Does Timothée still have a chance to win Best Actor? Will Sinners or One Battle After Another stand tall at the end of the night? Can any of the acting nominations from Sentimental Value go home with an award.

And the big question - can anyone beat Jessie Buckley, as the Irish film world looks to add another name to the short list of Oscar winners from the emerald isle - with the short Retirement Plan also in the mix for Best Animated Short Film.

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This is taken from new releases in Ireland in the calendar year 2025 so don't panic when you see things that feel like 2024 releases!

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Will Ireland finally have it's first ever Irish born winner of a leading actor/actress with Cillian Murphy taking home the top prize for Oppenheimer?

Páraic McGeough and Nigel Wheatley go through all the categories in the 2024 Academy Awards - plus some Dune: Part 2 reaction.

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Half-year Report Card for 2023

Galway Film Fleadh 2023 Preview

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Nigel's Top 10

10. Parallel Mothers

9. Barbarian

8. Athena

7. All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues)

6. The Stranger

5. Kimi

4. After Yang

3. Aftersun

2. Top Gun: Maverick

1. An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl)

Páraic's Top 10

10. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

9. Decision to Leave 

8. RRR

7. Top Gun: Maverick

6. Nope

5. The Banshees of Inisherin

4. All Quiet on the Western Front

3. Everything Everywhere All at Once

2. Aftersun

1. An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl)

-------

(Nigel's nearly made it....)

20-11

Hustle

Cow

Blonde

Elvis

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

The Batman

Everything Everywhere All at Once

AmbuLAnce

Prey

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

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Plus reviews of Baz Luhrman's ELVIS and JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION.

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Páraic's Top 10 of 2021

1) Pig (Volta.ie)

2) Riders of Justice (Youtube)

3) Dune (Youtube)

4) C'mon C'mon (In Cinemas Now)

5) King Rocker (NowTV)

6) Herself (Available for pre-order)

7) The French Dispatch (Youtube)

8) The Nest (Available for pre-order)

9) In the Earth (Youtube)

10) Boys from County Hell (Youtube)

Nigel's Top 10 of 2021:

1. The Power of the Dog (Netflix)

2. C'mon C'mon (In Cinemas Now)

3. Minari (Online Rental)

4. The Nest (Available for pre-order)

5. Dune (YouTube)

6. The Crime of the Century (NowTV, Sky Go)

7. King Richard (Google Play)

8. Pig (Volta.ie)

9. Herself (Available for pre-order)

10. Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)

** Páraic's almost made it list (all Oscar nominees): The Father / Promising Young Woman / Sound of Metal / Minari / Judas and the Black Messiah

** Nigel's almost made it list: In the Heights / West Side Story / Tick Tick Boom / Nomadland / Eternals / Nobody / Last Night in Soho / Judas and the Black Messiah / Old / Spencer

NOTE: We mention on the recording that some films are available on Amazon Prime, however it seems this is territory specific. Check your local service before giving Jeff Bezos your cash!

Special thanks to producer Lisa McGeough

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It’s been a while! #RealLife

Anyway on the cards for Nigel and Páraic in this podcast…

• John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu
• Avengers: Endgame
• Long Shot
• Shazam
• Knock Down the House
• Mid90s
• Eighth Grade

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Páraic, Nigel and Eithne go through this Sunday’s Oscar broadcast…

Podcast recording for our annual Oscars preview! Been doing this with @myfavtalkies and @eithne.shortall for the last 5-odd years, and been watching the exravaganza live on and off since 2006 (We think). The new Spooool podcast will be available from iTunes, Spotify and HMV Xtravision from tomorrow…

A post shared by Nigel Wheatley (@wheatln2) on Feb 19, 2019 at 12:08pm PST

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It’s getting close to Oscar season and it’s been a few weeks since we yacked away about films so we’ve got a wealth of things to talk through in the January podcast…

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It’s that time of the year where we sit down and argue about what the best films of the year were, while discretely taking notes about all the new things to add to our watch-list over Christmas.

This year there’s three films that crossed over and featured on both of our lists – A Star is Born, Phantom Thread and Rosie. 

Nigel’s Top 10

Nearly made-its…: Tully, Hereditary, The Shape of Water, The Old Man & The Gun, Lucky, BlacKkKlansman, BPM, Sorry to Bother You, JourneyMan, Black Panther, Lady Bird

10. Phantom Thread
9. Mission Impossible: Fallout
8. A Fantastic Woman
7. First Reformed
6. Creed II
5. A Star is Born
4. Widows
3. Leave no Trace
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
1. Rosie

Páraic’s Top 10

10. Hereditary
9. Kissing Candice
8. Shirkers
7. A Star is Born
6. Nico, 1988
5. Phantom Thread
4. The Shape of Water
3. Rosie
2. American Animals
1. Journeyman

We’ll be sharing some of the friends of Spooool lists tomorrow. Send yours in now – contact [at] spooool.ie , or @spool on Twitter. Woop!

woop.

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Nigel Wheatley and Páraic McGeough have their “I’m with Stoopid t-shirts” t-shirts on for a quick run through four of the big films in cinemas right now that they’re digging.

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Steve McQueen’s latest ‘Widows’ is one of the year’s smartest heist films and worth your money. We talk it, the Freddie Mercury biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Peter Jackson’s ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’, Nic Cage’s crazy ‘Mandy’, Roddy Doyle’s ‘Rosie’ and lots more.

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Something a little different this month as we take advantage of a few days away by catching up with a classic of modern Irish cinema which (shamefully) neither of us had seen, The Crying Game. Yes, we knew about the infamous “twist” and all the awards that were showered upon Neil Jordan’s screenplay and directing, but somehow it had slipped through the net over the years…

We’ll be back in a few weeks with a more conventional and structured podcast discussing the big October releases!

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After our annual summer break we’re back in the podcasting saddle with a look at three big releases – Blackkklansman, American Animals and Searching, along with a wrap up of all the other films of note we’ve seen over the last month.

Also we preview Harry Dean Stanton’s farewell film in Lucky and discuss the connection between Blackkklansman and Airplane!. Yep.

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We’re packing our bags for the west as we preview what’s coming to the 30th Galway Film Fleadh with some thoughts on Don’t Go, Damsel, The Eyes of Orson Welles, Katie, For Vagina’s Sake, Captain Morten And The Spider Queen and the IFB Shorts programme.

Elsewhere box office taking have been way down this summer because of the World Cup, but what’s in the cinema for when it’s all done and dusted and football comes home?

And of course we’ve got the regular business of in-cinema reviews for Leave No Trace, The Legacy of a Whitetail Hunter (which is only on Netflix!), Kissing Candice, Dublin Old School, Tag, Hereditary, and Ocean’s 8. We’re yet to see The First Purge, Sicario 2, Adrift, The Endless or The Incredibles 2.

