The Reel Critics Network S1, E11 - Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning - The Reel Critics Network

Episode Transcript
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Reggie Ponder, The Reel (00:00):
Welcome to another edition of The Real
Critics Network.
I have my co-host here who I'mactually going to treat as a
guest because Katia beentraveling.
I guess we say this all the timethat we're on here, and she been
traveling, but she beentraveling.
But Katia, how are you?

Kathia Woods (00:18):
Tired?
Tired.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Crit (00:23):
So I have to ask you a couple of
personal things first, and oneof'em is, did the dog miss you?

Yes, he did.
That's my buddy.
He was ready to give me, when Itell you he was ready to give me
the business.
Oh, he had a lot to say.
You know what I mean?
But yes, he's, he is been, yeah.

That's good.
It is funny, but people whocan't see her, she smiled big
time.
When I mentioned the dog, shewas like, yes, the dog missed
me.
Licked me was like, Hey, I'm sohappy to be with you.
Probably was more Sprite thanyou've seen the dog in years.
He

is always got, how can I say this?
He's always got a lot to say,and I'm sure he was like, yeah,
but yes, we're united.
Everybody at Team Woods is happyto have me in the house.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Cri (01:20):
You got the gang back together
again.

Yes.
And even my daughter was like,oh, when did she said to me,
said me, are you back incountry?
I said, I'm back in country andalmost home.

That's funny.
All right, so I'm gonna treatyou as a guest today for at
least the first part of oursegment, which is what's on my
mind because what's on my mindis that I was excited.
I'm talking about.
Overjoyed to hear that you wentto cons, cans, however they
pronounce it.
'cause they, every time I heardifferent people say different
stuff, but you went, and I'mgonna treat you like a guest and

(01:56):
I'm gonna ask you somequestions.
Try to get some rapid questionsin here and see, see how the
whole thing went.
So the first thing is, how areyou pronouncing this thing?
Cans.

Cans.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Cr (02:08):
It's

cans.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel C (02:09):
Okay.

Cans.
And the, but you know what?
I don't think people will get socons.
I mean, we'll get cans, but itwas

so No, no, don't answer that
question yet because the firstthing I want you to do is to
tell people where it is becausea lot of folks might not even
know where this event is, whatit is, and where it is.

It is a film festival that takes place at the
south of France, not about 20,30 minutes outside of Nice.
Which is also on the coast ofFrance.
It's very swanky.
It's very qua.
As a French would say, it isexpensive looking as it sounds,
but you can, there's some thingsthere for the regular people.

(02:54):
I saw some yachts where my wholehome could fit into it.

Wow.
Wow.
That is

humbling.

And again, I'm just a couple of
rapid ques questions.
Is that, how was the flight?

The flight wasn't bad, so I was on a budget
because we don't work for mediathat can send you business
class.
But a girl got creatives andshout out to kiwi.com and
trip.com to help make it work.
And I will, I'm working ontrying to pitch the article, so
I, this is what I did people, Itook ACON economical flight from

(03:29):
Atlanta.
To Orlando, where then I hauledmy rolling suitcase and I did
everything carry on.
That also helped.
I self transferred, so that'show I saved money.
And also my bags arrived withme.
So I hauled my little self fromthe domestic portion of Orlando
Airport to the international.

(03:52):
I took the Norwegian airline,nor N-O-R-G-E, from Orlando to
London, not London, the smallerairport right from London.
I took a what the, it is aEuropean carrier.
Think of it as our frontierspirit, but a little bit more

(04:14):
posh that from London.
To Nice.
And then from nice, I took aUber, which was like$50 wasn't
that bad because I landed atlike nine, 10 ish at night and I
was not trying to do the wholebus thing.
I was tired.
I was ready to take a shower andgo to bed.
So I took that to my studio,Airbnb, which was 15 minutes

(04:39):
walking if I hauled, but I coulddo it in 10.
By the last couple of days I didit in 10'cause I knew where I
was going and which is a veryethnic, the neighborhood that I
stayed in, this is the part theydon't tell you about come is it
is mainly a lot of people ofMiddle Eastern, I wanna say
Algeria and African descent.
So I was more in with theregular people, which was fine.

(05:03):
Hey, I had my little studio spotand it was all good in the hood
and it did what it, my numberone concern is I wanted to be as
close.
Where I could just go back andforth if I needed to, and I was
able to accomplish that.
And yes.
And going home, I took samething, easy, except I went
EasyJet to Paris.

(05:24):
Paris.
I took French B, which is aEuropean carrier.
Oh.
And then to Newark York, didimmigration, which by the way
was easy breezy.
I like everybody else, was like,Ooh, what's this looking like?
But scan my passport, goingthrough the EEU, which is the
European Union.
Scan my passport, did my wholefacial scan and I had no issues.

(05:46):
And when they did ask me, when Ileft France, what was I there
for?
I said, I was there for the finfestival that I'm a journalist.
And they were like, okay.
And off I went, but, and thenfrom Newark, I just took a
domestic carrier to back toAtlanta.

Sounds like a lot of travel, but it
does sound like you were, I

did it for, and again, I, this is the key, I did
it for carryon and I used somevery savvy apps, so I raised
$650.
So I was able to book my roundtrip flight, being creative for
five 50 and I was sitting in themiddle part of the plane.
I had meals on both of myflights.

(06:27):
Both of my flights.
I was, I, my seat was verycomfortable.
Oh, that, that is great.
That's before I comfortable.
I had, and I have my littleblanket that I, my scarf blanket
that I traveled with, but eFrench pea gave me a blanket and
it was, everything was fine.
I'm gonna

say that's fantastic so that when
you do it next year and you doall that creative stuff, I'm
gonna need to take some notes.
Yeah.

I'm, I'm better equipped, and I will say this
too, right?
Here's the key.
It was my first time I knew Iwas traveling on a budget.
This is where asking otherpeople, I Google mapped a lot of
things.
I probably could have stayed alittle bit cheaper had I stayed
in needs, but I didn't wannadeal with the back and forth.

