Mike breaks down his current Top 10 Actor Power Rankings. He uses a data-informed, culture-driven snapshot of who is truly running Hollywood right now. Mike scores each performer across weighted categories: Hollywood Impact, Cultural Presence, Style Influence, Audience Appeal, Acting ability and Brand Momentum. In the Movie Review, Mike talks about They Will Kill You starring Zazie Beetz. It’s about a woman who answers a cryptic ad for a housekeeping job at a luxurious yet foreboding New York City high-rise. She then finds herself trying to save her sister from a crazy cult! Mike talks about how it’s one of the most original movies of the year, how it mixed video game and anime style action and why some people may have a problem with the subject material. In the Trailer Park, Mike talks about the live-action “Moana” with Dwayne Johnson returning as Maui. Did anyone ask for this or is this remake being overly hated?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's movie podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to give
you my top ten actor power rakings. This was such
a hard list to put together, but I think I
got it. In the movie review, I'll be talking about
a horror comedy called They Will Kill You, very Tarantino inspired,
(00:22):
one of the most original horror movies I've seen in
theaters in a long time. And in the trailer park,
we're breaking down the live action Molwanna trailer starring the
rock and interns of breaking down that trailer, I'm gonna
try to not break down myself. I'm gonna hold it together.
I'm gonna get through it. But thank you for being here,
thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday
(00:43):
Morning Movie crew. And now we're fired up. Let's go,
let's talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Podcast Network Movie Mikes Movie Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
All right, we're coming off the oscar some big box
office performances. I wanted to give you my top ten
actor power rankings right now. This was a really hard
list for me to come up with because there are
a lot of my favorite actors that I think deserve
to be in the top ten these are not of
all time, this is right now. Who I think are
(01:15):
the hottest, most in demand, best actors all around? How
I came up with this top ten list? Hollywood impact?
Have they led a movie in the last year? How
well did that movie do that they led at the
box office in the last year? What do they have
coming up next? Cultural presence? How much are these people googled?
(01:35):
Their social media following just general interest in them as humans?
Where does that rank? Style influence? I think that's a
big part of it, at least for me. I think
it is on the red carpet. Are people talking about
their looks? Do they have deals with companies? Do they
have campaigns where they're promoting some clothing or maybe some
(01:58):
shoes overall? If they put something on, are people going
to see that and think I want to look like
that person. I think about that stuff a lot, maybe
just me, but I had to include that in my
power rankings list. Audience appeal. How do they do with
the box office? Do their movies stream well? Do they
not only appeal to me the hyper movie nerd, but
(02:20):
also Jim Pop? How much do they just appeal to
the average person? If you said their name, would people
walking down the street know who that is. Brand momentum
was another big deal because it's not just about the
greatest actors of all time, it is about who has
that momentum right now. Are they coming off a big
performance that made a lot of money at the box office,
(02:41):
Were they just nominated or do they just win an oscar?
And what do they have coming up next that is
going to charge them into the next phase of their career.
Think of it as a roller coaster that momentum. And
then the final thing I accounted for was just how
good of an actor are they? I think that is
important and that is to me, just raw acting ability.
(03:02):
How good are they at conveying emotion. But let's get
into the list now. At number ten, I'm going with
Timothy shallow May. If I did this list last year,
he probably would have ranked higher. His highest rated movie
is Ladybird. His lowest rated movie is A Rainy Day
in New York. His last box office performance was about
(03:23):
one hundred and eighty million dollars worldwide. With Marty Supreme
on deck. He has Dune three coming out later this year.
He is what I still believe to be the face
of young Hollywood. He has the indie cred, but also
the blockbuster leads with Wonka and the Dune franchise. A
couple of reasons why he has dipped in my list.
(03:45):
It is just what he said recently that I think
has changed the way that some people feel about him.
Maybe it's his true self coming out a little bit.
I'm not sure right now, but I really think that
dinged his momentum. I think overall in maybe a month,
maybe even a few or a couple of weeks, at
this point, people will forget about that and move on.
(04:09):
Once the Dune trailer came out, I think a lot
of people were like, well, who cares what he said?
I want to see Dune. But to me, it just left,
at least right now, kind of a bad taste in
my mouth. So that was a contributing factor of why
he dipped in my ranking. But also because I don't
think Marty Supreme was as massive as he thought it
(04:32):
was going to be, and he campaigned hard for that movie.
He did not walk away with the Oscar win he
thought he was going to get. Because of that that
even I thought he was the front runner going into that,
and I think the movie did well with one hundred
and eighty million. But for somebody who I believe is
in that top tier the top ten actors right now,
(04:55):
I don't think that is enough to qualify him as
somebody in the top five. While it did pretty well
for an a twenty four movie, just his name alone
given the subject matter that I think some people had
a hard time wanting to pay money to go see
a movie about Ping Pong, even though I believe it
is so much more than that. I think his name
(05:17):
alone wasn't enough to bring in a mass audience to
that movie. So for that reason, he is just hanging
in there at number ten, and there are some people
right there on the bubble that I easily could have
put over him. But I do think that Oscar nomination
did keep him in this top ten, and he'll probably
move up. So at number ten, I have Timothy Chalameh
(05:40):
at number nine. Robert Downey Junior at this point in
his career, he's almost in this bubble of his own.
But you forget how massively worldwide famous Robert Downey Junior is.
His highest rated movie is Endgame. His lowest rated movie
is Do Little, which he did right after Endgame. Oh
(06:02):
that is hovering there in the teens. His latest box
office performance with Oppenheimer making almost one billion dollars worldwide,
and that wasn't all because of him, but I think
because of that Oscar win from Oppenheimer, it really balanced
him out where he has been around for so long
(06:23):
now and for the longest time in his comeback, we
just saw him as Tony Stark and it was that
role that kind of solidified him as No. I am
also a really great actor on Deck. He's going to
be in Doomsday, which is having a massive amount of speculation,
and people continuously talk about that movie. He comes out
(06:45):
at an award show and people want to see him
talk about that movie. He is really leaning into the
doctor Doom role, addressing in Green and really teasing people
on social media, creating that buzz, creating that excitement, creating
what people hire Robert Downey Junior for at this point
(07:06):
to bring in the eyeballs. And I think it's his
presence in that movie's promotion and him starring in that
movie is what's going to make it a success. At
the end of the day, Marvel knows they need to
go back to their og box office candy in Robert
Downey Junior. So you think about his comeback in two
(07:27):
thousand and eight, At the time he was seen as
a risk to be cast as Iron Man, and then
since then he has reinvented himself with that Oscar winning
performance in Oppenheimer, And now I think he's only going
to boost his career. And now I believe has all
this momentum in twenty twenty six leading us to doomsday,
(07:49):
and it's good to feed directly into twenty twenty seven
with Secret War. So at number nine, he's just a
really great actor. At number nine, I have Robert Downey.
At number eight, I have Brad Pitt. He is a
nog but proved to us in F one that he
still has it in a lot of ways and being
(08:12):
the leading man and still having that charming Brad Pitt
sex appeal and also still getting the critical acclaim with
F one being nominated for Best Picture. I highly believe
the reason that movie was nominated was because Brad Pitt
started in this movie. His highest rated movie is Moneyball,
(08:33):
which is fantastic, probably a top three baseball movie for me,
because I don't think anything is ever going to be
angels in the outfield. His lowest rated movie is Cool World,
which I'm not sure I've even seeing that movie, and
in speaking about f one, that movie made six hundred
and thirty three million dollars worldwide at the box office.
(08:53):
On deck, he has The Adventures of Cliff Booth, which
if you saw Once upon a Time in Hollywood back
in twenty nineteen, that movie was written and directed by
Quentin Tarantino. This movie serves as a sequel to that movie.
Quentin Tarantino is not directing it, but he did write it,
and David Fincher, who did Fight Club, is the one
(09:14):
directing this movie. It is going to be about Brad
Pitt's character, Cliff Booth. I know they did kind of
a teaser trailer at the Super Bowl, didn't really give
us a whole lot, So whenever that full trailer comes out,
I will throw it into the trailer park because I
do think it is interesting for a Quentin Tarantino movie,
even though he isn't directing it to get a sequel,
(09:34):
because he doesn't really do too many sequels to his
movies aside from the Kill Bill franchise. So Brad Pitt
has proven he is still a bankable veteran He's also
done a lot of producing now later in his career.
I think, even more so than Moneyball is the movie
he was a producer on, Twelve Years a Slave. I
think that has the highest rating out of any Brad
(09:57):
Pitt project. So at number eight, I have Brad Pitt.
At number seven, I have Emma Stone, who kinda is
the best of both worlds. The best of both worlds
where she can do a movie that brings in a
lot of money, which she did probably more early on
in her career where she was more in the romantic
(10:18):
comedy space, and she can also do a really good
art house movie where she can be really vulnerable with
her characters, or she really bears it all and what
does that do? It gets her Oscar nomination after Oscar nomination.
She also just seems like a genuinely nice person who
cares about the craft, somebody who, to me, I feel,
(10:40):
is the hardest person to hate in Hollywood. Her highest
rated movie Isla Loland. Her lowest rated movie, which I
will defend by the way, movie forty three, which is
a movie that came out and it features a crazy
amount of actors, doesn't have one plot, is just a
bunch of random sketches that mesh together to create a movie.
(11:02):
It is probably my biggest guilty pleasure comedy. I don't
recommend it whatsoever, but when I watched that movie, I
thought it was hilarious. I don't even think it's one
of those turn your brain off and just enjoy movies.
It is one you really have to focus in on
and know how ridiculous it is going to be, but
find something that you enjoy. But I don't even think
(11:23):
it's really hard to enjoy that movie. So it's a
really hard sell. But it is my guilty pleasure comedy
and it features Emma Stone. Her latest box office performance
was a Little mid Begonia, which I loved, but it's
such a hard sell. And she has been working with
director Jorgos Lantimos for a while now with Kinds of
Kindness and Poor Things. I think she is about to
(11:45):
move on from that. Currently, she is in talks to
star in a romantic comedy directed by her husband called
The Catch. Chris Pine is also reportedly in talks to
co star in this movie, and that is expected to
be her next movie, but currently doesn't have anything set
for release right now. But she is fresh off another
(12:08):
Oscar nomination. Even though I thought her performance was really
strong in Bogonia, wasn't as good as Jesse Buckley or
maybe a lot of the other people in that category
this year. But I still think her star is really
bright right now. So at number seven I have Emma Stone.
At number six Pedro Pascal. He continues to be dominant
(12:33):
at the box office, and even though he is around
in everything, I am still not sick of him. His
highest rated movie is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,
which he started with Nicholas Cage, which I really enjoyed
that movie, and it kind of came out before his
star really rose, so I think maybe if that movie
(12:54):
came out now, it would have a little bit more
of an impact. But Nicholas Cage plays himself well. There
are a lot of fun references to Nicholas Cage movies,
and you see prompts that he has inside of his house,
but are really over the top fun time. I really
enjoy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent if you haven't
seen that one, or maybe you missed it. However, his
(13:15):
lowest rated movie is Wonder Woman nineteen eighty four, which
when that first came out. I defended it, but looking
back on it, I think it was because it came
out in the year in twenty twenty where we had
no movies and I was so excited just to have
anything new, and that was one that I remember. We
(13:35):
watched it at home. I was so thirsty for a
new movie that I printed out a couple of tickets
for Kelsey and I just to get that feeling like
we were going to the theater again. So we did that.
