Now Playing - The Movie Review Podcast

Unclear and Present Danger John Krasinski (A Quiet Place) walked away from four seasons playing Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on an Amazon Prime series, only to return in the explosive 2026 reunion movie Gho...

Asking questions about character motivation that Marvel never put to Echo Struggling actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman) hides his destructive ionic powers to land his dream role as Wonder Man in th...

Home Sick It’s a Brand New Day for Tom Holland now that everyone has magically forgotten Peter Parker, and Spider-Man is once again anonymously ridding New York City of criminals like Scorpion and The...

Arnie and Justin unveil StubBook, their independent movie-and-TV logging platform. Plus: mahjong mysteries, vintage novelizations, 3D-printing disasters, Marvel trivia with patron Corey, and a heated...

John Wick comes at you with a pencil; Frank Castle comes at you with a pen! That's the Punisher way! Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) worries that his life has no purpose after putting down the crime fami...

Ill Will Hunting Matt Damon has trouble finding a way home after winning the Trojan War with a duplicitous offering to Athena (Zendaya) in Christopher Nolan’s epic re-telling of The Odyssey.  Is there...

Dora (Milaje) The Explorer Marvel Animation resurrects Black Panther for the 2025 Disney+ anthology series Eyes of Wakanda. Join Arnie, Stuart, and Justin as they follow an elite squadron of “War Dogs...

The book Sam Neill wrote for himself... and shared with the rest of us. Sam Neill spent nearly five decades becoming one of cinema's most dependable actors, from Jurassic Park and The Hunt for Red Oct...

The Devil’s In The Deep Dish Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returns from her Wakanda Forever semester abroad to learn she’s lost her Tony Stark grant money and is being kicked out of MIT in the 2025...

Athleisure wear, Affairs, and Awful Life Lessons Arnie concludes his journey through Lauren Weisberger's Devil Wears Prada trilogy with When Life Gives You Lululemons. Shifting the focus to Emily Char...

One Million Readers Would Kill for a Better Sequel Over a decade before Disney made The Devil Wears Prada 2, original Devil author Lauren Weisberger wrote her own sequel. Arnie reviews Revenge Wears P...

This month on Now Playing Intermission, the hosts discuss community theater, symphony screenings of Star Wars, audiobooks, road trips, and what they've been watching. Plus, listener Michael from Engla...

DC Universe Series Episode 2 Stupor Girl Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) resists the call to do good like her cousin Clark (David Corenswet), instead spending the second DCU movie partying on red s...

Left To Her Own Devices Woody (Tom Hanks) and Jessie (Joan Cusack) worry that screens have replaced childhood make-believe once 8-year-old Bonnie receives her first tablet in Toy Story 5. Can the cow...

The Switches of Eastview Kathryn Hahn (Glass Onion) realizes she’s Agatha All Along after breaking the TV show spell put on her by Wanda Maximoff in a 2024 Disney+ miniseries. But can this prickly lon...

Fistos of Fury Manchild Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue) dares to stand in Dolph Lundgren’s spot and attempt to wield the Sword of Power in the 2026 reboot of Masters of the Universe. ...

By The Power of Filmation Before the Masters of the Universe conquer 2026 movie theaters, Arnie, Marjorie, and Stuart dish about the 1985 animated feature that reveals He-Man and She-Ra are twins. Is ...

The fourth Intermission finds the hosts debating film preservation, 4K restorations, AI upscaling, George Lucas's Star Wars revisions, Spielberg's E.T. walkie-talkies, and whether modern transfers are...

The old protect the young, and the young develop poor eating habits. The Mandalorian and Grogu have left Disney+ behind to take orders from sci-fi queen Sigourney Weaver (Alien) in a big-screen 2026 S...

Before Alfred Hitchcock turned birds into cinematic terror, The Birds was a bleak, intimate apocalypse story from author Daphne du Maurier. In this special Now Playing Podcast Book Review, Arnie looks...

Is this The Way to make a follow-up to a hit show? Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) aims to bring the various Mandalorian factions together and reclaim their homeworld in Season Three of the popular St...

Nic is not the only Cage who made garbage action flicks in the 1990s Karl Urban (The Boys) goes from Comic-Con has-been to fighting for Earth in a life-or-death tournament called Mortal Kombat II. Doe...

The Devil Wears Prada has become iconic. Anne Hathaway’s cerulean sweater. Meryl Streep’s silver hair and clipped “that’s all” dismissal. The pop songs, the score, the fashion world excess. Just heari...

Temuera Morrison is ready to throw The Book at Tatooine spice dealers as he steps from his Bacta tank and back into the role of Boba Fett for a 2022 Disney+ miniseries. But how did the badass bounty h...

Sachs And The City Anne Hathaway’s wannabe writer Andy finds both her outfits and work ethic clashing with boss-from-hell Meryl Streep in the 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada. Can bitchy first assist...

