MOVIE MIKE's MOVIE PODCAST - Top 10 Movies to Watch on Airplane with John Farrar + Movie Review: The Rivals of Amziah King + Trailer Park: Heart of the Beast - The Bobby Bones Show

Episode Transcript
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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 will be covering
the top ten movies to watch while traveling on an airplane.
I have John, who is a writer over at Picks
Media hopping on. We are going to talk about what
makes the perfect airplane movie and each share five of
our picks that we think next time you're traveling you

(00:22):
need to watch these movies on an airplane. In the
movie review, I'll be talking about Matthew McConaughey and the
Rivals of Amaziah King and my experience going to a
screening with Matthew McConaughey not only in attendance, but also
doing a musical performance after the screening of the movie.
And in the trailer park, we'll be talking about Brad
Pitt in Heart of the Beast and why I think

(00:44):
he is officially entering his older action hero phase. So
thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed.
Got a lot to get to so let's get to it,
and now let's talk movies podcast Network. Movie Mike's Movie
Podcast Today, I am talking with my friend John, who

(01:05):
is a writer over at Picks Media. If you're not
familiar with picks. They actually have this really cool collection
of free email newsletters that basically help you find something
good to watch, much like we do on this podcast,
but they also cover TV shows, books, podcasts, pop culture.
What is worth your time when it comes to what

(01:25):
you want to dive into on any of your screens.
John is a writer over there does some fantastic work,
and I thought he'd be the perfect person to talk
to you about the top ten movies to watch while
traveling on an airplane. So let's get into it, John,
how's it going.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's going well, Mike, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
You're ready to talk to some movies?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I am so ready.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
I'm super excited to love chatting movies with a fellow
movie nerd.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
We're gonna get into one of my favorite topics, the
airplane movie. What makes a great airplane movie? We'll get
into that, but first I kind of just wanted to
get to know you in movies. So what was your
childhood movie theater? Like?

Speaker 3 (02:01):
I didn't go often. The one that I did go
to occasionally was eventually turned into a like twenty one
plus theater as I was getting a little older, and
now it's just gone. But I do remember it had
an arcade that I love to spend time in, and
other than that, I think it was just a pretty
like standard suburban movie theater, like nothing, nothing too crazy

(02:25):
about it.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
So what switched it for you? Because now you were
covering movies, what was the what was the time period
in your life or what was like maybe the one
movie that switched it for you?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, I wanted to be a video editor, like I
loved videos, I loved like new media. I just wasn't
familiar with movies necessarily. So I went to film school,
and obviously in film school, the you have to watch
a lot of movies for your classes, and so as
I wanted to get better at editing, I just watched
a lot of you know, movies that I had to

(02:55):
check off the bucket list. And this might be a
weird one. I don't know why it like made me
love movies, but I watched World Trade Center with Nick Cage. Okay,
it was like a requirement for one of my classes.
I don't know why I had to watch that one,
but I just remembered watching that movie and I was like, oh,
I see why everyone talks about Nick Cage, like this

(03:15):
guy's just awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
And I think ever since then, I've just loved movies.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
What do you think is the biggest thing you learn
in film school? I'm kind of fascinated with it. I
don't think I've ever met anybody who actually went to
film school.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
I guess I would say that a lot of people
in film school don't become filmmakers, which is, you know,
like you a lot of people that I went to
school with are working film adjacent or some role in
the film industry, but like almost nobody that I went
to school with is like a you know, director, like
trying to be a director or a working writer.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Not to say they.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Don't want to do that eventually, but like I went
to film school with no desire to even work in movies.
I wanted to work in like with YouTubers and like
new media, like.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
The internet media.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
It's just weird because I think it's the sort of
thing where like, if someone's really talented and is going
to be a filmmaker, they're gonna pursue that and like
make that happen, whether they go to film school or not.
I think we've seen that with a lot of you know, YouTubers,
like the YouTuber Chris Stuckman, like he wanted to be
a filmmaker. He financed himself and he made it happen,
and he made a movie. And I think Shelby Oaks. Yeah,

(04:19):
Shelby Oaks.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
I was.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
I was a backer for that.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh really, I love that guy.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
But yeah, I guess the takeaway from film school is
like I learned a lot, but like I wouldn't say
it was necessary to do what I wanted to do,
Like I learned most of the stuff on my own.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
All Right, what is a movie that everybody loves but
you do not understand all the love for it?

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I would have to say Scrooged with Bill Murray. Apparently
it's like a beloved Christmas classic, and I just truly
don't know what people see in it. Like I tried
to watch it with my fiance. We watched twenty minutes.
All the characters were unlikable. We just did not see
where was going. And we looked at each other like

(05:01):
simultaneously and we're like, we should probably just turn this off, right,
And I haven't gone back, so maybe it gets better.
But if a movie doesn't capture my attention in twenty minutes,
I don't want to waste my time on it.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
You think it's the movie itself, where you think it's
Bill Murray. Because as you say that, I don't know
if I'm that big of a Bill Murray fan where
I feel like he is somebody who is so beloved.
I guess me growing up in the nineties, I didn't
experience that Bill Murray takeover in like the eighties, so
I feel like he's somebody who people have told me
that he's the funniest person, that all his movies are great.

(05:35):
But thinking about it, I don't know that I love
a single non Ghostbusters Bill Murray movie.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Have you seen Groundhog Today?

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (05:44):
I love that one.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
I just feel like there's so much hype around all
of his movies as being the funniest movies ever, And
then I watched it and I'm like, you know what,
They're fine, But I guess I just kind of missed
the Bill Murray train.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
I get what you're saying, like, I don't think any
of his comedies are like, you know, Gutbusters.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I'm not like dying laughing.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
I also but it might just be like a product
of the time, Like if you grew up with that
the humor was different than and you know, I feel
like for people a bit older than us, they just
resonate more with his humor.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Maybe I don't know.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Because I feel like by the time, like Bill Murray
was introduced to me, it was already at the point
where he didn't care where like kind of the aura
around him is like he's gonna show up. Whenever he
shows up, he's impossible to get a hold of, and
he's just kind of doing movies to get the paycheck.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
I would agree with you. I've seen his stuff. It's good,
but uh, he's definitely not one of my favorites.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
All Right, let's get into talking about the best airplane movies.
What do you think? I'm just fascinated with this, So
in your opinion, what do you think makes a great
airplane movie?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yes, I just wrote a whole piece about this because
I'm very passionate about the topic.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, tell people a little bit about what you do.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
I write Four Picks Media. We are a email newsletter
company for entertainment, so we have a suite of different
free newsletters. I write our TV and Movie Picks newsletter,
which just keeps people in the know on the trendiest
and most hyped new releases, whether it's streaming in theaters.
But then I also write a more personal, opinion based

(07:15):
newsletter called worth the Watch, where I go deeper. I
do like, you know, industry analysis, deeper reviews and breakdowns
of you know, which streaming services are worth it, which
ones are not?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Things like that.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
And last Friday, my most recent Worth the Watch was
all about airplane movies. And I have like five key
factors which I'm curious if you agree with or disagree
with them. The five are like escapism is the most important.
It has to be an escapist type of media to
like make me forget that I'm in the sky and flying,

(07:49):
you know, bullet going like five hundred miles an hour.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
I think sometimes when I think of an airplane movie,
I think of something that's kind of on a more
boring topic that I wouldn't dive into all the I
don't fully need to escape. I guess I'm a little
a little bit different.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
There, that's fair.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, So you're saying like you would since you're in
an airplane for like a set amount of time, you're
down to dive into something that you know is either
a long movie or like a thoughtful.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Movie that you maybe wouldn't watch other wise, I think.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
So, I don't think I want to escape so much
in the sky, that's fair.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
I think for me, it's like I need to mentally
escape because I do get pretty anxious and so like
I just want to have its forget like where I am,
for like like it needs to suck me in.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
So I don't think about like the turbulence or anything.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Okay, I think we need to dive into that for
a second. Where does your airplane anxiety come from?

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I don't know, dude.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
It's weird because as a kid, I had no airplane anxiety.
It's just like getting older. I think I'm just more
aware of all the the you know, doors getting ripped
off mid flight.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
And they're having some crazy snorrowing disasters.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
When was the first time you flew?

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Honestly, I've been flying my whole life. I don't really remember.
I was definitely very young.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
I think that's why I have some kind of putting
this together now, why I don't have anxieties around certain
things that some people do. I didn't fly for the
first time until I was probably twenty five. I also
didn't really grow up going to the dentist because we
couldn't afford the dentist. And it wasn't until about maybe
four or five years ago where I got like all
my teeth fixed. That I didn't have dentist anxiety because

(09:21):
at the time I was going as an adult, I
just felt grateful to finally be there, being able to
fix my teeth. So kind of the same thing. Whenever
I first flew, I was so mesmerized by it because
I thought it was something I would never do that
I never really felt that anxiety. But I guess I
could see if you've been flying your whole life different.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
I mean yeah, I guess, like if it's your first
time flying in your twenties, you're just excited to be
to be doing it.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
I remember I was so excited. I like filmed the
entire take off it. I would just I would look.
I didn't have I didn't watch any movies, I didn't
listen to anything. I literally just looked out the window
the entire time because I was so excited.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
I mean, it is amazing.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
I think in some sense it's kind of sad that
we try to like clo the windows and just turn
on a movie when it's like we're doing something so beautiful.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, and that wore off after about two or three
years when we were just touring like crazy and we're
you know, traveling NonStop. That got a little well yeah, okay,
so escapism is your first one.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Escapism for me, the second one is that it should
have no airplane scenes periods. I can agree with stop yeah,
no Red Eye with Killian Murphy or like snakes on
a plane Final Destination. Yeah, nothing like that, just because
I feel like, as a rule of thumb, if there's
ever an airplane scene in a movie, it's either neutral

(10:35):
or bad in the sense that like there's never like
something super great happening on an airplane in a movie.
Next step is it has to be safe for work,
you know, nothing too spicy or steamy, because things just
get weird. Like my fiance was watching uh uh what
Wuthering Heights.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Oh yeah, I can't do.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
That, and she got a lot of a lot of
looks from people beside her.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
I mean, I think every one's experienced, Like the grandpa
in front of you is watching something super inappropriate and
you're just like, dude, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 (11:05):
I think it does depend if you watch it on
an airplane. Are you watching on? What are you watching on? Uh?

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Usually, like I guess my iPad or the built in
screen on the if it has one of those.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Because I think there are different rules there. If you're
watching on your iPad, I think you could get away
with dimming the screen down a little bit and then
turning it just to you. But if you're watching on
the back of the seat, T like, you can't do that.
Like everybody's gonna see that.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
That's fair. I think that's a good rule. If you
have an iPad, you can just like put it down
in your If you go and step.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Further in your like on your phone, you could pretty
much like you could like have a hoodie and just
fully get down in there, and then I really don't
want to know what you're watching.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
The next one is okay, I'm really curious about your
thoughts here. I said that a little action is actually
not a bad thing. I think that an action movie
works well on an airplane specifically because I think like
the built in camera shake from an action movie sort
of lends it self well with like the subtle turbulence
and shaking on a flight, and it almost makes you

(12:05):
forget that the turbulence is happening, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I think I love an action movie on an airplane.
If it would have been action, that wouldn't have been
great in theaters, and it's like kind of tolerable on
an airplane. I feel like that that's where I could
get down with like a B level action movie.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
I actually didn't write about that, but that's a great
point that like something about like a B level movie,
just like a bad movie in general, is kind of
fun on an airplane. Like a movie that if I
saw it in a theater, I'd be mad that I
spent money on it. If I watch it on an airplane,
I have a great time.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, because you're kind of you're locked in there and
you're like, I gotta watch something. Sometimes your level of
criticism just kind of goes down where you're if you
just watch something that's entertaining, it has some pretty decent action,
you didn't really have to pay money for it. I
feel like it goes a lot further on an airplane.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
That's such a good point.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Like, did you ever see that movie Pokemon Detective Pikachu?

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Did I see Detective Pikachu?

Speaker 2 (13:00):
You're talking literally bulb behind.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'm literally I just pull up a poke ball. I
freaking love the Tective Pikachu. But that is also a
great airplane movie. I agree. I not only saw that
movie in theaters, but anytime I see it on a
Southwest flight, I am clicking and watching Detective Pikachu. And
if I don't finish it on the plane, I'm going
home and finishing watching Detective Pikachu.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
I love Pokemon as well. It grew up playing it.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
But I feel like, personally, if I saw that in
a theater, I'd be like that was kind of underwhelming,
or like it could have been better. But then I
watched it on an airplane recently and I was like,
that was amazing.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, as a big Pokemon fan, I agree that that's
not the Pokemon movie I wanted. I was like, Okay,
we're finally getting a big theatrical release. This is gonna
be amazing. Oh it's a Detective Pikachu. Like it took
the greatest thing ever and automatically demoted it because that's
not what we want. So I remember going to see
it in theaters and I was excited. I got my
free Pokemon card where you get it whenever you go

(13:52):
watch the movie. And then I saw it and I
was like, it was all right, but it does hit
a lot better on an airplane.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Okay, So this is a tangent not related to what
we're just talking about. But I found this the other day.
Did you ever have one of these?

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Did I have one of them? I had the whole collection.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Oh hell yeah, I found this.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
I visited my parents' house the other day and I
was going through some jors and I found this nineteen
ninety eight Jiggleepuff gold Pokemon card and I thought it
was awesome.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
So that came in the Burger King toys. I was
a huge Burger King kid, and I remember when those
came out. I tried to collect every single one of them,
and I think I had them all. But the thing was,
I got to an age where Pokemon became not cool,
and I sold them all at a garrote or a
yard sale. So I don't have them anymore. And I've
actually been looking on like Facebook marketplace to try and

(14:42):
find them and buy them all again. So eventually I
will rebuild my collection. But that was one of those
things that I so regret that I got rid.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Of Yeah, Oh that's tough.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
I feel like everyone has some of that, Like, like
I have some old gaming consoles I really regret getting
rid of.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Well, sorry, sorry to send us off course a little bit.
And that's what I love talking about poke.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
You can always said it off of course for Pokemon.
So what we did. We each have our five airplane
movies that we would recommend, and we'll kind of talk
about these each, So you kick us out first, what
is your top airplane movie?

Speaker 3 (15:13):
This one I just watched recently. It's a super new one,
but I just have to recommend it. It's called power Ballad.
It is from the director of Once and Singh Street,
so he's sort of a musical legend, and it's starring
Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas and it was so much fun.
It came out earlier this year, and I just think

(15:34):
it's such a shame that it flopped like it apparently
did terrible at the box office. Else nobody even knew
that it was out. My coworkers didn't even know it
was out, and they're all big movie nerds. But there's
a brand new Nick Jonas song for the movie, and
Paul Rudd is singing the whole time, so it's hard
not to love it.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
And I went to go see it in theaters and
I thought, this is going to be one of those
movies that is going to be a very difficult sell
because there's there's nothing really that like stands out about it.
But it's so good, like Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas together,
him trying to like reignite his music career, the whole
battle that they have going on between each other, and
the way this movie leaves you feeling at the very

(16:14):
end is just like, ah, I just felt like this
warm musical hug exactly.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
So you were one of the few who did see
it in theaters.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
I did see in theaters because I had to hear that.
It's because my wife is a huge Jonas Brothers fan.
I love Paul, like Paul Rudd to me, doesn't make
a bad movie, and I just felt like the two
of them together, I just saw them on their press tour.
I'm like, of course, you put those guys together in
a movie, But I thought, what do you define as
like an you said it bombed obviously at the box office,
How do you define a movie success? Right now? Because

(16:43):
I feel like there's some great movies coming out this
year that even though they're not successful in theaters, I
feel like there's still good movies. Is there like a
second life to like what is the what determines a
successful movie these days?

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (16:57):
I mean when I say Bombed, I just met like financially,
they definitely lost money.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, you can't get away from that that it did
lose money.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, like it did lose money.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
But I agree, like there's there's a lot of movies
that lose money but are like objectively great movies and
they find a big audience like a couple years later
on streaming or once you know TikTokers start talking about
him ten years later. So I yeah, I think this
is one of those unfortunate scenarios where people didn't know
about it or there wasn't enough draw like maybe they

(17:29):
thought Nick Jonas and Paul Rudd together would be like
get all the girlies to go to the theater or something.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
I feel like studios are kind of overestimating that right now,
of like how big fandoms are where you think, like
you get a famous musician like Nick Jonas that it's
instantly going to bring people to the theater and it's
not working that way. I even think about like The
Rock with the Smashing Machine, how dude has millions and
millions of followers, but that movie bombed at the box
office because it's not so much anymore about who's in

(17:55):
the movie. It's about what you're actually selling in the movie.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
Totally. Yeah, I kind of think the age of like
movie stars in general are kind of over in the
sense that, you know, unless it's like Leonardo DiCaprio or
you know, someone who's like in the top three, you know,
like Tom Holland. Like, I really don't think that a
big name is gonna like put butts in seats in

(18:19):
theaters anymore. Like it it has to be both like
a big franchise or an adaptation of something really popular,
like It's it's weird how people are not showing up
specifically for actors as much as.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
They used to.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
I mean, even look at what happened this year with Obsession,
Like that movie on paper should not have been as
big as of a hit as it was. But it's
over here crushing and beating things like Mandalorian and Grogu
because it's not about who's in it anymore. It's about creating,
Like a moment in the theater that people actually want
to go experience and not just like I think there's
also a little bit of social media to it as well,
because you can go on Instagram and see Nick Jonas

(18:55):
all the time. He's on Instagram, he's on TikTok, he's everywhere.
I feel like it takes away from the exclusivity of
just being able to see those people at the theater
and pay money to see them because they're around all
the time. Back in the nineties, you would only see
these people when they were at award shows in magazines,
and now they're everywhere all the time, where it feels like,
why am I going to pay to see them on

(19:15):
another screen that I just get it on the screen
at home, unless they're doing something that I'm really excited about.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Totally.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, they used to be like this mysterious figure who
you see in a movie and you don't know anything
about them, and you don't really you know, you don't
want to know anything about them. They're just like that
mysterious movie star. But now they're they're everywhere.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, I think they're only may be like two real
movie stars right now to me that have still had
that mistique to him. I think Leonardo DiCaprio was one
because you really only see him at the Oscars and
then when he's out like trying to save the world.
And I think Zendeia still like Zendeia and Tom Holland
still kind of keep their relationship secret. She's not on
social media a whole lot, and she really she happens

(19:56):
to be at a lot this year just because she
has so many movies coming out this year. Like she's
kind of like that one. Like after this year, I
feel like she's gonna go away, We're not gonna see
her anymore. And then when she's back, we're gonna be like,
of course, we'll go pay money to go season day again.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, I would agree. I think those are the two
that would come to my mind as well. I saw
an interesting like video essay one time about how Leo
specifically has maintained his prevalence at like the top of
the movie star sphere because of the fact that he
has yet to do any streaming shows or streaming movies

(20:32):
aside from that one during the pandemic called Don't Look Up.
That's his only streaming original movie that he's ever done,
and other than that, they're all theatrical and and the
whole thesis was that it just makes him more like
mysterious and more desirable because you don't see him every
time you turn on Netflix, you know, like he I
don't know. I just thought that was really interesting that

(20:53):
everyone else has done streaming stuff.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
And he also hasn't done any sequels except for He's
gonna be in Heat too. But I think his role
was that he wasn't in Heat one, so he can
be in Heat too. I guess that's the work, right, Like, no, no,
I could be in Heat too, as long as I
was in the first one. Yeah, that's very interesting about Leo.
All right, my first airplane movie. I also have a
recent one, also music related, I have Michael, and I

(21:19):
think it's because I don't really love music biopicks. I
feel like they are oftentimes overrated. I feel like they
gloss over a lot of the gritty details that I want.
I also think any music biopick you make, the person
should be dead, like I just can't. I just don't
think you should make a music biopick when the person
is still living. I feel like it changes a lot
with them having any put in the movie. And then

(21:42):
being able to kind of change what the story is
and leave out some things. So at least when Michael,
that parameter was met. But I feel like Michael would
be a great airplane movie just because I like watching
music movies on an airplane because I have headphones and
I feel like all the music scenes just sounds so
much better.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, you're so right.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Sometimes at home this is so nerdy of me, but
sometimes I'll take my you know, this is a really
long chord, It's like a ten foot chord, and sometimes
I'll plug it into my giant TV and watch with
headphones on the couch because the music is so much
better with headphones.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
I think sound design is probably an underrated thing when
it comes to filmmaking because you don't always notice it
when it's great, but you definitely notice it when it's bad.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
For sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
So I think for me, like I like watching any
kind of music biopic like a Michael on a Plane
Bohemian Rhapsody, I would also kind of put in that
category where it's like I kind of know what I'm
going into. I don't need to watch something that's going
to really challenge me and need to be dialed into
any music biopic that you haven't seen yet. I say,
save it for an airplane.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
That's a great call. I love that.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Alright, What do you got next?

Speaker 3 (22:58):
My next one is sort of a romantic drama called
Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
It's a French movie. I don't have have you ever
seen it?

Speaker 1 (23:08):
I'm not tell me about it, okay.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
It's this romance about a painter in I think it's
the seventeenth century who was hired to paint a portrait
of a very wealthy lady. I don't know her exact title,
but she's hired to go to this remote island and
paint a portrait of this very famous lady. And they
they end up falling in love and it's a but

(23:29):
it's at a time period where they cannot, you know,
obviously love each other. Like it's what's that romance trope
called where they like they can never be together.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
I'm blanking on the.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Trope, but anyway, it's it's just an amazing romance where
not a lot is said. It's very like subtle. Basically,
the whole romance is sort of told between like silence
and eye contact and like the subtle glances.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
And I don't know.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
I just like movies like that where so much is
said with so little, you know, like there's not a
lot of dialogue. But it's really powerful. And I included
it because I watched it on an airplane and I
just was like crying, trying to like hold in the sobbing.
And I'm curious if you have ever felt this way?
Have you ever cried from a movie on an airplane?

Speaker 1 (24:16):
I don't know how many times I've seen it at
this point, but every time I watch Blue Beetle, it
makes me cry. It is the DC movie. I think
that movie is very important to me just because it
was seeing the first Mexican lead in a superhero movie.
But there is a moment in that movie. I won't
ruin it for anybody who hasn't seen that yet, but
it still hits me every single time, and I know
it's coming, and it's weird because I can't stop myself

(24:39):
from feeling that that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
I honestly got to love with a movie. Is it
like the same scene.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
It's the same scene. I know it's coming. I feel
like the emotion of it should be just completely dead
at me at this point, just because I've seen it
probably at least five times, but still that scene hits
every single time at the exact same moment where it's
not like a steady, like sobbing cry, but it's like
my eyes instantly water up every single time. I think

(25:07):
it's any movie that has anything to do with Mexican
culture for me, because if I think of other movies
that I've watched on an airplane, there's a moment in
Selena that it gets me too. So anything like that
I see myself in and it hits an emotional level,
it still makes me cry, no matter of what totally fair.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
I hear you, what's your next what's your next?