And there’s a few words on upcoming releases Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot, Skyscraper and Mission Impossible – Fallout.

And because MI6 is out, we wrap up with a rewind look back at Brian de Palma’s 22-year-old Mission Impossible effort.

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We’re back in the podcasting saddle for a look at three big heavy-hitting blockbusters – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Deadpool 2, and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Beyond that The Breadwinner, Tully, Lean on Pete and Book Club are also up for discussion.

And no-one seems to be talking about Cineworld’s new 4DX enhanced motion experience screen. Your seat moves, you get water sprayed on you and a machine punches you in the back. It’s a few quid more, but is absolutely gas. Nigel (who saw Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Páraic (who saw Deadpool 2) have their say.

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The first of the summer’s ginormous blockbusters Avengers: Infinity War goes under the knife for some spoiler-tastic dissecting and some wild theories. Also up for discussion is Mark O’Rowe’s divisive The Delinquent Season, the Irish horror film The Cured, and The Rock’s giant gorilla movie Rampage. And Josh Brolin’s other movie Deadpool II is coming our way as is Solo: A Star Wars Story.

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It’s been a few weeks but we’ve got absolutely oodles of new and recent releases to burn through, including the superb Michael Inside and the hit-and-miss Isle of Dogs.

We have since seen A Quiet Place and have quite diverging opinions… for next time!

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*re-uploaded due to dud mp3*

It’s that time of the year again – Awards Season! And what better way to celebrate than to sit down with special guest Eithne Shortall (Sunday Times Chief Arts Writer and best-selling author) ahead of Sunday’s main event – The 90th Academy Awards.

Note, since we recorded this, two critical things have happened…

• Sufjan Stevens has confirmed he will play at the Oscars
• Eithne has seen and loved Ladybird

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We may have had life changes in the last month (babies, house moves), but we still packed a lot of great films in. We’ve also got previews of some of the big titles from the next few weeks, and a few picks from the 2018 Audi Dublin International Film Festival.

We’ll be back in a few weeks with our annual Oscars special – hopefully with a special guest in tow.

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And so for the SIXTH year running, here we are with our annual chat through the best films of the year.

Back in 2012, in our first ever podcast, we anointed The Perks of Being a Wallflower as the year’s stand-out feature, since then we’ve had the brilliant Frances Ha (2013) and the sumptuous The Guest (2014) take top spot. A change in format and splitting up our favourites came in 2015 for Carol and Inherent Vice, and then of course last year saw Everybody Wants Some and Midnight Special share the spoils.

We hope to have our individual write-ups on these lists in some separate posts shortly, but for now don’t forget to follow to check out on the ‘Worst of 2017‘ to see what to avoid…

Páraic’s Top 10

10. Good Time
9. The Eyes of My Mother
8. My Life as a Courgette
7. Lady Macbeth
6. The Death of Stalin
5. The Farthest
4. Paddington 2
3. Loving
2. Manchester by the Sea
1. Maudie

Nigel’s Top 10

10. Paddington 2
9. Lady Macbeth
8. Logan
7. The Salesman
6. Dunkirk
5. Baby Driver
4. Blade Runner 2049
3. Detroit
2. Call Me by Your Name
1. Get Out

BEST OF 2017 | WORST OF 2017 | NIGEL’S TOP 10 | PÁRAIC’S Top 10 | FRIENDS OF SPOOOOL

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Between us we’ve seen about 150 new releases this year, but we’re not claiming to have seen everything that hit screens. So it goes without saying that many of those titles with the atrocious Rotten Tomatoes ratings are not up for discussion here.

What’s also worth noting is the presence of films that were much-anticipated and then were bitterly disappointing. Is there anything worse than going into a new release with high hopes, and then having them dashed?

Anyway listen to the full podcast below for the full breakdown of what let us down in 2017.

Páraic and Nigel’s Worst Films of 2017 (Nigel in Blue, Páraic in Red…)

Hacksaw Ridge
A Ghost Story
Personal Shopper
Neruda
Sing
Mindhorn
Atomic Blonde
Transformers: The Last Knight
Kong: Skull Island
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Baywatch
Deathnote
Rough Night
Girls Trip
Snatched
Geostorm

BEST OF 2017 | WORST OF 2017 | NIGEL’S TOP 10 | PÁRAIC’S TOP 10 | FRIENDS OF SPOOOOL

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It’s been a few weeks since we talked (with microphones present), so an absolute load of films to review. Lots of them we saw together, and lots of them we really liked, so listen in. And yes Páraic did give The Florida Project 2 stars. #Shocker. Anyway the excitement got too much for us and all the excitement led to the audio dropping out for a bit at the five minute mark, so apologies for the 90 seconds where it sounds like we’re recording in a dust-bin. Just skip past it if it bothers you…

We’ll be back next week with the WORST FILMS OF 2017 and of course our favourite pod every December… THE BEST FILMS OF 2017.

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It’s taken us a fortnight but we’ve finally gotten our head around Blade Runner 2049, and its place in modern film history. How does it compare to the 1982 that inspired it? Listen in to find out.

Oh and we do get side-tracked midway through chatting about a certain Mr. Harvey Weinstein.

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This month it’s a rare one as we’ve got four new films and all four are worth your time and money – The Death of Stalin, The Meyerowitz Stories (Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler FTW!), The Party, and Daphne.

Also from the 22:45 mark we break down Dublin’s new kid on the block – The Stella Cinema (whose demise we’ve lamented before) – which will be a snazzy boutique cinema costing you €19 a ticket. We’re excited.

From 25:10 will anyone really care about The Savoy Cinema’s closure of the giant Screen 1? Also what the hell is up with the escalator in Dublin’s Cineworld?

Also previews of Thor: Ragnorak and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

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After our second honeymoon holiday of the year (Nigel this time), we’re back in action with a look at some of the most noteworthy titles in cinemas right now.

SO MANY QUESTIONS!!! Is there going to be a more divisive film in cinemas this year than Darren Aronofsky’s mother! ? Is Wind River racist? Is A Ghost Story shite? Is It scary? Is Detroit going to be in the films of the year list?

All this and more in the 65th Spooool.ie podcast, we’ll be back next time collecting our pensions.

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Sometimes holidays arrive at just the wrong time, in this instance we were scuppered by Nigel’s impending flight to the Azores so we pre-recorded the bulk of the podcast and then roped in Lisa to chat with Páraic through Dunkirk and later Carol gets to blabber on with Nigel about The Big Sick. You could argue they’re more articulate and intelligent contributors than our usual two cronies….

