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September 8, 2026 • 71 mins

From the writer/directors of Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Apple TV’s Cold War comedy Mayday was a promising title on the 2026 streaming movie calendar. Unfortunately, Matt and Jordan agree that the film isn’t the equal to those earlier films (no thanks to a phoned-in performance from Ryan Reynolds), despite a clever premise and the presence of Kenneth Branagh, who is having the time of his life. Matt digs into Branagh’s strange career in the Rec Seg, suggesting an early Branagh effort (as both director and star) as an alternative, and Jordan answers with a film that finds Christian Bale as a fighter pilot caught behind enemy lines. Plus, Bran-agh Flakes!, a Jordan-hosted game.

(Timecodes will not be precise with ads.)

Intro (00:00:00–00:05:43)

Mayday (00:05:44–00:26:32)

Rec Seg! (00:26:33–00:44:40)

Game: Bran-agh Flakes (00:44:41–01:02:24)

New to Streaming / Credits (01:02:25–01:11:29)

Show Notes

Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/

Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790241/funny-business-by-matt-singer/

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's 1987.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
A U.S.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Navy pilot flying over Soviet Russia is forced to eject
to avoid colliding with a Russian MiG. He should have inverted!
In the Russian wilderness, he meets an eccentric former KGB officer.
It's May Day with Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. Now
on Apple TV. I'm Matt Singer.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
With more movies, more series, more stuff going straight to
streaming than ever before. It felt like the right time
for a podcast that keeps track of it all. And
that podcast is FilmSpotting SVU. This week, we've got a
review of Mayday, plus some Mayday-inspired streaming recommendations. Cold War comedies,
Kenneth Branagh doing a Russian accent, maybe. We'll also tell
you about this week's new to VOD streaming titles and

(00:52):
a new game. A game that I created, so I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I'm terrified.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
What could it be?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
What could Jordan have made? Nothing good, I'm sure. But
it's all coming up on Film Spotting SVU.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Welcome to Film Spotting SVU. I'm Jordan Hoffman. Later in
the show, we got the Rex Egg!

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Woo!

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Streaming recommendations inspired by this week's main film, Mayday, which
is on Apple... Is it Apple TV or Apple Plus?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
What is it called now? No, it's Apple... I can
explain this. It's Apple TV. It used to be, when
they introduced it, it was Apple TV Plus.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Right, no more Plus.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And then they, uh... They Sean Parkered it or whoever
it is from Napster, you know, we lost, they lost
the plus it was cleaner. And I made the mistake
recently of calling it Apple TV plus. And I am
like within seconds of posting something on screen crush.com got
an email, a sternly worded email from someone at Apple
being like, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
The ghost of Steve jobs. No, no. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
It's Apple TV.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
So we're going to.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Talk about mayday, but first I got to kvetch about something.
I got to, I got to get it out of
the way. Now, this is not a video.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Sam, cue up the Jordan Hoffman anecdote sound right here.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Now, this is not a video podcast, but Sam and
Matt can see me and they might see that I
look a little crazy. I got my headphones all done
in a weird way.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Are you just about to DJ a set? Are you
at a club?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I do look like. Oh man. I just saw a
movie actually that had like DJ stuff. Oh yeah. Well,
that's actually, that's for the Rex egg. So I can't,
I can't spoil it now. Right now is the 60th
anniversary of Star Trek. So at a lot of the theaters,
they've been doing a four, a four day run Star Trek,
the motion picture, which has been programmed alongside original series,

(02:49):
the changeling Star Trek to the wrath of Khan programmed
alongside space seed, which had the original record a month
ago as Khan and, Today, as we're recording Star Trek III,
program with Mock Time. Tomorrow, Star Trek IV, program with
City on the Edge of Forever, both time travel related. Okay, fine.
So I went to number one. I went to number
two yesterday. I had a great time. I went with
my wife. We saw one of my favorite movies of

(03:11):
all time, Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan. Now,
I ask you, this is part of the game, Matt Singer,
producer Sam, don't think I say to you, Star Trek II,
The Wrath of Khan, what comes into your mind? Literally. Literally.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Kong!

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
But what else crawls into your mind and bites you?

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Oh, that little bug creature thing. The mind-controlling goober.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Please, it's a seti eel. Oh, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
My apologies to the residents of Seti.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
The seti eel! It's a seti eel.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
And it's one of the most traumatic images in cinema.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yes, it's very disturbing.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
It's a great movie.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
They stick this brain bug.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
In Walter Koenig's ear.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
And also Paul Winfield's ear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They put
it in the helmet and stick the helmet on the
head and it crawls across as it goes into the
ear and it's disgusting.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Today, and I loved it because I love this movie.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Oh, no.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Today, I woke up and my outer ear is red, hot, itchy,
and gross. And I don't know what caused it.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Thank God this isn't a video podcast.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Do you have a, you have the steady ear?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
I blame, it's because cinema is, makes me, it makes
me so compassionate. It is the empathy engine, as Roger
Ebert liked to say, that I became one.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Your ears are weeping. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
So all day long, I was like, I got a
bug bite. It'll go away. I took Benadryl. I got
a bug bite. But then my wife and I just now,
five minutes before we started recording, I started, well, where
is the bite? We couldn't actually find a bite. I
don't have a bug bite. I have some kind of
weird ear infection.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Oh, no.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Now it's too late for me to go to the doctor,
the walk-in clinic. So tomorrow. So I have to survive
the night. Pray with me. My red ear does not destroy. Luckily,
my whole system is fighting back. But clearly the blame
lies with Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, because

(05:12):
that is an ear infector's delight, and I have been affected.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Wow. I appreciate you toughing it out so we can
record some podcasts here.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Good on you.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Sam, I just want to point out, this segment needs
both the anecdote.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Sound effect and the Star Trek sound effect.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
It needs both.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
At the same time? Should I create a new?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
I think it's a new drop.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
First, we're going to talk about Mayday. How good you
have not died. Who are you? Why am I tied
to the bed?

Speaker 1 (05:47):
So that you would not move during the surgery.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
What do you mean surgery?

Speaker 4 (05:50):
In your leg, I repaired an artery.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
You screamed a lot, but that is my fault because
I do not have proper anesthesia.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Mariners and pilots have used the term Mayday when in
distress for over a century. And if the movie Mayday
has done nothing else, it got me off my ass
to ask the computer why this is. Do you know,
Matt Singer? Do you know, Sam?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
I have no idea. No, tell us. I'm actually genuinely curious.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Sam, any idea why they say Mayday? I really don't.
I want to know, though.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, I didn't know either. I was just like you
12 hours ago. It comes from the French. Mayday. M
apostrophe A-I-D-E-Z. It's French for aid me. Aid me, aid me. Ma-ay-day. Sure,
it makes sense. Ma-ay-day is French for aid me. How
about that? So this movie is a net positive because

(06:41):
it taught me that little factoid, and it taught you too, right?
Net positive. Well, not for long. Now we're going to
talk about it. Ma-ay-day was also a holiday in the
Soviet Union, one of the big ones, and it ties
into this new film written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein
and John Francis Daly, whose previous work includes Dungeons &
Dragons Honor Among Thieves. Game Night and the Vacation remake.

(07:04):
The logline is this. It's 1987. We're in the last
phase of the Cold War and America is winning because
we've got movies like Top Gun and albums like Born
in the USA. And they've got nothing other than Tetris,
which is on a Japanese system anyway. They're a bunch
of losers. Ryan Reynolds is assassin. And his character is

(07:25):
what you get when you open up Anthropix Claude and say,
make me Maverick from Top Gun, but also do it
like Ryan Reynolds. He zips around and is the best
there is, and he also makes jokes about the Cabbage
Patch Kids. Anyway, the CIA recruits him to be part
of the SR-71 surveillance project, which was actually a real thing,
but does it in a way that's utterly preposterous, which

(07:45):
I'll get into later. The point is this. In May Day,
he shot down over Russia and ends up in misery. Why?
Because his leg is impaled in a sharp piece of wood? Well, yes,
but he also ends up in the movie Misery because
he's tied to a bed by a crazy Russian dude
played by Kenneth Branagh, who is obsessed with American culture,
particularly Top Gun-esque pilots. It later turns out that he's

(08:06):
an ex-KGB super spy. So the two pair up to,
I don't know, win the day somehow. The movie is
very much on autopilot. Is the movie any good? Well,
it is not entirely without its charms. Kenneth Branagh, Very entertaining.
Kenneth Branagh. How does he say his name?