Stuart went back in the hospital this month for another surgery. But he's back home and ready to tell all his Stu Cru supporters about it on the third episode of Intermission. He gives more detail on ...

Actor Thomas Dekker (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010) joins Now Playing Podcast to revisit the Elm Street remake on its anniversary. He shares how he landed the role, what ...

Three Mando and a Baby Pedro Pascal and “Baby Yoda” (Grogu) search for a Jedi ally in The Mandalorian Season 2 on Disney+. But what does it mean to be The Mandalorian when Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan re...

I guess you think you're... you know, like an authority figure, with that stupid fuckin' uniform, huh buddy? Bob Odenkirk goes from Nobody to playing a “Normal” small-town interim sheriff. Teaming up ...

No Child Left Behind Pedro Pascal strapped on the helmet to become The Mandalorian and help launch the Disney+ streaming service back in 2019. Is there a beating heart underneath the Beskar steel armo...

The Devil Wears Ghorman Twill Four years of Star Wars spy missions have Andor (Diego Luna) ready to ditch the Rebellion with equally traumatized girlfriend Bix (Morbius' Adria Arjona). Can schemer Ste...

Now You’re Playing With Millennials  Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) rocket into another Galaxy to rescue her kidnapped sister Rosalina (Brie Larson) in the 2026 Super M...

Stuart's Burning Down the House on this episode... What did we lose when video stores disappeared, and can streaming ever replace it? Arnie, Stuart, and Justin dive into that, along with immersive the...

Do NOT confuse this title for another Caravan of Courage on the Ewok moon Before he was the martyr of Rogue One, Diego Luna was a desperate thief who accidentally lit the spark of the Rebellion in the...

Qui-Gon but Not Forgotten Ewan McGregor returns to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in a 2022 miniseries that gives him another chance to school his rogue Padawan, Hayden Christensen, for rebranding himself...

The Hate U Give Disney Ends All Their Hopes (T.H.U.G. D.E.A.T.H) Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) attempts to save twin sisters from a witch coven and bring them into the Jedi fold, only to watch his Acolyte...

Speaking In Tongues Mary Shelley possesses Hamnet star Jessie Buckley and turns her into The Bride!, a politically charged sequel to her 1818 novel Frankenstein. But would the reinvigorated woman pref...

Bring Your Daughter To the Slaughter Neve Campbell sat out Ghostface’s rampage in New York City so she could raise Isabel May to become her Final Girl replacement in Scream 7. Has Matthew Lillard rise...

Welcome to the very first episode of Now Playing Podcast: Intermission, our new monthly free-form show where the structure is looser, it's far less edited, and anything can happen! This month: Arnie g...

Raging Ghoul  Robert DeNiro couldn’t speak the Queen’s English even before Kenneth Branagh stitched his lips onto other body parts for a 1994 retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  Will the miscas...

Fleshdance Rock star Sting denies his Frankenstein creation Clancy Brown (Shawshank Redemption) a happy wedding day so that the mad scientist can be the one to kiss The Bride. But will Jennifer Beals ...

Vlad The Impersonator Director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) spins Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel Dracula into “A Love Tale,” released in US cinemas in time for Valentine’s Day 2026. Is Caleb Lan...

Never Been Kissed Arnie, Stuart, and Justin peer through their spirit camera to find the ghosts haunting a 2014 movie adaptation of the cult video game Fatal Frame. Is the graduating class of a Japane...

There’s Something About Mary Director Christophe Gans makes a Return To Silent Hill 20 years after adapting the first video game into a hit movie. Sean Bean and his bifurcated daughter have moved on s...

I’ve Got 99 Minutes And My Bitch Face Runs Jeff Fahey (Lawnmower Man) screams Die Darkman Die in 'roid rage after trying to usurp the super-strength of the titular B-movie vigilante. Will star Arnold ...

Always replace your divots (never your lead actors) Larry Drake (Dr. Giggles) gives the finger to audiences who assumed his mob kingpin died in the last movie’s climactic chopper crash. Darkman 2 feat...

The Phantom Menace Liam Neeson needs thicker skin after Larry Drake (TV’s LA Law) burns down his laboratory and turns him into the vigilante Darkman. But will girlfriend Frances McDormand (Fargo) stil...

You Only Live Twice Daniel “007” Craig loses faith in his abilities to solve a third Knives Out Mystery after murdered monsignor Josh Brolin rises from the grave in Wake Up Dead Man. Is Sheriff Mila K...

Feliz Na’vi Dads  Pandora will be turned into Fire and Ash if Giovanni Ribisi and Edie Falco learn the secret to breathing the planet’s toxic air from feral human Spider (Jack Champion). Can adoptive ...

Charlie’s (Avenging) Angels  Rohan Campbell goes from ending the Halloween franchise to taking an axe to Christmas in the 2025 reboot of Silent Night, Deadly Night.  Is the traumatized orphan crazy fo...