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Episode 72: Screamers featuring Matt Finnegan
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Matt Finnegan is back with another 90s sci-fi “classic”, Screamers (1995). Peter Weller is our main star in this dystopian, sci-fi, horror film which is based on a Phillip K. Dick short story and written by Dan O’Bannon (Alien). That’s a strong start, but the finishing touches of another writer punching up the dialogue, O’Bannon having no idea it was being made, and the direction of our first returning director, Christian Duguay, leaves an acrid taste. At least it’s really interesting and has some strong visuals? We’ll break it all down, so tune in!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:41
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. It's the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, this movie's so bad, why do you like it so much?
00:00:53
Speaker
We're your hosts. My name is Chris Anderson. And with me, as always, i have the Ross to my Becker, Mr. Greg Bossy. So hi, I'm the one who keeps saying that you keep saying that or something. I'm the one with the glasses.
00:01:09
Speaker
You're the one with the glasses. Okay, good. yeah yeah this' it's Yeah. Yeah. it's We'll get into it. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good summary of our dynamic. Yeah, I think so. Unfortunately, we do not have the Teddy to my David, Mrs. Anna Anderson here with us today. Uh, but we do have with us a very special guest, our latest member of the three timers club.
Movie Summary and Title Discussion
00:01:33
Speaker
You might know him as the original screamer. It's Mr. Matt Finnegan.
00:01:41
Speaker
Hello. Welcome to the show. Finny boy. I hope that, uh, I'll figure what to do with that later. It probably peaked. It probably peaked. let's be honest it's fine thats buts It's fine. It's fine. I'll just put in some gentle music.
00:01:57
Speaker
Listeners, you're in for a great episode this week. You always know that we have a great time when Finnegan's here. And this week we're talking about the movie Screamers.
00:02:08
Speaker
If you haven't seen Screamers, here's a brief summary of the movie Screamers. Or maybe you should pause this, go watch it, then come back. No, mean, listen to this summary and then decide if you want to pause and watch it.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yeah, let's let's keep my up prayer that's fair.
00:02:35
Speaker
On a distant planet, two opposing factions fight a pointless war long forgotten by their allies on Earth. Only one man can negotiate peace, and only one thing stands in his way.
00:02:48
Speaker
The killer robots of Sirius 6B. Yeah. And that's that. that's That's a great summary. They should have called it the killer robots of Sirius 6B. It's more like a setup than a summary. It doesn't really go into anything. I also feel like it helped me actually understand what was going on in the movie.
00:03:08
Speaker
Okay, so you struggled a little? A little bit, yeah. So like other than I understood screamers. Like I understand yeah them. I get what they are. I get why they're a threat. But it's just like we got to negotiate peace. It's like but somebody is going to fight a war somewhere else. And this was because of a war? There was a whole opening, guys. Yeah, I know. I know. yes It was a lot. It was a lot. So I had a lot in my brain. And my brain was active. Yeah, it was. It's a big crawl in the beginning. and I was saying that is is is as it was a short – I'm saying it's a short amount of text –
00:03:40
Speaker
It's a short amount of text, but this movie was very top-heavy with a lot of politics that ended up being not at all important to the rest of the movie. Yeah, i think that has a lot to do with it. It's like, oh, they're going to do this thing. oh wait, no, it's Screamers.
00:03:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Anyway, anyway, they have to deal with the Screamers. The issue is this movie is about the Screamers. So what's the point of going into it? Exactly. Let's just talk about the Screamers.
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Now, Finnegan, we've had on a couple of times and a couple of times you've thought about screamers, but this time you finally pulled the trigger. Tell me, tell me how you came across screamers.
Nostalgia and First Encounters
00:04:19
Speaker
Tell me about your relationship with screamers.
00:04:21
Speaker
My relationship with screamers. Wow. um Great question. yeah Yeah. Thank you. I think it's maybe the first or maybe the second time anyone's ever asked me that. ah you know what You know, I really don't know. I don't know what when I first saw it. um I don't know. i think mate I think probably my guess is that it was on um in the mid ninety s It was probably on TV late at night.
00:04:45
Speaker
We had like satellite. We didn't have cable. We were kind of I grew up in a remote area, but we did get satellite eventually. Eventually. And being from up north, did you get a lot of Canadian content?
00:04:56
Speaker
ah We did. We did. We did. Yes. we I remember watching like Red Green Show. Yeah. and definite yeah um Because this is Canadian. that This could have come through that pipeline.
00:05:09
Speaker
That's true. I think it's more likely it was just on HBO at 4 a.m. or something at one point. ah fair and i And I remember I remember really enjoying it. And I and I so watched it again as an adult.
00:05:19
Speaker
And I was like, wait a minute. This is kind of interesting. and then i watched a couple more times over the years. And I think this is probably my fourth or fifth time watching it. I remember I watched it with Greg a couple years ago as well. I kind of made Greg watch it.
00:05:31
Speaker
So this is one of those movies that would be like you would say, you know what movies is good? Screamers. Yes. it Like that sort of situation. Yes, that's a good way to put it. ah I really, as you know, and we've talked about this, I really enjoy particularly particularly sci-fi B-movies of this era. I think the 90s sci-fi B-movies, 80s, 90s sci-fi B-movies were really um kind of in a league of their own.
00:05:57
Speaker
In terms of ambition, sure and they had a lot of ambition, not necessarily pulling it off, hardly ever, um but I admire the ambition. i think theyre they and Also, I think a lot of those people that made those movies at that time ah grew up on novels from the 50s and 60s and maybe some pulpy sci-fi stuff from their childhood. And I feel like this movie, to me, seems very pulpy in a lot of ways.
00:06:19
Speaker
Oh, for sure. The landscapes and the kind of sci-fi. It looks like sci-fi novel covers that maybe they grew up with. So, Greg, had you seen Screamers before? Yeah, as Matt said, he made me watch it a few years ago. I think it was right around the time. So first off, I got to say, ah my first introduction to Screamers was like standing in a movie theater, like waiting for somebody and like watching the previews on a TV, you know, like Screamers. And I was just like, well that looks terrifying.
00:06:47
Speaker
ah Because I was when at 95, so I was 14 when this came out. And I was just like, I want to see that. That looks terrifying. Yeah. Yeah. And I love screamers. I love screaming. so um And then I think after I watched Livewire, then I like hung out with Matt and was like, we need to like watch Livewire. And so we did. And then I think that kind of got you on a kick of this guy's movies. And we ended up watching.
00:07:14
Speaker
Also partially because I think coincidentally we had watched ah Scanners 2 and 3, which he also made. A lot of people don't know there are sequels to Scanners. And they're interesting is certainly what I would say. I believe it.
00:07:31
Speaker
oh man Oh, man. and Don't expect them to be like Scanners 1. No. no there on okay yeah No, no, no. Especially Scanners 3. Scanners 3 goes to levels I wouldn't have guessed.
00:07:43
Speaker
That was my problem with the original scanners. It didn't go far enough. It didn't have any balls. It just felt limp dick.
00:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, it could have gone. It could have broke some more boundaries. um But like as I was watching it this time, i was like, I've seen this before. And then half or three, big I don't know if I've seen this actually. and And we keep having going back and forth. And so I think it was just we talked through a lot of the politics. Yeah.
00:08:09
Speaker
And I think we stopped to watch the screamers because that's what we're here for is the screamers. I think. Yeah. I wish it was called the screamers. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah. Or planet of the screamers. Oh, that sounds great. Yeah. Like a doctor. who Yeah. That sounds rad as hell. It does. Or the killer robots of Sirius six b It's also really cool.
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But the director, this director also did, we left out The Assignment, which is another movie. Yes, which we also watched. we Yeah, I watched it. and Highly recommend it. Very similar. Okay. All this director, I feel like this director makes a lot of movies where you watch it um ah as a lark yourself.
00:08:46
Speaker
And then you're like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. someone know I need to show this to other people. And that's what happened with Live Warrior. That's what happened with with ah with this one. That's what happened with ah with the assignment. and Scanners 2 and 3 are like that too. I'd be like, well, Chris probably needs to see these.
00:09:00
Speaker
All right, I'm going to have to load these up on the Plex. The director this week, Christian DeGuey, is our first ever returning director. This is the first time that we've had a director come back. So that's very exciting. And I think a real mark...
00:09:15
Speaker
of quality and that there's, this is not somebody who you hear hear people talk about a lot, you know? No. No. And like my first entry into your podcast, ah the, that the director of, of robot jocks, I think it Baird. Stuart Gordon.
00:09:29
Speaker
Gordon. I keep thinking Baird. That's a different
Director and Production Insights
00:09:31
Speaker
director. I don't know. ah You might be thinking of Band. He worked with the Band family. Charles Band. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, like that similar similarly, that director has made multiple fantastic B-movies.
00:09:46
Speaker
i think there's a But I feel like horror fans are... are You know, honed in on Stuart Gordon because of Reanimator and because of From Beyond. think I never hear anybody talk about Christian Deguay. And it seems like he's got a deep roster that I want check out. He's got some real strong hits in his oeuvre.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, he does. And and you're right. Stuart Gordon has inroads into kind of general film people, not not people are into bad movies or B movies necessarily, because, I mean, Re-Animator, I saw it for the first time maybe last year.
00:10:21
Speaker
I was shocked. What a treat. It was just great. It just straight up great. Like, ah it was not bad it's not a bad movie at all. It's a fucking great movie. Yeah, he's a great director. uh well and enough about steward gordon uh do you guys want to talk about what i learned about uh old uh screamers did you tell us your relationship with screamers Oh, I had never seen screamers before.
00:10:46
Speaker
ah and I had only seen live wire out of Christian degrees, uh, filmography. I had never even heard of it. Uh, which is surprising because like, it might've been like a name that I've heard, but like, I never seen even the poster before, you know, the one with the guy with the three mouths.
00:11:04
Speaker
Like I'd never seen that. And I, yeah yeah, it had completely stayed off my radar. Uh, But I did do just a lot of great research, if you guys want to hear about that. Yeah. Yes. This is always when I, the first time I did your podcast, I was really impressed with the amount of, you have like a binder.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah. In front you. ah Bad news is I did not find out as much this week, but here's what I got. have bitch.
00:11:42
Speaker
I wish I had some context about the background of the film. Script director, actors on set. What was going on on screen? I want to hear some details.
00:11:54
Speaker
Gossip skin to all that shit. Can't imagine all the time.
00:12:11
Speaker
So Screamers came out on September 8th, 1995. ninety ninety five at had It had its premiere in Toronto. It wasn't released in the States until January 26th, the following year.
00:12:22
Speaker
The director was Christian Duguay. I'm sure I'm not pronouncing that right. Yeah, it's probably fine. ah This movie had two taglines. One, the silence of space is about to be shattered.
00:12:40
Speaker
no no it doesn't work for me yeah it doesn't apply first of all the movie doesn't take place in space yeah unless you consider just any being on any planet you know yeah unless we're on spaceship earth right now exactly exactly uh question uh tagline number two the last scream you hear will be your own Yes.
00:13:04
Speaker
That I love. Much better. Do they mean us as the audience? Like, because we're scared? Or do they mean, like, if we're a character in the... I mean i think and i think there there's two alternate readings.
00:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think i think you rise um go any direction you want with that, really. I guess the fact that I asked the question is what they... They got what they wanted. Yeah. As long as you buy the ticket, they don't care what your answer is.
