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194 - X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
62 Plays3 months ago
“I’m the best there is at what I do and what I do best isn’t very nice.”
In honor of Deadpool & Wolverine in theaters now, we’re looking back to the first time Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds played these characters together in a feature film waayyy back in 2009! We’re talking about our personal histories with the X-franchise, our feelings on Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds in the roles they’ve come to embody, and trying to figure out where Tucker knows various actors from this film! Join us!
We may not be the best there is at what we do, but we’re doing it anyway! Come find us on these social platforms:
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:20
Speaker
I'll sing one for you All right, Bubs, listen up. We're the disenfranchised podcast. We're that podcast all about those franchises of one. Those films had fancied themselves full fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film. I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy. And joining me, as always, the man who, if he could only shut his mouth, would be the perfect podcast co-host. It's Tucker. Hey, Tucker. Hello, Stephen. How are we doing tonight? How's it going? I'm good. I'm, you know, I'm good.
00:00:52
Speaker
I feel great. It's going again. I feel great. I feel wonderful. Yeah. Right on.
Deadpool and Wolverine Movie Discussion
00:01:01
Speaker
Right on. Of course, i our good friend Brett Wright has has gone mysteriously missing after our secret government cabal disbanded. So hope he's doing all right. male Right. But in the meantime, Tucker, there's ah there's a movie out in theaters that the internet can't wait to spoil for you. Oh, God. Deadpool and Wolverine, and so to celebrate, we're covering the movie that introduced us to the pairing of Deadpool and Wolverine on the big screen. Tucker, what movie are we covering? We're covering X-Men Origins, Wolverine. From 2009!
00:01:45
Speaker
yeah We're going to talk about that here in a second. X-Men Origins Wolverine directed by Gavin Hood and written by David Benioff and Skip Woods and starring Hugh Jackman. God, who's who's in this fucking thing? Who's in this train wreck? Hugh Jackman. Will.i.am. Leave Schreiber. Danny Houston. The great fucking Danny Houston. Will.i.am. Lynn Collins. Kevin Durand. Dominic Monaghan. Taylor Kitsch. Daniel Henney. Ryan Reynolds. And, I mean, scads of other people, including a cameo by one Patrick Stewart.
00:02:26
Speaker
Hey, who plays the white queen? Because I recognize her. What a cast. I know her from. What a picture that with her name is.
Actress Tanya Tozy's Filmography Debate
00:02:37
Speaker
Taina Tozy, she's an Australian. It's T-A-H-Y-N-A is the the first name. So i Tanya, maybe it's Tanya. Maybe something like that. Sure. um Currently McManus is her current last name. What do you know her from blue water high? ah Beautiful trophy kids needle dead space to Julia the ever after the last light
00:03:15
Speaker
No. An episode each of CSI New York, 11th Hour, CSI, Charlie's Angels and Scary Endings. No, dude, no. Or a television show. She did three episodes of a television show called The Strip. No, dude. She looks so familiar, though. I don't know what you've seen her in then, because that's I just read her entire filmography off of Wikipedia. Yeah. Well, I suppose it's a mystery. Maybe there's somebody else out there that looks like her that I'm thinking of. Maybe. youre maybe Straight up maybe. I do wanna just for posterity mention that we were supposed to have a guest on this episode, but my life has been so insane, I forgot to ask him. So Sean, if you're listening, I am sorry. My bad. Sorry, Sean.
Richard Donner's Influence on 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'
00:04:05
Speaker
Past and future guest, Sean Rose. Hey, did you know Richard Donner produced this?
00:04:11
Speaker
Yeah, along with his wife Lauren Shuler Donner, because, because Tucker, they were the producers on the first X-Men, which is how Kevin Feige got involved at all. Oh yeah. He was their producing partner. ah Richard Donner's producing partner, and so Hugh Jackman used to just like go down to Feige's office. during um like ah during breaks from the first X-Men because Hugh must not be named had like a strict no comics rule because he thought comic books were childish and silly. And so- Why are you making a comic
Director-Producer Conflicts and CGI Critique
00:04:50
Speaker
book movie dude? Exactly. And so Hugh Jackman would go down to Feige's office so he could read the comics and learn more about the character he was supposed to be portraying. Dude yeah.
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, dude. did you ah So I heard that on this film that like the director, he wanted to do a certain thing and the studio was like, no, you're going to do this this thing. And so they flew Richard Donner out to be like, hey, man, um you got you kind of have to do the studio thing. And he was like, oh, OK, Richard Donner, I guess I'll do that. I mean, I would not be at all surprised because This does not feel like, given what he's made up to this point, this does not feel like a Gavin Hood movie. Yeah.
00:05:36
Speaker
Up to this point, Gavin Hood has directed a short film called The Storekeeper, a film a theatrical film called the reason A Reasonable Man, a film with a ah ah title whose name I cannot pronounce because I do not speak whatever language it is in. My guess is Afrikaans, but it could be something. In Desert and Wilderness is the American translation. um given, I say Afrikaans only because Gavin Hood is from South Africa. um The movie Tzotsi and Rendition. So like none of these feel like the kind of movie Gavin Hood would like, like this this movie doesn't feel like any of those really. um So yeah, I, oof. Mm-hmm.
00:06:28
Speaker
I mean, when you and particularly when you look at some of the people they wanted ah for this film, like Len Wiseman, the guy who gave would give us the underworld franchise, Alexander Aja, the man who rebooted The Hills Have Eyes. Yeah. He did high tension. That was his big break, was high tension. That was really good, though the ending kind of makes the whole movie not make sense, but still getting there is a fantastic ride. Right. And then Zack Snyder, they also approached Zack Snyder, but he was watching at the time. Watchmen. Yeah. So he, and they also wanted him for ah Zack Snyder for the last stand as well, which went to Brett Ratner.
00:07:13
Speaker
um both Bratner and He Who Must Not Be Named said they were interested in returning to the franchise. um One of them would and would drive it subsequently into the ground. The other would basically it canceled very quickly thereafter. So mayor I could see a Snyder version of this. In fact, I would I don't know that it would be any better, but I would definitely be interested in seeing it as ah as a self-proclaimed fan of his filmmaking style. I'll tell you one thing it would have- I'm not a fan of his writing, but like I do love his filmmaking style. I tell you one thing, it would have a lot more of than this movie. Slow motion sequences. I'll bet. I'll bet. Probably. Yeah. But yeah, it would just make that but just make that CGI look even worse.
00:08:05
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I feel like and I think the CGI is is one of many mistakes in this movie that we will absolutely talk about Those claws they look like Roger Rabbit claws like looks like it looks like when Eddie valiant is holding like the cartoon gun yes, that's That's they look so very Roger Rabbit the whole movie. I that was my point. of It looked for me. It was. Yeah, it was. I don't remember what my touchpoint was, but it was something out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Like it looks very like these are clearly drawn on. Like they didn't do like. And this is this is like eight years after the first Lord of the Rings movie.
00:08:51
Speaker
Like, yeah we've seen this stuff look good. This is the year after the one-two punch of Iron Man and the Dark Knight. Like, we've seen what these movies look like when they put effort into them. But it feels like, and again, this is kind of a lament that's, I think it's been true for a long time, but I think it's one of those things that has only come to light fairly recently, where you get like a CGI effects house that is overworked and underpaid, and people are making fun of the effects, and these people are doing their damnedest to put a film out by the studio's timetable, you know, the quality of their work be damned. Because the studio picked an arbitrary date and they have to hit it. Sorry.
00:09:31
Speaker
yeah No, you're good. I think the same applies to the wire work on this. I'm sure there were some fantastic people um doing some fantastic things, but it turned out looking really the wire work in this movie looks so bad, so bad. And I don't know if it's I don't know what it is or like what corners were cut or whose fault it is, but it just looks like garbage. I mean, ultimately, I think the studio's to blame. And I was talking to you about this prior to our recording tonight. This movie feels like a 2004 superhero movie, not a 2009 superhero movie.
The Evolution and Handling of the X-Men Franchise
00:10:10
Speaker
Like both in terms of like the disrespect for the material and also in terms of just like the like simplicity of the storytelling and the story it's trying to tell. And I mean, it just feels like something that had already been done and rehashed it. I think that's indicative of the Fox and the entire Fox X-Men franchise is they got real they hit it really big with those first two movies. And with the, I would say with the exception of perhaps first class and days of future past, never really got close to that again. They had a shot for a couple movies and then they decided to hand the whole thing back to he who must not be named. And he kind of did what he does and never showed up on set and, ah you know, seduced a lot of underage boys. So, allegedly. e Yeah. Yeah, dude.
00:11:08
Speaker
Hey man, there's a good there's a good movie in New Mutants. I'd love to see a director's cut of that. That has studio meddling all over it. But I think all of these movies do. And I think that's part of the problem is like, do you get some of these actors in in some of these movies? Like, do you get Jessica Chastain to sign on for Dark Phoenix if the script isn't halfway decent? Do you get like, I mean, you get... Jennifer Lawrence and ah Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy off the strength of first class, which is a good movie. Like that was the last X-Men movie I saw in theaters since this one. Honestly, this is the the last X-Men movie I saw in theaters and then first class and then nothing else because I was just kind of like done. No, thanks. Yeah. um I don't know though those the other two Wolverine films, I think.
00:12:01
Speaker
um they sort of gave a little more creative control and those turned out a lot better, I think. I would i would be inclined to agree, but generally speaking, that doesn't seem like it was ever really Fox's MO. In the same way, it's not really Feige's MO in um the MCU. Directors don't have a lot of power. I think maybe they did early on, like in those in that first phase, maybe.
00:12:32
Speaker
and And then I think with James Gunn and the Guardians, you see a lot more of that. Like those feel a lot more notorious than anything else Marvel's doing. And what's great about the Guardians of the Galaxy films is they do feel so different, but when they get combined with the, when they enter the MCU, the bigger realm of it, it still feels very natural. They still play very well in that world. It still doesn't feel different with them there. So yeah. and i think
00:13:02
Speaker
I think that's kind of what, well, all three, really all three of the Wolverine films, the the least of which this one do with the X-Men movies. They kind of, they make this separate thing, but that character can still move in and out of the other movies, all willy nilly. Right. And I think between Last Stand and this film is where you really start to see the continuity of the X franchise start to unravel. boy What continuity? After the second one, what continuity? Right, exactly. And that's that's kind of my point is like, it all kind of go just gets chucked out the window and you need
00:13:42
Speaker
to bring back he who must not be named to quote unquote fix it with, um, with days of future past, just to be like, okay, this got really fucked up and now we're going to unfuck it. I suppose, um, is, is kind of the, the, the notion. So yeah, we did not get it unfucked. I thought, I thought days, the future past was a really fun movie. Yeah, it was all it really did. It just made the whole continuity even more convoluted. Right. It really, really did. By fixing it. Yeah, by fixing it, they just really look it should have just like that movie should have been the way that it was with the ah original characters and then the reboot characters. That's cool. But just like almost every other X-Men movie outside of the first three,
00:14:36
Speaker
Just kind of make it its own thing with the same characters. Maybe there's some connection. Maybe that's how they used to do sequels back in the day. And it worked just fine most of the time. Yeah. You know, the continuity doesn't have to be perfect as long as you're telling the good story and the characters are true to their characters. You're good. Doesn't have to have flawless continuity. It can all just be different, like tiny parallel universes. but Well, and now that you've got like this very nerdy shit that you're making movies out of, and, you know, movie movies by nerds, for nerds, I guess you could say, continuity is a thing that gets dissected insanely. And so you can see like dangling threads from stuff they had planned, and then they have to go back and fucking fix it. Like Kevin Feige, I think had originally planned for Avengers to just be like Ultimates volume one, where the whole team fights the Hulk.
