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Disclosure Day w/ Elvis Dutan
52 Plays11 days ago
Elvis (@the_snickman) joins Doug and Tony to talk about Spielberg's take on D-Day. No not that D-Day, the one about aliens! That's right we're disclosing all things disclosure day. We've covered Jurassic Park as a franchise before, but this is our first new Spielberg release and The Guys get into their relationship with the director and do some impromptu rankings while they're at it.
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Transcript
Introduction: Juice and the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Uncle Juice is a good man. He's never gonna stop being the Juice. I could explain a lot, Juice. Just hear him out, Juice. He's right, Juice. Listen, Juice. Juice, Juice, this is your life.
00:00:12
Speaker
Juice, Juice, um, please, Juice. Juice was there for me every night. It's like he's not really the Juice anymore. I gotta get you dressed, Juice. Juice, Juice, I will.
00:00:23
Speaker
Juice, Juice, Juice. Juice. Juice! They have some juice here. They have some fucking juice.
00:00:39
Speaker
All right.
Spielberg's Influence in Cinema
00:00:40
Speaker
This is These Guys Got Juice, and we're here with with Elvis from Unsourced Wall Radio, and we're talking Discourse Day. I mean, Disclosure Day, the the new Steven Spielberg joint. ah i I feel like before we get to the movie itself, I want to do just like a little bit of Spielberg chat, because like on the...
00:01:03
Speaker
I feel like we maybe invoked him in previous episodes, but this is first like actual, you know, like Spielberg new release that we've covered on on the show and just talk about like, yeah, where we're at with him in terms of like, I might delve into, I was just like, for fun was, it was doing like a little bit of ranking of like, yeah, where does, where does discourse stay land and in terms of all, all his other stuff. And like, ah yeah, I mean, I feel like for all of us, he's probably a ah pretty important, even if he's not like your favorite filmmaker, like when you're getting into movies he's kind of just ubiquitous right like in terms of like that that's like one of the first guys you become a it was pretty easy of that generation of guys you have like spielberg and lucas who are very ah of audience facing in terms of like hey i'm the guy behind the movie and you know they would always be releasing things of like he was like showing you little behind the scenes things so like you you know like when you're young and getting into filmmaking you can It's almost like he's having like a little bit of a dialogue with you of like, hey, look, this is how I did it and stuff.
00:02:05
Speaker
ah But yeah, how where are you guys at on Spielberg? Well, um no, I like Brave Player One. I do. I do. Okay. it's ah it's less that's the hottest That's the hottest take we're going to get of the episode coming out the gate. i mean i don't hate it. I people hate it. I don't necessarily hit it. Really because once you know what the book is like, it's like, oh, wow, he mined something out of this. Something was carved out of this.
00:02:34
Speaker
um as ah But other than that, you know, i see obviously, luminary stuff. Jaws is phenomenal, and War of the Worlds is amazing, and minority part is good.
00:02:45
Speaker
I prefer paycheck. I'm a paycheck man. My working color Joe, I don't need minority part. I need paycheck. That's me. um And, you know what? For real Phil K. Dick fans, sorry, go ahead. But, um you know, disclosure date, I'm of both ears about it. You know, it's...
00:03:04
Speaker
It's a lot. It's a lot. How
Spielberg's Storytelling Techniques
00:03:06
Speaker
about you, Tony? um Well, like, when it comes to Spielberg, like, something that you were kind of referencing there, Doug, is kind of like Spielberg letting people in, right? And when it comes to my own history with just movies in general, like,
00:03:20
Speaker
I would say the first movie I became like super obsessed with when I was like four years old was Jurassic Park. And from that moment, I've just like always loved Spielberg, right? Because there's that personal connection. And and from that, I watched so many of his classics, of course, Jaws and E.T. and all of that. I watched all of them as much as I could. And on that note of the, you know, ah letting you in on the trick, he was like the master of like VHS and DVD behind the scenes specials where you'd be like, look at it. Look at all the tricks I did. And, you know, James Cameron, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, list goes on. of These people who are of that era who were doing like technical innovation while also doing storytelling. And what I always liked about Spielberg was that he was the dreamiest of all of them. He felt like the most like somebody who had like ah like a sweet heart or whatever, right? And something about that was...
00:04:16
Speaker
there's a romanticism to it but he was also being honest about it which I appreciated um and when it comes to his films you know like I grow up and i revisit some of his films and movies like Jurassic Park they only get better with age like I love that movie as much as I did the day I first watched it but then like you know Schindler's List still has a lot of power today you know Saving Private Ryan's a great movie you know But then you you even go into some of his like
Indiana Jones Films Preferences
00:04:42
Speaker
oddities. Like i find there's a lot to love about Sugar Land Express. Right. If we're talking about Indiana Jones, you know, like I like all all of his Indiana Jones movies except for Temple of Doom, I think. You know, I like I think that that one is. You like you like Crystal Skull better than than Temple of Doom.
00:05:00
Speaker
Yes, I will say that. um i do Interesting. Yeah. not okay But I will say ah Last Crusade is the best. ah but that thats that That's my favorite. yeah I mean, I feel like the horse, ah the tank set, like when I think of like action set pieces, like especially Spielberg action set pieces, that's kind of like the pinnacle because it just like keeps escalate. Like it's like the the prime example of he just keeps adding another piece and another piece on top of it.
Spielberg's Influences and New Film
00:05:30
Speaker
And then on top it, it has like Looney Tunes, like sense of humor, which is always fun, you know? yeah Just to kind of round out that point, building off of what you just said, the thing about Spielberg that makes him such an interesting filmmaker is that he is just as much of a student of Hitchcock or any of the old masters as a diploma would be. Right. He just went from it from a very strict craft oriented perspective. Yeah. He isn't obsessed with any of the pervy shit. He isn't obsessed with any of the, you know, seedy underbelly of, you know, ah crime or whatever, like Hitchcock or De Palma were. He just liked the way they moved to their cameras and wanted to translate that to popcorn entertainment. And I think that he...
00:06:07
Speaker
has largely successfully done that throughout his career. There are certainly some dips that we'll talk about, and I would love to do like a larger ranking as we go on.
Analysis of 'Disclosure Day'
00:06:16
Speaker
But when it comes to Disclosure Day specifically, I think that for better or worse, it represents ah his greatest strengths and weaknesses.
00:06:25
Speaker
That's a good way to put it. But I also would slightly push back against him not being a pervert because I saw Fableman. ah like like That's a special exception because that is... But that's almost like you' goting that out yeah Tim exercising it, but it almost reads as a confession and you can like read into previous movies of like, oh okay, you fucking sicko. that's just for the history books you know that's yeah you know film history he's dead for 20 years and they're like all right now now we know how much of a real sicko he is right right but as as he is now that it's like oh you know et you know i've seen reads of this of disclosure day is almost like a response to failment i guess we'll save some of like the the the takes on like the themes and stuff for like the actual like spoiler section uh spoiler free i mean i guess you know like i usually just stick to like what's revealed in the trailers i didn't really pay attention to the marketing much for this. I think I saw like the first trailer. I was pretty much just like, was just like, oh yeah, Spielberg's doing a new movie about aliens. Like, or that that was, I just remember just being like hearing voiceover from Josh O'Connor and then then like, I was like, okay, this cast looks like, looks like I'm in. I mean, cause like, yeah, that's,
00:07:43
Speaker
ah the ah regardless of like how we feel about the actual film and like ah the conclusions the movie comes to like the cast itself is pretty unimpeachable like I think this is a great great cast ah maybe maybe you know not everyone's given the same quality of material to work with but I feel like they're all trying to to do something with it and I guess you could say more in spoilers that the script isn't my favorite part of the movie. Like from a structural standpoint, it works. And compared to like Kep's last blockbuster, Jurassic World Rebirth, like this is like fantastic.
00:08:23
Speaker
way way better than that but I've also just been enjoying I'm like kept go back to fucking do some Soderbergh bullshit again like because that's like when he's like stripped down and like just working on like of such a simple level I feel like that he's been like firing better and in that mode well um so the spoiler free right i I I'm like with Tony where it's it's his some of his greatest stuff and like I think it's kind of like Honey Don't to me.
00:08:52
Speaker
but like Honey Don't like has has some really funny stuff And it has some really thrilling, suspenseful stuff, like some really great crime beats to it, you know, how you don't.
00:09:03
Speaker
But the parts where they kind of intermingle are just fucking dire, you know? And that's what feel about Disclosure Day. Yeah, the mixing of those elements gets really awkward, especially in Honey Don't. And then there's the whole end, like the ending, like throws out any goodwill that I had, because I was enjoying parts of Honey Don't. I was like surprised like, oh, people said said this was terrible, but I'm like kind of like liking the the vibe. here it's on Yeah. but yeah like not even practical drug And so I think that that's reminding me a lot of Honey Donut and that and those ways, especially right near the end.
00:09:35
Speaker
um But also, i mean, like Spielberg, you could tell off the bat, like why something like Dialed Destiny didn't work when you watched it. So there's ah a momentum and a kinestheticism and a choreography to the set pieces. That's really great.
00:09:50
Speaker
And every time there's a, just like, oh, these are some, I was never bored. It's only like two hours long strictly. And i was only bored like once, but everything else I got was like along for the ride. It is just pure kind of point A to point B momentum, like really strong stuff.
00:10:06
Speaker
And then I really slowed down and got into like the the meat of the story and the meat of the themes here. I'm like, oh, this is really bad. It's terrible. It's terrible stuff. i You know, I actually think that the themes are really interesting. I think that this film, like, will probably inspire, like, a reclamation period decades down the line. This does feel like another AI scenario. Like, this felt like the first time I watched AI, frankly.
00:10:35
Speaker
Right. the first time I watched AI, when I did when I first watched that, I was like, and maybe not for me. But this time I feel like I'm reflecting on the film a lot more positively than when I was experiencing it. And like, that's to say that, like, i do bristle at some of the ways they handle some of these things. And while ah I agree that, like, the film is never boring. And that's largely because Spielberg is such a master at ah exposition.
00:11:01
Speaker
All his groups can, you know, find a way to not only build on those set pieces, but to make sure that the audience knows the stakes from point A to point B. This one can get a little hazy. And also its final conclusion is a little hazy. um But that being said, um I do think ah what he's reaching for is a different kind of story than he's done before. And I admired the swing, even if it gets really muddy in its execution. You know, like I feel like a lot of this discussion might be like how much that ruins the experience for us individually. And I don't think I'm going to be in a position where I'm going to be like, you know, don't It's a masterpiece. No, like this is a messy movie. You know, do this movie's got some problems, but it's like what you appreciate, what you don't appreciate entirely and what you take out
Generational Film Appreciation
00:11:49
Speaker
of it.
00:11:49
Speaker
I agree with that because like I've seen reactions on like both extremes like this is a masterpiece which I feel like people are kind of glazing over some of the flaws just because they're down with the vibe which is like I can like I appreciate the things that I like in this movie but I also just can't ignore the things that don't work because they kind of.
00:12:08
Speaker
stick out so much in ah comparison to what I like. But like at the end of the day, like this is still like it's it's ah it's a fun time and I would recommend it. Like I'd recommend it stronger depending on who I'm talking to. Like before we started, I was telling ah ah Tony that like I had hung out with some like ah like, like boom, boomer lib family members. And and they were at asking about the movie. And I was like, yeah, go see it. You'll love, you know, like this this is like, this is tailor made for, for, for that people. Like I've seen a lot of younger people um and I don't want to like just be, ah you know, generalized ah to, to such an extreme degree, but I have seen like younger people like kind of bounce off this a little more. And I, ah I understand that where they're coming from. And I have some of the same critiques, as like the conclusions that he's coming to. I feel like we just need to get to spoilers so we can actually talk about like what the movie is like about, about, you know. yeah ah well but So before we do that, I just want to say like, if we're talking about the larger discussion around the film, I do think that like people, like I'm i'm hearing a lot of criticism on the basis of this being an alien movie. And I just don't think this is a fully alien movie. I think ah also things about,
00:13:23
Speaker
about ageism like oh like old old guy people don't want to hear from an old director and that's why everyone's over inflating obsession and backrooms like isn't that don't think it's like like that point blank generational thing um It's just that I think that this movie is is quaint and I think it's going for quaintness and like, and you know, and obsessions obsession and backroom speak more to the current moment than like, I think the disclosure, like there is a disconnect and we'll get specifically about like the, that disconnect of Spielberg is almost making a film that feels like that. It should have come out like 20 years ago, a little bit more like 16. Yeah.
00:14:07
Speaker
yeah I'll get go so far as to say that like this is kind of like his day the earth stood still right and a little bit I just don't know if people are like I don't even know if people would have been down with that in 2000 right like it it may have felt like kind of bold in the 70s if he had done it that but yeah I think that but to go off of that quaint point it's like I don't think the stakes of this film are quaint but it's the storytelling that's great yeah I agree yes like Yeah, that's that's my main thing, the storytelling.
00:14:36
Speaker
like I think that things it brings up are really, really fascinating. How it handles them, no. No, not at all. like ah I like Davey Ursa still, right? I appreciate that he goes for this kind of, you know, ah less combative, I guess, approach to this alien story. But then when it gets to the nitty gritty, right? like ah Like, I don't want to hold this up before I get too much of the spoilers because there's a lot to unpack here. But at the same time, it's like... ah I do like that it's in this package, that it's this specific way. It's meatier about the subject than a lot of these things have done before.
00:15:13
Speaker
But that being said, it still is. And to your point, Day the Earth still, I feel like, is hyper-focused. It has its its goal and its message and everything that you're seeing feeds into that. I feel like there's like several movies worth of like things going on in Disclosure Day, which i so I can enjoy when sci-fi is overstuffed with ideas like that. I'm a fucking fan of the Westworld show, the later seasons where there's like, you know, incoherent and they're putting like just several seasons worth of ideas into one episode. Was there a coherent sad show? No, I don't think
00:15:54
Speaker
but But, you know, i i just, especially from Spielberg, who is a lot of times, I mean, he's he's not, you know, the the writer here, but he is good at picking scripts that are like kind of holding into like an idea in the script of like what drilling down onto like what...
00:16:11
Speaker
is important and what he needs to focus on and i feel like here it's a little scattered and that and that i feel like hampers the delivery but yeah let's let's so let's just get into the the spoilers because that's like we're we really need to disclose everything about disclosure day this semi nine-year terror campaign of lies has to end What are you going to do? Full disclosure to the whole world. first off, starting with a thing I loved is just how late into the movie. I kept expecting that the movie was maybe going to like flashback or like be like, oh, how did we get to this point? Or like do like are you probably wondering, probably wondering how I got here. No, it doesn't. just starts as late as possible. Almost disorienting. I love the POV wrestling shit. It's amazing.
00:17:10
Speaker
Also, upon thinking about it, where he's starting with the idea of like wrestling is, you know yes, there's real stunt and craft involved in in in the presentation of that stuff, but... It's it's for show, you know, like it's a story, you know, like it's a story being presented. So he's already playing with the idea of like storytelling itself and like ah an audience being willing to buy into a thing. Because, you know, even though the audience of wrestling knows it's not, quote, quote, real, that we're still invested in the outcome of these matches. And so, like, I feel like that's like an interesting place to start with your, you know, like alien ah
Violence and Media Desensitization
00:17:49
Speaker
disclosure narrative. But yeah, what you guys think of this opening?
00:17:52
Speaker
I mean, no, you're completely right. then Even mean like the the heavy is like, sit down, shut up and enjoy the show. short enjoy the show You know, like just basically point blank, to saying, just F it, you know, just lock in. And I think it's you hit on the nail right on the head there.
00:18:07
Speaker
Well, to build off of that exact point, right? Like the opening of this film is about violent media, right? And a society that's completely enraptured by it. Right. And the one person who's disturbed, disturbed by this is forced to watch it at gunpoint.
00:18:21
Speaker
Right. And they're our protagonist. That scene alone captures entirely what this film is about. And if we're going to talk about like how wrestling fits in with the larger themes of this, we're in spoilers.
00:18:32
Speaker
Like I don't think it's too much of a jump to say that this is analogous for the world's ah reporting that we see throughout the film regarding the Korean War. um I think that what this film is trying to get at here is that like modern day society is so caught up in violence as entertainment that it blinds them from basic empathy. And I think that that theme is being presented right up front.