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Pick? I have Bumblebee from twenty eighteen. I feel like
this is an underrated Transformers movie we were talking about,
and I feel it's because in this one, the action
isn't as great as it is in those first I
would say two, maybe even the first three Transformers movies.
This one feels a little bit more kind of et
like a little bit where it's kind of more family friendly.

(25:50):
It's more about a coming of age story that it
is a Transformers movie. And this was one I didn't
go see in theaters, just because at that point I
was kind of earn on Transformers after the last one.
I was like, I'm not going to watch Mark Wahlberg
yell at Transformers anymore. But I really like Hailey Steinfeld,
and I thought, this is one that is probably one

(26:11):
of the best Transformers movies.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Damn see that.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
That's a movie that's been sitting on my watch list
just because, like you know, I saw the reviews and
I was just like, yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna go for it.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
I think if I saw it in theaters, though, I
wouldn't have been as interested and thought it was as good.
But I think because I did watch it for the
first time on an airplane and I was fully dialed in,
maybe the action does it come across as well as
it would have on a big screen. But I feel
like in that setting it just hit really well.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Love that.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
What do you have next?

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Next?

Speaker 3 (26:44):
I got Tron Legacy. I watched it for the first
time recently, like within the last year. Was my first
time ever seeing it, and it was on an airplane,
and it was just so much fun, like It's bright
knee on colors. It caught my attention and mainly I
included it for the soundtrack from Daft Punk, like it
just is so catchy. Even that the New Tron movie

(27:05):
as well has a great soundtrack, but this one in
particular is just iconic. So anyway, I just had to
include that.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Have you always been a Tron guy?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
No?

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Like I I really I watched all three movies this
year for the first time, and I didn't know what
to expect, and I had a great time.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
I think that's one of those sci fi franchises I
just never fully got into, probably a little bit before me.
But if I had to go back and rewatch, what
you think I should start with this one?

Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, I mean I think it's kind of agreed upon
that Tron Legacy is the best one.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah. I think everyone loves it.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
I had a great time with it, So if you
ever want to give it another shot, start with Legacy.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
One of my psycho things right now that I feel
about movies is I feel like you can hop into
any franchise wherever you want. At this point. Is because
I feel like there's so many movies, and there's so
many like prequels, I just find like I just want
to watch the best one to start. I don't care
if I need to want, I don't want to do
the homework. I think even if if I told somebody
to go watch Star Wars now for the first time,
I'd be like, just start with the best one. You

(28:04):
don't need to take any order. Or especially with Marvel
movies right now, with like Doomsday coming out at the
end of the year, everybody's like, how many movies do
I have to watch, you know, to be caught up.
I'm like, just just watch the best one. I think
if you like it enough, you'll go back and discover
the other ones. And I don't want to give somebody
the four movies you actually need to watch in order

(28:26):
to understand the fifth one that's coming out, when I
could just tell them go watch this best one and
if you like that one, then go rediscover the other ones. Otherwise,
if you start with the worst one that happens to
be part one, you're not gonna want to make it
to part two.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
And I feel like a movie, any movie in a franchise,
a new viewer should be able to watch it with
zero contexts and still kind of be able to tell
what's going on. Yeah, I think a movie has kind
of failed if like you have to watch twenty seven
movies to understand what's happening.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah. I just think, especially with mar I'll use Marvel
movies as an example. For the most part, the story
is self contained. You're not going to walk in there
in sixty minutes and you're like, what is happening? I
have no idea who these characters are. I think it
really comes down to there are little details and nods
to things that you're probably not going to pick up on,
or there might be a joke in there somewhere that

(29:17):
other people are laughing at that you don't get. But
I feel like people now feel like they need to
do all this homework to go watch one movie in theaters.
But I feel like, just go watch the movie. You'll
be fine. If not, then I'll pay for your movie.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, I hear you.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
My coworker a few weeks ago when the doomsday trailer dropped,
so that was probably like what three weeks ago, she said,
like someone had calculated, like, all right, if you start today,
you only have to watch two hours of content per
day until it Doomsday drops and then you can get
caught up.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yeah, dude, that is so unreasonable.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
That's way too many movies. All right, my next airplane
movie I have Now You See Me from twenty thirteen.
I was kind of late to the game on these movies,
and it wasn't until I was on a flight that
I thought, Okay, let me give these movies a chance.
And they are actually kind of entertaining. They're that level
of entertainment that if I paid actual money for I
would feel ripped off by. And I did go see

(30:17):
the last one in theaters just because at that point
I was like fully invested in this ranchise. But I
feel like Now You See Me is a very airplane
appropriate movie because, first of all, it has a great
ensemble cast where it almost feels like this entire cast
is wasted on Jesse Eisenberg. What do you, Harrell say?
Like all these people are in this movie like this
should be the greatest movie ever, and they're like doing

(30:38):
card tricks.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, well yeah, I mean it's magic, right, Yeah, it's
been so long.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
That's like the whole thing, right, They're they're magicians.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
They're like the five maybe four Horsemen. And they are
also like this group of like super criminals that like
pull off hest and there's always like a bad guy.
But it comes down to them being magicians.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
Yeah, so it's like Oceans eleven. Yeah, they're magicians exactly.
That in and of itself is like what made it
so fun.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Magic on its own is always just kind of cheesy
and it's a hard sell for me. So I think
that's why I put off watching these movies for so long.
But I feel like, if you are in that setting
of you're in that airplane, you got nothing else to watch,
They're actually entertaining. But it's kind of one of those movies.
I don't really have guilty pleasures because I feel like
if I find enjoyment in anything, like I don't feel

(31:28):
a shame by it. But like the closest thing I
get to a guilty pleasure is probably that Now you
See Me franchise.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Well, my next one is for sure a guilty pleasure
one for me. It is Point Break, but not the
good Keanu Reeves one. It's the Terrible remake from twenty fifteen.
I don't even know who the act I don't even
know who stars in it, but I watched it on
an airplane and it was unhinged and wacky and just
like there's so many action set pieces where they're at

(31:56):
like surfing and then they're like on a mountain with
like wingsuit and it's just bouncing around the globe. And
it was dumb and fun and just like the perfect
brainless entertainment.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
I honestly did not remember that they remade Point Break.
I thought you were gonna say the original Point Break.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, that's actually still a blind spot for me. I've
never seen the original Point Break.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
And you've only seen the see Oh, that's an interesting thing.
You've only seen the remake of a otherwise great movie.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah. I know, almost like it's one of those things
where it's been.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
On my list of like classics I absolutely need to watch,
and I've just never got around to it.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
I feel like that movie holds up too, because a
lot of those movies from that time period, I feel,
we're great when they came out, but they don't really
age well. And I think that's why in twenty fifteen
they decided now is the time to remake this movie.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
Yeah, They're like, we got modern editing, we can make
this epic, and then it was just a complete disaster.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
That's crazy. I don't think I've ever seen I can't
think of any remake that actually Trump's the first movie
at least in the last decade and a half where
it just feels like I feel like we've been more
in like legacy sequel territory, but as far as remaking
an original movie that has actually been better, because I

(33:16):
know there was movies from like the forties and fifties
that were remade that I probably saw for the first time,
like maybe A Star is Born. It's like the closest
I get to thinking like a remake is better than
the original, but those are very, very few and far between.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, that did't end up itself would be a fun
topic sometimes, like diving into like remakes that were better.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
I can't think of any either.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, it's a hard one, all right. My next movie,
also going back to the music genre, I have K
Pop Demon Hunters, And I watched this movie on a
flight maybe a couple of weeks after it came out,
right before it was like super popular and everywhere it
was just on that bubble of like I heard people

