Movie Mike Deestro breaks down Variety’s list of movie star salaries and what the list of A-List stars make for one movie. Mike also gives his favorite role from each of those actors and if he thinks they are worth the money. Mike also reviews the new Hulu comedy “Vacation Friends” starring John Cena and Lil Rel Howery and gives a full breakdown of the SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME trailer.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie podcast, your
go to source for all things movies. I am your host,
Movie Mike Destro, and today we're talking about this list
that came out of the highest paid actors right now
and how much they made for one single movie. So
I want to go through that list and also break
down what I think is a movie role they should
have made a lot more money on. The comparison between
these two is pretty surprising to see for these A
(00:22):
list stars, so we'll get into that. Also do a
movie review for a new comedy on Hulu called Vacation Friends,
and then a full breakdown of the Spider Man No
Way Home trailer, which came out last week and has
a lot of people buzzing on the possibilities of this
Marvel movie. So we'll get into all that. Appreciate you
guys for being subscribed and listening every single week to
the podcast without any further ado, let's get started. In
(00:45):
a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like go walking Adavity with
Cluster from the national podcast network Movie Variety put together
(01:10):
this list and it's all the biggest movie stars right
now and the ones that are making the most for
one single movie. And I've been hanging onto this list
for a minute now, and what I wanted to do
is compare what they made on some of the movies
that I thought were one of their best movies, movies
they should have made a lot more money on, and
compare it to what they are making now. When it
comes to what actors make for movies, I think sometimes
(01:33):
it's easy to say, like, how are they making this
much money to go and act in a movie? Like
their way overpaid? And I think there are a couple
of things to consider into what goes into an actor
salary and why they make so much money. So I
do think it's a bit justified, a lot justified. One.
You're paying for what that actor can deliver on screen.
(01:53):
You have this movie, you have this idea, and you
want an actor who's going to be able to bring
this story to life in ways that no other actor could.
And I think everybody on this list is exactly that.
They are people who can probably only deliver this kind
of performance and either the movie was written with them
in mind, or later down the line they couldn't get
the person they wanted, so they with the other person.
(02:14):
It was just as good either way. These are all
movies with very high budgets and they need that a
list star to really make it all come together. And
then the other factor to consider is what actor is
going to get the most eyeballs on this movie. And
it's a little bit different now because streaming and box
office numbers are kind of all skewed together now. Before
it was like what actor could you put into a
(02:35):
movie to get the most people to go out and
actually spend their money to see them on screen. Now
it's streaming and Netflix. They're shelling out a lot more
money to get these big names, but there's no real
intention of like, all right, we're gonna make this movie,
pay you a lot of money and then hopes that
you make a lot at the box office. There is
no box office for these Netflix movies, so it's more
(02:56):
so they are able to entice these actors and offer
them a lot more for the normal theatrical releases, and
you'll see the ones actually making the most now are
the ones able to get those deals with Netflix, so
there's a lot of money to be made on streaming
for actors. In most cases, there's not a whole lot
for them to make on the back end, which we'll
talk about later too. Sometimes actors will take a lesser
(03:19):
salary for a movie with the promise of getting some
money from ticket sales on the back end. Most cases,
with streaming, they get paid their X amount of dollars
and that's it. The movie comes out, they've been given
their money and there's nothing else to earn from that.
So all those things go into consideration. We'll get into
what they are making for these movies that have some
already come out and others coming out within the next
(03:41):
couple of years, and then the movie I think is
my favorite to each of these actors and movies I
think they should have made a lot more money on.
So let's get right into this list, starting with number ten.
Ryan Gosling has the tenth highest salary right now, bringing
in twenty million dollars for The Gray Man, which is
the movie on Netflix coming out. And I think Ryan
(04:02):
Gosling is a fantastic actor, and he's very particular in
the roles that he takes on. He doesn't do a
whole lot of movies. He's not one of these actors
who puts out a movie a year, and from what
I've seen in interviews and stories about him, he's just
very particular on what kind of role he takes on.
He has to kind of believe in the project. And
I don't think I've ever seen a bad Ryan Gosling movie,
(04:23):
probably for that reason. But my favorite of his of
all time is a movie I've talked about on this
podcast several times, and if you haven't watched it at
this point, well, I don't know what you're waiting for.
Maybe you're never going to watch it. But it's a
movie from twenty eleven called Drive, where he plays a
Hollywood stuntman who also moonlights at the getaway driver for criminals.
First of all, one of the best premises of a
movie that I can just say in one sentence and
(04:45):
you automatically know what it's about. But his performance and
that is so ominous and mysterious, and he plays it
so perfectly well that I think you should have made
a lot more money on That movie was a bit
of a lower budget movie and one that I believe
now really just has like a cult fall wing. I
include myself into that colt, but I just think overall
it's just the perfect movie from start to finish, and
(05:07):
what he should have just made a lot more money
on He only made one point five million dollars for
that role, So one point five million back in twenty eleven.
Fast forward ten years later, and he's making twenty million
dollars for one role, which I believe now is pretty
much the kind of baseline salary for a list star.
Twenty million dollars is usually what they make. Like at
(05:27):
the bottom line, if it's a n a list star,
they're going to be in a movie to lead, they're
making about twenty million dollars. So so it's crazy to
see that twenty million dollars still is at number ten
on the list. So, like I said, streaming is changing
the way and the amount of money that actors are making.
So let's get into number nine, which goes to Sandra Bullock,
who was also making twenty million dollars for The Lost
(05:49):
City of d which is coming out on Netflix on
April two. And by now, Sandra Bullock is a household
name and when it comes to Netflix, I really believe
she's had the biggest Netflix hit when it comes to movies.
And I was just saying this the other day that
Netflix really hasn't had a hit movie in a while,
but also not even a hit TV series. It's getting
(06:10):
really competitive out there. But back when bird Box came out,
that is a movie that I remember everybody watched over
holiday break when it came out, and it was a
movie that everybody talked about. Whether you loved or hated it,
you probably watched that movie on Netflix. You saw all
the memes. It was just such a big movie that
Netflix really hasn't recreated with anything they've released so far.
(06:33):
And they've come at it pretty strong this year with
releasing a brand new movie every single week, but I
don't think they've had a major hit that that many
households have seen, and they kind of skew their numbers
here and there, of you really only have to watch
a few minutes of it to count as a household
watching it. But I think back when bird Box came
out is the last time Netflix really shined and made
(06:55):
a movie that everybody wanted to watch. But she also
already made a lot of money for that movie, so
that it's not the movie I picked for her. I
went back to her role in Speed, where she only
made five hundred thousand dollars, which she wasn't a major
movie star when that movie came out. I just still
think that's crazy to me. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves, the star
of the movie, made one point two million dollars. Granted
(07:17):
he was a bigger name at the time, but I
feel like without her in that movie, it still wouldn't
have been as big a hit. So I would go
back and reward her the money for that one. So
five hundred thousand dollars, I don't think it was enough
for her role in that movie. I'm glad she's making
a lot more money now. At number eight on the
highest paid is Julia Roberts another Netflix movie. This one's
called Leave the World Behind, and that's coming out next year.
(07:39):
In two she made twenty five million dollars for that movie,
and at one point, Julia Roberts was the highest paid
actress in the world. From the nineteen nineties to the
early two thousand's, she was just the highest paid actress.
You had Julia Roberts in a movie, you know it's
going to make a lot of money, but you gotta
pay her. And I've admitted before I'm not the biggest
Julia Robber. It's fan. I like a few of her
(08:01):
movies here and there, but if she's in something, it
doesn't really entice me to go and watch the movie.
But I'm not gonna sit here and deny how big
of a movie star and how famous she is. And
I think for one of her most iconic roles, and
my favorite movie of hers would be Pretty Woman, came
out back in nineteen nine, and her fee for that
movie was only three hundred thousand dollars, and she went
(08:23):
from that in nineteen ninety, like I said, and went
on to be the highest paid actress in the world.
Later in two thousand three, she ended up making twenty
five million dollars for her role in Mona Lisa Smile,
and she now has a net worth of two hundred
and fifty million dollars. So I think she's doing pretty
well for herself. I can really see Julia Roberts going
(08:43):
places still making five million dollars for a movie, So
she doesn't need my fandom, she doesn't need me to
support her in any way. She's doing just fine. She
could trust me with her bank account so my opinion
does not matter to her. At number seven on the
list is Jennifer Lawrence, another Netflix movie. We're saying a
trend here. Netflix is paid out the money. She's in
a movie called Don't Look Up, which comes out later
(09:05):
this year on December ten. The movie I'm really excited
for has a superstar studded cast, so maybe they'll finally
get that big hit I was talking about that they
were missing earlier. And she made twenty five million dollars
for this movie. Jennifer Lawrence at one point was my
favorite actress, but I don't think she's been anything I
love since probably Passengers that came out in But a
movie I think she should have made a lot more
(09:27):
money on was her breakout role in Winner's Bone. She
was only paid three thousand dollars per week. Now, she
had only done really TV before this, she had like
one movie prior to this role. So granted, as a
brand new actress, very young, very green, she's not gonna
make a lot of money, and it's a pretty low
budget movie. But nonetheless, three thousand dollars per week and
(09:47):
the movie took twenty four days to film, so she
made about twelve thousand dollars, give or take. But where
that pays off is she ended up getting a nomination
for Best Actress. She did and end up winning, but
it really kind of put her on the map and
was able to get more work for having that role.
