Small Screeners

We missed Halloween, but we’re still spotlighting ol’ Scratch with a look at the 1973 made-for-TV movie Satan’s School For Girls! AJ & Chris break it down before dishing their Top 3 Satanic Panic flicks (22:30), and discussing some recent watches like Azrael, Fight or Flight, Witness, and Deadwood: The Movie (31:30)!

AJ & Chris are looking at a two Michael Jai White flicks this month with the 2009 martial arts thriller Blood & Bone, and the 2024 Tubi original action/comedy Don’t Mess With Grandma (27:50)! They also reveal their Top 3 movie fights (43:45), and talk up some recent watches (54:13), including The Monkey, She Rides Shotgun, Superman, and Fantastic Four: First Steps!

AJ & Chris are back in Direct-To-DVD action with this look at Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning! Plus they discuss their top 3 flicks from the first half of 2025 (35:19), and some recent watches (45:33)!

AJ & Chris are talking the year 1999 in film on this bonus episode, and reveal their top 10 from that pivotal year!

AJ & Chris welcome Sean back for a discussion on the 1998 rock and roll action oddity Six-String Samurai! The fellas chop up Lance Mungia and Jeffery Falcon’s low budget flick, before dishing their Top 3 Vegas movies, and choosing between some mid-90’s Nic Cage actioners (32:57)!

(This episode was originally released on the “Because Movies” podcast feed.)To celebrate Halloween this year, AJ & Chris decided to go big by putting together the inaugural class of the Because Movies Horror Hall of Fame! They couldn’t do it alone, so they welcome horror aficionado Lando in to help put it together. Each of them nominate 10 films, 5 Directors, 5 Actors, and 5 Actresses before collectively narrowing the field down to the final class!

For our annual spooky season episode, AJ & Chris welcome fellow horror fanatic Lando for a discussion on Direct-To-Video flick The Boneyard! Inspired by Phylis Diller’s Boneyard role, they also dish their Top 3 surprise horror performances, before turning their attention to recent watches Salem’s Lot, Strange Darling, and V/H/S/Beyond (31:26)!

On this bonus episode AJ & Chris are looking at Jeremy Saulnier’s new Netflix action movie Rebel Ridge, starring Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, and Annasophia Robb. Also discussed: Bikeriders, Longlegs, The Killer, Speak No Evil, Hellhole, and more!

AJ & Chris are joined by fellow movie fanatic Sean for a look at the Showtime flick Fear! Written and directed by Rockne S. O'Bannon, this thriller stars Ally Sheedy, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Lauren Hutton and Stan Shaw! They also give their Top 3 flicks of 1990 (29:08), and discuss some recent watches, including Brats, The Fall Guy, and American Movie (51:10)!

AJ & Chris are back on the road with Steven Spielberg's directorial debut, the made-for-TV road rage classic, Duel! They also discuss their Top 3 Spielberg movies (28:25), Spielberg's post-2000 run (41:30), and some recent watches, including Megan, Boy Kills World, & Six-String Samurai (48:41)!

AJ & Chris are once again looking at a Dolph Lundgren actioner, this time it’s the 1994 flick Men of War! Also starring BD Wong, Charlotte Lewis, “Tiny” Lister, and Catherine Bell, among others. They also discuss their Top 3 movies from 1994 (34:10), and several recent watches, including American Fiction, Love Lies Bleeding, Alien: Covenant, & Late Night With The Devil (51:00)!

AJ & Chris are finally back with a look at John Carpenter’s first collaboration with Kurt Russell, the 1979 ABC biopic Elvis! They also discuss their Top 3 Kurt Russell performances (1:06:03), and recent watches Thanksgiving, The Marvels, Hannibal, and The Corrupter (1:25:02)!

AJ & Chris are taking flight to chat The Night Flier, starring Miguel Ferrer, directed by Mark Pavia, and based on a short story by Stephen King! They also reveal their Top 3 cinematic vampires (38:41) and discuss some recent watches, including Enemy Mine, Bottoms, Miguel Wants To Fight, and more (48:40)!

AJ & Chris put a cap on 2023 with their respective Top 10 Movies of the Year, and also talk on some of their other pop culture favorites and hot topics from last year. “Super Hero Fatigue”? (18:06) Streaming Vs. Theater (25:47) Movies 10-6 (37:53) 2023 TV (1:05:10) 2023 Music (1:11:46) 2023 Books (1:19:12) 2023 Podcasts (1:24:59) Movies 5-1 (1:32:20)

AJ & Chris are looking at the HBO original flick The Late Shift, starring Daniel Roebuck, John Michael Higgins, & Kathy Bates, based on Bill Carter’s book chronicling the contentious succession of The Tonight Show following Johnny Carson’s retirement in 1992! They also dish their Top 3 Kathy Bates performances (48:09), and chat on some recent watches, including The Holdovers, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, It’s a Wonderful Knife, Where the Devil Roams, and more (54:44)!

