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Plan Block from Planet Busted - ET: the Extra-Terrestrial & Alien: Romulus
32 Plays2 months ago
They've returned from above! The Podcasters! They're abducting us and forcing us to listen to their garbage opinions on movies!!
Max and Mitch have gone out of this world in this weird and alien episode. They attempt to get a weird ballsack man back home before the government, and their mom's find, find him as well as stumble their way through a poorly lit space station as a yonic monster chases them!
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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
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Transcript
Humorous Introduction
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome to Blockbusted, a movie review podcast where we are definitely humans. I'm blah, blah, blah. That was the joke I was going to make, god damn
Scary Alien Movies Discussion
00:00:33
Speaker
it. And today we're looking at ET legs of terrestrial and alien romulus.
00:00:51
Speaker
going to make a funny sound well you've done your funny sound you've done that joke before so technically i've stolen it from you i guess okay well if that's okay it's fine i'm okay with it yeah did you hear how quickly i rushed et the extra threshold yeah quickly i quickly did that because because i i I screwed up the bit. This is the time he's going to be so crap to edit. um Hey, guys, Max and Mitch. He's Max. We're back. We have a brand new episode
Horror vs. Thriller Debate
00:01:19
Speaker
for you. This one episode theme, returning theme aliens. Yeah, well. Yes.
00:01:32
Speaker
You question mark. Well, the the first time we did like space aliens was like more like scary space aliens. This week's more scary. No, like not the last time was more scary. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to do like a, I think I understand what you're saying, but I'm going to do like a little mental, like, uh, experiment with you. All right. So ET, not scary at all. Not scary. Agreed. Um, asteroid city, not scary. Um,
00:02:07
Speaker
Unsettling. Unsettling.
E.T. and Spielberg's Impact
00:02:09
Speaker
Not scary. Sure. Nope. Scary. Scary. Ultra scary. I mean, it's meant to be a scary movie. It's not really a horror though. It's more a Weston. It's like a horror. a It's a horror with alien Weston. I feel like it turns more into a ah and into a thriller. I think it has more thriller vibes, but up to the thing, but they like get eaten by a big alien in the There's like one part that is really grotty. I will give you that. But beyond that, I don't reckon most of that movie is horror. I think there's lots of horror elements in it. Absolutely. But I reckon the whole movie counts to horror. I think by the the like the end thing is definitely not horror. It's more like spooky thriller stuff, but not horror horror. But my point is my point is alien, Romulus, spooky.
00:02:59
Speaker
horror. yep yeah yep Now combine the spookiness of NOPE and Asteroid City together, and also combine the spookiness of ET, the extraterrestrial and alien Romulus together, I reckon even though ET isn't spooky, Alien Romans still outweighs all the spooks in Astrid City and Narp. I don't know if I agree with that. I reckon it does. Just by like the fact that it's probably the most legitimate horror movie that we've just listed.
00:03:37
Speaker
It's the one that I feel like is the least, like, narp in contention. I'm happy to say, like, I'm not gonna argue anyone who says it's a horror movie, but I just don't really say it's a horror movie. But I think Alien Romulus, most obviously, like, unable to be argued, is a horror movie. See, I would go narp is more of a horror movie than Alien Romulus. That is an insane take that I was not expecting today. Like, I reckon Alien Romulus is more of a thriller than it is a horror. Absolutely not. You were crazy. You are a nutty young man.
00:04:06
Speaker
No, it's like it's not scary, though. That's that. Ah, OK. OK. I think that's just more that, you know, I think before we start, we should get into the movies because I think that sounds like time to get into the movies. Spoiler alert for ET, the extraterrestrial and alien Romulus.
00:04:24
Speaker
wrong
00:04:26
Speaker
It's like a role in this room, Romulus, Romulus, ET, really, really this dude, I'm going to Lulu on this relay lay right now. um E.T. released in 1982 and directed by Steven Spielberg. It stars Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert McNaughton, Peter Coyote, and Drew Barrymore. Max, hit me. What is this movie about? ah When an alien gets stranded on Earth, um it meets a young boy who looks after it and they
00:05:06
Speaker
do feelings with each other, and then they have to rescue it from the from the cops.
00:05:13
Speaker
And then it goes to her. I found out recently that I have an avoidant attachment style. um Do you reckon that would have been helped if I had met E.T. when I was younger? So, ah sorry, are you asking me if an extraterrestrial being came and um like merged its emotions with you? Yeah. That you would have a.
00:05:41
Speaker
What'd you call it? Well, I have an avoidant attachment style. Avoidant attachment style? I'm saying, do you reckon I would be maybe more willing to open up if an alien had kind of melded with me emotionally when I was younger? Yes. I think that's part of what the movie's about.
00:06:03
Speaker
mitch I've seen this movie a couple of times. I like this movie a lot. I think it's very fun. I think it's very fun. We picked this movie because you weren't convinced that you had seen it all the way through before. Can confirm had not seen it all the way through before.
00:06:20
Speaker
So there was a point, like I was watching the start, I was like, I know all this, I have seen this, this is familiar imagery, like, you know, like in the back of your mind, you're like, you can't properly picture it, but all the vibes are there and everything's like, you get it and like, that was also like memorable him getting drunk was like something I remembered but it must have been around there like it must have been right before the frogs were released that I stopped watching that was the point onwards I didn't remember anything I didn't remember the frogs but I did remember ET getting drunk and I didn't remember
00:06:56
Speaker
I didn't remember the kid giving the girl. He has a crush on the most like in
Spielberg's Influence and Film Techniques
00:07:02
Speaker
the the clock able kiss. Oh, well that that too. But like also before that when he is drunk because he's emotionally connected to ET, which also means he gets drunk the same time. He gets drunk and he he's like getting drunk in class and he's slipping out of his seat and he turns and does like he looks at the chick who's like at what maybe seven o'clock to him at like behind him and he gives them this like like hey there like look and it's at these are like 10 year olds like let's not let's not forget this that's like the problem that's the problem that's why it was uncomfortable
00:07:42
Speaker
oh but so sorry yeah what' What's your impressions given your full experience of this movie for the first time? I do think heavily let down by the fact that I did not watch this movie when I was the age that you would probably get more from it. But it's Steven Spielberg magic, man. It's he's he's got the chops. He's riding high off of what did it would even just done. ah I don't think any insurance was out yet.
00:08:11
Speaker
Let me use filmography right now. Oh, good. mike what was it Was it Close Encounters that we did immediately before this? He may have done Close Encounters right before this. Let me pull up his filmography right now. Steven Spielberg. Steven Spielberg. All right. So he's definitely already... Okay. Well, sorry. ah About seven years beforehand, he did Jaws.
00:08:35
Speaker
Um, the year before this though, he did raise a little lost stock. Um, so he's riding high. This is what a back to back. Um, what the hell is just the easy.
00:08:47
Speaker
You know how? It's like right down the bone. So there it is. Found it. 75 did Jaws. 77 was close encounters. 81 was Raiders. And then 82 is 80. I see you skipped 1941. A film that neither of us, I think, are very aware of. I also skipped Jewel and um the Sugarland Express. I mean, technically you didn't skip those. You started at Jaws. Sure.
00:09:12
Speaker
um But then yeah, no, so like what it like three, four years, five years, Close Encounters, Raiders, E.T. and he does Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. So like, you know, he's not perfect. But um yeah, then he does. Then he does some other films. We don't need to talk about that. It's going to need a hook. Too much of a. Really? That's the one you want to go. Then he does not Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade hook hook. I haven't seen hook actually. Mitchell.
00:09:41
Speaker
I'm missing a lot of his filmography, all right? But have you seen Bridget Spies?
00:09:53
Speaker
Apologies for that. um That was the titular bridge. That was the bridge. It fell it fell down.
00:10:02
Speaker
Oh, sorry. It was a Lego bridge. Oh, we'll deal with that later. No, I haven't seen bridges. Well, have you seen the BFG? I haven't seen the BFG. Have you seen Ready Player One? No, but I read the book. Yeah, it doesn't count. Have you seen West Side Story?
00:10:20
Speaker
I saw the original. Does not count. Have you seen the Fablemans? I actually haven't. And that's that's a a failing on my part. Anyway, it's my point is we have our different areas of expertise in the Steven Spielberg filmography.
00:10:36
Speaker
No, but this is, this is good. Like I think at this point he's definitely like cement himself as a great director. Like he's got George Jaws did that like straight up, but then you've got close encounters and Raiders. And I don't know 1941 speak to 1941, but like Jaws close encounters and Raiders would definitely like our brilliant movies. I don't know if you haven't seen close encounters. Have you?
00:10:58
Speaker
No. I'm gonna be real with you, man. The audience doesn't know if you're shaking your head. I shook my head. But you've seen Jaws? I actually haven't seen Jaws ever. Jesus. And you came after me for Hook? The audacity of this man.