We had our snacks, We tried to make it feel
like the movies as much as possible, So I think
that experience was memorable. About that, I would even say
(13:56):
the first thirty forty minutes of that movie are DC
and then later it kind of falls apart. Villain's not
that great, Kristen Wigie in that movie not so great,
and it was just such a harsh drop off from
the first Wonder Woman movie, which I think really wowed
a lot of people. So still not as if that's
your worst movie. I don't think that is terrible. His
(14:18):
most recent box office outing was The Fantastic four First Steps,
which made about five hundred million dollars, and on deck,
he has the Mandalorian and Grogu, which I really hope
is good. And I know that falls into the Disney model,
which I won't get into right now because I will
talk about more when I break down the Mauana trailer.
(14:39):
But I just hope that it's not just the next
season of The Mandalorian in movie form, because I think
Disney would do that. They would say why put it
out on Disney Plus when we could put it out
in theaters. I hope that is not the case because
I really want that movie to be good. Even though
the last season of The Mandalorian was pretty mid but
not only is dominant on the big screen, the Last
(15:02):
of Us was also really great. I still enjoyed that
last season. So at number six, I have Pedro Pascal.
At number five, fresh off of his Oscar win, I
have Michael B. Jordan after he won, which I was
still rooting for Timothy Chalome, but seeing him go to
in and out take pictures with his Oscar, with his burger,
(15:27):
all the things he said post win, I thought, man,
we really picked the right person to win. The right
actor won. His highest rated movie is Black Panther. His
lowest rated movie is Fantastic Four. His last box office
outing was Sinners, making three hundred and seventy million dollars worldwide.
On Deck, he is going to star and direct a
(15:49):
remake of The Thomas Crown Affair that's coming out on
March fifth, twenty twenty seven. He is also in talks
to star in a Miami Wece movie, which after his
Oscar win, the story came out that he was renegotiating
for more money. I think he wanted like eighteen million
dollars and some people were saying, you're not worth that.
(16:11):
I think winning Best Actor is time to renegotiate for
a movie, because I think actors need to make their money,
especially while they're hot. And I would probably do the
same thing if I just want an Oscar and I
was in talks. I don't hate him for that. Secure
the bag, because you don't get any money for winning
(16:31):
an Oscar. It's nice, it's prestigious, you can brag about
it higher actor friends, but you don't win a monetary
amount for that award. What you win is that credibility
and that ability to raise your rate, because if you
want an Oscar winning actor in your movie, you're gonna
(16:52):
have to pay more money because forever. You can put
that on any role that you do Oscar winning actor
actor Michael B. Jordan, and that goes a long way
in the marketing. So I don't hate on him for that.
I think he also has a lot of cultural relevance.
He is a really fashionable dude. He is now in
(17:13):
that director of movie star hybrid where he can get
behind the camera, he can get in front of the camera,
he can do it all. He is also so insanely
talented that I realize why he won. I saw him
talk about in an interview how much prep he does.
He writes journals from the perspective of his characters, leading
(17:37):
all the way up to when the movie starts. So
he takes the script and then he develops the backstory
for his characters. Why are they the way they are,
keeps these journals and these logs about their life, lives
basically as them, and has all these details of kind
of like a road map that he can refer to
(17:58):
of like, Okay, if they did this, they probably had
this going on in their life, and he knows where
to pull from why they are motivated by certain things.
That is just next level. That is doing the homework
and you think about some actors who are like, man,
why have I never wanted? Maybe you're not trying hard enough.
Maybe you need to spend some time in the prep department.
(18:18):
For some people, it is more than just learning their lines.
It is learning their character and living inside that character.
Maybe not going as far as like a Daniel day
Lewis and making everybody on set call you Abraham Lincoln,
but it is knowing your character, knowing the inner workings
of their mind, why they are the way they are.
(18:39):
At number five, I have Michael B. Jordan. At number four,
I have Margo Robbie, who has one of the highest
grossing movies of the year with Wuthering Heights. And I
think it is because her star power that that movie
was so successful. She is a great actor and also
somebody that people just can't take her eyes off of.
(19:01):
She is so incredibly beautiful that you see her on
screen and think, man, she was supposed to be a
movie star. But she's also an incredibly smart business woman,
has an amazing production company. I can't wait to see
more of her work behind the camera. I know she's
produced a lot of things, has a lot of things
coming up as a big champion of female directors, so
(19:22):
I can't wait for her to make her directorial debut
because I feel like that is imminent. Her highest rated
movie is I Tanya and her lowest rated movie is Terminal.
Her last box office performance with Withering Heights, made over
two hundred and thirty four million dollars globally. On deck,
she is going to start in an Ocean's prequel, which
(19:43):
there aren't a whole lot of details out about that
right now, but I love the Oceans franchise. Ocean's eleven
great movie, so curious to see how they set up
the beginning of that. Can't really go further into it.
I think they kind of found a good stopping point.
And what do you do once you reach a stopping point?
(20:03):
You start doing prequels. And I think she is still
writing off of that success of Barbie, which I credit
to not only Margot Robbie but also director Greta Gerwig
for bringing back female led blockbusters. That is what a
production company Lucky chap is all about, and I am
all here for the rise of that. So at number four,
(20:25):
I have Margo Robbie. At number three, I have Leonardo DiCaprio,
fresh off of his nomination, even though he didn't win
for Best Actor for One Battle after Another. That is
also currently his highest rated movie ever. His lowest rated
movie is Critters three. I know I saw Critters one,
(20:46):
maybe saw Critters two. I don't think I saw Critters
three with Leonardo DiCaprio in that One Battle after Another,
by the way, made two hundred and ten million dollars
at the box office. What he has coming out next
is a movie called What Happens at Night, which also
stars Jennifer Lawrence and is directed by Martin Scorsese. And
I think that is why he is consistently in my
(21:07):
top three at times my number one, because he constantly
puts out culturally relevant movies, and he has been a
noteworthy celebrity now since the nineties, but now every single
movie he does is important, and it's always with a
really prestigious director like Scorsese, like Paul Thomas Anderson, like
(21:28):
Quentin Tarantino, that it becomes even more of an event
because those directors' names alone are enough to make people
want to go to the theater. But then you throw
Leonardo DiCaprio with that, and it becomes one of the
biggest Movies of the Year in any given year that
one of them come out, oftentimes going to warrant an
(21:48):
Oscar nomination, because I don't think he is in the
business of just making normal movies anymore. Where if it's
not going to get him a nomination for Best Actor,
I don't he's going to do it. Maybe the last
one that was kind of on the fence but still
had some critical acclaim was don't look up. But now
I think he is just pounding away and trying to
(22:11):
get more than one Best Actor award, which he should
have more than one. So coming off of a big movie,
going into a big movie, he continues to be a
name that is just right there at the top, brings
in the money at the box office, brings in movies
that stream really well, works with the Krem de la
crem when it comes to directors, and gives us great
(22:33):
movies that are not only great in the sense like
oh yeah, that was a really good movie that came out.
They become cinematic not always masterpieces, but pillars of modern
filmmaking that even in twenty years down the line, when
maybe he decides to retire, these are still going to
be the building blocks of American film, and anytime he
(22:56):
goes to an award show, you know it's going to
be centered on him. You know they're going to talk
about it, dating history. He continues to be a person
that people are just infatuated with, has been famous his
entire life. At number three, I have Leonardo DiCaprio. At
number two, I have Zendia, who has really risen into
(23:16):
this top five in the last year, and I think
it's because she has such a massive twenty twenty six
on deck. Her highest rated movie is Spider Man No
Way Home, which I think is wild. Her lowest rated
movie is Space Jam A New Legacy. Yeah, yeah, I
don't really think that was her fault. Her last box
office performance was Challengers, which made ninety six point one
(23:40):
million dollars. And what really led me to put her
high up in this list is I think she is
about to have a banner year coming up. This weekend.
She's going to be in a movie with Robert Pattinson,
The Drama, which is already creating a lot of drama
people spoiling that movie for me. I did not want
to know. I didn't want to know. Oh. I tried
(24:01):
not to click it, but it was just everywhere. Then
she's gonna be in Spider Man Brand New Day, which
is gonna be massive, gonna be in Doune three, which
is gonna be massive, and then she is also going
to be in the next season of Euphoria this year.
I still think the only reason she's not number one
is because I still think, too maybe the older generation,
(24:24):
you may still have to explain who she is, even
though I think at this point should be undeniable. She
is one of those celebrities that any day I go online,
there is a data story. People still speculating whether her
and Tom Holland are married or not. People are talking
about her red carpet looks. She is constantly being spoken about,
(24:45):
and she also has this elusive movie star quality to
her still where not really on social media aside from
doing interviews and not even like long form podcast interviews,
just red carpet interviews. But that is really the only
time I see her out is when she has a
movie coming out that she's promoting, which she has a
(25:06):
lot of them coming out at any given time. But
she is not somebody who puts her personal life out there,
and why she keeps things so secret and not kind
of like that, I don't want to know every single
detail about all my movie stars. It gives them some aura,
it gives them some mystery. It gives me a reason
(25:26):
to go see them in theaters because I can't really
see them anywhere else. When somebody is all over Instagram
and all over TikTok, you kind of feel I can
see them all the time. And I think that could
be a contributing factor to why some people say, why
am I gonna go pay to see them in theater
if I could just see them online? And even though
they're promoting their things to their millions and millions of followers,
(25:46):
does it really transfer into ticket sales. We've seen it
fail with even the biggest of celebrities, but she is
one of the biggest gen Z stars. Oh Man, I
totally forgot the Odyssey. She's gonna be in four movies
this year, the drama Dune Part three, Spider Man, Brand
New Day, and the Odyssey Wild. So at number two
I have Zendeia, but at number one in my power
(26:06):
rankings of actors right now, I have Ryan Gosling, coming
off of his highest rated movie of all time, Project
Hail Mary, his lowest rated movie is a movie called
Stay Before Project Hail Mary. His last full box office
run was The Fall Guy, which made about one hundred
and eighty one million dollars worldwide. Even when he puts
(26:29):
out movies that don't perform well at the box office,
right now, I still believe that they are good movies.
So I still stand by the fact that I really
enjoy The Fall Guy and think it's still a great
Ryan Gosling movie. On deck, he is going to be
in a movie called Star Wars Starfighter, where he plays
a pilot who becomes entangled in a crucial mission as
(26:50):
a new threat emerges and they find out their journey
may alter the future of the Force itself as they
rebuild a galaxy. So that sounds good if you're a
Star Wars. He's also going to be in a new
movie directed by the Daniels, who is the directing duo
behind Everything Everywhere, All at Once. This just came out.
Everything's still under wraps, but it is expected to start
(27:11):
filming this summer. All we know about it. It's going
to be a fun sci fi action comedy with a
big heart, and it should come out in theaters on
November nineteenth, twenty twenty seven, Ryan Gosling, I believe has
the most momentum right now, coming off of Project Hill Mary,
still coming off The Fall Guy, coming off of Barbie,
and I think he is the most prime example of
(27:31):
balancing prestige and blockbuster era, which I think it is
something we need right now. He is not only somebody
who is just a really great actor pound for pound,
who can have chemistry with anybody, whether it's a person,
whether it's a puppet, whether it's a piece of paper,
whether it's a CGHI character. He can have chemistry with anybody.
