Happy New Year everyone! Especially to you fellow listeners of the Holmes Movies Podcast.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Goodbye 2025. Hello 2026. Let's make this our year.

Our plan was to make and record a festive Fascism On Film episode, but we decided to change our plans. On December 14th, filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer Reiner were found murdered in their home. An absolutely shocking and tragic loss and crime. Rob Reiner made some terrific films and left a real mark on cinema with his work. Him and his wife Michelle were political activists. Michelle was an advocate and fought for LGBTQ rights and helped support wrongly convicted prisoners as part of the Innocence Project. Our hearts go out their children Romy and Jake. Along with paying tribute to Rob and Michelle, we also discuss actors who passed away in 2025 and honour them and their work. Then we end on a high note and talk about which films we saw in 2025 defined our year and made a good impression on us.

We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes in 2026. We will be recording more Fascism On Film episodes and also as Awards Season is around the corner, we will also be recording new Alternative Oscars episodes.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US. In Finland, it will be released in cinemas on November 5th. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website.

Follow us on our Instagram page. For obvious reasons, we are no longer on Twitter. You won't find us there. Perhaps we will make a BlueSky account, so keep an eye out for that.

Follow our Letterboxd page where you can see what we were recommending to each other over the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Check out our blog and read Anders's recent review on The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"HEAD and HANDS need a mediator. THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN HEAD AND HANDS MUST BE THE HEART!"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Holmes Movies Podcast team. Here's to a more prosperous and great 2026.

Welcome to the ninth episode of our ongoing series: Fascism On Film. Each episode of this series, the Holmes Brothers look and review a film that has to do with fascism. During the episodes, the brothers look and see how the aspects and portrayal of fascism shown in the film relate to current and/or past events.

On this Fascism on Film episode, the Holmes Brothers look at Fritz Lang's colossally influential science fiction epic, Metropolis. Released in 1927, Metropolis is a masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema that has inspired every sci fi movie from Star Wars to Blade Runner to even Tim Burton's Batman films. The film has even inspired music videos like Queen's Radio Ga-Ga and Madonna's Express Yourself, the music video for this song was directed by David Fincher. The film is set in a futuristic world. A sprawling concrete jungle that is reminiscent of Manhattan. The working class work below in the bowels of the city keeping it running while the wealthy upper class live up in decadence. Freder (played by Gustav Fröhlich), the son of a wealthy city master, falls in love with Maria a saintly and beautiful girl. She is kidnapped and she is used to bring the robot designed and built by Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge). Using Maria's likeness, the Machine causes chaos and Maria and Freder try to help save and bridge the divide between the people.

We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes of this Fascism On Film series.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US. In Finland, it will be released in cinemas on November 5th. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website.

Follow us on our Instagram page. For obvious reasons, we are no longer on Twitter. You won't find us there. Perhaps we will make a BlueSky account, so keep an eye out for that.

Follow our Letterboxd page where you can see what we were recommending to each other over the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Check out our blog and read Anders's recent review on The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

EPISODE NOTE: Apologies for the late release of this episode. We wanted to release a while ago after recording the episode in late November. As Anders has recently started a new job, there was a delay getting the episode out in time. We will try to be better with this in the future. Enjoy the episode.

"There are two people in this barracks who know I didn't do it. Me and the guy that did do it."

Welcome to the eighth episode of our ongoing series: Fascism On Film. Each episode of this series, the Holmes Brothers look and review a film that has to do with fascism. During the episodes, the brothers look and see how the aspects and portrayal of fascism shown in the film relate to current and/or past events.

On this Fascism on Film episode, the Holmes Brothers look at Stalag 17, directed by the great Billy Wilder. It stars William Holden who heads an all-star cast that includes Otto Preminger. Holden won his first and only Oscar for the film. An award he should have already won for Sunset Boulevard and he also should have won for Network. The film is set in a German P.O.W Camp during 1944. We focus on one barracks where American prisoners try to stay sane while the war carries on in the background. They get up to various shenanigans and plan numerous escape plans. Their German captors start to know all their secrets and the prisoners begin to believe one of the men in the barracks is an informant for the Germans. Suspicion falls on Sefton, Holden's character, a cynical man who makes bets and openly barters with the Germans for special privileges.

We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes of this Fascism On Film series.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US. In Finland, it will be released in cinemas on November 5th. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website.

Follow us on our Instagram page. For obvious reasons, we are no longer on Twitter. You won't find us there. Perhaps we will make a BlueSky account, so keep an eye out for that.

