Transcript
Speaker: Typically when we do two movies in an episode, there's some type of through line, so it makes the intro much easier. Today, i can't find through line, so I'm just going to do a normal intro. Welcome back to Lost in the Frame. I'm your host Malik.
Speaker: I'm your host Sachi. And today we're discussing both Resident Evil and Primetime. And you'll notice again, Alex is gone. Yes. he's He's had a rough rough time. he think like International for a week and then comes back and then has the flu for a week.
Speaker: The flu from hell. Yeah, the flu from hell. But he's better. He'll be back for next week's episode, which is Digger. You're listening to this on October 1st. So happy October. How are you doing, T-Money?
Speaker: doing well outside of my my wrist problems. um Not too bad. How about you? Did you just did you just wake up and your wrists were pretty much in in pain? Yeah, I just woke up and everything was hurting. don't know why.
Speaker: Maybe I slept funky, but. i don't know, I keep having these issues where pain starts and never goes away, so hopefully this is not one of those times.
Speaker: Yeah. um Guess we'll see. Stay tuned. be Yesterday my pinky was hurting, like like right here. and I was like, why is my pinky hurting so bad? And it went away.
Speaker: i don't know what happened, but maybe something shifted in the universe that like brought us this mutual pain. Mine in the pinky, yours in the wrist. Did you yoink it? Did you just need to pop it or what?
Speaker: I kept popping it throughout the day and it was actually making it worse. But I woke up and then I was like, okay, feels a little bit better. I don't feel like i'm in as much pain. It could just be age. um I've got a rapid review. And then you said you've got half of a rapid review. Half of a review. Yep. So I'll let you do your half first.
Speaker: Okay. So this was a rewatch of the first Avengers. um Got halfway through. it got really late. So I paused it. I haven't gone back to it. i don't think I need to.
Speaker: I've probably seen it about 10 times. It's about what you'd expect. Are you interested in seeing Endgame Encore in theaters? Are you going to go watch it?
Speaker: No, because I heard that you can only see the the additional scenes in like a very specific format. And I just don't know if I want to pay for that. Wait, really?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's like IMAX only. I don't think that's true. Oh, that's what I saw. Because it's like labeled as Endgame Encore. that Yeah. That'd be weird if there was, yeah, just IMAX, just Infinity Vision.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what I thought, but don't know. don't think that's true. Not really. i I think I can just watch the scenes online and maybe I shouldn't say that out loud.
Speaker: Uh, I will never condone phones in a theater or recording or anything like that. Someone did post the three end credit sequences. I don't know all that's added. Like if there's more that's added or if it's just these three end credit sequences.
Speaker: Um, but I saw a camera rip of them on Tik TOK and I was like, all right, I don't know if I'm, if I want to go, I'm probably not going to to the theaters to watch it. I wouldn't blame you. You to what they are?
Speaker: Not yet. All right. not But I might change my mind. I'll let you know. Okay. um My rapid review, I watched the new Brad Pitt dog movie, Heart of the Beast, yesterday. How's that?
Speaker: ah Here's the thing. like it I can't say it was bad because it was... it set out to do what it wanted to do.
Speaker: Like you get exactly what you're, what you're going in for. The movie is very predictable. The dog is a very good actor. What a good boy he is.
Speaker: And the story beats are familiar and repetitive and there's no surprises, but it's not, it doesn't, it doesn't make it bad.
Speaker: But I was just like, I could, I should have watched anything else.
Speaker: Well, you live and you learn. Yeah. Brad Pitt is kind of phoning it in for the entire performance. It's just him and this dog for the entire movie.
Speaker: um I think he's at the point of his career where he probably would phone in that sort of role. Yeah, it definitely seemed like a ah cash grab, but I'm like, how much money is this really going to make? But I went on AMC right now, and the 6 o'clock and the 10 o'clock showing tonight were sold out.
Speaker: i was like, all right. And there's a good amount of people in my theater yesterday on a on a Tuesday night.
Speaker: I don't know. There really is a market for anything. Yeah. The people next to me did seem older. Like, they were... in their fifties maybe. And that kind of seems like the demographic for this movie. Like parents slash younger grandparents were are probably going to love this movie.
Speaker: Maybe empty nesters. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um, but I gave it, I gave it a two out of five. Okay. Yeah. What do you have? Uh, terrible. Yeah. Not terrible.
Speaker: Like i said, it's not worth to watch. Yeah. There's some very pretty like landscape shots. like a lot of like Wherever they shot this, like the scenery was beautiful. and i'm like that was yeah i'm like That was the best part of the movie. I was like, Tachi would love this part.
Speaker: But everything else, I was like, get that guy out of here. Makes sense. What were you going to say? What do you have Avengers rated up? I think a four.
Speaker: It's kind of high. I do like the first Avengers movie, though. But it's like pretty solid all around. The first Avengers movie is solid. It feels, i don't know if I'm misremembering, but it does feel a little more on the nose with the corniness.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But at least in comparison to like the other Avengers movies. But maybe they're all just kind of similarly corny. It feels... It's like ah it's it's the Joss Whedonism, I would say. The Avengers feels... The first one feels like... When that was... What's the word I'm looking for?
Speaker: Not like accepted, but just... That was like, that's like what was in the, in the culture space at the time. Right. And then I think as time went on, they tried to just recreate that, but it almost became like a parody of itself. So it feels like, okay with the first Avengers movie.
Speaker: And then it just kind of slowly degrades over time until we get to today. Makes sense. Yeah. But speaking of today, we'll be talking about Resident Evil.
Speaker: I'm ready. Okay. ah We'll do our Letterboxd Love Like Loathe. Tachi with the five, me with the three, and then we'll both do the one. But first, I'll read the synopsis for us. Resident Evil 2026, directed by Zach Krager.
Speaker: Hashtag... Prager for Prager. ah Medical courier Brian unwittingly finds himself fighting for survival as one fateful horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
Speaker: And this is starring Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, and Callie Reese and Zach Cherry. If you can even say that. It's basically just starring Austin Abrams. Yeah. yeah Pretty much. um Cool.
Speaker: Read us our five star. What you got for us? Alright. I've got two. First one is more like a a nugget that I wasn't aware of, but This comes in from Cobb. Five stars.
Speaker: My favorite detail is the tumbleweed monster being practical and made up of contortionists. So I don't know how much was CGI and how much was contortionist, but that's really cool. What I heard, not to knock Mr. Cobb, was so I saw the behind the scenes footage of the people. What do they call it?
Speaker: Tumbleweed monster? The tumbleweed monster um of the of the people like behind the scenes doing it. And apparently that didn't fully work. So they just used it as a reference and then ended up having it be CGI like in the final product. Like, there probably there would have been CGI texture, like, added to it, obviously.
Speaker: But i think they went 100% CGI at the end, but tried to do it practical at first. But I saw an interview where Craig was saying it didn't really work the way he wanted it to. But served the inspiration point. I could definitely that in, like, the final act of the movie.
Speaker: Yeah. But, in the woods, that was sick. It was really cool However they did that was awesome. Yeah. I really liked that. Yeah. What's the second one? So the second review comes in from...
Speaker: nim
Speaker: Niamh. Sure. I would like 10 hour long compilation of Austin Abrams screaming to hit my desk immediately.
Speaker: I love to scream. We can get that for you. A three star comes in from Josh Lewis. It's a long one. So I'm only going read a portion of it. Okay. Literally nothing going on under the hood and the anxious live streamer chatterbox humor had probably the weakest hit rate so far of a Kregor joint for me personally.
Speaker: Even if Abrams saved some of it with his freaked out delivery and final girl levels of wide-eyed running and screaming. And then he goes on to compare it between somewhere like Sam Raimi and After Hours, which I definitely agree and serves as the inspiration point. But he's got a pretty long review, so I'm just going read those first few sentences.
Speaker: Okay. This one star comes in from Dakota. Just left the auditorium disappointed. My expectations are low. What? This was my review too. Oh, Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry. no, no. You're good.
