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Another one for the Books - Inkheart & Bookworm
32 Plays2 months ago
Come come, sit by the fire as I tell you tale of Max and Mitch! Two movie reviewing podcasters who travelled not very far and thought they were more funny than they actually are.
Let me spin a yarn of adventure as the two encounter the mystical Silver Tongue who seeks the lost texts of Inkheart, only to stumble upon the hunt of the legendary Canterbury Panther, tracked by a knowledgeable Bookworm.
Do you want your fanmail and/or deep and warranted criticism to feature in the next episode? Email us at [email protected]
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Letterboxd:
Mitch: https://letterboxd.com/swagatario/
Max: https://letterboxd.com/USBChicken101/
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
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License code: TNWVZKOXJY0OWBZK
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Transcript
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome
Introduction & Podcast Theme
00:00:15
Speaker
to Blockbuster, the movie review podcast where we read books. I'm a thick textbook on the study of Mitchology. And I'm Max. And today we are looking at Inkhart and Bookworm.
00:00:43
Speaker
is in front of us we don't do movies anymore this isn't block busted this is book busted um welcome uh jesus that was loud was that directly into the mic baby that was loud ah Um, that's what books sound like though. That's what books directly into your ears. That's what we're doing here today. We're going to pull that we we just opened we cracked open a can of book. I'm going to pull that bad boy into your ear canals. So like it vibrates around so you can hear the book. Mmm. It's an audio book. Liquid book. That's what a podcast is. Liquid books. Liquid books.
00:01:34
Speaker
oh We've Vitamized your favorite books and now we're going to talk about them on on the podcast about movies. I borrowed my mom's thermomix, shredded it up, then I'm pouring it into your ears.
Reading Habits Discussion
00:01:50
Speaker
Max, when was the last time you read a book? You you really don't have to do me dirty like me. Trust me, if you ask me the same question, it will also be a bad answer.
00:01:59
Speaker
um The last time I read a book, I was not living in this house. I'll say that much. Do you remember what book it was? Yep, I was finally finishing the third Hunger Games book. What did you think of it? I have not yet finished the third Hunger Games book. Embarrassing.
00:02:24
Speaker
Uh, I think the last book I picked up was the second Wheel of Time book, which I talked about reading. Oh, ah Eagle, Eagle Ed listeners can probably, uh, figure it out, I guess. Um, but the last time I talked about it, I'm still reading it. It's, I just haven't been reading. I've been reading comic books recently, though. I've been reading a lot of comic books. That counts. Does it really? Do you reckon? Yeah.
00:02:50
Speaker
Okay, well, I've been reading Hellboy. It's really good. Everyone should read it, unless you don't like, it's a little bit messed up. It's actually not horribly messed up, but it's like, it's little it's it's it's a little cheekily messed up, you know? But yeah, this week's theme, reading, books and stuff, not movies, no siree.
00:03:12
Speaker
um i'm I'm excited to, Go back to reading. I used to be a huge reader when I was younger. um My mum and dad read to me a lot. My mum read to me all of the Harry Potter books. That's how I ingested them the first time and then the second time I read them myself.
00:03:32
Speaker
And then I never did it again. Um, it's kind of got around to it and now I don't want to. Um, but yeah, like I reading used to be really huge and I go through phases now where I just, it's where I'm not uni and I'm not uni. I read a lot, but when I'm at uni, I barely read. know Yeah, I find that I yeah, I was very similar. Like growing up, I read a lot and then now I.
00:03:57
Speaker
I got to a point where I was only reading when I was like traveling, um which is great for when you're traveling, but it's not great for all the times that you're not traveling, which is most of the time. Yeah, can relate to that.
00:04:10
Speaker
oh and um Yeah, I miss it. I love finding... There's something... so Because there's good books, and then there's good travel books. and there's something amazing finding a good book and then there's something differently amazing finding a good travel book because I found while I was traveling I love I ate the Jack Reacher novels which are garbage absolute horrible garbage but while I'm traveling around and I want to shut my brain off I'm ready to read a a Mary Sue, tallest, handsomest man alive, go around solving crimes and punching redneck neo-Nazis. Great time.
00:04:51
Speaker
When I got home though, I was like, let's read some more Jack Reacher couldn't do it. I couldn't not get into it. I just, it was, it was hard. It was rough. um I think if there was decent public transport in between my house and my work, and I could catch public transport from my house to my work, I would probably read on like the bus or whatever. But.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah. At the moment, there is no good public transport between my home and my work. Disappointing. It's like, you can't take a bus and then there's a 20 minute walk. It's not worth it. 20 minute walk's good for you, though. It's not good for the legs. It's not a 20 minute walk. It's not that much. But like, it's not super convenient. It's not a convenient level of walking. I get that. Yeah. And it takes like twice the time. Gross. Ew. Need that sleep in, you know?
00:05:39
Speaker
I really did. But enough about us. Time for the books that we're getting into this week.
Theme of Absentee Parents
00:05:46
Speaker
um And by books who you mean movies? Movies about books or adaptations of books. One of them is an adaptation. One of them is about books and also an adaptation of books and the other says book in the title.
00:05:59
Speaker
It's kind of about books, like a little bit, not as much as you would we would have hoped, I think. I think we made, we kind of made this week's episode um without really knowing what book, I didn't know what book it was about. This week's fame is about absentee parents.
00:06:16
Speaker
ah
00:06:23
Speaker
Strained father-daughter relationships should be a good week for me. I love dad stuff. This is true. um Let's get into it. um And spoilers ahead for Inkheart and Bookworm. Absolutely.
00:06:40
Speaker
Alrighty. um I was thinking of a joke, but I lost it, so nevermind.
Inkheart Plot & Critique
00:06:47
Speaker
Ink Heart, released in 2008 and directed by Ian Softley. It stars Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis, Eliza Hope Bennett, and Raffi Gavrom. Max, can you please silver tongue out of your notes and transform it into real life, a synopsis of this film?
00:07:11
Speaker
ah I could, but I don't have any notes, but I'll do what I can off the top of my head. You could have just said, yep, and let the bit go, but you killed it. Thanks, man. Inkheart is about a a man named... Brendan Fraser named Brendan Fraser. No, it's Mo. Mo. Man named Mo, who has the ability to talk books into the real life. But when he does that, it swaps something with the real world into the book world. And he did it to his wife by accident. And now he's trying to rescue her. But the book he did it to is super rare. And the bad guys in it are like a bad
00:07:52
Speaker
And then he does that. And his authority can also do it. Do you want to give him a better synopsis? No, it works. It's great. It works great. um I don't know what to tell you. I mean... but every a simple tongue foar He's using his Silvertongue to... Well, on Letterboxd, it's more, quote, quote, Valkar. I thought he just was a Silvertongue. I didn't believe this was a nickname of his.
00:08:23
Speaker
No, because I call him Silvertongue. But that's because he is one. it's like if i would call you mayor But that they only call him Silvertongue. It would be like if I called you glasses wearer because you wear glasses. I mean that's how like nicknames and surname sort of develop from any way.
00:08:39
Speaker
but like i okay it'd be like if i called you caucasian and then your nickname became caucasian my nickname became a corky that would be awesome comic jorky i'm not calling you corky isn't that that's from something it's like corky um and the and the parrot talking to flower um is it the flower pot man yeah bill bill and ben the flower pot man Is Corky there? Like, it's a something. It's ah it's yeah not but it's on a bird, it's a dog. It's the dog. It's it's something. It's their best friend Corky. And he's best friend Corky. Yeah. Okay, I'm not crazy.
