They did it. Those madmen (and madwomen) at The MCU actually did it and pulled all the strings in the world to get a sort of live-action Spider-verse movie to close out Tom Holland’s first Spider-Trilogy. Can this work for anyone who doesn’t have decades of emotional investment in Spider-Man as a movie character, and perhaps even more so, anyone who doesn’t have decades of attachment to his comic book adventures? The answers - and more! - lie in this Real Talk segment.

You could argue that the world was in such a bad emotional place around Christmas 2021 that critics and audiences would have embraced the most transparent attempts at capitalizing on feel-good nostalgia. And they did, as SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME scored a 93% Tomatometer score purely by referencing past Spidey adventures. Listen to Alex & Julio as they resist the combined charm of three Peter Parkers and complain about MCU magic!

The journey continues as we finally step into the cage. Before we can get there, though, we have to explain weight-cutting to an incredulous Julio.

We discuss the tough (and hilarious) road to our first fight of the season and reminisce on some of the weight blunders the sport has seen.

In addition, we add music of the era to the weekly format as Steve consults the Billboard Hot 100!

The team challenges kick off as our journey of The Ultimate Fighter continues. What does sawing a utility log into pieces then reassembling it have to do with fighting? We put our minds together and try our damndest to figure it out.

In this episode, we meet our host, Willa Ford, we have a heated discussion about asparagus, and we learn that no one trains harder than UFC fighters (and that’s a fact).

We also dip into some Strange Brew and, most importantly, find out if Coach Carter is still #1 at the box office. 

Whatever movie followed Avengers: Endgame would have the benefit of not having to do a thing to get people to watch it… and the disadvantage of it being impossible for it to live up to Endgame’s epic scale. Spidey drew the short-straw, if you can call it that when your movie grosses a billion dollars, and FAR FROM HOME seems to be the least liked of the Tom Holland movies. Listen to this Real Talk to find out how The Contrarians actually feel about it!

You’d think the devastating climax of Avengers: Endgame wouldn’t be the best way to set up Peter Parker’s lighthearted romp across Europe, and yet that’s exactly what the MCU deployed as an Endgame follow-up. Critics lapped it up, but real fans know SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME is as empty and superficial as Mysterio’s illusions. Listen to Alex & Julio yearn for the days when Spidey had adventures that mattered!

The Contrarians embark on a quest unlike any other as they’re joined by Joe Hulbert and STEVE(!) to host a 20-year retrospective on the ground-breaking reality television series, The Ultimate Fighter.

For Episode 1 of this 14-part journey, we chronicle the history of the UFC heading into 2005 and put into perspective just how much was at stake with this show. We pick our teams and learn about our coaches. 

We also set the table with discussion of the worlds of contemporary film, fashion, and professional wrestling. 

Put on your team jersey, grab a drink, and buckle in because you are going to FEEL IT!

Even if you haven’t seen MAN ON FIRE, you probably have a good idea of whether you’ll like it or not, especially once you learn it was directed by latter-day Tony Scott. It’s Denzel on a revenge rampage across the border! But does that play a little differently 20 years from when it was released? And how does it hold up against other revenge stories we’ve covered on the show? That and more on this Real Talk segment!

There’s no explosion like an explosion Denzel Washington walks away from in slow motion. Tony Scott understood this, audiences in 2004 understood this, but critics did not. And so MAN ON FIRE sits with a shocking 38% Tomatometer score, despite giving us the very first Denzel / Dakota Fanning team-up. Listen to Alex & Julio celebrate another exciting Denzel adventure while trying to ignore the problematic depiction of an apocalyptic Mexico!

We gave it a shot, but it was inevitable to bring up Bone Tomahawk time and again when talking about S. Craig Zahler’s most recent effort. There’s more to this Real Talk segment than unflattering comparisons thought! Gibson’s persona, Vaughnn’s seriousness, and what can we really make of that Jennifer Carpenter sequence? This is how we close 2024!