The Movie Mull

Movie Championships: Pixar Edition

This week, our host Neil has set up a championship tournament - a series of matches between 8 of our favourite Pixar movies: and there can only be one winner! Who will it be? Toy Story, Ratatouille, Onward, Up, Monster Inc., Wall-E, Inside Out, Finding Nemo... which one will be holding aloft the trophy at the end of the episode?
Listen in to hear our results and how we got there... and then get in touch to let us know who should have won!    

What We've Been Watching - Oddity, Get Away, Wolf Man, Back in Action

For this week's What We've Been Watching, the team have four new film reviews for you... Justin starts things off with a review of 2024's supernatural thriller Oddity, then Neil discusses the recently released Sky Original Get Away written by and starring Nick Frost. After that, Darren reviews director Leigh Whannell's return to the Universal Monster universe with Wolf Man - still screening at your local cinema.  Richard wraps things up with Cameron Diaz' return to acting in the action-comedy Back in Action, also starring Jamie Foxx and available now on Netflix. 
After listening, get in touch and let us know what you thought about any of these releases. 

Kicking Things Off! Starting a Franchise...

For this week's episode, our host Richard wants to talk about franchises - specifically how they begin. What makes a successful franchise?  What was a movie that looked like it was going to start off a great franchise but everything went down hill from there?  Are there standalone movies that really deserved to have their world expanded and their characters' stories continued?
(We might also get side-tracked early on trying to define what we mean by 'franchise' - we can only apologise!)

What We've Been Watching - Blink Twice, Speak No Evil, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Nosferatu

This week, we have four new reviews for you... First, two films recently released on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming services: Justin reviews Zoe Kravtiz' directorial debut Blink Twice and then Richard talks about recent horror-remake Speak No Evil from director James Watkins.  After that, Neil shares his views on the recent return of the Hell-Boy franchise The Crooked Man, before Darren wraps things up his review of the first cinema release of 2025, Robert Eggers' reimagining of the silent movie era classic: Nosferatu. 
Spoiler Alert Warning: The review of 'Blink Twice' includes reference to the whole plot including the film's ending. If you haven't seen it yet, you may wish to skip forward and return to the review after you have seen the film. The second review begins at 17:51.

2025 Preview Epsiode

This week, the mulls are eagerly discussing the great films that we can all look forward to in 2025. They start by looking at the plethora of January releases We Live In Time, A Complete Unknown, Wolfman, Nosferatu, A Real Pain, Maria, Here... before looking ahead to the films arriving through the rest of the year from three separate returns to the MCU to John Wick spin-off Ballerina to the final(?) Mission Impossible adventure. 
Get in touch to let us know what you're looking forward to seeing on the big screen in 2025.

A Review of 2024

Happy New Year everyone!  Yes, it's that time of year when everyone is putting together their lists of favourite movies from the previous 12 months - and our Movie Mulls are no different.  
On this week's episode, they cast their minds back over the cinema and streaming releases from 2024 and discuss the surprises, the disappointments, their favourite set pieces, performances and the debut efforts that caught their eye - before wrapping things up by listing their Top Ten Movies of 2024.  
We'll be adding our Top Tens to our social media feeds this week... Let us know your favourite films - and any recommendations for 2024 releases we may have missed.  

How do you decide on a film's star rating?

This week our host, Justin, asks us to reflect on the different ways in which critics and websites communicate and summarise their response to films... How do you decide on a star rating? Should a review aim to be entirely objective? Is that possible - or even desirable?  Should a star rating reflect the quality of the film or how entertaining the film is? 
Through the episode, guided by our host, the mulls work their way through this questions... and many more!  Alongside their usual tangents and detours!  
Listen in and then let us know what you find desirable in a film review... 

What We've Been Watching XMAS Special: Dear Santa, Tokyo Godfathers, About A Boy, That Christmas

This week, the mulls are back with a Christmas What We've Been Watching Special... Neil starts us off with a review of Jack Black-starring Dear Santa, Justin enjoys re-watching the Hugh Grant comedy drama About A Boy, Darren heads back to 2003 to catch-up with that year's Japanese anime cult-classic Tokyo Godfathers, and our host Richard wraps things up by talking about the new Netflix animated adaptation of Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb's children's books, That Christmas (as a bonus, we also sneak in a few words about Red One which has just been released on Amazon Prime!).
Wishing all of our listeners a very happy Christmas - hope you all have time to enjoy one of your favourite Christmas movies. 

The Greatest Character Actors

For this week's episode, Neil asks us to think about our favourite character actors... those performers who turn up - often in a supporting role - and make the scene, the whole movie even, that much better.  Or maybe they're the sort of actor who completely transforms themselves for every role - disappearing inside the character. 
Who are those performers that you just love to discover when you sit back to watch? Listen in and then let us know your favourites too.  

What We've Been Watching - Kneecap, Femme, Saturday Night, Gladiator 2

For this week's What We've Been Watching episode, the mulls are back with four new reviews... First up is Darren who loved Kneecap (released in cinemas earlier this year and now appearing on Prime), Richard then tells us all all about emotional drama Femme which has recently landed on Netflix, Neil gives us a preview of the film based-on-true-life events that led to the very first Saturday Night Live (coming to UK cinemas early in 2025), while Justin wraps things up with an in-depth review of Ridley Scott's long-awaited sequel Gladiator 2 likely to be found still playing at cinemas near you today.