Bowler Brim: Recent Episodes
Kei Hopkins
A review podcast for anyone: novice or expert, the Bowler Brim is meant to engage the listener with fun insights and analysis. Whether the media is old or new, loved or maligned, the Bowler Brim podcast strives to be honest & make relevant points on topics around film, television, and streaming programs. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kei-hopkins/support
In this short episode, I'll tell you a bit about Dame Smith & her amazing career, as well as highlighting one of my favorite films about her.
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This took months to write & research, but kept getting better as I delved into the background & explored this subject.
Originally, I was just going to discuss one film, but wound up finding more to talk about in our second subject.
This film is dedicated to suicide-prevention & as a reminder, if you need help, it's okay not to be okay and to get help, to ask for help, to do what you need to make it through life healthy. You're worth it.
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A bit of a sleeper hit with a solid setup for a sequel, Blue Beetle underperformed in the box office with direct, in-house competition from The Flash. Dumped into cinemas in mid-August, was this movie an underdog or what?
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Chill out & give a listen to my thoughts on the latest in the massively popular Ghostbusters franchise, and some reflections on the larger franchise and its various installments.
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This may become a series if the media companies play it right, so let's have a look at a BritBox original and another one by Netflix.
Both these shows have top tier talent, but of course, are they worth your time?
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In this episode, we'll take an off-the-cuff look at director Irving Kershner's career. Give it a listen, and thanks for clicking over.
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In this recording, take a journey with me back through the origins of the Oz books, the first adaptations on stage & screen, the well-known 1939 version, and some fascinating aspects to the `70s soul version adapting the smash stage play.
Along the way, we'll learn a lot about the author, L Frank Baum, his noteworthy mother-in-law, and as much interesting content as I could squeeze onto the page from my keyboard.
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In this blog-style recording, I take a look back at DC and Warner Bros various projects over the decades and offer some insights of my own.
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In this blog-style piece, I take a long look back at the Indiana Jones franchise, some of our other most beloved franchises, and how this one all shapes up.
I'm not trying to bash the film or loft it up, but I have a lot of thoughts.
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This is a blog-style discussion of a bit of a forgotten Schwarzenegger movie that I watched & thought was absolutely worth bringing up so you can find it & check it out for yourself.
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As we get into our third and final part, we go into the last season of the series, and some of the episodes that cause a lot of fans to lose interest, but got it to where the series could enter syndication on networks like Comet.
It all comes down to Rembrandt Brown. The Crying Man is our last, best hope for saving the series & Cleavant Derricks gets some good episodes this round. Give a listen & enjoy.
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In part 2, we continue exploring some of the remarkable stories from this long forgotten series and some of the character journeys as the series continues to spiral out & recurring villains change, season to season.
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In this first part, we'll have an introductory look, going episode by episode, following a binge-watch of the series, and pausing after many viewings, skipping some of the more tedious episodes.
These episodes aren't broken down by series, but talk a bit more about some of the behind the scenes elements, aspects impacting the order of the episodes, and so on.
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With this movie being 20 years old this month, I felt it was a great chance to go in-depth on everything that made this film good & bad.
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It's another retrospective, in the spirit of the one on Leslie Nielsen. In this we'll take a look at all his different roles over the years from the 1990s onwards.
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In our lengthier second half, we'll get into all the fun stories and behind the scenes bits for the final season of the beloved cult scifi series.
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In this scripted look back at T.N.G.'s final season, we go episode by episode for the first half of this two-parter.
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In this off-the-cuff recording, settle in for a long discussion of the penultimate season of T.N.G. episode by episode, including some personal favorites.
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This episode focuses on a couple of recent releases, one direct to video and another released on streaming.
This episode is more blog style than scripted, so it's more off the cuff. Please enjoy.
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This is an off-the cuff, blog style review of the latest Marvel movie and the last of a beloved trilogy. There are spoilers, so this is more for if you have already seen it. However, if you haven't yet, I don't ruin it too much, but try to give you some things to look for.
