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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.

Logan (2017)

Like Marvel's decades-long comics saga, Fox's X-Men films have been booted, rebooted, wiped clean, and spun-off so often that just about each new movie amounts to a fresh start. Kudos to characters like Logan's Logan (Hugh Jackman), who gets to run anew from his haunted past and beat up mutants/mercenaries every three years or so. But this off-brand MCU has begun to resemble the mid-90s comics scene, which saw fans drooling over gimmicky crossovers, specially wrapped issues, and variant covers that masked a disheartening sterility of storytelling. Jackman's latest and last (yeah, right) outing finds his character once again rejecting society, bickering with Professor X (Patrick Stewart) about family, and protecting mutant kids from evil scientists. Despite an engaged cast, fun production design, and a glistening coat of Hard-R paint, James Mangold's wandering wannabe Western feels like a collection of issues we've already read, re-read, and traded for something new.

Listen to Kicking the Seat Podcast #199 to hear Ian and Keeping it Reel's David Fowlie get the knives out over Logan!

An Undeniable Voice (2016)

The Ring (2002)