LNC Ain't No April Fool

Ariel and Jonathan talk about some of their favorite geeky April Fools jokes, Ariel attempts to escape Spider Manor (it's ok, it's just a name -- it's really just Spider House), and Jonathan slips in an audio cue from an old horror movie (but misnames it because the actual film title is "Mothman Prophecies," not "Mothman"). And more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Large nor Drawn Collider podcast,
the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in
the world around us and how very excited we are
about them. I'm Ariel Caston, and with me, as always,
is the superb Jonathan Strickland.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I am taking bets on how often I will mix
up the names Project Hail Mary and Mother Mary.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
H four times.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
You could very well be right. I know, it's just
I know it's gonna happen. There's going to be a
part where my brain will be in cruise control. I
am going to say either Mother Mary or Project Hail Mary,
but mean the other one, which means for about fifteen
twenty seconds, whoever I'm talking to is going to be
like really confused.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Well do you do? You talk to more people on
this podcast than me?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Not more people on this podcast, and honestly not that
many more people than you, but and just I mean,
like it's you friend of the show, say Lee, and
my partner and my dog, who honestly wouldn't care if
I mixed it up.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I thought you were talking about our listeners, which there
are more than that.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
But I don't no, no, no, no, no, listener. I don't.
I'm talking to you. They're listening to us. Okay, I'm
okay talking to them.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Just making sure. Yeah. Well, if I sound irritated to
any of our listeners or at you, Jonathan, just know
it's not. It's that I thought I was done with
the leaf blowers today.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
But they have returned.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
They have returned. It makes me great listening.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
I know I had. We had the the landscapers descend
upon the town homes earlier this week, and it was
particularly loud this time. I will say, Fortunately, whatever that
weird rhythmic like engine sound was that was going on
for days and days and days, I haven't heard it

(02:11):
for a while. So whatever it was, I guess is over.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Either the motorcycle circus has left out or the serial
killer exhibit has gone.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, could have been the serial killer exhibit. I don't
know what would Maybe it was a serial killer who
was like an AC repair man or something and they
just had a very loud AC sound or something. I
don't know. I'm just glad it's gone. I'm also glad
Ariel that we are not recording or publishing this episode

(02:43):
on April first, because it means that our listeners can
trust the things we say. But it does lead us
to the question of the week.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yes, which is Jonathan is asking, am I asking your question?
Go ahead and have any fun geek do you? I
was just reading it, but it's not a complete sentence,
So let me start over. Do you have any fun
geeky April Fools memories?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah? How about you? Do you?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Okay? Cool? Well moving on. No. So, so I put
this in because obviously we did just have April Fools,
and I know there are a lot of people who
like have a knee jerk negative reaction to April Fools
because there are so many companies out there that take
it as an opportunity to do just really bad marketing,

(03:38):
and a lot of stuff just isn't funny or it
ends up being kind of mean spirited in the way
that it misleads people, whereas I always like the ones
that were very just overtly silly. And so for me,
one of the companies that used to do this a lot.
The company doesn't exist anymore is Think Geek. Is the

(04:01):
retailer Think Geek, and they had tons of different April
First gags, some of which would later become actual products.
And my favorite example is one of those, and it
was the ton Toon sleeping bag, as in a modeled
after the Tonton from Empire strikes Back, and the sleeping
bag was lined with a pattern that made it look

(04:23):
like ton Toon inards and you know, you might ask, like,
what's the temperature like inside a Tonton sleeping bag and
the answer is it's lukewarm. Yeah, but anyway, that was
my one of my favorites. And for those who are curious,
Think Geek was owned by GameStop, which ultimately kind of

(04:46):
folded Think Geek into the overall company to kind of
streamline things, so Think Geek has its own entity no
longer exists. Resident Beast Think Geek.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, yeah, I did like Think Geek stuff, and I've
even bought a couple of things that went from April
Fools to real product. I think those are my most
fond ones this year. I did have a few that
I liked too, just because I kept forgetting it was
April Fool's Day and they legit got me. And then

(05:21):
one that was just like, oh, that's so plausible and delightful,
which is Dragon composted on social media that they had
heard their fans, and they were going to do a
dragon Con cruise.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Which not outside the realm of possibility. Comic Con has
done comic Con cruises.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, and there's the Joe Coo Cruise which just happened
for this year, which is also huge and geek and
has expanded past geek musicians. But when you click on
the link to learn more about it, you get rick rolled,
which is delightful because I was like, twin Cons just
too big for a cruise, but because it kind of is.
But the two that got me this year were actually

(05:58):
product advertised, and one is I have. We aren't getting
paid for this, but I'm gonna share it because I
was just One was that Tea Drops said they were
bringing back an old product, which was tea in bags
bagged tea full of microplastics.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, obviously very much against their mission statement.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, so like the More, At first, I was like, well,
maybe they came up with a better bag in the
More you regularly, Oh yeah, this is April Fools. The
second one got me so good because I'm on this
health journey that I sent it to my friend not
realizing it was April Fools, which was Heatonist, which does
The Hot Ones Interviews sent out an email that they

(06:43):
had a new product for a way Hot sauce like
Keith's Way Hot Hot Sauce, where it had protein in it,
which is also completely plausible, and I was I don't
do hot sauce, but my friend Sarah does, and I
sent it to her and she was like, oh, I
would so get that, but it's probably April Fools and

(07:05):
I'm like.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Dang it, yeah, because everything, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Everything has protein in it now, although I'm sure it's
like claiming a watermelon is organic, right.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah. I used to do well. First of all, I
used to be on social media, but I'm not anymore.
But when I was on social media, I would occasionally
post April Fools gags on my status, and I always
tried to go with something that I felt was just

(07:37):
a little bit too far on the believability scale to
be taken seriously, Like I didn't want to go so
crazy that you knew from sentence one that it was
just a joke. But I always tried to make it implausible.
But after years of people reacting to my status as

(07:58):
if it were truth, I came to the realization that
maybe maybe I should just not because like I wasn't
ever being mean spirited. I wasn't. The joke was always
kind of more on me than anything else. But like
people would get excited for me because I would be
like posting about some sort of weird opportunity, and again,

(08:21):
it was always something that was strange and stretched believability,
but people were so excited for me, and I'm like, oh,
this feels bad because they were like genuinely feeling good
for me, and I'm just making a joke. I'm like,
I'm gonna stop doing this. I can't. It doesn't feel
good anymore.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean there is definitely a fine line.
It's it is an art form to do a good
April Fool's joke that doesn't make you or anyone else
feel bad.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, Like, like I would never want to do one
of those really tacky ones, like like you know, like
relationship related ones or pregnancy related ones like those to
me are always the worst. So the ones I did
were always about like some sort of weird achievement that
didn't make any sense in my mind. But then I

(09:10):
also know from the get go that it's fake, right,
Like if I were coming at it without knowing it's fake.
Maybe I would buy into it too.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, well there's this guy that. First of all, my
company always does really fun ones, like they send an
internal video going like click here, and then they talk
about a new product that they're bringing out and it's
always delightful and fun, or like a new HR initiative
where everybody gets a ballpit since we I worked for.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
It, like the dash con Prize.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, my company is entirely remote, so that's why. So
this year was like remote work has benefits, like you
look fifty years younger, So it was in line with that,
a product in line with that. But uh, there's a
there's a guy I follow on YouTube, slash TikTok who

(10:00):
does Adventures in Arida, does role for Sandwich. I don't
know if you've ever seen that.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yes, yes I have, Yeah, yeah, m bim Bam contributed
to that at one point with like the Wild Magic.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
List, a Wild Magic List. They've done a few role
for sandwiches themselves with him in conjunction, which is interesting
because they all have different dietary preferences and some of
them are a little bit more narrow than others. But
that makes it for fun, it makes it extra fun.
In the past, he has done April Fools episodes, like
there is one where he rolled one on everything and

(10:32):
every one on every list was none so bread, none cheese,
none meat, you know, and it was very funny because
it took you a second to get it. This year,
his April Fools stroke was it was just a normal
sandwich episode, normal role for sandwich episode. It was a
weird sandwich.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
But yeah, yeah, that's a cute series if you're not
familiar with it, Like it's all about randomizing all the
different elements that go together to make a sandwich. Obviously
it's based on whatever he happens to have, like on hand,
but some of them, some of them sound really weird
but turn out to be like, at least according to him,

(11:11):
pretty good. Some of them are monstrosities that should be
banished to the nether realms.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Oh and he has that he has So I own
his cookbook and my husband bought it for me for
a gift because I found the series and now he
shares it with me, and so he has a section
for like, really you should definitely make the sandwich sandwiches
and almost there, I'm going to let you experiment to
figure out because like it's not bad, could be really amazing,

(11:39):
but I'm going to let you figure out how to
tweak it to make it really amazing. And then the abominations,
but it gives you the recipe and like in case
you just want to torture yourself too, and then there's
a section on how to build your own role for
Sandwich Challenge.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, it's such a cute idea. I'm glad that he
saw a great success because it was such a a
creative this idea that he had. Well, now that we've
talked about April Fools and geekness and such, let's talk
about what we have watched since our last recording. And
we took some time off because I was out of town.

(12:15):
I had offered to record while out of town, and
I'm glad that Ariel talked me out of it because
it would have been a disaster. So thank you Ariel
for talking sanity in to me.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Well, listen, I love our listeners, and I missed when
we don't get to chat with you because we always
get feedback on episodes, and I love it. I love
getting having those conversations. But your mental health and my
mental health also are important.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, yeah, and it would have been it would have
been difficult. There was no space in the place I
was staying at that would have been good for recording
because there were just two rooms really unless I want
to record in the bathroom, which was a third room.
Three rooms total, so not really a good place. I
used to hang out without the input from either a

(13:04):
partner or a dog. So anyway, but I have watched
the first two episodes of The Urbs again because because
Becca watched the first two with me and she likes them,
so the plan is for us to continue. We just
haven't sat down to watch more yet, but she enjoyed
them the same way I did, so the plan is

(13:26):
to watch the rest of the series. I understand that
you went ahead and watched the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
I did. I finished it, and I don't want to
spoil anything at all. Yeah, I what I will say
is I think that it was a really good series
and it could be contained to one season and it
could also extend to two seasons. And I think which

(13:51):
because I don't think it's been renewed yet, but whichever
way it goes, I think that it was a great
journey so far.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Great and that would be Yeah, I'm glad to hear
that it's not one of those where it ends like
at a cliffhanger and you're just like, well, are we
going to even get a resolution or not. So I'm
glad to hear that. I also watched the beginning of
the film Mercy. This is the one with Chris Pratt
where he's a police officer who is put on trial

(14:22):
by AI and he has like ninety minutes to prove
his innocence or at least to reduce suspicion below a
certain thresholder else he'll be executed at the end of
those ninety minutes. I watched the beginning of it and
turned it off because I did not like it, and
I felt, this is my opinion that it's not very good.

