Francesca Rudkin: Wicked: For Good and Playdate

Wicked: For Good 

Now demonized as the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba lives in exile in the Ozian forest, while Glinda resides at the palace in Emerald City, revelling in the perks of fame and popularity. As an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, she'll need to reunite with Glinda to transform herself, and all of Oz, for good. 

 

Playdate  

A chance encounter with a stay-at-home dad lands a man in hot water as they find themselves pursued by a team of ruthless mercenaries. 

 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A b that is Wicked, two for Good. It's showing
in cinemas now tell us about it.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Okay, So, as you know, Jack, and I'm sure your
listeners will gathered over the years. I'm not a huge
fan of the musical as a film genre. I find
the songs kind of interrupt us moving through the story
quickly ahead, like well, here we go another song. I
love a stage show, but I'm I'm, I'm it's yeah.
I'm not a huge fan, and I think that's important

(00:39):
to stay up front. However, you cannot deny that these
are beautifully crafted films. They are basically begging to be
nominated for Oscars when it comes to production design and
costumes and hair and makeup and the visual effects and things.
You know, it is these films. The first film was

(00:59):
a visual treat, and the second film is. I think
that they've almost kind of put the confetti and sequence
and bubble and ruffles on steroids. There's even more thrown
at you. So, you know what, I could sit and
enjoy this as a visual treat very much. You know,
it's beautifully crafted. I still don't quite understand why you

(01:21):
take kind of a three hour musical and you have
to turn it into a five hour film and you know,
split it in two. The only thing I would say
is the second film is slightly shorter. We're only at
two hours twenty one, I think, compared to two hours
forty one. Still probably a bit long. I could have
taken out one song, Jack, but a little bit short.
But the great thing was for me, someone who hasn't

(01:43):
seen the musical, we kind of powered through the plot fast.
There were lots more twists and turns and lots more
things happening, so I was a bit more engaged. I
sort of felt with the first film. I know that
everybody absolutely loved it, but I felt that I got it.
You know, you can move on. You don't need to
sing another song to tell me who these people are
and what their relationships are. So all that world building's
been done and now we're just charging through the story

(02:05):
a bit more so. I thought that was fantastic. Cynthia
Reno is just extraordinary. She really is absolutely fantastic as
our wicked witch, and you know, cast beautifully against Ariana Grande,
who apparently I have been told doesn't appear a huge
amount in the second half of the musical, so they've

(02:26):
kind of inserted her a little bit more in the film. Yeah,
so that she appears a bit more and they've got
a bit more of a relationship in things. But look,
the songs aren't as good and Part two is in
Part one, so there's there's kind of you know, there's
aspects of it which are better, in aspects of it
which might let people down a little bit more. To
be honest with you, I probably enjoyed the second one more,

(02:47):
which I think, you know, everyone will have their opinion
on that, but look, it's it's exactly what you expect.
If you saw Wicked the first film, you can absolutely
love this. It was, yeah, a wonderful sort of visual feast.
I didn't think about a huge amount the next day,
but I don't think you're supposed to, you know.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Okay, very good. So that's Wicked for Good aka Wicked two.
So that's showing in cinemas at the moment. Your next
film is playing on Prime video. This is playdate Outstealing's
cool by me over his house?

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Can we go over? Priest all? Hell? Yeah, dude, a parade?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Okay, that's playdates tell us about it.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
So this time of the year, Jack, I think we're
all looking for a little bit of light escapism, you know,
when it comes to sort of finding something to screen.
And this stars Alan Richardson, who plays the Jack Reacher
in the New Prime series, and I quite like him,
and I thought, I'll see what else he can do.
Let's see what else he can do. He's teamed up
here with Kevin James. This is kind of a buddy
dad's action comedy and the two couldn't be more physically different.

(04:03):
In the course status the joke You've got and plays Brian.
He's a new step dad. He's trying to connect with
his steps and he just happens to lose his job
so he becomes a stay at home dad. At the park,
he meets Jeff played by Richson, and his kids CJ,
who quite obviously from the minute you meet him is
not a normal kid, and most of us would go

(04:25):
red flag here and run a mile. But the two
end up together and then next thing you know, they're
being pursued by assassins who are after Jeff and CJ.
And they go off on this adventure. You can see
every plot twist coming in this film, Jack a lot
of old school references to films like Sama and Louise
and Reservoir Dogs Address at Park, which I think is

(04:46):
aimed at the adults, but then the action is very
much aimed an eight year old boy. So I was
very confused with this film. I was watching it, going,
this is not really funny, it's not really clicking. What's wrong.
I was like, Oh, it's not aimed at me, it's
aimed at young boys. But then I was going, but
they're not going to get these references. I think this
is an example of where streaming gets it wrong. You
don't just throw money at a wall and see what sticks.

(05:06):
You have to write a decent script, come up with
a decent plot. You know, the acting is absolutely fine,
but they've been given really weak material here, and it's
just it's kind of a waste of time and money.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah wow, you know Okay, Yeah, I keep going, No,
I'm done. Oh okay, well yeah sounds like it to
be asked.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Slid slid down.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
So five five stars ten out of ten for playd
eight No cool, okay, very good. So maybe that is
one to avoid unless you're really desperate.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks' b from nine Am, saturday or follow
the podcast On iHeartRadio