111. F is for Friendship

Transcript

Speaker: you This episode, we review director Andrew DeYoung's Shakespearean tragedy film, Friendship, starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. We analyze the potential behind an Alex Garland-directed Elden Ring film adaptation. And we examine the Memorial Day box office for Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning, and Lilo & Stitch, while questioning the reasoning behind pushing the upcoming Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars release dates. My name is Simon Eadie. And I'm Adrian Pinter. Welcome to Split Focus, a film and TV podcast, episode 111.

Speaker: no la la la la la la la la la

Speaker: to be Simon, do you believe in bad luck? ah I don't know what that means, I suppose. What do you mean? It's like you're destined for – it's like you're fated to have bad things happen to you. Is that what you mean by believing in bad luck? I mean I believe in bad luck because bad things happened to people at the time. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, there's just a period of time where you are just unlucky. Where just a bunch of bad shit happened to you. ah Yeah, i I guess so. But again, it's not a faith thing. It's just like, yes, that happens to people all the time.

Speaker: I feel like it's happened to me. and I'm assuming it's happened to you. and that's why you're asking me that question. Oh, my God, dude. don't want to begin. so I'm not going to. Let's let's carry on. I'm just kidding. It's story time for you, my good chap. I'm going to tell you a tale. Oh, exciting. So, yeah. So I went on like to a work trip. I think I mentioned it briefly um last time we spoke.

Speaker: Yes. Flew out to to Palm Springs, Simon. Yeah. And I flew American Airlines. Okay. This is important to the story because fuck American Airlines. Oh, okay. And the reason for fucking American Airlines in a negative way oh is because oh i was – So i had a flight.

Speaker: It was supposed to go into Dallas. Yeah. And then from Dallas into Palm Springs. A connecting flight? Oh, no, no. A connecting flight. because there's no direct flights. There ain't no direct flights, Simon.

Speaker: from Yeah, but you can land in California. And then Uber. this This was the most convenient flight path. Okay, Simon? Oh, yeah, go on. You're ruining my story. You're ruining my story. Continue, continue. Yeah.

Speaker: You shut your mouth when I'm speaking to you. Well, I went to Palm Beach, right? And there wasn't any direct flights for us. And so we landed in a city that was further from Palm Beach. And then we just took an Uber. Anyway, continue.

Speaker: You didn't do that. You went to – you took – The only option that you had for flights to get, so you took took a flight to Dallas and then you connected to Palm Springs. Continue. Yeah. apologize. I was very rude. Continue. Yeah, you were. Thank you for acknowledging it.

Speaker: that That's at least what was supposed to happen, Simon. So when I booked this flight, it was a 40-minute connection. 40 minutes. I'm like, oh, that's not a long time. No, that's not a long time. But, it you know, when we're booking this flight, it's like, oh, it's the same airline.

Speaker: they They'll know they'll wait for you. Sure. Like, I don't know about that. I hate traveling. I don't think that's the case. But OK. So flying to Dallas. Right.

Speaker: Yeah. Mind you, my flight leaving is delayed. By like 40 minutes. But as we're in the air, they like they're on the intercom. They're like, we're actually going to make it there on the scheduled time. I'm like, okay, fantastic.

Speaker: And they also said, like people with connecting flights can leave early. like As soon as we land. Anyway, so we we fly down. And and we land in Dallas. Jesus Christ.

Speaker: So you're landing in New York? Yeah, dude. Jesus. Whoa. What's with the... Jesus. Okay, continue. You landed. So I land in Dallas, right? 40-minute connection.

Speaker: And oh I would hope that they're they're people of their word, that I can leave as soon as we land. But no, guess what happens? Every fucking person on the plane stands up and goes into the middle aisle blocking everyone behind you. course they do.

Speaker: Of course Because they're losers and they're idiots, and I hate them. Selfish is really the word. Yeah. So it takes me like 25 minutes to get off this flight. Mind you, I got 15 minutes before that. My other flight leaves.

Speaker: Have you ever been to the Dallas airport, Simon? No. It's fucking huge, dude. It's fucking huge. It's ginormous. You got to take a tram system to get to different gates.

Speaker: Okay? That's fine. And of course, I run off my flight and I'm like about to run to where my ticket says the gate is. and I'm like, something, there's an itch in my brain. I'm like, what if they change the gate?

Speaker: So I run to the nearest person. I'm like, did my gate change? And they're like, yeah, your gate changed. It's on this gate. Guess where it changed, Simon? Do literally... Yes. Yes. So I go on this. earth Is this like the Fort Worth?

Speaker: Yeah. It's a huge fucking airport, dude. Yeah. So I take this tram system and I get there. I got like, I don't know, five minutes until my flight's apparently supposed to take off. And I run to the gate and they're like, and there's just this lady standing there.

Speaker: Total bitch. Mind you, I'm going to say it. Fuck her. I hate her. And she's standing there and she's like, gate's closed. I'm like, what do you mean the gate's closed? like ah This is a connecting flight. This is American Airlines. It's the same goddamn airline.

Speaker: Yeah. What do you mean the gate's closed? Like, it's closed. Nothing we can do. I'm like, what? I mean, you got to help me out here. Like, when's the next flight? He's like, oh, there's a flight tomorrow. Let me check.

Speaker: Oh, it's sold out. I'm like, this is absurd. And I like look on my phone and I'm like, okay, so there's a flight tomorrow. There's no other direct flight from Dallas to Palm Springs.

Speaker: So i' like, okay, I guess I'm flying back home to Toronto and I'm not going on my work trip. And she's like, yeah, you can talk to customer service over there. I'm like, why did it take you five minutes to tell me to talk to customer service? Just tell me to freaking go over there. Okay.

Speaker: So I line up, I go to customer service. There's multiple people that go to that gate, mind you, that missed their flight for the same reason as I, because American Airlines lets you book a 40 minute connecting flight and they don't wait for you.

Speaker: And I go through ah customer service and I walk up to the lady. I'm like, hey, i you know, like I miss my connecting flight. I just want my ticket changed. There's a ticket flying back to Toronto tomorrow morning.

Speaker: I want you to find me a hotel to sleep in tonight so I can just go home. In the morning. and then she's like, okay, i got to look into this. 15 minutes later, she's like, I can't do that. um You know, like we have to fly you to Palm Springs. And I'm like, the lady over there told me the flight sold out.

Speaker: What do you mean fly you to Palm Springs? And she's like, oh, you have a flight in 20 minutes going into Phoenix. Phoenix. The gate's right over there. And then from Phoenix, you'll go into Palm Springs.

Speaker: like, okay, why hasn't anyone told me? This plane leaves in 20 minutes. Am I going to miss this flight? She's like, no, no, no. You should have gotten an email. was like, I didn't get an email, lady. I didn't.

Speaker: Like, what is this? So how did it know? How did they know you already missed the other flight? To send you the email to, they just automatically, it was an automated system? I don't know, Simon, because I never got the freaking email, man.

Speaker: But was it automated? Like, did it automatically do it once you missed that flight? It realized you didn't scan the ticket and then it sent you to Phoenix? I have no idea, dude. I have no idea. She was just telling me this at the, at the game. She's like, okay, yeah.

Speaker: So yeah, your, your gates, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I don't have an email. I don't have a boarding pass. Are you going to help me out here or what? She's like, oh, yeah, I can print one off for you. I'm like, okay. So when's the flight from Phoenix going into Palm Springs? She's oh, it's at like 5 a.m. m So I'm like flying into Phoenix. I get there at like 11 in the morning or 11 p.m.

Speaker: And then i got to wait six hours for the flight. I'm like, are you guys helping me out here? Am I sleeping in the airport? What is happening? and she's like, oh, no, no. Like you'll get a like a voucher for a hotel and and like a voucher for a meal and like an Uber.

Speaker: I'm like, why do I have to ask you all of these questions? Why can't you just literally communicate this with me? This was my tone. And that was my verbiage, like almost verbatim.

Speaker: I said this to the woman and and she's like, oh yeah, sorry. I'm like, don't be sorry. Give me my information. Where is this? Why don't you have this for me?

Speaker: And then she was like, okay, yeah, I'll print this out. And she's just so like, Yeah. yeah And I was losing it. I was, I was, feel that might be just like, she's in the job too long. And she just assumes that because she knows the information that everyone must or something like that. Like, why wouldn't she just communicate that you would get an Uber?

Speaker: Who would know? Who would know that would happen? I wouldn't know that. I don't know that. Get a hotel. That's weird. And yeah she's like, you should have gotten an email. I didn't get it. She kept on saying, I should have gotten an email. I got no emails, dude.

Speaker: No emails given to, to moi. It was long story short, I would go to Phoenix and I land there. I'm just exhausted. I'm a tired little school girl, you know, and I walked to the customer service there and I talked to the the customer service there. And I think the guy knew I looked defeated.

Speaker: I think he knew I was saddened. And the guy there, I'll give him props. Very nice person. He was very understanding. he He like got me out all all my information. He said, listen, I'll email everything to you right now while you're here.

Speaker: Because the lady didn't email me anything when I was still in Dallas. Oh, geez, Louise. Anyways, I got to Palm Springs, but I was very exhausted. And that's my tale for you. But on top of that, Simon, a myriad of other negative things happened to me. My computer that I typically record our podcast on, them dead, not turning on.

Speaker: And that was, it happened literally minutes before we were supposed to do our last of us, like ah spoiler for the last episode. Yeah, yeah. I just died. Yeah. I was, i i i sent you a video.

Speaker: Yeah. And it was not fun, dude. It was not fun. So now my computer's broken. Other negative things happened. I can't think of them. I feel like I blocked them out at this point. Okay. These are spared from remembering them.

Speaker: Yeah. Reliving the trauma. i'm sure it'll I'm sure it'll pop up in my brain. But anyways, that is my tale to you, my friend. I've wanted to talk to you about this. And one thing I do want to say, Simon. Yeah.

Speaker: What's up? That actually made my week. I'm going on another business trip tomorrow. but my So hopefully I don't miss my flight. You don't have a connecting flight, do you? No, no. It's straight to Victoria. Straight to yeah. You know, I don't know the connecting flights are are not unwise, I feel like. You know, we had the choice. We had the choice. we you know what?

Speaker: It doesn't matter if it's 20 minutes, 40 minutes, three hours. i don't think it's worth it. It's just too much. And it's also just a lot of traveling. It just adds extra time. If if you have enough time between the flights, it's almost a problem. like you want to find a sweet spot. And I think...

Speaker: This is too much time. I'd just rather on this flight. Two hours a sweet spot. It's kind like, you know when we're sitting in a movie theater and people are filtering out and everyone's just waiting there, standing line at the entrance when it's a packed theater?

Speaker: it' like I'm like, no, I'm just going to wait through the credits because it's just it's it's it's just better. why would i Why would I stand up and wait in line when it's going to be the same wait If I you know sit here and then wait for the line to dissipate, that that is really the thing.

Speaker: So I just, and say same thing with driving, you know your Apple maps, Google maps tells you to make 55 turns because it's going to save you two minutes. No, I just will take 10 turns, 10 turns, 10 left and right turns.

Speaker: It's better. And that that's the thing about Google google and Apple Maps. They don't give you that option. There's no least number of turns option. There's no toll root routes and there's various other options there, but there's no least amount of turns.

Speaker: Yeah. Apple Maps, unless you turn on avoid highways, is obsessed with putting you on a highway. They're like, oh, you want to go on this highway for a minute? Fastest route.

Speaker: Fastest route. And it's like, no what no, Apple, I don't. Yeah, I only go on the highway and then they'll get you to get off like in one kilometer. Yeah, it's still faster. It's all about the speed. That's why I think like you should almost have like a how much time do you want that you care about saving here versus do you just care about the distance to like sometimes the highways are the further distance, but you save time.

Speaker: Silly. It's very silly. I agree. A lot of crazy, crazy things out there that people don't, I feel like, complain about enough. And that's why things like that connecting flight thing happened to you because that's ridiculous. 40 minutes?

Speaker: Absurd. That's all I'll say. I'm never flying American again. i don't even want to go back to the States, for one. I didn't even want to go to the States in the first place. This was just for a work thing. Yeah, yeah. So I i had to. But I'm not flying American Airlines.

Speaker: Screw American Airlines. Yeah. I hate you and I'm not a fan. But you know what? My my week was made, Simon. i don't know why I went off on a quick tangent about my other work trip.

Speaker: Because my week was made yesterday. And you want to know why? You might already know why. It was a good week. You mean as of yesterday he had week? No, no, no, no, no. It wasn't a good week. Oh. Yeah, but my week week was just made. It was worth it. It was all worth it yeah yesterday. Yeah.

Speaker: Like as in – yeah, wouldn't worth it mean that you were it was more good than bad? That's what I mean. No. No. Okay, what does it mean to be made then? Whatever. What are you going to say? What did you what did you like yesterday?

Speaker: Huh? Sorry, actually. um He's getting an email from American Airlines telling you that you're you're you're going to Phoenix? Is that what you're looking at your phone for?

Speaker: No, sorry. i was I was wrong. It wasn't yesterday that made my day. It was the day before yesterday. Oh, okay. Fine. Yeah. And you want to know why? i do. I'm waiting. Okay. I'm going to tell you. It's because you you said, I love you to me first.

Speaker: You never that. God damn it. Ever. You don't even say it back sometimes when I say it to you. But on Wednesday... May 28, 2025, you texted me and you said, I love you. And I like, wow, that's nice. There's other context to it.

Speaker: But you still said it first, unprompted, and that was nice. And it made me feel good. Well, you're welcome, I guess. Yeah. Sounds good.

Speaker: All right. Well, cool. um Yeah. I thought you were going to talk up about the movie we went to see. And that was what made your week. But no. Oh, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that. We're going to get there. I will say this.

Speaker: That Paramount Plus issue i did I dealt with the two weeks ago that I talked about. ah Not really solved. I complained in the app store through the review. I reviewed Paramount Plus badly and I said, the customer service team didn't help me and they were very unhelpful.

Speaker: And then somebody from Paramount Plus responded and said, please contact the customer service team. Please contact support to fix your issue.

Speaker: Because said, there's an issue. This is it. And I contacted support. They were very unhelpful. And then the answer was, contact support to fix the login issue. like no I just told you they weren't helpful. That's absurd. What are you listening to? Anyway, it didn't really get fixed. i ended up...

Speaker: getting paramount plus through like i'm at amazon prime like i just got my fiance to log in there and just got the free trial and now i refuse to pay any dollars i'm just gonna do free trials i'm just gonna bum it i was more than willing to pay the 13.99 or whatever it was in canada to it's 13.99 for paramount plus for the for the good tier i'm a i'm a you know i'm purist i want the 4k i want the dolby atmos otherwise i'm not in But the audacity that Paramount Plus is willing to charge you more than Apple TV does.

Speaker: i know, and Apple TV's content is crazy. But Paramount Plus has like a like its a lot of legacy content, right? They've got like Indiana Jones. Actually, they don't have Indiana Jones. Wait, do they? I think they have some of them, but not all of the movies because they they' have some...

Speaker: ah agreement with other streaming services as well but yeah they they've got uh yeah because they all license and license out their stuff to like various other things like peacock and amazon sorry amazon prime actually is one of them and then netflix and good old hbo max we can say that now hbo max that's correct all right yeah oh yeah shit Yeah, that's correct. Okay.

Speaker: You know what? I think we got to move on to film and TV in a more direct way here because it's 15 minutes in. I did enjoy your story though. What a wild tale. I'm so sorry for your for your loss. What a waste of time, man. We sleeping in an airport? Not fun.

Speaker: Got to tell you. Sleeping on your bags or whatever? I'm sure you were doing that. No, no. the The guy got me a hotel when I landed in in Phoenix. Oh, you did get the hotel. Oh, good. It was nice. I got to sleep for a solid three hours before I had to be back at the airport.

Speaker: But at least it was three hours in a bed. Yeah, and it was free. That's And then I tried – oh, man. What's one of them burger chains in – California?

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, in the West Coast. But it wasn't. i So I tried that in Palm Springs. Pretty good, Simon. Pretty good. It's overrated, though. Let's be real.

Speaker: It's good. I mean, I enjoyed it. It's great. I feel like if we had one here, I would go to that over a McDonald's or a Wendy's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For those comparisons. But like Five Guys or like Burger's Priest? don't know.

Speaker: feel like I just do Burger's Priest and Five Guys. Yeah. Yeah. I don't Burgers Priest, I don't get too often, but every once in a while when you get it, sometimes it's just too heavy. Sometimes you eat it and i'm like oh my God.

Speaker: This is greasy as hell. Yeah, that's fair. but Yeah. It's good. But no, what is it? It was Jack in the box. It's another one. No, I've had Chick-Shack before. We have it in Toronto, I think now.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, we have it in Canada. Yeah, In-N-Out is very independent, I think. they They're not, like, I think they're privately owned, and there's they're not really anywhere but the West Coast. That's why I guessed In-N-Out. who but But yeah, it was good. Checkers?

Speaker: Isn't Checkers one of them? and Maybe it is. I didn't have Checkers, though. um isn't that the name of it am i wrong though chers what a burger simon what a burger oh whatever i tried what a burger wow it was okay okay so like i got got there was like a like i got the what a burger it was literally called the what a burger because it's the namesake but then there was another one where it comes like another burger and it comes on texas toast I forget what that one was called.

Speaker: So was like, going try both. The Whataburger, not good. The Texas toast one, whatever that was called. What's the name of it? What's the name of it? I got it here. So what ah what a burger patty melt. What a what a meal.

Speaker: That was good. So it's on Texas toast, like the burgers on the toast, like the buns. Oh, OK. Gotcha. I'm just good. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. all right. Anyway, sorry. Carry on.

Speaker: um Movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I i was going to go into the you know the quick bites, a few quick bites of film and TV industry news as we usually start the show with.

Speaker: The first one's a really, i think, a wild one. I don't really understand how this is a thing. But anyway, ah yeah, warfare director 28 Days Later, sorry, yeah, Days Later writer, but he's also the Years Later writer.

Speaker: Alex Garland is directing an Elden Ring film adaptation. So Elden Ring, if you don't know, audience, is a video game, incredibly popular video game from 2023, 2023, 2022, 2022. three twenty twenty three twenty three twenty twenty two i'm sorry, 2022. 2022 that sold millions of copies and is very difficult, but it's open world and it's from the developer From Software.

Speaker: um Anyway, it's very, very popular. But the story in it, Uh, I don't really think the story is good or really existent in a way that's, uh, makes sense to be a movie, but you tell me, does this make sense? Alex Garland is directing an Elden Ring film adaptation.

Speaker: What do you think of that? I mean, like I will watch anything Alex Garland does. Right. So like, I'm, I'm excited about that from that perspective. I played Elden Ring for, i don't know what, 80 hours. I enjoyed my time with it.

Speaker: I could not tell you the first thing about it. I don't know what the lore Finger Lakes, Adrian, the Finger Lakes. Yeah. Finger Lakes? I don't even remember that. The Finger Lakes.

Speaker: The Finger Lakes? What? I don't remember. don't even know what that is, dude. That's not part of it. I'm merging The Office reference with... They always talk about the finger. You know what I'm talking about? The finger in the game? The finger thing. They always say this over and over again. The Tarnished.

Speaker: The Tarnished, right. It's it's also it's like old Victorian language, but it's like very, very... like just that It's just not it's not good, in my opinion. It's weird because the lore is built by like George Rowe Martin, like the the author of good old Game of Thrones. so i don't don I don't know. What do you what will it be?

Speaker: like What will this movie be, in your opinion, in your estimation? I have no idea, man. I genuinely have no idea. Like its gameplay really its focus, its design, and its open world design, and the creatures you encounter, and the the sense of discovery. That's the beauty of Elden Ring. how The plot line the weakest part, maybe.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. I don't know. I agree. Sorry, Simon, I'm going to interrupt you here real quick. ah peher Oh, an email from Phoenix airport. No, in Zencaster, I got an error.

Speaker: Oh, no. It said, quota exceeded error. You have run out of free disk space to save a local backup of this data. I recommend that you stop the recording and clear out some disk space to prevent possible data loss.

Speaker: What? Your face is full? I don't know, dude. i just kind I'm using a like a Mac. it's Not many storages on here. This is going to make the edit so difficult. So I guess we're gonna stop it here? i don't think Well, no.

Speaker: i feel like we can continue. It's just as long as... i i assume as long as my internet doesn't die out, which I don't think it will, we should be fine.

Speaker: Because it'll save online. I guess we'll see. Won't we? Okay. Okay. Well, moving on to the next Quick Byte story for the last two weeks there.

Speaker: We had the ah Memorial Day box office results, Adrian. Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning, made over $200 million dollars internationally at the box office after the opening weekend.

Speaker: Nice. And it actually had its strongest North American opening for any Mission Impossible movie, which I find crazy. Wow. It's at $63 million for that three-day weekend. um And then Disney's live action Lilo and Stitch film became the third largest box office result for a Disney live action remake after Beauty and the Beast and the Lion King with $341 million dollars earned globally.

Speaker: But I also have like a little asterisk here. I guess. it's ah Meanwhile, despite earning over $350 million at the box office so far, Thunderbolts asterisk might not break even, which I think is remarkable because that theoretically did well because it sold.

Speaker: That's a lot tickets at $350 million. It's just that age-old adage where you... it's crazy it's just a yeah there's that the that age old at like ah adage where you You take the budget, which was ah like $188 million, dollars and then you multiply it by like 2.5.

Speaker: um They say like 2.5 to 3. Oh, I thought it was just 2. You're including like the marketing budget, but you're also including like the distribution. Because like the theaters are taking some of the cut, so you you don't you don't get that full money. Yeah.

Speaker: Anyway, so I think that's part of that calculation there. So, yeah, that sucks because Thunderbolts is really great. And I recommend it to anybody listening to this podcast that likes the Marvel Cinematic Universe even a little bit or it doesn't actually because it is very heartfelt and it's dealing with some tough material, but also it's incredibly entertaining and and funny and...

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's great. It's good. It's too bad. It's well acted. It's well directed, well written. so Yeah. it's it's I feel like it's um it's a victim of stuff that's come before it.

Speaker: I think like a lot of people disliked, critics and audience disliked Captain America, the fourth Captain America. It's Falcon now. um And i think as a result, like people didn't...

Speaker: There was good word of mouth with Thunderbolts, but I think a lot of people are kind of, you know, they're done with Marvel. Unfortunately, i think there was a big drop off post end game. And then with like a few bad movies kind of coming out or not so great movies like Miss Marvel or the Marvel's um Captain for America. Yeah.

Speaker: other movies that I can't think of. It's just kind of been fluctuating a little bit too much. um So I think it's kind of a victim of that. And and I do agree with you, man. That movie slapped. Like it was fun. I really enjoyed it. I think it's in the upper echelon of of the MCU movies. And yeah, I'm pretty sad about that.

Speaker: But it is pretty cool that Mission Impossible is doing so well. Like that's shocking to me. Considering ah Dead Reckoning. Final Reckoning. Oh, Dead Reckoning. Yeah, part Which became not part one, but they' just Dead Reckoning.

Speaker: Exactly. like Which did didn't do particularly well. I know that had a lot to do with like COVID and like a very high budget because they continued to pay um you know people while they were waiting to be able to film. But it's pretty shocking. It's also when it came out. like It came out in a time...

Speaker: i still came out in 2023 actually. so We were out of COVID basically at that point. Yeah. yeah didn't One second two.

Speaker: I'm cracking open a cold one. You're going hear a big. All right. Wow.

Speaker: ASMR. Moosehead Canadian lager. Not sponsored. Right. Very good. Terra free. Terra free. Terra free. We don't have American booze here right now.

Speaker: um Yeah. i Oh, never mind. Sorry. I was about to just go off on a different tangent. I tried buzz balls, which are is like an American like ah like beverage. It's like a little ball. Remember those c chub drinks when you were a kid? Yes. Those chub. We have them in the grocery store today.

Speaker: Oh, really? Yeah, we just saw them. That's crazy. We were the store the other day and saw them. So it's essentially like, it looks like that, but it's like alcohol, ah alcoholic content. And is it within it?

Speaker: Right. And it's like, I don't know, 13% of these like tiny little things. Pretty good. Anyway, sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to go off on a tangent there. It must've been the price to make dead reckoning because it did make worldwide $571 million. dollars So actually, yeah.

Speaker: So yeah we'll see what the final reckoning shakes out to be by the end of it. So it's doing well. Lilo and Stitch is doing really well. Um, It's not reviewed that well. neither Honestly, neither is Final Reckoning in comparison to the last four movies in the Mission Impossible franchise, which I find so strange because it's the same director, Christopher McQuarrie, and I thought that they were so strong the last few.

Speaker: I think Fallout... So I was mentioning this ah the last time we we spoke on our podcast, but I've been going through the whole... onslaught of Mission Impossible movies and we're on number seven.

Speaker: So we've gotten through them all and we just finished Fallout. And honestly, I i had initially remembered it as like, ah you know, in my so weird scale, it's like four and a half to five. i bumped it to a five because that movie is...

Speaker: impeccable is so good it's so good it just from moment to moment there it goes from like set piece to set piece and then it drops these emotional moments in between and like perfect pockets the pacing is divine and there's so many of those like incredible Mission Impossible heist moments where they kind of know, they like they know, the audience the characters know more than the audience. And then they like surprise you with these like, oh, actually he's wearing a mask here.

Speaker: or actually you thought that these guys were screwed, but they were smarter than you all along kind of situation to the villains and to the audience. And I i love those moments and they did them so many times. And then there's so many incredible moments Tom Cruise stunts in that one as well.

Speaker: And there are I mean, there's so many incredible ones in every movie the last little bit from the Mission Impossible franchise. But I just I just think it's great. And the cast is really good. i I really like Rebecca Ferguson as an example. I think you too she's great.

Speaker: um And Henry Cavill is remarkable. He's so good. He has a mustache. Reloading his arms. Yeah. Like they ah dude like they're guns. Oh, man. That fight scene in the bathroom is just that so good, dude.

Speaker: It's so good. Oh, man. But even just going to that, they're going into that party. that that that club. And and the the the you know the the sound is basing. you know It's really bopping.

Speaker: It's incredible. And then there's just like these, and it just goes from like moment to com of calm to set piece, to from moment to calm to set piece in such an incredibly well-paced way. And it's really funny. Simon Pegg is just on his game.

Speaker: it's It's great. Alec Baldwin is great in it from like the previous movie in this as well. It's just great. It's great. I don't know. There's like there's no faults at all. it's it's room It's incredible. It's one of the greatest action movies I've ever seen it personally.

Speaker: And some would argue that's been ever made. um But yeah, I really, really love it. And I'm excited to watch Dead Reckoning Part 1 so that we can go to Mission Impossible because we haven't gone to see it yet, The Final Reckoning.

Speaker: We were not part of this box office weekend because we just didn't go. ah But it's because you were the was willing. You were in the US. Well, i said we could go this week and then you're like, no, I don't want to go. No, I said we weren't part of it for the box office weekend.

Speaker: Yeah, because you were in the US. s We couldn't have gone. You're right. You're also keen on seeing Lilo and Stitch, I believe. Yes. Yeah. OK. Also, I want to watch Bring Her Back, which just came out.

Speaker: Right. That one I'll probably pass. That looks terrifying. Yeah, that's fair. I got I got a friend that wants to watch it. I won't always pass on the horror movies, but this one, I'll ask Dawn.

Speaker: I'll ask her and see. She's like, oh, yeah, actually, let's do it. I doubt it because you do not see Talk To Me. So we did. They're like, no, thank you. Yeah, my fiance came to watch Talk To Me, but she did not enjoy herself. And she saw the trailer for this and she's just like, fuck no. She's like, nope, not going to happen.

Speaker: Like, all right, fair enough. I won't put you through that. The Philippou brothers, you know, the Philippou brothers. Do they go by that moniker? Is that a thing that they that those directors call themselves? The Philippous?

Speaker: Like the Wachowskis or the or the the the Duffer brothers, you know? Or what's the other one? Oh, the Coen. The Coen brothers. The Safdie. The best brothers, theoretically.

