Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
18 Plays6 months ago
The year is 2024. Everybody is smiling at us for some reason.
What would your ideal Horror Presidential ticket be? Did you know John Cramer was in the transitional housing business? Have you seen Saw The Musical? When will Julia ever see Alien? Who's having a better year - original movies or remakes? Is the movie rating unnecessary? Why don't parents let their kids see Rated R movies? Should more films be Unrated? Does the rating system ruin a theater experience. Have you seen Smile 2? Lady Raven or Skye Riley? With that kind of money, would you see a therapist 7 days a week? Is drinking water a good stress reliever? Was Skye Riley's management team shitty? Shoutout Enrique's mom!
Thank you for listening. Enjoy.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Horror Culture
00:00:00
Speaker
All right. We're good Pat. Let's roll. All right. Cool. Another episode of what we saw last night, South Jersey and Philadelphia's permanent hard culture podcast. Um, this will probably be released post election.
Presidential Tickets: Heroes vs Villains
00:00:15
Speaker
So let's get started up with it. Um, warm up question as always, if you had to come up with a presidential ticket made up of horror movie villains versus our movie like heroes and heroines. Who do you got? President, vice president, if you don't know what a presidential ticket is and who wins the election. This is hard because I'm thinking of like a presidential ticket. I i guess it's like two candidates that I don't like versus who I like and I'm just going to pick the people I like to win. I mean, like really, I mean, why not just pick, you can't think of two bad guys that are likable.
Villains for Leadership: Myers & Krueger
00:00:58
Speaker
Well, all right, so in my imaginary country of horror where I'm trying to assemble good and evil, i my first, and I don't know what's what, so I'm just gonna go with with um ah villain and and and and survivor.
00:01:28
Speaker
My survivor ticket will be Nancy Thompson, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Sidney Prescott. But I would do Nancy Thompson, president, Sidney Prescott, vice president. I like Sidney. Well, I don't know. I just i feel... i'm just I'm just saying, like, i like like no, like I think she's a... That is a great pick. She's very resilient. Nancy might... See, here's the thing.
00:01:58
Speaker
I feel like Sydney Prescott, a vice president, she'll give you, she'll do good work, great work. Nancy Thompson might be a one term, which is not a bad thing, but she might be a one term. And then technically Sydney would get her three terms because she'd get her vice president and she'll get a chance at two president terms. And I feel like at president, she will do a good job. Wait, Sydney one, you know that she's good at like recovery. Cause like,
00:02:28
Speaker
We see her and she's still like, she has her shit together as an adult. And I think that's rare in the heart because like we, we, so we have like over 20, we have like 20 years of, of screen movies of her surviving and going on and going through. So we know that she can get through some tough shit. She's going to be second amendment heavy because she's all about guns.
Heroic Leadership: Thompson & Prescott
00:02:51
Speaker
Um, but I also think she would be responsible gun ownership.
00:02:55
Speaker
And I think that's important. So I think Sydney Prescott has a great pick. The, the, who would they go up against is tough for me. Cause I don't want them to go up against who they go up against. You know what I'm saying? Like I just said, who would they go up against three times in a row? Like, I don't know what you're saying. I'm not going to say like, they're going to go against Freddie and ghostface. You know what I'm saying? you know I mean, like, unless, unless you think that's a good ticket,
00:03:24
Speaker
No, I feel like it would be, but I feel like at president for the villains, you would go with Mike Myers, Michael
Election Debate: Heroes vs Villains
00:03:38
Speaker
Myers. I feel like he's persistent. You know, you love them, you hate them. There's no in between with, with him. Um, probably would change the mental health field. Right, and there's something about his eyes. What is that? And there's something about his eyes I Don't know who would go with his vice president His running mate You need a piece you need someone to talk to him. So yeah, yeah his running mate would need to so, you know what? His running mate could be Freddie. I Feel like he's he talks a lot. I can see better being a politician. He's a good shit talker. I of like he's laying low you know he's laying low he's kind of like you know he's in the spotlight but not really in the spotlight he's doing the press conferences and stuff and not he's not really a serious guy like Michael is but they have that good like yin and yang kind of thing going on that would be mine that's a good one i think um
00:04:45
Speaker
the final, I think like the Sydney Prescott would the ticket would win against them. But I can't, I could see that. then you like I think Nancy and Sydney would probably win because I feel like they're more together. They're probably more proactive at whatever they believe in. You know, I feel like Freddie might be on the fence about a few things, maybe not sure. Maybe you can convince Freddie to kind of You know, he also seems like the kind that would kind of backtrack when he says something. Like he would have to do a lot of PR work for Freddie. So that's that. Okay. So for like the villains, my candidates are Channing Tatum from Blink twice. Or is it called Don't Blink?
00:05:41
Speaker
It's blink twice. Don't blink is a different movie. Don't breathe. No, you're thinking don't speak. Don't tell me what I'm thinking of. The movie.
Secondary Characters in Horror
00:05:51
Speaker
Okay. I'm talking about blink twice. Channing Tatum for president. And then Kyle Galner from the smile movies as vice president. What?
00:06:06
Speaker
but No, he's a police officer. Oh shit. You're right. Right. My bad. I would vote for Channing Tatum. 100%. We know you would. He's literally the bad guy. Wait, I lied. Don't even pay attention to what I'm saying. Not Kyle Galner from the Smile movies, Kyle Galner from Strange Darling, where he is kind of a bad guy. He's not a bad guy in the other movie. He's a good guy. So I meant to say that. He's in a lot of movies.
00:06:42
Speaker
If you want, it could be him from ah haunting in Connecticut. That actor. For vice president. Right? On the villain side. Yeah. So... Who will your survivors be? My survivors are... For president, it's June. From late night with the devil. She ain't survived though. Listen.
00:07:09
Speaker
ah No, I'm i'm sorry. and That was so rude of me. i didn't I'm not talking about survivors. I'm talking about protagonists. um She survived for part of it. Nobody said when she survived until.
Jigsaw's Societal Impact
00:07:25
Speaker
Her vice president is Forbes from It's What's Inside. Okay. I just saw that recently. Yeah, that kid.
00:07:36
Speaker
but not because the whole time it was actually his sister. So not his sister in his body, him in his body, where he owns like a tech startup, that guy. Who wins? You tell me, I don't know. I already told you who I'm voting for. so far as i I feel like June as president and I'm talking about like real time. So she'd be like real old right now, like prime presidential age. Cause you know, they'd be picking 60 year old, like 70, 80 year old. That's like peak president image. So I'm thinking she wins. I don't know enough about her back. So like, I can't make a judgment on what you would do, but I would go for it. I liked her a lot.
00:08:24
Speaker
I thought you would have went with jigsaw. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's what I mean. He would have. He's a good candidate because he's going to end housing and homelessness. Right. But the thing is I, I hate him, but I think he would win. Yeah, that's, that's every president though. I wouldn't vote for him, but he would win. And it it really do be like that sometimes. Um, if you know, you know, um, that do be happening. Sometimes the person you vote for does not win. Um, and sometimes you hate both people.
00:09:05
Speaker
I would vote for Channing Tatum in the heartbeat. I don't even care what his beliefs are. Have you ever voted before? Yeah. I voted over here. Okay. but Yeah. Yeah. I've been voting since 2008. You'd probably be writing in like Channing Tatum. Um, um, let's move on. I say who I voted for. I said I've been voting since 2008.
00:09:34
Speaker
Yeah, we did not we do not condone giving away who we voted for. Because Julia, you when you brought up Jigsaw doing the public housing, I was like, man, if he was president, he would. That's that's what spun this question. um Yeah. If you don't know, I realized recently someone had mentioned that in Saw before John Kramer like becomes Jigsaw,
00:10:00
Speaker
His job is to design low-income housing, and that's why he owns so many like shitty properties and like warehouses. is His whole thing was like designing low-income apartment complexes, and they would just funnel people from his wife's rehab into like transitional housing, which means even scarier than Jigsaw, he was a shitty landlord, and there is nothing scarier.