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After our fifth year covering the Galway Film Fleadh we sat down to look back on some of the Irish cinema that was on show at the annual film festival including the excellent Michael Inside and Bad Day for the Cut.

Catch all of our Galway Film Fleadh 2017 coverage

* *

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A special off-shoot podcast from Nigel and Páraic as they look at one of Edgar Wright’s biggest inspirations for his film Baby Driver, the 1978 Los Angeles car chase film The Driver.

It should go without saying that my movie couldn’t even exist without The Driver. If there’s one film that has an influence on its genesis, it would be that…

The film stars Ryan O’Neal as the titular character, with Bruce Dern the crooked police chief doing whatever he can to catch him, and Isabelle Adjani the impressionable love interest. The film’s influence on Drive and Baby Driver is obvious from the outset, but does it hold up as a standalone work? Listen in to find out.

Further reading: https://filmschoolrejects.com/walter-hill-the-driver-an-appreciation/

[ SOUNDCLOUD ]

[youtuber id=”8AykRRmQ41k”]

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Nigel Wheatley and Páraic McGeough cram into the cupboard under the stairs (you might be able to hear the fridge humming) to discuss some of the best films driving onto Irish cinema screens (and Netflix…) with now. And there’s a special preview of the 2017 Galway Film Fleadh with some picks for the festival including Frank Berry’s ‘Michael Inside’ and Aisling Walsh’s ‘Maudie’.

The post Pod #61 – Baby Driver! Okja! Galway Film Fleadh 2017 Preview! appeared first on Spooool.ie.

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Páraic McGeough is with Nigel Wheatley as they pay tribute to one of America’s most loved arthouse directors who is back in everyone’s consciousness with the return of TWIN PEAKS.

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After a bit of a spring break, Páraic McGeough and Nigel Wheatley are back in the Spooool.ie podcast headquarters for a discussion of the summer blockbusters coming our way this summer – and the films that have caught their attention in the last two months.

Next up – a 60th podcast David Lynch spectacular!

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After a five week hiatus we’re back in the saddle with a round-up of some of the March movies which caught our eye starting with the new Ghost in the Shell remake.

Also on the slate – Get Out, Kong: Skull Island, Life, Beauty and the Beast, Personal Shopper, The Salesman and The Eyes of My Mother. And then a chat on what’s coming up in April including I Am Not Your Negro, The Handmaiden, The Fate of the Furious and re-releases of The Conversation and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Jam-packed!

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It’s that time of the year! Award, award, award!

We’re delighted to be joined by Eithne Shortall, chief arts writer for the Sunday Times Ireland, as we take a look at this year’s Oscars race – just how much can La La Land win??

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Our first podcast of the year takes a look at the T2 Trainspotting sequel (nothing to do with Dublin Airport, or Terminator 2) and talks Oscar contenders La La Land, Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight. We’re also previewing the upcoming Audi Dublin International Film Festival, with some picks of notable films playing during the festival which runs from February 16th- 26th.

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What a year it’s been. Lots of dead musicians, more Enda, some Brexiteering and a Trump in the White House. However at the cinema, life seemed to continue as normal. We saw over 160 new films that hit screens this year and have picked out our favourites and chatted about them in the podcast. We will also publish individual lists – Nigel’s Top 10 and Páraic’s Top 10.

Looking for a consensus pick of our joint films of the year? Seems hard to look beyond Paterson, 13th, Mustang and Sing Street.

Thanks as always for listening every month, and reading our increasingly sporadic and middle-aged musings. Friends of Spooool lists will be posted Thursday 22nd.

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A special spoiler-tastic review of the new Star Wars film (if indeed it is a Star Wars film).

Stay tuned for a week of Best of 2016 coverage!

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It’s December so all the “awardsy” films are coming our way with some stellar performances from Adam Driver and Amy Adams currently on our screens.

This month we’re also previewing the new Star Wars film, remembering Arnold’s delightful Jingle All the Way and of course yacking away about some of the best (and worst) films we’ve seen in the last few weeks.

Next time around we’ll be summarising our favourites from 2016 – got a list? Email it to contact@spooool.ie or tweet @spool and we’ll feature it here!

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It’s winter!

Soundcloud and iTunes links available shortly

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We recently travelled on Ireland’s tempestuous River Shannon and decided to watch a Werner Herzog double-bill of his 1982 South American adventure Fitzcarraldo which starred the enigmatic Klaus Kinski and the supporting making-of doc Burden of Dreams from director Les Blank.

nigel on Twitter

@spool is watching BURDEN OF DREAMS while on a boat moored in Leitrim village. #WernerHerzog #Shannon #leitrim #WatchWithSpooool

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It’s a half century of podcasts. Crikey. Anyway we’re carrying with business-as-usual with a look through some of the films that got us talking in the last month!

Mattress Men
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Little Men
Kubo and the Two Strings
The Girl with all the Gifts
The Magnificent Seven

The Girl on the Train
American Honey
I, Daniel Blake

IFI Horrothon 2016
Light House – David Lynch Season

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After a nice bit of a breather in August, we’re back with a bang with in-depth, expert, often patronising, discussion of 15 films!

Reviews
Sausage Party
Don’t Breathe
Julieta
Strange Occurrences in a small Irish village
A Date for Mad Mary
Viva
David Brent
Suicide Squad

Movie Moments of the Month
– Born to be Blue
– Lights Out

September Preview
– Hunt for the Wilderpeople
– Blair Witch

IFI Documentary Festival 2016
– Mattress Men
– Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
– Camerperson

Scene It
– Gene Wilder (The Waco Kid, Willy Wonka)

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In this month’s podcast… reviews of Justin Lin’s entrant into the Star Trek film series as Páraic and Nigel reach a difference of a opinion… Is the 2016 all-female Ghostbusters worthy of all the talk that it’s been getting?… Some thoughts on Nicolas Winding-Refn’s The Neon Demon and a look ahead to the Blake Likely shark film The Shallows…. A few minutes for reviews of Ken Wardrop’s Mom & Me and some other Irish films worth talking about that played the 2016 Galway Film Fleadh… And lastly August previews in the form of Bourne, The Purge: Election Year and Suicide Squad. Phew.

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Amidst the madness of Euro 2016 we dip in to see what’s worth your time at the local multiplex (or independent house of cinema).

Also we wrap the podcast with a few moments to digest the Galway Film Fleadh 2016 lineup.

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In the latest podcast we round up the films that stuck with us from the last few weeks and chat about the new Shane Black film The Nice Guys.

Also It’s June! While the European Championships are on in France to feed the football fans, you can treat yourself to some Shakespeare at the Irish Film Institute.