Speaker: Just left the auditorium disappointed. My expectations were low, but not low enough. Zach Krager is not a director whose career whose career I will be following. Sorry, not sorry. About to go home and punch my friend in his balls at J King.
Speaker: They tagged the friend.
Speaker: That's literally the one that I had up. I was like, that one's actually pretty funny. Like, you're just so pissed after a movie, you're going to go hit your friend afterwards.
Speaker: Well, thank you that, Dakota. Yeah, thank you, Dakota. That was going to be both of our reviews, so we both loved it. um I guess I'll ask, which I think I know the answer since you don't like scary games, but any relationship to the Resident Evil franchise, movies or video games growing up?
Speaker: So a lot of spectating. I watched my brother played a lot. a I don't know what all of the ones that he's played. It's a really deep franchise that goes back probably 20-ish years, um maybe longer. But I think I watched him play like the first four or five, maybe six.
Speaker: um I was really, sta really terrified personally. i couldn't really play them. He did make me play them sometimes just to laugh at me. Um, cause I would scream.
Speaker: yeah Um, yeah, I mean, I grew up watching it and and playing it a little bit. Not wouldn't really consider myself a huge fan. Cause didn't love whore the last 30 years of my life.
Speaker: Was there another horror franchise video game that we've had this discussion or was it leading up to Resident Evil? This also sounds really familiar. i feel like we may have had this discussion, but I don't know. i mean, we just saw the movie though. I'm like, yeah that sounds familiar unless your brother just did that multiple times with you with multiple horror video games. I don't think so. I think it was just Resident Evil.
Speaker: Okay. why you I never played these games. And did you watch the movies at all? The ones with Mila Jokovic?
Speaker: I never saw them. like They look too much. Yeah. yeah Do you think do like too much in horror or too much in like the campiness, cheesiness? I think the campiness.
Speaker: okay i I don't think that really spoke to me much. was like, how is this Resident Evil? Because I grew up on the games. And so when I saw that, I'm like, this isn't the same.
Speaker: I watch it. I wonder why neither made its way like into into my consciousness. Like it just I've been aware of Resident Evil. Like I know of Resident Evil, the games and the old movies. But I don't know. It just never it just never came across my desk.
Speaker: I'm wondering if I should go back and play some of the games, but leading up to the movie,
Speaker: I don't know if I... I want to say my excitement level for this was maybe like a two out of five. Really? Yeah. Why? I don't know. like It just seemed...
Speaker: It's like not a knock against the movie. It's just, it just wasn't a movie this year that I think I was like chomping at the bit to watch. Like I knew I'd watch it pretty soon after it released, but it wasn't, it wasn't in my like top 10 most anticipated for sure.
Speaker: What about you? I think it was pretty high for me just solely based on how much I liked Austin Abrams and weapons. um I haven't seen him in anything else.
Speaker: but just that performance alone, like got me really hype. was probably like a 3.5 or four out of five excitement level. Um, And I know we'll get to it at some point, but I think he delivered personally.
Speaker: I do too. Austin, I mean. Yeah, I do too. He is the best part of weapons. I rewatched weapons on a plane coming back from a wedding just a few days ago. because I was like, oh, they got weapons. Also United Airlines has like the best movie selection on their flight. Like I had a tough time picking.
Speaker: Yeah. um So I watched weapons and Austin Abrams definitely is the standout of that movie for me. yeah I still I'm still middle ground on that movie though like I know me you and Alex were like is everyone under spells or something like what is going on here yeah I still feel the same like I still have it at a three and a half out of five and I was like it's a good movie
Speaker: but didn't change your life. It didn't change my life or anything like that. Not that every movie needs to, but like, I don't know. That was just one of those ones where I felt like we were missing out, even though we all liked It and seemed like everybody just loved it.
Speaker: Do you think the primary problem though is still that it has that tonal whiplash that just can't really seem to settle itself?
Speaker: Or do you think it's something else? I think it's something else because it didn't feel as like in my face this time around. I think now going into it, the tone works a little bit more for me.
Speaker: i don't know. I'm like, and we'll we'll talk about Zach Crager as a whole. um But I don't know. How did you, what were your feelings walking out of Resident Evil? What'd you think of it? I had a really good time.
Speaker: I had a couple issues with,
Speaker: I don't know if it's the writing or the direction, but I guess just the way that Austin Abrams character. Hang on. Let me look up the name so we don't have to say that every time.
Speaker: um Brian. Brian. Yeah, Brian. Like, I don't know what exactly the intent, where the intent came from, but just his lack of urgency a lot of the times was really frustrating. And I don't know where that was coming from.
Speaker: but it was enough to make me a little bit annoyed. Really? Yeah. That, that was kind of like my, my primary issue with it. But with that said, I did have a lot of fun.
Speaker: I did get scared a few times. Um, and I survived another horror movie. So you did it. Yeah. What was your theater? Like did, was it a packed theater?
Speaker: It was pretty packed. I watched it last night. Okay. Yeah. but Last night. Um, yeah, pretty packs. Um, maybe like 70% filled. So not bad for a Tuesday night.
Speaker: lot of laughs. Yeah, I think so. Not allowed to crowd. Okay. But I, I could like, feel the general contentment with the movie. Got it.
Speaker: So I watched this in Longmont, Colorado last Thursday at 12 p.m. And it was me and two other people in the theater.
Speaker: one One of them being Bryce. I was like, we had a couple hours before the wedding. So I was like, oh, you want to go watch the movie? And he was like, yeah, sure. he has He also doesn't do horror movies. But it was me and him and then like one other guy.
Speaker: And my first thought leaving the movie was, I think I would have enjoyed this so much more like in a p packed theater. Yeah. Like it it kind of it kind of feels like a movie that really would lean itself into like a big lively crowd. Like I could see it being...
Speaker: maybe a bit better of an experience for me after. Not that it was a bad experience, but I kind of left this movie just like, okay, cool.
Speaker: Like it could have been more. But I don't know if I would want it to be more. Yeah. I kind of do really love this movie for what it is. Like it feels like a video game walkthrough almost. right Like it's, this is like the most,
Speaker: straight up movie I've seen released this year, I would say. What do you mean by that? Straight up movie? Like, like it just, things that are just happening. It's just like, yeah, in succession.
Speaker: In succession. Yes. Yeah. That's what I'm looking for. It's just like, right, he's going to go here here, here, here, here to his goal. movie's And he's going to see this thing, this thing, this thing, this thing. Yeah. And so there's a big part of me that appreciates that and am 100% on board for it.
Speaker: And when I look back and think about like the execution of an I'm just like, oh yeah, it was good. But just something just doesn't fully connect with me. But I do and did enjoy this movie.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree with that. That makes sense. What was the scariest scene for you?
Speaker: probably the beginning on the farm when the old man comes out of nowhere. That jump scare. That yeah got me pretty good.
Speaker: um I knew it was coming, but it it was executed really well, so it got me. This movie's insanely... Oh, go ahead. What happens in the tunnel?
Speaker: With the rat king? oh no. The first tunnel in the RV. The first tunnel. and Oh, yes, yes, yes. That was nuts. There's a lot of really good sequences in this movie. This movie is extremely gory.
Speaker: Extremely. How are you with gore? Because there's a couple jump scares, but this movie didn't feel like scary to me. that's not ah That's not a negative thing, but it just felt more like gory to me.
Speaker: I don't mind gore as long as it's not like...
Speaker: To go back to our good friend of the show, k Cronenberg. Yeah. um Like body horror, I can't really handle very well.
Speaker: um Like the slow kind of methodical like slicing of skin and it's just like, yeah i don't know. You know what trying to say? Yeah. It's like kind of glamorized. um But this one is just like really...
Speaker: I don't know, bombastic, kind of Tarantino-y. no Definitely played up in a more fun fashion. I don't mind, like, at all. It doesn't bother me.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, this movie just feels like that, like, Krager and Abrams... And then watching interviews with them and it seems like they both just just get along so well. And Crager says that while shooting weapons, he already had like the script for Resident Evil knew that this was like the next movie that he wanted to do.
