110. Holier than Pope Robert Prevost from Chicago

Transcript

Speaker: um This episode, we review PlayStation Studios recent horror film Until Dawn from director David F. Sandberg. Also, we dive deep, balls deep into the trailers for Superman, Ironheart, Nobody 2, Together, and Peacemaker Season 2, but not that much actually for the Peacemaker bit.

Speaker: And we discussed the return of HBO Max, the potential impact of tariffs on the film industry, and the upcoming Gears of War film from the Fall Guy director, David Leach.

Speaker: My name is Adrian Pinter. And I'm Simon Eadie. Welcome to Split Focus, a film and TV podcast episode 110.

Speaker: la la la la la la la la

Speaker: to be at all Adrian, you know what you know what grinds my gears? What, dude? And this is something that's interesting. i feel like i mean i feel like I'm not the only one that believes this.

Speaker: I feel like technical customer service, when you call the technical customer service lines for like every company, just name a company, doesn't matter which one, they're typically bad.

Speaker: Would you agree? ah yeah Yeah, I guess. I don't really call too many companies though, Simon. So like I feel like you're You've dealt with a situation recently. Are you going to tell me a tale, dude? Am I cursed? though Am I cursed? Because I have lots of issues all the time. I'm constantly chatting with technical service people all the time.

Speaker: I have problems with my iPhone, have issues with... Various brands. Just name a tech brand that I purchase products from and there is typically an issue. But anyway, the the the yeah, yeah you you got it. you I guess you hit the nail on the head.

Speaker: I do have an issue specifically with Paramount Plus, Adrian. Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus. Yeah, so i didn't stream I have not really ever purchased a subscription from them until...

Speaker: ah maybe about Maybe two years ago, i did i I got the free trial for something, for one movie I wanted to watch or another. Okay? Mm-hmm. But now, I decided this week... I'm going to do it. I'm going to binge Mission Impossible because I'm going to get through all of the Mission Impossibles before a Mission Impossible, the final reckoning comes out, which is imminent on May 23rd.

Speaker: so I thought, let's try to do it now. so i'm like I'm going to resubscribe. i'm going to pay for the i know I already did my trial. i'm going to pay for the thing through my Apple TV. and I'm going to jump in and I'm going watch all seven movies.

Speaker: My fiance hasn't watched them at all. She didn't come with us to Dead Reckoning two years ago when we went to see it in 2023. So I asked her, do you want are you interested? And she's like, well, I haven't seen the other ones. I'm like, well, I feel like you like...

Speaker: Every kind of movie, pretty much. like Action movies are very fun. you know They're a little bit silly sometimes, these Mission and Impossible movies, especially in the beginning. and so i thought you know yeah I bet you'll like these. so Why don't we start them together? and The best way to do that is Paramount+.

Speaker: I tried to resubscribe to Paramount+, plus okay and it's been a nightmare, an absolute nightmare. I thought I paid. i I went through the payment process, and it then took my payment credentials and signed me up.

Speaker: But then the app will not open on Apple TV and it barely opens on the iPhone because it says an error. It says account found. And then it tells me my email address. And I'm like, yeah, that's the email address I used to get in What do you talking Account found. Yeah, the email you mean I just logged in with.

Speaker: So I signed out. i'm like, let's try restore purchase. iPhone, Apple, they try to make it easy in quotations because this is not easy in this case. um But by trying to link your Apple account to a subscription account. So for instance, I pay for Crave, another streaming service here in Canada, and I think I pay for Disney Plus.

Speaker: Both of those. You do. I use your Disney Plus. No, I pay for it. I didn't finish the sentence. I pay for it. I certainly pay for it. pay for it through Apple though. h Well, you know about it being paid through from through Apple. Is that what you mean? No, I know.

Speaker: I just use your Disney Plus. I just want to say I'm not some kind of pirate. Oh, my God, dude. You don't have yell at me. Jeez Louise. But quick, quick, quick, quick aside here. um When I logged in into your Disney account um the other day, it gave me the warnings like you're not a part of the house.

Speaker: I'm like, oh, Oh, no, I haven't watched all of the indoor season two yet. So, oh, no, um if it gives an error. I might text you and I'm going to try to log in on my PlayStation this time and hopefully it'll work.

Speaker: Okay. Good luck. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah. This IP address, like tracking where they're, where you are, it doesn't always work for them. feel like because that's what they're trying to do is avoid people doing what we're doing here.

Speaker: but it ah Regardless of that. The point is Paramount Plus, I tried to sign in and it just gives me an infinite loop. It just goes from the get started page and it keeps saying account found over and over again. I've tried everything. I've tried restoring purchase. What I was saying before is I paid through it, paid for it through Apple for various subscriptions. And I thought that must be the way I set up Paramount. I look at my settings and I didn't realize somehow I did that. I didn't intend to pay through through the Apple ID to get Paramount Plus, but apparently I did. So I went back in and I was like, okay, well maybe it's restore purchase I clicked. So I try that.

Speaker: whatever it does not work it's so frustrating i have a hot meal sitting on the table i'm about to eat it and i was like i'm not going to subscribe to this before i'm ready to go because i i want to if i want to take advantage of the full 30 days if i'm subscribing yeah regardless of that it didn't work so then i i'm like i'm so frustrated i end up watching some of the show i didn't end up watching the first mission impossible movie until later and i'll get to that later but Point is I call the technical – you can't call them. You can't call the technical support people. I try to contact the technical support people by chat.

Speaker: And the chat – then they say – I'm like, give this guy all my information. i'm like, this is a problem. I'm having issues, blah, blah, blah, bla blah. First of all, technical support in almost every brand, they break you down because they're like, did you try these troubleshooting trips? This is the AI chatbot, Billy Bob. And we're going to help you get through this process. I'm like, no, I want to talk to a live agent. God damn it. But they keep giving you all these suggestions like, oh, this sounds like your problem. Is this your problem? like No, it isn't. And if it wasn't a problem, I would have found it online because I could like look it up myself because i'm ah I'm a human being. I'm like you, you robot piece of shit.

Speaker: Anyway, the point is, the point is, right, I'm getting a little fired going to tone it down. Robot racist here. I'm going to tone it down. No, that one was bad. I'm just saying that robot was an idiot.

Speaker: Just like I can be an idiot, you know? Just saying. Anyway, yeah point is, finally I get through to the chat person, like five minutes later, and then I'm talking to the guy and he's like, oh, actually, yeah.

Speaker: you're not You're not in the US, are you? I'm like, we've been talking for five minutes. No, I'm not in the US. Thanks for asking. He's like, oh, I can't help you with this. This is a problem for international. This has to go through an email chain. I'm like, an email? I'm going to wait for an email chain to get access to this thing I already basically paid for. The credential's already in.

Speaker: I've been emailing with these people since Thursday. Mm-hmm. We're recording this on a Sunday, Adrian. I still don't have access to my Paramount Plus account. Still don't have access.

Speaker: The crappiest thing about these technical support teams, again, it's not just Paramount Plus. It's all of them. ah you You ask them a question, you tell them your issue, whatever. They always try to give you the like lowest common denominator or answer.

Speaker: like Here's this canned response from this... This suggestion that we – it's just so frustrating. It's unbelievable. And then the thing is, is that I've been dealing with apparently five different people because every email I send, it gets responded by another person.

Speaker: It's Mary from Paramount and then it's like Rashida and then it's like Tommy. It's like, guys, like – Can you one of you do this? And then they're always sending me the same suggestions over and over again. It's like, no, i my suggestion, just read up in the text chain. where We've been emailing for four days.

Speaker: Can you just read through it? And then finally, they're like, oh, we'll get you in touch with a manager. It's like, okay. ah Yeah, great. So yeah, I don't have access. I don't have access to Permanent Plus. But we I work ah worked around that to be able to watch.

Speaker: The Mission Impossible movies. But regardless of that, do you don't you't have this issue with technical support. Every single time you deal with any company, chat or otherwise, it's always ah some run around. They always give you these, like, did you turn it on and turn it off again? Like, guys, I looked it up.

Speaker: Like, I looked up the answer first before I contacted you. Does nobody call you who's... tech savvy at all. It feels like the the whole thing with technical support is that they're they're playing to the lowest common denominator. people People who don't know how to use tech at all.

Speaker: like The old person whos who just learned just bought an iPhone two days ago. You know what i mean? Isn't that done? You find that's the case? Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes. Again, i i can't think of the last time I had to deal with customer support or whatever.

Speaker: Maybe like PlayStation a little while back, but I had a really good experience. um Oh, good. Okay. So that's good. they They treated me well at the time. I am a PlayStation Stars member, Simon. I'm a level four PlayStation Stars member.

Speaker: So that's okay. But I have one pressing question, actually. um Sure. What was the hot meal that you had ready while you're trying to log in? that's the That's what you gleaned from that whole eight-minute spiel? you You're asking me what the meal was?

Speaker: I'm curious, yeah. whole thing I kind of feel a little bit niffed here with you now. Oh, goodness. What was the hot meal? What did I even eat? We had – good question. I don't remember.

Speaker: Oh, we were making beef sandwiches. Dude, that's crazy. I made beef sandwiches yesterday. I actually invited you over if you wanted to come by, but then you said, no, I don't like you um outside of this podcast. I don't want to hang That's incorrect.

Speaker: I did not say this. um I made like roast beef. So like I sous vide-ed like a nice piece of sirloin, just like a nice roast. I sous vide-ed it. Right. It wasn't roast beef sandwiches, but true.

Speaker: Well, it beef sandwich, Simon. this this is It really leads to my tail now. Okay. And I sous-vited it. And then, you know, rare all the way through. Perfect.

Speaker: You know, took it out. Left it in my fridge uncovered with a bunch of salt to get it nice and dry on the outside. And then day of, which was the next day. yeah Cranked that oven up to 550. Tossed it in there. Got a nice bark on the outside there. and then I sliced it and just made little roast beef sliders.

Speaker: For friends. Yeah. Sounds great. little horseradish. I made a little barbecue sauce. Homemade, if you wanted. Wow, homemade. Homemade. Sounds delightful. Barbecue sauce, it's really just ketchup, vinegar, and sugar. You know what I mean? And then you can just add whatever else you want to it.

Speaker: That's really all. and That's the the basics of a barbecue sauce. Oh, so you didn't make your ketchup from scratch. No. Oh, okay. No, I didn't. I didn't make the ketchup from scratch, Simon.

Speaker: cause that My grandma, God rest her soul, um she used to make homemade ketchup when I was a kid. I'd go visit her in Serbia and she'd make it. Unfortunately, when I was a child, I didn't like it.

Speaker: But it as I grew older, i understood the the amazing flavors that she created. Yeah, that's cool. Okay. I'd kill for that ketchup. I'd kill for any meal from her, honestly.

Speaker: and She was a wonderful woman. Wonderful woman. But um Simon, I'm sorry that you had tough time dealing with the tech industry and support. That's unfortunate.

Speaker: Well, just this particular one at this point. I feel like I get every bug. I've i've had that theory for a long time that any bug that could happen. Stomach bugs. have Murphy's Law of... not No, it's not of tech bugs.

Speaker: Tech bugs. You keep jumping the gun before I finish what I'm saying here. Like, yeah, you do have Disney Plus. i'm like, yes, I'm aware of that, Adrian. Thank you for telling me that I pay for this. Yeah. Jeez Louise. I use it, yeah.

Speaker: I'm sorry. Were you going to say something else about that or that's it? um No. I will just ah just to try to bring it back around, back to to film and TV, because we are film and TV podcast. Paramount Plus. It is film and TV.

Speaker: What? Paramount Plus is related to film and TV. I don't know if you knew that. It is. It is as well. That's also why I brought this up. But regardless of that, I would like to say... um I would like to ask you a question. Please. This is like a segued question here.

Speaker: In terms of the apps that you've used for streaming apps. Now, of course, we're not including them all because we haven't tried them all. there's a lot of United States streaming apps we haven't tried. One we're about to talk about actually.

Speaker: As well, a little later in the show that we can't use here in Canada. But which ones, in your opinion, are the best user interface? Not what the content is, just the user interface and from a technical level are the best ones and which one is the worst one? Not the best ones, just pick one.

Speaker: One bad one and one good one. Because obviously my bad one is obvious. I just told you two. can't even open it. The app just stays open for Paramount+. Get started in a loop. Paramount+, is the worst one for me right now. So I'm going to leave the worst one off to the side. But for you...

Speaker: What is your favorite one? And what is the worst one for user interface design and for... Specifically, like for the look and feel, look and feel vibes of it. The vibes and the you you like the usability, I would say usability as well.

Speaker: OK, OK. So I'll start with the worst one that because that's the first thing that popped in my head. CBC gem. I think we talked about it last episode. Yeah. CBC gem sucks. Didn't remember.

Speaker: was watching Schitt's Creek. We'd binge like three episodes. It didn't remember that I watched those three episodes. Why? Why? You're five dollars. yeah Give me Schitt's Creek when I want to watch it.

Speaker: So that that was the one. That was the one. CBC Gem, just for context, is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation app. Oh. If it's Canadian. So it just – I'm not telling you.

Speaker: Yeah. What are you mocking me? I'm just telling the audience just in case they don't know what it is. Anyway, yeah, not everyone knows. It could be an American listening to this show or somebody from New Zealand. They know what you know Peacock is maybe, but they don't know what CBC Gym is. It's a it's an ah it's a Canadian streaming app. I would agree it's not that great.

Speaker: but It sucks. It's bad. It's not good. It don't work well. That's fair. And then Good I don't know. I feel like I don't have many issues with the other streaming services I use.

Speaker: Not issues, but like which one stands out to you is good. like it actually It's actually a cut above. It feels good. The vibes are there. The user interface is there. I'm glad that you don't have issues with the other ones, though. Yeah.

Speaker: i like I don't know. like I guess this is kind of a cheap answer, but like i kind of I like how Netflix looks and feels. It's just okay simple, straightforward. I like the color red. It's it's a nice.

Speaker: I like black as well. The contrast there's nice. little white in there. Good colors. yeah Good color combinations. So, yeah, again, Netflix, simple, clean.

Speaker: And also, shout out, Apple TV. Apple TV, I like the bubbles. It looks nice. It's comfortable. There's something comforting about that nice white, gray backdrop. You know? And then you got and your your TV shows. oh what do you want to watch? Up next?

Speaker: Up next? Cool. Cool. And it's all there and even keeps track of other streaming services within the Apple TV app. Exactly. Pretty good stuff there. Pretty good stuff. That's my pick as well. Apple TV. That's my pick.

Speaker: Because it's just, because it keeps all the other streaming services, except for Netflix, who's difficult, who has to be difficult, of course, inside of it. So you can search anything inside the Apple TV app or Apple TV plus app, I guess, whatever.

Speaker: but It's all within that one place, which I really appreciate. It's laid out fairly well. It's well designed. I'm using an Apple TV, like the actual box. So that, that, that helps too for that aspect. I do like a shout out to Disney plus actually as well. I find like the way it's laid out in terms of the icons for it are really nice. Like when you go up to like the star Wars icon and it actually is animated, I appreciate that aspect of it.

Speaker: An animated icon for various like categories is good. Their search is not phenomenal, if I recall correctly. I don't like Amazon's that much. And it's I feel like it's a mess, to be honest, as well. It's a mess because they they aggregate all of this other content and then they they're stuck behind other streaming services inside it, which I don't love because Apple TV is being fooled by this too. When you search something on the Apple TV app now.

Speaker: It gets fooled into thinking that you can play it on Amazon, but when you go to Amazon, you have to pay or rent rent it. and I find that very irritating. I wish Apple didn't do that. I wish they knew that that that was a bad play and not good for customers. That's kind of really frustrating. and we find that That's almost like a a knock against both of them, actually, apple tv Apple TV and Amazon, because I don't think that you should be showing me stuff that I don't already own.

Speaker: through the Apple TV app, if I'm searching like a Mission Impossible and I click it and you're just showing it to me that I can rent it on Amazon, it's not useful to me. The whole idea was I have Netflix, I have Disney Plus, I can see that I already subscribed and therefore I can get it from that.

Speaker: But anyway, yeah. So yeah, okay. That's it. That's it. Streaming services. There's a lot of them. Can't live with them, can't live without them. Am I right? Yeah, right. hu Alright, well, let's move on now, Adrian, to...

Speaker: Let's move on. Actually, this is going be an interesting one. You don't see because it's not in the document here. But let's get to Ken's corner. hu Kenneth Staddlebauer, longtime listener and writer for our podcast, the Focus of Film and TV podcast. He wrote into us, as he often does. And I honestly have to redact a lot of this email because he spoiled a lot. And I just can't.

Speaker: I don't know if he didn't intend for me to read it on air. Maybe he just intended for me to read it personally. I'm not sure. But I'm going to read it because I think he wanted me to read it. um So I'm going to read some of it and then ah redact some of it. So I will not spoil Thunderbolts, but that's what the topic is about. I was going to ask, what did he spoil?

Speaker: What did he spoil? i was curious. He's specifically spoiling Thunderbolts because it's all he talks about because that's what we just went to see with him in theaters two weeks ago. And so this is what he said. um Again, spoiler free.

Speaker: To be fair. glad. Yes. they're kind of spoiling Thunderbolts in the marketing. Yeah. Unfortunately, to be fair, to give, to give Ken credit in Ken's corner. He spoils more than that. He actually, he spoils that part in it too, into this email, but feel like he thought that that was fair game, but he spoils other things that I didn't find.

Speaker: worth reading for that reason. But let me let me just get to what he said. He said, okay I'm glad you did mention the subject of mental illness during your review. It seems like every character was fair game to be poked fun of, but they didn't belittle Bob's depression.

Speaker: They actually treated it better than most then more serious movies.

