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155 - Dawn of the Dead (2004)
104 Plays1 year ago
"...now I realize there are some things worse than death, and one of them is sitting here waiting to die."
Our October Spooky-thon keeps on rolling and what could possibly be scarier than a movie helmed by not one, but TWO of the architects of the DC Comics Cinematic Universe? We’re sticking with our Romero Remakes theme and this week, the topics include fast zombies, remakes vs. homages, the strengths and weaknesses of the script, zombie babies, and so very much more! Join us because when there’s no more room in hell, you’ll want us along as you’re roaming the earth!
Watch Tucker’s preferred Extended Cut of the 1978 Romero original on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbcU-qW7Zvo
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:27
Speaker
No, please don't kill me, Mr. Ghostface. I want to be in the sequel. When there's no more room in hell, the disenfranchised podcast will walk the earth. That's right, that podcast all about those franchises of one, those films that fancy themselves full-fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film. It is our spooky-thon, and I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy. And joining me, as always, the man who tries not to come
00:00:56
Speaker
Back, it's Brett, right? Hey, Brett. Hold on, I need a minute to compose myself after that. Hello, Stephen. How we doing tonight, buddy?
00:01:14
Speaker
I'm doing all right, man. How are you? I'm doing okay. I feel like I'm on this roll now of like, not intending to throw you off in my intro, but figuring out a way to do it anyway. It's impressive every time. Well, you know, it's always nice when you can hit the mark.
00:01:35
Speaker
And Brett also joining us this week, as he often does these days, is the man who knows how to rate a sporting goods store. It's Tucker. Hey, Tucker.
00:01:47
Speaker
Hi, Steven. Genghis Khan knows how to rate a sporting goods store, too. Yeah, he does. So you're in good company or maybe bad
Historical Figures in Media: Genghis Khan Discussion
00:01:56
Speaker
company. I don't know where is Genghis Khan canceled? Is that is that what we're doing? I'm pretty sure he is. OK. All right. He's the only one that he's the only one that shows up in Bill and Ted, where I'm like, you guys sure you wanted to pick that guy up like?
00:02:11
Speaker
He's probably going to kill you and have sex with every woman he sees. Correct. That's probably going to happen. Yeah, at least. Yeah, no. The fact that he doesn't just means that that movie is not historically accurate. Well, they gave him Twinkies. He enjoys the excellent sugar rush.
George Romero's Zombie Remakes
00:02:27
Speaker
That's true.
00:02:29
Speaker
And speaking of excellent sugar rushes, this is our Romero remakes, Spookython, where we are discussing all of the George Romero remakes that did not get sequels, but very probably could have. And so today we are discussing what film, Brett? Dawn of Dead.
00:02:51
Speaker
2004's Dawn of the Dead, directed by Zack Snyder, written by James Gunn, and starring Sarah Polly, Ving Rhames, Mackay Pfeiffer, Jake Weber, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Keith Zegers, Michael Berry, Lindy Booth, Jane Eastwood, Boyd Banks, and many others. Matt Frewer, we got cameos by three members of the original cast, Ken Forey,
00:03:19
Speaker
Tom Savini and oh, it's Scott Scott H. Reiniger. I think I pronounced that right. What a cast. What a picture. Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. It's pretty all right. Yeah. You say you hate it. I don't hate it. I don't hate it outright. There's things I like about it.
00:03:44
Speaker
Oh, fun and 100 percent intended. No.
Zombie Storytelling Preferences
00:03:49
Speaker
But I when it comes to zombie stories, I'm a sucker for the ones that show the beginning of the outbreak and how society collapses. Miss me with that post apocalyptic shit. It's boring as hell. And see, that's what's weird about the Romero remakes, because in the original trilogy, like I said in the last episode,
00:04:13
Speaker
they're connected by where they are in the outbreak. Right. When we get to dawn, they're already almost a month into that shit. And then like at least, you know, three or four months go by. At least. And then day is like a year or so after. But each one of the remakes all start at the beginning. Spoilers for next week. But yeah, they were all start at the beginning of the outbreak, which is the only thing that really
00:04:40
Speaker
really turns me off about the Dawn in the Day remakes. It's like, why? Like, why even fucking call it that if you're just going to like make a completely different movie with, you know, a few nods to the original. That's why Stephen and I were talking about this before we started. This movie isn't a remake. It's an homage at best.
Symbolism in 'Dawn of the Dead'
00:05:00
Speaker
It's an homage.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah, because I mean at least you can sort of get away with calling it dawn of the dead because dawn is the beginning of a day so and also every Exterior scene seems to take place at or near dawn Like you know like we like we wouldn't notice just bludgeon us over the head with it Zack Snyder but you know good old Zachary Snyder
00:05:26
Speaker
Zachary Snyder is the epitome of the
Zack Snyder's Directorial Style
00:05:28
Speaker
meme. I know a lot of directors who use subtlety and they're all cowards. Wait, is he is he Zachary or he could be he could be a Zacchaeus. He could be a wee little man. Zachary Edward Zack Snyder, according to his IMDB profile. I see no tax collectors here. No.
00:05:54
Speaker
It's just an odd choice to do a remake in terms of this one and the next one. It's weird to do a remake of what is really like the second and third movie in a trilogy without the first one or the first two to precede it. It seems like an odd choice. Well, and I think that's what makes these the remakes of this franchise in particular so interesting is that because of the way the original trilogy is so
00:06:22
Speaker
spaced out, I guess, in terms of the fact that there are no returning characters from film to film. And there's different settings in each one, different things that Romero is commenting on in society. They are connected only insofar as they are written and directed by George Romero.
00:06:39
Speaker
And these so the remakes then are not connected by anything other than the titles having the fact that they are remakes of that trilogy. Yeah. Right. I mean, it's it's different studios every time. It's different creative voices, different filmmakers. Like there's there's and which is the reason why we're covering them, honestly, is because there is there is nothing connecting those films. This is not a sequel.
00:07:04
Speaker
to the Tom Savini remake of Night of the Living Dead, nor is Day of the Dead, the 2008 remake, Steve Miner's Day of the Dead, a sequel to Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. It is not. There are three completely different films taking place within three completely separate realities.
Impact of 'Dawn of the Dead' on Zombie Genre
00:07:19
Speaker
And I think that's what gives us our entry point in to this entire theme month, honestly, is the fact that we're able to discuss these this way because of that discrepancy.
00:07:33
Speaker
You know, say which say what you want about this movie, but we will end of the dead land of the dead doesn't exist without this. Like this hit at the box office and instead of making a sequel to this, they were like, hey, George Romero, what you up to? Hmm.
00:07:50
Speaker
What if we give you 20 million bucks to do something? Would you do that? And he's like, actually, yeah, I would. Zombies are huge now. Why don't we go ask the guy that started it? See if he wants to do something. As opposed to pitching him on a Resident Evil movie and telling him there's too many zombies in it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah, this is universal. And so Land of the Dead is universal as well. Like they're there. It's a direct link between this and Land of the Dead. It came out. I think Land of the Dead came out maybe a year, maybe two years later. I'll look it up. Yeah, I can't wait until you do, Stephen. I'm pretty sure it came out in five.
00:08:32
Speaker
because I still didn't have a car when the day came out. Land of the Dead does come out in 2005, that is correct. And it, let me see if I can get the date actually, so I can tell you exactly how long after it was. Scroll and scroll. And I would also say the thing connecting all the originals isn't just George Ramirez as it being the director, but also the zombie evolution. Like the zombies act roughly the same, but you can see them evolve through each movie.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah, no. And like it's like I would say in last week, they're just connected by where they are in the outbreak. They are timeline sequels without sharing a timeline, if that makes sense. Yeah. So the remake, Dawn of the Dead remake comes out March 20 2004. Land of the Dead comes out June 2005. So just a little over a year later, we have the fourth
00:09:33
Speaker
dead film from George Romero, the kickoff of his second. Is that enough time? Like, were they already working on Land of the Dead? Is that enough time? I think that's enough time because I am I am certain I don't know if you guys remember the poster to Land of the Dead, but it goes way out of its way to mention George Romero to the fact to where the poster is autographed by George Romero. That's amazing.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yes, it is. I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it right now. That is incredible. The legendary filmmaker brings you his ultimate zombie masterpiece, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. And he signs it. Stay scared. G.A. Romero, which is what he signs everything. Like I've showed you my book that he signed every and everything he signs. Stay scared.
00:10:28
Speaker
Everything. I mean, great. I will, as long as you keep making movies, George. Oh, he's gone. Consistency. And I was five million off on the budget. It was 15 million. OK. But we didn't come here to talk about Land of the Dead, boys. No, we did not. We're here to talk about Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. I will go ahead and just get my experience with this movie out of the way first. I knew it existed, but I didn't see it until yesterday when I watched it for this podcast.
00:10:56
Speaker
Um, so I had heard that it was one of Snyder's better films. And after seeing it, I agree. That was a pretty low bar though. Don't get it twisted. That's a low bar. It's either this or Man of Steel are for my favorite Snyder film. I really like Man of Steel. That bar is practically on the floor.
00:11:19
Speaker
Here's the thing. I am not completely out on Snyder as a filmmaker. I think his fan base sucks ass, but I think he has
00:11:31
Speaker
He has a skill. He has a skill set and he uses it. The problem is sometimes he over uses it. See the Snyder Cut of Justice League, which I mean, if you took out all the slow mo, that movie would have been like a tight 90. Instead, it's a four hour long movie because he just couldn't fucking help himself because he didn't have to help himself.
00:11:57
Speaker
Um, so that's what we get. Um, but, and there are two, two of his movies. I still have not seen it. I've not seen sucker punch cause I'm waiting to watch it for this podcast. And I've not yet seen army of the dead because who's got time to sit down and watch a three hour zombie movie. Not me yet. Uh, that one was, um, I here's what I'll say about army of the dead is I had a lot of fun watching it, but I don't remember a lot about it.
Personal Experiences with Zombie Films
00:12:27
Speaker
I believe that, actually. Except for a couple characters. There are a couple characters that stood out that kind of stuck with me, but outside of that, like.
00:12:35
Speaker
It was fun. It was a lot of fun. It really was. It was some really cool stuff going on. But that movie had a sequel on Netflix for like six months later. Yeah. And I want to see it because it's not a zombie movie. It's like a heist thriller. It is. Yeah, which I think is actually it's like Army of Thieves, I think is what it has. It has very interesting. It has the one care, one of the two characters in it that I actually that I remembered from the movie. So I keep meaning to watch it, but I forgot about it just like Army of the Dead. I totally forgot it existed.
00:13:04
Speaker
So yeah, those are the two Snyder films that I have to date not seen. Sucker Punch is a guilty pleasure movie. I completely acknowledge it is so much fun. Hot stinking garbage, but I kind of dig it anyway.
00:13:21
Speaker
I'm glad to hear you say that, Brett, because at least I'm not alone. I understand it's flaws, but damn it, if it's not a good time and damn it, if it doesn't look wonderful, that is a beautiful movie. And I also understand how problematic it is, but you know what? Yeah, it's fun. But you know what? Most of the people that I know that really dig that movie are women. So.
00:13:44
Speaker
I don't know. Like, is it problematic? Because the women that I know that enjoy it say that it's not. It's only the guys that I've talked to that are like, Oh, it's well, Oh man. I guess it depends on how you look at it. Cause you can also look at it from the point of view of like, it's a.
00:13:59
Speaker
female empowerment. I mean, we had a similar conversation about Catwoman, Brett, if you recall. That's true. Yeah. You know, it depends on perspective. Like you were kind of just outright fuck this movie and you know, like, but you get on Twitter and type in Catwoman and there's a ton of women who find it very empowering. So
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, you know, which I mean, look, I'm just a white dude. Mm hmm. With a beard, even. So that's like a cherry on top. This is that white guy to your credit. It is not, you know, intrude only on your neck. So, you know, there's oh, no, I avoid that shit. I keep it off my neck because you're not supposed to have it on your neck. That's the thing. Me too. Look at this. Look at this trim job. I do this myself. Look at how straight those lines are.
00:14:47
Speaker
Good. Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. No. But yeah. So I'm just that's just me. So like, I don't I don't have a voice there if they want to say it's a great movie and they love it. Awesome. Cool. Yeah. I dig it. I'm going to listen to you. I was going to say at that point, it's it's our job to listen. So yeah. Yeah. I'm going to sit down and shut the fuck up. That's it. And not everything has to be for everybody.
00:15:13
Speaker
as I've said many times. And that's also the nature of art is everybody is allowed to have their own interpretation of it. And yeah, we get to interpret it and we get to interpret it in different ways than the artist intended, which I find great.
00:15:29
Speaker
Me too. Also, I wrote a short story once that one of my one of my teachers used in her class and kids would come up and ask me questions about what I intended when I wrote it. And I'm just like, I don't know. What do you think? Because, you know, I I intended it one way. But, you know, if you see something else in it, that's probably right. And it's moments like that that I really respect David Lynch, who refuses to interpret his movies for anybody. Yeah. Eraser had your most spiritual film. You can elaborate on that. No, no, he's not.
00:16:00
Speaker
And I love him for it. I love him for it.
