MOVIE MIKE: Top 10 Movies of 2025 + Movie Review: Marty Supreme + Top 5 Worst Movies of 2025 + Stranger Things Finale Review

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to the first official new episode
of movie Mike's Movie Podcast in twenty twenty six. I
am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to share
with you my top ten movies of the last year
in twenty twenty five and where to watch them. In
the movie review, I'll be talking about Marty Supreme and
Timothy Chalomay's incredible performance that I wonder how much of
his real personality did he put into this very over

(00:23):
the top, overly confident character. Also, instead of the trailer park,
I'll give you my top five worst movies of the year.
These are movies I think you should avoid at all costs.
And then finally I will wrap up this episode. Per
listener request, I will give my thoughts on the Stranger
Things finale. There will be a spoiler warning at the
end of the episode because since it was such a

(00:45):
massive event. So if you haven't watched Stranger Things yet
and you are wanting to, I'll give you that warning,
but it'll be towards the very end of the episode
in case you don't want to hear that. So thank
you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed. Here
we go for another year, and now let's talk movies
from the Nashville podcast network. This is Movie Mike Movie Podcasts.

(01:06):
Gonna hop right into this list. But all I want
to say, twenty twenty five was the best year in
film since twenty nineteen. We had so many original movies,
which if you are still complaining that we don't have
original movies coming out in theaters or on streaming anymore,
I really think twenty twenty five proved you wrong. Were
they all successful? No, But just because the movie doesn't

(01:27):
make a whole lot of money does not mean that
that movie is not good. So original stories are getting
a shot now. I think we are craving that more
than ever. But obviously the big titles are still gonna
get a lot of the attention. So all the lists
you are seeing now, which I will have next week
my top ten most anticipated movies of twenty twenty six,
you're gonna see all the franchises on those lists, because

(01:47):
those are the ones that just get more clicks and
get more people talking. But there are a lot of
original stories being made, and I think my list does
represent that pretty well. There's a pretty good balance here
from beginning, and so let's hop right into it. At
Number ten is an original movie F one from Apple
which if you want to watch it, it is available
now on that streaming service. But it came out in

(02:09):
theaters over the summer, and I didn't realize how much
I needed, just a classic racing blockbuster in the summer
with a big A list star Brad Pitt, jo said
Harvey er Bardem in this, and it really felt like
I was right there in the driver's seat at times
because of the way this movie was shot. The same
director who did Top Gun, Maverick really puts you like

(02:33):
you are a character in the movie. With the big
sound and the big soundtrack. There were so many great things.
You have Brad Pitt as the older guy who comes
back to the sport of F one racing. The new
guy doesn't like him because he thinks, oh, this is
just some NASCAR guy from America. He has no place here.
So they are butting heads. The team is struggling and
if they don't win this championship, it's all gonna go underwater.

(02:57):
So there are a lot of steaks there. But obviously
the thing that itself so well to a movie format
is the fact that it all has to do with
racing and you want to be first. The race itself
is just exciting from beginning to end, in every single
race that takes place. The movie cost about two hundred
to three hundred million dollars to make, ended up making
about six hundred and thirty million worldwide at the box office,

(03:19):
making it Apple's biggest theatrical hit. So if you're a
fan of movies that just generate a lot of intensity,
a lot of great action, and you don't have to
think so much about the plot pretty basic, I think
F one is a fantastic movie. It really caught me
by surprise, and that is why I put it at
number ten. At number nine, I went with Hamnet, which

(03:41):
came out in theaters towards the end of last year.
It will be on Peacock. It is not yet, probably
in the next couple of months it will be. And
I really wish they put all of the Oscar contenders
out on streaming sooner, but that's the way it goes.
It stars Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskal. It is a
fictionalized a William Shakespeare's life and the tragic passing of

(04:03):
his son, and how that passing of his son inspired
him to write Hamlet. This is a really emotional movie
from beginning to end with top tier acting. And if
you're somebody who thinks I can't tell good acting from
bad acting, if you watch Hamnett, you will notice every
single actor in this film give an amazing performance. This

(04:26):
will show you what great acting is because from the
adults in this movie to the child actors in this movie,
who are on an entirely different level where you're like, man,
where do you even draw that inspiration from? You've barely
lived any life? How do you have so much emotional range?
How are you able to make yourself cry? It is

(04:47):
a fantastic accomplishment. I think the other big thing for
me is it is really hard for me to get
into period pieces, and just by watching the trailer before
going to see this movie, I thought it was going
to be I thought it was going to be really slow,
which it is kind of a slow burned throughout. It
is a big emotional buildup and it is one that

(05:07):
you really have to focus in and watch and pay
attention to. I think it's one of those movies I
would have a much different viewing experience if I just
watched it at home, where I could easily just pick
up my phone or go do something else, or hit
pause and come back to it. I think there was
something about being in a theater completely dark and just
focusing all my attention on it that allowed me to

(05:29):
really sync into the story. Because there are a lot
of emotional moments, but they're not necessarily these big intense
action moments or anything over the top that is really
going to suck you in. It's just as the story
progresses more and more, you find yourself so emotionally invested,
and by the end of it, you're like a little
bit exhausted. You're like, man, I just went through so much.

(05:51):
And I think it's probably one of the front runners
for Best Picture easily. I think Jesse Buckley and Paul
Meskull could both win Best Actor for each of the performances,
more so Jesse Buckley because I think her character was
just incredible in this movie. So if you are wanting
to watch something that is going to maybe make you
cry a little bit, and even if you're hesitant of

(06:13):
watching a period piece where they speak a little bit differently,
where it is a slow burn, I still think you
will enjoy it. So at number nine, I have Hamnet
and Number eight. I'm just realizing that these two movies
are a little bit similar. It is called Train Dreams
on Netflix. It is about a guy who works on
the railroad, set in the early nineteen hundreds, and it

(06:34):
covers his entire life from those early nineteen hundred years
to the mid nineteen sixties, and you see different eras
of his life, from starting a family all the way
to when he retires from the railroad. Also a movie
that is just a really slow burn because it's not
really about this big, crazy plot. It is just seeing

(06:54):
a snapshot into one person's life. And I think the
fact that it's set in the nineteen hundreds and feel
so old, and I thought, how could they make a
movie about a guy working on the railroad living out
on the countryside in the Idaho Panhandle. How could that
be interesting? But this movie is so compelling it sucks
you in and visually it is my favorite of the year.