(27:53):
He is so charming, so endearing, and I really love
what he said recently. He said it's not on the
moviegoers to save the movie theaters. That responsibility falls on
the Hollywood studios, say Ladder. Ryan Gosling quote. Six years
ago I got the manuscript for Project Hill Mary, the
most ambitious thing I'll ever make. It seemed impossible, it
was too good not to give it a shot. Six
(28:15):
years later we did it. Here we are, we're all
back in theaters. It is not your job to keep
them open. It is our job to make things that
are worth you coming out for. That is what I'm
talking about because I think sometimes some people, whenever they
have a project fail, they blame the audience, which is
(28:36):
the thing you can't do. And if you look at
some of the most prime examples of box office hits,
talk about weapons, you talk about Sinners, you talk about
Project hill Mary, you talk about Superman. Things that have
given people a reason to go to a theater. We
have done it. You can't keep us away from a
really great movie when it generates a buzz, when it
(28:57):
generates people wanting to go experience it in theaters with
the crowd. And then you try to push out something
and say you gotta come watch it, you gotta come
support it, you gotta support original movies. I do think
it does fall on the filmmakers. It falls on the
studios to create those moments, find those movies, find those stories.
Not give us the same crap anymore and think, why
(29:17):
isn't this working? Why is nobody wanting to go to
the movies. It is your job to make those things
that are a spectacle, because there are directors out there
and studios out there that are going to do it.
A Christopher Nolan is going to do it. A Ryan
Gosling is going to find a project that is going
to do it. So I think he has it all.
(29:38):
He has the qualities I want in a movie star.
Seems like a great dad. Him and Eimendez seem like
fantastic parents. I love how they found a way to
make their kids a part of Project Hill Mary. He
has I believe, the best filmography. If I could only
take one actor's film allography with me to a desert island,
(30:01):
I would take Ryan Gosling and I put him at
number one because I wanted to declare now that Ryan
Gosling is my favorite actor, because that is a question
I get a lot, what's your favorite movie, What's your
favorite actor? And it's always been really hard for me
to have a favorite actor. But when I look back
on all his movies, The Place Beyond the Pines, going
back to The Notebook, Blade Runner, twenty forty nine, The
(30:23):
Big Short, First Man, all these movies that have been
a part of my life for so long. Now Drive
I didn't even mention my favorite Ryan Gosling movie. He
is my favorite actor, and I believe the number one
actor in the Power rankings right now, that is my
top ten in the Power Rankings. Who would you put
in years. Let me know Moviemike d at gmail dot
(30:45):
com or at Mike dstro on all socials. I'll come
back and give my spoiler free movie review of They
Will Kill You. Let's get it to it now. A
spoiler free movie review of They Will Kill You. One
of the most original movies I've seen this year. What
(31:06):
a wild theater experience. I first saw the trailer for
this a couple of months ago going to see another movie,
and I thought, I don't know what that is not
familiar with the director, but it had such high intense
violence and blood splatter kind of reminded me of Kill
Bill meets Ready or Not meets a little bit of
John Wick, and I thought, I have to be a
(31:29):
part of that movie and go and see that when
it comes out in theaters, and it did deliver what
the movie is about. You have Zase Beats character who
you may remember her from Atlanta, which I loved her in.
She was also in Deadpool two. She did an episode
of Black Mirror. She was also in the First Joker,
had a small appearance in Joker Too, but her character
(31:51):
went to prison, gets out and then gets a job
as a maid to go work at this place called
the Virgil, which is this really high and kind of
apartment style building where a lot of wealthy people live.
She is on a mission to rescue her sister, but
what starts out as a rescue mission turns into full
(32:12):
out mayhem when she stumbles upon this satanic cult that
lives within the walls of the Virgil. So it gets
crazy in the trailer. I won't spoil anything, but in
the trailer you see her fighting a lot of people
in her room and it is really crazy stylistic violence.
So who this movie is for, it is for me.
(32:34):
I love horror movies. I feel like it's had a
big resurgence in the last just two years of being
one of the most creative genres, and the resurgence has
been in the horror comedy space, where you go see
a movie and its intention really isn't to frighten you anymore,
which I think some people think horror movie is supposed
(32:55):
to be scary. Not always the case, especially now, where
I think horror is so flexible in what it can
give you, whether it comes to the emotions or the actions,
And there is this style of movie that is existing
right now in the horror space that has a little
bit of comedy, which I think is important, has a
little bit of action, and then mixes in some pretty
dark elements to make it a horror movie. I would
(33:19):
probably credit this a little bit to Sam Raimi, So
maybe if you saw Send Help earlier this year kind
of in that same style, except they Will Kill You
is so much more disturbing and bizarre. But I think
this movie style is really thriving right now where people
want to go to the theater and have a good
time and watch a movie that doesn't take itself too
(33:40):
seriously but also doesn't paint you out to be a
domy as the viewer, which is a really fine line
to walk because it is so off the wall if
you go into it with a closed mind and think
this is dumb, this is ridiculous, This is too cartoonish.
This feels like a live action anime, which was one
of the things that really stick out to me and
what I loved about it. I just got back into
(34:01):
one Piece on Netflix, fully loving that it kind of
reminded me a little bit of Attack on Titan. If
Dragon Ball had bloodshed, it would remind me a little
bit more of that. But anything that has a lot
of swords and gun violence. That is what I feel
is the source material for this movie. So it's just
(34:22):
a lot of fun. So if you like horror movies,
if you like comedy movies, if you like anime, or
if you like video games. Because the other thing that
really stick out to me was how all of the
levels and different rooms inside of the Virgil kind of
felt like a video game level. And I know they
did draw some inspiration from Dante's Inferno and the adaptation
(34:43):
of that video game. Of the different levels of hell
that you kind of experience. It kind of had that
feeling of putting you inside of that action. Maybe if
you were playing an old school Mortal Kombat game or
like a tech and fighting game, one of those old
school two thousand maybe even arcade video games, where it
is that style of over the top violence and over
(35:06):
the top bloodshed that I was craving for as a
kid in the nineties and early two thousands. That is
what I felt while I was watching this movie. It
felt very organic and felt very alive. They used a
lot of practical effects. I'm talking crazy amounts of blood
splatter and blood clouds, where I think that's what kind
of gave me the vibes with like a kill Bill
(35:27):
martial arts style movies like back in the Day. I
feel like that was a big reference point and inspiration
behind a lot of these scenes. So I very much
got Uma Thurman inside of Jase Beat's character. But then
it kind of takes on this entire mind of its
own because it comes to us from a director from
Russia who I'm not that familiar with but I find
(35:48):
really interesting. His name is Ki Real Sukolov. His story
is crazy because he started out as a scientist in
college and then started making DIY movies with his friends
and decided this is what I want to do. He
put out a movie that came out back in twenty
nineteen called why Don't You Just Die? That was really successful,
really put him on the map, and now he is
(36:08):
getting to show everybody this is my style, take it
or leave it. This movie is so unapologetic that I
loved how much it was committed to the style, which
I know it might not be for everybody because it
does get pretty twisted, especially in the third act. If
you don't like anything that has any kind of demonic
presence or satanic cult like Even though It is not
(36:34):
indulging in it. It is more I would say, poking
fun at it. But some people just don't like watching
that type of imagery. I get that because the way
it is used in this movie, it's shown as the
evil force, and the character of Asia played by Zasse
Bates is trying to take that evil force down. But
in order to have such a crazy evil force, you
(36:55):
have to depict them in this way. So I don't
really feel like it's here is this really dark, twisted imagery.
I am supporting this. I am supporting the person taking
that demonic presence down and taking down all these sick,
twisted individuals that live inside this building. The thing I
wasn't expecting to work so well and they will kill
you was the cast. You have Patricia Arquette, you have
(37:18):
Heather Graham, and you have Tom Felton. Oh, Draco Malfoy
from Harry Potter, I have never seen him in a
movie like this. And you combine all these different personalities
and actors that you know from vastly different things, from
Harry Potter to Boogie Knights and The Hangover to Severance,
(37:39):
and you think, how would there be any world where
all these people could exist in one movie and it work,
and somehow it does. I think even the style of
acting caught me a little off guard in the beginning
of this movie, where I did feel it was a
little jarring at the start, where it just kind of
threw you into this world, didn't really explain a whole lot,
(38:01):
and kind of went back and forth between timelines. In
the beginning, there was like a timeslate of kind of
telling you where it was. But the intro of the
movie kind of felt mashed together. Even once the action
starts picking up, it kind of comes out of nowhere.
But I think because the movie is under ninety minutes
and it had a lot of action to fit in there,
that was the only way to get the story going
(38:23):
without boring you. But I ended up enjoying the way
that it played out from the beginning because it didn't
waste a whole lot of time giving you the backstory
on this building and why it is the way it is,
because if they did that, that would have been boring.
This building, the Virsil just exists. There's some crazy things
going on within the walls. You learn about the details
(38:46):
you need to learn about, and everything else you don't
need a history lesson on which I find so boring
in horror movies when they dig into all the history
of whoever lived there back one hundred or two years ago,
and there's this big exposition on details you don't really need.
The tone shift all the way throughout this movie, where
(39:08):
it feels a little bit comedic at times, sometimes within
the same sentence, which I found really interesting, where a
character will start delivering a line that feels funny and
then they kind of snap back into this dramatic tone.
Then it feels a little bit more horror movie. It
goes all over the place so much so that I
kind of feel like this movie was designed for people
(39:30):
with the short attention span, the TikTok generation, people who
will instantly swipe out of a video, of people who
have not made it this far in this review, because
at any moment, there is something happening, and if you
don't like what is happening within that moment, in about
four or five minutes, that scene is going to change,
(39:50):
the action is going to develop, there's gonna be another
character thrown into the mix. So your brain is just
kind of the entire time because there is so much
happening and you never really feel like the movie drags
at any point because there is no time to and
there's so much story to fit in. It just really
feels like wham bam, think you maam, and you're out
(40:11):
of there, and then by the end of it you're wondering,
what in the world did I just watch? Am I
gonna have nightmares tonight? Or am I gonna laugh at
myself when thinking about some of the most ridiculous moments,
like body parts becoming a character within the movie. So
I think if you go into this movie with the
open mind, don't ask a lot of questions. And I'm
(40:32):
not saying that as a way to maybe mask some
of the style of filmmaking of Oh, don't pay attention
to any plot holes. I'm just saying, don't question every
little detail, which I find myself doing. That makes me
like a movie less because if I went into this
movie with a little bit more cynicism and thought, why
is this building here? Why hasn't it been condemned? Who
(40:53):
pays the rent at this building? If there are some
really crazy things going on, why haven't the police showed
up it? To me, it was more like a dark
fairy tale that kind of exists in its own world.
I don't see this story taking place in our universe.
It's kind of like a bizarro universe. It kind of
reminded me of one of my favorite Goosebumps episodes from
back in the nineties, Attack of the Mutant, where there
(41:15):
was this building that would pop up out of nowhere.
The kid would go discover it and there was this
crazy mutant living inside of it, and then when he
would leave the building, it would disappear. I remember the
first time I saw that episode, it blew my mind
because I was convinced that there was this building out
by this lot where we lived that would appear and reappear.
It was all inside my head. But that kind of
(41:36):
reminds me of the Virgil in this movie of it's
this building. Maybe it's there when all this action is
going down, but when you go back, it's completely gone again.
