Why Did We Watch This
220 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 5 hours ago - ★★★★ - 13 ratingsThree friends praising, destroying, and fixing the messiest, crappiest movies known to humanity. Oh, and we drink a lot, too.
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Episodes
82.5 – Part of That World
June 13, 2022 04:00 - 60 MBSummer is finally here, and with it the exciting promise of traveling to new locales (or just sitting in front of the air conditioner on your phone watching movies, both are good options)! Using that as a starting point, Leigh, Brendan, and Chris decided to talk about the fictional worlds of films that they'd most like to live in and why. Will Leigh deign to visit Brendan when he moves to Coruscant? Listen and find out! Also we kick off our summer movie and drink theme, and all the sweet and ...
82 – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
May 30, 2022 04:00 - 63 MBJourney with us back to the distant year of 2010, a time when Walt Disney Pictures was wildly desperate to launch another multi-million dollar franchise that would convince teenage boys to give them money. Enter The Sorcerer's Apprentice, an ostensible live-action adaptation of a Fantasia segment that would reteam National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub with National Treasure scenery gnawer Nicolas Cage. Audiences at the time didn't take to the idea of Nic Cage wearing a flowing wig and lea...
81.5 – How Sweet Is Your Boi?
May 16, 2022 04:00 - 60.8 MBFor this mini episode of Why Watch, we tackle one of the cultural zeitgeist's most pressing issues- who are your sweetest bois? Join Leigh, Brendan, and Chris as they discuss their favorite gentle boys of pop culture, those sweet boys who are defined by their willingness to show kindness and help others rather than immediately punch the shit out of someone (look, some of them also do that too but hey, all gentle behavior must have limits). Also our next full-length episode's subject is brough...
81 – I Could Never Be Your Woman
May 02, 2022 04:00 - 62.3 MBOur reigning queen of The-Consistently-Great-Thing-in-the-Bad-Movies-We-Watch, Michelle Pfeiffer, once again drifts into the focus of our podcast as the lead of a romcom (!) co-starring Paul Rudd (!!) and directed by Amy Heckerling (!!!) that was buried in the direct-to-DVD pipeline (!V). That's right, on this episode we'll be discussing the 2007 scattershot May-August romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman, a movie that you've probably never heard of and for good reason. Join Leigh, Bre...
80.5 – Not-So-Fantastic Beasts
April 18, 2022 04:00 - 61.6 MBLook at that, a true "mini-episode in name only," clocking in at our normal episode length! With the third movie in the Fantastic Beasts series having just been released to theaters to a resounding "Meh," Leigh, Brendan, and Chris took this opportunity to look back at perhaps the most fascinatingly bungled cursed franchise of our time (no, not Universal's Dark Universe). We begin with Chris trying to guess what Crimes of Grindelwald was about (truly, good luck there, even Wikipedia can't real...
80.5 – Not So Fantastic Beasts
April 18, 2022 04:00 - 61.6 MBLook at that, a true "mini-episode in name only," clocking in at our normal episode length! With the third movie in the Fantastic Beasts series having just been released to theaters to a resounding "Meh," Leigh, Brendan, and Chris took this opportunity to look back at perhaps the most fascinatingly bungled cursed franchise of our time (no, not Universal's Dark Universe). We begin with Chris trying to guess what Crimes of Grindelwald was about (truly, good luck there, even Wikipedia can't real...
80 – Smokin’ Aces
April 04, 2022 04:00 - 56.1 MBSorry in advance about the dodgy audio quality, you can blame it on us trying to record from the penthouse of a hotel in Lake Tahoe if that helps make it thematically appropriate. And it should, because for this episode we're tackling Joe Carnahan's 2006 gangster / assassin free-for-all Smokin' Aces, starring Ryan Reynolds, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Chris Pine, Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys, and a whole bunch of other talent crammed in like so many murderers into an elevator. A simple and workable...
79.5 – Mock Musicals
March 21, 2022 04:00 - 57 MBWe return with the third leg of our "guess what's real and what's made up" game, this time focusing on that finest of all American art forms, musical theater! Well, some would certainly argue that, at least. Join Brendan as he quizzes Leigh and Chris with a list of musical titles as they determine which ones are actually professionally-mounted musicals and which ones are titles that Brendan thought sounded vaguely plausible. I mean, can you tell what "Flahooley" is? Who can, right? Also we pl...
