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REWIND 013 - Rampage (2018)
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“Hell of a day, huh? Science experiments falling from the sky.”
With Five Nights at Freddy's 2 coming to theaters this weekend, we're rewinding back to March of 2021 to one of our very first theme months when we talked about a video game movie involving animals attacking people. In this ep, we take an extended trip to Brett's Video Game Corner, discuss The Rock's appeal as an action star, and breakdown Stephen's expectations when it comes to movies about giant monsters.
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Transcript
Introduction to Disenfranchised Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
I'll say, Godfather.
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Disenfranchised Podcast, that podcast all about those franchises of one. Those films that fancy themselves full-fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film.
00:00:33
Speaker
I'm one of your hosts, Tucker. This week, due to some scheduling difficulties, we will be reaching all the way back to episode 26 of the show where Stephen and Brett discuss 2018's retro arcade adaptation, Rampage.
00:00:47
Speaker
I believe is how it's pronounced. Brett suggested we re-run this episode in honor of the release of Five Nights at Freddy's 2, or FNF2, as the kids call it, because in his words, quote, It's based on a video game where animals kill people. Close enough?
00:01:05
Speaker
End quote. This episode was way before my time as a regular host, even before my first guest appearance. I haven't seen this film, but maybe one day I will. But probably not. But who knows?
00:01:15
Speaker
But definitely not. But there's still a chance, but not much of one. We'll be back next week with a shiny new episode. Until then, courage. Okay, love you, bye.
Concept of Failed Franchises
00:01:25
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Disenfranchised, the only podcast bold enough to say, hey, that was supposed to be a franchise, but wasn't. That's right, we're a couple of guys talking about those franchises of one that had those lofty aspirations to be something much bigger.
00:01:40
Speaker
but ultimately fell flat and much bigger is the watchword this month, Brett. I am one of your hosts, Stephen Foxworthy, and that guy I just mentioned who is strapping a giant gun and taking aim at a giant lizard creature. Well, that's my good friend and co-host, Brett Wright. Hey, Brett.
00:01:57
Speaker
Hi, Stephen. How's it going, buddy? It's going all right, man. ah is' It's Valentine's Day as we report this. It is. And and love is in the air.
00:02:09
Speaker
Indeed. And giant monster style. And giant monster style. That's because in the month of March. as kind of a prelude to a movie being released in theaters later this month, in theaters and on HBO Max. Watch it on HBO Max, please.
00:02:24
Speaker
Godzilla vs. Kong. We have decided to cover a month of kaiju-related failed franchise starters. Yeah, it is Monster March Madness, everybody.
00:02:35
Speaker
Monster March Madness, if you will. So it's it's our third theme month that we've ever done following our October Spooky-Thon and our Disney Plus December. So this is Monster March Madness. So here we go. And what movie are we starting with? Brett, what movie is kicking off Monster March Madness?
Overview of Rampage (2018)
00:02:55
Speaker
We're going to start with Rampage. Rampage, the 2018 Dwayne The Rock Johnson vehicle, directed by one Brad Payton, also starring Academy Award nominee Naomi Harris, Maylon Ackerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jake Lacey, Joe Manginello, Marlee Shelton, and P.J. Byrne, he of...
00:03:22
Speaker
Final Destination 5 fame. um This movie came out in 2018. It's the third collaboration between star Dwayne The Rock Johnson and director Brad Payton ah following Journey 2, The Mysterious Island, and um San Andreas.
00:03:43
Speaker
ah So this is the third time they've worked together. This is only, however, the second time that we have talked about Dwayne The Rock Johnson, though, Brett. Yeah, as we haven't talked about him since Baywatch. Episode three, for those of you who want to check out an episode that ah I for for a movie I was not a fan of.
00:04:01
Speaker
I mean, i wasn't either. There were things I liked about it, but I ultimately wasn't either. I think you liked it a little more than I did. i mean, yeah, I did, but not much. Fair enough. But this, I definitely like this one significantly more. Okay. I liked it a little bit more.
00:04:20
Speaker
ah But so we've, I mean, but two very similar
Failed Video Game Film Franchises
00:04:23
Speaker
things. You've got Dwayne the Rock Johnson taking on an established IP and established property and um trying to turn it into a big franchise. I think it may be a little too early to say this will never get a a sequel, but I think if it were going to get a sequel, we'd have heard something about it by now. This came out two years ago. Usually if they're keen to kick off a franchise, they will have announced something within the last couple of years. So You would think so. But hey, it's another it's another video game failed franchise. Surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise. Surprise. If you're not Resident Evil, apparently you don't get a video game franchise.
00:04:59
Speaker
I mean, there there are some that have lasted one or two movies, but Resident Evil, that that there are six movies in that franchise is kind of incredible. That's an understatement. I was I was honestly I was doing some research for for another project.
00:05:13
Speaker
ah the other day and looking at the ah the tomatometer scores for the Resident Evil movies. I don't think any of those are certified fresh and the highest ranked one is the last one. So, you know, I think I think there's a lot to be said about Something Mike mentioned on our My Bloody Valentine episode. um People go to movies like that to shut their brain off and not really care. They go for the gore or they go for specific reasons. They don't go because they think they're going to be good.
00:05:43
Speaker
So those movies make a lot of money because people just want to see dumb, stupid action with hot Mary Sue in the lead. Yeah. And I mean, there's there's certainly a place for that. People like escapism. Some people just find bad movies kind of charming. When I was in college, we had a bad movie Tuesday where every week, every Tuesday, we'd get together in someone's dorm room and just watch bad movies. um Yeah, we were. on with them Is the wife and I actually had it been available for some reason?
00:06:14
Speaker
Monster Hunter is still not available to watch on demand. Oh, that's a bummer. It's weird. ah But yeah, we were we were actually going to watch mono hunter Monster Hunter for Valentine's Day just because it's a dumb, stupid movie. Yeah.
00:06:27
Speaker
And you know what? And it fits our theme month. So hey. Yeah. ah But it wasn't. So we watched Jennifer's Body instead. Which is great. Jennifer's Body is fantastic. It is it is very good. This was our first time watching it. We wanted to find out about all the hype recently about it.
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah. Great movie. Fantastic. I watched it from a Halloween marathon last year and it was better than I expected it to be for sure. And I went in, I wouldn't say I went in with like the highest of hopes, but you know, I was excited for it and it it lived up. So yeah, Jennifer's body. Good. Speaking of dumb action movies that make you want to turn your brain off.
Cast & Characters of Rampage
00:07:02
Speaker
ah Rampage 2018 is the movie that we're here to discuss today. Way to bring it around. Good segue, buddy. Hey, I, you know, I found my foothold and I went with it. a Tagline for this movie, Brett, have you, are you looking at the poster right now? Do you want to take a guess as to what the the tagline of this movie might be?
