FOLLOWING FILMS - Podcast, Movies, Music, and More

I just finished rewatching Scary Movie, and I'm trying to figure out how a twenty-six-year-old parody flick holds up after all these years. Honestly, watching this today is just strange. Back in the summer of 2000, every multiplex was completely clogged with self-aware teen slashers trying to ride the wave Scream started. Everyone was wearing baggy cargo pants, listening to late-era nu-metal, and taking I Know What You Did Last Summer a bit too seriously. The Wayans brothers took one look at that whole trend and decided to just burn it to the ground with the support of a proper studio budget. The movie works way better than all those terrible mid-2000s knockoffs like Epic Movie or Date Movie because the Wayans crew actually understood horror tropes. They weren't just throwing random pop culture references at the screen for the sake of it. They specifically tore apart the structure, the beats, and the visual language of the movies they were roasting. They knew how slasher setups...

Look, fans of The Morning Show understand what we are getting into with this series by now. If you are considering purchasing the Season 3 DVD, you are either a completionist who likes to have physical media on your shelf, or you are fully addicted to this specific brand of expensive, glossy nonsense this show peddles. By now, the show has given up pretending to be a serious piece of modern journalistic thought and has transformed into a full-blown corporate soap opera. Season 3 is the one where it embraces its true nature. Lets start with the packaging, because it was the reason for your twenty-plus dollar purchase in the first place. Not much to say, beyond it is a standard multi-disc affair. Nothing fancy, but if you wanted luxury, you would get the blu-ray. The video quality is perfectly fine for standard definition, despite how absurd watching an episode that cost tens of millions of dollars to make look incredibly cinematic on Apple TV+. The show holds its own with the standard D...

So the new DVD for Elijah Peel landed on my desk, and honestly, I didn't quite know what to do with it. When you pick up a movie about a washed-up, stadium-filling British rock star whose life of hard partying and sketchy substances catches up with him in the form of a nasty heart attack, you brace yourself for a certain kind of predictable cinematic comfort food. Robert Malcolm Cumming plays Elijah, and when we first meet him, he is an absolute mess. He is driving while completely out of it, begging his manager, played by Kevin Sorbo, for a quick fix, and living in a mansion that looks like a tornado hit a liquor store and a strip club. It is a rough opening stretch. It does not pull its punches when it comes to showing how hollow and miserable this guy's lifestyle has become. The movie wastes no time throwing him into a hospital bed after his ticker gives out, surrounded by empty bottles and bad decisions. And because he is stuck there trying to recover without immediately ju...

If you have been waiting to upgrade your family movie collection to the highest possible standard, the beloved Peruvian bear is finally getting his due. Paul King’s delightful 2014 family classic, Paddington, is officially making its U.S. debut on 4K Ultra HD in a collector's SteelBook package on November 10. Distributed by Lionsgate, the 2-disc release includes both the 4K Ultra HD disc and a standard Blu-ray, alongside a digital copy, retailing for an MSRP of $44.99. Stunning 4K Upgrade & Special Features Based on the classic and beloved novels, Paddington follows the comic misadventures of a polite talking bear from deepest darkest Peru (voiced by Ben Whishaw) who travels to London in search of a new home after his rainforest habitat is destroyed. Lost and alone in a bustling metropolis, he is taken in by Henry (Hugh Bonneville) and Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins), who offer him a temporary safe haven. However, peace is short-lived when a sinister museum taxidermist, played with ...

If you were old enough to be sneaking into movie theaters during the summer of 2001, you probably remember just how massive Scary Movie was. It arrived right at the tail end of the late-90s teen slasher revival, taking a massive, crude, sledgehammer swing at Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and pretty much every pop culture staple of that specific turn-of-the-millennium window. Looking back at it now, it's wild to think about how much money this thing made on a modest budget. It practically birthed a whole subgenre of spoof movies, most of which got progressively worse over the next decade. But the original Wayans brothers effort still holds a special, trashy place in the hearts of anyone who grew up on VHS tapes and early DVD releases. Naturally, Paramount decided it was time to give this comedy classic the premium 4K Ultra HD Steelbook treatment. The big question is whether a film full of bodily fluid jokes and slapstick gags actually benefits from a native 4K transfer, o...

In this quick ten-minute chat on The Following Films Podcast , Chris Maynard sits down with actor and musician Samuel Bottomley to discuss his wild new film, California Scheemin . Based on an incredible true story , the movie follows two aspiring Scottish musicians from Dundee who, after facing rejection from the local music industry, hatch an audacious plan to reinvent themselves as American hip-hop artists from California to finally score a record deal . Tune in as Samuel shares what it was like recording the soundtrack , transitioning from the studio to performing live in front of 2,000 screaming fans in Glasgow , and his unforgettable real-life audition story running into James McAvoy in London . Key Discussion Points The Real-Life Inspiration: Exploring the absurd, true-story premise of Dundee musicians faking an American hip-hop persona to break into the industry . A Chance Encounter: Samuel shares the nervous wait outside auditions in London and how running into James M...

Taylor Sheridan has reached the point in his career where tossing the Stetson on the coffee table and inviting the camera to a particularly photogenic corner of Montana constitutes a production meeting. After filling prime-time television with alpha males, land wars, and enough testosterone to fuel a small city, The Madison is his most surprisingly forlorn work yet. And now that its first season has appeared on Blu-ray, discerning viewers can enjoy Sheridan’s latest family drama without a subscription to any streaming service. The Madison is not another Yellowstone, it's a more introspective affair that examines the heart-wrenching consequences of the family tragedies and the inability to move on, despite all the money in the world. Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Manhattan socialite Stacy Clyburn, who finds herself in the unfamiliar landscape of the American West after a horrifying family tragedy. There, in the Madison River Valley, her husband Preston (Kurt Russell) and brother-in-law...

Look, nobody expects a Jackass movie to be high art, but there's something weirdly surreal about watching a bunch of people who have spent more than twenty-five years making bodily harm an art form make one more theatrical stab at it. Johnny Knoxville and his band of self-destructive masochists have leapt, crashed, collided, vomited and generally abused themselves to provide generations of viewers with entertainment. Jackass: Best and Last marks the franchise's supposed final theatrical outing, and the Blu-ray gives the film a solid technical presentation that suits the deliberately varied material. If you've seen Jackass Forever in 2022, you already know the basic emotional territory of this movie. It's a continuation of that last film's bruised family-reunion atmosphere, with the veterans increasingly aware that they're not quite as indestructible as they used to be. Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Danger Ehren, Dave England, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Chris Pontius an...

  Host Chris Maynard sits down with producer and actress Lavinia Postolache to discuss her sci-fi noir thriller, April X. In this episode, Lavinia breaks down the realities of independent filmmaking, from stretching a tight budget by filming on location in Bucharest, Romania, to choosing organic, hand-crafted visual effects over AI in post-production. She also shares insights into balancing dual roles behind and on camera (playing Rose), using her modeling background to secure high-fashion costume designs, and assembling a talented cast, including Connor Storrie, before his breakout success.

  If you grew up loving the thrill of spooky movies, you know how hard it can be to find that perfect "gateway horror," films that deliver genuine scares and fun without pushing young genre fans too far over the edge.    In our latest video interview, Chris sits down with horror royalty Cassandra Peterson (best known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) and writer/filmmaker Gemma Hurley to talk about their latest entry in the Pumpkinhead series for Tubi.