00:15:28
Speaker
And so you've got Tony Stark like talking to um to what's Thunderbolt Ross at the end of the at the end of The Incredible Hulk about, oh, we're we're putting a team together. um And so now we've got to like retcon that later because the plan changes. And so it becomes like this whole different thing. And so now we've got to alter what we're doing it. And it kind of becomes a big mess because nerds care about this shit. Like and really care about this shit. I would say with this movie, maybe a little too much. And I was guilty of that when I first saw it too. But I promised myself when I watched it this time that I would not have expectations.
00:16:13
Speaker
expectations for the creative choices made with various different characters. I was just going to watch it as its own thing. And I had a hell of a good time watching it that way. OK, I did like it's and it's I don't think it's a good movie. Oh, it's definitely not. It's fun in parts and some of the performances really carry it. And the big twist at the end still surprises me every time. I'm like, no way she was. I did not see that coming, dude. Except there were no rips in her shirt, but I thought that was just because it's PG-13. Sure. See, so they got me on that. Every time. Like next time I watch it, I'm gonna forget. Well, I mean, how many times have you seen this movie? What's your history with X-Men Origins Wolverine? What's your history with the X franchise? With X-Men in general? Well, Steven, let me tell you. When I was a preteen and teenager in the 1990s,
00:17:09
Speaker
Uh, I kind of got real into comic books, like a whole lot. I really like the Spider-Man's and the X-Man's. And I like some DC shit too. And I even had direct editions sent to my house. Oh, you had. I was that kid because why the why would I why would I go out to a comic book shop, spend cover price on the comic if I could just get it at a discounted price and have it delivered to my house every month. Because they're going to put it in your mailbox, dude. They didn't. I never I never had. Like, first of all, I don't really give a shit about the condition of a comic book as long as I can read it. Because that's what I'm there to do is read it like I'm not I'm not betting on it gaining any value. I don't really give a fuck. I bagged them and bored them to to preserve them so that I can write them.
00:18:05
Speaker
Not because I'm like hoping, oh, in 100 years, I'm going to make some money off these. No, dude, I just want to fucking read them. ah So I didn't really care, but they were never in bad condition when I got them. They came in a little Polly bag, usually with like a ah thin backboard behind it. And it was usually fine. OK. I just heard a lot of horror stories about people getting their comics folded when they were delivered. There was a time in the 90s where um ASM ah Amazing Spider-Man was doing bi-monthly or bi-weekly issues instead of monthly, because they were doing two issues a month. Yeah, I had got grandfathered into because I got the subscription when it was monthly. They didn't upcharge me. I still got it for 12 months, dude. That's awesome, dude. And that was during like issue like the
00:18:55
Speaker
not issue 300, it was 350 with the the Venom Spider-Man cover where they're like this on the front and like it's embossed gold and stuff. Yeah, they I was getting shit like that in the mail, dude. What a time to be alive. Yeah. But anyway, yeah. So I was way into all that shit. I also really enjoyed the X-Men, the 90s X-Men cartoon. I liked that a lot. Um, I was aware of them and I had read some comics before that came out, but that really was kind of my big introduction to the modern version of them. So I really dug that. And then when X-Men came out, I worked at the movie theater and I had big bushy sideburns and, and wavy hair and little children's used to call me Wolverine. Okay. The little children's. Yeah.
00:19:49
Speaker
So that came out when I worked at the movie theater. It was really rad. I really enjoyed it. Uh, I liked the second one as well. And then when this came out,
Tucker's Comic Book Journey
00:20:01
Speaker
I, I think I was living in Montana and there wasn't a movie theater around. So I couldn't, I couldn't go see it would have been hours. We've had to drive hours to see it, uh, somewhere, but I did eventually see it and I thought it was whatever. Like I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. um But this time, like I said, I enjoyed it a lot more this time because I kind of just put all of my character expectations aside and just let the movie do its own thing. Hmm. And even though I still don't like some of those decisions, it doesn't come with years of baggage. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:48
Speaker
I mean, i I was also a comic book kid as growing up. yeah I did not subscribe. i basically I basically got my comic books as I could find them. My parents were not, I mean, again, this is gonna sound really shocking, particularly at a long time listening to this show. The parents not big fans of comic books. I know, particularly of the X-Men because of evolution.
00:21:14
Speaker
Which, as we all know, is a tool of the devil. um Absolutely. So, i for my part, I i was a DC boy, mostly, growing up. I did kind of get swept up in the X-Men craze of the 90s. My friends all collected X-Men trading cards, and if they had doubles, they would give them to me. So, I had like a ah binder full of like and all my friends' doubles. And then when I was in middle school, I actually collected the the Marvel trading cards. And so I had a ton of those, loved those. Those were a blast. And I gave those away in middle school. I gave them to a buddy of mine. um And he was like really touched that I gave all those. He's like, you're giving me your cards? I was like, yeah, would you have my cards? Like just completely flummox that I would do. But that was my gateway into Marvel. Because I didn't really read a lot of Marvel comics growing up. i had like
00:22:08
Speaker
a Spider-Man comic or something like that like it wasn't it wasn't anything like I was I was more of a DC guy because that's what my local barbershop carried and that was where I kind of got a chance to read new comics is and I read Superman and Justice League and Batman and those were my entry points into comics plus my best friend in elementary school Justin Knapp hey Justin was also a big DC guy so I I read a lot of DC all through high school, and it wasn't until I got a little older that I started getting into the Marvel stuff. Now, Marvel had the better movies in the early aughts, particularly with the first x first two X-Men movies and the first two Spider-Man films. Now I would say the third Spider-Man as well, but at the time I did not.
00:22:56
Speaker
um But like those were unbelievable. And I really loved those as when I was a kid. Or I guess at that point I was like in college, but whatever. Like I remember. yeah Compared to now, fuck yeah. um yeah I went to, I remember going to see the first X-Men in theaters with, with actually my friend, Sean and Ian, and I think a couple of our other buddies, like we all went and saw it, like, I think a couple of weeks after it came out and really- Did you go to Cherry Tree? No, we didn't. I think we went to, what's now the AMC down in Greenwood. Oh, yeah. Because I was, I was a Southside boy. But we, and then I saw, and I saw,
00:23:40
Speaker
as many comic book movies and theaters as I possibly could. Like I saw Daredevil, I saw the all the Spider-Men's, I saw all the X-Men's. Like i I went to see that shit. In fact, I went to, there exists of me somewhere on Facebook, a picture of me and a bunch of my friends from college dressing up as our favorite X-Men to go see X2, X-Men United in theaters at the midnight showing. Um, if, if I can find it, I'll throw it up on the socials this week. You should for sure. So that you, so that you can see that, but, um, it, I was the blob who makes his big screen debut in this movie because I was the fat kid. So of course, wasn't he in the the second X-Men movie? Wasn't he in the first X-Men movie? No, the blob first appears in this movie. Really? Yeah.
00:24:33
Speaker
and see that actor looked familiar to me too but then I looked into his IMDB and I was like yeah I don't know him from anything but he still looked familiar he's been in a ton of shit I'm trying to think there is something there is absolutely shit that I know him from um He's in future episodes of this podcast, Legion. So there's that, the Paul Bettany film, Legion. um The Strain, Dark Angel, Lost is probably a big thing I know him from. Resident Evil, Retribution, Smoke and Aces, which I definitely saw, Butterfly Effect, I definitely saw. I saw that too. Like he is, he's he's kind of one of those that guy actors. Like he's been in so much stuff.
00:25:13
Speaker
that you generally wreck Cosmopolis. I definitely saw him in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis. um He plays the the floronic man in the DC EU's version of Swamp Thing from a couple of years ago. That's a good show. I'm so mad they canceled it. It was so good. But he's he's Jason Woodrow, the floronic man in that. So like he's he is he's he's just been in a ton of shit. He was in a future episode of this podcast, the Russell Crowe Robin Hood. We can do like a Robin Hood King Arthur like miniseries just just covering all of those movies. Oh, that sounds great. Good, I'm glad you're excited. Look, if it's look if it's not if it's not The Sword and the Stone or Disney's Robin Hood, I'm just not interested in either of those stories.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah, I do. Disney's Robin Hood. That's that's my favorite fully animated Disney film. Wow. Yeah, Robin Hood. I know what your favorite not fully animated Disney film is. Oh, yeah, obviously. Obviously. Obviously. Obviously. But no, i I love I loved these movies. Like I was a as a comic book fan, that was like a big part of my identity. So like, I fucking love these movies. And this was the one that made me go, do I love these anymore?
00:26:36
Speaker
damn like but do i though and i mean the mcu was gaining steam like this is the year after iron man and the incredible hulk both movies i saw in theaters both movies i enjoyed I would go on to see Thor and Captain America in theaters as well. And of course the Avengers, which was the cinematic superhero event of my 20s. Ever. Right. Until Endgame, yeah. Until Endgame, yeah. Well, that would be, I was in my 30s by that point, but yeah. Yeah, dude. But like, ah but no, it was like really something like special. And this movie, I don't know, like this movie
00:27:17
Speaker
The cracks were showing after the last stand like this one needed to be really good. And the studio I didn't think had any kind of reverence for the source material. And so as a result, the whole thing feels kind of like a cheap cash grab as a result. A little bit, a little bit. it's It's something that I've mentioned on this podcast many times. I've referred to it by a name that I will no longer refer to it to, because the person who coined this idea is a very terrible person who's done very terrible things to a lot of a lot of young women. um But the truer that a a comic book film is to the spirit of the source material, the more successful it will be. And it's still true, though. It doesn't matter if you said it's still true. That's true. I'm not going to name this name.
00:28:05
Speaker
But even though he's an artist whose work I really still love, I love the work, I just, the guy's kind of a fucking creep. um it's It's Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman kind of a fucking creep. Oh, did we, did we, ah ah did did the
Missteps with Deadpool's Characterization
00:28:20
Speaker
court of public opinion finally decide on him? ah Yeah, yeah, apparently he's been kind of essaying some fans at conventions and shit, so.
00:28:34
Speaker
OK, yeah, I had to figure out. Yeah, my friend, my friend Marv be texting me TNT and I'm like, wow, sounds explosive. And he's like, no, tonight. I'm like, well, then why are you put? Oh, TNT, TNT. I'm thinking like, boy, the other night he was like, yeah. And then I straight up smoked. ah I ah spoke to blunt TNT. And I was like, wow, that sounds like kaboom, kaboom, dude. Yeah. No, even tonight. I was like, all right. Whatever. That's funny. I'm learning. I'm learning. I'll get it. What these damn kids is talking about. Yeah, dude. Yeah, man. Yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker
yeah But no, I mean, and and yeah, this movie is it doesn't really do much in the way of like hanging on to or like keeping the integrity of the of of the source material. And I think that hurts the overall product, quite frankly. I think that there are. Forgivable instances where something has to be adapted for film, which I think the first two X-Men movies got really lucky with really, really lucky because they changed a lot to make it a little more grounded.
00:29:56
Speaker
but But most of those changes were aesthetic changes. Yes. To be clear, these are not just aesthetic changes. Yeah, no. When when you fuck with shit to the degree that they do in this movie, it's it's a little much, though. I got to tell you, I forgot of all about regular ass saber tooth and leave. Shriver stepped on the screen. Let me tell you something. Oh, that man. he could He could do anything. You give him anything and he's gonna nail it. And boy, is he fantastic in this movie. He is so good. at He is better than this movie deserves. He is the fucking MVP of this movie. It's so good. By a country mile. Just even just some of the faces he makes when he just kind of just shows one little fang when he like brings up his lip a little bit and it's just right there. He's got that look in his eye and you're like, damn. Damn, Lee Shriver, damn.
00:30:53
Speaker
And you're like, this is this is a motherfucker who absolutely married Naomi Watts. And yeah good for him. I don't blame her, man. I'd marry him too if I were Naomi Watts. Got to lock that shit down both ways. I am i am A, right? Thank you. Yes. I still think he's mildly foolish for letting her go, but then by the same token, like she let him go too though. So like, yeah you know, sometimes just doesn't work out. Yeah, it's true. I mean, look, we both victims of that, but yeah, it's happened to happen to a lot no like for sure. and For sure. But no, and I mean, particularly when you consider that the previous iteration of this character was played by Tyler main in an essentially silent role. Yeah.
00:31:36
Speaker
Like it's kind of impressive, what the gravitas that he's able to bring to this character. um Well, they didn't add the ridiculous eyebrows. I think that helped a lot. Helps a lot. like they They almost needed someone with his level of ability and charisma to play off of Hugh Jackman. and but but then But then again, you're there's another part of you that's like, how does this guy turn into Tyler Maine? Like, how does that fucking happen?
00:32:11
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Because like you could conclude that this is just some you know alternate parallel universe sort of thing, but then when Charles x Xavier shows up at the end, that kind of kind of makes it part of that continuity, I guess. And you'd think But again, like the continuity, continuity is starting to get very shaky here. Well, and I understand why Wolverine wouldn't remember Cyclops, but Cyclops would definitely remember Wolverine or could he see through whatever he had on it? Maybe that's what it was. He couldn't. And that's, I think that's your out. Like that's your experience. I buy that. Like, well, yeah, cause he's got the thing. All right, whatever.
00:32:59
Speaker
at question answered, I'm okay with that answer. Right, right. Like in this, yeah, it, I don't know this, here's, here's the thing. And this is something that I debated that you and I discussed in the group chat um within the past couple of weeks is the notion that does this movie qualify? Does this movie hit fit our format? Because it is the first of a trio of Wolverine films.
00:33:31
Speaker
But then you argued, and I think rightly so, that none of those films are really sequels to each other. They're all kind of three standalone Wolverine movies in and of themselves. I would argue that they contain some of the same actors, but they're all very much Elseworlds kind of things, you know, or what ifs sort of deals because they definitely in no way do they have any continuity between each other. Or honestly, with any without the Professor X tacked on at the end of this one to any of the other X-Men movies. Right. I mean, you've got William Striker, like a similar character to the Brian Cox character from X2, but like...
00:34:18
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's, it's supposed to be the same guy. Like you're supposed to believe it's the same person. And I would say Danny Houston runner up for MVP in this movie. If, if this movie didn't have a leave Schreiber, it would be Danny Houston. Danny Houston fucking rules in this movie. I love Danny Houston. Um, but like by the same token, you're like. like, what are you doing here, dude? Like, I feel that way about Luke Schreiber, I feel that way about Danny Houston, in that kind of way that's like, you're better than this, why are you here? What are you fucking doing in this thing?
00:34:51
Speaker
and I don't know, this this movie feels like it, the the big sin I would say of X-Men The Last Stand was that it threw every mutant you've never heard of and it's several that you have at the screen regardless of whether or not they fit in the story in order to get maybe one or two cool uses of their powers and literally nothing else. Like Angel was in all the fucking marketing. You cast fucking Ben Foster as Angel and he does. Fuck all in that movie. Yeah.
00:35:21
Speaker
He shows up at a couple of scenes and like peaks in the door and it all feels like it was tacked on later. And you're just like, what the fuck is he doing in this thing? Like he does not belong here. And it was just Brett Ratner wanted all the mutants he could possibly get. Like you've got me or ah multiple men, but he's working for the for the villains. He's not a hero. And that's not the miracle man that anybody knows or recognizes or wants on a big screen. like And this movie feels like that. Like we're trying to reverse engineer an ending. to give Wolverine someone cool to fight. And so we're like, what powers do we want this this this weird Frankenstein version, literally Frankenstein version of Deadpool to have? And then those are the characters we'll put in this movie. And half those have those powers Deadpool doesn't even have. Well, look, here's the thing. They totally butchered the character. They repurposed him. Yeah. But and I don't like any of that.
00:36:20
Speaker
I don't like any of it, but I did like that it tied into his name and how homeboy striker explained it. He was like, well, yeah, he's got all it's all the powers in a pool and the guy. pool So it's a fucking dead pool, dude. And I'm like, yes, that's the best only good thing about this change that you made is that it makes sense for the name. It makes a lot of damn sense and it's kind of cool, but the rest of it sucks. Yeah. And i mean look, I have um this is um i'm you ready for a Steven Foxworthy original confession. Let's do it. I don't like Deadpool.
00:36:58
Speaker
As a character, it's not my thing. Don't like him. Like the Deadpool movies are fine. You know what? Another thing I don't really like, Ryan Reynolds. Never really got the appeal of Ryan Reynolds. I know a lot of people think he's very funny. A lot of people really like his shtick. I think now he is just like he's Deadpool all the fucking time. And that I find that really fucking obnoxious. Like that's his entire persona now. Well, no, because he did this movie. With Sean Levy, the guy who directed that new movie, it's coming out about where like he has to go into the past and like work with the kid version of himself to like save the space time continuum or whatever. And he's not very right. He's Ryan Reynolds in moments, but it's a very un Ryan Reynolds role because he's like a serious person. How many how many cameos does how many cameos is aviation gin making that movie?
00:37:56
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know, but I did enjoy it and I recommend it as kind of a low key, just sort of a low key family. I would say it's a family film. I thought it was really good. Netflix is the Adam project, correct? Yes. Yes. I liked that quite a bit, actually. I thought it was really fun. I and enjoyed, I enjoyed a rather subdued performance by Ryan Reynolds. It was nice to see. You don't see it that often, but when you do, it's. It's pretty all right. Well, again, because that his entire public persona is essentially just Deadpool now. He's a silly boy. He's always been a silly boy. He has, but I find the fact that that's like the only shtick he does is so, I don't know, I find it really obnoxious. I'm not a fan.
00:38:43
Speaker
Well, so is obnoxious and Ryan Reynolds has always been obnoxious. And that's why it's perfect that he plays him. And like that everything you're saying is completely fair. But for somebody else who's way into both, that's you just. you gave them exactly what they wanted. Yeah, exactly. And he may be the perfect casting for this role. I just don't like the role. And that's again, that's, it's nothing necessarily against Ryan Reynolds as a performer. I just don't like this character. And I, yeah, and again, if that, and I didn't, but I didn't like, like the character, I thought he was a ripoff of,
00:39:22
Speaker
deathstroke from the comics, from the DC comics. Well, he is. That's exactly what in the way that the Ninja Turtles are riffing on Daredevil. It's the same exact thing. Exactly. Yeah. And I found, you know, as again, as a DC boy, I was rum, rum, rum, very, very, very, very grumpy DC boy about all that. And the fact that he became more popular and You know, ah but again, i'm I'm also never was a big fan of that late 80s, early 90s aesthetic. I didn't, the image aesthetic I'll call it. ah Where, you know, everyone's got the giant pecs and everything's drawn with little tiny hatch marks. And that was never really my thing, but that was Marvel for the early 90s. Like that was, ah you know, Todd McFarlane on Spider-Man and Jim Lee on X-Men and like Rob Liefeld on X-Force. Like that was the look.
00:40:13
Speaker
That was the style, and everybody fucking loved that, but that wasn't my thing. ah DC wasn't doing that, so that wasn't that those aren't the comics that really resonate with me. and I remember people going fucking ape shit for Joe Madeira when Joe Madeira started doing Ultimates 3, and I was just like, I don't like this. This is bad. I don't want this. No, thank you. But like people were like, Joe Madd, he's so good. And I'm just like, this missed me entirely. None of this is my shit. If I may suggest you, Stephen. Two more performances that I think are worth watching from Ryan Reynolds, especially if you don't like his normal shtick. There's a film called The Voices. Mm hmm. Where he plays a completely batshit crazy serial killer, but like it's a romantic comedy.
00:41:09
Speaker
because like the voices tell him to do the stuff and otherwise he's just kind of a normal guy. And it's a really fun movie and he doesn't go over the top in it like with his normal shtick, but he is very funny in it. And then there's this little indie movie I saw a while ago when it came out. It came out the same year as this movie actually in 2009 called Paperman. And it stars Jeff Daniels and Emma Stone and Jeff Daniels talks to an imaginary friend who is Ryan Reynolds playing Captain Excellent, who is like this superhero that, um, that Jeff Daniels has sort of made up and brought into existence as like his friend. And it's a really interesting movie about a mental illness and there's a love story involved.
00:42:03
Speaker
And it's just, it's a really, it's kind of a quiet drama with a high, high concept quiet drama is what I would call it. Okay. And it's really fun. And Ryan Reynolds is great. It's kind of like this emotional support, uh, imaginary friend character. Okay. And I mean, I will say in the, in the late nineties, I really liked Ryan Reynolds. I liked two guys, a girl in a pizza place. Like ah was I a fan of Van Wilder? No. Tuesday's date on ABC. Hey, there it is. But like, I mean, we'll, we'll cover another Ryan Reynolds movie when we cover 2005's The Amityville Horror. Oh, I liked him in that. Have you seen that? No, I haven't. He's scary in that. Steven, he's scary. Ryan Reynolds scares me in that movie. My partner saw a film that he was in in 2010 called Buried. That's apparently very good. It's like basically a one man movie about him being alive.
00:43:02
Speaker
One shot of him in a coffin. Just try to get the fuck out. And it's it's an hour and a half and you don't ever want to turn it off. It's just so edge of your seat kind of shit. It's really good. Right. I forgot about that one. Right. And I mean, life, I want to see life like him and Jake Gyllenhaal, like that kind of riff on aliens. Like,
Taylor Kitsch and Hugh Jackman's Career Impact
00:43:20
Speaker
oh, I thought Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence life. No, the twenty seventeen movie. Oh, OK. But yeah, i but Bernie Mac. Yeah, that movie rules. It's really good. But I mean, he's done some stuff that I've heard is very good. But by the same token, like I feel like these days, he's just leaned 100% into that shtick. And it in a world where movie stars have died because of IP, he has survived as a movie star by becoming the IP he's most associated with. He's kind of the exception to the typecasting rule. Right.
00:43:58
Speaker
where he's only gotten more and more popular because of his typecasting. Right, because he leans into it so hard. um And yeah, it just annoys me. And that's, again, mileage may vary. I'm probably gonna get a lot of angry letters after this episode, but I just don't get it. And like there was a ah brief window where I was like, oh, that guy's kinda cool. And it faded very quickly. Uh, and I think Van Wilder may have been the thing that kind of broke him and then Deadpool broke him all the way. Like he kind of went with Van Wilder, like just kind of a little to the side. And, but like Deadpool just kind of, it just fell over and that's what he is now. And I just, not my thing. I could, I could see, you know, how they.
