2026 So Far

Transcript

Speaker: We are halfway through the year, so I thought I'd open the episode by reading a few of my favorite quotes about time passing.

Speaker: Time moves slowly, but passes quickly. Alice Walker. Everybody knows that once you passed it, you can't go back. Claire Cook. Holy fucking shit, I'm so behind on watching movies.

Speaker: Us every week on this podcast. Welcome back to Lost in the Frame. I'm your host, Malik. I'm your host, Tachi. And I'm your host, Alex. And today we are excited to have a conversation about 2026 thus far. By the time this episode releases, I think we are at the halfway point of 2026, which is an awful thing. I don't like that.

Speaker: What happened? It's jarring. i don't know. It is. Time flies when you're chasing quotas. Right, Alex? I found my first gray hair this year. Where was it? Where did you find it that Right side of my head. Somewhere in this bit.

Speaker: Did you pluck it? No, no, I left it. I did get my hair cut, though, and my coworker who found the hair thought it was plucked. She got really mad at me.

Speaker: She named it. What was the name? Theo. Theo. That's a nice name. I've had gray hairs for a while, not in my head, but in my beard. You guys have seen it, but I did find my first gray hair in my nose this year and that, and that was not a great feeling. I've had three in my nose so far this year.

Speaker: And, um, new level. Yeah. Touchy. Have you had found any gray hairs? I've had two in the same spot on the left side of my head, like right above my, uh, what's that called?

Speaker: Temple? No, it's the Stripper. Sideburn? Yeah, Sideburn. Yeah, right above that. I actually had the second one show up like, maybe a month ago, i plucked that shit immediately. Wow. Yeah.

Speaker: Because I get a lot of white hairs in my beard. like Like, Cam plucks my beard often. Like, every couple weeks because it's just, like, it's noticeable. It's not, like, soup it's not patchy, but, like, it's to the point where they're kind of spread throughout.

Speaker: And, like, the last time she did it, like, a week ago, under my chin, there was a good little patch of maybe four or five hairs where was, like we can see it. but You might just need to let it go.

Speaker: I want to. I'm kind of excited to be Salt-N-Pepa. I don't know about right now. like Give me four more years at least. But i kind of I can imagine it. I kind of dig a Salt-N-Pepa look.

Speaker: It's kind of given me um like Donald Glover vibes. Once it first started for you, i was like, that's tasteful. That's nice. Thank you. um Well, we're not to spend the entire episode talking about our gray hairs, but we are going to talk about the movies we've seen so far, some rankings, what we're excited to, and just, yeah, 2026 as a whole.

Speaker: Tachi, I think you had a rapid review today. Alex and I don't just because we're probably going to bring it up in the episode later on, but if you have something. Yeah. Go ahead. So in the spirit of a Spielberg summer, i finally watched Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time.

Speaker: um It's a banger. i think it's very clear why that movie was a huge success when it came out. um It's just got everything that a blockbuster needs.

Speaker: it's it's so It's so well done, like on every level. it It was a really great time, and I gave it 4.5 out 5. Nice. Nice. nice

Speaker: What's up? Did you know that he had dysentery while filming the sword scene? I didn't, actually.

Speaker: What that? thought it was one of those bits of trivia that like everyone knows. It's right up there with the Lord of the Rings. Yeah. When he kicked it, he broke his foot or whatever. he had what? Dysentery?

Speaker: and Something like that. and What is that? It's one of those I ate something bad diseases. Like a poop disease? Yeah. m but that a good You said it's during the sword scene where he just the guy is kind of showing off with a sword yeah and then he just shoots him? Okay, I've heard i've heard that that little piece of trivia too. um As far as Indiana Jones movies goes, I've only seen Raiders of the Lost Ark and that was within the last year.

Speaker: Yeah, i'm so I typed it in and it said Harrison Ford had horrible diarrhea so he improvised a Raiders of the Lost Ark scene to end filming ASAP. wow We've all been there.

Speaker: yeah yeah We've all been there. oh I said I didn't have a rapid review. I'm going to just talk about Love Island real quick. you guys watching this? Oh my god, no I'm not. I hear updates from my little sister though.

Speaker: Shout out to you. Yeah, I think you guys need a you guys need to tap in. um I just wanted to bring up Love Island. I think this show may be the reason I've been bad at watching movies because it's on every goddamn day.

Speaker: um i have no one to blame but myself, but there's a new episode tonight, and I am excited for it. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the show. All right. um Last season was enjoyable until it became like bad for my health.

Speaker: From what I've seen online, last season was an outlier from like a insanity standpoint, I would say. Like, they're usually not all like that. Apparently, this season is a lot more tame. There's still drama, but it's not like scary drama. The way last year was.

Speaker: So we've got a big episode tonight. I'll keep you guys updated. um We're going to get into some movie news before we start talking about 2026. Kicking it off with DC making an animated puppet film named the dynamic duo.

Speaker: And the story follows Jason and Dick, a couple of street rats who split up and respectively joined Batman and the red hood gang animated puppet film. Sure. Sounds fun.

Speaker: I'm in. um Illuminations Not Alone, which is going to be a rom-com starring Timothee Chalamet and Selena Gomez. ah Whatever he announced on his Instagram, they had a movie announcement the following day.

Speaker: That's not what I expected. I'm not mad. i welcome it. I'm in.

Speaker: I'm a little confused, but we'll see. don't know. I mean, he needs a break from, like, becoming the Lisa Nalgaib, is what I think.

Speaker: Just get him... but He wants to sit behind a voice booth, air-conditioned room, and just say some lines. That sounds like a nice break. I wonder if they'll be in the studio together. I hope so. I like seeing the videos of them of the actors actually interacting with each other in person.

Speaker: me too. There's always a little... ah Yeah, I don't know. it's ah There's always like a weird feeling when you know they're when they're not. and they're not really When they can't see each other. And you can't you can kind of feel it, but... Next up, we have ah Jesse Eisenberg's new musical, The Debut, starring Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, and Havana Rose Liu.

Speaker: oh okay. Okay.

Speaker: It's got some people I like in it, but I mean, going to say it. I wasn't that big of a fan of Jesse Eisenberg's last directorial effort, Earl Payne. I thought it was fine.

Speaker: Wow. You don't support the Kieran Culkin Academy win? No, I thought i mean i thought he did a really good job I just thought the movie was was was fine.

Speaker: He wasn't who I wanted to win, but I wasn't upset that he won. Yeah. I really like The Real Pain. um It does kind of seem like it's split down the middle for the most part, but I mean, I enjoyed it. like I just watched the Jesse Eisenberg Hot Ones episode that just came out a few days ago.

Speaker: um He seems like such a cool, fun guy. like He's really awkward, but he like walks this fine line between like awkward and charismatic somehow. like I don't understand it. he's He's a real interesting dude, so I'm excited for it. And it's got our GOAT, Paul Giamatti.

Speaker: It does have Paul Giamatti. Hell yeah. Our next bit of news. This one. This is a banger. This is actually two words.

Speaker: Must see TV. yeah um Everybody's favorite MCU canceled guy, Jonathan Majors, is back with a new movie produced by the Daily Wire. Yes, that Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire.

Speaker: The movie is called Run, Hide, Fight. infidels because apparently there was a ah run hide fight before this one oh really this is like a sequel this is like yeah but it's like an anthology it's standalone right yeah so like there's just lots of different people running and hiding and fighting nice interesting but this time it's jonathan majors and here's here's the plot

Speaker: When radical Islamic terrorists hijack a liberal college's pro-Palestine encampment to enforce Sharia law on students, a ragtag band of red-bloodened students, a security guard tired of Uncle Tom smears...

Speaker: And a Delta Force vet must arm up to save their clueless peers and keep America from surrendering to the enemy on its own soil. And so I watched the trailer for this, right?

Speaker: Yeah. And it ends with um the ISIS flag being flown in a college town square with with a call to prayer.

Speaker: um haunting imagery. Yeah, I can see it right here. I think Jonathan Majors could be back. Shut up. yeah i think this is this is what he needed to bounce back with at this point in his career. He could have gone two ways, right?

Speaker: He could have like laid low for a while, and he could have you know done some low-key charity work, you know peer in the news like subtly every now and then for some like solid things that he did, and then and take an indie role, low-paying, and work his way back into the good graces. you know Or he could have gone the Ben Shapiro route.

Speaker: And I think he made the right choice. I can't believe it. Because... We wouldn't have run, hide, fight infidels.

Speaker: My only question is, I wonder who he's going to play. He's playing the Delta Force vet who is part of this group saving the students.

Speaker: Oh, see, I thought he was going to be playing the infidels. The titular infidels? Yeah. All of them. ah Oh, he should. Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, like Kang. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, I'm gonna get my comeuppets. I'm playing multiple people. I mean, they they have all those Jonathan Major clones just in the vault somewhere. They're in that stadium.

