Movie Madness

Another week in physical media with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski and it is a loaded one. Criterion offers up some classic Errol Flynn and the final film of legend John Huston. You can also check out the first directorial effort of John Milius and one of the many men-in-a-car films of David Ayer. Speaking of vehicles, you can hear about one of the great chase sequences of the 1980s or the one that has some MF snakes in it. There’s a history lesson in Ma and Pa Kettle plus the great Woody Woodpecker, a trio of Agatha Christie mysteries and a punk rock gem still worthy of discovery.
Criterion (Captain Blood (4K), The Dead (4K))
MGM (A Matter of Time, Dillinger)
Universal (Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (1941-1972), Ma and Pa Kettle: Complete Comedy Collection)
Fun City (Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (4K))
Arrow (Snakes on a Plane (4K))
Shout (End of Watch (4K))
Kino (Man in a Cocked Hat, The Flesh and Blood Show, Diva (4K), Death on the Nile (1978) (4K), The Mirror Crack’d (4K), Evil Under the Sun (4K))
TV (Doctor Who: Tom Baker (Season 2), Lucifer: The Complete Series)
NEW (One Battle After Another (4K), Wicked: For Good (4K), Roofman (4K), Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Fackham Hall, Hunting Season, Keeper (4K))
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Be sure to check out
Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes
Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL
Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming
Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.
(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)
Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.
The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

Before heading off to Sundance next week, Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy bring you ten new movie reviews. Erik looks at the anime adaptation of the text that inspired Edge of Tomorrow (All You Need Is Kill) and a Palestinian epic of family and loss that people need to see (All That’s Left of You) while Steve checks out the latest film about family from the Dardenne Brothers (Young Mothers). On the documentary side there is the tale of a wrestler who was born with Crouzon’s Syndrome (Standout: The Ben Kjar Story) and a two-parter on HBO Max about one of the absolute legends of comedy (Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!). Jodie Foster takes the lead again as a psychiatrist investigating her patient’s death (A Private Life) and Amanda Seyfried leads with music as part of a shaky religious sect (The Testament of Ann Lee). Bad cops are at the center of the new film from the director of Lowlife (Night Patrol) and Matt Damon & Ben Affleck may also be at the center of Joe Carnahan’s latest thriller (The Rip). Finally, Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell approach the rage virus in vastly different ways in the continuation of the apocalyptic series (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple).
1:44 - All You Need Is Kill
8:36 - Young Mothers
14:02 - All That’s Left Of You
21:01 - Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
36:40 - Standout: The Ben Kjar Story
43:40 - A Private Life
51:35 - Night Patrol
1:03:01 - The Testament of Ann Lee
1:12:34 - The Rip
1:25:02 - 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST
SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE
Be sure to check out
Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes
Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL
Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming
Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.
(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)
Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.
The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

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It’s the first new physical media roundup of 2026 with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski. They include Jim Jarmusch’s love-it-or-hate-it western and Val Kilmer’s Native American murder mystery. They debate the volcano movies of 1997 and remind everyone of Kevin Spacey’s alien movie. One of the great, seemingly forgotten, Stephen King adaptations gets an upgrade as does perhaps the best Steven Seagal film and another of John Woo’s classics. A lot of great action and horror to start the new year.
1:45 - Criterion (Dead Man (4K))
13:19 - Sony (Thunderheart (4K))
20:02 - Kino (Dante’s Peak 4K, K-PAX)
36:07 - Lionsgate (1408 (4K))
44:03 - Arrow (Evil Dead Rise (4K), Under Siege (4K))
1:10:38 - Shout (Bullet in the Head (4K))
1:17:23 – New TV on Blu-ray (Shameless (The Complete Series), Falling Skies (The Complete Series))
1:20:12 – New Theatrical Titles On Blu-ray (Tron: Ares (4K), Shelby Oaks, The Smashing Machine (4K), It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, Naked Ambition, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk)
1:22:47 – New Blu-ray Announcements
CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST
SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE
Be sure to check out
Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes
Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL
Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming
Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.
(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)
Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.
The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