And having something like that so early on is great
for an actor. And although she didn't win that year,
(10:10):
she did end up winning Best Actress for her portrayal
of Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook later in twelve and
she then became the world's highest paid actress in fifteen
and sixteen, her movies making over six billion dollars worldwide,
so also did pretty well for herself. And number six
on the list is Mark Wahlberg, and he got paid
(10:32):
thirty million dollars from Netflix for Spencer Confidential. Now I
watched that movie. I enjoyed it, thought it was all right.
I like Mark Wahlberg. I think I watched it mainly
because they were teasing it as post Malone had like
a bigger role in that movie, and I'm a huge
post Malone fan. And I was a little let down
is that was basically a glorified cameo. But nonetheless I
(10:53):
watched that movie, did not think Mark Wallword was worth
thirty million dollars in that movie. I like him in
action movies, which does a lot of but I also
like the funny, comedic Mark Wahlberg probably the best, followed
by the more dramatic Mark Wahlberg, which I think he
can do actually really well. And also overall, I just
think Mark Wahlberg makes pretty good business decisions when it
(11:14):
comes to what movies he wants to make, and he's
been a pretty well off actor for a very long time,
so I thought it was a little bit hard for
me to find a movie that I thought he should
have made more money on. But I went back to
his role in Boogie Nights, which he was only paid
one million dollars for, which if you're not familiar with
Boogie Nights, it's actually on Netflix right now. It came
out though, and it's about the adult film industry in
(11:35):
Los Angeles in the seventies, and he was already a
pretty big movie star at the time when this movie
came out. He was just famous for being Mark Wahlberg
at this point. But I think this movie really kind
of elevated his career, and the movie itself did really well,
was nominated for three oscars, and he made a million
dollars for his fifth movie ever, which is really unheard of.
So that's where we're at so far. I'm gonna get
(11:57):
into the top five next. And there's one actor who
I'm actually gonna put as saying that I think they're overpaid.
I don't think they should make any more money than
they are currently making. Now there's no movie I can
pick for them, so we'll do all that next. All right,
let's get into the top five now. At number five
(12:17):
is Leonardo DiCaprio. He's also in this movie called Don't
Look Up that's coming out on Netflix on December ten,
and he made a little bit more than Jennifer Lawrence,
bringing in thirty million dollars for this role. And I
would say Leonardo DiCaprio is still one of my top
five actors of all time, mainly because he's still making
movies that I want to watch. Anytime I see he's
putting out a movie, I'm gonna watch it, and I
(12:38):
would say nine times out of ten I enjoy it.
And he's also an actor who's been making tons and
tons of money for decades now at this point. Crazy
to think he's had a career that's really just been
going on for so long at such a high level,
really unheard of. And when you pay this much for Leo,
you get what you pay for, as in he's going
to give up performance and really hold nothing back. There
was a cool clip I saw on tick talk that's
(13:00):
trending again of Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Wolf
of Wall Street. And it's a behind the scenes shot
of him getting prepared to film a scene and he
goes from basically having this kind of blank stare on
his face too as soon as they say action, he
automatically launches into being this character and portraying the scene
so well that you just realize he has something in
(13:21):
his brain that other people don't, and he is an
actor that really becomes the person he is playing and
he can turn it on like that was a really
cool thing to see. So again for him, he's been
making so much money for so long. I had to
go way back to when he was nineteen years old
and he was in What's Eating Gilbert Grape And this
is the only movie I could find that he was
underpaid on, where he only made seventy five thousand dollars
(13:44):
for this role, but he also got an Oscar nomination
for Best Supporting Actors. So again the tradeoff when taking
a lesser salary. Sometimes it's just the project you believe
in or one that you know that will probably have
a lot of success with the critics, success at the
award shows. So taking a less or amount to do
the role will end up more beneficial because you get
invited to the award shows, you get the nominations, and
(14:06):
you're able to put that on your resume. And the
only way I can really relate to that is for
the first couple of years of my career, I was
an unpaid intern. I did it for two years without
making any money, but I learned so much during that
time that it's really more valuable than if I was like, hey,
I need to make some money doing this, they probably
would have been like, I don't think we should have
you around then. So there is some benefit and sometimes
(14:28):
taking the less amount for the experience and also what
you get out of it. At number four on the
list is Denzel Washington. He was paid forty million dollars
for the movie The Little Things, which is on HBO
Max Now. It was supposed to come out in theaters,
but it was at the start of this year during
the pandemic where movies really weren't coming out yet, so
Warner Brothers still paid a lot of money to get
(14:49):
Denzel in this movie. And for me, I think Denzel
is a little hit or miss these days, but nonetheless
he is such a big name that he is an
actor that will get people into the seats to watches movies.
But my favorite movie of his was Training Day. I
think just all around a beloved movie by anybody who
loves anything Denzel has been in. For me, it's more
so even than Remember the Titans. I just think this
(15:10):
movie really kind of defines him as an actor. And
he went so hard in this movie and only made
twelve million dollars. He did not need to go as
hard as he did in this movie for that salary,
and I think that movie would not have been the
same without him, and he definitely deserved more. So That's
what I'm going with for Denzel Washington. Moving on now
to number three is wil smith new movie coming out
(15:33):
called King Richard, which is about the Williams sisters and
he plays their dad. Seems like a pretty interesting movie
that comes out on November nine, and he made forty
million dollars for that role. And this is another Warner
Brothers slash HBO Max movie. And again, Will Smith is
another one of those actors who has been making the
most for decades now. So I went back to one
(15:54):
of his movies, which I think is his best work,
and at a point in his career where he was
already making like twenty million dollars per movie, so he
was already at that top level. But he took a
pay cut to make this movie. And the movie is
the Pursuit of Happiness, and he did something in this
movie that you'll see or maybe read about that other
actors did. And in taking less of a salary, he
(16:15):
also negotiated a percentage of the film's profits into his contract.
So that's what they do. Sometimes they're like, all right,
i'll take less money, but on the back end on
ticket sales, on DVD sales, sometimes even murch sales. Depending
on the type of movie, they'll end up making more
after the fact that the movie comes out, maybe it
performs better at the box office that they were expecting,
(16:35):
and if it goes on to be a really big hit,
they'll end up making money probably for life, kind of
what Tom Hanks did for Forrest Gump. He took less
to be the star of that movie, but could probably
live off what he makes on that movie now and
that movie alone. So I think Will Smith just gave
such a powerful performance in this movie. I love the
more emotional and dramatic side of his acting career. I
(16:58):
think it's just him and his best and deserved way
more than ten million dollars. At number two on the
list is Dwayne the Rock Johnson. He's making fifty million
dollars for this new Amazon movie called Red One. It's
like a holiday adventure movie that's coming out soon. And
it's still crazy to me that Dwayne Johnson. I didn't
even really call him Dwayne Johnson. I called him the
(17:20):
Rock because I grew up watching him on wrestling WWF
at the time, which is now w w E, and
he was my favorite wrestler. And I remember when he
first started doing movies, they would kind of do these
little storylines with him, like behind the scenes, and he'd
be working on like The Scorpion King, and at the
time I just thought it was so weird that a
wrestler would go and be an actor. I didn't really
(17:40):
realize at the time that they were doing a lot
of acting on wrestling. I was still a kid. I
thought it was all real. So he really kind of
set that mold for people like John Cena to go
from wrestling to being actors. But he went from being
one of my favorite wrestlers as a kid to one
of the most profitable movie starters of all time. And
a movie I loved of his was a movie back
and called Pain and Gain, which was loosely based on
(18:03):
a real story also started Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie
a k a. The New Captain America. And it was
a movie done by director Michael Bay who did all
the Transformers movies, known for his big action explosion movies,
and he also did like Bad Boys. And this movie
was done for a pretty low budget of twenty six
million dollars, which is actually very low for an action movie.
