Coming of Cage!

This week on Shoot The Hostage, Dan and Sarah sink their teeth into the batshit world of Vampire's Kiss (1988) starring Nicolas Cage.

Is he a vampire? Is he insane? Does he like bats, plastic fangs, and cockroaches? (Yes, he eats a real one). Is Jennifer Beals a figment of his imagination? And did this movie directly inspire Bret Easton Ellis and Christian Bale for American Psycho? Dan and Sarah dive deep into the glorious weirdness of this film and explore the possible meaning behind Vampires Kiss. Plus, three freaky facts about Nicolas Cage.

Season 9 runs until 24th February.

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 9? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 90 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-8.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

We started a tradition last year and today we continue that tradition. Yes we're back to talk about the best films of 2024.

Make yourself a drink and strap in for our 2024 end of year show. In a similar format to last year, we talk about the year in film, offer our separate top 5 lists, attempt to come up with a combined top 5 and talk about some of the worst films of 2024. We also take a look at 2025 upcoming movies.

We also hand out our Jason Statham King of Turds award and make it through the whole ep without spoilers.

Season 9 (Coming of Cage) begins Jan 6th

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 9? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 90 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-8.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

As we have reached the end of another year, we thought it would be fun to release a whole episode with some of our favourite moments from recording in 2024.

We covered 5 themes over the year and a total 42 movies. If you avoided any of the episodes for fear of spoilers, fear not, there are no spoilers here. Just a bunch of clips from moments that made us laugh.

We'll be back with our new season covering 8 Nic Cage movies which begins on January 6th.

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 9? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 90 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-8.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

We will be back with a brand new season very shortly. Join us on January 6th where we begin our journey through 8 Nicolas Cage movies. This here is a little teaser to get you in the mood. The first movie we're covering is Vampires Kiss and in a slight change of format, this time we're going chronological.

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 9? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 90 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-8.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

We did it. We made another themed season of movie choices. This time Sarah came up with a list of 8 coming of age movies which we covered over 8 weeks. In the wrap show we discuss the movies we covered, some that almost made the cut, others we watched and the season as a whole. Dan has also prepared some coming of age questions based on the films we watched.

This episode as a preview of our season 8 wrap show which is available in full, over on our £3 a month Patreon tier. If you sign up for that you'll get access to all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-8 and a minimum of 2 reviews of brand new movies each month.

Now that Sarah's season is finished, it's back to Dan to choose the theme and the movies for season 9. Would you like to see the full lineup for season 9? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup when it drops.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

For the final episode of our coming-of-age season we dive into the world of rock ‘n’ roll excess, teen angst and 1970’s fashion. Join us as we talk about Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000).

We chat about the semi-autobiographical nature and explore it’s coming of age themes, the character complexities and particularly the portrayal of women. We also look at some of Cameron Crowe’s other films including Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and Aloha. Dan watched Aloha as part of this episode’s research. I believe that is called sacrifice. Dan also did some digging into the real-life Lester Bangs, portrayed brilliantly in Almost Famous by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Make sure you listen right to the end to hear what we have planned for season 9, which begins Jan 6th. Before that, you can look forward to our coming-of-age wrap show which will be available on our £3 a month Patreon tier. We also have our between season bonus show releasing 30th December, although we haven’t a clue what we’ll be covering yet. If there is anything new releasing in December you would like us to review why not drop us a dm on Instagram or wherever (see links below) and we’ll consider it.

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 8? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 90 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-7.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

It’s the penultimate episode in Sarah’s Coming of Age season of movies and as we inch closer to the finish line, Sarah thought it was high time for a British drama. This week we’re talking Shane Meadows This is England (2006.)

We get into the context of the film, the cultural happenings of the 70’s and 80’s in the UK which caused the divides depicted in the film. We talk about the cast including Stephen Graham, Thomas Turgoose, Joe Gilgun and Vicky McClure and their insane performances. And we talk a little about Shane Meadows and how he gets these great performances from the cast.

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 8? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 80 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-7.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

In the latest episode in our Coming of Age season, we’re diving into the wildly chaotic world of teenagers with Thirteen (2003). Directed by Catherine Hardwicke and co-written with then 14-year-old Nikki Reed, who also stars alongside Evan Rachel Wood.

We chat about the themes of identity, family dynamics, addiction and why Jeremy Sisto has a chicken.

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 8? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 80 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-7.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube