After taking a week off from the main show to drop the first episode of the new Game of Thrones season 2 ToB Rewatch, the guys are back to discuss more than just the goings-on in Westeros. The largest story of which is the announcement of the nominees for the 2019 Oscars. The dead of winter might be cold and unforgiving, but it also means that we’re in the swing of awards season, one of the most exciting times of the year for cinephiles. The ToB Crew unpacks the picks as they look forward to the ceremony in February. Julian, Dan, and Jeremy also examine the Ghostbusters 3 surprise, The Lego Movie 2 trailer, the shakeup with the Uncharted film, and much more on this week’s Tower of Babble Podcast!

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Show Notes

Movies

Trailers:
- The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
Sony’s Uncharted movie gets a new director in Dan Trachtenberg. Replacing Shawn Levy, who left the project due to “scheduling conflicts”.
The 2019 Oscars nominations are out!
Netflix is reportedly developing a live-action Resident Evil series, according to Deadline.
Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini, will play a young Tony Soprano in “The Many Saints of Newark,” the prequel movie to the television series “The Sopranos”.
Warner Bros. has announced that Christopher Nolan's next film will be released by 2020.
In a surprise move, Jason Reitman annouced that he is writing and directing Ghostbusters 3.
EA cancels another Star Wars game, drawing the ire of Star Wars fans across the net for their apparent ineptitude in handling the license.

What We've Been Watching

True Detective S3
Young Justice S3
Reign of the Supermen

Nov 28, 2025

Bonus Episode - ToB Film Club - Dark City (1998)

The term often used to describe the 1998 Alex Proyas film, 'Dark City' is "Proto-Matrix" given the many similarities between the two movies. Fair or not, they do have a lot in common but I think the comparison does a disservice to what is still a very clever and well made genre-film that largely holds up today (minus some questionable early CG effects). The 4K re-release gives it a fresh coat of paint, looking extremely sharp on modern televisions, accentuating the mostly dark and moody imagery of this sci-fi film noir, and given it's title this is all very fitting. Alex Proyas has some bid ideas here; what is the human soul? Are we the sum of our memories? Can memories be distilled into chemistry? Is love transcendent? Many of these themes are explored with depth, with answers to many of the films mysteries being laid bare in mostly satisfying way. Performances are strong, with everyone seemingly understanding the assignment, though there isn't much for the female characters to do here. Which is unfortunate as what we do get from Jennifer Connelly is intriguing, if lacking depth. On the whole, despite being pretty weird, this is still a very fun movie, if a bit silly at times, that was unfortunately overshadowed by the phenomenon that was 'The Matrix' dropping the following year.

Nov 17, 2025

Episode 201 - Bond Turmoil and Goldeneye Retrospective

Julian and Matt start getting into the swing of thigs as they tackle the latest in film and TV news, with the hot story being about the turmoil surrounding the new Bond film. Fortunately, 'Goldeneye' turns 30, providing a positive 007 topic to dig into in an effort to balance things out. A new 'The Mummy' starring Brendan Fraser is in the works with Rachel Weis also set to return. To Matt's chagrin, more 'Jurassic World' is on the way as well with the 5th film in the franchise in development with Gareth Edwards looking to return to direct (say what you will but 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' was pretty fun). Lastly, the guys dive into what they've been watching, including 'Predator: Badlands', 'One Battle After Another', 'Pluribus' and for some reason, 'Dexter'. All that and so much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!

Oct 19, 2025

Bonus Episode - ToB Film Club - Kingpin (1996)

Before Matt officially joined the show as a co-host he was invited on as guest to talk about one of his favourite movies of all time, ‘Swingers’. Now returning in an official capacity to the ToB Film Club, he brings with him another film from his top-3, another comedy, ‘Kingpin’. A Farrelly brothers film that followed up their smash hit breakout, ‘Dumb and Dumber’, and you can see the through lines. Like ‘Dumb and Dumber’ we follow two guys who are down on their luck as they head out on the road where chaos and hilarity ensue. Unfortunately it wasn’t the hit they hoped despite a killer cast, including legends Bill Murray, Randy Quaid and Woody Harrelson and as a result it didn't leave as large of a cultural footprint as some of the other Farrelly brothers films from this era. It's been nearly 30 years so now seems as good a time as any to revisit this sleeper and see what everyone was missing back then.

Oct 9, 2025

Episode 200 - Meet Matt!

After an extended hiatus, ToB returns with a fresh voice on the second chair. Julian is joined by long-time friend of the show, Matt Tworek. We spend this first episode of the "new" ToB getting to know him and setting up what else is to come.

Episode 130 - 2019 Oscars Nominations

Show Notes

Movies

What We've Been Watching

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