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143 - Bratz (2007)
92 Plays1 year ago
"These *are* the jokes, people!"
This week, in honor of Barbie and Oppenheimer hitting theaters simultaneously, we're focusing on a movie that bombed about a line of dolls! Join Tucker and Stephen as they discuss Jon Voight, director Sean McNamara, and exactly who this movie could possibly be for!
Check out our bratitude on the following platforms:
- @Disenfranchpod on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, Threads, YouTube, and (for now) Twitter
- Email us your thoughts or requests to disenfranchpod@gmail.com
- Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
- Find Stephen at @ChewyWalrus on Bluesky, Instagram, Letterboxd, Threads, and (for now) Twitter
- Find Brett at @sus_warlock on Instagram and Letterboxd
- Find Tucker at @icenine09 on YouTube and @tuck_mugs on Instagram
- Join our Patreon for exclusive bonus content, including our weekly Patreon-exclusive show, What Are We Watching? https://patreon.com/Disenfranchpod
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Transcript
Introduction to Failed Franchises
00:00:21
Speaker
I'll say good for you.
00:00:24
Speaker
What the fuck did we just watch? It's the disenfranchised podcast where that podcast all about those franchises have won those films that fancy themselves full fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film. I'm your host, Stephen Foxworthy joined as I always am by my co host Tucker. Hey, Tucker. Oh, hi, Stephen. How's it going? Oh, hi. I didn't see you come in there. I'm doing well, man. How are you?
00:00:51
Speaker
Uh, I'm good. It's, it's been a day, but you know, it's, this is fun. So it is a nice diversion, if nothing else. Yeah.
00:01:02
Speaker
And I mean, look, we would love to have had Brett right here. We'd love to tell you that he's here. Unfortunately, he is climbing out of the pool following a disaster at his my super sweet 16 party and is not able to make it. So we wish him the very best of luck and hopefully we'll see him back here very soon. But but yeah, Tucker.
Barbie and Oppenheimer Phenomenon
00:01:27
Speaker
Boy, do we have a boy, do we have a doozy today?
00:01:32
Speaker
Look, there's basically not in years has there been such a one-two punch hitting theaters this weekend as Barbie and Oppenheimer, a movie about dolls and a movie about bombs. So we figured, hey,
00:01:47
Speaker
What should we do to capitalize this? I don't know. Maybe let's talk about a movie about dolls that bombed. So that's what we're doing. Tucker, what are we talking about today?
Exploring the 2007 Bratz Movie
00:01:58
Speaker
Deservedly, so it bombed. We're talking about Bratz, the live action Bratz from 2007. 2007's Bratz starring Natalia Ramos, Skylar Shay, Janelle Parrish. Yeah, exactly.
00:02:16
Speaker
God, this movie, Logan Browning, Chelsea Kane, Staub, Annalise Vanderpole, Malise Zhao, and John Voight. John motherfucking Voight in this movie. The Midnight Cowboy himself. The Midnight Cowboy himself. John Voight. John motherfucking Voight. Hollywood royalty.
00:02:42
Speaker
What a cast. What a picture. He's got a fake ass nose in this movie. And I texted you while I was watching and saying, is he wearing a fake nose in this movie because he's ashamed to be in it to which you said.
00:03:00
Speaker
I said he doesn't know what shame is. Look, John Voight, Sean Magnemara, the guy who directed this movie, and John Voight must be best friends because every shitty like kids movie that this dude makes, John Voight's in half of them. He's in two Baby Geniuses sequels, direct-to-video sequels that this man directed. He's also in the TV show that this man directed some of.
00:03:27
Speaker
So like he's apparently a staple of the baby geniuses franchise. Here's a thing that I know about John Voight. John Voight in very recent years has become increasingly more conservative in his politics.
00:03:47
Speaker
And as a result, I think that that's kind of, you know, like it does with guys like Dean Cain and Kevin Sorbo kind of like fucks with them and their ability to like get movies like he plays Justice Warren Burger in a movie called Roe v. Wade that came out in 2019.
00:04:06
Speaker
But Sean McNamara, among other films, this guy has directed a ton of Disney Channel original films, Disney Channel tracks, completely tracks. He's Disney Channel television shows. Even Stevens. Yeah. Yeah. He did the Even Stevens movie. He did the Sweet Life movie.
00:04:29
Speaker
I don't know how many of those things we're actually going to cover on this podcast, because I don't want to. But he also directed a movie called Soul Surfer. Are you familiar with Soul Surfer? I'm not. So Sean McNamara, the director of this film, and look, if you watch this movie, it should not surprise you this guy directed Disney Channel original shit, because holy crap, is there a lot of it. Soul Surfer comes out in 2011.
00:05:01
Speaker
And it is about a teenage surfer played in the film by Anna Sophia Rob, who I think is a phenomenal actress, who loses an arm during a shark attack. She's a surfer, loses an arm in a shark attack, and through the power of Jesus becomes a surfer again.
00:05:21
Speaker
And it also stars Kevin Sorbo and Carrie Underwood. Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid are in this movie as well. But this is definitely one of those movies that I kind of bristle against what are called the Faithful films. I find them often terrible. And of course, as someone who has worked in the church for a number of years, these films are prevalent.
00:05:47
Speaker
And but so I think Sean McNamara is a part of this group. And so I think he is probably a very conservative filmmaker in his own right. And so casts other conservative actors like Kevin Sorbo and John Voight, which I think is why you see a lot of John Voight in Sean McNamara movies, because he's probably the only Oscar winner Sean McNamara is allowed to talk to.
Conservative Influences in Film
00:06:13
Speaker
There you go. I think, you know,
00:06:19
Speaker
It's weird that he would he would be religious with how racist and kind of disgusting this movie can be at times. Well, here's the thing. Conservatives are. Oh, that's right. Conservatives, not Christians. There's a difference. I forgot. Not much because a lot of a lot of conservatives call themselves Christians. Yeah. Right. And that's the distinction is
00:06:46
Speaker
Most people who are conservative, who call themselves Christians, really aren't because they haven't really read the Bible. Pretty obviously. Pretty obviously. I mean, look, you can't read the Bible and take it seriously and elect Donald Trump as president. You just can't do it. It's not possible. So I don't know. I'll probably get a shit ton of angry comments and downvotes on Apple Podcast. But look, it's true.
00:07:14
Speaker
So do with that what you will do without what you will. But yeah, we disenfranchise stand behind what Stephen has just said. Brett hates it when I get political, which is probably why it's a good thing that he's still washing off after that pool pool accident. But that doesn't mean he doesn't agree. True. Uh,
Plot and Structure Critique of Bratz
00:07:35
Speaker
So should we just should we just go ahead and try to do the plot in 60 seconds on this? We know. Oh, no, we have to. OK, we don't neither of us have a history with any of this. So, yeah, we might as well. I mean, I've seen the dolls. I know what they are. Yes, that's it. The guy that's all their heads are like the size of their entire body. The eyes are like half the head, like very much anime inspired kind of shit. Like, yeah, it makes sense.
00:08:05
Speaker
But yeah, let's let's just let's just rip the band aid off. Let's just do the fucking plot in 16.
00:08:10
Speaker
Let me let me find the Canadian quarter of indifference here. I've gained a lot of quarters since the last time we've done a two man show. Lucky you. Well, let me while you do that, let me talk about what the plot in 60 is. It is the part of the show where we recount the plot of the film in 60 seconds or less. You would probably know that unless you're tuning in for the first time to hear what we have to say about Bratz, which God, why? But welcome. There it is.
00:08:36
Speaker
Well, you'd be surprised how many people are defending this piece of shit on letterboxed. I don't understand it. I don't get a life. Jeez. I really don't like this movie is. Look, this movie is not good. If you like it, that's fine. You're allowed to like a thing. But the parts. Please explain to me why this is good, because it's not.
00:08:58
Speaker
And the parts that are good are only made worse by how shitty the rest of this movie is. Because there are, it's like, here's how I see it. When I was watching it, it seemed like you probably had 10 people writing this script, right? And one of them was kind of clever. Never once in a while you see something that's like, oh, that could have been kind of cool. That could have been a really clever thing, but it's in this movie, so it fucking blows.
00:09:26
Speaker
And this movie is, look, I said it to you before we started recording. I'll go ahead and say it now. This movie is Mean Girls for seven year olds. Like if we wanted to try to remake Mean Girls as a movie that like kids who liked high school musical could enjoy, Bratz is the movie that comes out of that attempt.
00:09:46
Speaker
Movie Steven a movie. This isn't a movie. This is four episodes of a TV show. Come on, man It really does feel like that. Did you see how that works? Like every about every 20 minutes we move on to a new episode We do a two-year time jump with things are concluded and new things are brought forth. There's an overarching story There's no way this was originally written as one movie it had to have at least been written as four episodes of a television series and
00:10:14
Speaker
Which I don't think is actually true, but like, God, it definitely feels that way. I don't believe it. I refuse to believe it. Paula Abdul was supposed to be in this movie. Good for her not doing that. Yeah, she was originally supposed to provide wardrobe designs, choreograph, executive produce and have a role. But then she had to drop out because of American Idol because her cartoon cat husband was sick.
00:10:42
Speaker
Mm. Oh, DJ Skatcat. Why? Why isn't that guy getting more work? That's what I would watch a show about that guy. 100 percent. Because opposite attract. I two steps forward, two steps back. Steps back. We come together because it's a trap. You know, it is just a natural.
00:11:11
Speaker
Anyway, hey, guys, how's it going? Paul Abdul is the shit. Yeah, Janet Jackson is the shit. Straight up. Now tell me, do you really want to love me forever? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. But yeah, no, this movie got it. It bad. It real, real bad. Yeah. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it, Tucker.
00:11:39
Speaker
but we are gonna talk about it because there's a Barbie movie and an Oppenheimer movie, and this is a dull movie that bombed. So Tucker, why don't you go ahead and give that coin a flip so as I can call it. Okay, for newcomers, the queen is heads, and the moose is tails. Steven's gonna call it in the air, and here I go, I'm flicking it right, M-F and now. I'm gonna call tails.
00:12:06
Speaker
It is heads. Motherfucker. All right. Womp womp. You go ahead and put 60 seconds on the clock and I. Yes, I. That's you. Count the plot of the Bratz film. Bratz with a Z in case you in case you you did not read the episode title. I'm ready when you are, Steven, when you start, I will start the 60 second timer and make sure you give me the 30 and 10 second.