(07:11):
But the point still is that Ididn't.
I didn't suffer any comfort.
It's, I'm also lucky I do havelounge access.
So why I was waiting to take mynext flight.
I rolled myself into loungeaccess, had some lunch, did some
work, got myself refreshed andall those things.
But I think you have to lean onit.

(07:33):
The key word is when you'retraveling on a budget, like a
lot of people do for work.
'cause we don't, again, work forthose outlets.
You have to keep an open mind.
I'm not saying you gotta sit inthe back of a camel or a donkey
now, but if you are willing tosay, Hey, like I stayed in a
studio apartment key for me issafety and cleanliness.

(07:54):
That's right.
Because you're really notspending that much time in the
room because you are going eight30 to 5, 6, 7, 8 o'clock at
eight and,

and speak.
And speaking of that, so let'sget to, let's get to a little
bit of that.
We could talk about cans allday, but answer yes or no.
Did you do interviews?
No.
Okay.
Did you see more than twomovies?
Yes.
Did you do red carpet?
No.

(08:23):
Did you see any of our friendsand hang out?

Yes.

Did you get drunk?
No.
And then my last question onthis is, did you write more than
one article?
Yes.
All right, so here we go.
That was my first set ofquestions.
What was the movie?
Just give me the name.

(08:49):
The movie.
Oh my gosh.
That you saw that you think thatReggie ponder?
Absolutely.
Has to see.

We can't count.
I'm gonna take the Spike Leefilm off because it was running
out of competition, so we can't

Oh, the spike.
We can't count the spike.
No, go ahead.
The Spike Lee, you,

you can't count that because to me it's like.
That's like a cheat code.
That's like as a missionimpossible there.
That's a cheat code.
Okay.
Okay.
Oh, the purpose, at least I'mgonna say for me, I can't speak
for any, anybody else, is to seethose art house films that are
looking for distributors.
So My Father's Shadow, which is,believe it or not, the first in

(09:29):
my Nigerian film by Nigerianfilmmakers, was featured at Con
Cannes, excuse me.
And that is a movie that Irecommend, and I don't know if
it got distribution, the SecretAsian, which is the Brazilian
film that just got picked up by.
Neon.
So that is going to be making,and that is with Wagner Moore,

(09:53):
who it many of you have nowseen.
He played Pablo Escobar andNarcos and he is also in Dope
Thieves with Brian Tyree Henry.
A movie that, when I tell you mytemperature was up at 150
million degrees and holding onfor Dear Life was wrapped is by

(10:14):
a French filmmaker Oliver Lacks.
When I tell you it's about, it'sa combination of cultures of
Middle Eastern, French, andSpanish, and it's a father who
is Spanish that is looking forhis daughter that has gone

(10:35):
missing for five months and sheallegedly is on this rave party
circuit.
But it's all the stuff thathappens when he links up with
some of the ravers to.
Possibly try to locate her atanother rave that they're going
to.
And there's also some militarybackdrop.
But what really happens is whenhe hooks up with these ravers,

(10:57):
and when I tell you there isstuff going on where you see,
you know, you watching a movieand all of a sudden your blood
pressure goes up to 350,000degrees.
You are like, what?
It's happening.
You'll never forget this movie.

That's three.
But I have to ask you, becauseyou are the documentary person,
were there any documentariesthere?

I did not see documentaries,

Reggie Ponder, The Ree (11:24):
however, you mean Katya, you talking
about Katya Woods?
Went to a film festival and didnot see a documentary.

I did not.
I'm gonna tell you what it is'cause this is part of my
learning curve.
I had a good pass.
No, I can't talk to you.
I can't tell you guys how I gotthe color pass that I got.
I got what I got.
Again, I went into this veryopen-minded and just leaning
into the blessing.
That's number one.
7:00 AM excuse me, 2:00 AM rtime.

(11:56):
I had to go in every day whileto get the tickets.
So you have four days out to getthe tickets that you want.
So I did have some documentariesI wanted to see.
I couldn't get tickets for it,and I couldn't make it work with
the other movies where I stoodin line.
Okay.
It just wasn't working out thatway.
But I'm still glad I saw what Isaw because, oh, I'm

sure you were.
I just know you

I know better.
'cause my husband was like,where are you going at 2:00 AM I
said, I gotta get my tickets.
It's 7:00 AM in France, so Igotta log in.
So it was a little bitinteresting, but I was very,
very lucky.
That I did get to see.

So you were gonna gimme, we're
gonna take one more film becauseyou really wanted to gimme one
more film and I saw you comecoming.
So we're gonna take one morefilm and then I have to ask you
about the Spike Lee film, butgimme one more film that you
were about to put on the list.

Okay, the Dossier 1 37, which again is also a
French movie.
It's about police brutality inFrance.
I like detective spy movies, TVshows.
This was right up my alley.
Leah Drucker plays StephanieBertran.
She's an, she is an internalaffairs police officer and she
invest, investigate something,and she was about to dismiss it

(13:15):
until the mother of the boy thatwas pled by these police
officers, which are like specialforces type of thing, Uhhuh, and
come to realize that they liedabout the deposition, what
happened to this boy, and howshe now is sucked into it.
It's very, it's well acted welldone and gives us a different
perspective that policebrutality, police versus

(13:38):
community is a global issue, notjust an American issue.
Oh,

okay.
So I, I need a recap because yougave me four films and I like
for the audience to know whatthose four films are.
So just name those films againfor us.

It is my father's Shadow,

my father's Shadow

Sirat.
And how do spell that?
It doesn't look like you have anname.
It's T

How do you spell that?

S-I-R-A-T Dossier.
1, 3, 7.

Those are three.
And then, um, oh, okay.
I a Excellent.
All right.
So now just tell us a littlebit, because we need to get into
our movie for the day.
Tell us a little bit about theSpike Lee movie.
People don't know what the I,

I did not see Spike's movie.
I left that Monday.
One of the reasons too, is Iwanted to see the movie in the
United States.
Oh.
But here's the thing is I didhave some star sightings.
Okay.
As I was leaning over.
Tom Cruise, and I had a moment.
He waved, I waved.
Security was on me, so I didn'tget a tick picture of it, but he

(14:51):
waved.
I was looking down and I saw Ms.
Bassett and I got to have someone-on-one time with Ms.
Bassett when she came to Atlantathe other day.
But I was like, Tom, he waved.
I waved and it was just betweenmyself and the witnesses at that
moment.
All right.

All right.
Tommy, can you hear me

Right here?
But Angela Bassett, and I sawHalle on the carpet and she
looked gorgeous.

Oh, the

carpet is very, you don't necessarily do carpet
interviews like that and can,because it's the steps.
Can I just say on TV and onvideo, the steps look so much
larger than what they are.
Like I thought there were likethe MET gala steps, they were
like, woo, they're not, it's adepth perception type of thing.

(15:37):
Don't get me wrong, it's stillsomething hard to navigate.
With people in high heels, butit is not what you deem what you
think it is.
Do you know what I mean?
And so you have, thephotographers are here and some
people here, but it's notnecessarily people on the red
carpet.

(15:57):
Do you know those interviews aretaking place?
There's a walk that they do andprior to the premier and
photographers and then they veeroff with the various outlets to
do those interviews there.
It's not like on the carpet perse, there isn't that much room.

(16:19):
And when you are going to a SCgallery screening, you, they
usher and you either gobeforehand and it's you walk
around that you're not in thecarpet area with them.
And then they, the stars didn'tcome in last, so to say.

Reggie Ponder, The Reel Criti (16:37):
I had to go and look up one of
these pictures of Halle and sothey say that she finally wore
the gown that violates new cans,film festival, dress code.
How could it violate the dresscode?

Okay.
What they wanna say is okay inwhen some people have been like,
and this is coming from Francemind, you have been like
borderline.
And some people do it forshocking'cause they know they'll
get photography and they'll makethe papers and whatever.
But I don't think Halle has everbeen that type of person to wear

(17:14):
fashion, just to be like, thisis not like Kanye's wife.
We're we're seeing her goodies,her hoo-ha and her,

yeah,

her breasts.
I just feel like they justwanna, they wanted to curb
people that are taking it toofar.
And mind you, this is also aregion where there is a large
Muslim population.

Ah.

So I do think it's a matter of, some people were
just pushing the envelope justto be seen.
But I thought all of what I sawof Halle, all of her fashion,
was really tasteful.
She looks fabulous.
Like she's, no, this towards 60.
I thought her and her partnerlooked absolutely grand.
She was there to participate inthe jury.

(17:59):
And again, that's what welisten.
We have been complaining that alot of these stars dress so
underwhelming and we want ourmovie stars to look like movie
stars.
We want, we don't want'em tolook like you and I like, like
we're gonna bosco.
I

I'm trying to look, I'm trying to
look pretty good though.
I'm trying.
No,

I'm saying like, I've seen how you, if you and I
who are Joe regular, when we goto events and we both try to put
our best foot forward, I willsay, we can say that about
ourselves.
If the thing says it's blacktie, we gonna show up in black
tie.
If the thing says party nice,semi-formal, we adhere to the

(18:37):
dress code.
The problem is we should, ourcoins are not nowhere near
stretch and at far we don't haveno, there's no doubt we don't
have a designer home, a designercoming through the house to
measure us for jackets andtailoring us for sewage and all
that.
If our.
Regular cells are looking moreput together than, excuse me,

(18:59):
some of these Hollywood stars,Houston, we got a problem.
And I think that's what they'regetting at.
We need you to look the part.
No, that

makes,

makes sense.
And they have also speaking thatthey have a dress code at Con
where they're like, I think whatthey're trying to get away from
and here in America, likesometimes people do be looking
like they rolled outta bed.
You don't have to put on a threepiece suit, but just let's look
like we trying to go somewhere.
That's basically what they'resaying.
They made it very clear for thegalas, you need to be in gowns.

(19:29):
You can't have a tote.
Gentlemen, you need to be inyour suiting.
You don't necessarily have to bein a tuxedo black, a black suit.

Okay.

All right.
That kind of thing.
If you're going to the regularscreening, we do expect you to
get your, pull yourself together

to ju to dress apart.
All right.
That, that's it on our cons.
Talk for the day.
Where, where are your articles?
Do you have a place for thearticles that you, I have

one.
One was, uh, the Chilean filmwas in la Latin Media Company,
which is already published.
But you, if you go to my social,it's, I have a link there, and
the other ones on the threefilms I talked about po, excuse
me, published today in thePhiladelphia Tribune.
Oh.
And I'm working on a piecebecause they celebrated

(20:12):
Brazilian cinema, and I had avery nice time at the Brazilian
mixer.
We have some, and talking aboutthe state of Brazilian cinema.
Listen, it's always nice to bein sun and drinks by the beach.
I'm not gonna complain.

All right.
With that, let's move into ournext segment, and our next
segment is talking about your, Iguess, encounter a friend.
Tom Cruise.
This, our movie for this week isMissing Impossible.
The Final Destination.
And I wanna start this off byjust saying that if, if you were

(20:54):
thinking that you are ready togo see Mission Impossible, the
last, the final reckoning, thenyou're not ready.
If you haven't seen MissionImpossible Dead Reckoning Part
One.
And if you are confused becauseyou're like, wait a minute,
where's Dead Reckoning part two,the final reckoning is Dead

(21:18):
Reckoning part two.
I know they're confusing peoplehere because they decided to
change the title.
In 2023, the movie MissionImpossible, dead Reckoning, part
one came out and you have to goback and see it.
You have to, there are too manythings that happened in that
film that you need to seebecause really all this is one

(21:41):
continuous film.
It's the same, it's in, in myopinion, it's one continuous
film.
They had six hours of time doingsome crazy stuff, so they had to
figure a way to show us sixhours of time doing some crazy
stuff.
But my first thing, my firstadvice is, please go back and
watch Dead Reckoning Part One.

(22:04):
And with that, I'm gonna open itup and let you start talking
about this particular moviesince you saw Tom, and since Tom
saw you and since you guyslooked at each other.
Whatever

I, okay, I'm gonna say this.
I like that reckoning better,right?
I felt like this wasn't as good.
Having said that, it is.
It's giving you all the thingsyou want from Tom and company,
right?
Tom's running 18 million times.
I don't know how, I just wannaknow how is Tom at 62 faster

(22:39):
than a car or how he can getfrom the field into the city in
2.5 minutes.
But hey, that's what movie magicis.
I also think that the stunts,like the scenes between Issa
Morales when they got the littlethe planes, that is crazy,
right?