(18:25):
Now action movies are upboards of two two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, so it was a very kind of
stripped down, less explosions type movie. But I really enjoyed
this movie, and I thought they were all really great
in it, and they actually took a pay cut to
be able to make this movie for such a low
amount of money. Each of the three actors took a
pay cut, so the Rock made about one to three
(18:47):
million reported and I just remember the Rock getting super
jacked for this movie, kind of like he does for
all of his roles now, because they're all dudes who
are like working this big ring that revolves around a gym,
so you have to be superject up. And I just
thought it was a very underrated performance for him, just
an underrated movie in general, if you're like a good
fun action movie, and one I think in his list
(19:09):
of movies that just goes overlooked, So I think it
should have made a lot more money for that. But
I am glad that they took less money to get
that movie made because I really like it. And finally
at number one on the list, the highest paid actor
also making fifty million dollars per movie. But the reason
they made number one is because they are already guaranteed
this for two movies, and it is Daniel Craig who
(19:30):
is making fifty million dollars for each Knives Out two
and three, which he was in one, but now they're
coming to Netflix, and he's already guaranteed that hundred million dollars,
so that's why he beat out the Rock and I
like Knives Out. I liked his performance in that, but
I gotta say I think he is an overpaid actor.
At fifty million dollars, I don't think that he's worth that,
And the role that I found he should have made
(19:51):
more money on, I didn't find one. He I just
think he's overpaid. I'm just not a Daniel Craig fan
at all. I never really got into him as James Bond,
and I don't think it was his performance specifically in
Knives Out that really makes me want to watch two
in three. I think that whole movie is the ensemble cast.
A lot of that comes from the writing to and
the overall just mystery of a movie as you're trying
(20:13):
to figure it out as you're watching it. I think
that's what made that movie great. I don't think it
needs him to make fifty million dollars to make two sequels,
but I think this is Netflix scoring the rights to
a major movie that people will want to see two
sequels too, and they knew they needed to keep him
attached to it to keep people thinking that they're getting
the same kind of experience from the part one. So
I don't really like him as an actor, but I
(20:35):
have mad respect for him to make this amount of
money and also just really hitting his prime later in
his career. I just can't say that he should have
earned more for any of his prior roles to me,
so in my opinion, I just think he is overrated
and overpriced. So that's the top ten. Just missing out
on that was Chris Hemsworth was also making twenty million
dollars for Forward Love and thunder Rat Pitt is making
(20:58):
twenty million dollars for a new movie called Bullet Train.
Michael B. Jordan made fifteen million dollars for a movie
they came out earlier this year on Amazon called Without Remorse.
Tom Cruz is making thirteen million dollars for Top Gun Maverick,
and I think that's also him taking a bit of
a salary reduction to get that movie made. Kiana Reeves
is making between twelve and fourteen million dollars for the
(21:19):
Matrix four. Chris Pine is making eleven point five million
dollars for the Dungeons and Dragons movie. Look at him
making a lot of money. And finally, Robert Pattinson is
making three million dollars for The Batman. That is right,
the Batman. He's only making three million dollars. But again,
I think a lot of people would want to be
Batman and get paid nothing. But that is the list.
(21:39):
Hope you enjoyed that breakdown, come back with the movie
review and a breakdown of the Spider Man trailer. And remember,
if you think I'm an idiot on any of this stuff,
you can always tweet me at Mike Destro or send
me an email movie Mike d at gmail dot com.
How about we get into a movie review now. I
(22:00):
want to talk about a new comedy on Hulu called
Vacation Friends, starring Little Ray and John Cena. I haven't
seen a good comedy in a very long time, and
I was looking for a laugh. Saw this movie came
out on Friday, and I was like, all right, I'm
gonna give it a chance. So before I get into
whether it was funny or note and my thoughts on
the movie, here's just a little bit of the trailer.
Why does the salt not taste salty because it's cocaine?
(22:22):
What we actually brought it from home? Very very easy.
If you ever want to try it. It's just a
zip block in a full shampoo bottle. It's so much
more comfortable in my head, in my ass. Okay, look,
we just gotta contain it's only happened because you say
I said it without meaning it like any decent person.
What and somehow he's charming my dad looftable four. So
(22:44):
what this movie is about. It's about this couple who
goes on vacation to Mexico. The guy played by Little
Ray has the intention of proposing on this trip and
it goes a little wrong and they end up meeting
this other couple who was also there on vacation. It's
John Cena and his girlfriend and there this were the
top kind of dizzy, dumb couple doing these ridiculous things
(23:04):
like smoking a pipe with marijuana while on a jet ski.
Like that's kind of the comedy of this movie. But
to hang out in Mexico, have this crazy week together,
doing these crazy ridiculous things without any intention of remaining
friends with these people after they get back home, and
overall this movie is just really kind of awkward. It's
a little bit cringe e. Just the relationship that you
(23:27):
were kind of watching go down. I found it hard
to watch for only those reasons, but that is what
the movie was trying to do. It was trying to
create these characters that are so ridiculous and so hard
to watch that you kind of put yourself into that
situation of, Hey, if you were on vacation and met
these crazy people and decided to hang out with him,
would you ever really want them in your life again?
So I think they really got John Cena this character
(23:50):
down pretty well. And it's so hard to make a
comedy right now, and it's harder for me to recommend
comedies because I feel like in the last ten years
we haven't had a great comedy. And even if you
go back to comedies from like the mid two thousands,
even the nineties, you really couldn't make those kind of
comedies again. Some of the things that happened in movies
(24:12):
and made us laugh at that time, we kind of
go back and realized, Wow, that wasn't actually that funny.
One of the major movies I think of is like
American Pie. One of the biggest scenes in that movie
is probably what we now realized was a crime. You
can't live stream somebody while they're naked, and that probably
wouldn't get made today. So I think it's been harder
to make a comedy now because you have to be
(24:34):
a little bit more conscious of the jokes you're making
with good reason. But what I found interesting about this
movie is it kind of took the situation you know,
comedies are in right now, and turned it in a
way to where the movie only makes fun of itself,
which I found was kind of refreshing. They're not making
fun of any other people outside of this movie. They're
(24:54):
not reaching for jokes about celebrities or anything like that
going on in the world. The movie is very a
self aware and it kind of knows what it is
and it makes fun of itself, and in the way
that it's supposed to. It's supposed to be kind of corny,
kind of cheesy. But if you go into this movie
by turning off your brain and really just letting yourself
kind of watch it with the enjoyment of, like I
(25:16):
just want to laugh, I do think you'll enjoy this movie.
And I'm just gonna say the thing I get criticized
the most on in my reviews is usually comedies and
horror movies, and I think those are the two hardest
genres to recommend, because somebody can watch a horror movie
that I think is scary and they're like, I didn't
find that scary at all. Sometimes you just don't want
to be scared, or it's cooler to say that that
(25:38):
movie didn't scare me at all. In that same way,
comedies are hard to recommend because what I find funny
you might not find funny. And sometimes I find little
dumb things funny on like the way a certain line
is delivered, and other people might not get that joke
or they might not find those mannerythms just funny. And
I did find myself, and I watched it with my
wife Kelsey, we both find ourselves just laughing watching this movie.
(26:01):
It was so dumb and ridiculous, but I think it's
exactly what we needed right now. Is it the funniest
movie I've ever seen? No? Is it the funniest movie
I've seen in the last ten years? Probably not either?
But is it a great movie to watch on movie night?
Friday night? Hanging out? And you don't want to spend
two hours watching a movie, or you don't want to
watch something that you're having to pay attention to every
single scene following every single plot line. Yes, I think
(26:22):
that is what this movie has made for. And I
think maybe because it's on Hulu it is rated R.
But I also feel like Hulu doesn't fully go for
like HBO, Max or Netflix. While there is some language
in this one, there's no nudity or anything like that.
I feel like Hulu kind of holds back when it
comes to those things still, even though it's on the
streaming service. So I did find it refreshing in that way.
(26:45):
I also like the actors. I like Little Ray, who
you may remember from get Out. I also just saw
him and Free Guy, which he was really good in,
probably my favorite part of that movie. And then John Cena,
who I've actually seen it a lot of things so
far this year. This is being like the third thing
I've seen him in from the Sue Side squad in
F nine, and he's doing probably his most goofy comedic
(27:05):
role in this movie, probably most comparable to his role
in Daddy's Home. I don't think he's even close to
getting on the Rocks level, and I know it kind
of sucks that I have to compare him to him,
but that's kind of who the standard is for wrestlers
turned actors, but I like them, so I just think
this is a great day night movie. Probably not one
you can watch with the entire family. I would say
(27:27):
it kind of borders on the line. It could pass
for PG thirteen. I've seen PG either teen movies these days.
They all have sex stuff in him to an extent.
There's no nudity. Like I said, I guess surprisingly where
it did go a little hard on with the drug use,
which was unexpected, but it was funny. And I will
say when I'm reading this movie, it's on an entirely
different scale. There's some movies you just want to turn
(27:48):
your brain off, maybe eat a snack with, and it's
category of movies that you just define as popcorn movies.