00:09:25
Speaker
um but um when when ah mo Mo is on an adventure to find a copy of Inkheart, the book that he lost his wife into with his magical silver tongue powers, um and he accidentally brought out the evil Andy Serkis, otherwise known as Capricorn, who leads a gang of evil guys um who want to use his silver tongue-ness to wreak havoc on the world, um but he hasn't told his daughter who
00:09:56
Speaker
is also there and Paul Bettany is also there as a guy with fire powers. I'm building my joke. I'm good i'm i'm prepar preparing my joke. I'm struggling to like give a good synopsis of this movie because must really trees because they don't get along with Capricorns.
00:10:20
Speaker
it just This movie just sort of feels like
00:10:26
Speaker
the most generic adventure plot that you could have possibly described to me. They, um, they it's, you know, how you ever, okay. You ever seen that Tumblr post that gets spread around? You don't want some posts, Tumblr posts just get like screenshot and then spread around like Facebook or other stuff. And so you can read them because I know how most people interactive Tumblr. I'm kind of explaining it for our other audience listeners as well. Not just you. Um,
00:10:56
Speaker
But yeah, like like they get split around and because you know what? tall not me I was there. But he won you want to never use Tumblr. This is blatantly untrue. Which one? You or me? I know I blatantly have used Tumblr. I absolutely have used Tumblr. That's not the point I'm trying to make.
00:11:16
Speaker
Anyway, there's a there's a Tumblr post about how divergent is the distillation of like all the most simplest. Like it's like just every single boring piece of um the YA teen dystopian, dystopian YA fiction. Yeah.
00:11:32
Speaker
And it's like, and that's why it's that's why it broke the YA. It basically broke. Why is there a bubble? Exactly. Because everyone was like, oh, these really are just kind of really stock standard. This feels like the same thing, but for 2010 kids adventure films. Yeah, it is. This is such a boring movie. Literally how also how so many good actors in this film. Crazy.
00:12:01
Speaker
what Why is a film where Brendan Fraser, Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany, and Andy Serkis sowed a void of charisma? like how is there just nerve meat It must be the director, right? Like the director must just suck. Because so, so what I so I've been told that um the book that this has been this book, and this movie, and this movie is based on a trilogy of books. Well, it's based on the first one I've read, but based on the first one, right?
00:12:40
Speaker
but but Is that what you're about to you better hit me with? It's actually pieces of the second and the third one as well. and Well, they haven't gone I haven't gone that far into it. But what I do know is that the book, from what I have heard, is is pretty good for what it is for the it's a children's literature.
00:13:05
Speaker
she's not um And what I think I was reading very briefly is that what the book does well in setting up for this trilogy that it's part of is that it leaves several things open-ended. And this movie does not do that. No, everything's wrapped up by the end of the film. Everything's wrapped up too neatly by the end.
00:13:35
Speaker
It's meant to be sequels. You keep talking. I'll look for it. Um, I mean, it's it's it's I don't know where I'm where I'm where I'm going with this. Um, the book is meant to be good. The movie is bad. The but the goosees good in the movie is bad. And there's a video game. Yes.
00:13:56
Speaker
oh But I just feel like There's nothing in this movie that feels interesting or original or makes me want to be part of that world or believe in that world. And for me specifically, there were so many times that they blatantly contradicted themselves in terms of their own world building that it just broke the facade for me in a story where that world building should be really important.
00:14:36
Speaker
When you're looking at a story where you can bring things to life out of books, um and you set it up with core plot point of whenever you bring something out of the book, something goes into the book, that's a pretty solid basis, I think, for a magic system, if if you if for a lack of a better term.
00:14:58
Speaker
It's a magic system. It's magic. Yeah. And I just feel like they stray so far away from like that core simple idea that it just becomes this sort of mess of ideas that might not necessarily be bad by themselves, but just don't coalesce into anything more than the parts of them. I think...
00:15:31
Speaker
It's just kind of nothing is the problem. It's... That's such a weird way to describe a film. um what What I felt while watching this was a whole lot of nothing. It didn't... Sorry. yeah I think but the big problem is is that I did watch this a week ago, expecting to record this a week earlier. So I am a little bit... um like a bit foggy on my watch of this, but from what I can recall.
00:16:05
Speaker
i There was just a lot of times where there could have been more efficient and more interesting storytelling that like, oh, that was actually a thing. I don't understand why the concept of a silver tongue was explained directly at the start of the film, when it would have been more interesting for us as an audience to learn what it was along with the daughter during the course of the film, because Since we are, I think that's a big problem for the first half of the movie. Since we actually, since we're given an immediate answer to what the mystery is basically, like what has happened to the mum, because we can, we can infer, we can infer like a bunch of stuff about what's happened to the mum, who's starting characters, where they're coming from, like what's going on. It could have been given this knowledge that things can come out of books and stuff.
00:16:54
Speaker
We know this, we're ahead of the curve, and that means the the fact that it takes a decent chunk of the movie for the main character, the young girl, whose name is Megi. The fact that she takes a while to learn what it is, is frustrating as an audience viewer because we're already there and we're just like, can we get to the interesting stuff now? We've learned this mystery. Can we now do like, can you build on this? Can you do more? But the main character still doesn't actually learn what the mystery is. So we're still waiting for her to catch up. And that's that, that kills the first half of the film because it's dependent on building up a mystery that we already know the answer to. It's like,
00:17:33
Speaker
Why did you do that? that's it's that's I think that's what actually threw me the most. I mean, there's other stuff in this film that also isn't brilliant, but that's gonna be the biggest problem. but I think it's that plus just the level of just frustratingly obvious exposition in this film.
00:17:54
Speaker
You have characters that the the character that it's, it's just characters on repeat, doing like saying lines, like, why are you always searching for that book? Huh? Or like I'm a writer or like, um,
00:18:13
Speaker
You're a silver tongue. You read things and they come out and then they go in and I need you to read me back into the book, please. And it just, it feels like so many things are just said and nothing is really shown to be.
00:18:38
Speaker
like revealed to the audience. it doesn't it doesn't it's not It's a film that almost feels like the audience was not kept in mind. No, it's like- In this creation. what What was kept in mind was just how much of the book can we shove into a, how long is this film? It's like a hundred minutes. A hundred and six. So how long how many how much of the book can we shove into an hour and 46 minutes worth of film?
00:19:04
Speaker
including credits. um like Because what I find really confusing is that very early on is to establish that you need, when you read something out of the book, something goes in. But in the initial like showing of Mo's ability to do this, the the red the red um hood from Red Riding Hood pops out. but What went in?
00:19:28
Speaker
like what On the other side, has this man never read anything out loud before in his life? Up until this point? Did he never have to read stuff out loud at school? It's stuff like that. It was the scene at the climax of the film where Maggie is reading stuff back in. Yeah, nothing goes in. And she can just like... puts all these things back in the book, but then doesn't take anything out, which seems to contradict with the rules that they've set up in the world. Is it actually a rule though? Because did they say that something has to come out if you put something in? Well, it was that they swap. So it is okay. Like, okay, I guess it's like a war. Even after that scene when he puts powder finger, not powder finger. Dust finger. Dust finger backy and the hummingbird comes out. I don't even remember that.
00:20:23
Speaker
And it's things like that where it's just, you're so directly contradicting your own world building. Um, and something that really frustrates me is, is, is magic systems gone awry, which which just this idea that you have something that you build up, you have a really solid foundation for what it should be. And then you just go ahead and break it. And as soon as you do that, you're it.
