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Black Scorpion (1995)
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Pulp author Brad Mengel is our guest this episode to talk about Roger Corman's low-budget risque superhero film, Black Scorpion! We talk the film's legacy and how it compares to the TV show that followed.
Want to tell us what you think? Have any questions or comments for Perry about superheroes in media or comics? Leave a voice message to play on the show. You can also apply to be a guest on the show.
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Transcript
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The Scorpion and the Frog Fable
00:01:42
Speaker
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00:01:59
Speaker
Once upon a time, there was a scorpion. This particular scorpion wanted to get across the river, but she couldn't swim. So she asked her frog for a ride. Wasn't the frog scared? Oh, he was scared all right, but she promised that she wouldn't sting him. So he got about halfway across, and then he felt like an earning shot through his back. And he said, oh my, why did you do that? Now we're both doomed to die. And what did the scorpion say?
Introducing Superhero Cinephiles Podcast
00:02:28
Speaker
She said I had to. It's in my nature. Welcome to the Superhero Centipiles podcast. I'm your host, Perry Constantine, welcoming a new guest to this show. We've just recorded an episode for the Patreon show, which you guys may or may not have heard already. And that is Brad Mengele. Brad, how are you doing today? Good, thanks. How are you doing?
00:02:51
Speaker
I'm doing pretty good. I've got my son strapped to my chest. Hopefully he'll fall asleep soon. My wife's running errands and my daughter's asleep. So it's just got to cock this one out too. They rarely do it when you're on command. Almost never, but whenever we're in the car, boom, right away, he's out. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Anyway, so this is your first time to this show. So why don't you tell the guests a little bit about yourself?
Exploring the Mummy Franchise
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a writer.
00:03:22
Speaker
pulp fan, movie buff, superhero fan, comic book fan. I write mainly action-adventure but I also write non-fiction stuff. I just released just earlier this year the unofficial Guide to the Mummy and Scorpion King movies. So that was fun. And I've got one novel, Astralis Incognito.
00:03:50
Speaker
out through Prose. Okay, cool. So speaking of that, so I gotta ask you just tangent since you wrote a book about the Mummy movies, what's your take on Tomb of the Dragon Emperor? Because I know a lot of people hate that movie, but I actually found it kind of entertaining. Oh, look, I enjoyed it. Now, look, I could have done without the recasting of Rachel Weiss' Eevee, but I think it was all right. You know, it advanced the characters
00:04:20
Speaker
There were choices I wouldn't have made, but Rob Cullen really loves his Chinese history, so he went to town. I don't think it really opened up the franchise. They could have went to South America and Aztec mummies, Mayan mummies, there's mummies in New Guinea, there's mummies all over the world that you could interact with for that series.
00:04:47
Speaker
Yeah. And the other one is you could have just gone off in other supernatural directions, much like the animated TV series did. There was an animated TV series based on it? Yeah, yeah. Mummy the Animated Series. And then the second season it became Mummy... Something about the Medjai.
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah, and yeah, so it basically had focused on Alex. He put on this wristband, which caused him secrets of the medjoe. That's what it was called. Okay. Yeah, he put on a wristband. You'd think he would have learned after the mummy returns, he put on a wristband, it gave him powers. Imhotep came back. And they basically went all over the world looking for these scrolls to try and get this thing off of his wrist.
00:05:36
Speaker
And of course, when they finally do get it off his wrist, he's got to put it back on to save his mum and dad. Yeah, but they fought like werewolves and dragons and all sorts of supernatural creatures around the world. So that was that was an interesting way to really open up the law. That's a that's news to me. I never heard about this series before. So that's I'll have to look into that later. Was it worth a watch?
00:06:02
Speaker
Oh, I enjoyed it. Season one's on YouTube at the moment. Well, it was. It was about five or six months ago. Yeah. Now if they're really take down notices and whatnot. OK. Yeah. OK.
Black Scorpion Series and Influences
00:06:16
Speaker
But anyway, another thing I like to ask guests lately is what kind of what are you interested in lately? Like, you know, movies, TV shows, books, comics, anything. What's kind of grabbing your interest these days?
00:06:28
Speaker
Oh, a bit of everything. I watched the Black Scorpion TV series just recently on Prime. And then it got me onto the comics and discovered there's a bunch of other characters called the Black Scorpion. So I sort of just started off somewhere and then just go down a rabbit hole and then eventually give up and then start a new rabbit hole.
00:06:55
Speaker
So was that related to the fact that we're what we're talking about the Black Scorpion movie today? Or do they just or were you you get into the TV show and then decide to come on here to talk about the movie? Basically, yeah, I watched the TV show, TV series. And then I thought, you know what, I really need an excuse to watch the movies. And I actually I think I just finished the show and you put out the call say how I'd like some more co hosts and you know what,
00:07:22
Speaker
I need an excuse to re-watch the movie. So that's what I did. I just said, yeah, I'd like to do that one. And I went and watched the two movies that they made. And I think I glanced through the comic that they did a few years ago. It was Devil's Dew, I believe. Yeah. And it was reprinted by Blue Wave.
00:07:47
Speaker
Tidal Wave. Yeah. Blue Water. Blue Water, that's the one. Yeah. These companies,
Superman's Lineage and Cultural Perspectives
00:07:53
Speaker
they change their names and they can keep track.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. For my part, well, you know, we're recording now in the wake of the 80th, 85th anniversary of Superman. So they had a big sale on Comixology for like all these Superman books. So I just, I picked up the second Son of Kal-El book. And so I've been really enjoying that. It's a lot, it's a really fun take on John and there's a Nightwing crossover there and I love Nightwing. So it's been really fun to read that.
00:08:23
Speaker
Um, and I also picked up all the, um, all the new 52 books. So, um, uh, this is timely after we had just talked about doomsday clock, but I'm looking forward to now that new 52 was over, I'm looking forward to kind of giving that run another chance and just kind of seeing how it reads when it's disconnected from the whole, this is not my Superman type of thing. Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
Yeah, Tom Taylor's a great writer. He's based in Melbourne, so I've met him a couple of times. Oh, we seem to know that. Yeah, yeah. He also did a series called The Deep, which I believe is on Netflix. There was two comics and then they turned it into a TV series on Netflix, or start off on the ABC here, and then Netflix bought the international rights. I believe it's in Netflix America.
