Are You Movie Mad? Is the podcast that asks the most difficult question one man has ever faced. Cinephile Andrew Jones is perpetually flabbergasted that Johnny Ellis uses the online moniker 'Movie_Mad' yet at any given moment seems not to understand any movie references. Join Andrew as he journeys through a collection of films to educate Johnny and ask if Johnny is Mad about the movie he watched or remains Movie Mad.
Hours after we recorded Day One we lost a modern cinema titan, and so tributes are paid to Chadwick Boseman, before heading into discussion on Day 2 of FrightFest online.
The films reviewed are The Columnist, The Horror Crowd, They’re Outside and Don’t Click.
Johnny catches Andrew and the audience up with FrightFest 2020’s digital event, including talk of pre-fest movie Sky Sharks, and Day One films I Am Lisa and 12 Hour Shift. Expect haunts and guffaws from two folk making it through a very bad time together. But… apart, socially.
It’s Frightfest weekend and Johnny wants to relive the glory of a former year, by choosing a film he himself gave 2 stars to on Letterboxd. Johnny insists The Drone is a good silly fun time, but will it warm the cold, broken heart of horror-un-liking Andrew?
Paul Verhoeven steps up to the podcast plate with a 2006 WWII thriller that seems to still fly under the radar. Will the isolation make the film stronger, or will 150 minute films seem like an impossible experience when time is meaningless?
Andrew presents one of his all-time favourite films during a time when neither host has been able to experience any kind of outside adventure in almost half a year, it’s a perfect time to lament and wistfully watch a film like this. Will Johnny join Andrew in loving this film, or like Andrew to any of Johnny’s films, will Johnny nitpick this to death?
It’s back to reality, oop there goes gravity, as Andrew and Johnny square up to Isolation August with a spin around 2000’s Julia Roberts Oscar winning performance as Erin Brockovich. Nobody’s going insane or depressed at home, so why wouldn’t a fun romp around big corporations killing and hiding the facts of killing innocent working class people be the kind of film we all enjoy? I’m rambling, one second, I’ll continue, it’s a podcast episode, go listen. End communication.
It’s episode 200, 200! And since we cannot celebrate in person with friends, Johnny and Andrew bring folk in to talk Hamilton and their lockdown fun. Set in for a lot of Cats conversations with Al Pacino expert Mark Searby, VoDZilla editor Ivan Radford, filmmaker Bradley Porter, Empire Podcast and Magazine’s Chris Hewitt, Variety’s Jazz Tangcay, Movies On Weekends’ Sarah Cook, Film journalist Nathanael Smith, Forbes and E!’s Simon Thompson, Comedian and film aficionado Richard Sandling, Activist and Host Sarah O’Connell and super-duper film fans Jan Thomas and Dave Thomas.
So settle in for a super expressive celebration of joy, love and the power of community, in the time when we are most alone. 200 Episodes in, this is our shot, we’re not throwing it away.
It’s episode 199 and Andrew is bringing the Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman of it back to Johnny in a conclusively final first creative experience episode. Andrew considers Catherine Keener and a sexual awakening, whilst Johnny struggles to comprehend the mindblowing nature of art, puppetry and Cameron Diaz’s hair.
Andrew takes control of the show back once more with a Canadian buddy cop picture where cultures clash like teams on the hockey rink. Will J like his new nickname? Will Andrew enjoy a film for once? Will the recording of the episode be marred by the passing of Carl Reiner the hour before recording? Yes, in that case, yes it bloody will.
It’s another Johnny pick whilst the lockdown continues to hurt the streaming video libraries, and the 2018 septuagenarian rom-com experience is explored and the hotness of Andy Garcia is stretched to feature length. Andrew continually recalls his pre-screening excitement and post-screening existential spiral as the Book Club opens to the first page.
Johnny’s love of Quentin Tarantino returns as he makes Andrew watch a doc about the director’s films (besides Hollywood) and sheds new light on the whole Weinstein situation. This is a light entertainment podcast recording during a lockdown heatwave.
Well, it’s been a long time coming, the latest Judd Apatow film dropped online a few weeks back, and Andrew was psyched. Johnny tags along like it’s a regular day at the cinema, and comes away contemplating Pete Davidson’s comedy, and the potency of Bill Burr as an actor.
It’s hard to find something new in this weird dead world, but Disney+ bring a film intended for August 2019 straight to streaming a year later, and Andrew and Johnny see it as reason enough to give it a go. Stay for Johnny’s Irish roots which makes Andrew’s Irish accent even MORE offensive, in these trying times.
A light spry comedy with Robin Williams is just the tonic this world needs, so Andrew throws Johnny into the proverbial deep end with a Bobcat Goldthwait picture, and discusses the times he attempted to bring a second Williams/Goldthwait project to the forefront, because nostalgia and distraction are all we have left in this rotting world of ours.
On the eve of The King Of Staten Island it’s time to check into Apatown for one more swing for the fences, and a 145 minute Adam Sandler cancer drama. Can Johnny make it through the extended runtime? Can Andrew make it through the extended lockdown? Are rhetorical questions good for adding mystery?
How silly can you get? Well, for Andrew and Johnny this is about the lockdown limit of silly. Coming off discovering 2 different planned films were no longer available to watch, plan C has gone into action, and comedy, and spy thriller, and musical, and all genres to fit in Val Kilmer’s crooning teen-hearthrob-hero Cold War spoof movie.
It’s digital release day for Cats in the UK and Johnny is all fur-ious that he’s not watching it with Andrew, and Andrew wishes he could paws life for the 2 hours it takes to sit through Tom Hooper’s Cats. Come join the experience through heaven or hell or heavyside layer, no matter your thoughts on the musical, you can all understand what listening to a tortured soul sounds like.
Now on Sky Cinema, if you dare! Here’s the UK TV Broadcast-syncable version:
Andrew brings back Casey Ryback as Johnny tries to remember what it was like to be Under Siege the first time. Andrew also dishes out information on how to be Under Siege in Dark Territory, and how the film uses various semiotic, metaphoric and visual ways to create a siege that is in dark territory, and that is under said siege. It’s very clever.
Johnny loves this 150 minute frontier horror, and insists Andrew saddle up for a ride into hell and back, promising that Retribution Is Coming. Andrew, meanwhile, breaks down and contemplates what a serial killer horse could get away with back in olden times. Yep. That’s how the lockdown’s going, folks.
A second trip to Apatown, a month after Knocked Up it’s the sort-of sequel, whilst preparing for Judd’s next film The King Of Staten Island coming in June. Discussion leads to aging, marriage, Lost and improvisational Mad Max.