00:18:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's definitely part of it. And there's a lot of truth in that. I mean, like every day we're inundated with horrible things. I mean, like it the fucking genocide in Gaza has been going on for years and and it it it kind of just becomes another is a part of the of the news. It's not even like the regular news isn't even regularly checking in on that any anymore because it's just become like an accepted thing. And like that the fact that we're kind of just... numb to to the suffering and violence of the world and the role that media plays in that you know because it's like they could be try present not that it's like all on them there's a little bit on us to like you know meet the events with with empathy but it's not helpful that it's fed to us in like you know content form that it's just like kind of just like ah a drip feed to keep us glued to a screen rather than something that we actually engage with
00:19:52
Speaker
ah which is interesting that the whole goal of this movie, though, is to get this information out there so people can consume it on a screen. Like that is still like the like the solution to it is also it's like you got to drink the poison to get the cure. Yeah. You know what? And also just you're kind of like tangentially going through what I guess saying right now.
00:20:14
Speaker
It reminded me a lot of how Tomorrowland handled that. And i reminded me this movie reminded me a lot Tomorrowland. Or like, structurally as well. And if i you know in fact, Tomorrowland and Glass got blended into like a mixture.
00:20:28
Speaker
You know, and like... Yeah, and so... yeah and so especially that point about, you know, violence and the media were consuming. I think that, you know, you're completely on track with that. Like especially when they're talking to, I think the nun and talking about like, you know, um what, um you know, you know, faith and what keeps faith and, you know, faith to humanity. And if you're just being so inundated with kind of the violence and the, you know, war and all that stuff, you're, you're becoming more cynical and it's probably like a kind of a,
00:21:00
Speaker
a kind of a diatribe against cynicism about being about trying to find optimism in like these dire circumstances and about what you feed you know just to quote Tomorrowland it feels a lot like it especially with the whole secret society and being chased and road trip and all that stuff in the ending as well awesome um ah but yeah no I think you're right and and so I must bear in Tomorrowland I'll say much better. Yeah.
00:21:23
Speaker
I don't think that you're wrong with the Tomorrowland comparison at all. And I think that the cynicism is in comparison with the religion. It's the idea of people losing faith. Right. And I, I like, I truly love the fact that the Korean war is the thing that's causing this in this film, because like,
00:21:41
Speaker
Let's step back for a second and imagine all of the threats to America right now in the world. Right. don't think that North Korea is the largest problem they have on their hands. Right. I think that it's like a very funny like, oh, no, we got to watch out for North Korea. Well, isn't also the implication that it's like North Korea being backed by Russia. Russia's like also kind of like fueling the fire. Right. Like, don't they drop some kind of thing?
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, yes. So so it it does feel like that he's kind of trying to harken like a Cold War paranoia vibe of like, we're on the brink of war. Russia is kind of involved. But it's also like, even even the idea of, you know, North Korea being like the antagonist feels it feels antiquated. So like, I always kind of appreciate that throwbackiness of it. like Like, I don't need it to fully represent, like, the main complex of today, especially since the movie's not about that. Like, it's just, like, informing the vibe. Although, I do kind of wish that the movie keeps, characters keep invoking, like, oh, it's World War III. I don't really feel that throughout the movie. Like, i like since I feel like there could have been some way... really
00:22:51
Speaker
The gas station. Yeah, the gas station. I mean... It's because of somebody so somebody who had heard that from the media, right? Like, the media is the one are the ones who are pushing this upon the people, and the people are the ones who are, like, actively freaking out about it, right? Because what what they're doing is essentially showing that, like, yes, these tensions are escalating, but it's also a way to whip people up into a frenzy um and ultimately distract, right? And, you know, like... ah Doug, you and invokes Gaza, and I think that, like, if this film were better and more honest, then maybe there would be some kind of, like, honest examination of our current moment. um yeah instead
00:23:30
Speaker
Instead, this film is very clearly from the perspective of somebody who, like, is still a part of that world, ah like neoliberal establishment, but somebody who's still, like... At least this isn't somebody who's trying to like back pat themselves or find a way out for their ideology. I do feel like they're interrogating it in a fairly honest way for themselves, at least. I don't think that it like actually holds their feet to the fire. I think that there is a more honest way to be like, you know, um here are the real ah perpetrators. But what Spielberg is getting at here is
Character Motivations and Global Conflict
00:24:02
Speaker
that like... ah
00:24:04
Speaker
hegemonic forces through like Western support, right? With the backing of like the CIA for decades, right? Have impeded in other regions, right? And rather than making that the text of his films, he uses aliens as the stand-in for that. And I think that that's interesting.
00:24:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's interesting too. ah I was, yeah, I, and... like to my point of like I kind of wish they communicated like even though what you're saying is like the people are parodying what they're seeing in the media about it being World War 3 maybe I just wanted some kind of like Watchmen newsstand scenes of like some sort of like just like regular cutting back to regular we get montage of regular everyday people at the end but I almost wanted the movie to kind of like kind of check in on like how what where is the world at in terms of this before we get to the actual disclosure because I feel like In order to process how they are processing all this, we need to see kind little bit beforehand of like what they're coming from in terms of like the baseline of like where everything's at. Like they kind of just allude and gesture to it. Yeah. We'll kind see they do play loose with that, with like kind of a number of ideas. But back to this opening, you know, like this, our introduction to Josh O'Connor. like Elvis said, they introduced the heavy. I mean, we meet our villains here.
00:25:32
Speaker
i fucking really like Colin Firth in this. i think I think he's... I mean, I always enjoy him, but I think this is a ah great villain. I've seen complaints about that. We get... We get no examination of like who he is or why he's doing this. I'm like, ah I don't know that I need that. are the Does ET explain why those government guys are are or who they are? I don't, I don't give a shit where this guy came from. Like he's, he's,
00:25:59
Speaker
wants to stop it i feel like it's more like the more important thing is the philosophical angle of why he believes that this can't get out you know like that that's that's the part that the movie's concerned with and like i find that interesting ah and yeah he's just he's he's he's menacing but then also in later scenes like kind of pathetic and inept like he's like not yeah he's not good at his job Really, he doesn't have as much power as he wished he did, which is a fascinating place from like I kind of like villains who are like failures a little bit. And like, yeah, he he gets he gets kind of fucked up over the course of this movie, like not by the hero. It's not like Joshua Conner's like fucking a slugging and hitting him in the face. like, no, he's kind of just like tripping over banana peels, like trying trying to catch him.
00:26:49
Speaker
And he hurts himself, right? Anytime he uses that like whole mind melting device that he has, he's ultimately hurting himself in the process. And if we're talking about like his motivations, right? Like, I think that it's very like, he's essentially the CIA, right? Like, he they've made this the CIA and exerting like Western force power.
00:27:10
Speaker
Like, right. As I see this as right. Like they've but they've named it another company, but it's like, clearly it's like, okay, this corporate interest that is backed by the military industrial complex and like the shadow government, it's the CIA. Exist. It exists outside of the purview of the president that just kind of like works on its own goals. And then the implication is also that like they took the alien technology and were able to, you know, spit into modern day tech. Right. They're kind of like the men because the men in black are technically not part of the government. Yeah. So they're yeah they're kind of like, yeah, them.
00:27:43
Speaker
the the The main point I wanted to get to was that like essentially he is representative of somebody who is an active participant and an arm of the state. Right. But after a certain point, they don't have a legitimate reason to do it beyond the orders. Right. Like his whole argument is just that like people won't be able to see what like understand what they would see if that we were to show them. Right. But that's just the thing that he says to then exploit these aliens and to do whatever like the government's control ideology is behind the scenes right this is very like conspiracy theorist coop nut job kind of ideology right in terms of like who the villains are but i think that it actually works perfectly in terms of like removing it from the loony bin and being like okay what forces exist today that actually could be grafted upon in this way that would actually have some resonance yeah Yeah, I agree. And an interesting thing is that ah Colin Firth is, he believes that humanity can't handle this, learning this information, but he's almost like not as like steadfast, he's not like ah ah as overzealous as like the heavy, like the heavy, the little glimpses we get of, of I think the character's name is Casper Boy. That's a good that's a good villain name. Oh, wow.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah, that that that he is like so driven, like he's the one who's like later like going to like fucking ram them into a moving train. He's like, no, these they're too dangerous. Like this is like we got to fucking put a lid on this. He's like so aggressive and aggro about it in a way that Colin Firth is kind of just doing his job. Like he does believe that this shouldn't get out, but he's he's kind of just a company man.
00:29:29
Speaker
so I agree. And I actually really like that about Boyd as well. I like that when we get to that scene, you want to touch upon a little bit, where everyone you know gets their their personal vision, you know, he's the only one that doesn't get one. And it's like, well, when we told does he have no inner life at all? Is he just that committed to the cause? And in fact, i that scene maybe laughs so much. I'm like, I actually respect this guy more now that he didn't have little, little, little Jimmy, Jimmy Jr. I need to take him fishing one day. Now I'm totally brainwashed now. Or I was really, oh, sorry, go ahead. oh I was going say in my head, Ken, we don't see him see anything, but I almost like the idea also of like that it pulled from his memory someone, but he doesn't have any loved ones that he actually likes. So it probably just made him angrier. Like he maybe is like, even if you saw like his mother or someone that he but didn't freeze him, it just made him like, ah, fuck this. yeah He's like, we got to yeah stop this. Why why am I seeing that bullshit? See, yeah my brain was like,
00:30:36
Speaker
doing the gear turning of like, this is a Spielberg movie, right? Like what's going to be like the shocking, like, oh, third act. what' What's going to deepen this character that was just like a heavy in the background, right? And I thought this was going to be like an alien that had turned against his own people or something, you know? Like, so that's the reason why you didn't get any kind of backstory was that he was secretly an alien. um But ah when it came to him in like those action sequences and stuff, ah like he just has a menacing face. And I like the...
00:31:03
Speaker
how committed he is. Like you guys were saying, like Colin Firth, uh, does a great job in terms of being like stooge. That's kind of pathetic. Um, and also like, even though he's the guy who's in charge, it feels like there are a million people who are above him even. So like the, the, the One of the main things you can levy against this film, you know, ah is that there isn't really any tension, right? Like a lot of this film is about going like all of the things that you thought were problems aren't really problems. And this is what's really important.
00:31:36
Speaker
Yeah, i that's that's what really left me with bad taste in my mouth living on like really. ah feel like coddled to that's me. Go ahead, Doug. no No, And I agree. and Like, well, we can talk more about when we get to like the actual disclosure at the end, but it does feel a little too hand wavy of being like that. Like, yeah, we all just need to come together and with with empathy. And this this thing matters more than.
00:32:03
Speaker
like all ah Any other world problems you're worried about. But speaking of empathy, I feel like we should talk about the character of Emily Blunt because like she is basically ah has a walking superpower that is like high hyper. she's She's basically like Will Graham on steroids. She she can see directly into everyone's yeah like mind stuff. it's almost like a warped view of of empathy because it's like, it's just being used to like game systems and get out the, like it's towards end goal. It's weird because it is empathy in terms of like, she is seeing directly into other people's minds, but,
00:32:45
Speaker
She's never she doesn't get to actually be a person for most of the movie. ah Like like she she she says herself that she's like a passenger. i mean, she plays that really well. It's a fucking awesome performance by Emily Blunt.
00:33:00
Speaker
But like from a character standpoint, it is a little frustrating, especially when they try to give her more humanizing moments, like when she's having the panic attack. I'm like, well, I haven't seen her be a person for a ton up to this point. So I don't have a ton of context for like who the person is who is freaking out about this because I've just kind of seen her be like she's the chosen one, you know, like that she and she's like, you know, like in this like power trance for so much of the movie.
00:33:28
Speaker
What I liked about the introduction of her character, at least, is that they established neatly that, like, she's a weather person who has gone viral for, you know, her energy and silly moments, right? But she has aspirations of being somebody who's more straight-laced and about, like, delivering the real topics, right? um and i what...
00:33:48
Speaker
This is telling me, especially when we're relating it to the wrestling and these impending like ah world conflicts, um she wants to be taken seriously, but everybody's pushing her towards a life of entertainment, right? She wants to do something that matters, but that's not what the world is asking from her. And then when she finally is given the opportunity to do work that actually matters, it's in a position where she feels almost like she has nothing to do with it, right? It's detached from her. And there's something about that that freaks her out. And I like that element, right? The fact that like it's something that's ah outside of her and rather than feeling like she has some kind of ownership over that, being like, oh, how neat is it that I can speak all of these languages? The fact that she's like, what's going on right now?
00:34:30
Speaker
I can't deal with this. And then as we go on, it's revealed that it's trauma, right? I do like the way that that is handled. Well, I like that idea of that and like how like that push and pull is depicted. But then when we get to like the actual trauma itself and like kind of the inciting incident of where this comes from, that's where it gets a little like muddied for
Character Development in 'Disclosure Day'
00:34:54
Speaker
me. I mean, like, like we we could yeah yeah we could just kind of jump to because in the introduction scene when she's with her boyfriend and I and I kind of do enjoy it. Wyatt Russell's like giving a ton to do, but he's having fun with like the shitty boyfriend archetype, I think. Uh, but, but he does allude like the ideas introduced to like, yeah, this dark thing from your past. And immediately, even before like the movie even like shows us anything, like you're thinking like, Oh, like some kind of abuse or, you know, sexual assault, you know, like that, that's, that's the kind of vibe that it's being invoked.
00:35:29
Speaker
So when they actually do go to like this memory recreation thing, uh, you know, it, it, it feels, it feels I don't know. It feels weird in a way that, that this is, it's like a terrifying moment for her and intense, but then it's supposed to be like an ultimately good thing that this happens. Right. because it's like good for humanity. and I'm like, Hmm, I don't like, it makes me feel weird about the aliens overall. Cause it's supposed to be kind of like, like, I mean, they are supposed to kind of be on the level of like,
00:36:06
Speaker
you know, the the close and encounter aliens of like, oh, they seem kind of scary at first, but, you know, like this is ultimately like they they don't mean us and any harm or even like the crystal skull aliens of like that. They just want to give knowledge to us, you know, but like, I don't know. They still feel nefarious because of like, why are you fucking taking children and doing nonconsensual things to them?
00:36:29
Speaker
Precisely. that That's the weirdest tightrope that this movie tries to operate on, right? Where it's a movie about, like, um what it's trying to say with that, I think, and and I don't think it's successful in doing this, mind you. I think what this film is trying to say is that, like, this moment is traumatic to her because the world around her has treated the alien interference as something differently, and therefore it's been changed into something that's traumatic, right? Like if you look at Josh O'Connor's character, right, he became this math whiz person after this, right, had his own life. And then he was taken in by this government organization was and was taught to essentially like disdain his power, right. And we're we're kind of seeing that with her as well, where it's like this becomes almost like a burden to her to have this connection. But this moment is her learning to accept that power, right, to be reminded of this trauma. And I think that that is also kind of an issue, right? Because the main movie that this reminds me of, honestly, is Communion. And if any, like like, we got to talk about, like, actual alien stuff surrounding this, right? Because, like, if we're being honest here, Mysterious Skin got it right. a lot of people who have, like, these alien sightings and stuff there, or even ghost encounters or what have you, some of these people are just describing, like, sexual assault experiences, right? and Yeah, absolutely.
00:37:50
Speaker
and And like, I think that this movie is playing with some of that imagery and you could like very easily say that it's doing so in a way that is not fully thought through.
00:38:00
Speaker
I think it means well, but I don't think it it thought through any of that very clearly because like i get what you're saying about the vi intent probably is that like these events have been recontextualized to be traumatic. But in the moment...
00:38:13
Speaker
When they're experiencing them, especially Josh O'Connor is very effectively communicating like the visceral fear of like a little boy of like, no, like, no, don't go with them. They're not animals. It's like, it's like, yeah, that that's not like the being informed by like any cultural interpretation. Yeah, that's like, that's like, that's a traumatized little boy. And yeah, I completely agree. And I think that's also important.
00:38:37
Speaker
why that was probably one part of the movie that made me glaze over a bit because like at this point we're like 20 minutes from the end here i feel like if you want to really kind of delve into this lot more seriously this way too late to do so and and also and especially right after we're back like wacky hijinks with like invisible cars and stuff like and I like that that's fun but like the the things it brings up are so fleeting And like, I, it makes you feel, makes you think less of the film afterward.