00:09:13
Speaker
It's basically a family who live in a submarine and travel around the world helping the ocean. I actually recommended it to Derek before he passed because the dad in the show just reminds me of Derek so much.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, just just in looks and personalities. I imagine what Derek would be like, if he wasn't wasn't being if he wasn't going to be Dylan, that's who he'd be. The dad for the Nicktons. I'll check that out. Definitely have checked that out now. Yeah, Tom Taylor is great. I mean, he is. He's a writer who is consistently surprised me with things and concepts that I thought would not work. You know, injustice being the prime example when
00:10:00
Speaker
you know I heard about the concept behind the comic book and I read like summaries the first issue like this sounds god-awful I'm like why would you do this and then I read this I'm like oh shit this is actually really fucking good and then also with um superior iron man after in the wake of the axis stuff where iron man was one of the heroes who had remained like semi-evil type of thing and yeah and I'm like you know why would you want to and then I read the book I'm like oh this is
00:10:27
Speaker
This is pretty damn good. I'm actually kind of digging this. So he's consistently been able to surprise me with with these concepts that and even to a lesser extent with Son of Kal-El, because I was bittersweet when I when they aged up John Kent, because I did enjoy his banter with like Damien and all that and the Super Sons book. But at the same time, you know, I wasn't opposed to it either. I wasn't so attached to the character that I thought it was a terrible idea.
00:10:57
Speaker
And it's been a really fun read. I really like that he's Superman, but he's taking a different approach to being Superman than Clark did. And I mentioned this,
00:11:11
Speaker
My buddy Anthony Desiato does a Superman show and I mentioned this in a comment to one of the episodes they did when they covered the son of Hello Comics where there's this great scene where Clark and John are talking and John asks him, you know, how come you haven't done more as Superman? And Clark tells him, well, even though I was raised here, this is not my world. And so it's not really my place to impose my will on others.
00:11:40
Speaker
And on Anthony's show, they had commented on that. It felt like a weird thing for for Clark to say, because he's even though he was from another planet, he was raised on Earth and he does need to think of himself more as human than not. And I looked at it from the point of view of of an expat. Right. Me living in Japan where it's like I.
00:12:01
Speaker
There's a lot of stuff that I criticize about Japan, but I'm also not a citizen here. So there's only so far I can go. So I could really relate to Clark from that point of view. And I thought it actually I'm not sure if Tom Taylor is actually Australian or if he's a or if he's an immigrant himself. But if I believe he was born in Melbourne, he was born in Melbourne. OK, I believe so. Yeah. OK, it did read like something that
00:12:27
Speaker
It did read like the attitude an ex-pat or an immigrant would
Humor in Politics
00:12:31
Speaker
have. So I thought that was a really interesting point of view.
00:12:34
Speaker
Well, I think we sort of had Australians that have that similar viewpoint of America. It's over there. We follow it crazily. But, you know, ultimately, there's nothing we can do to change it. So, you know, we, you know, we can sit there and say, really, that's how the election went. Yeah, tell me about it. Oh, it was so funny that the day that that happened, everyone's running around my office going, you know, what's going to happen? Why?
00:13:01
Speaker
And they're going, oh, he's going to go to war. And I said, who is? And they go, Russia. I said, he's not going to war with Russia. He likes Russia. And they go, oh, oh, OK. And then they just sat down and got me. It's funny, I've got one of my co-workers at the university. She's from Australia. And one time we were out for drinks and she was saying, she's like,
00:13:22
Speaker
She's like, you know, Australian politics is so boring. That's why I follow American politics. Oh, yes, yes. I'm going to say our greatest prime minister is probably the man in the Guinness Book of Records for quickest drinking of a yard arm of beer.
00:13:39
Speaker
If you're going to ask me about Australian Prime Ministers, I would probably guess something like that. Yeah, we've been through a few in the last few years. They have a tendency to knife each other in the back and go, no, I'm going to be leading out.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, Japan has a lot of that too. We've got a lot of rotating Prime Ministers in that way. But anyway, like we had kind of hinted at before today, we're talking about Black Scorpion. This is a 1995 Showtime movie, it was direct to Showtime. And it was produced by Roger Corman. You know, the late great Roger Corman, and it
00:14:24
Speaker
starring Joan Severance as the as the hero and and like you said it it had kind of a longevity to it right they got a sequel to it and then sci-fi channel had the TV show which was one season with Michelle Lintel and that was in 2001 and then there's also that comic book by yeah that was a digital series by Devil's deuce that means it was fairly recent actually too
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was. Where's my notes? Of course, I didn't put that thing on. It looks like 2011 or around there. Yes. And I think it got. Yeah, it was 2009 and then it got 2010 and then there was like another one shot that the blue water did. OK, yeah.
00:15:13
Speaker
So you had mentioned that you had watched this before. This is my first exposure to Black Scorpion. I'd never even heard of this before you sent me the email. But what is your history with this property? Well, I'm a big fan of the modern pulp stuff. And one of the groups I was in, someone said, hey, you know, this is this is really good modern, a modern pulp thing with a similar attitude to the Adam West.
00:15:40
Speaker
probably a little bit, not quite as campy as the Adam West series, but a similar attitude to it. And so I watched it and I really enjoyed it and I ended up tracking down the copy for my own collection and then getting two in the TV series and the books and just going through everything.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I enjoyed it. Someone pointed out, you know, there seems to be a little bit taken from a lot of different places, you know, Batman's an obvious influence. The Phantom seems to be a bit of an influence in, you know, her surname to Walker, and she has a ring that can brand people with a
00:16:19
Speaker
with a symbol that relates to her. So, you know, there's a lot of stuff like that. And actually, read, they did this right after they did the Fantastic Four movie that never got. OK, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was the same script writer. And Rick Corman produced it as well. And basically that was his name. Craig Craig Nevins sort of went to. Roger Corman said, hey, I want to make us want to make a proper superhero movie now that we can release.
