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123. Zootwopia: Man of 2morrow
21 Plays4 months ago
Adrian and Simon review director Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator Badlands and Vince Gilligan’s new Apple TV series, Pluribus. Plus, the two buddies discuss Disney’s recent AI push, the upcoming DC Crime mockuseries and a new Brendan Fraser/Rachel Weisz starring Mummy film. Additionally, Adrian goes off on a Secret Lives of Mormon Wives tangent, Simon corrects the record about the potential Warner Brothers merger, and the boys get hyped for Zootopia 2, Stranger Things Season 5, Man on the Inside, and Monarch Legacy of Monsters Season 2.
This episode was recorded in Canada on November 16th 2025. Episodes air every two weeks on Tuesdays! Catch us on December 2nd for Episode 124.
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Reviews
00:00:01
Speaker
well This episode, we review director Dan Trachtenberg's Predator Badlands and the first two episodes of creator Vince Gilligan's Apple TV series, Pluribus.
00:00:12
Speaker
We speculate on the content of the newly announced Jimmy Olsen-centered DC Universe mock-you series from the guys who brought you Netflix's American Vandal.
00:00:22
Speaker
And we get excited for a new Mummy movie starring Rachel Weisz and Brandon Fraser, while also getting hyped up for the upcoming Stranger Things Season 5, Monarch Legacy of Monsters, and Wake Up, Dead Man, A Knives Out Mystery.
Hosts' Personal Life Updates
00:00:36
Speaker
With new episodes airing every two weeks on Tuesdays, this is Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. I'm Simon Eadie. And I'm Adrian Pinter. Welcome to episode one, two, three. wow
00:00:56
Speaker
Adrian? Hey. I, uh, hi.
00:01:11
Speaker
for be audience adrian hey i yeah hi How are you? How are you? I'm okay, man. i'm ah i'm a little sickly. Oh, yeah? Close to death.
00:01:23
Speaker
Oh, I'm sorry. My life is flashing before my eyes. Oh, that's not good. Yeah, lots happened. ah I've been sick. I came back from Vegas. Oh, exciting. Yeah, so obviously did my Vegas work trip. Yeah. Ate some pretty all right food. Yeah, that's good. You know, Vegas is an interesting vibe. I don't like gambling.
00:01:41
Speaker
You know, I'm not a gambler. Did not gamble. Right. Makes me a little sad walking through the casinos. You get off the airplane and in Las Vegas into Las angel las Vegas airport. You know what you see immediately? Yeah.
00:01:53
Speaker
Gambling. Slot machines. Yeah. Just slot machines all over all over the airport. There's slot machines everywhere, dude. Wow. They got like a room that's closed off where you can smoke cigarettes and do the slot machine in the airport, like 10 steps away from the gate that you walk out of.
00:02:09
Speaker
Wait, you can smoke cigarettes? Inside? You smoke cigarettes inside. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Interesting. I'll be honest. I used to be a smoker, Simon. I think you know this about me. I used to smoke cigarettes.
00:02:20
Speaker
Yeah. Back however many years ago. Yeah. I wanted her to smoke some fucking cigs, dude, in Vegas. I wanted to smoke cigarettes all the time in Vegas. I didn't, though. But was I was tempted, man. I was like, man, cigarettes are cool.
00:02:31
Speaker
I don't care what anyone said. In Vegas, especially, because they're smoking inside. That's crazy. Yeah, I know. Cigarettes are cool as hell, dude. I'm actually going to buy a pack of smokes for my wedding. I'm just going to smoke a pack of cigarettes on my wedding day. Maybe take a couple photos smoking cigs just to look cool in front of the limo.
00:02:48
Speaker
And then I won't smoke cigarettes anymore. Willpower. that cool, though? I think it is. I think cigarettes are cool as hell. like and Let me point you a picture here. Isn't that kind of, don't get offended, but doesn't that kind of make you a poser in that in that moment?
00:03:03
Speaker
You know, you're taking you're smoking cigarettes next to the limo. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it does, but don't care. I think it's going to be aesthetic and cool and neat. Sure, man. So, yeah, I know what I am. Do you, do you, do you. Who cares?
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, man. Thanks for understanding. You know, I've obviously, again, and I feel like, you know, I i was a smoker. So it's like, I'm just, I'm bringing back smoker Adrian for a day. You know we'll see. Okay. Buy a pack of Belmonts.
00:03:27
Speaker
I'm on regulars. You know, something like that. Yeah. But anyways, in Vegas, you know, crazy experience there. I was at a conference, like a car conference thing because of the business I work for.
00:03:40
Speaker
and um Car conference, like automobiles? Yeah. It's called SEMA. Oh. Interesting. Okay. Because I work in like the auto industry now, technically. And we were at the Las Vegas like convention center where that shooter was like a few years back.
00:03:54
Speaker
Remember that? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we were in that conference center. Huge, man. This thing is ginormous. there's like a bunch of different areas to be in. Long days, but very fulfilling, very fun time.
00:04:07
Speaker
And we ate some solid food. Simon, we ate some solid food while we were there. I'm i'm happy for you. You can you don't you don't just ah eat soup. i'm i'm I'm happy that you can eat solid food.
00:04:17
Speaker
Yeah, I did eat soup the past couple days, though. I got some ramen. Because I am indeed sick. And I'm pretty sure I'm Vegas. Are because trip? Yeah, because I got home from the trip. On like Friday night.
00:04:30
Speaker
I was fine Friday night. I was fine most of Saturday. Saturday night, like, my throat's a little sore. Sunday, sore throat. Monday, sore throat. Tuesday, sore throat fading away.
Dining and Food Preferences
00:04:41
Speaker
I'm like, I'm going to be fine. Plot twist. I was not fine. ah Tuesday night. nose all congested, cough, runny nose. And it I was like, okay, you know Wednesday, i was like doing bad. Thursday, I was doing worse. But i'm like, Thursday is the worst because we we're going to go watch Running Man on Friday, Simon, you and I. Yeah. With our fiancés.
00:05:02
Speaker
You know how much I love Glenn Powell. I wouldn't bail on Glenn. You didn't. I did because Friday night was the worst. I'm like, why does it keep on getting badder, more bad, the this illness?
00:05:15
Speaker
um And then yesterday, I was feeling better. Still sick, as you can hear. I'm wearing my little avocado onesie. It's very pretty. Thank you. I bought it at Walmart. $15, dude.
00:05:29
Speaker
It's very comfortable. It's very warm, though. I am sweating. I'm seeing a croissant. There is a croissant. Is avocados it? Yeah, look at the little hard avocado, man. Oh, well, it's blocked with a mic, man. Oh, yeah, true.
00:05:41
Speaker
no Little boba, boba tea thing. Nice. Cute. It's very pretty. Yeah, thank you. look at I don't think this is meant for like a traditional male audience, but I don't care, man.
00:05:53
Speaker
It's comfy. Yeah, it looks yeah it looks comfy. That's the important part. It's very comfy. I might have to change out of this though, because I'm sweating a lot. But I'm like, I'm sweating out the illness. You know, I'm sweating out the cold. But anyways, back Yeah, long as you're drinking enough water you're good to go.
00:06:06
Speaker
I have a cup of water here. You know? Yeah. Not a doctor. Yeah. Yeah, you drink that water. Oh, wow. Mmm, delicious. But anyway, so Vegas, pretty cool. Ate at a bunch of cool places. I had, I went to Hibachi, Hibachi Grill, where the, yeah like, you know, those Japanese restaurants where they cook in front of you on the thing.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. um That's great. um It was really cool. And I tried Wagyu for the first time, Simon, there. Oh, how was it? Yeah, it's really good. Would I want to eat this all the time?
00:06:36
Speaker
God, no. It's super rich. Very rich. Very fatty, right? Yeah, very fatty, very rich, very tender, very delicious. But it's like, if i if I'm going out for a steak, I feel like it's not your like steak. You know what i mean?
00:06:49
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah. What's your steak? You go for a steak, what's your steak? um Probably, typically, I like a tenderloin rare. Yeah. Like at the cab? Medium rare for me.
00:07:00
Speaker
be Yeah, I agree. Filminiol. Yeah. Yeah. I do, like if I'm doing tenderloin, I do rare. If I do like a strip or a sternloin, I do medium rare. Okay.
00:07:11
Speaker
Interesting. Cool, man. Cool. It's really funny. i yeah Oh, you have more to say. No, no, please go ahead. I'm to send it back to you in just a second, but I just want to say, I asked you before we started recording, do you have any stories?
00:07:24
Speaker
And you said no. And I was like, okay, I guess I'll just start my start this podcast with a correction. And I went to start with a correction and you instantly had 15 stories. Yeah. What's that about? Yeah.
00:07:36
Speaker
um That's the question I have for you. But otherwise, continue. I am interested in your Vegas trip. Please go on. Well, because my tongue moves without me thinking, you know. i see.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah. So I just said no. And then my brain was like, actually, you do, man. Actually, you do. So um anyways, yeah, Vegas was cool. It's like beautiful. Not that busy, though. Tourism is down, apparently for I wonder why.
00:08:01
Speaker
um But yeah, tourism is down there. The strip pretty dead. All things considered, like Toronto is way busier than Vegas, like by a huge margin. Actually, we're like walking through the strip, me and my coworker. And we're like, it's fucking it's it's not bopping that much.
00:08:18
Speaker
But again, still very cool experience. Anyways, good food. But there was this one restaurant. this This is the story I want to lead up to. We're at this restaurant. It's this Mexican restaurant in the hotel that we were staying at. so The hotel that we're staying at is called The Link.
00:08:31
Speaker
And then the the restaurant's called like Chapo or something like that. Good food. i got I got the Fajitas. um Oh, Simon. I'm going off on a tangent here. I like peppers now, man. I'm i'm cool with cooked peppers now. I've trained my brain.
00:08:45
Speaker
I like cilantro now, and I like peppers now. You know what's funny about cilantro? Peppers is crazy for you, because you've always hated i cooked peppers specifically. There is a... Cilantro is a funny thing, because I don't generally like cilantro.
00:09:01
Speaker
I don't, and I still eat it, and I'm fine with it. It's like it's not like I don't like it, I guess. It's just... It's so strong. I guess that's a problem your problem with cooked peppers, but it's it's such a strong taste and it's such a, it's in ah it's an overpowering taste in like a harsh way for me. So I feel like it is the is the genetic thing where it tastes like soap for me, but I just accept it.
00:09:23
Speaker
I think I just like, it's fine. I can do, there's not actually that many foods in which I won't eat. There's not that many things that I'd be like, ah, no, I don't like the taste of that. I won't eat it. Typically, most things I'll eat. And I love like that kind of Tex-Mex kind of cuisine, like in a Mexican restaurant. restaurant I'm a big fan of fajitas, as you said, fajitas.
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, I love fajitas, dude. Yeah, I love tacos and and everything like that. But that's crazy. So you've changed. You've adjusted your ways. Cooked peppers for Adrian. Wow. Yeah, man. ah yeah i'll I'll eat at anything. There's just still a couple of things I don't like, which I can't think of off the top head.
00:10:02
Speaker
No, I like mushrooms. I just don't oh particularly love the texture of mushrooms, but I'll eat them. I love the flavor of mushrooms. I love pan-fried mushrooms with the steak.
00:10:14
Speaker
I really, really like that. like Like they would serve at the keg or something like that. Like a mushroom like peppercorn sauce. Mushroom cream sauce. No sauce. No, they just pansear them. Just sauteed mushrooms? Yeah, sauteed mushrooms, exactly. Nice, nice. Just, yeah.
00:10:28
Speaker
Anyway. Yeah, it's good. Anything else? but the The old Vegas? Oh, yeah, sorry. So met a Mexican restaurant, right? and Yeah, right. There's a group of us having a good time, and we order like a queso dip. it's ah It's like two queso dips. It's like you know your typical queso dip, but it has chorizo and onions on top of it, right?
00:10:46
Speaker
Nice. So a little bit of time passes. They bring out one. I'm like, okay, cool. So like the one half of the table, we're eating and The server comes back like 10 minutes later and like, okay, did you guys get everything? And we're like oh no, we're still waiting on the queso And the guy's like, oh my God, they're doing it again.
00:11:01
Speaker
we're like, what? I'm like, what do you mean? And he's like, yeah, like yesterday, you know, I ordered four fajitas and the chefs in the back, they just made one.
00:11:12
Speaker
And yeah, it was just a whole kerfuffle. I had to go back there. They were literally beating the shit out of each other. Like the two head chefs just like fighting. had to like break them up to get these fajitas out. I'm like sitting there. I'm like, that doesn't seem like particularly sanitary.
00:11:26
Speaker
ah Um, and like, oh no, it's fine. It's fine. Um, why would he tell you this story? I know. i'm like its carrying we sort Dirty laundry the kitchen. I feel like that's a code of of restaurant, you know, restaurant waiters. You're not supposed to air the laundry. You're supposed to just go out there calmly and pretend that everything's okay when there's really ah constant fights in kitchens constantly. you got to just pretend because that's the rule of hospitality. That's crazy. It's in a hotel restaurant, no less.
00:11:55
Speaker
Anyway, go on. Yeah.
Industry Speculations and Acquisitions
00:11:57
Speaker
um And no, like he essentially proceeded to just talk shit about the kitchen staff and the and the like everyone that he works for being in or works with being incompetent, all that stuff.
00:12:07
Speaker
I'm like, so like i don't know if I necessarily want to eat here. But anyways, the food was good. don't really care. I ate it. okay it was good that's good yeah that's all right for sweet damn anything else that vent will happen at the old vegas um no not not really man again just food and and conference and friendship nice nice friendship that's beautiful it's beautiful yeah i know i bought this in canada No, no, no.
00:12:38
Speaker
It's beautiful like your onesie. Oh, it's beautiful like my onesie. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, yeah, Anyway, ah the thing I was going to say very briefly, I was going to make a slight correction from last week. We talked about... It's not really a correction. I just thought about it a little bit. We talked about um who would be a good choice because Warner Brothers has gone ah up for sale, essentially. They're on the on the market.
00:12:59
Speaker
People are looking to buy them. And I said that it would be cool if Sony got them. I disagree with that now. I have actually... 180'd on that. I think that that's a bad choice because Sony hasn't done the greatest with IP in general.
00:13:14
Speaker
They just, they have quite a bit ah of IP and they, they just don't like, I think Spider-Man is the greatest example. I think Spider-Man had to be put on the right track by Marvel and the collaboration with Marvel and Sony kind of really floundered with movies like Morbius and those types of movies.
00:13:31
Speaker
So, and I think if they get more, um, IP, like any company with a lot of ah a lot of IP, like you know very popular IP, they're just going to likely just make that type of thing and they won't make original content very often anymore.
00:13:47
Speaker
Because that's just how it goes with these big companies. So that kind of purchase would be would be pretty big. Sony's a but lot bigger than Warner Brothers as well, because they've got a lot of different divisions with their their lens division, their cameras, there obviously their Sony Pictures, ah ah PlayStation, ah sony ah Sony movies.
00:14:04
Speaker
um Sorry, I said that already, Sony Music. um But yeah, so I think that that would be a bad idea. So I thought about it, and I thought what you said is probably spot on. I think Apple is kind of a great choice. They have kept Beats. They bought beat Beats years ago.
00:14:18
Speaker
I've kept it largely siloed, although they put Apple technology in the Beats headphones. They are largely siloed, which is interesting. They seem to respect creators quite a bit because when you look at ah somebody like Vince Gilligan or Ben Stiller or like all of these creators are creating this crazy shows on Apple TV, it seems to be like they they seem to just let them do what they want to do. There doesn't seem to be that much meddling except for the Jon Stewart incident, which I won't get into, but that was I didn't like that.
00:14:44
Speaker
um And they make a lot of original IP and they seem to also respect, and this is a reason to not have Netflix purchase them because Netflix doesn't seem, I'm not sure if Netflix is is is necessarily, they seem to be sniffing around, but I'm not sure if they're going to go after Warner Brothers.
00:14:59
Speaker
But it seems like unlike Netflix, Apple TV, Apple in general respects theatrical releases as well. So that's pretty cool. The reason I had chosen Sony is because Sony doesn't have a streaming service currently, but we don't need more streaming services. Let's be real.
00:15:14
Speaker
So, oh no, that would have, no, that would have made it so that there was no extra stream. Exactly. So that would have been cool. Um, so if Apple buys them or if Apple, Apple did, then they would have, I guess, made another streaming service, uh, or they would have, been they left the same streaming service or they would have maybe, uh, folded it into Apple. I don't know if they would have though. HBO is a huge brand.
00:15:36
Speaker
Um, yeah Apple TV plus HBO. They just bring the plus back. and at age Yeah, they bring it back. yeah, yeah. But they already... Yeah, I don't know. That's interesting. But yeah, Sony's the only one without one. So they would potentially just fold their their content into HBO. Oh no, Sony kind of has one in a weird way because they've got Sony Pictures Core. It's not really a streaming service though. So that would eliminate that from the table, I guess.
00:16:00
Speaker
Anyway, I just wanted to say... yeah Is Crackle still a thing? I don't know. i don't think it's particularly popular if so, but... yeah It's gone. Is it?
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah. It's gone. They're really big into the old... I guess Sony does have streaming services because they have anime streaming services. There's that. So that part of it ah still exists as well. yeah Yeah.
00:16:25
Speaker
Crackle went down June of this year.
