Spoilerpiece Theatre

This week Evan took in the new Bill Hader-starring adaptation of THE CAT IN THE HAT (3:39), which he saw with a very special guest (we won't spoil who; listen and let him tell you). Then Dave joins Evan for the sci-fi drama (with doses of comedy) LITTERMATES (15:48). It's a bizarre, funny, low-budget sci-fi-drama that worked for both of them. Over on Patreon, we cover THE IDEA OF YOU, starring Anne Hathaway and directed by Doug.

This week Evan and Dave talk about the eagerly anticipated THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK (5:02). Writer/director Noah Segan's quiet drama starring John Turturro features a great use of New York City locations, a tight running time, and it has the spirit of a true independant movie. But does it work? Over on Patreon, the winner of our haunted house movie poll is THE OTHERS. 

This week we get into a little "Riedel's Recaps" (TM) action, as Dave briefly runs through the pros and cons of sitting through a screening of the absolutely bonkers OTHER MOMMY (6:14), featuring Jessica Chastain. Then Evan and Dave talk about DETENTION (11:56), an homage to THE BREAKFAST CLUB that treads a similar line between comedy and drama that John Hughes' classic treads. Over on Patreon, we talk about the 2014 microbudget horror film CREEP, and Dave yaps a lot about his new podcast SCHLOCK IT TO ME. The first two episodes are out now! 

Since Dave is a big Jane Austen fan, he kicks off this week's episode by reviewing Georgia Oakley and Diane Reid's new adaptation of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (2:46), starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, and Caitríona Balfe. He explains why he finds the film delightful, comparing and contrasting it with Ang Lee and Emma Thompson's 1995 adaptation, which he also loves. Then Evan and Dave dig into Judd Apatow's overly long Netflix documentary, NORM: THE TALE OF NORM MACDONALD (11:16). It works better for Dave than it does for Evan, who finds that it raises more questions than it answers about the re...

This week we have an Aaron Sorkin movie, THE SOCIAL RECKONING (3:07). So you know what that means: Angry Dave is back! Listen to him use the phrase "I f*cking hate it!" more than once as he takes down Sorkin's latest all-characters-speak-with-the-same-voice trash heap. Then Evan joins Dave to talk about the new Ben Affleck-directed thriller ANIMALS (14:18), which kinda works and kinda doesn't. But it's the rare Netflix movie that feels like a real movie and not a Netflix movie, so it has that going for it. Over on Patreon, we talk about the 2022 Australian horror film TALK TO...

What's that phrase? "Verity, verity, I say unto you," right? Or something like that. This week Evan and Dave hop on the VERITY (2:20) train. Colleen Hoover's bestselling novel gets big-budge big-star treatment, with Anne Hathaway as Verity, a shitty (personality-wise) writer, who's catatonic; Dakota Johnson as a young writer hired to ghostwrite Verity's last three novels in a series; and Josh Hartnett as Verity's husband. Also: Mr. Hartnett, nice to see back in the bigs! VERITY's title and title character are clumsy clues as to what's going on in this movie: Did Verity kill her daughter? Did she confess...

This week Dave strolled into a screening of PRIMETIME (3:00), the new feature in which Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hanson as he rides To Catch a Predator to success while navigating (dumb) personal and (avoidable) professional crises. Then Evan and Dave break down UNABOMBER, a new Netflix film with Shailene Woodley and Russell Crowe about hunting down - wait for it! - Ted Kaczynski. UNABOMBER jumps back and forth in time over two narratives, and Evan and Dave found one infinitely more compelling than the other. Guess which! Over on Patreon, we watched 9 TO 5 in tribute to Dolly Parton.

There's a new RESIDENT EVIL film, and it's made by the guy who made WEAPONS (and BARBARIAN), which Evan and Dave are both fans of, so yay! But, as sometimes happens on Spoilerpiece Theatre, one of them really dug it, and the other thought it was fine. But the movie has some cool set pieces up its sleeve, and it takes a novel approach in adapting a video game for the big screen. (We agreed on that.) Over on Patreon, we talk about Paul W.S. Anderson's 2002 adaption.

