Magellans at the Movies

byNathan Magalhaes

ArtsVisualTVFilmReviews

Welcome to Magellans at the Movies, the outrageously popular* new podcast about all things movies brought to you by Nathan “I-can’t-believe-I-ate-the-whole-thing” Magalhães and his brother Elliot “Who-on-Earth-is-going-to-listen-to-a-podcast-we-make” Magalhães! (*Outrageous popularity pending) Join the brothers Magalhães (Anglicized as Magellan) as they bicker and banter about movies no one has seen or cares about or that have already been analyzed by far sharper minds than their own every week, along with special guest stars of varying willingness and notoriety! Get ready to laugh along with Nathan’s meandering freshman film student level critiques of movies you’ve never heard of, and enj...

Episodes(40 episodes)

The Truman Show

Did you ever get the feeling you were being . . . watched? That a thousand eyes behind a thousand cameras were tracking your every move, broadcasting your life to unknown observers for unknown purposes? It's not that you live in the rapacious surveillance state that is modern America; you must be starring in The Truman Show! This voyeuristic dramedy from director Peter Weir released in 1998 and captured the imaginations of critics and audiences alike with its prescient vision of celebrity obsession and the unending search for authenticity in a performative world. But will the movie achieve self-awareness amid a crowd of...

Published: Sep 18, 2026Duration: 58m 2s

Watchmen (2009)

Superheroes. In comic books they’re cool, colorful men and women dispensing righteous justice to an eclectic cast of goofy supervillains. Yet, what would the paragons of costumed courage look like if translated from page to reality? What kind of personality would it take to theme oneself after cowboys or whatever and hit the streets to beat up dognappers? These are the questions posed by Watchmen, an acclaimed, beloved graphic novel by [REDACTED], Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. Long considered the pinnacle of comics, this violent, satirical examination of the strange thought process behind masked vigilantism came into the si...

Published: Sep 12, 2026Duration: 56m 9s

Space, basketball, and cartoons. Is there any more beloved combination in the grand halls of the cinematic medium? Everyone has their own personal favorites of the astronomical animated alley-oop genre, but few would argue that the tradition’s most notorious example came to us in the 1996 classic Space Jam, directed by Joe Pytka and based on Looney Tunes, and also a commercial? The idea’s inception is unimportant, what does matter is that this mashup of NBA legend Michael Jordan and animation legend Bugs Bunny and his cohort is, as far as unvarnished commercials pretending to be movies go, well...

Published: Sep 4, 2026Duration: 54m 54s

The Magellans on the Fast and Furious Franchise

Cars go vroom, explosions go boom. Such is the organizational motto, founding principle, and indeed core appeal of The Fast and the Furious, a wildly successful series of car crime movies which gradually devolved into Marvel without explicitly acknowledged superpowers. From a little movie about street racing and high speed heists based on a Vibe article to not so little movies about saving the world from a wide selection of vague macguffins, our central gang of lovable stereotypes have driven, flown, and fought across ELEVEN FREAKING MOVIES to the delight of audiences everywhere. It’s not international criminal masterminds th...

Published: Aug 31, 2026Duration: 1h 40m 58s

Why do I have to tell you who Spider-Man is? Have you seriously never heard of him, even if you haven’t seen this movie? I have better things to do than explain the deal with one of the most popular characters in all of fiction, or the details of one of his most iconic and recognizable screen outings. You want to know more? Look it up. I’m going to bed. Contact us/Requests/Questions: MagellansMovies@gmail.comDonate: https://paypal.me/magellensmovies?country.x=US&locale.x=en_USCheck out our...

Published: Aug 21, 2026Duration: 1h 11m 42s

Hair. Where? Here, there, and everywhere! What am I jabbering about? Why Rapunzel, of course, the heroine with uncommonly blessed follicles most famously seen on screen in Tangled, a 2010 animated adventure directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, based on the fairy tale by . . . you know that’s actually somewhat complicated so let’s just say the Brothers Grimm. It’s a Disney princess movie, folks, and that means bright colors, songs of questionable necessity, and animals who, if they can’t talk, are still clearly sapient. Just because Tangled fits snugly within the Disney tradition doesn’t mean that it’s...