(07:16):
The cinematography is off the charts. It is shot in
an entirely different way in a four to three aspect ratio,
which if you are somebody who gets annoyed when a
movie doesn't take up your entire screen, I get that
you spend a lot of money on a big screen
TV fifty plus sixty plus inches, you want all of
that screen utilize. I used to be that person, but

(07:37):
now a four to three format is my favorite, and
it is essentially a square, so like Instagram used to be,
it used to just be a square. That is how
this entire movie is, which makes it look different, and
it makes it look like every shot is perfectly framed.
And I think the reason that the four to three
format is now my favorite is because anything shot that

(07:57):
way is done so with a big artistic purpose and
it is going to be something that you haven't seen before.
You don't put a generic comedy in a four to
three format or a bad action movie. You put something
that has a visual style to it and something that
it is trying to achieve. And I think that is
the perfect way to tell this story. And the colors

(08:20):
are so rich and vibrant. Also has some really intense
moments that will make you cry, and it also just
kind of changed my perspective on time. Where this movie
starts out where he is living out on this farm
in the middle of nowhere, and it seems like so
long ago, the early nineteen hundreds and by the end

(08:42):
of his life you start to see more of a
modern look at the world. And it kind of struck
me that, man, there are some people who have experienced
so much changes in technology and changes in the world
in their life. If you just talk about transportation alone,
you see horse and carriage to railroads, to airplanes. There
are people who experienced all that, And I think that,

(09:04):
as basic as it sounds, never really registered with me.
And thinking of kids now who just are board into
having all this technology with iPads and airplanes and AI
to think now, how much technology is going to change
and their lifetime is going to be crazy. I mean
when I get old, I wonder how much different things
are going to be. So the movie also just made

(09:25):
me think about life a little bit. So at number eight,
I have train dreams. At number seven, I have another
Netflix movie, Frankenstein, from director Gimo de Toro, who has
been wanting to make this movie for about fifty years.
That says a lot to me. It is a lifelong
obsession of his that started when he was just a kid.

(09:46):
He crafted this story in a way that I have
not seen a Frankenstein story told before, where I think
before this movie, people were still confused as to who
is Frankenstein. Frankenstein is the scientist, the actual monster is
Frankenstein's monster, which I think this movie did a really
good job and making the distinction between those two people.

(10:08):
I love the way the movie was broken up into
chapters and how it starts with the end. I think
that was a really great way to build a lot
of mystery in the beginning and also showed you that
it wasn't so much about getting to that final scene.
It was about giving you all the backstory on all
these characters involved and showing you their perspective and fleshing
out Frankenstein's monster in a way I've never seen done before.

(10:30):
I have never felt so much attachment and feeling towards
a monster of this caliber, where you think, man, could
you give this treatment to other historical horror figures, like
could you imagine having an emotional backstory on Michael Myers
or Godzilla where you feel so much more for them
as a person, seeing him try to communicate and feeling

(10:52):
like a freak himself and having these amazing poignant lines
about life that he was just dropping bombs on knowledge.
When it came to how he felt as a monster,
and I think that is what this movie opened my
eyes to, is how we treat the monsters of the world,
or at least people we perceive to be monsters. Because
Frankenstein's monster is just a misunderstood person. He didn't want

(11:14):
to be here, he didn't want to be created, and
suddenly he exists in this world that doesn't accept him.
This story sets so much the transformation of Victor and
who he became at the end of the movie, the
regrets he had. There is so much emotional depth in
this movie that I think some people just saw it
on Netflix and about Frankenstein. I don't want to watch
a horror movie. It is so much more than that

(11:37):
you don't like horror movies. It doesn't really feel like that.
I love that the horror genre evolves so much in
twenty twenty five and what we think about it. I
know I always lean towards it because I just have
been fascinated with horror since I was very young, since
I watched that first movie that gave me nightmares. That
you will always see a lot of horror movies on

(11:57):
my list every year, because one they do lend themselves
to having some of the best original stories, but I
think there is just so much more craft that has
to go in to making a great horror movie. So
at number seven I have Frankenstein. At number six, I
have Superman, which is on HBO Max if you missed
it in theaters over the summer, from director James Gunn.

(12:19):
It stars David Cornsweat as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane,
and Nicholas Holt as Lex Luthor, who I believe was
the villain of twenty twenty five. Superman I also think
was the superhero of twenty twenty five, where really only
three big major superhero films came out that year, and

(12:40):
this is the only one to make my list. Thunderbolts
was really close to making it. It was teetering there
on my number ten slot. I think that movie had
a lot more impact on me as a Marvel fan
and kind of surprised me of how good the action
was in that movie. I think the fact that it
didn't perform as well as Disney Marvel We're Hoping led

(13:01):
a lot of people to believe that it wasn't a
good movie. But honestly, it is one of the best
Marvel movies of the last five years in the twenty twenties,
it really stands out and set up for Fantastic Four.
But Superman really changed the overall sentiment I believe with
superhero movies moving forward. It was bright, it was colorful.

(13:23):
I think some people had a problem with how Superman
was portrayed in this movie. He's a lot more hopeful,
he sees the good in people, which I think with
Supergirl this year, she's gonna see the bad in people,
So we're going to see the contrast there. I think
some people who hated on this movie wanted to see
more of the Henry Calvill Superman, who is a little
bit more hardcore, a little bit darker. But I think

(13:45):
getting away from that, making him a beacon of hope
again and somebody who was always going to do the
right thing is the direction we need to go with Superman.
I think James Gunn's fun, colorful nature and unique big
monsters and big fun moments and needle drop moments is
what made this movie exciting and one of my favorite

(14:06):
in theater experiences of the year went to Superman, where
if I would have rated this movie immediately after leaving
the theater, I would have given it a five out
of five. The more I thought about it and the
more it sat with me, and the more I had
time to digest, it still rinks in that four point
five out of five rating, which I think everything above
this is all in that four point five out of five.

(14:27):
I also think it did a good job of setting
up DC for success moving forward in trying to get
people to forget everything basically that has come out before this.
So at number six, I have Superman getting into the
top five. Now at number five, I have Bugonia, which
is available now on Peacock, from director Yorgos Lantimos, who

(14:48):
is really interesting dude, and I just love his work
and I can understand if his movies and Bogonia specifically
is just a type of movie that I'm going to
love but will be a hard sell to some. But
this movie is about two men who are obsessed with
conspiracy theories and they are convinced that this CEO is

(15:09):
an alien and she has been sent down to Earth
to destroy it, and they decide that the only way
to save the planet is to kidnap her and get
her to admit that she is an alien. And just
that premise alone sucked me in as somebody who I
don't fully believe a lot of conspiracy theories. I think

(15:29):
some people want to believe in them because it's kind
of fun and exciting. I think some people find pleasure
in thinking that the entire world is out to get
us and wants to lie to us, and they're always
lying to us, which I think we do get tricked
a lot. But I try not to buy too much
into conspiracy theories because I think it would allow my

(15:51):
brain to never slow down. I would always question everything.
But I do like to dabble in the idea of
conspiracy theories, but I take them for what it is.
I'm not like these two characters Jesse Plemons in this movie,
who get totally obsessed with it and is going to
do something as crazy as what they did in this
But I love the way that this movie was shot.