00:13:27
Speaker
So ah Christian Deguay was ah the director of episode two's Live Wire. Check out our baby podcast, episode Live Wire. ah He was born 1957 Montreal, Quebec, and ah he has a bit of a following Quebec, as I understand it.
00:13:47
Speaker
Good for him. You know, they're sort of proud of his, the native son. And he does do a lot of his filming up in that area.
Box Office and Reception
00:13:54
Speaker
And I'm sure a lot of it is probably French language. If I looked into it, um, he began his career as a steady cam operator.
00:14:03
Speaker
in working in television. And he eventually ah worked his way up in films. He also directed, as we mentioned, Scanners 2 and 3. And also the, definitely want to revisit this, the Wesley Snipes movie, The Art of War. oh That's what that is. he me That was him.
00:14:23
Speaker
I saw that kind of recently. I saw that when it came out and I don't remember anything about it. was How was it, Matt? It wasn't very good. Okay, great.
00:14:35
Speaker
Wesley Snipes might have run over him. I understand he can take over a set. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, he's he's got a... could it is Well, yeah, and he's ah he can be a bit of a bully. He knows he's the star.
00:14:48
Speaker
Oh, yeah. ah k Christian Deguay also directed 16 episodes of a show called Crossbow about the life and times of William Tell. Wow, that's not nearly as exciting as his other projects.
00:15:01
Speaker
Well, I like that it's called Crossbow, though. I like that it's called Crossbow. cool title, but then it's just about William It doesn't make sense for William Tell because he used a bow, right? No, he used a crossbow.
00:15:12
Speaker
Did he? Well, I stand corrected. So Christian DeGray was not the original prime mover on this movie, though. The guy who got the ball rolling was Dan O'Bannon.
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah, everyone, I think i think a lot of us are familiar with O'Bannon and his Yes. yeah ah He is ah best known as the writer of Dark Star, Alien. He wrote and directed Return of the Living Dead. Wait, he directed that?
00:15:39
Speaker
Yes. Oh, I should see that. i haven't seen that in maybe ever? Yeah, I want to rewatch it. You got Life Force, and he also wrote Total Recall.
00:15:51
Speaker
and Also right Now, Total Recall was also adapted from a Philip K. Dick story, just like Screamers. He wrote the scripts for both of them in 1981.
00:16:03
Speaker
We Can Remember It For You Wholesale became Total Recall, and Second Variety became Screamers. Second Variety, much worse title. Yeah.
00:16:16
Speaker
True. little editorial there. Yeah. Yeah, does not even come close to comparing to the kill bots of Sirius 6B.
00:16:27
Speaker
Now, ah Screamers was optioned by a guy named Tom Node, who was a visual effects artist working for a company called IntroVision. They were a special effects company specialized in what was called front projection. It was the next step after rear projections.
00:16:43
Speaker
yeah that's the other That's the other way to go, right? You do rear, then you do front. Yeah, then you're like, wait a second. What if we did this from the front? and What about from the front, guys? Let's change the game.
00:16:56
Speaker
ah But in order to to do it right, you need to like perfectly align the projector with the camera and they have a so like special screen that reflects the light in ah specific angle or something. It's a very complicated process.
00:17:10
Speaker
Now... Node had produced films before, but he hadn't produced one since Safe at Home in 1962. So at that point, he was 19 years out of shape in the producing game, and he couldn't quite get it done.
00:17:24
Speaker
ah So the rights continued to get passed around until the 1990s, when Total Recall came out, and $100 million dollars at the box office. which immediately reignited interest in a script that was written by Dan O'Bannon and adapted to Philip K. Dick's story. It was like, okay.
00:17:43
Speaker
yeahgainst good enro Yeah. yeah ah So it wound up in the hands of a producer named Charles f fries or freeze. I'm not sure. I hope it's a discussion. we had this discussion yesterday over text, Greg and I, ah and I like to imagine that it's tries. I'm sure it's probably freeze.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, but until, send us a correction later if you have to, listeners, but for now, he's Charles f Fries. He made his fortune by inventing fries. Chuck Fries. Yeah.
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah. ah Now, the rights got passed around so much in this period, O'Bannon sort of lost track of it and didn't know that it had been shot until after it had been released. Which is hilarious.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah. They made it Can I see it? Oh, shit. Sure can. Cool. It'll cost you $7.50. Son of a bitch. Now, but he was largely happy with it. They just ah pretty much changed his dialogue, he said, but other than and that, the script was largely the same.
00:18:41
Speaker
the dialogue had been punched up by Miguel Tejada Flores, ah the creator of Revenge of the Nerds. Oh, wow. So you can see they both of their aesthetics in this.
00:18:53
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Shines through. The pranks. I love the pranks that the screamers pull on the humans. Yeah. but They deserve it. their're wearing It puts the humans in their place. Yeah.
00:19:08
Speaker
ah Now, ah production went smoothly. It was shot in Quebec. ah the Some interiors in Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
00:19:20
Speaker
In 2019 interview, ah star Peter Willer said that he had one of the most fantastic times he's ever had making screamers and that he was, quote, really proud of it.
00:19:32
Speaker
Okay. So he's a big fan. and Understandably. Audiences and critics did not quite agree. It only made $7 million worldwide box office on a $20 million dollars budget and only had a 29% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
00:19:55
Speaker
$20 million, others you said, was the budget? ah yeah Yeah, so it lost $13 million. it looks it doesn't It doesn't look... I was thinking, every time I watch it, I think this is... a really low budget movie. And as I'm watching it, I'm like, I don't know. It doesn't, some of it, some of the stuff really looks good a lot, you know, yeah yeah some of it looks really bad, but some fantastic. I think there's, you know, there's some good stuff in there for sure. I think maybe the 20 million, don't know, makes sense.
00:20:20
Speaker
And I feel like maybe I'm showing my age. But I sort of had a soft spot for these bad computer graphics in this. those are the yeah Those are the only ones I don't have a soft spot for. I think they look just absolutely terrible. And we all agree they look terrible.
00:20:36
Speaker
But I don't think that and don't even think they look bad in a good way. I just think they're shit. They kind of reminded me of like how... Like an old Ray Harryhausen will have its charms.
00:20:47
Speaker
Like, i kind of like that I saw the strings. And it did have a certain aesthetic to it, at least. But it was only one shot. There's only CGI in that one shot. So it was totally out of place. It didn't make sense. I mean, like, with the opening credits, the opening shot of space, that was a computer composite shot.
00:21:04
Speaker
I think it was composited, don't think it was. The screamers' faces sometimes. Like, when they morphed into the teeth. I thought that the ship, the escape pod rising was CGI. Yeah, that is definitely CGI. That's what I'm talking about. Oh, okay. what i'm talking about is I thought that was pretty charming. I was like, all right, yeah, this is fun. like I remember thinking it looked like a video game cutscene that was made at that time.
00:21:31
Speaker
and Yeah. It looked like a 1995 video game cutscene. And the rest of the effects in the rest of the movie I thought worked a lot better than that. There's a few that are pretty garbage. Yeah. but No, definitely are You're right. There are a few. that like some of the Like the oh god some of the sequences with the – there was like a robot dog kind of creature at some point. It's like it like like a half lizard kind of. Yeah, that was stop motion, I think. and then that I thought that – I really enjoyed that. It was charming. I'm not saying that wasn't charming. I think to me that's what Chris was talking about with Harryhausen where there's charm in that, and I really like that.
00:22:02
Speaker
Whereas the CGI, it had no charm. I thought it looked terrible, and I think it probably looked bad at the time too. Yeah, I'm not saying it looked good. I'm just saying there was something about it that I liked, a certain je ne sais quoi.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah, because it's very of its time, which is yeah which is charming. It was very evocative. Yeah, yeah. Well, and just so that we can put it in its place in terms of the states of the art, here are the other science fiction films of 1995.
00:22:31
Speaker
First up, you've got the classic cyberpunk trio of Johnny Mnemonic, Virtuosity, and Strange Days. I've got to see Strange Days, but that's a heck of a lineup.
00:22:43
Speaker
heck of a lineup.
Comparison to 1995 Sci-fi Films
00:22:44
Speaker
Strange Days is ah little bit longer than I'd like, but it's pretty solid. But that one's the winner of those three, right? That's Strange Days. I think as far as quality goes. Yeah, but yeah I think the other two are- Virtuosity is fun too. Don't sleep. It's really goofy. I can't read. There's a few that are in this. Like, have I seen time cop or virtuosity? I don't remember.
00:23:06
Speaker
it's a timeop why no both right I wouldn't throw a time cop in amongst these. Is virtuosity the one with a beautiful mind? Russell Crowe. Yeah. As a every serial killer programmed into an AI.
00:23:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, that one's, that's really good. fun that's That's the one I've seen. That one's really good. So I should watch Time Cop. Yeah. But that's personal. Time Cop is related. No, I know. That's like just a personal note. Just a personal note. Stop mentioning Time Cop.
00:23:34
Speaker
All right. All right. Other science fiction films of 1995. You got Tank Girl. Classic. Not as good as the comic, but still pretty fun. You know, I just saw that um like two weeks ago. i was at Alamo or Nighthawk. fun.
00:23:46
Speaker
Tank Girl. Yeah. And I had a good time, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. Lori Petty, who could complain? Yeah, she's a good type. Also not as good as the comic, you got Judge Dredd. Rob Schneider's in that one, right? and that's Best use of Rob Schneider, probably. Well, okay.
00:24:04
Speaker
I guess if that's the best use of Rob Schneider, then... Yeah. which is in I guess on Rob Schneider. That's it. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately his best was a C minus, but that's still his best. It's still his best. You're right. In context, in Rob Schneider context, it's the best we could get from him.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah. It's better than, you know, Deuce Bigelow European gigolo. or the Or it's the the one before it, which I guess is just male gigolo. Yeah. Yes. that That was when he was just male. I guess I made two of those. I forgot about that.
00:24:33
Speaker
You also got 12 Monkeys that you made. film Oh my God. Great movie. You got Waterworld. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt. I just want to chime in real quick. No, tell me your thoughts on 12 Monkeys.
00:24:45
Speaker
12 Monkeys is the movie I saw when I was, well, when it came out. And that's movie that made me realize what movies could be. and I never saw like a movie that was, I don't know, um that kind of, that left you reeling after you watched it. I'd seen, you know, I was into like John Woo movies or whatever before that.
00:25:04
Speaker
I saw that, I saw 12 Monkeys and I was just kind of in in a daze as I went home with my parents. Yeah. And i so I think that movie still really holds up. I think it's still. Oh yeah. Fantastic.
00:25:15
Speaker
Very good. How do you feel about water world? ah So as a person who, so I actually, ah when I, when I worked at the bookstore that I was able to get it half off and 4k and I have like an alternate cut of it. I still pretty good time. Like it's so dumb.
00:25:36
Speaker
It's very dumb. And it's like enjoyable. Even for me, a person who has like a fear of open water, i still actually really enjoy the movie water world. It's real stupid.
00:25:47
Speaker
No, i I'm kind of in agreement. I saw it pretty recently as well. And I had a good time through the whole
Plot and Character Analysis
00:25:53
Speaker
thing. I think I think a lot a lot of these movies, including Screamers, ah yeah what happens is they kind of let themselves down. They have like a premise that's kind of interesting and then they end up kind of falling onto tropes, you know?
