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137. A Theme Park Film with Martin Scorsese
21 Plays27 days ago
Adrian & Simon review the Star Wars adventure film, Mandalorian & Grogu, from director Jon Favreau. They also get excited about Spider Noir and the second season of Daredevil Born Again; while questioning the quality of the final season of Amazon’s The Boys. Plus, they examine the recent Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) guidelines asking American streamers to invest 15% of their Canadian-earned revenue back into the Canadian film and TV industry. Additionally, they discuss what the success of low budget horror films from director Curry Barker (Obsession) and director Kane Parsons (Backrooms) might mean for the film industry as a whole.
This episode was recorded in Canada on May 31st 2026. Episodes air every two weeks on Tuesdays! Catch us on June 16th for Episode 138.
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Transcript
Review of Mandalorian and Grogu
00:00:01
Speaker
This episode, we review director Jon Favreau's film Mandalorian and Grogu.
Success of Low-Budget Horror Films
00:00:07
Speaker
We discuss the commercial and critical success of low-budget horror films, Obsession and Backrooms. And
Marvel and Amazon TV Shows Discussion
00:00:15
Speaker
we rave about recent Marvel streaming TV shows, Spider Noir and Daredevil Born Again Season 2, while questioning the quality of the final season of Amazon's The Boys.
Podcast Introduction and Episode 137
00:00:27
Speaker
With new episodes airing every two weeks on Tuesdays, this is Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. I'm Simon Eadie. And I'm Adrian Pinter. Welcome to episode 137.
Canadian Humorous Exchange
00:00:39
Speaker
End
00:00:42
Speaker
alone
00:01:04
Speaker
Adrian, have you ever been to, this a familiar beginning of an episode. Have you ever been to Canada? Canada? Yeah, Canada. In British Columbia? Oh, you got it. Damn it. Damn it, I thought I could fool you.
00:01:18
Speaker
Isn't that how it's pronounced? Canada? canada yeah it's not in bruce columbia though it's and it's near ottawa but yes oh it is yeah i feel like there's two canadas i don't think there is canada i thought you would get <unk> confused and think i was talking about canada because i was talking to my wife about it recently anyway i got a business trip coming up to to go to canada now when are you going so i thought i would just throw you that i'm going to canada haha you know Like, yeah, I've been to Canada. I'm there right now. And I've been like, no, it's the city, the city outside of Ottawa, Adrian. All right, let's let's redo that. And you'll like, oh, I didn't know that.
Adrian's Canadian Travels and Tulsa Reflections
00:01:53
Speaker
Let's take a step back. I'm i'm in Canada right now, dude.
00:01:57
Speaker
Right. No, no, no need. No need. But anyway, yeah I'm going there for a business trip. I'm curious. I keep getting all these like I've never been to these other places in Canada. Like I've I've been to Ottawa. I've been to British Columbia, like Whistler and Vancouver area. But I haven't really been like I haven't been to New Brunswick and I just did a business trip. That's what I was saying is familiar.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah. To be talking about this, to to start an episode like this again. Like, have you ever been a newbie? Yeah. yeah you know what i'm saying but anyway so yeah i thought i would catch you with the canada i'm going to nepean and canada nice colonna is what i was thinking of by the way cona oh yeah yeah yeah yeah cool colonna have you been to colonna is that what you thought of it oh okay no i just know there's that's another uh place with a k in its name yeah okay cool yeah yeah these business trips man i've never been on so many business trips it's crazy when are you going when are you doing your business trip
00:02:48
Speaker
I don't know. It's up in the air. It'll be probably within a month, but it's unknown. It's a strange one. It's another weird one. This one's close, though. So New Brunswick I had to fly to, but this one I have to drive.
00:02:59
Speaker
So a little bit of a little bit drive, a little bit of a podcast. At least one podcast will be listened to the whole way. ah A podcast and a bit. Probably you could fit in a bit. Yep. And a bit and a bit. Yeah.
00:03:11
Speaker
It's exciting. um'm I am going to Montreal actually this week of flying or driving up on Thursday. For work? ah No, just for fun. ah It's a friend's 30th birthday. Oh, okay, cool. So he wants to be with friends in in Montreal. So we're going to go on like drive up there Thursday morning.
00:03:28
Speaker
Get there probably Thursday afternoon. Okay. And then come home on Sunday. nice If all goes well. But I am going on a work trip in two weeks to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the week of. um Again.
00:03:41
Speaker
What days are those? That's this time. of I guess that's in the time of year again, right? Because this is probably a year ago that we talked about this last time or no. No, no. This another trip within six months. remember when you went.
00:03:52
Speaker
I went September of last year to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. So this is like a yeah, again, same thing, just team bonding, meeting, meeting up and doing
Movie Reviews and Technical Issues
00:04:04
Speaker
things. So that's where the head office is for your business. Yeah.
00:04:07
Speaker
Tulsa. Okay. Yeah. that's It's strange. I don't think I've heard of Tulsa like, and looked at the history of it until Watchmen. Exactly. i don't know if we talked of about that before. We did. We did. when you Okay. Yeah. It's crazy that that's a, like it's famous for such a, like a dire situation you know in a strange way. makes sense everyone i work with super racist no just kidding i'm just kidding i'm totally joking mean that's years later yeah you would hope that they learned yeah yeah um but yeah okay cool all right man let's just get right into it okay there's a lot to talk about we watched quite a few movies uh or i guess not really we watched quite a few things we watched one specific movie in theaters and we tried to watch another movie we couldn't see it because again strange ticketing issues although i feel like the guelph city of guelph might have like the city of guelph cineplex theaters may have made a mistake by not having back rooms in theaters but we'll talk about back rooms in a second it is in theaters in guelph now i know now but why did it would the day have not have it planned to be in theaters and like this is popular i guess we should put it in theaters incredibly popular it's crazy i feel like they didn't realize that it's going to be this popular
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I wonder. Or maybe they always had a plan to put it in theaters for this maybe coming week. and they just yeah man anyway Silly. but Silly stuff. Silly indeed. But we did watch it one thing together and we watched things apart. I'll throw it to you you. can talk about the things you've watched on your own with your wife or somebody else. And then I'll jump into mine and then we can jump into the thing we watched together, which is ah the big blockbuster. First summer blockbuster of the year.
00:05:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a blockbuster, but it ain't doing blockbuster numbers, unfortunately. um It is. It is. Yeah. but but yeah not we'll get that that Not that crazy. We'll talk about it, of course. But anyways, um I did watch a few things, man. um So did a lot of catch up.
00:06:03
Speaker
um But I really only... I'll talk about a couple of things. um So I finished the boys, the boys season five, the final season is now done.
00:06:13
Speaker
And um I've been pretty negative on the boys throughout this entire season. I think I was negative pretty like in season four and even in season three, I think I remember you and i liking it, but talking about ah like a plethora of like kind of plot holes and issues with, with with the, with the show.
00:06:31
Speaker
And yeah, I think I've stayed fairly consistent on this show since like season four specifically about how I just don't really like it anymore. It's just too over the
TV Show Comparisons: The Boys, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones
00:06:40
Speaker
top. I think there's tonal imbalances and and kind of shoddy writing.
00:06:44
Speaker
And I felt the same way throughout this entire fifth season. Whereas I feel like a lot of people online were talking very positively about this this season leading up to the finale. And the finale comes out. I feel like everyone kind of turned on it, right? Everyone's like, this was a bad finale. At least that's what I was seeing. What? I have a few friends.
00:07:03
Speaker
I heard the exact opposite of what you're describing. For the finale? So I heard people didn't like the show up until the end. And then the finale was that is the was the star of the show. They actually, they redeemed themselves by the end. that's I've heard that across the board, multiple articles. and I think I've talked to people who had said that too.
00:07:20
Speaker
So like that's the opposite of what I'm hearing. They hear that the it didn't do – it wasn't maybe as good, but then it ended yeah ended strong. Interesting. what i heard Yeah, at least the the people that in my life that I talked to you about the show, they they had the opposite, where they liked the season so far and then like felt it getting kind of weaker, and then the finale was kind of bleh.
00:07:40
Speaker
And um for me specifically, I feel like the show is pretty black again since season four. I haven't really liked this entire season. I think there, are again, a lot of issues with it. And I did not like the finale at all. Really? There's a couple, you know, I think there's a couple of satisfying conclusions as a whole, but I think this finale specifically, and I'm, I'm very curious when you watch this,
00:08:05
Speaker
has some crazy plot holes in it. Crazy. Where I was, where I was, and it sucks. I can't really talk about it, but yeah I don't know. Maybe you can explain it some way, but they don't explain it in the show, but there were some like straight up where it ended. And I'm like, this makes no sense. Like there, like there is a lot of issues with the way it all plays out.
00:08:28
Speaker
um, Again, it's tough to talk about it with you want spoil it because I don't want to spoil it, but I just think this show really kind of falls flat on its face.
00:08:39
Speaker
Um, I genuinely only believe like seasons one and two are great. And then again, season three, I thought was like, it's good, but I had my issues with it. And then since season four, i think this show is like, i don't want to say bad. It's entertaining ah to a certain degree, but it's just, it didn't maintain that high level of quality that the first two seasons had. And I just feel like this kind of fell flat
Daredevil Born Again: Praise and Improvements
00:09:02
Speaker
on its face. And it's a shame.
00:09:04
Speaker
Because I do like Eric Kierke. ah you know He did Supernatural. I'm a big Supernatural guy. love those first five seasons of Supernatural. And again, he had his five season arc planned and nailed it. And I thought those five seasons were awesome. um Whereas I just don't think he did it this time. I think he kind of went too far with it. I feel like the show honestly should have ended in season three, personally, considering.
00:09:27
Speaker
um you know, where the kind of where the finale of season three could have gone compared to how the finale of this episode was. um i just think there's a lot of issues. I think the writing is It just became too much of a parody of something that is already a parody.
00:09:46
Speaker
So like, you know, they're trying to make fun of the the political situation um that's going on and it's already a joke anyways. So it's like, how do you, how do you do a parody of something so absurd anyways?
00:09:59
Speaker
And I just don't think it nails it. And again, I just think the tone is, So inconsistent. And what I found with this season in particular, i don't really remember season four all that well, but this season specifically, I feel like apart from only a select few of characters, every single character talks the same.
00:10:19
Speaker
It's, hey, here's a very vulgar sexual metaphor about the situation we're in. to explain every situation. And it just, it felt so overdone and that every single character, and I mean, every single one was always making some sort of sexual innuendo where I'm like, this is so juvenile and not funny.
00:10:41
Speaker
Again, i don't want to be the funny police here, but like for me specifically, mean, this is so juvenile and not funny that it's taken me out of it. So whenever these emotional beats actually happened, I could not care less by that point, because again, most of the time they were undercut by some fucking shit dialogue that like left me just kind of annoyed more than anything. um Yeah, I just it's a shame, dude, because, again, I think those first two seasons of The Boys are really, really good. And again, I like the cast. I think Carl Urban is awesome in the show. Jack Quaid, I think, honestly, everyone on the cast is is really great.
00:11:18
Speaker
I don't think there's a weak link, but you can only act so good given the dialogue and the writing you have in front of you. Um, so it just, i don't know. It, it kind of sucks. The one kind of, um, nice part about this season, and this is,
00:11:35
Speaker
It's not really a spoil because they literally talked about it leading into this season. There is like a supernatural um reunion, ah essentially, like where where the main cast of Supernatural are together in a scene, um obviously playing different characters.
00:11:50
Speaker
And that was that was cool to see. But I think that episode as a whole was poorly paced and because it was these like little silhouette episodes and they were going at breakneck speed. So I couldn't even really enjoy it fully, which was which was a shame. They also i I'm so curious.
00:12:07
Speaker
They have some of the craziest cameos throughout the season, the crazy level of cameos. And it just kind of confuses me. One, like as as an actor, why you're like, you know what? I will cameo in this show. Why the hell not? Despite it being far from from from greatness at this point. Like who who are all these connections? How do you know all these people? It doesn't matter. That's that's besides the point. But it just seems like wasted cameos a lot of the time.
00:12:32
Speaker
um And they don't really go anywhere. um And it just feels like almost like wasted money when you should have spent it on – Just, I don't know, I guess better special effects or bigger set pieces and making the writing. lock and Not necessarily lacking, but I feel like there wasn't, hmm, how can word this?
00:12:54
Speaker
There's a lot of promise of what was supposed to be coming that was left unfulfilled and they keep things fairly tight.
00:13:04
Speaker
um And as a result, I feel like it almost seems like there is a lack of budget in a lot of ways. It doesn't look bad. i just think what was promised was supposed to be more than what we got. okay and they yeah So um yeah, kind of a bummer.
00:13:26
Speaker
It's fine. It's over. I'm out of this universe. Again, I i watched the first episode of Gen V and I was like, i don't I'm not going to bother with this. And then when this final season came out, i'm like, I'm excited to finish this, but like I'm done in this universe. I don't want to go back. I'm not going to watch the Vaught Rising spinoff show, which is like the prequel. I don't give a shit.
00:13:44
Speaker
As much as I like Jensen Ackles and I think it's a cool idea, I just don't care about this universe enough to do that. Yeah. And it did feel in a lot of ways that this show, the this final season was they were trying to backdoor pilot that spin off in a lot of ways, um which is weird considering it is a prequel. But I I'm confident that that Vaught Rising show is going to start as a prequel and very quickly become a sequel.
00:14:11
Speaker
um i'm I'm quite confident in that. um Based on only just like, I guess it's it's purely just speculation, but it's I think they left ah enough threads open in the end of the boys to be able to be like, well, we can continue it with this character or this character and kind of have this go on um in in modern day. So.
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah, as a whole, I think it is not great. I would, I would, I don't want to say it's bad, but it's it's not good. Like, it's it's very just meh, and I did not like it. And it's like, I feel like there is so much, like, vitriol and and hatred towards, like, you know Stranger Things ending and stuff like that, um or even Game of Thrones is ending. And I think, you know, there is issues with the pacing in those final seasons of Game of Thrones. And again, there's, there is some, I guess, issues with the pacing, even in the last episode of Stranger Things, as an example.
00:15:07
Speaker
But I think as a story, it still made sense and it, and it still worked. This, I feel like there's issues with the pacing, there's issues with the story, there's plot holes galore. And I just was left wholly disappointed.
00:15:20
Speaker
I think my issue with Game of Thrones is ending though, is that there's an element at the end where it's like everyone's, the whole show is kind of about greed. And then at the end, they kind of just like, let that go. I think that's my, I just, I've been thinking about the ending of Game of Thrones, the very ending, the very finale. There's an element of like- Like the last episode? Yeah. last like 10 minutes, 15 minutes? The last 10 minutes. I'm like, yeah are you sure?
00:15:42
Speaker
i Are you sure? That was kind of what I was thinking because I don't think that I'm not certain that people would have. I know that some of the characters are are gone and whatever. It's just it seemed like it was wrapped up in a little tidy bow. And I don't think that that's how it would have gone. That's kind of my thought process with that. Obviously, we don't have the end of the ending of the books and and may never get them.