00:07:19
Speaker
No, I actually don't know what it is. It's big meets bigger. Oh, because the rock is big. You see. Sure. But George, the gorilla, you see he's bigger.
00:07:32
Speaker
So. Right. Ta-da. Right. Brilliant. I want to meet the shake the hands of the marketing geniuses that came up with this one um because they are gold.
00:07:43
Speaker
Well, not hold on. OK, so hold hold on a minute, Stephen. Before we go any further, when you listed off the cast, I can't help but notice yes left you left off ah baby Huey himself, Jack Quaid.
00:07:56
Speaker
You know what? i i I did. I also left off to my detriment, Demetrius Gross as well. So you're right. I did leave off Wee Huey. I left off Demetrius Gross.
00:08:08
Speaker
My apologies to both. But Jack Quaid, of course, you know him and love him from The Boys. ah But he was also, he is he is also the son of dennis quaid and meg ryan so hollywood royalty kind of in the background of this movie a little bit yeah it was it was cool to see because you know it's uh when i originally saw this movie the boys weren't a thing yet so i didn't know who he was uh so i watch it this time and it's it's full-on leonardo dicaprio and once upon a time in hollywood just pointing at the screen i know that guy
00:08:43
Speaker
ah I you you've probably seen him in some other things before. He's in a couple of 100. He's in a couple of the Hunger Games movies. He plays Marvel in the Hunger Games franchise. He's also in the movie Logan Lucky, which is a movie I love. I'm not sure if you've ever seen it, ah but he plays Fishbang.
00:09:01
Speaker
in uh in logan lucky which if you've not seen logan lucky you need to watch logan lucky it's pretty great i have never seen it a it's uh it's a steven soderbergh movie so it's the guy who directed oceans 11 uh directing a a heist movie that takes place uh that done pulled off by rednecks at you know a nascar park so it's ocean 7-eleven
00:09:27
Speaker
which is a joke they make in the movie. that's not That's not me being clever. Like the movie makes that joke, but it's it it's Adam Driver, Channing Tatum. And in at in one of the earliest of his, wait, Daniel Craig really likes to do weird voices kind of run. Daniel Craig doing a weird voice.
00:09:46
Speaker
um which, I mean, if you see Logan Lucky before you see Knives Out, really preps you for what he's doing in Knives Out. I don't, but see, I know you've already seen Knives Out, but haven't seen Logan Lucky. So it'll come as less of a surprise to you when you hear what he's doing in that movie. But it's so weird. He got the end introducing credit in the trailer.
00:10:05
Speaker
Okay. Interesting. But it's also got like Hilary Swank. It's got Seth MacFarlane. Like it's got a really, really good cast. And ah before he was a star, Jack Quaid. So Neat.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah. I just think it's neat. I just think it's neat. I just think it's neat. So let's, let's start actually, before we get into the meat of this movie, let's actually talk about, first of all, about our experience with Kaiju.
00:10:30
Speaker
ah Since this is a month of Kaiju, we kind of need to start with what our levels of familiarity are when it comes to Kaiju. So Brett, what is this ah a genre you particularly like? What was your first foothold into this genre? Give us, give us a little bit of your
Kaiju Genre Appreciation
00:10:45
Speaker
background. This is definitely a genre I like.
00:10:48
Speaker
Would probably say to love. I'm not very knowledgeable in it. just because most of it is foreign films. And I have only recently, maybe in the past five-ish years, ah decided to stop being a stupid American and watch more foreign films.
00:11:08
Speaker
so Opening yourself up to the the wide world around you there. Yeah, because there's a lot of good foreign films out there. For sure. so yeah, i i think I started with Godzilla.
00:11:23
Speaker
you know, like you do. Very good place to start. Now, when you say started with Godzilla, which incarnation of Godzilla are we talking? Like, we talking 1954 Godzilla? Are we talking like the the original era, one of the subsequent eras of Godzilla films? Are we talking the 1998 Godzilla?
00:11:42
Speaker
Now, unfortunately, as much as I hate to admit this, My first Godzilla movie probably was the 1998 Godzilla. I mean, same.
00:11:52
Speaker
i I'm not even going to pretend like it wasn't. um Stay tuned, by the way. Yeah, we're going to talk about that one later. Yep. um But luckily, I've rectified that terrible, terrible mistake.
00:12:05
Speaker
<unk>ve I've seen the original Godzilla multiple times. Even saw the Criterion version at an IMAX theater once. That was fantastic. Beautiful. I own the Criterion version. It's on that giant shelf of DVDs behind me.
00:12:18
Speaker
nice nice uh yeah we we recently purchased like all of the like original era the show era the show era yeah the show era collection um that is on my dvd shelf which is off camera to my right over here um So, yeah, big Godzilla fans. but I like ah like Pacific Rim. I like those movies. Those are good.
00:12:46
Speaker
so I've seen the first one. I have not seen the second. I i love Guillermo del Toro. so Yeah, I haven't seen the second one either, surprisingly enough. I don't really know why. I think as I heard it wasn't good. So I didn't know that. That's why I didn't see it. And also because the first one ends pretty definitively and didn't need a sequel. So I was like, why is there a sequel? It really The only thing I wanted after I watched that is an entire series, like like a TV series of Charlie Day's character and Ron Perlman's character, like getting into hijinks. That was what I wanted after that movie was over.
00:13:18
Speaker
And just occasionally more Idris Elba. Yeah. i mean He dies at the end, but sure. Yeah. Spoilers for a movie that's old. It was a prequel series. i don't care. I mean, yeah, but I love the dynamic between Ron Perlman and Charlie Day. I just thought that was hilarious. I would absolutely, I would subscribe to whatever streaming service had the rights to that show.
00:13:39
Speaker
hundred percent. Yeah. So, and then oh, I mean, I can't, I can't not, I can't talk about Kaiju and then not mention Power Rangers. Formative for kids our age, for sure. Yeah. Or, you know, if you're more of a nerd, Super Sentai from Japan.
00:13:53
Speaker
Or Voltron. I mean, I am was passingly familiar with Voltron by the time Power Rangers came out, at least. Yeah. So was I. But I always felt like it was kind of like a Pokemon Digimon thing, where if you liked one, you hated the other one.
00:14:08
Speaker
So... i I liked both. I did not like both equally. I was definitely more of a Power Rangers fan because they really worked on shoving that down kids' throats when we were younger. um But, you know, I didn't dislike Voltron. No, I mainly just thought it was a Power Rangers ripoff, if I'm honest. But other than that, and I mean, of course, I played the original Rampage video game that this movie is based on.
00:14:32
Speaker
Which we'll get to here in a second, because we definitely want, we're we're going to want comparisons. this this Basically, this episode is just one extended stay in Brett's video game corner, really. Hell yeah, brother.
00:14:45
Speaker
And I know you are here for it, as the kids would say. um For me, Kaiju, my introduction to Kaiju, honestly, was a a bank that my grandparents owned from 19...
