The Failed Critics Podcast was our slightly shambolic weekly entertainment podcast chatting about the films that we’d seen recently.

Each week, hosts Steve Norman and Owen Hughes would invite a variety of guests onto the show to review the latest cinema releases, talk about what else they’ve been watching in the past seven days, and mull over any exciting or interesting news from the film world (if it happens to have crossed their Twitter feeds prior to recording… Maximum Effort). Occasionally we produced themed episodes, such as our Triple Bill podcasts, quiz-centric Quizcasts, or we would induct folks into our Corridor of Praise.

If you want in depth reviews of the key components that make an individual movie objectively “good” or “bad”, then you’re looking in the wrong place. But if you want to go back and listen to a group of people chatting about film just like mates do and being occasionally humorous with it, then feel free to work your way through our back catalogue of published podcasts. They’re all still available until Acast bins us off.

Think of it as a podcast about people who watch films, rather than a film podcast.

CREDITS

Created by James Diamond

Produced and edited by Owen Hughes

Contributions from: Steve Norman, Gerry McAuley, Carole Petts, Matt Lambourne, Callum Petch, Andrew Brooker, Paul Field, Brian Plank, Tony Black, James Diamond and loads more.

Special guest appearances by other podcasts: Black Hole Cinema (Tony Black), The Bottle Episode (Matt Latham), Wikishuffle (Jack Stewart, Chris Wallace and Phil Sharman), The Punch Up (Nicholas Lay), Underground Nights (Paul Field and James Mullinger), Character Unlock (Andrew Brooker and John Miller)

All music by Kevin MacLeod of http://incompetech.com (remixed by James Yuill from episode 150 onwards)

“The Bandit” Kevin MacLeod – Direct Link: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100050
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

All podcasts hosted with Acast: http://acast.com/failedcritics/

RSS Feed: http://rss.acast.com/failedcritics  (copy into your podcast management software or RSS reader, but there’ll never be any new episodes, just so you know)

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If you’re new to the Failed Critics Podcast and want somewhere to start, right-click to download our ‘best of’ episode from 2016, or listen to the episode on YouTube:

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Alternatively, you can try some of these classic ‘new-release review’ or ‘triple bill’ podcasts that always proved quite popular for some reason unbeknownst to us:

2017:

• Episode 250 – The Human Cinematipede – The Lego Batman Movie, Hearts of Darkness, Brent: Life on the Road, Unbroken, Rick and Morty (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, James Diamond and Gerry McAuley) – 14 Feb 2017
• Failed Critics Unplugged: The Old Contemptibles – Live episode recorded at the Old Contemptibles pub in Birmingham (Tony Black, Owen Hughes and Andrew Brooker) – 10 Feb 2017
• T2: Trainspotting – T2: Trainspotting, Essex Spacebin, Sadako vs Kayako, Hidden Figures, A Man Called Ove, Shin Godzilla (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Paul Field and Matt Lambourne) – 31 Jan 2017

2016:

• Rogue Three: A Star Wars Podcast – Steve kicks Owen off the podcast to talk about Star Wars: Rogue One (Steve Norman, Paul Field and Dave Valentine) – 17 Dec 2016
• Arrival– Reviews of Arrival, Green Inferno, The Danish Girl and Max, plus our most intentionally offensive episode to date (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Andrew Brooker and Tony Black) – 18 Nov 2016
• Halloween Necromancing Triple Bill – Resurrecting dead actors and casting them in new movies triple bill + The Comedian’s Guide to Survival review (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Tony Black) – 25 Oct 2016
• London Film Festival 2016 Special – The latest films from Ben Wheatley, Denis Villeneuve, Paul Verhoeven, Park Chan-wook and more (Owen Hughes and Callum Petch) – 22 Oct 2016
• Blair Witch or Killer Bitch – Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch plus a special quiz (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Paul Field and Tony Black) – 21 Sep 2016
• Pod Handed – Mob Handed, Nerve, Pete’s Dragon, The Shallows, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Swamp Thing, The Lobster and Highlander (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Callum Petch) – 16 Aug 2016
• 3 Critics, 1 Bathtub – Hardcore Henry, Midnight Special, The Absent One, Keeper of the Lost Causes, Future Shock!, Absolutely Anything (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Paul Field) – 12 Apr 2016
• World Cinema Special 2 – Three favourite films from three different countries triple bill (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Andy Alcock and Liam) – 26 Jan 2016

2015:

• Winterval Special 2015 – Christmas past, present and future triple bill (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Brian Plank and Andrew Brooker) – 22 Dec 2015
• Legend, The Visit and Award Winning Comedy – Legend, The Visit, Man on Wire, Vile Pervert: The Musical, Sons of Ben (Jack Stewart, Owen Hughes, Phil Sharman and Andrew Brooker) – 16 Sep 2016
• The Failedastic Four – Fantastic Four, Inside Out & Diary of a Teenage Girl (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Carole Petts and Brian Plank) – 11 Aug 2015
• TV Special (S3, Ep2) – After discussing the forthcoming Emmy Awards in part one, part two focusses on current TV shows (Owen Hughes, James Diamond and Matt Latham) – 31 Jul 2015
• Spooks, Britishness and Bad Impressions – Britishness in film triple bill + listener questions (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Matt Lambourne) – 13 May 2015
• Age of Ultron and our Avengers Minisodes – Age of Ultron review + ten additional short individual podcast reviews of each of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Matt Lambourne and Carole Petts) – 29 Apr 2015
• The Failed Black Wikishuffle Hole Quizcast – A fun quiz-only episode (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Matt Lambourne, Wikishuffle (Jack Stewart, Chris Wallace, Phil Sharman), Black Hole Cinema (Tony Black, Matt Latham)) – 20 Apr 2015
• Episode 150 And As Shambolic As Ever – An extra long (5 hours to be precise) triple-triple bill podcast (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Matt Lambourne, Paul Field and Andrew Brooker) – 3 Apr 2015
• Your Unconventional Desire– Predestination, Focus & 50 Shades of Grey (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Matt Lambourne and Paul Field) – 19 Feb 2015
• The Pod in the Machine – A.I. triple bill, Ex Machina (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Matt Lambourne) – 30 Jan 2015

2014:

• End of Year Special!– Results of the 2014 Failed Critics Awards (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Matt Lambourne and James Diamond) – 24 Dec 2014
• James? Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need James – James begins his official semi-retirement, desert island discs triple bill, Expendables 3 (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Carole Petts and James Diamond) – 22 Aug 2014
• Guarding the Galaxy from Sharknadoes – Guardians of the Galaxy, Sharknado 2, Boyhood, Chef (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Carole Petts) – 5 Aug 2014
• Episode CXV – A New Sound Quality – Under The Skin, A Million Ways To Die In The West, Edge of Tomorrow (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and James Diamond) – 5 Jun 2014
• The Failed Critics Podcast v Godzilla: Destroy All Critics! – Godzilla special (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, James Diamond and Matt Lambourne) – 22 May 2014
• Glasgow Film Festival 2014 (feat. Pappy’s) – Festival round-up, Zero Theorem, The Double, Mood Indigo, Calvary, 20 Feet From Stardom (James Diamond, Dave McFarlane, Paul Fisher and Pappy’s (Ben Clark, Matthew Crosby and Tom Parry)) – 2 Mar 2014
• 100 Episodes in and EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! – The Lego Movie, Her, RoboCop, Dallas Buyers Club, Cuban Fury, The Monuments Men (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and James Diamond) – 19 Feb 2014

2013:

• 2013 in Review, and the FC Awards – Results of the 2013 Failed Critics Awards (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Gerry McAuley, Matt Lambourne and James Diamond) – 30 Dec 2013
• Gravity, Being Smug & Steve’s Big Mouth – Gravity, Kon-Tiki (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and James Diamond) – 18 Nov 2013
• Captain Phillips, London Film Festival and glorious Arnie – LFF13 round-up, Captain Phillips, Escape Plan, Le Week-End (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Carole Petts and James Diamond) 25 Oct 2013
• Great Performances in Bad Films – Triple bill of best performances in bad films (Steve Norman, Gerry McAuley and James Diamond) 31 May 2013

2012:

• Skyfall and our Bond Triple Bill special – Skyfall + other Bond movies (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and James Diamond) – 30 Oct & 4 Nov 2012
• Paranormal Activity 4 – Paranormal Activity 4, Safety Not Guaranteed, Speed Racer, Holy Motors (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Gerry McAuley and James Diamond) – 25 Oct 2012
• The Dark Knight Rises BATMAN SPECIAL – The Dark Knight Rises + other Batman movies (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Gerry McAuley and James Diamond) – 22 Jul 2012
• Episode 1 – The very first episode of the podcast, Cabin in the Woods (Steve Norman, Gerry McAuley and James Diamond) – 25 Apr 2012

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If you’re looking for something a little more specific, you could try one of our Corridor of Praise episodes, where we induct actors, directors, characters and even studios who have been cruelly overlooked by the Academy into the highly coveted Failed Critics echelons of prestige:

• 1. Harrison Ford (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Gerry McAuley and James Diamond) – 4 Dec 2012
• 2. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Gerry McAuley and James Diamond) – 29 Jan 2013
• 3. Stanley Kubrick (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Gerry McAuley and James Diamond) – 28 Mar 2013
• 4. Studio Ghibli (James Diamond, Owen Hughes and Gerry McAuley) – 13 Oct 2013
• 5. Paul Verhoeven (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes and Matt Lambourne) – 4 May 2014
• 6. Jean-Claude Van Damme (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Hollie and Richard Trondsen) – 16 Apr 2015
• 7. Danny Dyer (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Paul Field, James Mullinger and Jonathan Sothcott) – 26 Aug 2015
• 8. James Bond (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, Tony Black and Brian Plank) – 29 Oct 2015
• 9. John Carpenter (Steve Norman, Owen Hughes, James Diamond) – 2 Feb 2016

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ALL ARCHIVED PODCASTS, INCLUDING THE LAST EPISODE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, CAN BE FOUND HERE