Francesca Rudkin: Wicked and Canary Black

Wicked  

Misunderstood because of her green skin, a young woman named Elphaba forges an unlikely but profound friendship with Glinda, a student with an unflinching desire for popularity. Following an encounter with the Wizard of Oz, their relationship soon reaches a crossroad as their lives begin to take very different paths.  

Part 1 of the story of how a green-skinned woman framed by the Wizard of Oz becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. A feature film based on the Broadway musical. 

  

Canary Black  

Avery Graves, a CIA operative, is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at Me. Thank you. You're gonna be poppy.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'll tell you the proper boys when you talk to boys,
show you.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
What shoes to wear, how to fix your hair, everything
that really comes to be popular. I'll help you be poppy.
You'll hang with your record, You'll be good houseports. I'm
saying you.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Because you've got it off. If you are a Wicked fan,
you will recognize that one. That is Ariana Grande performing
popular from the film Wicked. And a film reviewer Francesca
Rudkin is here with us this morning at maddya. Good morning,
Good morning. Two fantastic films to discuss this morning. Ones

(01:02):
in cinema's ones at home. So let's start off with
the one on the big screen.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
This is Wicked, Fellow Ouzian, the Wicked Witch of the
West is dead. Let me tell you the whole story,
our pasted cross eSchool. You agree, I am, There is

(01:28):
no like.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay, this is Wicked, Part one, tell us about it,
Friendzie Skirt.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
That is a very that is a very good point
you make their part one. Let there are a few
things you kind of need to know about this film. One,
it is based on the musical, which I have not seen.
The musical, of course, was a smash it on Broadway,
and I know that there are a lot of super
fans out there who cannot wait to sup this film.
But you are actually only going to see half of

(02:01):
this musical. So it's in two parts and you're going
to have to wait another year to see two. And
part one is very long, it's like two and three
quarter hours. I think I'm not entirely sure whether this
musical needs to be a five hour cinematic journey, but
those super fans out there will probably thrilled by that.
So this is, of course the original story of Glinda,

(02:23):
the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda,
or Glinda as she was called, is played by Ariander
Grande and Alphabar is played by Cynthia and Vero, and
both of them are absolutely fantastic, and thank goodness for them.
Green did just sitting there for almost three hours. Ariander Grande,

(02:44):
she just does blonde beautifully. We have a lot of
laughs with her, not at her character. She's just a
lovely narcissist. She does a brilliant job Cynthia is full
of heart and complexity as this teenage girl who was
born green and the two of them meet at the university.
So this is kind of like Harry Potter me Girls.

(03:07):
It's a film, obviously, you know the story. It's just
something about acceptance. Something different in his nature or nurture
make us evil? You know what is it that actually
makes this terms alphabet into the Wicked Witch of the West.
But really it's all about having fun in this film.
It's shiny, it's slick, it's colorful. The costumes and the

(03:30):
craft that's gone into it, it is really incredible. But
it really is kind of just all sweetness in life.
I'm hoping Part two gets a little grittier and gets
a little darker and we might kind of get to
the bottom of some of these questions that you might
have if you're a fan of the Wizard of Ours.
So look, I enjoyed it under it's a spectacle. I
think fans are going to love it. Still not entirely convinced.

(03:53):
We need five hours possibly of this. Yeah, as a
film Jack You know me, though, I love I don't
mind a music onstage, but I'm not huge fan of
the musical the film adaptations, I kind of go, yeah, yeah,
we could. We could skip the song and just move
the story along. That's how I tend to feel at
a film. But I'm sure this is don't be hugely popular.

(04:15):
But just bear in mind that time frame, that the
length of it, because it's not probably something you dragged
young kids too.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
No, no, okay, very good. That is wicked, So that's
showing in cinemas at the moment. Very good. Let's listen
to Canary Black Asian griefs.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
She's my verses.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
My father worked for the agency.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
She was groomed, so she was at.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
And her husband, Hey you I missed you.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Civilian doesn't know who she is?

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Is the only family she's cut, honey.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
That is Canary Black. Totally different to our first film,
and this one's streaming on Prime Video.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
You know me, I always like to bring you something
slightly ridiculous, and this is a pretty ridiculous thriller which
is screening on Prime As you mentioned, k P can
Tell a spy whose husband is kidnapped and then she's
blackmailed to provide a secret file or else he dies,
and off we go on this kind of rescue mission.
That has numerous spy agencies chasing her, including her own,

(05:19):
and she obviously wants to try and get the spile
which is no one as Canary Black, and save her husband.
It's NonStop action. If you want a bit of a
fight fest a gun fest, this film does keep moving
at a good clip, but it is very formulaic. The
reason I thought I'd give it a go is because
it is directed by Pierre Morrell, who did Taken in
District thirteen and Freelancer. He's pretty good at pulling all

(05:42):
the action together. I did have one small issue, and
that's with Kate Beckinsale, who does a solid job here,
but she's she is basically on the run day and
night for days and still looks implacable with this very
chic leather jacket and runs around on high hiel boots.
Now I discoide that I would play game of tennis

(06:04):
and high hills in my younger days. But you just
see she is struggling to run on them. She cannot
get her tom Cruise run on and then that makes
you question how much of the stunt she's doing. I
think she just did, but you wonder how much the
stunt double did. Then so the fact that my mind
is distracted by these things probably tells you something about
the substance of this film. But if you want a
little bit of action, NonStop action, without leaving the house,

(06:26):
you don't want to give it a try this weekend. Yeah,
very good.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Okay, that's Canary Black. You know, you remind me of
a certain person in my household who every time there's
one of those you know, we're watching one of those
CSI programs, you know, CSI, how they did their crime
scene investigators, and she's forever lamenting how none of the
women have their hair tied up. She's like, surely, if
you are a forensic scientist, you are not just having
a full head of here just flapping about in the

(06:51):
breeze like that.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Anyway, such a good point.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Look, don't don't let the you know, don't let the
facts of life get in the way of a good story,
I suppose. Thank you so much, Francisca. Those films again,
Canary Black is showing on Amazon Prime or on Prime
Video rather and Wicked, the first film is in cinemas now.
Kind of long, but a lot of fun. Thank you
so much, Francisco.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
For more from Saturday Morning, with Jack Tame. Listen live
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