Speaker: Let them out. Dude, it's... What? What? Like, i barely I barely have words for it. I don't understand. It's insane. It's insane.

Speaker: i The worst part is I have to see it. I have to see this movie. That's what I wanted to ask you guys. have see this. Where do we stand on watching it?

Speaker: do we have Do we watch it in theaters? I don't want to support it financially. I kind of feel like we have to wait until we can pirate it to see it. But is is it going to be one of those Angel Studios bits where I can just walk up and like someone already bought the ticket?

Speaker: Oh, pay it forward. Yeah, but like I'm not going to pay it forward. Yeah, no. What movie did that? The Sound of Freedom? And they're like, this movie made so much money, but it was like...

Speaker: an actual conspiracy because they had that. So they're like, people were just buying out theaters that had like stake in this movie, which was the whole pay it forward program. So like, did it really make that much money as far as eyeballs that saw it?

Speaker: I don't know. Will this do something similar? Yeah. Probably. I think A Sound of Freedom actually did do well, even discounting that. I never saw it or anything, but I saw enough people like in real life talking about it that i was like, okay, I think people actually went and saw this movie.

Speaker: It was playing at real theaters. was playing the AMC. What you think this movie is going to do? Where do you think it will live in the culture space when it releases? like Is it going to draw a lot of buzz?

Speaker: I think it will just come and go.

Speaker: i think it'll be, i don't know. It's just kind of like how things exist for the most part these days ah with the nature of social media, the landscape, they these things just appear and fade away into obscurity. agree.

Speaker: I think it's going to be like a quick flash and within that flash will be people like us, Probably talking about it, but obviously in a negative light.

Speaker: obviously not really so Obviously not supporting it like at all, and then it'll be gone. Like, out of the conversation. Okay, what if it's really good? Shut up.

Speaker: I can't wait to see it on your ah your top of... When does this come out? This year? I don't know. I don't know. Ben Shapiro threatens to release a movie.

Speaker: what it feels like. um All right. So speaking of new movies upcoming, Warner Brothers announced ah Thundercats and Powerpuff Girls.

Speaker: As new movies. Live i didn't see this live action or animated? a Good question. i don't know. Y'all remember the the live action CW Powerpuff Girls that came out what a few years ago?

Speaker: think it got canceled after like one season. never watched it. I vaguely remember it. Yeah, I just remember seeing behind the scenes photos of the girls and I was like, all right.

Speaker: These are adult women dressed as the Powerpuff Girls for sure.

Speaker: I believe they're both going to be animated. All right.

Speaker: I was a fan of the Thundercats and the Powerpuff Girls. did it I don't even ever remember it coming out. I just remember seeing the behind-the-scenes pictures, and then it was gone. Yep. i't know anything about it.

Speaker: Not surprising. Next bit of news. There was ah a deal disclosed between Google and A24 Studios. or movie studio, A24.

Speaker: There's an AI partnership for creating new tools for movie production and distribution. The deal totaled $75 million. Boo!

Speaker: We can't have anything good in this world. Here's what a twenty four said ah regarding the story. They released a statement today. ah They said in quotes, our relationship with our audience is something we don't take for granted.

Speaker: This partnership exists because we want to dictate what tools get built for artists. And so they have a voice in shaping them rather than having tools handed to them. We'd rather have a seat at the table than on the sidelines. That last line.

Speaker: That sounds like AI money in their pockets. Yep. Yep. I didn't know they put out that statement. I was going to ask, like like, I wonder what this entails, because when I think of, like, AI and delivery systems, I'm like, oh, like, a twenty four just signed, like, an ELA with Google, and they bought a bunch of, like, back-end, like, systems automation crap.

Speaker: That's not what that sounds like. No, not at all. Something completely different. Man. Yeah. yeah What a shame. Sounds like they have no backbone at all. i know. And like two days later, though, they got me back in with that Rock and Timothee Chalamet movie they announced.

Speaker: With the Hulk? Yeah, I sent it to our chat. You guys remember that? i don't. You just ignore everything I say? No, not at all. I'm going back in this. Same.

Speaker: You sent trailers for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's The Samurai and the Prisoner. um Oh, never mind. That was fake news. Oh, okay. i Dude, i didn't even see this. i don't know how I didn't see that.

Speaker: But it's fake? I guess. Yeah, I guess. Dude, this looks fake. I've been sick all week. This was tweeted by someone named Ahmed slash the ears slash IG Big Biz the God.

Speaker: kids Sounds like a reputable source to me.

Speaker: Sorry, A-Dog. A Sea of Thieves movie adaptation will be produced by Destin Daniel Cretton. Is that that? Video game? Pirates. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing I know about Sea of Thieves is that one video.

Speaker: Someone yelling, Captain! He's like, yeah? He's like, look! And he turns around and the Pirates of the Caribbean theme starts playing while rockets and cannons are flying. It's iconic.

Speaker: Yeah, um'm I feel excited about anything Destin, Daniel, Cretton. Do we have to say the entire name every time? His name is kind of a tongue twister. I always want to say Daniel Justin.

Speaker: Destin Daniel. he needs He needs a quicker quicker name. He's our Shang-Chi guy, right? Yeah. Okay. And then up in Spider-Man Brand New Day.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: ah If you haven't seen Short Term 12, I'd highly recommend it. Very great movie. Short Term 12? Yeah. um It's one of his first, if not the first feature he directed. It's got a pretty big cast. It's got Brie Larson, Lakeith Stanfield, Rami Malek, Caitlin Dever, Stephanie Beatrice, amongst others. Really good movie. Really enjoy it.

Speaker: Yeah. Just added it to my watch list. Thank you. Yeah. Supergirl early reactions are in. Bad. I've seen mixed. Really? I've seen mixed.

Speaker: I've seen mixed. I've seen bad. I've seen two and a half and unders. That's because you just have a very misogynistic, nanospheric Twitter feed.

Speaker: um No, I've seen mixed. I think it's sitting at like a three, two on Letterboxd right now. Okay. Okay. And someone told me it was good that I know.

Speaker: i was supposed to go see it yesterday, but I've been sick all week. You'll probably hear it come through this episode. I think i'm doing a really good job of holding back the cough. You're being you'rere doing great. You're doing great. um So i had to I had to cancel those movie tickets because even though i went into work yesterday, I just sat there and coughed for eight hours straight. It's so sad. Yeah.

Speaker: i'm gonna try to watch it this weekend. um I'm going to try and see it as soon as I can. Because I wanted to watch it unspoiled. Without, you know, having everyone whispering in my ear telling me it's good or bad.

Speaker: um But the one thing that I did pick up on, as much as I've been trying to avoid the reviews, apparently there's a needle drop in this movie that is one of the worst of all time.

Speaker: I've heard the same. that it's I think it's at the end of the movie too. It's like the final fight scene. I've seen multiple that be the main part of multiple people's reviews is talking about this needle drop and like I need to know what it is.

Speaker: I've seen someone say that we are Charlie Kirk would have been a better needle drop.

Speaker: I'm immediately watching this movie after this podcast. I gotta know.

Speaker: I'm curious. All right. ah Next, maybe last thing. Nicolas Cage officially will have a cameo in Call of Duty Black Ops 7. Sure.

Speaker: Not really movie news, but... Snooze nonetheless. Yes. We love Nicolas Cage. We do. And I think at one point we all loved Black Ops. We talked about on the last episode. Black Ops 2 is coming to main consoles next month. And that's going to This is a big year for gamers. It really is. Black Ops 2 is back.

Speaker: GTA 6 pre-orders are are live. I think a new trailer came out today for GTA 6. I have yet to see it. I don't need to watch it. I'm going to just play it.

Speaker: I need to watch it. I need to watch it. I've been waiting for this game for a long time. I need to watch it. Was it like 10 years? 10 plus? um Maybe more. 2013? It's I remember coming out.

Speaker: I remember 5 coming out and being like, damn, this looks good. Look at these graphics. Dude, you look at 5 now and you're like, what were we hype about? this He has a slop.

Speaker: All right. Anyway, before we get off on a big tangent, let's start talking about 2026. We've got a couple of few categories here. um First category going to be talking about some surprises of the year.

Speaker: And that is good or bad. ah Does anyone want to kick this off with a surprise or two that you've had for the year so far? Yeah. I mean, low hanging fruit is obsessions box office numbers.

Speaker: That was really a big surprise. Yeah. Good shout. Where are we at? 300 exits budget? Something like that. Absurd numbers.

Speaker: I want to say Obsession will be available to rent at home June 30th. Maybe the day this podcast releases. Yeah. Yeah. so if you haven't seen it, go spend 20 bucks to watch it at home for two days. It'll probably even still be in theaters too, which is crazy. but Dude, I go on AMC and so I i tried to go watch ah The Death of Robin Hood earlier this week, right?

Speaker: This movie just came out two weeks ago. I think two weeks ago. Maybe three. even. One week ago. It came out a week ago. Last week. On Wednesday, I was going to go see it. Something came up, so I had to return my ticket. But there were four showtimes for Wednesday.

