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This week we are reviewing The Castle, the 1997 Australian comedy directed by Rob Sitch and starring Michael Caton as Daryl Kerrigan — a loveable, utterly ordinary Australian bloke who lives with his family in a weatherboard house next to Melbourne airport and thinks it is the greatest home on earth. When the government issues a compulsory acquisition notice and offers him $70,000 to leave, Daryl says no. Not about the money. It is his castle. What follows is one of the most beloved David and Goliath stories in Australian cinema history. This one has been a long time coming. The Aussie has wanted to do this episode for the better part of two hundred podcasts, and when it finally arrives he is practically vibrating. The Scotsman rewatched it without much enthusiasm and ends up enjoying it far more than he expected — which, if you know him, tells you a great deal. The pre-film chat this week finds the Scotsman at a networking event he hated every second of. Walking in alone, holding a coffee, trying to break into conversations, standing like a weirdo while exactly one person came over to him. The Aussie, who loves networking and has no shame whatsoever, finds this baffling. It is a funnier exchange than it has any right to be. Then they get into the film — and this is where the episode really takes off. The Aussie runs through the lines that have embedded themselves into the Australian language. "Tell him he's dreaming." "How's the serenity." "This is going straight to the pool room." Lines that Australians use without even thinking about where they came from. The Scotsman, twenty years into living here, admits he probably says them without remembering they came from this film. There is a lovely moment where they sit in that together. But the standout moment of the episode comes when the Scotsman explains the Mabo connection — the 1992 High Court ruling that recognised native title and overturned terra nullius. The argument Dennis Denuto cannot make and Lawrence Hamill can. The idea that connection to land, built through living and loving and belonging, is real and cannot simply be overridden by government or commercial interest. Daryl Kerrigan making the same argument about his weatherboard house that Eddie Mabo made about Murray Island. It reframes the entire film — and the Aussie goes quiet in a way he rarely does. They work through the performances, the comedy, the warmth of the Kerrigan family dinner table, the fake chimney that adds a bit of charm, the gates still attached to the car when the police arrive, the speed camera that just paid for itself, and the moment a man digging a hole is celebrated like he has cured cancer. The Scotsman notes that you are laughing with this family, never at them — despite everything.  Rohan Reminisces covers 1997 — and the Aussie turns up to his own segment without the music link he has been waiting all week to play. What happens next is a lesson in chaos management. They cover the films, the Oscar winners, Princess Diana, Google starting as a corner store, South Park, and a story from the Scotsman involving tens of thousands of people on Hogmanay in Edinburgh that has absolutely no business being as funny as it is. Trivia includes the $750,000 budget, what the film actually made, the eleven-day shoot, the three-week script, what happened to the real house at 33 Dagonet Street, Eric Bana's film debut, and a final fact about the pool room that is more perfect than it has any right to be. Aussie: 4.2 out of 5. Scotsman: 3 out of 5. Both of them land the final line. You will know it when you hear it. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing, and we are grateful for every single one. Thanks for listening.

This week the podcast revisits Warrior — the 2011 MMA family drama directed by Gavin O'Connor, starring Tom Hardy as Tommy Riordan, a former US Marine carrying unimaginable grief and a secret that could detonate everything, Joel Edgerton as Brendan Conlon, his estranged older brother and part-time physics teacher fighting desperately to save his daughter's life, and Nick Nolte as Paddy Conlon — their father, 14 months sober, trying to earn back the love of two sons he failed in every way that matters. The Sparta tournament. 16 fighters. $5 million. Winner takes all. And two brothers on a collision course neither of them can stop. Before the film discussion gets going, the Scotsman arrives with a story. A proper one. It involves his two boys playing footy, a dirty match, a fence that probably should have stayed between him and the pitch, a club president who had something to say about it, and a two-week ban that the Scotsman accepts with absolutely no regrets whatsoever. We'll say no more. Just listen. On the film itself, the two land in rare and slightly painful agreement. The ingredients for something genuinely great are all here — fractured family, guilt, grief, addiction, and the impossible question of whether a father can ever truly earn forgiveness from the people he hurt most. Three performers at or near the very top of their game. And one single scene — Nick Nolte, alone, drunk, utterly broken — that is as honest and as devastating as anything you will find in modern cinema. And yet, somewhere between the repetitive fight structure, the undercooked character development, the montage that looks like it was assembled in an afternoon, and a finale that ties things up just a little too neatly for a story this complicated, the film never quite becomes what it so clearly wanted to be. The Scotsman gives it 2.4. The Aussie gives it 1.5 and is completely unapologetic. It may be the lowest combined score in the history of the show. Rohan Reminisces: 2011 — Game of Thrones premieres, Osama Bin Laden is killed, Steve Jobs dies, Adele takes over the planet and the Aussie attempts to explain planking to a man who still thinks it's yoga The podcast is out now on YouTube and is also available on Spotify or Apple. Please click the subscribe or follow button — it really does help us be seen amongst all the other podcasts. Thanks for your support