00:16:49
Speaker
And so he wrote it, created the character, and they made this one. And it looks like the year after this, they did – the Vampire Relic, Cormon did the Vampire Relic movie that came out. Oh, okay, with Talisa Soto, right? Yeah. I've heard of that, but I never actually saw it. Let's just say it's not the best adaptation I've ever seen. They definitely didn't do the costume justice.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, I remember looking at seeing photos of it. And yeah, they definitely didn't match what was in the comics of that. So what were what was kind of like your overall impression rewatching the movie for for for this podcast? Yeah, it was like, it felt a bit like a mock buster version of Batman. And actually, when I looked up the dates,
00:17:42
Speaker
It came out the same year as Batman Forever and the sequel came out the same year as Batman and Robin. So very much a female Batman, as it were, with a little bit more sex.
00:17:57
Speaker
Mm hmm. A lot more sex, actually. Yeah. I mean, there's that, you know, full frontal nudity
Black Scorpion TV Series Analysis
00:18:02
Speaker
in this. They've got several scenes in that in that strip club. And that sex scene was that was pretty, it was a pretty graphic sex scene like it. And it was and it was long. Of course, I was rewatching it just before we went to talk about it the other day. And I'm rewatching it and my wife comes out just before that.
00:18:26
Speaker
And she's going, like, how long are they going for? I'm like, really? I had, it was funny because when I got to that scene and, you know, the strip club scenes and everything else, my first thought was, because I knew this, I remember reading that this was direct to video or direct to TV and
00:18:48
Speaker
My first thought was going into this that maybe it was like, you know, something like on sci fi channel or something like that. When I got to the nudity, I'm like, well, no, obviously not done. And my first thought was maybe this was a Cinemax movie. So I was actually kind of surprised. I looked it up and found out it was it was Showtime instead, because this definitely seems more like a Cinemax type of thing where it's like, yes, the network goes to Roger Corman. It's like, you know, we need a movie with some we need to we need a movie, some sex scenes in it. You know, here's, you know,
00:19:17
Speaker
hundred thousand dollars or whatever the budget is go make it go make a movie make sure you have like x number of nude scenes in it and then you're good to go yeah yeah well i haven't heard anything like that but yeah that was a bit of a surprise uh but when i watched the other movies in the tv series none of none of the others have any of that stuff so i don't know whether uh they you know nevin's got it out of his system you know yeah or you know it was just channeling early wonder woman
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah. It's funny, too, because when I was thinking about this movie and just like the especially the relationship between Black Scorpion and the the her the police detective, her partner, her former partner, since she loses her job. And I was reminded a lot of the Halle Berry Catwoman movie.
00:20:08
Speaker
It kind of made me wonder. I'm like, I wonder if like the the the screenwriter of Catwoman was like maybe on a deadline. He's like, fuck, I'll just rip off the script from Black Scorpion because a lot of stuff seems similar. Yeah. Well, I can see how that could be the case.
00:20:22
Speaker
Actually, I watched on my DVD copy that Joan Severance does some commentary on the movie and does like a little bit of an introduction. And one of the things she says is they were reading a lot of comics. She was, the director was, and I know that Craig Nevins has come out and said, yeah, I'm a big fan. That's why I did the Fantastic Four movie.
00:20:44
Speaker
But I got the feeling they were reading a lot of those image bad girl comics, the watch blade, the she, the razors, which they had a lot of sex. And Joan Severance certainly has the body to look like. Todd McFarlane's drawn.
00:21:03
Speaker
Well, they also, I was reading the trivia, they actually had to, her costume was actually sewn on. So like, every time they had to take it off, like they had to sew it back on every time you had a bathroom break or something. Yeah, she was talking about that. And she was going, Thank God I didn't get kicked in the bladder too often. Yeah, Jesus.
Critique of Black Scorpion Movie
00:21:20
Speaker
Now I had a I had a less positive view of this movie than you did. I get that it's supposed to be camp and all that. And and I'm fine with that. But when I was watching it, it felt like it
00:21:33
Speaker
It felt like it didn't really commit to that idea of being campy. It felt like it was trying to hedge its bets a little bit. And some of the dialogue too was just some of the performances are just really, really wooden. And so after I'd finished watching it, I was curious if it was just me or if it was the movie. So I thought I'd watch the first episode of the TV series to kind of compare the two.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah. And I watched that first episode and I'm like, oh, this is actually a lot better. Like I felt like the TV show, it actually seemed to it seemed to lean into the camp a little bit more. It seemed to be more comfortable with it. And the performances felt a little bit more genuine as opposed to in the movie. Yeah, I'm not going to disagree with that assessment either. Yeah, the TV series is definitely, definitely better.
00:22:23
Speaker
And it is, as you said, they lent into it a lot more. They recast the guy who played the breathtaking and got Adam West. They got Adam West and they also recast Black Scorpion too, right? Yes. Yes. And then they got, what's his name? The guy who played the Riddler.
00:22:45
Speaker
Oh yeah, Frank Gorshin. Frank Gorshin turned up and played a villain too, so I think they leant more into that. They really went harder onto that Batman.
00:22:55
Speaker
side of things, especially the the Adam West TV series. Yeah, yeah. Try to see if there were anyone else. But yeah, when I was looking through the cast, it actually kind of disappointed me that they didn't have breathtaking in the first in the first episode, because that's what I was hoping. So I could see how Adam West played in the role. So and I don't have time to watch any others. But I think I will go through and and try to watch at least the Adam West and Frank Orson episodes.
00:23:22
Speaker
Although, you know, you can't go wrong having Martin Cove as a villain in the first episode, who's just gone crazy. Well, you know, I think that was also, too. I mean, it was it kind of surprised me that the the the story actually had that first episode, the story actually had some.
00:23:37
Speaker
decent themes they were trying to work with. It felt like there was an attempt to be a lot more layered than the movie was. And I really felt like when they were doing the TV show, at least judging from that first episode, they were really
00:23:53
Speaker
taking their jobs more seriously because I was watching one of the things that especially I noticed was the fight scenes because the, you know, Joan Severance, she may look good in that outfit, but my God, she's terrible at fight choreography, like just got awful. Like her kicks are just and I'm not going to stand here and claim like I'm some I'm some martial arts expert or something. But but I know what a kick is supposed to look like. And it's not supposed to look like that.
00:24:15
Speaker
Yes. And she also makes reference to her stunned heels. So, you know, if you watch carefully, apparently the heels will suddenly morph into flats. During some of the fights. Yes. Yeah, I agree. The first this first movie is is Tony Lee. It sort of it sort of wants to be a campy Batman type series, but it also wants to be that that dark and gritty bad girl movie.
