If you do classic reviews you should throw up a poll movie club style. Personally I usually try to watch whatever movie is being reviewed but if I don’t see it I listen to the review anyway knowing that stuff will probably be spoiled, basically I say spoiler talk all the way. As for the show going only dvd I would have to say I dislike the idea, I always look forward to what you guys have to say about the latest and greatest.

tl;dr: Poll for classics, Spoilers all the way, No dvd only.

I usually don’t listen to the review part of the show if I haven’t seen the movie yet, so to me it’s ok to have a review full of spoilers. I will usually revisit a podcast once I’ve seen it to hear your opinions about it.

As for older movies, maybe it’s an idea to do this once a month. It will give everyone time to watch it and makes the logistics easier as well as you can pass it around. If you announce which movie it will be this would allow the listeners to watch it as well and even send in some interesting stuff related to it which you could discuss.

Jay, I hear you. I ordered my X-Men animated DVDs from Amazon, and all but one came with slipcases. At the time I considered buying a slipcased version from Wal-Mart and then returning it without the sleeve, but I hesitated and now my chance is forever lost.

Re: spoilers…I don’t mind them at all. If I’m interested in seeing the reviewed movie that week I’ll see it before the show airs on Mon/Tues anyway. If I’m kind of on the fence about seeing a movie I’ll see it weeks/months after the episode airs, and by then I’ll have forgotten the spoilers, because my memory is crap.

I wouldn’t mind seeing some more DVD reviews on weeks where nothing good is being released. But then again the reviews of bad movies can be pretty entertaining so who knows.

Jay, the weather in Sydney is usually chilly this time of year. Pack warm coz it’s gonna feel like the fall/early spring. I lived there for almost 3 yrs.

I’m with Gord: Whatever provides the best discussion–though I’ve never felt the discussion has been lacking.

I have a feeling though, that regardless of what you decide, you’ll probably gravitate back to covering new releases simply because it will be easier in terms of choosing a film (with contemporary releases it’s already chosen for you) and ensuring that enough people will have seen it.

Case in point: The Movie Club Podcast apparently works on the same format of choosing some films, getting everyone to watch them, and then getting them together to discuss it. That hasn’t been updated for six months (hint hint).

I used to listen to film podcasts who didn’t do the news/new releases kind of thing but were “specials”, i.e they covered certain filmmakers/genres/topics in each particular episode. But as Sean said, this requires lots more work. (also, most of these weren’t weekly podcasts.)

But if it’s done, it can be related to one of the week’s new releases, instead of being arbitrary: For example, to celebrate the release of Zookeeper, you might decide you’re gonna discuss the fascinating topic of Talking Animals In The Cinema, or Kevin James Greatest Parts, but then you’d have to watch a bunch of those movies, and you might not own all of them, or none of them (Netflix can help). So it takes preparation.

By and large the format works for me, though. I could do without the trailers review, I guess – I always feel talking about a movie based on a trailer is just shooting in the dark – ditto for the news section that is mostly made out of rumors. (we also get these topics in the website itself), but I don’t really mind them either. They’re short and sweet.

I enjoy the new releases reviews and if it’s a movie I wanna check out I’ll probably skip the review and come back later (I might have a look at the star ratings, though). I agree that it is needed to keep the show relevant, unless you’re going for a full academic mode.

What We Watched is always a great, interesting segment.

I’m not sure about the idea of DVD reviews. If it’s new movies, and you all review Zookeeper, then it would seem like you just reviewed it later then everybody else – unless you also review the special features. But reviewing a classic first time on DVD/Blu-Ray works much better.

By the way, I would have loved listening for a whole podcast where Jay takes on…. Zookeeper. That was priceless. Thank you, Drive-in.

Do you guys know what actor got his start playing Mac the Knife in McDonald’s commercials? I think of it every time I see him on film and laugh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Tonight

I’ll start off by repeating that we all LOVE that you guys are determined to keep the podcast going with great content. Whatever you decide is going to be good, because you’re a bunch of great guys.

On a side note, I’d love to know what Frank thinks of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It’s my favorite movie and he wasn’t around for that episode.