Can the Olympics save us? Plus, 'Deadpool & Wolverine', 'Twisters' and the state of cinema

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:07):
Hey, I'm Osman Farooqui and this is The Drop, a
weekly culture show from the Sydney Morning Herald and The
Age where we dive into the world of pop culture
and entertainment. I'm here with Thomas Mitchell and Mel Cambry.
How you doing, gang? What's up?

S2 (00:22):
We're doing good. Uh, Thomas and I have spent the
morning poring through a book that's just arrived at my desk,
for which we sent you a few excerpts as well.

S1 (00:30):
Yeah, this was weird. You refused to explain the context
of this. You sent me some pages of what appeared
to be people describing their sexual fantasies, and then underneath
it was like their nationality, a a figure, which I
think is what their annual salary and their star sign.

S2 (00:50):
Yeah, yeah. So this is Gillian Anderson of television and
film fame has collected for a new book called Want
a Lot of Fantasies? It's a very thick book, and
I actually didn't even notice until Thomas pointed out that
the cover of it had been personalized for me. So, um, yeah,
we've had a lot of fun with that this morning.

S3 (01:09):
It has been. Yeah, I mean, it's of all the
ways to write a book, collecting someone else's letters and
putting them together, uh, is the easiest way to do it.
So props to Gillian.

S1 (01:18):
So did she like, solicit? Did she do a call
out or something?

S3 (01:21):
I guess she set up like a Gmail, I don't know,
but like, she writes like an introduction and she puts
her own fantasy in. But it's anonymous, so you don't
know which one it is. But oh.

S1 (01:28):
So her fantasy is in there, but you don't know
which one.

S3 (01:29):
It is. Correct. But like, I mean, let's be honest.
Huge missed opp not calling this the sex files.

S2 (01:35):
Yeah I mean what true.

S3 (01:38):
Uh, but yeah. So she can do it all people.
I mean, I guess since sex education, she's. And, you know,
I don't know if you guys follow her on Instagram,
but she's very, like, you know, sex positive. So I'm
sure the book will do well.

S1 (01:47):
She loves books as well, right? She's always sharing books
on her Instagram.

S2 (01:50):
True. I actually think erotica is making a comeback. I mean,
I haven't really thought this through, but I think, like,
you know, how there's been a very sex toy positive
movement of late and all the influencers talking about the
sex toys and launching brands, and you don't need to
tell us twice. Yeah, I think I've seen a few
posts in Facebook groups and the like about women searching

(02:10):
for erotic fiction to read purely for the purpose of.

S1 (02:13):
Posts in Facebook groups. What sort of Facebook.

S4 (02:16):
Groups are you in?

S2 (02:16):
I am addicted to life. Uncut.

S1 (02:19):
Are you joking?

S4 (02:20):
I can't believe you're shouting out this podcast. Okay, no.
Are you.

S1 (02:23):
Is this a joke?

S3 (02:23):
This is all the.

S4 (02:25):
Time I.

S2 (02:26):
Love. I'm addicted to the Facebook group because the voyeurism
I get and the way that like these kind of
high falutin, feminist like feminist concepts play out in Facebook.
The disputes, the discussions, the is it a red flag?
Are you being watched? It's incredible. I think it's such
like it's social anthropology for me.

S1 (02:45):
Okay. I'm I'm, I'm I'm flummoxed. I'm flabbergasted. Right. I
do you listen to life uncut regular.

S2 (02:52):
No no no no, I'm just about you.

S1 (02:54):
Just. You just consume it through the Facebook.

S2 (02:55):
Yeah. I'm just about seeing people crowdsource information for their problems.

S1 (02:59):
That's interesting. I mean, look, I think you're probably right
about the yearning for erotica. We've discussed many times with
this podcast the crisis that young women are in, in
society right now. It's a crisis. The flip side of that. Right?

S4 (03:12):
Yeah.

S2 (03:13):
So maybe, uh, maybe I'll write this piece, but maybe
want is kind of the outcome of that.

S3 (03:17):
Well, I think that what we should really do, the
natural evolution of this chat is to obviously start a
drop Facebook page, and then our fans can talk about
these things on the page and they can share their fantasies.

S1 (03:28):
Yeah, etc., etc..

S3 (03:29):
They can be anonymous or not anonymous, and I'll compile
them and release it under the.

S1 (03:33):
Profit off of their ideas.

S3 (03:35):
Obviously the book will be called The Sex Files. Now
that I've trademarked that.

S4 (03:37):
Perfect.

S1 (03:39):
Um, hey, did either of you guys make it to
Charli Xcx's birthday party in LA over the weekend?

S3 (03:44):
Yes, I did, I was actually, uh, so I was
at Moorfield Bowling Club in Rockdale in Sydney's south. But
after that, I flew over the 14 hours to LA, uh,
and partied with Lorde and the rest of the Brat Pack. Uh,
it was great. It was loose. Um, and it was
everything you imagined. Sadly, Mel couldn't make it.

S2 (04:02):
No, I'm kind of getting a bit intimidated by the
Brat Pack. Like they're starting to be a bit of
an aura of cool girls. It. Girls, you're.

S4 (04:10):
We're in the Taylor Swift. Sort of like girl gang. Yeah, yeah.

S2 (04:14):
Which, I mean, obviously I love girl power, but, uh,
there's something I don't know. It's starting to make me
a bit intimidated, and I don't know, eh, I don't
think I would get the invite, but also, I don't
know if, if it's my kind of scene. Also, something
about them all playing Charli Xcx's songs all night is
feels very odd to me.

S1 (04:33):
Yeah, I wondered about this, actually. I had a friend
who went to this party and I didn't really clock
what was going on. They were posting Instagram videos and
I was like, oh, cool. Like Charlie's hanging out with
Lorde or whatever and didn't really think too much about it.
I think it was maybe Friday or Saturday, our time.
It wasn't paying a lot of attention, and then like
the next day, it's the most viral videos ever. And
I'm like, oh shit, I kind of missed a trick

(04:54):
on that one. Probably should have screen recorded it and
sent it around, but I think I found that also
a bit odd that this was sort of like, seem
like this kind of intimate party with all of Charlie's
cool friends, but was clearly designed to be consumed on
social media. My Intel is that there was like multiple
like layers to this party. There was this earlier in

(05:14):
the evening event with paparazzi and others at this bar in, uh, in,
in LA, I think near Los Feliz or Silverlake, something
like that. Um, and that was all consumed. And then
it sort of kicked on into a more private sort
of situation, which wasn't just them singing their own songs,
because even though it's kind of cute, I guess I
felt a bit weird to just be like, hey Billy,

(05:35):
let's sing our song together now.

S3 (05:36):
And like, they were up on a little stage together,
were they? And it just reminded me of that, you know,
like when you're younger and you would go clubbing and
there'd always be like the hot people would be on
the stage, and then the more ugly people would be
down the bottom and they're kind of wanting to get
up there. And it's like space is tight and you're
waiting to see, like if there's a natural spot for
you to jump up. And sometimes, like the action of

(05:56):
getting from the ground to the stage is really awkward.
And then if the people on the stage are really attractive,
you're like, well, I can't get. That's exactly what it
felt like. Yeah. Having been in that position before, Thomas.

S1 (06:05):
You and I have actually been in this position together.
I don't know if you remember this. One of our
Melbourne nights when you visited, we went to the old
bar and there was little stage there, and there was like, damn,
we were jumping up there. We were the hottest. I
was gonna.

S3 (06:14):
Say, yeah.

S4 (06:14):
We should get.

S2 (06:15):
Why did you want to be on the stage?

S3 (06:17):
That's just where the night led us. And.

S1 (06:20):
Um, before we get into the, uh, the guts of
the episode, one thing I just wanted to mention briefly,
we've talked a fair bit on this podcast. We had
a whole episode, in fact, about the crisis in Australian
music and the lack of chart success a lot of
Australian acts were having. I just wanted to mention quickly
in that realm, there's been a big win for Australian music.
In the past week. Lime Cordiale have actually scored the

(06:44):
first Australian number one album on the Aria charts. This year.
They're Sydney band. Their record is called enough of the
Sweet Talk. It's actually the first number one Australian number
one since Troye Sivan in October last year. It's a
good result for them, and it's a good sign that
Australian music is still beating its heart somewhere. I got

(07:05):
to say, you know, no disrespect to the band, I'm
not like a big Lime Cordiale fan, but I am
happy for them that this album went to number one.
It seems like they've put a lot of work into it.
They were doing a lot of live streams and events
and gigs, and I certainly was getting a lot of PR,
marketing emails about this band. So everyone was working overtime. Um,
Aria is certainly celebrating it. I think they're very conscious

(07:27):
of the criticism that the charts are under from people
like us, and they're like, look guys, we did it!
Lime Cordiale went number one. Everything in Australian music is okay.
I'm not sure I'm willing to say the crisis is over,
but I think given that we talked about sort of
the atmosphere and some of the negatives, it was fair
to mention this little thing that happened as well.

S2 (07:45):
Yeah, I would not have seen them going to number one,
but um, good on them. And they have, as you mentioned,
I've seen like their social media campaign and the like
has been pretty extensive. So I'm glad it's paid off.

S3 (07:55):
Yeah. With a little help from, uh, Stringer Bell. So getting.
That's true.

S1 (07:59):
Yeah. Idris Elba has collaborated with them.

S3 (08:02):
Yeah. Yeah. It's very funny how Idris Elba just like,
does that. And we all just like, oh, what a
fun hobby for him.

S1 (08:07):
It was a bit weird when he came. He was
living in Australia for a bit and then someone in
music Land was like, oh, he's collaborating with an Australian band.
You'll never believe who it is. And I'm like, well,
this is a guy who's like been part of like
the jungle house scene in the UK. And I was like,
you know, maybe. And they were like, oh, they're recording
in Western Sydney. I thought, maybe he's doing like some
intros for a drill group. And they're like, no, it's

(08:27):
a Lime Cordiale. I was like, okay, you're right, you're right.

S3 (08:31):
I didn't see it.

S1 (08:32):
Coming, did not see that coming. Um, all right. Today
on the show, we are in the middle of the
biggest television event, comes around every four years. It is
the Olympics. All three of us are big fans of sport.
The Olympics in particular. We love the athleticism, the narratives,
the heartache, even the nationalism that it evokes in three
otherwise quite cynical people. I'm really excited to share our

(08:55):
favorite moments and characters of the Paris Games so far.
There's also back in the land of pop culture, been
some very big blockbuster movies we haven't had the chance
to chat about yet. Two in particular Twisters and Deadpool
and Wolverine. Are they any good? What do they tell
us about the state of cinema and culture? You'll find out. First, though,

(09:16):
I wanted to talk to you guys about some exciting
news in the land of television. So on Monday, the
second season of House of the Dragon wrapped up. It's
a very, very, very popular show that none of us
are watching, which seems like a problem considering the jobs
that we do and what we talk about on this
podcast every week. But, um, more importantly, HBO on Monday

(09:37):
dropped a teaser trailer highlighting some of their next big shows,
and a few of them got me very excited. I
thought it'd be fun to whip through, get the folks
hyped up for what is coming out on HBO over
the next 12 months. First thing they dropped was yet
another kind of Game of Thrones related spin off. It's
a show called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It's
apparently set in between the timelines of House of the

(09:59):
Dragon and Game of Thrones. My guess is you guys
have no interest in this one either.

S3 (10:04):
Yeah, that definitely didn't get me, like, excited to become
a Game of Thrones fan.

S2 (10:10):
Yeah, probably. Probably not. First on my must watch list. No.

S1 (10:14):
We also saw some footage from the second season of
The Last of Us, which cleaned up at the Emmys
in the drama category this year. I don't think we
talk much about this show. Are you guys into the
Last of Us stuff at all?

S3 (10:25):
Yeah, I really liked it. I also played the video
game and so like I was bedded in for it
and I thought actually in this like kind of sizzle
reel that HBO put out, The Last of Us got
the most love. I thought that obviously that's like where
HBO is like hedging their bets. It's such a big,
you know, kind of like IP for them. Um, yeah,
I thought it looked very good. A single tear going
down Pedro Pascal's face like, fucking sign me up.

