometimes a book recommendation. They have a segment called American Treasures they do every first episode of the month where they nominate an actor or public figure for their American Treasure Hall of Fame. They require that their nominees must be an American citizen (obviously!) and that they must be 50 years or older or be in their line of business for at least 25 years. This podcast also has a catchy opening.

I sometimes do listen to other podcasts that review recent movies, but the above are the ones I will always go to and listen to the most.

There are plenty of movie podcasts that review older movies, such as from the '80s, '90s, and early '00s; you know, before podcasts were a thing. There are a ton of podcasts of people around my age who go back and review movies from the late '80s/early '90s they grew up with, so of course, I love those.

Hey, Do You Remember - I recently listened to a bunch of episodes of this podcast. The hosts, Chris, Donna, and Carlos, are within a couple years of my age and they review so many movies that I grew up with and it's a lot of fun hearing their experiences with these iconic (to my generation, anyway!) movies. Chris, the main host, has the most outrageous stories and I always get a kick out of listening to them. His stories always have something to do with the movie they're reviewing and they're always amusing, so I don't mind them. Nothing drives me crazier when I'm listening to a podcast and the speakers suddenly go off into a completely different subject you don't care about and you're screaming at you're iPod for the to get back to the subject on hand. Surely I'm not the only person who does this! They start their reviews with a history of the movie such as how it got started and how it did at the box office. Some things I already knew, but I often learn something new about the movie they're reviewing. They also share their experiences of what they remember about the movie...if they remember seeing it in the theater and what their reactions were the first time they saw it. If you grew up with movies from the '80s and '90s and have nostalgia for them, I highly recommend this podcast. I'm just waiting patiently for them to review my favorite childhood movie, My Girl!

Action Movie Anatomy - Obviously, from the title, this podcast reviews action movies. The hosts, Andrew Ghai and Ben Bateman (and sometimes joined by a guest host) talk about very popular action movies. There are plenty they've already done and plenty they still have yet to do. They will sometimes review a new release action movie or one that came out within the last decade, but a lot of them are from the '80s and '90s, the Stallone and Schwarzenegger action flicks. Their requirements for the action movies they review are that they must be made in 1981 or after, have at least one explosion, the hero always plays by their own rules, the hero and villain must be the smartest person in the room, and the movie must have a police military, or political figure. After they review the movie, they discuss their favorite part, favorite line, and how they would recast the movie if it was made today. One of them does a really good Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage impression. They review a lot or ridiculous action movies, so it's a lot of fun.

How Did This Get Made? - Speaking of ridiculous movies, this is a comedy podcast with Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael. They record in front of a live audience and just pick apart and make fun of a ridiculous movie after watching it. Sometimes they do movies I'm not really familiar with, but when they do a big blockbuster like Face/Off or the latest Fast and Furious movie, I always enjoy listening to those. They do any type of movie from any year, so it ranges from what you will get. I remember the first movie they reviewed was Burlesque and I remember listening to this while working and trying not to LOL!

I also want to give a special shout out to Now Playing, which I haven't listened to that many episodes of because they have reviewed a lot of movies I haven't watched or don't plan on watching (such as the Star Wars or James Bond movies...they reviewed all the James Bond movies...now that is dedication!) However if you are into a franchise, more likely or not you will find it on this podcast because they review a lot of franchise movies. I listened to their episodes on the Back to the Future movies and there are MANY Back to the Future reviews out there and the one Now Playing did has to be one of my favorites.

And now here are the movie podcasts that discuss different topics, not just a movie they review:

Battleship Pretension - The two hosts of this show, Tyler Smith and David Bax, are passionate movie aficionados who went to film school and discuss all kinds of different film topics. They talk about many different films that have to do with the topic of their episode. They've discussed things such as their favorite movies scores, blockbuster fatigue, summer/holiday movies (which they use the Entertainment Weekly issue for as a template), best death scene, their favorite movies of the year (and they even did a list of the decade), the Oscars, etc. Every tenth podcast they do a feature on a director or a producer or some big name in movies. Sometimes they dedicate episodes to certain movies, especially if they have a guest (or "friend of the show" as they like to refer to them) on that was involved with that particular film. Before they get to their main topic, they usually start with another smaller topic. This could be a recent movie they've seen or a bad experience they had at the movie theater with people talking during a movies (these types of stories are always my favorite). I really don't mind when they get off topic because they usually get right back to the main topic and their tangents are always amusing. In the past year, they've started doing separate episode just dedicated to movies they've watched lately, but with all the other movie podcasts I listen to (not to mention the other podcasts in general I listen to!), I don't always listen to those episodes because I just don't have the time.

Doug Loves Movies - This is comedian Doug Benson's podcast where he brings out other comedians and B-list celebrities to chat about movies, recent and old. It's recorded in front of an audience once a week. While most of his guests are fellow comedians (and I've heard of some of them because they've been on those lists shows on VH1), he's had a pretty impressive array of actors including Elisabeth Shue, Anna Kendrick, and Michael Cera. (All of who, are, of course, A-listers!) I have to listen to this podcast when I'm alone because sometimes it can get really hilarious that I LOL. There are times when they get completely off topic or there's a visual gag that the audience is laughing at, but the listener has no idea what's going on. That can get annoying sometimes. My favorite part is at the end when they play the Leonard Maltin Game. It's like Name That Tune, but with movies. One of the guests chooses a category and a year that Doug gives them, then after he tells them how many actors are in the movie, they have to try to guess who many names (from the bottom up) they can get the movie in. He also sometimes does a game called Build a Title where he starts with a name of a movie someone from the audience throws out at him and his guests add on other movie titles to the beginning and end so it's all one movie title. For example, if the original movie title is City of Angels, it might end up as Sin City of Angels in the Outfield of Dreams. To be honest, I haven't listened to this podcast in awhile, so it could now be something totally different! I really should go back and listen to some recent episodes.

Screen Junkies Movie Fights - This podcast is always fun to listen to because there's a different array of topics that the moderator and host, Andy Signore, gives out to a panel of three "fighters" and he decides who has the best argument and is therefore the winner. They do a lot of nerd-heavy questions (read: comic book movies) such as "Who should play _____ in the next _____ movie" or "Who should direct the next ______ movie" and while those can sometimes be interesting depending on the questions, I prefer the ones that sway away from those kinds of movies. They've asked questions ranging from "Best live action Disney movie" to "What is Steven Spielberg's WORST movie" and "Best talking animal in a movie" and "Best sports movie." They've done all sorts of different topics and it's always fun to hear the panel fighting it out with each other. They have a rotating panel of different people (which includes at least a few females, so that's exciting because it is mostly guys), but they sometimes have special guests from other podcasts I listen to. Jeff Cannata, who I mentioned previously from the /Filmcast has been on it and Doug Walker, who does Nostalgic Critic. Celebrities such as Elijah Wood, Seth Rogan, and Sam Levine have also been on the show. Whenever a celebrity is on the show, they always win because they always sucks up to them and gives them the point. I mean, usually it's pretty close, but c'mon! This is a podcast, but you can also watch it on YouTube. It is a very fun and amusing podcast.

So as you can see from all the podcasts I listen to and all the movie I watch, that's pretty much all I do with my life!