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Welcome to Kicking the Seat!

Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).

The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar NoéRachel BrosnahanAmy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.

Ep339: Oscar Bait?

Today, the Kicking the Seat Podcast and Keeping it Reel's David Fowlie take on the stepson of the mother of all shark movies, The Meg! Jon Turtletaub's late-summer action thriller is a throwback to over-the-top 90s blockbusters, and only one of the guys is okay with that. How does Jason Statham measure up as a different kind of leading man? What does the movie's success mean for Hollywood studios' international partnerships? And how can a film be at once too ridiculous and not ridiculous enough?

Also, the guys talk about those universally beloved new Oscar rules, and Ian belatedly celebrates nine years of Kicking the Seat!

Episode 339 is caught in a plastic garbage island!

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Ep340: Dark Knight of the Solstice: Permission to Die

Ep338: Scuola Argento: DEEP RED