Follow our Letterboxd page where you can see what we were recommending to each other over the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Check out our blog and read Anders's recent review on The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"All you've got to know is this: right now the government of the United States is sitting on top of the Washington Monument, right on the very point, tipping right and left and ready to fall off and break up on the pavement. There are just a handful of men who can prevent that. And you're one of them."

Welcome to the seventh episode of our ongoing series: Fascism On Film. Each episode of this series, the Holmes Brothers look and review a film that has to do with fascism. During the episodes, the brothers look and see how the aspects and portrayal of fascism shown in the film relate to current and/or past events.

On this Fascism on Film episode, the Holmes Brothers look at the John Frankenheimer film Seven Days In May, starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Kirk Douglas, Edmund O'Brien and Fredric March. Written by the great and legendary Rod Serling, this political thriller is about a military coup/cabal headed by Lancaster's character: US Air Force General James Mattoon Scott, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This conspiracy plans to overthrow the government and replace the unpopular President Jordan Lyman with General Scott. Kirk Douglas's Colonel Martin 'Jiggs' Casey and US Senator Ray Clark try to stop the cabal before it is put into effect in seven days. Though released in the 1960s in the wake of the Kennedy Assassination and McCarthyism, this very topical film is an exciting picture and worth a watch. A suspenseful and fun film from Frankenheimer and it's bolstered by a strong screenplay from Serling and its talented all star cast.

We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes of this Fascism On Film series.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US. In Finland, it will be released in cinemas on November 5th. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website.

Follow us on our Instagram page. For obvious reasons, we are no longer on Twitter. You won't find us there. Perhaps we will make a BlueSky account, so keep an eye out for that.

Follow our Letterboxd page where you can see what we were recommending to each other over the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Check out our blog and read Anders's recent review on The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello!

Anders Holmes is back with another solo Anders Reviews. . . episode. Halloween maybe is over, but that won't stop Anders from talking about two of his favourite horror films. Much like the Demon Knight & Bones episode, he reviews not one, but two films. Joy Ride, released in 2001 and directed by John Dahl. It was co-written by JJ Abrams, he wrote the script with Clay Tarver. And the second film and final film is The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell.

Both films make great use of their desolate and claustrophobic desert locations. Wide open roads, seedy small towns and gas stations. The two films belong to a category of films that Anders refers to as Road Horror Films. Road Terror Films or simply Highway to Hell Films. Joy Ride stars Paul Walker, Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski who set out on a road trip and are menaced by a murderous and mysterious truck driver after a prank goes fatally wrong. In The Hitcher, C. Thomas Howell is driving a rental car from Chicago to Los Angeles who makes the mistake of picking up Rutger Hauer's John Ryder and proceeds to make Howell's life a living hell. Joy Ride and The Hitcher are fun and suspenseful horror films set in middle of nowhere America. They both earn their cult status.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US. In Finland, it will be released in cinemas on November 5th. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website. The two films mentioned in this episode served as influence and inspiration for when Anders was working on the script.

Follow us on our Instagram page. For obvious reasons, we are no longer on Twitter. You won't find us there. Perhaps we will make a BlueSky account, so keep an eye out for that.

Follow our Letterboxd page where you can see what we were recommending to each other over the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic:

Check out our blog and read Anders's written review on The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I'm a master of deceit: a capitalist tool by day, and by night an agent of the proletarian masses - the Mata Hari of the Economic Miracle." - Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla)

Welcome to the sixth episode of our ongoing series: Fascism On Film. Each episode of this series, the Holmes Brothers look and review a film that has to do with fascism. During the episodes, the brothers look and see how the aspects and portrayal of fascism shown in the film relate to current and/or past events.

On this episode of Fascism On Film, the Holmes Brothers reunite to discuss The Marriage Of Maria Braun, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The film stars Hanna Schygulla as the titular character. Maria marries Hermann Braun during the final days of the Second World War. He ships off to the Eastern Front after their quick wedding. He goes missing and is presumed dead. Maria puts her beauty and tenacious ambition to good use in order to find prosperity during Germany's "economic miracle". The film shows ten years of her life following the end of the Second World War and all the way up to when Germany plays against Hungary during the 1954 World Cup Final. A leading figure of the New German Cinema movement, Fassbinder's film is a must see.

We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes of this Fascism On Film series.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US. In Finland, it will be released in cinemas on November 5th. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website.

