Ranting at the screen seems like a one sided conversation!
The Gist
Screen Rant Underground has been around for a little more than a year. The hosts of this weekly podcast are Ben Kendrick, Rob Keyes, Kofi Outlaw, and Anthony Ocasio. The hosts are joined every week by various guests. The podcast is mainly centered around mainstream movie talk, and features a news segment, a rant & rave segment where they address specific films/a topic, and they will review one or more movies every week. Episodes usually clock in somewhere in the two to two and a half hour range.
Episodes Listened To
#102: ‘The Wolverine‘
#103: ‘The Conjuring‘
#104: ‘Elysium‘ & The Best Summer 2013 Superhero Movie
My Thoughts
I consider myself a very open minded cinephile. I love trashy cinema as much as I do arthouse fare, and I see the value in independent cinema just as much as I see the value in B horror. However, when it comes to the podcasts I listen to I like to keep my listening geared more towards the independent and the arthouse. The reason for this is simple, I can get opinions on mainstream Hollywood cinema anywhere. I have a few podcasts, such as The Golden Briefcase and Mark Kermode And Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews, that spend most of their time on mainstream cinema. I enjoy those podcasts, but they, and a few others, provide most of the discussion and information I need when it comes to more popular cinema. When I’m looking for a film related podcast to add to my listening queue I migrate towards the podcasts that cover lesser seen movies. That does not describe Screen Rant Underground, and that’s why right off the bat Screen Rant Underground was not on solid footing with me.
Held to scrutiny Screen Rant Underground is a passable podcast. It doesn’t do anything overly bad, it’s certainly not terrible, and it does have great production values. Put to the test of what I’m looking for in a film related podcast Screen Rant Underground comes away in a not so kind light. They touched on a couple of non-mainstream films, but even those weren’t really non-mainstream. They were the type of indie films that are being put out by Hollywood studio subsidiaries for anywhere from ten to twenty million dollars. With that in mind Screen Rant Underground covered pretty much only popular movies, or movies with an extensive budget. The discussions they engaged in didn’t match that of the few mainstream podcasts I do listen to and I never engaged with the hosts.
It seemed like the hosts had negative things to say about every movie they discussed. Some of their conversations, such as the news piece on a proposed new Fantastic Four movie, reached a level of banality that was hard to sit through. It’s not that the hosts were doing anything wrong, there are plenty of people who enjoy film discussion that digs deep into the minutiae of mainstream cinema. That’s not me, I’m into film theory, film interpretation, camera angles, and so forth. The main reason for my inability to engage was the overwhelming air of negativity that permeates Screen Rant Underground. The banal minutiae was tough, but the negativity really made each episode feel its run time. It got to the point where any sort of positive remark was a bastion, something to hold onto in a see of never ending negativity. The tone of most of the conversations was off putting to me, and as I’m someone who finds plenty of positive in cinema every year I could not relate to the negative approach of Screen Rant Underground.
Another well made podcast that wasn’t for me in its approach, content, or discussion. My vote is to unsubscribe from Screen Rant Underground. If you’re heavily into Hollywood and mainstream cinema then maybe Screen Rant Underground will do more for you. But, the podcast didn’t meet what I look for in my film related podcasts and that’s why Screen Rant Underground is not a podcast I will be listening to anymore.
The Bottom Line
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Cheers,
Bill
Bill's Movie Emporium 