00:20:48
Speaker
prevents at least me as an audience member from suspending that disbelief that's necessary to like, imagine this, this world that's going on. um i think i Oh, sorry, you continue. i i Yeah, I mean, I just think I feel like if you want me to believe that this, like, is real, this sort of like magic is real, um you don't have to be super specific about it, but you have to be consistent in the same way that um they add rules in in the middle of the film like the things have to be written by a writer to have effect but they don't I don't know how they know this yeah because the person who says this only found out about the concept of the the people who could do this not like once a couple of scenes earlier in the film. Yeah. And then
00:21:43
Speaker
the scene directly after that contradicts that again where the Silvertongue Maggie is writing stuff on her arm. But she's a writer. But she's a writer but she's not editing which was in which was suggested to be part of the writing process. I don't know man. It just like there's so many things that like double back on themselves and just don't make a bunch of sense like the but like Even just like simple my um ideas about like um how characters operate and their motives behind how they operate. there's like In the early sections of the film, Dustfinger goes out of his way to free this mate who he later found out to be, Maggie's mum.
00:22:36
Speaker
yeah But then sees her trying to climb out of the drain or whatever it was and doesn't help, but then stops the van in the same scene till that is ferret in. ah I mean, ah look, to be fair, that's because he didn't want to tell Mo that his wife was there because otherwise he believed Mo wouldn't help him.
00:22:57
Speaker
It wasn't so much like a time thing, it was more like a... like He... But like, I still stand by your point though, like... like ah But then like, here there's there's a lot of stuff that just is... His moral compass flops back and forth like a like a like a skipping rope. it's He jumps over that and bad boy, yeah. And yeah it's like, on the other end of the film you have, he runs away with the book because he doesn't think that...
00:23:24
Speaker
um, mobile read him into the, into the book anymore. And you don't, you don't get any real reason why he believes in this. He sort of just like makes all these assumptions based on nothing. And he's just not a very interesting. He just ends up not being an interesting character and becomes an annoying because he's flip flops. He's just, you don't understand what he is a character really wants. Yeah.
00:23:51
Speaker
I think what what I've just realized while you've been talking about it is like I don't understand the point of the rule that you have to switch stuff like you have to um but we were talking about just before that you have once you read something out something has to go and I don't understand the point of that rule because I understand there's a level of you want his wife to got stuck in the book really simple fix he didn't under understand his powers and accidentally shoved her in that's what happened and you don't need that rule because because the reason why you'd keep that you one reason why you'd make a rule like that is to then use it interestingly later like you have to like there's some sort of um i need this law of equivalent exchange Well, that's the thing, like like, it's like, I need something from the book. But if I'm going to read it out, there's the risk of one of you guys falling in, like, one of us will have to go in, like, it's like, there's like, there's that's the type of like situations you'd expect from a law like that in this story. But we never get anything like that, because the law is just ignored when necessary. So it's just like, that law seems to only be there to shove the wife into the book.
00:24:58
Speaker
But you can just say the guy just didn't understand his powers and didn't have control over it. we he went He accidentally shoved it in by accident. Why is that rule there? it does it it just it's It's just something there to be broken that then annoys two guys who are looking too heavily into a kid's film. like
00:25:21
Speaker
it's just It's crazy to me because like you I think what's what's really frustrating is that there are so many good examples of a hard, this is like what I'd call like a hard magic system because there's like this definite rules on like how it works. You just look like a Brandon Sanderson. He has like the Mistborn series where he's got like, you can do things with metal and if you eat metal, you can do different medley things.
00:25:43
Speaker
And there's hard rules on that and how it works. And what's interesting is how characters can work within those rules and subvert what you expect the limitations of those rules are. In this, the rule is there just what it needs to be, just lazy writing.
00:25:59
Speaker
And it just feels like, I don't know, there's a lot of stuff that feels very like lazy writing, the ink art as a book being super rare. why And then like, why instagram like but it's just like a pulpy, like nothing, but like, ah it was sort of set up to be this like, super rare, like antique, beautiful. And then it's just like this thing. Why not go talk to the author? Why was that never, why did Mo never think to do that? Like, cause I wouldn't, I said to myself out loud,
00:26:28
Speaker
Why did has Murray never gone to love it? Is the author dead? But then it's a plot point. Jim Broadbent is a plot point who plays the author. They go and talk to him. Why was that not Murray's first thing after like finding out that the local readings didn't have it? Like what is going on?
00:26:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah, you sort of i expect this mystique around the book. And then it just ends up being this like, paperback thing that kind of looks like an off colour penguin classic. Yeah, it's like the it's like, it's like the blue and orange. Yeah. was It was a bird, wasn't it? Wasn't it? It looked lot like the penguin classics, but I swear that it was also like a bird. I'm gonna look this up. You keep talking.
00:27:07
Speaker
And yeah, you kind of like expect this mistake around the book the way that they play it up. And then it just ends up being this like, very uninteresting paperback. It's some super rare. It's published by Grey Goose Books. Yeah, yeah, there we go.
00:27:23
Speaker
it my It's super rare and there's only so many copies of it and Capricorn burns them all. Sure, have the book super rare. That's a weird point, but sure, um in the way that they've set it up.
00:27:39
Speaker
more so yeah more more so than um the fact that the book is rare being weird. um The fact that it's a rare book but it's also a Penguin classic is is strange to me. they were printers And then the fact that like ah the book's so rare that there's three copies through the whole film. um the there's The copy that he first has, the copy that The Andy Zach Finds Capricorn has an original manuscript and actually a fourth one, the one that he finds in the bookshop, right?
00:28:11
Speaker
No, so there's the first one that he has in the bookshop. Oh, I thought you mean the first one he has that he reads his wife into. There's the one that he reads his wife. There's the one that Capricorn has and there's the one and there's the manuscript and this is meant to be this super rare book. Yeah. That like, and then on top of all that you get this exposition from the author um in this scene where it's like, ah, and it wasn't and have a long print run and there was a factory fire. It's like, who cares?
00:28:40
Speaker
ah just don't know why that needed to be said and i guess what are just moments where it just felt like why why is this being said why can't you justt leave it as is like the book can be rare why just have the book at yeah just why not why not have the author be dead for like a hundred years or something I was like a rare fantasy pop thing that like did not get a big run. Like why does the author have to still be alive? Why did you have to make it look like a a penguin classic, which is obviously what you're making it look like? Like, it's just insane. um It's frustrating. yeah There's also this like sort of subplot of him being a bookbinder that isn't really clear.
00:29:23
Speaker
Um, he, they kind of like talk about him, like do repairing books and that's, that's it. Doesn't he get like in the first couple of scenes, he gets referred to as a book doctor. Yeah. Book doctor. But then that never comes back. Apparently in the original book, he's, he's, uh, he's a, he's a book binder and, um, it's just sort of not really touched upon about why, like the fact that he is.
00:29:49
Speaker
looking at all these rare books, but then his daughter's suspicious of him looking for a rare book. So it's just kind of like there's a weird a lot of weird to sort of mismatches between like what they say and then what they show, I guess. Yeah, I think I think that's that's where the crux is really with with a lot of this is that they'll say something. And whether this is part of the magic system, whether it's part of the world's building, whether it's part of um how they um represent characters, they'll discuss how characters should act because they talk about um the characters being written by someone or being written in a particular way. And then the characters act outside of that. And the movie tries to address that, especially with that last point with the idea of agency. Yeah. And ultimately doesn't ultimately doesn't really address it at all. And the sort of conclusion ends up being that you have this
00:30:53
Speaker
these conflicting ideas of what is being told and what's being shown in the film. And on top of that, you've got this like layer of of sort of just generic fantasy, world building, in my opinion, yeah and just some to be honest performances that I didn't think were particularly fantastic, especially from the kid actor. This is not a good example of kid acting. And Maggie was not great. And I'm not gonna hold that against her because child actor but it is unfortunate that she was the main
00:31:31
Speaker
part. Yeah, it's like when you when you make a main character as a child, if we make a child a main character, like, try and have them not be annoying, please. Yeah, Maggie was a bit frustrating. And she was being told she wasn't allowed to write fiction. like There's like, there's all but like, it's it's that it's, her it's the she gets to they tell us that she's a writer, they tell us that she's not allowed to write for some reason um yeah because that doesn't do anything why can't she write we don't ever see her right except for the very end of the film when it is convenient for the port as if it was written in at the last moment going oh we need to resolve the port somehow oh wait she's a writer right got him we got him ladies and gentlemen
00:32:20
Speaker
we got em i think what confuses me or what frustrates me is it feels like we got the boring version of what this book this movie should have been to me if you have a basis of a film where you can jump in and out of a book. The interesting thing to do is put people inside the books and the adventures are within the pages of the book itself. Not like this feels like they were like, so yeah, let's have a cool idea, but we're not going to like use it to its full potential. Like it's like, I don't even know if like you need to go into the book. I don't think I want to go into the book. That's what I want. I know you want to go into the book. But it's, it's things like,
00:33:03
Speaker
We don't, Mo, Brendan Fraser's character, um doesn't ever use the like powers that he has you um in a sort of casual way. And to an extent, that makes sense, where he's concerned about the danger of them and um the risk that he's putting people at who are around him.