00:12:32
Speaker
you know i'm gonna you know i'm gonna for the people at home this is not my first day steven i i know i'm just letting the people at home know that do what to expect all right
00:12:46
Speaker
Bratz is a movie about four teenage girls who are like best friends, but all have different interests. And so those different interests land them in different clubs. They're vaguely ethnic. Also, there's a black girl who's a cheerleader.
00:13:03
Speaker
There's an Asian girl who's like who loves the sciences but also has a quote passion for fashion There's a blonde girl who likes soccer and then another blonde girl who's supposed to be Hispanic who also Who loves to sing and so because of that they all get like shuffled into different cliques 30 seconds
00:13:23
Speaker
And then they eventually like break up the clicks and end up forming together. There's one girl who's like really into the clicks. And then they all compete in a talent show together. And the prize for a talent show is a as a scholarship to college. And so any college they they win, they get the scholarship and they give it to the poor girl who gets to go to college. And then the guy from MTV Records shows up played by the director of this fucking movie. And he gives them your time.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, you you forgot about episode three, the party. I mean, OK, you know, episode three of the show. Yeah, party, the party. Yeah. Where where she rides in on a story. Yes. She rides another elephant, gets chucked into a pool. Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know what the fuck this movie is. Like, I don't. I have no idea. There's.
00:14:18
Speaker
if you had told me when this movie started that it was gonna end where it ended and you told me that it was gonna make sense how it got there first of all you're wrong it didn't make sense it made no sense but the beginning of this movie and the end of this movie are so far from each other thematic wise tone wise everything it's all so different
00:14:45
Speaker
like how that now they're that they're just like pop stars now. Sure. Okay. I guess that's what we're doing now. Okay. Okay. No indication that they any of them even wanted to do that until the last like half hour of the film. And here's the thing there is this movie
00:15:06
Speaker
None of the characters really are dynamic in any way. They pretty much start friends and they pretty much end friends. And there are some disagreements and some confusion. Except for episode two, where they don't talk to each other for two years.
00:15:19
Speaker
Is it two years or is it like two months? It's two years. The girl says two years, which doesn't make sense because so they come in as freshmen, right? Two years later, they would be juniors, which tracks, but the girl that was signing up the freshmen, the bad guy of the movie, you know, like, uh, what was she a sophomore then? Cause she would have to be, or else she flunked like twice because I just assumed she was a senior. Her dad's the principal. And so she gets away with fucking everything. Mm-hmm.
00:15:49
Speaker
So I just don't understand the timeline there, but the gal, one of the girls, I don't know, one of those girls specifically says two years. Two years. Two years. I hate it. I hate it so much. Like, I don't know what this is. That's a time jump in the first act. That's still the first act, technically, Steven. It is. No, it is. It is. 100%. Like, I don't...
00:16:16
Speaker
Understand what this is like this the way that this movie it and it is it is made for children It is clearly look Tucker. I think it is very safe to say that you and I Are not the target audience for this movie I would I would say that most of our regular listeners are probably not the target audience for this movie
00:16:35
Speaker
That would be, I think, a fairly safe bet, all things considered. This is not made for you and I. However, I can see there being a group of people who grew up with this movie who does have a special nostalgic place in their heart. And if that is the case, I'm glad. I really am. I'm glad that you get enjoyment out of this movie. I can't. But I'm glad someone does. And I'm glad it's you.
00:17:00
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I was watching this movie and I could not make heads or tails of what was going on. Um, I watched it after my partner went to sleep and I was just so, and she, she actually woke up like during the last half hour and we watched the last half hour together and we couldn't figure out what the fuck was going on. And I was, but here's the thing, she wasn't able to jump right in and not have any problem because again, this movie is so piecemeal. It's not, there is not a cohesive narrative across this entire story.
00:17:28
Speaker
It's just like, oh hey, friends are cool. That's pretty much what this movie is trying to say. It's just montage after montage after montage after montage. And you know what? They follow a montage with two other montages. Something that frequently happens. There are like three back to back montages in this movie.
00:17:48
Speaker
something that frequently happens and only during the montages I don't know if you notice this or not Steven but there was some very shoddy sound editing to the point to where there was a character so when homegirls getting ready for her sweet 16
00:18:04
Speaker
There's a character that's showing her the dresses. His mouth is moving every time the camera is on him and he's not saying anything. There's music, but she's responding to him vocally. Yes. So and there are other instances where the camera is on someone and they say something, but nothing comes out of their mouth. Yeah. Yeah, this is not a good movie. It's.
00:18:32
Speaker
It's like Pooty Tang gone bad. I don't know what this movie is, but it feels like 20 million dollars, 20 million dollars, Steven, on this movie. It barely made half that. It barely made half. Fuck this movie. Fuck it in stupid ass. So this movie, I...
00:18:56
Speaker
God, I don't even know. I don't even know where to start with this thing. It's a
Background on Bratz Dolls and Music
00:19:00
Speaker
mess. It's a horrible disjointed mess. So let me actually do some reverse engineering here. So the Bratz toy line comes out in 2001. So this movie comes out six years after that.
00:19:21
Speaker
And there are a ton of different brats dolls. The original four are the four portrayed in this movie, but there have since been so many more. There is an entire Wikipedia page just called.
00:19:37
Speaker
like characters in the Bratz toy line. Because there are so many movies too. They've animated movies. There's Bratz kids, Bratz boys, Bratz babies and Bratz zillas. Babies with slutty makeup. That's great.
00:19:54
Speaker
They have they have soundtrack albums compilation albums. There's a TV show, a web series, video games like I kind of wish Brett were on this episode so he could talk to us about the
00:20:08
Speaker
about the the video games for this one. So we head to the video game corner. But like this, this is just this was a huge franchise in the early 2000s. They were discontinued in 2016. And then I think a new line came out in 2018 with replicas came out and coming out in 2021 for the 20th anniversary.
00:20:37
Speaker
There is a Wikipedia page called List of Brats Characters.
00:20:42
Speaker
So and they they borrowed nothing from those original characters in this movie. Like this movie has nothing. This was something that somebody made or some. This was a miniseries or a pilot with a couple episodes that somebody wrote and then they were shopping it around and whoever owned Bratz was like, you know what? Let's slap Bratz on this bitch. That is 100 percent what this feels like. It feels like a movie where we've already we're already trying to do one thing. Like maybe this is a Disney Channel original movie.
00:21:12
Speaker
And like Disney Channel doesn't want it for some reason. And so I don't know. Let's make it a Bratz tie in movie. Bratz, those dolls are really popular right now. And let's let's go ahead and look at those. So I feel like the last episode was all about tying it into brass, honestly. I don't know if that's originally where the show was going, and I will keep referring to it as a show, Stephen. So I'm doing that consciously. No need to correct me. It's just my opinion.
00:21:41
Speaker
But I also don't think it's a mistake that this movie comes out the year after High School Musical debuts on the Disney Channel. Oh, yeah, not at all. Like that is absolutely not a coincidence because this movie, I think, owes a lot to High School Musical. Like that's another thing. It's all in the last half. There's no songs in the first half, man. They shoehorn that shit in. It's like as things are happening, they're like, oh, let's put that in our movie, but that off in our movie. But the soundtrack is working over time.
00:22:09
Speaker
Like with all the montages and like I feel like they're constantly like songs just dropped in here. Like there are multiple songs by. I've never heard since like. Correct. Well, and as I was watching this on on Freevie because it is streaming for free right now on Freevie, it would actually show the name of the song.
00:22:33
Speaker
and then the performer that is performing it. And there are multiple songs on the soundtrack by an artist called Prima J, who I do not know at all. And this is the first time I'd ever heard of Prima J. And there are multiple songs by this artist on here. But you've also done by I didn't do the I didn't do the X-ray feature, but I notoriously do watch the credits of every movie. So. Mm hmm.
00:22:57
Speaker
That's how every other song was that artist. I was watching the credits. I did both. You've got songs here from the Black Eyed Peas, Prima J, The Honor Roll, Life House, Ashley Simpsons, multiple songs by an artist called Lauren Evans, who I've never heard of. And then, of course, at the very end of the credits, there is a got so many Prima J. There's like four Prima J songs on the soundtrack.
00:23:28
Speaker
Five God, every day I just I scroll like just a little further down and there's another prima jay song at the very end. Of course, there is a an entire music video for a song by star of this film. Janelle Parrish, who I have never heard of, but was apparently on Pretty Little Liars. Like she's she's apparently
00:23:54
Speaker
somewhat popular amongst certain kids of a certain age, I guess. I've never heard of her. I've never seen anything. But apparently she's like one of those performers who does a lot of a lot of her own music. She was on four episodes of the show Heroes that I watched. She's I would just like to note that she is not the girl that's interested in singing in this movie. No.
00:24:22
Speaker
Which would have made sense. Whose voice changes from song to song, by the way. You can't fool me, Bratz. You can't fool me, Bratz. I was born in the dark, but it was not motherfucking yesterday. Every time that girl sings, it's a different voice.
00:24:37
Speaker
And here's the thing. So something very interesting. So there are four main girls, Natalia Ramos, Logan Browning, Janelle Parrish, and Skylar Shea. The song Bratitude, which is the song that the Brats sing at the end of the episode. So the girl that's into singing is played by Natalia Ramos.
00:24:58
Speaker
who is of Spanish descent, not Mexican. Which is not the same as Mexican. It is. Let's make that very clear. Very clear. She also calls her grandma Bubby as opposed to Abuelita or Abuela, which is what you would imagine an Hispanic family. Bubby is actually played by Laini Kazan, who you probably know best from the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise.
00:25:25
Speaker
I don't know where from shit because I don't watch those dumb movies either. She plays the mom in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and she is also in the Adam Sandler film. You Don't Mess With The Zohan, which is actually really good. I haven't seen it. It's good. Don't Mess With The Zohan is actually better than any other Adam Sandler movie I can remember. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Adam Sandler, but I also
00:25:51
Speaker
modern Adam Sandler stuff, I have trouble getting into if I get it. I get mountains of respect for the man. He's wonderful. And I I'm a big fan of his dramatic work. I love him in Agreed Punch, Drunk Love. I adore him and Uncut Gems. Yeah, I don't think Spanglish is a good movie, but I think he's doing some good stuff in it. Yeah. Like, yes, Adam Sandler, dramatic work. Good.