Speaker: The Russos, obviously. The Russos are huge. The Safdies as well. thoseaf The Safdies are often on their own. Like Benny Safdie's directing that The Rock movie, The Smashing Machine, on his own. Yeah.

Speaker: That movie, every time I see that trailer, I got to say, The Rock's, I don't know if they just cherry-picked the scenes in it. I feel like The Rock is doing a great job, like on an acting level.

Speaker: You always say that The Rock is very one-note in everything he's in. This isn't one-note. It's almost hard to see The Rock, actually. So good for good for duwayne Good for Dwayne, the Brock Johnson. I feel like he did a good job. but We'll see maybe. Actually, that's there's no reviews for that yet, right?

Speaker: Smashing Machine? No, it's not out for like a couple of months, I thought. Yeah, but I thought maybe it was a can. and wasn't It wasn't at one of the film festivals already? No, it's a film festival that we did not mention when we recorded during it happening. Yeah, what ah what ah whatever mistake that was.

Speaker: It's funny because I saw some of the headlines for it, but it was just beginning when we recorded last time. No, there's no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, so it doesn't look like there's been anything. Yeah, it's it's coming out in October. We'll we'll see about it eventually.

Speaker: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, okay. Well, let's move on. Thunderbolts was a disappointment somehow and at the box office. Hopefully they catch the number. It seems like it's like about $450 million dollars approximately to break even. I really hope they do that. you know what's interesting? Oh, that's the reason I put this in here as well.

Speaker: Jake Schreier, the director of Thunderbolts and the director of Beef, he got tapped. We talked about that last time, two weeks ago. um He got tapped to direct the X-Men movie for the MCU. So this movie, theoretically, they kind of saw how it was on track and they weren't necessarily going to break even.

Speaker: And they still hired him anyway, which I really appreciate because if it's not just about money, that's kind of why I want them to hire directors is for the art of it and the creativity and like creating ah and like a legitimate great story as opposed to just kind of going through the motions.

Speaker: like I think, the honestly, the Marvels does. that's kind of the problem. The Marvel's biggest fault that I don't know if I've said this before, but my biggest problem with the Marvel's is the exact, the the the thing that I have the most problems with, but the MCU, it's the power metric. It's that it's all women and you hate. No, the power metric. I know.

Speaker: Come on. But that's the best example of that, by the way, I just want to make that clear. That's, I think, the greatest example of any movie in the MCU right now that doesn't like it doesn't define any of the rules or in terms of the power of each of the characters.

Speaker: I can't tell you the limit on any of those three characters. In Doomsday, in my opinion, what they should do, because bre Larson's like Carol Danvers is so powerful.

Speaker: I think, I think Dr. Doom should put her in her place. That would be really great, but they won't do that. Maybe because even in that movie, was she part the cast? No, that's the problem, but they're not gonna do it because they're too afraid.

Speaker: Whoa, Jesus Christ. Just fell a couple, couple of octaves down in your chair. Yeah. You like being at this level? I guess. I feel like I'm more in love with the mic now.

Speaker: Sure. We're not recording anything. like We're not like putting any film out this recording. so Okay, so who cares? I mean, we just did mention it. It would have been funnier if people could see it, I guess.

Speaker: But... But yeah, that that is the biggest problem with that movie is those three characters. I can't tell you what the limits of their power is. And that's a problem. And I feel like that was one of the great moments in Infinity War is when Thanos kind of puts the Hulk in his place. I think that that was a really good moment. I think that that helps to determine how powerful Thanos was.

Speaker: But they are right. They're not putting... Brie Larson's not in Doomsday according to the initial cast list. And I feel like that's a mistake. And I think it's Russo's, the Russo brothers are doing this intentionally just like they did with Infinity War and Endgame because they're too afraid of dealing with that problem because it is an issue.

Speaker: I think it's an acknowledged issue, I think, behind the scenes. I think they understand there's a problem. But like, I like Carol Danvers. I like Brie Larson. I think the problem is is that she's, I can't understand how she can ever lose. And if she cannot lose at all, there's no stakes. And if there's no stakes,

Speaker: it's not, I'm not on the edge of my seat. It's not possible. And I think maybe audiences can't put a pin in it, like what the problem is with her as a character. But that's, whenever she shows up, I don't know how she can lose.

Speaker: Like they introduced her in Endgame at the end of Endgame. Like she's just like, oh, here she is. She goes away for a while. And then she's here she is again. Because anyway, I just, I really hope they can fix that issue.

Speaker: um But anyway, I'm glad that Jake Schreier got tapped for X-Men. I think he did a great job with Thunderbolts. And on to number three for our quick bites of film and TV and industry news, film and TV industry news.

Speaker: The Avengers movies have been pushed back, Adrian. Avengers Doomsday will now launch on December 18th, 2026. And Secret Wars is set to release on December 17th, 2026. Oh my God, the day before?

Speaker: They're releasing the sequel to Doomsday the day before? That's crazy. Thank you. Yeah, great. I'll laugh at Simon. Yeah. For doing a typo.

Speaker: But no, um the other thing that I found most interesting about this pushback and dates is that there has been no announcement for the potential... for Sony's Spider-Man brand new day to be shifted from it July 31st, 2026 release date.

Speaker: So therefore, like where Avengers Doomsday was before, Avengers Doomsday was launching in May of 2026. And now it's launching in December. So it leapfrogged Spider-Man brand new day. And there's no announcement as of the time of this recording on, what is it? May 30th we're recording this, that this is being shifted.

Speaker: Do you think... that Spider-Man actually has a direct is a direct reason for why Doomsday was shifted. Because the writers actually rewrote Spider-Man Brand New Day in some way to make it more relevant as a movie prior to Doomsday.

Speaker: And maybe they want to put Spider-Man in Doomsday. Because I always figured that he wouldn't be in Doomsday based on the on the cast list and he would be in Secret Wars. And that they would try to keep it grounded But it's hard to keep it grounded if there's like a... Like an earth-shattering event.

Speaker: Yeah. maybe this is a strategy. But aren't they already filming Brand New Day? Like right now? Hold on. Let me look that up. Look it up.

Speaker: Look it up, dude. But, Riff, you may answer... No dead air, Adrian. It's a podcast. What saying? Dead air. um But yeah, like, no, I don't...

Speaker: I don't know. Like, I don't think Spider-Man brand new day is going to have anything to do with Avengers doomed doomsday at all. um And I don't think it was going to in the first place. If anything, it was just going to be an after credit scene that would tie into it.

Speaker: That was my assumption. Yeah. But the entire time. it So I think if anything, if doomsday is an infinity war level event, it affects everyone in the MCU. That's the idea. right Oh, so you're saying like they had to move Doomsday but like behind Spider-Man because there's going to be big shit that happens in Doomsday. Yeah, because it shifts the MCU. Every time it shifted it. Every single Avengers movie pretty much has shifted it.

Speaker: Age of Ultron shifted massively because it it completely had implications on Civil War. h Obviously, the first Avengers movie had huge implications. They were fixing New York City, even in the Netflix series somehow.

Speaker: And in obviously, the most the largest shift is five-year gap of time where everyone's blipped away so for Infinity War and Endgame. So this is something that i'm I'm curious if they were trying to make it grounded and then they were like, you know what? This movie is also going to make us a lot of money like and make Sony a lot of money. let's Let's try to make it work the best way possible.

Speaker: Because you think it's a reason of... I read a lot online that people the the reason why they're shifting is VFX work. It takes a lot of work and effort to do all the visual effects. So they're just shifting it for that reason.

Speaker: So do you think which one's more plausible or is it both? I don't know. Brand new day, by the way, for context, it's filming at the end of 2025, early 2026. Oh, and then it's going to release in July.

Speaker: That's crazy because they're already filming Doomsday, correct? I think they are because I think that's where because didn't they film the Thunderbolts after credit scene on the set of Doomsday?

Speaker: I remember hearing about that. Oh, I didn't hear that. Okay. Yeah. So I think they're already filming Doomsday. So that's kind of surprising. i I don't know. Maybe they will shift Spider-Man. That's a quick turnaround time, man. Seven months, eight months, I guess.

Speaker: Yeah. They have to do visual effects work too. Yeah. like Unless it's so grounded. Yeah. That it's just, ah that it's just, just Peter Parker walking around the city, talking to people the entire time. Yeah. Yeah. It's just Peter Parker. Right. Right.

Speaker: He's in college. It's a rom-com movie of Peter Parker in college. That would be so fun. I would still watch it. That would be yeah excellent. Because it would be something we haven't seen before. To just take a hero and not...

Speaker: and just not do dive into their powers. that's it's That's something, honestly, you know what's funny? So we talk about how much we love Daredevil Born Again. Charlie Cox hated the bank episode.

Speaker: I read an interview. I'm saying that. Or I read an interview. he He said that he didn't like it. He's like, that was bad. i thought it was bad. And then I watched it and I liked it better. But then the audience loved it so much that that's the episode they keep mentioning to me over and over again. And he's like, that just tells you how much I know.

Speaker: about I guess. ah Charlie Cox of Claire Obscura Expedition 33, the video game fame. Right. Exactly. Soon to be a movie. known role.

Speaker: Yeah. Soon to be a movie. You think Charlie Cox will be in it? He didn't really look like that character though No, it looks more like Robert Pattinson. Yeah. Gustave. Gustave. Frenchman. Yeah. I don't know. I'd be curious, but yeah, it's funny. I i thought that bank episode was pretty good. Not my favorite of the, of the season, but it's, still i think it's pretty good.

Speaker: it's It's like a bottle episode, though. So neat. Yeah, it's funny. Like when I think about that show, i really liked it. But i know I couldn't tell you which episodes were my favorite because it's all like i I watched it fairly quick. I mean, no, I was watching it week to week. What am I talking about?

Speaker: I don't know. I liked it. I thought it was a great series and I'm excited for the next season. But yeah, yeah. Spider-Man brand new day. It's just Peter Parker, just Tom Holland being Peter Parker trying to make a um MJ fall back in love with him.

Speaker: That's that it. Isn't Sadie Sink in it? that is ah That is the rumor that Sadie Sink is or has been cast in it. Maybe we don't know that for sure. Yeah. but But there's a lot of... i think it's just like, again, the rumor mill. And a lot of people would like, well, she's red hair. She's going to be MJ proper.

Speaker: But I think theyre there there's a good chance... Not a good chance. i don't know. I'm just saying. I'm just spitballing here. I read it online. That she could be Jean Grey. And then that's how they kind of introduce like kind of the first X-Men characters. Yeah, but that's not grounded at at all.

Speaker: No. But maybe she meets jean gray he meets Jean Grey in school, and they do some crazy antics. like Yeah, but no. With the X-Men, they're going to do multiverse situation.

Speaker: They've got to be doing that. They got to do another universe. The X-Men are there already. That makes the most sense. I don't know. i don't know if you have to do that because like they have introduced a mutant into the MCU. Can we technically talk about that?

Speaker: Why not? It's been a while. Yeah. So like Ms. Marvel at the end of Ms. Marvel, like they specifically say that she's a mutant. ah she' tech That's not really a spoiler. It's not even that special to be honest. yeah There's no ah through lines on that. There's like no threads that they even decided to pull after that.

Speaker: The thing is, that's irrelevant though, because it's not, the the thing about X-Men is that the world is so rocked by that idea, even on a political level. There's so many mutants everywhere. So introducing one mutant is irrelevant to the overall.

Speaker: situation you what saying like it's cool they could decide that all of a sudden everyone's awakened and they're all mutants that they're just living among them but that again that's not a grounded spider-man movie at all that's an x-men movie and i just at school hidden in a forest and and they're they're living in solidarity

Speaker: at school living in a forest Yeah. What? It's a forest school. What does that mean? Professor x Xavier's school for children is is ah is a school in a forest. And they they have a big bubble around it and nobody knows it's there.

Speaker: Yeah, but that's not the point of it. That defeats the purpose of X-Men. I feel like that's one of the coolest things about the movies, like the X-Men movies, is that they they is that they're dealing with it on a political level.

Speaker: like there's like a there's and they're not They're initially accepting in some aspect, but people they have to adjust to... It's fear of the other. It's something we deal with in our society every year, it seems like, without without fail, unfortunately.

Speaker: but Yeah. Yeah. and Anyway, but yeah, I'm curious to see. How this pans out well, Adrian, it's now time to move on to the montage, a sequence of our show in which I briefly present seven of the bi-weeks smaller news stories as Adrian delivers a brisk verdict.

Speaker: Number one, comedian Conan O'Brien has been cast as new character Smarty Pants in Pixar's upcoming Andrew Stanton directed Toy Story 5.

Speaker: Wow, pretty neat. Conan O'Brien, the guy that that hosted the Oscars. That's right. Number two. As publication deadline reports, the Looney Tunes animated film licensed from Warner Brothers by Ketchup Entertainment, The Day the Earth Blew Up, will land itself on streaming service HBO Max on June 28th, 2025.

Speaker: Neato, maybe we'll get it on Crave here in Canada, but only in French. Number three, as Deadline reports, Amazon has canceled their Wheel of Time TV series after its third season due to financial reasons.

Speaker: That's, I guess, unfortunate for the few people that watched it. I actually don't know a single person that was watching that show. Not a single person. Number four. As confirmed by star Hannah Waddingham on social media, Apple TV Plus sports comedy Ted Lasso, season four, begins filming in July of this year. Wonderful. So maybe we'll get it next year on Apple TV Plus. Number five. As announced by Warner Brothers, industry newcomer actors Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alistair Stout have been cast as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, respectively, in HBO's upcoming Harry Potter TV series. Pretty cool.

Speaker: Alistair Stout is the most like Harry Potter name already. i'm Good for that guy getting cast. I actually didn't hear any of their names. I like saw like the picture and I was like, oh, good for these children. their Their world will change forever. Literally. Literally.

Speaker: These are huge roles. Yeah. And they're kids. so Number six, Iranian director Jafar Panahi's film It Was Just an Accident was awarded the incredibly prestigious top-billed prize the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Speaker: For a tiny bit of context, the 2025 Oscars Best Picture winner Anora won the Palme d'Or in 2024. Oh, okay. So maybe this is a film to look out for when we can watch it, Simon. Number seven, likely in response to the recently cut funding to the public broadcasting service, PBS, by the US government, Netflix will now stream the long running children's TV series Sesame Street going forward.

