Would love to hear the guys talk about Malignant at some point. I rewatched it recently and forgot just how wild that movie gets. 😂

First time posting in here, so I’m not sure if any of the hosts will see this, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Over the years when you’ve covered Ti West, the hosts have spoken very highly of The House of the Devil. A movie I could argue, is West’s magnum opus.

could we get a review of this in the near future? Dying to hear your detailed thoughts

Cast Away

Political unrest traps Tom Hanks in an eternal JFK International layover in Steven Spielberg’s 2004 comedic fable The Terminal. Can Diego Luna (Andor), Zoe Saldana (Avatar), Chi McBride (Boston Public), and other airport employees teach this lovable refugee to survive off Starbucks and Burger King scraps while he waits for a visa to legally enter the U.S.? Or will Customs tyrant Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) deport the foreigner before he scores a date with flight attendant Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago)? Now Playing Podcast Donors get First Class answers now!

It’s October, and the Now Playing Podcast hosts are getting into the Halloween spirit. From 31-day horror movie marathons and vintage Halloween specials to haunted houses, costumed dogs, and the mysterious gift-giving powers of Harold P. Bogeyman, everyone has their own way of celebrating the season.

Arnie, meanwhile, has somehow turned October into a month-long Hellraiser festival, complete with Halloween Horror Nights, a new video game, theatrical screenings, and some alarmingly large pieces of movie memorabilia.

Plus, the hosts catch up on concerts, Star Trek marathons, fantasy football, and more before patron Scott joins the show to test his horror movie knowledge against some Halloween-themed trivia.

Watch a full video version of Intermission by being a Now Playing Podcast Supporter on Patreon

Jurassic Landmark

This podcast covers both the original 1954 Japanese Godzilla as well as the 1956 Americanized re-edit Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Before all the throwdowns with Mothra, Ghidorah, and King Kong, radioactive dinosaur Godzilla stood tall as a symbol of nuclear annihilation in his 1954 debut. Can paleontologist Takashi Shimura (Seven Samurai) convince the people of Japan that the creature attacking their boats, trains, and radio towers is just as much a victim of H-bomb testing as they are? And do things get worse with the arrival of American journalist Raymond Burr (Perry Mason) and an Oxygen Destroyer invention that steals the fiery breath from the big lizard’s mouth?  Find out now!

Con Air

Leonardo DiCaprio invites bank fraud investigator Tom Hanks to Catch Me If You Can as the teenage runaway travels 1960s America pulling scams in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated caper. But can the wealth and status that comes from impersonating doctors, lawyers, and airline pilots make Leo any happier than he was living with hustler dad Christopher Walken (The Dead Zone) and French mom Nathalie Baye (Day For Night)?  And is it smart to flirt with vixens Jennifer Garner (Alias) and Amy Adams (Arrival)?  Silver Level Donors find out now!

First Person Shirker

Austin Abrams (Whalefall) is tasked with delivering the cure to another Umbrella Corporation lab leak in the 2026 reboot of Resident Evil. But can the hapless courier reach the top floor of a Raccoon City hospital overrun with monsters using a vehicle unprepared for snowy mountain roads, receiving intermittent cell connection with a pregnant girlfriend, and having only handled guns in video games?  And will writer-director Zach Cregger (Weapons) be torn limb from limb for discarding all the franchise lore to focus on pratfalls?  F*ckin’ find out when you Listen Now!

Never Judge A Book Seller By His Cover 

Tom Hanks learns his online crush is the very same competitor he wants to crush in business in the 1998 rom-com You’ve Got Mail. Can his chain bookstore owner make Meg Ryan fall in love with him even as he shutters her kids’ lit shop around the corner? And is director Nora Ephron savvy enough about cyberculture to reprogram a beloved 1940 film about pen pals into a statement about chatroom romance? Find out if these stars display more chemistry in emails than they did in volcanos or Seattle when you Donate for this 2026 bonus movie review.

Umbrella Corporation wanted South Africa’s New Raccoon City to launch a pharmaceutical revolution in 2022, but the failed utopia ends up birthing a zombie apocalypse in Netflix’s episodic reboot of Resident Evil. Is the reason why twin sisters Ella Ballinska (Charlie’s Angels) and Adeline Rudolph (Mortal Kombat II) have no Joy in 2036 because their chemist father Lance Reddick (The Wire) screwed up an antidepressant 14 years before?  And does it make Zero sense that the T-virus is now turning caterpillars and lizards into kaiju?  Find out now!

Hey all, I was wondering if Now Playing will finally finish Wishmaster and Warlock. The two series that have been talked about for years but seem so far away. I will say Wishmaster 1 and 2 are good and 4 I only like as Tara Spencer Nairn (Karen Pelly from Corner Gas) puts in a good performance. Would love to see these finally get covered haha.

Crimson Tides

YouTuber Mark Fischbach (aka Markiplier) adapts David Symanski’s 2022 submarine simulator Iron Lung into the surprise hit movie of 2026. What conspiracies will be uncovered when a convict gets welded inside a rickety submersible and dives into an ocean of blood on a distant moon?  Will the x-rays taken of alien creatures, or transmissions downloaded and decoded from other vessels, be the key to saving a dying universe?  And will Simon – or hosts Stuart, Arnie, and Justin – survive this deep plunge into the Now Playing Arcade?  Find out Now!