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Is he related to Grogu?

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah. Kenneth Branagh. Branagh. Branagh. He's not Klingon. Kenneth Branagh
is better when served live. Kenneth Branagh rules. There are
some very good montages in the Soviet countryside set to
the unlikely tunes of Bruce Springsteen. And there's one very, very, very,
very funny joke at the end. That's a spoiler, but

(08:48):
I'm not going to give it away. But it's very,
very funny. But that's about it. The movie blows. It's
worrisome because Dungeons and Dragons was quite good. And these
guys are allegedly developing the new Star Trek movie. This
is true. And based on this disaster, I don't want
them touching Star Trek. I don't want them anywhere near it.
We could talk more about why specifically they're wrong for
Star Trek in a moment. And also some of their

(09:09):
crimes against aviation. But first, I have to ask, Matt Singer,
what did you think?

Speaker 1 (09:16):
I might have liked it a little more than you.
I don't know that I would call it a disaster,
but it is certainly a big step down from at
least a few of those movies you mentioned by these
guys previously. Game Night, which I think is a really,
really funny movie. And I enjoyed Dungeons and Dragons as well.
That was a very enjoyable blockbuster movie. I did not.

(09:38):
You mentioned Vacation. I forgot that they did that one.
I thought that movie was kind of borderline unwatchable.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, I don't remember it too well. I thought it
was fine.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
This this I thought was better than Vacation, but it
was definitely a step down from those other ones. And
it's okay I think it is it very much feels
like the level of quality feels like a lot of
these streaming movies where you know we've got a couple
of big name actors and we have a high concept

(10:08):
and we put some money into the special effects and
that's gonna be good enough you know it's like it
doesn't it often feels like you're getting the first or
second draft it often feels like you know, the actors
are kind of on autopilot. You made that joke, but
it is actually apt here. I mean, I think I
should say, Kenneth Branagh, or Branagh, he's having a lot

(10:30):
of fun, and I enjoyed watching him.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
He's having a great time. He's a saving grace.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
He is like, you know, you can tell this is
a guy, and we'll talk about it in the related
recommendation part of the rec seg, but he has a
fascinating career, Kenneth Branagh. Now I can't say it naturally
and correctly. But you do get the sense watching this
movie that this guy has been waiting his whole life

(10:54):
for someone to say to him, you get to play
the badass action hero. And you get to make jokes.
And you get to use a wacky accent. But you're
going to have crazy martial arts moves. And he looks
like he is having an absolute ball. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's the closest he'll ever come to doing an Arnold.
I mean, he's not doing an Austrian accent, but he's
doing a Russian accent and he's funny.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
He's, I mean, it's like basically being like, you get
to play like, what if Yakov Smirnoff was Jason Bourne?
Have at it. And that's what he delivers. And you
know what? He's the best part. He's having a great time.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
He's very good. But it's funny because you say it
looks like the first draft and the fight choreography is good.
I mean, like it's like, You know, we can joke
and say, oh, they just started shooting and they didn't
have a script. These movies take time. They take development.
There are all kinds of, you know, department heads that
have to present ideas and get approved. And it's not

(11:50):
like it happens overnight, which leads me to say... Why
didn't they have a better script before they did everything else?
I mean, it looks good. The special effects look good.
The locations. I don't think they shot in Russia, but
they shot it somewhere cold. They went up to Canada
or something.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
And they're running around in the snow. And then the
sets look great. It looks like 19, not that I've
ever been in the 1970s Soviet Union, but it certainly
looks like it does in the movies. And they got
cool props and costumes. Why didn't they take a minute
to say, let's make this smarter, especially when these guys
know how to do that? Dungeons and Dragons and Game
Night are very smart movies.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
It's not a case of bringing in talented writers and
handing them a script. They're the ones who are credited
as the writers of the script, and they've written good movies.
So I am sort of at a loss about that.
I just felt like, as first or second draft as
the movie was, the other big thing is, I mean,
Ryan Reynolds is the guy who... Again, I think Ryan
Reynolds can be a very charming actor. He's a handsome

(12:47):
looking gentleman. You know, he has a presence.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
He does the same thing over and over again.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say. What
has he ever.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Done that isn't this guy? I mean, he's doing Deadpool.
He's doing some other things.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
And in fact, I was... We're going to get into
this also in the rec seg. I was thinking about
recommending something that was unlike what he does now. Because
he can do other things. And he has in the past.
And then I realized... Actually, we've gotten a bunch of
listener requests for recommendations recently, and the movie I was
going to pick is the perfect movie to recommend for

(13:21):
one of those listener recommendations.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
I'm tuning into this episode. This episode is leading me on.
Nobody's tuning in.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
So you'll have to come back another week, because we're
going to talk about it another week. But he is
capable of other things. I've seen him do it, but
he is really phoning it in here. He is doing
the Ryan Reynolds shtick. I mean, he's Deadpool without the makeup.
He is just– he could be playing that character.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
I was rolling my eyes a lot. He doesn't talk
to the.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Camera, but other than that, he is– it's like there
are so many jokes in this movie– where he makes
a remark about someone invading his personal space. I don't
know if this is like a real bugaboo for the
real Ryan Reynolds, but that's his thing. He loves to
have someone get up in his business and then say
things like, you are scorching my ear with the heat
of your breath. He does that at least like five

(14:10):
times in this movie. And it's like... It just, it's
supposed to come off as like quick and it just
feels so calculated at this point because he.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Does it so much. And it's like, it all comes
from like, you know, here he is, he's a tough guy.
He's supposed to be an action hero, but then he
says something that like, oh, but I'm, you know, modern
and I understand therapy and I understand, you know, I've
taken a lot of HR meetings about how to be polite.
Like that's the comedy and he's done it over and

(14:40):
over and over again. It's very dull, but. I will say,
I mean, the action sequences are fine, but I will
say that the production design is pretty good. Yes, it is.
I do have to say one thing. Now, we have
a little bit of a ringer here on Film Spotting SVU.
I happen to be very good friends with someone whose
name I will not divulge, and she works at NASA.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
And she, as Matt Singer is to the movie Gymkata...
She is to specialty planes, much like the SR-71. Wow.
So I send her, like, this is her hobby, is
to read about planes. So I send her a note.
I said, hey, I just saw a movie called Mayday.
And she's like, the SR-71 movie? And I'm like, why, yes,

(15:23):
it is. And she's like, tell me all that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Because I'm very concerned that they're not treating the... So
I explained to her what the movie's premise is. And she, like, nearly...
And then next I heard she was in the emergency
room because she passed out because of how... No, I'm
joking about that. But she was very upset.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
You didn't give her the ear infection, did you? No, no.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Okay, good.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Okay, that was a joke.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Continue. I'm going to just, she sent me then, I said,
please tell me. And so she started sending me a
lot of information about what this movie does that is
a crime. Okay. To people who care.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Classified documents that you're not supposed to have.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
I mean, look, there's a thing like you watch a
movie and it's about your subject matter and they get
it wrong. And that's annoying to anybody. But let me
just say this. And she actually did take, she's like,
let me go grab some books off my shelf. And
she started circling stuff and books and taking photographs. So
she really went hardcore. But I'm just going to read
you a few of the paragraphs you sent to me.