Follow us on our Instagram page. For obvious reasons, we are no longer on Twitter. You won't find us there. Perhaps we will make a BlueSky account, so keep an eye out for that.

Follow our Letterboxd page where you can see what we were recommending to each other over the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic:

Check out our blog and read Anders's recent review on The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone! Anders Holmes is here with another solo episode where he reviews Frank Darabont's The Mist, adapted from the short story written by Stephen King.

As it is spooky season (October aka Scary Movie Month) and Halloween is on the way, Anders Holmes will be talking about some of his favourite horror films in these solo Anders Reviews episodes. Horrors film that are some of his favourites, films that have made a big impression on him and films that people should check out. Whether they be fans of the genre or not.

In this episode, Anders reviews The Mist directed by Frank Darabont and based off the Stephen King short story featured in his book: Skeleton Crew. The Mist was released in 2007 and it capped off Frank Darabont's un-official Stephen King trilogy. He had previously written and directed two beloved pieces of cinema: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Both adapted from Stephen King's short stories. Darabont is no stranger to the world of horror and had written A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors. His work with Stephen King started back when he was 20 years old when he adapted a short story of his. This was part of Stephen King's Dollar Deal programme, where aspiring filmmakers could adapt and buy the rights to one of his short stories for a dollar. This was discontinued a few years ago. The Mist stars Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Andre Braugher. A group of people are trapped in a supermarket when a strange mist engulfs the town after a big thunderstorm. Their troubles do not end there as Lovecraftian and cosmic monsters come out of the mist and attack them. In the world of social media, misinformation and also living in a Covid-19 world, The Mist is a perfect film for our fragile times. It wonderfully reflects the divisive world of today, just as it did back in 2007 when it reflected the post 9/11 atmosphere and the Bush Era in America. A frightening and intense social-political horror reminiscent of the work created by Night of the Living Dead filmmaker: George A Romero.

We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more solo episodes from Anders during this year's spooky season. Stay tuned for our upcoming Fascism on Film episode on The Marriage of Maria Braun. Also do listen to our Robert Redford Special.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work soon in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film will be released in select cinemas in the US on October 17th and in Finland on November 5th. You can read a review about the film here on the Fangoria website.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Follow us on our Instagram page.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

EPISODE NOTE: On the episode when talking about Jada Pinkett Smith's character, Anders gets her character name wrong. It's pronounced Jery-line. Not Jeryl-line as Anders says. Apologies for the mistake.

Hello everyone! Anders Holmes is here with another solo episode where he reviews two Ernest Dickerson films - Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight and Bones.

As it is spooky season (October aka Scary Movie Month) and Halloween is on the way, Anders Holmes will be talking about some of his favourite horror films in these solo Anders Reviews episodes. Horrors film that are some of his favourites, films that have made a big impression on him and films that people should check out. Whether they be fans of the genre or not.

On this episode, Anders talks about Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight, released in 1995. And Bones, released in 2001. Demon Knight was the first of a planned trilogy of Tales From The Crypt movies. Originally meant to be the second, it was filmed to be the first Tales From The Crypt film. It was then followed by Bordello Of Blood in 1996 and then a straight to DVD film Ritual in 2002 (which Anders does not bring up in the episode). Demon Knight features an all star cast of actors and is a full blown demonic monster film with The Collector played by Billy Zane chasing down William Sadler's Brayker to a church converted to a hotel. The occupants and Brayker must work together to survive the night and Brayker must decide who shall carry on his quest in protecting the item he carries. Bones is a Blaxploitation tribute and horror revenge story that evokes the Blaxploitation flicks of the 1970s, Giallo horror and Universal Monster movies. Snoop Dogg plays Jimmy Bones, a numbers runner and gangster who returns from the dead to exact revenge on those that murdered him. Both films weren't entirely successful at the box office or beloved by critics, but they have gone on to become cult classics amongst horror fans. In Anders's words, they are two films that are worth a watch and are entertaining.

We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more solo episodes from Anders during this year's spooky season. Stay tuned for our upcoming Fascism on Film episode on The Marriage of Maria Braun. Also do listen to our Robert Redford Special.

Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work soon in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film will be released in select cinemas in the US on October 17th and in Finland on November 5th. You can read a review about the film here on the Fangoria website.

Be sure to check out our Monument Valley Film on our YouTube Channel.

Follow us on our Instagram page.

Also check us out on Letterboxd too!

Anders

Adam

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.