S2 (10:47):
Yeah, I like The Last of Us. I thought it
lost its way a bit in in the first season,
but Pedro Pascal. I'm here for him.

S1 (10:54):
And speaking of IP, there are a couple of big
IP spinoffs. There's the Penguin, which is the Batman related
series starring Colin Farrell. I'm kind of in the back
for this one. I'm excited. Thomas, you and I were
talking about these Matt Reeves Batman films, and Colin Farrell
was in that, and they were really good. So the
first one, The Batman with Robert Pattinson, was really good.

(11:15):
I'm excited for the Penguin. Yeah, I'm.

S3 (11:17):
Super excited for that. That's a great character. And Colin
Farrell I love. I thought that like he didn't get
as much to do in the movie, I think. Is
it John Turturro? He kind of stole that film?

S1 (11:28):
Yeah, that was kind of a lot of bad guys
in that movie. You didn't really get a sense of
what the Penguin was going to be like in this universe.

S3 (11:34):
Yeah, but this has been flagged for ages and I'm like, super,
super keen for that. Um, and, you know, we love it.
We love a bit of prosthetic.

S1 (11:41):
Melanie vibes on Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

S2 (11:44):
Yeah I'm excited for this. I'll give it a crack.

S4 (11:49):
So I mean, I guess he's been convincing, but.

S2 (11:51):
Excitement levels aren't super high. But you know, if done well,
I'm open to it.

S1 (11:55):
No, that's a lot. You're allowed. I bet your excitement
levels are off the chart for June Prophecy, the prequel
about the Bene Gesserit sisterhood in the June universe. Come on,
let's go!

S3 (12:06):
The trailer was only a minute 30, and I fast
forwarded through that bit.

S2 (12:10):
How much more Dune do you want, Osman?

S1 (12:12):
No, I'm not really that excited about this. That they
actually released a trailer, I think, a few months ago,
and it didn't really work. Like the Dune films are
great because Denis Villeneuve.

S2 (12:23):
We'll come back in five minutes.

S1 (12:25):
What happened?

S4 (12:27):
Just. I could hear you. I could feel you jigging
up for a June chat.

S1 (12:32):
The June films are good because Danny Villeneuve knows how
to make great movies, and there are some great stars
in them. When you remove both of those things and
it's just some sort of like, complicated sci fi storyline,
I don't feel that excited about it, but happy to
be proven wrong.

S4 (12:46):
Hopefully it's good. Will there be.

S2 (12:47):
Sandworms?

S1 (12:48):
That's a great question. Yeah. Does that make you more
or less excited?

S2 (12:52):
They were like the highlight for me of the Dune film.

S4 (12:54):
As it.

S3 (12:54):
Would be like a bit of a mandalorian type thing
where like, you know, just ends up being a disappointing
addition to the film world.

S1 (13:02):
I think that's quite likely. I think that's quite likely. Yeah.
I mean, this is this era that HBO is in
with the Warner Brothers Discovery merger. Everything is being like
mined for every potential prequel, sequel, behind the scenes TV
thing you could do. I think that the lesson from
all the Star Wars and Marvel shows is that has

(13:23):
a pretty short shelf life. People aren't into it. It's
sort of weird to see HBO getting into it. Uh, ultimately,
I just hope that things that are being made are good.
I hope they're good. I remain skeptical about Dune prophecy,
but one that I think you guys will be very
excited about. We got our first glimpse of the White
Lotus Season three set in Thailand. They've been filming in Bangkok, Phuket,

(13:46):
Koh Samui. What is the hype meter like for you
guys on White Lotus Season three?

S2 (13:50):
Now we're talking.

S3 (13:51):
The hype meter is high. But like I mean glimpse
really is exactly. Yeah.

S1 (13:56):
It's like it's like it's like the the length of
it is the gap between the two runners in the
100 meter sprint. Yeah. It's very short.

S3 (14:04):
Exactly.

S1 (14:05):
Exactly like that. You like how I linked all those.

S3 (14:06):
Things I did? I was going to tell you up
with one, but now you sort it yourself. But yeah, like,
it was very it was like, you know, a long
shot of, like a pool in Thailand and someone being like,
what happens in Thailand stays in Thailand. And we saw, um,
Natasha Rothwell's character.

S4 (14:18):
That's a big reveal that we knew that. Oh. Did we? Yeah, we.

S3 (14:21):
Did know that.

S4 (14:22):
It's a big reveal for you. For you? Yeah. Mel was.

S3 (14:24):
Shocked. Um, yeah, I think, I don't know, I like
I'm starting to feel a little bit nervous about White
Lotus Season three based on nothing other than just like
it's really going to be a long time by the
time it arrives, by the time we check into The
White Lotus once more. And I don't know, like, the
mix of casting doesn't get me as excited that we've

(14:45):
got Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jason Isaacs, Walton
Goggins is cool, but I don't know something about all
of the noise around it has made me apprehensive.

S1 (14:56):
I mean, we talked about this when we were talking
about the bear. Season three. Season threes have this problem, right?
Season one great show out of nowhere. Season two. You've
managed to live up to expectations. Season three can you
do it again? It's tricky. I think there's there's a
lot of space for The White Lotus to like let
people down with the expectations on it. Uh, yeah. I'm hopeful.
I think Mike white has proven his ability to, uh,

(15:18):
write good and smart television. I'm more curious about, like,
in the universe of The White Lotus. How are these
hotel chains still surviving? Like, are they not like people
keep being massacred whenever they check in? Or is it
not a kind of royal commission into what is going
on with the White Lotus hotel chain?

S3 (15:35):
That that could be season three, maybe it's all it's
going to be a courtroom drama.

S4 (15:38):
But I kind of like because.

S2 (15:40):
I think when the second season finished, he spoke about
how that season was predominantly about sex. The first one
was about money, and he thought this one was going
to be about eastern religion and spirituality, which I think
is a pretty ripe area for for satire and exploration.
I think it looks great. There was a bit of
my Thai or boxing in the clip. Did you notice that?
And then also I it looked very hot and I

(16:01):
really like shows where like the heat rises and as
as the tension does as well. I know that's a
niche area, but, um. Yeah.

S1 (16:11):
Um, I'm lucky I got my Thailand trip in last
year because I feel like this is going to send the, uh,
interest in travelling to to Thailand off the charts. So
strong recommend to get in before, uh, the show comes out,
I think.

S4 (16:25):
I mean, I.

S2 (16:25):
Think people have always gone to Thailand, haven't they?

S3 (16:27):
No, but there is a there is a white lotus effect.

S1 (16:29):
There's a white lotus effect. People have always gone to
Hawaii and Sicily, but there's like, you know, search interest
and prices have increased astronomically after these shows are released.
All right. Let's talk about the Olympics. I want to
talk about our favorite moments, the funniest things you've seen,
how you feel. These games are ranking amongst previous Olympiads.
But I want to ask first, how locked in are you? Like,

(16:51):
what is your viewing experience been like for the last
couple of weeks? Are you watching every day? Are you
just doing the highlights? Are you flicking through all the
different channels on stand? You know, on stand you can
actually watch, like the broadcasts from different countries. You can
watch how Indians and French people are watching it. What
are you guys doing? What's your Olympic consumption habit like?

S2 (17:11):
I it's all I'm watching at the moment. When I
come home, it goes on in the background. Um, and
then I'm putting on the highlights in the morning. The
timing is a bit hard. I'm like, I'm really struggling
with that. Can't kind of catch everything live. So you
kind of miss out on the excitement. But, um, yes,
I'm flipping between them all. I quite like going to
the nine main broadcast as well, just to see what

(17:31):
they're scattering through. But then if I'm particularly interested in something,
I'll head across to Stan and their all sports section.

S4 (17:38):
Yeah, right.

S3 (17:39):
Is that because you get a lot of James Bracey
on nine now.

S4 (17:41):
Or he's.

S2 (17:42):
A great broadcaster. It really steals the show.

S4 (17:45):
I would say.

S3 (17:46):
I'm pretty locked in. Uh, it's also kind of coincides
I think, with a pretty like it's not a lot
on TV right now. It's kind of good that you
can just watch the Olympics. And I'm mainly watching through
the Stan app. It does make it hard. Like I,
I've talked about this before with you, I derive a
lot of my enjoyment of like watching sport, watching it
live and having so much stuff on delay, or especially
like at our night time, you don't get heaps of

(18:08):
like gold medal. Like the finals aren't often at that
time so early in Paris. So that's been kind of tricky.
But I think like it's it's still basically all I've
been watching. And as is the case with most Olympics,
I find myself like, you know, once the swimming is over,
like really getting into the more niche sports like.

S1 (18:26):
Yeah, yeah.

S3 (18:27):
So yeah, it's been very it's been the Olympic experience
I was after, I would say.

S1 (18:31):
Do you have a favorite kind of niche sport that
you've stumbled onto or that you're enjoying watching in the
late hours?

S3 (18:37):
Yeah, we were talking about the three on three basketball.
I think that's really odd to watch. And I've watched
a lot of the pommel horse.

S4 (18:43):
Yeah, that was very the three on three.

S2 (18:45):
Basketball was very confusing to me, but.

S4 (18:47):
It's a wacky.

S1 (18:47):
Sport. How is there real basketball. And then also this
fake version of basketball.

S4 (18:50):
And who.

S2 (18:50):
Are they like? They're not NBA players I know, but.

S3 (18:52):
And how do they get into it.

S4 (18:54):
Yeah exactly.

S1 (18:54):
Yeah. Yeah. Countries that like like the Netherlands is really
good in it. I've never seen like the Dutch be
involved in like the NBA or anything.

S4 (19:02):
Yeah.

S2 (19:02):
And I quite like I have got into the canoe slalom.
Thank you. Um clearly.

S4 (19:10):
The Fox.

S1 (19:10):
Sisters. You're into the Fox Sisters. Well, are they kayakers?

S2 (19:13):
I guess I'm into the one where the one that
Noemi or Naomi? Just one. I like the drop. Yeah,
I like the intensity where they kind of plummet out
of that thing down into the rapids. And actually, Thomas
and I were talking this morning about whether I could
just take my canoe, which I don't have yet to
the regatta here and, like, have a crack at it. Yeah.

S3 (19:32):
Well, we were told by our esteemed sports reporter, Vince Rugari,
that the Fox family, the mother is French. Um, and
they were about to move back to France in the
year 2000, and they decided to stay in Sydney because
the big centre was built in Penrith, and then they
obviously started training and then bang two Olympians into one family.

S1 (19:50):
And the mother is French. She was an Olympic canoer
or kayaker for France and the dad was a British
canoe or kayak, whichever one they do. Yeah. So the
second generation.

S3 (20:00):
Yeah, yeah. So I mean they basically couldn't lose. But yeah,
it's been very fun. Not a great like I mean
in the last 24 hours, both the boomers and the
Greek national team lost in basketball. So I feel doubly devastated.

S1 (20:12):
Yeah. That Greek lost to Germany was tough. Yeah. And
I mean, like, again, when did Germans start playing basketball? Yeah,
but they're really good.

S3 (20:18):
They won the last world championship, apparently. Oh did.

S1 (20:20):
They okay.

S3 (20:21):
Yeah. They didn't come out of nowhere. But and the
boomers obviously had a devastating loss to Serbia. It's like the.

S1 (20:26):
Worst named team in history.

S3 (20:28):
The boomers I don't know the Jillaroos. The female Australian
rugby league team is pretty bad.

S1 (20:33):
Yeah, it's not good though.

S2 (20:34):
We have been talking because I am considering getting an
Olympic rings tattoo and.

S4 (20:39):
Wow.

S1 (20:40):
Okay, this.

S3 (20:40):
Is actually an Olympic.

S4 (20:41):
Fever. Not actually.

S1 (20:43):
The sweating. You're sweating out that Olympic fever.

S2 (20:45):
Yeah, but obviously then people would think I'm an athlete.
And so.

S4 (20:48):
Because you only.

S3 (20:49):
Get them if you've been at the Olympics.

S4 (20:50):
It's actually it's not.