00:26:06
Speaker
Yeah. like Screamers yeah is is no exception. They just kind of end up doing kind of an action bullshitty ending. and And I think Waterworld was kind of like that, too, where it's like Waterworld first half kind of sets up this whole universe.
00:26:19
Speaker
But then the story is just very by numbers, kind of just kind of unimaginative execution. Yeah. it It seems like this year is mostly categorized by like interesting near misses.
00:26:33
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, ah for instance, you've also got Congo out that year. I love Congo. So I watched Congo recently in the part that I remembered. was like, this going to be great. It's like, it takes two hours to get to the part that I remember.
00:26:47
Speaker
I really thought there was more where shooting gorillas with laser beams? Yes. Yes. Yeah. It was so much to get there. This is the most universal thing. Like, that's what everyone, including me, remembers from Congo. And i i'm like um I've made an effort to watch it multiple times.
00:27:04
Speaker
And that's still the only part I remember. It's just the end with the lasers because it's fucking awesome. They pop a diamond in their laser gun. Everything else is just very boring. It's very boring. They should have started with the laser. the do I think you guys are sleeping in a lot of the other charms in Congo. got Delroy Lindo telling Herkimer Homolker to stop eating my sesame cake.
00:27:25
Speaker
what is What is this? Herkimer Homolker? Herkimer Homolker? Yeah. Herkimer Homolker is great. beca love hackker in there you got a gorilla that has a talking glove and she likes to get in front of it so this is the thing we talk about it and we say this is amazing and then you watch it and you say they're not really doing anything they should have cut it down by oh yeah it's like amy amy right her name's amy amy funny water amy want funny water Amy went laser. Funny drink water.
00:27:58
Speaker
Bad gorilla, go away. Yeah, that's bad gorilla, go away. i remember Okay, so what let me, we were all talking at the same time. I just want to hear your Delroy thing again, that line. Stop ah eating my sesame cake.
00:28:13
Speaker
It's not a bad Delroy, I don't think. I don't know. I will say that I um really, i forgot about Delroy and I saw ah Sinners and really love him. He's like my favorite part of Sinners. Unfortunately, he was really underused in Sinners. He was in like three scenes.
00:28:28
Speaker
He's pretty old. We got to talk about Screamers at some point, right? It's true. It's true. Last two films of 1995 on an international scale. You got City of Lost Children and Ghost in the Shell.
00:28:39
Speaker
Nice. Two Stone Cold classics. Let's get to the plot of Screamers. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:02
Speaker
So we start with an opening crawl.
00:29:28
Speaker
so we start with an opening crawl On Sirius 6B, a distant mining planet, there's ah the Alliance and versus the NEB, the new economic block.
00:29:42
Speaker
There's two opposing factions, and they've been warring for about 10 years now over mining rights. And ah the idea that this mind this rare chemical that they're mining causes radiation.
00:29:55
Speaker
Berynium. It's called berynium. Yeah, this is the type of movie where they say a lot of shit like it's called Berynium. It's called Berynium. So if you like jargon in your sci-fi, this this is for you.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, you've got it. ah So we cut to a barren planet that's littered with corpses. In the bunker nearby, there are some soldiers playing the ancient game Ur, and they're playing it for cigarettes.
00:30:28
Speaker
It's like one of those old-timey board games from prehistory. Oh, I thought it was like a and ah something we invented, like a sci-fi board game. Nope, it's an old game. Okay, it's called Ur.
00:30:40
Speaker
I feel like everybody in this movie is sort of obsessed with like ancient terrestrian his or terrestrial history. it's just only Peter Webber's character. i mean it's mostly I guess it just comes up frequently. And the fact that this game is old, it's just a running theme here. It's like, remember this really old stuff? It's like, I don't even remember it, frankly. How did this guy get a coin as Caesar?
00:31:02
Speaker
like How did he physically do that? I mean, hes just it's just a collect a collectible. He just has it. he He's into it. yeah It's just this part of his character. It's a hobby. It's a hobby, yeah. It's a hobby. It's a hobby.
00:31:13
Speaker
And I think it sort of speaks to a larger theme of Screamers, which is that war never changes. That you're right. and Until they invent the screamers and then it gets much more.
00:31:26
Speaker
And yeah, the the whole theme of screamers is that war does change and it changes constantly. So I feel like you're way off on that. Well, but on ah in another way. Does it? In a bigger picture kind of way. Yeah, not really. The nature of conflict, the nature of human.
00:31:41
Speaker
Yeah, it always sucks. It always sucks, yeah. War always sucks. Of all the wars I know about, I don't think I would have enjoyed any of them. No. No. So then we see a courier on the horizon who gets torn to shreds by subterranean monsters called screamers.
00:32:01
Speaker
They actually scream, too, just to be clear. yeah. not a marketing gimmick. That's actually what happens in the movie. theyrete They scream. Yeah. am i there's a lot of the screamers up top.
00:32:12
Speaker
And i got to say that they are very unpleasant to listen to. Yeah. Yeah, they scream. yeah this But it's like a metallic scream.
00:32:22
Speaker
yeah it's definitely It's been processed, it's but you can definitely hear the scream in there. You can see why they call them screamers in-universe. Why would you program them to do that?
00:32:33
Speaker
Because it's scary. What do you mean? It scares the shit out of people. It gives away their position. the screen It gives away the position of the screamer? The idea is they're predators. so that's like the It's like when coyotes are howling, one of the things they're doing is they're communicating, the other thing they're saying is, I'm hunting you.
00:32:48
Speaker
And that's an important part of the hunt. Coyotes are mostly scavengers. Yeah, I don't know. that it wasn't maybe maybe that wasn't Maybe that's not correct. But I do know that there are animals. I feel like there are animals that do like howling and make sounds to intimidate. Yeah, they want they want to intimidate. like you And you play D&D, Chris. like You know that you make a morale check. you can you know You're forcing them to make a morale check when they hear that screaming.
00:33:10
Speaker
And maybe they panic and it can make bad choices. It's true. It's true. People make lot bad choices. There's many things the that stupid, and I feel like you're fixating on tiny details. I really didn't like the screaming. obviously yeah Obviously, they were to have to scream. The movie's called Screamers.
00:33:27
Speaker
I hate that my main complaint about Screamers is that there was too much screaming. Too much screaming. I don't like the screaming. They should have made them yellers. Or just talk. Just talk softly. Hey!
00:33:39
Speaker
Hey! Hey! hey Get off serious sickie. They should have called this movie The Friendly Guys.
00:33:51
Speaker
anyway But also The Screamers definitely reminded me of the Silver Spheres from Phantasm. Oh yeah, I could see that. I haven't seen Phantasm since you since you showed it to me. I don't think I've seen it since then.
00:34:04
Speaker
Brother, you got to watch at least the first three phantasms. Yeah, I i definitely do i hear I keep hearing about them. They're like, you're not alone in kind of loving that that franchise. Yeah. Yeah. that It's rocketed to my top favorite horror franchise, I want to say.
00:34:18
Speaker
It's a solid one. Now, anyway. Oh, and the Screamers, they move underground in like little molehills that look like Bugs Bunny trying to go to Cucamonga. I think it looks pretty good.
00:34:29
Speaker
It does. I like it. I like it. Now, the guards, they can see that this courier was carrying a tube. So Chuck, the head of the guards, he goes out to retrieve it before the screamers yank the corpse underground.
00:34:45
Speaker
ah The tube is addressed to Alliance Commander Joe Hendrickson, played by Peter Weller. They're asking for peace negotiations. Now, they're a little bit skeptical about this at first.
00:34:59
Speaker
Then they get a visit from Secretary Green via hologram. And Secretary Green says he wants Joe to negotiate peace.
00:35:09
Speaker
So Joe and Chuck, they hit the commissary and they smoke red cigarettes that prevent them from dying from radiation poisoning. I love this. Yeah. Yeah. What if a cigarette was good for you?
00:35:21
Speaker
The dream. And this, but they smoke. I love what I love is that they smoke anyway. Like they, they are normally smoking normal cigarettes constantly. Yeah. And then when the radiation warning comes up, they pull out the reds and they puff on those for a while.
00:35:33
Speaker
And they switch back to their regular cigarettes. It's just a cigarette heavy movie. Very, yeah very heavy in cigarettes. And it's great. I love smoking in a movie. know the actctorss business It makes it feel like more human. Weirdly. No.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah. um Joe talks a little about his girl back on Earth that left him, and he keeps on thinking, maybe someday I'll get off this dang rock. And then a spaceship crashes outside.
00:36:01
Speaker
ah There's a false livery on the spaceship. It says that it's part of the Sirius 6B messenger service, but there's no such thing. And there's only one survivor. His name is Ace Jefferson.
00:36:14
Speaker
And he's the best goddamn gunner in his squad. And they're going off to this other planet where they also found whatever the fucking element was. Barinium.
00:36:25
Speaker
Barinium. There's barinium there. And now nobody really gives a shit about Sirius 6B anymore. Also, the guy that he saw in the hologram is dead, right? He's been dead for two years.
00:36:38
Speaker
That part really confused me. I missed that detail. ah Well, that's because you know who sent that guy out there. Is it the Screamers? it was yeah Okay, that's what I thought. okay that's That was my thought originally and then I just kept watching the movie and lost that I had that thought.
00:36:58
Speaker
I've seen the movie, as I said, like maybe five times ah and I feel like each time I forget that basically everyone's Screamer by the end. Basically everyone's Screamer. There's a lot going on. Why would the Screamers kill the Screamer?
00:37:12
Speaker
What's that? For the cover. Perfect cover. Okay. Okay. But I keep thinking, like, it can't be that. Like, i when the movie starts, again, when the movie starts, I just am like, I feel like I really... but I mean, I really buy it. i like I really like the opening. I think the whole beginning is really good.
00:37:30
Speaker
And it feels really real. And it feels like a place that these people really live. And they're pretty miserable. Good world. do job of acting miserable. not And then as the movie goes on, it just gets dumber and dumber and dumber.
00:37:42
Speaker
And I think, like... don't know. I think that feeling of... I think they start out, I think probably the book or just the short story, right? Or is it a, I think yeah i believe it's a short story.
00:37:53
Speaker
i And I always wonder like, is that what the short story is like as well? Or is the short story believable all the way through? probably believable all the way through. And they added a lot of content to it yeah would be my guess.
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe they spiced it up with more action, you know? Yeah. yeah it It clearly becomes like an action movie as it goes on. Yeah. Which is, yeah you know, it's kind of unfortunate that it does because it... I strongly disagree.
00:38:21
Speaker
I'm kind of in Chris's camp. I like the like i feel like there's a good action-y beginning and a good action-y ending. And in the middle, it was like, this is a lot of politics about a situation I don't really understand entirely.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely don't care about it. yeah I guess I mean in terms of like... um I mean, since it's a bad movie, um you're right. Without the action, it would just be maybe a confusing movie.
00:38:50
Speaker
But at least I don i think it would be a little more interesting... If it kind of delved into the ideas that they kind of, they basically kind of, so I would, I'm the surface of the of what the ideas are, right. They barely get into the actual like kind of concept of, I'm sure know what this is, what is it is to be human. What is, what is to evolve? You know, what, what is, what it is to be alive, that kind of thing.
00:39:09
Speaker
They barely kind of touch on that, which I assume is what the thing is actually about. You know what this is? The first half of this movie is deep space nine. And the second half is Voyager. And I think, yeah,
00:39:21
Speaker
but yeah I think that's going to come down on how you feel about each half of the movie. I guess it's not a good way to put it. You'd have to know exactly what, you'd have to know both of those shows to know what it means. I also think that the stuff they're talking about would obviously be more interesting if took more time to do it because there's just more stuff there. There's a deeper well to mine.
