AKAPAD the FILM BUFF Podcast

The basketball movie from Philadelphia is here. Hustle brought to you by Adam Sandler, LeBron James, and Netflix is well-made and well-thought-out, a plot we've seen time and time again is finished off with a loveable character that you immediately cheer for.

F9 is the absolute perfect expansion of the Fast and Furious Sage. Here we introduce via flashback the origin of the entire franchise with the help of John Cena.

The Air Up There is an absolutely fun, fantastic introduction to African Culture, and more importantly a commentary on how the love for a sport and transform your life. Kevin Bacon is good in whatever he is in but here when he's over the top it's fantastic.

The revelation to watch The Fate of the Furious was simple. AKAPAD the Film Buff didn't remember anything about this movie. So simple questions had to be answered.

Something amazing happened while AKAPAD The Film Buff was recording this Quantumania episode, a true question arose from the ashes.

"should Ant-Man and the Wasp's Quantumanium be viewed as a comedy first?"

High Flying Bird is a fantastically executed IPhone 8 movie by modern master Director Steven Soderbergh. If you love pro Basketball, scripts good enough for the stage, and a straight-up "got'ya" protagonist this is for you.

Why has anybody labeled 2022 as Tom Hanks's comeback year? With top-level performances in Elvis, Pinnochio, and now A Man Called Otto Hanks has proven he is the GOAT. The Film Buff declares this.

Of our time no other franchise is unexplainable as The Fast and the Furious and that is why it's so great.

Never did AKAPAD The Film Buff believe he would see a mythic basketball movie lab. All that changed with the 1998 Spike Lee joint He Got Game.

The Way Back is not a basketball movie. But it's a great showcase for Ben Affleck and director Gavin O' Conner. And again on this podcast episode, we much ask "what does a great director do"? The answer is here.

How can you identify good direction? Ben Affleck AIR answers that question with drama, and emotion in what otherwise is a procedural movie, but with his directing, we get an outcome we know and characters we root for.

Here is it. The last great end-credit scene, and the last time we get a great Superman on screen.

The internet came down on Black Adam and it's due to low-opinion dorks that can't have fun with a flick. It's an odd state in film opinion, sad this is prevalent in most modern takes. Black Adam saved the DCEU, that's its lasting legacy.

The 2010 DC Comics Animated Showcase may have put the final seal on the appeal of Shazam! it shockingly invites a new position to introduce this character BUT it robs the character of everything that makes him unique and more dynamic than Superman.

Peter Pan and Wendy is not an animated remake, it's in incredibly well-crafted film that stands on its own. Don't be fooled this film adds to the lore in an intelligent way.

The comedies that transformed the 80's were Porky's and Revenge of the Nerds and everything else was second place. Go back to 1984 with Peter A DeLuca AKAPAD The Film Buff and learn how and why.

Shazam! the 1981 cartoon series perfectly nails the tone and feel of the original comic book series. But, after this 12-episode run the character will be forgotten until the 2019 film of the same name.

Cleopatra 1963 is a film every fan of the form should commit to memory, and for Peter A DeLuca AKAPAD the Film Buff this film has entered into his TOP TEN MOVIES OF ALL TIME. It's that rare of a feat.

Join Peter A DeLuca AKA The Film Buff on a journey through the life of Captain Marvel the character that was toe to toe with Superman until he was dismantled and later retitled Shazam.

1941 movie theaters were rocked by a 12-episode series of a superhero more popular than Superman, Captain Marvel was the gold standard of superhero fiction at one point. So, let's have a look at a form of entertainment long forgotten.

You want Cocaine Bear to be a comedy. It's everything but that.

The Fugitive is a few things in one. An Oscar-worthy movie in the prime of the competition. The coming of Tommy Lee Jones. One of the creative TV Show adaptations. It's too much to process.

The Accused is a film that changed everything and jump-started the endless court room procedural drama that infects entertainment today.

Finally were are here and on the heels of the 2022 Oscars nonetheless. In this episode AKAPAD The Film Buff looks to the future of this very podcast.

Megan comes with much hype and it ultimately delivered but more importantly, it brought something new to all horror fans.

