I’m a huge music fan and never really got into movies, probably because I barely had TV growing up. This podcast has tipped me off to movies I ended up really liking but may not have otherwise watched, like Thief, Rumblefish, The Batman and Drive. It has also helped me become an adequate conversationalist with movie buffs (seems like every other other person is one!) I’ve tried other movie podcasts to listen to at work but it seems like other movie pods always start with a heavy dose of of blabbing, non-movie related personal stories, and aren’t edited very tightly. Now Playing has a clean structure they always follow that puts the movie as the top priority. The editing is always really tight and professional, no hiss and dead air. The hosts are all good at talking about anything at all (it’s a talent!) and have good chemistry because they’ve known each other a long time. Even if someone pays them a bunch of money to review a movie, they aren’t afraid to give honest opinions, and I feel like they’re always aware that opinions aren’t objective facts, and opinions will differ based on age and what you want out of art or entertainment. I think the first episodes I listened to were them tearing apart the Silent Hill franchise; the skewering they gave it was off putting, but after getting a larger sample size of their reviews I’ve heard them champion underdog movies (not the Underdog franchise though!) and find interesting, modern points of criticism in classics. I have a signed copy of the Now Playing book, am a monthly supporter, and I always look forward to the next review. Unless it’s of a Stephen King property, how are those still being spawned?

It’s laughable these guys are squeezing people for $10 a month to get the paywall content. You can get streaming services like P+ for that money. Also, I’d like to ask the hosts why they are so fixated on “toxic masculinity”? I sense they are very insecure in their own masculinity.

Maybe one of the hosts is likable. But it’s not enough. and it’s hard to tell because they all have such similar voices, it’s like they are all children of professor Frink. And it just feels like they don’t even like the movies that they watch. I’ll stick to Filmsack.

Long time financial supporter. Inspired me to start my own movie pod. Smart fun and honest. I actually rarely agree with the hosts, but I appreciate their challenges and perspectives on movies I love. They also really love their listeners and have given us a seat at the table for a long time. Love NP!

I love the show and all the interaction between the hosts,,,, the only,,, flaw... not every movie needs to be compared to Star Wars, that’s Arnies view, he is easily the weak link of the show

While listening to an episode the other day I realized I’ve been enjoying this podcast and its hosts for more than 7 years now and even at that, I’d be considered late to the party. It’s been a part of so many different moments in my life along the way. I’ll remember episodes I listened to and where I was living, working, things I was going through, etc. That’s when you know a podcast is truly special. Arnie, Stewart and Jacob are my favorite trio, but any combination of the hosts is always a delight. I’ve been a paid subscriber on and off through the years and their backlog and release frequency is truly amazing. I can’t recommend this pod enough and I look forward to looking back after another 7+ years at all the top notch content Arnie and crew continue to deliver! Thanks and cheers to you, Now Playing!

I know I’m in the minority here, but I just can’t handle listening to these guys rip apart movies I’ve loved for years over and over and over. It seems 80/20 (80-negative comments about realism in situations depicted in a medium that exists to take us out of our own realities for 2 hours or so, and 20 actually liking something of the movie) And I’m sorry, we are all God’s children, but the voices…..seriously? Two of them sound related in that they both sound like the love child of Wallace Shaw and the bunny from the old Quick Chocolate milk ads. Like someone who is trying too hard to do a nasally, wet nerd voice. It’s too much. I know…I know….just don’t listen. I did try. And I guess I’m glad I didn’t become a patron for the fact that most of my all time favorites are torn apart for paying subscribers to sit through instead. I’m thankful that I have another podcast that I love where 4 hilarious guys spend their time appreciating the films, actors, scripts, filming techniques, etc, instead of trying to think so much. Good luck. I know you will do well. As for me…..can’t do it.

I’ve been listening to podcasts for far longer than I’ve owned an iPhone. When I became aware of people releasing shows guaranteed to appeal to a limited and scattered audience—fun and serious discussions of monster movies, for instance—I made it a point to be there. At one point, I even called discovery of fanzine-audio podcasts sort of my “KDKA Moment,” named after the first commercial radio station in the US. For a few years, I enjoyed entertainment, education and fun, textured with an appealing rough edge. Things change. That first generation of podcasts began to go away. The host and prime mover of one ‘cast passed, one hopes, to become a star of the Great Broadcasting Studio, blasting his podcast from the hereafter. I’m still trying to find that channel. Another ‘cast simply faded away, without leaving a trace, other than the episodes I managed to archive. Others…well, met manifold fates. The _Now Playing_ podcast became a kind of “Bounceback Listen.” I can’t say I’ve ever been that enthusiastic about listening to three often too-loud, often too-obnoxious, often argumentative hosts going at it about mainstream movies, but sometimes there was found a nugget of interest. And this podcast is still better than most of NPR or FOX. Okay, not high bars. Yeah, I must’ve been really jonesin’ for a fix. And I still can’t tell Arnie from Stuart. One’s the grumpy one; the other seems to do the serious research. Worse, I never found reason to care which was which. Even worse, maybe they’re _both_ the grumpy one. And some things happened. Covid limited the available new movies for them to argue about. Episodes that had always been behind a paywall, became more evident with changes in Apple design. The hosts seemed to suddenly become aware of their age, and strange melancholic distracting observations began to appear in their podcasts. Slowly, I would notice I would only listen to the first few of minutes of a given podcast, wherein background about a movie was provided by the host who did the research about the making of the movie. After that segment, I’d drop out and do something productive. If I listened to an entire episode, I listened to an episode about a movie or show I wasn’t going to watch anyway. The hosts never _sold_ me on watching a movie. They’d often mock it plenty though. RiffTrax does mockery better. Then one day, I stopped listening. I revisited the Apple Podcast page recently; Apple Podcasts pushed _Now Playing_ as a suggestion, and the latest movie was about something I had mild interest in. But I didn’t bother, finally having found more fertile ground. The bounce is gone.

A few random thoughts.... I am not sure what happened but the quality has been in slow decline for years to the point where I no longer subscribe. Arnie and Jakob both sound like perverts at times. Brock was awesome. So was the toy guy...Justin I believe. They should start their own podcast. The Flash episode was so confusing I had to stop listening to it. Referring to the two Barry Allen’s on screen as “he” but Ezra Miller as “they/them” made for a cluster bleep of an episode. Don’t butcher the English language by referring to one person as multiple people for the sake of wokeness. Perhaps the multiverse hurt their brains. They went overboard with all the donation drives. I would rather listen to ads then pay for mediocre content. At some point they started bringing politics into way too many reviews. If you start listening start with the back catalogue and work your way forward.

You have like one K and that’s like insane