Sound Speed Action: Movie & TV Reviews

On this episode of Sound Speed Action, we review Mayday, the new 80s style action comedy on Apple TV starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, made in the vein of Midnight Run, 48 Hrs, and Red Heat. It's a lot of fun, it knows exactly what it is, and Branagh's Nikolai, a former KGB hermit who worships one bootleg VHS of Top Gun, turns out to be a genuine badass. I am not kidding. I did not see that coming.

But I keep telling mysel...

Anthony Bourdain at nineteen was arrogant, mean, and genuinely hard to be around, and the filmmakers made him worse on purpose. In this episode of the Sound Speed Action podcast, we break down why Tony invents so much of its own story, why that creative license is the point rather than the problem, and how a small independent film gets closer to the truth of a man than most authorized biopics ever manage.

What We Cover:

• A Problem...

Christopher Nolan risked everything on a $400M epic based on an ancient poem, and the result is a massive box office phenomenon. In this episode of Sound Speed Action, we break down why The Odyssey works so well on a regular screen, the insane sound design bleeding into adjacent theaters, and why its massive success is saving original cinema.

What We Cover:
• The $400M Risk: Why Universal greenlit an ancient epic with no franchis...

Two movies came out in 2026 that did the exact same thing, in completely opposite directions. One spends two hours testing your patience, and then the final stretch is so good it almost erases everything that came before. The other is one of the best action movies you've seen in years, right up until the ending takes a wrecking ball to all of it.This is the last reel flip. When the ending of a movie reaches back and rewrites how yo...

Christopher Nolan is bringing Homer's Odyssey to IMAX with Matt Damon. It'll be an event, and it should be.

Before that lands, I want to point you somewhere stranger.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? carries Homer's name on the box and almost nothing else. The Coens borrowed a couple of characters, a familiar shape, and then took off in their own direction entirely. Chain gang escapees. Bad hair product decisions. A radio station. It is no...

A spoiler-heavy breakdown of Curry Barker's 2026 psychological thriller "Obsession," the indie horror movie everyone is about to be talking about. Friend of the podcast Chris Cheng is back for this one.

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: This is a full spoiler review. See the movie first.

Our friend of the podcast Chris went to see the 2026 psychological thriller (it's also kinda horror too, right?). I have always known that Chris is not the kind o...

A new podcast episode of "Sound Speed Action," a review episode on the movie "In The Grey" (2026), is now available everywhere you get your podcasts!

Episode 68 – Review: In The Grey (2026)

Guy Ritchie movies are special. There is always something fun about them. I got hooked with the one-two punch that opened his career, "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch", and I have followed him ever since.

The phases of Ritchie...

⚠️ FULL SPOILERS. If you haven't read the book or seen Project Hail Mary yet, do that first, then come back.

Andy Weir fans have been waiting for this one. The 2021 bestselling novel finally makes its big screen debut and this is the kind of movie that reminds you what movie magic can actually feel like.

Ryan Gosling (star and producer), Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest), directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21...

A new special topic episode of Sound Speed Action is out now everywhere you get your podcasts!

The big ongoing story in the entertainment world has been the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount has acquired Warner Bros. Discovery after a long bidding war with Netflix. Netflix is being called the loser in all of this. Look, either of these companies getting their hands on this archive of content pushes this industry into some un...

Psychological thrillers are having a massive moment, but finding a truly successful book to film adaptation remains a rare feat. Today we discuss how director Paul Feig, known for his range in films like Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor, took the beloved source material by author Freida McFadden and elevated it for the big screen. While the book set a high bar, this cinematic version manages to heighten the tension through creative r...

4 years later and James Cameron is back with another headspinning installment of having us enter back into his worl of Pandora. Yes today's SPOILER REVIEW episode of "Sound Speed Action" is covering the mega-movie event of 2025 that was "Avatar: Fire and Ash". That of course means returning to the podcast after our review of "Avatar: Way of Water" 3 years ago is our good friend, Mr. Jonathan Olivo. We cover a lot of ground but I th...

Are Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck bringing back the golden age of cinema? We dive deep into "The Wrecking Crew" and "The Rip" to see if the buddy action movie is finally back for good.The latest episode of Sound Speed Action is up and also a heads up this episode does include some minor spoilers for the streaming movies The Rip and The Wrecking Crew. On this episode it is the battle of buddy action movies ...

Today’s episode was recorded in August 2025.
BlackBerry is an unusual, against-the-grain movie, much like the ground-shaking device it’s about. I’m very happy to have my father, Esmail Amid-Hozour, back on the podcast, along with my dear friend Kathy Garber, to break down this 2023 indie film and what makes it work, and where it stumbles.
Director Matt Johnson pulls off something genuinely impressive here. T...

The latest episode and final episode of 2025 of Sound Speed Action is live, and what a way to end the year. One Battle After Another caps off an incredible run of movies and stands as our clear favorite of the year. What a film.

Marc and I break down this ambitious, unsettling, and often darkly funny work from director Paul Thomas Anderson, and the more we talk about it, the more impressive it becomes. This is one of those rare mov...

“Predator: Badlands” is one of those rare movies. You already expect something good after “Prey,” but then you watch this and it turns out to be one of the most satisfying action films of the year. Disney clearly believed in it too, bumping the budget to about 105 million, which is a big jump from “Prey’s” 65 million.Dan Trachtenberg is officially three for three. “Prey,” &ldquo...

Episode 59 – Halloween Spoiler Review: Weapons (2025)

IMPORTANT NOTE: This spoiler review episode focuses on an original horror film and includes language, topics, and descriptions that are dark, graphic, violent, and disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

You are not ready. Weapons (2025) is one of the most original, creative, and unsettling movies to come out in years. From Barbarian director Zach Cregger, who also produ...

Episode 58 - Special Episode: Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Jurassic Park is one of those franchises that I absolutely love, where Spielberg helped define the summer blockbuster movie season. The first two especially are amazing. Jurassic Park III was a flop. Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom were chapters that brought new life and characters into the franchise. Dominion was overstuffed but had fun visuals and brought back all the c...

Episode 57 - SPOILER Review: Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Just when it was starting to look pretty bleak for comic movies (over saturation, becoming extremely dark, forgettable stories, visual effects suffering from unsustainable output stretching visual FX artists too thin), it looks like studios are getting the message. First "Superman" from DC/Warner Brothers and now for today's episode we see how Marvel/Disney with "Fantas...

Episode 56 – Review: The Accountant 2 (2025)

Back in 2016, Ben Affleck surprised a lot of people with "The Accountant", a sleek, mysterious action thriller where he played Christian Wolff, a math savant with deadly skills. That film, written by Ozark series creator Bill Dubuque, had an incredible cast (John Lithgow, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Anna Kendrick, Jean Smart) and a vibe that stuck with people. For years, a sequel wa...