(33:56):
talking primarily on TikTok about K Pop Demon Hunters. I'm like,
I gotta watch this movie, Sony animation, And I've never
been so entertained by a movie on a flight. I
think this is my best in flight experience I've ever
had because it was so entertaining from beginning to end,
and I think kind of what you were talking about
earlier about the escapism. It was something about the animation

(34:19):
being so colorful and bright, and then all the songs
were just so hyper pop out of nowhere that that
was kind of my form of escapism, just because I
felt like it was such a treat to my eyes.
But then I have the headphones on with the music
and it just like hits so well. The only thing
I had that was my dilemma with K Pop Demon

(34:40):
Hunters is I felt a little bit weird watching on
a flight, not because of it like the content of it,
just because it's like, oh man, it's probably more like
a teenage girl movie, but like I don't really have
any kind of I will oftentimes be the only adult
at an animated movie just because like I love animation.
I'll go watch an animated movie. I try to go

(35:00):
at like offset times, Like a kid is not going
to go watch Minions at nine pm, so I'll go
at like random odd times. But that was the only
time I felt that there were so many other eyes
around me that I thought, is anybody looking at me?
Like why is this going? Don't watching gay pop? Demon Hunters?

Speaker 3 (35:17):
I totally get that that insecurity. I felt that when
I went to the Super Mario movie in.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Theaters a couple of years ago.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
It was like opening night at like a peak time,
like five PM on a Friday or something, and it
was like parents with their kids that are dressed up
in costumes and then there's just me, like sandwich between
them by myself. Like it's one thing if you go
with like a group of adult friends, but if you're
just like the lone adult, they're like, what is this
guy doing?

Speaker 1 (35:46):
The only animated movie I think I won't go watch
in theaters. Like there's kind of a line of like
Paw patrols in theaters right now, that's kind of the
line I don't I don't cross because I feel like
that straight up kid that is like Toddler infant level
of animation that I feel like I couldn't cross that line.
That's the only one I can't go see in theaters.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, I hear you. I agree.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
I agree with that final Airplane movie. What do you Got?

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (36:11):
My final one is Steven Spielberg's newest movie, Disclosure Day.
I watched it recently on a plane. I tragically missed
it in theaters, and I was like, I have to
check this off the list. He's such a legend and
it was great. I think I kind of agree with
a lot of the reviews that it's not his strongest
uh for a variety of reasons, but he still crushes

(36:33):
it with like the set pieces and the cinematography, and
it just was like very captivating.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
It's an easy watch and I just had a lot
of fun with it. I think that the.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Chase sequences, like when he's trying to run away from
the cops in the car, it all just worked well
on an airplane for me, Like I said earlier, a
little bit of like camera shake puts me at ease
for whatever reason. And yeah, like I'm glad I watched it,
and if you also missed it.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
In theaters, I think it's worth watching.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
If you ever, I'm sure it'll be on like one
of those built in plane streaming services like that seems
like the type of movie feels it'll be on the
home page.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
That feels like that movie was made for in flight
or even like a hotel experience because I went to
go see that in theaters. I was so excited about it.
I love Spielberg, I love Aliens. That was one of
my most anticipated movies of the summer. I feel like
I was a little bit let down by it. And
you mentioned the chase scenes. That was like the biggest
thing that I did not like about that movie, And

(37:34):
I guess I kind of forgot that it is a
Spielberg movie and he does a little bit more campy,
family friendly chase scenes and I'm over here like streaming
at the screen, like just catch them, just catch them,
and they're like, oh, I got it. It felt like
I was watching Looney Tunes. I was like, how can
they not catch bugs? Bundy, Like, this is incredibly frustrating

(37:55):
to me. But then I kind of forgot, like, oh
I can That's kind of his style of movie. Like
if I would have watched it on an airplane, I
feel like I would have had a much better time.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
Yeah, I would agree. I think there definitely were a
lot of moments when what's his name, Josh O'Connor was
he was like sneaking around the cops and they somehow
like forty cops don't see or hear him, And I
was like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (38:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (38:19):
That is one of the things that frustrates me the
most in movies is when they can clearly see that person.
If somebody's like hiding like behind a door, like, there's
no way in my eyesight I would not see that person.
And I see it so much. It's a such a
just hard thing for me to overcome that. And people
having conversations in the other room and thinking that the

(38:40):
other group of people in the other room can't hear them.
I'm like, I'm hearing every word in that conversation. There's
no way they're not picking up on that for sure.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
But I mean, hey, that's the art of the airplane movie.
It's that all those flaws don't really matter when you're
on an airplane.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
All right. My final airplane movie, this has to be
on a long flight because the movie is three hours
in seventeen minutes. It is Avatar, Fire and Ash, which
came out last year. I was a big hater of
the first Avatar movie when it first came out because
it created the worst trend in what I believed to
be in movies in the last twenty years three D movies,

(39:17):
and it was this movie that came out, and then
every single movie after this that was big and had
a lot of action, they all had to incorporate three
D technology in some way. I wear glasses, so I
hate wearing three D glasses because I don't feel like
I've fully been able to experience a three D movie
because I had to put the glasses over the glasses.
If I don't, it's all blurry. But it was that
movie that came out that really changed the way we

(39:39):
went to go see movies, probably throughout the entire twenty
ten So I held it against that movie for so long,
and then it wasn't until A Way of Water came
out that I gave that one a chance again. I
was like, wait a minute, this is actually a really
good movie, and I realized the greatness that is James
Cameron of creating these big, epic movies with fantastic agg

(40:00):
beautiful score, really well designed characters that I ended up
going back rewatching Avatar, loving it, saw Way of Water
in theaters, loved it, But for some reason, by the
time I got to Fire and Nash, it just kind
of felt like the same thing over that we just
experienced in part two. But I feel like this is
one if you didn't go see in theaters and you're

(40:23):
in a situation where you're fully locked in, because I
think that's what these movies come down to is you
have to pay attention to them and they are really good,
but you can't be on your phone. That's why I
think they are either you have to see them in
theaters or you have to watch them on an airplane,
because if you have those distractions, the three hour run
time is really gonna hang there in your head and

(40:45):
you're gonna be like, I don't want to do it.
I don't want to experience it because it's just such
a time commitment of you go see this movie. Say
you go to a seven pm showing. By the time
you get out, it's late.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah, dude, Yeah, that's such a great point.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
Like I'm so much more likely to watch a three
hour movie on.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
An airplane then at home because you're you're forced to
watch it like there's nothing else to do.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
And I think that Fire and Ash is a great
pick because it is sort of like, you know, it
was criticized for being like Avatar two point five, like it.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Was so similar to the second one.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
But it's like, you know, if you haven't watched the
second one in many years and you just want something fun,
just turn turn on the third one and you're gonna
get a similar fun experience.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
And like I was saying earlier, if you didn't watch
Way of Water, I think just watch Player and Ash.
You don't need to. It's kind of the same movie again,
so you're not gonna be completely lost in that one.
So where can everybody check out your stuff?