00:39:09
Speaker
Even if it's interesting. I really wish the film was more specific with what happened to the aliens, right? Like, how are they being taken advantage by the government, right? And what were they doing with these kids, right? Like, if they wanted to have this kind of moment, right? And if they wanted us to question these aliens, if they wanted to seriously have us interrogate these things, then they would at least provide a bit more context. I do like the fact that it is so opaque by the end.
00:39:36
Speaker
Like, i'm not going to complain about that. But I do think in terms of like drawing any kind of strong ah thematic parallels between like these aliens and any real world counterparts, that's where it makes a lot of this stuff muddy when it comes to ah criticizing hegemonic power. Right. Because now at this point, we're saying that these victims at the hands of the CIA are also ah responsible for crimes upon our children, which is weird.
00:39:59
Speaker
Yeah, it it's, it's, it's odd. Uh, because like I get, I being vague to a point can be beneficial because I feel like David Kep has said that like he wanted to specifically him and Spielberg, they weren't trying to create a new mythology or new cultural memories. They wanted it to just be like, no, all the things that you believed before were real. So like, so like it is drawing from things like communion and like all these other, like, you know, ah know like the cultural mythology that already exists of ufos and and little and you know the greys and stuff like that but because sexual assault is like baked into that it is kind of like glibly invoking this stuff and like not that i needed this film to like you know to be our like super dark examination of that it's just like if you're going to invoke that stuff
00:40:53
Speaker
you can't be so glib with it. And I feel like it is, it plays loose with heavier themes in a way that I wish that it drilled down into. And another one of those themes ah is the idea of religion and like where, what would that do to humanity's idea of a higher power? You know, like we, we that conflict is a lot represented in the character and I'm using character very loosely of Jane. Like I, I like Eve Hewson, like, I think she gives a good performance, especially in a scene she has with Colin Firth. She's like really great in that. But like the character itself is kind of non-existent. She's kind of like the biggest casualty of the movies, like starting as late as possible is that we don't really have much context for like who she is other than they're like, oh, you used to be a nun. Okay. And then like, that's our entryway into this whole idea of like,
00:41:47
Speaker
She doesn't think the world that that it that they can handle, they have space for two supreme beings and like aliens would would supplant God. And which is a concept sci-fi is like dabbled in like God like an alien intelligence. And like, what are the implications of that? Like that's that's like not a new idea. It's an interesting concept.
00:42:06
Speaker
But I almost feel like when we get to like ah the one nun played by Elizabeth Marvel, I really like her. but like I wanted more of what she's bringing up because like she has she has the line where she's like, yeah, why would God you know make all this vastness like just just for us? And like ah ah kind of represent the perspective of like, yeah, sure. Some people would worship the aliens, but I feel like. The almost bigger existential threat is like, what does that do to humanity centering of like, we're the main focus of the universe. Like, no, God created us. We're the best.
00:42:45
Speaker
Oh, wait, there's these other guys that seem like they're better in every way. and God also created them. Why? What's the deal with that? Does he love them more Like that's all that to me is almost like the more interesting question.
00:42:58
Speaker
Movie's not asking that question, though, Doug. I think the movie is because like the the thing is, is the the nun says something along the lines of like on Earth. Right. She's saying that those aliens are just as equal as humans. And this movie is constantly doing that. Right. Like for the first time. But they're not equal to us. They're far more advanced. but but but well Well, yes, but then also like the, like in in terms of like how we view aliens, I agree. Right. But then in terms of like the framing in this film, like this film is trying to get us to be like human humanity and aliens were the same.
00:43:30
Speaker
Right. Like the, When we have that moment of ah her watching those clips, right? Like the first thing she's saying, is that a child? Is that a person? Is that a human? Right. And and that's what they're always trying to do is is like ah bridging that gap of empathy. Right. What I will say about that whole question of religion, I do think that this is where a lot of the film gets murky in the middle half of the film. Mm hmm. what I will say, i like this performer.
00:43:56
Speaker
i don't think that she's given a lot to do Side note, she's Bono's daughter. If you guys didn't know. yeah Oh, okay. And ah one thing that I like about Emily Blunt's character is that she's going through a breakup ah through all of this. And I wish that this film more strongly mirrored that through Josh O'Connor and her struggle, because like that,
00:44:18
Speaker
relationship is falling apart right and where this film goes is josh o'connor and ah emily blunt essentially being soulmates right i think it would have made more sense for the two to have lost their partners and then came together as romantic partners by the end okay i agree that probably made more sense and you know in terms of thematics i'm glad it didn't go that way because of the rom-com fan i hate that shit I hate that shit. just says that like just just you know i I like to see people work it out. okay that's where That's my love language. Working it it's okay your I'm surprised there wasn't like a subplot where right Russell is like making his way through like pre-apocalyptic you know Kansas City as World War III is going down.
00:45:01
Speaker
just got his apartment at the end. He's just got his apartment. No, no, no. He does the opposite where he's like, I made a terrible mistake. And he like tries to win Emily Blunt back while she's doing all He should have been like, oh, no, you're getting his way through these riots and mobs. You know, like yeah, that that would have made the movie better for me, I think, personally. But no, um I agree. um but My take on the religion thing, though, is I think that you're right, especially with Tony. I think you're right. But where it gets really, really muddy and honestly, kind of.
00:45:31
Speaker
kind of nonsensical to me is that it keeps bringing up the religious imagery and symbolism as if we're meant to take it really sincerely and I'm like I don't know this is just fucking alien bullshit
Religion and Power Themes
00:45:44
Speaker
technology okay oh his wife died but he's seeing her she's using that to manipulate him okay and it's not like religious experience the the best The best use of religion in the film is her essentially using her religion as an excuse as to why the alien shouldn't be released, right? And then essentially Colin Firth uses her religion against her to invade her mind. That that that seems great. Like, that's maybe my favorite scene in the movie. But but but but just to end this point, right? Like, it's this idea, like...
00:46:16
Speaker
that the religion and the state are combined. I think that that's what that film, what the film is doing at that point, where it's like her religion is now manipulating her into believing that that's what this needs to be. And that's an extension of hegemonic power in the States. So it's like, I think that's actually tidy in terms of like connecting it into its themes. It's just in the fact that it then plays out the way it does in these conversations. It's not as impactful as it like it's it's the fact that it's trying to be sincere. And it's like, we know that Spielberg isn't ah Catholic, right? Right. Inauthentic.
00:46:50
Speaker
It does. It it really does scream off and like, sorry, man. Like, I would rather, you know, this movie pretend religion didn't exist than to keep doing this. Like, other than that scene, I'm like, this is just, I'm just like, not shaking my head laughing at all this shit.
00:47:06
Speaker
Either either yeah like what you said, pretend religion doesn't exist or just be broader with it in terms of like, because he's focused specifically on Catholicism where I'm like, I don't know if that's that's your like wheelhouse, buddy. You could just be like, you know, the religions of the world, you know, you could just kind of because they're already being so hand wavy with it. It's weird that they specify and Catholicism.
00:47:28
Speaker
It's crazy. You do Virgin Mary thing too. Like, what the but yeah what are we doing here, man? Yeah. The best possible version of this stuff would have been if it played out the same exact way that it did. And then after the Colin Firth thing, she didn't ask his faith.
00:47:40
Speaker
Like at that point, like it would have to be an admission that like the faith had been. She had stigmata. I just thought you remembered that. Yeah, yeah right exactly. what like What are you trying to say?
00:47:51
Speaker
yeah Like, I feel as though that should have been something that like, like that should have been seen as like aliens are almost so as a form of act of faith versus how the state is using faith to manipulate people. That's what I'm trying to get at.
00:48:04
Speaker
She kind of doesn't have an arc or anything to do after she's like possessed, right? Like, because like I'm thinking like, yeah, she gets separated. Action scene is more exciting.
00:48:17
Speaker
Yeah, i because I kind of like I even if the movie didn't focus on the her relationship with Josh O'Connor, it's just disappointing that it's like you invoke these big ideas with her and then she kind of just fucks fucks off for until, you know, they kind of try to loop her back in at the end. But I'm not sure.
00:48:36
Speaker
yeah by then I kind of forgot i'm like oh right yeah what happened to her I did forget about her I'm like holy shit she's in this movie I really did I 100% forgot about her but but like one of the great things about like not necessarily her, but like she's a part of this, that car chase we get, like where like they have to steal a car and they have all the chases. across yeah Oh my God. Right. Like when the car goes through the house, like I want to get up on my feet. Well, hold on. Let's, let's, let's go to him. the, the run-up of him first, first he gets a call from,
00:49:09
Speaker
at First he gets a call from Emily Blunt, a cold calling him, and she's warning him that he has to leave. He can't go back to the house. Then he sees them swarming on the house. Then the film go it turns into Metal Gear Solid, and it's like a tracking shot of him. like he go He gets down. He's doing it.
00:49:26
Speaker
He's doing the, and it is using video game logic where it's like the guards are going to keep facing the house. Like these aren't even patrolling
Action Sequences and Pacing
00:49:34
Speaker
guards. just No, no, no. See, if you look on the map, right, they've only got a cone, right? Their site view right? So, Even PS1 Metal Gear Solid guards would react to noise. These guards don't even have that. This is like the stealth section in a game that's not a stealth game. So they didn't like program the AI to have like be that reactive. But yeah, so they're just stationary looking at the house. He stays out of car. But I fucking love the shot of like following him he's, you know, going prone. And then he's and then he's crouched going into the car. I love it.
00:50:08
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yep. Like Spielberg still has it. Right. Even if like the story isn't all there. Right. As a filmmaker, all of this stuff is just bleeding through seamlessly. Like you don't need to have anybody stop and explain anything to you. You could just watch visually and understand the stakes of the scenario.
00:50:25
Speaker
And what I like about it is but to' talking about like tone and like how entertaining it can be. like We talked about video analogic, but this is also very goofy. think Doug mentioned Tunes in a previous stunt or something else, but it's also very Looney Tunes-y. Where like, oh I gotta hide every mention of of the look of the logo everywhere. But then Colin Firth gets into her mind again, and she kicks his hand, and then it's a zoom-in on the fucking stationery.
00:50:53
Speaker
And like... oh but So it's this this is so goofy. and i And that's what I think the goofiness I really love. That's why i so I was very entertained by it. But it's also a mixed parts where it tries to like be weighty. Like, no, this is this is like whiplash. here i I feel like he can marry those those vibes better in other block. But like, I know, Elvis, you said you're not the biggest fan of Minority Report, but I feel like that movie does very well have like these these very dramatic moments. but then it'll also be really silly. Like there's like a cop's joke. The guard, the cops start barfing when they get hit with a so shock stick.
00:51:27
Speaker
Like it's like, it's like kind of kind of like pretty juvenile humor that they'll deploy in that movie. And it's somehow to me, when I watch minority report, I don't get whiplash. Like I'm, I'm pretty locked in the whole time. This, this movie does have a lot of minority report vibes in it, in like the, the, the chase of it all. And then I feel like, it doesn't have the same extreme like color grading that it does. But like in terms of how, uh, uh, Kaminsky is shooting it, I, I was getting like kind of vibes of our echoes of minority report.
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah. Cause like with all of those early two thousands Spielberg movies, he did bleach bypass. Right. And it feels like they definitely didn't do it to the same degree on this film, but it was certainly still bleach bypass. Um, but when it comes to the, uh,
00:52:14
Speaker
like the look of the film, um it like it it just, it it still has that kineticism. Like there's a lot of digital effects in this movie, but they are seamlessly well integrated with this. And and then also just to go back to that chase scene, um it's, it's,
00:52:29
Speaker
goes to show how Spielberg can kind of mount these things where you've got that car that goes through the house practically, right? Like you see that happen and then you get them in the car and then you have her like turning on him, essentially pulling the knife out and it's stacking. Okay. There's the people behind them, but then there's also her with the knife and it's got the reflection of him in the face. And then there's also the reflection of like the car in front of him through the windshield. Like all of this stuff is just like, like Yeah. ah I love my um ever favorite beat. When she gets the knife out the first time, they get rammed into. She dropped the knife. It's so, it's lots of peppiness, you know, there's little beaks peppered into everything. and It's great.
00:53:10
Speaker
And my so good. And the logic of them having to put the the rock on the car on the accelerator so it drives into the water. And just like that the guards are only watching the house, they just look at the water and they're like a couple feet away, like barely obscured by like so they could just like turn their head like slightly be like, hey, they're right over there.
00:53:33
Speaker
they Are all those people farsighted or something? They can't see like them walk out, put a rock in or anything. they were They're in a chase. They're like two seconds away from them. What the fuck? was like they're like, they already stole a car successfully one time. Why not just do it again? Right? like like Imagine if they just stole the next one. thought the doors open too for some of them. I thought they were going to do just the other one.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yeah, ah that that I really like that set piece. And then I also like that the next part of like when they go, because after the house, then they're like at a like ah ah a motel somewhere. Right. they' ah Hiding out. yeah mot child Wink.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There belongs in a museum. It reminds me a lot of Daniel Jones in that we're not going to do anything but have a chase until the very fucking end. That's why I knew I'd go. It's like Crystal Skull again. We're not going to see anything until the end of this movie.
00:54:28
Speaker
and what What is Disclosure Day but just opening the arc? Well, Disclosure Day is the day. So I mean, yeah we didn mean not not the day after. Not the day after something. Right. Yeah.
00:54:39
Speaker
And we'll get to that because like I've seen disappointment and that the movie doesn't delve into the aftermath, which I kind of understand to a point. but the movie Yeah, but but the movie also is kind of pointedly being like, well, we're not we're we're just about the lead up to can this even happen? You know, like that that that's that's the main thrust of it. But I also do like the motel part because.
00:55:02
Speaker
we've already seen Colin Firth use the contraption to like dive into Jane and control her. So that she's like, you can't trust me anymore. They tire tire up at night, but then like slows him down for zero seconds. And he's able to like, use her like feet to like, like while she's tied up and, you and like the, the way that plays out of the, of her her, like seeing the location so they can send everyone in there. Like, yeah, I, I love all that.
00:55:31
Speaker
It's phenomenal stuff. It's great. I love, I just love when the guy, the Santiago, or like, are he like, he gets there like, okay. And he's kind of like, okay, just scooch you up a little bit into the parking lot. And you said all about It's so good. Like, I gotta get out of here.
00:55:47
Speaker
Like it's it's classic like this is where the movie is feeling the most like minority purport. Right. And like it's it's that zeroing in surveillance state. There's no way for you to have true privacy. All that stuff. um Is it it better handled in other Spielberg movies? Sure.
00:56:05
Speaker
Is it effective here? Yes. Yeah, ah very effective. And I feel like at this point, we've already seen, we've alluded to Colin Firth, the more he uses this to dive, like they even say at one point, it's like, it just takes a toll on you. But like, he starts like looking like, like he like a little pale, like he looks fucked up, visibly fucked up. And like physically, when he tries to move around after like getting up from it, he's like, like stumbling and shit. Like, I love I love all the the details of that. Because like, they don't I don't need them to explain how the device works. like they They seem like, like okay, the the CIA guys can use it to focus in on an individual to like you know spy on them. But then it also has other applications that they're not even fully aware of. of like Like when the Heavy touches it, he like seems to teleport somewhere briefly and then comes back and he's like like falling under. I wasn't sure if he turned invisible, or but it almost seems like when he's brought back that he went somewhere.
00:57:03
Speaker
Exactly. He drops down to the floor. So if you were just invisible, I don't think that would have happened. does He does poof and there's like ash everywhere. he's like, wait, did he die? Did I mention the beginning? he he but He went to the Nightcrawler dimension. its just nu bam But at the beginning, Colin Fir almost died the previous time he used it. So i thought maybe that was like the implication that like it it can, it's like can incinerate people or something. So I thought that the heavy just fucking burst into ash for like two seconds. Yeah. Like I always just took those things as like a kind of like Thor's hammer, right? Like the those who are wi ah worthy can wield it, right? And so the idea of Firth being this person who's like total extraction, right? ah We're going to mine these aliens resources to do whatever we want. with it The fact that it would cause them so much pain like this makes total sense thematically. And it's a great, ah you know, thing that that engages us from a visual standpoint. um I hate to do this so suddenly. Is it okay if we take a quick break?