00:44:47
Speaker
made the PG-13 cut of Deadpool and did like a wraparound with Fred Savage, like Princess Bride style. Yeah. I could see ah Disney somehow going back and re-editing Van Wilder to where that's just a young Wade Wilson. And I would I would go and see that I would because I just want to see how they do it. How would they know? I don't you know who that movie is allegedly based on, right? Who? Oh, don't tell me I'm going to hate it if you do aren't I? I'm going to hate it, aren't I? stand up comedian, Bert Kreischer. Oh, that name's familiar, but I don't. yeah Are you familiar with the movie The Machine or the stand up bit base? No. Yeah. No, not that guy. That guy. Yeah. Oh, man. He's not that cool, though. It may be based on him, but Ryan Reynolds made it into something else because that guy does not have the charm. Ryan Reynolds does. No.
00:45:43
Speaker
I mean, I mean, the idea was just like this guy who parties so hard, he like never leaves college. That was the original like conceits of Van Wilder. And that was the the part that was based on the life of Bert Kreischer, frankly. That's what I I remember when Ryan Reynolds was so not famous that I was the only one that was like pumped for his cameo and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Right, because I liked Van Wilder and Cal Penn was in Van Wilder. Right. He was right. Is that the character? Yeah. Yeah. So when when they did a sequel based on Taj. Yes. ah Direct to video. But Harold Kumar, he's a he's a surgeon. And there's it's a gift, a gift I like to use quite a bit as him pulling down a surgical mask and saying, but why?
00:46:41
Speaker
because Harold and Kumar suggests that this patient needs medical marijuana and they just like took a couple of bullets out of him. So I was like, but why? Which is a fair question. Indeed. Yeah. but but But here's the thing that maybe we didn't realize initially, Harold and Kumar are stoners who like to smoke copious amounts of marijuana. Dude, yeah, that's true. That is the first but the first time I watched Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I was leaving work. It was a Friday. I was a teacher at a Christian school. I stopped. I stopped by the family video and I rented Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. And then I stopped by White Castle and I got a create. Oh, fuck. Want some right now. And I.
00:47:36
Speaker
a majority of that crave case by myself while watching Harold and Kumar and by the third act I was in so much pain like so much physical pain worth it though worth I mean Definitely a story that I remember that I remember and tell to this day they were good though but I was living in I was living I think in those polar run apartments and on a Run in Greenwood in Greenwood. Yeah cross from the mall. My sister used to live there in late night. Yeah Yeah, I know polo run up in there. It was either there or that that apartment complex right off of Thompson Road Like right for you like right after you get off the interstate They're off ah between 31 and 135 What's that called? I don't remember
00:48:31
Speaker
I know what you're talking about, but I can't think of what it's called. Yeah, I was in one of I was living in one of those two places. But yeah, the apartments, apartments in Indianapolis, such a niche thing that only we fucking understand and no one else gets. Yeah, man. Yeah. I don't know. You want to do the plot of this motherfucker? Yeah. Yeah. After I say I've lived in some pretty rough apartments in Indianapolis, my first apartment in Indy, Stephen was at the Marina. Hmm. ah That's between Post and Midhofer on 21st Street across from the Warren Library. I used to go far from there. Yeah. Well, let me tell you, if you are not in the very front building, you're going to have a bad time. Mm hmm. Real bad time. I also lived like I say, my sister lived in Polo Run and it was a bit sketchy at the time. um It got better. And and then I lived
00:49:29
Speaker
at Woodridge, which was around like 80, 86th and Michigan Road. Hmm. And ah the the name that most of the residents referred to it as was Hoodridge. Mm hmm. And it was a little rough, but but, you know, was it? I'm from I'm from the streets, Stephen. So yeah, like that's nothing I can't handle. OK. Yeah, dude.
00:50:01
Speaker
All right, let's do the plot of this thing in 60 seconds or less. So this is the plot in 60 seconds apart. We have the show where we at the behest of the Coin of Justice will recount the plot of this film, X-Men Origins Wolverine from 2009 in 60 seconds or less. I have the Coin of Justice right here. It has a heads. It has a tails. I'm going to flip this coin. Tucker, you are going to call it. How do you call? Heads. And it is tails. Yeah, dude. Which is a good day for me because it means that it is you, Tucker, who has to recount the plot of X-Men origins Wolverine in 60 seconds. Real, real easy. Well, I'm going to put 60 seconds on the clock and you're going to see how easy it is. OK, tell me when you got it on there. I mean, I'll give you the 30 and the 10 second warnings and I'm going to start whenever you do.
00:50:59
Speaker
ah So a little baby Logan like he's sick as fuck and his friend little baby leave Schreiber is hanging out with him and then it turns out that his dad's not his dad but leave Schreiber's dad is his dad but he acts he kills him because he's mad at him because he shot his dad and like there's some kind of love triangle that I don't really understand but whatever because the first third third of this movie is a fucking masterpiece and I love it um so Uh, little saber tooth and Wolverine, they fight through all the major wars together as friends and as motherfucking brothers until saber tooth goes a little too far. And so, uh, they joined this task force and that goes wrong. So Wolverine goes away and then he gets with a lady, but then saber tooth starts killing the old team and it turns out that they're bringing them in for an experiment.
00:51:50
Speaker
And it turns out they killed them all and gave Deadpool all their powers. And like and then but that lady was also with them, which is fucking crazy. But then also, and that is over. And then also it was over after that because he killed Deadpool and saber tooth ran away and gambit was really rad. I wish there was more gambit. I wish there was a lot more gambit, actually, because I really really liked him. I liked them together. I thought they could have been really great as I would have watched a full Wolverine and Gambit movie because I really liked their chemistry. I liked how Gambit's powers are represented in this, even though they aren't comic accurate. I do like how they they interpret kinetic energy for the big screen. I like that a lot. It's better than him throwing cards that explode for me, like in the cartoon that works in the comic that works, but
00:52:46
Speaker
I don't think on the big screen that would really work for me so i appreciated like how actually was kinetic energy you know and i thought taylor ki i think he could have done something with it they didn't really give him much in this he was just kind of the guy he met and then he kind of helped him a little bit. But I feel like there were little bits of little tiny moments between the two where I was like, yeah, I could see these guys like really fleshing this relationship out. And I'd watch a movie of the two of them for sure. Well, I mean, we we talked about that in in, when we talked to John Carter earlier this year, is like Taylor Kitch is one of those guys that they were really trying to make happen. And that's too bad because he's great. I love him. And pretty much everything I've seen him in.
00:53:29
Speaker
We'll have other opportunities to talk about Taylor Ketch, particularly when we get to like battleship. And like, cause he was in a lot of these failed franchise starters where you're just like, I don't know, like he's the next guy, right? Let's put him in shit. And like this is- As much stuff that they threw at the wall with him in it, something should have stuck, but nothing did. And it's a damn shame because like I said, I love that guy. He's the guy for that kind of stuff. John Carter. He's got it and he could do it. He was great in John Carter. John Tucker must die. Snakes on a plane. The Covenant. Gospel Hill. X-Men Origins Wolverine. The Bang Bang Club. Friday Night Lights. Sixty eight episodes of Friday Night Lights from 2006 to 2011. Like that's kind of his thing. And then season two of Fucking True Detective. Yeah. Which you and I rightly claim is very good.
00:54:25
Speaker
Yeah, but we need more of him in that. Like, I feel like his character kind of gets the short end of the stick. I feel like we could have expanded a little bit more because I was way more interested in that character than that TV show like would let me be. Hmm. I need just a little bit more, like maybe just one little bottle episode where he has like his own thing. Give me that and then I'm good. After Friday Night Lights, it's John Carter, it's Battleship, it's Oliver Stone's Savages with Ryan Reynolds' wife, Blake Lively, yeah du ah the grand seduction lone survivor, the made-for-TV film The Normal Heart based on the Larry Kramer play, season two of True Detective, Bling, American Assassin, The Dig, like and then it's just like obscurity, obscurity, obscurity.
00:55:12
Speaker
What's he doing now? Has he done anything big? I'd watch something with him in it. The last he was in that ah Waco TV series in one episode of that Waco TV series. I'm supposed to watch that. My roommate says both of those are great. Both seasons are fantastic. And it's got the it's got Zod in it, dude. I mean, I do like Michael Shannon. Yeah. Michael Shannon's fucking amazing. I don't like I don't like what he had said about like, oh, or doing comic book movies is dumb. I thought what he said about that was a little pretentious, but I still love him. I still think he's great and everything. I fucking love what he said about the Flash. He's like, I thought Todd was dead. They're like, no, but it's a multiverse. And I'm like, and he was like, I don't know what that is. And I'm just like, God bless you, Michael Shannon. Fucking God bless you. That's a very I saw for being just a normal fucking dude, like God bless you.
00:56:06
Speaker
I saw a clip with Ray Wise where some gal was interviewing him and trying to explain to him what cosplay is. And like, I understand his reaction. He's like, but why? Like, because he's Ray Wise, he's like, why would he give a shit about that? Exactly. he's got More important grown up shit to take care of. Exactly. That's an adult right there, dude. Ray Wise is an adult. Right. But he's yeah so he he plays David Koresh in the Waco miniseries, the original one. Yeah. And then is in one episode of The Aftermath. And then he's also in that Chadwick Boseman movie, 21 Bridges.
00:56:39
Speaker
Oh, I did want to see that. We forgot about that. The movie that dares to ask the question, what if there were 21 bridges? What if there were more than 20 bridges, but just one more? But just one more. Let's not get crazy. Until the sequel, 22 bridges. Oh my God. any odd And then the prequel comes out 15 bridges. oh You make a whole prequel trilogy. like You put numbers in the title. You're just setting yourself up for that shit, man. It writes itself. It's one of the things that I really appreciate about Steven Soderbergh in his Oceans films is that he named the sequel to Oceans 11, Oceans 12. Like fucking Bravo. Like it's right there. What else you gonna call it? Yeah, it's right there. Oceans 11 too. A lesser man would have. Yeah, that's true. That's true. But no, he called it Oceans 12. Like The Last Exorcism 2? Yes. They should have called it, well,
00:57:39
Speaker
We thought that was the last one, but it turns out there's another one, exorcism. No, you you do a prequel and you call it the penultimate exorcism. The previous exorcism. The second exorcism from the last. the Not quite the last one, but real, real close. But real, real close. Because we're going to get another sequel out of this yet. Involving some of the characters, maybe. Right. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. We'll see. You know, that first one was dope, though. I like that last racism was good. I like the system of Emily Rose. That was good, too. That's got Deb in it from the Dexter's, and she did all that shit herself. Dude, she contorted her shit like there's none of that CGI shit. All that shit. and It's insane. It's directed by um by old dude, um Scott Derrickson from Doctor Strange and like the black phone and shit. Yeah. Oh, black phone was so good. I like that movie a lot.
00:58:38
Speaker
um And sinister he did sinister to That one too until there was a sequel. Yeah, that movie fucking terrified me that first sinister man Yeah, that first one is really really I just pretend the second one doesn't exist that gave me all these and a substantial amount of the GBs Yeah, that's when you get the heebies. You got to expect some GB Steven. You can't really look I didn't know what to expect with that one No, that movie that is one of a handful of movies that has legitimately terrified me is so Have you seen the sequel? No. Don't just look because it cheapens it. So don't like I can still watch the original and enjoy it. But I though i would enjoy it about this much more had I not seen the sequel. And see, the thing that fucking the thing that works so well about I guess this is a sinister podcast. The thing that works so well about the original Sinister is that they're they're doing everything that you would expect them to do, like that you want a family in a horror movie to do.
