The Suicide Squad – Passion Fruit Starfish

James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, which is a pseudo-sequel to 2016's film, is an unapologetic, Troma-inspired, super heroic gore fest. And it is glorious! This is Gunn's superhero magnum opus. He dives deep into DC's bag of obscure characters to assemble a ragtag group of expendable heathens. Make no mistake, many of these oddballs are here to die. And they do so in a series of grotesque ways. This is a hard R, folks. Unlike Birds of Prey or Zack Snyder's Justice League, which could've curbed their foul language to earn a PG-13, The Suicide Squad basks in the magnificence of its unfettered violence. Bullets are sprayed, a man is murdered with his pants down—literally—and a dimwitted humanoid-shark feasts on all manners of fascist goons. Heads not only roll, they're eaten! Unfortunately, with COVID's resurgence, The Suicide Squad was a box office casualty. It netted just $26.5 million domestically in its opening weekend. Fortunately, though, like all of WB's 2021 slate, you can stream it in all its disgusting glory on HBO Max. We highly recommend you do so. So sit back, struggle your way through a Milwaukee's Best Premium, and throw the Weasel a life raft! I, the Thunderous Wizard (@WriterTLK) and Chumpzilla are storming the beach guns blazing! This Week’s Segments: Introduction/Plot Breakdown – Does Gunn's film wash out the bitter taste of its predecessor? (00:00)  General Impressions and Initial Questions – We engage in a spoiler-free discussion about DC's latest big screen team-up. (8:08) Lingering Questions – Where does this rank in the DCEU? Who's our favorite of this entry's additions? We tackle those questions, among others, in our second segment. (27:04) Recommendations – We offer our picks for the week and next up: We continue "Hops and Bruno Flops" with the Kevin Smith-directed Cop Out. Yes, even Mr. Smith acknowledges it's a turd. (59:38) And, as always, hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to check out all the interesting factoids—the Peacekeeper series and more—from this week’s episode! You can find this episode of Hops and Box Office Flops on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Acast, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Vurbl, and Amazon Music!