(14:45):
After I popped online and looked at some other reviews.
I am not alone in this opinion, but I'm not
here to say that the movie's bad. I'm just here
to say, like, I really didn't like it, and I
felt that it was kind of lazy, so I bailed,
and I don't feel badly about it. There you go.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
I have been watching a lot of stuff because I've
recently decided to be an adult and have a normal everyday,
same time wake up time, which I did anyhow because
I work a day job, but that I was going
to make it earlier so I could also work out
in the mornings. But my treat for getting up and
working out first thing in the morning, before I've eaten

(15:26):
or had coffee or anything, is to put on a
TV show while I work out, So I'm watching it
and entertain myself while i work out. So doing that,
I have finished all of one piece live action all
of Man on the Inside season one in season two,
So there's that, and then I'm watching a bunch of

(15:48):
stuff still a Tony Jerry Duty Company retreat, which I
know you said you can never do, fallow out the pit,
shrinking the urbs. It's still enjoying all of those we have.
We Oh, this was great For April, Fool's Dropout came
out with a full length episode of On a Bus

(16:09):
a dimension twenty on the Bus run by. Have you
not heard about this?

Speaker 2 (16:12):
No?

Speaker 1 (16:13):
So there was a game changer a while back that
was like like a shark tank. Basically, pitch your idea
and one of these three contestants will fund it, and
then whoever gets the most whichever idea gets the most
likes on YouTube wins.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
So it was oh, I do remember that bit? Yeah, yeah,
because it wasn't wasn't vic in this one. In that one.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
She she had a pitch, Yes, they had a pitch. Sorry.
And then one of the pitches was by Katie Maravich
for a Dimension twenty series of On a Bus where
she was the dragon Master, and they released like a
five to seven minute clip of it, and it was
hilarious because Katie does not know how to judge and master.

(16:57):
And so this year on April first, they dropped a
full length episode where she came back. She calls that
five to seven minute clip the first season, and this
was the second season and it's barely more organized. And
it was interesting because I found it fun and cheeky,
where you know, it's all played up for films. So

(17:21):
it felt like to me that whenever the four people
playing were all dms. A Aan gar Brendan Lee Mulligan,
Matt Mercer, and then Jasmine I don't remember her last
name at the moment. I haven't watched as much of
her stuff, but she did the Coffin Run series of
Dimension twenty and has done a bunch of other really
cool things, and they all get really frustrated because they're like,

(17:42):
what is this, Why are we rolling initiative? There's nothing
to roll initiative against, like, you know, ridiculousness. And Katie
would pull stuff in from all the games that they had,
Like she had a prop brought in from Critical Role,
and she was using a cup that was the DM
cup for Jasmine, and like point she used one of
Brennan's monologues and like all this stuff, and I found

(18:05):
it fun and cheeky and just like a way to
goof at this thing that they all get to do.
That's so wonderful. And some of my friends were like, oh,
it was really kind of a deconstruction of how role
playing looks and hit them in a sadder or meaner
way of like how role playing looks to the general
public and how ridiculous it is, and everybody is allowed
to interpret art their own way, right, And I'm just

(18:25):
sad that it landed that way for them, because it
was ridiculous and fun to me and sometimes infuriating, but like,
in a way.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
I can understand that, Like as someone who has played
role playing games, though not in decades, at this point,
but as someone who has played them in the past, Like,
I totally get that there's that kind of prejudice or
bias that some people have about role playing games in general,
because I recognize it in myself because I feel it

(18:54):
toward LARPs.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, and that's fine, which must.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
I mean, but I recognize it. I'm like, you know
what I get that, I feel like it's weird to
me that I can RPGs, I can reconcile in my
head and LARPs. I'm like, I've been tempted to try it,
but I never have apart from like one kind of
not even really a LARP, but one semi LARP at

(19:21):
a convention once.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, I mean, it is not for everybody, and that's
completely fine, But what I will say is what makes
LARP so magical as the immersion.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Right.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
So, like my husband, even though like there was Calamity
and then Eclipse where you're both LARPs that I was
involved with, had aspects that he would enjoy, Like the
primary weapon was a NERF gun and he was big
into NERF guns at the time. He didn't think he
would be able to he didn't think the immersion would
be enough for him and that's completely reasonable, you know,

(19:57):
and it's okay to have your own hobbies and not
share hobbies with the people you love, and you know,
everybody gets to enjoy their own things, and that's fantastic.
But what makes LUP so special and why it doesn't
translate to film as well, is because you are in
that situation. I brought my old roommate out to a
larp once and she thought it was gonna be so dumb.
She just did it to because she loves me and
she was humoring me. And she got out there and

(20:21):
we were both out as NPCs. We weren't even playing
the game. We were NPC's. We had a goal, we
knew it was going to happen, and some monsters came
up and we both got scared and ran away because
we didn't have any weapons. And she was like, I
can't believe I was actually scared at that, Like I
was afraid that they were going to kill me. As like,
because you're in this character headspace, you have a goal

(20:42):
and you're invested in that goal in that character, even
if for a brief moment, and so like, if you
don't have a way to protect yourself and you die
and no one finds you. You're like, ah, so, yeah,
it's the immersion and if you haven't done it, there's
no reason that it should draw you unless that's something
you're specifically seeking. But you know, it is interesting. I'm
sorry I went on a tangent.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
No, it's fine, it's fine. I was like, uh, you know,
I I don't disagree. And also, like we both worked
at for the Georgia Renaissance Festival. We've talked about that
numerous times. There's obviously a stigma against people who work
at renfares too, right, Like, and I understand it. I've
met people who helped define that stigma. Yes, yeah, there's

(21:26):
a lot. There are a lot of people who work
at renisons festivals who are very well adjusted and you know,
human beings who can interact in social situations flawlessly, no
matter what the context, and there are those who can't. Yes,
and that's okay, But but the what's not okay is

(21:46):
defining an entire subculture by one part of it, right, Like,
that's not the cool thing. So I get it too,
But it's it's funny because like I understand the reaction
of feeling like like something is playing up aspects of
a hobby that people think is ridiculous, and how that

(22:09):
can feel like a bummer because you're like, man, we
already take catch so much flak for this, but I
also think, like it's ridiculous this. I don't mean for
this to go off on this crazy tangent, but like,
we live in a we live in a world like
in the United States and another parts of the world too,
where people who go and do like full on face

(22:31):
paint and dress up for like sporting events, is like,
that's just being a super fan. It's like not considered
to be you know, dorky or whatever. And you have
entire groups of people who go out and they get
so invested in a sporting event that afterward, whether it's
a win or a lose, they burned down the city

(22:53):
where it happened. And I'm like, why is this something
that we're all just like, yeah, I mean, that's a
sports fan and it's not considered a negative. And meanwhile,
me and my buddies who aren't hurting anybody and just
rolling some dice and make playing pretend we're the weirdos.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
I mean, it's definitely gotten less away from that. You know,
in recent years, and I want to saying like.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh sure, because yeah, i'd say that. I mean, really,
the last thirty years we've seen Yeah, we've seen it.
And really i'd say everything after say mid nineties, we
started to see a change, right yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah. And because like my band was out playing a
miniature Renaissance festival this weekend and one of my bandmates
and she's like, she's young, she's our youngin was like,
I'm surprised there's such a great turnout for this, and
I'm like, Renaissance festivals are super in, Like they're super in. Yeah,
So like that that might have been counterculture at one point,

(23:52):
and it still is for some people. I mean, it's
not everybody's jam, but it is pretty mainstream at the moment,
which is awesome.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Reminds me I do need to buy tickets for GARF
in advance because they do sell out. Now. It didn't
used to be the thing where you could buy tickets
for a specific date.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, it is. It is insane to me that GARF
is selling out. And also this year, I guess for
anybody who is local that listens and wants to go
to the Renaissance Festival, if you haven't bought your tickets.
They are also reducing capacity to make it a better
experience for everybody who goes.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
You know, on the busiest days. I would have loved
that as a street character, Like light days were a
lot of work too, ironically, yeah, because you're just constantly
looking for something to do, and if it was a
very light day, you're like, well, I've already told that
story to that group of people, so I'm not going

(24:50):
to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
So it's a lotzi day.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, But it seems like garf this year. And again
I haven't been, but band is filling in for a
couple of weekends this year. It looks like it's going
I know, we've complained a lot about Renaissance festivals in
the past. It looks like it's going in a good direction.
But they're also doing stuff that'll make it more comfortable
for patrons this year. So they're putting in some additional

(25:16):
privies that will help people get in and out in
case they have like a privy emergency, so they won't
have to wait in line, because sometimes there's lines for
like the nice privies.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, the ones that can actually flush.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah and have ac they're putting in some water bottle
filling stations, which is nice.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
That's great, man. I love all this like I have
high hopes when I go that, I'm going to sit
there and think, Ah, things are better than they were
when I worked here, and that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
That is my hope. Everything that I have seen thus
far this year makes me very hopeful. So but I
hadn't even gotten through all of my stuff, so new
stuff that I've watched the interviews for the new season
of task Master, which comes out April ninth.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
I watched the first episode of Last One Laughing of
season one. Season two just came out, but I was like, eh,
like most of the actors on most of the comedians
on it are from task Master. I love how this
is gonna sound horrible. I don't have a better word
for it, So if you need to bleep it, that's fine.
How incestuous the British comedy scene is. It's like being

(26:24):
in a theater camp where everybody dates everybody, except for
every show uses everybody.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
I mean, I'm not saying all the British Atlanta Atlanta
theater community is pretty similar.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, well that's why I said, like, you know, like
a theater camp where like, because you know, you're with
your like people and it's a smaller group of people,
so you're like, well, let's see if any of us click.
But yeah, that's a joke. I also watched Project.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Hill Mary all right, the the film that I'm going
to be mixing up with Mother Mary. So how is
how is Anne Hathaway?

Speaker 1 (26:58):
She was great. It looked like she did some moisturizer
on her skin.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
They called her rocky in this, but no, it was good.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
I haven't read the book, and but it was delightful.
It was a wonderful, wonderful journey from beginning to end.
It's done by the same person who did The Martian.
Different feel, different story, but just as fun. I might
have even liked it better because it was a little

(27:28):
bit more science fiction and a little less science faction.
The science fiction as well, but.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, the factions and science are scary, those biologists versus physicists.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah, but you know what I mean, Like The Martian
was was a little bit more rooted.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
In right, right, Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a
near future take, obviously because we haven't actually sent anyone
to Mars yet.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
But without trying to like spoil anything for any anybody
who's not familiar and has avoided the trailers. My husband
knew nothing going in. He didn't watch any of the trailers.
He knew that it was by the same guy who
did The Martian.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
So but it was really good. I highly recommend it.
It's a two and a half hour movie and it
is at times a slower pace, but I never felt like,
is it over yet? Oh man, this is moving slow,
like not at once.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
That does remind me I'm going to go see a
movie tonight.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Oh which one?

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Forbidden Fruits?

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Oh? Have fun.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
That's the one about the young women at the mall
who have kind of formed a coven and a new
young lady joins them and it's all about kind of
like performative sisterhood and stuff.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
So yeah, the Craft circa Mean Girls, circa.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Mal Rats, circa Heathers.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Not seen Heathers. Oh that's Mall Rats or the Craft either.
I've really just seen Mean Girls.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
I've seen I don't. I think probably Malerats is probably
the least applicable, except for the fact that it takes
place in the mall.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Is that the one where Steve Busheney pretends to be
a high.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Schooler in Malrats. Gosh, I don't remember. I don't remember
that at all. I mean, it has been years. I've
only ever seen Malrats once and it was well after
its theatrical run. I saw it on home video. But
I don't remember. That doesn't mean that it didn't happen
because I only saw it the one time. I just

(29:26):
remember it being very like. It was funny. I didn't
think it was a bad comedy, but it did have
a lot of juvenile humor in it. Not it was
a Kevin Smith movie. So yeah, but yeah, I look
forward to seeing that. I will report back on what
I thought next time we record. But for now, how
about we segue or segu over to our thirty seconds

(29:50):
or less section.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Sure, I will start that. I will say, like I
thought we had been recording for a lot longer than
we've been recording. And yes, I know that the clock restarted,
but because we have a clock on how long we've
been recording, but it's still less time than I thought.
I thought we had been talking for like an hour
and a half already, So this is great. Yeah, I start.

(30:15):
So the first thing is that season two of The
Pit is coming to a close. Don't worry if you
love it, It's already renewed for season three. But they're
doing something kind of cool, which is they're releasing the
finale a few days early in Alamo draft houses, and
any and all healthcare professionals active or retired can reserve

(30:35):
a seat with a ten dollars food beverage voucher, which
means that like, you can get a half off movie night.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
That's awesome. Bad Robot, the production company founded by JJ Abrams,
is going through some downsizing and a relocation as Abrams
moves the studio from Los Angeles to New York City.
Not sure if this means the studio will be focusing
on fewer projects, but there are a couple that are
coming out soon, and be talking about one of them
a little later in this episode.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Interesting. I was hoping maybe moving to it, but close
ish enough. Disney is doing a nationwide search for merging
voice actors focused on the art of animation. This is
pretty cool. It is free to submit yourself because you
shouldn't ever pay for an audition, and they give you

(31:26):
several scripts that you can pick from and ask give
you a bunch of good directions. So if you are
an aspiring voice actor or wanted to get into voicing animation,
or you watched One Piece and fell in love with
Tony Tony Chopper, you can submit. There's a link through
the Deadline article, which I will include in our show notes.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Maybe I should do that.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
I think you should. It's for eighteen and over, so
it's not focused at children.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah. Well, Weapons was a big hit last year, and
Amy Madigan won an Oscar for her turn as the
malevolent aunt Gladys. We're going to learn a lot more
about her in a pre well titled Gladys. And now
we know that two Zach's Gregor and Shields are co
writing the script. Zach Gregor was behind Weapons, and Zach

(32:09):
Shields has worked on stuff like Godzilla Versus Kong movies.
So that's cool.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
That is cool. Wonder Man, which is the latest Marvel
TV show is getting a second season, is same actor,
same creative crew. Apparently the first season went really well.
I still haven't watched it. A lot of my actor
friends told me that the first episode is really cringe
and hard to get through. I think, and you told
me that.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
John yail I bailed after like five minutes.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
I couldn't do it, but it's popular enough to get
a second season, which is pretty impressive for a Marvel
TV show.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Well before he pops up in Spider Man Brand New Day,
the Punisher will get his own TV special titled The
Punisher One Last Kill. It comes out on May twelfth,
that's the same day that the season finale for Daredevil
Born Again season two launches and John Burnenthal, who plays
the Mercenary, also co wrote the special.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Uh so uh. Donna to Riko was an actor in Baywatch.
I believe I never watched it, but now she is
doing a mystery travel series on YouTube which is called Mythbound,
where she will be traveling to locations quote unquote travels
to locations around the world, investigating some of the most
well known myth, legends and mysteries, placing herself at the

(33:26):
center of each investigation. So if you like cryptids, this
might be for you.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah. Sure. Hope that she goes to find Mothman and
that she brings with her her chapstick, which only makes sense.
If only makes sense if you ever watched the preview
to Mothman with Richard Gear and it's I'll talk about.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
It I thought it was a I thought it was
a bay Watch reference, and I'm like, cool.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
No, that was that was a Mothman reference. That trailer,
like that little bit and the delivery of the line,
because it's it's Richard Gear is in a phone booth.
I think it's Richard Gear. I could be wrong about that.
The actor playing the lead is in a phone booth
and he's on the phone with the apparently the Mothman,
and he says, what am I holding in my hand?

(34:09):
And the voice on the phone goes Chapstick. And so
it's just whenever I talk about Chapstick, that's how I
have to say it. Now, all right back to thirty
seconds or less. I totally derailed that. Here we go. Well,
last Halloween to be debuted adaptation of a story from R. L.
Stein's Nightmare Hour titled Pumpkinhead, the Gateway horror film aimed

(34:32):
at teens, was a big hit for the platform, So
it should come as no surprise that this Halloween we're
getting a sequel titled, also no surprise, Pumpkinhead two. It
sounds like this is a super quick turnaround from concept
to finish film, and I hope it's spooky.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
I'm not into Pumpkinhead, but if they do Pumpkin Pie two,
I'm all in. Starfleet Academy is getting a second season,
but that is it. They did not get renewed for
third despite getting a fairly good rating on Rotten Tomatoes,
they did not reach the Nelson's top ten. I'm sad

(35:10):
for that, but I am glad there's some transparency as
to why it didn't get renewed.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
The reunion series Wizards Beyond Waverley Place will take a
bow over the course of a four part event on
Disney Plus this summer. The originals original no Wizards of
Waverley Place pan I made this a tongue twister. The
original Wizards of Waverley Mary sitcom debut in two thousand
and seven, and star Selena Gomez has served as an

(35:37):
executive producer for this reboot series, and she will make
her directorial debut on the first part of the four
episode arc, which is pretty neat.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
That is pretty neat. Also pretty neat. Doctor who might
be going to HBO? This is just a rumor. I
think they partnered in the past. I don't remember. My
brain is fuzzy there and I forgot to look it
up before we're recording. Whoo, It's like the offer hasn't
been there, but now that it's being like positive, they

(36:08):
might look at it. I guess all that kind of
depends on how everything goes with the acquisition.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Now. Yeah, yeah, Well, sometimes in order to get ahead
and show business, you got to spend some dough like
a million bucks. And the head in question is that
of the protocol Droid C threebo from the Star Wars franchise,
because in a live auction from prop Store, a light
up C three bo head fetched one million, fifty eight
four hundred dollars, which is still less than half of

(36:37):
what Darth Vader's lightsaber went for at a previous auction.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Still, though, the limited series Amadeus, or as I like
to call it, Amadu because it looks exactly the same
as the original movie that Sky is putting out in
the UK, is getting a US release. It will be
on Stars starting. Even though it look similar, I'm still
kind of.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Interested while we wait with cautious skepticism for the next
Lord of the Rings movie. Game developer Crystal Dynamics, which
is known for the tomb Raiders series, has been creating
a new Lord of the Rings game. According to Insider Gaming,
the intent is to create a game that can quote
compete with Hogwarts legacy end quote, but with no clarification

(37:22):
on what that actually means.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
A bunch of my friends lately have been really digging
the Dungeon Carl, Oh, Dungeon Karl.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
This is Yours Wizards Beyond the Waverley Thingies.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Dungeon Crawler Karl book series. Well, now it's getting a
TV series on Peacock. The creative team behind it is
Chris Yost and Seth McFarlane.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Cool Variety reports that a pro shot version of the
Broadway production of Six will hit movie theaters this summer.
The musical, which is really in the form of a
concert performance, features the six wives of Henry the Eighth,
who initially compete against each other before realizing that their
marriage to one of history's greatest monsters doesn't have to
define who they are. Comes out August fourteenth, And yes,

(38:14):
I stand by the fact that Henry the Eighth was
one of history's greatest monsters.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
He wasn't great. There's an interesting saw Bones episode on it,
and how like his mentality kind of changed after his
horse accident, but I think that's letting him off too easy.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, he also had gout and like like, he had
a lot of medical issues, but yeah, I think probably.
I mean, this is armchair diagnosis from somebody centuries removed,
but I do think that after his jousting accident he
certainly had more issues with impulse control for sure.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Well it is. It is fun because I just got
a group of people to agree to go see six
with me at the Fox this year. I've already seen
it at the Fox, but it's coming back, and we
had such good time. I'm like, let's go do it again.
Maybe our Catherine Howard won't have mike issues this time.
But then I shared that this was happening and one
of my friends, who it's going to be their first
time seeing it, was like, oh man, I could have

(39:13):
just waited instead of going to live theater. Shut up.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
I think live theater always trumps Like pro shots are great.
It gives people an opportunity to see things that otherwise
they never would get a chance to see, and I
absolutely love them and I think we need to have
more of them. I think it needs to be built
into the contract situation for shows early on so that
everybody is fairly compensated because I realized that's a big

(39:38):
part of it. I don't it's not just as so
easy as just put a camera in there, But I
would love to see more pro shots at the same time,
if you do have the opportunity and it's not like
prohibitively expensive or whatever, to experience it as live theater.
I always think that's the best experience.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
And I've watched several pro shots, but it is. It
is very different when you watch it live. The nice
thing about this one is I think it's the original
cast from the West End?

