John Woo’s unparalleled directing career is best known for blazing barrels, shadow selves and slow-motion “heroic bloodshed.” To celebrate the Hong Kong legend’s 75th birthday, we talk Woo's full arc with film scholar Karen Fang. Then, we focus on a sweet spot in Woo’s oeuvre, when he maxed out his Hong Kong street operas with "Hard Boiled"(1992) and transitioned to inimitable American shoot-em-ups “Hard Target” and “Face/Off."

John Woo Revolutionized Action Cinema (feat. Karen Fang) | Ep. 194

So says every warden on today's podcast, Alcatraz was the most secure prison ever constructed. Film directors, of course, took that as a challenge and gave us movies about prisoners with dreams too big for the famous San Francisco jail. These famed inmates will try and escape one way or another. We watched "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), "Escape From Alcatraz" (1979) and "The Rock" (1996).

Alcatraz Can't Hold Us | Ep. 196

Reflecting on Sept. 11, 2001 twenty years later, we watched three films depicting the post-9/11 psyche at its most charged and wounded. "25th Hour" (2002), "Worth" (2021) and "Reign Over Me" (2007) consider 9/11 from grieving standpoints, but they also tell on themselves, revealing how difficult meaningful reflection actually is, whether from swaggering New Yorkers, bereaved Adam Sandlers, or the lawyers overseeing the Victim Compensation Fund.

9/11 Aftermath Movies | Ep. 201

One doesn’t simply walk into a “Lord of the Rings” episode—at least not without a 20-year anniversary and amateur Tolkien scholar Brent Rivers on one’s side. On today's blockbuster episode, our fellowship reflects on an all-time great film trilogy, assessing LOTR’s bizarre relationship to star power, how Peter Jackson adapted almost anti-modern novels, and how the trilogy’s approach to franchise filmmaking stands alone.

The Lord of the Rings (feat. Brent Rivers) | Ep. 205

To celebrate the 80th birthday of the eternal G.O.A.T., Chance dives deep into Muhammad Ali's cinematic legacy. Morgan Campbell of CBC Sports joins to discuss the unwavering supply of Ali documentaries and films, plus the necessity of preserving context around Ali's life and legacy as an activist athlete. Then, to finish, Chance runs down his three favorite Ali films. Happy birthday, champ.

Muhammad Ali on Film (feat. Morgan Campbell) | Ep. 207

After a 2.5-year hiatus from watching movies in person, your trusty hosts recently took time away from getting sunburned in Miami to catch three new films. This month, we're talking THE OUTFIT, DEEP WATER, and X. But these three titles have something in common beyond their release weekend. After some Oscars jibber-jabber, we talk claustrophobic gangster pictures, Affleck erotic thrillers, chainsaw-less Texas massacres, and the violence of aging.

Miami Movies (X, Deep Water, The Outfit) | Ep. 210

Four quarters, two players, one game for your heart. No movie in this sports-romance series creates team chemistry between the "sports" and "romance" like LOVE & BASKETBALL. The fantastic Jordan Robinson (Queens of the Court) joins the program to discuss the movie's on-court realism, athlete couples, the enormous pressures on college basketball players, and the LOVE & BASKETBALL character she finally feels bad for two decades later.

Listen to Jordan's WNBA podcast, Queens of the Court, with basketball legend Sheryl Swoopes:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/queens-of-the-court/id1681606343

And read her 2020 remembrance of Love & Basketball, feat. countless great interviews:
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/4/21/21228610/love-and-basketball-20-year-anniversary

'Love & Basketball' with Jordan Robinson | Sports Romances

Tie the boards to the ‘61 Chevy, and let's take this sports-romance series into the waves! Writer Emma Specter (Vogue) is here to discuss why "Blue Crush" is the ultimate women’s sports "sleepover movie." We also get into the power of Michelle Rodriguez on a jet ski, a healthy fear of the ocean, and whether the romance in “Blue Crush” is between the right characters.

Emma's debut memoir "More, Please" is out July 9! Preorder here: 
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/more-please-emma-specter?variant=41074415042594

'Blue Crush' with Emma Specter | Sports Romances

This week, dreams of soccer stardom clash with a host of familial and cultural expectations. Writer Jessie Tu (Women’s Agenda, “The Honeyeater”) is here to break down how "Bend It Like Beckham" (2002) changed the culture, showcased heartfelt father-daughter relationships, and everything happening in that one dizzying nightclub scene. Plus, is this another movie where the romance is not between the obvious athletes? Just sayin'.

'Bend It Like Beckham' with Jessie Tu | Sports Romances

A cop and robber touch souls—and bods while skydiving at 120 mph—on the penultimate episode of our sports-romance kick. It's "Point Break" week, baby. Bennett Campbell Ferguson is here to dig into everyone's favorite surfing-skydiving-beach football spectacular. We break down good vs. goofy Keanu, assess how Kathryn Bigelow's first big hit epitomized her directing style, and try to figure out what to call Swayze's take on the femme fatale.

