We are winding down the year but have so many movies to talk about from November! Mike and Kelsey share their best and worst of the month. Kelsey gives her thoughts on Wicked: For Good, forcing make to watch a Very Jonas Christmas and why she’s offered at Mike’s worst of the month. Mike talks about a movie that was GREAT but had a terrible poster making him almost not want to see it. In the Movie Review, Mike talks about Zootopia 2. In the sequel, detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile who turns the mammal metropolis of Zootopia upside down. Mike shares how it compares to the original, why it doesn’t feel like it’s just another Disney cash grab, his favorite new characters but what he wished it would have had more of. In the Trailer Park, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The story follows a young Haymitch Abernathy after he is chosen as a tribute for the 50th Hunger Games. He shares why he is hopeful that characters from the original movies will make a cameo.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
your host Movie Mike, joined by my wife and co
host Kelsey. How are you great. At the time of
recording this, I am all done with my Christmas shopping.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I was going to place for you. The fact that
you were like an elf this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Once we went to go see es Utopia too, I
was full Christmas mode.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The deals were good, guys, are pretty good. This year.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You didn't even have to go into stores anymore. Like
this year it was like, really, you didn't have to
go to stores?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, no, all of yours has been online. Yeah, that's
why I put out a snack basket for a delivery drivers.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's loaded up with so many packages.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
With what it's Honestly, I gotta say. I told my
younger brothers what's in it, and they were like, it's
better than like a hotel snack bar. So let's see.
We have Celsius because that's like always one of the
first to go water. I do some cold brew, I
do diet coke, and then as far as snacks, we
have Oreos, which are real crowd Please. I'm already on
my second box those goldfish I found that Pringles were
a hit. Found some like individual packages of Muddy Buddies
(00:56):
at Target, which.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Is like the Muddy Buddies.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's like the checks mix with peanut butter and chocolate.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I thought you said nutty Buddies earlier.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, Muddy Buddies, got it. My Amazon guys really been
like those. I think he took all my bags, which
was great. I have the sciences take whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So yeah, a great thing. If you can put together
a little basket, help out your delivery drivers, if you
get a bunch of stuff during the holidays. I like
seeing them.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I was just about to say, camera, foot, camera, It's
so funny. They get so excited. They're like, ooh, But.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We are here to talk about our best and worst
movies of November. A pretty stacked month, a lot of
good stuff. In November. We were like, man, there's so
many movies to go see in theaters right now.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't know how we saw this many movies. And
also we went out of town two weekends in November.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I don't know how we did it.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How did we accomplish all of this.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
In the movie review, I'll be talking about Zootopia two
and in the trailer park we'll be talking about the
new Hunger Games movie, where I think some of the
old people are going to come back. But thank you
for being here, thank you for being subscribed. Shout out
to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk
movies from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is Movie Mike
(01:57):
Movie podas Kelsey kick Us. Was the best thing you
saw in November?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm gonna go Wicked for Good.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
When I reviewed that, I got a lot of hate
saying that that I gave it a raw deal in
my review, But I still gave it a four out
of five. I just had high expectations going into it
because one was so good.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I mean, I will say it was my favorite of
the month, but I still like it didn't meet all
my expectations, but it was still best when I saw
this month. But that's like based on the whole thing.
It's like costume, set design, songs, acting. But yeah, I
think Part one is just a stronger part. Even on
the Broadway show, I liked Part one the best.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Your favorite song from Wicked for Good?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh, it's a toss up between No Good Deed and
for Good? I love No Good Deed.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Do you think it kind of messed us up seeing
it on Broadway before we saw the second part of
the movie.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I don't think it did for me.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I think it kind of messed me. I think it
set my expectations higher.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I could have gone without you, no high life, you behind.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I just think I would have been more surprised, more
entertained by Wicked for Good if I didn't know what
was going to happen, which I initially didn't want to know,
but I couldn't really pass up the opportunity of us
being in New York City and going to see it
on Broadway.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But they changed stuff. They did added plot lines to
the movie to make it more like because I mean,
the musical is two and a half hours. Each movie
was two and a half hours, so they added stuff
to like beef up the storyline. I will say the
like new original songs didn't do as much for me.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
The Ariana song, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But again, like I think that's just because we saw
it on Broadway and I have those songs stuck in
my head. So but yeah, I still loved it. I
was very excited to see it. I thought Ariana and
Cynthia did a great job.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
But that's your best of the month. What do you
give it?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I also give it a four out of five bubbles.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I think that's that's as good as it is. Yeah,
I think the first of bad writing. I want to see.
I want to watch them now whenever they go to
streaming the first one right into the second one and
see how it feels. Okay, well we'll do that. My
favorite for November best of the month, I'm gonna go
with Frankenstein, which we were gonna watch together and you
were like, that movie's too long and too weird. I
(04:09):
can't commit myself do it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
We were gonna watch it on a Sunday night, and
then we weren't gonna start it till like seven thirty
and it's over two hours, and you're like, these days
hard bed time of nine, Yeah, gotta go to in bed,
tucked in, like rolled over.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
My matching pajamas on my little hat. Yeah. And we
were like, how we can't commit. I can't start a
movie past seven if it's two hours. But I watched
it on a Saturday morning and I really loved it.
I think Oscar Isaac is a really good actor. Jacob
Elordie of The Kissing Booth fame, which he doesn't claim
(04:42):
anymore has now comes up. He is such a good actor,
he really is, and he just looks so different than
everybody else because he's so tall and like strikingly good looking.
But here he is the creature. I guess I wasn't
expecting to be as moved by this movie that I was,
because it was it really emotional. It was not just
a story about a crazy doctor giving birth to this creature,
(05:07):
but it was like a story about how we treat monsters,
and how in this one they actually give the creature
a personality where he's thinking and has his own character story,
and how it's all kind of broke it up into
chapters where you get all these different perspectives. I wasn't
expecting it to be so in depth in such a
(05:27):
movie to just kind of move me where Now I
think this could be in contingent for Best Picture. It
is so good, all the performances are so good, and
I think when it comes to Netflix Original movies, this
is the best thing they put out easily all year,
maybe in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I was gonna say they try to put out like
at least one really strong one for Oscar contenders.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
If you haven't seen it yet. I think you would
have been. I don't know, because it is a little weird,
It is a little dark. It starts out at the ending,
which I enjoyed, but I still think you would have
liked it. What about your worst?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Oh, House of Dynamite?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Speaking of Netflix, why didn't you like? This? Was a
pretty controversial movie because I think I just like the ending,
which is I think what a lot of people didn't
enjoy it kind of like Frankenstein. You get all the well,
not in the same way, but you get a lot
of different vantage points of one situation where there's a
crisis going on in the United States kind of across
the entire world, and you get all these different people
(06:23):
in powers perspectives on what is happening, from the people
at the beginning who are like, what's that? What were
they in the beginning? Like the war room or something
like that, situation room, situation room, that's what it is,
all the way up to the president. I enjoyed the
ending because I think this movie was I knew you
meant to make a statement that danger like this could
(06:45):
be looming at any time, which I think freak me
out where something like this could happen every single day.
There are things we do not know about that are
going on that they keep from us because I.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thought every time we watched like a political movie or
TV shore.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It would cause chaos. So I think I lef satisfied
because I don't think this movie was meant to here's
the beginning, middle, and end, and here's a resolution. I
think it was to show you how many people go
into making these types of decisions and how stressful it is.
Where you saw all these people freaking out and trying
to remain cool, and showing you how they're kind of
(07:20):
human too, which we forget. We think these people at
the top are like superhuman.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I constantly remember their human.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's why I'm stressed. I think I enjoyed seeing that,
seeing them kind of crack under the pressure of maybe.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You want to think about the people in leadership cracking
under pressure.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well, you think about those things and you see them
in a professional setting, how they try to remain cool,
but you see them crack when they like kind of
go away and they like talk to their families and
they're like, oh, you're a human too.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
We took very different things away from this movie.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I know, but I enjoy. I enjoy any type of
movie that makes me ask questions about the world and
makes me feel a certain way. And I think that's
what the ending was supposed to do. It was supposed
to make you feel decisive about it, because if it
was just wrapped up in a nice little package by
the end of it, if you would not be talkingpped up.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
But I just wanted more story. I didn't need it
to be wrapped up. It could have had like the
worst ending ever, like in terms of like the outcome
for people, but I just needed an ending.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You're not a fan of cinematic blue balls or just
kind of leave you when you're.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Like, no, I'm I'm I understand the reference. Well, you
didn't look like confused as to why you just used
that reference on a podcast, because that's what the this
movie does. This family friendly that was not very friendly.
And I'm not allowed to curse on here.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, I didn't curse. I didn't say it curse word, Okay,
but I really enjoyed that. What did you rate it
being your worst of the month?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Two point five out of five bumkers?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I would give it a three point five out of five,
where mainly because I think whenever you have a lot
of different perspectives and it's kind of going over the
same thing again, it gets a little bit repetitive. So
I feel like the story itself was only probably twin
five minutes, and then you see it in all different
perspectives points. Yeah, but that is your worst of the month.
For me, My worst of the month, sadly was the
(09:08):
movie you really wanted to see sentimental value, and I
think it's just because we didn't time and day. Yeah,
that's the big thing. I will say that I.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Felt like I was taking a toddler to a movie
that they couldn't sit through.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I think when we went to go see this, which
was the night before Thanksgiving, I was not in a
position to sit and watch a movie like this. There's
over two hours, yes, probably like two tannish and I
just couldn't sit still in this because it's a very
slow burn. It is half in one language, half in
(09:42):
English Norwegian the other language. I kind of forgot what
language it was in because it was a lot of reading,
and I was into it for about the first thirty
minutes and then I just got so restless where.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It almost made you get up and move away. From
it because you're so distracting you needed like a fidget spinner.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It's because it was such a slow burn, which is
it's a movie about a daughter and father really at
the core of it, where they have a.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Really contentious relationship and.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
There's a lot of family drama. The father is a director,
which I thought I was going to lean into a lot,
because it's a movie about making a movie where he's
trying to make what is probably going to be his masterpiece,
and he wants his daughter to be a part of
the movie. She's an actor as well, acting in a play,
and she does not want to be a part of
it because she's like, how is he just going to
come out of nowhere and then want me to be
(10:27):
a part of his movie? And it's about her and
her sister and her family in this house that they
lived in his kids. I just think I wasn't prepared
for such a slow burn of a movie. And I
love foreign films because I feel like you really get
to understand the emotion of it because you're paying so
much more attention by reading it. But I think because
the acting wasn't as dynamic as it has been in
(10:49):
some of the foreign films we have seen that. It
was hard for me to get into it. I loved
it because the overall emotion was just very somber, the
entire time, really emotional. I just think part of it
was was not in the place to watch a movie
at this level at the day we went on.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
It was like the equivalent of when I read like
literary affection. That's what it felt like to me, just
like a slice of life family story, and that's what
I love in books.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I love the coziness of it where it felt like
just from the trailer, I was like, that is a movie.
Like we've been seeing this trailer for like a.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Month trailer and we're like a thousand times.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
That is going to be a movie, Like right up
my alley. I just could not quite get into this one.
I would probably give it a two point five five
for sentimental value. What would you give it?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
That's that's what I gave.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I probably feel how about this one that you did
about that movie?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I would probably give it a three seven five.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's pretty good. What about your Well, let's run through
all the other movies we saw this year this year,
we'll do that next month. This month in November started
with House of Dynamite, which we talked about Predator. Bad
Lands almost made my top of the list, which el
Fanning was also in sentimental value.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
For the Fannings.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, she is going to be in what I'll talk
about later. The new Hunger Games movie.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I gave Dakota was on a show that we watched
this month of week.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, we'll talk about it. So a lot of Fannings
in the month of November. I gave bad Lands a
four out of five. If you can still find a
theater showing that movie, highly recommend that one. Neuremberg which
just kind of came out and deserved.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Way more hype, so good. It was almost my best
stuff the month.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Tell us what this movie was about.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
It is about the psychologist that tended to did interviews
with Hermann Goring, who was Hitler's second in command while
he's awaiting trial at Nuremberg. And so it was about
like the Nuremberg trials as a whole, and how they
were the first trial for war crimes against humanity, and
like how it couldn't be done or it hadn't been
(12:45):
done before. And so it was the proceeding up to
the trial trying to get as much out of them
that they could use in the trial to make a
case against them.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, because Remy Mallet goes in to try to keep
him healthy because he's in such bad shape. He's just
trying to make sure he doesn't have a heart attack.