00:10:31
Speaker
yeah person from the jump. they They brought that up a lot and saw the musical. And i I just rewatched all of those movies last year and I did not catch that. I just like came across it when like reading something and I was like, wait a minute. Because they mentioned it. I mean, I'm assuming they mentioned it in the first one and like they barely hint at it any other time. And you learn so much about the character that like that fun fact kind of just goes to the end. um It's confusing because he also has like a meat packing plant for some reason and then he names his
Ranking Horror Movies
00:11:09
Speaker
son after the meat packing plant. I know that's just for like where does he come in and then the pig masks? I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to get Tobin Bell on to find out. Yeah Tobin if you're listening let us know what you think.
00:11:29
Speaker
He posts like music on YouTube. It kind of goes hard. You should check out his YouTube channel. Oh, it's great. They do a lot of covers to him and his daughter play together. Yeah. And they're just having fun. um hor And singing. Check it out. Yeah. All right. So we had a lot or I don't even know if it's a lot, but we had some.
00:11:53
Speaker
um Movie sequels and new additions to establish franchises so I'm gonna name them and y'all rank them and If you haven't seen them and just don't include them Let's go Alright, so a quiet place day one smile to alien Romulus Maxine the crow um The strangers the old first omen and apartment 7x Alright, so one through eight? Yeah. Or or just rank them individually? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do do do like a one through eight. Hmm. Well, I haven't seen Crow in Apartment 7A yet. Alright, so put them at the bottom. Yeah, those are seven and eight, but that's just because I haven't seen them. Alien Romulus is one. To me, it's it's the best out of these. Okay. Probably Smile 2, The Last Soul Men.
00:12:52
Speaker
Man sorry back up Maxine the last omen smile to Quiet place Strangers the crow and or apartment 7a and strangers. I think strangers was the way So I have seen the crow and it got a lot of rightfully negative stuff, but I still enjoyed it more than a quiet or a strange, um, the strangers. So I agree with you. Julia, what do you got? I've only watched like half of these. I mean, we were in what? You've seen the same. I mean, yeah. um but I haven't seen alien Romulus. Oh, I've never even seen alien. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, that's man.
00:13:49
Speaker
All this time I thought you watched it, right?
00:13:54
Speaker
um Anyway, the half of these that I've seen, which this is really hard because I feel like these are all really close. I'm going to say Maxine number one, even though I don't really like the trilogy, I just like Maxine. I'm going to put Smile 2, which I just saw that, so I don't really know how I feel about it yet, but that's number two.
00:14:18
Speaker
um I want to put a quiet place day one next Above strangers even though I liked strangers. I'm kind of conflicted. I might flip those two But I feel like a quiet place day one was the better movie And the rest I have not seen My bed Because I could it's where we talked about alien or like you watching it so I thought you saw Romulus and I was going out hopefully that you saw Apartment 7A it's on my list gotcha I will watch it literally this week alright well if it's good then we'll revisit this if it's not we won't I saw um but like so like who's having the stronger year the new additions or
00:15:14
Speaker
um new movies like original ideas i'm gonna say original
00:15:22
Speaker
I feel like the original ones we've seen are way better. I'm saying that, based on absolutely nothing, I can't really think of the numbers. Late Night with the Devil. Okay, yeah. That was this year. Strange Darling, Blink Twice. Yeah. Those are the choices. Substance. Yeah, substance. Yeah. I feel like all of the sequels we've had were super decent, but then we've had some really great original movies. But I feel like these sequels are not bad.
00:15:53
Speaker
normally Oh, I forgot to put Terrifier 3 in there. I'll put that last. I don't really... I'll put it somewhere in the middle. Maybe... I'll put it above the ones I haven't seen for now. I liked it. I mean, I liked Terrifier 3. I mean, it wasn't the strongest, but I liked it.
00:16:18
Speaker
But if we're talking like new additions, new movies, I mean, the the ones we just named, Late Night with the Devil, The Substance, wow Blink Twice, strange dar Strange Darling Alone is better than- Makes this stronger. like Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's better than most of the movies I've seen this year. I mean, i you know Late Night with the Devil is still one of the top movies I've seen this year. so it But to to be fair though, even though it was a sequel or a prequel or whatever, Alien Romulus, my personal opinion is up there with like the late night with the devils and like the original, like the a lot of the original movies, the new movies. I feel like that one could kind of
00:17:11
Speaker
That's like the, you got your group of friends and then the cool kids are like, come hang with us. Like I feel like alien could kind of be like, Hey guys, I'll see you guys on the weekend. I'm going to hang with the cool kids in school kind of thing. You know, I think the highs, um, the highs of the, the new releases, the original ideas are so high. And I think the lows are very, very low.
00:17:39
Speaker
Cuz like if we looked at the bottom like I just to be fair like tarot night swim afraid imaginary Whether or not they had good ideas and some of these fall victim of to a topic we'll talk about in a little bit ah they they They were really bad and and whereas that all the remakes and the new movies even like I forgot um the one with James McAvoy and oh Yeah oh speak no evil speak no evils in there like as as a remake and that that was solid So it's a it's it's a weird like Balance, but I think it's important to have original ideas carry the year I agree Especially it's like a lot of people think like they're like all horrors just a bunch of remakes equals and and like that's not the case like there's a
00:18:36
Speaker
plenty of, like, good original ideas. Yeah, I mean, the ones we mentioned are, they're phenomenal movies. They'll hold up, I think, the test of time. Yeah, and we didn't even name them all, like, I just pulled up my letterbox and like, Civil War, if you count that as a horror movie. Oh yeah, that was solid. Civil War is still probably one of the greatest movies I've seen. Yeah, that was awesome.
00:19:02
Speaker
um Yeah, that was just like a fun like observation. and so Since like the year's winding down, we're not going to get many um more films. Like, Nozferatu, I think, is the biggest thing left. And that's the biggest remake of the year. But it's like, you're remaking a 100-year-old film.
Terrifier 3 & Film Rating Impact
00:19:19
Speaker
It's, I don't know, yeah. I feel like that should be put in a different category. But yeah, so kind of like moving in, like I want to talk about, so Terrified 3 now is the highest-grossing and
00:19:33
Speaker
unrated film, horror film of all of all time. um So like this could potentially have implications for other films to follow the unrated route. And I wanted to get your like thoughts on that. um Movies like Smile, Smile 2, Imaginary, Night Swim, Tarot, and like Afraid, Meghan, all of them made drastic changes to avoid anything unrated or rated R because they didn't want to lose funding. And like Terrifier, the Terrifier franchise is proving that they can make money while avoiding the rating system altogether. So like I wanted to get you guys thoughts on that. I think we could use more unrated movies. I honestly don't really believe in the movie rating system. I understand why it exists, but just
00:20:28
Speaker
And like I mentioned this before, but like never in my lifetime did I ever like pay attention to movie ratings and they didn't matter. Like it's not, that's not something that affected me being allowed to watch movies when I was younger. I know some parents like use that, but that is not my experience. I just don't think that like that type of censorship is necessary. And I don't think.
00:20:54
Speaker
Like even Terrifier 3, like I see why it was unrated, but it wasn't that bad. And I don't think it was disturbing, like content just like violent. So I think there's nothing wrong with showing that. And if it needs to be unrated to show it, I think that's fine. I think they should be showing it first. They avoid the rating system altogether because um the the director of Terrifier doesn't believe in it. So he doesn't submit it for review.
00:21:23
Speaker
I agree with that because yeah, like you mentioned the movies that were changed to fit a certain review. I think that's like awful. And I think that should ever, ever happen to a movie. You know, maybe there was like DVD releases where you can watch like the rated R cut of Megan, but I just, it's not the same. I think you're like, you only get one first impression. Yeah. You're hindering someone's creativity and you're ruining a theater experience, like to show.
