#ZacAttack: The Zac Efron Podcast

It’s a big year for #ZacAttack as we return to talk about Zac Efron’s newest film, A Family Affair, co-starring Nicole Kidman, Joey King, and Kathy Bates! We talk about how A Family Affair feels like a meta take on Zef’s career, how the movie always feels like it’s moonlighting as a car commercial, and how it seems unsure about who the main character really is. We debate if the ages are believable, if Nicole Kidman is too attractive for the type of character she’s playing, and whether it’s weird that Joey King’s character never even comes close to a romantic subplot of her own. We talk about the shocking lack of sexual chemistry in this movie. We put a twist on the Letterboxd game. Want even more “#ZacAttack”? Check out 2 Fast 2 Forever, which releases new episodes every Tuesday and is (almost literally) the same exact show as this, but about different movies. Seriously. We promise you. Go check it out!

#ZacAttack is back already to talk about the newly-released Ricky Stanicky, now available to stream on Amazon Prime! After working our way through a complicated production backstory that includes so many of our guys (and exploring the history of the Hollywood Black List survey), we discuss how Zef is (once again) threatening to join the Fast & Furious franchise by choosing to team up with existing #family members. We talk about the oddity of a comedy where only one person is allowed to be funny, we admire John Cena's musical parodies, and we praise the sort of surprisingly adept way this movie's plot comes to a close. Joe gets jealous of the premise of this movie. We pitch the most successful MCU movie of all-time. We make guesses for A Family Affair and shout out Carrie Soloman for writing movies exclusively for us.

#ZacAttack makes its triumphant return to the (podcasting) ring as we grapple with last year’s Von Erich family biopic The Iron Claw! Joe shares his history with the Von Erich family and Joey shares his history with watching this movie twice. We talk about the wildly depressing stuff *omitted* from this already-depressing film, talk about Zef’s declaration to never get Baywatch-level jacked again, and admire his ability as a “song and dance boy” which shines through in this film. We compliment the wrestling cinematography, talk about how difficult it is to really “make it” in wrestling, and wonder if the corny moments at the end of the movie work. Zef’s haircut. (Enough said.) We talk about Zef’s freakout vs. Ric Flair, the movie’s “Tom Sawyer” montage, and its misleading (?) trailer. We play Fire Ass Titles and look ahead to Ricky Stanicky. We wonder: could we get Zef to wrestle Nathan Fielder? Want even more “#ZacAttack”? Check out 2 Fast 2 Forever, which releases new episodes every Tuesday and is (almost literally) the same exact show as this, but about different movies. Seriously. We promise you. Go check it out!

#ZacAttack returns again (like it’s a normally-scheduled podcast) to cover Zac Efron’s *other* new movie from 2022: Firestarter! Before we dive into the movie, we talk about his profile in Men’s Health and Vanessa Hudgens’s profile in Nylon. Then, we dive into Firestarter (which we eventually settle on calling “Strange Things”) as we explore the final state of this movie, how it compares to other versions, and the limitations of “creepy kids with powers” stories. We talk about the lack of word of mouth about this movie, the decision to release it basically alongside Stranger Things, and how Zef could have fit into Stranger Things. We also point out new elements of Zef’s role/character in Firestarter, the seeming total absence of Sydney Lemmon as the mom in the narrative, and the sort of ambiguously sad place this movie ends up.