00:33:29
Speaker
at the same time um we see him disregard these time and time again and it sort of begs the question of well why aren't we seeing more use of these magical powers, why aren't we seeing them used for more trivial things? And the and the like the closest we get is the scene where Capricorn forces him to read the scene from 2001 Arabian Nights, and it rains gold. But there were half a dozen times in the movie where you sort of felt like, well,
00:34:06
Speaker
If Mo pulled out a book and started reading from the book. What if he had like a, like in his coat pocket, like a bunch of like pages from different books. He's ripped open that possess different items that are really, really like useful. So we can just read that. I think that would be really fun. yeah it's like he's got like a ready set like just like ah he's got he's made he's like he's made this like other book that has different sized pages on it because it's just bunch of different pages he's ripped from other books that don't or aren't the same format and he on them is like ah the wand from Harry Potter or and and other like other things and he can just and he can use those as like magical items like
00:34:44
Speaker
Oh, there's dynamics here. You can do something cool. And it's like, that's one way of looking at it. And then the other way is to go really limit the use of the power, make it really important. And every time that we see him use it, there doesn't seem to be a real sort of, um,
00:35:03
Speaker
consequence to him using it. the The whole reason that we're told that he doesn't want to use his powers is because he puts people at risk and the only times that we see um people being put at risk due to his powers are like these moments that are meant to come across as comedic where like his henchmen are stuck in kansas after the tornado hit scene. Capricorn's Capricorn's henchmen get stuck in kansas after the tornado hit scene. Or they get stuck in the getting captured by the by the bandits in the thousand and one arabian knights or like that sort of thing um and we don't actually see him like suffer any consequences on screen. So for his wife. Well we don't even see that really. We don't see that. It's a flashback. But since we find her really early on and like yeah
00:36:02
Speaker
hide her face hide her face don't just like make it a reveal that the wife isn't like in the books oh who wrote this this is so silly I feel sorry for Kenelia Funk, who's the original author. I assume she wrote a good book. I like Ghosted Author. i've written I've read other stuff of hers. She's reading good stuff. I assume her book is better than this. um But this movie...
00:36:34
Speaker
Yeah, I just feel like, yeah, there's just the mismatch and the sort of genericness of it and the fact that there's so many other adventure movies about books that I would rather watch. Yeah, I think. Yeah, this one is just a no go for me.
00:36:50
Speaker
It's rough to judge a movie off of what it's not, such as like us saying, most of you use the power like this, or Mo could have done this and that, like, obviously, that's not what the movie wanted to do. It's not what they thought to do. So it's hard to judge a movie with that as a like a criteria. But I think what I, what I think we're trying to get is that there's just so much potential here that's begun to waste for like the most boring or most simplistic not even simplistic, sorry, simple isn't bad, but like just the most uninteresting version of what could have been put here instead. And that's, that's what's frustrating is that this concept, this concept beckons for imagination and it feels like none was brought to the table. Yeah. Anyway, let's do, cheing you some scores yeah let's do some scores. I am giving this movie one and a half chapters before I would have put the book down.
00:37:46
Speaker
um I'm giving, in card, two pages of the book. um That's how much I read. And that's the same joke. Damn it. Now let me go again. In card.
00:38:05
Speaker
You did, didn't you? I gaming cart. Two Nobel Prizes. Times that. What's the Oscars of version of it? Two sequels that were never made into movies. Very good. Excellent work. There we go. I won. I won it. I won, guys. I think mine was better still.
00:38:25
Speaker
um um The pages, they're flipping. They're flipping through and they're
00:38:31
Speaker
I stopped it. You like we do this bit every week? We do. ah The pages flip through. I can see written down there. It's time for Max and Mitch's mini media. It was like slightly off, but it's all right. Max, you want to go first? I do, because I watched another movie that is about magic and sort of about books. Whoa, what movie?
00:38:58
Speaker
It was, get this, Fantastic Beasts, The Secrets of Dumbledore. Are you reading that off a screen? I am reading that off a screen.
Fantastic Beasts Critique
00:39:08
Speaker
Did you not remember what it was called? No. Cause I thought it was the third Fantastic Beasts film, which for a long time I did not realize existed. Is that not, that is the third fan? It is the third and hopefully final. and I think it bombed. So yeah. Well, it looks like it's going to be unlikely.
00:39:29
Speaker
um that there is going to be another one. But it's always a possibility. I mean, JK Rowling always gets back up, whether we want to true or not. So this is the third movie that should be about cool magical animals, but it's actually about Winston Nazis again. I love politics. But this time, it's even more about was Nazis in the second one, which was a lot about was Nazis. Dan, they double down. Um, and like, they do a whole thing, which is just like how Hitler got elected into German government in the four thirties, but in the wizard world and wizard Hitler's played by Mads Mikkelsen now.
00:40:15
Speaker
This is not a good movie. Was Mads Mikkelsen good though? Mads Mikkelsen is fine. no miss this It feels a lot like the Star Wars prequels in that there is a lot of talk about politics and a lot of confusion about how the politics actually works. And then ultimately the politics not being particularly interesting.
00:40:40
Speaker
And then like the guy who's not wrong related to the politics and all things of the day. Um, it's just like, Harry Potter frustrates me. What? in No way. Because I, I really liked Harry. Like, like many people my age, I really liked Harry Potter growing up. Um, and then, um, there has been issue after the issue after issue with, uh,
00:41:09
Speaker
bombs at the box office, with JK Rowling being a transphobe, with, uh, just stuff like that. Mostly the second one, to be honest. And to see something that could be so interesting, and you see sort of like glimpses of this really interesting world. I mean that literally, like, you see like half a full manticore, which is cool, which almost of the whole thing.
00:41:36
Speaker
um So yeah, look, I don't know what I can say about this movie. um and like You don't know what you can say about it? Well, I just don't know what I can say about it because I don't think there is much to say about it other than that. I don't think it's very good. ah If you like Harry Potter, I probably wouldn't recommend it to you because it may ruin your relationship with it. Just play the LEGO games instead. That's been fun. That has been fun. We've been doing that together.
00:42:05
Speaker
We have been doing that together. Although I would like to play as Newt Scamander. I think that would be fun. He wasn't made yet. and there's No, I know. I'm really scared of when they do the LEGO Harry Potter. Sorry, the LEGO Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Will they do that? Fantastic based LEGO game. will Will they do that?
00:42:25
Speaker
Maybe. Is there enough of a demand for LEGO Wizarding World Nuke's Commander Adventures? Is it about demand or is it about who's willing to dump the money into it? Because I really fully believe that Warner Brothers is willing to dump the money into it because they've been willing to dump the money into pretty much anything else that says Harry Potter on the tin. It's true. They have they are making a wizard, a Quidditch game.
