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SCP Classic – Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
249 Plays1 year ago
For the next two months, I’m taking a break from the show to catch up on recordings and get some work done on my comic book project. So I’m giving you a glimpse into the past with SCP Classic, featuring replays of past episodes influenced by recent releases.
The biggest movie of the summer wasn't a superhero film, but instead Greta Gerwig's Barbie. And since it stars the incomparable Margot Robbie, in the latest SCP Classic we go back to her headlining performance in the Birds of Prey movie as Harley Quinn.
PARAGONS OF EARTH is a comic book project I’m developing with Thomas Deja and Eric Johns. Sign up for the free PARAGONS OF EARTH Substack to learn when the crowdfund campaign is live!
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Transcript
Introducing the Main Villain: Black Mask
00:00:21
Speaker
A whack job with the penchant for peeling faces is Roman Sionis, AKA Black Mask. The fact that he wants me dead hasn't yet hit my radar. See, I was halfway across town, hungover, and thinking about breakfast. Egg, bacon, American cheese,
00:00:48
Speaker
A soft, toasted, buttered roll. Just a gash of hot sauce. Not too much, Sal. I taste the cheese. What a way to start my new life with the perfect egg sandwich. My hands just broke. You're a life saver, Sal.
00:01:15
Speaker
It's 75 cents, okay? I promise. It's all the money I got in the world, and it's so worth it. I don't know if it's the stray Armenian arm hair or the fact that his cheese slices are always six months out of date, but no one makes an egg sandwich like Sal. I mean it, Sal. No one.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think so.
Hosts Introduction and Setting the Scene
00:02:01
Speaker
Welcome to Superhero Cinephiles podcast. I am half of your host, Perry Constantine. And I am the other half, Derek Ferguson. How you doing today, Derek?
00:02:13
Speaker
Oh, I'm doing pretty good. Just like everybody else, sequester. You know, as I was telling you, I did have to go out earlier today and it was kind of eerie. You know, I felt like Charlton Heston in The Omega Man, you know, driving through.
00:02:31
Speaker
Driving through Brooklyn and seeing like all the empty streets and seeing all the stores close, you know, it's still here even on a Saturday, you know when I figured that a lot of people would be at least, you know walking up and down the street now still wasn't so but we're doing fine over here, you know, we just
00:02:50
Speaker
staying busy and not getting on each other's nerves. People always ask me, they say, well, how come you and your wife, you know, you don't get on each other's nerves? And I said, well, that's because I spend most of my time in the basement downstairs. So I don't have time to get on her nerves. And that's just the way she likes it.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah. You know, this whole thing, every time I hear something about New York, I'm always thinking of that opening scene in Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise is dreaming of being in a deserted New York and he's running through Times Square and it's just completely empty. Yeah. And man, if they made that movie now, they wouldn't have to worry about shutting down traffic for like two or three hours or however long they had to do it.
00:03:31
Speaker
Well, you know, that actually that wasn't because I figured they did it with some kind of special effects, you know, kind of trickery or something like that. But no, they actually he was actually in Times Square. It was like a Sunday morning. Yeah. I think they said it like five or six o'clock in the morning. And, you know, yeah, they had to cut off, you know, like a few streets or whatever. But yeah, they actually filmed it there. Yeah. Cool. OK.
00:03:53
Speaker
That is one of the most memorable scenes, like that imagery. That has always stuck with me all these years after I've seen it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, just like you just said, when you say Vanilla Sky, bam, that's the image that immediately pops into my head. Yeah. So you also did an online writing convention yesterday, didn't you? How'd that go? Oh, yeah, I did it yesterday and I did it today.
00:04:25
Speaker
was invited on this
00:04:28
Speaker
thing, what was the name of it? It was like Adventure Con or something. Right, yeah, Adventure Writers Conference or stuff like that. Because what's happening since, of course, we're under quarantine and all of these various conventions and stuff like that have been canceled. What you find is that you have people that are getting together like these virtual type of writers panels and stuff like that. So I was invited to be on it. I was on it last night.
00:04:58
Speaker
And I was on the Indiana Jones panel today where we were talking about Indiana Jones. So I was on there with Sean Ellis and David Wood and a bunch of other talented people. And it was a lot of fun. I don't get to do that type of thing too often.
00:05:15
Speaker
I'm thinking that I should you know now you know I'm thinking that I should that I should invest and get like a really good camera because I have a camera but it's kind of crappy to be honest with you you know I do have a good microphone so I'm thinking and you know every once in a while I'll do like a little live Facebook type of thing
00:05:37
Speaker
But I'm thinking that maybe, you know, I should really invest into the whole, you know, video thing or whatever like that. Because we did it by Zoom and it was very cool because, you know, it was like five or six of us there. And, you know, you could see everybody and we could all talk. And yeah, it was massively cool. I enjoyed it.
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, it'd be cool if we did something if we could get something like that going especially because You know, they got the the Windy City pulp convention That's something you and I can't really get to very easily
00:06:10
Speaker
I went to Winter City last year. I went a few years ago because I tried moving back to the States, but now it's impossible for me because April is usually when the university year starts up, so I'm always busy that time of year. Right. If they're able to do something virtual, that would be cool if we could get something going like that.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah, well, well, actually, you know, it's given me the idea. Like I said, maybe, you know, I'll get together with a whole bunch of other new pop writers and see if we can get together and we can do something like that. You know, that would be, you know, massively cool, you know, to do something like that. So
00:06:53
Speaker
while I was sitting here waiting for you to come on, I was like making some notes and everything like that, because of course I have no idea how to do this, but you know, I was just thinking, yeah, you know, and you know what, you don't have to get like a whole lot of people, you know, you get about five, six, seven people and you say, okay, well, you know, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, do that. You know, you could even do like a one day thing or a two day thing like this was, but again, I am overwhelmed
00:07:21
Speaker
at how technology is enabling us to overcome the difficulties of the situation that we all find ourselves in. Yeah, well, you know, talk to me about that off the air and then we can because I got some I could probably answer some questions you might have about that. So so we can talk about that later. Oh, yeah, definitely. Well, I was going to bring you in on it anyway. Yeah, absolutely. You know,
00:07:46
Speaker
Okay, all right, sounds good.
Birds of Prey: A Deep Dive into Harley Quinn's Character
00:07:48
Speaker
So today we're talking about a movie that's probably the most recent movie we've done and that's Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. Yep. And so this is Margot Roby's second outing as Harley Quinn after Suicide Squad. So first let's talk a little bit about just her in Suicide Squad. What were your impressions of her in Suicide Squad?
00:08:16
Speaker
Oh, as far as I'm concerned, she stole the movie. Yeah. I mean, really, she just came in and she just, she played Harley Quinn like she had been playing her for the past 10 years. And she even brought in like the voice she uses as Harley Quinn. It's not exactly the same as, oh, what's her name on the animated series did, but it's very similar. And you can tell like she was definitely influenced by that actress.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And you can tell that she has studied the character. You know, she just didn't just take the role and just say, OK, well, there's some crazy chick that's in a costume. She did take time to research the character and, you know, see what she was about and get into her head and everything, which is why her performance was so memorable.
00:09:06
Speaker
A lot of people have a lot of problems with Suicide Squad. I'm not one of them. But a lot of people have a lot of problems with Suicide Squad. But the one thing everybody agrees on is that she stole the movie. Margot, it would not have been the same movie without her or with anybody else playing Harley Quinn. Matter of fact, in two movies, she is like, okay, she is
00:09:30
Speaker
She's like, you know, the Michael Keaton of Holly Quinn. You know, yeah, that's it. It's her. Yeah. Yeah. She has there were three things like I was one of the people who had a lot of problems with Suicide Squad, just like the pacing of it, the plot, a lot of the the fact that they were doing a Suicide Squad movie so soon into this universe seemed really odd because you've got all these supervillains, but they've had no superheroes yet. So so all that kind of seemed a bit weird. But there were three things that I really liked about it.
00:09:58
Speaker
First one was obviously Margot Roby as Harley Quinn. Second one was Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. And the third was, surprisingly, because I wasn't expecting this, but Will Smith as Deadshot. Yeah, yeah, he surprised. Yeah, he definitely surprised me. He was a lot better.
00:10:19
Speaker
in this, remember, he was a lot better in this type of movie, period, than I thought he was, you know, than I thought he would be. Oh yeah, and I thought they would have, because he's one of those guys who, he only really takes good guy roles. So. Exactly, yeah. So I was worried they were going to try very hard to make him overly sympathetic with his daughter and everything, but they, and even though there was some of that, it was still very much true to the Deadshot from the comics.
00:10:46
Speaker
Yeah, and I like how, you know, his daughter was fully aware of what her dad did, you know, and she still loved him and everything like that. But like you said, they didn't overplay that though. Yeah, yeah. And they didn't try to make it like an excuse, you know, for what he did. The guy's an unrepentant killer. You know, okay, good. Now let's, yeah, but even an unrepentant killer can love his daughter. Yeah. You know, so, okay.
00:11:14
Speaker
Listen, like I said, I yeah, I did have problems with Sue Scott squad in that
00:11:23
Speaker
I don't think it's a good idea if you are pitching to the government that, OK, this is going to be our own team of super humans that we're going to use and we're going to stick them on whoever we don't like. But your first mission is to take down your most powerful member. Yeah, you know, right then and there, that is the floor with your plan, you know. So I think that some of the characters were wasted.
00:11:52
Speaker
You know, Slipknot, you know, you don't hire an actor. You don't hire an actor of the caliber of Adam Beach just to have him have his head blown off, you know, 10 minutes after you introduce him. Right. Yeah. And I thought, oh, crap, I'm just oh, Katana. Katana was really wasted, I thought, too.