Speaker: know if you have anything you say about that. I just paused. Oh.

Speaker: I'm just going to break it up because he changed the topic a few times. Okay. Yeah. I thought there was like a, he wrote dramatic pause in in the right up there. Again, I can't see it. I can't see it. It's true. um No, no, I agree. I think, yeah, I think we both praised how well they dealt with the, you know, mental illness side of things with, with Bob specifically.

Speaker: Yes. And like the drug abuse aspect as well, which was interesting too. Played by Louis Pullman. Louis Pullman. Did you know this Louis Pullman? I didn't know this until recently. Louis Pullman is the son of Bill Pullman.

Speaker: No, I did not know either of those things. And i the issue is, is i i can't think of Bill Pullman right I know. I knew that was going to happen. But anyway, oh Bill Pullman is the president of the United States in Independence Day.

Speaker: Oh, I thought you meant right now. That would be great. I would take that. but hey i don't live there oh i know this guy yeah i know this i know this freak freak i don't know why he looks like a normal gentleman he's probably a nice guy what what photo did you pull up is he wearing it like a hot dog costume what the shit are you talking about oh yeah it's it's just that it's actually tim robinson i'm looking at sorry okay yeah you still up in your browser All right. Well, anyway, yeah, no, I agree. Yeah, we we talked about that. And yeah, yeah, I feel like that's one of the big strengths of Thunderbolts. It takes the subject matter seriously, unlike some movies like, you know, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I'm looking at you. But anyway, he continued.

Speaker: You're right. The Secret Wars comic had all the heroes fighting in it, fighting each other in it. Sorry. Mm hmm. um There's also a rumor that World War Hulk may happen, which was every super super being on Earth fighting against talk So maybe that's what will happen. Because we talked about Secret Wars and how that's the next Avengers movie after Doomsday.

Speaker: And we confronted the idea, and I'm sure lots of people have, that Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., is going to potentially play the puppet master and make all the big heroes, the superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fight each other in Avengers Doomsday. Or make it so it sets that up. And then in Secret Wars, they fight each other.

Speaker: And they have to get out of that situation. That's kind of what I feel like is going to happen. And so I think Ken... Actually, I know. I feel like Ken likes Hulk quite a bit because he mentions Hulk a lot from my perspective. Hulk is a pretty cool character.

Speaker: I also like Mark Ruffalo playing him. Fun fact, Mark Ruffalo not in the announced cast for Doomsday. so Also maybe the son of Bill Pullman too.

Speaker: I think they're almost the same age. That's incredible. I think Bill Pullman is just slightly older. Am I wrong? How old is Bill Pullman? Pullman 71 years old. Mark Ruffalo is not 71. Mark Ruffalo is not even close.

Speaker: Bill Pullman looks good for his age. Yeah. He's not even close. 57 years old. could no He could be his father. If he had him at 14? Yeah. yeah It's happened.

Speaker: Yeah. They're not even close to the same age. so his son 32. Bill Pullman 71. Bill Pullman making babies at the age of 39. You know?

Speaker: Wait, what? Oh, I see. He had him at – you're calculating it for Lewis Pullman. You're not riffing on Mark Ruffalo. Oh, not Mark Ruffalo. No, sorry. Okay. Yeah. I'm like, where's your math there?

Speaker: Again, not a math podcast. But okay. Well, that's pretty much all he said that was unredacted. But – Two lines in that whole thing is all you can read. Fair enough, dude.

Speaker: There's one more thing that he said that was spoiled literally by the marketing, as you just mentioned. Yeah. of the I don't know why they're doing this. I do know why, actually. And you said, why are they doing this? And I said, I think I know why. But it's still strange. that If you look at the new marketing for Thunderbolts, asterisk, um they pretty much explain to you what the asterisk is.

Speaker: in all the new marketing for thunderbolts yeah i guess we can it's fair game like it's it's in the marketing it's fair game they're marketing it they spoiled it three days after after the movie came out which is crazy were the yeah right maybe the monday yeah i remember because i was like what the heck dude what if we couldn't have watched it that weekend what if i was gone on a business trip that weekend simon and we couldn't make it together yeah i would have been like it was yeah because they Yeah, they revealed that it's not the Thunderbolts asterisk. The asterisk is because it's actually the new Avengers.

Speaker: Right. It's the new Avengers. How did they get there? How did they get there exactly? What that means, you'll have to watch it to find out. but Okay, so I'll continue then ken Ken's letter from this point. yeah I still cut stuff out, but this part, fair game. You're right.

Speaker: So here's here's what he said. He said, we're to side... With them taking the name The New Avengers, they leave open the rumored Young Avengers and West Coast Avengers, which could also which could include Wonder Man and Vision.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. with some

Speaker: There's a Wonder run Man movie. that where you but It's a show, isn't it? there a vision There's a Vision show. Oh, it's Vision Quest, but they're doing... a wonder Oh, maybe you're right. mom Maybe Wonder Man is a show. Yeah, I think so.

Speaker: Yeah, because it's with Yaya Abdul-Mateen Yes. um And it's a miniseries that's coming out in December this year. Okay. okay And then are they doing a Vision quest thing?

Speaker: They were. Vision show. The shows are a bit fuzzy for me after Loki. Vision. just ah There's only one show I know is coming for sure, and it's happening soon. Yeah, we'll talk about that trailer, Vision.

Speaker: and I can't see anything. I'm just Googling it. I feel like I remember them talking about it, but was Paul Bettany on the cast list for Avengers? The next question. no he was not. Oh, okay.

Speaker: I feel like there's still, again, there's still stars that are not on that cast list. I feel like. Mm-hmm. Like, you yeah, I think they're going to try to surprise us. That's kind of some of the point. I think that's part of the magic of telling us a lot of the cast is that nobody will. There will be less leaks because we'll think we know who's in the cast because they're like, here is this bombshell reveal.

Speaker: And then it's really missing like five or six names. That would be cool. I feel like they could just surprise us because they got so many, so many big name actors in the MCU. It wouldn't be so crazy that they would do that.

Speaker: Yeah, so May of last year, Variety has an article, like an exclusive art article saying that the Marvel sets Vision Series for 2026 with Paul Bettany, Star Trek, Picard, EP, Terry Metallis as showrunner.

Speaker: Okay. So I guess that's still coming. Okay, cool. He said one more thing. He then also said, Question of the Night. It's daytime here, Ken. you know You never know. You can't never can know what time it is when I'm reading this. But regardless of that, he says in the question of the night, Will Walker go by his comic book name, U.S. Agent, or with his newly squished shield, be Captain Taco?

Speaker: That was in the trailer. That's why i included that, by the way. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. i was going to say like, yeah I remember the trailer is kind of squished at one in the trailer. His shield is squished.

Speaker: um So I, that's why I said that. I feel like we can't go into any detail about why it's squished, but regardless of that, that was a funny moment in the movie Thunderbolts. Yeah. He's just making a joke. So there's not much to really respond to that with, unless you have something to say.

Speaker: No, no, no. Yeah. yeah No. Okay, cool. well and I feel like probably not Captain Taco. I'm going to just be honest. I don't know if you can do that. Yeah. Yeah. i feel like... I don't know.

Speaker: i don't know if you can, you know? Yeah. Well, you can. Yeah. But I don't know if you should. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. room I mean, they're removing all the all the semblance of of the old DEI from the United States. So yeah you don't never know.

Speaker: Okay. He ended the letter with this. Love you. Thanks again for making me part of your movie night. Anyway. i love I love you too, Ken. And i mean you're going to be a part of our movie night for years and years and years and years to come.

Speaker: Yeah. Forever. We a Fantastic Four ticket with your name on it. ah Yeah. And then after that, Superman? We earned from complaining. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Did we even tell that tale? No, we did. We did. We definitely did.

Speaker: We did. I complained. i just wanted to I just wanted my free large popcorn, dude. Yeah. I just wanted them to fix it for the future. That's all I wanted. I didn't want the free thing. Or a tiny discount for the extra because you pay more money. I want the the justice done, but I don't want to get a free ticket.

Speaker: That wasn't the hope. wanted to fix it for the future, get the compensation because they charge more for 3D movies. Anyways, probably talking out of context. Anyways, the 3D movie didn't work at Thunderbolts. When we went to the Cineplex and we complained because there was no 3D, we had glasses, there it wasn't working.

Speaker: Anyway, regardless of that, let's move on now, Adrian, ah to the quick bites of film and TV industry news that have happened over the last... Two weeks because our episodes launch bi-weekly. So this is a few quick bites of things that we've kind of found interesting, fascinating topics that we thought would be fun to talk about.

Speaker: The first, completely related to what we were just talking about, X-Men is coming, Adrian. And apparently, Jake Schreier, the Thunderbolts director, is in talks to direct the X-Men movie for the MCU.

Speaker: Did you see this? I did. I did see this. Yes. And I don't know if it's because you sent me the article or I sent you the article, but I did see this.

Speaker: For sure. ah ah Yeah, this is cool. I think that's awesome. It's cool that this guy that, you know, you know, created or was, you know, part of the team that created beef on Netflix, which is a fantastic show, went on to create probably one of the better MCU movies in recent memory. Yeah.

Speaker: that both you and I very much enjoyed and is now going to go and do the X-Men film. I think he does like he's he's proven that he can make a film that's not only competent, but has a kind of ragtag group of characters that can play off each other very well.

Speaker: And that's really what the X-Men is, right? It's it's a team dynamic. So um I think this is a good idea and I hope he nails it. Yeah, me too. Yeah. ah Another fun fact, I suppose, screenwriter Michael Leslie is the screenwriter who's already written this script for the X-Men movie.

Speaker: And this is the screenwriter for The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which I have not seen. Have you seen I have. It's not that good. It's not that good. Yeah. okay It's not that good. The thing is is that I picked that one because I thought it was better. At least people didn't hate it. Isn't it reviewed fairly well? Like on Rotten Tomatoes? It's not a disaster, right?

Speaker: think it's not right. He also screenwrote Macbeth. I mean, Macbeth was written by a legendary writer yeah originally, so i'm not sure how but how much he did in that case um because I haven't seen the Macbeth movie. Isn't that the movie with... ah Wait.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. It's got Michael Fassbender in it. I never saw this. But regardless of that, um he also wrote um another movie with Michael Fassbender in it. Can you guess which one? Assassin's Creed.

Speaker: That's correct. So he wrote Assassin's Creed. Very good. ah Anyway, so is a hit and miss, I guess. Hit and miss. Yeah. So yeah, and then the reviews for that Hunger Games movie, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, 64%, 238 reviews. Popcorn Meter's at really high, though. It's 89%.

Speaker: So I guess I'm in the minority. i don't think it was necessarily bad. I just think it was... It's like a fairly long movie, but oddly, like, is poorly paced. It's like three distinct acts, and I feel like you could have probably spread this out into a couple movies.

Speaker: And I just... i genuinely... did not believe that like Rachel Ziegler and Zegler and Tom Blythe, like they're the two main characters and there, there's kind of like this weird romance between them. They had like absolutely no chemistry, like in the movie. I just, ah it just didn't work for me, but I really like Hunter Schaefer.

Speaker: ah She was in it, but again, severely underutilized, which kind of bummed me out. Not, not in too much. i was like, damn, that's too bad. But again, I've never read the, um, The novel.

Speaker: So maybe maybe it is a faithful recreation of the novel and it's just, that's what it is. Okay.

Speaker: Yeah, I guess we'll see. I do really like Jake Schreier. Me too. I hope to marry him one day. You what? I hope to marry him one day. Okay.

Speaker: Aren't you engaged? i am, yeah. But I'll call it off. I'll call it off. jer Jake Schreier asked for my hand in marriage. I'll call it off. All right. Okay. Good to know. Moving on now.

Speaker: Yes. Sorry. Quick aside. Based on wedding. We we went to – because my fiance wants to get married in the church. um Like that have the church ceremony. She's religious. Yeah, like her family's Catholic. I mean, my family's Catholic. i we like I went to Catholic school. I was a good Catholic school boy from grade.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. But ah again, like not practicing. like And she just really likes churches. She thinks they look beautiful. And there's this beautiful church in our in our city, Guelph, the Basilica of Our Lady um that we were hoping to get married in. And and we we just had like the meeting with the –

Speaker: priest I forgot the word for priest for a second there. oh I was going to say church guy, um but he's a priest. um And it seems like we're going to get married at the at that church. So i'll I'll be sending you an invite, Simon, at some point in the near future if you're lucky. Unless you piss me off until then. I'm joking, dude. You're coming. You're coming to my wedding.

Speaker: At least I hope so. It's up to you. It's up to you if you want to show up, I guess. I can't force you. I can't force you to come to my wedding. That's true. But yeah, so I might get married at the Basilica of Our of our Lady.

Speaker: That's cool. That's cool. Sweet. Yeah. Sounds good. there's They have restrictions, the Catholic Church, right? And the way that you can do the ceremony, you have to do a lot of the things that they need you to do, like in terms of the the way the ceremony is built, right?

Speaker: um like Like, you mean like we got to take a class and stuff? Because we do. You do a class? Yeah, there's like a class that you go. It's like a marriage class. And I got to do like ah like a quiz. Yeah.

Speaker: Okay. I think it's like a little bit more in depth than just like a basic quiz, but we got to like fill out like a form. and I guess it's like a compatibility thing. I think. that Oh, I see. It's compatible.

Speaker: Wow. The priest said like, we're we're not going to turn you away, but it's just like, it's useful information. And then, yeah, ah there's a bunch of stuff, but no, it seems fairly straightforward. No, there's like a thing about that you can't – I think you can't do vows or something like that.

Speaker: Isn't that a rule in the Catholic church or something like I have no idea. Certain rules, like you can't you can't do certain things because you have to follow their their kind of skeleton of how to get married. Like we're not going – I mean you are going to know more than me.

Speaker: Yeah. Theoretically, you just have the meeting with the church man. Yeah, the church man, dude. It's not like – I'm not going to – like We wouldn't read out our vows anyways. like We're going to just write them down and exchange them. yeah I don't even think going to really do speeches or anything like that. I much prefer that. Yeah. Like the writing them down and exchanging them instead of Yeah, nobody bringing there somebody needs Nobody needs to know.

Speaker: There's some awkwardness sometimes in those readings. Depends on the marriage. But anyway. Okay. Cool, man. Fun times. All right. Well, let's ah let's bring down the mood a little bit.

Speaker: Okay, cool. Donald Trump has tariffs on. in mind for the film production in foreign countries. i don't know if you have anything to say on that. I am very confused by that. was This was announced like right after we recorded episode 109 of Split Focus Film TV Podcast.

Speaker: and And I was like, wait, how does that, how does that work? Like the the way that Hollywood, and the way that the film industry is built It's kind of centered around Hollywood, but there's so much that happens in foreign countries. like we like They call Vancouver area, like British Columbia in some capacity, Hollywood North, because they do a lot of production there.

Speaker: There's also a lot of VFX teams, like visual effects teams scattered in other nations because of the incentives and things like that. and and There's a lot of incentives in Canada to film in Canada, and that's why they call it Hollywood North.

Speaker: and There's various other places that are used. Also, in a movie like Mission Impossible... How awful would it be if they just didn't go on location for that kind of movie or a James Bond movie from the new Amazon studios? I mean, they might do that anyway because they might just want to, you know, you know cost cut and just decide not to film on location. But filming on location is a huge part of what makes James Bond movies James Bond movies in some way.

Speaker: So i don't know if you have any thoughts on this, but I was like, what are you going to do now? There's always something new. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's confusing, man. i Yeah, I just don't understand how you do that.

Speaker: and like how it's going to work. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't, I don't even think he knows. I'll be blunt. Like, like, I don't think he knows what the fuck he's talking about a lot of the time. And it's very confusing because yeah, like it's, I mean, you, you look at the credits for a lot of movies. I mean, we just actually watched a movie that we'll talk about. And then in the credits, it'll show like, you know, a bunch of Hungarian people in the credits. Like, obviously they filmed a lot of it in Hungary.

Speaker: um Right. It's, Yeah, and like you get like movies that'll have like filmed in Quebec and New Zealand and blah, blah, blah, blah. blah it's just I just don't understand how this is going to translate and work. in ah I just don't get it, dude.

Speaker: I just don't get it. i um Maybe I'm not smart enough. He's definitely smart enough. Him. Yeah. Him, 100%. He knows what he's doing. He's so smart.

Speaker: I mean, lots of people believe that. so Yeah, unfortunately. You're not in that minority, I guess. Yeah. yeah but really But yeah, is ah it's a strange one. I mean, the whole idea is to bring the jobs back to the United States.

Speaker: I just feel like the better way to do it is the other way. Like it's the carrot, not the stick. yeah Yeah, the carrot. That's the carrot. You give money, you give incentives to film in California and various other places in the United States and it solves that problem.

Speaker: um it's kind of it's kind It's kind of the opposite. And i don't know this works. In fact, when you i feel like you might know more because I think you've brought your dog to a trainer at times. But I feel like the idea of the stick never works with a dog. And I don't think it works with human beings either.

Speaker: Like if you're going to train a dog, you treat them typically to yeah doing good behavior. Yeah. Hording a dog or doing anything negative to them is not really – negative reinforcement is not necessarily effective, I would argue.

Speaker: It's also mean. It is mean. It's just mean-spirited. Bullying is fine. It's just what's the point? It's not fine, actually. Bullying is terrible. No, bullying is fine. We're sticking to that. Bullying is actually really awesome, dude.

Speaker: Yeah. Bullying is awesome. I'm a big fan. Apparently, though, since the announcement was made on on X or whatever, or wherever he posted on Truth Social, he truthed it. What is that?

Speaker: Truth Social is his own social media platform that he built after he was kicked off Twitter. And then Elon Musk let him back on Twitter. You don't know anything about this? And then Elon Musk let Donald Trump back on Twitter.