79 – Alice in Wonderland
March 07, 2022 05:00 - 60.2 MBMentally transport yourself back to the distant, far-flung year of 2010. Somehow Star Wars hadn't returned, we were all still trying to figure out what would come of all these Marvel movies, and Disney was trying to figure out how to make blockbusters that teenagers would see. Enter Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, a desaturated tri-dimensional sequel to a movie that doesn't exist. Audiences desperate for 3-D immersion turned it into one of the most improbably successful movies of all time, ...
78.5 – Faux Femme Fatales
February 21, 2022 05:00 - 64.6 MBMORE GAMES! The people (by which we mean we) demanded it, and so we delivered. We go now to round two of our guessing game in which Leigh and Brendan try to determine what woman-featured thriller movies Chris has made … Continue reading →
78 – Alex & Emma
February 07, 2022 05:00 - 59.8 MBAnother Valentine's Day is upon us, and like a shiftless sitcom husband stopping at a gas station for a last minute card, we also turn our thoughts to a lazy half-assed attempt at showing romance. This year's Valentine's Day romcom is 2003's Alex & Emma, one of Rob Reiner's many many middling unsuccessful movies following his dizzying highs in the 80s and early 90s. This shameless rip-off of Paris When It Sizzles stars Luke Wilson as a crummy writer prone to gambling away his advances and Kat...
77.5 – Tailor-Made Media
January 24, 2022 05:00 - 66.7 MBHave you ever encountered something so directly suited to your desires, something so attuned to your tastes, something that you can't possibly imagine anyone else responding to as passionately as you? If so, you've got some ego, buddy! But still, we're going to discuss this sort of thing anyway. Join Leigh, Brendan, and Chris as we talk about some specific forms of media that feels tailor-made to our own preferences. As usual, there's a lot of tangents and we talk about our impending Valentin...
77 – Robin Hood
January 10, 2022 05:00 - 62.4 MBA new year, a new start! And what better way to celebrate the endless possibilities of a new year than to watch a movie that does very little new with a story that's been around for many centuries? That's right, we're finally doing the weird companions movie to Guy Ritchie's King Arthur and His Lads of the Round Table, 2018's Robin Hood starring Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, and several Irish people. Don your hood and puffy Primark jacket and listen in as Leigh, Brendan, and Chri...
76.5 – The Closing of the Year V
December 27, 2021 05:00 - 54.8 MBOur beloved (?) annual tradition continues! It is the end of the year and we are all very tired, so for the fifth time we look at the year in review. The movies! The drinks! The movies and drinks yet to come! Also we're doing that Taron Egerton Robin Hood movie next, so maybe consider renting that piece of crap. Continue reading →
76 – The Holiday
December 13, 2021 05:00 - 62.9 MBWhat better way to celebrate Christmas than to imagine yourself in a world of dazzling whiteness, inscrutable timelines, and overall excess? That's right, 'tis the season to enjoy a messy Christmas movie, and this year's reason for the season is Nancy Meyer's 2006 vaguely Christmas-y romcom The Holiday. Join Leigh, Brendan, and Chris as we all swap houses, cars, everything, and discuss the two dueling plot lines, the general Nancy aesthetics, and how Jude Law can somehow do a tight 15 as Mr. ...
75 – The Holiday
December 13, 2021 05:00 - 62.9 MBWhat better way to celebrate Christmas than to imagine yourself in a world of dazzling whiteness, inscrutable timelines, and overall excess? That's right, 'tis the season to enjoy a messy Christmas movie, and this year's reason for the season is Nancy Meyer's 2006 vaguely Christmas-y romcom The Holiday. Join Leigh, Brendan, and Chris as we all swap houses, cars, everything, and discuss the two dueling plot lines, the general Nancy aesthetics, and how Jude Law can somehow do a tight 15 as Mr. ...