00:16:01
Speaker
So we'll never, maybe you never know what George Rowe Martin intends for the ending. But i I do think like that was the problem. Like I do dislike the pacing too. Obviously the traveling between places in Game of Thrones is very problem problematic yeah in the speed that they do it. But anyway, um interesting thing about Vault Rising. I was just looking this up. I was curious, like who is show running it? It's not Eric Kripke.
00:16:25
Speaker
So I'm curious to see what that will mean because it's being showrun by a man named Paul Grelong, whom I'm looking up right now. Because I'm just curious. If you don't have the same showrunner, it can be a fundamentally different series too, you know? Yeah. curious to see what it will be, but we'll see how that goes. The other thing is interesting. So I looked up like – what are people think about the finale? It seems like it's divided. like it's It's both ways. That's why you thought one thing, I thought the other, because it is a division. like People like the set they find it satisfying, and then people found it deeply unsatisfying on the on the flip side. um The weird thing as well, season five on Rotten Tomatoes,
00:17:02
Speaker
Out of 190, sorry, 109 reviews, it's 93% for critics. I know, which is crazy. But Popcorn Meter is not that at all. It's 49%. So it is an interesting flip. Like there's this clear division in what people think about this last season. And I'm very curious what I'm going to think.
00:17:19
Speaker
But there's just too much stuff out right now and that I've been watching and and and like paying attention to from video games to movies to TV shows that I just hadn't had the chance to jump in. I will.
00:17:29
Speaker
But it's also something that my wife and I don't watch together and that makes it a little bit tougher. But you watch this alone, right? this Yeah, did. This is something you watch. I did, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you found the time. You found the time. I did indeed. You let do it.
The Punisher Review and Other TV Shows
00:17:42
Speaker
my My what? Your ADHD. It let you do it. It did let me do it. It did let me do it. yeah yeah You said and what? I thought you thought I said like your penis or something. Oh, no, no. You're the first smile on your face. You're like, what did you say to me?
00:17:58
Speaker
Excuse me? I'm kind vulgar nonsense. No. Yeah. You're you know, you said your ADHD doesn't let you watch things on your own as much. It's easier yeah if you have something in your hands like a controller to play a video game. um So I'm just, you know, I'm just calling it back to what you said before. ah before But the anything else you watched this by week, sir? Yeah, um I guess just real quick with with the boys. I'm so curious, like, like, like obviously, you're going probably bring it up on the show. But I'm so curious what you think, because i know one of your biggest issues with a lot of things is like when there's a gaping plot hole.
00:18:32
Speaker
And I think I and i think i Maybe I'm written too much into it, but I think there are some substantial, substantial plot holes in this show that I cannot look past where, where it actually kind of drove me insane because they just, they just sweep it under the rug and it's absurd. So, um, but I did watch a couple other things as well, Simon. And, um,
00:18:55
Speaker
That is on Disney plus I finished daredevil born again, season two. Okay. I'm halfway through. And God damn is this show so good, man. It is. good It is so phenomenal. And interestingly enough, there's a lot of parallels between daredevil ah and the boys um in regards to like the, the, the political point of, you know, there's a guy in, in daredevil. It's, you know, Kingpin ruling New York city and, yeah you know,
00:19:26
Speaker
ah you know, essentially using his power for corruption and kind of, you know, screwing up the city in a lot of ways and doing a lot of evil. Whereas The Boys is about, i guess, Homelander and the entirety of United States.
00:19:39
Speaker
But the more focused, I guess, um, um ah plot of Daredevil is just, it just does it so much better. Again, you're, they're very different though. They're very, very different in tone. Yeah. But you're doing similar themes in the sense of, again, like a a corrupt leader or running, you know, a, in this case city versus a country.
00:19:58
Speaker
um And it's just, Daredevil just does it so much better. And it's this r rated tone, that does not let up. There are these moments of levity, but again, like this is ah like a straight up like HBO style, like rated R, hardcore show. It reminds me a lot of kind of the like The Penguin in a lot of ways. Not exactly, but just kind of tonally, where it's just... okay Again, it's dark. They're willing to kill off characters or at least severely injure them. They are willing to show blood. They're willing to you know drop F-bombs galore. and It's like this like level of maturity that I just...
00:20:34
Speaker
truly love in this universe. And i think daredevil born again, season two, just nails it just in, in every aspect, every character is interesting. Every scene, you know, has me at the edge of my seat. There's not like a, there's not a moment that is wasted, which I really love. And the, the, the constant kind of balance of, you know morality between,
00:20:59
Speaker
um I mean, you know,
Mandalorian Movie Critique
00:21:01
Speaker
Daredevil, obviously, but like Karen Page is kind of a main focal point in this season. And, you know, Bullseye's in this now, and he's kind of like doing his thing. And it's just so cool.
00:21:12
Speaker
Like all, like, I just, I really want to hammer that over. It's just, it's cool, man. And I just, I just adored this season. I think it's, it's a shame, you know, you, you saying that the viewer count wasn't particularly high because I think this is. In comparison. In comparison to the first season. I think the first season was a big, it was a big drop off to the second season. And I think just to that point, I also think this show improved fundamentally from the first season, which is really interesting. But I feel like that's the problem with having a first season that's not quite as good as the Netflix show, as an example. So you go from the Netflix series, which is now on Disney Plus as well. You can just watch Yeah.
00:21:52
Speaker
you don't know that yep audience but but yeah that's i feel like it's such a disappointment because it is so much better it's crazy i'm halfway through and i'm like man i don't remember it being this good like the way it's it's very tight it's tightly written like the the moments with king pen there's has been there's one episode i think it see ah episode four it's like the midway point Very, very defensive and offer is just killing it. And it's amazing. there's There's some really, really, really cool moments. i i I love it. I think it's really good. You're right. Yeah. There's like no wasted time. I think that's what you just said, right? Something along those lines. Yeah.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah. it's It's awesome. I'm only halfway through, though. We're taking our time with it because we're watching like a few shows at once. Yeah. And so we're just jumping back and forth. But it's nice because I can savor it because ah this show is really killing it. And I really hope that people go go back to it.
00:22:35
Speaker
seeing how well it's rated and seeing how, you know, with word of mouth, how good it is to go and watch season two if they had seen season one, because it is definitely worth it. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. i remember having some issues with season one as well. Like specifically, I remember like Heather's character where I felt like she was kind of like shoehorned in and just, I feel like she's so annoying.
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah. She just wasn't done well. And like, I didn't have enough time to do that. Yeah, like like her character at all. And it just felt like, you know, her relationship was just it it just wasn't good. And like in this season, I think she is very unlikable, but she's now become an interesting character that like I'm I'm so curious, you know, what's going on with her and everything. And again, she's dealing with like the trauma from season one and it's really cool.
00:23:25
Speaker
Right. So like, you know, having a character like her that I honestly just did not like at all um from even just like a writing standpoint from the first season to being a genuinely well-written and intriguing character in this season is is awesome. And I do want to like give a big shout out. I think um Michael Gandolfini, who plays Daniel.
00:23:46
Speaker
yeah Amazing, dude. I never watched The Sopranos. I know his dad was you know Tony Soprano, right? um Yeah. Yeah. like I never watched The Sopranos. So sprana so like my my ah my association with the Gandolfinis is now this guy in Daredevil. And... yeah I just think he's awesome, dude. I love his character. I love like his acting, just like ah it's everything about it. Again, I just think this show is is genuinely remarkable. And I I loved it and I'm very excited for you know what's to come with season three. um
00:24:18
Speaker
Matthew Lillard, also his inclusion in this is great. He's very interesting. Just awesome. And again, like the The political nature of the show is cool, but like, I love how, again, you know, it's like Kingpin at the top of the world, quote unquote, you're running New York City, but like, there are people above him that are also trying to pull strings or, you know, change things. And it's like, how is he going to react to those situations when when in reality, he doesn't actually have all the power. and it's really cool. it's cool. Like the political nature of how they bet he talks to the governor and stuff. There's there's because he doesn't. Yeah, that's it is a really good call out to that's something very interesting. And they could have just avoided it, but it would have become less realistic. So the fact that they're willing to go there in the writing is really, really cool, too. Yeah, that's a great call out. Yeah, it's it's really cool. it's It's crazy good. It's surprising.
00:25:07
Speaker
and like yeah They've they've they've topped what they did last season because it the it's Dario Scardapane who did the Punisher show, which was OK. We're guarded. It was regarded as as a pretty solid.
00:25:20
Speaker
series But the Netflix, like Netflix is crowning jewel for the Marvel, that Marvel like street level heroes run was Daredevil. And he didn't do those that that show. And so he kind of just made this his own. And he must have assembled a solid writer's room as well as well, because it's again, it's just so solid. They almost like they learn from the mistakes of the first season, too.
00:25:42
Speaker
yeah It's really cool. They're filming the third season right now. They're in production, I believe. So it's very exciting. I'm glad they're still making it despite the drop-off. But I think the drop-off is bad, but it still has okay viewership for what they need to make it work. Because their first season got like a lot of viewers. It was garnered a lot.
00:26:03
Speaker
But anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Cool, man. So really awesome. And then ah once I finished that up I decided to jump into the Punisher special. It's short. It's about 50 minutes long, 40-some-odd minutes long. It's written by Joan Bernthal.
00:26:17
Speaker
It is, yeah. And it's it's cool. um I think it does – since it's so short and sweet, it does kind of have a little bit of a pacing issue. Like I i almost feel like this would have been a great like movie.
00:26:28
Speaker
um and Like a longer. yeah like um mean Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like a longer – Yeah, something like that. and Because I think you could have done a lot more – And it does like end at a, I don't know, kind of an interesting spot. It just kind of, it just, it does kind of just end at a, at a certain point. And I'm curious how that ties into his appearance in Spider-Man.
00:26:49
Speaker
um But the one thing I will say, this is like, again, also like R-rated brutal, man. Like the, the action is awesome in this, ah you know, 50 minute special. And it's, I think, I guess that's kind of like the, the issue with it is that it is literally just,
00:27:06
Speaker
I mean, it's 50 minutes long. 42 of those minutes are spent on action. Just like, go, go, go. Oh, because when watch the trailer, I'm like, I feel like it's the opposite. I thought you were going to say 42 minutes was talking because that was what the trailer shows almost. I feel like there's almost no action Yeah, I don't remember mistake in like we' forgetting what the trailer was like, but i was like when I learned it was 50 minutes. I'm like, how are they going to wrap up any story in 50 minutes? Like some of the Daredevil episodes like born again are longer. Yeah, it's like what? Why is it so short? It's so strange.
00:27:41
Speaker
I don't really get that. But OK. Yeah, it just kind of goes, um which is cool. Take place in terms of timeline. That is something I will season two or during. I think is it during other during or after.
00:27:54
Speaker
Okay, well, that's what I was looking for. The answer for one of those. Yeah, like I figured it was during or after because it's interesting. Is there like there are some references to Daredevil in it? But again, yeah it's not clear. I'm going to assume it's after just because I feel like they would have probably brought up what happened.
00:28:11
Speaker
in that show in daredevil. if Did you watch the Punisher TV show on Netflix? I watched the first season. Me too. So do you find you're missing some stuff from second season?
00:28:24
Speaker
oh Maybe, but I don't know for sure because I never watched it. So, I like the first season quite a bit. I like to want to Evan Moss back back rack is in that. So it's his second considering there. He was like the Punisher was pulled over John Perenthal's Punisher. That makes Evan Moss back racks care. He has two different characters. Yeah.
00:28:42
Speaker
In the MCU. Technically. With Grimm. Is it John Grimm? No, Ben Grimm. Ben Grimm. Technically Ben Grimm is from a different universe. Right.
00:28:53
Speaker
So yeah, he can look like that. But it's like, it would there be relation? Well, he doesn't look like, he's a rock man now. So yeah. But I guess he does look like that. Yeah. He did look like that. He wasn't always a rock man.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah. didn't come out the womb rock man. Yeah. um But it it is it is enjoyable. I enjoyed it. I just, yeah, I would i kind of wanted more. And and if we had this in lieu of him being in like daredevil born again season two, it's kind of a disappointment. I wish he was kind of more in it.
00:29:21
Speaker
Cause again, they do talk about the punisher a lot in, in season two, not a lot, but they, they, they talk about him quite a bit. Yeah. they Um, so it's good shit though. who It's good shit.
00:29:32
Speaker
Sweet. Anything else? yeah No, that's really it. I, I have watched a few other things, but again, I don't want to take up too much time there. Okay. I obviously just said I just watched Daredevil. I've been still watching From Mankind season. we We just finished season one. What a good show. It's funny. Again, I always think about season one.
00:29:53
Speaker
i think it skewed my brain knowing the review scores because season one is From Mankind is a alternate history space show. It's on Apple TV. It's specifically
Star Wars Franchise Discussion
00:30:03
Speaker
the first season has a worse score on Rotten Tomatoes for critics than the next few seasons. Yeah. And there is an element of this, like, i think critics don't know what to expect with the show that's got a new concept in mind, because I don't understand why so many people didn't like it.
00:30:19
Speaker
Because I don't think the first season is bad at all. It's so shocking. Every time you I look at the score, i think it's like a 60 something like there's no way. percent. It's just just no way. It's a great season, especially as it ramps up past the halfway mark and onward. But even in the beginning, it's such a cool concept. I don't know what people wanted. I don't really get it. And I think they're like, oh, now we're used to this. Season two is 90. like, I don't know what you're doing.
00:30:43
Speaker
Because again, Rotten Tomatoes is binary one or zero. You didn't like it. 40% of people didn't like it. I don't know. That just seems stupid to me. So season one, 75%. Season two is a hundred.
00:30:55
Speaker
Oh, it might've gone up over time. Cause I remember it being a 60 distinctly when I started watching it way back in the day. Okay, good. 75 is not so bad. I don't agree. But but yeah, we're going to get into season two shortly. Star City just ah dropped on Apple TV. so we're going to wait for that to finish, like like get through the week to week episodes. And then we'll jump into that as well. That's the Russians perspective of this space race. But okay, so I watched that. I've watched Daredevil. I also finished, before jumping into Daredevil, Shrinking Season 3. And it is really, really great. The finale in particular is incredibly like incredibly well done. It's very emotional. I thought it was awesome. I wonder why they're going to come back for another season, only because it is kind of a great way to end this. It's hard to kind of end a comedy like this, like satisfyingly. And I feel like this was satisfying.
00:31:46
Speaker
Now, I know they are going to do a time jump for the next season. I just find i don't know. I just I feel like it was it was. Have they announced that that they're doing a time jump? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't even know that. Did we talk about that?
00:31:59
Speaker
ah Yeah, briefly. OK, I think so. But anyway, yeah, it was really, really great. i like I can't. The chemistry between all the cast, the writing on this series is awesome. I think you said it was awesome, too, right? When we we talked about it back in the day. Yep.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. A little while ago you finished it. um But no, it's so good. It's, it's so crazy. ah Bill Lawrence is on a, is a, on a serious winning streak at this point.