Speaker: And then he's like, I'm still going to use Truth Social. And then he just keeps using Truth Social. But the only important person on Truth Social, I'm pretty sure, is him. um the don't know. It's a funny. But yeah, instead of tweets, they truth things. I love the irony of it being called Truth Social. But hey, what do I know? Regardless of this.

Speaker: um Yeah, there was apparently the the administration ah of the of the current president said that no final decisions have actually been made and that the they're going to talk to the powers that be in the film industry to kind of iron it out.

Speaker: The weird thing is before he announced that, that same day, I think it was, Jon Voight, who's like tapped as like the, you know, Jon Voight, of course, the actor um in Mission Impossible 1, actually. Yeah. But John Voight was apparently talking to because he was tapped by Trump to be like that ambassador to Hollywood or whatever, alongside Sylvester Stallone and a couple other people.

Speaker: But yeah, John Voight was in a meeting with Trump and John Voight had suggested incentives, I think. That's what the allegedly and Trump took that as let's do tariffs, which of course he did. Everything's got to be tariffed, man. That's the only way to do it.

Speaker: Everything's a tariff, dude. The weirdest thing too. That's a tariff. Calories, tariff. Calories? Calories, that's a tariff. Carbs, tariff.

Speaker: We got to tariff everything, dude. Huh. Okay. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. did you go to food

Speaker: What is the connection here? Okay. Anyway, that this i'll I'll end on this point. The weird thing about this is that the whole idea behind the tariffing idea, at least that's what they said, was that the tariffs were designed because they are running a trade deficit. like they're purchasing The United States is purchasing more from foreign countries than foreign countries are purchasing from the US, s which the administration had claimed was unfair.

Speaker: But the thing about the film tariffs is that technically the rest of the world is running a deficit with them. They're selling far more services, specifically services out to the rest of the world than the world is buying.

Speaker: Sorry. ah the the world The world is buying more services from them than... and I got this right? Yes. Yeah. The world is buying more services from them than their...

Speaker: ah than the US is purchasing from the rest of the world. So no no one country is is purchasing. You know what I'm saying? No one country.

Speaker: What are you talking about? No one country is selling the US more services than the US is selling that country. ah Largely. Largely. There might be one country or another, but it's rarely that's the case.

Speaker: is that the It's a services economy. They sell services elsewhere. if That's their whole thing. even Even if you look at like Google, like Google and Apple and the tech industry, they design everything, but then they they outsource the labor afterwards.

Speaker: But they're designing it and they're the services of of the shit. Same with film. Film is the same way. They sell movies. like no they're They're not getting sold movies back. Bollywood isn't... A trade surplus with the United States. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Yeah. Okay. Now you know what I'm saying. I think I following Okay. The point is, it doesn't make sense to tariff if that's their reason is fairness because that that's they're they're doing the opposite. they They need to be fair. So that's the idea. the The incentives is the solution in this case. I'm sorry if I've confused everyone. We're going to move on now to HBO Max's back, baby.

Speaker: They removed the Max moniker, the stupid ass marketing. I guess it's still there. Max is still there, but they've added HBO Max back into the the fold. It used to be called HBO Max at the beginning of the... Well, not really, because they had HBO Now, regardless of that. Go?

Speaker: Didn't they have HBO Go? HBO Go as well. it was a separate service that ran alongside, I think, HBO Now. And then they yeah rebranded to HBO Max. This is the Warner Brothers Discovery streaming service that I'm talking about specifically if you don't know out there.

Speaker: And so then they then they were like, you know what? We're going to name it Max and that's it. No, we don't need HBO, then the brand that's built us, that that literally the brand that everybody knows, HBO, this prestigious brand. We don't need that in the name of the in the marketing.

Speaker: We just need the word Max, which everyone's going to just completely understand. Maxwell, Maxine. Maximum. I don't know what that's supposed to be. regardless of that, last week, they decided they would rename it HBO Max. What do you think of that, Adrian?

Speaker: um Yeah, I mean, obviously, I guess it's a good play to go back to bringing in HBO again. Well, as you said, like it's it's such a dominant like brand name.

Speaker: I don't understand why. They ever got rid of it. I think that was like some of the dumbest fucking shit ever, dude. And I what I really like about them bringing back this HBO Max and you actually sent me a few of these videos on the Instagrams.

Speaker: It's they're poking fun at it. Like, I think they they're acknowledging how stupid it it was to change it in the first place. And now that they're changing it back. think you sent me like a James Gunn video and he's like talking. He's like, what? They're changing it back. So it's HBO again. And like, there's, there's also like a John scene a bit where, where he's dressed as peacemaker or that he's talking about peacemaker. And he's like okay, so it is HBO again, like HBO max, not just max.

Speaker: I was like, well, I'm just going to, so I just got to say like HBO Max instead of just Max when I'm reading this teleprompter or whatever. Cena was actually telling the people in the room, like, no, I'm not going to do this again tomorrow. So let me just say HBO Max because yesterday we got, we got a like a debrief on the fact that they're changing the branding back to HBO Max. So let me just read this as HBO Max. Are we okay with that? I'm going to do that now.

Speaker: That's basically what he was saying. And then Gunn, to your point, was just confused. Like, what? It's strange? It's weird. I agree with you. It's cool that they're poking fun of themselves, but it also looks kind of disorganized. Like, how do they not know this in a larger way? Like, ah that part is strange.

Speaker: But then there's other videos of like people poking fun of it over the last few years of the Max branding because like Conan O'Brien was on, i think it was Hot Ones. And he was, i don't know if you saw that Hot Ones episode.

Speaker: But he's just like Max, it's called the Max. I just, I just don't like that. He's just very like, which is when it was called Max and there was no HBO in front of it. but Because, yeah, he I think he was talking about because he has that HBO show, Conan O'Brien Must Go or something like that.

Speaker: Yeah. Where it's kind of like a documentary style. He's just going to random places doing different things. Yeah, that's right. Being Conan, the barbarian, actually. That's the plot twist. I don't think it is, but sure. Never watched it.

Speaker: Never watched it. So, no, it's similar to his show. He used to do those like, what do they call them? Like field episodes. Obviously, he did episodes.

Speaker: you're You know what's funny? Last episode, you were like, we're having a competition for how much you could help me. In this episode, you've literally hindered me in terms of like trying to realize my thoughts. When I when i when i you know dry up, I'm like, oh, no, I don't know what I was trying to say. I don't remember the word I was looking for.

Speaker: You're throwing words in there that have nothing to do with it. So thank you so much. for your assistant. Dude, no worries. Honestly, no worries at all, brother. They're not called episodes. They're field trips. They're like, um oh my God, they're like um externals. They're, nevermind.

Speaker: feel like I'm playing fricking charades with a two-year-old. All right. Oh God, that's so rude, dude. That is so rude. You're just not helpful. That's all I'm saying. just not helpful. Anyways, I like that they changed this. I thought it was ridiculous that they changed it as well. I completely agree with you.

Speaker: The Max branding was horrible. It's cool that they're poking fun at themselves, but how did that ever happen? I still don't understand how it would have ever happened because if you ask ask anyone, just talk to some person on the street. Did you know that HBO Max was called Max for two years?

Speaker: If they knew that already, they'd probably say, what why would they name it Max? they know Why would you just remove the Max? Just call it HBO. why Just call it the HBO streaming service. It would still sell better.

Speaker: So I wonder how many subscribers they lost or the potential subscribers they lost, I guess, by calling it Max. Yeah, for two years it is curious. And like, honestly, like I'm not against them calling it like HBO Max because like I feel like if you just call it HBO, it almost devalues that brand because they have so much other content on there. And let's be real, like ah a lot of that content is probably not up to snuff. Like I...

Speaker: Compared to like Game of Thrones or something like that. Yeah. um Because not only do do they have the Discovery stuff, I think they have like a lot of reality TV, which again, I'm a fan of Simon. I'm a fan of reality TV, as you know.

Speaker: But it's like, do you really want that associated with just HBO? Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. Probably not. I agree completely. I'm just saying that if you had to choose removing one of the words. Oh, yeah. HBO would definitely not be the part you would remove. yeah and yeah Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. That's all I was saying.

Speaker: um Yeah, my my notes here. I have HBO Max's back, baby. And then my note for what I was going to say later was WUT. What? What? would It's back. All right.

Speaker: Moving on to another quick bite of news here. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Adrian, Netflix's film adaptation of video game Gears of War has tapped Bullet Train and John Wick 1 director David Leitch to direct...

Speaker: That's awesome, dude. That's great. That's a great cast. they' Sorry, great great casting. Oh, my God. I'm a freaking imbecile there. um No, that's that's a great.

Speaker: No, you're a smart guy. You're a smart guy. Thanks, dude. I appreciate Handsome fella. Don't put yourself down. dude. That's so nice. That's so nice. I guess smart for a two-year-old, eh? Eh, Simon? Hey, said you were not.

Speaker: I said it was like playing charades with a two year old because you weren't helping me with those specific moments. That's all I was saying. Come on. um tell us they Tell us what you think about David Leach.

Speaker: I like David Leach. I think John Wick 1 is a great movie. I really like Bullet Train, even though it didn't review particularly well. I thought that movie is a ro romp, dude. That movie is fun. That movie good time.

Speaker: So like David Leach, obviously, he knows how to create great action in a film. yeah Gears of War has some great action in the game. It's very brutal. Like you're chainsawing people, dude. You're chainsawing people with the with that with the gun. I forget what the gun names are. It's been a while since I played Gears War.

Speaker: But they're coming out. They're finally bringing Gears of War to PlayStation, which is so exciting, dude. I'm so stoked. Yeah. stoked. That cool. um But yeah, i think i think this is a great pairing and I'm excited.

Speaker: You know, it's interesting. again We knew that it was a Netflix property, like Netflix was making this. I think they have a couple other video game adaptations that are in the works, like right Horizon, I think, right?

Speaker: that still Netflix? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Because they had a Horizon, like was Horizon Zero Dawn. They had a TV show on Netflix, but I'm not sure that they got the rights for the movie that is still happening.

Speaker: I don't know. And I think they have Bioshock. There's rumors of a Bioshock Netflix. Yeah, actually. Yeah, the Bioshock is still in development. Director Francis Lawrence recently told IGN.

Speaker: was like three days ago, this article. Interesting. But yeah, I don't know. I'm i'm curious um how this will work out. Netflix movies are...

Speaker: Pretty hit and miss, I would say. i think a lot of them are misses, if you ask the kind of the general populace. Yeah, but... So, I don't know. It depends on the team. Yeah, exactly. Like any movie, you know, like largely. Netflix is kind of like...

Speaker: An amalgamation of many different facets of the industry, I feel like, and and some things that are almost not the industry, like wrestling. There's just so much stuff in there at this point that when you look at like the big name directors, you know you're going to get something good out of David Fincher, as an example. because you just always make something good.

Speaker: Or you take a look at like getting Martin Scorsese as an example for the Irishman. I feel like you get a lot of big name talent and then they make really good movies, but then you just kind of have to be discerning of what you're actually getting.

Speaker: There's a lot of popcorn flicks on there that are just kind of fun movies, but aren't necessarily like Red Notice. yeah and and They're never going to get even talked about in terms of like awards award season or something like that. And they're just fine kind of thing.

Speaker: Did you ever watch Red Notice? No, I was just going to ask you if you ever watched it. I haven't seen it. No, I just don't really care. It looked fun time, but I don't know. It just didn't get reviewed as well as I would have liked it to. ah You can have a fun time and have it get reviewed well.

Speaker: like The plot can make sense. And it like get directed well. And the set pieces are awesome. And it's really fun. That's the same thing. So that's kind what I'm looking for, but yeah. Quick aside as well. Um, based on like, cause, cause this is also a Netflix movie that just recently came out that I totally forgot about ah until this conversation.

Speaker: Havoc came out, which is like from the director, Gareth Evans, the guy that did Raid 2. I'm looking at the Rotten Tomatoes. It's 67%. So it's good. But the popcorn meter is 36%. know. That's kind of too bad. so its it's good but the popcorn meter is thirty six percent i know god i'd like mention and That's too bad.

Speaker: I want to watch it, though. I like Tom. That's why didn't watch it yet, because there's too much going on. There's too many things to watch, so that this was not on my priority list. Yeah. But it's a good cast, man. love Tom Hardy, too. I know that's what you're about to say.

Speaker: Yeah, I like Tom Hardy. Timothy Oliphant. Oliphant. Elephant. Forrest Whitaker. louisa Louise Guzman from a Community.

Speaker: Yeah. Most known from community. Yeah, definitely. um so yeah, I don't know. i Maybe I'll sit down and watch this. I do really want to watch a drop though. I might watch that at some point, maybe tomorrow, tonight.

Speaker: It's out of theaters though, so I got to rent it. Right. Anyways. Yeah. Sorry. Went on a tangent there. Gears of War. Gears of War. Good Anything else you want to say? I'm excited. I like Gears of War a lot. actually, like I played through all six games. There's five mainline games. Then there's the sixth game.

Speaker: like a, like a spinoff called judgment is actually the gears tactics game, which I never got into, but I really like gears war. I think like gear, like depending on how they add up, like adapt this. And if they're making like trying to cram the whole like first trilogy into one movie, ah there's a lot to cover. I think the weakest part about gears of war ultimately is is like the actual like story itself. Like I love the game. I think it's a cool, yeah I think it has a, I think it has a lot of cool lore, but it is very bro dude. Like,

Speaker: you know the The late aughts sort of like, what's up, bro? Sort of movie, which I don't think really holds up as well. But it it there is a charm to it. yeah And I do really like it. like I genuinely like the the story still. I just think it is arguably the weakest part.

Speaker: And I like the direction they've actually gone with like four and five specifically, where they kind of made it a little bit more... not grounded, but a little bit more serious and not as like Brodude and like yeah a kind of a more well-rounded cast.

Speaker: um Yeah. But I know I'm in the minority on that. Like I'm confident. I think most people don't really like that. Yeah, The is the beloved. Yeah. But I think it's a franchise that- haven't played of them, as you know, but the audience might know. It's a franchise that I think gets better with every release. um Yeah. But when when this when this Gears 1 comes out- i don't know if you're planning on buying it, but if you are, it's co-op, dude.

Speaker: Co-op. The entire thing is on co-op. It's not a full price game. So that's kind of cool. Wasn't Dave Bautista really looking to be cast as I think it's Marcus Fenix, isn't it?

Speaker: Yeah, I remember. That never happened though. I'm like looking at the looking at Google here. I don't think it ever got announced that that was a thing. Plus, has he got gotten aged out at this point? Because that's kind of been, and I feel like a Gears of War movie could have been made 10 years ago. Like they just held on and they didn't like, it's like the Uncharted movie got stuck in development hill yeah kind of situation. And then eventually Nathan Fillion wasn't a good choice, although they never saw it anyway. They never, yeah they never saw that as a good option. But yeah, do you think David Bautista will get yeah called upon to play this?

Speaker: Maybe, i don't know. Like I, I don't think he, like he, I feel like he was talking about this within the last, i don't know, like within the last year, how he's not really looking to be like bulked up constantly.

Speaker: And like, oh so again, i'm I'm just kind of going off the cuff here, but I feel like I remember reading about that and he has like, he he doesn't, he's not as jacked as he was. Cause like, how the fuck do you maintain that for that however long he was doing that for? Right. So, yeah um, I would still like to see him cast. I think David T says he,

Speaker: he He's that like wrestler that came into the acting industry and actually does like phenomenal acting, like genuinely amazing acting. Again, I don't really want to yeah disrespect the rock too much here.

Speaker: Mr. Pissing in bottles on set, but like, I don't think he's a particularly great actor, but maybe with that movie coming out um with Benny Safdie, he's going to prove his acting chops.

Speaker: But yeah. Yeah, I could see The Rock being in the cast in this movie. Just a bunch of big people. Cast a bunch of big, strong men. I just don't understand your angle here.

Speaker: I don't want to disrespect this guy, although he pees in bottles. yeah it's I'm just stating facts, Simon. yeah It's not really related to what you were saying. You were trying to say that he's just not quite – like the rock isn't quite as well-rounded as Dave Bautista is what you were trying to say, I thought. and But then you threw in the peas in bottles part, which is not really necessary – and Unless you do want to offend him, I feel like.

Speaker: But maybe, you know, I don't know. but I'm sure he's a nice guy.

Speaker: Okay. Anyway, yeah. Yeah, i think Dave Bautista, like, I'm reading something here. i don't know how.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. There's an article from Collider, apparently, where Bautista claimed that he pitched to them. He pitched the idea of starring in Gears of War.

Speaker: Apparently. like he he He's like actively trying to pursue the role. Dumb. Yeah. Oh, or that... Oh, maybe that's wrong. Maybe that's the... Oh.

Speaker: You know what I'm looking at a link from comicbook.com. And then it was... Oh, wait, hold on. yeah Okay, The Collider. Collider I trust. Comicbook.com, I don't know. Collider is also hit and miss occasionally too. It can be hit miss, but this is what they say.

Speaker: The Army of the Dead star described a meeting at Universal to discuss the Fast and Furious franchise, which he mostly took to gauge the studio's interest in a Gears of War adaptation with Dave Bautista in the lead.

Speaker: Interesting. Yeah. And that obviously never came to pass because it's not at Universal. Yeah. He also wanted to do he wanted to be Bane, apparently, as well.

Speaker: Yeah. But yeah yeah that obviously didn't happen either. That would be still good, I feel like. I don't know. The problem is like these actors get old enough, and then these some directors are looking for a younger option. and then That doesn't always happen. They're looking for a younger option, the next director is like, I don't care how old they are, and then it's too late. Then it is too late at that point, because it's like 10, 20 years have passed.