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Yeah, if you guys want to subscribe to our free newsletters,
you can do that at picks dashmedia dot com. Like
I said, I write TV and movie picks. I also
have some more genre specific ones called sci fi and
fantasy picks and anime and manga picks. So we have
newsletters for like a bunch of different categories as well

(41:57):
as books and podcasts. So Picksdash Media, Duck.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
I'll put all that in the episode notes. I also
think we kind of touched on some things here that
maybe in the future we come back and do this again.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yeah, I would love to. I think we definitely had
a couple other episode topics.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, maybe remakes that are better than the originals.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Yeah, if there are if Edny exists.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
I got to witness with my own eyeballs, live in person.
Why Matthew McConaughey is a natural born storyteller. Let's get
into it now. A spoiler free review of his new movie,
Rivals of Amaziah King, his first theatrical release in over
six and a half years. Matthew McConaughey is back. I
went to his screening last week. He was in town

(42:47):
in Nashville and a big thing about this movie and
a reason why I think they did a screening for
it here is because he learned how to play banjo.
For this film. He plays a character named Amazia who
is basically the unofficial mayor of this town. He not
only owns and operates this honey making company, but he

(43:08):
is basically the king of all these bees. They all
have their queen, but he is their king. He knows
how these beasts think, He knows what they are feeling.
He is like the bee whisperer, and he makes this
honey takes a lot of pride in it. But he
also loves playing bluegrass music. This movie was so fascinating

(43:30):
to me, and I think that is why they made
sure on their tour of this movie, they did a
showing here in Nashville, and they actually did, after the
screening an entire performance where Matthew McConaughey came out after
on stage and performed for us live. And here's why
I say he is a natural born storyteller. It's not

(43:50):
just because he is so charismatic, which he is. He
can just speak and I am instantly drawn into it.
I think he is the only actor that can do that.
He could literally just read the dictionary. He could read
me just pages from the phone book, and he could
make it interesting. And what happened at this screening, this
was after the film, and they were supposed to do

(44:11):
this musical performance. They were going to come out and
do three songs, and it was at the Belcourt here
in Nashville, which is a nonprofit theater which is important
to the story. But I didn't even know that. The
screen went up because it looks like a normal theater,
a bunch of old seats, and we all watched the
movie and then we saw them setting up behind the screen,

(44:32):
which is just a silver screen, much like if you
were in school, and they pulled down the projector to
show you something that is how it was, but there
was an issue whenever they introduced them. The director of
this movie came out, Andrew Patterson. He did this fantastic intro,
and then the screen was supposed to go up. Matthew
McConaughey and the band were right there behind the screen

(44:53):
and they were just supposed to start playing. But as
they were lifting the screen, it got stuck and all
you saw were Matthew McConaughey's feet. You just saw his
really nice booths that are probably thousand dollars boots, maybe
even more than that. And the momentum was dead because
he just got this fantastic intro. The director talked about
how much of a collaborator Matthew McConaughey was on this movie,

(45:15):
how he had been trying to get this movie made.
There'd been some other actors attached to it. Suddenly Matthew
McConaughey expressed interest in the role. His agent contacted the
director's agent, and suddenly Matthew McConaughey was on board. And
he didn't just star in the movie. He wanted to
live and breathe this movie. That's why he learned how

(45:36):
to play banjo. He learned how to sing, and he
collaborated with director Andrew Patterson, who said that is such
a valuable thing when it comes to making a movie.
He said, you always need that one person to believe
in it, to be right there with you. He said,
any movie that's been made, you need somebody who is
your go to person who is gonna see your vision,
and it just so happened to be that. In this case,

(45:57):
it was Matthew McConaughey, and I think having his name
cash of this movie really made it stronger, because on
its own, the screenplay is fantastic. The actual story is
really good. The characters are very dynamic. It has a
very interesting visual style that kind of sucks you in,
feels very artistic without feeling artsy fartsy, and it was

(46:20):
so much more sophisticated than I was expecting. But he
talked about how important it is to have a great collaborator,
and it just so happened to be one of his heroes.
He said it was weird working with Matthew McConaughey because
there'd be times where they'd just be going over scenes
and suddenly Matthew McConaughey will start banging on his chest
and he's like, oh my gosh, it's the guy from
Wall Street. Or he'll go into a cadence and suddenly

(46:42):
he sounds like his character and Days is confused. So
it was really cool for the director to get to
work with one of his heroes. But back to the
story of Matthew McConaughey and why I think he is
a natural born storyteller. After the director gave that big,
magnificent intro, this theater, like I mentioned, is a nonprofit theater.

(47:04):
They have a lot of volunteers. The theater could not
get the screen to go up any further and it
was just stuck there for a good five, maybe even
ten minutes. Matthew McConaughey went straight into stand up mode,
and it was so interesting because again, you just have
this silver screen over the entire stage. All you see

(47:24):
are his boots, but he is micd up. He's standing
at a microphone. He realizes we're in trouble here because
these people want music. I can't just hop out of here.
He goes into just telling stories. So I kind of witnessed,
like I saw Matthew McConaughey perform stand up for the
first time, because he just started rattling off stories a
little bit about the film, started telling stories about his brother,

(47:48):
and he has this way of delivering a story that
has a great beginning middle, and en takes you down
all these roads, gives you so many details that allows
you to see every element the story, every character that
he's talking about. He can describe a road that he's
driving down to a tee and that is what he does.

(48:08):
And I think he brings the character of Amazia to
life so well, maybe too well, because his acting is
so good that it makes everybody else around him seem
like a B minus actor, and I don't think that's
fair to them. I just think he was so dynamic
in this role and so perfect for him because I
couldn't see anybody else but Matthew McConaughey, because he just

(48:28):
plays his character so well in his white T shirt,
his long and greasy hair, in his bandana, looks like
he loves working with his hands. It fits so well.
He was so into this role that it made everybody
else kind of seem like junior varsity. So I don't
think it was bad acting on their part. I just

(48:49):
think comparing all these characters to each other. He is
just so dynamic and he just oozes so much charisma
that he was just destined to be a star, and
it was me seeing him go into just automatic. I
gotta own this moment, this is unexpected. You gotta roll
with the punches, and just having stories that he can

(49:09):
fall back on. He's not a stand up comic, he's
not a public speaker. He's an actor. But I just
feel like his character Amazaiya came out in that moment
and he just started entertaining people. That is probably something
that comes so natural to him that I feel like
so many people have probably had interactions like this that
are memorable for their entire lives. A quick interaction with

(49:32):
him is probably like meeting somebody and having them change
your life, and for them that is just another day.
But it was so crazy to be able just to
see his boots, hear his voice, and feel so entertained
by it. He is the only person I think could
have handled that situation that perfectly and been at times

(49:52):
more memorable than the movie itself, and the movie was
actually really good and getting into the musical aspects of
the film because it was cool to see him. He
is not a singer. He learned how to play banjo
for this role, and even in the movie they talk
about how everybody is a singer. There's one point in
the movie because it's about him reconnecting with his foster daughter.
You learn all about his tragic past, but they reconnect

(50:16):
after she comes back to town and there is a
moment where he is trying to get her to learn
a song and he mentions that everybody is a singer.
You have it in there inside of you, you just
have to let it out. And I think that was
him speaking to himself, because I feel seeing him up
there on stage, he kind of felt a little bit

(50:38):
uncomfortable because he did one song with the band, which
was a song they did in the movie, and then
he left the stage because they were never able to
get the screen up. They actually had to come back down,
go around the stairs, and stand in front of all
the seats in the theater. The screen ever went up,
so they came out onto the floor, put one mic
in the middle, and just sang and fill the entire room.

(51:00):
But I felt because he did that first song with him,
walked to the backstage, hung out for another song, and
then came back out towards the end, I feel like
he still has a lot of nerves when it comes
to performing in front of people, which was interesting to
see because he is so dynamic, he can own a room,
but to have that feeling of like, these guys are
the real musicians, I'm want to step aside. I don't

(51:22):
feel like he's fully comfortable with it doing it live,
because that's not really his thing. But in one night
I got to see him act in an incredible movie,
perform stand up for us, and then give us a
musical performance. I saw so many different sides of him
in this one night, And I think what surprised me
so much about this movie is it felt like so

(51:43):
many genres wrapped into one. Because I think the trailer
sold it more as a thriller. I got the idea
that it was going to be the dark side of
a business that you didn't know had a dark side,
the honey business. You think that's probably a wholesome company.
But in this movie, there is corruption, there is greed,
there is retaliation, there is theft, and I was just

(52:07):
expecting a crime thriller. What I ended up getting was
a really beautiful movie about family, about finding your purpose,
also felt a little bit abstract at times. It also
had a lot of comedy, and I think that was
the most surprising to me, because nothing about this trailer,
nothing about any of these plot points, screamed comedy to me.

