Recovered

Dan and Keith dive into some theoretically romantic Faustian bargains with two takes on Bedazzled! Back in the 1960s, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore riffed some bits on a man meeting the Devil until they spun it into Bedazzled, in which a quiet cook named Stanley is offered a deal by Lucifer, aka George Spiggott, and given seven wishes, seven chances to find a way to win the heart of his crush, Margaret. But George has his own agenda and finds seven ways to mess with Stanley, weird, devil's bargains are usually so uncomplicated. Three decades and change later, Hollywood tried to replace the desert-dry with a more broad style, casting Peak Era Brendan Fraser as lovelorn Elliot as Elizabeth Hurley as the scheming devil making a monkey's paw out of his attempts to forge love from rewriting his crush's very identity. Two perfect movies to watch immediately after Obsession. But which did it better? Which comedy landed better or aged worse? Find out!

Dan and Keith head beyond the veil for some Jacob's Ladder scenarios! In 1990, a biblical term and also electric desk toy becomes a thriller starring Tim Robbins and a bunch of future stars, as a Vietnam vet named Jacob gradually learns maybe he never actually made it home from the 'Nam after all. Keith has some glowing praise while Dan digs into the layers of the storytelling: what IS real? What life does he struggle to let go of? Then, nearly three decades later, a remake occurs in which an Afghanistan vet named Jacob chases a conspiracy involving his presumed dead brother, but everything in his life begins to collapse... as does any chance of following the plot or how this is a Jacob's Ladder remake. One has layers upon layers worth unpacking, one slaps a classic film title on a shaky story and hopes to cash in. Catch the breakdowns!

With a cry of "Klaatu barada nikto," Hugo Book Club founder Olav Rokne returns to help Dan and Keith break down two takes on The Day The Earth Stood Still. In the 1950s, an alien named Klaatu and his robot pal Gort arrive on Earth with a message for all for mankind... but finds it difficult to get the leaders of mankind in one room to hear it. Then we jump to the 2000s, as an all-star cast takes on a new take on Klaatu's warning to humanity, with a new message for humanity to learn before it's too late. But which message lands the best? We discuss, you listen, lest Gort come at you.

Dan and Keith hit the Amazon river for not just ANaconda, it's TWOacondas! In 1997, a handful of rising stars and also Eric Stoltz went looking for hidden indigenous tribes, only for Jon Voight, making a big choice with his accent, to hijack the expedition to find giant man-eating snakes. CG carnage ensues! Then we jump to last year, as Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandiwe Newton, and comedy assassin Steve Zahn head to South America for an Anaconda remake about doing an Anaconda remake. Do the laughs hit in 2025? Does anything Jon Voight is doing work in 1997? Debate ensues! Listen in!

Dan and Keith return to the Coen Brothers for tales of Ladykillers! In 1955, Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers led a gang of thieves making their home base the spare room of a doddering widow. The heist goes well, but the escape proves difficult under their landlady's eye, and dark hijinks ensue! Five decades later, the Coen Brothers took the gig of remaking it and transporting the story from England to the US deep south with Tom Hanks at the center, resulting in... nobody's favourite Coen Brothers movie. But how do they compare? Does the original hold up? Can the Coens top it? Find out!

Dan and Keith return to the Hyborian Age for two tales of the iconicly armoured redhead, Red Sonja. Back in 1985, schlock kingpin Dino De Laurentiis attempted to bring Conan the Barbarian ally (via Marvel Comics) Red Sonja to the big screen... without being able to feature or mention Conan himself. Despite talking Conan actor Arnold Schwarzenegger into a cameo that got stretched into a co-lead in post production. And its box office meant that it would be over four decades before anyone tried again, with a 2025 release that may never have seen a theatre, in which Matilda Lutz steps into the chainmail bikini to find her people and overthrow an empire, in sort of that order. How does the 80s version hold up? Is the 2025 version correctly or unfairly overlooked? Find out!

