Episodes

Sometimes science goes all wrong, and sometimes that happens in movies! This week we do a draft of our favorite movies where some sort of scientific endeavor goes all wrong, whether technological, biological, or sometimes bot...

In 1993, Steven Spielberg once again awed audiences by giving them something they had never seen so real before on the big screen: dinosaurs. With Jurassic Park, he started what would turn out to be one of the greatest movie ...

We follow up our discussion of Spielberg’s Hook with a semi-related Disney Villains Draft! Disney fan Colby Ewert joins me to go back and forth picking our favorite villains from Disney and Pixar films. We compiled some great...

With Hook, Spielberg was beginning a new decade of filmmaking, but this adventure movie that acts as a twist on a classic tale really marks the end of a particular phase in his career. This film was a huge deal at the time, n...

Which movie decades are the best? We are doing a rerun of our very first movie draft from our first episode this week! In this first movie draft, we took turns taking movie decades, trying to amass the best group of decades. ...

For this intermission in our Spielberg series, we take a look back at his career thus far, analyzing his career of the 1970s and 1980s overall. Then we discuss the transition point Spielberg is in moving out of the 80s and in...

The fall movie season is upon us! In this episode, I do a recap of great films I have seen since the ‘Best of the Year So Far’ episode. Then, I look forward to the upcoming slate of fall movies, talk about the ones I am most ...

Spielberg ended his run of 80s movies with the romance-drama-comedy-fantasy Always. If that sounds like a confusing mish-mash of genres, it’s because it kind of is. While the movie is tonally confusing and has a plot that is ...

It is movie draft time! This week we celebrate the completion of the original Indiana Jones trilogy on the show by doing a draft of movie trilogies! Guest Christiaan Funkhouser and I take turns choosing 7 of our favorite film...

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, seemingly the last of a trilogy of adventure collaborations between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas at the time, came in the middle of a bit of a career shift for Spielberg. You can see a...

Christian Bale had his big debut for most people in Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, which we discussed last week. This week, we accompany that discussion with a movie draft of Christian Bale performances. We take turns choosin...

Empire of the Sun is a forgotten gem in Steven Spielberg’s filmography, which is fitting since its setting is sort of a forgotten perspective on WWII. This is a bit of a hybrid for Spielberg in that it marries his childlike f...

Actor Christian Robertson joins me in this episode for a great interview. We talk about his personal journey into getting into acting, what he has learned from acting coaches, what it is like to work with directors and be on ...

In his first attempt at a serious adult drama, Spielberg takes on not just a new type of movie for his career but also an adaption of an award winning novel with a predominantly black cast (unfortunately a tremendous anomaly ...

Twilight Zone: The Movie was supposed to be a collaborative passion project for longtime fan of the TV series Steven Spielberg who produced it and directed one of its four segments. But with a tragedy casting a shadow over th...

We have made it to Episode 50!!! For this special milestone episode, I share three thoughts on what I have learned so far in the journey of making this podcast relating to both creative efforts in general and more specificall...

This week, I interviewed Elijah Davidson, Chief Critic and Managing Editor of Brehm Film, to pick his brain about writing about film. What is the process of writing books and articles about films? How do you choose which book...

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a film in a beloved franchise that actually carries a heavy burden with it for its filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. In this episode I am joined by Elijah Davidson of Brehm ...

In honor of our discussion of Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Melvin of the Cinematic Doctrine podcast joins me again to do an Alien Invasions Movie Draft! This was a really fun movie draft where we chose some of our ...

This week, Melvin Benson of the Cinematic Doctrine podcast joins us to discuss what Steven Spielberg has called his most personal film: E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. At the height of his powers in the 1980’s, this awe-filled lo...

This week, I talk with The West Sisters (Chasah and Charliese) about screenwriting. They have done a good bit of screenwriting, entering into screenwriting contests, and have even been able to write and direct some short film...

Indiana Jones is one of the most iconic characters of all time, and it is all due to a combination of the charm of Harrison Ford and the masterful character building of Steven Spielberg as director and George Lucas as storyte...

Sometimes even the best directors have a big ol’, old fashioned FLOP. This week, we decided to follow up our discussion of Spielberg’s critical and audience flop with a movie draft of some of our most renowned directors’ flop...

In 1941, the 1979 WWII comedy, we have a prime example of a powerhouse director putting out a complete flop. Steven Spielberg along with writers in Robert Zemecki & Bob Gale and producer John Milius were trying to ride the tr...