Speaker: was like a 12 p.m., p.m., and a 10 p.m. Thursday comes and there is only 10, 15 a.m. showing for the death of Robin Hood. Now, granted, Supergirl did come out that day, so the screens are less. But all this to say, I look at Obsession and there are still five to six showtimes a day for this movie.

Speaker: Obsession has a yeah ton tomorrow.

Speaker: and Sunday at it for Alamo at multiple locations. Boots Riley is pissed.

Speaker: ah You know, we'll talk about that. Yeah. um I think a surprise for me, for a good, I'll say The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Speaker: Looking at the year of movies so far and what we want to talk about in the episode, there's not really a spot for me to talk about this one. We talked about it briefly. um I really thought this was going to just be like the dog shit movie legacy sequel that we don't need.

Speaker: Um... But I thought it was it was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. So it was a pleasant surprise and had a good time at the theater with it. It was also, I think, the first movie I watched when I moved here.

Speaker: um So it'll probably hold a special place, at least for that. have another one. This is a Netflix original. It's a rom-com. Watched it and last night.

Speaker: It's called Voicemail for Isabel. You guys might have heard of it. I saw you rate it. Yeah. I don't know anything about it. It was surprisingly like really good. Uh, it felt like the, it really didn't lean into the comedy. It was just kind of sprinkled in a very appropriate amount.

Speaker: And I think the execution was really, really well done. Um, And pretty pretty heartfelt movie. Great message. Good acting, good chemistry. it It really surprised me in a ah really pleasant way.

Speaker: lot of reallys there. Sorry. yeah You really liked it. Yeah. What'd you give it out of five? Four. Damn. Four out of five. Yeah. Wait, I'm trying to find it.

Speaker: It's starring Nick Robinson and Zoe... Dutch? Deutsch? Oh, I like Zoe Deutsch. Zoe Deutsch. Okay. And also has Nick Offerman, and he he plays a fun character. Directed by Leia McKendrick.

Speaker: She's the the writer and director. Oh, okay. About like two-thirds of the movie, i was like, this had to have been written by woman based on one of the monologues from ah Nick Robinson.

Speaker: Yeah. And I was right. yeah like there's no way What do you mean by that? yeah yeah it's just Complimentary or derogatory? Complimentary, for sure. Okay, just making sure.

Speaker: It was very well said. I think a surprise for me is how many times I went, eh, after watching a movie this year.

Speaker: You know what? Yeah. Yeah. i'm I'm taking some time like before we're recording to go through my 2026 Letterboxd list um and just rearranging things.

Speaker: And ah I feel like I've been pretty behind on movies to watch for the year. like I think other people's 2026 lists that I was taking a look at are usually like 40 to 50 movies.

Speaker: I'm at 24. um But when I look at everybody's like bottom 25, it's all movies that I'm really not dying to see, like The Rip or Mercy, things like that.

Speaker: And so like the the top 24, I think the main movies that have come out and I'm like, is this year kind of just meh? at least hopefully yeah right it definitely feels backloaded like i've got i feel like we're at the like the tail end of that glut that was affected by the writer's strike m when when was that how far back was that like two years ago yeah

Speaker: So we're seeing the consequences of of that. I do think the year is is backloaded, but we've got a segment about that. um Any other surprises? next segment, we're going talking about the big boys, the box office big boys of the year.

Speaker: Oh, I think um we we have had an episode about this, but Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie, really, really great surprise. Good surprise. Yeah, we'll definitely talk about that one a little bit more.

Speaker: um Box Office Big Boys of the Year. want to talk about what these movies have achieved financially and if we like them or not. Here's the top 10. Starting with... to start with number one? Start with number 10.

Speaker: Sure. We might have to skip number five. Yeah, I don't know what the hell that is. We'll get there. Number 10, Backrooms. It made $175 million domestically.

Speaker: We won't talk about global. We'll just talk about domestic. um Surprised to see it here in the top 10. Good job.

Speaker: We've got an episode about It came out a couple weeks ago. so Go check it out. Please and thank you. Number nine. Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu made 172. Oh, wait. This should actually be above it.

Speaker: This rank that we did was global box office. so So back rooms made 20 million less than Star Wars globally, but $3 million dollars more domestically.

Speaker: Interesting. Oh, thank you for flipping it. Star Wars The Man of... Oh, flipped again. What happened? I fixed it. No, it's in the correct order. Pegasus 3 is actually the 10th?

Speaker: Is that where we're at? I think so. Only made a million domestically, but it made 656 globally, which is why it's in this list. Is it a Chinese movie? i don't Yeah, it's a Chinese race car movie, so I actually...

Speaker: I have to check this out. There's three of them.

Speaker: Apparently, this is the third. Apparently, Pegasus a big deal in China. um The ninth highest grossing domestic movie was Hoppers, $166 million.

Speaker: Alex, did you get a chance to watch it yet? No, I did not. Okay, I haven't either. It's so good. It's in my top ten so far. All right. Number eight was the Star Wars, The Mandalorian, and Grogu, which did $172 million. That's crazy. What world are we living in?

Speaker: It didn't even make, what, one-fifth of ah Aquaman from like 10 years ago. Wow. Good point. Because I think Aquaman made a lot of money, at least globally.

Speaker: it It crossed a billion, I think. Yeah, it was like 1.1 or 1.2 or something. Crazy. Aquaman made a Billy? Yeah. A Billy with the b We should do a Billy episode. Sure. um Backrooms is number seven with $175 million. Just went over that.

Speaker: Toy Story 5, which we just did an episode on, made $200 million at the sixth spot for domestic. It's one of the highest or fastest grossing Pixar movies yet.

Speaker: Oh, wow. A week? Yeah. it's It's flying up the the charts. you think Do you guys think it'll, looking at the rest of these movies domestically, where do you think it'll land in a few weeks? Do think it'll crack top five?

Speaker: Maybe. Yeah, I think it'll be about four. i don't know if it'll pass Project Hail Mary, but we'll see. Oh, sorry. I think it could. oh no, it's okay. I think it could.

Speaker: Devorah's Prada 2 with $219 million domestically. That's it. $677 million abroad. Wow.

Speaker: That's insane. The world loves Devorah's Prada 2. Obsession, which we just talked about. $220 million domestically, $337 million globally. $683 million globally.

Speaker: project hail mary three hundred and forty four million domestically six hundred and eighty three million globally Michael, $368 million domestic, $960 million globally.

Speaker: Ow! Do we think it crosses a billy? There are still showtimes out, so it's it's trailing. Yeah. Is it likely? do you think?

Speaker: I don't know. i don't know if it's likely. It's possible, but we'll see. hi I feel like it's going to end its run at 970, like just shy of it. Yeah, I think so too.

Speaker: But I can also see them... i don't know who released this movie. I can also see maybe a re-release later in the year. Would that count towards its box office success?

Speaker: Yeah. Okay. And then the number one big boy box office of 2026 thus far, with $429 million dollars domestically and a billy globally, is the Super Mario Galaxy movie.

Speaker: you guys contribute to that? I did not. Me neither. I'm going to be so for real. I forgot this came out. Me too.

Speaker: I don't think it really has any staying power. and The first one didn't have any staying power. It was slop. yeah The first one felt like it had a bit more staying power than this one. This is the one that should have had the staying power because Super Mario Galaxy had like a plot as a game. Yeah.

Speaker: Like there was like a, a thing that was happening and you could have gone a lot of routes with that. But the first one was just like, Oh, look at me. going to eat a mushroom.

Speaker: Here's this side scrolling platform that you have to run through for some reason. I've heard, I don't know if I'm going to watch this movie. Like, I'm really not interested. But I've heard this movie is basically that on steroids.

Speaker: Where it's just like the member berries. Where it's like, hey, remember this? Hey, look at this. Hey, you played this game, right? Check this out. And it's just a bunch of that. Like, it's just consecutive five-minute bursts of remember?

Speaker: And I really don't want to watch it, right? But I played that game so much. It's almost like I want to know what they did to my boy. Look how they massacred my boy. Look how they massacred my boy. My Mario game of choice, my top two, was Mario Sunshine and Paper Mario.

Speaker: Wow. Based. Yeah. Yeah. Good choices. Thank you. Hmm. I lived on Delfino Island. I've put a lot, a lot of hours into Mario Kart 8.

Speaker: Yeah. On my Switch. Like a lot of hours. um I don't know That one or Mario 64. Nice. i don't know if this counts, but Smash Bros.

Speaker: I'd count it.

Speaker: I don't know how to choose. With Mario Kart, I'm just Switch. So, I have a Switch. yep I also have Mario Kart 8. Can we play together? Yep. Alright, what's your point?

Speaker: We're not even friends on Switch. didn't know you had a Switch. I don't know how Switches work. I barely play it. You have to pay a ah yearly subscription. It's $20 for the year, I think.

