May 9, 2025 • 7 mins
Joe Neumaier joins Mendte in the Morning to talk about the importance of summer for movies, and what films to look out for.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to the movie guy, Joe Neumeier. Thanks. He's
the host of w o r's Movie Minute. He's also
a longtime film journalist, and where it's he's coming on
just in time for all of the summer movies, and
I'm sure he's seen most of them at this point. Uh.
First of all, let's start with this. Joe, talk about
(00:22):
what an important time it is right now for movies.
This is when they hopefully you'll make a lot of money.
This and Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Right, that's exactly right Lake And and you know, it's
one of those things where it's you know, people sort
of talk about, you know, box office usually it's about
it's there's three or four major movies every year that
kind of, you know, lift up the box office. It's
so far we've had, you know, the Minecraft movie was
a huge hit. Thunderbolts surprisingly, I'm was it was a
really big hit. It was a few others. Uh but
(00:50):
but really, you know, Hollywoods were banks on it. It's
like it's like they're it's their big it's their big thing.
It's every summer. They've got to be able to kind
of have something to show for all that, all that,
all that junk that put out, And to be honest,
when the summer movies hit, people say, Wow, what a
great summer that was. I don't know if this summer
is going to be that, but I think there's some
some good potential stuff. One of the things that's sort
(01:11):
of shocking is the big one that's coming out, obviously,
is Mission Impossible, the Final Reckoning. Now we assume it's
the Final Reckoning. They say it. You know, I'm sure
there could be some way that Tom Cruise would jump
out of an airplane and they'd be able to film
it and throw it out there as another Mission Impossible movie.
But this one comes out twenty nine years after the
first one he did. I was doing some research that
first Mission Impossible movie came out in nineteen ninety six.
(01:34):
A lot of the kids who are gonna be going
to the movie theater weren't even born then, probably not
even born, you know, ten years away from being born.
So hopefully, you know, it'll live up to the great
stunt standards of all the other movies in this series.
And that is something that that is true, Like all
those all those stunts and all these Mission Impossible movies
have been have been great so that one's coming out
from Memorial Day. Then you've got a couple of other
things that I think are going to be you know,
(01:55):
a lot of them are reboots or sequels, but they're
still exciting. Twenty eight years Later is the latest in
that zombie series that also came out like in the
early two thousands, twenty eight days later. Then you've got
Karate Kid Legends, which is gonna bring Ralph Machio and
Jackie Chan together. There's gonna be a new film called
f One, not a sequel, not a reboot to anything.
(02:16):
And it starts Brad Pitt and he's like this down
in his race car driver who gets another chance on
the track. That looks kind of good. Big, the Big
Fourth July movie is gonna be another sequel, but it's
Jurassic World rebirth, same kind of idea. I wish they'd
do something new with these dinos. This is the same
kind of thing. Humans go to a dinosaur island and
you know, guess guess what bad stuff happens? You don't
(02:37):
go to the island where there's dinosaurs. Right, Well, she
knows this all like seven movies in if they say
go to the dinosaur Island, don't go the opposite way.
There's a new Fantastic Four movie comes around, which I
feel like every generation gets there, gets their Fantastic Four movie.
This one's called Fantastic four First Steps. Marvel's gonna try
(02:59):
and bring in the you know, that first family of
superheroes that they had back in nineteen sixty two into
the fold. We'll see if they can do it. There's
a reboot The Naked Gun, which is a great series
of the It was a sixth episode TV show that
became a series of films with Leslie Nielsen. This time
Liam Neeson plays the goofy cop and then Superman. They're
(03:19):
reintroducing Superman as again like they do every ten years
or so. I've got hopes for this one. It's directed
by James Gunn, who did the Guardians of the Galaxy movies,
and we'll see if it kind of lives up to
it's not going to live up to my favorite superhero
movie of all time, which was that first Superman movie
that Christopher Reeved in the seventy eight, which obviously, you know,
everybody remembers as a landmark come not a summer movie
(03:42):
though Superman back in seventy eight. It was a Christmas movie,
but it was magical.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I agree with you that was the best Superman movie.
