Send us a Question! PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss The Bishop's Wife, an Oscar winning Christmas flick from 1947! What do they like? What do they dislike? It's got a lot of similarities to It's a Wonderful Life, but how does it compare? And what about that strange ending? Tune in to find out! Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 27-minutes discussing the current Avengers: Doomsday trailers - Steve Rodgers, Thor, and X-Men - and our current vibe regarding th...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss Superman (2025), James Gunn's latest superhero feature and first of the new DC Studios flicks! The two explore what they like, what they didn't like, how there's an earnest hope in this modern, live-action iteration of Clark Kent/Superman, and if they're excited for any upcoming DC Studios projects. And, because he likes numbers, Melvin breaks down the finances for 2025's comic book movies. Topics: (PATRE...

Send us a Question! UPDATE: I'm a Store Manager for a popular retail space. For obvious reasons this time of the year is extremely busy for me. Like previous years I thought I could handle my irl work and my podcast work, but that is not the case this year. For the time being, the only guaranteed episode to release in December 2025 is the Patreon-Selected movie at the end of the month. Any other releases this month have released by the skin of their teeth. In the meantime, enjoy this bo...

Send us a Question! PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION: This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard! Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss 2013's insane surprise financial hit, Now You See Me! Despite being a critical flop the film was a blockbuster blowout earning nearly 5x its budget! So, who's right, the critics or the audiences? Tune in and find out! Topics: Editor's Note: No Patreo...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss Osgood Perkins' second movie of 2025, Keeper! Has Perkins created another commercially accessible psychological-horror success, or has he returned to his undeniably divisive slow-burn roots? And is Keeper another one of his female-led soft-feminist tales? Tune in and find out! Topics: Editor's Note: No Patreon Exclusive discussion! But, I do intend to trim this episode down from its original 1:44:01 length...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss Death Note: The Last Name, a sequel to 2006's Japanese live-action adaptation, Death Note, that released 3-months later. The two look at the film as a unit with its predecessor, its successes as a stand-alone sequel, and compare it to the anime (as well as the Western Netflix adaptation). Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 26-minutes discussing "Evil AI is Boring Now - Which is Kind of Scary", a think piece from James Hibbe...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss Scott Derrickson's latest horror feature, Black Phone 2! The two get into what sets it apart from other franchises like A Nightmare on Elm Street, how it holds up against the first film, and how it's... more Christian? Oh snap! Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 23-minutes discussing Sigourney Weaver saying at NYCC 2025 that there's a "very strong first 50 pages" script of Alien that includes Ripley, and where she is a...

Send us a Question! PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION: This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard! Shirleon & Kathryn join Melvin to discuss Weapons, Zach Cregger's sort-of-sophomore flick after Barbarian! Horror fans have been eating good throughout 2025, and the gang explores whether the film continues this trend. They also ponder the wide variety of themes throughout, attempting to mak...

Send us a Question! PARTY PLEASER: Shirleon joins Melvin to summarize The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It, a late-2000s direct-to-video family-friendly horror movie based on R.L. Stine's short stories! Is it possible to be scary without being gory? How frightening can a PG-rated horror movie be, anyway? And does it even capture that spooky Halloween spirit? Topics: (FREE PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 38-minutes discussing the usage of AI-generated voices of real-life, still-living actors ...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Shirleon and Kathryn join Melvin to discuss George Romero's groundbreaking, culture-making horror feature Night of the Living Dead (1968)! From its rich characters to the longstanding influence of horror in US culture and abroad, the gang explores the ins-and-outs of this undeniable classic! Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 36-minutes discussing the concept of "Cursed Actors", actors like Jared Leto who had a meteoric rise but then started to be in...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss The Long Walk, a film whose premise is extremely simple yet whose content is incredibly challenging. Based on a novel influenced by the woes of the Vietnam War, this film adaptation from Francis Lawrence is updated for a modern yet not-so-different demographic. Class solidarity, the importance of beauty, the vile oppression of facism; The Long Walk has it all! Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 25-minutes discussing LA...

Send us a Question! QUARTERLY CATCH-UP: Movies & Us: Podcast, Instagram TV & Us: Podcast, Instagram Quarterly Catch-Up is a co-production between Cinematic Doctrine & Movies & Us! While answering a few questions about watching habits, we also spend time talking about the industry we love, specifically budgets, revenue, and the profitability of this years films overall (so far!). Otherwise, here's what to expect in Quarterly Catch-Up: What have we been watching?What are we anti...

Send us a Question! PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION: This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard! Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss one of the most influential horror movies of the modern era: The Blair Witch Project! How does it fare against modern horror? What does a first-time watcher think of the film? Did the Blair Witch cause Heather, Josh, and Michael to go missing or was somethi...

Send us a Question! PARTY PLEASER: Kathryn joins Melvin to summarize this year's cherry-picked so-bad-its-good movie, War of the Worlds (2025)! Featuring a cast of fairly known names (Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Devon Bostick, Clark Gregg, and many more) this odd adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic limits its prose to a computer screen. What could go wrong? Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 20-minutes discussing Chris Columbus' pull quote on the Harry Potter Reboot, "What's the point?", a...

Send us a Question! LET'S TALK: In the Church Library: Podcast Kelsey Kramer McGinnis: Instagram // Substack // Christianity Today Marissa Franks Burt: Instagram // Substack // Author Page Out October 14th - Pre-Order: The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Betrayed a Generation of Evangelical Families by Marissa Burt & Kelsey McGinnis Kelsey Kramer McGinnis & Marissa Franks Burt join Melvin to explore Shiny Happy People season's 1 and 2. Exploring both t...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin return to the MCU to discuss The Fantastic Four: First Steps! It's been 2 years since the gang has talked about Marvel, so what's it like to discuss this latest feature? Also, does it stand well on its own? At the end of the day... is it even good? Tune in and find out! Topics: (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 25-minutes looking at the budgets for each 2025 Marvel release and matching them against their world-wide gross, then speculating on ...

Send us a Question! PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION: This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard! Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss Sinners, Ryan Coogler's massive 2025 hit. As the film continues to dominate conversation, the two discuss it's myriad of themes, whether the film mixes its ideas together well, how they interpret the dichotomy between Smoke and Stack, and the relationship b...

Send us a Question! MOVIE DISCUSSION: Jessica LM Jenkins: Podcast // Instagram // YouTube // WeWhoThirst.com Jessica LM Jenkins joins Melvin to discuss a massive Pixar favorite; The Incredibles! From the simple-yet-deep "traditional" family stereotypes explored among the Parr family, the relationship between self-expression and conformity, and the similarities between Mr. Incredible and Syndrome. Jessica and Melvin get into it all and so much more! Topics: Editor's Note: No Patreo...

Send us a Question! REBROADCAST MOVIE DISCUSSION: In this rebroadcast episode (originally released September 28th, 2021), Melvin & Dan talk about one of Laika's several family-friendly horror-animated features, ParaNorman! Topics: ParaNorman has a comfortable, cozy Fall atmosphere.Laika takes advantage of it's medium to create a fun, charismatic animation style that separates itself from the competition.Melvin shares about an extremely lonely period in his life where h...

Send us a Question! REBROADCAST MOVIE DISCUSSION: Before Dune, Daniel saw a trailer for Redeeming Love. After the trailer played, he leaned over to his friend and said, "I think that's supposed to be a sexy Christian movie.". So, here we are talking about that "sexy Christian movie". Boy, there sure is a lot to talk about here. (originally released March 22nd, 2022) Topics: Redeeming Love contains some rather extreme and transgressive content despite having a serious lack of cont...