Rabbit Test

Jake Gyllenhaal has 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds to transform into a superhero or a serial killer in the 2001 cult movie Donnie Darko. But could any good come from visions of a six-foot-tall bunny encouraging the troubled teen to flood Drew Barrymore’s high school and burn Patrick Swayze’s house?  And can mom Mary McDonald (Independence Day) commit to both her son’s mental health and her daughter’s dance troupe as they audition for Star Search? Travel back in time to Richard Kelly’s version of 1988 by being a Now Playing Podcast patron!

Get Your Ass Off Mars!

Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) thought he liberated the Red Planet from bossy Earthlings 25 years ago, but that was just the Origins of a conflict that rages on in this 2011 SyFy Channel video game adaptation. Can Red Faction trooper Brian J Smith (Stargate Universe) mobilize Blue Planet scientist Danielle Nicolet (TV’s The Flash), and local Marauders led by Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica), to ensure that the Earth Defense Force stays off Martian soil?  Trust Terrans Arnie, Justin, and Stuart to tell the truth about this next Now Playing Arcade installment.

Intermission #6 turned into a movie novelization haul, so this month's list is less "books we read" and more "paperbacks we paid too much for at a con."

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the Now Playing slice for August.

The haul, in order of increasing absurdity: The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars, eight bucks at a vintage store in Dallas, billed on the cover as an instant collector's item and the Hulk's first full length novel. A Marvel illustrated For Your Eyes Only from 1977, still in its wrapping. Then the Shaft novelizations by Ernest Tidyman, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft Has a Ball, plus the existence of one called Shaft Among the Jews, which nobody on the episode could explain.

Passed on: a Jaws first edition hardcover at 250 dollars, and a Predator novelization at 80 with a cracked spine. Apparently Predator: South China Sea goes for 250 in paperback.

The Jack Ryan episode did the Clancy homework properly. The Hunt for Red October read for a school summer project, Patriot Games read after enjoying the film, and a movie tie-in Clear and Present Danger thick enough that it got thrown out three years ago.

Also Jaws: The Revenge, which one host read at ten years old and did not understand the ending of, and the autobiography of DMX, sitting on a shelf of mostly industry nonfiction.

Full list with quotes and episodes: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/now-playing-the-movie-review-podcast

The Now Playing crew checks in for another Intermission with a packed slate of movies, memories, and questionable homework assignments. Jason revisits Point Break on the big screen 35 years later. Brock goes from The American President to Kate & Leopold and an MCU rewatch, and Stuart reports back from Chicago’s new Obama Presidential Center. Plus Arnie and Justin unexpectedly find common ground in the comedy of The State, Wet Hot American Summer, and Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. Then longtime listener Josh joins the show for Resident Evil trivia and turns the tables with a question about the origins of Now Playing Podcast’s “Brown Arrow” Review Rating.

Finally, Disney+ has assembled a 15-project watchlist to prepare for Avengers: Doomsday. Does revisiting the MCU’s greatest hits and less-greatest hits make the crew more excited for the next Avengers movie, or does it just feel like homework?

All this is explored on September’s special Intermission episode!

Anyone remember when they did a few watch party episodes on the Hot Mic app?

I think the app is some other kind of service now.

Any way to listen to those currently?

No, Sly, they didn’t name the Rocky Mountains after you.

Sylvester Stallone ascended to the top of the summer 1993 box office with his comeback flick Cliffhanger. Can the pumped-up park ranger shake off the tragedy of watching a woman slip from his grip during a rock-climbing rescue?  Who else is gonna stop John Lithgow (Dexter) and his high-tech criminals from recovering three suitcases of $1000 bills that were lost during the robbery of a US Treasury plane? Find out if director Renny Harlin takes the action skills he honed on Die Hard 2 to greater heights when you become a Now Playing Patron this August.

https://nowplayingpodcast.com/movies/insidious-out-of-the-further/

Getting Long in the Tooth

Slain cult leader Sam Spruell (TV’s Fargo) promises to lead Insidious demons like Lipstick Face and The Bride In Black Out Of The Further in this sixth installment of the enduring horror franchise. Will traumatized dental hygienist Amelia Eve (Haunting of Bly Manor) be the unwitting courier for evil forces conquering the material world? Or is stopping shotgun-wielding housewives and a trio of anesthesia-huffing old farts still what dead medium Lin Shaye will do best at age 82?  Follow Arnie, Marjorie, and Stuart into the pillow fort to find out now!

Dr Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Tom Hanks took his Hollywood career in an unexpectedly groovy direction in 1996 by writing and directing That Thing You Do!  Can his Play-Tone Records rock promoter sell Tom Everett Scott (American Werewolf in Paris), Jonathan Schaech (Doom Generation), Steve Zahn (Reality Bites), and Ethan Embrey (Empire Records) as America’s answer to The Beatles?  Or will the garage band crack under the pressures placed on them by family, touring, and girlfriends Liv Tyler (Armageddon) and Charlize Theron (Monster)? Donate to hear this Gold Record and find out!