Not a whole lot of thought has to go into
making them or enjoying them. And also went into this
movie with very low expectations. With everything I've been watching recently,
I just kind of always need that buffer of something
just funny and mindless, and I think that movie did
(28:09):
exactly what I was looking for, So for that, I
have to give it. It's three point five out of
five Mexican vacations. I don't think it's a movie you
have to rush and go watch right now. And also,
if you don't have Hulu, it's not a movie you
need to get a subscription for. But if you have Hulu,
you're looking for something to watch at home, You're looking
for a quick laugh. I do think this one does
(28:29):
that job, and it's pretty good, and every now and
then you just need a movie like this. Let's get
into some movie news now. There's really only one story
I want to cover, and I want to do it
pretty in depth. So I want to break down the
Spider Man No Way Home trailer that came out about
a week ago now, and I've seen so many kind
of fan theories about this movie. I've been talking about
(28:50):
it now for a while, and we finally got the
first official trailer, and people on the internet are basically
losing their minds about this, to the point where even
I got a little bit annoyed on how much people
are analyzing this trailer. But I'll give you my honest
thoughts about the trailer what I think is going to
happen in the movie. But if you haven't seen that yet,
here's just a little bit of that trailer. And I
(29:11):
will say this before I hit play on this trailer.
I'm not spoiling anything and giving this review of the trailer,
but Marvel in itself kind of spoiled the last movie
because there was a major plot that happened at the
end of this movie where this trailer just takes place
right after that. So if you haven't seen Spider Man
Far from Home and you haven't seen this trailer and
you want to go watch that first again, Marvel did this.
(29:34):
I didn't do it. They spoiled that ending, so if
you don't want to hear about that, you can bail
out now. But at this point, this new trailer is out.
It's everywhere. That plot point has been revealed, so I
don't feel like I'm spoiling anything, but to remain a
spoiler free podcast is giving you that heads up that
it does ruin that ending, and I guess they did
that intentionally, but here it is. When mysterio revealed my identity,
(29:57):
my entire life got screwed up. I was wondering if
maybe you could make it so that he never did.
Our world was about to forget that Peter Parker Spider Man.
Everyone can't. Some people still know. So M James gonna
forget about everything we've ever been through. Stop tampering with
(30:17):
the spell. Oh my god, ned, he's my best friend.
May should really talk? So this movie takes place directly
after Spider Man Far from Home, which revealed in that trailer.
The identity of Spider Man as Peter Parker is revealed,
and the entire world knows who he is, and what
he's trying to do is go back to a time
(30:38):
where nobody knew who he was, his identity wasn't revealed,
and he goes to Dr Strange to do this, and
in doing this, it kind of messes up the entire world.
And what's been talked about for so long leading up
to this trailer and leading up to the plot of
this movie is that they were going to introduce a
multiverse of Spider Man, so kind of like they did
(30:58):
in Spider Man, into the Spider Verse are all these
different Spider Man's that exist in different worlds. And the
rumor has been that Toby Maguire, who is in the
original Spider Man movies, would come back, and also Andrew
Garfield who was a part of those reboots, and all
three Spider Man would be in this movie. And there's
been so much speculation, even more so after the trailer
(31:18):
came out, leading to believe that this is actually true,
even though nothing has been confirmed. There's been some speculation
from some of the actors as far as the people
who are in this movie, which I'll get into, but
really it's just people kind of clinging onto that idea,
and I don't want to just speculate. I could create
the greatest Spider Man movie by giving these theories. So
(31:38):
I'm just looking at the facts based on what's actually
in the trailer and also the things you can find
and the credited cast list on IMDb, So these are
the people actually confirmed for this movie. And just by
looking at the credits, there is no Toby McGuire or
Andrew Garfield credited in this movie, but there are some
interesting ones. And I don't think it's beyond marvel for
(32:01):
them to reveal later that Andrew Garfield and Toby McGuire
would be in this They've been known to change scenes
in the trailers to kind of keep that mystery alive.
I also just think it would be a kind of
a bigger thing for them to get people excited about
this movie to reveal that yes, they are in it,
but again, they probably don't need that right now. It
(32:21):
would be more of a kind of triumphant moment for
cinema if a week out or just when people go
watch it that you find out that they are in
the movie. But there are some interesting cast things already
confirmed for this movie, one being J. K. Simmons, who
played Jonah Jamison and the original Spider Man is in
this movie. You see him in the trailer, so in
(32:42):
that sense, it would make sense they're bringing back somebody
from the original Spider Man into this one who has
never been in any of this version of Spider Man.
Could possibly bring back Toby McGuire. But where it gets
more interesting is the villains that you see in this trailer.
I'll play a little clip here where you'll hear a
laugh from a famous Bill Land and also another villain
speaking to Peter Parker, Hello, Peter. So what you heard
(33:13):
in that clip was the Green Goblins laugh. Who William Dafoe,
who plays the Green Goblin in the original, is confirmed
for this movie. And also Alfred Molina, who played Doc
Cock in Spider Man too. You see him on screen here,
And the speculation that comes is when you heard him
say hello, Peter. It shows Tom Holland's character, but people
(33:35):
are saying, how would he know that Tom Holland is
Spider Man and not Toby maguire's version of Spider Man.
But also that's a little bit debunked because it was
revealed to the entire world that he's Spider Man, so
of course he would know too. But the claim online
is that what Marvel has done is that a deep
fake of Tom Holland's face out of what is actually
(33:56):
Toby McGuire's body, and they were able to link this
back to a suit that Toby maguire war and Spider Man,
and Tom Holland is wearing that exact same suit. And
the other interesting part about this is that Jamie Fox
is back as a lectro who was the villain in
one of the Spider Man movies with Andrew Garfield, so
that could lean way to Andrew Garfield being in this movie.
(34:17):
But what I think is actually happening is they are
bringing back all of the villains with the addition of
j K. Simmons is Joanna Jamison, and I just think
it's Tom Holland having to fight these villains that we've
all seen before. And what I've learned from the plot
of seeing this trailer. I don't think it entirely works
having two other Spider Man fighting in this movie. I
(34:37):
can see the plot of this movie perfectly sustaining itself
without them in it, and I would be really surprised
if they actually end up being in the movie. I mean,
don't get me wrong, I think it would be amazing,
But I just think that's a lot more of a
big accomplishment than people think of just putting these two
other Spider Man's in this movie. Like, who's to say
that Toby McGuire would want to do it, that Andrew
Garfiet would even want to do this movie anymore. They
(35:00):
have since denied claims that they are in this movie.
Of course, that they were under contract, they couldn't reveal that,
But I just don't think that they would want to
go back and portray these roles again. I kind of
think they were done with it, and they would have
had to pay them a lot of money to be
able to do this movie. So I do think people
online are getting a little bit too excited and creating
this movie that in no way could meet people's expectations
(35:22):
of all these theories of like even like Daredevil making
an appearance of this is, you know, the one they
created on Netflix. So I could go through and add
all these other kind of fan theories of my own
that would make this the best movie ever. But I'm
just going with what the facts are here on paper,
what's been confirmed and so far, if I had to guess,
I don't think they're actually going to be in and
(35:42):
I don't think it really needs them, And as much
as I would love to see that happen, I don't
think it will. But if it does, I think that
moment of all three of them on screen together would
be a bigger roar in the theaters than that Avengers
scene where they all kind of reunite. I just think
that would be amazing to see it take a lot
to get there, and as Spider Man being my favorite superhero,
(36:03):
I think that would be awesome. I just don't think
it's in the cards. But all right, that's gonna do
it for this week's episode. Before I hop out of here.
Every single week I always give a shout out to
one of you listening who tweets me or sends me
a Facebook message or d ms me on Instagram. At
Mike Destro. But today I'm going over to the email
inbox movie Mike D at gmail dot com. And this
(36:25):
email is from Rachel in reference to my thoughts on
the movie Midsummer and she says, I gotta say I
was looking forward to watching a very scary horror movie
film and I hyped this up to my friend because
I had not seen it, and we sat down to
watch it together, and I gotta say this movie was
not scary in any way. I was totally disappointed with
everything in this movie. And I've been a loyal listener
(36:45):
from the very beginning. I've watched quite a few of
your recommendations, and I just wanted to let you know
your way off key on this one. Still a fan,
just wanted to relate the info, Rachel, and I actually
appreciate that feedback. And like I said a few episodes ago,
I would much rather get an email like this then
a one star review on Apple Podcasts. And I still
stand by my review and thoughts on that movie. And
(37:06):
I was kind of talking about earlier that horror and
comedy movies are just the hardest to recommend. What I
find scary, you might not find scary, and that's okay.
Sorry you didn't end up in doing that movie, but
glad you are still listening to the podcast. And what
I always say is you won't always agree with all
the things I say about movies, and it's all right
to disagree, and so right to watch something and not
feel the same way. But that is why we are here,
(37:27):
and we could still be friends even though we don't
agree on things. That's what we're working towards everybody. But
appreciate you listening, Appreciate you being subscribed to the podcast.