(16:18):
Number one, I will keep it brief, but there are
about five different engineering reasons why this would not happen.
And the this.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
I was going to say, what is this? Yeah, for
someone who hasn't seen the Mayday yet.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
The premise is he's on the SR set. Well, the
big premise is he's super top gun maverick and he's
such a badass in San Diego that the top brass
pulls him aside. We want you on the black ops mission.
And they zoom him off to Northern Europe somewhere. And
it's a secret mission that... Where the SR-71 was going
to be involved in espionage. And that part is true.
And the espionage missions were run by the CIA. That

(16:50):
part is true also.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
And the SR-71, the Blackbird, this is the... Not for
a different kind of nerd. This is the plane the
X-Men fly. This is like the real version of the
X-Men's like super fancy plane.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yes. Which has a name. The Blackbird.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
SR-71.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Okay. Yeah. So now in.
In the movie, they take our guy, Assassin, our Maverick,
Ryan Reynolds, and he knows how to fly a different plane.
He flies plane A.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
He's like Maverick. He literally is Maverick. He flies fighter jets.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
So they put him in this thing and say, okay,
you're flying this new plane now.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
You're the wingman, basically.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, none. With no training.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
It's the same thing. That's not how it's done?

Speaker 2 (17:34):
That's not.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
That's not accurate.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
They just say, you're up, assassin. Get in there. And
it's like, what? So when I told my friend that
she hit the roof, she's like, what? It takes months
and months of dedicated training. And I said, well, it's
not only that. They don't have him fly it. He's
in charge of doing the photographs.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, he's like the navigator position.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
And he's like, well, he's not even the navigator. His
job is just to press record on the camera. And
in case the main guy gets injured, he can take over,
which is exactly what happens. And then she said, well,
that's absurd too, because it's a very specific skill to
take photographs. You don't train to be a pilot. You
train to be the photographer. Like that's what you do.

(18:13):
So anyway, let me just back up and say, But
the thing is this. I said they send the SR-71
to go over Russia and take photographs of a thing.
And she's like, well, that's not what they used it for.
And I'll explain why. The whole point and purpose of
the SR-71 was that it flies higher and faster than
anything that would be trying to shoot it down. And
it's also not maneuverable. It is not a nimble little fighter.

(18:34):
jet to be dancing around with a missile. The flight
characteristics in that trailer are totally unrealistic. They did not
cross into Soviet airspace with them. The whole point was
not to repeat the deal with Francis Gary Powers in
the U2, which is mentioned directly in this film and
is sort of what happens to... To Ryan Reynolds, he
gets shot down. The SR-71 flew super high for two reasons.

(18:55):
To be flying higher than what might try to intercept it,
but more importantly, it was so it could take pictures
of things without overflying them directly. If you fly high
up enough, you don't need to fly over it to
see it. You need to fly near it and be
able to see, to look over the side. In other words,
it's the curvature of the earth helps you with this.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Right.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Why is a Top Gun pilot taking the photos? Photo
reconnaissance is a special skill in a role that you
train for. I'll just say that the SR-71, and I said, well,
in this movie, they have to go low, and that's
why they get shot down, and she flipped out. The
SR-71 is not a go-low plane any more than a
Ferrari is a drive-slow car. Yeah, you start out low
and slow, but they're not entering to stay there. And

(19:36):
if you need to go low to take some pictures,
there are hundreds and hundreds of other kinds of planes
that you can use.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
You're going to have to pay this woman's therapy bills.
You've ruined her life.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
But then I said, I explained how there's like a
cool dog fight. And she goes, the SR-71 was not
designed to be maneuverable like that. The whole point of
the SR-71 is that if you're being pursued by literally
any other plane out there, All you have to do
is accelerate in a straight line and you will outrun
anything behind you. I can't believe it. So there goes

(20:05):
the movie right there. I'm shocked.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
I thought this was borderline documentary footage.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
You know, she does go on, but this is enough.
I think we have enough here. I think it's enough, yes.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
But that is... I have to say I suspected, but
now it's confirmed that this movie is hogwash.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Full BS. But super sad, and I don't need to interrupt,
but super sad because these are the guys with the
fingers on the warp core. Do you want people with
such disrespect for the SR-17 to be touching the USS
Enterprise A, B, C, or D? Red alert. Absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Red alert.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I do not trust them with the Star Trek IP.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
This was the bigger problem that I had than any
of their use of the Blackbird. I think that the
premise here... is a perfectly viable one for a buddy comedy.
The idea that this, you know, Maverick from Top Gun
is shot down and he's rescued in Russia by Russian

(21:06):
Jason Bourne, who's also Yakov Smirnov.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Who loves America.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Who worships America and also has a bootleg copy of
Top Gun and has watched it a hundred times. The
problem is, not the construction, it is the execution, which is, again,
getting back to Ryan Reynolds, who doesn't present in any
way like Maverick in this movie. You know, like, he's
the right type of actor to play this part. But he, again,

(21:31):
he's making these snarky comments. He's doing his Deadpool shtick.
He doesn't act in any way like a hotshot fighter pilot.
And in fact, there's a moment, you know, there's this
subplot in the movie about Branagh's daughter uh who's played
by maria bakalova from borat 2 who he's you know
trying to like he feels bad about his relationship he's

(21:53):
he's upset her and they're kind of estranged and then
of course there's an opportunity to reconcile and and and
uh and and ryan reynolds is like giving him fatherly
advice this like hot shot navy pilot.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
No that's not what it's not what maverick and goose
would do.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right and at one point kenneth Branagh's character even says
to him like are.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
All fighter pilots as sensitive as you and it's like
you're not allowed in the movie that you have created
to like make this ridiculous character who makes no sense
and then just.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Make fun of it like making jokes about how implausibly
sensitive he is Doesn't make us forget that he's implausibly sensitive.
It's like they have a good idea here. And I
could see this working with maybe even with these actors.
I guess you just have to direct maybe Ryan Reynolds more.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
But that was the real thing that I was upset
about was this like they don't deliver on kind of
the potential of this premise. They don't really exploit it
for the humor that could be in there.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
It is troubling, and it's annoying. And, you know, you're
left off, like, you know, when the daughter character shows
up at the very end, there's like 15 minutes left
in the movie, they tack on like a human rights thing. Like,
the daughter is gay, and in the Soviet Union, there
were not a lot of rights for gay people. And
it's like, this is a silly, jokey movie about Kenneth
Branagh playing Bruce Springsteen songs and watching Top Gun. And like,

(23:21):
all of a sudden now, it's a gay rights movie.
At the end, it's so stapled on, and it was...
just sad. It was just, it was just corny and
lame and, you know, treat it with respect. Treat, treat
a real human rights issue with respect. Don't, don't add
it in. It really felt like a studio note. And

(23:42):
the daughter's gay.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Why?

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Because we haven't done anything about human rights in this movie. Okay. Yeah.
She's gay. Great. Come on. This movie sucks. Let's move on.
Let's just, I have nothing more to say. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Well, It's it's it's not great. But on the other hand,
it's not Desert Warrior. And so I got to say.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
No, it's better than that. I was able to watch
in one sitting. Yes.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
By a wide margin, it is a more competent and
mildly entertaining film. We haven't mentioned, actually, the one thing
I I did enjoy a lot was I did enjoy
that there was a chase in this chase scene in
this movie, as there must be. It's a buddy. You know,
it's midnight run in Russia with Top Gun. It's you know,
that's in the mix. I have to say that in
all my years watching a lot of buddy movies, I've

(24:27):
never seen a chase scene that involves like a nuclear
weapon carrier. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
A transport vehicle.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
That's in a rich look. Look, I see a lot
of movies. It's rare that I see something new. So
that is something new.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
There were a couple of jokes. I mean, I'm not
going to ruin it at all. No, we won't spoil jokes.
But there is one gag at the end that was like,
holy shit, these guys are clever.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
And Ryan Reynolds delivered the line. And I'm like, oh,
Ryan Reynolds, that's a Grand Slam home run of a joke.
One joke destroyed me that I had.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
To rewind a few times. There was one joke that
I laughed very hard at. Off mic, when we stop
for this segment, we're going to see, did we laugh
at the same one joke?