Crazy.

That was crazy.
But I would've liked to see thestory flush out a little bit
more why that entity and what itentailed.
I would've liked to have seenmore screen time for Angela
Bassett, who's now MadamPresident.
Before, I believe she was theCIA director and she's madam
president.
I would've liked to seeing herutilized a little bit more.

(23:23):
I like that my guy, Greg Tarzan,has a bigger part and he's now
part of the MI thing.
I think having said that, it isstill an exciting, exhilarating
movie.
It's just the story to me, it'slike they seemed like they ran
out of time.
It didn't quite joined up.

(23:44):
It possibly left the room for afinal, final reckoning, but it's
still, it's what you expect froma Tom Cruise action movie.
Having said all that

well, I actually dis, I, I agree with
you on one point and disagreewith you on another.
Where I agree with you is thatIL liked the part one a little
bit better, just a little bitbetter, but I did like it a
little bit better, but I feltthat they tied the story
together really well.
In fact, so, well that they.

(24:20):
Had to figure out a way how toget in the action pieces because
this was really not just aboutsaving the world, this was about
saving, uh, friendships andshowing how you honor those
friendships.
And you could see that theyspent time allowing those
characters, Tom Luther, BenjiGrace, allowing them to have

(24:44):
moments that had nothing to dowith action, that had something
to do with their relationships.
And I think that's was reallyimportant if this really is
Ethan Hunt's last go round andTom Cruise's swan song.
So I thought that they did thatreally well and was smart enough
though to know that the actionpeople probably don't want to

(25:04):
see all that mushy stuff belike, come on man, get to the
action.
So they brought us that realpersonal relationship
interaction stuff and gave usall the action things that, that
we want to see.
You said.
Did we, did we get to see Tomrun?
Yes.
We got to see Tom run.
He ran so much that he ran amarathon.

(25:26):
He, so if you were looking forthat, that Tom Cruise run, you
got to see it.
Did he do those aerial stunts,the underwater miracles, the
incredible car chases, dodgingbullets, missiles and engaging
in close hand to hand combat foryou diehard action people.
It was there.
To me it was really like, butthe action seekers should feel

(25:49):
like a kid in the candy storebecause while we know what's in
the candy store, we could seethe candy and all that stuff.
And we tasted it before it wasstill very tasty to me.

Now I have a question to, for you.
Do you honestly believe that ithighlighted the team?

Yeah, I think it did.
I think that what it I, I don'twanna say too much because I
don't wanna give out a, anyspoilers, but what I did say in
my interview is that I thinkthis, that what we know for sure
is that we don't know for sureif Ethan Hunt is gone.
But what we do know for sure isthat there's a team still there.

(26:32):
We know that IMF is not dead.
We know that there's people whocould step into those shoes and
I think it's gonna be veryinteresting to see how the
franchise reboots, so to speak,with Tom not being there.
And I think they set it up forthat.
So, yeah, I with, I love Pom,well, lemme say Mentia.

(26:52):
Oh, I love Pom Clementia.
I loved her Henry Cerney.
I just think Simon Peg and HaleyAtwell.
I just think that they've set itup to say, okay, we can continue
this.
Yeah, I did.
Do I think anybody can take theplace of Tom Cruise?
Nah.
However, Tom at 62 is saying, Ican't do this anymore.

Do we?
I think you wanna do it at acertain height.
I dunno, I feel a little bit inthe middle on how some of the
characters, but then again, I amalso a little biased'cause I was
introduced to Mission Impossiblewhere my mom, who loved, loved,
loved, loved the show.
And you know when a lot ofpeople don't know that Leonard

(27:38):
meanwhile was the main guybefore he was Paris and before
they, before they had EthanHunt.
So to me it would be like, okay,do we then bring in Paris, the
character of Paris also, Ialways felt, one of the things I
did not like about the moviefranchise is I don't think they

(27:59):
ever let the women operativesshine like the TV show did.
I think the TV show did a betterjob.
That.
What is the girl's name?
Leslie.
You talking about Haley Atwell?
No, I'm, now, I'm gonna reallyback to the show.
Barbara Va.
Yeah.
And I think, yes.
And I feel like she did a reallygood job of some of the, like

(28:24):
that you wanna talk about a TVshow that stood the test of
time.
Like Leslie Ann Warren, she wasreally, really good.
Barbara Bain, right?
Who played Cinnamon, first ofall, she just had, you wanna
talk about a face card thatdidn't decline?
Yeah, she did.
But also because of the factthat she was so attractive.

(28:45):
People always underestimated herwhen she was out here being
really, how can we say thisbeing really devious And I do
miss the leader, the Steven, theJim, the Peter Graves character.
The Jim felt, yeah.
So I think there is, listen,there is room here for.

(29:06):
For some other people.
But I think, and I get itbecause Tom is the drawer, but I
feel like Simon's character gotto shine.
I am not too sure that VingRames, who is the Greg Norris,
the Barney character, got achance to really shine.

(29:26):
But it, I don't think, I don't

think, I don't think he got a chance to
shine as much as he could havein this whole series.
I have to mention, since you'regoing back to the series, every
time I think about the series, Ithink about Brock Peters, and so
that's the name that alwayscomes up.
So you got Greg Morris, you gotBrock Peters, you had David
Davis Roberts, and when you lookat those African American folks,

(29:48):
you're really happy theportrayal that and inclusion
that show had back then.
So I agree with you, but I thinkthis movie did everything.
This second part did everythingthat it was supposed to do.
It had to give you some type ofclosure.
It wasn't, it's not totalclosure because this, I don't

(30:08):
believe that this is done, butit had to give you some kind of
closure with Tom and his people.
It had to figure out some kindaway to give you to a conclusion
as it relates to this, theentity.
And it had to tell you thatthere were some other people
willing to make it to the nextlevel.
I, I just think that it did it.