(16:13):
I thought it was exciting from beginning to end. There
were so many great, in tense moments between Emma Stone
and Jesse Plemons. It was dark, it was surreal. It
had an overall really strong voice all the way throughout
that I feel like yorgos Landimo said exactly what he
wanted to say. And it was a rare time when

(16:34):
I went to the movies and felt like I left
this earth. But I felt like I was so into
the movie that I was able to not think about
anything else in my life, not think about the runtime.
I was fully there. I think a great movie is
one that allows you to do that, to escape reality.
That is what movies are supposed to do. They are
supposed to be a way for us to disconnect from

(16:55):
the real world and go into somebody else's world, almost
like experience and watching somebody else's dream. That is how
I felt watching Pagonia. At number four, I have Marty Supreme,
which is still out in theaters now, came out over Christmas.
If you won't get a chance to see it in theaters,
it will be on HBO Max eventually. It is from

(17:16):
director Josh Safti, starring Timothy Shallowmey, about a guy named
Marty Mauser who is a hustler and plays table tennis.
And I'm going to do a full movie review, so
that is all I'm going to say about it right now.
But at number four, I have Marty Supreme. You will
hear more about that later. At number three, Sinners, which
is available on HBO Max if you haven't seen this

(17:38):
one from director Ryan Coogler, who has done movies like
Black Panther, movies like Creed. It is about twin brothers
who returned to their hometown in Mississippi. Takes place in
the nineteen thirties, and then they encounter a supernatural evil.
There's violence, there's music, and probably when it comes to music,
has the best musical scene out of the entire year,

(18:01):
and that is including Wicked for Good. I think that
scene alone should earn some kind of oscar, which they
should just create an oscar for the best scene of
the year. But the way this movie blends reality and
supernatural events, and at the core of it is a
horror movie, like we've been talking about on this episode,
I think Ryan Coogler is one of those people who

(18:23):
can change how you feel about a horror movie and
make it more mainstream. It has an entirely different atmosphere
than any other horror movie. It was shot on film,
so that alone sets it apart in a world where
everything is shot digitally. And I know that feels like
such an old school thing to do and thing to
still be invested in. But if we start to look

(18:45):
at all these movies that come out all the time.
You get on Netflix, you get on HBO Max, you
get on Hulu, you get on Disney Plus, everything starts
to look the same. Movies now don't look the way
that they looked back in the nineties when they were
all still shot on film before everything went to digital,
and it just changed the way that movies look that

(19:06):
If you look at a movie back that came out
in like nineteen ninety five, for example, it just looks
more like a movie. There's more detail on that screen
than movies shot now and come out and just kind
of have the same palette to it. They lack a
little bit of depth. So having a director like Ryan
Kugler who still wants to make movies on film, just

(19:28):
the way that this movie looks is gonna stand out
from anything else that you watch. It's still going to
feel like a movie. And maybe I'm one of the
only people who still feel like that adds a lot
to my viewing experience when it doesn't just feel like
something that needs to be formatted in a way that
looks good on a laptop, that looks good on your phone,

(19:48):
or that can be cut into vertical clips. I think
it ultimately has to look good on the big screen.
So Ryan Kugler does that with a horror movie, gives
it this entirely different look. Visually has some of the
best shots of the year. The story is also great.
It has some awesome villains. It also reminds me of
one of my favorite movies of all time, from Dust

(20:09):
Till Dawn. So maybe to some people who haven't seen
that movie, this is now they're from Dust Till Dawn
and I am good with that. At number three, I
Have Sinners and number two is another horror movie also
on HBO Max from director Zach Creiger. I Have Weapons.
This was a movie I was trying to figure out
from the very beginning because it is about an entire
classroom of kids who all disappear on the same night

(20:32):
at the same time two seventeen am. It gives you
multiple perspectives and you, as the viewer, are trying to
figure out. I love the way this movie was broken
down by giving you character by character point of view,
and I think that was the perfect way to tell
this story, to keep you wanting more, to keep you
invested in the story, and to really keep that action
just kind of moving and pounding along where it just

(20:56):
naturally made you want to keep going and in a
way that made you want to rush to the end
just to figure it out. And it is a story
that you are not going to figure out. You're just
not going to a movie that can still give me
a surprise like that but also feel satisfying and not
feel cornball to me. It also shifts your perspective on
the horror genre where it leans a little bit more

(21:17):
into suspense, does give you some jump scares here and there,
but overall, this movie is a story about grief where
director Zach Kreiger was dealing with that in his personal life.
Lost his best friend. In this movie was a result
of him coping with that, and if you rewatch it
from that perspective, you can really see that play out more.

(21:38):
You can see how much of his own life he
put into this of somebody dealing with those really sad
feelings and then just giving you something crazy. It also
gave us a new way to run, which I'm still
trying to perfect because I did it on my Instagram
story and somebody said you gotta hold your arms out
a little bit more so, even after months after watching
this movie. I'm still working on my Weapons run, but

(21:58):
I think overall it was one of the biggest surprises
of twenty twenty five as far as how much of
an impact it had on pop culture. And I think
I feel that because if you look at the cast,
it's not like there's one big A list star who
sticks out. The premise alone wasn't something that was getting
a lot of people talking before it came out. But

(22:19):
I think word of mouth really helped this movie to
give a really big moment that made it number one
two weeks at the box office and made it one
of the biggest movies of the year. So at number two,
I have Weapons at number one. The movie I did
talk a lot about during the Mikey Awards. It Goes
to One Battle after Another, which is available now on

(22:39):
HBO Max, from director Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio,
Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Chase Infinity.
It is about a former revolutionary who gets forced back
into action dealing with these corrupt military figures, so now
he and his daughter are on the run. If you
have never seen a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, who has

(23:02):
also done movies like There Will Be Blood, Punch, Drunk Love,
Boogie Knights. I think this is a great place to
start because it is his most action forward movie, also
has a great deal of comedy, but also shows you
how he sets himself apart from every other director and
how he creates these big cinematic movies that are going

(23:25):
to live on forever. And it is the only movie
on this list that I think will have the greatest
amount of longevity if you think about those movies that
they put into the Library of Congress that serve as
these national monuments of movies that really set themselves apart.
I think, out of every movie on this list, One
Battle after Another is the only one that could be
in consideration for that, because while the movie is politically charged,

(23:49):
at the core of it, it is a story about
a father and daughter and their relationship, how it's not
always the easiest, the sacrifices each of them have made,
and then you have all these other layers resting on
top of that. But also has one of the best
third acts and also one of the greatest chase scenes
of all time. So at number one, my number one
movie of twenty twenty five I have one battle after another.