Speaker 2 (25:04):
I'm sure we did. Well, listen, by the way, the
executive producer of Mayday... Ryan Reynolds. Mayday is currently streaming.
And not Kenneth Branagh. He's just like, hire me. I'm
acting in this. And then I'm gone. I'm moving on to.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Do something better. Well, you didn't see Kenneth Branagh's name.
But look just lower. Look down there.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
There it is.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Kenneth Branagh. You just looked in the wrong spot.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
The wrong name. Mayday is currently streaming on Apple TV.
Subscription service you may actually have. Because if you buy
a new iPhone, they give it to you for free
for a couple months. And then you forget to cancel it.
And then you have it forever. Got feedback? You can
send us a note. Feedback at filmspottingsvu.com. That's feedback at filmspottingsvu.com.

(25:46):
We got some funny emails last week. Somebody... I forgot
what it was, but somebody said that I was right
and you were wrong. So I really liked that guy.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Oh, yeah, that was a classic. That one from that
guy whose name you can't think of said you were right.
This is you're imagining things.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
But there was somebody else. You're delusional.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
You have ear-itis. You got the alien bug from Wrath
of Khan and you're not thinking straight.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Big up to Tony Harden from Liberty, Missouri, who said
I was full of shit. He hated the movie Jerry.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
He did.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Remember, because I recommended Jerry, he said it was 103
minutes of people that don't like not doing anything nor
saying anything interesting in any way. So we also got
some people telling me to go screw. And you're welcome
to do that, too, just like that guy did out
there in Missouri. Don't love Russia.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
All right, Matt Singer, listeners. Yeah. Wait, wait.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
We did discuss the joke that made us laugh. It
was two different jokes. They were both funny.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
So the movie has at least two solid jokes. But
they were both at the same scene at the end
of the movie.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, there's like the big climax where there's jokes zinging.
And we both agreed with the other person that their
joke was good, too. Yeah, so there's a couple of them. Yeah,
so anyhow, listen. Listeners, it's time. It's time for the
recommendation segment, also known as, and I hand Matt Singer
the microphone.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Rex Egg!

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Rex Egg.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
The recommendation segment!

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Rex Egg. Everybody loves the Rex Egg.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Jordan wants to go first this week.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
No, I don't want to go first. Oh, you want
me to go first? Okay. Now, we just watched Mayday,
a film about all the things we just said it
was about. What do you recommend... What do you recommend
to watch in perhaps in lieu of or in addition
to something connected?

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yes. Well, we talked about a lot of the kind
of the starting places I thought about during the review.
I did think about wanting to recommend something that Ryan
Reynolds did that shows he can act and not just
do the same shtick. And then I realized that it
is going to be a perfect recommendation for a future
rec seg with someone requesting something, a listener. So I'm

(27:58):
going to save it. I'm putting it in my pocket.
I'm pocketing that recommendation. So I decided instead to go
with Branagh. And what is strange, as I said, thinking
about this man's career, it is a very strange career. Almost,
I cannot think of a comparable one, at least in
modern Hollywood. this Shakespearean wunderkind. He becomes this very respected

(28:23):
filmmaker doing a lot of critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning adaptations of Shakespeare.
And then in 2011, he directs Thor, where you go, okay, well,
Thor was basically Stan Lee doing superhero Shakespeare. So, okay,
I kind of can see that. But then he just like,
he like fell into like an abyss of mainstream junk, basically.

(28:45):
And he's had a few highlights. I do really like,
I will say, Kenneth Branagh's live-action Cinderella is a very
good movie.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Oh, I've never seen that.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
And one of the only live-action remakes by Disney that
I would say is better than the original film.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Oh, that's bold. My wife loves Cinderella. So I have
seen the original animated Cinderella many times. It is a
beautiful movie, but it is not a great movie. And
the best stuff that everyone loves is about 15 minutes
of it. And the rest of it is the mice
running around, making a dress and running away from a cat.
Nobody remembers this. The Kenneth Branagh version, I think, was

(29:26):
a lovely and good movie. But then he's also made
all those Poirot movies, most of which I didn't think
were very good.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
The third Poirot rules. What?

Speaker 1 (29:35):
A haunting in Venice?

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Really good. I love that movie.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Agree with this, Sam?

Speaker 3 (29:42):
I like both. I like the one in the Nile.
I like the one in Venice.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
I think they're good.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
I don't think they're great, but I think they're good.
I'm positive on all three, and I think Venice is
in a class above.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
He had a lot of fun shooting Venice. There's a
lot of fun cinematography.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
I mean, I think that's something that connects with Mayday
as well. He seems to be having a good time.
The audience not always.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Having a good time. What's your recommendation? I'm not done.
I'm not done here.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
You wanted me to go first?

Speaker 2 (30:11):
I'm going first. All right, go, go, go.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
We haven't mentioned Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
No.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
We haven't mentioned Artemis Fowl. Truly one of the worst
movies I've ever seen in my entire life. But every
time his name comes up, I still think this is
a talented guy. So I wanted to recommend something that
shows why, especially when I was younger, I thought Kenneth
Branagh was an important director. So I am recommending... Henry V,

(30:42):
his directorial debut, which is currently streaming on Prime Video,
which is in its own way, it's not necessarily an
action comedy, but it is an action movie. And I went,
you know, I'm going to say, I'm not a, probably
people will be shocked to hear this, but I'm not
a Shakespeare scholar. There's plenty of plays that I've never played.

(31:06):
read or seen performed. And I've never seen Henry V performed.
I've only seen the movie versions. And there are plenty
of Shakespeare movies that I don't even like. I'm not
crazy about. Sometimes I struggle with the language. If they're
too stagey, I'm not a big fan.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
This is like your St. Christmas Day speech. This is great. Yes.
You're building us up. We few.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
We happy few who love Jim Cotta, but sometimes can't
get on board with Shakespeare.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
But I do like Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. It is
not just, you know, we're going to do the play
and stick a camera in front of it. It is
a movie and movie in all, you know, all capital letters.
And it announces that from the very beginning. It has
the chorus from the play played by Derek Jacoby. It
dressed in modern clothes, speaking directly to the camera as

(31:55):
he walks through a sound stage.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
A kingdom for a stage. Princes to act. And monarchs
to behold the swelling scene.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Immediately, you've got my attention.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
I'm hooked.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
And it helps you. He explains fairly clearly in Shakespearean
language what's about to happen and the context of what's
going to occur. But also establishing like the artifice of
what we are witnessing, even though the rest of the
movie has a very convincing reality to it. And I
love that choice. And, you know, okay, Rana is great

(32:33):
in this movie, and he is Henry V. He's got
great actors around him. Brian Blessed. What's that?

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Brian Blessed as Falstaff, right? It's incredible.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
That's a small role. He's also got Ian Holm, Judi Dench,
Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Paul Schofield, a very young Christian Bale,
fresh off of Empire of the Sun. Incredible. Mm-hmm. And
even though it is his feature film debut as a director,
he's he is a director. And there is incredible sets

(33:06):
and costumes and violence and action. But there's also great
use of the camera in terms of when to.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Move in for close ups, when to hold on shots.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
And you mentioned the St. Crispin Day speech yesterday. He
delivers it magnificently, incredibly.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
This day is called the Feast of Crispian.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
He that outlives.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
This day and comes safe home will stand at tiptoe
when this day is named and rouse him at the
name of Crispian.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
That sequence is amazing. The music by Patrick Doyle is amazing.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
And did it differently than Laurence Olivier.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
It is a very different film than Laurence Olivier's film.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Yes. When Kenneth Branagh made this movie at the very
young age of 20.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yes, he was a young man.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
He looks like a baby face.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
I think he's 29, I think.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
29. Okay. Still pretty young. There were many in the
film Cognizante. Sam is old enough to remember because he's
around the same age I am. People were saying he
is our new Orson Welles. Yes. He was a big deal. Yeah.
And much like Orson Welles, he never made a movie
as good as his first movie. So in a way,

(34:18):
he was our new Orson Welles.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yes, and much like Orson Welles, he took gigs clearly
for the money a lot of times, which, God bless him,
I'm not judging him, but I'm just.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Artemis Fowl was his frozen peas commercial, I guess.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
It's an interesting comparison to make. Anyway, yes, this is
a fabulous movie, and.
I was glad to, I rewatched it this week and
really enjoyed revisiting it. And, you know, I'm not going
to tell you don't watch Mayday. If you're in the
mood for exactly what we described, it's fine. But this

(34:50):
is a real, like, this is like smelling salts. You
put this, you're like, whoa, forget that guy. Look at
this guy. And he's 30 years older. And I get
it when, you know, like he doesn't have the enthusiasm
and energy of a young man anymore and a young filmmaker,
but man, yeah. There's some juice in this one.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah, I mean, there is an argument to be made
that Bernard's Henry V is the greatest Shakespeare on film.
You can make the case, and I probably have written
that top 10 list at some point in my career
and said, sure, why not? And made that number one.
It's a good one. Either way, it's a good one.
It's as good as it gets.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
It is streaming if you want to watch it. I
watched it on Prime Video. So that's where it's streaming
right now. Jordan, what is your recommendation?