00:21:52
Speaker
a creative project as it was intended for the audience it was intended for. And now they don't get to see that. Like I didn't get the the real cut of Megan because of like little kids on TikTok. And now I don't, as an adult, don't get to watch the film as it was intended. I think it's dumb. Also, if you don't let your kids watch movies because it's rated a certain thing, I think that's dumb, but you know, it's your kids. you raise them as you see fit. I just don't agree with it. I hate hierarchy. Um, so I hate that a lot of times you have to live your life, like a lot of times you have to live your life with your hands tied behind your backs, whatever that stupid goofy saying is. And and this is one of those situations where you're kind of like you're, you're a prisoner to what
00:22:50
Speaker
you your your money people are telling you, you know? Because Meghan would have probably been great. ah Fucking Tarot, maybe Tarot would have been. Just imagine like Tarot if they would have done just anything else. Yeah, the thing is the the little like scenes that make a movie be rated R are like so small and arbitrary and it's just so ridiculous to me to cut them out or it's just like certain words can't be said and now but even just cutting out like a scene or like a line that can like greatly change the movie especially my problem is like a lot of these changes are made after it's already filmed so it's not written to that intent yeah like it's not like they're rewriting it to make sense without that scene they're just taking out the scene and they're not filling it in
00:23:46
Speaker
with something equal it's just you do you do a quick like re-edit because it's already like past due so it's like you you you like cut and paste whatever you can and then there you have it and it looks normal nine out of ten times it looks terrible and we normally can tell exactly it's I yeah I get like I get why companies do is because it's like Well, you need to make money. So if your investors are like, we're not giving you money if it's this. So like I get it, but like now that it's showing like, um, like Terrifier pulling in double its budget in a week proves it that like, and like they're still in significantly less theaters than, uh, a lot of movies, a lot of big releases. Also they they attributed several million dollars.
00:24:43
Speaker
from going to the wild robot that was just teenagers buying tickets, going into Terrifier. So like, I don't know, it's like, yeah I think that hopefully bigger production companies take a risk now because they see that there's an avenue where there is a market that will go out and see something unrelated, unrated. It's, to to to touch up on something Julia was saying earlier,
00:25:10
Speaker
i I don't know anything about ratings either. to To be honest, Pat was the one who described to me what an R rating is. He's like, you just once you say fuck twice in a movie, then it's R rated, basically. or Or once you do certain little things, it's considered R rated.
00:25:28
Speaker
And I didn't know that's what made it R-rated. Like when I was a kid, my parents just thought that it was R-rated cause there was like sex or something in there. Like that's what, that's what they call R-rated was. If, if there is sex in it, they will tell you, like it says it would be like adult content. It will be on the rating. Right. But that's what I'm thinking. You know, provocative language. Uh, smoking, violence.
00:25:56
Speaker
and And I think like that that's fine, you know, cause maybe you don't want to see violence. Maybe you don't want to see, yeah maybe you're just quit smoking. You don't want to see smoking. And the movies got people that smoke and all, you know, like whatever, like those things fine. But honestly, I'm not even being funny. I just, I always growing up, I just saw our rating. Our rating in a movie meant that at some point there's sex or there's tits or there's something in the movie that as a kid, you just they don't want you to see. um And we've seen worse. you know i mean But I agree. like i don't Ratings are just, I don't know, it's just a way to kind of stunt creativity. It's a way to kind of silence writers. It's a way to silence you know people who put a lot of time into this stuff. you know just for And it's just for for for money. It's always money. It's always profits. it's always
00:26:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's right. It's a bit, you know, it's a business. You're right. You're right. and And I get that part, you know, so that's why I don't I don't ever bug about it or nothing like that. But I mean, if if if more people just say, you know what, fuck this guy, you know, I'm just going to go ahead and do my own thing. I know that's not how life works. But if more people did stuff like that, I guarantee you there'd be a lot more better movies.
Originality in Horror Films
00:27:23
Speaker
than you're getting now, you know? Yeah, I think the the rating system honestly kind of just promotes laziness because people that do care about the rating system will look at the rating for a movie and decide not to watch it because it's rated something. And I wish, because i'm I'm really, I promote, like I think you should research films before you watch them, if you're like a sensitive person, if there's certain things you don't want to watch, if you don't want to watch certain, I don't know, genres, types of movies, I think you should do that research. But like I said, I think just looking at the rating turns people off from things they might otherwise watch. Because like I said, an unrated film isn't even that bad.
00:28:13
Speaker
um R rated films aren't bad. ah Like we said, a lot of times it's literally just the language can make it R rated and nothing else. So I'm okay with the ratings. I just like don't use that to make decisions. And I guess like the general public does use it to make decisions and they're generally unedicated uneducated,
00:28:39
Speaker
And that's why they're not watching. Unrated stuff or whatever, but hopefully they will now. Mm-hmm. I mean, yeah, and hopefully they just get more because like shutter puts out a ton of really good movies and most of them are unrated because They're made like skin of her ink is unrated like that it's and they get the most limited Theatrical releases and then they hit shutter and like me and Enrique watch them and have a great time and they're like this was a lot of fun Wish we could have saw in the big screen
00:29:09
Speaker
So it's like, hopefully now someone like theaters are like, you know what, let's, let's put a little more effort into um that. And also like, if you're a parent, just read the synopsis of a movie before you don't like, don't look at the rating. Be like, man, I don't want my kids seeing a killer clown or killer Santa Claus, or I don't want them watching something overtly violent because they're eight years old. Just do the smallest amount of research. Right. That exactly. Don't,
00:29:40
Speaker
Pay attention to the rating. It's about the content of the movie. Some of the scariest, most disturbing films you will ever watch are G rated PG rated. What? No, all right. I'm going to say that's that's a ridiculous thing. No, I mean, maybe not to like you or I, but there are films that like people genuinely think are scary and there's films that I think are like disturbing that are like PG. I've said it a million times on here and I've said it a million other times in real life.
00:30:11
Speaker
Well, in person, I think that's what I meant. Don't look under the bed genuinely is the reason I don't i don't let my legs dangle off of the bed. you know like I don't sit on the bed. If I'm on the bed, my legs are on the bed. you know And that's a G-rated movie, I think. Or maybe PG, I don't know. you know And that's just a stupid kids movie. but it's It's like, that's terrifying. Boogie Man was PG-13. You remember Boogie Man? And that shit terrified me. I mean, I i don't think it's scary. Parts are a little bit disturbing, but I showed my friend Coraline a few years ago, and they were like, what the fuck? This is so scary. like And I was like, come on, man. And they were like, no, I'm scared. And we were watching Coraline. That's rated PG. Well, nothing scares you, so. The movie Beetlejets is rated G.
00:31:09
Speaker
ah yeah That that that yeah that's why Beetlejuice is a horror movie. It's rated G Psycho Gorman came out and that's PG and that movie is amazing Yeah, so um yeah there are really clowns out here that would show these movies to their kids without a second thought But won't let their kid watch like for example a lot of foreign films come out as unrated because they just weren't submitted to the rating system in the United States and but it'll be like, ah it'll be like a kid's movie from another country. And it will have racist overtones. Oh yeah. Well, no, like not even, I'm just saying it'll be like a completely innocent learned movie and people will be like, Oh my God, it's unrated. And I'm like, I just think there's general, like people just aren't educated about what the rating system is and don't understand it. Yeah. It's kind of like when you're buying something online,
00:32:07
Speaker
and you just look at stars, star ratings, you don't look at like reviews kind of thing. Right. Because something can be something can have 79 one-star ratings on Amazon, and it's literally people saying, my package was broken, my package box was damaged, I can't believe they... Yeah, or it's someone who ordered 10 pounds of coffee, and they're like, one star, I hate coffee. Yeah. and and and you And you're basing your whether you're or not you're going to buy the product on that. I always read the one-star, two-star reviews because if it's 90% people complaining about their package, their driver was late, it's like the the product's not bad then. It's just people are just fucking stupid. And I guess that's the best way to me, that's the best way to describe like the ratings is
00:33:01
Speaker
Oh, it's rated R. I'm not gonna let my children watch that. And it's like, why? Because they said fuck a few times. But like, how many times have you called their dad a fucking loser, you know?