(30:30):
I was on the edge of my seat.
I enjoyed a number of thingsabout this.
Uh, obviously the action I, Ithink the way it was shot as
well, maybe for us, and I thinkyou probably might agree with
this, is that for the people whoare looking for action.
The way this is shot is so upclose and personal that I, a

(30:50):
couple of times I was sitting onthe edge of my seat and the
people who were with me werelike, Reggie, what's going on?
I was like, I felt like I wasthere.
I,

okay, so we, I was about to say, when you said you
were at the edge of your seat, Iwas not, Reggie, there was
nothing scary in this movie, butyou Oh, no,

no.
I wasn't scared.
I was like, is he gonna make it?
Oh, okay.
Oh, who's gonna get caught next?
Oh, oh, no, no.
Somebody's behind you.
Somebody's, I was involved.
I, I enjoyed that part.
And then I liked the way inwhich they used the music too.
Is that dun dun, dun dun.
They, I mean,

you can't listen if nothing else.
If nothing else, we're gonna getthat theme song.

But they used it like that is

a theme song where people are like, don't touch it.

That's right.
But they did use it with somevariation.
And to do that, you have to bereally, really careful to your
point about messing withsomething as iconic as that.
So they had some variation tothat.
I, I like this a lot.
I gave this one a three and ahalf out of four.

(31:52):
I'm recommending that people gocheck it out.
It was fun, it was enjoyable,and it was personal.
That's what I, that's what Ifelt about this movie.

Oh, 100%.
I think if you want a summermovie, movie, that movie, again,
listen, the stuff we're talkingabout is itsy bitsy.
Right?
But if you wanna be entertained,Tom Cruise is gonna keep you.
Like, this is when he makesthese type of movies.
He's in his element, right?
This, this is

the one

when he tried to play the Good Nazi.
This, when we go, Tom, you'reright.
When you're right.
But sometimes you lost us.
But in this particular thing isany other thing too, is, I like
what Tom is saying.
When people are like, oh, he'sthe last movie.
He's, I don't wanna be the lastmovie star.
I shouldn't be.
There are other people here thatcan pick up the mantle.

(32:39):
What are we doing?
So I like the fact that he saidon this press tour, I wanna make
a movie with Michael B.
Jordan.
I'm glad that Michael B.
Jordan went to the Londonpremiere.
I think he gets more thananything.
And I just got down talking toGreg to this movie, this, excuse
me, this morning, not this moviethis morning where he has put

(33:00):
his arm around Craig Tarzan andput him in, took him from
Maverick and put him in theseother two movies when he didn't
have to.
So there is something, listen, Iknow why some people are like,
but we talk movie stuff.
We're not talking about, we'retalking, we're

talk.
We're just, we're talking.
But

as far as a star that has this much real estate,
for him to put his arm aroundyounger people and other
filmmakers is freaking.
Huge.
You know, how he pushed sinnersforward and the fact that he,
and when he says he wants towork with somebody, even, I

(33:41):
don't care if people inHollywood in the executive
branch think Michael B.
Jordan is mediocre.
If Tom Cruise says he wants todo it, it's gonna happen.

Yeah, for sure.
And since you're mentioningpeople, I want to mention
Tremmel Tillman and who playedCaptain Lezo.
And I suspect since you spoke toAngela Bassett, that you
probably spoke to Tremmel too.

Yeah, we had a little Kiki.
Yes.
In that Trammel, when you gotthis gig, you were like, yeah.
And then you were like, Ooh,hold up.
Now let's talk about where yougonna place me.
Because I think when you sign upfor a Tom Cruise movie, so you
might be jumping outtasomebody's airplane and you
might be like, Tom, I'm withyou.
Can the stuntman do this?
And he said he was very happy.
He was excited because he hasscenes with Tom.

(34:29):
He said he was very excited thathis scene.
Captain Bledsoe were him onTerra Firmer.
I said, because you know Tom inin some of these segments with
the ubo, he is out there.
He goes, you know what?
I was here with him mentallysupporting him.
And listen, I am, I'm not mad athim'cause I would be like, Tom,

(34:50):
I'm a support from the side.
You go be great.
We gonna say a prayer for you.
But again, I love how everybodythat is including Angela Bassett
said we are just in Tom's worldand happy to be in it.

This, this is Tom's world and it
really, if it's done, it reallydoes signal a end of an era.
Yeah, Tom can be in some otherstuff, but this was his vehicle.
This is Tom's world and Iunderstand when we say we wish
some other people got a littlebit more shine, but people came
to see Tom, this is Tom's thingand I think he did a really,

(35:27):
really good job here.

Again, he understands what we come to.
I love a movie star, an actorthat knows who they are.
These people, sometimes they arelike, they're like, Ooh.
And I'm like, nobody's coming tosee that from you.
Right?
Like we're coming for thestunts, the locations like we
don't want Nina, we don't wantMission Impossible at the Jersey

(35:50):
Shore.
No shade to the Jersey Shore,but we like that you were in
Budapest.
We like that you were here inSky.
Like we want that Who spiesdon't go to around the corner.
That's where we imagine spiespeople to be in luxurious things
and fitted tucks and mixing withreally bad guys that are

(36:11):
millionaires and have glass eyesand whatever you have there.
This is same thing we want ourJames Bond to.
We don't want him in a JC Penneysuit.
This is our idea of a good time.
We wanna live vicariouslythrough you.
A

a.
Absolutely.
Well, living Vicariously aapparently that's gonna help us
move into our next segment.
And that segment is Rant andRave.
And the thing that I wanna rantand rave about is the box
office.
There are people who are livingvicariously at the movie or at
the box office.

(36:47):
They're going to the movietheater, seeing actual movies.
And when I look at the boxoffice, I'm pausing for a moment
because when I look at the boxoffice, I'm saying OMG, because
there's some movies that aredoing really, really well.

(37:07):
And the first movie I wannastart with is a Minecraft movie.
That movie.
Is killing it domestically, it'salmost at$420 million.
Internationally it's at 400, 513million.
So we know this movie will make,we'll break 1 billion.