00:16:29
Speaker
Oh, wow. That was recent. Wow. I didn't realize that. Yeah, because it's this year and then it's also June. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for pointing out my
00:16:40
Speaker
Obvious comment, I guess. All right. Well, let's move into Adrian. Let's move into some quick bites of news here. Component of our show where we discuss a few film and TV industry news stories that have been somewhat zeitgeisty over the past two weeks.
00:16:54
Speaker
Let's do it. The first one is about
00:16:58
Speaker
a story reported by Deadline about a Superman spinoff crime mock-y series, which is in the works at HBO, HBO Max. ah Superman character Jimmy Olsen, played by Skylar Gisanda, will apparently host the Maki series, which will see Olsen investigate crime within the greater DC universe.
00:17:15
Speaker
The series is being called the DC Crime, with American Vandal showrunners Tony Ascenda and Dan Perrault tapped as showrunners. The first season is reportedly centered around telepathic flash villain Gorilla Grodd.
00:17:30
Speaker
Adrian. Thoughts on this? I know you sent me this. You sent me a little little clipping, I think, for Rotten Tomatoes announcing this. I did, dude. What are your thoughts on this? find this kind of neat. This is a cool, fun idea where I feel like it can easily run parallel to the movies coming out and not necessarily have to cross over too, too much.
00:17:55
Speaker
You know what I mean? i just feel like this is like a fun kind of cool. We have this character from Superman. He's doing his own thing. And then he could still show up in Superman. The next Superman man of tomorrow, man of,
00:18:08
Speaker
man of two moro oh my goodness oh my god have you how did you not mention that before i know i'm just spitballing they're not gonna do that because that's really bad when any franchise does that with the title in my opinion like but like like fan fan four stick or whatever it was yeah and fan four stick If it doesn't work. I'm writing this down.
00:18:31
Speaker
Yeah. This is a very good potential title for this episode, Simon. Okay. Well, I guess the audience will see if that comes to pass. You know? I'm in two more. Dude, wow. I'm so good.
00:18:43
Speaker
um you're You are so good. You are. You're a cool dude. Thanks, man. You're a pretty cool dude. You were saying that characters might show up in this and that vice versa? Jimmy Olsen will still show up in other Superman stuff, et cetera?
00:18:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, but I feel like I doubt they'll do something like super crazy in the show, which will have to be, you know, like impacted or that will. Oh, my goodness. My brain ain't working right now, man. I feel like mine didn't work earlier. I just said that that weird thing about streaming services. I completely b blanked on what I was saying mid mid sentence. So hopefully we get through this. We're only a few like more than 10 minutes in here. So, yeah, everybody makes mistakes.
Creative Insights on DC Series
00:19:23
Speaker
Everybody has those days, you know?
00:19:24
Speaker
All right. Um, but yeah, i just feel like you can do a lot of fun, cool, comedic stuff in this without it necessarily having to like impact the larger universe on a grand scale.
00:19:35
Speaker
You can kind of keep it a little bit more focused. And I think the idea of just like bringing in Gorilla Grodd is, is cool. Yeah. You see that, um, scene from the flash going around like the TV series, the flash, Grant Destin's the flash going around where Gorilla Grodd's looking for Obama.
00:19:50
Speaker
Oh yeah, I did see that. Yeah. Is that real? Is that real? Or is that just, I just don't trust anything anymore? i don't know. and never looked it up. I thought it was ridiculous and I just, I swiped away.
00:20:03
Speaker
Gorilla Grodd Obama. The thing that strikes me that's really cool about this new series. Oh, DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Sorry. Okay, but it's real. It is real.
00:20:15
Speaker
Oh, wow. 17 episodes of season 20. Yeah, that's time traveling one, right? There's a lot of time time or universe traveling in that. So that kind of makes sense, I guess. Yeah. I suppose, vaguely. That's crazy. Do you have to get permission? Do you think they reached out to Obama and they're like, can we do this?
00:20:28
Speaker
And he's like, sure. He was in office then? No, he wasn't. This was in when did that episode come out? Yeah. release date. was going to say about the series, I'm more most interested in this because it almost grounds the DC universe in an interesting way. like it it It makes it feel more realistic. like We're watching a mockumentary with a character we know as if he's a real person, like doing hosting but the documentary.
00:20:56
Speaker
it's kind of a really It's just like how The Office is kind of grounded by that mockumentary style. so That's really, really cool. Also, um Sorry, do you want to ah jump to that? No, no, continue, continue, continue.
00:21:07
Speaker
American Vandal. Did you ever watch American Vandal on Netflix? Those guys? I don't think so. I feel like I watched some of the first season. Yeah, I did. Yeah. I do. Cool. Yeah, yeah. It's a neat concept because it's like a joke.
00:21:19
Speaker
It's a joke mockumentary. It's the same idea, except this is a real not a comedy, or is it? Because Gorilla Grodd is kind of a joke villain in a way. in in it in a you know weird I don't know. maybe Maybe I feel like somebody listening to this is going to be like, no, he's like one of the best villains in the DC universe.
00:21:36
Speaker
And I'm like, all right, sure. He's just a big monkey who's telepathic. i got had is that it's It always struck me as like, is this a real threat? I don't know. Although gorillas are scary. They can squeeze you and snap you in two. Dude, I'm scared of just a regular gorilla, let alone a gorilla with tele... Who's smart.
00:21:57
Speaker
Right, smart and has... a smart gorilla. tell Yeah, he's going to pick you up. And not only... He's going to tear you apart with his brain. Yeah. I feel like it's actually... Now we're talking about it. Quite a frightening villain, honestly.
00:22:08
Speaker
and know, but you can't really... I'm sorry, go ahead. How do you really... Yeah, I think the problem is like you you write it on the page and it's kind of like... saying There's a level of uncertainty.
00:22:20
Speaker
And then you watch it in The Flash and it's like ah like... You can't really quite nail the CG in a TV show. So if they can nail it in this TV show, it's HBO budgets. like That TV show was on the CW. the ah What is it called? the Legends of Tomorrow.
00:22:35
Speaker
Legends of Tomorrow. like that That was a different situation in the CG and that was fine. But this is ah tough... this is This is where it will really shine or not.
00:22:45
Speaker
And is this going to be a comedy? I guess that was where I was coming going going with the idea of it being the American Vandal. Yeah. you think it's comedy? I definitely think this is going to be a comedy, considering, again, it's the American Vandal showrunners, which I know is a comedy series. But also, Jimmy Olsen is kind of the comic relief in the Superman movie.
00:23:04
Speaker
ah He is a funny character. Good thought, yeah. So I just think... this combination i would be shocked if they make it like super dark and dramatic i think if anything you know it's going to be a comedy kind of like peacemaker maybe there are going to be these like heartfelt emotional moments but all in all like i feel like peacemaker is a comedy first in a lot of ways um i i would assume this is going to lean a little bit harder into the comedy though compared to peacemaker So yeah, I don't know.
00:23:33
Speaker
um i'm I'm quite confident in this. I love this idea though. This seems like fun. And again, it doesn't feel like something that you have to watch to understand the wider universe, which is going to be kind of satisfying.
00:23:45
Speaker
in In fact, this is kind of like a really good supplementary thing potentially. Like it it kind of, it lends itself to the rest of the universe because it kind of explains little tiny tidbits about lesser known aspects of the DC universe. Theoretically, it's kind of a good idea in that way.
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah. It's like coloring in another page of this picture book. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. It's cool. And then if people were really into one episode or another, they could potentially expand on it. Almost like um that that Marvel series, well What If?
00:24:17
Speaker
What if it kind of took inspiration to make the what if storylines come true in the greater MCU or make like Marvel zombies. Did you ever watch Marvel ah marvel zombies on Disney plus?
00:24:29
Speaker
Oh, Simon, I was going to get into that. Oh, okay. We'll get into it after. Okay. Sweet. Coincidentally. All right. Cool. All right. um Super cool. Next little quick bite.
00:24:42
Speaker
Byte of news, Adrian, is as Deadline reports, an upcoming sequel to The Mummy movies will likely star Brendan breda Fraser and Rachel Weisz. With the Ready or Not and Scream 6 directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillette set to direct the new film for Universal.
00:24:59
Speaker
Nice. I know you like Scream 6. and I do. I know you love Ready or Not, I believe. I do indeed. I'm not mistaken. um And i I believe you also i really like the Mummy movies. That's why I chose this story to talk about in more detail, and or unless I'm incorrect.
00:25:14
Speaker
Am I I remember watching the first The Mummy as a child. didn't really enjoy it. But I don't think – there's three of them, isn't there? Plus, there's a Scorpion King spinoffs.
00:25:27
Speaker
I don't think I watch i don't know if there's three. I'm not that invested. I've seen the first one, I think, and that's it. and I might have watched half of The Scorpion King on the bus to a hockey tournament. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:25:38
Speaker
um So like, yeah, I don't know. I think this is kind of neat. But ah again, I'm not super attached to this. So this isn't a sequel to the Tom Cruise of the Mummy, right? I assume so.
00:25:49
Speaker
i know you're joking. Yeah. ah you laugh But yeah, I'm looking at the mummy tomb of the dragon emperor. believe is the third one. Okay.
00:25:59
Speaker
So there was three. I don't think I watched all of them. I have faint rec. Maybe I did watch all of them and I just, kind of molded them. I haven't watched them in my, like, honestly, probably not even in my teen years. It was just in like my child years.
00:26:12
Speaker
Um, Dude, so guess how low the Rotten Tomatoes score is for Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor? 28. You're wrong. You were lower.
00:26:24
Speaker
You're incorrect. It is 13%. Oh, dude, I was going to say 13 at first. And I was like, that's that might be a little low. tell Now you're like Gorilla Grodd. i'm like I am Gorilla Grodd. I look like him too.
00:26:37
Speaker
Whoa. Do you? the muy The Mummy 2. I don't know. The Mummy the mumy Returns. It's a classic. That's like a... I feel like that's a classic title for like the early two thousand You know what I'm saying? The the returns thing, you know, it like 80s, early 2000s. They don't use that as much anymore. Maybe I'm mistaken, but ah that was a 46% on Rotten Tomatoes.
00:27:03
Speaker
Interesting. And that was the one with the rock. I definitely did not watch Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. 100% did not. Jet Li's in this.
00:27:13
Speaker
That's crazy. Yeah, I must have watched Mummy 1 and 2. Because this rings up the sand. Actually, the Mummy has never been reviewed that well. It's Rotten Tomatoes score for the Mummy 1999 is 63%. Interesting.
00:27:29
Speaker
Interesting. But obviously, it's a franchise people like. Because they're they keep trying to take another crack at it. But I think... the The thing that kind of I like the most about this story is that Brandon Fraser and Rachel Weisz are returning.
00:27:44
Speaker
that That's really cool. At least they're in talks to return. We'll see if that actually comes to pass. but They might get killed beforehand. What? They might get killed and and it won't happen. Who knows?
00:27:57
Speaker
Whoa. It's very dark. It happen. What's such a dark way to say that? Why did they get killed? I don't know. They could. Anyone could. You could get killed.
00:28:08
Speaker
Yeah. Thanks. Inside your walls. There's bees. not Not anymore. It's funny, last episode is not the episode we talked about bees. It was the wasps. Wasps, not bees. Don't just disrespect your just it's just be your bees out there.
00:28:22
Speaker
um But no, the wasps were in my house last week. I just forgot to mention it. It was still going. It got it got worse. from the it like It just kept getting worse. And then it finally died down. We called them back, the exterminator who came in and treated them the first time.
00:28:37
Speaker
And they came back and they retreated that same spot in the wall. And then they seem to go away. But anyway, yeah, that's my WASP update for you. Nice. Thank you. But yeah, anything else you want to mention about the mummy? i don't know if you have, i didn't realize you weren't that invested.
00:28:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, again I, again, I simply am not. Um, but again, I did watch the the first two. I'm like looking at the images online and a hundred percent. I watched those two when I was a child, but like the first mummy came out when I was five and the second one came out when I was seven.
00:29:07
Speaker
So I don't think I watched them even as a teenager. and i And I feel like I have like a faint memory of watching it at like a friend's house when my parents were there and stuff like that. i don't know. Um, Is The Rock in either one of those? Because I i feel like seen The Scorpion King.
00:29:22
Speaker
Okay. He's in the second one. Okay. There's been four Scorpion King movies. Really? i did not know that. That I did not know. Okay. Scorpion King 4, Quest for Power, better rated than The Mummy 3.
00:29:36
Speaker
It's 21%. There's no The Rock, though. It's crazy, though. like I feel like movies that don't... I think viewers now and consumers in terms of watching films, they seem as at least for the – maybe it's because of the streaming services, but they seem more invested in looking up reviews before they go see a movie in theaters.
00:30:00
Speaker
Unless it's a – Unless it's potentially an animated like children's film, which still seemed to do pretty well in the box office. But I look at Running Man, and the Running Man didn't do super well this weekend. We're recording this on a Sunday before our episode airs on on on a Tuesday.
00:30:16
Speaker
it's like, I guess, like we're just at the end of the the box office weekend, the first box office weekend for the Running Man. And yeah, it doesn't look like it did too well. it was strangely that the movie that did do well. Actually, I think I'm just like eating my own words now because I'm realizing The Running Man didn't do super well in terms of reviews. So I thought that's maybe why it didn't do super well in the box office. But the movie, i I bet it didn't do super well either. is ah Now i see not now you see me, now you don't or whatever it is. Now now I see you, but whatever the freaking phrase is.
00:30:48
Speaker
that the Magician movie is following. Now you see me, now you don't is a 59% of Rotten Tomatoes. So it's actually worse. And yet that franchise has some strange legs because it does quite well and it beat out The Running Man this weekend for a better box office result, which is unfortunate because I feel like The Running Man is a better movie.
Impact of Reviews and AI on Media
00:31:08
Speaker
Although again, reviews is 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. that the kind of The score just kept kind of dropping, which sucks. I love Edgar Wright. I'm wondering if it's kind of,
00:31:17
Speaker
kind of the to the eye of the beholder and 64% is not, I mean, it's it's in a spot where I can easily love it, I think. So we'll see, but yeah, I just wanted to point that out.
00:31:30
Speaker
ah It is interesting. Because Last Night in Soho, that's 75% actually. Yeah. It's not bad. Honestly, Baby Driver is an amazing movie.
00:31:41
Speaker
I love that movie. It's a shame. Kevin Spacey spoils it a little bit. Yeah. um But it's such an incredible movie and in every way. I think about the beats in that film. I think I saw it twice in theaters.
00:31:53
Speaker
I think also Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is really, really great. That movie also bombed at the box office, to be fair. Yeah. So Baby Driver's kind of been his best success perhaps. Or I guess the Simon Pegg films.
00:32:06
Speaker
The, you know, the, uh, the Cornetto trilogy. Cornetto trilogy. There you go. I've not seen the At World's End or whatever. It's like the last one. I've seen the other two.
00:32:18
Speaker
But yeah, those did it okay, I think. But they also the budget couldn't have been very large for those. Whereas the Running Man, that's also the way it's viewed, I assume, is the Running Man budget must be massive.
00:32:29
Speaker
So that's also part of it. um But anyway, okay, getting sidetracked here. The next news story is one about the Disney, recent deny Disney earnings report ah for the quarter ending at the end of September.
00:32:45
Speaker
They did very well. They added subscribers. They added revenue, um specifically in direct-to-consumer kind of rev. So not necessarily linear TV and things like that, but like Disney Plus, which is cool.
00:33:01
Speaker
ah The reason I'm bringing this up is a few reasons. One is they they're kind of ruling out a Warner Brothers thing. Discovery purchase, which is interesting.
00:33:11
Speaker
ah ah They have an FIP, so that's good. yeah I don't really like the idea of Disney buying them either. i don't want anyone to buy them. Again, I want to make that very clear. I know anyone listening to this might not have listened to any of our other episodes.
00:33:23
Speaker
We don't want Warner Brothers to be purchased by anyone. It is better to be separate. Warner Brothers Legacy as a film studio – I think it should exist on its own. it's It's really sad if they get purchased because, again, whoever purchases them is going to shuffle other projects aside to just make other the the i p the biggest IP consistently and just make SQL after SQL ah after SQL because that's just how you make the most money.
00:33:49
Speaker
That's unfortunately how capitalism works in a lot of ways. um A very responsible... company might not do that they might make both but i don't think it's possible that there's enough money in the coffers to constantly make both so i'm not looking forward to that i don't want them to do that but disney sorry so sorry sorry to interrupt yeah um but honestly really the only interesting thing that could come out of disney buying warner bros is the the 100% possibility that they would then do like a DC versus Marvel movie.
00:34:24
Speaker
That's really like the only like kind of interesting thing that would come of that. Sure. Because you know they would they would not hold back. Like they would 100% do that. They would spend millions of dollars bringing in some like previous actors and then that movie would make a trillion dollars.
00:34:40
Speaker
That's a great point. The other thing I would like to point out is it's interesting to think about what I was just saying about, you know, they're them taking the biggest IP and making those movies. They would just be a superhero movie studio and there won't be competing superhero movie studios, which sucks. Yeah.
00:34:56
Speaker
There's also this idea that like they would potentially make less superhero movies because there's they they would just make the ones that are the most popular, and then you don't get things like Guardians of the Galaxy.
00:35:07
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Or Thunderbolts, which is kind of interesting in some way. so you Again, you just it becomes it becomes worse in that capacity as well, but you would get – you write a team-up film with – the biggest characters from both franchises. I think that's right. Yeah, that's a great call out.