Dan, Keith, and guest Gina return to dig into the big screen version of Stephen King's It, the prequel spinoff Welcome to Derry, and more from the original novel (yes, there is still weird sex stuff left to unpack). In 2017, Andy Muschietti brought a new version of It to the big screen, one that drifted further from the source material... well, half of it, specifically the kid half, and when it proved to be a hit, the adults followed in 2019. Gina's back to compare and contrast the movies with the novel: what they kept, what they skipped, what they invented. Meanwhile Dan digs into what extra layers have been added by the prequel series Welcome to Derry, which proves the passion the Muschiettis (and Dan) have for Pennywise lore. And Keith falls between, reminding us all of the actual topic. All the evil clown discourse you could ask for! Listen in!

Dan and Keith head into the sewers of Derry, Maine to confront Stephen King's IT in all ITs current forms. Back in the 90s, IT became a very famous TV show, a two-part miniseries that tried to squeeze 1100+ pages of novel into three hours of movie with network TV standard to uphold, which meant some substantial cuts from the novel. Thankfully, guest Gina Stewart is here to walk Dan and Keith through all those cuts, and how much of it was weird sex stuff. We sort through what worked, which cast shone (and it isn't JUST Tim Curry), and what was never making it to television (including, yes, THAT scene). Join in for part one, before Pennywise is reborn for the big screen next episode!

Grab your mops and get ready to clean up this town as Dan and Keith take on the Toxic Avenger! Way way back in the 1980s, b-movie titans Troma Films accidentally created a surprisingly mainstream franchise when bullies sent a neurodivergent janitor into a vat of toxic waste, creating mutant superhero the Toxic Avenger, who set out to clean up Tromaville with a mop, a mission statement, and a radar for evildoers... and, time permitting, deal with the mass-murdering bullies who tormented him. Just last year, after two years on a shelf, Troma released a new take on Toxie, with Peter Dinklage as a man, torn from his family, murdered in his prime, only to return to Earth resurrected as a super-strong, hard to kill toxic mutant, who takes on Kevin Bacon for the future of his city and stepson. A b-movie classic vs a modern remake that refuses to take itself seriously: which Toxic Avenger prevails? Find out!

At last, the Phantom Saga arrives at the most influential and successful adaptation of Gaston Leroux's doomed romance horror novel... Andrew Lloyd Webber. Dan and Keith are joined by musical theatre aficionado Colleen Bishop to break down Webber's adaptation of the story, and what happened when Joel Schumacher was tasked with bringing it to the big screen. But wait, there's more! Decades later, in place of seeing a therapist, Webber chose to work through some issues by writing a bizarre sequel where the Phantom runs a burlesque show, Raoul is a drunken gambler, and Christine was a fool for ever choosing the pretty rich guy over the soulful artist, Andy's doing fine you guys, he's doing SO fine. What makes the musical a classic? How did it survive its film adaptation? And how off the rails does Love Never Dies get? All this and more as the Phantom saga concludes!

Hollywood hasn't stopped remaking and rebooting the same stories over and over since we began this journey, and it was inevitable that at some point past topics would see new versions. Dan and Keith check in on the latest editions of iconic heroes, chocolatiers, or holiday-themed mass murderers. Timothée Chalamet pits whimsy against ruthless capitalism (while Keith questions if music makes you a musical), James Gunn takes the DCU up, up, and away, while a new Santa finds good uses for an axe. One delights, one is an argument, and one works much better than either host expected, find out which as Recovered Revisits.

Strap on your sneakers and get ready to bolt as Dan and Keith jog into two very different takes on Stephen King's The Running Man! Way way back in the 1980s, secret government employees frame Arnold Schwarzenegger for a mass murder he'd refused to commit, and he ends up recruited to the police state dystopia's most popular game show, The Running Man. Arnold and his pals must survive an arena and the high-concept gladiators sent after them to win (maybe) freedom, or possibly find a way to crash the system. In 2025, Edgar Wright goes back to the source material, as Glenn Powell finds his only way to get his family out of crippling poverty is to enlist on the Running Man, where he's given 30 days to try and elude some more generic hunters... and every person with a cell phone being encouraged to turn on him. The dangers of deepfakes, the end goal of the "war on woke," and some classic Arnie one-liners abound. Which Man Ran best? Find out!