(24:14):
Some honorable mentions I'll run through here. K Pop Demon Hunters,
which I do believe is the animated movie of the year,
should easily win the Oscar in that category, was very
close to making my list. Like I mentioned earlier, Thunderbolts
was really close there as well. Roof Man, which I
also really enjoyed with Channing Tatum, which is the real
story about the guy who robbed a bunch of McDonald's

(24:36):
by cutting a hole into the roof and then later
in his life lived inside of Toys r Us for months.
I also really wanted to include the live action Lee
Low and Stitch because I am a huge fan of
the original animated movie. Was also one of the only
movies I saw twice in theaters last year because I
loved it so much. Also ended up seeing Zutopia twice
in theater, so Disney really got her money with our

(24:58):
nostalgia there. But when I had all the together and
had a really hard time narrowing it down to ten,
couldn't quite includely Low and Stitch on the list. I
also really loved Warfare, which I feel like people didn't
talk about enough, but that is available on HBO Max
I feel like a really gritty war movie that takes
place during the Iraq War in two thousand and six.

(25:18):
Also almost include twin List, which I talked about in
the Mikey Awards episode and why I believe that to
be one of the big standouts of original movies last year.
Wicked for Good I also really enjoyed. Also the new
Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man, I ended up
really enjoying and would rank it right after the original movie.
So that is my list. I'll come back and give

(25:39):
my spoiler free thoughts on Marty Supreme. Let's get into
it now. A Sports Supreme movie review of Marty Supreme.
I just banged my Marty Supreme ping pong ball popcorn bucket.
That's kind of hard to say on the microphone here
because I do want to talk about, not to start,

(25:59):
but later in this review, the amazing marketing behind this movie.
Even though this movie costs a lot of money to make,
I feel like so much of the marketing was so
innovative and probably one of the best campaigns I've seen
this year. Because this movie, I think is a hard sell,
because if you just look at this movie on paper,
it sounds a little bit ridiculous a movie loosely based

(26:23):
on a real life person about table tennis. And I
think the way a lot of people feel about this
movie going into it is how Marty Supreme in the
movie felt about his sport, where he had to convince
people that he was an athlete, because at that time
when this movie takes place, wasn't really seen as a

(26:43):
real thing. Even now, if you were to say you
were a professional ping pong player, it would still be
a wild thing to say, we're just now accepting pick
a ball. I don't think we ever fully embraced ping pong,
at least in America. But I do want to get
back to the fantastic marketing job that I think they
did with making this movie a vibe. More so than
you need to go see this movie because who was

(27:05):
in it, but you do have one of the biggest
actors working right now, Timothy Challamey, who was the driving
force behind this movie and making me want to see
it him saying that this movie is next level. How
much time he spent practicing table tennis for this movie
way back in like twenty nineteen, after I think the
French Dispatch he was already practicing table tennis in between

(27:27):
filming all of his movies. While he was doing Wonka,
he was also going and practicing table tennis, and I
think that added a lot to his performance in this movie,
where I thought, man, when does it cut away to
his stunt double? When do they do a little bit
of CGI to get his performance in there? And it
turns out he had been training for so long. There's

(27:48):
this one sequence where he does all these different types
of trick shots. That was one of my favorite parts
of the movie, and that really allowed me to zone
into how hard he worked to play table tennis. And
Timothy Schallomy is that type of guy. It comes down
to how intense do you want your actor to be. Now,
I don't want a method actor who is going to

(28:10):
ruin the lives of his co stars, but I do
want somebody who is that passionate about one role and
making it the biggest thing ever, especially a movie about
table tennis. And Timothy Schallomy is that guy. Whether he's
playing Bob Dylan, whether he's playing Willy Wanka, whether he's
playing Marty Supreme, he embraces every aspect of those characters

(28:33):
because he knows that these are the stories that are
going to live on forever. He didn't even want to
stunt double in this movie. He said, if there is
going to be a bear butt in Marty Supreme, it
is going to be my bare butt. So when watching
this movie, I found that it was his performance that
was so intoxicating that drew me into every scene, every

(28:56):
action sequence. It was him. So what this movie is about.
It's about a man, Marty Supreme, who is obsessed with
table tennis. He wants to be not only the best
in the United States, but the best in the world,
and he is so close. He feels like he just
needs that one big victory and he is going to

(29:16):
be the face of the sport. He is going to
be on the weedies box and everybody. It's not so
much that they don't believe him. It's that they don't
believe that table tennis is a real sport and a
real thing, even though it is huge overseas, which is
where he's trying to go compete. They just see him
as a guy who really doesn't have a job because

(29:37):
being a professional ping pong player is not a real thing.
At the start of the movie, he is working as
a shoe salesman, just trying to get enough money to
pay for his ticket to go and compete in the finals.
That is what he is trying to do. Every single
decision that he makes is to have enough money to
play table tennis at all costs. Any moment he just

(29:59):
sees this opportunity to earn any amount of cash to
put towards his goal, he is going to take it,
and he makes some really awful, terrible decisions on the way,
which I think when you look at a Josh Safty movie,
that is what he does best, pulling out these characters
who you, as the viewer, almost hate because you're not

(30:21):
really rooting for Marti Supreme because he is kind of
a bad guy. He is so obsessed with his idea
of being the best in the world that it impedes
him on just being a good human. And while watching
this movie, I found it interesting that at times I
did not want him to succeed because he was burning

(30:43):
all these relationships, these people who have helped them out
and probably genuinely want the best for him, but he
is so obsessed with being the best failure does not
enter his mind that he is willing to push them
all to the side because he almost doesn't even see
these humans as humans. He just sees them as these
people in his way, and if they can't get him

(31:05):
to where he wants to be, he wants nothing to
do with you. He will push you aside as soon
as you are not an asset to him. He doesn't
care about you. So there are a lot of flaws
in his personality. He is overly confident, which I think
is something that Timothy shallow May plays really well, and

(31:25):
I think that is the thing we forget about him,
of how confident he is as a person and as
an actor that he is the best. So I wonder
if some of his real life personality came out a
little bit in his character in showing how relentless he is,
because I think that is what the message of this
movie is, of how relentless you need to be in