Speaker: Unlike a previous broadcasting deal with HBO, new episodes will air on Netflix day and date with their PBS release. Wonderful. Good. for Good for. Sesame Street. And a bonus number 8.

Speaker: According to Deadline, Bullet Train actor Andrew Koji, Aquaman actor Jason Momoa, Warfare actor Noah Centenio, and Hobbs and Shaw actor Roman Reigns are all in negotiations to star in a Legendary Pictures produced film adaptation based upon the incredibly popular video game series Street Fighter. Cool man.

Speaker: i Maybe I'll watch this. I don't know. I watched the Mortal Kombat movie. it was fun. And that concludes the montage. on Oh, boy.

Speaker: All right, Adrian. Simon, you're keeping things fresh. You're keeping some things fresh for me. You're just changing up the order. Even even that's viewed in the document. You're just your're so you're keeping me on edge. That was an accident because it's got to go in the center.

Speaker: The montage just goes in the center, breaks up slower parts of our podcast. That's the whole strategy. um But regardless of that, we're moving now on to the reviews, the what we've been watching section of our show, Adrian.

Speaker: um i don't i didn't really watch too many new things from the last two weeks. I've been watching kind of the same things and I've kind of already gone over them. I've been watching Mission Impossible and I've been finishing up Andor season one to move on to season two.

Speaker: um because I've just been watching it kind of over again ah from because the last time I'd seen it is 2022. And I'm watching it alongside playing Star Wars Outlaws, which is a really great, I feel like synergy, you know, like really cohesive in that way. i really appreciate it. And like Star Wars Outlaws,

Speaker: way too underrated of a video game i must say i can't i'm shocked that it sold as bad as it as it did because there's a lot of love and care i feel like in that uh in that game but regardless of that that's all i really watched i i haven't really watched too many new things other than the thing we watched together yesterday in theaters so i'll throw it to you what have you been watching sir anything fun like so Yeah, I've watched a few things, Simon, that are both fun and exciting. I'll start off with the one that you're probably most interested in.

Speaker: ah Me and my fiance, we started watching The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. oh oh Oh, yeah. It's a reality TV show. It's on Disney Plus or Hulu in in the States. Dude, this show wild.

Speaker: These Mormon women are crazy. can't comprehend... i don't i can't comprehend what they get up to the first episode of secret lives of Mormon wives.

Speaker: Yeah. Honestly, this is is a bananas. More shit happens in that one episode than the entire first season of Vanderpump rules. I was sitting there being like, Oh my God, that was like a lot. My fan says like, you want to keep watching? I was like, I don't know if I can right now. Like it was like, wow. It was like so much.

Speaker: We still continued watching. Tell me, do you binge these shows, these reality TV shows? Are you a binger of these shows? is that like When she said you want to keep watching, like it was like in that sitting kind of situation? because i don't binge at almost anything at all.

Speaker: And so I'm just curious, is that what she was asking you? or Um, ah like she was like asking if we would watch another episode at that time. Right. So you do watch a few episodes at once for various TV shows.

Speaker: Yeah, not always, but sometimes. Okay. And then I think we just switch back to the OC. We're on the last season of the OC, so we're taking our time. OC, season four, got a lot of hate. The first three episodes, not good. It's like a, it becomes Breaking Bad.

Speaker: I'm not even joking. It's fucking weird. The tonal shift at the start of season four, it's jarring. Right. But then they go back to their roots and it's actually really good. It's better than season three, I think. Okay. But we're on the last, I don't know, like eight episodes. I'm kind of sad to see it come to the end come to an end. So where we're taking it slow.

Speaker: All right. um But Secret Lives of Mormon Lives, you know, like, I don't know what, eight Mormon women talking about their lives. They they gained popularity because they had this thing on TikTok called Mom Talk.

Speaker: And they would do like these crazy dances. and there It's stupid. um Right. I don't really care. I have no context of who these women are. So like, there's a lot lore dumping about these women and the drama they have.

Speaker: And there's this one woman on the show. oh my God. She sucks, dude. And there was this, like, she talked about how like I was like canceled back in the day because her baby was like sick and like on the verge of dying. Cause I don't know I was born and it was like suffering.

Speaker: And she posted a Tik TOK of her dancing in front of her baby. That's like near death and posted it online for like clout. And she's like, and people were attacking me and know villainizing me. I'm like, yeah, obviously you psycho. Like what the fuck? are you doing and yeah she's the worst her name's Whitney I think any context what is this show about that dude did you go it's the city you say it's the secret lives of Mormon wives you're following these eight Mormon women and their secret lives What is the secret?

Speaker: What's the secret? Nothing. That they're not good people, I guess. But what are they doing? They're just living together in a single house? No, no, no. They all live independently and they have families and it's just the They're little nutty.

Speaker: It's just little nutty. your little dady just a little nutty just a little nutty. Well, how do you get into that? Like, how do you become a reality tv TV star that you can follow it around by?

Speaker: How do they even, how do the kind camera documentary filmmaking people, how do they find these people? TikTok. Because they were very popular on the TikTok. I don't use TikTok. Yeah. yeah Okay. They got popular on the TikTok.

Speaker: Okay. And because of mom talk, as I mentioned. Right. Okay. so it's related to that. I thought they were saying Montauk because that's a place that they go in Vanderpump. Oh, right. But no, it's mom talk on TikTok.

Speaker: Right. Anyways, is it good? No. Is it fun to watch? Definitely. Okay. Yeah. cool I'm in it. I'm it. Like Until Dawn. Yeah, actually. Yeah, exactly. Because it could know. Is it fun to watch? Yeah, largely. it's Most things are fun to watch. Yeah, it's enjoyable.

Speaker: I talked to my friend Mike, actually, and he was watching Until Dawn. And he was like, actually really like that movie. I'm like, yeah, dude. It's just an enjoyable ride. It's just fun. Look, we've got we know what Mike's opinion is of various things. I don't think we line up.

Speaker: Are you i what you saying you line up more with Mike than you do with me? i mean... At least about Until Dawn, dude. At least about Until Dawn. Yeah, sure. ah But speaking of of wacky sort of horror movies, me my fiance watched the movie Drop.

Speaker: Oh, you did? Nice. Simon, if you had issues with Until Dawn, you would have so many issues with Drop. Drop is... Fucking nuts, dude. It's reviewed very well, though.

Speaker: I am so confused at that. Did I enjoy it? Yeah. But like I think Until Dawn's a better movie, both from a plot perspective and just the entertainment value.

Speaker: Drop is Okay. It's fucking absurd, dude. It makes no sense. the plot is like the The plot holes in it are crazy.

Speaker: I almost want you to watch it so I can see your reaction to it because it was fucking stupid, dude. Good time, though. Sorry, it's on Netflix in Canada? No, no, we rented it. It was supposed to be in a streaming service, wasn't it?

Speaker: No, I don't think it's on Netflix. I mean, I rented it, so I spent money on it if it is on a streaming service. Too bad, I guess, for me. But um let's see. Is it on?

Speaker: Yeah. I mean, Netflix is the most difficult one to check. So you'd have to check it separately. Yeah, it's not on Netflix. Yeah, friend ah um like our our friend, friend, they watched it and they're like, oh, dude, watch it. It's fucking nuts.

Speaker: And I watched it. It is. They were saying it's nuts in a good way when they told you they recommended or they were saying it's nuts. It's just not good. How is it 84% of Rotten Tomatoes? I am so confused, dude. I cannot fathom. I genuinely cannot fathom. I was sitting there being like, wait, what? It like it falls up apart at the halfway point.

Speaker: And... Again, it it is still entertaining from a purely entertainment level. Good time. I had fun with it. Right. But I had less fun with it than I did with Until Dawn. And I genuinely believe there are more plot holes in this movie.

Speaker: It's because it's supposed to be grounded in reality. At least with Until Dawn, you can be like, ah, there's some kind of magic going on. It's weird magic shit going on. But no, this is meant to be grounded in reality. Fucking stupid.

Speaker: So dumb. But good time. Interesting. Yeah, I watch it. As soon as they hit the streaming service, I'll catch it. Yeah, fair enough, dude. Considering it's bad, I'm not going to spend money.

Speaker: yeah yeah Considering you said it's bad, maybe i'm going to have the reverse opinion somehow. I'm like, you know what? This is actually not as plodthold as you think it is. I would be so confused, dude. I'd be so confused if you did that. I'd be like, what? Probably not.

Speaker: I would ask you to write a fucking 16 page essay to explain why not, because I would need that for you to convince me. That's so yeah's on a closer look for sure. We can like have a debate. If if we, I'll rewatch it at that point then.

Speaker: Um, and then the final thing I watched apart from what we both watched together and or dude, I'm like, I'm most of the way through and or season two on episode nine now. So four episodes to go.

Speaker: Holy shit, man. Andor is so fucking good. It is unbelievable. I think it's better than season one, which is crazy because the first season of Andor is amazing and arguably the best Star Wars content. And I was like, it might be the best Star Wars content this season.

Speaker: I am confident this is the best Star Wars content ever created, period, full stop. Like the whole show. like heybo Yeah. Yeah. But this season in particular, it's immaculate and it is amazing.

Speaker: Oh my God, dude. the Just the layers and how deep they're willing to go into the universe, how dark they're willing to go within Star Wars. i'm so I'm sitting here being like, man, what the fuck? This is Star Wars. like This is Star Wars.

Speaker: Don't get me wrong. I loved Star Wars. loved the original trilogy. liked the prequels. But I don't think it was ever like amazing. you know ah it might be blasphemy, but I don't think... like like the star Wars movies, like the original star Wars movies, like it's not on the quality of like alien, which is like a genuine masterpiece of a horror film. Like star Wars is just good. Great sci-fi. It's interesting. It's a cool world.

Speaker: And I loved it. Right. But I don't know about that. It's not the level of alien. Like think about when it came out and what it was doing. It's doing something super unique. And no, I guess, but I don't know. Good. I'm not saying. Yeah. And I think the writing in aliens, but anyways, is it? yeah There's not that much writing. Yeah.

Speaker: It's a bunch of running around. Yeah. It's good running around too. It's more creative and in a lot lot of ways. The thing about Star Wars that's interesting too is is that, and I think that's why it's so rich to tell a story like Andor, is that George Lucas spent so much time building out the the little details in the world.

Speaker: like That was the thing that really struck me when i think I saw Star Wars ever so long ago for the first time in the ninety s like the first movie, My New Hope. I was like, it's so it feels so lived in. Everything feels so lived in. you You just get thrown into this universe and you just feel like you're you're kind of just a part of this crazy story. You're constantly trying to grasp how this world works.

Speaker: What is this religion they're talking about? What is the force? What is all of this? it's and there's all like When you're on Tatooine and all the architecture and everything's so unique and such a... It's not that unique to us now. we think back You have to kind of think back on the what did you think when you saw it for the first time, but what is really like that? there's so many and like the Having the two sons, as an example, on Tatooine, it's so creative, but it's so...

Speaker: It's like they all, none of the characters like are surprised by it. And that's the beauty of it. They're all living in it. And I don't know, there's something really beautiful about that aspect. And so because it's so rich on a world building perspective, that's actually maybe why George Lucas got carried away with the prequels. He was too focused on the world building and not focused enough on telling a really cohesive and good plot.

Speaker: That was kind of his issue. yeah But if you look at- What's that thing? Like, Jar Jar's the key to all of this. Did he say that though? I think that's just the bit from the podcast we both listened to. I don't know if he actually said that or not. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, that that's again, the beauty of it. And so if you take like really serious filmmakers like to Tony Gilroy and his brother, and then you, you throw them in,

Speaker: to the Star Wars universe, they're going to tell a emotional and impactful story and then live it and situate it within the Star Wars universe and make it work inside that those confines.

Speaker: And so if you took Star Wars out of Andor and you still put the same amount of detail in terms of the, I don't know, there's some, it's like not post-apocalyptic, what am I trying to say? It's an authoritarian regime in space and you just do all that, but then you you still put all that effort to the set design.

Speaker: And you just didn't call it Star Wars and you just didn't make it Star Wars at all. It would still be an incredible TV show. Because it's just the the story and the plotting is so brilliant. One of the crazy things about the first season, and we just finished episode nine.

Speaker: ah So we're there there's like that prison sequence. Oh, yeah. And it's just, there's so much time spent with the Empire and the ISB. That's like a crazy thing about it. They're they're almost...

Speaker: <unk>re You're making you empathize with these villains. It's brilliant. we You talked about that, I think, in the very beginning of this reboot of the podcast. When you watched Andor, you were surprised at how well they did the villain characters because they're so they're just people and they're living within their own world. They don't think themselves the villains at all. like A good villain shouldn't, really.

Speaker: Yeah, like exactly. i guess But Thanos is the worst villain than these ISB agents, certainly. they They're just so interesting. Yeah, like you have characters like like Cyril in particular that genuinely believes what the Empire is doing is is good and that he's bringing order to the universe. And Cyril, in my opinion, is one of the greatest written Star Wars characters ever. I love him as a character.

Speaker: um He's so good, dude. And just everything that they do. And yeah, like like you mentioned, you're especially in season two, I'm watching it and I'm like, I'm empathizing with these fucking characters.

Speaker: Imperial soldiers like with the with these empires, you know, with the empire in a weird way. There's still like, you know, the evil people within it, but you're watching it. And I think I mentioned this um before. It's like, what does it take to make a, um you know, oh, my God, um I just lost my train of thought to make a fucking.

Speaker: fascist society like a fascist society right run properly and it's just regular fucking people and it's so brilliant man and the way that they play around with you know the rebels like they're not necessarily they're they're fighting for the good of people but that doesn't mean that they're good people and they're doing absolutely off the lines Constantly because you have to.

Speaker: It's realistic in a way because it's like, how would you not? You have to. yeah Sometimes fighting fire with fire is the only option in some cases. Sometimes it's not. And they make mistakes, clearly. They shouldn't doing what they're doing sometimes in this story. It's incredibly dark.

Speaker: there Actually, one of the characters that's really interesting too in on the ISB ah perspective, the actors that's really great is Anton Lesser, who plays Partagas. Partagas.

Speaker: He's really great. i did i just There's so many though. the denise Denise Goff. She's so good. What are you doing?