Makes it to the trial, and he's played by Russell Crowe.
And then you also have Michael Shannon in this.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
There Shannon, thank you couldn't name There were.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So many great actors just acting their faces off the
entire time.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And then Leo Woodle from White Lotus. He was phenomenal
in it. I was excited about this man. I was
from the minute that I saw the trailer because world
War Two.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I think the poster does this movie about gives it
a raw deal because the poster looks boring. It is
like that greenish, almost black and white color. He doesn't
really tell you a whole lot of it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Do you How do you make the Nuremberg Trials like exciting?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I don't know. I don't know how you do it.
But the poster alone didn't make it look enticing to me.
And about ten minutes into the movie, I was like,
this is great, Like it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
There's phenomenal acting from Russell Crowe and Remy Mallick and
Michael Shannon, who was a Was he a Supreme Court justice.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Or was that what he was trying to be trying
to be? Yeah, that's what he was trying to be.
But all the way leading up to the actual try,
like all these things, I wasn't I didn't know the
timeline of all these things, which after World War Two ended,
I think we're just like, oh, we won, we all
go back to normal, But you think about all the
fallout that happens after that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It happened.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
But I think for me, who doesn't have as much
knowledge about World War Two as you do, this was
also a great history lesson for me, and a lot
of it was historically accurate, so I felt like I
actually learned things and kind of blew my mind. Will
make you angry at times. There are some parts that
are so moving because they actually show some footage that
(14:35):
it is hard to watch, but they do it in
the trial to really get their point across, because it
was so crazy to me to see how again, I
don't think it's spoiling it because it's history, how he
could have got away with some of this stuff. Even
though you think there's no way that he could not
be let go from this, you kind of see like
(14:58):
how it could have happened.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
How hard they had to work to build a case,
and just I think what was so interesting too was
seeing how they brought the court together and that it
was a trial of like all of the countries and
just against like the first trial of its kind. It
was interesting, yes, and built there they were like there's
no precedent for this, like we are creating the precedent.
And as far as like the footage that's hard to watch,
(15:21):
I also take the stance of like, I think it's
so important that even when things like that are hard
to watch, so we don't look away, like yeah, that's
how that's how history and that's how we keep history
from repeating itself, is that we look at the heart
stuff when we say, oh god, we can never let
this happen again. I feel like Russell Crowe could be
Oscar nominated for that.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I would think.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So that was a really good portrayal of such an
evil person.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I think if this movie gets enough attention, if they
do the whole campaigning for it, I think he could.
He is that powerful in this, and I think it's
a movie that just kind of went under the radar
because even though you have all these fantastic Oscar level
actors in it, it just didn't really get the much
like publicity. So yeah, there's a lot going on around it.
(16:02):
And like I said, boring poster, great movie.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Sometimes those are the best movies though, like they spend
more money on the actors.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, story itself in the poster and the set does
all those things. We also saw a Die My Love,
which was the Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence. I was
gonna say Catinus Aberdeen weird.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Seeing Edward Colin and Catinus Aberdeen in the woods.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I didn't love this when we went to go see it,
but I thought about it so much the week after
it and it kind of had an impact on me
that even though I wouldn't recommend anybody to go see
it just because it's really weird, it's really weird.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
You have to be like real movie buff to want
to see this one because.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It's about them too. They get married, they have a kid,
they live out in the middle of nowhere, and a
lot of the struggles of having a kid.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And yeah, it's like postpartum, the issues that came up
for her. I don't want to spoil anything.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
And if it was just a cut and dry drama
like that, it would have been great. But then you
have all these things that just make it really weird.
And each of their characters are bizarre but somehow not
bizarre enough.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Oh yeah, that's why you said it was weird, not weird, because.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Weird not weird enough where if you're gonna go full weird,
full meta, I kind of wanted to go to one hundred.
It's right around like sixty percent on the weird. I
couldn't stop thinking about it. But in the moment I
was like, I thought I was gonna enjoy this more.
But that was din my love. I surprise the Running
Man didn't get up in your Best of the Month.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I mean, if Glenn Powell isn't it, and I wouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Been wouldn't have enjoyed it at all. That was not
that I.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Wouldn't have enjoyed it at all, but I wouldn't have
been like, oh my God, have to see this, Like
Wicked for Good was something I was excited about, and
the Nuremberg is my like hyperfixation of world War two things,
so those were gonna take the top spots.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I thought it was gonna be my best of the month,
and I think there was just something lacking in the
overall story to make it worthy of a remake that
did not deliver from me because I thought Glenn Powell
was great.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
I still think it's a good movie.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Still a good movie.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I feel like we're in like movie season when it's cold,
or you have family in town with the holidays and
you're like, can't sit around and stare at each other
any longer, like great time here some movies.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I think it came out at the wrong time.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I think it should have been in December.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Oh, December. I think this would have been great, like
the start of the summer. Oh, this movie feels hot
to me. You're right, it feels like summer. Yeah, we
saw it in November.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I was just thinking December for again, the like holidays,
the holiday when people get bored or people have time off.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
You're kind of right there. For when it came out
in December, it could have been like the counterprogramming to
all the like the avatars coming out at the later
of the monthline, we don't want to go watch Avatar,
let's go watch this action movie. Dang, this probably would
have done better in December, because right now it's kind
of a flop as far as how much they spin
on it and did not really make a whole lot
opening weekend or the second weekend.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Listen Glenn Palin SNLVO that weekend.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Hello, I enjoyed that more.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I haven't watched a full episode of S and Lan
so long because I usually fall asleep. I was awake.
I was up till twelve fifteen watching it. I made
it to the music.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I made it to the musical guest.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Which is about what you usually do. No, you made it.
I feel like you made it longer.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Actually, yeah, I think I watched the sketch after the
musical guest and then I didn't make it to week
end update.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
That's correct, you never do.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
But still a good movie, just when it comes to
Edgar Wright's movies. Not his best either.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Coleman Domingo was creating it.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
He was it was like all the.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Show, and Coleman Josh Rowling too, But their press tour
has been so funny. I love watching them on. Coleman
and Glenn and Pressed together.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
They should do another movie. Together an action movie, I agree.
We also saw and Now You See Me, Now You Don't,
which came out the same week.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Pretty enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
That was good. Didn't expect to like it so much,
I've heard I pretty much hated the second one. This
one kind of got back on track. A surprising three
out of five for me, maybe even a little bit
higher than that.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I loved the camp If you saying aber Kadapa by Lady.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Gaga, Oh yeah, And there's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Little on the nose you little enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
That's kind of the essence of these movies.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And I feel like they've taken more of an on
the nose approach, which makes it more self aware and like,
more enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
It's very cheesy, it's very lowest common to not dominator
a little bit, but it's crowd pleasing. It's magic. Magic
is supposed to be a little bit cheesy and over
the top. You look at any magician, you're like, I
would not be friends with that person, but they are
great at what they do. That is how I feel
about Now You See Me, Now you Don't.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
When you say lowest common denominator, I actually go to
like the process and math of finding.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
How are you gonna find that? You take one night tutors,
the numerator, the denominator LI was in my brain. I
also watched the Selena documentary on Netflix Bias Alert, because
I love Selena. I gave that one a four point
five out of five. Also on our trips in November,
I watched the original Selena movie with Jennifer Lopez. Mm hmm, man,
(20:39):
that's good stuff. I forgot how good that movie is.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, that was like because then you watched this one,
yeah on the plane, So every time I'd like, wake up,
it's you watching us something.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
What I learned at the documentary, I did not realize
how much she grind in the eighties because she started
when she was a kid and they toured so much
through Texas. Is grind the correct grind on the road?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, I don't feel like that sentence, how much she
grind ground.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
How much of a grind it was.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I just don't feel like that sentence.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
As a family, they were grinding and hustling as far
as trying to make it because they were broke. They
started a restaurant that didn't pan out. They had to
go live with their uncles in Corpus Christy and then
music was the only thing their dad knew and they
were like, let's try to make money at this. And
from the time they were kids too, where she really
struck it big in the nineties, they were just touring
(21:29):
like crazy. I never really saw all of what went
into that. I kind of just remember as a kid
her being famous and then her being gone. So if
you are a fan of Selena and you don't know
her entire story, really great documentarity to watch on Netflix.
Wicked for Good. I gave a four out of five.
We talked about sentimental value, and then we closed out
the month with a very Jonas Christmas movie, which you
(21:51):
were like, we gotta watch this, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I asked if you wanted to watch it, because I said,
I'll watch it by myself, okay, And you said we
can watch that over like Thanksgiving break or something. It's
a fun like four a into the Christmas season, and
you didn't hate it.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I enjoyed this movie.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You sat there and you laughed a couple times. You
didn't even mind them breaking out into song.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Because I remember watching the Jonas Brothers TV show on
Disney Channel where it was kind of a sitcom. I
think it was just called Jonas it was.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I feel like that was a little past year Disney
Channel inter I.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Get back into Disney Channel and later whenever I had cable,
like i'll watch anything, just teasing, but I remember liking
that show and I think it got canceled after like
the season or two two seasons. Yeah, And I enjoy
them as actors probably more than I do musicians.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Have been I've been rewatching their documentary on Amazon Prime
and you've been in the room and like, I'll look
over little you're watching it.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm always just fascinated with people who get famous when
they're really young and how it affects them and they even.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
In the family dynamic at all.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
And I think that's also what you got to see
in this movie about you think a lot of that
stuff is real about how they feel about each other.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You need to watch Chasing Happy.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay, so that's all in there. Yes, I'm new to this, Yes, Okay,
Well I didn't really know that dynamic and how upfront
they are about it. So I'm fascinated by people who
have been famous basically their entire lives, where they talk
about in this movie.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
They have to be more upfront about it. After the
band broke up and got back together. How they got
back together, It was all the therapy.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So I got about that.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Gotta watch Chasing Abbiness.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
But then you had Chloe Bennett in it, who I
liked and Dave.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I saw her in person one time.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I was at Walton's, which I don't know if it's
still open in Austin. It was a Sandra Bullock owned restaurant.
I was there on my twentieth birthday, having lunch with
my mom. And she was dating Austin Nichols at the time,
who was on One Tree Hill and he's from Austin,
Austin from Austin, and they were dating and they came
in and I geeked a little inside, but you know,
left him alone.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
She was really good in this.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
She was great in this.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You were like, this is a little scandalous for Disney Plus,
but I think it's a Hulu.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
At one point, she's in her braun underwear swimming yeah,
And I was like, I didn't know Disney Plus went
that far. But we couldn't get the Lizzie McGuire reboot.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
That is wild.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Make it make sense.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And now that the two have merged. It's going to
be interesting to see how they filter some of the
content because I think some of the appeal at Disney
Plus was like, it's all family friendly, right.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
But a lot of stuff that they put on Hulu
isn't and then friendly.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I think that started whenever they got the Netflix Marvel shows,
which are really bloody and violet, and then they had
that was a big controversy and now you have people
in an underwear. It's all welcome.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But it was a great movie. I enjoyed it. We
watched it after the parade because.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Which was great this year. The parade was so good
this year, all three hours of the Macy's dabs three
and a half, three and a half hours.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I think they said millennials because if you think about it,
millennials are the largest I was actually just reading an
academic journal about like millennials and gen.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Z and how how cringe were they we are No.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I was talking about how like millennials are the largest
group of parents now. So I was thinking along that
line of like, yeah, the kids want to watch the parade,
but they were like, how do we get the millennials?
And they said we're gonna have bust Rhymes on the
Ninja Turtles best collab of the entire Shaggy singing wasn't
me on a float? Not a single child knows about
that song. And then we're gonna get a little John
doing turned down for what on the Toys r Us
(25:02):
float with Jeffrey the Giraffe up top DJing.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I love how they were the entire time teasing the
K pop debit hunters because they knew how big that was.
That's kind of how they entice the younger audience.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Don't forget Chris Jackson from Hamilton on the Sesame Street float.
Oh yeah, I mean a great float full of bangers.
It was great, loved it, loved the parade, so then
I was in the spirit. We got new Christmas mugs
which I wouldn't allow us to use until yesterday. With
the parade, their elf mine says We're congratulations, World's best
cup of coffee, and then yours says the best way
to spread Christmas cher singing loud for all to here.