(31:46):
order to achieve greatness. And at what price are you
willing to pay? Are you willing to give up your
entire life, your entire existence to be the best in
the world. And if you are, you're going to have
to realize that you're gonna make a lot of people mad,
you are going to ruin some relationships so even though
you are willing to make those sacrifices, oh man, it's

(32:09):
not a great life. And he is overly confident, smug,
so condescending to people, but it's that driving force that
allows him to even get in the realm and the
conversation of being the best at table tennis. This movie
is paired with a fantastic score that really brings it
all together and adds to that level of anxiety that

(32:30):
you feel as the viewer, because I think that is
what I love about Josh Saffi movies like Good Time,
like Uncut Gems. It's that feeling of being uncomfortable, of
feeling like at any moment, crap is gonna hit the fan,
somebody is going to end up incapacitated, or something irreversible
is going to happen, and you're gonna be traumatized, because

(32:53):
it is that foundation underneath all these scenes, this score.
They're just kind of driving making things feel so much
more intense than maybe they really are, which is really
this entire movie because you have these really big moments,
because it is a sports drama of people playing table tennis,
and there's just this odd level of intensity that Josh
Safti is able to create because if you were just

(33:16):
to look at this as a spectator, if you were
inside this movie, it wouldn't feel that intense. You're just
witnessing two people playing table tennis. But in this movie,
it feels like the biggest thing in the world, like
all eyes are turned on this moment, like it has
a whole lot of impact. But even though this would
just be a minor story in everybody else's life, that

(33:38):
is it Marty Supreme or the small circle around him.
This would just be somebody on a Saturday, Hey, you
want to go watch a ping pong championship. Sure I'll
go with you, just a way to kill an afternoon.
But to him it is everything. And I love that juxtaposition,
that contrast of having somebody obsessed with something that is

(33:58):
their entire world, but to other people it is just
something very minor in your life, which I think is
something that we all experience now. Things on the internet,
people on YouTube, people on TikTok, Instagram. We all have
these really specialized interests. For me, it's movies. For other
people it could be gardening. Maybe to some it is
running in fitness. All these little areas of expertise that

(34:21):
you can have, and passions and interests that to you,
those are your entire life. You probably have celebrities within
all those interests that are just celebrities to you. The
biggest YouTubers in the world and streamers might mean everything
to you but mean nothing to somebody else. And I
think that is why this movie resonates today. He is

(34:42):
fighting for something that he is the only one who
really cares about, and in the grand scheme of things,
in the whole scope of the world, it really doesn't
mean anything. And I think that is what makes this
movie even more impactful, is that it takes something as
trivial as table tennis and makes it feel massive, like

(35:02):
it should be filling stadiums. That is the sign of
creating a compelling story, where if you look at his
brother's movie from earlier this year in twenty twenty five,
Ben Safty with The Smashing Machine also felt like it
was taking somebody's story in a specialized field in that
world being UFC, but the story wasn't there. There was

(35:22):
nothing compelling about Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine like
there was about Marty Supreme, two people who kind of
had the same personalities in both of their minds. They
could not see failure, They only saw winning. But it
was the ability to create a compelling story that sets
Marty Supreme not only apart from The Smashing Machine, but

(35:43):
making Josh Safti the superior Safty brother and to me saying,
that's where the talent is because my favorite film of
both of theirs was Uncut Gems and it was that
level of anxiety that that movie created, and I felt
that again in Marty Supreme, but did not even come
close to feeling that in The Smashing Machine. Another thing
that Josh Saftie does well is not only giving you

(36:07):
the big A list stars with Timothy Shallomey and Gwyneth Paltrow,
but also putting in these other pieces to make the
movie feel authentic, but giving you these cameos of like,
why is this person even in this movie? Why is
Shark Tanks Kevin O'Leary the jerk rich husband in this movie?
But somehow it makes perfect sense. But when you put

(36:28):
all these pieces together, having Gwyneth Paltrow act alongside Kevin O'Leary,
it creates a great contrast and creates these moments that
you don't feel or see anywhere else. Tyler the Creator
is in this movie one of my favorite rappers of
all time. If you are watching on YouTube and have
been subscribed to the channel, you have seen his album
in the background of my studio here call me if

(36:50):
you get lost for I don't know, probably a year
and a half, two years, as long as I've had
this YouTube channel. Seeing him in this movie making his
big screen debut was exciting to me, but also that
he did a really good job. Him and Marty Supreme's
friendship in this movie was something that I could have
just watched that story unfold. My only real big beef

(37:11):
with his character was that he was not in the
movie more because I really saw anytime those two were
together on screen it felt like a really great buddy comedy,
which the entire Marty Supreme movie had a lot of
different elements throughout it, a big drama, some comedy, some crime,
a little bit of thriller. Overall, just a really fun,
entertaining experience from beginning to end. Even though it did

(37:34):
feel a little bit long at almost two and a
half hours long, it really wasn't until that two hour
mark that I was even aware of the runtime that
is usually my signal in my brain whenever I think, Okay,
when's this movie gonna end? And I check my clock
because I start my timer at the beginning of every
single movie I go see in theaters. And it was
right around two hours where I thought, when's this movie
going to wrap up? So I did feel the runtime

(37:55):
a little bit. But before we hop out of this review,
let's talk about the marketing where I got this for
free at Regal. If you bought your tickets on the app,
you got a free Marty Supreme popcorn bucket, which this
is pretty simple. It's just a big orange, pink punk
ball with a flattened bottom so it can sit on

(38:15):
a shelf or if you're watching in the theater, which
the guy next to me also had one, it was
sit in your lap and not roll off. But if
you look at all the marketing surrounding Marty Supreme, that
is how you create a vibe for a movie. Where
I think some movies have gotten it wrong. It's not
so much about telling people how great your movie is,
who is in it an amazing performance, they're going to

(38:38):
be nominated for Oscars. I think people don't care about that. Again,
going back to The Smashing Machine, just because these two
movies kind of have a lot of parallels. To me.
The Smashing Machine, that's what all the marketing was. The
rock is in it, one of the most famous people
in the world, giving his Rawlis performance. He's going to
get nominated for all of the awards for this. People
don't care about that. People want to feel like they

(39:00):
are a part of something. They want a movie to
have a vibe. Much like if you were just going
to follow somebody on social media, you want to follow
them because they're cool, because they have a vibe to them.
That is what the marketing of Marty Supreme did. Giving
all those celebrities that warm up windbreaker jacket that I
now am searching out. I was looking on stock x

(39:21):
but it's like ten thousand dollars fifteen thousand dollars, crazy amount.
That just had me interested in the movie from a
fashion standpoint. Seeing Tom Brady, Kid, Cuddy Kardashians, all these
people wearing this Marty Supreme jacket and obviously Timothy Shalomey
wearing it as well, got my interest. It started to
create this vibe that, hey, this movie is something that
cool people are also a part of I want to