00:12:16
Speaker
Well, again, she was a character that was just like brought in out of left field. All of a sudden, you know, oh, okay, well, here's Katana. Wait a minute, you know, where did she come from? Yeah, you know. It was funny, I was watching the honest trailer for this Birds of Prey last night on YouTube. And they were talking about the other women in the cast and how, and the guy, the narrator said, wait a minute, I know more about Katana than I know about the women in this movie.
00:12:46
Speaker
Really? Because that's one of, this is one of the failings of, okay, so we can just jump right into Birds of Prey, but I think one of the weaknesses of Birds of Prey is that it's not a Birds of Prey movie. It should have just been called Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. Oh yeah, yeah. Like all the other characters, they're very superfluous. They don't really fit in this story. They don't really matter at all to the story. First of all,
00:13:17
Speaker
Let me start off by saying, first of all, this isn't a superhero movie. It isn't. That's the first thing. It's not a superhero movie. This is like a really whacked out Gonzo crime action thriller. That's what it is. That has Harley Quinn and a bunch of other characters.
00:13:35
Speaker
in it, but, you know, but it doesn't have Batman or the, which I appreciated, mind you, I did. I liked the fact that they were mentioned, I think Penguin gets mentioned one time, you know, these other characters get mentioned, but we never see them. Right. And there's also a Suicide Squad reference to Captain Boomerang, like on one, when there's a wanted poster and she says, hey, I know that guy. And it turns out that that guy is Captain Boomerang in the poster.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah. But other than that, and there's one scene where they've got like a body double of the Joker, you see him from behind in one of the flashbacks, but that's it. Right, it's the guy with the tattooed face. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. And in fact, a lot of people were saying this is a lot like DC's Deadpool, but I think a better comparison is this is like kiss, kiss, bang, bang with superhero characters. Yeah.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good comparison because it's got that's good. It's got it was like gonzo narration type thing that flashing back and forth that, you know, midstream correcting of the story like, oh, shit, I forgot to tell you this part. This is like if the director and it's a female director, Kathy Yan. Yeah. But it's like. Somebody said to her.
00:14:52
Speaker
And I'm not disparaging her talent at all because I love the way this movie is directed. But it's like if somebody sat her down and said, OK, listen, we can't hire Quentin Tarantino, but can you do this movie kind of like if Quentin Tarantino did it? And she said, sure, I can do that. Yeah, it's got a lot of that kind of sensibility to it. Exactly. It's got a lot of Tarantino DNA in here.
00:15:17
Speaker
And it's a fun movie overall. Like I enjoyed it a lot, but I do think there are some issues with it in terms of like character choices, like who the characters they chose to put in this movie and just the titling and just there are some mistake missteps with that. And it felt, which I'm not even sure why they felt the need to do it in the first place because, you know,
00:15:42
Speaker
Everybody loved Margot Roby in Suicide Squad. Harley Quinn's been a fan favorite character ever since she was first created back in 1992 for Batman the Animated Series. And Roby herself, she's become a big star now since the original Suicide Squad came out. Between that movie, between
00:16:08
Speaker
her role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Wolf of Wall Street. So she's become a pretty big name now. So I'm not sure why it feels like the studio was uncertain to make a Harley Quinn movie without throwing in all these other characters. Yeah, because it's definitely been shown that
00:16:34
Speaker
can carry a book. I think she can. I think she can carry a whole movie because most of this movie is carried on her back. Oh, yeah, definitely. Anyway, you know, most of it is carried on her back anyway. So I don't. Yeah. So, I mean, not that I don't mind the other characters thrown in here, but here's the thing with this movie. In order to enjoy it, you have to throw out everything that you knew about Renee Montoya and the Huntress.
00:17:03
Speaker
and Cassandra Cain and Black Canary. Yeah. You got to do that because the versions of these characters, this is like Earth 628 or whatever it is, you know, because the characters that here bear absolutely no resemblance to any itineration of these characters that we've seen previously. None whatsoever.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah. And that was my biggest sticking point with this, is just how far removed these characters are. Well, I will say this, Renee Montoya, I was fine with her. She seemed pretty close, just like a bit of an older version of the Renee Montoya we know from the comics. So I liked her. I thought Rosie Perez did a really good job as her. Well, listen, anytime I get to see Squeaky Voice and Rosie Perez in a movie, I'm happy. And yeah,
00:17:52
Speaker
I think that the only thing was that she, this is a Renee Montoya that's a little bit older than, you know, but again, I really didn't mind that at all because, you know, well, it's Rosie Perez. Yeah. And I also like that we got Ali Wong cameoing as her ex-girlfriend, the DA. Yeah. Yeah. We see her in that little brief bit, which they kind of, you know, like,
00:18:16
Speaker
You know, they just did that very briefly and then they said, OK, well, let's keep moving. Yeah, yeah. There seems like that to you that they kind of like, OK, well, we rushed. I mean, first of all, this is already a movie, you know, so you've already committed yourself to a certain level of sex and violence. So, you know, why you being cagey about her relationship with another woman?
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah. It just, well, like a lot of the, well, first off the, the R rating thing, I don't think they really had to make this R rated. I mean, they could have, they could have easily made this PG-13. Which is a lot of the complaints that I read about it. They said, well, you know, because of course there's a lot of girls.
00:19:02
Speaker
young girls who look up to Harley Quinn as a role model, something else which I have a problem with, but that's another episode altogether. Really, if you have a daughter and your daughter thinks that Harley Quinn is a role model,
00:19:19
Speaker
have somebody sit down with that child and talk to that child about the dangers of abusive relationships please yeah yeah i've seen those memes on facebook saying like oh forget romeo and juliet i want a romance like harley quinn and the joke i'm like you want a romance where the guys you know trying to torture and kill you and psychologically manipulating you all the time
00:19:38
Speaker
I really don't think people realize, because we see Harley Quinn as she is now, and she's funny, and she's goofy, and she does all these wacky crazy things and everything like that. But at the core of her origin, that is really fucked up, to be pretty honest. There's no other way to put it. The way that she became Harley Quinn is damn. That's a mind trip on a level I don't even
00:20:07
Speaker
want to contemplate how twisted because it's like she got infected by the Joker. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Basically, he infected her. So, yeah. So this movie, it's all basically about Harley Quinn trying to establish her own identity with now that the Joker is broken up with her. And I like this opening section with her, like trying to readjust to life without the Joker, I thought was probably the the best part of the movie.
00:20:36
Speaker
It was very funny. I, first of all, I enjoyed the little cartoon that was at the beginning. Yeah, that was great. Had the little cartoon where she was explaining her childhood and everything like that. And then, yeah, we see how, yeah, she's trying to establish herself without letting people know that they have broken up because of course, being the Joker's girlfriend, she enjoys a high level of protection.
00:21:01
Speaker
You know, because of course, who's going to be crazy enough to mess with the Joker's girlfriend? Right. Which is something I never considered before, but it actually makes a whole lot of sense. It's a really good touch they added to this movie, I thought. Yeah. Yeah. And I said, you know something? Yeah. OK.
00:21:21
Speaker
I can see that. And of course, once Gotham's underworld finds out that the Joker and Harley are no longer together, well, now it's open season on Harley. Yeah. Yeah. And especially Black Mask, who is the other standout performance in this besides Margot Robbie is Ewan McGregor as Black Mask.
Standout Performance and Unique Direction
00:21:41
Speaker
who looks and acts like he's having the time of his life in this movie. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, I read in the trivia that Sam Rockwell had auditioned for the part and he was he was offered it, but he had to turn it down. But then they made Sam Rockwell. That was like the archetype for how they were going to portray Black Mask in this edit.
00:21:59
Speaker
You know, I never cared much for black mask in the comics, so I'm not. I don't really know how accurate this is. I'm as I remember, black mask in the comics, he seemed kind of like one of the blander Batman villains. Yeah. But even McGregor really made him stand out in this. Yeah. And and again, I like the fact that, you know, he doesn't have any superpowers. He's just a really crazy guy. Yeah. That occasionally puts on a black mask that adds to the whole
00:22:28
Speaker
thing about this movie because, yeah, I really enjoyed that. You know, really, the only person who has superpowers in the movie is Black Canary. But even then, she doesn't use them until like, you know, the very end of the movie. Right. You know, there's no the chance, you know, when there's
00:22:43
Speaker
when they're in the fun house and having the fight and there's no other way out for her then to let loose her son and cry. So, but up until then, you know, we, nobody's got any superpowers. We, you know, we don't see that. It's another side of Gotham that we get to see that I think we don't get to see enough. That Gotham is really a crazy city. Even without, we don't need to see Batman and the Joker to know that Gotham is a really crazy city. Right. Yeah.
00:23:13
Speaker
And, you know, going back to Black Mask, one of the things, and that scene where he's explaining all about the masks to Dinah, I love that scene just because, like, you believe that Ewan McGregor is really into masks in that scene. Mm, yeah. I mean, he acts just like a manic collector showing off his collection. He does that perfectly. Yeah, he sells the scene. Well, he's Ewan McGregor, you know.
00:23:41
Speaker
The man is so good that I believe he does not know how he doesn't know how not to sell a scene. That's how good he is. Is it just me or is he becoming kind of Gary Oldman-esque in that he so embodies a role that you don't recognize him from movie to movie? Yeah, because this is, like I said, one of the things that intrigued me about this movie was
00:24:08
Speaker
because I said, wait a minute, you and McGregor, what's he going to do in this movie? And when I saw him, I said, holy shit. I said, yeah, OK, cool. Yeah, so he was excellent in this. And apparently, there was some subtext between him and Zaz being in a relationship, which Zaz was another one of those characters that really felt like they were just pulling a name out of a hat to match with a character role they had in the script.