Parenting & Media Consumption
00:33:11
Speaker
So it's kind of that thing. If you're a parent, though don't insult your co-parent in front of your children and grow up. Yeah. That's real shitty, isn't it? all dollar Yeah, because you're you're like a huge butthole if you're going to like not let your kid watch certain movies, and then you're going to talk about their parent like that. like if If that's you, get your life together. Go look in the mirror and think about what you've done. because um I'll say this so we can move on. It's just like this Eminem lyric. I don't remember a word for word, but it's like, don't tell me your son doesn't know any cuss words when his bus driver is fucking him up worse or something.
00:33:55
Speaker
And it's like, yeah. Like and subscribe for more parenting advice. and Yeah, please. Like from three people with no kids. I wrote a kid up for, for saying bitch and using the, uh, by using, um, like voice to translate, like voice to text to learn how to spell it. And cause she was trying to like write a note, calling some other kid a bitch. And when I went to her mom, she was like, she doesn't even know that word. And I'm like,
00:34:23
Speaker
All she does is say, it she gets it from you. You say, you say bitch five times. Yeah. That bitch told her how to say bitch. One of the funniest things is like little kids trying to call each other a bitch and they'll like write notes, but they put like B I C H. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how they communicate now. Do they type to each other on the roadblocks? Is that a thing? Is there a yes component? Yeah. below quality So that's why I suppose Schools banned Roblox because of that. A lot of that and like creepy old guys are on there trying to get kids. you Let's just move on. They're typing B-I-C-H on their Chromebooks. Stop fighting, man. All right, let's move on, Pat. Yeah. Smile 2 came out. We all saw it. So let's let's talk about it. um
00:35:18
Speaker
Fun fact, this film was edited down just like Smile 1. to get an R rating. um They didn't want the NC-17 or whatever. or the And they in the since it was released by a major motion pick of one, they had to go through the ratings. They didn't want to do unrated. um It would have been interesting to see if the director had full control. um Budget, 28 million, took home 56 million first week. Great job. um 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.2 IMDB. What'd you guys think of the casting? I think the casting was really great. What's the actress's name, Naomi? It's nay song Naomi Scott, I think. It's not Naomi Watts, I think that's someone else. yet Naomi Watts is old.
Smile 2: Overview & Reception
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah. We'll just call her Naomi Scott.
00:36:15
Speaker
Oh, I'm looking in his name. Yeah, maybe the movie was Sky Riley. Yeah. Um, I thought the casting was great. I think the character Sky Riley was great. Her character felt really believable to me. And then like you said before, the Ed Kyle Galner. Yeah. I.
00:36:38
Speaker
First of all, this movie wasn't great. Someone had mentioned to me before I watched it that they heard Smile 2 was better than Smile 1. So maybe that affected my reaction to it. But I went to see it, and it is not better than Part 1. It's actually worse than Part 1. And one of the worst things they did was kill off Joel. They they had to, though.
00:37:04
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like he was kind of like the star of the first movie and he had a little resurgence and everyone was like, Oh my God, Scream King. Like they realized suddenly that like, this guy's been in three movies before and they also happen to be horror movies and he's actually a pretty good actor. Took people like 15 years to notice, but. I would have been strange darling. Yeah. And then Smile 2 gets announced and we're like, Oh cool. It's going to follow his character. Um,
00:37:34
Speaker
He's immediately killed in like the opening scene. And i I almost wish that scene just wasn't there, because without it, like i don't i like I feel like we were all looking forward to like him. But I feel like if you're just going to kill him immediately, then just don't show that. Just have this be like unrelated, but in the same universe. I don't i don't know, because that he was the bridge. So I kind of get it.
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah, but they kind of just erased him, you know? Yeah, it's like we didn't really need the bridge because also the thing is the bridge ends up not mattering, if that makes sense. It's like the only purpose of the bridge is to just say, hey, this is. Well, yeah, because Lewis was there. Right. OK, but like. We didn't need to know how Lewis got cursed.
00:38:31
Speaker
and And you know, what I'm thinking about it now. So if you get rid of Kyle, but you still have um Lewis and that guy who was texting her. Yeah. So the thing is that I think he would have been fine. His brother was in the first half because he mentions like, Oh, my brother had it. um And I think the actors look similar. Like you could tell who his brother was, but yeah sure Also, and we'll get into it if we like summarize the movie, but I think that character ends up like not even being real at all. That was part of like one of the hallucinations. Yeah. It turns out no one was ever texting her. But us as the viewer, when we got that 10-second explanation, if we didn't have Kyle Gellman in it, I think that would have been
00:39:29
Speaker
like the perfect bridge. Cause it was like, Oh, like I'm, yeah I think, and like, it would have been enough. I think like, he's like, Oh, a doctor named Rose passed it to a police officer. He passed it to this person. They pass it to this person. And now you got it. cast it from And you're like, Oh, those are the people from the first movie. Like we get it, but really want to do a quick summary. Yeah, I will. So the movie opens on the character Joel.
00:39:59
Speaker
Um, and the opening scene is all one shot and it's him. And basically he makes a plan to pass on the curse to someone else. And how you do that is you have to like kill someone in front of someone else. And since he's like a police officer or former police officer, he has access to records and there's these two like big drug lord criminals that are like straight up evil. And I guess he just decides like,
00:40:28
Speaker
I'm going to kill one of them in front of the other. That's the best way to go about it. I obviously don't want to murder someone, but like these guys had murdered like a woman and her child before. So it's just like the only way to do it. He shows up to like the trap house, um grabs the one brother outside with a gun, brings them inside, shows them to his brother.
00:40:55
Speaker
And he's like, hey, watch this, stabs the brother. But then the other guy pulls out a gun, there's a shootout. Joel accidentally shoots the other brother. And he's like, oh fuck, you can't die because you're the witness. That's the person that witnesses the violent act is who the curse gets passed to. And he accidentally kills the guy. And he's like, oh my God, what have I done? Like, I killed the person it was passed to, so it didn't work. I'm gonna have to do this again. And he's like,
00:41:25
Speaker
This is not, I'm not made for this. I'm not built for this. But then turns out there was another dude hiding out in the house and it's this like small time drug dealer that just buys from these guys. And he's scared and he's like, oh my God, please don't hurt me. But then Joel is like, oh fuck, I didn't know anyone else was here. He kind of feels bad. But then he's like, wait, you witnessed that murder?
00:41:54
Speaker
So now the curse is passed to you. The thing is we can see that Joel feels super, super bad because he doesn't want to pass the curse to this innocent guy. he He's not like a murderer and a drug lord. He's just like some kid that sells drugs, but also he's like, all right, you know what? The curse is gone. So I'm good. He tries to leave. Turns out there was other like crime lords in the area. They come after him.
00:42:22
Speaker
They chase him with guns, Joel runs outside, ends up being hit by a car and killed anyway. So all that was for nothing. All of that was to just set up that he dies. So that sucks. But then we move on. Completely new story going on. We got Sky Riley. She's like a big time pop star. She used to have drug problems and her ex-boyfriend died in a car crash when they were both drunk.
00:42:51
Speaker
And in the car crash, she broke her back, so now she has back problems. And she goes to buy Vicodin from the drug dealer, Lewis, who witnessed the murder earlier.