(25:34):
I can't stop buying from the Elf and Powdery Burn Club.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Best Thanksgiving in a while, I think since the last
time we went to New York and saw the parade
in person.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It was so nice. We watched the parade, we watched
the Jonas movie, then we got lunch ready, we watched
the Cowboys game. I took a little nap, and then
we went to Utopia.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Uh, back to the Jonas Brothers movie. I think why
I enjoyed it so much is that it kind of
reminded me of those dumb nineties Christmas movies that we
don't really get anymore. Yes, We're the whole thing is
them just trying to get home and now they can't
get home.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
It's every Hallmark movie. But the acting was better with
the Jonas Brothers.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And better songs. The songs are good.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Songs were good, and I think the fact that, yeah,
they've done acting before made it. My favorite part was
the candle bit makes me laugh every time.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Glow by Joe, Glow by Joe, and.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
He's like, you're just man because you're a candle. Candle.
I didn't take off. The world wasn't ready for Wick.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
But Nick our TV show for the month, we both
watched the same thing.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Are we talking about Utopia?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
I'm doing it in the full review, but if you
want to give your thoughts on it, I'll.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Go so good. I didn't want to have to get
up to go pee.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Didn't expect that from Zutopia, did you?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I didn't. I really didn't, but I dialed in. I
was so dialed in. At one point I was like, Oh,
I should I should go the bathroom. I can't make it,
but yeah, it was great. I loved the vibe of
everyone in their post Thanksgiving comfees. Thanksgiving, there were blankets,
there were pajamas. Everyone like reclined watching Zutopia.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
That felt like a big living room, like we all
were hanging out in the same fell like a sleepover.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, TV show, we watched All.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Her Fault only TV show I watched this month on.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Peacock with Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning. It was great.
We watched like a couple episodes and then we binged
the whole thing. It's a show that but the rest
of it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's a show that hooks you. In episode one, scene
one yes, where her kid goes missing, they have to
find out where the kid is, and then it gets
crazier and crazier. It got a little bit more unbelievable
as it went along, where it takes you on all
these different turns and ups and downs and twists where
I thought it was a little bit much that it
got away from the purpose and the initial reason the
(27:35):
show started, but highly entertaining because it got to a
point that we had to just finishit, where like we
can't go another day without figuring out how this thing ends.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, without knowing what happens.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
But a little bit a little over the top right
where the drama wasn't.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
As I mean, yeah, that's any TV show though.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, but I feel like some of these dramas can
be like a little bit more like refined, like a
task or like a mayor of East Town, where can
have some similar vibes, but the acting is a little
bit stronger. Here it was a little bit more Okay,
you see what this is on Peacock.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Multiple Emmy nominated actors and actresses watch yourself.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
I know, but just because they're great actors doesn't mean
that the interaction.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
But the writing has to be good for them to
act it.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Well, maybe it was the overall story was a little
bit too over the till it's not put it on
the actress and they were just putting it on themselves.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I mean, Sarah Snook Abby Elliott coud A Fanning. Yeah,
incredible lineup overall.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I enjoyed it, but it was it kind of lost
me as it went along as far as like, how
good I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yes, there were some parts where it fell off.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
And now makes me not angry that we have Peacock
now for another year. I'm like, Okay, they can give
us another one of those. I mean, there's been some
solid shows on Peacock.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
There's that show I like when we just get so
bored at Christmas break that we just start watching random things.
We watched that one show. They did cancel it late. Yeah,
that was good.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
It was good. It was gone. Nothing gets a second
season on Peacock apparently that we like, well.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Maybe a little bit one season one hit Wonders we
can watch.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
What about your book of the Month? We're getting close
to your I know, month or year in review.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I know I was going through the other because I've
read eighty three now, so I'm over my goal of
seventy five. So it's going through and trying to pick
my top ten of the year. This month was a
bit of a sleeper month. There weren't as many good
ones I would say, the best one was one called
Heart the Lover by Lily King. Again kind of literary fiction.
(29:28):
It's about these college students and their friendship and then
later on in adulthood. It's good. I don't want to
give too much away. Starts as them like meeting each
other in class and kind of like a little love triangle,
and then them in adulthood and just life. And yeah,
it was really good.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
So probably nothing from November good to make your top
ten of the year.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
I don't think so unless I read anything really good
in the first few weeks of December, which my Book
of the Month is on the way, and that's like
one of the most anticipated of December, so I may
have to speed read that one because it might make
my list.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
All right, well, everybody has that to look forward to
next month. Anything else you got do We get to
do my book challenge again this year?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
On my birthday?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Oh yeah. That is the interesting thing about your birthday
is it's right around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I know, our bank account loves that. It's kind of
like when you're a kid and your parents are buying
your presents. You like, don't feel as bad. I mean
I did feel bad, but it's kind of like not
my problem, not being an adult. You're like, oh, that's
also my money.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I realized this year though, why I love it is
because I get to take advantage of all the sales
that are happening right now, which if you had a
birthday at any other time of the year, there wouldn't
be this many sales. It's true, and I tried to
make sure that both things get an equal amount of
attention where it's not like, here's all your Christmas presents
and then are of your birthday stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I wouldn't mind either way. It's kind of like at
this point, I just although you said you did some surprises,
I tried to like not just send you a full
list of links this year, but.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, we can do the thing where we go to
the bookstore and you have well decide on how much
time you get. You'll get more time than last time,
because it was a little bit harder than we thought.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, that was not a lot of time. Because it's
also hard when the books are like arranged by spine
because you've not seen the cover, like I'm trying to
find things.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, because the challenges was the last time was it
ninety seconds?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Ninety seconds that was not a lot.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Grab as many books as you can, and whatever you get,
you get to watch.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
That's what a list because I didn't want to just
get whatever, because I want if I don't like.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
The book or the challenge, different approach this year.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, I'm going to start game planning it. I got
about five weeks.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right, we'll come back and give my spoiler free
review of Zutopia two. Let's get into it now. A
spoiler free movie review of Zutopia two. There's nothing I
love doing more than talking about a movie meant for
kids as a thirty four year old man. But when
Utopia one came out back in twenty sixteen, that was
(31:46):
life changing for me because I believe at that time
Utopia really bridged the gap of a movie that was
appealing to kids because you have these fun animated critters
doing a lot of ridiculous things, saying a bunch of funny,
witty lines with a mess that not only kids needed
to learn, but also adults. Because at that time, I
just remember it hitting so hard and bridging this gap
(32:09):
of like this movie goes beyond just a family friendly movie.
It is teaching you about prejudice and about all these
injustices in the world and how we perceive people, and
how we can treat people differently just because how they
are perceived in society. In this case, you have animals
who are seen as predators, as being the bad guy
now in Zutopia, and there's also a lot of corruption
(32:31):
in the city. So it's teaching kids a lot of
things about how the world works without being a little
bit too much and too overwhelming, although at times Utopia
was just on the next level of like, oh man,
I can't believe they really put that in there. I
do think, however, in Zutopia too, I don't feel like
those political themes are at the forefront as much as
they were in part one. They are still there because
(32:53):
it's still talking about the big city, still talking about
the corruption and the people in power, and I just
think they leaned a little bit more into the fun
aspect of it and the dynamic between Judy Hops and
Nick Wilde and how they work together. So what Utopia
two is about. It actually takes place a week after
Utopia one, which I thought was a really interesting time
(33:16):
for this movie to take place, because not a whole
lot of time has passed. Judy Hobbs and Nick Wilde
have just completed their first case. They are now working
together because Nick is now an officer, so they are
still at the point where they need to prove themselves.
They don't want to be a one hit wonder. They
want to continue to show people that they are meant
to be together. But the problem is is Judy and
(33:38):
Nick are not really getting along where Judy really doesn't
value the things that Nick is telling her, and everything
they do as a unit, it is really what Judy
is saying and that is what they are doing. He
doesn't really have a whole lot of input. So there
is this struggle between their dynamic and they have to
learn how to work together better. And because one of
(34:01):
them is a bunny and one of them is a fox,
they almost have to prove it to a point where
it's undeniable, where all these people are telling them this
is never going to work. Neither of you should be here.
There's never been a bunny cop, there's never been a
fox cop. You guys are going to fail. That last
case that you cracked was a fluke. So they are
(34:22):
already working at a disadvantage of having to prove to
people that Okay, we can do this, we can be
good cops. We have to go so over the top
to prove it to these people, and that is going
to cause a lot of friction proving to people that
they can work together. And the message here more to
kids is how can you work with somebody and be fair?
Which I thought was an interesting concept to really play
(34:45):
out throughout this entire movie where I felt like, even
me as an adult, as somebody who has been married
now for almost five years, that was an important lesson
for me to learn because it shows you how a
dynamic like this works when you are both trying to
achieve a goal. It could just be in a marriage
trying to do things that feel fair to everybody, where
(35:05):
everybody is having their voice heard, and you were doing
things that are better for you as a unit and
not just for the one person, Not just the one
person saying Okay, this is what we do. We're gonna
do this no matter what. Even though this is what
I think is best, it has to be what both
of you think is best. Where Nick is a little
bit more relaxed, he's always cracking jokes. It probably seems
(35:25):
to others like he doesn't care as much, although he
really does. That is just all those defense mechanisms are
really coming from his trauma that he faced as a kid.
So now he is having to show like I do
care about this stuff, I just care about it differently,
and he wants his voice heard in this partnership. So
that is the big struggle throughout this movie. Can they
work together or will their differences be so great that
(35:50):
they have to hang it up. They have to say, Okay,
maybe this wasn't supposed to really happen. Everybody else was right,
and we are not supposed to be together as a team. Now,
when you talk about the comedic aspects of Zutopia two,
this is where I feel it pales in comparison to
the original, because I rewatched the original going into this one,
(36:13):
and it just has such better writing. And maybe it's
just because when that movie came out, it was a
little bit more novel when you're just opening yourself up
to Zutopia, which is this world where every animal can
coexist for the most part. But now in Zutopia two,
you have a snake that enters the picture, and there
hasn't been a snake in Zutopia for over one hundred years.
(36:33):
And they're having to crack this case while this snake
played by Kihui Kwan in the movie called Gary. The
snake comes to town causes a massive uproar, and then
Nick and Judy actually side with the snake and everybody
thinks they've gone rogue, and now they have to clear
their name and also help out their new snake friend.
So you have that same city here with all the
(36:54):
animals that you saw in part one, but because they
have to go on the run, it expands itself up
to seeing all these other animals that we haven't seen before.
That I thought that was a really fun way to
expand this world and kind of show you the different
classes inside of this world where it's almost all the cute, fun,
(37:15):
furry animals get to live in the city, and then
when you open up the city to the outskirts, where
you see probably where I would have lived as an animal,
you get to see all these more unique creatures, And
that just made it a lot of fun and showed
me that this didn't feel like a fourced sequel, that
there was actually world building in this movie, character development
(37:35):
and showing us something that we didn't see in the
original where sometimes when it comes to animated sequels, they
kind of just do the same thing over and over again,
don't really give you a whole lot more. Maybe try
to cram in some new characters in there to just
sell some more tickets to Disney World or sell some
more merch. But in this case, I felt like all
the new pieces were there for a reason. My new
(37:58):
favorite character is Zutobia two was voiced by Fortune Fimster
Nibbles maple Stick, who is a beaver and conspiracy theorist
has a podcast. That character was really funny, ended up
being a key player and also a big part of
the comedic relief. And I think when it came to
most of the laughs in Zutopia two, it came from Nibbles,
(38:19):
and that is something that I was looking a little
bit more from in this movie because Zutopia one did
it so well. Was just the writing, the clever puns.
I would say the comedy in Zutopia two came much
more from the physical things and the chases. When it
comes to what I think adults would still enjoy more
definitely Zutopia one. Zutopia two definitely leans more into creating
(38:41):
a family friendly movie for the younger kids who maybe
the first one went over their heads when they watched
it for the first time. You also had Andy Samberg
as a Lynx character, because the Lynx family is a
pretty big part of this movie as well. And then
my favorite cameo was probably Roman Reigns and Seeing Punk.
Who Seeing Punk is my favorite WWE wrestler right now.
(39:02):
They played two cops known as the Zebras. They weren't
a big part of the movie, but the times they
were kind of sprinkled in there I really enjoyed. So
I think if you have younger kids, they are going
to love this one way more than they love Part one.