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We’re wrapping up a month’s worth of big releases with disagreements and consensus aplenty.

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We’re back! This month we wrap up the last few weeks of big releases (Sing Street, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Witch, High-Rise, Zootropolis) and discuss the upcoming titles Mammal, Disorder, Midnight Special and Captain America: Civil War.

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We’re with old adversary Eithne Shortall to preview this weekend’s Oscars with discussion on Ireland’s phenomenal presence there, whether Domhnall Gleeson will get an invitation and whether anyone can stop Leonardo DiCaprio and Brie Larson from taking the top acting prizes.

Are you staying up for the night? Let us know in the comments.

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January was a damn fine month for going to the cinema in Ireland, is it the best we’ve ever seen?

Listen in as we dissect Spotlight, The Big Short, The Hateful Eight, Creed, The Revenant and Room. 

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And like big old sheep, we talk about the film that everyone else is talking about. Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Read the accompanying posts from the last 7 days below…

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Páraic, Nigel and special guest Lisa Madden look back on the biggest film trilogy of all time. Lisa had never seen a minute of the Star Wars films and her reaction isn’t too promising…

Listen to our thoughts on Episodes I-III here, and we’ll see you next week for all of our end of year excitement!

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This month Nigel and Páraic brave the glum winter weather to talk the magnificent return from Todd Haynes – Carol. Also on the agenda Steven Spielberg’s latest collaboration with Tom Hanks about the negotiator lawman James B. Donovan in Bridge of Spies, Scott Cooper’s Black Mass and Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs.

And lastly a quick look at what The Light House Cinema and the IFI have in store for you this Christmas season.

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With Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the horizon, we thought it would make sense to go back and re-assess the original six Star Wars films, we opted to start with the prequels and recorded a podcast with special guest Carol Mulligan on hand.

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Nigel’s rating – ★★½

Released: 16 July 1999 (Ireland), US release May 19, 1999

Awards: 2000 MTV Movie Awards’ Best Action Sequence (For the pod race), Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor (Ahmed Best – Jar Jar Binks), Three Oscar nominations – (Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects)

Fun Fact: “For the first time in motion picture history, a widely released feature film will be made available to moviegoers via digital projection. (June 1999)”

With Episode I – The Phantom Menace, George Lucas opted not to please the fans who had stayed united as nerds, defending his world of creatures for over twenty years, but instead decided that the best way to serve the Star Wars brand was to create a film that was more suited to that most impressionable audience – children.

Re-watching the film now a good decade after I last saw it, you’re struck by just how dull the politics and characters that Lucas is trying to sell us are. Years ago I was able to just ignore them (as any teenage boy can do), but now they really threaten to take away any sense of fun from the film. Rather than spend more time on the glory days of the Jedi as “guardians of the galaxy”, we spend ages hearing about the intricacies of new taxations on trade routes to outlying star systems. Zzzzz.

Most of the (very talented) actors like Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman are stifled by the green-screen work and seem like they’re acting in an abstract theatre production, rather than in scenes of actual dialogue exchange between people. Lucas is not a good director of actors and his rustiness (having not done any directing in over two decades) is very obvious here.

What does hold up is Lucas’ work with Palpatine/Sidious and his current apprentice Darth Maul. He is a strong, mysterious villain and should have been given more to do other than the (still stunning) final lightsaber duel. Likewise, even after all these years, watching the pod-race in 1080p with surround sound will knock your socks off. Spending time with a care-free Anakin on Tatooine is also kind of fun now, though maybe it’s just the novelty of seeing real-world sets and locations though

So how do you go back and consider one of the most disappointing films in the history of motion pictures? Ultimately it has now taken on a kitschy, car-crash level of enjoyment and, taken on its own merits as a kid’s film, it’s really perfectly watchable.  Lucas can also rest easy as the film’s place in film history is assured for two distinct reasons – i) truly ground-breaking, pioneering use of digital cinematography, effects and projection, and ii) being evidence that hype does you much more harm than good if the final product sucks.

(nigel)

Further Reading: [Theory] Jar Jar Binks was a trained Force user, knowing Sith collaborator, and will play a central role in The Force Awakens

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)

Nigel’s rating – ★★

Released: 16th May 2002 (Ireland & Worldwide)

Awards: Razzie wins for Worst Supporting Actor (Hayden Christensen) and Worst Screenplay (George Lucas & Jonathan Hales)

Fun Fact: “The Senate votes to give the Supreme Chancellor sweeping emergency powers to go to war against the Separatist forces. This is the same ploy Adolf Hitler used to gain similar dictatorial power in mid-1930s Germany.” LOL. (IMDB)

Returning to a film that came out at the height of my teenage film fandom and era of DVD binging was both amusing and disappointing. Who would have thought that the fledgling romance between Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker would now appear this corny and ridiculous? The grand gestures and creepy obsession from little Annie were easy to overlook as teenage boy but now the whole relationship feels incredulous and underdeveloped, making any enjoyment of everything else going on quite tough. To be fair, this isn’t the fault of Natalie Portman who actually has quite a meaty, active role here (before being effectively neutered by the plot in Ep III), but instead is because of the lethal combination of Lucas dialogue with Hayden Christensen’s truly terrible performance. He really is as frustrating as you remember.

Away from that, this is where the character of Yoda really starts to reveal himself as the MVP of the prequels, with a beautiful CGI rendering (the puppet originally shown in The Phantom Menace has since been updated to CGI in re-releases of the film) and Frank Oz’s voice work a stand-out. The third act fight with Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku was exhilarating in cinemas and still holds up. But strip away the very solid final half hour and you’re left with a film that’s got more in common with a late 1990s playstation cut scene.

At least the film manages to feature “more Jedi” and “less Jar Jar”, so you sense that Lucas was at least listening to the fans a little.

(nigel)

Further Reading: Defense of the Clones: Lucas’s Latest: Cheap Thrills or Sophisticated Filmmaking? (Bright Lights Film Journal, November 2002)

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Páraic rating… ★★★

Released: 19 May 2005 (Ireland)

Awards: Won Empire Awards 2006 Scene of The Year for The Birth of Vader

Fun Fact: C-3PO has the last words in this movie and the first words in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.

Yay the semi good one of the prequels. So if you’ve seen the films you know the story and if you’ve listened to our podcast then you definitely know the story so here are 5 cool and 5 daft things about The Revenge of The Sith as I always like to have balance even when the force is in turmoil. (Páraic)

The Good Side

1) Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Beard

2) Samuel L. Jackson Dies

3) We get to stop seeing Hayden Christensen’s terrible acting at the end.

