Atomic Blonde (2017) with Laurie Calcaterra

On this episode of Movie Smash!, we discuss 2017's Atomic Blonde directed by David Leitch and starring Charlize Theron, James McAvoy and John Goodman. The film an MI6 spent sent to Berlin during the Cold War to find the identity of a double agent selling the names of undercover agents.

Hosts: Christopher Roberts, Fergel Amayo, Jeremy Parmentier

Guest Host: Laurie Calcaterra

Edited By: Christopher Roberts

Produced By: Off Panel Creations, LLC

Laurie Calcaterra Website | Kickstarter | Instagram | Facebook

Follow the show! Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Christopher Roberts and Off Panel Creations: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Fergel Amayo and Gotham Night Comics: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Jeremy Parmentier and Retrovania: Website | Instagram | Facebook

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Of all the movies that had me come back on Thurgle, this is probably the one.

(00:03):
It would have gotten David Hasselhoff to do a walkthrough.
I'm always like, I don't know, it's about spies. Back to you, Chris.
I wonder if I can still feel this joy in my chest.
Oh, well that's nice. I expected a full gut punch out of that.
Welcome to the show.
Hello and welcome to MovieSmash.

(00:30):
Hello and welcome to MovieSmash, the show where we dive headfirst into comic book movies outside the MCU.
If you're new to the show, thanks for joining us.
If you've been here before, you know the drill.
Each episode we're going to smash a movie who sourced materials from a graphic novel or a comic.
Is it worth revisiting? Should it be forgotten?
Let's find out. This is MovieSmash.
I'm one of your hosts, Chris Roberts. I'm the founder of All Panel Creations.
With me today, I have Jeremy Parmiter.

(00:51):
Hi, I'm Jeremy Parmiter. I'm also a double agent on the Retrovaniacs podcast.
And I'm very excited that Thurgle is here as well.
I am Thurgle of Mayo. Apparently I am unkillable.
I mean, I just, I'm going to leave that.
Somehow I have inherited John Wick's talents and perhaps Charlie Stazan as well.
I'm a triple agent of chaos. I'm that guy that follows behind you in all states.

(01:14):
State Farm. Have it.
So I am glad to be here and talking about this movie.
And we have a guest host with us today, Lori Calcatera, writer of The Path of the Pale Rider.
Yes, that's me. I'm Lori Calcatera.
I am what Christopher said.
I am the writer creator of a Western Apocalypse comic book series called Path of the Pale Rider.

(01:35):
It's the coolest zombie apocalypse you have not read.
And we got to check us out. We have zombie ethics and giant undead bears.
What's not to like?
I just get it just for the bears.
I know. Like seriously, Big James, our undead bear is everybody's fan favorite.
We have like Big James merch.

(01:57):
I've been seeing that too.
Lori Calcatera, by the way, is a dear friend of mine and amazing.
So you need to check her story out.
With Cocaine Bear coming out this year, bears are hot right now.
Actually, we were dropping issue number three with this beautiful yellow, red and black cover with Big James on it.
And it dropped the same Friday that Cocaine Bear hit the theater.

(02:21):
So it was perfect timing. We sold a bunch of those.
But we came first. We came first.
We were written in 2018 and first published in 2022.
So Cocaine Bear, we're the original.
Our movie tonight is not Cocaine Bear.
And it did come out before 2018.
It's 2017's Atomic Blonde starring Charlize Theron, James McAvoy and John Goodman, directed by David Leitch.

(02:45):
The subject of this debriefing, British operational officer Lorraine Bralton.
Before we begin, sir, may I formally request that Mr. Kurtz be removed?
I could stand behind the mirror with everybody else.
Asshole.
What did you say?
I didn't say anything.
I thought you said something.
What did you say?
Do you want to play the tape back?

(03:07):
I know she doesn't play by our rules.
But she's our best intelligence expert.
There's a double agent operating in Berlin.
If we don't find him before the wall falls, we could be facing World War III.

(03:30):
Remember, trust no one.
Laura, you picked this movie.
Why did you choose this one?
I'm a big fan of 8711.
For those that don't know my story, I actually started my whole journey by doing martial arts.
I was choreographing fight scenes for a production company in Detroit called Coat Tale Collective.

(03:51):
And that's how Trinity 60 started.
That was the name of my fight team.
And so when you have movies that you have a whole studio that produces movies that was started by two stuntmen, you know the action is going to be good.
There's nothing more painful to me and probably you guys too to watch a movie with fights in it where the actor clearly is miming the movements like they're not even making contact.

(04:17):
It's painful to watch and it takes me out of the movie.
So with things like John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Bullet Train, I mean, I have a whole list of them.
Let's see, Hobbs and Child, Deadpool 2, Fall Guy.
These are the movies that 8711 is producing.
I love these.
So when we were picking out movies, I picked out a few, but Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron and just the fight sequences that are put into this movie.

(04:43):
I really like to talk about them.
I would love to talk about them with you guys.
The movie itself is fabulous.
I haven't seen it in a long time.
So this was a great chance to refresh and really enjoy something that's really, I think, underrated.
I think more people should watch this one.
Yeah, and I wish this production company was around to do other movies we've seen like Daredevil.

(05:06):
I think it would take those movies to a whole new level for us.
Right. Oh gosh, can you imagine?
So this movie is based upon the comic The Coldest City.
Have any of you read this comic and what was your experience with it?
I've got it on order right now.
I actually, I apologize.
I'm not even apologizing.
I've been on MN, so I didn't get a chance.
But I do know Anthony Johnson.
This is an interesting story.

(05:28):
He was in Ninth Art, which was his firm kind of company, was all about taking graphic novels up a notch.
And he's actually, this is actually a really good story for a book.
And quite frankly, it got picked up almost immediately.
I mean, literally almost immediately.
As soon as he had this story out, it literally was picked up.
It was renamed Atomic Blind.
And if you go look at the story now, it's called The City of Atomic Blinds.

(05:51):
I mean, they just, he's got, he's a, and he's done Marvel work, which is interesting, and image work.
I didn't know it existed before today.
So, but I did my due diligence.
I was like, oh, it's a graphic novel.
And I wanted to see if they had changed much.
And apparently the story is still the story.
They only changed one of the characters in the story that was male, then became the female character, the French spy.

(06:17):
But other than that, the story is what you get.
And that's not normal.
Usually when you get an adaptation, they like to change a bunch of things and call it the same name, which pisses us all off, of course.
But it was a true adaptation of that story, which I think is great.
So when did you guys originally see this movie?
I saw it at the theaters.
2017 when it came out.

(06:38):
I'm a bit of a Charlie Sturzant fan.
I think she's, I think she's, she's a badass lady.
I'm just going to say it right now.
She's probably one of the best action stars on the scene today.
Still.
I think so.
I mean, like, and she's gotten better.
Mad Max Fury Road, Old Guard is dope.
Yes, Old Guard is dope as shit.

(06:59):
Can I just say that?
Is dope as shit.
Well, it's not the rating you gave it when you reviewed Old Guard.
That's not what you gave it when we talked about it then.
You didn't give it a dope as shit.
You gave it a much lower rating than that.
Well, the fighting was, it wasn't dope as shit, but I mean, it's still like you can, the movie itself had a lot of holes, but Charlie Sturzant, I'm telling you, this lady, I would not want to meet her in the back alley.

(07:22):
She'd kick my ass and take my wallet.
Ha ha ha ha.
Jeremy, do you get a chance to see this movie before our viewing this time?
No, of course.
Nope. Didn't see it yet.
I'm going to wing it.
No, I had not seen this before, and I didn't know it was based on a graphic novel.
I did try to go buy it, and I couldn't find it near me, so I could buy it online, but I did read, they have like a free preview up of like the first eight or nine pages if you actually go to the artist's website or the author's website.

