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PODCAST

School of Movies

Alex & Sharon Shaw

Super in-depth analysis of movies (and occasionally TV, and video games). Hosted by veteran podcasters Alex & Sharon Shaw with different guests for round-table chats every week.

tv & film

All Episodes

02:23:36

The Great Muppet Caper / Muppets Take Manhattan

School of Movies ·

2025/02/28

[School of Movies 2025]The second and third parts of the original Trilogy of Muppet movies made while Jim Henson was alive, voicing Kermit and taking a heavily active role in production. The former from 1981 is a jewel heist that brings the anarchic furry ones to England, populated by only polite people (a trope which causes the two of us endless amusement) and very much concerns itself with pushing puppetry magic tricks on the big screen to their limits. This one, directed by Jim was in the

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01:36:42

Palm Springs

School of Movies ·

2025/02/21

[School of Movies 2025]We round off Groundhog Month with a time loop movie that explores with even more depth how being stuck in a single day would effect a person's outlook on life, their philosophy and their actions. Taking its cue from the early script idea for what became the Bill Murray classic, we begin by observing a man named Niles, already locked in his time loop, from the point of view of Sarah. She then gets dragged into a loop of her own and finds herself trapped as Maid of Honour for

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01:37:16

Happy Death Day

School of Movies ·

2025/02/14

[School of Movies 2025]This is not a Horror movie (or rather, it qualifies enough for that genre in terms of certain expected tropes and elements, but that is not its mode of conduct, and for people expecting conventional Horror, there's a lot more there in its place). That's what should have been on the poster and promotional artwork, and in the trailers, and threaded through the interviews and general marketing speak surrounding this film. Though doing so might have hurt its 25x multiplier as yet

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01:50:56

The Wizard of Oz

School of Movies ·

2025/02/07

[School of Movies 2025]One of history's abiding classics, and one of the oldest films we have ever covered on this show, the 1939 Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland is joined here with several key points of comparison to establish why it really hold up. We've already recorded a whole episode on the dark, late sequel, Return to Oz (1985) though it does get mentioned here, as well as Jon M Chu's 2024 cinematic adaptation of the first act of the Wicked stage musical. But we also invoke the original

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01:53:23

Groundhog Day

School of Movies ·

2025/01/31

[School of Movies 2025]We’ve been holding this episode back for a special occasion and it seems like 2025 'The year of Joy' is the time to finally crack into one of the richest and most universally gratifying films in history. A hundred years from now, people will still be watching this film, It’s a Wonderful Life and The Shawshank Redemption. Accompanying us in this time loop journey from mundane resentment to confusion, to panic, to exploitation, to emptiness, to the nadir of self-destruction, to

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02:35:47

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

School of Movies ·

2025/01/24

[School of Movies 2025]The first Dungeons & Dragons movie emerged in the year 2000, wildly underachieving in every department; characters, story, screenplay, costumes, technical proficiency, directorial flair, casting, scope, music, awareness of what it was adapting, sense of humour and dragons! All of these things were straight-to-video grade. It was, in effect the anti-Lord of the Rings, a year before that masterpiece-containing-masterpieces raised the bar impossibly high. 23 years later, on

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01:48:16

The Muppet Movie

School of Movies ·

2025/01/17

[School of Movies 2025]In the name of joy, this year we are looking back across every Muppet movie we haven't yet covered, starting right here with the original 1979 film. For perspective, Jim Henson had made two successful TV shows up to this point, the well-known Muppet Show, which began in 1976 and was in the middle of its third season when this was being made, but before that, a weird series of little black and white skits called "Sam and Friends" which aired beginning in 1955. We recruited

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02:24:19

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

School of Movies ·

2025/01/10

[School of Movies 2025]An extremely long-awaited show on a game-changer of a blockbuster movie. The first Pirates film, released in 2003 before Lord of the Rings had completed brought the world many things: A fantabulous extravaganza of practical effects, combined with a surprisingly light smattering of digital VFX that would be leaned into a lot harder later down the line, The notion that the swashbuckler could still do big business (the hidden caveat was that Johnny Depp being strange absolutely

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01:41:08

The Mask

School of Movies ·

2025/01/03

[School of Movies 2025]We begin the new year as we mean to go on; joyfully. This is a commissioned episode for Alejandra Vargas. Back in 1994 Jim Carrey was having the most amazing year in cinema that he would EVER have, pretty much redefining what people wanted with madcap comedy for that era. Rubber-faced and bellowing catchphrases. This thing should have aged terribly after more than thirty years. But it hasn't, in fact it feels like a key precursor to the superhero boom round the corner, whilst