Sick is from the mind of Kevin Williamson with John Hyams is a rare and fantastic movie that is as good as SCREAM.

Alex Garland is completely full of himself and wastes a completely talented production. Every part of this film is expert-level and from the intent the strong performances from Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear is lost.

Horror is the only genre holding up the film industry by bringing new ideas, creators, and talent to the screen. And through this, we have the best Oscar-worthy performance from Laura Galán an absolute true force.

Significant Other has Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy performing complex and deep roles in what should be a mild version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers but adds enough of a spin to keep you engaged and locked in until the last perfect shot of the movie.

House of Darkness is a horror movie set in a single location and with it we have actors being actors and solid storytelling in this haut thriller. This is the type of horror we can all learn from.

Fall is a unique achievement that EVERY critic missed. Scott Mann deserves much credit for creating a clear danger that pulls us into his movie for only 3m.

The Menu perfectly captures the cast of characters we all see ourselves in. With strict social commentary, The Menu is a must-see of the 2022 horror films.

Nope might be the best film of 2022, but critics and audiences didn't get it.

Smile is far from perfect, but the ending will stick to you like glue.

Pearl's glory was robbed from us by a complete shutout by the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For 1 million dollars TI WEST and MAI GOTH handed us film fans a period horror movie that equally puts you in the time and setting while weaving a sympathetic murderer.

Wednesday has taken social media by storm and rightfully so. Netflix surprises again with this Tim Burton helmed show.

Damien Leone is an absolute master in knowing his audience and how to have fun. There is a reason Terrifier 2 caught fire this Halloween season, it lived up to the hype, introduced new elements, and was a blast.

BJ McDonnell has taken what should be cringe and made it into an insanely fun never to be taken too serious horror movie with a throughline dating all the back to Kiss's 1978 Phantom of the Park. This is a horror movie starring The Foo Fighters as The Foo Fighters.

Is Tyler Gillett preparing a new Scream Trilogy with the 4th installment acting as a bridge? AKAPAD Peter A DeLuca thinks so and is ready to talk about the unlikely run the scream films have had.

Fresh is a deliberate thriller impressively brought to the 31 Days of Dread by Mimi Cave. Do not hesitate and do yourself a favor and watch this movie. Fresh is available on HULU.

Previously I addressed this movie as a Korean horror film, it's in fact a Chinese one. With that said this found footage jump fest hits all the right notes.

Lock and Key from Joe Hill who brought us Black Phone earlier in this year 31 Days of Dread delivers a horror fantasy deeply influenced by HP Lovecraft. Lock and Key has an arc and a solid ending, something, missed in many shows today.

The Watcher production-wise is everything we would want, performance everything we would want, idea wise everything we would want. BUT.....this Netflix mini-series goes on for a little too long.

Maika Monroe again sells a concept with a byline that would make anyone roll their eyes. WATCHER is a pivotal movie in horror and storytelling.

Don't get this flick mixed up with 2022'S Barbarian, that is something completely different.

31 Days of Dread - Barbarian

Not since Blade have we gotten a vampire movie as cool as Day Shift, Netflix delivers again and it's 100 million smackers well spent.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has not had a sequel this good since its inception. We have something special here, it's also something special that the entire world seems to have ignored.

A true of true tension and suspense is rare, it's even better when it is a great starting point. Goodnight Mommy makes you question everything you've seen within the story to the very end. Paired with expert filmmaking we have some truly special.

Torn Hearts is by far the best title we've seen for this year's 31 Days of Dread, the film starts rocky but swerves enough by the end to leave us satisfied.

Cute, fun, heart-felt horror movies with well-explained rules and fantastic special effects is rare, not many films exist in the category. My Best Friends Exorcism is great with a ton of heart.

This year is riddled with horror remakes and updates and for only 12 million smackers Blumhouse delivers a Stephen King update primed for expansion.

John Logan and Kevin Bacon joining forces should be all you need to know when sitting down to watch something great.

Hocus Pocus 2 is a part of what makes the 31 Days of Dread so much fun. Year after year films are released to revitalize franchises and to grow a new generation of fans. So what happens when you jump right in, forgo the previous movie, and see what it's all about?

