186 - Review of the Year 2019 (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:
Mary Poppins Returns
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 54%

Stan & Ollie
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 77%

Glass
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 65%

Captain Marvel
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 75%

Dumbo (2019)
Allen: ✰
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 35%

Pet Sematary (2019)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 70%

Hellboy (2019)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 50%

Avengers: Endgame
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 75%

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ½
Overall score: 54%

Aladdin (2019)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 60%

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Allen: ✰ ✰
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 60%

X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Allen: ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰
Overall score: 40%

Men in Black: International
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 60%

Toy Story 4
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: n/r
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 70%

Ho ho ho! Merry 2019! Christmas was last week's focus. This week is us getting a wriggle on and beginning the arduous task of evaluating 2019 ahead of actual Christmas. Here, Calvin, Sol and Allen take you through a tour of heavily truncated Diminisodes covering each tie-in release for the year! To hear the original, extended Diminisodes, plus loads of other ones not featured, head over to patreon.com/dimreturns

Listen on:
iTunes
Android
SoundCloud
Stitcher
PlayerFM

137 - Split (with Calvin Dyson)

Guest: Calvin Dyson

Films covered in this episode:

Split
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 74%

The twist is that M. Night Shyamalan Season wasn't over - that's right, we return to the infamous writer/director's work with a look at Split in anticipation of the upcoming film Glass. For obvious reasons, we take another big look at Unbreakable, too.

Also, spoiler alert for Split and some other past M. Night movies.

Listen on:
iTunes
Android
SoundCloud
Stitcher
PlayerFM

60 - So It's Come to This: A Diminishing Returns Outtakes Show

We typically spend somewhere between 3-5 hours recording episodes of the show. As you've heard, this is then edited down into something (usually) under 2 hours. We cut a lot of good stuff for the sake of time or purely because we're going off on too much of a tangent, so in this episode, please enjoy a whole load of all-new material that was cut from some of our classic episodes.

Listen on:
iTunes
Android
SoundCloud

This episode contains outtakes from:
"It's a Wonderful Life"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: Unbreakable"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: The Happening"
"Fifty Shades of Grey"

Outtakes Episodes:
"So It's Come to This: A Diminishing Returns Outtakes Show"
"Another Diminishing Returns Outtakes Show"
"The Diminishing Returns 107th Episode Spectacular"

54 - Review of the Year 2017: Part 1

Review of the Year 2017:
Part 1
Part 2

Happy birthday, Diminishing Returns! 1 year old today (well, last week, actually, but we wanted to cover The Mummy).

In order to prevent our end of year review episode being 5 hours long, we decided to celebrate our 1-year anniversary with a look back at the last 6 months of cinema (and some films we wanted to revisit from last time).
This episode contains reviews of:
- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
- Rogue One
- Split
- Fifty Shades Darker
- Logan
- Kong: Skull Island
- Disney's live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast
- Power Rangers
- the live-action Ghost in the Shell remake
- The Fate of the Furious
- season 4 of Bates Motel
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Alien: Covenant
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (aka Salazar's Revenge)
- Wonder Woman
...and more!

There's also some games, special guests and all the usual fun and japes (and arguments) that come with the show. Be sure to listen to the end!

Listen on:
iTunes
Android
SoundCloud

Films covered in this episode:

Rogue One
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 77%

Split
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 65%

Enjoy our film soundtrack comparison in the episode? Hans Zimmer: god of film-composers or rip-off merchant? Here's a clean listening post without us talking over the music so that you can decide for yourself.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Allen: ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 10%

Rings
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 50%

Fifty Shades Darker
Allen: ✰ ✰
Calvin: n/s
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 40%

Logan
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 80%

Kong: Skull Island
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 70%

Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 60%

Power Rangers
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 60%

Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 50%

The Fate of the Furious
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 50%

Bates Motel (season 4)
Allen: n/s
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 80%

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 65%

The Belko Experiment
Allen: n/s
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 80%

Alien: Covenant
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 80%

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ½
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 50%

Wonder Woman
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ (rated post-episode)
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 75%

