The Nerd Alert Movie Club returns with another cult favorite as Brandon, Jimmy, James, and Chase dive into the 1996 pulp adventure classic, The Phantom! Long before comic book movies dominated Hollywood, Billy Zane donned the purple suit and brought Lee Falk's legendary comic strip hero to the big screen. But nearly 30 years later, does The Phantom still hold up?

There was a magical period of time in the 1980s when nobody quite knew what to do with all the television channels. Cable television was still relatively new, desperately trying to justify its existence by filling twenty-four hours a day with...well...whatever they could get their hands on. HBO wasn't yet the prestige powerhouse it would become. MTV actually played music videos. The Disney Channel felt like a secret club. This week on dumb movies, Superman III.

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.” – Stephen Hawking Steven Spielberg will be eighty years old in December. It leaves a lump in the throat to think of what little time we have left to experience new Spielberg. He is as synonymous with cinema as the very cameras capturing the imagery he has ingrained in our collective memory. He is basically his very own genre. There’s somethi

There are certain movies that become less about what they actually are and more about the legends that surround them. For my generation, Faces of Death was one of those movies. The original 1978 film was passed around like contraband folklore. Long before the internet could debunk myths in seconds, information traveled through whispered conversations on school playgrounds and sleepovers. If you grew up in the 1980s, there was a good chance you knew someone who knew some

Nerd Alert Rewind: Remo Williams - The Adventure Begins. As a kid growing up in the '80s, I swear Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins was on HBO every other day. Back then, if a movie aired more than three times on cable, it automatically became a classic. I must have watched Remo leap across rooftops and dodge bullets dozens of times before I was old enough to understand what was actually happening.

MAY 2026 One of the best things about being nerdy about something (passionate) is the hope of sharing it with others. Since my own family is sick of hearing about the endlessness of my collections which include but are not limited to: physical movie collection, pop culture art prints, popcorn buckets, Batmobiles in both Lego and Hot Wheels, I’ve decided to dump all this worthless (but still cool? Maybe?) rigamarole onto an unsuspecting internet. That’s you, dear reader! Anywa

I recently had a nice surprise from a flick currently streaming on Disney+. It's the 2024 horror drama We Bury the Dead, written and directed by Zak Hilditch.

When Disney first announced The Mandalorian & Grogu, I was cautiously optimistic. Translating the smaller-scale storytelling style of the Disney+ series into a theatrical experience felt risky. Plus, this would be their first venture from a theaterical standpoint to tell stories beyond the film characters we are very familiar with. It was almost like an uber Nerd's paradise because all the characters are from television shows, animated series, novels, and comic books.

The Nerd Alert gang discusses the film’s creepy atmosphere, practical effects, bizarre concepts, and how it helped define Cronenberg’s unique filmmaking style. Does Scanners still hold up over 40 years later? And is it more than just “the exploding head movie”? The crew breaks it all down.

“The only thing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose is a franchise that refuses to let anyone die.” – Anonymous In my review of the 2021 reboot, I found myself largely indifferent to the cinematic resurrection of this arcade legend. For the sake of complete transparency, I didn’t care for the first film—it felt like a hesitant preamble to a tournament that never arrived. It was a movie that existed in a state of "perpetual potential," promising that the real fun wa

“Be not disturbed at being misunderstood; be disturbed rather at not being understanding.” – Chinese Proverb In I Swear, director Kirk Jones doesn’t just ask us to look at John Davidson; he demands we look at ourselves through the lens of John’s involuntary outbursts. It is a film that functions as a high-velocity moral mirror, reflecting the thin veneer of "civilized" society back at the audience. It captures the essence of a man trapped in a body that refuses to follow the

"A star can never die. It just turns into a smile and melts back into the cosmic music, the dance of life." - Michael Jackson The Messiah and the Man: A Masterclass in Narrative Sleight of Hand Genre conventions are inevitable in certain stories. Sports films with the mandatory training montages, the “gearing up” sequence when an ordinary citizen becomes a well-equipped warrior. The plan walkthrough in heist thrillers when the leader lays out the plan showing us how it will

There’s something quietly fascinating about watching Keanu Reeves dismantle the very idea of celebrity. In Outcome, directed and co-written by Jonah Hill, that’s exactly what we get, a film that’s been marketed with comedic flair but plays far more like a somber, introspective character study.

For April, the Nerd Alert crew takes a deep dive into Man on the Moon (1999), directed by Miloš Forman and starring Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, and Paul Giamatti. This unique biopic explores the life and career of legendary comedian Andy Kaufman, capturing his unpredictable humor, performance art, and the mystery that made him one of the most fascinating entertainers of all time.

“Wahoo!” – Mario It’s hard to not see movies like this as anything more than cash grabs. I understand after making over a billion dollars that sequels were inevitable but if I’ve learned anything from the majority of Pixar films, Dreamworks Animation like The Wild Robot and Sony Picture Animations like The Mitchells vs. The Machines (favorite animated movie) it’s that these animation studios are fully capable of making stories fit for the entire family. It used to be wide

There are few television-to-film transitions that carry as much weight and expectation as Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, now streaming on Netflix. After six gripping seasons and 36 unforgettable episodes of Peaky Blinders, creator and writer Steven Knight delivers a cinematic continuation that feels both intimate and epic in scope. This is not just a reunion, it’s a haunting and thrilling return to Birmingham’s most feared family, and it’s executed with sharp storytelling,

“I’m the devil’s advocate. We have our own worshipers.” – Frank Zappa The rich vs. the common man. It’s a theme that has been explored in cinema since its inception. Since movies often mirror the time they’re made in whenever a politician or rogue billionaire decides to impose their will at the expense of those they deem lesser-than the amount of stories focusing on these talking points tend to rise in frequency. And since 2016 was the start of this particular nightmare we

There’s a certain kind of action movie that knows exactly what it is, and then there’s The Beekeeper, which leans into that identity with a confidence that’s impossible not to enjoy. Written by Kurt Wimmer (The Recruit, Law Abiding Citizen) and directed by the incredibly underrated David Ayer (Sabotage, Fury), this is a revenge-fueled, high-octane ride that delivers exactly what fans of the genre crave, and then some.

“If you don’t want to be scared in a horror film, don’t close your eyes. Close your ears.” – Eli Roth A good horror director knows that most of their audience will already be established horror movie fans. And for longtime fans of the genre, they grow savvy to the ways of horror tropes and cliches. I think one of the most important aspects of a successful horror movie is subversion. Subversion of expectations and assumptions to deliver a surprising and effective payoff. The

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.” — Thucydides Over the years the term blockbuster has become more and more synonymous with shallow entertainment. Mindless spectacle meant to visually capture your attention while providing little else. It’s something to watch while eating your popcorn and chugging a soda pop. It’s an afternoon killer. Empty calories. Sometime