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In this episode, we go even more in-depth on Taskmaster as a series, and a franchise that spans the globe, and some of the problems that arose with the US adaptation.
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One of the most popular series on British TV for the past several years is a kind of reality game show called Taskmaster. In this piece, we'll take a look at the show.
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The retrospective ends and I offer some thoughts to the audience to spare any bruised feelings from what I've said in the think-pieces so far.
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Inspired by news of HBOMax wanting to produce a prequel series about the town of Derry from Steven King's IT, this is a combination opinion piece & retrospective on the past century of prequels that various producers have pumped out. We start out with some final thoughts on reboots done right & how they can expand into other fun stories. In part 2, we'll finish and I'll offer some final thoughts.
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With a lot of franchises committing to remakes, reboots, reimaginings, regurgitation & so on, it gets me on a tear about just how far all this goes. Even if the idea is nothing new (just look at how many versions of Dracula & Sherlock Holmes exist), there comes a time to say we've had enough of this as an audience.
Look for the next episode soon, where we'll examine movie prequels.
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I never watched these when they came out, but they make for some interesting viewing & discussion.
In the dialog, I explore whether the pharaoh often designated by American cinema is accurate; I talk a bit about the 10 plagues (which I initially misremember as 7 for some reason), and we even go into some discussion of the artistic styles, as well as the development aspects of the films.
Although Joseph, King of Dreams is technically a companion piece, I deem it a direct-to-video prequel. The discussion largely goes in a chronological direction, per date of release, rather than which story occurs first in the Bible.
And lastly, I try to give each story the reverence needed, because they matter to a lot of people.
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In the final episode of the retrospective, we look at a wide array of movies, including some worth discovering and others worth forgetting. And we get my final thoughts summing it all up.
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In this episode, we look at October & November, from the fun chillers of the Halloween season to the family films of turkey day leading into the winter festivals, it featured some exciting stories and even some all-star comedies & dramas.
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In this episode, we zero in just on the month of September, as it was a big month for a lot of movies to come out.
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In this episode, we look at July & August, with in-depth details about all kinds of movies that got left for the August dumping ground.
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In this episode, we focus just on the month of June, the height of the summer blockbuster season, with excitement & adventure in store.
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In this episode, we look at March, April, and May of 2009 as spring rolled on into summer, with some blockbusters trying to get in early for the end of the school year.
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In this longer-form episode, we'll take a look at the first two months of the year 2009 and all the films that came out that year.
I skip over some that just aren't as relevant or a bit more obscure, and even skip many documentaries. This first episode is off the cuff remarks, but future parts will be pre-written to help it be a little sharper in focus.
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A serious look at a very funny man.
This is a short retrospective on the later works of Canadian-born film & TV actor, Leslie Nielsen. Nielsen had a lot of films to his name from the 80s &90s, but they were a mixed bag. He was great opposite Peter McNicol as Renfield in Dracula - Dead and Loving It, but then you have Mr. Magoo.
(Music at the end is just some improvised work by me.)
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In this finale, we'll examine the last season of the series, released in 2014, and the last special, from 2016.
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In part 4, we look at three, feature-length TV specials, released from 2009-2013, featuring a new associate: a young blogger from the north of England, known for investigating supernatural phenomena. We also get introduced to Jonathan's wife.
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In part 3, we look at the 2001 Christmas special, and the fourth season, with the introduction of associate, Carla.
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In part 2, we take a look at the first of the Christmas specials, and examine season 3.
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This is the very first recording officially done for the Bowler Brim podcast, and it is part 1 of a five-part retrospective on Jonathan Creek.
This episode covers the first two seasons, including the Christmas special that came in between.
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This is a more off-the-cuff recording, going episode by episode & talking about each one in turn, through the season.
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This is a shorter episode from my Film Recommendations series, in which I discuss a somewhat forgotten film called The Associate, from 1996.
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This is a shorter episode from my Film Recommendations series. In it, I discuss a film from 1996 called The Long Kiss Goodnight starring Geena Davis & Samuel L Jackson.
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