I think as an adult you might be the only
one to understand some of the references to eighties movies.
There are back to the future references. At one point,
(39:22):
there's a shining reference where I thought, are they really
doing the shining right now? I thought that was really cool.
I also just love how they expanded on the world more,
including things that we have in our world, like Google,
but instead in Zootopia it's Zogle, or they have bug
light whenever they go to a bar, or their version
of Hulu. Is just kind of funny to see those
little details in there, which is something that Zutopia always
(39:45):
does really well. There might be a joke in the background,
there might be something that's a little one second throwaway,
but it allows you to think maybe somewhere in this
world that Zutopia actually exists and there are animals walking
around in full suits. I also do think it is
is worth seeing in theaters right now, mainly because with
such a big movie like this from Disney, they are
(40:06):
going to wait until the very last minute to put
it on Disney Plus, especially now around the holidays, so
you probably wouldn't see it on Disney Plus until like
mid March. And I think that is another thing that
is just really exciting to me, feeling like the holiday
season is now kicked off. A good Thanksgiving movie. We
went to a pack showing a lot of people just
(40:27):
they're really excited, laughing the entire time. That starts to
feel like, Okay, I'm ready to go into holiday mode.
If you have been kind of waiting because it is
expensive to go to the movies. I know that the
lines were long, and I saw a lot of parents
just like, oh my gosh, we're dropping so much money
right now on popcorn and snacks. If you've kind of
been waiting to pick the right movie to take the
(40:48):
entire family to, I think this is one where the
price will be worth it. Your kids will remember this
movie and you, as an adult will also enjoy it.
Because me, I had fun from beginning to end. It
was right or an hour and thirty six minutes from
the opening to the closing credits. So I do think
it is great all around. For z Utopia two, I
give it four out of five beavers. It's time to
(41:15):
head down to movie Mike Trey, Lar Paul, and it
is also time to go back to pan Am. The
Hunger Game Sunrise on the Reaping takes place twenty four
years before the events of the first Hunger Games movie
that we saw with Jennifer Lawrence. During this movie, we
(41:35):
are going to get to know and see what happened
to a young hamage. This takes place at the fiftieth
Hunger Games, which is known as the Second Quarter Qull.
What makes this Hunger Games different is they have twice
the number of tributes, so it's forty eight tributes competing
in this Hunger Games. And what I love about this
franchise is it has the ability to renew itself because
(41:59):
I know a lot of these have focused on different
points of the Hunger Games that are really impactful. Like
the first movie we saw with Jennifer Lawrence, that was
the seventy fourth. They followed up with the seventy fifth
Hunger Games. That was a big deal. When we went
back in the Ballot of Songbirds and Snakes, that was
the prequel. That movie focused on Cornelius Snow and why
he is the way that he is. Eventually became the
(42:21):
biggest villain that we had as him and Cat and
has Everdeen went back and forth against each other. But
that was focused on the tenth Hunger Games. This one
is the fifthieth. You can really do every single year
of the Hunger Games. Because how these movies work is
Sudanne Collins, the author and creator of this series, writes
a book, they turn it into a movie. She could
(42:41):
focus on all these different time periods that are significant.
I would like to go back to the very first
Hunger Games. What was that like? How did that impact
all these citizens of all these different districts. So it
has the ability to renew itself because you can get
to a point where you don't have to focus on
the same characters, even though I think the reason I
am so excited about this one is because we start
(43:03):
to see some connections with the characters that we know
from those original movies. But what I love the most
about this trailer is it looks so much different than
everything we've seen before. It's brighter, it is more colorful.
In this book, which I haven't read, which I read
all the original series, that is one that I can
say I read the books before seeing all those movies.
(43:26):
But the way in the books the arena is described,
It's called a poison paradise, And that's the vibe I
get from this trailer. It reminded me of one of
my favorite horror movies that I can't recommend anybody because
a lot of people hate this movie, but Midsummer it
reminds me of Florence Pew's Crown of Flowers and that
cult like vibe surrounding people. And I love that juxtaposition
(43:49):
of you see this beautiful hillside, all this green grass
and these bright and colorful flowers, but then you see
these forty eight tributes who are all about to run
into the middle to grab all these things to kill
each other with. So I love seeing the contrast of
a beautiful landscape with something so tragic and horrific happening.
(44:09):
But what this movie is about, Like I said, it
follows young Hamich Abernathy after he has chosen. Joseph Zada
is playing Hamige. The movie also features Ray Fines, Whitney Peak, McKenna, Grace,
Jesse Plemons. I was so excited to see Jesse Plemons
in this trailer, Maya Hawk, Lily Taylor, ben Wan and Moore.
(44:30):
It is directed by Francis Lawrence. Before I get into more,
here's just a little bit of the Hunger Game sunrise
on the Reaping trailer Welcome then in Reek of District twelve.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Twice the number of tributes, twice the glory. It's time.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
For the second quarter. Quare's fidgeting in. This movie is
directed by Francis Lawrence, who also did the Last Songbirds
and Snakes. But not only that, he did every Hunger
(45:20):
Games movie from Catching Fire to Mocking j Part two,
so pretty much every Hunger Games movie except for the
first one. Earlier this year. He also did the Stephen
King adaptation The Long Walk, which is why I see
a couple of actors from that movie also being featured
in this, So Francis Lawrence is somebody who knows how
to make these movies interesting and how to make them
(45:43):
work because he has a great track record with all
of these, which to me, there really isn't a bad
Hunger Games movie. Do I wish they wouldn't have split
mocking Jay into Part one and part two? Yes, but
that is something that I will just scream from the
hilltops until I lose my voice that I hate it
when one story gets split into two movies. But aside
(46:06):
from that, in that franchise, there is not a bad movie.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Steaks is pretty forgettable, but
still wasn't a bad movie. It really kicked up in
the third act of that, but I just don't think
for me the story was strong enough, and I just
didn't think that Presidents Now was that interesting a character.
(46:26):
I think my theory earlier that I was talking about
of this being such a renewable franchise. It has this
different color grading that makes it a little bit more cinematic.
From the opening of the trailer that feels the most
familiar at the reaping that to me looks the exact
same way it has looked every time, but it's once
you open it up to this world wherever the games
(46:49):
actually take place, that I think you could make every
single Hunger Games installment feel completely different and almost like
it's in an entirely different genre. So that is why
this franchise is exciting to me. And I love that
this one looks nothing like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,
which really just looked like the previous films. So I
(47:11):
think if this works and they can make something that
feels different but also feels connected to the original movies,
that could be great. Otherwise, you just have to make
it completely separate and not connect it with any other
characters that we know. And maybe even though these books
came before it, but I kind of get Squid Game
(47:33):
vibes even in some of the sound effects used in
the trailer, where that show kind of has a similar
concept of the Hunger Games people competing to win a
big prize to be the one remaining victor. Maybe the
way you go next level is take away that PG
thirteen rating, even though I know they would never do this,
(47:55):
and even in the books, it doesn't describe all of
the blood and mayhem and great detail it's not really
as focused on it depicting these things in such a
disgusting and bloody way. That's really not the point and
the overall story and the message of these movies. It's
more about reminding you who is really the bad guy here,
(48:18):
how the powers that be are always the ones watching,
and those are the people who are always going to
end up winning, and all the people who played the games.
Whether you are crowned the victor at the end of
the Hunger Games, you are still a loser because they
are just putting all these pieces where they want them
and operating things in a way that the Capitol always wins.
(48:40):
But maybe with the success of Hunger Games and making
something a little bit darker when it comes to how
these games are played, maybe they drew some inspiration from that.
And maybe I'm only basing that a little bit on
a sound effect that you hear in this trailer that
kind of sounds like the Squid Game theme. I think
the cast looks fantastic in this. Ben Wing I remember
(49:01):
from The Long Walk. He is one of the tributes
from District twelve. He was also in the Karate Kid movie.
Most recently. Jesse Plemons is a cameraman for the Hunger Games.
Ray Fines plays President Snow in this movie, Karen Colkin
plays Caesar Flickerman. El Fanning is Effie Trinkett, who is
(49:21):
the stylist. El Fanning is just crushing it right now.
We also have a couple of NEPO babies in the cast,
with Iris Apatow who is Judd Apatow's daughter and Maya
Hawk who is both Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman's daughter.
Maya Hawk is playing Virus. Iris Apatow is playing a
character named Prospera Trinkett who is Effie's younger sister. We
(49:44):
are also getting younger versions of BT and Mags in
this movie, so we are seeing some of the characters
that we get to see later in the original Hunger
Games movies. And why I think this has potential to
be great and give us one of the best post
credit scenes of all time in the Hunger Games franchise
(50:06):
is because in the book, there is an epilogue that
takes place after the events of the original trilogy that
ended the entire Hunger Games series, and it features Hamich
who is reflecting on his past and his promise to
Leonor Dove and This scene also includes Catnus Everdeen and
Peter Malark, who were now his support system and the
(50:30):
only thing that I'm kind of holding on to, which
Josh Hutcherson is out right now doing press. For five
Nights at Freddy's, he was asked about if he would
ever return to the Hunger Games, and he said, in
twenty fifteen, he walked away and was like, I'm not
doing any more Hunger Games movies. Those movies elevated me
to a level of fame that I didn't really want.
(50:52):
It took away his privacy. So at that time, when
he was done with Hunger Games, he would have said, no,
there's no way I'm going back to do a movie.
And it also didn't really make sense now over a
decade later, which is wild because they ended in twenty
fifteen twenty twenty five. This one's coming out in twenty six,
so it'd be eleven years. He said he would be
open to it, and I think him saying that is
(51:14):
indication to me that maybe he I don't want to
fully say that he's not in it because I've been
tricked in the past, and I think if he were
in it, he wouldn't have said as much as he did,
but I'm holding on to hope that secretly him Woody
Harrelson and Jennifer Lawrence. This is only a rumor, but
(51:35):
some people are saying maybe early next year, in twenty
twenty six, they get a couple of days and they
go film a scene for this. Again, this is totally
just a rumor, but if you think about the director here,
Francis Lawrence, who basically did every Hunger Games movie. He
also did a movie with Jennifer Lawrence post Hunger Games
called Red Sparrow. So they have a great working relationship.
(51:59):
That is a big deal when it comes to trying
to get your star to come back to a franchise,
and it's more likely than she comes back to do this,
and really it wouldn't take that long. It's not like
they're asking her to come back and compete again and
run the Gamut, go back to the Hunger Games because
that story just doesn't exist yet. But to come back
(52:19):
for this cameo, I think would be amazing. And aside
from Josh talking about it in an interview, also at
the end of this trailer, I'm pretty sure this is
Woody Harrelson's voice saying this line, and I think these
games are going to be different. He's in the trailer.
They're queueing us up for it. Can you imagine the
pop in the theater of seeing catness again on screen.
(52:41):
That would be a great way to take in a
November movie. That's all I'm saying. But again, Hunger Games
Sunrise on the Reaping is coming out next year on
November twentieth, and hopefully we see the return of Catnus Eberdeen.
She's said that balls this week's edition of Movie Frame
or Bar, and that is gonna do it for another
(53:03):
episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I
got to give my listeners shout out of the week.
This week, I'm going over to YouTube. You can follow
me over there and subscribe YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro.
Not only do I post my individual movie reviews there,
but I also post all my interviews from the show.
(53:24):
So if maybe you miss one you just want to
go see me talk with the guests, you can go
check out all the individual movie reviews, and every now
and then an old interview will just pop off for
some reason, so I always go back and make sure
I check the comments on those. So this week's listener
shout out actually comes from my interview that I did
with the director of Weapons, Zach Kreiger, and this week's
(53:44):
listener shout out goes to Daniel twenty three Underscore, who
simply said, great interview. Man, Bless you. That's the best
compliment you can give me, because I think if there's
one thing that I'm the least comfortable with, it is interviews.
Don't do a whole lot of them. I have to
really love the project or be a fan of the person,
(54:05):
and in that case, it checked both of those boxes
because I loved Weapons, and I also think Zach Craigor
is somebody that I would just hang out with and enjoy.
