Failed Critics

Our speaking talk is no good on the latest episode of Front Row with Owen Hughes and Paul Rutland. Straight from their Bucks 101 Radio show, the pair fumble a review of Atomic Blonde, mumble through the week in sport, and give a heads up about some news (as the dice dictates). We'll be back on the air on Monday at 10am (listen via TuneIn radio or over on Facebook) where the no doubt inelegant chatter will continue, alongside some great music.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to the latest episode of the Failed Critics Podcast where your hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes were joined by Brian Plank to review David Leitch's newest action thriller, Atomic Blonde. The episode was recorded a day late and about half an hour short after Steve decided to copy the film's star, Charlize Theron, and drink his own bath water. And we all know what Steve fills his baths with.  Needless to say, he was violently ill. Also on the podcast this week, Owen heads to the cinema with fingers crossed for the fourth film in The Conjuring Universe as Lights Out director David Sandberg helms Annabelle: Creation. Elsewhere, Brian revisits 90's cult comedy Tank Girl, and Steve basks in peak Bay with a Bad Boys rewatch. We'll be back next week with a Stephen King triple bill in honour of The Dark Tower's release.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After a week-long hiatus, Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are back with a new episode and a slightly less conventional format than usual. With the premiere of Sharknado 5: Global Swarming airing on the SyFy Channel at the same time as the pair sat down to record, we cover the usual movie chat whilst dipping in and out of the Asylum's unfathomably popular franchise. In between all of the moaning about terrible acting, dialogue and inane celebrity cameos, Steve and Owen chat about Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's Rick and Morty over on Netflix, and HBO's penultimate season of the critically acclaimed fantasy epic, Game of Thrones. We even turn our heads away from the car-crash of a TV film for long enough to discuss Luc Besson's $200m space opera Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, more incomprehensible disaster action in Arctic Blast, and the surprisingly entertaining cannibal b-movie, Blood Diner. We'll be back to our usual schedule next week for with a review of Atomic Blonde.  See acast.com/p

You won’t believe this, but for the first time in months, your hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker found time to play games... together. Taking their own advice from last week’s episode, John and Brooker spent some time on the Destiny 2 online beta, before starting the original FPS MMO over and losing an entire night to killing aliens in Old Russia. Did it convince Destiny skeptic Brooker to stick with it? You’ll have to listen and find out. Stuck in another slow news week, the lads delved a little deeper into some of the other games that they have laid their hands on over the last couple of weeks. On the docket for this episode? Ubisoft brawler For Honor goes up against the second episode of Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and online Overwatch-wannabe Lawbreakers competes for space in the enormously crowded online shooter market. Plenty of sidetracking and and talking nonsense keeps the guys going on for longer than maybe they should be allowed to, but that's why they are here. Come join us in a co

Is it their finest hour and 17 minutes? With a stonking quiz hosted by guest Callum Petch, pitting hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes against each other, plus reviews of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled, 2016 mystery thriller Pet, and the extraordinarily awful documentary Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story, it might well possibly be!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We honestly don’t know what’s going on. There should be plenty of big news floating about about now, but it seems like everyone has started their summer holidays early and the guys struggled to find news this week! Still, they have to try don’t they? Welcome to this week’s episode of Character Unlock. That’s not to say there wasn’t stuff to talk about, with the fresh of the presses (at time of recording) announcement that Titanfall 2, a favourite game from last year for both of our hosts, is getting some significant DLC for free just in time for those that pick it up from EA’s vault. Along with some confused conversation about the newly announced Atari console that no one knows anything about. John managed to drag himself out of a gaming funk this week by hitting old dependables Destiny and Battlefield 1; he even managed to school Brooker a little bit as he starts his Destiny career (again) in time for the sequel. Brooker fell back to his pile of unfinished games, this time spending time with fantasy action e

NOOOOOOOOOOO-- I mean, yes, it's the latest episode of the Failed Critics podcast with Callum 'bright eyes' Petch and Dr Andrew Brookerzaius joining hosts Steve 'chimpan A' Norman and Owen 'chimpan Z' Hughes as they get their stinkin' paws on The Dawn of the War Beneath the Battle for the Planet of the Living Dead Apes, or whatever it's called. Elsewhere on a particularly shambolic episode, we mull over the casting of a woman (aka Jodie Whittaker) as The Doctor for the upcoming series of BBC sci-fi fantasy series Doctor Who, as well as the passing of legendary filmmaker, George A Romero. There's also a quiz to open the show, with Steve and Owen neck-and-neck at 2-2 in the table. Winner of the quiz takes it all this week and forces the other to watch a film of their choosing. In What We've Been Watching: Owen continues the zombie theme by watching gory Korean thriller Train to Busan; Callum catches up on some Ben Wheatley with folk/hitman horror Kill List; and Brooker finally gets hold of a copy of The Autopsy

Another episode of the Failed Critics Podcast where hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes are left on their lonesome to review the week's major new release. With no news to discuss nor quizzes to, er, quiz, it makes space for both a spoiler-free and a post-credits Spoiler Alert, all about Spider-Man: Homecoming. In What We've Been Watching, Owen suggests adding upcoming found-footage horror Phoenix Forgotten to your watchlist and delves into a discussion with Steve about the genre as a whole. Meanwhile, Steve tries to understand why The Girl With All The Gifts was quite as lauded as it was. We'll be back again next week with a review of War for the Planet of the Apes!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to this week’s episode of Character Unlock, where hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker decide to mark the occasion of the recently announced Super Nintendo Classic by dragging back on their guest from February’s Resident Evil episode, fellow Failed Critic Matt Lambourne rejoins the duo. With a veritable buffet of nonsense to cover, the lads tackle the ridiculous situation that Activision caused for themselves with their insane rerelease of their Modern Warfare rerelease. Moving swiftly into more news of old classics getting awfully misguided releases, the latest Micro Machines game to be unleashed on the world takes a well-deserved beating from the group. Matt rolls the conversation right back around to Call of Duty in his episode’s What We’ve Been Playing section, as he explains why he wasn’t as taken with Modern Warfare as everyone else. While our hosts revisit favourites and faithfuls like a Grand Theft Auto, FIFA and Bulletstorm before delving into our first good, meaty topic in a while. Come join

Get a round in, pull up a pew and try the fish - we recommend the ultimate haddocks. Yes, that's right, Tony Black, Owen Hughes and Andrew Brooker are back together again for another Failed Critics Unplugged, recorded live at The Mitre in Oxford last weekend. Unfortunately Steve Norman couldn't make it but he was still with us in spirit as Tony, Owen and Brooker take on Steve's suggested triple bill of films where the band gets back together, in honour of the trio rejoining after February's podcast recorded in the Old Contemptibles pub in Birmingham. Due to this episode being recorded over a week ago, there's no actual news section on this show but What We've Been Watching remains. Brooker revisits 90's classic The Usual Suspects, Tony checks out historical mystery drama The Childhood of a Leader, and Owen reviews brand new sci-fi fantasy adventure Origin Wars (aka Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child). We'll be back to our usual format next week for Spider-Man: Homecoming.  See acast.com/pr

Dare! Dare to believe you can survive [another Michael Bay Transformers movie]. You hold the future in your hand. Dare. Dare to keep all of your dreams alive [of never having to sit through another one]. It's time to take a stand. And you can win, if you dare [to stay home when the Bumblebee solo film comes out]. Yes, listeners, it's fair to say that the reaction from Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Callum Petch to Transformers 5 / Transformers: The Last Knight / Trans5mers was less than positive. Perhaps it was the lack of Vince DiCola and Stan Bush that sours those films so..?  Not even listening to the all-time greatest movie soundtrack ever no backsies can change our opinion. I say it's the greatest movie soundtrack ever, but Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, which is also reviewed on this episode, may have something to say on that matter! In What We've Been Watching, we also cover another new release, The Book of Henry, as well as The Skeleton Twins, 80's exploitation Contamination, and last year's War Dogs....

Welcome back to our regularly scheduled programming. After a mammoth E3 last week, the Character Unlock guys are back to doing what they do: playing video games and talking an unlimited amount of nonsense. This week is no different. This episode, hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker forego a news section - nothing much happened anyway - and jump straight into what they've been playing since the end of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Having garnered some help in the form of a Twitter poll, the CU audience decided which of Brooker's half finished games he should get out the way first. As it turned out, he was destined to spend two solid days finishing off Guerrilla Games' open-world action/adventure Horizon: Zero Dawn. And boy does he speak at length about it. Similarly, after months of pestering, John finally got his teeth into Dontnod's time bending Life is Strange; and the pair try to talk about it without spoiling anything. No mean feat, I can promise you that. GTA V's latest online update and the...

Despite reports of different creative visions for this episode of the Failed Critics Podcast, hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes haven't left the project, but have brought on board Underground Nights co-host Paul Field to delve into some film news and reviews. The pod kicks off with Owen still in the big comfy leather armchair, pitting Steve and Paul against each other in a quiz themed around our main review this week; Jason Flemyng's directorial debut, the British horror-comedy, Eat Local. We follow the quiz with a brief round-up of a couple of recent news headlines, including the retirement of Daniel Day-Lewis, and "different creative visions" for the Han Solo solo movie which has seen Phil Lord and Chris Miller given the ol' heave-ho. Our main feature this week sees each of the panel picking their three dream jobs from within the fictional world of any film, in honour of Baby Driver, which will be reviewed next week. Did any of our team choose getaway driver as their dream job in movies? You'll have to...

