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PODCAST

Movie Madness

Movie Madness is a weekly podcast hosted by Chicago film critic Erik Childress presenting movie reviews, interviews, film festival coverage, DVDs, awards, box office and much more! erikthemovieman.substack.com

tv & film visual arts

All Episodes

139:32

Episode 583: Breakthrough Comedies and MST4K

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/28

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski guide you through a wacky week of physical media. It includes the breakthrough comedies from Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler. Eddie Murphy makes his first foray into fantasy and Norm MacDonald gets three versions of his first starring role. A cinephile incel turns to murder. Meanwhile, Pulp Fiction gets a spinoff and Diabolik gets three. There is blaxploitation, Elaine May, Jon Cryer going back to school and Fu Manchu. Find out who Cliff Twemlow is and what William

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84:42

Episode 582: First Steps and Big Swings

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/25

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy review seven movies for you this week. They include a documentary about one of the most famous journalists of her time (Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything). Erik check out Hell in the Pacific meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Monster Island) while Steve looks at a new romantic thriller from Michael Winterbottom (Shoshana). They catch up on a quirky relationship comedy they saw at Sundance (Oh, Hi!). Pete Davidson goes the horror route with a mysterious

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129:56

Episode 581: The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/23

Just a few weeks after their incredible disappointment with James Gunn’s Superman (which they briefly revisit), Erik Childress and comic book expert Erik Laws dive back into comic book cinema with Marvel’s latest attempt to do justice to the Fantastic Four. After two films by Tim Story and the infamous disasters of 2015 and the shelved Roger Corman version of the ‘90s, the foursome has never endeared itself to Childress but the results may surprise you. They delve into the creation and treatment of

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119:14

Episode 580: Your French Fries Are Drowning And Stuff

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/21

Physical media offers a lot of pleasures this week. Do Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski feel guilty about any of them? Certainly not of Jack Nicholson’s collaboration with Mike Nichols or one of their “Why Is This Not On Blu-ray” titles getting the 4K treatment. There’s a little history of the nudie plus Bertolucci does a family film. An MST3K selection may not be worth all the skewering though neither was Joe Dante’s snakebit summer effort from 1998. All that plus Larry Cohen’s grossly satirical

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86:15

Episode 579: I Know What You Did Last Pandemic

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/18

Seven new movies are available in theaters and on streaming this week. At least the seven reviewed by Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy this week. They include the latest thriller from Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cloud) and the latest wannabe thriller starring Bella Thorne (Saint Clare). TV pioneer Shari Lewis finally gets her own documentary (Shari & Lamb Chop) while a cinema-loving young woman gets a chance to mingle with the people she thought she dreamt about (Finally Dawn). Embeth Davidtz makes his

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87:16

Episode 578: Battle Beyond The Frailty

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/14

Physical media serves up some classics as well as some that deserve more modern classic status. Peter Sobczynski may disagree with some of them but he joins Erik Childress again this week to bring you the latest and greatest. They include a restored series from Francois Truffaut as well as some oddities involving Fred MacMurray and the “involvement” of The Three Stooges. There are sequels for Robocop and the Ghoulies as well as some more WWII hijinks for Brad Pitt. One of the great westerns of

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105:34

Episode 577: Say It Ain’t Swanson (or Everyone Please...

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/12

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy review nine movies for you this week with four of them coming in a unique bundle. Those include a group of friends sheltering in place when they believe a nuclear missile is coming for them (Nuked), a pregnant woman confined to a house when a mysterious man threatens her safety (Push), an introvert and an extrovert confined to an apartment trying to avoid becoming one with the world (Else) and another couple on the outs stuck in an apartment complex seemingly with no

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141:41

Episode 576: James Gunn’s Superman

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/09

For years on the Movie Madness Podcast, comic book expert Erik Laws has joined Erik Childress to discuss in-depth the various superhero and graphic novel adaptation to the big screen from Marvel to DC and the heights to the very lows. In this episode they discuss how James Gunn’s long-awaited takeover and reboot of the DC Universe is not just a massive disappointment but may represent a new low. They break it all down from David Corenswet’s portrayal of Superman and Clark, the lack of genuine

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117:10

Episode 575: Epics, Killers And Clueless Politics

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/07

There’s a lot to talk about this week in the world of physical media. Peter Sobczynski joins Erik Childress to talk about a Stanley Kubrick epic finally getting the release it deserves. Oliver Stone revisits a final cut for his own epic and there is also some epic destruction from the ‘70s. Denzel Washington looks for a serial killer, though not the one traipsing through the woods like he was Terrence Malick. They’ve got film noir with Glenn Ford, horror meeting blaxploitation and Peter offering his

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88:10

Episode 574: Afterbirth and Video Stores

Movie Madness ·

2025/07/03

As we head into our mid-summer holiday, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy have seven movies for you to consider. They revisit their praise of Eva Victor’s Sundance wonder (Sorry, Baby) chosen for their Chicago Critics Film Festival along with Danielle Deadwyler trying to protect her family and farm during another cinematic apocalypse (40 Acres). Alicia Silverstone chooses the wrong sugar daddy (Pretty Thing) while Alex Ross Perry takes us through decades of video stores in movies in a three-hour