Speaker: But while shooting weapons, the relationship that he formed with Austin and just talks about like the way they clicked and their chemistry and their connection where he was like, oh yeah, like I want him to play. Like he hadn't told him that. He's like, but I want him to play like the main guy and in my Resident Evil movie.
Speaker: And you can see that like in their interviews, like just like how close they got and their dynamic together. And so I feel like that's exuded throughout the movie. Like I can feel like they had fun making this movie. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: I can see that as well. And i wonder with this new partnership, if that's going to kind of mirror... not that it's the same, but like Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, how they work together on project after project after project.
Speaker: Um, would you be opposed to that or would you want to see more? I would be down to see more. Like there's, you've got like your handful of directors that have like their go-to's. Yeah. Or they're like, or like their main guy.
Speaker: Like that's a good example that you just gave. Um, I think Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell with like the evil dead movies, uh, Countless others too. And so I think that would be, that's like a combination that, that I would love to see like moving forward. I don't know. So his, so Zach Crager's next movie is called the flood.
Speaker: Um, and we did recently get a casting announcement. Um, it's going to be starring Jennifer Lawrence. She's the only one attached so far. So will Abrams also get a part in it?
Speaker: I don't know, but good land. It's a big fish. Yeah. Um, For the listeners that aren't aware of what the flood is, i just wanted to give a quick review or recap of what the movie's about. The tone is described as 2001 A Space Odyssey meets Alien.
Speaker: With that, I'm like, all right. I'm in. I'm in. I hated 2001 A Space Odyssey, but I get what, but i but I love Alien. You know the vibe, yeah. But I know the vibe. And so i'm I'm definitely on board. um What was your favorite sequence in in this movie?
Speaker: Your favorite, your favorite level, your favorite video game level. Cause these all feel just like video game levels. Like we're, there's one goal. He's got to deliver this heart or whatever's in this package to a hospital and hygiene six, sues, hygiene since he was like all the after hours, just one goal in mind needs to get to the hospital. And he just keeps having all of these blockages.
Speaker: Right. It's kind of hard to choose. There are a lot of really fun sequences. I like pretty much any scene where he actually looks really cool doing this, but he's he's holding the phone with one hand and like propping his gun on another on like his arm or something. Yeah, the only way that he can have a flashlight and these dark tunnels and stuff kind of like I like any time he's on screen doing that. Like it looks yeah so cool. um So that was great. um
Speaker: I did like the tunnels. That was pretty cool and intense. I wish yeah we got a little bit more of that though, underground. I think there was a lot left on the bone there other than, you know, what they did with the rats.
Speaker: Yeah. Um, that part was nasty. Yeah. Yeah. And ah also he's kind of an idiot for waiting and watching. That's, yeah that's another thing. It's just like, why are you waiting and watching? You know, shit is fucked up.
Speaker: You know, you're seeing all these monsters over and over again. Just move your ass, please. it It really does feel like a video game though. And you know, when you're just like watching the cut scene and you have no control over the remote and you're like, run run run you're like i want to run so bad and you're even like you're like pushing on the joystick wanting to move but you're in the middle of a cut scene and so it's like you have to see it and then you'll start running that's kind of what it felt like to me i'm sure it's intentional like you have to watch the horror that's unfolding right before you but man it's frustrating um
Speaker: And I did also like the hospital, the maternity ward sequence. That was pretty cool. Yeah. that was That was a really cool sequence. One question I had to go back to the Rat King is, who is that guy and what was he doing there?
Speaker: Rattin' it up. I don't know. Because this infection is spreading now. It's been a few hours. Right. So there had to have been a guy already down there?
Speaker: maybe Maybe he's doing a cosplay of what's his face from Dune? I don't know. The the Baron or whatever. That's exactly what I was thinking it was. Very Baron-esque.
Speaker: Just as nasty too. Very nasty. I would argue nastier because he explodes full of rats. Spoilers, by the way, for for Resident Evil. Yeah.
Speaker: I really liked the zombie suicide building sequence. Yeah, that was awesome. That was one of my favorites. did you Have you seen the clip of Craig talking about the almost accident?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. That's insane. So for those that don't know, the way that they shot this was they had a bunch of like blood bags on either side of of Austin as he's running through the set of these of these cars in the snow.
Speaker: And they're dropping these like 150 pound blood bags and then in post using like CGI to make it look like it's a person. So that way they could get like a real big splatter of these blood bags. But there's a part where one of the blood bags was released a little bit too early.
Speaker: And while Austin's running, it comes scary close to where he is that if he was just a couple feet over, like that would have been the end of Austin Abrams pretty much.
Speaker: So and I'm like, and he says it was such a smile on his face. He's like, Ooh, that would have been ah ah a wrap on Austin. And I'm like, That's so dangerous. That sounds so scary. Yeah, that's I think that's just something you kind of have to laugh through because what else can you do?
Speaker: I guess so. i don't know. i mean, apparently, you know, Austin took it on the chin. he was fine. Yeah, wasn't mad. So would have been a ah would have been real blood that we would have seen on screen.
Speaker: lot of explosions. Would they have finished the movie if that happened?
Speaker: What if it just cuts to black right there? Crazy. um Yeah. a To jump forward to the maternity ward. I think that's like my second favorite sequence.
Speaker: What's cool about that sequence is. Before all of this starts happening. The only thing we know about Brian is that he's a medical courier and him and his girlfriend are going through something. You eventually find out, they don't directly say it but you can infer that she's pregnant and they're deciding if they want to keep the baby or not.
Speaker: So the whole movie just feels like, um especially when we get to like the maternity ward sequence, just like these fears that he has like as a person kind of just... realizing those fears and now he's face on with them. So the maternity ward 100% just feels like that fear fully realized.
Speaker: Like he's scared to become a dad. Like he's trying to like talk her out of it. Like he doesn't really know his feelings on it. Then you see like the baby just like, he's like bloody hands, like reach over long as arms. Yeah. Yeah. Really funny. This movie is really funny.
Speaker: Yeah. Like to go back to the tone of weapons, like, I didn't have that same issue because this just straight up is like a comedy horror for movie. Yeah.
Speaker: For sure. um I was just about to bring up the script and a lot of the complaints about this movie is the the childish script and and how It's just not very creative, like with this use of just saying fuck all the time.
Speaker: Yeah. Or just like really simple reactions to things. um Did you have a problem with that? Or guess what are your thoughts? right I think that might be part of the reason it doesn't fully connect with me.
Speaker: That's why it's that complicated because i don't want more of the movie. Like I see for what it is and I know that's, and that is its intention. And so I think it is successful in that.
Speaker: I think it just lands a little flat for me. Yeah. In that department. And like, and I like, I don't want more. I think it is just what it is.
Speaker: But I think Craig Graven said that he wrote the script and like, I don't want to misquote it, but it was like something really quick. Like a brief period of time. Like a couple of days. And I'm like, that makes sense. And then I'm sure a lot of this was improvised because 99% of it is Brian reacting to what he sees and whispering under his breath.
Speaker: And we come across ah total of six actual characters with some kind of dialogue, but it's just a few lines.
Speaker: Right. And then they're gone. They're just, they're literally the NPCs of the world as we, as the main character make our way to our mission. Right. I think some of the people off screen had more dialogue than the people on screen.
Speaker: Like his girlfriend, the yeah Zach Kregor on the intercom. um Oh, that's Kregor on the intercom. Yeah. I saw that. Oh, that's really cool. Right. When he's, when he's crying and he's like, Hey, dude crying over there. the touch of him like pulling his jacket up to cover himself. He was so naked and vulnerable. Didn't realize that he's being watched. Yeah, that was great.
Speaker: I did like that scene a lot. Yeah. All that being said, I think Austin Abrams is like an absolute star and I think he's too like fantastic in this movie and I do hope that they they both keep working with each other.