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Oh is it? I thought it was the Broadway one,
but maybe it's the West End.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Maybe it might be the Broadway one. I could be wrong.
I knew that they were filming one in the West End.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Oh, and maybe it is. Then I know that Haitestown
with the original Broadway cast shot a pro shot in
the West End, although I haven't heard about when that's
being released.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
This performance was recorded at London's Buadeville Theater, with the
original West End queens reprising their roles.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
That's awesome. That's awesome, and.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
It is on Broadway too very long, I think longer
standing on Broadway than the West End. Maybe.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah, well, it started off. It started off as a
fringe festival production. Like it was. It was smaller in scope,
but it was a fringe festival thing that grew into
this kind of show as a concert like. It is
done in the concert style. I'm not wrong about that,
am I.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
No, it's it's like watching a Spice Girls concert with
a light plot running through it. But I also really
love this whole like semi educational Broadway thing that's been
going on with like with like six and Hamilton, and
there's a couple others that I can't remember at the moment.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
But shucked. No, it's not.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
About the bad it's not about the bad highway system
in Marietta, John, It's all.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
About Cobb County. We've got Cobb County.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
It's not our Cobb County, I know.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
But it was apparently they did have some fun with
that when they performed it here in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Oh nice.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
I didn't see it, so I think friend of the
show Shay Lee saw it and told me that they
were they had a little fun with the fact that
there actually is a Cobb County here in Georgia. Uh yeah,
but that was not the that was not the inspiration
in the show. All right, Well that's our thirty seconds
or less, which obviously we went a little long on

(42:04):
some of those because I'm a chatty Kathy. But now
we're ready to move into our section called stuff we
decided to put here even though it ain't geeky enough, probably.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah yeah. And the first one is a trailer for
an Italian western called Heads or Tails Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
And it features an American character and a supporting role.
The American an actual historical American character, Buffalo Bill Cody.
Buffalo Bill being played by John c Riley in this
The trailer makes it look like he plays a pretty
big part in the movie, but from what I understand,
it's really more of a supporting character.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Do you feel like you can maybe give a stab
at what this movie is about. I do know what
the plot is, if you have trouble, because I don't
think it's that clear in the trailer.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
It isn't, but I think I looked it up, and
if I recall correctly, I did look it up. But
if I recall correctly, because I might not be an
Italian cowboy kisses Buffalo Bill's girlfriend and then they run
away and Buffalo Bill won't write a story about it.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
No, that's not it. But I like your stab. I
like your stab. I couldn't fault you for that if
you just did it Based on the trailer, No, the
story Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show is on a
European tour, which really did happen. Those were actual things
in history. And while in Italy, there's like a bet

(43:33):
place between this guy who has all these other like
like cattle ranchers on his payroll versus Buffalo Bill's cowboys,
and the Jerkin charge is essentially betting against himself, and
he tells his his his cowboy to lose on purpose,

(43:55):
but the guy's pride is too great, and the Italian
cowboy win the competition and then witnesses the bad guy
roughing up his girlfriend. The bad guy's girlfriend a woman
named Rosa, and so then Rosa shoots the bad guy
and then she and the Italian cowboy go running off,

(44:16):
and then the bad guy's dad hires Buffalo Bill to
go out and get Rosa and bring her back to
the dad of the bad guy. So Buffalo Bill is
kind of like a bounty hunter who's doing it for
the money because they're running low on funds while they're
in Europe, and so that's kind of the story. It

(44:40):
gets really dark. Like I read the synopsis and I'm like, wow,
this happens halfway through the movie. But like I said,
the trailer I think would make you think Buffalo Bill
plays a central role, and I think he's an important character,
but I don't think he appears in the movie quite
as much as the trailer might have you. But again,

(45:00):
it's trying to market an Italian movie to an American audience,
so you can kind of understand why it's the way
it is.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Yeah, it looks fun.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
To me, Yeah it looks interesting. Comes out April tenth.
I there's a plot element I want to tell you
about Ariel, because I don't know if it would be
your jam, but I don't want to spoil it for
people who may want to watch the movie.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Okay, well then maybe I won't watch it. I'll just
read the Common Sense media review at some point. The
next trailer. We've got in stuff what we just put
in here, even though maybe what I don't know is
for stop that train, which is airplane meets RuPaul's drag
race meets snow piercer.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yes, on a train. That's perfect. That's one hunt. You
nailed it. So yeah, this is a zany comedy in
the vein of something like an airplane or a naked
gun back in the day. I feel like it. It
feels way more like an airplane or naked gun than
a lot of those blank movie movies do. For sure,

(46:09):
this trailer not everything was for me. Not all the
humor resonated with me. But there were some jokes that
legit made me laugh when I saw them.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
I agree, there were some funny jokes. I do think
it's gonna be a little bit too raunchy for me personally.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Yeah, definitely. It definitely looks raunchier than an airplane.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, but it has a wonderful cast.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
So yeah. So like you've got like all these folks
from RuPaul's drag race who are part of it. But
then outside of that, you also have tons of people,
like entertainers from all sorts of different venues, Like you've
got Charro. I didn't even know Charro was still alive,
so sing.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Because she has a social media presence.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Okay, well I don't. But Rachel Bloom so like my
crazy ex girlfriends, Rachel Bloom, Chris Parnell, Ricky Lindholm, Joel McHale,
Jerry O'Connell, Sarah Michelle Geller, Missy Bile. There's tons of
people in this and it definitely looks like over the
top slapstick, silly, corny, juvenile humor, but in a way

(47:17):
that's not mean spirited, at least not in the trailer,
and I kind of want to see it. It comes
out June twelfth.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Yeah, the next one I kind of want to see.
It was filmed locally, at least partially in Atlanta. Is
a TV show a reboot I guess of Cape Fear.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Yeah, so this will be the third adaptation of the
original novel was called The Executioners, I believe, but it's
the third adaptation to be called Cape Fear. You had
a film that came out in nineteen sixty two, you
had another film that came out in nineteen ninety one,
and now you have an Apple TV series. They all

(48:01):
have the same basic premise, which is that there's this
psychopath criminal who has been in prison and finally gets
gets out and he plots revenge on a lawyer or
in this case, two lawyers who are married to each other,
whom he blames for his incarceration and the details about

(48:25):
how he you know, why does he blame them? Very
depending upon which version of the story you see, because
like in one version, it's that it was a defense
lawyer who purposefully withheld some information that might have otherwise
meant that he would have been given some leniency in
his sentencing. In other versions, it wasn't a defense lawyer.

(48:49):
It was a person who happens to be a lawyer,
but they they interrupted a violent assault that wasn't taking
in progress and then testified against him. It all depends
on which version, And I don't know what this one's
gonna be. I think it's going to be closer to
the defense lawyers who purposefully withhold information because they realize
that Max Katie, the bad guy, is a real danger.

(49:11):
Javier Bardem is playing Max Katie in this one. Looks
like he looks scary as heck. Yeah. Amy Adams is
playing one of the two lawyers. Patrick Wilson is the
other one. And I have to say, the other thing
that really terrifies me is Amy adams Southern accent.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
It's it's not good, no, no, but it looks.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
It looks genuinely like thrilling, Like the show looks genuinely
thrilling and a little scary, which.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Yeah, could be fun, and it should be like it's
it should be a scary thing, like this is a
tense story. The first two episodes come out June fifth,
and it'll be ten episodes in total, with the final
one launching on July thirty first, so, you know, a
nice summer watch for those who are into this kind
of psycho thriller kind of stuff. Yeah, it looks like

(50:06):
it's a going to be, like I'm interested to see
how they're what they're going to flesh out, because obviously,
like for the films, they tighten the story up quite
a bit in order to tell it in the framework
of a movie. With a ten episode series, you know,
is it going to feel padded or is it going

(50:27):
to feel like, oh no, that's exactly how much they
needed in order to tell the story this way. I
have a feeling it means that the creepy stuff Max
Katie does is going to be way creepier because it's
going to be stretched out over a longer time frame.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, and probably a slower noir pace. But I don't
know for certain.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
One morning to you, Ariel, you'll want to make sure
if there's a dog involved, that you know what happens
to the dog, because in other versions of the story,
the dog is is a target for Max.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Katie Good good to know, Good to know, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Which I think. I think that even goes all the
way back to the novel. So uh yeah, it's one way.
One way to really establish your bad guy as a
bad guy is having them hurt a dog that'll come
back later in this episode. Two.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Yeah, I'm so mad about it coming back, like KP fear,
I almost expect it, and I thank you for the
warning because maybe I'll skip an episode and just read
the synopsis for it, like it did with Last of Us.
But uh yeah, not about the later thing we're gonna talk.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
About for it. I didn't know about it because I
had not read the comic book series that it was
based off of. It happens in the comic book series too,
But we'll get there. So before we can get there, though,
there is this giant like old, abandoned, rotten Victorian house
between us and our lineup, and it's called Spider Manner.

(52:02):
So we're gonna have to cross through spider manner. But
don't worry. Don't worry. It's just a name. It's not
really a manner. It's just a house. So we have
to get all the way through. We got to get through,
like it's on the other side. Ariel. If I go
through and you don't, then you're all over here and
I'm over there.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
This is how much I hate spiders that I'd rather
tell our listening audience repeatedly that I have to use
the restroom and then deal with spiders. But it's fine,
it's fine.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Did you watch it?

Speaker 1 (52:30):
It'll probably going through that house will probably solve that problem.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Did you watch any of these trailers? I did.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
I wish I had skipped the second one, but it's fine.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
That's a comedy horror. But anyway, we'll get to that. Okay,
So first up, we have Apex, which is I just
think it's the most dangerous game. It's really that story.
But Charlie's We've talked about this in a previous episode,
but we got the full trailer where Charlie's Theron plays
a rock climber. She's in Australia looking for her adventure

(53:01):
and whatever comes her way she's born to be wild,
and she encounters tarn Edgerton, who's playing a local who
is suspiciously helpful and a little creepy, and then turns
out to be a lot creepy and then turns out
to be hunting her. Allah The Most Dangerous Game comes
to Netflix on April twenty fourth, and I wrote, this

(53:23):
doesn't look like it's bad. It just looks really derivative.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
For sure, And I didn't watch the thing it was
derivative of.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
But it still does well. Yeah, because there's well, there's
a billion variations right of like crazy person hunting down
somebody in you know, some hostile environment, like that story
has been done to death. I say Most Dangerous Game
because that's like, that's like the the top or like
the original reference. And even then it's not really original reference,

(53:55):
but it's the one that everyone thinks about. Then we
have a horror comedy series with emphasis on the horror
for Apple TV called Widow's Bay, and Matthew Reese is
in this. He plays Tom Loftus, who is the mayor
of this little town in New England, and he maintains

(54:19):
that his town is just perfectly normal, despite the fact
that the town residents are very superstitious, and it looks
like it's super duper haunted and or cursed. What'd you think?

