Best Film Ever

“We're doing our part”

Join Ian, Liam, Megs & Kev for our 315th episode as we suit up, grab the propaganda reel, and drop feet-first into Paul Verhoeven’s gloriously misunderstood sci-fi satire Starship Troopers (1997). It’s bugs, blood, and bare-faced ideology this week as we try to work out whether this film knew exactly what it was doing all along. Do you want to know more?

This week we discuss:

The tone problem (or lack thereof) — is Starship Troopers a dumb action movie, a razor-sharp satire, or both at the same time?

Paul Verhoeven’s intent — does the film critique fascism so hard that some audiences miss the joke entirely?

The performances — intentionally wooden propaganda archetypes, or just bad acting elevated by context?

The aesthetics of fascism — uniforms, slogans, and spectacle. Why does the film make authoritarianism look so seductive?

Ian breaks down the film’s satirical mechanics — how exaggeration, repetition, and irony do the heavy lifting.

Liam explores audience reception — why the film was misunderstood on release and reclaimed years later.

Megs looks at gender and violence — equal-opportunity brutality, shower scenes, and the illusion of empowerment.

Kev weighs in on the action — but don't get him started on the never-ending rounds of bullets

The enemy — are the Arachnids monsters, victims, or an invented threat to justify endless war?

The propaganda interstitials — world-building masterstrokes or narrative interruptions?

Synthia joins us for The Endgame — helping us unpack the film’s legacy, its political bite, and why it feels even more relevant now than it did in 1997.

The ending — triumphant, horrifying, or both? What are we actually meant to cheer for?

And finally, whether Starship Troopers is the Best Film Ever — or one of the smartest films ever disguised as a stupid one.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are extremely thankful to our following Patrons for their most generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Andy Dickson

Chris Pedersen

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Cheezy (with a fish on a bike)

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Aashrey

Paul Komoroski

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

“Everybody be cool.”

Join Ian & Liam for our 314th episode as we cross the border, miss the last turn-off to sanity, and crash headlong into Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s genre-shredding cult classic From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). Megs isn’t with us this week — she took a job managing the Titty Twister and immediately exercised her right to not be around for what happened next. Kev? Last seen arguing with a biker about tequila and quietly backing away when things started growing fangs.

This week we discuss:

The hard genre pivot — crime thriller to vampire splatterfest. Is this one of cinema’s boldest structural swings or an act of deliberate sabotage?

The first half vs. the second half — which film do we actually prefer, and should they ever have been stitched together in the first place?

George Clooney’s breakout performance — cool, controlled, and shockingly confident. Did this film secretly create a movie star?

Quentin Tarantino the actor — indulgent, uncomfortable, and deeply divisive. Does his presence add anything, or actively derail the film?

Ian questions the film’s tonal discipline — is chaos the point, or does excess eventually become exhaustion?

Liam explores the film’s grindhouse DNA — exploitation homage, midnight-movie energy, and why this works better at 11:30pm than 2:00pm.

Salma Hayek’s iconic sequence — empowerment, objectification, or pure genre spectacle? We unpack why this moment still sparks debate.

The violence escalation — gleeful, grotesque, and increasingly cartoonish. Where does fun end and numbness begin?

The rules of the vampires and the timing of when characters turn  — clear, flexible, or completely improvised depending on the scene?

You won't believe the piece of literature that Ian wants to compare this to

The ending — aftermath, absurdity, and the sudden return to moral quiet after absolute carnage.

And finally, whether From Dusk Till Dawn is the Best Film Ever — or simply the wildest left turn ever taken by a mainstream ’90s movie.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are extremely thankful to our following Patrons for their most generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Andy Dickson

Chris Pedersen

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Cheezy (with a fish on a bike)

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Aashrey

Paul Komoroski

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

“You can’t handle the truth.”

Join Ian & Liam for our 313th episode as we step into the pressurised courtroom, moral brinkmanship, and razor-sharp dialogue of Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men (1992). Button up the dress whites, take your seats, and prepare for a film obsessed with duty, power, and the stories institutions tell themselves to survive.

This week we discuss:

Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue as a weapon — rhythm, repetition, and confrontation. Is this peak Sorkin, or the moment his style becomes unmistakably dominant?