(37:30):
I had, this is the film for, Iwas on vacation, so I hadn't
seen it and I still haven't goneto see it because of the reports
of what's happening in thetheater.
I don't want to be around someof this craziness that people
are doing in theater frombringing chickens in, throwing
popcorn at the screen, all that.

(37:50):
The craziness is absolutelywild, but we have to give
credit.
To the filmmakers here.
They made a movie that reallykicked off the summer movie
season almost coming up on abillion dollars.
I I, I don't see how it won'tmake another 70,$70 million to

(38:10):
do that.
But any thoughts on my aMinecraft movie?

First of all, it's a video game that was a huge
hit.
My daughter played the game whenshe was younger, grammar school,
middle school.
So you are pulling in all thatcrowd.
I said when I saw it, I said,that movie was not made for old
heads like me.
It was made for that generationand the kids that are still
playing the game.
And they tapped it exactly intothat.
My daughter went to see it tohave that nostalgic feeling.

(38:36):
And so I'm not surprised thatthere is not, everything has to
be for everybody.
And there is a group of peoplethat things resonate with.
And the gaming community cameout and supported this film
point blank period.

Reggie Ponder, The (38:52):
Absolutely.
Just for Warner Brothers.
Absolutely.
The other movie I wanna bring inthat I'm a little, not surprised
from my review, but I thinkit's, I think it's a
disappointment in what it's donein the box office, which is
Thunderbolts.
If you look at the domesticGross, you, it's at about 160
million.
And internationally 170 million.

(39:15):
That means it's somewhere around331 million for this big Marvel
movie, which I think they hadhigher hopes for this film.
I can't remember what was spenton this, but let's just say like
most Marvel movies, it had to beat least a hundred million.
So I think you

have a valid point.

Go ahead.
So if it was at a hundredmillion, you're only making a
330 something million for aMarvel movie.
That's not good.

Okay, it's, the budget was 180 million.
Let's do the math that they liketo do on our movies.
So the budget was 180 million.
Let's say marketing was another20 to$30 million and it earned
so far,$331.7 million.

(40:05):
Yeah, I'm with you.
You need more legroom.
You, the movie has not made itsmoney back.
And now with sinners doing whatit did and the word of mouth, I
don't think for Thunderbolts wasstrong enough.
I enjoyed it.
I thought I did.
It was, I thought it was, uh,especially considering where
Marvel has been, I thought itwas a good.

(40:26):
It's getting back on track withwhat people want out of Marvel.
I think it was really funny.
I like the fact that this castof MiFi, excuse me, misfits are
here, but considering the amountof money that was poured into it
and the campaign, yeah, it'snot, and it's gonna lose even
more esteem because MissionImpossible is coming out and it

(40:47):
is Memorial Day weekend, soyou've got an extra day for
people to go to their movies.
So it's going to get lost inthat shovel, you know?
So,

yeah.
And when you look at, I lookedat this movie as a Guardians of
the Galaxy Light.
It really is because when youlook at the domestic gain of the
Guardians of the Galaxy, whichcame out in 2014, that movie
made a 330 million or 34 milliondomestically alone, and then

(41:19):
another 404 millioninternationally.
So that movie ended up at 7 74.
I just don't see theThunderbolts even getting close
to that with what you just said,that we centers came and it was
out there when centers was outthere.
Mission Impossibles is out, andthen a Minecraft is still just

(41:42):
cruising along.
So I just don't see it doingthat well.
With that.
Go ahead.
No, you go ahead.

No, no, no.
And the other thing too is it isyou've got Smurfs coming out,
right?
A lot going on in the Asop,Rocky, Rihanna household.
'cause ASAP Rocky had thatwonderful premier of High to Low
and, and can, and you've gotRihanna who's in Smurfs and
Rihanna's given us a song rightin Smurfs.

(42:10):
So Rihanna people, people wantto be near and wanna absorb
things adjacent to her.
So it is one of those thingswhere people are really like
Woo.
Yearning to be a part of stuff.
So I don't, it's going to beinteresting, you know what I

(42:33):
mean?
And we haven't even had F1 isgonna do Insane Numbers.
Jurassic Park.
You still have some of thebigger movies coming.
So I just feel like.
This is a shame'cause it's not abad movie, but maybe it's, we
gotta talk about it.
Is it, do people have more, dopeople have moral fatigue?

Yeah, I think, uh, look, a couple
things, and I said this in my,in my review, is that when you
don't know the characters,you're, you are hoping that
those characters can catch on insome kind of way.
And there, for me, there wasn'ta standout character that I felt
like, okay, this is mycharacter.

(43:16):
This is the person that if Iwere to go out and buy a
figurine or a bobblehead orsomething of that nature,
there's a character there that Ireally want to put on my mantle.
I think with Guardians of theGalaxy, they had that in in, in
various characters.
And I also think that might bebecause of the Star Power with
Guardians of the Galaxy as well,is that some of the folks in

(43:38):
Guardians of the Galaxy werealready na household names.
So people were like, yeah, I'dlove to have, I love to be this
character.
That's what I think about it.
Hope If Thunderbolts was made tobe a setup movie, to set it up
for what's to happen next, thenit did a, it did its job, it did
its job to to be a filler in forthe fact that there are no

(44:02):
Avengers yet.
We're waiting for FantasticFour, we're waiting for some
other characters to come out.
It did its job.
I think it was a fine movie aswell, but sometimes those
characters that are lesser knownjust don't travel as well.

I like Elena.
I thought Y Elena was the heartof the film, but you're right.
Does that translate into afigurine and wanting to dress
up?
As that come Halloween.
No, but I do think that she, thescenes between her and her dad,
who's, yay, we're backing in.
She's no.
I thought those were some of thebest scenes.

(44:39):
I agree.

I agree.
I,

I think she's, the heart of Florence is fantastic.
I think she is the heart andsoul of that movie.
But you're right.
I don't know if it's timing.
I, again, I think it's one ofthose things where for once we
can say the movie wasn't aproblem, I just feel like people
are not quite ready and Oh, wehaven't even, I forgot to

(45:01):
mention this too.
You got Fantastic four comingout in July.