00:16:03
Speaker
It's more fun to be a little ambiguous about that kind of stuff. Let people figure it out on their own or put their own meaning onto it. Because that's not about art. That's what gives art meaning is the the meaning that we imbue it. We imbue it with. So, yeah, absolutely. Everything like when I write music, my solo music, that all that that means something. All of those words mean something like it's it's meticulously plotted to get a point across, you know, or to say a certain thing.
00:16:32
Speaker
But when I write lyrics, when I'm in a band, it's all just whatever sounds good coming out of my mouth. And I try to kind of connect it as best as I can. And people have interpreted. I just love hearing what people interpret the songs as because I have no intention behind them, except the sound of it. People are like, oh, this means. And I'm like, yeah, dude, never thought of it that way before. In fact, never thought of it at all. I just sing the song. And that's wild. That's why I love that. That's why I love art.
00:17:00
Speaker
Bob Dylan affected the Nirvana method like mm-hmm. That's why MF doom Yeah They just say words to match the music and that doesn't really mean anything the Allen Ginsburg School of Writing Yeah, there you go.
Zombie Apocalypse: Survival and Realism
00:17:16
Speaker
Yeah Brett what what's your history with the dawn of with let's say the original dawn of the dead and the dawn of the dead remake I
00:17:25
Speaker
Um, I would say that it looks so, I mean, I saw it when it came out because I mean, me and my dad went and saw it because we were like, fuck yeah. Dawn of the Dead is great. Let's go watch a remake. Because I mean, remakes weren't, horror remakes weren't exactly fresh around this time. Well, this is only a year after the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake.
00:17:51
Speaker
Well in Dark Castle had been like up everybody's ass with remaking every William Castle movie ever. Like House on Hill, you know, 13 Goats.
00:18:03
Speaker
House of Wax. That's I forgot. Well, House of Wax is the year after. But, yeah, no, I. So honestly, around that time, they do that. Those are some pretty good movies. I still love all three of those movies I just mentioned. I think they're all fucking phenomenal. Well, they're not movies, but they're a lot of fun. I love you. Shut your mouth about 13 ghosts. 13 ghosts. Oh, no, you're right. Good film. Goats, goats. Yes, 13 goats. Yes. No, ghosts. God damn it. Pay attention. I've seen the goat cut.
00:18:35
Speaker
They're wearing the glasses it's hilarious, um So yeah, so I went into this thing it was gonna be great and and at the time I think I Think I enjoyed it at the time Just like really enjoyed it like thought it was great It was only after once you saw what I
00:18:59
Speaker
running zombies did to the genre when I started to really resent this film. Because you're on record as being anti fast zombie. Yes, go see our World War Z episode for Brett's like screed against fast zombies.
00:19:15
Speaker
Or there's a bunch of other episodes. I was going to say, but that's that was the big one. Like, that's the reason we picked World War Z is because you wanted to go off on some fast. That's that's when I climb the hill and proceed to die on it. Correct. Yes. Like so many Seven Samurai before him. That's all right. I'll be up there just barely hanging on with you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that, brother.
00:19:41
Speaker
And we actually did do a little bit of the history of the fast zombie last week Yeah, yeah, we're not living that episode. Yeah. Yeah, this is where this I think this is we're really gonna talk about it because 28 days later had been out. Mm-hmm
00:19:58
Speaker
And that they weren't really zombies. So I don't think I really clocked that. Which make that and that's why it makes sense is because they're still alive. They just are driven insane by a disease. But that's why it makes sense. It's the it's the pandemic nature of it that I think and kind of the the dead eyed whatever of it that kind of leads people to draw the correlation between
00:20:24
Speaker
the creatures and 28 days later and zombies and certainly certainly zombie adjacent as I said last week if you were to ask random Joe Schmo on the street are the 28 days later get things zombies they would say yes yeah but then you know I mean I get it that's that's a very that's right in line with any other nerdy argument like
00:20:48
Speaker
Does a zombie have to be dead to be a zombie or does it just have to be mindless ravenous creature that was once human? I have an opinion, but other people might not. And so that's where it is. Well, for me, it's like, you know how a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square. Yes. It's kind of that thing. It's a very perfect 20 days later. Yeah, like.
00:21:18
Speaker
Are they zombies? No, but do they belong on the infographic in the circle of zombies? Yes. Yeah. There's a Venn diagram where they're in the same space, sure. Oh yeah, for sure. But no, when it comes to this movie, I remember really enjoying it. I really liked it. This is probably the first zombie movie that really frightened me because they ran.
00:21:45
Speaker
Like, because I'm like, you know, before you watch his movie, yeah, you just, you know, like Barbara says, you just walk around them. You can just run by them. You can just walk right by them. But once they're running. They're fast now. They're fast now. Oh, God, don't don't don't fuck that trilogy. I just did. Oh, Jesus. But.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yeah, so what once they're running full sprints and tackling you like I'm dead I'm dead right away. I don't sound stand a chance immediately like just from fright They don't even have to get you as soon as they start running towards you Brett just dies of a heart attack funny because we could all the fat people come zombies first because they're slow and fat. Yes, that's true.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, no, I've look I have resigned myself to being the first guy dead in any horror scenario. Just that's that's me. And I've resigned myself to that. I know that about myself. That's what happens for me not in any. For me in any I will I will die in any horror scenario. What you mean the killer is just going to walk behind me I will run and fall over and lie there going like a family guy character until he sneaks up and stabs me.
00:23:04
Speaker
That's true. That's true. So, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't trip. I would just get winded within like 10 seconds. I mean, look, porque no los dos. I'd be sucking air so bad. I'd probably have a heart attack before he stabbed me. Let's be honest.
00:23:22
Speaker
So that's, that's Brett's way out of any horror scenario is a heart attack first. And then, you know, whatever the, whatever death comes from, whatever. Honestly, like in, in, in a, in a Donna's dead remake scenario, I'd probably have a heart attack out of fear or anything. So that's what I'm saying, man. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, but yes, that's my history with it. Tucker, what about yourself? Boy, do I have a doozy you guys.
00:23:51
Speaker
Um, so the original, um, I rented from the Warren library on VHS when I was a young man in middle school. Oh, the original, I forgot to mention. I watched the original when my dad showed it to me back in the day with the other three. There you go. Carry on.
00:24:08
Speaker
OK, and I really liked it. It was like it was kind of one of those eye opener movies where I was like, wait a minute, this can be a movie like I can watch a movie and it's this. That's insane. Like I couldn't believe it.
00:24:24
Speaker
So I was a huge fan. I had probably six or seven different like Anchor Bay releases of it on VHS, like three or four different clam shells, a couple double tapes where it had like special features on the other tape and stuff. So many. In fact, I have the, uh, the original DVD collector set that has, um,
00:24:47
Speaker
the theatrical cut, the extended cut and the Argento cut, plus another disc with special features and stuff. And that's really cool. Now, when this film came out, the one we're talking about today, the remake, when it came out in 2004, I was living in Germany.
00:25:08
Speaker
We had a theater on base that sucked because it was still film projectors and they just hired anybody and nobody knew how to run a projector. So I tried to never go to the base theater. We had a theater that was probably about 10 minutes off base in town that catered towards the English speaking residents of the town of which there were many because there was a military base there. They had 10
00:25:37
Speaker
theaters, five on one side, five on the other. This side, the movies were in German. This side, the movies were in English. Nice. Pretty fucking cool. Right. So I got to see Dawn of the Dead the day it came out. The only problem is that two days before it came out, I had just had surgery on a hernia. Mm. Left in Guinal for anyone who knows what that is. It's not fun. It's not fun having it and it's not fun getting it repaired.
00:26:08
Speaker
Uh, so I could with a hernia. Yeah. I too was singing that in my head. Yay. Familiar with the different types of hernias that you could get. It just starts listing hernias. It's so great. And mine's in there. Yeah. Anyway, I could not, I could barely shuffle. Like I was a Romero zombie.
00:26:37
Speaker
when this movie came out and the parking lots at this place, they had a main parking lot that was very small and then across the street, they had an overflow parking lot and we had to park in the overflow parking lot. My friend Dave went with me and it took me about 15 minutes just to get to the theater because it was literally like step, take a deep breath, another step, wince in pain, take a deep breath, step,
00:27:04
Speaker
Take a deep breath. That sounds like how I move when I had when I throw my back out. Like, yeah, not fun. It was not fun, but I eventually made it to the movie theater. And of course, the lobby started. So it took me another 15 minutes just to get through the lobby. You know, Dave was a big guy looking back on it, and he should have just carried me. I don't know why he should have be like, hey, carry me.
00:27:34
Speaker
Hey, I'm you would have let me Yoda on your back. Yeah, dude. But I saw it at the movie theater and like like Brett, you know, the first time you see it at the theater after all the build up, boy, it is wonderful. It really, really is. Of course, with time seeing it in subsequent viewings, I've owned the DVD since that came out. Mm hmm.
00:28:02
Speaker
And it's never gonna be as good as the first time, but I still really, really enjoy it. The one thing that did bother me about it was not that the zombies were fast, but more that fast zombies don't make scientific sense. I mean, zombies don't make scientific sense, but I'm gonna suspend my belief to here.
00:28:31
Speaker
And fast zombies are a little bit up here because they're dead. They're all messed up. You know, like the only thing, the only thing they are pure motorized instinct. There's one part of their brain that has been reactivated by who knows what and the only thing they have
00:28:56
Speaker
very little coordination. They just have an urge to feed. That's all they know. They're babies. They're just babies, man. It's all uncoordinated babies. And that's why Romero zombies are slow and shambling because they're struggling to move like I was to see this movie just struggling to get somewhere. Putting one foot over the other like I guess this is how you walk like
00:29:22
Speaker
And that's why I love in the original, I love the zombies on the escalators. They're just having so much trouble with those escalators. They're just like like turning around like right when they get on the escalator and they're just like falling over, tripping over each other. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, dude. And like these these zombies, especially.
00:29:40
Speaker
Let's say there was a sequel to Dawn of the Dead. Let's say there were many sequels to the remake. I think the first sequel should have been called Island of the Dead because they end up on an island. Any island. Any island. And they're just fighting the zombies on the island. You got any cigarettes? So you sure don't.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I just took off my vape because that's what they do in the movie. That's true. They take a puff of their vapes. They say, no, we don't have any cigarettes and they get on the helicopter, just light up a bunch of cigarettes. We have no tobacco today. One of my favorite moments in that movie. It is. It is good. But like if this is the problem I had with The Walking Dead is that, you know, eventually there's not going to be any zombies left because they will all
00:30:31
Speaker
rot. There's no way in the Walking Dead that they are that far into the zombie apocalypse and there are still that many physically able zombies. They would all just be rotted mush on the ground.
00:30:50
Speaker
Ridiculous, but anyway fast zombies. Yeah, like their knees would snap like their Their muscles would tear like they they're not built to move like that zombies are not built to move like that That's my take on fast zombies though I do still love this movie and I do agree that in some situations if you can suspend your disbelief enough They can be scarier than slow zombies. I think a train to Busan is a great example of how you get a fast zombie movie to work
00:31:31
Speaker
They mix it up a little bit. They do. It's not just straight. They run all the time. Right. It's the tension of it is what I find so so interesting and so fun about that. Snyder said that the reason he went with the fast zombie model here is because he wanted to play against the the stereotypical image of a zombie in order to try to make them seem more threatening.
00:31:33
Speaker
because I think they work very well in train to Busan, personally.
00:31:59
Speaker
I think he succeeds.
James Gunn's Screenwriting and Directorial Influence
00:32:00
Speaker
This is one of the movies where like Brett touched on where the the fast zombies are scary, despite them. It's just silly that they exist. Now, a movie that does fast zombies poorly. I wonder if we could say it all together. It's World War Z. I knew I had a feeling that was where you were going. Yeah. Fuck those fast zombies. You know what? I turned that motherfucker off.
00:32:23
Speaker
I did. I still never have seen the entire thing. Like once he gets in that room with the chattering zombie, I'm like, really? This is this is what we're doing. Really? That is what we're doing. You had a budget this big and this is what we're doing. No, thanks. Click offset by that by that great product placement from that vending machine, though. Oh, I haven't seen it. I saw it once and I didn't even finish it. So I don't remember. Nothing. Nothing will offset the giant steaming dump it took on this horse material. So. Oh, there's that, too. Yeah.
00:32:54
Speaker
Yeah. Go back and listen to that episode too. That was a good episode. Which I mean, if we're talking about zombie media, go read World War Z. I have the audio book on my phone. That's a, that's a good bathroom book. Leave that on the back of your toilet and just peruse through it while you're taking a shit.
00:33:11
Speaker
Oh, yeah, or or listen to the unabridged audio version because the voice cast on that the voice cast on that thing is insane. I need to I need to buy that because of the cast. Yeah, Nathan Fillion. Yeah, I don't know. You name it. Like every that is why that is why I bought the unabridged one is because of that cast. Does Mel Brooks show up? No, but his buddy Carl does. Oh, Carl Reiner. Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:39
Speaker
They had only released an abridged version of it because they thought at the time it was too expensive to do a full cast recording because of how many different voice actors they would need to hire. But the abridged version they did release had like Mark Hamill and I think it might have had the Carl Reiner one on it. Like the abridged version had a great voice cast. So there was a huge push for them to do the whole thing.
