The era of shady business practices continues it seems in the Hollywood world. This time it's not just WB involved, but their own "distinguished competition", at Marvel that's up to no good this week. Rolling Stone released a piece on the Snyder Cut movement, identifying 13% of the online activity being attributed to bots. This on it's own is not big news, as it was largely known, but it's the timing of the piece that's most questionable. Over at Marvel, they're up to their usual tricks of not properly compensating comic book creators, now being accused of "bait and switch" tactics to stiff writers and artists when their characters appear on the screen. Julian and Jeremy break down both stories, while also diving into a plethora of more lighthearted fare, including: news on 'Mortal Kombat 2' and 'Top Gun 3', a Powerpuff Girls animated reboot, a fun "Agree of Disagree" segment, and much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!
Read MoreEpisode 176 - News Ketchup
It feels like a lifetime since we did a news show. What with ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ coverage, reviews of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘Dr Strange’ sucking up all of our time, it’s no wonder it’s been so long! Ultimately, this means that Julian and Jeremy have a smorgasbord of movie and TV news to unpack. Not the least of which being the all sorts of fun stuff coming out of the mounting ‘Avatar: The Way of the Water’ press barrage, which includes not only the teaser trailer, but also some VERY fun comments from the legend himself, James Cameron. Next up, is another round of DC related news out of Warner Bros. Between the ‘Flash’ movie now being in limbo, the lackluster trailer for ‘Black Adam’ and the constant befuddlement of their new CEO, there’s practically enough there for a whole episode on it’s own. But we have more! The guys also cover the odd reactions to Marvel’s CG in ‘Thor’ and ‘She-Hulk’, the box office success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, another ‘Game of Thrones’ spin-off series (this time it’s interesting I promise!), and a metric ton of “what we’ve been watching”. All that and so much more on this week’s Tower of Babble Podcast!
Read MoreBonus Episode - Summer Movie Wager 2022
It’s been 2 years since we’ve had a complete slate of summer blockbusters to look forward to, and it looks like this time they will finally come out on schedule, and not be delayed again (or again, again, in some cases). So with the return of some normalcy, so too comes the return of an old tradition, The Summer Movie Wager (which is a game run by the folks over at The Film Cast, and which we owe 100% credit of this idea). Julian and Rachel each prepared a list of 10 movies (and 3 dark horse picks) from the slate of summer movie releases and attempt to correctly predict their box office performance (ranked 1 - 10). Join them as they discuss their picks, why they placed them where they did in their ranking, and some general wholesome movie chat goodness. Tune in again at the end of the summer as they break down the winners and losers, but until then, make sure to get out there and enjoy Blockbuster Season!
Read MoreEpisode 174 - Tha Many Offshoots of 'Sonic 2'
The Sonic movies continue to have this odd lasting impact on cinema. The first one being a relatively well received video game adaption (a surprise on it's own), following controversy over the original design of the character, but it was also one of the last movies to premiere in theatres before COVID hit full force. Now with it's sequel, it's proven to not only have achieved the biggest video game movie box-office opening weekend, but also may very well be the franchise that sunsets the great Jim Carrey's career. Julian and Jeremy discuss all this (despite not having seen the actual movie yet), as well as dive into a plethora of news, not the least of which being the story that following the closing the of Warner Bros. Discovery merger that their new CEO is looking to, once again, "fix" their DC content, including mentioning the "languishing" of Superman, amongst other seemingly obvious blunders they've made recently. In addition, the guys debate a sexy new "Agree of Disagree" segment, the potential for a Tobey McGuire 'Spider-Man 4', the fallout of Will Smith's Oscars incident, and much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!
Read MoreEpisode 173 - Obi-Wan Kenobi Trailer, Netflix Havoc, and DC Delays
How long have we been waiting for trailer for the Obi-Wan show? It feels like an eternity. Well the wait is finally over and Julian and Jeremy are here to break it all down, along with some other exciting teasers for 'The Boys' season 3, a new alien themed horror comedy from Jordan Peele, 'Nope', and even Marvel's exciting new addition to their Disney+ series lineup, 'Ms Marvel'. But that's not all, there's also a metric tonne of news to cover as well. Including, Netflix's controversial move toward limiting password sharing, or in a similar vein, Disney adding an ad-supported tier to Disney+, all while WB announces another set of delays for their DC films. On a lighter note, announcements of new projects include a surprising sequel to Will Smith's 'I Am Legend', a reboot of Charlie Cox's 'Daredevil' on Disney+, a sequel series to ‘Blade Runner 2049’ with Ridley Scott attached at Amazon, and even a 'Sonic' spin-off series starring Idris Elba's Knuckles in the works. All this and so much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!