00:11:18
Speaker
Have you seen Raiders? I have seen Raiders. Right. Excellent. Oh my goodness.
00:11:29
Speaker
get I mean, Mr. Manager, get your man. He's embarrassing himself. Mr. Manager can't hear me. It's good. It's great. um It's one thing. One thing I noticed while watching this is it is one thing. I said one thing too many times now, but it is one thing to know that Stranger Things ripped off Steven Spielberg. It's another thing to actively look at the movie that they took every single shot from.
00:11:54
Speaker
ah yeah um damn ah really down It's, it's, it's especially funny to me because like stranger things as a property is so heavily reliant on this sort of like 80s nostalgia. yeah And already in like 80, we've got some like Spielberg referencing these um other franchises that were
Central Themes in E.T.
00:12:27
Speaker
popular at the time we have um obviously the reference to Star Wars. We need to talk about that actually. um That's important. For later. Okay. it's It's a point I want to make and I want to get your i want get your perspective on it.
00:12:45
Speaker
we get um Star Wars, we get ah the Incredible Hulk, we get a couple of other smaller characters but ah what that I can't remember off my head. It was like, fe was in it which is Star Wars again, but yeah, but it was like those like men mantra a man meant to remain. Yeah, I didn't know what that was from. What's that? I don't know. I'm not 100 percent sure ah because I was like, is these Star Wars characters? I don't know because he mentions Boba Fett at the end. So like,
00:13:15
Speaker
Is it Star Wars? But I had never heard of Manta Ray man. And it's not, it's not Manta Ray man, because, um, that's not the guy from, from SpongeBob. Um, SpongeBob, what, uh, toys in ET. This is really exciting.
00:13:38
Speaker
podcasting Podcasting. I don't want ET toys. Have you seen Catch Me If You Can? No. Have you seen The Terminal? No. Have you seen War of the Worlds? No. I read the book. Did you watch The Adventures of Tintin?
00:13:57
Speaker
I didn't. Are you serious? I thought this was a slam dunk for you. That one's ready to go. I've watched the original cartoon. It's animated. I watched the cartoon they did. Yeah, that's good too. Watch the movie. It's so good. It's like an Indiana Jones movie, but animated. I mean, I've read the book it's based on. Watch the movie. Daniel Craig's the bad guy. He's so good. Oh, here we go.
00:14:29
Speaker
Andy, what's his name? Uh, Gormrass man, hammerhead and snaggle tooth. What are they from? No idea. So this list doesn't even tell you just, I just gave me the quote, dude. Walrus man, uh, is from Star Wars. Really? He's the guy that looks like he has testicles in his chin.
00:14:56
Speaker
Like in A New Hope or Star Wars, the original? Um, his name in the universe is Ponda Baba. um He's in the cantina. He's absolutely the guy who's like, he's either the guy who's with this guy or the guy who goes, my friend doesn't like you. I don't like you either. And then, um, everyone cuts his hand off. Um, um and then Hammerhead is another guy from Star Wars. This is dumb. His name is Momo Nadon.
00:15:32
Speaker
His name suck. I've got i've got i'll got nothing for you with that. And then you got Snaggletooth. Which I thought was like a moppet. But it's Star Wars.
00:15:47
Speaker
but it's stone
00:15:50
Speaker
Fun fact, there's a Snaggletooth, the character's name is Zooten. but is' for But the character is called Snaggletooth because it was named that in the toy line. There's a Funko Pop Pez dispenser of him. Funko Pop Pez dispenser? I didn't realize Funko Pop and Pez dispensers were in the same thing. Yeah, I didn't either, but apparently they exist. Well, since we're talking about Star Wars, I want to make my Star Wars point right now and then we can actually get into the movie.
00:16:23
Speaker
um so Do you think E.T. and Star Wars are in the same universe? Because there's a lot of reasons to believe that. Number one, when he sees a person dressed up as Yoda at the Halloween thing, he goes home, home. He recognizes Yoda. He thinks Yoda is another alien. He also is like just an old looking creepy alien. It's bald. OK, so I would agree with you. But second, in either a new hope. Nope.
00:16:55
Speaker
in either Phantom Menace, Dark of the Clerns, I think it's one of those two. It might be Red into the Sith, but I don't think it's that one. There's many, many Senate meetings. There's the there's for AT aliens. There are AT aliens. Yeah, they're there.
00:17:11
Speaker
and i'm I'm refusing to entertain that based on the based on the A cameo appearance of the E.T. aliens in the Senate in the prequels. It's just there's two instances in both franchises that show that there's a correlation between them. I think it's a stretch. Do you reckon he saw Boba Fett and was like,
00:17:32
Speaker
Wow, that legendary Banner Hunter got eaten by a Sarlacc. Why do they have an action figure of him? That's
Cultural References in E.T.
00:17:41
Speaker
crazy. so So what did you like about this movie, Mitchell? It's very whimsical.
00:17:49
Speaker
um
00:17:52
Speaker
It's very whimsical and it's just a fun adventure with a kid whose acting is not the worst, but definitely not the best.
00:18:03
Speaker
And there's Drew Barrymore, who's a real cutie patootie, just a young young little girl. ah She's actually doing pretty well. I thought yeah i wrote it i wrote they wrote for her really well, I thought she did a good job. No, I thought it was really funny. She was great.
00:18:23
Speaker
she um I know it's hard to say that like there's an obvious reason why she has a career after this because she is like four. um But I mean, I mean, of the fact that she was born into an acting family and like was hyper. We don't we don't need to do this. We don't need to do this. Let's pretend for for a couple of instances. Can we just pretend?
00:18:45
Speaker
that Nepo babies don't exist and everyone gets an equal shot. I know it doesn't happen. No, no, no, no. She definitely like got fucked up by by Hollywood. So that's true. She did. That's very true. um The older brother is fun. He's like exactly what he's the stereotypical older brother, but I reckon I don't know enough about this, but I do you reckon he's probably about to set the template for that character though. Like it wouldn't surprise me if like this is where the origins of that trope comes from. It was in this movie. I think he has one of the best lines in the whole film and that's at the end when he's driving the van. Then he goes, uh, I'm going to die and I'm never going to get my driver's license.
00:19:28
Speaker
so That's good. that Better than the I don't know how to drive forwards. That's also really good. No, I just think I usually find it very funny when the priorities of a character are kind of weird except for that one meme with Hermione Granger. it I don't think I don't like it inherently. I just reckon I don't like it because um It's been done so much, but like the one where she's like, we're gonna, you could have got us killed or worse, expelled. It's like, yeah, right. Whatever. But I do think in this one, it's funny. I think it's probably, I probably found the harmony one funny when I first saw it. It's just been, I've seen it so many times now. Um, but no, it's just really fun. Uh, ET, even though he's a creepy little ball sack man,
00:20:10
Speaker
does look really good for like an animatronic slash puppet. And even though he has a weird extender neck, like a goddamn, like, like ah what's it called? um Like a selfie stick?
00:20:26
Speaker
Show off. Like a fleshy selfie stick. Like a fleshy selfie stick with like the binoculars that you can put money into on lookouts to see stuff at the top of his head. Like that's what his head looks like. he He looks good. And like I even though I didn't like even though he was too slimy, I thought he was still somehow a character I was rooting for, even though he creeped me the hell out.
00:20:53
Speaker
i I think this is such a testament to the like the way this film is written. in the yeah ac is like there's a bomb I feel like when I think about E.T. the movie, yeah I go, oh yeah, E.T. is like kind of cute. And you watch E.T. E.T. is not cute. E.T. is ugly.
00:21:13
Speaker
A.T. is awful to look at. A.T. is scary and like, you know, in know like, ah from a design perspective, like, like just very creepy, a creepy small man. There's a part in, there's a part around the middle when all the siblings finally no ETs in the house. So like, because Elliot obviously meets him first, and then he introduces him to the older brother and then the yeah younger sister. And Drew Barrymore, who is the youngest sister, says, he's I don't like his feet. And I was like, Drew Barrymore, sister, I am right there with you. His feet are mounted. There's something horrid about his feet. But but there's there's, like, a
00:21:57
Speaker
like beyond that, it's it's this it has this real lifelike quality yeah to it and it has this it it's performed in such a way and the kids
Character Dynamics in E.T.
00:22:08
Speaker
especially perform with it in such a way that really makes you invested in in the character. absolutely and It doesn't feel like it's a wow factor. Look at this creepy alien. it's a like this is a character This is a character I care about with with motivations and with ah feelings, and and we're going to explore that. and
00:22:30
Speaker
um I think that's that's what this movie does best. it is is it really um and I'm not going to deny that it gets a bit heavy handed at times, but it is really about this this idea of of building these relationships with people that don't last with um the connections that you have with your family and um the connection that Eliot and A.T. build over the course of a film, um which then is like reflected in this sort of the symbiotic
00:23:04
Speaker
parallel um in in inmer in the scene mentioned earlier where A.T. is going through the fridge and drinking the the beer. And Elliot's meant to be doing a frog dissection at school, which by the way, that's insane for like a 10-year-old to be doing the live frog dissection at school. I didn't even know what the word dissection was at that age, probably.
00:23:25
Speaker
um just speaking of the scene where he gets drunk i just do you think the funniest part the whole thing's really funny and it's got like classic Spielberg you like you can steal Spielberg really in that because he does like this slapstick comedy where it's not amped up to a degree where it's like looks like slapstick comedy just looks like people getting stunk in the face. He does a really good job of just making that really natural but still really funny. But what I find really funny in that maybe that part is just the part where the mum opens the door directly into ET and he just eats it and falls over.
00:24:01
Speaker
expensive I just think like the the like that scene where she walks in and she's talking to… um Drew Barrymore, yeah. To Drew Barrymore's character, Gertie, and is just completely oblivious to Ate. I think it's just really funny and really sweet because yeah um it's this… Um, idea that like this, this guy who's just like wandering around your house, feeding you a potato salad. Like he's not like trying to be hidden and he's just like hanging around. And, um, I think the way that, um, they use that to comedic effect, the way that Spielberg uses that to comedic effect is really, really, uh, fantastic there. And, um, I think that.
00:24:51
Speaker
Because of that, they they're left with these situations where they can play into these heightened emotional states where E.T. and Elliot get like sick together and it forces um their mom into a position where she now um has to care about E.T. because she cares about Elliot. And as a result, she ends up caring about E.T. anyway. And I think that really like helps it helps drive the story forward, but it also just like gives you these really simple and clear understandings of the motivations of each character. yeah I think that's something that's done really well. um like Every character that we get introduced to is a really clear
00:25:41
Speaker
um sort of idea and there's um there's not a lot of time where you're going like, oh, I don't really know why they're doing that. And some of the stuff they're doing is completely ridiculous. And um it it never feels like unnatural because it feels like the like they develop the character so quickly um and so simply that everything that they do seems to fit into place.
00:26:07
Speaker
yeah um I think that's something that's really fantastic about about this film. um And yeah, between that and the relationships that they build up, especially with this, like, creepy puppet that doesn't really talk, um I think... What do you mean he doesn't really talk?
00:26:28
Speaker
that and um of course uh john william's fantastic yeah soundtrack i was going to mention that yeah yeah i can't not talk about that i think between those things this yeah this is one of my favorite movies i've watched it I don't know, three, four, five times. That's a lot for me. Favorite movies can count on one hand how many times I've seen it. I'm pretty sure I've seen Puss in Boots and the Lost Wish like six times. look Look, if I've seen the movie more than twice, you know I like it. That's fair. I mean, that's fair with me too, but I guess maybe I hyperfixate on the movies. I really like maybe a bit more than you do, which is fair. like i's i've seen I've seen it. I know what happened next.
00:27:13
Speaker
Um, I, I can't really read books either. If I remember what that, what's going to happen, I just like like like, I already know what's going to, I know I already you know what's
Spielberg's Legacy and Filmmaking Magic
00:27:21
Speaker
happening. Like, no, give me something else. I mean, you, there's some things you'd reread, right? Like, yeah. Scott Pilgrim. You don't have to help me like that. Jeez. Why would I out you? I'm just, I'm there with you, brother. I love Scott Pilgrim. I don't know. I think, yeah, I get, I yeah. sorry um go I'm getting sidetracked, but um um Yeah, this this is something that this is a movie that I really like and um I think it combines a ah lot of really fantastic, really simple ideas and and executes them really, really well. and
00:27:56
Speaker
um That's yeah, that's what I like about eating. There's just something so incredible about Steven Spielberg, because everything you said is like, it is a combination, it's a joint of like so many talented people working on one film, but like, this man, Steven Spielberg, just There's just must be something that he does that like brings out out in people and his way to pick who he works with and I mean obviously he and John Williams have a really close relationship and they arere only like the last there's like an obvious point where like they kind of stopped working together and not because of anything I know of that like just John Williams got old and Steven Spielberg's willing to keep working.
00:28:42
Speaker
There's just, I am in, Steven Spielberg is someone who i I just find I, the older I get, the more interested I am in him. And that's not like, I loved his movies, but I got to see it out when I was younger. And I just, I feel like I'm just gonna, I will go see everything he does. I'll make fun of it too. Cause he's made some really dumb stuff recently, but I'm always going to go see what he makes. And this movie right here is like one of the reasons why it's just because even though I don't have the nostalgia for it, and even though I am coming at it at the wrong age, when like, all my whimsy is gone, I'm dead inside, apparently I'm emotionally distant, who knows. um This movie is still like, it has magic, it has magic, I, ah my heartstrings were tugged when he was dead, and he looked like a weird, gross, elbener, like,
00:29:39
Speaker
You ever seen like that episode of Family Guy where PETA has like a albino twin? It looks like that. No. OK, don't worry about it. Just look up a picture. Listen, look up a picture you and all you maybe you'll know I'm talking about anyway. But he's like, I'm still sad that this weird, disgusting puppet that I was absolutely making fun of with my roommates um but just beforehand was dying and then dead.
00:30:04
Speaker
I'm still not sure how he came back to life. That part's a little bit confusing to me. He came back to life because his family was coming to rescue him. Is that how it works? I guess for him it does. I don't know. and was like it say After every d think the nice thing I just said, what an evolutionary liability liability it is to have a glowing chest.
00:30:28
Speaker
Like, you, you, you are okay. You're, you're, you're speaking exclusively from the position of what ah and evolutionary liability it would be on earth. Yeah. No, I am. wrong For all we know the planet that AT comes from, it could be as an evolutionary benefit that I've never seen before in my life. Fitness.
00:30:53
Speaker
to use to use da the doubt Darwinian terminology. Look, look, I understand that obviously his planet is alien to us. So we don't know what's on it. But it's just hard to imagine. I mean, it's hard to imagine a planet. One of his mushrooms the other is mushrooms. It's just hard to imagine a planet where ET is the end of millions of years of evolution. He is so stumped. Man can't walk. Man can barely walk. Man has a weird retractable slash... Neck? Is it attractable and retractable? Is attractable a thing? Retractable? Yeah, like you can retract. Can you attract? You can attract, but like in the sense I'm talking... You can attract? Like the way I'm talking about it though?
00:31:38
Speaker
um You're looking for the word extend. That also works too, yeah, extend. He's got a weird extendable and retractable neck. He has, as previously mentioned, the goggles that you can put money in on the top of a lookout as a head. He's got his penis fingers. He's got his weird penis fingers. He overall just looks like a ball sack.
00:32:02
Speaker
How is this the evolutionary, the ultimate evolution? It's one step away from a crab. Just wait.
00:32:12
Speaker
I want that to be a thing one day, which is like, there's a movie about space crabs and it's like, how do they do that? Are they related to the crabs on earth? It's like, how could they be related to the crabs on earth? Half the crabs on earth aren't related to the crabs, other crabs on earth.
00:32:26
Speaker
Anyway, um, no, this movie is great. It's not my favorite Steven Spielberg by a long shot, but that's not a, that's not a thing on this movie. That's just because Steven Spielberg has an amazing filmography and there are other movies that I have a greater emotional attachment to that I think are absolutely brilliant. I do think this movie is also brilliant.
00:32:45
Speaker
But just like I said, I am missing a level of being a being the age that was kind of meant for and be don't have nostalgia for it either, which I think is a bit sad. I wish I'd seen this when I was younger and I am going to give my parents an absolutely rude phone call after this. um like Because I know we had the DVD like I think I have I was given the DVD. I think when I was really young, my parents just never got around to making me
Technical Aspects of E.T.
00:33:10
Speaker
watch it. And then see, I remember watching Cocoon before I watched this.
00:33:16
Speaker
Cocoon is the... It's the one where they're like the that's they're inside the Earth's core. It's not a kids movie, right? No. Why'd you watch that? It was on TV. Yeah, that's fair. I watched...
00:33:31
Speaker
like a part of Twister once on TV. I mean, I think we watched Twister in school. No, we didn't watch Twister in school. I reckon we watched Twister in primary school. I watched it way too young. The fact that the cow could fly, which I didn't understand was actually not that the cow was flying. It was just that the cow was um being thrown around by wind. But I didn't know that because I saw ah only saw a clip. It scared the crap out of me. Don't know why. Anyway, um,
00:34:01
Speaker
Great movie. Max, your thoughts? I mean, yeah, there's not a lot I can say that's not good about this movie, personally, I think. um the It feels a little bit dated in certain regards. There's some things for the said that probably wouldn't be said anymore. That wasn't even what I was thinking of, but yes, that's true. There's some stunts that probably wouldn't be done anymore.
00:34:32
Speaker
Oh, actually, did you like, um, how all the kids at the end put hoods and hats on so they they could hide the stunt doubles faces as they were at the banks? What are you talking about? You're at the end, right? No, no, I was... Oh, okay, sorry, I thought you actually meant, what am I talking about? Sorry, please continue. um And like some of the green screening is really obvious. Like you have artifacts like that, but it's not something that screening or is it just like a picture? Cause I, did they have green screen technology at this point? I mean, the green green screening is just like.
00:35:10
Speaker
They are like, it's just overlaying one image with another image and cutting out the image that is from a particular color. It's like not a particularly. I thought they just had a picture of like the town. I'm thinking it was a shot where like right to start where there's the guys, the government guys looking for ET. They still have to take out the background there.
00:35:29
Speaker
i was no I thought it was just like a picture. Like they had a backdrop. They have to overlay the like a i see the biking over the over the top. I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking of something else. Oh, okay. Anyway, they've got some there's some visual effects stuff that looks a little bit dated, but like, you know, it's also a movie from the early 1980s. So it's 40 years old. Yeah, right. It's, I'm not like, it's not something that I'm going to, I'm going to go like, that's like saying, oh, Casablanca is bad because it's in black and white. Um,
00:35:58
Speaker
That is why it's bad though. rest Otherwise it's perfect, but it's bad because it's black and white. um
00:36:05
Speaker
You weren't expecting that.
00:36:11
Speaker
um but I don't know. I really like this movie. I think it's really sweet. I really like the characterisation. I really like um what they do with E.T. I really like um the way that he ah interacts with the other characters, I really love the way that they've written through Barrymore's character. I think they did. That's really funny. Um, I think that they've gotten the best out of a child actor of that age, um, in the sort of nonsensical nature of it. She is so like unaware of everything that's going on yeah and yet still so emotionally invested. And it's, it's amazing. Like, um,
00:37:02
Speaker
I think that's really funny. um And I don't really have a lot more, have anything bad to say about this movie. I love the soundtrack. um It's iconic for a reason, and it's because it's excellent. um And yeah, I don't know.
00:37:26
Speaker
Before we give scores, I just want to point out that Jurassic Park and Schindler's List came out the same year. That's an insane year. Not the same year. I'm just going to clarify. That was not the same year that ET came out. No, not the same year that ET came out. This is about, this is almost a decade after ET. This is a decade. It's 11 years after the ET. It's just funny to me that like Schindler's List, great movie, Jurassic Park, also great movie. Two very different movies came out the same year. Same director. What are you talking about? They're both about like,
00:38:01
Speaker
Don't do it. They're both about fascism. I thought you were going to do it. They're both about things in cages. No, it wasn't going to go there. Well, I thought you were. That's why I was saying don't do it. I didn't go there. I said, don't do it. It's good scores.
00:38:18
Speaker
um I'm giving this movie four gigs of data per month in a Telstra phone plan to phone home with. Don't they do like unlimited data plans now? I can't afford it. like I can only do four gigs. Okay. I'm a bit struck for cash. i I'm giving ATV extra trash. You'll fall cause lights that
Mini Media Segment
00:38:43
Speaker
I take it out of the fridge and psychically link with my like eight year old cousin. He's not eight. He's like 12. Why can't you psychically link with me?
00:38:55
Speaker
Um, well, because i I think it would be funnier if I cyclically linked with my 12 year old cousin. You think underage drinking is funny? No, cause he's not drinking. I'm drinking. But he's still getting affected by the alcohol. Yeah. That's not, I don't think that's funny at all. But maybe it's doing live frog dissections and then setting them free. Is a 12 year old. Yeah.
00:39:23
Speaker
You hear that noise, Max? You hear that noise? You hear that? like ah Sounds like a helicopter of some description. Uh, alien spaceship, maybe? Maybe an alien spaceship? Yeah, like one with rotary blades. No, it's like a... We'll let that, like... we Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'll take your... No, no. That was it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:52
Speaker
Um, well, it's the aliens. They're dropping off a little boy. Um, weird ball sack guy. What? He's telling me something. i think i can need to anymore Oh, oh, Max. He's telling me it's time for Max and Mitch's mini media.
00:40:07
Speaker
It was a really long walk for a shit bit.
00:40:13
Speaker
Um, I think I went, I don't know, you go. Um, no, me to go. I'll go first. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Where actually is yours? Theme appropriate? but Mine's not a theme appropriate, particularly no. Mine's also not theme appropriate. Just, just go. Yeah. Okay. So max, max, max.
00:40:33
Speaker
Do you like Metroidvania games? I do like Metroidvania games. How do you feel about asteroid style twin stick shooters? I like them when they're good. How do you feel about good asteroid style twin stick shooters?
00:40:53
Speaker
I like them sometimes when I'm feeling like it. You you know how sometimes like you just want out you need this sort of vibe to get into a game? Yeah, I get you. Yeah. Well, what if I told you you could have the exploration ah of a Metroidvania mixed with the gameplay style of a twin-stick shooter? That sounds very cool. It's called Minishoot Adventure. And I gobbled this game up, brother.
00:41:19
Speaker
Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum Um, it's so good. So basically just takes, it takes all the stuff from like you'd expect from an asteroid type shooter and puts it into a Metroidvania world. So you go like explore, but then sort of the abilities that you get in a mini shoot a shooter type thing, like the Dodge and like the dash and.
00:42:02
Speaker
and different types of shooting styles and stuff. Those are all built into the world's design so that as you get those, you open up more of the world. So like once you get like a certain type of shooting thing, you can blow up certain walls, um the dash less dodge. Once you get that, you can cross certain gaps. Eventually, you can actually go over water as well because at the start, you can't go over water. Oh, it's so good, dude. It's great.
00:42:30
Speaker
ah Yeah. All right. It's like play it. Just play it. I can't talk about it because it's like that's that's the premise. There's no real story that you would care about in it. But and. That's it. Like where where where can I find this game? Steam. um Let me take a look. It might be on the switch as well. ah just Yeah, I feel like that would be a good switch game, right? Yeah, I reckon it would be. um It is on are only on computer.
00:43:03
Speaker
Nintendo pick it up Yeah, I'm playing another one of their games now too though um The same guys they've only made like two games I'm playing one called swords and souls Something something there's like a thing underneath it. It's fun. It's not as good as mini shoot mini shoot, but I'm enjoying it. Um But yeah, I can go play it. It's fun. ah It's like you could probably wait for it to get on sale, but I think it deserves the full. The full amount, like it's about 30 bucks, I think maybe 20 something. I reckon it deserves it. And I hope that they make like a sequel or something. Or yeah, I think it came out this year. So, yeah.
Melbourne International Film Festival
00:43:50
Speaker
Anyway, short, sweet. Your turn. Excellent. I, I, as foreshadowed,
00:43:57
Speaker
The last time we did a recording. This is good that we did you second. i I did a thing. I am in the process of doing a thing and that thing is ah the Melbourne International Film Festival. would it be worth Would it be worth you waiting for the thing to be done to do this? I could, but then I would have like 15 movies to talk about. Would you actually have a mini-media as well if you did that?
00:44:27
Speaker
um But I was just going to give like a quick rundown of what I've been getting up to at the film festival. I had forgot the book ticket, so I only started during the second week like a n***.
00:44:40
Speaker
I don't think I'm allowed to save it. Yeah, no, I wouldn't. I can bleep that out if you want. Yeah, or we can just like cut it. I'm about to say like, I... I'll just say, I'll do mm and then bleep so they don't know what it is, but they're gonna assume it's the n-word. No, that makes me look worse, I think. Yeah, but maybe if you edited, you'd have power, huh?
00:45:02
Speaker
um i I was a silly doofus now with that I was a silly doofus until second week um But I've been catching a lot of movies Alongside all the movies that we are doing for the podcast. I promise I'm not gonna burn out again. I promise I've heard that before It's okay because one of us isn't doing it. So yeah, it's true. It's all good um My, my, there's a lot of films at the film festival and, um, you know, you can't watch them all, but I can't watch them all. Can't save them all. No, sorry. A couple of my favorites. Um, my number one so far, I've i again, when I'm not done.
00:45:50
Speaker
Do this list real quick. There's another week. My number one so far is a movie called The Substance with a Julia Louise Dreyfus. I've seen that trailer. No, maybe I'm mixing this up with another movie. I don't think The Substance has, um what's the name of it? It's de Demi Moore. Julia Louise Dreyfus was in a different movie that I saw. yeah It's Demi Moore and Margaret Qualey. It's about a a drug that makes you better. um It's very cool body horror stuff and it was really fun.
00:46:20
Speaker
And I had a lot of fun with it. ah amount I saw this cool great horror movie about these kids trying to re so like revive their mum who died in a car accident through the power of interdimensional travel um and drugs and of some other fun stuff. Watch some Australian stuff, some non-Australian stuff, live action animated.
00:46:47
Speaker
um I'm having a good time. ah if you want Should I talk more about the movies that I went to? I don't know. i mean
00:46:56
Speaker
pick it it kind of feels silly to go. Like I went to the festival, pick three that you really want to discuss. So, so I'm not going to go into like a huge detail. Yeah. Yeah. yeah where im I'll just like, I'll do a quick recap of what what I've been to. So I went to, I went to one called ah grand theft Hamlet. It's about these guys who made Hamlet inside of grand theft auto online. How was it? I liked it.
00:47:22
Speaker
It was good. It's like a documentary, cute but it's all shut within grand theft auto online. So is it about like people, so they weren't trying to make like a movie of Hamlet in grand theft? No, they were just trying to make a play of Hamlet. So she yeah so it's like an actual stage play in quotation mark in grand theft order. And there's a documentary about them trying to set the stage play in grand theft auto.
00:47:44
Speaker
Yeah, but the documentary is also in Grand Theft Auto. Yeah, yeah, yeah. um So that was good. I saw ah The Substance, which is talking about Tuesday, which is about a terminally ill girl who meets death, who is a Macaw. That was cool. She loved Boston's War, which was this Greek film that I was talking about. ah Audrey, which is an Australian dark comedy about ah a woman who ah it starts impersonating her daughter so she can get more famous. um And Flo, which is a Latvian animated film. It's one of the first animated, and sorry, I think it's the first animated film to be screened at Cannes in about 10 years.
00:48:26
Speaker
um And it's about a cat, and it has no dialogue in it. And I reckon you should watch it, Mitch, because you might like it. um Is it like Red Turtle? It's not as surreal as Red Turtle. I'll hate it then. But it was good and cute, and all the animals were very strong personalities, even though they didn't talk. And no I liked it. I never rewatch Red Turtle. It's getting a five star. I can feel it in my giblets.
00:48:56
Speaker
But I'm having a good time so far. I'm going to more movies this week. Follow me on letterbox for my funny reviews. I'm posting to Instagram in the stories because I feel like the posts are too much of a long-term commitment.
00:49:11
Speaker
I want to point out that this man, this man almost shut himself and my soldier myself he's soldiering on. I almost shit myself to watch all of these movies. I had a snack. It had too much cheese in it. and I was going to say, like was it like a lactose thing? It was a dairy related. Yeah. This is a classic fun. I did miss a couple of minutes of a start of Flo, the Latvian animated film. Oh no.
00:49:35
Speaker
five But ah you know what? It's OK. I caught most of it. ah And the start of the Q and&A session, I mean, I had to go home to look after the dog. But ah we were looking after. But ah point is, if you haven't got tickets to go see some films, there's still stuff available. There's the online stuff that you can stream. ah It's good. It supports local cinema.
Alien Romulus: Context and Critique
00:50:00
Speaker
ah And that's what we care about here at the Blockbuster Podcast is supporting local cinema and good films. I like supporting corporate schlock and cinema chains. I think Max is done with my shit today.
00:50:21
Speaker
um
00:50:24
Speaker
Oh, the movie. Yeah. um Alien Romulus. Where's my notes? That's somewhere here. All right. Here we go. Try again. Alien Romulus released in 2024 and directed by someone whose name I'm definitely going to get wrong. Fade alveras ah Alvarez. Alvarez. Alvarez. Yeah. Alvarez. Yeah. Okay. Alvarez. Okay. um It stars Kaley Spani.
00:50:52
Speaker
David Johnson. Don't let me finish. Let me finish before you correct me. David Johnson. Archie Renault. Isabella. um It's either Merced or Moquette. Merced. I don't know which one it is. I'm gonna say Mercedes because it's probably more correct. And Spike Fern. Fian. Fian. Everyone's a name and this sucks. What is this? Kylie Kylie. Kylie.
00:51:21
Speaker
It's Kaylee, brother. It's Kaylee. It's Kaylee, it's Kaylee, Spain. I was doing your thing and I'm looking at it and reading it phonetically. But phonetically would be Kaylee. No, phonetically it would be. Chai Cholier. Why? Where's the CH coming from brother? Because in the international phonetic language, uh, cause that's what I do. That's what I do. I use the international phonetic phonetic phonetic.
00:51:52
Speaker
The international phonetic things for sea is a chir sound. Right. But I don't do that. I use phonetic in like an English way. Ah, so wrong and bad. Yes. We know this, but also every single time it's gone to someone else to do the names, they've also screwed it. It just happens that I'm the one who always does the names. Max, what's this movie about? um Set after the events of Alien, a group of ah young adults, I guess, um want to escape their hard lives in the mining colony. And so they escaped to a space station that
00:52:32
Speaker
is abandoned, but why is it abandoned? Because it became the home to the alien from Alien. The actual literal one though. The actual literal alien from Alien. It's the same one. They took it and then they cut it open and it had all its babies inside. Why was it in a rock? What happened while the babies grew up? Why was it in a rock?
00:53:00
Speaker
Cause it was in space. But why does being in space mean you're in a rock? Um, cold. But there's like no moisture to, free like, there's nothing to freeze. Ass and blood. Anyway, uh, the babies grow up and there's more babies and they discover the babies and then they have to survive. Survive. What do you think of alien Romulus? It sucks.
00:53:30
Speaker
actually doesn't it's fine it is a very well shot well directed well acted hodgepodge of seven other alien movies six other alien movies sorry um everything in this can be traced to a different alien movie and i know what you're gonna say oh it's part of a franchise therefore like in one way or another it's you know gonna have to trace its heritage back to somewhere. But I'm talking set pieces, I'm talking imagery, I'm talking the final boss between an alien hybrid and an alien human hybrid.
00:54:13
Speaker
where the um goal at the end is to blow a hole in the spaceship to suck it out into space. That's the same ending as Alien Resurrection. That same thing happens. Well, okay, before we do this, we should do our classic um speed round of every single movie in our franchise. I'll make this really easy. I've seen Alien. Okay, well, we have to do I have still have to play the music and do the thing to make make it part of the bit, the running bit that we have where we do this. so
00:54:48
Speaker
Okay, Alien. What do you think? I really like Alien. Alright, I really like Alien too. I really like Alien. Okay, Aliens. I haven't seen, I've already seen Alien. It's the last good Alien movie. ah It's good. ah Alien 3.
00:55:05
Speaker
I've still only seen Alien. I need to just confirm that every single time, otherwise it gets weird if I'm just talking. I think this will be an extended bit with no one to pay off. It's the worst David Fincher movie. That's not his fault. um Alien Resurrection. I still have only seen Alien. Great. It's bad. Joss Whedon wrote it. It's bad. Prometheus. I played Alien Isolation. What'd you think? I liked it. I liked Alien Isolation. You played it at the same time.
00:55:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'm playing at a different time. to the gra play i no i I remember that time. I also played at a separate time. It's a good game. um Prometheus sucks. Alien Covenant. My PlayStation 3 controller has alien space marine stickers on it because the game blew them away for free with one of the gaming magazines I got as a kid. Covenant sucks as well.
00:56:04
Speaker
lightenning wrong All right, so this is a franchise I don't like. I think there are two good movies. Oh my God, you froze. Max, come back. There you go, you're back. Okay. Um, I think there are two good movies. I also want to point out Max was nodding during my previous, uh, tirade. So Max is apparently currently agreeing with me as far as I'm aware. I will have my own things to say. You will, but like you haven't disagreed with anything I've said quite yet. Not that I'm aware of at least, but, uh, I, it's a franchise that when I was walking into this movie, basically I was of the opinion that there was nothing new to see in this franchise. And I would rather something new, like a different, just a different
00:56:45
Speaker
thing. Like I don't want a new Alien movie. And this movie had the task of basically having to convince me why it existed. It had to prove to me that there was new things to see in this universe.
00:56:56
Speaker
And it didn't. It did the exact opposite. It showed me that there is nothing new to do in Alien and we need to start giving some new IPs some looks like I'm, we're done. We don't need to do Alien anymore. It's dead. Dead franchise. Out of seven movies, three are good. I still don't like the third one anyway, which is this one. This one's technically, it's technically a good movie. Like.
00:57:20
Speaker
In a technical sense, it's good. I just really don't like it because I don't like what it stands for. I don't like the fact that they decided instead of making something new, they just have to rip everything out of every other alien movie. I will let you talk. I want to go through like everything they ripped out. It's so frustrating. Oh, please have your opinion though. I've been talking for too long. I liked it. That's nice. I know. I think, I think.