00:15:01
Speaker
70s, the late 70s remake of King Kong. ah There was a ah ah plastic bank that my parents or my grandparents had bought when the movie, assuming when the movie had come out and they kept it in a giant toy chest that they had at their house. And I would play with it when I would go up to visit them. And I thought it was the coolest thing because it's just it's King Kong and he's sitting on top of a building and he's got like a train like he's holding a length of train in his hands, like much like he does in that movie because it's a different city. And so he's doing different stuff than he did in the original.
00:15:37
Speaker
ah They're also showing off the technology a lot more. But and you're just snarling. And it it looked really cool. Actually, when my my grandmother passed away last year, I asked my mom, see if you can find that King Kong bank. And she could not. So I'm assuming one of my uncles got a hold of it and I will never see it again. so that's unfortunate. Isn't that also the scene that they use for the Universal Studios ride?
00:15:58
Speaker
It is. And i eventually, when I went so to Orlando as a child, we went to Universal Studios and I got to ride the King Kong ride, which was the one ride there I was really looking forward to. And you know what? It was great.
00:16:10
Speaker
It was really cool. King Kong twice attacks the car that you're in And it's it's kind of like a Jungle Cruise thing. Like there's a a cast member with like a walkie talkie, like he's driving the train. And then, oh, oh no, it's King Kong. Ah!
00:16:25
Speaker
And I don't know. It was goofy and stupid and fun, but I kind of loved it. So I'm so jealous. Yeah, it was fun, man. I don't even know if that ride is still there. I can probably Google it here real quick. But no, like so King Kong is my my introduction to Kaiju, um probably my favorite Kaiju, despite all the unpleasantness surrounding King Kong, which We'll get into in a future episode,
Rampage Video Game Origins
00:16:51
Speaker
I'm sure. But I and then I saw in 98, I saw Godzilla, mainly because of the Taco Bell commercials and then thought that movie was dumb enough that I kind of just pushed Kaiju out of my brain. Didn't see Pacific Rim until years after it had been out.
00:17:05
Speaker
um And then a couple of years ago, watched Godzilla for the first time. I was kind of like, okay, kaiju. Interesting. You know, the birth of the modern kaiju, of course, is Godzilla created based on the fears of Japan post-World War two the The looming threat of nuclear disaster is what Godzilla represents. That early film is is a very serious film. And as the series goes on, it gets kind of campier and campier.
00:17:34
Speaker
ah Shin Godzilla, which I watched for an old podcast that I'd done called Rule of Thirds, is absolutely brilliant. That's breathtaking. Bong Joon-ho's The Host is really good.
00:17:45
Speaker
Just some throwing out some of my favorite kaiju movies now. Pacific Rim, which I have since seen, is also very good. like There's a lot of really good kaiju movies out there. But you know it's it's kind of separating the wheat from the chaff and finding you know the stuff that you like versus the stuff that you don't. Because there's there's a lot of giant monster movies out there, believe it or not. So you've got to find the stuff that that speaks to you. So all that brings us to ah the movie Rampage, which is the movie that we're talking about today, which is based, as we've mentioned, Rampage.
00:18:15
Speaker
a video game. And since Brett, you are our resident video game expert. First of all, I'll just say since mine will be really short, my familiarity with Rampage begins and ends at a at an arcade that I went to when I was younger and saw like the arcade cabinet there. I don't think I actually played it, but just kind of watched the gameplay as it scrolls through when no one's playing the game and thought it looked kind of weird.
00:18:40
Speaker
So yeah, there you go Brett, take it away. what's your What's your familiarity with Rampage? What can you tell us about the property, et cetera, et cetera? I mean, it makes sense that you wouldn't really recognize that because you you didn't get into Kaiju until 1998. And this game, little bit older than that. Right. 86, yes? 86 was the first Rampage. um I mean, it was it was ported to Nintendo, Nintendo systems after that, which is where I played it most of the time.
00:19:06
Speaker
Makes sense. I even, so it's it's a game that doesn't, by the way, welcome back to Brett's Brady Game Corner. we'renna We're going camp out here for a while, folks. We're going to be here for a bit. So it's a game that doesn't have an ending.
00:19:20
Speaker
It basically just replays the same stage. It'll give you the name of a city, which city you're in. ah But all the cities look the same. Yeah, because all cities do look the same, basically. More or less. That's what Hollywood wants us to believe. Yeah.
00:19:34
Speaker
And it's just it' just the day the difficulty increases over time. But there's 100 And once you beat all 100 stages, you beat the game.
00:19:46
Speaker
Quote unquote. i managed to do that on my original Nintendo. It was one of the first games I ever beat. Wow. Yeah. they like Kid Me was way better video games than Adult Me, let me tell you.
00:20:01
Speaker
Kid, you probably had a lot more free time on his hands. Oh yeah, absolutely. So, and my go-to is in the original. It's weird. So in in the arcades,
00:20:13
Speaker
you could play as ah George, Ralph, or Lizzie. But when they ported it to the Nintendo system, they cut Ralph for some reason. So you can only play as Lizzie or George in the original and then Nintendo version. Is it because, is so that two-player mode could be enabled and they didn't want to give people a third option? I would assume so.
00:20:32
Speaker
Okay. I think that's probably the reason. They rectified that, though, when they rebooted the franchise in 97 for Rampage World Tour, ah which I believe was mainly for the Nintendo 64.
00:20:46
Speaker
They added some new characters for that one, didn't they? That did not happen until Rampage 2 Universal Tour in 1999. Gotcha. and That's when they added who I'm assuming it's a little bit.
00:21:01
Speaker
um He might be a sequel hook even the rat. The sequel hook is at the beginning of the movie. Weirdly in this one. Yes. Well, I mean, and know there's also the pet rat that is is being very heavily protected for seemingly no reason. Right. Why that rat is being protected, I have no idea. But the director, Brad Payton, has said that if if he is able to make the sequel, the rat will be named Larry. Yes.
00:21:27
Speaker
Okay, because he's named Curtis in the first sequel. Oh, okay. um I don't know why you said Larry, but that was something I saw here on Wikipedia.
00:21:38
Speaker
And, you know, Wikipedia will never lie. Yeah, because the Universal Tour, when they decided to take it all over the world and destroy different cities all over the world instead of just America, you had... Take that, everyone else. Yeah.
00:21:53
Speaker
You had Boris the Rhinoceros, Curtis the Mouse, and Ruby the Lobster. Okay, so I'm reading here that apparently Larry was from the Atari Lynx port of the original game. Okay. I mean, that makes sense. there's ah There's a lot of different rampages because they tried to reboot it. And like you know like I said, like the port to Nintendo cut Ralph. So it's just a lot of different iterations and different things, characters getting cut and added, blah, blah, blah. Because even something I didn't know until doing research for this episode is Dave and Busters, who gets a big product placement in this movie. Yeah. Um, actually they actually made a brand new rampage that tried to reboot the video game franchise along with this movie. And they made it just for Dave and Buster stores.
