The Two-Shot #1: 'Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot' and 'All About My Mother'

Sylvester Stallone has had one of the most impressive and, sometimes, embarrassing careers in Hollywood history. But there's no film that's more embarrassing in Sly's IMDb listing than the silly comedy "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot," which pairs the muscly tough guy with Estelle Getty from "Golden Girls," as she humiliates him on every corner of Los Angeles with her overbearing mom gags.

It's considered one of the worst movies of the 1990s, but is it possible that "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" is actually... good? Or at least not indefensible? And why they heck is it the perfect double feature with Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning 1999 classic "All About My Mother?"

You'll find out in the first episode of the CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED podcast spin-off, THE TWO-SHOT! Every week, film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold review one of the most notorious movies ever made and find a bonafide classic motion picture that strikes a powerful comparison or contrast!

Give it a listen!

Canceled Too Soon #139: 'Collector's Item' (1957)

Vincent Price and Peter Lorre are two of the most iconic actors in motion picture history, and absolutely legends in the horror genre. So why, oh why, has hardly anybody heard of "Collector's Item," a TV pilot starring Price and Lorre as antique dealers who solve mysteries? Especially since it also co-stars Whitney Blake, the co-creator of the hit TV series "One Day at a Time?"

In this week's episode of Canceled Too Soon, we're going to find out! Film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold dig into the history of this forgotten TV pilot and figure out if it should have gone to series, and whether "Collector's Item" would work as a 21st Century reboot!

Give it a listen!

Witney Seibold Reviews 'Captain Marvel'

Vers (Brie Larson), the title character in Anna Boden's and Ryan Fleck's “Captain Marvel,” superficially possess many traits common to her male counterparts throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe (now 21 films deep); that is, she is flip, mildly mouthy, capable in a pinch, occasionally sarcastic, and possessed of a blandly non-specific type of steely determination that has long been the default characteristic of action movie protagonists. Vers is set ever so slightly apart from impish class clowns like Iron Man (and Ant-Man, and Spider-Man, and Dr. Strange and any number of ultra-quippy Marvel protagonists) by her natural, affable, conversational humanity.

Critically Acclaimed #69: 'Drop Zone' and 'The General'

In the 1990s, you were EXTREME or you were NOTHING, and John Badham's skydiving action-thriller "Drop Zone" was definitely something. Wesley Snipes stars as a U.S. Marshal who has to learn extreme sports from Yancy Butler in order to stop an evil Gary Busey from parachuting Michael Jeter into computer labs? 

What the heck kind of movie is that, and why is it the perfect double feature with Buster Keaton's silent Civil War comedy classic, "The General?

You'll find out in this week's CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED! You'll also find out how our podcast is evolving - into TWO separate shows - and what film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold think about Steven Spielberg's proposed rule changes to the Oscars, which would eliminate Netflix Originals from the running.

Plus, you get reviews of the new releases "Greta," "Climax" and "Transit!" Isn't that cool?

Give it a listen!

William Bibbiani Reviews 'Greta,' 'Transit' and 'Climax' on KCRW's Press Play!

Wanna hear our critics on the radio? Like, the real radio, not just on podcasts? William Bibbiani was on KCRW's Press Play with Madeleine Brand this week, reviewing the new releases "Greta," "Transit" and "Climax" along with film critic Jacqueline Coley from Rotten Tomatoes!

Give it a listen!

Photo: Universal

Canceled Too Soon #138: 'BlackJack' (1998)

Dolph Lundgren. Man of action. Cinema titan. He-Man and The Punisher himself. And in the failed pilot for "Blackjack," directed by the legendary John Woo ("The Killer," "Face/Off"), he played a bodyguard who's really, really scared of the color white! 

"Blackjack" was an epic action spectacular, when it wasn't a boring slog through the worlds of surrogate parenting and high fashion, but was it... CANCELED TOO SOON? 

Film critics William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold look back at this unlikely failed experiment from two action demigods, to figure out what works, what's ridiculous, and whether it could EVER have actually worked as a television series!

Give it a listen!

William Bibbiani Reviews 'Transit'

Franz Rogowski stars in "Transit," a devastating drama from writer/director Christian Petzold, based on a World War II novel by Anna Seghers. Petzold transposes the action to the present day, where an all-too realistic wave of fascism has overtaken Europe, and stories of mistaken identity and adultery overlap in Marseilles, where every one trying to flee France has taken up (hopefully temporary) residence.

In his review of "Transit" at The Wrap, William Bibbiani says Christian Petzold's film "always feels seductively dangerous, as though making it might have been an act of political defiance, and watching it could, with only a few horrible changes to our political climate, be against the law."

Read: William Bibbiani Reviews "Transit" at The Wrap

Photo: Music Box Films