Tom Cruise as Lt. Kaffee — charming, evasive, underestimated. Is this Cruise’s most interesting performance precisely because he starts behind the power curve?

Jack Nicholson’s Colonel Jessup — operatic, terrifying, magnetic. Does the film become his the moment he enters it?

The courtroom structure — how the film drip-feeds information, builds pressure, and engineers one of the most famous climaxes in cinema history.

The ethics at the heart of the story — where does responsibility lie: with the men who carried out orders, or the system that created them?

Ian talks about criticisms of the ending and if they're reading the film correctly 

We explores how masculinity functions in the film — honour, obedience, pride, and camaraderie

The supporting cast — Demi Moore’s steely professionalism, Kevin Bacon’s moral slipperiness, and who almost got Kevin Pollak's role

That scene — inevitability versus surprise. Does the famous monologue work because it’s shocking, or because it feels unavoidable?

The ending — justice served, or merely order restored? What actually changes once the truth is out?

And finally, whether A Few Good Men is the Best Film Ever — or simply one of the most watchable, endlessly quotable courtroom dramas ever made.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are extremely thankful to our following Patrons for their most generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Andy Dickson

Chris Pedersen

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Cheezy (with a fish on a bike)

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Aashrey

Paul Komoroski

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

“Somebody almost walked off wiith all my stuff.”

Join Ian & Liam for our 312th episode as we step into the emotionally raw, confrontational, and fiercely theatrical world of For Colored Girls (2010) — a film that asks big questions about pain, survival, and voice, and demands we sit with the discomfort of its delivery. We’re later joined by BFF of the BFE: Juleen for The Endgame, as we try to make sense of what hits hardest… and what doesn’t land at all.

This week we discuss:

Whether For Colored Girls successfully translates from stage to screen — or if something vital is lost in the move from choreopoem to cinema.

The central tension — is it possible to fully agree with a film’s message and still believe it’s not a well-made film?

The sheer level of star power — and why the performances feel wildly disparate. Which ones moved us, which ones frustrated us, and which ones actively pulled us out of the film.

Who unexpectedly steals the show — emerging from the ensemble to deliver a performance that cuts through everything else.

The question of tone — is there simply too much poetry here, even when it’s beautifully spoken and powerfully performed?

How close this film came to being worse — and how an originally cast actress’s pregnancy may have unintentionally saved the film from an even harsher imbalance.

Ian questions the film’s direction and framing — does Tyler Perry trust the material enough, or does the camera overemphasise emotion that should be allowed to breathe?

Liam explores the film’s confrontational style — is the lack of subtlety a flaw, or is subtlety beside the point entirely?

The emotional toll — is the film asking us to witness pain, process it, or simply endure it?

Juleen joins us for The Endgame — bringing insight, perspective, and lived context to the discussion, and helping us unpack what the film is reaching for, even when it misses.

The ending — cathartic, overwhelming, or emotionally blunt? We unpack whether the final moments feel earned.

And finally, whether For Colored Girls is the Best Film Ever — or a deeply important work whose ambition outpaces its execution.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are extremely thankful to our following Patrons for their most generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Andy Dickson

Chris Pedersen

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Cheezy (with a fish on a bike)

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Aashrey

Paul Komoroski

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

It’s another edition of See It or Skip It, and this time Ian is joined by Kev and Megs as they click their heels, defy gravity (again), and head back to Oz for Wicked: For Good — the second chapter of the long-awaited big-screen adaptation of the Broadway phenomenon.

But does Wicked: For Good stick the landing, or does splitting the story in two finally come back to haunt it? Ian, Kev, and Megs unpack whether this concluding chapter delivers the emotional payoff fans have been promised — or whether it buckles under the weight of expectation, spectacle, and inevitability.

Is the heart still there? Do Elphaba and Glinda’s journeys feel earned, devastating, and cathartic — or overly polished and pre-packaged? The trio dig into performances, musical moments, and whether the film earns its big themes about power, friendship, compromise, and legacy.

Can a story everyone knows still surprise you? Does For Good justify its existence as a standalone film, or does it feel like the second act stretched to breaking point?

All this and more in this week’s See It or Skip It review of Wicked: For Good — and of course, Ian, Kev, and Megs will let you know if you should SEE IT or SKIP IT.