Published: Aug 14, 2026Duration: 1h 9m 10s

Neighbors. Whether they’re polka dancing in the apartment above yours or inexplicably mowing the lawn at five in the morning, the people living over, under, and around us can be difficult. And yet of the many irritating scenarios you’ve no doubt experienced with them, I don’t think any neighbors have posed a greater challenge to Jesus’ most famous rule than the next-door extraterrestrials of District 9, a 2009 science fiction film directed by Neill Blomkamp. This brainy, grimy genre mashup imagined first contact as less of an existential and more of a humanitarian (alienarian?) crisis. It was a refreshi...

Published: Aug 8, 2026Duration: 1h 8m 7s

There’s no business like show business. Actually, I think there’s at least a couple businesses in which clueless narcissists and incompetent money men make fools of themselves both privately and professionally for the viewing pleasure of the masses, but perhaps none in environs so strenuous as Hollywood. Yes, the men and women behind the movies have to kill themselves in cutthroat work so contentious you might even say it’s . . . murder. At least that’s the case for the characters of The Player, a 1992 film directed by Robert Altman and based on the book by Michael Tolkin (no relat...

Published: Jul 31, 2026Duration: 1h 10m 45s

The Untouchables

I don't like alcohol. It's bitter and unhealthy, and it gets everywhere . . . you know, if you spill it. No sir, alcohol has never been for me, and indeed its popularity is on the decline across the U.S. these days. There was a time, however, when Americans were bonkers for beer, so much so that, when a passionate group of dissenters from this overwhelming liquor love instituted a nationwide ban, many were even willing to break the law to have a taste. Hence the rise of bootleggers, and further hence the events chronicled in The Untouchables, a 1987 crime drama...

Published: Jul 24, 2026Duration: 55m 42s

The Odyssey (2026)

What a nightmare it is to commute. To trudge in a great column of drones into the stone bellies of banks, firms, offices, and workshops only to retake your place in the same procession filtering back to homes where you eat, sleep, and prepare to do it all again. Yes, getting to work and going home can be a joyless affair, but at least we can thank our lucky stars the man at the toll booth doesn’t try to lock us in a cave to be devoured one by one. But that is just one of the many ob...

Published: Jul 18, 2026Duration: 1h 25m 52s

Everyone loves an underdog story, and no unlikely triumph gets audiences on their feet like those shocking upsets which unfold in sports. The victory of the Earthy Lovable Small Town Spotted Toads over the Arrogant Wealthy Big City Polar Bears is certain to move make you a Spotted Toad fan for life because the inspiring, uplifting story is so hard to resist. What's true in real life is often true in movies as well, which is why we have films like Hoosiers, a 1986 sports drama directed by David Anspaugh and based(ish)on the successes of the 1954 season of...

Published: Jul 10, 2026Duration: 1h 13m 54s

Ah, the heady days of youth, throwing action figures down stairwells and smashing armies of toy soldiers together in shocking displays of poor generalship. You may remember these blissful hours fondly, but playtime may carry less nostalgia if you knew that every time you dropped G.I. Joe on his plastic head you were actually committing a grave crime against the health and dignity of a living, feeling creature. That’s right, you vile war criminal, according to Toy Story, a 1995 animated adventure directed by John Lasseter, you shouldn’t be fondly reminiscing about your adolescent adventures, you should be d...

Published: Jul 3, 2026Duration: 1h 5m 8s

Magellan (2025)

Fernão de Magalhães, or if you’re a lazy, uncultured American, Ferdinand Magellan. He probably isn’t a historical figure to whom you’ve dedicated much thought lately, or, you know, ever. Magalhães’s life and achievements may not make themselves felt in your day to day life, but there’s no denying he impacted history in a significant way. The benefits or harms of that impact, however, are, like literally everything else about history, the subject of impassioned debate. Hence Magellan, a 2025 historical epic directed by Lav Diaz, a man with some pretty strong opinions on this Portu...

