Matt's Movie Lodgecast

"Why'd ya spill yer beans?!" The Lodgecast Boyz spill their beans on this highly anticipated film directed by Robert Eggers, who directed The Witch (2015). The Lighthouse stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson duking it out by a lighthouse in late 19th century New England. The film was shot on black and white 35mm film with a 1.19:1 aspect ratio. Without spoiling too much of our reaction, give Willem Dafoe a damn Oscar already! Tune in to find out why.

Get interstellar with Brad Pitt as he travels to the outer reaches of the solar system in search of his long last daddy Tommy Lee Jones. Writer/director James Gray guides us into space for a serious outing that is mostly devoid of action or comedy, but features much ambient music and lens flares. Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland lend their support. We saw this in IMAX and then we butt heads over the power of this solemn cinematic meditation.

The best reviewed movie of the year is here! Holding strong at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, we headed off to the Arclight Hollywood to see this critical darling. South Korean film director and screenwriter Bong Joon-ho received the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for this movie. Safe to say there ain't nothing remotely like Parasite coming out from American filmmakers. A mixture of genres is blended into this bizarre tale of a poor family infiltrating the lives of a rich family in modern day South Korea. We'll let you know how we felt and how the Arclight audience reacted.

You may have not heard of Natalie Portman's new film Lucy in the Sky. It was quietly released into theaters with negative reviews from both fans and critics. Despite the negativity, our love for Natalie Portman drew us in as we went to the AMC theater for one of the last screenings of this movie. Natalie Portman plays astronaut Lucy Cola who slowly begins to lose her grip on reality due to a case of space madness! The movie is loosely based on a true story of a crazed astronaut named Lisa Nowak. Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, and Ellen Burstyn co-star.

It's Gemini time! The hotly anticipated 120-frames-per-second feature film Gemini Man has finally arrived, and we were there to witness it opening night in all its 3D high-frame-rate glory! In the intro to this Lodgecast, we tell the tragic tale of seeing director Ang Lee's first 120fps feature film Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016). After that bomb, studios somehow let Ang Lee direct another movie at 120fps. They also let him digitally de-age Will Smith so he looked about the age of his son Jaden Smith. The results are spectacular and we'll tell you all about them! This movie also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, and Benedict Wong.

The highly controversial Joker movie dropped into American theaters like an atomic bomb this October. The last remaining Lodgecast Boyz who hadn't yet seen it went to the Los Feliz Vista Theatre and joined a packed house for this dark visionary film from director Todd Phillips and actor Joaquin Phoenix. The violence and mental illness of the Joker permeated our minds and produced quite a wide range of reactions. You're gonna wanna tune in to hear our visceral review as we try to unpack Joker!

Whoa daddy! After a brief review of the Rambo movies, we weren't quite prepared for the carnage that Sylvester Stallone dished out in this blood-soaked sequel for the MAGA-era. Rambo crosses back and forth across the Mexican border and kills and kills and kills. We'll let you know all the gritty details in this epic account of Rambo: Last Blood.

Every Tuesday is Discount Night at AMC Theatres. And luckily we chose a Tuesday evening to see Hustlers in a jam-packed screening at the AMC Burbank 16. Jennifer Lopez has returned at the age of 50 for an incredible performance in every way! Constance Wu is the lead character who goes from stripper to mother to straight-up hustler. J.Lo, Cardi B, and Lizzo guide her along the way. It was a rowdy night at the AMC and you best believe we'll be returning for discount night when it comes to movies this fun!

A 2 Hrs. 50 Min. horror movie? Yes please! We revisit Derry, Maine 27 years later to see what our lovable group of Losers is up to. Director Andy Muschietti adapts the second half of Stephen King's It word-for-word in this epic horror masterpiece. Before floating into IT Chapter Two we give our thoughts and feels on the recently revisited IT Chapter One. Then we settle into the AMC Dolby Digital recliners for an eternity of thrills and chills. We also eat a giant movie theater pretzel. The movie stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, and Andy Bean as the adult versions of the Losers Club. Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Wyatt Oleff reprise their roles as the younger Losers, while Bill Skarsgard also returns as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Ready or Nawt for the Ready or Not Hawt Take? We discuss the spoiler trailer of this movie and a giant movie theater pretzel before we dig into this acclaimed black comedy horror movie. A young lady marries into a rich family who play a murderous game of hide-and-seek the night of the wedding. A very hawt debate ensues over Andie MacDowell's performance! We'll spoil everything about this movie in this hawt take.

An unnamed Lodge member confessed to the Lodgemaster that he had never seen The Matrix! So when the 20th anniversary screenings popped up at AMC Dolby Cinema we knew we had to go. Six of us embarked on the journey and most of us hadn't seen it in 20 years. And we were red pilled so hard! Whoa! We'll give you the lowdown on the philosophy of the Matrix, as well as if Keanu Reeves’ performance holds up.

