Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
120. GrAySoN
24 Plays5 months ago
Adrian & Simon review director Francis Lawrence’s film, A Long Walk. As a core topic of the show this week, they discuss the incoming influence of AI on the film & TV industry; and the controversial introduction of AI actor, Tilly Norwood. In addition, the two pals talk about the twists and turns in James Gunn’s Peacemaker Season 2, get excited about Stranger Things Season 5, and begin worrying about a world in which Warner Brothers merges with Paramount. They also applaud the reinstatement of Jimmy Kimmel Live to network ABC, speculate on who could be playing Batman in Batman Brave & the Bold, and ponder the importance of engagement photos.
This episode was recorded in Canada on October 5th 2025. Episodes air every two weeks on Tuesdays! Catch us on October 21st for Episode 121.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: AI in Film and TV Industry
00:00:01
Speaker
well This episode... Grayson, we examine the impact that AI is having on the film and TV industry. Grayson? While acknowledging the controversy caused by the introduction of AI actor Tilly Norwood. I hit my table. Grayson? Shit, I hit my... I hit my elbow on the table. Ow. You know what?
00:00:20
Speaker
I don't care you hurt your elbow. What? It's so heartless. Dude, you...
00:00:29
Speaker
that's the that's You don't remember that vine, dude? No. I have never seen that vine. how was not into vine much. Also, it's your a line, man. You can do this not on your line. what's it Sorry. it's i don't care you broke your elbow. Oh, it's not even the line. It's not even the thing.
00:00:46
Speaker
Are you going to do your line? I'm sending the you this. All right. Just watch it. I'll watch it. Okay, I'm watching it. Well, no, I have no sound. It's a classic. What?
00:00:58
Speaker
I've never seen this. You remember? Are you serious, dude? 100% go up to Don and say, i don't care. You broke your elbow and Don would understand because Don understands meme culture.
Film Review: 'A Long Walk' and Dystopian Themes
00:01:09
Speaker
Anyways, we review director Francis Lawrence's Hunger Games like film, a Long Walk. But it's not like Hunger Games in the sense they kill each other. Grayson? They walk, and if they stop, they get fucking shot. And we discuss Warner Brothers' incredible financial success in 2025. Grayson? While worrying about the anti-consumerism connected to a potential merger between Warner Brothers and Paramount.
00:01:36
Speaker
Grayson? Grayson. My name is Simon Eadie. And I'm Grayson.
Casual Banter and Personal Stories
00:01:43
Speaker
Welcome to Split Focus, a film and TV podcast episode 120. Grayson?
00:01:51
Speaker
Grayson?
00:01:54
Speaker
la la la la la la la la away
00:02:12
Speaker
have to be at all are we starting? We're starting? I see that you hit the play button. The record button, not the play button. Simon, those are two different things, man. How's it going, dude?
00:02:24
Speaker
It's fine. Yeah. It's fine. Just fine? Yes, fine. I'm sorry, dude. I wish things were going better than fine for you. The only thing fine about you is that ass. Whoa.
00:02:35
Speaker
Whoa, we're starting hot. Yeah. Coming in hot. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. I took engagement photos today, Simon. You ever have those? Have I ever had them like in my possession, like your engagement photos? Yeah, my engagement photos. I hacked your iCloud account, so i I do have access to them. That's crazy. But other than that, no, I haven't taken them personally. Like there was no engagement photos taken of me, if that's what you're referring to. I guess, yeah, I could be referring to that as well. You know what? Let's go down that path instead. That makes a little bit more sense for the sake of this conversation because I had them taken today. That's nice.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, it is kind of nice. Our photographer for our wedding. Yeah. um Like when we when we signed him up to do our our shoot. Right. um He like did like a free like engagement photo session. Oh.
00:03:23
Speaker
So and he's he's like, yeah, I recommend taking it just because then you get the vibe how I work. And then also like. You know, you you can figure out like how you're comfortable taking photos, yada, yada, yada.
00:03:35
Speaker
So we went to Allura and took some of them photos today. Allura, a small town in Ontario. Yeah, big tourist destination. Big tourist destination, Simon. Yes. It's nice. I really like Allure. It's a nice small town. Good vibe there. It's very European. When you're like walking through those streets, it's European. They got a fromagerie.
00:03:56
Speaker
Right. They got bakeries that just sell bread. That's it. Whoa. Nothing else. Just a bread bakery. Yeah. they got ice cream, which we had once we finished our photos to treat ourselves.
00:04:08
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, man. Yeah. That's delightful. What a delightful, wholesome story you just told. Thanks, man. I thought it was quite delightful as well. I know you're engaged. Have you thought about doing engagement photos?
00:04:21
Speaker
No, we're not doing that. No? Awkward? Uncomfortable? Oh, ah sorry. What is it? What is exactly like is it engagement photos as in you're like pretending you just got engaged photos? Is that what you mean? No, no. It's just like photos post engagement.
00:04:35
Speaker
You're just like a photographer taking you photos. It doesn't mean like I'm I wasn't going down on a knee like pretend I'm getting engaged. Oh, I'm talking like. Because we're already engaged. I've been engaged. Yeah, I know. I know. That's what I was thinking. I was thinking you were like pretending you're like, i was like, this is what happened months ago when we got engaged. i thought that's what you mean. What your mean was. Because what your mean was, what the hell English is? No, what what I mean was, dude, what I mean was it makes sense. But no, it's just like couple photos, essentially, just like fancy couple photos. And then maybe a couple shots of the engagement ring.
00:05:07
Speaker
and Our wedding, unlike yours, is going to be particularly small, like very small, like like miniature. um Like a mess. so So we it didn't doesn't make sense for us to do engagement photos on that angle and that we're going to take some photos um during the wedding part and and that's it.
00:05:27
Speaker
So yeah we got we gotta to scale everything down, you know, equally, make it sure it's balanced as all things should be, Adrian. Yeah, like that one line that Thanos said in in Avengers Infinity War.
00:05:38
Speaker
Oh, right. He did say that. Yeah. Strange. Look at that reference I made. Right. Cool, man. Yeah. Yeah. When are you getting married, man? like Like, we're friends, I like to think.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. I share a lot about my life to you. You less so share to me. so You share things, but less so. Yeah. Should we do that here on this podcast live? We could. Are you getting married? Yeah, yeah, this year.
00:06:03
Speaker
yeah Oh, this year? yeah What day? Is it the same day as my wedding and you're bailing out? It's hilarious because we we we chose a date and then you sent us, you literally sent us your save the date and it was so close to the same date.
00:06:17
Speaker
It was crazy. we We just had planned it out pretty pretty well and we're like, we know what we're doing. this is This is it. This is it. This is it. And then you literally sent us the save the date and we're like whoa, that was close.
00:06:29
Speaker
well Is yours of the 7th? no No, not that close. it's It's in December though. It is? Family? Just family? Yeah, just family. Just immediate family. It's like 10 people in total, approximately.
00:06:43
Speaker
That's a good number. 10, maybe 11, maximum. um mean so Very, very small, but... We're also not doing a big ceremony. We're doing courthouse type type situation. And then it's like ah you don't have to be there for that type of situation to the family there. They're like, ah you don't you don't have to be here for this part because you don't have to see this.
00:07:01
Speaker
You need witnesses though. and witness of Witnesses, of course, at that part of it. And then we're just doing like a very fancy dinner ah they and they at a restaurant.
00:07:12
Speaker
Which restaurant? In nearby vicinity. We're actually doing it at Langdon Hall. Oh, I worked there briefly. You worked there? Yeah. but Well, it was a co-op in high school.
00:07:22
Speaker
Oh. Grade 12 co-op. Oh, those are fun. Yeah. Yeah. So I was there. Yeah. That place, fun fact, is what convinced me i do not want to be a chef as a career. And then I i i reconsidered what I wanted to do for my life, went back to school for like grade 12 plus.
00:07:39
Speaker
Because was doing this dual credit program. Yeah. Where it was essentially your first semester of college. Yeah. At the same time as your last year of high school. Right. And part of that was the co-op at Langdon Hall.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah. And I fucking hated it. I was like, oh my God. Like it's for one, it's like quite intense in the back. It was fun. Like there were some really good people there, but it made me like quickly realize like, oh, I just really like cooking.
00:08:06
Speaker
like for friends and family. It's like a hobby. Yeah. I hate this as a career. And like, I don't know. they It was just like, yeah. To be fair. Sorry. You should have continued. You should continue. That's really That was very rude of me.
00:08:18
Speaker
No, no. It made me, yeah. It's a fun fact that you are going to have a very nice fancy dinner at the place that made me change my career choice to something that I'm not even doing.
00:08:30
Speaker
You, you, I knew you like cooking. You're very, you're very good at cooking. um I think, I think like that place is very intense and I think it's not maybe indicative of any, every restaurant that you could have potentially owned. If you were looking to be like potentially a restaurant owner and chef long-term, know what i mean?
00:08:48
Speaker
That place is as intense as it gets in the immediate area for, for the Guelph kind of, kind of KW area. Yeah. I think it's the number one hotel and spa in Canada. Is it? Oh, wow.
Industry News and Streaming Services
00:09:00
Speaker
We went there. so It was then. My point is, if you did want to choose that as a career long-term, let's say like in 10 years, they're like, you know what? I'm and i'm looking for ah and you know something that's an art-filled career choice change, although it's risky.
00:09:13
Speaker
You could do something like cutting board or something. It could be less intense. You know what i mean Or like a food truck. this and like this is just Like the movie Chef, to bring it back to movies and TV. Sure. Like Jon Favreau's movie Chef.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah, which which is a metaphor for his experience directing Iron Man 2.
00:09:32
Speaker
Why? don't I don't know that reference. Is that you don't know? It's a metaphor for his chef. I haven't seen chef yet, to be fair. Oh, really? That's also a thing that I yeah, it's a movie seen.
00:09:45
Speaker
But I just didn't know anything to do with its connection to Iron Man 2. but What? I've never heard that. four But yeah. um Yes. The chef film serves as a direct metaphor for Jon Favreau's challenging experience making Iron Man 2 and his subsequent departure from the studio system to reclaim his creative control and passion for filmmaking.
00:10:04
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. That is Google AI though, but I mean, it I guess it takes it from websites. So, But yeah, my point was you could open up a food truck and you can have like a ah like you know grand old time just making specific like cool things. I feel like that that's intense. like We went to Langdon Hall. We we tried it out before we we booked it.
00:10:23
Speaker
And we tried a lot of the food. We we just kept ordering stuff. We ordered like... two entrees, obviously. And then we ordered two appetizers and then we had two desserts and we just like, we're kind of sharing across the board and we were very impressed to the point where we're like, wow, this is a great choice. And they have a specific room you can book for like a family.
00:10:41
Speaker
um like yeah i think up to 20 people could be. invited into this particular private room. And so we decided it was awesome. So like, and and my family just hasn't had this type of closer to fine dining experience before. So I i thought, well, this is going to be a good, this is going to be good. Something that not everyone's tried, you know, an experience perhaps, but you know,
00:11:03
Speaker
Maybe, maybe there's still ah a cooking future for you and in ah in a career. I don't know. That's all I'm saying. That's kind of what I was bringing it around to say. Yeah, maybe if if I make a bunch of money and I can kind of retire early and then confidently make a little truck or something. Yeah, like sure. I would do that.
00:11:19
Speaker
I would do that. Or Reuben sandwiches. instead of Instead of polishing rocks, you open up a food truck. Exactly. Exactly. That's a good idea, man. Okay. We'll find out. We'll find out. I guess i guess we'll we'll go back on this in two decades.
00:11:34
Speaker
Maybe. Yeah. How many episodes would that be? 52. A lot. That's 52 weeks in year. 26 episodes. 26 a year. 260. Decade. 500. 520. Yeah. ah twenty six a year two hundred sixty decade five hundred and five hundred twenty Okay, there we go. All right. Episodes. It's lot of episodes.
00:11:55
Speaker
Okay, buddy. I think it's time to move on to film and TV because that is the name of the game with our podcast here. We've got a lot to go through, actually. It's kind of interesting. um More than usual. We do have a split focus special segment topic of the show this time.
00:12:09
Speaker
That's crazy. Fascinating. i don't know if you read the document here, but. going be exciting. I don't read. okay. Yeah. Sorry to hear that.
00:12:19
Speaker
You're missing out. ah But yeah, I guess we'll just move into some quick bites of news, Adrian. Just start it off. A component of our show where we discuss at least three film and TV industry news stories that have been somewhat zeitgeisty over the past two weeks.
00:12:36
Speaker
The first one... connects directly with what we talked about last week. And as Disney decided to bring the ABC talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live back on the air as of the 23rd of September, the returning show garnered over 20 million views for Jimmy Kimmel's monologue on YouTube and at least 6 million views on linear TV channels in the United States.
00:12:57
Speaker
ah And then connected to that, which i I don't know if you sent to me or I sent to you, but what I think I sent it to you. Yeah. yeah Disney plus is increasing in price on in October.
00:13:09
Speaker
The announcement came the same day that Jimmy Kimmel was gearing up to make his return to ABC after a suspension. So he hadn't even recorded his show yet. And ABC is like, sorry, Disney's like, oh, we're going to increase the price, ah which is weird because a lot of people did cancel Disney plus and Hulu following the Jimmy Kimmel live suspension.
00:13:28
Speaker
So yeah anyway, what'd you think about this, this combo, but also the fact that Jimmy Kimmel live came back before our episode even aired. was focused on women TV podcast.
00:13:39
Speaker
Great time. Yeah. yeah It was funny. I don't know. Yeah. Like I feel like the backlash online was
00:13:46
Speaker
incredibly, sorry, I was taking a drink of water there. Yeah. The backlash online. sentence Yeah. I was really, I felt like something welling up in my throat, that tickle in my throat. And i was like, I got to clear it.
00:13:58
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah, the backlash online was was palpable, right? it Like there there was a lot of people speaking out against it. I mean, we spoke about it quite extensively last episode.
00:14:09
Speaker
And um clearly it was the it was the wrong choice for Disney to do for something that was not even a joke, not even offensive, really. um And then – Right.
00:14:21
Speaker
you know Again, we we talked about politics quite a bit last week and everything like that, so I don't i don't really want to dive into that specifically, but it's cool that he's back. um But the absurdity of Disney increasing the price of Disney+, plus Yeah.
00:14:38
Speaker
Making it a harder buy-in now for the millions of subscribers that left the service, myself included. Yeah. Being kind of like, okay, well, I left it.
00:14:50
Speaker
I'm just going to not resubscribe. Yeah, sure. You brought Jimmy Kimmel back. but you also just increase the price ah like a pretty sizable amount. Yeah. but What was the sizable amount in Canada though?
00:15:03
Speaker
Do you know what the amount was here? $4, something like that. $4 increase? Oh, wow. his name Plus increase Canada choice.
00:15:14
Speaker
It was 11. Yes. It went up to
00:15:19
Speaker
yeah it went up to $18.99. Wow. a lot. And I think it was, wasn't it $14.99 before? Something like that.
00:15:30
Speaker
It was like $14.99, maybe $15.99. So it went up by like $3 to $4. Yeah. Which is like, a dude, that's a lot. um It is. And the ad-supported plan went up to $12.
00:15:42
Speaker
That's ridiculous for ads, you know? And that was that's a $3 increase because it was $8.99, maybe even $4. Maybe it was $7.99. I did the cheap plan where it was like $3 for for three three months for the ad one just to watch Alien Earth.
00:15:57
Speaker
So pretty... Pretty substantial. um Yeah, the prices appear to be starting on the 21st of October. Yeah. As well. That's a lot of money, man.
00:16:09
Speaker
man Yeah, dude. So I feel like it was a fucking stupid ass move, dude. ah Like just so wait. Okay. i have different pricings out. There's a bunch of different websites. Okay. I got I'm on mobile syrup.
00:16:22
Speaker
Let me let me be accurate about this. It was $7.99. Now, apparently it's Then they had their yeah standard. Yeah. For the ads. For their standard, which I guess is like without ads, just lower quality.
00:16:35
Speaker
It was $11.99 up to $12.99. And then premium $14.99 went up to $15.99. Where was I getting my numbers? i don't know. It doesn't matter. i We'll trust mobile syrup.
00:16:46
Speaker
um So, okay. Not a crazy increase. Maybe it was like $3 in total because of the three tiers. And that's what Google AI thought. Who cares? Doesn't fucking matter. um But yeah.
00:16:57
Speaker
I don't know. I think it's, it's kind of silly. the The timing is just so stupid. I don't know what you're thinking. You're already getting so much bad publicity. You're not going to immediately win back the people that canceled because you're just like, okay, cool. You're bringing them back. Fantastic. But you're only bringing them back because of the backlash.
00:17:13
Speaker
And now you're also increasing the price. it's It's just stupid. I don't understand. I'm not a businessman. i don't run a business Simon, but I feel like,
00:17:26
Speaker
As a businessman, if I was a businessman in Disney, I'd be like, we're not going to increase the price right now because we're already getting a shit ton of backlash. Why add fuel to the fire? i don't know. I think it's stupid.
00:17:37
Speaker
You have to think that the reason why this happened is they they initially planned this weeks ago and they were going to announce it on that day and they just never changed course.
00:17:48
Speaker
that's That's what i I imagine had happened. Like they knew that they were going to increase the price. They knew what the date was and they knew the date they were going to announce this. And then the Jimmy Kimmel thing was a surprise ah because obviously tragedy struck and like with the Charlie Kirk situation and then Jimmy Kimmel made his comment, then they suspended him.
00:18:05
Speaker
And then they're like, ah, we don't need to change course. Or like, it's like one hand didn't know what the other hand was doing. And then they didn't think, oh, maybe we should postpone. The funny thing is, is that the reasoning that, uh, like Disney Plus had said that they had canceled or suspended Jimmy Kimmel in the first way first place was because we thought the timing wasn't right. was something along those lines, which is funny because now the timing is really bad to increase Disney Plus' pricing, but yet they're doing that anyway, and they didn't didn't seem to change course.
00:18:31
Speaker
so anyway Just change course, though. like Why not change course? It's not that difficult. like it's You have thousands upon thousands of people working at the company. Send one big email and say, hey, we're not going to put out this...
00:18:42
Speaker
the statement you had like what, five or six days to change course. Let's just hold off on the price increase by a couple months. I don't know. Maybe they had to appease shareholders, whatever, but it's like, i don't know the the, the dollar increase or however many dollar increase is not going to save you from the millions of subscribers that left.
00:19:01
Speaker
This is actually, it's, it's interesting too, man. like we're living in a time where, Subscription prices continually are moving up. I mean, Apple just had another increase as well.
00:19:12
Speaker
But like again, Apple's content is so fantastic. like But like most notably, this is in the gaming space, Microsoft, Xbox, they increase the price of their Xbox Game Pass by a whopping like 50%, like something crazy.
Streaming Services vs. Cable: Consumer Rebellion?
00:19:28
Speaker
right like it In the States, I think it went up from $20 a month to $30 a month. for ultimately For Ultimate specifically, yes. Yeah, for Ultimate specifically. But they increased the price of ah their other plans as well. Not as jurassic drastically, but still, it's like...
00:19:43
Speaker
It's crazy, man. Like we're, we're finally at a point again where, I mean, I feel like people have been talking about this for a while, but streaming is just cable again and we're paying up the ass for it.