This week we are reviewing The Son, the 2022 drama directed by Florian Zeller — the filmmaker behind The Father — and starring Hugh Jackman as Peter, a successful New York lawyer who has rebuilt his life after divorce with a new partner Beth, played by Vanessa Kirby, and a newborn baby. When his ex wife Kate, played by Oscar winner Laura Dern, arrives with their seventeen year old son Nicholas — who has stopped going to school, is self harming and is in crisis — Nicholas moves in with Peter. Peter tries to fix it. He cannot fix it. Sir Anthony Hopkins appears in one scene, written specifically for him, as Peter's own father. With a cast like this you would think this was going to be an absolute belter. Please note before listening — this episode deals directly with teenage mental health, self harm and suicide. Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636. Lifeline: 13 11 14. Headspace for young people aged 12 to 25: headspace.org.au. Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800. If someone is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero. The pre-film chat this week finds the Scotsman at a newly opened wine bar he and the Aussie visited together — and which managed to frustrate him in almost every possible way. Not enough chairs, a layout that could not decide what it wanted to be, a policy on splitting bills that made no sense, and a manager who doubled down on every single one of those decisions rather than just fixing them. On the film itself the two find common ground in unexpected places. The cast is extraordinary. The subject matter is as important as it gets. The Scotsman comes prepared in a way that genuinely surprises the Aussie mid-episode — delivering real statistics on teenage mental health in Australia, what depression actually looks like in a teenager versus an adult, why the instinct to fix things is precisely the wrong response, and what parents should actually do when a child discloses they are struggling. Where they diverge is on the film itself. The Scotsman identifies two significant plot failures that undermine the emotional weight of everything around them — including one so obvious he cannot believe it made the final cut. The Aussie is more forgiving but does not entirely disagree. Both land on the same conclusion — the subject matter deserves a better film than this, and that is precisely why they are doing the episode. The Hopkins connection to The Father is explored in detail. The Scotsman's closing thought on what Zeller was actually saying by casting the same actor in both films is, in the Scotsman's own words, very clever indeed. Aussie: 2.2 out of 5 for the film. 5 out of 5 for the conversation it opens. Scotsman: 3.2 out of 5. No jokes at the end of this one. Both of them mean it. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing and we are grateful for every single one. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing Another Round, the 2020 Danish drama directed by Thomas Vinterberg and starring Mads Mikkelsen. Four middle-aged Copenhagen schoolteachers, each quietly adrift in their own lives, agree to test a theory that humans function better maintaining a constant mild level of intoxication — and discover that the experiment works, until it doesn't.   The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. If this one gets you thinking, share it with someone who would argue with you about the ending. That is the whole point. Hit subscribe or follow — it really does help us keep going.   Before the film, the Aussie arrives and announces he has a child's palate and calls himself a baboon within the first two minutes — both unprompted — after nearly dying at a corporate lunch when butter chicken turned out to be considerably spicier than expected. The Scotsman went to the dentist and spent ten minutes explaining why someone should invent a high pressure water jet to remove plaque, then lost the thread entirely.   The Scotsman had not seen Another Round before bringing it. He had seen the final dance scene on Instagram and decided that was reason enough to watch it with the Aussie. Both agreed it was a slow burn that takes time to earn, and both agreed it earned it.   The film discussion is one of the best the show has produced. The Scotsman walks through the film's central lesson scene in full — three anonymous political leaders, their personal habits, and the classroom reveal that undoes every assumption the students made. Leader A was Roosevelt. Leader B was Churchill. Leader C was Hitler. The classroom goes silent and the hosts let it sit.   What follows is a proper conversation about alcohol — not as a moral question but as a human one. The Scotsman asks whether he has ever drunk to feel more comfortable in social situations. He answers yes. The Aussie asks back. They go somewhere honest that most podcasts would not, and the film earns its place in the conversation rather than just being discussed from a distance.   The debate about the ending is the standout moment. The Aussie is convinced that when Martin reads his wife's text and then dances and dives into the harbour, he is choosing freedom over reconciliation — a new life, not the old one. The Scotsman is equally convinced the dance is pure joy at getting her back, a man finally alive again after years of numbness. Neither fully concedes. ChatGPT is consulted on air. It says the ending is deliberately ambiguous. The Scotsman says it is 90-10 in his favour. The Aussie says 60-40. They invite the audience to weigh in.   In Rohan Reminisces, the hosts cover 2021 — the January 6th Capitol attack, Biden's inauguration, the Suez Canal blockage, the Tokyo Olympics, the fall of Kabul, and the deaths of Prince Philip, Betty White, Charlie Watts and Bert Newton. The Aussie also notes that Prince Harry and Meghan had a baby, which he describes as "a little bit."   The trivia covers the film's $7 million budget and $21 million return, the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, the Dogma 95 manifesto that shaped Vinterberg's whole approach to filmmaking, the fact that Mads Mikkelsen trained as a competitive dancer before he ever acted and performed the entire final sequence himself without a double — and the story of Ida Vinterberg, Thomas's 19-year-old daughter, killed in a car accident on the fourth day of filming. The film was shot at her school with her classmates. The final dance was made for her. The Oscar speech described the film as born in grief and becoming a celebration of life.   One of the more honest and unexpected episodes in the show's run. Go and watch the film first if you can.

This week we are reviewing The Great Escape, the 1963 epic war classic adventure directed by John Sturges and starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance and James Coburn. Allied prisoners of war held in a supposedly escape-proof German camp plot an audacious mass breakout, only for the adventure to give way to something much darker, and much more human. This episode starts in typical fashion — with the Scotsman and the Aussie nearly derailing the show before the review even begins. There’s an argument about whether the iconic theme should have opened the episode, a very funny early wobble over connecting The Great Escape to other films, and then a pre-film chat that goes gloriously off-road. And it is worth hearing. There’s a terrific stretch on customer service, a late-night hunger confession involving two emergency sandwiches at 2am, a McDonald’s story that becomes a full monologue, a debate about wasting time, work travel, sales personalities, working from home, and an unexpected detour into whether an eye twitch might be a stroke. It sounds absurd written down. It’s even better in the episode. Then the film discussion lands — and it lands well. This is not a dry classic-film review. It’s a lively argument over tone, realism, whether the first half feels too playful for a Nazi prison camp, whether the second half is superior, whether the music is overused, whether Steve McQueen’s motorcycle sequence is remembered correctly, and whether Shawshank Redemption owes a bigger debt to this film than people admit. There’s strong discussion around the cast, especially McQueen, Bronson, Pleasance and Attenborough, and a really good exchange about why the film works despite juggling so many characters. The Scotsman makes a sharp case that you become invested in eight different men remarkably quickly. The Aussie pushes back on parts of the tone, but ends up admiring the emotional turn once the escape begins. There’s a great clash over realism in the camp. There’s a sharp debate over whether the Germans are too lightly drawn early on. There’s a terrific exchange over whether the three tunnels logic really holds. And there’s a very good argument about whether the final motorcycle jump is remembered more powerfully than it actually plays. There are also some unexpectedly funny moments in the middle of the review, including the two hosts acting out scenes from the film. That could have gone badly. It doesn’t. It’s one of the funniest sections in the episode. And then the episode lifts again. Rohan Reminisces may be the strongest version of the segment yet. It nearly gets forgotten entirely, then comes roaring back with a rapid-fire run of 1963 trivia, some very funny wrong turns, accusations of cheating, and a couple of moments where the Scotsman unexpectedly starts landing answers. But the key point: the segment is teased, not spoiled. The specific answers and reveals are left for the episode. Without spoiling the film trivia section, stay for the Steve McQueen revelations, the astonishing Charles Bronson story, the Donald Pleasance real-life POW connection, and the detail about a cast member boldly telling another he intended to marry his wife. Yes, that really happened. This is one of those conversations that works whether you know the film well or haven’t seen it in years. It makes you want to revisit the movie. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow if you enjoy classic film debates like this — it genuinely helps the show keep growing. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing Here, the 2024 drama directed by Robert Zemeckis — the man behind Forrest Gump, Back to the Future and Cast Away — starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, reuniting thirty years after Forrest Gump. The camera never moves. Not once. For the entire 104 minutes, we watch a single corner of a room in New Jersey across thousands of years of human history — dinosaurs, Ice Age, Benjamin Franklin, a 1960s African American family, and a couple whose entire shared life plays out in that one fixed space. It is one of the boldest formal experiments in mainstream cinema in years. The Aussie thinks it is the worst film ever put on this podcast. Worse than Duel. That is where we begin.   The episode opens with dad jokes. The Scotsman has a list. He works through them methodically. The one about the librarian is not suitable for children or mothers-in-law. The Aussie counters with his one joke — the same one he has been using in sales presentations for twenty years. It lands. Barely. The Scotsman snickers. We move on.   Then Here. The Aussie is furious before the discussion even properly starts. "I've never been so bored." "I would watch Duel before this again." "Zemeckis, Robin Wright and Tom Hanks should be embarrassed." Zero out of five. The first zero in the podcast's history.   The Scotsman enjoyed it — or at least found something real in it — and spends a significant portion of the episode trying to explain what the film is actually about while the Aussie systematically dismantles every argument. The question the Scotsman poses is genuinely moving. What happens to all the moments nobody filmed, nobody clapped for, nobody remembered — the quiet ordinary ones — if nobody is left to remember them? The Aussie's answer: you write a diary. That is not a film. The Scotsman's counter: this film is the diary. The room is the diary.   They go deep. The Scotsman asks the Aussie about the main room of the house he grew up in — the tiger couch, Carlton replays on a Friday night, his dad, his mum, his brother and sister, the whole architecture of a childhood. "Magnificent memories," the Aussie says. And the Scotsman quietly says: that room is what this movie is about. The Aussie pauses. Then finds another hole in it. He is not wrong about the holes.   Tom Hanks gets a fairly rough ride from the Scotsman, which nobody saw coming. "Acting arrogance" is the phrase used. The AI de-ageing technology gets genuine credit — the most convincing yet achieved in mainstream cinema, developed specifically for this film, operating in real time on set rather than in post-production. The comparison to The Irishman is not flattering for Scorsese.   