S2 (20:51):
A rule.

S3 (20:51):
No. But like that's what I'm in support of this
decision because people you would really put people in two minds.

S2 (20:56):
But then people would have to be like, what sport
did you. Yeah.

S4 (20:59):
What sport do.

S1 (21:00):
You reckon people would assume you entered?

S4 (21:02):
Well, if you.

S1 (21:03):
Had an Olympic ring, I've got an obvious answer to this.

S2 (21:05):
Thomas suggested that I could probably get away with skateboarding,
which I don't really know.

S1 (21:10):
That's ridiculous. I mean.

S3 (21:11):
Just physically, though.

S1 (21:12):
Like, I was going to say equestrian.

S4 (21:14):
Equestrian.

S2 (21:15):
Really? Okay, okay. Midnight shadow or whatever. that or shadow.

S1 (21:18):
I've got a related question for you guys on this one.
I'm springing this one on you. So you've not been
prepared for this. If you had 12 months to prepare
to try to qualify for an Olympic sport, which one
do you think you'd have the best chance of making
it in?

S3 (21:30):
I find it offensive that you say I'm not prepared
for this, as if I don't fucking have this conversation
with myself every single day. Um.

S4 (21:37):
Well, look.

S3 (21:37):
There's a few answers I could give you. I think
I'm pretty close to being able to compete at football anyway,
so we'll take that off the table. Like for the olyroos.

S1 (21:45):
Okay, so that, I mean, you're too old to.

S3 (21:47):
Be the only three overage players.

S1 (21:49):
Okay.

S4 (21:50):
Please.

S1 (21:50):
So you think you could be you think you're one
of the three best football players in Australia?

S3 (21:55):
I think it's I'm in the mix. I should I
should be in the chat. No, I, I've had this
conversation a lot with people in the office. I reckon
that the best chance sport that most of us as
non-athletes could have, like in terms of what the skill
level is and how quickly you could get to a
level that you could probably at least, let's say the
parameters are you can compete without making an absolute fool

(22:15):
of yourself. Beach volleyball, I think.

S2 (22:17):
Yeah, Thomas has flagged this argument and I think it's
quite disrespectful to the sport of volleyball.

S1 (22:21):
I agree. I mean, like firstly, you've got to have
great dexterity in the sand.

S4 (22:24):
You have to be very careful.

S1 (22:25):
You've got to be great reactions. You've got to be tall.
You've got to know.

S3 (22:29):
Like if we accept that all answers are going to
be kind of disrespectful, like they're all going to be
really hard sports. I'm just saying I think that's the
one that most that's fair. That's fair, normal people. And
if you.

S1 (22:36):
Had 12 months to do it, you could probably get
pretty good. Yeah.

S3 (22:39):
Like because I mean like I couldn't get I couldn't
run fucking ten flat in 12 months in 100m.

S2 (22:45):
I reckon I'm 100% table tennis.

S4 (22:46):
Like, no way. I'm absolutely getting.

S2 (22:49):
Into table tennis. I reckon I'd be top 100 in
the country.

S4 (22:52):
Have you watched?

S2 (22:52):
I have a lot of it, and I think I
have like. I think that's the sport for me.

S3 (22:57):
I think if we're being serious, I reckon beach volleyball
is actually a good answer.

S1 (23:01):
I've got a better one than both of you. It's
sort of in the middle, in fact, of both of
these sports. What do you get when you combine beach
volleyball and table tennis? Badminton.

S4 (23:08):
Oh, I love badminton.

S2 (23:09):
Yeah, I considered that as my other like I.

S1 (23:11):
Like because I played a bit of badminton growing up
and I really liked it. And also think about it,
you got to have a bit of stamina, but the
courts aren't that big. You're not going to get exhausted.
And it's kind of just like flicks of the wrist
and like leans in. It feels like if I just
played badminton, if I took a year off work and
just played badminton every day, I would be in the
Olympics like I do think that would happen.

S4 (23:31):
I like that the racquet.

S2 (23:31):
Is so light for badminton.

S4 (23:33):
I think we're missing.

S3 (23:34):
A very obvious thing here is if the three of
us took a year off, we could go in three
on three basketball.

S4 (23:38):
Wow, that would be good stuff.

S3 (23:40):
So like anyway there's like watch out la.

S1 (23:45):
Um, and so where do you guys reckon. Look I
think the obvious answer is the Sydney 2000 Olympics are
like the greatest Olympics of all time.

S3 (23:53):
Obviously. Athens 2004.

S1 (23:56):
Athens 96, 1896 was a good one. Um, how are
you guys finding the general vibe about Paris? We're talking
about the time zone. Like. I like you guys. It's
kind of all I'm watching. I kind of come home
from work and cook dinner and I'm like, oh, I'm
doing a I'm doing a industry season two rewatch in
advance of season three, but that's just been put on
the back burner. I'm just like, what is on right now?

(24:17):
I've been watching like the, the show jumping, the the
slalom stuff, the skateboarding. It's all so fun. And I'm like,
it's only on for a few more days, so I
may as well just watch this. Time zones make it tough.
There's some amazing kind of stories and wins, but how
do you guys think the Paris Games compare to, you know, Tokyo,
the Covid games? What do you feel the rankings are?

S2 (24:38):
I think Paris is fantastic. Particularly Tokyo was very weird, um,
Olympic Games without much of an audience that any of
the events. Um, I like the vibe in Paris. I
love that they're making great use of the city, um,
in all of their things, like the marathon's going right
through it, the cycling, all of that.

S1 (24:56):
They're all getting E coli from swimming in the sand.
You know.

S2 (24:59):
You gotta you gotta you gotta take your you gotta
take that, um, the like the volleyball is under the
Eiffel Tower. Um, and I loved the Tour.

S4 (25:07):
Eiffel, the Olympic.

S2 (25:09):
Opening ceremony. I thought they did a great job. I
thought that was very fun. I'm glad it wasn't in, like,
a stadium.

S1 (25:16):
Yeah, I like the use of, like, European electronic music. Yeah,
like just throw out there, just piping it in through
the stadium whenever there's athletic heats. That is a fun
thing that they've done these games.

S3 (25:26):
My parents in law are still talking about the opening
ceremony in the family WhatsApp, still up in absolutely up
in arms.

S1 (25:32):
Over over that. The thing with the guy that everyone
thought was a last Supper, right?

S4 (25:36):
Yeah. And I was.

S3 (25:38):
Like, why didn't we stop talking about like a week ago?

S4 (25:39):
But how did they feel.

S2 (25:41):
About the boats? Because people were very upset too, that the.

S1 (25:44):
I also I didn't like the boats. Actually, I got
to say.

S3 (25:47):
I didn't mind that. I think generally like the Paris
Games has been pretty good. Uh, like I do think
it is, even though it's like, yeah, it's great to
have crowds and stuff. I in my opinion, Time Zone
does make a big difference. So we had like Beijing
and Tokyo and they're like very friendly time zones. And
like I really I actually really enjoyed the Tokyo Games
because like obviously it was the weird Covid thing, but
it was good to have like a collective experience that

(26:08):
we could all, like, lock in on. And yeah, it
was good to be able to watch like actual finals
at good times with your friends and stuff. Whereas this like,
you know, it's like you're up really late or up
early in the morning, like watching, you know, the Stan
recap of what happened. So I don't know, it's kind
of like it's felt like a, a funny games to me.
But I do think it's also as these things tend

(26:28):
to do anyway, it's produced a lot of great, like
I've enjoyed the content around the games outside of the
sport too.

S1 (26:34):
Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit about that because
there's been some, some athletes, some, some celebs who've made
their presence really felt at these games. The kind of
chat out of the village is always really funny to me.
Apparently a whole bunch of athletes have just, like left
the village and are staying in their own accommodation. There
is no air conditioning in the village, which seems crazy

(26:54):
like I know that we're all trying to save the
environment or whatever, but like you're doing the Olympic Games
like that's out the window, like thousands of athletes you're
flying horses in from all over the world, like get,
get rid of any idea that this is going to
be sustainable and just let these athletes have aircon in
summer in in Paris. That's crazy.

S2 (27:12):
Are they in old. I actually haven't I'm not so
across this scandal. But are they in old buildings. Is
that why that they're in kind of stately?

S4 (27:19):
I think they built it.

S1 (27:20):
I just think they're trying to like, reduce energy use, essentially.
And some of the food, apparently they're running out of
like protein, which seems like a mistake because these are
athletes and that's basically all they eat.

S3 (27:30):
Yeah, but that someone had to like Cater Gina Rinehart's
crews for the gold medal winners. So that's where all
the protein has gone. I find I found that a
very odd thing to do. Like, I, I don't know
for everyone that is there that didn't win a medal.
It's an Australian. Wouldn't you be like, fuck these guys
on the winners?

S1 (27:45):
I mean, yeah, Rinehart's involvement in Australian swimming is crazy.
She's like basically owns it now. I think she's big time.
Sportswashing donated a lot and she, uh, has very strong
views about how I think she wanted Dawn Fraser on
the board. She really loves Dawn Fraser. Um, and yeah,
I agree, it's sort of odd to be like, I'm
going to take all the people who won on this cruise,
the ones who lost, like, sorry, go eat your salads

(28:08):
in your hot Olympic village.

S3 (28:10):
As your salad wilts in front of you. Uh, I
think generally there has been some great storylines to come
out of the games. Um, probably the most lovable figure
is Yusuf Dikec, the Turkish 51 year old shooter who
looks so much like a maths teacher of ours that
we had at school, Melanie Kembrey. Um, he's been amazing.
Just like and like the fact that two, you know,

(28:32):
and then the South Korean Kim Ye-ji like the two.

S4 (28:34):
Sort of cool.

S3 (28:35):
Most popular stars are these kind of relaxed, casual shooters
I think is very.

S1 (28:40):
Funny. And that wasn't there. The, um, the Swedish guy
who won the poll vote, like, imitated the Turkish group.
That was.

S3 (28:46):
Cool. Did the shooting stance because it's just good when
like it's I mean, it's such an internet thing to
be like, we love this person who's just regular like us.
And now he won silver medal.

S1 (28:55):
Oh, we got some categories that we're gonna talk about. Uh,
which is gonna be real fun to share some of
our highlights and favorite moments from these games so far.
First one, the obvious one. The best sporting moment to
come out of these games. Mel, what did you choose?

S4 (29:11):
Look, I.

S2 (29:11):
It was an early one, cross country mountain biking which
also I think.

S4 (29:16):
I want to get into sport Have you really?

S1 (29:18):
Really impressive.

S4 (29:18):
Yeah, yeah. I want to like.

S2 (29:19):
Go off those jumps. And down there was like this
rock fountain and amazing sport. I think I might get
into it. Um, English writer Tom Pidcock. Um, he was
about he was expected to win and was well in
front and then at, you know, maybe just before halfway through,
he got a puncture in his wheel. And then there
was a very kind of haphazard wheel changeover. It was

(29:42):
40s behind, um, which is quite significant. And then at
the very end, he managed to kind of duck in
front of his, um, of of a Frenchman, Victor Koretzky,
and win. And I just thought it was he just
slow and steadied and made his way back and won
the day.

S1 (29:59):
Great shot. And that was a great sport that you
just don't see other than the Olympics.

S2 (30:03):
Yeah. Like I feel like they're often squirrelled away in
kind of national parks. Like, I don't know any mountain bikers.

S4 (30:11):
Yet.

S1 (30:12):
Um, Thomas, what's your favorite sporting moment so far?

S3 (30:16):
Um, my favorite sporting moment, I reckon, is probably the
100 metre sprint. Um, obviously, you know, the world was watching,
but I think because I watched sprint, the Netflix series, um, about.

S1 (30:28):
Yeah, a lot of people saying this, they got really
hyped because of that series. Yeah, it's.

S3 (30:31):
Exactly the same. It's the drive to survive effect. Like
you suddenly care about F1 results because you've watched the
show and watching if you watch sprint like the second
episode is dedicated to Noah Lyles, you get it's like
the full Noah Lyles show. He's so you know like
such a showman talks the talk and all that. And
so like because I had watched all the journey of
him and the other guys getting to this race I
was like so locked in. And then of course like

(30:51):
the insane finish that it was like the five one
1/1000 of a second. And I feel like, you know,
that often happens in sprinting, like, and you hear it
and you're like, oh, cool. It's always going to be close.
But like really reading about, you know, like that, the
way in which the finish is calculated and how close
it really was, like the difference between him and the
guy from Jamaica. Like it was it was it was

(31:11):
an amazing kind of end to that storyline. And, you know,
that's the big race. I think that a lot of
people always watch, like the male 100m and the female
hundred metres sprint and like both delivered like pretty great
ends to the story. Can I have.

S2 (31:22):
A hot take out of the athletics? But now I've
also seen it in bouldering. In swimming, the false start
rules I think are cruel.

S1 (31:29):
They're brutal, and seeing so many athletes disqualified because they
just moved a little bit too early, and then they
give them the red card and they're out straight away.
It's quite heartbreaking. Yeah.

S3 (31:39):
Four years of your life and you're like, I flinched. And.
But I guess if everyone got one false start, that
would really fuck the race up because people would be.

S2 (31:46):
Everyone else gets to go and repechage and like these guys,
why don't they get a second chance?

S1 (31:51):
Talk us through repechage.

S3 (31:52):
That was a word I did not know about three
weeks ago.

S2 (31:54):
My God, I think about it all the time. I mean,
my understanding of it is essentially if you don't qualify
through your heat. And this is because certain heats are
faster than others, you get a second chance and then
if you win number one in that, you get to
go through to the quarterfinals. Um, otherwise it's based on time.
But don't you think we should have a repechage in
more in more areas of life? Yeah, just a second. Yeah.

S1 (32:18):
Like taking a mulligan, you know? Let's just do it again.
There was one funny, um, a US hurdler. Uh, Crittenden.
Freddie Crittenden, I think is his name who I was
watching who just, like, slow walked the hurdles. He was
doing these tiny little steps and I didn't understand what
what was going on. And then he basically was like, look,
I wasn't feeling fit. I'm like, I may as well
just go with repechage, where I can be the fastest

(32:38):
among the losers. Then giving it all amongst all these people,
I'm like, I don't know, that's the point of it.
But respect for gaming the system.

S4 (32:44):
Yeah, but then he had.

S2 (32:45):
To race twice rather than.

S4 (32:47):
But he didn't really. He wasn't really racing the first time.
The first time. Yeah. I thought that was a bit rude.

S1 (32:52):
Um, my favorite sporting moment. This is a bit of
recency bias, but Orissa. True. The 14 year old, uh,
from Cairns who won gold for Australia in the skateboarding,
I was a bit skeptical of like skateboarding as a
as a Olympic sport, but it's really fun to watch.
I don't really understand why all the women are like
14 and all the men are 45. I don't know,

(33:13):
something to do with men. Maybe there's more of a
career in skateboarding, whereas women there isn't. Maybe. And so
they have to get jobs and they have to tap
out when they grow up. But it's very odd watching that.
Huge difference. But the music is awesome. They just like
blast hip hop and these kids do sick tricks. And
it makes me think of Tony Hawk, Pro Skater. I
just keep expecting to see this number in the corner

(33:34):
go up as they are ollieing and grinding and stuff.
It's really fun. I'm really stoked for her.

S3 (33:39):
I just, I don't know, like I don't want to
diss a gold medal winner, but like 14 is just
too young to be at the Olympics, I reckon.

S1 (33:46):
Like, well, she's she's become the youngest, uh, gold medalist
for Australia. But there was a 14 year old gold
medalist for Australia. She was part of Dawn Fraser's uh,
relay team in like whenever 18 on Fraser. Yeah, yeah.

S3 (34:00):
I think I don't know, it's just like, maybe there
should be a limit of 16, I reckon. Like, 14.
Just feels like a bit too young to be, like,
competing at the Olympics.

S4 (34:08):
What?

S2 (34:08):
Like what is your concern? Yeah. What are you worried about?

S3 (34:10):
I don't know, like, it makes me feel bad about
what I was doing at 14.

S4 (34:14):
Okay. Yeah. Which was playing.

S3 (34:15):
Tony Hawk, basically.

S4 (34:17):
And like.

S3 (34:18):
Pausing different bits of American Pie, but like, I think
it just feels like it's it's just not. She's so
she is so young and like, she's got like so
many more Olympics ahead of her now. I don't know,
it just seems like it's like.

S2 (34:31):
A welfare thing.

S3 (34:31):
Kind of.

S1 (34:32):
It does feel weird that there is this one sport
which just children are competing, and it's like a Dickensian.
Now to the skateboarding, where, like Hungary, 13 year olds
will compete against each other in quite a dangerous event.

S3 (34:42):
Yeah. And then and then, then you do have that
weird thing where the men are really old and like,
I'm like, is this like a weird Drake in charge
at this point thing?

S4 (34:49):
Like, what's going on? All right, let's.

S1 (34:53):
Move on to our next category. Favorite. Best celeb moment. Thomas,
you can go first.

S3 (34:59):
Um, yeah. There's been some good, good, like, star spotting,
I think very much. I'm in favor of the flavor
fave momentum. He's been basically at the women's water polo
supporting the US women's team. But he's got like he
he's just got big like supportive Aunt Energy. He's at
every game. Like I'm pretty sure he's taken oranges and
stuff for halftime. Like he's just he's so it's not

(35:20):
like he's they're doing the like yeah, great photo op
I'm here. You know like a lot of them are
doing he's like at every game and like you know
do we.

S1 (35:27):
Know why Flavor Flav is so I think he's like he.

S3 (35:30):
Like basically I think he befriended one of them at
the last Olympics. And then they were like, we don't
have much money. And he's like kind of become he's
like brought money into the system for them.

S4 (35:37):
He's like, he's like.

S1 (35:37):
The Gina Rinehart of the US.

S3 (35:39):
Exactly. Yeah. And he's got a whole bunch of mining
stuff and going on there. But yeah, like I thought,
that's really cool. Um, and, you know, Flavor Flav is
like a weird celebrity that still, he still got the
big clock and stuff.

S4 (35:50):
Does he still wear.

S2 (35:51):
The clock out?

S3 (35:52):
I think so, yeah. I mean, otherwise, how do people
know who he is?

S4 (35:54):
True.

S3 (35:56):
It's great. What about you, Osman?

S1 (35:59):
Um. Well, mine is is one where it was just
a bit of a brief photo op, but it was
such a funny, uh, combo as Tom Cruise and Greta
Gerwig watching Simone Biles at the Athletics. I think, um,
Christopher McQuarrie was there as well. The guy who's directing,
it's like McQuarrie and cruise just go around together. It's
like Mcquarrie's handler. They were together at the Taylor Swift concerts, like,
all right, Tom, we can let you out in public,

(36:20):
but Mcquarrie's got to come with you. It's so funny.

S3 (36:23):
That's a really weird relationship, I reckon.

S1 (36:26):
It's so funny. And, you know, it was great to
see all these stars just, like, get behind Simone Biles,
who's amazing and killed it. It was it was really
cool to see. Yeah.

S2 (36:35):
She had a lot of celebrity supporters, like all the
American celebrities are just watching gymnastics.

S3 (36:40):
She is very cool. Like like, obviously she's super famous
now and everyone knows how amazing she is. But like
to really come back from what was a pretty serious
case of like the what do they call it, the.

S4 (36:49):
Twisties.

S3 (36:50):
In in Tokyo. Like, man, she came back and like
fucking crushed it.

S1 (36:54):
It's incredible watching. It's like, how was with so much
of this stuff at the Olympics, right? It's like, how
do you do that? But something about the gymnastics in
particular is just it's extraordinary to make your body do that.
It's crazy. Um, Mel, your favorite celeb.

S4 (37:06):
Moment, surely.

S2 (37:07):
Snoop Dogg, I mean, he is the absolute hype person
that I think we need at every Olympics. Um, I
think like, obviously he's had lots of great moments dancing
with Simone Biles, kind of hanging out at the tennis
with Billie Jean King. He was mock fencing, wearing an
American flag mask. But definitely the highlight was the equestrian outfit.
Did you see him in Martha Stewart.

S4 (37:27):
And him and.

S1 (37:28):
Martha Stewart? Yeah. Got got all fancy. Yeah.

S2 (37:30):
Yeah. Wearing these little. And then he even was like
he brought a carrot to feed the horse. Um, and
he said, like he was quoted saying, I'm interested in
the horses that dance. And I want to give them
some carrots and apples. Great, man. Yeah.

S1 (37:41):
Yeah, absolutely.

S3 (37:42):
It's funny, he's over there as like, a special correspondent
for NBC. He kind of did it a little bit
at the last one, him and Kevin Hart. But like,
I was trying to think because he's been so popular
and the NBC president, he's over there in Paris and
was like, we're definitely, obviously going to run this back
in LA. No brainer. Like, that's Snoop's hometown. But I'm like,
do we have who could have been our special correspondent
for nine? We didn't send anyone fun.

S4 (38:02):
Scotty. Cam it's very.

S3 (38:05):
Good. Um, but, like, you know what I mean? Why
don't we have someone over there, like a beloved cultural, like.

S1 (38:09):
A fun pop cultural sort of person? You got, Marc.
We got, we got we got Tubby Taylor doing the
the diving, which maybe people thought was that equivalent. Maybe
for a certain kind of man of a certain age,
it is. But who is the fun? You know why,
Lime Cordiale? Why aren't they over there commentating?

S3 (38:25):
I'm not really sure who it could be.

S2 (38:27):
Do you think, Snoop Dogg? Because don't we not allow
him into our country? Like, will he be able to
come for Brisbane?

S1 (38:32):
I think we have previously banned him, but I think he's.
I think he's allowed in.

S4 (38:36):
Yeah. Um.

S1 (38:38):
Yeah. Who would we send if we're talking about famous
actors or. I mean, like, you know, Sarah Snook's been
in London doing Dorian. Like, it'd be fun to cross
to her if she was in Paris. People love her.

S3 (38:51):
No, you need someone that's, like, kind, like Snoop is
good because everyone loves him. But he's kind of ridiculous.
Him specifically being at the Olympics is a bit ridiculous,
and that's that's a bit silly work. So you need
someone that's kind of like, universally loved, but also their
presence is kind of like jarring enough. Like, is that
who remember that Chef Hughie?

S4 (39:11):
Oh yeah. He's he's got a YouTube channel. Very good.

S1 (39:13):
Yeah. Send Hughie to the Olympics.

S3 (39:15):
Send Hughie to LA. Let's get him chatting to people
doing a cook up like he's kind of got the right.

S1 (39:19):
Or in fact, in fact, just on this, I can
think of a number of like send po, you know.

S3 (39:24):
Yeah, yeah. Po would be good. Actually. Po would be great.
Goodwin could probably do it.

S4 (39:28):
Yeah, or maybe like a classic.

S2 (39:29):
From Home and Away, Irene. Or someone like that.

S4 (39:31):
Oh, yeah.

S3 (39:31):
I mean, Ray Ma, I don't know if he's gonna make.

S4 (39:35):
The.

S1 (39:35):
Wrong network, folks.

S4 (39:36):
Wrong network.

S1 (39:38):
Let's just go through Nine's properties and see who works.
We should have declared. And in fact, we can declare
it now that nine is the broadcast partner of the Olympics.
It also owns Stan, and it also owns us. Um,
this is not a sponsored segment. We just love talking
about the Olympics. But, uh, we should just mention that
all the things we've been talking about were on channel nine. Uh,
the last category. We've got, uh, funniest moments. A lot

(40:01):
to pick from in a very funny, uh, very funny
game so far. There's one. Um, I don't know what
you're going to choose, Thomas. I hope you're going to
choose this one. If you don't, I'm going to have
to give it an honorable mention. But what is your
funniest moment of the game so far?