00:42:50
Speaker
No, they made a Quidditch game and it is meant to be mediocre. Just like Hogwarts Legacy. No more mediocre. Oh, actually Hogwarts Legacy was meant to be alright, apparently. I didn't like it. It was kind of boring. Um, um so that's my mini menu madeu for this week. Um, mind I would say go reread Potter instead, but probably don't do that. Um, find another YA magic book. I read, um, there was this one, which was like the,
00:43:21
Speaker
Sounds great. Something of Nicholas Flamel. That was called called The Secret Life of Nicholas Flamel. Yeah, it might have been that one. No, like five books or something in it. Yeah, Secret Life of Nicholas Flamel. Yeah, that was mentioned in the first Harry Potter. No, he's mentioned in the first Harry Potter. Because he's a philosopher. Because he's a philosopher's stone guy. Yeah. He's not a philosopher, though. That doesn't make any sense. No, but he was the philosopher. He was an alchemist. Why is it a philosopher's stone? Because you could live forever.
00:43:50
Speaker
That's not philosophy. That's just and turn magic. met Metal into gold or whatever. and that's not That's not philosophy. the from what My philosophy is get rich quick. I use Sigma male.
00:44:03
Speaker
i it's what you get up to this you got no I just to quickly, I want to say while the Americans are wrong for calling calling it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, it is the more accurate title. Like, like obviously don't change something just because you're dumb and you don't understand it. Like keep it as Philosopher's Stone because that is the correct.
00:44:21
Speaker
One. But the Philosopher's Stone is a thing outside of Harry Potter. I want to just clarify that. The Philosopher's Stone? Is it the Philosopher's Stone or is it nothing of the other stone that has the words on it? No, the Philosopher's Stone is a thing outside of Harry Potter. Apparently the earliest written mention of it is from 4,000 years ago in the ancient stone carving. No, it is to an alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver.
00:44:47
Speaker
That's dumb. Whoever named that's dumb. All right. I won't blame Jakey Rowling for this. I'll just blame whoever named this one. That's dumb. It's not a philosopher. It's that's not philosophy. That's just it. Here we go. what when here Here we go. It's spelled different. um He says, it may be noted that the Latin expression lapis philosophum as well as the Arabic hajar al falasifa from which the Latin derives, both employ the plural form of the word philosopher. That's a literal translation would be philosophers stone, but philosophers multiple with and with he multiple philosophers, rather than philosophers stone, but a singular philosopher.
00:45:32
Speaker
i No, no, no, no, no. I don't get it. I don't care. Let's move on. um What did I do? I watched a movie. Well, you too? Yeah, me too.
00:45:46
Speaker
This one kind of had books in it, but it wasn't magical. I watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 version made by, I don't know who made it, but it has Gary Oldman in it, and almost every other recognizable English male white actor in the 2011, well, 2010, sorry. ah name Name an English white male actor that's just coming off the top of your head right now, Max.
00:46:15
Speaker
Gary Oldman. He's in it. Name another one. Colin Farrell. He's in it. No, wait, he's not. He's not English. He's Irish. Fair. Try again. English actor Hugh Grant. Okay. and No, you got me there. Think of a better one. I like Hugh Grant. He's good, but he's not in this movie. Think of another one.
00:46:39
Speaker
Prove my point please. Olivia Colman. That's a male male English actor who's white. Nick Frost. Now he's not in it. You're doing this deliberately. You know what top of people are looking for. Who do you think would be in this movie? Just name someone you would think would be in this movie. Hugh Laurie. No, damn it. ah Colin Firth's in it. Like Tom Hardy's in it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of.
00:47:09
Speaker
You know the guy from Mamma Mia at Bill Skarsgard. I can't but no Bill Skarsgard. He's not British, is he? Bill Skarsgard's not British. Yeah, but he could be. But he's not. Not with a name like Skarsgard. Ugh. All the guys from Mamma Mia, I reckon they're in it. Well, only one of them's British. What do you think Pierce Brosnan is? You think he's British? No, he's Irish. Anyway. I'm sorry, Ireland. Tom Hardy.
00:47:37
Speaker
Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, others. Oh, John Hurt. John Hurt's in it. Insane cast. It's great. I loved it. ah Michael Freeman. Who's Michael Freeman? Is he in it? Michael Freeman? I don't care. Michael Freeman. He's the guy who... You think of Martin Freeman? I'm thinking Martin Freeman. He's not in it. That was Michael Freeman.
00:48:05
Speaker
Stop mucking up the names. You're making me feel silly. You're the one you asked me. I thought you would be on brand and you would you would go with the bit, but you suck. I don't know names. Yeah, it's true. I shouldn't have done that to you. It's my bad. My fault. My bad. I'm sorry. That's good. um It's a good espionage story. um Famously a book by Jean Liqueur.
00:48:33
Speaker
There's like a mini series that was made in the 1970s that has Sir Alec Guinness in it that my dad thought we were watching, but it wasn't the one we were watching. Alec Baldwin? No, Alec Guinness. Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's Baldwin. Alec Baldwin's American, isn't he? Yeah, Alec Baldwin's American. You suck.
00:49:02
Speaker
You're welcome.
00:49:05
Speaker
What was I saying? I don't even remember. Anyway. Alec Guinness. Alec Guinness. Tink of Tell Us What Just Buy. It's good. um I couldn't properly tell you what actually happened in it, but the vibes were immaculate. That's my letterbox review. I didn't mean to actually do that, but that is my letterbox review.
00:49:22
Speaker
yeah it's like there's a you can it's one of those movies but you don't actually fall for me at least i don't fully know what's actually happening all the time but i can infer what certain actions mean for the overall plot but not so much what each individual detail how things led to there. It's good. Like, it's just a movie you got to pay a lot attention to and you got to be smart. And I'm not I don't have a lot of attention and I'm not smart. So ah but it's good. I like it. Watch it. If you like um like espionage, thriller films, it's it's good. It's great. um I guess to the spy was there pretty early on. I'm like some really clever ah was it. I'm not going to say it's going to spoil it, even though this movie is over 10 years old. What was was it?
00:50:08
Speaker
It was one of the people I named. Only via comment. I didn't name her. No, I didn't. Yeah, I saw one of the people I named. She's also not in the movie. You exhaust me, man. Oh, dude, this book, it's it's wiggly waggling. What? Ah, it's a bookworm. That's potentially one of the worst transitions you've done today. Bookworm today?
00:50:36
Speaker
to date. Oh, to date. Yeah, that makes I was gonna say today's the lawyer. That's a lawyer bar to clear. It's only been two today. Well, it has to be the worst one I do today. Go on. Bookworm released in 2024 and directed by Ant
Bookworm Movie Review
00:50:50
Speaker
Timson. It's stars Elijah Wood, Michael Smiley, Nell Fisher, Morgana O'Reilly, Nikki C. Leper and Vanessa Stacey. Max, can you um ah wriggle a synopsis out for us?
00:51:06
Speaker
When 11 year old Mildred's mother is electrocuted, and is induced into a medical coma. Her absentee father, who is an illusionist, comes from the America to look after her i'll look after her for the first time in her life. um But she wants to go camping to find a mysterious panther in New Zealand. um And then they do that. And then it gets weird.
00:51:37
Speaker
it This is a movie that I did not know where I was going to go. My favorite part of this movie was when it turned out most of it wasn't actually going to be in 4x3. I was glad when that happened. I don't know what you have against 4x3. I don't have anything properly against it. It's just use the whole screen. It's there.
