A really stunning trailer for a film that we all are hoping is exceptional. Check out Channing Tatum’s ears if you’re wondering why we have some concern. Still…Jupiter Ascending is one movie for which the Movie Madness Podcast is anxiously awaiting.

It’s coming: Superman vs. Batman and I’m trepidatious. I can’t say I’ve  loved Ben Affleck, well…pretty much in anything, but at least the other guy, Henry Cavill, looks like a Superman. Seriously, check out the trailer and let us know what you think!

Hello again everyone! This is the Movie Maniac “shooting from the hip” along with Doug and Jeremy and tons of trailers. Whether it’s The Minions, Avengers: Age of Ultron or Star Wars: The Force Awakens there are some great trailers out there and we are stoked! Join us as we freewheel a pretty good episode about some great movies and maybe even a couple of TV shows. As always we want your input at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail # 260-573-0015 or post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

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I gotta get me one of these! I love The Minions and this is the movie I’m most looking forward to. I love this trailer and think that you better too, or maybe a large group of weird yellow guys will show up on your front porch to find out why.

In a world of chaos, only the Avengers stand for humanity. If you can’t wait for the movie you can at least check out this great new trailer! Or check out the UK version below!

Check out this exciting new trailer for Furious 7.

Action junkies unite! John Wick is easily one of the best revenge based action films in the last decade. With a minimum amount of plot and a maximum amount of empathy, directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski made a character with whom anyone can identify: John Wick.

Wick is a retired “fixer:” the man you call when you have an unsolvable problem, rather like “The Wolf” (Harvey Keitel) from Pulp Fiction. Only Wick tends to eliminate the problem, not just fix it and he does it with extreme violence.

Imagine John Wick, living a peaceful life following his wife’s death, being attacked in his home and losing the things he’s using to barely hold on. It is heartbreaking. Moments after the invasion, Wick (Keanu Reeves) is arming up, grabbing a stack of gold and preparing for war. Someone is going to pay.

At this point it’s easy to hearken back to the Death Wish franchise with Charles Bronson. Bronson is Paul Kersey, an architect whose wife is murdered by street thugs. Kersey begins a killing spree in New York City, any and all muggers better watch out. It is a passionate look at revenge and gets the audience really involved.

John Wick is a better film, but it brings out the same passion, kill everyone and let God sort them out. What makes Wick so much better is the absolute belief, developed by the writer and director, that Keanu Reeves’ character is that deadly. Even more amazing is the beauty and believability of the violence. The choreography of the action is brilliant and nothing seems gratuitous or unnecessary..

In some sense it was rather like The Bourne Identity: a minimum of movement leading to a maximum result. Every director should take notes. Realism is so effective…Kill Bill and The Matrix notwithstanding.

The directors also managed to leave acting to the actors and let Reeves stick with action.  Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist and Ian McShane were rather brilliant. All three are acting work horses and shouldered the film adding depth and spice. The surprise was Alfie Allen as Iosef Tarasov. From spoiled brat, when he tries to bully Wick, to “deer in the headlights” when he gets caught, literally with his pants off, he was excellent. I wanted to kill him myself. I like him as Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, but in this he was so good I forgot where I’d seen him before. Thumbs up!

So much was done extremely well, that I would love to see some Oscar nods, something not usually given to this type of film. The directors deserve much of the credit, the minimalist writing also much, but the actors carried the load and made this an absolute pleasure to watch. Even John Lequizamo was a delight.

This is a film that you really need to see in the theater before it goes away. You will not be disappointed!

Rating 4.5 stars out of 5.

Hey all you Halloween fanatics, it’s time once again for us at the Movie Madness Podcast to give you our Top 5 Must Watch Movies For Halloween. These are the films we love to watch for that night of all nights: All Hallow’s Eve.

Some of our picks are scary, some disturbing and some may even be truly outrageous! So, get your crosses, holy water, stakes (great for Zombies and Vampires) silver bullets and maybe a chainsaw or two and get ready; this is one of our favorite episodes. Oh, and don’t forget the popcorn and frosty beverages.

As always we need your help. We are awesome, but not even we can think of every Halloween movie that needs watching. Please send your chilling picks to moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail # 260-573-0015 or post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

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Fury is a foul smelling, diesel guzzling, steel death trap. It’s also a new movie written and directed by David Ayer and starring Brad Pitt. The film is a rolling snapshot of the European theater in World War II and the men that fought there. What it is not is a war picture with a lofty purpose, like Saving Private Ryan, or one with a political motive, like The Hurt Locker. Fury is a gritty, gory story of five guys in a Sherman tank trying to survive the Great War. It’s simple.

Brad Pitt is Top Sergeant Don “War Daddy” Collier, a hard driving taskmaster who’s managed to keep his tank crew alive for years.  His crew: Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Grady “Coon-Ass”Travis (Jon Bernthal) and Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Peña) are trapped with him in a WWII hell not of their own making. They are crawling through Germany in a tank that’s nearly helpless against the much more powerful German Tigers. They are crawling because Germany, at the order of Adolph Hitler, is fighting the allies for every foot of ground.  Enter Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a fumbling stenographer and typist, to fill out their tank crew. He is just as green as you might expect.

These characters are what makes Fury so special. There is very little character development, instead Ayer depends on archetypes. Look at nearly any WWII movie with Alan Ladd, John Wayne or Audie Murphy and you’ll see the same. My father was so good he could tell you in five minutes which character would be the hero, which the coward and which one would die. He was never wrong.

Yep, I could have told you what would happen with each member of the tank crew after I met them. Fury is so uncompromising in telling a good story that the background of the characters became secondary. This film is a journey from beginning to end, does it really matter what happened before? If you think so, demand a prequel!

Fury gave me the feeling I was an intimate…a member of the tank crew family, joining in as the group played, fought and even got drunk and obnoxious. That’s the importance of archetypal characters: it’s easy to match them to ones you’ve seen before and match them up.

This is not a movie about “guts and glory,” as some may suggest, but a movie about getting the hell back home in one piece. There is one exceptional moment when Don Collier sees a woman looking at the troops letting off steam in the town square. He takes the green tank driver, Norman, up to a pleasant apartment where they are greeted, not too pleasantly, by a woman and her cousin. Instead of what they expected, the Sargeant is just looking for a little hint of home. He finds it-an island of peace in an ocean of war.

The mistake is in making Fury more (or less) than it is. It’s a really good film, but it’s not about some grandiose scheme to win a war or destroy some foreign ideology. Fury is about squeezing as much out of life in a war and not getting dead. It’s also about killing so many Nazis that there are none left to kill you. George S. Patton once said, “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” I never got a sense in the movie that anyone gloried in taking life. It was only expedient to kill the “other bastard.”

Ayer’s direction and Brad Pitt’s acting certainly headlined the piece, but everything in the film was top notch. Even the now familiar, “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” from the tank crew, fits. I would strongly suggest seeing Fury in the theater. The action and explosions are just too good to miss on the big screen.

Rating 4 Stars out of 5!

Have you ever been shocked by a surprising hero choice in a movie? Well we at the Movie Madness Podcast sure have. Imagine Nick Frost or Don Knotts as heroes. It boggles the mind, but there you go. We have even more in store for you in our Top 5 Unlikely Movie Heroes. Join Doug, Mr. Jeremy and me, the Movie Maniac, as we pick our favorite and most unlikely movie heroes.You’re going to have to join us and find out, because I’m not saying any more.

Remember, if you’d like to include your own list be sure and let us know. Don’t be shy just email us at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail # 260-573-0015 or post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

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