00:58:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah yeah we could do we could do a little bathroom break. Cool. Cool. All right. All right. I'm just going to pop up for a second. I'll be right back. Yeah, no problem. All right. um But yeah, I don't know.
00:58:15
Speaker
How are you doing, dude? doing good's Doing good. Doing good. All right. ah You see anything else over this other day? ah Yeah, I saw The Furious with my girlfriend. and they was really good. Well, she likes actual some action movies, but I did no research. So like I didn't know like some stuff that will get too intense. She's not as into it. I wasn't aware it was going to have like a horror movie level of gore in it or that it was about child trafficking. I didn't know any of that. So she, she was a little frightened, but I'm fucking but like just the the choreography in it is insane. Like I was so sure i was like,
00:58:55
Speaker
they can't be moving that fast. They speed ramp this, right? it Like, no, they didn't. They just are some, it looks, it looks uncanny the way they're moving. Like, like it looks like a video game in a, in a good way. Like sometimes I'll say like the action and something looks like a game, but and like derogatory way, but this looked like a game in a good way in terms of like, it was just so kinetic the way it, it like,
00:59:18
Speaker
Moving in ways like because like there'll be like a big heavy goon who apparently was like styled after Donkey Kong because he's like a big dude. He's got he's got like a red like like not a tie, but he's like a red kerchief or whatever. But he's moving so acrobatically like there's one point where he's like kind of like crab walking to someone to like like like sweep their legs. I'm like, how the fuck is he moving that fast like that?
00:59:40
Speaker
essentially be no Sorry, I gotta watch that. That sounds really good. But yeah, no, um me, nothing much. can't remember the last thing I watched, really. um That was interesting.
00:59:53
Speaker
I kind of want to see Stop That Train. It looks dumb, but has to be better than Scary Movie, right? Like, the bar is so low that I'm like, even this really dumb spoof has to be something. And RuPaul's funny, like... Have you seen any of the AI controversy around that? Yes. What did they use AI on even? Like, what was it for? Really? My impression is good. Because a couple weeks ago, when it first came around, the director and the production team were like, no, there was no non-human generated... Hands. Yeah. enhanced or, you know, things like that. Like, well, all that means is that like, you just say after this, but guy just did something, then the guy did it, but he's using AI tool. The AI tool doesn't use itself. Okay. That person's mini list.
01:00:44
Speaker
but pre miniless Exactly. they They were playing like legalese with their language where was like human hands made this movie, but it was clearly AI generated and it was a human who prompted it. Especially for an animated train. I'm like, you really need to do that? Hell, just get a fucking toy train and like, you know, like it's a spoof movie. So make it look really shitty, you know?
01:01:10
Speaker
so Like here's here's the deal, right? Like, I have no like, yeah like RuPaul, you know, RuPaul's Drag Race, fun time, you know, good time to watch, you know, if if it's thrown on. Right. I don't need to go and watch a RuPaul movie. You know, I'd rather if we're talking about like supporting queer cinema, let's get John Waters on the stage, you know, on there. Right. But it's like, let's let's give him the money to make another movie. Yeah.
01:01:34
Speaker
Right. Like if we're talking about like supporting queer cinema, I'd rather that than like a scary movie. But or are are queer people making straight movies like I Want Your Sex coming soon. When does that come out next month? yeah Soon. Yeah. I saw some people complaining about that. I'm like Greg Araki's made straight movies before. like it's not like he's only made gay movies. Yeah.
01:01:58
Speaker
and And I like so the someone's response is like, I would rather see a gay person make a straight movie than a straight person make a game. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Like the coughs.
01:02:10
Speaker
Yeah, it looks good. i don't know. I'm excited to see Cooper Hoffman do kinky stuff. o I saw someone the other day like shitting on Philip Seymour Hoffman.
01:02:23
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. who on the challenge Just like his dad. Like, what the fuck are you talking about? Like, I still want to see more from Cooper, but come on, let's not be insane here. I've only ever seen like thirst posts about Philip Seymour. Like with people rightfully talk about him. Like that he's like one of the sexiest actors ever. I'm like, yeah, correct. Just see. He's so, he has so much aura. Yeah.
01:02:46
Speaker
Exactly. He made it rain in along Cape Pauly. And for one yeah poley what? you know, he's, he's the proper, like two of the four stars. I give that movie. It's a fantastic. Yeah.
01:02:58
Speaker
Rain dance. it's Yeah. Talented Mr. Ripley would drop by a full star, at least if he wasn't in it. It's not even like the biggest part in the movie, but he makes it.
01:03:10
Speaker
but then will walk he does That I took a TikTok video. Oh, yeah. I love that one. oh my God.
01:03:21
Speaker
Oh, man, talk about a guy who would have made this movie great. Imagine if it was Philip Seymour Hoffman instead of Colin Firth in this movie. oh Yeah, man. maybe We all need some more. What's the name? Damien something? Baby and Damien.
01:03:33
Speaker
i i like I like that villain in Mission Impossible. Like, if you put gun to my head, I will not remember his name until I'm watching the movie. And then even then I might forget, like, what was the villain's name? I forgot. Damien is part of it.
01:03:47
Speaker
No, it is. it is It's Damien something, but it's like, no, I just called Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mission Impossible. That's all you need. i'm just I'm just like that with every movie, you know, like i don't even like character names, but like it's fucking Laura Dern, you know, like whatever. That's who I'm calling it. nick paul mcydash who' cool What's your name fucking Park?
01:04:06
Speaker
get get order lord Laura Dern. Dern. Yeah, so but back back to Spielberg. ah Disclosure Day. ah hu we haven't talked about fucking, like, there's a whole other faction of the movie, you know, like these whistleblowers who are guiding Josh O'Connor, led by Coleman Domingo, who I saw funny posts referring to. It's like, in Hollywood, he's kind of become like the new Morgan Freeman, but like gay. yeah Like he's like the trustworthy, the trustworthy, like black guy who's has like a, you know, like an authoritative voice like, okay, I'm Coleman Domingo. Here's where you have to go, Josh O'Connor.
01:04:47
Speaker
you're like, yeah, you can trust this guy. Yeah. ended up being old, too, so they could have gone. And is he retired or dead? I'm not quite sure. Am I up to date on Morgan Freeman yet? He's still alive. Okay, good.
01:05:00
Speaker
He's like relegated to like ah doing narrations for documentaries and then like making commercials. is on Yeah, like commercials are like daytime talk shows, right, where he's like, I'm still conscious. And then you speak you're like, I don't know. Morgan Freeman's side note, right? Do you guys know about his neurological thing in his hand?
01:05:21
Speaker
you guys ever know about this? No. might have heard it. know. So ah Morgan Freeman, like as he was starting to age, ah lost the ability to move his left hand. um And if you like go back to like the late 2000s, you would always notice that he would speak with his right hand. And like if there were moments where, you know, they wanted to not jar the people, they would just like horizontally flip the footage. But if you look at him today, ah ah one of his hands always has a glove on it and like doesn't move it.
01:05:53
Speaker
you know? So it's like, just something to point out for the next time that you see Mr. Freeman around. But specifically with Coleman Domingo, I agree with you and completely, Doug, where he's just like, you know, a back pocket.
01:06:03
Speaker
We need somebody who can do anything, right? Coleman Domingo, he can do comedy, he can do drama, he do whatever, right? And like, you give it to him, he's going add pathos, he's going to add gravitas. And it's no different here, right? He's clearly playing the Spielberg stand-in. And I think that he does that wonderfully. And the speech that he gets near the end of this film, it's like, that's why you hire him.
01:06:23
Speaker
He can make ah like towards that. He says it a couple times, but him saying to Emily Blunt, Joshua Connor, it's only been just the two of you. if it were If you gave those lines to anyone else, I would just be like, good get the fuck out of here. movie like Because like making both of them like the the chosen one is like, like, Yeah, it's... it By that point, it's like an expected plot beat, but like stating it that way, in that point, like it's only been just the two of you. So so like almost like romantically, it's like if if if anyone but Colvin Domingo was doing that, i would I would have like been angry. It also of makes like, okay, were all the other abductions then just for laughs? I mean...
01:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, they they took hundreds of kids and they're like, i don't know. They probably just dumped the like, ah these kids suck. Fuck them. like You can't implant shit into them. Is that confirmed in the universe of this world that there are more than just those two who are abducted or like it's unclear?
01:07:24
Speaker
So they say experiencers and that's a common term that they're using their lingo. So it has to be something. favorite thing is after watching them, I was like, why did they use the word experiencer? And my brother was like, I watched my I remember was like, oh, it's because so that way, you know, you don't really call on to the fact that they mean abduction. So they can have a big reveal that they were abducted later on. So that way you don't say the word abduction. And like, that's so stupid. But yeah, that's like, Come on, experiencers. It's ridiculous. I mean, even though that's so clear that that's where that's going with that. But in terms of like using like the like term of like UFO terminology, you know, we've talked about like how they're incorporating, you know, like.
01:08:09
Speaker
known UFO lore and in mythology. I just want to backpedal to like when he's first showing ah Jane, like the the like little bit of snippets that he has of of, you know, the stuff that he stole, that the first clip is like Nixon taking Jackie Gleason to Area 51, which is like a classic urban legend that I fucking love when in Twin Peaks, the the secret history, they incorporate that to like that Nixon showed ah ah Gleason, like maybe it was Judy, like whatever. it was It was whatever that creature that appeared in the box in the first episode of The Return. Yeah. that like They had that in Area 51 and Nixon showed Gleason that. And according like to the actual urban legend where it's like,
01:08:56
Speaker
Yeah, he went and pressed Gleason, showed him some alien shit. And then according to Gleason's wife, he was just like depressed for the rest of his life after that. But it was like like an existential depression, which fits to the movie's themes. Yeah.
01:09:10
Speaker
yeah but yeah but Like on on that note of like the whole like Jackie like that. We've talked many times about like this whole like what does an urban legend or conspiracy theory mean rather than just its literal retelling. And what does it tell us about like society at large because ultimately they're born out of like something that society wants to express. And what that urban legend purports to is, you know, conspiracy is this idea of collusion between entertainment and the state. Right. And this film is confirming that is saying that like the entertainment industry and government are hand in hand in terms of, you know, what they present. So, you know, if we're bringing it back to the whole World War III discussion, that's in line with it. And then if we're talking about this whole alien thing, um it's talking about like,
01:09:57
Speaker
this is an ongoing decades long thing where America is exerting power over another force.
Real-World Analogies in 'Disclosure Day'
01:10:03
Speaker
And I do like that ah this film is essentially positing this as like, look at the atrocities that we did to this people, right? Like that's what this film is positing this as rather than just aliens.
01:10:15
Speaker
ah My issue is that like, you know, if this is like alien Guantanamo Bay, right? We know what happened when Guantanamo Bay came out, right? We were still there.
01:10:26
Speaker
They didn't like leave. They didn't stop the wars, right? The existence of that footage and its leaking did not change much. It did still exists. like Like we didn't stop that.
01:10:39
Speaker
Yeah. So it's like if we're going to talk about how the alien footage could or could not change the way the world is, I don't know if Spielberg's like as cynical in where we leave off in the ending but if we're talking about this being an an analogous uh to real world experience this idea of like supreme uh injustice being something that we just need to witness then everybody changes right i'm not even sure if reality has proven that to be true yeah I mean, it's also positing that everyone consumes news in the same way, because like that doesn't even reflect our reality of like, you know, we live in a post-truth era where, you know, like ah there's not even a consensus on the baseline reality. So like even if multiple local news were picking up the disclosure, there would be plenty of people who are just outright rejecting that as like, well, that's the fake news, you know, like, I mean, maybe Fox News picks it up and then, but even then some of their viewership is not going to take that at face value. Like that that's just, people don't. We do get in, in the film, they go to Fox News just as a, just to throw it out. Oh, okay. I, yeah. But like, even then though, like, cause like,
01:11:52
Speaker
All these people were on their phones. just going to see the people. Did you see? The movie explains it for you very tightly. Everyone was affected by this 100%. Yeah. they're They're not actually fully ingesting this information at the end of the film, which is interesting, right? I don't think that's, like, a ah mistake, right? But I don't think that you're wrong, Doug, that it kind of is muddled in terms of, like, how successful would this be? And and and where does Spielberg himself lean on this? Because, like...
01:12:21
Speaker
I think that it does work in terms of like a vague, take what you're going to get kind of perspective. But I also would like to know if Spielberg himself truly believes if people people just need to know the correct amount of information to be good people.
01:12:35
Speaker
Because I've also seen the take of like, yeah, this movie is actually about Epstein. And it's like, well, the release of that or like that becoming like more made because like yeah anyone who's like kind of looked into that a little bit would be able to like it's that stuff that's been out there for a while. But like in terms of like being picked up by like mainstream media outlets, like, OK, where that like it's being talked about everywhere, like the people who who that this connects to, still didn't really change anything. You know, like, it's like, it's just a thing that people are aware of now, but like, kite or ah more aware of, I guess, because like, ah you know, there's, I'm sure that there's plenty of people who dismiss that as like, you know, not real, because they don't want to believe it
01:13:22
Speaker
You know, I think that Epstein stuff is an ongoing thing, right? Like, I don't think that, like, people have lost interest in it. They just are continue to seek demanding the truth. And it's just going to take more and more time before all the truth is out there, right? ah But I'm glad that you brought up the Epstein comparison because, like, UFO specifically and the dissemination of UFO information has directly been used as a way to offset Epstein file links, right? Like, the same days that Epstein file stuff would come out the us There was just a recent like disclosure, like we had a disclosure day recently and it wasn't the the biggest thing I didn't like look at all the stuff. The biggest one I remember is like there was a ship or some kind of vehicle that looked like a giant pill of fish oil. It was just kind of like in the sky. I was like, oh, that's funny. It looks like I i take those pills every day.
01:14:15
Speaker
So they do a little troll post of the AI image of these two elf people two years ago. Oh, yeah. I saw that bullshit. I think that's what makes this movie a bitter pill to swallow even more is that, like yeah, no, it's just a distraction. So there's like we have a movie where like there's like a real kind of geopolitical issue going on that no one wants to get a grasp on. They're like, oh, but, you know, aliens. Yeah.
01:14:41
Speaker
And like, okay, they're doing it right now. Like, what is this? Like, wag the dog? You know? Like, wag the dog. they're they're They're like pro the distraction. Like, I also saw the take that, like, someone was saying that this is like the uncynical version of of Watchmen. but But instead of it being an alien false flag, it's just being like, look, here's aliens. Now everyone put down your bombs and guns. But I guess the idea The movie doesn't show us that the war or those you know conflicts are actually winding down. It's just people are stopping for a moment to look at their phones. So like we don't actually you you could argue that he is like that's the one of the points of kind of the ending it where it is because then you kind of just get to be like, does it work? I don't know. He's kind of just like leaving it to like, i what do you audience do you believe? who We can change. I don't know. This movie, oddly enough, has a lot in common with the film The Post.
01:15:39
Speaker
Right. and And, you know, many of us post heads. Right. We've been waiting for him to pick up the the Nixon plot lines. And technically this film concludes that. you know, if we look at the
Media's Role and Spielberg's Themes
01:15:51
Speaker
Jackie Gleason thing. Yeah. But what i what I'm trying to get out here is that Spielberg himself very clearly, more so than like the mainstream media, I think that people could very easily say that he has a trust in like, you know, ah the Washington Post or MSN in this film. But truly, I think that all he actually lands more so on like record keeping, right? The importance of being a witness to something, right? ah Somebody who is able to take their testament and preserve it from now until the end of time is something that
01:16:23
Speaker
keeps on appearing throughout his films. And I think that what makes that ending interesting is that that's what is happening in that moment. And it's not talking about whether or not it truly changes everything. But the importance of that moment is that everybody bears witness, that everybody did stop and recognize that this was a moment in time that they need to stop and take in. um i appreciate what it's going for. But when it comes to like, is this going to change anything?
01:16:50
Speaker
You know, that's that's That's the rub, right? And I think that that, like, wrinkle makes the film more interesting. um It adds that question that, you know, is more of a – something that makes you scratch your head rather than get angry with the film itself. um But at the same time, I could see people feeling, you know, cheated.