00:57:49
Speaker
And again, i I will give the caveat that I have only seen the original alien. And I think the original alien is really good. And it is really get does everything it needs to do really well. That was the British spies again. God damn it. The British spies. Steven, you already made that movie. You already blow it off the British spies again. I don't think he actually blows all the British spies in that movie. I think it stays built. um But what I think Alien Romulus does is it takes the idea of what an alien film is and this very may well be because it takes a little slice out of a whole bunch of different alien movies um and it condenses it into something that is really fun to watch um and it condenses into something that I think really makes sense um as an alien film and it
00:58:43
Speaker
to me was a, I had a really good time with it because um it felt like it was scary when it needed to be scary. It had good action sequences when it needed to have good action sequences. The acting was great, and the cinematography was great. And um I think that it really kind of just got at the core of what Alien is as a franchise. So I think if if anything, I would say that yes, yes, you're correct. Yes, this is a ah homogenization of of the of the franchise. And yes, ah this may be a bit of a recycle of of what we've had before. But as someone who um
00:59:27
Speaker
could potentially be seen as getting into the franchise. um I think this is actually a really good stepping point, um and it is a... um i Yeah, i had I had a lot of fun with it.
00:59:46
Speaker
That's very fair. Like I don't want to discredit that as like an opinion. And I think I certainly am coming from someone who has sat through six other alien movies, four of which are really bad. And I know for a fact that I'm actually not. It's.
01:00:06
Speaker
resurrection is the only one that I know everyone actively hates. Three has its defenders and then Prometheus and alien covenant have a weird amount of defenders as well. Um, I don't know. I just Like, I think everything that I really don't like about this movie is encapsulated in the inclusion of Ian Holmes' likeness as the android who's got like, he's hot he's ripped apart. So Ian Holmes plays a character called Ash in the first, um he plays it an alien. For you those who don't know, Ian Holmes was the original Bilbo Baggins, by the way, so that's him.
01:00:48
Speaker
For some reason, they decided that they needed to bring back that that model, I guess, of Android and do what I could only describe but as a Peter Cushing, Rogue One Peter Cushing ah style face redo type thing. look Look, at least it was on a robot.
01:01:14
Speaker
But he doesn't but they don't the robots don't look like that though in universe. They don't have an uncanny effect. like we have because So we have an actual robot, a synthetic human character in this movie. who And he's actually great, by the way. I loved that character. um But he doesn't look like a CGI monstrosity. And in the original one, Ash doesn't look like a CGI monstrosity either. The only only reason why this synthetic looks like a CGI monstrosity is because it is a CGI monstrosity.
01:01:41
Speaker
and that's just it's just It's like, why? The name was cool. It was Rook. Cause there's another one called Bishop, which is like a thing. And so like, that's cool. I don't mind that, but you didn't, that i I clicked, it was going to be him pretty early on. Cause they took too long to show its face and they took, and like the silhouette was kind of Ian Holmes-y. And I was like, okay, as long as you don't make us see it front on, I guess I can live with this.
01:02:13
Speaker
But we hit a point where all we eventually see of it is just front on. It doesn't look, yeah but to me, the problem I have though, is that it just signifies what this movie is. And it's a movie with not a single original idea in its body. body Look, I'm not going to deny
Themes and Script in Alien Romulus
01:02:33
Speaker
that. Um.
01:02:35
Speaker
And for me, very much that character Rook felt a bit like an exposition machine. Absolutely. At times. um it well It was an exposition machine, literally. um and um that yeah i the The fact that there is nothing inherently new in this movie and and that ah the ideas have been repeated before um it is is a shame and and it would be good to see more new stuff. And I've i've said before on on the show that um I would much rather see bad new stuff than mediocre
01:03:20
Speaker
gray hashes of of existing stuff. um But I think, yeah, or overall, especially from the perspective that I'm coming in from from this sort of like almost, almost new, we'll say. um ah If they're looking at at it from that sort of revamp of the series, it's the first time, I mean, it's not the first time they've gone back in the into the past, but it's the first time they've gone and sort of inserted a movie within the canon.
01:03:55
Speaker
um ah but What do you mean by that exactly? Like it, they've gone back and like, done move prequels. Yeah. But this is like the first like, Oh, we're filling in this gap. You know, it's the, it's the ro one of a alien movie. I see what you're saying now. Well, it is. it I would happily agree. This is the rogue one of alien movies. You know, I think that actually describes it perfectly because like rogue, this is all very similar to my opinions on rogue one. So I like rogue one. I think it's fun movie. I don't think it adds anything new. It doesn't add anything new.
01:04:30
Speaker
I think the one thing it adds new is some interesting imagery and spectacle that other Star Wars movies do not give you because it does it like in a ground battle. There's a ground battle in that movie that I sure you have never seen before in a Star Wars show piece of media.
01:04:46
Speaker
i think I think on the whole, they they stand as very similar ah simple ideas. Their movies, they're technically very good. They are fun movies to go and watch. and and ah If you're a fan of the franchise, then yes, absolutely go and check it out. um is it Is it something ah new and exciting? Maybe not. um Is it worth a watch?
01:05:14
Speaker
I'd say yes. I think it's on you kind of like what you want as a film. Like if it's worth a watch. Yeah. I feel like you and I can agree. There's like certain movies that will like absolutely go see this if you can, but there's other movies. I don't see this, but I think this one's like a your own. You're going to have to judge this one on your own. Yeah. Like if this is sort of the kind of thing that you're into, if you've liked Alien movies before, then yeah, go ahead.
01:05:37
Speaker
ah But yeah, it's it's not an absolute must say, but it's not a stinker. ah It's not even not a stinker. It's it's not a bad movie. It's not ah it's not bad. It's not even mediocre. i like It is ah still a good movie. It's just not got any new ideas, I think.
01:06:00
Speaker
i think i just I think the issue, the reason why I have such a chip on my shoulder about this movie is that I really needed to be given a reason why this exists. And I don't have a good reason. but yeah Beyond the obvious of like Alien is a known franchise and it makes money.
01:06:19
Speaker
That's the only reason why I believe this maybe was made. I don't think anyone involved had like a, Oh, I've got this really cool idea that I want to use to base like based off of like pre-existing stuff. Cause that's definitely something like I'm open to franchises being taken to interesting places and exploring different ways of the world and stuff. Like I think some of the best stuff.
01:06:38
Speaker
in this movie is the first half hour. I was actually really into this movie for the first half hour, which is a, I think Red Letter Media also said something similar like this. so um It does make me sound like I'm ripping off Red Letter Media's arguments, but I promise you, I felt the same way. um But the style is really good because you get all this stuff about like, we've never seen the mining colonies like this before.
01:07:01
Speaker
um We have seen like kind of a planet, like there is a kind of like a it's an Alien 3 type thing of like a penitentiary type planet. This isn't a penitentiary, this is like a mining, like indentured servitude. A forced mining colony? Yeah, it's like an indentured servitude colony, but it's a similar vibe, but it's, that's the base, that's basically the extent of the Alien 3 influence, and I'm happy that it ends there. um And it was good, like I liked this, I liked this like, look at how the Weyland-Yutani corporation works in this way, because it's a constant reoccurring thing.
01:07:30
Speaker
And it's, a i I am great, I'm always good for a company that sucks. It's one of the central tenets of the franchise is there's this big mega corporation that is inherently evil because it puts people at risk or or or forces them into these incredibly dangerous positions for the sake of of of of ah money or for the sake of the for the sake of the company. exactly and That was ah clear from the onset. It's clear and alien. It's clear in this movie and it's done in ah an interesting way in this movie and it would have been good to explore a bit more of that, I think as well. That's what I'm talking about. yeah the And the same so same goes with um
01:08:20
Speaker
Andy as a character, as a, um, uh, synthetic human that has been discarded because he's malfunctional, um, which is sort of a parallel for, for like a, uh, intellectual disability, yeah um, with some, I guess some connotations there about how, uh, the ah capital wait capitalism doesn't like people with disabilities. Because they can't make him money. Because they can't make money. um And I think this ah there's this really interesting idea that he
01:09:01
Speaker
um was not, he never was presented as like a rescue, but rather as like a part, a member of Kaley Spaney's family. um yeah And that when he became functional from a temporary part of the film, he also became malicious. And and um it's I'm not going to say it's a perfect message, ah because there there are definitely problems with it. But I think it's an interesting way of of tackling this idea of um mic ah the way that ah
01:09:46
Speaker
corporations in in ah in our society, like capitalist corporations, treat people um who can't perform their functional task to the ah best of their ability, or not to the best, not I won't say to the best of their ability, but to the ah expectations of the normal, so that a company may exploit them for the most use, most resources.
01:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think there is an interesting that's why I think Andy's the most interesting character. I just think there's the most there's the most new stuff with him. There's the most development of how synthetics work and how they play into how they play a role in this society that's been built around capitalism and around this one specific corporation.
01:10:36
Speaker
Oh, especially given this idea that like they're they've got these mining colonies and they've got these synthetic humans, but they've made synthetic humans... ah They've not just made them ah sent completely sentient, but they've um set them up as the sort of ah managerial bureaucratic well rooks level. brooks like The science science officer. Yeah, which is like what Bishop, ah not Bishop Ash was in um ah the first Alien as well. Like it's um these, they all have like these um roles of leadership and it's like, oh, if you look into it, it's just because they don't want anyone who you can defy them to be in leadership and they want, and they don't but they don't want to waste
01:11:23
Speaker
these assumedly expensive pieces of equipment on manual labor or something like that. See, i I wouldn't even read it as far as that. I would say that it's it's not that they're expensive, it's that humans are more expendable and more and more plentiful. That makes sense, yeah. And ah they you know um sort just like pop up um from them just being around. they're not You don't have to sink resources into them or as many resources into them.
01:11:54
Speaker
to get them started, I guess. And to spike the idea that that that but humans are ah ultimately the the expendable resource, the the number one expendable resource of megacorporations and the capitalist regime.
01:12:14
Speaker
But I feel like after giving this movie praise, I need to now tell it that it was stupid because um I think foreshadowing is brilliant. Generally, I think backloading all your foreshadowing into a five minute space, though.
01:12:33
Speaker
Not so brilliant. um I think there's a level of saying, hey, we're going to this this space station is going to crash into the rings of this planet in 36 hours, immediately following into gravity generators kind of messed up, ah was jarring and not good writing. I found that very frustrating.
01:12:57
Speaker
what What do you mean? I'm not sure. I just feel like I understand the need for foreshadowing and to set things up earlier so they can pay off later. It's just hard to feel like they've done a good job but when they kind of it feels like the script is turning to look at me and be like, did you hear
Final Reflections on Alien Romulus
01:13:13
Speaker
me say that?
01:13:13
Speaker
the way they're gonna they're gonna crash into the rings at some point also check it out the gravity generator is a bit fritzy wonder what that's gonna happen later it's just like okay cool and also um yeah it's just that i maybe that's unfair maybe the movie i think i think that's a little bit unfair i just I just don't like there is foreshadowing and then there is just like staring directly at me as you point at elements of the script. Like it just didn't feel it didn't feel incorporated very well. it And especially since they did it in such quick succession, one after the other, it's like, well, I wonder what the climax of this movie is going to be based around. I wonder what like, like I really wonder. i Yeah, I don't know. I don't get that. I didn't get that impression.
01:13:57
Speaker
Um, particularly from, from that, um, there's too locked in into plots. Maybe I can just see plots as the building blocks that they are. I mean, like if I wanted to get real nitpicky, uh, the, um, sort of over explanation of the pseudo scientific stuff is often started on the black crew.
01:14:22
Speaker
often something that ah is ah problematic yeah in movies like this. the um why doesn't Why is there a freezer room and they have the same fuel as oh fire fuel it's all the same you could chuck just as we all know you can chuck the exact same fuel from an airplane directly into a car it's good to go all fuels meets all needs baby
01:14:53
Speaker
No, yeah, it is dumb. It's a couple of bits like that. There's, yeah, the the black gear, as you say, well, that's a return from Prometheus and alien covenant, which because for some reason, alien, alien, Ripley ah Ridley Scott was like, guys, next big thing, black, we're doing black, but like it's it, but then it's like they have the regeneration factor of other that But then also they don't, they just turn into aliens. They just turn into aliens. Which was like... Well, actually, to be fair, and I think this was fun, the person who injected herself with the black goo never turned into an alien. No, she didn't. She gave birth to an alien that then, like... Like a Promethean human... Not Promethean engineer. But like, then it like, breastfed on her. Was it breast? I thought it was the neck.
01:15:51
Speaker
It was like the breast area. It was definitely like... ah So do you know the story of Romulus and Remus, Mitchell? Like the wolfs and the- Like the wolf. Yeah. So like the whole thing about the space station is split into three halves and one half is Romulus and one half is Remus and- So tell me maybe we should be calling alien Romulus and Remus, right? Well, you would just call it alien room or something, but like- Oh, that'd be cool. Call the whole space station room. That's a better idea. You're absolutely right. Call it alien room. That's cool. All roads lead to alien. No, that's the tagline.
01:16:31
Speaker
when an alien when it when in space all words lead to when in space do as space does um and then like one half of the station is ignored for some reason i don't know and then it is they were right at the start of the movie and then i didn't know they were in remus i thought they were in wrong list the whole time then they're like yeah we can they go over to the other side the cool side i want to know why the split like what is the split but yeah I mean, it's not explained. the I kind of like the whole like motherhood sort of undercurrent throughout the film that culminated in the giving birth to the alien-human hybrid that then like fed on the mother, fed on its mother, and I thought that was kind of freaky and cool.
01:17:22
Speaker
ah Because really dumb. I mean, yeah, you look like Slender Man. Yeah, you kind of did. Had a weird crotch area. I couldn't look away. Well, I actually want to know. I actually want to know. One thing I really liked about this movie is it really understood how horny alien is meant to be. Oh yeah, well it's a movie, the original movie is an allegory for like sexual assault and stuff like that. So yeah like this one really goes hard on like the sexual imagery, which I think it's, that's good. Yeah. It's so, it's so horny. It really is. And it does it so well and it integrates it so well in the same way that the original movie sort of just incorporated it into its elements of design. Everything being a vagina.
01:18:11
Speaker
Yeah, and i think I think that is really like exemplified in this. I can't remember who the artist is, who did the original concept work, ah look upon but I think it takes that idea and really runs with it, and I think it does a really H.R. Geiger. And I think that really works well within the sort of context of web where this franchise has been um and sort of just gives everything this sort of extra level of creepiness to it that I thought really like helped immerse me in that
01:18:59
Speaker
I guess like the sense of of dread that the trying to get you to feel as it ah moves you through this this station and its various perils.
01:19:13
Speaker
I think what helps with the sense of dread as well, and this is, this is going to sound like I'm making fun of, but I'm actually, this is serious. Um, I really like how they stole the choir from 2001 space Odyssey and through in like in all seriousness, are that is like really weird vocals in 2001. And one it does make the movie really unsettling. And I think it really suited this film as well. Like obviously it's not actually the exact same thing, but it sounds very similar. And I think it's,
01:19:40
Speaker
a really cool choice and I couldn't remember if they used something similar in the OG and I don't think they did so I threw here's one new idea they used and I liked it and it was good and i it was pretty funny watching the credits as well and it said they like the alien choir it was that was called I don't know if it was called that but it was like It was something like that. and we realize I was so frustrated, I walked out pretty quickly as soon as the movie ended. I am bumped into some people I knew when I went to see this film. Oh, really? Yeah, it was completely unexpected. I just bumped into them. Name and shame. Don't do that. No, I won't do that. um But we're just standing around going like, imagine you like you you're in the alien choir. It's got like the singer from um Fifth Element.
01:20:28
Speaker
You haven't seen the thumbnail, have you? Can you say that for the people please? I admit nothing. He shook his head.
01:20:39
Speaker
My talent is wasted on you, Max. Only real. ah I'm giving you gold here and you're giving me nothing. should we Should we give some scores? Yeah, let's give some scores. um um I gave Alien Romulus three penis-like appendages on the heads of the xenomorphs and one cocoon that was definitely a vagina out of five.
01:21:07
Speaker
Yeah, ah I'm giving this movie three other alien movies that are still worse than this one. um If this was, if I was giving this movie three and a half, I would have said three other alien movies that are still worse than this one. And also better than Prometheus because Prometheus is barely an alien movie. But since I'm only giving it three, we're just going to ignore Prometheus and like say it's not really an alien movie at all. So it's still, but it is better than Prometheus. I'm just not including it because I don't want to give it 3.5. I just want to give it a three.
01:21:35
Speaker
I know I've been really negative, but I do think on a technical level, this is a very
Alien Voice and Fan Mail Humor
01:21:39
Speaker
impressive movie. It looks really good. On on it. i I really, I really want to, I saw a review, uh, come across my feed from Verizon. This is the end. I'm going to be wrapping it up. yeah I saw, I saw a review come across my feed from variety, uh, who, I don't know who wrote it, but I think they sort of nailed it on the head when Uh, they gave it the headline of, uh, I can't, I can't remember the exact wording, but it was like, it's almost like a video gaming romp. Like it's not got a huge amount of substance to it. It's not necessarily doing anything amazingly new, but it's fun. And it's, it's, it does feel a bit like video gaming in a way. But we have an alien video game. Yeah. It's alien isolation and it's great. We don't. Alien isolation, the movie, the video game. My last thought, this movie just wasn't necessary. And that's why I'm so down on it. Much like Rogue One. I still had fun with it. I still had fun with Rogue One. It is time for fan mail. Oh, it's my alien. I'll try and do an alien. Yeah, do an alien voice. To like an alien choir voice.
