Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the perfect Xmas present - a superhero film that is unashamedly comic book-y. 

A coming of age story that nails each and every emotional beat. 

Oh and it has Nicholas Cage!

Stevie raves about a whole bunch of films, instead of sticking to the 5*5 rule! Grrr. Arrg. 

While the reputation of this film has been coloured slightly by the loss of director Michael Reeves at a young age, it remains a cult classic. 

First off - happy birthday Stevie!

And here's her review of Shaun of the Dead. 

A flop on its release - and apparently used as roadfill! - The Wicker Man is a pagan folk horror curiousity that has endured over the years.

It is easy to understand why the film remained one of Christopher Lee's personal career favourites.  

It's the Exorcist - what more do you want!

Stevie revisits Friedkin's classic for her latest Halloween Horror Bite. 

Jordan Peele's Get Out feels like a horror chamber piece Shirley Jackson and Ralph Ellison maybe put together during the writing of The Invisible Man. It is timely, brilliantly unnerving and heralds the arrival of a new horror director with a vision. 

It's also Emmet's third Halloween horror pick. 

Before bringing about the downfall of Asgard in Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi gave us - Wellington. Or Vellington, as this Kiwi horror comedy depicts the town as being overflowing with supernatural creatures. Stevie explains her love of What We Do In The Shadows. 

For his second horror flick recommendation, Emmet makes the case for George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Not just a classic of the zombie genre, but a game-changer for independent cinema as well. 

For the second Hallowee Horror Bite Stevie chooses Tremors - and gives a sneaky shout-out to Irish horror flick Grabbers. 

Hereditary is our first pick for this Halloween season. Not just a good scary flick, but a genuine horror classic. 

This year we're trying something different. From now until Halloween, Hopscotch Friday will be posting short reviews of our personal favourite horror films - in case you're looking for something to watch over the season. 

This episode we review - Damien Chazelle's biopic of Neil Armstrong First Man, Tom Hardy's cannibal alien flick Venom, and the latest adaptation of Nick Hornby 'Juliet, Naked'. 

And we also shout-out Fearscape from Vault Comics, by Ryan O'Sullivan and Ram V. 

Mission Impossible: Fallout follows on from the events of Rogue Nation, and continues to mark the franchise's upswing in quality. 

Partly this is due to the rewarding collaboration between star Tom Cruise and director/writer Christopher McQuarrie. 

But this is also a franchise that has found its feet after the initial post-Cold War confusion as to who the enemy is. 

Turns out, it's us. Anyway we dive in to what we liked about the most recent entry and trace the series' growth over the years. 

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Neve Campbell star in this Hong Kong-set riff on Die Hard. There's a building - but a bigger one. There's terrorists - but they're beefier. And there's an unstoppable family man on the loose to stop them - but instead of Bruce Willis, it's the Rock. 

What did Emmet and Stevie make of it all? Listen to find out.

Also discussed - 

PCAF
Ant-Man and The Wasp/Incredibles 2
Top five 'good' comics from the past ten years

Eleanor Davis - How to be Happy
Roger Langridge - Snarked.
The Long Weekend in Alice Springs - Joshua Santospirito.
Gary Spencer Millidge's Strangehaven serialised in the Meanwhile... anthology from Soaring Penguin Press.
Emily Carroll - Through the Woods.

Cinemascore be damned - Hereditary is great!

Gee people whaddya want?

Beyond the conversation about the difficult measures horror cinema is held to by both critics and fans, we also review Ari Aster feature film debut. 

J.A. Bayona's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is discussed, as well as the declining appeal of Chris Pratt. 

In addition:

The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein 

Bloomsday in Melbourne, as well as the Bloomsday theatrical production Holy Cow! 

PCAF - Perth Comics Arts Festival, featuring both a symposium and a market day 

Halloween (2018) and Here Alone (2016)

*SPOILERS FOR DEADPOOL 2*

Firstly - Stevie is back! And then we open our review episode of Deadpool 2 by discussing Ireland's Repeal the 8th Amendment referendum. Other points raised include

• Marvel UK's Knights of Pendragon and Schitt's Creek
• Deadpool 2
• Was Shatterstar ever cool?
• Deadpool as a blend of badass and camp.
• Did the screenwriters employ the hoary comic book trope of 'fridging?'
• 'Would that this hoodie were a time hoodie'.
• Black Tom Cassidy!