It was just absolutely captivating, and I think a lot
of it's because of the actors, not just because it
was Superman. It was really well acted.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's right. And it also had it had a sense
of innocence and Americana to it, you know, the of
them in Smallville or even before he ever puts on
the red and blue suit, like there's sort of a set.
There's an epic quality to that first movie that I
think is really hard to capture. But that was also
like that was before Hollywood kind of even kind of
knew what a summer movie was. Jaws in seventy five,
(04:20):
as we always know, kicks off the blockbuster era. But
even like even Star Wars, like that summer of seventy
seven was sort of like Star Wars, the Spy Who
Loved Me and Smoky in the Bandit like that was
sort of it. Hollywood was still remembering, Oh, right, kids
in summertime have things to do. I guess back in
the seventies, said I was the seventies kid. You went
out and you played and you you know, you ran
around the wort. Yeah, uh, you didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Just right right, right right, you know, right back. Just
I want to talk about Superman for one more second,
because you tapped into something that I believe is true.
They didn't try to do too much with it. They
it was there was an innocence about it. It was
like it was like the cartoon or the comic book
you read as a kid. And I think that's what
(05:02):
power was. All these movies now try to do way
too much, and sometimes that gets the story gets lost
or the characters get lost in the story.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I totally agree. And we were talking like that a
little bit on with Thunderbolts last week. You know that
it's like Thunderbolts, like all the superhero movies and all
these kind of big you know they call them IP,
all these big international you know, probably is that that
they're trying to bring in. Don't really, they don't really
have that same thing. And Superman as a story, I
mean it was part of the story was written by
Mario Puzo, who had written The Godfather. So it has
(05:33):
like a great you know, a great sort of basis
to it. You had the you know, the comic books
that it really kind of adhere to and it was
about kind of doing good. Lex Luthor was a great villain,
but it was sort of it was about more than
it was more than about like just fist fights or
big explosions or things like that. So, you know, anytime
Superman's on TV and I and this sounds like a
cliche of the story, I will always leave it on
Superman is Superman too. But Superman the first one is phenomenal.
(05:56):
But once they started to get into the eighties, then
you get the big summer stuff that I you know,
for my money, and I've been on record for this
for a long time, the greatest summer for summer movies
of all time is nineteen eighty two. Are you ready
for this amazing list? Larry and Rocky three Poulter, Guys,
Star Trek two, The Wrath of Khan, Et, The Extraterrestrial Conan,
(06:18):
The Barbarian Blade Runner, The Thing, Firefox, Fast Times at
Ridgemont High Tron, which is not a good movie, but
it's still fun to watch. Night Shift, which is a
great comedy, and even the best Friday the Thirteenth movie,
Friday the Thirteenth three D, which is ridiculous. What I
would watch any of those movies or all of them
right now. I would just, you know, get a giant
(06:39):
Vata coffee and watch all of them right now. Those
are all amazing movies.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Let me since, since you're a critic, let me tell
you my favorite line ever from a critic. That was
from the late great Dennis Cunningham, who saw Conan the
Barbarian and said about Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'd call him a
great actor, but he's not that good yet. Excuse me,
I blew the line. I'd call him a bad actor,
but he's not that good.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But he's not that they could get right. But he's
perfect to go to the Barbarian. You know, he doesn't
have to do much. He just kind of hopes around. Yeah,
that's a great line, and that was a great summer.
I was like fifteen at that summer. What an amazing
summer to be fifteen to be watching all those, all
those great films. We'll never have one like that, but
hopefully some of these, you know, will have the kids
who are fifteen now we'll be able to go and say,
(07:25):
oh I just saw Fantasmic or oh I just saw Superman.
Chances are they won't have the same experience.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Well, yeah, there's nothing original anymore. So what you saw
last summer you might see this summer. So yeah, it's
so disappointing, but I can't wait. At the same time,
I can't wait to see it. Joe Neumeyer, a film journalist,
wo R Movie Minute host. Thanks so much, Joe, have
a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Thanks Larry, you too.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The first ever American Pope, the DOJ is invest
Let's go to the movie guy, Joe Neumeier. Thanks. He's
the host of w o r's Movie Minute. He's also
a longtime film journalist, and where it's he's coming on
just in time for all of the summer movies, and
I'm sure he's seen most of them at this point. Uh.