00:34:08
Speaker
Yeah, and uncle marty shows up in the unabridged one Which is again part of the reason I wanted the unabridged one is because I want to listen to uncle marty because I love that guy Yeah, I love my uncle marty. He loves you too steven. I hope so. Yeah and surprise in the world war z universe. There's slow zombies Hmm. Yeah, I can't believe it And it and it's very as scientifically accurate as it could be
00:34:32
Speaker
Now if you're getting scientifically accurate you want the the book that came before this the zombie the survival survival guide Which is another great toilet book was written by the same written by Max Brooks. It's written by a guy. I said it preceded it. Yeah. Yeah Max Brooks is one of the good Nepo babies unlike the the bad max Nepo baby max Landis
00:34:58
Speaker
Oh, we don't. Yeah, he's one of these. Honestly, he's in that we should shall not be named. Yeah, we should probably we should probably stop stop mentioning him. I mean, right along with his dad, too, honestly, I just. Right. There's a reason we're probably never going to cover Twilight Zone, the movie, and it's because of his dad. So hey, Joe Dante, Joe Dante is still friends with him. So very upset about the same. I would love to talk about the Twilight Zone movie, but I understand why we can't we can't or don't want to.
00:35:26
Speaker
I mean, I kind of want to also because it I, I like just about everything else about it other than that first section. I like everything about it. And I wish that I'd never found out about the thing about it. I wish I had never heard about that because now like, I can't watch it because I'm like, Yo, those those people right there.
00:35:49
Speaker
Like they died. Like those three people. In some film that was connected to some of the film that we're watching. Right. In an act of just brazen flaunting of safety regulations and good sense. I still watch The Crow though, which is weird. Well, because that wasn't a flagrant disregard for safety. It was a pure accident. It was like pure... It was an accident.
00:36:18
Speaker
Yeah, they didn't clear the chamber and put a blank behind a bullet and. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Poor Brandon Lee taken from us way too fucking soon. Way too fucking soon. Absolutely. Maybe we'll do an unenfranchised on the fourth Crow movie when it comes out. I don't want to watch it though. Oh, because that new one, right?
00:36:42
Speaker
Yeah with uh scars guard with which one of the scars guards isn't it? Oh, I would guess alexander. The one that played it. Oh bill. Okay. Yeah I was gonna say I would guess alexander but bill also makes sense The middle one the middle one's the one that doesn't make sense but okay But dawn of the dead
00:37:04
Speaker
Of the dead. Of Dawn of the Dead. I love the fact that this movie features the two men that would separately become the architects of the DC cinematic universe.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah. Directed by the first ones, Zack Snyder, and then written by the second James Gunn. Scooby Doo, James Gunn. Scooby Doo, Monsters Unleashed, James Gunn. And at this point in his career, that is what he was known for. He had done some, basically he was, he was Troma, Tromion and Juliet, like just a bunch of Troma shit. He had written a movie called The Specials.
00:37:45
Speaker
and had done some. I like that movie too. Have you guys seen that? I have not. We could cover it, though. It's pretty all right. It was fun. That's what I've heard. We can we can absolutely cover that one, though. And he did some uncredited ghost writing on a movie called 13 Ghosts, which we have already, you know, invoked on this episode. Not 13 Goats, though.
00:38:06
Speaker
No, ghosts, God damn it. And then, of course, he is at this point most famous for being the guy who wrote Scooby Doo. And that is the main reason why people did not want him to have anything to do with this movie, because how dare they get the fucking guy who did the Scooby Doo movies to write Dawn of the Dead? How fucking dare they? I have one thing to say about that, and it's
00:38:37
Speaker
Dummies, dummies, dummies, dummies. And yeah, because let's be honest, like people can, you know, people, people are vast. They contain multitudes. And just because someone doesn't meet your immediate criteria of what something should be, doesn't mean that you get to blatantly and flagrantly ignore them. So.
00:39:03
Speaker
see everyone who's ever been cast as Batman. Correct. Or the Joker, with the exception of Jared Leto. But yeah. And that just happens to be the one that sucked. It is. Yeah. Which is funny. Everyone embraced that one and he's the one that sucked. But yeah.
00:39:23
Speaker
Wild. But yeah, so I mean, but that's what he's known for. So, you know, at the end, again, this is the the advent of the Internet. The Internet is still in its infancy. So, you know, the message boards are going crazy forums off the wall. Oh, we we hate this. We hate this guy. And yeah, James Gunn got a lot of pushback, a lot of might even say death threats as a result of this. So but I think ultimately the script is pretty solid.
00:39:52
Speaker
I agree. Yeah, I mean, it's I mean, it's got the James Gunn DNA all over it. Mm hmm. So you know, it's got your your your and this is around the time again, where he's very much attempting to be the provocateur. So he's you know, it's got kind of an edge to it that even some of his later stuff doesn't quite have. But it's it's still I mean, it's it's it's quirky, it's funny, but still,
00:40:19
Speaker
respectful if not reverent at points and able to and actually does have something to say beyond just hey aren't zombies cool which again is something that I think gun does better than
00:40:36
Speaker
95% of the other filmmakers who work in the kind of genres that he does, specifically the superhero genre these days, is he's actually, you know, what he said when he took over DC story is king, we're going to put the story first and foremost.
00:40:53
Speaker
And I think he's very good at that. Now, is he quite as tested here as he would become? Obviously not. He's fairly early in his screenwriting career. And so is this a perfect script? No, but it's still, I think, very serviceable and very well done, if not as nuanced as some of his later work would be. The thing about James Gunn, I think that makes him very unique, is that he can inject
00:41:18
Speaker
heart into the most ridiculous thing. Mm hmm. That's his superpower. And you give him like the silliest fucking thing ever. And he's like, I will make you cry during this movie. Hold up. Yeah. Hold up. Basically. Yeah, that's kind of what it comes down to. And he's able to do it remarkably well. Like, yeah, he's got.
00:41:42
Speaker
he's got just again, that good ability. I would I would say at the time he's doing this, the only other guy who really has that kind of reputation around him is another terrible person, but to mention a terrible person who probably ought not be invoked, but I'm going to invoke him, Joss Whedon.
00:42:00
Speaker
the, you know, the one time king of the nerds is the guy who you would count on to make you cry in the middle of a show about teenage vampire hunters. So, you know, that that's kind of it. It's a lateral line, at least in terms of where they were around this time. And in terms of the kind of stuff that they would become known for really doing well.
00:42:25
Speaker
Well, so but I will have to say for all of the decent writing And I'm trying to find it because I don't remember exactly what it says But there is a line that kind of shits on the message of the original When there if I recall there they're up on the roof discussing
00:42:49
Speaker
you know, similar to the scene in the original where they're like, you know, they just why do you think they all congregate here? Right. They're us. Yeah, they're us. They're just, you know, instinct, memory, living out, you know, the commentary on consumerism. Right. You know, made very evident by the final scene where the zombies are literally just chowing down on the people that have been looting the mall for the last 10 minutes.
00:43:17
Speaker
Yeah, whereas in this one they do that same scene that same line It's still poignant and follow it up immediately with nah, man I think they're just fucking stupid or like something like that like this They just totally write it off like no that doesn't make any sense But that's also a very like that that's some of that like 90s cynicism bleeding into the early aughts like because that is that that's very much a piece of the kind of
00:43:45
Speaker
kind of caustic, cynical sort of writing that we would get in a lot of films from around that time. And it's the thing that Marvel does really well now where they'll give this moment of like brilliant pathos and then undercut it like with like, can you believe we're doing this kind of a thing? Like it's that kind of you undercut the moment in order to
00:44:09
Speaker
You know lighten the tension so you're not so it doesn't feel like you're beating people over the head with the thing I'm not saying I like it. I'm just saying that's I think that's the reason because my next point is going to be the party. It's funny How's it turn tables last week? You're talking about you know, how the remake wasn't as good because it doesn't have the same message
00:44:29
Speaker
And here you are defending the fact that the remake doesn't have the same message. But okay, but here's the thing I will say for this version that I don't think the 1990 remake of Night of Living Dead did. It feels like there's an actual attempt at some sort of social relevancy, but it's an updated social relevancy. So it's not the complete anti-
00:44:56
Speaker
consumerist screed of that that presages the the Reagan era by like a couple years, which is I think, fascinating that the original film does. But we're we're instead we're making a comment on the nature of community in a post 911 society like because like every movie that kind of comes out during this timeframe, there's this always kind of thought in the back of our heads is what are we now
00:45:21
Speaker
Uh, like, uh, like Fran says in the original film, what have we done to ourselves? And that's kind of the, the notion I think that carries through this film. I think it's still trying to make a culturally solvent point. It's just a different culturally solvent point than the one that Romero's making. Wait, you're talking about that scene where flyboys be in a Dick, right?
00:45:43
Speaker
Which one? Exactly. He's seen he's in. Yes. What an asshole, man. Right. Exactly. I hate him so much. I think you're supposed to. Yeah. But so which I agree with you and I think that would be great, but you don't have to. They don't you don't you can do that without shitting on one of the most poignant lines of the original. Sure.
00:46:14
Speaker
You can do that without shitting on dialogue. Basically, that line of dialogue in the original is part of Romero's thesis.
Artistic Interpretation in Remakes
00:46:22
Speaker
Agreed. There are a few of those moments within that original film that I think are really... But again, I'm not saying this film is anywhere near as good as the original Dawn of the Dead. It's not. I marked this one a whole star lower than I rated the original film.
00:46:42
Speaker
So it's not on the same level at all. An attempt was made.
00:46:48
Speaker
And I respect that it was made. I respect that it's trying to take a swing and that it's trying to do something, but I don't think it does it as well. This movie does not have a singular thesis going throughout it, I think, but it attempts to do something so culturally solvent. And see, that's so weird because based on what you said last week, like to me, this remake is just, it's fluff.
00:47:15
Speaker
It's really fun and it can be really clever, but it's just fluff there. To me, there's nothing in this movie that is like serious social commentary or satire. Whereas the remake of Knight at least did touch on some of that stuff. It's so weird that like, I, that's, we were talking about art. It's so weird, you know, people take different things from it. I think it's so cool.
00:47:37
Speaker
I think I would liken these two remakes, the Night and Dawn remakes, as two different kinds of cover songs.
00:47:47
Speaker
which is a similar kind of thing. And I think Knight is a much more like true to form cover, like maybe Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah. Like it's very true to the original form of the Leonard Cohen song, but it's his personal spin. So it's different, but it's still kind of in that same like general mood and theme and mode. Whereas like the Dawn remake is more like
00:48:16
Speaker
the country remake of the country cover of gin and juice. Like it's I would have said like a punk rock cover of something. Right. Like it's just it gets right to it. Like there's no fucking around in this movie at all. Zero fucking around. It's doing a completely different thing.
00:48:33
Speaker
while still riffing on a lot of the, I would say specifically imagery of the original film more than things like theme or character. Like Tom Savini, you get the idea that he just worships and reveres the original Night of the Living Dead. And so he wants to make something that is reverent. Whereas I think Gunn and Snyder are more interested in
00:48:59
Speaker
riffing on the original and trying to do their own thing within the framework of the original rather than feeling like they need to be so beholden to what the original is. And so I guess, I don't know, for me, that's the distinction. I did like this one, I think, a little better than the remake of Night. That may change. Really? I did. That may change a little. A little.
00:49:20
Speaker
That may change on subsequent rewatches. I think Brett is going to like not talk to me for a week again. This is this is close, but you're not liking the original Friday the 13th. I was going to say that's the other thing that made you not talk to me. That's real close. So that's all right, Brett. Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one and they all fucking stink. That's true. You're right. So but I don't know. I'm just again. And like I said last week, I am willing to be wrong.
00:49:50
Speaker
So, you know, put me in my place, gentlemen. Well, I mean, I thought we had pretty solid arguments put you in your place last week, but you fought your way out of that paper bag. We got to beat you at a debate to change your mind. It's not just like prove me wrong. It's like, no, you fucking get in there.
00:50:10
Speaker
and you spend an hour on a thesis to prove me wrong. I'm the guy at the table in the meme like blank is blank change my mind like that's kind of I guess where I'm at with these but but and again I don't have the same reverence for these that or for for the originals that you guys like I saw the original dawn of the dead
00:50:31
Speaker
Like an hour and a half ago I finished I finished watching that an hour and a half ago So like as of the time of this recording right now, so like I don't have that kind of just The reverence for the thing. Did I love it? Yeah, I loved it. I thought it was great Is this one as successful God no but
00:50:53
Speaker
And maybe the reason I didn't care for the Savini remake of Night of the Living Dead is because I've seen Night several, the original Night of the Living Dead several times. Maybe that has something to do with it. Well, okay, fair. But that's the only one I've seen several times. I've seen Day Once and Diary Once and Night I've seen like five times.