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Free for subscribers? You didn't have to pay extra? Yes.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Prime video subscription.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yes. Well, my rec seg is nowhere near as good
as Henry V, but it's still pretty good. Now, also,
this might be the first time, and it's kind of cheating,
but kind of. My rec seg is actually two recommendations,
and it will become relevant, and you'll understand why. I
was thinking a lot about our friend Ryan Reynolds, Assassin.

(36:00):
Shot down behind enemy lines. Movies about people shot down
enemy lines. Who remembers a movie with Christian Bale?

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Boy, he's everywhere this week.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Steve Zahn.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Jeremy Davies. Oh. And I'm blanking on other names that
are recognizable.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Well, as a recognizable director, certainly.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Sam has given me the I don't know look. Mm-hmm.
The movie came out just about 20 years ago, and
it's called Rescue Dawn. Oh my God, is it that old?

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Oh, that's upsetting. That is very upsetting.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Sam just gave me the, oh, of course, I've seen it.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yes, of course.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Rescue Dawn is a movie about, it's set during the
Vietnam conflict, 1966. Christian Bale plays a German-American pilot by
the name of Dieter Dengler, who was shot down over Laos,
and he is captured, and then he is in a
prison camp. They want him to sign some sort of
document renouncing the USA. He says, I won't do it.

(36:55):
They set him in a prison camp. They handcuff him
to other prisoners. He's tortured. He wants to escape. The
others won't do it because they don't want to escape
because they have no shoes and they're in the middle
of the jungle. They know that they'll die. But then
they overhear that things are pretty rough in that prison
camp and the captors are They're not having any fun.
They're starving along with the prisoners. They say, if we

(37:18):
kill our prisoners, we'll have no reason to be here.
We can all leave and go home. That's a pretty
good idea. They know that their number is up. They
have to leave. They try to escape. They all flee.
Things go from bad to worse. It is a great
survival story. It is directed by one of the great
directors of Man vs. Nature, Werner Herzog. Um, and it is, uh, bleak, uh,

(37:45):
maybe looking, I mean, it's, it's a war movie and it's, it's,
it's kind of, it's kind of hard to watch at times,
but the performances are great. Christian Bale is skinny as
a rail. He did that a lot back then. Steve
Zahn is, uh, great as the terrified best pal and
Jeremy Davies, who, what happened to that guy? Is he,
is he still acting Jeremy Davies? He kind of.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
We'll have to look.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
I haven't thought about him in a while, but he,
he had a great run in the, early 2000s as
the spaced out guy who's just kind of lost his marbles.
And frankly, if I were in a prison camp, I'd
probably lose my marbles too. It's a little bleak. And
then it ends with our main character. I'll give it away.
He does get rescued. It's not called Death in the

(38:30):
Jungle Dawn. It's called Rescue Dawn. So he does get rescued.
And something happens in the movie during the rescue. He's
so happy. Christian Bale's like, I'm getting rescued. And he goes, yes, yes, yes.
And he's clutching, Matt Singer, he's clutching a Butterfinger bar. Now,
I love a Butterfinger, too. So I screamed yes, yes, yes. Crispity,

(38:53):
it's crunchity. peanut buttery it's very weird because the butterfinger
bar it looks like the most grotesque product placement in
what is a very serious movie with like also some
great kind of like hazy we're caught in the jungle
you know very artistically rendered scenes there's a big fat

(39:13):
commercial for nestle's at the end of this movie and
you might say what the hell is that why is
that in there And the answer is, and this leads
us to our second part of the rec seg, it
actually happened. Dieter Dengler's story is based on a very
true story. And he tells the true story in another

(39:33):
movie called Little Dieter Wants to Fly, which came out
seven or so years prior to Rescue Dawn, directed by
Werner Herzog. Werner Herzog, of course, makes just as many
documentaries as he makes narrative films, but this is the
only time he's made the same story twice. And in
that story, he talks about how when he was rescued

(39:56):
and he was starving, he was eating ants if he
was lucky. He was given a Butterfinger bar by one
of his comrades in the US Navy and he sobbed.
And he says, it was the best tasting thing I
ever had in my life, a Butterfinger bar. And then
you can't fake that kind of realism. Now in a documentary,
that's great. In a big narrative movie with a big budget,

(40:17):
it's probably Herzog's biggest budget film, It looks ridiculous, but
it's true. And that's why it's great. Now, Little Dieter
Needs to Fly is actually maybe the better of the
two films because it contextualizes the story and it does
a little spin on it. It tells you the whole
story of this guy's life. And he was born in
Germany at around the same time that Werner Herzog was.

(40:37):
During the Second World War, he lived in absolute poverty.
He was famished most of the time and he was
living in a bombed out building and he saw an
allied plane fly by. And when he saw the plane,
it was like he saw God. You know, he had
a religious experience. He says, whatever, I want to be
a pilot someday. And he did eventually come to the
USA and he joined the military and he became a

(41:00):
pilot and he had a great love of the USA because,
you know, America gave him wings, as they say. And
so he fought in the Vietnam War, and he didn't
have anything against the Vietnamese, but he loved to fly.
In fact, Little Dieter needed to fly. That's the title
of the film. So what happens is he tells the
story about how he was shot down, how he was imprisoned,

(41:20):
how he was tortured, and how he escaped, and it
was not an easy escape. But the gimmick, I guess
you can say, is that Herzog has him retrace his
steps in the Laotian jungles and has locals... kind of
reenact the scenes that he's describing. And that's sure as

(41:41):
hell original. To do that, I don't know, 25, 30
years later is just an amazing thing. So it's a
very weird movie and it's short and Rescue Dawn is
not super epic either. So I think it makes for
a nice pairing. And compared to Mayday, it's very, very
serious because it's about man's inhumanity to man and this
terrible war. And it's about torture and not nice things

(42:04):
and starving and eating ants. And Steve Zahn, oh, you
don't want to know what happens to him. But it's
a pretty damn good movie. So that little diptych is
my rescue. What did you just call me? That little
diptych of cinema is my rec seg. So this week's
rec seg, we got Matt Singer had Henry V, Henry V.