00:22:41
Speaker
No wonder I didn't know anything about it. So, and it, and all the, and it, and it follows the story of the movies now. So like George is an albino gorilla and all the monsters look like they do in the movie, but it's still the same gameplay. It's still those three monsters destroying a city.
00:23:00
Speaker
And that is essentially, to be clear, that is the gameplay. Like you're fighting other monsters, you're destroying skyscrapers, you're eating people. Yeah, and the military is trying to stop you.
00:23:11
Speaker
Okay. Yep, that's all. you'll You'll be attacked by tanks and helicopters and bombs dropped on you, all sorts of things. But you're, you know, you're destroying buildings, you're eating people, et cetera, et cetera.
00:23:27
Speaker
And that's, I mean, that's pretty much the video games. Because that's really all there is. That's why I've always said that this is maybe one of the best video game adaptations, because the video game is so bare bones and doesn't have much of a story to begin with.
00:23:40
Speaker
Sure. And i'll I'll get into my feelings about adapting properties like that, but we can... We can save that for after we address the the movie itself, the movie proper, um which I assume we're ready to do.
00:23:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think i think so. Because yeah I'll talk about the story as it is in the video games. Because there's really only one major difference when do we get into that later. So, yeah. Well, yeah. Then let's do the plot in 60 seconds, which is, of course, that part of the show.
00:24:12
Speaker
When one of us, Brett or myself, at the behest of the mighty coin of justice, our friend and foe, in equal measure will ah confer upon us the ability to give the plot of this film in 60 seconds or less, or your podcast is free.
00:24:29
Speaker
I will pull up the coin of justice here because i have not done so yet. Brett, will you call the horn, the coin of justice in the air? Yes. And it is tails. Hey, damn it. We're back, baby. Which means it is time for me to give the plot of this film, Rampage from 2018, in 60 seconds or less. So Brett, will you put 60 seconds on the clock? I will absolutely do that.
00:24:54
Speaker
Done. Are you ready, sir? When you are, sir. And your time starts. Right this minute. there's a ah ah lab in outer space doing experiments on animals and some of this mutagen gets out and it attaches to a rat who gets really big and destroys the thing that this mutagen falls to the earth and hits different animals one
Rampage Film Summary
00:25:15
Speaker
hits a wolf in the everglades another hits a or a crocodile and everglades a wolf in the other part of the country and then it hits a gorilla that the rock is looking after and rock does sign language with the gorilla and they start getting big because it's genetic music.
00:25:29
Speaker
And he meets this doctor who is a part of this group. And the group is evil. It's Malin Ackerman and Jake Lacey and they're their evil brother and sister. And there's some plot that they're trying to cover up. Negan's there and he's a government guy who works for some shady organization. And he and The Rock and Naomi Harris all team up and they go to Chicago. seconds And the monsters are destroying the city. And eventually George becomes good again and helps The Rock beat the other two monsters at the end.
00:25:58
Speaker
Spot on, sir. Right as time or expired. Deep bow. there's there's not There's not a lot to this movie. I also left out that there's like bombs on their way for like a half an hour in this movie. Because apparently if there's monsters attacking a major American city, it takes a half an hour to deploy bombs. Depends on where they're being deployed from.
00:26:19
Speaker
They were headed to Chicago. Maybe they were being deployed from D.C. Who knows? I don't know. it They don't say from where. Yeah. But it's just like, oh, no, the the mother of all bombs on the way. We got to move. And then like 20 minutes later, we're still fighting monsters. OK.
00:26:36
Speaker
And then, OK, we're two minutes away. Five minutes later, abort mission. OK. All right. This is one of those time has no meaning situations. Got it. and look it's a movie trope i'm not gonna get mad about it yeah i mean it's fine it's it here's the thing it's very much par for the course for the movie that we're watching okay i mean let's i mean we don't gotta we don't gotta tear the movie down there's stuff to not like about this movie but let's not get nitpicky about it i'm just saying all this is this is this is a switch your brain off kind of movie and you know i have a hard time switching my brain off lord don't i know it
00:27:09
Speaker
Much to your constant shame and chagrin, I'm sure. So, I don't know. So, the the basic plot of the video game then is what, Brett? Now that we're through the plot of the movie.
00:27:22
Speaker
that that You're some humans who were experimented on and turned into giant kaiju. Okay, versus in this movie where the it's this mutate mutagen pathogen thing, this genetic soup that fuses your DNA with all these other animal DNAs and makes you giant.
00:27:41
Speaker
and well Well, I mean, so theres there's a little bit of science here. um let me Let me touch on that really quick. I just gave brief synopsis. Are talking real science or are talking movie science?
00:27:51
Speaker
Well, so this is real science. Okay. Movie takes liberties with the real science. I can't imagine. Okay, go ahead. ah So it's it's really fascinating. I actually knew a little bit about this beforehand. So it's... um It's called CRISPR, which is short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.
00:28:14
Speaker
So it it refers to like the system for like bacterial immunity. And then that inspired a breakthrough in gene editing technology, which made it possible to edit genetic code of individual cells to fix genetic mutations or replace damaged genes.
00:28:28
Speaker
who But the problem is it's it's capable of editing individual strains of DNA. but not entire organisms or even whole organs.
00:28:40
Speaker
Okay. So the stuff that the it's doing in the movie is not something that CRISPR could do. I mean, I figured that. Yeah. So, I mean, you'd have to like edit each individual cell one at a time and ain't nobody got time for that. Okay. Okay.
00:28:55
Speaker
um But then, you know, the movie hand waves it away. It was like, oh, we figured it out. We figured out how to fix that. It's fine. Don't worry about it. We hacked it. We went in through the back door. Yeah. But I mean, the the little blurb at the beginning of the movie is fairly accurate. I mean, in 2016, right, is what it says. is ah That's when the government was like, yeah, no, this could get out of hand. And it's not really worth the trouble. So let's just put kibosh on that.
00:29:23
Speaker
We're just going to kibosh that whole thing. um Brett, and maybe I missed this, but what were the bad guys trying to accomplish here?
Villain Motives in Rampage
00:29:32
Speaker
The only thing I could figure out is they were trying to sell their research the to the military for money.
00:29:39
Speaker
maybe Maybe that's what they were doing. i because Here's the thing. it's It's almost impossible to tell. and i i could i mean i couldn't figure it out. Yeah, the the the villains in this movie are definitely the least fleshed out and the most confusing and the most boring characters.
00:29:58
Speaker
and and the And the brother is named Brett and i'm pissed off about it. You got, I mean, you got Malin Ackerman, who's another one of those actresses who I don't know has ever quite gotten. ah ah I don't think Hollywood really knows entirely what to do with her, but ah she, I mean, not this.