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86:36

Episode 573: FU to F1

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/27

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy wade through nine reviews this week to get you to the few standouts. A couple is presented with the possibility their daughter was switched at birth (A Stranger in My Home) while a team of nitwits try to steal a 35mm print from Quentin Tarantino (Stealing Pulp Fiction). Emma Mackey tries to use Vicky Krieps as a distraction from her invalid mother (Hot Milk) while a drug deal goes south for a sex worker (Ponyboi) and Bryan Cranston tries to keep his family and

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143:58

Movie Madness Episode 572: Tuning Up For Sorcerer

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/23

Physical Media weeks don’t get much more packed this week and there is a lot to get to with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski. Titles include a trio of youth tales involving the film that took back cheerleading, a slasher film getting a new updating soon and the infamous creation of the Brat Pack. There’s a Hammer mystery, sci-fi and Peter Cushing as Doctor Who. Peter talks about a somewhat forgotten film noir with Robert Mitchum as well as a musical version of The Philadelphia Story. They look

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77:42

Episode 571: Remember the Dead (And What Jim Jordan Did)

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/20

Seven new movies are reviewed by Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy this week and most of them are documentaries. Steve takes a look at Disney’s stage version of one of their biggest films (Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical) and a tale of more than two kitties (American Cats: The Good, The Bad and the Cuddly). Erik checks out the story of sexual assault within the sports programs of a major university (Surviving Ohio State) plus a daughter trying to learn more about her photographer mother (A

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114:07

Episode 570: Why Not Take All Of Them?

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/16

The talk includes a less-talked-about film of the screwball era as well as one of the classic rom-coms of the ‘50s. There’s another Tombstone story and a documentary about Thelonious Monk. A two decade old Charles Burnett film finally comes to light and a beloved Steve Martin comedy finally gets a Blu-ray release. There are Looney Tunes, bicyclists, underwater monsters, a whole lot of Jessica Fletcher and Christopher McQuarrie’s directorial debut all there for your libraries.3:45 - Criterion

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93:34

Movie Madness Episode 569: Materialists Is Anything...

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/13

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy have eight movie reviews for you this week. They include a pair of documentaries on a Scottish rock band who were more than their soundtrack contribution (Simple Minds: Everything Is Possible) and about New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern (Prime Minister). A woman finds some disturbing secrets about her grandparents and society (Best Wishes To All) while Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson look for some hidden gold (The Unholy Trinity). A trio of improv performers go

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88:20

Movie Madness Podcast Episode 568: All Time To Talk Bond

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/09

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski go over the history of Sidney Lumet’s version of The Wiz. They look over the failed attempt to tell the story of Air America and the ridiculous entry into the cyber-thriller canon known for anything but the hacking. Then they go through a new set upgrading the original Sean Connery James Bond films and how they compare to the other versions throughout the years.For more James Bond talk go back to this episode with the great Sergio Mims talking about No Time To Die

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83:07

Movie Madness Episode 567: You Must Have Seen Her…And...

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/06

Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy go from the comically violent travails of adoptive parents Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells (I Don’t Understand You) to yet another exorcism film with Al Pacino and Dan Stevens (The Ritual). The creature that once stalked Schwarzenegger now gets animated (Predator: Killer of Killers) and a shark-loving serial killer leads to a cat-and-mouse battle on a boat (Dangerous Animals). Wes Anderson delivers his latest (The Phoenician Scheme), Mike Flanagan adapts another

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105:40

Movie Madness Episode 566: Don’t Forget The Beatles...

Movie Madness ·

2025/06/02

Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski guide you through another week of physical media. This week you can include masterworks from Paul Schrader, Terry Gilliam and Jonathan Demme on your shelves. There are also underrated works from George Romero and Mel Brooks as well as career work from Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue. They talk about the oddness that ranges from Linda Blair on skates to Dennis Quaid as an infamous singer plus the one Sam Peckinpah film you may want to watch alone first.2:52 -

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61:36

Movie Madness Podcast Episode 565: Sweep the Leg....

Movie Madness ·

2025/05/30

Six films are on the slate this week for Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy. They include a pair of documentaries about the making of The Day After (Television Event) and the frontman for U2 in a filmed version of his stage show (Bono: Stories of Surrender). A puppeteer must transition to samurai in the Old West (Tornado) while a group of billionaires struggle with the dangerous implications of one of their businesses (Mountainhead). The directors of Talk To Me deliver their latest bit of horror

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122:06

Movie Madness Podcast: Episode 564: You Won’t Get...

Movie Madness ·

2025/05/26

It’s a funny week for physical media. In that there are some tremendously funny movies in the mix but also some landmarks to put in your library. Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski guide you through the work of Charles Burnett and the singular film by Kerry Conran. They take you through the multiple versions of a Ridley Scott epic, perhaps the best of the Musketeers films and the weird backstory of an SNL sequel. Warner Archive has a couple of biopics named after songs as well as Al Pacino’s

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