00:24:46
Speaker
And yeah, it sort of doesn't quite straddle that line. Yeah, this I think the second second movie they sort of said look, we're going to step away from some of the sex stuff, you know, some of the gritty, you know, the sex stuff and they had a new villain, the gangster prankster.
00:25:03
Speaker
And apparently DC sort of said, I don't know if you can reuse here, if you can keep using him because he looks like Billy Dee Williams' two-face mixed with the Joker. So I was like, one half's like a Joker face and the other half's a straight face. So yeah, he was an interesting character.
00:25:27
Speaker
And yeah, there's a lot of stuff they introduced in the TV series that I really like. I like the idea of a mad scientist, Dr. Phoenix, whose whole goal was he would resurrect, he would reclaim the villains and try to rehabilitate them. And it just never worked.
00:25:46
Speaker
Yeah. And just like some of the the story beats to just like some things just didn't feel like they clicked together. Like the first off, just the opening scene with I think would have worked probably would have worked better is if her father, you know, you mentioned the phantom earlier. And when the scene when the movie opens up and he's there listening to the police scanner and he says, well, I got to go, you know, you know, just stay away from the radio and all that.
00:26:12
Speaker
My thought was, I'm like, oh, maybe this is going to be like a legacy type of thing. And maybe he's going to be like the black scorpion first, and then he's going to die doing this job and then she's going to grow up. So and then you just find out he's just a very stereotypical cop. Just like it's like every at every cop movie cliche all rolled up into one. Oh, I love that when he's in the chase news, call an ambulance because somebody is going to need it soon.
00:26:42
Speaker
I did think it was funny. They got Rick Rossovich to play him the hook from, you know, slider from Top Gun. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. He was. Yeah. And of course, he's like, you know, the bitter cop like them lawyers lawyers got me got me sacked. She's gone. No, you got you sacked. Yeah. And then also when they're in the also to that scene when he brings them into the emergency room.
00:27:11
Speaker
The two criminals he's chasing and one of them gets away and I'm just like wait, how come these guys weren't fucking cuffed? Yeah, and he takes the takes the shot and he goes oh you hit both of his lungs I'm like
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure how that happens. Did he shoot JFK as well with that bullet? I was about to say that. Sounds like some Oliver Stone magic bullet bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. And I kind of said it's like, yeah, breathtaking took what was it? 18 years, 28 years or something, you know, to get his revenge and like, dude, you know, you're still clearly stewing on this a bit much. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to do it sooner.
00:27:53
Speaker
And also that kind of goes to the the tonal inconsistency was the stuff with breathtaking because you know the movie starts off and it makes it seem like it's going to be a
00:28:04
Speaker
a B movie, a B revenge movie or something like that, like a direct-to-video revenge movie that's going to try to take itself kind of seriously and just going to have a lot of bad acting. And then you get to this cutaway of breath headquarters and you see the breathtaking and this ridiculous suit of armor and he's talking about his
00:28:25
Speaker
his asthma agents or something like that. I'm like, what? Weezing warriors. Weezing warriors. I'm just like, what the fuck is happening here? I'm like, did I just like to be, you know, and to be honest, I did have a drink and I'm just like, I didn't drink that much. Like, is this nice with something? Because I just felt so totally inconsistent from what we had just been watching. Oh, yes. Yeah, very much. And, you know, and I mean, so I'm used to a certain level of ineptitude of cop in these things. But I'm gonna say,
00:28:54
Speaker
these cops just take it to the next level. Yeah. And when they went to the TV series, the rookie cops are just like 10 times worse. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I can tell that just from the first episode, I'm just like, if I watch the rest of the series, these two are definitely going to get on my nerves. Yeah. And it's like, and it feels like Darcy just sort of has
00:29:15
Speaker
So I'm not even going to try and be a cop. I'm just I'm just rocking up to a crime scene and I'm putting on the costume. You know, it's almost that that level of Batman incompetence in the in the police force. Yeah. And I also it didn't. And just like the whole her whole reasons for becoming the Black Scorpion and just like everything, it just it felt like we're taking several leaps to get to these conclusions that she draws.
00:29:43
Speaker
And there's that one point in the movie too where I thought it was weird when she says like goodbye black scorpion or something like that. I'm like, but then that seems like it. So I'm like, wait, she's giving up, but why? And then it doesn't seem to, it doesn't seem to actually result in anything. It's almost like, well, you know, I've shagged my partner. That's all I need this for. And then she's like, oh yeah, there's a bad guy still out there. I better, better go fix that up.
00:30:11
Speaker
I noticed that was a similar thing happened in Batman Forever, you know. I was about to say, because you had mentioned Batman Forever earlier, and we had covered that, you know, fairly recently on the show.
Comparisons with Superhero and Pulp Fiction Media
00:30:20
Speaker
And I remember, you know, that's one of the things that always bugs me about that movie. It's like, OK, he's he's giving up.
00:30:26
Speaker
the he's giving up being batman because he he falls in love with his psychiatrist and who he's only been out with like on two dates mind you yeah and meanwhile you still got riddler and to face out there and i'm just edits. It was the same thing with there's a similar thing in spider-man to where you know he.
00:30:45
Speaker
He gives up being Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Doc Rockpuss is still on the run. I'm just like, I can understand it if you do it like in Batman and Robin, where Mr. Freeze is now in Arkham. So now it's like, okay, this is a good chance for me to give it up. Now I wrapped up all the loose ends. Now I can retire, but. I've got Robin who can take over. Yeah. Yeah. It's always, this just seems a bit of a weird way. And then it was almost felt like that was just the setup for that joke.
00:31:11
Speaker
where she goes, Oh, can I have my costume back? And he goes, Yeah, I'm just gonna keep looking for the for the naked woman in here. It's a joke. It's a joke. And you're like, No, it's not. It's not a good joke. Anyway, speaking of jokes that did work for me, I did like the police chief, you know, he comes out puffing on the cigarette, he goes, you look a bit stress chief, he goes, Yeah, I'm giving up cigarettes. And he's like, and then like, and later on, he goes, you know, he's going, light me up. And he goes, you're already lit. That's why I'm gonna cough.