You got Fantastic four coming, so
this is a lot of stuff coming,but what is out at the box
office still is centers and thismovie has made just as much as
the thunderbolts.
It has made worldwide 330$23million, 246 domestically and 76

(45:32):
internationally.
Now, it's interesting thatinternationally, that it hasn't
done as well, and I've looked atthe markets that it is where it
is internationally, and it's inmost of the major markets.
So it just didn't have, I guess,that same appeal that it has
here.
It seems like

I'm gonna, okay, that's top markets, right?
I don't expect sinners to do aswell in Bulgaria and Croatia and
the Czech Republic, right?
Because their black populationis not as large in those
countries.
But when you go and then youjump.

(46:13):
Start to a country like Francewhere it did 2 million an
opening and has done 7 million.
Right.
Which is, again, you gotta lookat what is France the size of
Texas.
So that's pretty good.
But you also look at thedemographic.
You have a large blackpopulation, I think that is

(46:34):
amazing.
Opening weekend it did 800,000in Germany, which has some, but
not as large as France.
Yeah.
And overall has done 3,251,000.
Again, I don't expect it to dogangbusters in Hungary and
Iceland and places likeLithuania, the Netherlands is a

(46:57):
little bit more diverse.
And if you look at, but if youcome down,

biggest market obviously is united.
If you look at United Kingdom,United

Kingdom, again, you are looking at countries
that have predominantly a large.
Black population.
Right close,

close to 20, close to 20 million.
But you look at the United ArabEmirates, that 2 million, you
look at South Africa, which is apenance, which is not even a a
million.
What?
Yeah, not even a million.
South Africa, even Saudi Arabiais really low as as well.
I mean, some of the biggermarkets that are not there,

(47:36):
obviously, and I don't know ifit'll, if it'll go there, would
be like China and Japan, thoseplaces where you have a lot of
people

you can, you can make your money and China alone,
you looking at even Brazil.
In Brazil it did 3 million,200,000 Columbia.
Like these are places.
But I do think we have to startlooking at international markets
and see how some of these filmsare being marketed there.

(48:04):
I do think there's still thatfear that they don't think black
films.
Perform well, so thereforethey're not data and making the
talent as accessible to thosespaces.

A a absolutely.
Uh, and again, so I'm talkingabout maybe that the
international market is not asstrong, but the domestic market
for this is out of this world.
When you look at what hashappened for this film, I read
an article that said Sinnersneeds only$31 million to become

(48:39):
one of the top 10 R-rated moviesat the domestic box office.

Yeah.
And I also, I would say that,again, I am not an international
box office, but I will saypeople know in certain places,
like if you, then you haveanomalous, like I said, it is in
Germany.
Those are good numbers.
And again, we gotta look atthese countries that have
smaller, that are like the sizeof a state here in the United

(49:06):
States, right, who are like,they're going to bet on stuff
that they know.
So if you are competing centerswith Minecraft, they're going to
make more screens available forsomething like, and not to be
nerding out.
But then we gotta break down andsay, compare to how many screens
are available.
So if you only have in acountry, let's say, of 20

(49:28):
million people, 10 screensdedicated in.
Out of those 10 screens, fiveare in major cities, then those
numbers are pretty good.
Now, if it's as accessible as itis here in the United States and
that's the return, then okay.
But I do think, I don't think weshould look at that at

(49:50):
discouraged, because again, Idon't expect, I don't know how
much black culture gets digestedother than music,

but that's the way I wanna jump.
That's where I would like tojump in, is that we've heard
this over and over again andwe've been on, we've been on
panels or with people listeningto panels where they're talking
about how the movie industryhasn't.
Decided to market black moviesthe same way music is marketed

(50:19):
across the world, is that ifwe're leading in trends and
we're leading in culture, we'releading in all these other
things.
This is a trend.
This is part of culture.
This is one of those movies thatshould have those kind of legs.
So I'm not, do look at it as a,as a failure.
And I don't mean a failure forRyan Coogler, I don't mean that

(50:40):
I look at it as a failure fromthe movie studios because if
it's doing that well, this iswhat normally happens someplace
around the world.
They'll be like, oh, people aresaying, people saying, uh, they
dapping people.
Okay, I guess that's what Ishould be doing.
This is the movie.

Yeah, and I agree with you.
You need, what we need is, andyou have a stronger marketing
background than me.
You need.
This is why we are having adiscussion right now.
This is why diversity, equity,and inclusion is so important.
It's not just about having ablack person in the room.
It's a black person who is fromthe region that understands how

(51:23):
to do the marketing so that youcan bring out, and also how to
make it, translate it fornon-black people.
That's why it's important tohave these different voices
because how can you speak for anarea that you're not from, that
is not your culture, and youdon't understand how those
people consume information.

(51:44):
But we all see the, what is it,the Greg Nor Show, right?
The English talk show where wesee the English talent, but
American talent always, I don't,again, somebody clue us in,
right?
I don't know what that is inGermany.
I don't know what that is inLitan.
What the late night talk showis, what the daytime talk show
is, and it's also about.

(52:06):
Trusting some of your cast to gointo those spaces.
Can Michael B.
Jordan go all over the globe?
No, but this is a large enoughcast where you can send some of
these people into some of thesemarkets to get that one-on-one
time so that people,'causeagain, people like to be what

(52:27):
Will Smith did, right?
Which was the ArnoldSchwartzenegger, the Tom Cruise,
how to promote a movie Heunderstood, to cut through that
is he had to go there himself.
And then once people startedseeing him consistently, they
were like, I'm coming to seethis'cause Will is coming to
sell it to us.

(52:47):
So I think part of that is too,I feel like Zoom, why I get it.
'cause it's more cost effective,but nothing beats a movie star
going to places where.
Movie stars don't normally cometo.
We've become a little numb.
What you just say.
We can say, yeah, we can say,I'm not gonna catch Beyonce and
Cowboy Carter'cause I caught heron Renaissance and she's gonna

(53:09):
go on tour again.
Whereas some of these othercountries are like, it took 10
years for us for her to comewith Renaissance.
I gotta catch it now.
'cause I don't know.
She's gonna come over here withCowboy Carter.

Look, Elton, John El and John coming.
I gotta go see Elton John now'cause we might not see him
again.