Speaker: I'm doing her face. Oh, because she like does that with her nose? Yeah. She's so good, man. Did you know that that's the the the voice actor for Yennefer from The Witcher?

Speaker: No, i had no idea. Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. I didn't realize it. And then I saw an interview with her where she was saying that she played Yennefer. And I'm listening to her voice. I'm like, oh my God, it is her. Because I spent so much time with those characters. I played the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt on PlayStation 5 for like 130 hours, 140 hours.

Speaker: hundred And thirty hours hundred forty hours and i played which are three on PS4 for another 200 hours. So it's crazy. I spent so much time with Yennefer. I didn't even, I had no connection after seeing many hours of her in Andor until she had said it.

Speaker: But she's great. Yeah. I just had a recent experience as well, where like you realize two actors are the same, or like ah two characters are the same actor. And this was very recent.

Speaker: And i'm I'm bringing it back. Remember the TV show Recess? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, Gretchen? Yes. She's voiced by, or like Gretchen is voiced by Ashley Johnson, which is Ellie.

Speaker: No way. Yeah, dude. would never have known that. It's nuts. And I was like sitting there and I found that out. I was like like, man, Ashley Johnson has been a part of my life since I was a literal child. I'm like, and she is like, is like been oh my God. So like Naughty Dog, you know? Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker: Exactly. I don't know how it is. I don't know if I would have said it like that, but yeah. Groomed is maybe the, it's not a good term for this, but no, Andor is brilliant.

Speaker: It is really brilliant. And the music is brilliant. I will always say this to like a million times. Nicholas Bertel's score is so good. I can't. I can't do it. Episode 10 of Andor may be the best episode of the show.

Speaker: um and Just wait until season two. It was my favorite of the first season, but holy fuck, dude. Season two is nuts. It is nuts. i I'm not joking. I know I said this about Last of Us episode six, like season two, that it's like my favorite episode of television.

Speaker: And honestly, it probably still is. But i the episode of Andor, I don't want to say the specific episode because i don't want you to be like, oh, it's it's that one. But I watched an episode of Andor that is quite literally like might be my second favorite episode of television of all time, if not already like taking over The Last of Us just because I had a negative ending to The Last of Us personally. But it was unbelievable. I was sitting there being like, holy shit, dude.

Speaker: Oh, my God. Genuinely phenomenal. I fucking love Andor. It's crazy. I got four episodes to go. I'm saving it for my flight tomorrow night. I'm watch the rest of it there. What are you watching on an iPad or something?

Speaker: Yeah. Okay. You kind of, I don't know. I feel like it takes a, don't you have like a pretty nice home theater setup? Don't you want to savor it? I do. But Simon, I, your Disney plus account kicked me off my fire stick. Oh.

Speaker: And then i logged in on a PlayStation. I'm like, I'm good. it It worked for my fire stick for like a month. Right. Literally like the second time I opened the app, it's like, we know it's, we know it's not you, Simon.

Speaker: I know it's not you. I'm watching you. You got to verify that it's you, you piece of shit. That's what it said to me.

Speaker: Okay. That's really harsh language for Disney. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. I was actually shocked when it said that to me. Okay, well, yeah. No, I'm very excited to get into it. But I'm taking my time with Andor because I know it's going to be over. this is The second season is the last season and then it goes into Rogue One. And I i kind of i adore it.

Speaker: And i I'm trying to pace it with the game I'm playing. And i yeah, i don't want to i don't want to get i don't want I don't want to rush it in any capacity. But yeah, you're making me excited to get into Season 2.

Speaker: but I'm going to watch Rogue One once I finish Andor Season 2. going to go right into Rogue One. Diego Luna said that's the perfect way that they kind of built the the show is you should watch Rogue One right away because it it like literally butts right up against it in ah in the perfect way. That's what he said.

Speaker: I think we talked about that before. So that's really exciting. Rogue One's really great too. I know. I love Rogue One. Might be my favorite Star Wars movie. Nah, not mine at all. and then um And then I'm going watch the original trilogy and then just kind of end it.

Speaker: I'm just going to end it. My life. Yeah, dude. No, no, no, no, no. My watch for Star Wars. It does kind of bum me out. I was like reading online. It's like, it like as amazing as Andor is, it sucks to know that in 30 years that another empire rises and it fucking is Palpatine and somehow Palpatine returned.

Speaker: And so there's, there's Snoke clones in the, in a jar. Yeah, if only everyone making Star Wars content took it as seriously as Tony Gilroy and his team. That's the moral of the story. I would be genuinely happy if they simply said, hey, that sequel trilogy, not canon.

Speaker: I would be okay with that. They would never that. At this point? I know. Because they don't think that people hate it enough. And it's true. People don't hate it enough. And Force Awakens is... is fine.

Speaker: Yeah. And the last Jedi was great, but then the last Jedi is made bad because of, because of rise of Skywalker. That's the issue. yeah Again, you just got to commit to the bit. You got to commit to your past writing. I can't believe that they would, I still can't believe they would do that. Anyways.

Speaker: It's nuts. I also forgot. i was just ah I just watched an episode of... It was episode eight, I believe, of Andor that Bo Willimon wrote. And he wrote a lot of episodes ah of House of Cards.

Speaker: Actually, he I think he was a showrunner for House of Cards. And was like, oh, Bo Willimon. it's It's so cool. they They got a really cool team going. But it's Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy. They got it going on. They know what's up. I cannot recommend... If anyone's listening to this podcast and you have not watched Andor and you like Star Wars even a little bit, I recommend this...

Speaker: So much. It's crazy. um So, yeah, it's great. It's some of the best television out there, like period, full stop. Yeah. I hope it wins an Emmy this year, like a big, big Emmy, like an acting Emmy or writing or like a directing Emmy.

Speaker: like I'm hoping. I hope it wins every Emmy. Every single one available. They go well win technical Emmys because that's kind of what these kinds of science fiction projects end up being, end up doing. But if it's as good as you described for season two, I hope that it's a big, big one. It should. I think, I still think Pedro Pascal is going to win the Emmy for best actor.

Speaker: um Yeah. It's, did you hear that they're still putting him up for, yeah, they get to choose what they nominate him for. Yeah. What they submitted for, for nomination. Yeah. I should say. Yeah. anyway Yeah. It's weird.

Speaker: It's a strange one. Yeah. Yeah. Cause, Yeah. But he's in... it would be so You know what the thing is, is that I'm pretty sure when they submit somebody for an Emmy, they submit them... If I'm recalling correctly, when you submit directing and and acting, I think... Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe acting's not that way. Directing is that way. you The directed episode is what gets submitted. Like Neil could win... Neil Druckmann could win best... Actually, that honestly, could.

Speaker: for For episode six, he could win best director because they submitted by episode. I'm thinking now I don't think that's like that for acting. think you actually submit the whole season. Yeah, it's just lead actor or supporting.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, yeah, that's too bad. But if they get submitted for just episode six, like that's a shoe and I think he wins immediately. So I'm curious to see what they, what will happen at this year's. I mean, but it also depends on what else, who else is up.

Speaker: Like there's also a lot of shows that haven't even been aired yet. And I'm trying to think who else would get nominated. We haven't seen obviously every show, so I'm not sure, but. I've seen every single one, actually. Okay, well then tell me, who else is eligible for this? Who's gonna who's going to potentially get Best Actor?

Speaker: in the Emmys in 2025. It's a secret. Okay. I'm keeping it to myself. That's good. I can't, I can't think of anybody right now, but I'm sure maybe sound like i could see. um so I was just going to say, yeah, severance.

Speaker: It's a big one. Yeah. Adam Scott. i think honestly, Ben Stiller might win directing. I think of Ben Stiller versus Neil Druckmann to, in some extent, to some extent, it could be Ben Stiller multiple times, multiple episodes for Ben Stiller, maybe.

Speaker: Well, Seth Rogen and Nevin Goldberg, I think, will be up for the studio. These studios are so fucking good too. Oh, yeah. That's great. Do they do different categories for comedy for Emmys?

Speaker: They do. Yeah. Yeah, they do because it's – Is it comedy or musical? Or am I thinking of Golden Globes? and No, they definitely do this for the Emmys, but I'm i'm wondering if they do it for directing. I don't know if they separate in the directing category, um but I'm riffing here and it's going to take too long to look it up. So but we'll know it by the Emmys and we'll discuss it then Adrian.

Speaker: Okay. Well, cool. Sorry, were you going to say something that's it. That's it. Continue. No, it's fine. Don't you worry about it. Oh, I'm not worried. It's all good. Do you have anything else you want to talk about that you watched this week that you're – this last two weeks that you're keen on talking about?

Speaker: Oh, I was – what I was saying about – Oh, the studio is done. studio is The studio done. It's so dude. The plane thing is interesting. I typically just pick stuff that I've already watched for the plane because I think this is the better plan um like if i was you're in your shoes on the plane i would have went done and or season one and then when i got back done and or season two oh good for you man i'm glad that's what you do because it's just tricky to get the full experience on the plane because even if you have really good headphones as you're wearing your airpods pro you kind of still get the seeping of the plane sounds because it's just too loud so anyway but i'm glad you're enjoying you're still enjoying it despite the plane so good for you thanks

Speaker: Okay. I don't watch all episodes of Andor on the plane. I do want to clarify. Okay. Sorry. You watched the studio, the finale, and it's excellent. Yeah. Yeah. Goddamn.

Speaker: but The studio is so good. if you Even if you're not into the film industry, I think it's worth a watch, but especially if you're into the film industry, the amount of cameos in it is jarring, um amazing.

Speaker: acting on all fronts, the cinematography, the directing, honestly, it's it's impeccable. Like that, that's a genuinely stellar show. but I was sitting here thinking like, man, we we've had such good TV in just the first six months of this year.

Speaker: It's bananas with severance, with the studio, with and, or with one episode of the last of us season two. like You're so negative on that show.

Speaker: crazy it's Like so good, dude. Yeah. So good. But yeah, anyways, Okay. Sounds good. All right, moving on. Adrian, it's time now to take a look at the season finale, episode seven of The Last of Us, season two on HBO.

Speaker: What did you think of this particular episode, sir? Simon, I feel like I got whiplash. Because we went from the best episode of this season to the worst episode of the show by far, in my personal opinion.

Speaker: Whoa. Interesting. I think the best part of this episode... um or the best parts of this episode was the previously on leading into this episode. and And how it was good, wasn't it? It was really cool.

Speaker: what ah What a neat, the way it begins is incredible. It was incredibly well edited. um The first scene um with two characters, specifically going through some hardships.

Speaker: And then the last two scenes of the episode, um the end, yeah, the the end, I think was really good. um The in-between, i would go as far to say was pretty awful, actually.

Speaker: have a lot of issues with it. And this is actually probably the first time that it's not just because they changed a bunch of stuff from the game. It's... because a lot of things actually don't make sense.

Speaker: And one of my points that I made in the past as well, um, how this, this show is made for a dumber audience compared to the audience of the game was the most prevalent.

Speaker: Um, things are so on the nose. I, yeah, i I completely disagree with that sentiment. Yeah. I really hated it. Um, so that sentiment, I can't disagree more. I feel like it,

Speaker: It doesn't explain enough, actually. it's That's interesting. yeah I don't even know what you're referring to. I'll point it out. Obviously, we'll dive into it. Yeah, like I'll tell you like what was so on the nose and like very ham-fisted nature. and Man, I was left incredibly disappointed.

Speaker: um Okay, good to know. i didn't Really bones me out. Okay, all right. Well, i I should give some context, I suppose. This is obviously episode seven. It's it's directed by lesser-known director...

Speaker: whoa and ni Nina Lopez Corrado is her name. And this is written by Hallie Gross, Neil Druckmann, and Craig Mazin again, just like the last episode was, which is your favorite episode of the show overall, ah which is interesting too.

Speaker: So yeah, Nina Lopez Corrado, it's hard to really put a pin in the things she's done for me. Like I've seen some of the things I think she's directed, but it's not they're not... huge things i made a mistake by the way when we were talking privately i said that she directed episode seven of uh season one she didn't don't know why i said that i took that out of the by the way i took that out of our review okay um so so that i i clarified is that what you're about to say sorry you put your hand no i was gonna say like we made the mistake last week as well we called we were saying hayley gross i knew it was hallie

Speaker: i do i watched the i watched the the documentary, Last Person Part 2, but you said it was such conviction. i was like, oh, maybe I'm wrong. and i just went Well, I said Halle Gross the episode before. Oh, just only reason i said The only reason I said Haley Gross is because I looked it up on Google again and gave me the wrong pronunciation.

Speaker: it's always gonna It's always got to get go that way, you know? Yeah, i looked it up and it it and it read it to me. I'm like, I swear to God that would be Hallie. Oh, well, I guess that's right. And then and then I listened to an ah interview ah with Neil Druckmann and I was like, yeah, I thought it was Hallie. Oops.

Speaker: oh well that's why i said it that's why it's like a flip-flop back and forth anyway yeah that's what you're going to point out nothing to do with what i'm saying okay well that's uh that's pretty much oh actually that's not what was going to say uh i will say some of the acting this in this episode was uh pretty great and i don't want to spoil anything so i won't get there but there's some really really great moments um yeah in particular and so i'll mention that Yeah. and And again, like everything that stands in the previous episodes, that was good, like in terms of set design and everything like that was was really good.

Speaker: I can't complain about that. I think, again, i do agree. The acting was pretty great in some parts. um But yeah, i have I have a lot of negatives in this episode and and i'm I'm shocked.

Speaker: and It's funny, the set design aspect is good in some aspects. There's some parts of it, though. I find that the CG is kind of throws me off a little bit in terms of the city shots. It's always been like that, though. This whole show, from season one to season two, it doesn't matter.

Speaker: I find that it's like the the shots of the city with the overgrown buildings. and i just I just kind of suspension of disbelief type situation. It's like seeing Indiana Jones. Yeah. ah in the in the Dial of Destiny and you're seeing the young Indiana Jones in that movie and you're like, okay, that's fine. I get used to it in a few minutes. It's it's a little bit uncanny valley, but you know, it's fine because they de-aged Harrison Ford in that movie.

Speaker: was Spoilers. He's in that movie. Harrison Ford. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Um, he is. Sorry. Uh, sorry to spoil that for you, but yeah, that's it. That's a, that's it for the non-spoiler review for us, but, uh, yeah. Okay. Moving on to the thing we watched together.

Speaker: Friendship. The Tim Robbins is what we have. You and i yeah, that's what we call it. Friendship. Me and you. True. Yeah. F is for friendship. You and me.

Speaker: Friendship. Um, But yeah, you and I as friends went to see Friendship, the the movie directed by Andrew DeYoung and starring Tim Robinson in a very prominent role in it.

Speaker: What else is there to say about it? I mean, the theater we saw it in was only really playing the movie for a few days. I don't know if that's going to get extended based on how many tickets they sold. But it doesn't seem to be a super wide release for 2025.

Speaker: ah But the theater we were in was fairly packed, actually. it was like half the theater full, maybe maybe a third at worst. So that was good. That was cool.

Speaker: ah Yeah, what did you think? You love Tim Robinson. I know you like think you should leave like quite a bit. That's maybe your favorite comedy ever. uh not my favorite but it's up there for tv show no no no not for tv like oh okay no i i like other comedies more i i love i think you should leave don't get me wrong i reference it consistently but that's why i think that yeah because you're always to It's just a very referenceable show, Simon.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, that's true. But yeah, this movie was um pretty good. I liked it. Yeah. um It's like I think the the hype behind this movie was a little bit overblown. Like everyone's like, this is the funniest movie of all time.

Speaker: And at least for me, I don't think it was. I think it is quite funny. There's a lot of funny moments. Right. I was in a state of discomfort more than I was in a state of laughter, I think. yeah.

Speaker: For this movie. And yeah I was kind of sitting there being like, you know, I really I'm really enjoying this, but I genuinely believe like that Tim Robinson style of comedy in particular is best served in bite sized. Smaller doses. Yeah. This is like, ah it's an overload.

Speaker: And it's like, there's something about the idea of, so like, imagine any of the sketches in any of the, I think you should leave sketches, right? And you just, you, you, you continue the sketch for after what happens after the sketch.

Speaker: And like, yeah you can't, it's almost unsustainable. And that's what actually to some extent, this this movie is a tragedy more so than it is a comedy. Dude, I know. It's like what? It's almost torture to watch. But yeah it the thing that's brilliant about it is that the director, writer Andrew DeYoung, he somehow derails the train so many times and he somehow brings it back onto the track.

Speaker: yeah I don't know how I think about it. I'm like, I can see where it goes back on the track, but I'm like, you, you lost us. And then you got us back again the as the audience in the theater. It's, it's pretty remarkable actually, but it is very uncomfortable and it is much more of a tragedy, like ah a tragic, it's like a tragic comedy.

Speaker: Yeah. It's a Shakespearean play. Yeah. Yeah. That's sure. Yeah. Yeah. it's It's something. It's something. Yeah. it's It's a torture to watch. Dude, it's rough.

Speaker: It's rough. I was like. and yeah In a good way, though. In a good way. Yeah. Torture in a good way, you know? That's something everyone says. Yeah, it's it's interesting as well because, like again, our theater is quite packed.

Speaker: but yeah Our theater was relatively quiet for most of the movie, all things considered. And I feel like this there was like this energy within the theater of like there's, like I don't know what, 50, 60 people sitting here all in a state of extreme discomfort for a lot of this movie.

Speaker: yeah um And I'll be honest, the start is quite slow. like it does like There isn't like a punchline for quite some time at the beginning and you're just kind of waiting for like the shoe to drop and for shit to get wacky.

Speaker: And when it does, let me got, let me tell you, it fucking gets wacky, dude. Like a little, it's, It's so absurd, man. The level of of absurdity is just ah unbelievable.

Speaker: And this is like a movie I like finished. And originally my fiance was going to watch it. And then she was kind of like, ah, you know, I don't like she doesn't really love. I think you should leave all that much. Like she laughs occasionally, but she thinks it's a little much.

Speaker: Right. I genuinely believe she would have fucking hated this movie. I think she would have probably stood up and walked out because she doesn't like that bad She would ever walk out of any movie. I don't know. She may have just like closed her eyes for for most of it because she like she she doesn't like cringe comedy all that much. And she doesn't like the feeling of discomfort. And this movie is cringe comedy at its finest. What it what is it if it's not cringe comedy? I guess.

Speaker: Yeah. Like, what is it? I have no fucking clue. This is it's it's great it's a trip, man. Like, I don't know. I have I've been like kind of fluctuating my opinion on it all positive.

Speaker: But how positive is like the real question? Because there are some genuinely hilarious moments in this movie, like where I like wheezed and like tears came from my eyes from laughter.

Speaker: But I think as a whole, Again, the that that discomfort outweighed the hilarity lot of the time. Yeah. I guess to talk a little bit about the plot, it's it's it's all in the trailer. Tim Robinson, yeah he gets a new like neighbor um who's played by Paul Rudd.

Speaker: Right. Meets him because he gets a package delivered to his house, goes to Paul Rudd's house and becomes friends with Paul Rudd. but Yeah, because Paul Rudd invites him for some reason to to have a drink after work. Yeah.

Speaker: and It's like, oh, let's hang out. and yeah Perfectly normal to start to some extent. And then some weird shit happens between them because Tim Robinson is a – he's a he's is like a lot of the characters that he does in the sketches. So yeah in like a world that seems to be relatively grounded, right ah he's a psychopath. like craig like This guy's a fucking insane human being. Craig is unhinged.

Speaker: Yeah. So it's like, he's surrounded by these relatively normal people. um and you know, like you're, you're with a really weird dude. Just think about it in your personal life. You know, you've met people, everyone has where you're man, I would not be friends with this person.

Speaker: Um, I kind of regret spending time with this human being cause they're fucking weird. And that's essentially the premise. Paul Rudd becomes friends with them. and then it's like, actually, I don't want to be your friend. Kind of like, um,

Speaker: um Banshees of Inesherin. It's like a... Yeah. Yeah. yeah I was thinking about that recently because I saw, like, this morning I saw a meme with Banshees Inesherin.

Speaker: And so I was like, oh, it's kind of related to this. But like in a... not the opposite way, but it is like, it is kind of the opposite way of that movie. Yeah. In a way, I guess you have to watch Banjo the Minisher and i don't want to spoil it, but yeah, it's interesting because it's like Paul Rudd's character is fairly normal and he, he doesn't want to be you know Craig's friend anymore Tim Robinson's character's friend anymore and so then but there's a good there's a good reason for it um there's many good reasons one might one might think or argue it's it's nuts

Speaker: it's and It's nuts. There's so many insane moments. And there's lots of moments where the theater laughed out loud, to be fair. Yeah, definitely. But that's part of the beauty of it is this's like this these moments of craziness and awkwardness for the audience. And then it breaks.

Speaker: like Some of the audience is like kind of laughing out of relief. really It's like a relief. Like, that was funny. I can i could say that was funny.

Speaker: Kate Morrow is also a standout, I find. like She plays like Craig's wife. So I thought she was great as well. There's some moments there. there's some moments where they like andrew de young like holds the camera like in spots he just like amplifies the awkwardness because he doesn't want it he'd never he just he commits to the bit like completely it's funny when i left the theater um i was kind of i was kind of depressed actually i felt this movie made me depressed a weird way like i questioned whether i'm that socially awkward

Speaker: yeah that i was leaving like I don't know. I don't think you are. I don't know. I don't know. If you have to say it, I feel like Jesus. Thanks a lot. But no, I didn't think it for real, but I was just thinking like, man, that's so.

Speaker: This is a devastating film. if because you It's devastating. He's also so lonely. It's like it's like a kind of a movie about loneliness in a weird way, too. you know what I mean?

Speaker: Yeah, it is, dude. It is. This guy just wants a fucking friend. But he's – you can't be like that and have friends. It it doesn't work out. It puts into the question. It's like how did he get a wife in the first place? How does he have a child?

Speaker: Like it's crazy, man. it's It's wild. But then then the movie kind of explains it in some way. Yeah. I don't really understand. Like she's a strange person too. There's lots of strangeness. Even Paul Rudd's character is strange too. He's not that normal.

Speaker: There are more normal people that surround Craig than those three. Those two, I should say. Or his son is weird. A little weird. Yes. so There's some moments in there that was like, what? And they never explain certain things that are just so wacky.

Speaker: Just wackadoodle nonsense. it's It's a great movie. I really like it, to be honest. The more I thought about it, the more i didn't like it at certain parts in the movie. i was like, maybe this movie's bad.

Speaker: And then it comes back again. He derails the train and he somehow gets it back on the track. And he definitely gets it into the station by the end. I was like, I don't know. i and how I'm like, how is he going to end this movie? Like the two thirds mark, I'm like, this guy can't end this. this is There's nothing you can do. What are you going to do here?

Speaker: The thing is, is that they also follow, I can't so i don't want to spoil it, but I'll just say this vaguely. They follow that a classic theatrical trope. That you kind of have to do.

Speaker: I think you'll know what I'm talking about. know exactly what you're talking about. something Gilligan talked about when he was wrapping up Breaking Bad. Vince Gilligan is just so good. Imagine Vince Gilligan making a Star Wars thing. That'd be cool.

Speaker: I like that. Where's Vince gillen Gilligan? I haven't seen him since Better Call Saul. He's making a show, isn't he? Isn't it coming out on AMC eventually? I don't know. But yeah, yeah, that it's, yeah, it's, it's something.

Speaker: This is truly something you just can't look away from. i have a note here. It says, you just can't look away from the dumpster fire that rages.

Speaker: The dumpster fire that rages, Adrian, it just rages on and you have, you just can't look at what you're like. oh

Speaker: help this guy get out of this and help everyone else in the room get out of the situation with Tim Robinson's character please please please like give please help them help them all get get out of the situation

Speaker: like it's maybe the wackiest movie I've ever seen that's a good movie it's it's not a surprise that it's only A24 yeah I think I think it makes sense to be A24 produced yeah I don't know anything else you want to add

Speaker: No, I think that about covers it. it's ah Yeah. i wouldn't If you don't like I Think You Should Leave, i like you will not like this movie. No, you could tell that the people in the theater that we were in definitely like i think i think they liked Tim Robinson. They like his brand of comedy, and they liked I Think You Should Leave probably as his most well-known thing.

Speaker: so i don't know if you noticed, in the road directly in front of us, there's a couple – Yeah. um And a man and a woman. And when the lights turned on there, there, there's like the woman sitting there. And I just remember her turning there where the wards her boyfriend. And she had this like a look of despair in her eyes.

Speaker: and I was like, Oh, she fucking hated this. ah was like, that, that is what, that is what Cassandra would have been like. I think so. That's what Dawn would have been like too, but she wouldn't walk out. I don't think, I think Dawn would have also disliked this greatly.

Speaker: I agree. Yeah. I'm glad she didn't come to this. I called her after when I was leaving the theater because, again, I felt lonely. There's something – I was with you, but there's something – you did a funny thing where I was walking towards my car in the dark parking lot. You were standing there, and then you said goodbye, and then you were standing in a weird parking spot, like three parking spots away from your vehicle. and it was an empty parking spot otherwise, it was dark out because it's like 11 p.m.

Speaker: I'm walking away, and I look back, and you're just standing there awkwardly with your hands to your side like – a strange child. And you're just looking at me and you just like nod at me. And then I like walked back to my car. I walked really slowly because I'm like, if I, my car is like about 50 yards away.

Speaker: If I look away, look back, is he going to be there? I'm like, yes, it is. He's going to be there. I'm going to see how much he's going to commit to this bit. And then I'm going to get to the car and then I'm going to turn around very slowly. And I'm going to see him in that parking spot, just standing there, two cars away, you know, two parking spots away from his car. And you know, you did it.

Speaker: You committed to committed to the bit, just like this movie did. Really. was impressive. I appreciate it. I appreciated that very much. Thanks. But I also felt very lonely. There's something also about that, you standing there like that, and me looking back, you frightened me a little bit. That was...

Speaker: There's just something psychological there that just – it frightened my very being. I don't know. I can't quite explain it. There's also the aspect of it being dark in that parking lot. i don't know. There's something – I have like bad – there's like bad juju in that parking lot. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. It's just some kind of – I don't know what is. Seven people died there.

Speaker: one Imagine it was like on a burial ground for something. It's like an ancient burial ground. Yeah, like ah like when those like news stations in Canada have to like say, like, we're filming this on the memorial ground of, insert, like the like the Native American tribe. Right.

Speaker: Yeah, sad. Yeah. But, you know, yeah. you I think what also it was too, is that when we were leaving, the the ah the the manager opened the door to check to see who's outside.

Speaker: and he looked me dead dead in the eyes. He looked at me dead in the eyes. And this is the same manager, if you remember, audience, that we took got free tickets from because we complained that the 3D movie didn't have 3D because it didn't.

Speaker: and We watched Thunderbolts and didn't have 3D. And so we complained. And so he looked me in the eyes and I nodded at him like friendly nod and I smiled. And then he ignored me completely. He turned away and just shut the door.

Speaker: and But he looked me in the eye, like dead in the eye. And i'm like, oh, man. So again, loneliness. I wonder if he was in the theater and he also had that. news ah i feel like you leave this movie and you just feel like you're just...

Speaker: There's a despair. I think the best tend to but tagline for the movie is, it should just been the picture of Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson in that ridiculous dining clothing. What the hell? you I don't even understand that joke. He buys clothing from a dining joint of some sort. Anyway, his clothing is ridiculous. His jacket's five sizes too big.

Speaker: Anyway, it should just be that poster. And then it should say friendship but in you know the big letters. And then the bottom should just say the tagline is despair. That's it. That's the best way to describe it.

Speaker: Yeah, because the tagline actually, which we both noticed as we walked into the movie theater, it's men shouldn't have friends or whatever. Like that's a pretty good tagline. I don't know. like I think neither of us knew that. Yeah, we missed that.

Speaker: I don't know how, but yeah, yeah no, it's a, I recommend it to people who like, I think you should leave or that i have a very open mind.