00:30:20
Speaker
I guess would be my maya assessment on this movie. Not this, because I think she's, i mean, if she were able to choose scenery a little better, then I think that would be probably a better fit, like go a little bigger, but she's playing it very straight. And I mean, ah ah with like tinges of menace, but not, and i need more menace. And then of course, Jake Lacey, who I know from the American office, like the last season of the American office, um which my wife is a big fan of. He's he's just kind of,
00:30:49
Speaker
I don't know. They don't really give either of these villains much to work with. In fact, if you're not Dwayne The Rock Johnson, you don't get much to do in this movie, really. or Or, I mean, if you're Jeffrey Dean Morgan, you sure do. I love Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character in this movie. i got i think I think Jeffrey Dean Morgan takes what he's given and and figures out a way to make a meal out of it.
00:31:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah, 100%. I love every second he's on screen. But I don't think there's a lot there on on the page. I don't think there's there's much to that character. And that's asking and a lot of an actor and not every actor is able to step up. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, pretty good actor. He and Malin Ackerman, by the way, both in ah the Zack Snyder masterpiece, he said sarcastically, Watchmen. um So, you know, there's there's there's that superhero connection. and of course, you've got Wee Huey from The Boys, Jack Quaid. So you've got a few superhero adjacent ah actors in this film. And of course, The Rock, human superhero, ah but tapped for the movie, the Shazam sequel, the Black Adam movie. Black Adam, yeah.
00:31:49
Speaker
And of course, Joe Manganiello, who is Deathstroke. And very prolific celebrity D&D player. Yeah, hey, there you go. Also, an actor who is completely wasted in this movie.
00:32:01
Speaker
I was so surprised. I mean, I... Again, I think he's another situation where I didn't know him that well when I originally saw this movie. Sure. So when I see him this time, it's like, he's he's dead right away.
00:32:14
Speaker
Almost immediately. And another Marlee Shelton, dead instantly. Like, she's dead before the first scene is over. i mean, you're just like, oh, okay. Well, um um thanks for showing up, Marlee, I guess.
00:32:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's weird. it's It's almost like... you know, the weird cameos we've seen in like Alita and whatnot. You're like, oh, they're just, this is just just a weird cameo because they're going to show up later. No, these these weird cameos just died.
00:32:42
Speaker
Yeah, they're they they kill them off. And I i don't know, i'm I'm assuming that maybe they've worked with the director, ah Brad Payton, on things before. Maybe that's why they're in this movie or maybe their careers. Maybe Joe Manganiello's career wasn't as going as well as we thought. And I don't know. It's been a while since anyone's heard and a lot of anything from Marley Shelton, I suppose. So yeah, it's very possible. But that that feels very much like ah we're someone doing a favor for the director kind of a role.
00:33:09
Speaker
i suppose so i'm gonna chalk it up to that like they were just doing a favor to to brad payton but yeah you you see like you're like man this cast is stacked and then they're all dead and you're like oh okay sure why not he just just got the rock the rock carrying the movie and let's be honest what more do you need than dwayne the rock johnson Like, you can't deny the man's charisma.
00:33:34
Speaker
And you can't deny his ability to carry an action movie. Emphasis on the action movie. So, I mean, I guess I get it. You know, it's fine. He's he's fun to watch. i what The thing I i find, ty and I think I brought this up in the Baywatch episode, and this this comes out the year after Baywatch, ah is just the fact that his character needs to be the one who's always right.
00:33:59
Speaker
He needs to be the one who's the biggest, the baddest, the funniest. And I just that I find that very wearying, honestly, like because it's, you know, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's the one that eventually comes. Oh, that guy, that guy had it all right. Yeah. And of course, Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays that very well because he's Jeffrey Dean Morgan. But, you know, you just that's the rocks whole thing now is where versus like the first movie movie.
00:34:24
Speaker
The first couple movies I saw him in where he was the Scorpion King or Hobbes in Fast Five, he's more or less the villain of the piece, which he plays a really good villain. And I kind of wish he would do that again, but he's the rock now. He's like this larger than life figure who's kind of crafted his own
Dwayne Johnson's Charisma
00:34:43
Speaker
mythos around him. Like there's a sitcom coming out about his life.
00:34:46
Speaker
Like that's a thing that's happening. Like ah that he has mythologized himself to that degree that I don't think we can ever get that back. No, probably not. He's a bit of a throwback to 80s action stars, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. that Like they needed that. That's who they were. They did the same thing. They had to always be right. They had to always be the most badass character in the movie. So it's a little. You see them kind of stumble and fall and trip. But The Rock never does any of that.
00:35:13
Speaker
No, no, the rocket shot in this movie, just just straight up shot in the stomach. I don't really know where you you can't really tell. And then he just shakes it off. He just shakes it off. like Yeah. and And you after all the action of the movie is done,
00:35:30
Speaker
then you see him kind of remember, oh, right, I got shot earlier. I have to cover that spot with my hand is what it feels like. Like he just kind of walking around, not even like limping or, but just like his hands there like, oh yeah, I got shot. Whereas he's been, you know, throwing grenades and firing, you know, guns the size of him ah without any problem whatsoever through through the whole last half hour of the movie ah with this, ah presumably this wound in his side.
00:35:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, hey, maybe adrenaline's a hell of a drug, but I don't know. i don't know if it's that good of a drug is is is my thinking. I don't know. Yeah, but but the other thing I was going to say is he sort of gets away with being the person who's always right.
00:36:15
Speaker
and trying to tell the experts you know that they're wrong in this movie because it's it's very much a kaiju trope and it's sometimes even just a general like horror monster trope that like there's a guy that knows what's going on he's the one person that could save everybody and all the experts and the military personnel are like dude whatever i know what we're doing right right right so he sort of gets away with it this time True. I just, i don't know. I have so, like, that persona is so grafted on to him as an actor now that I, I mean, because that's ultimately what kind of ruined or or created the fallout in the Fast and Furious franchise is he wanted to be that guy for that franchise, but that franchise already has Vin Diesel doing that exact same thing. And so the two of them ultimately ended up coming to blows over it, not literally, but...
00:37:04
Speaker
ah you know, it's it's kind of one of those too many egos in the room. So that's why you have Hobbs and Shaw at its own special spinoff franchise just for them ah so that you can have um Hobbs go be right in some other guy's franchise. And honestly, i didn't find that movie particularly compelling because i didn't find that character particularly compelling written that way. I liked him more as, you know,
00:37:28
Speaker
the BA government guy who's going to go toe-to-toe with Vin Diesel, but not always have to be right about everything. Because again, that's that's what Dominic Toretto's for. And you don't need, the franchise doesn't need two Dominic Toretto's. You can only afford one.