00:31:43
Speaker
So yeah, I really like that stuff that was sort of, you know, had that to me had that right level of humor. Whereas the other things just seem to just either go too wacky or too grim. Yeah, I mean, I think that's the biggest problem. And I, you know, we just covered Power Rangers fairly recently, the 2017 one. And one of the things that frustrated me about that movie was it
00:32:08
Speaker
I'm not sure if you saw it, but there's this there's this one scene where it's two of the characters, they're like doing these martial arts moves like fighting over a donut or something. And it's fun. It's a fun scene. Watch them go back and forth. And if you're doing it like that, if you're doing something like Power Rangers, you got to lean into the camp. You got to lean into the ridiculousness of it.
00:32:29
Speaker
But they try to make it so serious and and it was very Similar problem with this movie too where it's like, you know stuff with like the police chief like when he comes out and he's like He's like you're stressed. Like I just quit smoking while he's puffing away on the cigarette. Yeah, that's perfect I want to see more stuff like that if you're gonna do camp do camp like commit. Yeah, don't half-ass it Yeah, oh and how good was Garrett Morris as agile? Oh
00:32:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, he was fun. He was fun. Yeah, it's getting to the streets aren't even safe for criminals anymore. And I thought it was and this is where I'm talking about the ridiculousness, right? Because he he owns this chop shop. And it's so funny because she comes to him and he's like, he's like, well, I'm not going to trust you because you're a cop. She's like, well, actually, I quit being a cop. Oh, he's like, well, then come on inside.
00:33:21
Speaker
like that would just be it'd be so easy to to get this for an undercover cop to convince this guy you know you do a lot of work just say like oh no I'm not a cop anymore he's like all right come on in that not no checking up or anything but they had that that relationship though yeah he calls a true blue and yeah he knows that she's an she's an honest cop and he knows that she's
00:33:42
Speaker
honest. So she's not going to lie to him just just to get that arrest. Yeah, it did feel a little bit on the nose, though. Oh, definitely. But yeah, but the thing that I thought was hilarious was that he and when I read I saw in the credits about the they'd mentioned the scorpion mobile in the credits, like, okay, so and then when he pops in, I'm like, okay, I know what's gonna I see what's gonna happen. She's gonna work with him. He's gonna design the the scorpion mobile and all that and then he drives up in her car and I'm like, Oh,
00:34:10
Speaker
That's a weird thing to say that they had to credit the scorpion mobile in the opening like that. And then he transforms the car and he tells her he's got this, they'd stolen this secret, I don't know, government matter changer or something like that. And I'm just like, this is so ridiculous and stupid, but it works for what they're trying to do. And I'm like, more stuff like this, please. Just like, be ridiculous with it.
00:34:37
Speaker
That's the thing I didn't get with the Scorpion Mobile. It's like, how do the rearview mirrors work? Because they're up outside the car, up at the top, and it's like, what are you going to do? Like, look up like that to get it? And like, no. But yeah, it's a really nice looking car, aside from that. I liked it. And I like the computer going, yo, computer. Yeah. Because of course, it's a black guy designing a computer, so it's got to speak in slang.
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah, although I do want to change my, you know, Google to do that, you know, just go, yo, Google.
00:35:12
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I think and that stuff was fun. Like if we had more of that, I think this would have been it would have excused a lot of the the poor action and the bad acting. But as it stood, it just I I think too many people just didn't quite get the assignment. Like, again, you look at you look at Power Rangers, you look at Elizabeth Banks in that movie. She got the assignment. She is camping the shit out of that thing. If you look at
00:35:37
Speaker
Uma Thurman and Batman and Robin, she got the assignment. Joan Severance, I don't think she got the assignment. No. Like I said, she'd been reading a lot of comics and I got the feeling she was reading a lot of bad girl comics. And that's the performance she was going for. And I don't think it was necessarily
00:35:59
Speaker
what the filmmakers were going for. So I think they just sort of went, look, we'll just make the best of what we got. Yeah, I mean, what you figure something like this probably had a tight production schedule as well. It's Roger Borman, his Yeah, I mean, I get the feeling that even if they knew they weren't on the same page, they're like, fuck, we don't have time. Let's just go with it. Yeah. Yeah, they probably spent most of the budget doing up that suit in the car. Yeah, probably. Um,
00:36:25
Speaker
And yeah, it's just like one of the reviews says that the mood of the film swerves from straightforward police nor themes to cartoony superhero action. And
Tonal Choices in Superhero Adaptations
00:36:38
Speaker
yeah, that's exactly what the problem is. And it's just...
00:36:45
Speaker
pick a side, pick a lane, and either way, it would be fine. And that's why I was- They sort of course corrected a bit. I think they course corrected with the second movie and the TV series, which was actually- Definitely with the TV show. Yeah. Yeah. It was filmed in 98. So, because there's a behind the scenes documentary on one of the videos I've got. And there's like these camcorder footage will go in 1998. So it's like, yeah, it took three years to sell the TV series.
00:37:14
Speaker
Clearly, that's why we never got a second season. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I was I was very impressed with how well that first episode is because it's it's very camping, like just ready to start with the skinheads robbing the gun store and they're just completely over the top. And then she comes in with her scorpion mobile and starts, you know, blowing the shit out of it. And I'm like, yes. OK, yeah, I'm fine with this. This works.
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah, and I think the mayor was a better character in the TV series. What's his name? Robert Pine, Chris Pine's dad. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, he was, he was very over the top. He was perfect. I thought that was great. Like he was just so ridiculously openly corrupt. Yes, very overly openly corrupt. And, and you know, he's got the secretary who's like, yes, I'm gonna
00:38:06
Speaker
We're just going to go use the City Fund to go buy me a handbag.
00:38:13
Speaker
Anything else you wanted to mention? I'm having trouble finding a whole lot of things to talk about about this movie because it was just... Well, yeah. Well, I found it funny. There was actually a few other characters, as I said earlier, called the Black Scorpion. There was one from like a fanzine in the 60s. And then there was another one. It was a very Green Hornet-ish character, Ron Fortier and another writer from the Green Hornet when they now comics finish their series.
00:38:39
Speaker
They said, oh, we've got a couple other stories. We're going to write this this character. And it's actually an African-American newspaper publisher who becomes the Black Scorpion. And after these came out and the TV series came out, they tried to revamp both those characters.