(39:44):
be a part of that too. Instead of doing traditional
billboards that every single movie does, they said, nah, forget that,
We're gonna put orange blimps all up throughout the country,
and not just in a big city every single time.
We're going to put them in random cities across the
so that people see these, they take videos of them,

(40:04):
and they post them on the Internet because that gets
people talking. So probably that same amount of money they
could have spent on just billboards, make that three D,
you put it out in the real world, put it
on a blimp. I loved it. They committed to a
color palette too, with this bright orange that sticks out everywhere.
And if you're just going which I know people don't
really do this, just walk down like the halls of

(40:25):
a movie theater or outside a movie theater where all
the posters, this bright orange is going to stick out
to you in posters, but also on social media. You
see this color when you're scrolling through, you're probably gonna
stop on it. And not only that, but they also
did a fake over fifteen minute zoom call that went viral,
which was Timothy Schallomey throwing out all these ridiculous promotional

(40:48):
ideas for Marty Supreme, like painting the statue of Liberty Orange.
They put that out in its entirety, which is a
crazy thing to do, especially now with the concern of
anything that you put out on social media has to
be so people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.
But you put out a fifteen plus minute, almost seventeen
minute zoom call that's essentially a piece of promotional content.

(41:11):
But people didn't know is this real? Was this fake?
Is this something that wasn't supposed to be uploaded online?
And it was that creates a moment. So there were
all these little things that they did that were just
a little bit different, nothing too crazy, Not all those
were even that expensive, but it created these moments that
made you feel like you wanted to be a part

(41:32):
of this just because it was generating interest. And I
think that is a lesson in movie marketing that other
films need to learn from. It's not just about putting
out a really slick trailer and paying for all these
TikTok ads. It's about creating a vibe and energy and
building a brand for your movie that people want to
be a part of. I will also say, as I

(41:53):
wrap up this review, Ted Williams, the cameo he had
in Marty Supreme was probably my favorite out of every buddy.
If you remember Ted Williams from a viral video from
the twenty tens, he was the man with the golden
voice who was out on the street just asking people
for money. A guy took a video of him and say, hey,
I'll give you some money, but hey, do that thing
with your voice. And he was a broadcaster back in

(42:15):
the day, and you see him standing there on the
street corner and suddenly you hear this amazing, booming voice
that sounds like it should be on radio stations across America.
He went viral, that video changed his life, and seeing
him in Marty's Supreme just brought this sense of joy
to my face because he is one of those people
that went viral when going viral still meant something, where

(42:37):
it meant that everybody in the country knew who you
were after getting millions of views. And to see him
and all of the ups and downs in his life
of getting off the street, having success again, having money,
losing it all again, and now to be in a
movie where you look so genuinely happy to be there,
happy to be on screen, and his cameo'll fit in

(42:57):
perfect with all these other people who aren't really actors
but got their shan to be in a movie of
this level. The Ted Williams cameo just made me happy.
So when it comes to Marty Supreme, I give it
four point five out of five Ping Pong balls my
top five worst movies of the year. These were movies
I found to be unbearable. But my one role that

(43:20):
I have is I have to complete a movie in
order to review it and include it in this section
every single year, because if I only watch half a
movie and can't get through it because it's so bad,
I don't count it. Because I didn't officially finish it,
I cannot put it towards this list. Or if I
walk out of a movie, which I did not walk
out of one single movie in twenty twenty five. I

(43:41):
got close, but never walked out of a movie. So
all of these I watched to completion. In some cases,
I hate watch some of these movies because I knew
about my role and if I didn't finish it, I
couldn't include it. So I powered through and was petty
enough to finish the movie just so I could included
on this list and count it towards my worst of

(44:03):
the year. So these are movies I think you should
avoid because sometimes they repopulate on streaming services like maybe
you should watch this movie. Do not waste your time
on these, and if you did and enjoyed them, more
power to you. But this is my top five list
of the worst movies of twenty twenty five, starting at
number five. The Old Guard. I do not know why

(44:25):
I hate this franchise so much, why they are really
trying to force this action franchise on Netflix, but I
cannot get into it whatsoever. I thought the first one
was so generic. I was surprised they made The Old
Guard too, which at least their own and I like
her as an actor, but this movie is not it.
The action in this is so nineteen eighties and does

(44:49):
not fit in twenty twenty five. There's nothing interesting about it.
I mean, how do you take a movie about immortal
warriors and make it boring? These people who have been
fighting for centuries trying to protect the world, and somehow
you focus on this story that is so unbearable and
the ending was tear rub bowl at number five, I

(45:11):
had the old guard to do not waste your time
on this one. We're gonna see a theme here, because
I think the hardest genre right now to make good
is action movies, even more so than comedy movies. I
can find some redeeming qualities in any comedy movie. Those
also get made less. But for some reason, action movies
just feel so bad right now if you do not

(45:32):
have a great director. Because at number four, I have
Back in Action with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Fox, which
was another Netflix action movie, and this was one that
came out towards the beginning of last year. And you
see Cameron Diaz and Jamie Fox's face together on a
thumbnail and you want to click that because of their
star power. Also, Cameron Diaz came out of retirement for

(45:55):
this movie. They paid her a lot of money, but
to see her in a new movie in such a
long time should have been unevent, but it was not.
They played two former CIA agents who are now living
in a suburban life, which is almost the premise to
every single action movie that stars two actors who are

(46:15):
bigger in the nineties and two thousands. That's kind of
the Okay, what can we do with them now because
they're a bit older. Well, let's have them in a
family setting. Nobody knows their secret agents. But then their
pass is going to come crawling back and suddenly they
have to do CIA and Assassin things again, but now
they're doing it like a minivan. There was no chemistry

(46:36):
whatsoever in this movie between Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx,
so many cliches, bad cgi and no surprises. There was
no fun to be had. And back in action, I
have that one at number four. At number three is
another action movie, Bridehard with Rebel Wilson, which is essentially
die Hard, but at a wedding. She plays a secret

(46:59):
agent who has had an interesting relationship with her friends
because she is always gone because her job requires her
to go places and be a secret agent, and she
can't tell anybody, so it causes a strain on their
friendship because she has to leave a lot without any explanation,
And obviously, if you are friends with somebody and they

(47:19):
keep ditching you, not telling you where they are going,
you start to see them as a bad friend. But nonetheless,
she is a part of her friend's wedding and then
it gets taken over all the wedding guests get held hostage,
and then you find out more details why it happened,
but she has to step into secret agent mode and
take down the criminals. Speaking of bad CGI and bad