So thank you, Daniel. It's comments like that they make
me not quit doing this whole thing. So appreciate you
for watching over there on YouTube. Appreciate you now wherever
you are listening with earbuds in the car, at the gym,
(54:26):
or you're like the person who emailed me the other
day saying that they got forced to listen to this
podcast with their partner. And I'm not sure if I
should feel insulted by that. I don't want to be
the podcast that you are forced to listen to, but
still anyway you'll listen. It's all good to me, so
thank you for being here. And until next time, go
out and watch good movies and I will talk to
(54:47):
you later
Hello, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
your host Movie Mike, joined by my wife and co
host Kelsey. How are you great. At the time of
recording this, I am all done with my Christmas shopping.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I was going to place for you. The fact that
you were like an elf this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Once we went to go see es Utopia too, I
was full Christmas mode.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The deals were good, guys, are pretty good. This year.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You didn't even have to go into stores anymore. Like
this year it was like, really, you didn't have to
go to stores?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, no, all of yours has been online. Yeah, that's
why I put out a snack basket for a delivery drivers.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's loaded up with so many packages.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
With what it's Honestly, I gotta say. I told my
younger brothers what's in it, and they were like, it's
better than like a hotel snack bar. So let's see.
We have Celsius because that's like always one of the
first to go water. I do some cold brew, I
do diet coke, and then as far as snacks, we
have Oreos, which are real crowd Please. I'm already on
my second box those goldfish I found that Pringles were
a hit. Found some like individual packages of Muddy Buddies
(00:56):
at Target, which.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Is like the Muddy Buddies.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's like the checks mix with peanut butter and chocolate.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I thought you said nutty Buddies earlier.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, Muddy Buddies, got it. My Amazon guys really been
like those. I think he took all my bags, which
was great. I have the sciences take whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So yeah, a great thing. If you can put together
a little basket, help out your delivery drivers, if you
get a bunch of stuff during the holidays. I like
seeing them.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I was just about to say, camera, foot, camera, It's
so funny. They get so excited. They're like, ooh, But.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
We are here to talk about our best and worst
movies of November. A pretty stacked month, a lot of
good stuff. In November. We were like, man, there's so
many movies to go see in theaters right now.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't know how we saw this many movies. And
also we went out of town two weekends in November.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I don't know how we did it.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How did we accomplish all of this.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
In the movie review, I'll be talking about Zootopia two
and in the trailer park we'll be talking about the
new Hunger Games movie, where I think some of the
old people are going to come back. But thank you
for being here, thank you for being subscribed. Shout out
to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk
movies from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is Movie Mike
(01:57):
Movie podas Kelsey kick Us. Was the best thing you
saw in November?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm gonna go Wicked for Good.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
When I reviewed that, I got a lot of hate
saying that that I gave it a raw deal in
my review, But I still gave it a four out
of five. I just had high expectations going into it
because one was so good.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I mean, I will say it was my favorite of
the month, but I still like it didn't meet all
my expectations, but it was still best when I saw
this month. But that's like based on the whole thing.
It's like costume, set design, songs, acting. But yeah, I
think Part one is just a stronger part. Even on
the Broadway show, I liked Part one the best.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Your favorite song from Wicked for Good?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh, it's a toss up between No Good Deed and
for Good? I love No Good Deed.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Do you think it kind of messed us up seeing
it on Broadway before we saw the second part of
the movie.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I don't think it did for me.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I think it kind of messed me. I think it
set my expectations higher.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I could have gone without you, no high life, you behind.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I just think I would have been more surprised, more
entertained by Wicked for Good if I didn't know what
was going to happen, which I initially didn't want to know,
but I couldn't really pass up the opportunity of us
being in New York City and going to see it
on Broadway.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But they changed stuff. They did added plot lines to
the movie to make it more like because I mean,
the musical is two and a half hours. Each movie
was two and a half hours, so they added stuff
to like beef up the storyline. I will say the
like new original songs didn't do as much for me.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
The Ariana song, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But again, like I think that's just because we saw
it on Broadway and I have those songs stuck in
my head. So but yeah, I still loved it. I
was very excited to see it. I thought Ariana and
Cynthia did a great job.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
But that's your best of the month. What do you
give it?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I also give it a four out of five bubbles.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I think that's that's as good as it is. Yeah,
I think the first of bad writing. I want to see.
I want to watch them now whenever they go to
streaming the first one right into the second one and
see how it feels. Okay, well we'll do that. My
favorite for November best of the month, I'm gonna go
with Frankenstein, which we were gonna watch together and you
were like, that movie's too long and too weird. I
(04:09):
can't commit myself do it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
We were gonna watch it on a Sunday night, and
then we weren't gonna start it till like seven thirty
and it's over two hours, and you're like, these days
hard bed time of nine, Yeah, gotta go to in bed,
tucked in, like rolled over.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
My matching pajamas on my little hat. Yeah. And we
were like, how we can't commit. I can't start a
movie past seven if it's two hours. But I watched
it on a Saturday morning and I really loved it.
I think Oscar Isaac is a really good actor. Jacob
Elordie of The Kissing Booth fame, which he doesn't claim
(04:42):
anymore has now comes up. He is such a good actor,
he really is, and he just looks so different than
everybody else because he's so tall and like strikingly good looking.
But here he is the creature. I guess I wasn't
expecting to be as moved by this movie that I was,
because it was it really emotional. It was not just
a story about a crazy doctor giving birth to this creature,
(05:07):
but it was like a story about how we treat monsters,
and how in this one they actually give the creature
a personality where he's thinking and has his own character story,
and how it's all kind of broke it up into
chapters where you get all these different perspectives. I wasn't
expecting it to be so in depth in such a
(05:27):
movie to just kind of move me where Now I
think this could be in contingent for Best Picture. It
is so good, all the performances are so good, and
I think when it comes to Netflix Original movies, this
is the best thing they put out easily all year,
maybe in the last five years.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I was gonna say they try to put out like
at least one really strong one for Oscar contenders.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
If you haven't seen it yet. I think you would
have been. I don't know, because it is a little weird,
It is a little dark. It starts out at the ending,
which I enjoyed, but I still think you would have
liked it. What about your worst?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Oh, House of Dynamite?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Speaking of Netflix, why didn't you like? This? Was a
pretty controversial movie because I think I just like the ending,
which is I think what a lot of people didn't
enjoy it kind of like Frankenstein. You get all the well,
not in the same way, but you get a lot
of different vantage points of one situation where there's a
crisis going on in the United States kind of across
the entire world, and you get all these different people
(06:23):
in powers perspectives on what is happening, from the people
at the beginning who are like, what's that? What were
they in the beginning? Like the war room or something
like that, situation room, situation room, that's what it is,
all the way up to the president. I enjoyed the
ending because I think this movie was I knew you
meant to make a statement that danger like this could
(06:45):
be looming at any time, which I think freak me
out where something like this could happen every single day.
There are things we do not know about that are
going on that they keep from us because I.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thought every time we watched like a political movie or
TV shore.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
It would cause chaos. So I think I lef satisfied
because I don't think this movie was meant to here's
the beginning, middle, and end, and here's a resolution. I
think it was to show you how many people go
into making these types of decisions and how stressful it is.
Where you saw all these people freaking out and trying
to remain cool, and showing you how they're kind of
(07:20):
human too, which we forget. We think these people at
the top are like superhuman.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I constantly remember their human.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's why I'm stressed. I think I enjoyed seeing that,
seeing them kind of crack under the pressure of maybe.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You want to think about the people in leadership cracking
under pressure.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well, you think about those things and you see them
in a professional setting, how they try to remain cool,
but you see them crack when they like kind of
go away and they like talk to their families and
they're like, oh, you're a human too.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
We took very different things away from this movie.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I know, but I enjoy. I enjoy any type of
movie that makes me ask questions about the world and
makes me feel a certain way. And I think that's
what the ending was supposed to do. It was supposed
to make you feel decisive about it, because if it
was just wrapped up in a nice little package by
the end of it, if you would not be talkingpped up.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
But I just wanted more story. I didn't need it
to be wrapped up. It could have had like the
worst ending ever, like in terms of like the outcome
for people, but I just needed an ending.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You're not a fan of cinematic blue balls or just
kind of leave you when you're.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Like, no, I'm I'm I understand the reference. Well, you
didn't look like confused as to why you just used
that reference on a podcast, because that's what the this
movie does. This family friendly that was not very friendly.
And I'm not allowed to curse on here.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, I didn't curse. I didn't say it curse word, Okay,
but I really enjoyed that. What did you rate it
being your worst of the month?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Two point five out of five bumkers?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I would give it a three point five out of five,
where mainly because I think whenever you have a lot
of different perspectives and it's kind of going over the
same thing again, it gets a little bit repetitive. So
I feel like the story itself was only probably twin
five minutes, and then you see it in all different
perspectives points. Yeah, but that is your worst of the month.
For me, My worst of the month, sadly was the
(09:08):
movie you really wanted to see sentimental value, and I
think it's just because we didn't time and day. Yeah,
that's the big thing. I will say that I.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Felt like I was taking a toddler to a movie
that they couldn't sit through.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I think when we went to go see this, which
was the night before Thanksgiving, I was not in a
position to sit and watch a movie like this. There's
over two hours, yes, probably like two tannish and I
just couldn't sit still in this because it's a very
slow burn. It is half in one language, half in
(09:42):
English Norwegian the other language. I kind of forgot what
language it was in because it was a lot of reading,
and I was into it for about the first thirty
minutes and then I just got so restless where.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It almost made you get up and move away. From
it because you're so distracting you needed like a fidget spinner.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It's because it was such a slow burn, which is
it's a movie about a daughter and father really at
the core of it, where they have a.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Really contentious relationship and.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
There's a lot of family drama. The father is a director,
which I thought I was going to lean into a lot,
because it's a movie about making a movie where he's
trying to make what is probably going to be his masterpiece,
and he wants his daughter to be a part of
the movie. She's an actor as well, acting in a play,
and she does not want to be a part of
it because she's like, how is he just going to
come out of nowhere and then want me to be
(10:27):
a part of his movie? And it's about her and
her sister and her family in this house that they
lived in his kids. I just think I wasn't prepared
for such a slow burn of a movie. And I
love foreign films because I feel like you really get
to understand the emotion of it because you're paying so
much more attention by reading it. But I think because
the acting wasn't as dynamic as it has been in
(10:49):
some of the foreign films we have seen that. It
was hard for me to get into it. I loved
it because the overall emotion was just very somber, the
entire time, really emotional. I just think part of it
was was not in the place to watch a movie
at this level at the day we went on.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
It was like the equivalent of when I read like
literary affection. That's what it felt like to me, just
like a slice of life family story, and that's what
I love in books.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I love the coziness of it where it felt like
just from the trailer, I was like, that is a movie.
Like we've been seeing this trailer for like a.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Month trailer and we're like a thousand times.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
That is going to be a movie, Like right up
my alley. I just could not quite get into this one.
I would probably give it a two point five five
for sentimental value. What would you give it?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
That's that's what I gave.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I probably feel how about this one that you did
about that movie?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I would probably give it a three seven five.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's pretty good. What about your Well, let's run through
all the other movies we saw this year this year,
we'll do that next month. This month in November started
with House of Dynamite, which we talked about Predator. Bad
Lands almost made my top of the list, which el
Fanning was also in sentimental value.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
For the Fannings.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, she is going to be in what I'll talk
about later. The new Hunger Games movie.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I gave Dakota was on a show that we watched
this month of week.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, we'll talk about it. So a lot of Fannings
in the month of November. I gave bad Lands a
four out of five. If you can still find a
theater showing that movie, highly recommend that one. Neuremberg which
just kind of came out and deserved.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Way more hype, so good. It was almost my best
stuff the month.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Tell us what this movie was about.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
It is about the psychologist that tended to did interviews
with Hermann Goring, who was Hitler's second in command while
he's awaiting trial at Nuremberg. And so it was about
like the Nuremberg trials as a whole, and how they
were the first trial for war crimes against humanity, and
like how it couldn't be done or it hadn't been
(12:45):
done before. And so it was the proceeding up to
the trial trying to get as much out of them
that they could use in the trial to make a
case against them.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, because Remy Mallet goes in to try to keep
him healthy because he's in such bad shape. He's just
trying to make sure he doesn't have a heart attack.
Makes it to the trial, and he's played by Russell Crowe.