Speaker: Yeah, I really hope he he takes on good roles moving forward because I think he really could be star. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: and Anything else on Resident Evil? Oh my god, Whale Fall. Dude, that comes out in two weeks. Hell yeah. I don't know what to expect from that movie. I really don't. I don't either, but I hope it's good. um I wanted to read a couple of the ah trivia facts from Resident Evil. This one I thought was interesting and since we were talking about the script.
Speaker: But this one says that after the film was shown at test screenings, Zach Craig revealed he had to dial down the jokes. adding that he learned that people really liked the movie, but they thought it was too funny. So over the course of my testing, I stripped out as much of the jokes as possible. And apparently there was like 20 more minutes of footage, but they were all jokes.
Speaker: Would you wanted this movie to be funnier or would that i maybe detract your feelings to it? I would have wanted to be scarier. You want it to be scary. I wanted it to be scarier because Resident Evil, especially like the OG, like the original, i think first two, um they are so scary youre like because you cannot control the camera.
Speaker: I think if I remember correctly, it's like fixed in each room. So like you can only see specific angles of like where your character is going, where the zombies are coming from, where they're running to.
Speaker: um So you're just always on edge because you, you can't even look around the corners yourself. no So yeah, I think I would have wanted more horror, but what we got, I'm i'm fine with, like, it's really not yeah that big of a deal to me, but yeah.
Speaker: It seems like for the people that are in the camp of really not liking the movie, because you know that there's going to be like, this is a video game adaptation. And so you've got your people who've been fans of Resident Evil for decades like of their life that would want a faithful adaptation. like I see people talk about, care i don't know characters of Resident Evil, like Leon. like I don't know who that guy is, but like people are like, we didn't get a Leon, we didn't get this person, and we didn't get this person, like where are Michael Upshittos?
Speaker: But I like that this is just one night of some guy in Raccoon City. I do too. um And just to tell you, Leon Kennedy is like the Steve Rogers of Resident Evil.
Speaker: Okay. Is he what makes him special? Is he like, he's just a, he's just a badass. I don't know. i don't know what to tell you. Handsome guy. I'm sure. Oh yeah. Really?
Speaker: Real hot guy. Yeah. And I know, I know Kregger will not come back for like a sequel. I don't know if, someone else will come back for a sequel or do a different type of Resident Evil movie.
Speaker: um But even though it seems like he had a lot of fun making this, it seems like pushback from the diehard Resident Evil fans have taken a toll on him on the internet to the point where he's just like, if you don't want to fucking watch it, don't watch it. Like, I don't care. Like, this is the movie I wanted to make. And it is kind of sad.
Speaker: Yeah, but i I think my preference is that this is a standalone and that we don't get a continuation of this universe with like this like this feel. Hmm.
Speaker: the You know what I'm trying to say? Yeah. i don't I don't want someone trying to impersonate what Craig did here in some weird sequel. Like if they do it again, then have it be something completely different, different characters, different tone. Yeah.
Speaker: Maybe in like 10 years. Yeah. It's just all... That makes sense. Let's talk about the ending. um As he gets to the Umbrella Corporation and delivers, we find out is an integral part of the vaccine that...
Speaker: So we find out the Umbrella Corporation basically caused what's happening and they're trying to develop a vaccine and that's what Brian has been delivering. Brian also got bit at some point during the movie, which I was like, oh, okay, so he's cooked. Like, I know he's done. Like, I know he's done. I just want to see yeah how it happens. And sure enough, he starts to transform into his own...
Speaker: Monster. What is it? Yeah, monster. Like he kind of looks monster. The tumblewe the tumbleweed monster. Yeah. um And he's transformed by the end of it. He marks the entire scientific staff as as they make the vaccine. He wants some the vaccine for himself. But like as he's trying to go get it, he's just continuously transforming and and eating them and smashing them.
Speaker: Yeah, just like kind of absorbing them in his torso. Yeah, it's like this big hole and he just eats them through that. Yeah, so that's fun.
Speaker: It was a really cool design. It was i did like it. And I don't know. There's another thing where I don't I'm not entirely sure on the intention, but those scientists are really.
Speaker: Incapable in terms of self-defense or like understanding how to get themselves out of a sticky situation. Because they had like at least 43 opportunities to stick him with the thing.
Speaker: Yeah. the The antidote and they just never did.
Speaker: I did want them to. i wanted to see what would happen. Me too. But the ending, it's... Pretty sad. And i was kind of surprised that it just ended like that. like It just felt like a like a mic drop. Like they're just like, all right, movie's over. i was like, oh.
Speaker: Like there could have been 30 more minutes of this. i Yeah, he's fully transformed. It goes outside. And then we see him in his final form with a helicopter light shining on him. And then credits rolled. Right.
Speaker: He roars at the camera. Yeah. His poor girlfriend. I know. He almost saved the city. He almost did. Yeah, what a guy. And so the antidote, did it fall to the floor? Is it gone?
Speaker: Is that it? I don't know. It's kind of a cliffhanger. Yeah.
Speaker: Did you have a problem with the CGI? Because
Speaker: at least with him, i don't know that it looked that great.
Speaker: yeah in his In his final form on that bridge thing. um It's not a huge gripe. I think I'm just being nitpicky. I don't mind it like at all because I think it works for the rest of the movie.
Speaker: like there's not well I'm sure there's a lot of CJ that we just don't see, but like all of the special effects work and everything like that, um between that and the practical effects, just really worked, I think, throughout the entire movie. So it it doesn't really like stop...
Speaker: stop like the engine for me at the end of it, even though he is by the end of it, a full CGI monster. Speaking of a slight tonal switch, did you like ah at the elevators when he's being chased by the OG tumbleweed monster and there's the vomit zombie?
Speaker: Oh yeah. There's a very brief scene where the movie feels a little bit different because he's like, fucking around with the vomit zombie and like grabs him and like is able to overpower him.
Speaker: Yeah. How did you feel about that? That part was a little comical. I was like where did this come from? Like, I know he's just by the end of by this time, he's just probably sick and tired of the shit that he's witnessed.
Speaker: Yeah. And it's like, I just need to deliver this. And like, I'm going to do whatever it takes. um But at that point, it does feel like the comedy is dialed to 11 bit. where that did stick out to me um just a tad. But did it bother you?
Speaker: a little A little bit. I think I'm with you there where it just feels like 11 when it they could have brought it back a tiny bit. Yeah, it got a list it got a little slapstick for for a brief second.
Speaker: Yeah. but But I think that's also part of the reason where if I saw this like in a packed theater and everyone's like having fun, like I could see so many of this just like working so much more. Like I already liked it, but like just in that environment, I could totally see just having a blast with it. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: What else? um don't know. I feel like that's it for me. Like it's like I said, it's like it's a very straightforward movie. I think it's a really fun movie. Yeah, it is super fun.
Speaker: Ready to rate it? Sure. What you got? I'll give it 3.5 out of 5. right. I'm going to give it a 3 out of 5.
Speaker: Okay, good. I enjoyed it. Not great. Not groundbreaking, but a fun time overall. I think it's easily rewatchable though. I'm curious what a rewatch at home would do or what that would feel like.
Speaker: I don't know, but I do think overall the first like 30 minutes up until he reaches the the first tunnel with the RV, everything leading up to that, I think was like pretty much perfect.
Speaker: I agree. I think the first 30 minutes of this movie is the strongest. Right. And I was extremely locked in. Like, the title card doesn't come out. Yeah, the title card doesn't come out until, like, 20 minutes into it.
Speaker: And the entire, like, snow sequence as, like, he hits the the first zombie. and with the police, like, the police car set. And then in the snow, in the dark, you just see the lights. And they're doing the chase.
Speaker: I'm like, this shit is so good. And they even up to the house, like, it really starts off really strong. It does. And then it just... it I'm going to say the word flatline in a non-derogatory sense.
Speaker: It just stays at that level where I'm having a good time and there's good sequence after sequence. And then it's over. So it's like you get in, you get out. yeah And I would recommend it and it's ah it is a fun time.
Speaker: Yeah. All right. Let's get to primetime. Let's do it. All right. Primetime directed by Lance Oppenheim. Synopsis reads this.