00:19:54
Speaker
And people are going to rebel against this as they did before. And I feel like that's torrenting is going to be a thing again. Like illegal streaming is going to be a thing again. IPTV, you know, is making a huge like push. Like there's ah so many options now to get your content at a significantly cheaper rate. And the value, although it's there in a lot of cases, like again, I think...
00:20:18
Speaker
you know, like 20 some odd dollars for Netflix a month. If that's all you have and you watch a lot of Netflix, it's worth it. Like ah again, it just was such better value before to the consumer.
00:20:31
Speaker
And that's what you're comparing it to. You're comparing it to the value that you had before versus what the value is now. And um yeah, yeah, it's it's kind of unfortunate, man. it's a It's frustrating.
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's quite odd. i would say it's still different than then cable in that people need to be disciplined. you know We don't have contracts here. At least in Canada, we had pretty deep contracts. you know You sign up for a few years for for cable.
00:20:58
Speaker
i I cancel come back to my streaming services all the time. And then I just resubscribe to the one that makes sense for me. The thing that was holding me in place, as I've said many times on this podcast, is the is the ah element of password sharing. I would password share specifically with family members and you.
00:21:15
Speaker
and And that would keep me in place because I knew that somebody somewhere in Ontario was watching it. People who I know knew very well we were watching it and I was happy to share the password.
00:21:27
Speaker
And now because I've got less dependence, I can cancel and come back as much as I want. And I recommend anyone listening to this podcast, please consistently reevaluate your subscriptions.
00:21:39
Speaker
If it's you know Apple Music or Spotify, makes sense to keep it forever, perhaps. Yeah. But if it's Apple TV Plus or Disney Plus or Netflix or Crave or HBO Max in the United States, I would recommend you cancel and come back and keep doing that because they have to kind of rope you in.
00:21:59
Speaker
Don't treatat make it so that they have to keep selling you. And the more they increase their pricing when they keep doing this, Just keep canceling it, ah cancel canceling for more months of the year and keep like, you know, Squid Game and Stranger Things came out this year. Those are maybe the things you're interested in watching. Then wait and then just kind of watch them both in the same month.
00:22:19
Speaker
It's just a it's be strategic as a consumer is my recommendation and vote with your wallet as well. I think it was great when they canceled. People canceled for. ah for Kimmel's ah suspension, you did it live on the podcast and you'd made that quip that maybe maybe it's because you made that comment in the comment section of the cancellation screen that they've brought Kimmel back. It was just you, Adrian. You brought Kimmel back. It yeah. It was only me.
00:22:46
Speaker
Because of that harsh comment you made. I was going to have it prepared. I completely forgot. I was going to play it on the podcast live, but I i didn't remember where the timestamp was in the podcast. Because I thought that was it was a funny moment in in the last episode of 119. But anyway, yeah, that's kind of my recommendation. But yeah, I agree with you in some way. It is like cable. But I think, I don't know, high prices is not the only reason it's like cable.
00:23:10
Speaker
It becomes more and more like cable, though, I would say, ah as we get... Did my AirPods just shut off? Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Okay. They just made the ba-boom sound mid-sentence.
00:23:24
Speaker
and But I'm more so referring to it's like cable because not only is it higher prices like before, but it's also to get access to everything you want. You have to get multiple streaming services constantly going.
00:23:38
Speaker
Like if I want to watch streaming services services is a good thing. The problem, I think, and where it becomes more like cable is as these mergers continue. And it's actually the next the next news story. You can go right
Warner Bros and Paramount Merger Concerns
00:23:49
Speaker
into that. Yeah.
00:23:49
Speaker
ah There is talk of a merger between allison's paramount and so at's larry Ellison's Paramount and Skydance with Warner Brothers Discovery. So they're going to combine Paramount Skydance with Warner Brothers Discovery.
00:24:03
Speaker
Theoretically, that might not go through, but based on the way the United States is going and... There's a question of who would really stop this ah from happening because it seems like the United States government is for mergers of this sort.
00:24:18
Speaker
The reason I'm mentioning this in line with what you're-
00:24:23
Speaker
What? It's like they're run by a businessman. Right. Yeah. Like the United States is run by a completely selfish billionaire. Yeah. ah do Anyway. Like a fucking bitch.
00:24:35
Speaker
the The point to be made, though, is the more that these companies become larger and larger conglomerates where they're combining together. it becomes worse and worse. And I think to which to your point earlier about Microsoft's price increases for Game Pass, there' there's very simply one reason why they increased the price $10 per month.
00:24:55
Speaker
And people who applauded the idea of Activision being purchased by Microsoft, Activision being a giant game publisher that is worth $70 billion, dollars at least that's how much it costs Microsoft to purchase it,
00:25:09
Speaker
um That kind of purchase for such a giant publisher of multiple game series like Call of Duty, like Blizzard's Diablo and various other games, it's just not better for consumers because in the end, prices go up and the big companies make less of the things you actually enjoy and just really make the games...
00:25:29
Speaker
or make the movies and TV shows that are the most popular and that are going to give them and garner them the most money. And that's always not better for consumers. We have less choice now than before.
00:25:39
Speaker
And if this happens, when Warner Brothers pair pairs up with Paramount and they combine their they are giant offerings, it's going to be worse for us. It's going to be more expensive. They're going to more offer more in one streaming service. And then it becomes more and more like cable.
00:25:56
Speaker
So the the more that these these companies combine with each other, even actually another good example of this is the Disney Plus Crave deal. i don't know if you've seen that. Yep. I get the ads on on Crave all the time because I get free Crave.
00:26:08
Speaker
Right. So they try to they're trying to get me to buy in to Disney Plus and Crave on the same great package. you know so one One price. But that's not better for me because I want to be able to cancel, come back. They don't want me to do that. So that's why they're trying to get me to combine my services together in that way. But that is as close to cable as we can get, I think, in this day and age.
00:26:29
Speaker
So anyway. But yeah, did you think about this merger? what do any Any thoughts on it? What are you thinking I don't know, man. I'm just kind of annoyed. i'm no, again, I'm no businessman. don't really understand mergers and acquisitions. I just know that this is necessarily, or this is typically a bad thing. A lot of people are probably going to lose their job um when when this sort of thing happens. And I feel like it rarely is a benefit for creativity when stuff like this happens.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, um that's a good point. Yeah. So, yeah, and i'm I'm against it. I'm kind of tired, man, that everything is just like one big company. And obviously Disney Fox. I mean, Warner Brothers, again, just bought Discovery. But then they're also like separating Discovery now as well. So we're just weird parts, the the less money making parts of Warner Brothers in some way.
00:27:18
Speaker
There is a separating it. as well. So that's interesting. But yeah, so that's weird. And then again, in the gaming space, like you talked about a Microsoft buying Activision, most recently, there's a, you know, story going around that EA is going to be purchased by like the Saudi um people.
00:27:37
Speaker
Not that they can confirm that's happening, right? I don't think the purchase has gone through, but it is confirmed. Yeah, that that they that there is intent to purchase EA, which is another big video game publisher.
00:27:49
Speaker
It's like $55 million dollars or some billion, sorry, $55 billion. So i don't know, man. it's It's annoying. It's frustrating. I don't i don't like it. That was a purchase, though. that That's not two companies merging, to be fair. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, that is just being yeah brought privately. and Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:08
Speaker
yeah But yeah, I don't know. This is a yeah, but I don't know. Like David Ellison's Paramount, Larry Ellison's pe Paramount. I don't know if there's a difference really. David and Larry Ellison. Larry David.
00:28:21
Speaker
Oh my God. That's why they're buying Warner Brothers. Yeah. Curb Your Enthusiasm's on HBO. Exactly. HBO is owned by Warner Brothers. Oh, my God. The Illuminati is real. Yeah. We found a conspiracy. Court of Owls exist. Okay. Well- Yeah, I don't know. It sucks. I don't want it to happen.
00:28:42
Speaker
I don't want it to happen for multiple reasons, but it's just ah it seems like it's going to happen. It's crazy, though. The Paramount Skydance deal just went through. So if this actually ends up happening again, it's it's a disaster.
00:28:54
Speaker
It will be bad. it's not It's not going to be fun. i get Again, more smaller companies. Is this better for the United the united States just in general, I think? Yeah. um I think we can agree on that.
00:29:06
Speaker
But yeah, okay. All right. Moving on. Speaking of Warner Brothers, Adrian.
Box Office Milestones: Warner Bros and Disney
00:29:10
Speaker
According to publication deadline, Warner Brothers is the first movie studio of 2025 to cross the $4 billion dollars mark at the box office.
00:29:16
Speaker
This is the first time that they have done so since 2019 before COVID. Disney is likely to also cross $4 billion dollars by the time Avatar 3 premieres in December.
00:29:28
Speaker
Cool. Any thoughts on this? Um... No, I mean, like, I guess it's pretty neat. Four billion dollars. It's cool because like it's not like Warner Brothers. Like Warner Brothers has been releasing some really cool movies this year, like Sinners being a big one.
00:29:42
Speaker
Again, we both really love Superman. Yeah, it's a very well-rounded release. So it's kind of cool that these movies that I think traditionally wouldn't be like the focal point of like or focus of being.
00:29:55
Speaker
you know blockbuster movies are making a shit ton of money and and people are really liking it. Well, they are releasing blockbuster movies. Well, that's the thing. It's the balance of everything that they're launching. It's one battle after another. It's Minecraft.
00:30:09
Speaker
It's Superman. quiet And then it's Sinners. You know what i mean? Like it's like this yeah combo, like weapons made a lot of money as well. That's all Warner Brothers. It's such an interesting combination of films that allowed them to get there first. It's a great catalog, dude.
00:30:23
Speaker
It's a great catalog. like Not just Blockbuster. Some art in there. which we're going to get less of when, when they merge with skydance paramount. h So they're going to do halo show season three. I'm going to bring that back and make it art.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yeah. I shouldn't say some art in there. Superman is also art, but the the further you go towards like kind of like the blockbuster it's, it can get further away from the artistic vision in some way. I don't think that's necessarily true, especially with Superman and that James Gunn did a great job, but just as you sinners is a bit of a risk.
00:30:54
Speaker
One battle ah after another is is a big risk. That movie cost over $100 million dollars to make, which is rare for Paul Thomas Anderson in general. um We got to go see that. we got Yeah, yeah, we do.
00:31:05
Speaker
You know what's crazy? Okay, on the top, this is a total aside. So Paul Thomas Anderson, his last movie, Licorice Pizza. Yeah. It had... ah The cast of actual sisters in it, three sisters in that movie.
00:31:18
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And did you know that those three sisters have a band called Haim? Yeah. Right. Right. I didn't make that connection immediately. Yeah. Watching long story short at the at the and one of the like later episodes, they play like a remix of one of Haim songs and. And then the the mom in that show references the band. She's like, oh, you guys should do like a sibling band, like like the Heim sisters or whatever.
00:31:47
Speaker
And then I forget when randomly I like pieced it all together. And I was like, oh my God, the Heim sisters were in Licorice Pizza. Yeah. That's in this long story short, which is one of my favorite shows of the year.
00:31:59
Speaker
It's just like all connected. Anyways, um that is an aside and a tale. I wonder, do we not talk about that on the podcast? podcast before you think i fucking remember i don't know you think that was the episode you know what the name of that episode was wonder if you know the it was bradley cooper um together double double bradley cooper feature think yeah something like that yeah yeah because we saw the guillermo del toro film midnight alley no not midnight alley what's that's right nightmare nightmare alley that that's also right that's actually more right than your previous statement
00:32:37
Speaker
But yeah, that is cool. You're right. I agree. But where was I? I don't remember. Disney. it's It's cool. so oh Disney's going to make it for sure. They're going to make it. Because of Avatar 3.
00:32:48
Speaker
Everyone loves Avatar 3. There's also Zootopia. Oh, yeah. Too bad.
00:32:57
Speaker
What? Why too bad? I don't know. You don't want them to make it? I probably just won't go to the theaters to watch it.
00:33:06
Speaker
Oh, I didn't even watch inside out two yet. should have watched inside out two. Are you saying because you're like still rooting against them because of the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel or you're just, I just, I just want to root against every but like corporation going forward.
00:33:18
Speaker
That's going to be tough. That's going to be tough, dude. Yeah, I know. You know, when this, when the, I don't know if I said this last episode, but when Disney canceled Kimmel, ah it suspended him, I was really quite worried because I was going to pretty much not go to see any Disney thing for the rest of the year.
00:33:33
Speaker
But then there was one specific thing that was like, I, I, I do gonna have to go see this. And it's the will in it. Will Arnett movie. Oh. Because it's Fox Searchlight. Because they own Fox. Again, because they own everything.
00:33:46
Speaker
They all own everything. They need to separate, but they're never going to do that. Especially not with this president. For the next four years, this merger city, I'm sure. Speaking of Bradley Cooper. Yeah, right. Will Arnett movie.
00:33:58
Speaker
Exactly. ah Is This Thing On is the name of the film. For those who are not following what we are but we're putting down. ah or Anyway. Yeah. Okay.
00:34:09
Speaker
ah Next quick bite story. Adrian. While discussing Batman, the Brave and the Bold on a podcast, I believe, James Gunn hinted that we may not be seeing a particularly old Batman with Brave and the Bold and that every actor wants to play Batman.
00:34:25
Speaker
I have a quote actually for this one. So i'm going it.
Casting Buzz: Batman and Anime Projects
00:34:28
Speaker
just see quote to follow. So I was curious what that quote would be. i just got to find it because I... Oh, no. that No. Actually, James Gunn wasn't on a podcast. He was talking to IGN.
00:34:37
Speaker
Sorry. Entertainment website IGN. Anyway, he said they had asked... um
00:34:44
Speaker
They had asked about, again, the age of Batman because ah the thought process is because of Damian Wayne in braman Batman, the Brave and the Bold, because he's got a son. Bratman. He's just a fucking brat.
00:34:57
Speaker
Right. So the thought was that they can they're going to age up Batman. he's going to be an older, more little bit more grizzled Batman. 76, 77 years old. Was that the age that thought? Yeah, think so. I think so. Was it the age that you thought? All right.
00:35:11
Speaker
Whatever. Anyway, James Gunn's answer to that assumption that he the Bruce Wayne would be old was, quote, no, I think you have to wait and see the movie, unquote. When asked, sorry, and then he's like, quote, some things have changed. Plenty of things are in flux on what his situation is with Damien's parentage and all that stuff. So I wouldn't take any of it.
00:35:32
Speaker
And then pauses and he says something else. Yeah. I mean, the actor who wants to listen, first of all, I can't tell you the amount of big actors that have told me that they want to be Batman unquote.
00:35:46
Speaker
So apparently there's a lot of Batman actors yeah in the wings. Oh, another quote here. Sorry. Quote. I think you'd, you'd have a tough time finding actors who don't want to be Batman. He's the one character everyone wants to play.
00:36:01
Speaker
That's the truth. Unquote. Yeah. He always gives a little snippets in every interview, right? He never, he doesn't, he's like no media training or something. He just goes in. He is, he's an artist that makes perfect sense. He just goes in to ah a random podcast and he just like a little snippet here.
00:36:15
Speaker
And he's like, well, how much do I want to reveal? And then another snippet here. It's kind of cool. But yeah, I always thought that definitely this Batman Bruce Wayne would be older. And it seems like that's not the case.
00:36:26
Speaker
It's 76, 77. Yeah. I don't think Damien Wayne's his son. I think that's what he's insinuating. But yeah. Is it going to be like more of an adoptive son situation? Yeah. It's going to adopt the son.
00:36:39
Speaker
Kind of like a Dick Gray son. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. but Yeah. Maybe it is Dick Grayson. Maybe they're not even doing Damien and Wayne anymore. Yeah.
00:36:50
Speaker
Maybe if' they're getting, getting punny with Grayson. Yeah. Grayson. Yeah. Dick. Yeah. So stupid.
00:37:01
Speaker
Okay. Oh, goodness gracious. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know. That's interesting. It's also interesting. It seems like based on what he said when he paused here, it seems like he picked an actor.
00:37:15
Speaker
Did you catch that? Yeah. thank you like I mean, the actor who wants to... Listen, first of all, I can't tell you the amount of big actors that have told me they want to play Batman. What's that pause thing?
00:37:26
Speaker
I don't know. I have to go back in the like the actual video and and watch it if there is one. thing But it's something something about that but strikes me as... Does he have an actor in mind?
00:37:36
Speaker
Or or do he's does he have... like Who wants to? Like, he's got... The actor who wants to is irrelevant because he starts to say that there's so many actors who are interested. So why even mention the actor who wants to as in we're in a deal. We're we're we're negotiating now. That's what I think is happening.
00:37:51
Speaker
We're in talks with somebody, but we haven't quite sussed it out. could be anybody still. But that's that's the interpretation I got. Yeah, yeah I don't know. We'll see. We will see. But it's yeah, that makes sense that everyone wants to be Batman.
00:38:06
Speaker
Except for probably, what's that dude's name who didn't want to play Superman because it was too dark? That was the most hilarious thing. as In the Superman movies, one of the lightest, literally one of the lightest superhero movies in modern history. Yeah, I have no idea. It's all about kindness.
00:38:19
Speaker
No, the dude from, ah oh, Jacob Elordi. i I can't respect that guy. Actually, when he's in something, I don't want to watch it. And I feel like it's a bad bias I have because he's pretty good. But he said, like, I don't want to be a Superman because it's too dark. And then he went on to play freaking Elvis Presley in the darkest Elvis Presley movie possible, most likely. And he also is in Euphoria. Priscilla. Yeah, he's in Euphoria.
00:38:42
Speaker
What are you talking about? Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's stupid. I couldn't believe that he said that. I feel like he lost the role and he was too ashamed to say it. I swear to God, that's what it is. Maybe. Yeah, he didn't he wasn't going to be Batman because he didn't get cast.
00:38:57
Speaker
That's what happened. I don't know. that That will always strike me as ridiculous. But anyway, and maybe maybe it's going to be Brandon Sklenar. Brandon, are you looking up rumors of who? i just wrote new Batman actor, James Gunn, and then.
00:39:12
Speaker
In a Forbes interview, James Gunn, he's considering a specific DC, blah, blah, blah. And Brendan's Sklenar's pictures in there. Brendan Sklenar is in the hit movie that I watched drop, which is, like which I didn't really like.
00:39:31
Speaker
That movie's fucking weird, dude. That movie's a weird movie. Where have I seen him, though? Because I didn't see Drop. Maybe you saw him in the trailers for the movie Drop. He's in Vice. I see him. I know. I did definitely see him in the trailers.
00:39:43
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, he's in Vice. You mean like the HBO?
00:39:49
Speaker
No, the movie, Vice. oh oh but Oh, sorry. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Christian Bale's Dick Cheney, the the vice president that shot someone with a fucking shotgun.
00:40:01
Speaker
It's crazy, dude. That was a good movie. That was a good movie. It is great. Okay. All right, yeah, that's interesting. Moving on. Trailers this week, Adrian. This bi-week.
00:40:12
Speaker
any Anything stand out to you? I'll name a few here and then you can let me know if there's anything that I missed or if there's something you want to talk about in this list. but ah You sent me the trailer for Death Stranding Mosquito. There's also the Robin Hood MGM Plus TV series. There's the Greenland ah Migration trailer. There's The Astronaut.
00:40:31
Speaker
There's Welcome to Derry, the HBO series. About about a milk company. D-E-R-R. dairy d e r r Why? metric Yeah. But yeah.