And then you also have Michael Shannon in this.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
There Shannon, thank you couldn't name There were.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So many great actors just acting their faces off the
entire time.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And then Leo Woodle from White Lotus. He was phenomenal
in it. I was excited about this man. I was
from the minute that I saw the trailer because world
War Two.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I think the poster does this movie about gives it
a raw deal because the poster looks boring. It is
like that greenish, almost black and white color. He doesn't
really tell you a whole lot of it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Do you How do you make the Nuremberg Trials like exciting?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I don't know. I don't know how you do it.
But the poster alone didn't make it look enticing to me.
And about ten minutes into the movie, I was like,
this is great, Like it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
There's phenomenal acting from Russell Crowe and Remy Mallick and
Michael Shannon, who was a Was he a Supreme Court justice.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Or was that what he was trying to be trying
to be? Yeah, that's what he was trying to be.
But all the way leading up to the actual try,
like all these things, I wasn't I didn't know the
timeline of all these things, which after World War Two ended,
I think we're just like, oh, we won, we all
go back to normal, But you think about all the
fallout that happens after that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It happened.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
But I think for me, who doesn't have as much
knowledge about World War Two as you do, this was
also a great history lesson for me, and a lot
of it was historically accurate, so I felt like I
actually learned things and kind of blew my mind. Will
make you angry at times. There are some parts that
are so moving because they actually show some footage that
(14:35):
it is hard to watch, but they do it in
the trial to really get their point across, because it
was so crazy to me to see how again, I
don't think it's spoiling it because it's history, how he
could have got away with some of this stuff. Even
though you think there's no way that he could not
be let go from this, you kind of see like
(14:58):
how it could have happened.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
How hard they had to work to build a case,
and just I think what was so interesting too was
seeing how they brought the court together and that it
was a trial of like all of the countries and
just against like the first trial of its kind. It
was interesting, yes, and built there they were like there's
no precedent for this, like we are creating the precedent.
And as far as like the footage that's hard to watch,
(15:21):
I also take the stance of like, I think it's
so important that even when things like that are hard
to watch, so we don't look away, like yeah, that's
how that's how history and that's how we keep history
from repeating itself, is that we look at the heart
stuff when we say, oh god, we can never let
this happen again. I feel like Russell Crowe could be
Oscar nominated for that.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I would think.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So that was a really good portrayal of such an
evil person.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I think if this movie gets enough attention, if they
do the whole campaigning for it, I think he could.
He is that powerful in this, and I think it's
a movie that just kind of went under the radar
because even though you have all these fantastic Oscar level
actors in it, it just didn't really get the much
like publicity. So yeah, there's a lot going on around it.
(16:02):
And like I said, boring poster, great movie.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Sometimes those are the best movies though, like they spend
more money on the actors.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, story itself in the poster and the set does
all those things. We also saw a Die My Love,
which was the Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence. I was
gonna say Catinus Aberdeen weird.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Seeing Edward Colin and Catinus Aberdeen in the woods.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I didn't love this when we went to go see it,
but I thought about it so much the week after
it and it kind of had an impact on me
that even though I wouldn't recommend anybody to go see
it just because it's really weird, it's really weird.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
You have to be like real movie buff to want
to see this one because.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It's about them too. They get married, they have a kid,
they live out in the middle of nowhere, and a
lot of the struggles of having a kid.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And yeah, it's like postpartum, the issues that came up
for her. I don't want to spoil anything.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
And if it was just a cut and dry drama
like that, it would have been great. But then you
have all these things that just make it really weird.
And each of their characters are bizarre but somehow not
bizarre enough.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Oh yeah, that's why you said it was weird, not weird, because.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Weird not weird enough where if you're gonna go full weird,
full meta, I kind of wanted to go to one hundred.
It's right around like sixty percent on the weird. I
couldn't stop thinking about it. But in the moment I
was like, I thought I was gonna enjoy this more.
But that was din my love. I surprise the Running
Man didn't get up in your Best of the Month.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I mean, if Glenn Powell isn't it, and I wouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Been wouldn't have enjoyed it at all. That was not
that I.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Wouldn't have enjoyed it at all, but I wouldn't have
been like, oh my God, have to see this, Like
Wicked for Good was something I was excited about, and
the Nuremberg is my like hyperfixation of world War two things,
so those were gonna take the top spots.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I thought it was gonna be my best of the month,
and I think there was just something lacking in the
overall story to make it worthy of a remake that
did not deliver from me because I thought Glenn Powell
was great.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
I still think it's a good movie.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Still a good movie.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I feel like we're in like movie season when it's cold,
or you have family in town with the holidays and
you're like, can't sit around and stare at each other
any longer, like great time here some movies.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I think it came out at the wrong time.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I think it should have been in December.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Oh, December. I think this would have been great, like
the start of the summer. Oh, this movie feels hot
to me. You're right, it feels like summer. Yeah, we
saw it in November.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
I was just thinking December for again, the like holidays,
the holiday when people get bored or people have time off.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
You're kind of right there. For when it came out
in December, it could have been like the counterprogramming to
all the like the avatars coming out at the later
of the monthline, we don't want to go watch Avatar,
let's go watch this action movie. Dang, this probably would
have done better in December, because right now it's kind
of a flop as far as how much they spin
on it and did not really make a whole lot
opening weekend or the second weekend.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Listen Glenn Palin SNLVO that weekend.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Hello, I enjoyed that more.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I haven't watched a full episode of S and Lan
so long because I usually fall asleep. I was awake.
I was up till twelve fifteen watching it. I made
it to the music.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I made it to the musical guest.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Which is about what you usually do. No, you made it.
I feel like you made it longer.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Actually, yeah, I think I watched the sketch after the
musical guest and then I didn't make it to week
end update.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
That's correct, you never do.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
But still a good movie, just when it comes to
Edgar Wright's movies. Not his best either.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Coleman Domingo was creating it.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
He was it was like all the.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Show, and Coleman Josh Rowling too, But their press tour
has been so funny. I love watching them on. Coleman
and Glenn and Pressed together.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
They should do another movie. Together an action movie, I agree.
We also saw and Now You See Me, Now You Don't,
which came out the same week.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Pretty enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
That was good. Didn't expect to like it so much,
I've heard I pretty much hated the second one. This
one kind of got back on track. A surprising three
out of five for me, maybe even a little bit
higher than that.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I loved the camp If you saying aber Kadapa by Lady.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Gaga, Oh yeah, And there's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Little on the nose you little enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
That's kind of the essence of these movies.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And I feel like they've taken more of an on
the nose approach, which makes it more self aware and like,
more enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
It's very cheesy, it's very lowest common to not dominator
a little bit, but it's crowd pleasing. It's magic. Magic
is supposed to be a little bit cheesy and over
the top. You look at any magician, you're like, I
would not be friends with that person, but they are
great at what they do. That is how I feel
about Now You See Me, Now you Don't.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
When you say lowest common denominator, I actually go to
like the process and math of finding.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
How are you gonna find that? You take one night tutors,
the numerator, the denominator LI was in my brain. I
also watched the Selena documentary on Netflix Bias Alert, because
I love Selena. I gave that one a four point
five out of five. Also on our trips in November,
I watched the original Selena movie with Jennifer Lopez. Mm hmm, man,
(20:39):
that's good stuff. I forgot how good that movie is.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, that was like because then you watched this one,
yeah on the plane, So every time I'd like, wake up,
it's you watching us something.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
What I learned at the documentary, I did not realize
how much she grind in the eighties because she started
when she was a kid and they toured so much
through Texas. Is grind the correct grind on the road?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, I don't feel like that sentence, how much she
grind ground.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
How much of a grind it was.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I just don't feel like that sentence.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
As a family, they were grinding and hustling as far
as trying to make it because they were broke. They
started a restaurant that didn't pan out. They had to
go live with their uncles in Corpus Christy and then
music was the only thing their dad knew and they
were like, let's try to make money at this. And
from the time they were kids too, where she really
struck it big in the nineties, they were just touring
(21:29):
like crazy. I never really saw all of what went
into that. I kind of just remember as a kid
her being famous and then her being gone. So if
you are a fan of Selena and you don't know
her entire story, really great documentarity to watch on Netflix.
Wicked for Good. I gave a four out of five.
We talked about sentimental value, and then we closed out
the month with a very Jonas Christmas movie, which you
(21:51):
were like, we gotta watch this, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I asked if you wanted to watch it, because I said,
I'll watch it by myself, okay, And you said we
can watch that over like Thanksgiving break or something. It's
a fun like four a into the Christmas season, and
you didn't hate it.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I enjoyed this movie.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You sat there and you laughed a couple times. You
didn't even mind them breaking out into song.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Because I remember watching the Jonas Brothers TV show on
Disney Channel where it was kind of a sitcom. I
think it was just called Jonas it was.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I feel like that was a little past year Disney
Channel inter I.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Get back into Disney Channel and later whenever I had cable,
like i'll watch anything, just teasing, but I remember liking
that show and I think it got canceled after like
the season or two two seasons. Yeah, And I enjoy
them as actors probably more than I do musicians.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Have been I've been rewatching their documentary on Amazon Prime
and you've been in the room and like, I'll look
over little you're watching it.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm always just fascinated with people who get famous when
they're really young and how it affects them and they even.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
In the family dynamic at all.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
And I think that's also what you got to see
in this movie about you think a lot of that
stuff is real about how they feel about each other.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You need to watch Chasing Happy.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay, so that's all in there. Yes, I'm new to this, Yes, Okay,
Well I didn't really know that dynamic and how upfront
they are about it. So I'm fascinated by people who
have been famous basically their entire lives, where they talk
about in this movie.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
They have to be more upfront about it. After the
band broke up and got back together. How they got
back together, It was all the therapy.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So I got about that.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Gotta watch Chasing Abbiness.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
But then you had Chloe Bennett in it, who I
liked and Dave.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I saw her in person one time.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I was at Walton's, which I don't know if it's
still open in Austin. It was a Sandra Bullock owned restaurant.
I was there on my twentieth birthday, having lunch with
my mom. And she was dating Austin Nichols at the time,
who was on One Tree Hill and he's from Austin,
Austin from Austin, and they were dating and they came
in and I geeked a little inside, but you know,
left him alone.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
She was really good in this.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
She was great in this.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You were like, this is a little scandalous for Disney Plus,
but I think it's a Hulu.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
At one point, she's in her braun underwear swimming yeah,
And I was like, I didn't know Disney Plus went
that far. But we couldn't get the Lizzie McGuire reboot.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
That is wild.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Make it make sense.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And now that the two have merged. It's going to
be interesting to see how they filter some of the
content because I think some of the appeal at Disney
Plus was like, it's all family friendly, right.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
But a lot of stuff that they put on Hulu
isn't and then friendly.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
I think that started whenever they got the Netflix Marvel shows,
which are really bloody and violet, and then they had
that was a big controversy and now you have people
in an underwear. It's all welcome.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
But it was a great movie. I enjoyed it. We
watched it after the parade because.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Which was great this year. The parade was so good
this year, all three hours of the Macy's dabs three
and a half, three and a half hours.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I think they said millennials because if you think about it,
millennials are the largest I was actually just reading an
academic journal about like millennials and gen.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Z and how how cringe were they we are No.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I was talking about how like millennials are the largest
group of parents now. So I was thinking along that
line of like, yeah, the kids want to watch the parade,
but they were like, how do we get the millennials?
And they said we're gonna have bust Rhymes on the
Ninja Turtles best collab of the entire Shaggy singing wasn't
me on a float? Not a single child knows about
that song. And then we're gonna get a little John
doing turned down for what on the Toys r Us
(25:02):
float with Jeffrey the Giraffe up top DJing.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I love how they were the entire time teasing the
K pop debit hunters because they knew how big that was.
That's kind of how they entice the younger audience.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Don't forget Chris Jackson from Hamilton on the Sesame Street float.
Oh yeah, I mean a great float full of bangers.
It was great, loved it, loved the parade, so then
I was in the spirit. We got new Christmas mugs
which I wouldn't allow us to use until yesterday. With
the parade, their elf mine says We're congratulations, World's best
cup of coffee, and then yours says the best way
to spread Christmas cher singing loud for all to here.
