At Beyond The Box Set, we believe every great movie deserves a questionable sequel. Each week, we take a stand-alone cinema classic and compete to come up with the best, worst and most bizarre pitches to bring them back to the big screen.
Episodes
Thursday Apr 05, 2018
Thursday Apr 05, 2018
A sweet retro comedy about the rise and fall of fictional 60s pop band The Wonders, That Thing You Do! has virtually no stakes and gets by on the sheer good-natured charm of everyone involved, not least that of writer-director Tom Hanks. But can we sit through the 148 minute extended cut without succumbing to a severe case of toothache?
In this month's Patreon special, friend of the show Julio Olivera of The Contrarians podcast joins us to discuss Tom Everett-Scott's spooky resemblance to Tom Hanks, the low-energy charm of Liv Tyler and why La La Land may in fact be a spiritual sequel to this movie...
Released in 1996, That Thing You Do! was modestly successful at the box office, but spawned a successful soundtrack and quickly became a cult classic. In addition to Scott, Hanks and Tyler, the movie was an early showcase for then-rising stars including Steve Zahn, Charlize Theron and Giovanni Ribisi.
In addition to comparing notes on the movie, we also come up with some drinking games - highly recommend if you do attempt the extended cut - and pitch our sequel ideas, which this week feature a bittersweet 21st century reunion and a journey through the history of Rock 'n' Roll, by way of Quantum Leap, Doctor Who and Love Actually. Mr Hanks, we're waiting for your call...
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Beyond The Box Set is a hit movie podcast with a twist. Every week we take a classic piece of standalone cinema and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We're featured as a binge-worthy podcast on iTunes and can be found on all good podcasting platforms, including Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Podbean.
Fans of the show can also show their support on Patreon, gaining access to all of our exclusive bonus material by pledging as little as $2 per month. Incentives include access to our bonus movie review show Beyond BTBS, the opportunity to choose a film for us to cover on a future episode of Beyond The Box Set and a 30 second ad slot to plug absolutely anything you like (within reason).
00.00: Emma Stone really needs to break the cycle
25.55: That Thing You Do! Drinking Games
35.10: That Thing You Did!
55.00: That Thing You Manage!
1.08.00: Listener Submissions & Episode 60 Preview
Thursday Mar 29, 2018
Thursday Mar 29, 2018
It was voted the 7th best Star Trek film of all time by fans and described as 'a chillingly realistic documentary' by George Takei. But could the long hoped-for Galaxy Quest sequel ever work in a post-Rickman world? By Grabthar's Hammer, we're determined to find out...
Join us in this week's episode as we discuss John's Sam Rockwell epiphany, Harry's unapologetic love for Star Trek: Nemesis and why the late, great Alan Rickman may have found the role of a lifetime in resentful thespian Alexander Dane / Doctor Lazarus.
We also pitch some Galaxy Quest Drinking Games, including Tim Allen's Shatner-isms, unnecessary chest exposure and Sigourney Weaver reaction shots - followed by some sequel ideas that explore what a Galaxy Quest-style movie might look like at a time when Geek culture has taken over the world...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we take a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch ridiculous sequel, prequel and spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We're a top ten TV & Film Podcast and have been deemed 'binge worthy' by Apple Podcasts UK.
You can find the show on all good Podcasting platforms, including iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Google Play and Spotify. If you like the show please hit subscribe or leave us a review - it really helps us to find new listeners.
We're also available on most social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr - plus our Patreon page, where we offer a fabulous selection of exclusive bonus content, including access to our weekly bonus movie review show, the chance to choose a film for us to cover on a future episode, and a 30 second ad slot for anything you'd like to plug.