Speaker: um So anyway, okay, cool. Let's move on. Let's move on. Lastly, Adrian, to the trailers we watched this week. There were a lot of trailers. I might've missed some here in my listing here, but the Superman trailer was definitely the headlining trailer. I feel like of the week, the nobody to trailer. i don't know if you watched that one. yeah the, um,

Speaker: Yeah. The action film with ah Bob Odenkirk. Ironheart trailer, the new disney tv ah Disney Plus TV show from the MCU. And then the Together trailer, which probably might have my favorite trailer. is for It's pretty creepy.

Speaker: It's great trailer in general. i don't know how good the movie will be, but it's I think it's reviewed very well. It is. It is reviewed very well. I got my eye on this movie. I'm very excited about this one. but Let's just talk about the together trailer starring Dave Franco, Alison Brie, actual real married couple.

Speaker: Good for them. I'm proud of them living their marriage. I used to have huge. Unless this movie is based on their real life. Oh, that'd be a shame. That'd be a shame. I hope not. I hope they're not merging into one thing because that's what it looks like. They're kind of like, I feel like this movie is going to be like a crazy body horror romp.

Speaker: like just Like it looks unsettling from the trailer. There's that weird where they're like holding each other and their skins almost like fusing together. I'm like, ooh, that looks gross. It looks really does.

Speaker: But there's this, on a realistic grounded tone, there's this idea that they're struggling in their marriage. Like that that's the main yeah theme. Yeah. It's like codependency. and Yeah. yes yeah Don't be codependent or else you're going to merge together in a body horror thing.

Speaker: and That's the point of the movie. Yeah. I think so. The moral of the story. All right. What did you think? you I'm assuming you liked the trailer. I did. Yeah. Cool. Anything else you want to add?

Speaker: I feel like I added things. ah so you get I feel like I said things, Simon. Did I not say enough? You want me to continue going? don No, no. You want me to continue rambling? No, you're right you're right. You did say things. you did say yeah I just feel like you described the trailer, but you didn't actually go into the...

Speaker: I liked it. I thought it looked neat. Okay, good. Good for you. Yeah. What do you think? This is your favorite trailer. yeah I think out of these trailers, it's the most well put together one. I wouldn't necessarily say it's my favorite. No, maybe it is. Maybe it is. But regardless of that, the the other the big headlining trailer from the week was definitely Superman.

Speaker: I think that was obvious. Yeah. um it was a pretty good second trailer. There's a lot that went on. I watched it a few times. It was pretty exciting. I'm pretty excited about this It looks super, man, dude.

Speaker: I really love the way that they broke it down in terms of it being an interview with Lois Lane and Clark Kent. I think that that part of it is the best part. it's it's That grounded it actually for me. Speaking of grounding, what the heck is going on?

Speaker: I don't know, Simon. You're dinging in not supposed getting notifications. Yeah, I'm so sorry. I'm going to turn that off. fucking amazing. Oh my God. Someone texting you at 420. Someone want to blaze up with you. Why don't you continue talking about the subject matter? Okay. Oh yeah. No, I thought it was a really good trailer. I thought it was cool. I think like this trailer kind of highlighted a lot of really neat things too. Kind of showing more of the justice society. Oh, Peacemaker.

Speaker: Peacemaker trailer. Season two. I don't know if we talked about that last week, but that that also came out. But yeah, yeah they highlighted highlighted the Justice Society, who is also in the Peacemaker trailer.

Speaker: Quick tangent there. um But yeah, I really like how it's like this interview with, yeah, again, Lois Lane talking. Like, okay, cool. Like you can interview me as Superman. And it's really cool to see how, oh man, the actor's name. I don't have it in front of me.

Speaker: what's the What's the actor's name? Who's Superman? What's Superman? David Cornswit. David Cornswit. I really like how they're doing, how his voice, like how he's changing his voice from Clark Kent to Superman.

Speaker: It's, yeah it's really cool how they highlighted that in the trailer. Um, I'm very curious. This trailer like got me very excited for the movie, but it also seems like there's a lot going on.

Speaker: like There's a lot of characters. There's a lot of shit to cover. um There's a big kaiju tearing through this the streets. There's also big lasers. there's there's there's There's the Justice Society people. They're flying.

Speaker: You got Isabella Merced, who's who you know dominating in The Last of Us right now. She's there. She's got wings. She's a little hot girl. you know it's It's cool. I thought this trailer was very well done.

Speaker: Huh? You're really attracted to her. Honestly, no. like I think she's like a you know she's a pretty woman. But like it's weird because i remember Isabella Merced from... um I can't tell the joke went over your head or not. It did.

Speaker: It did. Yeah. What were you saying? You said Hawk Girl, but it sounds like you said Hot Girl. Oh. That's what it sounded like to me. That was a stupid joke anyway.

Speaker: No, that's a good joke, dude. don't Don't put yourself down. Go on. Tell tell me why you're not attracted to but well like like I feel like the first movie I saw her in was Instant Family, which came out like back in 2018. Like she, i don't know. She was probably like 16 at that time.

Speaker: Sure. um Which is a great movie with like Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne. Hilarious. And then she was also in, I don't know if you remember when we watched this movie in theaters, Sicario, Day of the Soldado, the second Sicario movie. didn't remember that she was in that.

Speaker: Yeah. she's She's the girl that they're transporting. Well, she's Dora the Explorer. That's where I best knew and knew her from. Oh. To start. yeah Yeah, I never watched that Dora the Explorer movie. Did you watch it?

Speaker: No, I have no interest in Dora the Explorer. It's 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is a well-reviewed Dora movie. It's pretty good. 88% popcorn meter. This is ah this a good movie, apparently.

Speaker: Yeah. You want to watch the Dora the Explorer movie? No. We'll review it next We've got many movies. No. We're going to review the Dora the Explorer movie next week. yeah Two weeks from now, sorry. Two weeks from now. Come on back.

Speaker: Come on back. going review Dora the Explorer. to our way and it a closer look. Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Yeah. Next. Yeah. yeah yeah Anyways, what were we talking about? Trailer. Good trailer. Liked it. Yeah, good. What did you think?

Speaker: Excellent. Yeah. ah just said I said my piece. I think the Lois and Clark bits, that's the best part. The grounded nature of it being an emotional story, which is what I feel like James Gunn excels at.

Speaker: He's not just telling like a... Larger than life tale. When he grounds it, that's really what he needs to do, especially based on what you just said. There's so many characters. le Lex Luthor is another big one. Nicholas Holt. I don't know if you said that. um Bald head.

Speaker: Yeah, he's got he's got a bald head. And he's he's got some narration in the trailer as well. There's just so much going on. It's nuts. i'm I'm super curious to see what they can... pull off because it's, yeah it's a lot. It's a big undertaking. So i don't know. I feel like this is the best litmus test for the rest of the DC universe that James Gunn is building. Cause if he fails this, then it's over. But if he succeeds this, then he's taken a huge swing because he's put so much into it.

Speaker: So it's actually, it's great that he's kind of done this, that he's taken this big swing. Cause can give us a good idea of what they're going to do for the rest of it. He's not playing it safe. So that's the beauty of it for the audience, I guess.

Speaker: Yeah. And again, it is really cool that like he's, he's going right into, yeah I'm connecting this with peace into peacemaker and in peacemaker, we have characters from creature commandos. Like he's building this universe quickly, um which kind of gets me excited um to to see the potential of it all. But again, but I risk, they also, they also did that. They built the universe quickly with the DCEU because they did Batman versus Superman and that didn't work out so well.

Speaker: for for other people, but it worked out for us. We liked that movie. That's a good movie. That's what's weird. We actually really liked that. And then I don't know. But he did build the universe very quickly because the After Man of Steel was Batman versus Superman. In this one, he's doing it even faster. James Gunn decided he's not taking the Zack Snyder approach. not one yeah know We're not going to keep a one movie buffer. We're going to do it all in one movie.

Speaker: In the first Superman movie, basically, yeah the the biggest movie they've got going coming. so yeah yeah And then the the next movie is Supergirl, right? Which is like the following year with Millie Alcock from ah House of the Dragon.

Speaker: mike I feel like I'm right about that. I'm going to say I am. Yeah. They got a lot of shows, so it's all mixed up in my brain. I think I'm right. I'm going to say I'm right.

Speaker: movie the DCU. Studios movie. After Superman. After Superman. Supergirl, yeah, that's what it says. June 26th.

Speaker: Look at me. Less than a year away after after Superman. Pretty good. Okay. Okay. It's exciting. All right. Well, any thoughts on the Nobody 2 trailer or Ironheart?

Speaker: um Yeah, Nobody 2 looks fun. I really liked that first movie. um It's like kind of what if John Wick was an older man like Bob Odenkirk? Well, I feel like...

Speaker: I'm going to do an age check right now. Keanu? I feel like it's more like what if what if John Wick was an unassuming like dad in the suburbs? That's kind of the idea. like John Wick looks intimidating. When you look at Keanu Reeves in his black suit and his long hair and his beard, he just looks like scary guy.

Speaker: ah scary guy He just could easily be a a scary dude, whereas ah Bob Odenkirk is very unassuming, and that's kind of the interesting thing about it is he's so dangerous, but nobody would guess that.

Speaker: He's just completely underestimated. I think that's the fun part of it for me. And I also love Bob Odenkirk. So there's an element of it being pretty funny as well. like ah he's like ah He's a dad. He's making dad jokes and just silly he's saying silly things, whereas John Wick is pretty serious. He says almost nothing.

Speaker: So yeah, that's kind of the fun of it, I think, is that idea of it. yeah i mean um It looks good. It looks fun. I really liked that first movie. And as you said, like Bob Odenkirk too.

Speaker: ah Yeah, nobody was, I recall correctly, there's quite a few jokes sprinkled throughout that movie. And like the violence was pretty top-notch too. um Yeah. There's also Christopher Lloyd. Christopher Lloyd. He's not in the trailer much, but Christopher Lloyd is a and mean an American treasure, I guess. yeah He's Doc from Back to the Future.

Speaker: And so it's... It's pretty cool. he He was pretty great in Nobody Won. So I imagine he'll be interesting in this. Because he right if I'm not mistaken, he plays Bob Odenkirk's dad, right?

Speaker: Yes. Yeah, Bob Odenkirk's character's dad. yeah Also, I like Colin Hanks, and I'm glad Colin Hanks is in this one. Yeah. little corrupt cop.

Speaker: yeah Corrupt cop Colin Hanks coming out of Fargo season one, playing another cop, but this time he's a bad cop the opposite the literal of the exact opposite like a really moral guy in forgo fargo season one and in this he's the opposite yeah corrupt corrupt yeah oh whoa um yeah it looks good um and then the iron heart trailer weakest trailer of this bunch i think um

Speaker: It looks fine. Like, I don't think it looks particularly good. I feel like this was filmed that I want to say like over three years ago. The big thing about this trailer, though, and I'm sure you noticed it as well.

Speaker: Ryan Coogler's name is all over. It's like from the guy that brought you Black Panther Wakanda forever. Ryan Coogler. It's like, dude, he's just an executive producer. He's not part of the creative team. He's not a director on any of the episodes. He's not a writer.

Speaker: And i I believe that they added all of that because of how well Sinners is doing. And they're really trying to push it. You'd like scroll down on those YouTube comments youre like, oh, Ryan Coogler, the guy that did Sinners, I'll be here day one.

Speaker: Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Like oh there's a lot of those. It's working. So it works then. Yes. Yes. But again, a lot of people are also disliking it because it's woke, dude. There's a black woman. How can you make something with a black woman? That's woke as hell, dude.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. You know? Crazy. Crazy. Imagine not being a white a white man in anything. Woke. Immediately. I fucking hate woke culture, dude.

Speaker: It pisses me off. People, this anti-woke mentality. They're fucking stupid. Yeah, the anti-woke culture is really the dislike, I think. i don't even know what the I don't even know what the word means anymore. It's stupid as hell. But yeah, again, I just don't think this trailer looks particularly great. It feels like a product of, like...

Speaker: Like it feels like something that was filmed three years ago. So it's, it's like, and I feel like that was a dark time for the MCU. Things weren't hitting all that well.

Speaker: um Shows were those shows ah pretty much mostly hit. Not for us though. Yeah. But the beginning shows that was longer than three years ago. That was in 2020. We didn't like the starting lineup, but three years ago was like, well, I guess you didn't like moon night, but yeah.

Speaker: yeah um like loki's excellent like the miss marvel i really like as well oh yeah that was that one's cute and fun i like that movie too sorry sure yeah oh like hawkeye hawkeye was a fun romp yeah but then it went downhill pretty by the end Right.

Speaker: But yeah, I don't know. I don't really like this trailer either. i'm not I'm not that fascinated by it. I don't think they're doing that much that's too original. That's the issue. It is weird. Like Chinica Hodge is the

Speaker: to not director, sorry, sorry the showrunner. But she's doesn't done that much to really judge anything in terms of what she's written. She's written Snowpiercer. She's been a writer on Snowpiercer. The show, assuming. People like that show?

Speaker: Yeah, the show. So that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, it just seems like a little... um What's the Midnight Club? The Midnight Club? She's a writer on the Midnight Club from 2022. Oh, that was the um Netflix... Is it good?...show Mike Flanagan's show.

Speaker: Oh, she's a writer. it got canceled after one season. Oh, no. Yeah. Did you watch it? No. I wanted to, but then I heard that it ends on a cliffhanger, and I was like, ah, don't want to watch it then.

Speaker: Okay. um But yeah yeah, there's something about the trailer that it just seems like a little basic. It's like, oh, you know, like, I'm Ironheart. I'm smart. I can do this. And then, you know, someone goes there is like, you're going to do really well. You're going to do great, but you got to do evil things.

Speaker: And she's like, I don't want to do evil things. so That's just kind of the vibe I got. It's kind of like the the vibe of Iron Man 1. yeah And the rest of the MCU, like the farm formula movies in a way. But Iron Man 1 for sure is that he's like tempted by money. he's He's a billionaire wants to make money, so he's selling arms to foreign countries. That's the whole idea.

Speaker: Yeah, I just... Yeah, I think it's it's it's not doing anything unique, which is unfortunate. However, the cast is good. Like, um if I recall correctly, like, I don't really care for Ironheart as a character in Black Panther Wakanda Forever. I think she was one of, like, the least interesting parts. I genuinely don't remember her in it.

Speaker: um That is the... yeah there's something about it. I feel like she was one character too many, actually. they i don't feel like she... she really lent too much to the plot that was really, it felt necessary.

Speaker: Yeah. It kind of felt like it was kind of a weird shoe in, ah in a strange way. I would agree. Yeah. It's interesting. I want this to succeed though. i I do want it to succeed. It is weird. You're right about the Ryan Coogler thing, but Ryan Coogler is like had no misses.

Speaker: in I don't name a miss. I guess he's, he's just been hitting every time. Like Creed, Black Panther, Obviously Sinners and Black Panther Wakanda forever.

Speaker: um every Everyone has been great, but okay. Well, so... Let's now move on, Adrian. To the montage, a sequence of our show in which I briefly present seven of the bi-week smaller news stories as Adrian delivers a brisk verdict.

Speaker: All right. Number one, according to publication deadline, Back to the Future Actor, Michael J. Fox has been cast in season three of the Apple TV Plus hit comedy series, Shrinking. Wonderful. Shrinking is great, and I can't wait for the next season.

Speaker: Number two, according to publication The Hollywood Reporter, Deadpool producer and star Ryan Reynolds is reportedly writing treatments for an X-Men Deadpool team up film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Speaker: Oh, neat. I'm curious how that would be. Number three, as announced by NBC Universal, the much anticipated spinoff for a hit series, The Office, will be called The Paper and is set to premiere in September of this year on streaming service Peacock. Interesting. I kind of forgot the show was coming out, but it has Domina Hall Gleason from the hit movie About Time with Rachel McAdams. Number four, the next Legendary Pictures produced MonsterVerse film, Godzilla Cross Kong Supernova, is now in production and is set for release on March 27th, 2027.

Speaker: Amazing. Let's get Project Power Glove back in action. Number five. Actor, producer, director Seth Rogen's Apple TV Plus comedy series The Studio has been renewed for a second season. Amazing.

Speaker: Good. I'm glad this show phenomenal. Number six. As announced by executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, Fallout Season 2 on Amazon Prime Video has been confirmed for a December 2025 release date, and the series has been renewed for a third season. Cool. I thought the first season was pretty good. Number seven.

Speaker: As The Hollywood Reporter reports, actor Kristen Ritter has been cast to reprise her role as street-level New York super detective Jessica Jones in Daredevil Born Again Season 2.

Speaker: Fantastic. I like her as Jessica Jones. I like that first season of that show. It's really good. Probably the best that Netflix put out in the Marvel Universe stuff. It's a cool bringer back.

Speaker: Get her here. Let her do some detecting. let her Let her jump really high. And a bonus, number eight, the hit Shonda Rhimes shepherded period drama Bridgerton has been renewed for both a fifth and a sixth season ahead of its fourth season premiere on Netflix.

Speaker: Yeah, not for me. And that concludes the montage. It's still, but oh my God, it's still playing. So I just put it louder in my ears.

Speaker: Am I crazy, Simon? ah's You're still playing it. Are just going to play it for the rest of the episode? episode In the background. Nobody can hear that. So just me. You don't have to draw attention to it. You can hear it. It's in your head.

Speaker: Yeah. It is and my head. There's music behind the montage, but i'm I'm putting it in separately. I'm just doing it for the for the vibes. You know, the vibes. You want feel like you're there. The vibes. Am I crazy, Simon? I want feel immersed.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. ah Super immersed man. But am I crazy? don't Don't we usually review before we go into the montage? Did you just swap that around this week? So the idea of the montage in the way that I designed it is it's supposed to be like, well, the show in general is supposed to be an ebb and flow.