(47:41):
action movies, a lot of bad CGI. But it also
tried to work in some comedy, and when the comedy's
not working and the action wasn't exciting, the whole movie
just feels like a mess. It tries to be a
wedding rom com but then also obviously tries to be
a diehard parody. It wasn't over the top enough to

(48:02):
be ridiculous funny and not serious enough to feel like,
oh man, this is kind of a crazy situation when
if you think about it, if you went to a
wedding and suddenly it was taken over by a bunch
of hardcore dudes with guns and tattoos and big muscles,
that would be a terrifying situation, And in any other tone,

(48:22):
this movie would be a lot more serious. There would
be more consequences. If somebody got shot at a wedding,
that would be a really big deal. But here everybody
kind of shrugs it off. It feels normal to a
lot of people, so again, the tone just was not
right for this movie to create any kind of sense
of realism, and it wasn't wacky enough to feel like

(48:43):
a slapstick comedy. So at number three, I have Brideheart
at number two again the same premise pretty much as
back in Action The Family Planned too. How did this
movie get a sequel on Apple TV as Mark Wahlberg
who is essentially playing the same person he's played in
every single movie in the last three years, which Mark

(49:04):
Wahlberg has kind of just turned into a streaming actor
where I don't remember the last time I paid money
to go to the theater to see a Mark Wahlberg movie.
And I have to imagine he is doing pretty well
doing all these movies on Apple and Amazon Prime, but
he's not really at that level anymore where he is
even trying to put out a movie in theaters. Maybe

(49:26):
he doesn't really care about that aspect anymore and he
just wants to see the check clear. He wants to
go around and promote these movies, post them on Instagram,
and he likes that lifestyle without them having to have
a theatrical release. But much like the movies we were
talking about on this list, he plays somebody who used
to be a secret agent and now he is trying

(49:47):
to live a normal family life. But obviously in the sequel,
his family has now figured out about his past and
they're a little bit more okay with it, and I
almost think that makes this sequel worse them knowing and
him not having to keep it a secret about his past.
Kit Harrington from Game of Thrones is in this movie
who plays one of the worst villains of all time,

(50:09):
where not worse than that he is a bad person
and a good villain, just a really terrible villain all
the way around. I hate a villain who is so
flimsy that it feels like, why is this person even
a threat? Why is anybody even caring about taking this
guy down? Because his entire plan made no sense. It

(50:29):
just felt really lazy. The jokes were atrocious, to the
point that I don't even think they were trying to
make this movie funny for its audience, which is trying
to be like a family friendly action movie. But this
entire movie felt like a waste of time. And the
only reason I finished it is because I knew if
I didn't, I couldn't include it on this list. But

(50:50):
this is awful, and they also kind of tried to
make it a Christmas movie and there was very little
Christmas in it. So after this one, I'm out. If
they make the Family Plan three, I am not going
to torture myself through that. I'll still give Mark Wahlberg
a chance. He's put out some okay streaming movies in
the last couple of years, but this franchise is not it.

(51:11):
I'm ready for it to be done. But at number
one the worst movie of twenty twenty five, War of
the World's on Prime Video with ice Cube Eva Longoria.
This movie was never supposed to see the light of day.
They made it during the pandemic. The only reason I
watched this is because TikTok convinced me that it was
so bad, the worst movie ever made. And it was

(51:32):
almost to the point that I was like, I don't
even want to spend my time watching something so bad.
But I had to know for myself, because sometimes when
things get beaten so much online, it's kind of a
snowball effect of everybody hyping up how bad a movie is.
That maybe sometimes I think it can't be that bad.
War of the World is that bad? The entire movie

(51:54):
takes place over Microsoft teams, not even Zoom or Sky
Microsoft teams. It is so ridiculous in the way that
ice Cube is essentially sitting in an office trying to
prevent an alien invasion and the entire world crumbling around
him from a chair in his laptop, and he's hacking

(52:18):
into phones, hacking into security cams, sending people Amazon gift cards.
It really felt like a big Amazon commercial because they
incorporate all these things of like, oh, we got to
get him something quick, let's get on Amazon dot com.
We'll send it via drone. The entire thing was wild.
The movie is also literally unfinished. There are parts where

(52:40):
you can see the green screen reflection in ice Cube's eyes.
I think his worst performance ever because the director wasn't
even in the room with him. It sounds entirely like
ice Cube just has his script sitting a little bit
off camera and he is just reading it like, oh man,
the world is really going going down here. Let me

(53:01):
hump on my computer and see if I can take
these guys down. Click. There is some crazy reactions that
he has to really serious things, and I don't want
to ruin at all. If you decide to go watch
this movie, but there are moments where he should be
a lot more sad or shocked, and he has just
such a flat delivery. And I can't believe they put

(53:22):
this together and actually put it out into the world.
But the only redeeming quality this movie had is I
now have a go to answer whenever somebody asked me
what is the worst movie I have ever watched? So
not only the worst movie of the last year, but
now goes down on my list of the worst movie
of all time. I can't believe this movie was even made.

(53:45):
Some of my honorable mentions include The Accountant two, which
I think just because I had higher expectations for it.
Because The Accountant one is a good movie, does action
pretty well, has some intense moments. Nefflex character in that
movie just felt more like a unique person, and in
the account At too, he felt more like a cartoon character.

(54:07):
So I don't think it's one of the worst movies ever.
It's just a huge decline from one to two that
it surprised me and disappointed me. I will also put
in my honorable mentions, I know what you did last
summer Again, it was more so that I was disappointed
in this requel. Happy Gilmore Too was also a big disappointment.
Although I didn't really expect that movie to be good.

(54:28):
From the moment that the trailer dropped and I saw
how much they were focusing on all the cameos, I
knew there was no way it was going to live
up to expectations or be anything close to the original
Happy Gilmore, and I have to kind of just accept
that that was just supposed to be a fun movie,
turn your brain off, have some nostalgia, but I really
wish that that entire thing would have been handled differently,

(54:51):
because the first maybe twenty minutes of the movie had potential,
and then it just quickly said, Okay, we're just gonna
do whatever we want. Throw in bad Bunny and Travis
Kelce also an honorable mentioned Good Fortune with Aziz I'm sorry,
Seth Rogan and Keanu Reeves. Again, I think this movie
was just the fact that I had higher expectations because
I love all three of those actors, and the movie

(55:13):
just did not deliver. Was not that funny, was not
that interesting, and felt like it should have come out
probably fifteen years ago. But that is the list. Before
I go, I got to get my listeners shout out
of the week. This week, I'm going over to my
Instagram dms and shouting out Kendra, who actually asked me
a question. She said, I need to know your thoughts

(55:36):
on this season of Stranger Things. I know it's not
a movie, but please do a review in an episode.
I do want to talk about it because I have
been watching Stranger Things since twenty sixteen along with a
lot of people, and it's crazy to me that this
is only the fifth season in nine years, because twenty
twenty six would have been the tenth anniversary of Stranger
Things ended in twenty twenty five, so in the almost

(55:58):
ten years this show is ex that we've only got
five seasons. I think about forty episodes, and I have
been invested in it for so long, and I think
every season has been great. It is rare that a
show maintains the level of quality that I believe Stranger
Things has maintained over the years. I love season one,
Season two was okay, love season three. Season four was

(56:22):
my favorite by far. I really really enjoyed season five.
I was so close to it being my favorite season
out of all of them. And if you want to
hop out of this right now, I will get a
little bit into spoiler territory. But I also feel like
it was such a huge moment in pop culture. I
could not get away from seeing stranger things on my feed.

