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Three playful movie reviewers break down a variety of film franchises by dedicating a podcast to every single sequel, reboot, and spin-off in a series. In-depth conversations cover production history, literary sources, gossip, merchandising, and personal opinion with humor and critical insight. No cinematic universe is too obscure or sacred! Over 1,200 reviews at http://nowplayingpodcast.com
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Eat some snails with Arnie, Justin, and Stuart in the Now Playing Arcade
Lord Bison (David Dastmalchian) invites the world’s toughest warriors to show off their “psycho energy” and gravity-defying hairdos in the 2026 reboot of Street Fighter. Can estranged brothers Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) and Ryu (Andrew Koji) repair their relationship as the MTV playboy summons a Flaming Hadouken, and the orphaned loner struggles to contain a dark spirit inside himself? And is spy Chun-Li (Callina Liang) right to say there’s more happening at this tournament than 50 Cent and Jason Momoa flexing video game physiques? Listen Now!
Getting In Your Face(book)
Mikey Madison (Anora) braces for a Social Reckoning after she shares stolen Facebook secrets with investigative reporter Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) in this 2026 docudrama. Has Mark Zuckerberg (Succession’s Jeremy Strong) become a better friend to media types like Bill Burr (The Mandalorian) since Jesse Eisenberg played the retaliatory tech-company CEO in start-up story The Social Network? And can Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) make this Meta commentary with the same directorial flair as David Fincher? Find out Now!
Iguana Be Sedated
Matthew Broderick needs another day off after Godzilla rises out of the Hudson to nest in New York City in a 1998 reboot of the iconic Japanese monster. But should this dweeby biologist criticize the asexual reproduction of a giant lizard laying eggs inside Madison Square Garden when he’s got even less romantic chemistry with aspiring reporter Maria Patillo? And can Hollywood hitmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin coax our star to demolish Manhattan buildings with the same zeal as the UFOs from Independence Day? Listen and find out now!
Halloween has come to Now Playing! The hosts share their favorite spooky-season traditions, from month-long horror marathons and haunted houses to vintage TV specials, costumed pets, and gifts from the mysterious Mr. Bogeyman. Meanwhile, Arnie has accidentally planned an entire month around Hellraiser. Plus, concerts, Star Trek, fantasy football, and a patron brave enough to face our horror movie trivia!
Jurassic Landmark
This podcast covers both the original 1954 Japanese Godzilla as well as the 1956 Americanized re-edit Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Before all the throwdowns with Mothra, Ghidorah, and King Kong, radioactive dinosaur Godzilla stood tall as a symbol of nuclear annihilation in his 1954 debut. Can paleontologist Takashi Shimura (Seven Samurai) convince the people of Japan that the creature attacking their boats, trains, and radio towers is just as much a victim of H-bomb testing as they are? And do things get worse with the arrival of American journalist Raymond Burr (Perry Mason) and an Oxygen Destroyer invention that steals the fiery breath from the big lizard’s mouth? Find out now!
First Person Shirker
Austin Abrams (Whalefall) is tasked with delivering the cure to another Umbrella Corporation lab leak in the 2026 reboot of Resident Evil. But can the hapless courier reach the top floor of a Raccoon City hospital overrun with monsters using a vehicle unprepared for snowy mountain roads, receiving intermittent cell connection with a pregnant girlfriend, and having only handled guns in video games? And will writer-director Zach Cregger (Weapons) be torn limb from limb for discarding all the franchise lore to focus on pratfalls? F*ckin’ find out when you Listen Now!
Is it evil that I’m glad Milla Jovovich is no longer a resident of this franchise?
Umbrella Corporation wanted South Africa’s New Raccoon City to launch a pharmaceutical revolution in 2022, but the failed utopia ends up birthing a zombie apocalypse in Netflix’s episodic reboot of Resident Evil. Is the reason why twin sisters Ella Ballinska (Charlie’s Angels) and Adeline Rudolph (Mortal Kombat II) have no Joy in 2036 because their chemist father Lance Reddick (The Wire) screwed up an antidepressant 14 years before? And does it make Zero sense that the T-virus is now turning caterpillars and lizards into kaiju? Find out now!
Crimson Tides
YouTuber Mark Fischbach (aka Markiplier) adapts David Symanski’s 2022 submarine simulator Iron Lung into the surprise hit movie of 2026. What conspiracies will be uncovered when a convict gets welded inside a rickety submersible and dives into an ocean of blood on a distant moon? Will the x-rays taken of alien creatures, or transmissions downloaded and decoded from other vessels, be the key to saving a dying universe? And will Simon - or hosts Stuart, Arnie, and Justin - survive this deep plunge into the Now Playing Arcade? Find out Now!
Get Your Ass Off Mars
Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) thought he liberated the Red Planet from bossy Earthlings 25 years ago, but that was just the Origins of a conflict that rages on in this 2011 SyFy Channel video game adaptation. Can Red Faction trooper Brian J Smith (Stargate Universe) mobilize Blue Planet scientist Danielle Nicolet (TV’s The Flash), and local Marauders led by Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica), to ensure that the Earth Defense Force stays off Martian soil? Trust Terrans Arnie, Justin, and Stuart to tell the truth about this next Now Playing Arcade installment.
The Now Playing crew checks in for another Intermission with a packed slate of movies, memories, and questionable homework assignments. Jason revisits Point Break on the big screen 35 years later. Brock goes from The American President to Kate & Leopold and an MCU rewatch, and Stuart reports back from Chicago’s new Obama Presidential Center. Plus Arnie and Justin unexpectedly find common ground in the comedy of The State, Wet Hot American Summer, and Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. Then longtime listener Josh joins the show for Resident Evil trivia and turns the tables with a question about the origins of Now Playing Podcast's "Brown Arrow" Review Rating.
Finally, Disney+ has assembled a 15-project watchlist to prepare for Avengers: Doomsday. Does revisiting the MCU’s greatest hits and less-greatest hits make the crew more excited for the next Avengers movie, or does it just feel like homework?
All this is explored on September's special Intermission episode!
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