00:39:42
Speaker
about his identity than it is shoot the machine, shoot the machine, you know. Yeah. Let me check the chip. I love that he always pulls out the chip. Every time a stranger dies, in any form, he's like, let me get that chip real quick. Let's check out. Okay, this chip is a Model 4. It's a Model 4. Wow, that's a 4. Yeah.
00:39:59
Speaker
yeah four He's going to be glad he did that because he's going to be wondering, just like the title of the Philip K. Dick story, he's going to be wondering about the Mark II the second variety.
00:40:11
Speaker
Second variety variety. He's curious about that second vari vari variety. What variety? but Well, yeah, he because he knows it. So Joe, he doesn't give a shit that Secretary Green is dead. He doesn't give a shit about this war on some other planet.
00:40:25
Speaker
Joe's going to go negotiate his own peace. So he's going to hike out the to the NEB base because he still thinks that this invitation is real. He's like, yeah. NEB means new economic block. just want to.
00:40:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I picked it up in the beginning. And I also want to add that they are wearing bracelets that like mimic their heart or they send a pulse that makes it look like their heart rate isn't happening to a screamer.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah. ah Leave them alone. It's like anti screamer bracelet. Yeah. It's kind of a walking without rhythm situation for the script. Yes. Yeah, yeah exactly. ah Now...
00:41:03
Speaker
They, um let's see. So yeah, Joe leaves the base and he's going to hike out to the NAB base and he's bringing along with him Ace Jefferson. And we get the song Hard Luck Solution by Lulu Hughes, a Canadian Shanta's that makes absolutely no sense.
00:41:22
Speaker
it's It feels completely wrong. No, it's like, perfect ending to a picture, perfect day. yeah And then just kind of really bad. And they're living in hell. It will be our closing credits. Nice.
00:41:35
Speaker
One of my contentions about this movie is that that that song, that sequence, is when the movie begins transitioning to a bad movie. That's when it really makes the turn. Yeah.
00:41:46
Speaker
To becoming an entertaining movie. Yeah.
00:41:50
Speaker
So ah they hike for a while and Joe tells some more of his backstory. He was a minor. And then obviously when things went to hell, he worked his way up through the military.
00:42:02
Speaker
ah The scanners were built by their side, the Alliance. The scanners are also known as swords or autonomous mobile swords. I'm sorry. The screamers rather. Wow.
00:42:16
Speaker
are yes The only scream you could find is just that song and then you just cut it early so it sounds like you... No, that's what the screamers sound like.
00:42:28
Speaker
feel screaming.
00:42:34
Speaker
ah But yeah, they they live underground and they have a big self-replicating like factory underground. They assume no one's ever seen it. i love that.
00:42:45
Speaker
they're fueled with the methane from the rotting corpses that they drag underground with them. And they probably use other body parts for other purposes. It's very disturbing.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, we've seen a lot of shots up to this point of them of them killing someone or something and then pulling the body down into the ground. Yeah, which is great. I love this scene. You just see like a corpse just get like kind of just just ripped into the ground. It's really interesting.
00:43:11
Speaker
Yeah. ah So then they hike through a bombed-out town where they meet David, a little boy with a teddy bear and a parka. ah He survived on his own, hiding from ah the screamers.
00:43:25
Speaker
And he has to come with ah Joe. and Joe says they'll pick him up on the way back. Can I come with you? Yeah. He very pointedly says it just like that.
00:43:38
Speaker
Can I come with you Nailed it.
00:43:43
Speaker
ah But Ace convinces Joe to change his mind and they take David along. The three of them bunk down for the night. that night, a screamer attacks, but Ace doesn't hear it screaming as it approaches because he's busy watching cyber porno.
00:43:57
Speaker
Really cool, by the way. that's yeah that's really When they showed it, they gave us a kind of a visual of what he's seeing in his headset. And it's really hot. It goes for a while, too. so it's like you can really take it in.
00:44:09
Speaker
like You can really enjoy what he's enjoying if you're into it. And it seems like he's really gooning in there. like He has like yeah five different videos going at once. like He's got a little VR goon cave that he brings with him out on patrol.
00:44:22
Speaker
And it's it's also weird to me, this may be the last time I watched it, it's weird to me to think of someone watching porn and not masturbating. Yeah, that's yeah the really weird part to me. It's like, I'm with a group of people, just put on some porno and just kind of enjoy myself.
00:44:36
Speaker
yeah And also there's an eight-year-old ten feet away. Yeah. These are different times. These are different times. That's why he's not masturbating, guys. Out on the front lines, you gotta take your comfort where you can find Exactly, yeah.
00:44:51
Speaker
Uh, But ah Joe takes care of the screamer that attacks. and when he examines the body, he seems it's a new model and it's got a chip. he's like, ooh, a chip.
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah. Puts the chip in his pocket for later. Computer chips. Very interesting. Yeah, just put that in his inventory. And now the next day they arrive at the new economic block base.
00:45:16
Speaker
And there are two squirrely guards. got Becker and you got Ross and Becker and Ross by them. Now, what do you guys think about Becker and Ross? I think the movie comes alive yeah once we throw Becker and Ross, and then they're good tests especially Becker.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah. Becker makes the movie what it is for me, because it's like without, without Becker and without Ross, but particular as you said, particularly Becker, I think the movie would end up really losing steam it would just become too heavy it was just already becoming kind of a bummer you know yeah and I think you need you need some I think ah one of the marks of a really good bad movie is a he' a a bad actor trying in their heart out yeah perform and that's what Becker is to me he just you can tell he really is giving it his best shot this kind of psychopath character
00:46:17
Speaker
I think Becker was making a lot of great choices. I thought he was really fun. and think you're being a little harsh saying that he wasn't a good actor. And, uh, he's sort of like a French Canadian version of crocodile Dundee.
00:46:32
Speaker
And he's got teardrops of all the people he's killed or whatever, doesn't he? and He's got two teardrop tattoos that are coming from the inside of his eye, which is a really funny choice. Cause it makes him look like a crying mime.
00:46:46
Speaker
ah it's I love Becker. he was fantastic. I also want to take a moment to say that Peter Weller's performance, well, don't think it is bad. i think in the very beginning is really, he's like very aloof and not giving a lot of emotion, which I think is a choice, but I think is watching it. It's just like, I wanted him to give me something.
00:47:08
Speaker
like he's like He's like, I'm going to explain a lot of the plot to you and I don't care about it. It's like, yeah, I would like it if you cared about it a little bit. But when Becker comes in, it really starts to come alive because it's like, oh, we've got ah we've got a spark now. like we've got yeah we we it We were in a powder keg, but nobody cared. And now the spark has been set.
00:47:29
Speaker
I am ah kind of disagree i on Weller's performance. I really like him. I like him through the whole movie. But I really like him in the beginning because he's so – that feels really believable to me. that The fact that – like in order to live in a place like that and to live in the the kind of environment he's been living in for a decade, you're going to become like that. You're going to become dead. You're going to – you're not going to show a emotion. you know You're going to be aloof.
00:47:54
Speaker
I think it is real. I think he does a good job with it. I just think it sometimes makes it harder for an audience to get into it if you can't make that performance like outwardly enjoyable. If you make it too realistic, yeah it's hard to get drawn into it.
00:48:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's a good point. think what's going on here is this, once again, speaks to the this way this movie is serving two masters. You know what I mean? it is. Like, obviously, Matt is going to joe enjoy Peter Weller's grounded, serious performance.
00:48:22
Speaker
And Greg and I are going to enjoy the Canadian wild man that shows up and starts licking a knife. yeah forty Five minutes into this movie. No, believe me, i I don't think we have diametrically opposed positions on this movie because I totally agree with you. I wouldn't have I wouldn't remember this movie without Becker.
00:48:39
Speaker
I wouldn't have brought him to and i wouldn't have brought this movie to you if it didn't have Becker in it. And I mean that. like he's He is the star of the middle of the movie, for sure. Now, the first thing that and and Ross is there to Ross is just sort of like a southern guy that Becker just exists for Becker to annoy. That's the entire and then eventually murder. That's the entire purpose of his character.
00:49:02
Speaker
Now, ah da tota where was I? Yes. ah The first thing that Becker and Ross do when they see Ace, Joe and David approaching the base is they shoot David right center mass.
00:49:16
Speaker
Boom. Blow him away. With like a big fucking gun. It's the kid, by the way. Let's just be clear. They immediately shoot the kid. They immediately murk an eight-year-old boy.
00:49:27
Speaker
ah But then when Joe runs over there, it turns out David was a screamer the whole time. Yeah.
00:49:39
Speaker
Can you believe it? What a twist. are you supposed to we We kind of knew that. like you guys This is the first time you saw it, Chris, right? in This movie. You knew immediately the kid was a screamer, right?
00:49:50
Speaker
Well, I had already done my research oh at that point. So I had already had that spoiled for I think it's pretty easy to figure out. I couldn't see myself not picking it up. I wouldn't be like blown away.
00:50:00
Speaker
yeah It's just really weird when they're like, how did you avoid the screamers? He's like, I hid. It's like, I don't think that works, kid. and And also like the the war, but maybe the kids, the kids family died in in an attack that happened 10 years ago whatever. Maybe it was more like four years ago. i think he said four years ago. And I was thinking of it as like a newt situation.
00:50:22
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. But it's still hard to believe that ah he's 10, so he was 6 when his family died. that he it's It's pretty hard to believe that he would have survived four years alone there.
00:50:33
Speaker
with Especially with the radiation, right? doesn't He doesn't have those reds. He's not puffing on those red cigarettes. so good But he has those fresh, young, pink lungs.
00:50:44
Speaker
That's true. yeah anyway Anyway, the debate rages on. ah Joe does grab but David's chip. And then Ace shoots him.
00:50:57
Speaker
So then we go inside and they meet Becker and Ross. And they take them further inside. ah Joe tries to call up his buddy Chuck back at the base, the head guard. But there's a bad connection.
00:51:10
Speaker
Isn't that always the way? and can you believe It's damn radiation. ah So they meet up with black marketeer Jessica, played by ah Jennifer Rubin, who listeners might know as the junkie from Nightmare on Elm Street 3.
00:51:25
Speaker
Oh.
00:51:28
Speaker
The one that says, in my dreams, I'm beautiful and bad. I've said that myself a few times, and I've never seen that movie. ah Real quick, the radio when he called home, when he called Chuck on the radio, Chuck was was ah mostly breaking up. and the parts that came through were Chuck saying, oh, we've got a visitor, but it's no big deal.
00:51:48
Speaker
And then something about, ah he kind of cut off for a bit, and then he said, um and the visitor's a bit weird, but it's probably fine. Yeah. Yeah. it's a clear Clearly this is not going end well for the home base.
00:52:01
Speaker
now i'd say Well, I guess we'll see. If you're a cynic, I think Chuck can take care of himself. But ah Jessica, this black marketeer, she runs a pretty tight ship with her black market booze and she's got some weapons.
00:52:15
Speaker
ah She asked Joe for a smoke. She hasn't had a cigarette. in a while She hasn't had an American cigarette in over a year. Yeah. Is what she says, which is a good line. Yeah. I haven't had an American cigarette in over a year. I rewound it and wrote it down because I was like, I really love this line quite a lot. That is a good one. What do you think that means? What do you mean I think she means that she can get other cigarettes or she's referring to the Reds, but she wants says she wants like a classic cigarette she knows.
