Here’s what’s happening in Episode #14 (download .mp3): Sara Michelle, Mike, Brian and Adam take on summer tentpole heavyweights Terminator Genisys and Magic Mike XXL, as well as When Marnie Was There. Plus, an impassioned discussion of the best and worst films of 2015 so far, considering the year’s half-way mark is practically upon is. […]

Alien Outpost holds up surprisingly well the second time around. While not a great or terribly profound motion picture, it’s still far more entertaining than it maybe has any right to be, and as such I’m quite happy to add the Blu-ray to my personal library.

[Magic Mike XXL] is a blast, an animated shot of bare-chested adrenaline that’s easy to drink and even more satisfying to savor, the sequel stripping inhibitions to the point they vanish leaving only pleasure behind.

But in the pursuit of setting up a new world, as well as planting the seeds for future sequels, the filmmakers fail to construct a self-contained story worthy of an audience’s attentions let alone their emotional investment. It’s a robotic descent into Hollywood financed, corporate-driven stupidity, diluting a once powerful franchise to a place it had yet to travel to until now: irrelevance.