00:51:14
Speaker
so i don't know i don't know man i'm just i'm just i'm just over here trying to to make a guess as to why it it hits different for you than it does well look man yes i've learned to temper my expectations about your horror opinions because you don't have the emotional detachment to them that i or tucker do
00:51:31
Speaker
I don't really have that much emotional attachment to most art, but yeah. And that just makes me legitimately sad, honestly. Like, I don't know how you could not have emotional attachment to most art. That's weird.
00:51:46
Speaker
I like what I like, man. The history of what art is, dude. I also try not to be precious about things. I like what I like, but I respect someone who may not like it to the extent that I do or may not have it resonate to the same degree. Those aren't the same thing. Yeah. Those aren't anywhere the same thing. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.
00:52:12
Speaker
I respect your opinions about stuff, but I am so emotionally attached to art. My gosh, it's the core of my being. As passionate as you are about movies, you're emotionally attached to movies. Movies are art, right? Yeah. By the same token, I'll-
00:52:32
Speaker
I'll hear other opinions. I don't know. And again, I'm willing to, but I don't know. It's not everything that I am, I guess. There's more to me than just my love for movies. You guys know the meme with the kid and the headphones and he's just freaking out. I felt that three times just today.
00:53:04
Speaker
I'm just saying, man, you got to let art into your heart, Steven. Let art into your heart. You don't have to be... And maybe this is the problem with the internet age and social media nowadays. It's made you think that your opinion is your passion, that they're the same thing.
Emotional Attachment to Film and Music
00:53:25
Speaker
they're not like just just because your opinion might differ or you're okay with accepting other opinions doesn't mean that you're not passionate and you're not emotionally attached to the thing you like they're not the same yeah dude i cried listening to george benson today dude you guys it's like soft jazz
00:53:47
Speaker
Come on. Let art into your heart, Steven. I mean, I cry all the time. Like for the past like year and a half, two years, it has not taken much to make me cry at any... I watched all of the Muppet movies and I cried on every single Muppet movie up until Treasure Island. I don't think I would have cried at all of them, but there would be at least a couple of times in the first film and Muppet Princess Carol, where I would just be blubbering my dick off.
00:54:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah, the the part toward the end where like they're in the ghost town and all of the rest of the Muppets come up behind Kermit when he's doing the square with square off with Doc Hopper. I just because all his friends love him. And I just get shut up, Steven. I'm getting misty eyed. Shut up.
00:54:29
Speaker
And when he sings rainbow connection. And then at the end, when the, like the whole set breaks and the light comes in and the rainbow shines on all of them and they start singing altogether. And there's a whole bunch of them. Just fucking gets me every time. Yeah, dude. That's what, man. Didn't you do have emotional responses to heart Steven? Come on, man. Literally just said you have, you just described an emotional attachment to art, my guy. I'm willing to be proven wrong and I haven't been proven wrong. Put the weed down. You can have my weed when you cry from cold dead, zombified hands.
00:54:59
Speaker
That's all right. We're learning stuff about each other guys. That's what's beautiful about the format of podcasting We're just three dudes like just becoming better friends It's one and you all get to listen to us do it. That's That's a rainbow connection Just sitting here watching your boys grow every week Just become personally and together right just becoming a little bit closer every week to the people they were always destined to be
00:55:31
Speaker
Guys, we're almost an hour in. Should we do the plot? Let's do it. Let's do the plot. Yeah, let's do it. So for those of you joining us for this episode, for the first time, first of all, welcome. But second of all, this is the part of the show where we, one of us at the behest of the D6 of Destiny, will recount the plot of the film we're discussing. In this case, 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake.
00:55:53
Speaker
in 60 seconds or less. And to determine that, which of us will read it, Brett will assign sides to each of us from the D6 of Destiny and then roll that sucker. So let's see. I hate it the most, so I'll be one and two. I feel like Tucker's probably at the middle. Three and four, Steven, you're five and six. You seem to like it the most. Let's go.
00:56:20
Speaker
That is a four, ladies and gentlemen. That is a four. I'm always that little man, Tucker. Yeah. See, I've noticed something that like, because we shift the numbers around every time, I like never have to do it. I was going to say, I don't think I haven't noticed that, Mr. I'm the one that rolls the D6. Wait a minute. I take umbrage with your accusation, sir.
00:56:44
Speaker
I trust you. I was about, I was about to suggest that maybe we stop assigning them and we have the same two every time. That might be a better idea. It's more fair that way. So maybe I'll have to do it sometimes. I feel like that it would make sense that Steven would be one and two, Brett would be three and four and I would be five and six. All right. We'll Institute that starting next week. You still have to go because you want to know why though, because Steven steers the ship.
00:57:14
Speaker
Brett and I, we kind of riff on the steering of the ship that Steven does, but Brett was here before me, so he goes before me. It's perfect, right? Like that works, right? Yeah. Yeah. I accept it. I accept your logic. Yeah.
00:57:34
Speaker
And again, I wasn't really steering. I was just kind of riffing on everything. And Brett's the one who's like, hey, shouldn't we do the plot? And I'm like, OK. You notice I'm never the one that says let's do the plot. I just I just get. So that's the other thing I was going to say, like, I'm wondering, because this happens on some podcasts that have a running thing like this, is that it had it starts to happen later and later in each subsequent episode until eventually it just doesn't happen anymore.
00:58:01
Speaker
It just goes away. Well, you know, we haven't done the segment episodes in so we haven't done the segment that we didn't do from the beginning, but we started doing for a while and then we totally forgot to do it again. But sometimes we still do it, but shut the fuck up.
00:58:16
Speaker
Yeah, we haven't done that in a while. We haven't done that in several episodes. That's Bit's gimmick, though. Well, but I agree with you, Brett, that the longer we hold off, it feels like, you know, it might just get cut altogether. So I feel like that we should implement maybe plot in 60, like right off the bat, like first thing we do after we have our introductions, roll into the plot. Why are we having a band meeting?
00:58:41
Speaker
There was that one episode where we had Jim Roner on and he had to leave early. And so we didn't do it till after he left, which was like an hour in. That was a good time. It was little monsters. Little monsters. We were pretty much done with the entire thing. I'm like, Hey, let's do the plot. And then we continued on for like a half an hour after. Yeah. You and I kept, you and I kept talking after that. Yeah.
00:59:04
Speaker
I have 60 seconds on the clock. Tucker, the time begins whenever you do. And as always, I will give you the 30 and 10 second warnings.
00:59:16
Speaker
So Sarah Pauley's character she works at the hospital and she comes home and she talks to her friend that's a kid and then she goes to sleep and she wakes up and the friend that's a kid is a scary zombie and she does this weird like superhero jump and land and she bites her husband and her husband turns into a zombie and she runs and she gets in the car and she drives
00:59:37
Speaker
and she she crashes her car and she meets Ving Rhames and then they meet that one guy and Maki Pfeiffer and his lady and then they go to the mall and they meet the security guards and then zombie baby and then fucking they
00:59:52
Speaker
They armor up all the cars because their friend Andy, well not because their friend Andy, but because I forgot to mention him. And there's this dude Andy across the street and they talk on sign and they play games and it's really cool. Then they armor up the trucks and they go out and everything goes wrong and everybody dies. And even when they end up on the island, everybody dies and everybody dies and it's over and everybody dies. Because the man came around.
01:00:14
Speaker
Oh, right. Two seconds to spare. Well done. That was good. That's good. That's good. I feel like I really explained that plot, like the broad strokes and some of the intricacies. I really nailed it. Except for completely missing Andy. 100%. Well, he was like my favorite character in the movie. I came back to it. I came back to it. You did. You did. Much like Andy. I didn't mention the dog. Fuck. You didn't mention chips. That's true.
01:00:38
Speaker
But I tell you what's cool, and Tucker, you probably know about this, Steven, you probably don't. All the extras that came with this movie, Andy gets his own short story film. I have the DVD, dude. I was going to say. I think I read about those on the DVD, but yeah.
01:00:59
Speaker
And then that tells his story before and during the movie. And like up until he gets bitten. Because they did film a lot of that for the actual film. And I was actually reading something about Blair Witch the other day. Like that documentary that they released a couple weeks before Blair Witch came out on Sci-Fi channel.
01:01:22
Speaker
That's all shit that that was supposed to be in the movie because originally they were going to make it documentary style and then have the footage interspliced. Right. Those two things, the curse of the Blair Witch and the Blair Witch project that was supposed to be one thing. And I just found that fascinating because I can't believe after all this time, I'm just now knowing, learning about this. Right.
01:01:43
Speaker
Yeah. All the Rust and Parr stuff and all the footage and stuff from Curse of the Blair Witch. They shot when they shot the movie. They shot it for the movie. I think that's interesting. Anyway, Dawn of the Dead. Yeah. The DVD has it goes. You have the tapes from when they go to the island. You have the tapes like Andy's old tapes. Not Andy. What's the guy's name? He was the boat. Steve.
01:02:07
Speaker
Yes, he all of his DVD. There's so much on there. This was 2004 was kind of DVD was king. Special features were king. You were filming stuff behind the scenes literally for the like they were you probably had an entire crew, another entire crew just going around doing shit, interviewing people, filming behind the scenes.
01:02:30
Speaker
They would give a cast member like a little GoPro esque camera and just say here, just like film a diary and we'll put it on the DVD. Like shit like that just happened all the time. And there were also full versions of the newscasts you see in the movie. Yes. It's the full version. It was really cool. A lot of the extra stuff for this movie is really cool. Cause like I said, I'm a whore for like outbreak starting in zombie movies. I don't know why.
01:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, it says the loss of society collapse, I guess. Well, and I think I think that's a huge thing. Just for zombie movies in general, I think the people that make zombie movies tend to be really obsessed with that moment. Because I think they're obsessed with the idea of someone's world being turned upside down. And then you catch up with them later and see how much they've changed in the interim or how much they've changed from the outbreak to where they are at the end of the film.
01:03:21
Speaker
It helps complete a narrative arc, I think a lot better, which may be why you're a sucker for it and why filmmakers keep going back to it. Like we said, that's one thing that makes this trilogy different from Romero's original is that every single one has a different start of the outbreak.
01:03:38
Speaker
And what a start. It's just a wow. This movie just like rips your face off and shits in your eyes like it really does soon as it comes on. Like you get a little bit of time to breathe out the hospital. Still, you're like, oh, something's going on. I know this is a zombie movie in there at a hospital. They fake you out a lot in that hospital, too. They do. They really do. And then once she wakes up in the morning,
01:04:02
Speaker
It's like Evil Dead, like like the the original Evil Dead, once it starts, it does not fucking stop. Like it's throwing you through wall after wall after wall. Fucking moral combat versus DC style. Just bam, bam, bam.
01:04:19
Speaker
And I mean, the little girls got her like lips bitten off, which means that probably one of her parents like got infected and like bit her little her little lips off. Oh, that's one of my favorite fucking things is seeing the different ways that through like background storytelling, they sort of tell you how they got bit or you can sort of interpolate how they got bit. I love that shit.
01:04:44
Speaker
I feel like it's kind of an upgrade, honestly, to what Romero does in most of his movies where they just sometimes have funny outfits on. Like, sometimes you'll get a clown, you know? In Day, there's a clown in Day that pops up all day. You've got the Hare Krishna zombie in Dawn. Like, you always got somebody that's like, that's not something you see every day, but that tracks. Right. It would make sense to be a Hare Krishna in a mall.
01:05:11
Speaker
Like like Burt Reynolds. Yeah. Yeah. This is one of the first movies way before Zombieland touched on like celebrity zombies like celebrities would be turned into zombies, too. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. In this in this case, I think it's probably more likely that they're all lookalikes because, you know, are there celebrities in Milwaukee, Wisconsin? Probably not.
01:05:32
Speaker
Maybe, no, like, I don't know. Sorry, I had something to say and it just like flew away from me. Were you going to talk about the DVD extras because we kind of cut you off there. That's true. I was going to talk about Prince, but
01:05:52
Speaker
That feels like just way too much of a tangent. Um, so the DVD has the loss tape, which is over 15 minutes of terrifying footage, terrifying footage revealed chilling images from a recovered home movie document. And these last horrific days, I see battle zombie hordes outside his gun shop and fights to maintain his safety. So that's cool. Um, plus the thing we were talking about, uh, with the full news reports.
01:06:22
Speaker
which is cool, which is something I really wish they would have done, that they would have done on the diary of the dead DVD, because there's so much, especially with those news reports at the beginning, that I'd really like to see all of that fleshed out, like on a DVD extra. Actually, there's a lot of stuff in that movie that I'd love to see fleshed out. And the DVD is just so bare bones, but maybe that was just budget, budget constraints, because I mean,
01:06:51
Speaker
It's not like they had a whole lot of money to film diary with. So yeah, I'm, I'm in real time perusing my DVD collection here. Um, so the diary of the dead DVD has a commentary with Romero, a documentary on the film. Yeah. Outtakes like, yeah, none of it is well, the character confessionals and yeah, I do remember that. So that's kind of cool. They did it kind of like reality TV style.