00:35:23
Speaker
But not having competing products in the market is way worse for consumers as well because we're just going to get worse movies, theoretically, ah which sucks too. So yeah, it's not good.
00:35:35
Speaker
Disney also crossed the $4 billion dollars mark at the box office because of Predator Badlands, which is pretty cool. um But that's unrelated to the earnings report because i was not obviously in the same quarter. But they did mention that, I believe, on the earnings call.
00:35:48
Speaker
Yeah. It's the biggest ah debut for a Predator movie. Financial debut ever. Meeting out Alien vs. Predator, the 2004 Alien vs. Predator movie.
00:35:58
Speaker
or to did you I can't remember if we talked about this. Have you seen those Alien vs. Predator? I watched one of them. Again, it's funny. I keep bringing hockey tournaments last couple episodes, but it is true. You get it. You played hockey, dude. Oh, my goodness. I've never brought them up. I feel like in the last 121 episodes, ah but now in the last two, I've i've mentioned it a few times. ah but like we There was a hockey tournament. We were in a hotel room, and they they put on Alien vs. Predator, which is weird.
00:36:26
Speaker
And was like, what is this? And i and the weird thing is is I hadn't seen any of the Alien movies or the Predator movies at all at the time because I was like 10. I was like, I don't – I mean, I could have watched them, but I was watching this movie. I'm like, what is this? And that's kind of the impression I got about Alien and Predator as I i thought they were kind of bad franchises because this Alien versus Predator movie was just like kind of slop. So it wasn't very good. from my remembering. And I was a kid, so you know you see super cool monsters fighting, you'd think maybe I would have thought it was good. But anyway.
00:37:01
Speaker
But you knew. Even at that young, ripe age, you're like, this is slop. That's what said. Yeah, this is slop. but i that But I also thought that Predator and Alien were both slop because of that. And that's a mistake because Alien's a master. like I think Alien's really good.
00:37:13
Speaker
like The first Alien Ridley Scott movie is is excellent, um just on its own. And so that's obviously where it all came from. And the first Predator movie really great too, honestly. That's like a classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. It's great.
00:37:26
Speaker
who Where was I going with this? Sorry, I interrupted you. Oh, this is the real reason I brought this up. AI. This is the weirdest thing could have. I don't understand this, and that's why I i i put this into the news stories.
00:37:41
Speaker
Disney CEO Bob Iger claims that AI will soon be ah become a bigger part of Disney Plus and that game-like features will be added to this service. Okay. Okay. Here's the quote he said, all right?
00:37:53
Speaker
He said, we're in the midst of rolling out we're quote in the midst of rolling out the biggest and the most significant changes from a product perspective, from a technology perspective, since we launched the service in 2019, unquote.
00:38:08
Speaker
unquote And then the other quote is, before I throw it to you here, quote, the other thing that we're really excited about that AI is going to give us the ability to do is to provide users of Disney Plus with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content, mostly short form, a form from others, unquote.
00:38:34
Speaker
what what what what what what on Disney plus? What are you talking about? And I have no interest in that at all. I personally, I am not the target audience for this. I don't like tech talk very much. I don't use tech talk.
00:38:48
Speaker
I don't try to avoid using Instagram as well. And I, I'm curious to see what you think about this. I do not go to Disney plus or purchase Disney plus. And I, if it gets more expensive because you're putting user generated content on there, I have no, ah especially AI created. i have no idea what you're talking about, but yeah, what are you thinking?
00:39:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's like i'm goingnna I'm going to go into Disney Plus. i'm going to AI generate the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast just beating the living shit out of each other. and They're just having cat fights. Anytime they have an argument, goes into an AI-generated fight between all of them.
00:39:21
Speaker
That's all I'm going to do. Yeah. What do our creators think of this? Speaking of that, I mean, that's the creators who are really doing the least effort, theoretically, the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. But if you look at like somebody like – Who am I thinking here?
00:39:36
Speaker
Like any of Kevin Feige's stuff that he's producing, like any of the Marvel stuff, isn't that going to upset a lot of the actors in it? Like look at Scarlett Johansson's fight with various AI companies yeah so far. Yeah, with OpenAI, right? um Using right their voice.
00:39:51
Speaker
I mean, she's a character in Marvel. She won't make – well, probably not anymore. um Black Widow is probably not coming back. but She exploded. She exploded on the sun. um And yeah, I –
00:40:04
Speaker
She didn't explode on the sun. I just said that. Or did she? We don't spoil anything here. yeah ah She actually exploded on the moon. Crazy. But yeah, no, I think this is ah absurd, man. I hate this as an idea.
00:40:17
Speaker
i don't want to be on Disney+. plus like Okay, let me take a step back. Disney Plus is a service I'm turning off and on consistently. I will let it literally never turn it on.
00:40:30
Speaker
if this AI slot is just overtaking the service, I only want it for a handful of things. You know, the odd show here and there that I'm going binge watch like Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, right? And I turned it on because that show came back.
00:40:43
Speaker
Cool, but I'm not- Alien Earth. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. That's what you're looking for, too. That's what I'm looking for, man. Honestly, the drama the season. Oh, oh my God. Crazy.
00:40:54
Speaker
Good stuff though. But yeah. Yeah. yeah i don't know. I just find this stupid and I, it's such a slippery slope because again, all of these actors and like the SAG after and everything are fighting against like them,
00:41:07
Speaker
I mean, AI actors essentially taking over or actors being replaced by AI or AI using, you know, um their voices, et cetera. There's so many things in place. So it's like, okay, cool.
00:41:18
Speaker
If you are going to launch this weird AI, you know, shorts from the sound of it, because they're focusing on like short form content exclusively, is it going to be all animated stuff and then just have some random AI voice?
00:41:32
Speaker
with actors that have you know sold their voice to that. I don't know. it's it's It's very confusing and this is stupid and I don't understand who this is for. Yeah, they just seem very excited about it too. Why are you excited about this as the CEO?
00:41:47
Speaker
I just feel like they're misguided. there's it There's a belief that there's like an AI bubble that's going to burst, that there's this idea that this this people are they're going way too – it's almost like like a toxic positivity around AI.
00:42:00
Speaker
like they everyone Everyone in this industry like or in in any tech-related or adjacent industry, they kind of are all very excited about it, but – They're almost too excited about it because I'm not excited about it at all.
00:42:15
Speaker
And I think that they are overestimating how much regular their consumers or customers are excited about it. That's what I think is going to happen. But we'll see. Vince Gilligan recently came out about AI. Did you see that?
00:42:27
Speaker
Yeah. at the I don't know if you saw at the end of Pluribus. In the credits, it says this product was made by humans. Yeah, also the credits. Which I thought was really cool. yeah Yeah. um So yeah, I think a lot of creators are against it. And yeah, i don't know. It's interesting because I'm sure this is probably in the montage, so I'm spoiling something.
00:42:46
Speaker
But Noah Hawley, I don't know what his viewpoint on AI is, but he just you know signed a ah deal again with with Disney to continue making um content um for Disney and FX. Yeah.
00:42:59
Speaker
right Is he just kind of cool with this whole AI push as well? And and like he I don't know, like what, his creations are going to be able to be used? There's going to be some Fargo AI short made or something like that? I know he didn't create Fargo, but like based on like his his show and everything. And I don't know.
00:43:15
Speaker
I don't like this. But this is what I was referring to, man. That's an interesting question. What you said about Noah Hawley. I wonder... Is it – what's the line? I found like these quotes are interesting because they're they sound so ridiculous, but there's also like not enough detail for me.
00:43:31
Speaker
You know what i mean? Like i i what what's the line? don't understand what – i don't you know what's interesting about Noah Hawley? Noah Hawley – did you notice Noah Hawley's in the show? i don't know if he's in it a lot of his – is he in Fargo as well at some point? I don't know. Maybe. He must have ah cameos here and there maybe.
00:43:46
Speaker
He plays like – the main AI, like, uh, Sidney Chandler's characters. Oh, uh, Wendy, Wendy's father. Oh, like he's in multiple flashbacks. He doesn't have any speaking parts, but he, he keeps coming up. I'm like, it's him again.
00:44:03
Speaker
Yeah. There he is. Hmm. um But yeah yeah, I don't know. I don't know if he would be good with it. but well but Again, what's the line? ah where Where does the line get drawn?
00:44:15
Speaker
That's the question. I don't know the answer to. It's a mystery. So we'll see, I guess. because what is that This is what I was referring to, man. AI is going to take over. People are going to slowly become more and more accepting of it.
00:44:28
Speaker
And then we're going to get to a point where it's just everything's AI. We become AI.
00:44:34
Speaker
so Vince Gilligan's quote, by the way, is it's a it's a ah pla like ah like a plagiarism plagiarism machine, which is exactly what I think. and That's what sucks about it. it it's just It's pulling content from real creators and then pretending it made it itself.
00:44:51
Speaker
And then everyone's like, yeah, look at this but thing I made by putting in a prompt. but You didn't do shit. like And and the the idea with these tech companies is they want to give you the credit because they want you to use the service because they want you to pay into it and buy into the whole idea of it.
00:45:06
Speaker
So they get more and more and more money from this AI product that they're creating. So they want to legitimize plagiarism. It's a crazy world that we live in. And there's because there's no regulations and there's no push to make regulations in places like Congress where in the United States is a huge player in the AI space.
00:45:25
Speaker
um there's again, especially now with the current administration, there's just, there's not a lot of pushback. It's a scary time. I mean, the current administration is literally using AI to develop pictures and videos and posting them on like a Homeland Security website and dude the actual White House, you know, Twitter page and stuff.
00:45:46
Speaker
It's There's whole thing with Halo and they have Donald Trump in the Master Chief Armor. It's like, get fucked, dude. he he's yeah He's a pedophile and he also sucked Bill Clinton's penis. That's crazy.
00:45:58
Speaker
These emails are nuts. It's crazy. though here's that one There's that freaking one with the plane where he's pooping on... I'm like protesters, peaceful protesters, by the way, and one of the largest protests in American history. It's crazy. Like, that's really, man, let them eat cake. the The president personified. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but it's a lot of it's not that bad.
00:46:22
Speaker
It's not that bad. It's cool. They're the good guys. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Of course, Darth Vader. They're dirt they Darth Vader, according to the AI. Oh, my God. How fucking that stupid do you have to be, man?
00:46:36
Speaker
It's absolutely ridiculous. my God. Jesus. I just, I question anyone at this point that is like, but... but I'm like, dude, he's a pedophile. At least draw the line at pedophilia, you know, at least draw the line at protecting pedophiles at, at at the very least, man. i don't know. Who cares? Whatever.
00:46:57
Speaker
It's not my country. Might be, we might be the 51st state. Who knows? No, don't you dare. Don't you dare say that.
Upcoming Releases and Trailers
00:47:04
Speaker
Okay. Um, last thing is just the trailer roundup. My friend, uh, we've got a lot of trailers this by week.
00:47:12
Speaker
Uh, I'll just name a bunch of them and just, you just tell me any ones that you just stuck out to you. We could talk about them briefly, but man on the, man on the inside season two, you were wondering where the heck they're going to go with that. That's interesting.
00:47:23
Speaker
ah Michael, I wrote Michael and I don't remember what that is. That's the Michael Jackson one. Oh, yeah, it is. Right. Yeah, I did watch the trailer. ah The Night Manager season two. I saw that trailer. Toy Story five, which is interesting because what happened to wood Woody is not seem to be addressed at the end of season four. Anyway, season four. Episode four.
00:47:44
Speaker
but Episode four of Toy Story. Toy Story episode four. Right. Super Mario Galaxy movie. Good luck. Have fun. Don't die from Gore Verbinski. That's a weird one with Sam Rockwell. I don't know if you that.
00:47:56
Speaker
it's good. He's like a guy comes from the future from the future and he's trying to save humanity, but it's a wacky trailer. It's crazy. Gore Verbinski is the guy who like directed ah the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
00:48:08
Speaker
and Okay. Directed at this, but. um in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but Devil Wears Prada 2, Monarch Legacy of Monsters Season 2, and Fallout Season 2 trailer. A lot of these trailers are pretty great.
00:48:20
Speaker
i'm i'm I'm hyped for Fallout. I'm hyped for Monarch like Legacy of monarch Monsters. Me too. love the yeah the duo, the Russell drew a duo. you know Kurt and Wyatt.
00:48:33
Speaker
Kurt and Wyatt. But yeah, anything standard to you? Yeah, man. I thought the Monarch Legacy of Monsters, it's like a teaser trailer because it's only like a minute long, but it's cool and it reveals a lot of interesting stuff. It looks like they're going to Kong, like Skull Island, sorry.
00:48:47
Speaker
um They're going to Kong, dude. So it's cool to to be back on Skull Island because I think Pound for pound, I think Kong Skull Island is still the best movie in this in this legendary franchise, in my opinion.
00:49:01
Speaker
100%. I agree. And I love that setting. It's really fun. And again, a movie that we're going to be talking about today, Predator Badlands, reminds me a lot about Kong Skull Island. Like it seems like it's like this death planet and instead of a death island.
00:49:15
Speaker
Like everything's fucking trying to kill you. It's really fun. So i'm I'm very curious what they can do and if they're it's going to be like a little bit more action packed. And again, the the animation, like the CG animation looks so good.
00:49:26
Speaker
And it's a TV show because we were just talking about, you know, CG animation. Apple man. um Apple. Yeah, it's a great fruit. I love that as a fruit. Apple a day keeps the doctor away, baby.
00:49:37
Speaker
um But yeah, no, I know you're talking about the streaming service, the company Apple. I know that you're talking about them. um But yeah, this is very exciting. I really liked that first season.
00:49:50
Speaker
And I'm curious where this will kind of go and how it's going to tie into the rest. It's interesting though, like this legendary episode, monster universe is is so tonally mismatched
00:50:06
Speaker
but for whatever reason i still got buying and i'm still a good time um like the last one where it's like we got oh my god project power glove or whatever the fuck they called it oh it's ridiculous Yeah. And they're like, oh, you mean the they have this glove on this island for Kong for the exact hand that he that he hurt in the movie?
00:50:25
Speaker
What a wacky premise. But a crazy it's fun. At the end of the day, it's fucking fun. It's fun, but I think Kong Skull Island is a good movie, like a legitimately good movie. I think most people would agree with that. And the rest of the franchise, maybe the first Godzilla is pretty good too, but I feel like first Godzilla 2014, sorry, in a million Godzilla movies from like the 1950s, right? ah But I mean like the new the new monarch verse or whatever they're trying to do here, with like legacy light, legacy, legendary pictures.
00:50:56
Speaker
And so I really like this. Again, this is a call to Apple too. The other thing that they do really well is they seem to spend more money than they make on Apple TV content, which I really appreciate. And again, they just let the creators do what they want to do.
00:51:09
Speaker
there's like some of the budgets they seem to have is unbelievable. So I am excited about this. Uh, yeah, I'm curious about it. Did you watch any of the other trailers? Anything else you're keen on? I watched the fallout season two trailer.
00:51:21
Speaker
Um, it's good. Again, I'm, I don't think I was as hot on fallout season one as the vast majority of people. I thought it was good TV, but I just, I don't love it. And I have no real attachment to the franchise, but I'll watch this.
00:51:33
Speaker
I'll watch this. I like Ella Purnell. I like, um, I like other actors in it. Walton Goggins. ah Sorry. um So like I'm in it. Justin Theroux. Justin Theroux. Yeah. He's a guy. He's a guy on a television.
00:51:46
Speaker
Macaulay Culkin. Macaulay Culkin. He's a guy. Hasn't been much. Yeah. He's in a home in this. Actually, I think he probably isn't in home. Yeah. Unless he's at home in the wasteland, if that's what you mean. But yeah. The the entire wasteland is his house and he's got traps.
00:52:04
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. Maybe. But yeah, it looks fun. Maybe. There is, it's interesting because I'm trying to remember, there's a plot thread that happened in at the end of season one with the the one character from Hannah Montana.
00:52:20
Speaker
And was he in this trailer? You know the Hannah Montana kid in Fallout? the guy in Superstore? that the same guy? ah Sorry.
00:52:32
Speaker
Hannah Montana. I don't know the Hannah Montana because I didn't watch Hannah Montana. ah Moses Arias. Oh, that guy. Yeah. was he he was in this Was he in this trailer?
00:52:45
Speaker
so I don't remember seeing him. Yeah. because i'm Oh, no, not that guy. Oh, that guy. No, I have no idea who that is. You didn't know Moses Arise? He's in season one. Oh, you're talking about, oh, he's in the vault.
00:52:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He plays her brother. Exactly. yeah And i'm I'm most curious about his plot line, actually. Yeah, what's happening in the vault? Yeah, I don't think that he was shown in the trailer. I could be wrong. They Zach Cherry, though.
00:53:13
Speaker
They do indeed. They do indeed. So he's kind of related to that plot line a little bit. man I really like Zach Terry. I forgot he's in the show. He had like a, there's like been a a lot of surgeons of Zach Terry. He's just in a lot of stuff.
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like he, like the first time I i really remember him is in you, like the first season of you. feel like it's Spider-Man for me.
00:53:40
Speaker
But like where I mean, like he's like a prominent role because in Spider-Man, he's like Spider-Man do a flip. But in you, he's like an actual character, right? Like you're, but when I saw him in you, I said Spider-Man do a flip.
00:53:51
Speaker
I'm pretty sure if I recall correctly, you just by yourself in your room and said that. No, I was watching it with i know i'm be watching has my fiancé.