'Point Break' with Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Sports Romances

It's match point of our sports-romance kick and hooooo, baby. "Challengers" is here, and we've got writer Alex Barr on the program to discuss this year’s sweatiest, hungriest, horniest movie. We talk tennis as sex, sex as tennis, the movie's use of food, unexplained bruises, a different side of Zendaya, bafflingly inventive cinematography, and so much more.

'Challengers' with Alex Barr | Sports Romances

Let's start the engines on a new kick! Now through the end of June (when "The Bikeriders" hit theaters), we're tracing the archetype of the motorcycle rebel. Most historians agree the first biker picture was "The Wild One" (1953) starring an iconically moody and leather-clad Marlon Brando. Today, author Burt Kearns joins the show to share how "The Wild One" became a flashpoint for censorship, anti-hero adulation, and movie posters. Kearns' new book "Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel" is out now. 

https://www.marlonbrandobook.com/

'The Wild One' with Burt Kearns | Motorcycle Rebels

I've said from the beginning that this podcast represents freedom—specifically the freedom to beg far-flung thinkers to talk about canonical movies. This week, our Motorcycle Rebel kick arrives at "Easy Rider" (1969), and motorcycle bard / journalist J. Peter Thoeming, aka THE BEAR, is on the show to talk about how this countercultural touchstone relates to Faust, road safety, backaches, and searching for America. 

Keep up with The Bear's writing here:
https://www.advrider.com/author/thebear/

'Easy Rider' with The Bear | Motorcycle Rebels

“The Motorcycle Boy Reigns” as our kick arrives at “Rumble Fish” (1983). It’s not set on the highway, but perhaps no movie in this series uses the idea of the motorcycle rebel to such cool, elusive effect as Francis Ford Coppola’s dreamlike crime drama, starring a young Mickey Rourke. 

Ray Gill Jr. (Portland Mercury, Willamette Week) is here to explain why “Rumble Fish” is his favorite film, why Matt Dillon used to scare him, and why insanity is intoxicating, plus primo tales of growing up in a video store.

'Rumble Fish' with Ray Gill Jr. | Motorcycle Rebels

Nic Cage brings the boys back together for a weekend of Ghost Rider. In search of the motorcycle rebel's most demonic representation, we watched “Ghost Rider” (2007) and “Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance” (2011). What did we find? Floating skulls, hot chains, performances stuck between a Cage and a hard place, and two movies that just need a *little* more time to explain what a Ghost Rider is.

'Ghost Rider' with Noah Ballard | Motorcycle Rebels

End of the road for this kick, gang. And fittingly enough "The Bikeriders" (2024) is all about how nothing lasts. But it's also about a lot of actors—Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Michael Shannon, and 15 more—bringing wildly different acting styles to the table in this requiem for a Chicagoland biker gang. Film critic Bennett Campbell Ferguson is back to discuss whether "The Bikeriders" is "cosplay" or something deeper.

'The Bikeriders' with Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Motorcycle Rebels

In honor of "Megalopolis," we begin a new series on great filmmakers' last big swings. Today, it's Kevin Costner's all-in bet on himself, as he rewrites the frontier myth once again. Noah Ballard (Verve) is here to talk "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1," its baffling number of plot lines, questionable portrayal of the Apache, and impossible infatuation with the "real West."

'Horizon' with Noah Ballard | Grand Finales & Follies

Chance calls Noah, who's stranded in the Minneapolis airport, to talk about the new James Bond movie, "Spectre." They unpack its flaws and the larger problem of self-seriousness gone array in the Daniel Craig-led Bond films. 

As always, a refresher on the rating system:

Good-Good = High quality, high watchability (e.g. The Departed)
Good-Bad = High quality, low watchability (e.g. Schindler's List)
Bad-Good = Low quality, high watchability (e.g. Escape from LA)
Bad-Bad = Low quality, low watchability (e.g. White Chicks)

Follow Be Reel, Guys on Twitter at @bereelguys or write to us at bereelguys@gmail.com.

Reeled In: "Spectre" | Episode 20.5

On this week's episode, Chance and Noah tell you about everything but their childhoods. But a little personal disclosure is appropriate as they discuss three movies about therapists and their patients. Plus, Chance invites a counseling graduate student (to whom he's also a live-in boyfriend) onto the show to talk about the accuracy and responsibility-of-representation sides of "A Dangerous Method" (2011), "Girl, Interrupted" (1999) and "Analyze This" (1999). Via drama and comedy, these titles portray psychotherapy from its birth to its cultural growing pains to its absolute exhaustion in the wrong hands. Enjoy, and don't forget to tell us how this episode makes you feel. 