(07:49):
So I did read the like the very beginning.
It does seem like it follows what this movie does start, although it does make the kind of, I think, an interesting choice of character change for Percival, at least in the first eight or nine pages when they were first introduced to Percival.
He seems much more like an older, more kind of stodgy spy as opposed to the character he is in this movie, but the rest of it did feel very similar.

(08:14):
It was definitely the same setting.
I'm looking forward to reading the graphic novel or I finally get around to it.
So yeah, I saw the movie this week, and therefore it's new to me.
For me personally, when this came out, I wanted to go see it.
I used to live in West Germany for years, so a movie set in that time period, I was like, I've got to see this.
I love that silent music.

(08:35):
It reminded me of my time there, and I wanted this movie, but I missed it.
I wasn't around, I wasn't able to go see it.
Man, 99 Tough Balloons you missed out on in the theater.
What I meant by that was then I went out and I bought the steelbook of it sometime a couple years ago, and it's been sitting on my shelf until late last year when I finally got around to watch this movie.

(08:56):
And I will get into it with my thoughts on it, but yeah, I left Germany around, I think it was 86.
Fallen Berlin Wall was definitely years after I left it.
I love things set in Cold War Germany just because it's like looking at your old hometown.
Fergal, since you're back, why don't we have you do it?

(09:18):
Do you have any background on this comic book for us?
Again, just going back, it was written in 2012 by Anthony Johnson, a guy who's kind of an English-born comic graphic novel adaptation guy.
Fun fact about him, he did Alex Rider.
He converted that incredibly popular Alex Rider story to comics, done probably one of the coolest Marvel stories, Wolverine, Prodigal Son.

(09:41):
And this book just was one of his, you know, in his style.
He won a lot of awards for kind of taking characters and making actual original work.
So this is original work by this guy.
So that's kind of the story behind him and the story and his love of it and his process.
And he had another book called Coldest Winter, which is the after story of this.
So if this is your first time joining us, just quick heads up.

(10:03):
We're going to be discussing the plot of this movie, maybe discussing some elements of the story that might be considered a spoiler, so consider yourself warned.
I mean, we came out in 2017, so you would be surprised by some of the comments we get saying people we spoiled movies that have been out for 15 years.
We're very, very upset about our Superman review from 1978.

(10:24):
Catch up.
Laurie, since you picked this movie, why don't you run us through the plot of it?
Just a quick synopsis.
I wrote it down.
I made it like super snazzy.
All right.
So this is the atomic wand, and I'm just going to give like a brief overview is like John Wick meets the usual suspects with spies set in Cold War Berlin while the wall is actually falling.

(10:47):
This by action drama by 8711 is full of its star studded with this Charlize Theron and James McAvoy kicking the shit out of everything and everybody as they try to figure out who is the double agent plot twist will just leave you wondering if anything that you saw
was actually true.
Nine out of 10 stars.
That's a great synopsis.
Jeremy, she has a much better job than you.

(11:09):
I was like, I don't know.
It's about spies.
Back to you.
No, your synopsis are at like one sentence or like seven pages.
Okay, look, I made a mistake twice where I did like a full synopsis plot.
You're like, what are you doing?
So now they're all a sentence to two sentences.

(11:30):
Charlize kicks ass and just ends the ass kicking and doesn't stop and then it turns out she's got asked to kick in other directions.
You don't see that.
Kicking doesn't stop.
But what I love about it is it's a retelling because it starts the movie starts 10 days after all the action.
And our Lorraine is sitting in a room retelling the story to these two basically the head of her superior MI6 and someone from CIA.

(12:00):
Right. And she's retelling the story.
So you're getting her version of it.
And so by the time you get to the end, after all the twists have come out, you're like, did anything she say actually happen?
Yeah, she is definitely an untrusting narrator in this movie.
I want to start with Lorraine Charlize Theron.
What do you guys think of that character?
I thought she was dope. I thought she had she played it.

(12:22):
So that's I think that's what makes again.
There are movies that she's in that aren't great.
Oh, God. Great movie had some efforts need to be fixed in.
But when you look at her in almost every movie she's in, she plays a character extremely well.
She dedicates to the craft.
So in this movie, she dedicated like she didn't she wasn't a person who didn't look like she got her ass.
But but that she kicked everyone's ass and it just felt like she had a level of like when you called her in, that was the end of the road.

(12:48):
That's the whole story. Like when you call like she was the nobody.
She was the auditor. When she came to the table, you were pretty much not walking out.
And who they put her against is I mean, they kept getting bigger.
The guys kept getting bigger and she kept kicking their ass over and over again.
What I don't like to see in action movies is women fighting like men.

(13:09):
We can't punch you out with one punch. We're not going to.
We're smaller than you. We don't have enough muscle mass.
She was using flexible weapons. She was using her body weight.
She was she was smart about it.
And that's how a woman would fight in that situation against multiple opponents and larger opponents.
And some guys whooped her butt in the beginning and she had to like reprocess like, OK, that's not going to work.

(13:32):
That giant blonde guy kicked her ass three times before she finally put him out of his misery.
I was just like, not this guy again.
But yeah, it was pretty accurate with the fighting style.
And again, that's 8711 knowing, you know, like how a woman, an unarmed woman would try to fight these thugs.

(13:53):
And it's accurate. It's really good. But yeah, she kicks ass.
She does. Everyone knows I love Charlize Theron in a movie, especially an action movie.
She always brings the table. She studies.
I think for this role, she studied six months of martial arts with that team to prepare herself for the for the role.
In fact, you mentioned how the script got picked up immediately or at least the rights got picked up immediately.

(14:15):
She was the one who picked them up.
The one thing I love about Charlize Theron is that most her movies are from her own production company.
She doesn't look for work. She makes work.
She creates these roles for people she knows and no jobs for them.
And she went out and got this this this the screen rights for this.
And the reason that they got the the team to make this movie was because they showed her just basically like some storyboards.

(14:39):
But it was it was a scene where she's coming out of the bathtub.
That was the storyboard they showed her.
And that's what sold her on the idea of their version of the events.
Charlize beat up to shit.
Yes. I was looking for a way to lighten up a cigarette.
Like there's no problem. Like there's no problem.
Like she's just that's what blew me away.

(15:00):
She got out of that like me. I'm trying to get this on the moon somewhere.
And she just rolls up out and lights up a smoke.
She's ready to go back to town again.
Well, I actually looked at the storyboards for it. It was crazy.
They actually wrote on there, not bubble bath ice.
Just make sure they got it across that this is not.
Now, she is not the type of person like a hot bubble bath sipping her tea.
Like she has been beaten up. She's just got a black eye.

(15:22):
So there's originally supposed to be I guess she had a prostitute or lover over the evening.
But they got rid of all that to show that she is all business.
That she's not in England to have fun.
She's there because she has to go debrief and that's it.
Another thing I learned about her training.
So John Wick came out in what?
John Wick 2, the second one, came out February 10th, 2017.

(15:46):
And Atomic Blonde came out July 28th, 2017.
Keanu Reeves and Charlie Sarah were training together by the same stunt guys.
Because the same stunt guys do both of those movies.
And so they were training together for these.
So you can see some of it in their moves.
That was Chad Stelecki and Kim McCormick that were training both of them at the same time.

(16:09):
Say again?
That was Chad Stelecki and Kim McCormick, the two people from 8711.
They were doing both their training at the same time.
That's dope.
That dude is just, I wouldn't want to mess with him either.
I think it was a six week crossover where the training coincided with one another.
She is basically the female Keanu Reeves or Keanu is the male Charlie Sarah.

