Poptic Nerve

2022's The Fablemans and Empire of Light had striking similarities when peeling its layers. Aside of the mental disorder subplots, both coming of age films  Directed by Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes respectively, were unapologetic love letters to the Cinematic experience, something that most of us can relate to but in this current landscape, things change and not necessarily for the better as the motion picture industry are dealing with a major slump. Possibly the worse since the early Seventies where televisions were sold in massive quantities now that they became more affordable.  It wasn't until the success of Blaxploitation films, when Hollywood managed to regain recover thanks to better bankable films such as The Exorcist and Godfather 2. And now, it's Deja vu all over again thanks to 2022's breakout legacy sequel Top Gun Maverick, and the long-awaited Avatar 2, this was of course, after the slump that occurred over three years ago. Why is the movie industry sti

Reviewed and Written by Jan. Here we go: Phase 5! Much is riding on this next chapter of the MCU after phase 4 didn’t exactly set the movie world on fire – to put it mildly. After two years of cringe (except for No Way Home which was produced by Sony), the MCU is in dire need of another hit. It will have to wait a while longer though. Quantumania is pure cinematic sludge, just as its predecessors. Before we get into the details of Ant-Man’s third solo outing, here's two general problems with the MCU which are as relevant to Quantumania as they were for most of phase 4’s content.  First: Too much content being produced at the same time – Disney running their own animation, Pixar, Star Wars, and the MCU – will inevitably stretch thin their resources. And boy, did they pump out content in the last two to three years. Meanwhile, there’s just a few FX studios in Hollywood who can do this kind of work, and they’re overworked and underpaid. The result: The CGI lacks the polish it needs t

Hello there and welcome to the Dine In Hell movie podcast! Tonight we embark on a little retrospective about the most expensive piece of pop culture to come out in 2022: Amazon studios‘ The Rings Of Power. Since Jeff wisely chose to avoid the show, Gogo and Jan will be taking the lead in this discussion. So get ready for a well-deserved trashing of The Rings Of Power… in tonight's dinner in hell!

"Hello there and welcome to the Dine In Hell movie podcast. Tonight’s hot topic is Avatar – The Way Of Water, which has just now entered the top 4 highest grossing movies of all time. Jeff hasn’t seen it yet and Jan was somewhat ambivalent about the film. But Enrrico and Gogo loved it and they came with tons of arguments for why The Way Of Water is a great sequel. So, let’s get started because TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!"

Valentine's Day is approaching and just in time for this offbeat period piece romance drama review of Empire of Light, now available for streaming on HBO MAX. Some spoilers ahead! Written and directed by Sam Mendes, and set during the early Eighties in a English coastal town, "Empire " is centered around Hilary Small (Played by Olivia Coleman of The Queen.) a lonely middle-aged duty Manager who works at the Empire Cinema near the seashore. Hilary lives a solitude life whose emotions have been lessened from prescribed Lithium, that is, until she finds herself in a May-December romantic relationship with a new employee, Stephen.(Michael Ward of Netflix's Crime Drama, Top Boy.) What makes this premise more interesting, is that Stephen is Black British and during an turbulent era where racial hostility ensued from the Skinheads. Aside of their interracial romance, Hilary’s dark secret brings an amount of challenges that may lead to dire circumstances. Despite a 47% approv

Although 2003's Daredevil was released on Valentine's Day of that year, it was met with mixed reviews as there was no love lost from the critics and moviegoers alike making this red clad Superhero, the red headed stepchild of comic book films. But heeeaaar me out, Daredevil, especially the Directors cut, in my opinion, was unworthy of the scathing negative reception. Director and Screenwriter Mark S Johnson liked the theatrical version but also mentioned how flawed it was. While some of the ire was justified like the playground fight, or Elektra's training montage that came off like an MTV production with Effervescence’s "Bring me to Life" playing in the background, there a few implementations that Mark Steven Johnson done "right”. One, was avoiding the standard trope when telling a Superhero origin tale. Instead, it begins as this  neo noir tale with flashes of our titular protagonist’s past events which led to his present dilemma, being  bruised, battered a

Hello there and welcome to the Dine In Hell movie podcast – tonight’s topic is… Creators At War With Their Audiences. As our case study, we got Marvel’s She Hulk to talk about. As well as the often prophesized MCU fatigue – certainly people like James Cameron and Martin Scorsese think it’s a real thing. In that context, we also discuss artists scolding audiences for not being interested in their movies – like Elizabeth Banks, Billy Eichner, and Ridley Scott – which is prompt enough for us to have a second look at the artistic merits of Scott’s recent box office failures Prometheus, Alien Covenant, and The Last Duel. From there, we sail on to Benioff & Weiss of GoT fame - who never got to tell us their alternate Civil War history. Lots of ground to cover so… let’s get started because… Tonight We Dine In HELL! 

Hello there and welcome to the Dine In Hell movie podcast – I’m your host Jan from Germany and here with me are Jeff from the US and Gogo from Switzerland. In tonight’s edition we dive into a bunch of recent horror movies like the new Hellraiser, The Deep House, and X. We also discuss the horror contributions of the legendary Hammer Studios and touch on topics like: Horror films that are too rough for our tastes, favourite Haunted House stories, and childhood experiences with some very special horror movies. So then, let’s get started because…  Tonight We Dine In HELL!

Bad news for devoted fans of the streaming giant's remake series, Let The Right One In and American Gigolo.  Following HBO MAX's restructuring plans, Showtime now officially combined with Paramount Plus, has announced that the two shows have been canceled due to a less than expected viewer turnout. This is disappointing news especially in regard to Let The Right One In, an engaging coming of age thriller, with a more diverse cast, which ended on a cliffhanger. As suspected, the American Gigolo remake starring John Bernthal was on the chopping block possibly due to an investigation aimed at Showrunner David Hollander for allegations of misconduct.  Not to mention how American Gigolo received unfavorable critical reception yet, aside from the non-revelation of who framed Julian, the series’ conclusion had no major cliffhanger and therefore, is perceived as a (unintentional) limited series. On the opposite view, Showtime could at least wrap up Let The Right One In's story arc,