00:59:36
Speaker
They're doing it. And that's the thing that fucks them. Like, holy shit. Like, I and that's the thing that makes my blood run cold. Like, that's the shit that makes my blood run cold in that movie. That's the gimmick of that film, dude. And that's why you don't you don't want to see the second one. It is nice to see Officer so-and-so again, because he's like the main character of the sequel. I mean, I like that guy. That guy's cool. He's great. He's a good time. But the movie just it. ah It takes everything from the first one and just takes a big shit all over it nuts and it's it's a shame In the immortal words a of Jerry Seinfeld. That's a shame Yeah, just don't there's no reason I mean unless for some reason you had to like you were doing a director watch through I don't know who directed or whatever, but I know you do stuff like that So if you have to you have to but I would advise against it well, and I do I have done my fair share of like um franchise watch throughs as well
01:00:37
Speaker
And I mean, look, I I'm a big fan of that actor. James Ransone is fantastic. He's in my favorite Ty West movie. In the Valley of Violence. Yeah, he's he's the son in In the Valley of Violence, and he's so fucking good in that he's in it. Chapter two, one of my partner's favorite movies of all time. Like that's a good one. He's a fucking good actor to really. Yeah. Is, does part one higher on, on their list or just only part two is. I think she's gotten to a point where she combines the two together. Okay. Oh, and then that, yeah, that I would understand, but to include the second one and not to include the first one seems there, there, there are moments in the second one that I think really resonate with her.
01:01:23
Speaker
Okay, yeah, I can see that for sure which is why it's the second one over the first. Yeah. Plus you got Bill Hader, man. You got all that Bill Hader. Now, one thing I will say for it, chapter two, it does have what I've considered to be the worst needle drop in cinematic history. Oh, man. What is it? Angel of the morning.
01:01:41
Speaker
I like that song. I love the song. I don't like its use in that movie. It it takes me right out of the movie every fucking time. Have you seen the the TV movie version, the Tim Curry version of It, Steven? Not yet. My partner does own it. I purchased it for her a couple of years ago. i I can watch it anytime I want. I just haven't done so yet. I would be really interested. Is that something that we could cover? No, I mean, I know that there weren't any. need I know. But I just want to talk with you specifically about it, Stephen, because it's. It's a big deal. It's a big deal to me. That was I mean, at some point I'll watch it and we can cover it on what are we watching if we ever decide to record one of those again. We're going to look we're going to it's just look my involvement during the months of July and August.
01:02:34
Speaker
ah it can't be as much as it is the other months of the year because of how busy I am. So I do what I can. I do what I have to do. And I think the patrons understand that the $5 a month that they are spending on our Patreon is to keep this main feed show alive. Right. Now, we do put stuff up on our Patreon and that's rad. And there's days worth of shit on there. But the main purpose of the Patreon is to support this show. Correct. So sometimes there might be like we've been pretty good about it in the past, but I mean, the summer.
01:03:10
Speaker
There's not been a lot on there and that's kind of on me, but it's not something I can help. And and we're back to being a two man show because one of our one of our trio is unavoidably detained these days. Perpetually detained. Yes. Perpetually detained until further notice, which is a big fucking bummer. But TVA for sure. What are you going to do? Yeah. So, I mean, yeah. And, you know, my life is perpetually hectic these days. So do you think we could pay him to appear on the show? Like whatever like he would make for that much time in work, we could just pay him. I would have to check, I would have to check i would have to check the company coffers before I signed off on that. i could I could, I would pay him for a... You really, you really want him on a... So I know you do. It's important, it means something.
01:04:02
Speaker
Um, so, you know, um, spoiler alert episode one 98. So stay tuned. Oh, you know, I just said that it was stone. I don't know if you remember last time we said do a whole bunch of times I was able to bleep it out. Were you no for you, man? Yeah. And I have that bleep sound effect in my sound effect library now. So anytime I say it's just going to beep, check it out. You say it, Steven. Oh, I totally beeped it. I'm making so much work for myself, but I would have so much fun. What if what if I what if I space it out like?
01:04:42
Speaker
That's three beeps. That's three beeps, Steven. Welcome to three beeps. Love this for us. yeah ah It's a great it's a great time. One hour and four minutes. OK, I'll remember that to where I'm going to put a whole bunch of work into it. Got it. Cool. Good thing we're actually recording this on a Monday and not a Tuesday, otherwise you were relatively fucked. Yes, worth it. We still need to figure out what episode one ninety seven is, by the way. OK, I'll tell you what it's going to be here. Give me just a second. Talk about you this out to talk about Wolverine. I mean, look, I so I think the one thing we haven't talked about yet that we really fucking need to talk about is Hugh is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
01:05:27
Speaker
like he is a fucking mainstay powerhouse. And the funny the funniest thing about him in this role, he was he was not even the original choice for Wolverine. Do you know who the original choice for Wolverine was? And I do, but I forgot. I do, but I forgot. I can see his face, but I can't think of his name. It is Mr. Claire Forlani himself, Dogre Scott. Yes. From Mission Impossible 2 and Ever After. Um, he was the original choice to play Wolverine, and but Mission Impossible 2 ran over and he was committed to that so he couldn't get out of it. So they had to cast a relative unknown Broadway actor transplant from Australia named Hugh Jackman. And it pretty much makes his career.
01:06:22
Speaker
Like Hugh Jackman becomes one of the biggest stars in America in the world for playing Wolverine and he wasn't even the first choice. Nope. And here's the thing, I don't know that Dogra Scott would have necessarily been better in the role. because of the extent to which Jackman had like embraced it and really became synonymous with it. And he's played that role so many fucking times. He had played that role, I think, in every X-Men movie up until Dark Phoenix, I want to say. maybe No, because he was in Apocalypse.
01:07:05
Speaker
Like in every fucking one of those, he played a version of that character, X-Men, X-Men X2, X-Men United, X-Men The Last Stand, X-Men Origins Wolverine. um You had a cameo in the first class, right? Yeah, he's- He told the fuck off. He does, yeah, fuck off. the the The first F-bomb in a Marvel movie, yeah. Yeah, well. um yeah The Wolverine, X-Men Days of Future Past, X-Men Apocalypse, Logan, like he's in every fucking one. And it was a big deal when he didn't show up for Dark Phoenix. Like, everyone was like, oh, well, you know, if Hugh Jackman's not in it, then what are we even doing here? And he ah he essentially retired after Logan. He's like, that was the end. I'm done with it. Like, we'll put it to bed.
01:07:57
Speaker
And then Ryan Reynolds comes and knocking on his door, which is the same thing that one of the cameos who appears in Deadpool versus Wolverine that I will not spoil here, as it was spoiled for Tucker on the Internet. um and I never would have expected it. I'm so mad. He said man if you get a phone call from Ryan Reynolds, you answer that call. And that's what Hugh Jackman did. And yeah, we've got buds anyway. They were. for I mean, they they were like Hugh Jackman, I'm pretty sure, was the one that let Ryan Reynolds into the X-Men Zoom meeting during the pandemic that like made everyone leave and and shit. like they they They would hang out and have a good time together, um probably from meeting on the set of this movie. But I think like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine has a staying power that few comic book characters
01:08:51
Speaker
and actors playing comic book roles have had, I think in terms of like sheer like actor roles, like synergy, I would say you he rivals, I would say someone like Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, just in terms of that that kind of connectivity. and um And good for him, man, like serious. I think he's played Wolverine more than I think he's played the same role in a comic book movie more than any other actor, maybe rivaling Sam Jackson, who doesn't play the role for nearly as long as as as Hugh Jackman does whenever he steps into the role. Yeah, he got he got almost a whole decade on him there. Mm hmm. So most.
01:09:45
Speaker
Were you able to find what you were looking for, Tucker? Did I vamp long enough for you to find what you were looking for? No, I was just actually that whole time I was just trying to find that link you sent me to the main list. ah I just want to have it at the ready so that when I turn on my phone after we record this episode, I will see that and be like, oh, yeah, I've got to I got to figure out something for the 17th. Eighteenth, the 18th. I've already got it's all it's already there is what I'm saying. Well, I was paying attention to you, though.
01:10:18
Speaker
I heard, what I heard, I heard everything you said. You heard what I said. Ooh, what I say. Um, but yeah, man, like, I feel like this movie had so much promise and it's based on, well, I don't really like the comic that it's based on either. Um, it's based on a comic book called origin, where they kind of went out of their way to craft an origin story for Wolverine, where I don't know that it was necessary per se. That's where they got the James Hallett from, right? Right.
01:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, James Howlett and the the saber tooth as like the like the young saber tooth and that, like, that's all in that comic. And I'm not a particular fan of that comic, I will say. And it it felt very much like a one of those early aughts Marvel cash grabs under the auspices of like Bill Jimus, who, like, was like a lawyer, I think, before he became the head of Marvel studio or before they became the head of marvel comics in the early 2000s. He made some great business decisions. He was a good businessman, but he was not a comics guy. Wait, wasn't he the toy biz guy? Because toy biz bought Marvel. That's Ike Perlmutter.
01:11:32
Speaker
um let me let me Do you remember when Marvel was doing so poorly? That toy biz bought them. Yes. Oh, I remember that they were selling the rights to their characters for so little that they made thousands of dollars off of the Spider-Man movies. Thousands. Steven. Yeah. Thousands. I remember dollars from those multi hundred million dollar movies. Thousands of dollars. Yep.
01:12:06
Speaker
Um, let me tell you, okay. So here it is. It's, um, he was the president of FLIR. Oh yeah. That baseball card company. The baseball card company. And then, um, was appointed as executive VP of Marvel entertainment group in 1993. And then in 2000, January 2000, he basically became Marvel's publisher. Um. like editor in chief or like, how does that work? What's the difference? Um, no, he replaced, uh, Joe Cassata is who he appointed as editor in chief, but he was like that name for sure. He was the president, uh, basically like the president of Marvel, essentially. Like he was the CEO. He was just the guy, yeah the main guy. And, um,
01:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he did. He did some cool stuff while he was there, but he was not an idea man. And that origin was kind of his idea, I'm sad to say. And it wasn't very good. He had a he had a ah writing credit on that one. It was written by him, Joe Quesada and Bill Jenkins or Paul Jenkins. And Paul Jenkins probably did most of that work. That comic may have sucked. But the first third of this movie, Which seems like that's kind of the stuff that is based off that comic. Is so good. ah Especially that opening scene and the credits. Dude, this movie hypes itself up.
01:13:41
Speaker
to be so much better than it is because that first scene credits, credits. I love that with this best part of this movie, much like Zack Snyder's Watchmen, which came out the same year, I think those credits are good to are the best part of good movie credits. Yeah, credits are the best part of the fucking movie like and it's not even close like. Well, I really I even enjoyed um the set up with the whole team and like them being on the plane and then them getting to the place and like kind of revealing who's willing to go that far and kind of giving you a hint to who, uh, the main bad guy might be at some point, you know, and then he kind of walks away and I enjoyed this reintroduction of him, you know, living in some cabin on a mountain that was so rad. He was a lumberjack and and i don't know to a certain, yeah, he, he, he sleeps all night and he works all day.
01:14:36
Speaker
Yeah, he cuts down trees. He eats his lunch, goes to the lavatory. Yeah, he puts on. And then on Wednesdays, he goes shopping and has buttered scones for tea. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, anyway. Yeah, but no, I really like the setup of this movie. I really, really do. Like probably the first 35 minutes of this movie, I am way fucking into way into. And then where does it lose you?