(16:30):
We want to look at that.
Yeah, their characters are pretty similar.
Their fighting style was similar.
They both used Jiu Jitsu and Aikido.
You could see it in the throws.
And then they're both weapon experts picking up anything, weapon of opportunity.
But their gun handling skills were both spot on.
I really enjoyed that one scene where she comes out the window and she puts the scarf up.

(16:54):
And then they do that.
That was all her.
And I was like, oh, it's a stunt double until she took the scarf back down and it's still Charlize Theron.
And I'm like, oh, OK.
All right.
So why don't we change gears?
I think we do a love fest for Charlize for a while.
But how did how did James McAvoy do for Percival?
Well, Jeremy said that best, right?

(17:16):
I'd let him say I mean, you thought he was going to be the old guy.
You know, when you look at the plot line, he was supposed to be an MI6 chasing station chief.
So it didn't for me initially off the get go, it didn't fit with what the storyline said.
It's a station chief.
How can a guy who's a station chief be as young as a James McAvoy?
And it wasn't as as outlandish.
You didn't have the partying scene and stuff at the beginning.

(17:37):
It was like he meets her and it's very much like you're meeting a supervisor.
Right. It's it's he picks her up.
He's like, I'll make sure on the city or whatever.
But there's none of this like, oh, yeah, you know, you see him at the party and then he shows up and he's clearly hung over or whatever.
Like none of that's the character that you see, at least again in the preview panels that are available for the book.
So maybe that there's a drastic change, you know, after that happens in there.

(17:59):
But I'll be excited to see that said, I had read that after I watched the movie.
So I really liked this character.
At first, I thought it was clearly supposed to be, you know, oh, yeah, you figure he's probably the guy you're looking for the whole time.
He's probably the bad guy ultimately in this movie. Right.
He seems like he's he's got some of those going on.
But again, because it's her narrative that could have been on purpose, you don't really know.
So I think he did a great job. I really enjoyed that character.

(18:22):
But now I'm interested to see like how different the main, you know, the character is in the graphic novel later.
Yeah, I love this take of it.
It was like an especially had that sort of that club at the very beginning.
Well, the the various the Berlin youth, if you would, you know, going out and doing various crimes for him or picking things up.
And he was buying them off with was a Jordache jeans and a bottle of whiskey.

(18:44):
Yeah, he's like, want a pair of jeans? I wonder if I can still fit into some Jordache.
I don't know if I could figure out where Jordache even exists today, but I'm not.
That's it. The wheels are turning. The wheels are turning.

(19:05):
Oh, you better not. I do love his style, though.
That was very Germany at the time. Yeah, like punk rock.
It was. The whole movie was Germany. And that's I think that's the whole problem.
I don't know. You're the one that lived there, Chris.
But I as I imagine East and West Berlin, like and I think about what that looked like.
I feel like just before that whole thing went sideways and it all came down, it had to be just like that.

(19:30):
Super punk, super like London back in the 70s or 80s, like culture, culture and all kind of crazy shit going on at that time.
So how about let's switch to Emmett and Kurtzfield? His name is basically a good man character.
I like that character, too, because he had that kind of, you know, oh, he's an American.
So he's a little crude almost like he's not gross, but he's just not as formal sounding as the MI6 agent that's there.

(19:54):
And I like that, again, I don't want to give away too much. I like the role he plays in the movie.
Well, I will get to it at some point, but we're half an hour in. You want to do it.
But I like that he plays more role than you think.
So even when he's in the interview, you can't I had no idea of the flip that was coming towards the end of this movie because he did such a good job in the role he had.

(20:16):
That's that's John Goodman right there. I thought he just killed that role.
I played a complete spot on, whereas the other guy was trying to get everything out. This guy was just acting exactly.
He knew he sort of seemed like he knew what was going on. He knew more than he was letting on.
But you got to see the moment that the two of them, Charlize and John Goodman, are standing in front of that parking lot or sorry, no man's land, which is actually a parking lot.

(20:38):
They converted into that. Yeah.
That scene, you've got to say to yourself, OK, something else is going on.
Why is he there? Right. Why is there?
They're like, we sent you a message. Why is he there?
You know what I mean? Like there was no sense. It didn't make sense for him.
I was like, am I six should have sent the message? Why did he?

(20:59):
Why was he there? But that was kind of like their cover, I bet.
So, again, you're getting there. Her retelling of he was there to give her the message.
He could have been there for any reason. And I don't know how many times you've watched that interrogation scene.
John Goodman is like, is he buying it? Is he buying it? He's shifting his eyes looking at him like, I don't know if he's buying it.

(21:20):
Like he's trying to read Toby to see if he's still on board with the story she's telling him.
So when you watch it the second time, you're like, oh, oh, there it is.
I'm glad you said that the first time I watched it, I thought that that was a potential plot hole.
I was like, why is this guy in Berlin? This makes no sense. I mean, it's the danger zone. Right.
Why is this head of the high up and see out in the open with this spy? This makes no sense.

(21:43):
Watch it the second time. You're like, yeah, it makes complete sense. Why is there?
It makes complete sense why they're interacting, why she's bringing it up the way she's bringing it up in that story.
I think she was trying to tell him that's the whole purpose to try and make sure that story got through because ultimately they knew exactly where they were going with that thing.
And by the way, you guys, if you want to see this in another movie, watch 22 Mile. That was a great movie that had a triple twist in the end as well.

(22:06):
22 Mile. 22 Mile. That was a yeah.
Yeah. Dope movie. There's supposed to be good martial arts in that too. Yes. Tony John.
Equo Ewas butchering his name. I butcher everybody's names too.
You can take that role from me. You're allowed to. No one's as good as it is, Chris. He's real good.
We'll just flag it back and forth. Chris, your turn next.

(22:30):
Okay. Well, speaking of butchering names for the character Delphine, which was a gender swap for this movie, Sophia, not going to say her last name, played that role.
How do you guys feel her character was, especially when they interacted with Charlize?
Well, there was some good sex scenes. I mean, this is Taylor Mendes. Can I add that to it?

(22:52):
She was quite sensual through that process. And I believe that if she was portraying an algo any which way to make a situation work, she did extremely well in that process.
And Sophie Boutella held her own a little bit.
So I got to say, of all the movies that have you come back on Thurgle, this is probably the one.
I kept it for you, Lauren. I wanted to make sure. Were you rewinding Watch Again?

(23:19):
No, he says on repeat. There's no rewinding.
He didn't even watch the rest of the movie. That's all he watched.
What color was that? Oh, red launcher. Let's try it again.
He thought that was a twist. That was a twist. That was certainly a twist.
They were twisting. There was some twisting going on.
Wow. I feel actually might be getting a little red. It might be out of the doubt.

(23:47):
That scene with Charlize and Sophia, like just in general, that you write for her.
You think like James Bond is your traditional spy movie. James Bond would not have done that.
Meaning like, you know, go for someone of the same sex. I couldn't imagine James Bond doing that for a mission.
He's doing it in the movie Queer. It's not for a mission, but he's doing it in the movie Queer.
Just thought I'd share you that process. It's going to make a lot of people go crazy. But look for Daniel Craig.

(24:14):
That's a reference I was not expecting.
I thought you totally derailed my train of thought. I was going to say something and it was smart and poignant and it's gone.
Welcome. Welcome to Movie Smash. Welcome to the show. Aren't you glad I'm back?
Oh, I forget to bring up Fergal that we are allowing you back. Did you learn your lesson about David Bowie and Ludacris?