Speaker 1 (54:33):
I didn't super like it. It was creepy enough that
it looks like it wasn't for me. And then at
the end there was a cannibalism joke, which made me think,
if they're going there, it's definitely enough.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
But the joke was funny. It's this guy who's talking
to the mayor and he's like, what about cannibalism? And
the Mayor's like, oh, there's no cannibalism here, and then
the shot changes and you see that they're talking right
in front of a big framed newspaper that has a
huge headline that just says cannibalism across it, and he's like,

(55:07):
I don't think that's real.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
I mean, it was funny, but it also made me
think that because of that joke, it probably definitely is not.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Fun Well, well, there's there's probably an My guess is
the episodes are going to be kind of like an anthology,
like it's I think it's really going to be episodic
and not more of a serial. But the first three
episodes of this ten part series drop on April twenty
ninth on Apple TV. Stephen Root, isn't it. I love
Stephen Root, so I can't wait to see what he does.

(55:39):
And ty West directed at least one of the episodes.
And I love some of Tye West's work. Yeah, like
The Innkeepers is great.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Well watch it and let me know. And if you
watch it and then you let me know that it
is for me, I will watch it. The next thing
we have is for a gritty reboot of the.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Wuzzles called Yeah It's the Fuzzy. Yeah, it feels like
I mean, honestly, the marketing is coyly referencing Poppy's Playtime,
which is a video game horror series kind of like
Five Nights at Freddy's where you've got like these monstrous
puppet like characters. This also has sinister puppets in it,

(56:28):
as well as videotapes of some strange children's TV show
where the host of the television show can directly address
the people watching the videotapes, so you know, there's some
weird stuff going on there. But yeah, it really feels
derivative of Poppy's Playtime without it actually being Poppy's Playtime.

(56:49):
The Instagram description for the movie says it follows quote
A group of friends who reunite at their childhood friend's
eerie estate after her death, where they soon uncover a nightmare.
The grotesque puppets from her famous children's TV show are alive.
Blending practical puppetry, stop motion horror, and dark humor, The
Fuzzies explores friendship, fame, and buried monsters. End quote. I

(57:15):
wrote that this looks really low budget, Like. It looks
to me like it could have just been made for YouTube,
Like it feels like it's a YouTube short horror but
stretched to feature length. It comes out on digital on
May first, so I don't have high hopes for this.
I thought it was an interesting thing more because it
feels like someone trying to tap into the popularity of

(57:37):
an existing IP without actually going through the trouble of
acquiring the rights.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
Yeah. Yeah, and I wasn't trying to take over your
horror hutch.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
No no, came up with a bad joke, No no,
And you're motivated because you want to get out of
this house and get to a bathroom.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
Yeah, but your your spiders definitely gave me the side
I for trying to take over, So happened again.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
All right, let's just let's let's let's pop out so
that we don't have to worry about them anymore. Well,
now that we are out of the creepy confines of
Spider manner, we can talk about the stuff that's actually
on our lineup. So what's first?

Speaker 1 (58:22):
A giant crab which is similar to a spider.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Yeah, arthropod or a decapod? Actually, yeah, Molana, we've.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Got fancy, fancy biology. You're one of those biology.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Yeah, part of the biology faction. Yeah. Well, he in
the song Shiny Tomatoa references himself as a decapod. Look
it up. I know, because I do shiny at karaoke sometimes. So, yeah,
we got a full trailer for the live action Mohana,

(58:56):
which comes out this summer on July tenth. Yeah, what
was your what was your take?

Speaker 1 (59:05):
So, on the one hand, while there will be a
lot of CGI, this film at least has more live
actors than the Lion King mm hmm. But and it
looks pretty. I will admit that I do not like
the way Dwayne Johnson looks as Maui at all. He

(59:29):
doesn't his head is the wrong size for the rest
of his body and they had to put him into
essentially a fat suit. Yeah, and then his wig looks off.
It's it's just a big miss for me there.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Yeah, I I didn't like this trailer. I'm trying not
to heap too much hate on it because I also
see a lot of YouTubers who kind of manufacture outrageous
stuff and I don't want to be that person either.
But yeah, but I I also feel like this movie

(01:00:02):
is only the original. The animated film is only ten
years old, right, Like, did we really need to have
a live action remake? But at the same time, I'm like, well,
of course Disney thinks they need a live action remake.
Leelo and Stitch made them a billion dollars. If if
a live action remake pulls in a billion dollars and
you didn't have to come up with a whole new
story to do it, then obviously you're going to do that.

(01:00:25):
It makes sense from a business perspective. From an art perspective,
it's frustrating. And that's the problem is that, like, I
don't care about the don't I don't own Disney stock.
Actually I do, but it's one share. But I own
one share of Disney stock. So it doesn't really matter. Oh,

(01:00:47):
I know, right, that was a gift at some point.
I don't even know where the like, I don't even
know where the paperwork kids at this point, so it
might as well not have it. But anyway, it's it's
I did not this trailer did not work for me.
I am not looking forward to this. I don't think

(01:01:08):
I'm going to see it. I am curious who they
got to play tomatoa because as far as I can tell,
that has not yet been announced. And I'm wondering if
Jamaine Clement is coming back to do the voice for
the live action And I know it's not out because
I searched before we started recording.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Oh dang it, yo, I was gonna be like, actually.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
You can, I'm actually me if you like. But yeah,
there's not. There hasn't been any announcement yet. I I
don't know. Maybe they'll get somebody else, but like, Jermaine
would have been great to hear him come back as that.
But yeah, I I didn't care for this very much.
But I also we've been on record multiple times as
not being the biggest fan of the live action remakes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
There are some live action remakes I do I genuinely enjoyed,
but I don't know that I enjoyed them more than
the original, maybe equal to, or I liked parts of
them better, because you can always tweak a story right
and add something good that adds stuff that you think
is not as good. But do I think any of

(01:02:15):
them were super necessary? Not really, Like I think I
think they might have improved the story of the Little Mermaid,
but because they gave it a moral at the end
and the entire I've said this before, the entire time
She's on land. It's a Rogers and Hammerstein's musical. But

(01:02:38):
they also added stuff that wasn't as much of a hit,
like Prince Eric's I'm Searching for You song that felt
like he was doing a scene from high school to
the musical. I actually liked the Little rap but that
Scuttle and Sebastian Doo, but a lot of people didn't.
And then like the Undersea stuff just wasn't as good.
It just wasn't as good. And in fact, they dumped

(01:02:58):
down the entire under the Sea song because they didn't
want to make a bunch of cartoony looking sea creatures
playing marimbus.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Oh gosh, I still haven't seen the live action ones,
so that's I mean, like, The Little Mermaid was the
Disney movie that made me fall in love with Disney
animation post the classic era. Like I had seen the
classic films, but I had kind.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Of the start of the next generation of animation.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
It was. It was the renaissance because they had been
in a really low period where not everything they made
was terrible, but it just wasn't resonating like Fox and
the Hound, I think is a good movie, but it
didn't resonate the way you know earlier films had. But
Little Mermaid, thanks largely to Ashman and Mincoln, really hit

(01:03:50):
at the right time for me, and I did recognize
later when I finally saw the musical Little Shop of
Horrors that why it worked is because they lifted a
whole bunch of stuff they had written for The Little
Sheph of Bars and remurposed it for The Little Mermaid.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Yeah. Yeah, for sure, but it worked and it sat
like albeit it is the renaissance of Disney animation is
what I grew up with, right, that's integral to my childhood. Yeah,
But but I mean, I do think it was brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
It was a.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Brilliant season for art.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
Well, next up, we have a trailer for the Harry
Potter TV series. It's going to be coming out on
HBO Max on Christmas Day. I don't really have a
whole lot to say about this, apart from the fact
that to me, it just looks a lot like the
movie series, like to the point where I'm like, I
don't see the benefit of having this be a TV show.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Yeah, I don't know, like I'm having because the group
of friends that we run in, I have a real
hard time separating this art from this artist.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Sure, yeah, I don't have any Just to get this
out of the way, I am not going to watch
this because I don't support JK. Rowling's work. It was
more like, when I was watching the trailer, I was
thinking the sets, the set design, the costumes, the lighting,
the cinematography all reminded me of the movie to the

(01:05:25):
point where I'm like, well, why does this exist?

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
Yeah? I wasn't even going to watch the trailer, but
I did, And I do think that we're in a
place in our storytelling arc. Storytelling changes over the years,
comedy changes over the years. I think we have better
special effects nowadays. I think there's a little bit more

(01:05:50):
heart and groundedness to this trailer. However, I'm also not
going to watch it because I also don't support get
jk Rowling. But I was never really a fan of
Harry Potter to begin with, you know, so it's not
a huge loss for me looking back at some of
the thin pieces about it. There's just a lot of
a lot of things that at least bordered on problematic

(01:06:14):
in some of her stories, although my understanding is she
does not have much of a hand in this.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
But still, yeah, I for me, it's like growing up
when I did and reading the books that I did.
A lot of that just didn't raise any flags for
me when I read it, because I've read more problematic
stuff when I was even younger than any of the
stuff that's in the Harry Potter books. I do feel

(01:06:39):
like the Harry Potter books decline in quality after book four.
I think the first I think the third book is
the strongest. That's Prisoner of Azkaban. I think that was
the strongest book, and I think Goblet of Fire was
a slight step down but still good. And then after
that I did not like the books at all. And

(01:07:02):
that was before we knew anything more about Rallying and
her personal views and how she has used her massive
platform to say some pretty terrible things about people that
we really care about. So yeah, I like, again, I
don't have any plans on watching this, and I still
harbor deep disappointment in the various actors who signed on

(01:07:26):
to be part of it. I mean, they each have
their own decisions, and they each have their own justifications
and whatever, but like, it's still disappointing to me.

Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
Yeah. Yeah, and I can even see some I can
even understand some of the justifications. But yeah, I do
have We have a mutual friend acquaintance who at one
point in time thought they might get an audition for
the series because of their They posted this on social media,
so I don't feel too bad sharing it. They were

(01:07:57):
worried that they might get an audition for the series
because of their stature. It's a renfest friend of ours
and they very much look like one of the characters.
And then they would have to really battle with this
job that would help support their family and bring joy
to a lot of people, with the fact that none
of their friends would be able to look them in

(01:08:17):
the eye anymore. And so like even from that standpoint,
or like the kids who maybe don't know better who
are in it, you know, but it is still disappointing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Yeah. Yeah, So you know, if we have any big
time Harry Potter fans out there, we're not judging you,
We're not telling you to not love the things you love.
But you know, for Ariel, it was not a big
deal because she was never a big Harry Potter fan.
For me, you know, I was. I was a big
Harry Potter fan in the book phase and I did

(01:08:49):
see all the movies before knowing what rallying was. But
after that I just couldn't justify it in my own head.
But that's a decision each person makes on their own
based upon how they feel. So there's no judgment going
out there, But just to explain that, we'll probably not
be talking anymore about it unless there's just something so
newsworthy that we just kind of have to moving on,

(01:09:14):
something that was not on my radar. I did not
even know this was a thing. There is an animated
film coming out on Netflix on May first, titled Swapped,
which is like kind of like an animal freaky Friday story.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
Yeah, done by Michael B. Jordan. It it feels kind
of like a more original take on Hoppers.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
Okay, yeah to me, Where Hoppers is a person projecting
their consciousness into a animal robot, this is two animals
that swap consciousness between them, so they do a body swap,
they do a freaky Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Yeah, basically a bird and a ferret like creature. These
are all the creatures are kind of like a mixture
of an animal and a piece of nature, So it
is fantastical in that sense. Yeah, but it looks I
guess the thing that may remind me of Hoppers is
there's a fish who's like, I'll be a distraction. I'll
be their dinner. And it reminded me of a scene
in the trailer for Hoppers of like, okay, well you

(01:10:23):
can eat me now.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
Yeah that's the rules. Yeah, yeah, the fish but by
Tracy Morgan who's like, I'll be a distraction by being
their dinner. And Michael B. Jordan plays Allie, which is
the ferret slash squirrel like critter. Juno Temple voices the
bird like critter. It looks cute, like some of the

(01:10:44):
jokes were pretty cute too, and Michael B.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
Jordan genuinely made me laugh.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
Yeah. Yeah, some nice stuff in here, Like you can
tell there's people who worked on Pixar who were part
of the story making process. Uh yeah, there's there's a
cute little intro with my be Jordan and his niece
and nephew as well, which is adorable. So yeah, I
think like this was like a fun little family film

(01:11:10):
and like it has jokes that will appeal to all ages,
not just kids.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
Yeah, I am for this one. I might actually watch it. Yeah,
it might actually watch.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
I mean it'll be on that flax, so may first.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Yeah, I can fast forward through any bits that upset me.
Because animals this cartoon looks they're not really an it
looks charming.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Still, they're not even real. They're not even depictions of
real animals because it's a fantasy world.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
Listen. Still, when I watched Mickey seventeen, I got upset
at the aliens being harmed. So anyhow, something I will
definitely watch is the new Masters of the Universe movie,
and we got a full trailer for it, and everything
I see for it makes me more excited for it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
This trailer has a lot more action on Attornia like
the previous teasers were like playing with Adam as he's
trapped on Earth. These trailers feature a lot more stuff
going on on his home world of Eternia. My biggest,
the biggest bonus for me in this trailer is that

(01:12:21):
you absolutely could not tell that Jared Leto is playing Skeletor,
like it could have been anybody, And honestly, it makes
me wonder, why wasn't it anybody else? But you know,
you can't tell from it the voice, and of course
the character is Skeletor, it's not doesn't look like Jared Leto,
So it's an upgrade that So yeah, I was really

(01:12:47):
gung ho happy about that. It also is action packed.
It kind of makes me think of like the Star
Wars prequels that kind of action, or maybe a Marvel
movie that kind of action. It does not look dark
and gritty, which I'm thankful for because I don't think
that that was necessary.

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
Yeah, I think like there will be some dark and gritty,
but I really do think they're hitting the right tone.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Yeah. I think it's gonna be more like high adventure
rather than like the bat.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
Beyond compare we are the Gummy Bears.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Okay, differently different than Gummy Bear crossover Different Saturday Morning Cartoon,
Different one. Yeah. I thought this looked like it's a
gonna be a fun maybe not as campy as I
would like, not quite campy enough, but it looks like
it's gonna be a fun fantasy sci fi adventure.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. The next thing, we got a
full trailer for Supergirl. You definitely get to get to
see some You get to get to see oooh, I
need lunch. You get to see some Lobo in this one.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
Yeah. You also get to see some animal cruelty in
this one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I may not be able to watch Supergirl.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Yeah. This is where Krem of the Yellow Hills shoots
Crypto the dog with a poisoned dart, and Supergirl is
told that he keeps the antidote on his person so
that she needs to go after him if she wants
to save Crypto. A young woman is telling her this,

(01:14:25):
and the young woman her family has either been killed
or captured by Krem of the Yellow Hills, so you
know she's got her own stake in this. And this
is all based off Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow. There's a
comic book run that was titled that and many of

(01:14:49):
the elements of the story are in fact in that
comic book, which I have not read, but I read
about it earlier today when I was looking into it,
because I was like, is this something that happens in
the comic book? And sure enough, the shooting of Crypto
is part of that story. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
So here's the thing. If it weren't for Guardians of
the Galaxy three, I would be like, surely, James Gunn
is not going to kill Crypto. It's based off his dog,
and he loves his dog very very much, But.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Isn't I still haven't seen Guardians three.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
There's a lot of animal endangerment in.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
That sure, Yeah, and cruelty because it's a lot about
it's a lot about Rockets origin story.

Speaker 1 (01:15:32):
Yes, And I cried hard, and like, there were parts
of it I very much loved, but because that's just
something I really struggle with, it made me hard to
It made it hard for me to enjoy that movie overall.
Not that it was a bad movie, it just gets
some buttons.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
For this challenging. Yeah. This one comes out on my
birthday on June twenty sixth, so I'm sure I'll go
see it because, like James Gunn has a better record
with me than most other filmmakers. Not saying that I've
loved everything James Gun's done, but I've liked more of
his stuff than I haven't, so and I'm curious to see.

(01:16:13):
I'm also really curious to see how the movie turns out,
because there have been a lot of reports of lots
of tweaks and reshoots, maybe not reshoots, but like re edits,
like there's been like eight different test screenings of this movie. Interesting,
and they've they've changed composer three times. Like, so I
missed all that news. Yeah, well, I had it in

(01:16:34):
our thirty seconds or less at one point, but then
I cut it just because it was it was a
little more stale than some of our other points, and
I didn't want to go on too long. But yeah,
I was reading up on this. And you can't judge
whether or not a movie is going to be good
or bad based upon you know, the number of test
screenings or anything like that. Uh, it's you know often

(01:16:54):
that can give you the sense of, oh, this movie's
in trouble and it may not be able to be saved.
But I wouldn't jump to that conclusion yet. I would
say that, I'd be a little concerned, but that doesn't
mean that it's a lost cause. The fact that they
change composers three times, though, that kind of tells me
that maybe finding the right tone has been a challenge, right,

(01:17:17):
because like music is supposed to reinforce the tone of
the film and help guide you so that you have
the right emotion at the right time.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
Yeah, yeah, anyhow, Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna see Supergirl.
I have to see Supergirl. We have a geek media podcast.
I have to see it. Yeah, just a lot less
excited about it at this moment.

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
I understand, Like when I saw that bet like it.
I guess it helps a little bit that Crypto is
just a bit on the cartoony side, Like he doesn't
quite look like a real dog, and that helps a
little bit for me. But I can totally get it. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:18:00):
having having my own rambunctious and slightly mischievous dog myself,
it hits home as well as endured.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
I love your dog, I love I love you pup pups. However,
like my my animal cruelty does have its limits. I
don't care about sandworms very much, for example. Yeah, maybe
maybe it's just because I've never met one.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
Uh, they're terrible, They're the worst. Yeah, oh my god. Sandworms. Yeah,
me and Beetlejuice have the same opinion about them.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
Oh no, I meant like the ones that produce.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Spice, oh, spicy sandworms. So like OnlyFans sandworms, got it. Yeah,
I'm not into sand worm. Oh oh oh, you're talking
about milange. You're talking about yes.

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
Dune, Yes, And I'm talking about dude. Because we got
a full trailer for Doune.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
Three, which is an adaptation of the novel Dune Messiah,
which is the follow up to Herbert's original novel Dune.
Herbert wrote Dune Messiah as well. I don't mean to
imply that he wasn't involved in that. He wrote several
books in the Dune series. So this one follows like
what happens after is it? Paul, that's the character's name,

(01:19:21):
has been declared the new Emperor, and it's about kind
of like the fallout of that situation and how he
tries to direct things so that the least amount of
harm is done to people in the galaxy, which means
making choices where a lot of harm is happening to
some people in the galaxy. It's kind of talking about

(01:19:43):
like the the challenge, like there is no perfect option, right,
so you have to you have to figure out which
option you can live with kind of thing. And he
has almost godlike powers of clairvoyance. So oh, it's a
it's a challenging thing. It does feature some of my girlfriends,

(01:20:07):
so I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
On board with Robert Pattinson.

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
I don't call him my girlfriend. I mean, if he called,
I wouldn't hang up. But uh no, I'm talking about Anya,
Taylor joy And and Florence View.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Yeah. Yeah, it looks like it looks pretty. It looks
like more Dune. I'm a little upset that Dune two
wasn't titled we Aren't Done Yet, and that Dune three
isn't titled Dune and Dune.

Speaker 2 (01:20:33):
Yeah, that the whimsy just is not really part of
that universe.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
No, no, I will see it because I've seen the
other two.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
They haven't seen the second one. Was it good?

Speaker 1 (01:20:48):
Better than the first?