00:24:39
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. There's the whole, there's a whole aspect to this movie that really intrigues me in that, like you said, when they just pulled the name from a hat, this is a movie that even though you can tell, okay, everything is planned out and everything, you know, they know what they were doing. They just didn't make this up, but still the movie has a quality that they're making this up as they go along. Yeah.
00:25:06
Speaker
which is really weird, you know, which adds to the weirdness of the movie, because, yeah, like you said, well, OK, well, he needs a ball. OK, well, black mass. He needs a bad guy. OK, well, who can we get? And they just looked into Rolodex and they said, OK, well, his guy named Zazz, you know, let's use him, you know. But yet it fits into the whole overall.
00:25:26
Speaker
attitude of this movie. Like I said because a lot of it to me when I was watching the first time when I was watching it for the first time a lot of it felt like it was making a lot of that stuff up as they were going along. Yeah and of course we have um oh I love the scene where she goes to the uh the pet shop and she finds the and she gets the hyena.
00:25:50
Speaker
Bruce Bruce. Yeah, that's that's like one of the few Batman references we get where she says I named him Bruce after that hunky Wayne guy But and then she hasn't eat the Pet Shop owner. Yeah Yeah, huh? Yeah, cuz God tried to make the moves on he said well, you know I take thing, you know Well, I take it out in trade and make thing we see Bruce's chewing on the guy's leg. Yeah
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah, so in the animated series, Harley had two hyenas, but apparently they could only do one because of how difficult it was to make it as realistic as possible with CGI. Yeah, well, and really, I mean, how many hyenas do you really need? Right, yeah, one was just fine. Yeah, one was just fine.
00:26:43
Speaker
This movie is also to me very, you know what it is about? Okay. DC movies, DC movies say this for them. If nothing else, they're controversial because what it is, it's, uh, it came out of what, February? Yeah. It came out of February. Cause I saw it the day before my birthday, as a matter of fact. So it's February, March, April. So what it's almost two months now and people are still arguing about this movie.
00:27:11
Speaker
and debating about it, and oh, I hate it, or I love it and everything. My personal feeling is that this is gonna be the movie that five years from now, people are gonna be saying, oh, how come more people didn't go see this? Well, I think part of that too is just like, it came out at such a bad time, right? With the coronavirus stuff just kicking off. So that's why it ended up getting an early digital release because of that.
00:27:39
Speaker
Okay, yeah, but I saw this in the feeder back in February. Right, that's what I mean. But it came out in February, and then after that, they started closing stuff down because of the coronavirus. And then it got an early release on digital right after that. Because you told me about it, it was pretty good. And I heard from some other people too saying it was good. And we were planning on seeing it, my girlfriend and I, because it was coming out like,
00:28:06
Speaker
The week, like, it was gonna be coming out in March here in Japan, the theater's here. Right, I remember you were telling me, okay, yeah, now I know what you're talking about, now, yeah. Yeah, and then, like, literally the same week, it was supposed, like, the same week, the Tuesday before it was supposed to come out here, it ended up coming out on iTunes, so we decided, well, you know, screw it, it's gonna cost us 20 bucks each to see it. Anyway, if we go to the theater, so let's just pay 20 bucks once and watch it at home. Right.
00:28:35
Speaker
So that's what we did. And yeah, I enjoyed it, but yeah, there were, you're right, it did have that quality of we're kind of making shit up as we go along. And in some cases that worked. I think it definitely helped.
00:28:52
Speaker
with the whole Harley feel of it because that's very much how her mind works. Like her, I love the scene right before she blows up axis chemicals or ACE chemicals or whatever it is. And she says, she's like, fortunately I have all my best ideas when I'm drunk. Yeah, yeah.
00:29:10
Speaker
Yeah, and it just happens to be a gasoline truck there, and she, okay, well, let me blow it up. Yeah, I think, yeah, and this movie is ace chemicals. Yeah, which is what I think it was in the comics, too.
00:29:23
Speaker
Yeah, in the 1989 Batman, I think it was Axis Chemicals. Right, right. It was Axis, yeah. That chemical plant keeps blowing. The people in Gotham, everybody in Gotham must have cancer. They got to have lung cancer. Because chemical plants keep getting blown up.
00:29:43
Speaker
And it keeps getting, uh, cause it's the same, you think they would have shut down after it came out that the Joker was made from their chemicals, but then in Suicide Squad, he takes, he takes Harley back there and throws her into the same vat of chemicals. Yeah. You kind of think they might've said, you know what, this wouldn't be good PR for people who know that the Joker was born in our chemical vats. You know, maybe we shouldn't like move this to Poughkeepsie or someplace like that. Or at least change our name.
00:30:12
Speaker
Well, maybe they did. They changed it from axis to axis. There you go. That's the difference. Yeah, that's it. There you go. OK. Mystery solved.
00:30:21
Speaker
And I do like how she's like, I get my best ideas when I'm drunk. And then the next day, when Montoya is investigating, and she says, Harley Quinn didn't think this through. And then she's like, no shit, I didn't think it through. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, she chimes in. No shit, I didn't think it through. Oh, man, yeah. It's a lot of funny stuff that's in this movie, which I don't know.
00:30:43
Speaker
You know me, if you give me a grim, unhappy superhero movie and give me one that's fun and lighthearted and I can have a good time sitting in my CD, my popcorn and watch it, nine times out of 10, I'm gonna go with that movie. Not that I don't find the grim stuff occasionally and stuff like that. But I do appreciate being surprised
00:31:09
Speaker
by a movie because I had no idea what this movie was. And I deliberately stayed away from any information about it because I wanted to be surprised. And I honestly have to say that I was surprised at how much I did enjoy this movie and why I've been championing it with anybody that will listen to me. I've told it. Listen,
00:31:29
Speaker
Do whatever, don't listen to anybody else except me. I am Oz, okay? I am Oz, you the great powerful. Listen to me. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. Go see Harley Quinn. It's nowhere near, and it's not.
00:31:46
Speaker
Okay, does it got its flaws? Of course it does. But on the other hand, it's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. And I don't know why people hate this movie so much. I really don't. I mean, I think a big part of it is just internet bro culture, which has gotten ridiculous now. So like people hate it just because it's got a woman directing it and it's got a cast of women and you know, all that shit.
00:32:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, what can I say? Some, some men have not evolved enough to be able to allow themselves to enjoy a movie of this type. Like you say, with an all women cast directed by a woman who, who, who, who to me does a wonderful job of directing. I mean, that scene that's in the fun house,
00:32:37
Speaker
as near the end, whereas Harley and the Birds of Prey, they have to fight off the army that Black Mass has assembled to kill them. And they have a fight to send a fun house. And I'm watching it and I'm saying, you know something, Kathy Gannon is a genius because that fight is choreographed
00:32:56
Speaker
in such a way that all you would need is the bam, boom, zip, pow from the 1966 Batman TV series on the screen. That's all you would need, because that's what it is. That's exactly what it is. Yeah, I didn't really consider that, but now that thinking back after hearing you say that, you're absolutely right. That is a perfect way to describe how that action unfolds.
00:33:21
Speaker
And this whole movie, it's just very bright, and it's totally gonzo. It totally embraces that aspect. It's not like a lot of the other DC movies, at least pre Wonder Woman, where everything was muted, everything was shot in heavy shadow and everything. No, in this, they're throwing a lot of color on the screen.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah, and you know me. I always say, listen, if you're going to do this type of movie, if you're going to do it, well, then damn it, commit to it. Yeah. Don't, you know, pull back and say, OK, well, we have to do this because, you know, the audience did not going to buy it. Listen, if you put it up on screen and you put it up there in an entertaining way.
00:34:02
Speaker
They're gonna buy it. Trust me, they're gonna buy it. So yeah, and this movie just swings for the fences. That's what it does. Kathy Yan, she says, you know what? I'm gonna hit a home run with this movie. And that's what she did, as far as I'm concerned. Oh yeah, and one of the scenes I really liked was Harley's assault on the police station when she's using the glitter gun and all that shit. Yeah, the glitter gun, oh.
00:34:29
Speaker
And she's in the evidence room.
00:34:34
Speaker
And the guys are shooting at her and everything, and she's trying to figure out how she's going to get out there. And all of a sudden, what they're doing is that they're shooting the cocaine she's hiding behind. And she gets this huge snortful, and she gets this look on her face. That's like, oh, man. Marco Roby is hilarious. Just with that look on her face. Yeah. Oh, and we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about one of the most important objects in this movie.
00:35:04
Speaker
which is the egg sandwich. The blessed egg sandwich. You know what? I watched this movie and I'm like, I want one of those sandwiches now. I was in the movie theater and I'm watching the movie. And so help me. I haven't had an egg sandwich maybe in about like a year or something like that. But when I saw that, that was the only thing in my mind that I wanted an egg sandwich. Yeah.
00:35:31
Speaker
I never realized I could have such an emotional attachment to an egg sandwich in a movie as I did with this. Oh my god, the egg sandwich looks so good. Do you see a friend of the show, Sean Ali, he posted a video. The guy who plays Sal, he's a real restaurant owner. And he showed, he did a video tutorial how to make that egg sandwich.
00:35:57
Speaker
I definitely have to look up that tutorial because I did get an egg sandwich a couple of days later. But I don't think it was as good as that one that's in the movie. Oh no, definitely not. I made one myself, but I guarantee it wasn't as good because for starters here, American bacon is made with a different process than bacon here in Japan. It's cured in a different process, so it tastes very different.