00:37:41
Speaker
Right. I wouldn't know. I haven't seen any of those movies. I was going to say, i'm i'm preaching I'm preaching to ah an audience that has no idea what I'm talking about. Hopefully someone out there knows, because I know you don't. um But yeah, I mean, that's ultimately, I think, that becomes the problem for for me with The Rock. so Yeah, which I forgive that more than anything, just because like, look, I grew up, grew up with him as the rock.
00:38:05
Speaker
Which I have never done been a professional wrestling guy since yes since we lost Jake the Snake. I just haven't cared. I mean, since he retired. his wife Oh, OK. I was like, you know, he's not dead, right? Right. No, of course I know he's not dead. Yeah, no. like he retired early from my memory. And so i he was my guy. And I was like, oh, I don't care.
00:38:23
Speaker
Oh, ah you know, that's fine. um But I was a big attitude era guy. So, you know, I grew up with him as just he was an awesome character in wrestling. So I got that attachment to him, I guess. i don't know. I guess that's what I would chalk this up to.
00:38:40
Speaker
um But I mean, i don't know. So I guess I forgive him more of that. And here's the thing. That's a big portion of his fan base are people that knew him in those days and continue to love him. Like that goodwill continues to this day. So I can't really, i can't and won't really crap on that.
00:38:59
Speaker
It's just when all you know him from is his films. Yeah, I could i can see how that that's definitely different. it's it's big It's become a bit frustrating. Just again, i would rather see an actor try something new than see an actor just, oh, okay, well, it's the rock in a movie. So I literally now know exactly what this movie is going to be.
00:39:18
Speaker
Some people take comfort in that. And that's honestly probably why he's the biggest star in the world right now. and And maybe when that starts starts to fade, we'll see him do some new and interesting stuff. And maybe then I'll change my tune. But for right now, I mean, he is. He's the biggest thing in Hollywood right now. And so he can he can cash any check he wants and and he'll get that opportunity. So and honestly, I think the only thing keeping this sequel from being made would be if he didn't want to make it. Because...
00:39:45
Speaker
it It did fare good bit of business. Yeah, which is why it's a little surprising that it didn't get a sequel. So I'm interested to hear what you've got in terms of box office and what they said about making a sequel.
00:39:58
Speaker
So yeah, let's check the numbers
Rampage's Performance and Reception
00:40:00
Speaker
here real quick. So we've got ah domestically, we're at over $100 million, $101 million dollars at the domestic box office, an additional million in the international box office so $427.9 million worldwide is our gross. So ah quite a big grosser.
00:40:21
Speaker
ah In the United States, it opened at number one on April 13th, 2008. In second place was a movie that had been number one the week before. a pretty good ah spring horror, kind of a surprise. ah Speaking of The American Office, directed by John Krasinski, it's A Quiet Place, which I quite enjoyed. Saw that one in theaters. Yeah, also very good. I also i did see this movie opening weekend, so I contributed to that opening weekend number one. Well, there you go Gross $35 million. $35.7 million its opening weekend, Rampage did.
00:40:55
Speaker
In third place is another, it's a Blumhouse movie. It's Truth or Dare, which I just know from the really creepy faces that that girl was making in the trailer. Literally all I know about that movie. In fourth place, down from number two the week before and in its third weekend overall is Ready Player One, directed by St. Stephen himself. Ugh.
00:41:16
Speaker
I've never seen it, and honestly, I don't have much of a desire to. The only thing I would be interested to see is the Gremlins, which I know are in there, but they're background, so I don't really care that much. I got a lot of things to say about Ready Player One, and none of them are good. All right. Well, now that there's a s sequel that's been written, maybe we can cover the movie on this podcast one day. No, they'll probably end up making that sequel too. um And then in number five is the movie Blockers, which is the movie with ah John Cena and Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz trying to keep their kids from having sex on prom night.
00:41:50
Speaker
Oh, that one. Yeah. got the giant rooster in front of the word blockers on the poster. So, right. Because you can't market. Yeah. You can't market a movie with that name, that word in the title.
00:42:03
Speaker
Correct. Rounding out our top 10. We've got a black Panther. ah Down from number four in its ninth week, Isle of Dogs, um the Wes Anderson film, the the Christian movie I Can Only Imagine. And number nine is Acrimony. And then it number 10 is the Chappaquiddick, which I think is a Ted, what's his name? Ted Kennedy biopic about the Chappaquiddick incident that kind of scandalized him for a little bit.
00:42:31
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, it's at this point, there's not a lot of like big box office movies at this point in the year, usually, which is kind of weird that this opened mid-April as opposed to late April, early May, which is when blockbuster season starts these days.
00:42:49
Speaker
So I think they're just trying to get a head start on ah the summer blockbuster season. I mean, you've even got Black Panther as a holdover from February, kind of still hanging out in the top 10, hanging out at number six. Actually, it's gross 674 million by this point.
00:43:05
Speaker
So it's it's doing quite well. And I didn't even see it until like the week before Infinity War came out. But I think Infinity War was getting ready to come out within the next couple of weeks. So I think Rampage is trying to get the jump on Infinity War by coming out at this slot. I mean, that makes the most sense to me.
00:43:22
Speaker
Yeah, the writing's on the wall and in that sense. You want to get this movie out there before MCU dominates the summer. Absolutely, and which historically it will and does and has. so Yeah.
00:43:35
Speaker
so ah This movie, the Tomatometer score is 52%.
00:43:40
Speaker
52% on this one. Rampage isn't, the critics consensus, sorry, Rampage isn't as fun as its source material, but the movie's sheer button mashing abandon might satisfy audiences in the right mood for a brainless blockbuster. Audience score was much higher. 73% the audience um We've also got a Metacritic score of 45 based on 46 critic reviews.
00:44:04
Speaker
And the Letterboxd score is Letterboxd average is 2.5. two point five Brett, how did you rate 2018's Rampage? i type Look, I've waffled back and forth. Three and a half or three.
00:44:19
Speaker
I think I'm going to settle on three. I'm going to settle on three. um You know, it's a lot of good dumb action. It's based on a video game. Which, by the way, I didn't mention, there's a Rampage arcade machine in the background of some scenes in the office. And I'm like, is this... Does the Rampage video game exist in this universe?
00:44:40
Speaker
And if so, is that why the evil brother and sister company named their whole project Rampage?
00:44:52
Speaker
Potentially. I mean, that might be also why the... the quote unquote people on the internet named the, the Wolfman Ralph possible because that's what he says. People on the internet are calling him Ralph. So, I mean, for all I know, that's, that's the whole thing. So, yeah.
00:45:07
Speaker
ah So yeah. So maybe it maybe gets even more of a pass. ah for adapting the source material because it technically isn't. Yeah. and And that's, that's i mean, I don't know. I have an issue with when you have a plot, like ah the video game itself, the thing you're adapting is so completely bare bones that you can graft almost anything onto it. The adaptation seems, at least in my mind, to be almost incidental by nature, which I think this movie it is because it's really only an adaptation of the video game within the last 45 minutes of the film when they get to Chicago. Everything in Chicago is straight up an adaptation of the video game and everything before that.