00:52:41
Speaker
I think she's like the NEB gets their cigarettes from other markets and they're not as good. ah Now, ah to to to term where but but but so Jessica tells him that the Screamers destroyed the NEB forces, ah possibly also NEB high command.
Themes and Middle Act Exploration
00:53:03
Speaker
But she offers ah gear in exchange for ah letting her join up with the Alliance. That's a trade that she makes with you. Yeah, she's also pulling a can I come with you. yeah Coincidence? That's everyone is. Tough to say.
00:53:20
Speaker
Well, lot of people want to come with everybody, so everybody's just grouping together. Yeah, it'd be a weird movie if people just weren't in it. They're like, well, what's they here? Leave me alone. You go on. You go. Goodbye. Have a nice time.
00:53:33
Speaker
I'm good, and I'm not a screamer. and Now, Ace goes and digs through the gear, and he finds Chekhov's plutonium rocket. Love it so much. Yeah.
00:53:45
Speaker
Now there's a, they've got this ragtag crew, Jessica Becker and ah Ross all join up and they start working their way through the tunnels towards the NAB, NEB command center.
00:53:57
Speaker
And Becker, he keeps on busting Ross's chops all time. The tunnels eventually open up into the brutalist interior of Montreal's Olympic dome i was wondering what that was. i'm glad you I'm glad you let me know because I was like, what is his structure? think he did a pretty good job with this part of the movie, honestly. I think it looked alright.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yeah, it did. the They let the location do a lot of the work for him, which was smart. ah There's also there's blood everywhere, which is unfortunate. That's weird. yeah Yeah, how strange.
00:54:30
Speaker
Ross starts losing it kind of la bill Paxton and aliens. Uh, but it gets worse when a little tiny battle bot pops up and it's like the kind that has a little buzzsaw up front, but it has little walking legs in the back and a tail.
00:54:45
Speaker
And then it hops up onto a desk and it plugs into the mainframe and it hacks into the mainframe and it downloads the entire intranet and it's epic hacking.
00:54:58
Speaker
Couldn't it have done this any time? Why is it doing it when they're there only? this village It wasn't busy. It's just coincidence. That's just something that is happening. well Yeah, the tiny screamer was like, well, now is my time to go jack in.
00:55:11
Speaker
I had to jack into the net and download the plans. I said I was going to do that today. Yeah. guy And I rescheduled it twice already. Yeah. The screamers are really going to get the variety too. It's going to get really on my back if I don't get those plans.
00:55:28
Speaker
ah So they take out the battle bot before it can get away, but then they hear ah somewhere echoing through the halls. Can I come with you?
00:55:40
Speaker
And the power dies. ah So the party splits. Joe stays behind and uses auxiliary power to check out the chips. Gotta know. I gotta know more about these chips before I
Climactic Fight and Surprises
00:55:52
Speaker
go. I gotta know more about the chips.
00:55:54
Speaker
And there's schematics for Mark 1 and Mark 3, which makes him wonder, what's Mark 2? That's a good question. This 1 and 3 implies a 2.
00:56:06
Speaker
Right. If I do my math right, there's a missing number. ah And then he does he gets attacked by a David, who is still a little boy in a parka.
00:56:17
Speaker
But he does start screaming. And he's got ah three rows of teeth, which is very scary. Which never happens again any other screamer. For some reason, that screamer particularly... They only had the cash for one time.
00:56:30
Speaker
So, but Joe escapes and he meets up with the crew and he wants to know, what do they know about these Mark twos? And Becker says that it was a soldier that pretended to be wounded and asked for help.
00:56:45
Speaker
But nobody knows what it looks like, right? Yeah, there's no way know. Yeah, there's no, it could look like anything. Yeah. And also, you can identify a screamer because of its repetitive dialogue tree.
00:56:58
Speaker
It only knows so many phrases. Yeah, it's like it's like in an RPG. you just go If you go up to a character and talk to them, they'll just say the same thing over and over. How can I help you? yeah Come back.
00:57:08
Speaker
Have a nice day. and i help yeah See you later. Have a nice day. yeah Shepard. And Becker keeps on busting Ross's chops and Rops keeps on replying, get off my back.
00:57:20
Speaker
So when Becker calls him out on that, he's like, oh shit, I don't have anything else to say. So then Becker throws a knife into his chest, killing him. But it turns out he was just a guy.
00:57:32
Speaker
Whoops. Just a dude. And it was blood because there was like blood on there was like blood on the knife or was that later? No, there's blood on the knife. Okay, but that also happens later. That does happen later, too, yeah.
00:57:45
Speaker
ah Becker does say that he's not sorry it was a mistake, which I think... I fucked up. Look, it look I fucked up. like To me, mistakes are things you're specifically sorry about. Yeah. yeah And that's quite a worse.
00:57:59
Speaker
Why would you be sorry for something that wasn't a mistake? Yeah, I would... know the mistakes are things that I'm sorry... I'm sorry I made a mistake. yeah i wouldn't and i Yeah, if I could do that again, I wouldn't, honestly. I feel like a real bonehead.
00:58:10
Speaker
Yeah. Whoops. but So they start hacking but hiking back to the Alliance. They're still having comms issues. They still can't get in touch with old Chuck. So weird.
00:58:21
Speaker
Yeah, there's someone. There's a weird visitor here, but it's probably fine. There's blood. There's some screams here. I think they're screaming, but who knows? so
00:58:36
Speaker
ah So ah they eventually get to like outside the Alliance base and he's still like, Chuck, come in, Chuck. And Chuck's like, can't, I can't hear you. Why don't you just come on down? And he keeps on repeating the phrase, come on down.
00:58:54
Speaker
Yeah. In the same tone. Come on down. Come on down. Come on Come on down. So then ah Joe asked to speak to Don Giovanni.
00:59:06
Speaker
And then Chuck's like, okay, I'll put Don on. Hello, it's Don. Come on down. Hello, come i have that on down. yeah So that's when Joe realizes it's all a trick.
00:59:20
Speaker
It's all screamers. He and his boys take the high ground as the doors open and tons and tons of 10 year old boys come walking out only to be mowed down by men with assault rifles.
00:59:35
Speaker
It's incredible. It's so crazy. It's fantastic. Just, It goes on really long. And they're like setting them on fire. Yeah, it's wild. The flamethrowers. And there's gratuitous shots of these children being burned and blown to pieces and stuff. And I don't i don't understand what they're trying to do particularly. because i think I mean, they're trying to be like, hey, isn't it crazy that all these kids are being murdered?
01:00:00
Speaker
But it's like, well, we already know they're not kids. So why is this supposed to why are you trying to shock us? What is this exactly? What do you mean? I don't know if it's makeup or a choice or what it is, but some of the faces, if you look in the crowd, they don't they don't look good.
01:00:13
Speaker
like I think they're like not real human. or so it's just like yeah yeah It's pretty crazy. it's ah It's a heck of an image to see hundreds of children on fire. It smacks of live wire.
01:00:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Where it's just like, check this out. Can you believe it? Shit. Look at this. Can you fucking believe it? Oh my God. Can you believe it? We blew this up or we did whatever it is. Right. Like, wow. Yeah.
01:00:38
Speaker
Yeah. It's really intense. And it gets to the point where Joe says, give me the nuke and fires the plutonium rocket at them. And it blows up with not quite a nuclear explosion, yes but it does. Yeah.
01:00:53
Speaker
It does kill a whole bunch of children. Yeah. ah but Again, they're not kids, though. They're not. We know this. No, they're screamers. Wow. So ah the team, they all get knocked back on their ass by the force of the explosion.
01:01:10
Speaker
And ah Becker is screaming in pain. Wow. Yes, he is indeed, because it turns out he is the soldier crying for help. Becker is a screamer.
01:01:22
Speaker
You hate to see it. ah He grabs Ace by the belly and just crushes him between his bare hands. It's Which seems like a terrible way to go.
01:01:34
Speaker
Yeah. He kind of crushes his spine. And then he just throws him like a rag doll, like an empty tanker. Yeah. Yeah, it's you just hate to see it.
01:01:47
Speaker
ah So Joe shoots him in the face with a gun, which doesn't quite stop him. In fact, it just makes Becker respond. i am my motherfucking self alone.
01:02:00
Speaker
He says a bunch of Shakespeare quotes that all sound really bizarre. Oh, those are all Shakespeare quotes. I thought they were like, I really liked them. He said I was but i wrote one down. I came into the world with my legs forward.
01:02:11
Speaker
Yeah. And that came up a couple of times. I really liked some of that. That's is some of the stuff I felt like was just from the short story where it's like, oh, yeah, that was Shakespeare. Oh, yeah. OK, maybe both. Maybe it's from both. Yeah. like It's interesting. I feel like there's interesting bits in this movie that are not capitalized on. And those are now this is one of them.
01:02:28
Speaker
Yeah. Becker has a lot of great dialogue. Becker gets some great lines. We'll have to credit that to the creator of Revenge of the Nerds. Yeah. So ah Joe and Jessica, they kill Becker.
01:02:43
Speaker
I don't quite remember how. Do you guys yeah remember how? Anyway, he's dead. ah Joe tells her that they have a hidden escape rocket. Wait, I'm sorry. Wait, I remember. He somehow gets chopped across the torso and then his top half falls off and you see his legs walk away.
01:02:59
Speaker
A lot of these kind of gratuitous effects shots where it's like, look how fucking awesome this is. It's like, did you spend that much time and money on this? I mean, we got $20 million. dollars We're going to put it up on screen.
01:03:10
Speaker
Yeah. So Joe tells her about a hidden escape rocket. Then he reaches down to pull out Becker's chip and Jessica asked to take a look at it for some reason. And Joe's like, sure.
01:03:21
Speaker
And when he goes to hand it to her, he grabs her hand and slices it open with a knife, but her hand bleeds. So he's like, I just had to make sure. And then the two of them make out. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome.
01:03:34
Speaker
strong romance that Then this kind of romance angle starts right in that moment. yeah No, no, no, no, no. they There was like a flirtation the very beginning when she's like undressing in front of him kind of There's some flirtation going on there. The astute viewer could see this. Yeah, when she was topless, the astute viewer could tell.
01:03:55
Speaker
I think ah yeah that was a trope from my childhood. That was a trope of movies, of the of a lot of movies, where it's like, if we show the woman topless in the first half of the movie, or at least, you know, we maybe not show her fully nude, but show but she is, her character goes, yeah takes her top off. yeah You're like, okay, well, eventually...
01:04:14
Speaker
there's going to be some kind of hookup because we already, it kind of wets our appetite as 12 year olds. Yeah. It's established for as a sexual object. Exactly. Yeah. ah Now, let's see. Where was I? Yeah. After a long hike, they make it out to the escape rocket. There's a lot of this movie that's spent in hiking.
01:04:33
Speaker
lot of motion. A lot of travel. A lot of walk and talk. Before we go on to that, he does he's about to cut his own hand, right? Eventually, he was like, I'm going to cut my hand, too, just to prove to you. Because he felt so bad. I did kind of like that.
01:04:45
Speaker
I felt like that was the first moment. to kind of go with what you were saying earlier, Greg, where he doesn't show emotion and he's kind of flat and dry. i think that's when he kind of wakes up and he's like, he kind of shows emotion. He's like, he felt like, it felt like he really was genuinely sorry, but he had to do it. No, I, I would agree. Yeah.