00.00: John understands Sam Rockwell now
25.00: Galaxy Quest Drinking Games
32.00: Galaxy Quest: The Cinematic Universe
40.00: Galaxy Quest II: The Final Franchise
51.30: Listener Submissions & Episode 59 Preview
Thursday Feb 22, 2018
Thursday Feb 22, 2018
Remember when everybody loved Garden State? Strange as it seems, Zach Braff's directorial debut was widely praised on release - so why has its reputation curdled so dramatically in recent years? Louise Ball joins us this week to discuss Manic Pixie Dream Girls, alarming animal cruelty and to help pitch the sequels that none of us actually want to see...
Released in 2004 at the height of Zach Braff's Scrubs fame, Garden State was a slow-burn box office success, grossing over $35 million against a $2.5 million budget, bouyed by a Grammy-winning soundtrack and enthusiastic reviews. Despite this initial success, the movie later attracted criticism for its ponderous exploration of mid-twenties ennui and the characterisation of Natalie Portman's female romantic lead as less a recognisable human being than an infantilised collection of infuriatingly self-conscious quirks.
Is Garden State totally without merit? We didn't quite think so. In this episode we discuss some of the reasons the movie was initially so successful - as well as the many elements that have aged poorly in the cold light of 2018. In pitching our own sequels, one of us attempts to inject some excitement by splicing the cast with a modern sci-fi phenomenon with an equally iconic soundtrack, one of us digs into the appalling animal cruelty hinted at in the original film, and one of us decides to ditch the insufferable central duo altogether and allow some of the movie's most memorable supporting characters to take centre stage...
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Beyond The Box Set is a top ten TV & Film podcast officially rated 'Binge Worthy' by Apple Podcasts. Each week, we take a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequels, prequels and spin-offs to bring them back to the big screen.
We're available on virtually all major Podcasting platforms and most forms of social media. We're also now available on Patreon, where you can support us for as little as $2 per month in return for a host of exclusive perks, including access to our weekly bonus show 'Beyond BTBS', a 30 second ad slot on Beyond The Box Set and the chance to appear as a character in one of our sequels!
00.00: Natalie Portman is not a natural laugher
22.15: Garden State Drinking Games
31.05: Garden State 2: Velcro Bad Things
46.40: Garden State 2: Pet Sematary
52.50: Garden State 2: The Infinite Abyss
1.03.10: Listener Submissions & Episode 54 Preview
Friday Feb 09, 2018
Friday Feb 09, 2018
What's your favourite children's movie about impoverished elderly people living with dementia? This week on Beyond The Box Set, we're joined by the talented Phil Hepworth to discuss *batteries not included, a quirky family sci-fi that features some surprisingly adult and melancholy themes.
Released in 1987, *batteries not included stars Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy as Frank and Faye Riley, a married couple whose long-time home comes under threat from aggressive property developers who want to force them out. As Faye's apparent dementia continues to worsen, Frank prays for a miracle - and gets one in the form of a pair of apparently sentient miniature spaceships known as 'The Fix-Its'.
The film's unusually thoughtful tone might be down to writer Brad Bird, who went on to write and produce a number of Pixar's biggest hits including Ratatouille and The Incredibles. A modest hit on release, the film has become a minor cult classic, winning a then-septuagenarian Tandy a Saturn award for Best Actress.
Join us as we discuss the colourful cast of characters - including a slogan-quoting former boxer and a short-fused gang leader with highly unusual fashion sense even for an eighties movie - attempt to figure out what the aliens/robots/spaceships are actually supposed to be in this movie and of course, pitch some sequel ideas...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we take a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. You can find us on virtually all major podcasting platforms, including iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and Podbean.
We recently launched on Patreon, allowing our listeners to access a whole raft of fabulous bonus content including our weekly bonus show 'Beyond BTBS', a 30 second ad slot on our main show and the opportunity to become a character in one of our sequels. We also have our own line of merchandise on TeePublic.com, including T-shirts, mugs, iphone cases and more.
00.00: All musicians are cheating bastards
25.22: *batteries not included Drinking Games
30.00: *batteries not included 2: Attack of the Drones
36.25: *batteries not included 2: Strong & Stable
46.25: *batteries not included 2: Always Read The Small Print
1.02.20: Listener Submissions & Episode 52 Preview
Friday Jan 19, 2018
Friday Jan 19, 2018
It's the whip-smart cult comedy that revived Robert Downey Jr.'s career and rescued us from the prospect of Johnny Knoxville headlining the Iron Man Franchise. Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang combines classic Neo Noir references with a distinctly 21st century sensibility, making it just the kind of curious genre-crossover we love to sink our teeth into...
With the invaluable assistance of our special guest Chris Johnston of Easy Riders Raging Podcast, we attempt to wrap our heads around the insanely convoluted plot of this movie, debate whether it's OK to shamelessly objectify your female lead if you make a point of being self aware about it and question just what exactly the root cause might be of Val Kilmer's increasingly alarming facial dimensions...
Naturally we also get down to some sequel ideas, which this week include a Rush Hour-inspired location switch, a deconstruction of the original movie's obsession with gay panic jokes and a lot of really terrible plays on the title. Kiss Kiss Cillit Bang, anyone?
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we take a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel and spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We've covered everything from timeless blockbusters to beloved cult classics, and quite possibly ruined them all with our sacreligious and frequently unfilmable reboot concepts.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe to get a new episode every Friday morning, and leave us a review on your preferred Podcasting app to really make our day. You can also reach out to us on most forms of social media, or through our official website.
00.00: Val Kilmer has strange proportions
29.00: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Drinking Games
35.00: Click Click Click... Bang!
41.05: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2: Ding Dong & Dynamite
46.30: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2: Who's Afraid of Gay Perry?
1.02.35: Listener Submissions & Episode 49 Preview
Thursday Jan 11, 2018
Thursday Jan 11, 2018
After four long weeks apart, Harry and John finally reunite for a dizzyingly hilarious trip down the rabbit hole that is Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's brilliantly inventive Being John Malkovich, one of the most creative cult comedies of the 1990s.
Starring John Cusack as a frustrated puppeteer, Cameron Diaz as his sexually conflicted, animal-hoarding wife and John Malkovich in a career defining performance as himself - or some version of it - Being John Malkovich is rightly regarded as a modern classic.
Join us as we discuss the wig that transforms John Cusack into Dylan Moran, Catherine Keener's stellar leg work in this movie, why Being Tom Cruise would never have worked and much more, before setting ourselves the daunting task of matching this movie's endless insanity with our own fantasy sequel pitches.
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Beyond The Box Set is the hit movie podcast in which classic standalone movies are subjected to bizarre and frequently unfilmable sequel, prequel and spin-off ideas in hopes of bringing them back to the big screen. We've been certified 'binge worthy' by Apple Podcasts and recently cracked the top ten in the UK TV & Film Charts, which we plan to dine out on for all eternity.
If you enjoy the show, hit subscribe to receive a brand new episode every Friday morning, and please consider leaving us a review too - it really helps our show to find more new listeners. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming via iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean and more.
If you'd like to reach out to us with a sequel idea, a movie suggestion or just to say hi, we're contactable via most forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Google+, or by leaving a comment on our official website.
00.00: Hot Tubs, Creepy Puppets and The Joy of Unapologetic Nonsense
25.00: Being John Malkovich Drinking Games
33.40: Being Harry Chappell
58.20: Splitting John Malkovich
01.06.45: Listener Submissions, The Get Out Theory & Episode 48 Preview
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
In almost a year of recording Beyond The Box Set, it occured to us this week that we've never actually covered a fully animated movie. So in the spirit of the new year, we decided to correct this oversight and turn our imaginations towards one of the most beloved animated features of the past decade, Pixar's WALL-E.
Written and directed by Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, WALL-E was one of Pixar Studios riskiest and most ambitious releases. Set in the wasted remnants of a long-abandoned Planet Earth, the movie follows a largely non-verbal trash compactor robot who dreams of experiencing true love - or at least the version of it depicted in his worn-out VHS of the 1969 musical Hello Dolly.