00:45:49
Speaker
is a lot of, and there's an hour before that, just a lot of table setting and set dressing and getting us to that point. And then we get to Chicago and then we get to see monsters tear stuff up, which is the whole reason that we're here. Actually, the reason that we're here is we want to see the rock take on giant monsters. That's the reason we're here. And the thing I have to give this movie credit for, I didn't like this movie like at all. 1.5 is my letterbox score. Did not like this movie. um Thought it was really kind of dumb.
00:46:18
Speaker
um And I thought the plot was more or less tacked on like the, the you it becomes a reverse construction. Like, okay, what do we want to happen? We want giant monsters to just tear up a city.
00:46:30
Speaker
Okay. How do we get there? Well, we have to make it make sense. We have to have human characters to relate to. Because so if we don't have human characters to relate to, then this is an exercise in futility. Another example of this is the movie ah Battleship, um which you it's a movie about naval battles. But then that movie, you've got sea monsters for some reason.
00:46:50
Speaker
Like it becomes this whole other sci-fi thing because you've got to graft a story onto what is essentially just a game about naval battles. Like just some adaptations, I think you're really reaching to try to make it work to try to make it fit.
00:47:06
Speaker
And this feels very much to me like an example of trying to squish those things together and try to do something that really, I mean, at the end of the day, you just want to see the monsters tear stuff up. That's that's the reason to go to a kaiju movie for the most part, honestly. And um I feel like there's not enough monsters tearing stuff up and too much people talking science-y mumbo
Action Highlights in Rampage
00:47:28
Speaker
jumbo. you know I give it an extra half star because, yeah again, this movie has the stones to put the rock, have a strap a giant gun to his side and you know just take aim and start shooting at a giant crocodile monster. And that's what I want to see.
00:47:44
Speaker
Like when the 2014 Gareth Edwards Godzilla came out, I remember going, I want to see Heisenberg, Bryan Cranston take on Godzilla. He doesn't. You know, you you go to a movie like this, you want to see the main characters face off against the giant monster.
00:47:58
Speaker
And for all its flaws, this movie at least gave us that. That at least I thought was was the gutsiest, ballsiest thing this movie did. Is it great? No. um Is it good?
00:48:09
Speaker
No, but the rock fights giant monsters and I'm okay with that. So one and a half stars for me. I got to almost disagree with you wholeheartedly here. I'm kind of surprised. I'm kind of surprised. This is the opinion you have.
00:48:21
Speaker
um Like why, why did you want to see Bryan Cranston fight Godzilla? Like there was no reason for that. It wouldn't have made sense. And it would have made that movie significantly worse. And the fact that The Rock fights Kaiju in this movie was the most one of the most ridiculous things I've even seen. It was so stupid. He tries to fight it with a gun he knows isn't going to hurt it. So like why is he even doing this? Just because he's The Rock and he has to.
00:48:46
Speaker
on one face On its face, this movie is completely ridiculous. I think you either want this movie to commit completely to the ridiculousness of it all, or you want this movie to to take itself seriously. I don't think this movie really commits to a side, but when you have The Rock going out there shooting at monsters with a giant gun,
00:49:06
Speaker
I mean, you got the biggest action star in the world taking on a giant monster by himself. That's dumb, stupid fun. And that's what I want this movie ultimately to be. That's what I think this movie is trying to want to be. But I think that movie is the that that part is the only time we actually get there, because by and large, these characters are not compelling.
00:49:27
Speaker
there's there's There's no reason I want to spend an hour and 45 minutes with these guys. They're kind of boring. But when the rock straps a gun to himself, he just became a little more interesting. OK, well, I think that's maybe more a problem with the movie than like kaiju tropes, because like I don't ever want to see humans fighting kaiju.
00:49:47
Speaker
I want to see kaiju fighting kaiju um or just kaijus destroying the city. I don't want to see humans fighting them because they shouldn't be fighting them. They should be running away from them. ah when when you look at the original Godzilla, for example, three-fourths of that movie is just Godzilla hanging out.
00:50:04
Speaker
It's not to the last 45 minutes where he starts destroying the city. It's all about the human side. It's the human element. so Which is the thing I appreciate about, I would say, quote-unquote, serious kaiju films. You understand the the seriousness of it all.
00:50:19
Speaker
I don't think this movie does the serious stuff particularly well. I mean, it it knows it's a dumb action movie. Like it knows that that's what it is. And so when I go to a dumb action movie, I want to see dumb action. And when you don't give me the dumbest part of the action until like the very, very end, I'm going to latch on to the dumb action because that's what I was promised.
00:50:43
Speaker
I was promised the rock fighting a giant monster. And that's what, I mean, that's what the poster is. It's the rock and a gorilla and the rock's got a giant gun.
00:50:54
Speaker
And it says in big letters, big meets bigger. I want to see big meet bigger. I want to see the rock take on a monster. so I think, I think, What we're touching on here is mainly the biggest flaw with video game movies, because I came into this movie knowing what Rampage is.
00:51:12
Speaker
I came into it knowing what to expect and what I was going to get. You came into it with absolutely no preconceived notions outside of what you saw on the poster and what you expect The Rock to be doing in an action movie. And you didn't like it, whereas I did. So I think that's the biggest problem with video game movie adaptations is you had the fans of the video game going, okay, I know what to expect more or less. I know they're going to adapt it. They're going to do something, but I know what to expect more or less.
00:51:37
Speaker
And then you have the general audience that doesn't know shit. And they're just like, I don't know. The poster looks cool. um Wait, this is based on a video game. So, you know, I think i think this is the problem is my bias is showing, I suppose.
00:51:53
Speaker
But I'll still defend this movie. I still think it has plenty good going for it. I think your opinions of what you want to see in a kaiju movie is not what I expected. Well, here's the thing. I don't go into every kaiju movie expecting that either.
00:52:06
Speaker
Like, I i weigh my my expectations based on the movie that I'm seeing. and Now, am I expecting to go into... like the 98 Godzilla. Did I go into that expecting to see Matthew Broderick like flying a helicopter into Godzilla, down Godzilla's throat? No, of course not.
00:52:22
Speaker
And I don't want to see that because I don't want to see Matthew Broderick do that. But it's The Rock. I mean, it's Bryan Cranston immediately after Breaking Bad, like playing the biggest BA in television history, Heisenberg. ah You know, you want to see Heisenberg go toe to toe with Godzilla just because not because you think it's a compelling story move, just because you think it'd be freaking cool to see on a big screen. Did I expect it to happen? No. But did I kind of want it to happen? Absolutely.
00:52:47
Speaker
um You know, just because that seems like that would be freaking awesome to see Heisenberg go toe to toe with Godzilla. Is he playing Heisenberg in that movie? No, of course he's not. He's playing a completely different character. You know, so I'm not going to say that's my expectation of all kaiju movies. It was my expectation of this movie because it's a dumb action movie. And that's what the movie poster promised me is the rock fighting a giant monster.