AJ & Chris close out season 2 of Small Screeners with a look at a very early Marvel Comics adaptation in The Punisher, starring Dolph Lundgren & Louis Gossett Jr.! They then rank the live-action Punisher’s to date (30:14), before talking about some recent watches including Suitable Flesh, Cobweb, No One Will Save You, Witness, Drug War, and more (45:53)!

AJ & Chris take a look at the 1994 Made-For-TV crime-thriller Night of the Running Man, starring Scott Glenn and Andrew McCarthy! They also pick their Top 3 Mark A. Lester flicks (25:30), before discussing some recent watches like Blood In Blood Out, Marty, The Marvels, Thanksgiving, & Invincible (41:52). They finish things off with a chat about the new Mike Flanagan horror series, The Fall of the House of Usher (58:56)!

AJ & Chris celebrate Halloween a little late this year with this look at 5 classic Horror Anthology flicks! First they discuss some movies that didn’t make the cut, before shifting to Tales From The Crypt (22:05), Creepshow (42:48), Body Bags (1:20:14), Trick R’ Treat (1:54:50), and V/H/S 2 (2:17:26)! Spoilers galore in this one folks, so use those time stamps as needed…

AJ & Chris celebrate Horror Movie Month with the Direct-To-Video sequels from Don Coscarelli’s classic Phantasm series! They also rank the Phantasm flicks (1:11:21), and chat about several recent watches, including The Faculty, Fear Is The Key, The Pope’s Exorcist, The Sacrament, and more (1:26:38)!

AJ & Chris are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ultimate Slasher Showdown in Freddy Vs. Jason with a running audio commentary track! After a quick intro the commentary starts up at the (1:57) mark!

AJ and Chris are joined by Jesse Starcher for Part Two of this special comic book crossover! Chris and Jesse have already discussed Darwyn Cooke’s epic graphic novel DC: The New Frontier on The Source Material Comics Podcast, and now AJ joins the fray as they chat about the animated adaptation in the form of Justice League: The New Frontier! Also discussed: Top 3 Live Action DC flicks (52:20), and recent watches, including Ahsoka, God Is A Bullet, Dave Made A Maze, Adam Eats The 80’s, From, Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes, and even more (1:26:18)!

AJ & Chris are talking brutal action this time around with a look at The Tournament, starring Kelly Hu, Robert Carlyle, and Ving Rhames! They also discuss their Top 3 Ving Rhames performances (40:15), and finish up with some recent watches including Mad Love, Freebie and the Bean, & Regarding Henry, among others (48:15)!

AJ & Chris saddle up for a talk about the John Carpenter scripted Western/Comedy El Diablo, starring Anthony Edwards and Louis Gossett Jr.! Then they throw some praise on the films of 25 years back with their Top 3 movies from 1998 (41:40), and discuss some recent watches, including the most recent MCU flicks, They Cloned Tyrone, The Arrival, Insidious: The Red Door, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, Mission Impossible 7, and more (58:36)! Finally, they celebrate the late William Friedkin and offer a bonus Top 3 of their favorite flicks from Hurricane Billy (1:18:03)!

AJ & Chris talk all things Indiana Jones with a review of Dial Of Destiny, their Top 3 Indy allies, their Top 3 Indy villains, and their rankings of all 5 movies in the classic franchise!

No AJ this time, but Chris welcomes his friends Bill & David for a talk about their trip to this years Chattanooga Film Festival! They took in several flicks, a few special presentations, and even visited a haunted hotel room!

AJ & Chris look at the 1990 Made-For-TV movie Killing In A Small Town, based on a true crime ax murder case, and discuss it in relation to the recent Hulu and Max series’ also based on that case, Candy and Love And Death. Then they testify to their Top 3 Courtroom flicks (37:51), before discussing several recent watches, including The Patriot, The Lost World, The Flash, Kids Vs. Aliens, & Clerks 3 (51:08)!

AJ & Chris are back in action to break down the DTV actioner Drive, starring Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, & Britney Murphy! They also kick out their Top 3 “Bound Together” flicks (43:10), and talk about several recent watches including Extraction 2, Cocaine Bear, and Evil Dead Rise (50:07)! Plus a little talk on The State and I Think You Should Leave!

