Filmjitsu is a bad-movie review podcast originally started by two very funny film-loving friends named Mike and John. The show was based on a simple premise with the co-hosts forcing one another to watch garbage movies that specifically were chosen to inflict as much pain as possible on the other, based on their taste and sensibilities. Each of the 100 or so original episodes found Mike and John alternating picks and reviews, and then composing a “Bottom Five” list that would be thematically related to the pick. Occasionally the guys would also compete in trivia competitions called Matinee Deathmatches, hold roundtables with guest panelists and interview talent.
But more than anything, the show was exactly what the tagline says:
The podcast that wields films like deadly weapons.
The original run was from 2008 until sometime in 2011 when the guys turned on the theater lights and swept up the popcorn. And all was quiet until late 2023 when Mike decided it was time to resurrect the show with a new co-host, an old friend and recovering filmmaker named Jay who’d been gleefully tormenting Mike for years with movies like “Frankenhooker” and the Bill Hinzmen-starring “Flesheater,” (the latter having possibly permanently scarred Mike.)
In general, Mike’s the funny one and Jay’s the angry one, but each give as good as they get while looking for the best in the worst of cinema. Do silver linings exist in bad movies or are they all simply instruments for blunt-force trauma?
Blurry, hazy and as unfocused as always, these two old friends were captured in the wild circa 2011. Both are formidable practitioners in the deadly art of filmjitsu, and admit wholeheartedly their friendship is based largely on antagonism.
The Filmjitsu Team
Mike
A professional healthcare worker and an adored husband and father, Mike’s remarkably fast with quips about farts and penises. The creator of Filmjitsu, Mike’s also known by audiences of the Filmspotting podcast as “the Godfather of Filmspotting Madness,” a bracket-style annual movie death-match competition that infuriates listeners as much as it entertains them. Among die-hard fans of “The Big Lebowski” he’s known as a formidable trivia champion and its rumored he makes a phenomenal White Russian.
Jay
A former filmmaker who adores bad movies because they make his own terrible ones look not as bad, Jay graduated film school in the late 90’s, made several dozen shorts, then somehow obtained distribution for a three-dvd set of them. When he’s not looking for something good to say about one cinematic turd or another, he’s probably parenting, writing something no one will read or working his ass off at his day job. No, honestly, he has almost no ass. Like not even a little bit of ass. It’s sad, really. But somehow he’s got a hot wife who forgives him for it.