00:38:58
Speaker
and they had to change the names to avoid confusion. So the fanzine Black Scorpion became Lady Scorpion and then the Black Scorpion became the Blue Scorpion because apparently there was a deal to put that into development.
00:39:19
Speaker
And the other thing I found there was a really bizarre couple of those fetish videos where they have the off-brand superheroes like a super girl and she gets bashed up by the villains and there's all that type of stuff. There's actually two of those with Black Scorpion which was really, they're really weird.
00:39:43
Speaker
costume, the black scorpion costume, not that bad, but the rest of the villains are just looking and going, your costumes don't look anything like what the TV show had. The gangster prankster is now white, and one half of his face is Heath Ledger's Joker. And I'm just like, yeah, I'm watching this just just for completeness sake, but it was very odd. And then sort of a bit, they actually called the character the black scorpion, they didn't, you know, try and
00:40:11
Speaker
you know change it to you know like when you look at the super girl it's something like super girl you know they just didn't even bother trying to make this look like it was off brand it was just this is black scorpion and this is black scorpion to rise of the villains and they just went okay and yeah no acknowledgments or anything it's just like yeah this isn't going to make enough money for anyone to even try and sue us
00:40:36
Speaker
So what do you think of the... I mean, you had read the Black Scorpion comics then. How do those compare to the movies and the TV show? It's very much a grim and gritty reboot. Darcy's father actually is the chief of police. And Best Taker hires gangster prankster to shoot her father. But I like the idea of, you know, you've got the asthma puffer and that's got the mind controlled drug in it.
00:41:05
Speaker
They sort of wipe that all away and it's like no gangster prankster shot him and and she's like I'm going to get revenge and I'm going to become the black scorpion and you're like, okay, you've got the movie. Why are you reimagining it? And I'm actually surprised it didn't make it into comics back in the 90s. It looked like it would have been a no-brainer.
00:41:24
Speaker
It would have seemed like, I mean, I'm guessing because that was the mid 90s. So I'm guessing at that point, they were that was that was after the bottom had fallen out. So I'm guessing that's probably why they didn't try. That's probably why I didn't think of that. The other thing I was going to say. Yeah, why didn't I make it earlier? No, I've lost the plot now.
00:41:48
Speaker
Completely lost, I was going to say. Well, maybe this will come back up then. But one of the things I wanted to ask you about is because I'm reading some of the information about the TV show. And, you know, it mentions like about breath taker this despite dying in the Black Scorpion movie, breath taker is resurrected by Dr. Phoenix. So this isn't like, you know, the crow TV show where it's it's not connected to the movie. They redid the origin story and everything. This is actually a sequel to the movies.
00:42:16
Speaker
Yes, yes, very much so. Yeah. Basically, she gets a new partner, but he basically does exactly you know, he's, they changed, you know, they might as well have kept the partner with the same name. But I guess they, you know, they bring him in as like, yeah, we're not going to do the world, they won't like, you know, keep doing that. They're just like, no, we're going to do new partner and we'll do the world. They won't they?
00:42:40
Speaker
And the new partner is actually Mallory's boyfriend from Family Ties. Oh, I mean, all cleaned up, you know, not looking like Sylvester Stallone in Rambo, but looking like Sylvester Stallone in Tango and Cash. Mm hmm. That makes that makes sense, then, because I was wondering when I watched that first episode, why they changed the name for partner and they bring in this and they bring him in as a transfer and everything like that. But yeah.
00:43:07
Speaker
Now that makes sense why they did that because they were trying to make it a sequel and the old partner had already left. Yeah, yeah. I think in the second movie, he said, look, I can't do this anymore. I'm going to transfer out. I don't trust you anymore. So I think they sort of said, look, we've got that continuity. Actually, do you hear the funny story about why they made the TV series? No.
00:43:29
Speaker
So apparently Roger Coleman, they did the two movies. They rated really well. And a German production company said we would like to license Black Scorpion for a TV series. And Roger Coleman goes, well, I had no plans for a TV series. But I turned around and said, wouldn't you know what? We're going to make a TV series ourselves. So, you know, you'll have to buy it from us. And that was the whole reason they did they did a TV series. It's just like, yeah, I'm just going to screw over these German guys.
00:43:58
Speaker
Something else interesting too. I'm just looking at the trivia here. And first off, Joan Severance said that she still owns the mask. Yes. And while they were shooting the car chase in this movie, the news helicopters appeared because they thought it was a real car chase. They didn't know it was a stage thing. Yes. And that actually got on the news.
00:44:20
Speaker
Yeah, another thing that I found interesting is what Korman had said about his decision to cast Joan Severance. Because he said that, my demands were I felt not difficult in Hollywood. I wanted an actress who was beautiful and had a great figure. Because we economized on the amount of cloth we used in the costume, I wanted a tall actress.
00:44:40
Speaker
She does a lot of martial arts. I couldn't have a five foot one actress beating up all these big guys. So I wanted a tall, beautiful woman with a good figure who was a good actress, but I wasn't looking for Meryl Streep, just a good actress. I figured this would be pretty easy in Hollywood. It turned out to be incredibly difficult. I've never seen so many beautiful, bad actresses in my life.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yeah, he's told that story a couple of times. He told it for the casting of the TV series as well. Yeah. I think the TV series definitely worked a lot better. There's a lot more. It did. I was going to say, like, Michelle Lintel is she's a much better actress. And so when I read that, I'm just like, I was thinking myself, like, you still didn't really find a good actress. I think he found an all right actress. Just she just wasn't playing the role that they wanted. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:30
Speaker
Yeah, so it was really, it was very tonally inconsistent. But like I said, there was a lot of course correction. And I think, you know, as it went on, had they've got a second season on and carried on with the show, I think, you know, we're just continue to get better and better. But I mean, just judging from that, that first episode, like I said, that's it was a very strong first episode. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if they if they'd kept on
00:45:57
Speaker
iterating it like they had done already. And, you know, they pick some of the stuff that that didn't work with the movies. It's a very good effect. It would have been really interesting to see what they would have done if they had had a second season. I mean, if you're going to be doing a. You know, a camp thing, I mean, it makes total sense that you'd bring in like Adam West and Frank Orson. That's yeah. You know, it's that's it shows exactly that. Again, they got the assignment. They knew what they were supposed to be doing.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Apparently, the story I heard, and I don't know how true it is, was they actually wanted Adam West to play breathtaking in this movie. But I don't know whether they couldn't get him or, you know, he just was unavailable. They got, what's his name? Casey, Casey, oh, Jesus. Casey Symezco. I'm probably just pronouncing that. Yes. And I'm thinking, yeah, you just didn't feel right.