From Marvel Studios and Disney+ we finally have something fun and original from the MCU. Where will this one-hour feature lead? What other MCU connects are set-up here? We don't know but, what we have stands on it's own and is pretty solid.

It's impossible to transfer the worlds of Clive Barker to film. Yet, here we have another attempt.

AKAPAD and the 31 Days of Dread is proud to present what might be the second greatest hoRror trilogy of all time, HALLOWEEN ENDS. David Gordon Greene punches above his weight in context, content, and meaning. Halloween Ends asks us the same questions we ask often during the early days of slasher movies.

Do we forget we're supposed to have fun at the movies? The Munsters directed b Rob Zombie is the origin story we never asked for but once we have it, we're satisfied and ready to dive into the original TV show.

X is a straight-up masterpiece by master Ti West. With the emergence of a new kind of slasher/stalker Mia Goth gives us the beginning of what might be the greatest horror trilogy of them all.

What kind of film can draw you away from a billion-dollar movie? Black Phone is a far-out idea and totally unique.

Enter into the gates of modern filmmaking with the study of 31 films of 2022. Peter A DeLuca AKAPAD The Film Buff guides you through the films featured in this year's 31 Days of Dread.

White Girl is a film that cuts to the core. The core of what? The core of youth is recklessness and hope. It is not fair to compare this film to Larry Clarks KIDS, White Girl is a true film in its own right. This is one of the most visceral first film The Film Buff has ever seen, Elizabeth Wood the writer-director has crafted an experience with intent, something rarer and rarer in cinema.

All That Jazz is the greatest film of all time. So say's the Film Buff.

The war against film criticism continues AKAPD rebrands it all with a new mission statement and a powerful outlook on what will come.

On the race to 500 (yes, I know I am behind this month but the 31 Days of Dread is coming albeit late). Highlighting individual filmmakers was something the Podcast has never done outside a few instances. And along the way, I had to think about what might be a top filmmaker list. I knew who the top slot would be. WOODY ALLEN is an artist first with a level of self-expression we've never seen. Onward to episode 500

Ridley Scott is unmatched with his range, consistency, star power, and budget control. He is the absolute master of the Studio Film.

The films of Martin Scorsese have amassed nearly 100 Academy Award nominations. He is a complete weapon.

Steven Soderbergh took over Hollywood in 2000 with two movies that got him double director nods from the Academy. He's a filmmaker that understands how to put story first and because of that, he's in the elite class.

Steven Spielberg has had one of the all-time filmmaking runs but, we must address what isn't great and why.

The online sphere has turned on Zack Snyder but he still stands as one of the modern-day greats.

Ang Lee should be a 3 time Oscar and Best Picture winner. But he's not. Here's a look at one of the all-time great film runs.

Tim Burton is a filmmaker in a class of his own. He's done them high and low, remakes, personal, comedy, fantasy, and animation he is a creative weapon we all have to admire.

Paul Thomas Anderson has a perfect run of movies. Something no other filmmaker can claim.

The first of a great directors series is here as we race to episode 500. Let's have a look at the films of Michael Bay.

If you care about true stories that are too good to be true this flick changes very little in the saga of Kurt Warner who went on to do what truly was impossible. Who said miracles are there for all to see?

No film in any sport does what Any Given Sunday does the 1999 masterpiece from Oliver Stone.

The internet has destroyed what is a great film.

I had an existential experience watching the original Walt Disney Pinocchio animated masterpiece in preparation for the new Live Action update.

Wrapping up the Wolfgang Petersen deep dive is a remake that gets zero credit for how much fun it is to watch.

Few Sci-Fi films have as to it as Enemy Mine, it's hard to imagine what this movie leaves out. Time to discuss the criteria of what makes up a Sci-Fi film and where this movie rests among them all.

2000's Perfect Storm is a perfect movie a fact that has eclipsed the entire film critique community for over 22 years.

In a fading style of film making the 2004 Troy is already a relic of how it once was done. The result of this production would be the greatest Greek movie ever made however, the resolution leaves the audience wanting more in a bad way.

