The Punching Up Movie Podcast

Punching Up-Episode 36-Hope To paraphrase the great English writer Oscar Wilde, “Each man kills the thing he loves, the coward does it with a kiss, the brave man with a… podcast.” The brave man in this instance is Damian. The thing he loves is South Korean cinema. The object of his disappointment and pugilistic rage, Na Hong-jin’s cops and hunters vs destructive lanky aliens, 2026 critical smash, Hope. Damian has loved everything Na Hong-jin has ever made. But not Hope. Damian doesn’t like Hope at all. So, to quote the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri, “Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here.” Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon (Punching Up Patreon)

Punching Up-Episode 35-The Maltese Falcon For the very first time the Punching Up team go back to the Golden Age of the Hollywood dream factory and punch up at the progenitor of film noire, the 1941, Humphrey Bogart starring, John Huston directed crime classic The Maltese Falcon. But what could Adam or Damian possibly have against the movie that made Bogie a star, launched the career of Huston, spawned a thousand Peter Lorre impersonations and made a virtue of sharp, snappy, acid laced, streetwise, hard-boiled dialogue? Well, it’s the dialogue. The mountains and mountains of dialogue. Can you have too much of a good thing? You can if you’re a movie called The Maltese Falcon. And to quote those English masters of East End inflected hard-boiled rapid talk, Chas and Dave, “I don’t mind a bit of chat, but do they have to keep giving it that!”. And just to demonstrate that the Punching Up Boys aren’t complete philistines who think that cinema began in the 1960s, they both go goo-goo eyed over 1946’s Bogie starring crime classic The Big Sleep. Two Bogies for the price of one, a general discussion on the tenets of film noir, plus more gratuitous Chas and Dave quotage. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon (Punching Up Patreon)

Punching Up-Episode 34-The Howling In this month’s lycanthropically themed episode of Punching Up, alpha dog and the leader of the pack Damian Asher, confronts lone wolf Adam Nightingale as he takes a razor clawed swipe at Adam’s favourite werewolf movie The Howling. But the prospective tear-up doesn’t quite ago according to script, denying their faithful audience the promised figurative blood bath. But have no fear, there are plenty more werewolf movies up for discussion that Adam loves and make Damian genuinely howling mad. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon (Punching Up Patreon)

Punching Up-Episode 33-The Odyssey In case you haven’t noticed there is an obscure arthouse film on general release called The Odyssey that needs a bit of an extra push from the Punching Up Team. So, Damian and Adam have graciously decided to give The Odyssey’s under resourced marketing team an assist by talking about it on their podcast. Up for discussion are the place of fate and the will of the gods over free will and moral culpability in the Hellenistic world as interpreted by Christopher Nolan, the cinematic representation of martial chaos, Nolan’s grotesque Goyaesque creature design, and the extent to which Nolan navigates the contentious sexual politics of Homer’s original text vs the more progressive post-feminist demands of a 21st Century audience. But by far the most important question under discussion is, which is better, The Odyssey or Jason and the Argonauts (or Conan the Barbarian)? The answer should be obvious. I live, I love , I slay, I am content. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon (Punching Up Patreon)

Punching Up-Episode 32-Halloween For the first time in Punching Up’s relatively brief but illustrious history Damian takes a swing at a film Adam actually cares about, John Carpenter’s trend setting, genre launching slasher masterpiece (or should that be slash-ter-piece?), Halloween. Adam first had the living dingles scared out of him by Carpenter’s OG serial killing bogey (or should that be boogey) man Michael Myers when he was a kid and has been serially creeped him out by him ever since. Damian is clearly made of sterner stuff and isn’t remotely frightened by Halloween and it’s going to take more than an indestructible, William Shatner mask wearing, knife wielding embodiment of pure evil to get the D Man to soil himself anytime soon. So, join the Punching Up team for kitchen knives at dusk and a proper Halloween carve up. We also talk about the pedestrian Halloween 2, the really rather interesting cinematic experiment that is Halloween 3 and quite a bit more. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon (Punching Up Patreon)

Punching Up-Episode 31-Highlander Here we are, born to be kings, we are princes of the podcast-verse. And to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the head lopping, Queen scored, Sean Connery featuring, 1980s cult classic that made an unlikely star of Christophe Lambert, the Punching Up crew will be putting Highlander to sword. On the chopping block this episode will be wayward Scottish accents, wayward Egyptian/Spanish accent hybrids, the weird appeal of Christophe Lambert, MTV editing, inexplicably crap swordfights and the bulletproof nature of Sean Connery’s superstardom. We also discuss whether it’s a good idea to do backflips in the middle of a dual in a dirty 1980s New York underground carpark. It’s not all negative though. Damian and Adam also take a little time to throw out some qualified love toward an Australian movie about a pig. And it’s not Babe. Because Babe doesn’t eat people. Confused. Don’t worry. It will all makes sense when you tune in. A lot more sense than the plot of Highlander. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon ( Punching Up Patreon )

Punching Up-Episode 30-Deep Red Look at the stars Look how they shine for you And everything you do Yeah, they were all…..GIALLO…As in lurid, yet somehow tastefully composed, extremely violent, yet oddly beautiful to look at, Italian horror murder mysteries that make little or no actual logical sense even after everything has been explained. And no giallo holds these contradictions in perfect tension better than Dario Argento’s 1975 elegant murder-fest Deep Red, also known as Profundo Rosso, also known as the Hatchet Murders (although I’m pretty certain no one actually gets killed with a Hatchet in Deep Red). Beautifully confusing? Well, that’s giallo for you. So, swap your Coldplay for your Goblin, put on your black leather murder gloves and join Adam (defending) and Damian (attacking) for the first official Punching Up of the new year for a discussion of Deep Red and all things Giallo (or yellow). Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon ( Punching Up Patreon )

Punching Up-Episode 29-The Best of 2025 Better late than never, the Punching Up boys present their best of 2025. Fashionably late as usual, hear Damian and Adam go against their usual grain and talk about the films they actually…. what’s the word?...oh yeah.....liked… that’s the word, all the way back in the year Twenty Hundred and Fifty Five. So, join them for a surprisingly relaxed, largely hate free, unusually unified discussion about sinful movies brandishing lots of weapons, having dreams on trains, singing songs about moons that are blue whilst reading short stories by Stephen King. All of this and lots, lots, lots, lots, lots, lots, more. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast You can support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon ( Punching Up Patreon )

Punching Up-Episode 28-The Goonies A first for the punching up team. Damian and Adam have somehow acquired a special guest, Matthew Chernov, the estimable LA film journalist, screenwriter and presenter of the magnificent How The West Was Cast podcast. Matthew is an enormous fan of The Goonies, that beloved 1985 family friendly (if you discount that bit where the federal agent gets murdered and his corpse is locked in a freezer with a child, as well as the ceramic penis joke) Spielberg produced adventure movie. It’s fair to say that Damian is not fan. And despite being a teenager in the 1980s, Adam hadn’t actually seen The Goonies until the day before recording the pod and is keeping his cards close to his chest. So, will Adam stand by his friend of 35 years and stick one on The Goonies and Matthew Chernov. Or will he tag-team Matthew and gang up on Damian, metaphorically throwing his old mate under the bus in defence of Mikey, Brand, Mouth, Chunk, Data, Andy and the Goonie nobody likes very much that was played by that girl who happens to be David Carradine from Kill Bill and Kung Fu’s niece? Join us and find out. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast Support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon ( Punching Up Patreon )