Dan and Keith head down once more into the lair of the Phantoms and their various operas, if not of the box office. One made-for-TV movie sets Jane Seymour and Michael York against a Phantom whose motives go from sympathetic to sinister on a dime, while another stretched the story to a full miniseries to soft-launch a rival Phantom musical. In between, an animated version tries to speed-run the original novel with Hanna-Barbera level animation. Finally, Dario Argento enters the opera house with some wild swings, including the prettiest Phantom and way more of a specific character than anyone would expect. How to the Phantoms hold up? Which one is wildly popular with viewers? Find out!

Dan and Keith head to Germany for two movies on three key things: dance, magic, dance! In 1977, Italian director Dario Argento told the tale of an American ballerina caught up in a German dance academy secretly run by witches... witches that go from zero to murder alarmingly quickly. The visuals were sharp and colourful, but the story seemed thin... then in 2017, Luca Guadagnino went with starker greys, more dance, and so much story Dan and Keith need shovels to unpack it all. Which Suspiria succeeded in which ways? Is the original Argento's best movie? Is the remake Dakota Johnson's? Find out our thoughts.

And we're back into the Phantoms & Operas sagas, seeing how two distinct film eras take on the Phantom: the auteur era of the 70s, and the slasher horror era of the 80s! In the time when creative vision was king, two Phantoms emerge. Wicked, Wicked attempts a new cinematic technique called DuoVision as a Phantom haunts a mid-range hotel, while Brian De Palma and Paul Williams unite for the rock opera Phantom of the Paradise, blending the Phantom with Faust and a lot of great tunes. But once Andrew Lloyd Webber made the Phantom a Broadway smash, there was only one thing to do: cheap knock-off horror movies! Robert Englund tries to break away from Freddy Krueger in the more book-accurate Phantom of the Opera, while a competing film in the same year goes another way in Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge, both brining the key elements of terror: blood, gore, and... Pauly Shore? Which is the best adaptation? Join us and find out!

'Tis the season to embrace, be merry, and hope the rich jerks in your life get haunted, and to celebrate, Dan and Keith take on a Curated Selection of Christmas Carols. Trying to cover every version of Dickens' classic holiday haunting would be an act of madness, so after travelling back to 1901 for the first ever film Scrooge, the boys examine ways Scrooge cinema tried to add elements to the story, be it meta-commentary, modernization, Muppetization, and more. Bill Murray, Michael Caine, Some Bloke From Eastenders, and Miscellaneous learn the errors of their ways on Christmas Eve, and we break down what errors they may have missed. God bless them, (almost) every one! Join in!

At last it arrives! In sleep it sang to you, in dreams it came... the Phantoms of the Operas Mega-Saga begins! Dan and Keith head way, way back to the silent era for the first film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's gothic horror novel the Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney as the signature Phantom. Then it's off to China for Chinese cinema's first ever horror movie, the loose Phantom remake Song at Midnight, which may have added an element to Phantom lore? Back in America, the 40s tried a version that was too little Phantom, too much Opera, while in the 60s Hammer Horror asked "But what if the Phantom WEREN'T the villain?" Dan and Keith debate unmaskings, which even count as horror movies, and how some were held back by their eras as the Phantom Journey begins!

It's the big 100th episode, and to celebrate, our hosts (or are they?) dig into our lords and saviours, the RoboCops! In 1987, Paul Verhoeven satirized capitalism through a hero that was part man, part machine, and all cop, and John Tebbutt explains what got lost from the later director's cut, while Emma Gallaher relates her first-time-viewing experience. Then, 27 years, two sequels, a TV show, and at least one cartoon later, a star-studded remake was attempted that came close to touching on big topics, but like the robotic cop at the center of the story, it stops working when emotions are involved. Dan and Keith have thoughts... wait, who's hosting this again? Listen in and find out!