S3 (40:16):
Are you talking about the BD, the pole vaulting. Yeah, baby. Yeah, yeah.
Anthony Ammirati I mean, he's the game's biggest loser, isn't he?
I guess, uh, look, this is a story that seems
designed for the internet. Uh, he obviously was looking to.
He was. I think he was jumping to qualify for
the final Italian, uh, sorry, French pole vaulter. And he

(40:40):
he went and did his jump. He ascended as the
plan was, uh, he cleared. I mean, the top half
of his body cleared the pole, uh, but sadly, his
personal pole did not, and in slow motion for the
entire world to see on repeat. He knocked the pole

(41:00):
down with his enormous bulge. Uh, yeah. It's been it's
been like a pretty fucking funny story. Our colleagues over
at pedestrian have gone to town on it. It's like,
you know, they've probably written about 30 stories on it. Wow. Um,
there's lots of, like, he's been, I think. I think
he's been offered $250,000 from OnlyFans to get his giant
baguette out. That's a quote, by the way. Not me
saying it. Oh my God. Uh, yeah. I mean, look,

(41:21):
it's been it's been a very funny story and it's
just the kind of Olympic moment that dreams are made of.

S1 (41:25):
Yeah, I feel I feel sorry for him not qualifying,
but also, you know, he would have had a great
time at the village that night. You know, it's like, hey, Anthony,
did you, did you medal, did you get into the finals?
And he's like, no. But do you want to do
you want to know why do you want to see why?
Like he's got an obvious sort of set up there.

S2 (41:40):
I actually think this is set him up well for
the future. Like he's probably going to do better now
post Olympics than he would have, you know.

S1 (41:46):
Yeah. If he just remembers to wear underwear, he should
do very well.

S3 (41:50):
No, but he wasn't going to win. So like, you
may as well, you know. Yeah.

S1 (41:53):
Yeah. You may as well emerge like as a character
out of this. Exactly. You know. Yeah. And speaking of
characters who've emerged, Mel.

S4 (42:00):
No.

S2 (42:00):
Mr. Pommel.

S4 (42:01):
Horse. Yes.

S3 (42:02):
Steve and Nadia Rossi.

S4 (42:03):
Yes.

S2 (42:03):
The 25 year old American gymnast who has a very
unique talent, the pommel horse. Um, a lot of the
other gymnasts compete in all kinds of different things, the
bars and the floor and whatnot. But he is just
the pommel horse. And there was this, like, amazing footage
of him just having a little nap because he had
to wait hours before his event. And then also he

(42:25):
kind of took his glasses off at the moment before
he got on the pommel horse, took his glasses off.
It was kind of a Clark Kent moment. Um, he
just seems fun. He won two bronzes. He likes doing, um.
He likes doing Rubik's Cubes.

S1 (42:36):
Yeah, I saw him doing the Rubik's Cube in between, like,
waiting for his thing. That was good. He's pretty good
at it. He's like, oh, no, I screwed it up.
And he did it. He still did it in like
13 seconds. Yeah, yeah.

S4 (42:46):
And he's like, he's like.

S3 (42:47):
Naturally cross-eyed and stuff. Like he's again, he's got that
relatable energy that we like look for in the Olympics.
It's like, okay, cool.

S1 (42:53):
I mean how good are the Olympics? Seriously? Like just
thinking about so good, these weird characters, it's the best,
it's the best and the whole world. Like we talk
about this with television, right? We've talked about this so
many times. What are we all watching together? What are
we talking about? What are we sharing memes about? What
are we messaging each other about? What are we talking
about at work, at the water cooler, in the coffee
line with random people on the tram? Nothing. But then

(43:14):
the Olympics comes around every four years and we're all
talking about pommel horse guy, pole vault, dick guy, you know,
Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg. It's so good. It feels
like for the first time in so long, we're all
in this together as human beings on this small, fragile planet.
It's it's quite special. It is special.

S3 (43:31):
And that's why I find it so weird. Like, last night,
I texted a friend of mine, uh, also second generation Greek,
and I was like, are you watching the Greek basketball?
And he was like, nah, I'm not watching the Olympics.
And I was like, what the fuck is wrong with you, man? Like,
I've already got some question marks about this friend of mine.
He's got weird viewing habits.

S1 (43:48):
Your friends are the.

S3 (43:48):
Worst, I know. But like, I was like, so you.
And then I had to, like, double down. So I
was like, so, have you been putting the Olympics on
in the background? He's like, not really. Like I was like, oh,
but why? And he's like, I don't know. Just like
I was like, do you have Stan? He's like, yeah,
I got Stan. But he's just like no interest. And
I'm like, but then that's why I was like, am
I is are there people out there who really aren't
watching the Olympics? Cause I feel like in my life

(44:08):
and my echo chamber, most people are watching it.

S1 (44:11):
Well, the emails we get from channel nine every day
are like, you know, 400 million Australians have tuned in
last night. So I think a lot of people are.
I don't think we're the weird ones here. I think
a lot of people are watching. Okay.

S3 (44:20):
Long live the Olympics.

S1 (44:22):
Um, my my funny moment. This is from really early on,
and I think it's faded from a lot of people's minds.
I think it was like just pre the game starting
Canada was busted, their women's soccer team using drones to
spy on New Zealand or they were up against in
the group stages and they would dock like six points.
So they were basically out of the competition straight away.
And I'm like, that's such a crazy thing to do.

(44:44):
You think you're going to get away with it?

S3 (44:45):
And also, shit is your team. If you need to
spy on New Zealand, like New Zealand, are not good.

S1 (44:49):
New Zealand weren't favourites at all for that one, and
it was really funny because the New Zealand team spotted
like one drone and then when the Canadians apologised, their
statement was like, we're sorry for all the drones that
we've used to spy on you.

S4 (45:00):
Like what? How many.

S1 (45:03):
Multiple drones? Um, all right. To round out our Olympics convo,
I want to ask. There's a few days to go
before the closing ceremony. Anything you guys have your eyes on?
Anything you're particularly excited to see in the. In the
time we've got left to enjoy this special moment.

S4 (45:17):
I'm.

S2 (45:18):
Looking forward to the marathon. I quite like sporting events
that you can just put on for hours. Um, and
the commentary is kind of lulls you through it and
there are highs and lows, so I'm really looking forward
to the marathon. Also the basketball. I've just been loving
watching the US team. Like what an incredible team KD,
Steph LeBron A.D um yeah I've every time I watch

(45:39):
it it's so fun.

S4 (45:40):
It's so good.

S3 (45:41):
Yeah it's got big like year 12 kids versus year
seven kids energy with the kids, which are fucking like, yeah, it's.

S1 (45:46):
Space Jam in real life.

S4 (45:48):
Basically is monsters I like.

S3 (45:51):
It's been very rumored that the great Tom cruise will
appear in the closing ceremony, so I feel like that's
really like been in the back of my mind. I'm like, well,
now I have to fucking stay up and watch it
and see what he does. Like what?

S1 (46:04):
He's gonna jump off the Eiffel Tower 100% Amazing.

S3 (46:06):
He's gonna he's gonna like, there's going to be anthrax
at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower or something. He's
gonna have to jump off the top of it and, like,
snort it all up and spit it into Snoop Dog's mouth, who, like,
then dive under the sand and then it'll explode or whatever.
But yeah, I'm keen to see what they do. Obviously
the opening ceremony was like very controversial and divisive, but yeah,
I'm keen to see how they and maybe Snoop will
be involved given they are handing it over to LA.

S1 (46:28):
Yeah, well that's the rumour with the Tom cruise thing, right?
They always do this thing at the closing ceremony where
they sort of pass the baton on. And Tom cruise
could be that bridge between Paris and LA. He could
jump out of something in France like the Eiffel Tower
and land in LA. That could be really cool. And
I think if he does, I mean, the whole world
is watching this. It's going to make the next Mission

(46:48):
Impossible movie like the biggest film of all time. If
Tom cruise becomes this, like, Olympic hero as well.

S3 (46:53):
That should be we should start doing more tie ins
like that. So then the next Mission Impossible movie is set,
like during the Olympics in LA, because obviously this whole
Olympics was just like a marketing ploy for Emily in Paris,
which starts next week.

S1 (47:05):
It does start like three days.

S4 (47:06):
After there was not.

S2 (47:07):
Enough Lily Collins. Like, I don't think they took enough
advantage of her in this. Like she should have been
courtside at everything wearing the ridiculous Emily outfits.

S3 (47:15):
I think it's because people know that she's like, it's
not very cool That's my impression.

S1 (47:19):
I think also, so like Ariana Grande has been doing
a lot of stuff. I think that's because Universal's got
wicked coming out and universal has NBC, which is the
broadcast partner. Netflix is a bit on the outs, I guess,
as not a streaming partner. Um, my thing I'm excited about.
So Arshad Nadeem, Pakistani javelin thrower, he qualified this week

(47:39):
to make it to the finals. He qualified third. Uh,
He won gold for Pakistan at the Commonwealth Games a
couple of years ago, was Pakistan's first gold since 1962.
I think this is Pakistan's only chance to like medal
left at these games. I'm really excited about this. He's
he's in the finals for the javelin. 4:30 a.m. on Friday.
I will get up. It'll be very exciting if he
gets something. You know, the little country that could.

S3 (48:01):
That's very. That's exciting. Have they got any medals at
all yet?

S1 (48:04):
No, no.

S3 (48:06):
So they're below both the Fox Sisters on the medal.

S1 (48:09):
Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah. Um, and look, the last
thing I thought we could do is just go through
all 32 Olympic sports and rank them.

S4 (48:15):
Yeah. Perfect.

S1 (48:16):
You ready to go?

S4 (48:16):
Okay, good. Um.

S3 (48:21):
So breaking one? Obviously.

S1 (48:25):
No, I we can leave out Olympic convo there. Yeah.

S3 (48:28):
Very good. Long live the Olympics.

S1 (48:40):
All right, so after a slow start to the year
that had some parts of Hollywood kind of losing their
minds that movies were over, no one wanted to see them.
Movies are actually back team. In the past few weeks
there have been some big big releases. Turns out the
biggest film of the year is surprisingly Inside Out two.
It's made 1.5 billion USD so far. That actually makes

(49:03):
it the 10th highest grossing movie in history like of
all time. That's wild. Um, but we're not going to
talk about Inside Out two. We're going to talk about
two other big blockbuster films that have come out in
the last month, twisters and the latest installment from Marvel,
Deadpool and Wolverine. Let's start with twisters, because the Deadpool
convo may result in me having an aneurysm and being

(49:23):
unable to complete the podcast. So this is a remake
of the 1996 disaster movie starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.
The new one stars man of the moment Glen Powell,
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos. It's directed by Lee Isaac Chung.
His big budget follow up to 2020s Minari, which got
a couple of Oscar nominations. The story follows clashing groups

(49:46):
of storm chasers who are investigating a tornado outbreak in Oklahoma.
You've got Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos as the kind
of more scientific, methodical storm chasers. Glen Powell is this
cowboy YouTube streamer who's kind of clashing with their approach.
There's also a subplot in there about dodgy real estate
agent who buys up land and takes advantage of the

(50:07):
good working class folk of Oklahoma. My kind of salt
of the earth people, Melanie, uh, who are being impacted
by these tornadoes. But basically, basically, this is a big
dumb disaster film, big budget, lots of fancy tornado effects,
lots of mayhem and destruction and some funny stuff as well.
I got to say, I had a good time with twisters.

(50:28):
This is a really fun in cinema experience. I thought
the action was pretty thrilling. There was a lot of tension.
The opening sequence does a really good job of setting
up the stakes and making you, like, feel that stuff
matters in this otherwise kind of silly film. Um, there's
some good performances I'm keen to talk about how you
are feeling about Glen Powell at the moment. Thomas. Um,
and there's a bit of heart to the film as well.

(50:50):
And it had a really fun I don't want to
give too much away, but like the climactic scene is
in a cinema theater, which is really cool to be
in a theater and kind of watch that experience happen.
It was really fun. What more do you want from
a movie? I don't think much. What did you guys
think about twisters?

S4 (51:07):
Look. I'm sorry. Oh, no. Oh, no, we get it.
You really like.

S3 (51:12):
Glenn? Paul, bro.