4) Chewbacca

5) This

The Dark Side

1) Ian McDiarmid’s really bad make up as Darth Sidious

2) Jar Jar Binks is still alive

3) Hayden Christensen’s pouting

4) Yoda riding Chewbacca like a pony. Fuck off Yoda you can walk.

5) This

Further Reading: The novel if you’re that sad

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Want to get the story without spending 7 and a half hours of your life watching all three films?

THE PHANTOM EDIT (the prequels distilled into one 2:05 film)

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Publishing a little earlier this month to discuss one of the year’s most eagerly-anticipated releases – Sam Mendes’ Spectre. Also on the cards the adaptation of the Colm Tóibín novel “Brooklyn”, Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, Macbeth and The Martian. We also preview November’s big releases with Steve Jobs, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, Carol, Bridge of Spies Black Mass.

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This month we looked back on the early career of the legendary horror director Wes Craven by reviewing his first two films.

Here’s Páraic’s piece on The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Here’s Nigel’s piece on The Last House On The Left (1972)

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We’re back with a look back at some of the best films we saw over the last few weeks including the new Irish documentary Older Than Ireland, Everest, Me Earl and the Dying Girl, Miss You Already, The Visit and 45 Years. And then we also sit back and chat October with incoming titles The Martian, The Lobster, Macbeth and Spectre.

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Welcome to our first mid-month podcast where we continue our “Watch With Spooool” series by looking at two films that are nicely “Back to School” / “End of Summer” themed – the 1984 supposed college classic Revenge of the Nerds and 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer which has returned to screens in the form of a revival series on Netflix.

We’re absolutely delighted to have the wonderful Zoë Saunders. as a special guest. She is a real-life American and was an expert witness at dissecting these American movies!

We’ll have full written reviews/analysis in the coming days.

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We review Mistress America, Trainwreck, Paper Towns, Hard to be a God and The Man from UNCLE. And then we delve into the upcoming month of September and discuss Ricki and the Flash, Legend, Irrational Man and Life.

We’ll be back in two weeks with the first of our new mid-month “Watch With Spooool” podcasts where we talk old films. This time it’s Revenge of the Nerds and Wet Hot American Summer.

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NW note:Suicide originally wrote “Dream Baby Dream”, not Bruce Springsteen. The Boss simply covers the tune.

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This month we’re digging in to the latest Pixar film Inside Out and Ireland’s Oscar nominated animated effort Song of the Sea. Also up for discussion is Ant-Man, Amy, Love & Mercy and Magic Mike XXL.

We look back on the 2015 Galway Film Fleadh and discuss female directorial efforts Ratcatcher (1999) and 35 Shots of Rum (2008) – more on them next week.

NW note: Andrea Arnold is not Scottish, she is English! Apologies

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Oh Arnie, you’ve disappointed us!

Aswell as Terminator Genisys, also on the slate for discussion this month are Jurassic World, Let us Prey, The Look of Silence, She’s Funny That Way and Slow West.

Watch With Spooool sees us dissecting two famous “final films”, Giant (James Dean) and The Misfits (Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe), we spend a few minutes previewing the 2015 Galway Film Fleadh, we preview July’s big animation releases and then wrap things up chatting about Jaws (which is 40 this years and is our ultimate summer film).

Don’t forget to give us a rating in iTunes if you’re listening that way.

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Lots of chat this month about the dystopian world of Mad Max from 1979 through to 2015.

Also reviews of San Andreas, Tomorrowland and Unfriended, and a look ahead to June releases Mr. Holmes, Slow West and Jurassic World.

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With blockbuster season now kicked off we go spoiler-heavy and look at Avengers: Age of Ultron and Furious 7. And reviews for John Wick, Glassland, Force Majeure and A Little Chaos and a special look at our podcast poster-boy Kurt in Cobain: Montage of Heck.

Watch With Spooool returns as we discuss the Todd Haynes classic Safe (1995) and the Oscar-nominated action film Runaway Train (1985). Finally a look ahead to May with talk of San Andreas and Mad Max.

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SO MANY FILMZZZ.

It’s nearly all JDIFF this month as we tackle a whole load of films we saw, don’t forget to check out the full slate of reviews over here though.

We also discuss the IFI’s Critical Take (Páraic speaks tonight – Tuesday 31st) and their Reading Pictures Course.

We’re also bringing back Watch With Spooool for the spring with two films – Runaway Train (1985) and Safe (1995), both celebrating anniversaries this year.

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It’s a very special Oscar edition of the Spooool.ie podcast with a very special guest, Miss Eithne Shortall.

Our latest pod is all about the Academy Awards which take place this Sunday night at 1am Irish time (5pm local time in Hollywood). We talk a little about the leading categories but also a look back on years gone by and share some of our favourite clips.

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No January blues here, as we go review crazy and give our two cents on Selma, American Sniper, Kingsman: The Secret Service, EX_MACHINA, A Most Violent Year, Birdman, Wild, Foxcatcher, The Theory of Everything and Enemy.

Big Oscars special coming on February 20th! Send us your predictions and wishes to contact@spooool.ie or @spoooolers

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 See All Our Best of 2014 Coverage

Separate Top 10s and a combined Top 5? That’s cheating you cry! It may be, but we did it in 2013 and 2012, so there. We like to celebrate the individual here at Spooool.ie and then bring our collective minds together to get those collaborative juices flowing. As old grandma Spooool used to SAY, there ain’t nothing like a collaboration to keep you warm at night. Grandma Spooool had many friends.

So following lengthy debate and argument… Behold! It is as if Moses has once again descended Mount Sinai to bring forth the laws of God only these probably won’t wreck people’s buzz as much. The Spooool.ie Best Films of 2014 are below.

Don’t forget to listen to our 25th podcast for our take on a great year at the movies. It’s available at the top of the post or on iTunes or Soundcloud.