How do we define Neo Noir this question is answered as Peter A DeLuca AKAPAD discusses Shattered a forgotten film by Wolfgang Petersen.

1984's Never Ending Story is still one of the greatest fantasy films of all time. But, what are others missing from this Wolfgang Petersen masterpiece?

We are not letting go of Wolfgang. Here is one of the top two virus outbreak movies ever. Outbreak that coined the term "carrier monkey".

One of the greats has left us.

PREY saved the Predator franchise, broke cannon, confused the mission of the interstellar hunter but................. it's a must watch and a further definition on how meaningless theaters have become.

What a painful entry. Where did the 80 million go?

Predators might be the best of the franchise, this is a totally complete flick that gives the audience everything it would want. The crime is we did not get more if The Predator hunt worlds.

How can we overlook the solutions this movie solves as well as how much of it is borrowed for Ridley Scotts Prometheus?

1990 and 1991 may have been the greatest two years of franchise sequel which included Predator 2 an expansion of the rules and mythology of the first with some newly added layers. Also of note is Predator 2's style in its depiction of a run-down city one that would later influence The Crow and Blade.

A case for the greatest sci-fi movie of all time 1987's Predator.

The internet came in hot for this one so lets see how exactly these LBGTQ+ scenes play out in the narrative structure of this animated feature.

Marvel want's us to get excited for another Phase of content filled with characters we care about and know little about.

Wow, MCU'ers this one is a tough shell to crack. So let's have a look at the hate and love for Thor Love and Thunder. Peter A DeLuca unpacks a hell of a lot with this analysis that is not the last.

Yes, believe it. The internet missed the point of the end credit sequence. That is until now.

Jared Leto gives us another solid superhero performance in a movie that the internet loved to hate. And that's odd because the much-delayed Morbius is fun and fantastic to look at.

Andy Serkis directed an expansion of mythology, relationships, and pow sets in the sequel to the 2018 smash-hit Venom. However, the "critics" had a lot of issues with this movie despite the problems it solved from the source material.

Sony was correct in what they wanted from Spider-Man 3.

Venom Let There be Carnage blew the biggest end credit scene of all time.

Disnley+ delivers the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most confusing in continuity show yet. But, is the intent really a head-scratcher, or are other "ideas" getting in the way of the question this show answers?

Like nearly everything from the modern-day MCU Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is two films in one.

Is Spider-Man No Way Home to film to thank for our current theatrical experiences? Your host Peter A DeLuca AKAPAD The Pop Culture Pope says, YES!!! Also, he is confused about how to even look at a film such as this.

For AKAPAD's Audio Audacity episode 460 we bring you the 6th and final installment of the Loki Series 1 and it might be the best single hour we have yet to see from the entire MCU.

It's been a long time since the film world has NOT had the marvel cinematic universe. Well..... with a lot of time and content passed what The Pop Culture Popes' view of what is known as the MCU is?

It's been a long wait to finally see Moon Knight on screen.

Has the point of a show been lost with the pursuit of endless MCU connections, does the dislike for Hawkeye prove that fans can't have fun with the MCU?

Where the Day Takes You is an important forgotten runaway homeless drama that embeds itself perfectly in 90's style of independent filmmaking. Paired perfectly with Kids and The Laws of Gravity. Oh, and yes Will Smith too.

Ali is a good Oscar Bait Biopic that falls short of what an Oscar movie would be. It's a difficult movie to process with no real emotional anchors. We needed to feel more of Ali's plight with this venture.

Gemini Man is a movie that finally made it out of development hell to be made by the best of the best in Hollywood. So.....is the Will Smith VS Will Smith movie any good?

Let's define a con movie. What other films qualify as such? Margot Robbie and Will Smith collaborate for the first time is a film that looks as sexy as it sounds.

M. Night Shyamalan and Will Smith went through a rough patch at one point, this film is a convergence of that. However, many people have overlooked the trends that After Earth may have jump-started.

Men in Black 3 might have created a perfect Sci-Fi time travel loop and in so established Men in Black as the greatest Sci-Fi Trilogy second to Austin Powers.