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Okay, you enjoyed it. I thought the first one was
well done. Maybe that was my problem was that I
wasn't over the moon. But to be fair, Dune has
never been one of my favorite stories. I reckon nice.
It's importance, and I think it's an incredible achievement, but
it's never been like my go to science fiction.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
I liked the old mini series one, the really weird one.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
The mini series or the old like David Lynch film with.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
David Lynch film. Okay, that's what I meant. Yeah, that
was my first experience with Dune, and it's weird as
heck for sure, but I enjoyed it. Yeah, but the
first movie I thought was well done. It was paced
very slow, very little happened, and it kind of stopped
in a weird place. The second one just has more

(01:21:40):
plot to it, so I think it was better and
I don't mind a slow pace, but I would have
enjoyed getting somewhere in that journey.

Speaker 2 (01:21:50):
Well, you'll have to let me know if you do
see Dune three what you thought about it. Maybe I'll
watch Dune two. Maybe I'll be right there next to
you watching Dune three. I don't know, but that sounds fun. Yeah,
you know, going to see movies again is a nice thing.
But yeah, it's it's weird because like again, Dune, just
as I recognize how important it is in science fiction,

(01:22:15):
I don't know, it's one of those things where it
just has never clicked for me, not the way like
Star Trek did right or other even other darker versions
of science fiction. Maybe it's just that the lore is
so deep and doomed that I find it impenetrable. Like
my brain had enough space for me to be able
to do that with Tolkien, but I couldn't do it

(01:22:37):
both with Tolkien and Herbert, so I had to choose
one or the other, and I chose Lord of the Rings.
But I don't that's a fault with me, not with
the material. Next up, we've got Project Hail Mother Mary,
just Mother Mary.

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
And the interesting thing to me is, I think this
is the official trailer, but it is shorter and the
teaser we got.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
Yeah, but it does feature some of Anne Hathaway performing
as Mother Mary in her like. She's kind of like
a Lady Gaga type character, right Like, She's known for
not provocative songs and wearing very not provocative is the
wrong word, but very eye catching fashion. And that's the

(01:23:25):
whole thing that brings her back to this person with
whom she's had a contentious relationship within the past, and
sort of the psycho sexual dynamics going on between the
two of them, and there are definitely some horror elements.
We get a little bit of whether or not it's
actual blood and gore in the film or whether it's

(01:23:45):
supposed to be like like imagery that suggests the tumultuous relationship.
I'm not sure, but A twenty four has released an
album called The Greatest Hits, you know Mother Mary's Greatest Hits,
where it's like four different songs. It's all in Hathaway
doing the vocals, and the first one, the first track, Burial,

(01:24:08):
is up on YouTube. I no because I watched it
and she does a great job, like as playing like
a pop singer type character in those amazing singer. Yeah.
So it comes out April twenty fourth. This might be
on the spectrum of horror that's actually a little too

(01:24:29):
artsy for me. There's some horror projects that I really
appreciate that there was a lot of work going into
defining the esthetic and the look and all that kind
of stuff, but it just doesn't appeal to me personally,
Like egger Wright's Last Night in Soho is an example
of that. Like, I think the cinematography is fantastic, but

(01:24:51):
I was left cold by that movie, even though my
girlfriend was in it. On you, Taylor Joy, But like
this feels kind of like that to me based on
the trailer. Now, maybe the movie I have a totally
different reaction, but the trailer it just makes me feel
like this, this is what I won't click with fair enough.

Speaker 1 (01:25:12):
And I just need to let you know, Jonathan, Yeah,
that my husband is very supportive of all the things
I do, but he doesn't enjoy all the things I do.
So it is totally okay for you to not like
all of the things that your fictional girlfriends do.

Speaker 2 (01:25:24):
Hey, they are real people. Okay, the relationship is totally fake.
You're right, but they are real people. I will not
have you slander my girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
Okay, okay, ok ok a, Oh got it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:43):
So you're trying to move on to the end of
Oak Street.

Speaker 1 (01:25:46):
So I mentioned no to the start of this section.

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
Let's start of the section, which is the end of
the Oak Street. The end of Oak Street is a
production from Bad Robot, which I mentioned earlier in our
thirty Seconds or Less. That's the one that's downsizing and
relocating to New York. It's jj Abrams Studio and Hathaway's
in this one too.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
So it's yeah, and Ewan McGregor.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Yep, And it's the high level premise is that this
suburban neighborhood gets ripped from our reality and plunged into
a different world that's populated with, among other things, I
assume Dna SAWA's.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
Either dinosaurs or Godzilla's. Yeah. It's written, co produced, and
directed by David Robert Mitchell, who his millieu is more
horror movies.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
Yeah, it follows is one of his movies and is
one of my favorite horror movies from the last twenty years.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Yeah. Yeah, and he's got a few of them that
have been pretty popular. But this doesn't feel so scary
to me. I mean, it feels a little a little
tense and a little suspenseful, but it also feels fun,
like a jj Abrams sci fi.

Speaker 2 (01:27:03):
What if I were to tell you that there are
people who suspect that this is tied in with the
clover Field universe.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
I thought that when I saw it, and I would
love it, because, again, the clover Field universe is something
that well. Cloverfield Prime, which is getting a direct sequel
we talked about a few weeks ago, is terrifying and
very well done, but the Cloverfield universe overall is fun.

(01:27:36):
It's scary, but it's fun. It's that good kind of
monster horror sci fi.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
Yeah. It's also like clover Field, we have to recognize
as a franchise that is truly manufactured. It's not an
organic franchise, and that a lot of the movies that
are in the clover Field franchise did not start off
as being clover Field movies. They they got repurposed into
being Cloverfield probably because it was an easy way to

(01:28:06):
market the movies and get a bigger audience.

Speaker 1 (01:28:09):
Yeah, it's kind of an anthology.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
Yeah, yeah, because ten Cloverfield Lane, you can tell it
was not meant to be part of that. But it's
a phenomenal movie, especially if you want to see John
Goodman be terrifying.

Speaker 1 (01:28:23):
I need to watch the Cloverfield Project at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:28:26):
That one. I've heard less positive things, you know, but
the same. Yeah. So I don't know if the End
of Oak Street is going to turn out to be
yet another Cloverfield kind of tangential product, but just on
its own, like the fact that David Robert Mitchell is
involved and the fact that I mean I thought it
follows was such a great horror movie. It definitely has

(01:28:49):
my interest. I want to see where this is going.
It comes out August fourteenth.

Speaker 1 (01:28:55):
Yeah, it's scary with a little bit of whimsy, and
I am so so in Oh along the lines of
scary with a little bit of whimsy. We got a
full trailer for Stranger Things eighty five, which is the
interim cartoon about the kids in Stranger Things.

Speaker 2 (01:29:11):
Yeah, between seasons two and three comes out on Netflix
on April twenty third, And that's all the information I
had on it, because I did not watch this trailer.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
Oh it was cute. I don't and I honestly I know,
I know that you didn't hate Stranger Things, and you
also just didn't continue watching it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:29):
Yeah. I saw the first season and then I never
saw the second one.

Speaker 1 (01:29:35):
It's cute, and I don't think it grew like I
don't think it spoils anything from the TV show. If
you are worried about like eventually going back and watching
the series.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
Well I remember we watched like the earlier trailer, like
the teaser trailer, and it did feel like it was,
you know, very much in keeping with the tone of
the TV series, maybe a little lighter based upon the teaser. Yeah,
how about that. Does the tone feel pretty much in

(01:30:09):
line with the series?

Speaker 1 (01:30:11):
It does. Yeah, it's definitely a little bit, a little
bit lighter. I mean, they're still monsters, but yeah, it
doesn't feel dark or heavy in any way.

Speaker 2 (01:30:22):
Yeah. I think once you go, I think once you
go to animated, unless you're really adopting like a dark style,
that's just kind of a consequence, like that's a byproduct
of that process. I think.

Speaker 1 (01:30:37):
Yeah, it has a I like the animation style in it.
It kind of reminded me of the and the name
of it is is failing me at the moment, but
the League of Legends cartoon series that we had, although
it's not them, it's Flying Bark Productions, who actually worked
on What If, which also had an interesting art style.

Speaker 2 (01:30:59):
Interesting. Yeah, okay, well, are you planning on watching it?

Speaker 1 (01:31:07):
Probably I need something else to watch while I'm doing
my workouts at the very least. Okay, so not and
I enjoyed Stranger Things.

Speaker 2 (01:31:14):
Yeah, okay, well that's to me, like that's that says
a lot like because you know, obviously, even when you're
trying to find things to fill up time, there's so
many options out there. That if this is one you
would actually consider, you know, being on that list. That
tells me something, right, because there's a lot of stuff
we cover on the show where both of us are like,
we felt like we should talk about this because it's

(01:31:36):
in the space, but it just doesn't have any zing
for us personally. So it's good to know that this
is something that at least has at least some zing factor.

Speaker 1 (01:31:46):
Yeah, yeah, it does also something I'm surprised. I am
surprised we took this out of the lineup and then
we added it back in. And part of it is
because I'm kind of surprised that I'm interested in this movie,
which is we got a full trailer for the back Room.

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
Yeah. I think the reason maybe I shouldn't say this,
I would suspect that perhaps a reason you find it
interesting is that so far, the vibes we're getting are
closer to something like an X Files mystery as opposed
to horror.

Speaker 1 (01:32:20):
Yeah. Yeah, So in the trailer, is it che Wotelligia
for m is talking. He talks to his therapist about
this fact that he's found this doorway into this back
room's area where it's just this giant, weird maze that
just gets weirder the further you go in.

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
And appears to stretch on forever.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
Yeah, and then at a certain point she finds it
as well, I know that it's going to be like
I know that it's going to be scary. There are
going to be jump scares and things that pop out
and creepy stuff, because if you look at all of
this liminal space content that's already out, you know, on
the Internet, that definitely happens. And I don't like jump

(01:33:05):
scares and I don't like things hiding in the dark
because I have sleep paralysis occasionally. But it just it
interests me.

Speaker 2 (01:33:14):
Well, I mean, it comes out on May twenty ninth,
so it's not that much further into the future when
it comes out. I I'm curious about it, largely because
this is one of those things where this idea has
existed in different form factors for a few years now,

(01:33:34):
like the creepypasta stuff, where it's the you know, kind
of modern folklore, but creepypasta means copy based essentially, And
there are a lot of people who have contributed to
the mythology of the back rooms, and there's a lot
of splinters of different mythologies because there's no like one

(01:33:55):
authority that says what the backrooms is or isn't right.
So you've got all these different conflicting stories about the
back rooms. You've got all these different interpretations, including like
YouTube horror shorts or video games that are set in
this concept of the back rooms. So it is interesting

(01:34:16):
to see yet another take another interpretation. And I think
the benefit, assuming that people aren't being pedantic jerkfaces, the
benefit is because there's so many already existing and conflicting
interpretations as to what the backrooms are, this movie could
do anything and it could still be a legitimate interpretation
because because there's no one true correct version.