Speaker: So I'm basically put them, I've decided to move the montage because we don't have the split focus special segment, which kind of is like a slowdown of the episode. We have deeper discussions and And the review segment is usually ah a moment where it's a slowdown where we have deeper discussions.

Speaker: So I decided to put the montage here and see how it flows. Because the idea is to do the ebb and flow, but ebb and flow. Just fix the pacing. Make sure the pacing is... is solid. That's the whole idea. If you disagree with this, let me know. Maybe when you listen to listen back to the podcast, episode 110, you'll be like, eh, I liked where it was. But I feel like it's kind of right in the middle, in the center of the episode now, or roughly thereabouts.

Speaker: So anyway. Okay, I'll let you know. Okay. Sounds good. Sounds good. and It is now time to... Take a look at what we've been watching this week to talk about it, to discuss it. There are few things that we watched, actually one thing that we watched together, and there might be things that you watched alone. There are certainly things that I've been watching alone, but I'll let you go first.

Speaker: Maybe you can tell me well but about what you've been watching not with me, and then we can go into our core review. Okay. Okay, so I haven't actually watched too much this week, um or the past couple weeks. I've caught up on the studio, which is really, really good. I think the season finale is next week, so i I'll save my thoughts for then. But unless they somehow blunder that that last episode of the season, this is...

Speaker: One of the best pieces of television I've i've consumed probably since Severance, funnily enough, ah which is another Apple TV plus show. It's so good. It's funny. The cinematography is great.

Speaker: The cast is is stellar. their their Their chemistry is amazing. It's anxiety inducing while still just kind of being so go, go, go. It's cool because if you are relatively familiar with the the industry as well, like the amount of cameos there are not only from an acting like actor perspective, but also from like executives.

Speaker: um It's pretty nuts. It's pretty nuts what they're doing here. And I'm i'm really loving it. um Have you been watching it? Are you caught up? No, I'm just waiting for it to be over. And there's like a bunch of things that I'm trying to catch up on.

Speaker: They'll get into in a second. so Okay, cool. But I will. I'm definitely going to be watching ah Your recommendation is not gone unnoticed, Adrian. Cool. um Fantastic. um And then, yeah, like I haven't really watched much else. We've been watching the Valley every week, like every Tuesday, which is a it's technically like a spinoff of Vanderpump Rules. Like it's with Jax.

Speaker: It's his show, Jackson, Brittany. um It's it's pretty good. um that It's it's like. It's like Vanderpump rules, but old people, older people.

Speaker: And like, oh, we're trying to have a baby. It's like, it's I don't know. It's not as good, but it's still good. There's a lot of random shit. but They're awful. A lot of them are just awful people. And it's like, I just like watching it to hate hate them.

Speaker: And then we also watched another, like, I guess, ah Vanderpump ah show, Vanderpump Villa, which was on Disney+. plus That's what I was using your Disney Plus account for most recently to watch it.

Speaker: um It was fine. It was fine. Stassi from Vanderpump, Vanderpump Rules is in it in the second season. Yeah. Kind of playing like almost like a a backup to Lisa Vanderpump in this villa.

Speaker: And yeah, it's it's fine. Again, not not nowhere near as good as Vanderpump Rules. like i I'm not even joking when I say this. I'm not joking, Simon. and Seasons like 10 and 11 of Vanderpump Rules, some of the best television I've ever consumed in my life.

Speaker: and um This is not a joke. What does that mean? I don't even know what this is. crazy. I don't even want you to explain it. i mean It's going crazy. Okay. So, um but yeah, apart from that, I haven't watched much. I'm going to jump into Andor season two. I think it's all done.

Speaker: But I haven't yet started yet. No, no, I'm going to. But I got ah we were watching Vanderpumpville and now I'm worried I'm going to try to log into your Disney Plus again. It's going to be like you can't watch it, you stupid idiot. And so it's going to say to me and i'm going to be upset. He's spaghetti about that.

Speaker: Yeah. I'm going to dive into that. What have you watched though? That's it. That's it. That's all I got. So this is not a sports podcast, but I am, I'm a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.

Speaker: And so I, yeah I purchased some sports net now seamless, by the way, I've resubscribed to sports that now multiple times. Uh, it no problem. Logged in. No issue. No issue works perfectly.

Speaker: Everyone plus take notice. Anyway, sports that now is like a sports app where I can watch Toronto Maple Leafs games during the second round of the playoffs. Uh, today is game seven actually. So I'm actually postponing um watching The Last of Us, actually.

Speaker: Oh. likely to watch this game. We'll have to discuss our ah shooting schedule for further the review. it's a We got tomorrow off as a holiday. So if you want to record like way late in the night, just shoot me text, man. I'm probably going be up. going to drink a coffee at like 8 so I can stay up.

Speaker: I want to catch up on on life. I'm playing Uncharted, actually. i just restarted Uncharted. Cool. The game. great Yeah, yeah. So actually just had a coffee. Maybe that's why I'm kind of like rambling, going like, yeah, yeah. I don't know if you can tell, Simon. I feel like i'm um feel like I'm a little bit wackier than usual.

Speaker: and I dont feel wacky. I feel like I started real wacky right out of the gate. and i I was like, I'm fired up, ready to go. Yeah. Permanent Plus is annoying. Yeah. Are you not a coffee drinker? Technical issues.

Speaker: I don't drink coffee, no. Yeah. You're straight edge, man. You're straight edge. It's just coffee. You don't drink. just caffeine. It's not that crazy. You drink. You don't do drugs. You're a good man. You're powerful. That makes me a good man.

Speaker: You're powerful. You got it. Thanks. I'll be honest. I was a little hungover this morning. I went to karaoke last night after yeah feeding my friends roast beef, which you refused to have because you didn't want to come over and you said that you hated me. No, I'm just kidding. No pressure, man. it was very pressure It was very short notice in my defense. Okay. You gave me notice of like two hours in advance. You must've been planning the event for a long time. Look, I actually wasn't bringing this up. We planned karaoke. All of a sudden you you had roast beef being made the day before in the sous vide, but you didn't, you didn't have a plan.

Speaker: No, because we were just doing karaoke. And then I had the, so I got the roast beef from my my parents' freezer. They just actually left for Serbia. So I just went over to my parents' house and stole the roast beef out of their freezer.

Speaker: um Well, it wasn't roasted. It was just a piece of beef, right? yeah i got And then I was like, to well, it's it's been like, I was worried. i was like, is this freezer burnt? It wasn't. It was fine. So I was like, I'm just going sous vide this.

Speaker: For yourself. It was just for you and your fiance. That was the plan. Well, yeah. And then I was like, well, this is a whole piece. What am I supposed to do with this time? And I'm not going cut into little pieces. i was going to sous vide it and then get it ready.

Speaker: And i was like, well, i I got this whole roast beef. we're I'm going out to karaoke anyway. So I was like, do people want to come by before karaoke? Eat some roast beef sandwiches. So we went to Costco. We got a bunch of buns.

Speaker: I shot you a little message. My sister came by. You just didn't invite me to the karaoke port portion. Yeah, I don't think you would want to go to karaoke. Do you want to go to karaoke?

Speaker: like I might have gone. Maybe I would have gone to the karaoke if I had been given more notice. I'm kidding. I would have probably gone anyway. Okay. Fair enough. No, I appreciate the invite. and ah You are a good cook.

Speaker: I know this from experience. Thank you. an excellent cook. and Thank you. I appreciate it. so i you know I feel like I missed out on the roast beef sandwiches. but that That's for sure. Not the karaoke? Maybe not. But roast beef sandwiches?

Speaker: Probably missed out. I'll make you some roast beef sandwiches. I kind of just prefer the intimate settings. you know like the If I'm invited over, there's a lot of people I don't talk to that often. It's it's you know it's a lot of like juggling. like Who am I talking to next? You know everyone's – You're a very social guy. I feel like you you kind of – You're butterfly a little bit.

Speaker: So i'm I'm less of a social butterfly. A butterfly. Thanks, man. And nothing against anyone who was there. I don't even know who is who showed up. but The usual suspects. It would have been fine. But you're kind of putting on a show where when you're in a social setting. And I do that for work every day. So i i it was less appealing because it was more people.

Speaker: That's the honest truth of it. So you don't have to put on a show for me? We had plans. What? Oh, yeah. you You never put on a show for me? Because you're comfortable. You're comfortable with me. That's the idea. you There's less of a show being put on.

Speaker: Exactly. You want to be with me.

Speaker: You made it sound weird when you said that, but yes. Sorry, I interrupted you. Your base words, base yeah definition, yes. i would like to be around you. Nice, man. yeah Thanks. I like being around you too, man.

Speaker: Excellent. Okay. Wonderful. It's getting a little too mushy. Sorry, were you going say something else on this? No, I don't. i actually, i have no recollection of what we were talking about. Where were did we tangent from this? Oh, I'm watching the hockey games.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. Yeah. How did I get to the other thing? Anyway, where regardless of that, there is a hockey game on tonight. So it is game seven. So I didn't want to miss this one. So I'm going to watch that. And then we might push the last of us recording till tomorrow. But we'll see what what happens.

Speaker: Okay. With that, that's what I've been doing. so i've I've actually not watched a lot of other things because of the Toronto Maple Leafs actually making it way further than they normally do, which is awesome. But also, i don't know if they're going to make it. I want them to make it past Game 7, but alas, they don't have a history of doing so.

Speaker: They're playing against chaoff ah the Florida Jaguars. Damn it. The Panthers. I knew it was some cat. i knew was some but like cat Big cat. type of cat.

Speaker: You actually never heard of the Florida Panthers or you're just kind of joking? No, like like I'm sure I heard of it. I knew it was a cat. I just forgot which cat it was. You know me. I'm not much of a sports guy, dude. I don't really follow too many team sports. I know. I watch UFC.

Speaker: That's about it. Yeah. good stuff. That's not team sports watched that. I watched ufc Oh, right. That's what you're filling your time with. Yeah. yeah Yeah. I did watch that in the last two weeks. Anyway, sorry. Continue. keep on interrupting. I'm rude. The other thing watching as well on the side, and again, it's something that we, like, I'm not really watching that much new. Oh, actually, I'll get this out of the way. Mythic Quest the finale, I actually quite liked. I thought it was quite heartfelt.

Speaker: So I did finish Mythic Quest season four. i i did like it, actually. I'm not against the show. It's kind of sad that I got canceled a little bit, but I don't know what they reshot because I never saw the original cut of the finale.

Speaker: But I think they did a pretty good job with the ending, but it does kind of feel... Like they clearly, no, it's more like they clearly just threw this, like that part together. Cause there's not, it's not that definitive of an ending it, but it's good enough that it's, it's an ending enough that it's almost like the ending to awake.

Speaker: I love that ending. It's one of the greatest endings of TV ever. And that's just because they, they seem to know that they were getting canceled way before they got canceled. The show with Jason Isaacs. That's a great show.

Speaker: I love that show so much. It's crazy. so much I love that network show. That's very exotic in nature. That was one of your first recommendations you gave to me. Like, yeah like that was that was ah like a in the early days of our friendship when we worked together at Best Buy.

Speaker: um And yeah, you you told me about that. I like, yeah I'll watch this. And I binged it all. And i was like, you're right. This was a great show. That's a great ending. I loved it. It's shocking and it's tear jerking as well. Like, I distinctly remember in the moments where i've I've cried watching that show. And I've watched it a few times. It's also short because it's just one season because it got canceled.

Speaker: Yeah, it's 10 episodes, isn't it? Like eight 10 episodes. I think Always a little bit more or something like that. But yeah, there's there's this there's a song at the ending of of season one as well that i think I thought was just perfect in the way that they...

Speaker: And the names of the episodes were really great too. It's just a great idea for a TV show. It's strange because the the dude who made that show, the showrunner, ended up going on to showrun the Halo TV series, oh which wasn't that well regarded.

Speaker: Although it's funny, that Halo season two, did we ever talk about this? How Halo in season two halo season two is like incredibly well-reviewed by our critics. Oh, no. you look at just typing into Rotten Tomatoes, like critics really like that second season, whereas the first season they didn't necessarily love because the audience also didn't like it.

Speaker: But there's it's it seems like fans hate it so much because they go so far off the beaten path with the source material that that's the reason why it's like thought of in this very negative way.

Speaker: You see it there. Yeah, it's 90%. 21 reviews. The popcorn meter for the second season is actually relatively high at 70%. science Also, yeah. Also not bad. Which is interesting because you wouldn't think that considering everything we've heard.

Speaker: Certainly. It's on Netflix now. Do you know? Like they brought it onto Netflix in Canada. That's paramount. Yeah. What's the point of that? don't know. Okay. Too bad they didn't do that with Mission Impossible.

Speaker: yeah But hey. Okay, so the other thing I'm watching as well is I'm watching Andor. So Mythic Quest was good. I think it was good. I still haven't watched that. lot I'm on the last episode of Mythic Quest. Yeah, just just watch it. It's good. I know you didn't like the rest of them, so I'm not sure how much you will like this.

Speaker: To be honest, it's not that much better than the rest of the episodes, to be fair. But I do like season four. I thought it was i thought they kind of had some... like directionality I thought they had like a like a vision to how they were going with the season in some way I don't think they necessarily thought they were going to end it but I feel like I don't know didn't feel as directionless as season three I just didn't like season three because of the weird like side plots of like there was two different like the Mythic Quest team and the like the iron team. And it's like, I don't know if that works. Like that doesn't seem to work for me. So that's kind of what threw me off.

Speaker: But season four was better from my perspective. Regardless of that, I've been watching Andor season one to catch up again, because I just don't remember it as well, because I watched it in 2022 to begin, um like initially.

Speaker: So I just want to watch it over again. And man, what a good show Andor is. It's just so crazy. I just finished the last episode The last episode of the second arc, which just so excellent. The first arc is so good. The second one is so good. The third arc my favorite. It's so good, dude. Yeah, mine too.

Speaker: I like the fourth one too. They're they're all excellent. there It's just a really great show. It's really well put together. And people really love the second season. And I'm like, I'm trying to avoid spoilers. That's one of the problems.

Speaker: of not watching the second season as it's aired, but it's over now. It's ended as if like a Tuesday right after we, yeah, right. Like Tuesday of yeah, this past week.

Speaker: Yeah. um But yeah, so I'm very excited to see where that goes. I'm also in playing star Wars outlaws while I'm watching and or just to get me that, you know, so the star Wars vibes to have that synergy going on with the video games and,

Speaker: and ah TV show at the same time. So, and other than that, I've been watching Mission Impossible because I found a way to watch it in a different way. So I found a way to watch it. I've watched Mission Impossible 1 and 2.

Speaker: two ah so far. I'd never seen two before. Oh, really? I'd never watched it. And so I knew that already. No, it's not that good. But it's not terrible, though. It's pretty entertaining.

Speaker: um But it's got it's got it's it's got a few plot holes and some weird slow motion choices. I'm not sure why. But it's ah it's good. it's it's It's good enough. It's good enough. that was It was fun to watch. It was fun to watch. i had a fun time watching it. It doesn't make it good as a whole. But It was fun to watch.

Speaker: and ah And so, yeah, my fiance and I, we're making our way through them. We've got five more to go before Final Reckoning. I will just say this, this quick announcement to you. I do want to finish this run of movies before I get to...

Speaker: The Final Reckoning, which is imminent. and It's in a few days at this point. Yeah, so it's okay. like I'm out on a work trip. Oh, right. this So like I won't be back until like Saturday, like late.

Speaker: So I'll probably want to at least relax on the Saturday. So like maybe we can do this Sunday if you're caught up by them. But if not, again, no pressure, man. This is a shit ton of movies coming out. There's a bunch of stuff I want to watch. so Right, okay.

Speaker: Sounds good. Sweet. No pressure. All right, that's it. That's all i've been watching. And by the time... All next episode airs we'll probably have watched Mission Impossible. Adrian, let's take a closer look at episode five now of The Last of Us season two on HBO.

Speaker: What did you think of this episode? Yes, Simon. I thought positive things about this episode. Mostly. i think there's a couple of things that stand out um that I didn't particularly love.

Speaker: and And honestly, I kind of blame you for it because you planted some seeds in my brain last week. And like sure I can't get it out of my head. And it's just been pestering me in my brain. And now I'm overanalyzing it a little bit.

Speaker: But I shouldn't blame you. i think I think it's you're right. It's me acknowledging your your your your correctness in this. So um but I thought this episode was actually really cool from a again, like a set design perspective.

Speaker: I thought it was frickin awesome. um Again, like how they can recreate. um parts of the game and just make it look so good on television is, is masterful. They do a lot of really cool things.

Speaker: They give us a little bit more context, um, and a little bit more insight into how the scars are, which is pretty cool. i was, I was happy to see that. And again, they do something really, really awesome, which I wish they're doing. They do more of, and it's giving us kind of a scene that is set,

Speaker: Ultimately, before the events of the game, giving us a little bit more context to the wider world without really kind of changing what's in the game, if that makes sense.

Speaker: They're adding to it. Sorry. They're adding context to the show. You mean not to the game, right? Well, sorry. Maybe I misunderstand. Yeah. And well I mean, they're adding context to both. Like they're adding scenes that weren't in the game that add context to the to the world.

Speaker: And yeah I thought that that's really cool um what they're accomplishing there. I think everyone's performances are great. However, again, based on some seeds you planted in my brain, I think Bella Ramsey's performance is a little inconsistent. And I just the issue is, is like, I don't know if I should blame her.