Wrapping up our dissection of Fantastic Four cinema with two polar opposite takes on Marvel's First Family. In 2015, Josh Trank attempted a more grounded, body-horror-infused take that met with severe studio notes and mandated reshoots, leading to a bunch of grey corridors and one action beat before the credits. It did not go over great. This very year, the MCU finally got their crack at the characters, and presents a whimsical, retro-futuristic world where an established Fantastic Four takes on Galactus for the fate of their world, and moreso, their family. Have we hit the best and worst of the Fours Fantastic? Find out!

The Fantastic Four! Once dubbed "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine," they've struggled to make it on the big screen, split between earnest attempts at blockbusters and quickie attempts to retain the film rights. And Dan and Keith are here to tackle one of each as the road to First Steps begins. Roger Corman produced the first attempt, a low-budget B-movie never intended to see the light of day, but which didn't account for the nascent internet's ability to spread a video file. Eleven years later, Tim Story made it into theatres with, at present, the only Fantastic Four movie to earn a sequel. Who did best with Dr. Doom? Which source material should Tim Story NOT have referenced? Can The Thing look good on screen? All this and more, with the Fantastic Four(s)!

Dan drags Keith into his film history brainrot in order to answer a question: do the biggest hits of the 20th century need or warrant a remake? We look at the biggest hit of each year from 1927 until 1999, from the dawn of the silent era to the birth of Jar Jar Binks and ask which of these hit films should be made again, which should stay lost to film history, and which will never stop being remade. Join in!

John Carpenter September continues as Dan and Keith crack open 1976's Assault on Precinct 13, and its 2005 remake, the same year as The Fog's remake. Carpenter's version favours simplicity, as the soon-to-close precinct is besieged by a seemingly unending and unstoppable horde of nigh-inhuman gang members on a vendetta, until only a handful remain. 2005, however, takes a different spin, as this titular precinct is under siege from corrupt cops, meaning the simple menace of the original is replaced by being massively out-gunned and out-armoured by an elite squad... but damned if Laurence Fishburne and Ethan Hawke aren't worth watching. Who plotted the better assault? Find out!

Welcome to Carpenter Summer, where Dan and Keith take on two 2005 remakes of vintage John Carpenter flicks! First up, The Fog, one of three 1980 horror movies starring Jamie Lee Curtis, in which an eerie fog sweeps over a small California town, bringing with it ghost sailors out for revenge! Or their money back. Or both? Twenty-five years later, Early-Smallville Tom Welling and Just-Started-Lost Maggie Grace headline a remake of this simple ghost story that lathers on lore, sets up a love triangle that doesn't pay off, and ends with a payoff that has almost no set-up. Is it a successful expansion of the original's concept, or simply too much mustard? We discuss, you are entertained.

Throw on your special glasses and get ready to get haunted as Dan and Keith dig into 13 Ghosts. Back in 1960, William Castle attempted a new gimmick: a special pair of glasses for audiences that either made ghosts appear, or made the movie utterly incomprehensible, as a family inherits their ghost-hunting uncle's house only find it filled with approximately a dozen ghosts. Forty-one years later, it's the cast in the special glasses as Tony Shalhoub must save his family from a little over ten ghosts with help from Matthew Lillard, and a bit of ghost writing from James Gunn. James Gunn, Matthew Lillard... well clearly Dan is going to fit Scooby-Doo in here somehow. Who haunts the best? Find out!

Casablanca! Generally regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, perhaps the most correct the Oscars have ever been, and the last movie you'd ever expect to see on a podcast about remakes! So why is our favourite they-slash-femme comedienne Munsi-Parker Munroe joining Keith to talk about it? It's not like there's a secret 90s Casablanca remake that's also a grim sci-fi comic book adaptation starring Pamela Anderson, right? Right? RIGHT!? Love for a cinema classic quickly gives way to deep dives into a 90s schlock flick that might not be good, but was it the Casablanca remake we needed? Find out!