01:15:08
Speaker
It and it doesn't totally lose me because there's still good stuff. But like the point where it loses me is once his girlfriend dies and it just becomes that movie where he has to get the get the band back together and figure out what's going on. And like I did enjoy the scenes with the blob and with Will. I am I enjoyed those scenes. I really liked. Uh, the special effect, the one CGI effect that I did like were the teleportations where it was quick, but it was, it wasn't just a pop, like it was layered. And that's how saber tooth got ahold of his fucking spine, dude. Right. Ooh, that was the golden chainsaw. The movie. That was the best kill right there. He grabbed that spine. Homeboys like flicker in like funny. I didn't know you had one.
01:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, dude. And just snap. And even though they did it off screen, which because it's PG-13 still just that motion like you saw him holding his spine. There's and there's a this reality that you would not expect in a movie like this. There's so much good shit
Challenges in Movie Production and Plot Critiques
01:16:20
Speaker
in this movie. There really is. I'm just going to come out and say it. There's a lot of really rad shit in this movie, but it doesn't make up for how generic this movie looks. Right. It doesn't make up for how generic the plot is once you get basically 10 minutes into the second act. Right. And it doesn't make up for some shitty character choices they make in the third act. And it, I think it, what it, the thing that really irks me about it is it can't decide what movie it really wants to be.
01:16:53
Speaker
That's for sure. And that reeks of studio meddling for sure. Like the first third of this movie is like the tortured soul who's trying to like, basically every 80s action movie where like the guy's like trying to get out of the game and then gets pulled back in because he's trying to live a quiet family life. Like your commando or your action Jackson or something like that. And then gets pulled in. John Rambo's. Right. This increasingly crazy series of events. um And then like, the next part is like a, ah not quite getting the band back together, but like we revisit all the characters and it becomes like a basic cameo fast for like a big chunk of the movie. And then, and then you end up and there's like, there's like
01:17:39
Speaker
plots within plots, you've got this political intrigue folding in on itself and people we thought were dead really weren't. But it's not like well executed political intrigue at all. Like it's very, it's it's very ham fisted and ridiculous, frankly, like it's it's all it's totally inconsistent in a way that just makes me embarrassed for the movie. Yeah, agreed. Because like I said, there's a lot of good stuff here and the the but the broad strokes of this movie are making those small things that are so rad just that much worse. It's like they're not even it's not even worth it for that something that rad to be in this movie. And there are some scenes that just blow me away in this movie, but it's it's the broad strokes of it that just it just it. ah What's it when you put the dilutes it, it dilutes it. Yeah.
01:18:33
Speaker
man know yeah You got concentrated, good shit. And then the rest of the movie comes in and dilutes the hell out of it. Yeah, like, I don't know. I feel like that, again, the credits best scene to the movie, like all the wars, like from the Civil War up through Vietnam, so fucking good. It's such a very effective introduction in the same way that Watchmen is a very effective introduction to our characters. See our previous episode on Watchmen. Um, like it, it sets everything up. it It helps you realize the world that you're in and the differences between its and ours. This one sets up our characters and the relationship between these two characters only for that relationship to not really be that important to the grand scheme of things. Really. I think, I think at some point it was now this, this film went through about
01:19:30
Speaker
three different pairs of writers. So a total of about six writers. It only shows two on IMDB. Only two are credited, but yeah. But based on a YouTube video I watched yesterday. Yeah, it just so happened that Matt McMussels was doing a what happened on X-Men Origins Wolverine. Hey, what happened? Yeah, dude, that's the title of the show and it's definitely a riff. on straight up a Mighty Wind. I mean, I when I first saw Mighty Wind, that was that line was the funniest thing I'd ever heard in my life. Good old Fred Willard, man. And I cannot say I cannot say what happened without doing my best friend. Well, hey, what happened? Oh, well, hop on. Yeah, I can't do my work. It just happened to be ah what he covered on what happened.
01:20:26
Speaker
So I was like, hey, this like, I don't actually have to do research because I was going to watch this move this video anyway. Like I would have watched it anyway. And so I learned some shit. But yeah, I went through a lot of writers. It went through the writer strike of 2007. There was a lot of a lot of shit, a lot of bullshit going on behind the scenes of this movie. And believe apparently it the stuff that really works in this movie, like. Well, the stuff that's the most fun, like the relationship between those two characters, um, that was a much bigger part of the original script. And then every time new writers were hired, the studio would come in and be like, this is, this is what we want you like the, like the mechanical spider. It's like, we don't care how you do it. You put, put this thing in there or make this happen somehow. right Like make it work with what you already have. Exactly.
01:21:21
Speaker
It went through three pairs of writers and a writer's strike, which meant they were filming during the writer's strike, which meant none of the writers could be on set to help them flesh out dialogue and shit. So that sure yeah, yeah, it really does. Honestly, a similar problem that they had ah during the filming of the the new movie, Deadpool and Wolverine. Like they had to ADR a ton of shit because it was taking place during the most recent writer's strike. Filming of that movie was taking place during that writer's strike and they had to stick to what was written and then they went back in ADR and reshot everything they didn't like. Well, at least in that movie, one of the main characters has a mask on most of the time, so it's easy to disguise. Right.
01:22:06
Speaker
That's definitely a ah plus for sure. Sure. they We're thrilled. They were like, oh, damn, at least we don't have to fuck too much with actual Deadpool. He could say anything, man. You can say anything. Right. We'll just have Ryan Reynolds ad lib some shit later. Yeah, it'll come out fine. I'm sure he is Deadpool. So like it's going to go out, come out fine. I'm sure. Exactly.
01:22:29
Speaker
Oh, man, but no, this movie is is it it I mean, in it it all of that shows on the screen, like it's a fucking mess. Story wise, character wise, this thing is ah absolutely a mess. Like Wolverine becomes kind of just a tertiary character in like big so we can cram more mutants onto the screen like and And it's almost like every time and during this timeframe, it's like every time there was an X-Men movie, it's like what mutants haven't we seen yet? Let's cram as many of them onto the screen as possible. And that that kind of becomes the m MO for the rest of the X franchise. It's less
01:23:07
Speaker
who works together as a team who can give us the best dynamic to what mutants haven't we seen. Let's throw them on the screen. That's why you get like Zoe Kravitz as Angel. Like these these characters that are kind of these minor X-Men characters, but they haven't been on screen yet. They have cool powers. Let's see them. And it's ah it's a big damn bummer. Yeah, it's too bad. Yeah. And I, that's pretty much what this movie boils down to. And that, and Last Stand starts that. And I feel like it continues through the end of this, of the franchise, frankly. Agreed. There's a few bright spots. One or two, but very few. Yeah. For me, it's just first class and days of future past. And I would i would be inclined to agree with that.
01:23:54
Speaker
I don't think that Days of Future Past is necessarily a good movie, but I think the... It's it's the fourth best X-Men movie by default, I would say. I think that the actors involved were really into doing it and gave it their all. And even though the material was lacking at points, the whole film is stitched together by these fantastic performances. And I really like that movie, actually. I like Days of Future Past a lot. Even, like I said, recognizing that it's not great, but sometimes certain parts of bad movies can rise up so far that it doesn't matter that the rest of the movie is shitty. I'm still having a great time. I don't care what's coming out of your mouth because I believe it. I believe it. You're selling it, and I'm buying it. Let's go. Let's L F G. Let's fucking go. Dude, yeah.
01:24:51
Speaker
Um, I wish Brett were here. Do you know why I wish Brett were here? Comic book video game. Yeah. This, this movie had a fairly successful video game that Brett can tell us about. So that video game was actually really, really good. Um, it, uh, some would say that it's much better than the film. I find that not at all difficult to believe. Which at the time you're licensed, uh, your film licensed games, which has kind of always been true. You don't expect them to be very good, like serviceable at best. But, uh, this game from what I've heard is pretty rad. I didn't buy it because I mean, it was a, it was a movie tie-in, so I knew it was going to suck, but apparently I was wrong.
01:25:45
Speaker
You know, what we should do is when we do get, when we do get Brett back full time, we should do an ups all video game corner covering all the video games for all the movies we cover that Brett wasn't here for. That's going to be a big episode. That's why it's an ups all video game corner episode. yeah dude And there was a mobile game. We lock it behind that paywall and we keep it there for our patrons forever. Yeah, there was a mobile phone game of this, too, but it was shitty because it was a mobile phone game so like Ryan when smartphones hadn't taken all the way over. So it was flip phone shit. And it sucked. Yeah, I believe that's the to the the best Brett's video game corner I can do.
01:26:32
Speaker
um I can sub in for Brett with the video game corner, Steven, but you got to let me know. Or should I just start like putting that on my list of things to do is find out if they were video games for whatever movie we're covering. I mean, until we get, until we get Brett back, then I think that that might have to fall under your purview. Can it, can it still be Brett's video game corner featuring Tucker by Tucker? Yeah.
01:26:59
Speaker
I'm like that gal that hosted your episode of wait, wait, don't tell me listen to by the way. And she was great. She was. Yeah. Oh, she's hilarious. I think she's amazing. She's been on a couple of episodes of the blank check podcast. And i I think she's hilarious. So yeah. And she was absolutely great on that show. Like she's got that. She's got that Peter Segal kind of thing, you know. the same kind of deal that he does. I mean, she does it a little different, but she's got that same rapport. And it's. She's got that Gen Z like vibe to it. Yeah. But like she was adorable. She like came out and like jeans and a button down shirt with like her grandfather's tie. And it was nice. Just nothing but energy. Yeah, she was good. She was real good. But yeah, i I mean, I anything else we need to discuss about this when I'm kind of I'm kind of set to wrap this up. Just the box office, Steven. Yeah, let's do it.
01:27:49
Speaker
Yeah. ah So X-Men Origins Wolverine opens on Friday, the 1st of May in the Year of Our Lord 2009. It opens to $85.058 million. dollars And Godspeed rescue workers.
01:28:17
Speaker
I hope everyone's okay. Yeah, me too. And in terms of a multiplier, not really. The legs, it's only got like a 2.1 in terms of its legs. It does not really go too far there, I'm afraid. It does not- What was the budget? Gross a lot.
01:28:38
Speaker
Production budget is $150 million. Oh, dang. And the domestic box office, it only gets up to $179.9 million. dollars but So basically, $180, domestic. It does a hundred it does another $195 million international for a total of about $375 million worldwide. Which ain't bad, but that ain't good either. Right. For worldwide numbers, fine. But like for that movie, though, that should have been a huge that should have done Deadpool Wolverine numbers. And that
Box Office Performance and Comparisons
01:29:16
Speaker
movie broke a lot of fucking records this last weekend. That's what I've heard. Yeah.
01:29:21
Speaker
But no, like unfortunately does not do that. So, um but I mean, and again, it's on one hand, it's a bummer. On the other hand, it's absolutely expected after watching this movie. And I mean, I saw it in theaters, I was there for it. Like I was one of those A-holes that showed up for this movie. I don't know if I was there opening weekend, but I mean, there's a reason it opens at number one. People are ready for it until they hear that it sucks. It's about 70 million over its number two competition, number two at the box office. Ghosts of Girlfriends passed. I think that's a Matthew McConaughey movie. Oh, I thought it was Ricky Gervais, but that's a different one.
01:30:04
Speaker
No, that's like Ghost Town, I think. what yeah where He's the dentist. Yeah, it wasn't that good. Nor was that one where you couldn't lie. Yeah, the the invention of lying, that one did. such a Such a great concept and they just fumbled it at every fucking turn. Such a disappointment. because it's Ricky Gervais, man. Like, it drops. And Tina Fey's in it, too. It's got a lot of... It drops 69% from week one to week two. X-Men Origins Wolverine does. Oh, nice. Fantastic. Like, 69% drop in its second weekend. That's very bad in terms of, like, what you want your movie to do. Ghost of Girlfriends passed. That's the...