Exactly.
So I do think, I think that istechnology.
What I do think it gives moreaccess to more media to speak to
talent.
But we also have to understandis to have a, what Youma call
it, a freaking, there's acenter's premier promo started
in Mexico and look at thenumbers right.

(53:49):
London, the list goes on and on.
If you were to have a sinner'spremiere in, I don't know, in
Amsterdam, and maybe you can'tget Michael B.
Jordan, but you can get some ofthese other folks on there and
you do the red carpet and you doall the stuff that people like,
it's gonna make people be like,oh my God, you came to

(54:10):
Amsterdam.
Because those type of moviepremieres don't happen in
Amsterdam.
There's

Reggie Ponder, The R (54:15):
absolutely no doubt about it.
To wrap this part up is that sinis doing well, it's doing well.
Absolutely.
Domestically.
Looks like it's trying to getinto that all time top 10 from a
RR rated perspective, and that'sextremely impressive.
I saw the movie twice.
I think my daughter saw themovie three times, so this is

(54:37):
one of those movies that haslegs and I just wanna say for
people who are gonna try to waitand watch it at home, I.
It's not gonna be the same.
It's gonna be good.

You're buy it.
Buy it.
'cause that also goes towards Isomebody, Sean, a friend Sean
Edwards said something.
I think that is really importantbecause people were so intrigued
when Ryan did the whole IMAXconversation on how, when he
kind of nerded out a little bit.
And I say there as a compliment'cause I'm right there with him.

(55:10):
I like to know that WarnerBrothers listen to the feedback
from the people Package this badboy into A DVD.
Give us the behind the scenes,give us the director commentary.
I am telling you, people arestill buying hard bodies.
They're not buying everythingbut this.
And you put it in the Walmart,the Targets, whatever, right

(55:33):
where we get our day to day andmake it available to purchase on
Amazon, wherever you get yourstuff.
It is going to sell.
And if especially you do a 35 99or 39 99, people are gonna buy
it'cause it's going to become acollector.

I, I to, I totally agree with that.
I think that packaging it thatway, it's really funny because I
remember when people thoughtvinyl was dead and now
everybody's not buying records.
But I'm keeping my records.
I think you even see a couple of'em back here.
Uh, one of them, one of them is,is one of the movies that I

(56:10):
liked, which was, if you can seeit, which is conclave.
And I, I just wanna mention aswe get ready to close out that,
did you know that the Pope isfrom Chicago?
I may.
Maybe you didn't know that.
Of course.
Maybe man, since you

pulled out your vinyls.

All right.
You got Gladiator.
Oh, you got us.
I don't think I have that one.

Oh, oh, I got one more.
And I have a record player.

I do too.
So now you making me look.
Try to look and see if I canfind my other ones.
Okay, next, next time we,

yeah, so I'm just saying you take care of
yourself.
We also come from thegeneration.
We know not to check the needleon there.
We going to be very careful.
But I do think there issomething like, listen, whoever
may be listening to our podcast,Warner Brothers, give us the DVD
package with the behind thescene interviews and Ryan, that

(57:11):
whole IMAX chat and also givingus, you know, some location
shots and let Ruth Carter talkabout the costuming and Hannah,
about the set design.
I am telling you, you are goingto make a butt load of money.
Now the smart thing here is nowWarner Brothers, if you really
listen to us, have it in timefor the holidays.

(57:32):
This gonna make a great gift forthe movie fan.

In your room?
Oh, if you, I think if you dosome of them, some figurines
too.
I'm just saying, I'm justsaying, I think some people will
purchase a couple of thosefigurines and I'll be scared to
do that because I do not wantthose, those characters that are
vampires.
So I can't have that in mind.
You,

you don't want, what is it like when he got the
blood and he's

No, no, no, no.
Thank you.
I'll pass.
We're at the end of the show.
Look, this was fun.
I, I had a lot of fun.
Oh, I did say to you, before weget to the end of the show, I
did say to you, you do know thatthe Pope is from Chicago.

I think everybody from Chicago adjacent to outside
the suburbs of Chicago has toldthe whole world from Chicago.
And you know what?
I'm not mad at you.
I'm gonna let you celebrate thatand enjoy that.
I am glad.

And for the record.
He is a White Sox fan, southSide for Life.
He's a White Sox fan, so I don'twant to hear you Northsiders.
The people who who don't knowabout Chicago saying Cubs.
Cubs is, he's a White Sox fan.
Like yours.
Truly.
I'll leave it at that.
That's the end of our sectionRan and Rave.
And now we can just close out.

Reggie's gonna be, if you thought Reggie was
unbearable before,

oh man,

I, he's really, really gonna be unbearable now.

I am so happy, Katya.
Tell everybody again where theycan find your stuff.
Yeah.
And connect with you as well.

You can find it at the Philadelphia Tribune,
Sacramento Observer and Cup ofSoul show.com.
And Reggie, where can they findyou?
Can South side Chicago.
South.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, my wife will say that I'vebeen living on the west side so
long that I should claim thewest side.
Nah, I grew up on the southside, so I'm claiming the south
side as a west sider.
Right.
As a west, west side resident.
Let me say it like that.
You can find me at Indigo.
That's NDIG o.com.
I currently have my review upfor Mission Impossible, the

(59:40):
final reckoning.
You can also find me@vlo.org.
Check out my stuff there.
I am writing for the GarfieldLawndale voice and doing some,
oh, I'm doing some things withRonnie DeShaw on a digital radio
station, so I'll need to makesure that I give the right

(01:00:01):
station number for that.
But brother, working, we outhere working so that we can get
to KS cans.
Candy, candy, whatever we tryingto get there too.
So that's what we're doing.
With that, I wanna say thankyou, my friend.
You got two critics, twoopinions, and it's one mission.
That is where dialogue engages.
It educates, it entertains, andoccasionally it escalates.

(01:00:25):
And if it escalates, that meansthat we get to connect with you.
Thanks so much, and we'll seeyou guys next time.

Kathia Woods (01:00:30):
Next time.

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The Reel Critics Network S1, E11 - Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Reel Critics Network S1, E11 - Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning