203. Ballerina w/ Justin Henson

Josh and Alex are joined by the Lovely Dan from Casting Views and Gaming Views to discuss the sleeper hit game; Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 *SPOILERS AHEAD* Intro (0:00) Alex, meet The Lovely Dan. The Lovely Dan, meet Alex (2:27) No On 15! Allcast promo (7:15) Alex's mistake in the Blockbuster Fantasy Draft resurfaces (8:28) Clair Obscur Expedition 33 talk begins (9:40) How did Alex learn about the game? (12:02) Expedition 33 has very French storytelling (13:41) How did The Lovely Dan learn about the game? (14:59) Expedition 33's realism in their animation (16:22) Back to the misery and balance of action and humor within the game (18:43) What difficulty did we play the game on? (22:18) The music. (29:03) Praising the cast and crew (31:18) Who was our core party group and how did we build our characters? (33:40) Josh breaks down the story (badly) (42:48) *Trigger warning* Endings and the overall theme of the game (1:06:40) Josh's lack of experience with French media (1:19:11) Josh has a revelation about some world building in the game (1:22:23) Is Expedition 33 a Must-Play or a Pass? (1:23:21) The Expeditoin 33 Waifu Tier List (1:28:05) Goodbyes and social media plugs (1:32:57) Please remember to check out the No On 15! Allcast, join our Discord and check out our merch store! 

Josh & Alex review the latest entry in the Predator franchise; the animated feature Predator: Killer of Killers Intro (0:00) Father's Day for Josh (0:54) Sports: Steelers, Banana ball, playoff hockey (1:34) How to Train Your Dragon (8:34) The Movie Wire podcast promo (11:21) Our 2025 Box Office predictions are terrible, allegedly (11:37) Predator: Killer of Killers review (16:30) The Shield: VIKINGS! (18:20) The Shield: Samurai! (26:50) Predator concept of honor is... off (32:14) The Bullet: WW2 Dogfights! (38:02) The finale: (41:58) A lot of allegedly (50:50) Terrible impressions (55:40) SMAC-ratings (1:01:01) Wrap up (1:05:44) Please remember to check out the Movie Wire podcast, join our Discord and check out our merch store! 

Alex & Justin from The Movie Wire discuss From The World of John Wick: Ballerina (0:01) Intro (3:05) Ballerina first impressions (7:43) Gaming Views promo (8:22) Non-spoiler review (20:09) SMAC rating (23:18) Spoiler discussion w/ things only Alex observes (48:16) Wrap up Don't forget to support Dan & Dan at Gaming Views! Join our Discord and check out our merch store! 

Ricki and Josh take you on a journey of their thoughts for the soon-to-be-adapted, smash hit novel Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros. Join in on the conversation with Josh and Ricki on the Talking BAK discord subchannel and follow Ricki on Tome

Josh is joined by Gregg Beever; 1/3 of the I Have Some Notes crew, to review and discuss the themes from season 2 of the Star Wars spin-off series from Tony Gilroy; Andor *SPOILERS AHEAD! Intro and chit chat with Gregg (0:00) Game Club Pod promo (6:02) Josh challenges the Game Club pod (6:46) Andor season 2 discussion begins (8:18) Andor introduces the BBY system to general audiences (10:49) How did we feel about the four 3-episode arcs for the season? (12:30) Favorite moments in the first 3 episodes (21:50) The Ghorman occupation (26:40) The Syrill and Dedra relationship (28:06) So much great acting (34:08) Did Bix and Cassian need to be in a romantic relationship? (36:13) Star Wars canon is always subject to change (42:58) The Emperor's presence and lack thereof (44:09)  The Bail Organa recast (44:09) Andor season 2 shows us how bad the Empire truly was prior to A New Hope (51:12) Fandoms and corporations promoting the bad guys is kinda gross (56:44) Can Star Wars expand beyond the Skywalker space opera stuff? (1:00:01) A quick dissection of the sequel trilogy (1:03:06) Give us the thing we didn't know we wanted (1:08:17) Goodbyes & social media plugs (1:14:08) Please remember to check out the Game Club Pod podcast, join our Discord and check out our merch store! 

Josh pulled a Stitchion Impossible and did a double feature of Lilo & Stitch, as well as Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (Alex only saw the later.) Intro (0:00) Lilo & Stitch (6:15) Cultworthy promo (24:58) Alex is mad and then we go down a bad Smurfs rabbit hole (25:40) Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (32:54) Goodbyes and social media plugs (1:04:56) Please remember to check out the Cultworthy podcast, join our Discord and check out our merch store! 