Speaker: In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history, turning an undercover investigation into one of the most controversial cultural phenomena of the decade.
Speaker: We'll get into our thoughts and feelings after our letterbox love like loathe again, touch it with the five, move it to three, and then we both have a one star. Okay. This five star comes in from Belle. Yeah, this is it. i don't know how he does it, but I never doubted my close and personal friend, Robert Pattinson, a day in my life.
Speaker: And he keeps proving me right. That Academy Award will be yours. I planted the seed and I will see the harvest. Hmm. Yeah, we'll talk about Academy Award potential. Okay. This three-star comes from Jack Fola.
Speaker: Honestly, feels like style over substance. The image quality is excellent, though many A24 films are starting to look alike these days. And the direction, while lacking major flourishes, boasts a clean, minimalist, yet precise style that makes the story enjoyable to watch.
Speaker: But ultimately, what was it actually about? Unscrupulous television, a show with questionable methods, morally ambiguous characters, pedophilia, crimes or vigilante justice. In the end, it felt like it touched on a bit of everything while at the same time saying almost nothing.
Speaker: Interesting. This comes in from Cthulhu. It's a half-star review. Chris Hansen is a hero. That's it.
Speaker: um This half-star comes from goty Hand. Hollywood makes a movie about a guy who exposes predators and paints him as the bad guy. Knowing their history, is any anyone really surprised by this?
Speaker: Now, before we started recording, as we were trying to find our half stars and one stars, we noticed we noticed the pattern with all of the half star and one star reviews. Yeah, big trend.
Speaker: Big trend. um There seems to be...
Speaker: a group of people that feel this movie sympathizes with the predators and makes Chris Hansen out to be the bad guy. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker: My thoughts are that they should rewatch the movie and try to, and don't know, get a different takeaway.
Speaker: Approach it with a more open mind and and maybe see what comes out of it. There's, this is this is a big movie. This is a big movie, I think, in a lot of ways.
Speaker: um Obviously, Robert Pattinson. This is the third movie he's had this year with another still yet to come out with Dune 3. So everyone's aware of that. Everyone loves Robert Pattinson.
Speaker: The trailer came out. He's doing the voice. people really excited to see what his portrayal of Chris Hansen's going to be. and what is this movie going to be about? And so,
Speaker: there's a lot of There's a lot smarter people than me that would be able to kind of dive into right deeper thematic elements with this and kind of what it's saying about America at the time. And we'll we'll get into it as best as we can here.
Speaker: So that being said, like I do think it's a lot of movie to digest. 100%. So it could be like difficult, I think, for... the nuance to get lost and thinking that the movie is portraying Chris as a bad guy because I don't think the movie is portraying Chris as a bad guy at all.
Speaker: Yeah, I would agree. Did you ever watch The Catch Predator? Did you have... Any history with this show? Never seen any of it. Did you know of it before this movie was... Yeah, I of it. Okay, so you knew it within the meme space? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Okay, yeah. I... had seen some episodes when I was younger and so knew of Chris Hansen. And then as we got older, i think, yeah, he just became like a core part of, of like meme culture. Like everyone knew the, why don't you have a seat and all of that. And later we're both going to try our our best Chris Hansen impression.
Speaker: Um, but what were your feelings coming out of the movie? When did you watch it? how was your Tell me about your theatrical experience and then what you felt like after the movie. I watched it. Let's see um
Speaker: Over the weekend, I think. Maybe ges Sunday. Something like that. um Pretty timid audience for the most part. um It was packed, though. Kind of like Resident Evil. Maybe 70, 80 percent filled in the theater. And.
Speaker: I walked out. knowing that there's a lot to digest, like your three-star said, um, there's a lot going on, a lot of historical context to kind of consider with with everything that's going on. And, um,
Speaker: I'm still trying to process what I watched because it's, it's hard to, to bring yourself to these conclusions when, I hate to admit it, but I haven't really done any research to understand a lot of what's going on in this movie because there's, there's, uh, there's nine 11, there's the advent of,
Speaker: um, surveillance. That's the word. Yeah. There's the,
Speaker: I don't know the, the public humiliation aspect of, of the show and, and wanting to see bad people were brought to justice.
Speaker: Um, there, there's just a lot going on outside of, Chris Hansen himself, decoy Dan, um, the producer, I'm sorry, her, her name is lost on me.
Speaker: Um, uh, Merritt Weaver. And then the, the actual pedophiles themselves. So, oh, and then not to mention the, the demon monkey thing.
Speaker: Yeah. Which is just like a whole other aspect. That's a whole other Pandora's box. Right. we'll we'll We'll get to the demon monkey. You bring up a good point. I think one of the like central themes that I see is like the post-9-11 culture that we had specifically around surveillance and vigilantism, if that's a word. like This, amongst like other shows...
Speaker: gap came up at this time where like Americans felt vulnerable and something like the reason people say that this is a, a post nine 11 movies because it tackles the, the repercussions of, of what that did to everyday Americans.
Speaker: Right. People didn't feel safe. People wanted justice. And, Things that happen in our real world are reflected in the media that we consume.
Speaker: And that's what this movie to me feels like it's tackling, which is why whenever I see the reviews saying that they made Chris Hansen to be the bad guy they're not. It's still just a criticism of of how good of the work is that, that he's doing because i mean, it's, it's literally like right there, like in the script, like,
Speaker: it doesn't feel like he cares about actually saving like these kids about, about catching like pedophiles. He wants, he wants the views. He wants the primetime spot. The movie is called primetime.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And it's basically just like a descent into madness of this person at the helm with his team around at the helm of this, like very,
Speaker: big problem and how it's being handled and then put out to the masses as entertainment.
Speaker: Yeah, I think there's a pretty thin through line when you compare this and Nightcrawler where there's this this one guy, you know,
Speaker: doing whatever it takes to, I guess, rise in the ranks of press or journalism or whatever their, their craft is at the expense of others.
Speaker: And it's, it's made very clear in this movie that he is exploiting these yes, like terrible people who, you know, it's, it's great that he's preventing crime or potential crime.
Speaker: Um, But, you know, like, where where's the line? Like, the yeah line is so blurred for him because all he wants is the the success, the money, the notoriety of, like, being this guy.
Speaker: Yeah. And he only starts spiraling when, like, a big central part of the movie is ah the the news that Squire magazine about to come out with the news that he has been having an affair with his wife.
Speaker: And that's kind of what makes him spiral to the point where he wants to catch this whale, specifically in hopes that that will overshadow whatever news comes out about the affair. So that way he doesn't lose his prime time spot, doesn't lose the the celebrity of it all.
Speaker: Yeah, it'll like cement his legacy. basic Yeah. And so the movie is not like arguing against like what he's doing. Obviously everyone is in an agreeance that like at the core of it, it is a good thing that they're doing and catching these predators, but it's the way once it's all said and done is how they're going about it. Like, is there, you know what it reminds me of? What?
Speaker: You know, you know how people will film themselves like giving food to the homeless. Oh yeah. It kind of reminds me of that. Like you're doing a good thing. You're giving food to the homeless, but you're also like, look at me.
Speaker: Yeah. And look at me a lot. Like, yeah. Like give me clicks. Give me, give me views. Give me money. Yeah. And so there's a lot of nuance in that. And just because you criticize the person in the middle of that doesn't mean you are necessarily for one side or another. And then even towards the end of the movie, he tells the Skylar Gazondo character, he's like, you're either with me or with him.
Speaker: Like saying you're either with me or you're with this pedophile. And it's just like, well, I don't want to be with the pedophile. So ill yeah you so I guess I'll do this. um I don't know. We said a lot there. So we think we've got to backtrack a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker: What did you think of Robert Pattinson in this movie? How'd you feel about his performance? Incredible. Obviously. <unk>s threaten Yeah. He's on a roll.
Speaker: He's really on a roll. That's our fucking goat, man. Yeah. And you caught it like 10 years ago. I will give you full credit. Thank you. yeah i was not a believer, but I see the vision now. We've been here since day one. We are my my stock is just to the moon.