Speaker: Everything's behind a paywall. I just want to play with my friends. Yeah. All right, All right, next category. um Favorites from the year. We'll each just talk about our top five.

Speaker: How do we want to do it? Do we want to, one person goes through their top five? Or wait, do we want to start with our least favorites from the year? Yeah, let's let's all start at five and then incrementally go to the top, right? Okay, do we want to flip it? Do we want to start with our least favorites from the year? Go from five or go from the least favorite To the fifth bottom from the favorite and then do our favorites?

Speaker: That could be fun. i don't even know what you're saying right now. Like... we we We do our bottom five first. Oh, okay. Sure. I complicated that. I don't know why. All right. Yeah, let's do our bottom five first.

Speaker: Let's give our number five for our bottom five. I'll go first. Okay. um Coming in at ah three stars, which... Sure, i yeah I guess I gave it that.

Speaker: What? um Lee Cronin's the mummy.

Speaker: Wait, so are you saying it's fifth from the worst, or this is the worst? The It's fifth from the worst. okay Oh, this is your fifth from the worst. okay Yes. Okay, got it, got it.

Speaker: Lee Cronin's the mummy. Meet your top five, bottom five. Makes sense to me. haven't seen a lot of trash, so... ah the the there's There's a very steep cliff.

Speaker: um My fifth from the bottom, so at my number 19 spot right now, is Michael at two and a half stars. I'm going have a lot of people picking bones with you.

Speaker: I think you're going to pick a bone with me for sure. You might pick a bone with me for my, my least one. We'll see. All We'll see what's your fifth from the bottom. This one actually holds a special place in my heart and all of our hearts actually.

Speaker: And it's primary. I knew it. Yeah. It's such a fun movie. It's a like, as I was making my ranking, So wait, what do I have Primate at? ah Primate is also at a two and a half. The two and a half start with Primate, and then just the fifth on the bottom is Michael. So I've got a couple ahead of it.

Speaker: um I am going to put Primate is the top two and a half. He's the one right before the threes, just because we had such a fun time with it. For sure. It was pretty fun. but Yeah.

Speaker: Burn.

Speaker: Yes. which coincidentally is my fourth from the bottom is primate. Damn. Which is also where my two and a half start. Okay.

Speaker: um My fourth from the bottom is Wuthering Heights. See, that's when I want to read the book before I do it. Yeah. Because my sister read the book and then watched it, and the text she sent our family was like 3,000 words long.

Speaker: Whoa. Wow. Wow. Like actually thousands? How much she hated? no It was just very long. She sent like an actual essay saying how much of an abomination the movie was compared to the book.

Speaker: So you want to read the book to see how big an abomination it is. I want to give a well-researched hate watch. Respect.

Speaker: Because like I know why... people are complaining, but I haven't read the book, so I can't fully go in and be like, yes, I agree. Like, I want to be informed. I like being an informed hater.

Speaker: Yeah. Every so often I get surprised and I'm like, wow, actually, I'm not a hater. But I feel like this going be one of those times where I'm like, hmm, Emerald, you're not cooking. Yeah, I think the world will and think the world would be a better place if more people did that.

Speaker: Get some knowledge on on what you want to hate. Like when I was younger, like I was very stuck on just like a couple genres of music where anything outside of it was just like, oh, it's immediately trash. And I would never give it a chance.

Speaker: And then I started to give music like that I hated a chance because was like, oh I want to know what I'm hating on. And like the biggest example I can think of is Lorde. I had only heard Royals on the radio.

Speaker: And I'd always be like, oh, I hate Lorde. I hate Lorde. She's so bad. And then one day i was just like, you know what? Just listen to this album. and then And then you can really talk about like why you hate her. and it changed my life. Pure Heroin is one of the greatest albums of all time.

Speaker: It's a great debut. Yes. taught you what's your fourth from the bottom. My fourth is Pizza Movie. I gave it 2.5. It was kind of tough.

Speaker: Tough watch. i I also gave Pizza Movie a 2.5. It's in my number 17 spot. It's right below Primate. i Every time I see Pizza Movie, I think of that meme where it's like the screenshot from Pizza Movie. It's like, I'm a good bro. We are not watching this movie. I was just saying, i just I have no desire to watch it I watched it, Cam and I watched it on like a Saturday morning, like having coffee, like very, just very chill and like not serious at all. um

Speaker: So I agree with you. Sorry, that was my last two and a half. There's a steep drop off from here. Okay. yeah My, uh,

Speaker: My next two and a half and also my last two and a half um is the most mid-movie of all time, The Mandalorian and Grogu. We didn't have that much fun with it, so Primate's over it.

Speaker: Agreed. Yeah, Mandalorian and Grogu's made better, but we weren't we didn't have fun. Yeah. I think some people could argue it wasn't made better. Actually, we had a lot of fun. we had a lot of fun with the Rod of the Hut bit. Talking about it for sure.

Speaker: um My third from the bottom is is a movie where if you, the listener, like this, I'd like to have a conversation with you. It's undertone. We have listeners that I have spoken to that will stand by this movie.

Speaker: I just, I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't think this movie is overhyped or overrated, but I've seen enough where I'm like, all right, guys, are we five?

Speaker: Is this the scariest thing you've ever seen in your life? This is a two star for me.

Speaker: Mine is also Star Wars, the Mandalorian and Grogu. we had a pretty heated discussion, I think. I actually wasn't going to go that hard on it, but as we kept you know figuring it out, I had to get angry with Disney.

Speaker: Wait a second. Pause. What did you rate Mandalorian and Grogu, Alex? Two and a half. Tachi? One and a half. you guys Didn't you guys both give it like a three on the episode? Yeah, originally originally. And then as we kept discussing, i was like you know what? Disney i can't get a three out of me for this.

Speaker: Yeah, i it was like i was like ah a principal two and a half. Yeah, exactly. Okay. No more slop. Yeah. We don't want this anymore. Exactly.

Speaker: My second from the bottom, we've talked about this already, is Mercy. That's also mine. Coming in at a two out of five. I had enough fun with it on the airplane. like knowing that Going into it knowing that it was bad.

Speaker: Being on an airplane, i had a really good time with it. um I wanted to hate it more than I hated East of Wall, which I think is the worst airplane movie I've ever seen.

Speaker: i couldn't i couldn't bring myself to do it. It just it had... Like, ugh, yeah. It's too much that I smiled about. it's and i did And I did want to see how it resolved. So i was like, you've earned an extra half star out of me. the crazy thing know from being it's the bottom movie The crazy thing is I also wanted to see how it ended. And what happened to me was I had 15 minutes left of the movie once we landed.

Speaker: So I didn't get to finish it on the plane. I finished it in the hotel room. See, I think that would have made me hate more. I need to see how it ends. Yeah. I think that would have made me, like, I might have lost a star. Something about being at altitude in the tube, in the sky tube, you're just like,

Speaker: it gives an extra half star.

Speaker: Yeah, same spot for me, but I have it at a one and a half.

Speaker: My second from the bottom is Apex. Really miserable watch outside of Taron Egerton. Charlize Theron, it just seemed like she was forced to make this movie.

Speaker: um I don't really know what the deal was, but really, really unfortunate performance, at least from my perspective. Really did not enjoy this whatsoever, and I probably shouldn't have even finished it.

Speaker: So I gave it one and a half. Is this the one where Taron Andrews is like bald? He's a bald ass guy. Yeah, he plays like a psychopath. so Yeah, I remember you talking about it. I don't imagine myself putting this on.

Speaker: It is really not good at all. Okay, I believe you. All right, drum roll. The worst movie of the year thus far. For me, we we just talked about it. It's Undertone. Yeah, wow.

Speaker: At one and a half. Tell me why you hate it so much. It just pissed me off to no end. And it was over... There were so many things I hated about it.

Speaker: I thought the actress was... i don't think that was a good performance in the slightest, okay? I thought the script was a mess.

Speaker: I thought the... The way that like they went about structuring the movie was like pulling teeth out with no Novocaine.

Speaker: Like they would record like five minutes of a podcast, like listen to something scary and then be I can't do it. We're going to record later this week. And then she'd like go wipe her mom's ass. Literally. It is such a funny nitpick of the movie and very niche, I think, for those that have podcasted or do podcast. But watching the movie and seeing the way that they were struck in their episode, I was like, no,

Speaker: Because it's literally what you said, and that happens multiple times. They take five minutes. i' like, fuck, I can't do this. so I'll come back a week later. And then they record another minutes. how the movie is that long. Yeah.

Speaker: Because if they recorded it like in real time, like like let's say we made a movie, like Undertone, and we recorded a podcast around 10 spooky files that we listened to.

Speaker: It would be, I mean, you could probably make like, We started this recording with like, in what, six, ten minutes in? Right? we're at like an hour and three.

Speaker: So you can make... And we haven't talked about anything at all. So... But it was it was structured like to the point, like, we are trying to stretch this movie out as long as we can. Yeah. The files are getting scarier.