(56:43):
If for some reason, you haven't watched the finale yet,
or if you haven't started the show at all, and
it wouldn't take you that long to start from the
very beginning to the end. Now, I will get into
spoiler territory here now, so thank you for listening. You
won't get the full sign off, but I will get
my thoughts. Now you have been warned. All right, spoiler
territory here now. I thought that season five lacks some

(57:08):
intensity where season four was so building up to this
amazing moment. Vecna. In season four, I thought, was this
unstoppable force. He became my favorite villain. I thought, how
are they going to get out of this? How are
they going to defeat Vecna? There were so many great
moments with Max and all the characters in season four
just shined Eddie all the things that season four is

(57:31):
still my favorite of all time because I feel like
that was where all the best action was the best fighting.
It was an impossible task to finish this show with
all the things that happened with COVID and all the
things getting spread out, the kids getting older, which I
also think was a big factor, Millie Bobby Brown becoming
such a huge star, everybody starting to branch out that

(57:51):
I am surprised and just grateful we got this conclusion
that I feel closed out the series in a really
good way. But it was possible task. My expectations were
so high because of how big the action got in
season four, and I felt like the intensity just wasn't
there in season five. It was more a way of

(58:13):
closing out their story, and he became less about Vecna
and more about all the characters saying goodbye to their childhood.
Because I did not like the way Vecna went out.
It was too easy. He became so little of a threat,
and the actual last fight between him and the entire
crew of Stranger Things just felt really quick and rushed,

(58:35):
and they were focusing so much on all the side
characters that I thought, are they trying to make a
spinoff series here? But they're not going to do that.
There is a spinoff series coming, but it's not going
to be set in the same town with the same characters.
I really thought that's why they were spending so much
time building up all these side characters and not focusing
on the main cast. And it just felt like I

(58:57):
wanted more bloodshed, which maybe that's cynic in me. I
wanted to see more of the main characters die. I
am in the camp of I believe that Eleven actually died.
I think the story that Mike told himself was just
to make himself feel better, and that's what he told
all the other kids. That she survived and she is

(59:20):
out there living somewhere peacefully in a countryside somewhere, and
that was the only way that they could move on.
I do love the sentiment there, though, because, like I said,
I think the reason some people are upset the way
it went out. And even though I don't like how
easy it was to defeat Vekna, it wasn't a story

(59:40):
about that. It wasn't a story about the upside down.
The real story was about people growing up and saying
goodbye to their childhood, and in order for them to
move on into this next phase of life, that is
what had to happen. And I do believe that she
actually died, not initially though Initially I was like ah,
she's still alive. And I think that's also what I

(01:00:01):
didn't want to happen. I wanted things to feel final.
I didn't want this kind of door open and at
the end, if she was going to die, I wanted
her to actually die, because then it felt like nothing
was ever on the line. But I do love the
way they wrapped it up with that final campaign. I
thought it was a great sendoff. I got emotional during

(01:00:21):
that scene with Elle and Mike. I didn't fully cry,
but I got a little teary eye just because that
was the moment that was them saying goodbye. Although whenever
it was like still an hour left and they'd already
defeated VECDA, I'm like, where are we going to go
from here? I just felt like things started to get
a little bit too convenient. Even when Steve was going down,
I wanted him to really die. So again, I think

(01:00:43):
it was a little bit the synic in me that
wanted to see all these fires just go out and
there'd be some real turmoil in order to feel like, Okay,
this was an ending. I didn't really want a twist
of any kind. I just wanted people to go and
it have a little bit more emotional weight, but instead
it ended as a service to the fans. It ended

(01:01:06):
in a way that I think made the most people happy.
I do really love that they really emphasized how big
the fan base was and how much they tried to
give back to everybody. So I think to those people
who are on an entirely different level of fandom when
it comes to stranger things, which I don't think I'm
at that top ten level, I think those people got
what they really wanted for me, where it's not my tier,

(01:01:29):
one of the things I'm a fan of. I felt
like it was really good. I would give it when
it comes to season five as a whole four out
of five Vecna's and I still believe that season four
was a five out of five. Overall. I still think
it is one of the best TV shows of all time,
easily the best Netflix show of all time. But it

(01:01:51):
makes me excited that we can still get this in
the streaming era, because I think that long running shows
like this are gonna go away. Even though there were
only five seasons, it did span over ten years, and
in a world where we're getting so many just quick
limited releases, it is hard to have a show have
success over seasons like this, I feel like a Stranger

(01:02:13):
Things taking place over ten years, where you get to
see these actors grow up so much, might be a
relic of the past. So to me, it was also
kind of staying good behind at that because you can't
really go and see that many long running shows anymore,
just because people get famous and then they want to
go do other big things, which I hope all these

(01:02:33):
people have success outside of Stranger Things. Obviously, Millie Bobby
Brown is probably the biggest breakout star, but then you
have Maya Hawk, you have beIN Wolfhart. I think I
would like to see them all have success, even though
a lot of them are probably set up for life
now after this. I think Millie Bobby Brown made the
most in season five, making one point two to five

(01:02:54):
million dollars per episode, and then you had like Hopper
making one point two million, and all the other casts
still made pretty good money. I think it was like
eight seventy five. The next tier was like seven hundred thousand,
and then like half a mil per episode, So they're
doing all right. But that was my thoughts on the finale.

(01:03:15):
Kelsey and I are now going to start it from
the very beginning because she has never seen it. But
I think we can get through it pretty quick because
there are that many seasons when you look at it.
So thank you for joining me in twenty twenty six.
I hope you stick around a while. Tell a friend
if you want to go subscribe to the YouTube channel
YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro And until next time,

(01:03:35):
go out and watch good movies and I will talk
to you later

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