Speaker: Cause it's not your traditional comedy. Let's say that. Yeah, fair enough. fair enough okay let's oh sorry i'll give you this first uh stab at the score what are you gonna score this baby ah it's tough man i feel like this is gonna change yeah yeah maybe every like honestly it's changed like 18 times in the span of this conversation i'm gonna i'm gonna fall in the middle i think it's a 3.5 out of 5 oh for me um it could have been a four It could have been a three as well. i think it just specifically... ah it it' It depends on which scene I'm thinking about, I think, genuinely.

Speaker: Because I didn't like the way it made me feel. Yeah. ah Even as I described, in the parking lot, in the theater parking lot, it yeah made me feel uneasy. I was very uneasy leaving the theater.

Speaker: But I guess that's what art is. Art is supposed to bring out emotion, so maybe it's a four because of that. I... You just give me a score. Nothing that it matters. We're not going to have this one on paper because we're not and necessarily going to. Okay. I don't know. I guess – I guess 3.5. I'll just stick with that.

Speaker: That is my score. i I scored that last night and and I haven't changed it. It's 3.5 out of five. Yeah. I, I, uh, it's funny. I don't rate comedies too high. Very often. I realized comedy is such an acquired taste. We talked about this before. It's very subjective.

Speaker: I typically like most comedies though. If it's considered good in any circle, I typically like them. I just don't necessarily rate them very highly. It's a strange thing with me. Hmm.

Speaker: thinking about like what comedies have I rated fairly highly. i feel like... I don't know. trying to think. Step Brothers. That one's not rated that highly for me. I like it, though. I like i think it's great.

Speaker: it's just so That's cringy, too. That's a different kind of cringy. Talladega Nights is, well, the same thing. Like, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. And actually, I Love You, Man. Like, a the Paul Rudd movie.

Speaker: That one I really like. Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Yeah, right. Another... Another um Jason Segel movie. Yeah, that's really good movie. Didn't I Love You Man, who wrote that too, Jason Segel?

Speaker: I don't know. I'm realizing that I really like Jason Segel. I think he just writes. You should marry him. No, I like his work. I think that was implied.

Speaker: Should I just catch you on that every time you say, oh, I really like really love Neil Druckmann. was like, you should marry him. ah Hilarious. You could. You could do that, man. It's up to you.

Speaker: yeah because it's not funny. why won't do it. All right. Comedy police over here. We got the comedy police here. Why do literally talk about being comedy police? Yeah. um um By the way, I looked up Vince Gilligan. He has a new show coming out on Apple TV that's slated for this summer.

Speaker: What is it called? It's just a working title right now, but it's Ycaro 339. W-Y-C-A-R-O 339. three three nine Oh, interesting.

Speaker: It has no official plot synopsis, and that that's its working title. On Wikipedia, it literally says Untitled untitled Vince Gilligan Series. Okay. And it stars Ray Sehorne as well. Oh, cool.

Speaker: That's great. She's great. Yeah, she's awesome. Yeah. I'm really... I'm really looking forward to not exactly related to Vince Gilligan, but it's related in that it's a crime drama and i find Ozark pulls a lot from Breaking Bad and what kind of came before it.

Speaker: I'm really excited about Black Rabbit on Netflix, but there's just nothing coming out about it. that We don't know when the date is, the Jason Bateman. ah Yeah. Oh, yeah. about that. The thing with Jason Bateman starring in it and Jude Law starring in it. And it's... Yeah.

Speaker: i'm I'm kind of... I don't know where it is. I have no idea. So I'm very excited about that, but it's got no date. I think it's going to come out by the fall, but we'll see.

Speaker: Okay. Let's move on, I guess. That's a review of Friendship. That's a 7 out of 10, Adrian. 7 out of 10. That's not bad. Not bad at all. That's fresh. That explains why it's 90. But you crazy though, when I came out of theater too, I thought, how is that movie not divisive?

Speaker: How is it not more divisive? Is and is it a 90 right now? I'm going to type it in right now into randomness. I'm pretty sure that movie is a, like it's still like around a 90. It's an 89%. And the movie drop is around the same score.

Speaker: And you're saying that it's a plot whole city and. It's crazy. The popcorn meter is 74%. So still that's high. Yeah. There's like some strange anomalies on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think this is kind of one of them in a strange way, and I think Drop might be one of them. That was kind of what was drawing parallels with here.

Speaker: But okay. All right. Well, that's it. That's all of what we've all that we watched this bi-week, Adrian. Let's now move on to a segment of our show that I like to call ah Look to the Future.

Speaker: Wow. Huge. A portion of our podcast where each of us present at least three of our picks for the TV series or movies that look most interesting to us that are releasing between the dates of June 3rd and June 16th, 2025.

Speaker: twenty twenty five Adrian, as is customary, I'll let you go first. Which movie or tv show sorry yeah movie or TV show are you most excited for in this two-week period?

Speaker: Simon, I think the most exciting TV movie I'll be looking for to come is the um what is it called it's called ballerina oh yeah what is it called you're so excited about it you don't remember what it's called it's one word it's called the world of from the world of john wick ballerina that's coming out on june 6th it's the anadarmus starring movie that's in the world of john wick and it's called ballerina she plays a ballerina

Speaker: no no action actually just dancing the entire time just just dancing yeah no no yeah there's no words either no no no words either no dialogueish yeah it's a nice little nice little film like that but yeah it stars norman reedus as well we got um ian mcshane as well we got lance reddick yeah it's sad heartbreaking miss that guy every day of my life actually i think about him Not every day, but I think about him a lot.

Speaker: I love him. do think about him too, man. I don't know what it is. Why is he so impactful? like I don't know what that's about. i think like we we have more of a connection with him because of our connection with video games as well. I think that's part of it. like I'm playing off and on just to kind of just slowly get through it because it's just such so beautiful graphically, but I'm playing Forbidden West, like Horizon Forbidden West. People really love him from Destiny too, but his role in Horizon Forbidden West is...

Speaker: unmistakable, and it makes me sad also that they're making a movie and he won't be in it, and he's just so he he's so perfect. I don't know. what can you even How can you even replace him in that game? I don't know. His his his likeness is in it. He's motion captured. It's just...

Speaker: It's really tragic. His roles are never huge. That role is pretty big. In Horizon? yeah Yeah, it's pretty big. It's pretty significant. oh significant it's he's yeah He's honestly the most mysterious and significant character in that series, arguably.

Speaker: He's so interesting. as He's the most fascinating character, I think. And in this movie, Ballerina and John Wick 1 through 4, he's not the most significant character. But...

Speaker: he He sticks with me, though, because he he performs it so well. He has gravitas. Yeah. did you ever watch The Wire? I can't remember. No. I always intended to. That's a show that I want to watch, and that's a big he's a big player in that as well.

Speaker: Fringe Dude? Oh yeah. Fringe. He's, um he's in lost man. So much gravitas in lost so much. He reminds me like Richard, Richard Alpert in, in lost.

Speaker: They're just, that there's like a mystery there with team those, with those characters that you just can't, you can't even almost place. Yeah. say Okay. Yeah. Ballerina. What's your choice?

Speaker: Have we seen that together? Ballerina at some point? We've got seem to see Mission Impossible first, obviously. Yeah, I want to watch Mission Impossible. i do want to watch Ballerina. It's just... Dude, there's so many fucking movies. Like, we've got a lot to catch up on. I've got three movies that I want to watch in theaters right now.

Speaker: Technically, I wanted to watch Clown in a Cornfield, but I don't think I'm going get around to that. like Right. um I'm trying to catch up on video games quite a bit too. um So that's a big problem for me is like I'm trying to because a very big video game month for me, especially because it's also a video game announcement month, like there'll so many announcements this month, like just because it's been showcases announced.

Speaker: And then combine that with the games I'm trying to catch up on before Death Stranding 2 on the beach. Hideo Kojima game. So it's just too much. I've got too much to consume within a very short period, like really amazing games and movies and TV shows. There's not enough time, dude. There's not enough time. Yeah.

Speaker: We have full-time jobs. can you do? But okay, my first pick is – think I'm going to go with this one. going to go with Stick. I don't know saw this, but it's the Apple TV Plus show with Owen Wilson. He plays an ex-golfer. He really screws up professionally.

Speaker: Here's the thing about this. Reviewed badly. Didn't know that. I just saw it on Rotten Tomatoes, but reviewed badly only by four or five reviewers, not by many. So it' it's not really ah sure thing, but I think oh i typed it in Rotten Tomatoes and it didn't actually come up.

Speaker: Oh, here it is. um Yeah, so so far reviewed by a few people. It's got a really cool cast. I really like Owen Wilson, so it's cool. The weird thing about this is the trailer. It's doing what we've been criticizing. What was that movie recently that was doing that where it was just like, by the creators of this thing. And they're like, that's not even the same people. They're doing that with this and Ted Lasso.

Speaker: Ironheart, right. They're like, oh, Ryan Coogler, by purdue executive producer who direct who produced Creed ah and Creed 2 and Creed 3 and Black Panther. It's like, wow, those are good movies. like This is going to be a great great TV show, Ironheart is. and And we have no idea what might be, but it doesn't look that great in the trailer. That's like the most... like shiny thing in it.

Speaker: In this trailer, one of the shiny things I decided to point out is that because it's like a Ted Lasso comedy, feel-good comedy, there and it's a sports comedy, that's the idea, they're kind of drawing parallels to Ted Lasso. they said I think they said, if I'm recalling correctly, from the from the studio that made that it gave you Ted Lasso.

Speaker: And so it's like, but it has nothing to do with Bill Lawrence or... Brett Goldstein or Jason Siegel. like no, Jason Siegel. Well, I guess that would have been a good example because it's shrinking, but it it doesn't have those guys. It doesn't have Jason Sudeikis involved.

Speaker: So I'm skeptical this would be really great because the reviews are so middling so far, but there was one review that was okay positive. it was like seven out of 10. There's only like, again, there's only four and they're not incredibly well-known reviewers except for Collider. I think that was the only one that was like significant, but you saw the trailer for this?

Speaker: Yeah, I did. Yeah. It looked interesting. Like, I feel like it's a premise that's kind of been done before. um Just it's about golf. Washed golfer. Yeah.

Speaker: But it's like. Trains a prodigy. Yeah. It'd be cool. It could be cool as like a show though. there's ah There's an element of it when I was watching the trailer that it reminded me of Flaked actually. Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know why. I was really like Flaked a lot. Me too. That's one of the most underrated shows ever. And the music in Flaked is so good. It fits so well. Will Arnett is so good in that Netflix show. there was once no two They got two seasons out of that somehow.

Speaker: Remarkable. yeah I don't know how many people were watching Really good stuff, dude. Really good stuff. Yeah, hopefully it's like that. But anyway, what's your next pick? um So honestly, there's not much else that I'm really looking forward to in the coming weeks. However, there is ah the Shane Gillis show Tires, the second season.

Speaker: It's coming out ah June 5th on Netflix. I didn't watch the first season. i think jane Shane Gillis is funny. I watched a standup special on Netflix. It's it's hilarious.

Speaker: ah But again, I didn't watch the show. I don't know how good it is or not. um Doubt I'll get around to watching it maybe one day. But yeah, that's coming out June 5th. Gotcha. Yeah.

Speaker: Cool. All right. My next pick is going to be a big one for many fans of this series. I imagine I've never watched any of these movies. I feel like I should watch one of them.

Speaker: but like the first one maybe, but How to Train Your Dragon on June 13th. It's a live action remake of the How to Train Your Dragon animated show. And it looks really true to it, just based on comparisons. And it looks like... I just wonder if it will matter that much because a lot of these live action remakes are just ah rehashing exactly like beat for beat. And people have a criticism of that. But when they don't change enough...

Speaker: they don't change enough they get criticized. And when they change too much, they get criticized because of the nature of, of it being the same length of this original movie. Cause what are you going to do? You're not adding anything. It's not like making the last of us from a game into a movie or a TV show as an example, in this case and on HBO, that is different. Cause you can,

Speaker: You can riff on it and you're playing a game. So that it's a different medium that you can kind of adjust. You don't have much to adjust here. You just have now the technology to make the CG din ah dinosaur, the CG flying dinosaur, the CG dragon, which you couldn't do initially when this movie had come out years ago. When did this come out, the original movie, 2008, how old is How to Train Your Dragon? Let me check. I'll check that for you right now. How Your Dragon.

Speaker: Anyway, so that's that is going to be exciting for more my god many people. Did you... I didn't realize how to train your dragon was it's a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah. 2010. It's a good movie. I actually watched it. I said 2009. I think so.

Speaker: That's not bad. That was pretty good guess, but sorry. Were you able to say, do you have a connection to how to train your dragon? I watched it. Yeah. I watched the first one. I i can't remember. i Maybe I even watched the second or the third one as well.

Speaker: Um, but I remember the first one. It's good, man. It's fun. It's heartfelt. It's funny. Um,

Speaker: It's as good as Paddington 2, apparently. Well, no. that one guy That one guy, years later, decided to rate Paddington 2 negatively.

Speaker: yeah because You know what? Paddington 2 is not as good as I think it is. yeah oh Oh, there's two. There's two of them. Filmauthority.com and some guy from Medium Popcorn.

Speaker: They both rated a 2 out of 5. Dude, they those those outlets are as reputable as we are. Hashtag clickbait. Am I right? Yeah. It's a good way to get it. It's a good way to get people clicking on your and your thing. I mean, I just talked about it. So there you go. I just gave them their tiny moment in the sun for the five viewers that are listening to this in New Zealand, you know?

Speaker: But okay, cool. Yeah. How to turn your dragon. you're going to watch this live action remake or what? Maybe one day. I'm in no rush to see it, man. If I'm going to watch a live action remake, it's going to be Lilo and Stich.

Speaker: Right. Lilo and Snitch. All right. What's your next pick? um So again, not too many interesting things coming out, but there is a movie. I think that it's like set in between the first and second season of the anime, Netflix anime TV show, Dan to Don, Dan to Don.

Speaker: um Apparently it's really good. Don to Don, Dan to Dan. Huh. Dan to Dan. I don't know how to say it. I haven't watched it. Apparently it's really good though. Like the first season really good. Like i have multiple friends that have watched it that recommend it to me.

Speaker: It's easily accessible on Netflix. Who knows? Maybe I'll add it to my watch list and I'll watch it on my flight. Okay. But yeah, there's a movie. It's called Dan to Dan and coming out June 6th. You don't have be shamed to not watch Andor on your flight. It's okay.