Speaker: um He's absolutely excellent in this. Like from what we got from the trailers with just hearing the voice of Chris Hansen, I think we were all like, and like friends included, and like outside of the podcast, we were just like,
Speaker: yeah Like, this is going to be one of, like, the biggest performances of the year. And everything we got from the trailer is just dialed to 11 with the mannerisms and the way he holds himself and, like, the walk and everything.
Speaker: Like, he just, like, completely embodies just a different person. Albeit, I do think it's Chris Hansen. elevated like right he's he's definitely dramatized but it's chris hansen nonetheless right i i did really like and i've seen this a lot where people really love the mouthwash scene way i was about to bring it up yeah it's incredible i've been spitting out my mouthwash like that i did it this morning and it's just like it's just so unnecessary but
Speaker: but wanted and appreciated. Like, it's a lot of little choices like that that I think make Robert Pattinson just one of the greats, because that's not in the script. There's no way you would know that, oh, Chris Hansen spits out his mouthwash like this. right Like, there's something very, like, alien and deranged about the way he portrays Chris Hansen.
Speaker: And the real Chris Hansen, like, this movie's interesting because... it's a dramatic size. You can't even call it like a, like a biopic. No, but based off of a real person who is currently still alive.
Speaker: Um, and he said that, that he's like, Oh, the movie was dramatic. Like it' not really for me. He's like, but I love Robert Pattinson. Um, that he didn't really, he didn't really get the movie and he's not, he's overall just like not a fan of the movie. Right. Um,
Speaker: But I know that that's 100% the intention is the performance of Robert Pattinson bringing this character to life for the movie and making those little choices just seal him as like one of the greats. like he's he's That scene where he's with the producer in the bathroom and he's kind of just like mocking her and yelling at her like the Joker.
Speaker: Yeah, that was nuts. Yeah. What was that? What's he doing? i don't know what possessed him. Maybe it was the demon monkey for a second. but maybe Maybe. I saw five-star review that said, fuck it, let him play the Batman and the Joker.
Speaker: He can do it. He can do anything. i think I think he would kill it. um Dan Plum. Skylar Gazondo. My guy. Decoy Dan. I want to give him so Like all all the all the props.
Speaker: I thought that he was like truly outstanding in this role. Yeah. Most notably his first um his first time being the decoy. Dude.
Speaker: the The guy that pulls his pants down. Like that scene was insane. What? Like I couldn't breathe. What a scene. Yeah. I couldn't breathe. And then when I finally could, i felt like I wanted to cry.
Speaker: m Like the... brokenness on his face when it happens when it just all comes flooding in yeah is like some of the best stuff that I've seen all year right yeah totally and like like it's It's kind of there where like he can tell he maybe has an idea of what he's getting himself into.
Speaker: But then when reality hits him, just in that moment immediately, it's just like it's so overwhelming. And he nails it. It's like it will forever like change you as a person. And then when it happens and then the entire five minute sequence after as he gets back into the the producer room.
Speaker: And everyone is like, like we we get it. We get a cut back to. um What is the word I'm looking for? It's like the booth like where they're like watching everything like like happen.
Speaker: um And they're all also horrified. But then you can also see like like the the light switch on in all their eyes because they're like, oh, shit, like we got something. yeah like They're like, oh, this is good can't take their eyes away from the screen.
Speaker: Yeah. And they're like, oh, this is like good TV. And it's just like at the expense of a real person now thrown into this that was just harassed.
Speaker: Right. And they like barely comfort him at the end of it. And he just like throughout the movie just like wants to know that, that he did a good job. Like he's doing his best. He wants to, he's an aspiring actor and he wants to like bring his own type of feel to the role and,
Speaker: kind of mirrors Robert Pattinson little bit. Like, he feels like the beginnings of maybe what Chris Hansen was at the start of, like, the show, whatever that Definitely idolizes him.
Speaker: Yeah. To a degree. they definitely, yeah, they definitely, like, mirror each other in a way, but Skylar Gazzando, like... is on par with Robert Pattinson this movie, which is crazy to say. I've always liked him. like He's really funny, but I've never seen him. He's not had a role like this, and he just nails it.
Speaker: Yeah, I was more impressed with him than Robert. like I knew that Robert had this in him. Yeah, because like it's not surprising. here Skyward, this was like truly outstanding.
Speaker: Truly. The scene where...
Speaker: where Chris is freaking out in the kitchen. We'll well we'll go we'll go through a couple of other scenes but since we're talking about Scarlett Cassano, but the scene where he's freaking out in the kitchen and one of the predators ends up showing up, but Chris Hansen, he's he's he's incapable of of standing He's having an episode.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, and so Decoy Dan kind of just looks around and you can see his like stance and appearance kind of change and he starts reading the transcripts of the text and starts...
Speaker: doing an impersonation of Robert Pattinson doing Chris Hansen. And it's so like, it's, it's kind of played for a laugh. Like my audience did laugh, but it's also very serious and and also really sad, but he just like becomes possessed.
Speaker: Like, and he's so good at it. He was. And like, like in character, he was so close to nailing that scene and like really wrapping it up and and just tying the bow.
Speaker: And then just kind of falls apart at the end. But yeah, he he fumbled it a bit, but like insane. I don't, I definitely agree with you where I feel out of the movie, I think about Skylar Gisando more because we knew Robert Pattinson was going to be great.
Speaker: Like breaking news, Robert Pattinson's a great actor, but his performance was just so shocking. Yeah. I hope this launches like a really wild career because ah this, this shows like he has enormous potential.
Speaker: Yeah. Merit Weaver plays Andy Bender, who is the producer. Everything I've seen her in, she's just always fantastic. Like, damn, every performance in this movie, people are just firing on all cylinders. Everyone was so fucking locked in I loved it. I loved It was awesome.
Speaker: For me, I would say the weakest performance is Phoebe Bridgers. And you actually had a discovery right before yeah this podcast. You want to talk about it a little bit? Sure. So I, I knew phoebe Bridgers was in this movie. I knew that she was a singer.
Speaker: Um, that's about it. I've seen her face maybe once. And when we were getting our show notes together, I was like, huh?
Speaker: Who's that? Was she in this movie? And it turns out she was like one of the main characters. So great job in the makeup department. I don't know. I'm an idiot.
Speaker: Just, I'm sorry. Very minimal makeup. That was just Phoebe Bridgers. like I don't know what you have know what to tell you. It was a review that you read. It said, give Phoebe Bridgers her Oscar. And you were like, oh yeah yeah why would she get an Oscar? i was like, what do you mean?
Speaker: but Like she's in the movie. I had no idea. i truly had no idea until 30 minutes ago. That's nuts. um But yes, Merit Weaver, excellent performance like everybody else. like it just Everyone showed up to work and they just really did their shit. 100%.
Speaker: hundred percent Lance Oppenheim, the director. So this is his third directorial feat, but it is his first foray into, um a narrative feature. So he is primarily known for his documentaries.
Speaker: I haven't seen his documentaries. Um, Some Kind of Heaven, and then Faire. I do want to watch. And then he's got, you can see everything, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary with Nathan Fielder coming out in just a few weeks, and I'm very excited for that. Was already stoked, and then this movie just made me even more excited.
Speaker: yeah um Have you seen Some Kind of Heaven or Ren Faire? I've not. I've only seen the trailer to the one that's about to come out. for you can see everything.
Speaker: Yeah. And it looks nuts. It does. What is that movie? ah What is it going be about? Something happens. Something crazy happens. I don't think anything about this lady. So I'm going to learn a lot.
Speaker: I didn't either. um Wanted to talk about the visual style of this movie. It is very stylized. Very stylized. It's surreal. It's like nostalgic.
Speaker: and like sci-fi, like cyberpunk it feels like. It looks- And sometimes it's like ethereal. Mm-hmm. So they shot, i think they've got, I think Lance Oppenheim said like 25 different formats of video. So like between like like a pocket camera and your regular like cinema camera or footage from like a CRTV, something like that.