If you can tell a friend who also loves movies
and you think would enjoy this podcast, and until next
week later
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie podcast, your
go to source for all things movies. I am your host,
Movie Mike Destro, and today we're talking about this list
that came out of the highest paid actors right now
and how much they made for one single movie. So
I want to go through that list and also break
down what I think is a movie role they should
have made a lot more money on. The comparison between
these two is pretty surprising to see for these A
(00:22):
list stars, so we'll get into that. Also do a
movie review for a new comedy on Hulu called Vacation Friends,
and then a full breakdown of the Spider Man No
Way Home trailer, which came out last week and has
a lot of people buzzing on the possibilities of this
Marvel movie. So we'll get into all that. Appreciate you
guys for being subscribed and listening every single week to
the podcast without any further ado, let's get started. In
(00:45):
a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like go walking Adavity with
Cluster from the national podcast network Movie Variety put together
(01:10):
this list and it's all the biggest movie stars right
now and the ones that are making the most for
one single movie. And I've been hanging onto this list
for a minute now, and what I wanted to do
is compare what they made on some of the movies
that I thought were one of their best movies, movies
they should have made a lot more money on, and
compare it to what they are making now. When it
comes to what actors make for movies, I think sometimes
(01:33):
it's easy to say, like, how are they making this
much money to go and act in a movie? Like
their way overpaid? And I think there are a couple
of things to consider into what goes into an actor
salary and why they make so much money. So I
do think it's a bit justified, a lot justified. One.
You're paying for what that actor can deliver on screen.
(01:53):
You have this movie, you have this idea, and you
want an actor who's going to be able to bring
this story to life in ways that no other actor could.
And I think everybody on this list is exactly that.
They are people who can probably only deliver this kind
of performance and either the movie was written with them
in mind, or later down the line they couldn't get
the person they wanted, so they with the other person.
(02:14):
It was just as good either way. These are all
movies with very high budgets and they need that a
list star to really make it all come together. And
then the other factor to consider is what actor is
going to get the most eyeballs on this movie. And
it's a little bit different now because streaming and box
office numbers are kind of all skewed together now. Before
it was like what actor could you put into a
(02:35):
movie to get the most people to go out and
actually spend their money to see them on screen. Now
it's streaming and Netflix. They're shelling out a lot more
money to get these big names, but there's no real
intention of like, all right, we're gonna make this movie,
pay you a lot of money and then hopes that
you make a lot at the box office. There is
no box office for these Netflix movies, so it's more
(02:56):
so they are able to entice these actors and offer
them a lot more for the normal theatrical releases, and
you'll see the ones actually making the most now are
the ones able to get those deals with Netflix, so
there's a lot of money to be made on streaming
for actors. In most cases, there's not a whole lot
for them to make on the back end, which we'll
talk about later too. Sometimes actors will take a lesser
(03:19):
salary for a movie with the promise of getting some
money from ticket sales on the back end. Most cases,
with streaming, they get paid their X amount of dollars
and that's it. The movie comes out, they've been given
their money and there's nothing else to earn from that.
So all those things go into consideration. We'll get into
what they are making for these movies that have some
already come out and others coming out within the next
(03:41):
couple of years, and then the movie I think is
my favorite to each of these actors and movies I
think they should have made a lot more money on.
So let's get right into this list, starting with number ten.
Ryan Gosling has the tenth highest salary right now, bringing
in twenty million dollars for The Gray Man, which is
the movie on Netflix coming out. And I think Ryan
(04:02):
Gosling is a fantastic actor, and he's very particular in
the roles that he takes on. He doesn't do a
whole lot of movies. He's not one of these actors
who puts out a movie a year, and from what
I've seen in interviews and stories about him, he's just
very particular on what kind of role he takes on.
He has to kind of believe in the project. And
I don't think I've ever seen a bad Ryan Gosling movie,
(04:23):
probably for that reason. But my favorite of his of
all time is a movie I've talked about on this
podcast several times, and if you haven't watched it at
this point, well, I don't know what you're waiting for.
Maybe you're never going to watch it. But it's a
movie from twenty eleven called Drive, where he plays a
Hollywood stuntman who also moonlights at the getaway driver for criminals.
First of all, one of the best premises of a
movie that I can just say in one sentence and
(04:45):
you automatically know what it's about. But his performance and
that is so ominous and mysterious, and he plays it
so perfectly well that I think you should have made
a lot more money on That movie was a bit
of a lower budget movie and one that I believe
now really just has like a cult fall wing. I
include myself into that colt, but I just think overall
it's just the perfect movie from start to finish, and
(05:07):
what he should have just made a lot more money
on He only made one point five million dollars for
that role, So one point five million back in twenty eleven.
Fast forward ten years later, and he's making twenty million
dollars for one role, which I believe now is pretty
much the kind of baseline salary for a list star.
Twenty million dollars is usually what they make. Like at
(05:27):
the bottom line, if it's a n a list star,
they're going to be in a movie to lead, they're
making about twenty million dollars. So so it's crazy to
see that twenty million dollars still is at number ten
on the list. So, like I said, streaming is changing
the way and the amount of money that actors are making.
So let's get into number nine, which goes to Sandra Bullock,
who was also making twenty million dollars for The Lost
(05:49):
City of d which is coming out on Netflix on
April two. And by now, Sandra Bullock is a household
name and when it comes to Netflix, I really believe
she's had the biggest Netflix hit when it comes to movies.
And I was just saying this the other day that
Netflix really hasn't had a hit movie in a while,
but also not even a hit TV series. It's getting
(06:10):
really competitive out there. But back when bird Box came out,
that is a movie that I remember everybody watched over
holiday break when it came out, and it was a
movie that everybody talked about. Whether you loved or hated it,
you probably watched that movie on Netflix. You saw all
the memes. It was just such a big movie that
Netflix really hasn't recreated with anything they've released so far.
(06:33):
And they've come at it pretty strong this year with
releasing a brand new movie every single week, but I
don't think they've had a major hit that that many
households have seen, and they kind of skew their numbers
here and there, of you really only have to watch
a few minutes of it to count as a household
watching it. But I think back when bird Box came
out is the last time Netflix really shined and made
(06:55):
a movie that everybody wanted to watch. But she also
already made a lot of money for that movie, so
that it's not the movie I picked for her. I
went back to her role in Speed, where she only
made five hundred thousand dollars, which she wasn't a major
movie star when that movie came out. I just still
think that's crazy to me. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves, the star
of the movie, made one point two million dollars. Granted
(07:17):
he was a bigger name at the time, but I
feel like without her in that movie, it still wouldn't
have been as big a hit. So I would go
back and reward her the money for that one. So
five hundred thousand dollars, I don't think it was enough
for her role in that movie. I'm glad she's making
a lot more money now. At number eight on the
highest paid is Julia Roberts another Netflix movie. This one's
called Leave the World Behind, and that's coming out next year.
(07:39):
In two she made twenty five million dollars for that movie,
and at one point, Julia Roberts was the highest paid
actress in the world. From the nineteen nineties to the
early two thousand's, she was just the highest paid actress.
You had Julia Roberts in a movie, you know it's
going to make a lot of money, but you gotta
pay her. And I've admitted before I'm not the biggest
Julia Robber. It's fan. I like a few of her
(08:01):
movies here and there, but if she's in something, it
doesn't really entice me to go and watch the movie.
But I'm not gonna sit here and deny how big
of a movie star and how famous she is. And
I think for one of her most iconic roles, and
my favorite movie of hers would be Pretty Woman, came
out back in nineteen nine, and her fee for that
movie was only three hundred thousand dollars, and she went
(08:23):
from that in nineteen ninety, like I said, and went
on to be the highest paid actress in the world.
Later in two thousand three, she ended up making twenty
five million dollars for her role in Mona Lisa Smile,
and she now has a net worth of two hundred
and fifty million dollars. So I think she's doing pretty
well for herself. I can really see Julia Roberts going
(08:43):
places still making five million dollars for a movie, So
she doesn't need my fandom, she doesn't need me to
support her in any way. She's doing just fine. She
could trust me with her bank account so my opinion
does not matter to her. At number seven on the
list is Jennifer Lawrence, another Netflix movie. We're saying a
trend here. Netflix is paid out the money. She's in
a movie called Don't Look Up, which comes out later
(09:05):
this year on December ten. The movie I'm really excited
for has a superstar studded cast, so maybe they'll finally
get that big hit I was talking about that they
were missing earlier. And she made twenty five million dollars
for this movie. Jennifer Lawrence at one point was my
favorite actress, but I don't think she's been anything I
love since probably Passengers that came out in But a
movie I think she should have made a lot more
(09:27):
money on was her breakout role in Winner's Bone. She
was only paid three thousand dollars per week. Now, she
had only done really TV before this, she had like
one movie prior to this role. So granted, as a
brand new actress, very young, very green, she's not gonna
make a lot of money, and it's a pretty low
budget movie. But nonetheless, three thousand dollars per week and
(09:47):
the movie took twenty four days to film, so she
made about twelve thousand dollars, give or take. But where
that pays off is she ended up getting a nomination
for Best Actress. She did and end up winning, but
it really kind of put her on the map and
was able to get more work for having that role.