From its virtually dialogue-free first half to the depiction of a future in which humans have quite literally become oversized babies, WALL-E challenges its audience considerably more than the average children's movie. It was a gamble that paid off when the movie became a highly acclaimed global blockbuster, taking in over $200 million at the US Box Office and picking up the 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Despite all this success, to date WALL-E has never been recomissioned for a sequel. Join us as we attempt to recitify this with a haunting end-of-humanity origin story and a romantic sequel that finds WALL-E and EVE's teenage child experiencing the first pangs of robot love during the Earth cleanup process.
Along the way we also discuss whether WALL-E should really be considered a children's movie, question the necessity of sentient parasols in the future and learn the hard way that 'cockroach life span' is a difficult phrase to say...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We were recently featured by Apple iTunes as a 'Binge-Worthy Podcast', which was a very validating start to 2018.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and most other popular podcasting platforms.
If your new year's resolution was to review more podcasts, why not start with us? It makes us feel nice and it's the best way to help us find new listeners, so please consider throwing us some stars on iTunes, Stitcher and any other podcatcher that allows it.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.
00.00: Intro - EVE shoots first, asks questions later...
20.55: WALL-E Drinking Games
26.00: WALL-E: A Garbage Movie
37.25: WALL-E 2.0
48.25: Listener Submissions & Episode 47 Preview
Sunday Dec 31, 2017
Sunday Dec 31, 2017
The second half of 2017 gave us blockbusters of wildly varying quality - from the artistic and commercial highs of Dunkirk and Baby Driver to the wildly misguided lows of Justice League and Geostorm. We also made time for some less mainstream fare, including Kumail Nanjiani's delightful The Big Sick, James Franco's hilarious The Disaster Artist and Darren Aronofsky's utterly batshit Mother!
Join us in this second half of our year-end special as we attempt to pitch quick-fire sequels to every movie we caught in the cinema between July and December. As before, spoiler warnings do apply to all the movies we describe in this episode, but we'll try to give you plenty of warning.
Here are the movies featured in this episode (Star Wars fans, you're safe...)
00.00: Intro
01.10: Baby Driver
05.40: Spider-Man: Homecoming
11.20: War for the Planet of the Apes
16.05: Dunkirk
18.40: Atomic Blonde
21.50: The Hitman's Bodyguard
24.20: The Big Sick
28.55: Detroit
33.20: Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle
36.50: Mother!
41.00: Geostorm
45.45: It
47.30: Murder on the Orient Express
51.35: Thor: Ragnarok
54.00: Justice League
56.45: Suburbicon
59.35: The Disaster Artist
1.03.20: The Best and Worst Movies we saw in 2017
1.05.50: Episode 46 Preview
We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Friday 5th January. Thanks for supporting us through the first year of our show - here's to the next one!
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. Over the course of 2017 we've pitched sequels for beloved classics like Sideways, The Sixth Sense and The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, cult favourites such as Swiss Army Man, The Fifth Element and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, plus more questionable fare including Deja Vu, Me Before You and Krampus.
If you enjoy the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and most of the other popular podcasting platforms.
Leaving us a review is the absolute best way to help our show to find new listeners, so if your new year's resolution is to be nicer to strangers on the internet, please consider throwing some nice words and a star or five in our general direction on any platform that allows for it.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.
Thursday Dec 28, 2017
Thursday Dec 28, 2017
From depressing Oscar contenders to terrible franchise movies, we watched a lot of movies in 2017 that wouldn't necessarily fit the Beyond The Box Set format. So we thought it'd be fun to round off the year with a quick-fire run through everything we saw in the cinema this year, complete with improvised sequel pitches.
Join us in the first part of this mammoth undertaking, in which we vainly attempt to remember the plots of some of the movies we saw from January to June 2017. WARNING - spoilers abound for all of the movies we discuss in this episode, but we'll give you plenty of warning to hit the skip button if there's anything you havent gotten around to yet...