8:15 - "A Dangerous Method"
23:30 - "Girl, Interrupted" 
41:45 - "Analyze This" 

Does That Make Me Crazy? (feat. Sarah Barrett) | Episode 26

Noah and Chance briefly considered the genre of sci-fi cowboy films before realizing our ill-fated manifest destiny: watching "Wild Wild West" on HBO and reconciling that decision as best we could. This mini-episode raises all sorts of questions. How do you pronounce "Kenneth Branagh"? How do you pronounce Kenneth Branagh pronouncing the nonsense words he says in this movie? And what didn't go wrong with the most expensive movie of 1999? 

Reeled In: "Wild Wild West" | Episode 37.5

On this week's show, we watched a trio of movies about adults returning to the small towns they abruptly left as teenagers. Comprising GROSSE POINTE BLANK, SWEET HOME ALABAMA and THE JUDGE, this genre raises all sorts of questions about self-reflection, the meaning of roots, and forgiving your younger self for handing out judgment. So naturally, we had to have Noah's little brother (a high school freshman) on the podcast. Find timestamps for the different movie discussions below, and find all episodes at bereelguys.com. 

3:45 - Grosse Pointe Blank (1997, John Cusack)
18:45 - Sweet Home Alabama (2002, Reese Witherspoon)
29:50 - The Judge (2014, Robert Downey Jr.)

You Can't Go Home Again, Except In These Movies (feat. Nate Ballard) | Episode 45

From Chance's couch in Portland, your trusty hosts exchanged many looks (but mostly held it together) through three movies about the adult film industry. We begin with the new film KING COBRA, a depiction of rival production teams in the 2000s gay porn business. It's very James Franco. At 17:45, we move on to the porn movie monolith, BOOGIE NIGHTS, except we don't agree on just how great the saga of Dirk Diggler is. At 31:45, we wrap up with ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO, asking whether Kevin Smith had lost his best self by the time of this unsteady spoof. Overall, if you think delivering really explicit dialogue as though you're describing the weather is funny, you're home. 

Find all our episodes at bereelguys.com.

Noah & Chance Watch Some Porno | Episode 47

With Michael Douglas' sexy trilogy of FATAL ATTRACTION (1987), BASIC INSTINCT(1992) and DISCLOSURE (1994), American pop noir hit a real hot streak about 25 years back. This week, we discuss the genre hybrid that introduces a flawed Douglas protagonist to his match/demise in the femme fatale's of Glenn Close, Sharon Stone and Demi Moore. On an episode that's real steamy and just as political, we've got a guest to boot. 

3:35 - FATAL ATTRACTION, and how Glenn Close wins and loses big
20:35 - Can this podcast handle BASIC INSTINCT?
28:05 - Birth Movies Death writer Jacob Knight guests as our Verhoeven scholar
50:54 - DISCLOSURE won't let you ignore its reactionary politics

The King and Queens of the Erotic Thriller (feat. Jacob Knight) | Episode 54

The Alien franchise’s five-decade journey has crossed genres, intersected the careers of preeminent filmmakers and wavered wildly from classic to culty to catastrophic. With the recent release of the disturbing and philosophical “Alien: Covenant,” we set out to reappraise all the chest-bursting and face-hugging in Part One of our franchise retrospective: 

2:02 - Noah and Chance give some franchise background, and Noah wonders why “Covenant” is two movies. 

14:15 - Vulture’s Kevin Lincoln joins the show to discuss what contemporary franchises can learn from the villainous android David.

29:10 - Chance stands up for the headiness of “Covenant” and Noah makes a superb “Frasier” comparison.

38:00 - The New Republic’s Josephine Livingstone stops by to assess the role of androids in the franchise and their centrality to the new film.

54:10 - Your hosts try to identify if there’s anything wrong at all with 1979’s “Alien.”

1:04:20 - A disagreement ensues about whether “Aliens” deserves classic status like its predecessor.

The Alien Franchise: Part One (feat. Kevin Lincoln & Josephine Livingstone) | Episode 62

On a new Be Reel, we enter the Matrix trilogy, which is streaming in its entirety on Netflix. The franchise, of course, begins with one of the most iconic action films of modern times, and we bring in IGN's Sean Finnegan to discuss how and why "The Matrix" is still relevant and surprising 18 years after its release. 

Then, it's on to the nearly five hours of sequels: "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions." The words "stupid" and "nearly ruins" are tossed about. And in its own, unintentional way, this franchise has caused us to rethink our choices as human beings. Would we have taken the blue pill on this whole Be Reel category?