AJ & Chris take a look at the 1996 trashploitation flick, Freeway, starring Reese Witherspoon & Kiefer Sutherland, before dishing out their top 3 Kiefer performances (1:06:53)! They also discuss several recent watches, like Babylon, Pearl, Copland, Evil Dead Rise, and Scream 6 (1:18:58), as well as musicals in general, and their preferences on The Lost Boys/Near Dark, Alien/Aliens, and The Terminator/T2!

AJ & Chris take a swing at Billy Crystal’s HBO baseball picture 61*, focusing on the 1961 home run race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, starring Tom Jane and Barry Pepper. They also share their Top 3 baseball movies (1:10:33), before once again chatting up Everything, Everywhere, All At Once in the wake of it’s Oscars success (1:20:13), and wrap up with talk of some recent watches, including Miami Blues, Shazam 2, Hulu’s The Boston Strangler, and the season finale of The Last of Us (1:32:27).

AJ & Chris take a look at the direct-to-video action/slasher Maniac Cop 2, which leads to many a digression into topics like forgotten TV show Brimstone, Soderbergh’s The Limey, and more. They then present their Top 3 “Bad Cops” in film (1:08:00), which leads to many a digression on topics like William Friedkin’s charisma, The McConaissance, Barry Sonnenfeld’s Big Trouble, and Elmore Leonard’s crime fiction. Finally, they chat up some of their recent watches (1:31:09) including The Last of Us, Sick, The Craft, Marlowe, The Golden Child, Get Crazy, and M3gan.

AJ and Chris dive back into the HBO film world with a look at the 1993 Made-For-TV flick The Last Outlaw! A bloody Western featuring Mickey Rourke and a bevy of character actor heavy hitters, like Dermot Mulroney, Kieth David, and Steve Buscemi. Plus the guys reveal their top movies of 2022 (50:51), before chatting about the recent trailers for Marlowe, Evil Dead Rise, and more (1:20:22)! Finally, they discuss some recent watches, including Smile, Nightcrawler, Christmas Bloody Christmas, The Sadness, Deadstream, Hellraiser 3, & Sick (1:28:57)!

AJ & Chris wrap up their Shane Black Christmas celebration with a dive into the MCU, looking at Iron Man 3! After which they discuss Black’s post-Iron Man 3 flicks (1:00:42), dish some more holiday recommendations (1:04:31), and talk a bit on The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (1:15:12). Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays folks!

AJ & Chris continue to celebrate Shane Black Christmas with this look at Black’s directorial debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang! They also dish out some more holiday recommendations for ya (57:01)!

Shane Black Christmas season rolls on with the Renny Harlin helmed action romp The Long Kiss Goodnight! AJ & Chris continue looking at Shane Black’s career, as well as Harlin’s (09:11), before discussing the flick’s cast (20:23). After chatting about the movie (39:19), they dish out some more Holiday Season recommendations (56:32)!

It’s Shane Black Christmas season folks! AJ & Chris discuss the screenwriter’s early days and his first big hit in the Richard Donner directed action classic Lethal Weapon (09:20), before dishing out some recommendations for holiday entertainment (1:02:15)!

AJ & Chris are back in the Direct-To-Video world with a discussion on the Universal Soldier sequel that brought MMA stars to the screen (which makes Chris happy), and brought Dolph back to the franchise (which makes everybody happy). They also reveal their Top 3 Dolph Lundgren movies (49:56), before chatting about the John Wick 4 and A Christmas Story Christmas trailers (1:07:47). Finally, they get into some of their recent watches, including Wakanda Forever, The Descent, The Mangler, Dagon, My Best Friends Exorcism, Terrifier 2, Barbarian, and more (1:22:48)!

AJ & Chris are back for one last Halloween hurrah! After ranking all the originals, remakes, franchises, and slasher icons from the previous four episodes, they take a look at the glut of OTHER horror remakes since the turn of the century (25:13). Then they reveal their favorite Simpsons Treehouse of Horror segments (53:45), and share their nearly opposite reactions to Halloween Ends (1:13:40)!

AJ & Chris enter the dreamworld to take on the hand-bladed psycho from Elm Street in our final spotlight on the Slasher remake craze of the early 2000’s! Plus, our final movie recommendations for Spooky Season! 1984- (6:15) 2010- (47:35) Franchise- (1:19:49) Movie Rec’s- (1:31:42)

AJ & Chris continue their look at the slasher remakes of the 00’s! Thank God It’s Friday the 13th! They also dish out a couple more movie recommendations for Spooky Season! 1980- (1:59) 2009- (48:31) Franchise- (1:29:07) Spooky Movie Picks (1:31:05)