Here are the movies featured in this episode:
00.00: Intro - Broken Shoulders and Pigeon Invasions
03.00: La La Land
06.20: Jackie
07.55: Loving
09.30: Fences
11.15: Moonlight
13.10: Hacksaw Ridge
15.10: Hidden Figures
17.40: Elle
20.30: Manchester By The Sea
23.10: Lego Batman
26.00: Split
29.40: Lion
30.55: T2: Trainspotting
33.10: Beauty & The Beast
35.55: Get Out
38.45: Logan
43.45: Kong: Skull Island
48.50: Ghost in the Shell
51.30: Free Fire
55.30: The Fate of the Furious
01.02.30: Alien Covenant
01.07.30: Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2
01.09.25: Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Salazar's Revenge
01.16.15: Wonder Woman
01.21.10: The Mummy
01.25.40: The Beguiled
Stay tuned for part II, featuring increasingly drunken sequel pitches for all the movies we saw from July to December 2017. We'll also be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Friday 5th January 2018, so be sure to subscribe to hear all our latest episodes as soon as they're released.
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. Over the course of 2017 we've pitched sequels for stone-cold classics like Gladiator, Titanic and The Truman Show, cult favourites such as The Room, District 9 and Heathers... plus more questionable releases including 50 First Dates, Knights of Badassdom and the Super Mario Bros movie.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and many other popular podcasting platforms.
Leaving us a review is the absolute best way to help our show to find new listeners, so if your new year's resolution is to be nicer to strangers on the internet, please consider throwing some nice words and a star or five in our general direction on any platform that allows for it.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.
Thursday Dec 21, 2017
Thursday Dec 21, 2017
Podcast crossover! In the fourth and final instalment of our 2017 festive mini-season, Paul and Paul from One Good Thing join us to discuss Arnold Schwarzenegger's utterly shameless Christmas cash-in 'Jingle All The Way'.
Released in 1996, Jingle All The Way tells the heartwarming tale of a workaholic father attempting to compensate for a year's worth of neglect by buying his son a highly coveted 'Turbo Man' action figure for Christmas.
Critics described the movie as 'crass' 'cynical' and 'painfully unfunny' - and those were some of the kinder reviews - but it made money at the box office and endures as a questionable Christmas classic to this day.
Tune in as we discuss Schwarzenegger's nonexistant comic timing, Jake Lloyd's inexplicable journey from this to 'Star Wars', why Sinbad's character is clearly in the midst of a serious psychotic episode and the mysterious phenomenon that is Phil Hartman - suburban sex God.
We also engage in our first ever 'pod-off' - pitching our joint 'Jingle All The Way' sequel concept against the boys from One Good Thing. Can either team improve on the original movie - or even the real straight-to-DVD sequel starring Larry The Cable Guy that we chose to pretend doesn't exist? It's a lower bar than usual...
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Every week on Beyond The Box Set, we watch a classic standalone movie and compete to pitch the most ridiculous sequel, prequel or spin-off ideas to bring them back to the big screen. We're currently in the midst of our Christmas season, which has seen us imagine follow-ups to festive standards like It's a Wonderful Life, Love Actually and Krampus.
If you like the show, please hit subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform to hear a new episode every Friday. Beyond The Box Set is available for free download and streaming on iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Podbean, Pocket Casts, Youtube, Google Play and many other popular podcasting platforms.
Leaving us a review is the absolute best way to help our show to find new listeners, so if you want to give us the best Christmas present money can't buy, please consider throwing some nice words and a star or five in our general direction on iTunes or Stitcher.
If you have a suggestion for a film you'd like to hear us cover - or a sequel idea of your own that you'd like us to shout out on air, you can contact us via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr - or by leaving a comment under any blog post on our official website.
00.00: Dialogue is not Arnold Schwarzenegger's friend
33.00: Jingle All The Way Drinking Games
36.35: JT: Jingle Day
50.25: Jingle All The Way 2: Jingle Bell Rock
1.05.35: Listener Submissions & Episode 46 Preview