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116. Rooting for the Americans in Avatar
22 Plays7 months ago
Adrian & Simon review director Ari Aster’s Eddington and director Matt Shakman’s Fantastic 4: First Steps. They also gush about how much they love the Star Wars Andor TV series and Cassian Andor’s bitter sweet ending in Rogue One. Additionally, the pals discuss the new Avatar Fire & Ash trailer and Spider-Man Brand New Day’s focus on practical effects. Simon also goes on a bit of a tangent in a quest to define the ‘theme park film’; while specifying a lack of stakes associated with undefined character strengths and weaknesses in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They also examine the final season of Netflix’s You and connect it to Peacock’s serial killer podcast comedy, Based on a True Story. Plus, the boys talk yardwork hijinx, ice cream for dinner, and enigmatic neighbours.
This episode was recorded in Canada on August 8th 2025. Episodes air every two weeks on Tuesdays! Catch us on August 26th for Episode 117.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
This episode, we discuss the strangely overtly positive response to the Avatar The Fire Nation Attacks trailer. We banter about the finale of The Summer of Pedro as we review director Ari Aster's Eddington and director Matt Shackman's Fantastic Four First Steps.
00:00:20
Speaker
And we ask ourselves, heck is Tom Holland's Spider-Man doing in Scotland? That's a good
Hosts Introduction and Episode Start
00:00:27
Speaker
question. My name is Simon Eadie. And I'm Adrian Pinter. Welcome to Split Focus, a film and TV podcast episode 116. I'm Tom Holland eating hack is in Scotland.
00:00:43
Speaker
la la la no la by bla la la la
00:00:49
Speaker
Oops.
00:01:01
Speaker
to be at audience
00:01:05
Speaker
Okay. Excuse me. i we Oh, yeah I didn't realize you started. There's usually a countdown,
Humorous Personal Anecdotes
00:01:11
Speaker
dude. it's It's many seconds in. You're getting messages on your phone immediately. Last time we recorded episode 115, you were just all over the email, just emailing it up, receiving email, sending emails.
00:01:23
Speaker
It's kind of rude. I got say too many email going about dude, dude, this week I'm coming in hot Simon. Not only was last last episode, I was emailing. I was a little tired. I was a little sleepy.
00:01:34
Speaker
I was a little down on and out until about the halfway point where I picked up the energy dude. I'm drinking a coffee right now. I just ate a thing, a ice cream swirl for dinner. The swirled ice cream from Costco. my My fiance, Cassandra, picked it up and brought it home for me. I was doing yard work all day. That's my dinner, Simon. I didn't even have time to cook a dinner or eat a dinner.
00:01:55
Speaker
So I just ate a big thing of ice cream and I'm having a coffee. So chances are partway through this episode, I'm going run to the bathroom. For an extended period of time. You're not serious. you didn't eat When was the last time you ate a meal? Because that's not one. Ice cream.
00:02:09
Speaker
not Not a meal. 1230. What are you doing? 1230. Dude, I ate like a bear today. Not a large homosexual man. Like a bear, the animal. And i for breakfast, yeah i I figured you didn't eat a large homosexual man. No, said I'd like bear. wouldn't figure you ate a bear.
00:02:27
Speaker
Oh. Like a bear. Oh, oh I think you meant like, yeah. All right. Yeah, no. So you ate something similar to a animal, a bear. What kind? Grizzly? Polar?
00:02:38
Speaker
Black. Black? Yeah, black. Black bear. Sorry, yeah, you ate like it, like you're like you're a bear. I get it. I'm just being stupid. yeah So tell me, what do you mean? you hate on blueberry I a bunch of blueberries for breakfast.
00:02:53
Speaker
oh Handfuls, probably like three full handfuls of blueberries. I don't know why. i have a thing with fruit. I don't really eat fruit unless it's unless it is prepared and given to me.
00:03:04
Speaker
I like fruit, but the like the process of eating fruit, I just don't do or berry or whatever. So my fiance, Cassandra, washed a bunch of blueberries this morning, just left out a bowl. When there's a bowl of washed blueberries, I'm going to eat them. And I eat essentially an entire bowl of blueberries, like three full handfuls.
00:03:19
Speaker
And later on in the day, my lunch was a bagel out out of character for for a bear. But I ate liverwurst on it. Oh, yeah. So
Neighborhood Stories and Quirky Neighbors
00:03:29
Speaker
I love me some liverwurst bears, I assume, eat liver of some sort. Maybe. And then I know for a fact bears do eat ice cream consistently. Oh, yeah. So I had ice cream for dinner. So I'm just eating like a big old black bear.
00:03:42
Speaker
um And yeah. And again, not a large homosexual black man, um like a black bear, the bear. No, I got it. Like the animal. I understood. um Yeah, and so that's that was my my my my meal today. Wow. And my thing.
00:03:59
Speaker
It's intense. So that's really it. i'll ah The moral of the story, I'm coming in hot, dude. I'm coming in full energy. We're going a good day today. You and I, presumably. Good night. It's Friday night. Okay. Yeah.
00:04:10
Speaker
We got tomorrow off. It's weekend. I started my job this week. ah it's So I've been waking up in the mornings and working crazy stuff. oh how was that? Nice. It's all right. It's good.
00:04:20
Speaker
I'm enjoying it so far. It's really good. It's super nice people. Super nice people. So I'm very happy about it. That's good. excited to see where this will go. Hey, what's up with you, man? What's new with you? What's on your mind? What's on your thoughts? I don't know. How how was your how was your yard work?
00:04:35
Speaker
Oh, dude, it's ah it was a pain in the butt. So, but it I mean, I like mowing the lawn. It's actually, like, nice. Right. I'm doing the lawn. I like getting the nice lines. It looks good, right? I've i've just been into it.
00:04:47
Speaker
yeah i'm I don't know. You get, like, you reach a certain age eventually, and then you're like, oh, man, like, you know what? You can appreciate a nice lawn. I don't know. There's something. Yeah. Speak for yourself, but sure. Me. um So I've been, I did my lawn, which is nice while I was mowing my lawn. I got a blackstone a while, but like a housewarming gift that my parents gave me, but I haven't used it. So I unpacked it and I seasoned it. So I was spending a couple hours. So i was mowing the lawn, seasoning my blackstone.
00:05:13
Speaker
And there was all these weeds. I have like, you know, like the bricks kind of like a brick walkway. There's just weeds growing through them. So many weeds, rocks, So I was i was spending, like i don't know, two hours just pulling out a bunch of weeds.
00:05:26
Speaker
I don't even get them all. There's so many weeds. I'm going at it with an X-Acto knife. I got gloves on. Some of these weeds got the prickly bits on them. Who's tiring? I didn't do it all. It doesn't look that nice. But hey, it looks better than it used to. And that's what matters, man.
00:05:39
Speaker
That's what matters. and Do you enjoy yard work? Do you mow the lawn frequently? i don't. I don't. I don't enjoy yard work very much. No. I find it... Find it annoying. I thought about, you know, getting AstroTurf for my house, you know, just getting little fake grass, but I'm not going to do that. It's very expensive. But ah but yeah, anyway, yeah speaking of yard work, actually, my neighbor, I've never told this story and I can't believe I haven't told it because it's a,
00:06:05
Speaker
it's ah It's a story that's been ongoing, and I feel like I could update it every few weeks. I mean, this is a biweekly podcast, a focused film and TV podcast. Every two weeks, we launch on Tuesdays. and so We do. you know There's lots ah lots of time for things to happen in the in the film ministry world, but also in our lives. So let me tell you about this neighbor I've got, okay?
00:06:24
Speaker
I'm going to go mow the lawn, essentially. Yeah, last week, last weekend. I'm about to mow the lawn. And then what ended ended up happening? can't remember what happened, but I wasn't going to mow the lawn just yet.
00:06:36
Speaker
and that And strangely, the neighbor just starts mowing our lawn. And we have a camera. He just does He just does it for us. Not the back lawn because it's little gated, thankfully. yeah um But then he mowed our lawn.
00:06:50
Speaker
And it was very strange because he stopped halfway through and sort of watering his grass and then he began to mow our lawn again. i didn't and understand what's quite going on there. Anyway, our neighbor is a strange kind of guy. you know He's very nice because he's done some nice things for us. like he's He snow blowed our driveway. We're in Kansas here. It gets very snowy.
00:07:10
Speaker
Last year it was pretty more snowy than the year before, I feel like. and so He was blowing the snow with a snowblower for for no reason. He didn't really ask for anything in return. He you know he just did it.
00:07:22
Speaker
Which is pretty nice of him, I would say. But here's the deal, okay? We went last last week, we went to a game night and we got home late, like around 11 p.m. 11.45 p.m. actually, because I distinctly remember this.
00:07:34
Speaker
And we were in the car for a little bit when we got back. And then it's like 12 o'clock a.m. in the morning. And all of a sudden, we hear this sound. And we're like, this is the night before he mowed our lawn. And we're like... what What's that noise?
00:07:47
Speaker
like Is that one of the air conditioners like you know spinning up? No, he's mowing his own lawn at 12 in the morning. oh It's quite strange. That's crazy. That's unacceptable.
00:08:00
Speaker
It is. Thankfully, it was the weekend. So it's not as crazy on a noise complaint perspective. But still, we were very confused by this. But the thing is is that this is not the first time he's done quirky things in terms of yard work.
00:08:13
Speaker
Growing our lawn is a nice thing to do, but that's that that's kind of the Oh, that what a nice neighbor. But yeah, the weird thing is is that when we looked out in the morning, we looked out in the backyard, we used the window and and like the backside of the house and looked out at his lawn in the morning, like deep into the morning, like maybe like 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.,
00:08:34
Speaker
twelve eleven a to twelve p m he He didn't actually finish his lawn. He only did half of his lawn. But then the next day he mowed our lawn and he'd still not finished his own lawn.
00:08:47
Speaker
So it didn't make any sense. Anyway, the thing is, is that last year, i kid you not, seven days a week, he was pressure washing. Seven days a week, the same deck in the backyard.
00:09:01
Speaker
um Every day of the summer, he basically was pressure washing. And we would hear the pressure watchher washer because it's quite loud. He'd be pressure washing at 8 p.m., sometimes 11 p.m. Sometimes it was just deep into the morning. He would just be pressure washing his deck.
00:09:17
Speaker
It's well he's an interesting guy i don't understand don't want criticism too hard because he is a nice guy in that he did snow blow our driveway at times and he did more lawn morelonn yeah which is very nice of him but then again there is a thought process there like what if you cut it too short what if you there's many things like maybe i don't want you to mow my lawn maybe i enjoy it like you do as an example i'm So he never asked. He just did it, which is a strange. it's so It's all a strange situation, but I actually don't like mowing the lawn.
00:09:47
Speaker
He doesn't know me at all. I don't even know his name. ah So ah last year, i think we got him a gift card for the snow blowing aspect like this for like ah blowing our snow.
00:09:58
Speaker
Sorry. we Do you have a question? Did you have follow up question? This is a strange saga with this neighbor. Yeah. I mean, like I was I was I mean, I asked briefly, does he do drugs?
00:10:09
Speaker
it seem like he's on drugs? have idea. I don't know. I never smelled the weed or anything like next door. I'm talking... and That's not like a weed smoking thing, dude. You know, like I was... I smoked a... Not a full joint, but I took a puff off a joint while I was mowing the lawn at like five right after work. You know, like...
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, it I'm not. i am weird. I'm not that weird. You know, like, what are you doing? He likes yard work. What drug is going to make you just like you like yard work to that? It's not about doing the yard work.
00:10:39
Speaker
It's about how he's doing the yard work and the patterns that he's doing. But that's like ADHD type situation. The pattern. you think he He's he's suffering ah with that. I think he's maybe got some kind of mental thing, perhaps. but like his his um Like he's on the spectrum.
00:10:55
Speaker
You said it on me. Okay. But it has crossed our minds, but he's nice. Cause again, he's this' very kind of him to, to, uh, you know, blow our, our strange to say, yes i it's not uncommon that people with autism are nice.
00:11:10
Speaker
They can be, I want you to understand that. So no, I'm not, that's not, come on now. Look at you painting me, painting me with this brush. no No, I'm just saying he's a good guy. I don't, I just don't want to, you know, I don't want to paint him as a drug addict.
00:11:25
Speaker
That's what I'm trying to say. Okay. You're claiming he's doing some kind of drug. What drug are you thinking? Like meth or? don't know. Speaking of that, actually, there is like this these this couple that walks their dog and it just poops on our lawn all the time.
00:11:41
Speaker
It's very annoying. And they seem like they're out of it. and like They're like very much. Every time we catch them on our on our camera, we're like, I don't know that they're completely they're all there. But hey this guy, I think on a drugs perspective, don't think so.
00:11:55
Speaker
He's just a weird guy. Perhaps. Do they pick up the poop after um the dog? No, sometimes they don't. They just leave a steaming pile of poo on the on the on the on the grass. That's not nice.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah, those are bad neighbors. I don't know where exactly they live. but yeah Yeah, it's tough though, right? it's like They're doing that, it's like but they look like crazy meth addicts. You really want to put yourself, you know, like, you yeah hey man, pick up the shit, and then they're going I'm going to kill going to stab you for crack.
00:12:21
Speaker
Or whatever, right? right Yeah, you never know. Oh, speaking of actually, the the so the neighbor that's doing the lawn mowing and and stuff and the the pressure washing, he stopped pressure washing, which is so weird. Oh, it was funny, actually. I overheard, this is again a long saga. I overheard the neighbor, that that same neighbor talking to some girl out on the porch of his backyard.
00:12:40
Speaker
His whatever, is like his deck. and And he was like, and there're i literally heard this this woman say, Doesn't that like, isn't that like a lot of water you're just wasting?
00:12:53
Speaker
And then after that, he stopped pressure washing pretty much. Like it was like he was shamed into not pressure washing. He pressure washed like a couple times after, but then after, like it was so sporadic. like he just stopped.
00:13:07
Speaker
we We thought maybe his pressure washer broke because we can't explain how he's not pressured washed one time. Like this year at all. Like we've not noticed pressure. It's loud, man. It's loud.
00:13:18
Speaker
Like somebody maybe complained. That's what we thought. Maybe he broke it. ah because It doesn't make sense. It's it's a strange situation. I'm not sure. But it's been. and yeah I feel like if you're pressure washing your your deck seven days in a row, aren't you just like chipping the wood eventually? aren't you like That's the question. It must have gotten damaged. But imagine the water bill. Imagine it.
00:13:39
Speaker
imagine Seriously, that's a lot of water. he Every day, every day we were like, we couldn't believe it. My fiance and I, we would walk into like one of one of our rooms when when when he started pressure washing. And we were like, he's pressure washing again.
00:13:53
Speaker
We just couldn't believe it. Anyway, he stopped pressure washing. And I guess he's a lawnmower now. I don't know. He became a lawnmower? No way, dude. That's crazy.
00:14:06
Speaker
Oh, sorry. I lost my train of thought. So what what I was going to say was he he's the same house. I told that story about the the the there was the students who would, like, you remember that? They would walk across our lawn every day. Yeah,
00:14:20
Speaker
That's this is I feel like I'll take this trade off because I was so annoying. It would trigger our camera every day. The dog would bark. It was so annoying. They would like literally literally walk right in front of the front door over and over again. It's like, guys, like can you just use the sidewalk? It's like three feet away. like What are you doing?
00:14:36
Speaker
It's just so close, not three feet, but maybe three meters, but still, that's not very far. Just walk on the sidewalk, on the public area. You don't have to walk across our lawn every day. And that was the story where I i planted a piece of poo right in their path and they stepped in it in the in the camera.
00:14:51
Speaker
I think you may remember story. Yeah, I remember that. That's a little psychotic of you, which is, I like it. Yeah. That's like, I feel like a curb your enthusiasm thing or like Seinfeld or something. That's some nonsense. That's some antisocial garbage right there. But we couldn't, they were just constantly doing this. And I think we had told them not to. Oh, the reason we did it is because my fiance told them, can you not do this? Like it's triggering our camera every day and it's making the dog bark.
00:15:18
Speaker
And the the guy was literally rude. he we He walked on the way back. They were talk shit talking my fiance. That was the thing. We heard it because it was on the camera. Like we just told you it's triggering the camera. And then they walked back and they were called like, they called her a name. And I'm like, that's unacceptable. And I got pissed off and I walked over there after I saw that on the camera.
00:15:37
Speaker
And then told him not to do it anyway. Yeah, it was a saga. And they stepped in it. Talk shit, step in shit. That's the phrase. And then they stopped doing It worked. Psychological. It's all psychological. Then they remember, the they smelled it. It's like the olfactory nerve. They smelled the every time. They were like, should I cross the lawn?
00:15:55
Speaker
No. You know? It's psychic damage. Yeah. Yeah. In a positive way, in a positive way. and we're not It's not long-term trauma.
Library Resources and Aging Jokes
00:16:04
Speaker
Anyway, this is a film and TV podcast, the Adrian. Maybe we should get into it a little bit. Unless you've got ah more to talk about. I do have something. This is kind of related to film and TV, Simon. But my fiance, she just got a library card.
00:16:16
Speaker
Right. Oh, wow. That's rare. Because, yeah, we because we got a bunch of libraries here in Guelph. So she got one because it's free. It's free to just get a library card. yeah you know that you just get a library card for free. Yeah. And because I had one as a kid.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah. We we been we watch the show. You we finish it. Actually, I'll talk about that a little bit later in the episode. We finish it. Me. Yeah.
00:16:38
Speaker
No, you. I mean, me. No. Oh, man, I messed it up. But anyway, so we like finished it and she really liked it. So she wanted to get the book. But then she's like, oh, man, books are expensive. They're like $25. So she just went to the library and got the book at the library.
00:16:51
Speaker
And then she was telling me like, oh, yeah, there's like you can get like DVDs and movies and stuff like from the library and video games, dude. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, i was, ah today i like looked on the library website. I'm like, wow, there's like a, there's a large selection of thing on here.
00:17:07
Speaker
Like PS5 games. Like, I think I'm going I'm going to get, I'm going to go to the library. i'm going to get a library card. Yeah. And I like screenshotted a few games where I'm like, I've been wanting to maybe try these like, and then when they're included Pacific drive.
00:17:20
Speaker
Oh, cool. Yeah, it's on there. So maybe I'll get that. There's Dragon Quest 3 HD 2D. That's a new game that came out within the last year. yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's interesting. the Pacific Drive is like almost not even in stores.
00:17:35
Speaker
Yeah. Like I work in retail like regularly and I don't I don't see Pacific Drive almost anywhere, if if anywhere at all. That's pretty cool. So like like I wonder if they're choosing, maybe correct me if I'm wrong, because you saw the selection.
00:17:46
Speaker
I wonder if they're choosing more artsy, art house type games, like more like, or is the selection just very broad? Like you'll you'll get like a Grand Theft Auto on there. ah Call of Duty, is Call of Duty on there? because No, no, there's no like, yeah, there's no like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, but there's like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
00:18:03
Speaker
Like that's on there. Dragon Quest III is on there. They had, I think Spider-Man was on there. Okay. They have like a bunch of Switch games, like all the first party, like Super Mario, ah fucking one of them.
00:18:17
Speaker
Wonder. I forget which one. ah Donkey Kong Country. like They have a lot. No, no, no, not not Switch 2s. The Donkey Country HD remake. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18:28
Speaker
I think I'm going to use that because like. That's cool. Yeah, I mean, save a bit of money. There's a lot of games coming out. Will i have time to play them all? I don't know. ah and but how long can you even take i don't haven't borrowed anything from the library in a while how long can my fiance says that like they don't really care like the person literally said like yeah there's no late fees like if you like you know if if someone comes in and requests the book we'll reach out to you and ask you to bring it back but it's like just bring it back within like six months or so that's interesting yeah i wonder if it's the same for video games i don't know we'll see i guess
00:19:01
Speaker
Okay. That's cool. I thought that was really cool, man. thought that was really cool. Libraries, dude, they exist still. Indeed. Yeah, as a kid, like I lived in a different city, so I had a library card back in the day. And we didn't, there was no, video games weren't there that I distinctly remember.
00:19:19
Speaker
But it was also, it would have been like Super Nintendo games and things like that. yeah because you're old. I would have remembered because I'm old now. Yeah. Yeah. that's That's fair. We all get old. You're old as shit now.
00:19:31
Speaker
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Marvel Movies and Box Office Trends
00:19:33
Speaker
That's little bit mean. But anyway, ah Adrian, let's get into some quick bites of film and TV industry news, shall we? Please. Yeah, and please. We're many minutes in here, so I think it's time.
00:19:43
Speaker
The first thing i want to talk about is interesting. So we're going to talk about this particular thing in more depth because we're actually going to review it later in the show because we went to watch it. Fantastic Four First Steps.
00:19:54
Speaker
But the news about for Fantastic Four First Steps, because they're now a couple weeks out from the release of it in theaters, is that the second weekend box office was 66% drop, quite substantial.
00:20:07
Speaker
which is quite substantial So it isn't great. Thunderbolts had something similar happen to it. Quantumania, like Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania, a similar thing happened.
00:20:20
Speaker
The Marvels, a similar thing happened. but Although some of these movies I'm listing also didn't do so well in the first weekend too. um I think Captain America Brave New World also had a problem with that. The second weekend drop was bad. But 66% is bad. It's a far below average in what they were doing in general for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. yeah um So it's not great. I'll just give you the context of where the box office is at right now. Worldwide, there are $385 million dollars earned.
00:20:51
Speaker
ah Domestically, it's $214 million. Yeah, anything strike strike out at you about this particular statistic?
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's interesting because, yeah, like the 300, whatever you just said, that doesn't seem like much. But again, it's only been out for two weeks, so there's still potential for it to continue going. But the the most shocking part about this is like this is a movie that is based on a huge franchise, like Fantastic Four, I mean, is is quite I mean, it's a big Marvel family, one of Marvel's first families, right?
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah. And this is like a genuinely great movie. And like the Thunderbolts was also really good, but that you had a lot of buy-in, right? You had to know who all these characters are and everything like that. Whereas so the Fantastic Four, like this most recent, the Fantastic Four,
00:21:42
Speaker
it's, it's fresh, man. It's in a different universe than the rest of the MCU, new cast, new characters, no background knowledge required. So this was kind of like an easy step in, even if you haven't been paying attention to the rest of the MCU.
00:21:56
Speaker
So it's kind of shocking that this had such a significant drop off because again, like the word of mouth around this movie as well is incredibly positive. Like I, have a lot of friends that I know that watched at night one that spoke very highly of it.
00:22:11
Speaker
Um, And when you look online about it, I feel like most of it is positive. Like when you when you think about, you know, Superman that came out a couple of weeks prior where I think that movie is excellent. Like it's really good. I really like it. Yeah, good word of mouth. But it also had a lot of like stupid people being like, oh, Superman's woke and like trying to bash it.