00:54:02
Speaker
I know. Okay. I know. I was just being facetious. I was just doing a i was trying to have a little fun here. so let's try to have a little I'm wrong. There's no way I did that because you came out before.
00:54:13
Speaker
Sorry, you came out after. Oh, that's why I did it. Yeah, never mind. See it? My brain just had a fart again. It did the same thing as it did earlier. It's it's like getting things out of order. No, no, Homecoming came out first because it came out in 2017. Okay, anyway.
00:54:25
Speaker
um Yeah, it's it's cool. I'm excited to see this. We'll see how it goes. I also kind of vaguely interested in The Night Manager season two. That's like, I feel like that was 10 years. and never even watched the first one. It's pretty great. forgot the show existed. That's HBO. Yeah.
00:54:42
Speaker
No. Is it? Is Showtime? i I don't know. I'm asking you. I don't know. I don't believe so. I don't know what network it's on. Night Manager Network. Before we move on here. ah Oh, it's a BBC show. AMC.
00:54:57
Speaker
AMC, BBC. I think Collaboration. It's cool. It's a very, yeah this was the the time in which I saw Tom Hiddleston and I thought, well, he could be James Bond. I could see it.
00:55:08
Speaker
Yeah. I could see it. pretty It's pretty cool. It has, ah it's this came in 2016. Literally, it's almost a decade, dude. Yeah, it's coming out next year, like season two. And that is a decade. It's a full decade, dude.
00:55:19
Speaker
What are they doing? What have they been up to the last 10 years? And lastly, did you see the man on the inside trailer? Because I wanted to mention it to you because I'd be curious if you kind of came around on the idea like, how are they going to go from here? where they get What are they going to do?
00:55:32
Speaker
No, I saw it. I saw it pop up, but I didn't watch it. I forgot to. That's okay. Should I watch it right now? Or do you want to describe it to me? No, no, no. It's okay. Can you describe to me? I don't remember it in that much detail.
00:55:44
Speaker
So let's move on now, Adrian. and Oh, wait. Super Mario Galaxy. Hey. It's Brie brie but bree Larson's Rosalina. Yeah, that's right. Benny Safdie.
00:55:55
Speaker
I was kind of surprised to see Benny Safdie. I was like, they always like pick these like well-known actors and then they pick Benny Safdie, who I really like. I think he's great. He's also an amazing director. So that's cool.
00:56:06
Speaker
ah But they were like, and it's Benny Safdie. I'm like, oh, okay. Because it wasn't the second person they announced as well. You would think you kind of would kind of lead with Benny Safdie and then go into Brie Larson. Yeah.
00:56:18
Speaker
Just for the, for the kind of the, the, the hype. It's Jack Black had a lot of hype in that. Did you watch the Nintendo direct? No, I didn't watch the full direct. I just watched the trail. It was only like seven minutes. I was like, let's see what, like, what can you do here to set up a trailer for seven minutes? Okay. Cause the trailer is going to be like two minutes tops.
00:56:37
Speaker
So it's three minutes tops. So we're like, what are you going to do to set it up? And they set it up pretty well. Jack Black was there. He was really, really, really high on energy as usual. So. Yeah. He's probably the best thing about that first movie.
00:56:49
Speaker
Yeah. That movie was weird, but I still enjoyed it enough. You didn't? Oh, you thought it was weird. Why? i don't know. It just felt tonally a little odd. um I thought good. Like I thought it was fine, but I didn't love it.
00:57:02
Speaker
I was just kind of like, cool. Will I watch this next one? Probably at some point. I just remember there being like, It's like a kid's movie all in all. and then all of a sudden you have this like suicidal star that shows up and you're like what the fuck?
00:57:16
Speaker
a Suicidal star. Oh yeah. cage That's the best thing about the movie. Actually, that was the best thing about the movie. Yeah. that It made me laugh. Dude, what? It just came out of nowhere. Yeah.
00:57:27
Speaker
Where I feel like. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah. No. I was going to say about illumination. Cause you, you, you kind of threw shade at illumination a few times on this podcast. Like the first hundred episodes. Typically. Yeah.
00:57:38
Speaker
I like their animation a lot. I think their animation is really good. That's not the issue. I feel like the writing isn't as tight as Pixar, as an example. So I think if they could keep the same animation style, I think the Super Mario movie looks great.
00:57:53
Speaker
But I feel like it would have been cool if they... had writers that were a little bit more like Pixar-esque. Like they were writing a little bit more adult, but throughout the movie, not in one segment where there's a suicidal star, as you as you called it.
00:58:08
Speaker
So that would been cool. But yeah, I think that's kind of the the trick with it. Because I like the animation. and that That is something I do like. I think that it's it seems like high budget animation. It seems like they do a great job there.
00:58:20
Speaker
But yeah. Good stuff. Cool. All right. Oh, also, why is it called Super Mario Galaxy and not Super Mario World? Don't you want to set up this this to be ah set this up to be a like a trilogy at the very least? like What are you going to call the next one?
00:58:34
Speaker
Super Smash Super Mario Odyssey.
00:58:38
Speaker
What? Super Smash Bros. super that's not That's a downgrade, though. You're getting bigger, right? Yeah, I guess.
00:58:50
Speaker
Go larger. Odyssey is a good one, I think. Yeah. And it's directed by Christopher Nolan. Right. This isn't in the in the in the document at all. But there was a there was like a ah thing that came out about Christopher Nolan having ah like done the production of audit The Odyssey for 91 days or something like that. And it was like two was it two miles of oh yeah film.
00:59:12
Speaker
Hold up. Sorry. Not two miles. Two million feet of film. And they're filming. This is the this is why I'm literally – other than i love Christopher Nolan movies, love what he does. and ah he just does like he's He's a unique individual. I love him.
00:59:25
Speaker
but so And the Odyssey hasn't really been done in this kind of grand way. But he's filming practically on a ship. And he was trying to capture what it would have been like to to sail on one of these giant like tall ships.
00:59:41
Speaker
I, I, I, it's, that's pretty badass. Of course he's doing it practically. He's Christopher Nolan. We didn't, I don't know if we talked about how, what he would try to do to bring practicality to this particular project, but there was always a joke with Oppenheimer, like, oh, he's going to blow the atomic bomb for real or something like that. You know, in this, he's like, he's, he's put together ship, I guess. And he's, he's filming it with IMAX cameras almost completely.
01:00:07
Speaker
like 70 millimeter in the actual ocean. It's crazy, man. I'm very excited about it. Incredibly. Okay, now we will move on to the montage, Adrian, a sequence of our show in which I briefly present at least seven of the bi-weeks' smaller news stories as Adrian delivers a brisk verdict.
01:00:24
Speaker
Number one. According to publication Deadline, Severance actor Tramiel Tillman and Lord of the Rings actor Ian McKellen have been cast in Pearl director Ty West's Ebenezer, A Christmas Carol, with Johnny Depp making his blockbuster comeback as Ebenezer Scrooge.
01:00:41
Speaker
Neat. Number two. As announced by Netflix, the Kristen Bell starring comedy series Nobody Wants This has been renewed for season three and is scheduled for a 2026 release date. Really cool. close I'll watch season three. I thought season two was pretty good.
01:00:55
Speaker
Not as good as the first, but pretty good. Number three. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, a Gremlins three film is in the works at Warner Brothers with Steven Spielberg producing, Harry Potter director Chris Columbus directing, and a scheduled release window of November 2027.
Series and Film Announcements
01:01:10
Speaker
crazy. This guy not only colonized America, but then he also directed a bunch of Harry Potter movies. Impressive. Oh, geez, Louise. Number four. As reported by Deadline, shrinking and dead lasso writer and star Brett Goldstein is writing, starring and producing an eight episode comedy series called Escorted about an accidental male escort for Amazon Prime Video. That's cool. I don't know you accidentally become a male escort, but hey, let's find out, man. Let's find out over the course of eight episodes.
01:01:38
Speaker
Number five. As Deadline reports, baby girl actor Nicole Kidman has been cast in the monkey director Osgood Perkins' upcoming horror film Young People. Lola Tung, Nico Parker, Tatiana Maslany, Lily Collins, Heather Graham, and Johnny Knoxville have also been cast in the film. Oscar Perkins is just fucking releasing movies like ah he's on a conveyor belt. It's crazy, dude.
01:02:01
Speaker
not Not that it's a bad thing, but it's like, damn, dude, I gotta watch Keeper still. Not particularly greatly reviewed. I think it's around the same as... The Running Man. But else I want to watch it.
01:02:12
Speaker
I would like to. Number six. According to Variety, an HBO V for Vendetta TV series is in the works with DC studio heads Peter Safran and James Gunn producing. And Pete Jackson said to write the series. Interesting. Okay, cool.
01:02:27
Speaker
I have not a huge attachment to V for Vendetta, but I did watch that movie when I was a kid and didn't fully understand it. I love that movie. I'll just say it says Pete Jackson because it said Pete Jackson on Variety. And I didn't know that Peter Jackson goes by Pete Jackson. I assume it's Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings. But I didn't write that here because i I don't know if it's the same guy. And I could not find the answer to that question going to the Variety article and reading it thoroughly. So maybe anyway, maybe it's a maybe it's a Danny Glover, Donald Glover sort of situation.
01:02:55
Speaker
Yeah, but those names are different. It could be. Yeah. They're not sure if Donald and Danny are anyway. Number seven. As Deadline reports, Disney has renewed FX TV series Alien Earth for a second season, which will begin filming in London next year.
01:03:11
Speaker
Alien Earth showrunner Noah Hawley has also extended his long term deal with Disney and network FX. Heck yeah, dude. I can't wait. I'm excited. This is great. Number eight. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Luther star Idris Elba will return to headline as Detective Luther for another Luther revival film at Netflix that is set to begin filming next year. Awesome. I really like that Luther receiver.
01:03:35
Speaker
Number 9. As announced by Kojima Productions, another animated series adaptation of game director Hideo Kojima's PlayStation game series Death Stranding will launch on Disney Plus in 2027, will be directed by Attack on Titans director Takayuki Sano, and currently holds the working title Death Stranding Isolations.
01:03:55
Speaker
I'm all in, baby. I'm all in. Number 10. According to Deadline, Peacock has canceled the Natasha Lyonne starring mystery series Poker Face after its second season. With that being said, though, creator Ryan Johnson and producer Natasha Lyonne are actively shopping the show to other networks, but with Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage replacing Lyonne in the starring role. That's interesting. and They do look quite similar, but I'm curious how they're gonna play it.
01:04:22
Speaker
Right. Number 11. As reported by publication Variety, Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons movie directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daly are set to direct a Star Trek reboot film for Paramount.
01:04:34
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, thanks for rereading that and clarifying it. Oh, that's thank goodness. Thank goodness we had to read that again to resolve the issue. No one will know that because I cut that part out that I reread it. Anyway, whatever. And that concludes the montage. BOOM!
01:04:53
Speaker
All right. We're doing it. We're doing it.
Reality TV and Personal Preferences
01:04:55
Speaker
We're on to the reviews that what we've been watching segment of our podcast, Adrian's Split Focus, Film and TV Podcast, episode one, two, three. What did you watch this week before we get into the thing we watched together?
01:05:06
Speaker
Oh, okay. Let's do kind of a little bit of a back and forth because I watched a few things, but there's a few things that I watched that lead up to the thing that we both watched, okay? Okay, okay, okay, okay. Does that make sense to you?
01:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, let's do it. Okay, cool, cool, cool. So um I watched, because i so I redid my Disney Plus subscription for for two reasons, Simon. One, Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. It's back, baby. Season three, I'm in it. We're three episodes in, my fiance and I. God, these women.
01:05:36
Speaker
What are you guys up to is So much drama. I love it. It's fun, dude. um So many secrets. So many lives. There's an affair scandal going on this season, Simon. An affair.
01:05:49
Speaker
Whoa. With one of the guys from Vanderpump Villa. Whoa. Marciano. Crossover. Yeah, from Vanderpump Villa. Wow. That's like the CSI crossover. Incredible.
01:05:59
Speaker
It is. It's more interesting, though. um
01:06:05
Speaker
So yeah, watching that, pretty good. Again, I really like this show. i I like reality TV, but I don't – I realize like the reality TV I like is when you're following us like set characters and you're kind of following their their story as opposed to like the the dating reality. Because like I got into reality with The Bachelor, I would say.
01:06:24
Speaker
It's like, you know, you get into it and it's like a long season of this cast. And at least with The Bachelor, when like the second, like the the following season comes out, there's like a recurring character because typically The Bachelor or The Bachelorette is, you know, someone that made it fairly far into the previous season. And now they're The Bachelor or The Bachelorette.
01:06:41
Speaker
So I got into this um because that. But then, you know, there's the other like dating shows like Love is Blind, which I just I don't don't give a fuck about. um The Ultimatum, which is like the the the first queer love season was pretty good. The second one fucking sucked. And the the regular show, just not interesting. So I'm kind of like out of reality TV, except for this show. Vanderpump Rules is coming back for season 12.
01:07:02
Speaker
Whole new cast, though. So we'll see how that works. um Anyways. so What was I saying? Oh, yeah, pretty good. Oh, also, plot twist. Frankie, who's one of the main characters in Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, she's going to be the next Bachelorette.
01:07:19
Speaker
Whoa. So there's like an extra crossover here, which is crazy. She has two – it's crazy because – so Gabby, she was the Bachelorette a few years ago. This was the first Bachelorette season I watched, right?
01:07:32
Speaker
And I felt so – I really like Gabby. She's great. She was in The Traitors last year, right? And Gabby's great. Um, and she, like, I felt bad for Cause like during the bachelor, that she's like, you know, I'm kind of like, I'm like damaged, like I'm damaged goods. Like I have a bad, you know, relationship with my parents. Like things didn't go well, yada, yada, yada. Right.
01:07:52
Speaker
And like a lot of people were like, oh, she has too much baggage. Right. Right. So, you know, it, you know, it didn't end particularly well for Gabby in, in, in regards to that show. She's, I think she's, um, married or at least engaged now with, uh,
01:08:05
Speaker
with a comedy woman. um I forget the the woman's name. Yeah, she came out as, she's bisexual and they got married. Super cool. Anyway, Simon. But yeah, so Frankie, she's going on and she's going to be the next bachelorette.
01:08:19
Speaker
But this woman has two separate baby daddies. I think three kids. Her relationship with her parents are fucked. Whoa. you know, and like, and you're watching and you see like her relationship with her parents in the show, at least her mom. Cause I don't, I don't think her dad's in the show, but her stepdad's in it.
01:08:35
Speaker
That guy's a piece of shit. Anyways, long story short, and she's going on the bachelorette and everyone was complaining that Gabby's too damaged, but like this Frankie woman, you're going through it. So like, I feel like anyone that's going to be on the bachelorette, you're just there for the clout.
01:08:48
Speaker
Why would you want to be with Frankie?
01:08:51
Speaker
Anyways, I'm going to continue. Um, so got Disney plus because of that, right? The, and since I have, since I have Disney plus,
Marvel Zombies and Gaming Reviews
01:09:03
Speaker
go on. It's all good. It's all good. Yeah. Since I have Disney plus, there's a couple of things, you know, maybe I want to watch there's a TV show that came out not too long ago, which I was curious about. And was Marvel zombies. Did you watch it as well, Simon?
01:09:14
Speaker
Cause I didn't finish it. I only watched the, I did not. I never watched. I haven't, I've been really trying to catch up on various Disney plus shows and I just haven't really dived into that one. Okay. it's So I watched the first two out of the four episodes. I plan to finish it. It's pretty good.
01:09:29
Speaker
And it is a continuation of the What If episode that came out like a few years prior. I think it it says that it takes place like five years later or something like that. I forget. And the cool part about this Marvel Zombies show that I was like kind of thinking about, it right? Because...
01:09:45
Speaker
Like, how do you get attached to these characters that you technically don't really know that are, like, getting murdered left and right? And it's because a lot of the main cast has come back for the show, which is kind of neat. Not not everyone, but a lot of it is.
01:09:59
Speaker
And then if you've been watching the Marvel movies, you have some sort of attachment to these characters. So it's really cool when they're willing to kill off characters characters that you would never expect in quite brutal ways.
01:10:14
Speaker
I'm like, this is kind of a neat idea. And again, it gets you attached very quickly to what's happening in universe. Even though, again, this is technically a what if story and continuing. The animation is not great. I think like it's, it's interesting. It's similar to with the what if style, but I just don't really like how it looks, especially in comparison to,
01:10:37
Speaker
a game you and I actually just played, but it is essentially like a TV show called Dispatch. It's similar actually in animation style. It's not that far off. Yeah, but Dispatch looks better and it almost seems more, i don't want to say more polished because that it's still very polish polish polish still a very show.
01:10:56
Speaker
polished show I don't want to disparate it too much. I just think like, because I was playing Dispatch the same time as I was watching this. I'm like, man, it's kind of crazy that this video game looks... and runs almost better then the than the TV show looks like. What a great game though.
01:11:12
Speaker
I got to say, I really, really like it. It's one of my favorite games of this year, which is shocking. I thought it was excellent. And the voice acting in it stars Aaron Paul and- Jeffrey Wright.
01:11:23
Speaker
Jeffrey Wright, which is like a pretty significant, I can't believe how much Jeffrey Wright's in it, just because Jeffrey Wright's big time, in my opinion. I think Aaron Paul is pretty big time too, but he's been in less than Jeffrey Wright. Jeffrey Wright, didn't he get nominated for an Oscar?
01:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's been nominated for Oscars, 100%. hundred percent And Aaron Paul has won Emmys. Yeah. so Impressive. So it is a cool cast. And it's funny. So I was playing this with my fiance. Like she was sitting on the couch kind of watching it with me because she was invested.
01:11:51
Speaker
And she was saying like, man, Aaron Paul is like a really great voice actor. I'm like, yeah well, he's a really great actor as well. And she's like, yeah, like I'm sure he is because he's in Breaking Bad, but she's never watched Breaking Bad.
01:12:02
Speaker
So her only interactions with Aaron Paul, like her only understanding of him is as a voice actor in BoJack Horseman and in Dispatch. I'm like, that's kind of a cool perspective. Um, but yeah, what a great game, dude. What a great game.
01:12:16
Speaker
And again, it's, it's a story and it's kind of your choose your own adventure as well. Um, I was looking at your trophies. You, you made a couple of different choices, specifically your romance option. Different for Easy, yeah easy choice for me. Oh, not for me, man. I want the baddie, you know?
01:12:32
Speaker
i know. I know you're going to that. I had a feeling, I had a feeling I didn't check your trophies. I checked your trophies and I saw I'm like, it makes sense. It makes sense that you'd go for her. And even my fiance was like, yeah, and I can't see Simon going for like the bad girl.
01:12:44
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, I know. Simon likes the, likes the good girl. don't know. Anyway. Anyways. What can I say? Yeah. That became a little bit too seductive there.
01:12:55
Speaker
But anyways, going back to Marvel zombies. I think it's pretty interesting the way, again, it it can hook you in by, by having these characters. And again, there, since it's such a contained story, literally no one's safe. And you get that within the first five to 10 minutes of the, of the episode, realistically, like what they're willing to do and kind of the path they're willing to go down.
01:13:14
Speaker
um And yeah, again, it just continues to be interesting. I i do want to finish it. um I just haven't really had the time. I've been sick. um So I've been kind of like in and out and watching secret lives with my fiance and then,
01:13:28
Speaker
I couldn't sleep on Friday night. um And I literally just played video games for like fucking five hours. It was crazy. I got two Platinums that night. I finished Silent Hill F and go see Yote.
01:13:40
Speaker
Wow. Within. Yeah. Anyways, that's what your thoughts on Yote having finished it. Just really brief. We're not a video game podcast here, Adrian. Yeah. Um, it's it's It's a great game.
01:13:52
Speaker
It's just not for me. You're not a big open world guy. You've just never been a big open world guy, I feel like. Yeah, there's been a ah hand a hand few that have like really hooked me like the first Horizon and even Horizon Forbidden West um and like Cyberpunk and Red Dead. Yeah.
01:14:08
Speaker
But like all in all, I'm not a huge open world guy. And like for me, Ghost of Yote, I think it's better than Tsushima from Recollection. But I just, i don't know, there's something I'm just like, I just don't care enough about like, okay, move here, collect this, do this, yada, yada, yada. And I feel like it always messes up the pacing.
01:14:25
Speaker
um But again, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, probably one of my favorite games, if not my favorite game of this generation. That's an open world game, technically, and I fucking adore it. um so Yeah, there's also like the mystery in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth a little bit. Like you love the story of Final Fantasy VII. You know what's coming. Where is it going to pop up?
01:14:44
Speaker
let's get how is it going to How is it going to be told in this completely new remake? It's kind of interesting in that way. And when you remake something in that that deep of a level, you get to kind of be... Like, oh, they just threw they threw that in here in this way. This animation is incredible in this because it's completely different. It's crazy how drastically different the Final Fantasy 7 trilogy of games is different from the original Final Fantasy 7, which is one game.
01:15:10
Speaker
yeah But anyway, so that's definite another thing too. But I have a theory that it could be the detail level as well. Like when you look at Red Dead, Red Dead is so detailed. just like a It's like the production per square inch for that open world game in comparison to like The Last of Us, you know what i mean? Where The Last Us not an open world game at all.
01:15:28
Speaker
But you can see how much detail is in every little aspect of Red Dead 2 and that kind of maybe pulls you in is my theory. The immersion level is high because the AI, in a good way, the AI, like the actual, not the generated content, but the AI and the NPCs, their minds, what they're doing, they're going to their jobs and walking along the street versus yeah um some open world games where you kind of feel like there's a lot of just people standing still and they're just...
01:15:54
Speaker
kind of doing yeah nothing. They're not, they don't feel like they, they have lives. It doesn't feel immersive. It feels like a lived in experience. Great, great word. Yeah. turn And yeah, I don't know. I think that's kind of my issue with, with go see day. However, I will like say, man, like the the power of,
01:16:13
Speaker
like the feeling of power that you get in that game is so satisfying. The combat, yeah. it's it's a I don't love the one-on-one combat, and I think that's a lot of that has to do with I played other games that I feel like the combat's a little bit tighter on one-on-one. Like I played Black Myth Wukong just before that, and I think that's like a better...
01:16:31
Speaker
combat focused game when especially with the boss battles but this game like when i'm tearing through an enemy encampment just fucking murdering people and just like absolutely dominating it is so satisfying and like the flow of combat's fun you're running through you you assassinate like three guys then you pick up a sword throw it at a dude pull out like a fucking bow and shoot someone in the head it's like it's so kinetic So like I had a lot of fun with it, but at the end of it, like when I finished it, I'm like, cool, I'll probably never go back to this again.
01:17:01
Speaker
And, um you know, I'll remember it. And the reason why i got to the end and I was like, I did everything that you could. And I knew like, I'm going to finish the game. And that's when the platinum trophy is going to pop. And I was at 124 Platinums. And I was like, you know, I don't want this to be my 125th Platinum because I feel like that's a marker. So I finished and like beat Silent Hill F for the fourth time to make that my 125th Platinum because I truly loved that game.
01:17:26
Speaker
um I thought it was like- Linear. such Again, not open world. everything is tight survival horror terrifying amazing story that like reveals itself the more you play it and the more times you beat it because there's different endings and has different perspective to the endings that came prior phenomenal and i am more of a horror guy to be fair so it just it just that's a franchise that i'm curious about in terms of film like have they ever even dabbled in that at all did they ever announce anything coming for that oh they have Yeah, so there's two movies that came out in the past, one in 2004 or 2002, made by a director. I forget his name.
01:18:01
Speaker
um And I think that one was based on the first game. Yeah. But they changed a couple of things with it to um like, so it wasn't like a beat for beat remake of the game.
01:18:13
Speaker
And then they did a sequel, different director though. And it what I think that movie had no connection to the game other than like Pyramid Head and stuff like that. Okay. The director of the first movie that was based on the first game is coming out with a new Silent Hill 2 movie based on the second game.
01:18:31
Speaker
And it seems like it's going to be kind of following that story beat for beat. um They released a trailer of that a few months ago. Looks very low budget and not particularly great. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah. I feel like they have something they could they could make something in terms of like a cross media potential in a TV show or a movie and like really put the budget behind it and make it sing. did make a TV show as well. I think it was like a pi Sony Pictures core exclusive. It was the Silent Hill Ascension and it was kind of like viewers could vote.
01:19:00
Speaker
on what was going to happen. And there's like a lot of weird AI generated stuff in it. I think it was very poorly um regarded, but um me, I'm new into silent Hill. I played silent Hill two either earlier this year or late last year. And then now silent Hill F I'm like a new silent Hill fan. Like I'm, I'm all in on day one on any new silent Hill product. i'm going to try it out.
01:19:21
Speaker
So I'm yeah invested in that universe. So anyways, I went off on a tangent. Marvel zombies, pretty good. I like it. If you have Disney plus worth a watch, it's only four episodes. And I think he every episode is about a half hour or give or take of it.
01:19:34
Speaker
Okay.
01:19:37
Speaker
Cool. Now you want to talk a little bit about Pluribus before I dive into the couple other things that I watched? Cause the couple other things are going to lead up to predator badlands. Okay. Sounds good. Okay, cool.
01:19:49
Speaker
Purpose. New TV series from Vince Gilligan. It's on Apple TV+. plus Again, budget kills it. I have so much budget. i I've watched mostly Vince Gilligan's work on sort of naep network cable TV with AMC. He hasn't been to you isn't able to you know put in more than one swear. This is different.
01:20:11
Speaker
There's more swearing in this. Definitely. ah It stars ah Ray Seahorn from Better Call Saul. And she's really, really great in this. And essentially the plot line is...
01:20:24
Speaker
She's the most miserable person in the way in the world. um Everyone seems to have... I don't know how much we should talk about. Actually, how much should we spoil? Because I don't want to talk about it too deeply. Because it's a surprise in the first episode. The trailers were really mysterious. like She's being talked through...
01:20:42
Speaker
Through the television from somebody at the White House at on the podium and like the the press briefings, and they're talking through the TV at her while she's on the phone with this person. It seems like everyone's kind of brainwashed in a weird way and she's not. And so the question is like what is the deal? How this happen?
01:21:01
Speaker
How did this happen? yeah And it's a science fiction series, like deeply science fiction, as opposed to other things Vince Gilligan has made, like Better Call Saul and but and and obviously Breaking Bad, one of the greatest shows, well regarded to be one of the greatest shows ever made.
01:21:15
Speaker
So i don how much do we want to spoil it? I don't even know. or Should we be able to be talk about the the the main premise okay? Because I want to say you kind of nailed some of the premise and in one of our earlier episodes. You kind of predicted it pretty well, which is pretty cool.
01:21:30
Speaker
I don't know if I, I don't know if I gave it as much thought that it was really what you said. to I'm like, oh he really, he got this. But i um I like being surprised though, in general, in these types of shows. And it it is a mystery show in a large way. And the premise is kind of reminds me of it's not similar, but in in the way that it's a mystery, like severance in a way, cause there's a lot of questions.
01:21:51
Speaker
The premise gives you a lot of like, what could happen? How are they going to, the biggest question I have though, is how are they going to progress this show? for a full season and multiple seasons. Like, what are you going to do? Because there's an there's a level of like, how do you go from here? And the idea is they keep reinventing and evolving the plot, I think is the best way to do it.
01:22:11
Speaker
But Severance has all these questions like, well, their their brains are split between work and life balance and how, what would happen with their wife at home versus having a work, like a life, you know, like a kind of a work relationship. And like, ah did yeah did they ever talk to their boss outside of work? All these different questions that come about from Severance. This is kind of similar and it's such a high level, like a really great concept. And like the, if you are a great writing team, what can you do to use this concept and really make it sing? And really the writing is so smart. I've only watched two episodes so far.
01:22:46
Speaker
I watched it. It's just, I haven't watched the third yet. It's really good. But the writing is just so tight and everything seems smart. The characters make decisions that make sense for them. And I really appreciate that. Sorry, I have thrown a few earlier than this, what do you think about the spoiler aspect first before we maybe dive too much? it's tough. I don't really want to reveal too much about it, but that yeah it is really cool in the sense of the trailers didn't reveal anything about really the premise. And I, you know, people were able to kind of speculate online.
01:23:16
Speaker
And my favorite part about it is in the first episode, within 20 minutes, they reveal, hey, this
Series Analysis and Comparisons
01:23:23
Speaker
is the mystery. This is how it happened. This is what's going on. Yeah. Yeah.
01:23:27
Speaker
And it's set up. And you're like, damn, dude, I thought this was going to be like a seasons-wide mystery. And you're telling me right off the bat, like, where are you going to go with this? And again, as you mentioned, it I think it's just such a great writing team that it's – I mean i'm mean, I'm so intrigued. And it constantly – it makes you, as a viewer, ask so many more questions while it's revealing things. It's not necessarily even asking – questions, they're revealing answers and it makes you be like, Oh, well, if that's the case, then what about this? What about this?
01:23:56
Speaker
And it just keeps on showing you more and more stuff. um And I think it's, I think it's brilliant because I don't necessarily think this is a wholly unique idea in the sense of I'm pretty confident. Rick and Morty has done this almost exact premise.
01:24:14
Speaker
ah It's just done. So it's a how How can I word this? It's not a unique premise done in an incredibly unique way because of Vince Gilligan's style. And you can tell this is a Vince Gilligan show a lot of the times by not only the writing, but the way it's shot, where it's set, everything. It feels like a Vince Gilligan TV show, just like the camera angles at certain points.
01:24:40
Speaker
i I don't know if he's using the same like cinematographer guy as as he did in in Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, but it just... he He has a specific style, and it's cool to see that style that we've, again, watched with Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad being a grounded like cartel, like fucking dark, dreary universe set in this more... mean, it's still Albuquerque, but it's it's sci-fi now, and there's a crazy premise going on.
01:25:07
Speaker
um And yeah, I'm super invested in this. i let It's interesting because I'm watching this with my fiance. She does not like Carol, the main character. She's like, she she's frustrating. She's like, I understand why she's doing what she's doing, but it's still frustrating to watch.
01:25:22
Speaker
And like, she's just... you know She's like, I can empathize. like i I understand you know like why, again, why she's acting out and how she is reacting. But as a viewer, you're still like, man, chill the fuck out. you know um Whereas for me, I really like Carol as a character. And again, I empathize and I feel like I would be acting a very similar way.
01:25:40
Speaker
yeah um Again, it's kind of difficult to talk about, again, from a premise perspective, just because I don't, I think the reveal is so cool and it happens so fast. Yeah. And again, it makes your mind start racing immediately.
01:25:54
Speaker
It's cool. It's really cool how deep it is. That's and that's always something that impressed me about Severance is that there's this... You really thought it... It's very thoughtful on a very deep level. And they they show you how deep it is because they they they pretty much reveal how it happens in the first, as you mentioned, 20 minutes, how it happens on a deep level. Because you're not then asking asking the question if they just introduced Carol right away as an example. They're not just saying...
01:26:19
Speaker
kind of you're you're kind of wondering as an audience, but how, but how, like, you're you're like, what, but how did it, did it penetrate all levels of human race? This, this, to this extent, like you were kind of questioning it. You don't have to question it. They explain it pretty beatfor beat for beat.
01:26:35
Speaker
And I will point out, yeah, that's a great point about Vince Gilligan, like his style of, even the way he does dialogue and the way he, he holds shots and, And there's there's this element of In the very beginning, I just think about those big satellites and how it's on shot with those two guys standing there smoking.
01:26:52
Speaker
And they got that. Well, no, not smoking. So they're like playing soccer or something, football. And they've got like, there's just an element of them. They're just sitting there. They're talking and they're and there's just this, I don't know. There's a patience in the cinematography.
01:27:04
Speaker
Which is really great. The director of photography, it seems like they used ah Paul Danashi. he's He's part of Better Call Saul in El Camino. Okay. He was at El Camino. He was a camera operator though. And Better Call Saul, he was a director of photography.
01:27:21
Speaker
But they might have used more than more than one um DP, as they say in the business. and Double penetration. Yeah. right um but yeah yeah it's really great i'm really this is my probably gonna be don't know we'll see because severance was really great i'm i'm curious to see if it would be my show of the year for the for this like full calendar year like 2025 i'm trying to think back on what other show and or season two man it's and or season two is so good yeah we're really early days in this too yeah it's my favorite by far in this year and it's crazy yeah it's excellent
01:27:56
Speaker
It's crazy. Star Wars thing. Your favorite thing in the year. I know. What? But no, I love Andor. I mean, anytime I talk about Andor, I get way too excited and I want people to watch it. No one's watching. No one's watching. it no one's still can't believe Did you end up watching Rogue One?
01:28:11
Speaker
Oh, no. I totally forgot. oh man. Because I didn't have Disney Plus anymore. Wait, no. Did I? I did. Anyways, I got i gotta to jump in. there Maybe I'll watch it tonight.
01:28:23
Speaker
Probably not. I'll watch it. It's the back-to-back aspect, though. Yeah. I'm going to rewatch the last episode Andor again, and then I'll just hop into it. Yeah. That's good. Cool, man. Anything else about Pluribus you want to mention?
01:28:37
Speaker
No. Yeah. Again, I think, yeah, I think this is very interesting. Again, like I don't think I can say this is the best show of the year yet, but again, we're only three episodes in, but I can't imagine.
01:28:49
Speaker
it's going to be a contender for the best show of the year potentially for me just based on how the first three first two episodes for me are just really majestic um yeah the budget is crazy in some aspects. like There's a lot of weird like practical things that are done. There's not a lot of CG. There's a lot of crazy stuff that happens. I'm like, how does this how does this track? like How did you do this? There's like a lot of really cool. There's a scene in the very beginning in the first 30, 40 minutes.
01:29:19
Speaker
With the plane? really great. I don't think that's necessarily a ah high budget thing, but it's like there's like almost like a tableau. i don't know if you've done that in school. Yeah.
01:29:30
Speaker
That's kind of fun. There's lot of really cool things. Sorry, I interrupted you. Go on. No, no, no. Yeah, no, I agree completely. I think that's, yeah, pretty much all I got to say. I can't wait to keep watching this. You know, I'm going to stay on top of this.
01:29:41
Speaker
It's actually, no, I do have one other thing to say. um Yeah. Because we talked about like how it lays everything out in front of you. And it's interesting because it's done kind of an, act I mean, it literally is exposition, I guess. But it because it's so well written, it just, it works.
01:29:57
Speaker
And I want to kind of compare this to the It series, like Welcome to Dairy. Because I watched... I've been watching it and I think I don't necessarily love this show, which is kind of a bummer.
