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Movies We Dig | Film, Antiquity and Everything in Between
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Did the Predator aliens invent toxic masculinity? Are billionaire's secretly chill dudes? Would this be Freud's all-time favorite movie? Yes.
We take a (slight) detour from our usual survey grounds to talk about our first personal pick (thank you, Elijah): Alien vs. Predator (2004), aka The Predator Industrial Complex. Join us for a review of this classic tale of human explorers finding themselves caught in a centuries-long struggle betwixt newly born larvae and a teen coming-of-age party. It's got archaeology, some form feminism(?), and whole heaps of blood. 2004 called and said, "this movie's EXXXTREME!"
As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.
Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.
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Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Season 2 (2025), with Lexie Henning
02:00:53||Season 6If ever a series made us feel our age, it's this one! Once again, we return to Rick Riordan's fantastical world of teenage demi-gods with Disney's second season of Percy Jackson & The Olympians. Since your hosts are lost at sea when it comes to this series, we called upon a true aficionado and fellow Mnemosyne member, Lexie Henning, to help us navigate the world of prophecies and Party Ponies. Inevitably we find ourselves moored in discussion of early 2000s YA novels and their pitfalls. In the end, the sirens reveal to us the fatal flaw of adapting such tomes to the screen: No one is truly satisfied trying to relive the childhood memories of generations past.To learn more about Lexie and her work with The Ozymandias Project, visit www.ozymandiasproject.com. You can also follow Lexie on her socials at Instagram and Bluesky.If you would like to read the op-ed essay mentioned in this episode, you can access a free copy via this link.
10,000 BC (2008), with David S. Anderson
01:38:31||Season 6Grab your spears, grow out your dreads and get ready to hunt some mammoth because we're going back, waaaay back to 2008 and 10,000 BC, Roland Emmerich's stealth prequel to Stargate. And what conversation about Stone Age tribes battling Atlantean Pyramid Enthusiasts (Aliens?) would be complete without our resident pseudo-archaeology expert, David S. Anderson. We talk mammoth hunting strategies, megafauna, why farming was a mistake and all walks of conspiracy theories from star-aligned pyramids to Shakespeare-wasn't-real.If you would like to learn more about David and stay updated about his research and tabletop card game Excavation!, then follow him on his social media pages at Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, Season 2 (2025)
01:22:08||Season 6As part of our "Unfinished Business" season, we return to the Netflix animated series Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. It wouldn't surprise the three of us to learn that you might have missed the second (and final) season of this series, but we spend a good chunk of time discussing why that may have been the case. So let's all dive in to the story of a tomb raider turned repatriation advocate and help stop a random tech billionaire from forcing the world into a hard reboot. Hmmm, prescient.As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
01:59:57||Season 6Ancient Rome. MWD's podcasts are masters of the world, the heat of its takes heard from the Iberian peninsula in the west through the halls of the great library of Alexandria in the east. As oppressed people everywhere writhe under the Roman lash, freeman and vassal are united in one compulsory listenership. But there is a new wind, exploring this Cohen Brothers' 2016 comedy on the eccentric personalities here at Capitol Pictures. We talk sword and sandal cinema, the Red Scare, Jesus, Marxism, split nature of man, and more, all of course with extreme taste and panache. Would that it were so simple...As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.
The Eagle (2011), with Roel Konijnendijk
01:30:19||Season 6Once again, we sift through our backlog of episodes to take another look at a mostly forgotten film, this time with fresh eyes and new takes. What we find is a film about a Roman legionary that is actually, dare we say, good!? Joining us on the journey to find The Eagle is special return guest, Roel Konijnendijk. From a Roman military fortress to the wilds of Scotland, we discuss the charm of this underrated film. While it has a few problematic elements, one can't help but root for the budding "bromance" between Channing Tatum's Marcus Aquila and Jamie Bell's Esca as they travel together to restore their honor. And really, isn't the eagle just the friends we made along the way?Be sure to follow Roel on Bluesky and read his posts as Iphikrates on r/askhistorians.
Frankenstein (2025), with Marina Escolano-Poveda
01:41:30||Season 6Chug your milk, don your ruffled shirts and get ready to shoot lightning bolts through your lymphatic system because we're re-animating Guillermo del Toro' latest creature-feature: Frankenstein (2025). Returning to play god with us is Dr. Marina Escolano-Poveda, Senior Lecturer in Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. We talk the horrors of science, the sins of the father(s) and the benefits of a classical education for developing Creatures, along with all the changes, big and small, between del Toro's adaptation and Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.Be sure to follow Marina on Instagram under the handle @hypatiaheuresis. As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.
Ben-Hur (2016)
01:46:19||Season 6The holidays are upon us, so we figured it was a good time to delve into a remake of a remake that nobody really asked for. That's right, we're talking about 2016's Ben-Hur! And sorry to say, this one might have sent your hosts off the rails. We discuss the major changes from the 1959 film, including Messala's backstory, the inciting incident that destroys the Ben-Hur family, and the interesting choice to cut Judah's trip to Rome. What do we learn? Mario Kart rules apply to chariot racing and the Pope gets a lot of interesting asks.As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.
Agora (2009), with Marina Escolano-Poveda
01:23:46||Season 6In this season's attempt to highlight films that might have fallen under the radar, the Movies We Dig Crew revisits Agora along with special guest, Dr. Marina Escolano-Poveda. Despite (or more likely, because of) the film's the unorthodox setting in Late Roman Alexandria, the central story focusing on the life of Hypatia (played by Rachel Weisz), and amazing use of costuming and set design, there's a good chance you've yet to see this one. And while we might have our hang-ups on the lack of a real plot, you would be hard-pressed to find a better film that depicts the ethnic, religious, and social complexities of Roman Egypt. Be sure to follow Marina on Instagram under the handle @hypatiaheuresis. As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.
Scream 2 (1997), with Lizzy Adams and TJ Bolt
01:37:50||Season 6What's your favorite scary movie? Ours is Scream 2! Joined by super special guests and professional Scream-heads (Screamers?) Lizzy Adams and TJ Bolt, we breakdown the metatextual masterpiece that is the Scream franchise, starting with the 1997 follow up to the original cult classic: Scream 2. We talk ancient Greek tragedy, horror as genre, VHS cassette tapes and all things 90's.You can read more about ancient literature and modern horror by Lizzy and TJ in their contributions to Eidolon.