00:22:30
Speaker
And it's my understanding that's. Yeah, the best. Yeah. So so Dean Cain, for those who don't know, was in, actually, I liked the show as a kid. Do you ever watch that show?
00:22:42
Speaker
Lois and Clark? I watched it a lot. I was actually, strangely, as a kid, I loved that show. I watched it quite a bit. The strange thing, though, is that Dean Cain now is joining ICE. Did you see that?
00:22:53
Speaker
i did. I did, unfortunately. it so crazy what is going on in the united states man anyway sorry continue i cut you off go on um yeah no it's yeah i uh i don't really remember what i was saying but yeah all all in all it is quite surprising because again like it seemed like it was all positive about this movie whereas superman you did hear some negatives and everything and i'm pretty confident superman did much better uh or had significantly less drop off in the second week comparatively to the fantastic four So yeah, it's interesting, man. um
00:23:25
Speaker
It's unfortunate because this was a really good movie, but I think there is that almost. i mean, we talked about it. i can't remember if it was last episode or maybe the episode prior, but there is that level of fatigue in the MCU. Whereas even though this was new and fresh, it's still connected to the rest of the universe and maybe people are kind of already bowed out and Superman has the pleasure of starting a new universe. So it's exciting.
00:23:48
Speaker
The iron irony is the Fantastic Four is in a different universe than the rest of the MCU. So it's, yeah, it's, it's interesting. Yeah, sure. Um, what do you think? man I think, I think it's more complex than that. And I, and I feel like easy answer is the superhero fatigue, like the, or the Marvel cinematic universe fatigue, which I think that you kind of said you're saying the second one, I think, um, in some way, like people were kind of bowing out after end game. It was their end for whatever reason.
00:24:17
Speaker
Um, um but Yeah. Anyway, regardless of that, I think it's actually more complex than that. I think it's actually, i think Disney did this to themselves in in two ways, two key ways, I think.
00:24:29
Speaker
The first way is very obvious. You remember, and we definitely remember this because it was very annoying. The Last Jedi comes out, Solo comes out right after. We talked with about this before.
00:24:40
Speaker
Star Wars, that was a Star Wars oversaturation. People didn't understand that Solo wasn't The Last Jedi. They're like, didn't I just see this? There was a problem with that. It was not marketed well, and it caused an issue. But there's like a tiny gap between those movies.
00:24:52
Speaker
That's kind of what they did here. Why? why i don't understand why. Was Brave New World, Captain America 4, why did that come out this year in February? And then why did they launch Thunderbolts a couple months later? And then why did they launch Fantastic Four a couple months later after that? Why is it so condensed in like a tiny area of the year?
00:25:12
Speaker
what's the purpose of that? like spread it out 12 months make them long for it we have now now we have 12 months before the next MCU movie which is really a Sony movie which will sell itself because Spider-Man is always going to sell it seems like yeah But they also gapped out Spider-Man brand new day from the other Spider-Man movie, No Way Home. So people are longing for Spider-Man and people love Tom Holland's Spider-Man.
00:25:35
Speaker
So it's it's a kind of a perfect recipe. But you they didn't do that here. like First of all, Brave New World was bad. So that if you want to talk about fatigue, like oh your watch Brave New World. That's one of the worst – well, it's the worst Captain America movie, certainly. Yeah, but didn't it – as of right now, isn't it, didn't it perform like, yeah I know it performed better than Thunderbolts and isn't it tracking to perform better than, um, fantastic four. I feel like I read that. Maybe I'm wrong. You think that, yeah, fantastic four won't reach it. You mean?
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah. I wrong about that? Let's check it out. Let's check the old box office mojo website. It's so worldwide. but Brave New World got $415 million. dollars Okay. So that would that would be abysmal if if if they don't pass that, I would say. yeah Yeah.
00:26:24
Speaker
But yeah. the The budget, by the way, for Fantastic Four First Steps is over $200 million. I couldn't find an exact number. um So they have to at least double that as the old adage goes. But yeah, for the marketing budget and all that. but So that was the first thing. First of all, they didn't spread it out. I think that's an issue.
00:26:41
Speaker
Yes. Secondly, i think that Disney made a mistake early in the pandemic and they're still recovering for it. And it's not just them that made the mistake. It's the whole industry.
00:26:53
Speaker
COVID caused this thing where people weren't going to theaters. Obviously, couldn't go to theaters because the super spreader aspect. But they also did this stupid thing with, I keep forgetting the name of it, Premiere Plus or whatever, where you could buy it on Disney Plus.
00:27:07
Speaker
So now that's gone, right? We know that's gone. But that's still an issue because in the end, they're still putting their movies on Disney Plus a lot faster than they would have pre-pandemic. That window is so narrowed now.
00:27:20
Speaker
And now I'm saying that for two reasons. One, Because people are less likely to go to the theaters for that reason. Sure, that's that's fine. That's annoying. The window is narrower. So there's just, if you're not making the craziest, craziest move, like an Avengers Doomsday, which will pull people in for the big spectacle of it all, you might lose people for that. And they're like, I'll just stay home and watch it at home.
00:27:40
Speaker
It's going to be on Disney Plus. You know that it's going to be there because Disney Plus didn't even exist pre-pandemic anyway. It existed in 2019, the late stages. And then COVID happened right after that. So that's part of it, but that that's not the only part. I think like the other problem is i think, yeah, I feel like that's the the main thing is the window is narrowed so badly that it's caused an issue. Oh, sorry. My other thing i was going to say, the repeat viewers now, why would you go repeat view a movie when you could just watch it again on Disney Plus in a few months?
00:28:13
Speaker
Which, remember, we we would go to repeat view lots of movies yeah in the MCU. And that's, I think that market is gone. So when you they talk about like the second weekend box office, it's like, why did it drop off? Well, there was a lot of fans repeat viewing a lot of these movies.
00:28:29
Speaker
So now you don't have repeat viewers as often because they know that they're having it on Disney Plus. Because again, Disney Plus didn't exist before. So Endgame came out and then Disney Plus came out after that.
00:28:41
Speaker
this like You kind of ruined your own chances for box office. The last thing I want to mention about this. Sorry, if you want to go off of that point. Well, yeah, just to play devil's advocate, how do you explain Lilo and Stitch's success though? Because that that crossed a billion.
00:28:54
Speaker
So my argument is about that is that like if you make enough of a spectacle and you hit it big, you can do it. You could still do what you did before and you can maybe still get repeat viewers, whatever. it can still happen, especially because word of mouth among families. That was like a family film.
00:29:09
Speaker
It really drummed up hype. So it worked out. But the problem is, is that the MCU is oversaturated with it's a combination. You had three movies come out in half of a year. So you did you kind of – and one of them wasn't really regarded as good. Thunderbolts was like, why aren't people seeing it? And then nobody went to see it. And then Fantastic Four was the best maybe of the three. I think Thunderbolts might have been better.
00:29:30
Speaker
agree. From my perspective. We'll talk about that later in the review. But I think you're right. That's a good – I like that. A devil's advocate question because I think that's true. But I think that Lilo and Stitch is maybe the first – Not the first good one, but there haven't been that many live actions that people have been passionate about. I think it was like the perfect storm for for a live action remake of a Disney movie, of a classic animated Disney movie.
00:29:52
Speaker
And I think that the family word of mouth was like, hey, have you seen – they go to the kids' you know party, but the birthday party. They're like, oh, have you seen Lilo on Stitch? It's like, no. and and You know what I mean? like it kind of You can drum up the hype for it. I mean, Fantastic Four could be that too, but i there's just something about Lilo and Stitch. I mean, dude, explain the Minecraft movie. It doesn't make any sense. Some of these box office results aren't exactly logical in some aspects sometimes because viral things are are strange.
00:30:19
Speaker
But I think that Lilo and Stitch might, I don't know. i I think that also Disney movies just do well. Inside do Out did really well in theaters. Inside Out 2. Yeah, but Elio was a total flop. Yeah, Inside Out 2 is an established franchise. So is Lilloo and Stitch.
00:30:33
Speaker
There's an advantage of an established franchise. be your franchises But you're right. Elio was a bit of a flop. that's That's true. I think it was a major flop. We didn't go it. I think it made like a hundred.
00:30:45
Speaker
I don't even think it made 200 million in the, in the box office. If i remember, I remember reading something about it again. I'm yeah. It's reviewed very well too. It's 83%, but it's not a 90. Like that's the, that's the thing. Like, I don't know. Like the problem is, is that everything's narrowing. Cause they've kind of, I still think they kind of did this to themselves. But Lilo and Stitch didn't get reviewed that well either. The Elio has no franchise power at all though. I don't, I dude, do you remember what Elio is about?
00:31:08
Speaker
right now if I just ask you on the top of your head. No. I know. That's the problem. is like I Googled it and it's a kid wearing a cape with a bug man. know. I have no idea what the fuck that is.
00:31:19
Speaker
like It's almost harder to market. like it's not It's not an easy... Well, obviously it's not a franchise, but either like you it might be amazing, but the marketability is... It's like the movie that only went to... What was the name of that movie that went to Disney Plus immediately? It was in Italy. Disney Plus immediately.
00:31:36
Speaker
It's Pixar. Pixar went animated. Oh, dude, I know what you're talking about. It's really good. But imagine marketing that theaters. The same problem. Even like seeing red. Oh, that's driving me. I love seeing red.
00:31:49
Speaker
It's great. But I wonder if that one would have been easier to market because you got a big red panda. You know what i mean? That's maybe an easier one to market. It's tricky, I think. link I don't know. What? Luca. Yeah. Luca. Which I think the same that same directing team is making another.
00:32:06
Speaker
one movie Wait, was it Elio, actually? I don't know. Was that the one? ah No, it wasn't. there's They're making something. Ciao, Alberto. No, that's that's a short film. I don't know. they're They're coming out with something next year or something, if I recall correctly.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah. Luca, very well rated. That movie's great, man. I think there's like an element of like, it's some of it's a bit of magic. You you have like also like the a bit of marketing magic in there. There's a lot of things that it's hard to really completely put your finger on, I think, for for some of these studios. But I think the Fantastic Four one.
00:32:36
Speaker
That's the reasoning from what I think has happened. I think it's less about superhero fatigue as a whole. i think there's this idea that we've got so many superhero movies and you really have to stand out. But then also you, you did this to yourself because you put all the superhero movies in a tight, tight space.
00:32:50
Speaker
Why did they do that? I still don't get it. I don't get it. Yeah. Like, I mean, I'll also add on to this, man. It's like, we are outliers. Like we go to the movies once every, at the very least once every two weeks. I feel like, yeah, I mean, at least this year it's been almost almost every week.
00:33:06
Speaker
Right. and Right. But we are outliers. There are people that go to the movies maybe once or twice a year. And within the past month and a half, not only did a new Jurassic World movie come out, but then you have a Superman movie starting a franchise. And then now Fantastic Four is the third movie.
00:33:24
Speaker
Maybe the other people were like, ah, man, already, I just went to the movies like a month ago or two weeks ago. It's 50 bucks for a night out. Like, it's like, I don't want to do that again. Because you're taking your family. Yeah. you're That's completely right, too. That's a great point, too. like You have Superman that came out two weeks before. It's barely a gap. and like I know that Marvel's like, well, we're Marvel. like There's a little bit of arrogance there because I think like you go in August.
00:33:47
Speaker
There's just less movies this month in August. Why not? There's still quite a few movies, just nothing big. but like i mean Don't even go in August, man. Blockbusters. There's lots of movies, but the block big blockbuster, there's...
00:33:59
Speaker
in comparison, and especially superhero, there aren't any superhero movies. Like you, you need to spread yourself out from the DC universe as well. And I think yeah James Gunn going first was smart on James Gunn. Like I, good for you, man. Like you ran this, like there's a gotta to be a bit more strategy on the, on the Disney Marvel side. It feels a little bit more haphazard than it's ever felt.
00:34:21
Speaker
But fantastic four is fantastic. So I will say that I think four, Yeah, sure. Viewers. sala Yeah. But yeah, we'll get to that too. But I, yeah, that's kind of my reasoning. I think that there's more to it. And I think it's easy to chalk it up to superhero fatigue, which I've i read a few articles that were like, ah, superhero fatigue.
00:34:39
Speaker
It's like, no, I don't think so. I think like the the problem is that they did this to themselves in some way, and then they didn't really do enough to like, again, you just need to completely push yourself away from everything and make it make less movies.
Spider-Man in Scotland: Why?
00:34:54
Speaker
I honestly think they should go two movies a year, one in the first half of the year, one in December, November time.
00:35:00
Speaker
What's the problem with that? One in the summer, one in the end, or one in the beginning, one in the end? like Next year, we got, for some reason, Spider-Man in the middle of the year, and then six months later, we got Doomsday. And I don't think Spider-Man is even going to be in doomsday. It's like, what are you, how are you connecting this? Like, how's that work?
00:35:17
Speaker
I don't know. It just seems again, not good. Yeah. Spider-Man is not going to be in doomsday. He's going to be in Scotland, dude. Yeah. Right. Is that, is that, you segwaying? Are you segwaying? Look at me now. Now it's it's less smooth because yet you pointed it out, but yeah.
00:35:33
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I'm trying to find my document. Okay. Here it is. ah Yeah. Okay. So we're going to skip the other part that was supposed to be there and talk about Spider-Man now. Thanks a lot. i mean I created a natural segue and you ruined it.
00:35:46
Speaker
But okay. So yeah, Spider-Man is filming in Scotland, Glasgow, ah Scotland, which is interesting. And they're doing the practical swinging. This is the main reason I'm bringing this up, I think.
00:35:57
Speaker
So people are really excited about this. It's distant Daniel Cretton from like, ah it's the, it's the Shang-Chi and the, yeah, the legend of the 10 rings director, right? Instead of John Watts.
00:36:08
Speaker
And so people were saying, I saw a post about this and I found it really annoying. I saw a post that literally said, oh, they're doing the practical swing. Look how good it looks.
00:36:18
Speaker
and And look how good, look how good it looks. And I wish we had, we should have just had Destin Daniel Cretton to begin with instead of John Watts.
00:36:29
Speaker
My reaction to that was, what are you talking about? Those movies are some of the best in the MCU. Are you serious? And they seem serious. So anyway, people love practical swinging. It's a very important, like Spider-Man web slinging and swinging across New York City. It's very important to people in a way that I don't understand clearly.
00:36:51
Speaker
But yeah, anyway, any thoughts on this and any thoughts on the footage of of Tom Holland's stunt double and Tom Holland filming in Glasgow, Scotland? Adrian. But my question is, what is he doing in Scotland?
00:37:03
Speaker
Why did Spider-Man go back to Europe after the Jake Gyllenhaal debacle? You know what's happening here. Come on. No, I don't actually. i'm I'm not even being facetious. What's happened? Oh, you're not. You're not. Yeah. Maybe I'm missing something. You got a little smirk on your face. I could see you anyway. No, no, man. It's New York City.
00:37:21
Speaker
So they're just, it's cheaper to film there. It's New York City in Scotland. Since when dude? You're being facetious. don't Don't you lie to me. You know what they're doing.
00:37:33
Speaker
You saw the footage. There's New York City cop cars. Come on. What's Punisher going to do in Scotland? You know the answer to the question. Move on. What is Punisher? What is Jon Bernthal's Punisher going to do in Scotland?
00:37:47
Speaker
Why he even there? Let me tell you something. There's less. crime There's not that much crime in Scotland. Yeah. I'm sure there is actually. I don't There's so few guns there.
00:37:59
Speaker
You know? Yeah. He's he like, he he'll have more he'll have more guns than the rest of Scotland. Just have guns. He'll have the in Scotland. Just throwing fucking haggis at people, dude. He's just fucking going through the streets throwing haggis.
00:38:10
Speaker
Have you ever had haggis? Maybe. No. It's actually really good. Oh, yeah? Yeah, it's good. Okay. Cool. I don't really know what it is. I just realized. It's like, um I think it's like ah like a sausage um using like sheep intestine or something, if I recall correctly, and it's just filled with stuff.
00:38:28
Speaker
I don't know, it's good. It's good. I mean, a lot of sausage is made with the intestine of of the beast. Yeah, um that's fair. But haggis, yeah, it's savory pudding traditionally made with sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced with oatmeal, suet, onion, and spices, and encased in a sheep's stomach.
00:38:48
Speaker
Wait, there was like literally, did you say intestine it at all in that entire sentence? I think not. I didn't. The only thing not listed is no intestine. I didn't. so it's though.
00:39:01
Speaker
There's so many body parts in there. i i So many internal organs, but no intestine. I mixed up the one thing that's not in there. i was thinking about what's not in it, actually. That's what I was thinking of, dude. Yeah, that makes sense.
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah. Anyway, what do you think of this? What do you think about this? What you think about Spider-Man? Yeah, I mean, it's cool. It's cool. Again, the point that you made with the the Dustin Cretton Michael, Michael Cretton.
00:39:29
Speaker
Michael!
00:39:32
Speaker
Michael Crichton. Isn't that the the writer for Westworld? No, that seems right. and And technically the writer of Jurassic Park now. He's also Michael Clayton.
00:39:44
Speaker
Yeah, Jurassic Park. Yeah, he also wrote Jurassic Park. That's right. Yeah, that's true. That's my writing. Yeah. Yeah, but you know, the guy. yeah I don't know. That's a stupid statement. I love Shang-Chi. But yeah, that's that's a silly statement.
00:39:57
Speaker
um Which statement did you make? Sorry, missed I don't remember, dude. I don't remember. My mind's going a mile a minute. You're just saying his name weird. Anyway, Destin Daniel Cretton is his name.
00:40:08
Speaker
That guy. um Yeah, like Shang-Chi, you know, so it's cool that he's directing this one. We'll see what happens. I mean, again, like we have very little to go off of. It seemed apparently it's going to be a you know more focused story. So cool, man. I'm excited. um I want to watch this movie.
00:40:22
Speaker
But um I mean, like seeing those those scenes with the practical swing, and it's not like I was like, oh, I'm so excited now. Like, it's just like, cool. Cool, man. It didn't look that good to me, though.
00:40:33
Speaker
Yeah. i that's That's the part to put in. They're probably going to CGI anyways. like Oh, they have to. Of course they do. They're not going to have the weird rig up. I just don't even understand. like My fiance and I both looked at it and we're like, is this good?
00:40:46
Speaker
really It doesn't seem better. People are obsessed because like Mark Webb, wasn't Mark Webb? Who is it that famously did do?
00:40:57
Speaker
It was in the amazing Spider-Man movies, right? Yeah, one and two. practical web Yeah, but it was practical. Best director name for for Spider-Man movie. 100%. That we can agree on. But no, but but Mark Webb was the one who did practical effects for Andrew Garfield swinging, wasn't he?
00:41:13
Speaker
Or was it Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man? That seems right. i don't know for sure. I'm just going off of what you're saying. But then John Watts said it wasn't it wasn't going to look good. And then people clowned on him. And they're like, oh, that that's so stupid. It does look good.
00:41:26
Speaker
But it's like I never thought i never saw his the swinging in his movies. Like, the like whatever. almost said No Man's Sky. Spider-Man Homecoming. What's the second one?
00:41:39
Speaker
Far From Home. Far From Home and No Way Home. No Way Home. All three of those films. I didn't look at the swinging and say it was bad. I never thought that once. and know about you. i don't I don't remember.
00:41:50
Speaker
i literally cannot picture a single time that Spider-Man swings in those movies. Well, that's not good then. Maybe it wasn't that good. mark I don't think there was ever a moment where i was like wow, the swinging looks good.
00:42:02
Speaker
But i did there definitely was a moment where i was like, wow, the swinging looks bad. so
00:42:10
Speaker
There's a scene where he's webbing the boat together. I remember that. Yeah. He's not swinging. He's in the middle of the the water. He's swinging through it and going like. Yeah, yeah, kind of.
00:42:21
Speaker
I guess that would have been almost impossible to do practically, I guess. so Again, he's in the middle of the water. Yeah.
00:42:30
Speaker
You know what? They should have just invented the web event to the webs. Tom Cruise would have done it. Yeah. yeah yeah Yeah, I did. I was thinking the same thing. man You know it's interesting? How how now a physical Tom Holland is. Because he's he is actually a gymnast. like He was trained as like a dancer, I think.
00:42:48
Speaker
So like ah he he can do a flip, literally. Spider-Man, do a flip. He can do one, which is cool. I always appreciated that, about that. Because I think i believe I saw an interview with... Was it Chris Evans? don't remember.
00:43:01
Speaker
but Anyway, it was about Tom Holland, and he literally did a flip in the audition, which I thought was pretty cool. pretty neat. Spider-Man do a flip. I'm Zach Cherry from the hit TV show Severance.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Also on season one of you. It's me, Zach Cherry. Me? Yeah, you, dude. Yeah. Okay. Let's move on from Spider-Man filming in Scotland to Spider-Man...
00:43:29
Speaker
teaser trailer which is going to be a very short conversation then we can talk about the other trailers this week or this last two weeks what did you think about the teaser trailer because it's almost nothing yeah it's it's just him in his in a suit that i feel like i i don't remember looking much different than the other suits but it must i don't know it does it does it does look different but yeah it looks like less high tech and it I think the the cooler thing was I love that set thing where they heat they walk. They did this for the Avengers Doomsday hype video as well, where they were like walking through that big blast. It was almost like a blast door.
00:44:05
Speaker
i just love that. You saw that trailer, that small one? there was a small teaser Yeah. There was a small teaser trailer, though, with just showing the suit. And then there was one with Tom Holland saying, we're starting to film now or whatever he said.
00:44:16
Speaker
So that was cool. In Scotland, what am I doing? Spider-Man's in Scotland again. Yeah, sure. I'm very excited about this movie, though. Yeah, I am. I'm very, very hyped. It makes me sad about the Fantastic Four thing to go back to that for a brief second. I am sad that the box office didn't do well.
00:44:32
Speaker
And again, because we're going to talk about it later and it it is really good and it's it's kind of crappy. But I will say, oh, yeah, that was the way I was going to close off that discussion. These movies, as I said before, they have two shots because Disney Plus does exist.
00:44:48
Speaker
People do subscribe for Marvel movies. When it goes to Disney Plus, they're going to get another shot at making money. Even if it just breaks even, it still makes money. And maybe it's worse worth it. Not as like a, I was going to say loss leader.
00:45:04
Speaker
It's not a loss leader, but it almost it brings people to Disney Plus as well to for the rewatch potentially. I don't have that data. I imagine though Disney may not be as upset about it as the rest of the industry seems to be. because when you look at the industry and like all these articles coming out and say, oh the 66% drop for the second weekend is a devastating thing.
00:45:26
Speaker
I think maybe for Disney on the inside, they're like, actually, it's not so devastating because we get a lot of Disney Plus traffic and that's a huge driver of our revenue. So that's my prediction about that with Thunderbolts as well. I feel like Thunderbolts may not have quite done as well as they wanted, but I think it maybe does a lot better overall than we understand. Is even on Disney Plus yet?