01:17:11
Speaker
feel like I would buy that more if, like, we saw little bit – it was so uniform. Like, i get you're saying. Like, that's part of the point. Like, everyone's great witness. And I think that you're very much kind of viewing the track there. ah But, like, if there was a bit more, like, some people not watching, some people, will like, just looking at and putting their phone down, going back to some other bullshit they were doing, I think that would sell it more to me. A little bit more.
01:17:32
Speaker
You know? it's a little bit more. It just feels divorced from reality that it's pretty much the same shot as it cuts around and everyone's like ah glued glued to their phone. i mean, yeah, I think there is something to that. There's like, we can only process these things like through screens, but like it does ah like feel like a little naive, but like since we're already talking about the actual like disclosure itself, how did we feel about like the footage that they're showing? Because for me, I think,
01:18:02
Speaker
I think there's rightfully been a lot of praise for like that news anchor who is like kind of having this emotional, like she gets to kind of have the kind of, you know, like the Spielberg awe reaction, but it's played out as like an arc is like, it's kind of like, she's having like this mini arc on screen as she's like being overwhelmed by what she's seeing. But I feel like her performance isn't matched by the, like by the footage. but but like ah i I don't think it lives up to that.
01:18:29
Speaker
my might t i might be I might be the wrong person for this feel movie. i'm like I'm a cynical soul um because my entire my entire time watching this ending, the last 10, 15 minutes of it, the entire news broadcast, I can only think of Scare Movie 3.
01:18:45
Speaker
yeah they too and and like They have the fucking great coveralls. Like, oh my God. She's like on a big of tears sobbing. Have you seen these little gray guys in gray coveralls walk into a tent doing like the John Lennon walk?
01:19:00
Speaker
and like I mean, sorry, man. Like this is like, I feel like it was, it just, it felt like the end of Battlestar Galactica.
01:19:12
Speaker
where like, I'm not giving any real big spoilers, right? But then it brought some really great moments and some really great character pieces. But then it's like the part where like, okay, now organize we're going to hammer home the message.
01:19:25
Speaker
And then part of the message is like this really like dark foreboding audio score track set against ah a five second clip of robo-sapien dancing. And that's what it felt like to me. Like, i get it You're trying to say something really serious here.
01:19:39
Speaker
But the visuals and the way that they merged together is like, this is just fucking silly. yeah the the The way I took that scene and the only way I was able to appreciate, there's two ways, actually. There's two ways. The first one.
01:19:50
Speaker
So I don't know if you guys knew this, but did you guys know that when Spielberg was originally conceiving Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he was worried about the budget. And there was ah originally going to be a version of that film where it was a found footage horror film.
01:20:05
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Yeah. Right. should have done that, maybe. Well, I kind of see this as him coming back to that idea, I think, because he wanted to do like aliens through news footage and stuff. And like, I feel as though this is more the world. that i yeah be Right. Exactly. Right. Like that's something that's been percolating in him for a while now. Right. yeah I'm talking about that. You.
01:20:29
Speaker
Oh, that too. yeah he saw He saw that. guy He's like, well, I made... I forgot that that was one... I just mentioned it the beginning and I forgot that he made War of the Worlds ah Yeah. exactly right like he he he He made War of the Worlds. He saw that Ice Cube did one. He's like, oh, I need to see how they did it, right? And then he was like, there's some things. I gotta come back to this. ah But ah the... What I was getting at there. Oh, the second thing. Without warning.
01:20:55
Speaker
We've talked about that TV movie yeah before. And this movie... turns into without warning, like without warning even, you know? And I do appreciate that that as somebody who likes that movie, but the same issue in that film is present in this one where the footage itself is escalating at a strange clip, right? Where it's like, here are these John Lennon aliens going into, you know, a tent. And then here is the biggest alien structure you've ever seen taking into yeah the sunset. And it's like, I do like the whole like,
01:21:27
Speaker
Here's this overload of information and it's throwing it in your lap going like, what does this mean? And that's a part of the appeal of this reveal. um But at the same time, um as an audience, we know this is fictional footage, right? It's not like we're watching this and we're being like, oh, now we've seen something that has changed ah the reality in which we saw, right? We know that aliens exist from the moment this movie starts.
01:21:51
Speaker
So it's like if this scene were to be a bit more effective, I think it should have told us something more about how the aliens operate. Yeah. I think you're hitting me on the head exactly because my main problem with the footage and that whole sequence as well is that everything feels so piecemeal.
01:22:08
Speaker
Nothing feels like like a coherent kind of vision of the aliens. I think we see like five different a spaceship designs. Yeah. And you know, like, but what it almost implies like different races. Yeah. Like, have we been, are these all the same guys or they just changed their ships over time? They have different ships for different purposes. Like, I don't need that explained explicitly, but yeah, it just, it, there's, it, it doesn't,
01:22:33
Speaker
ah like fit uniformly but then also for me like if this is like his attempt at like some kind of found footagey thing like the footage is almost like too clear or doesn't match when it's supposed to be like the old Roswell stuff doesn't look like it came from that era of like I don't know there's just something to especially when people were making Shyamalan comparisons I'm like he had much more convincing news footage of someone just happening to capture an alien on film and it's so simple of just an alien walking out of a bush and something like that. It was like way more... complicated than great It's like because that footage was mostly not the alien, it just happened to be captured. like And I almost feel like even if these are government documents, like there would be like a lot of incidental bullshit before you even get a glimpse of it.
01:23:22
Speaker
And I understand like it kind of needs to be clear and unimpeachable, like unambiguous that people are seeing, like, here are the aliens. But like I don't know. like like There should have been... and it should have been a little more muddy in terms of like the visual quality or something to like kind of obfuscate what we're seeing in terms of like, yeah, this does doesn't feel like footage, real footage that was captured.
01:23:43
Speaker
If this was a more effective, like, presentation, right? Because this idea is that Emily Blunt goes on this local news broadcast and she starts displaying this stuff. And then a bigger corporation takes that and starts rebroadcasting that, right? I think it would have been more effective if she keep on gave like a fucking PowerPoint presentation, right? Being like, here are the aliens. This is how much we know about them, right? And, like, the film could...
01:24:08
Speaker
play fast and loose with how much we see of that, right? I'm not asking for me to know every single detail, right? But it's like, if if ah if the explosion exposure of this stuff to humanity is just here are these disconnected images, and now it's up to you to make up what you will, right? I don't think that's enough. I don't think that's enough to like pause global conflict in its entirety. Yeah.
01:24:33
Speaker
Well, in the big kisser is supposed to be that, ah you know, like Hugo wheels is like, hey, I've had this alien in my basement. Here's the alien, ladies and gentlemen. And that doesn't even feel like the exclamation point on the footage that it's it's supposed to be. Maybe mainly because I'm like, I don't know, it maybe it should have been a puppet.
01:24:52
Speaker
You know, like I... Like, you know, like Spielberg can use CGI better than, you know, ah like a lot of other modern blockbuster filmmakers. But it was just something that was kind of just unimpressive about the alien. Like, it was like I don't know if I saw that alien, I'd be like, yeah, who cares?
01:25:09
Speaker
You guys are one of the Christmas call guides, you know? No, I was going to say, I was, what if it was ET? was hoping it would be ET too. Just go all for it, you know? um But yeah, it should have like, i just want something more recognizable. This is too generic. You know, it just, I get, get what he's trying to say. This is like a cultural standpoint.
01:25:28
Speaker
You know, this isn't meant to be about that cultural idea of the aliens. But also, it's like it's just so blank-faced and like, I can't hook onto this at all.
01:25:39
Speaker
You know, at all. Like, the the exact reason why you said you don't like it is why I like it, unfortunately, Elvis, right? is it like The fact that it is like the globally accepted idea of an alien, right? the The fact that it is as generic as it is, I think it's trying to say something about like... American iconography of aliens throughout the decades. That being said, it is bland. So I get the criticism. So it's like, you can't wait. i feel like Independence Day or even an American Dad kind of play with that idea better. Because like, you know, Roger and the aliens in Independence Day when they get into the skin of them, they're great.
01:26:18
Speaker
They're great on the inside, you know? I'm like, okay, like but
Spielberg's Impact on Culture
01:26:21
Speaker
they're they're unique. And there's some visual, like even as an old, how like how old is Alien? I don't know, like 70 years old. Yeah, all these wrinkles. He's still wearing the same old gray jumpsuit. Like put it in like fucking sweats, you know?
01:26:33
Speaker
That would have been a great visual if he's just wearing clothes. yeah he's he's He's wearing Timberlands. it's all it's all It's an old alien, okay? Put it in like a nice kind of cardigan, okay? It's probably cold.
01:26:48
Speaker
It's in Raya. It was much more effective to see them disguising themselves as animals, especially because that imagery looked so uncanny. Like like when Emily Blunt is like, you know, reliving her abduction, people compared it to I've seen like it kind of looks like that A.I. Coca-Cola Christmas ad. And I almost feel like that that's intentional of like how. yeah clearly artificial this is like I think even the snow isn't going the right way like like it's like all these little details of like how how fake this is so like I'm fine with the animals looking off if anything that's additive and like that was a cool and the transition of like the deer face to the gray that was really cool it's just it it didn't have the same impact as like
01:27:38
Speaker
it it being like rolled out on onto the news. Like, I don't know. It just, it almost felt a little anticlimactic. Yeah. Like I, I don't understand people critiquing the, how fake that sequence looks when clearly the artificiality is supposed to be the point. Yeah. But the footage itself of, of the aliens.
01:27:56
Speaker
Yeah. So but we were talking about like how, uh, the footage would be, uh, like, received um And like, I think I remember hearing something along the line, you guys were saying something along the lines of like the types of, you know, alien equipment that would be used as well as like the explanation of ah how these how these things would change how we perceive humanity. I like the fact that all this stuff is left so open. And then I also like the fact that like Colin Firth just kind of resigns his fate at that point.
01:28:31
Speaker
Like his whole life's mission was to hold this back. And then when he recognizes he can't do that anymore, he just resigns. You know, I like that I like that a lot. i I like that he realizes that he's at ah the limit. And then there's also kind of i got the impression where he's like, well, if this is going to happen, but I'll be in the front row seat. You know, like he just pulls up a chair. You know, he's like, all right, you know, let's go for it. I can't stop you. So let's see what let's see what you got.
01:28:59
Speaker
Yeah, no. But then I like that Boyd, how angry he is when he's just like, you're just going to let that happen. I was waiting for there to be like, I was like, is this going to be like some kind of, is it going to turn into like James Cameron? There's an extra act where like Boyd comes back with like some kind of revenge plot where he's like, I brought the army. We're going to stop you. was like, no, he can't do anything. He just leaves. I was kind of hoping for that. was kind of hoping for that like midway through the movie. You're like, you know, like something's going to happen because It does seem like conference character, Scanlon kind of just gives up the game even earlier than that. And boy, he's also really annoyed.
01:29:37
Speaker
I'm surprised they didn't do it. Right. Because the whole train thing, which we've ah we we we we we talked about it a little bit earlier. But, ah you know, that scene where they she makes them see loved ones and stuff. He kind of just gives up. yeah He sees his wife, Colin Firth, and then he has.
01:29:54
Speaker
he just doesn't even try to pursue them you know just just just lets them go and uh you know boyd of course the you know have it having no loved ones or things that can stop him he goes after them and i yeah i just like the other chase set pieces this is this is great uh someone someone was invoking uh and ah Dead Reckoning, Mission Impossible, because it has like a similar a somewhat similar train gag. like Not the final train set piece, but the part where like Tom Cruise is in the loop in the third car and then he has to like get out out of the way of of the track. ah Almost feels like a little some similar to this but i like like this. This did feel like watching, if it was ah Metal Gear Solid earlier when you've seen, this does feel ah almost like an uncharted set piece where having to jump to the train before the other train comes.
01:30:46
Speaker
Yeah, this this train set piece is maybe one of the number one reasons to recommend this movie to people who like action movies. ah Like this is some of the best action since like Fast and Furious 5. It's just like classic. You get the right inserts at the right time to sell all of the stuff. And also, like as we were talking about before, the This is like a largely computer-generated effect, this car being dragged by the train. But still, Spielberg knows how to frame the shot to where you're not thinking about how artificial all of this is being made to come together. um It's genuinely thrilling. it's It's one of the better aspects. Compared to Crystal again, I mentioned, you know, but inside you could tell the difference between this and Dialed Destiny.
01:31:30
Speaker
Crystal Skull has a lot of sequences where the fakeness of the scene overtakes a lot of the momentum from it. You know, it takes the wind out. Because, like, it's like the clown on the swinging through the vines of the monkey, you know, thing, right? But, and before that, even the giant, like, even the giant Russian tank, like, that's, it's so plasticine. And it's just like, oh, they're doing all this fun stuff. But, like, it's weightless. So it feels, it feels like, okay, this drags to much because you're not really entirely immersed within the scene.
01:32:02
Speaker
And I think the train sequence really does, you know, get to the right for the borderline where you can make that effective. All the escalation. i' sorry so Sorry. I was just gonna say all the escalation feels grounded to that moment, even if it is absurd to the point of where like, I don't know that the train or the car would get dragged like this. Like you can, you know, like it's a computer effect. So there's the artifice of that, but like, it still feels grounded to the moment of like how it all built to that point. Like you can track the A to but, of how he got there. It's clean.
01:32:35
Speaker
Like, what what I actually do like about that scene, too, is how it wraps up as well, right? Because, like, I could definitely see people making fun of, like, Emily Blunt having a panic attack in this movie. um But I do like the fact that it's like, she's an ordinary person, and she just did an extraordinary thing, right? That's crazy, right? and Like, she almost died, yeah.
01:32:56
Speaker
Yeah, and in most movies, it's supposed to just be like, well, you made it, now get to the next thing, right? The fact that the movie does take its time in the middle of its climax to be like, okay, stop and calm down for a second.
01:33:07
Speaker
It's nice. You know, you don't even get that many Spielberg movies, so... Yeah, I do appreciate that beat. While we're talking about the the set pieces, I like the idea of ah like when when the government is raiding Hugo's base and Eminem Blunt uses the device to like turn them all invisible. like That's a cool setup. And I like the like invisible fire truck and all that. I just i almost just needed like one other level of escalation. like I almost feel like the classic kind of Spielberg thing is like, you know, ah how it keeps adding layers on top. And I was like, I don't add another thing. Like, i don't know either the government brings in something else to try and track them or like she turns another thing invisible. Cause they, they, he, he,
01:33:55
Speaker
Yeah, he he just me because I do like on one hand where we're ah um Colin Firth is just like there's two invisible trucks. They don't know which one to go after. He's just like, we know where they're going. Like, I like the logic of that where it's like, yes, he he knows where where what their ultimate goal is. He doesn't need to presume in that way. I just I just needed like an extra.
01:34:17
Speaker
like stretch of the chase. Yeah. I would have loved it. Like a classic Spielberg touch would have been like they're in those fire trucks and then they use the hoses to spray them down as they leave.
01:34:27
Speaker
You know, like something like that would have been fun, you know. um but like I what you're saying, Doug. It's like it's very clean and tidy how they leave the the space. It's just like, oh, we can see them on the...
01:34:40
Speaker
Heat monitor that they're there, but then they're doing things. One thing I will say is that there's no tension there. Like we know that they're going to get out of this safely. And from a ah thematic ah standpoint, i actually see what they're going for. And what they're going for is like the truth is undeniable, right? No matter how much...
01:34:59
Speaker
forces try to stop the truth from coming out, um it will eventually get in. And like whether that take like the next day or decades, that depends on the truth. Right. So I think that what this film is showing in action, especially in this third act, is that like, yes, the these people in the CIA are trying to stop it. But ultimately, this information coming out is inevitable because ultimately this information coming out is always inevitable.
01:35:28
Speaker
And I get that. I just I just want to see him try a little bit harder to stop him. You know, like until the end, I'm fine with like Colin Firth just giving up sitting down. That's great. But like up to that point, like let's let's like put a teensy bit more effort. Like you could already have some heat seeking tracking. I don't know. Bring out some. They said they reverse engineered stuff from the alien tech that they whip out some kind of special vehicle or thing to pursue them. You know, like just like so some some some kind of.