This week Evan and Dave take a look at IT ENDS, a movie that has been out a couple weeks, in which four friends are stuck on a road that seemingly goes on forever. Why watch IT ENDS, you ask? In addition to the studios releasing f*ck-all this week, we've also been hearing things about IT ENDS: It's creepy! It's eerie! It's a nailbiter! It's a shitty GROUNDHOG DAY!

Say no more. We're in. Over on Patreon, we watched the 1984 classic (question mark?) THE KARATE KID.

Evan's and Dave's schedules diverged this week, so Dave tackled ONSLAUGHT (3:37), director Adam Wingard's latest. Dave was and is a big fan of Wingard's 2011 slasher YOU'RE NEXT, about a trio of home invaders running into someone in the home who was raised in a survivalist camp. But ONSLAUGHT ain't that; it's an action-thriller-horror hybrid about a fascist doctor making super soldiers, who - natch - get loose. This movie has killin' aplenty. But is it good killin'? Meanwhile, Evan took in MAYDAY (27:40), an action-comedy with Ryan Reynolds as an American pilot downed in Russia who meets Kenneth Branagh, a...

Well, gang. It was just about time for someone to make a movie about a kids' show featuring an angry, murderous talking unicorn. What's that, you say? Sounds crazy? It is! BUDDY's (1:55) co-writer and director is Casper Kelly, mostly known for his work on Adult Swim. (Check out "Too Many Cooks" if you need an introduction.)

Anyway, Buddy wants to teach his four human child friends to dance, but one refuses. And when that kid disappears and leaves behind a bloody book, some of the other kids decide to figure out what's going on. You can imagine t...

This week Evan and Dave take in INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER (2:29), the sixth (sixth!) entry in the venerable-adjacent INSIDIOUS franchise. (Not to be confused with INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURNACE.) This is Dave's sixth trip through the red door, and Evan's third, having seen INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY and the first movie in the series, the unsurprisingly but aptly titled INSIDIOUS.

How did it work for them? Listen and find out, but know Dave says this at one point: "It's better than INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR." High praise, indeed?

Over on Patreon, we talk...

This week Evan and Dave get down with TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA (2:46), and let us tell you: Lots of death! Lots of sex! Lots of blood and guts and blurring of fantasy and reality and some of it really works and some of it really doesn't. You know, when we rate movies on Spoilerpiece, we have a "Your Mileage May Vary" subcategory, and believe it: TSADACM is the definition of YMMV. Like, if copious blood (fake looking on purpose, but still) ain't your bag, or the psychosexual thing isn't for you, then the confluence of those...

Director and co-writer Matt Johnson's Anthony Bourdain biopic TONY (2:04) wisely focuses on one short period of Bourdain's life: The summer Tony (Dominic Sessa) went to Provincetown, Mass., and worked in a kitchen while trying to woo his high school classmate Nancy (Emilia Jones). This movie isn't afraid to show you what a jerk Bourdain could be, how aimless he was, and how he made wrong decision after wrong decision. With an excellent central performance from Sessa and superior supporting work from Antonio Banderas as the chef/owner of the restaurant where Tony works, and Leo Woodall as a crude...

We're slinging into this week's episode...webslinging that is, because we're reviewing SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY (2:22). Tom Holland and Zendaya are back as Peter Parker and MJ, but this time they have to find their way back to each other in the wake of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME's events. (By the way, how is the last live-action Spider-Man movie already from five years ago?!) 

With the world having forgotten Peter Parker ever existed, our favorite wall-crawler has to face a powerful new villain while battling his own worst instinct: that he has to handle everything alone. Is i...