Speaker: the The files weren't even that scary. It was like, ooh... children's nursery rhymes played backwards. It's like... roy numby muble like so It's like, what if Marriott and Little Ann was scary?

Speaker: I think that's saying the devil is going to...

Speaker: oh, I can't repeat that. and then it's like, oh, like this is so terrible. And I just, I remember sitting in theaters. I remember laughing a couple times in theaters.

Speaker: And I remember like realizing at some point in that movie, Malik, that people around us were taking it like dead serious. Yeah. yeah And I i just there there was nothing for me in that one. I'm sorry. Really neat concept that I unfortunately was really excited for.

Speaker: And it really, really let me down. I wouldn't recommend this to anybody. But again, we have people who listen who love this movie. And we rear we respect that.

Speaker: So. I'll get off my grandstand. My least favorite movie of the year, we already talked about it, is The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Speaker: Piece of shit. I hate you. I hate you. but you will This movie will most likely stay at the bottom. I'm done. i'd be surprised if it moves.

Speaker: I don't care if he's his own person. He's not his dad. I don't care. What'd you rate it again? It's a one. a one. Got it. Yeah. My, my last or least favorite is also a one. You could probably guess.

Speaker: Yeah. Lee Cronin's the mummy. Wow. ah Lee Cronin's the dog shit. ah Just, I don't know. The confidence that Lee Cronin had to make me sit through a whatever this was, this abomination for longer than two hours.

Speaker: I hate you. And the only reason I didn't give it half star instead of one is because there's no Berg at the end of his last name. So you're lucky.

Speaker: That's where the half star is there. Count your lucky stars, Lee Cronin. Yeah, exactly. ah just Just a terrible, terrible movie. Man. You guys really did not like The Mummy. You didn't even have fun with it.

Speaker: i I gave it a three. Okay, I also gave it a three. Tachi, you did hate it, though. I hate it. I could not wait to leave. I was miserable. have something about the foot scene in that one. Yeah, I do, too.

Speaker: Do you guys foresee anything else coming out later this year or anything changing your least favorite movie? Do you think there'll be anything watch later in the year that will take that spot? that can Almost assuredly, there's going to be something that rolls out that is just torrid. I hope there's not. like I hope The Mandalorian and Grogu is the worst of it for me.

Speaker: I want it to be up from here. Watch it be The Odyssey. Imagine! I actually don't, I don't think that's even possible. Not in any realm. Even with that story, like, I feel like the floor is a three out of five. For sure.

Speaker: For sure. Okay. The floor. Let's get into our favorites. yeah Our top five of the year thus far. Um... We said it in the beginning of the episode, and I fully believe this. I think this year is going to be so backloaded.

Speaker: I don't think it is. Just from like the 15 movies that I want to talk about for our last category for our look ahead, um this year is backloaded for sure. This top five, I love, but I know it's going to change. I know the top 10 is going to look so different six months from now.

Speaker: Agreed. Yep. So I just wanted to start with that kind of caveat.

Speaker: We'll go in the same order. We'll start with you, Alex, with your number five. Coming in number five is one I know we were all excited to go see in theaters, and it was 28 years later, The Bone Temple. Yeah, top five. Let's go. Yeah. Sad, because I know it's probably going fall out of my top five. I hope it falls out of my top five, because if it doesn't have a four out of five, that means this is a really bad year. Yeah, good point.

Speaker: We should want our top fives to change. Agreed. um My number five is the drama starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. ah i had a really good time with this movie. I think we had a fun episode about it. There are a lot of good conversations around the movie. It was well made, well acted.

Speaker: Love these two actors. I also think this will fall out of the top five, but like you said, it should.

Speaker: Yep. My number five is also 20 years later, the bone simple. that's go And I can almost guarantee it will fall out of the five spot, but it was really great.

Speaker: Yeah. Real good time with it. I need to rewatch it soon.

Speaker: Number four for me is the drama. You've, uh, you've heard my thoughts on that. Go listen to the episode if you haven't. Um, and if you want to re-listen to it, I guess you can, you can do that too. So,

Speaker: My number four is Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. We talked about a little bit earlier on this episode. We also have an entire episode about it. um The bus scene with Jay will probably go down as one of my favorite scenes of the year.

Speaker: That's all I'll say about that. It was really good. It was a good one. So good. My number four is Project Hail Mary. I give it a four out of five. Really enjoyed it. Thought the book was so much better somehow.

Speaker: um one of One of my favorite books I've ever read. So if you don't like the movie, maybe you'll like the book. My number three, we talked about What was this? The last episode? The Furious.

Speaker: Wow. Yeah. it's Dude, it's that. It rips. It's so good. I'm telling you. i know tahi's I know it's in Tachi's top five. but i can feel it.

Speaker: um Show is. I had a blast. It's so... like You want to talk about having fun with the movie? This movie is fun to the max. It's the epitome of fun.

Speaker: I'm excited to watch it.

Speaker: My number three is 28 Years Later, The Bone Temple. I love Ralph Fiennes in this. and love... the ah The ritual scene at the end, the fire scene, one of the also will probably be one of my top scenes of the year.

Speaker: um Gave us a a quote that we still say to this day. How's that? How's that? How's that? I gave this a four and a half. Oh, no, I gave it a four out of five, sitting at number three.

Speaker: my number three really needs to fall out your top five or else it's a really bad year yeah i mean and that was january and we're halfway through

Speaker: uh my number three was obsession we talked at length about it but i gave it a 4.5 out of five but really great yeah my number two I was the only non-book reader for this one.

Speaker: It's Project Hail Mary at four and a half. Wow. My first four and a half. um If I watched it again, it'd probably be a four out of five because it's a little quirk-chungus-y, but i was I was feeling it that night. I was feeling it that night. I had a great time with this movie.

Speaker: It was one that was meant to be seen in theaters, and it really made me happy that it did as well as it did. for sure nice and this won't be the last time i bring it up this episode okay tell you that much sounds good my number two spot my first four and a half is also obsession like you just said we've talked at length about it so i will say no more welcome to number two obsession nice oh no don't don't my number two let's hachiko

Speaker: I don't know what that means. i I don't know why I can't think of what Malik has left, but my number two is Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Nice. It's my my first five star. Awesome. I really, ah really loved it. Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know if they've released the um like a 4K DVD of Nirvana, the band, the show, the the movie yet, but I need it expeditiously. I think there's one on Neon. Okay. Nice. Oh, you're right.

Speaker: Wait. I ordered stuff from Neon. Like a month ago, remember Everything I wanted was was sold out. Where is it? i don't know. I don't know, but... Oh, I should have gone to Barnes & Noble today because the Criterion sale started.

Speaker: Fuck. I know what I'm doing tomorrow. Where's my package? I was like, wait, I bought this. I'm going to look that up after this episode. let me forget. All right, number ones.

Speaker: Here we go. My number one is Obsession. I loved this movie. Again, we had an episode on it. I don't want to drag out and waste precious minutes of my vocal minutes because I'm on limited time today, as you could probably start to tell.

Speaker: ah Talking, rehashing things i've already said. Love this movie to death. Every time I think about it, I like it more. um Again, it's not going be the last time I bring up this movie, this episode. um Curry Barker, i think you got the stuff, and I can't wait to see more.

Speaker: I'm going be mad. You're about to be mad. There's no way. this is what This is what he was mad about, Tachi. He's mad about my number one. He realizes what it is. He realizes it. is it My number one is Disclosure Day.

Speaker: There's just no way. I fucking love this movie. There's no way. There's no way. yes, yes, yes. I need you to watch this movie. I need you to put this movie on one day like when it comes out towards the end of the year. Okay. Randomly in the middle of the day when you've had like a bad day.

Speaker: Okay. And just be like, like, you're not excited to watch it. You're not like you're in like a very neutral headspace on like watching a movie. And I would love to see if you think it holds up. So you war me you want me to watch a movie in bad faith? You want me to watch a movie in bad faith? no No, no, no, no. Because I'm saying if you go into something excited, there's a higher chance that you leave excited. Not true. What happened to us for a majority of 2025 where we were going into these movies excited and we just kept leaving disappointed? Okay. the let let me let me Let me back it up. You're more likely to convince yourself...

Speaker: of something if you're like, I want this to be great. I agree with you. And i think we've all talked about it. Tachi, I know you and I have talked about it where the, this podcast and like the fact that we do this feels like a practice in taste and talking about what we like and what we don't like.

Speaker: And that's one of the main reasons that I love doing this with you guys. It's I've been in the position of being excited for something and like tricking yourself into like liking it.

Speaker: And since we've started the podcast, I try my darndest to not do that. Like I want to come at these movies with good faith where if I was the most excited, if I was balls to the walls excited for the bone temple and I thought it was actually trash.

Speaker: I would want to be able to articulate and speak about that. I actually thought it was trash and disappointed. That is a standard I try to hold myself to. Not perfect, but I don't think that is the point here or the case here with Disclosure Day.