01:35:56
Speaker
extra edge. Cause like, yeah, we only see the bad guys use the device in one way. Like they, they, they figured out how to turn it into a tracking thing, but then that would be like a cool last express. Like, no, they actually have like some kind of offense, straight offensive capabilities with it that they, they're going to try to deploy as a last ditch effort. Yeah.
01:36:15
Speaker
And it would have been cooler if we saw more of how humans had integrated alien technology into modern day society. It's almost it's just
Collective Moments in Spielberg's Films
01:36:24
Speaker
just like kind of like take it for granted.
01:36:26
Speaker
Like most of our technological advancement stems from that rather than like drawing that parallel. It would have been more interesting if we had that kind of like in between where it's like, here's the tech the government doesn't want you to see. Okay. But like, actually, it was interesting that was the explanation. So why that thing can do all the shit it does. Cause all natively tied back to it, you know, like that's why I can show that look like, light that's why you can bypass all these codes. Cause it's there, everything is tied to this thing.
01:36:53
Speaker
Like on a, on a foundational level. It, And what if like on that note, right? Like what if when Emily Blunt uses it and it deteriorates, it affects other tech, right? Like imagine how interesting that would have been.
01:37:07
Speaker
it starts causing like like brownouts or blackouts like locally. Like it's like, yeah, it'll be like some some kind of surge. Or if you wanted to even i mean, I guess this is then just a different movie, but you just show like a slightly more advanced human society or subtly in terms of like the devices that people have. And then you'd be like, oh, that's interesting that that their phones are like that or something. And then you're like, oh, because it's all been, you know, like reverse engineered from alien tech. Yeah, exactly. Like, there is room there to build upon, but I feel like because it's so focused on this political message, it doesn't look at that stuff, even though, like, it it actually would have enriched the political stuff if it did that, you know what i mean? um And, like ah like, one thing I do like about this movie is, like,
01:37:53
Speaker
I don't think that, like, it's trying to say that news media is as important as it is, so much as it is saying, like, that collective moment, right? um So, like, you know, kind of moving to your ah tears a bit.
01:38:07
Speaker
I don't think this is about, like, the importance of broadcast news or whatever, like... It's just about like what's the most institutional way of getting this information across. And Spielberg himself was just limited by the time in which we are born, you know?
01:38:23
Speaker
he's He's advocating for the importance of the monoculture, that this is like some event or thing that we can all consume or take part in at the same time and that that will be changing. Except, it it yeah, it doesn't feel like it's reckoning with a moment where it's like, we don't have a monoculture anymore, like like even kind of even remotely. Like I allude to like the difference in how we consume news, but that's just like all media is like siloed in different ways. So the the only unifying thing is that it involves screens, but it's like we all have different shit on our screens. That's the main issue with this film, right? It's that now there are many multiple invented realities and this film is largely a response to COVID. But what's odd is that it doesn't actually come to terms with like what COVID caused.
01:39:12
Speaker
Right. It's more so talking about this global event that we all had to experience that caused generational strife, what have you. But at the same time, it just it like it doesn't have the full commentary on that. It is very fascinating that this is like Spielberg's first contemporary set film since War of the Worlds.
01:39:30
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so. Cause he was doing all, it was all a period pieces before, but yeah. And so, yeah, maybe because he hasn't been working in like the the modern times that like why he is slightly out of step because he's just like playing get catch up a little bit, but yeah, it is interesting. Like going back to the Shyamalan comparison and like Shyamalan also lapped him in terms of like COVID movie. Like, I just feel like, you know, like old is a better COVID statement. In terms of like but what was lost there and like how that affected us as people. I'm saying like Shyamalan fans will will i respond to this more.
01:40:09
Speaker
And like I can see on some level why you would say that because it has this very this very sort of lofty or idealistic kind of tone to like the human experience in a way that I think, well, Spielberg has a Tony Mekchay has been like the dreamer, you know?
01:40:25
Speaker
And that feels a little more little more sort staccato like M. Night can be. But I feel like M. Night would have made a found that and foundationally more interesting you know movie than some of the elements this would have been.
01:40:40
Speaker
You know, in terms of just in terms of relationships. I think that's a big countersign here. People like to be able to find out science and religion. I think science that ah had a bigger, more sweeping statement. mystery make on religious and discuss.
01:40:52
Speaker
That's the mistake that people are making is they're comparing this film to signs when really like thematically this film has more in common with The Happening, right? A movie that I love to make fun of, right? But actually what it has to say about how like news media and like the government disseminates this information and the disconnect between the people and reality, like that's all present within The Happening, right? ah The Happening doesn't get that right.
01:41:16
Speaker
disclosure is better movie than The Happening, right? But what Shyamalan gets what right in The Happening is this idea of like a spreading, like it's like something has happened and we're seeing how that information slowly spreads and becomes truth as it goes along. And I think that there's something interesting about that idea as it's in its ideas phase in the happening that doesn't work in its execution. And I think that Spielberg is weirdly going for a similar kind of conversation, is more successful at it.
01:41:49
Speaker
But there are other elements of Shyamalan movies that are more successful that you could compare to. so And also even that I don't think the Signs is a perfect movie. I actually would say that Signs and Disclosure Day are in similar camps where it's like I really admire what they're saying. I like how they're playing with the form, but I'm not sure if they're 100% successful 100% of the time.
01:42:09
Speaker
I mean, I'm not going to say that Signs is perfect, but I just feel like on an execution level, it just works. Like there's there's not really like any of... If you point out the flaws to I'll be like, yeah, yeah, sure. That's there. It's just I feel i feel like a it's so fine tuned in its execution of what it's doing that it's it's it's so effective.
01:42:30
Speaker
ah And so that's why I rank it pretty highly in terms Shyamalan movies. But even if you're going like. by more recent Shyamalan stuff like a knock at the cabins meditation on faith in a way that's like a kind of overly idealistic because people have bristled against the ending to that movie, especially in the changes it makes from from from from the novel that it that it's based off of in terms of like... kind of being
Spielberg's Optimism and Critique
01:42:54
Speaker
pro of like, like ah recognizing like, oh, this is super unfair that you're being asked to make the sacrifice, especially like a marginalized, a big ass to have a marginalized person, but saying that it's like, yeah, but you still, you still got to make that sacrifice that anyway, as opposed to like the book, which is like, you know, the the couple rejects that, you know, premise. ah But, you know, something else happens and it kind of makes the choice for it. I mean, people are like, oh that's much better. Like, that was it because kind of a zero sum game.
01:43:22
Speaker
you know, between the book and the novel at that at that level, you know? Anyway, I think that the movie does a good job in sense of, like, ah the world is unfair that these people live with him, right? Like, there's, ah like, an ultimate tragedy that exists with the knock of the cabin that makes it a compelling film, right? When it comes to, like, it being an effective ah depiction of representation, that's a different story that I could, you know, hear the argument on, you know? um When it comes to Shyamalan's idea of, like, an event that forces the world to come together or
01:43:57
Speaker
You know, rectify with the truth, you know, which is something that's present to happening is present of that film. Right. um I think that Shyamalan is similar to Spielberg in the sense that he's an optimist that love will prevail in the long run. Right. Right. Like used the world kind of like in the same way as like War of the Worlds. Right. Where it's like there will be struggle and then there will be resolution. Right. And what Disclosure Day is saying is that like no matter how bad things will get for humanity, there will be a point where we reach the brink and then we go, ah, let's pull it back. And then we fall back into a ah separate line.
01:44:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's overlap there. i just, I inherently, i just feel like Shyamalan, especially when he's talking about faith, is coming from a more earnest place or or sincere place. Philosophically, some of that point A to point B stuff with Shyamalan makes more sense. This is something that people deal with and think about.
01:44:56
Speaker
And in the Shuljur days, Whenever the religious stuff comes up, it's like, these are like robots talking religion, you know? i I don't get It's like you guys have to be keen to describe a religious argument.
01:45:08
Speaker
Like, no, I'm sorry. This is not how people talk. Like, I'm thinking about Like, ah like Doug and I, we just covered euphoria. Right. And there was all of this like ah Moses talk. Right. This idea of like the promised land. And then there's this idea of like, you know, planting the trees that you won't see to grow.
01:45:26
Speaker
Right. This idea of, ah you know, creating a better future that you're you yourself are not going to see. Right. Like Furiosa. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. And ah with ah with Spielberg in this, and and in the action of him doing this film, I feel like this is somebody who's like, I know that my generation really fucked up, right? And he's going like,
01:45:49
Speaker
I know that I'm not going to live to see whether like we turn this thing around or if people hold that accountable. But I think that he's making like his intention clear where he's saying like, I was a part of or I was witness to a lot of things that were just of the time and I let it happen. And I don't know if that was the right thing to do. i think that that's an interesting question the film brings up. If like the Spielberg detractors, like the he is giving them their ammo.
01:46:20
Speaker
I just wish he like I agree that that's in there and he probably feels that I just kind of want the film to grapple with that more because it's like kind of throwing these things up in the air. And then it's just like, all right, movies over. And again, I don't need to see the aftermath of the the disclosure or them to like.
01:46:37
Speaker
spell that out for me but in terms of like these these themes which are interesting themes I I i want them like interrogated a little more it's like well because they like like yeah if you're gonna bring it up like let's let's let's dig in a little bit like I know like it's it's already a two and a half hour almost it's like a two hour 20 minute movie but it's like well you you took the time to bring that thing up so let's let's like let's let's dive in a little bit this This might be a little bit of a hacky opinion, but I truly believe it.
01:47:09
Speaker
um I believe that this film and Highest to Lowest have the exact same positives and negatives. can agree. I feel like Highest to Lowest and this one. Sorry?
01:47:19
Speaker
hi agree. Yeah, it's it's like, it's still the work of a master, and it's a master who is of a different era, who is questioning his own era, right? But is not perfect in terms of landing that cultural and anthropological critique.
01:47:35
Speaker
um So it's like, it's interesting in terms of the questions it's raised. It's just not 100% successful. um But it's still a worthy ah outing because it brings up those questions in a ways that people, you know, usually wouldn't, you know? Ridley Scott could never make this movie, you know? like Like Spielberg is doing something only an artist could do, right? um But it's the question of whether or not he's fully on the same level of of of a kubrick or even a spike lee or even compare both of those movies highs to lows and this to megalopolis which you want to be an interrogation you know coppola brought the sun ah having an interrogation of like his place in the culture and his culpability and stuff but then that movie just lands at like i'm a fucking genius like you guys you guys need me it's just him jerking off You know, like, and that the ambiguity is like is a cop out because like we don't actually see the utopia in that. But that's just because he's just being late. Like I've seen the defense of like, well, how can you even show utopia? It's such a abstract concept. Like you could, ah Star Trek, you can show you could show utopia. It's possible. I'm bringing up the questions that we can't be discussing about. you Discussed it in the movie.
01:48:52
Speaker
to Do the discussion there. Okay, that's what the movie is for. No, we're having a discussion about discussions. That's what Megalophon is. like It's like it's time to talk about having a talk. It's the Noah Wiley. I'm glad that my uncle or whoever stood up for something, but they're just talking about their family member who was in the Confederacy. Right. That whole joke.
01:49:16
Speaker
ah Doug, you remember that? You know, like it's nothing to do with like the actual ideas. It's just the idea that there are ideas. Right. And that's something that you can like if we're talking about like ranking like filmmakers who are in the latter stage of their careers and the worthiness of what their films have to say. Like Megalopolis is on the bottom of that rung.
01:49:36
Speaker
Right. And when it comes to like what Spielberg does with Disclosure Day, it's a far more legible film. I understand what he's saying. You know, even if it's not as successful, I'm sorry, even if it's not as successful in nailing those themes as it hopes to be, it's still more successful than a megalopolis, which its version of a utopia, its version of a perfect world, or the ways things ought to be are far more detached than Spielberg. You can definitely say Spielberg is detached, but you can clearly tell that he knows that things are not going in the right direction. There is a sense that America is careening towards collapse. Yeah. Elvis, you have something to say? don't know. I was trying to hit the mute button. said you raised your hand earlier.
01:50:21
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah, but I agree, Tony. Yeah, because like the Coppola's vision of Utopia is just like a ah shining city that has the like moving sidewalks like those, the the the, you know, things at the airport where you just stand and they you move on like that. That's he's like, that's Utopia. Yeah. We have those in the cities. um You got to bring it back to the whole like neo-Roman kind of thing of it. It's like, we look at the Megalopalon whatever it's called. Megalon.
01:50:53
Speaker
Whatever it's called in that and that movie. It's like crystal spires and and old school like 40s sci-fi Roman inspired bullshit. It's like, oh okay. so People call this like a throwback. That movie is a real throwback in terms of like, we're not going doing anything in terms of how we're going to disrupt our utopia of society.
01:51:15
Speaker
Well, in this Disclosure Day also has a catch-all MacGuffin in terms of the device. They don't even give it like an actual name. I think they just only call it the device in terms of like it can do all these different things. But for me, that works way better than Megalon because Megalon does like literally everything. And the device seems to have multiple applications, but... They are semi-intuitive, at least in terms of, like, it makes sense that that would be, like, how a human could figure out its applications. and And the fact that it is something alien and beyond us of, like, well, yeah, we're only scratching the surface of, like, what you can do with this thing.
01:51:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's scratching the surface, but like the the surface that it's scratching is like the appropriate questions, even if it doesn't drill into it appropriately. Right. Like the reason I was bringing up these older filmmakers is because there's this like, you know, question of late period style and like how cognizant these people are in terms of like the messages that they're getting across and how effectively they're doing that. Right. And like, if we're looking at the pinnacle of that peak, right? Like I would look at like Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Movement, right? And like... You can make an argument for that being his best move. Like Casino's probably still it for me, but it's like as a statement and then as just like in terms of its execution, ah nailing that, just that story, but our moment in terms of like that's going to age well as like a definitive statement of like where we're at now.
01:52:48
Speaker
Especially like in terms of like, you know, looking back at like movies that came out like during, you know, ah the the ga Gaza genocide and stuff of like, here's how people respond to tragedy to tragedy and, you know, mass, the ah you know, just genocidal events, that the how how those are written off. Like that feels like the definitive statement on that.
01:53:10
Speaker
the the The native people marching in the parade with the Ku Klux Klan members, right, is one of the most provocative things in cinema, like decades, you know, like that's that's like something that like, you know, Spielberg could never do. But the reason I'm saying that is because like Spielberg, and when making this movie, thinks that he's doing his own killers of the flower move.
01:53:31
Speaker
Right. And all of these intentions. Right. And it's like, I applaud the approach. Not sure if the execution is there. But he does seem aware of his limits to some degree. Like, I feel like that is a strength of this movie is, is that he does know that he has shortcomings ah as a filmmaker, just like as, you know, someone of his generation of just like his perspective on, on the world.
01:53:58
Speaker
It's just that, Even if he's aware of those limitations, it it it still leaves something to be desired in terms of how he addresses the these themes. So like
Ranking Spielberg's Films
01:54:10
Speaker
i I bristle against you know some of how ah the you know the ending is executed with with those themes, and I totally get... you know, audience is bouncing off against it. So like, like the divisive reactions to this movie ah make a lot of sense. I mean, people going to the extreme of like, this is the worst movie I've ever seen is is crazy. I mean, that's just like the internet, I guess. Like people have to be hyperbolic of like, you could just say you didn't like the thing. like you don't have to but go all the way. Cause like the, the, my issues with the ending don't,
01:54:43
Speaker
you know retroactively make me enjoy the how we got there any less engaging or or fun but I could see that like kind of being a deal breaker for other people and it seems like it is for some other people in terms of like yeah I don't know if I can fuck with this movie because it it just seems so tone deaf or like yeah out of out of step with what's going on and ah I get I think that's fair Steven Spielberg growing up was a legitimate Boy Scout, right? So like when it comes to his sunshiny worldview of America or whatever, it's ingrained within him for better or worse. I think it's actually more interesting that he has that Rosebud
01:55:23
Speaker
idea of the world because he also recognizes that he is at fault in some way for viewing the world that way. Right. When it comes to the things that people have said in response to this movie this weekend, you know, I've heard so much as like, you know, he ruined Hollywood, you know, yeah he should apologize for the films he's made, you know, he sells things like that, you know, and the reality is just like, you Like there is no one individual who is that evil to put that on. You can make the argument of like Spielberg inspiring those things. But at the same time, like what you're complaining about is not necessarily what Spielberg contributed, but necessarily what like capitalist exploitation of any industry did. You know, the problems within the film industry are the same within like
01:56:13
Speaker
diamond mining or anywhere else, you know? Like, the to the think that it was just Spielberg, sorry, to think that Spielberg is anything but a symptom rather than, like, you know, the cause is silly in my eyes, you know? So, like, when it comes to this analysis of Spielberg, like, it doesn't matter what those people say because Spielberg has already proven himself in the films he's made to be someone that will be rectified with in the history books from now on, right?