S2 (51:13):
It was just a bit too much weather for me, really.
There has been too much leaves and dust and wind
and chat about the weather, which famously I don't love doing. Um,
I think like to me this felt like was this
made in 1994? Like there was something very nostalgic about
this which made me agree with that.

S1 (51:32):
I think that's what made.

S4 (51:33):
It good for you.

S2 (51:34):
And but for me, I know it was kind of. Yeah,
I thought it was quite boring, really was how I
would describe it. Quite boring. And I thought the casting
was a bit odd. And mainly I was devastated that
Lee Isaac Chung, who did Minari, which was this beautiful
family farm drama, has done this. It seemed like a weird, like,
you know, it didn't quite seem like he was. I mean.

S1 (51:53):
This is also a family farm drama. There's a family
farm that is.

S4 (51:56):
Key.

S1 (51:57):
To the story.

S4 (51:58):
That's true.

S2 (51:59):
Um, look, was it is it a good time? Sure.
I'd watch it when it hits the streamer and you're
at home with nothing else to watch, and the Olympics
is over. But I don't know. I just found it
quite boring and predictable and just it hit all the
kind of tropes of a disaster show, and I don't
think it did anything that particularly new and interesting. Um,
so I'm.

S4 (52:18):
Sorry, I respect.

S1 (52:19):
I respect your opinion on all things, Malin. I respect
your opinion on this as well. But I think sometimes
you've just got to evaluate something for what it is
and what it's trying to do. Right? Like you saying
a bit too much, whether about a movie called twisters,
I feel like is an unfair.

S4 (52:33):
Criticism to make.

S3 (52:34):
Yeah, that's probably fair. And, you know, I know, but.

S2 (52:36):
I think what that suggests is the heavy handedness of
the show. That's what that.

S4 (52:41):
Movie called twisters about, about twister. Yeah.

S2 (52:43):
It was heavy handed that a storm was brewing. Look, I.

S3 (52:46):
Like Jurassic Park. There's a lot of fucking dinosaurs in
that movie.

S4 (52:49):
Yeah, we know they're there.

S2 (52:50):
You don't have to tell us repeatedly that. Oh, a
storm is brewing.

S3 (52:55):
I mean, look, I, as you know, love talking about
the weather. You do whenever there's, like, even a I can.
I've got a bit of a Daisy Edgar-Jones about me
and that I can sniff rain a mile away.

S1 (53:04):
Wow.

S3 (53:04):
Oh, wow. Um, I really like I enjoyed this. I
think maybe if I'm translating males insane take on the film.
It's getting very good reviews, and I think maybe the
reviews are like overselling really what it is, I enjoyed it,
I didn't think it was like groundbreaking to me. It
had a lot of like. And I even think this

(53:25):
is the case with Chung and especially Daisy Edgar-Jones. I'm like,
have these guys signed like some three picture deals with
a big studio? And this is like they're both ticking
off maybe the last one before they can go and
do like something they want to do. I think it
was a fun time. I mean, like Luke Combs wrote
a song, Ain't No Love in Oklahoma, like this is
this hits all the spots I needed it to hit.
And I had a really fun time and. And I
actually thought Anthony Ramos stole the film.

S2 (53:46):
Well, yeah, I completely agree.

S1 (53:47):
Yeah, he was great. I mean, Daisy Edgar-Jones, I don't,
I don't dislike her, but she has like she's a
one note performer a lot of the time in these
kind of big budget things. And she was not that great.

S4 (53:57):
In this film.

S2 (53:57):
She was not right for this film. Like, her acting
style is so bad.

S4 (54:01):
She should have been Sydney Sweeney.

S5 (54:02):
Yeah.

S3 (54:03):
But I mean, that's just worth chatting. We can revisit that.
But you say she's one note. I'm sorry, Glen Powell. Firstly,
he's basically just morphing into Matthew McConaughey. Like in front
of our eyes.

S1 (54:12):
Look, look, let's do the Glen Powell thing. Because I've been.

S3 (54:16):
I've been you know, I've been edging.

S4 (54:17):
I.

S1 (54:18):
I, I like whooped in the cinema when he came
out was wearing the cowboy hat I, I, I like
Glen Powell. You guys know that I like Glen Powell
I think he's quite charming. Quite fun is good for
these kinds of movies that are not taking themselves that seriously.
And he can have chemistry with a whole bunch of
different people. But I will say he is the same

(54:38):
character in like the last five things we've seen him in,
I think. I think hitman sort of pushed it a
little bit, but this Glen Powell could have been the
guy from anyone but you, right? It could have been
the guy from Top Gun Maverick, and I don't mind it,
but I would love to see him push himself a
little bit in something.

S2 (54:56):
Yeah, I thought he was probably the best part about
the film in terms of the others. Yeah, particularly compared
to Daisy. Um, I thought he had. He was very
charismatic and funny. He had that kind of movie star
thing that he was leaning into. I thought I liked
him in this.

S4 (55:09):
I think he's I agree.

S2 (55:10):
With you that. Yeah, he's I think he's.

S4 (55:11):
Got he's just.

S3 (55:12):
Like there's been a it's been a lot of Glen Powell.
All these things have come out in like 12 months
kind of it's been like hitman, anyone but you and
now this. And they're all like being kind of big.

S1 (55:23):
Talking less than 12 months. Yeah. Anyone but you was
December last year.

S3 (55:26):
So like that's a lot of Glen Powell uh, in
a short amount of time.

S1 (55:29):
Well people this is the thing. People love it. Like
this movie is doing quite well. Interestingly, it's doing very
well in America and not that well elsewhere. I interested
to get your thoughts on that. Like it is a
very American movie, I guess, like country music and Oklahoma
and a lot of chat about Oklahoma! Uh, I, I
find it weird that it hasn't had a big marketing
push elsewhere because, Thomas, you and I enjoyed the movie.

(55:51):
It's not like I need to have first hand experience
of tornadoes to understand that this movie is fun.

S3 (55:58):
Yeah. It's weird. I mean, it is very American. A
colleague of ours said before the podcast that it was
part of the rise in conservative filmmaking, which is why I.

S4 (56:05):
Kind of.

S3 (56:05):
Loved it so much.

S2 (56:06):
Yeah, I do kind of agree with that. Do you.

S1 (56:07):
Think so? Okay, I've got a totally different read, but
tell me, tell me why you think that, Mel.

S4 (56:11):
Well, I think.

S2 (56:11):
It's very it is a regionally specific, which I don't
think necessarily makes it conservative filmmaking, but just the whole
shtick of it felt to me. And I guess that's
what I'm saying when I think it felt like a throwback.
There's something there's a bit of a Northmen.

S3 (56:24):
What was it?

S1 (56:25):
Richmond.

S4 (56:26):
North of Richmond.

S3 (56:27):
North of Richmond, about it.

S4 (56:28):
Vibe to it.

S2 (56:29):
And I know other critics are saying that the failure
to mention climate change was odd. I mean, I don't
think it needed to be spelled out, but it was
that kind of there was just that, that kind of
nostalgic vibe of it that really kind of made me
see it as a conservative film.

S1 (56:44):
That's interesting, I think. I think there is an element
of truth to that. I think it was probably a
deliberate decision to not use the words climate change, to
not make this a culture war object and just make
this film make heaps of money in the Midwest. Right.
Like I think they probably deliberately had that conversation. But
at the same time, I do think it's interesting that

(57:06):
the main villain of this movie is a southern, you know,
corrupt politician, real estate agent who pretends to be on
the side of working people but is actually swindling them
to enrich himself. It's a kind of Trumpian sort of
a character there, I think. It sort of fits into
this idea of like, well, is it is it on

(57:28):
the side of like working class white Americans, which is
like what Oklahoma is? Yes. Does that automatically make it conservative? Like,
should progressives just cede the entire ground of storytelling about
white people in rural towns to the conservatives? I don't
think something that is about farms and about that part
of America needs to automatically be dubbed conservative. That's that's

(57:49):
kind of my no.

S4 (57:49):
I think that's fair, but that's true.

S2 (57:51):
And I'm also, I guess, speaking conservative stylistically as well.

S4 (57:54):
I do think.

S3 (57:55):
Though, at the same time, you've got the like attached
to the villain is the kind of like classic think
tank scientist, like with Anthony Ramos and their project, whereas
the hero of the movie is like swashbuckling tornado wrangler Glenn.

S4 (58:07):
Cowboy hat.

S2 (58:08):
Wearing cowboy.

S3 (58:08):
Hat like kicks the door down of the tornado and
steps right into that motherfucker. But like, you know that
he kind of appeals to a certain like, again, I
don't think you can. Like, it's a good.

S1 (58:18):
No, it's a good point. It is a very like
the elites are the bad guys, these fancy people with
their start up funding and they went to their universities
versus the like, you know, YouTube guys, we're here to
take down mainstream media and.

S3 (58:29):
Like that whole exactly like there's even a conversation where
it's like, what degrees do you guys have? And like
they're like, we don't have none, but we just fucking
love having fun. And like, it's all. So there was
like that divide was like an undercurrent in the film.

S1 (58:40):
But also the Glen Powell crew was like the most
diverse crew of of them all, as well as layers
to this movie, you know. Um, and I do feel
like we're joking about the Minari thing. I do feel like, look,
this is the big budget movie that Lee Isaac Chung
came in to, I think quite late on after another director, uh,
kind of that, that they had to bow out there.
There is a whole, like, family drama on a farm

(59:02):
in the middle of America plot, which I feel like
he has some of his fingerprints on, which is a
little bit of a nod to Minari. That's true.

S2 (59:08):
But do you like, will you ever think about this
film again or watch it again? Like, to me.

S4 (59:12):
It just felt like I might watch.

S1 (59:14):
It again. I don't think I'll think about it, but
I don't think the film wants you to think about
it again. I think the film is there, like have
a really fun time. If you can't watch it in
a cinema, watch it on a big screen with good
sound and you'll kind of be a bit thrilled. And
I think the film does know it is kind of silly,
like the ending of the movie in particular is so
like just like absurd and almost it almost feels like

(59:35):
a blooper reel, really, of the movie. And I like
that too.

S2 (59:38):
Yeah, you're right, that part does kind of save it
a bit, because otherwise I would say it should be
more silly. Like it needed to be funnier and sillier
and more self-aware.

S4 (59:46):
There is such a.

S3 (59:47):
Thing as being too self-aware and too silly.

S1 (59:50):
Oh, that.

S4 (59:52):
Means.

S1 (59:53):
It's time for the big one. In just a few weeks,
this film has become the highest grossing R-rated movie in history,
surpassing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Believe it
or not, it is, of course, Deadpool and Wolverine, starring
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. It's the third Deadpool film,
but it's the first one since Disney bought 20th Century

(01:00:16):
Fox in 2019, a corporate merger that occupies a weird
amount of time in this actual film. I'm kind of
torn on how to talk about it. I think the
fact that it's like very popular means that we should
just talk about it as a movie first, evaluate it
on its own terms, and then we can discuss how
it fits into the broader cinematic landscape, the Marvel Universe,

(01:00:36):
and the future direction of human society. Um, Mel, you
watch this movie, but you also told us that you've
never seen any other Deadpool films or any X-Men films
or any Marvel films.

S2 (01:00:51):
It feels I know it felt like I wasn't sure
whether I should make that confession, but it also felt
essential to my viewing experience. Um, look, I'm really. I
think I really ride for Batman. I mean, I have
seen Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst, Tobey Maguire.

S1 (01:01:04):
Okay, so none of those. Also, Spider-Man is a marvel movie.

S4 (01:01:08):
Batman is not a DC.

S2 (01:01:09):
But yeah, I think Spider-Man is probably the biggest engagement
I've had with Marvel. But X-Men.

S1 (01:01:15):
And that was the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man, which is not
a marvel production, in.

S2 (01:01:18):
Fact. Well, there you go. So a Sony.

S4 (01:01:20):
Production. I was coming.

S2 (01:01:20):
Into this very cold.

S1 (01:01:22):
Okay, great. No, I think it's I'm not making fun
of you. I think that makes you a normal person. Unlike, uh,
you do those like Thomas and I, um. And it's
just good to lay out, you know, our respective levels
of engagement and connectedness to this world. Mel, could you
explain the plot of this movie for us?