First of all, let's start with this. Joe, talk about
(00:22):
what an important time it is right now for movies.
This is when they hopefully you'll make a lot of money.
This and Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Right, that's exactly right Lake And and you know, it's
one of those things where it's you know, people sort
of talk about, you know, box office usually it's about
it's there's three or four major movies every year that
kind of, you know, lift up the box office. It's
so far we've had, you know, the Minecraft movie was
a huge hit. Thunderbolts surprisingly, I'm was it was a
really big hit. It was a few others. Uh but
(00:50):
but really, you know, Hollywoods were banks on it. It's
like it's like they're it's their big it's their big thing.
It's every summer. They've got to be able to kind
of have something to show for all that, all that,
all that junk that put out, And to be honest,
when the summer movies hit, people say, Wow, what a
great summer that was. I don't know if this summer
is going to be that, but I think there's some
some good potential stuff. One of the things that's sort
(01:11):
of shocking is the big one that's coming out, obviously,
is Mission Impossible, the Final Reckoning. Now we assume it's
the Final Reckoning. They say it. You know, I'm sure
there could be some way that Tom Cruise would jump
out of an airplane and they'd be able to film
it and throw it out there as another Mission Impossible movie.
But this one comes out twenty nine years after the
first one he did. I was doing some research that
first Mission Impossible movie came out in nineteen ninety six.
(01:34):
A lot of the kids who are gonna be going
to the movie theater weren't even born then, probably not
even born, you know, ten years away from being born.
So hopefully, you know, it'll live up to the great
stunt standards of all the other movies in this series.
And that is something that that is true, Like all
those all those stunts and all these Mission Impossible movies
have been have been great so that one's coming out
from Memorial Day. Then you've got a couple of other
things that I think are going to be you know,
(01:55):
a lot of them are reboots or sequels, but they're
still exciting. Twenty eight years Later is the latest in
that zombie series that also came out like in the
early two thousands, twenty eight days later. Then you've got
Karate Kid Legends, which is gonna bring Ralph Machio and
Jackie Chan together. There's gonna be a new film called
f One, not a sequel, not a reboot to anything.
(02:16):
And it starts Brad Pitt and he's like this down
in his race car driver who gets another chance on
the track. That looks kind of good. Big, the Big
Fourth July movie is gonna be another sequel, but it's
Jurassic World rebirth, same kind of idea. I wish they'd
do something new with these dinos. This is the same
kind of thing. Humans go to a dinosaur island and
you know, guess guess what bad stuff happens? You don't
(02:37):
go to the island where there's dinosaurs. Right, Well, she
knows this all like seven movies in if they say
go to the dinosaur Island, don't go the opposite way.
There's a new Fantastic Four movie comes around, which I
feel like every generation gets there, gets their Fantastic Four movie.
This one's called Fantastic four First Steps. Marvel's gonna try
(02:59):
and bring in the you know, that first family of
superheroes that they had back in nineteen sixty two into
the fold. We'll see if they can do it. There's
a reboot The Naked Gun, which is a great series
of the It was a sixth episode TV show that
became a series of films with Leslie Nielsen. This time
Liam Neeson plays the goofy cop and then Superman. They're
(03:19):
reintroducing Superman as again like they do every ten years
or so. I've got hopes for this one. It's directed
by James Gunn, who did the Guardians of the Galaxy movies,
and we'll see if it kind of lives up to
it's not going to live up to my favorite superhero
movie of all time, which was that first Superman movie
that Christopher Reeved in the seventy eight, which obviously, you know,
everybody remembers as a landmark come not a summer movie
(03:42):
though Superman back in seventy eight. It was a Christmas movie,
but it was magical.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I agree with you that was the best Superman movie.