75.5 – Hallmark Christmas Movie Generator Game
November 29, 2021 05:00 - 50.2 MBIn which we play a new game for the holidays, much like a gang of jolly penniless friends as a Victorian England Christmas party (except it's about Hallmark movies which would have undoubtedly perplexed and befuddled the average citizen of that time period). There's nouns and adjectives and drawing paper from hats and improvising the plots of Hallmark Christmas movies, and truly what more could you want? Also we briefly talk about our annual Christmas traditions (i.e. our upcoming Christmas m...
75 – Watching the Detectives
November 15, 2021 05:00 - 60.5 MBFinally, we answer the question that has plagued humanity for like 15 years or so- who watches Watching the Detectives? Also, what is Watching the Detectives and is there a good reason no one has heard of it despite the … Continue reading →
74.5 – Unexpected Hits
November 01, 2021 04:00 - 56.6 MBWith Halloween in our rearview mirrors and the evil demonic spirits we brought to our mortal realm after spending the night in that haunted house safely turned to statues when the first rays of dawn touched them, we can focus on the future: movies that we thought would suck but then didn't! Now that we have created a Horrible New Normal and studios are starting to put bloated expensive crap back in theaters where it belong, Leigh, Brendan, and Chris discuss movies they saw that they fully exp...
74 – White Noise
October 18, 2021 04:00 - 64.5 MBFor our annual Halloween Spooktacular episode, we dredge the the cruddy marshes of early-2000s horror films and pull up 2005's White Noise, a real piece of crap you might be dimly aware of because Michael Keaton was in it. Keaton stars as a widower who believes he can hear his dead wife speaking to him through the static of his phone, prompting him to phone in his performance for the next 70 minutes. Get yourself into a suitably spooky mood (but not too spooky because this isn't really much o...
73.5 – Classic Film or Classic Flimflam
October 04, 2021 04:00 - 40.3 MBIn our latest minisode game premise, Leigh combs through the dregs of forgotten early cinema for movie names that seem just implausible enough and combines them with a list of her own fictional titles, then forces Brendan and Chris to wrack their brains in an attempt to determine which ones are real and which ones are fake. Games are fun and they don't require all of us to do preparation for an episode (just Leigh), so we hope you like this frivolous bit of nonsense (and that you still like t...
73 – The Art of Getting By
September 20, 2021 04:00 - 62 MBIt's September, which means it's back to school season, which means that we get to drink our way through a really crappy movie about high schoolers! In our latest episode, Leigh, Brendan, and Chris watch sad sack misfit Freddie Highmore mope his through his senior year of high school in 2011's The Art of Getting By. That is to say, he would be moping his way through it if he hadn't neglected to do pretty much any of his school work for the whole year, having I guess not realized that this mig...
72.5 – Dream for a Nostalgiac
September 06, 2021 04:00 - 39.4 MBAs the Summer of Weddings closes, we decide to put some fresh eyes on some of the depictions of adulthood from movies and TV we watched and loved as kids versus how we feel about them today (surprise, we hate them!). Mostly, it's a great excuse for Leigh to force Brendan and Chris to watch the truly cringeworthy film Dream for an Insomniac. Perhaps it should have been obvious to 12-year-old Leigh, but any movie that sets you on a beret phase is probably not a movie you should be sourcing any...
72 – Something Borrowed
August 23, 2021 04:00 - 60.4 MBQuick! What would you do if you were secretly in love with your horrible best friend's fiancee for years and never told him, but then he told you he was also in love with you for years and never told you, but he seems to have no real interest in figuring out what he wants to do and his wedding is quickly approaching and also Jim Halpert keeps yelling at you? If your answer was "dither for weeks while indulging in flashbacks and refusing to make any of your own choices," then congratulations, ...
71.5 – Romcommification
August 09, 2021 04:00 - 47.4 MBIn which we take nonromcom movies we already watched for this podcast and romcomify them, so there are romcoms where we had naught but noncoms to begin with. Rom! Continue reading →
71 – My Best Friend’s Girl
July 26, 2021 04:00 - 59.7 MBOur Summer of Weddings and Margs swaggers onward with a rom (?) com (??) that's somehow so shitty it nearly circles back around to having something to say about masculinity and relationships (ALMOST). Listen in with Leigh, Brendan, and Chris as they watch and discuss 2008's My Best Friend's Girl starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin and a bunch of other poor bastards. Think back on our nation's brief early-2000s love affair with the comedic stylings of Dane Cook as we cov...