00:26:17
Speaker
Um, but the man loves comedy and you know what? Hubie Halloween, pretty fun. That's what Jimmy said. That was pretty good too. Hubie Halloween is Halloween. Pretty fun. I, I had fun with Hubie Halloween. It was just, it was a wave, a little wave of a film, but God, it's pretty silly and it's pretty funny. So I quite liked Hubie Halloween. Um,
00:26:39
Speaker
But yeah, so, um, but yeah, so Bubby, um, and, and then, you know, like all Hispanic families, they, they spend a lot of time dancing around their house, singing La Cucaracha. Cause of course, how else are you going to know they're Hispanic otherwise? Um, and how is that embarrassing? It's meant to be played off as like the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to anybody.
00:27:05
Speaker
No, it's not embarrassing. These motherfuckers obviously have not seen the rage carry to some embarrassing shit. This bitch kills a whole party of teenagers over this shit. Right. Well, we'll get to a spooky season exclusively on the Patreon exclusive of Patreon dot com slash disenfranch pod. Yeah. But we so there are four actresses. Natalia Ramos plays the girl who is into singing. She is the only one of the four brats who is not credited on the song. Bratitude.
00:27:35
Speaker
or the song that plays over the end credits, Open Eyes. Logan Browning, who plays Sasha, Janelle Parrish, who plays Jade, and Skylar Shea, who plays Chloe. Those are the three actresses who, yes, sure. Those are the three actresses who are credited on both of those songs. The girl Natalia Ramos, who is the one who's supposed to be into singing, she is the one who is not credited on those songs. So,
00:28:02
Speaker
I don't what the fuck are we doing? Why could we? What? Why? Why did we? Why did we? Why did we? I guess not for nothing. But Skylar Shay, also a veteran of the two baby geniuses sequels that John Voight was in. I'm telling you, there's there's a like a group man. I mean, last group we I've I've said before, I always appreciate when a director in this case, though.
00:28:25
Speaker
A director gathers around him like, uh, like a group of, of people who like are his, like group and his collaborators. Magna Marra is no Christopher Nolan, man. He's not. He's not. No, that is true. No Wes Anderson, dude. Come on. He's not. He's look, he's not. It's very obvious. He's not.
00:28:44
Speaker
I don't know what he is, man.
Inappropriate Content and MGA Lawsuits
00:28:46
Speaker
I don't either. God, I don't fucking know. This movie is such a mess. I don't know. I don't legitimately I don't I'm not even entirely sure what this movie ends. Can I tell you the grossest part about this movie? Oh, I famously did not join the recording a couple of episodes ago because of how racist and and sexualizing children
00:29:08
Speaker
on how all that happened in the album and Shipmunk's movie. I mean, we didn't mention that on the episode, but you're coming out with it now. So that's your prerogative. Oh, yeah. It was a good episode, though, and you guys did discuss those things and I thought it was handled very well. So good job. It was a great episode. Thank you. I agree. But when the the heavy air quotes Mexican girls, little brother with the hair. Mm hmm.
00:29:37
Speaker
is like saying really gross things to like an eight-year-old girl. Yeah. Like how disgusting was that? It is. That was fucking nasty. This whole movie is kind of gross in various ways. I will say that eight-year-old girl is probably. I mean, Chet Hanks is a part of it, so what are you gonna do?
00:29:58
Speaker
That eight year old girl, though, I got to say, maybe the most relatable character in this whole fucking movie. Agreed. Yeah, she's the only one that I'm like, yeah, I'm on her team. Let's go. Because she she is so fucking done with everything. Like at one point she's she says, these are the jokes, people. And I went like that feels like the the motto of this movie. Like, look, this is what we got. And if you don't like it, I don't know what to tell you because this is all we've got.
00:30:29
Speaker
And that is absolutely the case. Good for her because the gal who played that little girl, she has stopped acting and become a writer director. Good for her. What is that actress's name? Emily Rose Everhard. Good, good, good. She is also in if we if we oh, no, she's that's a different version. I was going to say she's in.
00:30:58
Speaker
future episodes podcast Jack and the Beanstalk, but no, I don't see any reason for us to cover that ever. But no, she's done a couple of short films and written and directed a couple short films and good. Good for her. Yeah, yeah. Get out from under brats, dude, because you can't let that squish you.
00:31:17
Speaker
I agree. You got some things going on. You got it. You got to get it done. I mean, she's she's she's done some films. It looks like she she's not done a film since 2010, but she's in the the most recent TV reboot of the Children of the Corn franchise.
00:31:34
Speaker
Oh, no. Yeah, yeah, I was I was just rooting for her. No, no, 2009. That's not very recent. There was already another remake since then. Oh, God, of course there is. She also does additional voices in the made for TV Ace Ventura pet detective junior movie. Was that made for TV? I thought it was direct to video. It says TV movie here on IMDB, man. I believe you.
00:32:00
Speaker
Look, what I'm saying is like her writing and directing is recent. So what I have to assume just from the information I have here is that she was a child actress that went to film school. And now here she is. Good. And I'm here for it because anybody who can get out from under this fucking stink burger of a movie and do something worth a damn. You know, I'm way behind it because everybody else in this movie is just churning out shit. Yeah, it's look, it's not great.
00:32:30
Speaker
And I don't know anything about the actresses in this film. I. I'm sure they're all lovely people. The only person I think I've heard of prior to this is or I guess the two people would be John Voight and Lainey Kazan from from the My Big Fat Greek Wedding films. You're familiar with Chet Hanks, though. I I did not realize that was Chet Hanks, I guess.
00:32:54
Speaker
Yeah, the kid that looks like in the Shia LaBeouf, he almost looks like Shia LaBeouf in this movie, sort of the nerdy kid who's like he's a nerd, but he like tried right. Yeah, yeah. He tries to be the stand up comedian. Yeah. So the one who pairs off with with Jade, the the vaguely Asian one, I did disparage Chet Hanks earlier when I was talking about how he's in this movie. But to to be clear,
00:33:23
Speaker
he was excellent in the episode of Atlanta, that he was in third season of Atlanta. He was amazing in that. And there's actually a really good story behind that too, that makes it even better. Okay, I don't know any of that. I'm not gonna tell that story though, because unless you watch the episode, you won't have context for the story, so. Yeah, all I know is that Chet Hanks is the son of Tom Hanks, and he's the guy who declared it white boy summer a couple summers ago, so.
00:33:52
Speaker
But he ends up with Janelle Parrish in this movie. Good for him. Her who is her mother is of Chinese descent and her father is Caucasian. So like you do like you do this. What a what a fucking weird movie this is. Like seriously, I don't. What what even is this movie, Tucker? I hate it. You know what? You know, this made me think while I was watching it and thinking about how much it was wasting my time.
00:34:21
Speaker
And as I get older, the more I am very... I'm kind of... I want to not waste my time so much because I'm an older guy, you know?
Nostalgia and Hollywood's IP Recycling
00:34:35
Speaker
Here's the problem with that though. We are on a podcast about movies that didn't get sequels. Most of these are probably going to suck on some level. I disagree because for some reason it seems like
00:34:50
Speaker
Like last month was a fucking shit show. Like all of those movies sucked to varying degrees. You were outspokenly very much against last last last month. Before, during and after. Yes. And I will continue to be. You were kind of a bitch about all of it. Yeah. All that shit that I had to waste my time on. And then we get L.A. confidential and you fucking brats, dude.
00:35:17
Speaker
Like I wonder if and look I'm not saying we shouldn't talk about bad movies because you know Even though it was a waste of time. I do enjoy sitting here talking to you about it, right? They're interesting avenues to explore within the confines of even the worst movies like there's something interesting behind the scenes stuff We can talk about like there's always something we can discuss with these movies. It's not a complete waste of time. I
00:35:41
Speaker
I just feel like I'm kind of burnt out on really shitty movies because we've had an impressive run of them, Stephen. An impressive run of just grade Z bottom of the barrel fucking dog shit movies. And I I dare say that is part of partially the name of the game. It is. Yeah, no, it is. I get it. I just wish they weren't altogether all at once because it just it.
00:36:06
Speaker
Where's me out, man? Like basically Tucker's brain is being slowly broken. However, I can tell you, Tucker, that we've actually got some very good stuff coming next month. And I'm very excited about it, especially the what I guess is still the season finale. I'm very excited about that. It is still the season for that because that is a Tucker's Choice episode. Yes, because that movie
00:36:33
Speaker
Any of you guys, you or Brett or our special guest, it's a crapshoot 50-50. You guys are either gonna love it or fucking hate it. And I cannot wait to see who loves it and see who hates it. And I'm very excited because I love that movie. And I can't wait to tell you why. I honestly have no idea what I'm even getting myself into right now, but I am getting myself into it.
00:36:58
Speaker
You will be saying a lot of the same things that you're saying about this film, but in a positive way. Interesting. You'll see what I mean when you watch it, Steve. When you watch it four times in a row is what I meant to say. Did I tell you the first time I watched that movie I watched it four times in a row? Anyway, Bratz.
00:37:17
Speaker
by rats anyway brats that is what we're talking about attitudes and bratitudes and I've never seen I've never heard the word platitudes spoken so many times in succession in such a short amount of time and it's such a nothing word that kids that are watching this have no idea what a fucking platitude is
00:37:38
Speaker
platitude, gratitude, attitude, and bratitude, which is not a word, but it rhymes with those other three. And it's basically, okay, what words rhyme with? First of all, this show is called Bratz. And you know what the first syllable of attitude is, is at. So we can call it bratitude. But what rhymes with bratitude? Well, attitude, obviously. But what else? Brilliant. Gratitude. Yep. And oh, God, there's got to be a third. Oh, I know platitude.
00:38:05
Speaker
So let's put all of these- Wait, wait. What's that mean? I don't know. It doesn't matter. Put it in. Doesn't matter. Fuck it. Fuck it. I just, I've heard people say it's bad. So we'll say no platitude. And you just put those four words in a chorus and repeat them ad nauseam. And then you put like, like they start singing the song and I'm embarrassed.
00:38:24
Speaker
for them in that moment. Like, this is supposed to be like the big triumphant scene at the end where they blow everyone up. This is the joyful, joyful, we adore the scene from the end of Sister Act 2. And it- Oh, that's such a good movie. It is. You know who directed that movie? Oh no, but little Lord Hill's just so adorable in that movie. Know who directed it? Fucking Bill Duke. The immortal Bill Duke. I thought you were gonna say the director of this film, and I was like, no!