The movie year of 2026 begins in earnest this week on the podcast with Erik Childress and Steve Prokopy looking at ten films, some of which are expansions of 2025 releases. There’s a Harry/Sally-like rom-com (People We Meet on Vacation). Steve checks out a documentary of a famed writer and Holocaust survivor (Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire), plus a pair of true stories with Lucy Liu caring for her schizophrenic son (Rosemead) and the tale of an emergency call from a six-year-old trapped in a car in Gaza (The Voice of Hind Rajab). The true stories continue with Kristen Stewart’s harrowing directorial debut of a woman plagued with memories of sexual abuse (The Chronology of Water), Gus Van Sant’s latest about a 1977 hostage situation (Dead Man’s Wire) and Ralph Fiennes tries to get people to sing during WWI (The Choral). Two varying apocalypses occur with Daisy Ridley discovering that the victims of a catastrophic explosion are only mostly dead while Gerard Butler and his family have to leave their bunker (Greenland 2: Migration). With all that horror this week, the show wraps up with some chimpanzee terror (Primate).
2:29 - Elie Wiesel: Soul On Fire
8:46 - People We Meet on Vacation
22:39 - Rosemead
28:52 - The Chronology of Water
41:02 - The Voice of Hind Rajab
47:52 - Dead Man’s Wire
59:59 - The Choral
1:09:46 - We Bury the Dead
1:18:39 - Greenland 2: Migration
1:25:41 - Primate
CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST
SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE
Be sure to check out
Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes
Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL
Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming
Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.
(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)
Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.
The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com

A yearly tradition continues with Erik Childress and Peter Sobczynski carried over from our time with the late, great Sergio Mims as they ask the question that is the very title of these episodes. Both Erik and Peter have selected 10 titles each of films that are still languishing only on DVD and not in a higher-grade format (at least not in North America.) They include classic modern comedies of the ‘80s and ‘90s, a heist film, and one of the earliest appearances of a beloved comedian and the song that became their staple, not to mention a film based on an album. How about movies from some of the great independent voices of cinema, a coming-of-age film, an animated film nearly canceled by the Russians, and a thriller about a simple plan that turns into a conspiracy all leading up to one of the timeliest calls for a film you can imagine. Are you listening Criterion, studios and all the rights holders? Let’s give these films the releases they deserve and continue to preserve physical media.
2:59 – Peter’s 1st Choice
10:38 – Erik’s 1st Choice
14:42 – Peter’s 2nd Choice
22:39 – Erik’s 2nd Choice
28:02 – Peter’s 3rd Choice
36:40 - Erik’s 3rd Choice
42:33 - Peter’s 4th Choice
54:00 - Erik’s 4th Choice
1:00:24 - Peter’s 5th Choice
1:12:00 - Erik’s 5th Choice
1:19:13 - Peter’s 6th Choice
1:30:17 - Erik’s 6th Choice
1:33:33 - Peter’s 7th Choice
1:43:50 - Erik’s 7th Choice
1:52:48 - Peter’s 8th Choice
2:01:17 - Erik’s 8th Choice
2:06:31 - Peter’s 9th Choice
2:22:23 - Erik’s 9th Choice
2:29:38 - Peter’s 10th Choice
2:39:08 - Erik’s 10th Choice
CLICK ON THE FILMS TO RENT OR PURCHASE AND HELP OUT THE MOVIE MADNESS PODCAST
SIGN UP FOR AUDIBLE
Be sure to check out
Erik’s Weekly Box Office Column – At Rotten Tomatoes
Critics’ Classics Series – At Elk Grove Cinema in Elk Grove Village, IL
Chicago Screening Schedule - All the films coming to theaters and streaming
Physical Media Schedule - Click & Buy upcoming titles for your library.
(Direct purchases help the Movie Madness podcast with a few pennies.)
Erik’s Linktree - Where you can follow Erik and his work anywhere and everywhere.
The Movie Madness Podcast has been recognized by Million Podcasts as one of the Top 100 Best Movie Review Podcasts as well as in the Top 60 Film Festival Podcasts and Top 100 Cinephile Podcasts. MillionPodcasts is an intelligently curated, all-in-one podcast database for discovering and contacting podcast hosts and producers in your niche perfect for PR pitches and collaborations.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit erikthemovieman.substack.com