Film School Dropouts

Akira Kurosawa has gone down as one of the most legendary filmmakers to ever live and the films he's made are said to be some of the most influential in cinema history. Seven Samurai is largely considered his best work, a statement which holds more weight when you realize just how many of the films that have followed have told the same story. With such a legend around it, Seven Samurai was the obvious pick as we journey into the 1950's for our From The Vault series. Does this movie live up to its incredible reputation?

Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling has been on our radar since the start of the show. Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine and a plot shrouded in mystery had us and everyone else excited about this film. Leading up to its release, Don't Worry Darling and it's star-studded cast have built even more hype and public awareness for all the wrong reasons through spit gate and other on set drama. With all eyes on the film, does Don't Worry Darling live up to the hype?

Director Ti West and A24 have taken quite the risk this year. X was released in March and was a welcomed addition to the studios growing collection of well received pictures. Little did we know that only a few short months later an origin film for the movies antagonist would be released. Filming two connected movies at the same time is something that we have never seen, but now we want to see it done more. Did the risk pay off?

Most will know Zach Cregger from his comedy shows Wrecked and The Whitest Kids You Know. It was a shock when it was announced that he would be directing his first feature film...but that it was a horror. Everyone, fans of his or not, perked up. The movie was ambiguous, but it seemed like a worthwhile viewing. What we were treated with was unexpectedly one of the best horror films of the year!

Russo brothers, Anthony and Joe have cemented themselves as one of the best filmmaking duos in cinema. With epic blockbuster masterpieces like Avengers: Endgame and vastly deep yet stylized dramas like Cherry, they've even proven to be multifaceted. When previews began dropping for The Gray Man, what seemed to be a simple action movie on the surface was expected to be more than it was leading on knowing who was behind the helm. Today we sit down to discuss just that -- is The Gray Man more than you're average action flick?

In our new series From The Vault, Film School Dropouts review classic movies from every era of cinema. Kicking it off is none other than Citizen Kane, a film which made waves in 1941 that are still cascading today. Citizen Kane is a film that has developed quite the reputation, especially amongst critics who largely agree that it is the best film ever made. We didn't hear the end of it in film school, and today we find out if Citizen Kane is indeed worthy of it's fame...or perhaps infamy.

1987 marked the beginning of one of the most beloved film franchises of all time with Predator which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger at peak movie stardom. Like many franchises, subsequent installments weren't quite able to replicate the same magic that the first film had, and many of the sequels were considered failures by fans and critics alike. Even the ambitious crossover attempt with similar sci-fi/horror IP Alien didn't satisfy. Despite the continued flops, it hasn't kept them from trying to catch that lightning in a bottle which made that first film a classic. This year, Prey is the most recent attempt. With a unique twist on the same premise and an interesting yet approachable setting, could this be the film that turns Predators luck for good? Let's find out!

Bullet Train is Director David Leitch's latest film and immediately caught our attention when trailers dropped earlier this year. After co-directing John Wick and solo directing Deadpool 2, expectations for Bullet Train were high. With a seemingly simple plot and an all-star talent roster, it was an easy choice for us to check out next!

Tina Mckissick is one of the industries most decorated stuntwomen! Her career spans over twenty-four years and is still counting. She's worked on over 100 movies and tv shows, including Severance, The Irishman, Indian Jones, I Am Legend, School of Rock, The Sopranos, and even SNL. She's a three time SAG Awards nominee, the founder and president of Stuntwomen United, and one of the most amazing people you could ever meet. We're honored to have her on the show today to discuss her incredible career, the secrets of stunt work, and keto-compliant coffee creamer!

There has been no shortage of gems to come out of Bollyhood over the years, however if you're anything like us, we're pretty unfamiliar with the international film market. With streaming platforms, the lines are more blurred than ever and overseas movies and tv shows are accessable from our homes here in the states. We decided to watch RRR, which is on Netflix and has actually made some waves in the US. It has grossed over $150 million worldwide and has broken serval records for an Indian film. It is over three hours of non-stop action, deep story, and sheer absurdity and we have a blast talking about it!

Most people associate Jordan Peele with his hilarious comedy sketches alongside Keegan-Michael Key on Comedy Central’s series Key & Peel. It was quite the surprise, though extremely pleasant and welcome, that come 2017 Peele would make his Feature Writer/Director debut in the horror genre with Get Out, a film that would go on to receive comercial and critical praise and win him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, making Peele the first African-American screenwriter to win this category. Setting the bar as high as Get Out did, horror fans and fans of Peele alike eagerly awaited his upcoming entries. Us released in 2019 and was met with mixed reviews and overall considered the lesser of his two films. Today, we discuss Peele’s heavily anticipated third film, Nope. How does it stack up against the others? Let’s find out!

Marvel Fans were thrilled to see Phase Four of the MCU bringing limited series to the beloved franchise. Over the past couple of years, we've seen the likes of Loki, WandaVision, and Moon Knight release on Disney's streaming platform with a ton of success. In June, the latest addition joined the bunch: the much anticipated Ms Marvel, a show featuring Kamala Khan from the 2014 comic series of the same name. Now that the show is finished, opinions seem to be quite mixed, and we're going to find out why.

Writer, director Taika Waititi established himself as a creative genius by contributing one of the best pieces in the MCU when Thor: Ragnarok entered the franchise in 2018. The film was largley loved by fans and critics alike and  praised for it's ability to have fun while not loosing the seriousness that makes super-hero filcs so compelling. This year, Waititi returns with his latest instalment, another Thor solo focusing on his love interest with Jane Foster turned Mighty Thor. This movie was a rolecoaster -- let's dive in!

In 1995, Pixar debuted not only their first feature film but also the world's first fully computer generated feature film, Toy Story. The rest, they say is history. Nearly two decades and twenty-five incredible films later, Pixar has cemented itself in history as one of the all time greatest animation studios. Such success, however doesn’t come without its controversy, and that has never been more true for Pixar than this year with the release of their latest film Lightyear. Let’s talk about why.

D23 Expo 2019. Disney dropped an atomic bomb on Star Wars fans across the world when they announced a plethra of upcoming projects under the Lucas Film umbrella. One of which quickly became the most anticipated, a spinoff show exploring one of the franchise's most beloved characters. Obi-Wan Kenobi dominated headlines with the news that the six episode mini series would feature favorites Ewan Mcgregor and Hayden Christensen, reprising their roles from the prequel trilogy. After three years of anticipation, speculation, and rumors we finally got the show. And we've been dying to talk about it!