00:38:52
Speaker
God, no, no. A good director, Bill Duke. Oh, got it. Got it. Okay. The guy who directed Deep Cover, the guy who plays the guy who's constantly shaving in Predator, like an actual talented motherfucker directed that movie. Someone who has an artistic bone in their body. Yes. Got it. And here's the thing. He has actually directed some faithful movies. And I think maybe we should cover some of those on the Oops All Christianity Corner behind the Patreon.
00:39:18
Speaker
I was willing to look at him. I'd be willing to watch them if Bill Duke is the director. Honestly, absolutely.
Film Climax and Talent Show Critique
00:39:24
Speaker
Because I know I love Bill Duke. Deep Cover is a fucking masterpiece. Like Deep Cover is a good movie. Lawrence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, fucking Bill Duke. Yes. Fish. And yep. I mean, great cast, great movie. Great. This movie, not.
00:39:44
Speaker
But like that's what this this scene is that scene is supposed to be it's supposed to be the end of systerect two and instead as soon as they start singing I'm instantly embarrassed for them and I'm like it has the the I get the same reaction listening to that as I do listening to like.
00:40:04
Speaker
or like watching sections of Meet the Parents, like that stuff that's supposed to be like cringy awkward. Cringy stuff, yeah. Yeah, like that's the level of cringe that I feel in my soul when they start singing that song about gratitude. Yes. Yes. Or the dinner party episode of The Office, but also not funny. But not funny, yeah. And here's the thing, not supposed to be funny.
00:40:34
Speaker
Not supposed to be funny, supposed to be like encouraging, uplifting, like positive. No, not at all. None of those things, in fact. It's supposed to be what they call in Disney's Dumbo, the climax.
00:40:51
Speaker
Mmm, it's not though And what was the like lead up to that? Like if if a show stopped and like motherfucker is just like talking to the audience That's not supposed to be yeah security is gonna come get your ass and everybody's not gonna like chime in and other people who have no idea what the fuck is going on that aren't involved just sit in the audience like What is fucking happening?
00:41:11
Speaker
We all the parents like the parents of the terrible kids that this girl led into the talent show because she knew she could beat them. Like those parents are saying they're going, what is happening right now? Like my kid, no context for this. Why are these people talking? What's this inspirational music? Where's it coming from? Oh, my God, Tucker, I forgot to mention the kid that plays motherfucking beans and even Stevens is in this movie.
00:41:41
Speaker
Oh, we're you know, I've never seen Even Stevens. I just know that it's where. What's his nuts? Got to start there. Shia LaBeouf. Shia LaBeouf. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was also in Stevens. That dumb and dumber movie that everybody hates, but I think is fine.
00:41:59
Speaker
But he is in this. Is it even Stephen? No, I don't know. He was in some some show and he played a character called Beans. That's all I know. I don't fucking know anything. Cool beans. It is even Stevens. He plays a character called Beans and even Stevens. Who is the MF you're talking about? His name. The actor's name is Stephen Anthony Lawrence. He was also in previous episode of this podcast, the cats and the cat in the hat, where he plays a character called Dumschweitzer.
00:42:27
Speaker
But he plays he is plunger man. He is the guy who he is. He's auditioning. And he says, I am plunger man. And he sticks a plunger to his head. I know this kid. Yes, you do. He has a very unique face. And I know him from probably Cat in the Hat because you made me watch that shit show. Sure did.
00:42:45
Speaker
That's the job very lovingly. I say that is all very lovingly. The job. If I didn't like it, I would quit. I'm just saying I was true. I probably I may have seen him on That's So Raven because your boy's low key. That's so Raven super mega fan. He also played a character called Chunky Kid in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And you know how much I love that show. Do you actually love that show? I don't I guess I don't know. The extent to which you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Moving on.
00:43:17
Speaker
Uh, looks like maybe I know I'm from dreamers. That was a Gus Van Sant movie, right? It has, you know who Gus Van Sant sticks with? Nobody. It's set for Michael Pitt. Hmm. You're watching Gus Van Sant. You probably going to see some Michael Pitt in there at a certain point. That's fair.
00:43:35
Speaker
But yeah, like I know this kid from something else, like something that's more I'm looking at all the stuff on here, but there's nothing that like sticks out. It's like, oh, that's something I've seen a lot. I think I read somewhere that he did a porno. Did you watch the porno he did? I hope not. No, maybe it was Eagleheart. I don't. There's just so many like little things that I've seen with him in it. Maybe it's just all of those combined. Sure. I mean, he's got a very unique look.
00:44:01
Speaker
But here's the thing, when you look at like the roster, like the poster that has the lineup for the talent show, Plungerman is on it. So Plungerman makes the talent show. Yeah, good for him.
00:44:13
Speaker
But it reminds me of the scene in upcoming episode of this podcast, Mystery Men, where you're we're doing the audition scene by the pool and it's the I am ballerina man or I am a racer head and I or a pencil head and I am son of pencil head and I am waffle man like all of it is.
00:44:35
Speaker
All of it is very much like that kind of level. Although the contortionist violinist is like that's some talent right there. I don't care who you would be if they were actually playing. Yeah. That girl has the talent to put her legs over her head, but she's certainly not playing that violin. I mean, look. Not as it's presented at least. She may be the same note over and over and over, but.
00:45:00
Speaker
good for her for being able to contort her body. Yes. But let's not applaud someone for playing an instrument that they cannot play. I'm just saying, if anyone could actually do that, that's that's incredible. Yeah, that would be rad. I agree. I agree. And look, maybe she is playing it and maybe they just had to add or something else over the top of it. I don't know. Because, you know, the people, the sound editors and the editors don't give a fuck about this movie. So, yeah, maybe there was a scene where she actually was playing. Yeah, they don't give. Nor should they.
00:45:30
Speaker
You know, the first time I noticed how the sound design was so fucking bad on this is when the the heaviest air quotes ever Mexican girl when she first gets to school and she like walks by the choir room and she's like, oh, I'm so curious and stupid. And like she looks in and they're all.
00:45:51
Speaker
holding one note, everyone is holding one note, but the kids mouths are saying they're singing something. There are words to that song, Steven. But all we hear is just one note. Ah, their mouths are like. I'm like, for the listener at home, Tucker is moving his lips in rapid succession, vigorously as though he is singing the lyrics to Billy Joel's. We didn't start the fire.
00:46:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah, maybe. I don't know, man. Look, this look, is it a good movie? No. Is it a movie we watch for this podcast? Yes. Yeah, it is. This is a movie we watched. I don't know what else to say, man. Like, look, is this movie good? No. Did we watch it? Yeah.
00:46:41
Speaker
Look, we watched it so that you don't have to. Any curiosity you had about this movie. Nah, dude. No, you don't want you don't want any part of this shit. You don't want to. It's on free. Take it from take it from your boys. You don't want any part of this shit. There are some people in letterbox who really love this thing, though. They got to be trolling, man. They got to be trolling or they have to be kids because, you know, kids are idiots. Well, I'm going to say like nostalgia is a very powerful thing.
00:47:08
Speaker
Um, you know what? I know it. Look, man, I do. But you have to be. I mean, people that are on the letterbox, you expect like a certain kind of person, maybe sort of in a way that we're able to to anyone can be on letterbox. I know. But the people that I normally I usually do the top reviewers and stuff. Those people usually have a good handle on what's going on. Well, sure. But those aren't the people giving this movie five stars. Here's the deal.
00:47:37
Speaker
Anybody who gives this movie any stars on letterboxed, if it's for nostalgic purposes, I refuse to believe that they have watched it since they were a child. I refuse to believe it. Because no one with the intelligence of over eight years old
00:47:59
Speaker
and I may be alienating our eight-year-old and younger audience here. Here's the thing, Tucker. I'm sure we have. Nostalgia is designed to make you revert back to when you were eight years old. Man, fuck nostalgia, man. That is the purpose of nostalgia. I'm trying to look forward. I'm trying to move ahead, just like they say. You're the only one. One of my favorite bands, man. Go forward. Move ahead.
00:48:21
Speaker
You can't whip it in the past. You got to whip it to the future, man. Look, I agree with you. But here's the thing. Hollywood is almost exclusively these days run on nostalgia.
00:48:39
Speaker
And it's, hey, you remember that? And I think the South Park guys. I think you're exaggerating, but I do agree with you. Yes. Did did did a great job of spotlighting this with the member berries. Like it's it's all about looking back. Like it's not it's what IP has worked in the past. What do when's the last time we did it? Can we sequelize it? Can we reboot it? Can we do it again? It's the only reason something like Space Jam to a new legacy, one of the most cursed objects in film history exists.
00:49:08
Speaker
is because of a huge disappointment. And, you know, even that's putting in the original, even the original does not hold up that well. No, the original is awful, which we talked about on our Looney Tunes Back in Action episode.
00:49:24
Speaker
perceived see our previous episode on the engines back in action. I would like to make it. I would probably be able to make it through that film on nostalgia, but I would still recognize that it's fucking garbage. Yeah, I wouldn't go on letterbox and say it's the greatest fucking thing. Give it five fucking stars. Fuck you. But here's the thing, Tucker, you and I are capable of having a degree of thought. Yeah.
00:49:48
Speaker
a degree of self-awareness, where we're actually willing to consider that maybe the stuff we liked as kids was bad. Like, I've gone back and reckoned with some stuff that I watched as a kid, and I'm like, it doesn't hold up. Like, I love this kid. 87 Ninja Turtles, bad. Yeah. Like, I loved it as a kid, but it's not a good movie. I loved it as a kid. Real Ghostbusters holds up. And I never watched that as a kid. But again, I don't have the nostalgia for that that you and Brett obviously do. Yeah.
00:50:15
Speaker
which is why, by and large, Ghostbusters Afterlife didn't work for me as well as it did for you guys.
00:50:21
Speaker
Um, well, to be clear, the the over over abundance of fanservice was the only thing that I did not like about Ghostbusters after life. And unfortunately, it was a big part. I was going to say it's it's most of the movie. Most of that movie is fanservice. The fucking proton pack gets a hero shot. I don't stuff the stuff that bleeds through. There's a good script in there, though.