AJ & Chris are in Haddonfield to continue their look at the Slasher remakes of the 00’s and the classic flicks that inspired them! This week is John Carpenter’s seminal work Halloween, and Rob Zombie’s divisive reimagining of the white masked boogeyman. They also continue to pass out spooky movie rec’s like candy! Franchise- (5:54) 1978- (17:53) 2007- (1:10:00) Spooky Movie Picks- (2:50:06)

AJ & Chris are celebrating Halloween-time with a series on the Slasher remakes of the 00’s and the classics that inspired them! The guys also shout out some of their favorite movies for the Spooky Season! First up: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! 1974 - (8:00) 2003 - (47:21) Franchise - (1:43:38) Halloween Movie Picks - (1:53:42)

AJ & Chris celebrate spooky season with a Carpenter/King TV movie double dip! John Carpenter’s Someone’s Watching Me and Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of Stephen King novel Salem’s Lot! They also discuss their Top 3 John Carpenter scores (24:15), Carpenter’s adaptation of Christine (33:00), It Chapter 2 (1:14:07), Midnight Mass (1:23:44), and their Top 3 Stephen King books (1:31:12). They then shift their attention to some trailers (1:51:44) before chatting up recent watches (2:04:07) including Old, Morbius, Sinister, Sam Raimi’s “work-for-hire” era, and some MCU stuff, among others.

AJ & Chris visit Gotham to cover the DC Animation flick Batman: Under The Red Hood! They also discuss the Jonah Hex animated short that originally accompanied it, which leads to a chat about the various Punisher films (1:21:26)? After a tangent on Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (1:30:15), the fellas reveal their Top 3 animated features (1:37:20). Then they turn their attention to some new-ish trailers (2:03:09), before closing out with talk of some recent watches, including The Last Picture Show, The Abyss, Sorcerer, Gladiator, and more (2:12:18)!

AJ & Chris got together for a bonus episode to discuss a couple straight-to-streamer genre flicks! First up is Hulu’s Predator prequel Prey, then Netflix’s Day Shift (34:56). They also touch on the WNUF Halloween Special follow-up “Out There Halloween Mega Tape” (53:06), and close out with a brief talk on The Black Phone (1:01:48).

AJ & Chris welcome Jesse from The Source Material Comics Podcast to discuss the 1996 Direct-To-Video sequel Tremors 2: Aftershocks! After which they reveal their Top 3 Creature Features (41:59), before chatting a bit about the summer movies of 2002 (1:14:08). Then, after talking new-ish trailers (1:30:23), they wrap up with some of their recent watches, including The Void, David Simon’s The Corner, Stranger Things 4’s finale, & Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (1:48:53).

AJ & Chris discuss the Full Moon Features crossover flick Dollman Vs. The Demonic Toys and give their picks for Top 3 fictional firearms. They then jump into discussions on a bevy of other subjects, including the Nick Cage low-budget renaissance (47:49), the Underworld franchise (53:20), Dr. Strange 2 & the MCU in general (59:01), Stranger Things 4 (1:18:50), some recent additions to Shudder in Hellbender, Off Season, Spine of Night, & Mad God (1:25:16), before finally finishing things off with Joe Hill & The Black Phone (1:29:42).

AJ & Chris chat about The Second Civil War, Joe Dante’s 1997 political satire for HBO. Afterwards they share their respective Top 5 Joe Dante flicks (1:12:01) AND their Top 3 Phil Hartman performances (1:40:37). Finally, they discuss some recent watches, including Ti West’s X, Sam Raimi’s Crimewave, and Jim Cumming’s The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2:05:10). This is a long one, folks!

AJ & Chris discuss the 1989 Direct-To-Video Horror/Comedy C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the CHUD, directed by David Irving, starring Gerrit Graham, Brian Robbins, Bill Calvert, Tricia Leigh Fisher, and Robert Vaughn. They also reveal their top 3 zombie flicks (41:52), before chatting about The Batman and some other recent watches (57:37).

AJ & Chris discuss the 1991 HBO film Cast A Deadly Spell, directed by Martin Campbell, starring Fred Ward, David Warner, Julianne Moore, and Clancy Brown. They also chat about The Mortuary Collection (54:02), before turning their attention to the newest entries into two iconic horror franchises, Scream (56:26) & Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1:06:00). Finally, they discuss their recent streaming favorites (1:22:17). *Please note there are some audio problems in this episode, specifically the opening few minutes, and the final few minutes are very low.

AJ and Chris discuss the 1993 HBO film Full Eclipse, directed by Anthony Hickox, starring Mario Van Peeples, Patsy Kensit, and Bruce Payne. They also reveal their favorite films of 2021 (42:55), and share their opposing views on Halloween Kills and The Matrix Resurrections (1:07:54).