01:30:50
Speaker
Oh fuck, which one? I was opening a tab and I closed the door. It is Matthew McConaughey. And is that the one through him and Witherspoon? No, Jennifer Garner, him and Jennifer Garner. Same thing. No, not him. Breckenmeyer, Lacey Shabear, Robert Forrester, Ann Archer, Emma Stone, and Michael Douglas. I love it when Breckenmeyer shows up. It's fun. In third place, Obsessed. Okay. What if someone was obsessed? Is that the, uh, is that the Beyonce one with Idris Elba and Ali Larter? I don't know. I like Ali Larter though.
01:31:27
Speaker
I don't know. Yes, Beyonce knows and Ali Arder, Ali Larter and yourself. But I fucking know that one. I love all those people. Sure. Is your three favorite people? Clearly 17 again in number four, Zac Efron, Matthew. Hey, you mean Matt Perry. I do. I do mean Matt Perry. Yeah, that one. Look, I I'm still waiting for them to make a body swap movie from parent to teen that is not good. Like as much as I don't want to like them, even 13 going on 30, fantastic. 17 again. That movie is kind of fun. Holy shit. Same energy. It's so good. It's a dumb fucking idiot movie, but I love it so much. It's really good. Right on. Yeah. um In fifth place, a movie I also saw in theaters this year, Monsters versus Aliens.
01:32:19
Speaker
Oh, that was animated, right? Yeah, that's the one with yep. Reese Witherspoon plays the 50 foot woman from Attack the 50 foot woman. No, you got Seth Rogen as the blob. You got Hugh Laurie as the fly. You've got really Will Arnett as the creature from the Black Lagoon. Really? I mean, variations of those characters. Wait, is this. a way to play those on this Did I sleep on this, Steven? Should I watch that you? I think it sounds rad. It's rad as hell. um It's got rain rain Wilson as the aliens. um Yeah, Kiefer Sutherland as the like guy organizing the monsters. OK, who the fuck else that Paul Rudd is plays Reese Witherspoon's fiance?
01:33:06
Speaker
um Amy Poehler is the voice of Rainn Wilson's computer. Like it's got a fucking stacked as hell cast. Damn, dude, I guess I'm going to watch that shit. I mean, it might be one that when Stephen Colbert is the president. Can we cover it? I think it might be one we can cover. I don't know if there's been a sequel. I think they did like sometimes they do those like a mind they do those um holiday specials. I think they may have done a couple of holiday specials with those characters maybe. I don't know that I i mean we're counting like not like TV things but like actual feature films. And I think to date there's only been one possible sequel.
01:33:45
Speaker
Despite its success in the US market, DreamWorks Animation CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times that a sequel would not be made because of the film's peak performance in some key international markets. There was enough of a consensus from our distribution and marketing folks in certain parts of the world that doing a sequel, in quotes, would be pushing a bo boulder up a hill. After the release of Mega Mind, Katzenberg commented, Sharkdale monsters and versus aliens in Mega Mind, ah Quote all shared the same approach in tone and idea of parody and did not travel well internationally We don't have anything like that coming up on our schedule now that said We didn't show though. We did get a sequel to Megamind earlier this year so there there has been a television special and a couple of shorts and a TV show but nothing in the way of an actual film and
01:34:37
Speaker
Well, it looks like this is on Netflix and Peacock, so I will be able to watch this soon. It's fucking fun. Like I never I never like I didn't care. But now you're telling me all this stuff about it. Like that makes me want to see it for sure. Oh, an insectosaurus. I forgot insectosaurus is like ah a Godzilla type character.
01:35:01
Speaker
so and it's fuckinged in the box office stephen um So yeah after that rounding out the top 10 we have the soloist that Like it'll be gotten Robert Downey jr. Jamie Foxx like Oscar bait movie It was pretty good though. Um, you know, okay. It was pretty good i'm I'm not trying to I'm not trying to hear that right now. No, it's okay. um It's all right man in seventh place Walt Disney's Earth and What in earth? Welcome to earth the documentary. I think so. OK, like it's Earth with like a lowercase e. um Oh, it's been in theaters for two weeks. Dumb. I don't know. man'am Next in eighth place. Also, Walt Disney, Hannah Montana, Colin, the movie, the movie. Yeah. Do you think they finally find out her secret identity? I don't fucking know. me Is that what that show is about? I don't know.
Audience Expectations and Studio Pressures
01:35:56
Speaker
Yeah, because like people don't know that she's Hannah Montana. She's like Miley in real life. But then she's it's almost like a superhero secret identity. She's secretly Hannah Montana. That's the whole crux of the show. And her dad is played actually by Miley Cyrus, by Miley Cyrus, by Billy Ray si Cyrus, which I think is fantastic, because just to see that man come back from one hit in the 90s to being a children's television star What would come back, man? And then he's on that little Nas X song like he's really. I'm saying he he kept it cool for a while and like had a family and shit and then right back up on the scene doing anything it takes to be in the public eye by making by trying to make his daughter as famous as humanly possible. Yeah. Well, I mean, she's got a lot of talent, dude, so I don't blame him at all.
01:36:53
Speaker
A lot of talent still still feels kind of craving. That's already in the USA. I mean, I'm not in my head like, yeah, and moving my hips like, yeah, that's one of the greatest songs made in the modern age of music. There's no situation where party in the USA is not appropriate. Stephen, any mood that I'm in, no matter what's bothering me, what has happened to me? If I hear the opening chords of party in the USA, instantly. I'm good. I'm fucking good for at least three minutes and 28 seconds. Good to know. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Wow. Yeah. Such a good song. If you say so. I do. I do. And I think I know my shit, Steven.
01:37:44
Speaker
I mean, you know some shit. Anyway, what's number nine? ah Number nine is Fighting Channing Tatum movie. And number 10 is State of Play, I guess. I don't know. I've never seen it. I don't know. I've never heard of the State of Play. What is that? Is that a political killer? It's a movie where there's a state and they're playing. I don't know. And they're playing there. Yeah, sure. They play in a state. What's a state where there is a play at the actual performance of some kind? Oh, could be. Maybe it's a sport movie. Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams. when' you When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the representative, his old college friend. What did I say, Steve? What was my first guess? Political thriller. Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren. Yep. Nailed it. Are are Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck playing college friends in this movie? Because if so. I hope so.
01:38:42
Speaker
Woof. Maybe Russell c Crowe was a professor in a previous life. Is my heat on? Why are my ankles so warm? I don't know. That's something you might want to look into. Weird. And in 11th place, I just want to shout this out. Fast and Furious. my One of my least favorite of the Fast and Furious friends. That's like the third one? No, the fourth one. That's the fourth one. OK. The third one is Tokyo Drift. Tokyo Drift. Yeah. And then you had Too Fast, Too Furious for the second one. Right. Got it. You did. The Tomatometer score on X-Men Origins Wolverine is 38 percent. The critics consensus, though Hugh Jackman gives his all. He can't help X-Men Origins Wolverine overcome a cliche written script and a familiar narrative. The meta score is a 40 based on mixture average reviews from 39 critics and the letterbox score. Tucker, you want to take your guess? I feel like oh, shit.
01:39:40
Speaker
I just put my computer on screensaver mode for some reason. i was There was dust on the touchpad and I thought maybe if I... Anyway, I'm gonna say it's gonna be between a 2.3 and a 2.7. It's a 2 point... Four. Yeah. Well done. Well done. Right in that sweet spot. Well, I tell you what. um Now, I will say they they wanted to use this movie as a launching pad to make more X-Men Origins films and actually had planned to make a Magneto film thaty that eventually got scrapped. They ended up using the good parts of that in X-Men first class.
01:40:25
Speaker
Uh, so we didn't get X-Men Origins Magneto, but we did get, um, X-Men first class. So that's not a bad thing. And, uh, of course, uh, any future ah future Wolverine movies had fucking nothing to do with this. And, uh, one of the big reasons why Days of Future Past got made at all was to try to completely erase this movie from continuity. So. Yeah. Yeah. And that it does. It does that. But you know, we get leave Schreiber and we get Danny Houston and that's, that's okay. That's pretty fucking cool if you ask me. And that is our episode. Except for one thing, Tucker out of five stars. How are you rating X-Men Origins Wolverine from the year of our Lord 2009? Look, I can't in good faith give this three stars.
01:41:20
Speaker
but I did have a really good time with it this time, and there were a lot of things I appreciated about it because, appreciated about it because of the way that I chose to approach the film. That a 2.5 seems ah just a hair, just a skosh, too low, you know? So I'm gonna do the rarely used 2.75. Oh, you bastard. I gotta do it some, I try not to, but sometimes there's no there's no other way. it's It's a one and a half for me. That's fair. like i'm not I'm not going um too much higher than that. like it's It's fine, but like not so fine as to actually be fine. like I feel like
Movie Ratings and Actor Potential Discussion
01:42:04
Speaker
it's better in retrospect now that everything's kind of cookie cutter and samey, but this is not good. like Again, like this feels like a superhero movie from four years before.
01:42:15
Speaker
This was made like this feels like something in the Punisher era of superhero filmmaking and not the Iron Man era of superhero filmmaking. Look, it's it's not good. But. I do think that it deserves more credit than most people give it because people just shit all over this movie. And I'm not going to say for the wrong reasons, but I'm saying maybe they focus too hard on some of the disagreements they have with how certain characters were portrayed. Focus on that too much, because there's some fun stuff in here if you don't fucking just like get mad about that the whole movie. If you don't care about character or plot or dialogue or yeah computer effects or, yeah you know, 95 percent of what you go to see a movie for. Look, like I said, not good. But I think it it gets a worse rap.
01:43:15
Speaker
than it deserves by how much I'm not sure. But that's how I feel about it. I don't know. For me, I will say it it is it part of the reason it feels so much like a superhero movie from so far before its time is that it carries that same contempt for the material and the audience that a lot of those early comic book movies carried. and And by 2009, we're starting to hopefully get out of that. And this is just very emblematic of all of that. Not understanding what it is the fans like about these characters, why the fans want to see these characters. It's a Spider-Man 3 problem where you're just like, I don't know, put Venom in it. Why? Because the fans want Venom. He doesn't fit in your story? Tough shit. Put him in there.
01:44:02
Speaker
like And it's like the fans want to see Gambit. You don't think he fits in this? Who fucking cares? Put him in, give him something to do. Gambit is in a lot more of this movie than I remember him being in. I remember him being in the one scene in New Orleans and that's it. But he sticks around in this movie in a way that I was not, I did not remember him doing. I really, I would have liked more of that Gambit, I feel like. And there are a couple of moments where Wolverine's just like, well, Gambit, I guess I'll see you in your own movie in a couple of years. Like it basically goes right up to the light of saying that. And then, of course, we all know that Channing Tatum was really trying to really wanted to play Gambit in this movie.