Speaker: The scene I wanted to call out in particular was when they are in- their chat guy's hotel room and they're trying to get the whale um and the whale is like responding back and forth and chris hansen is having this like epiphany almost of like wanting to catch the whale and we're getting this like very trippy light sequence of like these cameras of like red flashing across robert pattinson's face and blue and just like this ton of like rainbow light and everything like that it's like it's like very trippy looks very cool um
Speaker: They shot that on a camera that is used for colonoscopies. Oh my God. they made a They made a tunnel of lights and then used a 480p colonoscopy camera to go through the lights and then superimpose that over the pictures.
Speaker: But that's how they got that effect and that footage. And I was like, who would think of so using a colonoscopy camera? i don't know. People are weird, but so creative.
Speaker: So creative. um My one comment is I hope it was a new one. Yeah, that would be preferable. That'd be great.
Speaker: That scene actually, it kind of gave me a little bit of, it's it's not really prevalent through the whole movie, but some scenes in Uncut Gems kind of gave me the same vibe.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel the exact same. And then we actually get, I wonder if they use the colonoscopy camera in Uncut Gems because that opening shot, even if they don't use it, that is what's happening in the movie.
Speaker: Oh, right. If you remember, we do zoom out and then we we're like, oh, we were just an Adam Sandler's an asshole. Right. Oops. Oh yeah, maybe that was the inspiration. How'd I end up here? That's so cool.
Speaker: Love that. It's so cool. um What else you want to shout out? Anything else you want to shout out from this movie? There's a lot to talk about here. Right. um We could talk about the whole Texas thing.
Speaker: So we haven't really gotten there yet. To the last final sting? the the messaging is that, you know, where' this is going to be the safest town in America. And then you zoom out a little and it's just like juxtaposed with tanks and like all this militarization. And it's just like,
Speaker: is this really how you create peace? Is this how you want to create peace? Is that like real safety? Right. And um I think that is one of the themes that the movie's trying to tackle in that post era is peace through force.
Speaker: Which is not peace at all. Right. It does, like, I hadn't even thought about that as like a central theme for the movie. that This movie has so much rewatch value.
Speaker: like Like you were saying at the beginning, there's a lot to digest and I think there's a lot you could pick up. And I could kind of understand people's criticisms where it's touching on a lot of things but doesn't really like...
Speaker: tie any of them up i don't think that's the movie's responsibility i think it's forcing us to kind of look inwards with media consumption and like you said like the surveillance police state and and everything like that so um i don't know and then were you aware of the ending of the movie and kind of how things shake out. Had you heard that story before or was that all new? Did you know that that actually happened?
Speaker: I didn't, but I mean, once, once it kind of started inching that way, i had a feeling of how it was going to end. Um, but no, I had no idea. do you, do you have more like little nuggets of info on that?
Speaker: I do. Do you have context? I knew about it. I didn't know like specific details or who it was or like where it took place. I just knew that this guy had got caught and killed himself. I didn't know that he was a district attorney at first for the movie. I was just like, I wonder if that's like dramaticized for the movie finding out. No, like he was a district attorney. This is Bill Conrad jr.
Speaker: um he ends up being the whale and this was a big reason that the show ended up getting canceled and there were lawsuits and this is just where that conversation began like in the 2000s of question questionable practices of how they would go about doing this business and and putting it to camera that once yeah once he was met with the search and arrest warrants, he shot himself.
Speaker: Yeah. And that just feels like it just like fundamentally like changed like Robert Pattinson, like as he's like spiraling, there's a scene with him and decoy Dan outside kind of having like a father son moment when they're playing catch.
Speaker: Also played for laugh because Dan can't throw a ball like at all. But ah Robert starts telling him the story of where he got his bracelet and talks about like an ancient evil.
Speaker: And you can see that he's like fully convinced that that what he's doing is good and that he is cleansing the world. Like he's just he's so lost in his own ambition that he will cut corners and do whatever it takes just to get the shot.
Speaker: Yeah. And as they're about to catch the whale, we see shots of this, like, what do you call him? The monkey demon? Yeah. Whatever the hell that was, like, like straight up horror sequences in this movie. 100%.
Speaker: And he's just haunted by this. But once he shoots himself, the monster is no longer in the house. It's in the woods. And we see him staring and kind of fades off. hmm. Which I think just questions, it's like, what is his place in doing this? And is this the right way to do it?
Speaker: Right. Yeah, no, um, I'm sure there's a lot to glean from that story. There's probably some mythology going on there. Um, maybe some, some deep, deep references to either, um, like, um, cultural lore or maybe religion that maybe we're just not aware of, but yeah, that was really unsettling stuff.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, not only the demon monkey, but also just the story of his time in India is kind of insane. Deeply unsettling. Yeah.
Speaker: Skylar Cassandra has another standout scene at the sting at the district attorney's house as he's on the phone with him. And he, this is such a complicated scene. I'm curious, like how you, how you feel about it.
Speaker: This is maybe one where I don't fully, I think I can't fully wrap my mind around what he's feeling at this point in time.
Speaker: um Where he's yeah having the conversation with with the with the whale and they're surrounding the house and he drops the high-pitched kid voice and he's kind of just talking to him like, as Dan, like what were you thinking during this this scene?
Speaker: I think at this point, he's, I mean, this this is all speculation, of course. We don't really know, but my interpretation was that he was starting to feel guilty about trapping people.
Speaker: Um, whether they're bad people or not, there's still people to him and, um, people that are maybe worthy of getting caught in, in less nefarious, uh, intentions, I guess, like not, not to be exploited.
Speaker: Um, I'm not really sure that was kind of my takeaway, but I don't know, but There's probably a lot to draw on with how he was like kind of assaulted as well, like in the in the beginning of the movie.
Speaker: and And maybe he's just having a really hard time processing everything that's been going on with him since he took on the the acting gig.
Speaker: I felt similar. um It just seems like it's just a lot of complicated emotions and if that's the intent then well done and met because it does feel complicated like you really you really feel him like in that scene that it's not it's just it's not so black and white like there's a big gray area and it's like no one wants to to bother with that area it's either like Robert Patton said you're either with me or with him yeah Chris is just stomping through the gray area yeah yeah and so
Speaker: I think that's a huge reason that Skyler's character really works for me and his performance really works for me because he's also like acting as the audience. like He came into this unknowing and as Dewey and like as he's learning how these things are kind of going down, so are we.
Speaker: And... the gun goes off and then he just like the way that it's shot like with the with the with the CCTV footage panels yeah the four panels just slowly go into blue and then he walks out of frame from the van like outside of the premises and then we're left with just hearing Robert Pattinson re-rehearsing his lines he's going like what would have happened if I wasn't here just like trying to like process like what he did and it At that point, because that's how the movie opens up. It kind of bookends with each other.
Speaker: The movie opens with Robert Pattinson citing his lines, and then it ends with that. at the end, it feels more like a real question. It's like, what would have happened like if I wasn't here? Like him starting to to question like the motives of, yeah what are we doing? like What is my place in this? What does give me the right?
Speaker: and then the movie And then the movie ends. That's so interesting. I didn't take it like that at all, but that's that's a great thing to point out. great thing point I felt so icky after this movie, like for a long time.
Speaker: I was icky and confused. Yeah. The movies is confusing because it is also quite funny. Yeah. there are a lot of parts that are meant you are meant to laugh, but you're also meant to be uncomfortable, and then that also kind of gets a laugh out of you, or you're screaming.
Speaker: like Was your audience a bit more lively than Resident Evil for this one? like What was that experience like? A little bit, actually. Yeah, you know what? They were louder. okay My Resident Evil crowd was pretty pretty quiet, but primetime, when it was meant to be funny, everyone was laughing.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. what are you were Were people laughing during the, when he starts singing the 526, at the end? At the end? Yeah, remember when he's singing it in the in the van?