00:52:03
Speaker
That's not how, that's not how aspect ratios work Mitch. No, just use the whole screen. Why make something black and white? We have color nowadays. That's like saying, why make something 2D? We have a 3D. That's true. Why do we still make them in 2D? No, um, honestly I was The one time I was actually frustrated by that was because I wasn't excited for the movie itself. And I figured it was going to be pretentious. And it didn't help my thoughts on the film being pretentious to put it in that aspect ratio. And I was actually fine. Like I was I was thinking about that one time when it was set off. I was like, I'm okay with this. But then when it actually opened up,
00:52:47
Speaker
in In all seriousness though, even though I have nothing against 4x3, it was a really cool moment when the bus doors opened into like widescreen. That was that was a really cool. what What did you think? like i I'm not gonna lie, I didn't notice that I was watching it i started at Nova and the screen was pretty small. sir ah Yeah, well, I mean what's the point? who was i'm sorry also find this Goddamn podcast seriously, like if you're not gonna pay attention or whatever It's a very surprising film you never really know where it's gonna go I think I said that already
00:53:30
Speaker
Why am I getting the funnies? It's like nine o'clock. I'm not overtired. What is going on? um This is such a Kiwi film. There's something.
New Zealand Cinema Identity
00:53:39
Speaker
Australia and New Zealand get lumped together a lot. And I understand why. It's watching movies like this, though, is they New Zealand really does have its own identity apart from Australia, like especially in the fun.
00:53:53
Speaker
No, you go, you go. It's like, like, I think unfairly so in New Zealand and Australia get lumped together because New Zealand, this is not a movie that could be made in the way it was in Australia. And I I i loved how kiwi it was and how, like how much New Zealand was in that like you could really see it. And I don't know, I think I'm just saying stop lumping New Zealand and Australia together. We're both separate entities and one could not make the same stuff that the other makes.
00:54:19
Speaker
the way The way that you differentiate Australian comedy and New Zealand comedy that's yeah sure yeah is Australian comedy is cynical. Yeah, that's true. New Zealand comedy has children being cynical. Whimsical. That's the difference. Yeah. I guess like New Zealand company has a whimsy. We have a sinisee. Sinisee. So what did you think, Max? I liked it.
00:54:48
Speaker
um yeah I'm just gonna, I'm gonna start this out with, um i'm gonna I'm not gonna name in shame, but um I am, I know a autistic 11 year old child. This child in the movie is an autistic 11 year old child. There is no way in my mind that this movie was written without that in mind. But the ah main character being autistic? The main character is absolutely autistic. Oh yeah. the And a in the best possible way, they are written in a way that feels really realistic to that sort of understanding of the world. And I was spent, I watched this with my mum, and
00:55:33
Speaker
know your mom movie this is a i know your mom would watch. Yeah. does that make a license and i My mom and I said, Oh, this is this person that that we know. And she's like, Oh, yeah, absolutely. And they were talking afterwards. And she said to me, you know, you were like that as a kid, too. And I was, ah did you not get me an autism diagnosis?
00:55:51
Speaker
um But um to be fair, I thought you were talking about yourself.
00:55:58
Speaker
no i wasn't talking I wasn't talking about my ah myself. I know a different autistic 11 year old. I knew too, myself and someone else. um And it's one one thing that I really liked about this movie is that the characters are written in such an interesting way. Like Mildred is so like intelligent and um um
00:56:29
Speaker
The opposite of what I am now, good with words. Articulant. That's the word. That works too. For the age that she is, but but it very much felt like it made sense within her character. And then every other character was very much um written in a way that they felt really believable. Elijah Wood plays this deadbeat dad magician.
00:56:59
Speaker
who is salty at David Blaine for stealing his ideas. It's just this really silly concept. And he plays it in such a way that is I think it's written anyplace in such a way that is really just very um like it feels almost real like it's not real and you know it's not real but it feels like it could be real it's done with such a sincerity like the joke isn't what his saying it's like oh the joke is how serious the movie takes it but it's done in such a way that like it's realistic though as well like it's hard to describe because i feel like i've just contradicted myself but yeah No, but I think you're absolutely right. It's like what this movie does really well is it takes itself so seriously while absolutely not taking itself seriously at all. It's like it's like getting yours that taking itself seriously is the jerk it the whole opening premise of this film, other than the mum getting electrocuted, is that ah Mildred's hunting for this
00:58:05
Speaker
mythical panther that's described as the Bigfoot of of New Zealand. um And there's this big disclaimer at the start of the film saying that there's no predatory animals in New Zealand that are able to kill humans. Which is my understanding of New Zealand also. um But um what happens is you're letting into the film being told, oh yeah, it's like Bigfoot. It's not it's not probably real.
00:58:36
Speaker
um It's really elusive. It is real. And then within the first 15 minutes, not 15 minutes, the first half hour of the film, we see this Panther. And the fact that the fact that the movie just goes like, well, here it is.
00:58:51
Speaker
yeah i then yeah you kind of go like, well, what next? And then the movie goes to what's next. Yeah, exactly. It's very much this idea that like, yeah I think that's the sense sincerity that you're alluding to, which is this, just this idea that it takes the idea of what it is, it takes these ideas of maybe a little bit far, like just this far fetched magical realism, as it was described to me. um And it so It just rolls with it. yeah And then it might get a little bit more weird and it rolls with it. And um everything from, you know, the panther to, like, she gets kidnapped by... But it's like the fake bad kidnapping and they're like like like she's off braiding the the part like so there's two kidnappers one of them a woman in one loop another male um a man on and the inina there we go it Angelina
00:59:52
Speaker
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Angelina Jolie. And um Mildred is is ah braiding Angelina's hair like about 100 meters away from Strom and Strom being Elijah Wood. And Arnold just goes with kidnapped your ah your daughter. But she's still in the background. like You can still see her. And she's still with the... He's a very funny moment of...
01:00:19
Speaker
um that sort of ridiculous sincerity. And then Elijah Wood as an actor plays into that kind of scenario really, really well. One of my favorite things- His eyes can only do sincerity, like that's the only word his eyes can do. One of my favorite roles that he's been in is in, I can't remember the character's name, but in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I know exactly what you mean. And he just plays this guy who has no idea what's going on. um And he plays, and not the it's not the same character, but it has a very similar sort of level of like, I am completely under-prepared for the situation and I do not know what to do. um
01:01:04
Speaker
which is like compounded by these scenes that you see, um, you, you get these really funny moments of, um, Mildred talking to Strom, um, saying, uh, where Strom says, I haven't been camping before. And Mildred says, I haven't been either. Um, except Mildred knows what she's doing because she's, um, she's read up on it. Got this sort of like, she's read up on it and she's got this like sort of savant thing going on. Um, and.
01:01:33
Speaker
the like You see him like painting his nails in the middle of the woods, yeah and just these really um funny moments that then lead up to these situations where he's completely underprepared for what um he's actually needing to face, whether that's kidnappers or a panther in the middle of the New Zealand wilderness. all um uh, you know, trying to learn to have a relationship with his daughter by talking about his relationship with
Bookworm's Relationship Analysis
01:02:04
Speaker
David Blaine. And I think, um, I had a good, I had a really good time with this movie. I think I really love Elijah Wood. I think he's a great actor. Um, and I love that he's returned to the hills of New Zealand. yes Um, once again, uh, those mountains called to him to feel nonsense. Um,
01:02:25
Speaker
And um I think it really has this really, I had this really nice dynamic of um the He comes in as his father figure who's not been a part of of Mildred's life at all. And it's immediately played as, why are you here? You haven't done anything. Why should I trust you? Why should you why should um I believe anything that you say? And I really like that it's treated with that skepticism and he spends the whole movie having to earn
01:02:59
Speaker
earn Mildred's trust rather than um this sort of idea. And this was something that I kind of got annoyed with, with Inka as well, is that you have these characters that are completely absent for from and other characters' lives and then they pop back in. um And I think what Bookworm does really nicely is it makes you sort of build that relationship rather than expect it to be there. um And I think between that and just the crazy places that this film goes, um ah yeah it very much feels like every time you understand what's going on, something crazier happens um up until you know the very end of the film where
01:03:44
Speaker
they're on a drug-fueled, mushroom-fueled drug trip, um which like is insane to talk about in a kids' movie. um Because theoretically, this is a kids' movie. Theoretically. I would not show my child this movie, like I have to say.
