Popcorn Optional

The Man. The Honorable Mensch. Wes Anderson is back with a new stop motion animation movie and Jake and Trevor are here to tell you whether or not it lives up to the excellence of his previous movies. We also talk trailers for The Incredibles 2, Ocean's 8, the idea of crowdfunding a movie, and as always end with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

Who ever thought that John Krasinski, the lovable Jim Halpert from The Office, would deliver one of the best films of the year so far? Well this week we are here to talk about the greatness of A Quiet Place and why John Krasinski is director to keep an eye on in the years to come. We also talk the new Solo: A Star Wars trailer, The Meg trailer, how in the world The Accountant was the most rented movie of 2017, mention some underrated movies, and as always end with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

We had some technical difficulties this week but thanks to Jake being an editing wizard, we are able to bring you some thoughts on Ready Player One, a new edition of The Popcorn Optional Fight Club including the T-800 Terminator, King King, The Joker, and the Master Chief, and as always we end with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

This week we get to review the sequel to one of our favorite action of recent years, Pacific Rim: Uprising. With the ground work set by Guillermo del Toro in the 2013 film Pacific Rim, does this film continue that trajectory or end up falling more into the Transformers realm of movies? Hear our review while we also talk Black Panther breaking box office records, Chris Evans leaving Captain America, underrated monster movies, and as always end with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

Video game movies in the past do not have a good record of translating well from the console to the big screen. Does the new Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander continue that same trend or carve a new path as a successful video game movie? Listen in to hear Cameron and Trevor's review on the new movie.

We are introducing a new segment as a mini-episode! The new segment is our very own Fight Club where we take characters and debate about which ones would win if they ever faced off. In this episode, we put Wonder Woman vs. Indiana Jones and Lara Croft vs. Darth Vader. The winners of those fights faces off in a championship so listen in to find out who is our very first Fight Club Champion!

This week we review Ava DuVernay's new adaption of Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel, A Wrinkle in Time. With a top notch director, all-star cast, and beloved source material, does this film deliver on what all the parts are capable of? We talk just that as well as Kristen Wiig being cast as Cheetah in Wonder Woman 2, Jon Favreau working on the new Star Wars TV show, the Obamas developing content for Netflix, Moviepass tracking our locations, the trailers for The Grinch and Christopher Robin, nominate the 11th class of Honorable Mensches, and end as always with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

In a special Academy Awards episode we get take a look back at the 80th Academy Awards honoring the films from 2007 and re-award the films based on how the films have held up 10 years later. Did No Country for Old Men deserve to win Best Picture? Should Ellen Page have won Best Actress for her role in Juno? We answer these and so much more in this episode while also breaking down the wins and snubs from this past weekends 90th Academy Awards. Listen in and enjoy!

Annihilation is a film that no matter how you feel about it deserves to be talked about simply for all the different ways that you can interpret the meaning of what is on screen. It is a film with layers upon layers waiting to be unfolded and that is what we are here to try and do. Annihilation is the new film from writer and director Alex Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer, and stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac in a film about a lot of different things. Before we talk Annihilation though we get into what we feel should win at this Sunday's 90th Academy Awards ceremony. Listen in and enjoy!

Our first review of a 2018 movie just so happens to be one of the most hyped movies in recent memory, Black Panther. The 18th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is directed by Ryan Coogler with an all star cast, including Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, and Letita Wright. The big question though is after all the hype, praise, and box office records broken, does the film live up to the hype? Listen in to find out just that as well as to hear us talk about the new Incredibles 2 trailer, nominate another class of Honorable Mensches, and end as always with our content of the week. 

Another week, another Best Picture nominated film and this week it happens to be Phantom Thread. Does Daniel Day Lewis continue his streak of amazing performances in what might be his last time acting on the big screen? Listen in to find out just that as well as to hear us talk about Joaquin Phoenix playing the Joker, the trailers for Venom, Uncle Drew and Rampage, and as always out content of the week.

Leading up to the Oscars we decided it was time to catch up on some of the Best Picture nominees. This week Jake and Trevor review Steven Spielberg's new film The Post starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and a whole cast of other amazing actors and actresses. We also get into Super Bowl movie trailers, which ones were hits and which ones were complete misses, talk about a round of movies we feel are underrated, and end as always with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

We are finally ready. We have watch dozens of films and are now hear to talk about our favorite movies of 2017. We hit what made our lists, what was just on cusp, and what should have never been made. Listen in as we put a stamp on 2017 and move on to 2018!

It is officially Oscar season and with the announcement of the 90th Academy Award nominations, we took time to break down the surprises, snubs, and historical moments from the list of nominees. We also review Craig Gillespie's new film I, Tonya about figure skater Tonya Harding and her relationships with those around her leading up to the 1994 incident with Nancy Kerrigan. We go through our thoughts on the real life events, what the movie is trying to accomplish, and the amazing performances given by everyone involved. Listen in and enjoy!

With all the hype and the amount awards that it has received so far, it was only a matter of time until we got around to reviewing The Shape of Water. From director Guillermo del Toro comes an adult fairytale about an amphibian man and a mute woman falling in love during the Cold War in the early 1960s. So does this film deserve the hype or does this film ultimately fall flat? We also review why 2017 was a good year for movies and as always end with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

Hit script after hit script, Aaron Sorkin has delivered some of the most memorable scripts of the past decade and now, he is here with his directorial debut. How does this story about an Olympic skier who ended up running a multi million dollar poker game measure up against past Sorkin scripts? Listen in to hear our review of Molly's Game as well as a conversation about the 2018 Golden Globes, the 9th Class of Honorable Mensches, and our content of the week.

We're back after taking a short break and are here to not only breakdown the surprising sequel Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, but also look forward to our most anticipated movies of 2018. We get into why Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is surprising from the performances to the comedy and also talk about where the movie falls short. Somehow we also managed to squeeze in a little conversation about Netflix's first big budget film Bright at the beginning. Listen in and enjoy!

It is finally here! After two years of waiting, thousands of fan theories and expectations, Rian Johnson delivers one of the most polarizing and shocking films to date. Did the gamble payoff though? Well, we are here to answer just that question and along the way we breakdown most of our favorite moments, analyze the twists, and try to make sense of everything that happens. Listen in and enjoy!

Seeing as we are less than two weeks away from the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we figured it was time to do a deep dive into Star Wars: The Force Awakens and review the film while also theorizing about way more things than we intended to. We also talk Olaf's Frozen Adventure being removed from Coco, the most rented Redbox movies, induct the 8th class of Honorable Mensches, breakdown the Avengers: Infinity War trailer, and end as always with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!

This week we review the new Pixar's wonderful new film Coco about family, music, and the adventure of a lifetime. We go through all the ups and downs of the film and also the insane frustration of having to sit through 22 minutes of a mediocre Frozen short film before getting to the feature film. We also get into the Independent Spirit Award nominations, Lady Bird being the highest rated film of all time on Rotten Tomatoes, November results of our Rotten Tomatoes predictions as well as our December predictions, and end with our content of the week. Listen in and enjoy!