(24:41):
Oh my God. Listen, I'm going to say it right now. David Bowie is an amazing actor with a wide range of capability.
However, he is not Tej. This is your last episode.
If your concern is, would David Bowie be good in Fast and Furious? No, probably not. I would say that's a good choice.

(25:03):
You don't want him in there, but Ludacris otherwise, that's a ridiculous statement that you've made previously and it stands still.
And just so you know, Fergal, I bring that up for actually a very good reason.
The English, the MI6 agent in the Interrogation Room was going to be David Bowie.
They tried. He passed away a few weeks after. Oh my God, that would have been dope.

(25:25):
Now again, I'm going to say David Bowie, amazing, completely versatile actor. And when you see him walk upside down with the ball in his hand, he's just phenomenal.
And his music's in this movie. It is.
He was going to do that in this movie. Did you know? Wow.
Yes, his stand there interrogating or spinning a ball through his fingers.
Tej, Ludacris would have not fit in in 1986 or whatever, Berlin. He would have not fit in.

(25:50):
No. And I'm going to say that loud.
He should have gotten David Hasselhoff to do a walkthrough.
So it's funny, they did have the David Hasselhoff joke in there. Yeah, they did. They should have just started like, I'm busy.
The studio actually wanted them to remove that joke. They didn't think it was funny.
It was hilarious. It was hilarious that David Hasselhoff for any reference is always a good joke.

(26:14):
Yeah, the character I do want to touch on though is the watchmaker.
Did you notice how he played a very large part through the whole movie, but he's barely speaks?
Yes. Now, I wanted to talk about how there are parallels between Atomic Blonde, John Wick and The Matrix.
Because again, Chad Stalsky, one of the guys from 8711 was Keanu Reeves stunt man for most of the Matrix movies.

(26:40):
So the watchman and the key maker are very similar.
They had a fight scene in Atomic Blonde where she was in front of the movie screen and it was raining.
Remember in the last Matrix when they were fighting in the rain the whole time?
And then the subway station. I was like, is that the subway station from The Matrix?
The first one when they had the fight and then the train man had Keanu Reeves stuck at the subway station for a long time.

(27:08):
So there's just I see all these parallels.
And then, of course, like Bill Skarsgard is in Atomic Blonde and he's also in John Wick as the kid, right?
He's the main kid that shoots the damn dog.
So it's just like you're trying to I see all these parallels because it's 8711.
But the watchmaker was such an interesting guy.
I like how he shows up at the very, very end and at the second or third movie.

(27:31):
He shows up. So who was he really?
Was he in it the whole time? He was he was a CIA operative.
His job supposedly from the director's commentary is he was basically he would sell information.
Remember how there's satchel, satchel.
He had the coats inside the watches. He made those specialty watches.
He was trying to get the watch. He was CIA.
How did you gather? How did you intel that with CIA?

(27:54):
Not until the end. Big spoiler for the people who are listening.
Charlize Theron is satchel. Oh, I know that she's one is trying to hunt.
But nonetheless, so if you know, satchel was in trouble because that was selling MI6 operatives, the names of those operatives to the Russians.
Yeah, which means a CIA was selling those names to the Russians and she was doing it through the watchmaker,

(28:16):
which is why the watchmaker is with her even when she later in the movie when she's in that car.
Yeah, when she's leaving to go get on the plane, he was like, you know, take care of yourself.
I forget what he says exactly, but he's there and I'm like, what is he doing there?
And so then it's just like, oh, so he was trying to get his hands on it, too.
But that the list never got to him. That Russian guy didn't take the watch off.

(28:37):
Remember, he was like, show me the goods. And he was like, I don't think so.
And then he got stabbed in the forehead and died. The end.
The end. A good way to go, right?
Lobotomized.
So we've touched on a lot of the scenes of this movie.
And I think action actually way back up. There's one other character I do want to discuss.
And I think that character is the soundtrack of this movie.

(29:00):
Yes, because it is a character of this movie.
Well, it's supposed to transport you back to the time when the Berlin Wall was falling.
I mean, that was the whole that's the figure.
There it is right there, which is kicking everybody's ass.
Early on, when they would switch from Western East Germany, it would switch to German.
Yes, the songs would, which I thought was pretty neat.

(29:22):
I mean, they didn't keep that going for the whole movie, but they did early on 100 percent.
And it was really a neat like one song switch.
Oh, not in Leopold's, I think.
Or one of them switched like midstream immediately to the German version, which I mean, that's pretty cool.
So and in general, I love those songs. So but not they fit.
It wasn't like it pulled me out of the movie. It wasn't like all of a sudden it's like, oh, man,
this is a great Metallica song for no reason in there. Right.

(29:43):
All these songs make sense for the time.
They were very much especially with the ability to switch to German.
It was perfect fitting for this movie.
But also, I won't admit I wasn't humming along like I had to on some of those.
It's funny you say that during the director's commentary, the director and the editor,
the editor were doing the commentary for it.
And she had to remind the director not to sing along with the songs while the movie was playing.

(30:07):
And they actually when they were filming these scenes, they played the music on set
so they could work to the beats.
So like when Charlize Theron's walking down the streets of England, she's walking through that music.
The background is playing. So her footfalls are on the notes.
If you watch it as well as the fight scenes when it's happening, the punches are on the notes.
Right. They're doing that to choreograph with the music that's playing for that time as well.

(30:29):
So they played all that music.
That's 8711 right there. I just by the way, I've been looking up what they did.
I mean, Day Shift, the vampire movie, nobody. I didn't realize the scope of what they were putting together.
That's some of the best fighting in all movies today.
That's just some of the best, the most realistic fighting in all movies today.

(30:51):
So speaking of fighting, let's go back to the plot.
I forgot the music.
So the music was not only fitting for the time period of what was popular in the late 80s,
but it was also telling you stuff that was happening in the movie.
Like when they were trying to get Spyglass out and he got shot and they just had the big fight in the apartment.

(31:12):
They're in the car, right? It starts playing.
And I ran, I ran so far away.
Like it's telling you about the story.
The fact that it was like, I will be your father figure.
She's like, I'm your daddy.
That would have been the Sophie Battelle scene, I'm assuming, correct?
No, that was when she was kicking all their butts in the apartment.
Oh, oh yeah.

(31:34):
That was before they were trying to get Spyglass out.
She went to raid.
I think it was the first guy that died.
She went up the entire stairs and kicked her ass and came out the window like she was ready to go with somebody else.
That shit was dope as hell.
Yeah, but that's where they were playing George Michael.
I will be your father figure.
She's like, I'm your daddy.
I'm going to own you right now.

(31:55):
So if you read into the lyrics of what was going on,
even when James McAvoy was killing the French agent Sophia,
it was like voices carry, hush now.
And he choked her.
He suffocated her to death.
You see what I mean?
So it's like there's so much thought that went into this movie.
It's incredible.

(32:16):
He was like, the songs are good, but they're telling you something too.
I will shut up.
No, no problem.
The only problem is that those songs, I think they all came out except for one in 83.
Oh, really?
Yeah, and Berlin was a hit place.
Well, West Berlin was, so they wouldn't play music that was no more timely,
no more new, but that's just a little thing.
They actually bring that up in the director's commentary too.

(32:39):
He's like, the music just fit it better.
I need to watch the director's commentary now.
It's worth it.
It's worth it.
You got to buy the steel book though, Lori.
You got to buy the steel book.
It's just done.
I will buy it.
Take my money.
We've talked about action scenes and that's really what this, the majority of this movie is.
What was your favorite action scene?