Speaker: or if I should just totally blame the writing, or if it's a little bit of both. and And that's what's tough about it. um But again, i'm I'm excited to kind of get a little bit deeper into that. What did you think, man? It does seem like it's the writing. I don't i don't think it's her fault. I think that it's the writing and then the directing based on the writing that's causing this issue that we're talking about very vaguely. So I'll just ah talk more non-spoiler, and then we'll we'll maybe get into it after. But the key the key is For this episode, this this episode was directed by Stephen Williams, which I think we had mentioned last last week, but that's the director of one of my favorite episodes of TV ever, which is the Watchmen TV show director for This Extraordinary Being, which is one of the it is legitimately an incredible episode of TV.

Speaker: If you haven't watched the Watchmen TV show, sorry, watch it. Watchmen. it's it's watchman Watch man or woman. Yeah, that's horrible. and That's a horrible joke. Regardless of that, it is very great. Stephen Williams did a great job here. And I think the pacing of this episode in particular is incredible.

Speaker: I think that the way that the action plays into emotional elements and then they kind of feed off of each other. And the way that the episode is almost symmetrical. it's It's honestly, this is a really great episode of TV.

Speaker: think Stephen Williams is just following up some you know other great episodes of TV. He's done other stuff in the meantime, but this extra extraordinary being stood out to me as like an incredible episode of TV on for the Watchmen series. And so it's cool. And he's doing the Lanterns TV series to...

Speaker: You know, not not to get too excited about the Lanterns TV series because it's not related to this, but it's another HBO show coming out um based on the DC property. Anyway, regardless of that, I thought this was really good. I thought overall, this episode is great. Another episode written by Craig Mazin.

Speaker: There is some weird things about what we're talking about vaguely. I kind of agree with you, but I also feel like they fixed some of the issues that I had, which is interesting because it's the opposite kind of... yeah really keep i I created a disease in your mind from planting a virus. And now I'm kind of maybe turning on that idea. But um yeah, I really like this episode. And what exactly you said about how the they kind of built the set pieces and built ah the production design and how it mimics the game.

Speaker: There's like one area with like buses. i think you know what i'm talking about. And I'm like, wow, that's like, it's like in my memory, I remember that distinctly. And that's That's some of the the mastery of the production team for sure. ah And in the way that they also, they did the makeup again in, in for, for some of the infected, et cetera, et cetera. And like the costumes, it's it's been great. It's been awesome in that regard.

Speaker: So I really, you know, kudos to them. Shout out to the production team. So, okay. Yeah, that's that's pretty much all I've got. um So let's move on.

Speaker: Adrian, it's time now to take a closer look at The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 6 titled The Price. From HBO.

Speaker: This episode was directed by. Neil Druckmann. He's the creator of the video games. The Last of Us. And The Last of Us Part 2. I guess The Last Us Part 1 and Part 2 now. um But it was also written by. Craig Mazin. Neil Druckmann and Hayley Gross. who Hayley Gross and Neil Druckmann were a writing team.

Speaker: For Part 2 specifically. Just for context. This episode. From my perspective, was absolutely incredible. I'll throw it to you though, ah because I don't want to say too much in terms of high-level thoughts. This is obviously non-spoiler.

Speaker: I don't want to talk but too much about what who is in it necessarily or anything like that, but I'll throw it to you. What did you think of this episode, episode six, The Price? I thought this episode was a um genuine masterpiece.

Speaker: It is my favorite episode of the series.

Speaker: It's beautiful. Everything about it I loved from start to finish. um Everything still stands from the previous conversations. The set design is immaculate.

Speaker: it's it's it's It's so good in every single scene that they do. The writing in this was, i think, the the greatest of the season so far.

Speaker: um I think the performances all around, were once again immaculate. The um expansion of existing lore um and adding scenes um to to give additional context It was just so good. i I wonder if you know why I'm laughing at you right now.

Speaker: No. Does it look like I'm crying? Because you're very dour. Let's just say it. You don't seem like you're in good spirits. It's funny because this is going to be this part of the that our review here is going to be spliced into episode 110 of Split Focus.

Speaker: So i wonder about the mood change that's going to be perceived after... I think this will go right after the review for episode five. So it's just interesting. But you just came off of watching this episode probably moments ago within the last 10 minutes.

Speaker: Yes. So there's that part as well. to Yeah. understand this is an incredibly sad episode of television. It's very emotional. um I loved it. ah Dude, loved I loved it.

Speaker: i You might cry right now. i'm I'm tearing up a little bit actually. might cry live. i would agree about the acting in particular. The acting is a standout.

Speaker: He's putting on his poker glasses out there for the audio listeners because he you know he might cry like he's at a he's at a wake. um But the the the acting in particular from – the leads in the, let's just say the leads in the episode ah what was amazing.

Speaker: It was amazing. the I mentioned last episode for episode ah five, I mentioned the symmetricality is a standout part part of episode five.

Speaker: It's a standout part of episode six as well, which is really quite neat. I didn't see that coming. and they just like They seem to like ah symmetricality from the the writing standpoint. for this season, it seems like. I maybe didn't notice it as much in season one, but certainly in season two.

Speaker: So, yeah, it's ah it's quite something. I think Neil Druckmann is a great director. I'm just going to say that. like I don't think he did a phenomenal job with the TV show episode he was given in season one, but I'm not sure that it was his fault necessarily. it's just It was good.

Speaker: i liked it I remember it, which one it was. I'm pretty sure it was the second one, right? Yeah. Yeah, i think I think we talked about this last time. Yeah, no, and distinctly remember – That episode and not loving it. Like it wasn't my favorite episode, but there's just not a lot to do, I guess. This episode, I feel like Neil Druckmann handpicked this episode. The last one, I feel like he was getting his sea legs or something like that. He was like kind of, yeah he never directed an episode of TV before.

Speaker: He was, he's a, he's a video game director. And he's a great video game director. Maybe my favorite. Yeah. large He is mine. Because of The Last of Us Part II, specifically.

Speaker: So i think he did a phenomenal job here. And he had a a hand in writing this as well with his writing partner, Haley Gross. So, yeah, I'm a um intrigued.

Speaker: I'm intrigued by what he might do next as well. But, yeah, that's that's pretty much all I got to say on this on the non-spoiler side. Are you good? Yeah. Yeah. um Yeah. and Okay.

Speaker: just let's Let's liven up the mood here a little bit. Swig of water. Okay. ah But yeah, very good. Yeah. You got a little, Oh, an owl mug. Very good. Good for you.

Speaker: This is Joel's mug in this episode, dude. Oh, is it? It is. It's the exact mug. Oh, wow. Wow. Very well. that's you're youre Yeah, you're a little blurry on my end, so hopefully it comes through on the final cut here. But yeah. Hopefully.

Speaker: Cool, man. All right. Well, moving on. But yeah, to to get to the last thing that I watched in this bi-week period, we both watched it together in theaters at our local Cineplex.

Speaker: um No 3D this time, no no malfunctions. It was a different theater, actually. We've got two two theaters in Guelph. But Uh, yeah, I'll, I'll throw it to you first.

Speaker: What did you think of the movie until dawn? The, actually, I guess I'll give a tiny preamble that until dawn is a, an adaptation, a film adaptation of the video game until dawn.

Speaker: um from PlayStation Studios specifically, the PlayStation Studios published game. It's a PlayStation exclusive. It's now on PC. But it's said the game is very much a kind of ah a playable movie. You make choices and the choices...

Speaker: you make for each character can change the plot in significant ways that each time you play the game, you can theoretically change the plot completely different to what you had initially played at the first time. um So, or the second time or third time.

Speaker: So that's what's neat about the, the, the game. And they tried to, do that sort of in the movie. But the main idea is that in the in the game is that there's a bunch of kids that go to a cabin in the woods and they kind of have to survive and until dawn.

Speaker: That is exactly the same thing that they did with the movie in terms of the adaptation portion of it. And so, yeah So we watched this together, you, me, our fiancés.

Speaker: What did you think of this film as a whole? High-level thoughts. yeah uh like one key thing to note like this movie does not follow the game story at all it's not really adapting yeah like adapting the ip i suppose but it's not an adapt adapting the plot line and it to be honest there's loose connections loose connections that are stronger than i would have liked that's actually a criticism i have of the movie but yeah for sure Yeah, so like Until Dawn, the game, I really liked. um i haven't played it in, I mean, since it released, like i think 2016, if I recall correctly, maybe maybe shortly after I could look at my trophies on on PlayStation. So it's been a really long time and I really liked that game.

Speaker: It's like kind of a fun sort of, again, choose your own adventure like horror game with a lot of comedic elements. And I think that tone, they did a good job translating that into this movie.

Speaker: The director of the Until Dawn movie is Just so you, while you're looking that up until dawn, the game came out in 2015, just to 2015. Okay, cool.

Speaker: um David F. Sandberg is the director ah of this movie and he's done a couple of cool things. um I watched his lights out movie. I think that was like one of his like first movies, like big movies. And then he also did the Shazam movies, which I only watched the first one.

Speaker: And I think he did a great job in lights. out I really like lights out. And I like the first Shazam movie quite enough. And again, I think he did a pretty good job with this movie. I think, I go into different movies for different things. And you actually mentioned this to me after the movie because i I was pretty positive on this. And you say like, you know, like the mood you're in kind of determines like how you feel about a movie a lot of the time. And 100%, it does.

Speaker: It does. But it's also like i wasn't going in into this movie expecting like Last of Us levels of quality. or, you know, like Dune part two, right? Like I'm going in for a fun little horror romp.

Speaker: And that's what I got with this. I think the cast is really good. Actually. I think they play off each other very well. It's funny. Their reactions to a lot, like what is happening in the movie is actually very believable. Like, I think it's like realistic sort of, um, reactions to the, the wackiness that's happening.

Speaker: Um, And it does a good job kind of making this into like horror trope of the movie. um And and it's it's cool what they were able to do with this because, again, it's like every time they die, the day – or I guess, yeah, the day the night repeats.

Speaker: but there's like little changes that happen. So, you know, like the first night, it's just like ah serial killer. And then the second night, there's some like ghostly spirit elements. And I think what, um, they did ah in regards to that made this like a ah really fun time.

Speaker: Um, it's really funny actually. Sometimes I, I feel like maybe it's unintentionally funny, but I don't know if that's for sure the case. Um, and I really think the like over the top violence is quite shocking, like right off the bat, actually it's, it's like, Oh man, I wasn't expecting it to really go that, that way. I don't know why i didn't realize this was a rated R movie, like going into it for whatever reason. and Um,

Speaker: yeah Again, it was like a PlayStation Studios movie. like The branding's ah ahead of it. and For whatever reason, I just didn't realize that until there's like a scene where... like a murder happens plot twist.

Speaker: And one of the characters died. I think most horror movies are rated R, aren't they? um Yeah, a lot of them are. There's a lot of PG-13, like a lot of PG-13 horror movies as well, to be fair. To be clear, I guess that the game is also rated M for Mature, which is the same kind of rating as a rated R in a movie standpoint.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly. um So yeah, I think, again, start to finish, I genuinely enjoyed this. I had a fun time. i don't Again, I don't think this is like a spectacular movie in any way.

Speaker: i think the writing is good from a dialogue perspective, but not necessarily good from like a plot perspective. But again, i don't necessarily need every movie to have like a crazy great plot or whatever. Sometimes I just want to watch a you know people get murdered and and in different ways and laugh a bit, you know?

Speaker: Um, so if, I think if you go into this movie with like just decent expectations, you're going have a fun time and it's not like going to be nominated like an Oscar movie. Um, I, I think there's a lot to enjoy in this and i really did.

Speaker: What did you think, Simon? Because I think you are not in that camp with me based on your reaction post movie. There's something interesting. I thought about it on like a philosophical, not really a deep philosophical level, but just like ah like a surface level. When we left the theater and you were kind of high on it because you you were saying it was kind of a fun movie and you enjoyed watching it it was a fun movie and it was it was it was fun and therefore there's merit there.

Speaker: I think our perspectives on how we look at movies in terms of the funness and how it it maybe translates into what we think of a movie or a TV show, i think it's a bit different.

Speaker: for For me, when I'm scoring something, as an example, in our fun little scores that we do for the Rotten Potato scores or like doing my Letterboxd scores, I'm like looking at kind of what what makes it good. And the fun element is important, but it it can never bring it over a certain level. Like the quality of the movie is kind of largely plot is king. I've always kind of said that.

Speaker: um And I think that I can also like watching a movie, but not like the movie. if that makes sense. And I think I yeah like every, I think I like watching every movie.

Speaker: And I was thinking about that. I was like, what is a movie experience that I've watched a movie in theaters or at home? ah Or like when we watched The Room that time, we did like yeah a bunch of friends watch did like a showing of it.

Speaker: The Room is not good. I don't think the movie is good. I don't like it. But I was like thinking about that. That's a great movie. it's like that's ah Sorry, it's a great example, not a great movie. But it's a great example of a movie. I'm like, what is The Room to me? It's like The Room isn't a good movie.

Speaker: It's not. it's It's genuinely not. And it can't be. But I do like watching it, though. And poking poking fun of bad movies is kind of a fun thing for me in some way, especially at home when you can kind of just like chirp it while you're while you're watching it if it's a really bad movie.

Speaker: This movie is not like that. It is is obviously better than The Room. Let's just say that. i don't want to relate it to the room. nice But I just thought that that was an important distinction is that I liked watching this movie with you and our fiancés watching the film in in a theater.

Speaker: I had an enjoyable time and there's a lot of things to love about it. The production value is great. The VFX is great. the the The gore and violence is shocking and good in the way it's used. The genre shifts that they do within within the horror genres and they the use of the horror genres was great, but that's all from the trailer and that's kind of what I was expecting.

Speaker: My problem with the film is that I don't think the plot makes any sense. I think the plot is incredibly incomprehensible in a lot of ways. it just But it doesn't I don't think that they cared about it. And I find that that's annoying because I don't agree that, movie unlike what you were saying earlier, I don't really agree that you can go and make it just a fun movie without a good plot because you should just do both. It's not that difficult to have done both.

Speaker: The tie-ins to the game plot were so unnecessary and so confounding and confusing. They don't have ah benefit.

Speaker: they're You're just adding more to the plot. The best part about the movie is the Groundhog Day-like effect. You die, you come back, you die, you come back, which is in the trailer. And that's the cool thing is surviving until dawn, the the the the hourglass spins over, you have to survive. If you don't survive past a certain amount, then you die forever or whatever the rule is in the trailer that they state.

Speaker: so there's ah like ah there's the But the rules... The rules is a big part of a Groundhog Day-like movie, like ah Palm Springs, or actually, what's that? Happy Death Day. I didn't see you Happy Death Day. I know you like that movie.

Speaker: Does the plot make sense in that movie? I think so from what I remember. You can tell me now, correct me if I'm wrong. You've seen quite a fair number of these movies that kind of repeat themselves. and The repeating day, the repeating day. Sorry. It's really the groundhog day. Like it's a groundhog day. Like to use some terminology from like video games.

Speaker: a groundhog day. Like, or death loop is a game is actually a video game that does the same idea. Yep. The Groundhog Day-like movies typically explain to you the rules fairly quickly.

Speaker: And they explain to you the rules in a very concise fashion because it's a confusing concept, especially if you're doing it for the first time, like the Bill Murray starring Groundhog Day. So the idea is you explain it.

Speaker: You don't want to have to tutorialize the entire movie over and over again, explain a new rule. This movie keeps explaining the rules. like It's like midichlorians in Star Wars.

Speaker: over and over again, even right to the end, like a bad video game, not a bad video game, but a bad video game, like trope or thing issue mechanic is they kind tutorialize things 15 hours in. It's like, no, I don't need to be tutorialized to now.

Speaker: I'm near the end of the game. i i just I'm halfway through or whatever it may be. 15 hours is too long for you to tell me now how to use this new mechanic, this whole new thing that it's not it's not it doesn't feel good because you just kind of feel like you are the already becoming an expert and now you're throwing more stuff at us.

Speaker: And so I found that like they constantly just throw a wrench into the overall plot line and how the rules work and the physics work within the world. And I feel like that's just a recipe for disaster. It ruins the pacing.

Speaker: the The tone, as you described, I actually don't like the tone. I think the tone is a mess oh because it changes. There's tonal shifts. It's initially a comedy and it's really funny. It's a violent comedy horror.

Speaker: And I'm like, this is interesting. It's almost like cabin in the woods in a weird way. Like they're poking fun of their own thing. It's a genre is a genre shifting movie. So it's that works. But then at the midway point right around that point, they're having like these, like they have at some points, these like heartfelt flashbacks.

Speaker: And I'm like, whoa, now you're going to do a heartfelt flashback. Like this is a joke. This is all a joke. But does now now it's not a joke. And then they they kind of tonally shift it, constantly tonally shifted it. At the ah midway point to the end, it's not nearly as funny as the the the first half.

Speaker: And it's almost not funny at all, actually, at the like the last third. so I'm like, I don't even get it. And some of the them of the weird gags become less funny as they go on. Mm-hmm. There's a few gags they use like repeatedly throughout the at the movie. In the beginning, it's funny. And then near the end, it's like, no, that's not funny anymore because you've used it too many times. And also, you're taking it seriously. So it doesn't work anymore. So they there's ah there's a whole slew of issues, but there's also literal plot holes. Like I'm describing a plot issues with pacing and tone. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: But also there's like plot hole, like massive holes, like gaping holes that if you think about it for more than five seconds after leaving the theater, there's issues there that I can't explain because then we would be spoiling it and we don't spoil things on our podcast.

Speaker: So- That's kind of my thought with it. But I also found that the tie-ins to the game, as I described just moments ago, that was one of the worst decisions. I don't even understand why they did this.

Speaker: Some of the times i I'm like, why did you? But why? like there's There's no benefit. And it felt to me like, thinking about it later, I'm like, did they did they add these tie-ins in because people watched the initial trailer and thought, well, this isn't connected to the game. What are you doing to my beloved i like favorite IP or whatever?

