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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.

Ep1154: Doc and Cover: Spinal Tap 2 / Megadoc (2025) - Movie Reviews

Ep1154: Doc and Cover: Spinal Tap 2 / Megadoc (2025) - Movie Reviews

Ian and David crank things up to eleven with another---

Nevermind. Not gonna finish that hackneyed joke.

But it feeds right into today's double-feature review of Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues and Megadoc.

What do a legacy sequel about a fake British rock band and a documentary about filming one of cinema's most notorious flops have to do with one another? More than you might expect, as we discover in this spoilerific deep dive.

Spinal Tap 2 picks up with Nigel, David, and Derek reuniting for one last (contractually obligated) concert. But do they still have "it", and do cameos by legends like Sirs Paul McCartney and Elton John elevate the absurdist mockumentary humor--or simply drag it out?

Mike Figgis' Megadoc finds the director chronicling the making-of chaos behind Francis Ford Coppola's Razzie Award-winning retro-futurist drama, Megalopolis. From difficult actors to incomplete ideas to entire departments being wiped out on a whim, the film drags shadowy Hollywood mystique into the daylight (for better and worse).

Join us for an examination of two movies that don't quite work--but whose seeds of greatness were trampled on by ego, age, and cynical nostalgia!

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Ep1155: Him (2025) - Live Roundtable Review

Ep1155: Him (2025) - Live Roundtable Review

Ep1153: Say No More, Xenomorph: Alien Earth Ep 07 - Live Roundtable Review

Ep1153: Say No More, Xenomorph: Alien Earth Ep 07 - Live Roundtable Review