70.5 – Subtext & Domtext
July 12, 2021 04:00 - 54.8 MBOur Summer of Weddings and Margaritas rolls on relentlessly like some fire-breathing atomic bridezilla, but for this episode we take a breather to focus on the subject of subtext in movies and how it relates to the viewer's interpretation of the film and how a fandom can then take that and run manically with it all over fanfiction.net. As the movie Luca provides the starting point for this discussion, please be aware there are obviously spoilers for that movie (but really if you haven't watch...
70 – The Big Wedding
June 28, 2021 04:00 - 62.1 MBMon dieu! Le mariage- elle est trop grand! Alors, une question: que se passe-t-il lorsque les parents adoptifs divorcés d'un jeune homme adopté, sa mère biologique conservatrice et plusieurs autres membres de la famille à peine développés assistent tous à son grand mariage? Eh bien, rien de drôle, c'est sûr. Rejoignez Leigh, Brendan et Chris alors qu'ils regardent The Big Wedding en 2013, un remake Américain d'une comédie Française mettant en vedette un casting de pouvoirs dont personne ne co...
69.5 – Haven’t Seen It II: The Wrath of Dune
June 14, 2021 04:00 - 56 MBTwo years ago, in the Before Times, we did this sort-of game thing where we prepared lists of movies that at least one person had seen but at least one other person had not. We then used that list to try to describe what we thought the plots of these movies were to see how close our cage impressions were to the real thing. With the long-awaited adaptation of Dune probably coming to theaters this fall (keep getting them vaccines!), we decided to brush this old chestnut off again and do another...
69 – I Love Trouble
May 31, 2021 04:00 - 58.4 MBPlease, please, don't confuse 1994's I Love Trouble with Nothing But Trouble, though both are equally unpleasant movies (albeit in wildly different ways) and both spend about the same amount of effort on compelling romance. For our nicest episode ever, we watch this aptly-forgotten Charles Shyer / Nancy Meyers romantic (?) crime thriller (??) starring Nick Nolte, Julia Roberts, and a whole lot of intrigue about milk. Join Leigh, Brendan, and Chris as they discuss chemistry and miscasting, the...
68.5 – Quarantine Comforts
May 17, 2021 04:00 - 62.2 MBWith vaccines becoming readily available and the CDC spinning out new guidelines at a bizarre rate, it seems like our long international nightmare might finally be nearly over (but just that one). For this mini episode, Leigh, Brendan, and Chris all take a look back on how they spent their pandemic quarantines. What did we binge? What did we watch that we never thought we'd end up watching under normal circumstances? Can Korea make dramas fast enough for Leigh to watch most of them? Also, che...
68 – Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
May 03, 2021 04:00 - 63.4 MBOn this episode of Why Did We Watch This, we welcome back both Michelle Pfeiffer and Catherine Zeta-Jones for their fourth (!) appearance in one of our movies (in so much as you can call it an appearance if they never actually show up on screen, but at least they both actually tried unlike the rest of the cast). That's right, we're watching Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, the (mostly) hand-drawn animated flick that was so poorly-received it made Jeffrey Katzenberg decide that DreamWorks sho...
67.5 – Whither Good Original Fantasy Worlds?
April 19, 2021 04:00 - 56.7 MBGoing off of our generation's love of 1980s nostalgia, it's a sore spot that we're not getting the glut of weird-ass original fantasy movies we were getting during that decade. In a world where the majority of fantasy movies that are kind of close to original are live-action remakes of Disney fairy tales, there's a lot of fantastical crap to wade through. Leigh, Brendan, and Chris all try to think of more recent original fantasy films that managed to do a good job of creating their universes ...
67 – Serendipity
April 05, 2021 04:00 - 60.8 MBWe can all agree that two people in relationships acting as though they're having some sort of affair is pretty questionable, but what if the universe itself demands that these half-dimensional wisps of character sketches should be together for some inexplicable reason? Well, then you'd have Serendipity, a charmless 2001 romcom starring John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, and a lot of other wasted talent. Can these two dopes manage to find each other across time and the continental United States, s...