The box office numbers land like a verdict. Fifty million spent. Sixteen million made. One of the biggest disappointments of 2024. The Aussie has never been more satisfied by a piece of trivia.   Rohan Reminisces covers 2024 — Oppenheimer, Emma Stone, Ray Gun at the Paris Olympics, the Brisbane Lions, JLo and Ben, and a mahjong subplot involving the Aussie's wife that the Scotsman refuses to let go of. It spirals in directions nobody planned.   Ratings: 0 out of 5 from the Aussie. 2.7 from the Scotsman. The gap tells you everything.   The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing The Big Lebowski, the 1998 comedy directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, John Turturro and Sam Elliott. An unemployed LA slacker known only as the Dude gets mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, has his rug urinated on, and is dragged into a kidnapping plot he wants absolutely no part of.   The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. If you know someone who has been putting this one off for 28 years, send them this episode. Hit subscribe or follow — it really does help us keep going.   Before the film, the Aussie arrives with a story about getting locked out of his Tesla because his phone died and being told by a man at a charging kiosk that it was $40 for the privilege — delivered so matter-of-factly he could not even get worked up about it. The Scotsman tops it with a story about a close friend who texted mid-tattoo to ask whether he should get the word grateful on his wrist, was told nope definitely not in no uncertain terms, and did it anyway.   The Scotsman had never seen it. His entire expectation was a stoner film full of slow talking and not much else. He loved it. Watched it twice. Came in genuinely enthusiastic, started the podcast in a state of near euphoria, and then — about halfway through — talked himself back down to earth and landed somewhere a bit flatter than he expected. He is slightly annoyed at himself about this. The Aussie, who brought it to the show and had seen it many times as a younger man, is so relieved there is no fight that he almost cries.   The film discussion covers all the key scenes — the rug, the bowling alley, the Big Lebowski's portrait monologue, the millionaire's daughter, the nihilists, and the funeral. The Aussie makes the case that "I don't roll on Shabbos" is the best line in the film and delivers it multiple times on air with enormous personal satisfaction. The Scotsman agrees the bowling alley scene is where the entire dynamic of the trio is established in a single sitting — the Dude reacting, Walter escalating, and Donnie being ignored — and that it is one of the most efficient pieces of character writing he has seen.   John Turturro's Jesus Quintana gets his full moment. One scene, almost no plot relevance, steals the entire film. Both hosts agree the casting across the board is close to perfect and that you cannot imagine anybody else in any of these roles.   There is also a debate about whether this film sits closer to Fargo or Pulp Fiction, a comparison between John Goodman here and his role in Flight, and the Scotsman running out of steam mid-episode and admitting it on air.   In Rohan Reminisces, the hosts cover 1998 — Titanic winning Best Picture, Nicholson doing his OCD steps on camera, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck picking up their first Oscar, Google being founded, the Apple iMac G3, Bill Clinton and the dress, France winning the World Cup, Michael Jordan's last dance, and Frank Sinatra dying. The Scotsman has now covered 1998 so many times he calls for a format change. The Aussie takes mild offence.   The trivia covers the budget, the underwhelming box office run, the real-life Dude who inspired the character and still shows up at fan events today, Jeff Bridges wearing his own clothes throughout, John Turturro building the Jesus Quintana character entirely himself with no script, and Lebowski Fest — a touring fan convention running since 2002. The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 2014.   The Aussie lands at 3.6. The Scotsman comes in at 3.5. A rare episode where the scores are almost identical and nobody is yelling at anyone. The Scotsman signs off going to have a White Russian. Both hosts immediately realise they should have been drinking White Russians throughout.

This week we are reviewing Fury, the 2014 World War II combat film written and directed by David Ayer — the man behind Training Day and End of Watch — starring Brad Pitt as the battle-hardened tank commander Don "Wardaddy" Collier, alongside Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal. April 1945. Five men. One Sherman tank. Three hundred SS soldiers at the crossroads. This is not a film about glory. It is a film about what war costs.   Before the film, the Scotsman wants gravitas. The Aussie does a wrestling announcement. Then two customer service stories — one so infuriating it nearly ends in a formal complaint, one so good it nearly ends in a marriage proposal to a man called John. You will know which is which within ten seconds.   On the film itself — the Scotsman loved it. The Aussie did not. "It's Saving Private Ryan in a tank," says the Scotsman. "That's an insult to Saving Private Ryan," says the Aussie. And from there it only escalates.   The Aussie thinks the glowing bullets look like Star Wars. The Scotsman informs him, with barely concealed fury, that tracer bullets are real, have existed for over a century, and are common knowledge to anyone with even a passing interest in military history. The Aussie had no idea. He is not quite embarrassed enough to back down.   The dinner scene in the bombed German apartment divides them completely. The Aussie calls it a rushed love story. The Scotsman calls it the most human moment in the film. Neither will concede. The argument about whether Brad Pitt was a good leader or a man who walked five people into a suicide mission goes for longer than it should and gets genuinely heated.   