And having something like that so early on is great
for an actor. And although she didn't win that year,
(10:10):
she did end up winning Best Actress for her portrayal
of Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook later in twelve and
she then became the world's highest paid actress in fifteen
and sixteen, her movies making over six billion dollars worldwide,
so also did pretty well for herself. And number six
on the list is Mark Wahlberg, and he got paid
(10:32):
thirty million dollars from Netflix for Spencer Confidential. Now I
watched that movie. I enjoyed it, thought it was all right.
I like Mark Wahlberg. I think I watched it mainly
because they were teasing it as post Malone had like
a bigger role in that movie, and I'm a huge
post Malone fan. And I was a little let down
is that was basically a glorified cameo. But nonetheless I
(10:53):
watched that movie, did not think Mark Wallword was worth
thirty million dollars in that movie. I like him in
action movies, which does a lot of but I also
like the funny, comedic Mark Wahlberg probably the best, followed
by the more dramatic Mark Wahlberg, which I think he
can do actually really well. And also overall, I just
think Mark Wahlberg makes pretty good business decisions when it
(11:14):
comes to what movies he wants to make, and he's
been a pretty well off actor for a very long time,
so I thought it was a little bit hard for
me to find a movie that I thought he should
have made more money on. But I went back to
his role in Boogie Nights, which he was only paid
one million dollars for, which if you're not familiar with
Boogie Nights, it's actually on Netflix right now. It came
out though, and it's about the adult film industry in
(11:35):
Los Angeles in the seventies, and he was already a
pretty big movie star at the time when this movie
came out. He was just famous for being Mark Wahlberg
at this point. But I think this movie really kind
of elevated his career, and the movie itself did really well,
was nominated for three oscars, and he made a million
dollars for his fifth movie ever, which is really unheard of.
So that's where we're at so far. I'm gonna get
(11:57):
into the top five next. And there's one actor who
I'm actually gonna put as saying that I think they're overpaid.
I don't think they should make any more money than
they are currently making. Now there's no movie I can
pick for them, so we'll do all that next. All right,
let's get into the top five now. At number five
(12:17):
is Leonardo DiCaprio. He's also in this movie called Don't
Look Up that's coming out on Netflix on December ten,
and he made a little bit more than Jennifer Lawrence,
bringing in thirty million dollars for this role. And I
would say Leonardo DiCaprio is still one of my top
five actors of all time, mainly because he's still making
movies that I want to watch. Anytime I see he's
putting out a movie, I'm gonna watch it, and I
(12:38):
would say nine times out of ten I enjoy it.
And he's also an actor who's been making tons and
tons of money for decades now at this point. Crazy
to think he's had a career that's really just been
going on for so long at such a high level,
really unheard of. And when you pay this much for Leo,
you get what you pay for, as in he's going
to give up performance and really hold nothing back. There
was a cool clip I saw on tick talk that's
(13:00):
trending again of Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Wolf
of Wall Street. And it's a behind the scenes shot
of him getting prepared to film a scene and he
goes from basically having this kind of blank stare on
his face too as soon as they say action, he
automatically launches into being this character and portraying the scene
so well that you just realize he has something in
(13:21):
his brain that other people don't, and he is an
actor that really becomes the person he is playing and
he can turn it on like that was a really
cool thing to see. So again for him, he's been
making so much money for so long. I had to
go way back to when he was nineteen years old
and he was in What's Eating Gilbert Grape And this
is the only movie I could find that he was
underpaid on, where he only made seventy five thousand dollars
(13:44):
for this role, but he also got an Oscar nomination
for Best Supporting Actors. So again the tradeoff when taking
a lesser salary. Sometimes it's just the project you believe
in or one that you know that will probably have
a lot of success with the critics, success at the
award shows. So taking a less or amount to do
the role will end up more beneficial because you get
invited to the award shows, you get the nominations, and
(14:06):
you're able to put that on your resume. And the
only way I can really relate to that is for
the first couple of years of my career, I was
an unpaid intern. I did it for two years without
making any money, but I learned so much during that
time that it's really more valuable than if I was like, hey,
I need to make some money doing this, they probably
would have been like, I don't think we should have
you around then. So there is some benefit and sometimes
(14:28):
taking the less amount for the experience and also what
you get out of it. At number four on the
list is Denzel Washington. He was paid forty million dollars
for the movie The Little Things, which is on HBO
Max Now. It was supposed to come out in theaters,
but it was at the start of this year during
the pandemic where movies really weren't coming out yet, so
Warner Brothers still paid a lot of money to get
(14:49):
Denzel in this movie. And for me, I think Denzel
is a little hit or miss these days, but nonetheless
he is such a big name that he is an
actor that will get people into the seats to watches movies.
But my favorite movie of his was Training Day. I
think just all around a beloved movie by anybody who
loves anything Denzel has been in. For me, it's more
so even than Remember the Titans. I just think this
(15:10):
movie really kind of defines him as an actor. And
he went so hard in this movie and only made
twelve million dollars. He did not need to go as
hard as he did in this movie for that salary,
and I think that movie would not have been the
same without him, and he definitely deserved more. So That's
what I'm going with for Denzel Washington. Moving on now
to number three is wil smith new movie coming out
(15:33):
called King Richard, which is about the Williams sisters and
he plays their dad. Seems like a pretty interesting movie
that comes out on November nine, and he made forty
million dollars for that role. And this is another Warner
Brothers slash HBO Max movie. And again, Will Smith is
another one of those actors who has been making the
most for decades now. So I went back to one
(15:54):
of his movies, which I think is his best work,
and at a point in his career where he was
already making like twenty million dollars per movie, so he
was already at that top level. But he took a
pay cut to make this movie. And the movie is
the Pursuit of Happiness, and he did something in this
movie that you'll see or maybe read about that other
actors did. And in taking less of a salary, he
(16:15):
also negotiated a percentage of the film's profits into his contract.
So that's what they do. Sometimes they're like, all right,
i'll take less money, but on the back end on
ticket sales, on DVD sales, sometimes even murch sales. Depending
on the type of movie, they'll end up making more
after the fact that the movie comes out, maybe it
performs better at the box office that they were expecting,
(16:35):
and if it goes on to be a really big hit,
they'll end up making money probably for life, kind of
what Tom Hanks did for Forrest Gump. He took less
to be the star of that movie, but could probably
live off what he makes on that movie now and
that movie alone. So I think Will Smith just gave
such a powerful performance in this movie. I love the
more emotional and dramatic side of his acting career. I
(16:58):
think it's just him and his best and deserved way
more than ten million dollars. At number two on the
list is Dwayne the Rock Johnson. He's making fifty million
dollars for this new Amazon movie called Red One. It's
like a holiday adventure movie that's coming out soon. And
it's still crazy to me that Dwayne Johnson. I didn't
even really call him Dwayne Johnson. I called him the
(17:20):
Rock because I grew up watching him on wrestling WWF
at the time, which is now w w E, and
he was my favorite wrestler. And I remember when he
first started doing movies, they would kind of do these
little storylines with him, like behind the scenes, and he'd
be working on like The Scorpion King, and at the
time I just thought it was so weird that a
wrestler would go and be an actor. I didn't really
(17:40):
realize at the time that they were doing a lot
of acting on wrestling. I was still a kid. I
thought it was all real. So he really kind of
set that mold for people like John Cena to go
from wrestling to being actors. But he went from being
one of my favorite wrestlers as a kid to one
of the most profitable movie starters of all time. And
a movie I loved of his was a movie back
and called Pain and Gain, which was loosely based on
(18:03):
a real story also started Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie
a k a. The New Captain America. And it was
a movie done by director Michael Bay who did all
the Transformers movies, known for his big action explosion movies,
and he also did like Bad Boys. And this movie
was done for a pretty low budget of twenty six
million dollars, which is actually very low for an action movie.