66.5 – Side by Side Characters
March 22, 2021 04:00 - 62.3 MBIn an effort to do justice to those characters long shunted to the side for various reasons, Leigh, Brendan, and Chris talk about their favorite side characters in movies and TV shows. Who are these champions of protagonist support, so often doing the heavy lifting of keeping the plot interesting or the jokes a-popping? Why are they often so much more interesting than the leads they're so thanklessly holding up? Why does it not work as well when you try to shove them front and center for thei...
66 – Oz the Great and Powerful
March 08, 2021 05:00 - 70.1 MBImagine, if you will, a world where Disney was so desperate for a franchise that they threw a bunch of cinematic spaghetti at the wall and ended up with "a sort-of prequel to a movie we don't own but not really and it will star James Franco and be directed by Sam Raimi and cost over $200 million." Well, you don't have to imagine it, you just have to struggle to remember that yes, in fact there was a Disney movie in 2013 entitled Oz the Great and Powerful. It exists! Journey somewhere that leg...
65.5 – Pitcher’s Mound – Fairy Tale Adaptations
February 22, 2021 05:00 - 58.6 MBWE'RE BACK with consistently better sound quality (comparatively speaking) and a mini episode that mandated we actually put effort into this. That's right, it's the return of the Pitcher's Mound and this time Leigh, Brendan, and Chris are all attempting to pitch feature-length adaptations of fairy tales. FUN FACT, many fairy tales don't follow any sort of story structure and it can be very difficult to attempt to graph that onto them! Anyways, listen, won't you, and we'll also go into the nex...
65 – Just Friends
February 08, 2021 05:00 - 65.9 MBIn advance, we apologize for the questionable audio of this podcast and the questionable decision to have a bunch of bros make a movie about how they're suffering in the friend zone. But also it's Christmas (yes, once again, as time isn't real) and we've got Julie Hagerty! Join Leigh, Brendan, and Chris for 2005's Just Friends, a Ryan Reynolds romcom with the least rom that's ever been in an annual Valentine's Day spectacular. Can the genuine moments of com overcome the underdeveloped rom? Is...
64.5 – Why Do We Rewatch This
January 25, 2021 05:00 - 38.5 MBWith the entire world on fire and everything going to hell, it can be comforting to take solace in movies (and television) you're familiar with rather than risk feeling new sensations by indulging in the unfamiliar. For this mini, Leigh, Brendan, and Chris discuss their rewatching habits- what movies they liked but will never want to see again, and what they turn to whenever they need the visual equivalent of grandma's warm afghan blanket. Also we finally, finally, finally decide to watch a m...
64 – Jupiter Ascending
January 11, 2021 05:00 - 69.2 MBLace up your hoverboots and strap on your black villain cape complete with voluminous sleeves, it's time for Why Watch Ascending! That's right, we're kicking off 2021 with the Wachowski's 2015 sci-fi-space-opera-which-feels-like-a-fan-fic-but-somehow-isn't, Jupiter Ascending! Join the three Dratpaxus siblings Leigh, Brendan, and Chris as we discuss how a movie can have too much plot and yet too little plot, why the titular ascending character is such a fucking dull tabula rasa, and the deal w...
63.5 – The Closing of the Year IV
December 28, 2020 05:00 - 23.1 MBUP ON THE KNEES OF A SERGEANT MAJOR RIDE THROUGH THE WOODS WITH THE WIND IN YOUR HAIR SILVER BELLS ON A STOLEN REINDEER WHILE WE RACE TO THE CASTLE OVER THERE It's our usual lazy day look back on the year in review, an awful awful year full of awful awful movies and some pretty good drinks. What were our favorites and what should be consigned to the dustbin of oblivion? Look, listen and find out, I'm not going to type the entire episode. Also, a warm drink recipe designed to counteract the c...
63 – The Christmas Chronicles 2
December 14, 2020 05:00 - 66.5 MBFinally, the prophecy has been fulfilled. No, not the prophecy that a human would become the elf king and lead them all to salvation (hey, not at all played out or uncomfortable!), but the prophecy that we made ages ago when we said we'd do The Christmas Chronicles 2 as a follow-up to the OG Christmas Chronicles episode we did two years ago. So, here it is. And there it lies like a glossy piece of mass-manufactured fruitcake, flavorless and glossy and almost completely without reason to be th...