S2 (01:01:39):
I can now, I have written when I watched it,
I went into it cold. Right? Like I didn't Google
who is Deadpool or like anything. I didn't read any
reviews because I wanted to have the full experience. And
this is kind.

S1 (01:01:51):
Of I'm so.

S4 (01:01:52):
Excited.

S2 (01:01:52):
What I took away was a wise cracking man in
a suit that hides a skin condition, and I think
can time travel and wants to join the Avengers. Um,
but Tom Wambsgans from succession, that was great, tells him
that he has to destroy the universe because Wolverine has died,
and for some reason the world can't continue without him.

(01:02:16):
I don't know why. Then he steals some kind of
device and he goes to resurrect Wolverine. And then there
was just a time pad, a void, an alien lith,
a nice Paul Dogpool juggernaut. Pyro. That's how that's really.
I didn't really know what was going on. Um, and
to be honest, I'm not that sad. I didn't see

(01:02:37):
the other Deadpools did I do well?

S1 (01:02:39):
Incredible, incredible, incredible summation of the plot. If you.

S4 (01:02:43):
Had wrote.

S1 (01:02:44):
My own, I wrote my own notes to help explain.
But they're basically word for word. What you what you
just said. That's basically the plot of Deadpool. Uh, before
we talk about it more. Yeah. Your take on the movie, Mel,
as someone who came in cold yay or nay?

S2 (01:02:58):
Um, probably. Yeah. There were too many. Yay! Oh, nay. Sorry. Nay. Yeah. Um, two.
Like top note takeaway. Too many one liners. Just take
a break. And just like too many dick jokes. Why
were there so many dick jokes all the time? Constantly.

S3 (01:03:15):
Well, Deadpool is like in the comics, meant to be
almost like he always flirts with like, what his sexuality
is and stuff. Um, and they kind of explore that
in the other films. He's, he's basically meant to be
like juvenile and stuff, but I, I mean, I loved
the first Deadpool movie, was happy with the second one.
This I just had such a bad time. Like I
thought it was Ryan Reynolds. Talk about one note actors

(01:03:37):
Ryan Reynolds just doing Ryan Reynolds, but it was too much.
And then Hugh Jackman like Logan, I think we can
all agree when I say all, I of course mean
Osmond and I because you haven't seen it. One of
the great comic book films.

S1 (01:03:49):
Yeah. James Mangold tackling this character at the end of
his kind of natural life, a meditation on dying and
death and legacy. Really, really beautiful film.

S3 (01:04:00):
And they kind of pick up threads of that in
Deadpool versus Wolverine, and in a way that is to
its own detriment, because it feels like Hugh Jackman is
acting in his own movie.

S1 (01:04:08):
Yeah, he's he's in a different movie, man.

S4 (01:04:10):
It's it.

S3 (01:04:11):
Is crazy. I and then like, just all of the
I mean, yeah. Tom Wambsgans, Matthew Macfadyen basically playing Tom Wambsgans. Uh,
I don't know, it was all a waste.

S1 (01:04:20):
What a waste of him.

S3 (01:04:21):
I know, I know, it was all very confusing. There
were a few like, you really have to have your, like,
Marvel lore down pat for this in order to fully
appreciate all the gags. I don't know, Osman. I mean,
obviously as someone who lives and breathes Marvel, but like, seriously,
you would you would have had context for every joke.
Pretty much. Yeah. Did it annoy you?

S1 (01:04:39):
Let's talk about that. Just just to quickly do the
plot in a way I think that helps people understand it,
but also explains how ludicrous this plot is. So Deadpool
is living a boring life after interviewing and failing to
make it as an Avenger. As you put Mel, he
gets kidnapped by the Time Variance Authority, which is led
by Matthew Macfadyen from succession, and he's told he can

(01:05:01):
become an Avenger, but he has to watch his universe
and all the people he loves die. So he decides
instead to team up with Wolverine from a different universe
and wreak some havoc. But instead he gets sent to
this place called the void, which is ruled over by
Cassandra Nova, who was Professor X's twin sister, played by
Emma Corrin in The Void. He meets all these leftover
superheroes from 20th Century Fox films before the Marvel Cinematic

(01:05:23):
Universe exists. There's lots of fights, lots of jokes, and
he tries to battle his way out of the void.
I think even from that summary, you can sort of
get a sense that if you are not just across Marvel,
but you're across the movies that came before Marvel, the
Jennifer Garner Elektra film, the Wesley Snipes Blade film, the
fact that Chris Evans before he was Captain America, was

(01:05:44):
the Human Torch in the 2005 Fantastic Four film. If
you know the comic book lore, that professor X had
a twin sister who tried to strangle him in utero. Like,
you have to really know a lot of stuff for
a lot of these gags to land. And then if
you are not one of those people, you have to
just love Ryan Reynolds, and you have to love his

(01:06:04):
shtick and his his kind of witticisms for this movie
to work. Now, the weird thing is, none of us
really enjoyed this movie. This movie's gotten pretty good reviews
and has made a shit ton of money, and I'm
fascinated as to what that like audience is. Who's in
the bag for this? Because on one hand, like we

(01:06:25):
just said, you need to have this knowledge. I think
that goes 25. In the case of like blade, nearly
30 years of film and comic book history and the
music choices, right, are these big nostalgia hits to these,
these big music set pieces NSYNC, Bye Bye Bye, Madonna,
Like a Prayer, all this stuff that like, scratches your

(01:06:46):
brain if you're an elder millennial or a gen-xer, but
then the jokes and the style of the movie seem
like they're designed for 17 year old boys who presumably
don't have that. That's just dick jokes, Dick jokes, more
dick jokes, and really cartoony action that doesn't look particularly good.
Like Shawn Levy, who directed this movie, is not a particularly, like,
great filmmaker. Um, David Leitch, you know, who's a pretty

(01:07:10):
good filmmaker. He did the second one. The first Deadpool
was pretty good. I can't understand who this movie is for,
and I'm more flummoxed about the fact that it has
been so successful, given that I don't understand who it's for.

S3 (01:07:23):
But I think that, uh, the success I reckon has
come down, this movie almost seems like it was made
for the ensuing press trip, which has seen Ryan Reynolds
and Hugh Jackman go all over the world except Australia, weirdly.
But they did like Asia, South America, obviously the states,
Europe they like. There's this whole even before this movie

(01:07:44):
came out, we've known that they've got this like kind
of like buddy cop thing going on where they're like
funny friends and like, he's really serious and Ryan's really
silly and like, he's so handsome and blah, blah, blah.
And it feels like the movie has been has come
alive in the press tour almost. And the press tour
has fed into like a desire to people want to
go and check it out like it was always going
to do well, but it's done so well. I don't know,

(01:08:05):
it just feels like it's hinging on the off screen
relationship of the two leads, which are two pretty universally loved,
like famous actors.

S4 (01:08:13):
Or do you.

S2 (01:08:14):
Think also that maybe people who love Deadpool one and
Deadpool two are just going along because they were attached
to the franchise when it was a lot more original, i.e.
the first one, so that they're committed to it and
will still go along.

S1 (01:08:27):
I think. I think those are both really good points.
Like the first two Deadpool movies were very popular, right?
So people will see the third one, plus people who
just like, like the Marvel movies and remember Wolverine, who
was in the X-Men movies that were really good will
want to see them. So there is a lot of
just like mining nostalgia. And I think, Thomas, that's also
a really good point. I mean, Deadpool as a character

(01:08:48):
in the comic books and in the movies is very
meta like he breaks the fourth wall a lot. So
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman having fun in real life
sort of feels like they're doing it in the movie.
And this movie, more than any of the others, is
so matter. Like like he talks about Hugh Jackman being
in this movie a bunch. It references so many things
in real life. I mean, one of the jokes I

(01:09:08):
did laugh at, I think was the only one I
laughed at is Reynolds making a Gossip Girl gag about, like.

S4 (01:09:13):
Also related.

S2 (01:09:14):
To.

S4 (01:09:14):
Dicks. Yeah, yeah. It was also.

S1 (01:09:16):
Related to dicks. Yeah. He's married to Blake Lively. Who?
Did you guys recognize her popping up in the film? Well, only.

S3 (01:09:21):
Because I knew from the press tour that she was
in the movie. Yeah, but then there was a very
funny joke about Hugh Jackman being divorced. Did you guys
catch that one?

S4 (01:09:27):
I enjoyed that.

S1 (01:09:28):
And also, all the funny ones are the ones we
love about, like celeb goss. Um, Jennifer Garner making a joke.
You probably didn't get this one, Mel. Uh, so Elektra,
who Jennifer Garner plays, is in like, the same sort
of universe as Daredevil, who was a, uh, character, and
Ben Affleck played Daredevil, right? Obviously, Jennifer Garner and Ben
Affleck were an item for a while. And so there's

(01:09:49):
a gag where they're like, oh no, where's Daredevil? And
she's like, don't worry about him. He doesn't need to
be around.

S4 (01:09:55):
Which was pretty good. That was the.

S2 (01:09:56):
Part of it that I most like was like the
meta commentary on Warner and Marvel, even if I didn't
get the kind of lore of some of the Marvel details.
But the commentary on the Hollywood industry and super superhero franchises,
that was definitely the best part. But yes, there was
not enough of that to sustain it for me.

S1 (01:10:14):
Yeah, and I wondered, like, there's people who love this movie.
There's people I know and who I like, and I
trust their opinions who really like this movie. One of
the things that left me feeling like quite bitter about
it was the joke is kind of on fans of
these movies, in a way. It's like they're making jokes
about how Marvel is at a low point that that

(01:10:35):
mining so much nostalgia and they're making so much fun of. Thomas,
you said Logan was one of the best superhero movies ever.
I totally agree, they kind of destroyed the legacy in
a way. Like they literally talk about that movie and
that character so much. And even the return of Hugh
Jackman after that movie gave him such a poignant and
beautiful sendoff suggests that none of this stuff really matters.

(01:10:57):
So it's like, hey guys, come and pay money and
watch these stories that are supposed to be about have
this kind of emotional core or some resonance to your life.
But actually none of it matters, because any time we
want to make some more money, we'll bring back dead
characters and we'll make fun of you for believing in
that stuff in the first place. If people like it, like,

(01:11:18):
good on them. But it does feel profoundly cynical. And
I wonder how many times you can get away with
getting the gang together, making heaps of fun about it,
rinsing people for their hard earned cash, and then walking
away and patting yourself on the back. You can't do
that too many times. And I wonder if, even though
this is such a financial high point for for for

(01:11:38):
Marvel Disney bringing this all together, I wonder if, like
the next ones could struggle because you just kind of
can't rip your brand apart like this and mock it
and expect people to keep turning up. But maybe I'm wrong.
Like Marvel fans are weird and they might keep turning up.

S4 (01:11:55):
Do you think there's.

S2 (01:11:55):
Going to be more? Surely not. I thought maybe this
was the farewell to Deadpool.

S4 (01:11:59):
No, I.

S1 (01:12:00):
Mean, like there are going to be there's like another
five Avengers movies, like in the pipeline. There's a joke
in this about, you know, how Hugh Jackman will keep
doing this till he's 90. The fact that this has
been so financially successful, if you're Disney, if you're a
publicly listed company, your shareholders, your board is going to
be like, you made $1.2 billion off that movie. What
do you mean you're packing it up, right? And like

(01:12:21):
Chris Evans as Captain America, he he left like, okay,
we'll talk about Tony Stark, right. Like left the Marvel Universe.
They wrapped all that up. Tony Stark is back in
the next Marvel movie as a different character. Like they're
going to keep doing this stuff. That seems crazy.

S3 (01:12:36):
It's like, come on.

S1 (01:12:37):
Crazy stuff. Yeah, I yeah, I just feel a little
bit sad that I'm great. It's great that movies are back.
It's great that people are watching stuff. There's bits of
this movie that are kind of funny and kind of interesting.
The points you made, Mel, about the meta commentary in Hollywood,
but the future of cinema can't just be the same.
Ten characters that were big in the early 20 tens being, like,

(01:12:59):
dragged out of their literal graves in the case of
Wolverine and made to dance for us on stage. I
feel quite upset about that, as you can tell. Well,
how are you.