See Páraic’s Top 10 | See Nigel’s Top 10 | All Best of 2014

The Guest

Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett the men behind You’re Next returned with another genre specific film that ticks all the boxes. It’s an informed, action packed, funny and thrilling horror throwback to the eighties. Unfairly compared to Drive when really all they have in common is some pop synth numbers, Dan Stevens is the perfect mix of charming gentleman and flat out sociopath. With nods to Terminator and Halloween, The Guest will no doubt become a cult classic destined for midnight screenings and repeat viewings. (REVIEW)

Wolf of Wall Street

The story of one Jordan Belfort is brought to life in all its hedonistic wonder. He will either become your new role model or the embodiment of all that is wrong and corrupt with western civilisation. The fact that Martin Scorcese leaves it up to you makes it stand out as one of the most entertaining and funny films of the year. (REVIEW)

Ida

It is never easy to hold a mirror up to your own country and tackle past misdeeds. This is what director Pawel Pawlikowski attempts and succeeds at doing in his stunningly rich and evocative film set in 1960s Poland. With each individual scene seeming almost like a still photograph and shot in 1.33:1 it makes for one of the most visually striking films of the year. (REVIEW)

Obvious Child

The film that takes the romantic comedy back for adults, making the genre not just the pursuit of teens. The first of two female directors to make our list Gillian Robespierre finds warmth and laughter in one of the most hotly debated and controversial of subjects: abortion. Obvious Child stands out due to the amazing performance of Jenny Slate meaning the film will stand the test of time and deserves to sit shouldder to shoulder with the greats of the genre. (REVIEW)

The Babadook

A divisive film among horror fans. The trailer sold it as just another jumpy, loud scare athon when in fact audiences got a glimpse into the mind of a mother who is struggling to cope with being a single mother. These anxieties are manifested in the form of a Babadook. Jennifer Kent’s starkly contrasting worlds ratchet up the tension leaving you unsure just quite what you’ve witnessed. (REVIEW)

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With Thanksgiving in the United States, JJ Abrams treated us to the Star Wars trailer. What did we make of it? Listen in to find out!

We also learn about…

• “The classic foreign film trailer”
• The problem with Chevy Chase
• The magic of Gene Hackman
• Bill Hader’s gay man acting ability
• Paddington gets reviewed. Thumbs up.
• The French Connection II and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation are on the Watch With Spooool slate
• And we look ahead to December’s new releases – The Hobbit, Black Sea and Unbroken

Our end of year lists will be online from December 15-19th so send us on your lists and we can feature and critique them – contact@spooool.ie or @spoooolers on Twitter.

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It’s Hallowe’en but we’re dispensing with horror and opting for some time with Hollywood heavy-weights with reviews for Fury (Brad Pitt), Interstellar (Matthew McConaughey) and Nightcrawler (Jake Gyllenhaal). Aside from those People magazine-friendly faces, we’re also looking at The Babadook, ’71 and Gone Girl.

Wondering about what’s coming our way in November? We preview The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Imitation Game.

As part of our Watch With Spooool series we also tackled two early Stanley Kubrick films, The Killing and Paths of Glory. And also Scene It features this classic from 2001: A Space Odyssey which is re-released in selected cinemas on November 28th.

We’ll have more info on our sequel Watch with Spooool in the coming days.

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To mark the IFI’s Stranger Than Fiction documentary festival, our latest Spooool.ie podcast saw us looking at two classic documentaries, Hoop Dreams which is celebrating its 20th anniversary next month, and Errol Morris’ seminal work The Thin Blue Line. There’ll be details of our next Watch With Spooool.ie here on the site later.

We also go crazy with new reviews tackling The Equalizer, I Origins, Maps to the Stars, The Riot Club, Ida, Wish I Was Here, Pride and The Guest.

And as always we look ahead to October and pick out some of the notable films coming our way.

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It’s September and a nation of boys and girls are heading back to school. To celebrate we had another Watch With Spoool viewing for the 1968 British boarding school drama If…. and Michelle Pfeiffer-starring Dangerous Minds from 1995. We stick with the education theme and honour Robin Williams with our Scene It selection for the month which comes from Dead Poets Society.

We’re also reviewing Obvious Child, Million Dollar Arm, Lucy, Two Days One Night and Mood Indigo and previewing some of the best picks for September. Lastly we preview the 2014 IFI Stranger Than Fiction festival with thoughts on the Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself.

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It’s the summer time! What better way to celebrate than to a tackle your nearest fire hydrant with a crowbar and cool off with the latest Spooool.ie podcast on your (hopefully waterproof) headphones.

This month we’re celebrating the looking at two films considered modern classics as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing are on the slate in the latest Watch With Spooool.

We’re also reviewing Guardians of the Galaxy, Boyhood, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Joe as well as peering ahead to the muggy skyline of August as The Inbetweeners 2 and Lucy approach.

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Our June/July podcast comes slap bang in the middle of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but we’re doing our best to pretend it isn’t happening with our reactions to Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Cold in July, The Fault in Our Stars, 22 Jump Street and A Million Ways to Die in the West.

At the 26 minute mark we’re also dipping into the 2014 Galway Film Fleadh programme to see what treats lie in store out west, including Patrick’s Day, Get Up and Go, Glassland, Begin Again and the afternoon with Brenda Fricker. It’s all going to be soundtracked by the Saw Doctors obviously.

We’re then looking at the slate of films coming our way in July like Joe and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and we break our own rule by wrapping up with a very special trip back in time to Italia ’90 with Roddy Doyle….

Don’t forget to get in touch on twitter @spoooolers, subscribe on iTunes here and follow on Soundcloud here.

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This month we’re going all low brow and ordering a kilogram of buttered popcorn and a tankard of Coca-Cola to do our now annual summer blockbuster discussion. Up for discussion are reviews and reaction to X-Men: Days of Future Past, Edge of Tomorrow and Godzilla and a look ahead to Transformers: Age of Extinction, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Guardians of the Galaxy. We also briefly put the blockbusters to one side to highlight two great films from May – A Touch of Sin and Blue Ruin. 

With Tom Cruise in cinemas with Edge of Tomorrow we’re also travelling back in time to consider some of the big blockbusters that pulled us into our local multiplex ten years ago including his film Collateral, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Spider-Man 2, The Village, DodgeBall, AnchorMan, The Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11. The full “Scene It” segment from Collateral is embedded below.

And lastly, as always, we look ahead to the next 30 days to see the delights in store for us, which this month include 22 Jump Street, Fruitvale Station and Mrs. Brown’s Boys. 

Don’t forget to get in touch on twitter @spoooolers, subscribe on iTunes here and follow on Soundcloud here.

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The May podcast takes a special look at Irish movies in 2014 as we try to work out whether we’re living in some sort of golden age or if it’s just coincidence that there are so many popular home-grown titles at the moment. Up for discussion are (deep breath)… Frank, Calvary, Run & Jump, The Stag, Living in a Coded Land, The Sea, Last Days on Mars, Patrick’s Day, Out of Here and Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie. Following on from this we relay some of the talking points of the IFI’s Spotlight event which was held a few weeks ago to try and get a sense of the current state of Ireland’s film and TV industry.

And as usual there’s a whole tonne of reviews and previews to behold as we also look back on The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Noah, Tracks, Locke and Transcendence and look ahead to X-Men: Days of Future Past and Postman Pat.

And finally we pay tribute to Adam & Paul on its 10th anniversary with our closing “Scene It” scene.

Don’t forget to get in touch on twitter @spoooolers, subscribe on iTunes here and follow on Soundcloud here.

