Shoot The Hostage

We are one week away from the new season but before we charge up the controllers and order a six-pack of energy drinks in preparation for Video Game Movies season, it's time for our traditional bonus review of a new movie. We settled in to watch Ari Aster's latest weirdo beardo offering, Eddington.

No spoilers! 

We are back next Monday September 8th for season 12 which is all about Video Game movies.

Would you like to see the full ...

After eight weeks of cinematic exploration into the world of "drugs movies" for Season 11, Dan and Sarah are back to share some of our favourite moments from the season!

Sarah's season of drugs films has certainly been a 'journey', and not always the warm, fuzzy, hot chocolate kind. From the 'quintessential drugs movie' vibes of Trainspotting and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the notoriously bleak Requiem for a Dream, to the t...

Welcome to the Shoot the Hostage Season Eleven Wrap Show! After diving deep into the hazy world of “drugs movies” for eight episodes, Dan and Sarah are here to unpack all the highs (and occasional lows) of the season. From the gritty depths of heroin addiction to Climax-ing with LSD-infused sangria, this season was quite the trip!

Sarah, who bravely curated this journey into films featuring addiction, walks us through the complete ...

This week on Shoot the Hostage, Sarah and Dan are taking a hit out of the little brown bottle as they dive headfirst into the quintessential drug-induced fever dream that is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).

Join us as we navigate the most paranoid movie known to man, based on Hunter S. Thompson’s unreadably long-titled 1971 book.

We’ll explore why Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Raoul Duke might be his career best, topped only by ...

For our seventh, and decidedly not warm and fuzzy episode in the season, Sarah’s crafty programming has us plunging into Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000)!

Expect praise for Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar-nominated performance as Sara Goldfarb which had crew weeping on set. We unpack the performances of Jared Leto, alongside Jennifer Connelly, as their grand aspirations turn into a spiral of despair exploring the dark side of fi...

All aboard the Pineapple Express! This week on Shoot the Hostage, Sarah and Dan are blazing a trail through the sticky green jungle of films about drugs as they unpack the 2008 stoner comedy, Pineapple Express.

Join us atop the podcast pineapple as we dive into the surprisingly long history of stoner comedies, from 1932’s Jewel Robbery to the anti-marijuana propaganda of Reefer Madness and how the abolition of the Hays Code in the ...

Welcome back to another episode, where this week, Sarah and Dan explore Brokedown Palace (1999).

Join us as we break down the film’s shortcomings and unexpected moments. We delve into the representation of Thailand and the justice system depicted in the movie along with the undertones of American exceptionalism

We discuss the cast, including Claire Danes (My So-Called Life and Romeo and Juliet), Kate Beckinsale (Shooting Fish and U...

This week on Shoot the Hostage, Sarah’s taking it all the way back to grim-town as we confront Gaspar Noé’s Climax (2018).

We’ve arrived at the fourth film in Sarah’s season dedicated to movies about drugs. She explains why Climax took the fourth spot instead of the final one, which you would think, given the title, would be the natural placement.

We also draw connections between Climax's disorienting visuals and unsettling atmosph...

Are you ready to GO all-in? This week on Shoot the Hostage our drugs season takes a detour intro the fast-paced, vibrant world of Doug Liman’s 1999 cult hit, Go – our third foray into the wild world of cinematic substances.

This film boasts arguably the most aggressively late 90s cast ever, functioning as a true ensemble piece even if some weren't A-listers at the time. We get into the raw talent of Sarah Polley as Ronna, a young a...

No need for a temporal displacement event on your end, because Shoot the Hostage is bringing one to you! As the second stop on our season of films about drugs, Sarah and Dan delve into the minds of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson and their uniquely divisive independent film, Synchronic (2019)

Starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as two paramedics in a New Orleans, Synchronic introduces a made-up designer drug that promises lit...

Get ready to Choose Life (and a podcast!), because Season 11 is officially here, and we're kicking off our brand-new theme of 'Drugs' movies with a true behemoth of 90s films: Danny Boyle's iconic Trainspotting (1996).

Join us as we unpack why Trainspotting has captivated audiences for decades, despite its characters being, well, mostly "assholes". We dive deep into the film's gritty depiction of heroin use – a portrayal that absol...

Before we return next week with our new season, it's time for our bonus show picked from the archives of our Patreon feed. This time we talk the MCU and Thunderbolts .

We are back next Monday June 23rd for season 11!

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 11? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup.

This episode as a p...

We're back for one last look at last season in our end of season "best of" clips show.

Join us as we revisit some of our favourite moments of our season of films that were considered box-office flops 

Make sure to mark June 23rd in your calendar as that is when we return for season 11!

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 11? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up f...

Join us for one last round of flops discussion as we embark on our traditional end of season wrap show. The full episode is available over on Patreon on our £3.00 a month tier. 

We're sad that our flops season has come to an end but what a journey it was. From terrible films to objectively brilliant movies and everything in between. 

As this was our 10th season, this time we decided to cover 10 movies which were : 

• The Thing (...

Calling all questionable mushroom-based life-forms. This week on Shoot the Hostage, Dan and Sarah are hitting the reset button on reality and plummeting into the bonkers world of the Super Mario Bros. (1993). As we reach the final level of our "Flops" season, we're asking the essential questions about this infamous film adapted from a computer game: Was it doomed from the start? How did this become one of the most notorious flops o...

In the penultimate episode of the season, we're diving headfirst into the dark fantasy movie that defined 80s childhoods (for some of us, Dan included, maybe?) but was a complete box-office flop: Labyrinth (1986). Settle in for spoilers, swearing, and probably a tangent or two about where babies go when Jareth steals them.

Was it just a logistical nightmare with all those puppets, animals, and babies? Yes. Does Jareth's portrayal r...

Buckle up because this week on Shoot The Hostage, we're hitting the track with a film that definitely ran out of gas at the box office! Dan and Sarah dive headfirst into the glorious box-office flop that is Driven (2001)

We brake down the bewildering plot involving characters played by Kip Pardue, Burt Reynolds, Estella Warren, Gina Gershon (making her second appearance on the podcast) and Robert Sean Leonard. We pull back the curt...

This week on Shoot the Hostage, Dan and Sarah brave the wasteland of cinema history to grapple with the undisputed heavy artillery of our big old floppy flop season, Tank Girl (1995). Be warned, as is tradition, we swear and spoil.

Sarah chose this one and frankly, it feels like some kind of revenge after Battlefield Earth.  Released in 1995 this film doesn't just qualify as a flop, it lives in the flop house and pays rent with lin...

Alright, film fanatics, gather round your audio devices! Dan and Sarah are back on Shoot the Hostage, and this week we’ve finally braved a cinematic experience that’s less blockbuster and more… well, block-bust. We're talking about Martin Scorsese’s 1982 gem (that the world collectively ignored), The King of Comedy. Settle in as we dissect this certified box office flop, a movie so unloved by initial audiences that, according to En...