We celebrate 200 episodes of Talking SMAC with a special live recording at our favorite hometown nerd shop: Cataclysm Games and Collectibles! Intro (0:00) Let's meet Doug from Cataclysm Games & Collectibles! (1:32) Hemanstarfox joins the group! (5:14) Kicking things off with an AMA question (6:20) Rocket Racoon vs Legolas (7:01) Marvel Rivals tangent about Jeff the Landshark (8:29) Back to Rocket Racoon vs Legolas (10:50) Lara Croft vs Aloy - One Bow, One Shot battle (15:20) AMA: Joey Fitz question (19:06) Goku vs Omni Man (23:49)* Homer Simpson vs Fred Flintston vs Peter Griffin (27:00) Dennis Nedry (Jurassic Park) vs Boris Grishenko (GoldenEye) - Hacker off (28:18) Engineer-Xeno Hybrid from Alien Romulus vs Human-Xeno Hybrid from Alien Resurrection (32:42) AMA: Slade question (36:11) The Rookie vs Malcolm Reynolds vs Rick Castle vs Guy Gardner - Nathan Fillion character fight (43:10) Xenomorph vs The Death Angel from A Quiet Place (45:27) Stuart Little vs Remy (52:40) Purrgil vs Chitauri Leviathans (Space Whale battle) (55:46) Batman (from Batman Begins) vs V (V for Vendetta movie) (1:04:28) Heel John Cena vs Ruthless Aggression Era John Cena (1:10:21) Did Hemanstarfox lied about his backstory?! (1:13:26) Goodbyes and social media plugs (1:15:38) Please join our Discord and check out our merch store! Special thank yous to Ricki for running our mixer for the live recording.  Also, special shoutouts to our friends who have supported us and teamed up with us throughout the years: Luis, Scotti, Matt and Bepbo (Talking SMAC OGs who helped kick off the podcast) Derek, the creator of our original logo Dan at Casting Views Antonio at The Cultworthy Joey, Tim & Alex at the Game Club Pod Justin at the Movie Wire Cesar at the No on 15 All-Cast Karen and Ann at the Sugar Coated Murder Josh and Amanda at Super Familiar with The Wilsons Liam, Scott and Gregg at I Have Some Notes Slade at Driveway Studios We truly could not have made it this far without your support and friendship. Thank you all, so much!  *Omni Man vs Thanos was suggested in Episode 150, Goku vs Invincible was suggested in episode 74

Josh and Alex bring dream pitches for projects they'd love to bring to life if they had the means Intro (0:00) Casting Views Promo (7:13) *Pitch Meeting disclaimer (8:05) Josh forgot a big nitpick from last week’s review (10:25) Alex pitches a ‘House of Leaves’ adaptation (11:37) Josh has questions about Alex's pitch (24:58) Casting options? (27:50) Josh pitches his 'Inheritance Cycle' adaptation (32:36) Who would Josh want to animate his series? (42:39) Josh pitches his showrunner if it's not him (46:16) Josh lays out his dream casting (46:58) Social media plugs and good byes (1:07:16) Please remember to check out the Casting Views podcast, join our Discord and check out our merch store! 

The MCU machine churns on. Now it's time to see what Marvel's reinterpretation of the Thunderbolts team looks like within their connected universe.  Intro (0:00) 2 Blokes from Blighty promo (7:28) The trailers in front of Thunderbolts* are all over the place (9:19) I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) looks dumb for all the wrong reasons (10:04) Back to the trailers (13:14) Non-spoiler 'Thunderbolts*' time! (15:08) Josh's issues with US Agent (24:31) Non-spoiler resolution (26:20) Is 'Thunderbolts*' a Must-See or Pass? (27:40) Spoiler Discussion (31:42) Jeremy Renner's revelation about why no Hawkeye season 2 (1:10:48) Goodbyes and social media plugs (1:17:45) Please remember to check out the 2 Blokes from Blighty podcast, join our Discord and check out our merch store! 

Josh and Alex talk about the stuff they're doing away from the pod! Intro (0:00) WrestleMania 41 thoughts (4:17) Alex Hates Movie Runtimes (11:35) Super Familiar with the Wilsons Promo (26:01) What'cha doin? (26:29) Until Dawn movie (27:25) Inheritance Cycle (37:01) Path of Exile 2 (43:47) Frieren: Beyond Journeys End (50:22) Ghosts season 4 (58:05) Goodbyes (1:10:34) Please remember to check out the Super Familiar with the Wilsons podcast, join our Discord and check out our merch store!