Bad Dads Film Review

The Duellists (1977) & Top 5 Jewels – honour, obsession, and very stupid men with swords In this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, we kick things off with our Top 5 Jewels – a glittering mix of cursed stones, crime magnets and wildly impractical accessories. From the Pink Panther diamond and Uncut Gems’ black opal to Titanic’s Heart of the Ocean, Baz Luhrmann’s blinged-out Great Gatsby, Moana’s glowing heart of Te Fiti, and even that doomed chandelier in Only Fools and Horses, we rummage t...

Frankenstein (2025) – Tech bros, trauma, and a super-horny monster movie on Netflix Mary Shelley by way of Guillermo del Toro feels almost too perfect, and Frankenstein (2025) absolutely leans into that match-up: lush Gothic sets, grotesque body horror, tender fairytale beats, and a very modern anxiety about people who build things they can’t control. In this episode, the Bad Dads dig into Netflix’s lavish new take on the classic, framed in the icy Arctic as Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) ...

Christopher Walken, Larry Fishburne, and Abel Ferrara’s moral abyss of a movie. This week, the dads descend into King of New York, the neon-slick crime drama that turns Manhattan into a fever dream of violence, power, and warped justice. Walken plays Frank White, a freshly released drug lord who wants to “give back” — but only by murdering every rival and funding a hospital with blood money. His crew? Mostly Black. His moral compass? Bent beyond repair. His dance moves? Still pure Walken. Wha...

Starship Troopers (1997): Would you like to know more?We’re suiting up for Paul Verhoeven’s gloriously un-subtle space satire—where propaganda pops like bubblegum, the bugs aren’t the dumb ones, and “service guarantees citizenship.” We talk giant arachnids, bigger egos, and why so many people somehow missed the joke. What we cover The Federal Network effect: recruitment ads, newsreels, and how the film weaponises UI/UX to sell fascism with a smile.Rico’s journey: classroom ideology → boot-cam...

In this week’s episode we dive into Better Man, Michael Gracey’s glossy Robbie Williams biopic — the one where Robbie is portrayed as a CGI chimp. Yes, really. It’s a bold swing that reframes a familiar music-biopic arc with unexpected bite: boy-band manufacture, burnout, reinvention, and the messy business of becoming “Robbie” when “Robert” is still in the room. What we cover The Big Swing: Why the CGI chimp isn’t a gimmick for giggles but a visual metaphor for the “performing monkey” person...

The Ballad of Wallis Island This week, the dads swapped blockbusters for something quieter, sadder, and sneakily hilarious: The Ballad of Wallis Island, the melancholic comedy starring Tim Key, Tom Basden, and Carey Mulligan. In a remote Welsh idyll, a lonely lottery winner (Key) invites his favourite long-lost folk duo to reunite and perform a private gig just for him. What follows is a beautifully awkward, bittersweet exploration of nostalgia, grief, and the impossibility of recapturing th...

The dads return to their spiritual home — the grimy, neon-lit world of A24 — for Love Lies Bleeding, a wild, sweaty, steroid-soaked crime-romance from director Rose Glass (Saint Maud). Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a gym manager in a desert backwater who falls for Jackie (Katy O’Brien), a drifter and aspiring bodybuilder built like a Marvel origin story. Their chemistry is instant, their passion feral — and before long, they’re injecting more than just steroids together. But this love story’s la...

This week, the dads head into the mosh pit with Jeremy Saulnier’s brutal, claustrophobic thriller Green Room — where a struggling punk band finds themselves trapped in a neo-Nazi club after witnessing a murder. It’s one part siege movie, one part social horror, and all parts grim. When the Ain’t Rights take a last-minute gig deep in Oregon’s backwoods, they expect low pay and bad beer — not blood, dogs, machetes and Patrick Stewart as a terrifying skinhead ringleader. What follows is a night ...

This week we celebrate the late, great Robert Redford the Bad Dads way: with a chaotic Top 5 Roberts and a deep dive into All the President’s Men — the newsroom thriller where Redford and Dustin Hoffman painstakingly peel back Watergate until the whole presidency caves in. It’s cigarettes, typewriters, and journalism that actually mattered. What we get into Redford & Hoffman, peak charisma: why their odd-couple energy (and immaculate 70s fits) makes procedural journalism feel electric.The...

Jennifer Lawrence goes full-send comedy in No Hard Feelings, playing Maddie — a broke Montauk local hired by uptight parents to “de-awkward” their 19-year-old son before college. The setup’s spicy, the execution’s funnier than it has any right to be, and yes, we talk about that beach fight. What we dig into J-Law in chaos mode: fearless physical comedy, tight timing, and why this role works because it’s her.Awkward vs. raunchy: does the film land its sweet/icky tightrope walk?Age-gap discours...

