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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.

Ep1190: Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) - Roundtable Review

Ep1190: Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) - Roundtable Review

Earth's Mightiest Critics re-ignite the age-old debate: Do people actually care about Avatar?

Following the death of their eldest son, Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) find themselves caring for Spider (Jake Champion), the human son of evil-military-leader-turned-evil-Na'vi-warrior Myles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Meanwhile, Quaritch discovers the volcano-dwelling Ash tribe, headed by Varang (Oona Chaplin), whose obsession with war and the dark arts gives a chilling edge to the invading military's deadly artillery.

And there's a bunch of other semi-interesting stuff that's hastily abandoned for the hour-plus Act Three death-and-destruction montage...

In this spoilerific roundtable review of the third film in James Cameron's bafflingly successful trilogy, Fire and Ash, the gang digs into why the (arguably) best and (arguably) final entry may be the strongest, and why that may not be enough to save it from a legacy of, "Hey, remember those big blue alien movies?"

Also, the EMC talks about Cameron's bizarre Anti-AI public service announcement they saw ahead of the early-December press screening.

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Ep1187: Trailer Reaction: Supergirl (2026 Teaser)

Ep1187: Trailer Reaction: Supergirl (2026 Teaser)