01:07:20
Speaker
But other than that you would think there would be so much more in this movie Yeah, especially with the news reports and stuff Well, I guess since Steven's back we have to start talking about dawn of the dead again That's one of the one of the three that I'd seen prior to this this whole thing
01:07:42
Speaker
yeah yeah i think it's fine that's what i think of diary the days i think it's back in the day when i used to really love diary i used to say it was my favorite zombie film but i've since seen better so yeah and it's not bad it's not bad at all it's far from a bad film and i mean i don't think it i would say i don't think that it stacks up
01:08:06
Speaker
I think the only one that it's better than is survival, but it's still I really like I own it, man. I went to fucking Lafayette Square to get this DVD. Come on. Damn, you must really love it. Dangerous. That is it. Well, I'm sorry. In 2008, that was dangerous. You put your hands to get that. It's probably worse now, honestly.
01:08:33
Speaker
They don't call it Lafayette Scare Mall for nothing. Jeez Louise, I would not know. There's a lot of bad neighborhoods in Indianapolis that I feel very comfortable in. That is not one of them. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. It is. But yeah, so so yeah, Dawn of the Dead, what
01:08:56
Speaker
I don't know, like, again, this this movie is doing something very, very different from the original. And to the extent that it doesn't really feel fair to call it, excuse me, doesn't really feel fair to call it a remake more so much as like a reimagining or a riffing on on what it's an homage, homage, an homage with a lot of Easter eggs.
01:09:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you know, yeah. Like when you, you know, adaptation in name only, I would say this is a remake in name only. Mm hmm. Yeah, I really know if you will, completely different than last week, where, you know, we had some big changes, but essentially it's the same movie. This is the only thing that's the same about this movie is that there's a mall involved. And they reference the original a whole bunch, but not in a way that like affects the story.
01:09:48
Speaker
Right. It's all it's mostly like lines and kind of throw away moments. Cameos. Cameos character names like the fact that Kenneth is named Kenneth as an homage to Ken Forey, who appears as a character saying his famous line about, you know, the No More Room in Hell, so the Dead Walk the Earth.
01:10:11
Speaker
you know you've got those those moments which are very tongue-in-cheek and very fun but yeah it's it's it's a very different move this could have been called something else and I think it still would have worked as a zombie film it did not have to be
01:10:28
Speaker
Dawn of the dead. It could have been just. Mall of the dead and we probably would have been OK. That's always really been my biggest issue with this movie, and it's a non issue because who fucking cares like it's all it's it's just being pedantic like whatever. But still, I mean, it is worth discussing for sure. We're nerds and we reserve the right to be pedantic. I do just think it's very silly that this is called Dawn of the Dead. Real quick, Stephen, quick
01:10:57
Speaker
the church
01:11:14
Speaker
Do you think they would go that route? It's all of your fault because you're all sinners? I mean, that does tend to be the route the American church tends to take these days. And if you look at it in a post 9-11 lens, I think that becomes even more stark. Because we're talking about a national disaster, like a disaster on a national scale similar to what 9-11 actually was.
01:11:38
Speaker
Immediately in the aftermath of that, you have Jerry fucking Falwell going on some news channel and saying that the reason that 9-11 happened is because God was punishing us for allowing homosexuality to persist unabated in our culture. What a piece of shit. That is a thing that fucking happened and we all let it happen.
01:12:04
Speaker
And I say we all in that, you know, the church and like so many people did not fucking hold him accountable. And I regrettably so many fucking agreed with him in that moment.
01:12:15
Speaker
And even at the time when I was significantly more conservative and bass-akwards than I am now, I remember thinking, like, dude, read the room. Even me at that point was like, dude, chill. But that's kind of always been the role of the televangelist because it's not actually about
01:12:37
Speaker
the faith. It's not actually about propelling it forward. It's about reaping the benefits. Trump would do this very successfully the years later. It's about lionizing a certain subset of the community that feels very disenfranchised and getting them worked into a tizzy about something that ultimately
01:12:58
Speaker
doesn't really affect them, but you're going to make them think that it does in order to get them on your side. And that's it's a dog whistle is really all it becomes. And if they're on your side, they will give you many please. Correct. Which is I mean, really, it's it's it's about prosperity at the end of the day.
01:13:15
Speaker
um it's all about greed it is it is essential tenant to me that even in an apocalyptic situation where i don't know maybe it's just hubris that they think they're going to survive it or like maybe at that point when that broadcast is happening it's not full enough into the end times yet
01:13:36
Speaker
that maybe he thinks this is just, you know, the same. I mean, it can't be that far after the outbreak because we see the outbreak start. So sure. And not much time. I don't feel like more than a couple of weeks really go by. And I remember just based on the dialogue, it's within like maybe a month. So yeah, I was going to say I was surprised by the dialogue this time because I never noticed before. Sometimes they do mention like the passage of time and it's it's not very much time like they'll be like, oh, you remember what happened yesterday? It's like the last scene.
01:14:06
Speaker
And you're like, holy shit, really? We're moving through time that quick? Holy crap. Right. So it's fascinating to me that the televangelist would double down even when the world is ending. He's like, you're not going to get any donations from your followers. They're all dead. So what's the point?
01:14:25
Speaker
Even in the face of being proven wrong, you have to twist it your own way. That's but that is that's that's not the mark of a religion. That's the mark of a cult. And we see that with the fucking magazine difference right now.
01:14:38
Speaker
Like Trump is put on, there is. If you really want to get technical, there is, but that's another discussion. No, I know. I know. That's a whole other podcast on our Patreon, patreon.com slash disenfranchise. Right. I don't do the plugs that often. I know. At least I tried. Okay. At least I tried. Right. I appreciate that. I applaud you for trying. Yes. That was wonderful.
01:15:01
Speaker
way to step up you mean you fucked it up but like you got your boys here to like we got your back yes i'm gonna give you such a big hug the next time i see you it's just not even funny i'm gonna take a picture of that hug you please do i want you to and i want to put it on all of my social media accounts um
01:15:16
Speaker
But the I don't even know what to say. But I mean, you see it with the mega asshats now like Trump is on trial for literally defrauding the entire fucking country and this specific group of people. But they're so far into this shit that to like turn around now is to lose so much face and credibility. And so they have no choice but to double down now because, well, it had to be for something, right?
01:15:46
Speaker
Well, and why would they, why would they do anything but double down? This is the guy that validates their shitty opinions. Like because any sane person.
01:16:01
Speaker
Is and that's why like before the whole trump thing. Why are we talking about this before the whole we're veering too far like Steer Steer back to bring it back to bring it back to like the wooden evangelical double down I think absolutely they would double down. This is all they know
01:16:19
Speaker
This is willfully. This is all they know. This is literally as far as they've allowed their understanding to progress. So there's also fits their beliefs and agendas to like, they don't have to think about anything or consider anybody else's opinion or maybe say, you know, I think I might be wrong. This I don't what's going on here. No, it's very simple. You just get a small walk to say like, well, yeah, hell's full because you're all sinners. So now the dead walk the earth because there's no more room there because you're all fucking sinners.
01:16:48
Speaker
And that that feels very much like a Westboro Baptist kind of opinion is because because they believe they're all going to hell too.
Religious Themes in Zombie Films
01:16:58
Speaker
There's no hope in Westboro Baptist. Their their theology is so fucked. There is no hope even for them. Like it's it's it's the darkest. Some of them have gotten out.
01:17:09
Speaker
like the the daughter of the main guy she got out like she was pals with Kevin Smith for a while they did like a whole podcast thing it's up there with like Scientology just in terms of like how embedded that shit is but yeah yeah yeah yeah
01:17:25
Speaker
You know, we will be bringing this back up next week because John in the original Day of the Dead has some like-minded comments to put forward for speculation. Does Romero ever deal specifically with religion in one of his zombie films? Well, spoilers for next week, but when Sarah comes out to the RV,
01:17:52
Speaker
with with John and what's his nuts, McDermott. They're talking, you know, and John's like, like, why the fuck are we even down here? We got all this shit down here that nobody's ever going to find like humanities done. And he's all like, if you want if you want an explanation for this, I'll give you one that's as good as any. I'm paraphrasing here. He says, maybe we're we've been cursed by the creator.
01:18:20
Speaker
Like he's sick of us trying to figure his shit out.
01:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, dude. And like he also says something about like it's kind of a the flood sort of Noah flood thing where he's like, you know, we're getting too big for our britches, you know, and God's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, backup backup guys.
Saturation and Creativity in Zombie Movies
01:18:42
Speaker
And that's spoilers for next week. Well, I guess we'll circle back to this topic again next week, then. Yeah, that's as far as I know in
01:18:52
Speaker
the Romero films, that's the only time that he has directly had a main character exert a religious opinion about it. Because you've got Ken Forey in the original Dawn of the Dead explaining what his grandfather used to say. He's not saying, hey, I'm Macumba, voodoo, this is me, it's coming from me. He's like, have you heard of this? My granddad did this, and this is what he said. Yeah, he was a high priest back then. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of different.
01:19:20
Speaker
You know, yeah, I agree. And I think I don't know. I think it would be interesting to do a zombie movie from that kind of religious perspective. It probably exists. I'm sure that if it does after this movie hit, there were about 100 zombie movies coming out a month for about 10 years. Yeah.
01:19:40
Speaker
this this movie kind of catalyzes the zombie trend to the extent like I think 28 Days Later and Resident Evil like paved the way but this movie really kicks it off you get kind of the trickle effect for for those two movies in 2002 but then 2004 hits and it's just that's it and there's a lot of really good stuff that came out of that
01:20:05
Speaker
But you guys, I'm still finding stuff from that era of movies that's good because back then it was just too much to slog through because 90% of it was fucking shit. Like really, really bad. And to find the good stuff you had to go through so much shit.
01:20:24
Speaker
which is now that we're so many years removed from that era of zombie filmmaking, it's easier for me to find something because people have examined it and re-examined it and the hidden gems have come to light, et cetera, et cetera. I'm in a position now to where I don't have to surf along the wave of shit just to get to like a diamond. And it's beautiful.
01:20:50
Speaker
It's also been, no pun intended, done to death. They're running out of zombie ideas. There is really a finite amount of stories to tell there. I think, I don't know, on some degree I agree with you, but on the other, I think zombies are the perfect horror villain, the perfect horror antagonist, because they can literally be a substitute for anything you're afraid of.
01:21:18
Speaker
And they can be in any setting. It's just like Final Destination. Right. Where like I don't understand why there has not been a Final Destination movie released every year since the first one, because it's so simple. You make the deaths creative. You you have a story that at least works and you get some good looking early to mid 20s actors to say some fun dialogue and watch them all die. It's it's there's there's a formula to all of this.
Music Usage in Films: Snyder vs. Gunn
01:21:50
Speaker
Yeah, but four bombed real fucking hard and five because I know and that's I understand it's it's a lob a final destination movie You get a good crew on it. It's just so I could write one right now. Probably give me a couple weeks Saw did it saw picked up that ball ran with it. They really did. Yeah Yeah, that's that's the root Goldberg deaths Kind of transferred from final destination over to saw I prefer final destination
01:22:19
Speaker
Well, you haven't watched the soft films yet, which I have. I've got it. I know, man. I'm going to do it. Look, the people are clamoring for a a disin five tries on the soft franchise. So me too. Look, the end of the season was today. I just need I just need a week to just relax and maybe catch up on some sleep. And then sleep when you're dead, Tucker, you don't need to worry about that now.
01:22:48
Speaker
Oh, I'll be. What's the Weird Al song? I'll be something when I'm dead. I'll be. Mellow, I'll be mellow when I'm dead. You guys don't know that one? No, no, no. It's a song all about what you were just saying. Yeah, must be one of his originals. I'm not as familiar with his original. Yes, it is a style parody and it's I think it's on his first record. Self titled one. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah.
01:23:17
Speaker
And I'm more of a fan of the style parodies and the original songs than the actual outright parodies as the older I've gotten. I guess I really appreciate the the musicianship. His band is amazing. Oh, yeah. And speaking of musicianship, what do we think is not in this movie? They're fine. Like, I don't know, like.
01:23:44
Speaker
I mean, yeah, like the Johnny Cash song at the end, the Richard Cheese needle drop is always great. Richard Cheese needle drop might be one of my favorite needle drops in film history. God, that was so well timed.
01:23:57
Speaker
But yeah, it's a good montage. It really is. Because I mean, that's a thing that Snyder gets a lot of shit for is just the constant need. And it was something that even the DC film started at, like, particularly the original Suicide Squad. You're just like, fuck, really? Again, another one. But those were all very on the nose.
01:24:17
Speaker
But I think it's something that Snyder catches a lot of shit for is the constant needle drops. It doesn't stand out in this for me either way. I'm kind of indifferent to it like. Well, like, well, like what? Oh, it didn't do you. Well, like Brett was saying, like it there's a few really good needle drops, but the rest are.
01:24:39
Speaker
forgettable, like, they're not bad. I'm not like, what? Why the fuck are they playing this song? I hate this. We're just like, OK, this fits, I guess, whatever. It's not like we're zooming into a scene set in New Orleans playing House of the Rising Sun or, you know, all the walk into New Orleans. Right. All the fucking obvious as fuck ones in the in the movie with Fortune and Sun playing, you know, same thing or my least favorite not ever.