S2 (01:13:08):
Feeling about the Joker later in the.

S4 (01:13:09):
Year?

S1 (01:13:11):
Don't talk to me about that. I was I was
so famously out on Joker one. I have no hopes
for Joker two. Um, but I think at least that's
something different. Like, it's a, it's an attempt to tell
a slightly different story using the vehicle of like that
IP property. I don't feel as anxious about that. I
feel anxious about that for different like political reasons. Um, and,

(01:13:31):
you know, the rise of the incel and where we're
all going. Um, but I don't feel as grim as
I do about Deadpool and Wolverine.

S2 (01:13:39):
Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, I think that's
why Batman, I've always enjoyed Batman because he's not actually,
he doesn't actually have any superpowers, right? He's just he's
got a lot of tech knowledge. He's rich. Um, yeah.
He's rich. I guess that is a superpower. But, um, yes,
the less these shows have to do with superheroes and superpowers,
the more I tend to like them.

S1 (01:13:57):
Do you have any desire, Mel, after this one, to
watch any future, either Deadpool or Wolverine or Marvel projects?

S4 (01:14:04):
No.

S2 (01:14:04):
Absolutely not. I'm well off Ryan Reynolds, even though he
saved that football team. Hugh Jackman I've always been kind
of out on. So no, not a huge fan. This
has actually been quite reaffirming for me. Like, I was
worried when I watched it that maybe my cultural history
was limited and that I kind of I was out
of touch with the out of touch with, you know,
people who love these movies. But now I feel with

(01:14:25):
the common man. But now I just feel like.

S4 (01:14:27):
You.

S1 (01:14:27):
Mentioned you mentioned juggernaut before. Like, did you have any
history with him? Would you watch a standalone juggernaut film?

S2 (01:14:33):
Yeah, I mean, I'd give that a go in the
right circumstances.

S1 (01:14:36):
Oh, that's I mean, that's that's big of you. Good.
Good on you for being up for it.

S2 (01:14:39):
I'm open to these things.

S1 (01:14:40):
How about you, Thomas? I feel like you're like, a
little bit more plugged in to Marvel stuff. Are you
at all excited about the future of what is literally
the biggest cinema project in the history of humanity?

S3 (01:14:52):
If we get a Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum because.

S1 (01:14:55):
Oh, we didn't talk about Channing. That was.

S3 (01:14:56):
Funny. That was very funny. And I don't know if
you have the context, but that was basically a character
that he worked on for a long time, and they
nearly got a film going, and then it fell over.

S4 (01:15:02):
I figured, yeah, um.

S3 (01:15:03):
And I thought he kind of stole the movie a
bit there. That was a very funny scene.

S1 (01:15:07):
But okay, so don't you think so? I thought, I
think he's very funny. I thought he was very funny
in this, but even that. So Gambit is this guy
from south Louisiana, and he's got that kind of, like,
New Orleans accent really hammed up. And Channing Tatum is like,
taking the piss out of it. Basically. It's like, again, man,
if you care about these characters, if you're trying to
make this for people who care about stuff, you're kind
of making a joke of it like nothing's left. That

(01:15:29):
is sincere. I feel so weird. I'm getting so passionate
about what they're doing to characters like Gambit. But I
enjoyed Channing Tatum in the movie. But then again, I
think about what statement they're making, about how much they
actually care about this stuff. And I get a bit
sad again. Yeah.

S3 (01:15:44):
Is it I mean, what's the what's the give us
the temp check on the Marvel heads on Reddit. Like,
are people pretty upset?

S1 (01:15:49):
No, no, people love this. People love this. People think
that after the last few Marvel movies, um, like the
marvels that were just not good and kind of confused
that this was relatively tight. Like, I think the story
is obviously ludicrous. Like, it kind of doesn't really make
any sense. But in terms of just like we're getting
some funny characters together to have a fun time and
we're going to make a bunch of in-jokes for you

(01:16:10):
nerds to laugh at. People love that. My my sort
of cynicism and depressed nature around it, I think, just
comes from a more broader place of like where cinema
is going and the the cynicism of studios like Disney
making jokes about corporate mergers and whatever. I Yeah, that's

(01:16:31):
where it comes from. Marblehead's really like this, and I
think it's probably breathed a bit of life into the franchise.
I think this movie doing well, reminding people that superhero
movies can kind of be fun, the Robert Downey Jr stuff.
People are excited about the future of Marvel, so unfortunately,
we're probably gonna have to talk about it more over
ensuing months and years.

S2 (01:16:49):
But before we wrap up, can you tell me why
his face looks like that?

S3 (01:16:53):
He got he got into an accident.

S4 (01:16:56):
Okay. Yeah.

S1 (01:16:57):
Looks like acid burns or something.

S3 (01:16:58):
Yeah.

S4 (01:16:58):
Okay. All right. Yeah.

S1 (01:16:59):
All right. Let's leave that there. Hopefully for a long time. Um,
before we finish up, we've got our regular Impress Your
Friends segment where we share something that we watched, read,
listened to, or consumed in the world of pop culture.
I'm going to go first. Quick little film shout out
from me. It's a movie called How to Make Millions

(01:17:20):
Before Grandma Dies. It is a Thai family drama directed
by debut filmmaker Pat Bonaparte, and it's doing gangbusters in Thailand,
a big blockbuster hit there and across Southeast Asia. The
movie is about a uni dropout who offers to take
care of his terminally ill grandmother, but then his family
realize he's only doing it so he can swindle her inheritance.

(01:17:42):
It's great. It's kind of darkly funny, also very sad
and tragic at moments, but very heartwarming. Uh, it's an
ode to grandparents, right? We love grandparents. They're very important.
They play a great role in our lives. The grandmother
in this film is played by Usha Kumkum. She's 78
years old. It's her first ever film and she is
just astonishing. It's in cinemas now. I don't know if

(01:18:04):
this will be like a best foreign, uh, or best
non-English Oscar film, but it could be like it's it's
getting quite a bit of critical acclaim. It's a really fun,
heartwarming film. Could not recommend.

S4 (01:18:16):
It. I might go and.

S2 (01:18:17):
Watch this to cleanse my soul of Deadpool and Twisted.

S4 (01:18:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's good.

S1 (01:18:21):
To watch something like this after Deadpool because you're like, oh,
cinema can be.

S4 (01:18:25):
Good.

S2 (01:18:26):
Well, also, and I'll tell you my rec. But one
thing I did, because you've been talking about it so
much and I obviously trust your taste very much. I
went and started industry, and I'm sure we'll probably talk
about it when we get to season three, but I
like I thought it was it is so good the
first season. And I kind of went into this thing
thinking about Lena Dunham and whether her connection to that

(01:18:47):
project really harmed it at the time. But anyway, so
I just want to say that I'm on board. I'm
trying to catch up. So, um, have you watched it?

S4 (01:18:54):
Thomas? I've watched the first.

S3 (01:18:55):
Season, but I want to get back into it. I
feel like people are kind of really clinging on to
industry right now as the new show.

S1 (01:19:00):
Yeah, it starts in, uh, a week, I think. And
there's a lot of hype kit Harington's in this season.
Two is great. I'm really glad. Mel, thanks for jumping
on board.

S2 (01:19:07):
Yeah, yeah it's great. One of the best shows I've
kind of seen in a while. Um, my rec is
and this is kind of I think there's a trend
in literature of brat women at the moment. Um, you
kind of got all fours. Miranda. July night bit. Vladimir.
These are kind of women who don't just accept motherhood,
middle age, wifedom they kind of are breaking out of boxes.

(01:19:28):
And I think this one fits into that category. It's
woo woo by Ella Baxter. She is a Melbourne writer.
This is her second book. Her first book was called
New Animal, and she was one of the best young
Australian novelists of the year. The prize that the Herald
gives out, this one is about an artist called Sabine.
In the lead up to her first solo exhibition at

(01:19:48):
a gallery, and she kind of descends into chaos when
she discovers that she's being stalked. She's this man in
her garden. He leaves her letters, he comes into her house, um,
but she seeks to take revenge by almost pursuing the pursuer. Um, and,
you know, it's kind of wild and wacky, but you're
left questioning whether that's the only sane response to what

(01:20:11):
she's going through. Um, it's a really good read, and
it's also based on the author's own experience of being
stalked as well. So she wrote it while she was
having that, um, having that experience. So it's really kind
of ripples with life. But, um, yeah, I think a
good a good new Australian read for the list.

S1 (01:20:28):
Great. And before Thomas says it, yeah, I'm seeing a
lot of people on Instagram share it around.

S3 (01:20:32):
So I've been trying to get it off your desk, but.

S4 (01:20:34):
You're refusing to.

S3 (01:20:34):
Give it to me. So yeah, I read New Animal
and really liked it. Um, that's a crazy story based
on a real story of a guy running like an
illegal zoo on his property. Um, so, yeah, I will
be definitely keen for that. Uh, my wreck this week
is a good one, because I have impeccable taste and
my finger on the pulse. It is a show that
comes out today. Uh. it's on binge. And I don't

(01:20:57):
know if you guys are across this because it's like
fucking both in your wheelhouse, Mr. Throwback.

S1 (01:21:01):
Yeah, I am across this. I've not seen it, but
I'm across it. I'm excited for it.

S3 (01:21:05):
It's really good, man. So are you across this?

S2 (01:21:06):
I'm I'm across it. But yeah.

S3 (01:21:08):
Not so. Mr. throwback is basically a mockumentary starring, um,
Steph Curry, not Stephen Curry. The Australian from you should know.

S2 (01:21:14):
That I did ask for an interview and they replied.

S4 (01:21:16):
And they.

S2 (01:21:17):
Said, he's at the Olympics right now. And I'm like,
I know, but after.

S4 (01:21:20):
But yeah.

S3 (01:21:21):
Basically, um, Steph Curry plays himself. Uh, and Adam Pally,
who I don't know if you guys ever know. Do
you ever watch Happy Endings? It was actually quite a good, um, show.
It was like basically like the mid 20 tens answer
to friends. Anyway, Adam Pally plays this guy Danny Grossman. Uh,
and in the sixth grade, he and Steph Curry were
best friends. And they were both really good at basketball.
But Adam's character, Danny was like the better one. And

(01:21:44):
so he was on the path to superstardom in year six.
And then obviously his best friend becomes is Steph Curry
and becomes one of the greatest basketballers of all time.
And then we cut to the future. And basically Danny
is running a memorabilia store called Mr. Throwback and you know,
it's in trouble financially. And so he reaches out to
his one time childhood best friend Steph, to help him out. And,

(01:22:04):
you know, on their first meeting, he steals his game
day jersey. And the story kind of picks up from
there as as they reconnect and, you know, like involve
in each other's lives. It's very funny. Um, it's like,
got that mockumentary thing. Steph Curry is very, like, annoyingly
funny as well as being so good at basketball. Damn
not fair, not fair.

S2 (01:22:20):
He's wonderful.

S3 (01:22:21):
Ah, but you're one of.

S1 (01:22:22):
The best footballers in Australia, and you're also very.

S4 (01:22:24):
Funny. So that is.

S3 (01:22:25):
Actually. Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's so few of
us and it's just it's good to see another guy
out there grinding. But yeah, it's I think you guys
will really enjoy it. And, um. Yeah, that's on binge. Uh,
I think episode week by week. And it's out today. Great.

S1 (01:22:38):
Rex look at that. A great film, a great book,
a great TV show. What what more do you want? Really? Yeah.

S3 (01:22:43):
What more? Australia's best three by three basketball.

S1 (01:22:47):
Uh, awesome conversation team. Good luck. Enjoy the rest of
the Olympics. I will see you next week.

S4 (01:22:53):
Bye. Ciao.

S1 (01:22:57):
This episode of The Drop was produced by Ji Huang.
If you enjoyed listening to today's episode of The Drop,
make sure to follow us in your favorite podcast app.
Leave us a review or better yet, share the episode
with a friend. I'm Usman Farooqui. See you next week!

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