Also kind of reminded me of the Continental in John Wick,
So another parallel there. So if you are a fan
of horror, if you like really over the top violence
in the style of Kill Bill, it kind of feels like,
(41:57):
I don't want to say he was doing a Quentin
Tarantino in Press where you can really see the influence
of Quentin Tarantino inside of They Will Kill You. For
this movie, I give it four out of five eyeballs.
It's side to head down to movie Mike Trailer Park.
(42:18):
I am trying not to be angry about this because
at the end of the day, I know it doesn't matter.
This movie is not for me. I've been just since
this thing was announced that they're remaking Mowana less than
ten years after the original came out. It just doesn't
(42:39):
feel right. And now looking at the live action trailer,
it doesn't look right. I'm trying not to go crazy here,
but this is gonna come out. It's gonna happen, It's
gonna be a thing. It is probably still going to
make a lot of money. I just find it fascinating
how much Disney is dipping into this well. I have
(43:00):
so many thoughts on this that I'm just going to
get right to playing the trailer and then talk about
it more after. But the live action Mowana is coming
out in theaters, not Disney Plus. On July tenth, The
Rock is playing Maui in a very questionable wig, wearing
a full body muscle suit. Oh boy. Before we get
(43:22):
into more about this trailer. Here's just a little bit
of the live action Mowanna. Fine Maui, We stole the
heart of Defichi and save us all. Maui Demi, God
(43:42):
of the Wind and Sea, Hero of men. Huh.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
So it goes like this, Maui shape shifter, Demigod of
the Wind and Sea, hero of men. Ah, women women too,
men and women, thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Here's got a little bit too excited there. Here's the
reason this movie exists. It's because Disney is making so
much money off of Mowana. The original movie came out
back in twenty sixteen, and it was a hit, but
it wasn't massive. It wasn't the best thing that they
had ever done. It wasn't something that they instantly thought,
(44:19):
this is going to be what we are going to
dig all our resources did to make this the best
thing ever. Because whenever they were making the sequel, instead
of getting a full theatrical release, what they really made
was a Disney Plus series that was gonna come out
just on Disney Plus, broken into parts. But then they
realized that the original Mowana from twenty sixteen was their
(44:43):
highest stream movie. Everybody was watching this movie on Disney
Plus that they thought, you know what, let's not put
out this show on Disney Plus. Instead, let's recut it,
put it into theaters across the country and make some
money off of it. And what did they do? I
ate a lot of money off of it. So in
under two years now they are dipping back into the
(45:04):
well because that movie came out in twenty twenty four
and they are putting out a live action version of
the original twenty sixteen movie right around the tenure mark
of when that movie came out. And I think, to me,
that was the most upsetting part whenever this was first announced.
Why are you going to make a live action movie
of a movie that just came out ten years ago,
(45:26):
less than a decade. There's no nostalgia associated with this
movie yet it is simply because it is a cash cow.
And I was annoyed by that. But I thought, you
know what, if they do it justice, if it looks good,
if the rock is Maui because he voices him in
the original, he looks good and live action, I'll be
okay with it. But by the looks of this trailer,
(45:48):
it does not look good. And the issues I have
with these live action movies is they blend so much
CGI and animated characters. And I understand that you can't
make this completely live action or completely practical, because there
are things that exist in the world in Mauana that
you just could not make. You can't turn a human
(46:10):
into a shark with practical effects. You can't create a
big lava monster, you can't create this giant crab. I
understand that part of it. But I think, if you
think about it, why give a movie a live action
adaptation that has so many elements that can't be translated
from animation. It just doesn't work. And that has been
(46:32):
the issue with a lot of these live action Disney remakes,
Lin King, Aladdin, a little bit, The Jungle Book, a
lot of these movies where you can't recreate these characters.
So it's one thing to create CGI characters where it's needed. Okay,
And I get I'm not the target demographic for this.
There's not going to be some four or five year
old who loves Muwan who's going to be like, I'm
(46:53):
not going to see that because the animated movie just
came out. It's this isn't probably going to affect that audience.
So therefore, it's not going to affect their money. I
just think overall, when you think about what they are doing,
they are just setting us up to be able to
get the same thing over and over again and us
be okay with it. But if you look at why
(47:14):
they continue to do this, it's our own fault because
we still go watch them. We still continue to support
these movies by giving them our money, whether it comes
to paying for the ticket or paying for the merchandise.
And then we are not supporting the more original movies.
Thank goodness that Hoppers was a success this year, but
we are not supporting the movies that are originals, therefore
(47:37):
telling them we don't need to invest anymore in original stories.
Let's just keep making mowanas, toy stories, Let's keep making
z utopias, all the things that work. So from a
business standpoint, it makes sense. You're gonna continue to put
out the products that people want and that people are
paying for. Much like if you're a restaurant, if you
have an item that is selling a bunch, it's flying
(47:57):
off the menu, You're gonna keep making that menu slight
different variations of it, but you're gonna keep selling what
is working, what is keeping your business afloat. I don't
think Disney has to focus so much on the little things.
They can take big risks. They are a giant, huge
corporation company when it comes to film and entertainment and
all the things. But when it comes down to me
(48:20):
having a big problem with this movie, it doesn't look good.
It looks so flat. And I'm not even talking about
the wig that the Rock is wearing. I think because
I just see him as a bald person now, it
is really hard to see him in the Maui wig.
That there's also this weird effect on all the humans
(48:40):
in this movie where it almost looks like they have
like this glossy effect over their face, where there's a
big disconnect between their skin tone and their hair, and
it almost looks like even the wardrobe looks a little
bit cgied all these people. And I know the Rock
is wearing this full torso bodysuit to make them look
bigger like Maui, but even then he doesn't look like
(49:01):
how massive Maui is in the animated story. But the
wig does not look good. Therefore, it just doesn't feel
to me that it has that attention to detail. It
looks like they just grabbed one wig and said, Okay,
that's it. The Rock only has an hour to shoot today,
let's get it in. That's the wig, because we don't
have time to find one that looks a little bit better.
(49:21):
There's just a big disconnect between the hair and the
rest of the MAUI look that it is so distracting
that it just looks like the Rock and a wig.
It doesn't look like he has really become the character.
Even his hair and makeup and the smashing machine, which
was a fraction of the budget of what this movie is,
(49:42):
looked so much better. That was a true transformation for
the Rock, even though he did shed his hair towards
the end of that movie. But aside from the wardrobe,
aside from the wigs, the problem I have with it
is it just doesn't look like it has any depth
to it, especially all the scenes out on the water.
(50:03):
Some of the villains and the other characters, they look okay.
It looks like some of the action sequences will feel
just like the animated movie, because all those are going
to still be animated and CGI. But there are scenes
where the Rock is talking that Someone on YouTube commented
that this looks like an SNL sketch, and I can't
get that comment out of my mind because that is
(50:25):
what it looks like. It looks like it lacks any
kind of depth. Everything in the background just looks second rate,
where I don't feel like I'm going to this island.
I don't feel like I'm looking at anything that is
alive and real. It just looks like I'm looking at
a big empty studio lot where they just kind of
(50:47):
splashed everything in the background, and it feels put together
so quickly and so cheaply, when that should not be
the case. And I think about one of the greatest
Disney franchises out at Water, Pirates at the Caribbean. Those
movies hold up so well even the CGI and those
(51:07):
movies came out back in the two thousands, where it
is so next level compared to what we are getting
now in twenty twenty six, that if you went back
and watch those movies, these special effects still hold up.
All the scenes out at Water look I would say
the best of any Disney franchise that takes place out
at the sea, where you should feel like you were
(51:29):
in this magical place. Those movies hold up. They have
great wardrobe, they have great acting. Not the case here.
It does look like they are doing the rock hosting
SNL and they decided to do a Mawana sketch. And again,
this is probably only going to matter to me. I'm
not the demographic, so I think this movie is still
gonna come out and make a lot of money. It
(51:52):
is probably, I would say, at least a billion dollar movie.
I don't think the outrage from some people, even though
I still I think It's Justified, is really going to
hurt the bottom line. It didn't hurt Dutopia two whatsoever,
although that was a good movie. It just feels really
weird to me to put out a movie that is
(52:13):
less than ten years old that is live action, but
the only live action element is the humans, and you
didn't really do any work to make anything else feel
like it deserved a live action treatment. It truly feels
to me like it is a cash grab, and that's it,
plain and simple. They are just trying to make another
(52:35):
billion dollar movie, which they will probably still achieve if
the first movie has over one point four billion hours stream.
Of course they're going to do a sequel to it.
And I think a big driving factor is because the
rock wants to be a part of it now when
he is in I would say, his second prime of
(52:55):
his career, and if he doesn't do this movie now,
he doesn't have another five to ten years to wait
and do the role of Maui. He kind of needs
to do it right now. So I bet that is
a big factor and then cranking this out right now.
But if that's the case, just pass the torch, give
it to somebody else. Because they're also not bringing the
original voice of Majana to be a part of this
(53:17):
live action cast. Recasted her and a big part of
why that movie was so good was because of the
voice acting. And I do feel a little bit of
a disconnect seeing the Rock do the exact same scenes,
but now live action doesn't feel as lively, feels a
little bit more flat. But this is just the nature
of the Disney model now, so I'm not hitting on
(53:38):
the idea. Overall, I think sometimes it can be done right.
They did do to me Leelo and Stitch Justice, because
I think the character of Stitch in that movie actually
look good. But when it comes to the treatment for
this movie, I'm just not buying it. But I think
they want to strike when the iron is hot. I
don't even think they're going for a one billion dollar movie.
(53:59):
I think they want to get a two billion dollar
movie and to become the most stream movie on Disney Plus.
Because I also think what is happening now with K
Pop Demon Hunters too. I think Disney is laughing at
because Netflix isn't going to get a sequel to that
movie until twenty twenty nine. Because unlike Disney, the Sony
(54:20):
Animation Studio takes a lot of pride in their process.
They don't want to rush it. They want to make
it perfect. They want to make it up to their standards,
and those movies take time. I don't feel like this
movie took that same amount of time. But again, Mawana
two is coming out in theaters from Disney on July tenth.
(54:42):
And that was this week's edition of Movie Mike Trailer Bars,
and that is going to do it for another episode
here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta
give my listeners shout out of the week. This week,
I'm going over to my Instagram DMS and I am
shoutout out Jill who sent me this really nice DM.
(55:02):
And Jill says, just a quiet message to say that
movies aren't really my thing and I don't even watch many,
and yet I never missed an episode of your podcast.
Really fun to listen to, and I love when Kelsey
joins to have a great day. Thank you Jill for listening.
I have to say that is the highest compliment I
have ever received, Jill. If you don't love movies and
(55:23):
you never miss an episode of this podcast, that is
an extra shout out to you for this week's listener
shout out of the week. And I do tell some
people because even though you don't love movies, I still
think some of the themes of this podcast and discussion
goes beyond movies because when I review them, I do
(55:44):
like to try to find a piece of myself to
share with you, because I think that is every movie.
And just because you don't love going to the movies
as much as I do, see movies in theaters, maybe
just like watching them at home. I think it's that
experience and those lessons you learn and getting a peek
into lives that you never thought you would see by
(56:05):
watching movies. That is what I love and I like
to bring those out and share those here on the podcast.
So I try to share things from my life, things
from my perspective of my experiences from living on this planet,
and adapt them to the movies that I see and
share that with you guys, and also connect with you
(56:26):
guys about what you like and what you enjoyed, what
you thought was good that maybe I thought was bad,
or what I thought was bad that maybe you thought
was good. That is why I love doing this podcast.
So appreciate that, Jill, Thank you for listening every single week,
And thanks to you wherever you're listening right now, whether
you're a new listener, whether you have been here since
twenty nineteen, the start of this podcast, or maybe it
(56:48):
just randomly stumbled upon it. I couldn't do this without
all of you, so appreciate that. And until next time,
go out and watch good movies and I will talk
to you
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's movie podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to give
you my top ten actor power rakings. This was such
a hard list to put together, but I think I
got it. In the movie review, I'll be talking about
a horror comedy called They Will Kill You, very Tarantino inspired,
(00:22):
one of the most original horror movies I've seen in
theaters in a long time. And in the trailer park,
we're breaking down the live action Molwanna trailer starring the
rock and interns of breaking down that trailer, I'm gonna
try to not break down myself. I'm gonna hold it together.
I'm gonna get through it. But thank you for being here,
thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday
(00:43):
Morning Movie crew. And now we're fired up. Let's go,
let's talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Podcast Network Movie Mikes Movie Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
All right, we're coming off the oscar some big box
office performances. I wanted to give you my top ten
actor power rankings right now. This was a really hard
list for me to come up with because there are
a lot of my favorite actors that I think deserve
to be in the top ten these are not of
all time, this is right now. Who I think are
(01:15):
the hottest, most in demand, best actors all around? How
I came up with this top ten list? Hollywood impact?
Have they led a movie in the last year? How
well did that movie do that they led at the
box office in the last year? What do they have
coming up next? Cultural presence? How much are these people googled?
(01:35):
Their social media following just general interest in them as humans?
Where does that rank? Style influence? I think that's a
big part of it, at least for me. I think
it is on the red carpet. Are people talking about
their looks? Do they have deals with companies? Do they
have campaigns where they're promoting some clothing or maybe some
(01:58):
shoes overall? If they put something on, are people going
to see that and think I want to look like
that person. I think about that stuff a lot, maybe
just me, but I had to include that in my
power rankings list. Audience appeal. How do they do with
the box office? Do their movies stream well? Do they
not only appeal to me the hyper movie nerd, but
(02:20):
also Jim Pop? How much do they just appeal to
the average person? If you said their name, would people
walking down the street know who that is. Brand momentum
was another big deal because it's not just about the
greatest actors of all time, it is about who has
that momentum right now. Are they coming off a big
performance that made a lot of money at the box office,
(02:41):
Were they just nominated or do they just win an oscar?
And what do they have coming up next that is
going to charge them into the next phase of their career.
Think of it as a roller coaster that momentum. And
then the final thing I accounted for was just how
good of an actor are they? I think that is
important and that is to me, just raw acting ability.
(03:02):
How good are they at conveying emotion. But let's get
into the list now. At number ten, I'm going with
Timothy shallow May. If I did this list last year,
he probably would have ranked higher. His highest rated movie
is Ladybird. His lowest rated movie is A Rainy Day
in New York. His last box office performance was about
(03:23):
one hundred and eighty million dollars worldwide. With Marty Supreme
on deck. He has Dune three coming out later this year.
He is what I still believe to be the face
of young Hollywood. He has the indie cred, but also
the blockbuster leads with Wonka and the Dune franchise. A
couple of reasons why he has dipped in my list.
(03:45):
It is just what he said recently that I think
has changed the way that some people feel about him.
Maybe it's his true self coming out a little bit.
I'm not sure right now, but I really think that
dinged his momentum. I think overall in maybe a month,
maybe even a few or a couple of weeks, at
this point, people will forget about that and move on.
(04:09):
Once the Dune trailer came out, I think a lot
of people were like, well, who cares what he said?
I want to see Dune. But to me, it just left,
at least right now, kind of a bad taste in
my mouth. So that was a contributing factor of why
he dipped in my ranking. But also because I don't
think Marty Supreme was as massive as he thought it
(04:32):
was going to be, and he campaigned hard for that movie.
He did not walk away with the Oscar win he
thought he was going to get. Because of that that
even I thought he was the front runner going into that,
and I think the movie did well with one hundred
and eighty million. But for somebody who I believe is
in that top tier the top ten actors right now,
(04:55):
I don't think that is enough to qualify him as
somebody in the top five. While it did pretty well
for an a twenty four movie, just his name alone
given the subject matter that I think some people had
a hard time wanting to pay money to go see
a movie about Ping Pong, even though I believe it
is so much more than that. I think his name
(05:17):
alone wasn't enough to bring in a mass audience to
that movie. So for that reason, he is just hanging
in there at number ten, and there are some people
right there on the bubble that I easily could have
put over him. But I do think that Oscar nomination
did keep him in this top ten, and he'll probably
move up. So at number ten, I have Timothy Chalameh
(05:40):
at number nine. Robert Downey Junior at this point in
his career, he's almost in this bubble of his own.
But you forget how massively worldwide famous Robert Downey Junior is.
His highest rated movie is Endgame. His lowest rated movie
is Do Little, which he did right after Endgame. Oh
(06:02):
that is hovering there in the teens. His latest box
office performance with Oppenheimer making almost one billion dollars worldwide,
and that wasn't all because of him, but I think
because of that Oscar win from Oppenheimer, it really balanced
him out where he has been around for so long
(06:23):
now and for the longest time in his comeback, we
just saw him as Tony Stark and it was that
role that kind of solidified him as No. I am
also a really great actor on Deck. He's going to
be in Doomsday, which is having a massive amount of speculation,
and people continuously talk about that movie. He comes out
(06:45):
at an award show and people want to see him
talk about that movie. He is really leaning into the
doctor Doom role, addressing in Green and really teasing people
on social media, creating that buzz, creating that excitement, creating
what people hire Robert Downey Junior for at this point
(07:06):
to bring in the eyeballs. And I think it's his
presence in that movie's promotion and him starring in that
movie is what's going to make it a success. At
the end of the day, Marvel knows they need to
go back to their og box office candy in Robert
Downey Junior. So you think about his comeback in two
(07:27):
thousand and eight, At the time he was seen as
a risk to be cast as Iron Man, and then
since then he has reinvented himself with that Oscar winning
performance in Oppenheimer, And now I think he's only going
to boost his career. And now I believe has all
this momentum in twenty twenty six leading us to doomsday,
(07:49):
and it's good to feed directly into twenty twenty seven
with Secret War. So at number nine, he's just a
really great actor. At number nine, I have Robert Downey.
At number eight, I have Brad Pitt. He is a
nog but proved to us in F one that he
still has it in a lot of ways and being
(08:12):
the leading man and still having that charming Brad Pitt
sex appeal and also still getting the critical acclaim with
F one being nominated for Best Picture. I highly believe
the reason that movie was nominated was because Brad Pitt
started in this movie. His highest rated movie is Moneyball,
(08:33):
which is fantastic, probably a top three baseball movie for me,
because I don't think anything is ever going to be
angels in the outfield. His lowest rated movie is Cool World,
which I'm not sure I've even seeing that movie, and
in speaking about f one, that movie made six hundred
and thirty three million dollars worldwide at the box office.
(08:53):
On deck, he has The Adventures of Cliff Booth, which
if you saw Once upon a Time in Hollywood back
in twenty nineteen, that movie was written and directed by
Quentin Tarantino. This movie serves as a sequel to that movie.
Quentin Tarantino is not directing it, but he did write it,
and David Fincher, who did Fight Club, is the one
(09:14):
directing this movie. It is going to be about Brad
Pitt's character, Cliff Booth. I know they did kind of
a teaser trailer at the Super Bowl, didn't really give
us a whole lot, So whenever that full trailer comes out,
I will throw it into the trailer park because I
do think it is interesting for a Quentin Tarantino movie,
even though he isn't directing it to get a sequel,
(09:34):
because he doesn't really do too many sequels to his
movies aside from the Kill Bill franchise. So Brad Pitt
has proven he is still a bankable veteran He's also
done a lot of producing now later in his career.
I think, even more so than Moneyball is the movie
he was a producer on, Twelve Years a Slave. I
think that has the highest rating out of any Brad
(09:57):
Pitt project. So at number eight, I have Brad Pitt.
At number seven, I have Emma Stone, who kinda is
the best of both worlds. The best of both worlds
where she can do a movie that brings in a
lot of money, which she did probably more early on
in her career where she was more in the romantic
(10:18):
comedy space, and she can also do a really good
art house movie where she can be really vulnerable with
her characters, or she really bears it all and what
does that do? It gets her Oscar nomination after Oscar nomination.
She also just seems like a genuinely nice person who
cares about the craft, somebody who, to me, I feel,
(10:40):
is the hardest person to hate in Hollywood. Her highest
rated movie Isla Loland. Her lowest rated movie, which I
will defend by the way, movie forty three, which is
a movie that came out and it features a crazy
amount of actors, doesn't have one plot, is just a
bunch of random sketches that mesh together to create a movie.
(11:02):
It is probably my biggest guilty pleasure comedy. I don't
recommend it whatsoever, but when I watched that movie, I
thought it was hilarious. I don't even think it's one
of those turn your brain off and just enjoy movies.
It is one you really have to focus in on
and know how ridiculous it is going to be, but
find something that you enjoy. But I don't even think
(11:23):
it's really hard to enjoy that movie. So it's a
really hard sell. But it is my guilty pleasure comedy
and it features Emma Stone. Her latest box office performance
was a Little mid Begonia, which I loved, but it's
such a hard sell. And she has been working with
director Jorgos Lantimos for a while now with Kinds of
Kindness and Poor Things. I think she is about to
(11:45):
move on from that. Currently, she is in talks to
star in a romantic comedy directed by her husband called
The Catch. Chris Pine is also reportedly in talks to
co star in this movie, and that is expected to
be her next movie, but currently doesn't have anything set
for release right now. But she is fresh off another
(12:08):
Oscar nomination. Even though I thought her performance was really
strong in Bogonia, wasn't as good as Jesse Buckley or
maybe a lot of the other people in that category
this year. But I still think her star is really
bright right now. So at number seven I have Emma Stone.
At number six Pedro Pascal. He continues to be dominant
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at the box office, and even though he is around
in everything, I am still not sick of him. His
highest rated movie is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,
which he started with Nicholas Cage, which I really enjoyed
that movie, and it kind of came out before his
star really rose, so I think maybe if that movie
(12:54):
came out now, it would have a little bit more
of an impact. But Nicholas Cage plays himself well. There
are a lot of fun references to Nicholas Cage movies,
and you see prompts that he has inside of his house,
but are really over the top fun time. I really
enjoy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent if you haven't
seen that one, or maybe you missed it. However, his
(13:15):
lowest rated movie is Wonder Woman nineteen eighty four, which
when that first came out. I defended it, but looking
back on it, I think it was because it came
out in the year in twenty twenty where we had
no movies and I was so excited just to have
anything new, and that was one that I remember. We
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watched it at home. I was so thirsty for a
new movie that I printed out a couple of tickets
for Kelsey and I just to get that feeling like
we were going to the theater again. So we did that.
We had our snacks, We tried to make it feel
like the movies as much as possible, So I think
that experience was memorable. About that, I would even say
(13:56):
the first thirty forty minutes of that movie are DC
and then later it kind of falls apart. Villain's not
that great, Kristen Wigie in that movie not so great,
and it was just such a harsh drop off from
the first Wonder Woman movie, which I think really wowed
a lot of people. So still not as if that's
your worst movie. I don't think that is terrible. His
(14:18):
most recent box office outing was The Fantastic four First Steps,
which made about five hundred million dollars, and on deck,
he has the Mandalorian and Grogu, which I really hope
is good. And I know that falls into the Disney model,
which I won't get into right now because I will
talk about more when I break down the Mauana trailer.