00:36:23
Speaker
Uh-huh. So there's that aspect of it. And also just like being able to find like the right kind of role and stuff like that. That's difficult here in Japan. So I just, I had to make an egg sandwich with what I had. And I guarantee you it was nowhere near as good. Oh man, that is, I mean, the movie theater that I was in, you could hear people salivating. Yeah. I mean, I'm getting hungry now just talking about it. Oh man, please. Let's move on to something else. We're going to cut this short so I can eat. Yeah, but I mean, again,
00:36:52
Speaker
What are we talking about? We're talking about stuff like that, like the egg sandwich. We're talking about stuff like the glitter gun. Because to me, it's things like that that get together to add up to make the movie. Yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
you know, those little details like that. Like for instance, how many superhero movies do you see where the main character actually stops to get something to eat? No, absolutely. Yeah, you don't say that, you know. I mean, they go through the whole movie never eating, but in this one,
00:37:26
Speaker
Holly's desire is for this egg sandwich. And we completely buy it. I like that when the super, there are some that have done that. Like in Iron Man, I love when he gets off the plane. First thing he wants is a cheeseburger. Oh yeah, yeah. And of course, an Avengers. Yeah. Avengers at the end. Yes, yeah. Oh God, that scene when she asked for a cheeseburger. And I got just as choked up as Happy did in that scene.
00:37:57
Speaker
But I was talking about the first movie where they get the swarm up. Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about when Morgan asks for a cheeseburger at the end of Endgame. Oh, man, please. Please. I teared up. Yeah. And I also like how in the Flash TV show, what's his name? Harrison Wells Obsession with Big Belly Burger. Yeah.
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah, which I like, believe it or not. I like little small things like that, that they acknowledge that people do things like, you know, eat and go to the bathroom and stuff like that. You know, it's not on mayhem all the time. Right. Those little touches, they help add a lot. Right. Exactly. Like, um, what movie was that? Where, um,
00:38:45
Speaker
John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. Where does he get killed at? In the back, because he went to the bathroom. Yeah. And he was a shotgun right outside the door. Yeah, and he leads, right. And he leads the shotgun outside. Because of course, who takes a shotgun into the bathroom? Right. Yeah. It's such a human thing to do. Which is why that depth is so memorable because it's such a human death. And also I'm reminded of, um,
00:39:10
Speaker
Logan in X-Men 2, when they're in Bobby Drake's house and he's sniffing around for beer. Yeah, exactly. Such a human thing that enhances character. Yeah, except in his case, he's literally sniffing for beer. That's what I loved about him. Literally sniff, yeah.
00:39:35
Speaker
Or when they show, also in that movie, when they show, when he has the warm Dr. Pepper, and he hands it to Iceman to cool it off for him. Yeah, yeah, he just hands it to him, and you know, take care of that for me. I like that kind of stuff, when they show superheroes using their powers in mundane ways, because it really helps add to their humanity. Yeah, because...
00:39:58
Speaker
Who wouldn't use their superpowers to get, because if I had telekinesis, I wouldn't get up and do a thing. Oh, hell no. My ass would be so much bigger than it is now. It's not even funny. Oh, please. Are you kidding me? I'd be floating sandwiches down from the kitchen to me all the time. Man, there'd be like a conga line of stuff coming from the kitchen down the basement. Yeah. Absolutely. Now, for some of the problems I had with this, the biggest one I think for me was Cassandra Kang.
00:40:28
Speaker
because all the other characters, they've got at least some aspect of the characters from the comics, but Cassandra Cain is even more so than Zaz is just a name picked out of the hat. The only similarity she has to Cassandra in the comics is that she's an orphan and she's Asian and that's it. Yeah, now I agree with all the Cassandra Cain fans
00:40:55
Speaker
who says that this movie really screwed over that character a lot. Because yeah, this could have been any random, you know, they could have called her Molly Chan. Right. Or something like that. You know, yeah, it didn't have to be Cassandra Cain, except for the fact that, you know, that's a name that's familiar.
00:41:15
Speaker
you know, the readers of, you know, the Batman comic book. Yeah. That was my biggest... Cassandra Cain was one of my favorite of the later Batman characters who was created. Right. Like her, that Batgirl series, it was by Kelly and Puckett, that series was so good. Like the art was amazing and the way they depicted
00:41:38
Speaker
Cassandra's journey because because so for anyone who's listened to this and they haven't read Anything about Cassandra in the comics. She was raised by so she's the daughter of David Kane who's a professional assassin and also I believe lady Shiva is her mother And so I think I'm not 100% so don't quote me on this, but I believe I'm pretty sure lady Shiva's her mother but anyway, um
00:42:07
Speaker
So in the comics, her father, David Kane, he raised her from birth to basically be an assassin. So she had, when she became, came to Gotham, she had no linguistic skills, like she could not speak. But what she could do was she could read body language, and it made her like almost telepathic in a fight. And her journey over the course, like for the first several issues, having a main character who can't speak at all, like that's a tough thing to write.
00:42:37
Speaker
Oh yeah, I can only imagine, yeah. But they were able to really pull it off and they pulled it off amazingly. And her journey, her growth going from mute girl to someone who could speak rudimentally, like it was such a great journey and the characterization was so amazing. I just, I bought the first trade recently and why I bought it like a year or so ago, but I'd only recently read it again.
Comic Adaptations and Character Discrepancies
00:43:06
Speaker
Cause I hadn't read the series since it was back in single issues, you know, back in like the early 2000s or whenever it was. And man, I forgot how good it is, but it is amazing and it still holds up so well. So to see that character get the shaft like she did in this movie was just so disappointing.
00:43:25
Speaker
Well, that's the same thing that I've been hearing from fans of the character. And I only know the character from what other people have told me. So I did know a little bit about the background of the character. And as you say, the journey that she goes through. And when I saw the movie, I said, yeah, you know what? Like I said, they could have just had any character do this. It didn't have to be Cassandra Cain, unless they're planning
00:43:52
Speaker
on having her appear in future movies where we do learn her background. Maybe they might be doing that. I don't know. But I go with what I said before. I think she should have just been an original character, Molly Chan or whatever.
00:44:12
Speaker
Also, I didn't like the scene where she steals the diamond, primarily because of the song they played, right? Now they played the song Sway, which both of you and I remember for one of our favorite movies, Dark City. Right. But it's this really like upbeat version that I just, I hate that version of that song. Yeah, that's a song that should always be played slow or sung slow. It's a torch song.
00:44:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that version, I think it was Anita Kelsey who did it in the movie, in Dark City.
00:44:50
Speaker
I can't remember. I'll take your word for it. It's been a while since I've seen it. Well, because there are two versions. In the director's cut, Jennifer Connelly sings it herself. Oh, yeah, Jennifer Connelly does it, yeah. Now that I know, because I have the Blu-ray that's got both the theatrical release and the director's. Right. And in the theatrical one, I believe it's Anita Kelsey. I might be getting the name wrong. And that's probably the one flaw in the director's cut is that the Anita Kelsey version is much better.
00:45:23
Speaker
You get no argument from me if that's what you're waiting on. I was just waiting to see if some acknowledgment. Oh, no, listen, listen. Anybody knows me knows how much I love Dark City. That is one of the few movies that you will literally never hear me say a bad word about. Yeah.
00:45:40
Speaker
You know, I, you know, I really, I cannot poke a hole in anything about dark city. That is like, if there is such a thing as a perfect movie and there's not too many of them, but for that genre, what it is, yeah, that's like that, you know, there's like a handful of movies that when people say that, okay, well, I didn't like this movie. I didn't like this movie. I said, okay, well you're going to like this.
00:46:05
Speaker
Speed Racer is one of them. Dark City is another. To date, I have given Dark City to maybe about a dozen people, and they always come back and say, oh man, how come I never heard about this movie? This is fantastic. Yeah. And when it comes to, so Black Canary in this movie, she's also pretty different from the comics, but I still kind of liked a lot of what Journey Smollett Bell did with her character. I still thought she was entertaining.
00:46:35
Speaker
Yeah, and we also have a nice scene.
00:46:39
Speaker
between her and Renee Montoya, where it's made pretty clear that she's not the original Black Canary that we know, because Renee Montoya tells her about her mother who had the same powers and said, oh, well, she helped out the Gotham Police Department a lot, and blah, blah, blah. So then I said, oh, OK, well, they're acknowledging that they're, which again, I don't mind. If you acknowledge that there was an original
00:47:06
Speaker
you know give me the new version but say okay well this is a new version but yeah there was an original black canary well yeah i like that because it's uh that's also something from the the comics in the post-crisis continuity because in the original uh justice society the the black canary was dying of drake but then when they um when they brought in um
00:47:28
Speaker
in the like the 60s and the 70s when they were rebooting with the silver age, it was Dinah Lance. So to reconcile those in post crisis, they said, okay, there were two black canaries. Dinah Drake was the original one and Dinah Lance is her daughter.
00:47:44
Speaker
Right. And it was names their daughter, the same name as their mother, I don't know. And it was some kind of convoluted thing that, you know, the daughter got sent to Earth Two, which is why there's a Black Canary on Earth One and a Black Canary on Earth Two, because that's, yeah.
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah, it was crazy back in those days. Oh, yeah. It wasn't as bad as the Power Girl situation in post crisis where they tried to make. Oh, my God. They wanted to keep Power Girl, but John Byrne wanted Superman to be the only Kryptonian, so Power Girl had to be descended from Atlantean sorcerers. From Atlantis, of all places. Oh, my God. I said, you know something? How come they just didn't
00:48:23
Speaker
Say that she comes from Daxam. Yeah, that would have been fine And you know, I thought of that because even when they did bring in Supergirl in the post-crisis world They had to make her some sort of like protoplasmic being or something from a pocket dimension. Yeah And then in the when they did Superman the animated series They just said no she's from Daxam's or from Argo or whatever was no like well that makes sense Why did they just do that in the show? Yeah, you have you have a planet and
00:48:51
Speaker
with billions of people who are all potential supermen and superwomen, all you gotta do is just bring them to Earth. Yeah, yeah. One of them comes to Earth and becomes Power Girl. Bingo, that's it. Yeah. What? This is not rocket science. Oh my God.