While James Gunn's Superman is soaring through theatres, Dan and Keith look back at the first time he wrote a big-screen adaptation of a Warner Bros. franchise: a pup named Scooby-Doo. Digging into the casting, the rewriting of the pitch, we ask: is it over-hated? Is it more clever than it's given credit? Maybe. Then it's time to jump from 2002 to 2020 as WB tries to launch a Hannah-Barbera Cinematic Universe with Scoob!, teaming up Mystery Inc. with less familiar characters Blue Falcon, Dyna-Mutt, and Captain Caveman. Do they try too hard to launch a franchise? Is it funnier than we think? Or is trying to do a Scooby-Doo movie and Blue Falcon: Brave New World at the same time too much? We break it all down for you!

Dan, Keith, and guest Emma Gallaher are back to Transylvania for the 21st century Nosferatus! In 2024, horror auteur Robert Eggers decided to take another spin at Count Orlok... and perhaps because of this some amateur filmmakers Kickstarted their own version in 2023, with almost three recognizable stars in the mix. We tackle this low-budget retread first, which makes some odd choices with the central trio, then move on to Eggers, which shifts the focus from money-focused Thomas to tormented Ellen. Does Doug Jones as Orlok make the amateur version worthwhile? How does Eggers manage retelling the first vampire movie? We discuss, you are entertained!

Dan, Keith, and returning guest Emma travel as far back in film history as we've ever been to discuss the cinematic attempt at to file the serial numbers off Dracula with Nosferatu! In this first installment, it's heute auf Deutsch time as our hosts break down 1922's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, one of the earliest and most groundbreaking surviving horror movies of the silent era. How does it hold up? Can it hold up, asks Keith? Then we jump to the 70s, as Werner Herzog takes his own spin at the story, but while very much adapting Nosferatu brings back the names from Dracula? Odd choice. What other odd choices hit as the 70s auteur era reimagines the classic ugly-style vampyr? Join us to find out!

People always say "You couldn't make a [insert Mel Brooks classic] today." But were there movies Mel Brooks shouldn't have remade? That's the question facing Dan and Keith, presented by guest Olav Rokne of the Hugo Book Club, as we tackle To Be Or Not To Be. In 1942, Jack Benny starred in a farcical comedy about a theatre troupe rallying to save the Polish resistance from the Nazi occupiers, an occupation that was still very much ongoing during the film's release. Did that make the comedy a tough line to walk? Then, four decades later, Mel Brooks produced and starred in a remake that hit the throttle on the comedy yet still had more insights into the Holocaust, thanks in part to hindsight. Dan, Keith, and Olav break them both down, figure out who did what best, and how much the subject matter affected the laughs. Join us!

Dan and Keith head all the way back to the time to that brief overlap between the Golden Age of Hollywood and the dying days of vaudeville with comedy legends the Marx Brothers. In A Night at the Opera, Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx were said to hit a new height by blending their signature antics with a more grounded emotional arc (outsourced to supporting characters), but how do those antics hold up? Are aspects a little too vaudeville for a modern audience? And who would be bold enough to attempt to remake a Marx Brothers movie nearly six decades later, and why have you never heard of it? Should you have heard about it? Well, we're going to tell you about it. Listen in!

Dan and Keith head to ancient Greece and classic hero Perseus to weigh old-school stop motion against modern CG in the Clashes of the Titans! Back in 1981, legendary animator Ray Harryhausen wrapped a storied career with Clash of the Titans, in which Harry Hamlin's Perseus fights his way through stop-motion monsters to win the girl and claim a throne. Nearly three decades later, an all star cast (and Sam Worthington, fresh off one of the biggest hits in film history so you probably haven't already forgotten him) takes on a new twist on Perseus, with no throne to claim and the wrong girl gets chased, and only a few big name actors get wasted. Who did Perseus better? And who should have quit while they were ahead? Find out!