00:40:42
Speaker
And now Maggie John Hall's The Bride. They just sneak because The Bride's coming out about The Bride of Frankenstein simultaneously pretty much like right around when Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein movie is coming out, which seems to happen all the time in Hollywood. Your favorite actor, Jacob.
00:41:00
Speaker
I know it is. Yeah. I probably watched The Bride instead. Sorry. Sorry, Guillermo. You picked the wrong yeah guy. Yeah. um I'm kidding. I'll probably see the Frankenstein movie. But yeah, anything stand out to you?
00:41:12
Speaker
There were things. There were things that stuck out to me, Simon. That Death Stranding Mosquito trailer is really cool. So it's ah it's an anime project based within the Death Stranding video game universe.
00:41:26
Speaker
But it's telling a different tale. um yeah The trailer itself kind of vague doesn't have any dialogue at all, actually, but it's this really cool like animation style with this like cool just kind of action fight scene.
00:41:42
Speaker
I'm vibing with it. i don't know what the hell it's going to be. I'm going to watch this though. I'm going to watch this for sure. I really like that animation style. It's like, yeah, it's just beautifully drawn animation. Like, I don't know. It it kind of reminds me of like, you know, like that old the old animation where you're like, where you do like little drawings on a piece of paper and then you with the paper, you know what i'm talking about?
00:42:04
Speaker
Like a flip. Like when you're like this, you like make it drawing and you go
00:42:10
Speaker
You know? Yeah. A flip book. Am I not saying it? Can you hear me? I couldn't hear you. I couldn't hear you. I couldn't hear you say flip book. So yeah, the flip book thing. um Just drawn very well. So that was really cool and and neat.
00:42:24
Speaker
I like how you're doing a visual aid for the audience who can't see you. You know, this is an audio aid. Yeah. It was an audio aid you could hear the page. Oh, I see. You could not hear the pages go. Yeah. Maybe a little bit.
00:42:36
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That looks cool. Yeah. this Are you excited for such a thing? Yeah, I am. Looks great. Nice. Nice, man. Nice. Did they say where it's going to be? Sorry.
00:42:47
Speaker
Did I miss that? No. Like country-wise? i was i was to I was trying to determine where where it was going to be. Country-wise. What do you mean country-wise? Sorry. I don't even know what you're asking. This show has taken place.
00:42:58
Speaker
No, I assumed it would. Oh, right. Cause there's so many different nations. that's not what I'm talking about. Do you know what's going to stream? Where is it? No idea. to Watch. Where can we watch it? I have no idea. Yeah. Yeah. Where's it going to be? Probably i would guess.
00:43:11
Speaker
Yeah. It's a good question actually. Where would it take place? Cause the games take place in us, Australia Mexico. So there could be. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Canada. Is it going to be a sequel?
00:43:25
Speaker
I honestly don't know. Because the character one of the characters in it is very from the game. It is? It's Sam Porter Bridges, right?
00:43:35
Speaker
No, it's not. He does his... that's Who is that then? He's just some other Porter. he He just so happens to have the exact same hairstyle as Sam Porter Bridges and he yeah face looks like Sam Porter Bridges?
00:43:48
Speaker
It doesn't look... Are you sure? i'm not sure. I didn't think that was Sam Poirier. I'm not sure now that I was going into this, but I thought that was him. dude.
00:43:58
Speaker
That's the whole point of him doing taking down his mask. That's why it was a mystery. you're like oh that You're like, oh, that is Sam. He's like, that's so weird. No, dude. This guy's got, like, black hair. He's got his face punched in.
00:44:11
Speaker
It's dark.
00:44:13
Speaker
They're fighting in the dark. I don't think he has black hair. Hmm. I mean, you look that up. type Just type in, instead of looking at the video, is that Sam Porter Bridges in the Death Stranding Mosquito trailer? And then you can just get the answer for for good. yeah We don't have to worry.
00:44:29
Speaker
All the comments. There's one comment. Can't tell if the Porter is either Higgs or a reanimated version of Sam. i don't think so. 143, my name is Sam. Hold on. There's another reason why I think it's Sam. Tell me. Because he's the only repatriate that we've ever seen.
00:44:46
Speaker
And he's repatriating in the actual thing.
00:44:50
Speaker
That's why I think it's him. No. Oh, you think? um I think. What are you talking about? No, the guy that's repatriating is the guy that with the black thing on his face. No, he's chasing him in the in the beginning of the trailer.
00:45:03
Speaker
right, you should rewatch that trailer because you're wrong. Okay, if you say so. Yeah, because the guy that's repatriating, this is really good content, by the way. The guy that's repatriating is the, it's like the black dude with the thing on his face.
00:45:19
Speaker
like No, he's chasing him. No, he's in the thing. He goes. I'm completely right. What are you talking about? I'm not arguing with you on this. This is that he goes in. he Yes, that guy can do it, too. He's going after Sam inside the repatriation of water.
00:45:36
Speaker
Hmm. You see, you know what I'm talking about, right? Like, I'm not crazy. You you just kind of get gaslit me a little bit. I was like, what are talking about? I distinctly remember this trailer. I just watched it. He goes after him and then he, it looks like Sam cause he's initially got his face covered and then his face is out. And then he looks nothing like Higgs that that's. for Yeah. I don't know why the comments said that, bound but I don't think it I don't know. I don't know for sure. i just assumed that that was the case because he's the only repatriate we know. I didn't assume that. They're introducing another one.
00:46:04
Speaker
But this guy's some weird guy. He's got some kind of kyle creature on his face. So it's like a very strange thing. Anyways, it looks cool. That's all that matters. we don't It's a mystery. And that's what Kojima does well. He does the mystery. I love Kojima's like, i don't know we talked about this before, but I like this idea of how much he does exposition in ah in a very heavy handed way. And then he doesn't do it at all in the other way.
00:46:25
Speaker
he like He builds mystery so subtly at some points. And then after that, at some other points, he over-explains it. And another aspect, he ebbs and flows through his exposition in ways that are very unique. like no I don't know. It's it's it's different kind of storytelling that I've seen probably from anywhere.
00:46:45
Speaker
So it's impressive. Although, of course, this isn't being written by Kojima, but he's involved in some capacity. Yeah. But yeah, yeah. Anyway, it's exciting. Looks good. Anything else? Any other trailers that you're looking at?
00:46:57
Speaker
um senator but but but yeah welcome to dairy looks really good i'm very excited for that that's coming out in a few weeks i think so looks stellar um yeah i'm very excited i like i love those like it movies uh the andy mischietti ones um i think they're fantastic and it seems like this is cool to like see what happened the 30 something years prior to those movies and like kind of you know one of the cycles of Pennywise fucking up kids.
Trailer Impressions: 'Greenland: Migration' and More
00:47:26
Speaker
um And then I watched the Greenland, the migration trailer. I kind of like this. I think this is a cool idea because it's like a sequel to a disaster movie that right.
00:47:37
Speaker
Honestly, it's pretty damn good. You like good movie. yeah Yeah, I enjoyed it. It was actually like a really good disaster movie. And you never get a sequel to like, oh, you know, this like a traditional disaster movie.
00:47:50
Speaker
right And it's a sequel set in that universe. Like, okay, how's everyone dealing with it now that the disaster happened? um This one's one we talked about, I think, too, the the sequel. We talked about it like years ago.
00:48:01
Speaker
because But it took a long time to get off the ground. Because green Greenland came out a long time ago. It wasn't like two years Pre-COVID. Oh, it was pre-COVID? I thought so, no? I thought it was post-COVID, but like right after COVID. Like it was like you and one of those movies that they kind of held back a little bit. 2020. 2020.
00:48:17
Speaker
Okay. You went 2020 during COVID just right in the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. July 2020. So I guess during COVID.
00:48:27
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, quite a, quite a ways away. but yeah, it's cool. I'm, I'm into this. Um, I'll probably watch it. Why the hell not? Yeah. think Robin Hood, I don't care about. Yeah. that's fair yeah i just don't care about watched trailer i i don't i don't give a fuck about robin hood dude really don't fuck you just don't like yeah okay yeah i like the disney one when i was a kid with the fox okay and which one which other one did you see that you didn't like i don't know i don't think i watched any other ones just don't care just don't care dude don't give a fuck about it man
00:49:03
Speaker
Alrighty. I don't care about robinhood moving but Robin care about Robin Hood? Moving What do you care about? ah Nothing else. I just don't. Oh, man. This is another week in which I don't know what MGM Plus is. I'm going to look it up right now live.
00:49:17
Speaker
I can't. do you know we' got to do it. Do you know what M-U-B-I.
00:49:22
Speaker
No, there's a movie and a Tubi? I knew Tubi. There is a there is a moviebi There is a movie. And the reason I know there is a movie, Simon, is because Cooper Rafe, the director and writer of Cha-Cha Real Smooth, a movie that I really, really love.
00:49:42
Speaker
Yes. Star-engine Dakota Johnson. ah Yeah. Yeah, is on Apple TV. Just came out with a show. called hallen harper that he wrote and directed it's it stars himself um uh lily reinhardt i know she's in it i think even mark ruffalo or something i don't know doesn't really matter i think mark ruffalo yeah um and it's this like really interesting premise So look what the premise is this show called Howlin' Harper is um it's a plot following two siblings and their single dad who's making them grow up too fast because his single dad is getting married again.
00:50:26
Speaker
With that in mind, the seven-year-old and nine-year-old characters would be cast by like with adult actors. So like Lily Reinhart and Cooper Rafe are playing like a seven and a nine year old kid in the movie or in the show.
00:50:41
Speaker
I'm like, oh man, that seems so cool. What streaming services is it on? It's on fucking MUBI. M-U-B-I. I'm like, i don't even I don't even know what that is, dude. i I then looked into it a little bit more.
00:50:54
Speaker
it is available on CBC Gen at the very least, which you can technically watch for free, which is nice. ah just Isn't movie ad ad based as well? So it's the same thing. have no idea, dude. i I don't know what movie is. I read it and I was like, what?
00:51:08
Speaker
I'm not going to look into this. You want me to look into this? Mubi. Sure. Watch and discover Mubis. It's a British streaming platform.
00:51:17
Speaker
MGM Plus plans start at $7.99. $7.99.
00:51:21
Speaker
Ad free. It's an ad ad streaming service with MGM content, but it's also owned by Amazon. So they they opened up another streaming service, even though they, they own Amazon prime video. I don't understand why this exists.
00:51:35
Speaker
Huh? Yeah. This was formal or formerly ethics. the hell is epics i've never even heard of that there's like 50 streaming services it's crazy yeah and like on one hand i kind of want them to consolidate the streaming services but on the other hand i really don't as we discussed earlier so it's like it's like consolidate the ones that aren't prominent yeah consolidate movie with to be, you know, consolidate those. Don't fucking consolidate. I don't think those companies are related. They're not, they're not, they're not. Which is stupid. Cause why would you both call your, your streaming service?
00:52:09
Speaker
Something so similar, I guess. But anyway, I don't know. yeah It's just too, it's just too much, man. It's just too much. It's a lot. It's lot. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, no, go on.
00:52:20
Speaker
I to watch that Lily Reinhart movie that we talked about. That American sweatshop movie. Yeah. It's already out digitally. I don't remember. Really badly. No, it's 79 on Rotten Tomatoes.
00:52:31
Speaker
Oh, I thought I saw it like below 60. sixty Okay. That's cool. 79 on Rotten Tomatoes. 69 audience score. don't really care that much. I just want to watch it.
00:52:43
Speaker
Sweet, man. All right. Okay, cool. Any other trailers? No. Before we move on to what we've been watching this by week. Damn, dude. We're already going there? Yes, sir. Okay. Are you ready?
00:52:55
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. i Just one last thing before we move on. The the Bride trailer does look really good. I don't watch it. That one is Christian Bale. That's Frankenstein.
00:53:08
Speaker
He's Frankenstein. Oh yeah. I did see the image of him of Frankenstein. I'm like, this kind of is given um Jared Leto, Jared Leto Joker. Oh, you didn't get that vibe.
00:53:23
Speaker
You didn't get that vibe from him. Tell me you don't even, you can't see it even a little bit.
00:53:31
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, he's Frankenstein. So he's got the thing on his head and and and Jared Leto's Joker has the thing on his head. Yeah. Cause his head is stitched. So you're saying that Jared Leto's Joker is like the original Frankenstein monster.
00:53:48
Speaker
Sure, man. Sure. If that's how you want to play it. I'm just saying this, this image right here, like a little left up, like so he's not in good shape. i don't know. I'm just saying it looks kind of like there is, there is something about this because I guess it's Jesse Buckley's bride who kind of, there's a little bit of a Harley Quinn there, but I'm wondering, is that part of the inspiration for Harley Quinn? And ah didn't even realize, didn't think of that until just now, I guess.
00:54:18
Speaker
Is there any ah inspiration from Frankenstein's monster from the Joker and sorry the, sorry, the Joker and Harley Quinn, Harley Quinn get inspired at all. The writers get inspired at all by Frankenstein's monster and,
00:54:31
Speaker
bride was that ever something probably not yeah i don't know yeah there's also the dc dc characters that are there have frankenstein in the dc universe yeah which you watch the alvin alvin and the chipmunks frankenstein movie no i had that on vhs i watched that a lot That's cool.
00:54:53
Speaker
That's cool. All right. It's time now to move on, Adrian, to what we've been watching. We watched something together and we watched many things apart. I will... let's Let's save the thing to what we but that we watched together for a little bit later. I'll i'll throw it to you. What did you watch this bi-week?
00:55:10
Speaker
Cool, man.
Review: 'Stranger Things' and Narrative Evolution
00:55:11
Speaker
Yeah. I watched a good chunk of things. I'll talk about a few of them. Okay. Okay. So... um The brief ones, continuing my watch of Stranger Things, we're halfway through season four of Stranger Things.
00:55:27
Speaker
And let me just tell you, Simon, yeah Stranger Things season four yeah is a masterpiece. Yeah, it's remarkable. Dude, it is good. might be the best season. It is the best season, hands down, period, full stop.
00:55:39
Speaker
I think season three is like quality wise, very similar to season one. Maybe season one edges it out a bit. Season four is such a drastic jump in quality, which is It took a lot longer to make it, though. Yeah.
00:55:52
Speaker
Three years, um which is crazy. considering how good season three and one are season two is still good. Um, just like not, you know, the meanders a bit. it's It's not that level of quality, but season four is so good, dude.
00:56:06
Speaker
Season four, episode four specifically. We watched that like a couple of nights ago. Immaculate, dude. One of the best episodes of TV out Running up the hill? Exactly. that okay Yeah, that one.
00:56:17
Speaker
It gets me emotional. like I was like sitting there. I was tearing up. I know what's happening. I know the outcome. Doesn't matter. Still hits me in the field. Still she'll gets my eyes welling up.
00:56:27
Speaker
It's beautiful, man. What a good show. Yeah. I am so stoked for season five. Like genuinely. I went from like, I like season five. I like Stranger Things. I was just going to say that. like, you are not this hyped to about Stranger Things. And I think we just talked about it for like, I think it was on the Netflix episode. We were talking about when Netflix is coming, what they have coming down the pipe this year.
00:56:50
Speaker
And we were talking about Stranger Things. you're like, yeah, Stranger Things, yeah. And then we were talking about like how they're separating their seasons or whatever. Like, ah, it's fine. Why are they doing that? You know? It is annoying. I don't like how it is separated, but yeah.
00:57:03
Speaker
But it's just funny. It's like the we you kind of went full. Yeah, dude. I forgot how good it was. I always remember being like, it's a really good show. And that's like every time I thought about it. Like, Stranger Things is great.
00:57:14
Speaker
Like, it's good. It's really good. They're like, I'm rewatching season four. I'm like, no, this is fucking top tier TV, man. It's a masterpiece. It's so Everyone talking about it. Season four specifically. Everyone was to everyone was talking about season one as well.
00:57:28
Speaker
I feel like season one is excellent because it was new at the time. It was excellent. Yeah. And then season two is a downhill drop, in my opinion. And then season three was, oh, back to basics. but Cool vibe, cool aesthetic, the mall, and everything about it.
00:57:42
Speaker
Time jumped a little bit. The kids were a little older. There's like the the outfits were cooler. Yeah. Really neat. The mall. It's not even that big of time jump. It's a one year time jump. Like not even a full year. Oh, okay. They're just more mature, I guess. They're just dealing with different things.
00:57:55
Speaker
But yeah, that was really cool. And then, ah yeah. And then they go to season four and the way that they do the concurrent storylines and they crisscross the storylines is so brilliant. It's so well They do in...
00:58:08
Speaker
every season, but it's like, this is particularly great. yeah Cause can't, it is a fully separated for a lot of it. Like they don't really crisscross as, as as easily in this season from my remembering, but yeah yeah. Cause typically like seasons one through three, there's multiple storylines all going on in Hawkins.
00:58:26
Speaker
And they're like, you know, figuring things out within the same city, but apart from each other. But yeah, this one kind of takes it international and like yeah citywide. um And yeah, it's dude, it's so fucking good.
00:58:37
Speaker
I'm, I'm loving it. I'm so excited about watching. I can't wait for season five. um And it made me kind of think yeah a little bit about the Duffer brothers and how they created something this stellar, a wholly original idea, but this is really all of the, all they've done.
00:58:55
Speaker
Hmm. And I'm curious, like, can you create something again like this and make it this good? That's different. That's not a spinoff.
00:59:05
Speaker
Exactly. that That is different. Because theyre they signed the deal with Paramount, if I recall correctly. That's where they're switching over to. They're still going to support Netflix in creating spinoffs within the Stranger Things universe.
00:59:16
Speaker
But it kind of reminded me of like Benioff and Weiss, like the Game of Thrones. I was just going to say that if you didn't bring it up. That's exactly what I think. They'd only made one big thing of prominence to those two guys for Game of Thrones.
00:59:28
Speaker
And then they they kind of made a deal. And I was about to say, like, well, maybe the Duffer brothers won't be with Paramount. They're just negotiating. because Yeah, because Benioff and Weiss, they had a deal to do. It was called, like, the Confederate or Confederacy, which was with HBO.
00:59:45
Speaker
And then they had a deal with Disney. Yeah, no, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. I'm telling the tale. I'm setting the scene, right? yeah the Confederacy never got off the ground at all, though, I think. No, I think they just had like a trailer, like ah like a proof of concept trailer sort of thing, if I recall correctly, which was this, what would happen if the Confederacy won in the States?
01:00:02
Speaker
Cool alternate history thing. That was kind of their next project. Yeah. Then they got picked up by Disney to make Star Wars, which never came off the ground, never happened. And then went back to, or then went to Netflix in,
01:00:15
Speaker
did this three body problem show, which I think you you said the writing's not great. I heard relatively good things about it, but nowhere near of the prominence or quality of what game of Thrones, especially those first, you know, four or five seasons were.
01:00:28
Speaker
So it's, you might like it. I might be just wrong. I, cause like, I, I don't, I think that the alien doesn't, they don't make logical decisions. I was thinking about it recently. I was, driving a somewhere far for work. And I was just thinking about like, why didn't I like that? Cause I'm like, was I too hard on it?
01:00:44
Speaker
But there were so many issues from my remembering that I just don't, I don't know. I can't remember exactly, but I'm going to watch season two. I just, I found the alien to be making the music and alien entity and that they're just, they make a weird, they make weird choices that I just like, I don't think they would make these choices. Cause there's, there's supposed to be this entity that's incredibly terrifying because of their intelligence. That was the whole idea.