(14:39):
But I just hope that it's not just the next
season of The Mandalorian in movie form, because I think
Disney would do that. They would say why put it
out on Disney Plus when we could put it out
in theaters. I hope that is not the case because
I really want that movie to be good. Even though
the last season of The Mandalorian was pretty mid but
not only is dominant on the big screen, the Last
(15:02):
of Us was also really great. I still enjoyed that
last season. So at number six, I have Pedro Pascal.
At number five, fresh off of his Oscar win, I
have Michael B. Jordan after he won, which I was
still rooting for Timothy Chalome, but seeing him go to
in and out take pictures with his Oscar, with his burger,
(15:27):
all the things he said post win, I thought, man,
we really picked the right person to win. The right
actor won. His highest rated movie is Black Panther. His
lowest rated movie is Fantastic Four. His last box office
outing was Sinners, making three hundred and seventy million dollars worldwide.
On Deck, he is going to star and direct a
(15:49):
remake of The Thomas Crown Affair that's coming out on
March fifth, twenty twenty seven. He is also in talks
to star in a Miami Wece movie, which after his
Oscar win, the story came out that he was renegotiating
for more money. I think he wanted like eighteen million
dollars and some people were saying, you're not worth that.
(16:11):
I think winning Best Actor is time to renegotiate for
a movie, because I think actors need to make their money,
especially while they're hot. And I would probably do the
same thing if I just want an Oscar and I
was in talks. I don't hate him for that. Secure
the bag, because you don't get any money for winning
(16:31):
an Oscar. It's nice, it's prestigious, you can brag about
it higher actor friends, but you don't win a monetary
amount for that award. What you win is that credibility
and that ability to raise your rate, because if you
want an Oscar winning actor in your movie, you're gonna
(16:52):
have to pay more money because forever. You can put
that on any role that you do Oscar winning actor
actor Michael B. Jordan, and that goes a long way
in the marketing. So I don't hate on him for that.
I think he also has a lot of cultural relevance.
He is a really fashionable dude. He is now in
(17:13):
that director of movie star hybrid where he can get
behind the camera, he can get in front of the camera,
he can do it all. He is also so insanely
talented that I realize why he won. I saw him
talk about in an interview how much prep he does.
He writes journals from the perspective of his characters, leading
(17:37):
all the way up to when the movie starts. So
he takes the script and then he develops the backstory
for his characters. Why are they the way they are,
keeps these journals and these logs about their life, lives
basically as them, and has all these details of kind
of like a road map that he can refer to
(17:58):
of like, Okay, if they did this, they probably had
this going on in their life, and he knows where
to pull from why they are motivated by certain things.
That is just next level. That is doing the homework
and you think about some actors who are like, man,
why have I never wanted? Maybe you're not trying hard enough.
Maybe you need to spend some time in the prep department.
(18:18):
For some people, it is more than just learning their lines.
It is learning their character and living inside that character.
Maybe not going as far as like a Daniel day
Lewis and making everybody on set call you Abraham Lincoln,
but it is knowing your character, knowing the inner workings
of their mind, why they are the way they are.
(18:39):
At number five, I have Michael B. Jordan. At number four,
I have Margo Robbie, who has one of the highest
grossing movies of the year with Wuthering Heights. And I
think it is because her star power that that movie
was so successful. She is a great actor and also
somebody that people just can't take her eyes off of.
(19:01):
She is so incredibly beautiful that you see her on
screen and think, man, she was supposed to be a
movie star. But she's also an incredibly smart business woman,
has an amazing production company. I can't wait to see
more of her work behind the camera. I know she's
produced a lot of things, has a lot of things
coming up as a big champion of female directors, so
(19:22):
I can't wait for her to make her directorial debut
because I feel like that is imminent. Her highest rated
movie is I Tanya and her lowest rated movie is Terminal.
Her last box office performance with Withering Heights, made over
two hundred and thirty four million dollars globally. On deck,
she is going to start in an Ocean's prequel, which
(19:43):
there aren't a whole lot of details out about that
right now, but I love the Oceans franchise. Ocean's eleven
great movie, so curious to see how they set up
the beginning of that. Can't really go further into it.
I think they kind of found a good stopping point.
And what do you do once you reach a stopping point?
(20:03):
You start doing prequels. And I think she is still
writing off of that success of Barbie, which I credit
to not only Margot Robbie but also director Greta Gerwig
for bringing back female led blockbusters. That is what a
production company Lucky chap is all about, and I am
all here for the rise of that. So at number four,
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I have Margo Robbie. At number three, I have Leonardo DiCaprio,
fresh off of his nomination, even though he didn't win
for Best Actor for One Battle after Another. That is
also currently his highest rated movie ever. His lowest rated
movie is Critters three. I know I saw Critters one,
(20:46):
maybe saw Critters two. I don't think I saw Critters
three with Leonardo DiCaprio in that One Battle after Another,
by the way, made two hundred and ten million dollars
at the box office. What he has coming out next
is a movie called What Happens at Night, which also
stars Jennifer Lawrence and is directed by Martin Scorsese. And
I think that is why he is consistently in my
(21:07):
top three at times my number one, because he constantly
puts out culturally relevant movies, and he has been a
noteworthy celebrity now since the nineties, but now every single
movie he does is important, and it's always with a
really prestigious director like Scorsese, like Paul Thomas Anderson, like
(21:28):
Quentin Tarantino, that it becomes even more of an event
because those directors' names alone are enough to make people
want to go to the theater. But then you throw
Leonardo DiCaprio with that, and it becomes one of the
biggest Movies of the Year in any given year that
one of them come out, oftentimes going to warrant an
(21:48):
Oscar nomination, because I don't think he is in the
business of just making normal movies anymore. Where if it's
not going to get him a nomination for Best Actor,
I don't he's going to do it. Maybe the last
one that was kind of on the fence but still
had some critical acclaim was don't look up. But now
I think he is just pounding away and trying to
(22:11):
get more than one Best Actor award, which he should
have more than one. So coming off of a big movie,
going into a big movie, he continues to be a
name that is just right there at the top, brings
in the money at the box office, brings in movies
that stream really well, works with the Krem de la
crem when it comes to directors, and gives us great
(22:33):
movies that are not only great in the sense like
oh yeah, that was a really good movie that came out.
They become cinematic not always masterpieces, but pillars of modern
filmmaking that even in twenty years down the line, when
maybe he decides to retire, these are still going to
be the building blocks of American film, and anytime he
(22:56):
goes to an award show, you know it's going to
be centered on him. You know they're going to talk
about it, dating history. He continues to be a person
that people are just infatuated with, has been famous his
entire life. At number three, I have Leonardo DiCaprio. At
number two, I have Zendia, who has really risen into
(23:16):
this top five in the last year, and I think
it's because she has such a massive twenty twenty six
on deck. Her highest rated movie is Spider Man No
Way Home, which I think is wild. Her lowest rated
movie is Space Jam A New Legacy. Yeah, yeah, I
don't really think that was her fault. Her last box
office performance was Challengers, which made ninety six point one
(23:40):
million dollars. And what really led me to put her
high up in this list is I think she is
about to have a banner year coming up. This weekend.
She's going to be in a movie with Robert Pattinson,
The Drama, which is already creating a lot of drama
people spoiling that movie for me. I did not want
to know. I didn't want to know. Oh. I tried
(24:01):
not to click it, but it was just everywhere. Then
she's gonna be in Spider Man Brand New Day, which
is gonna be massive, gonna be in Doune three, which
is gonna be massive, and then she is also going
to be in the next season of Euphoria this year.
I still think the only reason she's not number one
is because I still think, too maybe the older generation,
(24:24):
you may still have to explain who she is, even
though I think at this point should be undeniable. She
is one of those celebrities that any day I go online,
there is a data story. People still speculating whether her
and Tom Holland are married or not. People are talking
about her red carpet looks. She is constantly being spoken about,
(24:45):
and she also has this elusive movie star quality to
her still where not really on social media aside from
doing interviews and not even like long form podcast interviews,
just red carpet interviews. But that is really the only
time I see her out is when she has a
movie coming out that she's promoting, which she has a
(25:06):
lot of them coming out at any given time. But
she is not somebody who puts her personal life out there,
and why she keeps things so secret and not kind
of like that, I don't want to know every single
detail about all my movie stars. It gives them some aura,
it gives them some mystery. It gives me a reason
(25:26):
to go see them in theaters because I can't really
see them anywhere else. When somebody is all over Instagram
and all over TikTok, you kind of feel I can
see them all the time. And I think that could
be a contributing factor to why some people say, why
am I gonna go pay to see them in theater
if I could just see them online? And even though
they're promoting their things to their millions and millions of followers,
(25:46):
does it really transfer into ticket sales. We've seen it
fail with even the biggest of celebrities, but she is
one of the biggest gen Z stars. Oh Man, I
totally forgot the Odyssey. She's gonna be in four movies
this year, the drama Dune Part three, Spider Man, Brand
New Day, and the Odyssey Wild. So at number two
I have Zendeia, but at number one in my power
(26:06):
rankings of actors right now, I have Ryan Gosling, coming
off of his highest rated movie of all time, Project
Hail Mary, his lowest rated movie is a movie called
Stay Before Project Hail Mary. His last full box office
run was The Fall Guy, which made about one hundred
and eighty one million dollars worldwide. Even when he puts
(26:29):
out movies that don't perform well at the box office,
right now, I still believe that they are good movies.
So I still stand by the fact that I really
enjoy The Fall Guy and think it's still a great
Ryan Gosling movie. On deck, he is going to be
in a movie called Star Wars Starfighter, where he plays
a pilot who becomes entangled in a crucial mission as
(26:50):
a new threat emerges and they find out their journey
may alter the future of the Force itself as they
rebuild a galaxy. So that sounds good if you're a
Star Wars. He's also going to be in a new
movie directed by the Daniels, who is the directing duo
behind Everything Everywhere, All at Once. This just came out.
Everything's still under wraps, but it is expected to start
(27:11):
filming this summer. All we know about it. It's going
to be a fun sci fi action comedy with a
big heart, and it should come out in theaters on
November nineteenth, twenty twenty seven, Ryan Gosling, I believe has
the most momentum right now, coming off of Project Hill Mary,
still coming off The Fall Guy, coming off of Barbie,
and I think he is the most prime example of
(27:31):
balancing prestige and blockbuster era, which I think it is
something we need right now. He is not only somebody
who is just a really great actor pound for pound,
who can have chemistry with anybody, whether it's a person,
whether it's a puppet, whether it's a piece of paper,
whether it's a CGHI character. He can have chemistry with anybody.
(27:53):
He is so charming, so endearing, and I really love
what he said recently. He said it's not on the
moviegoers to save the movie theaters. That responsibility falls on
the Hollywood studios, say Ladder. Ryan Gosling quote. Six years
ago I got the manuscript for Project Hill Mary, the
most ambitious thing I'll ever make. It seemed impossible, it
was too good not to give it a shot. Six
(28:15):
years later we did it. Here we are, we're all
back in theaters. It is not your job to keep
them open. It is our job to make things that
are worth you coming out for. That is what I'm
talking about because I think sometimes some people, whenever they
have a project fail, they blame the audience, which is
(28:36):
the thing you can't do. And if you look at
some of the most prime examples of box office hits,
talk about weapons, you talk about Sinners, you talk about
Project hill Mary, you talk about Superman. Things that have
given people a reason to go to a theater. We
have done it. You can't keep us away from a
really great movie when it generates a buzz, when it
(28:57):
generates people wanting to go experience it in theaters with
the crowd. And then you try to push out something
and say you gotta come watch it, you gotta come
support it, you gotta support original movies. I do think
it does fall on the filmmakers. It falls on the
studios to create those moments, find those movies, find those stories.
