The Plotaholics Podcast: Movie Reviews · Shane Wilson and Bryan Tann

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

·57 min·5 clips

Shane Wilson and Brian Tan open with their usual goofy banter before settling on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. They kick it around as a movie that should have been a much bigger hit, calling it one of their all-time favorites and the best kind of box-office bomb, and they lean hard into the idea that audiences simply did not know how good it was when it first came out. It is an easy yes from both of them. The conversation drifts into cult-classic territory, with them comparing its later life to older movies that found real love after release instead of in theaters. They keep the tone loose. From there they talk about how a remake might work, and one of them jokes that Gideon is exactly the kind of sarcastic, smooth villain he could play in a new version. Then the argument turns. One of the big questions is whether the movie has a white-knight streak, because Scott battles all of Ramona's exes for the right to be with her and even saves her at the end, and they decide that Knives and Ramona both doing real work in the final fight helps keep the whole thing from tipping too far. The supporting women matter here. They get especially excited about Roxy, and the talk turns shamelessly enthusiastic when the movie gives a woman the chance to absolutely wreck a guy in a fight. Todd Ingram gets his share too. The hosts quote and celebrate his ridiculous line about hitting a woman and being a rock star, which sends them into the larger point that the movie's villains are as memorable as the hero. Brandon Ralph comes up next. They praise him hard, say he got hosed by Hollywood for no good reason, and treat him as the kind of actor who should have gotten more credit for being the only good part of a boring movie. Brendan Frazier gets a shout too. The show treats him as another example of an actor who got a raw deal, then drifts into a goofy exchange about John Cena being the kind of giant man everybody claims never to have seen and Mark Wahlberg somehow becoming a mythological figure from Massachusetts. That kind of tangent is normal here. The episode keeps bouncing between movie criticism, casting jokes, and half-serious philosophy about whether every movie has a plot hole and whether that matters more than the fun of watching the thing move. The ending stays playful. They close with the theme song and the kind of friendly sign-off that makes the whole conversation feel like two people who have seen way too many movies together and still enjoy arguing about them.

As heard by us

An affectionate defense of a cult favorite, with enough side-eye to keep it from feeling too polished.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is framed as a favorite that flopped at the box office but settled into a better life afterward, and the hosts sound fully on board with that verdict.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If Scott Pilgrim won you over, this is your kind of hangout.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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