The one thing they agree on — and they do agree, eventually, reluctantly — is Pitt standing on top of the tank, absorbing fourteen thousand bullets, holding a conversation, while three hundred SS soldiers politely queue directly in front of him and apparently nobody thinks to go around the back. Even the Scotsman calls it. "Hollywood stupid." Coming from the man defending the film, that is saying something.   Jon Bernthal is singled out as the standout performance. Shia LaBeouf gets credit where credit is due, and the Aussie admits the casting was not the problem — it was everything else. The bond between the crew, the claustrophobia of the tank, the way the film makes you feel the weight of what these men are carrying — all of it lands. The ending, however, does not. At least not for the Aussie.   Rohan Reminisces goes deep into 2014 — and this week it is actually worth listening to. Real emotion, some genuinely shocking moments, and one answer from the Scotsman so wrong it causes actual pain. Trivia closes the episode and it is one of the best of the year. Do not skip the end.   Ratings: 3.4 from the Aussie, 4 out of 5 from the Scotsman. The Aussie picks next. The Scotsman is already worried.   The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing the idea of the best first 30 minutes in film, a wide-ranging movie debate special built around opening scenes, opening acts and the moments that grab you by the throat before a film has even settled in. From war epics and thrillers to blockbusters and classics, the Scotsman and the Aussie go head-to-head over which films do the heavy lifting early and why some movies can almost live off their opening half hour alone. This episode starts in chaos, which is part of the fun. What begins as a simple idea — best first 30 minutes in movies — immediately turns into an argument over what the topic even means. Is it the best opening act? Best opening scene? Best first half hour in strict terms? The Scotsman calls it a shambles almost immediately, and from there the episode becomes one of those loose, unpredictable conversations where the detours become half the entertainment. The pre-film chat alone is worth hearing. There’s a very funny and strangely relatable debate about people who overuse “sorry” and “thank you,” a pharmacy story that spirals into an unexpected misunderstanding, a comparison to Anger Management, and a running argument about sarcasm, tone and whether either host is actually funny. Some of the sharpest laughs in the episode land before the movie talk even properly starts. Then the film debate kicks in and the range is enormous. There are passionate cases made for Heat, Pulp Fiction, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, The Shining, Goodfellas, The Silence of the Lambs, Rocky II, Top Gun, Back to the Future, Inglourious Basterds, Superman, Cast Away, Flight, Seven, Point Break and more. It’s one of those episodes where one title sparks another, then another, and suddenly you’re mentally rewriting your own top ten. There are real debates here, not polite agreement. The Scotsman pushes structure, mood and tension. The Aussie pushes payoff, set-up and series-building. They clash over whether a great opening has to sustain the whole film, whether a single scene can justify inclusion, whether chat-generated lists ruin spontaneity, and whether one of them may or may not be getting lazy. Some of the funniest exchanges come from the argument over whether one host has secretly outsourced his taste to the internet. The pushback is constant. There’s also a genuinely strong thread about what openings actually do. Are they about dread? Adrenaline? Character? World-building? Hooks? There’s a great stretch on why Raiders still works, why Jaws withholds brilliantly, why Saving Private Ryan changed war films, why Heat feels almost documentary-like, and why even a film one host dislikes might still have an extraordinary opening. That tension makes the discussion much better than a standard ranked list. There are also several moments that feel like future episodes being born in real time. A possible whole episode built around just talking movies from memory. A walk down memory lane concept. A possible revisit of old episodes. Those loose moments feel like listeners are hearing the show being invented as it happens. And then there are the quotes. Several are instantly classic. This was a nightmare. This was horrible. lands early. I don’t live within the lines, mate. I’m a free spirit. becomes a running joke. Give me the terms and conditions. becomes its own comic callback. And there’s a brutal line about sarcasm and being unfunny that nearly derails the whole thing. Without giving anything away, Rohan Reminisces gets turned on its head this week in a way listeners will hear coming only if they catch a late twist in the episode. The trivia and film references teased throughout are also worth staying for, particularly if you enjoy obscure continuity details, sequel set-ups and the kind of movie memory only long-time obsessives tend to carry around. If you love movie arguments, if you’ve ever said “that film had me from the first scene,” or if you’ve ever defended an opening sequence as better than some whole movies, this one is for you. It’s messy, funny, argumentative and full of big titles. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Subscribe or follow if you enjoy these film debates — it genuinely helps the show keep growing, and it helps more movie lovers find it. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing Still Alice, the 2014 drama directed by Richard Glatzer and starring Julianne Moore as a brilliant linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at fifty. Alec Baldwin plays her husband, with Kristen Stewart and Kate Bosworth as her daughters. Moore won the Academy Award for Best Actress. This is not a fun watch. It is, however, an important one.   Before the film, the Scotsman arrives wanting to talk about chocolate — specifically a Scottish chocolate bar he still cannot name after thirty-odd years of trying to remember it. The Aussie is briefly invested. Then the Scotsman pivots to a newspaper article about ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer risk. Twenty-one times a month, apparently. The Aussie immediately asks to talk about Alice instead. The Scotsman says it is a public health matter. It is not a smooth segue.   