01:05:03
Speaker
Yeah. Just 15 minutes before the movie ends is a great time to start showing. Exactly. That's right. That's one of my complaints about the movie is the, it's crazy. And the last, the last, you know, the climax is totally unlike in any, in every way, the climax is totally unlike the rest of the movie.
01:05:17
Speaker
yeah Yes. ah So they smoke their last red cigarettes and they finally get there and they start the launch sequence. But there's some technical issues with loose wire on a crane gantry.
01:05:29
Speaker
So Joe's going to go check it out. Jessica's going to go down to the launch platform. And it's this whole facility from, correct me if I'm wrong, there's this whole facility, a rocket, a launch pad, a hidden, it's like a hidden base with a rock that slides up like ah like a ah hidden doorway in a video game where it's like, oh, I know about this one hidden door in Iraq.
01:05:47
Speaker
That'll let me in the base. That's all made for the commander of this bunker. So the bunker is a piece of shit. It's shit. It's just a building. But they made this entire structure, and command like this whole like ah but rocket escape base, just for one person, for the commander.
01:06:03
Speaker
Just so the commander can get out. So that's how much they value their top brass at the Alliance, apparently. And I get the idea that this was built at the beginning of the conflict.
Ending and Thematic Exploration
01:06:12
Speaker
And since, you know, men and materials have begun to ah become hard to find, this has fallen into disrepair. You know what I mean?
01:06:22
Speaker
Like, this probably would have at one point been staffed. But now... And they did technically set it up so that he could launch it himself, but that's not ideal. You think they staffed the whole... Why would they staff... It's just a thing. It's just a base for the commander to get away. Because that's how much they value their commander. So the staff is just there duty. The staff is probably just like two guys. Two guys who are on duty in case the commander needs to escape. And they'll help pretty sweet gig if we're being honest. But they don't get to leave with it. So they're just...
01:06:53
Speaker
No, it's their own. The rest of the gig isn't great, but the rest of it. But you're right. I do i and never thought about that, but there is a mixture of technology in this movie where they'd be like, they're in some shitty factory, but then there's this one cool kind of computer console that's very futuristic, but the rest of it's shit.
01:07:08
Speaker
And then like yeah he goes to this like escape facility, and the rocket looks fucking cool and futuristic, and there's this cool elevator that looks like the future, it comes with the futuristic bits here and there, but then the rest of it's just kind of normal industrial stuff.
01:07:22
Speaker
I know that was like due to low budget, but it's kind of an interesting um kind of more explanation you gave as well, where they ran out of money, ran on materials like the war has been going on for whatever.
01:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, they they clearly are underserved out there.
01:07:38
Speaker
So let's see. Yeah. So Joe goes to the crane and there he gets attacked by none other than Chuck. Chuck the screamer.
01:07:49
Speaker
Chuck is a screamer now. And ah he also, he has Becker's voice and also Becker's tear tattoos now, yeah yeah which makes me think that the tear tattoos are how you can tell who is a Mark two screamer. That's the dead giveaway. It's a solid one.
01:08:05
Speaker
One tier per version number. Yeah. and know If it's like, if it's a half tier, then it's like, I used to be a one. Yeah. But it seems like they also have a communal memory and now he also wants to become Joe. So it seems like they also are somehow gaining the memories of the people they kill.
01:08:22
Speaker
Yeah. Good for them. Good for the screamers. It was a little more fleshed out, but it's interesting. And also they become, they become weirdly malevolent, which I think is one of the dumb things that the movie did where it's like, they become kind of mustache twirling evil.
01:08:35
Speaker
Like why machines do that? like That's just, that that's just a classic. Like what is the machine that we created going to do? It's going to kill us. yeah i'm I'm fine with it killing us. I just mean that they enjoy by the end, all the screamers enjoy killing and they like love Well, that's how you motivate your machines. You give them emotions and you make it feel good when they do what you want them to.
01:08:57
Speaker
yeah but You make it release grease so it lubricates the joints. love that. It's like they're dopamine. i love that yeah well it's like they're doing mean yeah Yeah. ah didn do that So he ends up stabbing Becker slash Chuck with his own knife and then electrocutes him with Chekhov's loose wire.
01:09:20
Speaker
And then Chekhov's gun. Yeah. And then Chuck falls into a laser beam and is instantly disintegrated. Oh, there's like a laser light field, right? where something Yeah, there's like green. there's two three lasers that if you touch them, you'll die. But if you don't touch them, you'll probably die on the concrete below.
01:09:40
Speaker
So it's lose-lose scenario. Yeah, it's a catch-22 for those who fall. Yeah. But better we're safe than sorry when you're shooting with a screamer. Ah!
01:09:53
Speaker
So he goes down and he joins Jessica, ah but they find out that the escape rocket only has one seat, which which is weird. He didn't know that he knew all everything else about this facility, but he didn't know there was room for one. it like yeah Yeah. Escape rocket. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. I got it. I got it. Yeah. Yeah. no i get it i get its game rockcke yeah yeah yeah Yeah. yeah yeah yeah ah So they flip a coin, but then he drops a glove over the results. He says, it doesn't matter.
01:10:19
Speaker
You're going, but then, a second Jessica shows up on the platform. It turns out that Mark Jessica's can bleed and both Jessica's are screamers.
01:10:34
Speaker
And she points out it like, yeah, we bleed. Cause he, you know, there was blood on the knife in that. Yeah. And that we figured out how to make blood, which makes me think, I wonder if ah Becker did make a mistake when he killed the, the other dude earlier.
01:10:49
Speaker
Well, he it couldn't have been a mistake because he was a screamer. Yeah, but like he might have you might kill another screamer in order to prove that he's not a screamer. like that's That's not meplicity he's not beyond their program. Well, then I think he also would have been like, no, he's definitely a screamer.
01:11:03
Speaker
Check some more. Screamers can actually bleed. Take a look at us. No, he wouldn't want to give away the tech business. I'm saying if he was a screamer and he killed another screamer, that was a dumb plan. This was a dumb plan for a screamer.
01:11:16
Speaker
Also, we're we're musting the we're missing the the really crazy thing, which is that they also reveal that the Screamers can fuck now. Yeah. Yeah, and the Screamers can fuck, and they like it. So there you go.
01:11:27
Speaker
Yeah. And also, supposed to really intensely care about this relationship they have, even though they just, all they've done is kiss out on the wasteland. And so I wrote them through this harrowing adventure.
01:11:40
Speaker
yeah That's true. They've been through a harrowing adventure, and but I do like, I did imagine what their breath would have been like during that makeout. And I, my, it I don't think it would have been good, frankly. When you're both smokers, it doesn't matter as much.
01:11:54
Speaker
You don't care. I wasn't even referring to the smoking. I just meant that they've been up and traveling and not. Oh, that, that, the reds are menthols. So you can barely tell.
01:12:06
Speaker
ah So the evil Jessica punches good Jessica in the heart. ah But then she's standing behind the rocket during the prelaunch sequence and she gets hit with a preburn, which basically fries off all of her clothes.
01:12:21
Speaker
So you then see her standing there nude and then it fries off all of her flesh. It's really fucking weird. It's very strange. that would That part hit me. That was like, what the fuck?
01:12:36
Speaker
Well, there's a lot of these, like I was saying earlier, there's a lot of these sequences in this movie, and I guess by this director, where it's just like, we're going to put a lot of work into this really gratuitous... It was really weird that they had her tits out, Matt. That's what I'm talking about. is it it's a it's like It's like, look, the nude robot is on fire. It's like, why do I care?
01:12:56
Speaker
I don't want to see her breasts. The 12-year-old is like, well, promised. Are you jacking off to a woman on fire? I'm not talking about jacking off as a 12-year-old. I just mean they showed her topless from behind at the beginning of the movie, and now they paid off by showing her... This is not a payoff. This is a wild thing to say. this is... it
01:13:19
Speaker
No, i'm I mean, I agree. It's really strange. The whole the whole thing is, ah again, it's not so much that they show, it's not the nudity that I find that crazy. It's that she's also on fire and screaming. Being on fire, but also the length of it. Like, they show it in, like, its entirety for, like, 15 seconds of her burning. It's not a flash in the pan. What I was saying about this director is like you see these these sequences that are really elaborate and gratuitous, but I don't know why. Like, what are you trying to say with it?
01:13:50
Speaker
I think he's just trying to say, this is awesome. Look how awesome this is. Yeah, I think that's what I can believe it. This is nuts. Like, it's just yeah connect this out. Yeah, this is this is pure art and spectacle. This is not meaning or emotion.
01:14:02
Speaker
yeah This is not meaning. This is emotion. ah So Jessica, the good Jessica, lays dying, and she explains that she wasn't programmed to catch feelings.
01:14:16
Speaker
And her last words are, I learned to. And Joe completes, love. Yeah. Which is incredible. Yeah. yeah And then he hops into the rocket, which takes off for Earth.
01:14:34
Speaker
But it turns out he's not alone in that rocket. There's a teddy bear there.
Film Rating and Listener Reviews
01:14:38
Speaker
And the teddy bear starts to move because it's a screamer. Why does he bring the teddy bear?
01:14:45
Speaker
Well, the teddy bear came from the kid. I know, but why did you bring that? He liked it. What emotional attachment does he have to killer robot's toy?
01:14:57
Speaker
He was playing with it at the campfire earlier in the movie, and he was kind of having fun with it. So I think it was just a little comfort. It's not going to be for the ride. like It's not it's like it's no different than... You have stuffed animals. It's not different than having a stuffed animal, especially you're in a wasteland. But mine don't come from killer robots?
01:15:14
Speaker
he probably didn't he didn't he probably just thought it was an instant you know you're right you're right he probably should me and teddy are gonna have hours he's he's like like oh remember remember this teddy bear i got from that killer robot that got shot in the chest uh he's not looking at it for nostalgia it's not emotional connection it's purely the fun of it's like he got a brand new stuffed animal he can play with It's like no different than taking that robot's scarf. and it's like, oh, I'm cold. I'll take the scarf because the kid had a scarf.
01:15:41
Speaker
All right, fair deal. I'll take this teddy bear because it's cute and love it. I'll take this stuffy with me. It'll be great. Yeah, but you don't see is in addition to his Roman coin collection, he also has a huge collection of stuffies.
01:15:54
Speaker
Yeah, all sorts of stuffies. guess he is collecting like old stuff. So maybe it's like all the best. He's got all the old Pikachus, the originals. He barely has room on his bed. Yeah. He's a beanie baby, man.
01:16:06
Speaker
Final thoughts. Five star ratings on Screamers on our watchability and weird scale. Fellas, where did you land? Watchability and weird scale. So is it two different five-star ratings? or one Yes, yeah two different five-star ratings.
01:16:19
Speaker
Greg, demonstrate for us. So, yeah, so watchability, I'm going to give three and a half. I think it's, ah if you like sci-fi from this period, like, I like this director. It's competently made, quote unquote.
01:16:32
Speaker
ah ah That's air quotes, not real quotes. ah It's, you know, it's entertaining enough, but it does get slow. It's a little long, I think. ah It's got some problems that are like actual problems.
01:16:45
Speaker
But like I have a feeling, too, that this is a movie that if I watch it more, will it will kind of grow on me a little bit because I'll know more of the plot and I won't be as lost in the first 45 minutes or so. As far as weirdness goes, I'm going to give it a two. I don't think it's like too crazy weird. There's some weirdness here, but it's pretty kind of standard. like It's almost like...