(33:00):
The apartment.
I thought the apartment, I thought when she came in, that was probably, the water scene was cool.
Which one though?
The one where she jumped out the window when she was.
The first one.
Yes, yes.
When she jumped out, she took people coming up the stairs.
You got to apologize.
I apologize.
I just saw most of this today, so I have had an opportunity to catch up with it.
The stuff's going on.
I got work going on in a second.

(33:21):
But when she kicked all the asses and she came out the window, that was the dopest scene ever.
I rewatched it and it was just, it's cool to watch.
She knows, she's, whoever, again, the team that taught her, she picked up.
She picked up like John Wick.
She picked up like Keanu Reeves.
She really knows what the hell she's doing.
See, I think the other apartment scene where she's trying to escape with Spyglass and they have to run to the apartment.

(33:43):
That's where she's, I guess the hardest fight, right?
The longest fight solo, one on one.
Those are great.
That's a great set of fight scenes because it's, everyone's taking damage, right?
So it's, you're watching both of them get very hurt and try to figure out how to like still keep things moving.
And meanwhile, you have this guy in the background like constantly bandaging himself up because he's bleeding out because he was shot earlier.
Like it's a good, tense fighting scene.

(34:05):
And that fighting scene, you're the one bringing it up.
That's what it feels like as like a single take.
That's what it feels like.
The one that in that last fight.
And now it isn't a single take.
It's actually, Laura, you and I were talking about this earlier.
It's 40 shots all stitched together to look like a single shot.
And they pulled it off by, anytime it zooms in on a weapon or on someone's back is being flipped over, they do a blur shot at that point so they can mesh the two shots together to get us a single shot.

(34:29):
And the thing was the director, he had been envisioning that shot or that style of action for years and just had no place to put it.
And his wife, who is one of the producers of the movie, she's like the creative leader, somebody said, you're going to do it, do it now. Like just try it.
And the thing is they were worried about the budget.
So he had, I think, two attempts at it.
That's like the only amount of money you had to do to pull it off.

(34:51):
They said, if it doesn't work, you can stitch it together however you want.
It's always the wife that has the smart ideas.
Look, I'm married.
Laura's met my wife here.
She knows who the smart one is.
That's right, sir.
For me, I love that tunnel scene where she gets off the plane.
Yeah.
She's in there and she beats the guy to death with her shoe.
I've always wanted to choreograph a fight scene where I take off my heels and just kick someone's ass with my shoes.

(35:16):
Always wanted to do it.
It's a classic.
It brings up why they're called stilettos.
Absolutely.
But that tunnel where that fight occurs is the same tunnel from Civil War.
And?
Oh, it was.
Are we talking about Civil War?
Captain America Civil War.
Captain America Civil War where they do the shield and the whole thing.

(35:37):
Really?
He's running after Bucky and then the Black Panther is chasing him in that tunnel.
That's that tunnel.
And it's also in Hunger Games.
That's what it was.
Hunger Games is chasing snow.
Wow, I just learned something new.
Did everybody get that from the commentary?
I love the pacing of that where she's like, all right, I'm undercover.

(35:59):
I just got into Germany.
And it's like, you've been made.
I try to kill you now.
It's like, damn it.
I love also that they drop the line.
They go, do you have any luggage?
She goes, no, I sent them a head.
And that line is put in there because they want her to be able to do many, many, many costume changes throughout the movie.
And to carry that kind of luggage would be ridiculous.

(36:20):
And also, he always felt that was a plot hole James Bond movies always have.
He shows up in these places with no luggage and he's able to have three or four suits, a tuxedo.
How does he pull it off?
In this case, she just drops the single line of that we sent it ahead.
I was waiting for her to actually have a head, but no, she didn't.
Speaking of the writing for it, just a little fact for you.

(36:42):
One of the things I picked up there in the commentary is a lot of this movie is 80 yard.
Really?
Not the original text for it, what they originally said.
They changed a lot of lines up.
They filmed a lot of scenes not knowing where they were going to use them.
So any scene you see them on the phone, have headphones on or listening to music, they film those separately, not sure where they're going to put them.

(37:03):
And also the investigation scene, there's a scene after the investigation or early on where she's talking with, like she's being briefed for the mission.
She's in that office.
Originally, she was not going to be in that room.
And there was a whole separate scene where she's being briefed.
They merged them all together to be one scene.
So a lot of those lines were 80 yard to make it make sense because it didn't make sense.
The fact that she would, if she wasn't in the room, how does she know that conversation happened to be retelling it during the investigation?

(37:30):
Gotcha.
To me is amazing considering what happened with Madame Webb, where that movie was really 80 yard in its pre-episodes.
I'm not going to see that one. Sorry.
No, you got to see it. You just got to see it.
You have to just hold the belief back a little bit and run through that one.
It's kind of fun.
We'll watch it once someone on Patreon pays us to do it.

(37:52):
You can pay me to see the movie, maybe.
I've heard nothing but bad things about that movie.
I have like this much time in my day to watch good quality things.
They were like, try something new.
So when I watch crapola, it just makes me mad because I've wasted my two hours that I get in a day.
You know what, Lori? I just watched Rebel Ridge this weekend and we talk about how Rebel Ridge, the new Netflix movie.

(38:17):
One of the things you mentioned is this idea that in the type of martial arts they're displaying in this movie that you can use any weapon at your disposal, kind of the Baba Yaga three men with a pencil situation.
There is a unit in the Marines called MSCOPS.
Their whole line is one mind, any weapon.
That's their whole motto.
That scares the shit out of me.

(38:38):
Right. Like that's one mind, any weapon given to them.
That's crazy.
That's me.
I do that.
Give it to me.
I don't care what it is.
Like when she's kicking someone's ass with the ladder, I was like, see, see, that's all you need.
Just walk in a room.
You just grab them and kick his ass.

(38:59):
Well, it's funny.
There's that scene where she's in the fighting the cops in front of the the apartment and she's she's beating the hell out of them.
Right. Originally, that was a multiple angles.
They did a single take just because she pulled it off in a single take.
So the look on her face when she pulls down, she's like sort of like happy.
It's because she pulled that shot off.

(39:20):
Right. On the first try.
Yeah. That's when they were like, well, we don't need to.
That's fine. Cut.
The editor, both the editor and the director, they constantly said that this movie was under a very, very tight budget.
Thirty million.
They were amazed they could pull off what they could make.
I made a hundred thirty.
I don't understand why we don't have atomic bomb to.

(39:41):
Well, we'll get to that in a second.
It's funny you mentioned that.
We'll save that for what happens next for a goal.
So let's talk about pacing, guys.
This movie is one hundred and fifteen minutes.
So just shy of two, two hours.
How do you feel about the pacing?
Did it move quickly? Did it move slow?
Didn't really have any dead parts.
I think it kept from start to finish in the moment.
She got in to the moment she exited to the twist at the end, which is I think the only part that felt slightly slowed down.

(40:07):
I think they emphasize more of the twist at the end.
I thought it started a little bit slow, but I think you needed to learn the key players.
So I don't think it was bad that was slow, but it wasn't like nonstop action the whole time.
Right. There was definitely some scenes that it slowed down a little bit where I had to think like, who am I?
Who am I seeing?
How what, you know, what nationality is this person supposed to be?
What side are they on?
They try to keep track of everybody.

(40:28):
But I think you needed that. Otherwise, you wouldn't get the twist and you wouldn't understand kind of the nuance of the fact that she's telling you this story basically.
So you've got to really pay attention to is this is even what happened?
Like with the French spy that she has, you know, that she befriends and has that scene that Fergal liked with.
Was that really, was that really true?