The end is here! Join our hosts as they take apart the last of this year’s E3 press conferences. This episode, we focus on Nintendo who, as has become tradition, have foregone the big stage for a pre-recorded show. That means that we were treated to a super-short advert fest and not much else. Reggie introduced us to a few new games and detailed some E-Sports tournaments they have upcoming over the coming months. And not an awful lot else. Lots of Japanese games, as expected, with Xenoblade and Fire Emblem getting everyone’s attention. With Arms, Mario Odyssey and Kirby brining up the rear. And that’s it. A bit of a damp squib show to end the conferences. We hope you’ve enjoyed the last few days with us. We’ll be back next week for our regularly scheduled programme.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There is a light at the end of this tunnel. As the guys sit an go through the second to last showcase of 2017’s E3; the light can barely be seen as the tired, squinting eyes of our hosts are barely open. It’s 4am, and we’ve got games to talk about. Loads of games. Everything from the new God of War to the Uncharted expansion is trailered and talked about by our flagging hosts. Desperately trying to stay awake as Sony did nothing to help them out, with only Horizon DLC trailers and an extended Spiderman demo to keep them going. Join them later on tonight as they finish up their marathon podcast sessions with Nintendo’s showcase.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This isn't a tomb, it's an audio prison. It takes a couple of monsters in hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes to create a podcast episode (and nobody else) reviewing Universal's first foray into their new Dark Universe, The Mummy. It's just the two of them and they can make it if they try. To make up for the lack of guests, they take it upon themselves to review two movies each in What We've Been Watching this week. Steve chats about Irish comedy The Young Offenders and dystopian drama The White King, whilst Owen pleads with people not to be put off by the title of Netflix Original I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore, and ponders why on Earth we're getting a Blade Runner sequel when the first was so damn good. The pair also turn their attention to the recently departed Adam West - but you should probably read this article by James Diamond to see why he is rightfully revered as a legend. Join us again next week as one-part of Field & Mullinger's Underground Nights (that'd be Paul Field) will return t

As day three of E3 starts up and the guys have managed to get a few hours kip… it’s time for the Ubisoft conference. As tiredness and hay fever appear to be getting the better of the boys, join them in going through the developer’s advert-fest for 2017. Assassin’s Creed Origins makes it’s expected appearance. As does The Crew 2, Just Dance and the latest, much delayed South Park sequel. Surprises hit in the form of a Pirate filled naval combat game, a Rabbids and Mario collaboration and an expansion for the thought dead Steep. The lads seem to come out of this one happier than any of the other shows so far this year. Keep up-to-date with their thoughts as the conferences wind themselves up over the next 24 hours.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Seriously. This can’t be healthy. With only two hours sleep, we are back covering this year’s E3 press conferences. This time, it’s fan favourite - but not John favourite - publisher Bethesda. Quickly getting the records for latest ever E3 presser and the shortest ever E3 conference, join the lads as they pick apart the Skyrim publisher’s outing. Quake, Wolfenstein, Fallout and Dishonored all get a showing, pretty much as we predicted in our preview show last week. No real surprises this year, but plenty to get excited about. With around 14 hours until the next show, the guys are going to get some kip before they crack into Ubisoft’s press conference. Join the conversation with us on Twitter (@characterunlock) and follow the live tweeting goodness. Until tonight…  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The E3 Hype train continues today as Microsoft’s Xbox Showcase rolls into town. Join the lads as they pull apart what could be the most important conference of the week as Microsoft formally announce the name of what we’ve all come to know as Project Scorpio. The newly named Xbox One X provides all of this episode’s talking points as we got a list of new games coming for the new machine. Old favourites, new favourites and even a surprise or two. And the most important announcement? A new… Porsche?? No, we didn’t understand it either. Keep up to date with us on Twitter and follow us as we suffer through the rest of E3 week for you, the listener.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

E3 is finally here. That means late nights, early mornings and far more caffeine than is healthy. Let us begin this year's festivities with EA Play. The first show of the conference gets underway with a flurry of old favourites and ends with a very anticipated title. Hosts John Miller and Andrew Brooker dive into all the FIFAs, Maddens and Star Wars: Battlefronts that the publishing giant has to offer. Listen in to see what they thought. Follow the guys on Twitter (@CharacterUnlock) to see their thoughts on this years show in real time.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.