It was just absolutely captivating, and I think a lot
of it's because of the actors, not just because it
was Superman. It was really well acted.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
That's right. And it also had it had a sense
of innocence and Americana to it, you know, the of
them in Smallville or even before he ever puts on
the red and blue suit, like there's sort of a set.
There's an epic quality to that first movie that I
think is really hard to capture. But that was also
like that was before Hollywood kind of even kind of
knew what a summer movie was. Jaws in seventy five,
(04:20):
as we always know, kicks off the blockbuster era. But
even like even Star Wars, like that summer of seventy
seven was sort of like Star Wars, the Spy Who
Loved Me and Smoky in the Bandit like that was
sort of it. Hollywood was still remembering, Oh, right, kids
in summertime have things to do. I guess back in
the seventies, said I was the seventies kid. You went
out and you played and you you know, you ran
around the wort. Yeah, uh, you didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Just right right, right right, you know, right back. Just
I want to talk about Superman for one more second,
because you tapped into something that I believe is true.
They didn't try to do too much with it. They
it was there was an innocence about it. It was
like it was like the cartoon or the comic book
you read as a kid. And I think that's what
(05:02):
power was. All these movies now try to do way
too much, and sometimes that gets the story gets lost
or the characters get lost in the story.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I totally agree. And we were talking like that a
little bit on with Thunderbolts last week. You know that
it's like Thunderbolts, like all the superhero movies and all
these kind of big you know they call them IP,
all these big international you know, probably is that that
they're trying to bring in. Don't really, they don't really
have that same thing. And Superman as a story, I
mean it was part of the story was written by
Mario Puzo, who had written The Godfather. So it has
(05:33):
like a great you know, a great sort of basis
to it. You had the you know, the comic books
that it really kind of adhere to and it was
about kind of doing good. Lex Luthor was a great villain,
but it was sort of it was about more than
it was more than about like just fist fights or
big explosions or things like that. So, you know, anytime
Superman's on TV and I and this sounds like a
cliche of the story, I will always leave it on
Superman is Superman too. But Superman the first one is phenomenal.
(05:56):
But once they started to get into the eighties, then
you get the big summer stuff that I you know,
for my money, and I've been on record for this
for a long time, the greatest summer for summer movies
of all time is nineteen eighty two. Are you ready
for this amazing list? Larry and Rocky three Poulter, Guys,
Star Trek two, The Wrath of Khan, Et, The Extraterrestrial Conan,
(06:18):
The Barbarian Blade Runner, The Thing, Firefox, Fast Times at
Ridgemont High Tron, which is not a good movie, but
it's still fun to watch. Night Shift, which is a
great comedy, and even the best Friday the Thirteenth movie,
Friday the Thirteenth three D, which is ridiculous. What I
would watch any of those movies or all of them
right now. I would just, you know, get a giant
(06:39):
Vata coffee and watch all of them right now. Those
are all amazing movies.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Let me since, since you're a critic, let me tell
you my favorite line ever from a critic. That was
from the late great Dennis Cunningham, who saw Conan the
Barbarian and said about Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'd call him a
great actor, but he's not that good yet. Excuse me,
I blew the line. I'd call him a bad actor,
but he's not that good.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But he's not that they could get right. But he's
perfect to go to the Barbarian. You know, he doesn't
have to do much. He just kind of hopes around. Yeah,
that's a great line, and that was a great summer.
I was like fifteen at that summer. What an amazing
summer to be fifteen to be watching all those, all
those great films. We'll never have one like that, but
hopefully some of these, you know, will have the kids
who are fifteen now we'll be able to go and say,
(07:25):
oh I just saw Fantasmic or oh I just saw Superman.
Chances are they won't have the same experience.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Well, yeah, there's nothing original anymore. So what you saw
last summer you might see this summer. So yeah, it's
so disappointing, but I can't wait. At the same time,
I can't wait to see it. Joe Neumeyer, a film journalist,
wo R Movie Minute host. Thanks so much, Joe, have
a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Thanks Larry, you too.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The first ever American Pope, the DOJ is invest
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