Speaker: Oh, ah I don't remember. Like the first time he sings it, it it it is funny. For the audition. Yeah, the audition was really funny. yeah Then he sings it again at a very serious moment. and I was like, what are we else? I was just horrified.
Speaker: no i don't I don't think anyone laughed, at least that I can remember. Okay. Did you laugh? I was just like uncomfortable. I was like, hu i like you i what what do what do I do with my hands now?
Speaker: Yeah, that that whole final sequence at the house was nuts. and so it take in there's ah There's a lot to take in and i do think this movie has a lot of rewatch value. Before we get to our final ratings, I want to do our best Chris Hansen impersonation.
Speaker: It's all the rage. And you said you haven't done it before. I have not practiced it. at all. So you go to our show notes, I've got, there's a specific line of dialogue in the movie that Robert Pattinson is also rehearsing for, he's doing the voiceover for the show, so he's in the recording booth, and he's, what we can only assume is spending hours just repeating this like 10 to 15 words just over and over again. So that's what that's what we're gonna try. You ready? All right, I'll go first. Okay, thank you.
Speaker: This is my Chris Hansen impression.
Speaker: When we come back, the parade of men begins, and some even come bearing gifts. Hey, that was good. Is that okay?
Speaker: When we come back, the parade of men begins, and some even come bearing gifts. Go, go, come, even come, gifts.
Speaker: And some even come, gifts.
Speaker: Oh, we will need. That it is is so funny. We're going to need Alex to, one, tell us about his thoughts about this movie on our next episode. And then we also need his Chris Hansen impression.
Speaker: Of course. um I do have a Chris Hansen impression from a listener who wanted us to play it on this episode. I'm going to go ahead and play that now.
Speaker: Here we go.
Speaker: Slob on my knob like corn on the cob. Check in with me and do your job.
Speaker: What would have happened if I wasn't here? Okay.
Speaker: um Whoever that was, you need help. What did you think of that? Thanks, listener. um Not bad. Not bad at all. Not a bad Chris Hansen.
Speaker: Any final thoughts on primetime?
Speaker: I think you're right. This warrants a rewatch. um
Speaker: I will probably try to educate myself on the goings-on of the the plot, all the references. um just so I can get a ah really great comprehensive experience. But no, it's a really well executed movie.
Speaker: The actors were outstanding. um
Speaker: What? Oh, I was just saying A-OK. Because they were all outstanding. thought were just raising your hand. Oh, no, no, no, sorry. um One thing I wanted to shout out before our ratings, do you know Jonathan Lipnicki?
Speaker: That name is super familiar. He's the kid from Stuart Little and Little Vampire. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was in this movie. Who was he? He was the one who revealed himself to Decoy Dan. I see it.
Speaker: Isn't that crazy? Do you think that was prosthetic? It was prosthetic for sure. Okay. it ah I had no idea that that was him. Didn't even recognize him. Haven't thought about this guy in forever. i was about to call him a kid. He's five years older than me. I just know him as the kid from Stuart Little and he's on Jerry Maguire. Yeah, that was him though. He was, a what is it what is his name in the movie? Crazy 73.
Speaker: Crazy Frog 73.
Speaker: Well, well done, Jonathan, at being really disgusting. Yeah. I wouldn't even bring up Creed Bratton's scene. Oh, my God. Wait, did you see my review? No, I didn't. No, I didn't. What did you say? I wrote out Bo Body. And for the D&D, put Decoy Dan instead of Business at the start.
Speaker: That's actually really good. Yeah, how will we not talk about Creed? Bo Body. That's funny. I see it now. Yeah. What's his, let's see. His name?
Speaker: Yeah. I wonder if he has a name in the movie. Jim Christian. Jim Christian. Yeah. That's an angry fella. That is an angry fella. wants to make him bleed? I mean, that his scene perfectly speaks to how fragile the American people felt post 9-11 and just wanting to take justice into our own hands. And so that,
Speaker: gives people a sense of power that ultimately just corrupts. Right.
Speaker: And he looks very corrupted. He was he was shit. yeah I mean, that that was great lighting, great acting, great direction. Really unsettling scene.
Speaker: there There are a lot of unsettling scenes, but that that's one of the highlights for me. i agree. Ready for a rating? I don't know.
Speaker: Sure. Okay, I can go first. Okay. I think I can go first. You went first last time. No, you went first last time.
Speaker: Okay, you can go first.
Speaker: I'm between like a four and a four and a half. Okay. And I feel like I could be, i don't know. I could be swayed like, and either because i I felt so like I legit felt so icky and gross when this movie ended where I do want to rewatch it. I just don't know if it'll be soon.
Speaker: But like I'm thinking back on it and like we've just been discussing visually, I think this movie is stunning. like I think in competition for like looks-wise, this and Dune 3 for me.
Speaker: Wow. At the end of the year. Like it's gotta be like two of the best looking movies of the year and it's not coming close. Performances are just like out of this world. I'm gonna give this movie four and a half.
Speaker: I got it. There we go. Okay. I think
Speaker: I'm not ready for a four and a half. That's that's like a whole different level. It is. Yeah. Yeah. um I'm happy at a four. Okay. Yeah. And once I do rewatch it, I would not be surprised in the slightest if it's one and a half.
Speaker: Let's predict Alex's ranking. Okay. Rating. I think he's going to give it a three and a half. I was thinking three and a half too. I think it's either three and a half or he will surprise us with a four and a half.
Speaker: Yeah. No middle ground. Yeah. a Potential middle ground.
Speaker: We'll see. He's a complex guy. He is a complex guy. you know out um Before we end this episode, one last question sure about our goat, Robert Pattinson. So he's had four performances this year.
Speaker: This, the drama, Dune.
Speaker: Hello? Hold on. What am I forgetting? This is embarrassing. I know what you're forgetting, but don't know. Oh, The Odyssey. The Odyssey. Oh, my God. Yeah. Okay, well, that spoiler for where I think his rankings are going to be.
Speaker: um Without having seen Dune, I want you to rank the four his four performances this year from most favorite least favorite. Um...
Speaker: You said least favorite first? Most favorite first. Like go one, two, three, four. Prime time.
Speaker: The drama.
Speaker: Wait, what are the options again? Dune 3 and the Odyssey are what you have left. Okay, no, no, no. Well, oh. It's hard because you got to think we we've got nothing to go off of from Dune 3 besides like a second of him in the trailer. the Yeah, the problem for me is i don't know the i don't know the story, so I don't know how prevalent this character going to be Same.
Speaker: And so I thought this would be a fun exercise, and then we'll see after Dune if it stays the same. Okay, then I'll i'll go crazy. Primetime, Dune 3, the drama, the Odyssey.
Speaker: That's crazy. That is crazy. I know. Because i' that was my exact order, too. That is crazy. I think... i have a feeling his role in Dune... We don't know the books at all. I don't know who Sightail is. Don't know that guy. I just saw the glimpse of him in the trailer.
Speaker: I predict we'll get... At the most, 10 minutes of screen time of him in this two hour two and a half hour movie. I don't think was going to a lot of him. But I think what we do get is going to be... I think he'll have a freaky little voice as he does. yup And I think he's just going to be a freak overall.
Speaker: And I can't wait. I can't wait. So seated my rick my ranking will also be Primetime, Dune 3, The Drama, The Odyssey. Nice. Wait, Primetime, Dune 3, The Drama...
Speaker: Big gap. The Odyssey. Whoa. Hey, shots fired. Anything else? That's it for me. All right. Well, we'll be back next week with two episodes back to back.
Speaker: Yep. Digger on Tuesday. And then a recap of some movies that we saw for Fantastic Fest this year. Yes.
Speaker: And we've got some thoughts. That'll be an exciting one. So definitely stay tuned for that one. Yes, please. We're going to cover six movies, eight movies. One, two, two, four, six, eight. Eight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We did two movies individually each and then two to share.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. So eight movies from fantastic fest and that will be the day after our digger episode next week, but follow us on letterbox like this video on YouTube, five stars on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and we'll see you guys in the next episode.
Speaker: All right. Bye.