00:50:47
Speaker
And unlike Mary Poppins Returns, where it's all just fanservice with a shitty script. But we'll get to that one someday, maybe. Maybe on an unenfranchised or something. I can finally let my thoughts be known about the sequel to my favorite film of all time. But yeah, it's complicated.
00:51:08
Speaker
But no, I but I think by and large, Hollywood wants you to remember the things that you love fondly. So they're putting out things that are designed specifically to remind you of those things. But but the problem is most of them aren't that good, because they are legitimately just exercises in capitalism. They're not
00:51:24
Speaker
act. They don't care to make a generation. Yeah, right. They don't care to make the story good at all. Like that's that's beside the point. We're just trying to remind you of an IP that you enjoy like hey member Ghostbusters member proton packs member stay puffed marshmallow man member goes are good because we're going to give you all of that over again.
00:51:46
Speaker
with very little, very little leeway, with very little difference or like, Oh, Hey, do you, do you remember Star Wars? Do you remember Chewbacca? You remember the Millennium Falcon? You remember how all those things made you feel? Good. Cause here they are again. And we're just going to remake the first movie and call it the force awakened and give it to you. Here's Donald Glover, as Lando. You can't hate that. Right. But, but, but that's just it. Like it's all, it's all retread.
00:52:15
Speaker
Like we're not trying to do new things anymore, which is why the films that are trying to do new things are they're fewer and farther between and they're not getting like it's things like everything everywhere all at once are the
00:52:32
Speaker
are not the norm, they're like the aberration when something like that breaks through, or like barbarian. When something like barbarian breaks through, you're like, this is actually like a fun, engaging, interesting horror movie. And yeah, it's doing things that horror movies have done before, but it's doing them in interesting ways. And the fact that no one knew what this movie was before we all went and saw it, and we're all like, oh, this is exciting, like this is interesting, this is good, engaging.
00:53:00
Speaker
Like all of that kind of helped propel that movie forward. But like we keep getting like just retreads and re issues and like endless lines of sequels and franchises like nothing dies in Hollywood anymore. We can't just move on from something as long as there's a buck to be made. Damn it. We're going to make as many bucks as we can off of any property or anything right now.
00:53:27
Speaker
And it fucking sucks. I hate it. I am not against franchises. Neither has a concept. I think just like all things in moderation, it's great. You know, even even something like Halloween where like half those movies fucking suck. Like, I don't care who you are. They fucking suck. Like, just admit it to yourselves. They're terrible. But I think.
00:53:55
Speaker
it's kind of a shame that, because you said that like 90% or whatever you said of Hollywood is just sequels and remakes and retreads and stuff, which I agree that there's an overabundance of that these days, but I also think that if you know where to look and if you keep your ear to the ground and you follow
00:54:16
Speaker
your favorite filmmakers careers and you follow your favorite favorite actors and writers and stuff you will find those original films that are still being there's still a lot of them being made it's just unfortunately a lot of them are just the equivalent of a movie of the week on netflix or something and they're as soon as they're here they're fucking gone you have to really look for them that's the problem it's not that they're not here
00:54:40
Speaker
It's just that you have to put a lot of effort into finding good original cinema these days. It's here. It's everywhere. It's every fucking where. Like I'm walking out my front door stepping in the shit. You just have to know where to, you know, you have to really put effort into looking for it. I think that's part of why people are so excited about Barbenheimer this weekend. Like you've got two movies by two auteur filmmakers. That's the thing about probably is that
Excitement for New Creative Films
00:55:05
Speaker
I don't mean to cut you off, but that's the thing about Barbie is, yeah, it's it's based on nostalgia and a toy and stuff. But holy fuck, look at the creative team we have behind that. And I'm here for it. I will wait for streaming, but you best believe I'm going to watch that motherfucker. If you've seen the main the main trailer, what they're doing with it like makes it seem like really interesting.
00:55:27
Speaker
like it's an exercise in existentialism, which I am 100% here for like Greta Gerwig is a very talented filmmaker. Yeah, she's amazing. And so like, I, I love I think she's the right choice for this. And then you've got a biopic, which I you know how I feel about biopics. But it's a crystal. It's about pick directed by Christopher Nolan.
00:55:50
Speaker
I feel like it's going to at least be interesting to watch. Like there's going to be he's going to be doing something interesting. And I you best believe I want to see that on the biggest possible fucking screen I can. I'm going to see that next weekend, I think. On the IMAX, man. Like I'm awful. I don't know if we have an IMAX in New Hampshire, but.
00:56:12
Speaker
I guarantee there's got to be one in Chicago somewhere. We don't have a lot of. Oh, there's several in Chicago. Yeah. And if not, there's like five in Indy. So just take a little road trip and visit your fam. Well, and I know that the music box in downtown Chicago is actually going to be showing Oppenheimer in 70 millimeter this week. So I I might be going. I might just need to go see that this week. You're saying they're going to show it on film, Stephen, they're going to show it on film.
00:56:43
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, Christopher Nolan makes all his movies on film. I have a bookmarked list of theaters in the United States that still show movies on film. It's not a very long list, unfortunately, but I have a list and it's a constantly updated web page. So as things come and go, like it's added or deleted. So I definitely see if there's something within two hours
00:57:10
Speaker
They are currently they're currently showing. I'd love to see that on film. They're currently showing a documentary made by Bill himself, Alex Winter, called The YouTube Effect.
00:57:22
Speaker
And Alex Winter is a prolific documentarian. I don't know. He's done several and they're all amazing. He was in town this past week actually doing a Q&A at the music box about it, which I didn't know about until after it had happened. And I was like, damn it, I could have met Alex Winter. I have met him. He's really nice. Yeah, I bet he is really, really nice. And my partner is also a big Alex Winter fan. So I bet she would also have loved to have met Alex Winter.
00:57:48
Speaker
Had we known that he was going to be in town? Oh, look at you with a signed Alex Winter picture. Yeah, that's freaked. That was the movie he did after Bill and Ted. It's a really good movie and the effects are really great. And Keanu Reeves is uncredited as the dog boy. That's their best friends in real life. Right. Which I also love. And that's the reason why Keanu was like, I'm going to take my
00:58:13
Speaker
my john wick capital and like get a re get a Bill and Ted sequel made and another Matrix sequel made like I'm going to spread the goodwill to these people that I loved working with in the past. And apparently Tucker, there's one movie, one character that he wants to reprise that no one seems to want him to reprise. Is it the boyfriend from parenthood? No.
00:58:39
Speaker
It's a little movie that we've covered on this podcast called Constantine. Oh, yeah, I keep reading about how that apparently that's still happening, but then it's not. But then it is again. I will believe it when it looks like so many other like since we have started this podcast, they have announced sequels to at least three of the movies that we've covered.
00:59:00
Speaker
Only one of them do I believe is actually happening right now, and I'm still not going to believe it until it is released in theaters. It's Beetlejuice because we've had set pics, right? Yes. OK, yeah, that's the only reason I believe it is because we have pictures from set. But again, I'm not actually going to believe it until we I'm sitting in a theater watching it.
00:59:23
Speaker
But no, but we've we've we've heard announcements of a Constantine sequel. We've heard announcements of a Beetlejuice sequel and of a sequel to The Rocketeer. And of course, people also been talking about a battle angel. Well, Gladiator, we didn't cover because we did not cover it, but we are constantly talking on the group chat about how gladiators getting a sequel like Ridley Scott is apparently filming it right now in another part of the world. Sure, I believe that. Sure. Well,
00:59:53
Speaker
And here's the thing, even if it does end up getting made, like Beetlejuice, at least I know is a Warner Brothers property. God knows they will bury that and like never show anybody if they can get a tax break. Because David Zaslab sucks. It's a piece of human shit. Him and Bob Iger probably eat human shit together.
01:00:14
Speaker
Yeah, they're terrible people. One of the film critics that I cover, that I follow on social media, he had a story come out about David Zaslav on GQ and GQ, like, he had it killed. Zaslav had it killed by GQ, like GQ, he called them up and had it killed. And so I was hoping GQ canceled it for tax reasons.
01:00:37
Speaker
That would have been better. I did actually read the article. The article was preserved online and is out there if you want to find it. It is out there and it's actually very good. And not that incendiary at all, actually. It's literally just he's reporting on things that Zazlav had done and had already been said about him. And they're like, well, Zazlav was never reached out to for comment. No, you don't have to because you're not really saying anything that hasn't already been said publicly already. There's no need to.
01:01:06
Speaker
But he found out, this critic found out that Zaslav's, one of his, his cash app was public. And so he requested $600 from David Zaslav with the memo for getting my GQ story canceled. And of course, Zaslav rejected it because Zaslav is a piece of human garbage.
01:01:32
Speaker
As all the students of your alma mater chanted at you, while you tried to give a commencement address, pay your writers. Fuck you. Pay your writers. And your actors. And the rest of the crew. Man, that started out as a good little original ditty, but I lost some steam there at the end. I apologize for that. But here's the thing. Nothing you sang is untrue.
01:01:58
Speaker
I you know, just just pay people what they're worth, man. And I would I would wager that 90 percent of people in the United States right now are not getting paid with their work. They're fucking close. Not even getting paid with their worth. Not at all. No, I agree. People and meanwhile, the CEOs are they're definitely not getting paid with their worth. They're getting overpaid. Yeah. Fat cats. The fat cats at the at the top are Scrooge McDuck in it and their pile of fucking money.
01:02:26
Speaker
Remember, remember when trickle down economics were supposed to trickle down? Man, fuck Ronald Reagan, man. How many times I gotta say fuck Ronald Reagan? How many times I gotta, how many times I gotta say? I don't think it's ever enough, really. How many times do I have to say, well, Nancy, I'm sure in the next, people in the next 30, 40 years won't mind that we've destroyed the entire world and, and, and we've made everything shit. I'm sure that they'll actually be happy that we had fun.
01:02:55
Speaker
How many times I got to do that? I don't I don't think there's ever enough times. By surprisingly good rattle breaking impression. Shockingly good. Like it has no business being as good as it is. I don't even know where it comes from. I just did it one day. It just came out of me. So speaking of Bratz, the toy line is like apparently the company that created them, MGA Entertainment is really fucking litigious.
01:03:21
Speaker
Um, they've been sued and have sued just a bit. They sued Mattel at one point because there was a line of Barbie dolls that was supposed to apparently very similar to the Bratz line. So they they sued for that. And then Mattel countersued the next year because apparently the guy who created the Bratz dolls was working at Mattel when he conceived of them.
01:03:53
Speaker
And then, at one point, an artist for like Steve Madden, a guy who designed a bunch of shoe ads for Steve Madden, Bernard Butch Belair, sued MGA and Mattel, apparently both.
01:04:10
Speaker
because he said that his copyright designs of young women with, quote, large heads, oval eyes, and small bodies and large feet, which he had created for shoe designer Steve Madden, were pilfered when Carter Bryant during his 2008 court testimony testified that he had been inspired by Steve Madden's shoe ads he saw in Seventeen magazine.
01:04:29
Speaker
I love that the judge basically overruled that and said, quote, Belair cannot monopolize the abstract concept of an absurdly large headed, long limbed, attractive, fashionable woman, which I find hilarious. But basically, like so many lawsuits for this company, like there's an entire section of the Wikipedia page just about legal issues like it's
01:04:56
Speaker
It's really fucking insane, like just how wild, litigious all of these people are. God, there are. And then, of course, there are so many movies that have been made about the brats, only one live action, and it shockingly did not get a sequel. Out of the box, man. Fresh out the box with it.
01:05:19
Speaker
Do you get that joke? Because it's the toy. Like, do you get it? Yeah, I do get it. I got it. I don't like it, but I got it there. But there are TV shows and TV shows, animated movies, computer animated movies, web series, TV shows like I don't. There's so far and then music like like fucking kids bop albums. They do like Bratz. Like.
01:05:48
Speaker
Bratz music, Bratz video games, there's a video game for this movie. Bratz colon, the number four and then the word real, which was apparently a video game. Brett, we're here. I passed to him and have him tell you about the Bratz video game that they made for this movie.
01:06:08
Speaker
But like, man, you should if I you know what, we didn't know that Brett wasn't going to be here until pretty much right before recording. If I know I could have. I definitely would look that up, but it's probably shit anyway. Let's just assume it's shit.
01:06:22
Speaker
I'm willing to assume that I will read you what Wikipedia has to say about the video game for this movie. A video game adaptation of the film entitled Bratz for Real was released to the Nintendo DS and Microsoft Windows on November 5th, 2007. The game was published by THQ. The game's plot mirrored that of the film. There was a plot to this film and players are tasked with complete completing goals and errands in order to progress the story along. There's a story to this movie.
01:06:49
Speaker
The DS version of the game also allowed users to design their own clothes patterns, care for a digital pet, and play various minigames. The PC edition also utilized minigames, but excluded the option for players to design clothing or raise a digital pet. In both games, users could play as one of the four main characters and view clips from the film.
01:07:08
Speaker
Pocket Gamer heavily criticized the game and stated that it felt that it was released too early and that there were some nice ideas at play in particular where it attempts to break down the social barriers that beset children in secondary education. But as a game, it is far too vacuous to recommend, kind of like the movie.
01:07:25
Speaker
IGN shared similar sentiments, stating that Bratz for Real does some work to recast the shallow, self-absorbed Bratz girls in a more redeeming light, using them in their friendship to tell a tale of unity and breaking down social barriers. But whereas that premise in the game's compelling customization options proved to be solid positive points for this package, Bratz for Real is still a game brought down by a variety of other oddities. So like the movie, the game real, real bad.
01:07:54
Speaker
You know something that we didn't touch on and we don't really need to talk about it. I just wanted to mention after this disclaimer. So earlier in the episode, I mentioned that brats were dolls with slutty makeup. And I mentioned it in the context of babies wearing slutty makeup. I want to make it clear that I don't see the term slut as an insult. I think being slutty is great. I think there are better words for it.
01:08:23
Speaker
But I think that's fine. That's how you want to be. That's great. But I don't need slutty babies is what I was getting at. Just to be clear, slutty babies is bad. I agree. That is that is a very bad not very. No, no, very bad. Don't do it.
01:08:38
Speaker
Yeah. But what I was saying before my disclaimer is Avia Rod, every Spider-Man fan's greatest enemy, Avia Rod, is the producer on this film. And, you know, it really shows because he really knows how to just destroy something from the inside and alienate anyone that has any interest in it at all. You know,
01:09:06
Speaker
And again, I don't think this movie was made for fans of the Bratz toy line. I think it was made, it was it was supposed to be something else. And they just kind of shoehorn Bratz into it, which happens on there, which happens in Hollywood more than I think most people realize.
01:09:22
Speaker
like like Predator, I think, was originally supposed to be what if Rocky fought the aliens from Alien? That was the initial premise of that script. And then they turned it into something else. Like I'm pretty sure I think one of the Rambo movie, one of the later day Rambo movies was supposed to be
01:09:46
Speaker
of another movie and they're just like, you know what, we can just slap Rambo on this. Die Hard, I think, is very much the same with the last couple of Die Hard movies, I think, are very much that, like, you know what we could do? We could just make this a John McClain movie. Someone call Bruce Willis, is he busy? Funny enough.
01:10:02
Speaker
the sequel, Die Hard 2, was that way because it was based on a book by the same author that wrote the book that the first Die Hard was based on, but it wasn't a John McClain thing, it was a completely different book. It had been optioned, a script had been written, it was ready to go, and then Die Hard
01:10:22
Speaker
hit big and they were like, hey, hey, hey, hey, this could very easily, this could very easily be the sequel. We've already got it going. It's the same guy. It's the same guy.
01:10:33
Speaker
Well, and I mean, the first Die Hard was actually written. It was based on a sequel to a book that became a Frank Sinatra movie called The Detective. This is true. And so when they originally were going to make Die Hard, they had to call Frank Sinatra because he had right of first refusal, which means that we could absolutely cover The Detective on this podcast. Let's do it. I've never seen it, but I've been aware of it since I've been a Die Hard fan.
01:11:01
Speaker
an early Tom Atkins performance. Very, very baby Tom Atkins in that movie. I love me some Tom Atkins. Thrill me. Thrill me. Absolutely. We all fucking stan Tom Atkins. We love that man. Listen to me talk about Tom Atkins over on the pod in the pendulum when I did the fog episode with Mike Snirnian, friend of the show Mike Snirnian. So, yeah. So my Bloody Valentine remake. We talked about that one last year, year before last. Yeah. Last would have been 2022. Yeah.
01:11:31
Speaker
Uh, also neither creeps. We talked about that one with our buddy, Brian Kiper. Yep. Real sad. I wasn't a host yet because that was one of my movies. I randomly found on the video store shelf of a mom and pop video store, uh, that turned into a huge cult movie a couple of years after I discovered it.
01:11:48
Speaker
I didn't know anything about it. I didn't. I didn't know anything about it. Brian was like, hey, this was supposed to get a sequel. I would love to come on and cover it with you. And so we're like, yeah, come on, man. Let's do it. And Brett and I watched it. And I don't think either of us had ever seen it before. And we're both like, this movie fucking rules. Like, yes, please. More of this.
01:12:07
Speaker
Like it's just a goofy, silly, fun delight is what it is. And Tom Atkins is a big part of why that works. Fucking Fred Decker's the shit too, dude. Can we do a Monster Squad episode? Was there supposed to be an episode, a sequel to that? We've got it on. It's here's the thing. It is on the list.
01:12:24
Speaker
Fred Decker, I think only directed like three or four movies, but we can cover all of them either here or on Unenfranchised. And Brian has agreed to come back for all of them. Nice. He also works behind the scenes a lot with Shane Black as well. He's basically Shane Black's mentor. He co-wrote the most recent Predator movie that Shane Black directed.
01:12:47
Speaker
Like he co-wrote that with Shane Black. Shane Black is also in the original Predator, along with Sister Act two director Bill Duke. Shane Black, who also directed Iron Man two, three, three, three. Yes. Favreau directed two. And he also directed his magnum opus, beloved by all kiss, kiss, bang, bang and future episode of this podcast, The Nice Guys.
01:13:14
Speaker
Oh, I've heard that's really fucking good, too. I cannot wait to watch that because I've been wanting to watch it since it came out. I just haven't done it. Nice guy. Everybody tells me it's so good. Here's the thing. Shane Black has directed four movies. I'm going to get into my thoughts on Shane Black because I watched all the Shane Black movies during the pandemic. This episode was never going to be about Bratz, guys. I'm so sorry.
01:13:36
Speaker
We got a lot of brats in though. We did get a lot of brats in again. More than I thought we would. It's tangent and that's what we do. Here's the thing. Shane Black has directed four films. It's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's Iron Man
Shane Black and Studio Interference
01:13:48
Speaker
3. It's The Nice Guys. It's The Predator. So here's the pattern that I've noticed with Shane Black movies. He will come out with a movie that he has written and directed that is really fucking good.
01:14:00
Speaker
And people will be like, you know what, Shane Black, that movie was really fucking good. You should come and do your Shane Black thing on this entry in this franchise. And so he will come on and he will do his Shane Black thing and the studio will then invariably step in and go, no, no, no, not like that. But what the fuck are you doing? Not like that.
01:14:19
Speaker
and they will take the thing back from him, they will recut it, re-edit it, change it up, make it into something he didn't intend for it to be, and then release it, and everyone will hate it, and he'll get the blame for it, and then he'll go away with his tail between his legs, and then he'll make another original film that he has written and directed that is really fucking good, and everyone loves it, and then everyone will go, oh, hey, you should come and do your Shane Black thing on this entry in this franchise.
01:14:44
Speaker
And then he'll start and he'll do his thing. And he'll determine and they'll go, no, no, no, not like that. Because that is 100%. Like, it starts with kiss, kiss, bang, bang. And then they're like, hey, come, Robert Downey Jr. is like, you should get him to do Iron Man 3. And so they do, he comes in, Feige brings him in. And Rebecca Hall was originally supposed to be the villain in that movie.
01:15:07
Speaker
And the Ike Perlmutter, who was the head of Marvel Studios at the time, was like, no, girls can't be villains. Girls don't sell action figures. And makes Guy Pierce the villain instead.
01:15:18
Speaker
Oh, boy. Yeah. And so completely fucks it up, changes it all around. And so then he's like, fine, I'll go away and I'll make the nice guys. This movie with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling could have 100 percent been its own franchise. There is no reason there aren't five different nice guys moves like we got a sequel to Knives out. We should have a sequel to the nice guys. We should.
01:15:40
Speaker
But he does the nice guys. People love it. People like it. Not enough to give it a sequel, but they really enjoy it. And so the studios are like, hey, Shane Black, why don't you come to your Shane Black thing on this Predator movie? And so he does. And they're like, well, no, God, that's awful. No, that's not what we wanted you to do. They take it. They re-edit it. And everyone hates it. And he gets the blame. So Shane Black, we're ready for you to make your next single Shane Black film. We're ready for it. We're here for it. We are waiting for you. My only word of advice, don't do the franchise movie after.
01:16:11
Speaker
No, you know, I think Shane Black would be would do well.
01:16:18
Speaker
with some crowdfunding, honestly, not probably because the thing Hollywood is not really willing to make original films anymore. We've talked about that on this episode. But yeah, Hollywood doesn't want to make what you want. Hollywood wants to make the easiest and cheapest and most lucrative thing that's going to appeal to you. Exactly. They want the thing that you're going to spend money to see. That's what they want to make.
01:16:50
Speaker
Which is very different than making what you want very different. Correct. Yes, correct. They make things that you will tolerate and pay for. There was a variety article that came out in March of last year.
01:17:06
Speaker
Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black are supposed to reunite for an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake's Parker series at Amazon. I don't know what that is, but I'm into it. I want that to happen, and I want to see it, and please make it happen, and please give it to me. Please let me directly into my veins. Can Fred Decker also be involved in some capacity, please? I'm sure he will. Just for old time's sake. Brian Kuiper basically agreed to be our Fred Decker.
01:17:34
Speaker
I'm into it. And so whenever we do end up covering another Fred Decker movie, because it's it is it's literally it's the Monster Squad, it's Night of the Creeps, and it's RoboCop. We've already covered Night of the Creeps, but those are like the three he directed. He also he directed a couple shorts, an episode of Tales from the Crypt.
01:17:59
Speaker
And yeah, but his three features are Night of the Creeps Monster Squad and Robocop 3 and Brian's like, yeah, I'll be your Ted Decker guy. So. I'm into that. It'll be nice to to be able to talk to someone who is. At least, if not more versed in in Fred Decker, because I am also a huge fan, even of Robocop 3, like it's it's not great. That one has the other script. Well,
01:18:28
Speaker
Fred Decker gets Shane Blacked in that way. I believe it. Where Fred Decker makes a few little quiet movies that a handful of people like, but the right people see him, you know, it's kind of like these indie movie directors that like they do a good indie movie and then they're right off to the MCU. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yes. It's kind of the same thing. Because they're still fucking cheap at that point.
01:18:52
Speaker
Yes, because Fred Decker did Monster Squad and Nine of the Creeps, and a handful of people liked it, the right people saw it, and they hand him RoboCop 3. And I don't know how familiar you are with the production of that film, but even before Fred Decker was involved, the production of that was a shit
RoboCop Franchise Continuity Issues
01:19:14
Speaker
show. I believe it.
01:19:15
Speaker
Like, that is a franchise that I think has significant problems because every sequel has to ignore the ending of the first movie. Yep. So that entire franchise is just fundamentally. If you make a sequel to Robocop, you have to ignore the whole point of the original. Exactly, exactly. Yeah.
01:19:38
Speaker
100%. I did like the reboot, though, by the way, or the remake. I thought it was it was it was fine. It's on the list. Future episode of this podcast, RoboCop 2014. Slightly above average. Extremely watchable. Sure. Quite enjoyed. Even with the PG13 of it all. I don't care. It was it was it's its own thing. And it's it's pretty pretty neat. And I can't wait till we get to cover it because I've seen it a while. I wonder if I'll feel the same way about it.
01:20:06
Speaker
I'd buy that for a dollar. I, too, would purchase that. For 100 cents. Cool. Brat money. Bratz opened on August 3rd, two thousand and seven. What a year. I honestly in 2007, that was the year of the year of the cat.
01:20:37
Speaker
That was the year that I think that was the year that like some of my favorite like There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men. Is that that year or am I thinking of 2008? Oh, I'm not sure you could be right. There Will Be Blood is 2007. Yeah, one of my one of my favorite years for film like just some really great movies came out that year.
01:21:02
Speaker
But yeah, it came out August 3rd, 2007. This was not one of them. This was not one of them.
2007: A Year of Film Hits and Misses
01:21:10
Speaker
This movie opened at number 10 this week. It opened to $4.2 million on its way to a total domestic box office of $10 million. It earns another 16 worldwide for a total of 26 million globally, barely.
01:21:29
Speaker
barely more than its production budget, not what we call a success in any stretch of the imagination. We call that a big fat whoopty shit. Mm hmm. The first movie opening in number one, it's a new release from Universal. It is the final entry in a film that in a franchise that would be rebooted with the movie that we were supposed to talk about last week, Tucker. Is it the born supremacy? It's the born ultimatum.
01:21:59
Speaker
Same thing. I mean, OK. I won this time. In second place, a movie that both you and Brett are very resistant to cover, because I think you know that our guest for that episode would read you guys both the riot act for being bitches. It is the Simpsons movie.
01:22:21
Speaker
which opened at number one the previous week and is down at number two in its second movie. No, actually, bring it on. Bring it on. Let's talk about The Simpsons movie. I saw that at the theater twice, actually. So, yeah, let's talk about it. I thought it was good. I liked that movie. I liked that movie a lot. I also thought it was the last great thing that the series has done. Spoken like someone who hasn't watched it since that movie came out. Then I will amend that by saying
01:22:49
Speaker
That was the last thing I enjoyed before I got fucking sick of the Simpsons existing. There you go. To clarify, as always, here at Disenfranchised, just because we do not agree with you doesn't mean we don't like you.
01:23:07
Speaker
And there you go. I I still like the some some of the stuff. I will not say that all of it is good, but I do like a lot of the current day Simpson stuff because, you know, I like anything that has been on the air for that long. There are going to be hills and valleys, gutters and strikes. Not everything can be as good as it was supposed to have been when you were a kid. I agree. And I don't I don't doubt that there's good stuff and moments of brilliance and stuff. I just I just think, you know, sometimes
01:23:36
Speaker
time to just kind of be done. But as long as people are still enjoying it and still getting like and and Disney's still content to continue keep making money on it. I'm for it. I'm not against it. I'm not saying take it off the air. I'm just saying you're not one of those bitches and which is fine. No, no, not everything has to be for everybody. I if if they could make it for a million years, I don't give a shit.
01:24:05
Speaker
But I'm not gonna watch it. I enjoy the times I had with it when I did have times with it. But I just, I don't have any interest in it anymore. But I'm not against it. Please, please make all the Simpsons. Make everything the Simpsons, please. Right on.
01:24:22
Speaker
I was exaggerating there at the end. But anyway, what was the next movie in third place? Another future episode of this podcast. What if Jason Lee was in a movie about basically adapting a cartoon from the 1960s? Is it underdog? It's underdog. I want to see that because I always loved underdog when I was a kid and I like Jason Lee and I know it's going to be terrible.
01:24:45
Speaker
It will be terrible. It will absolutely be. You know, you know, I was talking about Grindhouse and hot fuzz in our what are we watching episode? Go check out our Patreon or whatever. Yep. Patreon dot com slash just in French pot.
01:25:01
Speaker
both Grindhouse and Hot Fuzz, I believe came out in 2007 as well. So yeah, that was a pretty damn good year for film. It's a really good fucking year for film. Like I would put it up there with like 99 and 84 as like one of the quintessential years for film. Oh, yeah, I agree. Like it is a real fucking good year. In fourth place, the abominable, I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry. Speaking of Adam Sandler. Yeah.
01:25:29
Speaker
In fifth place, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry Potter and the something, something, something, who cares? Harry, that was that year's annual Harry Potter film. In sixth place, a movie based on a musical based on a movie. It's Adam Shankman's Hairspray.
01:25:51
Speaker
Oh, I never saw it. Is it good? No. Is the remake good? No, I heard it was good. It's fine. I think casting John Travolta as the female lead is a problem. I think that the movie has issues. I really liked the original musical. I need to revisit the original John Waters film. But I've never seen the musical at all. And I'm a huge fan and avid consistent watcher of the original film.
01:26:20
Speaker
My favorite thing about the remake is that it does feature a cameo from John Waters in the opening. The opening song is called Good Morning Baltimore, and it's about a girl from Baltimore singing about her town as she goes to school. And she talks about the unsavory characters that she passes, the drunk on his bar room stool and the flasher who lives next door. And John Waters cameos as, quote, the flasher who lives next door.
01:26:48
Speaker
Oh, I love it. I might have to watch it just for that. He just just look up Good Morning Baltimore on YouTube and you can see him. No, I got to watch the whole damn movie now. But he literally he smiles that big cheesy John Waters grin opens his his his like
01:27:06
Speaker
Uh, his, uh, overcoat, raincoat, trench coat. Yeah. Opens his trench coat and like just closes it real quick and like skewed like this, just sashays away. Like, you know, what a fucking consummate pro. I love that guy. I don't want to linger on it, but I just have to say one more time. I love that man. I hear disenfranchise. We love that man. We do. Brett doesn't know it yet, but he also does. Brett loves him. Like, brother, he knows it or not. Brett loves
Actor Struggles and Pacing Comparisons
01:27:33
Speaker
him. Yeah. Brett loves John Waters, too.
01:27:36
Speaker
and around and in the final film in the top five or I guess no because we're in the bottom five so also rounding out the top ten you've got it seven no reservations at eight the original transformers no reservations I don't know let's look it up oh it's that Aaron Eckhart Catherine Zeta Jones were chefs
01:27:55
Speaker
movie like the rom com, but chefs. It was when Hollywood was trying to figure out what to do with Aaron Eckhart. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Also in that also in that run suspect zero. Yes, absolutely. He's great in that, by the way. But thank you for smoking comes out. Hollywood's like all this is our boy. What we do with them and everybody's like, uh. I guess put him in that whatever that I feel like Aaron Eckhart is a less funny John Ham.
01:28:25
Speaker
because they both have that kind of similar, like, square jawed, like, old-fashioned, like, Hollywood leading man from the 60s kind of thing. Kind of, yeah. And both of them, I think, exist in this similar situation where they have one or two roles that are absolutely fabulous. They're really strong in. And then Hollywood just doesn't know what to do with them. Yeah. Which is a shame. Absolutely. Because I think Aaron Eckhart is phenomenal. And everything I've seen him in, he's been phenomenal. Agreed. He's good. I like him.
01:28:55
Speaker
Um, and then the original transformers innate hot rod in ninth place. That's good movie. Everybody watched that movie. That's what you've said. I've not seen it. And then, uh, rounding out the top 10 is the film we talked about today, Bratz. The Tomatometer score on this one is a 10%. The critics consensus full of mixed messages and dubious role models. Bratz is too shallow, even for its intended audience.
01:29:21
Speaker
Could not agree more. Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Well said. The meta score is a twenty one with generally unfavorable reviews from 18 critics. And the letterbox score for this one is a two point six Tucker out of five stars. How are you ranking 2007's Bratz? I'll tell you, it gets a quarter of a star, Steven, one quarter of one star. It gets one for me.
01:29:52
Speaker
Uh, because I did like it better than some other movies we've covered on this podcast. Like like food fight, like food fight, like Jay and silent Bob, super groovy cartoon movie. I may even, I don't know if I would put this above or below Electra. Honestly, that's kind of where I'm, where I'm at with this. Electra is bad, but I don't know where it goes in relation to Electra. It's like Electra is so much more boring than this.
01:30:21
Speaker
Now, like, this is really, really bad, but there's so many things going on and they happen so quickly. Even if you don't care, it's hard to really, really get bored. I mean, you could just shut your brain off and look at the pretty colors at the most or at the least. Right. With Electra, you've got a bad movie that just drags and nothing happens for long periods of time and nobody can. Mm hmm.
01:30:51
Speaker
And this movie is is nothing happens for a long period of time. Nobody cares. You hear the difference? It's a difference. The issue is, I think it was trying to say the issue is pacing. Yeah, yeah. And this one is overpaced and Electra is underpaced. If that makes sense to anyone, I hope it does because it makes sense to me. It does. It does.
01:31:15
Speaker
But yeah, this movie makes a grand total of 26 million worldwide. Again, barely covering its production budget. Was never going to be a hit. Was never going to be a hit. Direct to video probably would have been the place to put it, but you don't spend $20 million, Steven. I was going to say that. $20 million on this movie? I was going to say either that or like a Disney Channel original. Like this has some strong musical energy. Yeah.
01:31:46
Speaker
And so like, I just yeah, but I mean, like all the montages and everything like this is not a real
01:31:52
Speaker
Movie like it's not a this in the theater. Whose idea was it to put this for out for a theatrical or a wide? Release who were the ad geniuses who came up with it like fifteen thousand or fifteen hundred screens Nationwide like that's not a limited release. That's not a limited release. It's not wide release correct What is known in the industry is a wide release correct? Go
01:32:21
Speaker
So we have, that's it. That's all we have to say about this. We did it. Look, 90 minutes, Tucker. We've spent our usual row. We were afraid this was going to run short.
01:32:32
Speaker
We even had a backup plan if it did, but I don't think we're going to execute that because this is an hour and a half long. No need. This is standard episode length. Absolutely. We did. Good job. Good job. So we've mentioned our Patreon a couple of times. What are we watching episodes? We currently have a seven day free
Podcast Expansion and Promotions
01:32:51
Speaker
trial.
01:32:51
Speaker
Uh, set up. So if you go to join our Patreon, you will be grandfathered into that seven day free trial. You will get to see everything behind the literally every, nothing is hidden to you behind the paywall. You'll see everything that we're covering. Um, everything that we've posted, it's all up there behind the paywall for just five bucks. But again, it's a seven day free trial. And, uh, I would like to welcome our newest patron, Sean Renshaw. Uh, just joined, just joined the Patreon. So welcome Sean. We're glad to have you.
01:33:21
Speaker
and a WN or an AU in it's an eight double or an EA aid. So the director of this film, Sean McNamara is an EA Sean, like friend of the show, Sean Rose. But this Sean is a SHA WN. I think that's probably the best kind. I think that's the best spelling for me. Like it's phonetic, like, you know, if you don't know what it is, you could sound it out pretty easily.
01:33:50
Speaker
The other ones are like shot or seen. And then S H A U N is the spelling employed by Edgar Wright in a little film called Shaun of the Dead. This is true. So there you go. Everything but but welcome to.
01:34:07
Speaker
Sean, we're happy to have you on the Patreon. You too can join Sean and our other recent patrons at patreon.com slash disenfranch pod where you can find hours and hours, weeks, you might say, of absolutely great bonus content that we've recorded over the course of the past couple of years since we've had that up and running. There's so much. There is so much stuff, guys. I think you'll get a big kick out of it. But you can also find us on social media, and we have expanded our social media presence of late.
01:34:35
Speaker
You can find us on the usual Twitter while it lasts Instagram Letterbox, but now we're also on YouTube and Tucker we are now we are now on threads
01:34:49
Speaker
We're on Trids. We're on the Trids, the Instagram Trids. You can find us in all of those locations at DisinfranchPod so you can know what we thought of the movies that we've been watching. And just whenever we've got a new episode coming out, you'll find it in those social media platforms. You can also engage with us that way. Or you can engage with us by shooting us an email at DisinfranchPod at gmail.com.
01:35:17
Speaker
is another way to keep up with us. Let us know how we're doing, introduce yourself, whatever you want. Just let us know if you have a question for us and chances are very good we'll end up answering it on this very podcast. So you get to hear your name in question red on the podcast, which is kind of cool. I think, I don't know, I always like hearing podcasters that I listen to read things that I send them.
01:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. No, fan mail is great. What happened to the fan mail when they'd be like, oh, OK, this this comes from Jeannie in Houston. And she says, my mom and I like to listen to this show every day while we're ironing our clothes.
01:36:03
Speaker
Uh, something specific about the show that I like, et cetera, et cetera. Sign genie. You remember those like in the older shows, like from the eighties and nineties, that would be live when they would read fan letters and it would just be like these kids writing in the same, like, this is me and this is where I'm from. And I listened to your show with this person and doing this thing. And they all almost kind of followed a formula and that's kind of a lost art. Send us one of those.
01:36:28
Speaker
Letter pages and comics also have that kind of energy. Oh, yes. Yes, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. And some people I know have been written, have written into and been published in those letter pages. So, yeah, I was I was pretty active on the DC message boards back in the day. And so Stephen, I know. So I think I actually have some some friends from those days who have been in several of the letter pages. So.
01:36:58
Speaker
A few of whom I am still in relatively decent contact with, so yeah. Have them join our Patreon, Steven. I'll do my best. Okay. Just reach out to this. I haven't talked to you in a while, but I just want to see if you want to join my Patreon. If you got like a spare five bucks a month, just like sitting around and you're not doing anything well.
01:37:17
Speaker
The Patriot is your new MLM. You're like an MLM mom, like texting people you haven't talked to in like 20 years. Hey, how's it going? I think everything's great. I have. I have very intentionally avoided doing that. I mean, you know, people who know I have my family does not listen to this podcast, and that's probably for the best. But yeah, I'm grateful to all the people that do.
01:37:46
Speaker
I am grateful to every single one of our listeners. And if you would like for me to express that gratitude to you directly, I probably won't, but you can find me on, I'm Steven Foxworthy. I'm your host. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxed. I'm on threads now. I'm on blue sky now. What the fuck is blue sky? It's the thing that's gonna save us all from Twitter is what it is, I guess. I thought you said last time.
01:38:14
Speaker
I know what I meant at that time, too. OK, I don't know, man. It's it's not owned by a tech billionaire. So maybe there's something to that. I don't know. Why didn't you say it was the guy who did Twitter, though? Wouldn't he be a billionaire? Didn't pay him like a bajillion dollars? I mean, only because he had to. Oh.
01:38:35
Speaker
But I mean, yeah, what an asshole. No, I get it. I get I'm give I'm busting your balls. I know. I know. I'm busting your balls. But no, it's apparently the guy who originally created Twitter is now creating the new.
01:38:50
Speaker
the new blue sky platform, which is in beta right now, and it's invite only, but I got an invite from someone. So I'm now on blue sky. So if you're on blue sky, as I am, you can find me on all of those at chewy walrus. The not quite present Brett Wright is on Instagram and letterboxed at sus underscore warlock Tucker, where can we find you on the socials these days?
01:39:15
Speaker
You can find me on YouTube, uh, at ice 9 0 9 I C E N I N E 0 9. I'm going to say this again, this week, I'm going to announce once again, my intention to continue some of my preservation stuff. Nice. And the reason I keep announcing it and not doing it is because, uh, I haven't had time. So I figured if I keep announcing it, it'll stay fresh in my brain. So when I do have time, I'll remember to actually do some of that stuff. Right on.
01:39:45
Speaker
I'm also on the InstaScams, TuckMugs, Tuck underscore mugs. Tuck underscore mugs. Where I show off my, yeah, my mugs and my pint glasses and my shot glasses and other jiggers and such things. Featuring a recent guest mug from yours truly. That's true, Steven showed off his Gizmo mug.
01:40:10
Speaker
my Gizmo Tiki mug, and I am just a very on brand choice for me. So, yeah. We were happy to have you, Steven, over. I was happy to team over the team over at Tuck Mugs. We were happy to have you on board this week, you know. Yes, we were. Seeing as how I am the team over at Tuck Mugs. You're the team. You're the team. It's me. Hi, it's me. I'm the team.
01:40:37
Speaker
But yeah, that is that's where you that's where you find us, I guess. And that is that's all we got, man. That's where you experience our bratitudes, man, where we we expose our bratitudes to the world. And for those of you who find us there, we have nothing but gratitude. That's not a platitude. So please don't give me attitude. God, I hate myself for doing that. I'm checking out our bratitudes.
01:41:05
Speaker
Thank you all for listening to the disenfranchised podcast. Next week's episode can't be as bad as this one. It can't. What is it? I don't remember what it is. We're recording it tomorrow.
01:41:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to watch that movie tonight, Steven. Plus, I got to get up early in the morning, dude. Oh, it's to me. It's almost midnight your time. All right. We're going to wrap it up. If you've done this. Yes, it's all me. This is my fault. Sure. Let's call it that. I am your host. Yes, this is the disenfranchised podcast. I'm your host, Stephen Foxworthy from my co-host Tucker and the absent Brett Wright. Until next time, this has been our bratitude. We thank you for attending our bratitude.
01:41:47
Speaker
Gratitude.