01:30:09
Speaker
I want to like it more. And I think the big issue with it is, again, i I was talking about how there's like these additional plot threads and like additional mysteries that they're adding with like the the military aspect and everything.
01:30:20
Speaker
But there are these like points where the exposition is so heavy handed and so given to the viewer And it's like, it made me kind of think about like, why is Pluribus, again, still exp but like exposition heavy, not not bothering me in a way that It Welcome to Dairy is with with its ah exposition. And I just think, again, it's just the writing quality.
01:30:44
Speaker
it's It's nowhere near. And I think It Welcome to Dairy coming out with all of these other fantastic shows that have released this year, it really makes me be, unfortunately, a little bit harder on it than than I want to be.
01:30:59
Speaker
um But hey, that's showbiz, baby. I don't know. Maybe I don't know what you mean by exposition heavy for pluribus. Like, what how exposition heavy for you?
01:31:09
Speaker
How? Well, in in the way of, like, it explains exactly how it happened. Like, what's what's happening? Like, this is what we did. This is how we, you know, this is how we took control of the governments in this order. But that's, they showed, not told. They didn't explain it by telling you, like, by narration, or they just showed you what happened.
01:31:28
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I guess it's not narration, it's but it's in in conversation. all kind of but I feel like they there was like a, the full there is a sequence of the entire show is completely silent.
01:31:40
Speaker
yeah yeah In some way, there is no exposition at all. It's actually remarkable, actually. they don' they're They're not keeping the mystery alive, certainly. But I think, and unless we have a different definition of exposition, maybe I'm wrong. yeah know maybe I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm explaining this poorly. But there there are just lines of dialogue where they're like, this is how we did it.
01:31:58
Speaker
And again, it just it somehow works in the show compared to yeah Welcome to Derry. Yeah. Anyways. Um, actually there's one other thing I watched before we kind of like fold into the predator talk.
01:32:11
Speaker
I watched Rachel Sennett's new show, i Love LA. Oh, sweet. I watched the first two episodes with my fiance. I really like it. I really like Rachel Sennett as an actor. I really like her writing style. I think she's very funny.
01:32:24
Speaker
I think Bottoms is one of the funniest movies the last couple years with her and Ayo Edabiri. um And I think this show is really good. um And it's...
01:32:36
Speaker
It's funny because it's a bunch of unlikable characters again, except for Josh Hutcherson. He was kind of like the straight man and you you just kind of like him. Yeah. um These like over the top, like LA people that are honestly like frustrating to watch. But the difference is, is this show is really funny.
01:32:53
Speaker
So like, although you don't necessarily like all the characters, the situations that they're in and what they're doing is genuinely hilarious. So I have buy-in there. It's reviewed quite well, critically.
01:33:05
Speaker
Audience score is not great though. It's in like the fifties. So I'm kind of worried. i hope it, I hope it doesn't get canceled. Cause again, me and my fiance, I really enjoying it. It's, it's a, it's a interesting premise. It's like Rachel Senate is like living in LA. She works for like this, like, um, like agency that like, you know, helps influence influencers grow.
01:33:26
Speaker
And she's kind of just a secretary there. And she kind of wants to move up in her, ah in the company to be like an actual agent. Um, and then her friend, Her old friend that she doesn't talk to anymore, um who she like kind of helped rise to stardom and become an influencer like five years prior, um is in her perspective making it big.
01:33:48
Speaker
um So she's kind of like frustrated, like, what the fuck? Like, you know, I helped her get to this point and she's like never talking to me, yada, yada. yada And then that friend comes back. And that's kind of the setup of the show. Yeah.
01:33:59
Speaker
And it's like, do they have like a good relationship? Is it kind of like a toxic relationship between these two friends? And, you know, again, the situations they find themselves in is is kind of absurd. And again, I'm really enjoying it. I think this is fun. a new episode tonight. So i'll but I'll watch that with my fiance as well.
01:34:15
Speaker
And then obviously chair company is still really good too. so Sweet. Anyways. Nice. Yeah. Cool.
Predator Film Reviews
01:34:21
Speaker
um Now, leading up to Predator Badlands, Simon, I watched a couple of things because I've watched Predator, the original Predator, and I watched Predators.
01:34:30
Speaker
And then obviously i watched Prey. I never watched Predator 2. I've never watched The Predator, and I've never watched Predator Killer of Killers because I didn't have Disney Plus at the time. a movie called The Predator?
01:34:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's 2018. I didn't watch that one yet. Apparently it's really bad. don't... Wait, oh, maybe we did talk about this at one point. yeah Yeah. 2018, that's recent.
01:34:54
Speaker
Geez, at 34%. I think Olivia Munn's in that. Yeah. Apparently, it's not good. I'll watch it, maybe. We'll see. But I was like, you know, i may I may as well fill in a couple of the gaps. So, I decided to watch Predator 2 first.
01:35:08
Speaker
And Predator 2 is an interesting movie. It's Danny Glover. from I don't know, it came in in the early 90s, I want to say. And this movie is interesting because it's very campy and absurd and over the top.
01:35:27
Speaker
Especially when you compare it to like predator and prey and predators. But there's like this like, don't know, it's really fun because it's like this cop, Danny Glover's this like over the top detective in I think LA or wherever the hell it is. And there's like crazy riots and gang wars going on.
01:35:46
Speaker
And while this is all happening, there's a predator in the city just murdering people. And he's like trying to figure out like what's happening. What's all this weird shit. And then there's like a voodoo gang and everything. So it gets really weird and wacky, but it's still like a really fun movie. And it's cool because they have a lot of, um it sets up a lot of things like predator lore of how like the predator can actually talk.
01:36:08
Speaker
in in a weird way and like say specific things or mimic people's voices. They can, um you know, it kind of highlights, you know, different styles of fighting and different types of predators that, that might be there.
01:36:20
Speaker
And it also, um you know, has a couple of like, it's like things that it it'll show that show up in later movies as an example.
01:36:32
Speaker
um Like, like a gun from like the 1700s as an example is like shown at the end. which is then referenced in Predator Killer of Killers, which is the Dan Trachtenberg animated Predator movie that came out earlier this year.
01:36:46
Speaker
So Predator 2, really fun. It's a good watch. I don't love it. I think it's my least favorite Predator movie, but it's still really fun and it's a cool idea. um and again, just like Danny Lever gives it his all. He's just like, this fucking thing. Just like everyone's giving their 110%. Everyone's almost like a caricature in a weird way. But again, it adds to the – to the intrigue.
01:37:09
Speaker
um And you know i was like, cool, I really want to watch Predator Killer of Killers because again, Dan Trachtenberg, he's the guy that did Prey. He's the guy that just did Predator Badlands. So I watched it just leading into Predator Badlands.
01:37:21
Speaker
And this is really cool because it's this animated movie in the style of um like Arcane, like Netflix's Arcane, that League of Legends show. I think that's probably the biggest comparison in that animation style.
01:37:32
Speaker
And it's this anthology. ah movie, three distinct stories and how it almost intersects. um So there's like a story of like a, um like a Viking, you know, going to like essentially on a revenge quest, trying to kill someone. And then a predator shows up there.
01:37:51
Speaker
And then there's like a samurai plot line. And then a world war two, like fighter jet, um like ah pilot. And it's just like, you're watching these three distinct stories kind of happen and then intersect at the end of the movie. And all again, I don't want to necessarily spoil anything, but like it ends on a very satisfying note.
01:38:11
Speaker
And there's a lot of nods to the previous movies, specifically Predator, Predator 2 and Prey. um And like a couple of Easter eggs that show up where I was like, I'm really glad I actually watched Predator 2 literally just before it because I was like, oh damn, that's from the movie. I literally just watched like 10 minutes ago.
01:38:29
Speaker
Um, I think the animation style is super cool. It's R rated. It's super bloody and gory and just fun. Um, and I really enjoyed it. I thought this, I think it might be the best predator movie in the sense of just like how interesting it is and like how much of a cool plot it is. And you can kind of get a little bit more, um wacky on time period. And, um,
01:38:57
Speaker
you know I guess the the the combat, ah because it is an animated movie, you can have these like three, very ah technically four, very distinct, um like ah what's the word I'm looking for?
01:39:10
Speaker
Settings. um And somehow it all works in the movie. Yeah, don't worry about budget. Because you can always make it work theoretically, but how much are you going to spend? Exactly.
01:39:21
Speaker
Exactly. So like you can go over the top. And again, like each Each anthology is also very different. and the and not not Not the animation style, but like the writing style. like The samurai one is essentially a silent film, which is really fucking cool.
01:39:38
Speaker
And then like the yeah the Viking one is like way more like, oh, like dark. like We are going to fucking fuck this guy up. They killed my family, yada, yada, yada. And the World War II one's almost like a lighthearted comedy in a weird way.
01:39:51
Speaker
um so And then like the way, again, it all intersects at the end and somehow just works is fucking awesome. And yeah, i don't know. I really enjoyed it. I'm curious – because i was watching them. I'm like, I'm curious if they're going to touch on this when we jump into Predator Badlands.
01:40:06
Speaker
It doesn't seem like it did fully, but um like it feels like they could kind of build to this wider, cooler universe and see almost like team ups with other actors from previous movies. um I'm in it.
01:40:19
Speaker
I'm in it. I'm really liking it. Yeah. Sorry. I kind of rambled there. Oh, good. Very good. Did you watch her move into Predator Killer of Killers, by the way I have not.
01:40:30
Speaker
have not seen it. Definitely worth watching if you got Disney Plus right now. Yeah. Yeah. I got Disney Plus now. I've been struggling. I haven't gotten Netflix for many moons.
01:40:41
Speaker
I was going to get Netflix to watch Wednesday, finish Squid Game, but I just haven't had the chance because there's just so much so much stuff on the other streaming services. It's interesting. I wish that more people would cancel, come back, cancel, come back because it would kind of send a message to – these streaming services in a deeper way that you kind of have to make really good content or you're, you're out, you know?
01:41:02
Speaker
Yeah. But people forget, I think a lot to cancel. So I think that that's not a thing that, and I i think they count on you forgetting as part of it, but yeah, that's cool. I do intend to watch killer of killers now because you just had such high praise for it.
01:41:16
Speaker
Then tracked and bird Berg, obviously, Directed, as you just mentioned, Predator Badlands, which we just saw in theaters. And yeah, it's reviewed very well. um People are calling it woke online.
01:41:28
Speaker
That's pretty cool. Dude, you called this. When we left the theater, you're like, oh, I feel like people are going to think this is woke. I'm like, how? I just don't get it. Whatever. Who cares? It's stuff. But this one's cool. I think there's a – wait, was this the first movie that they called the – or maybe they did it in Killer of Killers. Is this the first time we get a name for the race of predators?
01:41:47
Speaker
The first time they say it in a movie, yeah. Okay. But like the lore online, um you know that that the race is Yautja because they have comic books and stuff. um But the first time in a movie where they specifically say that the race Yautja. Gotcha.
01:42:03
Speaker
But this one does not take place on Earth in any way. And it takes place on the Outra Prime, like the home planet and then elsewhere. and Which is kind of neat, I think.
01:42:15
Speaker
And ah yeah this particular character is going on this, like I guess, self-realization journey. ah to a very dangerous planet, as you mentioned, similar to Kongskull Island, which I think is an interesting call out that I didn't think of. It's pretty neat.
01:42:28
Speaker
it pretty Yeah, I would agree. And then he's going to this very dangerous planet to to hunt this very dangerous beast to prove to his tribe that he's he's worthy or whatever. And then Al Fanning's in it as a synth, which is interesting from Weyland-Yutani. So they're really connecting the alien universe in an actual competent way this time.
01:42:46
Speaker
and which is kind of fun. And I think Al Fanning kills it. And yeah I think that it's largely, i thought it was great. I think it was a really fun time. I think there are a little bit of, there are a few jump the shark moments from my tastes, but it doesn't really affect the plot in any serious way. It ain't, it ain't, you know, companion is what I'm going to say.
01:43:07
Speaker
yeah It's not, it's not completely destroying the plot by, making these ridiculous holes. There's just like a few things with like the final battle that were, I found hokey for my taste, but I thought overall, I thought this movie was really well shot. I thought the CG was great. I think the prosthetics were amazing.
01:43:27
Speaker
I think the acting was really good. i thought it was really funny at various times and shock. Yeah. And I really loved it. I think it was great. It was a really fun time.
01:43:38
Speaker
Yeah. What do you think? Cause you, now you came off all these predator movies, you've got the best perspective possible. Yeah. Like I, I agree with everything you just said, man. There's like this almost heartfelt nature to the movie because you're watching these like.
01:43:51
Speaker
Misfits. Essentially enemies to friends sort sort of thing play out. It's a buddy movie. Yeah. It is. It's like a buddy comedy kind of. Yeah. Like. Yeah. but Buddy comedy in some weird way.
01:44:03
Speaker
Yeah. And it it just – it was just like a really fun time. I do agree with you. Yeah, like there are moments where – Like upon like, you know, thinking about it, like, yeah, there are moments specifically in like the action scenes where it's almost like, huh.
01:44:19
Speaker
ah I think and at the end specifically where it just seems like a little bit funky, but there are, there are these like really awesome action scenes because I guess they're willing to to take it that far. And again, coming from.
01:44:32
Speaker
I don't know if Siri, I think they're, they're willing to do really good action sequences. And then they're also willing to, know, take it this make you suspend disbelief too much. because like the I feel like the best one of the best action sequences in then the middle of the movie, actually. There's a really great sequence and I think that that moment ist doesn't jump the shark.
01:44:53
Speaker
Like it's realistic. know. There's just like moments where I'm like, this is kind of unrealistic for the the plot you set up in your in-universe situation. But I don't want to talk too much about that because i I really like it. So I think I rather talk about the positives because I think it's mostly positive. Sorry. to Yeah. Also, before we go, I just want to say Demetrius Schuster is a Kutamungi. He's from think New Zealand.
01:45:17
Speaker
Mm-hmm. that He plays Columatangi. Columatangi. ah The Schuster Columatangi. He plays Deck. He's like the core the core character in the entire. and I've never seen this guy.
01:45:29
Speaker
I've never seen him anywhere. And I think he did a great job. but there's also like, that's prosthetics, right? Like, it's incredible how much. yeah I'm not wrong. Is it somewhat CG maybe? And then some. So they it's prosthetics, almost all of it, except for his mouth.
01:45:44
Speaker
Oh. So, like, they CG'd the mouth movements and stuff like that. um So, I think he had, like a like, a mask and, like, the eyes were all real and, like, how that moved.
01:45:55
Speaker
They just left his mouth open so he could, like, say whatever stuff. I guess i don't even know if he's saying lines in the thing. And then they CG'd how the mouth moved. You know, it was interesting because Dan Trachtenberg kind of talked about it. It's like, this is the most a Yautja has talked in a movie. It's like, how am I – So, they created – it seems like they created a language for this.
01:46:16
Speaker
And then he also had to figure out how he's going to make the CG look like the mouth is making these words. So like, there was a lot of thought put into it. And I think again, like it looks so good. There's not a single, I feel like a lot of the times, you know, you can watch a movie, even like Marvel movies most recently where you're like, CG is looking a little rough and you can kind of see through it.
01:46:37
Speaker
There wasn't a single moment in this movie where I'm like, oof, Like i had total buy and I think visually stunning. Yeah, it is. um And this movie is just visually stunning um from, you know, start to finish. And I love, i just love again, the way the story goes and it's really cool with the character of deck.
01:47:00
Speaker
It's like he like biologically acts a certain way because of how – not necessarily ah because, you know, the the race that he is, but also, you know, how he's been raised and everything.
01:47:10
Speaker
So there are moments where you think he's going to react in this way because that's how a human would and he just simply doesn't and you're like, oh, man. And it makes for like these comedic moments, but also it's like, yeah, that makes sense because he's a fucking predator and like all he's thinking about is like I must kill.
01:47:25
Speaker
And i don't know. there's There's a lot of really awesome moments and the way – Even the way that the the relationship is built between him and Elle Fanning's like synth character and how they like essentially get over the initial hump of like why would they work together is really clever, I think. Yeah.
01:47:44
Speaker
And again, there's a lot of these really like awesome moments. There's a lot of cute little characters as well, which kind of reminds me a little bit of like Star Wars in a weird way um where it's like, oh, there's like there's a cute little and there's like a baby Yoda or there's that weird um alien in Rise of Skywalker, the the cute mechanic alien. You know, that there is like that element to it.
01:48:05
Speaker
Yeah, I don't mind that. You know, it's it it adds levity to this. fairly dire movie because literally when deck lands on this planet, everything is trying to kill him and it's relentless. And it's like right off the bat, he loses. It's funny actually sometimes to how crazy the planet is.
01:48:22
Speaker
who And I think it's, I don't know. i just think it's really well done. And like to see him kind of adapting on the fly to these specific situations. I'm like, man, this is really cool. And again, there's like a lot of cool ideas. Like, you know, there's um like grass, but it's like the grass is literally just like sharp blades.
01:48:40
Speaker
It's almost a joke. That's what's funny about it. It's like, of course it is. Every time there's some crazy thing on this planet, I'm like, of course. Yeah. And it's just – you still have buy-in to it.
01:48:52
Speaker
um So, yeah, I think this movie is like really – It's a really, really fun movie with like a lot of heart and it's well written and well done. like Obviously, again, there's a couple of moments where you're like, okay, you know, like you mentioned, like jump the shark moments where you need like a suspension of disbelief, but I still think it works as a whole.