00:53:09
Speaker
And you've got the stones to hand him a gun and say, go fight that giant lizard thing. And he does it and he does it for your enjoyment, Brett, and for mine. And so for that, Mr. Dwayne Johnson, I salute you, sir.
00:53:20
Speaker
And, and I can't, it's one of the things I can't get behind. I mean, I get it story-wise. I don't, I didn't like, there's part of me that liked it just because it's it's, it was trying to show that like him and George working together.
00:53:34
Speaker
that's kind of cool. I dig that story-wise, but is it really stupid that he's trying to fight a giant lizard that he knows he can't hurt with the weaponry he has a little bit Absolutely. ah it is But again, that's when I feel like the movie is fully committing to the stupidity of the premise. Yeah. Sure. i mean And and that's why that was that was that's why that for me was the transcendental moment is because i you're giving me what I expect and that's what I wanted out of it.
00:54:00
Speaker
So again, I think expectation plays a role for sure. yeah and And my expectation changes based on the movie that I'm watching. And I won't say that I expect a lot out of a kaiju movie because I don't really have enough experience with kaiju movies to say, well, this is what I want. But here's the thing, the kaiju movies that I have seen for the most part,
00:54:18
Speaker
are some of the good ones. So, like, I have... My points of comparison are, like, the original Godzilla, the original King Kong, Bong Joon-ho's the host, Pacific Rim, Shin Godzilla. I mean, you know, those are very good kaiju movies. So, when that's my point of comparison, then I'm...
00:54:35
Speaker
I would probably be, i am probably going to be a little more critical. Yeah, that's fair. but I'm not going to begrudge you that. I would just disagree with you. Here's the thing. We disagree a lot. We do. We do.
00:54:47
Speaker
And that's fine because it's okay to have differences of opinion. it is. As long as we talk about them like civilized adults and not like, you know, animals flinging poo at each other on the internet, then we're fine. Yeah.
00:55:01
Speaker
You and I know one another. At the end of the day, our opinions on a particular film are not going to be the end of our friendship. It might cause one of us not to talk to the other for a few days, but they will not be the end of our friendship.
Hosts' Opinions and Friendship
00:55:14
Speaker
I know. Not that that's ever happened. i No, of course not. That would never happen. where it We're you were're the two best friends that anyone could ever have. Right. Hashtag two of a kinds. One of a minds. Yeah, that's steak and fries, baby. Steak and fries.
00:55:30
Speaker
Exactly. Oh, man. You made me remember that movie. how Oh, that song stuck in your head again, isn't it? Yeah. damn I just got it out, too. I just got it out.
00:55:41
Speaker
ah You know, it's a good song that will get that song stuck in your head. The theme song from Blossom, which was stuck in my head earlier this week for a reason I don't understand or don't know. I haven't heard it in years and I'm not going to go seeking it out for that reason. It's a straight banger, my friend. I don't want it stuck in my in my head for three solid days. And you know what? Those were good three days. that was a good thing Don't want it in there.
00:56:03
Speaker
So, uh, so yeah, uh, rampage man. So we're going to be back next week talking about another Kaiju movie, whether you like it or not, hopefully you'll like it and stick around with us. Cause we, uh, we'll have fun. We'll, we should have a guest on next week as well.
00:56:17
Speaker
Indeed. We will actually be having my wife on. Hey. Because, you know, nepotism is a thing. Absolutely. So, yeah, we're going to have Brett's wife on and we're going to talk about another kaiju movie.
00:56:30
Speaker
And it's going to be great. And we've got another guest slated before the end of the month, if if that, again, continues to work out. So... We, it, it, you know, just when it works out for us to have a guest on, we'll have a guest on. It's not like we're trying to get a guest on for every episode, but you know, sometimes it's nice to hear other voices than just hours screaming out into the ether perhaps. So Yeah. I mean, most of the time, those people talk more than me.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah. So they're almost I'm almost a guest most of the time in those episodes. like Let's be honest. I don't talk much in the guest episodes. You know, just you just need to be a little more assertive, man. I mean, just, hey, this is my podcast, and I'm going to take ownership of it.
00:57:12
Speaker
Hey, let's say look, like eat you know, and maybe some of the fans know, I i'm a stickler for audio. And when people are doing a remote record like we do and talking over one another, nothing ticks me off more.
00:57:28
Speaker
So I wait for my moment to talk and then I talk. I can be a little more a little more intentional about being Brett. What do you have to say about this thing that we're talking about?
00:57:41
Speaker
There is that. When it's just the two of us, I just shut up and then you know to pick up from there. but And a lot of times you you're good at reading the visual cues ah right but when I want to say something. so True.
00:57:53
Speaker
So, you know, there's that. That helps as well. Yeah. ah At any rate, we we hope you enjoyed our episode on 2018's Rampage. Am I, I mean, do you, are you quote team Brett here? Are you team Steven here? Let us know ah tweeting at us at disenfranch pod on Twitter. You can also find us at disenfranch pod on Facebook and Instagram as well. You can shoot us an email, disenfranchpod at gmail.com. As of now, we're going on like month three of no one emailing us to let us know what failed franchise starter they want us to cover in 2021.
00:58:30
Speaker
So ah literally the first person that emails us, you know what? We probably won't even wait that long before doing it. We'll probably do it within like a couple of weeks because we're so excited someone emailed us. So email us, let us know, please, disenfranchpod at gmail.com. If you are Team Brett, by the way, use the hashtag Team Brett, ah but also hashtag YouDon'tKnowRampage.
00:58:51
Speaker
So just to harken back to our our early days at our Baywatch episode. we'll go We'll go back to that old bit. Yeah. that was that was ah That was a fun bit we abandoned for reasons I don't completely understand. But Throwback.
00:59:04
Speaker
Baby. Yeah, baby. you Love it. um You can find me on ah Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd at Chewy Walrus. Chewy like the candy bar. Walrus like the animal. Brett, is it possible to find you on social media these days? And if so, where?
00:59:18
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, i am back on Letterboxd. I've updated everything. You should be seeing the Rampage review up there as this episode drops, hopefully before, but you don't know that.
00:59:31
Speaker
ah But yeah, I'm up to date. I'm back. Some of the reviews are there. Maybe they're sentence long. it doesn't matter. was going to say they're not long, but mine aren't very long usually either. so No, but I'm back. I'm there.
00:59:45
Speaker
Hit me up. Victory at gunslingerfire there to find Brett on Letterboxd. ah And so that's it. That's that's our rampage episode.
00:59:55
Speaker
ah So this has been the disenfranchised podcast. I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy for my cohost, Brett Wright and myself. Hashtag.
01:00:06
Speaker
You don't know rampage.