00:45:49
Speaker
ah Is it? I don't know. It's question. don't think it is. i feel like I haven't seen it if it is. I thought it would was just added. but Maybe I'm wrong. You might be right. But but you think about I think that another way to think about it too is like ah Xbox Game Pass, a weird thing to think about. But if you think about Game Pass games, there is no box office.
00:46:08
Speaker
They don't get any money. The money is all in the subscriptions completely. And a lot of the games going to Game Pass on like a day and date, like Doom the Dark Ages, cost more money to make.
00:46:21
Speaker
than these films. So how are they making money at Xbox and Microsoft here? And they claim it's profitable. There's got to be, if if Disney has two shots at making money from both the box office and Disney Plus, I think they make a lot more money than people are like panicked about.
00:46:40
Speaker
And so I don't think this spells the end of the MCU in any capacity um because of because of that thought. Yeah, i think I think we should be blaring those alarm bells if ah you know like Spider-Man does poorly and then Avengers Doomsday does poorly. Doomsday is bad.
00:46:59
Speaker
yeah That's, I think, when you can start worrying a little bit. um Because Doomsday, is probably the budget is probably huge, man. That's the thing. It's probably over $200 million, I imagine. It's probably like a billion dollars with just the cast.
00:47:11
Speaker
No, no. Yeah, $100 million is just Robert Downey Jr., you know? Yeah. Thunderbolts is not on Disney Plus yet. Oh, wow. Okay. yeah
Upcoming Films and Trailers
00:47:21
Speaker
Interesting.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe they're strategically holding it back so they can remarket it again after Freakier Friday, you know? I know you've seen a lot of ads for Freakier Friday and Fantastic Four First Steps, which is just, you know, maybe they're trying to hit... Yeah, major plot point spoiled.
00:47:38
Speaker
Yeah, i know. Ridiculous. But yeah. Okay, cool. that's ah That's it for our MCU talk, I think. Let's get into some of the other trailers released this by week. Adrian, I have a lot of trailers listed here. I'm just going to list them off and see which ones you latch on to. But Avatar, Fire, and Ash was a big like debut trailer at the Fantastic Four First Steps.
00:48:00
Speaker
like in in theaters as like the last trailer they showed is like this look at this trailer for avatar aren't you excited they all said zootopia 2 release trailer uh recently as well there's blue moon ah there's the last bus blue moon is a richard linklater movie uh with with ethan hawk um it's It looks ah like a bottle episode. it's like in a it's It looks like it's in one bar and that's it.
00:48:28
Speaker
It's also got Margaret Qualley in it as well. Oh. There's a ah few film festivals. So that's more of an artsy movie, but it maybe will get some Oscar buzz and award season buzz. There's also The Lost Bus.
00:48:41
Speaker
Did you see the trailer for this? This looks intense. I watched the first trailer, but if if they just came out with a more recent one, I have not seen that. I believe there was one more recent, just because I saw a trailer kind of amalgamation video. Because that's Matthew McConaughey ah in a bus, and he's like, there's a missing bus, and I got a bus to find this missing bus to get the kids, and there's fires everywhere. He is driving the bus, so he he is the lost bus, but it's his bus. he's not the lost bus.
00:49:08
Speaker
He's saving the children. Yeah, the lost bus is the bus with the children. you he's on ah No, he goes to pick up children at a school that are stuck in like a place with forest forest fires in California.
00:49:21
Speaker
it's He's a bus driver, yeah and he he goes to the place. he's not only like a bus he's ah He's not like a bus rescue hero. He's not looking for buses. He is driving the bus.
00:49:31
Speaker
Okay. then Yeah, I misunderstood. I thought the kids were on a bus that were lost, and he's the bus looking for the lost bus. I don't haven't the most recent trailer, so you know better than do. It looks cool. It looks cool. Paul Greengrass is the director of this.
00:49:50
Speaker
I kind of like Paul Greengrass because I like the bornur the Jason Bourne movies, especially if the Bourne Ultimatum I think is excellent. um Did you watch any of the Bourne movies? I can't remember if you ever ended up watching them.
00:50:02
Speaker
They're worth it. I'd say the first three are really good. I don't know about after that, but it's good. I'm only going to watch the one with Jeremy Renner. No. Don't do that. It's not terrible, but I would recommend the ones with Matt Damon.
00:50:14
Speaker
They're good. The first three. They're very gritty for the rating that they are, and the fights take for a long time. Like the fist fights, they're one-on-one fights. they like they're very They hit very hard, and they just... There's almost... At the time, I don't know, maybe not now, but I thought i remember thinking to myself, wow, these...
00:50:31
Speaker
there's nothing like this in terms of fight choreography because they're like, like two guys going at it for like a long period of time. And there's, I think they just like, don't play musical score in some of them. So like, it's just like the, like they'll hit each other with a toaster or something like that. it's just really brutal.
00:50:46
Speaker
They're, they're brutal. They're not, I don't think they're rated R though. So like there, there's like a anyway, it's good. I recommend I recommend next thing to to mention, I guess for trailers, there's American sweatshop.
00:51:00
Speaker
That, that trailer looks crazy. That actually looks really good. Another more artsy movie. Oh yeah. That's the one where it's like the call center, right? And it's the girl um from call center.
00:51:11
Speaker
It's a, it's like a Facebook moderator set, which is also crazy. Yeah. Lily Reinhart, right? She's in that. Yeah. Yeah. She's the main character. What's that? What's that show called that I never watched?
00:51:23
Speaker
Riverdale. Riverdale. Yeah, but this is crazy because she discovers something crazy. But the the interesting thing is that it's it's directed by... Man, I know...
00:51:37
Speaker
her name, but I don't i remember exactly what episodes, but she's directed like episodes from stranger things, severance. And one other thing that I was like, Oh man, this is like, these are heavy header. Like she directed Attila from severance as an example.
00:51:51
Speaker
It's, um, Uta, British, British, I'm trying to find her name. So I can't find Bryce. Oh, you see it. Oh, okay. Yeah. Anyway, I, yeah, that looks really good. That actually, that one, i have the, the artsy movies in this lineup.
00:52:08
Speaker
I am more interested in that than probably the others, but it's great. She's like, she's, she's like almost like a, almost like a serial killer and she's trying to, she's trying to solve it, but no one's taking her seriously.
00:52:20
Speaker
It's basically the, the plot. That's not your job. Your job, your job is to moderate the videos. Yeah, that's exactly. So they say, and she's like, but there's a serial killer. There's someone serial killing and I know it. I see his face from the videos and like, stop it. That's not your job. And then she's like, I'm going to go on a mission.
00:52:37
Speaker
And then are people like, you're going to get yourself hurt. and she's like no, I'm not. Yeah, she sounds like that too. Yeah, it's crazy. I think I nailed it. said one I know i'm know I'm playing it up, a genuinely great trailer. I'm definitely interested in it.
00:52:49
Speaker
um I know you mentioned Zootopia 2. I really like the first Zootopia movie. Yeah, this one looks good. It looks cute. It looks fun. it looks It looks interesting. um Yeah, I think it's great.
00:53:01
Speaker
um I guess I'll watch it. There's a snake.
00:53:07
Speaker
It's true. There is a snake. And I think you missed one trailer that we should maybe talk about here. Avatar, Fire and Ash. the the Arguably the biggest trailer of the bunch that we've listed.
00:53:19
Speaker
And if there's any other trailer, feel free to talk about it. Let's talk about Avatar for a second, okay? what you What were your thoughts about this Avatar, Fire, and Ash trailer? This is the third in the Avatar series of films by James Cameron.
00:53:31
Speaker
He's written and directed this just like he did the other two. ah What do you think of this trailer? And are you excited for Avatar coming out soon? It's December. Yeah, dude. it's very soon.
00:53:42
Speaker
Yeah, interesting thing about Avatar, Fire, and Ash on YouTube The official Avatar channel, 19 million views of this trailer, releasing 11 days ago. Yes. You know what has the same trailer, 20th Century Studios India, 25 million views.
00:54:00
Speaker
Whoa. Yeah. Cool. So it's it's interesting. Over 40 million views between those two trailers. So what you're trying to say is people love it. ah Yeah. And it's it's interesting. You pointed this out to me that people are weirdly positive about this movie. you look at yeah You look at the comment section, there's no one being like, Avatar's overrated, blah, blah, blah, blah. blah Yeah. that's That's our job. that's That's what we're about to bring up.
00:54:23
Speaker
ah Yeah. I guess so. We've got to counterbalance it. Yeah, people are very positive about it. And it's weird, dude, because I just don't get it. i like i I watched the first Avatar movie twice. like I watched it when it originally released, and then we rewatched it, you and i prior to the second one coming out.
00:54:43
Speaker
And I'm like, a bunch of cool ideas executed poorly because it's just Pocahontas. um But it's a super cool world. And I'm like, man, this would make a really good video game. Funnily enough, they did make a video game since.
00:54:55
Speaker
Never played it. I don't know if it's good. um Beautiful. Beautiful game. Like, it looks really visually stunning. That's its advantage. And interesting thing about it, that game came out like almost two years ago. They're releasing a third-person update for it.
00:55:09
Speaker
Right around the movie. Oh, that makes sense. Pretty smart. So maybe i'll maybe I'll play it just for a little bit of... What's the thing?
00:55:21
Speaker
Synergy. Synergy. Thank you, Simon. Thank you. Yeah. um Second movie, i I did not like really. i think it'd like It's fine. I think it's better than the first. I don't really remember it though.
00:55:31
Speaker
And you pointed out it's just Tarzan. So it's like instead of it being Pocahontas, now it's Tarzan. There's a scene with a whale for like four minutes. That's when I went to pee. So I've never seen that scene. I just love that you came back and it just finished. Yeah. you That was crazy.
00:55:46
Speaker
Because you knew, because to be fair, you knew because you read online that that's the best time to go pee. It's a long movie. So you went right as the whale showed up, like I'm leaving. And then you got back. You didn't miss much. and And you just got back as the whale was finished up.
00:56:01
Speaker
So. Hmm. Yeah. So I remember not really loving the second movie. And I feel like um if I recall correctly, like Zoe Saldana is like a character, like she was kind of underutilized and they added some characters and it just it it felt weird.
00:56:15
Speaker
um Right. What's wrong? Why do you make that face? I feel so embarrassed. My, my, my alarm went off here. Oh, I didn't even hear it. It's okay. i My watch. Your face was alarming, Timmy. That's, that's, that was all I screwed up.
00:56:28
Speaker
I'm sorry. I think it would have caught it in the mic. So I apologize. Anyway, go on. No worries. Um, so I'm watching this trailer and it's like, again, visually stunning. These movies look beautiful. It's cool. Cool ideas.
00:56:41
Speaker
um Weird that they're essentially doing you know Avatar The Last Airbender. The first movie's air. The second movie's water. The third movie's fire. Did we talk about that? We must have talked about that before. Maybe. It's a strange coincidence.
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah. they away because cause so I've been thinking about this actually. This is a thing I've been thinking about with a lot of things in my life recently. I don't know why this has come up, but it just keeps coming about up over and over again. I think about like when I was a kid, I used to think about certain things ah to be strange.
00:57:09
Speaker
And I was like, that's weird. ah example I came up with recently is like, oh, that's weird. Lawyers charge by the hour. how are they honest about that? And then everyone just accepts that lawyers charge by the hour and there's no real system of determining whether they actually work for the hours they they bill.
00:57:25
Speaker
There's like no way to know. And I'm like, that's what I thought as a kid. Like that's actually an issue. It's strange. And so I'm thinking about this, like as a kid, when Avatar was coming out, I was like, oh, Avatar, you mean like the last airbender? I literally thought that. And then later on, we just accept now that Avatar is two different things.
00:57:43
Speaker
One very popular movie series and one pretty popular animated series. It's pretty popular, but it's not the movies that make billions of dollars a movie. um So, yeah, it's crazy that that they seem to coincide despite the fact that they are not related at all.
00:57:58
Speaker
what What is that about? I don't get it. We just accept it, though. were We just accept that. That's just normal. Yeah, it's it's super weird, man. And it's funny because they're coming out with new Avatar The Last Airbender movies that take place between Avatar Last Airbender, the show and the legend accord of the show.
00:58:15
Speaker
Yeah. Never watched Legend of Korra. Apparently it's not that great. But the the the the original Avatar the Last Airbender, like three season arc. Awesome, dude. I love it. My sister's having a kid soon. When I'm hanging out with that kid, once he's like, i don't know, three conscious, he's like a bit able to comprehend. He's conscious.
00:58:31
Speaker
Yeah. I'm going to watch that show with him. Hands down. No doubt in my mind. So it gets me pretty excited um about that. And anyways, I'm going off on tangent. We're talking about Avatar Fire and Ash. and But yeah, watch this trailer. Visually sun and really cool.
00:58:45
Speaker
But the trailer itself, I don't think is good. It's a bunch of one liners that have nothing to do with one another. And just characters talking to each other. It's like I watched the previous two movies.
00:58:57
Speaker
I don't know who the fuck these are. They're all blue people. They all look the same, dude. The fire people do look different. They've got like, they got like ash on their face.
00:59:08
Speaker
I know. I'm saying the blue people. Because the fire people are kind of reddish. Oh, I see. You don't find that our original cast looks distinct enough. Yeah, we don't remember also because we're a major Yeah, and they're talking to each other and they're like, you're living with hate in your heart. I'm like, okay, know that's Jake or whatever his name is. Why did you say Uka?
00:59:27
Speaker
did you do that on purpose no i didn't do that on parisomia uh yeah he's like you're living with hate and you're all right what is that but you know he says something along those ones i'm like i don't know who he's talking to that could be his wife that could be his son i i can't even remember if he has kids i couldn't remember who they are yeah so it's like all these scenes are happening with one another i'm like this is just seems so disjointed i'm like i'm confused are they fighting the fire nation or are they teaming up with the fire nation against the fire nation the the but yeah whatever i don't know what the fuck they call them or are they teaming up with the fire people to fight the the the military people that also turn military people in this trailer were they yeah they're not there were
01:00:15
Speaker
Briefly. Because there's the ships and it's the the the military guy from the first movie that's the bad guy becomes the blue guy in the second movie and he doesn't die. He's in this. I'm spoiling it because it's in this movie.
01:00:26
Speaker
You see it in the trailer. He's alive. He's like, I'm a military guy, but he doesn't say anything. So it's like this trailer. It's just, I don't think it's a good trailer personally, but people are so in love with it I'm like, it's just a bunch of one-liners and it looks pretty.
01:00:39
Speaker
Like, what is this? So this is a mystery that we we don't really dive into enough because there's an element here, and I messaged you this after the trailer came out. Yeah. there are a lot of big movie franchises, right? And there's like a lot of franchises that there's a lot of this nonsense about people talking, woke, this woke, that, you know, this is so woke. And you look at the movie they're talking about and it's like Superman. And you're like, okay, kindness is woke now. I,
01:01:08
Speaker
I guess. I don't know which part is woke about it. I mean, like I don't understand. like What are you talking about? But there's lots of that like ah going around everywhere. And you're like, that's strange. like I can't really put my finger on it. But then Avatar, which is literally a really is literally about Native Indigenous people being attacked by um literal Americans. that That is what they're being attacked by.
01:01:32
Speaker
And it's basically like Fear of the Other, the movie. And then... There's an element of – it's all about climate change. It's about like keeping – preserving the climate, which is – again, isn't that what they they think woke is? I don't understand. like Maybe not the climate bit, but certainly the fear of the – like, you know, the – oh, these people don't look like us. We should – you know?
01:01:56
Speaker
i don't quite understand. Like, they would be rooting for the Americans who are the villains in the Avatar series, but they're not. They're rooting for the Avatar people.
01:02:07
Speaker
Maybe they are and we just don't know it. Maybe if you look at the comments, they're like, man, I can't wait to see all these blue guys get fucked up. Yeah, maybe that's what it is. It's like they keep winning, goddammit.
01:02:19
Speaker
The villains keep winning. It's the the blue people. They ah keep winning. it's Yeah, it's ah it's ah it's like a racial – it's very racist race. Like it's about race in a way. It's about you know not being racist against these blue people. It's not being afraid of the other and ah xenophobia. Like I don't understand – what is going on? And that's not woke. If you look at the comment section, people are so happy about this. But you know what? I don't want to take it from them because I love this. I love this for us as a society because there's nothing like that. I don't know of anything else like this that is clearly kind of progressive like Avatar, but that everyone just accepts as good for some reason. And we don't like it because the story is not original, but maybe it's the simplicity of the plot, Adrian. They're like all behind it because they don't want to think too hard about
01:03:10
Speaker
The plot. But then you look at Disney Marvel movies and they're calling Marvel movies woke all the time now. ah Superman is a good example for DC. I don't know. I just wanted to bring that up again because I think on the podcast as well because i i just it's a puzzling thing.
01:03:23
Speaker
it's It's the most puzzling thing about movies in my opinion. Yeah. Are we right wing now, Simon? Because we don't like this? No, but we don't. We don't dislike it for those reasons. We dislike it for the the the movie film, the writing aspect. yeah Where it's just not written in a particularly interesting way.
01:03:40
Speaker
It's kind of boring. And that's our issue with it. Because it's, I don't know, what is it really doing? We kind of know the story of Pocahontas. So it's so predictable that we know exactly what's going to happen. I guess that's kind of the problem with it.
01:03:52
Speaker
There's like no threat of them. I want them to lose in this one. You know? That's an important aspect. I want them to lose a little bit. Infinity kind of lost a little bit in the last one, but not full. A little bit, right?
01:04:05
Speaker
Yeah. But I don't remember how. I just remember there's a bunch of shit going on. A bunch of people died. There's a guy named Spider. Oh, yeah. That weird Tarzan looking guy. That kid's unsettling to look at ah in just in in the environment that he's in. i don't But also just in general.
01:04:21
Speaker
It's just like, I don't like it. Yeah, I don't know. It's just crazy because it will it make – this is the last question I guess we should talk about. Is it going to make a billion dollars again? Is it going to make two billion dollars? Did the second one make two billion dollars a again?
01:04:34
Speaker
that what happened? Because I can't remember. don't think don't think so. It did. It did. it me it was It's in the the two billion – a billion is an easy cross, but to cross the two billion mark is not as easy.
01:04:45
Speaker
So box office, avatar, what was it called? The way of water. Yeah. Yeah. The most interesting thing about the way of water is that Kate Winslet held her breath for seven minutes.
01:04:56
Speaker
That was the that's the coolest part, in my opinion. Yeah, $2.3 billion. dollars There you go. Oh, you found it before me. Yeah, $2.3 billion. There you go. That's crazy. Crazy. I don't know. Maybe this one's going to do that well. I mean, there's 40 million people that watched the trailer, more than.
01:05:12
Speaker
That's the thing. People are excited. I'm kind of happy for it. I actually got to be honest. Like I know that you, you you kind of said we were going to, I did too, but we're going to counterbalance the the love of it. But I am not probably going to watch this in theaters. I think I'm just maybe going to hold off on this one. If there's something else coming around the same time, coming out around the same time, I may not see it. if Unless you really want to go see it, we'll see it. But we didn't even see the way of water until like way later because we were doing a podcast and we thought it would be a good idea.
01:05:38
Speaker
That's where we're living. Remember that? That's why we went to go see it. And then we're like, yeah, that was fine. and there's so Oh, this is the other thing about Avatar. They're so long. And like people have this aversion to go see movies that are really long. How long did they say how long Fire and Ash is going to be?
01:05:55
Speaker
Avatar, Fire and Ash length is a great question. three I think they said it long. Three hours and 12 minutes. That's the exact same as of way of water, though. So I don't know if that's just like they put there.
01:06:10
Speaker
Google Gemini. What doing?
01:06:14
Speaker
Okay, well. Oh, somebody's saying the the final runtime of Fire and Ash will be 206 minutes. 206 minutes? I don't know what that translates to. That's also that's a Reddit post. I'm not sure how accurate that That's three hours and 26 minutes, dude.
01:06:30
Speaker
Yeah, didn't they say, wasn't there a report somewhere that said this was going to be the longest one? thought that's what they said. Maybe. Maybe. That's long one. That's crazy, though.
01:06:41
Speaker
We'll see when it when it when it's coming out. we'll We'll take a look at it. it's it's It's wild. It's ah it's just a so it's an anomaly. it it just Do you think it's possible that the YouTube comments are just bots?
01:06:53
Speaker
like It's possible. purchased bots so they can make themselves look good. And then, cause you know what the thing is, is not, they don't have to do that many bots. They just have to do a few to, should like to, so to make the conversation positive. Cause I think what happens is there's a few negative comments on ah on a trailer for like intergalactic, the heretic prophet. And then all the positive people who really want to play the game like me, not going to comment because I just don't want to, I'm not going to comment on YouTube anyway. I think it's a waste of time, but like to be, ah to be honest,
01:07:21
Speaker
I think that could be what's what's happened. If you have negative negativity, you don't want to argue. So like you have a bunch of negativity. You have all the same. It's like a... I was going to say vacuum tube. What am trying to say? The thing where you're you're in your own... Echo chamber.
01:07:37
Speaker
Echo chamber. Thank you. Yeah. So it's like an echo chamber, but it's created by negativity or positivity. So you like you you basically swayed to be positive and then everyone's positive. I didn't find one negative comment.
01:07:49
Speaker
Not one. I found that odd. I'm going change that. I'm going to change that right now. No, no, don't do it. It's fine. Let them have their fun, Adrian. It's okay. Okay, but yeah, that's it.
01:08:01
Speaker
That's it. Are we ready to move on? Yeah, sure, man. Pretty wild cast,
Bi-Weekly News and Personal Experiences
01:08:06
Speaker
honestly, too, looking at. at In all the movies. Who's a standout like in this one compared to the others, though? David Thulis.
01:08:15
Speaker
Oh, David Thulis. I like that guy. He's cool. man Michelle Yeoh. Oh, Michelle Yeoh? Yeah. That's cool. That's cool, too. Great additions. yeah David Thulis is amazing in Fargo.
01:08:28
Speaker
He's amazing. Dude, he's so good in Fargo. He's an incredible villain. Yeah. Amazing. That's a show I've got to catch up on. I'm very behind. Yeah, me too. I've watch four and five. Yeah.
01:08:39
Speaker
Okay. All right, Adrian, it's now time to move on to the montage, a sequence of our show in which I briefly present seven of the bi-weeks smaller news stories as Adrian delivers a brisk verdict.
01:08:50
Speaker
Number one, as announced on social media, interstellar composer Hans Zimmer has joined forces with Euphoria season one and two composer Labyrinth to score season three of HBO's Euphoria.
01:09:03
Speaker
The third season will air in 2026. That's crazy. that's crazy That's crazy. Number two. As announced with a trailer and a pop-up donut street food truck, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan's upcoming TV series Pluribus comes to Apple TV Plus on November 7th.