01:01:04
Speaker
But it felt like it was it It shouldn't feel like it was written. The alien entity was written by people, although obviously it is. that That's the thing. like It seemed like it was very tunnel visioned, but it was a very the scope of this entity is so massive. and almost It's like if we ever met an alien, it's actually the alien the stuff about the UFOs we see today.
01:01:27
Speaker
They're so crazy, man, what what they're releasing. those that Those objects that were being pulled up by the American pilot of fighter pilots and how they move is so absurd.
01:01:38
Speaker
They shot one down recently or whatever, and it was like it literally just reformed itself and then went away.
Netflix's New Projects and Spinoffs
01:01:44
Speaker
It's like, how is that possible? But it's technology we couldn't even understand that I think – is part of the brilliance of what the three body problem I think is, is, is trying to do. But then there's elements of and on the flip side that this, this entity is just making decisions that it just illogically wouldn't make because it they're stupid.
01:02:03
Speaker
And that's kind of the reason I didn't like it. But if you watch it, maybe honestly production values acting great. And then a lot of the dialogue writing and stuff like that is great. And there's, I don't know, it's entertaining.
01:02:15
Speaker
It's just, uh, It's expensive to make. like The CG is great. like the but just Or just the in general, of visual effects are good. yeah Anyway. Yeah. But yeah, maybe I'll get around to. Yeah. What are they going to do with this new project, Unknown?
01:02:29
Speaker
Because they they were thought to be kept whipped by Netflix to make spinoffs. That was the idea. they were going to make. thought they were making an old age version eight ah age home version of Stranger Things. Wasn't that part of the thing? They had a deal with Netflix like years ago.
01:02:42
Speaker
That rings a bell. I just don't remember. i They're still supporting with the spinoffs, to to be fair. I just know like they're not going to be like the main main guys on it. They're probably just going to be like executive producers whatever.
01:02:54
Speaker
Yeah. um Consultants. But um yeah, season four, Immaculate, dude. So good. And I love how much more horror season four is. Like they they kind of upped the horror, but I feel like the show matured with its audience in a way with season four. And it's like, you know, it's it's seven years later. Maybe you were watching this as like a teenager and now you're in your twenties or, you know, like early twenties to late twenties, whatever thirties, it doesn't matter.
01:03:22
Speaker
And it's just like the horror elements are crazy. There's some like genuinely terrifying moments in it. And the, the brutal, like the brutality of the deaths are fucking nuts, man.
01:03:33
Speaker
It's so good, dude. I love it. I love it. um So I'm very excited to keep going. The one thing that I did pick up on as well, Cause I'm watching obviously stranger things quite consistently, um, kind of back to back.
01:03:45
Speaker
It's interesting what they do with Mike's character specifically. um Mike being one of the, you know, four main kids at the start of the show, how he's honestly like quite intelligent in the first season.
01:03:57
Speaker
And I feel like with season two specifically, they make him almost like the dumb kid. He had his head somewhere. and when Yeah. And it's like he kind of regresses in his intelligence. And even in season three, it's like, i guess it's like, oh, he's kind of girl crazy or whatever. And so it's like, oh, his puberty is making him think kind of stupid.
01:04:17
Speaker
But in season four, I feel like they were like, you know, we made him a little bit too fucking stupid the last couple of seasons. So they're giving him a little bit more play of making more intelligent choices. And it's kind of refreshing to see.
01:04:28
Speaker
It's like one thing I didn't really pick up on until I got to season four. And I was like, oh, yeah, like he actually was smart. And they just kind of made him dumb for like two seasons. It was weird. um So there's a little bit of that inconsistency, but really good.
01:04:41
Speaker
Really great. um I finished Alien Earth as well. Did we tell where go ahead? the The spinoff is the Burroughs with that was supposed to be in development. It features a retirement community of misfits facing an otherworldly threat. So it's like a Stranger Things.
01:04:56
Speaker
Spinoff called The Burrows. That was supposed to happen. Nice. i thought i don't know why thought that the Duffer brothers were more involved. hey I'm not. ah well Anyway, yeah, Alien Earth.
01:05:07
Speaker
Alien Earth, great, fantastic, finished it. I really liked this last episode. I thought it was a cool way to wrap it up. It felt like it could be series finale, but leaving enough doors open where you could continue it.
01:05:21
Speaker
Um, no, Holly fucking kills it, dude. Jeez Louise. I love it. I think it's fantastic. like I'm stoked. I really like the, this alien universe that they're creating this alien predator universe that they're creating, obviously with the new predator movie coming out.
01:05:35
Speaker
I'm, which is again, Disney. Oh, true. And I really want to watch that. What is it? Yeah. Crazy. Your air pod just fell out. she did It's quite embarrassing. Yeah. Really good. i highly recommend it. Not much more to say again. It's interesting.
01:05:51
Speaker
Again, I talked a little bit about it. i don't know a few episodes back, like how interesting it is, like from a universe perspective because of some things that are happening. um And they revealed some really cool stuff to kind of make it fit a little bit better into the wider universe. But again, enough questions to be like, huh?
01:06:08
Speaker
This weird. Like, how does this fit perfectly? And maybe the answer is it just simply doesn't. Or like what we know of the other alien movies, because they're fairly like focused. We just don't know the whole picture, but really, really good.
01:06:21
Speaker
Really liked it. um Some stellar music choices, actually, in that show as well. They always have like a fucking banger to end an episode. So I do enjoy that.
01:06:33
Speaker
Um, what else there? Oh,
Streaming Service Pricing and Content Affordability
01:06:36
Speaker
another brief thing. And going to touch on, I tried watching Gen V season two. i watched the first episode. I'm not going to continue. I'm just not in the mood for the show.
01:06:44
Speaker
I don't like it. I never really liked the first season that much. And I was like, I'm going to watch season two. ah watched the first, season there's first episode of season two. And I am just not in the fucking head space to deal with a parody of what is going on in the United States.
01:06:59
Speaker
When, the parody is less absurd than what's actually happening. And they're really doubling down on like the whole, Oh yeah, you woke soy boy, fucking blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, dude, I hear this online all the time. You go on the internet, that's what you're hearing all the time.
01:07:14
Speaker
It's just, I'm not, I don't want to watch this. I don't, I'm not in the headspace to watch this. I don't give a fuck about this universe. Um, there's like a, you know, like it takes place technically after the boys season four and there's like a tie in piece with it.
01:07:32
Speaker
I doubt they're going to tie it in anymore, maybe in the finale, but I was like, I just, I just, I cannot be fucked. I'll watch the boys season five and like probably never go back to this universe again. Um,
01:07:44
Speaker
So yeah, did you watch any of Gen V? No, I don't like week to week, right? Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. I do intend to watch it, but yeah I don't want to watch it now. Cool. That's one of those things about Amazon Prime. is Speaking of streaming services, that's one of the streaming services that's hardest to get away from because they got so many things attached to it. It's just Prime Video.
01:08:03
Speaker
or And it's the least expensive one that barely ever goes up in price for some reason. Why is that? yeah It's very peculiar. Why is it that Disney Plus is like $20 in Canada now, but this is staying at $10? And they have a lot of good shows on it in general.
01:08:17
Speaker
And they put a lot of movies on there. I don't really get it. Like, how do they afford that exactly? Yeah. They got every season of the vampire diaries on there, man. You still watch that technically around season six, that show. Cool.
01:08:29
Speaker
It's wacky dude. It's fun. Yeah. It's wacky though. It's got that CW charm. The, Yeah. Everything always has to go back to the status quo sort of thing. And it's like, you know, the the writer's room is like, oh, what if we did this crazy thing?
01:08:44
Speaker
What if we did crazy thing? They kill off every fucking character in that show as well. Multiple times, bring them back. It's silly, dude. Is it good, though? Probably not, but it's enjoyable. I'm enjoying it. I'm having a good time.
01:08:58
Speaker
Why the hell not? Jeremy, the character Jeremy in that show. Yeah. Fuck Jeremy. He sucks. He's the worst. Fucking hate Jeremy. He's like Stephen McQueen's like great grandson or something like that.
01:09:09
Speaker
And the way he talks, um my name's Jeremy. He's so out of place. He's annoying. He's a bad actor. Fuck that guy. Whoa, that's harsh. Yeah. That's harsh. No, seriously. i hate his character. i don't know. Every time he's on screen, I get viscerally upset.
01:09:25
Speaker
He's like, oh, I'm not a kid anymore, Bonnie. Shut the fuck up, Jeremy. That was good, actually. That part was actually not a bad impression. Thank you. Thank you. I know. I know. Imitation, the greatest form of flattery, I guess.
01:09:38
Speaker
Yeah. There go. And then i know I'm kind of rambling here, but the last thing I watched, Simon. Sure are. Yeah. The last thing I watched. Yeah.
TV Series Review: 'Hacks'
01:09:48
Speaker
apart from you, is the HBO series Emmy nominated and Emmy winner show Hacks. Oh, cool. watched the first season of Hacks. First season.
01:10:00
Speaker
Wow, you watched a lot this week, we two week period. Yeah, I watched a shit ton, dude. um I don't know. I'm sure it's great considering it won many times. Okay, I'm going to take you on a little bit of a trip.
01:10:11
Speaker
Okay. Because I was not vibing with the show at first. I was confused, actually. Okay. But with my fiance, where i'm I'm watching it with my fiance and myself. The two of us.
01:10:22
Speaker
There's only two of us. Me and my fiance. And we're watching the show. got that. And so the first season is about 10 episodes. And it starts off, the premise, I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's like this- Comedian.
01:10:34
Speaker
Yeah. older ah Older comedian played by Jean Smart. um That's kind of, you know, her career is winding down. She's not as popular anymore, but she essentially runs Las Vegas. She's like the most popular comedian in Las Vegas.
01:10:47
Speaker
Yeah. And there is a young 25 year old writer um named ah played by Hannah Einbinder. I haven't seen her in anything apart from this.
01:11:00
Speaker
That ah She's like, you know, works for this company, but she got canceled online for making a joke. um And she's like, nobody wants to hire her. So like her company
01:11:14
Speaker
puts, you know, Hannah Einbinder's character, Ava Daniels, to work for Deborah Vance, who's played by Jean Smart. And that's kind of the setup of the show.
01:11:24
Speaker
Yeah. But like my big issue with this show at the start is these two characters suck. They're not nice. They're mean people. Right.
01:11:37
Speaker
And it's marketed as a comedy and it really isn't that funny. It's more of a drama. And I was going in expecting, Hey, it's a half hour comedy.
01:11:48
Speaker
But it's like the first couple episodes, honestly, like the first three, four episodes, not many jokes. There's, you know, funny moments here and there, but it's like, it's not funny. And the show, in my opinion, simply wasn't funny enough for me to want to continue watching. But I'm like, I'm missing something here.
01:12:05
Speaker
I know this is 100%. This first season is 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. What the fuck am I missing? And even my fiance is like, I don't know. Like we can keep watching it. Sure. But she doesn't love it. it's like these two characters that are from different worlds,
01:12:17
Speaker
you know, different, you know, um, backgrounds, but they're, you know, both women, um, kind of working together. But again, they, they treat each other like shit. They both suck. They don't have many redeeming qualities that you're being shown. Mm-hmm.
01:12:35
Speaker
And you just kind of got to roll with it. And it's like, it's, it falls into that trap of like things that I don't like, you know, I always talk about it. It's like where unlikable characters, where you're just watching these two unlikable characters do things. And it's like, I don't care about you. I have no attachment to you. You just fucking suck. You're being bad. And it's not like, uh, it's always sunny in Philadelphia, which Caitlin Olson is actually a character in this. She plays Debra Vance's daughter.
01:13:01
Speaker
Um, who's D in, in, um, It's always sunny um where they're awful people, but they're likable in certain ways. And it's fucking hilarious.
01:13:14
Speaker
Like Charlie day, specifically Charlie's ah like a likable guy. He's a, he kind of sucks. He's stupid, but he's likable. And they have like, yeah he has redeeming qualities. And it's again, these funny situations which happen, but in this, it's like, you're just watching these two women treat each other like shit and be mean to everyone around them. And it's like, I don't like, and and you're not funny. Like it's just, it's not good.
01:13:34
Speaker
But then you keep on, you stick with the show. And I guess that's where it kind of comes in. I guess slight spoilers for the show, but they start showing different qualities about themselves and you're starting to see into them why they act this way. doesn't necessarily mean like it's, you know, it's okay for them to act how they are, but you're seeing a little bit of a background of why they might be like that.
01:13:56
Speaker
You know, maybe, you know they were treated poorly by their parents or something, or have a bad relationship with their parents. And then ah again, you, you start seeing these two characters that were initially treating each other like shit, start to get to know each other and like show a softer side and become better people. And, you know, two bad people becoming again, better with each other as kind of a support system.
01:14:20
Speaker
And i don't know I always like a show where it's like, Cause it's so uncommon where you're watching just like women be friends. I know that sounds ridiculous, but there's just not that many TV shows out there. Like it's always like, it's a very male dominated like industry. A lot of the times, or at least what I've watched is a bunch of guys like doing guy things or whatever.
01:14:40
Speaker
And so it's refreshing to see something unique like this or that I've never watched at least, or, you know, haven't only watched. Um, And yeah, like it really grew on me by the time I got to the end of season one. And there was like even like an episode where I'm like, I'm kind tearing up here. This is like a little bit emotional. This is good.
01:14:57
Speaker
And I'm very excited to see where season two goes. um So, yeah, that's my review of season one of Hacks. So good. Ultimately good. i am confused. Like I'm kind of shocked that it's a hundred percent, I guess like, you know, cause like, I guess every single person that reviewed it thought it was good, which is fair.
01:15:17
Speaker
But like, I, I wouldn't, I'm kind of shocked that everyone like kind of stuck with it. Cause I almost, I almost dipped out. I was like, we finished episode three. I'm like, I don't know if I like this. And I was like, damn, like,
01:15:30
Speaker
Should we keep on watching? And and it's like, well, it's 100%. Like, it has to be good. Like, there has to be something. um And I will say episode nine, i think, of this, of season one, there's, like, this, like,
01:15:43
Speaker
joke that they make that pretty much brings the entire season full circle i'm like wow that's really good that's a good bit of like meta commentary and you called me out on my shit as a viewer i'm like this is this is a good this well done um yeah i'm excited to keep on watching it i'm excited to keep on watching it i really liked it it won season one one accolades including primetime emmy awards i'm looking at wayopedia for directing writing and acting Yeah.
01:16:15
Speaker
It's a lot of warts for a show. I know. You're a little bit more lukewarm on. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I intended to watch this, but I just didn't get around to it. It's great. It's good. surprise i I'm watching Fargo before you. That's the weird one.
01:16:29
Speaker
Yeah. I got to watch Fargo. It's on Crave as well, right? Yeah. I thought you would have had like a Noah Hawley kick because you're like, oh, Alien Earth is really good. And you would have just gone right to that. But no, not today. I'm not really watching anything on my own.
01:16:42
Speaker
just watch it with what do you mean? You could just watch Cassandra watch the first season and she liked it. She just didn't love it. and like of them much I wanted to kind of keep pushing forward and she's like, eh, yeah, this a big problem for me too. Like I, I don't, I don't find enough time to watch things on my own. Cause I'm just watching so much stuff with my fiance as well. And then when I,
01:17:00
Speaker
When I have time alone, I'm sure you're in the same boat. We're doing something else. We're playing video games. Masturbate. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. i have Video games. Yeah. You're doing what now? You're mastering something. You say mastering?
01:17:11
Speaker
i' Yeah. It's a mastery. My cooking skills in the kitchen. Oh, good. That's okay. Yeah. yeah Of course. i i thought I thought I heard that. But yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Okay. ah Yeah. Cool. Anything else you watched?
01:17:22
Speaker
Is that everything? This is, I guess, a thing that we watched together. And Peacemaker as well.
Show Spotlight: 'Peacemaker'
01:17:28
Speaker
Been watching that. Are you caught up? I am caught up. Your theory, dude.
01:17:34
Speaker
Correct. I don't say it on air. So your theory was correct. I know. It's when you pointed that theory out to me, i was so hyper focused on it. And as more episodes came on, like he's right. He's right. And then it's like finally revealed. I'm like, damn, you nailed it off off the first episode.
01:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool. like i didn't This is one of those things that is as well, it's kind of nice to not look at you know reviews too much before things come out, I guess, especially TV shows, shows just because they they can kind of spoil it. like They can maybe predict it before you do. It was nice because i actually predicted this on my own. I'm sure the internet was buzzing with the same prediction.
01:18:08
Speaker
um There's no no doubt. But it was cool. And then the way they reveal that i think is amazing. I just think that the whole thing, the whole reveal and that the time they took to to do the reveal.
01:18:20
Speaker
Peacemaker in general is really good. That last episode, episode seven, is really exciting and very well done. And there's a moment in it that was genuinely shocking. to the point where my fiance was literally like, oh my God, are you kidding me? She literally said that out loud, which I thought was, there's a, there's the moment where like a character is talking and then there's a guy in the window.
01:18:41
Speaker
And I was like, oh no, this not, this is, it's just so good though. So good. That was like a moment that I was like, oh wow, this guy, you know, guy who's talking inside the building, like,
01:18:54
Speaker
I didn't predict this this is actually something I didn't predict. I thought it was the they kind of they subverted expectations, even though I kind of predicted something that that that main plot point that we talked about, like way, way back in the first episode.
01:19:06
Speaker
This part I hadn't predicted. i was like, oh, wow. James Gunn, you did a great job. What what good writing. And even the thing I predicted, I don't care about predictability. I've said this before in things, especially when it's a really great thing that happens. I think it's odd. I enjoyed predicting it. It was, it was great.
01:19:24
Speaker
There's also the element of like, it's just such a, don't know. It's just a good idea. I feel like the whole idea of the whole season is been a good idea. And I think Peacemaker's arc, John Cena is doing a great job.
01:19:35
Speaker
There's a really like in episode six, I think it is. There's a really like heartfelt moment between Jennifer Holland's character ah Harcourt and Peacemaker like John Cena and like it's just really well acted. There's a lot of good moments in this this It seems like ah it's like a love letter in some way. Like, it's really well written.
01:19:54
Speaker
Like, the whole whole thing is well well written. The actors seem to be having a good time while it also being... It's heartfelt and funny constantly. The action's been really great as well. There's a lot of shocking moments.
01:20:05
Speaker
There's a lot of neat twists and turns. This is a better season, I think, overall by a bit of a bit of a margin in some aspects. I like the first season a lot, but at the first season... felt my memory of it is it's kind of fuzzy but it feels like it almost meandered a little bit too much and that they're establishing these characters but now that they're established i feel like they're really going to town that's kind of my thought process i like that's interesting that's in because i almost have a like a totally different perspective oh actually almost the opposite where i feel like this season has like a couple episodes where i did feel like it's meandering because it's
01:20:38
Speaker
so much smaller scale than the first season. like It was almost unrealistic how so how large scale the first season is. That's kind of my issue too. like why Why wouldn't more but keep more of these heroes come to the rescue in some aspect?
01:20:54
Speaker
This season's kind of more... Well, it's more the intimacy of the second season is the better bit of it. Is it the fact that you can really get to know these people in ah in a deeper way? No?
01:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, I forgot what my train of thought was um and what what what I was going to say, but yeah, sure. oh saying it's you Which one was more focused, the first season or the second season? i I feel like this season, the second season, has a couple more episodes where it's a little bit meandering because there's not as tell there's not as much to tell and say
01:21:30
Speaker
So like there's like these kind of, i don't know, like episodes like four and five are like a little bit slower and kind of like not much happens when you really think about it. It is more of a character focus, which again, I like.