(25:34):
I can't stop buying from the Elf and Powdery Burn Club.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Best Thanksgiving in a while, I think since the last
time we went to New York and saw the parade
in person.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It was so nice. We watched the parade, we watched
the Jonas movie, then we got lunch ready, we watched
the Cowboys game. I took a little nap, and then
we went to Utopia.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Uh, back to the Jonas Brothers movie. I think why
I enjoyed it so much is that it kind of
reminded me of those dumb nineties Christmas movies that we
don't really get anymore. Yes, We're the whole thing is
them just trying to get home and now they can't
get home.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
It's every Hallmark movie. But the acting was better with
the Jonas Brothers.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
And better songs. The songs are good.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Songs were good, and I think the fact that, yeah,
they've done acting before made it. My favorite part was
the candle bit makes me laugh every time.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Glow by Joe, Glow by Joe, and.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
He's like, you're just man because you're a candle. Candle.
I didn't take off. The world wasn't ready for Wick.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
But Nick our TV show for the month, we both
watched the same thing.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Are we talking about Utopia?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
I'm doing it in the full review, but if you
want to give your thoughts on it, I'll.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Go so good. I didn't want to have to get
up to go pee.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Didn't expect that from Zutopia, did you?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I didn't. I really didn't, but I dialed in. I
was so dialed in. At one point I was like, Oh,
I should I should go the bathroom. I can't make it,
but yeah, it was great. I loved the vibe of
everyone in their post Thanksgiving comfees. Thanksgiving, there were blankets,
there were pajamas. Everyone like reclined watching Zutopia.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
That felt like a big living room, like we all
were hanging out in the same fell like a sleepover.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, TV show, we watched All.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Her Fault only TV show I watched this month on.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Peacock with Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning. It was great.
We watched like a couple episodes and then we binged
the whole thing. It's a show that but the rest
of it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's a show that hooks you. In episode one, scene
one yes, where her kid goes missing, they have to
find out where the kid is, and then it gets
crazier and crazier. It got a little bit more unbelievable
as it went along, where it takes you on all
these different turns and ups and downs and twists where
I thought it was a little bit much that it
got away from the purpose and the initial reason the
(27:35):
show started, but highly entertaining because it got to a
point that we had to just finishit, where like we
can't go another day without figuring out how this thing ends.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, without knowing what happens.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
But a little bit a little over the top right
where the drama wasn't.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
As I mean, yeah, that's any TV show though.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, but I feel like some of these dramas can
be like a little bit more like refined, like a
task or like a mayor of East Town, where can
have some similar vibes, but the acting is a little
bit stronger. Here it was a little bit more Okay,
you see what this is on Peacock.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Multiple Emmy nominated actors and actresses watch yourself.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
I know, but just because they're great actors doesn't mean
that the interaction.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
But the writing has to be good for them to
act it.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Well, maybe it was the overall story was a little
bit too over the till it's not put it on
the actress and they were just putting it on themselves.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I mean, Sarah Snook Abby Elliott coud A Fanning. Yeah,
incredible lineup overall.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I enjoyed it, but it was it kind of lost
me as it went along as far as like, how
good I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yes, there were some parts where it fell off.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
And now makes me not angry that we have Peacock
now for another year. I'm like, Okay, they can give
us another one of those. I mean, there's been some
solid shows on Peacock.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
There's that show I like when we just get so
bored at Christmas break that we just start watching random things.
We watched that one show. They did cancel it late. Yeah,
that was good.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
It was good. It was gone. Nothing gets a second
season on Peacock apparently that we like, well.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Maybe a little bit one season one hit Wonders we
can watch.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
What about your book of the Month? We're getting close
to your I know, month or year in review.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I know I was going through the other because I've
read eighty three now, so I'm over my goal of
seventy five. So it's going through and trying to pick
my top ten of the year. This month was a
bit of a sleeper month. There weren't as many good
ones I would say, the best one was one called
Heart the Lover by Lily King. Again kind of literary fiction.
(29:28):
It's about these college students and their friendship and then
later on in adulthood. It's good. I don't want to
give too much away. Starts as them like meeting each
other in class and kind of like a little love triangle,
and then them in adulthood and just life. And yeah,
it was really good.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
So probably nothing from November good to make your top
ten of the year.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
I don't think so unless I read anything really good
in the first few weeks of December, which my Book
of the Month is on the way, and that's like
one of the most anticipated of December, so I may
have to speed read that one because it might make
my list.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
All right, well, everybody has that to look forward to
next month. Anything else you got do We get to
do my book challenge again this year?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
On my birthday?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Oh yeah. That is the interesting thing about your birthday
is it's right around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I know, our bank account loves that. It's kind of
like when you're a kid and your parents are buying
your presents. You like, don't feel as bad. I mean
I did feel bad, but it's kind of like not
my problem, not being an adult. You're like, oh, that's
also my money.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I realized this year though, why I love it is
because I get to take advantage of all the sales
that are happening right now, which if you had a
birthday at any other time of the year, there wouldn't
be this many sales. It's true, and I tried to
make sure that both things get an equal amount of
attention where it's not like, here's all your Christmas presents
and then are of your birthday stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I wouldn't mind either way. It's kind of like at
this point, I just although you said you did some surprises,
I tried to like not just send you a full
list of links this year, but.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, we can do the thing where we go to
the bookstore and you have well decide on how much
time you get. You'll get more time than last time,
because it was a little bit harder than we thought.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, that was not a lot of time. Because it's
also hard when the books are like arranged by spine
because you've not seen the cover, like I'm trying to
find things.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, because the challenges was the last time was it
ninety seconds?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Ninety seconds that was not a lot.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Grab as many books as you can, and whatever you get,
you get to watch.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
That's what a list because I didn't want to just
get whatever, because I want if I don't like.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
The book or the challenge, different approach this year.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, I'm going to start game planning it. I got
about five weeks.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right, we'll come back and give my spoiler free
review of Zutopia two. Let's get into it now. A
spoiler free movie review of Zutopia two. There's nothing I
love doing more than talking about a movie meant for
kids as a thirty four year old man. But when
Utopia one came out back in twenty sixteen, that was
(31:46):
life changing for me because I believe at that time
Utopia really bridged the gap of a movie that was
appealing to kids because you have these fun animated critters
doing a lot of ridiculous things, saying a bunch of funny,
witty lines with a mess that not only kids needed
to learn, but also adults. Because at that time, I
just remember it hitting so hard and bridging this gap
(32:09):
of like this movie goes beyond just a family friendly movie.
It is teaching you about prejudice and about all these
injustices in the world and how we perceive people, and
how we can treat people differently just because how they
are perceived in society. In this case, you have animals
who are seen as predators, as being the bad guy
now in Zutopia, and there's also a lot of corruption
(32:31):
in the city. So it's teaching kids a lot of
things about how the world works without being a little
bit too much and too overwhelming, although at times Utopia
was just on the next level of like, oh man,
I can't believe they really put that in there. I
do think, however, in Zutopia too, I don't feel like
those political themes are at the forefront as much as
they were in part one. They are still there because
(32:53):
it's still talking about the big city, still talking about
the corruption and the people in power, and I just
think they leaned a little bit more into the fun
aspect of it and the dynamic between Judy Hops and
Nick Wilde and how they work together. So what Utopia
two is about. It actually takes place a week after
Utopia one, which I thought was a really interesting time
(33:16):
for this movie to take place, because not a whole
lot of time has passed. Judy Hobbs and Nick Wilde
have just completed their first case. They are now working
together because Nick is now an officer, so they are
still at the point where they need to prove themselves.
They don't want to be a one hit wonder. They
want to continue to show people that they are meant
to be together. But the problem is is Judy and
(33:38):
Nick are not really getting along where Judy really doesn't
value the things that Nick is telling her, and everything
they do as a unit, it is really what Judy
is saying and that is what they are doing. He
doesn't really have a whole lot of input. So there
is this struggle between their dynamic and they have to
learn how to work together better. And because one of
(34:01):
them is a bunny and one of them is a fox,
they almost have to prove it to a point where
it's undeniable, where all these people are telling them this
is never going to work. Neither of you should be here.
There's never been a bunny cop, there's never been a
fox cop. You guys are going to fail. That last
case that you cracked was a fluke. So they are
(34:22):
already working at a disadvantage of having to prove to
people that Okay, we can do this, we can be
good cops. We have to go so over the top
to prove it to these people, and that is going
to cause a lot of friction proving to people that
they can work together. And the message here more to
kids is how can you work with somebody and be fair?
Which I thought was an interesting concept to really play
(34:45):
out throughout this entire movie where I felt like, even
me as an adult, as somebody who has been married
now for almost five years, that was an important lesson
for me to learn because it shows you how a
dynamic like this works when you are both trying to
achieve a goal. It could just be in a marriage
trying to do things that feel fair to everybody, where
(35:05):
everybody is having their voice heard, and you were doing
things that are better for you as a unit and
not just for the one person, Not just the one
person saying Okay, this is what we do. We're gonna
do this no matter what. Even though this is what
I think is best, it has to be what both
of you think is best. Where Nick is a little
bit more relaxed, he's always cracking jokes. It probably seems
(35:25):
to others like he doesn't care as much, although he
really does. That is just all those defense mechanisms are
really coming from his trauma that he faced as a kid.
So now he is having to show like I do
care about this stuff, I just care about it differently,
and he wants his voice heard in this partnership. So
that is the big struggle throughout this movie. Can they
work together or will their differences be so great that
(35:50):
they have to hang it up. They have to say, Okay,
maybe this wasn't supposed to really happen. Everybody else was right,
and we are not supposed to be together as a team. Now,
when you talk about the comedic aspects of Zutopia two,
this is where I feel it pales in comparison to
the original, because I rewatched the original going into this one,
(36:13):
and it just has such better writing. And maybe it's
just because when that movie came out, it was a
little bit more novel when you're just opening yourself up
to Zutopia, which is this world where every animal can
coexist for the most part. But now in Zutopia two,
you have a snake that enters the picture, and there
hasn't been a snake in Zutopia for over one hundred years.
(36:33):
And they're having to crack this case while this snake
played by Kihui Kwan in the movie called Gary. The
snake comes to town causes a massive uproar, and then
Nick and Judy actually side with the snake and everybody
thinks they've gone rogue, and now they have to clear
their name and also help out their new snake friend.
So you have that same city here with all the
(36:54):
animals that you saw in part one, but because they
have to go on the run, it expands itself up
to seeing all these other animals that we haven't seen before.
That I thought that was a really fun way to
expand this world and kind of show you the different
classes inside of this world where it's almost all the cute, fun,
(37:15):
furry animals get to live in the city, and then
when you open up the city to the outskirts, where
you see probably where I would have lived as an animal,
you get to see all these more unique creatures, And
that just made it a lot of fun and showed
me that this didn't feel like a fourced sequel, that
there was actually world building in this movie, character development
(37:35):
and showing us something that we didn't see in the
original where sometimes when it comes to animated sequels, they
kind of just do the same thing over and over again,
don't really give you a whole lot more. Maybe try
to cram in some new characters in there to just
sell some more tickets to Disney World or sell some
more merch. But in this case, I felt like all
the new pieces were there for a reason. My new
(37:58):
favorite character is Zutobia two was voiced by Fortune Fimster
Nibbles maple Stick, who is a beaver and conspiracy theorist
has a podcast. That character was really funny, ended up
being a key player and also a big part of
the comedic relief. And I think when it came to
most of the laughs in Zutopia two, it came from Nibbles,
(38:19):
and that is something that I was looking a little
bit more from in this movie because Zutopia one did
it so well. Was just the writing, the clever puns.
I would say the comedy in Zutopia two came much
more from the physical things and the chases. When it
comes to what I think adults would still enjoy more
definitely Zutopia one. Zutopia two definitely leans more into creating
(38:41):
a family friendly movie for the younger kids who maybe
the first one went over their heads when they watched
it for the first time. You also had Andy Samberg
as a Lynx character, because the Lynx family is a
pretty big part of this movie as well. And then
my favorite cameo was probably Roman Reigns and Seeing Punk.
Who Seeing Punk is my favorite WWE wrestler right now.
(39:02):
They played two cops known as the Zebras. They weren't
a big part of the movie, but the times they
were kind of sprinkled in there I really enjoyed. So
I think if you have younger kids, they are going
to love this one way more than they love Part one.
I think as an adult you might be the only
one to understand some of the references to eighties movies.
There are back to the future references. At one point,
(39:22):
there's a shining reference where I thought, are they really
doing the shining right now? I thought that was really cool.