01:09:22
Speaker
The series centers around the most miserable person on earth and stars Better Call Saul actor Ray Sehorne. Can't wait. Amazing. I don't even know what this is going to be, but it's going to be amazing. Probably.
01:09:33
Speaker
Number three, according to publication Variety, the Wolfenstein video game series is being developed into an Amazon Prime TV series with maniac showrunner Patrick Somerville hired on as showrunner while the Westworld and Fallout producers are set to produce.
01:09:48
Speaker
Oh, cool. That's awesome. Alternate Nazis. histories indeed number four as announced at the san diego comic-con the previously canceled film coyote versus acne will finally hit theaters on august 26th 2026 coyote that's over a year from now simon Yeah, yeah. I'm excited about it though.
01:10:11
Speaker
ah watch it. Number five. As stated in an interview with online publication Collider, Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore has a writing team that is currently scripting the first season for the TV series adapting PlayStation game series God of War.
01:10:26
Speaker
As sourced from that interview, the Amazon Prime show appears to be based upon the Norse mythology-centered 2018 God of War game as opposed to the initial trilogy of Greek mythology-based video games from the early two thousand Wow. I'm glad that they're doing that, right? I don't really like the original God Award games. i think the story is not good. Hmm. I hope they do lots of flashbacks, though, even more so than the games, because I feel like I agree. It's ripe for that. Like Lost.
01:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, maybe like that. Yeah. Like prison break. six. I'm sorry. Like prison break. Sure. Yeah. Number six. Okay, I get it. I understand. Number six, as announced by Netflix, the science fiction TV series Three Body Problem has officially entered production on season two. I haven't watched season one. o Number seven.
01:11:11
Speaker
As announced on Instagram, A Quiet Place 1 and 2 director John Krasinski will direct A Quiet Place Part 3. The film is scheduled for release on July 9th, 2027. Taking them long enough.
01:11:22
Speaker
Holy smokes, dude. And a bonus number eight. As stated by Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav on an earnings call, Superman director James Gunn is preparing to write and direct a film with direct links to the 2025 Superman film that will star David Cornswit Superman, but that is apparently not a direct sequel to the recently released Superman film.
01:11:45
Speaker
Interesting. I wonder what it could be. And that concludes
01:11:57
Speaker
Wow. Incredible. Thank you. Your musical rhythm is unmatched. Thanks, dude. Oh, you're welcome. that's a That James Gunn thing that he's doing, do you think it's the the thing that he claims was in the works that he said nobody's done before that is his favorite thing?
01:12:17
Speaker
Maybe. i don't know. What could it be? and I don't know. I don't know what that was that he was talking about. There's another thing that came out. Apparently, people thought, because if I think it was in Snyder, they thought that Matt Reeves' Batman was going to have Robin in it because that's what Insider said. And then James Gunn shut that down. He's like, can you stop? James Gunn gets mad sometimes on social media. You ever see that?
01:12:42
Speaker
He's like, no, that's not the that's not true. There's been five people who have looked at the script for Matt Reeves' Batman 2. for the for the Bat Reeves averse and Robin's not in it. what do you Where are you getting this from?
01:12:55
Speaker
ah' Basically what he's saying. I thought that was interesting because Insider I feel like gets it right. So i'm not sure how he thought that. Typically, yeah. So I don't know what the deal is with that. I didn't really want Robin to be in it. People are very speculative though. And I feel like you got to ignore the internet a little bit.
01:13:10
Speaker
I feel like James Gunn is very online in some aspect, which is interesting because it it gives us a lot of law for us to talk about, but I'm not sure that it's a, I hope hopefully his mental health is okay. Cause he's got a, he's got a big job here.
01:13:23
Speaker
So anyway, I stayed off line. I'm sure it's stressful for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Adrian, it's now time to look at what we've been watching this week.
01:13:36
Speaker
I've watched quite a bit, but I think I'm going to, I'm going to leave most of my thoughts for what we watched together. The two big things. I think I got one thing I can talk about a little bit, but I'll throw it to you.
01:13:48
Speaker
Do you have anything you want to talk about before we go into the joint topics of discussion for things we've watched this week or this bi-week story? Yes, Simon. I've watched a few things. So one of the things that I mentioned earlier in the episode is I finished You Season 5.
01:14:02
Speaker
Me? dude. You. The final season of You. um And it's great. I love the show. It's really good. i think. Pardon me?
01:14:13
Speaker
Do you know something I don't? Final season of Me? Yeah, of you, No, Adrian. You're going to get killed. There's someone living inside your walls right now. It's your neighbor, dude.
01:14:25
Speaker
um with a lawnmower in your walls. He's going to lawnmow you, dude. um But yeah, no, I finished ah You Season 5 with my fiance.
01:14:36
Speaker
um Really loved this season. I think it's much stronger than 4. I stand by my thought. like I think Season 4 of You is is the worst season of the show. It's still good, still really intriguing and fun to watch, but I think it is the worst season.
01:14:52
Speaker
um And Season 5 kind of... It brings it home a little. And I really, really enjoyed the season. I know what you mean about that Bronte character. Annoying. Annoying. Very annoying.
01:15:02
Speaker
Both me and my fiance are like, she fucking sucks, dude. She's stupid, man. Yeah, stupid she's yeah she's dumb. There's another show I'm watching now that that I have a lot of stupid characters and it's bothering lot too. But she was like standout.
01:15:16
Speaker
Yeah. I'm curious ah what that show is. I guess. Are you going to talk about it? I'll talk about it. Okay, cool. um So yeah, like that character is a little dumb, a little, but I don't think it's necessarily bad um because of it. And I really, i think what this season does incredibly well, that,
01:15:31
Speaker
Season four in particular didn't do well and the other seasons do do well, is they bring in a lot more of like an ensemble cast, like side characters that aren't ah necessarily you know the main characters of the story, but they add a lot to it.
01:15:44
Speaker
And there's some genuine funny characters as well. So it adds a little bit more levity than what season four had. And I think the way this show wraps everything up is incredibly satisfying.
01:15:55
Speaker
I have a couple gripes about like the ending. um I just feel like it almost pulls its punches in a couple of ways. um But I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. And I i think the last scene in particular of the show is phenomenal.
01:16:08
Speaker
It's really good. Like the like leading into the credits. I i really like this show. And it bums me out that it's over because I think it's nice that it ended at a good place and, you know, kind of wrapped everything up well.
01:16:21
Speaker
um But I could watch a show like this for for many more seasons. You know, it's, you could, you could keep- It's television. Yeah, it is. And it's, my fiance and I were talking a little bit and she said like, you know, she really loved this show and it's like one of her favorite shows that she's watched.
01:16:36
Speaker
Cool. And I'm like, yeah, like i do I get where you're coming from. Like, it's good. It's super entertaining, but it's not like, Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul or Severance, like in terms of its quality and writing or the bear. Right.
01:16:50
Speaker
But like from an entertainment enjoyment level, I can totally understand where where she's coming from, because ah honestly, it's it is so fun. It is such a fun show. It's binge worthy.
01:17:02
Speaker
The characters are good. The inner monologue Joe has, who you're following along all all all these seasons, is so funny to listen to. um The way he rationalizes these fucked up things that he's doing. And you know you're listening to his perspective and being like...
01:17:17
Speaker
I see where you're coming from, man. Even though you're a crazy person, it's, it's really good. It's brilliant. And I think this is, um, Greg Berlanti who did like all the CWDC shows.
01:17:28
Speaker
Like by far, this is the best show that he's, he's done that, that at least I've consumed. So,
Review of 'You' Season 5
01:17:33
Speaker
you know, bums me out that it's over. ah but I'm glad that it ended in a positive way. And I think all five seasons of this show are great.
01:17:40
Speaker
Um, again, season four is my least favorite, but it's not bad. To talk to you the the point you made about how he's talking and rationalizing his his his actions. It's interesting to see, I feel like, how it develops in this last season.
01:17:54
Speaker
i feel like it changes. Your perspective of Joe is changing as well. It's interesting, I found, but maybe you have a different perspective because you watched it all at once. But for us watching it with a gap between season five and four, it felt like...
01:18:07
Speaker
His talking to himself became less like, I'm not as much on your side and in some aspect. I felt like they did have really did that pretty well. I do agree. There's a scene, though, near the end. i'm I'm wondering if that's the scene you're talking about where I didn't love it because it doesn't make a lot of sense. like The way they wrapped it up, there's a scene ah that has to do with a body of water. And I'm like, that doesn't.
01:18:30
Speaker
I'm not sure this tracks. I'm not a fan of that. I feel like there's a a better way to do what they did there. And that's the one thing I had as a criticism of the season that was a really big criticism. I didn't like Bronte, but I think Bronte is a realistic person, though.
01:18:42
Speaker
I think that's like she's a good character of what they what they needed in the season. I i think she's fine. I don't hate her. But that scene, I'm like, I don't know if that would have worked on a plot hole perspective.
01:18:54
Speaker
Like I agree. Not a major one, but a minor one at least. There's also a scene with with a fire in particular and how that scene technically – How the heck? Yeah, it makes sense yeah no sense. They lost me a little bit at the end. I thought, that what are you doing? You didn't have to do this. you you You basically painted these characters into a literal corner. and I'm like, what are you doing?
01:19:16
Speaker
You don't need to paint them into the corner this deeply because it just – Then they go to the next sequences and to wrap up the show and they're like, wait, what? don't – How is this possible? And you're like, oh man, it kind of spoils it a little bit because you could have ended it with ah like a really nice cherry on top. But I feel like that's where I didn't like it as much as I i i could have.
01:19:35
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with that. It's ah arguably like those two scenes in particular where I was like oh man, what the hell? And that's what I mean by like kind of pulling its punches in a way. I feel like it was almost like they focus tested it and they're like, oh, we got to do this because it's too like...
01:19:52
Speaker
dire in a way that's my assumption but maybe you focus test it when you write it instead of yeah like they focus tested it when they already shot it and you're like oh okay we're gonna shoot another scene to add or something like that like i feel like that's what happened instead of writing it and then saying who whoa are you sure you want to write it like this you should maybe go back and rewrite it like you know sam wilson landing on his feet after after after dropping at terminal velocity yeah and saying sonic boom or whatever he says it sonic boom that's what he said right don't remember yeah but and then knuckles came out of nowhere and just started beating the shit out of people tails flying down dude wait that's not a no sonic boom isn't a isn't it a sonic reference isn't sonic boom from street fighter doesn't the guy say sonic boom is that one of the things i have no idea isn't there a game called sonic boom
01:20:41
Speaker
Maybe. I don't know. Who cares? Doesn't matter. We're going to be a Sonic game probably then. Yeah. But anyway all in all, yeah cool you as a full series, great. Really love it. Good. Yeah. I'm sad that it's over, but I'm glad that it was all five seasons are really great television.
01:20:56
Speaker
Indeed.
Horror Movie 'Terrifier' Critique
01:20:57
Speaker
Indeed. The other thing I watched, Simon, is a unrated horror movie called The Terrifier. oh Yeah, I my fiance was out of town on one of the weekends.
01:21:12
Speaker
ah She was at a bachelorette party. And I was like, you know, she she doesn't really love horror. And I was like, this is my opportunity to watch this movie. And i remember hearing the first movie is not that great. But apparently the second and third movie are really good. and But I'm like, I'm not jumping into that second movie. I got to watch the first one.
01:21:27
Speaker
yeah And honestly, i don't think it's good at all. I think it is kind of grotesque in a way. Like it's it goes too far. Well, i I mean, that's a lot of horror movie. What do you mean? Like Saw?
01:21:38
Speaker
Yeah, but I think it goes. Grotesque, like you mean it's not worth it. Yeah, I think there's no so substance to the movie. It's all kind of like style and like it's just it just feels weirdly like almost like torture porn and it's uncomfortable in a way. And I understand that I think in like the sequel movies like there's more subs. It's still similar in terms of like the grotesque violence, but I think there is more substance in the storytelling and everything.
01:22:04
Speaker
The one thing i will give this movie credit for, though, it's cool because it's it's like lower budget and, you know, it it has like it's a cool style. Again, the style is there. But Art yeah the Clown, he's the villain, right? He's the murderer.
01:22:18
Speaker
And there's this real- His name is Art? Art. to the Clown. Okay. And it's really cool because he's totally silent. Right? So things are happening and he doesn't say anything. He's just there and he does things and it adds this extra level of eeriness because you don't hear him breathe. You don't hear him move.
01:22:37
Speaker
Like obviously when the, when he's like killing someone, like you hear the people screaming and you hear the weapon hitting the person. yeah But the clown himself, you don't hear anything. So it's like, it's kind of jarring. So I think that's a really cool, like art artistic piece in it.
01:22:51
Speaker
But again, I think the first movie just has very little substance to it in terms of like good storytelling. And it just kind of, It's almost like grotesque violence for the sake of grotesque violence. And I just didn't and vibe with it.
01:23:04
Speaker
That's and I started watching the second movie. I watched the first like 10 minutes like the next day. And i was like, you know, I'm just not really in the mood for this right now. I'll come back to this at some point. um But yeah, like, again, it's it's funny because I'm like, I don't want to watch the second movie, which is apparently good.
01:23:21
Speaker
um But yeah, the first thing dictate the action, I guess. Yeah, no, no, no. So a little disappointing with that. Again, I'll i'll probably watch Terrifier 2 at some point in the future and and I'll come back and let you know what I think about that one. Because again, but by all accounts, that movie is actually like a really good horror movie and actually has like good character and stuff.
01:23:41
Speaker
Cool. But
Review of 'Based on a True Story'
01:23:42
Speaker
um yeah, that's really the main things that I watched, Simon. So what was the thing that you watched? I know you mentioned... the Well, I finished Andor for one thing.
01:23:52
Speaker
Oh. don't know finished Andor. Oh, did I talk about it? No, you sure did. I finished Andor too. Okay, we'll get to that in a second. cheskez i watched the I've been watching, I have stacked TV for a while, like the Amazon Prime out on in Canada.
01:24:04
Speaker
That's fine. but Whatever. It's $3 right now. That's cheap. But I we i got it for something. What did I get it for? I can't even remember. I got for something specific. And then I decided to watch based on a true story, which I intended to watch anyway.
01:24:18
Speaker
um Oh, now I flipped away from the IMDb page because I went to Terrifier. Oopsies. ah But based on the true story, I mentioned it last episode because I think I'm pretty sure I did um but because we just started watching it.
01:24:32
Speaker
But it's from the creator, Craig Rosenberg, who I'm not sure what he's done before. So i don't know why I'm mentioning him necessarily. But it's got Kaylee Cuoco from Big Bang Theory ah and Eight Simple Rules, which I which i really liked as a kid. but um And it's got Chris Messina and Tom Bateman in it.
01:24:51
Speaker
And it's ah essentially about... part a podcast actually. And the podcast is there. There's these two people who are basically going broke.
01:25:02
Speaker
Yeah. Have you seen this show at all or or heard of it or know anything about it? I I've seen this poster before, but I, I have nothing. i have no knowledge of it. Yeah, so they're basically... This couple lives in California and they're going broke. this Chris Messina's character is like ah and like a washed-up tennis star. He gets an injury and you he actually... like He beat but Roger Federer in a match or something like that and then right after he got a serious injury and so he couldn't... eat He was done.
01:25:28
Speaker
So he was out for the count and then he didn't make the millions he planned on or have the good career he wanted. And his... And his wife is played by Kaley Cuoco and she's she's pregnant actually throughout the entire first season, which I think is really interesting too.
01:25:41
Speaker
You don't see a lot of pregnant characters. Actually, where there is one. we're going to talk about it in a second. But it's it's rare to see like a pregnant character the whole season of a show. i guess the only one that comes to mind, I guess, would be like Fargo season one. I was thinking Lost. Oh, Fargo is example too.
01:25:56
Speaker
But Lost is a good one too. Yeah, I guess more than thought. Yeah. Lost is good point, yeah. Yeah, I lost a good one, but she's not... Well, want to spoil anything. so regardless of that, the idea is they're going broke. And so they just... They they hate they they have a plumber come to their house.
01:26:13
Speaker
He's like doing work or whatever. And then whatever. They they they they realize they're broke. And so like they can't afford to like even fix their house. But they figure out who this West Side Ripper is.
01:26:25
Speaker
The West Side Ripper is like this murderer. And they decide to... basic Basically, the premise is they blackmail him And they make a podcast with the West Side Ripper as like a firsthand account of like what he's doing.
01:26:37
Speaker
The deal is that he's not supposed to kill anyone else essentially. And then they're going to make a podcast. And that's what it's about. It's a, it's a pretty wacky premise. It's 30 minute episodes. It's pretty funny. It is a comedy. And I think it'd be classified as that because it's 30 minute episodes as we discussed last yep last episode of our podcast.
01:26:54
Speaker
But it's pretty good. I like it quite a bit. I think it's ridiculous, law very largely ridiculous. And the problem with it, and I kind of alluded to this earlier, is that characters are making really dumb decisions don't make a lot of sense for what they are who they are.
01:27:10
Speaker
And this is the, it's in contrast to Bronte, I guess, in that Bronte kind of made decisions that made sense based on who she is because she's just not that smart, it seems like, potentially.
01:27:21
Speaker
um But some of these characters are making stupid decisions that don't make sense because of their history and their backstory. And that's kind of where it bothers me a little bit. But it is a really fun show, and it's ridiculous.
01:27:32
Speaker
And I do kind of recommend it because it's just a fun time. it's It's like Popcorn TV 2, actually. It's not that far off of what... You is, I guess, because it's about a serial killer in a way. No, that's the TV show You on Netflix.
01:27:45
Speaker
It's about a serial killer in a way and and it's and it's following them as if they're like, ah again, they're following them. It's ah allowing it and making it almost normalizing it in a weird, absurd way. And you're like, what are why are we normalizing this?
01:27:58
Speaker
It's kind of doing that in this way too with this. like these guys These guys are like bad people, but you're following them and you're kind of you still kind of like following their story. But they make so many stupid decisions across the board for the cast of characters. And you're like, ah, this is a little bit too much. The plot holes are a little bit too much.
01:28:15
Speaker
it It bothers me a little bit, but I still recommend it. I don't know if i recommend it to you, but I recommend it largely for people who want a comedy about a serial killer and a podcast based on a serial killer. But it is good. and Have ever seen Bateman anywhere? No. No.
01:28:30
Speaker
is the tom bateman anywhere no um I'm not looking at his face, so I just said that, but name doesn't ring a bell. I don't know if I've seen him anymore. It's like... Death on in the Nile. I watched that movie, so maybe that's... And Murder on the Orient Express. He's in both movies. and Okay, cool. Oh, he's in 13 Lives.
01:28:50
Speaker
married Daisy Ridley. Oh, really? that's cool he's married he's married to daisy ridley oh ri oh That makes sense. I saw an interview with Daisy Ridley and she mentioned that and I didn't even and didn't put those two two things together.
01:29:06
Speaker
That's cool. My husband, Tome. Yeah. That's neat. Alright. Well, I guess they met each other on that movie. Murder on the Orient Express.
01:29:17
Speaker
Yeah. Wait. He's on the Murder on the Orient Express? don't know. He's apparently in both. Death on the Niles, which he's in. She's not in the first one, right?
01:29:29
Speaker
No, I think she's in the first one, not in the second one. Really? i don't know. um No, yeah, yeah. She's in the first one. She is in the first one. Like, I'm on the... He's on both as well?
01:29:40
Speaker
Wait, they're both on both? No, she's only on Orient Express. She's only on the train. And Tom Bateman's in both. Apparently, according to a quick Google search, but i don't know that for a fact, Simon.
01:29:52
Speaker
Interesting. Okay, fine. Cool, man. But yeah, that's it. that's ah That's all I want to talk. Oh, I guess we could just talk about what we watched together that we weren't planning on talking about, which is Andor.
01:30:03
Speaker
So I finished the Andor and I watched Rogue One. And I watched them butted up against each other. Did you do the same thing? No, I wanted to. I was going to and then I did not. What the heck? I messed up, dude. When did you finish it?
01:30:16
Speaker
um
In-depth Discussion on 'Andor'
01:30:17
Speaker
Two weeks ago. Oh my goodness. So did i No, that was a big piece for me. I planned to make sure that was very important because it's what Diego Luna said to do. so was like I hate that you're shouting at me.
01:30:30
Speaker
It's too late. It's two weeks. I'm not sure what matters. I'm kidding. no i No, you should do it still. But um yeah, well, what did you think overall? It's it's over. One of the best shows on TV this year, I think.
01:30:41
Speaker
Any thoughts? It is the best show on TV this year. I think it's brilliant. I think it's amazing. I loved it. Yeah. I teared up. I feel like I talked about it last episode. Maybe I didn't.
01:30:52
Speaker
maybe Maybe not. I don't know. You did not. You talked about how you were on the last second last episode. Okay, yeah. um I think the way it ends is beautiful. It's so good, man. It's crazy that this was Star Wars.
01:31:07
Speaker
Every episode in, like, especially in the latter half of the series, but every episode, it's crazy, man. And I just think... It is so sad that we're never going to get Star Wars this good ever again, probably. are you saying it like that? You don't know that.
01:31:24
Speaker
I don't know. it's this This is just one of the greatest shows ever. It's a pessimistic view. It's rare that you get a show that comes out where you're like, wow, this is one of the greatest shows ever. Except- Yeah. You know, so it's like, I think that alone, and then it's like, okay, cool. Now it's in this franchise that is, you know, mixed reception, depending on the on on the shows that have come out.
01:31:44
Speaker
I haven't watched them all. ah But yeah, i I fucking loved it, dude. And I think Everything from the acting to the writing to to to the set design and how good it looks, everything about it is, I think, immaculate.
01:31:59
Speaker
um I quite literally have no criticisms about it, which I guess makes me a bad critic. But i I fucking loved it, dude. um Well, something could be a masterpiece, certainly. i don't know if that's a bad critic.
01:32:12
Speaker
Yeah. And ah yeah, man, it's it's sad that it's done. Um, it's sad that we're not going to get anything of this quality anymore. Anytime soon, at least in the Star Wars universe.
01:32:26
Speaker
again I genuinely believe that this is the best piece of Star Wars content there is. Period. Full stop. Hands down. There's not a fucking sliver of doubt in my mind.
01:32:38
Speaker
um Interesting. I loved it, man. And the last scene of the show as well. Made me cry. I'm not even joking. I actually cried. I'm like, I'm crying on Star Wars right now. What is going on? um yeah i i cried a lot during this show yeah must have too no the last episode of the final the first season it's crazy when g when freaking uh like um what's her name his mom his mother is saying the speech it's true yeah heart-wrenching the heart-wrenching that's really good and this season too i just can't and i'm trying to think when it when it happened
01:33:13
Speaker
It just got me a few times. I don't know if I was like really crying, but the most distinct one was definitely the last the last episode of season one. I was crazy. And the season two... You know what's so...