01:21:40
Speaker
Yeah. But I think, again, the scale of season one, there was always something happening. There was always like the next beat. the next beat, whereas like this one, it's kind of it's a it's a slower burn. And it's again, more focused on the characters as opposed to the overarching story, whereas I think the first season was a larger story happening with the characters kind of going about it.
01:22:01
Speaker
um So, yeah, i don't know. It's interesting, but. It's good. i still really like it. i I feel like I got to rewatch the first season to be able to like discern which one I liked more.
01:22:13
Speaker
But I do really love this season. I think it's great. I love them both. yeah I just like this one a little better because i like the intimate nature of it. And I think there's more room for silly comedy because it's less grand in some way.
01:22:25
Speaker
Also, Tim Meadows is in this and he's fantastic. He's really good. Yeah. He's the funniest character, man. Tim Meadows is a gem. I really like Frank Grillo too. he His hair is the wrong color. But other than that, he's... I think he's ah he's an interesting dinette like dynamic in this. like that He adds extra yeah dynamic by being... It's cool. I can't remember. Maybe I mentioned this last episode. so But it's cool to have him as...
01:22:51
Speaker
the antagonist of this show when he is the protagonist of like creature commandos as an example. Yeah. um So like kind of the the the genre flip. But to be fair, like Peacemaker was kind of an antagonist in the suicide squad. And then we're watching him be the protagonist in this show. So it's really cool, man. It's all about perspective.
01:23:13
Speaker
Someone's always a villain in the other person's story or whatever. And then the next Superman movie is also going to do the same thing. Superman, man of tomorrow, whatever is going to be Lex Luthor being a good guy for a bit. I'm sure until he decides to be a bad guy again.
01:23:28
Speaker
ah but that, that's part of it is Superman and Lex Luthor working together in the next Superman movie. So yeah, yeah, it's cool. But, uh, it's really cool. Yeah. I'm enjoying it. It's really good.
Dystopian Film Analysis: 'A Long Walk'
01:23:40
Speaker
What are you watching, man?
01:23:43
Speaker
Uh, that's it. That's pretty much all I watched. I watched some other things like here and there, but not nothing too, too much to, to note here. We should talk about what we watched in theaters, Adrian, a long walk, the Stephen King film adaptation directed by what's the gentleman's name who did the hunger games, hunger games, hunger games, director guy.
01:24:05
Speaker
i am legend guy. Yeah. The same guy. Yeah. Yeah. um Okay, anyway, it stars. I'm gonna look it up, but it stars for Hoffman from Licorice Pizza. It's all connected, Adrian. It's all connected. yeah ah And and basically the premise before we get into what we thought about it, I guess.
01:24:26
Speaker
Yeah. Cooper Hoffman's character. He lives in this weird dystopian United States where there's this strange, almost like a game show in some aspect.
01:24:37
Speaker
a thing. It's like a propaganda tool for the nation in which it seems like it's got to be young young men under a certain age, but I'm not sure which age that is.
01:24:49
Speaker
But ah yeah young age ah men under a certain age, they can apply to basically... Sorry? 30. Let's just say 30. Sure. thought you actually knew. But yeah it's probably yeah, you're probably right.
01:25:00
Speaker
i probably just say It seems like they're all under the age of 30, but they have to do this walk and they have to keep walking They get food and drink. They have to walk at the exact same speed of three miles per hour, or they will be shot and killed by the army surrounding them and filming them while they do this long walk, essentially.
01:25:21
Speaker
Anyone who stops they get or slows down below three miles per hour, they get a warning to state that they have slowed down too much. They get three warnings and they're out, essentially. So they walk along the road and the last person to survive wins lots of money and a potential, ah some kind of make a makea-w wish type situation where they get to choose what they, they win. Yeah.
01:25:43
Speaker
They get to meet John Cena. Like the biggest, it's all connected, man. Yes, exactly. Yeah. um Yeah. Anyway, that's basically the premise and Cooper Hoffman's the, the focus character, at least in the beginning of the film. And then you meet a lot of the other characters doing this walk.
01:25:59
Speaker
Yeah, David Johnson is one of the other main characters who ah most recently was in Alien Romulus. It's all connected. Yeah. It's all connected. He's great in Alien Romulus. Dude, so good. He's fantastic in this. He was good in this too.
01:26:12
Speaker
He's good in this too. he's Yeah, he's great in the two things I've seen him in. The director is Francis Lawrence, Adrian. We got there. Yeah, Hunger Games guy. Hunger Games guy. The Hunger Games guy.
01:26:22
Speaker
And this is kind of like the Hunger Games. It's the same idea, essentially. Yeah. Except only one can survive. Who would, who could it be? Except way more poop. Yeah. Yeah. So this movie.
01:26:36
Speaker
Yeah. um I'm going to just say it. I don't like this movie. Oh, really? Like, I think this movie is just okay at best. But for me, like the more I think about it the less I like it. And there's a lot of issues with it.
01:26:52
Speaker
you No one talking is talking about it online because I was looking into this and I swear to God, they got the miles wrong. Like the distance traveled in the amount of days based on the minimum speed they could walk because they can't walk any slower than three miles per hour.
01:27:08
Speaker
They cannot. they so fuck What you're saying essentially is they've been showing throughout the movie, they show a timeline of how the distance in the day that they're on. So yesio day one, this many miles walked.
01:27:21
Speaker
yeah But because they have to walk a certain number of miles, they really can't be underneath a certain number of miles walked if they're walking three miles per hour because it's just not possible.
01:27:31
Speaker
So based on your calculations, they have they should all be dead. Correct. Exactly. Because they would have all been walking less than three miles per hour, which is disallowed.
01:27:43
Speaker
And it seems correct too because we did the math after we left the theater. But if no one's talking about it online... I'm a little bit confused. Like, are we doing the math wrong more than... but Maybe I did the math wrong, but, like, I worked it out with you after the fact, so i'm kind of confused, but I yeah i don't know, man.
01:28:02
Speaker
Yeah. it was It was frustrating, um yeah to say the least. and Yeah, absolutely. But that's a ah greater point I feel like that that we should bring up is that that's the problem with the film for me as well. I think that it's not just that. It's the logistics of the of the film don't make a lot of sense in many points. At one point, a character says to people, you know, i like to poop every day.
01:28:27
Speaker
i know that people only poop once a week. But I like to poop every day. No one poops once a week. And if you're pooping once a week, you have a serious health issue. I'm pretty sure.
01:28:37
Speaker
So I don't know like if the writers just don't know basic health.
01:28:43
Speaker
situations or what's going on. These people are human beings. This is not like ah a different, this is not like a science fiction film. I mean, it is a little bit, but it's not really. It's it'ss kind of rooted in reality. But there's other things that are weird too. Like why doesn't every participant get set up with the same equipment to do this walk? They all bring their own equipment.
01:29:00
Speaker
They're all kind of wearing something similar, but it's weird. They don't get the same kind of shoes. People's shoes are falling apart. These are mostly poor people who doing this walk. They're they're all people who can use the money. Uh, that's why they're doing it for a lot of them.
01:29:14
Speaker
Uh, but also why aren't there more fit individuals if they knew that they were signing up for this, they're volunteering. Wouldn't they just go for a run every day? It seems like there's a lot of people are like, why would you so sign up for this if you're not completely ready to go? Yeah. Cause like, the see well, they, they touch on that in the sense of that. Every, everyone signs up for it. Like there's like a bit in the movie where they talk about like, this is, is this technically isn't a choice.
01:29:37
Speaker
Because every single person in the nation signs up for it. So I guess it's like choice. They all chose it because of the situation they're in. and no But again, like in the movie, like they literally say like, it's not really a choice because everyone signs up for this anyways, because life is so bad.
01:29:53
Speaker
So I guess it's like the the thing around it is like, sure, everyone signs up for it. The chances of you being selected are so damn slim. Maybe people aren't like, I'm going to work out. Maybe food's tough to come by anyways.
01:30:04
Speaker
yeah i don't know. there's There's like a couple of factors um that that kind of come into play there. But no, I do agree with you. Like, yeah, I guess like would everyone in the country just be fit as a fiddle? Probably not.
01:30:16
Speaker
Would you not spend every last penny you have on new shoes, though? i like I'm just a little lost on this. Would you not invest in a pair of pants that have flaps, you know? flap for your penis and a flap for your your butthole?
01:30:28
Speaker
I feel like you would. Because they have to poop in people while they're walking. So, there's the only way that they can do this. Which would be impossible. Like, it seems so difficult to do such a thing. but and And they have to not stop for more than, what is it, 10 seconds per warning?
01:30:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So if you stop moving, you have 10 seconds. You get like – you stop moving, you get a warning immediately. And then you have 10 seconds to continue warning unless – or sorry, to to continue moving immediately.
01:30:54
Speaker
But if you stay still for longer than 10 seconds and you get a second warning, another 10 seconds, a third warning, another 10 seconds, you get fucking shot and killed. So get three warnings and then you're out. Um, but the, the thing is, is like if you walk for an hour straight or something like that, or a few hours straight, you're like a warning can get removed.
01:31:13
Speaker
Yeah. So that kind of plays a factor. yeah. There's a lot like that you got to just kind of accept in the movie as well. Like in the sense, like this is just so unrealistic, like, cause it's tried, like it's set in the real world, technically like in the real world ah after a certain event happened and everyone's poor, but it's like, you're not going to walk like that for that long.
01:31:36
Speaker
You know, it's ah it's just not impossible. Like, your feet are all fucked. Like, that's impossible. People, like, sleeping while walking for, for like, 10 days straight. don't know. I'm confused. Like, what do you mean it's not realistic? that that's the That's the point of it.
01:31:49
Speaker
It is hard. Yeah. It's very hard. That's my point. It's like, you're not going to walk for 10 days straight or seven days straight. It's like, and not have proper shoes is my point, Simon.
01:32:00
Speaker
oh Oh, so they didn't bring the right stuff. Yeah, but I'm not in general. I'm not suspending disbelief. I think it's unbelievable. I don't like, that's why I don't like the part of the movie. Like I'm not allowing it. I don't allow it. But the it's ah it's difficult. Yeah. we i we I think we agree on that.
01:32:14
Speaker
But yeah, I don't know. I don't, I think the logistics were not planned out properly. that's the That's the idea. And I don't know why though, because there are simple problems that they have. They're not like super,
01:32:25
Speaker
confusing and there's also this element of like you follow the main group of people that part i guess i can suspend disbelief but there's like a main cast of characters that they they constantly focus in on that are basically constantly talking to each other and the other people are are just p side characters who don't end up talking to each other yeah that's just very randomly or killed randomly it's like a classic issue with like a network tv show like lost or something like when these characters are just not There's a lot of characters who are the main people, and there's a bunch of people who also crashed on the plane on the island after the plane crashed, and they're just not that important to the plot on ABC's Lost.
01:33:01
Speaker
Anyway, but yeah, okay. Anything else you want to note about it? Yeah, I mean, to give, I guess, some credit to the to the movie, um like I do think the dialogue is pretty good between the characters. Like I like the relationship between Peter and Garrity specifically. But again, like there are like other side characters that add you know, to the conversation. Like it's again, to give it some credit, ah it's, it's like an hour and 48 minutes and the best, you know, like a lot, like a lot of it is just guys walking next to each other and having a conversation. And some of the writing is actually really good, but it's interesting. Like I, I almost wanted more of that.
01:33:41
Speaker
The movie felt long, but still you didn't get enough of like the relationship building between some of these guys. I don't know. There was a, yeah, like,
01:33:53
Speaker
Again, I was trying to give it a compliment instead of a going negatively about it. So yeah, yeah. Like I think the dialogue pretty good. And I do like the relationship between again, Garrity and Peter, like the two main characters played by ah ah Cooper Hoffman and David Johnson, respectively.
01:34:07
Speaker
um And like some of the side characters are pretty cool. um But again, some of them just kind of fall into typical, you know, like it's cannon fodder in a way. the intense gore that they highlight in this as well. Like there's some like pretty brutal scenes.
01:34:24
Speaker
like a, like a tank running over a guy's leg, like sort of thing. And it's like, oh man, that's like, that's pretty rough. Um, so there's like these moments that I guess shock you as the viewer, because again, it's a, it's a slow burn in theory. You know, it's a long, it's a long walk. Guys are just talking and then randomly you're going to see someone's leg get fucking run over by tank or someone gets shot point blank with a rifle in the fucking face or someone pulled down their pants and shit themselves and then get shot while they're shitting themselves. Cause they didn't move, you know, like this. Well,
01:34:52
Speaker
Yeah, like there's like things like that, you know, so I don't know. I think it's. Yeah, i I just didn't really like this movie. don't think it's that great. um Yeah. We're obviously in the minority, though.
01:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, like the i I would agree with you like that. I like the character development in some aspects of the friendships that are blooming. I was entertained by. ah I just, I don't know. There's an element of like, this is kind of like Squid Game, much like Squid Game is like Hunger Games, et cetera. And there's this idea that there's like almost not enough bad. Well, don't want to spoil it.
01:35:25
Speaker
Yeah, nevermind. There's just some, there's some things that did. I think Squid Game, when you look at Squid Game, they they understand the logistics of their game. I think they understand that the logistics of the writing of the actual premise And I think that the physics of the world don't add up here because they just didn't understand how this would work in real life if it actually ran.
01:35:44
Speaker
And that's ah that's a bit of an issue. Even like the way characters act, I don't think is quite, makes a lot of sense based on like if you're in it to win it. there's The characters don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation like a lot of them, even though even when terrible things seem to happen.
01:36:00
Speaker
So I don't know. It's kind of a tricky situation for me. The most interesting thing to me about the entire movie, though, is the funny thing. It's the stuff we don't see. They talk about the the politics in the in the world and what kind of what kind of breed of fascism this is. I am super curious about that. I actually really like Mark Hamill's in the film. He plays the general.
01:36:18
Speaker
I'm interested in his character. I think he's a fascinating individual. I don't i want to know his backstory. Characters give you snippets and in like little glimpses into the what they're dealing with in the world, but we don't really see it.
01:36:30
Speaker
And the funniest thing is like, we never really see anything outside of the walk. So it's, it's kind of, I feel like what's missing is, is like the better, a greater context for what the world is like. And when we get to the end of the film, I think the ending is genuinely bad. I think the worst thing about the movie is the ending.
01:36:45
Speaker
I think that's my biggest problem. And I was kind of hoping that at the ending, we'd get more snippets of the actual world as opposed to it being just kind of another. That was kind of one of the payoffs I was hoping for for the ending is and more of a payoff to see perhaps more of the politics of the world itself.
01:37:02
Speaker
um But we kind of don't get much. You just don't get much at all. I just, know I don't hate the movie. I actually don't dislike it as much as I like it. It's the same kind of, I'm ah i'm an even score 2.5 out of 5 on this one.
01:37:15
Speaker
I just – I think it's a disappointment because I think that – I think it was redeeming itself in the middle of it and then it got worse at to end. I think the ending was genuinely like a bad choice.
01:37:27
Speaker
Like it's just like – I don't know. I don't want to talk about it too much because I don't want to spoil it, but I just think it's – I looked into it as well um because I was like, oh, is this how the book ends? It's not. It's a different ending from book.
01:37:38
Speaker
Yeah. That's always a disappointment. It's like how – how the Watchmen movie ends. And it's like, I feel like you missed the point like that. I think the rest of them watch movie people think it's quite good, but the the ending is is kind of what I've, I've, again, I got to see that movie. I just didn't watch it because of the end.
01:37:53
Speaker
um I ended up reading the comic before watching the TV show and the TV show just uses the correct ending as it's as it's because Watchmen, the TV show on HBO is is is a sequel.
01:38:05
Speaker
um If anyone doesn't know that, but they use the ending. of the actual comic, not the movie, thankfully, um as the kind of the jumping off point, which I appreciate. But I don't know. It's like, I feel like you missed the point kind of. as It kind of feels like that maybe if they didn't it didn't actually end it the same way. I imagine this ah lauded Stephen King novel, ah you've probably ended the way he ended it.
01:38:29
Speaker
I feel like that's, if you're going to adapt it for a film, it's probably a good idea. But anyway, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. maybe Maybe the ending in the book is worse. I doubt that. don't think it is. Because it is weird ending.
01:38:41
Speaker
That is a very strange... The last shot of the movie, I was like, is it over? The has kind of a weird ending as well, but it like... don't know. It just kind of fits a little bit better. you looked up the actual ending. Yeah, because I was I don't fucking... I'm never going to read that fucking book, dude. don't even know how read.
01:38:57
Speaker
We've been through this. But um you read up on how the it ended, though. Voice to text. Yeah, I copy. um Yeah, ah or text to voice, I should say.
01:39:09
Speaker
um But yeah, yeah, I don't know. I just I don't know like this. um But I do agree with you. I feel like everything outside of the movie seems more interesting than what's actually happened. Like,
01:39:20
Speaker
And they also talk about like, oh, like people watch this from around the world. And like, it it sounds like they're talking. Like yeah on TV. Is there a camera? Do these tanks that roll with them? Is there camera recording? We do see the camera at one point, right? Oh, do we? I don't even remember. Yeah. Yeah. We did see it. The problem is, is like,
01:39:37
Speaker
What does it look like on the other end? Like, what's the technology look like? Oh, that's another thing. That's another part of the film. The way they show the technology, the cars they're driving. It's like, which time period is this? We don't quite know. Like, what version of the United States is this? Is this shortly after World War II? Is it the regress in the technology that they have and it's actually modern times? That's something they don't really answer because if you look at the weaponry, the weaponry is more modern, but the other stuff that we're seeing is almost like cars, seems, or 1970s, perhaps. I looked into this as well. This is actually another point that I looked into because it is not specified in the movie whatsoever.
01:40:13
Speaker
It's apparently set in the it is. So you can assume World War II ended differently. And that's why America is in a different way.
01:40:26
Speaker
Oh. Again, they also don't even say that it's America. You can just assume because they – think they say like it's one person – um from I don't even know if they use the word state.
01:40:37
Speaker
They just say like there's 50 people, there's 50 states in the US. It's like people coming from different parts of the country. So you just assume. um But again, yeah, I don't think it's ah ever specified specifically.
01:40:51
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. It's fine. I, yeah. I wouldn't recommend it to like anyone. I will, like, I don't want to watch this movie ever again. Right. But again with your rate again, great performances though. Like it's not the acting.
01:41:05
Speaker
I think again, Cooper Hoffman and David Johnson specifically were stellar. Ben Wang was also really good. He's a karate kid guy. The new karate kid guy. Right. The newest karate kid. the one Oh, the one that just came out?
01:41:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The legends one. Cool. Yeah. Cool, man. right. What do you rate it? Out of five. Yeah. guess I get 2.5 as well. like It's just a fucking movie, man.
01:41:31
Speaker
Five out of ten. It's just a movie. It's just a movie. Yeah. Is this as good as or better than Wolfman? Ooh. It's kind tough, think it's better than Wolfman.
01:41:45
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. From a writing perspective, definitely. It's more interesting than Wolfman. Wolfman kind of sucked. Wolfman was like just a movie, but like the more I think about it, I'm like, no, that one really has no redeeming qualities. In fact, now that you bring this up, I'm almost thinking, hmm. No, I give Wolfman a two.