This episode is a continuation of the following episodes:
"Tim Burton"
"Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi"
"Review of the Year 2016"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: Unbreakable"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: The Happening"
"Resident Evil: Retribution"
"The Ring"
"Fifty Shades of Grey"
"Oscars 2017"
"The Wolverine"
"King Kong"
"Live-Action Disney Remakes"
"Power Rangers"
"Ghost in the Shell"
"The Fast and the Furious"
"Psycho"
"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2"
"Alien season: The Alien Quadrilogy"
"Alien season: The Prometheus Unology"
"Pirates of the Caribbean"
"Suicide Squad"
"The Mummy"

Review of the Year episodes:
"Review of the Year 2016"
"Review of the Year 2017: Part 1"
"Review of the Year 2017: Part 2"
"Review of the Year 2018: Part 1"

33 - M. Night Shyamalan season: The Happening

M. Night Shyamalan season:
Part 1: "Unbreakable"
Part 2: "The Village"
Part 3: "The Happening"

Released 16/01/2017

This classic episode is in the Diminishing Returns vault. Sign up to our Patreon for as little as £1 to access our back-catalogue episodes!

The third part of any trilogy is almost always the weakest, but in this, the conclusion of the Diminishing Returns M. Night Shyamalan season, we continue to buck trends with, quite possibly, the strongest episode in the series - well, it's because it's more fun to complain about bad films than praise the good ones, isn't it?

Though the focus of this episode and its sequel pitches are on The Happening, it also covers The Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender, Devil, After Earth, The Visit and the upcoming Split.

Films covered in this episode:

The Lady in the Water
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰
Overall score: 40%

The Happening
Allen: ½
Calvin: ½
Sol: ✰ ½
Overall score: 17%

The Last Airbender
Allen: ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰
Sol: ✰
Overall score: 27%

Devil
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 64%

After Earth
Allen: ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 47%

The Visit
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 67%

Episodes covering the work of M. Night Shyamalan:
"M. Night Shyamalan season: Unbreakable"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: The Village"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: The Happening"

We review Split in:
"Review of the Year 2017: Part 1"

Allen's review of Split

Cut material from this episode's recording session can be heard in:
"So It's Come to This: A Diminishing Returns Outtakes Show"

31 - M. Night Shyamalan season: Unbreakable

M. Night Shyamalan season:
Part 1: "Unbreakable"
Part 2: "The Village"
Part 3: "The Happening"

Released 02/01/2017

This classic episode is in the Diminishing Returns vault. Sign up to our Patreon for as little as £1 to access our back-catalogue episodes!

Diminishing Returns bring you an episode on M. Night Shyamalan! Yes, in anticipation of the director/writer/sort-of-actor-but-not-really's upcoming film: Split, Diminishing Returns brings you M. Night Shyamalan season. Over the next three weeks, Diminishing Returns shall chronicle the meteoric rise and fall of the career of the infamous film-maker. In this, part 1, we look at M. Night's early work, making pit-stops at Praying with Anger, Wide Awake and The Sixth Sense before diving into Sol's favourite entry in the man's filmography: Unbreakable, a film in which Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson deconstructed the superhero genre before it had been constructed.
And, as usual, the gang top things off by pitching their own ideas for sequels.

Films covered in this episode:

Praying with Anger
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: n/s
Sol: n/s
Overall score: 60%

Wide Awake
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: n/s
Sol: ✰ ✰
Overall score: 55%

The Sixth Sense
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Overall score: 77%

Stuart Little
Allen: n/s
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰
Overall score: 50%

Unbreakable
Allen: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Calvin: ✰ ✰ ✰
Sol: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Overall score: 84%

Episodes covering the work of M. Night Shyamalan:
"M. Night Shyamalan season: Unbreakable"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: The Village"
"M. Night Shyamalan season: The Happening"

We review Split in:
"Review of the Year 2017: Part 1"

Allen's review of Split

Cut material from this episode's recording session can be heard in:
"So It's Come to This: A Diminishing Returns Outtakes Show"