Speaker: Because it just felt like they were shoehorned in. Like some of those extra things they threw, they felt like extra things. Like they were, we need to connect this to the game. Like this is important, but they didn't initially plan to.

Speaker: Which is... I don't know if you got that impression in terms of like the shoehorning. and it Because it yeah really feels unnecessary. If they had not added those things in, they could have avoided a lot of convolution that created extra rules they had to explain about the world and the way it works.

Speaker: And that's kind of the weird thing. Why not just keep it simple, silly? Like just... Why why can' make it so complex when the initial concept, the skeleton, the overall idea of surviving until dawn or you restart and until a certain point, that's the interesting thing about it. And the genre changes work, the tonal shifts work there, like in that context.

Speaker: so And then keep it a comedy and keep it like that they're making like funny jokes about the fact that they're in ah in a horror movie. and That's great. That's where the movie works brilliantly. But in overall, it's a mess.

Speaker: That's kind of the issue. To be honest, this movie... To kind of conclude my thoughts before I throw to you, and then you can just take my hodgepodge of information and pick and choose what you want to talk about. But i to conclude, Adrian, this movie is holier than Robert Provost, the new Pope from Chicago.

Speaker: That's all going to say, okay? Oh, okay. And it's holier than a block of Swiss cheese. that's That's my issue with it. So I didn't love it. Let's just say that. Fair enough. i'm Yeah. pretty – I feel like on my scores are not typically very mean. I mostly like most movies, to be honest.

Speaker: Except for Wolfman. Yeah, I didn't love that one. Yeah, me neither. But yeah, no, like i i I disagree with you a little bit in the sense, like I think the movie is actually quite funny throughout. um like It does get a little bit more serious in that third act where it gets a little bit messy, but I think there's still a lot of comedy to enjoy in that movie.

Speaker: part specifically, again, with the character dynamics and how they play off each other and like the reactions to the very intense situation they're in. um I don't really find like the running gags to, to, you be grading by the end of it. I was, again, I was just kind of enjoying it. I think again, like you mentioned, I was in a good mood.

Speaker: So maybe that's why I wasn't too focused on that. I do agree with you. Like the, the connections to the game. I don't remember the game that much. It's been so long since I played it, but you explained some of the, some of the connections like, oh yeah, that, that actually doesn't make sense at all.

Speaker: And I do agree. Like they probably did kind of shoehorn that in. Cause some of the connections is literally like a piece of paper on the desk. And they like the camera just shows. And it's like they probably just edited that in. um And but we're like, we can we can just like put a piece of paper on a desk, just take a quick shot and then just add it into the movie because it's not even like a moving shot. It's literally just like showing the desk and it's like a character's name from the game on on a piece of paper.

Speaker: And that's really it. um Yeah. it just Obviously, Peter Stormare is in the game well. Yeah. and Why connect it? do we do There's no need to connect. Yeah. Some of these things. That's the kind of the problem.

Speaker: Yeah. Again, it's been so long since I played it, but yeah, when you were explaining to me, because I totally forgot about what Peter Stormare's role was in the game. Like I thought it was something totally different.

Speaker: It's because that studio has been releasing other games with a, like a character called the curator. And I saw, I thought that that's what it's, character was in the game. But yeah when you explain it to me, I was like, oh yeah, I'm, I'm misremembering that entirely.

Speaker: But yeah, i do agree with you. Yeah. Like the, the plot is ah especially in the third act. Like I think, I think I even mentioned it. Like it gets quite messy and very convoluted. The connections to the game aren't ideal.

Speaker: But it doesn't necessarily take away from that like fun factor, um which I think like the movie consistently did throughout. And there's quite a few scares, like some some solid like jump scares and some solid scares sprinkled throughout the movie too. like i yeah I think if you are a fan of like you know horror horror movies, like this is worth a watch um based on that alone.

Speaker: If you're only a fan of the game and you're not a fan of the movie, then – movies or horror movies in general. Like I don't necessarily think this would be something that you're going to be fulfilled with, um, but by any stretch.

Speaker: Yeah. But I, I think I don't love the game. I don't think it's the greatest game ever. It's good. I'm not like criticizing it because the game that they picked and chose and they, like it, it's not a good adaptation. Like it, that's not, yeah, yeah no.

Speaker: Yeah. It's more that they, they made it so that it didn't make sense in the connections they made to the game. while also convoluting the plot by adding extra stuff they didn't need. That was the issue for me. Like, do what you want with the plot from the game. Good for you. But I don't know what your – the connections are just making it more confusing when you're explaining it.

Speaker: You're literally explaining more things in the last, like – I don't know, 10 minutes of the movie, then don't understand why. Like, ah stop explaining things. It's more fun to that there's mystery, right? you Like this idea of the cabin in the woods. Like, why are we why are we resetting the world every, you know what I mean, when you die? Like, what is happening? you don't need to explain it. It's not actually that necessary. They don't explain it in the movie like Groundhog Day, really.

Speaker: They don't like go into like the detail of explaining. Actually, I don't think there's any movie that I can think of. Did they ever explain Explain the premise. They do in Happy Death Day. Okay, yeah. So they do sometimes. Deathloop is obviously the premise, is the explanation.

Speaker: So you understand it. It makes sense. Deathloop is a game and you're playing for a lot more hours too. So the idea of the mystery there is good too. yeah But you don't need to. And that's kind of the thing that I don't – because of the tone right, that to describe what you just described, the tone is comedy-based. So why – in a large way, not always, but it is comedy in some way.

Speaker: So don't take yourself too seriously. Why you explaining this so heavily? Like you really want to explain how it works. And then by the end of it, you still don't even explain how it works. It's it's not really that clear still. It's more unclear the more they explained.

Speaker: That's like a, that's a mistake. That's just why you're doing that. It's just very strange. But there's like basic plot holes too that are, are I can't again explain here that are actually just like obviously holes.

Speaker: um But yeah, sorry, go on. you're you Yeah, no it's funny. Like... one of my major criticisms of this season of the last of us specifically is like they're, they're the writing. It feel, I feel like it's made for a dumber audience and they're over explaining things.

Speaker: And like, you could make that same criticism about this movie. Um, and the last of us, at least when it's explaining things, it's explaining it well and properly and giving you like a little bit more insight.

Speaker: Whereas here, I think again, as you're pointing out, it is like, it's messy. Like even when they're explaining stuff, it's like, I still don't really understand what the fuck was happening. No, but yeah, Again, I think they're very different properties, right? Like Last of Us is grounded in reality. and like So it bothers me in something like that. But the plot makes sense too. Yeah. Whereas for something like this, it just didn't bother me at all.

Speaker: I mean, it didn't bother me at all, honestly. I know, which is strange. I was just having a good time. That's cool because it brings us back to around to what I was saying to start, which is like we just have different perspectives too. like I've tried to keep my perspective on whether a movie is good and whether I like like like to seeing it separate.

Speaker: And I like the movie means that the movie is good and I connect those things together. i don't i don't i don't really unconnect them, if that makes sense. Whereas I feel like you might do not do that. like You can like a movie that might've been bad.

Speaker: Yeah. example No, but also to make it more confusing, if you had a really fun time, it makes you like a movie a lot more than I would as well. Potentially. Yeah. Like I want to enjoy, like, yeah, I base a lot of movies on, on the emotions they make me feel right. Like some of my favorite movies are movies that made me cry or laugh. Sure.

Speaker: Um, so like if I know I had a good time and I enjoyed the movie, yeah Sometimes that's enough for me. Like, again, bringing up Wolfman again, like, I did not enjoy that movie. That movie was just boring. It was just a movie.

Speaker: And that's why I think we both rated it like two and a half. because it's it's I gave it a two in the end. I swapped it down. you office it we Because we didn't have ah official scores until after that. So I was able to, you know, sneak it in there.

Speaker: Yeah. For me, it was just like, it's just like a two and a half. It was just a movie, but I didn't enjoy it. Like there was no joy during that movie. It kind frustrating. But there's lot movies that we don't enjoy. Like I didn't enjoy watching, what's a good example?

Speaker: Like Uncut Gems, isn't that isn't that fun to watch? but But it's an excellent movie. The problem is is that then that score for Uncut Gems is therefore like unfavorably – if it took a like some plot hole issues, had some issues, then that makes it a bad movie. like How does that work? It's a strange – you know what I mean? It doesn't have the favor – It's not, in there's no like benefit for them to not make it more funny then.

Speaker: Cause they, they should make it more funny because then that's how people would review it more favorably. I don't know. i just, i don't look at it like that because of that reason. Drama is like nomad land, not the most fun to watch, but clearly technical on a technical level.

Speaker: Yeah. Excellent. So I, and he, and it brings out emotion though, right? Like, yeah. I like Wolfman. The only emotion I got was frustration. Right. Right. Like yeah Uncut Gems, like that's a funny movie.

Speaker: And it made me anxious as fuck, especially the first like 15 minutes. Right. Like where I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Like, just get over this. i I remember so vividly when we watched that movie because we watched that princess theater, like a small indie theater over in Waterloo.

Speaker: And I remember sitting in that theater 10 minutes and like, I don't know if I can watch this whole movie. I thought that internally. I was like, I kind of want to walk out right now because I'm just getting overstimulated. There's so much going on.

Speaker: um But yeah. Yeah, for me, to bring it back to Until Dawn, again, for me, it was enough. It did enough and it brought enough enjoyment. And i and and because I enjoyed it, I liked it.

Speaker: And it's kind of that simple. It's like I really enjoyed watching Mission Impossible 2. like I really enjoyed watching it.

Speaker: like It was really fun to watch. But that's a two and a half out of five for me because it's just – It's a bit of a mess in the way that it's done. And there's like there' is ah with some weird action sequences that go on way too long. It's almost a joke of itself in ah in a strange way. It's very 90s as well.

Speaker: That doesn't make it bad. But it's good in that – It's good to watch and it was fun to watch, but it couldn't be – it couldn't be a good movie for me. That's kind of the trick. I feel like I also favor narrative story plot more than- Maybe you do.

Speaker: Maybe. But it's possible. I just think plot is so important to everything because that's really what makes me feel the emotion that we're just we're discussing too. like that I agree with you. Making me feel emotion is a key part of it. but it you yeah Laughing is an easy it's like an easy one.

Speaker: i don't know. guy I think you have to understand the world you live in. like i Oh, a good example I always give. The Meg 2. The Meg 2 understands its tone. It also is ridiculous and they make ridiculous out of physics, outside of physics situations happen.

Speaker: But I'm like, no, that's the universe they live in. That kind of makes sense. This movie has a problem where it breaks its own rules constantly and it's not not following what it's even like

Speaker: charted out in the first place. That's part of it too. But yeah, narrative story plot, that's kind of my focus. That's what matters the most. And if you're if you're going to make a movie like The Meg, you can make it ridiculous because you know it's ridiculous. The Meg won, not as good of a movie.

Speaker: That movie I don't have as rated as highly because I feel like they don't nail the tone. they They don't know what they're going for. It's like they don't know who they are. Until Dawn doesn't know what it is. it's It's confused. It's like a confused – it's trying to do too many things at once and it's not really trying to nail any of them. They're like, we're to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. It's like that's not – no, you have to have an exacting vision like – like Promising Young Woman, you know, or The Big Two, which kind of has an exacting vision in a very, not even close to as good as a Promising Young Woman type movie, but it it does know what it is. It's a campy, ridiculous action movie.

Speaker: This is campy and horror based, but it goes off in weird ass tangents that don't make a lot of sense. And it tries to do things that... Again, plot-wise, they don't work.

Speaker: But anyway, sorry. I don't know if you had a thread you were going to pull from, again, the hodgepodge information. Yeah, no. I think we're kind of on the same... yeah I think we're kind of wrapping up this review. I mean, yeah, we understand we're saying, but we just don't agree with each other.

Speaker: basically Yeah. Yeah. I get where you're coming from. A hundred percent, dude. And like, again, like this isn't going to be my favorite movie. It's not even going to be in probably my top 10 movies of the year. But again, at the end of the day, I still had fan enjoyment out of it. And I do favor plot. Like my favorite movies aren't movies like this, right? My favorite, yeah my favorite movie.

Speaker: I don't even know what my favorite movie is like Fargo, probably like gun to my head. Like I love that movie, but like Lady Bird is another example like of a movie I just really loved. Right. Like Fargo though, a great example of a movie that's pretty funny and it nails its tone all the way through.

Speaker: Narratively it's brilliant and and it doesn't really, there's no plot. What would be the bottle? That's, that's what, that's again, that's another movie with Peter Stormare as well. Funnily enough. exactly. Wow. Good connection. Yeah. Peter Stormare.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and Okay. Yeah. veryel So what do you rate this movie? I'm actually curious. This is a two out of five for me. Two out of five. You're putting on the same level as Wolfman?

Speaker: Yes. Oh. Well, so here's the difference. which I actually, i connected it with Wolfman when I was coming up with a score. Wolfman is bad for the reasons you said. It's boring.

Speaker: it It's boring. It arguably also has plot holes, but they're not as severe. They're very like plot pinpricks or something like that. they're They're bad, but they're not that bad. It's just boring though. It's not shot particularly well. It's not acted particularly well. There's almost nothing.

Speaker: yeah I don't even know how you gave it it to one half. Thinking about it long term, i'm like two is fair. That is a fair. It's not terrible though. It's nothing... It's not horrible. It's just not – That's why like i feel like a two and a half, in my opinion, is worse than like a two or a one because it's just a movie.

Speaker: Two and a half for me is like it's on the fence of being – There's like a lot of good parts. I enjoyed it enough that it was definitely worth it. It was worth definitely seeing and it was – I had a lot of fun watching it maybe or there's a lot of good drama. There may be an emotional moment that I connected with. I just don't feel like – but I'm not sure. Like there is like, I'm, I'm so on the fence with it. And I'm just like, I can't tell you, but like whether I really didn't like it or not. Cause it's like, I think about it as like a 50% grade for a school. Like you passed, but you just barely passed. You almost didn't pass. In fact, cause you're such on the line. You're literally on the fence of being a failure.

Speaker: That's kind of the idea. So I got that. That's why I put it to, but this one in contrast to Wolfman, this movie is so plot holy. Again, Robert Provost, bro.

Speaker: Yeah. this Chicago. The Chicagoan. All right. I think it's just, it's, it's so many holes and it's so many, so much convolution and so much shit that's thrown at the wall and so much writing that feels like it's just so inexacting. Like there's, there's no no inexacting. Is that right? The correct terminology? Not exacting. It's just not, it's not detailed. And it's the things that they write out.

Speaker: They almost don't even know their own plot from like one chapter to the next. Like and they almost don't know their own rules for how the world works. Yeah. and it's like, I just don't understand how you write something like this when you had such a great concept. Like you also had the one of the great, and the Wolfman has no, that concept is not has been overdone a million times. Like your family goes into the woods and they like come on, when what is that? Who cares?

Speaker: This is like a really good idea. And they just like threw it out, it in the garbage. Like, ah. It's good, but we're going to throw more stuff at it. We're going to do more stuff that we don't need. And then we're also going to make massive plot holes because we're going to break our own rules many times over. Did I have a fun time watching it?

Speaker: Yeah. It doesn't save the problems. Interesting. Okay, yeah. yeah might i I don't know the rules of of my ratings. I'll be honest with you. um So I just give a number and I ah go with the gut. That's how you feel. yeah It's just how I feel, man.

Speaker: So for this one, I'm giving it a five out of five, we're going to have a seven out of ten here.

Speaker: yeah um Yeah, no. I give this movie like i saw three like it's a It's a good time. It's fun. It's enjoyable. Maybe if we reviewed this right after the movie, I maybe would have even given it a 3.5. But feel like I've been rating Last Us episodes at 3.5, and I do that...

Speaker: they're on different levels. Like yeah I'm going to be real. Like yeah they are on different yeah levels, even though i am. and I enjoyed this movie more than I enjoyed the first, like three episodes of season two, at the last of us.

Speaker: Genuinely. I genuinely enjoyed it more. Yeah, but that's again, it's like enjoyed it. And I had less frustration. There's a funness of this. The Last of Us is not a fun plot. You know what i mean? Like it's just not. its It's on a game perspective, especially it's fun to play because the gameplay is excellent. But the plot line is torturing for me. Every time I think about the plot, it's the only reason i actually don't want to go back like right away and replay it. I'm going to play The Last of Us Part II Remastered. But I'm like, ah, but I have to go through that.

Speaker: There's like heart wrenching aspect of the plot line. That's yeah. So like I, I like, so as I mentioned, I'm, I'm playing uncharted, like the original uncharted, um, like the remaster that they released on PS4 because I, I beat like the game I was playing Claire Obscure Expedition 33, got the platinum amazing game. Loved it. They're actually making a movie. Apparently they already sold movie rights, which is cool.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. We don't have a studio though or anything like yet. Right. They just sold them to somebody. Yeah. They sold them to a studio. They sold it to someone, but it's like a name I don't remember. I want to say Barking Squirrel, but I know that's 100% incorrect, and I don't know why that came into my head.

Speaker: Maybe that's a tip of beer. Barking Squirrel? and It's not Barking Squirrel, Simon. It's not. I'm just telling you right now. It's not. But it's something. Yeah.

Speaker: I can't see it here. I don't know. I don't know. There's a Forbes article. Yeah, clicked that one. Don't click that one. He's just going through the cast list of what he is like wish casting.

Speaker: I don't need that. Movie studio is what I'm looking for, guys. Come on. Come on. What you got for me? I don't see it. I don't see it.