Speaker: I feel bad. Okay, go. Do it. Do it. I'm going to watch it. Good for you. I'm happy for you. All right. So my next pick is a movie.

Speaker: a movie starring huge stars, I'd argue, especially one of which is just blowing up. This is the year, his year, arguably. It's Pedro Pascal's Materialists.

Speaker: oh Materialists is coming out on June 13th. And it's directed by Celine Song. Oh, she's the one that did past lives, right? Correct.

Speaker: Very good. Past lives. Did you see that? No, I really wanted to. It's on my list. Yeah. um But Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans, and Dakota Johnson in a romantic comedy.

Speaker: Where they're rich people trying to date in the modern world. Is that what is that is that what I get out of the trailer? i don't know. What I got out of the trailer is that like um Dakota Johnson's character, she's like a matchmaker.

Speaker: Right. and But she's never like been able to find a love. And then she met Pedro Pascal's character and he's like a like a billionaire. Right. yeah She's like, why does this guy like me? And then I think she meets up with like an old friend.

Speaker: Right. Like a childhood friend. Yeah. Evans. Yes. And he's like a poor dude. And presumably she'll end up with Chris Evans by the end or maybe not. Maybe it's a tragedy. Yeah.

Speaker: It's like, I mean, come on, dude. Like if they're both nice people and one guy's a billionaire and the other guy's not like. You're going to pick the billionaire. Yeah. Why the fuck wouldn't you? Right, because if they're both nice. But maybe maybe there's going to be skeletons in Pedro Pascal's character's closet, and he just seems like a charming fella. They're both handsome dudes, so that's not the the factor. Maybe he's not as nice as it seems on the surface, Adrian. That's the story.

Speaker: Based on looks alone, who would you go for? me Yeah. I'm not really into and to fellas, but... Who would you go for? I asked you first, man. don't really know. They're both handsome gentlemen.

Speaker: Are you know he talking about the actors themselves or the billionaire, like the characters? However you want to take it. I'll leave it up here. Because the characters, I mean, there's an aspect of it being a billionaire. So am I going to be like a gold digger?

Speaker: Is that what you're saying? Maybe. Pedro Pascal, if we're looking at the actors, I must say, like it it seems like Pedro Pascal would be... a ah He's like a friend to all, isn't he?

Speaker: He just seems like there's no one that dislikes him in the film industry. like Everyone seems to love the guy. I got to say. it's It's pretty impressive. He just seems like a genuinely nice person. And that's kind of difficult. and I feel like...

Speaker: I don't know. That job can not, obviously, they're actors, but they can be high stress in certain aspects. They're trying to like dive into a character, and they're like getting vulnerable, so their emotions are kind of like hanging out sometimes.

Speaker: I mean, Pedro Pascal is one of the best, I feel like, especially this year. But he just seems like the sentiment around him is solid. Yeah. So, I appreciate that. Out of like the the main cast, you choose Pedro Pascal.

Speaker: Yeah. I don't know. yeah kind that says No, that's fair. That's fair. That's your choice. If I had to choose, I would choose Dakota Johnson. I got you. I got you. That's not what we're talking about though. That's not what we're even talking about at all. Yeah, me too. I would choose Dakota Johnson too.

Speaker: She seems like a nice woman as well. I think they all seem like very nice people and I would just like, I would like to spend a little bit of time with them just to get to know them a little bit um and just is that hang out. but I wouldn't want to do that. i I have the love of my life, my future wife, you know, Cassandra. That's that's all I need, dude.

Speaker: Right. Yeah, i wouldn't want to hang out with any of them because I would just be wasting their time. Let's be real. No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. they were dude They would be lucky to hang out with a guy like you. No, that's the, so I've always thought about, no, here's the thing I've always thought about. And this is why I don't like, we've talked about this before. I think personally, i'm not sure if we did this on the podcast.

Speaker: I've always been fascinated by the film and TV industry and how it operates and how like people tap into their emotion to like pull out a role like that. And the art of it is really interesting. So I like, I like the filmmaking process and I like watching, like when I see interviews and stuff like that are a breakdown for like the last of us as an example. And they show you how the set is made or how the actors like did what they did.

Speaker: it's It's really interesting. And that's why I've always like panels at like Comic-Con. But there's always this thing, even among our friend group, where a lot of people like this idea of going to like a Comic-Con or like Fan Expo and getting an autograph and like waiting in line.

Speaker: I've never been interested in that in ah in a very fundamental way. I feel like for the reason I just said, like, I think I'm wasting their time. I know they're getting paid, to be honest. Yeah, they're getting paid. That's cool, but I don't care that much. it that they're just a They're just a person.

Speaker: And I admire their work. And i think they're doing a great job. If I saw them on the street, I'd be like, wow i loved you in this. You're really great. I wouldn't go up to them and say, hey, Lena Headey, you're actually that person. yeah You're actually Cersei. I hate your guts and like throw an onion at her or something.

Speaker: Yeah, phrase no. Yeah, people suck. It goes both ways, though. People like are like literally believe that they are the characters in some aspect. And then on the flip side, they literally get obsessed with the stardom of it, like the stars like being there.

Speaker: and and So i'm like I feel like I'm removed from that aspect. That's why always kind of felt. I admire the work, but. Yeah, I don't know. I can I see the appeal of like meeting them, but like not in the sense of like this person is going to remember me and love me.

Speaker: But like, yeah i want to let this person know that I appreciate their work. Like I met Troy. Like I went to Expo one year. Right. And I met Troy Baker. And Nolan. I met Nolan North.

Speaker: And I matt met Mads Mikkelsen before he like blew up because he was just doing Hannibal. right And I remember so vividly like waiting in line for Troy Baker, waiting in line for Nolan North.

Speaker: And there was no one waiting in line for Mads Mikkelsen. He was just sitting at the end there. And I remember I walked up to him yeah um and I was like, Hey, like, I just want to let you know, like, I think you're amazing as Hannibal. Like you do such amazing work. Like I really appreciate it. like like, thank you.

Speaker: And it's like amazing accent. Um, and it was like, that's a really cool moment. And it's ingrained in my memory. Does he remember me? Of course not. But like that was pre rogue one. That was pre death stranding. That was pre pretty much everything.

Speaker: And it was just him and Hannibal. That movie that got nominated for an Oscar again. One, one more. the The drink one up drinks. One more drink. something like that don't have any more drinks no it was to have more drinks it was just another drink drunk teacher man man great movie he's so good in it what is it called no he was in other things no another round he yeah another round he's in casino royale before that you saw him No, I watched the Royale way later, dude. Yeah, because you saw it. Therefore, yeah, that's right.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. i See, I don't know. I just don't – I don't know. i get that. It's cool. I appreciate that You said I appreciate it. That's really great. I feel like that's cool. I just don't know if that – how much are you really getting out of that from from me saying it? You know, it's like – it's and Who am I? It's not really relevant. If I was in the industry and I actually was a a director, these like i can see how great these guys are. like This cast in Materialist, I would be lining up to try to get Pedro Pascal as an actor in whatever it is. like I make sure the role fits him and make sure it fits. Because I admire his work. It's great. Neil Druckmann, same way. like If I was going to like hire a director as a producer, man, this guy...

Speaker: Like, for a movie, like I would hire him potentially because he's just, is is's he's so incredible. But it's just the work that I'm more into. But there's the idea of going there and getting a photo. I'm just like, ah, just... i they're like They're like kind of – It's for me. you They're humoring me. I know. But like why do I want to bother you to do that? That's what I've always thought about.

Speaker: It's strange thing. Yeah, that's fair. Again, they are getting paid. Like that's what they're there to do. And it's like, cool, now I have this memory of me and Nolan North taking a picture together and he's smiling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's nice. Yeah. That's nice.

Speaker: I have a picture with Nolan North. I get it. yeah understand it's cool yeah does he know me will he ever recognize me won't remember you no no but for me it was nice right yeah that's fair but okay cool well sorry who's up you're you're up yeah what's that we're done we finished oh we did all three each yeah oh okay i'll throw this in there for fun I always have an extra one because we we don't know what we're going to say.

Speaker: But I got FUBAR season two on Netflix. Do you know about this show? that's the Arnold Schwarzenegger show? Yeah. It's got also somebody who wasn't that big, I think, when the first season came out. But she's gotten a lot bigger now, especially because she's in that um that recent movie by James Mangold. What's it called?

Speaker: Oh, my goodness. My brain. It's the end of the podcast here. I'm forgetting what called. It's Monica Barbera. She's playing opposite to Timothee Chalamet in the movie about Bob Dylan.

Speaker: my God. Crazy, but I just don't name of it. I've never seen this woman in anything. she's in She's in Top Gun Maverick. That was the big thing. I think she kind of blew up in after... her that movie. I think Fubar happened first or around the same time as Maverick.

Speaker: Fubar is weird because it's reviewed poor pretty poorly from what I recall. um But people seem to like it. I was looking at the like the the comment section below. the trailer and people are into it they're like oh man i'm so excited for the season and it's got this this season apparently has carrie ann moss as like some kind of ah a russian spy or something that seems to know arnold schwarzenegger's character but yeah but yeah the audience scored much higher than the not that much it's only 68 mean it's higher

Speaker: and that much

Speaker: It's pretty good percentage. yeah Okay. That's it. That's my honorary mention. But yeah. You kept saying you didn't know what to talk about and then you didn't say how to train your dragon or materialist. I was like, wait those are pretty i don't know why I didn't realize those were coming out.

Speaker: Yeah, I got a pretty good system going. I've got like this is these two websites that seem to do an okay job giving me the the scoop. Sometimes though, they they give me a thing like when I say Ma two weeks ago, I'm like, yeah, Ma, they were like four weeks ago. I'm like Ma, the movie with Octavia Spencer.

Speaker: I'm like, wait a second. I think Ma might have come out like four years ago. You're only at the beginning of the pandemic or something. I don't know how I thought it was coming out now. I haven't even seen a trailer for that in forever.

Speaker: But anyway. Okay, well, that's it. Yeah. That's it. That's all, Adrian. Do you have anything else to say before we wrap this guy up? No, let's wrap it up. Let's get out of here, Simon.

Speaker: All right, my friend and and audience, thank you for listening. two episode Oh, God, I completely forgot. i forgot you right This is really important, actually.

Speaker: So i i was going to do this at the beginning of the show, but then you had that long story about planes, which was entertaining, yeah by the way. I don't want i want to diminish it. Thanks. i I'm sorry.

Speaker: I'm stuttering. Uh-oh. habit it Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. My AirPods just did a little dingy ding. But... um I, uh, you, last week you said something interesting to me. i made a promise to you that I would only recommend one thing to you at a time.

Speaker: And I would, yes. And I wouldn't over-recommend because I find that annoying. like I feel like I did that to my brother and I feel like he can't eat he's overwhelmed. He doesn't know what to watch. And I think he gets recommended recommendations from his friends over and over again. And it's like, I'm going to recommend one thing at a time to each person based on when I see it to be fit.

Speaker: And this is a key element. Last week, you recommended something to me called Claire Obscure Expedition 33. And you said that's the one thing you're recommending to me, Simon Eadie, personally. Is that correct?

Speaker: Do I understand that correctly? ah Yes. Because I respect you and your opinion, and I take this seriously because I'm trying to do this now, and I expect you not to recommend me something else until I finish Claire Obscure Expedition 33.

Speaker: But you see here, I've got the confirmed purchase option on PlayStation that I'm going to literally hit the button here, and I'm going to buy a Claire Obscure Expedition 33. I try to play three games at once.

Speaker: I've got an opening at the moment. I'm going to try to get through the games that I'm playing. a little bit faster. um But I have to just kind of open it up because Death Stranding is coming out and I got to make sure that I make sure there's time for all three because four is too much.

Speaker: But I'm going to do it right now. I'm going to confirm purchase. You're gonna see me do it. The audience can't see this, but you can on an iPad. I'm hitting it confirm purchase. And here it goes. And this is going to give me an error, I'm sure.

Speaker: That would be so fun. No, it did it. Oh, nice, There it is. Wow. There's the proof. That's amazing. So I did it because I do respect your your recommendation.

Speaker: Assuming you did that personally and not just because you like it, I guess we'll see how good that recommendation is, won't we? i I hope you will like it. I know you're not a big turn-based guy, but i think this is a good entry point into turn-based games. But apart from that, I think just from a storytelling perspective, yeah you're going to enjoy it.

Speaker: I'm excited. It's also not too long, which is going to help me with the, the, the, how many games I have to go through and movies and TV shows. Like it's so much like I got, we're about to start potentially you season, whatever it is on season four as well.

Speaker: Um, we've got a indoor cooking. got Dead Reckoning, Final Reckoning. We've got to see Ballerina, potentially. Lilo and Steich, as you said. Yeah, Lilo and Steich. A lot to watch.

Speaker: But anyway, yeah. So that's ah that's a little thing there. I thought I would honor you. ah Thanks, man. but That's super cool of you. Look at this. Now you made my week twice. You told me that you loved me unprompted, and you're you're taking my recommendation to heart.

Speaker: You really do love me. Let's not get too crazy with it. It's funny. You really do. that Did I say I love you the same day that there was that we watched? No, it was the day before.

Speaker: ah can't remember now. Was it the day before we watched Friendship? I'm just trying to think like there was an element of like Tim Robinson's character is obsessed with Paul Rudd, like obsessed with him to the point where I'm like, huh, should I have told Adrian that I love him? No, I'm kidding.

Speaker: I don't mean that. But still, you know, it's it's crazy. it's just that you you' thinking You look within when you see that kind of antisocial, awkward behavior.

Speaker: You think, hmm. Am I that guy? I can't be that guy. You're not that guy. You're not that guy, pal. Thank you. I appreciate appreciate appreciate you saying that. All right, let's end it now.

Speaker: to podcast. The podcast. the podcast bro Thank you for listening to episode 111, audience of Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. My name is Simon Eadie, and it has been a pleasure to host you alongside my co-host, my excited co-host, Adrian Penter.

Speaker: good Good evening to you, and good luck. Take care. Goodbye. Yeah, ah good stuff. That was good. That good. Goodbye.