01:22:58
Speaker
How was that? Um, sure. Do, do, do, do, do, do. Fan mail. What? No fan mail? We don't have any fan mail.
Quiz Buff Segment
01:23:11
Speaker
Send us fan mail. So instead we've got our funnest segment. Quiz buff. Quiz buff? It's film buff.
01:23:29
Speaker
It's a quiz! I got six questions on on a card that relate to movies. I'm gonna ask him to mention he's gonna answer them and he's gonna get some points. One of the points means probably nothing, but you know, we might decide something to do with him later.
01:23:49
Speaker
you still can't earn There's no way for you to earn points anymore. I can't earn points. I've earned points just by being here and you guys loving me. um but let's go let's get Let's get on with it. um I forgot to do the like, because I said the wrong thing. I didn't even like, it's time for film buff.
01:24:10
Speaker
something thing i picked but whatever It's fine when you peek, it makes it um cinematic. No.
01:24:19
Speaker
Okay, fine. Doesn't then? we We don't need a repeat of Ferrari. Ferrari? I have a quote for you, Mitchell. it I have doubts. I have such doubts. Is it alien? It is not alien. It is Sissa-Al-Aulisis-Bervier-In-Doubts. I have not seen doubt, but I guess I should have known that from the court.
01:24:49
Speaker
Who plays Lieutenant Frank Drabin in the Naked Gun series? ah Leslie... I don't know his last name. Leslie something. I'll give you half a point. It's Leslie Nielsen. True or false, Beyonce won an Oscar for the song she contributed to King Richard. That was recent. um That would have been when Will Smith will math did the slap.
01:25:19
Speaker
oh we in find i say well little slap did this man um I don't think she won that false. ah That's correct. That is false. Oh, you were saying, sorry. you but you You are correct. Your answer was correct. Gotcha. Who directed Bohemian Rhapsody?
01:25:40
Speaker
the pedophile. um he did he did He did the X-Men movies. um Can you sing the X-Men song? I might be able to get it if I did that. Wait, you mean Rhett? I keep not doing the X-Men theme. I keep doing like James Bond theme. the other... Brian Singer. Damn it, Brett Ratner did the third X-Men movie, not the... which one's the um my Now my brain's going like, what's the X-Men theme? It's like... um ten ten ten Oh, wait.
01:26:15
Speaker
a in and in I was thinking of the one from the movies though as well, not the run for the original TV shows. But what's the one from the TV show? I've lost it in my mind. to play it I'll clip it in some more.
01:26:33
Speaker
Okay, so during the American Civil War, where was the good, the bad and the ugly filmed? Filmed? Yes. Why did you tell me when it was said during the Civil War that it's useless information to me? I don't know. Somewhere in Italy, probably. You're pretty close. It was in Spain, apparently.
01:26:57
Speaker
And finally, what actor links Glass Onion, Moonlight, and Antebellum? I'm assuming it's probably, um, the twin who's like, oh, this is kind of spoilers for Glass Onion. I reckon it's like the lady who contracts Daniel Craig, but I don't know the actress's name. Ah, it is Janelle Monae. I'm gonna look that up because I think I'm correct.
01:27:23
Speaker
ah spell I don't know. I've heard the name before. Can you spell it? Janelle? I don't know how to spell Janelle. J-A-N a w l a o-E Janelle Monae. I was right. It is her. I just didn't know her name. Cool. quarantine That's like, wait, how many points you get? I think 0.5. Now you got one and a half points. This was a hard card. Hooray.
01:27:52
Speaker
How many points would you have gotten to make me feel better?
01:27:58
Speaker
True or false is a 50-50 as well. Yeah. Like, I don't really want to count that one, I guessed. Really? Sure. All right. I mean, I still don't want to hear this segment. Send us fan mail. If you do want to hear us hear this segment, send us fan mail telling me telling us that you want more of this segment. And then we weren't because I'm is getting me to it's just showing what I don't know about movies. I'm getting really depressed because I used to think I know stuff. This is a really like opposite Donnie Kruger effect thing.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Future Topics
01:28:31
Speaker
It's it's Donnie Kruger. What did I say? Donnie Krueger. I'm not good with names, we know that.
01:28:41
Speaker
Alrighty, this has been the Blockbuster Podcast. ah I've been... one one leg And I have been Max. I don't think we said that at the beginning of the podcast. No, we did. I said, mix some it's Max and Mitch back. I said that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Don't worry. like us coveredt don't i oh You can send us questions, reviews, and more to hate mail at blockbustedpotty at gmail dot.com.
01:29:07
Speaker
That's potty spelled P-O-D-D-I-E. You can also find us on the app that is that was formerly known as Twitter, as well as Instagram and TikTok at the username bbpotty. ah Please. I did actually, I did actually post. Did you really? I, well, I reposted something that I posted on my own. Oh, I know. I saw this. You posted, you posted your myth adventures. But I was like, yeah, because it's film related. film but I also posted something about Alien Romulus in anticipation for this episode. Did you? I did. Oh my, like when? A couple of days ago. ah It's on the story, so it doesn't last.
01:29:50
Speaker
I don't remember. I probably would have looked at it, but I probably forgot. I was like, ah they don't do physical movie posters anymore. Oh, I vaguely remember this. Also, why do they do digital movie posters? They suck.
01:30:05
Speaker
Give us a physical poster. Oh, you mean like hanging them out? So I went to Greensboro. Yeah. wait Yeah. Because that's my local now. Mm hmm. So I moved and maybe you should put okay, pun. Nothing. It doesn't matter. They can I go to Greensboro hoits. But now they'll know to look out for you.
01:30:24
Speaker
I can look out for me at Greensboro Hoyts. That's fine. come And they don't have physical posters anywhere. At all? No, they're all digital posters. There's a few at the palace near me. the Yeah, like the palace palace still has them. The independent ones still have them. Hoyts at Northlands, I think, still has some. But I was just so sad because I was like, well,
01:30:49
Speaker
where What am I meant to, I had to like, I stuck, I hung around, I like stood next to a pole to wait for it to turn off the ad and go back to the Alien Romulus poster.
01:31:03
Speaker
Dude, your life sucks. It's so hard, dude. Um, sucks doesn't like, has a lot of bad things going on in it. I'm saying you got a lot of like, I'm not saying you suck. I'm just saying,
01:31:17
Speaker
That is all of life is ah is a series of challenges, which we are overcome challenges. The 2024 films send a. Leave a five star review so that more people can hear this crap. um if Apparently, ah I found out, um I think Max told you told me immediately after we finished the last podcast that you can leave individual comments on each episode on Spotify.
01:31:45
Speaker
Yes. You can also just leave a general review on Apple. We don't check any other apps, so don't bother leaving reviews there. If you're going to send them one on another app, do that. Do it via email. Then also do it to send us an email. Yeah, send us an email. Or tweet at us. Tweet at us. Slide into our dams. I check that pretty regularly. Talk out ticks. That one I check less. Do you check that? How often do you check that?
01:32:15
Speaker
No notifications have come upon it for a while, so I haven't looked. But also i mean that's it may have logged me out. Tag us tag us in stuff that you think is funny. um Next week. Max, what are we doing next week? I forgot. We were going to discuss before that we started recording and then we didn't because we're running late. We're doing robots and robot dreams.
01:32:44
Speaker
No, that's the like in two oh we're doing but we might be doing Fury Road. We might do a different film so that we don't have to watch Borderlands. We're not keen on Borderlands, but it might be what we have to do. um I still reckon we should go see a different film, but we'll talk about it. Nothing's out. I can't go myth. There are things out. I can't go to myth. You don't have to go to myth to go to things that are out. I've seen everything already. No, you haven't.
01:33:15
Speaker
I'm literally the watcher, I watch things. You watch them all, that's why you're not going to miss. Yeah, I already seen every movie I've missed. I've seen every movie. Yeah. Ask me a movie, I've seen it. Have you seen the Pressman Pat movie? I actually don't think so. It's like, it's got Riffic Ring in it. It's got like a pretty stacked cars. Oh, that's interesting. um Next week, this week, sorry. um Aliens, am I right? um Look at them. Look at them all. Do you reckon they built the pyramids? Nah, Jewish slaves did that. I mean, the insides. But were the Jewish slaves not the aliens?
01:33:56
Speaker
oh
01:34:00
Speaker
Or... Dude, I was about to end the podcast there.