Redshirt Cinema Club

The Lost World? They've only found it.

How do you follow up a groundbreaking blockbuster that rewrote the rules of action cinema with a t-rex and three velociraptors? With TWO t-rexes and SIX velociraptors of course. The lads at InGen remember they left a massive island full of dinosaurs on simmer when a child's face is eaten, so they convince the world's premier open-shirted mathematician to return and ineffectually tell every...

A brand new series is upon us! One with miraculous dinosaurs, underhand IT contractors, and perilous adventure.

Throughout April we'll be revisiting the original Jurassic Park trilogy, beginning with Steven Spielberg's groundbreaking 1993 original. The movie is a firm podcast favourite, especially for Rob and Dave, but will the film's standard-setting digital effects hold up? Has the early-90s tech-terror storytelling aged? And...

This really is it! The end of the Matrix series so far. Morpheus has died in a game you didn't play and Hugo Weaving was doing some theatre so Agent Smith has a new face. But the big news is that Neo is alive, somehow, and trapped in a new Matrix devoted to nodding self-referentially at the old one, while Trinity has become just a regular, Ducatti-riding, Hollywood hot mom of two regular kids.

Join us! As we discuss why two of ...

This is it! The end of the Matrix series, until they made another one. With Neo trapped in a cybercoma and strapped on a gurney next to a man doing a cartoonish Hugo Weaving impression, WHO will be available to speak to the big machine face and force a ceasefire before the squids interrupt the eternal raving of Zion? It barely matters.

Join us as we discuss what is supposed to be happening in this film, who won at the end, and w...

With Nath exiting the Matrix (and the country) this week, Rob and Dave are taking the opportunity to read some of your amazing emails (and some of the less amazing ones too). We talk future plans, rugby fans and questionable flans. Does anyone even read these genius descriptions?!

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How do you follow the most iconic sci-fi action movie of all time? By building an actual freeway to stage an elaborate reaction set piece, making your hero fly and then having him fight 100 Hugo Weavings. Does The Matrix Reloaded deliver where it counts however? Get ready for some OPINIONS.

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We're unplugging from the real world and diving into The Matrix over the next few weeks, starting with the breathtaking 1999 original that changed the course of action cinema forever. How will it hold up 25 years on? Was Cypher right? Why am I me, and not someone else? We tackle all of these questions and more in today's episode!

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Before we dive into our next series, this week we're pausing to reflect on fandom and the effect it's had on our lives. Has fandom shaped our sense of identity? Do we physically display our fandoms, and look for communities of like minded people? Are there fandoms we've forgotten and rediscovered? Please share your own stories with us!

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As is becoming tradition, we're taking a breath this week and plunging our heads into the mailbag before we set out on an adventure in a far away galaxy. As always, we've been sent some excellent observations, anecdotes and conversation starters from all around the world. Prepare to laugh, gasp, and strongly disagree!

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Our David Lynch mini-season comes to a close with 2001's Hollywood nightmare, Mulholland Dr.

Like Twin Peaks, Mulholland Dr started life as a pilot for an ABC TV series, but became a self-contained puzzle of a film when that pilot was rejected.

The resulting movie is part-Cinderalla story, part noir throwback, and part artful commentary on the power dynamics and hidden spaces of the dream factory of Hollywood.

What will ...

Our journey through the works of David Lynch brings us to Twin Peaks, the hit 1990 TV phenomenon that's influenced everything from Alan Wake to Stranger Things and still loved and talked about 35 years on. The thing Lynch made, alongside writer Mark Frost, around which a genuine fandom was born - people travel to the real life Great Northern Hotel for coffee and cherry pie. But what will we make of it? Let's find out!

Join the R...

Our season celebrating and exploring the films of David Lynch continues with 1986's Blue Velvet.

What a pairing with last week's film, Dune - the same director, star, and producer bring us a film of vastly different scope, and unique perspective.

Blue Velvet is the story of a young man's involvement with a mystery, a dreamy love story interrupted by the rich textures of a sensual nightmare. It's unlike anything we've watche...

Join us as we begin a new season of David Lynch movies with 1984's Dune.

Dune has already featured in the podcast, as part of the creative tangle that helped define sci-fi cinema in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and saw the inception of Alien and Blade Runner. Now, as we embark upon a mini-series focused on the works of the recently passed David Lynch, we're watching Dune itself.

Let's be real - Nath is in his element, Dav...

It's gone. It's done.

We complete our journey through Middle-earth with The Battle Of The Five Armies, a film Rob has never seen, and Nathan wouldn't mind having never seen. Listen, the chances of us suddenly loving the Hobbit movies and this becoming a triumphant ending are slim to none. But... climactic things are in the air. Armies are marching. Deep lore is waking from its slumber. Somewhere, the eagles are doing some stret...

If Rob watches one more minute, this will be the most Hobbit movie he's ever seen...

We're marching on with our unexpected adventure, which this week means watching the second of Peter Jackson's Hobbit films, The Desolation of Smaug. Rob has only seen half of this film before, leaving the cinema back in 2013 thanks to 48 frames-per-second-induced motion sickness. Nath has seen the whole thing and doesn't like Beorn's sideburns. ...

As January follows Christmas, so too does The Hobbit follow The Lord of the Rings. A thump of ice-cold reality after the festive high. It's 12 years since we saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - will the lens of hindsight impact our reaction? Or will the CG orcs, cartoonish action and that scene with the plates prove too great a burden?

Listen on to find out, and join us next week for The Desolation of Smaug before we tackle...

Welcome to a mailbag special dedicated to your correspondence about The Lord Of The Rings.

Our episodes on Peter Jackson's films have been far and away our most popular so far. It seems that you love them as much as we do, and this is the perfect time of the year to revisit Middle-earth.

Anyway - if you've listened to the individual episodes on The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return Of The King, you'll k...

We come to it at last, the great battle of our time. And it's a really really great battle, everyone.

Join us for our extra-long, indefensibly indulgent episode on The Return Of The King. Traditionally the least-favoured of Peter Jackson's Rings films, what will we make of the marathon send-off for our favourite festive series?

Enjoy the last of these epic Lord Of The Rings episodes, and join us next week as we return from ...

We've lost count of how many times we've seen The Two Towers, a film Rob reckons he could recite beginning to end (especially the Gollum scenes). As before, there's no fandom experiment going on here - we're simply watching something we all love, occasionally delving into the books and mentioning the Appendices too much.

Enjoy the episode and join us next week for The Return of the King!

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