01:25:06
Speaker
You do not make a Vietnam movie without credence. I don't like it as any more than you do, but it is law. No, I agree. I don't like it at all. It fucking sucks. But we talked about that on our fucking Forrest Gump episode. I would be like I'm mad when it's there, but I would be even more mad if it wasn't there.
01:25:28
Speaker
True. No, I was gonna say is like so, you know James Gunn sees Zack Snyder's bullshit a lot of the needle drops goes holds my beer and makes the Guardians of the Galaxy movies What makes those work is that those all work within the context of the film that he's putting together
01:25:46
Speaker
Right. And the third one's a bit too much on the nose. But yeah, I think Watchmen is kind of where Snyder goes off the deep end with his needle drops a little bit like there's that really great opening sequence to the times they are a change in that I think is still one of the great opening sequences of a movie like that opening sequence is the best part of Watchmen. But the rest of those needle drops do not. And a lot of them he's pulling right out of the comic and they still don't work that well.
01:26:14
Speaker
Well, for me with Watchmen, why are we talking about this? With Watchmen, like, OK, yeah. So with Watchmen, what I appreciate about the needle drops in Watchmen, unlike Guardians of the Galaxy 3, is they're not all obvious and they're not all songs that everybody knows. You might find a new favorite song in Watchmen.
01:26:38
Speaker
There's going to be a few songs in there that you don't know. And I really seeing Zack Snyder's other films, I respect the restraint in Watchmen because he is usually more Guardians of the Galaxy 3 where it's like, oh, look, it's this thing. I'm going to take the song that is most literally connected to it and play it behind it. And then you guys will make the connection. Everybody will be happy, you know.
01:26:58
Speaker
No, and Watchman, he kind of he throws some deep cuts in there and it's really impressive based on in context with his other work. And again, a lot of those are pulled crib directly from the comic, too. So yeah, which I mean, either way, it doesn't matter. Like at least he could have done different songs once that everybody knew, but he's stuck with it, which I really would wish he could have just stuck with the original ending.
01:27:22
Speaker
Did you guys watch the Watchmen TV show? That was really good. It was really good. I agree. It was really, really good. Brett, did you see that? I never got around to it, no. Motherfucker, it's on HBO Max. Yeah. Watch it, right? Dude, you are going to love it. It's good. It'll make you wish they did another season of it.
01:27:43
Speaker
Yes. It was kind of one of those things like we want to do another season and Damon, one of the loss, like I got nothing, man. I don't know what you want from me. Like I did what I wanted to do. And they're like, but, but you could do more. And he's like, I'm good. Sometimes you got to know when to bail. You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.
01:28:01
Speaker
Yeah, walk away, run, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. Based on Lost, he didn't really seem to know when to quit, right? Well, he was a young man then. I was going to say he's learned. He's learned. All right. Well, and he doesn't have J. Abrams there to like, fuck him up either. Or Carlton Cuse for that matter. So, you know. Or Terry O'Quinn? I don't know anything about Lost. Sorry, Terry O'Quinn's in, I'm sure. Terry O'Quinn wasn't one of the show runners, but he's in the show. Yeah. I'll bet he runs at some point in the show. So same thing.
01:28:33
Speaker
It's not. It's not. It's not. Oh, no, it's not. That one. I'll give you that one. Literally. Thank you, Brett. I appreciate. I appreciate you coming to my aid there, but no, I can't. I can't defend that one. I mean, I could have, but it's fine. Go to bat for me, Brett. It's like you backed up. Ace Attorney, objection.
01:28:55
Speaker
Well, but yeah, no, I know, but that Richard Cheese needle drop is just perfect. It's good. And then they bring it full circle. And that's the only time that I will ever sit through and partially enjoy down with the sickness by disturbed is in the end credits of this movie, just because they Richard cheesed it first.
Controversial Subplots in 'Dawn of the Dead'
01:29:18
Speaker
Right. And then you get to hear how fucking stupid and ridiculous the original song is.
01:29:24
Speaker
And it's, ah, chef's kiss. I love it. I will say this, short, tangent, undisturbed. All of those guys are amazing musicians. They're all experts at their craft. I just think their music lacks any kind of soul or heart or humanity. It's just robotic and fucking. Yeah.
01:29:50
Speaker
No, dude, like they don't even they made the Limp Bizkit mistake on that. They didn't go to the best part of the song. Like they cut the best part of the song out like when it. Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Anyway, you guys were getting so far in the weeds.
01:30:08
Speaker
Well, then then direct. I blame myself. We need to be Tucker. We were talking about needle drops in this movie, and then I don't know that I had much.
01:30:22
Speaker
And we were done with the needle. Yeah, I think we were. We were. You know, so so where do we go next, Tucker? You tell me. I don't know. The cast is pretty fantastic in this movie. I got a really cool people in this cast. You have. I mean, welcome back to the show. Ty Burrell, who we last saw in the Incredible Hulk episode, where he appears as Leonard Sampson playing a very unfilled Dunphy Lenny or
01:30:49
Speaker
Like the I it's it's always fun to see Ty Burrell pop up and stuff before he was on modern family family. Yeah, that that performance is pretty much tainted. Everything else he's done because I'm just like, Phil, why? Why are you being like this, Phil? No, Phil, this isn't you. Think about your wife and kids. You love them so much.
01:31:11
Speaker
He is perfect in this role, though, like he is just the right amount of like swarminess, like icky. I hate the fact that just about every Steve or Steven in film is just an asshole. Like I kind of hate that as someone named Steven about Steve Rogers, man, Captain Mirka. OK, he's the exception, but just about the rest of them, like it's better than every breath in real life being terrible.
01:31:39
Speaker
Oh, that's right. I think you are the only bread. I know that doesn't suck. Right. It's true. But I mean, you get even the sneak. You should give your dad sucks. What about Steven Universe? I don't know. Steven. He spells it with a V, though. So I don't know if that counts. Oh, OK. Fuck it. Damn it. You don't get Steven Universe. That sucks. That's a good poll. Like that's.
01:32:01
Speaker
I haven't seen that show. I need to see that. That's too bad. You should see that show. It's amazing. It's what I've been told. I've been told. I cried during most episodes of that show. 90% your boy's blubber. Right on. Yeah. But yeah, no, Ty Burrell is really good. Um, I loved, I was not expecting the, the video footage at the, in the end credits with him.
01:32:26
Speaker
And so we see a woman take a bikini top off and like, what the fuck is this all of a sudden? And then it's on his boat and it's him. And I'm like, wait, he died. Wait, what happened? These are people who died, died. I love the moment.
01:32:42
Speaker
I love the moment where he turns to Sarah Polly and says, if that ever happens to me, I want you to shoot me right in the face. And she's like, oh, it's going to happen. And then when the time comes, she shoots him right in the face and edit you cheer. You love it because he's such a fucking asshole.
01:33:03
Speaker
Yeah, who else we got there? Maki Pfeiffer in the worst part of this movie, the zombie baby and pregnancy subplot. That one, we could just let those characters out and let that whole thing out and we would have chugged right along.
01:33:19
Speaker
I like Mackay Pfeiffer. I do, too. I don't think his his his performance is good. I don't think the role is particularly interesting. But I think it's just stupid and I hate it. Honestly, like it insults my intelligent that whole subplot insults my fucking intelligence. And then really his name drop in that lyric of eight mile. That's what I think about all the time. You say the guy five or the same no damn movie is eight. No movie is no for Mackay Pfeiffer.
01:33:50
Speaker
He's also in the John Singleton Shaft movie that we'll cover on this podcast one day. Oh, I can't wait to watch that. But yeah, no, look, I fight for a good, good actor, great performer. Yeah, I don't I don't know. I don't like the character. I don't like the subplot. I don't like the zombie baby.
01:34:11
Speaker
Mean, who the fuck does what the hell? Come on. And again, that feels like because there is a pregnant character in the original film. So it feels like that's the way that we can make that connection that we can riff on that. But then do something, you know, really edgy and cool with it. That kind of like fucks you up when you watch it. And it's ultimately it's unsuccessful.
01:34:36
Speaker
Uh, and also the whole pregnancy subplot in Dawn of the Dead, like you don't, first of all, you don't riff on that and you don't riff on it like that. Like that was a, a real, real serious fucking thing. Like all your decisions made Steven, like that was a whole, like they're big argument. Oh my God. Like you don't turn that into look zombie baby, like fuck off.
01:34:59
Speaker
Fucking right off with that. It feels like it's disrespectful. Disrespectingly original. Yeah.
01:35:07
Speaker
It feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of what that thought was and what it was for. And again, that's Romero's like comment on that, you know, new new wave feminism. And the fact that Fran never screams in that entire fucking movie was an intentional choice on the part of that actress. Romero asked her one time to scream and she's like, no, this character is too strong. She's not going to do it. He never asked her again.
01:35:33
Speaker
He was like, yep, I get it. And so that character never fucking screams in the entire movie. And you know what? I love that. I think that makes her a very good character. Damn it, Steven, you just took a half a star off of my rating by making me realize the connection of those two subplots. Sorry. Good. I wish you'd never told me. No, it's always better to know. It's always
Character Development in Zombie Films
01:36:00
Speaker
better to know. There's knowledge you should consume it. I know.
01:36:04
Speaker
I'm Michael Kelly. I love Michael Kelly. Oh, yeah. Or as I call him, Jelko Avonik's American cousin, even though they're not related, they look similar enough that I always make the connection. I always think Michael Kelly is Jelko Avonik and vice versa. I don't know why I just do. But in a role like I've never seen Michael Kelly play before, basically playing a proto mega asshole.
01:36:31
Speaker
And you know what? He does a really good job. Yeah. And I like I like his arc going from I would I would kill all of you to survive to sacrificing himself so the group can survive. I do love that. Getting bitten and turning to that propane after he's blown up like three propane tanks already in the movie, turning around and go like fucking figures and just shooting the propane tank right in front of his face. I really like.
01:36:58
Speaker
his character arc in this. I think it's probably my favorite through line. It's the best one because he is such a piece of shit at the beginning. But then like he kind of he finds a community, you know, like he's never had that kind of relationship with a group of people before.
01:37:15
Speaker
And wow, yeah, it's like there's some really good writing in this movie. There's some other stuff like the zombie baby, but there's some really good shit in this movie because he starts with this like authoritarian, hard ass asshole, basically. And selfish piece of shit learns to learn what it means to be a part of an intentional community, which is
01:37:39
Speaker
really cool to see and ultimately makes the ultimate sacrifice for that chosen family, which is, again, I think the really poignant send off that we get. Yes, he does it in the most sarcastic way possible, like a fucking figures or whatever he says before he fires that last guy, you son of a bitch. But we know it's like, but we know he's doing it ultimately for noble reasons so that the rest of the group can live. And that's our friendship. Yeah. Yeah. Friendship is magic.
01:38:06
Speaker
It's like those ponies told us all that, all those years ago, friendships, magic, friendship is rare, et cetera, et cetera. And so on for about two and a half minutes. Uh, and then of course, Ving Rhames, we, we Stan.
01:38:23
Speaker
Absolutely. We love Ving Rhames. You say that this week, next week, you might be saying something different. I know. I mean, Ving Rhames is like my favorite recurring character in the Mission Impossible movies. He is wonderful. Like as an actor and everything. Oh, I love him. Yeah, I just want to give him a big hug. He'd be like, Steven, get off of me. No, he'd help me back. I think he has the meat. There it is.
01:38:52
Speaker
Oh, what about your boy, Matt Fruer, though? Max Headroom himself. I do love Matt Fruer, man. Like, and he's I expected him to be skeevier because he plays a really good skeev. Also appears in the next night. But yeah, he's a wholesome. He's got two modes. He plays like a really good skeez or an asshole. But then he also can like do these really poignant heartfelt moments and that he's he's playing a good dad in this movie.
01:39:21
Speaker
And he's he's he's a good dad. Like you expect the other shoe to drop at any moment. And it never does. Like he's just a really wholesome, good dad. And I love that. And even when I also love like even when they're like, you know, we got to kill you, he's like, well, yeah, that tracks like that makes sense. I get that. So let's go ahead and do this. And he's just he just asked that they consider his daughter's feelings and but resigns himself to. Yeah, I mean, but they wait. They wait until he turns. And then the moment he turns, he's gone.
01:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, love that Sarah Polly Academy Award winner Sarah Polly. Oh, she's doing you know, why you haven't seen her recently.
01:40:01
Speaker
is because she's doing a lot of shit behind the camera, man. She's not so much in front of the camera stuff anymore. A director and a writer. Celebrated director, yeah. Won her Oscar for writing the film Women Talking this past year, earlier this year, actually. So she began her career as an actress and then eventually pivoted into directing and writing. No, she hasn't been in anything since 2010. You know what? Good for her. Yeah.
01:40:32
Speaker
And since then, she's been like directing and like I said, directing and writing. And I love that for her. I really do like I kind of want to go watch some some Sarah Polly movies. I've heard the stories we tell is really good, actually. I've been meaning to kind of go through her writing and directorial filmography as well, because I always liked her as an actress in like the late 90s and early 2000s. All those independent films that she did, I always thought she really stood out.