Yep, we're reviewing a movie called THE DINK (1:38), named after a type of shot in Pickleball - a real sport - called a "dink." No, we're not making that up, and yes, Evan and Dave really watched this movie, which stars Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, and Ed Harris. Johnson is a long-washed up tennis player, Steenburgen is his pickleball partner, and Harris is his father. 

Anyway, one member of Spoilerpiece really liked THE DINK, and one just hated it. Hated it. Can you guess which is the liker and which one isn't? Over on Patreon, we talk ab...

This week Evan and Dave sat side by side in the movie house (notably not an IMAX movie house) to watch THE ODYSSEY (2:44), Christopher Nolan's film of Homer's epic poem. Because after OPPENHEIMER, what do you do? Swords and sandals, obviously.

Look, folks. This film is long. But it's engaging, has an incredible score, and Matt Damon gives the performance of this career, along with excellent work from Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo, Robert Pattinson, Himesh Patel, and Samantha Morton. Evan is on board with the movie, and Dave is, too, though they're both ambivalent about Nolan, and...

This week Dave was happy to see GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS (1:34) - Evan less so - a comedy by director David Wain with a screenplay by Wain and Ken Marino, members of the 1990s sketch comedy group "The State." Eight members of "The State" appear, including Marino, and there are a billion celebrity cameos as Kansas hairdresser Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) and her friend Otto run around L.A. trying to find Jon Hamm so she can fuck him (because her fiancé used his celebrity sex pass to bone Jennifer Aniston after a book reading in t...

It's one of those weeks over at Spoilerpiece when one of us is pretty neutral about a movie, and the other is pretty irritated (by the movie; not, like, by life). Such is the quandary of ENOLA HOLMES 3. The Millie Bobby Brown-starring series about Sherlock Holmes younger sister is the kind of thing that makes Evan bristle, and makes Dave pretty - what's the word...noncommital?

One thing both Evan and Dave agree on: This movie has a lot of plot for a picture that's pretty short but feels pretty long ("More endings than RETURN OF THE...

Given how many films have been made about WWII, it's impressive when one tells a new story, like Rod Lurie's action drama LUCKY STRIKE (1:47), which follows a wounded American soldier (Scott Eastwood) stranded behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Scott Eastwood looks more like his dad, Clint, than he ever has, but unfortunately, looks don't mean he inherited his father's charisma. His blandness definitely hurts the movie. Also, its plot follows predictable beats, and not much is really surprising. However, its period accuracy, harrowing encounters with Nazis, and decent war set pieces make it surprisingly watchable...

You know, sometimes you spend your young adulthood worshipping Satan, being a dirty heretic basking in the glory of His evil. And then, sometimes, inexplicably, you find God and dedicate your life to him. You even adopt a child and plan to raise her with a steady diet of God's love.

And then what does Satan do? HE SHOWS UP ON YOUR DOORSTEP IN THE GUISE OF A CHURCH GARGOYLE AND DECIDES IF HE CAN'T HAVE YOU, HE'S GOING TO POSSESS THE BABY! Satan: What a bastard. So now you have to spend your life with the...

Steven Spielberg's aliens-are-among-us-and-we're-gonna-prove-it blockbuster is out, and Dave and Evan have seen it. And they liked it! Mostly! There are many odd choices in DISCLOSURE DAY (1:29), but also lots of things that are rather nifty, beginning with Emily Blunt's bravura performance. Over on Patreon, we talk about the 1995 anthology film FOUR ROOMS.

Not to be confused with SEVEN SAMURAI, SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, SE7EN, or SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, it's SEVEN SNIPERS (2:53), a movie Dave proclaims is not a movie. It's a scenario. And sort of a good one. Just with some of the shittiest execution you've ever seen.

First, there's Radha Mitchell as a retired sniper raising her soon-to-be 16-year-old daughter on an isloated farm in Australia. Okay, no problems there. Second, there's word that a nasty AF sniper by played Tim Roth is coming for Mitchell in order to kill her and probably...