Apocalypse When? Apocalypse Now! The Lodgecast does their first review of an older movie to see if it stands the test of time. This screening was on August 15, 2019, 40 years to the day after Apocalypse Now was released on August 15, 1979. We scored tickets a little late for this one and were forced to sit in the second row of the AMC CityWalk IMAX which strained our necks and melted our faces off! How does this new 3-Hour Final Cut rank against the original cut and the Redux? Enter the heart of Francis Ford Coppola's darkness with us as we re-explore this epic vision of the Vietnam War.

It's the dog days of summer and not much good is coming out at AMC Theatres before Oscar season starts heating up. So we decided to see Crawl (2019) directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper. A hurricane hits Florida and a father and daughter get trapped in a crawlspace with alligators. Not much more to it, but we mostly had fun!

Where'd You Go, Bernadette has finally arrived in theaters. The Richard Linklater film starring Cate Blanchett was set for release on May 11, 2018, but it was pushed back four times until it was dumped into theaters on August 16, 2019. We knew something was amiss with this one from seeing the trailers ever since we began the Lodgecast last year. Oh boy were we correct. Where'd we go for this one? The AMC Sunset 5 was the setting, but Linklater took us to the ends of earth and the edge of our sanity in this two-hour adaptation of the bestselling novel. Besides Cate Blanchett, the movie also features Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig, Judy Greer, and the always delightful Laurence Fishburne. Listen to our podcast episode and find out where Bernadette went!

Another billion dollar grossing Disney remake has hit the multiplexes. Director Jon Favreau sets out to create a photorealistic computer animated remake of the beloved 1994 film The Lion King. There's maybe a reason that people like anthropomorphic characters instead of photorealistic animals... because anthropomorphic animals can express emotion! These dead-eyed lions and hyenas and warthogs drain all the magic out of this beloved classic. But they look so damn real! Did we feel the love (tonight), or did we skewer this hunk of lion meat? Listen and find out! Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Oliver, Beyonce, and James Earl Jones lend their voices to the Disney IP machine.

The Lodgecast continues the pursuit of finding a good horror remake. We try out Child's Play(2019) based on the horror classic Child's Play(1988). This technological update on Chucky does away with the supernatural element and it also does away with the concept of a logical script. Lodgemaster takes on the role of hothead in this hawt take as his anger at this ridiculous remake slowly boils over. Not even the soothing voice of Mark Hamill can save this misguided reboot.

The most anticipated movie of the year is finally here! Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time In...Hollywood has been released, and a large group of Lodgers went to the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood to see it opening weekend on glorious 70mm film. We were transported to 1969 Los Angeles for 2 hours and 45 minutes! After this epic comedy-drama many, Lodgers fled into the night, but five of us remained to give our first impressions of what we experienced. The star-studded movie features Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Luke Perry, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Clu Gulager, and so many others. We share our praises and our qualms about this unique motion picture!

The Poison Rose is now the 5th straight John Travolta movie to receive 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. After seeing Trading Paint (2019) earlier this year we promised ourselves we would only see the next Travolta movie if got 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Well it did. Even with co-stars Morgan Freeman, Famke Janssen, and Brendan Fraser, the movie couldn’t get a single positive review. It features a breakout performance from Travolta’s daughter Ella Bleu Travolta. The film doesn’t have a plot summary on Wikipedia and I can’t remember what it was about but listen to our podcast if you want to learn about the continuing adventures of John Travolta and The Poison Rose!

From the mind of Ari Aster comes Midsommar. Last year Ari brought us Hereditary, and without taking a breath he went into production on Midsommar which he delivered to us on July 3rd of this year. The promise of Swedish cultists had us licking our lips for this folk horror epic. Four members of our movie cult experienced the 147 minute motion picture starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, and Will Poulter. We micro-dosed magic mushrooms a few hours before seeing the movie. Just kidding. Probably don't see this movie on mushrooms. Either way we had some pretty nice things to say about Midsommar.

Glenn Danzig showed the L.A. premiere of his debut film Verotika at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, and five Lodgers were there to witness it. The venue was sold out and packed with Danzig super fans adorned in black. Verotika mashed up violent and erotic imagery like never before as the crowd howled with laughter during this low budget horror anthology film, featuring three tales of increasing perplexity. The strange editing and camera zooms left us tickled and confused. Danzig’s appreciative Q&A after the movie deepened the mystery. In this podcast review, we try to unravel what Glenn might’ve been up to with the help of the Lodge’s resident Danzig expert. Whatever it was, Danzig served us up a night that we’ll never forget!