01:17:09
Speaker
It's like, this is kind of like alien. There were certain parts. I was like, Oh, that's kind of like this movie. So it's like, it's stuff that you've seen before, not in a bad way, but you know what I mean? It's not, to it's not, it's not that weird. Fair enough.
01:17:21
Speaker
I also gave it a three and a half in watchability. I thought it started off a little bit slow, like I said, but it does really kick into gear. And if you can enjoy that sort of ah meaty appetizer that you get with the sort of more hard social sci-fi in that front half, then you could probably enjoy it more.
01:17:39
Speaker
And also, if you aren't sitting there expecting the screamers to show up at any point and keep on being like, where are the screamers? are the screamers? Yeah. Then, you know, if you know that that's coming, then I think you'd also be able to enjoy it more.
01:17:52
Speaker
um But that said, ah yeah, I do think that front half is a little bit slow for weirdness. I gave it a four. I thought it was very ambitious. I thought it's a very jargony. It's not that weird, though.
01:18:05
Speaker
It is. it is for a lot of mainstream, you know, Hollywood filmmaking. yeah And, and that's only part of it. You know, I feel like it's very jargony, which you don't see a lot of, ah sci-fi doing at this time.
01:18:19
Speaker
I think also it ends with an army of kids in parkas getting gunned down and shot with flamethrowers and a small nuclear weapon. And I think that's, and it goes on for surprisingly long and at no point are the Davids really well established as a threat.
01:18:36
Speaker
The Davids never take out any of our guys. So yeah like we, at one point, Jessica tells us that the David's killed a bunch of NEB soldiers. We never see them do anything.
01:18:47
Speaker
So it really does look like they're just shooting a bunch of boys. He screamed at some point. He did scream with two mouths. He did scream. And at one point, like we see one of their hands open and a buzzsaw come out, but that was on a David that had already
Extended Storytelling and Comparisons
01:19:02
Speaker
been shot.
01:19:02
Speaker
Like we never see them actually injure anyone. Yeah. i mean, they were like new, right? New versions Watching a child hurt an adult would be too much.
01:19:13
Speaker
And also there is a French Canadian crocodile Dundee, and that's something I've never seen in another film. ah Finnegan, where did you land in terms of watchability and weirdness?
01:19:24
Speaker
Weirdness, i'm I'm with Greg. I think it's about a two. um Watchability, ah I'm up there around a four, maybe a little more than a four. And I think it's think it's because you guys touched on it. um I've seen it a a few times. I've seen it maybe, as I said, four, five, six times.
01:19:42
Speaker
I think I had a similar reaction the first time I watched it. where I was like, huh, but kind of stuck with me. And then I saw it again many years later. I was like, huh, okay. And then i kind of loosened my grip on what I was expecting, you know, and I kind of forgot about that. And I just kind of learned to watch it for what it is and not worry about it details ah or worry about, again, i forgot who all, every time I watch it, I forget who's a screamer.
01:20:09
Speaker
I guess they're all screamers. I don't know. Like, I don't mean, I don't think of a deal. I don't really care who's a screamer and who's not and stuff like that. And so yeah once I let all that stuff go, but let expectation go, I really enjoy it now and I find it really, really watchable. ah And I really like, and every time I feel like it's getting slow or I'm starting to feel a little bogged down, um something insane happens.
01:20:31
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm back in it. I'm loving it. yeah like And I think that's, that it works really well. And i I do feel like it is, even now I do agree that it's, it does feel long, especially at the very end, the climax. um I'm kind of waiting, like, can we move, can we get on with it? Like,
01:20:44
Speaker
Um, but even in that, even, even within that, there are still insane, stupid things that happen that kind of keep me, keep me my head above water. Yeah. Well, with that, let's get on to act three of the show. It's time for the segment.
01:21:01
Speaker
And this week's segment is the review review. Oh, time for the segment.
01:21:17
Speaker
You wrote a review of the film, now we're going to review you.
01:21:51
Speaker
So I got three reviews here, all pulled from IMDb. First one, ah we got a 10 out of 10. Then we got a one out of 10. And then we got a nine out of 10. So we got a little compliment sandwich going on. Nice.
01:22:05
Speaker
All three are mine. Well, only if you're user carry 85 and you wrote this on December 6th, 2009, 10 out of all the most underrated sci-fi movies of all time Movie plural?
01:22:23
Speaker
Yes. This is one of the most underrated sci-fi movies of all time. I guess I'm a psycher for cyberpunk movies. And this one ranks in the top five. I wouldn't really call this cyberpunk. not a cyberpunk.
01:22:37
Speaker
No, not really. There are computers in it. Sure. I mean, and there's like a VR porn headset, but that's about it. I think it's better than road warrior and blade runner road warrior. Definitely not blade runner. Wow.
01:22:49
Speaker
What, what, What? It's better than both of those? Are you agreeing that it's better than Blade Runner? that's I'm not. I'm just saying I agree with that. It's cyberpunk.
01:23:00
Speaker
Oh, okay. I thought you were saying... Yeah, okay. Go ahead. It's not a masterpiece like Alien, but close. it It has a few plot holes like any science fiction movie, and with the budget they had, it looks great on the visual department.
01:23:19
Speaker
Great seems putting a fine point on it, but sure. Some of it looks really good. The locations look good. Yeah. ah The acting is above average. Peter Weller is more or less carrying the whole movie from start to finish.
01:23:32
Speaker
No fan of RoboCop, but they guy is a legend in my mind. No fan of RoboCop? This person's like interesting. i'm just Yeah, there's so many. ah just ah I'm sorry. There's just so many things being said. It's really difficult for me to think that this movie is better than The Road Warrior as well. Really, really difficult.
01:23:51
Speaker
and Well, take it up with Carrie. It's close to Alien. my God. Yeah. oh my god yeah And I agree that Peter Whaley does care at the movie. I do agree with that. I think he does.
01:24:02
Speaker
Yeah. I wish they would make a prequel to this movie that explained more about the situation leading up to the screamers. I'd be into that, actually. ah Yeah, they did make a sequel to this. There was a sequel, I think, in 2006. No, I'll watch the sequel, but I'd love to see a prequel is what I yeah i saw. No, but i I didn't know about this until I read the wiki about it, and I'm glad we finally brought it up. But like, there is a fucking sequel to two Screamers that I need to watch.
01:24:29
Speaker
new Yeah. Yeah. Straight to video, which is even more
Humor in Media Naming and Storytelling Trends
01:24:32
Speaker
exciting. Perfect. Yeah. yeah If you like science fiction, this is a must-see. And if you like cyberpunk movies, you are an idiot if you haven't seen it.
01:24:42
Speaker
It's not a cyberpunk It's not even close cyberpunk movie. It's adjacent to it, I think. oh How? How is it adjacent? It's as though... So it's like corporations fighting each other over mining rights.
01:24:54
Speaker
yeah ah Yeah, the corporate dystopia is very cyberpunk. It's not so much the technology part of cyberpunk. It's like if if if you had a cyberpunk world and then you set your story on a planet within the cyberpunk universe that was kind of backwater.
01:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, but say but that argument, couldn't you argue Alien is a cyberpunk movie? Because that's about corporations running the... Indeed, Carrie85 does make that argument. So... I don't know how they do it with Road Warrior, but I guess so.
01:25:27
Speaker
On to the next review. Yes. This one is from Dry Sticks, August 8th, 2010. One out of ten. And if that last one's inaccuracy drove you up a wall...
01:25:40
Speaker
ah The usual 70s garbage cliches. I'm sorry. 70s. The seventy s were undeniably the worst decade for films.
01:25:55
Speaker
Wow. Wow. Oh my God. Mostly because filmmakers refused to take chances, but merely made the same cliches over and over.
01:26:06
Speaker
Fuck are you talking about? I mean, there's layers of controversy here. but first of which is that this movie wasn't made in the seventies. No. this film is a sci-fi action flick that is supposed to involve mystery, but there is no mystery except who can act like the most cliched tough guy. Nope.
01:26:30
Speaker
No one acts like a cliche. In fact, that's one of the things I like about weather in this movie is he's very Harrison Ford, like where he's just kind of doing what he has to do. He's not like a fucking bad-ass. He's just trying yeah nobody is. And the ones that kind of are just crazy.
01:26:44
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:46
Speaker
The depressing monotone nature, the one dimensional characters that only someone who lives in a bubble could find credible, the same Republican self-justification for vicious behavior, the same neo-Nazi rule of killing as many brunette women as you can, this was just complete 70s garbage.
01:27:07
Speaker
This has to be... They must be talking about the wrong movie, right? Yeah, that because what and what what other... I don't... I don't understand. Last review.
01:27:18
Speaker
this things Yeah, these things don't apply to this movie. I think, no, I think, honestly, I think it's a review. Last review. All right, all right. All right, all right, all right. Last review.
01:27:29
Speaker
Nine out of ten stars. True sci-fi. This is an excellent sci-fi. The genre is usually dominated by touchy-feely stories, which have men exposing their soft, gooey center, or horror stories, which have men exposing their soft, gooey center.
01:27:51
Speaker
In either case, man is shredded into little pieces for the audience's pleasure. I find both of these types to not be sci-fi. I think of them as fantasy, with the watchable part being sci-fi.
01:28:06
Speaker
This movie avoids the pitfalls of feminization and horrorization. Is that redundant, smiley emoticon? No. And instead remains true to the original intent of the genre.
01:28:21
Speaker
A true sci-fi. Nine out of ten. I found the ending annoying, which if cut would push this movie up to 9.5 out of 10. But a half a point does not ruin this movie at all.
01:28:33
Speaker
If you like real sci-fis, this one, then also see the movie version of Lost in Space. What? What?
01:28:44
Speaker
You have found some of the most ridiculous reviews of Screamers ah I've ever heard in my life. These are amazing reviews, especially the one that's not about Screamers, clearly. that's the best okay P.S. Kudos to the special effects. They're absolutely brilliant.
01:29:01
Speaker
From equipment to backdrops and the robotics. I love the robotics. That was by a Living Dog. it was written September 2003. Okay, I was going to ask when it was written, and I'm surprised it was written that long ago. I thought it was going to be something more... Because I think a lot of people complain about you know movies now that are about emotion and not about plot.
01:29:23
Speaker
And so i think that's I thought that's what they were kind of going for by saying the feminization... No, no. na People were talking like that 22 years ago. yeah yeah ah I think i actually one of the things I do like about the movie is that it's not there's there are a few motions in it. Not that many. It's generally plotty. And I think you can have both. You can have both emotion and plot and be fine.
01:29:45
Speaker
But I think a lot of bad modern writing is is they think as long as we throw emotion at you, you're going to be into it. And that's one of the things that drives me nuts about kind of modern stories, especially like modern TV, where just about people crying into the camera and it's like, well, i don't really care about you. I don't, this is kind of pointless.
01:30:03
Speaker
And I kind of miss the plot. Yeah, it doesn't feel earned. And I do kind of miss the plotty stuff of olden day cinema. It's game time.
01:30:22
Speaker
Let me tell you about this brand new game, where you guess the movie's name. You just tell me what the title is, prove you know about showbiz.
01:30:37
Speaker
Guess the title. Whipper, whipper, whipper, whipper. Guess the title. Gooby, gooby, gooby, gooby. Guess the title. Come on, honey.
