CinemArcade

We've come to the central chapter of Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS saga, and for many fans, it doesn't get better than this. THE TWO TOWERS is free of the burden of establishing or concluding the story, and so we get to really live in the world of Middle Earth, getting better acquainted with our core characters while introducing some precious new ones into the fray. Plus, we get a proper game adaptation this time: EA's slick, b...

YOU SHALL NOT PASS... up this opportunity to talk about the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy! One of the most acclaimed and accomplished pieces of modern pop culture, Peter Jackson's masterful adaptation of JRR Tolkein's daunting series not only stuck the landing, it established a new cinematic language for capturing fantasy fiction. We're kicking off a miniseries on the complete trilogy, which presents us with one snag: this film does no...

Last week, we covered INDEPENDANCE DAY, the film that made Will Smith's film career. This week, we're talking about the film that nearly ended it. WILD WILD WEST, the 1999 disaster from director Barry Sonnenfeld, tried to adapt the 1960's TV spot of it's namesake into a hugely expenseive spectacle, but the entire project landed with a thud. We're looking into exactly what went wrong before unearthing the long-forgotten game adaptat...

Welcome to earth! To commemorate the holiday, we're talking about INDEPENDENCE DAY, the film that reinvented the action blockbuster for the 90s, tilting the trend towards bombast, spectacle, and a whole lot of explosions. The 1996 Roland Emmerich classic helped launch the leading man career of Will Smith and featured cutting-edge special effects that showed that no monument is safe. We're digging into the flick before booting up th...

With CHICKEN RUN, Aardman Entertainment made the leap from scene-stealing short films to feature animation, and they made the leap in style. This fast, funny, endlessly inventive charmer parodies prisoner of war movies like THE GREAT ESCAPE, only with a lot more feathers and a distinctive British charm. We're checking out the film, plus spinning up our first Sega Dreamcast game with the adaptation that apes METAL GEAR SOLID, only w...

That'll do, pig. That'll do. Because this week we're talking about 1995's BABE, the heartwarming family classic about a kind-hearted talking pig, from the minds who brought you... MAD MAX? Ailish Collins returns to the show to talk about one of her all-time favorite films, before we check out BABE AND FRIENDS for Game Boy Color, a sheep-herding simulator that, like it's film, is a lot darker and meaner than it seems. 

Hosted by Ste...

This week is all about 1979's cult gem THE WARRIORS; can you dig it? We're talking all about Walter Hill's stylish, violent, controversial hit, as well as it's long and ever-evolving afterlife. We're joined by Chris Antista of "Thirty Twenty Ten" and "Vidjagame Apocalypse," who chimes in on his favorite movie as well as it's 2005 game adaptation from Rockstar Games!

Hosted by Steve Guntli, Jennifer "JBan" Bannister, and Justin Wilh...

The director of ROCKY brings us another triumphant sports story that's really only tangentially about sports. This week we're looking at 1984's THE KARATE KID, a coming-of-age classic starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. We're talking about the film's surprisingly enduring legacy before taking on the NES game adaptation, which borrows more from KARATE KID PART II than the original but still offers a couple of noteworthy moments. 

Whether you're laughing until your sides hurt or watching in horror through your fingers, there's no denying it's hard to take your eyes of JACKASS. The rowdy stunt phenomenon of the early 2000s hit pop culture like a hurricane, and despite it's relatively short early run it's endured thanks to it's anarchic ingenuity and the genuine love and friendship between the Johnny Knoxville and his crew of cheerful idiots. We're talking abo...

We're hitting the high seas this week with the rollicking 1996 adventure MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND! Shockingly, this is the only MUPPET property we're going to cover on this show, but luckily we pulled a fun one, a movie that may not live up to the series at its highest highs, but does offer a great villain turn from Tim Curry and a fun selection of songs. We're checking out the movie before digging up the old PC game, a FMV-powered p...

One of the absolute strangest vanity projects in film history, Jerry Seinfeld's animated BEE MOVIE tries to graft his tried-and-true stage patter onto a world of tiny flying insects, and the results are... weird. We're talking all about the movie and it's bizarre afterlife as a meme factory before trying out the BEE MOVIE GAME for PS2, an open-world platformer that features some original content for all you BEE-addicts out there. 

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The ultimate alien hunter sets his sights on the urban jungle this week as we look at the bleak, bombastic 1990 sequel PREDATOR 2! Danny Glover takes over from Arnold Schwarzenegger in a movie that has some really specific ideas about inner-city crime, but still boasts a handful of cool set pieces and some interesting new bits of lore. We're chatting about the film before checking out the Sega Genesis game adaptation, one of the ve...

Get to the choppa! This week we're talking about the bombastic, silly, diamond-honed perfection that is PREDATOR! John McTiernan's 1987 thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of the beefiest commandos in film history, this movie created one of the great screen monsters of the 80s and launched a fascinating franchise. We're catching up with Dutch and the gang before playing the NES adaptation of the game, featuring Arnold ...

Slam evil! This week, we're unmasking THE PHANTOM, an infamous 1996 bomb that has maintained a surprising cult following! This old-timey superhero flick starring Billy Zane, Treat Williams, and a young Catherine Zeta-Jones is as straight-faced a throwback as you can expect... and we kinda love it. We're also taking a look at our most recent game to date, 2025's THE PHANTOM video game, which adapts the good-hearted cheesiness of the...

Few actors have ever been so intrinsically tied to a character more than Sean Connery and James Bond. This week, we're watching the film that maybe most solidified his pop cultural persona, as well as a game that gives us one last experience with the master himself. It's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the first of many Bond films we'll be covering on this podcast. 

Hosted by Steve Guntli, Jennifer "JBan" Bannister, and Justin Wilhelm 

Logo...

It's the showdown you didn't know you always wanted: tanks vs. dragons. Find out which one is superior in the pleasantly daft 2002 adventure REIGN OF FIRE! Starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as post-apocalyptic dragon hunters in a world burned to ash, this film has gone largely forgotten but, like the fearsome winged lizards of the film, maybe it deserves to be unearthed. We're checking out the film and then playing th...

CinemArcade turns 100 this week, and we could think of no better way to celebrate than with a viewing of the seminal sci-fi classic STARSHIP TROOPERS! All three of your intrepid hosts are big fans of this hugely misunderstood satire from professional mischief-maker Paul Verhoeven. We're discussing the movie's long and strange road to cult stardom before talking about two recent games that are keeping the brand alive: the online hor...

In 2010, M. Night Shyamalan, one of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster filmmakers, signed on to adapt Nickelodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender," one of the most popular and acclaimed animate shows of recent years. What could go wrong? Turns out a lot. This week we're holding our noses and covering THE LAST AIRBENDER, a bafflingly ill-conceived adaptation that manages to miss the point so hard it's actually offensive. We're digging in...

This week we are, shockingly, tackling our first Dreamworks Animation feature! The studio has a prolific output with a ton of movies to choose from, but we're starting our journey with the 2010 superhero parody MEGAMIND! Starring Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt, the movie is actually attempting to tackle some complex issues; how successful it is is a matter for debate. Plus: we talk a lot about PHANTO...