01:33:26
Speaker
It's crazy. Belshi, the character Belshi, I just didn't connect that he's in. oh you wouldn't remember because you didn't watch Rogue One. He's just in Rogue One so much. I was like, what?
01:33:36
Speaker
Really? Are you crazy? i didn't even know that that. was like the best connection. That was an incredible connection. um
01:33:46
Speaker
But anyway, so he's in it quite a bit. And I was like, what? Because yeah I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't spoil anything. I just thought that was really crazy to see um because they actually connected in a deeper way than I even knew.
01:33:59
Speaker
But other than that, watching Rogue One after watching the movie, it completely butts up against Rogue One. I was hoping you had seen it because i I wanted to talk a little bit more deep about that aspect. There was an element of it, the one thing that bothered me. And it's like, I feel like I don't know if it was just me because I was just like looking for the thing.
01:34:17
Speaker
But like watching Diego Luna's Castian Andor in Rogue One after watching it right after watching Andor season two, I was like, there was moments where I'm like, i don't quite buy. Like I think because Castian Andor and Diego Luna, I feel like he's developed as an actor. He's just gotten better, i think. in general, and not that he's bad in Rogue One at all, he's great.
01:34:36
Speaker
But there's an element, and there's like a first sequence, there's like a beginning of the movie, there's a moment where he has a smirk on his face when a character asks him a question about like killing ah killing someone. And I'm like, what the Cassie and Andor from Andor do that? And I was like, that's am I nitpicking? I'm not sure.
01:34:52
Speaker
That's the only thing i was kind of looking for those moments is the only thing that bothered me. But ultimately, I feel like they did a really good job of ah staying completely faithful to Rogue One. Actually, it's it's crazy how faithful they are to each other, which is, like I think, a lesson that J.J. Abrams could take to heart. You know, you know J.J., you don't have to bash.
01:35:13
Speaker
Bash the thing that came before it or after it, whatever it may be. Anyway, so knowing. Rise Skywalker, bad movie. but but But yeah, this is an incredible, and I love the way it butts up against it. But I will say this too. like Seeing this character study for 24 episodes, watching these characters so deeply, and then watching Rogue One and how fast the sequences of events happen in Rogue One, man, I'm like...
01:35:36
Speaker
I wanted the movie to stop. I'm like, please slow down. Please slow down because it's really devastating. Rogue One, really devastating. the whole That whole series of movie and show, 24 episodes and then i very quick two-hour movie, it just is a tragedy.
01:35:51
Speaker
It's a tragedy. It's really sad. And at the end, I felt completely empty. You talk a lot about a term that I feel like I haven't heard many people use, but maybe you got it from somewhere. But post-platinum depression, when you finish a video game, you you know you finish completely platinum, you get all the trophies in a PlayStation game, and it's over. And there's nothing else to achieve.
01:36:11
Speaker
When you get that, it's done. After watching Andor, especially because I watched season one again and then watched season two right after and then watch Rogue One, man, I felt empty. I i think I was like slightly depressed.
01:36:23
Speaker
I'm already on edge with depression anyway. And I was like, this is just, this is too much ah because it is a sad ending anyway, just knowing Rogue One. And then it's just like, man, it got me. It got me quite a good.
01:36:34
Speaker
And I almost wish they remade Rogue One into a movie, into a TV show, if that makes sense. Like have like three episodes, like expand it. But I know that will never happen and I don't expect that and that doesn't make any sense, of course, because it was meant to be a prequel.
01:36:49
Speaker
But yeah, I will say it's like it's too – the pacing almost – it's too fast now, but it's not a criticism of Rogue One because it's so good. It's just – yeah, it feels – it's very bittersweet.
01:37:01
Speaker
I will say that. it's It's very good. I loved it. But yeah. Yeah. It's good, man. It's crazy. It's crazy good. Crazy good. Yeah.
01:37:13
Speaker
Yeah, ah Tony Gilroy. He's got it going on. That and the rest of his family. Because I think his brother is one of the editor and editors, I think. And then he's got Dan Gilroy writing the episodes of the show.
01:37:24
Speaker
And yes yeah it's yeah, it is a masterpiece for sure. It's cool that you say it's the you're the best thing that came out this year. Because Severance Season 2 obviously came out this year, which is also incredible. Yeah.
01:37:37
Speaker
But this is really tight. And like it honors Star Wars in such a deep way. that I believe I read read this long ago that Tony Gilroy, the creator of the show, and the guy who came in to that' so help Rogue One get to the finish line, um he he said that he didn't have any connection with Star Wars. He's like, I don't even know Star Wars at all.
01:37:57
Speaker
And then he's got maybe the most connection with Star Wars now than any creator because he spent the most time with these characters and in building them out and writing them and directing them and like... It's crazy to think that the guy who had the least connection, he's like, I don't care about this. I just know what a good story looks like. is what I believe it was something like along those lines.
01:38:15
Speaker
And he came in to fix Rogue One because it was having some story issues that they couldn't seem to end it in a satisfying way. And he's like, you know what? You can shift this around. You did some reshoots. and he ah Voila! Voila! It's one of the best Star Wars movies. so Yeah. And so he can then, they're like, do you want to do and or Or he came to them with Andor, and it's like, you don't like Star Wars. how did How did you... You also stayed faithful with all the creatures, like all the different races of of creatures, the the the the architecture, and like you you had an eye for how to shoot it, and the way that the Empire reacts, and the... like
01:38:49
Speaker
if It's crazy. And it's also incredibly relevant to our time in in some aspect of like what happens with the totalitarian regimes, like on like a cautionary tale perspective.
01:39:00
Speaker
and And it's crazy. They even do like this thing. and This was going around, but there's like this thing about rape in it. It's like, what? This is in Star Wars. You went so dark. I was like, dude, this guy like nailed everything about it. Like the cinematography is so great.
01:39:16
Speaker
I think it's like cinema the cinematography might be like trying to mimic perhaps. I think it's, you know how pilot episodes happen? And then like a good example I always think about is Mindhunter, although you haven't watched it. But Mindhunter season one, the first few episodes are directed by David Fincher.
01:39:32
Speaker
And then all the other episodes follow suit. Like you can tell that they follow they followed the design language of what David Fincher laid out for them. And you can tell that it's similar. And I find that Greg Fraser was the cinematographer for ah for Rogue One.
01:39:47
Speaker
Greg Faggisner, who's, I think, amazing, personally. He's a cinematographer for Dune. He's a cinematographer for the Batman. I think like he's great. like I just think about the Batman shot with the flare.
01:39:58
Speaker
and think It's just like, it's so good. So good. Anyway, so I think like they followed that in some way. like I just think about, when when I think about Andorra Season 2, I think about the fields. Like the stormtroopers in the fields, in that one planet.
01:40:12
Speaker
It's just something really, like, I don't know, amazing about it. The way that they shoot Coruscant and like the grittiness of the various aspects of Coruscant. I want a video game That's like rated M in Star Wars. I know that won't happen, but like a gritty, even you don't have to do it rated M because like, there's no blood. So you can just do it like a rated T for teen, like really at the edge of T for teen.
01:40:34
Speaker
You know what I mean? and make a green Yeah. Dark and open world, just on Coruscant as an example, and just do like a, like a, like a crime drama would be so neat.
01:40:45
Speaker
But what if they did it? That's another example. Actually, why does it have to be a video game? Why not do a TV show crime drama on Coruscant? That would be cool. Show a Breaking Bad type crime drama, but just use the setting of the Star Wars universe in the best way possible.
01:41:00
Speaker
You hire Vince Gilligan for that. you know okay Imagine. and see like You can do things like that. You can do what he did here, but you do you don't have to do like the fascism angle, like the the crazy regime angle of the empire, although that's amazing. and we've You've talked about this many times and how you love the fact that they flip the idea of heroes and villains on its head. Like who are the heroes? Who are the villains?
01:41:23
Speaker
Stellan Skarsgård's character is amazingly written, amazingly acted. That a whole arc is just crazy. Yeah. Unreal. It's amazing. Yeah. I can't recommend it enough.
01:41:36
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I can't recommend it enough to people who don't like Star Wars. Yeah, I think it is honestly a really good jumping on point. I feel like you could kind of just hop in without the knowledge of of anything else.
01:41:49
Speaker
It'll fill you in. Yeah. bro Rogue One, I mean, and or notoriously now, like not notoriously, I guess, because it just happened, but it it it butts it up right against...
01:42:01
Speaker
Sorry, Andor butts right Rogue One. Rogue One notoriously butts literally right up against ah New Hope, like the original Star Wars from 1977.
01:42:12
Speaker
So that connection is like you could literally go into that original trilogy and just stop there, and you're like, wow. and that was Amazing. That was a pretty good... Yeah, it's cool because I remember when we watched Rogue One for the first time, and I loved it. And it was like one one of my favorite parts about it is that it retroactively makes...
01:42:30
Speaker
a new hope, a better movie. And like, yeah, like those movies better. And I feel like Andor now is like, arguably again, and or retroactively is making Rogue One a better movie, which is making a new hope, a better movie. And it's like, yeah, you got this like perfectly concise tale together. And then yeah the best part about that is about 30 years later, another fascist regime shows up and Palpatine returns somehow and yeah it's all ruined.
01:42:55
Speaker
So that's really cool. But apart from that. Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. Yeah. It is what it is. Anyway, Masterpiece.
01:43:07
Speaker
Loved it. Masterpiece, dude. So good. Again, I can't recommend it. And for those people out there complaining about Star Wars, like Star Wars isn't bad good. so Some Star Wars isn't good. Just watch Andor and shut the hell up.
01:43:18
Speaker
And then,
Marvel's Experimental Strategies and Critiques
01:43:19
Speaker
you know what i mean? Like just kind of go into everything. Same with the MCU in some way. Like go into it with this open mind. If if you don't want to watch it because it was a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, don't do it. Like that's okay.
01:43:29
Speaker
But if you're if you're watching Andor, I mean, you're well taken care i mean you're well taken care of it's definitely it is really okay yeah cool uh let's move on now adrian to the two things we saw in theaters which one you want to start with want to just you want to eddington okay sure or do you want to do fantastic four uh uh either way let's let's stay on yeah let's stay on theme we can talk about fantastic four first steps okay how many steps do they take four
01:44:03
Speaker
Mm-hmm. The entire movie. You know what's funny? So I was in ah i was in a Walmart the other day because I yeah work like alongside re retail associates at Walmarts and various places to sell technology. Anyway, there was... Thank you.
01:44:19
Speaker
I couldn't believe it. I'm like, there's no way they've been selling it for that many years. When did Fant4Stick come out? The movie with fifteen Michael B. Jordan. So I'm like looking over in the movie. Sometimes I'm waiting a long time for, because I don't work at Walmart. I work with, I need their help.
01:44:35
Speaker
So I'll ask them for assistance and I'm waiting for a long time. And I look over, I peer over while I'm waiting. I'm like, is that Michael B. Jordan in a Fantastic Four movie cover?
01:44:47
Speaker
I was like, why are they selling that here now? couldn't believe it because like it's not good but do it was that just like a play like oh we know we're gonna sell it right now because it's like the people are gonna get confused and think it's the fantastic four first steps and go buy it in the local walmart i couldn't believe it it's not even a cover with everyone on it it's just just his face burning up like he's just like he's a because he's flame on guy whatever his name is yeah they're trying to they're cap they're trying to capitalize on sinner's success and now the fantastic form first steps movie being out I kind of think that's what it is. Like that was like a Walmart choice. Like I know what we can do.
01:45:24
Speaker
We can really sell this. I didn't see it and elsewhere. I just saw it. That was very strange because they have a small Blu-ray collection now. They don't sell that many Blu-rays. So it it was really jarring. But anyway, we so we watched fan, fan for the real task. I was going to say a fan, fan for stick, but we watched fantastic for first steps starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby,
01:45:44
Speaker
I'm lost back rack and I forgetting the, I think his name was Joe. Joseph, it is Joe. was gonna say Joe. It's Joseph ken Quinn from various things like strangers things.
01:45:57
Speaker
And so yeah, what did you think overall? Like what was your thought? Oh, I guess I would give a tiny preamble. So this movie is very standalone. It takes place as the trailers dictate in a standalone universe, not the Marvel universe with the Avengers though as we know it.
01:46:14
Speaker
which is interesting because then you don't need, as you mentioned earlier in the show, you don't need all this background information and homework to be done to understand how the movie is going to play out. You're just introduced to the movie, you're dropped in and they explain things rather quickly.
01:46:27
Speaker
And then you're like, Oh, here it is. We're going to fight this villain or whatever it is going to be. And, and it, it does a good job with that aspect. I feel like, and I felt speaking of star Wars, actually, i felt like it was almost like, or like Superman. If it just drops you into the world and it,
01:46:43
Speaker
they really kind of just throw you in and in a cool way. Cause don't just spend an hour explaining, Oh, and this is how they got their powers. And, and this is like, we know we've seen it already. We don't necessarily need to see it again for the second yeah time, but, but yeah. Okay. So what'd you think of the movie? Would you, what what did you think?
01:47:02
Speaker
I thought this movie was fantastic for. Okay. No, it's, it's, it's pretty good. I, I, um, yeah, I quite enjoy this movie. I think it's really fun. Um, I think the chemistry between the main cast is incredible.
01:47:23
Speaker
And it, and like you mentioned, it kind of throws you in, but you believe the relationship between all four of the main cast members, you know, Sue Storm, Mr. Fantastic. They're married. Um, human torch, uh,
01:47:37
Speaker
Ben Grimm, all these characters, you know, hanging out together. And the actors themselves have really good chemistry as well. I know Pedro Pascal has been dealing with a lot of anxiety um as of late. So Vanessa Kirby's been touching him and all that stuff outside. So I feel like that adds to the chemistry angle.
01:47:52
Speaker
um But sure yeah, I think they all play off each other very well. And again, like I believe that their relationship, like they've been That they've known each other for years and that they're close and that they are a family.
01:48:07
Speaker
it's It's really cool of how it just kind of throws you in. And it does a similar thing to Superman, actually, where, again, throws you into the universe and kind of does like a montage in a weird way of – you know what what's come before just to like kind of get you into the the the the new universe that this is set in i do think that because of that i like where it just kind of throws you in this movie almost misses its entire first act it like kind of starts there's a bunch of flashbacks and then you're in act two whereas superman i feel like didn't have that same issue even though it's kind of following a similar formula if that makes sense
01:48:44
Speaker
I feel like you're really just kind of thrown into this movie in a way that it's almost like whiplash. um Not the movie Whiplash, but it gives you whiplash. am Yeah. And that is actually like one of the things I kind of picked up on when I watched it initially.
01:48:59
Speaker
It is just very go, go, go. And I think it's very evident that they cut out a bunch of this movie. Maybe this is just me kind of reading into it because John Malkovich was supposed to be in this movie as Red Ghost or some shit like that.
01:49:10
Speaker
He was in the trailer. That's the crazy thing. Yeah, in the first trailer, right? Yeah. And they cut him out entirely. And I feel like maybe when those stories were coming out, I was just hyper aware of it. So i I felt like they really cut down on the first act.
01:49:26
Speaker
um There's also additional characters in this movie, Natasha Lyonne's character in particular, where she's really in two scenes. Yeah, she's underutilized. Yeah, that's for sure.
01:49:38
Speaker
I feel like there's there was supposed to be more of a plot element between her and Ben Grimm's character. And I feel like, again, there's really just two two scenes and you're like, oh, okay, interesting.
01:49:50
Speaker
um So I do feel like this movie, like again, suffers a little bit because of that. I think... this This movie is a brisk hour and 55 minutes and it feels like fairly quick. And I i would have honestly liked to stay in this universe a little bit longer. Like I would have been fine, but you know, adding an extra half hour to this because I really like these characters and I like this universe because this universe comparatively to the MCU, seems much more positive and friendly and lighthearted.
01:50:20
Speaker
People love the heroes here. There's not this weird drama between like, oh, heroes hating each other, blah, blah, blah bla blah government being involved. It's like, no, the Fantastic Four is here.
01:50:31
Speaker
They're pretty much the only superheroes around. Everyone loves them. And it adds like this, again, positive, fun tone into this movie um that I really liked.
01:50:42
Speaker
Paul Walter Hauser in this movie. i think he's really good in it. um You know, doesn't have a huge part in it, but he plays. I don't know that's spoilers, so I won't really dive into it.
01:50:54
Speaker
But he's in this movie. I really like his character. um And I think Julia Garner as Silver Surfer, really cool. I like that storyline. I like where they're kind of going or where where they went with it.
01:51:07
Speaker
And I think she does a really job. I know you didn't like her in Wolfman. mentioned that many times. Yeah, yeah. A redeeming role, you know? She's also in Weapons, too, in a big role, too. So we're going see her And again, I...
01:51:18
Speaker
I wasn't blaming her in Wolfman. I think he was just bad writing and and bad direction. She's amazing in Ozark. And I'm sure, again, she was really great in this. And I'm sure great this. was surprising a little bit.
01:51:29
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't think she was that bad, but it was like i was it was a little bit surprising. like Yeah, it threw me off. It's a disappointing movie though overall. So I'm not sure. Yeah. Um, so all in all, again, I really liked this movie and one final call it Ralph Innocent.
01:51:42
Speaker
This guy fucking love his voice. He's galactic. It's amazing. He is so good, dude. He's in final fantasy 16 actually as well. He plays one of the main characters, Sid. And ah this guy's voice is just so remarkable.
01:51:55
Speaker
It's so unique. It's like this deep gritty voice that just works. And, um, Yeah, I think this movie is genuinely enjoyable.
01:52:06
Speaker
100% worth of watch. If you've kind of fallen out of the MCU, you know, over the last little bit, I think it's worth kind of hopping back in at this movie. Or if you just want to bring someone new into it, I think this is a really good jumping on point because again, it's not really connected to the wider universe because again, takes place in a different universe.
01:52:23
Speaker
um So yeah, I really liked it. um Again, that's kind of high overview thoughts. I rambled a bit there, Simon. What did you think? Yeah, I really liked it too. The positivity angle is really neat too because I think Superman is very positive and that's another problem with the box office maybe. is like You have these two very positive superhero movies so you don't have Zack Snyderverse anymore. they're not They're not polar opposite kind of showcases.
01:52:45
Speaker
So that's something. I really enjoyed retrofuturism the the retrofuturism of it Like they're in ah yeah an old New York City, but it's not old. It's new. The technology is like way advanced, but not. It's really cool because it's obviously obviously an alternate future.
01:53:01
Speaker
Yeah. Or alternate present, I guess. Yeah, very Jetsons. Exactly. it's It's excellent. But the production design, the costumes, that everything in this in terms of the like the the work behind the scenes to make everything work. that the There's like a point where they leave a boot print somewhere and it's like ah there's an etched in four in their boot print.
01:53:22
Speaker
soul thought that's just like it's awesome i i i love the little details that they the the the tiny little details that they put into this there's so much attention to detail their suits and they're like they've they got astronaut suits that are unique for the for this specific world that the robot uh herbie is so interesting i think like yeah i don't know i i think like i love it I loved it overall. And it's a delight. It was a delight to watch.
01:53:49
Speaker
It's, it's, it's really good. I just think, again, they should have spread it out ah from the perspective of trying to make more money and maybe not learning the wrong. I don't want them to to learn the wrong lessons. Like this is that this is not good.
01:54:00
Speaker
that's That's the worst thing that could possibly happen. I think what you were saying, before I ever written here, like excellent cast chemistry, the dialogues well-written between the characters.
01:54:12
Speaker
I think you're right. There could have been more in the beginning. I think they had a good establishment of the, of their situation, everything like that. But I think that they could have spent more time. I just wanted to see them together There's an element of, they were so likable. This cast of characters, the this family element is so likable.
01:54:31
Speaker
I want to see them more together. Pedro Pascal could act at the phone phone book, honestly. He's just so good, though. He's so strange because you can give him the same mustache in every movie, and I seriously believe the guy is a different person every time.
01:54:43
Speaker
I don't get it. He's so different as Joel from The Last of Us. He's so different as, but obviously, as this character here. i that At least I saw him in the trailer in Materialist, to name a thing that we yeah that he's in ah more recently as well. the Mayor in Eddington.
01:55:00
Speaker
The mayor of Eddington is so drastically different. I find he's really interesting in that way. And the way he does an accent in this is an old-timey New York accent, but it's very subtle. It's not ridiculous.
01:55:12
Speaker
i I kind of love the way what he did with that. His vocal coach or whoever whoever worked with him as dialect coach. Yeah. great job to both of you. Cause like that yeah was amazing. I thought that it was really cool.
01:55:23
Speaker
I agree completely. And I think what the really cool part about this as well um with him, like he plays a lot of very well written characters too. Right. So like, I think the writing really supports him on this and this version of Reed Richards that we get and his portrayal of him is, is great. And he's actually intelligent and like, you believe how smart he is.
01:55:44
Speaker
Whereas there was a different MCU movie where there's a Reed Richards in it. Um, and like he does a couple of things and it's like, you're supposed to be the smartest man alive. And you literally just like put through your cards out on the table.
01:55:56
Speaker
Um, like a fucking idiot. and And it was used against, and it's like, what? Um, so yeah, nuts yeah that's crazy. I would agree. in that I also found that the characters are bit they're flawed in some aspect too, but in subtle ways. And they don't explicitly say it out loud. I distinctly remember the first Fantastic Four movie and how much Ben Grimm really hated being a rock guy. I remember that distinctly. is like the The thing I remember most about it is he's just a tortured soul. And I don't think they they like di dove into that with this movie as much in it such an obtuse and strong way. It was very positive in a large way, even though he's clearly the one with the worst. outcome of powers that he received like Evan Moss Bacharach is amazing too I really do think this guy is crazy good there's an element of there's a I don't know why but over the last little bit I've been saying it like just randomly the the way he delivers certain lines like okay okay that line for some reason I've been thinking about it I don't know why it's in the trailers. It's just really, there's something really, you're wormy about it.
01:57:06
Speaker
It's a delivery choice though. What, what's the line in the writer's room? Oh, it says i on the script. Okay. Okay. Like yeah he just killed it. He delivered it in a way that's unique and he, he doesn't have as much to work with cause he doesn't, he's got a bunch of green dots on his face. So to film, I don't know. He, they're very impressive. Yeah.
01:57:27
Speaker
yeah And i again, I believe them as a family. I believe the brother-sister relationship. i I believe the husband-wife relationship 100%. And what yet we i that's the biggest problem with the film overall is I just wish we saw more of them. And I i wish it was a TV show is actually kind of my main criticism.
01:57:44
Speaker
yeah I want to see more of the family. and And I think this version of Fantastic Four as well, it really makes you think how much The Invincibles is The Fantastic Four.
01:57:55
Speaker
Like deeply, like the Pixar movie The Invincibles. Yeah, I feel like there is kind of parallel. This movie kind of feels very Brad Bird. Yeah. It could have been, yeah. Oh, that's another great point. Thank you for reminding me. I should have should have mentioned this out of the gate.
