Now Playing: The Avengers Movie Retrospective Series

It's Christmas in Kinston Falls, but unless Billy and Gizamo can stop the GREMLINS it may be more bloody than merry! This holiday season, join Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob as they watch and review both Gremlins films! Listen to the first one now, then join us at nowplayingpodcast.com on New Year's Eve for part 2!

Now Playing has never before opened the vault for a previous limited-run donation retrospective series, but with the release of the new Child's Play film -- Curse of Chucky -- listeners demanded it. Join Arnie, Stuart, and Brock in this preview of all six reviews in our Child's Play Retrospective Series and find out how you can hear the entire podcasts!

Stanley Kubrick is one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Stephen King is one of the world's greast horror writers. Join us at nowplayingpodcast.com to hear if these are two great tastes that taste great together, and also look at King's own 1997 TV Miniseries adaptation!

Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob continue their look back at all adaptations of Stephen King's movies with 'Salem's Lot--King's novel about vampires in small town Maine. With three adaptations, do any of them still have fangs? Head to NowPlayingPodcast.com to find out and hear the entire series!

It will be 2015 before the Avengers assemble on the big screen again, but Disney and Marvel will fill that time with films focusing on individual Avengers and their disassembled heroics. Earlier this year we had Iron Man 3, and now Disney hopes to catch lightning in a bottle again with the help of a thunder god in Thor: The Dark World. The mighty Avenger must once again fighting an ancient enemy of Asgard, continue arguing with Odin over how best to rule the kingdom, and all the while try to romance his human love interest Jane Foster. Are the Now Playing hosts excited for Thor's return, or just glad to have Loki back on screen? Listen to our review to find out!

It will be 2015 before the Avengers assemble on the big screen again, but Disney and Marvel will fill that time with films focusing on individual Avengers and their disassembled heroics. Earlier this year we had Iron Man 3, and now Disney hopes to catch lightning in a bottle again with the help of a thunder god in Thor: The Dark World. The mighty Avenger must once again fighting an ancient enemy of Asgard, continue arguing with Odin over how best to rule the kingdom, and all the while try to romance his human love interest Jane Foster. Are the Now Playing hosts excited for Thor's return, or just glad to have Loki back on screen? Listen to our review to find out!

Psycho IV in 1990 ended the arc of Norman Bates that began with Hitchcock's original Psycho film, but no good horror villain every stays truly dead. When horror films had a resurgence in the late 1990s Universal again wanted fans to return to the Bates Motel with a remake of Psycho. Directed by Gus Van Sant, with future Frat Pack star Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates, Anne Heche as Marion Crane, and William H. Macy as PI Arbogast, plus Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, and Rita Wilson, the film had some of Hollywood's hottest names. But it was poorly received and where Van Sant was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997, he got a Razzie nomination in 1998 for Psycho. Is this film a misunderstood but entertaining retelling of the original story, or should this film be allowed to run down the drain with Marion's blood? If you donate to support Now Playing by October 31, 2013 you can listen and find out!

A boy's best friend is his mother. Who else can a boy dote on, and make her tea with that touch of vanilla she likes so much? Who else can engage in tickle fights and caress and dab with orange flower water? Who else will make the boy wear a dress and wig as punishment? You mean that isn't the relationship you have with your mother? Well it is the relationship explained between Norman Bates and his mother in Psycho IV: The Beginning. Both a sequel and a prequel to the original Psycho trilogy, this film features Norman Bates in his final portrayal of the famous film serial killer, and it's this week's Now Playing Gold Level Donation review! If you donate to support Now Playing you can listen to Stuart, Brock, and Arnie's review!​

​After Psycho III's poor box office performance it seemed Norman was being sent away for good. Until July of 1987 when Bates Motel, a made-for-TV movie, aired on NBC. Intended to launch a prime-time series, Bates Motel jettisons the continuity of the two theatrical Psycho sequels, telling the story of Alex West--a boy who befriended Norman in the mental institution. When Norman dies he leaves Alex his namesake motel...but then must face the possibility the hotel haunted--by Mother, or some other supernatural force. Is this a lost classic, or a properly overlooked film? And how does NBC's Bates Motel compare to A&E's current drama series? Become a Now Playing Gold Level donor to find out!​

Stephen King's Carrie is being remade in a new movie starring Chloë Grace Moretz. To prepare we're going back and rewatching all previous Carrie films as part of a massive Stephen King movie retrospective series, reviewing every adaptation of a King work! Join us at nowplayingpodcast.com to hear all the reviews!

Gone With the Wind. Casablanca. Psycho. These are undisputed classics of cinema. Yet each have had sequels attempted. Of those, though, only Psycho had a follow-up film released in theaters. Picking up 22 years after the original, Norman Bates is now out of the mental hospital and back at the Bates Motel. But is he alone, or is Mother still with him? Arnie, Stuart, and Brock reveal the answers, and discuss the sensibility of trying to recapture the magic of Hitchcock's Psycho in this bonus donation-drive podcast. If you make a Gold Level donation to Now Playing before Oct 31 you can hear that conversation!

Bates Motel. Norman. Mother. The shower scene. The screeching score. You see it, you hear it, and you instantly know it's Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The iconography of Hitchcock's masterpiece is steeped in our culture, and despite a career of over 50 years it is this little black and white film, made with a crew borrowed from Hitchcock's TV series, that is most remembered and revered. Now the hosts of Now Playing watch and review this cinema classic. How well does the film hold up over 50 years after it was released? Is it still relevant to today's horror films? If you donate now to support Now Playing you can listen and find out!

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 is the number one movie in America! Now join the hosts of Now Playing as they watch and review both Insidious films in this movie retrospective series!

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost came to fame under the direction of Edgar Wright. With the movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz as well as the television show Spaced. But to have a true spacey sci-fi adventure Frost and Pegg wrote their own script about two road-tripping Brits who encounter a pot-smoking foul mouthed atheist alien--Paul. Does this film, helmed by Superbad director Greg Mottola, match up to Wright's Blood and Ice Cream films? If you donate to support Now Playing you can listen and find out!

Almost ten years after Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost first collaborated on the big screen their Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy comes to an End--The World's End. Is this film the End all be all? If you donate to Now Playing you can listen and find out!