01:42:03
Speaker
I give it two. i Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, and think I give it a 2.5. It's just a fucking movie. But if I got went back to Wolfman right now, probably a two as well. We're re-reviewing Wolfman right now. 4 out of 10.
01:42:21
Speaker
but Oh, I see. Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, sure. Done. Okay, let's move. Is that everything you've watched this week, sir?
01:42:30
Speaker
I think so. Probably watch something else. don't know, man. um don't know, man. Okay. Well, I keep saying this week, but it's bi-week. Because again, this is a bi-week podcast. i was playing games, dude. I was playing game.
01:42:42
Speaker
me too. Me too. I was trying anyway. Very busy work week for me. So I was paying playing more games the week before. But anyway, Adrian, now let's move on to the montage, a sequence of our show, in which I briefly present seven of the bi-week smaller news stories as Adrian delivers a brisk verdict.
01:42:58
Speaker
Number one, a new Simpsons film will premiere in theaters on July 23rd, 2027. In the 35 years of The Simpsons airing on television, this is only the second film to launch on the big screen. Wow, cool. I remember that first Simpsons movie and being like, this is good.
01:43:15
Speaker
I was a child. Number two, Netflix has revealed that their upcoming Will Ferrell created and starring golf comedy series has cast Darjeeling limited actor Luke Wilson alongside Chris Purnell, Molly Shannon and David Hornsby.
Casting News: Will Ferrell and Mr. Beast
01:43:30
Speaker
Wow, that's cool. Another golf comedy with another Wilson. Yeah. Number three. According to Deadline, writer-director Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network follow-up The Social Reckoning has rounded out its core cast with Succession's Jeremy Strong, Anora's Mikey Madison, and The Bear's Jeremy Allen White. Interesting. Totally different cast from the the the first one.
01:43:56
Speaker
and Indeed. It's Jeremy Strong playing good old... Jesse. You almost did it. Mark Zuckerberg. Not Jesse Eisenberg, who's the actor. Yeah. Who played Mark Zuckerberg. Jeremy Strong's playing Jesse Eisenberg playing...
01:44:12
Speaker
Mark Zuckerberg. It's a Tropic Thunder. It's like the Disaster Artist. Oh, I thought it was like a Tropic Thunder situation, you know? No, it's it's it's this is the Disaster Artist movie about creating the social network.
01:44:25
Speaker
But the difference is, is the social network is a very good movie. Yeah, you gotta see that. I've never watched it. yeah Number four. Apple has delayed the political drama series The Savant about battling online hate groups due to current events in the United States. The series was meant to premiere on September 26th, but was delayed indefinitely, much to the chagrin of star Jessica Chastain. What's happening in the U.S.?
01:44:51
Speaker
Oh, you know. fun things yeah crazy funerals with fucking explosions dude geez fireworks geez number five as announced in an interview with publication fangoria weapons director zach crager has confirmed that he has been in talks to direct a weapons prequel film focused upon the weapons character gladys Oh, that's cool. I'm into that. I'll watch that. i like Zack Greger now. Now? I'm going to have for a while.
01:45:21
Speaker
have for a while. Yeah. Number six. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, filming was halted on the upcoming Sony Marvel film Spider-Man Brand New Day, and Peter Parker star Tom Holland was treated for a concussion after hitting his head during a stunt gone wrong.
01:45:37
Speaker
Tom Holland is reportedly on the mend. I'm glad. I hope Tom Holland has a swift recovery. We're here for you, Tom. Yeah, that's right. Number seven, the incredibly popular YouTuber Mr. Beast has been cast in Angry Birds Movie 3, which is set to launch in 2026. Oh, nice.
01:45:56
Speaker
Mr. Beast, the guy. He's this guy. he does a lot of good. Good? Yeah. Does he? Yeah, man. He's given out housing to to poor people.
01:46:08
Speaker
He's fixed. He's done eye surgery for a lot of blind people in poor countries. Only on camera though. Is that right? doesn't fucking matter. You're still doing a good thing.
01:46:19
Speaker
He's also, didn't he just like lock somebody into a hairy situation? Yeah. He might not survive. it was a stunt man. it was a stunt man though. Yeah. It was a stunt man doing that stunt and he left that guy in a burning house. Right. And they had, and they firefighters and he said a hundred percent the guy would have been safe. I don't believe that. I don't believe that dude. 100% but hey man who cares.
01:46:44
Speaker
Alright. He's done bad things I'm sure. But he's also done some good things. Yeah that's fair. You too. Me too? I'm sure. Yeah. Right? Or the band U2. No you. Like Bono. As an agent. Alright. Like Bono probably Alright. Bonus number 8. As reported by Canadian website Mobile Syrup.
01:47:03
Speaker
Disney is changing the name of the star section of the Disney Plus streaming service to Hulu as of October 8th. The content has always been Hulu content, but now they are rebranding star to Hulu in all international markets to ready their, quote, fully integrated app experience, unquote, coming next year.
01:47:21
Speaker
Fantastic. And a bonus number nine, as reported by publication Deadline, Ozark director Jason Bateman is set to direct the film adaptation of the John Grisham crime novel, The Partners.
01:47:31
Speaker
with Spider-Man actor Tom Holland starring as the lead. Cool, oh man. Jason Bateman, the Batester. That's right. Making good stuff.
01:47:42
Speaker
And that concludes the montage. I still got to watch black rabbit. Maybe that's going to be my show that I'll watch when I'm alone. Yeah. I got to watch that too. I got to do it. I don't have Netflix at the moment. So that's the big thing. I do.
01:47:56
Speaker
I do have Netflix. So that's the difference between you and I. Have you ever. the difference between you and i I always have Netflix and you sometimes have Netflix.
AI's Impact on Creative Industries
01:48:04
Speaker
When was the last time you canceled Netflix? Was it ever? I don't know. It's my parents Netflix.
01:48:08
Speaker
Oh, right. That's true. And it'll randomly be like, Hey, this isn't your household. You can't do this. And I just say, I'm traveling. And I get the email code sent to me.
01:48:20
Speaker
And I just put in the code and it's fine. That's the workaround. Yeah. Make the non-household the main email. Hmm. I see. Think about that.
01:48:33
Speaker
Sure. Workaround. That's fair. That's fair. They're going to be like, you can't travel anymore, Adrian. That's what they're going to say to me. Netflix will. Yeah, not allowed. You got to stop traveling. I'm trying to, I'm traveling in a week.
01:48:46
Speaker
Always traveling. I'm going to Mexico next week. For what? A wedding. Oh, okay. I'm there for Monday to to Friday.
01:48:57
Speaker
Whoa. Next week as in tomorrow? No, next week as in next week. Oh, okay. i I mean, we're recording this on a Sunday. Some people think it's Monday to Sunday the, you know, beginning of the week as a Monday.
01:49:09
Speaker
Next week would be tomorrow. You know, it depends on you. Maybe you're a Sunday to sunday to Saturday type guy. and't I'm not sure what kind of calendar person you are. What kind of calendar man are you? Sunday to Saturday is my calendar, yeah.
01:49:21
Speaker
Okay. Good for you. Good for you. All right, well, it's time now. to move on to the uh split focus special segment for the week you ready for this ready for this chunk of words oh fuck this is long dude this is long but we only do this once every uh every last episode i feel like you know no we didn't do a special segment last episode did we not no did we not we didn't anyway we didn't so i mean you can go back and
01:49:54
Speaker
and checking But anyway, the special the Split Focus special segment this week concerns artificial intelligence or AI in the film and TV industry. Adrian, it's exciting. So here we go.
01:50:06
Speaker
Here we go. Ever since late 2022, when Silicon Valley tech company OpenAI i launched their large language model generative AI, ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has been seen as a bit of a market disruptor across many industries, including the film and TV industry.
01:50:22
Speaker
A large language model like ChatGPT or Google Gemini looks at massive sets of data and essentially learns how to read and write in order to respond to a human being's questions. It essentially has access to a massive portion of the data on the internet.
01:50:36
Speaker
And because it is able to understand human language, it searches the massive database that it has access to and forms an opinion or answer based on available information uploaded by humans to the internet. Theoretically, you could ask it to write an essay for you on the dangers that climate change poses to the bee population, or you could ask it to write a script for the next Scooby-Doo live action film, and it would do so.
01:50:57
Speaker
Generative AI can also create digital art recreations based on the use of this same massive database. When a human produces a prompt, generative AI like Midjourney or ChatGPT accesses the database of internet images available to it and essentially frankensteins an image together based upon its understanding of your request.
01:51:17
Speaker
Generative AI models have been trained to create virtual human beings with large language model access and lifelike computer graphics built upon these massive human-created image databases.
01:51:28
Speaker
Obviously, questions of plagiarism have quickly arisen with the introduction of these new technologies due to generative AI models pulling all of its data from human-created internet sources. For instance...
01:51:39
Speaker
If a generative AI model creates a painting, isn't it just stealing the artwork or photographs produced by human artists to form said painting? If a human being submits an essay for the university history course that was written by ChatGPT, this is also certainly plagiarism.
01:51:54
Speaker
Yet many companies are encouraging their employees to have generative AI, help them write emails and reports to speed up the process and increase workplace efficiency. Controversies exist with this technology in many different industries, but of course, we will be specifically discussing some of its effects on the film and TV industry here.
01:52:12
Speaker
In mid-2023, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. Largely, the strike had to do with unfair pay structure for film and TV writers. But it also had something to do with ensuring that AI was regulated in the industry and that it wasn't being trained on ripping off almost 100 years of film and TV scripts.
01:52:31
Speaker
In 2024, Jurassic World Rebirth actor Scarlett Johansson threatened to sue ChatGPT creator OpenAI for essentially ripping off her voice for the rollout of the verbal version of ChatGPT.
01:52:43
Speaker
ChatGPT's voice service profile, Sky, sounded mysteriously like Johansson's character Samantha from the Spike Jonze film Her. Johansson was reportedly approached by OpenAI for a collaboration before the ChatGPT voice rollout.
01:52:58
Speaker
But when the actress declined, it appeared as though they went ahead with using a version of her voice anyway. Sky was pulled from ChatGPT voice after Scarlett Johansson threatened the lawsuit. And this brings me to the most recent Hollywood AI controversy and the whole reason we're talking about this at all, at this point anyway.
01:53:15
Speaker
As reported by Publication Deadline, this year, Dutch tech company Particle 6 created an AI talent studio spinoff called Zicoia. pretty sure that's how you pronounce it. Zicoia created an AI actress named Tilly Norwood that has been the talk of the town in Hollywood over the past week.
01:53:33
Speaker
The claim is that this fake actress will be represented by an actual talent agency and that she will star in film and TV projects going forward. Tilly was apparently created by human Dutch actor-comedian Aline van der Velden, who recently claimed that she wanted Tilly to be the, quote, next Scarlett Johansson, unquote.
01:53:52
Speaker
Van der Velden also claimed that, quote, "...creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination." and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role, or shaping a performance." unquote She also stated on LinkedIn that audiences ultimately didn't care how the art is created when she said, quote, audiences?
01:54:12
Speaker
They care about the story, not whether the star has a pulse. Tilly is already attracting interest from talent agencies and fans. The age of synthetic actors isn't coming.
01:54:22
Speaker
It's here, unquote. As reported by news publication, the BBC, Hollywood actors largely see the introduction of Tilly Norwood as an affront. Actors like Emily Blunt, Melissa Barrera, and Natasha Lyonne, alongside Actors Union SAG-AFTRA, specifically spoke out against talent agencies representing Tilly Norwood or AI actors in general.
01:54:45
Speaker
Adrian, we could talk about this whole topic if you want to. And we should probably talk about the Tilly Norwood thing because it keeps coming up over and over again for the last week and a bit. but But yeah, what are your thoughts, I guess, on a high level? And then we can kind of go into more detail.
01:55:04
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of AI personally ah for the creative field specifically. I think AI can definitely have its uses. Like in business, again, I think you even mentioned in this write up about like companies using AI to support in email writing or, you know, how to send out, you know, proper sequences for, um you know, getting more customer feedback.
01:55:30
Speaker
responses and stuff like that, which, you know, the company that I work for uses AI actually quite frequently. um Specifically, like if we're doing like a demonstration of our product, it'll actually record it and then take notes and have all the, all the, you know, points made. So it's like when I'm making my presentation, I don't have to constantly write notes the entire time.
01:55:49
Speaker
um And when everything is wrapped up, I have actually a comprehensive like note notes that I can go back to ah you know after the demonstration is done. And I think for those sort of situations, AI is good.
01:56:00
Speaker
um But in the the span that you were reading this, Simon, i just as a little you know joke, I literally created an image of a cat eating a bowl of spaghetti in an anime art style using AI.
01:56:16
Speaker
I wrote an entire, I wrote, AI wrote an entire essay on the dark side of innovation, negative effects of AI in the entertainment industry. as well as i had it write a full comprehensive breakdown of why, you know, who Tilly Norwood is, why she's controversial, ah controversial, the bigger picture behind her and like what the debate is within the AI industry and why Tilly Norwood ultimately matters um in regards to the growing tensions between, know, the ah so synthetic creativity and human artistry.
01:56:58
Speaker
It's crazy. AI is fucking nuts, man, that it can do that. Like literally in that, what, you're reading this for maybe two minutes? I was able to do all that? It's absurd. and i was reading it for two minutes. I took a lot longer to write it.
01:57:10
Speaker
Yeah. You should have just used AI to write that. did not use AI. You should have just used AI to write that out because I got more content than you in a matter of two minutes. No, I'm being facetious, obviously.
01:57:21
Speaker
i I don't know. that a lot of people don't think that you're wrong by that joke that you just made. Like there is an element of like, I don't believe in email writing with AI. I think it's actually stupid, but that's for me, I just what I believe in. That's where my limit ends.
01:57:36
Speaker
Because I just don't, I've learned as, we might have talked about this before, but i've I learned as a kid when I was in school that we you write with your own words. In your own words was always what I was taught.
01:57:47
Speaker
It's very odd that if you're writing an email, you're not writing with your own words. And people are not even proofreading what the AI is even writing at this point. Like people need to know how to communicate. And if they're writing everything with an AI generative language, like large language model.
01:58:01
Speaker
I feel like we're kind of losing the plot because when you, when it comes to like actually having human connection and discussing something in person, I don't know if these kids growing up through this are going to be able to do that just based on the, the use of AI and its potential abuses.
01:58:16
Speaker
But um I also want to believe that if someone wrote a message to me that they actually wrote it, there's an element of that too, but yeah. And they put thought into it as opposed to just asking chat GPT to do it. But anyway,
01:58:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's fair. Yeah, no. and and And I agree with you on that as well. Like, I think, yeah, you should write things in your own words, typically. um But again, I think there are useful acts or. um Oh, 100 percent.
01:58:44
Speaker
you Useful. uses for lack of better term, I guess. Yeah. I think of translation, ah listening to a presentation and giving producing notes is is a, it's a great application.
01:58:56
Speaker
Yeah. There's lots of great applications. The problem is, is that there are no checks and balances. There, there's just very few in the United States doesn't seem to want to balance it or check it at all. There is also element. the government is literally making AI propaganda videos and posting it on official media,
01:59:12
Speaker
channels yeah fucking absurd. Yeah, that's for sure too. Yeah, why the fuck would they care? yeah Fucking an idiots, dude. Jesus Christ. I just, I can't. it's Again, that's why I can't watch Gen V. You can't parody what's already a parody. Let's get me curious about ah that. What you just said is like we got Grand Theft Auto 6 coming out and that's going to be a parody on the United States as well. The thing is, it might be different because you're playing it. So maybe that will.
01:59:39
Speaker
um and I'm going assume it's going to have more clever writing and better writing than whatever Gen V is. yeah Everything's a metaphor in Gen V. She turns small because she feels small on the inside. Hmm.
01:59:54
Speaker
Right. I really
AI in Gaming and Creative Arts
01:59:56
Speaker
don't like that show. I really, anyways, we're we're way up past that topic. But yeah, I, yeah, sorry. no Sorry. No, no, go ahead. No, please, please, please. I i wrote a little like followup to what I said, basically like what I, what I wrote as a, as this is my opinion kind of thing.
02:00:10
Speaker
Um, and so like I wrote some notes here, but like from my perspective, corporations be corporations, right? So this is this idea of like Tilly Norwood, she's going to exist if they... and And many AI actors like her will exist if people vote with their wallet and watch this shit.
02:00:31
Speaker
And that's the kind of the thing, I think. like Their main concern is always the bottom line. The trouble with AI in the film and TV industry is that it's only just the beginning. As major companies will surely throw... Everything at the wall to see where it sticks.
02:00:42
Speaker
Voting with your wallet as a consumer is so important. AI acting, AI writing, and fully AI computer graphics are all creatively bankrupt and soulless. It's all it's all essentially plagiarism as these generative AI models scrape the internet to use the brilliant works of art built by humans to make something perceived as new to the untrained eye.
02:01:02
Speaker
But said art has no creative genesis, and there is really nothing truly interesting about it. when you When Daniel Day-Lewis or Meryl Streep delivers an earth-shattering emotional performance,
02:01:13
Speaker
It's a feat because it came from a deep human place. Human being the key word. When Paul Thomas Anderson or Steven Spielberg creates, delivers a breathtaking film, it was a collaboration of hundreds of people all working towards a common goal and led by an auteur director with a distinctly creative vision.
02:01:30
Speaker
AI is basically just a photocopier Frankensteining pieces of art together that it thinks humans might enjoy. That's my, my little, little paragraph I wrote at posts. Cause it, if I can't, I can't believe people would actually consider this to be like this vendor Veldin lady.
02:01:49
Speaker
I don't know what she's thinking. Cause it seems like it's so obvious that this is a bad idea, but yeah I don't know. Uh, yeah. What do you think? Yeah, I just, I like, I don't have much hope for humanity. um ah ah So again, I have a fairly pessimistic view of this. I think we're going to lose.
02:02:11
Speaker
as As people on the side of like not wanting this to happen. I'm pretty confident in that. um I hope- Corporations be corporations. be corporations. We're in the minority in general in regards to people that go to the movies, right? Like we watch arthouse movies, arthouse movies, quote unquote. We watch, you know, the non-blockbuster movies quite frequently on top of the blockbusters, right?
02:02:35
Speaker
right um And some people will only go to watch those blockbusters theme park movies as Martin Scorsese would say, right? Yeah. um And a lot of directors now consider those movies as creatively bankrupt and more of the same.
02:02:54
Speaker
But those are the movies that typically in the past many years, guess like the 2010s, made most money. made the most money These creatively bankrupt movies.
02:03:05
Speaker
Yeah. So hypothetically speaking, if those were the most popular movies, they're already creatively bankrupt. Now you're going to feed that into an AI system that's going to make more creatively bankrupt movies, but now actually creatively bankrupt because they are using generative AI to plagiarize things that have come before it that have made millions of dollars.
02:03:23
Speaker
People might just go watch it anyways because it's entertainment and it's going to make a bunch of money and people don't typically vote for their wallets. Every single year in the, again, i'm going to reference the gaming industry because, um you know, we're both pretty in it, but people always say how much they hate call of duty, call of duties, bullshit.
02:03:43
Speaker
They're, they're doing dumb stuff in call of duty and year after year call of duty is. If not the best selling video game, one of the best selling video games. Yeah.
02:03:54
Speaker
To be fair to Call of Duty, though, a Call of Duty gets reviewed almost every year very well. like review Professional reviewers actually like Call of Duty. I think a better example would be sports titles, actually.
02:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, sure. That's the crazy one. Fair enough. Because the sports titles actually are declining in... and Review scores. And yet they're changing very little year on year. At least Call of Duty, they're putting the money behind those games. you know They put so much investment.
02:04:18
Speaker
Modern Warfare 3 being the exception. And it didn't sell the most that year, actually. Hogwarts Legacy did that year, didn't it? Yeah. And it and it and it was re bat reviewed very badly. I think IGN gave it a 4 out of 10 for the campaign, but mind you. um But...
02:04:33
Speaker
But yeah, the great point. Yeah, 100%. People do not vote with their wallet. They buy FC 25, 26, they'll buy 27 next year. It's just ah it's just ah it's an issue. I don't know.
02:04:44
Speaker
and And the crappy thing is for us, we don't just play fortnight we don't just play call duty or or nhl 26 you know we we we don't at all actually we mainly play narrative games that are very artsy and very well they built and emotional they have emotional storytelling and interesting different mechanics and they're very creative and games like ghost of yote or the last of us part two or um like i guess boulders gate three you know what i mean like we're We're into those types of games which just traditionally sell less than Call of Duty. Or and I shouldn't say traditionally. They never sell as many copies as Call of Duty.
02:05:22
Speaker
And they'll never sell as many copies as as Call of Duty, unfortunately. Yeah. And that's not to say that the odd, very creative project might break through and be super popular and make a shit ton of money. Like Sinners, as an example, which was this year.
02:05:35
Speaker
Or, again, Baldur's Gate. It didn't sell as much as Call of Duty. But that game sold fucking millions. Like, it made a shit ton of money. And it's you know it's not a creatively bankrupt idea. It's like... you know, hundreds of people coming together, making this crazy passion project that has countless endings and multiple, you know, lines of dire, brilliant writing. Right.
02:05:54
Speaker
So yeah I'm not saying that we're never like, this is the end all be all. and we're not going to have, you know, quality creative movies, but I think we are going to get to a point where a lot, we're going to have sift through a lot of bullshit. Yeah.
02:06:09
Speaker
Because again, even in the gaming space, there's ah so many of these like AI generated fucking bullshit games flooding the stores. ah Less so now. I feel like, you know, the the searchability has cleaned up a little bit in um like the PlayStation store specifically, because that's usually where you and i will be.
02:06:25
Speaker
um But yeah, I don't know. It is It's worrisome because I don't want this to be normalized. That is the big worry is that we're going to get to a point where where this will be normalized.
02:06:38
Speaker
You're going to have these young bucks moving up in the industry that are going to be okay with this because that's what they grew up on. You know, not not necessarily your Gen Z, but your Gen Alphas or whatever, because all they, I mean, yeah I guess even Gen Z, because those are, you know, kids in, you know, maybe university at the height of AI or whatever. And they're using that for all their stuff, all their writing, all their creative tools.
02:06:58
Speaker
And you're going to have these people eventually move up and get to a point. And AI has always been a part of their life or, know, was a part of their life at at their formative years and they're okay with it. And they're look at this funny thing that I made here.
02:07:11
Speaker
You know, even myself, man, like I'll like, I'll play around with AI on occasion just for shits and giggles. Like my my friend group, there's this app called Suno, which is a music creation ai tool.
02:07:24
Speaker
Hmm. And we've used it in our friend group, but it's, we write really absurd songs about specific people in our friend group and, and make it into like a country song or some shit like that. And it's just like these dumb ass fucking lyrics sung by some AI guy, but it's meant for a joke and we're doing it as a joke.
02:07:44
Speaker
I'm not sitting there in the Suno app, which I get random emails for. I unsubscribed recently because it was annoying me. like, check out this new sick beat. And soon it's like, i'm I'm never going to listen to ai generated music knowingly and be like, wow, this is my new favorite artist, AI Steve or whatever the fuck.
02:08:04
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's like it's just not going to happen. And it's because like I again, you and i and again, people older than us grew up in a generation where I was just an idea.
02:08:15
Speaker
Again, her came out in 2013.
02:08:18
Speaker
And that was like not something – like when I watched that movie back in 2013, and I've watched it a couple times since. But i was I was never sitting there being like, we're going to have that in 10 years or 12 years.
02:08:30
Speaker
And we were literally at that point. I did think at that point that the oh we would it. did it back in 2013? That's crazy. Yeah, because we we had and we had that already. We had voice assistants, right? Yeah, but i like I didn't think it would be on the level of what her was.
02:08:45
Speaker
i also watched it, I think – was that Did it come out before or after Siri? I think it came out after, or I watched it after. It was 2013. Either way, I watched it after gotten an iPhone.
02:08:57
Speaker
So I got this idea that they they could they could get there. They they were moving it forward. There are voice assistants for phones back then. But that's different, though, too. like ah know would I don't think people would have thought that freaking we would have an AI system.
02:09:12
Speaker
freaking actor what what are you what are you doing with that what's the point of that though i don't really understand like what what are we gaining it's it's like don't know there's an element of like if you have like a you're you're you're you're watching like a movie or actually no not even that you're you're watching a sports race right it's like a run people running And then somebody's like roided up and they win.
02:09:37
Speaker
We're not like, oh, good for them. They're so good. No, we were like, no, that that person just cheated. there's no There's no benefit. The AI can read every single actor's emotions across human history, anything online. And then it's basically in that scene.
02:09:51
Speaker
The advantage of seeing... an actor or somebody who wrote a brilliant piece is that humans are flawed. That's part of the advantage. That's one of the, the charm of it. That's part of the reason I watch the skating races or the hockey team. When if the the, the Canadian hockey team was great because they were just a bunch of guys on steroids. It's far less interesting.
02:10:10
Speaker
I disagree completely. I feel like that would make it more interesting. A bunch of jacked people beating the shit out each other. i Not to worry. You can go watch that right now. I can? There's the steroids games. Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
02:10:21
Speaker
If you think that's interesting. That's not interesting. That's fucking cool. It's not interesting to see like Tilly Norwood act alongside. yeah No, but that's I don't think that that's a fair comparison. Personally, I don't think like the roided out guy is an AI actor.
02:10:35
Speaker
Like, I don't, I don't, I don't see the difference because at the end of the day, that's still a human being that made the conscious choice to inject themselves with fucking roids. Whereas this is not a human being. This is, this artificial intelligence. just stealing again. And like, it's, it's, it's not cheating. It's cheating.
02:10:53
Speaker
It is cheating. us It's a cheat. They're, they're just, but it is their face. It is Pedro Pascal's face. Telling Norwood is an amalgamation of the faces we already have. That is what it is. Essentially.
02:11:05
Speaker
They're just yeah becoming that person, right? The idea is they could be a super actor, but what's the point of that? That's not really real emotion. It it can never be real. It's always fake. Just like winning a race or or like winning a swimming competition. if youre If you're Michael Phelps and you're just, the reason why he won was because was- He smoked weed.
02:11:23
Speaker
Yeah. and Well, that wouldn't have made him win, I think. That might've made him lose. But yeah, but that's kind of the idea. I don't know. It's just, the yeah, the flaws is kind of what makes the makes it work. Like seeing met Meryl Streep win Best Actor is is because she's remarkable. She's able to tap into a vulnerability of herself that like there's no vulnerability to an AI.
02:11:47
Speaker
There is just, it doesn't exist. You know what i'm saying? Yeah. So it's it's it's kind of pointless. like I just hope that people vote with their wallets. But it's he's interesting. Yeah. My brother and I, we had like a, it was like somebody we knew was like about to pass away. We went to a dinner and we were like, we came from the hospital, went to a dinner and were like, it was like a sad dinner we were having.
02:12:13
Speaker
But we we got into a conversation about AI at one point and he was just like, they can't AI will never be able to write a movie script. and And I was like, no, i completely like I completely disagree with you. I think it right now can't do it.
02:12:29
Speaker
But eventually it will. And because there's so many movie scripts out there, people won't immediately understand that it's plagiarism. there's like there're It's going to find the trick that makes a comedy work, as an example, or makes a drama work.
02:12:43
Speaker
It will find the tricks to do it. The issue is, again, we want something that comes out of something else. like We want it to to come out, ive not come out of something else as a copy, but to create be created of a person's brain.
02:12:56
Speaker
That's what's interesting about ARC being used in that way. AI tools can be used to make computer graphics. There's an element of, if you can if you're doing like, oh, almost knocked my bottle over. If you're using it like as an example, like rotoscoping or something in the the early stages of ah visual ah effects, that could be useful. Or artists make the actual trees in a video game or or whatever, and then you can use procedural generation to copy those same things across the landscape.
02:13:25
Speaker
There's limits where it makes sense. AI makes sense even in the film and TV industry, but it has to be used wisely in specific spots where it's basically just expanding upon an artist's vision that they've already had.
02:13:40
Speaker
That's the the the brilliant part of it. Acting makes no sense. that we were not what what What part of that art form could be – there's nothing AI can really do in that case to help – amplify, I don't think acting at all. There's there's like nothing. It's just zero. It's completely bankrupt of any creativity. I think, unless you could think of something in which that, like AI can help an actor. I don't think there's anything. Maybe I'm missing. Through role plays.
02:14:08
Speaker
yeah yeah improv role plays that's yeah that's like the only thing maybe they can help them run lines that could be okay but i just i don't see that as interesting at all like ah the thing is is that tilly norwood looks like ai if you watch the clips but eventually she won't she'll look like a real person uh more so there's still like an uncanny valley issue right now but for me but um but yeah i don't know it's just uh super disappointing but yeah I didn't actually watch the video of her. Yeah, it's like two minutes, I think.
02:14:43
Speaker
It's short.
02:14:46
Speaker
um Yeah. Let's see. It's it's crazy. crazy i'm trying but ah just i'm trying to like Even you said like this will become a thing, which I find interesting.
02:15:01
Speaker
You think it will. like you think I think eventually it will because that's what people know. you're You're having a generation that's growing up with AI and that's just what the normal is for them.
02:15:15
Speaker
But this this is like a almost like a step too far. Like I write a script because you would never know. And that's what I'm more scared about writing. But an AI actor, like imagine we have Tilly Norwood acting with...
02:15:28
Speaker
Brad Pitt. Yeah. Like he's working with a green screen yeah and then she's in the, cause you think about it, we, we kind of, there's like the de-aging, like de-aged Robert De Niro working with de-aged Al Pacino. There's, there is an element that they are potentially working with some kind of visual effects. Yeah.
02:15:44
Speaker
and Or we'll watch the Avengers. Like Avengers Doomsdays will be like filmed on you know filmed out a big blue screen with Rocket Raccoon. He's obviously not there.
02:15:55
Speaker
And it's just that yeah he you know a little ah dummy that they're they're using in place of of Rocket um while Bradley Cooper voices him in the booth. Like they're, they're, they're doing this already. So what we have it where they'll actually have an AI actor in a scene.
02:16:11
Speaker
you think that's got coming? Is that what you think? Or you think it'll be. I think eventually. Yeah, man, i'm I'm quite confident of it. And I think, again, the younger generation is going to act with that though. Is that even the stepping stone or will it just be AI with AI? might be AI with AI.
02:16:25
Speaker
But again, you might get young actors that are going to be okay with it because again, they grew up talking to ChatGPT as a therapist. a therapist They fell in love with an AI software that they're texting back and forth.
02:16:38
Speaker
Right. Like it's just, I, I think
Future of AI in Entertainment
02:16:40
Speaker
it's inevitable. It's unfortunate, but like I'm confident I'd love, you know what? We're coming back in 20 years anyways, to see if I opened a, a food truck.
02:16:49
Speaker
Um, we'll come back and see where AI is at in 20 years. And we'll, we'll pick up this conversation. for I do think that if we keep doing this podcast, that we will discuss this a lot over the next 20 years though. You know what i mean?
02:17:00
Speaker
We'll probably, well, no, you know what? This is it. we' We're putting our foot down here. We're not going to talk about AI until 20 years from today. Exactly. um You're going to be 76, 77. I'll be 40. What?
02:17:14
Speaker
what How old do you think I am, man? Wow. Or you just don't know to do math. Oh, that's why we didn't get the miles right in a long walk. That's true. Long walk
02:17:28
Speaker
Okay. Well, yeah, it's depressing. I will say that. It's depressing and it's just, i I don't know if I agree with you. I feel like there's like enough pushback that I think people, and I think there's like a lack of connection enough. I think a script can get by the goalie.
02:17:41
Speaker
I think they need to make sure that the that the regulations are in place, that you don't allow a script to get in and that's considered plagiarism. But I feel like the jury's still out whether people will actually go watch an AI ai performance.
02:17:56
Speaker
I think that part is, is the where I don't know. I don't think it will not happen. I think it will happen. I just don't think it will be mainstream. I think people will understand that this is not the point.
02:18:08
Speaker
That's not why we're doing this. The spectacle of, by the way, Tom Cruise hanging off a biplane, is more interesting than him doing that in a CG situation. That's why Mission Impossible has been popular in some aspect over the last little bit. You know what i mean?
02:18:23
Speaker
People want to see, oh, this guy was underwater for how long? And they kind of want to see the scene that that made that happen. Yeah. that's why like Avatar, the underwater scenes and like, what it was, a seven minutes for Kate Winslet. It's like, that's not that interesting because that's completely CG. It's like you could have just done this in CG. I don't know what the point of even her having done that is almost because I don't even act.
02:18:45
Speaker
It could have been fake water and we wouldn't have cared. You know what i mean? cause it's completely CG. It's just about the acting and aspect. Still her acting. It's just. Yeah, but CG to over top of it.
02:18:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. No, no, it's oh it's way better than AI would be. I'm not saying that they're similar. um But and that it's just Mission Impossible's underwater scene is more interesting to me than the Avatar one.
02:19:10
Speaker
Oh, I agree completely. it's just Because you can see it. There's a like youre there's like no smoke and mirrors. Avatar is almost completely smoke and mirrors. like there's nothing There's not as much real about it. Even the acting performances. is you know No one's going to win an acting performance for in Avatar. Sorry. you you can have I think you could have had Andy Serkis win ah for to play in planet Planet of the Apes. I think he could have done that because of the the nuancedness of it, perhaps. But I don't know.
02:19:40
Speaker
Didn't Andy Serkis win something for Gollum? Did he? Did he win? I don't think so. like he's kind of That was kind of the thing. he's kind of No, he was not. He was not. Sorry. i don't know why I thought that. but yeah that' that's more That's a deeper performance only. than like He's literally playing ah an ape.
02:19:59
Speaker
There's an element there too. Ape. a and But that's different again, because actors are acting in those scenes. um You're completely right. But yeah, I don't know. It's not, there's not very similar to be honest. i don't why I'm bringing that up to so deeply, but yeah, anyway, yeah. ai This AI situation is, is, is, is depressing and I hope you're wrong, but they were going to have like, I hope people and understand enough that that's just not interesting, but you were right. Maybe in the blockbuster films, that's where we start to see that. And there might be always art house, like, or more independent films that will not use that.
02:20:33
Speaker
And then, well, yeah, i don't know. i think video games would be the the most hurt industry by this theoretically because you will have completely AI built games. I feel like in the next 10 years at the very least, like ones that I'm not saying we have AI games already. I'm saying we're going to have AI games of a triple A quality theoretically of companies who just don't care about artists creating anything.
02:20:56
Speaker
But yeah, I just don't know for the film industry. It's like, who, who's going to let this happen? I guess if you're in another country and you don't, you're kind of beholden to Hollywood, you could just cut get a, get a leg up. Right.
02:21:12
Speaker
Like, you know what? Well, we just made this whole AI, AI industry in what is the country that Vander Vilden is in? She's in the Netherlands. Right. Yeah. so she could just like make the, she make the but Nollywood, you know, just Nollywood comes out of nowhere and starts making blockbuster films because they can do it for cheap. Cause they don't have to hire any talent.
02:21:32
Speaker
I find it weird though. This person's a comedian, ah like in a, in an actor, you'd think that she would be like, Hmm, this is stealing my job. Oh,
AI Voice Technology Controversies
02:21:41
Speaker
do it. Do you remember that moment with Troy Baker or Troy Baker was, do you remember when he invested in that AI, uh, AI voice company?
02:21:50
Speaker
that can imprint various voice actors. ah Troy Baker, by the way, for those who don't know, is ah is a very famous video game of voice actor and really motion capture artist.
02:22:00
Speaker
Really, just an actor. He's great in The Last of Us and in Bioshock, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But he invested in this company. He got out of it eventually.
02:22:11
Speaker
But he he he invested in this company that would basically imprint yeah various actors' voices and then they can be used in an independent games like so that they could just kind of make more games with like better performances.
02:22:25
Speaker
But it yeah um I was like looking that and like, dude, this is your job. like You really want that to happen? It was very but bizarre. I could not understand what his angle was on this.
02:22:36
Speaker
I think I understood it in that I get it. He wants more games of of of higher quality acting perhaps, but that's not really acting anymore. So I don't really know What you're getting out of that. That's actually something, by the way, the finals using the voice ah commentator.
02:22:51
Speaker
think that's yeah completely, ah completely a step too far. Completely and pointless because you can just literally hire an actor to how many actors, how many voice lines are really in that? I don't know. Probably not many, which is, i think, yeah, it's kind of a shame because I don't think it has like too many voice lines and it's just like, i don't know, make the AI say crazy shit then.
02:23:09
Speaker
right oh wait Wait, was that part of the point? Was it personalized? It wasn't personalized. I don't think so. It wasn't. It wasn't personalized to the player's name. oh I could be wrong. but I thought maybe it was based on the player's name and that's how they were doing it. but The finals is a a battle royale video game.
02:23:25
Speaker
but Yeah. Troy Baker faces powerful backlash over AI voice NFT promotion. He was doing like It was supposed used though in yeah in projects. That was the idea.
02:23:36
Speaker
yeah so it's like i think NFTs was a secure part of it. like if you I think that's why he did it it was NFTs is that you your voice is completely imprinted on this NFT and you can't you have to get the NFT for it to be valuable.
02:23:50
Speaker
because NFTs are like blocked by the blockchain or whatever. it's just It doesn't work though, because again, you don't wouldn't you rather get the work yourself? than That's so easy to get abused as a system.
02:24:02
Speaker
If your voice is on this and NFT and people are selling it freely, you just you're eventually going to lose control. like You just got to understand that. The best way to do it is just to stop stop it and it's ah you stopping in crib,
02:24:16
Speaker
as they say I don't know. i I think it's just ah it's pointless. But again, but it remains to be seen. maybe Maybe humanity will surprise us.
02:24:28
Speaker
But you're right, though. It's surprising us, just not in the way we want to be surprised, dude. You're probably right, though, in that, like again, some ah industry will pop out of other countries that will then do this, whereas SAG-AFTRA is predominantly American, I guess.
02:24:43
Speaker
And like... I feel like other countries who don't give a shit like about what the regulations are in another foreign country, they'll just make an industry of AI blockbusters and people will be like, oh, wow, did you see that that movie?
02:24:59
Speaker
Where this guy was.
Cultural Adoption of AI in Film
02:25:01
Speaker
i'm I'm curious what like the Bollywood industry thinks of this. And if like they they would, because like the Bollywood industry is fucking huge, right? That's ah that's the the essentially Hollywood of India.
02:25:13
Speaker
um So I'm curious if they would dive into it or if that would face backlash. because I don't know if that's really been a topic. I'm curious. Again, this is just me pondering. Yeah. Anyway, it's it's scary stuff and pointless, and i have no interest in watching this. we we i think i mean i mean and i feel like it goes without being said, but we're not going to be going to see an AI actor in a film anytime soon.