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The March/April podcast…

• We tackle Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and we go back into the archives to watch the David Bowie’starring cult classic The Man Who Fell to Earth, featuring the thin white duke’s mickey
• March movie reviews of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Muppets Most Wanted, The Double, Starred Up and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
• April movie previews of Noah and The Raid II: Berandal
• Preview of a few upcoming Sci-Fi films that are due our way this year
• A nod to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey in this month’s Scene It classic scene

Get in touch on twitter @spoooolers. Subscribe on iTunes here.

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In the latest Spooool.ie podcast, Nigel and Páraic are on the couch to talk about…

• The 2014 Oscars! Hollywood’s big night is this Sunday and we run through EVERY SINGLE FEATURE NOMINEE, share awesome trivia, recollect some Oscar memories from the past and make our final picks for the big categories.
• Highlights from the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival including Under the Skin, The Past, Circles and Only Lovers Left Alive. 
• February movie moments from The LEGO Movie and Robocop.
• March picks like The Zero Theorem and Starred Up.
• And finally a “Scene it” moment from a Danny Boyle classic which puts Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity to shame.

Please let us know what you think on twitter @spoooolers. Subscribe on iTunes here.

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The first podcast of 2014 and number 14 in our series features…

• A preview of the forthcoming Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, including Calvary (pictured above), Stag, The Double, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Gold
• A yack about the big Oscar contenders that came at us week after week this January – American Hustle, 12 Years a Slave, The Wolf of Wall Street and Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nigel reviews Peter Berg and Taylor Kitsch’s follow-up to Battleship – Lone Surivor
• Páraic’s practice paid off as he has no problems pronouncing Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o’s names
• We answer the question of what Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese have in common
• And we share our Oscar predictions. Loser has to write all the reviews for the next six months
  

Please let us know what you think of the pod and our oscar predictions on twitter, @spoooolers. Subscribe on iTunes here.

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The real reason we decided to do a Spooool top five last year and have our own separate lists was because there was no way Argo would be coming top of Páraic’s poll nor The Master at the top of Nigel’s list. Also we wanted to create a list that would show what best represents what we, as a website run by two people, like and look for in a film.

This year there was very little argument about what we would include, perhaps only their ordering. So read on and see this year’s list of Spooool.ie’s best films from 2013. A black and white indie, a gritty English drama, a heartwarming biopic, a coming of age teen movie and a foreign language love story.

Running through all these films in an intense emotional core, people trying to figure out their place in this world and what direction their lives should be taking. Late twenties anybody?

Thanks to all our guest reviewers, writers, contributors and friends of the site which make Spooool.ie the best wee film website punching above its weight. See you in 2014.

[quick Best Of 2013 links: Nigel’s Top 10, Páraic’s Top 10, Top 2013 Docs, 2013 in Irish cinema, Friends of Spooool lists, and Guest essay from David Turpin essay on 2013’s lurid cinema]

#5 – Blue is the Warmest Colour

While the story concerns a relationship between two women its themes and motifs have been seen many times before; passion, obsession, jealousy, infidelity, rage, insecurity, power, longing and loss. It is in the performances that the film sits shoulder to shoulder with the greats.

Exarchopoulos and Seydoux transform what could have been a tiresome melodrama into an emotionally draining experience which you will be unable to forgot for some time to come.

Original review

#4 – The Way Way Back

The centre of the film is the relationship between Duncan and Owen. Owen is the father or big brother Duncan needs in his life, his humour, care-free attitude and always knowing the right thing to say makes him the ultimate role model for any teenage boy…

For Duncan the real love interest is his Mum, he is trying to make her see how much better off she would be casting off her loser boyfriend and coming back to him.

Original review

#3 – Good Vibrations

The directing team of Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glen Layburn have produced a masterpiece about one of Belfast’s maddest characters, Terri Hooley, during its maddest time, the troubles.

Good Vibrations is an exhilarating experience that leaves you warm on the inside, humming some of the best songs ever penned and giving you ideas about changing the world.

Original review

#2 – The Selfish Giant

The true tragedy of a film like this is the frustration at viewing the circle of poverty. You just know that Arbor and Swifty are born into horrible lives where their welfare is way down the list of priorities for their parents…

The film doesn’t judge or chastise and instead just leaves you wishing these kids could be given a better start in life and paid a little bit more attention by those around them.

Original review

#1 – Frances Ha

A funny, touching and honest examination of love between female friends and how one woman tries to find her way in life…

Frances is a fantastic role model, she keeps getting dealt shitty hands but manages to dust herself off and get back in the game.

Original review

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The penultimate Spooool.ie podcast sees us looking back at November’s most notable releases including Blue is the Warmest Colour, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Parkland, The Butler, Drinking Buddies, The Counsellor and The Broken Circle Breakdown. We’ve also got info on the Christmas film screenings in and around Dublin this December (Jimmy Stewart gets a look in) and preview a few of the regular releases coming our way over the next few weeks. We’ve also got…

• Music from Lykke Li and The National (kinda)
• Toy Show 2013 references – we only recorded it this morning. How topical we are.
• Hunger Games Peeta jokes
• Some terrific insight on Magneto’s assassination of JFK
• Reminiscing about not going to the Oasis nightclub in Carrickmacross at the turn of the millennium
• A shout-out for Eoin Duffy’s Missing Scarf short which has been longlisted for an Oscar for Best Animation Short. Read our interview with him from last summer here.

May we also recommend our brand new feature “Best & Worst” as the perfect reading partner for this podcast? It runs through all the films we saw in the month and ranks them. It also has a nice accompanying image. Click here to view it.

And finally we’ll be publishing a special end of year podcast in the middle of December where we’ll be looking back at the year’s big titles. We want your top five films from 2013 and all submissions will be entered into a draw for a Spooool.ie mug! Email contact@spooool.ie or use the form below.

[contact-form]

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A few weeks ago we shared our first Watch With Spooool feature which saw us tackling three horror classics – Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Haunting (1963) and Suspiria (1977). In this latest edition of the podcast we spent twenty minutes yacking about them and listening to their creepy scores.

Also up for discussion this month is the Tom Hanks and Paul Greengrass collaberation Captain Phillips and Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd’s understated 1980s Texas roadmen film Prince Avalanche. There’s even a few minutes to look back on the Metallica IMAX film, The Irish Pub and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. In our November preview, our picks are Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies and Ridley Scott’s Fassbender/Bardem/Pitt/Cruz/Diaz film The Counselor.

And finally we wrap things up with a scene from a true horror classic from Stanley Kubrick. Danny? DANNY?!

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It’s a bit of a double celebration alert in Spooool.ie Towers as we’re ten episodes in and have reached double figures AND we have just received news of our nomination for Best Podcast in the 2013 Irish Blog Awards.