00:49:09
Speaker
Yeah, that was a those are some weird days in the early post crisis years Oh, I mean they did they had like five or six different origins for power girl. They they just they just did that poor girl dirty Yeah, yeah, and it wasn't until they finally straightened it out and they just said you don't screw it she's from an alternate Krypton and Infinite crisis was and they finally straightened that out which was
00:49:33
Speaker
one of the few good things about Infinite Crisis. I know people have a lot of problems with that story, but I thought that was one thing they did well, was just finally clear that whole mess up. And like you said earlier, okay, we have Argo City. In Argo City, there's a whole bunch of Kryptonians that's in there. You take one out, you make them full-size, bam. Yeah, yeah. Power girl. Yeah.
00:50:00
Speaker
Um, so yeah, so she did a pretty good job and I did also like that reference to, um, uh, Dinah Drake. And it is one of those things because they're trying, I did like that it shows that there is kind of a secret history to this version of the DCEU, which we kind of get a taste for with, um, uh, Batman having been active in Gotham for like 20 years, you know, as per, um, although who knows how much of that is still canon now.
00:50:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you know, who knows? You know what? In one way, OK, in one way, I like that DC has had apparently decided to stop trying to chase Marvel. You know, they can't do it. So they don't do it. I think that.
00:50:45
Speaker
Their way of doing movies now is just to make a bunch of standalone movies and just let people say, OK, well, here's Aquaman. Here's Harley Quinn. Here's the Blackhawks. Here's Sosa. Go do what you want with them. Yeah. You know, don't worry about, you know, don't worry about continuity or where it fits that way. Just go ahead and just make your movie. I think that that's the best way for them to go myself.
00:51:08
Speaker
Well, especially because I mean, I mean, Greg Berlanti is already doing the shared continuity thing with DC far better on TV than the movies ever could. Exactly. He's doing it because he's got the room and the time in order to do that, as we were saying when we did the
00:51:28
Speaker
you know, the crisis, you know, when we were talking about that. And we and we both agreed that in its own way, this was just as remarkable as achievement as Endgame, Avengers Endgame.
00:51:42
Speaker
You know, because he had time over years to build up this character and, you know, these characters and the continuity. So and it all came together. Yeah, the movies, you know, they can't. And D.C. apparently doesn't want to spend 20, invest 20 years into building up a continuity like Marvel did. Right. They don't want to do that, you know. So you know what? Go ahead and just make standalone movies.
00:52:10
Speaker
And that's it, don't worry about having to make them fit into a cohesive universe. Unless you wanted to. Right. And you know, I think also, one of the brilliant things that Crysis did was establish this multiverse that still exists and shows that the DCEU is part of that. So it's very easy to slide these movies into different Earths. Yeah, exactly.
00:52:37
Speaker
So yeah, so that, that was something they did that was really good. And, um, but I, but even still with all that being said, uh, I do like the way that they've, plus, you know, DC continuity has always been a total cluster fuck. So it kind of fits with the comics that the same is true of the movies. Yeah. I mean, you know, when it comes to continuity, DC apparently
00:53:01
Speaker
As far as I'm concerned, they have no idea what they're doing. They really don't. Because a lot of it comes from just the way that DC started. Because back in the day, comics weren't intended to be like this cohesive universe. When you had characters cross over, it was like when you see characters cross over in a TV show. It was something special, not something that was supposed to be a regular thing.
00:53:30
Speaker
So when you have, then when Marvel came along and they did the shared continuity and Stan Lee came out right from the start and said, this is a shared universe. All these characters live in the same world. They all interact with each other, which is why you kept having all these references across. And that became really popular. So because Stan Lee and Jack Kirby basically invented
00:53:52
Speaker
are what we think of as comic book continuity and so DC is like oh we want some of that now but they had already like rebooted The Flash rebooted Green Lantern while Superman and Batman were still around so so they had to like retrofit all this stuff together and then
00:54:09
Speaker
then the Earths got out of controls, they got rid of it all and they tried to streamline it, but some writers still wanted to keep the pre-crisis stuff, so it just became this total mess of like weird fixes and alterations here and there.
00:54:26
Speaker
Yeah, and part of the reason why I stopped reading DC Comics is that I just got tired of them, you know, every couple of years. They said, OK, well, we're going to blow everything up and we're going to start all over again, which ended up with them. Remember, what was it, the hyper time that was supposed to solve it? Oh, my God. And that turned out to be a mess because nobody could figure out, you know,
00:54:52
Speaker
Whereas, to me, it was very simple. Well, every story exists in continuity in its own reality. But it was like, some people go, no, no, no, no, no. That's not good enough. That's not good enough. Well, see, that was the problem with hyper time. Because what you just said, that's exactly what Grant Morrison and Mark Wade intended hyper time to be. All the stories exist in their own reality. That was supposed to be hyper time.
00:55:16
Speaker
But then DC editorial worried that readers would get too confused and so then they made a lot of changes and all this kind of stuff. And then it created a bigger mess than it had to be.
00:55:30
Speaker
The only, you know what, the only thing that is confused is DC. The readers are confused. DC writers and editors, they're confused. Yeah. Cause it, it's funny every time DC try and it, and it's not, I don't know what it is. Cause it's, it's different people each time, right? Cause this has been going on since the eighties, but every time they try to fix continuity, they end up making it more confusing. They make it more confused.
00:55:57
Speaker
It never fails and I don't know I think it's like it's got to be it's I wonder if it's like DC corporate policy or something at this point cuz it doesn't matter if it's Dan DeDio or Mike Carlin or whoever but everybody who tries always screws it up You know it and to me it's very simple well Okay, to me. It would be very simple to have one earth and
00:56:24
Speaker
and you could easily have a timeline going from the Stone Age all the way up to the future with these various characters and say, but then of course also they don't want to lock them into a specific age or time because then they say, oh, well, how could Batman have been fighting crime in Gotham in such and such a time? And, you know, they, I don't know, they just worry too much about it as far as I'm concerned.
00:56:54
Speaker
The point is to just tell good stories and worry about telling good stories and not get so bogged down in the continuity. But I understand also that the fans, God bless them, the fans really don't care about the stories anymore. They just care about how the continuity all hangs together. Right. Really, I think that that's a lot of what has to do with it. Fans really don't care about the stories. They really don't.
00:57:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a big part of it, too. And that just ended up causing more confusion because they keep demanding fixes to it, which then DC tries to do and ends up making it more confusing. So it's become like a perpetual cycle. Yeah, which is why when you think about
00:57:43
Speaker
Just recently, I ran across a cover of a Superman comic book where he's got the head of an ant and he's climbing up the side of, you know, the daily planet with an army of giant ants. You couldn't do a story like that today because the fans would lose their minds.
00:58:04
Speaker
because now you got to do an eight-issue miniseries to explain how Superman got that way. Yeah. Whereas back then, they just did it one story. Superman got turned into an ant, and it would arm your ass. And they didn't worry about how they were going to make it fit in continuity or whatever. They just said, you know something? Wouldn't it be a fun story for us to turn Superman into an ant for one issue? Have you ever seen Superdickery?
00:58:34
Speaker
Yeah. That's what I was thinking of when you were talking to that. But back in the day, like in the Silver Age, a lot of times they just tell artists, you know, just draw a cover, and then we'll try and figure out a story to go with it. Yeah, we'll figure out a story to go with it. Yeah, don't worry about it. That created a lot of interesting covers because of that. One thing I always like to do, and I always keep
00:58:58
Speaker
three or four of these covers on my computer when I get into an argument with somebody that starts giving me shit about, you know, Batman and, and, oh, Batman should be this and Batman should be that and Batman should be this. And I said, oh, well, how about caveman Batman? How about rainbow Batman? And, oh, let's not forget when Batman, you know, was going to alien worlds because they would shine the bat signal on the moon and he would jump at the bat rocket and go to, you know, so, I mean,
00:59:28
Speaker
Really, I mean, a stop with this thing that, you know, characters have to be locked into one continuity or done one way. Batman embraces a multitude of stories as we have seen. The Brave and the Bold was one of my favorite cartoons of recent years. I've only seen like clips of it here and there. I haven't seen the whole thing. Well, it was totally unlike
00:59:54
Speaker
the animated series. But it was still a lot of fun and it was Batman. Yes, you can have the Dark Knight and you can have Batman 66 and they can coexist side by side. I still got to get around to watching those two Batman 66 movies they made, the animated ones.
01:00:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I watched one of them, one of them was, I've seen only one of them so far, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the one where Adam West, and I think, matter of fact, that might've been the last thing he did. No, I think he also did the second one, too. Okay. But it didn't come out before he died, but he finished his parts before he died, I believe. Oh, okay. I think, don't quote me on that, I'd have to double check, but I believe there were two of them that came out.
01:00:43
Speaker
Okay. And they had William Shatner doing Two-Face, right? If I remember correctly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's the one I saw. But William Shatner did Two-Face, yeah. Okay. All right, and then the other character in this is, oh, one more thing about Black Canary is, man, I love the way she fought in this movie. Like, the way she, those kicks that she pulled off, those were really freaking amazing.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I have no idea if Jurnee Smollett Bell actually has any martial arts experience, but she made me believe that she doesn't, you know. Yeah. Yeah, she's good. She was good in that. And and that was her singing the song at the beginning. Like that wasn't a voice dubbed version. That was actually her voice.
01:01:33
Speaker
Yeah, I've heard her sing before, you know, she's, yeah. She's, uh, overall, even though it wasn't the Black Canary that I knew from the comic books, I enjoyed it because it, again, I go with the thing was, okay, are they true to the spirit of the character?