Turns out Rollerball was not the first instance of a Norman Jewison classic being remade by John McTiernan, so Dan and Keith strap in for round two, the Affairs of the Thomases Crown. In 1968, last days of the Hays Code, Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway squared off as bored millionaire turned bank robbery mastermind Thomas Crown and the insurance investigator who gets pulled into his orbit while trying to prove he's the thief, in a languid romance featuring some crimes. In 1999, when sexy crime thrillers were fully off the leash, Pierce Brosnan's Thomas Crown orchestrates an art heist just to feel alive, putting him in the path of insurance investigator Rene Russo, for a much sexier game of cat and mouse. Which story of romance and betrayal manages a better theme? Better heists? Fewer crimes by law enforcement? Find out!

Lllllllllet's get ready to ROLLERBALL! Dan and Keith dig into the 1975 cult classic dystopic sports flick Rollerball, in which James Caan must rise up against the world's corporate overlords by playing the best darn game of Rollerball he can, after about an hour of worldbuilding that only partially builds the world. In the early 2000s, legendary action director John McTiernan attempted to remake it for the Extreme Sports era, a truly epic mess of a process that sank his entire career. Dan and Keith dig into both, to see which era Rolled Balls the best: New Hollywood's heady-philosophical-white man stares forlornly era, or the xXx/Fast and Furious era? Find out!

Beloved friend of the podcast and Video Vulture John Tebbutt is back, and he's got a doozy for Dan and Keith. Schlock king Roger Corman unites Mission: Impossible's Peter Graves, iconic western villain Lee Van Cleef, and B-movie queen Beverly Garland for the sci-fi thriller, question mark, It Conquered the World, in which a Venusian alien lures an Earth scientist into helping it seize control of our world, and only the scientist's wife and best friend can turn him away from his alien pal. The following decade, a much less iconic schlock filmmaker changed the names and VIRTUALLY NOTHING ELSE to make Zontar, The Thing From Venus, which if nothing else serves as proof of Roger Corman's ability to make a movie. And then somehow it gets remade again by a classic Canadian sketch show? Dan, Keith, and John break it all down for your entertainment. Listen in!

John Woo's The Killer: one of the most iconic 80s Hong Kong action flicks, with Chow Yun-Fat leaping through dove-invested areas to fire two pistols in slow-motion. Who would dare to remake it? John Woo. Dan and Keith dig into the original (and how dubbed and subtitled versions differ), the choices excellent and confusing, then jump forward to 2024 to unpack the Straight-to-Streaming remake, and how being made for the Second Screen era has affected Woo's updated take on his classic. Does the new model live up? Listen and find out!

Hit the big city streets and get ready to look for vengeance, kind of, as Dan and Keith take on the Death Wishes. Back in 1994, Charles Bronson found his most iconic role as an architect who lashes out at random street criminals in the wake of an attack on his family. Dan and Keith break it down, how much it differs from the sequels that followed, and why that's Reagan's fault. Forty-four years later, Eli Roth and Bruce Willis give the story a new spin, while hewing closer to the revenge thriller post-70s audiences expect. What do our hosts think? Interesting journeys? Satisfying revenge? Or wishing for death? Find out!

Dan and Keith head to Mega-City One to look into two Judges Dredd! First, back in the 90s, Sylvester Stallone brought Britain's favourite satirical comic Judge to Hollywood, but perhaps put a little too much of him on the screen. Dystopic future, overly aggressive protagonist, Rob Schneider is here for some reason, it's a blend of a Judge Dredd adaptation and a Demolition Man follow-up that fails at being either. Two decades later, Karl Urban slips on the iconic helmet for the simply titled Dredd, and we break down everything they put right that the 90s version did wrong, from plot to costume to the insufficiently famous Olivia Thirlby. Listen in!