In this month’s podcast we’re previewing all the big winter films which are now playing festivals and likely to shape the awards conversation in the coming months, including Mr. Clooney in Gravity, Mr. Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave and Mr. Hanks in Captain Philips.

We also look back on our movie highlights from September, review a few duds that have inexplicably found their way to Irish cinema screens and preview some pretty exciting stuff that is due to come our way in October. We close the show by celebrating Blue Jasmine‘s release with a very special Woody Allen clip.

Next month we’ll be celebrating Halloween by looking back on the seminal horror films in our films education and discussing the current state of the genre. Email contact@spooool.ie or use the form below to share your own horror favourites.

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We kick things off this month with a BACK TO SCHOOL special discussing our favourite teachers from the movies.

In part two we look back on the month that just was with discussion of The Way Way Back, Elysium, The Conjuring, What Maisie Knew, Only God Forgives, Upstream Colour, The Heat and *shock horror* some unanimous love and respect for The Lone Ranger.

In part three we read out some of our listeners’ Jurassic Park memories and give away a Spooool.ie mug to one lucky winner, we preview Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (September 6th) and Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (September 27th) and we wrap up with a look back at a scene from The Wicker Man (1973).

Don’t forget we’re on iTunes here and Soundcloud here.

If you’ve got a minute we’d appreciate your feedback or comments on podcast #9…

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Shush! I’m listening to Podcast #8!

We figured what better time than now to hop in a time machine and see what films were rocking our world exactly a decade ago. X2, The Hulk, Tomb Raider and the original Pirates of the Caribbean are some of the titles picked apart in the first part of the podcast.

In part two we look back on the month that just was with discussion of Frances Ha, The World’s End, Pacific Rim, The Wolverine, The Act of Killing and Life’s a Breeze.

Then finally in part three we chat about Spike Lee’s kickstarter and preview August with a focus on Upstream Color and Alan Partridge’s return to the big screen in Alpha Papa.

** FREE MUG ALERT **
We’re also giving away a free mug in the first Spooool.ie competition. To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is fill out the form below or email contact@spooool.ie with your memories of seeing Jurassic Park. We’ll feature some of the entries next month as we celebrate its 20th anniversary by looking back at it and some other films from 1993
** END FREE MUG ALERT **

[contact-form]

Don’t forget we’re on iTunes here and Soundcloud here.

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We’ve reached the halfway point in the year so are doing a quick look back at the best and worst of the year so far, will many of the films still be around by the time of the end of the year lists? We also reveal the big films we’re looking forward to during the year.

We take a few minutes to chat about June’s notable films including World War Z, Man of Steel, Citadel, This is the End, The East, Byzantium and The Purge.

And lastly a look ahead to what delights lie in store in July including Frances Ha, The World’s End, A Field in England and The Bling Ring.

Don’t forget we’re on iTunes here and Soundcloud here.

The Cornetto trilogy reaches its conclusion this month with The World’s End…

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It’s the height of summer and what better way to celebrate than with us yapping away in your ears while you’re at the beach. We’ve finally sorted out our iTunes act, so you can find us there by searching for spooool or clicking here.

In this latest end-of-month podcast we chat about Fast & Furious 6, Mud, Simon Killer, Star Trek, The Great Gatsby and My Neighbour Totoro. We also chat about the 70mm season at the IFI and preview the upcoming films The Iceman and Before Midnight.

Páraic is a bit poorly following his trip to Barcelona with Producer Colin but he still gets through the 35 minutes. There’s a bit of a Michael Shannon theme running throughout with him featuring in three May/June films. Good Man Mikey.

Lastly, don’t forget to check out our June What’s Worth Watching and Five Things We Learned This Week – both posted today.

Michael Shannon in The Iceman

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Last day of the month, so as always we say… have a podcast!

In part one we review three big American movies (Iron Man 3, Olympus Has Fallen and Evil Dead), part two sees us taking a special look at the current state of Irish cinema with a particular focus on Mark O’Connor’s King of the Travellers. And we wrap things up with a look ahead to Jeff Nichols’ Mud and Pedro Almodovar‘s I’m So Excited!.

As always feel free to add your comments/suggestions here on the page or on the soundcloud player and thanks to producer Colin recording for the first time from Spooool.ie’s new Dublin 7 headquarters.

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It’s the end of the month, must be Spooool.ie podcast time!

In part 1 we look at some of the films from the month of March that left an impression including Trance, Good Vibrations and Compliance. In part 2 (starting at the 15 minute mark) we take a few moments to consider two classics – Vertigo and Life of Brian, one of which is very relevant to this weekend. And finally part 3 (from 25:00) has us peering ahead toward the coming month to talk about The Place Beyond the Pines and Evil Dead.

Feel free to add your comments/suggestions here on the page or on the soundcloud player.

This is the final podcast recorded from Spooool towers in Smithfield, so thanks to producer Colin for having us and sharing his magical new theme music with us. We’ll have a new home next month and will actually try to sort out the iTunes and podcasting options then too. Promise!

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We also look back on February’s best films (Free Chile! Keanu!) and the worst (John McClane and Judd Apatow should take cover) and suss out what’s going to make an impact in March (it may well feature THE ROCK).

You can find reviews for all the films we discussed here or with the search bar in the right-hand column. Let us know your own Oscar predictions in the comments below or on twitter/facebook and don’t forget to check Spooool.ie later in the week for our 2nd annual Spooools where we’ll be rewarding such illustrious prizes as “Best Facial Hair” and “Best Song and/or Dance number.”

And I know we said it last month, but we will be adding proper iTunes listings and traditional podcast feed options as soon as possible. For now, hopefully the option to stream and download with soundcloud is adequate.

Seth MacFarlane hosts the 84th Oscars this Sunday night. Red Carpet coverage starts at 11.30pm, while the ceremony starts at 1.30am and is exclusive to Sky Movies HD.

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This time around we’re looking back on the main films to be released in the past month, previewing JDIFF and peering into our crystal ball to see what catches our eye from the month ahead! Use the player above or click here for a direct link to stream/download.

We’ve commented on the soundcloud clip to show chapter points so if you’re in the mood for skipping… the January review runs from 1.00 until 23.40, JDIFF from there until 26.50 when we move on to the documentary Side by Side and then the February preview goes from 28.10 until the end.

Don’t forget you can find all of the January films we discussed reviewed right here or by using the search bar in the right-hand column. We’ll be back with a special pre-Oscars podcast on February 22nd, hopefully by then we’ll have sorted out some more aggregation options in case Soundcloud aint your bag!

Kudos to Colin Boylan for engineering and studio space.

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