01:44:46
Speaker
And then for years tried to get his own Gambit movie off the ground. No, thanks. I like Channing Tatum. I do. But no, thanks. Like I liked what Taylor Kish did and like maybe that's not what we need for the character. Mileage may vary, but Channing Tatum, I just i don't know, man, that doesn't. I mean, could he pull it off? Maybe he's if he's a decent actor. I've seen him put put in a few like really good, solid performances, but I just I don't know. I'm not convinced. I like Channing Tatum. I think he's I think he's far more versatile than people give him credit for. I would like to see what his take on the character is or would be. Yeah, but yeah, it doesn't excite me too much that that choice in casting does not excite me that much. And normally I'm pretty open minded, like, like i'm I'm not the guy who was like, oh, fucking Ben Affleck. I was like, oh, fucking Ben Affleck. That could be interesting.
01:45:40
Speaker
You know, oh, fucking Heath Ledger. No, I mean, that might be cool. Who knows? Let's see. Let's wait and see, you know. Right. Right. Right. Channing Tatum is Gambit. I I don't know, man. I don't know, Tucker. Let's let's fucking wait and see. I can't see it. Why? but I don't know. Maybe he's I don't know. Maybe maybe Channing Tatum is going to find maybe maybe Marvel Studios. Now that they're bringing the X-Men to the MCU, maybe they'll finally give him his shot. Steven, did you just spoil another? No, I didn't do shit. I didn't do shit. Was that what you did, Steven? No. That's fun. I haven't seen the fucking movie. What do I know? All right. That's cool, Steven, whatever. Like, uh, straight up, I quit. We're not friends anymore. Um, bye. Click. No, JK, don't cut it. Don't cut it. We're still friends. Wait, Steven, are you still there? It's frozen.
01:46:38
Speaker
Steven, come back to me. Action. And bit over. It's it's fun that when I just like hold my position for a while and don't say anything, Tucker thinks I'm frozen on the screen. No, that was just a bit. You've got one little hair right there up top. that was still moving in the breeze. So I knew, you know, right there, that one. I got the fan blowing on me right now. So, you know, just. That's yeah. but Anyway, X-Men Origins Wolverine, that is our episode on that movie. um Certainly was a movie we watched. It was ah yeah like so many others that we've watched. Good God, what a thing that we did. Look, look what we have wrought.
01:47:20
Speaker
um But, yeah, that's it. That is our episode on the X-Men Origins Wolverine. So, yeah, Tucker, any final thoughts there? No, actually,
Personal Updates and Closing Remarks
01:47:32
Speaker
I've had to pee for quite a while, so I've been waiting for you to start the social so I could go pee while you do that. so right i'll go I'll go ahead and do that. Yeah, I'm going to. I'll be right. I'll be right back. I can still hear you. Yeah, I know. you've You've got headphones that enable you to move away from your computer in a way that mine don't. Um, but yeah, no, this is, uh, this has been our episode. We are the disenfranchised podcast. Uh, you can find us on a vast majority of the socials, um, at disenfranch pod. I'm not going to tell you which ones read the show notes or figure it out. And yes, last week's episode did not have show notes. Why didn didn't have show notes? Cause I didn't write them. Why didn't I write them? Because life is insane sometimes. And I didn't get a chance. Sorry. Hashtag not sorry.
01:48:14
Speaker
Um, but anyway, uh, you can find us at disenfranch pod. Um, leave us a five star rating and review wherever you get your podcasts. That goes a long way to helping us find new listeners like you. And we think you're pretty cool. And if you think we're pretty cool, you probably want other people to find us and think we're pretty cool too. So do your best. Um, you can shoot us an email, disenfranchpod at gmail dot.com. Let us know how we're doing. Let us know if there's anything you can do. And I'll tell you, if you leave us a five star rating and review and you send us an email, we'll read that shit on the podcast. Uh, so please go ahead and do that. Thank you. Um,
01:48:53
Speaker
And make sure you check out Patreon, patreon.com slash disenfranchpod. You can join for free and join the official con conversation of the disenfranchised podcast. You get basically a direct line to Tucker and myself. we We are active and do respond on that thread, both as the as the podcast and as ourselves. So check that out and join us and we will respond to you and say hello and all those things. Um, and, uh, or you could join at the $5 level and get access to so many more, uh, movies and, uh, or movies, so many more episode podcasts of, um, things like.
01:49:35
Speaker
disenfranchised and unenfranchised and all the other shit that we cover back behind that paywall, including about a year's worth of episodes of what are we watching as well. So check that shit out. goes and Hundreds of hours of content. So much content. Tucker has peed in his back. um I'm your host. stephen finds my back I peed on my back? What? What did she say? You said Tucker peed on his back. Oh, I thought you said I peed on my back. And I was like, first of all, how can you tell? And secondly, how would I even achieve that? Very carefully. No, you yes anyway. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt, but he's peed and he's OK. He peed and he's back is what I said. Yeah. And he's back. Yeah. OK. Yeah, that makes sense.
01:50:29
Speaker
I'm your host, Stephen Fox, where they find me on on the social platforms I'm on at Chewy Walrus, ah buy my book, Check In, Check Out, ah that I wrote with my partner, Mandy Gossage, um that is ah available on Amazon. I have your copy. It's right over there. It's been signed. Is it available, signed, and sent to my house, motherfucker? When's that gonna happen? It's been months, Steven. I purchased that book months ago. Life has been insane, my friend. I'm gonna get it there. hello I will get it there. No, it won't. I have to go to a fucking post office to mail it. Yeah, because I live in an apartment in Chicago and I can't fucking get, like, mail does not get picked up from my apartment. It only gets dropped off.
01:51:23
Speaker
Damn. I would even, I would even pay for the shipping, Steven. I just, I just want to read it. Look, I've, I've actually halted, uh, reading my Brian Wilson biography because I'm over halfway through. And I want to read your book next, but I want to have it in hand before I finished the Brian Wilson book, because if I finished the Brian Wilson book and your book's not here, I'm moving on to the fucking Dresden files and who know I'll get fucking lost in that. Apparently. according to the people who recommend it to me. That's a rabbit hole that I'm about to get lost down. So I'm just saying, I'm trying to give your book that shot. Cause I really want to read it. Gotta to get it to me, dude. I appreciate it, man. I'm going to get it to you. Calm the fuck down. I'm just, I'm just realizing that it's been months and like all that's catching up with me, dude. All that disappointment. um ah You're friends with me. You better get used to that, my friend. um Hell yeah.
01:52:19
Speaker
That's just why it is disappointment. I'm I'm a fundamentally disappointing individual. Just it's time you figured that out. Oh, I feel that levels. But yes, find me at Chewy Walrus. You can find Brett on social media or don't because he doesn't want to be found. And Tucker, where are you at these days? I'm on Instagram and YouTube at i nine o nine that's Ice That's I.C.E. and I.N.E., the number zero. In the number nine, uh, I've been making some strides in my alphabetical listen through on Instagram in the last two days. I believe I've listened to seven fool full, full LPs, uh, ranging from, uh, post grunge anti-folk from the early 2000s.
01:53:09
Speaker
to the mamas and the papas. I do love the mamas and the papas. Some Daft Punk inspired late 2000 groups as well. It's been a roller coaster the last couple of days. I finally got through my Billy Joel's. That took a while because I have all but four of Billy Joel's records and there's actually only one that I don't have that I want. So I have a pretty complete collection and it takes a while to get through them. Makes sense. Finally got through those and now we're we're moving along. And, uh, I feel the pace is good. Pace is good. Uh, so check that out. If you're into like looking at records, I own alphabetically, which is something I'm really into. So who knows? Uh, also tuck mugs is still, is still a thing. It's still around, uh, tuck underscore mugs, uh, got a few things planned for it. Uh, I'm hoping to get Jimmy to, um,
01:54:08
Speaker
do a cross promotion on there because in his most recent music video that dropped last week, there is a coffee mug that is ah pretty a small part, but it's it's you notice it. And I want him to do that mug so that we can promote the video in the song. And while I'm here, I might as well say that Jimmy had just put out a new song and it's really good. And you can check all his shit out at Grand Voodoo Band like everywhere. but he did a song it's called you're making me nervous i don't care and there's a music video for it that dropped on youtube as well that's really really good that has some he's this boy when he makes a music video he wears
01:54:53
Speaker
His influence is on his sleeve. And I love it. It's so sweet. And it's so cute. And I love him for it. um He this boy has been has just discovered like French films like fully shit. And like so you could really see yeah you could see kind of the influence of that stuff. in this new video and I love it because he's been telling me a little bit here and they're like, oh, I watched this movie or I watched that movie. And I'm like, wow, yeah, that's that's like a, you know, a criterion staple. You know, like these are classic movies that like everybody gets into at some point and he's getting into them. And like he makes this video and it's very clearly ah inspired by what he's been watching recently. And it's it's really well done, too. He's one he's a very talented visual artist.
01:55:43
Speaker
um So yeah, check that out because it's a really good song. And, uh, tuck mugs, we're going to do a cross promotion is why I mentioned it. Also, I still haven't dropped my new Lincoln square mug and I gotta tell you that's coming. Right on. And I don't want to tease it too much, but they changed the mugs. So the first two you saw on tuck mugs, it's going to be different. It's going to be different. Hmm. Pretty exciting. Sounds intriguing. Fun stuff. Fun stuff coming on on the tuck mugs. Yeah, that's me on social media. d And hey, not that I would ever tell you my Reddit handle, ah not even in private, but oh I did tell me. Yeah, I did get permanently banned again. Yeah. Look at you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know if you've met me, but like I'm
01:56:43
Speaker
I'm not a mean person. Like I'm the kind of person who's like, I try to never be the asshole so that I can never be seen as the asshole. And the two times that I've been permanently banned from Reddit has just made me laugh so hard because of the kind of shit I see on Reddit that that goes goes through without consequence. And then I'll do something. Like say in a certain subreddit that something that is widely agreed upon as being morally wrong and disgusting is such and series of events unfolds to where I get completely banned from the entire website because I stood up for actual morality and shit. And, uh, I got called a troll for it. That was the reason I was trolling. I know I wasn't troll. I'm being for real. Like this is a bad thing you shouldn't do. Yeah.
01:57:38
Speaker
Anyway, I just wanted to bring that up because the first time I got banned, it was on a 13 year old account that I had had obviously for 13 years. Right. and tracks And this most recent account I had for about two years, but I've been really active on it. And you know, I think I'm just done. I think I'm just done with it. I really, I really like it as a place to converse, but all too many, all too many times it just devolves into bullshit, no matter what you say or no matter how nice you try to be or and just people just want to argue and people want to say mean things and make everything just so negative. So I'm moving on from it. After about 15, 15 years, it's been kind of my main hub. RIP Reddit. Yeah, I read it.
01:58:36
Speaker
It's kind of bullshit. It's more bullshit now that it's ever been anyway. So that's why it's so easy to just kind of like. I was going to say, most social media kind of is these days, honestly. Reddit held on for a while if you if you were into the right subreddits, of course. Yeah, right. That's that's key. Yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to announce that because I thought it was funny. I had a good laugh about that when I got that email. I was like, really? All right, cool. Fucking great. Whatever. I don't even get a shit at this point. It's so absurd. I don't even care. Yeah. Which is why I brought it up two weeks later on a podcast where no one even had any idea that it was happening to me. Because I don't even care. It's so stupid. ah She get banned. I didn't even do anything. But the anyway, that's our episode on fucking whatever movie we watched this week. So have a good one.
01:59:28
Speaker
it's That's how you do it, right, Steven? I did it well. Basically, yeah. So until next time, I don't think I said my other catchphrase in this episode. What a cast, what a picture. So I'll just squeeze it in here. There you go. I said it. And I don't know. We're fucking done. Who cares? Who fucking gives a shit? It's whatever. Roar. Snicked it.
01:59:58
Speaker
Oh.