(52:30):
But within those first thirty minutes we were laughing a
lot in the theater. There is one moment specifically that,
out of any comedy I've seen in the last two years,
was probably the funniest moment. Within those first thirty minutes,
there were a lot of moments that just hit so
much on a comedic level, and how it weaved in
between these genres and also did it through the use

(52:51):
of the cinematography, where at times there were shots in
this movie that look so artistic, were loaded up with
so much emotion, where all the comedy went away and
suddenly you have Matthew McConaughey delivering something so pointniant. So
the fact that this movie just went back and forth
between all these emotions. You go from laughing, you go

(53:12):
to having this kind of euphoric feeling. And oddly, the
thing I thought was going to be the strongest in
this movie, the actual thriller part of it, was kind
of the weakest. And maybe that was a little bit
of a bummer, And maybe it's because they lean so
much into the music, so much into the comedy early
on in the movie, it was hard to take some
of the crime elements seriously and I kind of expected

(53:35):
to feel a little bit more hyped up at the end,
and even with some chases and some more action thrown
in there, it never fully delivered to me on the thrills.
And the thing I thought was gonna be a little
bit cheesy, honestly was the music, because oftentimes when you
get a lower budget movie that incorporates music, it just

(53:56):
feels a little bit cheesy to me. And I think
that's because I don't they love music biopics or stories
about people just loving playing music, just because I think
the Hollywood version of that always feels so forced and
a little bit too, like I just got a guitar
and a dream and I just want to sit here
and play my guitar. And usually the songs aren't very good,

(54:18):
but in this movie they're actually good, and seeing them
perform live probably helped that a little bit. But the
times they did have musical performances, I thought they were
very poignant, and the songs were good. Maybe it's just
because I like this style of music better because it's bluegrass.
It's just people singing with their soul. Matthew McConaughey and

(54:39):
his love for the mandolin, I thought that was great.
If it would have focused just on music the entire
time and it was just him trying to make it
as a bluegrass singer, probably wouldn't have felt the same way.
But it went back and forth between him running his
honey business, going around town performing music, and then getting
into more of the dark side of the honey business.

(55:00):
I think there was a lot to chew on in
this movie. There were so many unique and fun and
interesting characters, and I think Matthew McConaughey did a really
good job coming back into movie theaters, so I'm happy
that his first theatrical release in six and a half
years wasn't a dud. A lot of great cameos in
this movie. I think the best one is Cole Sprouse,

(55:22):
who plays a guy working at a fast food restaurant
named Oat. That's all I say about his character, but
he was somebody that I was like, AH, didn't expect
to see him in that role, but I thought he
did a fantastic job. One thing I think might deter
some people from this unfairly is the movie's run time
is a little bit long. It's over two hours. That

(55:43):
is a little bit belowated for a story of this caliber.
I really don't like complaining about movie run times anymore.
I think that's a little bit cliched in a lot
of people's movie reviews now. But I do know that
people value their time, especially when it comes to when
where this movie goes to streaming, you're thinking about hitting play,
and you see anything over two hours, You're like, oh

(56:05):
my gosh. Even though it's a great story and you
would enjoy it, sometimes starting a movie over two hours
feels a little bit like a chorre to some people.
So for me, I don't mind it. But I think
something that people might hold against this movie is like, man,
two hours of this it could have been done in
ninety minutes. For me, I think it allows the story

(56:27):
to develop. I would have liked a little bit more
to happen in the third act, But for Rivals of
Amaziah King, I give it four out of five Queen Bees.
It's time to head down to movie. Mike Traylor park
this is probably the biggest no brainer movie of the year.

(56:48):
Of course, this is gonna work. Brad Pitt part of
the Beast. He plays a former Special Horses officer who
finds himself trapped in Alaska after his plane goes down.
It's him and his dog Ah, just seeing the tragic
past of this dog in this trailer, who has endured
so much, went through all this crazy training, has been

(57:11):
there in combat by brad Pitt's side. They are just
going for a flight and brad Pitt apparently seems to
suffer some kind of heart attack or cardiac arrest, and
all of a sudden, the plane goes down. They crash,
somehow survive, and then have to trek over fifty miles

(57:31):
to civilization. The trailer is instantly compelling, even though by
watching this trailer you kind of know exactly what the
entire movie is going to be about. But I feel like,
and I don't want to say it, brad Pitt has
entered the old man action hero era of his career
at sixty two years old. We'll get into that more,

(57:52):
but before we do, here is just a little bit
of the heart of the Beast trailer.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
This is odin He's a highly trained combat canine. He
has seen war and ferocious hardships. It's time for him
to know peace. Not besides the dog in the fight,

(58:19):
the matters. Besides the fighting, the dog one last mission.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
We're not gonna die out here.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
I got you back. So this dog has been through
it all, and all Brad Pitt's character wants to do
is have this dog find some peace. You see, the
dog has an injury. He has what appears to be
a cast over one of his paws. And suddenly, as
this dog is supposed to go on what seemed like

(58:53):
a vacation, the entire plane goes down and now they
have to survive. So this retired service dog named Odin,
which by the way, Odin is such a great name
for a dog. I wonder if a dog that is
this smart and has this much training looks at other
dogs differently. Is this dog able to socialize with other

(59:13):
dogs or does he just see a normal family dog
like a big idiot, Like look at this stupid dog
who waits around for his owners to feed him. This
dog can't handle himself in a combat situation. I fear
that Odin has a hard time making friends, And I
just want to see Odin have peace in this movie,

(59:35):
but he's not gonna get that because suddenly him and
Brad Pitt go down. They somehow survive this plane crash,
but then they are still in freezing Alaska. They are
over fifty miles away from civilization. There are bears, there
are wolves, there is no food around them, so they
have to find a way to survive, and hopefully by

(59:55):
the end of this movie, Odin is okay. I saw
i in Hathaway talking about recently that if at any
point in a movie a dog dies, that movie should
automatically earn a R rating, and I believe that wholeheartedly.
I think that should apply to any animal. I can
watch a horror movie and not feel bad for the
people in the horror movie. Sometimes I kind of root
on killers to kill some characters in horror movies. But

(01:00:17):
if ever there is a dog, especially such a sweet
dog like Odin in this movie, I do not want
them to get hurt. So I am on board with her.
Any movie like that should be rated are Brad Pitt
at sixty two years old is interesting to me because
I didn't really feel it so much in F one
because he still looked cool he still had the blonde hair.