01:49:12
Speaker
And I'm curious to see like, are they going to just kind of continue this? Are they going to go the route of like the other predator movies where it's all essentially like a anthology, you know, there's different, predators in different places, or are they actually going to make like a proper sequel to this?
01:49:25
Speaker
Are they going to connect this with like the alien Romulus, you know, universe? Like, like there's a lot more questions now. Um, And again, like even like Prey, it's like, are you going to bring that sort of character back? Like what what's going to happen there? i don't know.
01:49:41
Speaker
But it is really fun. And it seems like Dan Trachtenberg, the first time I heard of him was with Prey. It seems like he loves this franchise, loves the source material. And he's in his element because he's now made three movies. All three in this Predator universe and all three are really freaking good. ah Yeah. So,
01:50:02
Speaker
Yeah. I really loved it. I really loved it. I would highly recommend this movie, and it's nice to see again. it It seems to be doing relatively well, all things considered. Again, biggest Predator opening.
01:50:12
Speaker
um Yeah. and Yeah, doing doing relatively well. Yeah, there's an element of this movie, like, they – Elle Fanning's character – and um like and Dec, Demetrius' character, like they they have like this... They're rubbing off of each other on each other throughout the movie. But my fiancée, when we and exited the movie, all three of us, she's like, this is almost like a James Gunn movie. It's almost like a Guardians of the Galaxy-like film because there's just a bunch of misfits coming together and they're learning... like they're They're kind of getting into like self-realization. There's like a deeper...
01:50:51
Speaker
deeper element of what they learn about themselves. That's where people might call it woke, I guess. like that's that's the That's why they're doing that. It's to look inward. the predator The predator is not just going to kill things aimlessly. Oh, we're going to develop his character. oh you know That's the problem, I think, is like they're developing his character into a Character development is very woke. You are correct about that. Positively though, in a positive way.
01:51:14
Speaker
I guess character development in a positive way could be woke. If anybody's nice, right? That was the criticism of Superman is that Superman is is a nice guy. Can't have nice. That's not allowed. Kindness is a is a weakness.
01:51:28
Speaker
And so that's kind of the problem. But this problem, quote unquote, in that sphere, not for me. But yeah yeah, so I thought that that was really the interesting, wholesome aspect of it. You said it has a lot of heart. And I think James Gunn's films have a lot of heart. And I feel like this movie especially, like Prey doesn't have any of that. It's just somebody – it has heart, but it's not, it's not in that level. Like there's not characters connecting in that way. And there's like a, that connection of developing characters kind of on a, like a, as they go down a path in a, in a kind of divergent way from what they were, where they initially started, like each character changing as the movie goes on. I feel like it, it,
01:52:06
Speaker
It did that very well. And then I don't know if we mentioned this yet, but you mentioned this to me before, and you mentioned this on the podcast, but the the violence in it is incredibly intense. And you mentioned, I think it was the last episode in episode 122, that it's ah not ah it's not a rated R movie because there's no humans dying in a gory way, but there's a lot of synths dying.
01:52:28
Speaker
And that's like a creative way to do this properly is that you you have since in random monsters being gorely destroyed and dismembered, but that's okay. That's okay for the rating. Yeah. And that's hilarious. Cause it's just a little bit silly in some way, but I think it, it works. I mean, yeah, yeah. little loophole to follow, but the, the violence in the, the action choreography is pretty entertaining throughout.
01:52:54
Speaker
But yeah, I liked it a lot. I liked it a lot. Four out of five for me. Same here, man. about Four out of five on my end as well. Fantastic. Yeah.
01:53:05
Speaker
I really enjoyed it. I'm excited to see what more Dan Trachtenberg will do. um Again, watching Predator, or Killer of Killers, and then ill obviously Watch Prey when that came out. i would This might be my least favorite of the three, but that doesn't mean that it's bad by any means. I think they're all fucking awesome.
01:53:23
Speaker
And I recommend all three of those movies. I wonder if Huel, because he's connected now to Alien, is this the first one he's done that's kind of connected to Alien? Like the Alien universe?
01:53:35
Speaker
Did he connect it in Killer of Killers? I don't believe connected I think there's a reference in Killer of Killers, if I recall correctly, but not like a full connection. This one is like a definite connection. Oh, that's actually one thing that I mentioned about Predator 2 is that there is like a direct connection to the alien universe in Predator 2.
01:53:52
Speaker
Like that early. Is there? Yeah. It's interesting. Predator 2 takes place in the city in the 90s? It obviously is from the 90s, but okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like almost like an alternate, like earth. What city?
01:54:06
Speaker
I want to say LA. So it's like an alternate LA. Yeah. Cause there's like gang wars going galore. It's, it's, it's nuts. Okay. Because I'm always curious about – because Predator always felt more grounded, like the first Predator movie, like in our world in the 80s.
01:54:22
Speaker
So when Predator lands, it's just in the jungle and they're fighting him. And it's like nothing is really getting revealed to the rest of the world that this exists. It's not really that – it's not about that. But in this, there's like – when you connect Alien, Alien, like those corporations have some serious technology and serious AI. And they're really advanced. Right.
01:54:41
Speaker
So I'm always curious about when – Also, when is this Yautja situation with Badlands? They don't give us a date, do they? Yeah. they No, they don't. So they don't specifically say it.
01:54:53
Speaker
But I think Dan Trachtenberg said it in an interview. Let me find it. I i want to say it's something like – like a couple of centuries after like Alien 4 or something like that. Oh. Badlands.
01:55:05
Speaker
Sorry, where is Alien 4 in the timeline? I don't know. ah so did you do So, apparently it's the furthest into the future of the Predator and Alien franchise.
01:55:17
Speaker
Well, an exact year isn't specified. It is set beyond the year 2381, which was the setting for Alien Resurrection. The director intentionally set it so far in the future to avoid any continuity conflicts with recent and upcoming projects.
01:55:32
Speaker
Smart man. Yeah. That's pretty cool. But you also said, do you think, or you're you're kind of questioning whether they might continue this. It seems like this Predator Badlands, do you think there'll be a Predator Badlands 2 based on the ending? It seems like they set it up for a potential sequel. It seems very plausible based on how well it's doing that they will do that.
01:55:54
Speaker
um yeah It's funny, Prey never went to theaters, right? If I recall correctly, it went straight to Disney+, plus which is a shame because that film is really great. I think I like Prey better than this one.
01:56:05
Speaker
But they're both again, as you mentioned, they're both great. I'm curious, like that there must be a sequel in the works, I think. Predator Badlands 2. That was a funny thing actually about the movie is in the beginning, the first title card is like Predator Badlands.
01:56:19
Speaker
It's like ah all rights reserved for a fox. Like Jesus Christ. Like, okay, we get it. There yeah there was like, yeah i've not I don't know if I've recalled it that in recent memory, that deliberately like protecting their licensing in ah in a title card. Like we understand you don't have to go all out with that. It was very strange.
01:56:39
Speaker
I like chuckled to myself a little bit when I saw that on the screen. Mm-hmm. But yeah, sequel happening, yes? I would hope so. I guess it depends on how well it does financially.
01:56:52
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, so far. So far, so good. So I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see.
01:57:00
Speaker
You're looking it up? Yeah. I will wait for you to look it up then. I was going to, but I got... I actually have box office mojo right here. You know what's crazy?
01:57:14
Speaker
Just while you're looking this up? do you Do you know what the top ah grossing movie of 2025 is? I wanted to zi a question for you. I don't know if we address this.
01:57:25
Speaker
gross on this podcast no i don't i don't know why i want to say sinners but i don't think not even close sinners is very far from that take another guess just one more crack at it just think just in case you can nail it or you nail one of the movies there's so many huge movies that were bigger than sinners for sales one of the which you liked a lot and you saw in theaters did we watch it did we watch the yeah we it in theaters together No, no, no, no. We did not see it.
01:57:51
Speaker
you wouldn't guess You wouldn't guess the number one, but I always thought you would get closer to the top. You did see one of them um on ah streaming service Disney+. plus It's the second grossing, top grossing movie of all of this year. I've almost said of all time.
01:58:05
Speaker
Lilo and Stitch? Lilo and Stitch. Lilo and Stitch is the second. so the The other one i thought you would have guessed was a Minecraft movie because it's crazy. And Jurassic World Rebirth is number four. But number one is Niza 2.
01:58:19
Speaker
from China yeah that Chinese movie 1.9 billion dollars dude it is crazy crazy how well it did anyway what did you discover about Badlands so as of right now this is from Wikipedia 136.6 million worldwide against a 105 million dollar budget so okay okay hopefully it continues to go up but we'll see maybe the anti-woke warriors will win out on this one yeah knows Oh, yeah. By the way, Elle Fanning's character is named Thea. We didn't mention that. So Thea and Deck.
01:58:53
Speaker
Thea and Deck. Yeah. She was really great. He was really good, man. She's blowing up. She's just showing up in more things than I've seen her in before this year. It seems like this year there's a few- Death Stranding 2, this movie. There's this, but there's another movie she's in.
01:59:10
Speaker
yeah. ah yeah What? i can't remember now what it was, but I just saw her in an interview for that movie, if I recall correctly. She was also in A Complete Unknown last year as well, like the
01:59:26
Speaker
Sentimental value. I remember seeing the trailer for this. Just rated very Sentimental value. That's the one. The one with, um it's with Stellan Skarsgård. Yeah, sorry, Stellan.
01:59:36
Speaker
yeah One of the Skarsgårds. There's so many of them. Stellan's my favorite though, by a benefit margin. He's so great. He's so great. Okay. um cool I think it's time, Adrian.
01:59:47
Speaker
It's time now to move on to a segment of our show that I like to call a Look to the Future. portion of our podcast where each of us present at least three of our picks for the TV series or movies that look most interesting to us that are releasing between November 18th and December 2025.
02:00:05
Speaker
twenty twenty five Cool. are we doing this guessing thing, but trying to make but not really doing a competition, just like trying to make the other person guess? Yes. you can No more than 20 seconds ah for the actual description. of them so What we were doing basically with this is we're we're picking, obviously, picks of things that are coming out within that two-week period.
02:00:25
Speaker
ah but In this case, we're just going to – now You're going to talk about the description in a little bit of ah obfuscation of a facts way, and then i'll I'll jump in and try to guess it before you say the answer, basically.
02:00:38
Speaker
That's Okay, cool. Cool, man. Awesome. cool Cool. You want me to go first? Is that customary? Yes, is customary. Yes. Okay, cool. That's right. Cool, cool, cool. yeah It's a Netflix show starring Ted Danson going into its second season, releasing on November twentieth Right, Man on the Inside, season two.
02:00:58
Speaker
You got it, dude. You got it. There you go. Yeah, i got to watch the trailer. I'll watch that after we finish recording, because I'm curious. Yeah, it looks pretty interesting, like what they're doing with the direction they're going.
02:01:10
Speaker
I think also the shackles, ah being shackled by dementia isn't maybe the best topic for comedy. So it's nice to get out of that realm. And i think that's probably why you didn't like it that much, if I'm guessing. Because were saying you didn't think it was that funny. And I think that's probably why. Because it was shackled by Alzheimer's as a as ah as a core topic on a consistent basis.
02:01:34
Speaker
it was more sad than than funny. And I think that was kind of my base tissue. Right. ah Yeah. All right. My pick is a a film in which ah Paul Mescal plays a very, very famous playwright.
02:01:52
Speaker
And we also have Jesse Buckley in there, who I know her from many things, including Men, the the film by Alex Garland. And, of course, ah more more recently, I watched Fargo season four. and She was great in that, by the way. Anyway, the movie is Hamnet.
02:02:09
Speaker
And it's a movie about William Shakespeare. Oh. As he like, I think he loses his son or something. And then he writes Hamlet, if I recall correctly. But this will be probably an Oscar bait type movie.
02:02:22
Speaker
I feel like that's ah almost a derogatory term. But I feel like it's going to be a good film for the Oscars kind of season, the award season, which is fast approaching. November 27th, it says? No, November 26th is what I have. Oh, why you have the 27th?
02:02:38
Speaker
I don't know. It just says 27th Canada when I Google it. Oh, this is Chloe Zhao. Oh, yeah. It's also directed by Chloe Zhao. What a mistake that was. I didn't mention that. Yeah, good call.
02:02:50
Speaker
It's interesting. Yeah, don't know. I couldn't give a fuck about this. I'll be honest with you. It does say 27th. It does say 27th. I don't know why it says on this, it says November 26th. I have no idea. i just It's funny. I clicked the Rotten Tomatoes link and then it says 26th. Yeah.
02:03:06
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah just this is a Yeah, I think it's going to be sad. I just don't care about this kind of like, just doesn't seem up my alley. It's it's like Nia DaCosta's like period piece film that came out.
02:03:18
Speaker
I'm like, I'm sure it's good. I like Nia DaCosta as a director because of Candyman. She's like, I'm not going to watch that fucking thing. It's just, it's not for me. I have never seen Paul Mescal in anything. This guy just kind of blew up in the 2020s.
02:03:31
Speaker
He's in like a bunch of stuff. I've never seen him in a single thing. Where did he come from? i don't know. I'm sure he's a good actor, but I haven've i haven't seen him in a single thing. Yeah. He's, I mean, the biggest thing he was in, I think, has got to be um Gladiator 2, right?
02:03:49
Speaker
Presumably. But before that, I think he came from Like independent films. Small. Oh. Sorry, what'd you say? Like Broadway? Like plays?
02:04:00
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. Maybe. i don't know I find him more interesting than Jacob Lorty personally, but people love Jacob Lorty. I just am so bothered by the fact that he said that DC Universe is dark.
02:04:13
Speaker
I just can't believe that. And then he's in the like the darkest movies and TV shows. I don't understand how you can think Superman is dark. i just I don't don't know. It doesn't seem like he was joking. Anyway, but yeah, that's kind of where I think Paul Maskell is in a bunch of indie films.
02:04:30
Speaker
Hamnet was around for a while. Is it based on a play? I don't understand Hamnet. I'm trying to look this up. The reason why I'm confused about Hamnet and just it's my ignorance on this topic is that Hamnet's about hamlet had like Shakespeare writing Hamlet.
02:04:43
Speaker
The problem is is that didn't people think that like Shakespeare maybe didn't write Hamlet? the plays, like there there was this, there was this controversy. Like there's like these conspiracy theories that he didn't write all this stuff. Like, do they know that much about his life that we know that the touching story of how he wrote Hamlet?
02:05:00
Speaker
I have no idea, and That's the weird thing about it. I'd have to look more into this, but anyway, that's Hamlet coming out to a theater near you. Your pick, hold sir. yeah Yeah. So my pick, my friend is going to be,
02:05:15
Speaker
um a sequel to a musical based on a play. Wicked for Good. Yeah, dude, you got it. Coming out on November 21st. Yeah, with Marinara Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
02:05:30
Speaker
ah you excited for this at all? No, I haven't watched the first one. my ah my My friend, ah ah Andrew Sinnott, I don't know if I should say his full name. It doesn't really matter. Who cares? ah My friend Sinnott, he really loved the first Wicked movie. And he he's like like, oh, we should watch it, do a double feature and you guys can watch the first movie and then we can go watch the second movie together. Oh, that's nice. Yeah.
02:05:52
Speaker
um I might do that with him um and his wife. Does he like musicals like generally? Is that a thing that he enjoys? Is he like Wicked the musical in like Broadway or something like that? Has he seen the play? Not that I'm aware of.
02:06:04
Speaker
um Okay. I think he just watched it and he was like this. could I remember... I was driving home from somewhere and I like, he was just calling me. I like answered the phone in my car and he's like, Hey, and like, Hey man, how's going? And he's like yeah, I just wanted to call you. I i wanted to tell you about a movie. I think you would really enjoy i just, I just got out of the theater.
02:06:23
Speaker
I just watched wicked with, with my, with, you know my wife. um You, you and Cassandra
Cultural Insights and Recommendations
02:06:28
Speaker
should watch it. i feel like you guys would really like it. and He like specifically called me after coming out of theater just to tell me that.
02:06:34
Speaker
He really liked it. feel bad. I never watched it. I haven't watched it. You didn't take his recommendation. No, I'm a bad friend. mean, look, I recommended Inglourious Bastards to you. You still haven't seen it. So it is what it is. It's not on any streaming services. I guess I can just rent it. It isn't. Oh, I didn't know that.
02:06:49
Speaker
That sucks. You know what I am going to watch, even though you technically didn't recommend this to me, but since I got Apple TV anyways, I think I'm going to watch Slow Horses, dude. Oh, really? Okay.
02:07:00
Speaker
Cool. mean, you've talked so highly of it. and I do love it a lot, yeah. Because ah like right now, again, i'm go i don't i don know. I don't watch too many shows by myself. Yeah. But I feel like that might be a show where, you know, maybe when I'm eating a meal.
02:07:12
Speaker
I watched that by myself. I don't know if i said that. I didn think you didn't. I don't know why I didn't get buy-in from my fiance on that one. I'm not sure why though. It's very entertaining and it's a comedy. it It feels like a popcorn show. The dialogue is so tight.
02:07:25
Speaker
Ah, it's just really great. I haven't watched the fifth season yet. I'm just kind of, I kind of wait because there's only six episodes per season. There's such small seasons because the, you know, the BBC UK style of television making.
02:07:39
Speaker
is it Is it a half hour or is it an hour long? No, it's an hour. Okay. So it's not a comedy. Can't be a comedy if it's an hour. Oh, I see. Yeah. Sure. Yeah.