Speaker: Story Kitchen? Yes. Film adaptation. In January 2025, Story Kitchen announced the live action adaptation of the game. Cool. What the heck is Story Kitchen? I've never heard of them. Um, so yeah, like, so I beat that and and like, every time I call it PPD post platinum depression, you know, you finish a game, you get it, and then you don't really know what to do. So I was like, kind of, was like, I wanted to like play I was like, Am I in the mood for something horary? So I like put in like, and evil within because I have the disc I bought it a while ago never played the game.

Speaker: And I was like, no, I'm not the mood. It's like GTA six that's coming out. I never played through the story at GTA five. and I never liked it. I started playing it. I played the first like mission and half. And I was like, no, no, not, not for me.

Speaker: I was like, really? I really want to play the last of us. I was like, I, I, I might do last us part two, but I was like, if I play it right now, I might hate the show. more than you know? and So I was like, it's probably not a good idea. And even my fiance was like, just don't do it.

Speaker: was like, you're already like, you're already like pointing out all these little changes that are making in the show that you dislike. You're just, you're just going to make your, make you hate the show. and I was like, you're right. Wise choice. So I decided to jump in, into the Uncharted game, um, like Uncharted, but yeah.

Speaker: So, uh, cool. Playing, was playing the Uncharted game though. What was the connection here? I forget. we we We dove in down a rabbit. i Yeah, i we did a tangent. There was a connection to be. Rabbit hole.

Speaker: Speaking of Expedition 33, that plot line looks amazing. Like it looks like a really unique idea. looks really cool. So for a movie, I imagine it will be very, yeah very good. That's the reason I want to play it.

Speaker: I'm going to give you, this is my one recommendation to you. You give me recommended. This is mine. This is going to be my one recommendation to you. Play this game. Clear up your expedition. It's not even full. Where are you going?

Speaker: You're dipping under the camera. I lost something. I just dropped it on the floor. I'll find it later. I feel like I'm going to forget it and the cat's going to try to eat it or something. um yeah yeah I'll find it anyway. Yeah. yeah I don't know why we went on recommendation expedition. thirty zero All right. I understand. I understand. I'll think about it. I got so many games still on the go at the same time. It's crazy. and Death Stranding too.

Speaker: um on the beach is emminent imminent imminent it's in a month and a bit right like a month and a week month and one week yeah approximately you could be clear obscure in that time but i'm playing three games at once so if i can wrap up those three games then no problemo No problemo, bro.

Speaker: All right. Well, that was, that was fun. Yeah. Until dawn. It's what is that then? What's this? Five, five out of 10. Just a pass. Five. Oh, it did it. It just kind of a pass. It's almost, guess 50 is not a pass. It's the idea is like, you didn't quite pass. You, we don't know what you, that's what I was trying to say earlier. Like you're 50%. You're on the line.

Speaker: You're right on the line. ah You're, You give it a three, yeah. you know what's funny? When I was doing the Until Dawn, i was thinking about it while i was watching the movie, about the quarter way through mark. I'm like, why people not like this? This is like that 3.5 for me.

Speaker: That's what's so crazy. And then it it just kept going down over time. It just literally dropped and dropped and dropped and dropped and dropped. I could think about the moments in which the plot became a three and then a 2.5 and a two because I'm just like, nah, I can't do this.

Speaker: just... Anyway, that's it. But yeah, okay. Well, that's it. That's all we've watched this week, this bi-week. you have anything, unless you've got something else that I missed? Did you have something else that you wanted to mention? Okay, you then.

Speaker: Now onto a segment of our show that I like to call ah Look to the Future.

Speaker: That's crazy. That's a portion of our podcast where each of us present at least three of our picks for the TV series or movies that look most interesting to us that are releasing between the dates of May 20th and June 20 and June 2nd.

Speaker: and june second 2025 may 20th and june 2nd 2020 2025 as is customary i'll let you go first what is your first pick for this bi-weekly period adrian simon so my first pick is going to be the lilo and stitch live action remake which i'm very excited about and i don't know if we talked about this but if we did i forgot did you know that the director of this movie dean fleischer camp he's the guy that did marcel the shell shoes on did we talk about this Oh, no.

Speaker: Really? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. How do we not notice that? don't know. We should noticed that. Huh. That's crazy because that guy was working on Marcel Duchelle with shoes on for years, like the shorts.

Speaker: And then he made a movie out of it. I don't think he's made anything else. like He's not made anything that significant. That's that's incredible. Good for him. That's that's amazing. Yes. And I love that movie. Like Marcel Deschamps with shoes on. I was already excited for Lilo and Stitch. I was like, this looks so cute.

Speaker: I really love that like original movie. And then i again and I was looking at the director. and i was like Dean Fleischer-Kamp. was like, I know that name. Why do I know that name? And it's because he did like arguably one of the most emotional movies I've seen in quite some time. I sobbed.

Speaker: Crazy. that that I'm i'm ah exponentially more interested in this movie now. That's kind of a funny thing. I love Lilo and Stitch, the animated movie. It's great. But I just, I don't know, these live action Disney movies, I'm kind of, they're not really nailing it.

Speaker: When have they nailed it? It's very rare. And they're just going through the motions of the exact same plot points of the of the animated movies already. It's like, it's cool, but what are you bringing to the table?

Speaker: So there's a couple that have kind of got it, got it right. I think your favorite one is Lion King, I think, but. I don't like that one. was like the only one you've seen. there any other ones? Beauty and the Beast. I watched Beauty and the Beast. That was good.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. That was good. That's good. Emma Watson, Dan Stevens. Yeah. Teapots. Yeah. Real teapots that they were able to make come to life.

Speaker: It was pretty nuts. Incredible. Genuinely impressive. But yeah, um yeah, no, I'm im interested. i'll I'll go see this. I'll go see this. yeah May 23rd, baby. I'm sure twenty third Ken would want to see this one because Ken's a big Disney guy.

Speaker: I'll shoot Ken a message and then maybe we can all go. Yeah, know I'm going cry. you're You're already going to tell us that you're going to cry? How do you know? maybe it's not going to good. I cry at the animated movie, and this one's even cute. This one's so cute.

Speaker: And this one's directed by the Marcel Lechelle with shoes on director, who I'm pretty sure you cried during Marcel Lechelle with shoes on. I cried for about 48 minutes of that entire movie, and I loved it. Yeah. yeah i was I was sobbing. I was like ugly crying.

Speaker: I mean, me and my fiance, we were talking about that because I brought that fact up to her about the Lilo and Stitch. As we were talking about, we were both tearing up just talking about that. I'm tearing up right now actually thinking about that movie.

Speaker: Wow. that's So good. So good. It is very good. Yeah. There's no reviews. i don't know if I already said this. i I'm getting a little bit turned around here, but there's no reviews for Lilo and Stitch yet, which is weird because it's imminent. Considering like Final Reckoning already has reviews.

Speaker: Yeah. Which is my next pick. Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning. That's how you do it, folks. That's how you make a segue. it ah May 23rd is the release date. Same date as Lilo and Stitch.

Speaker: um That's Tom Cruise's last Mission Impossible movie? I'm not sure. I'm not sure I'm convinced. But they're really going for the nostalgia feels in the trailer in terms of making you feel like because they're going through the history of Mission Impossible. That's what spurred me on to wanting to watch the Mission Impossible movies over again, because I had only seen, I think, I don't even remember three. I watched, don't know if told you the story, but I watched three at a birthday party, like at a Cineplex. When I was, I don't know, something like 10 years old or something, they had it in theaters, Mission Impossible 3, and I watched it in theaters recently,

Speaker: for like a friend's birthday. And I don't remember the movie except for the fact that Philip Seymour Hoffman's in it. And that's it. That's the only the detail I really remember. So I am excited to watch it um for that reason.

Speaker: yeah But I had never seen two as well. But also I just kind of wanted to watch the rest of them because there's like, again, the nostalgia feel. if I want to understand what happened in the past if they're going to try to make you feel nostalgic in The Final Reckoning.

Speaker: yeah oh may 23rd but do you think it is actually tom cruise's last mission possible i didn't really get that impression before but now it kind of makes sense he is getting older isn't he like 60 so yeah it's crazy it's crazy i i feel like it might be again final finals in the name that last trailer made it seem like hey this is the last romp essentially um I think it's okay to end it and end it on a high, you know, like I genuinely think like these, this franchise is like, apart from again, I think two is the worst, but like three, four, five, six, like they get better with each release. I think six is actually my favorite.

Speaker: Six. ball egg And then seven is seven's amazing too. I just think like mission impossible fall. It's just so fucking cool. ah Henry cow with a mustache, dude. but kind The overall thing, the set piece is the way it's built. like it's just It's very well paced. It's well directed. It's got great characters. It's awesome.

Speaker: It's fantastic. they They really nailed it. Yeah, you're right. since like I don't know about 3 because I haven't seen it, but at least since 4. I'm looking at the Rotten Tomatoes scores and that's that checks like yeah that checks out. 3 is really good too, man. It's Brad Bird as the director of the third Mission Impossible movie.

Speaker: Mission Impossible? No, it's J.J. Abrams. Mission Impossible 3. Oh, did Brad Bird? I thought it was Brad Bird, man. No, J.J. Abrams is 3. Oh, then did Brad Bird do number 4?

Speaker: Didn't J.J. Abrams do 2 of them? don't know. I'm looking. rector Maybe you're right. Maybe he did Ghost Protocol, right?

Speaker: Ghost Protocol is Brad Bird? Yep. Yeah. Okay, cool. Good stuff. My next movie, Simon, is another movie that's coming out May 23rd, packed day of movies.

Speaker: It is actually a Netflix movie, Fear Street Prom Queen, which very excited about. i love the the Fear Street movies. I think all three of them are actually excellent. um And this one is cool because I think it's set in the eighties and it's like a, on on a prom night at school.

Speaker: um The trailer is really fun. I think fear streets one like, it's it's a really great horror franchise that doesn't have plot holes. So it's better than until dawn. um But nails that sort of horror comedy aspect and it nails its tone in all three of those movies. And it's cool because the tone shifts.

Speaker: like from movie to movie because it's different time periods. It's fucking awesome, dude. So I'm very excited about fair street, a prom queen. Um, I'm stoked. May 23rd. I'll be watching it.

Speaker: It's cool. wonder why it's not Halloween. Yeah. They released the the other three movies, I think, like around same time. I feel like it was in like the start of the summer again, is weird. Didn't they release them though staggered? They did staggered releases, didn't they? One week. I think it was one each week, if I recall correctly, for three weeks.

Speaker: Right, right, right. Which is fine. Like to be fair, like, I mean, it kind of makes sense. Prom, like prom typically happens. you know, late May, June sort of time. And then the the second movie in that franchise is also a summer camp. So it works, I guess. Yeah.

Speaker: Can make an argument for that. um Yeah. Yeah. So I want to go back to my pick for just a quick second. The Mission Impossible one. It's okay the score is dropping on Rotten Tomatoes. as you see that? It's 80% now.

Speaker: So like they aren't maybe ending on as much of a high as because Dead Reckoning part one or whatever. Dead Reckoning was a 90 something percent. So 80%. Not as good actually.

Speaker: Just kind of crappy. It's the same director as the last three. Last four. Because Christopher McQuarrie I think directed four of them. This is the fourth. Yeah. but they were on a roll. um So 80% still great, to be fair.

Speaker: I'm not sure what people are necessarily looking for, like what was missing here. I guess we'll find out. But anyway. Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, I'll watch that Fear Street movie too. I'm interested in it.

Speaker: I'm getting into horror because of you you. You pulled me into this horror situation now. I'm watching more horror movies. Look at you. Look at you go. All right, well. My next pick is a May 30th film, The Fionnation Scheme, Adrian.

Speaker: um The movie by Wes Anderson. I'm just a big fan of when Wes Anderson. I like his style. I like how that's speaking of exacting directors. Exactly. That's that's an auteur. If I've ever seen one, he knows exactly what he's going to do.

Speaker: It seems like not a hair is out of place in every one of his shots. Incredible. I'm very interested in this one. That's Benicio Del Toro. Seems to be the mean main fella. That's the main main star in that. So it looks good.

Speaker: i am yeah i I think we talked about this, but I didn't love the French Dispatch, but I really did like the the one after that, which I don't know why I keep forgetting the name of it. Something about Henry Sugar.

Speaker: No, no, that's the short films. um woo Those were good too, by the way. You can get those. There's really short. think they're they're running there on Netflix, right? Yeah, they're Netflix movies. But Wes Anderson, why can't I remember this?

Speaker: So silly. Asteroid City. Yes. Which is good. It's really good. like i think if I felt like that was a kind of a return to form. The French Dispatch is only a problem, in my opinion, because it goes through various stories and it doesn't give you enough time to like stay with any of the characters. And you're kind of just kind of trying to figure out what what's going on in each of the short stories that are all pulled together.

Speaker: So I didn't love that that much. But anyway, finishing scheme seems like it's a complete story. In one film. Excited for it. We'll see how it goes. What's your next pick? Nice, dude. So my third and final movie is also releasing on May 30th. Oh, yeah?

Speaker: And it is a movie called Bring Her Back. It is by the Australian... um directors that was it last year, maybe the year before that did talk to me.

Speaker: Um, the, I think their last name is like Phillip who, Phillipo. Um, see talk to me? That's the, with the weird hand. Yeah. Talk to, yeah talk to my, talk to the hand movie where you grab the hand and then there's like a, you talk to demons.

Speaker: It's like a, it's a haunted hand when you're holding onto it. You can talk to demons, but if you spent too long talking to demons, things get weird. yeah Things get really weird. You shouldn't do it too long.

Speaker: um That movie's awesome. It's really good. And it's it's a fun time. And yeah, I'm pretty excited about this Bring Her Back movie. um It looks terrifying, genuinely. like ah The trailers are very vague. I didn't watch the most recent trailer that just came out like a few days ago just because I'm like i'm going to watch it regardless.

Speaker: So I'd kind of like to go in blind. It's creepy. um Sally Hawkins is in it, which is cool. Yeah. Paddington is also in it funnily enough. Nice.

Speaker: The bear. um so Sally Hawkins couldn't get a away to do Paddington 4, 3, but you know Sally Hawkins, sorry, but Paddington could get away from Paddington to do this movie.

Speaker: Exactly. Strange. Very excited about this. Looks great. The Philippos. philiplippo Okay. Exciting. right My last pick is a is a pick from

Speaker: that is directed and written by succession creator Jesse Armstrong. The movie is an HBO movie called Mountainhead, starring Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Rami Youssef, and Corey Michael Smith.

Speaker: They play billionaires, and they're like on a retreat to like a place, I guess, that's called Mountainhead. It's like this like this this cottage in the- It's like a ski resort, right?

Speaker: or I think it's their own. They own the place. They they own like a massive plot land and mountains. So like they're doing somewhat of a retreat, but shit is hitting the fan in the real world. and And they're like just kind of like reacting to it.

Speaker: And they largely made the shit hit the fan as billionaires kind of pull strings in real life, I guess. It looks pretty cool. And it looks like that kind of similar kind of witty dialogue style that's in Succession. I really liked it Succession. Like I really think it's great.

Speaker: So it'll be cool. It's not in theaters. It just looks to be an HBO Max type, an HBO production. That's a May 31st release. Mountainhead. Cool. Coming to ah HBO near you. And I assume Crave for us.

Speaker: You hope so. But yeah, looks good. But only the French ah dub. Yeah, I know. Jesus Christ. That's another, oh man, probably if Paramount Plus didn't take the cake as the worst app, probably be Crave actually, because that is a very, very annoying feature.

Speaker: That like they only have like French versions of certain movies, but they claim it's in English. Amazon Prime has that same issue actually. oh There's a couple movies that have it. I can't think of which here.

Speaker: So that was a weird thing for Mission Impossible. So when we went, we did we did like a weird thing where we tried we got Mission Impossible. We got access through Amazon Prime in a weird way.

Speaker: Like a roundabout stupid way. We got a free trial. So we could use it on Amazon Prime. And so when we did that, the Mission Impossible blurb, like the description of the movie was in French, but when we clicked it, it was in English.

Speaker: So we didn't have to worry about that. But if you're telling me that you click it and and's and it's in French as well, that is horrible. The problem with Crave is that the description and everything is in English and you click it and it ends up being in French and they have no option to change the language.

Speaker: That is ridiculously stupid. Like I can't, I feel like it's a mistake on a technical level. Like not a, I don't think it's ah intentional. Like I don't think they just got the French rights. I think they just forgot to upload the other one. And there's a lot of people at Crave who just don't know what they're doing. I think that's what I think is happening.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. But I can't can't prove that. yeah Yeah. I can't think of the movie. I remember there was a random movie that on Amazon Prime that was only in French. what trying to look up here.

Speaker: Yeah. Same issue. Same issue. That's horrible. It's horrible. Yep. All right. That's it. That wraps this ah regular scheduled programming up. Adrian, do you have anything else to add before we...

Speaker: Let 110 go into the wild. Episode 110. Yeah. yeah um

Speaker: Not particularly, man. Not particularly. I think I said everything I need to say. so I'll just be silent from here on out. Okay. here on it Here on out. That sounds good. All right. Well, then, thank you, audience, for listening to episode 110 of Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. My name is Simon Eadie, and it has been a pleasure to host you alongside my delightful co-host, Adrian Pinter.

Speaker: Episode 111 will air on June 3rd. Good evening to you, and good luck.

Speaker: Take that. Put that in your pipe pipe and smoke it, Adrian. You can't say anything. Can't say anything. i said good evening to you. Good evening. That's right. I combine day and evening in a fancy new term.

Speaker: And you can't even say anything. You can't even poke fun of it. Poke fun at it. Anyway, I'm leaving now. Goodbye. Goodbye. ah I'm watching you suffer. your Your face is getting quite red, actually.

Speaker: yeah Anyway. No, no, for real. For for real this time. Goodbye.

Speaker: Goodbye and good evening.