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02:12:36

Ultraman Rising

School of Movies ·

2024/12/27

[School of Movies 2024]You don't need to know a single thing about Ultraman to love this film. We brought in Kaiju and Sentai expert Dan Hoeppner to educate us along with you, regarding the history and cultural background of this character, but the film itself, viewable on Netflix is an absolutely perfect starting point. It is a smashing standalone story about the son of Ultraman, who grew up to be not especially great in the role himself, and instead pursued his mother's passion, becoming a

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01:41:44

A Christmas Story

School of Movies ·

2024/12/20

[School of Movies 2024]Mostly overlooked when released in cinemas in 1983, it took nearly a decade for Ted Turner to realise this thing was funny as hell, authentic, heart-warming, and a little dark and twisted, only to then screen it hundreds of times on his many networks until America was both in love with the movie and thoroughly sick of it! Meanwhile the rest of the world is unaware of its existence, and Sharon and I as the only two Brits in on this Yankee secret would like to both illuminate

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01:39:45

The Rocketeer

School of Movies ·

2024/12/13

[School of Movies 2024]A story ripped straight from the pages of Golden Age comic books, as dastardly gangsters and Nazis on the rise seek out a secret rocket pack that has fallen into the hands of a well-meaning, square-jawed chap who accidentally becomes something of a superhero. Starring a moustache-twirling Timothy Dalton, a luminous Jennifer Connelly, along with Billy Campbell, Alan Arkin and Paul Sorvino, this is a favourite of many of our listeners and was commissioned by Sarah

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01:51:44

Sunshine

School of Movies ·

2024/12/06

[School of Movies 2024]This is an exceptionally long-awaited episode for us. One of the very first films discussed on our very first episode, way back in April 2007, mentioned repeatedly in the intervening 17 years, and promised over and over. Now we finally reach it, one of the most special and meaningful films to us. It was directed by Danny Boyle after 28 Days later but before Slumdog Millionaire. It very overtly draws inspiration from Aliens and 2001, it stars Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans,

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01:48:26

Interstellar

School of Movies ·

2024/11/29

[School of Movies 2024]Nolan-Vember comes to a close as we handle possibly his most emotionally-driven film. Drawing heavily from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contact (two films we've already covered) Nolan presented the most populist blockbuster version of the speculative possibilities of what happens when a human being goes tear-assing into a black hole. This is very much our wheelhouse when it comes to the philosophical quandary of Stay or Go, regarding an increasingly uninhabitable planet Earth

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01:41:02

The Dark Knight Rises

School of Movies ·

2024/11/29

[Digital Gonzo 2012] NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say. The epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s game-changing Dark Knight Trilogy. It’s definitely not as straightforward as film two in the series because many people hate this film already, and an equal amount adore every inch of it. It’s a tricky balancing act since so much of the most well-crafted and exceptional elements have already been discussed

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01:11:29

Inception

School of Movies ·

2024/11/22

[School of Movies 2024]Nolan-Vember evolves to a whole new stage of the man's career, as following the billion-dollar success of The Dark Knight in 2008 he became a household name. This 2010 film, after The Prestige, just four years earlier garnered a mere $109m at the box office totally flipped the landscape of possibility in cerebral blockbuster cinema. It netted an astonishing $839m, signalling to Hollywood that here was an auteur who could open a summer movie that wasn't based on comics or

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01:43:12

The Dark Knight

School of Movies ·

2024/11/22

[Digital Gonzo 2012] NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say. Part two of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Following the powerful set-up of Batman Begins, the production team pulled out all the stops to deliver an epic crime thriller in the style of Michael Mann’s Heat. This is a story of a city in turmoil and a police force struggling to keep order, up against the ruthless mob. At the center are Batman

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01:42:26

The Prestige

School of Movies ·

2024/11/15

[School of Movies 2024]Nolan-Vember continues with Christopher's fifth film. Now, you would think, following the momentous success of Batman Begins, his period piece about feuding magicians that remains one of his best tricks to date would have been a stellar success... Wolverine's Hugh Jackman versus Dark Knight Christian Bale, and for the low, low price of $40 million; this is a recipe for insane box office gross from the man who would eventually go toe to toe with the plastic pink lady and save

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01:46:31

Batman Begins

School of Movies ·

2024/11/15

[Digital Gonzo 2012] NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say. Finally we get to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. After eight years away from cinema screens, and multiple stalled attempts at relaunching the franchise, Warner Bros knocked the Bat out of the park with the best film so far and arguably the most compelling and mature adaptation of Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego. Many aspects are discussed and

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01:52:47

Memento

School of Movies ·

2024/11/08

[School of Movies 2024]Kicking off Nolan-Vember with a tale of obsession, revenge and the untrustworthy, ephemeral nature of memory. Things play out in nonlinear fashion as Nolan executes his second film with the deft surety of a man who can see the final arrangement within all the misaligned frames. Guy Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, a man afflicted with a rare brain disorder that resets his short-term memory every five to ten minutes or so, with his mid and long-term memories almost completely

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