01:01:51
Speaker
and I think that they were. Yeah, for the most part. Now, Huntress was one who really disappointed me, and I was kind of looking forward to it because I'd seen Mary Elizabeth Winstead and other stuff, but she did not feel like the Huntress to me in this. And we should mention that we haven't done it yet, that the MacGuffin of this movie is the Bertinelli Diamond, which was stolen from Helena Bertinelli's family
01:02:20
Speaker
She, uh, she comes from this major mafia crime family and her family is wiped out. So what happens is that the only thing that's left of the family fortune is the Bertinelli diamond. Now the diamond itself is worth a fortune, but etched on the surface and they use some kind of laser thingy, I don't know, but they say that on the surface is all of the various banks.
01:02:46
Speaker
That the Bertinelli's hid their money in so that's what everybody is looking for Cassandra Cain she swallows it and everybody is running around Gotham looking for this diamond, while this mysterious woman with a crossbow.
01:03:00
Speaker
is going around killing the other crime lords of Gotham. As we find out later on, this is Helena, who has been trained by mafia guys in Sicily, took her in after her family gets killed, and they trained her in martial arts and how to shoot it in the crossbow. So now she's back in Gotham and she's looking for revenge on the people that killed their family. And bingo.
01:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, so she's calling herself the Huntress and she says they call me the Huntress, although nobody calls her that except for herself.
01:03:37
Speaker
It's hard for me to take her seriously as the Huntress because that's one thing, they make that joke of her name the whole time. But also, I don't really buy Mary Elizabeth Winston in that role because she's too much of the Zooey Deschanel disaffected type of actress that she doesn't really fit in that kind of character.
01:04:00
Speaker
She, you know what, she, she doesn't seem so much as that she's making things happen in that she just gets caught up. Yeah. Even though she's supposed to be on this big revenge.
01:04:14
Speaker
you know think you know what it doesn't even seem like you know she's really all into the revenge thing either no no she feels like it's like she's bored with the whole thing yeah yeah and there was somebody i'm not going to mention his name on the air but you know who i'm talking about it was somebody
01:04:31
Speaker
on Facebook, I got into a discussion with them and they were talking about that this movie really isn't about Harley Quinn, that is the Huntress' story. Well, that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever read in the past week. And we're talking in a world where, you know, Donald Trump is giving rants on press conferences every day. And that was still the most ridiculous thing I read all week.
01:04:49
Speaker
Oh, you read that, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I couldn't I couldn't believe it. But however, given the person who said it, and you know, we've known him for a long time. Yeah. So back then, he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. And he still to this day has no idea what he's talking about.
01:05:07
Speaker
but are you insane you know yeah whatever it is you're taken please for the love of god stop taking it yeah so hit so for those of you who have no idea what we're talking about because this is very inside baseball stuff yeah
01:05:22
Speaker
On Facebook, someone posted, like Derek said, that it should be a Huntress movie. It's really a Huntress movie because the plot involves the Bertinelli Diamond. The Bertinelli Diamond, yeah. Which is like saying that Endgame is an Ant-Man movie because it involves Pym Particles. Bingo, right. I remember you said that. I stood up and cheered. I said I could kiss him. Oh my. That's not how story works.
01:05:49
Speaker
No. No. But then again... But you know, this guy, he's a writer we've known for a while so we already know he doesn't know how story works. But then again...
01:05:56
Speaker
But then again, this individual would not know what a story was if it came up and kicked him dead in his ass. He would not have any concept of what a story is. Nuff said, going back to the movie. But yeah, Helena Bertinelli, you hit it right on the head. She seems actually kind of bored with the whole thing, even though we're supposed to believe she's been driven by this mad desire for revenge all these years. Yeah. So I think that was the biggest miscast in this movie.
01:06:25
Speaker
You know, um, uh, what's your name? I'm gonna forget her, wanna get her name right. Uh, one who plays, the girl who plays, um, Cassandra, Ella J. Basco. Like, she's good in, she's not good as Cassandra Cain, but the way that role is written, she fits. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does not fit even the way that Huntress is written in this movie.
01:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And you know, that's nothing against her. I think she's a great actress. I've seen her on a lot of other stuff. You know, I loved her in Scott Pilgrim. But yeah, she just doesn't. She's just very miscast for this movie.
01:07:01
Speaker
I did like the way that she interacted with the other characters when, yeah, when, as I say again, she just gets caught up in this. And it's like, she just like goes along with it because, you know, okay, well, why not? You know, it's not like, okay, like Renee Montoya and, you know, Cassandra and Harley Quinn, you know, they have a definite reason
01:07:26
Speaker
to be doing what it is that they're doing. But Cassandra's like, well, not Cassandra. Helena is like, well, you know, it's a bunch of cool chicks and, you know, I'm a cool chick, so I should be hanging out with them. And that's kind of the attitude. That's the vibe that she gives off to me, at least to me, actually. Yeah. You know what she should have done is because she played Lucy McLean in Live Free or Die Hard.
01:07:51
Speaker
Oh, that's okay. That's West. If she played it more like she played Lucy, I think she would have done a much better job.
01:07:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, she needed to have a little bit more drive with this character, a little, you know, make the character feel more invested in what she's doing. Right. More Lucy McLean, less Ramona Flowers was definitely needed in this. Yeah, that's what I did not feel like she was invested at all, because of course we're talking about that she's trying to get back her fortune, her family fortune.
01:08:22
Speaker
You know, she really don't say, you know, it's like, yeah, well, you know, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And I do like all the the the whole girl power theme of this movie is a lot of fun to watch. And when they're
01:08:37
Speaker
And just like their interactions with each other at the end, when they're at the taco stand, all that stuff was great. And it's like these brilliant little character moments. Like when she gives, when Harley gives Cassandra a margarita and then Bontoya takes it away. Yeah, yeah, she's very quietly takes it away, you know? Because of course Harley is gonna give a kid an alcoholic drink, of course she is.
01:09:08
Speaker
So yeah, all that stuff. And just like the whole, the shop talk between Montoya and Huntress and Black Canary was also very fitting for their characters. And it's the kind of thing you'd expect in the aftermath of a superhero battle, right?
01:09:24
Speaker
Like, you know, everyone just had a sitting around saying like, man, I love the way you use those kicks and that kind of stuff. You're right. Exactly. Oh, man. Oh, when you did so and so to that guy went, oh, what was that move that you use or so? So, yeah, you know, again,
01:09:40
Speaker
This is like the thing with the food. It's the little moments like this you don't usually see in superhero movies, where superheroes just sit around talking. Remember it's like the part, it was like, well, what Avengers movie was that, where they were just all sitting around? They were just kicking the willy-boo-boo and everything like that. Yeah, they all tried. Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. When they all, because that's the kind of thing you do if one of your teammates has a weapon that only he can use. Of course, everyone's going to want to try it.
01:10:07
Speaker
And it's obvious that they're all kind of tipsy. Yeah. Yeah. I can lift Thor's hair. We got it my way. And yeah, it's a fun little scene because. Especially when Tony comes back with this armor guard to try and do it. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I cracked up. I said, because yeah. Yeah. You know, he's drunk now. Yeah.
01:10:31
Speaker
No question that Tony is drunk, because who would they write about? Oh, wait, hold on. I'll be right back. Let me get my jet power gauntlet. But yeah, those like those little moments, those those are the those are the things that really make these characters and they make the characters feel alive in those moments. Yeah, yeah, they they definitely come alive. It was a lot of
01:10:59
Speaker
They had a moment like that in a suicide squad when they're in the bar. And they just decided, well, you know, we're going to chuck it all. And what's his name? He gives them the remote control. And he tells them, OK, let's do it.
01:11:17
Speaker
Right, Rick Flagg. I remember the actor's name, Joel Kinnaman, but I couldn't think of his character's name. When Rick Flagg gives them the remote control, that'll blow up the bombs in their necks, and he said, listen,
01:11:30
Speaker
Oh, listen, the mission is screwed. Go home. Just destroy thing. Go. And they go in the bar and they're just sitting down there having drinks and they're just talking. Yeah. And they're saying, listen, listen, OK, we got ourselves into a fucked up situation. How are we going to resolve this? Man, there was just it's weird. Now, when you think back, there was the time like Joe Kinnaman was in everything. Yeah. Yeah. He was in that. He was in the RoboCop reboot, which I just rewatched a few weeks ago, which actually was not.
01:11:59
Speaker
Bad. Not as good as the original, but not bad. Better than the sequels at least. Let me put it this way. If we had never seen the first Robocop movie. May way back when.
01:12:14
Speaker
we would be talking about the remake a lot higher than we would. It's really not that bad. As a matter of fact, you know what? It's pretty good. It is pretty good. It's just the original was so amazing because of the satire and everything that it's hard to compete with that. Well, that's what it is. See, when you don't have the social set, see, and people don't seem to understand Robocop wasn't about violence. It was about social satire. Right. And once you take that social satire out of the movie,
01:12:42
Speaker
Well, all you got left is your standard action revenge thriller. Yeah, yeah. And they did have a little to the movie's credit. They did have a little bit of it, especially with Michael Keaton's role, but it wasn't it didn't go full out the way that the original did. Exactly. Yeah, because I mean, like the first one, you can watch that over and over again.
01:13:05
Speaker
And you can still pick up little things that you didn't see before. Oh, yeah. Well, that's that director. That's Paul Verhoeven, who he takes these like B-movie sci-fi scripts like that and Starship Troopers. And he makes them into really smart social satires. Yeah, Starship Troopers. You know, whenever I hear people talk about, oh, I hate Starship Troopers. Oh, I hate it. I said, wait a minute. Did you really watch the movie and get what it was really? Because I don't know.