Sky Riley's Curse & Challenges
00:43:02
Speaker
So we know Lewis is cursed. She goes to buy Vicodin from him. Lewis kills himself in front of her, so now the curse is passed to her. She has no idea what's going on. She starts getting weird texts that were like, hey, were you at Lewis's house last night?
00:43:20
Speaker
She's going through all this stuff. She's acting erratic and people around her are just like, are you using again? And she's like, no, God, I'm cursed. Like, don't you get it? I mean, addiction is a curse. Yeah. Some would say it's an allegory. um She's like estranged from her best friend because she treated her like shit when she was on drugs. But she ends up reaching out to her best friend because she like,
00:43:45
Speaker
witness this murder. And also when, when Lewis kills herself himself in front of her, she does not call 911. She just leaves his apartment because there's drugs everywhere in his apartment. She's like very, very famous and also has a history of drug use. And she's like, no one can know I was here. But she basically has like no one on earth to tell this to. She eventually reaches out to her her ex.
00:44:12
Speaker
I just have a quick question. Do you think she did the right thing by leaving and not calling the cops? So I actually have it in my notes because when I first watched this, and that's a problem I have with like many, many movies is it's kind of a trope that like someone dies and people don't call the cops that happens in like hundreds of films. And I always think that like, no matter what, if I was at that scene, I would call And now that I think about it, like looking back a couple days later, I'm like, okay, I understand why she didn't call. However, I think if it were me, I probably would have called before I even thought about it and I would have hit dial and then been like, Oh my God, what am I going to do? But I genuinely don't even think I would hesitate that far to be able to think about it. Like I would already be.
00:45:04
Speaker
I would already like be on the phone with 911 and be like, Oh my God, I'm going to be in so much trouble. This is going to ruin the tour, the world, world tour. Like, yeah I just like didn't, but also at that point in the film, we don't know her whole history with like drug use and stuff. So like, yeah. And what the really, what the, yeah, you get that context later, but I'm like, why would she not call?
00:45:31
Speaker
Because even if she had nothing in her system, it would take a long time for that outside of that initial damage to if it ever gets finished fixed from the headlines. I'm going to pull up like a really random headline. Um, example, I think it's Heath Ledger. He died right from when drugs or something. So when, when Heath Ledger died,
00:45:59
Speaker
his assistant did not call 911 immediately. His assistant called Mary Kate Olsen to come to the scene of the crime before 911 was ever called. Oh man, I love this. This is public knowledge and has been since his death. And just no one ever brings it up. And it has not like, and the Olsen twins are not in the public eye whatsoever anymore.
00:46:28
Speaker
but I feel like that's just like a good example of like, I feel like, yeah, she's probably like, oh my God, this is gonna ruin the tour, but like, is it though you could have just been like, oh, he's my friend. They literally went to high school together. Yeah, he died while I was there, but like, I'm sober. He reached out to me and- Yeah, well, I did kind of think about that too. I'm like, they could check the text messages, but like,
00:46:58
Speaker
The thing is they can drug test her. She's clean. She's not, well, she's on Vicodin, but like she clearly didn't murder him. Yeah. Her handprints aren't on anything. Um, but the public perception would kill her and it's right before the tour. It would be a disaster. Her fans, like I, I would like to think, like I get it. Like,
00:47:24
Speaker
if i If it was me, a not famous person, I probably, I mean, I would, I would call the cops and like i I would have Julia's reaction, call the cops right away. But if I'm that famous, I i don't think she did the wrong thing. Yeah, I mean, i I'm always one to like, in an emergency, I'm like, I'm calling the police, um which I hate cops, but like son sometimes you need them in like emergency situations. like i I've had a friend like faint in front of me and I thought something else happened and I tried to like call 911 and they were like, please don't. I'm like, always. Definitely if someone's dead, I'm calling a publicist. Do you think she should have called it her publicist?
00:48:11
Speaker
Maxine would have. The thing is I- Yeah, all right. Well, Maxine's a different story. The thing is we see her team and her mom is like her manager and I feel like her mom just cannot find out about this situation. So I understand why she didn't tell anyone on her team. Like I completely understand why she didn't call. I would have called, but I i get it. I understand why she didn't because I feel like she had the opposite reaction. It's like she didn't call, she ran and then she regrets it and it's like, oh shit, I should have called, but I can't call now. It's too late.
00:48:46
Speaker
Whereas like I would call and be like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have. It's going to ruin the tour. But I understand her motive. Yeah. and Sorry, I just thought it was an interesting one. So she doesn't call. Either way, she would have been cursed, so it wouldn't have affected the outcome. We basically see her like preparing to go on tour. Everything's very stressful. She keeps seeing like the smile demon around. She starts going crazy from it.
00:49:18
Speaker
Her mom, who is also her manager, is like, don't care, you still gotta do the tour. And she's like, please don't make me do the tour, I literally can't do this. Her team is really shitty about it because- She was also getting those messages, those random messages too. Yeah, and the whole time this guy's texting her, like, I know you were at Louis's house, like, I can help you.
00:49:39
Speaker
But at first he didn't say that. He's just like, you were at which Lewis's house last night and Lewis is dead. Here's the thing. There's like plot holes with certain parts of the movie, but then later you find out that those parts were a hallucination anyway. So like the guy that's texting her, you'd be like, okay, why wouldn't he give her all the information up front? So she knows he's trustworthy and she would have met up with him sooner.
00:50:05
Speaker
But in the end, we found out he never existed anyway. But he's allegedly the brother of one of the other victims. And he's like, I know how to help you. He's like, I'm a nurse. We just have to stop your heart. And then I'll restart it. And then the curse will be gone. Also, like she meets up with her ex-best friend. They reconcile. But it turns out, again, her best friend was a hallucination the whole time. She was never real.
00:50:31
Speaker
She calls her best friend in the end and her friend's like, no, I didn't stay over your house last night. What are you talking about? Eventually Skye ends up like in the hospital cause she has these freak outs. And while in this rehab facility, she ends up like stabbing her mom like during a hallucination. But it turns out like that also wasn't real. She finally meets up with the guy and is like, all right, kill me so we can get rid of the demon.
Critique of Smile 2's Execution
00:51:02
Speaker
um He walks away, leaves her in this room, the demon comes, they battle. Surprise, turns out the whole time none of this shit was real. It was all a hallucination. um And in the end scene, it's her at a concert and the demon kills her while she's like literally on stage in front of millions of people.
00:51:28
Speaker
yeah Sure. I don't... I mean, millions... ah it's Madison Square Garden. The idea of a million people fitting in that is wild. I'm gonna be for real with you. I genuinely cannot picture any number higher than like maybe a hundred. I have no... clue a thousand and a million to me, minus will be the same. Dollars, people... I don't know the difference.
00:51:56
Speaker
Was it you that sent me the Scrooge McDuck video where he's explaining to his nephews um what a billion dollar is? Like what ah what a hundred thousand compared to a billion is? I don't remember. Okay. Sorry. I'm just, you said that and I just thought about that. I'll show you that video. So overall, this movie was decent. I didn't hate it, but it just does not live up to part one for me.
00:52:23
Speaker
The number one thing that did bother me the most is that it relies too much on the hallucinations. Like the majority of the film takes place within a hallucination and then there's hallucinations within. So there's like inception happening because she wakes up many times. But at the end we find out she was in the hallucination the entire time. So they were like false awakenings.
00:52:49
Speaker
And also like the the hallucination that takes place like at the end, it lasted way too long. like The runtime of it, consistent, was like way too long. like She was in it for like days. And I understand that that can take place in the Smile universe. just Within the film, I just kinda like...
00:53:12
Speaker
um'm like I'm like, I'm bored. It's like, okay, we get it. They have these things, but it's like they, they overused it in this. I actually, there was, there was times in the, there was times in the film where I'm watching it and I'm getting like that, like, Oh, this is terrifying. You know, there was parts where I'm like, Oh, this is kind of like, you know, who's that in a corner or that's nobody. Maybe that's somebody, you know, that whole feeling like they did a good job at parts with that.