On the film. Both hosts agree it is uncomfortable, sad, and quietly frightening — particularly for two men in their early fifties watching a character their own age lose the thing she built her life on. The Aussie brought this one to the podcast after stumbling across it and being stopped cold by a single line: Alice, freshly diagnosed, tells her husband she would rather have cancer. Because at least cancer doesn't make you look stupid. That line. That is the whole film in one sentence.   The Scotsman prefers The Father — with Sir Anthony Hopkins, — and thinks Still Alice plays it a little safe and a little Hollywood. The Aussie thinks it is more powerful than that and gives it a higher score. They debate Alec Baldwin's character at length — is he a decent man stretched to breaking point, or just a selfish husband who takes a promotion while his wife is disappearing? The Aussie is unequivocal. Hard no. He would not leave. He is slightly emotional about it.   The butterfly scene stops both of them. Alice, in her clearest moments, records herself a message — five questions, and if she can't answer them, she is to take the pills she has hidden and not tell anyone. She forgets she made it. She stumbles across it later and tries to follow the instructions. The housekeeper comes home at exactly the right moment. Neither host quite knows what to do with that scene and both say so.   The Scotsman is reminded about his panic attack story from the GFC — driving down Toorak Road, vision closing to a pinhole, heart going at a million miles an hour. He had no idea what was happening. The Aussie counters with a blood pressure episode in the middle of the night where he lay there thinking he would not make it to morning and decided not to wake his wife because, genuinely, what was she going to do.   Rohan Reminisces goes into 2014 — and this week it is actually worth sticking around for, including a moment where the Scotsman looks directly at the answer and gets it wrong anyway.   Ratings: 3.8 from the Aussie, 3 from the Scotsman. Watch The Father afterwards and come back and tell us which one hit harder.   The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing Sentimental Value, the 2025 Norwegian family drama written and directed by Joachim Trier, starring Stellan Skarsgard, Renate Reinsve and Elle Fanning. Two estranged sisters are reunited by the death of their mother. Into this grief walks their father — Gustav, a once-celebrated film director who abandoned the family when the girls were young and who now arrives with a movie script, a plan, and absolutely no self-awareness. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes 2025 and received nine Oscar nominations including Best Picture — the first Norwegian film to win Best International Feature Film. Before any of that — the Scotsman has been on the Aussie's Instagram. He reads out the celebrity DMs. There is a message to Chris Hemsworth that contains the line "I thought I would to you." There is one to Kate Winslet addressed as "High Cake." The Aussie knew the Hemsworth one was bad while he was writing it. He sent it anyway. Thor has not responded. Neither has Cake. Then — the Perth fans. The Aussie had dinner with Simon and Matt, two of the most dedicated listeners in the show's history. They told him Rohan Reminisces needs to go longer, trivia needs to go deeper, and nobody liked the name change. The Scotsman points out this is everything he has been saying for three years. The Aussie shrugs. On the film. Both hosts loved it, and the conversation it unlocks is one of the best they have had. The film is about a father who cannot have honest conversations with his daughters, so he writes them into a movie instead — and then wonders why they won't just get over it. The Scotsman puts it best in the intro: "The story that follows is about what happens when art is used as a surrogate for the conversations a man cannot bring himself to have with his own children."  The discussion goes deep — parental trauma, generational damage, a father who is cold versus one who is absent.  Nature versus nurture spirals out from the film in a way that is genuinely thoughtful. The Aussie ties it back to broken homes. The Scotsman ties it back to school shooters. It goes where it goes. The scene between the two sisters — one quietly admitting she tried to take her own life, asking if their father even knows — stops both hosts cold. Elle Fanning slowly dyeing her hair dark and learning a Norwegian accent, trying to become the daughter this man cannot face, until she knocks on his door and tells him it should be his daughter doing this — is one of the best scenes in the film. Rohan Reminisces does not happen. The Aussie arrives with nothing. The Scotsman points out that Matt in Perth walks specifically to listen to it on Saturday mornings. The Aussie promises to do better. Trivia: nine Oscar nominations, Grand Prix at Cannes, 19-minute standing ovation at the premiere. The Scotsman notes that 19 minutes is long enough to soft boil an egg or drive across central Oslo. Stellan Skarsgard — father of eight, four of whom are working actors including Alexander, Bill, and Gustaf — neither confirmed nor denied that Gustav was drawn from his own life. Ratings: 4.2 from the Aussie, 4.5 from the Scotsman. One of the better ones this year. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing Weapons, the 2025 supernatural mystery horror film written and directed by Zach Cregger — the man behind Barbarian — starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan. At exactly 2:17am, seventeen children from the same third grade classroom simultaneously leave their homes and vanish into the night, arms outstretched, as if summoned. One child does not go. Nobody knows why.   