01:13:32
Speaker
In my old age, I've gotten a little bit mellow as far as that, but when people, you know, when they look at a movie like Starship Troopers or Robocop and they complain about the social satire,
01:13:47
Speaker
And I said, well, you really don't understand what the movie was about then. Right. If you, you know, if you just think it was just about, you know, the shooting and the violence and, you know, blowing up big bugs and a guy, you know, nearly getting killed and being turned into a robot, you know, if that's all you took away from that movie and you really didn't watch the movie. Right. Yeah. Now, to take that, actually, there's kind of a tie in here because
01:14:14
Speaker
doing a, this is gonna be a great segue, okay? Listen to this, all right? So, Starship Troopers starred Dina Mayer, who also played Barbara Gordon in the Birds of Prey, the very short-lived Birds of Prey TV series. And that's bringing me back to the Birds of Prey movie now.
01:14:37
Speaker
Now, and that brings me to what another big complaint I had about this movie is that there is no Barbara Gordon in this movie.
Missed Opportunities and Potential Improvements
01:14:44
Speaker
And I think that's a big, even if you don't have her as Oracle, I think you, Birds of Prey is so tied to Barbara Gordon because she created it in the comics when she was crippled and she was working as Oracle.
01:14:58
Speaker
And I think not having Barbara Gordon and sort of trying to shoehorn the Birds of Prey into a Harley Quinn movie is really the biggest failing of this movie. And it's not something that needed to be done. Like, even though we talk about how great Renee Montoya is and how great, you know, for the most part Journey, Smollett Bell is, like, they, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and all that, they do not need to be in this movie at all.
01:15:28
Speaker
Well, that's true. That's true. As much as I love this movie, and I do love it a lot, you know, anybody's read my review of it on the Ferguson Theater, shameless plug. You know, this is a very goofy, freewheeling, action-filled, colorful movie that I enjoyed a lot. But I do have to agree with you on that. You could take out,
01:15:57
Speaker
Renee Montoya and the Huntress. All you would really need for this movie to work is Harley Quinn and Cassandra Cain. Really? Right. Well, I mean, you could even keep in Renee Montoya because she's, I think she could still serve a useful purpose as like kind of like that counterbalancing force influencing Cassandra. Yeah. And that would have been a much more interesting movie, I think. Yeah. Story-wise, it certainly would have been a lot tighter. Yeah, you really did. Yeah, you really didn't need
01:16:27
Speaker
you know, because of course we could have somebody tell the story of the Bertinelli diamond. So you really didn't need the Huntress. The Black Canary, I'm gonna say this, it's optional. What I probably would have done is have her right from the start, the bodyguard slash driver of the black mask, a job she takes on later in the movie. But in order to introduce her sooner, I would have just had her in that role right from the start of the movie.
01:16:58
Speaker
And you know what? I don't think I would have made it Black Canary. I would have made it some other character. Right? Someone like Mercy Graves. Okay, there you go. And then you could have had a tie-in or something where she ends up, at the end, she ends up going to LexCorp.
01:17:19
Speaker
Right. Yeah. She says, OK, well, I guess I got to take the other job I've been offered. Yeah. So, oh, well, where is that metropolis? You know, just say that. Then we say, oh, OK. Now she's going to go work for let. Yeah. Even though it was technically in Batman V Superman and she was just which was a waste of that character and a waste of Tal Okamoto in that movie. But that's another story. Because you know what? If we're just going to be dragging in characters,
01:17:46
Speaker
I mean, you know, willy-nilly, why not? Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know what? Here's a better idea. Oh, I'm surprised I didn't think of this earlier. Cassandra Cain as the bodyguard, but the mute version from the comics. Even better. That would have been perfect. And then, yeah, I would have done that and I would have had probably
01:18:13
Speaker
Barbara Gordon in the Renee Montoya role and have her like bring them together. And then at the end of the movie, instead of going off with Harley, Cassandra goes off with Barbara Gordon and becomes Batgirl. That's what I would have done. Why are we writing screenplays? I don't know. I don't know. Why aren't we writing it?
01:18:34
Speaker
I'm sorry, in the space of five minutes, we've just made the movie better. We've rewritten a whole movie and made a stronger movie out of it. Now, one thing I will say this about the writing is that I'm glad they didn't go the obvious route of having Black Mask be like a spurned Harley Quinn lover or something like that. Yeah, well, this movie is too smart for that. Right. I'm so glad they didn't do that because I think that would have been way too cliche.
01:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, it would have been too cliche. And also, we know that despite what she says, the only love of Harley's life is her pudding. Right. That's it. You know, the thought that she's attracted to somebody else or she falls in love with somebody else. That's not it. Unless it's poison ivy. Well, I was thinking it's not that I was thinking that he was someone who was in love with her.
01:19:32
Speaker
Oh, okay. I got you now. Yeah. He had a fixation on her. Yeah. And then now the Joker's out of the picture. He tries to go after her and she spots him. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad. Yeah. Like I said, this movie is too smart for that. I'm glad. Yeah. I'm glad they didn't go that route either. Cause that would have been too, that would have been just.
01:19:47
Speaker
right yeah yeah you know i think that i don't know about you but i'm maybe this was intentional but that scene where he orders that woman to dance on the table and strip off like. I maybe was intentional but i think that was maybe a bit too much because i felt really uncomfortable watching that scene. There was no you know what there was no reason.
01:20:09
Speaker
for that scene in the movie, except to justify the R rating. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way I feel about it. Yeah. And we, and we've already had the stuff like, okay, we've had the language, we've had this scene where, uh, uh, says he cuts off the faces of the family, the Chinese family that's hanging upside down, cuts off their faces, you know? So, I mean, okay, you've already done enough to establish,
01:20:36
Speaker
you know, you're already, you don't have to have that scene in there. And yeah, when I, you know, the first time I'm watching it, I'm saying, you know, some, this is really unnecessary. Yeah, yeah. You know, why is this even, why is this even in here? Yeah, I mean, I think they, by that point, they've done enough to establish Black Mask as a bad guy.
01:20:57
Speaker
Well, listen, when the guy's ordering his henchmen to cut off people's face and then he has the girl killed after he says, OK, I'm going to let her live. And then he said, wait a minute. Is that a snap bubble? Yeah. Never mind. Change my mind. Killer. Go ahead and kill it. OK. We got it. You're a bad guy. Yeah. Yeah. We got it. You don't have to, you know, go on and on on about it. You know, yeah, that scene is if I was going to cut any scene out of that movie.
01:21:25
Speaker
You know, as a matter of fact, when I watched the movie again in preparation for this, because I hadn't seen it since I, you know, since I went to the movies to see it, you know, and that was in February. But I watched it.
01:21:41
Speaker
again yesterday in preparation for this episode. And when that scene came up, I got up and I went to the bathroom. I said, okay, I'll go to the bathroom now. And I did, that's what I did. I said, well, I don't need to see the skin. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see where they go with this. Cause the rumor, I don't know if this is true, but apparently the rumor is that after this, there's going to be a Gotham city sirens movie, which would presumably introduce like poison ivy.
01:22:09
Speaker
Oh, okay. Which I really think they should have done in this movie instead, but you know, what's done is done. Oh, and did you check out the end credits? Of this movie, yeah. Yeah, I love that little bit at the end when she's like, all right, I'm gonna tell you a secret. Batman is really, and then it just cuts. Oh yeah, oh yeah, Batman, yeah.
01:22:36
Speaker
Yeah, I would not, listen, if they get the same director, cause like I said, I really liked, you know, Kathy Yann. I really liked her direct, you know, I liked the way that she directed this movie. You know, she kept things moving. She knows how to tell the story. I liked the visual style of this movie. Like you said, it's colorful. And then when they get to the end with the fun house and everything like that, the movie becomes very surreal.
01:23:04
Speaker
you know, so I like the visual style of this. If they do a sequel to this, definitely I would want them to get the same director and presumably the same person because I do believe that it's a woman that wrote the screenplay as well. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Also, one of the things too is, well,
01:23:22
Speaker
You know what, at the end, when they show the birds of prey in their costumes, I thought that Black and Mary's
Future Speculations and Cross-Universe Rumors
01:23:29
Speaker
outfit looked good. They looked like a neat little update to the original while still incorporating the fishnets into the sleeves and that kind of thing. But I did not like, I don't know what was up with Huntress's costume. That looked really fake.
01:23:44
Speaker
Well, we don't know what's up with hunters through the whole movie anyway. Good point. As we have already established. Oh, I mean, why should her costume be any different? Yeah. Yeah. Good point. Good point. Um, but I did like how, but I did like how they did establish by the end of the movie that they were an official team. Yeah.
01:24:06
Speaker
you know, and that they were working together as an official team. I did like that. But that Harley wasn't part of their group. I did like that too. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Because, yeah, send Harley off on her own to have more adventures, you know, wacky adventures, whatever, you know, and, uh, you know, here's what I want to be. Yeah. Let Harley be. Yeah. Here's what I do. You know,
01:24:31
Speaker
have another, next movie, do Gotham City Sirens, do it with Harley and Ivy, get rid of Cassandra Cain, because that's not Cassandra Cain anyway, and that's what the next movie should focus on. Yeah, I would go with that. I mean, maybe throw in Catwoman or something like that too, if you want something else in there, but yeah, it should really be like, Harley and Ivy should be the focus going forward, I think.
01:24:55
Speaker
And really, you know what? You could do a whole series of Harley Quinn movies, as you say, and and each new movie. She's introducing new female superheroes into this world. It's a pretty good idea. You know, why did they actually give those characters justice? Well, yeah, well, of course. But I'm just saying, you know, it'd be a good way for them to do Barbara Gordon. Yeah. Like you say, yeah, you know, Barbara Gordon and.
