Hate Watching with Dan and Tony

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A movie can look amazing and still feel weirdly empty, and Super 8 is our favorite kind of argument because it sits right on that line. We are supposed to be doing Halloween movies, but we take a detour into the mind of J.J. Abrams and pick apart why his Spielberg-style nostalgia machine works in flashes, then falls apart the second you ask it to make sense.

We talk through the big comparisons everyone makes: Super 8 versus Stranger Things, and why “kids on bikes” stories only hit when the kids actually seem like friends you want to hang out with. We dig into what feels off, from characters missing real arcs, to clues like maps and the water tower that get teased then ignored, to a third act that solves problems by skipping the satisfying steps. Then we get into the set pieces: the train crash, the space cubes, the too-visible monster, and the military plot logic that never adds up.

It is not all roasting. We give credit where it is due: the movie is beautifully shot, and Michael Giacchino’s score rules. We also swing through Abrams’ broader track record, including a quick Lost debate, and close out with what we watched this week plus our next pick, Russell Crowe in The Pope’s Exorcist. Subscribe, share this with a fellow movie nerd, and leave a review. Are you Team “Super 8 Is Fun” or Team “Super 8 Is Broken”?

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

And follow the podcast on IG: @hatewatchingDAT

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A quiet Midwest suburb in 1982 gets cut out of the world and dropped into dinosaur times. That pitch should print money. Instead, we spend this conversation picking apart why a great high concept can still collapse when the movie refuses to build clear geography, believable survival behavior, or any meaningful setup and payoff. We keep it spoiler-heavy, because the details are the whole point: the “two-mile perimeter,” the random wandering, the missing sense of destination, and the way tension keeps getting teed up and then ignored. 

We also get into what we think genre stories owe the audience. If your premise is time travel and prehistoric monsters, we can absolutely suspend disbelief about air quality or dinosaur biology. What we can’t forgive is a story that breaks its own internal logic, shrugs at the consequences, and then asks for an emotional landing anyway. That takes us straight into the ending: the payphone, the pizza call, the timeline implications, and why it turns the final act into a moral mess the film never addresses. 

Along the way we nerd out on craft and tone: the attempt at an authentic 1982 vibe, the film grain slapped on in post, and a very heated rant about split diopter shots used like a film school party trick. We shout out the moments that do work, too, especially some striking dinosaur-in-the-neighborhood imagery and one genuinely heroic beat that belongs to the dog. 

If you enjoy movie reviews, horror and sci-fi criticism, screenwriting talk, and the difference between “implausible” and “badly written,” hit play. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who loves creature features, and leave us a review with the one change you’d make to fix this movie.

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

And follow the podcast on IG: @hatewatchingDAT

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A castle in the Carpathians. Edgar Allan Poe name-drops. Secret doors, earthquakes, torture devices, and a title that promises haunted hills. So why does Elvira’s Haunted Hills feel like it forgot to include a story, or even a consistent joke? We put on our bad movie review hats and hate-watch our way through the 2002 horror comedy, calling out the dead-air pacing, bits that vanish for an hour, and scenes that play like everyone is waiting for their turn instead of actually playing together.

Along the way, we untangle a big misunderstanding: what Elvira is supposed to be. We talk about her roots as a classic TV horror host (think Svengoolie energy), why that persona can work on late-night television, and why it’s harder to stretch into a feature film without clear character motivation. If you like screenwriting and improv craft, we get nerdy about the core rule that makes comedy land: either the character is absurd in a grounded world, or the world has one clear broken premise. When everything is equally “wacky,” nothing has contrast, stakes, or payoff.

We also compare the movie’s approach to parody touchstones like Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Austin Powers, and even the shadow of Young Frankenstein, then we wrap with what we’re watching for real: Josh Hartnett’s Netflix series Below and Mike Flanagan’s Carrie. Subscribe, share the show with a fellow Halloween-movie addict, and leave a review. What’s your favorite “vibes only” October movie that completely forgets to be scary?

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

And follow the podcast on IG: @hatewatchingDAT

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One tiny detail can reveal everything that is broken about a movie, and for us it is this: the film cannot decide whether it lives in “Raccoon City” or the “City of Raccoon.” From there, we hit the gas and speed run Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), the franchise reboot that aims for faithful video game adaptation and lands in a weird limbo where the references are loud but the storytelling is missing.

We walk through the orphanage setup, Claire’s return, the hitchhiking chaos, the zombie dog nod, and the sudden “everyone is a cop” police station reveal, all while asking the same question: what is the movie trying to make us feel right now? We break down why the pacing never locks in, why the geography and timeline feel slippery, and how the edit keeps skipping the hard part of horror and action which is making the stakes legible. We also talk cast, character work, and why a handful of jump scares and attractive leads cannot replace structure, motivation, and payoff.

Along the way we take a quick detour into a very modern horror story: AI tools that confidently feed you wrong information, and how that same lack of trust shows up when a movie refuses to play by consistent rules. We close with what we are watching this week and tease next week’s Halloween pick, Elvira’s Haunted Hills, for a much-needed shift into horror comedy.

Subscribe for more movie breakdowns, share the episode with a friend who loves Resident Evil, and leave a review with your hottest take: what is the most unforgivable sin in a video game movie adaptation?

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Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

And follow the podcast on IG: @hatewatchingDAT

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M3GAN 2.0 should be an easy win: take a killer doll with attitude, push the horror, sharpen the satire, and give us a few scenes that people quote for years. Instead, we walk straight into a sequel that feels like it’s chasing a totally different movie, swapping dread for generic action beats and then forgetting to make those action beats exciting. We’re Dan and Tony, and we spend this one doing what the film refuses to do: actually look at what makes M3GAN fun, what makes a sequel work, and why “bigger” so often means “blander.”

We break down the plot that sprints from Iran to secret labs to billionaire parties, somehow involving nerve gas, an AI built around a motherboard that’s been “cooking” since 1984, and a second robot who’s basically “I’m a murder robot” with no flavor. We talk through the missing set pieces, the off-screen fights, the character whiplash, and the way the movie tries to wink at genre tropes without understanding them. And yes, we finally spotlight the single line that made us laugh, plus the running weirdness of Steven Seagal references and the “Jim muscles” joke that almost works.

Then we widen the lens to the episode’s bigger rabbit holes: what AI regulation could actually mean, why always-listening pocket devices feel dystopian, and which horror subgenre still gets under our skin. We also share what we’ve been enjoying lately, including a surprisingly tense new Resident Evil from Zach Cregger, plus Dan’s descent into a brutal Willy Wonka reality competition show. Stick around to hear our next watch pick: Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City (2021).

Subscribe for more movie hate-watching, share the episode with a friend who loves bad sequels, and leave a review with your hottest take: what’s the most disappointing genre switch a franchise has pulled?

Written lovingly by AI
Be our friend!

Dan: @shakybacon
Tony: @tonydczech

And follow the podcast on IG: @hatewatchingDAT