00:46:54
Speaker
right yeah yeah he was the he was 3d in the back of the future movies um one of the bifs gang yeah he was also in the he was also in the phantom apparently too oh okay i didn't realize that yeah he played morgan oh the phantom's a great movie like but that's again that's another movie where it feels like some of the cast got the assignment some of the cast didn't
00:47:17
Speaker
because you look at it and Billy Zane, Catherine Zeta Jones, they're perfect. They're perfectly on point in that movie. Carrie Tagawa as well. But then you've got, you know, Kirsty Swanson and treat Williams who are just, you know, just bad, just bad.
00:47:34
Speaker
And I think, and that's, it's a similar problem with this movie. It's just like, you know, some people understood what they were, what kind of movie they were making and some people didn't. And it feels like even with the, with the director and the writers, they didn't quite understand either exactly what they were supposed to be doing. Yeah. Actually, have you seen the Fantastic Four movies that they did in 94? Like, yeah. How did that, how did that turn it? Like, was that a good
00:47:59
Speaker
Well, yeah, good. Relatively speaking, Fantastic Four movie, or did you have that similar? I mean, it's a tonal thing. You know, it's been years since I've seen it. I haven't seen that movie in like 20 years, so I'd have to watch it again to really give like a solid opinion. But when I watched it before, maybe, yeah, when I'd watched it like 20 years ago, and I'd only watched it once, it was...
00:48:23
Speaker
I thought it was just bad at that time. However, I will say that some people have gone and said, like, no, as you know, if you excuse the bad effects and, you know, the crappy film quality, this is actually not bad for a Fantastic Four movie. It's actually got a pretty decent story in it.
Podcast Wrap-up and Guest Details
00:48:41
Speaker
Mark Buskitt, who's been on this show, he had done a review of it.
00:48:45
Speaker
I think on Derek's site, on Derek's movie view site of talking about it and actually saying that it was actually, it was actually a pretty decent Fantastic Four story. So I'd be curious to go back and take another look at it, but my memory of it was that it wasn't very good. I will say though, if I'm comparing this to that, to my memory of Fantastic Four, and if you asked me, you know, you have to watch either Black Scorpion or Fantastic Four, I might go with Fantastic Four.
00:49:13
Speaker
Unless I'm in a horny mood, then I'll watch Black Scorpio. I was just going to say, it's the same writer, so I was just curious, and it was like only about a year apart, so I was just curious if the writer, how much you could blame on the writer. I mean, yeah, I mean, this writer doesn't strike me as someone who's overly skilled at what he's doing, but I will say that he...
00:49:36
Speaker
It does seem that he was, you can definitely get the feeling that he was a fan of comic books. Like judging from the Fantastic Four script, like it does a really good effort to stay true to the source material. Like they try to stay very true to what the origin was and everything. Try stay true to the characters. It's just that
00:49:58
Speaker
I don't think this guy is a good enough writer or the cast were good enough actors to really do it, to really sell it. And I think too, when you're sometimes, especially if you're reading comic books like in the 90s or if you, you know, he's writing movies in the mid 90s. So I assume he grew up on like Silver Age comic books then. Yeah. Which tells me that, I mean, you go back and you read some of the dialogue in those old books. You know, I love him to death, but
00:50:29
Speaker
that dialogue does not work in a movie. It just doesn't, it just doesn't work. And you've got to make some, you've got to make some changes. And I don't think he really understood that. I don't think he, I think he was too, and it reminds me of talking about Fantastic Four, like the Tim Story Fantastic Four movies or like Mark Steven Johnson with Daredevil and Ghost Rider. It's clear both these guys love the source material. Very clear that they're huge fans of it. I get that, but it's just,
00:51:00
Speaker
You got to draw a line somewhere, right? As a creator, you know this too. Like there's, you can't, you got to put your fanboy side in the closet when you're sitting down to write these things. Otherwise it's going to color your perceptions. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, Oh, this is my only chance to do a fanboy movie. I got to throw everything in. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think, yeah, he probably was maybe a little bit scared doing his own character.
00:51:26
Speaker
I think, too, it's, you know, because also in the 90s, you know, if you want to do something that's a love letter to Batman 66, the 90s was like the worst possible time to do it because that was probably when the reputation of Batman 66 was at its lowest. Right. Oh, I mean, because all of us who had grown up watching that show, then we had spent like all of the basically from like the 1970s up until the early 2000s, anytime there was something in
00:51:55
Speaker
in mass media about superheroes. Like anytime there was a newspaper article or anything, it was always, biff, pow, zam. And just like, it was like the laziest, most hackneyed headline writers and all that. And just like everything was being compared to Batman 66. And Batman 66 was held up as, this is what superheroes are. And all of us who were reading stuff like that, we're like, no, it's not, it's not, it's good, there's serious stuff here. It's gone beyond that now, yeah.
00:52:22
Speaker
And and now we can look back on it. Now we've had a lot more competing stuff. So now it's like, OK, you know, people, a lot of people have justifiably come around on Batman 66. And I'm one of them. Like, I hated it in the 90s. But as I got older, I'm just like.
00:52:37
Speaker
You know, I'm just like, man, actually, yeah, it's fun. It's that it's it's very it's very kissy. It's very campy. And it's clear that they were they were doing that intentionally, right? They weren't just being there. They weren't stupid enough to think this is how superheroes are supposed to be. It's like they were trying to do something that was campy. Yeah. Yeah. And this feels like maybe they wanted to do something that was campy, but they were afraid about how it would be perceived as too campy. And so they just kind of they kept hedging their bets on it.
00:53:05
Speaker
Yeah, and I know Joel Schumacher sort of did the same sort of thing. He was like, I'm gonna be a little bit campy, but not too campy. Yeah, I mean, Batman Forever was a weird movie in a lot of ways. And we talked about this on that episode, but it's just, it doesn't know what it wants to be. And I think part of that is because Schumacher, I don't think even really knew what it was supposed to be because he went in with the expectation that he was gonna do a dark, serious movie more in line with the Burton films.