00:53:43
Speaker
But what I really loved it until the beginning of the end. And when it just kept being, this isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real. But then this isn't real. But then this isn't real. It's like, I get it. It's not real. But why does everything not have to be real? like it It became that thing where it's like, it should have gave us something real.
00:54:12
Speaker
Well, the the thing is that like at the end of the movie, I kind of feel the same way Julia did. I was like, this was just all a big waste of time. Yeah, like it's it's very much like they wake up at the end and and it was all a dream. like Yeah, it's it's like the whole movie just felt like a huge waste of time. And it it almost makes it less Like, I won't say scary, but like less impactful. Cause this was very scary. I'm not going to lie. There was scenes that are like terrifying. There was like really good jump scares. I'm someone that likes jump scares. There was great jump scares. Yeah. A lot of people don't like that. I don't know why I'm here for it. I sat next to a guy who was fucking petrified. There was great scares in this. I think that's what kind of saves it from. This dude kept like jumping and hitting. What is but if they cut 20 minutes off of it?
00:55:06
Speaker
I think the movie can be as long as it was. I think it's just. And I normally like longer movies, but I think like there were some things you could cut it down a bit and it would have that would have like at least kept the pace because there are parts that felt boring and I think it could have helped from just the few smart edits and that would have I think just moved it on a little bit. It's like it was a twist within a twist within a twist within a twist within a twist. and it's like You don't have to keep twisting things. You know you don't got to stop. like you know't you could' mean The problem of it was they were trying too hard to pass off that feeling of
00:55:45
Speaker
Is this really happening? Is this not like there's parts in the movie where she's like, you're not real. I have control of my brain. yeah It's it's almost like and and I don't think it needed to be shorter. I just wish some of the scenes that ended up being hallucinations were real. I think one of the things about smile one that was so impactful is not only is there like jump scares, but there's general genuine like trauma and like you get really emotional because like like the scene where she accidentally gives her nephew a dead cat you're like oh my god. I think that out too. The thing is like in this movie she kills her mother like she stabs her mom like violently and then wakes up. but I wish that was real. Right um yeah and then it's like but it wasn't real and it's now ah the impact isn't there like we watched it happen but it
00:56:33
Speaker
It was all a dream, so really, like it it takes away. like The thing is, when her friend comes over and her friend like comforts her and her friend you know kind of patches it up and says, yeah, bitch. That felt fake, though, and i that's why I liked it. It did, but then like when she's like,
00:56:56
Speaker
Oh, I'll drive. You don't know how to drive. And it's like, you're my girl. And I was going to joke to Julia and be like, that's the cold. You know, that always be saying that stupid shit. But I didn't because I'm like, something is off about this. And then it turned out it wasn't real. And I was like, oh, great. So that wasn't real. But then when it's revealed that none of it was, it's like, then what was the point of not making her real then?
00:57:21
Speaker
like what was right well like That was such a great part. Because it's like, oh my god, she reconciled with her best friend. She thought she'd never be able to repair that relationship because when she was an addict, she like birthed the bridge with her best friend. But now it's like they've healed that. She has her best friend again. It's the only person she has for support. But then it's like none of it was real. You find out in the end, her best friend finally answers her and you and she's like, what? What do you want?
00:57:47
Speaker
I don't really want to talk to you. and that would have The thing is, as soon as her I knew it, I knew that was what was going to be it. Her phone rings. It just if it it just was like, which I don't know. She would have hopped in the car. I guess like that moment, it's like I liked that moment because it's like heartbreaking when you find out like, oh my God, that wasn't real.
00:58:08
Speaker
who But then at the end, like I said, you find out the whole, all of these impactful moments are just undone by the fact that none of them were real. Whereas in the first movie, all of those like super traumatic scenes actually happen. It's like the character thinks they're doing something benign, but in the real world, they're doing something crazy. The thing that the same the thing about one, to to kind of to kind of touch on what Julia is saying, the thing about one is,
00:58:37
Speaker
That was happening. Like she was driving herself crazy. Like she was going through these things and genuinely driving herself crazy. Whereas in two, it's like, and I feel like two, I already forgot her name, but Naomi Scott. Yeah. Well, Sky Riley, the actress, I think was way better than, than the main actress in one.
00:59:03
Speaker
I was I was like, my God, she is fucking phenomenal. But I won the it's just it was just pointless at the end because it's like all of these great things that you put together, the the friend killing himself and like ah just just like just a lot of things just patched up and and her finding out that, oh, wait, I'm not dreaming. I did kill my mom.
00:59:31
Speaker
i I am ruining my life. I am going to meet up with this weird guy, get myself killed. And then when the guy turns out, when he disappears, I was like, okay, one or two things going to happen. He's going to get killed or he doesn't exist.
00:59:46
Speaker
And it's like, he didn't exist. I'm like, Oh, yeah like you find out he I wish he was real. And then he, and then like the curse demon thing impersonated him at the end, but no, it turns out he wasn't real the whole time. And that was okay. that ah Until I realized, wait, none of it, none of this was real because that's it. So pick one, pick which one would have improved the movie, making it real. Her mom dying, I think. Okay.
01:00:17
Speaker
Enrique, which one's yours? That would make, say it, repeat that. So what one would you make real that ended up being a hallucination? Him. That's fair. That would be like my second choice. That was such a great little, little plot in the movie. The only reason I didn't choose him is because throughout the movie, every time she talks to him, his character seems unrealistic to me, and I kind of wasn't buying it the entire time. And that makes sense because he wasn't real. But just imagine if he was real, but he was possessed already. That's more so what I'm thinking. Oh no, because like, but that would be like a new type of possession because we know it does like a one at a time thing. Right, right. But that's what I'm saying. Like it's, it's, it's a sequel.
01:01:11
Speaker
So you you have the freedom of let's expand the lore. you know like You already think, oh, wait, it can only possess one person at a time. It can only disguise itself as one person at a time. But then it's like, no, wait a minute. This person, like it's not this guy. like it's it This person is the fucking entity. And the whole time, it's just luring you into this trap.
01:01:38
Speaker
that would have been great, you know, something like that would have been like, had he been real and just been possessed, had he been real and got killed or had he been real and just ah fucking slipped and fell and cracked, it you know, it could have been the silliest, goofiest, just most most nonsense way of him dying or somehow getting out of the picture.
Smile 2 Character Dynamics
01:02:03
Speaker
But had he been real,
01:02:07
Speaker
I think it just wouldn't and I agree to the mom to have the mom been real. I feel like that's a turning point because it's like she fucking hates what she's doing. But then at the same time, she's like, so now I don't want to let my mom down, you know, and like that the mom character felt realistic because we've seen it with other like with musicians where like the parents, once that check starts flowing in, they do push their kids too far.
01:02:37
Speaker
Because the where the mom was like, I do care about you. You are my number one priority. But yo, we got millions of dollars riding on this. You're going to get your shit together and go to work. Where she's like, mom, I can't do this. I'm genuinely unwell. I need like psychological help. And her mom is like, but the tour. Yeah. She's like, I get that. We're going to schedule a day.
01:03:01
Speaker
You get one day like that felt real. She's like you can get one day you're gonna get your shit together and then you're gonna do the tour and We're gonna make a lot of money and like that that actually like felt real and I was hoping that was real I do I know a lot of people don't like it I do like that how it ended with the um her killing herself on stage because I'm curious to see what happens in the third one if they make a third one and because like now every they got 20,000 people. That's the ah capacity for Madison Square Garden. and Yeah, i kind of't i wouldn't I wouldn't want them to expand to a third one. I thought the same thing too. I'm like, okay, we should kill ourselves in front of all these people. Everyone witnesses. Is everyone going to get infected? like I was kind of curious, but like I said, there was just so much about
01:03:57
Speaker
There was just, they were trying too hard to to play Gotcha. Also like her death scene, she like stabs herself in the eye with like the round part of the microphone. And I was like, would that even work? Why didn't she like strangle herself with the cord? It sounded like she was beating herself. Right. And yeah we only really, I'm just like, I don't think that that would do that.
01:04:22
Speaker
Well, why would you show the weight getting smashed in his face and not show her smashing her face? Exactly. You know, there was just there was there was a probably so they didn't have to rate it and see 17. That's probably why. like Oh, yeah, you already got it. Could be one of the.
01:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, because the mom's eye scene was um pretty terribly, in my opinion. Like the mom getting, the mom getting killed just gave off like tarot vibes. Like I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to be gruesome for like, ah so but but for like a kid to see, which that whatever that's neither here nor there. The mom death was pretty good.
01:05:13
Speaker
it wasn't as It wasn't their best. It was tainted under control, though. That's what I'm trying to say. like It was tainted under control. ah just i it They tried, like I said, they tried so hard to play Gotcha. And at the end, when it's like, now we really gotcha because everything you're trying to follow a story wasn't even a story. And it's like, this is kind of stupid.
01:05:40
Speaker
you know what I'm invested in something that was in my opinion pretty good almost great and then near the end you start you just start fumbling and it's like Mmm, you know something's about to happen. That's gonna make this silly and then She wakes up on stage and it's like smiling and I was like, there's no way I There's no way. And then it it dawned on me. I was like, none of it existed. He didn't exist. Mom didn't exist. Joshua didn't exist. um Low-budget Oscar Isaac slash Pedro Pascal didn't exist. um What else? The friend didn't exist. The car chase didn't exist. the the
01:06:33
Speaker
Mom's death scene didn't exist. like It's like, okay, come on. Yeah, like her friend driving the car, she wakes up and realizes her friend was never there and it's her driving the car. But then- And she can't drive, so suddenly she crashes. It's like, oh, that's kind of clever. Just kidding, was it wasn't real. like Right, but then it's like, oh wait, she never drove a car, so it's- Right, right. And that would have been so good. And she never even encountered the entity. Yes, she did.
01:07:04
Speaker
No, she didn't because it wasn't real. She wasn't inside the sight of freezer But like if you're gonna name the the entity was doing all the hallucinations Right and then like in her apartment when it's all the times it's in her apartment Right, but if you're gonna infiltrate a Pizza Hut and name drop a Pizza Hut You gotta make it real Right. It's like And it's like, sometimes the entity is really sloppy. Like with the the the guy, he just didn't seem real. But then there's all these details. Like it's an anab abandoned pizza hut. Like the entity thought to do that, but not to, I don't know. I think it comes from power. Like the entity has a limited amount of power and it was able to do a lot. And maybe the entity itself was exerting a lot of power and doing too much. And that's why we got this.
01:08:00
Speaker
some things underdeveloped and okay so like i just By the time they got to Pizza Hut he had built up his power yeah, and like It was just doing it was doing a lot so like there were certain things it was stretched in and I think like There were inside you think some of the flaws were very much intentional for us to figure out that it was ah an hallucination and I'm sure we'll get more as it comes out and Yeah I'm pretty dumb and I'm not catching stuff like that so just is what it is. One like random thing I thought was stupid is they keep referencing like these scars she has from the car accident where her boyfriend was killed. They just they they reference like a few times that like she won't wear costumes on stage that show the scars
01:08:53
Speaker
And I just thought it was really stupid. Cause there's part where she's like, Oh my, my top is a little bit see-through. So like I can't wear this outfit at all. And that made no fucking sense to me. And she put on another layer. um Or they could have, they could have fixed the midsection. Right. Like you put a panel in. I don't know why that bothers me so much. I think I always pay more attention to like clothing and costumes and makeup and things like that.
01:09:23
Speaker
i But I want to I want to give them a piss I think she was just being an overworked diva like she was like I see the smallest problem kind of like how like There are certain people that I used to work with that like They would they would get like a ping-pong table and throw it in the trash the minute didn't come assembled like there are certain people that are like over that are like that that are like oh see through throw burn the whole seat like I it was turn the whole out all of the stylists and everything instead of like, Oh, we'll just put a panel in it. We'll just put some makeup on the scar. They're like, No, please wear it. Like, they're in rehearsal. They're in like, the the purpose part of this dress rehearsal is to like, see if the costumes fit. I don't know why that bothered me. She also has a scar on her leg and she wears like super, super opaque tights to cover it. And I'm like,
01:10:18
Speaker
They clearly know how to cover the leg scar. Why is the stomach scar such an issue? I would like to think that she's meant like she's worn them down. She seems like a high maintenance. Um, and I think that was intentional. Like performer, how they were like, how every, like, ah even the dancers, the way they looked at her at times when they were like rehearsing, I was like, you know what? She doesn't seem like she's not fun to be around. Right.
01:10:48
Speaker
They are all doing this for a paycheck and they want the tour to start so we could end and they can move on to the next thing. This will look good on a resume. That guy like Andre, who was the choreographer, he's just like, I need to do this. I hate like, it was like every, like just everyone's body. And I don't know if this was done intentionally, but they're like body position. When she was like around them, everyone kind of like, she like sucked the joy out of every room she was in.
01:11:17
Speaker
yeah i The thing is, I really liked her character and I feel like that's saying something about the people around her because I think the character is super well written and I find her likeable. And I feel like what that does is show you that like her team is shitty and they're kind of like abusing her the way her mom is like manipulating and abusing her. like The managers are shitty because like She's viewed as being high maintenance, but the way I view it, or like a lot of these things she's asking for are like so, so reasonable. Like it's so easy to just cover up a scar and people are acting like she's being a brat. And I'm like, I kind of feel her. I get that. I think she, her, her, her her team was terrible. Like outside of the guy, but he was just a yes, man. So it's like, she didn't have like, she needed like a Maxine agent.
01:12:11
Speaker
who was like, this is what you have to do. This is what I'm going to do. And everything is going to be all right. Like it goes to like, they didn't know how to handle a star. I just feel like she was never acting unreasonably. Sometimes you're pushed to your limit and you lash out. And then everyone's like, wow, what a bitch when it's like, give them lash out.
01:12:35
Speaker
I think when she was and an addict, and she treated a lot of people poorly because that's the only thing I could think of. like Because everyone was like, you know what? we We're tired of your shit. We're just going to do this. aye and That's what I wanted to get because her friend was even like not talking to her. So I'm assuming, and that's perfectly fine that if you're addicted to treat people poorly because that's like a so like That's part of the drugs. It's not her. So I think that her her management team didn't handle her well. That's fair. She kind of like burned those bridges and they didn't want to put up with her anymore. And the management team didn't intervene and be like, hey, like we're all going to be patient and work together. Her therapist was terrible. Her therapist literally was just like, drink water. Right. And it sucks that we didn't see it because like,
01:13:30
Speaker
someone with that much money and resources they should be in therapy like literally seven days a week and that's kind of one of the things i have a problem with with this and the first movie like suspending my disbelief is like if anything like this ever happened to me i would immediately be like i'm crazy i need a doctor And everyone in movies is always like, I'm not crazy. I know what I saw. And I'm like, how do you know that? I feel like her like number one move should have been like, call my therapist. Somebody gave me bad Vicodin. Like, our therapist is only licensed in one state though. I don't know. I'm just saying. I don't know. Overall.
01:14:17
Speaker
It really was doing it for me, and then it just didn't do it for me. If that makes any kind of sense. Like I said, I really liked the character. I was rooting for her the whole time, because I'm still super defensive of her. Every time she treated someone like shit, I'd be like, that makes sense. She went through a lot. Let her have her moment. I wish she would have lived. I agree. I wish she would have lived. Oh, no, no. I think we know she couldn't have lived. She had the smile.
01:14:48
Speaker
That's fine. Yeah. You fight through it and you you think you lived and then you make a part three, you know? I just wish her mom was nice to her. Like she had to die, but like I wish everyone wasn't so shitty to her. And people said the same thing about like Amy Whitehouse's dad. Yeah. Well, you know. Look at her. She's dead too. Yeah. He should not have said she was fine. Sometimes it'd be your own family.
Casting & Marketing Strategies
01:15:18
Speaker
Yeah, Marvin Gaye shot his father. I don't know anything about that. and learned It was probably for good reason. it I think it was. um Oh, then don't shoot your kid. That's probably not cool. Sometimes it might be. I'm not sure. But um the mom kind of sucked. We don't really have a good grasp on how much the mom sucked because a lot of stuff was a hallucination. Yeah, but she's still like, we can,
01:15:48
Speaker
she put together the tour when her kid was clearly not ready even before and there's all of this talk about like this big comeback but the thing is they say like the exact amount of time and like she just was in the spotlight like one year ago she literally won the grammy the year before and they were like oh this is her big comeback tour she has like this new but I'm like, it hasn't been that long. Like you can take more time off. Like you don't have to immediately go back on tour. She literally just got back from a tour. That's the thing. Yeah. She, she like got back from tour. She didn't have time to process the the car accident. And it was like the minute she's able to walk, they're like, we signed a multi like million dollar contract for a tour. So yeah, like her, her mom should have delayed the tour. It should have happened when she was ready.
01:16:44
Speaker
And who knows, maybe it would have ended differently. Sky Riley or Lady Raven? Sky Riley. Yeah, Sky Riley. lady and they but But what are they doing? like what what What's the comparison about? What do you mean? just Just either or? I don't know. Lady Raven is giving like Taylor Swift just like basic with like zero personality, just like sunshine and rainbows.
01:17:13
Speaker
Sky Riley is like a real human being who you sympathize with. I really liked like the whole car accident narrative. like I feel like that really gave her character depth and like um all of the flashback scenes to it. There was a lot of good scares that referenced the car accident. It reminded me of like a Mike Flanagan show, because I feel like he does a lot of stuff with car accidents and like a few of his, like most of his shows all have like a car accident.
01:17:43
Speaker
Specifically like there's the scene where like her friend is sleeping in her bed and she looks over and it's actually the smile demon and then there's a jump scare where like her friend's face turns into like car headlights and all that. That's like super scary. It reminds me of in A Haunting of Bly Manor where the main character sees like her fiance always have like weird headlight face And then later on you find out it's because he was like hit by a car and like the headlights were reflecting on his glasses. But yeah, those are good scenes. yeah Any final thoughts? Jack Nicholson's son was in this and I feel like they hyped that up a lot when he's in like one scene, which is fine. Yeah, he's not a good actor. I feel like all of the marketing for this was built off of like
01:18:36
Speaker
three different actors who were all killed like instantly or like not real or just like Kyle Galner killed immediately. The friend Lewis, he's like the whole trailer. He dies right away. And just so many people were hyping up Ray Nicholson when he's like not even really in the movie. Yeah, his name even comes up pretty obviously in the credits too.
01:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, they're like, and Ray Nicholson was there and it's like he definitely was and he does the smile well. It's like they're using the name. And it's like, give him, give him a little something else to do then. Like if, if you want to bank on his name, if you want to use him like that, then give him something to do. Don't just like
Final Reflections & Future Hopes
01:19:24
Speaker
name drop. Have him, have him with an axe cutting and don't like do the shining.
01:19:30
Speaker
yeah and it feels like they were trying to do something like that and it was just lazy it's like because these the smile movies don't really make references like that so like they wanted to reference like Jack Nicholson and the smile but they didn't do a full reference they were just like oh he's here if you know you know but that's it i didn't hate it it's just really the way they marketed it i didn't hate the movie either shockingly i know it sounds like we did i'm say you guys say nothing but bad things no i told you There was the three fourths of the movie there was parts when I'm like, oh this is kind of terrifying like this is Kind of scary May I use that word, you know, like this is kind of scary Oh, listen, I was watching it through my fingers like like the logo of this podcast. That's me tim Watching the movie through their fingers. I can vouch. Yeah, don't I can vouch the thing is it
01:20:28
Speaker
The thing is for most of the movie, I'm like, this is kind of fun. And I jumped, I jumped like once or twice. I'm not going to lie to you. I try to act like I didn't. And I try to act like it was a dude next to me hitting me. But there was just so many tense moments where you think something's about to happen. And I'd be like, damn, the floor look real interesting. somebody A lot of times it's like somebody texted me. But I know, I know, I know. check Don't answer your phone. in know Nobody was texting. I don't think though.
01:20:57
Speaker
no watch see more than ah i like i try not to like look through my fingers but i will like look around the room so that i can only see like through my peripheral yeah like There's a lot of that in that movie where again, like I said, I was like man This is kind of fucking scary man. Like I don't like dark scenes. I don't like the lights off I don't like certain things and when when he was doing his like point of view of Walking through his dark apartment. I in my head. I just kept saying Just turn the fucking lights on right because it's like
01:21:39
Speaker
It's a pet peeve of mine, but it's like a fucking fear of mine. It's like just turn the fucking light on for two seconds. And you know, there was a lot of that stuff in that movie where it's like I was really engaged. But then I felt the shift. I felt the shift and started getting a little goofy and then I felt another shift and when she injects herself and is like, surprise, you didn't inject yourself. I was like, something's happening and I don't know if I'm gonna like it. Then she wakes up on stage and like the crowd and I'm like, oh, this is fake too. This gotta to be fake. But that wasn't fake. And it's like, what's happening? That was like the fakest part, but it was real. Right, right. Like I thought that was fake and until I realized,
01:22:28
Speaker
i think this is the real part i i kind of wish her death at the end was like way less dramatic i wish she just like jumped off the stage and like broke her neck because like it it was just like silly at the end and it just made it not real and just like super unbelievable with like the crowd watching i wish i wish it just showed her like doing it really quickly somehow and then just the crowd like dead silent in shock I didn't care for like the weird like monster. It was, it was giving the substance. It was like, is this is exactly the same as the end of the substance. She turns into like the exact same creature, like. Yeah. So, so I mean, I wouldn't say that because the substance did so much better. It did. it It made sense in that movie. It didn't make sense in this one. Yeah. I just really wish certain things were not what they were.
01:23:27
Speaker
But because we live in a world where I can't have what I want, that wasn't the case. And here we are. But again, I did like the movie, you know, better than strangers. So yeah I had a lot of, I had a lot of fun with it. Me too. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah. Not a bad time. I just, it wasn't great. And like,
01:23:55
Speaker
The first one set, huge expectations, this didn't live up, but it wasn't bad. Here's here's how I'll end it. And I know they they got away from basically the formula of one. They got away from that. I respect the risk. I'll leave it at that. I respect the risk because But don't do it again. I want Part 3 and fix it. Yeah. Well, the thing is, when we get Part 3, they put themselves in a very hard place with that ending. You killed Joel, so like now, fucking what? You killed off the best character, now you can't fix it. Yeah, but you opened the door for possibilities to explore the lore, and you had that chance at two, didn't take it, shame on you, shame on me.
01:24:49
Speaker
I hope they do a prequel. That's all I'm saying. I could live with a prequel. Yeah, that works. All right. I was going to do some collegiate horror stories or sorry, ghost stories, but we'll save that for another time because we went on for a long time. We did. Sounds good. Yeah. All right. Well, yeah. Yep. It's 11 52.
01:25:18
Speaker
October 24th, so it's still my mom's birthday, so happy birthday to my mom. I don't know how she is and I'm not doing the math because it's too late, but all right.