01:04:01
Speaker
so this screen at myf And I saw a friend of mine who um also went to a bunch of MIFF screenings, and they saw this at MIFF as well. And it was categorized as one of like the family-friendly films. um And they said that in the screening they were in, like they had a good time with the film, um and all the kids were terrified. ah i I believe that. i i i' I backed that. This movie's not comfortable like in a lot of places.
01:04:30
Speaker
um Yeah, but I think as a film like showing that relationship between the dad and the daughter as a film that writes Well, I think writes an autistic character really really well um and um Overall is this like this sort of fun fantasy romp I yeah, I had a really good time with it and Yeah Yeah, I this felt like something that held it back a bit. And it really was the character of strong for me. I have a really hard time getting behind characters who have no backbone or no, like, like,
01:05:19
Speaker
He was just such a pushover and it didn't feel like he ever actually really grew past that. He kind of just managed to work within those constraints, which is realistic. Like I'll give it that, but it's just not something I enjoy watching. So that's not, it's this is definitely, I think that's something that comes down to preference for me, but it's just, I kept bouncing off the movie whenever Strawn was like the focus. Cause I loved,
01:05:43
Speaker
um ah Mildred. She was great. I had a great time with her and all the stuff like the only other main character that again, this is um and and Angelina and Arnold. And it's really only Arnold as well. Angelina is kind of just the main focus um because Michael Smiley is a big, pretty big actor as well.
01:06:04
Speaker
like Arnold's the only other really character we get and he's not a real character, he's just a crazy person. um And so when half the characters in this film that we focus on are not really characters that I really enjoy watching do things, it was just hard for me to like really get into the film. But I um did really appreciate just, it took the whole movie to build up a relationship, but as you were saying, build up a relationship between um Mildred and Strawn and it so It did feel earned at the end. I think I just, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Also, Magician's a lame. I mean, that's the whole bit. No, I know. he's kind but Like that movie says Magician's a lame. I mean, he's illusionist, sorry. He's not a magician. He's an illusionist. I've just had a quick look at some of the fun facts about this movie. So fun facts with Max. Fun facts with Max.
01:07:07
Speaker
One thing I i saw reading not long after the film um was the previous film that this director did. This is only the second major feature film.
01:07:18
Speaker
was a film called Come to Daddy, which is a horror film that also has Elijah Wood in it. um Oh, this person's Elijah Wood, eh? For what, um from what I could tell, these movies could not be any different. um So I really am quite interested to see where this person goes.
01:07:43
Speaker
in in their career. The other the other interesting thing was um Nell Fischer, who plays Mildred, um was ah most recently in Evil Dead Rise as well. um was she really As Cassie.
01:07:57
Speaker
I don't know which character that is. That's a good movie, though. I've been saying that, but I've heard very good things. Good horror. The Evil Dead franchise, all of it is great. Not a single. There's one rogue one, but it's weird. Not bad. That makes sense. Yeah, I am. I don't know. I liked it.
01:08:20
Speaker
I don't really have much more to say on it than that. I think go check it out. I think support it. And I think, yeah, it's, it's, it's, I had a lot of fun. I think I like camping movies, apparently. I don't like camping that much, but it's like me and sports films. I love a good sports film, but I hate sports. I just like, I watched another, I talked about this when I did the, my mifery cap, but one of my favorite films was the hiking movie. Yeah. And it's like, well, this is just another hiking movie. I don't know what that says about me, but maybe like, I don't know. I'm like hiking movies. So the sub-genre now, I've discovered the sub-genre of hiking movies. You long, you long for the hike, but you cannot bring yourself to go. I don't want to sleep on the ground.
01:09:10
Speaker
that so i not a gramp On the ground when I can sleep in the bed in the we could do like a day hike You don't have to go for like I have I have done a day hike They're pretty good, but I can't have like a eye-opening relationship with my estranged father like because you decide they' having a stra french other yeah That's the thing this movie should have hit me in the I need the dad the dad ah dad Google, what do we want to call it? And goalies, dad goalies, it should have got me in the dad goalies. It didn't, though. I don't know why. Because it's not hard to get me in the dad goalies like they said, I just feel like as as as much as Elijah Wood is a sad dad. He's also a bad dad. Like he's not a good person. I think that's the thing, actually. Yeah, he's not. That's that's probably it. Like I didn't I didn't it didn't feel like he was trying in a way to me that like
01:10:02
Speaker
matter if that makes sense I mean, he spent hes he's spent so much of the film trying to like justify to Mildred why he should be part of their life rather than trying like like proving that he should be part of their life. yeah And like what is interesting is that like he like the So much time is spent on that and that instead of just going like, oh, he knows he knows inherently that he needs to earn her trust, is that he spends so much of the movie tackling with this idea that he like doesn't understand why she doesnt she doesn't trust him and why she doesn't have this relationship with him.
01:10:47
Speaker
when um he hasn't built it at all. And then the back end of the film where he goes to build it is, is um I think, more rewarding as a result. I felt my dad ghoulies be tickled at the end, but they weren't properly hit. And I missed that.
01:11:07
Speaker
I remember in a car accident. I think that really pissed me off. It's like, come on, dude. What are you doing? I thought it was funny. I thought it was funny, but it it just means that he doesn't. He loses my dad gully sensitivity. Like, I'm not I'm not exposing my dad gullies for that. This is getting weird. I don't like this.
01:11:26
Speaker
Can we get some scores? It's two scores. It's two scores. Um, I gave Bookworm three and a half days that they were on the hike for. Is it actually how long they were there for? Um, I don't know, but it sort of feels right. Feels like that. Yeah. Uh, I am giving this movie three other Hobbits that are missing. Sam Wise. Where are you? You gone? Yeah. Now name the other two. Come on.
01:11:55
Speaker
What's your thoughts on the Lord of the Rings films, Max? Great, important pieces of film history, a lot of important special effects work. What was the last edition you watched? Was it the ah extended version or was it theatrical? Of special effects in the film industry. like Can you like answer my question? Or the you I need you to admit it on Mike. I have admitted on Mike before that I have not watched the Lord of the Rings. Good. But I have watched The Hobbit all three with me with you with them with me. Not all three of them. I think it was only the second year we watched together. It was only the second two.
01:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, the first one I left through part way because it was boring. I'm a battle stag. Battle stag? It was the bat. That was the deer thing that the um the elf king rode. Oh, that Elrond rode in on. Nope, not Elrond. Elrond wasn't there. Wasn't it? was It was an elf king, but it wasn't. No, no, no, it was Blond. It was like a lass's dard. Like a lass's dard. Oh, it was that? OK. That's not Hugo weaving. OK. Battle stag.
01:13:22
Speaker
If I keep saying it to you, maybe you'll remember. I don't think I will. but That'll stack. For Frodo.
01:13:31
Speaker
Uh, dude, does the books foretell fan mail? Do, do, do, do, do, fan mail? Do we have any? We have fan mail this week. Oh my God. I don't have to embarrass myself. This is a good time. Read it to me, baby.
01:13:49
Speaker
I forgot to pull it up early. Give me, give me a second. All right. I'll edit this out. Uh, this is subject, whether you like it or not. Oh, that's an episode we did. That's an episode we did about the weather, the weather. Yep. Twisters.
01:14:06
Speaker
And so gla eager the Dear Potty. That's us. Nappy sand as we know it is nappy slash clothes cleaner. It is a granulated white washing powder additive used as a stubborn stained soaker slash remover and contains sodium bicarbonate as the active ingredient.