01:56:42
Speaker
The thing that's going to be interesting is how the world shifts and how that relationship will change to how we can see ah perceive American entertainment on the whole.
01:56:52
Speaker
Yeah, i I agree with with all that. um If we don't have if there's are there any other specific scenes you guys want to highlight? Because i kind of wanted to like segue to like I i don't know if I'll do like my full Spielberg rate i mean because it's so many movies. But, you know, I was sharing like my top top 10. And then I, you know, say we're we're disclosure date. Disclosure is not in the top 10, but, you know, I'll say we're like like where where that that that falls or so something. But if you guys had any kind of rankings you wanted to share, we could do that. But Disclosure Day, like, were were there any scenes like big scenes that we missed over? Like, we we only, like, kind of briefly talked about Coleman Domingo. And, like, it was more just, like, as his... frame
01:57:40
Speaker
narrative function but like he's more of narrative he's more of a yeah fuck framing kind of structure for the film we're always checking out with him he's giving the thing some some minor decisions to repulse what the narrative is from set piece to set piece so he's not really that much to talk about him specifically um so yeah um a lot of this is just like che what makes this movie work for what it does is that it big chunks of like you
01:58:10
Speaker
set up to a big explosive payoff and then we we're clocking on the timer again until the next big pop off you know so I think everybody covered most of everything you go on it like the actual sort of structure of the film like and we covered most of what it actually shows you know The half the farmhouse tape.
01:58:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think i think so. be um The scene. And all that. don't think there's anything else. Okay. 2012, still there's a filmography. Okay, yeah, so...
01:58:44
Speaker
ah um um i'll I'll rattle off my, ah here here or here are my top 10, going from 10. I'll start towards, but I have 10, Munich, 9, Raiders of the Lost Ark, 8 is Jaws, and that this is where maybe it starts to get sacrilegious. 7, I have Duel.
01:59:06
Speaker
ah Six Close Encounters of of Third Kind, five Last Crusade, four Jurassic Park, three ai two The Fablements, and then I have a Minority Report at number one. i mean, for a while I was i was putting...
01:59:27
Speaker
I was saying AI is number one for a while is my my favorite because like ah my first viewing, I definitely bumped off of it. Or I was just like, I liked it or parts of it, but I was just like, this is really weird. i don't know how i feel about this. And then like the weirdness of that, like just made it grow in my life because of how much it sticks out in Spielberg's filmography. But while still very much being thematically linked to like ah his his other work, Uh, but, but yeah, I also just, uh, the, there's a reason to see bias with the Fablements, but I've already rewatched that movie so many times. And I just, and not just as a turnkey for like how you view him and, and his filmography, just like as a, as a narrative, like it's just those performances are so like, I feel like some of the the best performances he's gotten out of actors, like of those specific actors, like even in their careers, like that's one of my favorite Paul Dano performances. Yeah.
02:00:22
Speaker
Uh, and just, uh, the, the, the kid, they get to play Sam Lee Fableman. I was like, like Gabriel LeBell, like what a discovery. Like he's fucking tears it up. Like he probably even should have been nominated. Like, like it, I, I, I love that performance in that movie.
02:00:40
Speaker
And then minority report, like, yeah, I don't know. i just, As far as dystopian sci-fi goes, like, especially like 2000s dystopian sci-fi, like, to me, that's just like the gold standard. Like, like, I think Scott Frank's script is like so efficient in terms of like how it gives the exposition.
02:01:01
Speaker
exposition Like I think about the but the scene where they're explaining like how the balls and the precogs work to Colin Farrell. It's like, it's so well done. And then once you get to the action, it's just, it's just like a nonstop chase. And I, I, I fucking, I fucking love, like, I think that's one of Tom Cruise's best performances. Like the scene where he's confronting w the guy he thinks killed his son Like, and he's like, he clearly wants to kill this guy, but also knows he can't. Like it's, it's, it's fucking some of, it's some of my favorite shit in Spielberg movies. I'm glad that you love minority report that much. And as you were doing this, like i was like, okay, I'll do a top 10. I was just looking through his list and I actually wrote down a top 21. Like I literally was just able to do it just based on gut.
02:01:53
Speaker
And I think that it's, more traditional than I would give it credit for, but you guys can be the judge of that. And I'll only stop when there are specific films I want to talk about. ah But number 21 is The Post. Number 20 is Sugar Land Express.
02:02:07
Speaker
Number 19 is Lincoln. Number 18 is AI. Number is Minority Report. Number 16 is Tintin.
02:02:17
Speaker
Number 15 is War of the Worlds. Number 14 is Bridge of Spies. um Bridge of Spies is a really underrated one. I think Mark Rylance is fantastic in it. And ah like when it comes to Spielberg trying to make Tom Hanks like his guy, like that was the most successful that ever was. um Then there's Munich, Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan uses... um like Because cause ah Spielberg does, even in Minority Report, shoot on ah higher shutter speed, right? Saving Private Ryan is like a great example of how shooting on higher shutter speed is just not something that people used as effectively as they could have. After Saving Private Ryan is Duel at number 11. Then number 10 is West Side Story. ah Then number nine is Catch Me If You Can.
02:03:07
Speaker
um Then number eight is Raiders of the Lost Ark. um Number seven is Schindler's List. I feel like Schindler's List is kind of underrated at this point, you know? Like people always go like, oh yeah, Schindler's List is great, you know? But if you go back and you actually watch, sorry, you you said that, you said that.
02:03:28
Speaker
yeah Okay, well, you make your case in a second. But what i will say is that I do think that film holds up extremely well. Like, I do watch that film every couple of years, and I'm like, is does it still work for me? And I think as, like, some kind of historical... kind of ah you know, monument, you know, like it's what you would want, you know, something in terms of Holocaust information in film form to be.
02:03:55
Speaker
I get the criticisms that people like Hanneke have leveled at it, you know, and I think that those are valid criticisms. At the same time, I think there are spaces for all kinds of films on the subject matter. um Moving away from Schindler's list at number six is The Fablemans. um After that is ah The Last Crusade at number five.
02:04:13
Speaker
ah Number four will be E.T. I have the E.T. soundtrack in its entirety saved on my phone. So like I'll just be going about my day and I'll just hear E.T. songs. I could hum the entire soundtrack to myself. Number three is Jaws.
02:04:28
Speaker
Number two is Close Encounters. Number one is Jurassic Park. All right. Yeah. Hell Actually, Shinler is on my list. I put Shinler on the list, okay? So, I mean, I think it's underrated too. less stuff I got 10 down here.
02:04:43
Speaker
i would i would have been like maybe top 12, but strictly 10. And I'm going to try to rank him as I go. So I wrote it down like at a quick hurry. So here we go. Number 10 would be The Fableman, okay?
02:04:56
Speaker
Fantastic. I hope Gregory LaBelle like grows out a beard and wears caps when he's older. Just fucking lean into it. Okay? okay but Why not? Why not? Okay. I'd like to be around forever.
02:05:08
Speaker
They should do a sequel. They should do it. They should do a sequel once he's older. Like, just do it. All right. It's like a social reckoning. It's about the Twilight Zone. Oh, man. I would watch that. So the favorite one is number 10. Number nine would be Close Encounter. Okay. want to be Close Encounters.
02:05:31
Speaker
Number eight would be ai and Okay. I like AI. I wish that most people um knew about it. Let's see. Number seven would be, let's see here, War of the World.
02:05:50
Speaker
Okay. Number six would be, let's see here. I think it's the best one, but you know objectively looking at it, would be Temple of Doom.
02:06:00
Speaker
Okay. Um, number five would be the year. Raiders. Um, four. Did say Schindler's Glitz yet?
Spielberg's Film Magic and Techniques
02:06:11
Speaker
Okay. You did. Did I say Schindler's yet? I said Schindler's 10. You didn't say Schindler. No, thought you said it lower down. like Oh, okay. yeah Okay, so number five. Number the number five. number Number four is Schindler's.
02:06:26
Speaker
Okay, number four is Schindler's Glitz. And number three is Adventures of Tinkins. and Okay. Number two is Jaws. at Number one is Last Crusade. was going to fucking rock.
02:06:38
Speaker
Hell yeah. yeah so Crazy. but So so is is is Last Crusade the best movie to ever have people running off into the sunset? Probably. You know? Yeah. Yeah. probably you know yeah Right?
02:06:53
Speaker
like yeah Like, I can't think of a ah a more perfect ending for that movie. And then should have been the end of the last time we saw that character in movie form ever. But, you know, yeah it's it is what it is.
02:07:12
Speaker
Can we talk about Jurassic Park a bit? You know, because one thing, like Elvis, I noticed you didn't talk about Jurassic Park. I'm not trying call you that. I'm a bookhead. I'm a bookhead. I know. I know you don't.
02:07:23
Speaker
The meaning, other than the parts that are about Jurassic Park, is my favorite Jurassic Park movie. the parts that are not about to the park, get rid of that. Everything out of town. Phenomenal Jurassic Park shit.
02:07:34
Speaker
Okay. the So what the locusts are? Like that's some, that I want to say there's a need more dinosaurs. No, the, so of the, throat of the, the subject engine and all that, not engine, biocent.
02:07:46
Speaker
Right. And like the locusts that they have. Yes. That they created that are destroying all the crops. That's like something that would be in the book. that That's the kind of stuff that Michael Cranston loves. Yeah. That would be in a Cranston novel. and so That's what I love about it. i like I like that idea. It's just so boringly executed in the... I don't know. But then everything else is like, oh, i remember they recreated the logo. See, the Tyrannosaurus walked past a circle. Like...
02:08:13
Speaker
You know, shoot me, man. Yeah, it's blatant. blatant so I do like that. Like the the thing I like about the original Jurassic Park is that like in a weird way, it's like ah critiquing capitalism, the ways that Disclosure Day is. But instead, from the perspective of like Disney World, you know, themed attractions, right? Hyper exploitation of just like spaces that people go to. um And I think that when it comes to theme parks, as they exist within our larger society, they're a weird thing, you know?
02:08:43
Speaker
And I think that ah the fact that something like Jurassic Park exists where it can link ah that kind of attraction to, um you know, actual pain wrought upon through scientific examination— it's ah It's a fascinating fascinating co and concoction. and But also, i Elvis, I do think you're right in the sense that Michael Crichton's take of it on it would have a more dire and scientific approach. And I would like to see somebody else take that. I just think that that film is like a complete like yeah blockbuster experience. It's a fine film. Like the complete, like you know. just can't mind that much. child like i I like it, but like and I keep reminding, oh man, it's been so good.
02:09:23
Speaker
Or like, damn, that's little bit too corny. I wish they played a little bit more straight, you know? feel like that i is always like inundating my head a lot when I watch it. Like, I can't get out of it. But it's fun. I like the cartoons. The cartoon rock. The cartoon rock? The cartoon rock?
02:09:38
Speaker
I think it's underrated, like, how good the effects are, too, in Jurassic Park. Like, that we we we kind of take for granted how we we can, like, make anything look like anything now. But it's like, though that was the most convincing the dinosaurs ever looked. Like, it was just good strategic blend of they knew their limits, what they can do with computers, and then, like, you know, having... ah practical animatronics to back back it up, but like it looks way better than any the recent Jurassic World. Like those, like the dinosaurs look, they look shitty in that.
02:10:12
Speaker
ah Like, ah go back and watch the old behind the scenes featurettes on Jurassic Park. Like those are such a great like, ah like they spend more time talking about like Ray Harryhausen than they do like but the work they did on Jurassic Park in those. Right. So it's like clearly they knew what they were doing in terms of melding these different kinds of effects.
02:10:35
Speaker
with one another And that's actually something that's lost in modern digital ah effects, right? Is they'll just be like, well, we've got a computer that can make a dinosaur. So we just use the computer to make the dinosaur every time. But this was a film where it was like, okay, we use ah a computer shot for this shot. And then we cut from that to like a rubber hand. And then we cut from that to a stop motion, you know? Right. It's that melding of all of those things that make it seamless and then ultimately something that your eye just can't discern between one or the other. It's that idea of the magician's trick that makes Jurassic Park ah such an important film for me.
02:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's just like, those are real dinosaurs. it's like They work. When the internet comes close, it starts at two point. It still holds up to this day. It's a great so Star Trek. Star Trek 2.
02:11:24
Speaker
Star Trek Troopers. Oh, yes. so The effects in that film. Great. that The interesting thing about those effects is like if you were just to look at them, right, if you were just to like take the stills and look at the effects in that movie, they don't look real.
02:11:43
Speaker
But then because of the way the film is shot, because it's all in daylight, overexposed, all that stuff, it really makes it work. It looks more real. realistic than a lot of the stuff that we see in motors. One thing that makes effects like that look a lot better is that we know they're not meant to be real.
02:12:01
Speaker
So you you're you're you mentally give them a little more pat than something that's meant to look Completely real. do you
Verhoeven's Legacy and Satire
02:12:09
Speaker
see someone, who is a real person. And let the CGI is fuzzy. That looks like shit.
02:12:14
Speaker
like This is like a ah spider creature that's like 90% right angle. Okay, whatever. You can look a little dodgy a little bit. And you're just going to like kind of go with it. Because it's not meant to look real. But it must look exaggerated. It must look unique and stylized.
02:12:28
Speaker
So you like you give it you know a little bit more of a mental leeway. And that's what's going to go to dinosaurs too. Yeah, exactly. yeah what's What's the next Fairhove coming out? ah what doing Oh, tell something. I thought he had something. Young, young, yeah young sinner. Yeah. It's like a young staffer, Washington, D.C. walks for working for a powerful center is drawn to a web of international intrigue and danger. And I heard it supposed to be like, yeah, very sex sexy and kinky. ah I think it's the writer of. Yeah. A Verhoeven movie? Having sex stuff? That's unheard of.
02:13:06
Speaker
ah It's the writer of RoboCop, too. He's back with Starship Troopers and RoboCop. Yeah, yeah. That great. did Didn't they also write Showgirls? Neumeier? Was Neumeier on Showgirls? me check. I'm not sure. I'm genuinely asking. don't think so. He would have mentioned it. They like the more it's like it up.
02:13:26
Speaker
They do shit together. Says Joe Esterhub. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Flash that. Yeah, no, he he he no he didn't he didn't do Showgirls. Okay, that's good. Good for him. But but when it comes to... Robocop's one of the best action movies ever, movie right?
02:13:43
Speaker
and we Correct. Do we all agree? Yep. like you like I've got like the Steelbook Blu-ray over there, right? like That's one of my most watched Blu-rays. It's just like... One of the best action movies, gold standard for like satire. Like it's just it's doing everything at the top level ever. Peter Weller is giving like one of the greatest like blockbuster performances of all time. I mean, just like in his physicality, but then also just like in his face. Like it's it's great stuff.
02:14:14
Speaker
Let me call you a crisis counselor. Right. Cool. Like, great. Like, I keep telling him, but like, also, I love the undercurrent. Like, yeah, and if you don't, I'm probably like, I'll tell you, kids, you'll stay on the dry check. I love it.
02:14:32
Speaker
you know do we have any like final thoughts on Spielberg like like I'm sure we'll talk about Spielberg again because like I I want to talk more about like some of his older films even some of the ones we didn't mention you know like because he's made so many interesting I mean like we you you highlight Bridge of Spies I would definitely do like a Bridge of Spies episode especially like not just within his filmography that like like being you unique, but it's like that it's a Spielberg doing a Coen brothers script. Like that's fucking crazy. Like, yeah.
