#735 – SPOILERS Obsession, Backrooms
Zach catches up with James on some recent elevated horror, his favorite genre.
Zach catches up with James on some recent elevated horror, his favorite genre.
Zach and James are non-plussed (or are they? depends on your definition of the phrase) by Toy Story 5, the latest in the famed Pixar series that started it all (as long as your barometer for the word “all” is 3D animated movies that are released in movie theaters).
Two-thirds of the guys enjoy the darker side of A24’s The Death of Robin Hood, then discuss one of Zach’s least favorite Robin Hood adaptations – 1976’s Robin and Marian.
The guys disclose their thoughts on Steven Spielberg’s latest alien entree Disclosure Day, said to be a spiritual sequel to his 70’s sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind – then ruminate over whether 1997’s Contact is a better “but if they made themselves known” movie exploration.
We couldn’t record a new episode this week so we decided to release this Patreon Aftershow episode from about a month ago in which Zach uses AI to dig through James’ movie-watching habits. Enjoy!
Kyle and James have a messy breakup while discussing the low-budget horror box-office phenomenon Obsession, then lament the misguided relationship comedy-horror Over Your Dead Body.
The guys wander the liminal halls of podcasting with Backrooms expert New Zach, then run down their favorite rooms in movies.
The guys are joined by Star Wars expert Mohsen as they go on a rousing adventure with The Mandalorian and Grogu, then compete against each other with some tangentially-related movie trivia.
Zach and Kyle brainstorm ideas to save the movie theater industry: some sensible, and some wild.
The guys discuss Pixar’s biosphere forward family film Hoppers, then jump into their favorite films that contain a message regarding Earth’s environment.
The guys discuss two movies, one extremely vapid thriller and one extremely interesting romance.
The guys rank and discuss the last 10 movies they’ve seen.
Zach and Galen join James and Kyle for a special multi-generational spoiler review of the latest in the Mario movie franchise, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – then the guys rundown their favorite Mario characters and test their Mario knowledge in a round of Mario Trivia.
The guys argue over if there should 5 or 10 Best Picture Oscar nominations, then play a few listener-requested old-school Cinereelists movie trivia games.
The guys reminisce about growing up awkward while criticizing the 2025 psychological drama-thriller film The Plague, the directorial debut of Charlie Polinger.
The guys go long when criticizing the science fiction adventure film Project Hail Mary, then on-side kick individual lists of their favorite sci-fi movies that make them feel good.
Kyle and James discuss everything that happened at the 98th Academy Awards, then criticize a foreign drama that feels tailor-made to win at the Oscars.
Join our Oscar pool and win a Cinereelists mug! https://oscarpicks.app/join-group/cinereelists/2568fb16 Zach and James criticize the time travel comedy mockumentary-adventure enigmatically-titled film Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – then run down their favorite films that leveraged some of the many various creative aspects of guerilla filmmaking.
The guys declare their picks for the 2026 Oscars, then criticize the 2025 international feature film Sirāt.
The guys test each other’s movie knowledge with a round of the classic CRL movie trivia game 28 Words Later.
The guys criticize a pair of recent Oscar nominated films including the low key Portuguese language spy thriller The Secret Agent and Chloé Zhao’s alt-reality Shakespeare family drama Hamnet.
So many lists! Zach, James and Kyle bid 2025 adieu with a plethora of alternative year-end lists, NEW New Year movie resolutions, and an overview of what to expect in cinemas in 2025. This episode has more movie lists than any other podcast episode on the planet – guaranteed! Special thanks to our Patreon Supporters – Specifically thanks to Allan, Justin, Logan, Troy, Scott, Ryan, Marco, Victoria, Mansouri, John, Josh, and Roger!
Kyle and James criticize the 2nd film in the 28 Years Later trilogy, then run down the interesting spoiler-filled scenes and themes of The Bone Temple. Send your Top 10 of 2025 films to heyguys@cinereelists.com to be included in next episodes listener aggregate list.
In celebration of 12 years of podcasting – the guys count down their 20 favorite movies of 2025, as well as their greatest disappointments, films they regret not having seen before making their lists, and much more.
The guys surf the new wave while criticizing Nouvelle Vague, the new Richard Linklater film that tells the story of the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 classic Breathless.