This week the dads take a look at Copycat (1995), a mid-90s thriller that wants to be Silence of the Lambs but often ends up more made-for-TV movie. Sigourney Weaver stars as an agoraphobic psychologist dragged into a game of cat-and-mouse with a serial killer imitating history’s most infamous murderers. Holly Hunter and Dermot Mulroney round out the cast, while Harry Connick Jr. chews the scenery as a crooning creep. In true Bad Dads style, we pull the film apart and ask: Does Copycat earn i...

South Korea. 1979. Forty days to an assassination. We dive into Woo Min-ho’s icy political thriller The Man Standing Next — a gripping, true-events drama about KCIA director Kim Gyu-pyeong (played by Squid Game’s Front Man, Lee Byung-hun) as he weighs loyalty, country, and a bullet. What the film’s about After years in President Park Chung-hee’s inner circle, Kim watches the regime harden: political purges, wiretaps, street crackdowns, and a rival enforcer (Chief Kwak) pushing for blood. When...

This week’s episode is positively huge (and Hugh-filled). 👼 Heretic We dive into Heretic (2024), the claustrophobic new thriller from A24 in which two young missionaries find themselves trapped in the home of Hugh Grant — who’s swapped his floppy-haired rom-com persona for a sinister host obsessed with theology, control, and blueberry pie. It’s equal parts scripture, serial killer, and Monopoly rules lawyer. We get into: Hugh Grant’s unnervingly charming turn as a religious sadist.The film’s...

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we double up on trouble (and laughs) with our Top 5 Twins before diving headfirst into Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar juggernaut Barbie. 👯 Double Vision From Arnold and Danny in Twins to the terrifying Grady girls from The Shining, via Tintin’s bumbling detectives and even a detour into real-life Hollywood doppelgängers, we explore the weird, wonderful, and occasionally creepy world of twins on screen. Expect heated debate, dodgy impressions, and at least on...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week we’re crunching numbers, making shady deals, and talking shop with our Top 5 Businesses in film and TV before heading to the Costa del Crime for our main feature — The Business (2005), a slick, sun-drenched British crime drama from Nick Love. 📈 Top 5 Businesses in Film & TV 1. Acme Corporation – Looney Tunes Purveyors of rocket skates, exploding tennis balls, and portable holes — all with questionable safety standards. Wile E. Coyote’s go-t...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week we’re diving deep into the underworld of cinematic mentorship and criminal patronage with our Top 5 Godfathers (but no, not that Godfather), followed by a look at Jacques Audiard’s powerful crime drama, A Prophet (2009). Grit, transformation, and the shadows of paternal influence are the order of the day. 🧑‍🦲 Top 5 Godfathers (but not The one) Wilson Fisk – Daredevil (Netflix, 2015–2018) Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin isn’t your traditional godfat...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we’re blowing out the candles and unwrapping a nostalgia-packed episode with our Top 5 Birthdays in Film and TV, followed by a dive into Happy Gilmore 2 — the long-awaited, fan-service sequel to Adam Sandler’s 1996 cult classic. Spoiler alert: it’s still not about the golf. 🎉 Top 5 Birthdays in Film and TV Bilbo Baggins' Eleventy-First Birthday (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) The Shire’s biggest party and Bilbo’s dramatic ...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week, we’re doing something a little different in honour of Cris’s birthday – and what better way to celebrate than by diving into a handpicked selection of actors whose careers, films, or sheer star quality connect (tenuously or not) to our resident birthday boy. There’s no Top 5 this time around – instead, it’s all about Helen Mirren, Kate Beckinsale, Kevin Spacey, Jason Statham, and Sandra Bullock, with a war film classic anchoring the episode: F...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week we’re taking a tumble — both literally and metaphorically — as we break down our Top 5 Falls in Movies and TV, followed by a closer look at the slow-burning, Palme d'Or-winning courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. No kids' section this time around — just a lot of bodies hitting the floor (sometimes figuratively). 🪂 Top 5 FALLS in Movies & TV 1. The Emperor’s Fall – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) One of cinema’s most iconic literal (and ...

Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week’s episode packs a punch as we dive into Top 5 Juniors in Movies and TV, followed by a deep dive into the intense war thriller Warfare (2025). No kids’ TV show this week — we’re keeping it strictly grown-up. 🎯 Top 5 Juniors in Movies and TV Indiana Jones Jr. (Young Indiana Jones / Indiana Jones Series) Before he became the famed archaeologist, we met young Indy — curious, brave, and always in the thick of danger.Junior (Junior, 1994) Arnold Sch...