02:15:05
Speaker
Isn't Steve Buscemi in it too? Like it's, there's, there's some weird things with that movie. Yeah. So that, that, that's a great movie, but like what what I'm getting at is just like, yeah he's such a big figure, you know? So it's like, ah if there's anything else we wanted to touch on in terms of him, I mean, for me, like the only, the only full on miss for me, where it's like, even the ones that I would say are lesser, like I still get something out. It's really just ready
Hits and Misses: Ready Player One
02:15:30
Speaker
player one. Like there's like, just not like any, initially I was like, well, at least there's the shining scene. But now I get mad at that. Cause I'm just like, I could just watch the shiny. like ah You're just, you're just doing it again. is so, it's so, I know at the beginning is by saying, yeah, I know I don't hate it. and I don't, but it's so fucking empty. It's like, it's like,
02:15:51
Speaker
Oh, it's like 11 o'clock. You've taken like an edible or two. If you need to go to sleep, just put it on. This is a fucking soundtrack and it's knockout. You know, that's it. It's a month. Like the set pieces are so juiceless. Like I've seen people like post that opening race of like, ah, he, he has it. Like no no one, no one does this stuff like, like Spielberg. I'm like, that's not a good example of what he does. Like, like,
02:16:17
Speaker
There's so much going on, but there's no tactile sense to it. it's It's so fluidly, but not fluid in a way that's like cool or like kinetic. It's fluid in that weightless.
02:16:28
Speaker
you know, it's it's ridiculous. Yeah. Weightless is the key. where Like you get that one scene where they're in that opening sequence where like he crashes into somebody. He he does like a drift in the DeLorean and he grabs the coins and they fly into the car. You're like, all that's very clean visually. It's a classic Spielberg thing, but there's no weight to it. So it doesn't have the same kind of stakes. Right. With Ready Player One, most of the people who hate Spielberg like that movie because it leans into the things that, like, his detractors say of him, right? That's the most damning film of his career in that sense, right? I don't think that, like, the the thing is, is that you can't talk about Spielberg's career without talking about Ready Player One just as much as you can't talk about Spielberg's career without talking about Disclosure Day, right? it's just from a different direction, right? Yeah. ready player one ready player one is the cynical way of taking it where it's like he is fully he's wrapped the blanket around him right and he's like we're going fully into the nostalgia and and that's that right and and he does have a commentary on there but it's just not enough right and i and this closure day is the opposite direction right where it's like that is where his our heart is more earnestly but because uh
02:17:41
Speaker
Spielberg agnostic or haters view them the other direction. Ready Player One does actually confirm their biases. and know versus Yeah. Well said. ah I also don't love BFG, but I don't like get mad about it. Like it's kind of just like it.
02:17:57
Speaker
it it Nothing, nothing, nothing from it has stayed with me. Like uh, i I can remember parts of Ready Player One because they make me mad. Whereas
West Side Story Adaptations
02:18:07
Speaker
like BFG is almost like a neutral miss where I'm just like, yeah, whatever. Who cares? BFG has always been really kind of silly. now and then He went to Prime Minister and showed him the fart dream. Who cares?
02:18:21
Speaker
Okay.
02:18:24
Speaker
like the The real question would be like, what's the more annoying film, the BFG or 1941? Right. Like what, what would you rather watch next? You know? And it's like a real, God, God, God. I don't know if I can do either. Yeah. i have to watch the full movie. Like i have to watch all of 1941 or could I just like do like, I don't know, like 15 minute chunks.
02:18:47
Speaker
All of the Jim Belushi's sequences. And that's like 30 Yeah, I can do, I could do that. almost ah Yeah, I think that's that's all I got to say on Spielberg. I mean, i could I could go into the other parts of my list. I don't want to my whole list. My only hot takes are like, I do have E.T. ranked lower, not because it's a lesser movie, because like I watched the shit like...
02:19:14
Speaker
like probably one of my more rewatched childhood movies. It just, uh, and it does like, if I'm grading on the the curve of like, how effectively does the movie do what it's attempting to do? Like then, you know, ET is pretty much like a fla flawless movie. It's just what it's doing is less effective for me now as an adult. It just doesn't, you know, it it doesn't, it doesn't, doesn't hit the same way. So that's why it's lower, you know, like it's not, it's not because I'm like, yeah, that movie sucks. It's just, yeah.
02:19:41
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Whereas other but ah Spielberg movies I loved as a kid still still hit. Like Jurassic Park is kind of only grown in in my estimation in my estimation or like my enjoyment of it. Like I get more out of it.
02:19:54
Speaker
Whereas like, yeah, E.T. kind of just plateaued in terms of like what I was able to to draw from it. I don't like West Side Story. I think it sucks. I feel... Do you like the original? You know why?
02:20:05
Speaker
Because it wasn't it was made back then and brownface was still socially acceptable. Okay? And b because... Don't... Don't explain. Don't explain. Because back then, it was still... Hear me out. Hear me out. I should say this. Okay? Okay? I'm doing that card. Okay? ah Time canceling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're giving him the pass. You're like Robert Wise. You've got it. Everyone was doing it, okay? Everyone was doing it. So that makes more sense to me. If that was made right now, that made right now, I'd be like, of course, this is terrible.
02:20:42
Speaker
Graph face is not acceptable right now. So let's judge it by the time. So why is the style at the time? don't. What it's like, sorry, is made like in current day.
02:20:52
Speaker
And I'm sorry, but Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose do not speak like that. Okay? So them doing that kind of shit is you it's more racist to me than the brown face. Wow!
02:21:04
Speaker
Wow! She does not speak like that hugely stereotypical perfect accent. She does not speak like that. So that is like, why the fuck are you talking like that?
02:21:16
Speaker
Like, it's like narrow to the ears. But so acting. about okay um like that and Also, I think that's so so grand.
02:21:30
Speaker
and like And I think that pulls away from the fact that it's about these kids in like an inner city environment. And so when you have like these big sweeping sequences, like when Tony goes out and he's doing Maria's song, and you see like fireworks in the sky, like this is ruining that song.
02:21:44
Speaker
This is like, this is ruining that sequence. Like this is like a complete misfire on what that sequence is going to be. But the kids walking down these city streets on these, you know, granite sidewalks,
02:21:56
Speaker
You know, he's like, Maria, like just wistfully. And I think the original movie, which I've heard it's like that most beautiful part, sorry, one of the most beautiful shots in that film is when he just kind runs and then like skips a little bit, but he stops himself in front that giant green kind of like, you know, a background with the glass, giant green glass. Like, that's so beautiful to me. And then when you get that, Elgort going, Maria, and like 15 fireworks are in the sky. Like, kill me. This is so fucking over the top.
02:22:25
Speaker
um And I feel like to the entire film. I don't like it at all. I will give you that in in the Spielberg version, the Tony and Maria of it all, ah even though I really like Rachel Zegler in it, like that there, it's kind of like one of the least interesting aspects ah of it for me, like in terms like where I'm locked in, like, ah I'm kind of like more like every other character and everything around them is is more of a pull. Whereas like, I think for yeah like Ansel Elgort is kind of ah a non-entity, even though I enjoy movies. He's it like, I like Baby Driver, but you could replace him with another actor in pretty much all the things that I've seen him in. And it's not like I'll be like, no, only he can can play that role. From the proof of context, Shark or Baby Driver.
02:23:14
Speaker
Nick Sauce, Simon Pegg, annoying guy everyone hates, you know, should have used all of them. I like that board in David Dazford itself, really. Yeah. totally Like, let's erase Ansel Elgort from film history. I agree with you. um And when it when it comes to West Side Story, I do agree that, like, even though some of the um environments are more organic than the original film, the staginess of the remake is... ah more artificial right i and i do think that there are elements of the first film that are better like i think that the music is handled better and how it is in the remake but i do think that the remake is like some of those dance sequences right like it's like incredible it's a technical marvel it's a technical marvel um but is that opposite end you know yeah
02:24:07
Speaker
Hey, said your piece, you know, I can't argue with that. You know, you like that's that's an argument. It also gave us Mike Mike face or face or however you say his name. Like like i i ah I feel like we're not seeing enough of him posts. Like, I mean, yeah, challengers is great, but that was like two years ago. now Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Homoeroticism and Media Realism
02:24:28
Speaker
Bike riders is underrated. yeah the show i fun the kiing thingme Imagine riders.
02:24:33
Speaker
I get the book. It didn't include a scene where those two guys make out bullshit. it It was, um, it was, well, I, I don't know if they thought it would be too on the nose because it's already so homoerotic that they're like, well, if we just show guys kissing, it's like, that's, that's a hat on a hat or something. ba it but This is completely unrelated to anything that we've been talking about, but I saw this on Twitter while we were recording and like Wayne Wilson did an interview with Fox News and he said that you couldn't make The Office today because but of Woke.
02:25:08
Speaker
Like, which which part of The Office could you not do? i mean... What you think? um my so Michael, Michael, Kevin's chilly today. and but Michael does like racial blunders, but like you can make comedies where the guy gets race stuff wrong. Like, I don't know. That's still de doable. Like, i i actually think the racial blunders were really funny in the office because he was ultimately always the villain. Like right the show was always like going like what he is doing is wrong. Yeah. This guy is so stupid. Right. That was always the joke.
The Office: Cultural and Career Impact
02:25:42
Speaker
aty office The American version is a toned out version of the original office, which has even darker jokes. You can't make the office that's bad even.
02:25:49
Speaker
Apparently. Yeah. I thought I did. Did Michael make that joke? That was really awkward. Everyone's mad and sad. You know, no, he didn't. So, you know, stupid good argument.
02:26:01
Speaker
There you go. Also, I love that Rayne Wilson. I remember he comes up again. My first memory now is always like a couple of years ago. It's like, The Office didn't make me a movie star. And that's I'm sad right now. like Like, huge. site thought gots your lasting legacy I just tried to complain about that.
02:26:16
Speaker
I'm sorry. Third leading man from Sahara. Like they gave him a chance. they They tried to put him in stuff. It just didn't claim. Like, yeah, super was like the best deployment of him. Like he's fucking rules and that.
02:26:31
Speaker
Why do you say this to the rocker? You know, if you can't parlay. what do you say yeah Oh, yeah. The rocker. Right. Or or or what about a hasher? Right. ah Which is like a Joseph Gordon-Levitt version of the rocker.
02:26:43
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, his fault. No. It is his fault. Yeah. All right. ah the Elvis, do you
Spider-Man Games and Content
02:26:50
Speaker
have anything to plug? down Yeah, you can find me on Unsocial. Plugs! Plugs! These two guys most of the time.
02:26:57
Speaker
It used to be just me just rambling, but now I'll be there 99% of the time when I'm glad to have them. Okay. ah yeah And we're happy to be there. We're doing like the Spider-Man era, you know, starting next weekend. Yeah.
02:27:12
Speaker
Three of time. I can't wait. I can't. Go, Webb, sorry Sorry, Doug. this is ah This is an audio medium, right? So when you were making those sounds, its right, I was... All right. I hope to see you guys here again, and we're having a lot of fun.
02:27:31
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Especially after children of the after 11 children of the corn movies. It's like this is.
02:27:45
Speaker
You know, like Elvis, like a dark part of me agrees with you. It's like Stockholm Syndrome. Yes. And also, I can't wait to talk about Spider-Man as a franchise because I just want to see how many different ways I can incorporate ah the Spider-Man ah PlayStation 2 game, like Spider-Man 2 game. That's one of my all-time favorite video games. And I feel like that's the oh like that's the perfect representation of the character, really.
02:28:13
Speaker
I mean, that and the Ultimate Spider-Man game are pretty much the... p I mean, if you want to add like a third one in there, Web of Shadows was was pretty good. was good, but pretty good. Yeah, I'll add a lot of ones before I get to the Insomniac ones, which are like... I'm like, yeah, on a technical, it's fun to swing around and it looks like an HD version of, you know, Spider-Man 2. It just doesn't... It's not as fun. No.
02:28:38
Speaker
Have you ever played the Miles Morales one? Uh, no. Okay. So in the Miles Morales one, there's a side mission where essentially you have to go around the city and record different samples to make a song.
02:28:52
Speaker
Right. And at the end of the mission, you get to hear the song through all the different sound effects. Oh, that's kind cool. Yeah. It's kind of cool, but then you hear the final song. It's the fucking worst song you've ever heard. Like, it's it's it's really bad. um if you could, like when you're when we're done recording. Maybe that's a character choice of like, well, he's actually not good at sound mixing. You're like, you know, he can't do everything.
02:29:16
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's more of a SoundCloud rapper. We've totally taken away from him. No, no, I'm sorry. guys like we we Like I like i at least say for myself, I am very excited to talk Spider-Man. I am too. The actual cut, no point one, the most cheating, okay?
02:29:32
Speaker
Yep. No, yeah no, no, not, not cuts. Right. We're not watching the open. Well, you know, that's ah cheap the content of the film's the same. yeah Maybe I just like the colors better in the matte print. and It does give it that grungy DIY kind of vibe like Evil Dead. Like this, like, you know, I do like the matte.
02:29:52
Speaker
And I'm fine with seeing like a trampoline in a shot where, you know, it's like, oh, you see Green Goblin jump off the trampoline or like something in the headspace. Like that's that's almost like endearing because it's like, yeah, I'm i'm seeing behind the scenes. I'm ah I'm talking shit. I've never actually watched the open mat version. Like, I honestly think that I probably will for this conversation. um And also on that note, way sorry.
02:30:18
Speaker
Yeah, it is. On that note, like, i don't know if you guys heard this. Okay. But apparently ah there's a bunch of like brand new day leaks that have been happening. Like people have been like leaking like trailers and stuff. And apparently similar to the Minecraft movie, there exists an edited version of the final movie with unfinished visual effects that have been like constantly leaked and pulled. So like there is a high likelihood that we will be able to watch that yeah a couple of weeks ahead.
02:30:50
Speaker
Wait, which ah for Spider-Man? Brand new day for for the new Spider-Man brand new day. Oh, interesting. I can watch it like I watched Origins Wolverine where the where the final fight is just green. There's like not even the effects. It'll be better than the written because I worked for the Minecraft kind of work. Yeah.
02:31:12
Speaker
More Hessean. That work print version of Minecraft makes it a funnier movie. It actually has different jokes that are a little bit little bit more funnier. So I prefer it. yeah Exactly. It's yeah. And if that happens with Brand New Day, that is going to be the only way I watch it. I will not watch it in theaters. I will only watch it that way.
02:31:32
Speaker
i just I just hope we take away the important lesson from from that movie. Tom Holland keeps promoting. He's like, I think I hope the social message of like, you know, don't isolate yourself and don't be alone and, you know, reach out to your friends. I'm oh, okay. Was that...
02:31:49
Speaker
but Only Spider-Man can deliver that message. Spider-Man is fighting against incels. Actually, this this new one, brand new day, it's the the day that they're referring to is the day that you left Andrew Tate in the past. That would be an interesting take. If like after everyone's forgotten about him and he's not with MJ, he just becomes like an incel. Like that would actually be, yeah, yeah i' watch I'd watch that. Mm-hmm.
02:32:17
Speaker
I'm looking for Spider-Man at Sparrow Creek. I do like standoff at Sparrow Creek. Anyway, as these guys got juice. Oh, wait, Tony, did you want to plug something?
02:32:31
Speaker
I'm going to be recording an episode on Two Cent Film Critic on The Sweet Smell of Success. Oh, I fucking love that movie. Yeah, but' that's going to be the only thing I plug.
02:32:43
Speaker
That's like one of the all time. This guy sucks movie. I mean, you get two guys who sucks. it's Two for the price of one. And and I can't wait. I can't wait wait to talk about Burt Lancaster. What am I going to do?
02:32:55
Speaker
We're going to have to do seven days in May or some kind of Lancaster movie on here. that Yeah. I've been begging for it. I've been begging to do seven days in May. yeah We got to do it. right. Anyway, this is these guys. that you Stay juicy.
02:33:11
Speaker
So then George came to me one day, I'll never forget this conversation, said, you know, you might be right about this alien thing. Maybe we shouldn't do aliens. There's too much of that stuff around. I said, George, I love you. That's the best news you've ever given me.
02:33:25
Speaker
He said, yeah, they're not aliens. they're They're kind of extra dimensional. I said, what? He said, ever hear a string theory? About different dimensions? I said, yeah.
02:33:37
Speaker
He said, okay, these are interdimensional beings. they're not extraterrestrials. they're interdimensional. So I said, fine, fine. And what are they going to look like? George they look like aliens, but we'll call them interdimensional.
02:33:51
Speaker
But at that point, I thought that was kind of interesting. It kind of deepened the subject matter a little bit.