Well, we won't mince words: LADIES FIRST (3:37) is some bullshit. In fact, it may be the worst movie Evan and Dave have seen in 2026 (and we haven't forgotten DOOBA DOOBA). No, LADIES FIRST is a special kind of movie; it's absolutely thoughtless, largely devoid of wit, and it doesn't play by rules it sets for itself. Stars Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike, and a largely well-known cast of English acting heavyweights, slum it. This movie is so bad it's kind of a miracle. And it also fails confidently, so take that and it thoughtlessness, and you have a...

This week Evan takes a trip George Lucasville with THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU (3:18) and Dave scratches his music itch with TUNER (24:08), about a piano tuner-turned-safecracker with the best sound design Dave has heard in a while. Over on Patreon, Dave and Evan talk about the asoblutely bonkers 1981 stalker film THE FAN, starring Lauren Bacall, James Garner, and a very young Michael Biehn.

This week Evan and Dave take in the latest movie that unfolds entirely on computer screens: LIFEHACK. As they both liked UNFRIENDED, SEARCHING, and MISSING, they were down to check out this different scenario, as no one is dead or missing or a ghost. Nah, in this iteration, the four main characters are trying to pull off a massive crypto heist. But the crypto in question is owned by a slimy totally-not-Jeff-Bezos-or-Elon-Musk dude, so needless to say security is tight, and if they get caught THERE MAY BE BLOOD (to coin a phrase). Oh, and there are lots of...

Imagine it's 1979. You queue up to see STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE over the holidays. You're super psyched. Not since "Space Seed" have you been so high on the idea of boarding the Enterprise. And then you see ST:TMP and feel like you'd have more fun watching a documentary of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy talking about taking a shit than you would watching that bloated, dull, space opera.

Now imagine it's 1982. You queue up to watch WRATH OF KHAN because it can't be worse than TMP, right? And not only is it not worse, IT'S...

This week Evan and Dave dive into THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 (and by extension, its predecessor DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE). They're both recently (re)acquainted with TDWP from 2006, and they're into the movie's plot driver: The dying journalism industry. But TDWP2 is a movie that wants to have some real-world commentary while also providing escapism, so...does it work? Eh? In any event, it's lovely to Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci sharing a movie screen again. Over on Patreon, we talk about the 2007 thriller BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD with Philip Seymour Ho...

This week Dave touches briefly on the documentary LORNE (3:10), about the "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels. Then he and Evan talk about FUZE (4:25), the latest from director David Mackenzie, probably known best for HELL OR HIGH WATER (listen to our take here, with our first co-host Kris Jenson; we covered Mackenzie's RELAY on Patreon a couple months back). In FUZE, a British Army major tries to defuse an undetonated World War II bomb in central London while a group of diamond thieves uses the brouhaha surrounding it as cover for a heist. On this week's Patreon episode, we tal...

This week Dave checked out the new Bob Odenkirk splatter-fest, NORMAL. Odenkirk co-wrote the story and stars as a temp sheriff who's sent to the tiny burg of Normal, Minn., to hold things down until the town has a special election in eight weeks to replace their recently deceased big cheese law man. But as fate would have it (and contrivance), he finds himself knee-deep in Yakuza money and town is so corrupt that even the lady who owns the yarn store is in on the deal. So, is NORMAL Odenkirk's next NOBODY? Nah. (How's that for alliteration?) But...

This week Evan and Dave bring back that ol' chestnut, "Riedel's Recaps," and Dave gives expletive-laden mini-reviews for PROJECT HAIL MARY and UNDERTONE (2:28). Then they move on to the main feature this week, HAMLET (7:50). Yep! Someone made HAMLET again! This adaptation stars Riz Ahmed as the title character, and Dave and Evan are of mixed feelings about this one. Over on Patreon, we talk about FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH from 1982.