01:30:51
Speaker
Yeah,
01:30:55
Speaker
yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. It's a Guess the Title, and this time we're doing it with the TV movies that were executive produced by Charles Fries.
01:31:07
Speaker
Yes. Chuck Fry's. Charles Fry's. He did produce screamers and screamers. The hunting also troop Beverly Hills and flowers in the attic.
01:31:18
Speaker
But he also did a lot of TV movies. but So what don't we do is I'm going to is I'm going to read you a plot description of a movie, and then I will give you three titles.
01:31:29
Speaker
I want you to guess which one is the real title. And ah this is a buzz in game. You'll buzz in by saying your own name. If you get it wrong, your opponent will have chance to steal. Matt! Like that, right?
01:31:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, but deal a little bit. Wait till I finish the question. Matt! See? Sorry, go ahead. Question number one, a young woman and an older man are stranded in the Yukon wilderness for 49 days and survive by eating melted snow.
01:32:00
Speaker
Is this the ice house frozen dreams or Hey, I'm alive. oh Greg, Greg. Hey, I'm alive.
01:32:15
Speaker
That's correct. That was too crazy to not be it. Wait, this isn't you guys aren't this isn't like a joke ah mut joke that you guys are in on. It actually is called that? Yeah. It is actually called, Hey, I'm Alive.
01:32:29
Speaker
Okay. Question number two. It's changing everything for me Yeah, don't you worry. There's lots of games left to play. You'll catch up. No, i just I just mean, I don't know what to expect now because I thought, of course, it's not the third one. I like to mix up the orders quite a bit.
01:32:45
Speaker
Question number two. A musician with a predilection for peeping on residents of the neighboring apartment complex is accused of being a serial killer. Is this razzle dazzle through naked eyes or high note?
01:33:02
Speaker
Matt. Matt? um I'm going to go through naked eyes. You're correct. so You guys are crushing it. That's a great title.
01:33:12
Speaker
It's really good title, Yeah. I'm just going to go with the titles that I like the best, and it's not... That's typically what I do. It doesn't usually work for me, but you can give it a run.
01:33:23
Speaker
Question number three. Robin Hood and his merry men must attempt to gather together the necessary ransom money to free King Richard from a nasty Duke in this made-for-TV spoof.
01:33:37
Speaker
Is this Sherwood... The Merry Men or The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood? Greg. Greg?
01:33:48
Speaker
The Merry Men.
01:33:52
Speaker
Matt. Matt? The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood. You're correct. I really thought that one was too crazy. i was like, no, no, that was too crazy at this time to be the real one.
01:34:04
Speaker
I believe George Seagal played Robin Hood. Oh. Nice. Question number four. An angel played by Billy Crystal is sent to Earth to find six virtuous people living in Las Vegas, or else God will destroy it.
01:34:20
Speaker
Good luck. Is that human feelings?
Batty Awards and Conclusion
01:34:25
Speaker
Roll the dice? Or Sin City? Matt.
01:34:31
Speaker
Matt? Sin City. Fuck. What was the first one? Human Feelings. Human Feelings. You're correct.
01:34:44
Speaker
God, if each one is the most absurd title, that's the theme. They're all going to be the most absurd ones. I would never have the balls to call that movie Human Feelings. Are you kidding me? Question number five.
01:34:55
Speaker
A young boy who had been abandoned as a child and raised by wild dogs is taken to a university where a team attempts to teach him civilized behavior. Is this Stalk the Wild Child, Jep the Wolf Boy, or Howling at the Moon?
01:35:17
Speaker
Wow. ah Greg? yeah I think I heard Matt first. ah The first one. Stalk the Wild Child? child yeah You're correct.
01:35:30
Speaker
but like We got a real barn burner, folks. What was Greg going to do? I was going to do that one. Yeah, yeah,
01:35:37
Speaker
All right. Question number six. A real estate salesman with a career and marriage problems gets hooked on cocaine only to find out that it's making his problems much worse.
01:35:52
Speaker
you believe Is that between the lines all night, all day, Or cocaine, one man's seduction?
01:36:06
Speaker
ah Greg. you afraid yeah I'm too afraid. Greg? Cocaine, one man's seduction. You're correct.
01:36:15
Speaker
I really thought it was each one you said. it like, that's it, obviously. Those are all really good, by the way. Yeah, well done on that one. Thank you. ah Question number seven.
01:36:28
Speaker
A history professor becomes involved with two time travelers from the year 2586 after making ah discovery in a photograph from 1886. Matt, just do one now just to guess one?
01:36:41
Speaker
Histrionics.
01:36:46
Speaker
All right, Greg, y'all got to hear all the possible answers. Was it the fastest laser in the West? Time stalkers? Or see you tomorrow.
01:36:58
Speaker
Fastest laser in the West.
01:37:02
Speaker
time i got I'm sorry. That one was time stalkers. Yeah, I thought it. and i should have I should have been able to go again, though, I feel like. Well, it'd be nice if things played that way. Yeah, I'm just saying in an ideal world.
01:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, in an ideal world. We could all just be able to guess and guess. Question number eight. A successful female executive makes the transition from business tycoon to housewife and mother.
01:37:28
Speaker
ah Is that dropout mom, she-e-o, or Mr. Mom 2, Mrs. Dad?
01:37:39
Speaker
Ah, Greg. Greg? Mr. Mom 2, Mrs. Dad. No, I'm ah can you Can you give me the first two again?
01:37:50
Speaker
Dropout mom or she... I forgot about she-e-o. Is it dropout mom, she-e-o, or Mr. Mom 2, Mrs. Dad?
01:38:03
Speaker
It's she-e-o, obviously. damn it. Sorry, that one was dropout mom. That point goes to you then, Chris, I feel like. It's like the blackjack. Yeah. Question number nine.
01:38:14
Speaker
you know the house winds yeah question number nine a policeman and a female scientist team up to recover her latest creation, a cybernetic crime-fighting dog.
01:38:26
Speaker
Is this Robo Hound, Cyber Mutt, or K9000? Matt. Matt. matt matt kine houseen You're correct. Yeah.
01:38:40
Speaker
So good. And with that, Matt, you are our big wiener. Congratulations. Yes. Thank you. job. Uh-oh, it's time for the Batty Awards.
01:38:58
Speaker
Now you're messing with us. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:39:09
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:39:15
Speaker
Congratulations to all the nominees.
01:39:24
Speaker
That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees. Congratulations to you, listeners. You've made it to the Batty Awards. Greg, hit us up with your Batty So my Batty Award is for possibly the subtlest stupid exposition I've ever seen in my life.
01:39:39
Speaker
It's when the iguana saw screamer jumps on the table and like plugs into the network. And you're like, what's it doing? And you know what it's doing because for some reason it has a tiny monitor on its side that it will expose so that we, the audience, can watch what it's downloading for some reason. And I'm glad that it let us know.
01:40:01
Speaker
but as I watched it, I was like, Why did the screamers build this into the screamer? Who is it? Do the other screamers need to know? Like, what are you doing over there, Tony? Oh, you're downloading the plans. Okay, great. Thank you. Like, what's the purpose of the monitor?
01:40:14
Speaker
It's to show us what's happening. Yeah, and it was great. I loved it. I loved every minute of that tiny monitor and that tiny Iguana Buzzsaw screamer. I'm going to give my baddie word to my favorite little character moment, which is Ross chewing on either a drawstring from his jacket or a string that was tied up to the zipper of his jacket.
01:40:35
Speaker
But he always had a dangling in his mouth as a nervous habit. Something I always remember my brother doing. It just seemed like such a naturalistic, anxious habit to be doing. And I've never seen an actor do that before in a movie. And I thought it was just a nice little touch.
01:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, i would I think I used to do that as a kid. I would chew on a... I knew people who did it, so it's cool to yeah see it. You're like, oh, that's very real, actually. i forgot people do that. Yeah, it makes you wonder, did the actor do that, or was that part of the old script? But it took Ross, who could be a very forgettable character, and it did make him a little bit more unique in at least one way.
01:41:14
Speaker
yeah Finnegan, do you have a Batty at work? I think my Vady Award would be ah the best child nuke I've ever seen. oh Oh, yeah, it's a good one. They nuked the shit out of bunch of kids.
01:41:28
Speaker
and And the nuke also, so i what I liked about the nuke was that it wasn't really necessary. It was, no you know... No! They were doing fine! Conventional weapons would have been fine, yeah but they had nuked it.
01:41:39
Speaker
and the new And all they had to do was just um fall down a hill to avoid the nuclear blast. and Yeah. yeah after but a big deal It was a very small nuke. Yeah, it was a tiny, tiny... And I...
01:41:51
Speaker
ah yeah and I remember even thinking about this during the movie. I was like, that's it's really idiotic that that's a nuke. It's such a small explosion. Like, why not just use a normal weapon? Well, they didn't have one, first of all. And and also, i secondly, I could believe, you know, in this like sci-fi universe that they could have tiny, tiny fractional nukes, right? Where there's like a few particles of plutonium or whatever in there. Just to like give us a little kick. yeah Yeah, just a localized nuclear explosion. Yeah.
01:42:21
Speaker
Well, Finnegan, thank you so much for coming this week. Thank you for choosing such a fun movie. We all had a blast. yeah Are you working on anything now? Do you have anything that you're plugging?
01:42:33
Speaker
um I don't think so. um But i I've got some things in the oven and I'll let you know. All right. I will keep my fingers crossed and we'll see something on the horizon.
01:42:46
Speaker
If you want to catch Finnegan, sometimes you can find him at our ah screenings in our Discord. Listeners, we're now doing two screenings a month. One on a Thursday night, one on a Saturday at noon my time.
01:43:02
Speaker
So there's something going on. That's nice. I missed my last minute, which was popcorn. I missed that. How was that? good It was very fun. And you should definitely come to next month's screening, which will have already happened by the time this episode has come out.
01:43:16
Speaker
quickg But you should definitely come and watch Quigley. Quigley. See Quigley with us. quiggg these i be down on under oh This is Quigley Under. You'd be amazed how often that comes up. Yeah, Quigley is quigley was one of those movies where like, the next day I would watch it again.
01:43:30
Speaker
Oh, so I need to see this. So it's not a sequel to Quigley Down Under is not a sequel to this, right? now No. not know right wow be fun It'd be fun to see him go to Australia and see how he does.
01:43:43
Speaker
Oh, for sure. i would love that.
01:43:47
Speaker
Well, if you listened to last week's episode, you can hear all about the actual proposed sequel to Quigley that is currently in the works. A Quigley Christmas. Oh, God.
01:43:59
Speaker
Finnegan, are you going to listen to this episode when it comes out? um Sure. Why not? When you do, give us five stars. Oh, I always give you five stars. Don't worry about that. Yes.
01:44:10
Speaker
Keep on coming. Listeners, you hear how easy it is to give us five stars? Oh, man. You too. Get on the five-star train. Woo. Woo. Pulling into five-star station. Five-star minimum. Yeah, absolutely.
01:44:26
Speaker
And you can find us on social media. You can find us on ah blue sky. You can find us on Instagram. You can ah find us on YouTube. or We've got trailers. You can come join the discord. We're watching movies. We've got tons of stuff and you can come back next week when we will be talking about gamer with max grapes.
01:44:46
Speaker
And until next time, be good and goodbye. Goodbye. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for having me.
01:45:16
Speaker
and then cause everything's okay Why should I hurry