Not give us the same crap anymore and think, why
(29:17):
isn't this working? Why is nobody wanting to go to
the movies. It is your job to make those things
that are a spectacle, because there are directors out there
and studios out there that are going to do it.
A Christopher Nolan is going to do it. A Ryan
Gosling is going to find a project that is going
to do it. So I think he has it all.
(29:38):
He has the qualities I want in a movie star.
Seems like a great dad. Him and Eimendez seem like
fantastic parents. I love how they found a way to
make their kids a part of Project Hill Mary. He
has I believe, the best filmography. If I could only
take one actor's film allography with me to a desert island,
(30:01):
I would take Ryan Gosling and I put him at
number one because I wanted to declare now that Ryan
Gosling is my favorite actor, because that is a question
I get a lot, what's your favorite movie, What's your
favorite actor? And it's always been really hard for me
to have a favorite actor. But when I look back
on all his movies, The Place Beyond the Pines, going
back to The Notebook, Blade Runner, twenty forty nine, The
(30:23):
Big Short, First Man, all these movies that have been
a part of my life for so long. Now Drive
I didn't even mention my favorite Ryan Gosling movie. He
is my favorite actor, and I believe the number one
actor in the Power rankings right now, that is my
top ten in the Power Rankings. Who would you put
in years. Let me know Moviemike d at gmail dot
(30:45):
com or at Mike dstro on all socials. I'll come
back and give my spoiler free movie review of They
Will Kill You. Let's get it to it now. A
spoiler free movie review of They Will Kill You. One
of the most original movies I've seen this year. What
(31:06):
a wild theater experience. I first saw the trailer for
this a couple of months ago going to see another movie,
and I thought, I don't know what that is not
familiar with the director, but it had such high intense
violence and blood splatter kind of reminded me of Kill
Bill meets Ready or Not meets a little bit of
John Wick, and I thought, I have to be a
(31:29):
part of that movie and go and see that when
it comes out in theaters, and it did deliver what
the movie is about. You have Zase Beats character who
you may remember her from Atlanta, which I loved her in.
She was also in Deadpool two. She did an episode
of Black Mirror. She was also in the First Joker,
had a small appearance in Joker Too, but her character
(31:51):
went to prison, gets out and then gets a job
as a maid to go work at this place called
the Virgil, which is this really high and kind of
apartment style building where a lot of wealthy people live.
She is on a mission to rescue her sister, but
what starts out as a rescue mission turns into full
(32:12):
out mayhem when she stumbles upon this satanic cult that
lives within the walls of the Virgil. So it gets
crazy in the trailer. I won't spoil anything, but in
the trailer you see her fighting a lot of people
in her room and it is really crazy stylistic violence.
So who this movie is for, it is for me.
(32:34):
I love horror movies. I feel like it's had a
big resurgence in the last just two years of being
one of the most creative genres, and the resurgence has
been in the horror comedy space, where you go see
a movie and its intention really isn't to frighten you anymore,
which I think some people think horror movie is supposed
(32:55):
to be scary. Not always the case, especially now, where
I think horror is so flexible in what it can
give you, whether it comes to the emotions or the actions,
And there is this style of movie that is existing
right now in the horror space that has a little
bit of comedy, which I think is important, has a
little bit of action, and then mixes in some pretty
dark elements to make it a horror movie. I would
(33:19):
probably credit this a little bit to Sam Raimi, So
maybe if you saw Send Help earlier this year kind
of in that same style, except they Will Kill You
is so much more disturbing and bizarre. But I think
this movie style is really thriving right now where people
want to go to the theater and have a good
time and watch a movie that doesn't take itself too
(33:40):
seriously but also doesn't paint you out to be a
domy as the viewer, which is a really fine line
to walk because it is so off the wall if
you go into it with a closed mind and think
this is dumb, this is ridiculous, This is too cartoonish.
This feels like a live action anime, which was one
of the things that really stick out to me and
what I loved about it. I just got back into
(34:01):
one Piece on Netflix, fully loving that it kind of
reminded me a little bit of Attack on Titan. If
Dragon Ball had bloodshed, it would remind me a little
bit more of that. But anything that has a lot
of swords and gun violence. That is what I feel
is the source material for this movie. So it's just
(34:22):
a lot of fun. So if you like horror movies,
if you like comedy movies, if you like anime, or
if you like video games. Because the other thing that
really stick out to me was how all of the
levels and different rooms inside of the Virgil kind of
felt like a video game level. And I know they
did draw some inspiration from Dante's Inferno and the adaptation
(34:43):
of that video game. Of the different levels of hell
that you kind of experience. It kind of had that
feeling of putting you inside of that action. Maybe if
you were playing an old school Mortal Kombat game or
like a tech and fighting game, one of those old
school two thousand maybe even arcade video games, where it
is that style of over the top violence and over
(35:06):
the top bloodshed that I was craving for as a
kid in the nineties and early two thousands. That is
what I felt while I was watching this movie. It
felt very organic and felt very alive. They used a
lot of practical effects. I'm talking crazy amounts of blood
splatter and blood clouds, where I think that's what kind
of gave me the vibes with like a kill Bill
(35:27):
martial arts style movies like back in the Day. I
feel like that was a big reference point and inspiration
behind a lot of these scenes. So I very much
got Uma Thurman inside of Jase Beat's character. But then
it kind of takes on this entire mind of its
own because it comes to us from a director from
Russia who I'm not that familiar with but I find
(35:48):
really interesting. His name is Ki Real Sukolov. His story
is crazy because he started out as a scientist in
college and then started making DIY movies with his friends
and decided this is what I want to do. He
put out a movie that came out back in twenty
nineteen called why Don't You Just Die? That was really successful,
really put him on the map, and now he is
(36:08):
getting to show everybody this is my style, take it
or leave it. This movie is so unapologetic that I
loved how much it was committed to the style, which
I know it might not be for everybody because it
does get pretty twisted, especially in the third act. If
you don't like anything that has any kind of demonic
presence or satanic cult like Even though It is not
(36:34):
indulging in it. It is more I would say, poking
fun at it. But some people just don't like watching
that type of imagery. I get that because the way
it is used in this movie, it's shown as the
evil force, and the character of Asia played by Zasse
Bates is trying to take that evil force down. But
in order to have such a crazy evil force, you
(36:55):
have to depict them in this way. So I don't
really feel like it's here is this really dark, twisted imagery.
I am supporting this. I am supporting the person taking
that demonic presence down and taking down all these sick,
twisted individuals that live inside this building. The thing I
wasn't expecting to work so well and they will kill
you was the cast. You have Patricia Arquette, you have
(37:18):
Heather Graham, and you have Tom Felton. Oh, Draco Malfoy
from Harry Potter, I have never seen him in a
movie like this. And you combine all these different personalities
and actors that you know from vastly different things, from
Harry Potter to Boogie Knights and The Hangover to Severance,
(37:39):
and you think, how would there be any world where
all these people could exist in one movie and it work,
and somehow it does. I think even the style of
acting caught me a little off guard in the beginning
of this movie, where I did feel it was a
little jarring at the start, where it just kind of
threw you into this world, didn't really explain a whole lot,
(38:01):
and kind of went back and forth between timelines. In
the beginning, there was like a timeslate of kind of
telling you where it was. But the intro of the
movie kind of felt mashed together. Even once the action
starts picking up, it kind of comes out of nowhere.
But I think because the movie is under ninety minutes
and it had a lot of action to fit in there,
that was the only way to get the story going
(38:23):
without boring you. But I ended up enjoying the way
that it played out from the beginning because it didn't
waste a whole lot of time giving you the backstory
on this building and why it is the way it is,
because if they did that, that would have been boring.
This building, the Virsil just exists. There's some crazy things
going on within the walls. You learn about the details
(38:46):
you need to learn about, and everything else you don't
need a history lesson on which I find so boring
in horror movies when they dig into all the history
of whoever lived there back one hundred or two years ago,
and there's this big exposition on details you don't really need.
The tone shift all the way throughout this movie, where
(39:08):
it feels a little bit comedic at times, sometimes within
the same sentence, which I found really interesting, where a
character will start delivering a line that feels funny and
then they kind of snap back into this dramatic tone.
Then it feels a little bit more horror movie. It
goes all over the place so much so that I
kind of feel like this movie was designed for people
(39:30):
with the short attention span, the TikTok generation, people who
will instantly swipe out of a video, of people who
have not made it this far in this review, because
at any moment, there is something happening, and if you
don't like what is happening within that moment, in about
four or five minutes, that scene is going to change,
(39:50):
the action is going to develop, there's gonna be another
character thrown into the mix. So your brain is just
kind of the entire time because there is so much
happening and you never really feel like the movie drags
at any point because there is no time to and
there's so much story to fit in. It just really
feels like wham bam, think you maam, and you're out
(40:11):
of there, and then by the end of it you're wondering,
what in the world did I just watch? Am I
gonna have nightmares tonight? Or am I gonna laugh at
myself when thinking about some of the most ridiculous moments,
like body parts becoming a character within the movie. So
I think if you go into this movie with the
open mind, don't ask a lot of questions. And I'm
(40:32):
not saying that as a way to maybe mask some
of the style of filmmaking of Oh, don't pay attention
to any plot holes. I'm just saying, don't question every
little detail, which I find myself doing. That makes me
like a movie less because if I went into this
movie with a little bit more cynicism and thought, why
is this building here? Why hasn't it been condemned? Who
(40:53):
pays the rent at this building? If there are some
really crazy things going on, why haven't the police showed
up it? To me, it was more like a dark
fairy tale that kind of exists in its own world.
I don't see this story taking place in our universe.
It's kind of like a bizarro universe. It kind of
reminded me of one of my favorite Goosebumps episodes from
back in the nineties, Attack of the Mutant, where there
(41:15):
was this building that would pop up out of nowhere.
The kid would go discover it and there was this
crazy mutant living inside of it, and then when he
would leave the building, it would disappear. I remember the
first time I saw that episode, it blew my mind
because I was convinced that there was this building out
by this lot where we lived that would appear and reappear.
It was all inside my head. But that kind of
(41:36):
reminds me of the Virgil in this movie of it's
this building. Maybe it's there when all this action is
going down, but when you go back, it's completely gone again.
Also kind of reminded me of the Continental in John Wick,
So another parallel there. So if you are a fan
of horror, if you like really over the top violence
in the style of Kill Bill, it kind of feels like,
(41:57):
I don't want to say he was doing a Quentin
Tarantino in Press where you can really see the influence
of Quentin Tarantino inside of They Will Kill You. For
this movie, I give it four out of five eyeballs.
It's side to head down to movie Mike Trailer Park.
(42:18):
I am trying not to be angry about this because
at the end of the day, I know it doesn't matter.