(40:49):
Like, did that actually happen or is that giving her a reason why she said, well, that's why I killed him because I, you know, I had grown attached to this person and he killed her.
So I killed him. Right. Like, so is that even true?
You don't know.
It definitely perked the MI6 guy. I mean, the MI6 guy, listen.
Well, that's what I mean.
Like, so but if you didn't pay attention to early things.
She could have killed Spyglass.

(41:10):
She could have killed the French agent.
She could have killed all of those people because she was a double agent and that list was out there.
People were figuring out her true identity and she could have taken them all out.
And this could have been a complete fabrication.
She could have just had a Kaiser Soze moment where everything was fabricated.
That's what gets me at the end is like, you don't know if anything she said was the truth.

(41:34):
Well, what gets me too is the first guy killed in this movie, the guy with a mustache.
I forgot what the character's name was.
And he's supposed to be like you get a sense early on that she knows him like he's a past lover or something.
Yeah. There's even a scene where he's under a blanket and no, so see them rolling around, which, by the way, they filled in the back of the studio.
They threw a blank gun on his head for the day.

(41:58):
He's just him by himself with a camera.
He's holding a camera.
No one else is in there with him.
That's a low.
But you realize he says to the Russian agent, Satchel gave me up.
And then you make the connection at the very end of the movie.
She's Satchel.
The person that you thought the whole movie that she had this connection with.
You think maybe there's like a revenge plot in here.

(42:20):
She says she's never been to Berlin.
Who knows?
But yeah, she's the one that gave him up.
Gosh, that's what I mean.
The line that she said to the French agent, she was like, these relationships aren't real and they're a means to an end.
And the girl was like, your eyes change when you tell the truth.
And then she said, thanks for letting me know.

(42:41):
I won't do it again.
Now, I was like, this is what I'm saying.
She could have lied about everything.
And which means also that that relationship was a means to an end.
Her was absolutely it was.
That's what I'm saying.
Like, you think Percival killed the French agent?
She could have killed the French agent because she was spying and she could have figured it out.

(43:03):
Like the Russian guy died.
Percival died.
The French agent.
They're all dead.
We weren't admitted out with the watchmaker.
The French agent.
She's like, oh, he took.
She took photos of Percival and the Russian agent talking.
But that means that never happened.
So did you take pictures of of Lorraine and the Russian agent?
Who knows?
So, yeah, it's great.

(43:24):
You don't know.
It could have been Lorraine that took those pictures.
That's true.
I would hazard a guess and say Lorraine is colder than James Bond.
She's cold.
I put her up on John Wick.
I like to see the two of them.
I think she's colder than John Wick.
I don't know.
He has emotion.
John Wick has a heart.
It's like his wife and his dog.
He has feelings.
And Lorraine is like, none of you matter.

(43:46):
The means to an end.
Wow.
I will be your father figure.
Yeah.
We kind of mentioned for Lorraine is actually a CIA agent,
which she speaks with an American accent at the end of the movie.
She did.
You notice the times through the movie.
She is slipping into her American accent at times.
Oh, yeah.

(44:07):
She makes that mistake.
Well, even the spyglass even says like your German accent is shit at one point.
Because I think she's slipping.
I mean, you know, work on that and that she's like, oh, yeah,
I'm driving you into this pond and you're going to die.
Talk about my German, William.
Dead.
For me, I felt the movie was it was a good pace.
I did not notice the two hours going by.

(44:28):
I would say to people, if you're going to watch this movie,
it is a four hour commitment because you want to watch it once and you want to
want to come back to it because it's a different experience the second time
through once you realize what's actually happening with this movie.
But pacing wise, I thought it worked out great.
The editor did a fantastic job.
She's from Iceland.
Did a fantastic job.
I think the pacing was good, too.
I think sometimes it was difficult to follow all the different characters,

(44:52):
like kind of like Jeremy said, there was the Russian guys,
there was the German guys, there was spot there.
It was spyglass.
There was the French agent.
There was the watchmaker.
There was Percival.
There was the guys in the interrogate.
There was just a lot of moving parts.
So the only reason I gave it nine stars out of 10 is sometimes it's confusing
to follow the story.

(45:13):
But I think it was purposefully so because, again, it's a spy drama.
Nobody knows whose side anybody is on.
And it's convoluted again just because it's a retelling.
Like it really is done masterfully.
But I think that could trip up some people.
Like, who is Bill Skarsgård in this?
What's his role?
The standalone piece of it, I completely agree with you.
I think this, but here's the thing.

(45:35):
You've got so many spy movies.
It's a play genre.
It's a spy is a play genre from every angle in every way.
So I think this was given the environment that it was competing against
and opened in the same year as John Wick 2 that did well north of a hundred
plus million dollars.
And people burn out of these movies fast because John Wick is kind of the
bar to be set.

(45:56):
This movie held its own literally in the same year as John Wick.
And that's something to be said about for a lot.
I think, again, to your point, 8711, I think it's the same reason why you
look at certain movies and you're like, that shit is holding up really well
because they take a little extra effort in the movie and make it very much a
movie that you could watch again just to pick up new pieces.

(46:20):
Yeah.
Do you know who David Leitch is?
I'm sure you guys know.
He was a stunt man first and he was typically Brad Pitt's stunt man.
So Mr.
and Mrs.
Bullet train.
Anything that you see, Ocean's movies with Brad Pitt, David Leitch was doing
his stunts before he even got into acting.

(46:41):
That's how him and Chad Selsky got together is being stunt guys together.
So it's incredible.
Now, if some of the movies that they're turning out, they just, I'm looking at
the list.
They've not made a movie that hasn't.
I mean, very clearly a vast majority of what 8711 is tied to is done well
north of a hundred million dollars.
And there are sequels to just about every one of the movies.
So these guys have made a movie.

(47:03):
They built a formula and they can change it up almost interchangeably.
What did I say?
I wrote down, this is incredible to me where it's like David Leitch has
director credits 14, producer credits 28 and stuntman credits 82.
So we've been in the business a long time.
Same thing with Chad Selsky, director credits 15, producer 22, stunt 77.

(47:28):
And they're big name stuff.
So it's like these guys know, they know the formula.
They know it because they've been in the movies and they've seen what works.
They understand what, how to make the scenes, the action look good and how to
the pacing.
I mean, John Wick chef's kiss.
And they did Deadpool.
I didn't know they did.
They did Deadpool 2.
Deadpool 2.
Deadpool 2.

(47:49):
He did David Leitch is the director.
So that whole, I would have thought he did Deadpool 3.
He didn't do that one as well.
They didn't jump on that one because that was good fight scene too.
Yeah.
I think it was Deadpool 2.
Who directed that one?
I'm going to go look it up.
But it's not the topic that I'm talking about.
I'm going to go look it up for myself.
So for this movie, not Deadpool, for this movie, what did you guys love about it?
And what could they have done better?

(48:10):
I think they were cramming a lot in a short movie.
They were putting a lot in this movie.
You could have actually stretched this out even a little bit more.
It could have been a series on Netflix.
You could have made this, you could have stretched it a little.
I think they put a lot in a short movie.
And I think that's the only drawback to it.
To Jeremy's point, and even to your point, you got to rewatch it twice to kind of get the full thing.

(48:31):
But I think the action was absolutely dope as shit.
I think that was the plan though.
Yeah.
I'm just saying.
I think, I don't know what I would change in it because I really did after I watched it,
I was very happy with the whole experience.
At first, you know, midway through, you weren't quite sure.
But once you get the twist and everything, I was like, this is great.
But the music, top notch.
That was easily my favorite thing about this movie.