Published: Jun 27, 2026Duration: 1h 11m 30s

Magellans on the Movies the Magellans have Reviewed

Magellans at the Movies. What can I say about this storied institution, this foundational pillar of film criticism that hasn’t been said? More books have been written on the world’s most listened-to podcast than on religion, history, and self-help combined, and yet, the men behind the movies remain a mystery. Who are these two mavericks, these titans? Where do they come from? What divine spirit empowers their globe-spanning enterprises? What, finally, is the secret to their unprecedented success? Well, I guess you’ll have to wait until episode three hundred to find out because for our two hundre...

Published: Jun 19, 2026Duration: 2h 10m 2s

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word “sports?” If you said something along the lines of the majesty of the human body in motion, achieving feats of athletic beauty and physical prowess as men and women test the limits of their strength and dexterity, then congratulations . . . on being WRONG, idiot! Sports, like everything else in life, is about getting cold hard cash, something that can be accomplished more easily than ever these days thanks to the explosion of sports betting. Making bank may not be as easy as the commercials want you to thi...

Published: Jun 12, 2026Duration: 1h 2m 32s

Nathan and Elliot are back at it with their comic misadventures in movie reviewing, this time examining the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo. Will they be made dizzy with joy by the charms of this thriller romance, or will they nauseously withdraw from the precipice in search of safer ground? Let’s find out! Contact us/Requests/Questions: MagellansMovies@gmail.comDonate: https://paypal.me/magellensmovies?country.x=US&locale.x=en_USCheck out our blog for more reviews and movie content!!! https://magellansatthemoviesblog.blogspot.com/

Published: Jun 5, 2026Duration: 54m 53s

The Blues Brothers

Siblings. Can’t live with ‘em, absolutely can live without ‘em, but, unfortunately for those of us who are not criminally minded, circumstances often restrict our options. Life with a brother or sister doesn’t have to be all misery and movie podcasts, however, for some brotherhood comes naturally, as is the case for the titular bros of The Blues Brothers, a 1980 musical comedy directed by John Landis. Adapted from sketches of the glory days of SNL (that’s Saturday Night Live for you uncultured types), this bouncy, melodious fable of fraternal frolicking is both well known and well liked for...

Published: May 29, 2026Duration: 1h 0m 10s

Obsession (2026)

Obsession, it’s what I feel for videos of tortoises eating lettuce and the name of a 2026 horror movie directed by Curry Barker that Magellans at the Movies are reviewing today. Contact us/Requests/Questions: MagellansMovies@gmail.comDonate: https://paypal.me/magellensmovies?country.x=US&locale.x=en_USCheck out our blog for more reviews and movie content!!! https://magellansatthemoviesblog.blogspot.com/

Published: May 23, 2026Duration: 1h 25m 29s

Dawn of the Dead

Malls . . . uh . . . hmmm, that's a tricky one. Malls are no longer the lively, vibrant organisms they once were, after all. The few remaining malls that haven't been torn down shuffle around on rotting legs in a desperate search for sustenance, you might even say the shopping mall has become something like a . . . zombie? That's right, dear listeners, today we are returning to the undead apocalypse by tackling what many would argue represents the absolute zenith of the genre: Dawn of the Dead, a 1978 horror film directed by father of the modern zombie George Romero. Dawn's reputation is that of...

Published: May 15, 2026Duration: 1h 10m 37s

SIMON! GARFUNKEL! SHUT UP ALREADY! Sorry about that, folks, I’m trying to write the description for today’s new episode, but the incessant crooning of everyone’s ninth favorite musical duo haunts my every waking moment and turns my life into a living hell ever since I watched The Graduate, a 1967 romantic comedy directed by Mike Nichols. You may not have seen this classic tale of sordid twists and youthful ennui with its, uh, enthusiastic score provided by the men whose voices now infect my brain like a malignant tumor, but you’re almost certainly familiar with its imagery...

Published: May 8, 2026Duration: 58m 13s