(01:00:38):
There were some references and jokes made in that movie
of like, oh, he's the old guy still trying to race,
But he held his own so much in that movie.
Still looking cool, still looking fit, still getting the girl.
He is still very much, I would say, in his
second prime as Brad Pitt. But if you look at
his age sixty two years old. I didn't really feel

(01:01:02):
it until watching this trailer specifically that I feel he
is entering his older action hero era because Arnold Swarzenegger,
one of the biggest action heroes of all time, started
to do this at sixty five when he was in
The Last Stand, which was a great movie he did
with Johnny Knoxville that I actually went to go see

(01:01:22):
in theaters, and I kind of missed the really impressive
Arnold Schwarzenegger run of the eighties crept a little bit
into the nineties. By that time, when he was Terminator,
I was really only starting to understand how dominant he was,
how much money he made at the box office, and
how big of a movie star that he was. It

(01:01:43):
resonated more to me in that movie in the Last Stand,
that he was sixty five years old now he was
the old shaff in town. But Brad Pitt is only
a few years behind him in this role, but looks
probably ten fifteen years younger than him. However, Sylvester Stallone
whenever in two thousand and eight that Rambo movie came out,

(01:02:04):
so not the original Rambo, but whenever he rebooted it,
he was sixty one years old. So I wonder how
Brad Pitt is going to ease into this era. So
the entire time I'm watching this trailer, I'm like, dude,
not only is it crazy to think anybody would survive
a plane crash like this, but you're sixty two, bro.
It is probably hard for a lot of sixty two

(01:02:26):
year olds. I know because I have parents who are
in their sixties around this age. That is crazy to
me that my mom and my dad are about the
same age as Brad Pitt, and I know they have
trouble waking up in the morning, So thinking of this
plane going down, I'm like, dude, not only is it
so crazy to survive that, but just standing up on
your own two feet after that. And I know in

(01:02:48):
this movie he has military training, but I'm just imagining
his knee popping his back, hurting, him needing his medications,
him needing like his hocus to get around the Alaska wilderness.
I think in this movie, the dog is probably more
fit than he is. So it seems to me like
the dog is really good to play an important part

(01:03:09):
of keeping him alive. Even though in this trailer Brad
Pitt's proclaiming that I'm going to keep you alive and
we are going to get through this. I feel like
he is somebody who is going to hold on to
his good looks for as long as he can. I
don't mean this as a negative thing, but I think
he has been a sex symbol for the entire majority

(01:03:31):
of his career. He has built the Brad Pitt brand
upon his looks. But I think he is going to
be somebody who is never going to take a role
as a grandpa. We're never going to see him take
on Grandpa Pitt in any movie. He is going to
consistently be the single guy in movies who will never

(01:03:51):
have a wife and will only have a dog that
is his companion. I do want to have more Brad
Pitt movies where he takes on other things because he's
going to run out of crazy thing. He's gonna run
out of surviving the wilderness. He's going to run out
of trying to take on a new sport like f one.
I don't know. I just want to see, Like Brad Pitt,
taking on the school pickup line could be a hard

(01:04:13):
thing for him because it kind of seemed like his
kids don't want anything to do with him, which I
tried to separate the art from the artists. But you
see all that stuff in the news of them wanting
to drop his last name. So he's probably not going
to take on the pickup line at school. Maybe he'll
take on pickleball. Do a Brad Pitt pickleball movie. And

(01:04:35):
then I started to think about what in this movie
would I actually survive no phone. I could do that.
I could go a week without my phone. I would
be fine. I would not be mentally worried about checking
my notifications or checking my email, even though that is
kind of one of my worries about when I die.
I'm like, oh man, my inbox is going to get

(01:04:57):
so full. People are going to think I left them
in the dark on certain things and then they realized
I died. I just imagine my email continuing to build
and build and build after I died. That stresses me out.
So for that reason alone, I have to keep myself alive.
Could I survive ten degrees in the Alaska wilderness? That

(01:05:17):
would be really hard. But I think over time I've
become a little bit better with the elements. I think
because I run outside long distances for hours that I've
gotten used to the cold and I've gotten used to
the heat that I think my body has adapted to
being able to take on a little bit of both extremes.

(01:05:38):
I think I could handle ten degrees as long as
I keep my body moving. For it's the sleeping though.
The sleeping is going to be very hard in ten degrees.
Could I handle only having a lighter? That's gonna be tough.
I need a hot meal. That would probably be one
of the hardest things for me. Obviously, in this situation,
you have a dog, so you have a friend. You

(01:05:58):
also have a little bit of protect and you have
somebody to save your butt because you do see Odin
saving Brad Pitt in this trailer, coming to his rescue
when Brad Pitt gets thrown into the water. Could I
survive crossing a frozen river oof that is tough. You
know how dangerous water is. I saw a TikTok the

(01:06:19):
other day of these people biking across this path that
was flooded, and there was this raging river coming through it,
and there was one woman on her bike trying to
guide it across this little kind of concrete section that
otherwise wouldn't have been covered in water. So she's walking
her bike along and then just kind of falls off
the side, not knowing there was like a gutter that

(01:06:42):
went underneath it, and then there was where the entire
body of water was like rushing out into kind of
a creek area or like a bigger pond, So this
was just like a kind of like a dam in
the middle of it, and then she gets caught in
that suction hole where the water was draining out. I
don't think people realize how forceful water is and how

(01:07:05):
dangerous it is, and how you think, oh, this water
is only up to my ankles. But if it's coming
so fast, you don't realize how crazy things can get.
So turn around, do not drown. I think, out of
all the things in this movie, that is probably the
most dangerous thing that can take you out so fast.
Maybe you can outrun the bear, outsmart the bear, or

(01:07:27):
play dead and get away from the bear. But water
is so unforgiving, and I think we underestimate how dangerous
it is. Crossing a frozen river is probably the hardest thing.
But with all that said, I think this movie is
going to be good. I don't think it's going to
be great, but I think unless they screw something up
so badly that the story itself with Brad Pitt and

(01:07:50):
his dog trying to survive the wilderness is strong enough
that unless they have a third act where there's like
a clown that comes out of nowhere or something ridiculous
where it doesn't make sense to the story, this is
going to be probably a very middle of the road
action movie with the potential to be great. I don't
think it'll be great, but I think it is probably

(01:08:13):
going to be right there, a solid three out of
five just based on this trailer alone and depending on
how the rest of the action unfolds. With some of
the CGI animals in this, I'm like, ah, I don't
know how that's going to come across on the big
screen because on my laptop on my phone looks a
little bit cornball. But hopefully this movie has a lot

(01:08:37):
of momentum. The action really delivers and it goes up
and when I do this full review that it ends
up being a three point five out of five. But
I think that is what we are looking at here.
But somehow I'm still excited to see this movie just
because I got to see what happens to that dog.
Don't hurt the dog.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
And that was this week's edition of movie Might Trailer.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Bars, and that is gonna do it for another episode
here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta
give my listener shout out of the week, which man,
I took some l's in my last few reviews where
it's just been people ripping me to shreds not liking
my opinions. So unfortunately it does have to be a

(01:09:22):
negative shout out because that's all I got in between
reviewing Supertroopers and reviewing the End of Oak Street. Nobody
is a fan of me over on TikTok and especially
the YouTube comments. But I'll go to the less severe
one and I'll shout out Michael p on TikTok, who
there were a lot of people fired up in my
Super Troopers three review. Michael said this movie wasn't for you,

(01:09:45):
it was for us, which, Michael, I am so confused
by your comment because I am a fan of super Troopers.
I like the Broken Lizard guys, who are the comedy
group behind all of the super Troopers movies behind beer Fest.
This movie was supposed to be for me. I was
not hating on that movie for the sake of hating
on it. It was genuinely a letdown to me as

(01:10:07):
a fan. So I feel like you do not understand
that I am a fan as well, and as a fan,
you have the right to be let down. You do
not have to love every single thing that your favorite person, actor,
creator does. It is okay to not enjoy it, and

(01:10:29):
I've learned that over the years. So I feel like
this movie was supposed to be for me, But according
to all these comments, I am wrong because I clip
on TikTok blew up a little bit, at least for me.
But that is how I felt about that. My honest opinion.
Never going to force out liking something. I just can't
do it. I can't dure it. But thank you for commenting,

(01:10:49):
thank you for listening, thank you for telling a friend,
And until next time, go out and watch good movies,
and I will talk to you later

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MOVIE MIKE's MOVIE PODCAST - Top 10 Movies to Watch on Airplane with John Farrar + Movie Review: The Rivals of Amziah King + Trailer Park: Heart of the Beast

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