(18:25):
Now action movies are upboards of two two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, so it was a very kind of
stripped down, less explosions type movie. But I really enjoyed
this movie, and I thought they were all really great
in it, and they actually took a pay cut to
be able to make this movie for such a low
amount of money. Each of the three actors took a
pay cut, so the Rock made about one to three
(18:47):
million reported and I just remember the Rock getting super
jacked for this movie, kind of like he does for
all of his roles now, because they're all dudes who
are like working this big ring that revolves around a gym,
so you have to be superject up. And I just
thought it was a very underrated performance for him, just
an underrated movie in general, if you're like a good
fun action movie, and one I think in his list
(19:09):
of movies that just goes overlooked, So I think it
should have made a lot more money for that. But
I am glad that they took less money to get
that movie made because I really like it. And finally
at number one on the list, the highest paid actor
also making fifty million dollars per movie. But the reason
they made number one is because they are already guaranteed
this for two movies, and it is Daniel Craig who
(19:30):
is making fifty million dollars for each Knives Out two
and three, which he was in one, but now they're
coming to Netflix, and he's already guaranteed that hundred million dollars,
so that's why he beat out the Rock and I
like Knives Out. I liked his performance in that, but
I gotta say I think he is an overpaid actor.
At fifty million dollars, I don't think that he's worth that,
And the role that I found he should have made
(19:51):
more money on, I didn't find one. He I just
think he's overpaid. I'm just not a Daniel Craig fan
at all. I never really got into him as James Bond,
and I don't think it was his performance specifically in
Knives Out that really makes me want to watch two
in three. I think that whole movie is the ensemble cast.
A lot of that comes from the writing to and
the overall just mystery of a movie as you're trying
(20:13):
to figure it out as you're watching it. I think
that's what made that movie great. I don't think it
needs him to make fifty million dollars to make two sequels,
but I think this is Netflix scoring the rights to
a major movie that people will want to see two
sequels too, and they knew they needed to keep him
attached to it to keep people thinking that they're getting
the same kind of experience from the part one. So
I don't really like him as an actor, but I
(20:35):
have mad respect for him to make this amount of
money and also just really hitting his prime later in
his career. I just can't say that he should have
earned more for any of his prior roles to me,
so in my opinion, I just think he is overrated
and overpriced. So that's the top ten. Just missing out
on that was Chris Hemsworth was also making twenty million
dollars for Forward Love and thunder Rat Pitt is making
(20:58):
twenty million dollars for a new movie called Bullet Train.
Michael B. Jordan made fifteen million dollars for a movie
they came out earlier this year on Amazon called Without Remorse.
Tom Cruz is making thirteen million dollars for Top Gun Maverick,
and I think that's also him taking a bit of
a salary reduction to get that movie made. Kiana Reeves
is making between twelve and fourteen million dollars for the
(21:19):
Matrix four. Chris Pine is making eleven point five million
dollars for the Dungeons and Dragons movie. Look at him
making a lot of money. And finally, Robert Pattinson is
making three million dollars for The Batman. That is right,
the Batman. He's only making three million dollars. But again,
I think a lot of people would want to be
Batman and get paid nothing. But that is the list.
(21:39):
Hope you enjoyed that breakdown, come back with the movie
review and a breakdown of the Spider Man trailer. And remember,
if you think I'm an idiot on any of this stuff,
you can always tweet me at Mike Destro or send
me an email movie Mike d at gmail dot com.
How about we get into a movie review now. I
(22:00):
want to talk about a new comedy on Hulu called
Vacation Friends, starring Little Ray and John Cena. I haven't
seen a good comedy in a very long time, and
I was looking for a laugh. Saw this movie came
out on Friday, and I was like, all right, I'm
gonna give it a chance. So before I get into
whether it was funny or note and my thoughts on
the movie, here's just a little bit of the trailer.
Why does the salt not taste salty because it's cocaine?
(22:22):
What we actually brought it from home? Very very easy.
If you ever want to try it. It's just a
zip block in a full shampoo bottle. It's so much
more comfortable in my head, in my ass. Okay, look,
we just gotta contain it's only happened because you say
I said it without meaning it like any decent person.
What and somehow he's charming my dad looftable four. So
(22:44):
what this movie is about. It's about this couple who
goes on vacation to Mexico. The guy played by Little
Ray has the intention of proposing on this trip and
it goes a little wrong and they end up meeting
this other couple who was also there on vacation. It's
John Cena and his girlfriend and there this were the
top kind of dizzy, dumb couple doing these ridiculous things
(23:04):
like smoking a pipe with marijuana while on a jet ski.
Like that's kind of the comedy of this movie. But
to hang out in Mexico, have this crazy week together,
doing these crazy ridiculous things without any intention of remaining
friends with these people after they get back home, and
overall this movie is just really kind of awkward. It's
a little bit cringe e. Just the relationship that you
(23:27):
were kind of watching go down. I found it hard
to watch for only those reasons, but that is what
the movie was trying to do. It was trying to
create these characters that are so ridiculous and so hard
to watch that you kind of put yourself into that
situation of, Hey, if you were on vacation and met
these crazy people and decided to hang out with him,
would you ever really want them in your life again?
So I think they really got John Cena this character
(23:50):
down pretty well. And it's so hard to make a
comedy right now, and it's harder for me to recommend
comedies because I feel like in the last ten years
we haven't had a great comedy. And even if you
go back to comedies from like the mid two thousands,
even the nineties, you really couldn't make those kind of
comedies again. Some of the things that happened in movies
(24:12):
and made us laugh at that time, we kind of
go back and realized, Wow, that wasn't actually that funny.
One of the major movies I think of is like
American Pie. One of the biggest scenes in that movie
is probably what we now realized was a crime. You
can't live stream somebody while they're naked, and that probably
wouldn't get made today. So I think it's been harder
to make a comedy now because you have to be
(24:34):
a little bit more conscious of the jokes you're making
with good reason. But what I found interesting about this
movie is it kind of took the situation you know,
comedies are in right now, and turned it in a
way to where the movie only makes fun of itself,
which I found was kind of refreshing. They're not making
fun of any other people outside of this movie. They're
(24:54):
not reaching for jokes about celebrities or anything like that
going on in the world. The movie is very a
self aware and it kind of knows what it is
and it makes fun of itself, and in the way
that it's supposed to. It's supposed to be kind of corny,
kind of cheesy. But if you go into this movie
by turning off your brain and really just letting yourself
kind of watch it with the enjoyment of, like I
(25:16):
just want to laugh, I do think you'll enjoy this movie.
And I'm just gonna say the thing I get criticized
the most on in my reviews is usually comedies and
horror movies, and I think those are the two hardest
genres to recommend, because somebody can watch a horror movie
that I think is scary and they're like, I didn't
find that scary at all. Sometimes you just don't want
to be scared, or it's cooler to say that that
(25:38):
movie didn't scare me at all. In that same way,
comedies are hard to recommend because what I find funny
you might not find funny. And sometimes I find little
dumb things funny on like the way a certain line
is delivered, and other people might not get that joke
or they might not find those mannerythms just funny. And
I did find myself, and I watched it with my
wife Kelsey, we both find ourselves just laughing watching this movie.
(26:01):
It was so dumb and ridiculous, but I think it's
exactly what we needed right now. Is it the funniest
movie I've ever seen? No? Is it the funniest movie
I've seen in the last ten years? Probably not either?
But is it a great movie to watch on movie night?
Friday night? Hanging out? And you don't want to spend
two hours watching a movie, or you don't want to
watch something that you're having to pay attention to every
single scene following every single plot line. Yes, I think
(26:22):
that is what this movie has made for. And I
think maybe because it's on Hulu it is rated R.
But I also feel like Hulu doesn't fully go for
like HBO, Max or Netflix. While there is some language
in this one, there's no nudity or anything like that.
I feel like Hulu kind of holds back when it
comes to those things still, even though it's on the
streaming service. So I did find it refreshing in that way.
(26:45):
I also like the actors. I like Little Ray, who
you may remember from get Out. I also just saw
him and Free Guy, which he was really good in,
probably my favorite part of that movie. And then John Cena,
who I've actually seen it a lot of things so
far this year. This is being like the third thing
I've seen him in from the Sue Side squad in
F nine, and he's doing probably his most goofy comedic
(27:05):
role in this movie, probably most comparable to his role
in Daddy's Home. I don't think he's even close to
getting on the Rocks level, and I know it kind
of sucks that I have to compare him to him,
but that's kind of who the standard is for wrestlers
turned actors, but I like them, so I just think
this is a great day night movie. Probably not one
you can watch with the entire family. I would say
(27:27):
it kind of borders on the line. It could pass
for PG thirteen. I've seen PG either teen movies these days.
They all have sex stuff in him to an extent.
There's no nudity. Like I said, I guess surprisingly where
it did go a little hard on with the drug use,
which was unexpected, but it was funny. And I will
say when I'm reading this movie, it's on an entirely
different scale. There's some movies you just want to turn
(27:48):
your brain off, maybe eat a snack with, and it's
category of movies that you just define as popcorn movies.
