Film criticism with detours and teeth.
Big Boys Don't Cry treats a film as both the assignment and the excuse. Animated flops, bloated sequels, horror dinners, Christmas movie tangents, and older adventure oddities all become fuel for brisk arguments, stray jokes, and clear reads on what works.
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Big Boys Don't Cry is a film-review show with a loose spine and a sharp bite. One movie sets the agenda, then the conversation immediately starts making little side tunnels. That is the point. The show is happiest when criticism, memory, and nonsense all arrive at once, as if the clean route through a film would be less honest than the messy one. Recent episodes move through animated flops, massive sequels, spooky dinners, screen-based curiosities, and older adventure oddities. Atlantis: The Lost Empire prompts talk about early-2000s animation, new-metal-era soundtracks, Stargate-like setup, and the missing pleasure of a proper misfit-team montage. Titan A.E. gets admired for its color, alien worlds, and Don Bluth movement, even while the plot logic becomes a toy to kick around. Avatar: The Way of Water is treated with a useful split mind: gorgeous underwater spectacle on one side, exhausting length and thin character business on the other. The show can praise a whale scene, then wonder why so much of the surrounding drama needs to lumber on. Horror episodes bring a slightly different tempo. The Invitation becomes a way to talk through grief, social pressure, cultish charisma, and the odd decision to attend a dinner where every instinct says leave. Fresh brings ghostly singing and Robert Redford detours. Ice Cube's War of the Worlds gives the show plenty to dislike, from screen-based notification chaos to characters who somehow survive too much. Even a throwaway Christmas movie title can become a full tangent about fake romcoms set in milkshake shops, crisp factories, or head-lice outbreaks. That kind of riffing is not decoration; it is how the show thinks. The speakers keep revising, interrupting, and redirecting each other until a joke has either collapsed or accidentally become analysis. There is recurring affection for older media habits too: podcasts as things heard with ears, emails over social feeds, iPods as a stubbornly pure ideal. The result is not tidy criticism. It is lively, skeptical, film-literate chat for people who enjoy strong opinions delivered with dry timing and very little ceremony.
Made for: For film fans who like opinionated conversation more than polished verdicts. It especially suits listeners who enjoy animated oddities, horror months, sci-fi spectacle, disliked films, and pop-culture tangents that still circle back to the film.
What sets it apart: Big Boys Don't Cry stands out by letting the joke and the criticism develop together. A complaint about pacing, character depth, or visual style can arrive through a fake horror concept, a soundtrack tangent, or an argument about what podcasts are supposed to be.
Big Boys Don't Cry is a weekly podcast in which Paddy Johnston & Rob Gordon discuss a film (usually with romance in), as well as catching up about culture, politics, video games and nonsense. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bigboyspodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Paddy Johnston and Rob Gordon mix comic digressions with sharp judgments about pacing, performance, animation and visual storytelling.
Big Boys Don't Cry turns a film review into a loose, funny argument between Paddy Johnston and Rob Gordon. Their conversations move from immediate reactions to questions of pacing, performance, visual design and story construction, with spoilers treated as part of the discussion…
A werewolf howl gets a musical warm-up before you reach the film verdict.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, funny reconsideration of Atlantis that spots rushed pacing beneath the spectacle.
Atlantis makes an interesting case study: a Disney flop that might have looked respectable by another studio's standards. The hosts open with an Eddie Vedder joke and an imagined grunge soundtrack, then turn to the film's Stargate-like premise, with a bookish hero joining…
A lively Titan A.E. rewatch turns Don Bluth, animation craft, and 2000s animated flops into bright screen talk.
Titan A.E. comes across as a bright, scuffed time capsule as the hosts revisit a 2000s animated flop and Don Bluth's hand in its look and movement.
A funny, pointed case that Avatar is strongest when Pandora takes over.
Big Boys Don't Cry approaches Avatar: The Way of Water through the split that most animates the discussion: the underwater world keeps the hosts engaged, while the character drama keeps trying their patience.
A loose, perceptive discussion of grief, peer pressure and the sinister hospitality of The Invitation.
The Invitation asks why anyone would accept an ominous dinner invitation from an ex-wife, then finds its answer in grief, peer pressure and the pull of a former family home. The protagonist's return makes emotional sense once he enters his son's old room.
A brisk takedown gives the film one grudging point for its notification barrage, then tracks why the invasion keeps getting worse.
Ice Cube's War of the Worlds gets a sharp, spoiler-friendly rundown that tracks the movie's slide from irritating sound cues to the unlikely push toward his daughter's baby shower.
A loose, funny May discussion is strongest on delayed murders, horror payoff, and the practical problem of body storage.
Big Boys Don't Cry treats the 2002 film May as a horror discussion about patience, payoff, and the awkward practicalities behind a killer's plan.
A warm, funny horror discussion that catches where Werewolves Within's cleverness clicks and where it overplays its hand.
Big Boys Don't Cry treats Werewolves Within as a horror comedy with a firm read on the genre's machinery. It moves from werewolf howls and a children's book about a lost wolf into the film's snowy-town whodunit, where an isolated group is picked off one by one.
Mike Muncer and a different guest dissect two horror films per episode, by subgenre.
Paddy Johnston and Rob Gordon discuss the 2002 horror film 'May', directed by Lucky McKee.
Paddy Johnston and Rob Gordon discuss the film 'Werewolves Within' for their Halloween-themed episode.
The hosts of Big Boys Don't Cry discuss the film Empire Records, sharing personal anecdotes about the coronation and a wedding.
The hosts compare the 1989 film Road House with its 2024 remake, sharing humorous anecdotes and discussing the differences.
The hosts discuss the 2021 film The Green Knight, sharing their thoughts and reactions with potential spoilers.
The hosts of Big Boys Don't Cry discuss the 1995 film Congo, with light banter about their recording environment.
The hosts of Big Boys Don't Cry discuss the 1993 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, with casual banter about dad fashion.
Two hosts discuss the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire as part of a series on early 2000s animated flops, speculating on its soundtrack and cultural context.
The hosts discuss the chaotic start to the year and introduce their review of the 2000 animated sci-fi film Titan A.E.
Two podcast hosts discuss the length and cultural references of the film Avatar: The Way of Water, debating whether it qualifies as a podcast.
The hosts joke about movie titles stolen from Taylor Swift songs and share their festive weekend activities.
The hosts discuss Robert Redford's recent death and his filmography, wondering if he ever made horror movies.
The first hour of "The Invitation" is described as "masterful" tension-building around grief, cults, and wine.
Ice Cube's War of the Worlds is described as a lockdown-made film that spends long stretches inside Teams calls, Amazon devices, and FBI surveillance screens.