01:58:11
Speaker
Matt Shackman is the director of this. He's the director of WandaVision. I am really impressed with Matt Shackman. I got to say, I was like really worried about this film for one reason, and it is Matt Shackman.
01:58:22
Speaker
cause i um But it's not Matt Shackman's fault. He didn't write WandaVision. So I shouldn't really blame him. The weird thing is the writer of WandaVision went on to make Agatha all along, and I think the writing in that is really great. so yeah Especially the way it ends. I was very impressed.
01:58:38
Speaker
So i don't know I don't even know anymore. It's like almost... Maybe do I like WandaVision more? No, I don't. There's too many red herrings. feel like, honestly, WandaVision's really good except for the ending. The ending just kind of falls apart. It doesn't pay off. For me, that was my issue.
01:58:54
Speaker
It just evolves with a bunch of lasers. and it's and it almost That's true. Yeah, it's like, i don't know if that was like studio interference where it's like you got to do some crazy Marvel because that was the first Marvel TV tv show. It's like you got to do a battle.
01:59:07
Speaker
You got to do something because that's like every movie does that. And I don't know. But yeah, I do. I do agree with you. I think Matt Shackman really nailed it here. Yeah. Yeah, it was tight directing, I think. Very.
01:59:19
Speaker
Again, except for maybe the aspect of removing scenes. But I thought about it on the way home and I thought, you know, I bet, because you mentioned it in the theater parking lot as we talk about movies. Every time we come out of the theater, we just talk about them in the parking lot briefly. But ah you mentioned that you found that they cut scenes out and we knew that they did because we we talked about specifically John Malkovich.
01:59:41
Speaker
But there's this element like, I think they did it for this. I swear they keep doing this for the runtime. And it just strikes me as interesting that it seems like that's the reason.
01:59:53
Speaker
Because they want, the problem is when you have too long of a runtime, it makes it so that it's hard to put it in theaters. that You want to get it as many screens as possible. At a certain point, you there's like a cutoff. It's an optimal, there's an optimal level you want to hit.
02:00:08
Speaker
So I think there's there's there's maybe an element of not only do we remove the scenes because it doesn't quite work as as well as the flow as we wanted, but it might have been also because they wanted the runtime. I hope it's not the second one.
02:00:19
Speaker
I hope it is mainly the flow because I i would have loved to see John Malkovich in the MCU. That would have been amazing. And that seems like a that's never going to happen now. So that would be unfortunate.
02:00:31
Speaker
But yeah. Also... Sorry, you... No, no, no. Please, please, please. Michael Giacchino, what a score. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Amazing. It's a good call-out.
02:00:42
Speaker
He kills it. He kills it in everything. And he killed it here. like and the the The element of it like being this... like Especially because of the nature of the positivity of it, but this... like this choir singing Fantastic Four. It's something about that that works really well in this world.
02:01:02
Speaker
And I'm really curious what this means for the rest of the MCU. I want to see this be a trilogy of movies. And I'm wondering, again, are they going to take the wrong lessons because of the the drop in box office? But also, what does it mean to be a trilogy of movies? Because obviously, the Fantastic Four will play off the Avengers eventually.
02:01:19
Speaker
um I don't want to get into that too much because we don't want yeah They're going to eventually somehow merge somehow, and they might not be in a retro-futuristic universe in some way. And so how does that work? What does that look like?
02:01:31
Speaker
Yeah, the the the most disappointing part about this movie, and in my personal opinion, is that clearly... clearly with the Avengers doomsday that's taking place in the main MCU. And it's already been confirmed that these characters are going to be in those movies. Right.
02:01:45
Speaker
So. Right. you but You can deduce, you can deduce that they are going to be in the Marvel, like the proper MCU somehow. They're going to do some dimensional swap stuff. Right. And my worry is, is that they're not going to go back to this fun universe.
02:02:00
Speaker
It's like you guys set up a really, you guys set up a really cool universe. I want to see more of this. I would, I'm cool with it being kind of more of a self-contained, like, you know, cast of characters where it's like, okay, cool. Like there isn't like all the Avengers around, you know? And yeah, I'm a little disappointed because my assumption is, is they're going to merge it all together and we're not going to get this cool retro future world anymore. We're not going to get this positive tone that the entire world has, you know?
02:02:29
Speaker
Um, it's it's yeah It's interesting. That's an excellent point. and and know I will say like we're not in the the Marvel Cinematic Universe, your granddad's Marvel of Cinematic Universe, you know the one that started in 2008 anymore.
02:02:43
Speaker
There's an element of why doesn't why doesn't what happens at the end of the movie, as an example, or what's going to happen to lead into Avengers Doomsday, why doesn't that happen in the second movie?
02:02:56
Speaker
You know what I mean? like Did you need to do this? I don't think they they they did because the box office has been soft for Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and they're kind of panicked over at Marvel a little bit.
02:03:07
Speaker
there they're They've been experimenting after the end game, and that's fine, but a lot of their experiments haven't worked as well as they want. and I think now they're they're not doing Iron Man 1 to 3 before.
02:03:19
Speaker
it was Iron Man 1 and 2, and then we got Avengers. This is crazy. There's very few... Things that got... You know what i mean? There was like very few sequels that came out before the big show movie, like the big showcase film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the past.
02:03:37
Speaker
Even like... Yeah, I don't know. They realize that they can see the dollar signs, so they don't want to – but you can't take the risk. yeah In my opinion, it would have been nicer to see Fantastic Four as the best 10-pole TV series on Disney Plus for six episodes and then bring them into the overall Avengers MCU. You know what I'm saying?
02:03:56
Speaker
Saying on that? Because then we would have seen a lot more character development. We would have seen a lot more villains. But then you might lose people because the average audience for the MCU is into the movies. Yeah. I don't know.
02:04:07
Speaker
But it would have been nice again if they could have done it in the sequel. Like the second movie then links up to Avengers as opposed to what it's going have to be because the only two movies coming out next are Brand New Day Spider-Man and Doomsday for Avengers. Yeah. so And then after Doomsday, it's Secret Wars or whatever. i don't even know if there's a movie in between those two movies.
02:04:25
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. If there is, it's not like officially announced. so Yeah, I don't think it was announced. They might just announce something else. Yeah. Oh, another thing they did really well.
02:04:36
Speaker
They got the power hierarchy right. they didn't i I could see these characters have weaknesses. I understand that they're not invincible. There's elements of... that that That aspect that I've been wanting from the MCU for a while, I just made fun of the fact that Sam Wilson lands on his feet ah after diving at terminal velocity and somehow survives. His butt should have flung out of his butt. yeah Yeah.
02:04:59
Speaker
No more butthole. Yeah. His hips broken, legs shattered anyway, but not, not, not no, he got hit by a car or something like that. At one point, he's just perfectly fine. He flies through a jet.
02:05:10
Speaker
It's just but fine. problem. He gets punched by a big red Hulk and he's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's no problem. He gets up and he goes to visit his friend in the hospital, but he's not in the hospital. Yeah, no, he's fine. He's a human guy. There's no super soldier serum.
02:05:22
Speaker
I was thinking about this recently. Are you ready for a diatribe or should I avoid this? I could just go for it, man. Go for it. Why the fuck not? It's just me and you. There's one thing I was realizing recently, okay?
02:05:33
Speaker
i I looked to define, I was just like thinking about it I was looking to define a theme park film in a way. And I think I found it. I was thinking about it actually in context of Eddington, weirdly. We can talk about that after like for a brief moment, but The theme park film is a film in which there aren't any stakes. When you get on a roller coaster, you go from the the the beginning, you know you're in the station and you go all the way around and you get to the end.
02:05:59
Speaker
You're not planning to fall off. It's not Final Destination. So you're not going to, the roller coaster is not going to crash. Final Destination 3. It's all spectacle. What? Final Destination 3. Oh, there you go. Thank you. I haven't seen them. So thank you for the reference. Yeah.
02:06:14
Speaker
But it's all spectacle and no substance because you're not worried about any of the characters because there's no plot that can surprise you. And that's kind of a big problem. The problem with a Brave New World, and it's the one that does it the worst, the the reason there's no stakes in Brave New World, Captain America, Brave New World,
02:06:31
Speaker
is because we don't know what the characters can do and there are no weaknesses because Sam Wilson doesn't have so so super so soldier serum and he can literally do everything without being punished for it. So he can if he can fight the Hulk and survive, he can literally beat anyone.
02:06:47
Speaker
The biggest problem with the Marvels is that Carol Danvers doesn't lose. She's never lost once. She's never lost. If the Russo brothers are smart, what they should do is in the second movie or in Doomsday, they should beat up Carol Danvers.
02:07:02
Speaker
They should show that there is someone who can beat her because the problem with MCU right now in general is that you can just bring Carol Danvers and she saves the day and it's over. yeah you it's like imagining Yeah, I'm just imagining a scene where like Dr. Doom just beats the living shit out of a woman.
02:07:17
Speaker
It's going to just a man just beating the living crap out of this woman. Well, we just worried about the political implications. You know what mean? That can't be the case. You made a character that doesn't make any sense.
02:07:29
Speaker
I love, I think Brie Larson's great. I like her. I like Carol Danvers as a whole. I just don't, your those movies fall apart every time. Every movie that has Captain Marvel in it is going to fall apart because she doesn't lose.
Superhero Films: Stakes and Vulnerability
02:07:41
Speaker
There are no stakes if she can't lose. Yeah. Like she she has the powers of Superman with without a kryptonite, right? Exactly. Yeah. You just literally just hit my my last point, okay?
02:07:52
Speaker
You know what James Gunn nailed? And you know why Superman was better than i could have ever imagined it would be? They show it in the trailer. Right in the beginning of the movie, they show you he can lose.
02:08:05
Speaker
He is the most powerful superhero probably out of every one of them. There are weaknesses though, and one of them is kindness actually, but there's the actual weaknesses that he has. And the fact that somebody could beat him is shown to you right off the get-go because otherwise there's no stakes.
02:08:22
Speaker
And then you're just watching this movie and it's boring. Brave New World is the most boring MCU movie because he is he's not going to lose. It's just not going to happen. We watch him sonic boom as he lands.
02:08:34
Speaker
There's no way he can lose. And issue they show us right away that there is no limitation of Sam Wilson. Well, no, the the irony is that they do show that he can lose because he breaks his like shoulder or whatever right off the bat. But then it's fine the next scene. Yeah, but he's perfectly fine. Yeah, that's the so they don't take anything seriously. They break the physics of their world. Man, I don't know if I should take this super serum.
02:08:54
Speaker
I can't be Captain in America. I shouldn't take this super serum. And then Bucky's like, brother, We had a whole TV series about this. Why you still talking about this, man? And the next scene again, says it again. That's the crazy thing is that, like, literally the next scene, he says It's like, God, first all, that's the worst. I should have taken that super serum.
02:09:12
Speaker
Brother, you just took a punch from the Hulk. But there's got to be stakes. an idiot. And so that's the moral of the story is there's got to be stakes. The reason why infinity war is such a brilliant film is because it it it shows you the stakes. It shows you them right to your face. And you understand that these heroes, these invincible heroes like Thor, how does he lose? It doesn't make any sense. It's incredible.
02:09:33
Speaker
Captain Marvel's not good because of this. miss marvels the marvel story miss marvel's good The Marvels are not good because you never – there's no definition of their powers either. I don't know what the Marvels do, honestly. All three of them, they're undefined.
02:09:45
Speaker
And if you don't define their powers, they can't lose because they can just make up some trick. Oh, Ms. Marvel can just now create an invincible gun and she just shoots you. That doesn't do anything for me. No.
02:09:57
Speaker
no I was like but like, I don't remember that. Yeah, because she has the weird, like, green, so almost like Green Lantern powers. Like, it's weird. and She does, right? And then that's what they got to define the Lanterns TV show on HBO. That's what James Gunn's team and, like, the people, the writer the writers, Chris Mundy and and and Damon Lindelof have to do to define the lanterns TV show. Because if you don't, then what? Do they just have, I may i am envisioned I win this battle and I've won? that You can't have that. There's got to limitations.
02:10:25
Speaker
Otherwise, you you've screwed up. But Superman is the greatest example of this. and if they i I almost feel like that's a problem in a steal. They missed the mark on that too because they don't they don't create the stakes.
02:10:37
Speaker
I love that. it's a ken It's in the first frame of Superman. They explain it. they there They don't even wait a second because James Gunn knows the problem with Superman.
Review of 'Eddington' Film
02:10:46
Speaker
He knows what it is. And that's the problem with him.
02:10:48
Speaker
Batman doesn't have that issue because Batman's a human being. You understand his issue right away. He's he's very fragile. He's a human. But Sam Wilson, also a human, not fragile. Not fragile.
02:11:00
Speaker
Not named fragile and also not that fragile. But he is very fragile. and no he's No, he's not fragile. He's actually not. Yeah. yeah Anyway. Okay. That's my diatribe about that.
02:11:11
Speaker
So I think that's one of the things that I think Fantastic Four, that brings them back to form of what the MCU has done before, what Joss Whedon brought to the table, what James Gunn did with Guardians of the Galaxy, what the Russo brothers have done consistently with all their movies. They understand where characters beat each other.
02:11:26
Speaker
They understand that Ant-Man throwing a and ah you know a gas tanker is... is needed in a fight like that because he's not that powerful can ant-man beat kang the conqueror what a problem that is when you when you do something like that how where are the stakes then of the overall mcu what by the way he can by the way but that's the crazy thing is if you throw kang the camp conqueror you make him the main guy and you make him to get defeat get defeated by the worst avenger It's like, what are you doing? The stakes are so low now. How is there going to be hype for Kang when you can't even make him fight the the ah basic – he's a comedy. he's the you like He's supposed to be the comic relief.
02:12:07
Speaker
but how you come like How is Hurley from Lost beating freaking the man in black? You know i'm saying? It doesn't make any sense. Anyway. I'm getting fired up. But do you get it what I'm saying? Does that make sense?
02:12:19
Speaker
I think so, man. I think I do get it. i think Scorsese's wrong about the theme park film, but there are a bunch of MCU movies and a bunch of movies in general, those lots of movies that just follow this idea of like, there are no stakes because all we're trying to do is create a spectacle.
02:12:33
Speaker
And if we just make a spectacle, we've succeeded. But that's not the point. like I think the Mission Impossible movies do this well, too. They make the stakes high. They make them really high. There's always a nuclear disaster on the horizon, but they're trying to solve like crazy, impossible things. and I think that's an important important aspect to pay attention to. Anyway, that's it.
02:12:51
Speaker
That's it for my Fantastic Four diatribe. Anything else stick out to you about the film? Anything else you want to talk about? m
02:13:02
Speaker
No, I think I covered everything. I feel like there was something I wanted to mention, but it it left my brain. I'm sorry. That was me. No, it's okay. It's okay. i don't think it's too much talking. I would have remembered it if it was important. You know what i mean? So yeah, I really liked it. I recommend it a lot.
02:13:15
Speaker
that's That's my main thing. And I rated a four out of five. That's my- Yeah, I think i think I'm ah at about a bit of four out of five as well. I think it's not the greatest movie I've ever seen. um Not the greatest MCU movie, but it is incredibly enjoyable and- Yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic.
02:13:31
Speaker
yeah for that's right you nu on try make that you're really trying to make that joke you're really trying it's a good first steps into the mcu yeah yeah yeah good shit okay it's time now to move on to uh to eddington yeah pedro pascal 2.0 dude Yeah, this is the opposite kind of movie to Fantastic Four in like a lot of ways.
02:14:01
Speaker
who ah Very much the opposite. It's ah also a longer movie than Fantastic Four, First Steps. Yeah. ah This is directed by Ari Aster, who directed Midsommar and Hereditary and Bo is Afraid.
02:14:15
Speaker
And um it's got Pedro Pascal, but mostly follows, I think, I should say, I mean, it shows out in the trailer too, but Joaquin Phoenix's character has also got Emma Stone in it.
02:14:27
Speaker
got Austin Butler in it. it's ah It's a pretty stacked cast. It's pretty cool that that way. it And the basic premise the spring of 2020, COVID is hit.
02:14:39
Speaker
And what does it do to a small town? There's a mayoral race happening at the same time. There's a sheriff who doesn't like COVID regulations, much like a lot of America didn't like COVID regulations. i don't think anyone liked the co COVID regulations as a whole, but a lot of people followed them. think anyone was like, fuck yeah. I'm so stoked about being locked in my house.
02:14:58
Speaker
Right. They followed them because they had to or whatever. Yeah. But... Yeah, so this this movie is, ah yeah, that's basic the the basic premise. And it's the question of what happens to this town and what happens to Joaquin Phoenix's sheriff.
02:15:13
Speaker
And I must say, this is one of the most disappointing movies I've ever watched. And yet, it's not i don't it's also really well shot and really well written in many bits. But it's it's shocking because it takes such a turn in in a way that I could have never imagined. the last five minutes of the movie, essentially. Right. In the in the shortest span of time, the tonal shift is so jarring.
02:15:37
Speaker
that I can't believe it. But anyway, I'll throw it to you. What did you think overall? And then what we can talk about specifics, but without spoiling again, because we're not spoiling anything on Spokers of Film and TV podcast. But um I think this movie is really interesting.
02:15:48
Speaker
i yeah actually really like this movie and the further I've gotten from it, i don't want to say the more I've liked it, but I still like, I i think I understand what that ending was going for. Cause to be totally blunt, I think the journey this movie puts you on and like kind of the perspectives of, cause it touches on a lot of things. This movie, again, it's based on essentially like COVID, but it it's touching on all these crazy world events that happened during that timeframe.
02:16:16
Speaker
It's everything within that frame of time within the spring of 2020. Yeah, that's a good point. Like Black Lives Matter with George Floyd and all of that stuff too. That was important as well. like That was was a crazy time to live in general. I don't even want to think about it. And we didn't live in the United States. Imagine how crazy would have been there.
02:16:32
Speaker
but Probably not good, dude. Probably not good, I'm going to assume. He's bad here already in Canada. And I think that's arguably the biggest issue with the movie apart from how the ending is kind of messy.
02:16:46
Speaker
um Messy is putting it lightly. Yeah. I just think yeah this movie has so much going on. oh yeah. And the journey with everything that's going on is intriguing.
02:16:57
Speaker
I was in this movie the entire time. But the issue with dealing with so many things is once you get to the finale, you have to essentially wrap these things up.
02:17:10
Speaker
And I think –
02:17:13
Speaker
Ari Aster unfortunately failed in wrapping things up in a concise way. I'd say. However, I think I understand the message that he was going for.
02:17:26
Speaker
But the message is in your fate. i Here's the analogy I want to give you. Yeah, please, please, please. comparison. we We reviewed every episode of of a little show called The Last of Us, specifically season two.
02:17:40
Speaker
Okay. And one of your main criticisms of season two, although the reason why you had this criticism is because you had played the game as well, for sure, because this part was like directly connected. And you would criticize the fact that they were not subtle with season two's storytelling in terms of the messaging they were trying to tell. Mm-hmm.
02:17:59
Speaker
which Which I was, I could see what you were saying because the game is more subtle. But in my perspective, having been separated from the game for a while, not having played it in a while, I thought, because it's Philosophers Part 2 is the game in this case.
02:18:12
Speaker
I thought, no, I don't think it's unsubtle. It's just unsubtle in comparison to the game, which I completely agree with you on. So here's the deal with this. This is unsubtle and it doesn't have anything to do with a but adaptation.
02:18:24
Speaker
This is the most unsubtle message I have maybe ever seen in my life. They literally have a guy
02:18:31
Speaker
attached with strings and, and you know what the message is. There is no way this is not the most unsubtle message I've ever seen in a movie, maybe ever. And the weird thing is like, could you have just done it?
02:18:42
Speaker
And the message was hinted at throughout the movie. So why not just, just wrap it up in a less like that way. I have an actual ending. I wrote it. I was so mad after it.
02:18:54
Speaker
I still haven't had after watching this movie. Because I thought, man, this guy had such a great, he had such great character development. He he nailed COVID. like He nailed how I felt in COVID. I didn't live in a small town. I understood what this was. We we worked in retail, the two of us.
02:19:08
Speaker
So we had this experience that is kind of unlike some other people. We weren't stuck inside completely. We did curbside pickup. We dealt with annoying people who just didn't want to wear masks. There's It's just – and we have to wear a mask. We had to. So what are we going to do? but Are we just not going to do it?
02:19:24
Speaker
Like we just got to do it. The mandate exists. and it was very similar to that and it it kind of gave me anxiety and it in a really – watching the movie. the The real life gave me anxiety too. I'm still recovering.
02:19:39
Speaker
But no, the the movie, though, brought me back to that time. I'm like, he nailed this. He nailed it so well. I'm so impressed. And then he gets to like the the climax of the movie. or like I guess we can say the beginning of the third act kind of thing.
02:19:51
Speaker
And we have this like crazy stuff that starts to happen. And you see it in the trailer. like There's some crazy stuff that happens. And like I'm like, that's not that unrealistic. I'm like, I can see how we can get.
02:20:03
Speaker
That's not that big of a stretch. I'm like, I'm okay. And I was like, this is... This movie is almost written like a Tarantino movie. I'm like, this is kind of crazy. Like it it's – except it's a little bit more realistic and more political I guess. But there's there's this element of it being kind of – I'm this is kind of cool because like there's some wacky shit going on and violence that you wouldn't expect potentially. And you're like, wo whoa, whoa, whoa.
02:20:26
Speaker
Where are we going with this? And then they get to the last 10 minutes and then I'm like, no, you didn't have to tell me the exact thing. Ari Aster, stop screaming at me the message.
02:20:36
Speaker
You can literally just tell me, you can tell me in any other way than this. This is the most extreme way. He's like, they won't get it. They won't get it unless I tell them. I'll tell them the message.
02:20:47
Speaker
I'll tell it to them. I'll spoon fed it to them. Anyway, well, that's what he tells it in pretty much every way, except for literally telling you it like with words. Like, yeah, if it's just like ridiculous. Look at all these visual, like, look at all these scenes put together. It's it's all visual. It's like, look at all this.
02:21:06
Speaker
This is the message. And it's very clear and concise. It's bad. Um, I'll tell you my ending after if you're interested because I wrote down. I do think that I'm not going completely off his message. I think that it's not even that far off. It's just you what you said is exactly – you said it the beginning of when you were describing.
02:21:24
Speaker
Your description was it doesn't work because – you didn't tie anything up. you You failed to tie And the thing is, is that he, this is such a long movie, man. It's two and a half hours long.
02:21:36
Speaker
He builds up all these characters and all this amazing character development. And at the end of the movie, he's just like, no, that doesn't matter actually. All that stuff you watch, that doesn't matter. yeah but Is that important? No.
