210 - Tomorrow Never Dies (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:
Tomorrow Never Dies
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 64%

Back on Bond! Calvin is determined to get us through the Brosnan era ahead of No Time to Die's release in November. This is our second step towards that goal, looking at Pierce's second time playing James: Tomorrow Never Dies! Listen for discussion of a wealth of name-actors and even No Time to Die's potential for a Best Picture nomination at the coming Academy Awards.

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209 - Taxi Driver

Films covered in this episode:

Taxi Driver
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 90%

A rare non-franchise turn for Diminishing Returns - and our first real Martin Scorsese episode: a look at Taxi Driver, complete with Robert De Niro's (madness in the) method and how we'd react if taken to a porno theatre on a date.

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208 - Pareturns of Dimin Memory (with Calvin Dyson, Judey Bignell, Daryn Ashcroft, Scott Chambers and Chris Hammond)

Guests: Calvin Dyson, Judey Bignell, Daryn Ashcroft, Scott Chambers and Chris Hammond

You know the drill with these outtakes episodes by now: we needed a week off so we're releasing a load of never-before-heard material (unless you're one of our Patreon subscribers, in which case, you've had access to this episode for almost a year, now).

This is all stuff cut from previous episodes for the sake of time or because it went too far off on a tangent. But it still makes for good listening, so hear we are.

Guests this week, include Calvin Dyson, Judey Bignell, Daryn Ashcroft, Scott Chambers, Chris Hammond and Karl Pilkington.

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207 - Starship Troopers (with Gareth Allen)

Guest: Gareth Allen

Films covered in this episode:

Starship Troopers
Allen: ✰ ✰
Gareth: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 60%

Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation
Allen: ✰ ½
Gareth: n/s
Sol: ✰
Overall score: 25%

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
Allen: ✰ ✰
Gareth: n/s
Sol: ✰ ½
Overall score: 35%

Starship Troopers: Invasion
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Gareth: ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰
Overall score: 37%

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Gareth: ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ½
Overall score: 40%

After last week's live antics, we're going back to basics with a conventional Diminishing Returns episode looking at Starship Troopers and its many sequels.

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206 - Diminishing Returns Live! (with Calvin Dyson and Emily Slade)

Guests: Calvin Dyson and Emily Slade

Film scores updated in this episode:

American Beauty
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Judey: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 88%

Fight Club
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Brear: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 90%

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Daryn: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 88%

Shaun of the Dead
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 94%

This Is England
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 84%

A special live episode of the podcast, originally broadcast exclusively to Patreon subscribers on the 28th of April, 2020! (Please forgive the shaky audio quality - we're normally much better than this, but we're also not normally live).

That's right, this whole corona virus lockdown pushed us to hold a special video stream event: a live episode of the podcast. Hopefully the first of many.

Listen to this - the edited audio version - or head over to our official YouTube page to watch the (mostly) unedited video version (there’s also an embed on this very page).

This episode features Sol, Allen and Calvin as well as Emily Slade from Why This Film? podcast, who was kind enough to compere the event for us. There's a James Bond quiz, Calvin is invited to add his own ratings to the films he missed in the currently in the Diminishing Returns top 10 list, the gang take various audience questions and more.

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205 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (with Emily Slade)

Guest: Emily Slade

Films covered in this episode:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Allen: ✰ ½
Emily: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 57%

Our epic trilogy comes to its conclusion with this: The Returns of the Diminishings (our third episode covering The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, this time, looking specifically at The Return of the King). Emily Slade is this week's Lord of the Ringer, ushered in to defend the franchise against haters, Allen and Sol.

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204 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (with Grace Miller)

Guest: Grace Miller

Films covered in this episode:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Grace: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 64%

The trilogy of episodes covering The Lord of the Rings enters the exciting middle part as we turn our heads to The Two Towers, with the help of Grace Miller.

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203 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (with Sean Morrison)

Guest: Sean Morrison

Films covered in this episode:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sean: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰
Overall score: 67%

Corona virus has demolished the slate of movie releases we had episodes planned to tie into, so we scrambled for something else to do and asked Patreon which trilogy they'd like us to cover out of the ones we haven't done yet. The Lord of the Rings was the overwhelming winner, so here we are: the first of three episodes covering the first of three movies (no one mention The Hobbit).

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202 - This Is England (with Thomas Turgoose and Andrew Ellis)

Guests: Thomas Turgoose and Andrew Ellis

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It’s a very special week at Diminishing Returns as we welcome the hosts of Overrated Everything podcast for a crossover! Did we mention that the hosts of Overrated Everything are Thomas Turgoose and Andrew Ellis who played Shaun and Gadet in This Is England? We probably should have done, because that's the film we're covering this week... We're also looking at the three miniseries follow-ups This Is England '86, '88 and '90 and, as always, chatting about the possibility of another sequel…

Check out our Patreon here!