62.5 – Dash & Lily
November 30, 2020 05:00 - 72.1 MBDecember is almost upon us, and with it a plethora of original holiday-related programming. Instead of focusing on of of the ones with a Christmas ghost or some other supernatural hook (next time!), we discuss a Netflix original miniseries we all found ourselves binging very very quickly, Dash & Lily. As another adaptation based off of a jointly-written Rachel Cohn and David Levithan young adult novel, this could have easily been Naomi and Ely's No Kiss Christmas but somehow blessedly it ende...
62 – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
November 16, 2020 05:00 - 73.5 MBBack in the Before Times when movies were actually a thing you could go to, it was customary for studios to start dropping Oscar bait movies in late fall and continue throughout the holiday season. It's always fun to look back on which ones never ended up getting the little golden men they were angling for, and for our November episode we look at a recent example, 2013's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty directed by and starring Ben Stiller. Do you remember this? Maybe? There was a vague traile...
61.5 – Lame of Thrones
November 02, 2020 05:00 - 56.7 MBOOOOOO PRETTY SNARKY, EH? It's been over a year (or maybe like three months time isn't real anymore who knows) since the finale of Game of Thrones aired and disappointed nearly everyone with its rushed plotting, shoddy characterizations, and shots of Dany making it look like she has dragon wings. Since then, we've all entered into a collective pact to not think about it anymore. Well, we're smashing that agreement, and all because Leigh kept reading Jaime/Brienne fics while bored during quara...
61 – The Haunting
October 19, 2020 04:00 - 56.8 MBWelcome, boys and GHOULS, to our annual Halloween Spooktacular featuring The Haunting! Yes, this is Jan de Bont's 1999 CGI-encrusted remake of Shirley Jackson's classic story of horror and pulsating doors, not the 1961 classic, or the Netflix series based off the same source material, or The House on Haunted Hill, or the remake of The House on Haunted Hill, or The Legend of Hell House. Leigh, Brendan, and Chris curl up with a bloody good cocktail (complete with glass to put over your eye lest...
60.5 – In Which TV Defines Us
October 05, 2020 04:00 - 53.8 MBRemember that thing that was going around twitter a while ago where people were listing the top five television shows that explained who they were as a person? Remember? Before all this other stuff that happened? Well, we do and so we're doing it but instead of just saying what the five television shows that define ourselves are, we're making everyone else guess what they would be. It's a game! We loves games! And we love seeing how well we actually know each other (oh does it vary). Also we'...
61.5 – In Which TV Defines Us
October 05, 2020 04:00 - 53.8 MBRemember that thing that was going around twitter a while ago where people were listing the top five television shows that explained who they were as a person? Remember? Before all this other stuff that happened? Well, we do and so we're doing it but instead of just saying what the five television shows that define ourselves are, we're making everyone else guess what they would be. It's a game! We loves games! And we love seeing how well we actually know each other (oh does it vary). Also we'...
60 – Flypaper
September 21, 2020 04:00 - 65.7 MBWhat do you get when you take Patrick Dempsey, the writers of The Hangover, the director of The Lion King, and a group of esteemed and notable actors and lock them all up together in a bank overnight? Did you guess Flypaper? No? You've never even heard of it? Oh. Well, you get Flypaper, a 2011 crime comedy that opened at Sundance and then everyone forgot about entirely. Everyone but Leigh. So naturally, she, Brendan, and Chris decided to watch this sweaty heist flick and see what the deal was...
59.5 – Why Don’t We Watch This – The Nice Guys
September 07, 2020 04:00 - 47.7 MBNo, we didn't forget how to count, but we ARE going a bit off schedule this week to feature our final episode of Why Don't We Watch This. This week we talk about Shane Black's The Nice Guys, a rollicking mystery comedy adventure set in the 1970s if your average film reviewer or podcaster named Chris is to be believed! Turns out when you watch a great movie that gives you great laugh per minute mileage, you don't always have a lot to talk about! In two weeks we'll back to semi-normal with our ...