Neevon is back - and he comes with reviews of Amy Schumer's I Feel Pretty and the Martin Freeman zombie flick Cargo. 

This episode we:

• Talk about Avengers Infinity War quickly, without any spoilers
• What comics you should read to catch up on the events of that film, including Jim Starlin's Warlock
• I Feel Pretty's theme of body confidence
• Emmet's simmering resentment that Cargo didn't win Tropfest
• The use of Indigenous peoples as fantasy figures in genre stories
• The potential advantage of Cargo landing on streaming for horror in Australian cinema

Till next time, cheers folks. 

Kay Cannon's Blockers really surprised me. While I went in expecting a grossout comedy after catching the trailer (which caused Stevie to bow out), what I discovered instead was a sincere and sharply witty film about our attitudes to sex. 

Concerned more with the hang-ups of parents played by Leslie Mann, John Cena and Ike Barinholtz than their onscreen children (Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan and Gideon Adlon), Blockers does indulge in scenes with bodily fluids flying hither and thither - but it's also an interesting investigation of the pressures we put on young women when it comes to sex. 

Next we discuss Alex Garland's long-awaited Annihilation, adapting the first novel of Jeff VanderMeer's The Southern Reach trilogy to the...well our smallscreen as it turns out. 

This episode we discover the playful (yet terrifically black) comedy The Death of Stalin from director Armando Iannucci. 

This is a fantastic piece of political satire that challenges the safe revisionism of historical dramas onscreen through the choice to have the actors use their actual accents. 

We also talk about the Marimekko exhibition currently on at Bendigo Art Gallery and Altered Carbon on Netflix.  

Also - let us know for an upcoming episode what films personally disappointed you. Email hopfriday@gmail.com, or drop us a line on social. 

And we're back - Hopscotch is now a fortnightly podcast, giving us more time to do this whole 'life' business we've heard so much about.

This episode we talk Ladybird and Black Panther. 

Emmet attempts to link the two by arguing that Ladybird, directed by Great Gerwig, occupies the position of 'sensitive young person comes of age' vacated by male film-makers - who are now applying that model to superhero films. 

But is the quickly becoming familiar Marvel model holding back film concepts like the rich world of Wakanda in Black Panther? We discuss. 

Margot Robbie and Allison Janney are receiving Oscar attention for their daughter/mother roles in I, Tonya. 

But does Craig Gillespie's film play too loose with facts, or is the approach he takes an astute method of confronting audiences too willing to look the other way to stories of domestic abuse? 

Also - from next week Hopscotch is going fortnightly. 

Neevon Mohtaji joins the show to discuss The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks as owner Kay Graham and editor Ben Bradlee of The Washington Post during its transformation into the paper of record.

Is this another Oscar contender for Spielberg given its themes of the importance of the Fourth Estate - or a formulaic 'prestige picture'?

Emmet and Neevon discuss. 

Star Wars and Paddington - two films that smack of adult nostalgia for their childhoods, now re-marketed to children today. 

Paddington 2, directed by Paul King, conjures up a sense of Englishness that is at once classic, but also modern. 

It's a charming film that is well worth your time.

The latest Star Wars - which Stevie has not seen, so Emmet is left to be interrogated on its merits - is brought to the screen by Rian Johnson. 

Instead of heavily relying on the established Star Wars formula, Johnson chooses to highlight the use of those repeated plot threads - temptation by the dark side, a Jedi mentor crippled by failure, a resistance army forced to continually retreat from an evil empire in pursuit - then flips these narratives in interesting ways. 

This is a spoiler free discussion that treats of The Last Jedi's position in relation to the original films - and the whole Star Wars marketing phenomenon. 

Star Wars redefined Hollywood by creating the blockbuster and sfx technology - but does it still work as a continuing story?

And what does it mean for franchises like Star Wars, and Harry Potter, require constant immersion even outside the movie theatre?