(42:27):
And that's on Prime Video. Rescue Dawn's all over the place.
You can watch Rescue Dawn on Tubi.com. On MGM +,
if you have that, few people do. The Roku channel,
I don't know what that is. Hoopla, which is one
of those free ones if you have a library card,
no ads on that. Little Dieter Needs to Fly is
on Prime Video. Tubi and the Roku channel, and it's

(42:49):
also on YouTube, too. A pretty good print, so you
can just watch it there.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
So that's what's going on. Yes, and if you want
to keep track of all the movies we recommend on FilmSpottingSVU,
the best way to do that, once again... Go to Letterboxd,
search for the list called Now Streaming on Bazooka. This
is a Letterboxd list that is curated and maintained by

(43:14):
our great producer, Sam Van Holgren. He updates it. It's
now over 100 titles that we have recommended. He also
puts in, if you do the read notes option on
the list, you can see what we said about them
and all kinds of good information. So that is the
place to look. The personalized recommendation where people write in

(43:35):
and ask for recommendations, that will return on next week's
episode and probably every episode after that because we got
a bunch of them that just came in. So we
will be including those. But if you would like your
own personalized streaming recommendation, you should send us a note.
Feedback at filmspottingsvu.com. Tell us what kind of movie you're
in the mood to watch. Tell us what streaming services

(43:56):
you use, and we will give you a recommended title.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
See if you remember this little ditty from a.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Streaming service we all love.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Bazooka.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
When you gotta stream Bazooka It's the cream.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Of the crop.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
It's right at the top of your favorite streaming.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Apps Ladies and gentlemen, listeners of FilmSpottingSVU, it is time
now to play this week's game. I, Jordan Hoffman, won
last week's game.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Congratulations.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Which means that I become the game master of this
week's game. In the red corner, Matt Singer. In the
blue corner, Producer Sam. Now, as we've discussed, this week's movie, Mayday,
stars Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth I guess, how do, is
it Branagh? It's Branagh, right? It's Branagh. Or Branagh.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
But it's definitely not Branagh.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Okay, well, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Like he's Klingon.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Well, no, he's Shakespearean. You figured he'd have a fancy name.
Kenneth Branagh. Kenneth Branagh. Now, Matt Singer, in his recommendation segment,
he actually went deep on Branagh's career, which is funny,
because that's kind of what this week's game is all about.
And in fact, I decided to take his very lengthy career,

(45:40):
and he's got a lot going on, and, you know,
kind of look at it from different little angles. Maybe
just kind of shake his career a little bit. Let
some of it flake off, if you will. Hence, this
week's game is called Branagh Flakes. Oh, God.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Horrible. Absolutely horrible.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
This week's game is called Branagh Flakes. Cause we're going
to discuss what I'm going to do is I have seven.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Or if you're Jordan, Brenna Flakes.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
I have seven movies.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
And I am going to give clues about these films.
And the first one who can buzz in and tell
me the name of the movie will get a point
and then somebody will win. Now, every one of these
movies has an involvement in some capacity that With Kenneth Branagh.
He either directed the film or he acted in the film. Mm-hmm.

(46:42):
Or he directed and acted in the film, but some
of them he directed or maybe didn't act in, or
some of them he acted in and didn't direct in.
Or he was a caterer.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
He had that brief period where he was a thriving
caterer in the.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
LA film scene. I didn't do any of that. Or
his sound design work. So I stuck only to acting, directing,
or actor directing. Got it. Or maybe writing too, but
I stuck to acting and directing. All right, so here
we go. It's pretty straightforward.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
And you're going to give us, and just to clarify,
you're giving us clues?

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yes, I am.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
And there's more than one for each film? Or just one,
you're just, okay. Yeah, I'm going to say- And we
just buzz in?

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah, you've done this before. This is your podcast. You
know this show. Okay. I give a clue and then
you go, well, I don't know. That could be anything. Okay.
Like if I say, oh, this movie was shot in color.
You can say, well, gee, that could be anything.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
And I say, well, this movie also is blah, blah, blah. Okay.
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
He plays Henry V. Oh, I don't know what that
could be.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Well, Sam was just saying- Oh, sorry.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
You're starting. I'm ready to go. Okay, sorry.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
This movie- Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
This movie- Yeah. Is- In a way, a.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Prequel. It's not May Day. I know that much.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Nothing yet. Nothing yet. This movie has a lengthy sequence
in French with no subtitles.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Oh, well, it's Henry V.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
You are correct.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
I just rewatched it.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
You just rewatched it, which is why it was annoying
when you picked Henry V for your rec set. Now,
did you know, Matt Singer, who just recommended Henry V?
Did you know that Henry V was a sequel?

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Oh, a sequel to the Henry IV Part I and II?

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Did you say? I thought you said prequel. A prequel.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Well, I've never seen Henry. Well, first was Henry the
Portrait of a Serial Killer, right? And then Henry II.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
William Bill Shakespeare.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
He wrote a play.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
He didn't exist. It was an old ghost, right? He's
a ghost. It was a pen name.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Bill Will Shakespeare wrote a play called Henry VI.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Yes, I did know that.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
I am aware of that. In the year 15, Blobbity Blue.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Yes. Three parts. Three parts of Henry VI.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Yeah, there's a bunch of them. And then several years later,
he went like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I got
to back up a little bit. Much like George Lucas
before him. He said, I got to back up and
I got to tell the story of Henry V because
that's even better. And Henry V was produced years later.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
I did not realize they were written in that order.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
I only know this because I've made this joke before
that it's a prequel. So technically you can. too can
go to a bar and annoy people by telling them
that Henry V is a prequel. Like, if they say, oh,
do you like the prequels, meaning the Star Wars prequels,
you can say, what, Henry V? Of course, it's quite good.
All right, let's move on. Matt Singer has one point.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
It's astonishing to me that you've been happily married for
years and years. It really is. Movie number two. Movie
number two.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
This movie is part of a franchise that is among
the highest moneymakers in entertainment.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
I know it's not Artemis Fowl.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
This movie made $ 883. 4 million at the box office. This
movie has, among its co-stars, John Cleese.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
I mean, this is Harry Potter. Okay, it's Harry Potter.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Please be more specific.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
Right, right, right. So he plays like the professor of
dark arts, right? Isn't there like a new one every...
book or whatever.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
That's kind of a shtick. Yes, that is true. So
which one has Mr. Kenneth Brennan?

Speaker 1 (50:24):
And I will say, if you don't get it, I
do know this.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
God darn it.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
So you gotta get it on the first try.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
There's no way I'll come up with it. I'm not
a Harry Potter guy.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Pick one.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
You can guess.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
What's the... I feel like it's early.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
It is early.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
That is also.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
So the first one, it's not the Philosopher's Stone. That's
the first one or whatever.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
Sammy got six seconds.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
One. What's the second one? That's the second one. No,
I'm never going to come.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Up with it.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Never.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Never.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Not a chance.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Matt, you want to steal?

Speaker 1 (50:51):
It's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
There you go. There you go. It is number two.
Kenneth Branagh wrote, he acted in, but did not direct.
He acted in it. All right. Number three. Come on, Sam.
You got to get it back in the game. Number three.
This movie, this movie's release date was pushed back more
than once due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
This is Tenet.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
All right.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
This is Tenet, right?

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Oh. I mean, that is accurate, but apparently it's not Tenet.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Oh, Matt Singer erased.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Give me another clue, because I have another, there's a couple.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
During that delay in release, one of its main stars
faced severe public scrutiny and was, as was the parlance
of the time, canceled.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Okay, is this Murder on the Orient Express?

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Oh, Sam, come on, it's too incorrect.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Ah!

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
Is this Artemis Fowl?

Speaker 2 (51:50):
You gotta give me a chance.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
It's Artemis Fowl.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Next, next. With the exception of a few background plates,
this movie was not shot on location and boy, does
it show.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
What?

Speaker 2 (52:03):
I mean, I don't think this- This famously has like
cheesy looking background plates.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
I mean, is it Artemis Fowl?

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Is that what it is?

Speaker 3 (52:12):
I know what it is.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Next, next, next. This movie has among its co-stars Gal Gadot. Oh, oh, it's,
it's Death on the Nile. Who can say it?

Speaker 1 (52:23):
I wouldn't be able to say it.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
I said it. I lost my turn.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
It's Matt.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
It's 3-0.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
What is the answer?

Speaker 1 (52:28):
It was, I guess, Death on the Nile.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
You are correct.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
It did have very famously bad plates.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Yeah, it had bad plates.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
It had bad plates. It had bad dishes.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
The bowls were hideous. The cancellation was Armie Hammer, who
was basically the star, and he got canceled midway through.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Boy, that's a tough one for Sam, because there is
a very famous canceled actor in.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
The first one. Well, right.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Johnny Depp is in the first one, right?