The film unfolds in overlapping chapters from different perspectives — a grieving father, a scapegoated teacher, an out-of-his-depth cop, a homeless addict, and finally the ancient, malevolent aunt who has been bending the children to her will. Before any of that, the Scotsman warns listeners about AI voice cloning — scammers can now replicate your child's voice from five seconds of voicemail. "This is the next stage of spamming and scamming." The Aussie zones out halfway through. The Scotsman notices immediately. Shoes are next. The Scotsman's kids leave them in piles at the front door. He has bought shoe racks. Nobody uses them. The Aussie responds by pulling the story entirely around to some old Asics he found at the back of his own cupboard. The Scotsman is briefly furious. On the film — both hosts are unimpressed and not shy about it. The Aussie picked it. He is on the receiving end immediately. "You're on a two week ban. I'm picking the next two." The Scotsman calls it "mumbo jumbo" and "Hollywood gone bad." The specific grievances are pointed. Seventeen children go missing and Josh Brolin's investigation involves drawing lines on a map with a ruler, then knocking on a neighbour's door to ask politely about their security camera. The neighbour says no. He accepts this and leaves. "Who is writing this crap?" Nobody has a satisfying answer. Credit where it is due: the overlapping chapter structure is clever, Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys is genuinely unsettling, and Benedict Wong's one-shot chase into the petrol station is well constructed. The premise remains brilliant. The execution does not match it. Superstitions spiral out from the discussion. The Aussie claims no belief in the supernatural — then admits he will not walk under a ladder or open an umbrella indoors. The contradiction is noted. Feng shui, tarot cards, and a T-intersection property that cost a friend hundreds of thousands in lost buyers all get a run. Rohan Reminisces covers 2025 — Anora winning Best Picture, Elon Musk at $342 billion, and the Coldplay kiss cam moment that broke the internet. It is brief. The Scotsman is not wrong to call it brief. Trivia: $38 million budget, $268 million gross. Cregger wrote the script in his garage next to a running washing machine. Pedro Pascal was originally cast before Brolin replaced him. A full Aunt Gladys backstory was cut for time. And finally — Cregger has accepted $20 million to direct the Resident Evil reboot having never seen a single film in the franchise, announced he is ignoring everything prior, and described his approach as *"making a film about a character I have invented inside a world I am inventing."* The studio said yes. September 18, 2026 will tell us whether that was genius or catastrophic hubris. Ratings: 2.3 from the Scotsman, 1 out of 5 from the Aussie. Both would rather rewatch Sinners. High praise it is not. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Please hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps us be seen among the thousands of other podcasts out there. Thanks for your support.

This week we are reviewing the best movie one-liners of the last 50 years, a movie debate special built around the most iconic quotes ever spoken on screen — from immortal punchlines and threats to speeches that may or may not technically count as “one-liners,” which becomes a major part of the argument. What starts as a list quickly becomes something much better: a full-blown debate over what makes a movie quote survive. This episode starts with immediate friction. The Scotsman questions the title, the time range, the rules and even whether the whole concept is properly defined. The Aussie insists he has parameters. The Scotsman insists the parameters are rubbish. And within minutes the show is exactly where it should be. The pre-film chat is half the fun. Before the ranked list even begins, the two hosts spiral through notables, disqualifications, impressions, arguments over whether monologues count, and a gloriously butchered Samuel L. Jackson attempt that may be worth hearing for that alone. There’s a running joke about one host being “the lines man,” a very funny fight over whether reading from a list is cheating, and a sharp argument over whether a quote only matters if a ten-year-old, a fifty-year-old and your mum would all recognise it. Then the big guns start flying. There are battles over quotes from Jaws, Taxi Driver, Rocky, Top Gun, Terminator, Star Wars, Jerry Maguire, Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller, The Shining, Scarface, A Few Good Men, Braveheart, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Goodfellas, Gladiator, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard and more. But the real entertainment is not the lines. It’s the disagreements. There’s a terrific recurring argument over whether some entries are speeches, not quotes. There’s repeated pushback over whether one host has misunderstood his own rules. There’s a very funny late-episode fight over whether the true number one should really be Star Wars, The Terminator or James Bond territory. And there’s a genuine debate over whether the most famous line and the best line are even the same thing. The Scotsman calling out That’s a monologue. becomes a running gag. The Aussie’s argument for a certain Darth Vader line takes a serious hit. There’s a bizarre and very funny detour involving “the most used line during sex.” And the Samuel L. Jackson performance… is something you have to hear. There are great direct quotes throughout. You can’t handle the truth. becomes a point of principle. I’ll be back. becomes almost a philosophical argument. May the Force be with you. becomes a generational stress test. And Divine. somehow emerges as an accidental Aussie and Scotsman in-joke contender. There is no Rohan Reminisces this week, but the trivia energy gets absorbed into the debate itself, especially in the late-stage argument over which quote genuinely crosses generations. There’s also a strong tease here for future episodes. Best monologues. Star Wars. Wizard of Oz. Rocky. Even a possible episode on overused words inside the podcast itself. You can almost hear future episodes being born in real time. If you’ve ever quoted a film in a pub, argued over the greatest line ever written, or shouted a movie quote at exactly the wrong moment, this one is for you. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing. Thanks for listening.