As the MCU returns from hiatus, Dan and Keith look back at the film that set up Captain America: Brave New World... that being 2008's The Incredible Hulk. First, in 2003, Ang Lee and a young producer named Kevin Feige attempted a deep, psychological Hulk, with comic-book-style editing, examinations of trauma and repressed memories, and a bit of a whackadoo climax, that may have been all theme, no plot. Five years later, Feige made one of the debut movies of his Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment a safer, simpler Hulk story... that was sandwiched between two much bigger superhero hits and largely slept on. Dan and Keith discuss what works better: a big swing that doesn't connect, or a bunt that doesn't astonish? Listen in and make your choice.

Grab your shovel and prepare to make bad choices as Dan and Keith unearth the Pet Semataries! Way way back in the 1980s, during the heyday of Stephen King adaptations, a former star of Star Trek: TNG and a future star of Time Trax took on an adaptation of Pet Sematary, the one Stephen King book that scared Stephen King. Three decades later, another attempt was made, which didn't start changing things up until the back third, then changed a lot. Which do Dan and/or Keith prefer? Why did Dan insist on mentioning Time Trax in the synopsis like anyone knows what that is? Why does Keith come at John Lithgow? Listen and find out!

Dan and Keith take a deep sigh, say "This may as well happen," and get into two takes on The Crow. First, the extremely 90s original with Brandon Lee and a bunch of cool character actors. How does it hold up? How does the tragedy at the core of the movie affect the viewing? Breaking down the unsafe production that cost us a rising star in Brandon Lee and imagining what might have been had someone safety checked that blank. Thirty years later, a remake limped into theatres, and Dan and Keith dig into what went wrong and how often, starting with why you don't spend half your runtime building up a McGuffin. Listen in!

It's a new year, and Hollywood is still allergic to new ideas, so we have a new crop of remakes on the Horizon! Hooray, question mark? Dan and Keith dig into all the remakes and reboots on the horizon, from Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman to new takes on Stephen King, Saturday morning cartoons, a weirdly unconnected trio of Universal Movie Monsters, and deep cut remakes you'd never expect that may or may not be released... plus find out what Mega-saga is stalking in the wings, waiting to strike! Listen in!

Ho ho holiday greetings, as Dan and Keith celebrate the season the Recovered way: unpacking movies with the same premise! First up, what else but the internet's favourite non-Muppet Christmas movie, Die Hard! John McClane is trying to save his marriage and Christmas, and we love him for it enough that it spawned a sub-genre. But of all the Die Hard clones out there, only one dared to be EVEN CHRISTMASIER... by having literal Santa Claus go full Die Hard in 2022's Violent Night! So curl up by the fire, grab some cookies, makes fists with your toes on the carpets, and tune in for A Very Recovered Christmas.

Grab your parka, light a flamethrower, and trust no one as we take on Things from Other Worlds! First, Dan, Keith, and special guest Emma head back to the 1950s for The Thing From Another World, based on the story Who Goes There, as an arctic base is beset by a plant-based invader out to steal their blood, and science and military find themselves at odds. Then jump to 1982 for another attempt to adapt the story, Keith's very favourite movie, John Carpenter's The Thing, a masterwork of paranoid thrills and practical effects; and its 2011 prequel-sort-of-remake, a case study of studio notes run amok. How will Keith deal with a remake of his favourite flick? How much damage can one bad test audience do? Find out!

Dan and Keith go storm chasing with Twister and Twisters! Back in the 90s, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt chased tornadoes for non-specific Science while staying ahead of their rival who was out for vague Profit in a simple storm flick that became one of the top hits of 1996. A whopping 28 years later, Hollywood took another crack at it with Twisters, which despite its title has the approximate same number of tornadoes but being a Movie From the Mid 2020s DOES have more Glen Powell. Dan and Keith unpack motivations, quirky casts, film language, and how it's a little weird to portray tornadoes as slasher movie villains that can be defeated with microplastics. We've got the entertainment, so if you FEEL IT... CHASE IT!