00:32:25
Speaker
um Yeah. Rooster Ted Lasso, this show and and the scrubs reboot. So it's cool. What are you looking at? Okay. I'm looking up the, the time jump stuff. Cause I don't know why I didn't remember that. i have a new story in here too for the montage that ah kind of mentions it in passing, but it's okay. I mean, it's just in passing. Okay.
00:32:41
Speaker
um but yeah it's okay i don't what else there is to say i don't want to spoil anything it is really really great i i just yeah yeah then the next it it like the show masters like making you laugh and then making you tear up and it's like uh every episode i feel like i was like just kind of welling up a little bit um and it's just so consistently great Like a show that makes you feel nice.
00:33:06
Speaker
It makes you feel nice. The Ted Lasso effect. Exactly. i don't know if there's that not enough shows like that. I don't know what it is It is really cool. Yeah, it's it's true. And I just feel like Bill Lawrence really just knows how to do it.
00:33:19
Speaker
Like he's like, I'm going to I'm going make you feel good. I'm going to still tell you a good plot. So going to cry story. You're going to tear up a bit, but you're going to feel really good. Yeah. Yeah. um Sometimes they're sad tears. Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes they are. There's like a there's like a middle like plot arc in the middle of the. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. yeah yeah know Exactly. You're talking about heart wrenching. Truly.
00:33:39
Speaker
Yeah. Wink, wink. But yeah, it's good. um Yeah. it's It's so good. But what else? Oh, Colbert's final show. So the late show with Stephen Colbert is it done.
00:33:50
Speaker
I watched that. Pretty cool creative way to end the show, actually. i thought it was pretty neat the way they did it. And actually, at the end of that, the very last shot, I was like, it was creative enough that in emotional way. And I teared up a little bit. I'm like, oh.
00:34:05
Speaker
It's strange when somebody's gone after 11 years of doing like, they're like a staple kind of in my life. Like I always watched it on YouTube, kind of with the other late show guys, late late night talk show guys as well. And ah that was, it's Colbert and Kimmel that I watched the most. So now I've just got Kimmel. So I got more time to watch other TV shows on other streaming services, I guess.
00:34:28
Speaker
More digital foundry, perhaps, on YouTube. I don't know. But yeah, it's just ah disappointing in that in that regard. And it's strange to see that that literally the top-rated for viewership late-night show get canceled. It's a little, ha it's still a little hot. And then this particular late night show as well had the like the last, final the last episode, the finale had millions of views, like over, I think they had, I think they even topped their first episode, like in terms of like, which is interesting, but that, that's, that would be the way it would go. Of course. I'm not much of a late night guy, so like I don't really know too much about it. But like what's the likelihood that someone's just going to be like, hey, Colbert, do this almost of the exact same show over on this network instead?
00:35:14
Speaker
like Is that – I don't think there's network that would do it. I think a streaming service would maybe do it. I think it makes more sense maybe to do like a weekly show instead, like the last week tonight.
00:35:27
Speaker
I don't know. the the price the price ah The budget for his show was high. I'm sure the band cost a pretty penny as well. like That band was solid. um and So I think that maybe it was expensive. I think, though, their their claim was that you they were losing $40 million dollars a year or something. Whatever they said, they lost $40 million dollars a year. That seems so stupid and wrong because of the fact that, again, you just have, especially because it's Paramount, because you have a lot of guests involved that are from the movies, from Paramount on your show, promoting other the things you're making, I think that overall you you're a net positive when you bring, like it's kind of like a rising tide type situation.
00:36:08
Speaker
So I also think that even if they were losing money, I feel like they weren't really losing money because there's, all again, there's always creative accounting. We've talked about this before. And we're going talk about this in a second. with Mendel and Grogu when we talk about how we just watched that. Because I think there's creative accounting with that too that I feel like people don't want to acknowledge. They like the simple answer, the simple math. So you don't have to look at all the other angles. But I think that that show was not losing $40 million dollars a year. I just think that's a lie. when you When you look at YouTube viewership as well, the ad revenue from that, millions, by the way, millions for every monologue,
00:36:41
Speaker
he would he would have millions of views. I don't think that's just like nothing. And I don't think they calculate that in the overall math because that's it's convenient to say that you're losing $40 million dollars a year so that you can shut the show down. That's what I think. But I don't know. I don't know. I'm not i'm not in their accountant's room.
00:36:58
Speaker
I don't got the abacus going. you know i don't know I don't know what the math is because I'm not a warped there. ah But it is kind of sad. And lastly, before we get onto the Mandalorian and Grogu,
00:37:10
Speaker
the one though i watched one episode of this show, and I'm glad I did, and I will continue watching it on my own. My wife will not watch it, maybe because of the black and white. And that is Spider Noir, which is truly excellent. The first episode was really great. And I do appreciate the black and white ah quite a bit because it just shot and lit with black and white in mind. And you can tell.
00:37:34
Speaker
But i I believe, oh, I should have checked this up for before. I meant to do that. I'm pretty sure they shot it both ways, though. They shot it with, like, different lighting for color. I'm fairly certain. And then they shot it with black and white lighting so they could kind of nail the noir kind of 1940s. What would it be?
00:37:52
Speaker
um nineteen forty s where were it be in ninety forty s I don't know. Gumshoe? Spider Noir, here it takes place. ah But it is really good. Nicolas Cage is really great in it.
00:38:04
Speaker
There is some cool action in it too. It's just the way that it's shot though. It's 1930s. I'm way back. way I should have known that. um Yeah, because it's right after the... It takes place during the Great Depression. So i don't know why I thought it would be 40s. That's dumb. But it's cool. It's like a detective mystery with Nicolas Cage as a detective. And he's also Spider-Man somehow.
00:38:25
Speaker
So it's just, it's really cool. And it's a nig over 90% of Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences love it. Critics love it. What's not to love? I also wanted to just jump into this right away. It's all, first of all, on Amazon Prime right away. There's no week to week, which is convenient. um But they put it all on Amazon and I wanted to jump into it right away because I wanted to show my love for the fact that they made this show. I feel like...
00:38:49
Speaker
It may have crossed my mind to be an impossibility. ah Like ah two years ago, if you asked me like, oh, yeah, Sony's thinking about making Spider no Noir. I'm like, no, they're not.
00:39:00
Speaker
Because it's just it seems like it's expensive for no reason. You're making an artsy superhero show. Like how much of an audience are you going to pull in for that? um there's like a again the number crunchers are going to just not do it and i and they did it and so i really appreciate that and i wanted to show my love for it and i and i really do like it the first episode was really good nice so i'll just watch it on my own i'll definitely watch this as well i just got to get around to it at some point yeah but yeah 1933 is when this takes place according to this at the heart of the great depression adrian knew sounds depressing
00:39:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool. Oh, and Nicolas Cage's performance like with the like the Humphrey Bogart slash he's a sper a man trapped in a spider's body. No, a spider trapped in a man's body or whatever it is. I just love that description because I can kind of see it already in the first episode. He's just kind of he's nailing it. And I think this is the first show from Nicolas Cage.
00:39:58
Speaker
That he's made. Like, he's not made any TV series. I think he's always been a movie star. Isn't that true? have no idea. first Break up and break out into TV TV series. But but yeah, I'll look that up in a second just to make sure that's wrong. That's correct. so I'm not wrong. But otherwise, we can move on to the Mandalorian and Grogu. We saw that in theaters at our local cineplex at the Ultra AVX movie theater.
00:40:21
Speaker
Adrian, what did you think? um Yeah. Mandalorian and Grogu. Yeah. Little baby Yoda man. um What did I think of this movie? so I thought this movie was enjoyable. like it It is a good piece of entertainment.
00:40:35
Speaker
um I think it's fun. you know i i had a good time watching this movie. I did have a good time watching this movie. But if I was looking at this movie from like a purely critical eye, do think...
00:40:50
Speaker
i i do think it It kind of fails as a movie. Oh. um I think – maybe I'm being a little bit too harsh, but I i don't believe this is a movie in in the sense of like – I think this is ah four episodes of the Mandalorian series, maybe five that they kind of stitched together and made into – a movie.
00:41:17
Speaker
and I think the pacing has a lot of like stops and starts throughout it. like You can almost tell where an episode would break if this was on you know Disney p plustch Plus sorry and you were binge watching it.
00:41:29
Speaker
and That doesn't make it a bad thing because, again, I still found a lot of enjoyment out of it and a lot of entertainment out of it. I just think, again, going into going into this you can pretty much expect exist you know what you're going to get. And if you are in the mood for that and want that, you will like it. But if you're expecting anything more, if you're expecting character development, um if you're expecting moving the universe forward in any way, um you're not going to get any of that with this movie, ah genuinely. And I think there are a couple moments in this movie as well where
00:42:10
Speaker
Again, that that kind of point towards that like TV show watching aspect, but we're like lines are of dialogue are repeated and monologues are repeated, you know, like multiple times in the movie, like 20 minutes later. And it's like, oh that's because it's this would have been in another episode. So we got to like remind the audience that, hey, remember last episode when this character says this exact same thing um with Jerry Malin, White's character specifically.
00:42:37
Speaker
I'm confused by that statement. You don't think this was a bunch of episodes stitched together, right? It felt like it was. Like it definitely felt like it was. And it felt like even like the movie.
00:42:48
Speaker
I understand they filmed the movie. um but But my point is it felt like episodes stitched together. And again, even with how the dialogue is said with, again, one character specifically, like he'll like say a monologue and it's almost like I got to remind the audience. It's almost ah like second screen viewing in a way like, hey, just in case you missed the first time this character said that, here's a quick reminder again.
00:43:09
Speaker
um they did do that in that one that was that one moment in the movie that they did that which are yeah yeah i i did i did distinctly call that like think think of that too like it was second second screen viewing is that a term second isn't that what they call it like uh i think might be right yeah i think i've never heard it before yeah like you have another story you got a phone open yeah i don't know if we've used that term though when we described because we talked about it with the rip right because it was uh matt damon when he was on the press tour he was calling out netflix yeah um We're not necessarily Netflix, but streaming services for repeating multiple things in the plot. They have to write the same thing in the plot so that people who aren't paying attention can pick it up. But yeah, that's, yeah, there was that one moment. It's really weird because like I'm in a movie theater. I'm like, I'm not on my phone.
00:43:52
Speaker
Yeah, that was a strange moment. He's kind of said the same thing about how he's like, he was describing his own character like twice. Yeah. Like you have to understand that I'm good. as if harrys I'm not that guy that you think I am. I'm i'm a good guy.
00:44:06
Speaker
I'm this guy. like, you said that already, like 20 minutes ago, man. Why are you saying that again? yeah That was weird. yeah yeah i agree that that was weird. I didn't feel as much like it was stitched together other than that, to me necessarily, from an episode's perspective. um But yeah, sorry, go on. I interrupted you. No, no, it's ah it's okay. um But yeah yeah, I just kind of felt like that in a lot of ways. I do think that this movie looks really good. Like, I think it looks better than um like the Mandalorian show.
00:44:38
Speaker
Like, it's clear that they had a little bit more of a budget for this. I don't know. Like, did do we know if they use the volume again for this one or were they doing more like kind of on set, like practical stuff? Because they they were definitely doing more practical stuff, like stop motion with a little bubble freak guys.
00:44:56
Speaker
um I don't know if yeah that was just the character's name or if they're all called Bubba Freak. But um like with those little guys, the puppetry really good. Like little Grogu, he looks like a puppet. And again, the motions are really good. It's not like some like shoddy CGI.
00:45:14
Speaker
um and and it's fun. I think i think it's fun. i just I just think as a movie, it leaves a decent amount to be desired. But again, like I did enjoy it.
00:45:25
Speaker
I want to, want to, want to stress that. Like I did have a good time with this movie. I was in the right headspace. I was in the mood for this. I wanted just fun Star Wars. and I'm, I'm playing a Star Wars outlaws at the same time as this, as this, um,
00:45:42
Speaker
Sorry, I started playing Star Wars Outlaws like leading into that movie. um And I'm glad I did because like Star Wars Outlaws kind of put me in the mood for Star Wars. And so like when I got into it, I'm like, yeah, it's good.
00:45:57
Speaker
Hot take, though. I don't know if this is hot take, but maybe it is. Star Wars Outlaws. Better story than this movie. Better character development than this movie. More enjoyable than this movie. But yeah. It's longer form. I think it's long, longer form. Yeah.
00:46:14
Speaker
Yeah. I hope so for that that one thing, I guess. But not necessarily. I mean, movies can have really good character development too. Yeah. the um Yeah. Apparently they used a volume like a little bit less. I don't know. I can't quite. The sourcing is hard to see here, so I'm not going to commit to it. But it looks like they used the volume, but they didn't use it as much. They didn't rely on it quite as much. I just, the source is weird. Like this is from The Winter is Coming. What the hell that?
00:46:42
Speaker
i am new Game of Thrones fans. Yeah, it's like, what? Okay, why should I trust this? I don't think so. But it it seems like there are reports that they use it less. But the rumor is that they weren't going to use it at all. They're going to abandon it for some reason. um Which is weird, because it does look good in the Mandalorian TV show as well. It does look pretty solid. Yeah, it looks great. yeah ah Like, this movie...
00:47:03
Speaker
I agree with you on on the plot perspective in that they don't have as much character development. That's the biggest problem. the The plot is a bit too simplistic as well. The complexity is like it's kind of made for like preteens in some way. Like it's very simple. but then i But then I'm like, I watch Pixar movies. I mean, so is that. So I'm kind i'm kind of like, I don't know if you needed to make it this dumbed down. It's not... It's not not necessarily that dumbed down. But what I will say, like that's my one negative of the movie. That's where I think it it it falters, they that part.
00:47:35
Speaker
I don't necessarily feel like it's episodes stitched together, but there is an element of it. like The first half of the movie, I feel like on an emotional and character development standpoint, is almost non-existent.
00:47:46
Speaker
But then the second half, that's when the character development and the, like a little bit of character development and it's certainly emotional resonance exists, which is, I really do appreciate, especially in like the last third.
00:47:57
Speaker
I think that is really, really cool there. And that was really well done. But yeah, I think it, I think it did. it's justified its existence as a film instead of episodes for me I just, it's tough. I feel like, and we we're going to talk about this in a second with the viewership, like the actual box office numbers.
00:48:21
Speaker
I wonder if they've trained the audience though that The Mandalorian is a TV show. So you're not going to sell it as a box in ah in a theater when you can just wait it for it to come to Disney Plus because everyone knows it will be on Disney Plus eventually. there's an There's an element of that when we get into the box office because that is kind of a problem with this. And I think that would have been a problem no matter which what you did. If they made like out an Andor, Andor the movie, I feel like it might have also had something similar perhaps. Andor's viewership is really good on Disney Plus. but Yeah, like,
00:48:53
Speaker
well the The key thing is is that – mean for this movie, funnily enough, you you actually don't have to watch The Mandalorian TV show. You could probably go into this movie and yeah would just kind of still have a really good time. It's kind of like a good jump jump off off point. But as as a perspective, you know like person looking at this movie coming out like, oh, I didn't watch three seasons of that show. I'm not going to watch this. right like It's just you have that – I think most people are going to, I mean, even my wife, like she, she was like, Oh, like that looks pretty good. Like, do you think I need to watch the show? I'm like, probably.
00:49:27
Speaker
she's like, well, not going to make that investment. And I was like, but you should still come. And then like last second, she kind of was like, nah, going to do something else. Oh yeah. That's a good call out too. Yeah. Right. So like, I think that plays a factor. Whereas like if you, I mean, we're going to have star Wars, Ryan, the goose Gosling movie coming out.
00:49:42
Speaker
Yeah. i'm Send alone. Like, it's probably going to do better box office-wise, you you yeah you'd assume and hope. And it's because there's nothing – there's no required viewing leading up to it.
00:49:55
Speaker
I mean, yes technically, like, there are – Star Wars. you Yeah, Star Wars. But, like, yeah in reality, like, you don't have to watch three seasons of a TV show. It's not like – Ryan, Ryan, Star Wars, the show that you watched, you know, two seasons of, and then now you're going to the theater to watch like the the movie finale or anything like that.
00:50:11
Speaker
Um, so I think just based on like the idea that there, there is a perspective of required viewing that again, you're just not gonna, yeah, you're just not gonna watch it.
00:50:25
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, yeah, that's fair. I will say though, and I'm going send you a quick message here to see if you can, can see this chart, uh, just so you can kind of have it in the, in the running here as well. I got this one too, which is pretty cool. But, um, there's, there was a, for star Wars day this year, they, they looked at, um,
00:50:46
Speaker
they yeah they they They kind of broke down some website or oh it was Nielsen ratings. They broke down what the Star Wars streaming minutes are. First of all, I will say this. There's an element of like people thinking Star Wars. I was going to get into what I thought of the movie. I'll get into that a second. but I feel like there's a big better segue to talk about the viewership. Star Wars is watched a lot.
00:51:05
Speaker
OK, it is a crazy juggernaut on on on Disney Plus website. there's that I know there's a lot of haters haters out there who's going to say, all it's because Star Wars. People don't like Star Wars anymore. That's not true because apparently fans streamed 33 billion minutes of Star Wars in 2025.
00:51:22
Speaker
That is, I think, arguably, if I don't think Nilsen's broken down every franchise, but it is the most popular franchise on streaming services. like for all the streaming services. if you look If you look at the numbers we actually have, because I'm sure Netflix doesn't really release all their numbers and all that stuff. So it is very popular, I'll say that.
00:51:43
Speaker
They spent a lot less money to make this movie than the other Star Wars movies. There's a lot of doom and gloom around this movie because the box office, even you kind of started off off the hop when we started the episode here. You're talking about how it's not getting getting box office numbers.
00:51:58
Speaker
There are over 200 million at the box office right now. is We're on on the third weekend well as we record this episode of our podcast. They spent 165 million to make it.
00:52:10
Speaker
They spent $120 million to make the third season of The Mandalorian, which was on streaming. This will be on streaming. I made that argument when we were leaving the theater. we that They may have, again, might be right too. You're losing viewership because people are worried about the sequel syndrome. They're not jumping in because they haven't seen the required viewing for what they feel like is a required viewing to watch The Mandalorian and Grogu.
00:52:39
Speaker
But there's also the element that they've been trained to watch it on streaming. And even they've made over $200 million dollars at the box office and in counting. And they will be on a streaming service where the people who don't go and watch the movie in theaters will then watch it.
00:52:52
Speaker
If they spend $120 million dollars on the third season and spend $165 million dollars on this, plus some marketing, of course, um they're going to make the money back. It's it's kind of valid like validly making Disney+. plus the center of Disney, which is what ah Josh DeMauro, the CEO, I believe said that that's what but he's hoping Disney plus is going to be the center of Disney. It's the hub where everyone comes, you know, to to look at Disney as a, as a, as a kind of a overall product. So I think it's a success, But I know that people will be doom and gloom about it overall for the like the box office numbers. And I think you're right. The sequel aspect of it is also a big thing. And I think you're right also that the Star Wars Starfighter movie by Sean Levy will be with Ryan Gosling. will be more popular also because of Ryan Gosling, actually. Like, I feel like Ryan Gosling has never been more popular after Project Hail Mary in some way. Like, his star is just continuingly continuing to rise.
00:53:50
Speaker
So I think that will be huge as long as that movie is not at like a down in the dumps, like 40% of Rotten Tomatoes or some shit. You know? Critics didn't love this, though. And going back to what I believe about this movie, I think this movie is, I don't know what people expected in some aspect because some of the reviews I read, I read one review where they saying this is the worst Star Wars movie ever made. It's garbage. It's terrible. And I'm like, you're insane.
00:54:13
Speaker
I'm so sorry, but you're crazy. I don't know who you are, but you're on it like a legit website. You're like a all legit like publication for movies, and then you're saying this shit? No, no, no. I don't i don't i cannot...
00:54:24
Speaker
at all believe this. Well, for me, this movie, and this is, I'm bringing this term back from my brother, is a McDonald's ball pit movie. And it's the perfect McDonald's ball pit movie. We also don't get that many action adventure movies like this at all. There's just not that many of them like that. where You're like, you're kind of like, I was going to say globetrotting, but you're in this case, you're kind of moving from place to place across like different, like through the galaxy in a spaceship, you're traveling along with your cool companion. There's an, there's a theme and park film aspect of it, which is quite ironic because who's in this movie, Martin Scorsese, but, But it's it's just ah a very fun ride to be on. It's like a Disney World ride. And that's a good thing and a bad thing. And a bad thing in that it doesn't have as much substance from a character development standpoint, as you pointed out.
00:55:08
Speaker
I think that that would have been more more fitting. It would have been better in that way, especially if you're going to do a feature film with these characters. But it is such a fun ride to be on and it is a perfect popcorn movie. When we got to the theater, we were buying popcorn and you said, oh, the perfect movie for popcorn. And I agree with that because I think this is kind of what this is movie is designed for. And I think there can be movies of different types. People have expectations for like, why are their expectations so high on everything or what they want it to be is what they expect it to be. That's not yeah how life works.
00:55:38
Speaker
It could have been bad. I don't think it was bad at all. I think the fight scenes, the fight choreography really, really good. Great. I think the monsters in this, like some of the creatures design so cool. Um, I, I thought, I thought it was like one of the creatures, like I thought was ah really bad ass and cool. Um, Yeah, there's a, yeah, I don't know. i yeah, I think it was a little bit too kindin for kid friendly for my taste. So like, I feel like it should be more Pixar-esque and that it could be more mature and kid friendly at the same time. um and And I think case in point is Jeremy Allen White's character, actually. I think that. He's the perfect example of why he's like, well, I don't know. Not that they he repeats the lines over and over again, but it's just like he's a little bit. You're like forcing this down my throat that you're you're a cool guy. Okay, I get it. All right. Yeah, I understand. I don't need to hear it over and over again. um but But yeah, I don't know. i think I think it was like really fun. I just had such a fun time at the movies for with this one. It's funny because it's like going from obsession to this one, both, I think, valid in their own rights. Obsession being a remarkable movie that will probably get a lot of like awards love um at the maybe if even at the Oscars as the season comes.
00:56:48
Speaker
um But certainly, like they're just one of them was a torturous experience and the other one was a really fun experience. And that Obsession is just a torturous experience because it's a deep horror, like psychological horror and in some way. and so this But this is such a fun movie to go see in theaters. And we went to see it with Ken um as well, Kenneth Stadterbauer, who's ah often written into our show and is our long-term time friend from from work in the past.
00:57:15
Speaker
I think, I don't know. I think he liked it as well. Yeah. i Yeah. um I think he agreed on the pacing, like it being kind of like, um like a lot of stops and starts that it felt episodic in a way, but he did really like it. But I'm going to be honest with you. I love Ken. I love him ah dearly. But after learning um that, ah I, to be fair, I never watched the show. I never watched the acolyte, but after him saying that the yeah he liked the acolyte better than Andor, I don't trust any of his opinions moving forward. So,
00:57:44
Speaker
um ah yeah, the acolyte, by the way, very good show. Not better than Andorra. That's not possible. But but the acolyte is good.
00:57:57
Speaker
I almost want to watch the acolyte just to just to be certain. You're right. You're right. Yeah. You know, you don't have to watch it for that. But I will watch it because you will understand how that the hate the internet hate destroyed that. It's the same thing as Star Wars Outlaws. Star Wars Outlaws was destroyed by internet hate. it was the the it wasn't The reviews weren't super hot at the beginning. There were some weird issues with it right at the start for reviewers. But it was still 75 on Metacritic at the time.
00:58:29
Speaker
And I don't know what they would re-review it to be now. But I just think that – like Audiences should have bought that game because it is truly a delight to play. And the Acolyte is a similar idea in that it's a delight to watch, but there are issues with it that are not glaring issues, but are issues that you can fix.
00:58:46
Speaker
it's ah it's almost like This analogy doesn't quite work because I think Daredevil Born Again is a little bit of a better show than the Acolytes, like if you're looking at season one versus season one for both of the shows.
00:58:58
Speaker
I think the Born Again is still better. But I think the accolade, though, is like that. I feel like they were hitting their stride near the end of the season, and they would have lifted off and like went into the stratosphere if they got a second chance to do season two. But people didn't watch it.
00:59:13
Speaker
They go see it in Disney+, so it failed. Because everyone heard it was bad. It was bad. it was terrible. Horrible. It's an 80% of Metacritic, I think. yeah yeah sorry so i'm out of credit my mistake rotten tomatoes sometimes yeah because those are very different scores um in the way that they're built that's why i wanted to correct that um but yeah cool where was i is there anything else to say about mandalorian grogu yeah it's a mcdonald's ball pit it's a it's a return of the ball pit adrian and uh it's it's back oh i didn't really talk about why i said that because i who's listening to this that knows what i'm talking about McDonald's ball pit is a is a term my brother used to describe nostalgic things. the The ball pit, it's funny because it existed in my mind the same way as as well.
00:59:59
Speaker
I'm sure you remember this, Adrian, but the idea of like the smell ah smell of sweaty stalks socks on plastic and like the sweat on the on the slide as you go down and to stuff like that, it's there's something gross about it. But- The olfactory nerve you know perks up like a spidey sense. and like Olfactory nerve is famously tied to memory. ah your Your smell is tied to your memory. and so There is an element of like nostalgic things. kind of Whenever there's a nostalgic thing, I think of the McDonald's ball pit because of my brother and what he what he said about it. but Things like Teddy Ruxpin. is a McDonald's ball pit type situation, this grand adventure they're going on. I don't want to watch that in modern times because I think that animated show is not nearly as good as I i i believed it was when I was a kid.
01:00:43
Speaker
um But The Mandalorian and Grogu is just a fun ride. And it's just, this again, this action adventure movie where they're going on this adventure across the galaxy. And it's so interesting and intriguing. But again, it's it's it's a little bit less substance than I would have wanted from a story perspective.
01:01:01
Speaker
But I like it. I like it a lot. I like it too. I think people are too harsh. I think they need to kind of realize that there's movies for everything. and you don't There are bad movies as well. Rise of Skywalker, a bad movie. But, you know, this isn't that. It's just a different side of Star Wars. Just like Andorra's got a lot of substance, the most substance maybe in Star Wars.
01:01:24
Speaker
And is also good, it's incredible, but it's it's also on the good so the good side of the spectrum. It's not on the below you know below zero, sub-zero type yeah situation like Rise of Skywalker is, which is is bad. Exactly.
01:01:39
Speaker
That is an actual bad movie. um Yeah. It's, it's, it's interesting. I feel like there is a lot of, I mean, again, we we always talk about this, that there's, there's little nuance these days in discussion. It's either something is like really amazing and it, you know, it, it, it it exceeds like people's expectations. They're like, wow, best thing ever. Like, this is awesome. I love it. Or it's like anywhere from, you know, middling, know,
01:02:04
Speaker
to just kind of okay. And it's the worst thing ever. um And I feel like people are, people don't don't want to enjoy things as much anymore with specific franchises. And I think star Wars is one of those franchises where people just hate things is the problem.
01:02:19
Speaker
And, and it's like, I think it's okay to acknowledge that, yeah, this movie is far from a masterpiece, but it's entertainment, man. It makes you feel good. And sometimes that's all you need. There's a lot of funny moments, too. We didn't even talk about Grogu. It's actually really good comedy.
01:02:36
Speaker
Grogu in mechanics, that the whole that whole thing is such a fun little... it is also, I guess, like another movie that's kind of McDonald's ball pit is Dark Crystal. and Have you ever watched Dark Crystal? Never know. Jim Henson's Dark Crystal.
01:02:49
Speaker
that that That's kind of like that too. ah and that there's like these puppets. Like that's how it's it's a movie based upon. It's Jim Henson, so that makes sense. But it's puppets like in this like medieval fantasy type situation. but Yeah, that's...
01:03:04
Speaker
yeah Oh, another McDonald's ballplay is Willow. You ever watch Willow? We talk about this. We must've. Yeah, we did, but I never watched it. Your sister has something, some connection with Willow. Is that right? Or am wrong? She liked Willow a lot as a move, like the movie a lot, but yeah didn they were, they just deleted that show, right? They did like the show sequel to Willow and it was on Disney plus. And then to, for the tax credits, they deleted it because it wasn't watched enough.
01:03:29
Speaker
People are going to see it. It's crazy. I'm pretty sure. It just things out of existence. Yeah. it's crazy willow wipe from existence when i'm typing into google just to make sure that i'm not mistaken because i thought they had done that for westworld but it's still available on crave so i don't think they quite did that it was officially canceled in march 2023 disney entirely remove the expensive fantasy series from disney plus as a cost cutting measure that's crazy it's crazy stuff we We think it's going to give us less value by removing it. I think that's a wrong though as well.
Nostalgia: Willow TV Series and Star Wars
01:04:06
Speaker
I think that math is wrong because I think if you leave it on long enough, it could be rediscovered. over time and like oh wow this is good because well actually unless it wasn't reviewed well in which case it probably would never have really picked up who was reviewed like less than a 50 i feel like it was reviewed well i feel like that was kind of thing i thought so too i thought it was like an 80 something but i'm not 100 sure willow tv series it was 84 okay yeah okay audience was 65 so i never watched it though so i i'm part of the problem i guess oh you never watched it well now you never can because willow the tv the the movie is really good and it is a mcdonald's ball pit type thing for me i wonder about ah if my brother would agree on that because he showed me willow actually he showed me star wars as well star wars in general is a mcdonald's ball pit site type situation too i remember seeing it on the cast rate to sorry unless you're watching and or in which case it is a masterpiece No, I'm saying the original. It's like the original trilogy. I first saw that on on like a cathode ray tube in my in like a living room and like a small, tiny TV. And like my brother's like, i'm going to show you this. And we were like watched like all three movies when I was sick, like over the course of like a couple days.
01:05:13
Speaker
And so we watched like the original star Wars from 1977 and then em Empire Strikes Back and then Return of the Jedi. And so it was just so like, it was so like that, that feels nostalgic too. And there's this, also this idea that, um that George Lucas always said that star Wars was for, for kids. I think that's interesting now because of this movie.
01:05:31
Speaker
in some way and that this is kind of like for i think this is the star wars for kids the most except for if we're looking at tv series and then we're looking at skeleton crew which is for kids by kids as i forgot that show existed i don't really like it i gotta say yeah i and yeah but the thing is i acknowledge that it's not necessarily for me and i think it is good overall i just don't i think it's it's kind of weak it's not as entertaining as it should be i feel like it's it's okay um Because it's like it's not it.
01:06:01
Speaker
It could be doing something closer to Stranger Things. Not quite because that's pretty dark. um Like just be a little bit. These kids are just just a little too immature for me. And they they make dumb decisions constantly. And like they're kids. Of course, they're going to do that. But I just feel like i don't know I don't love that show. It's it's fine. um This is a way more entertaining for kids entry in the Star Wars universe. I still, i keep thinking back on that review that was just so negative. Like this is the worst thing Star Wars has ever done. It's garbage.
01:06:30
Speaker
Star Wars is done. i don't know. It was terrible. Anyway, moving on. Are we done with this conversation about Mandalorian? I think so, yeah. I think so. Letterboxd, this score can change.
01:06:41
Speaker
It's, you know, can change. But for me, I i rated it a 3.5 out of 5. So I liked it. Yeah, I think I'd put it at around a 3. Probably a 3. Okay. Cool, man. All right, that's good.
01:06:55
Speaker
Now, Adrian, it is time to move on to the montage, a sequence of our show in which I briefly present at least seven of the bi-weeks smaller news stories as Adrian delivers a brisk verdict.
01:07:06
Speaker
Number one, as announced by Amazon's MGM Studios, the search for the next James Bond has officially begun. Where are they going to find him? Where are going find him?
01:07:17
Speaker
They don't even know who he is. think that's the point. Number two, Sonic 4 has officially wrapped production and will launch on March 2027. Nice, dude. they They got Metal Sonic in this one.
01:07:31
Speaker
Is that true? I think so. I saw like a picture and there's a big metal Sonic guy. Oh, OK, cool. Number three, as Variety reports, FX has greenlit a series order for TV horror comedy Very Young Frankenstein from What We Do in the Shadow series writer Stephanie Robinson.
01:07:48
Speaker
The show is set to star Hangover actor Zach Galifianakis. Oh, interesting. I know you really love that, what we do in the Shadow series. i got to get back to that show. I enjoyed what I watched.
01:07:59
Speaker
I think you really enjoyed it. Oh, you watched some of it. Yeah, I think I watched the first season or two. ah can't remember how far I got. It's great. Yeah. It's really funny, yeah. Number four. As Variety has reported, a new Texas-based spinoff of the 20-season medical drama Grey's Anatomy has been greenlit by Network ABC. Oh, another Grey's spinoff. Interesting. This one's barbecue-related.
01:08:23
Speaker
What? It's barbecue-related. Like, Texas barbecue-related. why Why would that be? I'm just guessing. Number five, as Deadline reports, the Odyssey actor Matt Damon is in talks to star in the science fiction follow up film from Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar winning directors Daniel Shaynardt and Daniel Kwan. Nice. repla I assume replacing Ryan the Goose Gosling's role.
01:08:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. okay Number six, the Brad Pitt starring film The Adventures of Cliff Booth from director David Fincher and writer Quentin Tarantino will debut in IMAX theaters on November 25th, 2026, with its Netflix streaming premiere set for December twenty third Cool.
01:09:06
Speaker
ahll ah I want to watch this. I'm interested. Number seven. As Deadline reports, alternate timeline Spartacus spinoff series Spartacus House of Asher has been canceled after its first season.
01:09:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's I'm not surprised. I mean, come on. Come on. I don't want to watch it. I love Spartacus. I don't want to watch it. Number eight. As Variety reports, Silicon Valley showrunner Mike Judge is making a prison comedy called Protective Custody, starring Meet the Parents actor Ben Stiller for streamer Apple TV. Cool. Interesting.
01:09:41
Speaker
Mike Judge has done a lot. Number nine. Director Christian Manjew's immigrant story film Fjord, starring Avengers and game actor Sebastian Stan, has won the coveted Palme d'Or top prize at the seventy ninth annual Cannes Film Festival.
01:09:56
Speaker
Amazing pronunciation. of the Palme d'Orle. I'm sure it was bad, but thanks for the mock. Number 10. According to The Hollywood Reporter, pre-production on Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV series The Rings of Power is beginning on season four months prior to the season three premiere in November of 2026. Nice. I haven't watched it.
01:10:16
Speaker
There's a lot of negative hype around it, though, and it's weird that they're not even they haven't even launched season three and they're already starting pre-production on season four. i Just saying, just saying. Yeah. Number 11. According to publication Variety, Guardians of the Galaxy actor Karen Gillan has been cast in season four of the Apple TV comedy Shrinking. The new season will largely feature the same all star cast and a time jump.
01:10:38
Speaker
That's crazy. How did they say that? How long time jump? How far? No, not that I saw. And that concludes the montage. Yep. Cool.
01:10:48
Speaker
Okay. All right, Adrian. Let's dive now into a trilogy of topical tidings, a component of our show where we discuss at least three film and TV industry news stories that have been somewhat zeitgeisty over the past two weeks.
01:11:01
Speaker
The first, we can spend as little or as much time as we want on this. I don't know interested you are on this. This kind of a Canadian political topic. The new CRTC podcast.
CRTC Rule Changes and Canadian Content
01:11:12
Speaker
ah There's a new CRTC Canadian content rule for streamers.
01:11:17
Speaker
i don't know if you saw this. Did you see this? No. I'm learning this on the fly. I'm reading it right now as you're going to be reading it out loud. I'm going to say it too. The CRTC requires will require streamers to pay 15% of revenue towards investment into Canadian-made content. In other words, if a streaming if a streaming company makes over $25 million dollars in canada from from Canadian revenue specifically. 15% of the revenue made in Canada must be reinvested into Canadian production, which is up from the previously required 5%. Major streaming services like Amazon and Apple are challenging the ruling in court.
01:11:53
Speaker
Organizations like Canadian Acting Union, ACTRA, support the CRTC ruling.
01:12:01
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. It is interesting. Yeah.
01:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not educated enough to really talk on this topic too much, but it makes, ah sorry, yeah, and I know. I could riff on some thoughts and then you can jump in if you want. I put some thought into it, if you just read it for the first time.
01:12:18
Speaker
Yeah, ri riff, riff and I'll add to it. Here's the thing, here's here's from my perspective. why this is weird. And so these streaming companies don't like this.
01:12:29
Speaker
We just had a digital services tax removed. We were going to impose upon the US. The Canadian government was going to impose upon the united United States. If you were selling digital goods in the in Canada, there was going to be a specific tax that it is on those goods in a deeper way because it was hard to tax digital services.
01:12:47
Speaker
if that i don't know if you saw that happen or not. But they removed it because Donald Trump had an issue with it because of the tariffs. there was like a They've been having this tariff for the trade war.
01:12:58
Speaker
And so they kind of removed it. That blanket digital service tax, I kind of feel like is more makes more sense than this. This is kind of odd to me. Because what this is doing, all the revenue you make if you're Netflix in Canada Out of all of it, 15% then have to be dumped back into the Canadian film and TV industry.
01:13:24
Speaker
That's why Actra is involved. My sister is actually a part of Actra. Fun fact. Oh. It's kind of cool. She was in like a ah movie as an extra with Dustin Hoffman. Anyway. Oh, interesting. Like this little name drop.
01:13:37
Speaker
My sister, famous. No, kidding. She's not doing that anymore. it recent? a long time ago. When we were kids, we were we're in things. Yeah. Very, very, like as child actors, very, very, very small things that...
01:13:50
Speaker
weren't, you would never, you couldn't find us in the crowd, probably in the movies or, or commercials, but, um but yeah, the Actra, that's my connection, connection to Actra, but Actra is getting involved because they're obviously the union for actors in, in Toronto. Yeah.
01:14:05
Speaker
And so they they they like this idea, obviously, because they're going to get more – their people are going to get more jobs. It makes sense. They're a union for acting in Toronto. So and that makes sense. The problem with this for me, though, is what is it – how is it going to affect us? Now, I like this in that it's a check and balance on capitalism.
01:14:26
Speaker
The problem is if you force these companies to pour more money here – Is there a chance they'll try to change the way that it works here so that they don't have to do that because these companies are like sly? In that in other words, will they maybe pull back some of their offerings in Canada because of the worry that they have to spend 15% of their revenue here? In some aspect, will that that cause issues? 5% to huge increase what have to reinvest is a huge increase of what they have to reinvest
01:14:59
Speaker
in the Canadian market. I just think this is maybe a bad idea in that also, I'm a fan of cap and trade for a completely different analogy in terms of like taxing big companies on pollutants versus carbon tax.
01:15:16
Speaker
I think carbon tax is a stupid concept. But cap and trade, where you basically give companies credits for not polluting over a certain limit and then allow them to use those credits and sell them to companies who are polluting more and then bringing the cap lower and lower every year so that – Companies basically have to lower their pollutants or they're going to get caught paying lots of money to the government or elsewhere is a good system because it specifically targets corporate greed, which is super useful. I think incentive programs are more effective than forcing companies to reinvest or forcing them to pay taxes.
01:15:55
Speaker
The digital services tax, not the greatest thing in that it also just forces them to pay taxes, but it was it was not a huge percentage, I think. So that was why it was kind of okay. But they removed that and then they implementing they're implementing this. So it's like, if you're going to do one thing and then do the other, why are this just seems like a a dumb idea in some aspects. So that's that's kind of my thought process on this. I like this in that I like the idea of furthering the film and TV industry in Canada. I think that's great.
01:16:24
Speaker
But I think this is a huge escalation. i don't know why. It's just like Donald Trump's tariffs. like Why do you want to tariff these giant blanket numbers? Shouldn't you be increasing them over the years? 1%, 2%, 3%. Why 10% blanket tariffs? Why 15% of all revenue? Why are you increasing it by 10% all of a sudden? It's just a huge escalation. Shouldn't you allow...
01:16:50
Speaker
these companies to adjust over time. I'm no economist. I just think this is a stupid idea because you want you also want these companies to stay in Canada and you don't want to push them out by forcing them to do so like do weird drastic things like go to court against you because you're kind of, yeah again, it would be nice to have incentive programs rather than this, but also it would be nice if you just did it gradually if you're going to do the taxing measure. Those are kind of my thoughts. i hope hope Hopefully that came out came out in in the the giant paragraph that I just recited to you.
01:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree. And I think the exact same thing. I would have ordered that exactly the same. So okay no issues there. Yeah. So I guess my thought process around this um from like, i don't know, a layman's perspective is –
01:17:40
Speaker
so So you talked about like them possibly pulling back, right? And maybe not offering as much of their content here or or their streaming services here. Would that mean that they would then license out their products to other like Canadian only streaming services like a Crave? Because like we don't get HBO Max here. Interesting. Right. We pay k Crave, which is a Canadian company. It's Bell owned and operated, but we get all the HBO content because I guess they own the licensing to that. So is that what kind of what happened?
01:18:11
Speaker
I didn't even think of that. That could happen. Yeah, that's really smart. They might use the streaming services here. Warner Brothers is known to do this. ah So obviously Sony's doing it anyway. But I wonder if like Netflix would then license stuff that they would normally have on Netflix in Canada because they want to avoid...
01:18:28
Speaker
paying that's interesting i don't know i'm not sure this should shake out in many ways i'm sure they're in the boardroom talking about how to avoid because they don't want to reinvest this much money but that's ah that's a really good call because i feel like that's already happening here with weird things what's a good example of that that's like not warner brothers though Has there been anything? Well, I guess Peacock, but like, because there's a lot of peacac on NBC stuff, NBC universal. They put their stuff on Peacock in the States, but we don't have Peacock or equivalent. So it goes here. So they wouldn't have to work, but that's the, that's not fair to them because they're like, Oh, so we don't have a streaming service in Canada. So now we went out.
01:19:06
Speaker
I get, they wouldn't be asking that question, but Netflix would be like, wait. So if, if we were Peacock, we don't have to pay anything because we're just basically licensing it out to another streaming. It's, it's just, that doesn't make any sense.
01:19:17
Speaker
There's like an element of like, would they do that? They might. They might just say, you know what? We're gonna pull out of Canada. We're just going license our content. Stranger Things will just go on Crave. Yeah. but But why though? That's it's not really solving.
01:19:30
Speaker
That's actually worse for us for sure though, because then Crave goes up. Yeah. If Netflix content was only Crave. Then would literally only be Crave because we don't have any other streaming services, right? There's no other Canadian streaming service that I can think of.
01:19:43
Speaker
There was one before that was substantial, the Rogers one, but that one got shut down. And I guess you can consider like city TV, the city TV streaming. There's like a streaming element. You know what I mean Like do we have streaming elements to CBC gem?
01:19:57
Speaker
they They exist, but CBC gem is rough. For various reasons. But CBC is also kind of publicly funded. So it's like a different type. It's like PBS in the States, right? So anyway, yeah, no, I just thought this was an interesting topic because I wonder what it would do. I think bringing it up here is interesting because as the years go by and we if we continue this podcast like in a year from now, if we look at this again, it's like what were the effects? We might not know what they are because they're happening behind the scenes, but this could be an effect for other things. I just think that, again, the escalation is crazy.
01:20:30
Speaker
Yeah. They're okay with 5% who are doing it already. So they're just like, we're going to change it. It's funny because CRTC kind of sucks here for various reasons. Like it feels like Bell and Rogers and Telus kind of just run the show and they, it almost like they run the CRTC.
01:20:45
Speaker
They're, they're supposed to be governed by like the CRTC is a governing, like government body that's supposed to govern these big telecom companies, but they're kind of getting pushed around constantly. And so I think it's kind of weird. Like you're going to push around the American community. Look inside. Look within. i Come on. like It's stupid. you don't You don't do anything, but I feel like there are some rules added. Did you see that they're they're shutting down down? There's no more cell phone activation fees.
01:21:11
Speaker
They're shutting that down. CRTC made a ruling. Apparently, that's going to happen. i don't know if that happened yet, but apparently that's going to be shut down. and There was something about not allowing ah cancellation fees for contracts, for Wi-Fi, I think, for internet, ISPs.
01:21:28
Speaker
As well. Apparently that was going happen. So they are actually making movies. I don't know if this is like new. i haven't looked into this. I wonder if it's like CRTC is run by a different, like the head of the CRTC is just more aggressive and more like public facing. Yeah. Like a more like somebody who actually cares. Yeah.
01:21:44
Speaker
like kind of thing that could be what's happening maybe it's all coming down because i i actually didn't just i think i just connected that now in my head i didn't even think of that before we started the show okay i think the fact that they're shutting down activation fees so every time in canada i don't know if it's the same in the states you when you activate your phone you get a new phone a phone plan you have to pay this fee to upgrade um you're just like 90 or something right Yeah, what dude, like 10 years ago, it was like, i think 25 bucks or something. And then it's it's gone up so exponentially. It's pointless. It's dumb.
01:22:17
Speaker
Yeah. I don't pay that. I just, but I buy my phones out right now. And I just, I have my one plan and just continue using that plan for an extended period. But they they did do things where it's like, if you get it online, you don't have to pay the fee, shit like that. But it's it's dumb and it's frustrating and i hate it.
01:22:36
Speaker
Uh, let's see here. Activation, modification and cancellation fees are going away in Canada starting June 12th. Oh wow. That's imminent. Oh, okay. So it was announced earlier this year, but, um, yeah.
01:22:47
Speaker
Okay. So yeah, that's cool. That's it. So we'll see what happens. Hopefully nothing negative to us as consumers. Like, like it's kind of, kind of have to go both ways. Like you can punish, not punish them, but you can kind of, you're not really trying to punish the streamers. You're really just trying to bolster,
01:23:02
Speaker
industry in Canada. That's cool. I love that. I'm a big fan of that. I just think you gotta to you got to temper what you're doing so that it's not extreme. like you I know that some of these people who I'm sure like work at the CRTC are like, oh, I got to make my mark.
01:23:17
Speaker
like Yeah, you do, but like you gotta you gotta everything's got to be with like nuance. This is just what we just talked about with the conversation about Mandalorian and Grogu. like People don't look at it with nuance. They're just like, this is bad Star Wars. is the worst Star Wars ever.
01:23:31
Speaker
It's like, okay, relax. There was a oh I don't know if you saw this. i don't know if you go on IGN that much anymore. i don't go on it as often. I usually use push square and stuff like that for my gaming news. Like, yeah, but IGN had a ranking for the Star Wars movies. So like one of the, the, uh, editors there at a ranking, it's pretty, uh, like almost on like where my ranking is. It's actually quite interesting that it might be worth looking at. Just to see if it was, it's it's not quite like there are some things i would reorder for me.
01:24:01
Speaker
i think it's just the movies. I'm pretty sure. So it's like not including like Andor, um but there's a lot of movies. so it's So it's something to potentially look at if you're interested, because it's not bad. Like when I went to the bottom, I'm like, because where they also put the last Jedi, that's what my biggest thing was. Because the last Jedi in particular is the movie that is incredibly divisive.
01:24:22
Speaker
And so where they put that, I'm most impressed with. But again, it's not it' not spot on, but I'm like, this is a respectable. It's not ridiculous. It wasn't I, by the way, that meant that said that Mandalorian and Grogu was horrible.
01:24:37
Speaker
It wasn't them. They, again, whoever said that literally said it was the worst Star Wars movie. I'm like, come on, man. Come on. Okay. Okay. This article was published in May 2022, but updated in 2026 with Mando. and Yeah, he just added it in. yeah Interesting. yeah Yeah, I think this is kind of, this is a fair one. i don't i don't fully agree with it, but I do agree with, I mean, Rise a Skywalker being in last place.
01:25:04
Speaker
Yeah. You're right on the money. Attack of the Clones being in second last place. You're right on the money. Even the first one. I think Empire is my favorite one too.
01:25:14
Speaker
Empire Strikes Back. It's great. I think Return of the Jedi is a little high. but Personally. but Yeah, that's fair. and The last Jedi would be ahead of Return of the Jedi for me.
01:25:25
Speaker
Personally. So would Rogue One. maybe Maybe. Did you end up watching it again after Andor? Rogue One? I know because they don't think i in it made it a little worse for me. It's kind of a sad thing.
01:25:43
Speaker
Oh, made Rogue One worse. Yeah, because there's no character. The character developments. It's it's you can't do it in the movie. That's what's that's. I think that's the weird thing Mandalorian and Grogu, too. It's like, why do you want to go to this format? This is already movies. If you spent $120 million dollars on season three, why would we want to go backwards?
01:26:02
Speaker
You had more character development in the show, The Mandalorian, because you have time to do that when you have a 10 episode, whatever, eight no, it's eight episode, eight episode season. So you have the time. i don't really understand why it's like a bit of a downgrade in that way. But by the that's where I'm saying, like by the midpoint of the movie and onward, it kind of feels like, OK, I can see can see this being an actual film. Like I can see how it has a beginning, middle and end.
01:26:28
Speaker
and There's like conflict issues though in the beginning. like is there I'm like, is there going to be a conflict? guys Is it just going to be he goes to this place on this fetch quest and then he goes to this place? andm like No, no. They actually do have a story that does unfold throughout the film. I feel like that that was my biggest worry for the first half. Anyway, we're going backwards. but Let's go forwards now to the next trilogy of Topical Tidings topic, which is...
Resident Evil Movie Approach
01:26:52
Speaker
In an interview magazine interview, which is interesting. I didn't know that was a thing. it's called Interview Magazine. ah With Obsession director Corey Barker, weapons director Zach Kregor, who is interviewing, and they're back and forth, Corey Barker. Weapons director Zach Kregor, the director of the upcoming Resident Evil ah film, described the reaction to the Resident Evil movie trailer. Oh, I forgot I have a quote. Yeah.
01:27:18
Speaker
I gotta look for that. um He described it as... Do I have it here? Oh, no. What did I do? It's here somewhere. Let me look. ah Suspense is killing me. Yeah, I'm so sorry.
01:27:32
Speaker
did not prepare this properly. ah He said, quote... I really like the movie a lot, describing Resident Evil, like he's he's done it it essentially. um It's been a wild week since the teaser came out to see the divided reaction online. There's so many people that clearly really want the video game, meaning the characters and the story from the video game. And anything different than that is really not welcomed.
01:27:55
Speaker
I didn't realize how passionate some people were about that, unquote. I can keep going or you can, if you have a comment on that, we can just stop here. But the next bit is kind of related to that. So I can just keep going. I'm just going to keep going. I've decided. Yeah. an answer Okay. great yeah Gregor is adapting the horror games. Oh yeah. I so just have some context.
01:28:19
Speaker
Uh, Craig is adapting the horror game, uh, series for the big screen and is notably creating a story within the resident evil universe without using the tentpole characters or storylines from the very popular long running franchise. Yeah. He, and so he continued to, to Barker, he said, quote, but if I did that as in use those characters and storylines from the the games,
01:28:40
Speaker
But if I did that, and I don't think that I'd be that that i don't i don't think that i'd be creatively fulfilled, and i don't think I don't even think they would enjoy it. If I just did the story of the games, I think the most diehard fans would be bummed. So I don't know i don't know what to do about it, unquote.
01:29:01
Speaker
You are a big fan of Resident Evil. I do. I do really enjoy it as well. Yeah. what do you make of this i don't know if you saw this did you see this uh no i i didn't see this actually uh but this is a great no like great perspective because i i do agree like i think if he were to just kind of redo the story of you know resident evil one or resident evil two i don't think it um it would land um all too well um i just this might be a hot take but like resident evil
01:29:33
Speaker
isn't great because they have really good stories, like to to be totally blunt. like I think they're they're good. They're fun. They're campy. There is like a plot to them. But that's not what makes Resident Evil so great. What makes it great is, again, the campy nature to it, the vibe, the the survival horror gameplay, that you know that feeling of terror that you get when you're going through it so him kind of going and again, creating his own story in this universe. That's going to follow it, you know, tonally, I imagine, which again, from some of the clips I've seen, it seems like he's going to nail.
01:30:09
Speaker
It's awesome. um And I think that's, that's the best way to do it. And again, people complaining about this online being like, Oh, they should just make the exact same, you know, copy the story or whatever else it's like, or have the main characters, you know, you're Leon, you're Jill, you're Claire, you're Chris, you're Sherry, all these people in it.
01:30:28
Speaker
I just don't think that's necessary, especially considering like Resident Evil, its resurgence was doing Resident Evil 7, which is its own thing. which is its own story, not connected.
01:30:41
Speaker
Again, it's in the universe, but it's not like you don't have your Leon right off the bat, you know, kicking people and doing all that jazz. Like it's, it's its own thing. And that's what I think kind of brought the series back. So again, I, Zach Kroger has nailed it with his past two movies. Barbarians. Awesome. Weapons is awesome.
01:30:57
Speaker
I think he's, he obviously has a very deep understanding of resident evil, the way he talks about it. And considering how good his last two movies were, i am,
01:31:09
Speaker
super confident in the quality of, of this upcoming Resident Evil movie. there's There's not a worry in my bone. And I do honestly, again, prefer for like a franchise like this, like it's not the last of us, you know, like where, where the last of us is again, it's really awesome to play. And it's, ah but like the reason why the last of us was so special for so many people is because of that story and having a story of that level and that quality in a video game was,
01:31:37
Speaker
Honestly, never done in that way. like it it it was it's like It was an HBO show, the game. And you know now it is HBO show, the HBO show. So like i just I think yeah the way Zach Kregor is going about this is 100% the right way to go about this. I'm very excited about it. And again, people complaining to me like, oh, bring in my Leon, bring in all that stuff. We had that movie. came out in 2021. It was called Resident Evil, Welcome to Raccoon City. And nobody watched it and nobody liked it. And I understand that like they didn't do the best job with like the character interpretations, but that movie was fun as hell.
01:32:10
Speaker
And they told the first two games ah story. And you know what? The story of that movie, not particularly great because those stories don't hold up that well when it's just cinema.
01:32:23
Speaker
It's it's absurd anyways. Interesting call out because you, we talked about adaptations in the past. Yes. For video game adaptations and which ones work the best theoretically.
01:32:35
Speaker
And my theory was the ones that work the best are the ones you can impose. a story on top of that have a vibe. They've got a serious vibe. A best example of this or on the flip side, the other ones that work the best is that you just described it, The Last of Us, is if you are already making that the the game is already a linear storyline with an incredible storyline, you can remake it as a TV show or a movie and you can pull it off.
01:33:00
Speaker
This one, Resident Evil, then is what you're saying is like Fallout. It's like, you know what It's like the Fallout TV series series where it's got a vibe and you're capturing the vibe and you can impose your own storyline on top of that vibe.
01:33:13
Speaker
Is that what could say? Yeah, exactly. you talked about before. That's why we were talking about also Bald is Gay 3. I don't know what you're going to do with that because that's getting right in between. I think that might be a failure on HBO because they're making Bald is Gay 3 into a TV show on HBO. yeah could you Could you do that one because that one is sort of a vibe? Not really. And it's it's really a story, but the story is told by you as you make choices. i don't know if you can pull this off. I don't think you Life is Strange is in the h HBO's The Last of Us camp. you know what I mean? They're making a ah show for the life a strange first game.
01:33:48
Speaker
And they gather our choices, but largely it is kind of linear. there are you know There are some branching paths, but they're not really. It's a picture book that you're you're coloring and you're putting your own color to it, but it ends up the same way, except for, you know, it's one of two choices at the end of it. um You're just kind of putting your own flair to it. But like, again, Baldur's Gate 3 specifically, like,
01:34:11
Speaker
that game has multiple different, entit it's, it's not just dialogue. There's so many different variety, a huge variety of choices and everything like that. And to be fair with um life is strange.
01:34:25
Speaker
It's about a kid that can turn back time. You can literally touch on the different aspects of the the game as well by quite literally turning back time and going down another pathway.
01:34:36
Speaker
So like you can still touch on that stuff too. So No, 100%. It's about finding that right vibe. And this is the vibe. This is the vibe. This is the vibe. Avenue versus the story, the set story avenue is what I'm saying.
01:34:49
Speaker
Yes. So for Resident Evil. So we'll see we'll see how it goes, but I think he's going to nail it. It's kind of better because the thing is, is that I love that you pointed this out because we didn't really talk about this before. We've talked about this Resident Evil movie a few times.
01:35:05
Speaker
They've always... failed largely from a plot perspective. Like there's no critics that are like, yeah, Resident Evil with Mila Jovovich is like freaking the greatest movie ever.
01:35:17
Speaker
you know what I mean? Like no one's ever said that. Like welcome to Raccoon City. Not, not regarded as the, like that good. The other one that's also the same way, um, Lance Reddick, the Lance Reddick, uh, TV show on Netflix. forgot about that. Not regarded as that good. There's been lots of tries at this. They were all hacking away at it and they've all tried to use the characters in a deeper way typically versus what Kregger is trying to do.
01:35:41
Speaker
And I think he's right because it but he's going to be right because he's good at what he does. I think i don't know ifs how much it's going to feel like Resident Evil and you'll determine that in October when we watch it. It's October, right?
01:35:54
Speaker
Yes. Did I just say that as well? It is October, yeah. But yeah, that's it. So that's exciting. Cool. It's very exciting. Speaking of Corey Barker,
01:36:06
Speaker
As The Hollywood Reporter reports, Adrian, director Curry Barker's horror film Obsession has done an incredibly rare feat by increasing box office sales by 39% for its second weekend in theaters.
Box Office Success of Obsession
01:36:17
Speaker
That's crazy. For a film outside of the holiday season, Obsession has broken records by earning $23.9 million domestically over Memorial Day weekend after it made $17.1 million for its opening weekend. Obsession has so far earned over $68 million dollars at the box office on a budget of $750,000. And fifty thousand dollars and on the on the side to that, Backrooms is absolutely killing it and is breaking records for a twenty four the studio producing that film. Kane Parsons is the director.
01:36:46
Speaker
I don't know what the budget is. I'm not sure if they talked about that. I think it was $10 million, if I recall correctly. It got a budget of about $10 million. but But the movie has made $81 million dollars domestically in its opening weekend, which is the weekend we're recording this. Yeah. um And has made $118 million dollars worldwide, which is crazy, which is really crazy.
01:37:07
Speaker
Because again, the budget was $10 million. And these guys are both kind of from a similar background. They're both kind of from social media. It's kind of where they've they're built their their brand kind of thing.
01:37:18
Speaker
um But Backrooms is different in that. Backrooms is very much, obviously, it's almost like he's working within the whole ah the Hollywood system in ah in a strange way. in a very Very off the Hollywood system, but pulling in actors like...
01:37:32
Speaker
uh, Chiwetel, uh, Ejiofer and, um, Oh, it's a Renata Renata Rensvee. Rensvee. They're both names that ah are hard to pronounce to be honest. Um, but she was, she almost won an Oscar, right? She got nominated for, Sentimental tobacco Value last year. Yeah. With Selma Skarsgård.
01:37:50
Speaker
Yep. At the Oscars. And yeah. Yeah. Oh, and, shrinking, shrinking girl. Shrinking. Yeah. Yeah. Daughter and shrinking girl. Damn She's really good and shrinking.
01:38:01
Speaker
Yeah, she is great. I'd love to say she's good in back rooms, but we couldn't find tickets anyway. Dude is crazy. i did not realize how popular this movie was going to be. Like, i don't know why. i guess I should have. Because again, I've been watching or I have watched all the like the back rooms YouTube by Cain Parsons. It's Cain Pixels on YouTube. And he's done, I think, 23 videos. um And I've watched I've been watching them over the last little bit.
01:38:26
Speaker
And you know some of those are pulling in millions of of views. like I think his first one is at 78 million views. And then obviously the subsequent ones are less, but um they are pulling in pulling in millions upon millions of views. So I'm not too surprised that this is that popular.
01:38:41
Speaker
The trailer, I think, did well um as well. um Yeah, the trailer. Yeah. Again, perform numbers. I just, I don't know why. I just didn't think it was going to be that huge, but I wanted to go.
01:38:56
Speaker
we were planning on going on, on the Thursday night. It wasn't playing in our hometown of Guelph here. And then I looked at the near nearest theaters in Cambridge. i was like, okay, cool. We'll go there.
01:39:07
Speaker
Sold out for both showings, like totally sold out. I was like, damn, that's, that's kind of shocking. Yeah. So I do really want to watch this movie. It'll be easier to find tickets. Yeah.
01:39:17
Speaker
Next week, like tremendously, like we're going to go into a theater and it's going to be empty, I think. Yeah. Because this is popular, but it's not. It's funny. Actually, to your credit, there was a ah thing we were talking on a chat on Marathon or something like that while we're gaming. And you were talking about obsession and you were talking about how it's everywhere. Like everyone's talking about this. And when when you had said that, I was like, yeah, I know, but it made like $17 million.
01:39:42
Speaker
And then the next weekend, it was like we're going into the next weekend when we were playing. It literally made way more money than it did before. So people were talking about it. They weren't talking about it like it's a blockbuster, blockbuster, but it's still crazy what it's done. Like it's insane what it's pulled off within the timeframe that it's had. um Yeah, the word I meant on this movie is is is immaculate. Like again, imset one of my buddies actually – one of my buddies watched it last night because i told him about it. i was like, dude, like, I know he likes horror. I'm like, trust me, like, you'll, you'll go.
01:40:11
Speaker
And then he's like, he's like, he has a kid. He's like, we got a babysitter to watch this movie. Like, it better be good. I took it. I took the child. No, no, he didn't. He didn't take the baby. Missed opportunity.
01:40:25
Speaker
Yeah. um So he's, ah yeah, he, he went um and and really enjoyed it. So. It's cool. it's ah It's awesome. But yeah, again, it's, it's, ah I, again, algorithmically, obviously it's being shown to me. Yeah. I think that that's what said. I'd say it was like algorithmically, that's the case. Like that obviously, cause you, you like this and so you're interested in the making of it. And so like you're going to click the, yeah, I follow the, I follow those guys for a while that made the movie. Like that's a bad idea. I follow that page as well.
01:40:53
Speaker
Oh, I see. Right. So I'm sure that was shown to me as well. And then like, I saw one thing and then it's like, Oh, you like this? Yeah. people won't want Yeah. Tension economy. They got to keep you, but they, it was increasing. Like there was, that's, what's crazy. And the fact that their budgets are are, so low is so crazy. I think there's a lot of talk in Hollywood now about like, should there be, should they, should these studios be looking at this in a deeper way? Cause these are two movies back to back.
01:41:20
Speaker
They're completely broken outside of the mold of the Hollywood system in some way. Less so for backrooms, of course, but definitely more so for obsession. But still, but for both of them, it's pretty impressive. Even like um Mark, with is it Mark? Sorry, Duplass.
01:41:35
Speaker
Yeah, Mark Duplass, he was there. It's Mark. Yeah, he was talking about, oh, by the way, it's Lukita ma Maxwell from Shrinking. don't want to say that girl from Shrinking. It's kind of rude. Yeah. But yeah, Mark Duplass specifically had said, ah he he put a a video out about how he's like, this is really impressive. And like hopefully Hollywood takes note because we we have to break the mold. like for We can't be doing just these constant like franchise films. It's not useful. But to be fair, is that really happening?
01:42:03
Speaker
A24 has been making movies like this forever. It's not quite the same, but it is cool that these guys broke out of like YouTube to try to make... it's It's neat. it's yeah It is really cool. It's impressive.
01:42:15
Speaker
um I do want big budget movies, though, too. it's like I don't want them to learn too much about this. like I do want to see the the giant temple films as well, but it would be cool to to get more stuff like this, I guess. It's about variety, dude. Yeah, it's about variety. and like yeah boom bring Bring a bunch of stuff like that out. um Again, I love my...
01:42:35
Speaker
blockbuster movies like we're gonna watch Supergirl mean we just watched Mando Mandalorian Grogu we're gonna watch Supergirl we're gonna watch and do disclosure day oh disclosure day looks really good I'm excited about that that's very soon yeah that's people some people are saying and we'll see you how it goes when the actual critics reviews pop pop out but they're saying like this like Steven Spielberg's best movie in like 20 years or something like that it's like very very very hyperbolic but We'll see. um but But yeah, it is exciting. I like Spielberg and everything's done. so
01:43:07
Speaker
Including Ready Player One. um So yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting. I'm glad that you like that movie. I'm glad that you like that movie. That's definitely not a good movie. But yeah. there's so But the thing, I i don't like the Mark de Plas thing and in a way because again, it almost lacks nuance too in that like There are lots of movie types though. We are getting that. That is the one thing I'm like, what are we really going to get more if Hollywood takes note of this? If they can lower the budget to less than a million dollars? Dude, Hollywood's going to get the wrong idea from this as well. feel like they always get the wrong idea, right? Capitalism.
01:43:42
Speaker
Yeah. They're going to be like, oh so if we just pick random people from YouTube, that they're going to be able to make some great movies. Yeah, and it's not good. And you know you're going to have some people that are probably going to nail it. But again, like you think about superhero movies and how, again, like – everyone was like, oh, we got to do these big franchises. They try to do the dark universe or whatever, whatever the fuck that was called.
01:44:06
Speaker
And they like had the entire the mummy thing. Yeah. The mummy thing. Like, yeah. And also spider, the Spider-Man villain movies. That's a great example. Like, what are you doing? They don't do those at all. Spend the money on these smaller projects and like cultivate these like, us like,
01:44:21
Speaker
fledgling voices in a deeper way and let them do their thing. Yeah, I agree. Invest in in different types of options, nuanced options. But also, I do agree that I think they're going to take the wrong note from this. And they're just going to like, wait, we can do this for a million dollars?
01:44:37
Speaker
Yeah. and And then it won't work because that's just the nature of it. Yeah. That's why yeah I'm afraid of that too. But yeah, there's not a lot of checks and balances on capitalism lately. So it's it's it's a tough world out there. But yeah, hopefully, hopefully they take the right lessons and we get good things.
01:44:57
Speaker
Yeah.
Anticipation for Upcoming Movie Releases
01:44:58
Speaker
One can dream.
01:45:01
Speaker
All right. Should we move on? Sure. All right. Now on to a segment of our show that I like to call a Look to the Future. 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 June 2nd and June 15th, 2026. Adrian, as is customary, you go first.
01:45:26
Speaker
What is your first pick? Yeah. ah um So ah one of my first picks, this one I'm actually very excited for. Yeah. It's coming out on June 12th.
01:45:37
Speaker
Yeah. We did not just talk about it. Okay. Because i'm going to let you say that one. It's a movie called The Furious. Have you heard of this one, Simon? The Furious? I don't know.
01:45:48
Speaker
So it's this it's an East Asian action movie. The reason I say it's East Asian is because like it's again like the director's Jap like ah Jap. Jesus, I didn't mean it like that. Like he's a Japanese man. um There's like a lot of people on the cast that are Indonesian, Chinese, all of that stuff. And it's this over the top.
01:46:07
Speaker
crazy hyper action, like hyper violent action movie that's coming out that seems very similar to the raid right now. There's a there's a good chunk of reviews because it premiered at film festivals. It's 100% on Rotten Tomatoes currently.
01:46:23
Speaker
It looks nuts. And again, this is coming out on June 12th. I'm very excited for it. Limited guy. um I mean, it's it showed on Cineplex's app, so maybe limited. But again, looking online, it shows June 12th.
01:46:36
Speaker
And um it's about a guy whose daughter gets kidnapped by like ah essentially like this, this mob and, you know, corrupt cops aren't doing anything. So he brings matters into his own hands and is going to get his daughter. And but it is like it seems very video gamey where, again, it's like the raid, like you have the building and he's like, I'm going into this building and I'm gonna work my way up the levels to like get my daughter back. So they build up the villains. That was the big thing with the raid. I feel like they built up the specific, like the, like the small bosses, like the under bosses before you get to the big boss, you know?
01:47:10
Speaker
Yeah. Again, I don't know. the The trailer just shows a bunch of action and bloody gore, but yeah it looks, um it looks good. It looks very good. And I'm very intrigued about this one. Sweet.
01:47:21
Speaker
That's cool. I will just pick the one I just said because I i i i blew it. I said it first already. Disclosure Day comes out June 12th. Steven Spielberg's next alien movie.
01:47:32
Speaker
It looks really cool. And Emily Blunt's performance is being like lauded. like People are thinking that she's like she's absolutely hit it out of the park. so And Spielberg's hit it out of the park.
01:47:43
Speaker
So yeah, Josh O'Connor's in it as well. like Josh O'Connor. He's everywhere lately. I think ah this is going to be a big one. I really want to see this like within the week of it coming out, if if it's possible.
01:47:56
Speaker
We'll see. i don't know when I'm going on that Kanata trip, so it's a mystery. But it would be nice that that one, I think, is a priority for me for theaters. Hopefully you, you too. We should almost make it like a priority list. So we know we're on the same page of what we want to go see. like Backrooms wasn't really on a priority list for me, especially because we hadn't gotten reviews yet. You you had reached out to me about going to see it. And I did. I wasn't like I'm like this trailer was f freaking awesome. That's what I thought. But i the the next segment of our show called The Trailer is kind of a joke segment in that we're picking the best trailers, but it may not be a good movie. So I wasn't sure that it would be good because it's a big movie and it's also a lot of pressure for Kane Parsons to have pulled it off again because he pulled it off on the YouTube. But YouTube is very different. So that's why I wasn't sure. But then it it is. It's an 89% of Rotten Tomatoes is killing it. So yeah, I'm interested in it, but i wasn't that wasn't on my list. Disclosure Day, though, is like a top of it for sure, I think, yep for what's coming out in the next little bit. It looks really good. Yeah, that's my pick. What's yours? Nice. My next pick is a June 5th movie. It's a scary movie, the next scary movie. Six? Five?
01:49:00
Speaker
They don't have a number, right? there's It's just a scary movie, though. Regina Hall's in it. Yeah, I think I think it's technically scary movie six, but it is just scary movie. Yeah, um they're bringing back a lot of the main cast. I mean, pretty much all the main cast. You got Anna Faris, Sean Waynes, Marlon Waynes, Regina Hall.
01:49:18
Speaker
um Dave Sheridan like they're bringing back a lot of the main cast, which is really cool. Do you like scary movie like the franchise? You like that? I liked the first two. Those are the only ones I watched, okay which I think are the only ones that the Marlon brothers did.
01:49:34
Speaker
And then they kind of went off on their own thing. Oh, okay. I i maybe watched the other ones, but I don't really remember them. Because I think they added Charlie Sheen wait after those ones. You said Marlin Brothers.
01:49:48
Speaker
Sorry, of the Waynes Brothers. I said Marlin. Are you both named Marlin? No, sir, it's the Waynes Brothers. My apologies. Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, because I never watched Scary Movie 3 or... Wait, did I watch Scary Movie 3? I watched one of them.
01:50:04
Speaker
ah Like one of the the the later ones. um i just can't remember which one because they add Charlie Sheen to the cast in the third one and Leslie Nielsen.
01:50:17
Speaker
Okay, I'll just watch the third one. Maybe I did watch four because I remember Dr. Phil being in four. Did I watch the fifth one? I love the tagline on posters that says only in theaters.
01:50:30
Speaker
i just like it. don't know why. It's kind of cool. Five is a 4% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jesus Christ. Yeah. I didn't watch that one. Okay, so five I definitely didn't watch. Then I must have watched three and four still. Okay.
01:50:45
Speaker
so you So are you excited for this? No, not really. okay likell um I'll watch it probably eventually, but I don't need to rush to the theaters to watch this. Yeah, it's unfortunate about comedies though, isn't it?
01:50:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, i guess. yeah But it's, I don't know. It's also just like like watching the trailer and everything. it just I'm curious, is it going to actually be that funny? It just seems kind of like the way they've been talking about it. It's like, oh, you can't make comedy like this anymore.
01:51:15
Speaker
yeah It just seems very much like that. And I'm like, I don't give a shit about that, dude. You can do whatever the fuck you want. like you like Stop saying that. You're making this movie. You can say it. You can do whatever the fuck you want, and people will watch it or not. I hate that whole... like You can't even be like, even like, again, I love Bill Burr as an example, but he always talks about like, you can't make jokes the same way anymore or whatever. It's like, yeah, you fucking can. Cause you're doing it on stage, man. You're literally doing it on stage and selling out state, like, like spaces. What the fuck are you talking about? It drives me insane.
01:51:46
Speaker
um And that's kind of how they were talking about this one. And I'm just like, I i don't know. Turn me off a little bit. I'm just not interested in a scary movie at all. I've never like loved the loved the humor. so i was like, I'm okay to watch it. I don't hate it. It's fine.
01:52:01
Speaker
But I wouldn't go to do a movie theater to see it personally. I was more interested in seeing Naked Gun, actually, but we just never got a chance. We just got kind of busy at that time last summer. It's on Paramount. That's your favorite streaming service.
01:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, I know. And this is one streaming service I haven't really bought into at all. Because it actually largely because of that story of of it breaking down on me, which I'm sure you're referencing right now. um Yeah. Okay, cool. My next pick is Masters of the Universe, Adrian. It launches June 5th, the same day as Scary Movie. If I was going to choose one of these movies, it would 100% be Masters of the Universe. Because this movie to me is kind of surprising. I feel like this is like...
01:52:40
Speaker
This is a McDonald's ball pit situation because this is a franchise largely built around action figures. Okay. It's a crazy thing to even make a movie out of this in some way, but it's kind of an all-star started, a studded cast. And they're not like drawing attention to it in a, like a huge way. Like it, not all-star, all-star, but there's some pretty big stars in it. Jared Leto, you can't even see Idris Elba. You can't even behind his like helmet and his mustache. He's barely visible. It's just really interesting... didn't even know in that movie until the last trailer. It's crazy. We were in theaters and I like, that's fucking interest Al, but what? Yeah. They don't even market that. They're really showing it. Yeah. And then I know you love her, but she's not in that much. But Alison Brie, she's a lot of cool stuff, but she's not... was going to say...
01:53:23
Speaker
i was going to say I don't know. why I was who is i going to say, who cares? Who gives a shit? My my point is you like Alison Pree and she's in it as a major villain.
01:53:34
Speaker
and She's got an action figure now, apparently that looks like her as an action figure character, which is kind of weird. It's like a dream within a dream. But yeah, anyway, it looks like it's a really fun time. i don't know if the reviews have come out yet.
01:53:49
Speaker
But I don't think they have. Yeah, no, I don't think so yet. So yeah, we'll wait. They'll be this week. We'll see them. and And maybe it'll be bad. But i I have a weird feeling. I'm just going to call it right now.
01:54:00
Speaker
think it's going to be over a 90. I have a weird feeling. I do. i do know I don't know why. On Rotten Tomatoes, again, this will not be the average score. It will just be ones or zeros, people liking the movie. it's going to I think it's going to blow away people's expectations. And as a result, it's going to be a higher score than it maybe ah would have been otherwise.
01:54:19
Speaker
you Um, but it looks like a fun time. That second trailer, I was like, am I going to like this? And my wife leaned in and said, is this something you're into? I'm like, I don't know. And then she's like, cause if you're not going to watch it, uh, I think this is a good puzzle movie. So you're just going to watch it at home while doing her puzzle.
01:54:36
Speaker
It's just such a funny thing to say, but i don't know if I really want to see this in theaters necessarily. Um, but if it is over a 90, maybe it's a fun time. Like it's another kind of adventure, kind of just a fun movie situation that,
01:54:51
Speaker
but yeah you look like you're not that interested at all. I'm i'm not particularly interested it again, if it is above a 90, maybe, but again, I'm gone this weekend. So, Oh, good. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. then Maybe that solves that problem. All right. Your pick is next, sir.
01:55:05
Speaker
Yeah. So my pick, um, I think you're going to pick this one. So I'll leave this last one for you. I'll do a different one. It's a Netflix rom-com movie called office romance starring Brett Goldstein and and Jennifer Lopez.
01:55:19
Speaker
Right. Nice. It's called Office Romance. Yeah. You excited for that? Stoked. The name I was trying to relate to Alison Brie was Julia Roberts earlier. I couldn't think of her name because I thought her name was Jennifer Roberts because of J-Lo.
01:55:37
Speaker
So anyway, yeah, I also had this on the list, Office Romance. I am not going watch this. I don't even have Netflix right now. um Correct. Yeah. but there was a There was that other thing. you know did you hear about this this? It was just like the um Naked Gun.
01:55:51
Speaker
There was a rumor that Brett Goldstein was dating dating J-Lo. And I think it was, again, just a made-up thing. Because I don't think Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson were were dating for Naked Gun. Did you hear about this? um I know about the... ah Let's see. People.com. Jennifer Lopez's flirty energy with Brett Goldstein is genuine, but she's enjoying her life as it is. Exclusive source.
01:56:15
Speaker
I think, but i there's this, all that marketing, I feel like it's like marketing beat. Because I don't think the Liam Neeson thing was real. I'm not sure either way. I have no idea, but i I feel like they're using these weird moments to kind of create viral marketing beats, which is like ridiculous. Yeah.
01:56:31
Speaker
Anyway. Cool. My next pick here, Adrian, is a movie, actually is a TV show that I've mentioned a few times, Cape Fear. Yeah. It's a June 5th release.
01:56:43
Speaker
ah And it stars Javier Bardem and Amy Adams. And it looks very creepy. Did you end up watching this trailer? I can't remember. The second trailer.
01:56:55
Speaker
It's very c creepy. Javier Bardem is killing it. Yeah, it looks cool. It looks cool. Um... Will I watch it? I don't think I'm going to have Apple TV. So will. I'm more inclined to watch Widow's Bay, which I will probably do. really want to watch Widow's Bay. I'm going to get Apple TV back in August when um Ted Lasso season four launches.
01:57:16
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So you can catch up then. I'll catch up. But i do want to watch Widow's Bay because everyone keeps talking about It's like, imagine Parks and Recreation, but it's a horror movie. Are these people you know?
01:57:27
Speaker
or people know this is what I read online. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know anyone that's watching the show. I don't know anyone except for you that watches Apple TV Plus stuff. I got to keep people watching it.
01:57:38
Speaker
And you can remove the plus, Adrian. you Oh my goodness. Rookie mistake. They got rid of that. Apple TV minus. I probably did that earlier, actually. I'm like calling you out. Apple TV minus in my bed. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Minus and a plus. Cancel the softs out. Cancel each other out.
01:57:55
Speaker
Actually, wait. It would just be a minus then. Not if it's the same value. Then it's a zero.
01:58:03
Speaker
Just a zero. Okay, if you say so. All right. um I want to just throw this one in there just because it is coming out. It's a limited release. It's Carolina Caroline, which we i I talked about the trailer.
01:58:16
Speaker
Yeah, I watched that trailer. It was good. Yeah. And so it's Samar weaving and like a crime crime romance thing. It looks pretty cool, but it's it's limited release. I started to say limited release because I realized there was a movie that was coming out this week that is ah was now as a wide release and I'm getting confused whether I said it because it's been a two it's a two week gap between each of our episodes so I get like yeah confused when and you've called me out on that you're like you said that last time or I've said that to you or vice versa but mostly you to me and so anyway yeah that's it that's my list cool it is now time to wrap up our show with a segment of
01:58:57
Speaker
The final segment of our show where we each present our favorite trailer of the week.
Favorite Trailer Segment
01:59:02
Speaker
The segment called The Trailer, Adrian. The caboose server of our episode.
01:59:08
Speaker
Caboose. So you got to pick one one trailer. One trailer that you are particularly fond of from this last two weeks. Yes. So this is a good trailer, Simon. This is a really good trailer. I don't know if you watch this really good trailer that I'm about to bring up, but it's my favorite trailer of this this past two weeks. It's a great trailer. The Furious?
01:59:29
Speaker
No. Oh. It is an A24 movie since we've been talking about A24. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Called Primetime. Have you seen this trailer yet, Simon? Yeah, i did. Yeah.
01:59:40
Speaker
It is the – crazy. So it's a Robert Pattinson starring movie about Chris Hansen from To Catch a Predator. Right. And I think it's about the specific episode where he gets this guy who ends up killing himself.
01:59:58
Speaker
um Oh, wow. After he gets caught and like the big drama surrounding like NBC Universal being sued for it and everything like that. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's what it's focusing in on. I could be wrong, but I think that's what it is.
02:00:11
Speaker
um There might be like multiple like stuff, but all I got to say, dude, is Robert Pattinson's so good at what he does. He always just like, i i I don't know what his voice sounds like in real life because he just does a different voice in every fucking movies. in And he's so good. I know I've seen him in interviews and stuff, but again, it's like, is that actually a real real voice? Are you doing a bit?
02:00:32
Speaker
Because you're so good at just changing your voice. In Harry Potter. That's what he sounds like. Yeah, i guess so. Maybe. Unless he doesn't. But, um, yeah, I think this, I think this looks awesome. I'm very excited about this one. Um,
02:00:50
Speaker
It's crazy. I feel like this one just kind of dropped out of nowhere. i didn't I didn't hear any news about this being filmed or any buzz about it. And then this trailer drops. I'm like, primetime. Interesting. I start watching it.
02:01:01
Speaker
And it just the reveal of it being like a Robert Pattinson's voice being Chris Hansen. Yeah. like It's I was like, you ever watch that show? Yes. Such a weird concept that that's a TV show. I don't know. I almost don't believe it's kind of the catch. It's awesome.
02:01:17
Speaker
It's awesome. Yeah. It's like yeah crazy stuff. Catching pedophiles. You're doing like some of the worst stuff on imaginable trying to diddle kids. It's just a weird thing to be on prime, like, you know, primetime TV.
02:01:31
Speaker
that like That's the thing. Well, I guess it's later in the evening though, right? Yeah. It's not actually on primetime. It's called primetime. So it must be on primetime. Yeah. Oh, no. Primetime is it's like evening. So like what was primetime is like 5 p.m. to to 10. don't know. Something like that. but Yeah, there's cops. It does look good. That that trailer in particular was shot particularly well, though, in in the in the spirit of the segment of our show like that. That is yeah the cool the cool thing is the way it's shot.
02:01:58
Speaker
um it is neat the way it's put together and edited uh my pick adrian is uh i i my notes have like two spots where there's trailers and i gotta pick out of six i just realized that i got six options here i'm still gonna pick the one i was gonna pick anyway the this is a a south korean horror movie trailer adrian don't know if you saw this It was, I think this was at Cannes, the movie, but it's from a director named Ha Hongjin.
02:02:27
Speaker
And it's a trailer for a movie called Hope. Oh, I watched this trailer as well. It's a badass trailer. Now, again, the the movie may not be good. I don't know. But the trailer is excellent. And that is the point of the segment. And that is my trailer of the bi-week for sure. Yeah, it's really cool. It's it's like this...
02:02:45
Speaker
um ah essentially like a monster movie from the sounds of it. Like, i don't know if it's like an alien or something like that. It's a weird creature though. When they show the creature, it looks like a picture like spin like a dinosaur guy. Like, yeah.
02:02:57
Speaker
With like a dinosaur mouth, like open, like a T-Rex. I don't know if you noticed. So again, the trailer, it's Korean actors and stuff like that. Again, Korean director, right? The end of this trailer. Did you see the names attached to this?
02:03:13
Speaker
Movie? The name, I don't know if I saw the name. The names are in the trailer? Yeah. I didn't, I didn't look. But these actors are not in the movie. Oh. But, but, sorry, in the trailer itself. Right, right, right. But their names are.
02:03:26
Speaker
Michael Fassbender, Michael Fassbender, oh my God, Michael Fassbender's name dropped. Really? Alicia Vikander's name dropped. Taylor Russell. Are they producers?
02:03:37
Speaker
No, it's they're listing the, um the actors. Oh. And yeah, again, Michael Fassbender. Why wouldn't you put them in the trailer? I have idea. That's even better. That makes this trailer even better in my mind. Yeah. That's crazy. It's just the way it's shot. There's like an element of...
02:03:55
Speaker
there was this weird There's this like weird baby in a shed. Did you see this like weird she like monster baby? And then there's this... like When you're saying that you're talking about the the monsters like opening its mouth and whatever, there was a moment, though, where it's stand there's an inner woods, and this' just there's a quick shot of it standing there, and like this is spindly forest creature.
02:04:14
Speaker
That's a freaking creepy... That's why i like like it kind of got me. It's like those moments. But like there's a lot of cool action in it, Yeah, it's up my alley. Yeah, it looks good. Yeah, I have ah just honorable mentions. you want to throw any out? Just like list them as you go? or you Yeah, I got a couple honorable mentions real quick. House of the Dragon Season 3 trailer.
02:04:34
Speaker
Looks tight. Looks really good. You know what's crazy about that? So I watched that trailer just today, I was like, huh, I don't remember what happened. It's been too long. Like, I actually don't remember all the details, which sucks. Because there's been so many shows.
02:04:47
Speaker
Yeah, well, that that's the issue, right? It's like you don't remember what's happened because technically – nothing happened in season two. So you got to remember all of what happened in season one. Oh shit.
02:04:59
Speaker
Pretty much. It was also that, but it was like four years ago. Yeah, it was. It was crazy. It was a long while ago. Um, but let's look, looks like a banging trailer. I'm very excited. That's a great trailer. Yeah. That was my second pick here.
02:05:10
Speaker
I think because the trailer is really good. And then, um, my final one is ah teenage sex and death at camp. My asthma. This is by... I didn't see the trailer, though, for that. just saw... Yeah, they released the trailer four days ago.
02:05:28
Speaker
I have it up here. um This one looks really weird. I don't know how I feel about it. The reviews are very positive, though. And it's by the person that did... um I saw the TV glow, which I did not watch.
02:05:41
Speaker
Okay. um Is it Jane Schoenberg's... Schoenbrun's? Um... But yeah, this looks interesting.
02:05:52
Speaker
The trailer, again, looks very weird. Very weird. But again, it's 48 reviews, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. So. Okay. Some good buzz, but that's it. That's it.
02:06:06
Speaker
I got a few. I mentioned the Master of the Universe trailer. and my My note here was, wait, is this going to be kind of good? Mm-hmm. Don't know. ah The other thing that was within this two weeks, I'm fairly certain because it's here. So I just try to try to take notes as the week goes weeks go on because there's two weeks. So it seems like it might have been weeks weeks before, but it isn't.
02:06:26
Speaker
The Lanterns trailer too. for Did we not talk about that last episode? No, it couldn't have because I have it written here. ah where we I swear we did talk about that last episode.
02:06:42
Speaker
I don't think so. With Laura Linney? No, you didn't talk about Laura Linney. Laura Linney's in it. We didn't know that. We talked about Lantern's last episode because we talked about the Chris Mundy interview. Yeah. But Laura Linney is randomly in it. And we didn't talk, we would have talked about that for sure. Laura Linney of many different things, but she was most recently in Ozark.
02:07:01
Speaker
Yeah. she is So good. Ozark. She's in Truman show. Right. Remarkable movie. Yeah. Very good. Anyway, I, this trailer was good and they used a lot of green. We talked about it too, because you sent it to me and said they didn't waste any time putting green in because we had just talked about it on the podcast because we talked about the green thing.
02:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, anyway. So yeah, we didn't talk about it, but it was a very good trailer. It was good. But the the other the last thing I've written written here, i don't know if how I feel about this trailer. I watched it twice. i was like, I don't know if this is that good.
02:07:29
Speaker
But it's the Nicholas Wending Refn movie, um the ah Her Private Hell. Oh yeah, I don't think I watched that yet. The trailer, yeah. I don't know. This one's interesting. This movie was at Cannes.
02:07:43
Speaker
Uh, it, it, the lighting is really good. Like at a very neon mask lighting. Yeah. Her private. hail Okay. It kind of looks like that movie by Edgar Wright little bit.
02:07:55
Speaker
I know what you're talking about, but I forget the stars. So hanging last night in Soho. Yeah. This looks like companion actor. Sorry. This one stars companion actor. Sophie Thatcher. Thank you.
02:08:06
Speaker
Yeah.
Nicholas Winding Refn's Career
02:08:07
Speaker
That's it. That's my list. Yeah. My choice. Definitely hope. Yeah, it's interesting. Nicholas Winding, Riffin, like he I feel like yeah you know he he got popular because of... Drive.
02:08:20
Speaker
Drive. And then I feel like everything after that, it just... I don't think it it really like hit, hit the spot. Like, I don't think they were reviewed particularly well or got a lot of focus. Before though, before Drive, he has good films that are like are critically reviewed well, I think as well.
02:08:37
Speaker
Drive one of my favorite movies though. It's like top five movie for me. That's a great movie. Yeah. And, uh, and I know him from, uh, that's training. He's a prominent role, like legitimately, at least his likeness, not as, not as voice, but he's in it in like a deep way, which is pretty cool.
02:08:54
Speaker
Yeah. that's running and that's running to you. But yeah. Okay. Well, that's it. Cool. Anything else, Adrian, before we wrap this show up? That was it. That was it for- Let's wrap it up, man. Let's wrap it up. Episode 137. Pretty good number, honestly. 137. All right. Well, I guess that's it then. Thank you for listening, audience.
02:09:13
Speaker
Episode 137 of Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. My name is Simon Eadie, and it has been a pleasure to host you alongside- Oh, have an adjective. Damn it. Texas
Podcast Wrap-up and Goodbyes
02:09:24
Speaker
barbecue. My my Texas barbecue.
02:09:27
Speaker
My Texas barbecue. I'm just bringing back the Texas base spinoff from Graves and I. My Texas barbecue co-host, Adrian Pinter. Please join us on June 16th for episode 138. Good evening to you and good luck.
02:09:43
Speaker
Take care. Goodbye.