00:53:34
Speaker
And then any any want any pitch to year one, that's what he wanted to do. And they're like, no, we don't want to do that. We want something that's more fun. So he was just kind of like, I. Yeah, I think he had several masses telling him which way to go.
00:53:47
Speaker
And the original cut of Batman Forever was supposed to be much darker apparently too. And then when it came to Batman and Robin, they're just like, we want camp, we want full on camp. Joe Schumacher just basically committed to doing camp. And honestly, now looking back on it, I enjoy Batman and Robin a lot more than I enjoy Batman Forever. Yeah, it's one of those things like we say, was that they said at the end of Dark Knight, you live long enough
00:54:14
Speaker
You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain. It seems like if you live long enough still, they'll come back around to you being a hero. I noticed that. Oh, yeah. Adam West. Adam West, you know, like everyone went, oh, no, you stay away from Batman. No, no.
00:54:28
Speaker
And if we reevaluate it, you're actually really good. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, I think that's because he he begged to be in Batman 89. Like he was begging to have some role and they're just like, we want nothing to do with you. We want nothing to do with it. And then, you know, Batman, the animated series is probably the first.
00:54:46
Speaker
crack in the door when they brought him in to play the Grey Ghost. And then after that, you know, slowly, slowly. And then he ends up doing Return of the Cave Crusaders and Batman versus Two-Face. And he ends up having this people taking a second look at what he was doing there. Did you ever see Back to the Batcave? The Misadventures of Burton? Oh, no, no, no, no. I was thinking of something else. No, I haven't seen that. So basically it was
00:55:12
Speaker
The only way you could sort of make a Batman 66 movie without making a Batman 66 movie, and it was sort of a biopic. Right. It was like it was like Adam West and Burt Ward playing like fictionalized versions of themselves or something like that. A bit of that. Yeah. And then they were they were going through traps that were from the villains, but they were, you know, it's like Gaussian playing Gaussian, but essentially being the Riddler. And they sort of were going, oh, yes, I remember when we started filming Batman and then they do flashbacks in the show.
00:55:42
Speaker
recreate with different actors the Batman 66 and I think they sort of blue water did a similar comic basically did a comic book you know with Adam West having adventures and then oh yeah I remember seeing the seeing that on the on Amazon or something or comics back in the day like the yeah the adventures of Adam West or something like that
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah, and there's a Julie Newmar one where she's basically being Catwoman and there's a Burt Ward one where they just basically say, oh yes, he goes through some mist and into a different dimension and becomes young again and like, yeah, okay, I'll let that happen.
00:56:21
Speaker
Uh, okay. Um, so I think we're, we're, we're now just talking Batman 66. I think we've pretty much exhausted the black scorpion talk. I mean, if you're, if you're curious about it, it is, it is free. Like it's on YouTube, the, um, the black scorpion TV show it's on, um, it's on Plex. I was able to find it and watch some episodes on YouTube. I've spotted, but yeah. And as I said, it's on prime here in Australia. I don't know if it's.
00:56:48
Speaker
Anyways, it's on Tubi in Australia, so this is the thing I always say in Australia because people say, oh my god, this thing's on Tubi. I race the Tubi and go, not on Tubi Australia.
00:57:00
Speaker
Yeah, so it's not hard to find. It's on one of the free streaming sites, no matter where you are. So it's not, if you're curious, you can go check it out. I mean, honestly, I would just say, if you're really curious about Black Scorpion, I would recommend watching the first episode of the TV show scene, if you like that kind of thing. And then I'd probably just stick with that. I can't really recommend the movie too much. It's just, it wasn't, again, it's,
00:57:29
Speaker
I'm also reminded of Morbius, because Morbius disappointed me, not because I was expecting it to be good, but because I was expecting it to be monumentally terrible. And it wasn't, it was just middling, it was just boring. And I think Black Scorpion had a lot of that to it. Yeah, I think because I'd watched the TV series, some of the stuff in the series made a little bit more sense after watching the TVs, after watching the movies.
00:57:57
Speaker
realistically, you know, you just if you go look, they're just resurrecting the villains as clients. Just run with it. And it's all good. Yeah, I mean, it's not like it's complex storytelling in those movies to begin with. No. Okay, Brad, but thank you for coming on and tell people where they can find your stuff. Yeah, I've got a blog, poppy brad dot blogspot dot
00:58:21
Speaker
I think it is. That's about it. I'm a bit of a Luddite with the social medias.
00:58:30
Speaker
Okay, cool. Well, we'll have a link to that in the show notes. So make sure to send that to me after we sign off here. Yeah. And everyone else, thank you so much for listening. And if you remember, if you sign up to the Patreon page, then you can get these episodes a week in advance. Plus, you also get access to the book club podcast, the panny show once a month, talk about comic books and graphic novels. As you said, at the top of this episode, Brad, I just recorded an episode with Brad, where we talked about Doomsday Clock, had a really good conversation about that, comparing it to
00:58:59
Speaker
Watchmen and the Watchmen TV show and talking about the whole idea of doing a sequel to that story. A lot of fun conversations we had in there. Arguably a better conversation than we had about Black Scorpion. So what I'm hearing is I'm not coming back to do Black Scorpion 2.
00:59:15
Speaker
We're probably not met. I'm not in any rush to put it to do it. Let's just move on scheduling that one for now. But anyway, superhero cinephiles.com is the website super cinema pod on Twitter and Instagram. Thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you next time.
00:59:34
Speaker
If you enjoy the Superhero Cinephiles, then you'll also love my companion podcast, the Superhero Cinephiles Book Club. All my Patreon subscribers get access to this exclusive podcast where I review superhero comics and graphic novels. Not sure what comics you want to read next or what you should dive into? I've got you covered on that. I'll be doing reviews, recommendations, and also talking to you about useful entry points
00:59:55
Speaker
If you're interested in reading some comments but don't know where you should start, plus you'll get access to all episodes of the main show a week before everyone else. On all of this for as little as just a dollar a month, all you have to do is go to patreon.com slash supercinemahot and you can sign up at any subscription amount to get started. Thanks so much for your support and please don't forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
01:00:38
Speaker
Thank you for listening, and as always, good night, good evening, God bless.