This week Dave takes in THE DRAMA (4:17), writer-director Kristoffer Borgli's uneasy drama (with lots of comedy) about an engaged couple, Emma and Charlie (Zendaya and Robert Pattinson). When Emma tells Charlie about the worst thing she's ever done, it sparks a crisis that builds in the week leading up to their wedding. (And it was shot in Massachusetts!) Then Evan and Dave come down on opposite sides of the fence for PRETTY LETHAL (24:39), and action-thriller featuring a group of ballerinas battling their way out of a mob-owned hotel in rural Hungary. Uma Thurman has a lot of fun chewing...

This week Evan and Dave take in SHE DANCES, written by star Steve Zahn along with its director, Rick Gomez. Zahn is fine form in this  drama (with lots of welcome comedy) about a father chaperoning his daughter (played by Zahn's daughter Audrey) to a dance competition while they both deal with an incalcuable loss. Zahn and Gomez call in favors from friends Ethan Hawke and Michael Cudlitz, both welcome in small but poignant roles. Over on Patreon, we talk about the 1986 film PLATOON by Oliver Stone.

This week Evan and Dave take a look at WAR MACHINE (1:50), a sort of mean-spirited PREDATOR clone/rip off without the solid acting, story, direction or humor. But at least we had fun talking about it! On Patreon, we talk about the 1986 buddy-cop film RUNNING SCARED with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal.

SCARED TO DEATH (3:10) is a horror comedy that isn't particularly funny or horrific, but it does feature horror icons Lin Shaye and Bill Moseley, so that's great! (Oh, and Rae Dawn Chong shows up, too. Yay!) The story, however, is one of those nifty ideas - filming a seance in a haunted orphanage that was run by a Satan worshipper (neat!) - that falls flat. The lore doesn't add up, the characters are dopes, and the pacing is off. We don't like to give lower budgeted features a hard time, but we couldn't find much to like here. Over...

This week Dave checked out Maggie Gyllenhaal's latest film as writer-director, THE BRIDE! (1:42), a reimagining of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" novel and its various film iterations. Starring Jessie Buckley as The Bride (exclamation point) and Christian Bale as The Monster, it's a roller coaster ride that doesn't have either the thrills or chills one may expect, and its stale plotting can't prop up its more ambitious social commentary. And because there was no critics' screening for SCREAM 7 (14:07), Evan and Dave hit the local multiplexes to see it. Is it the shitshow everyone seems to think, or is it better than...

February is a notoriously slow month for film releases, so we took in a couple movies that were released in the past month, Sam Raimi's SEND HELP (2:53), starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien as an employee and her boss playing mind games as they attempt to survive on an island following a plane crash; and THIS IS NOT A TEST (15:20), about a group of high schoolers hunkered down in their school, trying to survive a fast-zombie apocalypse. Over on Patreon, we had you vote on Robert Duvall movies, and you chose FALLING DOWN.

This week Evan and Dave buckled in for the new Glen Powell thriller-comedy HOW TO MAKE A KILLING (1:50). While Evan largely enjoyed it, he agreed with Dave that it had a boatload of problems. Over on Patreon, we watched the 1986 slasher flick APRIL FOOL'S DAY.

Dave and Evan were looking forward to Gore Verbinski's GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE (3:22). And then they saw the bloody thing. We'll let you listen and hear our thoughts rather than spill them here. But if you'd like a preview, here's Dave's Letterboxd review. Over on Patreon, we talk about the 2024 thriller RELAY, by the director of HELL OR HIGH WATER.

Evan and Dave settle in to talk about the horror film WHISTLE (1:30), whose marketing tagline is "Don't Blow It." Well, one of us thinks this derivative, bloody as hell, tonally confused schlockfest, which has countless references to other horror movies, blew it, and the other doesn't. Which co-host is which, you wonder? (Take a wild guess.) Over on Patreon, we talk about the wacko 1989 action comedy BLIND FURY.