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Oh, that's right.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
But that was pre-COVID.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
That was pre-COVID. It's 2017. How old is that one?

Speaker 2 (52:56):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
I think that's 2017 or 2019.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
See, I've lost track of years and what have you.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
All right. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Number four. Number four. There's still time, Sam. You can
get everything right from here on out. Oh, good.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
I believe in you, Sam. Oh.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
This movie is an adaptation of a William Shakespeare play.
This movie has as one of its co-stars Irene Jacob.
Irene Jacob. This movie has as one of its co-stars
Michael Sheen.

Speaker 4 (53:28):
Michael Sheen.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Oh, what was that other one?

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Oh, man. This movie.
Was not directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Oh, okay. It's not what I was thinking of.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Slam the brakes. It is not.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
I mean, I'll just, I'll just, I'm going to go with,
I mean, was it called Othello? Was it just called Othello?

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Yes, it was called Othello.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Is this Laurence Fishburne?

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Oh, that's right. Well, I mean, once I got to him,
I think you would have snapped in.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
So who does Sheen play? Is he Casio or something
like that?

Speaker 2 (54:07):
I don't remember. I actually don't even know if I've
seen this one. But Branagh plays Iago, and Fishburne plays Othello,
and Irene Jacob, I suppose, is Desdemona. And Michael Sheen
is somebody else.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
I have never seen it.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
1995. Yeah, directed by a fellow named Oliver Parker. And
I don't know much about him either. But this is
a little bit of a... You know, he was pumping
out his own Shakespeare adaptation so much that people just said,
get him in your movie and you're going to have
a winner.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
This one I feel like was like an HBO movie
in 1995 and 96. I feel like I definitely tried
to watch it at the time and was absolutely baffled.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
I remember there was a modernized version called O.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
That's what I was wondering.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
This isn't the O, is it?

Speaker 2 (54:55):
No, this is not O. It's called Othello. This is
straight up Othello, yeah. Okay, so we're moving on now.
Sam's on the board. It's not over yet.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
This movie has music by Hans Zimmer.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
He doesn't do a lot of movies, so there's very
few things it could be.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
This movie made $ 560 million at the box office.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Global.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Is it? I'll guess. Is it?

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Wait, let me give you the third clue, because this
is a funny one. This will give it away. Jordan Hoffman...
would have understood this movie more the first time. It's tenant.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
It's got to be tenant.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
No, it's not. It's not. This movie would have, sorry,
Jordan Hoffman would have understood this movie the first time
if he knew additional meanings for the word mole. Go, Sam.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Is this Dunkirk?

Speaker 2 (55:57):
It is Dunkirk. I spent that whole movie going, which
one's the mole? Which one's the mole? Is Harry Styles
the mole? Mole means pier if you're British, but I
am a proud American. Sam Q. I am a proud American,
and I don't know from mole as a pier. I

(56:17):
know from jetties, and I know from, I don't know, mole.
What about a wharf? Oh, that's a Warf.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
That could be a Star Trek reference.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
I for sure know Warf. Where's the Warf?

Speaker 1 (56:26):
I don't see Michael Dorn anywhere.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
What are you talking about? In the fantastic movie Dunkirk,
which I love, and Branagh has a small but significant part,
they frame it as the three time things. There's the this,
the that, and the mole. And I didn't know what
a mole was and it pissed me off.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
That's my problem, not anybody else's. No, Branagh is in that,
and also Hans Zimmer did not do Tennant's music. That was,
it was the other guy.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
It was Goranson, right?

Speaker 2 (56:53):
It was Goranson, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, there you go. Okay,
guess what? We got a barn burner here. It's three
to two with Matt in the lead. How many are left?

Speaker 3 (57:00):
There's seven total, right?

Speaker 2 (57:01):
There's two more. Okay, so two left. Two more, and
I gotta say, these two are a little tough. These
two are a little tough. Clue number one, Kenneth Branagh
does not appear in this film. Okay. Clue number two,
This movie is adapted from a text written by Emanuel Schickenader.
This movie could be interpreted as a remake of an

(57:23):
Ingmar Bergman film. What is this?

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Hmm.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
This movie was a box office dud and was not
received well by critics. All right, now we're getting into
who can buzz in fastest. This movie features music by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. All right. There's a last clue. This
movie's story involves a charmed wind instrument. Charmed wind instrument. Mozart, Schickenator, Bergman.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
Is there a magic flute?

Speaker 2 (58:01):
There is a magic flute.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I didn't know it either. But Branagh directed a magic flute.
I watched the trailer.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Is it a film or is it like a, like a,
it's not like just like filmed the filmed opera or anything.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
It's a little bit, it's a little bit more like
a mute, like, you know, that musical version they did
of Madam Butterfly. It's kind of like that. They're all singing.
It's all sung through, but it's not Bergman's version is
he stuck a camera in front of a theater, but
then did, did reverse shots and everything. Bergman's version is
actually pretty cool. But yeah, this is the Magic Flute.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Why were you so surprised that we didn't know it
when you said yourself you didn't know it existed?

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Well, I know I would have, I mean, if I may.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
Charmed wood instrument, you kind.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Of feel like. Emmanuel Schickenator is a name if you're
into that sort of thing. I don't know. It's a toughie.
I said they were going to get toughie.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
Can you do the nerdy voice with Schickenator, Matt?

Speaker 2 (58:55):
Emmanuel Schickenator. Can I just let the listeners know that
we have a tie game?

Speaker 3 (59:04):
Does this get harder than the obscure version of the
Magic Flute?

Speaker 1 (59:09):
I'm sweating. profusely.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
This is a movie that I believe both of you saw.
But it is not a movie that is particularly well-remembered.
That is my next clue. The next clue, last clue,
for all the marbles, is a little bit of a
deep cut. But I have a hunch both of you
guys saw this movie, or at least heard about it.
Here we go. This movie has music by Peter Gabriel.

(59:35):
This movie was shot by Christopher Doyle. Sure. This movie's
shooting locations include the Bel Air National Park, Lake Torrance
National Park, and the Pilbara Desert in Australia. Kind of

(59:56):
zeroing in here. We got the music. We got the cinematography.
We got the locations. This movie was released in 2002.
This movie is based on a true story. 2002? Kenneth
Branagh did not direct this movie. Oh, boy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
So he starred in this 2002 movie that was shot
in Australia? Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
With music by Peter Gabriel.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
And it was shot in all these national parks.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Christopher Doyle shot it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Doyle National Parks. This movie is sad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Well, that narrows it down.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Well, it's sad. This movie caused controversy in Australia because
it shone a light. Wait, wait, wait. You got a buzz. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Rabbit-proof fence.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
There he goes from behind. He was down, but now
he's on top.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
I don't think I've ever seen rabbit-proof fence.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Or if I have, I do not remember it. So
I would have never pulled that out. it's something about
you just talking about controversy. I saw Brenna's face on
like the DVD cover with like the barbed wire or something.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
I mean, I don't remember what it is. It's a
very sad movie that did bring up a lot of
skeletons because in Australia, there was a thing where if
there was a, a, a mixed race child, uh, the,
the state would take the child and force them into
sort of white education camps to like, to, to, to

(01:01:27):
educate the indigenousness out of them and whether families wanted
them to or not. And what you sometimes had were
cases of mixed race children where, you know, let's say
the mother was indigenous, the father was white and the
father was out of the picture, basically stolen from mom.
And that's what happens in this movie. And there's two,
two little kids are taken, you know, a million miles

(01:01:50):
away to Sydney and they escape the school and And
they walk back home. And that's the movie is they're
walking back home. And Branagh is the villain in this.
So anyway, good movie. And more importantly, good game, Sam.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Well done, Sam. Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
A comeback for the ages.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
Thank you, Magic Flute. Thank you, Mr.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Mozart.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
Thank you, Jordan.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
All those Branagh movies I talked about and I barely
scratched the surface. There's all those other ones that I
didn't even remember at all.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
I should see Artemis Fowl. Maybe that would be worth.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
I was hoping it would come up, but it did not.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
Let's wrap up this episode of Film Spotting SVU with
some theatrical releases available to rent or buy this week.
First up, a movie I admit, to my surprise, given
my children and my activities for Screen Crush, I did
not see the live action version of Moana, which I

(01:02:53):
heard by all accounts was not very good. Jordan, I'm
guessing you did not see Moana.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
No, I didn't see it. I've never seen any Moana.
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Also available to rent or buy... I'm just going to
let that one go. Jason Statham in Mutiny, which I
have heard... was actually one of the better Jason Statham
action vehicles of the last few years.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
You think it's better than Mayday?