Films (and TV) covered in this episode:

This Is England
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 100%

Note: score was subsequently revised when Calvin added his rating in our first live episode

This Is England ‘86
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 90%

This Is England ‘88
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 75%

This Is England ‘90
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 75%

201 - Easter Special: Life of Brian (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:
Life of Brian
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 77%

It's time, once more, for the annual Diminishing Returns Easter Special, in which things get a little bit religious... well, I mean, as much as you'd expect when covering Monty Python's Life of Brian.

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200 - The Bigger Diminishing Returns Quiz (with Calvin Dyson, Gareth Allen, Chris Hunter, Judey Bignell and Emily Slade)

Guests: Calvin Dyson, Gareth Allen, Chris Hunter, Judey Bignell and Emily Slade

To mark the show's 200th episode, we're putting on another big Diminishing Returns quiz! This time, Gareth steps in as Quiz Master, to emcee the proceedings and the gang are quizzed by past guests from Judey Bignell to Chris Hunter to Emily Slade. Even music-meister Tomo Fallows gets in on the action.

Here's to the next 200!

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199 - GoldenEye (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:
GoldenEye
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 77%

In an unprecedented Diminishing Returns move, we're bringing you a second James Bond episode, the week after the first, all in anticipation of No Time to Die which, as far as we're aware, is released on the 3rd of April 2020! Calvin Dyson joins us, as always, as we enter the Pierce Brosnan era.

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198 - Licence to Kill (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:
Licence to Kill
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 64%

Bond is back, just in time for the upcoming release of No Time to Die! (No one tell Calvin).

This time, we tackle the second half of Timothy Dalton's tenure with the character. Licence to Kill was, at one time, Calvin Dyson's least favourite film in the entire franchise - has he come round to it, now? Did he and Allen comically underestimate the impact Coronavirus was just about to have? Possibly. Listen and find out!

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197 - Mulan (with Emily Slade)

Guest: Emily Slade

Films covered in this episode:
Mulan
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Emily: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 84%

Mulan II
Allen: n/s
Emily: ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 35%

What? Another live-action Disney remake already? Yeah, they're just pumping these out. It's Mulan, this time. Starring Eddie Murphy! (You know what that means...)

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196 - A Quiet Place (with Conor Murray)

Guest: Conor Murray

Films covered in this episode:
A Quiet Place
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Conor: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 67%

If you listen really carefully, you might hear our A Quiet Place episode, taking on John Krasinski's breakout project as director which became a surprise hit, earning so much money, A Quiet Place: Part II was put almost immediately into production so that it could come out later this week.

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195 - The Big Lebowski

Films covered in this episode:
The Big Lebowski
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 70%

It may seem completely out of left field that, this week, we're covering The Big Lebowksi, but there's actually a spin-off being released (in the US, at least) where The Jesus remakes an old French movie - written and directed by John Turturro, himself. Don't feel bad that you didn't know it was coming out. Pretty much no one did. We didn't realise until the last minute, hence this ramshackle production.

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194 - The Living Daylights (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:
The Living Daylights
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ½
Overall score: 54%

We're back on Bond - but, this time, Roger Moore is nowhere to be seen! We're finally onto a new actor in the role as we kick off with the first of Timothy Dalton's two times playing the character. As always, James Bond expert, Calvin Dyson, is on hand to offer his thoughts alongside Sol and Allen.

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193 - Valentine's Day Special: Boogie Nights (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:
Boogie Nights
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 70%

Diminishing Returns forges somewhat new ground, this week. Over the past three years, we've brought you a trilogy of dare-we-say hilarious and insightful "sex episodes", supposedly covering The Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy. This is year four and we're out of Fifty Shades crap to talk about, so instead, he's fictional pornstar biopic Boogie Nights, as voted for by our Patreon subscribers!.

Does covering a good film ruin the fun? No... Surprisingly, this episode is sexy as hell.

192 - Oscars 2020

Films covered in this episode:
Little Women (2019)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 60%

1917
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 80%

Jojo Rabbit
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 65%

The Irishman
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 65%

Ford v Ferrari (aka Le Mans ‘66)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 70%

Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood
Allen: ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 55%

Joker
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 65%

Parasite
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 70%

Marriage Story
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 75%

I Lost My Body
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 70%

It's Oscar season, for the fourth time at Diminishing Returns! We take a time-travelling romp through this year's Best Picture nominees, in chronological order, starting with Little Women and ending with Marriage Story, but making stops at 1917, Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Parasite and even some movies not nominated for Best Picture (or anything in Uncut Gems' case). Also featuring the return of fan-favourite characters Joker and Randy Newman!

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191 - Sonic the Hedgehog (with Conor Murray)

Guest: Conor Murray

Films covered in this episode:
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1996)
Allen: n/s
Conor: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 50%

In a rare turn for Diminishing Returns, we're not only discussing a video game franchise this week, but one that hasn't (really) been adapted into a movie before. Ahead of the coming Jim Carrey vehicle, Sonic the Hedgehog, we're looking back at the franchise's roots (as well as Carrey's career).

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