(48:52):
I love the fact that it's a soundtrack that I not only enjoyed thoroughly,
but it didn't pull me out of the movie.
There's too many times with the soundtrack to a movie, just like, it just doesn't fit.
And it kind of pulls you out and reminds you that you're watching a movie instead of in the experience.
So this one, I felt like it kept me in there.
Well, Jeremy, this was not Evanescence for Daredevil.
Oh, thank you.
Wow, that got thrown together.

(49:15):
Those are two words that was interesting.
Yeah, can you imagine? That would be great.
I wouldn't change anything either.
I enjoyed it the way it was.
I really don't think you could have had a better cast connected between Charlize and James McAvoy, John Goodman, Toby Jones, Sofia.
Bill Skarsgård is in there. Sam Hargrave is in there.

(49:36):
Just there's a ton. There's a ton of people in this movie.
It's just they did a fabulous job. The fights are great. The music is great.
You're sucked in. There's no point where you fall out of the movie.
So it takes you for a wild ride.
Yeah, I'd second that. I don't really see much of a change here.
I disagree as a TV show. I don't think it would work as well as a TV show.
It's nice and encapsulated. It's tight, the pacing for it.

(50:00):
And you brought the thing about there's so many characters, I can't pay attention to them all.
I think it's done on purpose because she's telling the story.
So I think she's like, pay attention to these pawns over here.
So you don't know what's happening with all these other ones over here, like the Watchmaker.
Yeah.
So you don't know what's really happening.
Well, that's what you said with Laurie as well with the whole back end of the movie.

(50:21):
She could have made the whole damn thing up. Everything could have been completely different.
And that's when I first saw the movie, that was my initial thought.
Like, what the hell? What the F is going on towards the end of this movie?
And that's kind of the reason why I said I thought that was the only thing that could have linked.
Because I think you could slow down and tell that you could expand that universe pretty far.
She's a compelling character to expand the universe into.

(50:43):
Now, the one thing I like about it is you brought up Peter Soze from Usual Suspects.
Kaiser.
Kaiser Soze.
I got a head cold. I'm sorry. But Usual Suspects, Kaiser Soze, the one thing I liked about this versus that is at the end of the movie,
it didn't go through and explain to me why it's a bad narrator.

(51:04):
For Usual Suspects, it showed clips, showed scenes that actually happened.
It tells me, it lays it out saying, here's what you should have seen.
This, it's like, did you see it? Did you not see it?
That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah.
But you don't have that feeling of, did I just get told a whole line of bullshit?
What I like about the Usual Suspects is like the it's the moment where he's looking at the board

(51:28):
and he sees all the things that the guy just told him.
And he was like, he just made up a story based off of the stuff on my wall.
But like you said, in this one, it's like they don't tell you if it's true or not.
You're just left with, now that you know who she really is, is any of it true?
Yeah.
There's like little bits on there.
Like, you know, there's a lot of people on the list who have an area code of 212.
That's New York, right?
If you don't know that, you can't pick up on that.

(51:51):
But yeah, there's a lot of little hints laid to that movie to say, this is not what she's telling us is not true.
But what parts of it are true, I don't know.
So the question we always like to ask this point is, should they make a sequel?
Now, that being said, there is a sequel in production.
Production hell, actually. Let's call it production.
Netflix has talked to it. It's her company.

(52:13):
But if I'm not mistaken, it hasn't really moved forward, right?
Because I was just Googling that while we were discussing, while I was also Googling the 8711, which I'm quite impressed with.
Well, the one thing I've learned through our show here about Charlize Theron is if she wants to make something happen, she makes it happen.
No, she got old guard. She got the coldest city.
So I think she's just looking for a script from what I've seen so far.

(52:34):
Well, the people they have attached as writers are the guys that wrote the book, the graphic novel, not not people that write movies.
She has the book, the original book.
Those guys are the ones that are listed as writers for this next.
Now, Lori, as a writer, as someone who writes the written word for comics, you know, I know that the adoption from a book to a movie is taking a 2D to a 4D dimension.

(52:58):
It's a completely different how your dialogue is going to actually play out on screen.
I got to ask you, this is my intellectual question of the day.
How do you feel about that as a writer for yourself and say, OK, I need you to give me these amazing characters and bring them to life in a way that's different than your comic?
So here's the thing. When I started writing my story, it's written as a screenplay.

(53:21):
And so I don't necessarily have that problem.
I'm usually cutting dialogue out of my fully fleshed characters in order to fit it on the page.
I don't have to go the other way.
So mine is already there.
But I can see what you're saying, like, because you're not getting the whole story on the page.
What I really like about my story written as a screenplay is it's fleshed out and you get those big moments like where they're really explaining what's going on.

(53:47):
And in the comic, unfortunately, a lot of times we have to paraphrase or we have to cut it out.
But you can show it with the art.
And so that's the challenge, you know, is to get a true representation of what's happening in that comic on the page.
And I don't know how their original script is written.
Was it written in screenplay format? Was it written in comic book format?
Because those are different.

(54:08):
So they were going for a literal interpretation.
Their whole process, Anthony Johnson's reasoning for opening his own publishing house was he wanted to take the graphic novel as a medium and sort of up it by a couple of degrees.
And I quote the discerning reader.
Well, and there's a difference between a graphic novel and an issue because an issue is typically 24 to 28 pages somewhere around there.

(54:31):
So you got to again, it's the same thing like Atomic Blom.
There's no time to have fluff.
There's no time to have filler when you have only 24 pages to tell your story.
You need character development and everything.
You need action. You need a beginning and a twist at the end.
Like you have to be so concise.
But with a graphic novel, you don't really have a page count.

(54:52):
You can do whatever you want.
And so you can have those breathing moments to maybe have more exposition.
So I don't know. I haven't read it.
So I'd be interested to see the difference between the two.
That's always interesting to me.
What made it from the page to the screen and why?
For me, I've always looked at these movies.
The reason I like comic book movies or movies based on comic books, obviously the comic book is a good storyboard for them to start with.

(55:17):
Now, if you'd like to see the concept, I actually recommend going to the special edition of the movie.
I have, of course.
There is actually where they show the storyboard translated for that first scene where she's walking into the embassy at the very beginning or MI6 rather.
So showing the storyboard parallel next to the actual shots are happening for it.
It's interesting watching what they wrote down, their notes on it versus what actually came to the screen.

(55:42):
That's cool. I like that.
I always like those behind the scenes moments.
In my trade paperback, I have portions of the script so that people can read how the big James Chase happens in the first issue versus what made it into the comic.
So it's always interesting to me to see those parallels.
There's usually more to it than what you're getting.

(56:04):
See now? That was my intellectual question for the day.
And you're welcome.
Thanks for coming to Fergill's Ted Talk.
So personally, I would love to see a sequel to this movie.
I hope it makes it come out.
Now, I would prefer to be a cinematic release versus a Netflix release because the big screen, I think, does well for these kind of movies.

(56:25):
And also, there's more money in it.
There really is a Netflix release because more money.
The reason I say it's important is because more money means more movies like this.
I want to see this movie do well in the cinema versus just doing well on streaming because we did Old Guard a few weeks ago or a few months ago, actually at this point.
Not as good as this movie, but I also think it just disappeared into Netflix.

(56:48):
Yes, it did.
Like it came out. We happened to see it during COVID.
Yes.
And I only saw it because we watched Warrior and Nun and it recommended that movie to us as the next movie to watch.
I did not like Warrior and Nun.
Neither did I.
Throw that out there.
It disappears.
People don't know about it.
And you look at it and it's hard.
You basically get a title card.