02:21:48
Speaker
No, no, no. Actually, forget all that. That's not even what it's about. It's like, no, guy, you do need to care about the characters. kind You know, people, when they come to see a movie, they're not coming to see a parable. They don't want to get the message. They're not going to see, you know what I'm saying?
02:22:01
Speaker
They're not going hear parables, by the way, like the the classic know Bible parables. They're short. they they like they're right they're They're notoriously short. They're not two and a half hours of like telling you all this buildup for the parable and then it's like, no, actually it was this.
02:22:17
Speaker
No, that's not a good way to build a movie. It's just not good because audiences come to see character development. They come to see relatability and grounded nature of things. And that movie was grounded.
02:22:28
Speaker
It was grounded all the way to the end. And then they're like, totally the shift is no, actually we're not realistic. And that's why I was going to connect to Fantastic Four in the MCU is my point was when you're making any movie and you make any script by the end of the movie, you have to ask yourself or even just each scene, he ask yourself each scene, does this make sense?
02:22:47
Speaker
If it doesn't make sense, rewrite it. Because the ending of this movie based on the tone and the physics of the movie the universe and everything that has to do with the way the movie works, I find that the way that people, though the way they think and everything like that, it's not it's no longer our world anymore at the end of the movie. they he changes of the He changes the game.
02:23:07
Speaker
And that's not fair to the audience because that's not the point. like Because you can still tell your story and your you can do your message without being so heavy handed. And so yeah that's my that's my thought process. I don't hate it. Again, i really like it. It's just it went from like almost like a four and a half to like a three.
02:23:24
Speaker
It's like, how did you do that? Yeah. How did you do this? Why? Yeah, it was weird. We were so mad. And that is really good, by the way. Oh, dude, it's stellar. I think the casting, I think everything.
02:23:34
Speaker
ah Honestly, i think everything around this movie, like the performances, the the dialogue, the the the camera work, the the fucking sets and everything, like the yeah the small town feel.
02:23:48
Speaker
and And the tone up until the end is masterful. And I think yeah ari Aster, he is like, it's interesting. So I haven't watched Bo's Afraid. I really want to watch it.
02:23:59
Speaker
But I haven't watched that one yet. But Midsommar, Hereditary, and Eddington, all very different movies. yeah However, there is one... consistent through line in all of these movies.
02:24:11
Speaker
And it is that Ari Aster is a master of creating anxiety. Tension, yeah. It's just the crazy. power It's palpable. Yeah, it's... There's this... And it's not the same anxiety that you feel when you watch, like, The Bear, as an example, or The Studio. It's this very specific... I can't put my finger on.
02:24:32
Speaker
Yeah, like... Yeah, kind of like that. but you It's actually kind of more similar to Uncut Gems, maybe. Yeah, but it's it's like this... there's this discomfort that you're constantly feeling. And it's like, i think it's not only with the dialogue and what's going on, but it's like the the audio that plays. It's like, there's always this like, kind of like, like a humming in some scenes, where it just like adds to this level of discomfort. And I think he nails that.
02:24:58
Speaker
And I do admit, yeah, again, like we're talking a lot about the ending and we're being relatively big about it because we don't want to spoil it. But, you know, I was when that when the ending happened, I was like, fuck, dude, did we just waste two and a half hours of our life.
02:25:11
Speaker
And then after talking more about it, I kind of went back on. I'm like, actually, I really like the journey, although I didn't love the ending. I get where he's going with it. And I understand what he wanted. Endings are so important, though. Yeah. It is.
02:25:22
Speaker
I mean, they are. No doubt about it. They are. Especially if it discounts what you've seen. It's like yeah The Rise of Skywalker, you know? Well, The Rise of Skywalker, the entire movie sucks. But I guess that is an ending. No, but I'm saying it's the ending of the overall nine movies. That's why you don't want to. That's why you don't like. That's why you're so negative about Star Wars. You're like, oh, well, Andor is great. But it's like, we're never going to get anything like this ever again. Yeah. like guy relax. We don't know that. You're like so negative on it because of Rise of Skywalker. That's why. Yeah. Because it's the ending. It's like disappointing.
02:25:52
Speaker
yeah touche um but yeah i still really like this movie though like yeah i don't know if i'd ever watch it again don't know if i could recommend this to someone that's it i can't recommend it yeah but i can recommend midsummer but i'm like butt buckle up i would recommend midsummer for sure but i'm like buckle up yeah You want to be disturbed?
02:26:10
Speaker
Here you Midsommar is one of the great movies, dude. Like that, that movie is so good. Um, yeah. And yeah, i really want to watch Bo is afraid. Cause I know like that one's really weird and wacky and kind of out there and I don't think it did particularly well. I got to just sit down and watch it.
02:26:26
Speaker
Um, but don't know. Yeah. I'm a two months. I do really like this movie though. I do. Interesting. I do. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the ending is just it's just kind of a mess. yeah and it's Yeah.
02:26:41
Speaker
is it It's about the friends we made along the way. yeah I know, but it's like, yeah. I get that. It's not the destination. It's the journey, but the journey becomes useless if the destination is is completely – it flips the entire universe on its head. That's yeah that's my issue. It it just doesn't – yeah, man.
02:27:02
Speaker
What a crazy –
02:27:06
Speaker
I had another note, but I can't remember what it was. It was something about, oh I got distracted and I didn't say it.
02:27:13
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. It's absurd, though. The ending is absurd. And I just don't. I don't know. what the what is it Why? Why? Yeah.
02:27:22
Speaker
yeah Oh. Oh, man. Oh, one thing to note. There was a woman in the theater. That, so it was a black woman.
02:27:35
Speaker
She was sitting sitting in our theater. And this is important because they deal with like BLM and stuff. Yeah. Like the Black Lives Matter movement and, and you know the George Floyd thing. Oh, before forget. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
02:27:46
Speaker
Very funny, this movie at times. Oh, genuinely hilarious. Yeah. yeah there are you You know what I'm referencing. But yeah, yeah, go on. Yeah. We're crazy, shockingly funny in the most absurd way. You're like, should I laugh at this?
02:27:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah the the The lady in the theater. Sorry. Yeah. yeah so So there was a black woman in the theater. And when the BLM stuff started happening, like she like left the theater. I'm like, oh, like maybe she like, again, I don't understand her perspective. So I was like, maybe she thinks like this is like poorly done from from a BLM um angle. But no, she came back in.
02:28:15
Speaker
I'm like, oh, interesting. Okay. But then bathroom break. The third act started. And she straight up gets up and leaves, like grabs all her stuff and just leaves.
02:28:27
Speaker
And this is like before it started getting bad. Like, like but the last, again, the last like 10 minutes of this movie is like, what the fuck is happening? But like, yeah this is like, you know, maybe the last like 20, 30 minutes of the movie just gets up and walks out.
02:28:39
Speaker
I'm like, Really? I'm like, what? you made You made it through two hours of this. Why are you leaving right now? um And arguably she made the right choice. But yeah like, like did she did she read online that the ending's bad? And she's like, okay, this is this is a good place to end it.
02:28:52
Speaker
um I don't know, maybe.
02:28:56
Speaker
Oh my God. That was interesting to me. um Yeah, i don't I don't know, man. I just, I don't know. i just, I thought about it so deeply after I kept thinking about, I kept thinking about it. I'm like, I just don't, why would you throw the baby out with the bathwater?
02:29:11
Speaker
There's so many choices you can make that just don't do that. And it's just, man, man, I just don't get making somebody sit through that to that extent.
02:29:23
Speaker
Mm-hmm. The ending I would have chosen, by the way, just to hint at it, Austin Butler's character, I would have swapped him in for a certain character they they used at the end. don't know if you you would guess what I'm thinking.
02:29:33
Speaker
Because there's like an obvious aspect of of what the movie is kind of about at the end of it. and and so But yeah, I'll get to it. I'll maybe tell you later, but don't want to spoil it. It's just, yeah, that's it. what do you want I guess that's it. do you have anything else to say? do you want to add anything else?
02:29:48
Speaker
no no i i think that's a good place to end it without again like it's funny we've almost exclusively talked about the end of this movie without being able to spoil it but um we talked a lot about it throughout we thought cinematography is good like the the acting is incredible pedro bascal again is a different character again joaquin phoenix's character is like almost hard to watch there's like yeah There's also the aspects of conspiracy theorists in in the United States as well and how that was exacerbated by COVID.
02:30:17
Speaker
They really dived into that too. And it's it's really crazy. It's it's really cool. like that that All of those aspects are just incredible. And the character development that goes with it is incredible. But then, again, when you have an audience that you...
02:30:30
Speaker
are stringing along for this whole thing. They want they want satisfying conclusions. They don't need... yeah Like, if you watch Red Wedding in Game of Thrones or, like, the beginning of of Invincible, or what there's so many things that are very divisive. Or even, like, at the time, people didn't love Empire Strikes Back because it's it's some some choice choices in that are are interesting and people don't like seeing the way that characters that they love might lose or whatever it may be. That that part, those are...
02:30:58
Speaker
those are They changed the plot. They changed the game, I guess, but they also are satisfying in certain ways because it's just the way the cookie crumbled. That's not what happened here.
02:31:09
Speaker
I'm not upset because he just decided to do something different. He did something drastically unbelievable, and that's kind of the issue. So the overall, it's funny. I was about to talk about the rest of the movie and then just talk about the ending and again. I can't even get it where right away from it. I guess, they you know, go back to the the rest of the movie, like to to add on to it. I think there is, um ah i think the way he deals about all these like big issues is actually very nuanced. And there is like a yeah level of absurdity where it's not.
02:31:38
Speaker
I mean, there's, I think when he talks about it, there's clearly a wrong side. that he points out, but he also highlights the absurdity in the, in the right side, quote unquote, not, not the right wing, but like the, yeah.
02:31:51
Speaker
What the incorrect side. Yeah. And yeah, there's even the the incorrect. Do you, do you, there's all the, the black lives matter stuff. I feel like especially they, he showed both sides very well, like how absurd it is.
02:32:06
Speaker
That wasn't almost – it was almost not the right side. Yeah. like in the way that they're protesting, it's cool to be protesting and whatever, but they weren't doing it the correct way perhaps. They were doing it the most annoying way possible.
02:32:18
Speaker
Yeah. In this particular thing, not saying overall protesting for Black Lives Matter was bad. That's not what I'm saying at all. In this movie, yeah in the way that they were doing it. And and i think that nuance is exactly correct. The nuance is a best word. There is a – There was, it was, there's almost never any right side because there's always bad actors in every situation. Unfortunately, the the mask complainers, the people who'd clap somebody leaves with a mask without a mask is annoying too. that yeah There's an aspect of, yeah, yeah. That's a, that's a great call. it I love that you said that because that's, that's true.
02:32:51
Speaker
but He looked at it in a nuanced way. It's not like one political side bashing the other. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is, ah I think, a commentary on and You can take things too far.
02:33:05
Speaker
um Like Andor, where, you know, even the rebels took things too far at times. Even the good people do bad things.
02:33:15
Speaker
You're nerdy we look, or like how how like you're using like Star Wars. you know like no one can For somebody who hasn't watched Andor, I feel like we must sound like a couple a couple of buffoons. Yeah,
02:33:26
Speaker
yeah know Because it's just a no one will think that that show as an example is nuanced because it's Star Wars. Oh my God, dude. And so it's discounted in some way, I'm sure, for a lot of people. But there' are obviously a lot of people who watched it.
02:33:38
Speaker
What does it take to run a fascistic empire? Regular fucking people. Crazy, dude. Come on, man. Oh my God. Andor so good, dude.
02:33:48
Speaker
That's like the best. That's like one of the great TV shows of all time. Um, but yeah, i yeah, again, all in all, I really like Eddington. Would I recommend it?
02:33:59
Speaker
No. Um, do I, do I think the ending is, is incredibly messy and could have been done significantly better? Yes. Do I still like the ending? Not really, but whatever.
02:34:11
Speaker
I'm brought to accept it. we're almost You almost seem to like it more than i thought you did. I don't like it at all. And it takes away from the rest of the movie. And so therefore, it's a 3.0 out of 5.
02:34:25
Speaker
I like it in that in the sense that like I get where what he was going for. And i mean again, it's hard to miss, but I get it. Yeah, but you don't you can go for that. You can do it. You can do both. That's the thing.
02:34:36
Speaker
It's about the characters, Adrian, to reference episode 114. yeah Episode 114 title. It's about the characters. It's about the characters. That's why it's a problem. That's why it's broken because it's not about the characters. He's just like, nah, characters don't matter.
02:34:49
Speaker
It's only this message I want to tell you and shove down your throat really hard. Eddington is is exactly like Andor. anything is exactly like andor that's the title of a show uh of an episode right there anything is exactly like andor anyway uh yeah what's your score though i think you're still thinking about it that's we're prolonging this yeah i mean like right now 3.5 out of 5 i would say all right like same score friendship yeah yeah actually close
02:35:20
Speaker
I saw a deleted scene from Friendship recently. I'm going to send it to you. Yeah, the Conor O'Malley, the garage scene. Yeah, on the drums. He's on the drums. But they're like breaking in the scene. That's probably why they didn't use it.
02:35:31
Speaker
Yeah. They're breaking because it's ridiculous what they're saying. It's like, who do you even know here? is I don't know anyone.
02:35:39
Speaker
I'm just a lawyer. No, he's a real estate agent. Yeah. It's nonsense. I like, I like, uh, the, the further I've gotten from friendship, the, the more I i like, I love that movie, but it's also crazy.
02:35:51
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's crazy. Yeah. Cool. What do you rate this one? Three. Okay. Yeah. You're sticking with three. I don't know if you like were going to drop down after. no, no I'm not. i love I love the filmmaking aspect of it. It makes me so mad. I've never been so mad. I think this is the most mad I've been watching, um leaving a movie. yeah Because to me, it's like, you can come out of Jurassic World Rebirth, right? And I'm like, you know, i didn't love the plot.
02:36:16
Speaker
But it was fun. they at least they kept their tone. They understood what they were in some aspect. They didn't completely know what they were. And that's where I like King of Skull Island. What the hell am I talking about? No, King Kong.
02:36:28
Speaker
That movie is really good. King Kong. Skull Island is amazing. That's not what talking about. ah Kong versus Godzilla, right? Yeah. that one? No. Godzilla versus Kong. Godzilla X Kong.
02:36:39
Speaker
X-Kong, not Versus. Versus is bad. Project Power Glove or whatever the fuck that was called. Yeah, Power Glove. That's what it should have been called. Project Power Glove, the Kong Project Power Glove movie, they completely nailed the tone to the point where there's that moment with the freaking, was it the baby monkey? Anything?
02:36:56
Speaker
Is this a ragdolling? on. yeah that was like the best thing ever but because it's so stupid. The whole movie is kind of stupid, but they nail it. The Meg 2, better than the Meg because they understand what the tone is.
02:37:07
Speaker
That's the the moral of the story. This movie is a really good movie that was spoiled by an ending that completely discounted the rest of the film. It becomes a three for me. Yeah, fair enough. Much higher.
02:37:18
Speaker
So that's it. That's Eddington. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool though. Pretty cool. and Like overall like vibe. He killed the vibe, killed it until the end. Anyway. Yep. All right, cool. Let's get off. Let's get off this topic before I get too mad.
02:37:30
Speaker
Um, I think now, Adrian, am I wrong? What segment are we on? what are we What are we even doing? What's coming out? What's going to be here? Now onto to a segment of our show that I like to call A Look to the Future. are A portion of our podcast where each of us present at least three of our picks for the TV series or movies that look most interesting to us that are releasing between the dates of August 12th and August 2025.
02:37:56
Speaker
twenty fifth twenty twenty five who Adrian, as is customary, you go first. What are your picks for this bi-week? Simon, there's quite a bit coming out this week.
02:38:06
Speaker
Yeah? I don't know if you're aware of that. And one of the big things make my own is coming out that is coming out this week, that I'm very excited, well, these next two weeks, but it is actually this week, that I'm very, incredibly, super excited about, is Alien Earth.
02:38:23
Speaker
launching August 12th coming out on Disney plus on our end, um, directed by, or like showrunner Noah Hawley. Yeah. That's known for Fargo. um so very excited about this. Um, I don't even watch the most recent trailer cause I'm like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm going to watch this movie or sorry, watch the show anyways.
02:38:43
Speaker
I think the first two episodes launch August 12th, then it's doing week to week, which is a little bit of a bummer, but whatever. I'll watch when I have some day on time. Um, Super excited about this. I'm so curious. It's rated incredibly well. I think it's like over a 90 on Rotten Tomatoes. Amazing.
02:38:59
Speaker
Noah Hawley really great. And I'm very curious because Earth is not something they ever dive into in this like weird alternate history or history history like future history for Earth. like the The way humans are reacting, their their technology is so funky in some aspect in Alien.
02:39:20
Speaker
What, how does it connect? And also there's that, ah wait, is that in this period? actually didn't realize Predator Badlands is not here.
02:39:30
Speaker
That's not this two weeks. That's since September? Predator Badlands is like November or October. Okay, okay. Predator Badlands is clearly connected with Wayland Corp. It is. To this world. So there's an element of like, are we going to see how the...
02:39:43
Speaker
synthetic beings are built and stuff like that. Are going to see more of the inside of Wayland? I also really like Timothy Oliphant as an actor. I think he's amazing. think in Justified, he's incredible.
02:39:55
Speaker
and think he's actually really good in but ah Book of Boba Fett, actually. i agree, yeah. He's maybe the best part of Book of Boba Fett overall, other than the Mandalorian parts, which the men some of the Mandalorian scenes are crazy in that yeah show. They're almost ah better than the actual Mandalorian.
02:40:08
Speaker
But ah season three. Yeah, I was going to say. But yeah, I'm very excited about this too. I was just thinking because we were talking about Noah Hawley. I forgot about a trailer.
02:40:20
Speaker
The Jay Kelly trailer for Noah Baumbach. Did you see this trailer? No. It's a serious role for for Adam Sandler. It's a Netflix movie. And George Clooney plays it like ah an actor who's kind of like had better days or whatever, like a movie star.
02:40:37
Speaker
And like Adam Sandler is his like biggest fan, but he's he's the guy's agent or something. He's or his his manager. And it's another like, and I think it was George Clooney who said that like Adam Sandler killed it. Like he's he's just, a he's a great actor and people don't give him the credit he deserves ah in some capacity.
02:40:57
Speaker
He didn't get the credit for Uncut Gems that he deserved. That's for sure. but no unfortunately but yeah it's worth maybe seeing that trailer i'm very interested in this because i like noel bomb back quite a bit i enjoyed marriage story uh barbie's pretty good you know he wrote that but yeah i'm interested in this because i want to see adam sandler in a serious role again happy gomer did really well happy gomer too and there's apparently like a million ah million cameos in it A million.
02:41:26
Speaker
There's a lot. There's a lot of cameos. It's crazy. It's like the MCU of cameos in some way, like this MCU marathon. Not MCU characters, but there's a bunch of actors and like um sports stars that are just interspersed and in the movie.
02:41:42
Speaker
For sure, for sure, for sure, for sure. Okay, my actual choice, because J. Kelly's not coming out soon, ah is Nobody 2. Coming out on August 15th, Bob Odenkirk returns as a badass.
02:41:54
Speaker
He's taking his family on vacation this time, and he kicks some butt. who Looks fun. I'm excited about this one, too. um Yeah, I like the first Nobody movie, and I think Nobody 2 looks fun, too.
02:42:11
Speaker
It does. It does indeed. Okay. Cool. Your next pick. Cool. My next pick, Simon, is one that I am incredibly excited for as well. It's another TV show.
02:42:23
Speaker
Oh. It is a TV show called Long Story Short. Are you familiar with this one, Simon? Huh. I don't have It's a Netflix show. It's coming out August 22nd.
02:42:34
Speaker
And it is by the creator of BoJack Horseman. Oh, shit. I never saw this. It's the trailer is really good. So it takes place over the course of, I don't know, 20 some odd years, maybe a little bit longer. And it just follows one family specifically over the years and like kind of their family dynamic over those years. And I think it's just going to essentially be changing like the time period that it takes place.
02:42:57
Speaker
The trailer seems like, you know, quite funny, but it also seems like it's going to hit the, you know, hit those like emotional beats that Bojack Horseman does so incredibly well. um They're all humans though. And it's not like, you know, animal people.
02:43:11
Speaker
um looking at the trailing I'm very excited for this show. I'm super stoked. I watched his other show on Amazon, only the first season, Undone, which starred Rosa Salazar. Really great. And I know season two came out, but it was like a pretty long gap between it. And i was like, I was always mean to a watch it, never got around to it. And then my pal Peter said that the second season wasn't that good, which is unfortunate.
02:43:34
Speaker
But like Bob Odenkirk's in that um show as well, like Undone. um And yeah, I really love the first season. So I'm excited to watch long story short. It's cool that he's back at Netflix. I like the art style.
02:43:46
Speaker
I'm very curious. Why you making that face? I'm on IMDb just like looking at the various cast members, you know, Dave Franco and Ben Feldman.
02:43:58
Speaker
Yeah, Nicole Byer, et cetera. And for some reason, it's like more like this. And it's recommending something else called Long Story Short, which is a movie, I guess. And another thing called, and it's got a naked woman on it well holding her breasts. And says, fetish angel Emmy Carita.
02:44:20
Speaker
What? How is that related to this in any way?
02:44:27
Speaker
what what If you click it, it's unbelievable. Oh, yeah. Fetish angel, Emmy Corita. Oh, my goodness. Did you go into yeah Long Story Short and see this?
02:44:37
Speaker
Yeah, IMDb. She has always been a hot topic in gravure and SNS and has been called a fetish angel. Kuriemi is the latest photo collection and challenges a new stage. Photographed by popular photographer Kazutaka Nakamura, she fully expressed her beauty and cuteness as a woman.
02:44:58
Speaker
It is full of bold, sexy cuts that show off her well-trained physical beauty. Not only the fans so far, but also many people picked up. I hope you will support the launch of the new Kuriemi.
02:45:13
Speaker
Huh? Yeah, don't know, man. How is it related, though? Okay, anyway. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. like What? butts out This is softcore pornography.
02:45:24
Speaker
The images are really wild. like I don't get how this is... don't Whatever. Anyway, goodness my next pick is going to be... ah
02:45:37
Speaker
This one's a weird one. Did you see the see this trailer for Fixed? Yeah, dude. That's on my list as well. Yeah. R rated animated comedy from the creator of Samurai Jack. That's what I have written here. But it's a bunch of animals.
02:45:53
Speaker
Yeah. It looks interesting. The art style is very reminiscent to like almost like old Looney Tunes in a weird way. Like I feel like it kind of captures that a little bit more. was going to say more cartoony, but I mean, that that makes no fucking sense.
02:46:07
Speaker
Yeah. um Is that a movie or a TV show? It's a movie, right? It's a six episode. Mini series. Series. How do you. tardo It's Tartakovsky. But how do you say his first name?
