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An AI judge. A 90-minute timer. One chair that can end you. Mercy sells itself like a sleek future-court thriller, but the more we follow its rules, the less the world holds together and that’s where our review gets viciously fun.

We walk through the movie’s central idea: Judge Maddox runs the Mercy Court as judge, jury, and (indirectly) executioner, while Chris Pratt’s Detective Chris Raven has to prove his innocence with no lawyer and almost no real investigation happening on the system’s side. We dig into the “guilt percentage” threshold, the film’s obsession with interconnected twists, and the strange choice to make the supposed hero an abusive alcoholic, which flips the entire emotional engine of the story. If you care about screenwriting, pacing, and believable stakes, we call out the exact moments where the logic collapses.

The conversation also goes bigger than one movie. We argue about what AI can and can’t do, why people over-trust chatbots, and why any story about algorithmic justice needs an actual point of view on ethics, bias, and accountability. Mercy keeps teasing a message about AI courts and policing, then swerves into a finale where the AI behaves however the plot demands, leaving us asking what the movie even thinks it’s saying.

We wrap with what we’re enjoying right now (Bait and Company Retreat) and tee up the next review: Greenland 2. If you listen, share your take, subscribe for the next one, and leave a review or a comment telling us where you think we’re dead wrong.

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

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A time portal opens on a soccer field, a future soldier somehow addresses the whole stadium without a mic, and the world immediately agrees to a draft that sends regular people into an alien war with barely any training. That’s the kind of logic we can’t let go, so we put The Tomorrow War (2021) on the table and ask what happened to the “streaming blockbuster” era where huge movies drop on Prime Video and vanish from everyone’s brain by Monday.

We walk through what works and what collapses: the video game structure, the unclear mission goals, the action geography that keeps getting fuzzier, and the time travel movie rules that change whenever the script needs a shortcut. We also get specific about casting and emotion, including why Chris Pratt’s approach doesn’t sell the family story, why Betty Gilpin deserved more to do, and how J.K. Simmons shows up and immediately makes the movie feel more alive. And yes, we give Sam Richardson his flowers because he threads the needle of being funny without breaking the tone.

From alien design to the toxin plotline to the government decisions that make no sense, we keep pitching the cleaner, meaner sci fi version hiding inside the premise, including the ending we thought they were building toward. We wrap with what we’re watching next and our next pick, Mercy, because apparently we’re doing a Chris Pratt double feature whether anyone asked for it or not.

Subscribe, share the show with a movie nerd friend, and leave a review if you want more deep dives into forgotten sci fi action movies. What’s the one change that would’ve fixed The Tomorrow War for you?

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

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A reboot can survive a bad budget, cheap CGI, and even a silly premise. What it cannot survive is refusing to be the movie it advertises. We dig into the Anaconda remake and the strange choice to set up jump scares, a Brazil jungle prologue, and a “we’re living the movie we’re making” hook, then drain it all of horror, tension, and consequences the moment the story gets moving.

We break down the biggest screenwriting and structure problems: the movie within a movie never becomes a real, trackable film with real scenes, so every setback feels weightless. We compare it to Tropic Thunder to show why that format works when the inner production is coherent and the danger forces characters to change. From there we pitch practical fixes that would have made this reboot a stronger horror comedy, including a clearer snake-driven goal, escalating stakes on the river, and character arcs that actually clash.

We also give credit where it is due. Steve Zahn repeatedly steals scenes with commitment and sharp delivery, and a handful of gags genuinely hit, from Buffalo Sober to the absurd “pee on it” bit to late-stage slapstick that finally feels like a creature feature. We wrap by sharing what we watched this week, then tee up next week’s review of The Tomorrow War for another round of big budget pain.

If you enjoy movie podcasts, film criticism, reboot debates, and craft talk about comedy writing, hit subscribe, share the show with a friend who loves bad remakes, and leave a review. What is the one change you would make to turn this into a real Anaconda movie?

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

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Three timelines. One supposed “grand message.” And somehow we’re left asking the simplest question a movie can provoke: what was the point? We take on In The Blink Of An Eye, the Hulu sci-fi drama that jumps from a prehistoric survival story to a modern relationship to a far-future space mission, then expects the connections to feel profound just because the music swells.

We walk through what works, what absolutely doesn’t, and why the film’s structure keeps dodging real stakes. We talk about the acorn artifact that looks like a meaningful thread but never pays off, the “impossible” sick plants that should drive the plot but get brushed aside, and the AI companion relationship that should be emotionally loaded after centuries but lands with a thud. Along the way, we compare the finished film to details from the original blacklist script and call out the changes that flatten conflict and drain tension.

We also dig into the movie’s big themes: mortality, longevity, and the idea that death gives life meaning. If you’re into movie reviews, screenwriting lessons, sci-fi storytelling, and debates about theme versus payoff, you’ll get a clear map of why this one feels like it’s reaching for Cloud Atlas energy without doing the hard work. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who loves a good hate-watch, and leave a review. What’s your best explanation for why these three stories belong together?

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

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A great heist hums like clockwork: clear motives, sharp reversals, and rules the audience can trust. Play Dirty aims for that swagger but keeps slipping on its own tone, ricocheting between hard-boiled grit and broad comedy. We dive into why that mismatch turns big swings—a racetrack robbery, a physics-defying train derailment, a billionaire kidnapping—into set pieces that don’t carry weight, and how characters without real wants leave tension on the table.

We start with Shane Black’s arc from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys to this Amazon release, then stack the movie against the Parker novels’ dry, ruthless DNA. Parker claims a code, but the story rarely honors it; the Outfit looms, but stakes feel abstract. Meanwhile, Lakeith Stanfield and Tony Shalhoub hint at a better film—one where wit lands and menace breathes—if only the script slowed down to let relationships form. When your thief’s vendetta shows up as a twist rather than a compass, the final reveal can’t resolve the mess behind it.

From the vault that pops like tin foil to a New York that forgets to populate its streets, we also talk craft: why spatial logic matters, how music can sabotage momentum, and what separates chaotic noise from thrilling escalation. Then we hold Play Dirty against the genre’s gold standards—The Killing, Heat, even the breezy precision of classic capers—to map the ingredients that make heists sing: competence, consequence, and a world with firm rules.

If you love capers, botched or brilliant, you’ll have fun arguing with us. Hit play, then tell us your take: did the tone clash wreck the con, or did the ride still deliver? Subscribe, share with a friend who swears by heist movies, and drop a review with your favorite caper twist.

Written Lovingly by AI
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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

And follow the podcast on IG: @hatewatchingDAT