Not a whole lot of thought has to go into
making them or enjoying them. And also went into this
movie with very low expectations. With everything I've been watching recently,
I just kind of always need that buffer of something
just funny and mindless, and I think that movie did
(28:09):
exactly what I was looking for, So for that, I
have to give it. It's three point five out of
five Mexican vacations. I don't think it's a movie you
have to rush and go watch right now. And also,
if you don't have Hulu, it's not a movie you
need to get a subscription for. But if you have Hulu,
you're looking for something to watch at home, You're looking
for a quick laugh. I do think this one does
(28:29):
that job, and it's pretty good, and every now and
then you just need a movie like this. Let's get
into some movie news now. There's really only one story
I want to cover, and I want to do it
pretty in depth. So I want to break down the
Spider Man No Way Home trailer that came out about
a week ago now, and I've seen so many kind
of fan theories about this movie. I've been talking about
(28:50):
it now for a while, and we finally got the
first official trailer, and people on the internet are basically
losing their minds about this, to the point where even
I got a little bit annoyed on how much people
are analyzing this trailer. But I'll give you my honest
thoughts about the trailer what I think is going to
happen in the movie. But if you haven't seen that yet,
here's just a little bit of that trailer. And I
(29:11):
will say this before I hit play on this trailer.
I'm not spoiling anything and giving this review of the trailer,
but Marvel in itself kind of spoiled the last movie
because there was a major plot that happened at the
end of this movie where this trailer just takes place
right after that. So if you haven't seen Spider Man
Far from Home and you haven't seen this trailer and
you want to go watch that first again, Marvel did this.
(29:34):
I didn't do it. They spoiled that ending, so if
you don't want to hear about that, you can bail
out now. But at this point, this new trailer is out.
It's everywhere. That plot point has been revealed, so I
don't feel like I'm spoiling anything, but to remain a
spoiler free podcast is giving you that heads up that
it does ruin that ending, and I guess they did
that intentionally, but here it is. When mysterio revealed my identity,
(29:57):
my entire life got screwed up. I was wondering if
maybe you could make it so that he never did.
Our world was about to forget that Peter Parker Spider Man.
Everyone can't. Some people still know. So M James gonna
forget about everything we've ever been through. Stop tampering with
(30:17):
the spell. Oh my god, ned, he's my best friend.
May should really talk? So this movie takes place directly
after Spider Man Far from Home, which revealed in that trailer.
The identity of Spider Man as Peter Parker is revealed,
and the entire world knows who he is, and what
he's trying to do is go back to a time
(30:38):
where nobody knew who he was, his identity wasn't revealed,
and he goes to Dr Strange to do this, and
in doing this, it kind of messes up the entire world.
And what's been talked about for so long leading up
to this trailer and leading up to the plot of
this movie is that they were going to introduce a
multiverse of Spider Man, so kind of like they did
(30:58):
in Spider Man, into the Spider Verse are all these
different Spider Man's that exist in different worlds. And the
rumor has been that Toby Maguire, who is in the
original Spider Man movies, would come back, and also Andrew
Garfield who was a part of those reboots, and all
three Spider Man would be in this movie. And there's
been so much speculation, even more so after the trailer
(31:18):
came out, leading to believe that this is actually true,
even though nothing has been confirmed. There's been some speculation
from some of the actors as far as the people
who are in this movie, which I'll get into, but
really it's just people kind of clinging onto that idea,
and I don't want to just speculate. I could create
the greatest Spider Man movie by giving these theories. So
(31:38):
I'm just looking at the facts based on what's actually
in the trailer and also the things you can find
and the credited cast list on IMDb, So these are
the people actually confirmed for this movie. And just by
looking at the credits, there is no Toby McGuire or
Andrew Garfield credited in this movie, but there are some
interesting ones. And I don't think it's beyond marvel for
(32:01):
them to reveal later that Andrew Garfield and Toby McGuire
would be in this They've been known to change scenes
in the trailers to kind of keep that mystery alive.
I also just think it would be a kind of
a bigger thing for them to get people excited about
this movie to reveal that yes, they are in it,
but again, they probably don't need that right now. It
(32:21):
would be more of a kind of triumphant moment for
cinema if a week out or just when people go
watch it that you find out that they are in
the movie. But there are some interesting cast things already
confirmed for this movie, one being J. K. Simmons, who
played Jonah Jamison and the original Spider Man is in
this movie. You see him in the trailer, so in
(32:42):
that sense, it would make sense they're bringing back somebody
from the original Spider Man into this one who has
never been in any of this version of Spider Man.
Could possibly bring back Toby McGuire. But where it gets
more interesting is the villains that you see in this trailer.
I'll play a little clip here where you'll hear a
laugh from a famous Bill Land and also another villain
speaking to Peter Parker, Hello, Peter. So what you heard
(33:13):
in that clip was the Green Goblins laugh. Who William Dafoe,
who plays the Green Goblin in the original, is confirmed
for this movie. And also Alfred Molina, who played Doc
Cock in Spider Man too. You see him on screen here,
And the speculation that comes is when you heard him
say hello, Peter. It shows Tom Holland's character, but people
(33:35):
are saying, how would he know that Tom Holland is
Spider Man and not Toby maguire's version of Spider Man.
But also that's a little bit debunked because it was
revealed to the entire world that he's Spider Man, so
of course he would know too. But the claim online
is that what Marvel has done is that a deep
fake of Tom Holland's face out of what is actually
(33:56):
Toby McGuire's body, and they were able to link this
back to a suit that Toby maguire war and Spider Man,
and Tom Holland is wearing that exact same suit. And
the other interesting part about this is that Jamie Fox
is back as a lectro who was the villain in
one of the Spider Man movies with Andrew Garfield, so
that could lean way to Andrew Garfield being in this movie.
(34:17):
But what I think is actually happening is they are
bringing back all of the villains with the addition of
j K. Simmons is Joanna Jamison, and I just think
it's Tom Holland having to fight these villains that we've
all seen before. And what I've learned from the plot
of seeing this trailer. I don't think it entirely works
having two other Spider Man fighting in this movie. I
(34:37):
can see the plot of this movie perfectly sustaining itself
without them in it, and I would be really surprised
if they actually end up being in the movie. I mean,
don't get me wrong, I think it would be amazing,
But I just think that's a lot more of a
big accomplishment than people think of just putting these two
other Spider Man's in this movie. Like, who's to say
that Toby McGuire would want to do it, that Andrew
Garfiet would even want to do this movie anymore. They
(35:00):
have since denied claims that they are in this movie.
Of course, that they were under contract, they couldn't reveal that,
But I just don't think that they would want to
go back and portray these roles again. I kind of
think they were done with it, and they would have
had to pay them a lot of money to be
able to do this movie. So I do think people
online are getting a little bit too excited and creating
this movie that in no way could meet people's expectations
(35:22):
of all these theories of like even like Daredevil making
an appearance of this is, you know, the one they
created on Netflix. So I could go through and add
all these other kind of fan theories of my own
that would make this the best movie ever. But I'm
just going with what the facts are here on paper,
what's been confirmed and so far, if I had to guess,
I don't think they're actually going to be in and
(35:42):
I don't think it really needs them, And as much
as I would love to see that happen, I don't
think it will. But if it does, I think that
moment of all three of them on screen together would
be a bigger roar in the theaters than that Avengers
scene where they all kind of reunite. I just think
that would be amazing to see it take a lot
to get there, and as Spider Man being my favorite superhero,
(36:03):
I think that would be awesome. I just don't think
it's in the cards. But all right, that's gonna do
it for this week's episode. Before I hop out of here.
Every single week I always give a shout out to
one of you listening who tweets me or sends me
a Facebook message or d ms me on Instagram. At
Mike Destro. But today I'm going over to the email
inbox movie Mike D at gmail dot com. And this
(36:25):
email is from Rachel in reference to my thoughts on
the movie Midsummer and she says, I gotta say I
was looking forward to watching a very scary horror movie
film and I hyped this up to my friend because
I had not seen it, and we sat down to
watch it together, and I gotta say this movie was
not scary in any way. I was totally disappointed with
everything in this movie. And I've been a loyal listener
(36:45):
from the very beginning. I've watched quite a few of
your recommendations, and I just wanted to let you know
your way off key on this one. Still a fan,
just wanted to relate the info, Rachel, and I actually
appreciate that feedback. And like I said a few episodes ago,
I would much rather get an email like this then
a one star review on Apple Podcasts. And I still
stand by my review and thoughts on that movie. And
(37:06):
I was kind of talking about earlier that horror and
comedy movies are just the hardest to recommend. What I
find scary, you might not find scary, and that's okay.
Sorry you didn't end up in doing that movie, but
glad you are still listening to the podcast. And what
I always say is you won't always agree with all
the things I say about movies, and it's all right
to disagree, and so right to watch something and not
feel the same way. But that is why we are here,
(37:27):
and we could still be friends even though we don't
agree on things. That's what we're working towards everybody. But
appreciate you listening, Appreciate you being subscribed to the podcast.
If you can tell a friend who also loves movies
and you think would enjoy this podcast, and until next
week later
Host
Mike D
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