01:25:22
Speaker
And there's a whole host of other characters, the Rose and the Thorn. You know, a whole host of other characters in each movie. OK, there's a new female character that we introduced. I mean, I think it could work. I think that'd be a pretty good idea, too. Yeah. There's a there's a lot of different ways you could go with that there. And
01:25:46
Speaker
And you know what? I agree with you. I do like Kathy Yann and I would like to see her just let loose on a pure Harley movie. I think that would be a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. I think that by now we say because despite
01:26:03
Speaker
People keep saying, you know what, I really hate it when people do that. Oh, the movie was a bomb. The movie was a bomb. But the movie was not a bomb. The movie made money. It just didn't make as much money as DC would have liked for it to make. And also, I mean, there's pretty extenuating circumstances here. Let's not forget. Exactly. As you cited earlier on with the coronavirus thing, and it had to be pulled from the theater. Yeah. So there's no telling how. Because as a matter of fact, the movie was picking up.
01:26:31
Speaker
Before they pulled it. My understanding was that the movie was picking up an audience. It was finding people were going to see it and going to check it out. The movie didn't make money. I really get pissed off when I hear people say, the movie was a bomb. The movie was not a bomb.
01:26:52
Speaker
We made money. Well, a lot of that is also, um, a lot of people have self-fulf- want a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like, I remember when Captain Marvel came out, and even still, like, this is like, how many years now? It's been like, what, two or three years since Captain Marvel came out? People are still- Something like that. People are still spreading rumors about how, oh, Captain Marvel, the sequel's delayed because it did not make as much money as- That's total bullshit. Or it's delayed because nobody likes Brie Larson.
01:27:22
Speaker
No, none of that is true at all. No, none of that is true. Yeah, none of that is true. You don't like Brie Larson. Right. That's your issue, but yeah, but no, that's certainly not why. Matter of fact, Brie Larson, she's supposed to be playing a major role in the next Avengers movie from everything I hear in Captain Marvel. Yeah, yeah. And they're going to be doing Captain Marvel too. That's too much.
01:27:47
Speaker
And when I tell people this, they say, well, how come there's such a long delay before they're announcing a sequel? Because they've got a ton of movies now. Like, it took them, what, like, it's gonna be like, what, three or four years? It's for Black Panther 2 to come out?
01:27:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Dr. Strange 2 is coming out, you know, you know what, like three or four years after the original Dr. Strange came out. So it's, you know, they're, they got a lot of, a lot of characters. Yeah. Sam Raimi. Yeah. Sam Raimi is taking over. Yeah. But you know what? Yeah, exactly. Since they're doing the multiverse, you know what one of the theories is about it?
01:28:22
Speaker
What's that? Now, this is just a rumor, right? Totally 100% just a rumor. But people are speculating that because Tobey Maguire has said that he would like to play a superhero again. So they're speculating that maybe they could have a vision of a multiverse with the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man that could later lead into a Spider-Verse live action movie that would have like Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland.
01:28:46
Speaker
You know what, I have heard that. I have heard that rumor that they are angling for a live action, you know, Spider-Verse, you know, movie with all of the Spider-Man. Now I'm not a major Spider-Man fan, as most people know. It's not that I got nothing against Spider-Man, but, you know.
01:29:05
Speaker
He don't turn my crank like say like Thor or, you know, like Panther. But yeah, but I'd go see that. Yeah, I'd definitely go see that. Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah, but you know what? And I think that people don't realize that now is not just a Marvel movies anymore, it's Disney Plus. Right. So there's a lot of characters and a lot of stuff that they're doing right now. Yeah. Yeah, so everybody's got to kind of like wait their turn, you know, because
01:29:35
Speaker
they're not only constantly introducing new characters, the characters that have already been introduced, yeah, they gotta have their part two and part three and whatever. And these movies are taking longer and longer to produce simply because there's so many of them that they've committed to doing. Right. Right, absolutely. All right, so do we have any final thoughts about Harley Quinn guest starring the Birds of Prey?
01:30:05
Speaker
Only, I can only reiterate what I said before. If you have not as yet seen birds of prey and the fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn, I love that title. Um, it is currently on Amazon prime. You can rent it for three 99. We are all quarantined anyway.
01:30:29
Speaker
If you're looking for a good, fun movie to watch on a Friday or Saturday night, I highly recommend this movie. I help Friday morning these days. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what? Anytime. Yeah. You know, people are home all the time. So, you know, just keep the kid lit away from it, because this is most certainly not a kid's movie.
01:30:50
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, this is a movie that's made for adults. So, yes, while Harley Quinn is featured in animation and comic books and everything like that, no, this is an R-rated movie. So, act accordingly. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I would not let your nine-year-old watch this. I don't care how much she yells and screams about how much she loves Harley. No, I would not let her watch it. No, definitely not. Yeah, total agreement with pretty much everything you said there.
01:31:20
Speaker
The only thing I would add is, you know, it's, despite the problems I have with it as a birds of prey movie, it's a very, it's great as a Harley Quinn movie. It's a fun movie and it's really enjoyable. And, you know, just the direction alone is just really good. Yeah. And I mean, it's got, it's got some terrific stand out action sequences. You know, the police station, you know, like you said, you know, the fight in the fun house.
01:31:50
Speaker
You know, the whole thing where Harley, she's chasing the car on the real estate. Yeah, it's just, yeah, you know, there's some great action sequences. Oh, you know, somebody didn't mention, but I loved the scene when like everyone's coming after her.
01:32:06
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, I also remember there was one thing where, and this is something that the Honest Trailer mentioned, so I got to credit them at Screen Junkies, but when she's talking a black mask and she's like, well, I wonder why he hates me and it lists all these reasons and one of them is voted for Bernie. And then later she says like, that's why you never participate in federal income tax. So Honest Trailer is like, that is like the most joker thing you could do.
01:32:42
Speaker
Oh, man. See, folks, this is why we enjoy this movie. Trust me, this movie is a lot of goofy fun. If you will relax and enjoy it again, as I said earlier, it also helps if you throw out
01:33:00
Speaker
everything you know about Renee Montoya, The Huntress, and Black Canary, and just look upon this as brand new versions of those characters. And especially Cassandra Cain. And especially Cassandra Cain, yeah. Oh, and also, you know, just I got to mention again that, you know, Margot Roby and Ewan McGregor just playing off each other is just amazing to watch. I kind of hope, I kind of wish that Black Mask could come back in a future movie just to see them doing more of that together.
01:33:30
Speaker
Yeah, comedy gold, you know, this is, yeah, this is a fun movie from the, do not believe the hype. You know, listen, if you've been listening to me for a while, you know, I wouldn't steer you wrong. This movie is nowhere near as bad as you've heard it is. It's a fun, enjoyable movie. I like it.
Conclusion and What's Next?
01:33:49
Speaker
And you're gonna want an egg sandwich at the end. And you're gonna, yeah, you're gonna want an egg sandwich at the end, trust me.
01:33:55
Speaker
All right, so that's it for our talk about Harley Quinn. Now, what are, next is gonna be your pick, because you tossed it off to me last time. So have you decided on a movie for next time? No.
01:34:11
Speaker
never think about these things. You know what? I forget when it actually gets to be my turn, and I actually have to think of something. I don't know. Come back next week, and you'll see what we came up with. OK, yeah, it'll be a surprise then.
01:34:27
Speaker
Unless, wait a minute, unless you want to do, you know, the turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that you've been threatening, that you've been threatening to do for the longest. Well, do you want to make that your pick? Or do you want to, because if you want to think about something else, I can wait until you've chosen something. I mean, I can come up with something off the top of my head, but I'd rather not do that. I'd rather, you know, let it marinate and pick something that would be, you know,
01:34:52
Speaker
Okay, well, all right, so then we'll just make it a surprise for now. And you just send me a message once you've had a look at your collection, figure out what you want to decide on. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's usually what I do. I usually just go to my collection and I say, okay, what haven't I seen in a while? Because since we did something recent now, you know, do you want to do something else that fairly recent or do you want to go back and
01:35:19
Speaker
I mean, it's dealer's choice, man. I'm going to let you go look at your collection, see what strikes your fancy, and then just send me a message, and we'll go from there. Oh, well, wait a minute. You want to do another recent DC movie? You want to do Aquaman? OK, yeah, let's go ahead and do Aquaman.
01:35:33
Speaker
You wanna do Aquaman? Sure. Because you know what, that's another recent DC movie that enjoyed a lot of popularity and success and also a lot of controversy. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, I'm totally down with that. All right, so come back next. Okay, so we'll do Aquaman. Yeah. Yeah, we'll do Aquaman.
01:35:49
Speaker
All right, so come back next week and we'll be watching Aquaman. All right, that about does it for us. Head on over to Facebook.com, SuperheroCinephiles, join the group, join the discussion. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter, SuperCinemapod at both. We got a Patreon page, patreon.com slash SuperCinemapod. Go in there, toss us a couple of bucks.
01:36:14
Speaker
And yeah, that's about it. Oh, and if you can, leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, because every little bit helps us boost up in the rankings, helps us get more listeners, helps us get more attention. And that's nothing but a good thing. Yeah. All right. That does it for us this week, and we will be back next week. Thanks a lot for listening, and we'll talk to you then.
01:36:38
Speaker
OK, thank you so much for listening. Listen, stay home. Be safe. Be careful. Wash your hands. God bless and good night. Absolutely night.
01:36:52
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other episode, or if you have a superhero movie or TV show you'd like us to cover in a future episode, you can email us at superherocinephiles at gmail.com. Or you can also visit us on the web at superherocinephiles.com. If you like what you hear, leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Each review helps us reach more potential listeners.
01:37:19
Speaker
You can also support the show by renting or purchasing the movies discussed, or by picking up our books, all of which can be accessed through the website, as well as find links to our social media presences. The theme music for this show is a shortened version of Superhero Showdown, a royalty-free piece of music, courtesy of beslionstudios.com.