02:25:38
Speaker
um Yeah. We also pay attention to this industry quite a bit was the average person doesn't. And there's an element of like, we know these actors and things and we know when we go to see an animated film, perhaps, or we see like a a studio Ghibli film and it's got this great cast. We're we're interested in seeing Robert Pattinson in a studio Ghibli film. You know what i mean? Like there's an element of like, you know, me he's the heron.
02:26:00
Speaker
Right. we but we we We like to see because his performance is nuanced in it in a specific way. Even if it's just voice, we we see the the nuance in the performance. And we we go to see a film because of Brad Pitt on on a train fighting a bunch of assassins. You know what i mean? Like yeah there's an element there.
02:26:18
Speaker
ah Bad Bunny is one of them. Yeah. So anyway, that's it. um Yeah. It's a scary, it's a scary time. It's interesting. I was, I was taken aback by you saying it's going to happen.
02:26:29
Speaker
I like so definitively. I appreciate that point of view. Cause it's, it's something i I believe will happen ah for a lot of the industry. I just didn't know that. I didn't think that AI acting would be the piece, but I feel like you're right. If, if who cares about the regulation of SAG-AFTRA, if you're in,
02:26:47
Speaker
some like the Zimbabwe Iraq. Yeah, sure. Zimbabwe, you know, but like ah Cambodia, you know, Brazil.
02:27:00
Speaker
Do you care? Do you care at that point? you want to make a lot of money? Here it is. These AI actors fighting each other during a hockey game or whatever.
02:27:12
Speaker
So interesting. So, so fascinating. Yeah. All right, man. Okay, cool. Let's move on now, my friend, to a segment I like to call A Look to the Future.
02:27:27
Speaker
portion of our podcast where each of us present at least three of our picks for the tv series or movies that look most interesting to us that are releasing between the dates of october 7th 2025 and october 20th 2025 i as a customer i'll let you go first what is your first pick sir simon my first pick is is the new tim robinson tv series coming on hbo dude it's the chair company yeah coming out october 12th After an embarrassing incident at work, William Ronald Trosper finds himself investigating a far-reaching conspiracy that is the setup for the show.
02:28:07
Speaker
um I'm very curious about it. The trailer didn't reveal much. Yeah. um' I wonder how this is going to work as as something that's this long form. um I'm very curious. I feel like it's probably going to work well.
02:28:21
Speaker
You know, like obviously, like I feel like Tim Robinson's style of comedy, I really enjoyed and I think you should leave. And it was almost intolerable in a way watching friendship. But at the same time, I still really liked friendship.
02:28:36
Speaker
Like it's almost, it was like almost a little bit too much, but at the same time, like hit, you know i really liked that movie still. Um, so I'm curious how it's going to play out in this kind of more long form series to be fair. He has had like a show, uh, with, um, Sam Richardson Detroiters, which is yeah similar, like long, you know, it's a, don't think it was HBO. Maybe it was, can't remember.
02:28:57
Speaker
i don Um, I don't think it was HBO. Um, Maybe it was comedy central. I think it was. Yeah. I was about to say. you know, like ah more of a consistent story, but yeah, I'm curious. This looks fun. I'm definitely going watch it. Probably comedy central.
02:29:13
Speaker
Thoughts. Yeah. I'm very excited about as well. Super exciting. good Yeah. That's the definite. I feel it's a week to week. So I might wait again, but um until it ends, but.
02:29:25
Speaker
but I will watch it. I will indeed. You better. in My pick. My first pick is roof man. The, the movie with Channing Tatum.
02:29:38
Speaker
And I was going to say what the premise is, but I can't exactly remember what it was. He's a, he's a escaped prisoner. Why is it called Roofman, though? That's what threw off. Because he goes into a Walmart of sorts and robs the Walmart.
02:29:52
Speaker
And then he lives in the roof of the Walmart. Oh, that's right. don't think it's actually a Walmart. But yeah, it's with like Kirsten Dunst. It's a retailer, yeah. Peter Dinklage. Yeah, right. yeah Yeah. It's fun. I remember all that part, but I didn't understand why it was called Roof Man. I'm like, does this have something to do with... Oh, okay.
02:30:08
Speaker
He's on roof. He's on the roof. um He's just on the roof. Okay, gotcha. Easy. Yeah. Cool. Cool. cool Yeah, dude. My next choice is Yes.
02:30:19
Speaker
Black phone two. Nice. There's another black phone out in here. um Yeah. i'm i'm I'm intrigued by this. This is by Scott Derrickson. I think he's directing this one as well. Right.
02:30:31
Speaker
I didn't actually look into that. Okay, cool. um He did the first one. He he did the first Doctor Strange as well. I really like this first movie. This is kind of cool. Like from the trailers, like the direction it's going.
02:30:44
Speaker
I was curious when they they announced a sequel. I'm like, how you do that? But it makes sense in the context of the first film. um Definitely intrigued. Definitely intrigued, Simon. Yes.
02:30:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Exciting. Exciting. My next pick is something I know you're really excited for. It's the film Tron Aries, Adrian.
02:31:08
Speaker
The film with your favorite actor, Jared Leto. Yeah. I love Jarrett. It's about AI. It's very relevant to what we just talked about.
02:31:20
Speaker
But yeah, the soundtrack is by ah Nine Inch Nails, which is pretty exciting. Pretty exciting. And I was wondering, but i'm like when I saw it was Nine Inch Nails, um first of all, this is a weird thing. Actually, i forgot to say this.
02:31:36
Speaker
Nine Inch Nails, I didn't know that they go by Nin. Ever? I never knew that. So I was like, when it was announced that they were the, I think in the last trailer, it said that the soundtrack is by Nin. I was like, okay, cool, Nin. i'm like, i don't know who that is. I'm like, it's it's only maybe my favorite composers. It's Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I'm like, I didn't put two and two together. The reason why they think they went by Nine Inch Nails is because they have lyrical songs in it.
02:32:07
Speaker
And that's why it's got to be the reason. Because there's I was listening to the soundtrack, and as soon as I put the soundtrack on, I'm like, oh, it's Trent Reznor. Oh, my God.
02:32:17
Speaker
Of course, it's Nine Inch Nails. but I just saw the acronym NIN on everything, so I just had no idea until... until later. and then oh it's the lyrical aspect of it. That must be why they chose to not go by Trent Reznor and Agus Ross. Although they've scored many different movies, obviously.
02:32:34
Speaker
And they are literally some after Hans Zimmer, they are my favorite composers. I think they're very good. I just really liked them. They, they bring something very unique that no one was really doing to that level.
02:32:48
Speaker
um to the film and TV industry. Like there was just not that many or, and games at this point, because they're doing the score for intergalactic, the heretic profit, which I'm super excited about. Holy shit. So i really liked those guys, but yeah, that's the most interesting thing about Tron.
02:33:02
Speaker
And it's actually the most interesting thing about Tron legacy. It was the most interesting thing about Tron Aries, but Tron legacy soundtrack is so good. Daft Punk's soundtrack there is amazing. It's amazing. I used to listen to it as my main study music every like for every exam I was like studying for at the time in university.
02:33:23
Speaker
I really, really, really like that soundtrack. I love Tron Legacy. I think it's it's a really sty ah stylish movie. The first movie is pretty good, like the original Tron, but I think that Legacy that brings like a certain vibe.
02:33:36
Speaker
I'm kind of excited for Tron Ares just because of the Nine Inch Nails collaboration. I think that that could be pretty cool if it's reviewed fairly well i'm i'm not opposed to going to see it i wonder if ken wants to see that because it is very disney tron is a very disney property no i don't know you should go with him ask him is he like tron i don't know i don't know yeah actually i have no idea i assume so den uh den ken likes a lot of disney stuff so i wouldn't be surprised yeah good old den love that guy love that guy i love that guy too dude i love that guy too he's coming on my wedding oh nice sweet he's
02:34:13
Speaker
Yeah. I already have a table for him. A whole table? A whole table. It's his whole table. Wow. He's actually taking the table on the stage. I'm sitting out in the crowd.
02:34:24
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah. is case Is Cassandra sitting out in the crowd too? or Yeah, she's with me. Yeah, she's still with me. Don't worry. what What are you talking about? I'm just putting Ken on on on a stage because he's amazing. I'm putting him on a pedestal because he's amazing.
02:34:39
Speaker
Yeah. For the wedding part in the church, are you you just going have Ken up there and you're going to be in the and He's the priest. He's the priest. Oh, he's marrying you. Yeah, he is. Yeah. So you will be up there with him then?
02:34:50
Speaker
No, i'm I'm going to still sit in the crowd. He's marrying himself. He's marrying us, but like we're like i'm still we're just sitting in the crowd. Oh, a different format than normal. Yeah, different format. It's it's unique.
02:35:02
Speaker
You have to be unique. Yeah. Okay. you know You know the Catholic Church, they love changing things up. so That's for sure. Yeah. that's Everyone knows that.
02:35:13
Speaker
Yeah, dude. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Tron Aries. Looks good. Nice. October 10th. Nice. Looks good because of the music, honestly. Yeah.
02:35:24
Speaker
That's why I'm in. Okay. What's your choice? Cool. So my choice is... An A24 flick that's coming out called If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. i don't know if you heard about this one.
02:35:36
Speaker
It's interesting. I watched the trailer a little while ago. So it says US release date is October 10th. On Cineplex, it shows October 17th. um I guess, black oh yeah, I didn't even say Black Phone 2 is October 17th. And then um Chair Company is the 12th.
02:35:51
Speaker
I don't know if I said those days. um But if I had legs out, I'd kick you. It looks interesting. It's like kind of like a comedy drama. Again, stars Rose Byrne. um Seems like she's dealing with a lot of shit. Everything's kind of piling up.
02:36:03
Speaker
Doesn't look like a great time, but apparently it's a comedy. um A psychological comedy drama, as it it says. so yeah um I'm definitely curious about this one.
02:36:17
Speaker
Sweet. Yeah. Did lose you? Oh, okay. No, that's all. That's all. My other window was blocking you and you just went silent suddenly. Okay, my choice my next choice is a movie called Good Fortune,
Upcoming Films: 'Good Fortune' and 'After the Hunt'
02:36:32
Speaker
Adrian.
02:36:32
Speaker
a movie directed by Aziz Ansari that has a wide release on October 17th. It stars Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari, where Keanu Reeves plays an angel who's kind of a dick, I guess.
02:36:46
Speaker
<unk>t I'm not really sure, but the trailer looks really good, and I kind of am interested in this. And I also really like Aziz Ansari. And there was that movie with Bill Murray that I don't think ever came out, right? There's that controversy with Bill Murray on the set or whatever. And then the movie just did it ever come out?
02:37:02
Speaker
Dude, I have no idea what you're talking about. That rings a bell. oh Oh, you don't even know what i'm talking about. oh Bill Murray. Angel movie. Oh. Being mortal.
02:37:15
Speaker
Oh, I come out. No, is a canceled American comedy drama film written, directed, produced by starring. He's unsarmy. Unfortunate. It was set to be his feature directorial debut is based on a 2014 non-fiction book by the same name so is this his feature directorial debut then good fortune so because i don't think anything else came out by him no i don't think so for yeah this would be specifically i just really like master of none so i just interested i was kind of waiting for him to do something else and he hasn't done anything for a while so that's why i'm
02:37:52
Speaker
yeah this This being mortal movie also had Seth Rogen and Kiki Palmer in it. And they're both in Good Fortune. I wonder if they use some of the concepts.
02:38:03
Speaker
The new one.
02:38:06
Speaker
Nonfiction book. End of life care. Hospice care. and all and Doesn't seem like it. Doesn't seem like it. Alright.
02:38:17
Speaker
Anyway, i want to see that. October 17th is the release date. Are you interested in that one? Yep. Okay, cool. Anything else you want to mention? anything else Yeah, it's the new Luca Guadagno movie called After the Hunt.
02:38:31
Speaker
Guadagno, yes. um Not rated well, though, actually. It's a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm kind of surprised about Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edabiri. Yeah.
02:38:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'm surprised. I remember hearing about this. I don't know if I watched this trailer. We've seen this trailer. 50%. We saw them in theaters. We should have. This trailer? I think so. I believe you. i believe you. must have.
02:38:57
Speaker
Yeah, we got to go see. I feel like I am interested in seeing The Smashing Machine as well. Obviously, that's released already. That, the Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Yeah. One battle after another, everyone who's seen it, I keep hearing things about like how people are really loving it. Like, like a lot.
02:39:14
Speaker
It looks good. That I'm, that's to my number one, like for the next two weeks, we got to see that. And then everything else is, if we don't see anything else, I'm okay with it. Okay. But I, the next one, I would probably want to see a smashing machine.
02:39:27
Speaker
Sure. Personally, um if we if we have a choice, I think unless you have a preference and then we can. I really wanted to see Gabby's dollhouse. um But yeah, no. Yeah. Yeah, sure. i I'll I'll I'll sacrifice and do some. What's Gabby's dollhouse again?
02:39:44
Speaker
Did we talked about it last episode?
02:39:48
Speaker
Can't believe you. Is that all you're going to yeahs Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks a lot. yeah Like you never forget anything. you' You're you're. Everyone knows you. You have the best memory ever.
02:39:59
Speaker
It's true. Gabby's dollhouse. Oh, you're actually you're just being. it Okay. Yeah. Now i know what you're talking about. Excuse me. Yeah. Excuse me. Just being. a I'm just being a what?
02:40:10
Speaker
Being a beep. That's fucked up.
02:40:20
Speaker
If you say so. Yeah, that's fucked up what you just said to me, man. Do you think AI will ever just... Do you think people will just listen to AI podcasters as well? like No one listens to our podcast anyway, but think about it. you think there'll be an AI podcast that will like ah eclipse Seth? seth joe ah Joe Rogan's podcast is an example.
02:40:40
Speaker
Like, do you think that will happen? like Maybe. That's a question, too. Like, to what level are people just bankrupt of any kind of, they don't give a shit about where they're created. That's like what that lady said. You think, I think that you you're kind of claiming is that she was right, actually.
02:40:54
Speaker
People don't care, right? They don't care where it comes from. It doesn't matter if it has a pulse. it It just matters if it's entertaining is basically what Van Der Velden said, the creator of, of Tilly Norwood.
02:41:09
Speaker
Yeah. So you think there's like, they're just going to listen. Podcast is an easy medium to kind of, to do, but the idea is who cares about an AI's point of view? That's the point, right? Who cares about an AI's emotional resonance in a scene because they have no, and they have no past.
02:41:25
Speaker
That's the thing. Anyway. so you think yes you think yes there'll be podcasts will be completely taken over by i probably yeah and eventually i don't know maybe it's just not interesting to me it's boring that that's yeah but i'm not talking about us dude but i don't think people think it's interesting i think the idea is that they will ah deep down they understand it's boring it's not interesting that's that was that was why i made the point about lance armstrong or or like uh like a alarm Lance Armstrong losing, like in winning, and then it turns out he was on steroids was shit, wasn't it?
02:42:01
Speaker
That was bad thing. Nobody trusted him after. nobody they They were uninterested in it. they ruined It was ruined. The race was ruined because of him. So watching an AI... like emote is like okay yeah based on your life experience like it's just a it's absurd anyway yeah it's interesting sorry to go back to that but i was thinking about us as podcasters no we're not popular anyway but who cares this shit about mean we're the second most popular podcast in new zealand but yeah right yeah yeah yeah bring it back baby bringing it back that was a good call back yeah cool everything's connected dude everything's connected man
02:42:37
Speaker
Going back to the look to the future. A look to the future! I have another another two here. I got ah Kiss of the Spider Woman. i don't know if you saw this trailer.
02:42:50
Speaker
No, is that's the sequel to Madame Web, right? ah Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, i thought so. It's got Diego Luna in it. It's a musical. It's got Jennifer Lopez.
02:43:02
Speaker
No, you have a little bit. We saw no. no nancy and peters I don't think we've seen this, but hey, I like Diego Luna. Yeah. i don't know if you know this. He's and or in the hit TV series and or which is one of the great TV shows ever.
02:43:16
Speaker
Yeah, dude. I can. I'm not joking, man. Anytime and or gets brought up in conversation with anyone. I get so into it. Like, dude, and or is so fucking good, man.
02:43:27
Speaker
And just let me tell you about that, dude, honestly, guess it gets me going. I get so excited when people like bring up I'm like, oh, it's and or good. I'm like, oh my God, dude, it is. You should watch it. It is immaculate. It is. you like Star Wars? Doesn't matter.
02:43:41
Speaker
Yeah. You don't have to watch Star Wars. Well, you do if you're watching Android, you're literally watching Star Wars. No. Oh, okay. You don't have to watch a Star War.
02:43:54
Speaker
All right. Okay. Anything else? No, I think that's all I had. Okay. That's actually all I have to. I had anemone, but I think that already came out. We talked about that last week. Yeah. It was a wide release.
02:44:06
Speaker
Last two weeks. Kiss of the Spider Woman is October 10th for those who care. And that's it, Adrian. Anything you want to add? Anything you want to say to the audience before we wrap this guy up? Before we go go home, go separate ways.
02:44:20
Speaker
Don't see each other potentially for two weeks. You never know. You never know when we might not see each other. You're busy. You're busy guy. I'm going to a wedding. In Mexico. Oh, yeah. That's true.
02:44:31
Speaker
What day are you getting back? The Friday. okay. Hopefully you don't what? Get kidnapped by the cartel. Yeah, that would be horrible. i would really I would fucking hate that, dude.
02:44:44
Speaker
Nothing against the cartel. But I would fucking hate that. Yeah. Oh. I would have thought you would have loved it. Oh. I mean it depends what they like have me do. like Maybe they kidnap me and just cook me a nice meal.
02:44:57
Speaker
Yeah. We're like, we, we heard, we're about your podcast. We'll focus a film and TV podcast. You're actually the third most popular podcast in Mexico amongst the cartels. The third most popular podcast in Mexico. What? Really?
02:45:09
Speaker
Me? Little Nina. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. All right. Cool. right, man. Well, I guess that's it.
02:45:20
Speaker
but Let's wrap it up, baby.
02:45:23
Speaker
its That's it. This is a bit sleepy. We're a bit of a sleepy podcast this time. I think. What you think? Were we? I feel like I was on. We're in. Okay. Was i Was I not? No, no. I think I seem sleepy to you. Criticizing you.
02:45:38
Speaker
Criticizing me. It felt like you said we. you You did say we. So it did feel a little bit accusatory.
02:45:48
Speaker
Yeah. No. Am I sleepy, Simon? No, no. It's not It's not you. It's me. Am I, dude? It's not you. It's not you. It's me. All right. Okay. Thank you for listening, audience, to episode 120 of Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. My name is Simon Eadie, and it has been a pleasure to host you alongside my son, Grayson.
02:46:09
Speaker
Adrian Vinter. So dumb. yeah Please join us on October 21st. Wait, what? I can't be right. Oh, no, it is right. Please join us on October 21st for episode 121.
02:46:21
Speaker
That's a good, that's poetic. didn't even realize that. Why? How's that poetic? 21. 21, 21st. don't know. I just thought, I thought it was Oh my goodness, dude. That's crazy.
02:46:31
Speaker
Yes. That's, that's crazy. Crazy enough that I got to point it out mid sentence. Wow. Good evening to you audience and good luck. Goodbye. Take care every everyone.
02:46:43
Speaker
Goodbye.