What great news! I love the Jesse Owens story and if Anthony Mackie ends up playing the 1936 Olympic champion, I’ll be there opening night. For those of you that may not know, Jesse Owens was the star at the Berlin Olympics winning four gold medals and giving Adolf Hitler a figurative massive headache. The German leader was not amused.

I’m super excited that Relativity Studios appears to be acquiring the project and even more so that the costar of Captain America: The Winter Soldier may be playing the track legend. Check out the full story at Deadline Hollywood who first released the story.

I’m a little reserved on this film, but Sean Penn is a hell of an actor and the trailer looks pretty good. The director of Taken, Pierre Morel, a film I truly enjoyed, is doing this one too! I’m just hoping The Gunman doesn’t spawn a bunch of terrible sequel wannabes. I’d love your feedback on this one if you have any at: #260-573-0015, for voice mail, or you can email them to us at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com. You can also post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

23. Kiss Me Kate (1953)

Based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and one of the cleverer of the musical comedies, Kiss Me Kate is two running stories at once. One, the actual play, with Howard Keel as the indomitable Petruchio and Kathryn Grayson as shrewish Katharine and the other: the story of Fred Graham (also Keel) and Lilli Vanessi (also Grayson), the stars of the play. They are divorced but obviously still in love. Their battles, in the film, are legendary as were those in the original Shakespeare masterpiece and great fun.

Keel, as always, brilliant to a fault, is the musical equivalent of Clark Gable: loved by women and respected by men. His presence on the screen is riveting and his voice and bearing majestic. Taking nothing away from Grayson, she of the flashing eyes and beautiful face, has a grace and power on both screen and stage that’s almost incomparable. The play is brilliant and the understory great fun. It also has an incredible dance number with Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), two of America’s greatest dancers. The only thing keeping it from a much higher place on my list is the gimmicky feel. (Pardon me if it seems I tend toward hyperbole, but I assure you I do not. These actors/dancers are that good!)

Here’s hoping that the second movie in the Divergent Series-Insurgent, is at least as good as the first! I enjoyed the Divergent and hoped to see more, but was disappointed with the first trailer. This one looks way better and should get a few of you off your couch at down in the 3rd row with me. Please though, no popcorn throwing, only Mr. Jeremy is allowed! Release Date: Mar. 20th, 2015.

24. South Pacific (1958)

      Brilliantly made with a superlative cast and great direction by Joshua Logan, South Pacific is also of the one of the largest in scope. Set during WWII and against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful areas in the world, South Pacific is a deadly serious, brilliant and chilling look at love and loss in paradise. The music is unsurpassed, the plot excellent if a bit predictable and the performances superb. Only it’s, perhaps, too large plot make it less approachable than many other, musicals. It also seems a bit dated in today’s world, but I heartily recommend it to anyone.

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Check this out. I’ve never been more of a fan of Will Ferrell. He spent hours on Thursday the 12th of March playing nine positions for ten different teams. Not only was he playing for an HBO special he was also playing to raise money for cancer charities. Say what you will, it seems Ferrell is a pretty great guy! Check out the full story at CBS This Morning.

Hey everyone! I’m going to try something new here at Movie Madness. I’m going to start with top 25 lists of some of my favorite categories. These are my picks so don’t blame Doug, Mr. Jeremy, Steph or Jason.

I’m going to start with one I saw as a little boy. It was a stage musical at the famous Muny Theater in St. Louis, as I recall, with the original cast. It began a love for live theater that has never waned. Imagine my surprise when, in 1959, the film version arrived in our local theater. I begged my aunt to take me and my number 25 musical became forever etched in stone.

25. Li’l Abner (1959)

Yea, okay, I got it. Li’l Abner, one of the best musicals ever? I would argue yes. The film is so true to the stage musical that I, at eight years old, was singing along during the film. With great music, a great cast and great watchability, Li’l Abner is such a wild eyed and wonderful recreation of a classic comic that it blows nearly every other attempt away. And guess what, Jerry Lewis has an uncredited appearance in the film as Itchy McRabbit! How could that be bad. The only knock on the film is that it seems to be hidden away in some vault and played seldom on TV.

Hey everybody! I have to tell ya, I’m startled, shocked, stunned, flummoxed and flabbergasted. I just watched The Duff and loved it. It’s not great writing, it’s just not. It’s not a great plot or story, they’re pretty much standard. It’s not even great characters or acting, they too are pretty average. What makes The Duff so much fun to watch is some kind of weird synergy: the whole of the movie is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

The main characters, Bianca (Mae Whitman) and Wesley (Robbie Amell) have been friends since childhood and find themselves working together. That is, until all the old fun stuff comes back. She has a great “monster voice” and he is genuinely likeable and caring. Friends again! It doesn’t seem likely they’ll get together, too much history, but it’s fun to see if they will.

The film is filled with cliche’s…like the scruffy girl that can’t get a date, and the jock that can’t pass science, but once again it doesn’t matter. I can list dozens of teen movies with the nearly the same plot. My personal favorites are: Better Off Dead, Can’t Buy Me Love and Just One of the Guys and each of these are better movies and have some “firsts,” but are still filled with teen cliches.

The Duff seems like just another one in the pack but it’s somehow more. I trust that, like me, you’ll start off the film wondering what the heck; this is just the same old story and not as good. But, once again, like me, you may wake up and realize there’s something special here.

I’m not going to rate the film, check out Rotten Tomatoes for that, but I heartily recommend you watch The Duff. You may be pleasantly surprised. As always, whether you want to throw stones (or money) go to: #260-573-0015, for voice mail (we’ll play it on the show), or you can email them to us at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com. You can also post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

Hey everyone, it’s me the Movie Maniac. Me and Mr. Jeremy got together with the fearless Dougie and came up with definitive options for the new crimson arachnid. Check out one of our most fun episodes as we bandy about the choices. I guarantee some surprises, a couple of shocks and at least one great pick, but you need to join us to find out who came up with that one.

Some of us loved Tobey Maguire, some really liked Andrew Garfield (no surprise, one of us didn’t) and some of us really want a new, and younger Spidey, to take over the reins. I was startled myself how this episode turned out and I kinda think you will be too. Having said that, this could be the podcast that gets you off your comfy web and sending an angry message to us at: #260-573-0015, for voice mail (we’ll play it on the show), or you can email them to us at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com. You can also post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

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A new princess movie from Disney, how shocking! I’ve heard some discord concerning another Disney Cinderella, but look…nobody does it better. Give this movie a shot, the trailer looks good and what could it hurt? Releasing: Mar. 13, 2015.