Read MoreEpisode 172 - The 2021 Tobie Awards
Another pandemic year has come and gone, which means there was a lot of time for movie and TV watching (for better or for worse). But most importantly, it means that it's time for the Tower of Babble Podcast co-hosts to come together to discuss their favorite films and shows from the last year. This year's prestigious Tobie Awards, a now 5-year running tradition, sees a seat change for the first time in its history. To discuss the best of best from 2021, Julian is joined as always, by founding co-host Jeremy Kozier, and for the first time, Rachel Wilkinson takes her place at the podium. Three co-hosts deliver their top three in both a film and television category, then move on to discuss what they are looking forward to in 2022. Let the ceremony begin!
Read MoreEpisode 170 - Lightyear, Book of Boba Fett, and Uncharted
It's been some time since we've had a chance to do a full news episode, and what with all the exciting trailers dropping these days, it felt like the right time to jump back into the news stream. Starting with Pixar's space-epic, 'Lightyear', a movie that seems to confound people more than excite them. At least it looks very pretty! Moving onto 'The Book of Boba Fett', which has had Star Wars fans waiting with bated breath. It was nice to finally get a glimpse into what looks like an exploration of the Star Wars underworld as Fett and his team vie for power in the wake of Jabba. Next is 'Uncharted', a movie that has been a loooong time in the making, and despite our very serious concerns, it's at least nice to see that it's actually coming out. Finally, 'Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City', which has Jeremy VERY excited, as this movie seems to finally explore the intricate story that the games originally laid out decades ago. Plus some news on 'Dune 2', 'John Wick' spinoffs and much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!
Read MoreEpisode 169 - DC Fandome 2021
Last year’s DC Fandome set the gold standard for web events in the entertainment space. At that time we were hopeful that we’d be able to “get back to normal” by this time in 2021. Unfortunately, that’s turned out not to be the case, and with San Diego Comic-Con being a digital shell of it’s in-person self, coupled with every other entertainment companies own digital events all seemingly landing with a thud, it felt like there was little to look forward to this year for fan events. DC Fandome seemed to be the one exception. With not a peep from DC since last year’s Fandome on their major projects we here at ToB were amping up for some big reveals. Unfortunately, that is not really what we got. In a bit of a change of formats from their multi-channel approach last year, DC paired things down to one 4-hour stream. This meant everything from a new Justice League mobile game, to the ‘Super Pets’ movie and everything in between had equal representation next to the big tent pole film and game franchises we’ve all been waiting for, like namely ‘The Batman’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ and ‘Black Adam’. This made for a more muddied affair, especially as there were not many new surprises and A LOT of time spent speaking to their CW franchises (we don’t need a tour of the Kent family farm). Overall though, the things that hit, really hit (hello ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’), and the rest can largely be forgotten until they come up again at next year’s event. Join Julian and Jeremy as they discuss all the major stories from this year’s DC Fandome in this week’s Tower of Babble Podcast!
Read MoreEpisode 167 - Long Anticipated Trailers
The movie industry is in a strange place these days. What with release dates changing on a regular basis and more and more projects moving to streaming. Among those projects are a few few movies we KNOW are coming soon, but we still knew nothing about. Both 'The Matrix Resurrections' and 'Spider-Man: No Way Home", are looking like locks to hit their release dates at the end of this year. Fortunately, we can start ramping into the hype with earnest as both movies recently dropped their first trailers. Julian and Jeremy break down each one and gage our levels of excitement for them before moving on to a discussion about the new 'Injustice' animated movie that was just announced (which also dropped a trailer). All that and so much more in this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!
Read MoreToB Interlude - The Suicide Squad
In these COVID times, it's rare that we get to review a big-time blockbuster, but with the release of James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad' we do just that this week, and boy does it feel good. The movie out-performs almost all expectations, despite carrying the baggage of Gunn's firing, and subsequent re-hiring by Disney, the critical flop that was the 2016 film (and its miraculously massive box-office haul), and the R rating. It's focused, not concerning itself with tying into a larger world (though that larger world does exist in the periphery). The dialogue is sharp and the performances are top tier, giving additional credence to the power of Gunn's writer/director talents. It's amazing what can happen when you give a talented filmmaker the ability to make the movie they want and not just a piece of a poorly designed puzzle. Overall, the movie is an absolute blast and a hell of a ride. If you have the chance to see this in theatres safely, do yourself a favour and indulge yourself in the weird and wacky world of James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad'.
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