This week we are reviewing Sinners, the 2025 supernatural horror drama written and directed by Ryan Coogler, starring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twin brothers Smoke and Stack — former Chicago gangsters who return to 1930s Mississippi to open a juke joint and build something of their own. What starts as a story about hustle, music and community turns into something far darker when uninvited guests arrive after dark. Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo and Miles Caton round out a cast that swept the Oscars, the BAFTAs and just about everything else in 2025. Before the film, the Aussie's 25th wedding anniversary story. Both he and his wife independently booked Book of Mormon on the same night, same theatre. He spent the interval chasing the producers for a refund. He got it. The Scotsman spent his own Book of Mormon trip plotting revenge after being told to slink down in his seat by a man who turned out to be six foot six. He did not slink. On the film — and this is the split you came for. The Scotsman loved it. The Aussie did not. Not slightly didn't love it. Actively hated it. Watched it on a plane with bad wi-fi, spent twenty minutes telling the flight attendant it was not a vampire film, and was still arguing the point when the red eyes appeared on screen. "Thank God that's over" were his final notes. He gives it one out of five. The Scotsman watched the ending after the credits — which the Aussie missed entirely — then went back and watched half of it again the next day, and came out the other side giving it 4.4 out of five. "We are watching something rare," he says. "Something that good that we don't realise how good it is." The Aussie's response: "You've lost credibility." The Scotsman makes the case for the transcendent scene, the IMAX cinematography, the dual-format shooting, the blues record that started the whole thing. The Aussie makes the case that vampires are stupid, the Lost Boys was also stupid, and that Michael B. Jordan flying through the air in a white singlet was the moment he checked out completely. "It's like Rocky 12 and they roll him out in a wheelchair." To be fair to the Aussie, he did find things to like. The twin scenes are brilliant. The romantic scene between Smoke and his former lover — "Why don't you just say you don't want me?" — he calls the best scene in the film. The hustle of building the juke joint, the negotiation, the music. All of it lands. Right up until the vampires show up and he loses the will to continue. The Scotsman's counter — that the vampires are simply a mechanism, a way of asking what would happen if something came for a community that was finally thriving — falls on completely deaf ears. "They shouldn't have used any of it. Just write a story." "That IS the story." Neither man moves an inch. Rohan Reminisces covers the 2025 Oscars — Anora winning Best Picture, Adrien Brody taking Best Actor, Mikey Madison winning Best Actress. There is also a full rundown of every vampire film made since 1970. The Aussie has not enjoyed a single one of them. Trivia: $90 to $100 million budget, $370 million gross and rising. Coogler negotiated ownership of the film outright in 2050 — a film about the theft of Black art, owned by its Black creator. The cinematographer became the first woman in Oscar history to win Best Cinematography. And finally — Coogler didn't start with a script. He started with a 1961 Howlin' Wolf recording of Wang Dang Diddle, a song about a community throwing a party for one night. He asked: what if those people were real? What if something came for them? Sixteen nominations. There is your answer. Ratings: 1 out of 5 from the Aussie. 4.4 out of 5 from the Scotsman. Possibly the widest gap in the podcast's history. The podcast is out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps us cut through the noise. Thanks for listening.

This week the lads review the 1987 American romantic drama Dirty Dancing, directed by Emile Ardolino and starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. Set in the summer of 1963 at a Catskill Mountains resort, it follows seventeen-year-old Baby Houseman as she falls for the resort's dance instructor Johnny Castle — a story of class, first love, and one of the greatest soundtracks ever committed to film.   Before a single frame gets discussed, the episode opens with a bet. The Aussie is convinced the podcast has already covered Schindler's List. The Scotsman is equally convinced it hasn't. A case of beer is staked. A handshake is had. The result is not kind to the Aussie — and the fallout drags on longer than it should.   Then comes the Aussie's story. Restaurant grievances. Cash discounts. Early bird specials. A four-minute missed window that escalates into a full debate about the cashless society, merchant fees, and whether a 15-year-old can legally use a credit card. The Scotsman has strong opinions. The Aussie has strong opinions. Nobody wins.   On the film itself — the Scotsman is watching Dirty Dancing for the very first time, and his verdict is that it is okay. Enjoyable, but disjointed. Good music. Light on substance. The Aussie, on the other hand, is emotional from the opening scene. The sunnies go on. He is giving full Johnny Castle energy and is not ashamed of it.   The Aussie makes the case for the class system running through the film — the Harvard waiters, the staff cabin up the mountain, Patrick Swayze looked down upon while Robbie the doctor gets treated like royalty despite being an absolute prick. The Scotsman concedes the point but is quick to note that none of it is done particularly subtly.   They get into the age gap — Baby is seventeen, Johnny is very much not — and what that looks like through a modern lens. The Scotsman takes it somewhere uncomfortable before pulling it back. The Aussie is horrified.   The soundtrack gets its moment, and rightly so. Thirty-two million copies sold. Arguably the greatest movie soundtrack ever made alongside Grease, The Bodyguard and Saturday Night Fever. The Aussie plays several tracks live on air and is visibly moved. The Scotsman admits the music is the best part of the whole film.   Ratings come in: the Aussie gives it 3.3 out of 5. The Scotsman forgets to rate it but does rate himself and in hindsight gives it a 2/5. Both agree — it is a feel-good film with a killer soundtrack, but if you are reviewing it honestly, the plot is thin and the writing uneven. *"You can watch it a thousand times and your brain can have a rest,"* says the Aussie. The Scotsman calls that the smartest thing said in two hundred episodes.   Trivia rounds things out — the $6 million budget, every studio that passed on it, the final lift being largely unrehearsed, and the deeply sad story of Jennifer Grey and Matthew Broderick's car accident in Northern Ireland just weeks after filming wrapped. One of the great pieces of trivia the podcast has delivered.   The episode closes with both hosts attempting to sing. It is not recommended.   Out now on YouTube and also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow — it genuinely helps the show keep growing. Thanks for the support.