Episode 27-The Way of the Dragon In 1972 martial arts legend Bruce Lee wrote and directed The Way of the Dragon. On the surface, a simple tale of a Hong Kong kung fu prodigy sent to Rome to protect his uncle’s restaurant from gangsters, culminating in an epic fight to the death in the Roman Colosseum with seven-time world karate champion Chuck Norris. The Way of the Dragon is regarded as one of the greatest martial arts movies of all time. But The Way of the Dragon is so much more than this. Bruce Lee was also disseminating his own unique martial arts philosophy into the fabric of an action film, making The Way of the Dragon a martial arts manifesto revered by Lee fans as the Master’s most profound and personal work. Really? Punching Up’s Adam calls bullshit. So do not look at all this heavenly glory, or you’ll miss the fact that The Way of the Dragon is maybe a really shitty movie. Fighting talk? You betchya! So, for one episode only the Punching Up Podcast becomes The One Inch Punching Up Podcast as Adam and Damian indulge in the art of podcasting without podcasting and take on the King of Kung Fu. Kiyaaaaaaa!!! Support Us on Patreon: Punching Up Patreon Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 26-Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels What do you get if you cross a posh public school boy who wants to be a Cockney geezer, an actual football playing geezer who want to be an actor, and a future action movie star who come from Derbyshire but talks like a geezer for a bit and then talks like an American who sounds a bit like a geezer, or a geezer who sounds a bit like American? It’s all very confusing. You get Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie’s geezer gangster hit starring Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham, which also happens to be one of Adam Nightingale’s least favourite movies of the entire 1990s. But what does Damian think? Actually, he hates it as much as Adam does, but he likes Danny Dyer, who isn’t even in the movie. So, tune for a discussion of all thing geezer, and gangster..........and Danny Dyer. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 25-The Holy Mountain It’s been a while. Did you miss us? Did you even notice we had been away? Well, after a longer than normal hiatus the Punching Up Movie Podcast is back. And this episode is magic. I mean literally. The Punching Up duo discuss Alejandro Jodorowski’s cult sensation, shamanistic cinematic odyssey, The Holy Mountain. Magic, horror, nudity, spirituality, political commentary, freaky production design, nudity, outlandish costumes, more magic, and nudity. Adam hates it. Damian has mixed feelings. Magical Mystery Tour, or Tragical Mystical Bore? The ultimate midnight movie, or a pseudo spiritual cinematic excuse for looking at lady’s bosoms? So, free your mind, expand your consciousness, tune in, find out, and meet the movie that nearly broke Adam Nightingale. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 24-Moulin Rouge Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! The moment is here. The hour is now. The time has arrived. It’s our long threatened, much delayed musical theatre episode where Damian unleashes his full fury on Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 cinematic juke box musical Moulin Rouge. It’s been brewing for a while and Damian doesn’t hold back on Nicole Kidman’s acting and dancing, Ewan McGregor’s singing and acting, and, most of all Baz Luhrmann’s hyperkinetic, coked to the gills, MTV on absinthe editing and directing style. This is an episode for the ages as Punching Up’s Mr Nice goes very, very dark indeed. Tune in. I promise you it will be spectacular….spectacular. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 23-January 2025-Some New Movies Happy 2025 Movie Lovers and Punching up listeners Did you miss us? Well, have no fear, we have a proper, actual, honest to goodness full-length episode hovering in the wings (next week). But for those of you who simply can’t wait to hear our Punching Up thoughts on….Moulin Rouge (which will be next week), here’s a bonus episode of some chit chat about some of the movies released this January 2025: Better Man, Wolf Man, William Tell Man, Nosferatu Man, and a few others that Damian likes but that Adam hasn’t seen yet. But listeners beware, both Damian and Adam spoil the absolute living daylights out of The Wolf Man (It's not even called THE Wolf Man.) You have been warned. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 22-The Best of 2024 It’s still the Season of Good Will and so the Punching Up Team are going to use their powers for good this time and wax lyrical about which films they loved in this year of 2024. It’s a long one as there is a lot of affection to go around in this atypical end of the year love fest. And lest we forget that this is still the Puncing Up Podcast, there is still enough room left over to hate on a few movies that have really tested our patience, I’m talking to you Francis Ford Coppola. So, that’s a whole lot of love, a little bit of hate and a few splashes of disappointment in the best one hour and forty minutes you will spend outside of singing Auld Lang Syne in an overcrowded bar and telling a complete stranger that you love them. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 21-The Shape of Water Wanna see a movie where the Creature From the Black Lagoon gets it on with Mrs Brown from the first two Paddington movies? I don’t. But Adam (who doesn’t seem to mind a bit of interspecies fantasy love action) has forced me to watch The Shape of Water again. I find Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 Oscar winning modern fairy tale, unoriginal, twee, borderline plagiaristic, largely miscast and a little bit queasy when it comes to matters of human/ amphibian copulation. Adam loves it. But then again, he’s a massive pervert. Tune in for a lengthy discussion of this and all things Guillermo del Toro in the latest episode of Punching Up. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 20-The Terrifier Franchise Damian and Adam Art we a pair? I live in Nottingham, England He lives somewhere over there Sydney, Australia But Damian doesn’t like Art the Clown But I like Art the Clown Will it be over? We can’t agree On the obvious future cult classic status Of Terrifier 1, 2 and 3 Cause Damian doesn’t like Art the Clown But I like Art the Clowwwwwwnnnnnnn Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 19- A Nightmare on Elm Street Are you ready for Freddy? No, not really. I’m a big horror fan but not a massive lover of Wes Craven’s 1980s classic A Nightmare on Elm Street. Razor fingered demons with stripy shirts who kill you in your dreams, a telephone that comes alive and licks your face and Freddy Krueger’s elongated Big Bird arms don’t really do it for me. I’d much rather watch Art the Clown kill people with his big black bin liner full of weapons in Damian Leone’s Terrifier movies. Damian Asher feels differently. He saw Nightmare on Elm Street when he was a wee nipper, and it scared the living daylights out of him. Damian is also, possibly a little ambivalent about Art the Clown and his more recent, ultraviolent shenanigans. So, it's Freddy vs Art and Adam vs Damian for the ultimate movie monster smack-down in our post Halloween, pod cast horror-thon. One-Two Adam’s coming for you. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 18-RRR Flying tigers, Indian freedom fighters and evil English scumbags. Bloody battles, numerous songs, one spectacular dance routine and a very brutal flogging. What’s not to love in S.S Rajamouli’s Tolly (not Bolly) Wood breakout international action hit? Nothing, if your Adam (despite repeatedly mispronouncing the director’s name in the podcast). Plenty, if you are Damian (who only made it through the first twenty minutes on his first viewing). So, what will it be? RRR or GRRR!?! Tune in and find out. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast

Episode 17-Gladiator For those about to listen, we salute you. In this epic episode of the Punching Up Movie Podcast Adam unleashes hell (and a couple of hungry man-eating tigers) on Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s tale of Roman revenge and arena combat. Adam quite likes Scott but really doesn’t like Gladiator. Damian likes Gladiator but has an axe to grind with Sir Ridley. Let battle commence. Will either of them earn their place in Elysium? Probably not. But Adam might get into Valhalla on a technicality, because of the amount of time he namechecks the (in his opinion) far superior Conan the Barbarian. So listen, by Crom, or Jupiter will get you. Get in touch :O) by sending us an email @ punchingupmoviepodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @ punchingupmoviepodcast