02:46:22
Speaker
Genndy. Tartakovsky. Yeah. At least that's how I always said it. don't know if how accurate that is. it's Oh, it's Idris Elba as the main character. And Catherine. Catherine. Adam Devine. What a cast.
02:46:35
Speaker
Yeah, man. There's a Bobby Moynihan, which a lot of people believe that guy's in. They didn't release this because Rockstar's really like buckled up, buckled down. But they apparently Bobby Moynihan is thought to be playing a character in Grand Theft Auto 6.
02:46:48
Speaker
oh You can see him in the trailer. like It seems like it looks like him. There's not a lot of characters that kind of look like their counterpart, except for him. And then you can hear the guy, pretty sure the dude from Barry, the handler in Barry. What's that guy's name?
02:47:04
Speaker
That guy, I'm fairly certain is in Grand Theft Auto 6 as well. A little sidetrack. What's that guy's name, that actor? You know what talking about, Barry? Barry? Yeah. Barry's so good, man.
02:47:15
Speaker
What a good show. Steven Root. Plays Monroe Fuchs. Good old Fuchs, eh? Yeah. Yeah, Steven Root. He's great.
02:47:26
Speaker
um But yeah, it does sound like him in the trailer for Grand Theft Auto. But yeah, fixed. Interesting. I don't know. I haven't watched too much ah by Tartakovsky. Have you watched a lot? but Yeah, I watched Samurai Jack when I was a kid. I didn't watch his updated R-rated finale of it, which apparently is amazing.
02:47:46
Speaker
I watched his ah animated Clone Wars series that came out before. Right, the one before. Yeah. um Not connected. Stellar. Yeah. um Yeah. That's so good.
02:47:58
Speaker
and That's pretty much all I've watched of his. I know he had the the show primal, which apparently is pretty darn good. Never watched that either. um So, yeah, I'm curious about this. Maybe I'll i'll put it on. i need something to watch on my downtown.
02:48:13
Speaker
What is this on? Sorry. Is this Netflix? Netflix. It is Netflix. Yeah. yeah Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cool, man. um Up next for me is another TV show. I feel like we're just listing a bunch of TV shows, or at least I am.
02:48:24
Speaker
um It is Peacemaker season two coming out August 21st. i'm I'm super stoked for this, dude. Oh, shit. I don't have that on my list, but i I don't know why. I thought it fell out of the window.
02:48:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Good call. August 21st, man. Every two weeks. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. so Very excited. Very excited. The trailer and the connection to Superman is even like deeper now. They released that trailer before Superman came out, and it's got like Nathan Fillion and...
02:48:55
Speaker
it's Sean Gunn, Nathan Fillion, and Isabella Merced. Isabella Merced, which is really cool. I want to see Mr. Terrific in that though. Yeah.
02:49:07
Speaker
Like Edie, Eddie, sorry, Gatagi. Yeah. I'd like to see it in two. Teasemaker season two. It's going to be eight episodes. That's two months of a Crave subscription. Do I want to do that right away?
02:49:20
Speaker
don't know. I'll see. I'll see.
02:49:24
Speaker
I'll see. I don't know if I'll watch it right away. but I have craved just with the ads. I'm always watching Last Week Tonight. So I always end up having it until he can't tell his show ends. And then i jump off.
02:49:37
Speaker
Maybe I'll watch it. Fuck it. Whatever. I'm definitely watching that that i'm very excited that. That's probably my most anticipated TV show event of the year. What else is coming out this year? I just listed two, Simon. What's that?
02:49:50
Speaker
I just listed two. Alien on Earth. No, not that excited about them. Oh, Alien Earth. Really cool, but still piece better more integrat also a Stranger Things, the last season. That's good.
02:50:00
Speaker
That's split up into 15 parts or whatever. Yeah. It's exciting. Silly, dude. Yeah, I'm excited about Stranger Things. Yeah. I'm not that's i'm not fucking drooling. I'm not like, horrible you know, but I'm i'm excited.
02:50:14
Speaker
that last I think season four is the best season. Yeah, I agree with you, I think. Which is shocking. ah season' It's funny because season one really great.
02:50:26
Speaker
Then season two, I felt like somewhat fell off a cliff in some way. It's almost like Mandalorian season three of certain things. Season two with, um what's his name, from Lord of the Rings?
02:50:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That's the best part of it, actually. Jeez Louise. Sean. Yeah. It's the best and worst part. You don't like Sean Astin, Sean Astin. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't like him. Okay. But I felt like the season two is just a rehash of season one again, except with a weird road trip that didn't really quite fit.
02:50:56
Speaker
And that yeah didn't, didn't really work together. And then i felt like maybe the show is not going to be good for the rest of the seasons. And then season three in the mall is amazing. And then season four is crazy.
02:51:07
Speaker
Especially the Russia parts of season four. They were crazy. They were like this like part this this element of trying to come back together. They were all trying to get back to each other in season four. I just love it. I love it a lot.
02:51:20
Speaker
it's It's great. And people were really talking about that was a zeitgeisty show. That was like the probably one of the most zeitgeist in terms of my memory. Yeah. one of the most zeitgeisty moments. It's like a game of Thrones moment. Game of Thrones was like that too, with red wedding and all that. Everyone was talking about it at the time.
02:51:37
Speaker
Everyone was talking about season four of stranger things. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Was it your turn or mine? ah Your turn. What'd you just say?
02:51:49
Speaker
Peacemaker. Oh yeah. I'm losing my mind. Okay. I got here. i have written here splits bill. You have that one? No, i don't even know what that it is. Ah, all right. Gotcha.
02:52:02
Speaker
Splitsville is a I was going to write, type it in so I get all of the the details, right? Splitsville bowling in Guelph. It's on Woodlawn. Yeah. It's basically Dakota Johnson's in it. Uh, Adria Arjona is in it as well.
02:52:18
Speaker
And they have, there's basically messy breakups and it's a comedy essentially. But, Oh, I didn't even hear about this. Interesting. Yeah. It's directed by Michael Angelo Covino and a he stars in it as well as one of the main characters in it.
02:52:34
Speaker
Hmm. It's pretty cool. It looks good. Oh, Kyle Marvin's in it as well. And he's a writer. Oh, interesting. David Castaneda from, uh, umbrella Academy.
02:52:47
Speaker
it ah di oh yeah David Castaneda from Umbrella Cat. And Ballerina. heard yeah Nicholas Braun from Succession.
02:52:58
Speaker
Yeah, he was the trailer too. Nicholas Braun. That's good. The trailer looks good. It looks pretty funny. sir and Neon is kind of killing it. i feel like when It's like a twenty four Like the younger brother to A24 in a way.
02:53:13
Speaker
In terms of yeah success, in terms of indie films. Neon's kind of doing a good job. It's interesting because I feel like neon.
02:53:23
Speaker
Like a while ago, they they had a couple of bangers and then they just like kind of fell off again. And then I feel like with. Oh, what was that horror movie? I liked it. Nicolas Cage.
02:53:35
Speaker
oh Oh, Long Legs. Yeah, I feel like that was kind of the beginning of it being a focus again, like kind of being popular again. Maybe they saw a twenty four and they're like, you know what?
02:53:46
Speaker
If they can do it. I can do it. We can do it too. Wasn't Neon was Monkey... Monkey... The Monkey? It's called The Monkey. Monkey Man?
02:53:58
Speaker
No. Oh, is that... No, The Monkey. The clapping monkey. Yeah. Isn't it just called The Monkey? I think it is called The Monkey. Is that Neon?
02:54:09
Speaker
I don't know, dude. Why are you asking me that? I'm just kidding. I think you're right. Why am I asking that? We're on a film and TV podcast. You don't know anything? What am I talking to here?
02:54:22
Speaker
You don't even know. Imagine you're an imaginary person that I just talked to and then I was just saying i was saying all your part. Mm-hmm. That sentence, why you asking me that, would make more sense in that case.
02:54:37
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe I think that about the monkey because of the the font. and It's probably maybe neon. Yeah. I don't know. Well, they go to that hotel at one point.
02:54:48
Speaker
And I feel like there's like a. Oh, where the where there's an explosion. Yeah, a bodily proportions.
02:54:59
Speaker
Man, the the the the reviews of the monkey are pretty negative on Google.
02:55:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of one stars. I'm kind of surprised. It is neon, by the way. That's so extreme, man. Everyone's so extreme. thought this movie was pretty fun from what I remember. it was fun. What did I say? it was a three or a 3.5. I don't remember, dude. and it was Yeah, it's good.
02:55:21
Speaker
Barely remember what I thought. It was good, but I don't know. It was not the best by any means. Yeah. You know what I want to watch? This is a quick aside, Simon. I want to watch that K-pop Demon Hunters movie.
02:55:32
Speaker
That movie is like incredibly well rated, like both popcorn meter wise and tomato meter wise. The animation style looks kind of fun. It looks like kind of like they're doing action.
02:55:43
Speaker
i don't know. Do I want to watch K-pop Demon Hunters? Maybe. My fiance does. What is that? Why? Why? It's an, uh, I don't know. it's a Netflix movie. It came out June 20th. I think I mentioned it. What is it? I've seen it. I've seen it for sure. But like well what, what, what, what exactly is it?
02:55:56
Speaker
Do you understand when they aren't selling out stadium, Simon K-pop superstars, Rumi, Mira, and Zoe use their secret identities as bad-ass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever present supernatural threat together.
02:56:08
Speaker
They must face their biggest enemy yet an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise.
02:56:16
Speaker
right yeah is it is it in korean no it's in english okay k-pop is korean stands for it's it does stand for a korean okay It does indeed. Why isn't it in Korean?
02:56:37
Speaker
I don't fucking know, dude. I didn't make the goddamn movie. Are you sure, though? and you sure? I'm 99% sure. They get brought a dub situation because they love dub over there. and No, man. You'll love it. The cast... yeah No, the cast is like...
02:56:53
Speaker
I think ah they have ah like Koreans playing the characters, but I think it's in English. like Ben Jong is in it, as an example. I don't know if he's Korean, and just but he is in it. um But yeah, there's Arden Cho, Liza Koshy, Mae Hong.
02:57:08
Speaker
I don't know if these... if Daniel Dae Kim. Ben Jong. But isn't Ben... Wait, hold on second. Ken Jong. Yeah, Ken, I thought you said, first I thought you said Ben.
02:57:18
Speaker
I didn't say Ben. But Sung Won Cho is also a YouTuber. Sung Won Cho. Sung Won. I really like him. and like Sung Won Cho.
02:57:29
Speaker
He was in, he voiced the rabbit creature in God of War Ragnarok. It's not a rabbit. It's the fucking thing. The beaver. but what you know You know what I'm talking about with the tree?
02:57:42
Speaker
The tree? Yeah. Yeah, there's a tree. He's on the lot island learned and he's like, wow anyways, doesn't matter. but I lost you. I don't know. yeah yeah Okay.
02:57:54
Speaker
What? I was looking at Ken Jeong. I think Ken Jeong, well, he was born in the United States for one thing. Mm-hmm.
02:58:07
Speaker
But I think Ken Jeong is from... No, he is. Yeah. His family is from South Korea. Never mind. Nice. Never mind. Fine.
02:58:19
Speaker
It's okay. That was a waste of 30 seconds air time. Anyway... Do you know Sun Won Cho, though? Like ProZD on ah YouTube? That's his YouTube thing? No. he does ah He sings evidence Evanescence Take Me to Life as Goofy.
02:58:35
Speaker
Start to finish. What? You don't know that video? No. No, you're missing out. It's actually fucking hilarious.
02:58:44
Speaker
He's a voice actor. You said that Lee Byung, Byung Hoon is in it, right? No, I didn't. From Squid Game. Oh, he's yeah, he is in it from Squid Game.
02:58:54
Speaker
Yeah. No, I didn't say that, though. Daniel Dae Kim. I said Daniel Dae Kim's in it. Oh, that leads me to my next one. Butterfly. ah so I'm moving on August 13th on Amazon Prime Video. Actually, it's not. It's a six episode series with Daniel Dae Kim as a spy.
02:59:16
Speaker
Crazy. I didn't even hear about that, dude. I didn't even hear about that. There's a lot of weird Amazon. There's a lot of weird Amazon things I find. There's like a lot of them. There's that movie with Idris Elba and John Cena.
02:59:34
Speaker
up Is that ah Amazon Prime? Yeah, it War the Worlds, that's Amazon Prime? Yeah, they have a lot of bad like or questionable content. like The John Cena, Awkwafina movie, not that good.
02:59:48
Speaker
That's Amazon Prime. Yeah, the Pete Davidson, Eddie Murphy movie that just came out. Where it's like, hey, I'm Pete Davidson and I'm Eddie Murphy and we drive a Brinks truck or whatever.
02:59:59
Speaker
Yeah. Right. It just doesn't look good. But there's like big stars doing this. The John Cena Idris Elba one is weird because John Cena is supposed to be the president of the United States.
03:00:09
Speaker
I'm pretty sure. Oh, man. like I think John, i think this president is spending more time at the gym than the White House. I've got to say, did they install it like an incredible gym at the White House? No, this guy's just like he's getting swole. I don't know that this guy's, you know, ah broing yeah all Fixing poverty or, you know, getting getting health care going. He's kind of.
03:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm pretty sure he plays the president. I could be incorrect, but I'm pretty sure that seems maybe right. And Idris Elba plays the Prime Minister of the UK. Crikey, mate.
03:00:45
Speaker
Crikey, mate. I'm the President of the UK. I'm from Australia. Yeah. Okay, cool. what My final thing. Hey, Sam. Tall man here. Tall man here.
03:00:56
Speaker
It's tall man. The last last thing guy I got on my list, Simon, is Honeydell. You know that? Honey, don't. know Comes out August 22nd. You don't know Honey, don't, dude.
03:01:09
Speaker
It's the Aubrey Plaza, Margaret Quayley. They're lesbian. Margaret Quayley's a lesbian again. Ethan Cohn. Yeah. Ethan Cohn. Yeah, I do. I don't know if she's actually lesbian in this one. Now it's not rated well.
03:01:21
Speaker
No, the neither was the one going before. Yeah, I know I watched the one before. there They're a dream team, okay? They need to work together again. Yeah, I watched the one before. I forget which one that was. Me too. And it wasn't good. Driveaway Dolls.
03:01:33
Speaker
yeah It was okay. I don't like it. It was It's pretty Dude, that's so unfortunate. This is like Aubrey Plaza, Mark Qualey. It's worse than Driveaway Dolls. Driveaway Dolls is a 63%.
03:01:45
Speaker
yeah audience score pretty bad maybe this gonna be opposite maybe i don't know yeah i'm disappointed though he's got two don't know he's got two know where where is where's joel what happened to joel joel they're they're the dream team man the dream team what is joel doing i don't know he can only get half the rotten tomato score without his brother Yeah, maybe that's what it is. You add it together, you get 84%. That's a good review.
03:02:19
Speaker
Wow, 63%? You get 126. That's really good, man. He's killing it. Better than any movie I've seen, man. yeah that's That's unfortunate, dude.
03:02:31
Speaker
That's unfortunate. i hope I was kind of intrigued about this. I'm to type in Joel Cohen here. No, I'm curious. Where did he go? What happened to him? I don't know. Down from the mountain. No, that's freaking old.
03:02:43
Speaker
What the heck's going on? Why isn't this in order?
03:02:47
Speaker
Why didn't you give me the movies? what I would just want Joel the man. The man, Joel Cohen. There we go. Joel Cohen. The tragedy of... Oh. Uh-oh. That one was rated very well. He did something on his own. The tragedy of Macbeth. He killed it.
03:03:07
Speaker
Oh, that's the one with Denzel. Honey, that wasn't Denzel.
03:03:16
Speaker
Okay. Wasn't this on Apple TV Plus? That seems maybe correct. Dude, imagine if Ethan was there. This movie would have done 186% on Tomatoes, dude.
03:03:29
Speaker
Missed opportunities. Missed opportunities. Yeah, i hope they to get back together again. It's too bad.
03:03:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's it. That's all, man. I don't got nothing else for you. there's a There's a weird thing about this, and I don't want to connect this too too deeply because it's kind of mean. And I think Ethan Coen like one of the one of the best filmmakers ever because that duo is incredible. Their run of movies, No Country for Old Men. I love True Grid. I think it's incredible. Inside Llewyn Davis is so good.
03:04:00
Speaker
They have such a crazy – they're so good. just overall, but I will say, ro du I didn't talk too much about blue moon. That is what blue moon is about. Actually.
Ethan Hawke's Play and 'Americana' Film
03:04:11
Speaker
it's ah It's a, it's like a,
03:04:13
Speaker
a theater like script ah screen, playwright, playwright duo. And they, one of them goes off without the other one. And then he writes Oklahoma, which is like an incredibly famous play.
03:04:24
Speaker
And so it's about Ethan Hawke's character, who's the other writer. And he's like dealing with, oh, his name is Ethan. That's weird. The guy who has a connection. The actor though, is the actor. But Ethan Hawke's character is is dealing with the aftermath of his partner going off into like this crazy fame while he's got got like a drinking problem.
03:04:43
Speaker
And he uses like Margaret Qualley as like a muse. It's like a strange, it's strange because it looks like a bottle episode. It looks like it's all filmed in this one bar. It's got Bobby kind of Carnival and as the as the bartender.
03:04:56
Speaker
it's it's It seems pretty interesting. It looks cozy in some way. It's weird. Because they're like, they're just in this one place. You know, like the hateful eight.
03:05:08
Speaker
But it's not a Western at all. Anyway. Okay. Okay. Cool. I think we're out of here. I think we've what run ourselves dry that we have nothing else to say unless you've got more. No, i think I think that's it. That's all, man. I think this was such a freaking good time with you. I hope you think I brought the energy this time.
03:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, it was good. It was fun. And that's all that matters, you know? Oh, I've got one more upcoming thing. Americana. Did we say this one? August 15th comes out. Tony Tost is the director. Sidney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser.
03:05:41
Speaker
I think it's about trying to con people, I believe. They buy strange thing or they try to get this artifact. And it's got a good cast. Yeah.
03:05:53
Speaker
It's got a good cast. Yeah, it does look interesting. Is that whole controversy with Sidney Sweeney? Yeah, she's got the chance. I was just about to say, yeah. She's got a serious controversy going on right now. Dude, that was so weird. Like when there was controversy and I didn't know what it was about and I watched the the the ads and i'm like,
03:06:12
Speaker
I still don't understand. Like, I don't know. And then my fiance came home. She's like, oh, did you hear about the controversy with St. Sam? I was like, yeah. And I watched the, I watched the, not the trailers, the commercials. I don't get It's like, it's because like she says, like she's got good genes, but ah instead of like genes, it's like G-E-N-E-S. And it's like a blonde hair, blue eyed woman. and i was like, oh. But it doesn't say that.
03:06:34
Speaker
I know it doesn't say that, but that's what people are getting from it. That is what they're implying, but not the blonde hair, blue eyes part. They're implying jeans, but they're just not implying the blonde hair, blue eye part. Yeah. Just like that's the part that people are at. She's just like an attractive woman.
03:06:50
Speaker
Yeah. I think that that's what they're going for. I think it's a bit of an overreaction. Uh, but you're fucking telling me, dude, I don't even know what the element though. I will say, why does she sound like that? She sounds like she got hit by in the head with a shovel.
03:07:04
Speaker
Yeah. you know yeah That's right. Yeah. don't know. It's direction, I guess. Because she has a regular voice in other things she's in, dude. Yeah. What's up with that?
03:07:15
Speaker
Why does she sound like this? She's like so relaxed. Like she's really relaxed. You know? just bunch of fucking... i don't know. I don't even know. I can't think of a thing.
03:07:27
Speaker
It's the most like Cali voice I've ever heard in my life, you know? ah oh ah Yeah, that's nailing it without saying anything, I think. Thank you. Anyway, yeah, that's the most controversial thing about the ad for me.
03:07:41
Speaker
Just come on. Enunciate. Enunciate your words. You're a professional actress in a lot of things. Yeah. yeah it's more I feel like it's more controversial that she's selling her bathwater. But anyway.
03:07:55
Speaker
Yeah, dude. Okay, to go i'm on a tangent. Well, do you remember, like, i don't know, five, ten years ago when that OnlyFans, like, model girl Belle Delphine, when she was selling her bathwater?
03:08:08
Speaker
And then, like, all the controversy went around that, and people were like, she's disgusting. then she kind of just disappeared, like she was canceled from that point on. Was she canceled for that? Shit. Well, no one ever heard of her since then.
03:08:19
Speaker
I think a lot of that had to do with, like... but she was an OnlyFans model, but I think she did like a lot of like, I'm, I'm a little girl it's sort of like weird, like, like catering to pedos, I guess. Um, yeah. So I think that played a factor, but it's essentially the same thing, but it's like Sydney Sweden's a famous actress and and she's going to make bank.
03:08:38
Speaker
I mean, good for her, like make a shit ton of money. You you are, yeah you're one of the most famous actors out there at, ah at this moment. Like she, she's almost like, she's like the female Pedro Pascal, but younger. Yeah.
03:08:51
Speaker
Like she's in so many things. Yeah. Right. So I know she get get that bread.
03:08:59
Speaker
Yeah. Did you buy the bathwater?
Humor and Podcast Footnotes
03:09:01
Speaker
So no. Is it soap? Is that what it was? I don't remember. I think it was. She put it into soap. I think it was. bor Yeah. So because I think the Belle Delphine thing was literally just her bathwater in like a vial or something.
03:09:15
Speaker
Yeah. Didn't she? Yeah. Yeah. I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah. But yeah, I'm okay. Anyway. Oh, well. Yeah, that's it then.
03:09:27
Speaker
let's ah Let's move on. Let's move on to the end. The end of the show. Adrian, do you have anything else to say before we we end this podcast? It's the end of our regular scheduled programming. No?
03:09:38
Speaker
No. I meant to do footnotes so I could track where the certain things happened in the podcast and i just I just forgot to do the most important one and now I'm really mad at myself. Anyway, that's it. You do footnotes?
03:09:53
Speaker
Yes. Like with your feet? I knew you were going there. I should have just predicted it right away. I was like, is he actually... The way he said foot for footnotes, I thought for sure you're probably referencing feet. And of course, of course you are!
03:10:11
Speaker
No, footnotes is, and I mark parts in the episode. you know what I'm talking about. Anyway. I don't. I don't. Please elaborate. No. Not. No.
Conclusion and Farewell
03:10:20
Speaker
Thank you the audience, for listening to episode 116 of Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. My name is Simon Eadie, and it has been a pleasure to host you alongside my...
03:10:32
Speaker
super cool co-host Adrian Vinter. Please join us on August 26th for episode 117. Good the evening to you and good luck.
03:10:45
Speaker
Take care, everyone. Thank you. Thanks for your time, Simon. This was nice. I love chatting with you, pal. Goodbye.