Now Playing: The Avengers Movie Retrospective Series

A preview from the first episode of Now Playing's Official Living Dead Remake Retrospective Series! Listen to this preview and to find out how to hear the entire series!

A preview from the sixth episode of Now Playing's George A Romero Living Dead Retrospective Series! Listen to this preview and to find out how to hear the entire series

Anthology and horror have a long history together in comics, television, and film, with a heyday in the 80s with such films as The Twilight Zone, Nightmares, Cat's Eye, and the Creepshow films. But in 2007, Michael Dougherty made the most high profile horror anthology in over a decade with Trick 'R' Treat. Starring Sam, a character from Dougherty's animated short, as the sprit of Halloween, this film has plenty of recognizable stars and a high profile producer, but was unable to secure a wide theatrical release and ended up becoming a cult hit on home video. Now, due to listener demand, Arnie, Stuart, and Brock give their review of this underground favorite. Did they find it a treat? Listen to find out!

Joss Whedon may have directed the biggest movie of 2012, but it wasn't the only film he released this year. Before Avengers, another Whedon co-written and produced film, Cabin in the Woods, was released and polarized both Whedonites and horror fans. This genre-bending tale of five friends who try to go off the grid but find themselves terrorized by inbred hillbilly zombies seems rote, but who are the puppet masters pulling the strings and for what purpose? Well Now Playing puppet masters overwhelmingly voted for a review of Cabin in the Woods in our one-off horror review poll, so listen to find out why!

In the 60s and again in the 70s George Romero wowed not just horror fans but movie audiences across the globe with his tales of desperate people trying to survive in the middle of a zombie outbreak. In the 80's Romero again returned, this time to tell his most bleak vision for humanity. A small group of military men and scientists hole up underground in Florida, not knowing if they are the last humans on earth, but seeking a cure for the zombie plague. With Romero demanding the film be left unrated, and securing a very limited theatrical release because of it, Day of the Dead is a film that found it's popularity in the afterlife of VHS. Does it live up to Romero's first two tales of terror? DONATE TO NOW PLAYING TO FIND OUT!

George Romero didn't want to make another zombie movie, he had to be coaxed back to revisit the film that made him famous, but many would argue that Romero's Dawn of the Dead is that rare sequel that is better than the original. Now in the 1970s Romero gives us a world gone mad as the dead rise to kill the living, and we focus on a group of survivors holed up in the most American of fortresses -- a mall! The film is legendary among zombie fans, but does it hold up over 30 years later? DONATE TO NOW PLAYING and you can listen and find out!

Now Playing has begun its Fall 2012 donation drive, and if you support Now Playing you can here our reviews of the George Romero Night of the Living Dead films. Listen to this preview, then head to NowPlayingPodcast.com to find out how to hear the whole show!

This year is big for James Bond fans. It's the 50th anniversary of Dr. No, the first James Bond movie, and also Bond returns to the screen in the long awaited movie--Skyfall! Join us at nowplayingpodcast.com as we review every James Bond film leading up to Skyfall.

THE AVENGERS! Breaking worldwide box office records this super-hero team-up is a film that seems impossible to make, and yet they did! After a year of reviewing movies based on Marvel Comics characters, listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review of this blockbuster film! Did it make a year's worth of viewing worth it, or did it fail to come together? Listen to find out!

THE AVENGERS! Breaking worldwide box office records this super-hero team-up is a film that seems impossible to make, and yet they did! After a year of reviewing movies based on Marvel Comics characters, listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review of this blockbuster film! Then head to NowPlayingPodcast.com to hear our reviews of the earlier films in the series!

By the summer of 2011 fans were ready for Avengers, but Marvel Studios still had some groundwork to lay before they could assemble. And in July the final character, the First Avenger, was introduced to audiences. But the fifth film in Marvel's series might be the hardest sell yet, a World War II period piece with a goody-goody hero. With Fantastic Four's Chris Evans donning the red, white, and blue outfit, did Captain America: The First Avenger stand alone, or was it just biding the time for ten more months until The Avengers was released? Listen to hear Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie's review of this film as well as the short A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer.

By the summer of 2011 fans were ready for Avengers, but Marvel Studios still had some groundwork to lay before they could assemble. And in July the final character, the First Avenger, was introduced to audiences. But the fifth film in Marvel's series might be the hardest sell yet, a World War II period piece with a goody-goody hero. With Fantastic Four's Chris Evans donning the red, white, and blue outfit, did Captain America: The First Avenger stand alone, or was it just biding the time for ten more months until The Avengers was released? Listen to hear Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie's review of this film as well as the short A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer.

In three films Marvel had created a cinematic universe based on science. Iron Man used advanced technology to power an armored suit; Bruce Banner used genetic manipulation and medicine to create The Incredible Hulk. But in their fourth film leading up to The Avengers they brought in a new element straight out of Norse mythology--Thor, the god of thunder. With a mighty hammer, a winged helmet, and a flowing red cape, Thor and his fellow Asgardians fought off the evil Ice Giants, but for his cocky war-mongering Thor was banished to earth, stripped of his powers. Can a thunder god fit in with an otherwise science based Cinematic Universe, and is his story a compelling one? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob to find out as they review Thor, and the Blu Ray bonus short The Consultant!

In three films Marvel had created a cinematic universe based on science. Iron Man used advanced technology to power an armored suit; Bruce Banner used genetic manipulation and medicine to create The Incredible Hulk. But in their fourth film leading up to The Avengers they brought in a new element straight out of Norse mythology--Thor, the god of thunder. With a mighty hammer, a winged helmet, and a flowing red cape, Thor and his fellow Asgardians fought off the evil Ice Giants, but for his cocky war-mongering Thor was banished to earth, stripped of his powers. Can a thunder god fit in with an otherwise science based Cinematic Universe, and is his story a compelling one? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob to find out as they review Thor, and the Blu Ray bonus short The Consultant!

The first Iron Man film set the gold (and red) standard for Marvel superheroes in movies, but Marvel Studios knew the pressure was high to build up to The Avengers so just two years later Iron Man 2 was released. Jon Favreau was back behind the camera, and Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow were still starring, but now Don Cheadle dons the War Machine suit, Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke team up as villains, and S.H.I.E.L.D. has a much larger presence in the form of Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and Scarlett Johansson's Natalie "Black Widow" Rushman. The film is certainly bigger than the first, but is it better? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob's review to find out!