Movie Show Theater: The Podcast

Hey friends and happy 2026! We're starting the year with the wetest and slimiest movie we could think of! It's GREMLINS and it was the first time Jimmy had ever seen it!

Do you remember this iconic movie poster? I bet you had the soundtrack or had a friend who did. We re-watched this cult classic from 1999 and we're so pleased to report it's WAY better than we remembered, but then again, I was 15 when I watched it and understood so little about the story. You can stream it for $4 on Amazon Prime or iTunes if you need a refresh then join us for this episode!

This 1996 horror movie COMPLETELY resuscitated the slasher genre, reignited Wes Craven’s career, and introduced screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream 2, Scream 3, I Know What You Did Last Summer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Cursed)! It's also responsible for injecting the 'Who's the killer' trope back into horror as well as using humor to breathe humanity into the story's characters. Also it's BRUTAL even by today's standards. Also Scream 1-4 are all streaming on MAX! Can you tell we love this movie? Music composer and fellow scary movie buddy CJ Johnson joins me to help break it all down!

After recently watching a 25th anniversary theatrical screening of The Mummy (a movie I already loved), I haven't been able to shut up about it (just ask my wife). I think it's time we had a little talk about what made this movie work so well in 1999 and why it not only holds up 25 years later, but is actually a better constructed story than most modern movies releasing in 2024! Join me shall you?

It’s been ALMOST 25 years since this cult classic was released & we thought it was finally time to determine if Donnie Darko is deep or dumb or possibly BOTH?! How does it hold up in 2024? The answer might surprise you! I connect with my original podcast crew, Stu & Ben to help me figure out what EXACTLY this movie is about. We also uncovered a few things you might not know about the pretentious mystery that is Donnie Darko.

American Movie is a documentary released in 1999 and has changed my life in many ways, I wish I was kidding! This heartbreaking, harrowing, and hilarious journey into one man's quest to make a short film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1999 and is truly unlike anything I've ever seen!

It's our New Year's Eve show so OBVIOUSLY we're talking favorites here. Director/Producer Corey Gilbert & Composer/DP CJ Johnson join me with their #1 favorites for the year. It was such a great year for movies, so let's get crack in!

Let's ring in the summer season with this gross, dark, masterpiece of a film. Co-Owner of P3 Mediaworks production company Corey Gilbert joins me to pick apart this 90's classic from David Fincher! After watching it 8+ times, I still pick up tidbits of foreshadowing and so much layered storytelling that just begs to be picked apart, so let's go do just that! And hey.. thanks for the support!

It's the 1st episode of our 7th season and we may (or may not) have found our 1st 'PERFECT MOVIE'! So what IS a perfect movie and what makes THIS one a perfect movie? Corey Gilbert is a producer/director/co-owner of P3 Mediaworks, a production company here in Chicago, IL, and he's here to help us understand what flawless storytelling looks like. HEAT was released 27 years ago (almost to the day) and it's never looked better or held more relevancy.

To capitalize on The Matrix Resurrections coming to theaters and HBO Max on December 22nd, we decided it was time to revisit The Matrix from all the way back to the year 1999. Ben and I were the PERFECT demographic for the release of this landmark film, but how does it hold up in 2021? We were both surprised for very different reasons. You can check out the original three movies on HBO Max!

Filmmaker Dakota Kuhlmann joins us to pick apart one of the titans of science fiction cult classics. Do you remember the 2012 Total Recall? Was it remake? Was it a reboot? Was it a reimagining? What's the difference and how can you even tell? Maybe it holds up better than the original. Maybe you forgot how super decent it actually is. Then again, maybe it IS as bad as you remember. Either way, join us as we compare it to one of the weirdest, wildest, and most fun movie of 1990.

For our 2021 Halloween Special, I decided to coerce my non-horror movie loving wife to watch what some would consider THE horror movie standard. How does HALLOWEEN look in 2021? Was it scarier than she thought it would be? Was it more fun than she thought it would be? What worked and what didn't? Although this movie is timeless in my mind's eye, I can't be oblivious to its faults and shortcomings even for 1978. Listen if you dare, but remember.. "It's halloween, I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare."

One of our original podcasters (Ben) decided we should watch Nighthawks from 1981.. so we did. Was it good? Is it worth a watch in 2020? Is it just a total cheeseball action flick? These are the hard hitting questions we're hitting today! If you haven't seen Nighthawks, you can find it on Netflix (US) right now! It was Rutger Hauer's US film debut, and buy does he shine!

