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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.

Ep944: There's No Stalgia Like Nostalgia: EXECUTIVE ACTION (1973)

Ep944: There's No Stalgia Like Nostalgia: EXECUTIVE ACTION (1973)

To commemorate the 6oth anniversary of JFK's assassination, Ian and Pat look at a film that leans heavily into the myriad conspiracy theories surrounding the event--and it wasn't directed by Oliver Stone!

David Miller's Executive Action came out ten years after that fateful day in Dallas, and centers on a small, shadowy group of well-connected men whose interests are jeopardized by the 35th U.S. President's ideas. Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan star as the weavers of the web, which gets stickier by the minute.

In this spoilerific episode, Ian and Pat look at the strengths and weaknesses of a film whose style and audacity were, in many ways, ahead of its time--but whose execution (no pun intended) is uneven at best.

And stay til the very end, when things get dicier than a Dallas prisoner transfer!

Subscribe to, "Like", and comment on the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel, and check out kickseat.com for multiple movie podcasts each week!

Show Links

  • Watch the Executive Action trailer.

  • Plus! Watch Ian's 2021 interview with Bobby Kennedy III about his film, Fear and Loathing in Aspen (which includes his thoughts on his famous family)!

  • Keep up with Pat at HollywoodChicago.com.

  • Listen to Pat's movie reviews on the radio at STAR 96.7.

Ep945: THANKSGIVING (2023) - Round Table Review

Ep945: THANKSGIVING (2023) - Round Table Review

Ep943: TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (2023) - Movie Review

Ep943: TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (2023) - Movie Review