Two Reel Cinema Club

We have been looking up this week, enjoying Superman new and old. This year’s Superman is James Gunn’s first film as head honcho for the DC Universe, and bears many of his technicolor trademarks. But how much does it owe to the OG, 1978’s Superman the Movie, starring Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman? And does the original still stand up 47 years later? Which film has the longest opening credits we’ve seen in forever? Which film d...

The New York Times recently published their list of the top 100 films of the twenty first century, and hoo hah, that has certainly stirred up some strong reactions! Does the list just reinforce our suspicion that cinema is on its death bed? Or is the list full of joyful surprises and incredible revelations? Which films on the list do we agree with? Which left us scratching our heads? And what are the conspicuous omissions? 

If you ...

We’re strapping on our helmets and climbing into our bucket seats this week, as we watch maybe the most heavily branded film we’ve ever seen, the new Apple feature F1: The Movie, and answer the question: how much phallic imagery can be crammed into a single two and half hour period? We’re comparing it to the film with probably the most famous car chase in cinematic history, 1968’s Bullitt. But which film has the most montages? Whic...

There are good films with bad names, and there are bad films with good names. And sometimes, rarely, there are films that hit both targets dead centre. Join us at the Popcorn Counter where we’re discussing movie titles this week - ones we love, ones we hate, ones we’re proud of and ones we just don’t understand. Where did the name for Blade Runner really come from? Which is better, Snakes on a Plane, or just plain Plane? Which Kubr...

Join us on the isle of Berk this week, as we go lizard taming with the vikings in the new live action remake How to Train Your Dragon. And then stay with us as we set sail for an unnamed 10th century Moorish city in the 1964 action epic The Long Ships. It’s a manly podcast about Gerard Butler and Richard Widmark, with more beards that you can shake an axe at. But is there a gentler message at the heart of either of these films? How...

We’re sick of these false teeth and black cloaks, but we’re going to wear them anyway, because we’re reflecting on vampire movies this week at the Popcorn Counter. (But obviously not in a mirror.) How do rules-based stories work and why do we love them? Which vampire movies did we enjoy and which did we avoid? Why don’t teenagers know the vampire rules any more? And what exactly is the difference between ‘undead’ and ‘alive’? Inclu...

We’re sucking blood and playing the blues this week, after watching the new Ryan Coogler Mississippi vampire picture Sinners and 1992’s Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Is Sinners an early contender for film of the year? What do the two films have to say about racism, cultural appropriation and ‘the other’? Which film has a lot of sexy talk and which one has more boobs than a straight-to-video erotic thriller? Which ch...

We’re talking about housing at the popcorn counter this week. After watching the real estate adventures of Secret Mall Apartment last week, we got to thinking about cinema’s function as a feeder of fantasy. Out of all the places that we’ve visited through the screen over the years, which are the ones we really wish we lived in? Which are our top five movie homes, and why? Do we prefer mansions or hammocks, quiet islands or cities, ...

We’re in real estate agent mode this week, as we watch two films with unique takes on the property market. Secret Mall Apartment is a new documentary about an art collective who moved into a disused corner of a Rhode Island mall in the early 2000s, while 1960’s The Apartment sees sparks fly between Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in Billy Wilder’s landmark Oscar winning comedy. Two films with some profound themes, including love, ...

Popcorn seems to have got more expensive like everything else recently. And now we may be looking at tariffs on the film business. But how would these proposed tariffs work? And what might they mean for movie fans as well as moving picture professionals?

Join us at the popcorn counter as we discuss Jon Voight’s proposals for MAGA’s film industry master plan with special guest Mike Primmer, and try to figure out what it all means. A...

We’re joined by the film industry’s premier sound recordist this episode, as Mike Primmer sits down with us to talk about dog movies. We’ve seen The Friend, the new Bill Murray/Naomi Watts light drama, recorded by Mike, and we’re comparing it to the much loved Swedish 1985 coming of age picture My Life as a Dog. Two films about loss, grief, change, wagging tails and vinyl records. But which film reminded us of a Hallmark picture? W...

Okay, that’s it.  We don’t understand anything anymore. 

This week we went to see A Minecraft Movie. It’s not a masterpiece. But we spent more time watching the audience than watching the film. Join us at the Popcorn Counter as we talk about the meme-ification of cinema, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, TikTok and the end times, Tommy Wiseau and the best way to clear up popcorn from a carpet. Altogether now: 'Flint and Steel!'

If you...

We’re going off-world this episode, joining Robert Pattinson on an ice planet in Bong Joon Ho’s new satirical clone adventure Mickey 17, before crashing back to a ruined, rainy Earth to compare it to Ridley Scott’s flawed 1982 masterpiece Blade Runner. Two films about artificial humans and the value of life, but which one deals eloquently with eternal themes and which one can’t make up its mind what it wants to say? Which one feels...

We’ve got to stop reading, it’s just making us mad. This week at the popcorn counter we’ve been looking at Namwali Serpell’s article in the recent New Yorker about ‘The New Literalism’, and boy do we have something to say. Serpell’s been to the multiplex a lot lately, and frankly if we’d just come out of Gladiator II and Megalopolis like she has, we’d probably be annoyed too. But is ‘on the nose’ story-telling really a new phenomen...

You may have read as we did recently in The Hollywood Reporter about ‘Netflix’s Old Movie Problem’. But is there really a problem? Does it matter if old movies aren’t available on Netflix? Join us at the popcorn counter where we’ll talk about discoverability, Quentin Tarantino, algorithms and the BBC Moviedrome. Which country has the biggest Netflix library? Is there anything to stop young people enjoying films from 1939? And what ...

We’ve set the Popcorn Counter up at the beach this episode, to enjoy a coconut water and a chopp with last week’s guest Inês Braga. She tells us about the experience of writing Alice, the first HBO production made for South America, fills us in on life in Rio, gives us a watch-list of some of the greats of Brazilian cinema, reflects on changes in Brazilian society over the last twenty years, and recommends a little music by Ezra Co...

We’re heading to the southern hemisphere this week and taking regular guest Inês Braga with us, as we catch up with the Best International Feature Film Oscar winner, I’m Still Here, and compare it to 1997’s Brazilian kidnap drama Four Days in September. Two adaptations, two films about the Military Dictatorship, two films starring Fernanda Torres, two films with similar timely themes. But which film has five endings? Which film sta...

We’ve set up the reel to reel, we’ve planted our hidden microphones and we’ve put on our headphones, so it’s time to pay tribute to the late Gene Hackman and his finest film, The Conversation, at the Popcorn Counter this week. But which of Hackman’s many other outstanding movies stick in our minds? What was his connection to Dustin Hoffman? Which was his most famous hat? When did he put in an epidural? How do we manage to get defle...

We’re sending our tuxedos back to the dry cleaners once again now that awards season is over. But did the Oscars thrill or disappoint this year? And more importantly, did we get it right? Which gong did we cheer at home, and which left us shrugging our shoulders? What do we think about the screenplay winners and who would have picked up the awards if we’d been in charge? Who would Letterbox’d have given the awards to? Who goes to t...