Dead or alive, you're coming with me! With us, I mean, on another cinematic journey of pure satirical perfection. While some may remember this (inaccurately) as a crass, shallow, ultra violent look into a nasty future, we dive in to extract the technical achievement and true master class in storytelling we remember from Robocop. Jimmy tries out a new trivia game all about fictional movie bars, Joey recalls the drug-induced revelation of his youth, Sam shares some of the cast's favorite moments while filming Robocop, and Norm asks us hard hitting questions that give us all pause. If you're an advocate for Robocop or if you just think we're all crazy, this episode is 100% for YOU! Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater

It's a big day today! The original Blade Runner is my all time favorite movie! The original Blade Runner is Stu's all time favorite movie! Today we're coming together to explain why. Maybe you've seen it enough times that you totally understand our deep love for this classic, or maybe you just saw it once last year to prepare for the sequel. But we're not talking about the sequel today, rather putting our entire focus on this movie and examining just what makes it so special in a sea of science of fiction movies. From themes to performances to deeper meanings, we want to talk about some things you may not know about this true true cinema classic. If you like what you hear, head over to our Facebook and leave us a movie suggestion. If you live in the Chicago area, we want YOU to join us in the studio to talk about whatever movie you made us watch! Thanks for all the support!

Welcome back to the show! Today, we're going to the Davis Theater (4614 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago) for the Middle Coast Film Festival! We got a look behind the scenes and got to talk to John Schorg, the chairman of the festival. John discussed the importance of short films, and why they have so much to offer us. We also sat down with Melissa Fitzsimmons, the program director for the Middle Coast Film Festival, to get an idea of the amount of footwork involved in this massive undertaking, including screening HUNDREDS of film submissions. We also talked to a handful of filmmakers from all over the country (also Canada) here this weekend to showcase their films. 1. Karson Pilote- writer and director of The Heart of the Blackhawks. This documentary chronicles his grandfather's life and career playing for the Chicago Blackhawks. 2. Writer Ben Hammond, director Shawn McDaniel, and cinematographer Mark Stabeline sit down to talk about My Death Co, a darkly funny web series about confronting death, life, love, and everything in between. They are premiering their 2nd episode tonight, but their first is currently available to stream at www.mydeathco.com 3. Averland DeCourse, Brandon Coleman, and cinematographer Sayyid talked to me about their film, Identity: Absolutely Present. We discussed their many influences from Spike Lee and Ryan Coogler to camera techniques made famous by Alfred Hitchcock. 4. Jaffe Zin sat down with me to talk about his latest feature film, Children. He described Children as a sort of existential Christian horror film, so obviously, I wanted to know more. He talks about the big differences between Children and his last feature film, Happy Valley. You can check out middlecoastfest.com for the whole lineup, or just head down there NOW and check out some seriously incredible films. This was recorded live in a noisy room, so be warned. But please suffer through the inferior quality, because I had a great time with these folks, and they absolutely have something to say. And thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater!

Oh dang, I am so in over my head with authority today! We're talking about film music and the powerful impact it has on visual storytelling. I brought Norm Burns (dear friend, guitar builder, musician), Ana Holguin-Malone (student of music, brilliant woman, wife), and C.J. Johnson (musician, sound designer, film composer). We each brought a piece of music from a film we thought was a beaming showcase of what music can do and its incredible emotional power! We break down some classic music from classic films, and try to extract the Power of Film! We got trivia and plenty of other weird things in store. Thanks for supporting us and thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater!

I'm joined by directors Jason Snydaker and Dakota Kuhlmann of Exit Reality Entertainment, as well as producer Matt Pleasant to talk about what it means to be a filmmaker and some of the problems that have that will always follow. Dakota talks about his experience making his first feature film, The Pale One. I also found a pretty strange trivia question, wanna know what it is? Ok, How many movies are there? I found out. We also use David Fincher as our standard for expert storytelling through using visual and audio channels. We have a lot more for you, but I'm too tired to type more in the description, so check it out for yourself! And thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater!

Well it's the last day of a most strange year, and we're here to celebrate our unknown future by looking back at some of the best and some of the worst movies from 2017. Another year full of competing superhero movies, although Wonder Woman stands pretty tall (thanks again, Patty Jenkins). But we thought there might also be some gems you may have missed, like, The Overnight, Free Fire, and Brigsby Bear. We have some fascinatingly weird 2017 trivia we want to share, cinematic tangents, and we all share our favorite and least favorite from 2017, all in the name of helping you choose the perfect movie to watch. Find the Movie Show Theater Facebook page and recommend a movie you'd like us to tackle... and we will! Seriously! Sam Ball (writer, novelist), Joey Fandel (filmmaker), and Norm Burns (actor, musician) sit down to discuss as many movies as we could in 59 minutes. Thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater!

Have you ever had a long phone conversation with one of your best friends that was so good you just HAD to turn it into a podcast episode? Well that's what you're about to experience, because I called up Ben, our old co-host from Peoria and we covered so much ground, I just had to bring it to you. He is our resident horror buff, I had just watched Krampus, and I wanted to hear his take on the PG-13 horror movie and why they so rarely work. This is our holiday episode and Krampus was just fine, but it's really just our jumping off point. Where we go from here is really up to you... not really since it's already been recorded, sorry. But you should find our Movie Show Theater Facebook page, and suggest a movie for us to pick apart. Or even better, join us on air for a live discussion! Thanks for supporting us movie adventures!