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
Well, maybe we'll watch it at some point and find out.
I don't know. I mean, I could envision it being
better than Mayday. The big thing I know about the
movie was that it accidentally got put for free on
Amazon for like a couple of hours. Somebody goofed. And
on the page, like the landing page where they... You know,

(01:03:38):
Amazon creates landing pages for movies so that when people
are looking for them, they can find them and they
can see, oh, OK, I can rent it starting on
whatever day it is, September 7th or whatever. They they
they accidentally put the whole movie up and made it
available for free to like prime customers for a couple
of hours. That was a I'm going to say that

(01:04:02):
was a big no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
No, but good publicity, because it got people talking.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Unless people started to try to bootleg it, I suppose.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Okay, another one that I also did not see. I'm
falling down on the job. The Single People Can Only
Have Sex One Day Per Year Comedy One Night Only, a.k.a.
The Sex Purge, with Monica Barbaro, who I do like,
and Callum Turner, who I also like, directed by Will Gluck.

(01:04:32):
Who I also like. I guess I should have seen
this movie, but the premise confused me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Hey, let me ask you, what about the married people
could only have sex once per year? That was called
my ex-wife. What? Hello?

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Tip your waitress. Tip your hardworking waitstaff. Try the veal. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
I'm joking. I have no ex-wife. All right, yes, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
And we've also got... Hirokazu Kore-eda's Sheep in a Box.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Terrible movie.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Boring. Boring. And I like Kore-eda's other movies. I do too.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
I'm disappointed to hear this.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
So boring.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
And then finally, we have a movie that is titled
Hot Spot.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Yeah, I saw this too. It has its merits. Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
And it looks like Sam, in our script here, put
in a little description from Justin Laliberte on Letterboxd, who's
a very known friend of... friend of both of us.
We've contributed essays. He works for Vinegar Syndrome, and we've
both contributed essays to DVD, Blu-ray, 4K box sets from
that company. So Justin said of Hotspot, quote,' Not sure

(01:05:38):
how this super gory, weirdly horny, body horror, cyberpunk detective
movie from the director of The Lure squeaked by with
an R rating or landed a distribution deal with Focus,
but I'm not complaining.' One of the more bizarre swings
I've seen in years. Does that sound accurate, Jordan?

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Yeah, it's, it's, it's cool. And it's an underground movie
in the classic sense. It doesn't quite work, but there's
a lot of cool stuff in there. And I'm, I'm
glad this movie is out there. It's, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
It looks great. It's, Tries a little too hard at
some scenes, but it looks great, and there's a lot
of good stuff in there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
Okay, all those titles I just mentioned will be available
for rental on Tuesday, September 8th. Now, briefly, let's run
down some theatrical releases that are now on streaming. We
have Call My Agent! The Movie. It's from a French
series that ran from 2015 to 2020. And the series

(01:06:35):
is available on Netflix now. The film will be available
on Netflix on September 10th. I know the name Call
My Agent. I have not watched it, Jordan.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
A lot of people like it. I haven't seen it.
I think my wife watched it. Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Finally, I have seen something.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
Where- No, she watched Call the Midwife.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Yeah, that's a different thing. That's a very different thing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
She watches Call the Midwife. Sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
So this one I have seen, unfortunately, a disappointment for me.
Available on HBO Max on September 10th, Supergirl. Supergirl, which, frankly,
would probably be my pick for the most disappointing movie
of the summer for me.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
I enjoyed James Gunn's Superman in the new DC universe.
I love the comic. This is based on an excellent
comic book miniseries, Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow. And the movie
was kind of a big old flopperoo.

Speaker 3 (01:07:26):
Fluff.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
I think we're both enjoying Lanterns, which is currently streaming.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
I'm enjoying Lanterns as well, but just didn't do it.
But if you missed it, it's on HBO Max on
September 10th. Finally, the latest Guy Ritchie movie, In the Gray,
with Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Aaliyah Gonzalez. That will
be on Starz, a channel slash streaming service we probably

(01:07:50):
don't discuss enough or ever on this show to date.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
This might be the debut of Starz.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
It might be. If you look on your channel guide
on cable, it's right below Bazooka. And In the Gray
is on Star is on September 12th. Jordan, do you
want to run down the direct-to-streaming titles here?

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
Direct-to-streaming, Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Again? Now,
is that Why Did I Get Married Again? Like he's
asking the question again?

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Well, he made the movie Why Did I Get Married?

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
And this is a sequel. I know. I think he
made Why Did I Get Married 2 also.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Well, they're all good titles, you have to say.

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
Taraji P. Henson, Jill Scott, Michael J. White. I have
dabbled in the Tyler Perry-verse, and sometimes his movies are
actually quite entertaining. Ooh, a Madea Halloween. Are you going
to tell me that's not good? I mean, that's a
fun movie. And what was the one, Snapped? There was one, Enough.
Snapped is about a... She's in a bank, and she basically...

(01:08:54):
Does a dog day afternoon but doesn't mean to? Does
an accidental dog day afternoon... I don't think. What is
that called?

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
I don't think it's enough.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
It's called like snapped or like she snapped. She had enough. Oh,
this is worth Googling. This is where when we find
out what it's called.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
You look it up and I will keep running down here.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
Harry movie. My spelling is terrible. In bank.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
It is possible to look these things up without speaking
out loud.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
It's straw. It's straw.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
The last straw that broke the camel's back or the
last straw.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
Straw.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
This movie came out last year. It feels like it
came out 35 years ago. That's how long ago. It
came out last summer, last June. Straw, written and directed
by Tyler Perry with Taraji P. Henson, Sherry Shepard. She's
pretty good. Tiana Taylor. Oh, I love her.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Sinbad.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
That's right. Sinbad's in it, too. Go watch Straw. This
movie's good. I liked it. I think I wrote a
review of that and gave it a positive review.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
What else is coming out this week, Jordan?

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
It has a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes because of me. Okay, next, next, next.
Straw 2 is coming out. No, Marama, a Maori Gothic
story of retribution on Shudder, September 11th. Well, I got
to say, Shudder does sometimes do these horror movies from
different cultures, and they are oftentimes quite good. I haven't

(01:10:17):
seen Marama, though. There's one I saw. Oh, damn. What
was it called? It was Guatemalan. It was very, very good.
That was last year.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
Also next week, Untold Raygun Breaking Badly.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
Well, that's what we're going to be. That's already available.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:34):
But that's what we will be reviewing on the next episode.
That's right. By Popular Demand, a.k.a. Jordan. That will be
the review on our next episode. If you want to
watch it in advance, Untold Ray Gunn, Breaking Badly, the
new sports documentary about the infamous Australian breakdancer. It's already
streaming on Netflix and we will be discussing it on

(01:10:56):
next week's show.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
In the meantime, send feedback to feedback at filmspottingsvu.com on
Blue Sky and Instagram and Letterboxd. You can find Matt
Singer at Super Pulse. I, Jordan Hoffman, can be found
on Blue Sky at Jordan at Jay Hoffman. Film Spotting
SVU is produced by Sam Van Halgren. We are part
of the Film Spotting family of podcasts. And for more

(01:11:19):
about us and those other shows, visit filmspotting.net. My name
is Jordan Hoffman.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
And I'm Matt Singer. Thanks for listening.
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