It’s part two of a special two-part episode! 2025 was a truly great year in cinema and Dean and Phil have a great many topics to discuss as they each reveal their Top 5 films from the year that was (consult Year 19 Episode 39 for their #10 thru #6 selections). Afterwards, they take a look at, perhaps, the most promising fantasy film to be coming out in 2026! So, keep those streaming queues handy. Your friends in podcasting may just be coming up with some titles you will want to track down!

It’s part one of a special two-part episode! After a rather hilarious cold open, Dean and Phil immediately get down to the serious (ridiculous?) business of counting down their respective lists of the Top Ten Best Films of 2025. This week, they reveal #10 thru #6 on their lists. As with years past, Dean’s list includes films he has hopefully seen, and Phil’s list stretches the definition of “ten” in “Top Ten”. Because they actually accomplish this week’s task in less than an hour, Phil takes some time at the end to regale Dean with what might be the best sci-fi movies to be coming out in 2026! So, buckle up and prepare to celebrate the (recent) past AND look forward to the (near) future.

Phil is playing hurt with a nasty head cold. Dean is braving the sub-zero temperatures. And somehow, they manage to bring you one of the most epic installments yet of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! They start the show by discussing some of the upcoming 2026 cinematic releases that the Criterion Collection has on their list of the films they are most anticipating. Then, they analyze the Academy Award nominations, the surprises, the snubs, and the historic trends they see unfolding. From the best in cinema 2025 to the worst in cinema, an email from a loyal listener inspires Dean and Phil to discuss the Razzie Awards. Finally, your friends in podcasting wrap things up by revealing each of their lists of the five films that angered them, frustrated them, or downright confused them in 2025.

Phil gets things started by singing the praises of “The Lowdown” (and its emotional intelligence), and of Marc Hershon, who had this Sterlin Harjo-created Ethan Hawke-starring series on his list of the best television of 2025. Some casting news (regarding season 4 of “The White Lotus”) has Phil greatly enthusiastic. Then, for the first time in ages, but as they used to do on the regular back in the day, Dean and Phil analyze the long four-day weekend’s domestic box office, paying particular attention to the lack of performance by (the supposedly excellent) 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple and the milestone achieved by bona fide movie star Timothée Chalamet. Then, the conversation about IMDB’s list of the 20 most anticipated movies of 2006 picks up where it left off last week. The incredible achievement Sentimental Value pulled off at the European Film Awards gets placed in a historic perspective. Two movies get reviewed: Dean wags his finger at the Edgar Wright remake The Running Man and Phil doffs his cap to Bi Gan’s masterful Resurrection. This week’s show is EXCELLENT, but don’t take our word for it – just hit “play”!

On the eve of the Golden Globes, Dean and Phil got together via Zoom with the Best of 2025 very much on their minds. They discuss the recent Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild award nominations. They discuss why the Writers Guild awards pale in significance compared to the DGA and SAG. That leads to a review of the multi-Golden Globe nominated, but WGA-ineligible South Korean dark comedy No Other Choice from writer-director Park Chan-wook, and his co-writer Don McKellar, as well as to a discussion of some Park Chan-wook movies from the past that Dean and Phil hope to track down. From one dark comedy to another, Phil and Dean then tackle Ari Aster’s Eddington before cleansing their palate with the utterly delightful Nouvelle Vague from Richard Linklater. Finally, the CNN documentary “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not” gets analyzed before Dean and Phil set aside fifteen bonus minutes to peek ahead to what IMDB considers ten of the “most anticipated” movies coming out this year.

Our first installment of 2026 finds your friends in podcasting discussing why the President of the United States is so insistent on there being another Rush Hour movie from director Brett Ratner. Then, Dean and Phil delve into the two final “Mission: Impossible” movies, both 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and 2025’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Then, they delve deep into the strengths and weaknesses of Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix film version of Frankenstein. Finally, just in time for Twelfth Night, they go thru a whole lot of seasonal fare, both movies and television specials, including “Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special”, the Rankin-Bass “Frosty the Snowman”, The Muppets Christmas Carol, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Our final installment of 2025 finds your friends in podcasting discussing Dean’s holiday travels, the health of Phil’s wife, the latest on the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery and the use of AI (and self-learning programs) in a wide array of fields. Then, Dean and Phil get down to the serious business of discussing such award-hopeful movies as The Secret Agent and Jay Kelly, the comfort food that is “Spinal Tap II” and such holiday comfort viewing as National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and holiday specials A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Very Murray Christmas.

Dean and Phil got together high atop a certain “historic building” in downtown Los Angeles to watch the sunset on the winter solstice, to enjoy a lovely bottle of Malbec, and to record this week’s show! They discuss Dean’s holiday travels, the big forthcoming change to the annual Oscars telecast, and the changes in the beaks on songbirds at UCLA! After that, they discuss the unique legacy of actor-turned-filmmaker Rob Reiner, and take the time to analyze several of his films. Then, two film noirs (Tension and Where Danger Lives), a fairly bizarre war film (36 Hours) and the biggest box office hit of Brad Pitt’s career all get reviewed!

Dean and Phil share seasonal decoration news, holiday plans, and Christmas travel tales. Then, Phil tells a hilarious story about an awards screening he attended. Wake Up Dead Man (“A Knives Out Mystery”) gets a deep dive analysis which leads into a new way of discussing the issues surrounding Netflix’s pending purchase of Warner Bros. Media. After that, the Netflix films Jay Kelly and Carry-On get reviewed before a soon-to-be-theatrically-released awards hopeful gets reviewed. Finally, a classic 1949 film noir and an underrated 1961 comedic gem from Billy Wilder get celebrated.

On this week’s show, Dean Haglund is finally using a microphone once again. It makes his audio better, to be certain, but somehow it also manages to create several cameo opportunities for his dogs! Don’t let those moments dissuade you, however, as this week’s show is an utterly fascinating conversation between Dean and his longtime co-host Phil Leirness. They go deep, discussing the potential sale of Warner Bros. to Netflix, the life and legacy of perhaps the greatest American architect of all time, Frank Gehry, and the truly spine-chilling lessons we can learn from the Nazis’ film policy.