Check the Gate

Check the Gate

Hosts Martin and Gretchen talk movies. Each episode we choose one movie to start the conversation. From there, all movies, genres and topics could come up. It's about the love of films and the love of talking about films with the people we most want to talk with. No criticism. Not reviews. We just love movies and we hope you love the ones we choose to talk about.

Episodes

Check the Gate - Blade Runner

August 15, 2025 • 65 mins
All of these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Unless you have a podcast. Then you get to keep them forever and comment on them relentlessly. Blade Runner is the seminal work of Ridley Scott. As if Alien wasn't enough to transform the landscape of science fiction and horror, he comes back to create a futuristic landscape that is emulated by nearly every director make distopynia future films. This movie has been a gre...
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Check the Gate - Bringing Out The Dead

August 5, 2025 • 70 mins
We dig into the cinephile lexicon of awesome movies not getting enough love for this Scorsese masterpiece. The 1999 film Bringing Out The Dead. Nic Cage in perfect Nic Cage form - not to crazy, just enough, not all the time, but right when we need him. This film is a fantastic run through the night for an ambulance crew in Hell's Kitchen. Tom Sizemore is killin' it. Good Goodman is rockin' it. Ving Rhames is preachin' it. It's peak...
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Check the Gate - Blue Ruin

July 18, 2025 • 59 mins
Martin and Gretchen watch one of the best revenge movies made in the last few decades. Blue Ruin is perfect execution of a film. Especially on the tiny budget they had. Perfect story. Excellent twists. The pacing is superb. It is the perfect movie without all the side plots and lost threads. It's everything a movie should be in the thriller genre. We hope you enjoy!

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate.  
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Check the Gate Bonus - Director Karen Lam

July 7, 2025 • 22 mins
Hey everyone. Gretchen and I have a few bonus episodes for you coming out of the Portland Horror Film Festival that happened June 12th through the 14th. It's a great festival and if you are a horror fan with a film, this festival is not to be missed. Our first bonus episode is with Karen Lam, a writer/director/producer from Vancouver, British Columbia. She debuted her film, Mrs. Chang's Perfect Teeth at the festival. Spend some tim...
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Check the Gate - Exorcist III (plus Legion the Cut)

July 1, 2025 • 97 mins
Gretchen and I are back with a new episode. Exorcist III as well as the intended directors cut of Exorcist Legion. It was so much fun to watch these movies together. Films are always difficult to make. Every one of them is a miracle. When your film is taken apart by a studio and turned into something else it becomes a reality of an industry and a system. The Legion Cut is a fun attempt to see the ideas that Blatty had when he was m...
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Check the Gate - Uncle Boonmee Who Recalls His Past Lives

June 15, 2025 • 59 mins
Gretchen and Martin are stepping into the world of art films on this one. This is a crazy existential meditation on one's life in the final days before they die. Ghosts. Monkey Gods. Catheters. This movie has it all paced at the consistency of molassis in winter. It takes its time, and the time of an unnamed princess in the forest, to get anywhere. Once it does, it redefines the term being catfished. Make sure you check out this ep...
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Check the Gate - Eastwood vs Eastwood

May 31, 2025 • 68 mins
We're back and, holy ghosts from hell on an appoluosa, did we have a run and gun fun one. Gretchen and I watch two films. 1973's Clint Eastwood directorial film in High Plains Drifter and pitted it against the 1985 Nameless Preacher film, Pale Rider. It's Eastwood vs Eastwood in this western mash up podcast episode. Make sure you check out this episode and more. 


Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. https://ma...
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Check the Gate - Promising Young Woman

May 15, 2025 • 66 mins
TRIGGER WARNING This episode discusses topics about sexual assault. We discuss this matter with care but know that some people can have issues with it being talked about. If you or someone else is the victim of sexual assault of any kind, contact the National Sexual Assault hotline 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673. If you are feeling alone and having thoughts of hurting yourself, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24/7 at 988.

Hey everyone....
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Check the Gate - The Company of Wolves

May 2, 2025 • 66 mins
Gretchen and I watch an amazing practical effects film with a great cast, excellent performances and lots of wolfy sexuality. The coming of age, story-in-a-story-in-a-story film, Company of the Wolves. Neil Jordan at his finest. This movie is an astounding achievement at every level, especially on the budget he was given.


Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. https://martinvavra.me
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Check the Gate - Altered States

May 2, 2025 • 83 mins
Gretchen and Martin take on the 1980s with Ken Russell's existential space baby operate, Altered States. Watch William Hurt become an Australopithecus. See Bob Baliban before he ran the kennel club for best in show. Psylocibin. Shaman. Reverse evolution. Touching the face of god. Ken Russell packed it all in there. It's a trip of a film and we loved it. 

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. https://martinvavra...
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Check the Gate - The Boxer's Omen

May 2, 2025 • 60 mins
It's time for the craziest film ever made to get the spotlight with Martin and Gretchen. The Boxer's Omen is the Shaw Studios crossroads of Kung fu revenge, black magic, sorcery and homunculus creating wrapped up in the real guts and gore (no really, the guts and the gore are real viscera) of outlandish fimmaking. It's an insane ride and truly the craziest film either of us have ever seen. It's not for the light of heart.*






*VIEWER W...
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Check the Gate - Danger Dialbolik

May 2, 2025 • 67 mins
We go to the heart of Italian cinema for this gem. Gretchen and I watch the film Danger: Diabolik. The film that I argue is the influence for so many other films and defines how we see some genres today. Amazing effects. Sexy people. Crazy escapes. This cat burglar caper is like nothing else, and we are so excited to talk about it. 

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. https://martinvavra.me
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Check the Gate - Dinner in America

May 2, 2025 • 58 mins
It's episode two. Martin and Gretchen talk about the film Dinner in America. One of the best films made in the last few years and an absolute joy to watch. I (Martin) describe it as the sweetest kick in the nuts. Go watch this film or buy it to own for yourself and have in your library. 

Martin and Gretchen talk Dinner in America. https://martinvavra.me
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Check the Gate - Godzilla Minus One

May 2, 2025 • 81 mins
In our first episode, Martin and Gretchen start with the movie Godzilla: Minus One. For a decade, Gretchen and I were on the Kaijucast, a podcast dedicated to Godzilla and his rubber-suited foes. In all those years of watching Godzilla films, this is the one that I always wanted to see. Gretchen and I talk about this movie and and a few other Godzilla films. 

Martin and Gretchen talk movies and more at Check the Gate. https://martin...
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