Plugging Into The Matrix Trilogy (feat. Sean Finnegan) | Episode 70

Here's the story, of guys watching movies, and these movies are all linked around a theme. All of them are about adaptions, of TV series, about families with a dream. 

It's a podcast, where Chance made Noah, watch three TV Land movies on his own. They were weird and, without context, maybe didn't stand alone. 'Til the one day Chance and Noah were recording, and they knew it was much more than a hunch, that quality of these films would not be equal, when they reappraised the merits of The Brady Bunch.

(Also we reviewed "The Addams Family" and "The Flintstones")

The Old Modern Family | Episode 93

In this pseudo-mini pod (oops, it's long!) Chance and Noah watch and discuss the end of summer's biggest hit, "Crazy Rich Asians." It's the first major Hollywood movie to feature an all-Asian cast in 25 years, and your hosts are on hand to unpack its romantic comedy tropes, its visions of excess and cultural specificity, and to pick out some favorite players from this giant cast. While attempting not to get distracted by just how beautiful Henry Golding is, the guys analyze the difficult pedestal this movie is on (and the future of non-Marvel films that target new film-going demographics). Then, writer and editor Vivian Lee helps explain mahjong allegories, the resonance of the film's soundtrack, and the importance of the satay plaza scene. Let's go!

'Crazy Rich Asians' feat. Vivian Lee | Episode 102

If you're looking for a late-summer/early-fall adventure, might we suggest NOT taking a rafting trip? Ample evidence of why rafting is a terrible idea is provided by classic river pictures "Deliverance" (1972), "The River Wild" (1994) and "Without a Paddle" (2004). Even if you have enough river savvy to navigate the white water of the Gauntlet or the burning marijuana fields of Oregon, you're definitely going to get picked off (or picked up) by the river hillbillies! Chance and Noah investigate why these movies are a genre, why they're so sympathetic to the male ego (even when Meryl Streep is the protagonist) and how Hollywood has no empathy for the rural poor. Make sure to pack a fresh pair of socks for this episode, because very few of the rafts actually make it to the end.

Take Me To The River, Drop Me In The Water | Episode 103

Writer and director Madeleine Olnek first considered that Emily Dickinson might have been an actual human being with desires, muses, and ambitions when she read a 1998 New York Times investigation of the famed poet's original drafts. The result was the play "Wild Nights With Emily", now an inventive literary comedy starring Molly Shannon, Amy Seimetz and Brett Gelman. Press play for a discussion of Olnek's new movie, her meeting Molly Shannon in college, and battling the painted-over legacies of historical women.

Madeleine Olnek on her revisionist Emily Dickinson comedy 'Wild Nights With Emily' | Ep. 124

Treading water on television is a good way to not be on television, as we learn from this week's movies about TV institutions getting new life through new blood. In the new office comedy "Late Night," Mindy Kaling shakes up a white, apolitical comedy show, just as Rachel McAdams saves a GMA knock-off in "Morning Glory" and Christina Applegate rocks an absurdist boys club in "Anchorman." Change is good, these movies tell us, but do they apply the same lessons to themselves? Let's watch.

The Show Must Not Go On Like This | Ep. 128

Every so often a "Be Reel" category arises that makes us wonder if we didn't unknowingly orchestrate the films ourselves, solely to podcast about them later. Today we discuss three films all from 1989 about deep-sea divers encountering alien life. While James Cameron's "The Abyss" is the headliner (happy 30th this week), "DeepStar Six" and "Leviathan" may have their lower budget charms as well. In addition to evaluating all the mining teams and goofy beasts of this genre, we mostly ask, "What the hell were you thinking, 1989?"

Be Reel is brought to you by California College of the Arts' Writing MFA program. Learn more at cca.edu/writingmfa.

The Underwater Alien Films of 1989 | Ep. 133

With December all but gone and neither of them having seen CATS, Noah and Chance reflect on the year in film with a series of semi-original accolades. What was their favorite 2019 performance with no awards potential? What movie will be talked about differently in 2029? In the end, we give our Top 10 lists and bid the 2019 movies a fond farewell. Happy new year!

Our Best, Worst, and Wonkiest of 2019 Movies | Ep. 144

Ahead of Bruce Lee’s (would-be) 80th birthday, we marvel at the flying kicks, wildcats shrieks, and star wattage of the global icon. This week, Be Reel dives into the Dragon’s life, legacy, and three of his major films—“Fist of Fury” (1972), “Way of the Dragon” (1972), and “Enter The Dragon” (1973)—with the help of biographer Jeff Chang and professor/martial artist Lory Dance.

Bruce Lee at 80 (feat. Jeff Chang and Lory Dance) | Ep. 179

Go on a themed movie kick with host Chance Solem-Pfeifer. We're currently on Kick #2 ... Sports Romances. Seven episodes leading up to the release of "Challengers."

The Kick

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