02:07:50
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. um Cool. Weird thing about that. Will Smith, the the creator of that show, no no relation, ah different guy. But the the British Will Smith, he left the show for the next season.
02:08:04
Speaker
Which is unfortunate. And I'm wondering how it's going to be like perceived for the next seasons. Because this show keeps going. Gary Oldman's like saying that he just wants to keep going. Because it it is really great. But you i don't know if I said this on our podcast, but I'm kind of disappointed that Will Smith is...
02:08:19
Speaker
I didn't know what show you were say. thought were All Mankind. That's why I thought – or Silo, which I really love as well. Or Dark Matter is really great too. There's so many of these good science fiction. Slow down. Science fiction shows are really great. But Slow Horses is really excellent. it's Slow Horses is one of those shows you can just jump into and you're like you're kind of like, well, hmm, I wonder where these characters are at now. and There's like these little tight mysteries in each season.
02:08:40
Speaker
And then you're kind of – you're like just interested in the – in the the plot of the actual season and they're kind of just complete in each season. You can kind of like, let it go for a while and then come back to it. And the characters are the same and they, it's really cool.
02:08:53
Speaker
and I, I really like it. But anyway, okay, moving on. Uh, is it my turn or yours? It's my turn. Um, this, this film is a independent film, maybe an Oscar bait type movie as well. Stars Brandon Fraser.
02:09:06
Speaker
Rental family. Yeah. November 21st. november twenty first Correct. You got that one down. Very good. Okay. That one looks interesting. I don't know if I'll see it, but it looks it looks kind of sad again.
02:09:17
Speaker
Yeah. that sure I'm not sure but I'm going to be in the mood this year to watch that, but hey. Yeah, it's interesting. It's like this cultural thing apparently in in Japan. i don't know if it's in other places as well where you essentially like – rent a person quote unquote to fill in a specific void in your life. So maybe you just need a friend. So you like hire someone to just be your friend for a day and talk to you. This is real. Yeah.
02:09:39
Speaker
yeah This is a real thing that happens. um Interesting. Yeah. At least I think it it is. I saw like a, I saw like a mini, not even a mini documentary, you know, like just like a three, four minute YouTube video about it.
02:09:54
Speaker
Okay. About this guy that, that essentially he like gets rented out to be a friend with people for a day and like, he'll like go and do nothing. Like they'll just sit at a restaurant and talk for however much and just listen to people's problems. So it seems to be like an interesting thing. And yeah, again, this, this seems like heartfelt.
02:10:11
Speaker
I don't know if I'm in the mood to watch something like this though. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of the issue, but it looks good. It looks good. Yeah. Cool. All right. Your pick. Yeah, so my next pick is a sequel to a movie that came out like a couple of years ago that was very much like, this is John Wick, but World War II. Sisu, Road to Revenge. Sorry, you can keep doing your description. that Road to Vengeance. wrote Oh, Road to Vengeance. Oh, shit.
02:10:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's like, what were you saying? It's like John Wick. Yeah, because like that's how i was marketed. It's like, this is an action movie. John Wick, but World War two old man. And it just – it really isn't. um I thought the movie the first movie was fine when I watched it i enjoyed it enough. But yeah, like again, I just – was going and expecting something different. and And there were action set pieces just – it was It was far slower and more plotting than I was expecting.
02:11:03
Speaker
So i again, but the same thing with this trailer, it's shown like this is action heavy, crazy stuff. I'm like, is it again going to be the same where it's like the trailer shows something different?
02:11:14
Speaker
Or are they actually going in the way of just like making this an action packed crazy romp? It's rated very well. I think it's like a 90 something on Rotten Tomatoes last time I checked, so. Oh, wow. That's good. Yeah.
02:11:26
Speaker
So. I'm not seeing that here. Why is my, my. Oh, no, it is Road to Revenge. You are right. I i corrected you and ah my correction. Oh, it's Road to Revenge. I was just trying to find the, the, the, where we are on November 21st and my, my, um I feel like a website I go to.
02:11:43
Speaker
It's not showing up. Oh, well, whatever. I got it straight from Cineplex. Okay. Yeah. Road to revenge. Yeah. This one's got more American actors in it playing like European roles, which I think is interesting.
02:11:58
Speaker
ah But that's crazy. 90%. It's 95. The first one was 94. Whoa. All right. Good for that. Yeah. I was trying to look up. What I was trying to look up was the name of the the Stephen Lang, which I thought was interesting. Stephen Lang from avatars in it playing a,
02:12:17
Speaker
A man named Igor. Anyway. well Okay, we got we got... I didn't even realize this movie was... i I didn't have this written down. And when I was looking for Sisu, I found it.
02:12:30
Speaker
ah This is an action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan. Oh, is this Family Plane 2? Right. Apparently Michelle Monaghan is in the same position she is in in in a similar way to – I didn't realize this until I could just watch the Mission Impossible movies again, but she's in the same situation as in Mission of Impossible 3 in some way and that she's like kind of thrown asunder by like a person she doesn't realize as a spy. This is a Christmas ski themed version though.
02:12:57
Speaker
v And it's also – This is Apple TV Plus as well. Yeah, this is weird. The description is on on this website. It says, Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan returned for a Christmas-themed sequel to their not-very-good 2023 film. What? That's a little harsh. Whoa! That's funny. The Family Plan's 39 on Metacritic.
02:13:18
Speaker
Nice. Okay. Not well reviewed. These guys are critical. Judgy. Little judgy. All right. I wasn't going to say that one. What's your next one? Cool. My next one is A movie that we actually had the a possibility of seeing. Eternity.
02:13:35
Speaker
Yeah, dude. It's interesting. So Cineplex is doing this really cool thing now where every Monday you can go and watch a mystery movie that's soon to be released for like a reduced price, but you don't know what the movie is until you're in your seat and it starts playing.
02:13:50
Speaker
And this Eternity movie, this is an A24 movie. It seems quite interesting because it's ah Elizabeth Olsen. And the premise is that she lost her first husband. Like she was widowed. he He passed away and then she found a second love of her life.
02:14:03
Speaker
And when they died, they're they're in like a, like a heaven sort of style thing, an afterlife. And now she has both her loves, like her first husband and her second husband there being like, Hey, you should be with me.
02:14:17
Speaker
And I feel like that's a really interesting premise. It's kind of sad in a weird way. Yeah, it is But I think it's supposed to be like a comedy movie and it's, it's Miles Teller and Calum Turner, who I'm not super familiar with.
02:14:32
Speaker
where the Where have I seen this guy?
02:14:37
Speaker
I'm just looking up the director, David Frein. I'm not really that familiar with his work either. No. The trailer did look good. I don't know you said it already, but Eternity comes out on November 26th. It was cool that they were doing an advanced showing last week for a November 26th movie. That's pretty cool.
02:14:52
Speaker
I kind of regret not going just because I was kind of, I like the mystery of It was like, it would have been really fun to just sit in the theater and they just see like a random film. But you were mentioning you were worried it was going to be a sequel, which I don't think they would have done that to us.
02:15:04
Speaker
But it's cool that Cineplex puts an A24 movie. Is that going to be that much of a wide release? Is going to be in every Cineplex? Yeah, it's pretty cool. I don't know Maybe. Or maybe they were testing it to determine whether they wanted to buy it for a wide release.
02:15:17
Speaker
You know? But how would you know? like ah Unless you've got somebody in the theater like monitoring people's reactions. Because you don't what you're getting into in the first place. But yeah, you just have to be a Cineclub member. and you get i hope they start doing this more. I hope they do what doing it once a quarter.
02:15:31
Speaker
I think they're doing it almost every week. Every week? I could be wrong. At least because we there's been two within this past month. Maybe it's every weeks. I don't know. I don't remember.
02:15:43
Speaker
Well, Eternity is a good one. that was That's like a really good one. I'm okay with watching any movie, to be honest. It is a little bit going of your way. Oh, any movie? You want to watch a Serbian film? You want to watch that movie? You're okay with watching a Serbian film?
02:15:56
Speaker
Sure. I was going to say. oh you don't know what a Serbian film is. What is that? It's like one of the like the most – I think like a crazy, like fucked up, like snuff film. and It's like banned. Oh, I think you're saying a Serbian film. No, it's literally called a Serbian film. Why? What's wrong with Serbian films? Is there a problem with the Serbian film industry?
02:16:16
Speaker
Stop disrespecting them. That's what I thought you were doing. Sorry. No, no, no. Okay. Interesting. No, I didn't know that. It's a snuff film? Did you just to say that? think so. I think so. Oh, shit. um A Serbian film.
02:16:31
Speaker
It's a 2010 movie. Yeah, it's a so a Serbian exploitation psychological horror thriller film. um Yeah.
02:16:42
Speaker
What's that movie you kept? Gabby's Dollhouse. If it was Gabby's Dollhouse, I'd be pretty disappointed. I got to be real. That'd be funny as fuck. You go there, spend $8.99. They wouldn't do that though. I think they wouldn't do that. I think they expect, if people have a credit card, that's who they're inviting.
02:16:57
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Okay.
Franchise Excitements and Upcoming Films
02:17:00
Speaker
ah You went for it in the last, so I'm going to go next. and The next one is, um this is a really big one. Comes out on November 26th as well.
02:17:11
Speaker
It is a huge, huge show on Netflix that has i know what it crazy D&D references constantly in it. Gabby's Dollhouse 2, the series. Now, Stranger Things, season five, it's coming out yeah very soon. I got to watch the finale of season four.
02:17:27
Speaker
We're on the finale. It's two and a half hours. It's a fucking movie. Good timing, eh, man? Yeah. I love the finale of season four, if I remember correctly. Me too. It was really good. It's a romp, dude. It's an event. so Yeah, this is the first four episodes releasing on November 26th, which is really soon. I feel like I got to get Netflix at that point. That's going to be a zeitgeisty situation. i think people are going to be talking about it.
02:17:47
Speaker
I was going to hold off on Pluribus, by the way. i don't like Week to Week, as you know. And I've been watching Chair Company Week to Week, too, which I deeply regret. I should have just waited to the end. Also, the chair company gets pretty crazy. was like a, the last episode, I think it was the last episode. The ending of it? The whole thing was deeply unsettling.
02:18:05
Speaker
Yeah. um The ending of it was weird. I don't know if it was the last episode. It was the one with involving a hospital.
02:18:14
Speaker
Was that the Is that the one before? Maybe that was the one before. Either way, I was deeply unsettled. There was like moments where I was very anxious. They're in this bar. I'm like, Jesus Christ. like this is it I think that was the last episode. I was like, what is going on here? i was like, yeah.
02:18:29
Speaker
It's almost a horror.
02:18:33
Speaker
It's like, yes, man, though. It's exactly like, not yes, man. Sorry. um I love it. Jesus Christ. I just named two of the movies by Peyton Reed, I think. Yeah, friendship. No, no, I Love You Man isn't Peyton Reed, is it?
02:18:45
Speaker
Friendship. I don't know. Okay, you got any more? are you done? Yeah, I do. you um This is a s sequel. Now the third movie in this franchise of like this anthology detective mystery thing that's coming out.
02:19:03
Speaker
It stars um former James Bond man that I can't think of the actor's name off the top of my head. um james Oh, wait.
02:19:14
Speaker
Knives Out is coming out? Yeah. What the hell? I don't have that written here. yeah Whoa. That's the biggest movie you just... What the hell, man? Is that coming to theaters? Yes. Or yeah it's a so limited release? Oh, it's a limited release.
02:19:29
Speaker
Okay. Because it's not at the same time. It's not coming to Netflix right away. Correct. It's coming to theaters November 26th and then coming on Netflix... two weeks later or just over two weeks later on December 12th.
02:19:43
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Okay. cool Cool. this one seems fun. I'd like to watch it. I'd like to watch it. Daniel Craig. Oh my God. It was like driving me insane. I kept on wanting to say Radcliffe.
02:19:57
Speaker
I know Radcliffe. I'm like, it's not fucking Radcliffe, but it is Daniel. Oh, I did miss one. That's pretty huge. I'm sorry. And this will, oh, what and What is it?
02:20:08
Speaker
Guess it. Zootopia. Yeah. Okay. Good you good call. Zootopia. This is pretty huge because I believe if I recall correctly, Disney had projected the industry had projected that Disney was going to hit the $4 billion dollars mark at the box office when they released Zootopia and they didn't even accommodate for- Predator Badlands, which was interesting.
02:20:27
Speaker
so Predator kind of got them there. and ah Yeah. so Anyway, Zootopia 2 starring Jason Bateman comes out and Ginny Goodwin, who I've not seen in anything else since Once Upon a Time and Zootopia, which is interesting.
02:20:43
Speaker
Jennifer Goodwin. But yeah, what did she do? you excited it for Geotopia 2? You liked Geotopia 1, right? Quite a bit. I did. Yeah, I did. i got to i don't know. There's still a few. i mean, I guess since I got Disney+, plus I can watch Inside Out 2 finally.
02:20:56
Speaker
But again, I just got to be in a mood. I don't know. I've been in like ah a weird mood on what I want to watch. I know I would love this, but I don't know if I'm going go to Russia theaters to watch this right now.
02:21:07
Speaker
Okay. Anything you want to, based on what we just talked about, what is the, is there any crucial one that you want to see? Or is there something from a few weeks ago that you want to see that you're keen on for the next couple of weeks?
02:21:18
Speaker
I mean, obviously I still want to watch Running Man. Right. With my boy Glenn. I'm sad that I didn't watch it. I still want to watch Blackphone 2, but it's already out digitally. Oh. So I'm like, is it still in theaters? It might be.
02:21:30
Speaker
don't know. wonder how well that did. I don't know. but I think by all accounts, like a lot of these horror movies, they they don't, I mean, they're not high budget. So I feel like typically they'll do well.
02:21:42
Speaker
i'm Keeper, I'm definitely interested in, you know, so we'll see that. Right. Nothing from this listing. Nothing crazy. Like nothing that i like I have to watch. Wake Up Dead Man, I guess, is probably the big one. But I mean, we could wait for it to come to Netflix if we want to. It depends on our timeline.
02:22:00
Speaker
And then obviously, I'm stoked for Stranger Things season five. but Where is Wake Up Dead Man, the Knives Out mystery going to be? like That's the question. question like Anywhere close. We just have to like search. We have to go hunting for it.
02:22:12
Speaker
That would have been a good one to put in a Cineplex like, hey, this is this is a secret Cineclub benefit situation. Maybe it'll be this Monday. Who knows?
02:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. maybe um I wouldn't be surprised if it's in like Princess at the very least. Black Phone 2 is still in theaters, by the way. Yeah, Black Phone 2 is interesting because it made over $120 million at the box box office, apparently, worldwide.
02:22:41
Speaker
But I'm wondering what the budget is because I was i was thinking if it's already in... Oh, budget's $30 million. Oh, geez. They've killed it. These horror movies, man, they they're really like – because you don't need much because you the idea of being scared is that isolation is a big part of it, you know?
02:22:57
Speaker
you don't really – you need freaking Ethan Hawke with a mask on. yeah yeah that's the biggest That's the biggest expense. but i I imagine like $10 million of that budget is to Ethan Hawke, you know?
02:23:10
Speaker
Probably. Likely, yeah. The majority of it is just like to him. And then there's a bunch of like, how many extras do you even need? You probably don't need anyone. Weapons, I guess, would be would have been a more expensive horror movie because it's got more cast and more people. But anyway.
02:23:25
Speaker
Okay. Last one to mention because I didn't say it and then may as well mention it here. Train Dreams. Have you seen the trailer for this? It's Netflix film with Joel Edgerton. No. Okay. It looks again and really sad.
02:23:37
Speaker
Got Felicity Jones in it. But anyway. That's it. Oh, i did I think I did see the trailer for this. it's like They're like in the woods. Say my name. like There's an element of them looking up. as you know There's that shot of the woods. as They look up into the sky and you see the trees. Say my name.
02:23:54
Speaker
he He's like, say my name. And she's like, Robert. Some shit like that. don't fucking know about that. I feel like that's nothing to do with it, but I get the vibe. think we captured the vibe with our description.
02:24:06
Speaker
I swear to God that is like a fucking thing that I saw. ah Yeah, it starts Felicity Jones of Rogue One fame. Felicity Jones is in a lot of indie movies. I was i was thinking recently like, i don't see Felicity Jones anymore. What happened to her? And I looked up her IMDb and she's in lots of things.
02:24:21
Speaker
I just haven't seen her in them. That's just my bad. Okay, well, that's it. Are you done? you have anything else to say to the audience before we wrap this fill up, before we get out of here? No, I hope you all feel better.
02:24:33
Speaker
What? Don't get sick. Don't get sick. Feel better. Yeah, feel better. you i think you're projecting. Yeah. I feel good. but feel better. Is everyone sick if you're were sick?
02:24:46
Speaker
Is that how you think of the world? It's how it works. All right. Showbiz, baby. All right, then. Well, Adrian... I thank everybody for listening to episode one, two, three of split focus, a film and TV podcast.
02:25:00
Speaker
My name is Simon Eadie and it has been a pleasure to host you alongside my Glenn Powell loving co-host, Adrian Pinter. Please join us on December 2nd for episode one 24.
02:25:12
Speaker
Good evening to you and good luck. Take care. See ya. Goodbye. Goodbye. Bye now. Take care. Goodbye.
02:25:24
Speaker
Goodbye. Okay. See you later. All right. Honkidore.