This movie is not for me. I've been just since
this thing was announced that they're remaking Mowana less than
ten years after the original came out. It just doesn't
(42:39):
feel right. And now looking at the live action trailer,
it doesn't look right. I'm trying not to go crazy here,
but this is gonna come out. It's gonna happen, It's
gonna be a thing. It is probably still going to
make a lot of money. I just find it fascinating
how much Disney is dipping into this well. I have
(43:00):
so many thoughts on this that I'm just going to
get right to playing the trailer and then talk about
it more after. But the live action Mowana is coming
out in theaters, not Disney Plus. On July tenth, The
Rock is playing Maui in a very questionable wig, wearing
a full body muscle suit. Oh boy. Before we get
(43:22):
into more about this trailer. Here's just a little bit
of the live action Mowanna. Fine Maui, We stole the
heart of Defichi and save us all. Maui Demi, God
(43:42):
of the Wind and Sea, Hero of men. Huh.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
So it goes like this, Maui shape shifter, Demigod of
the Wind and Sea, hero of men. Ah, women women too,
men and women, thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Here's got a little bit too excited there. Here's the
reason this movie exists. It's because Disney is making so
much money off of Mowana. The original movie came out
back in twenty sixteen, and it was a hit, but
it wasn't massive. It wasn't the best thing that they
had ever done. It wasn't something that they instantly thought,
(44:19):
this is going to be what we are going to
dig all our resources did to make this the best
thing ever. Because whenever they were making the sequel, instead
of getting a full theatrical release, what they really made
was a Disney Plus series that was gonna come out
just on Disney Plus, broken into parts. But then they
realized that the original Mowana from twenty sixteen was their
(44:43):
highest stream movie. Everybody was watching this movie on Disney
Plus that they thought, you know what, let's not put
out this show on Disney Plus. Instead, let's recut it,
put it into theaters across the country and make some
money off of it. And what did they do? I
ate a lot of money off of it. So in
under two years now they are dipping back into the
(45:04):
well because that movie came out in twenty twenty four
and they are putting out a live action version of
the original twenty sixteen movie right around the tenure mark
of when that movie came out. And I think, to me,
that was the most upsetting part whenever this was first announced.
Why are you going to make a live action movie
of a movie that just came out ten years ago,
(45:26):
less than a decade. There's no nostalgia associated with this
movie yet it is simply because it is a cash cow.
And I was annoyed by that. But I thought, you
know what, if they do it justice, if it looks good,
if the rock is Maui because he voices him in
the original, he looks good and live action, I'll be
okay with it. But by the looks of this trailer,
(45:48):
it does not look good. And the issues I have
with these live action movies is they blend so much
CGI and animated characters. And I understand that you can't
make this completely live action or completely practical, because there
are things that exist in the world in Mauana that
you just could not make. You can't turn a human
(46:10):
into a shark with practical effects. You can't create a
big lava monster, you can't create this giant crab. I
understand that part of it. But I think, if you
think about it, why give a movie a live action
adaptation that has so many elements that can't be translated
from animation. It just doesn't work. And that has been
(46:32):
the issue with a lot of these live action Disney remakes,
Lin King, Aladdin, a little bit, The Jungle Book, a
lot of these movies where you can't recreate these characters.
So it's one thing to create CGI characters where it's needed. Okay,
And I get I'm not the target demographic for this.
There's not going to be some four or five year
old who loves Muwan who's going to be like, I'm
(46:53):
not going to see that because the animated movie just
came out. It's this isn't probably going to affect that audience.
So therefore, it's not going to affect their money. I
just think overall, when you think about what they are doing,
they are just setting us up to be able to
get the same thing over and over again and us
be okay with it. But if you look at why
(47:14):
they continue to do this, it's our own fault because
we still go watch them. We still continue to support
these movies by giving them our money, whether it comes
to paying for the ticket or paying for the merchandise.
And then we are not supporting the more original movies.
Thank goodness that Hoppers was a success this year, but
we are not supporting the movies that are originals, therefore
(47:37):
telling them we don't need to invest anymore in original stories.
Let's just keep making mowanas, toy stories, Let's keep making
z utopias, all the things that work. So from a
business standpoint, it makes sense. You're gonna continue to put
out the products that people want and that people are
paying for. Much like if you're a restaurant, if you
have an item that is selling a bunch, it's flying
(47:57):
off the menu, You're gonna keep making that menu slight
different variations of it, but you're gonna keep selling what
is working, what is keeping your business afloat. I don't
think Disney has to focus so much on the little things.
They can take big risks. They are a giant, huge
corporation company when it comes to film and entertainment and
all the things. But when it comes down to me
(48:20):
having a big problem with this movie, it doesn't look good.
It looks so flat. And I'm not even talking about
the wig that the Rock is wearing. I think because
I just see him as a bald person now, it
is really hard to see him in the Maui wig.
That there's also this weird effect on all the humans
(48:40):
in this movie where it almost looks like they have
like this glossy effect over their face, where there's a
big disconnect between their skin tone and their hair, and
it almost looks like even the wardrobe looks a little
bit cgied all these people. And I know the Rock
is wearing this full torso bodysuit to make them look
bigger like Maui, but even then he doesn't look like
(49:01):
how massive Maui is in the animated story. But the
wig does not look good. Therefore, it just doesn't feel
to me that it has that attention to detail. It
looks like they just grabbed one wig and said, Okay,
that's it. The Rock only has an hour to shoot today,
let's get it in. That's the wig, because we don't
have time to find one that looks a little bit better.
(49:21):
There's just a big disconnect between the hair and the
rest of the MAUI look that it is so distracting
that it just looks like the Rock and a wig.
It doesn't look like he has really become the character.
Even his hair and makeup and the smashing machine, which
was a fraction of the budget of what this movie is,
(49:42):
looked so much better. That was a true transformation for
the Rock, even though he did shed his hair towards
the end of that movie. But aside from the wardrobe,
aside from the wigs, the problem I have with it
is it just doesn't look like it has any depth
to it, especially all the scenes out on the water.
(50:03):
Some of the villains and the other characters, they look okay.
It looks like some of the action sequences will feel
just like the animated movie, because all those are going
to still be animated and CGI. But there are scenes
where the Rock is talking that Someone on YouTube commented
that this looks like an SNL sketch, and I can't
get that comment out of my mind because that is
(50:25):
what it looks like. It looks like it lacks any
kind of depth. Everything in the background just looks second rate,
where I don't feel like I'm going to this island.
I don't feel like I'm looking at anything that is
alive and real. It just looks like I'm looking at
a big empty studio lot where they just kind of
(50:47):
splashed everything in the background, and it feels put together
so quickly and so cheaply, when that should not be
the case. And I think about one of the greatest
Disney franchises out at Water, Pirates at the Caribbean. Those
movies hold up so well even the CGI and those
(51:07):
movies came out back in the two thousands, where it
is so next level compared to what we are getting
now in twenty twenty six, that if you went back
and watch those movies, these special effects still hold up.
All the scenes out at Water look I would say
the best of any Disney franchise that takes place out
at the sea, where you should feel like you were
(51:29):
in this magical place. Those movies hold up. They have
great wardrobe, they have great acting. Not the case here.
It does look like they are doing the rock hosting
SNL and they decided to do a Mawana sketch. And again,
this is probably only going to matter to me. I'm
not the demographic, so I think this movie is still
gonna come out and make a lot of money. It
(51:52):
is probably, I would say, at least a billion dollar movie.
I don't think the outrage from some people, even though
I still I think It's Justified, is really going to
hurt the bottom line. It didn't hurt Dutopia two whatsoever,
although that was a good movie. It just feels really
weird to me to put out a movie that is
(52:13):
less than ten years old that is live action, but
the only live action element is the humans, and you
didn't really do any work to make anything else feel
like it deserved a live action treatment. It truly feels
to me like it is a cash grab, and that's it,
plain and simple. They are just trying to make another
(52:35):
billion dollar movie, which they will probably still achieve if
the first movie has over one point four billion hours stream.
Of course they're going to do a sequel to it.
And I think a big driving factor is because the
rock wants to be a part of it now when
he is in I would say, his second prime of
(52:55):
his career, and if he doesn't do this movie now,
he doesn't have another five to ten years to wait
and do the role of Maui. He kind of needs
to do it right now. So I bet that is
a big factor and then cranking this out right now.
But if that's the case, just pass the torch, give
it to somebody else. Because they're also not bringing the
original voice of Majana to be a part of this
(53:17):
live action cast. Recasted her and a big part of
why that movie was so good was because of the
voice acting. And I do feel a little bit of
a disconnect seeing the Rock do the exact same scenes,
but now live action doesn't feel as lively, feels a
little bit more flat. But this is just the nature
of the Disney model now, so I'm not hitting on
(53:38):
the idea. Overall, I think sometimes it can be done right.
They did do to me Leelo and Stitch Justice, because
I think the character of Stitch in that movie actually
look good. But when it comes to the treatment for
this movie, I'm just not buying it. But I think
they want to strike when the iron is hot. I
don't even think they're going for a one billion dollar movie.
(53:59):
I think they want to get a two billion dollar
movie and to become the most stream movie on Disney Plus.
Because I also think what is happening now with K
Pop Demon Hunters too. I think Disney is laughing at
because Netflix isn't going to get a sequel to that
movie until twenty twenty nine. Because unlike Disney, the Sony
(54:20):
Animation Studio takes a lot of pride in their process.
They don't want to rush it. They want to make
it perfect. They want to make it up to their standards,
and those movies take time. I don't feel like this
movie took that same amount of time. But again, Mawana
two is coming out in theaters from Disney on July tenth.
(54:42):
And that was this week's edition of Movie Mike Trailer Bars,
and that is going to do it for another episode
here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta
give my listeners shout out of the week. This week,
I'm going over to my Instagram DMS and I am
shoutout out Jill who sent me this really nice DM.
(55:02):
And Jill says, just a quiet message to say that
movies aren't really my thing and I don't even watch many,
and yet I never missed an episode of your podcast.
Really fun to listen to, and I love when Kelsey
joins to have a great day. Thank you Jill for listening.
I have to say that is the highest compliment I
have ever received, Jill. If you don't love movies and
(55:23):
you never miss an episode of this podcast, that is
an extra shout out to you for this week's listener
shout out of the week. And I do tell some
people because even though you don't love movies, I still
think some of the themes of this podcast and discussion
goes beyond movies because when I review them, I do
(55:44):
like to try to find a piece of myself to
share with you, because I think that is every movie.
And just because you don't love going to the movies
as much as I do, see movies in theaters, maybe
just like watching them at home. I think it's that
experience and those lessons you learn and getting a peek
into lives that you never thought you would see by
(56:05):
watching movies. That is what I love and I like
to bring those out and share those here on the podcast.
So I try to share things from my life, things
from my perspective of my experiences from living on this planet,
and adapt them to the movies that I see and
share that with you guys, and also connect with you
(56:26):
guys about what you like and what you enjoyed, what
you thought was good that maybe I thought was bad,
or what I thought was bad that maybe you thought
was good. That is why I love doing this podcast.
So appreciate that, Jill, Thank you for listening every single week,
And thanks to you wherever you're listening right now, whether
you're a new listener, whether you have been here since
twenty nineteen, the start of this podcast, or maybe it
(56:48):
just randomly stumbled upon it. I couldn't do this without
all of you, so appreciate that. And until next time,
go out and watch good movies and I will talk
to you
Hosts And Creators
Bobby Bones
Amy Brown
Lunchbox
Eddie Garcia
Morgan Huelsman
Raymundo
Mike D
Abby Anderson
Scuba Steve
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