01:14:28
Speaker
Next, last time I placed it in the washing machine, it did not dry out the water. Maybe suggest to the makers of the film, they try rinse aid to dry out the water in the twisters. She is local laundry service. I really appreciate writing in. um What I think is really lovely about this is that they attribute more power to us over the film industry than I think we have. But I love it.
01:14:56
Speaker
Could you imagine that instead of like, oh, yeah, we're going to release nappy sandwich and they're like, yeah, we're going to release rinsing and like there's giant barrels for blue liquid. Well, you could get them into the tornado. That actually look really cool though. Like visually. Can you imagine that? I'm imagining Avatar the way of the water. That's a good movie. I like it. Dude, Avatar 3 is coming out soon. Next year or something.
01:15:24
Speaker
but I think that would be very cool, the blue blue's tornado. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, but b but blader. What it didn't, hmm? It was like Hungry Jack's do like a frozen drink or something called, ah oh, it was a blizzard. Was that, nah, blizzard did World of Warcraft. Oh, damn, you're right. Yeah. Idiot. Nah, I'm just jesting.
01:15:56
Speaker
Hey Mitch, guess what? What? I made an executive decision about the podcast. what What decision did you make? The decision was, I think film buff is funny and so we're gonna do it every episode even if we get fan mail. Yay.
01:16:19
Speaker
Welcome to Film Buff.
01:16:39
Speaker
did. say it, but only after you said it. Let's say what this really is. This is the section of the show where you get to watch my ego slowly but surely get ripped apart by Max's questions. All right.
01:16:51
Speaker
Let's get started. at first First up, I have a quote. It's a quote. It's always a quote. Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken. Now ain't that the truth. I don't know where that's from. I have no idea. ah It is Tyler Durden in Fight Club. Oh, really? It sounds very Tyler Durden-y. It sounds very, um, the the guy who's like but the beholder man guy.
01:17:21
Speaker
Is this a Marvel thing? No, no, the Greek philosopher, the Greek cynic. What? um ah Aristotle? Not Aristotle, the cynic. Oh, the guy who doesn't know anything? Diogenes. No, I don't know. Of a cynope. Oh, he's a cynopical. Cynopical. Dude, I did the question quick so we could go through this quick. Come on, let's go. Jet Li and Alia teamed up in which film about feuding families? Who's Alia?
01:17:51
Speaker
Do you know? No. Would you have known this movie if you weren't reading it? Okay. Jettly and I would have teamed up, teamed up in the show about feuding families. Um, hero? Romeo Must Die. I've never heard that movie before in my life. For what three roles has Will Smith been Oscar nominated? Does it include the one he won for?
01:18:16
Speaker
like I assume so. I also don't know the dates on these cards. so Richard, Richard, um King Richard, the dad for the Selena, the tennis lady.
01:18:31
Speaker
oh I don't know, are those other films? um King Richard was correct. Yay, that's a third of a point. Only with Ali and on pursuit of happiness.
01:18:44
Speaker
hello What's Ali? I assume it's about Muhammad Ali. Like Muhammad Ali? I know. No, we'll we're on track for a sub 30, one hour 30 podcast. Yeah, it's about Muhammad Ali. oh was he Was he Muhammad Ali? ah Yeah. That makes sense. Who directed Spartacus?
01:19:03
Speaker
Oh, 2001 dude. Um, Kubrick. That is correct. True or false. Pink Floyd's album, The Wall was created for the movie, The Wall. False. ah That is correct. It was the other way around. The movie was created for the album. Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Movie. the Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Movie was created for Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Album.
01:19:31
Speaker
Well, that Pink Floyd's the wall of the game. Or for the DS.
01:19:38
Speaker
What actor links Vicky Kristina Barcelona? Sorry, let me try that again. What actor links Vicky Kristina Barcelona, Vanilla Sky, and All the Pretty Horses? I have not seen a single one of those movies. Are these cards ranked in any way for like hardness or something? like Is there like um some like they they they vary because sometimes these are really easy questions and sometimes these are really like ah ah as far as I can tell these are all random. I have no idea. I don't know. Give me a guess. Can I have a hint? Can you give me something to work? Like I don't want like a don't give me like a letter or something. Just give me something vague I can work with. ah It's a woman. I actually already thought that I assumed that um for some reason. Don't know why. um Amy Adams.
01:20:27
Speaker
was Penelope Cruz. I would not have guessed that. Mitzvets, 1.33 recurring yeah stars points. Are you tracking this? No, but I can if you want. No, I don't want you to. It's going to be hard. You know what? Now I'm going to go back and count them for next time.
01:20:49
Speaker
That means you actually have to listen to the episodes that I made. No, I don't. I just have to go in and listen to them a bit ah with the quiz. Still count as listening to the episode.
01:21:00
Speaker
All righty. Um. Pardon me. but I should stop
Podcast Wrap-up & Social Media
01:21:07
Speaker
drinking beer. I get burpy. Um, this has been the Blockbusted Podcast. I have been, what was I? A textbook.
01:21:16
Speaker
a thick textbook on the study of Mitchology. And I've been Max. but You didn't do a joke this time. No, that was the joke. The joke was that I wasn't doing a joke. But you've done that joke before. Well, you did a super long one and I was like, and I'm Max. But I can fix the timing in post. Yeah, I know. But you still did a super long one. and it so so like And I'm Max. You can send us questions, reviews, and warranted hate mail at Blockbuster Potty. I can come up with one now if you want. No, it's too late. Because I'm not going to fit that into the... It's not going to be... You just, like, cut it in. The cadence will be off. No, we'll just cut it in. No, I don't want to. I don't want to. And I'm your novelist? That's Potty, spelled P-O-D-D-I-E. You can also find us on X. Uh, nope. Formerly known as Twitter.
01:22:07
Speaker
We're just getting rid of that part, aren't we? It's just Twitter again. We're doing Twitter. We're going back to Twitter. We're just doing Twitter because Elon Musk is bad. We can dead name Twitter. It's the only thing we'll dead name. um You can also find us on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok at the username bbpotty. Leave a five star review on your pod catcher of choice. We'll only check our iTunes slash Apple and Spotify. I checked Apple before. Did you check Spotify? I didn't, but I have this like feeling. Yeah, well we didn't have one on Apple, so don't worry about it.
01:22:45
Speaker
ah Next week, get your big nature-loving parental robot to take you to the cinema as we watch the Iron Giant and the Wild Robot. Is that next week? I thought it was the week after. No, it's next week. No, because next week we're doing Betelgeuse. Oh yeah. Why is the trailer wrong? Hold on.
01:23:05
Speaker
You set up the trailer. You put did the other trailer. No, I'm not. I'm not saying i there was no blame. I wasn't trying. You know what happened? And loaded properly and hit hadn loaded properly. And so it didn't put the title card, the card for you. Cut that. Cut that um next week. Get your ghoul on as we check out the Frighteners and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
01:23:30
Speaker
Comedy supernatural film ghost films. Hey, but say that say can you say that last one again? Be no You're not gonna get me I'm not gonna get freaking not bloody married I think you should say it again Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and then again and then again No, just what was the original one called? Beetlejuice. I'm in the sequel. Yeah, the sequel is called Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Right You're not going to get me. i'm what I'm not... I will summon Batman to my house, but I will not summon Beeljuice to my house. How do you summon Batman? Bat signal. Do you have that in your hand? Nah, not really. that's Which is your favorite Michael Keaton? Um... I like Birdman Michael Keaton. That's basically Batman Michael I It's like edgy Batman Michael Keaton. It's Michael Keaton after being um Batman for too long.
01:24:29
Speaker
It's good Michael Keaton. Oh, he's a great Michael Keaton.
01:24:47
Speaker
The Keaton-verse. For Frodo.