Dan and Keith head back to the old west for two takes on the gritty western 3:10 to Yuma. Both versions see a desperate rancher agree to escort an outlaw bandit to the train to a prison in Yuma, something his gang is very willing to kill to prevent. In 1957, the conflict comes from the growing connection between Dan the rancher and Ben the bandit, and Ben probes and tests Dan's resolve through a long wait in a hotel for the train's arrival. The 2007 remake casts Russell Crowe and Christian Bale for a more action-packed version, but does it lose the original's magic? Take the train with us and find out.

It's another 80s classic (question mark) with a largely overlooked remake as Dan and Keith take on the Red Dawns! Back in Reagan's America, Hollywood wove a tale of America being invaded by a Russian/Cuban alliance, which took a very elaborate amount of set-up to justify, held at bay by rising stars Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, and Lea Thompson. The fierce Soviet alliance brought America to its knees overnight, but couldn't withstand six teenagers with attitudes. In 2012, after a few years on the shelf, an updated version was released with a new invading enemy... that had to be quickly re-written to keep valuable markets in play. The definitely not Chinese invaders are harassed by the recently famous Chris Hemsworth, The Beekeeper's Josh Hutcherson, The Orville's Adrianne Palicki, and somehow it all makes even less sense. Dan and Keith have some notes on the whole enterprise, from improbable set-ups to which fast food chain clearly didn't pay enough for their product placement. Listen in!

Jump back, listeners, as it's time for another 80s classic and its 2010s remake as Dan and Keith cut loose, Footloose. In 1984, Kevin Bacon comes to the town of Bomont to redeem it from frenzied Satanic Panic oppression through the power of dance, with excellent supporting performances from Chris Penn, John Lithgow, and the great Diane Wiest. Then in the 2010s, the story is retold with few updates aside from "also rap exists," with a cast whose breakout star is... Miles Teller? In the Chris Penn role? That can't be right, can it? Which version was better than it had any right to be, and which underdelivered? Tune in and cut foot loose with us!

The Kaiju Saga reaches its conclusion in the cinematic smackdowns of Godzilla Vs. Kong, the Scaly Boi vs. the Big Monke. But it's not cinema made it to the Monsterverse before someone thought "Maybe these two could fight," so we start back in the Showa Era with King Kong Vs Godzilla from 1962 (or '63 depending on country), in which Big Pharma orchestrates a fight between monsters for reasons that almost make sense. That done, back to the 2020s as Hollywood emerges from Plague Times with Godzilla Vs. Kong, then has the lizard and the monkey team up for the mismatched buddy cop throwdown Godzilla X Kong: New Empire. Who had the best human subplots? Or the most human subplots? Where were the best fights? Dan and Keith break it all down. Join us!

Dan and Keith are back into the Kings Kong, starting with Peter Jackson's 2005 remake. Fresh off Lord of the Rings, the future Sir Peter goes back to the 1930s in a lavish remake that references and homages the original while still adding a contemporary sensibility. Dan has some flowers for the filmmaking, while Keith thinks maybe Jackson put too much mustard on it. Then we return to the Monsterverse with Kong: Skull Island, a new take on Kong lore with a new story and a new way to make Man the real monster, as an all-star cast heads to Skull Island and finds out the massive gorilla isn't the biggest threat around. How do the 20th Century Kongs fare against the classics? Will Keith finally break Dan, or vice versa? Find out now!

We are back into the Kaiju Saga, trading Japan's scaly king for the USA's Big Monke! Dan and Keith cover two takes on King Kong: the original 1933 classic, and the 1976 remake that tries to be as different as it can while still being functionally identical. Two different Kongs of very different quality, but only one got a sequel: 1986's King Kong Lives, in which the producer and director of the remake reunite but can't convince any of the original cast to come back, so Linda Hamilton has to take their place. Who Kong'd the best? Will Keith's love of practical effects take a hit? Join us for the journey through 20th century Kongs.