01:41:02
Speaker
Well, and I mean that because she got she a lot of her acting was in independent films. And so she's like running around in the opening scene of this movie and says to Snyder, I think I've run more in this in this scene than I have, you know, in my entire career up to this point. And so I was like, you should you should probably get used to that. So, yeah.
01:41:23
Speaker
Uh, you know, so maybe it's no wonder that she kind of like eschewed like larger big budget stuff Uh following this and did, you know, a lot of smaller Went back to doing a lot of smaller films with, you know, a couple of exceptions here and there but Yarp that's I mean the whole cast is great though There really are there's not there's not really a false note here. Um, I I love outside of
01:41:49
Speaker
I'm sorry, I was just outside of Mackay Pfeiffer's girlfriend just because she doesn't have anything to do.
01:41:57
Speaker
Her entire her entire reason for existing is pregnant. The basis of her existence is just annoying in the first place in this situation and the way that she's presented. I'm not saying pregnant women into the movie, but just just the way that she's presented in this movie to where she seems very helpless and and depends on Maki Pfeiffer for everything.
01:42:19
Speaker
I she's just she's a nothing character. And I feel bad because I'm sure this actress is great, but she just has nothing to do in this movie. No, nothing at all. And again, that's that. I think that's a that's a script problem. I mean, we can flesh out a couple of other characters, you know, a couple of our other female characters, but not this one for some reason. Yeah.
01:42:45
Speaker
She's the pregnant one, man. That's all you need to know. That's it. That's literally her entire her entire character is pregnant.
01:42:52
Speaker
Uh, a really well realized moment is when, uh, I think it's Nikki runs into the building to save the dog. Uh, that just, that just rang true. Like a hundred percent someone would do that. I love that she survived and you don't think that she did. And even homeboys, like, why are we going after a dead person? Like she's totally dead. And then there she is. You're like, holy shit, she survived. Like, I don't even really care about this character, but the situation, like, wow, you had me going there. I was pretty sure they're going there for nothing.
01:43:21
Speaker
Good job, script. You had me going. Yeah. It's like save the cat to the nth degree. It's the platonic ideal of a save the cat moment where you can save the cat and make it a hero moment all at the same time. She saves the dog and it becomes a hero moment for her. It's great.
01:43:38
Speaker
And they build up to it too, which makes it a big hero moment. Like there's an entire like two minute scene smack dab in the middle of the movie for no reason where she can't find the dog and she freaks out and she finds the dog and everything's fine. It has nothing to do with anything else except to build up that moment where she gets in the van and just drives across the street for a fucking dog.
01:44:01
Speaker
It's a great moment. It really is. It makes it feel real. At first, you're like, why the fuck do I care about this? And then you see that and you're like, okay, not wasted time. Got it. Again, for its flaws, this is a pretty good script. It's not super tight, but it's pretty good. It's sloppy, but it's fucking good. It's like Keith Moon strumming is the script to this movie.
01:44:23
Speaker
It's sloppy, but damn, it's like Jimmy Page's guitar playing like that's amazing. But also, I think he like hit the wrong note a few times, and I think he might be behind beat a bit like right. I don't think he's really on tempo. How drunk is this guy? Right. There you go. All the drunk is the answer to that in the 70s. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Keith Moon, 100 percent. But I mean, he was the basis for the Muppet animal. So I mean, yeah, anything.
01:44:52
Speaker
Again, I generally like the script of this movie. I think this is, again, some of the best directing Snyder has ever done. I think this is the one that I think most people give him. Given his filmography, they're like, oh, well, that's the good one, quote unquote, the good one. I do. I put this on par with Man of Steel. These two hit the same bar for me.
01:45:20
Speaker
I, uh, uh, as far as Zack Snyder goes, I will echo what you said at the beginning of this podcast that, that the fans certainly leave something to be desired. Correct. But I think that Zack Snyder is a very talented filmmaker, especially visually. Mm-hmm.
01:45:40
Speaker
He's kind of like Michael Bay in that way. Like you really need a good writer to like another director who gets shit on quite a bit. But yeah, who is an amazing like he's so it's the same way with Zack Snyder. He's so fucking talented. And you see it even in his shitty movies. Mm hmm. They're beautiful. The man knows how to tell a story visually. And that's all directing really is is visual storytelling.
01:46:07
Speaker
So yeah, he's he's able to do his job very well. I just think that his fans have kind of. Really kind of ruined things for him, and that's kind of a bummer for him, honestly.
01:46:21
Speaker
Yeah, not to mention the whole thing with his daughter and everything and then Justice League and then not Justice League. It's been a rocky road for that dude. I'm actually glad to see that he's having a lot of success working with Netflix. Like that makes me happy that he's found like a spot to where he can do the things that he wants to do without too many people telling him what he can and can't do. And I think that's going to be proved to be a good thing for him and for how good his art is in the future.
01:46:47
Speaker
For all its flaws, I think that's something that Netflix does inordinately well is just allowing filmmakers to make the movies they want to make with very little interference.
Filmmaker Freedom on Streaming Platforms
01:46:58
Speaker
That's how we get Martin Scorsese's The Irishman. That's how we get Army of the Dead. There are these filmmakers who come to Netflix to make the movies that they want. That's how we get
01:47:07
Speaker
Michael Bay is six underground. Like we get these movies because Netflix is like, well, we'll let you make something. And they give them the budgets that they require and let them make those movies. And the sad thing is, they only give them the barest perfunctory theatrical run. But, you know, that's why we get fucking Glass Onion by our boy, Ryan Johnson, like Netflix ponied up the cash for it.
01:47:34
Speaker
It's both fortunate and unfortunate because with filmmakers like Ryan Johnson and Martin Scorsese and to some extent Zack Snyder, those films do have staying power, but that's not really Netflix's business model. Netflix's business model is as many flashes in the pan as we can have consistently. We don't need people to be watching this for more than one weekend because we got something else coming out next weekend.
01:48:01
Speaker
Exactly. And I'm grateful for like the Criterion Collection and others that are willing to put some of those movies on to physical media because Netflix is completely uninterested in that.
01:48:13
Speaker
which is a big fucking problem. And I mean, I know you all of us are physical media enthusiasts. So I think I feel like they have to they would be silly not to think that if they do a movie with Martin Scorsese, it's not going to get a physical release. I feel like some of these are just a given. They don't care if it happens or not, but they have to know that that's it's like with the Wes Anderson shit. They just made a deal with Wes Anderson for the Roald Dahl thing that sucks.
01:48:39
Speaker
Um, but you best believe that's going to come out on physical media because that's, that's a, it's a whole thing. I don't know. I think if people watch that by physical media, I think if criterion hadn't stepped in for Irishman, I don't know that it would have gotten a physical media release.
Physical Media vs. Streaming Debate
01:48:55
Speaker
I don't. Glass onion still hasn't glass onion still hasn't. I thought, I thought they'd announced that. Did they not? Oh, you're faster than me getting to the keyboard.
01:49:08
Speaker
I was about to look it up myself. I was almost sure that there is a physical release. I'm really surprised if there is. I'm sorry. No, I stand corrected. There is Blu-ray 4K Blu-ray. I don't. Let me let me let me see about the 4K, because honestly, I would much rather have it on 4K. Oh, yeah. If there's if the option exists. Yeah. Way into it. I do own knives out on 4K. It looks like it's just Blu-ray. Looks like just Blu-ray.
01:49:38
Speaker
Yeah, well. Which does bum me out a little. I'm not going to lie. It's better than having to buy it on DVD like most new TV shows that broadcast in 4K. Right. Oh, the only thing that's fucking available is a 480 DVD. Come the fuck on. Look, I'm going to say right here, this is a hot take anybody that is still buying DVDs.
01:50:00
Speaker
And if you have an HDTV. Have to update your shit. Let's be honest. No, dude. What are you doing with your life? Like Blu-rays cost the same. Sometimes cheaper. Come on. Come on. Come on. Either start buying Blu-rays or get yourself a CRT. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Sorry. Again, I'm in the weeds on something that has nothing to do with what we're talking about.
01:50:28
Speaker
That's fine. What else do we have to say about dawn of the dead? Because I think we're getting close to coming in. Yeah, I'm ready to land this plane. Well, so I have a saying not about the remake, but there is a question that has always plagued me. Maybe it may be it's not relevant, really. Maybe it's an obvious answer. Maybe it's a plot hole. But in the original, when Flyboy gets trapped in the elevator by the zombies, why don't they just tear him apart inside of that elevator?
01:50:58
Speaker
Uh, actually he fights them off is why. Yeah. He fights them off. They bite him several times as he's fighting them off. He pushes them all out of the elevator except one, which he shoots in the head and then pushes out the elevator closes. He dies. And then when it opens, he's completely, he's a zombie. Yeah. So maybe I should have rewatched it. I thought I'd seen it enough. I seem to recall and maybe it was Mandela effect thing happening.
01:51:27
Speaker
But I recall my memory, like there were a bunch of zombies in the elevator with him when the doors opened back up. Maybe I just misremembered. No, they when it opens, they they come at him at first and they're like, oh, no, thanks. And then they just go on about their business. So maybe that's what you remember, because there is a scene when they're like, and then they're like, oh, fuck, never mind. Yeah. Yeah. And then he goes and leads them upstairs because he's with the gun dangling from his finger.
01:51:53
Speaker
Right. Holding it. Oh, he knows it's supposed to be held out, but doesn't know him. Guy is the star zombie. And this is so good. So is great. His shuffle. Just since he got bitten, bit in the leg, he's just dragging that fucking leg. He kind of like stumble from like turns a circle like when he first comes out, like he's like he's figuring out how to walk again. It's really just babies, man. They're just babies.
01:52:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's good. Mystery solved. Thanks guys. Yeah, no problem. Watch Dawn of the Dead again, dude. Watch that original extended cut. 2 hours, 19 minutes and 47 seconds. That's the one you want. Was that the one at the Argento cut?
01:52:32
Speaker
No, see, okay. So you've got the theatrical cut, which is fine. The versions of the original. The theatrical cut is fine. It's serviceable. It is the film. The extended cut gives you more context while keeping the pacing tight.
01:52:50
Speaker
The complete cut is for diehards only. It's kind of like the Frighteners directors cut to where it's not good, but it's fun to watch to see like the stuff they cut out and why, like if you're interested in the film. No, the Argento cut is shorter than the theatrical cut. The editing is even quicker and the entire soundtrack is by Goblin instead of just certain tracks.
01:53:18
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's shorter. I think it's like 83 minutes. Oh, ginto cut is.
Box Office and Competition Analysis
01:53:25
Speaker
Yeah. So you got your four versions there. Uh, the extended cut two hours, 19 minutes, 47 seconds. That's to me, that's the definitive cut that theatrical cut will work in a pinch. Yeah. And that other two are just curiosities link to that in the show notes. Yeah. Cause it's all over YouTube.
01:53:46
Speaker
I believe there's even like 4k upscales on YouTube. Nice.
01:53:52
Speaker
So yeah, the Zack Snyder remake of Dawn of the Dead, however, opens on March, which also has a director's cut. By the way, there are two versions of that film as well. An unrated director's cut opens March 19th, 2004 on a production budget of twenty eight million dollars. It grosses in its opening weekend. Twenty six point seven, which is enough for it to open at number one.
01:54:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's good for that kind of movie at that time, for sure. De-throning the previous week's number one, which I'm pretty sure had held the number one spot for the first three weeks of its release, a little film that we will probably cover on a Patreon show that we previously mentioned, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
01:54:43
Speaker
Oh, boy. I hate that movie. And it's in its four weeks in theaters has grossed two hundred and ninety five million dollars. He is Louise. The only movie I've walked out of in complete silence. I know what no one was saying a fucking word walking out of that movie. Nope. Nope. And like, you know, it's like I enjoy some torture porn movies, but that one just takes it too far.
01:55:12
Speaker
Hmm. That's for you. And like, I get why it does it, but it just gets to be a lot at a certain point. Like I've seen temptation of the Christ. You don't have to milk it like that. Anyway, we'll talk about it on Ubsal Christianity Corner. I'm excited about that. Maybe that's our Easter movie. It's our Easter. It's true. Maybe dude. Straight away. Is Jigsaw biblical? We'll talk about it. Maybe.
01:55:40
Speaker
Uh, in third place is the Angelina Jolie Ethan Hawke thriller that like no one remembers called taking lives. I remember the poster, but that's it. Yeah. I remember the twist of that movie and it sucks. Um, I loved it at the time, but, uh, literally the next day I was like, that actually sucks. Never seen it. You're, you're not missing much in fourth place, a future episode of this podcast, Starsky and Hutch.
01:56:09
Speaker
Hey, I like that one. That's dropping to drop into four from three after three weeks in theaters and in fifth place. God, fuck this movie. I hate it. Secret window. Well, why don't you like that movie? John Tatoro is great in that movie. John Tatoro is great. That's about it.
01:56:27
Speaker
Johnny Depp's good in it too. Like what, what, what, what do you not just an elevator pitch? What do you not like about it? I want to get through this quick, but I also want to know that movie hinges on the twist and I figured it out in the first five seconds of the movie. Oh yeah. We don't have time for this, but you know, I hate that. That's not a reason to hate that movie, but we're not going to get into it right now.
01:56:48
Speaker
Um, the rest of the top 10 in sixth place, we have Hidalgo, uh, in seventh place, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind quickly before. Yeah.
01:56:59
Speaker
8th place, Agent Cody Banks 2, colon Destination London. Can't believe that movie got a fucking sequel. In 9th place, 51st dates, a movie that has been reclaimed as problematic.
Future of the 'Dawn of the Dead' Franchise
01:57:12
Speaker
And in 10th place, confessions of a teenage drama queen. A movie I did not know existed. A movie you what? Steven?
01:57:22
Speaker
When you were talking about Agent Cody Banks, too, and you said that nobody remembers it, I was going to say no one was asking for a sequel. But yeah, you said also said something about no one remembers it. I think I was saying that I'm taking lives, but OK. Doesn't matter. I'm going to apply it to this. We all remember it about as much as Frankie Muniz does. Yeah, that's true. Which is not a myth. Did you know that's a myth? That's not. Yeah, I did. I did. OK, good.
01:57:52
Speaker
But I love it so much. I love the idea that I want to see a movie that's based on many an interview centuries like I don't even know where the fuck I want him to do a movie in that alternate universe where he doesn't remember that stuff. That's all I want.
01:58:08
Speaker
Uh, so this movie grosses, as we said in its opening weekend, 26.7 million. It goes on to gross a total domestic box office of 58.99. So basically 59 million domestic, uh, and that's off of a production budget of 28 million. So over twice its budget international box office adds another 44.5 million for a total worldwide box office of 103.5 million.
01:58:37
Speaker
dollars. And yeah, we never got the sequel because as Tucker mentioned at the beginning, they handed that money to George Romero and let him continue his series. But guys, how about that segment that we haven't really been doing a whole lot, but we're going to do it now because we talked about it earlier in the episode to try to fuck up. Does it deserve does it deserve a sequel? Do you want to see a sequel? Do you want to see a sequel to this? Kind of. Yeah.
01:59:08
Speaker
Uh, I would, I would see another zombie movie written by James Gunn and directed by Zack Snyder because at the end of this movie, everybody is dead. Everybody, everybody's dead. So it would have to be akin to the original trilogy where they just move on in the outbreak with
Final Ratings and Comparisons
01:59:28
Speaker
all new characters. But I would definitely fucking watch that. Yeah.
01:59:33
Speaker
I want them to go back to that Any Island and find out what happened. Yo, reverse 2011 thing. They could do that. Yeah.
01:59:45
Speaker
Right. Like you've got it. Like it's the same outbreak. You're further along in it. All new characters. But then like at some point they come across the island and they find the video tapes. Yeah, that'd be cool. I'd watch. Maybe maybe Ving Raim somehow survived and it's just kind of like Ving Raims. Ving Raims.
02:00:05
Speaker
We have the meat. Love that guy. The Tomatometer score on this certified fresh at 76%. I wouldn't see a sequel by the way. You wouldn't? No. Oh. You wouldn't want, you would refuse to watch it. You'd never, it existed. You'd be like, you know what? It's my life's work not to watch this movie.
02:00:29
Speaker
Fucking right. She is a I am. I am not that amount of petty. I would probably I wouldn't want to, but I'd probably watch it just out of curiosity. And you're saying you'd be apprehensive. You wouldn't exactly be supportive, but you would eventually look at it out of curiosity. Yeah, that's a good way to put it now. Yeah, yeah. Right on standards. Yeah, I could dig it.
02:00:56
Speaker
75% on Rotten Tomatoes, you guys. That's fair. 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, a kinetic, violent, surprisingly worthy remake of George Romero's horror classic that pays homage to the original while working on its own terms.
02:01:10
Speaker
That's been a bit of an understatement and an overstatement, like all at the same time. Does it though? I would, I would say it does work on its own terms, but does it pay homage? I mean, Tucker said it was an homage. Easter eggs and cameos. Easter eggs and cameos. Tucker said it was more an homage than a remake, but yeah.
02:01:31
Speaker
Um, the meta score is 59 based on mixed or average reviews from 37 critics and the letterbox score is 3.4 Brett out of five stars. How are you rating Zack Snyder's 2004 dawn of the dead? Much like Tucker had dropped a whole half star and I didn't think that was even possible. So that too, you know, okay. What about you?
02:01:59
Speaker
Um, it was a four and then Steven proceeded to further ruin the zombie baby subplot. So now it's a three and a half. Good job. Good going, Steven. Good job. It's a three and a half for me as well. I don't know. I like it. It's so much fun.
02:02:25
Speaker
I do think it's fun. Isn't it as fun as the original? No, but it's still pretty fun. And that guy really doesn't have any arms, and that's cool. He's got an arm off. Your arm's off. No, it isn't. What's that then? How about you? Yeah, good times. And that, friends, is our episode on 2004's Dawn of the Dead.
02:02:54
Speaker
So that's all we got to say. Let's talk about Sean of the Dead sometime. They probably wanted to do a sequel to that. I'm into it. Yo, you know what? They kind of did. Here's the deal. And he does send in number one. He has said he's gone on record as saying he would never do one. Yeah, right. So it kind of doesn't fit our format, but yeah. But.
02:03:11
Speaker
But I think I could finagle it to make it fit the format the entire trilogy, because there are sequels that aren't sequels. And each one of those films, well, except for World's End, does kind of set itself up for a sequel.
02:03:29
Speaker
No, World's End absolutely sets itself up for a sequel. Oh, yeah, it does. I have a TV show. That's what I want. Hmm. I'd watch the hell out of that. Yeah, dude. In the post-apocalyptic with Gary King, with all the the young robot versions of him and his friends. Yeah. I think a really fresh zombie idea would be like, well, what if we just integrate zombies into society like the end of Shaun of the Dead? Like, yeah. There have you seen Fido?
02:03:55
Speaker
Well, yeah, but that's like a different aesthetic and like a different that's like, what if the zombie apocalypse happened to the fifties? I guess a little it's different. Yeah, it's different enough. Yeah. Yeah, fine. It was great, though. It is really good. I've never heard of even have you, Stephen, put it on your list. You should check it out. Maybe not top priority, but definitely put it towards the top of your list. Well, you can throw it on to your 31 days of Halloween horror watching.
02:04:23
Speaker
I was going to say, I don't know if I'm going to actually hit the full 31 because I'm 11 days in and three movies deep, but I'll see what I can do. Let's see. Who plays Fido? What's his name? I never remember the guy. He's in the thing where he plays the other guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the dude where he's very, like a very famous British actor.
02:04:44
Speaker
Yeah, he's Irish. No, he was in that other thing. Billy Connolly is Scottish. Billy Connolly. And it is Billy Connolly, yeah. He plays the main zombie, Fido. Yeah, dude. I like Billy Connolly. Karrion Moss. Karrion Moss is the female lead playing a 50s suburban housewife. Yeah, living in apocalyptic zombie world. It's praise. So good.
02:05:14
Speaker
That was one of the ones that really rose to the top during that time because it was during the era where you had to swim through a sea of shit. Like I said earlier, to get to the diamonds and this one was worth the swim. Yeah. 2006. So there you go. Right around that timeframe. Really? What if fallout had a baby with night of living dead? I rented this from Netflix, like the DVD service Netflix is how I watched this. Right on.
02:05:44
Speaker
That's also how I watched moonlighting because no one's been able to watch moonlighting for years until now it's finally coming to Hulu. Finally. That's why like I'm so confused when I talk about moonlighting to people and they're like I never saw it. I was like it's not on streaming or anything. I had no idea until recently that I'd never been on streaming. I rented the DVDs from Netflix. So where are we on social media?
02:06:07
Speaker
Right, so you can find the disenfranchised podcast wherever you get your podcasts. In fact, where you're listening to it right now, you can find it there. And while you're there, go ahead and leave us a five star rating and review, especially if you're listening on Apple podcasts. That way people can find us and listen to us just like you're doing right now and just have a great time just listening to three friends being friends and talking about movies and disagreeing and getting angry, but being friends all the same. That's just the journey we're on together as friends.
02:06:35
Speaker
You can also shoot us an email, disenfranchpod at gmail.com. Let us know how you think we're doing. If there's anything you would like to see us do more often, or if there is a movie that you would love to see us cover, shoot us an email, and we might just try to cover it as soon as we possibly can. You can find us on all the social media. We are on Instagram, Letterboxd, Twitter, Facebook,
02:07:02
Speaker
And now blue sky at disenfranch pod. Um, I am your host, Stephen Fox, where you can find me on Twitter, although I'm barely there anymore. Instagram, uh, letterboxed and blue sky at chewy walrus. Brett, where can we find you on socials these days? You can find me on Instagram, letterboxed, and now the barren yet fresh feeling, uh, world of blue ski.
02:07:33
Speaker
at, uh, good old blue. So, um, I couldn't put the underscore for blue ski. So it was just sus warlock there, everywhere else, sus underscore warlock. And Tucker, where can we find you these days?
02:07:49
Speaker
You know, I'm always hanging around YouTube at Ice 909. That's I C E N I N E the number zero and the number nine. You can also find me on Instagram with the same handle. We also do Tuckmugs. The team over at Tuckmugs was really excited this weekend because we got a submission from my very own flesh and blood. My sister. Right. And what a submission it was with the first ever Tuckmug celebrity sighting.
02:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, dude. Yeah, dude. Yeah. Very cool stuff. It is pretty cool. It's kind of on fucking fire right now and not in the way that the world is on fire, but like like fucking on fire, like in a good way, like, yeah, we're we're doing it. It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes kind of away. Yeah, dude. Yes.
02:08:45
Speaker
Yeah, so check out tuck mugs tuck underscore mugs on the instagrams and if you're a fan of this show Or even if you're not a fan of this show if you fucking hate this show But you have a mug that you really like that has a cool story behind it Holler at your boy. I'm not gonna hold it against you if you hate this show like I get it like I know people that
02:09:09
Speaker
that if they listened to the show and they heard me being this manic and nerdy for an hour and a half would probably jump off a cliff. Over two hours. I get it. I get it. I get it. But still submit to Tuck mugs, man. We need content. I have only so many mugs. I'm not saying I'm running out any time soon. I'm just saying, you know, only got so many. I mean, if you want some Tucker Light episodes, you can hit our early catalog or just listen to our.
02:09:41
Speaker
Yes. Hey, there's so much more content without me than there is with me. So if you hate the show specifically because of me, you're still a fan, dude, because I didn't even exist until like 100 episodes ago. And even then it was once a year. Yeah. Like there's a hundred and fifth with our hundred and fifty fifth episode. It is. I'm I am a host in 10 of them. I'm not 10 of them. Sorry. Like.
02:10:12
Speaker
uh, 40 some of them and I'm a guest on like three of them. So, and so you got over a hundred episodes. If you think I'm annoying, which most people do, even myself, I do then just go back to before this January and have yourself a time.
02:10:29
Speaker
But you know what, Tucker, this the show probably would not still exist without you. So now that is true. We love and appreciate everything that you do. And we thank you for being here and keeping us keeping us together. Yeah. Yes, sir. Fuck you, sir. Sorry, I was getting into next week early. I apologize. Oh, I'm so sorry. Day of the Dead's just bleeding in already. We got to end this sooner. I'm just going to start talking about Day of the Dead.
02:10:57
Speaker
Wonder what we're going to cover next week. Oh, it's I forget. Always forget that it's a secret and then I give it away on the main feed. I apologize.
02:11:06
Speaker
That was a thing we killed. We killed that a long time ago. The reason we stopped announcing at the end of the previous episode what we're covering on the next one is because a couple times we fucked it up and ended up not being able to record that episode or something happened until we just like, you know what? Let's not do that anymore. So we just stopped altogether. And sometimes that still happens. Sometimes we do have to make an 11th hour change.
02:11:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's why we typically don't, although this has been pretty locked in and Tucker's pretty adamant about it. So we don't like to break promises around here, guys. We don't. So if we if we can help it. So sometimes we readjust promises the rage carry to. But they're still kept. Yeah. We're getting work. Look, we're getting there. OK, Tucker's going to Tucker's going to get his way. I had to like I had to promise a promise a mountain and move some shit around. But it's going to happen. So.
02:12:04
Speaker
but we're gonna make it happen. So anyway, that is all we wrote for today. This has been the disenfranchised episode on Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. I am your host, Steven Foxworthy, from my co-host Brett Wright and Tucker. Until next time. When the dead walks in your race, we must stop the killing or lose the war. And scene.
02:12:35
Speaker
We're going to try not to come back. You already said that, though, when you introduced me, it doesn't work if you do it twice. I actually that's how I introduce Brett. Same thing. We're going to try not to. We're pretty much the same guy, right? I mean, in so many ways. Can you tell us apart? I mean, you both have beards. That's about what a similarities end. We're both really bad at voguing as well. That too.
02:13:04
Speaker
So until next week, folks, you ain't just down here by yourself, boy.