I also just love how they expanded on the world more,
including things that we have in our world, like Google,
but instead in Zootopia it's Zogle, or they have bug
light whenever they go to a bar, or their version
of Hulu. Is just kind of funny to see those
little details in there, which is something that Zutopia always
(39:45):
does really well. There might be a joke in the background,
there might be something that's a little one second throwaway,
but it allows you to think maybe somewhere in this
world that Zutopia actually exists and there are animals walking
around in full suits. I also do think it is
is worth seeing in theaters right now, mainly because with
such a big movie like this from Disney, they are
(40:06):
going to wait until the very last minute to put
it on Disney Plus, especially now around the holidays, so
you probably wouldn't see it on Disney Plus until like
mid March. And I think that is another thing that
is just really exciting to me, feeling like the holiday
season is now kicked off. A good Thanksgiving movie. We
went to a pack showing a lot of people just
(40:27):
they're really excited, laughing the entire time. That starts to
feel like, Okay, I'm ready to go into holiday mode.
If you have been kind of waiting because it is
expensive to go to the movies. I know that the
lines were long, and I saw a lot of parents
just like, oh my gosh, we're dropping so much money
right now on popcorn and snacks. If you've kind of
been waiting to pick the right movie to take the
(40:48):
entire family to, I think this is one where the
price will be worth it. Your kids will remember this
movie and you, as an adult will also enjoy it.
Because me, I had fun from beginning to end. It
was right or an hour and thirty six minutes from
the opening to the closing credits. So I do think
it is great all around. For z Utopia two, I
give it four out of five beavers. It's time to
(41:15):
head down to movie Mike Trey, Lar Paul, and it
is also time to go back to pan Am. The
Hunger Game Sunrise on the Reaping takes place twenty four
years before the events of the first Hunger Games movie
that we saw with Jennifer Lawrence. During this movie, we
(41:35):
are going to get to know and see what happened
to a young hamage. This takes place at the fiftieth
Hunger Games, which is known as the Second Quarter Qull.
What makes this Hunger Games different is they have twice
the number of tributes, so it's forty eight tributes competing
in this Hunger Games. And what I love about this
franchise is it has the ability to renew itself because
(41:59):
I know a lot of these have focused on different
points of the Hunger Games that are really impactful. Like
the first movie we saw with Jennifer Lawrence, that was
the seventy fourth. They followed up with the seventy fifth
Hunger Games. That was a big deal. When we went
back in the Ballot of Songbirds and Snakes, that was
the prequel. That movie focused on Cornelius Snow and why
he is the way that he is. Eventually became the
(42:21):
biggest villain that we had as him and Cat and
has Everdeen went back and forth against each other. But
that was focused on the tenth Hunger Games. This one
is the fifthieth. You can really do every single year
of the Hunger Games. Because how these movies work is
Sudanne Collins, the author and creator of this series, writes
a book, they turn it into a movie. She could
(42:41):
focus on all these different time periods that are significant.
I would like to go back to the very first
Hunger Games. What was that like? How did that impact
all these citizens of all these different districts. So it
has the ability to renew itself because you can get
to a point where you don't have to focus on
the same characters, even though I think the reason I
am so excited about this one is because we start
(43:03):
to see some connections with the characters that we know
from those original movies. But what I love the most
about this trailer is it looks so much different than
everything we've seen before. It's brighter, it is more colorful.
In this book, which I haven't read, which I read
all the original series, that is one that I can
say I read the books before seeing all those movies.
(43:26):
But the way in the books the arena is described,
It's called a poison paradise, And that's the vibe I
get from this trailer. It reminded me of one of
my favorite horror movies that I can't recommend anybody because
a lot of people hate this movie, but Midsummer it
reminds me of Florence Pew's Crown of Flowers and that
cult like vibe surrounding people. And I love that juxtaposition
(43:49):
of you see this beautiful hillside, all this green grass
and these bright and colorful flowers, but then you see
these forty eight tributes who are all about to run
into the middle to grab all these things to kill
each other with. So I love seeing the contrast of
a beautiful landscape with something so tragic and horrific happening.
(44:09):
But what this movie is about, Like I said, it
follows young Hamich Abernathy after he has chosen. Joseph Zada
is playing Hamige. The movie also features Ray Fines, Whitney Peak, McKenna, Grace,
Jesse Plemons. I was so excited to see Jesse Plemons
in this trailer, Maya Hawk, Lily Taylor, ben Wan and Moore.
(44:30):
It is directed by Francis Lawrence. Before I get into more,
here's just a little bit of the Hunger Game sunrise
on the Reaping trailer Welcome then in Reek of District twelve.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Twice the number of tributes, twice the glory. It's time.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
For the second quarter. Quare's fidgeting in. This movie is
directed by Francis Lawrence, who also did the Last Songbirds
and Snakes. But not only that, he did every Hunger
(45:20):
Games movie from Catching Fire to Mocking j Part two,
so pretty much every Hunger Games movie except for the
first one. Earlier this year. He also did the Stephen
King adaptation The Long Walk, which is why I see
a couple of actors from that movie also being featured
in this, So Francis Lawrence is somebody who knows how
to make these movies interesting and how to make them
(45:43):
work because he has a great track record with all
of these, which to me, there really isn't a bad
Hunger Games movie. Do I wish they wouldn't have split
mocking Jay into Part one and part two? Yes, but
that is something that I will just scream from the
hilltops until I lose my voice that I hate it
when one story gets split into two movies. But aside
(46:06):
from that, in that franchise, there is not a bad movie.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Steaks is pretty forgettable, but
still wasn't a bad movie. It really kicked up in
the third act of that, but I just don't think
for me the story was strong enough, and I just
didn't think that Presidents Now was that interesting a character.
(46:26):
I think my theory earlier that I was talking about
of this being such a renewable franchise. It has this
different color grading that makes it a little bit more cinematic.
From the opening of the trailer that feels the most
familiar at the reaping that to me looks the exact
same way it has looked every time, but it's once
you open it up to this world wherever the games
(46:49):
actually take place, that I think you could make every
single Hunger Games installment feel completely different and almost like
it's in an entirely different genre. So that is why
this franchise is exciting to me. And I love that
this one looks nothing like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,
which really just looked like the previous films. So I
(47:11):
think if this works and they can make something that
feels different but also feels connected to the original movies,
that could be great. Otherwise, you just have to make
it completely separate and not connect it with any other
characters that we know. And maybe even though these books
came before it, but I kind of get Squid Game
(47:33):
vibes even in some of the sound effects used in
the trailer, where that show kind of has a similar
concept of the Hunger Games people competing to win a
big prize to be the one remaining victor. Maybe the
way you go next level is take away that PG
thirteen rating, even though I know they would never do this,
(47:55):
and even in the books, it doesn't describe all of
the blood and mayhem and great detail it's not really
as focused on it depicting these things in such a
disgusting and bloody way. That's really not the point and
the overall story and the message of these movies. It's
more about reminding you who is really the bad guy here,
(48:18):
how the powers that be are always the ones watching,
and those are the people who are always going to
end up winning, and all the people who played the games.
Whether you are crowned the victor at the end of
the Hunger Games, you are still a loser because they
are just putting all these pieces where they want them
and operating things in a way that the Capitol always wins.
(48:40):
But maybe with the success of Hunger Games and making
something a little bit darker when it comes to how
these games are played, maybe they drew some inspiration from that.
And maybe I'm only basing that a little bit on
a sound effect that you hear in this trailer that
kind of sounds like the Squid Game theme. I think
the cast looks fantastic in this. Ben Wing I remember
(49:01):
from The Long Walk. He is one of the tributes
from District twelve. He was also in the Karate Kid movie.
Most recently. Jesse Plemons is a cameraman for the Hunger Games.
Ray Fines plays President Snow in this movie, Karen Colkin
plays Caesar Flickerman. El Fanning is Effie Trinkett, who is
(49:21):
the stylist. El Fanning is just crushing it right now.
We also have a couple of NEPO babies in the cast,
with Iris Apatow who is Judd Apatow's daughter and Maya
Hawk who is both Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman's daughter.
Maya Hawk is playing Virus. Iris Apatow is playing a
character named Prospera Trinkett who is Effie's younger sister. We
(49:44):
are also getting younger versions of BT and Mags in
this movie, so we are seeing some of the characters
that we get to see later in the original Hunger
Games movies. And why I think this has potential to
be great and give us one of the best post
credit scenes of all time in the Hunger Games franchise
(50:06):
is because in the book, there is an epilogue that
takes place after the events of the original trilogy that
ended the entire Hunger Games series, and it features Hamich
who is reflecting on his past and his promise to
Leonor Dove and This scene also includes Catnus Everdeen and
Peter Malark, who were now his support system and the
(50:30):
only thing that I'm kind of holding on to, which
Josh Hutcherson is out right now doing press. For five
Nights at Freddy's, he was asked about if he would
ever return to the Hunger Games, and he said, in
twenty fifteen, he walked away and was like, I'm not
doing any more Hunger Games movies. Those movies elevated me
to a level of fame that I didn't really want.
(50:52):
It took away his privacy. So at that time, when
he was done with Hunger Games, he would have said, no,
there's no way I'm going back to do a movie.
And it also didn't really make sense now over a
decade later, which is wild because they ended in twenty
fifteen twenty twenty five. This one's coming out in twenty six,
so it'd be eleven years. He said he would be
open to it, and I think him saying that is
(51:14):
indication to me that maybe he I don't want to
fully say that he's not in it because I've been
tricked in the past, and I think if he were
in it, he wouldn't have said as much as he did,
but I'm holding on to hope that secretly him Woody
Harrelson and Jennifer Lawrence. This is only a rumor, but
(51:35):
some people are saying maybe early next year, in twenty
twenty six, they get a couple of days and they
go film a scene for this. Again, this is totally
just a rumor, but if you think about the director here,
Francis Lawrence, who basically did every Hunger Games movie. He
also did a movie with Jennifer Lawrence post Hunger Games
called Red Sparrow. So they have a great working relationship.
(51:59):
That is a big deal when it comes to trying
to get your star to come back to a franchise,
and it's more likely than she comes back to do this,
and really it wouldn't take that long. It's not like
they're asking her to come back and compete again and
run the Gamut, go back to the Hunger Games because
that story just doesn't exist yet. But to come back
(52:19):
for this cameo, I think would be amazing. And aside
from Josh talking about it in an interview, also at
the end of this trailer, I'm pretty sure this is
Woody Harrelson's voice saying this line, and I think these
games are going to be different. He's in the trailer.
They're queueing us up for it. Can you imagine the
pop in the theater of seeing catness again on screen.
(52:41):
That would be a great way to take in a
November movie. That's all I'm saying. But again, Hunger Games
Sunrise on the Reaping is coming out next year on
November twentieth, and hopefully we see the return of Catnus Eberdeen.
She's said that balls this week's edition of Movie Frame
or Bar, and that is gonna do it for another
(53:03):
episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I
got to give my listeners shout out of the week.
This week, I'm going over to YouTube. You can follow
me over there and subscribe YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro.
Not only do I post my individual movie reviews there,
but I also post all my interviews from the show.
(53:24):
So if maybe you miss one you just want to
go see me talk with the guests, you can go
check out all the individual movie reviews, and every now
and then an old interview will just pop off for
some reason, so I always go back and make sure
I check the comments on those. So this week's listener
shout out actually comes from my interview that I did
with the director of Weapons, Zach Kreiger, and this week's
(53:44):
listener shout out goes to Daniel twenty three Underscore, who
simply said, great interview. Man, Bless you. That's the best
compliment you can give me, because I think if there's
one thing that I'm the least comfortable with, it is interviews.
Don't do a whole lot of them. I have to
really love the project or be a fan of the person,
(54:05):
and in that case, it checked both of those boxes
because I loved Weapons, and I also think Zach Craigor
is somebody that I would just hang out with and enjoy.
So thank you, Daniel. It's comments like that they make
me not quit doing this whole thing. So appreciate you
for watching over there on YouTube. Appreciate you now wherever
you are listening with earbuds in the car, at the gym,
(54:26):
or you're like the person who emailed me the other
day saying that they got forced to listen to this
podcast with their partner. And I'm not sure if I
should feel insulted by that. I don't want to be
the podcast that you are forced to listen to, but
still anyway you'll listen. It's all good to me, so
thank you for being here. And until next time, go
out and watch good movies and I will talk to
(54:47):
you later
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