Speaker: We're going to move to Tachi next, but I'm going to leave this on one thing. We spend the entire movie with this agent who's trying to kill Josh O'Connor, Emily Blunt, because he's trying to prevent Disclosure.

Speaker: And when he is standing in the newsroom watching them about to do disclosure, and he has a gun, he just says, all right, well, i guess I guess I lost and left.

Speaker: An oversimplification, but we move on. That is not true. Tachi, go.

Speaker: All right, my number one, you might to guess, is The Furious. Gas. i I loved love, love, love, love loved this movie.

Speaker: I really want to rewatch in theaters. It's just, man, I don't know. It left me breathless.

Speaker: I mean, from your guys' description... I'm very excited to watch it. I'm not surprised that it's your number one spot. I'm stoked. It would be very surprising if it left my top five.

Speaker: I don't know if it'll leave my top three. We'll see. I hope. That would actually be awesome.

Speaker: But we'll see. Could not recommend it more. I will say the dubbing is pretty goofy sometimes. it he did have that question. Yeah, that was... I thought it was legitimately in English.

Speaker: Or maybe just the ADR was kind of questionable. i i There was a moment where I thought it was dubbed, but half the movie is also subbed. Yes. so I was kind of just like, oh. Interesting.

Speaker: they're just They're actually speaking English. Yeah. Which, I want to say this was a Taiwanese movie, which that would make sense why a lot of English would be used if it is Taiwanese.

Speaker: Yeah. I'm not sure. don i don't know. There's a lot of English over there. Yeah, I'll say it's not a perfect movie. like i guess my criteria is a 4.5 is like a perfect movie.

Speaker: It's not that, but I loved it so much I had to bump it from a 4 to a 5. Just skip 4.5 entirely. don't think... Subjective. Yeah, i know what you mean. I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, but a 5...

Speaker: See, that makes sense perfectly for me because a 5 is one where it's like just it's it's just different. Yeah. It's built different. Yeah. I yeah get what you mean. A 4.5 can be perfect, most likely. Yeah, a 4.5 can be perfect, but a 5 is... That's your baby. That's your guy. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: All right. when When push comes to shove, you're you're calling them out of the bullpen. Yeah, exactly. Let me get spirited away. I'm excited to see where our top 10 lands at the end of the year when we do our 2026 wrap up episode.

Speaker: For sure. ah Next category. Let's go ahead and do our over and under. We're going to each come with one film that we think is overrated and one that we think was under. We'll discuss each person's pick and if we agree or disagree.

Speaker: Let's start with overrated. would you guys What do you guys think was overrated year? Just like the general consensus. Sure, yeah. Overrated can be maybe everyone loved it and you didn't.

Speaker: Or maybe you thought everyone loved it too much and even though you still liked it. could be and There's some nuance there. so You can't pick Disclosure Day for underrated. I'm banning you. it's not you I don't have a Disclosure Day for for any of these categories.

Speaker: good for bidding it. was pissed. What's your overrated Alex? So I watched it this week and I'm really really really sad that I put this as overrated.

Speaker: I was super excited for this movie. we we you We all saw the trailer for this together, I think. hu And I think I was the most excited out of all of us for it.

Speaker: Okay, I think I know what it is. this And this is, you're saying it's overrated that you walked out not really? i went, I was just, when the when the credits rolled, I just was like, oh no.

Speaker: Is God is. I knew it. i Wanted to love this movie so, so bad. I loved the trailer. I loved everything about it.

Speaker: And if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie.

Speaker: Damn it. I have seen the trailer. And after the trailer, I was just like, that can go either way. I do remember you being excited, but I was like, um I'll watch this and I'm excited for it. I think there's such a great...

Speaker: like, southern gothic narrative going on there. And I think it falls... i just I just think it's so surface level. And it's it's it's this lady's first feature. So I'm not, like, throwing her under the bus saying she's awful or nothing.

Speaker: um I think it's very surface level. I think there... I think the trailer ruined a lot of the mystique that I think the movie could have had. Because if i if things that had happened in the trailer were blind, I would have been like, whoa! like But instead, like I knew it was coming. right Probably tough to like market it any other way.

Speaker: Yeah. that's I think that's part of the problem. But... There were a couple decisions made with how the movie ended that I didn't narratively agree with. um I still think everybody should go watch this movie and go support this movie.

Speaker: um Shout out Alicia Harris. You know, i liked it. I just, I sadly didn't love this one. um And that really made me sad.

Speaker: Damn. It is on my catch-up list. So whenever I watch it, maybe I'll do that for my rapid review and we'll see where I landed too. What did you give it out of five? Sterling Brown was pretty good.

Speaker: He was pretty good. I gave it a three out of five. Okay. um My Overrated is is a movie that I liked. But it is one where I felt like everybody was having a gallon. Everyone was drinking ah a gallon of the Kool-Aid juice, and I only had a cup.

Speaker: um I'm picking Project Hail Mary. m I've got it rated at a 3.5. Like I said, I do like this movie. ah But there was a minute there where it just felt...

Speaker: I felt a little out of the loop, even here on this podcast, where I know you both really loved it. yeah And I was just like, that was a good movie. But it just seemed like the world was going bonkers, going bonkers over it.

Speaker: And there are aspects of the book that I liked more. But at the end of the day, I feel like what I disliked about the book is pretty in line to what I disliked about the movie.

Speaker: And what was that? Yeah. ah We said it on the, on the episode. I think it's the, yeah, go check it out. Yeah. Go check out the lots, lots of plugs. We got lots of episodes for you to go. Um, yeah.

Speaker: If I, uh, in a quick sentence, the court youngest of it all. I wish you liked it more, but I understand. Same. My overrated. I'm, I'm really scared to put this out there and I will preface.

Speaker: I, I did enjoy this movie. I liked the premise. I thought the acting was pretty good. Of course, the set design was incredible, but back rooms just feels like a movie that was, and I've been trying to figure out how to like phrase this. I don't know if I'll be able to articulate it the way I kind of feel, but it feels like a movie that was produced by someone who's so deep into the weeds in, in this universe that he,

Speaker: that Kane Parsons kind of made this movie from the lens of someone who's already a fan of this lore, of someone who's already like educated and can pick up on all the little references that are like in the background.

Speaker: Yeah. I guess it's like you you go into the movie knowing that a rewatch will be better. if you like it instead of the rewatch can be better because then you'll catch all the references in the background instead of being able to pick it up like in the first viewing.

Speaker: Yeah. Does that make sense? I get what you mean. It's kind of like how Marvel required you to like watch all these tv shows. to understand the characters and and the story. Yeah, like this is the first iteration, the first movie we got, but it still felt like while while there was homework do, you didn't need to do it, but you'd benefit a lot more if you did. of course, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, I get what you mean. I have the same qualms with the movie. Gotcha. Okay, cool. But I'm not alone. I hope I don't take too much heat because this movie has some hardcore shooters.

Speaker: It really does. but And then I know all of the shooters, like we've had a couple in our comments, are those who are deep in the lore. I'm like, based off of your comment, you sound like you're deep in the lore, which is exactly why we the issues we have with the movie are here. But I risk my case.

Speaker: Cool. Underrated. What we got? I'm going to go with Carolina Caroline. And I think it's underrated because I haven't seen anywhere but myself talk about this movie.

Speaker: um from the director of Snack Shack, premiered at TIFF last year, and I know we actually talked about it very briefly in our Snack Shack episode. um from last year. Shout out to our Snack Shack summer episode.

Speaker: Loved it. That it premiered tip that last year. Got a theater release this year. Super limited. There wasn't even a showing in Austin. Was able to... Really? Yeah. Was able to finally find this thing.

Speaker: um and And I watched it this week. um And it deserves... people talking about it. I mean, like it deserves to be mentioned, talked about. It only has 14,000 viewers on Letterboxd.

Speaker: That's really low for like a movie that you know where the directors had two... you like, fairly viral movies. um And so I'm just really surprised to see this one fly under the radar. You have two really good performances by the leads ah with kyler Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving. I think Samara Weaving is the standout of the two.

Speaker: um A lot different than Snack Shack, but... I still think it captures some so of the similar vibes.

Speaker: um Just a much different vehicle of a story to tell. And I really liked it, and I think it's worth the watch. And apparently I'm the one of 14,000 people in the world who can say that. So...

Speaker: I do want to watch it. It is it is on my catch-up list as well. A couple things to say here. Kyle Garner I really like, and I feel like we can put stock into him now.

Speaker: He's not unknown, but the roles he has had thus far are... He's he's in a lot of horror-focused movies, and he's usually like a side character or just a quick character that gets killed off.

Speaker: But like... He's putting in work. And I see him on Twitter a lot online. And I'm like, I think this dude is going to be something big one day. Like he's going to have his big break. and And I think that ah Adam Riemire is trying to give him that shot because he has been the lead in two of his three or I guess four. But we won't talk about the fourth one. Two of his three features.

Speaker: When did ah when did you watch this in this week? This week. Okay. Yeah, um I was looking on my phone right now to see if there are any showtimes near me. Nothing. I guess I'll just ah the ologists have to watch it at home.

Speaker: um My underrated is a movie that I think I talked about briefly, maybe in a rapid review some episodes ago, but um Faces of Death, directed by Daniel Goldhaber, starring Barbie Ferreira and Dacker Montgomery.

Speaker: Um... I didn't really know anything going into this movie. I just saw that there was a horror movie on like a random Tuesday or Wednesday, and I was like, I'll go watch that, and went to the theater to go watch it by myself. um And I had a good time with it. like A lot better than I thought I would. ah Faces of Death is... This movie is based off of a quote-unquote documentary. We'll call it like a mockumentary, where in the 70s, for a while, people thought that this movie, Faces of Death,

Speaker: was real and the contents of said movie are I'll say just gruesome ways of people dying or getting killed just real dark web type stuff and for a long time people thought it was real and so what this movie does is kind of have a serial killer focused on like the inspiration or being inspired by the movie faces of death. So it's kind of like a, like a self-aware commentary on this whole thing. But I think it has some interesting things to say about,

Speaker: um about psycho killers in that way, about how we utilize technology, how social media plays a stake in mental health. um And I think everybody should go watch it.

Speaker: One quick point of clarification on the original faces of death. um many And this is from Wikipedia. Many scenes were faked for the film, but most portions, including pre-existing video footage of real deaths, or most portions include pre-existing video footage of real deaths and their aftermath. So it's hybrid between the two.

Speaker: Half real, half fake. Yeah. Which is icky. Yeah, i don't know if you see in the original. I think the original just got released on Tubi, if I'm not mistaken. So maybe I'll watch it. Let me pull up a snuff film on Tubi. Yeah, it's on Beboop. You just got to go. I'll give you my login.

Speaker: Minder rated. ah It's kind of going to be like a 1A, 1B type situation, but they're very similar films. First one Hoppers. Second one is Swapped.

Speaker: So kind of similar in their premise. It's just like a body swapping thing, you know, living in someone else's shoes, whatever. Hoppers was actually my runner up. It was number six. Really, really thoroughly enjoyed this movie, like on all fronts. But Swapped has, i guess, some questionable or I guess more questionable parts of the movie.

Speaker: like some of the voice acting I didn't really love. It's starring Michael B. Jordan, Juno Temple and Tracy Morgan. Oh, this one. Yeah. Okay. But there are some moments in the movie where I'm like, wow, that was awesome. That was really, really well executed.

Speaker: um So just want to shout those out. I know they're Hoppers especially is getting really good reviews. But Swapped is not a bad alternative. pretty Pretty fun to watch.

Speaker: Real quick, um Alex, you did something with Carolina Carolina I've never really paid attention to or looked at, which is seeing how many members it's been watched by on Letterboxd. That's a really interesting gauge now because like Swabbed I heard a very little bit about, and this has 237,000 watches on Letterboxd. So knowing that Carolina Carolina only has 14,000 like...

Speaker: is like insanely small. So not yeah I just wanted to say that real quick. That is interesting. Where do you see that? Yeah. So if we could just go on the I'm on the website. I'm not sure where it's at on the app.

Speaker: Mobile. Oh, is it members? Alex, you're on mute. ah That's never happened here. ah yeah yeah You know the three boxes where it says members reviews lists? Yeah.

Speaker: Under members, it'll be a number there. yeah Okay, got it. um Okay, let's quickly go through our catch-up. I just made a list besides the movies that we've already talked about, um like Carolina Caroline, Swapped Hoppers.

Speaker: um I've got just like 10 movies here that for my catch-up, these are like goals that I have to watch in the next two weeks. Um... I've got The Furious, The Sheep Detectives, Hoppers, Exit 8, Masters of the Universe, Mother Mary, which I did start before this podcast. I'm looking at it on the TV right now. We've got 45 minutes left.

Speaker: ah Ready or Not 2, Supergirl, just released. The Testament of Anne Lee. That was last year. I'm going to count that as this year. I've seen some people have it on their list. It had a limited release in December, but it did not play in Austin.

Speaker: It was nominated for last year's Oscars. I also think that was a mistake.

Speaker: That's not your choice to make. But it had a wide release in January. Like, first week of January. Like, I did not have access to watch this movie in 2025. So then what? I put it on there. We'll talk about it later. And then Gore Verbinski's Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die.

Speaker: My so to still watch some similar ones here. Supergirl Leviticus. I want to watch the bride at some point. It was very divisive and I want to know why um i am Frank Helda that Mexican stop motion animation one that looked really neat.

Speaker: ah Death of Robin Hood Hoppers exit eight and Mother Mary. I'm putting death of Robin Hood in there too. Forgot to put that.

Speaker: I am trying to figure out what I need to catch up on. Um, Leviticus and Hokem. I think I need to put Hokem on mine. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: And Supergirl and maybe one other one. I can't, I can't remember. Yeah. Listen, hope for this episode, you're figuring out movies that you also need to watch. And for our next section, for our look ahead movies that you can also look forward to. think we're going talk about some potential awards contenders. Are these just like our opinions on who we think could be or who we would want to be?

Speaker: I think, yeah, if there's any so far that you think could do it. Okay. From this patch. So for Best Actor, we're just going to do Best Actor and Best Actress. um For Best Actor, I went more of like my one of my favorite performances. I don't think this would be nominated for an Oscar, but Ray Fiennes and the Bone Temple.

Speaker: I knew you were going pick that. Yeah. It's... There's so much heart in this performance, and I need everyone to watch these movies. I know if you're listening to this, you probably have, but come on. like that's This is just not what i what you expect out of your zombie movies, like typically.

Speaker: And he puts so much soul behind this character, and I love it. Yep. I think if we're talking about people who have a legitimate shot of getting nominated for something, I think two really stick out to me.

Speaker: um i think Indy Navarrete, obviously. Really? I think out of... Normally I would say no, but I mean like the New York Times was publishing pieces about obsession and like the Gen Z shakeup.

Speaker: And we're not even a year removed from a horror movie winning best supporting actress for weapons, Amy Madigan. She has, there's enough motion and enough fervor in the audience space that I think she could pull it off.

Speaker: ah She could pull off a nom. I'm not sure when she could pull off a nom. I think if anything else is going to see a nom, realistically, I think I could see Jafar Jackson getting a nom. I don't really think I would like that.

Speaker: I could see that happening. um And I think, here's a hot take, we see a nom from Project Hail Mary, but could it not be Ryan Gosling?

Speaker: think for Rocky? Rocky is eligible for Best Supporting Actress. The puppeteer is. I could see it. i There was talk about it, and I think if they push for it, I think they might get it.

Speaker: Just based on how this year is going so far. I think that'll all change when we have this conversation in like October. But right now, those are the two most outstanding performances to me. Where it's like, I think there's a realistic shot here that they can keep the momentum up. And it's indie and rock boy.

Speaker: My other one real quick before I get to yours, Tachi, my other pick for actress was Emily Blunt in Disclosure Day. I can realistically see a nomination for best actress for her, and I think we will.

Speaker: Yeah. I think that's the only nomination that movie could get that wouldn't make me upset. Yeah. That was going to be my pick, but that's okay. I pretty much agree with everything thing you guys are saying. And to speak to like the nominations from horror movies, I mean, Sinner's kind of swept. So I don't think it's that far-fetched for Ralph Fiennes or Indy to get a win.

Speaker: We'll see. Wow. I don't know. i don't really... I don't really see a world of Indy getting nominated, you know? And I couldn't tell you why.

Speaker: Like, her performance She's excellent in the movie. I don't know. We'll see. i I think it's early. It is early, but... i mean, just... Think about the discussion that we, like, are having.

Speaker: We can only yeah name a handful of... of ah of actors or Michael b Jordan for sinners was early. It was early. It was early. It's <unk> still early. what What did, what did we do? I I'm still not on board that for that win. If I'm being completely honest, it's, it's still early.

Speaker: um Okay. Well, it is early. So let's look ahead for what the rest of 2026 has to offer. Did you guys come up with a list of five to ten movies that you have that you're looking forward to?

Speaker: I have ten on the dot. Okay, I also have ten on the dot. Um, Tachi? I will try to have 10 on the dot. um I don't want to take anyone's thunder.

Speaker: I put honorable mentions, and I put one, two, three, four, or five, six, seven movies in my honorable mentions. And these are movies that come on that I know we're all looking forward to, that I know the world is looking forward to. I wanted to pick 10 that maybe we haven't talked about as much that the listeners maybe aren't.

Speaker: This going to wheel down my list to like eight. if Okay, so... I think we can all get Dune 3 and the Odyssey out of the way. Okay, those are the top two in my honorable mentions. Is that in your top ten at all? Those are in my top two. Okay. Those are one and two. Okay. okay um Maybe let's just start at number ten for all of us. We'll just quickly go through them.

Speaker: um And then at the end, I'll do the honorable mentions so I don't yuck anyone's yum. So I think for me, what I'm really excited for, besides Dune 3 and The Odyssey, that's one and two out of the way, I would say Hope.

Speaker: I'm super excited for Hope. I know it's been getting super divisive reviews, but I'm excited for Hope. um Wild Horse 9. ah Big fan of that director's work.

Speaker: um ah Solid cast. I'm excited. hu ah Paper Tiger. this I've heard it's like this crime movie starring Adam Driver.

Speaker: Big Adam Driver fan, so I'll be there. ah Samurai and the Prisoner. This is the new Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie coming out. um It's like a period piece detective story about Samurai, I think.

Speaker: That comes out in July, right? Or is it in June? It's next month. okay yeah I didn't want to watch the trailer just because it's so soon. I'm super, super excited for it. um Tony.

Speaker: yeah yeah Got my boy Dominic Sessa in it. And, you know I'm super excited to see what he does with his like next big movie. Right. I don't count that Christmas one.

Speaker: I think how to rob a bank has potential. To be fun, like a really actually fun, good movie. um It could also not be good.

Speaker: But. Who's that one directed by? i am going to check. Because I don't remember. i saw a poster for the other day and i was like, oh, that's kind of cool. It it I have high hope.

Speaker: Right. It's so it's um David Leitch. Who directed Bullet Train, Deadpool to the fall guy, Atomic Blonde. OK. Hobbs and a Shaw.

Speaker: Peak. ah Stars Nicholas Holt, Zoe Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Renzi Feliz, and Pete Davidson. OK. among others.

Speaker: um

Speaker: So that one i'm I'm excited for. I'm not like staking my reputation on it, but it's up there. La Gradiva is one that read about from Khan that I got pretty intrigued by. I believe this is a French film.

Speaker: Yes. ah Yeah, this is a French-language movie. um this is the This is the plot summary. A small group of French high school students goes on a school trip to Pompeii to discover its ruins and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius in 79 CE. It is in this ghost town that they are suddenly overcome by a dizzying sensation.

Speaker: One after another, James, Tony, Suzanne, and their Latin teacher... ah um mme mercier which i'm gonna assume is mademoiselle allow themselves to be engulfed by desire anger and despair until they surrender to it completely and lose everything i was like okay whoa i'm intrigued that sounds nice sick yeah and then ah this is one that we all saw the trailer for and i i was like i really want to see this movie it's finding emily ah It's that rom-com where the guy gets given the wrong number, and so he like tries to track down Emily via every Emily in the city. and And I'm sorry. I watched that trailer, and I was like, I need to see this. This it looks like cut it could tickle me pink.

Speaker: ah And I hope I'm pink come... Whoa. Hmm.

Speaker: I'm trying to find out when it releases. It's a bad time to pause. Yeah. i don't even see a U.S. release for it. It's not coming. Oh, August 28th.

Speaker: Okay. August 28th. I'll be tickled pink come August 28th. Well said. Thank you. Was that your number one spot? Finding Emily?

Speaker: that This is not in order. Okay. They're just, that's 10. All right. um Here are my 10. A couple that you had already mentioned. Paper Tiger, directed by James Gray, starring Adam Driver. Very much looking forward to that one.

Speaker: um The Adventures of Cliff Booth, I love Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I love David Fincher. I don't know what to expect out of this movie. I really don't. But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't looking forward to it.

Speaker: It could go either way. it could it really could. ah I'm surprised that it exists. Um... We'll see. Looking forward to it. ah Number eight, I have Club Kid, which is Jordan Firstman's directorial debut.

Speaker: um This movie had a lot of buzz coming out of Cannes. ah There was an intense bidding war. I believe A24 secured the distribution rights for about $17 million, starring Jordan Firstman, who directed it, and then Cara Delevingne. Hope, which you had mentioned.

Speaker: Number six, I have Clayface. horror DC movie. Teaser trailer looks insane. i love the poster. I'm stoked for it. um Number five, Whalefall, the Austin Abrams movie.

Speaker: He gets swallowed by a whale. Come on. I think that's going to be sick. Number four, The End of Oak Street, the new Ewan McGregor, Anne Hathaway movie. Streets are saying potential Cloverfield movie. I don't know.

Speaker: Something happens and their house is stuck in the dinosaur ages. I'm on board. ah Next one that I'm looking forward to at number four is Fjord, directed by Christian Munju.

Speaker: This one is starring Renata Reinsva and Sebastian Stan. um For those who aren't aware, this movie did very well at the most recent Cannes Film Festival, winning the top prize, ah the Palme d'Or.

Speaker: um Neon acquired this movie. The last few Palme d'Or winners, just to give some context. 2021, Teton. Next year, Triangle of Sadness. Anatomy of a Fall.

Speaker: Anora. And it was just an accident. So obviously, a lot of Oscar contenders. We have a Best Picture winner there from Neon in the last few years. So very much looking forward to Fjord. to Heard a lot of good things from that one.

Speaker: um Next one, Tom Cruise's Digger. Don't know what it's about. Don't know what he looks like, but I'm in. Unfortunate name. Still not a fan. And my number one spot, our boy, our goat, Robert Pattinson, primetime, Chris Hansen movie.

Speaker: Electric trailer. So good. He's doing a voice. That's what I got.

Speaker: Very nice. ah My list is in no particular order and it's a little mainstream, I guess. there There are a lot of good choices that you guys brought to the table that I forgot about.

Speaker: But yeah, no particular order. The Odyssey, Spider-Man brand new day, Clayface, the Hunger Games prequel. Yeah, prequel.

Speaker: Sunrise on the Reaping or the book. Really, really great book. surprisingly great book um avengers doomsday we will see it's highly anticipated for a lot of reasons uh dune part three can't wait to see our our boy and this one was kind of a surprise to me but for some reason i kind of want to watch minions and monsters I do too.

Speaker: I've never seen a Minions movie. I've never even seen a Despicable Me movie. Oh, wow. I think I've seen the first two. I don't know. Minions and Monsters is just calling to me. It looks interesting. Jesse Eisenberg is in it, which I didn't know.

Speaker: um He talked about it on Hot Ones a little bit. like That was the movie he was promoting. but parent so This movie is like a love letter to old Hollywood. um Kind of Babylon-esque when you read the synopsis. It's about some minions. so I know we have a main group of minions from the Despicable Me movies, but this Minions movie follows a different group of minions.

Speaker: I mean, I think Jesse Eisenberg plays one of them, but these guys are basically auteurs. They're like filmmakers or they want to be filmmakers. And it's them going through time, I think, from the times of Hollywood transitioning from no sound to sound, which is why I say it's Babylon-esque. So there's a lot of um ah nods and like a love letter to cinema new and old.

Speaker: So I'm kind of interested to watch it too. can probably expect to hear the uh was it the wilhelm scream at some point yeah for sure oh yeah everyone knows it i'd bet money on it that will that will hear we're gonna see the origins of the wilhelm scream yeah um Yeah, no, actually, i didn't know anything about that.

Speaker: I think I only saw, like, the poster. And it pulled you in. It just pulled me in, yeah. Last three, Resident Evil, starring Austin Abrams. Really excited to see that one.

Speaker: got I have high hopes for... ah The Kregger to strike again. i'm nine months Kregnant. yeah Then Digger, like you you highlighted.

Speaker: It's a mystery. We'll see. is. And then lastly, I'm surprised Alex didn't bring it up. Or maybe he did and I just forgot. But Godzilla minus zero. Yep. It looks, sounds incredible.

Speaker: Cannot wait. Yeah. I'm also surprised that he didn't bring it up. so um Yeah. i don't I don't know how I missed that one. Being real. For my honorable mentions, I had Dune 3, The Odyssey, Werewolf, Avengers Doomsday, and Godzilla Minus Zero.

Speaker: Very nice. And you can confidently take that we're excited for Avengers Doomsday off the list. Wait, off the list? off the list i am so curious to see what the movie's gonna be but i'm curious to see but i'm not like waiting with bated breath i'm i'm kind of chomping at the bit i'm not gonna lie like what is this gonna be you know what talk to me after spider-man yeah h which we'll have an episode on late july that movie comes out pretty late it's gonna have some tie-in to doomsday so yeah 100 uh anything else from you guys

Speaker: I think that's it. Like we said, backloaded year for sure. Like I'm very excited for the rest of the year. i'm excited to do episodes on a number of different things and to come back to our top 10, see where it's at. Listeners, let us know what you're excited for.

Speaker: Don't forget to follow us on Letterboxd, TikTok, Instagram. Let us know what you're excited about. But other than that, thank you so much for listening and will see you guys in the next episode. Bye. Peace.

Speaker: Peace.

Speaker: Thank you.