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
Yeah yeah, I probably won't.

Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:50):
I'm interested in it, and I also think that it's
going to terrify me.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
So that's but that's that's kind of the That's kind
of the fun thing about horror movies, though, is that
you know, it's like a roller coaster. You're scared, but
you're also safe. You know you're safe, You're probably safe.
I mean sometimes say safe.

Speaker 1 (01:35:06):
Listen. I don't know if I told you this, but
in a timeframe that I viewed short enough before I
went to karaoke with you. Recently, I watched Scream four,
so when I was driving to the karaoke place, I
had to turn around several times to make sure the
ghost face was not in my backseat.

Speaker 2 (01:35:25):
It makes me think back when I first saw The
blair Witch Project, like in its initial release before, Like
back when the marketing for blair Witch Project was all
about creating these websites that maintained the fiction that it
was actual found footage and not, you know, not a movie.

(01:35:46):
Not that I felt that it wasn't a movie. By
the time I saw it, I knew it was a movie,
but it but like the buying into that was fun,
like that was a fun part of the horror. But
what wasn't fun was the drive back home because we
had to go pretty far out to find a theater
where we could see it, and it involved taking like
surface level streets that were not particularly well lit and

(01:36:09):
driving through like dark, surface level streets through rural parts
of Georgia at night. After you've seen the blair Witch
Project was an experience.

Speaker 1 (01:36:19):
I believe it. I believe it.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
Well, we've got one more thing on our list, and
I'm letting Ariel take it because this is this is
up her Street but.

Speaker 1 (01:36:31):
Not Oak Street. Did you watch it at all?

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
I didn't get a chance to.

Speaker 1 (01:36:36):
Okay, So a couple of weeks ago, Dropout sends a
weekly update about kind of like a little TV guide
email about what's coming up this week on their streaming channel.
We all know that I love the streaming channel. It's
a lot of improv teche content and creative storytelling and
I enjoy it. And they were announcing their new Dimension

(01:36:58):
twenty series that's up coming, and it was weird because
the little teaser video they released was called Purpi p
U r Pee.

Speaker 2 (01:37:07):
Now, before we get too far, Dimension twenty, that's their
real play, their actual play, Yeah, tabletop roleplaying game series, right, yes, okay, yeah, So.

Speaker 1 (01:37:18):
They have different seasons and sometimes it's based on D
and D and sometimes it's based on kids on bikes,
and oftentimes they've made their changes to these game systems.
They have never stopped blowing up game system which is
absolutely amazing that they released for free and I can't
wait to play it. So this Purpi trailer. Usually in
these trailers for the actual plays, they show some of
the sets and some of the people playing it, and

(01:37:41):
this time, they just showed like weird stock AG's footage
of like it felt like a mio Wolf situation or
an eerie Indiana situation, and you didn't know who was playing,
and you didn't know what the game system was. And
then a week later they released the actual trailer and
it turns out that the events do in fact take
place in this town called Purpi, which I'm guessing is

(01:38:01):
going to be bizarre, but it is called City Council
of Darkness, and they're all vampires and they seem like
goofy vampires, including a vampire who thinks it's a superhero
and that when you get via a vampire, you get
superhero powers. And a dude bro and his fellow dude

(01:38:24):
bro vampire, and then a vampire who looks like he's
from Roadhouse, like the main character from Roadhouse, who all
live in this weird town. It's based off of the
White Wolf Vampire the Masquerade system with again it's home
brewed based off of that, so they've made some changes
to it, and I don't know, I'm interested in it.
It looks fun and the characters look goofy. It's their

(01:38:46):
main cast, so they have seasons with their main cast
and then they have seasons with other players that tend
to be a little shorter. But I was kind of
looking forward to an eerie Indiana.

Speaker 2 (01:38:56):
Well, I mean, it still sounds funny because like we
we live not far from where the World of Darkness
studio was founded, Like it was founded in Stone Mountain, Georgia,
which is not that far away.

Speaker 1 (01:39:12):
I have several current friends who used to work for them.

Speaker 2 (01:39:15):
Yeah, so seeing something that's using their game system but
is very much not a World of Darkness kind of
concept is pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
They do say the name of one of the things
in World of Darkness, so it is, but it's been tweaked.
And I also have friends who work on the game
systems for Dimension twenties.

Speaker 2 (01:39:34):
So yeah, I just think it's funny. I just think
it's funny to take something that was like we were
around when World of Darkness and The Vampire of the
Masquerade and you know, were Wolf and Mage and all
of those spinoffs. Changeling Faye, I think was one all
of those different there's one of those like Wraith. There

(01:39:55):
are all these different spinoffs of that that were all
based off mostly you know, horror themed mythology, but also
stuff like you know, Irish and European mythology. But anyway,
uh it for the most part, the people who played
those games took it really seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
So see, I mean, I'm currently playing a changeling game
and I take it not serious.

Speaker 2 (01:40:24):
Well, yeah, I'm seeing the dimension twenty at take where
it's more, it's a little more silly. It's kind of
a refreshing experience for me because again, and bringing back
to that whole bias and prejudice thing, one of the
one of the stumbling blocks I would run into are
people who would take this stuff so seriously that it

(01:40:48):
felt like parody to me, like or it was just
so it was so it got a little cringey. But
I mean that's where they got their enjoyment. And I
shouldn't be just just because of that. But it was
hard not to because there were some people who were
like embracing that so hard, and I'm like, dude, you

(01:41:09):
were listening to a weird Al Yankovic album like twenty
minutes ago. You're not you are not Master of the Night.
Let's lighten up, Francis.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
Yeah. Well, and to be fair, I am still very
excited for this game. I love the people involved in it,
both the ones that I know and the ones that
I don't, and they do good work, and they make
fun stories, and they play these games in a way
that is delightful. And I'm sure it will still be
very eerie and erie Indiana and MIAWOLFI in the setting

(01:41:41):
that these vampires live in. It was just an interesting
gotcha yeah, kind of a moment.

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
Maybe it'll be like maybe it'll be kind of like
night Welcome to night Vale.

Speaker 1 (01:41:53):
Ish very possibly. And I suggest watching the trailer because
you might really enjoy it and you might get that vibe.
And if I want to play a meow Wolf specific RPG,
there is one out called Taverse that got kickstarted that
is a legit me Wolf game that I also had
friends that worked on. So I just need more time

(01:42:17):
for more actual plays in my life, or not actually
more RPGs in my life.

Speaker 2 (01:42:21):
I mean, I still have never gotten the one that
I wanted to get off the ground going. And I
have all this material that I wrote for this world,
this world that I created, and have never ever played
a session of it. I start to question whether I
ever will.

Speaker 1 (01:42:42):
Well, maybe at your next cabin day, we can play
a one shot and.

Speaker 2 (01:42:47):
That would be fun. That'd be fun because it's a
it's it's set in a sort of fantasy world of piracy,
So a one shot pirate adventure could be a lot
of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:42:58):
Yeah, just to get your feet wet.

Speaker 2 (01:43:00):
Yeah, yeah, well that if your feet are getting wet,
then things have gone poorly. But uh yeah yeah cool.
All right, Well I think I think that's everything for this. No, no,
it's you're not. I'm not on blast. It's literally, like
I mean, everyone out there who's ever tried to organize

(01:43:22):
a game, you know how complicated it is, right because
you have to have the time. Then you have to
hope that enough other people have that same time available
for you to actually have a session, and it's hard,
like unless it's your job, it is hard to make
that that commitment and you know, yeah, it's it's hard

(01:43:43):
to find a time that works with everybody. So like
that's just the reality of it. And goodness knows, like
with our jobs and everything, it's complicated, especially since a
lot of a lot of the people we know and
you like have gigs over the weekend. Well maybe they're

(01:44:04):
performing or something, and it just means that the days
that I do have off not all my friends have off.

Speaker 1 (01:44:11):
Yeah, that is true, but I am delighted that there's
so much opportunity for geekree regardless of whether you can
play a game or watch a game. So yeah, that's
that's it. That's all I've got.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
So I got cool.

Speaker 1 (01:44:30):
This is gonna be a two hour episode yo.

Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
Somewhere around there a week. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:44:36):
Anyhow, I'm sure you guys all really enjoy the slowdown
of energy at the end of our episode.

Speaker 2 (01:44:41):
I mean, you're the one who does the lead out,
so I'm like, this is all Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:44:46):
So, Jonathan, if people want to ask you a question,
how do they do that?

Speaker 2 (01:44:49):
So you're gonna need to make an NPC in my
so far unplayed D and D campaign. That's kind of
fantasy on the high seas, so high fantasy if you will,
That NPC needs to be querky and fun and have
a distinct point of view. You can make an NPC

(01:45:10):
that is meant to be an ally to the player characters,
or perhaps an obstacle or enemy even But since you
don't have access to the huge amount of information I've
created about this world, the mythology of that world, why
the world is broken up into various archipelagos and island chains.

(01:45:33):
You're going to have to make some guesses, and the
more accurate you are, the more likely I'm going to
accept your NPC submission if you don't nail it, which
I realize is hard to do without access to all
their info. If you don't nail it, I'm sorry, I'm
just not going to be able to answer your question.

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
Yeah, and if you don't have time to add another
RPG to your schedule, you can reach out to us
in normal ways on social media. We are Larger John Collider.
That's Facebook and threads and Instagram. You can also join
our discord. The invite to that is on our web
page www dot large nerdron Collider. I think that was
the correct number of w's. If not, you know, and

(01:46:13):
you can also send us an email. Our email is
large nerdron pod at gmail dot com. We truly love
hearing from you, We truly love geeking out with you.
And even though Jonathan doesn't read the emails and isn't
on social media, I do take him know of all
the things that I let him know, all the things
that you say, and he appreciates it too. And until
next time, I am Ariel What's at the End of

(01:46:37):
Oak Street.

Speaker 2 (01:46:40):
Caston and I Am Jonathan Hail Mary Project Mother Strickland.
The large Nerdron Collider was created by Ariel Caston and produced, edited, published, deleted, undeleted,
published again. Curse That by Jonathan Strickland. Music by Kevin

(01:47:03):
McLeod of incomptech dot Com m