(57:09):
Is that what I want to watch?
Who knows?
So I'd love to see it go in the cinema.
I get the full trailer.
Now, speaking of trailers, I forgot to bring this up earlier.
Have you guys actually watched the trailer for this movie?
No.
It's the end of the movie.
Shut up.
I haven't seen it.
I'm sure we saw it back in 2017 because we made the choice to go to the theater.
They put the end of the movie in the trailer?

(57:31):
Yeah, where she's in the hotel room in Paris.
That's the scene they put in the trailer.
Those bastards.
Now, I don't know what's going on.
It makes no sense.
But it is hilarious that the final scene is the trailer for the movie.
That makes me laugh because that's something that I would do to torment my readers.
Like, ha, ha, ha.

(57:52):
Look at this.
It's no context.
And you're like, you just spoiled everything.
Spoilers with no context.
Should people go out and find this movie?
Yes, of course.
Yeah, it's one that you don't need to have read the original to appreciate it.
Like, none of us read it, but I really liked it.
And there's been other movies we've done where you can clearly tell, like, I'm missing something, but this didn't happen, which is great.

(58:17):
Yeah. And what's funny, it's on Tubi right now.
It's on Tubi.
It's on Amazon Prime.
It's what's called Free V. So it's free with ads.
Free V, yes.
Is your free V coming in in Spanish?
Mine's coming in in Spanish.
I got to fix my whole thing.
I don't know how the hell my language came in in Spanish.
I've been trying to watch Umbilod and I've literally got a language filter that won't come off.

(58:39):
I'm trying to like, what is going on with my free V?
I'm trying to fix that.
You're like my kids.
My kids are like, Mom, it's in Spanish again.
I'm like, what are you doing?
I have no idea.
It's the medications you're on.
You just wake up one day.
It'll be ready to rush in next week.
That'd be great.
I'd say people should go out and find this thing.
I think people should go out and own this thing.
It's a really good movie, especially if you plan on watching it multiple times.

(59:00):
And the special bonus features on the DVD, it's worth watching.
Gosh, do I love it?
And the steelbook is beautiful.
I think we should do anything by 8711.
Honestly, as I sit here, I continue to watch their list and now I'm on their website.
I think literally anything by this studio, you're not going to be turned away and be upset with at all.
For this movie, how would you guys rate it?

(59:21):
Thumbs up, thumbs down.
I give a thumbs up to the whole movie and I definitely like the Sophie Butalas scene.
I'm just going to say it outright.
I love my wife.
I'm very happily married, but I absolutely enjoy that scene.
You should have given it two scissors.
That was for you.

(59:42):
That was great.
Thank you for making my night, Lori.
Thank you so much for making my night.
I'm so glad you invited me on this show.
I'm just going to give it two thumbs up.
Regularly two thumbs to the soundtrack of I Will Be Your Father.

(01:00:03):
I'm going to give it a right thumb up.
No, actually, it's a left thumb up.
And for the first time, a full thumb up movie for me.
Never happened on this so far.
There it is.
There it is.
I'd give it a full thumbs up as well.
I just love this movie.
I can't say that enough.
I've watched it three times in preparation for this episode.
I think we should give Lori a thumbs up on George Michael.
There seems to be a George Michael thing going on.

(01:00:25):
That's what I want, is a George Michael thumbs up.
And two scissors.
Before we go, guys, we've had a lot of guests on lately, so we haven't had a chance to go over to Mailbag, but we did actually get a review coming recently, and I want to let you know the review.
Five stars, nice pod about friends discussing movies based on comics, not Marvel.
Deep dives, lots of laughs, highly recommend.

(01:00:46):
Well, that's nice.
I expected a full gut punch out of that, so I appreciate a nice review.
The Internet is a really even Facebook's got me lately.
I was hoping for something fun.
Like my cat crossed the street and got hit.
Why are you on the radio?
Why am I listening to you folks?
Lori, where can you find you?

(01:01:07):
And what are you working on right now?
Oh, my gosh.
Well, I'm all over the dang place.
If you like podcasts, guess what?
I do three.
So I do the Tuesday morning brew every Tuesday.
You can find that on my YouTube channel or on the Madness Comic Network YouTube channel where it's two hour show every Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time.

(01:01:28):
I interview indie comic creators, artists, authors, ventriloquists, actors.
You heard me right.
There are they anybody and everybody who is a creative can come on that show on Wednesdays.
I host the Any One World Showcase, Any One World and ASAP Imagination is one of my publishers.
And so we have a show for those creators, which is 11 a.m.

(01:01:51):
Eastern Standard Time, only 45 minutes on Wednesdays on their YouTube channel.
And then I just started a new show called Killer Karen, where I put on a blonde wig and the personality of this character named Karen Needlmeyer.
And I am a Karen to my guests.
They have to sign a waiver before they come on.

(01:02:14):
I am obnoxious and we have a good time.
Everybody's in on the joke.
I promise.
Can I be fertile, Ken?
You can come on.
If you can handle the heat.
That's all I got to say.
I grew up with five brothers in that name, fertile.
There's not too much eat I can handle.
This is true.
But Karen will eat you up and spit you out.
That's what she does.
With a stiletto heel.
It's like the old Martin Short bit.

(01:02:37):
So we have fun on that show.
That one's brand new.
And that airs every Friday at 7 p.m.
It's every other week.
I have a website.
I'm path of the Pale Rider dot com.
I don't have any campaigns running right now, but you can get my books on my website.
I have a shop and you can also get my books on ASAP imagination.
That's where you can get the physical copy with international shipping.

(01:02:59):
It's from ASAP imagination dot com or any one world dot com.
And again, Path of the Pale Rider is a full immersive experience.
We have a comic book.
I write riddles so you can immerse yourself in the world, solve riddles and interact with the world like it's real.
And I also produce short films.
And so you can see me get run over by a car if you would like.

(01:03:23):
Those videos are on my YouTube, but they're all based in the world of Path of the Pale Rider.
So we do conspiracy theories.
We do news reports, commercials for the undead.
We have fun.
And people can participate in those as well.
Awesome. And Jeremy, where can we find you?
Well, I'm always on this podcast called Movie Smash comes out every two weeks.
Talk about comic book related movies.
Also, I'm the one of the hosts of the Retroveniax podcast.

(01:03:46):
And I have just started a new project on the one rad podcast feed where I will be the third wheel on the new season of twenty double X.
We rank and review all the Mega Man games, this time all the handheld ones.
Wow. And fertile.
Where do people find you?
Well, I don't quite live as fast and furious like I'm recovering from a pretty serious motorcycle accident.
But for right now, you can find me getting ready to lay the foundation of bringing my store back at some point very closely in the future.

(01:04:14):
We're working on it.
We're going to call it Gotham Knight Returns.
We're going to bring this thing back.
And I'm excited about that.
But for right now, I'm just kind of recovering from the bike accident.
As I said at the beginning of the show, I'm unkillable.
So I'm working on making sure I stay that way.
And it should be fun for me.
So I wouldn't want to be on a John wicker time by situation because I don't think they could do me.
I'm a fluffy captain.
Lori, thanks for joining us today.

(01:04:36):
And for me, you can always find me over at all panel creations where I'm always building some piece of nerdy furniture.
I want to thank our listeners for spending some time with us today.
And if you have any thoughts about a ton of blonde and how this is Charlize Theron's second best movie, send us a note over movie hyphen smash.com.
We'll see you in a couple of weeks.
Thank you again for listening.
And I hope you enjoy the show.
This has been movie smash with Chris Roberts, Jeremy Parmentier and Fergal Amaya produced by me, Chris Roberts, executive produced by off panel creations, LLC movie clips provided by their respective studios.

(01:05:07):
You can rate and review the show at Apple podcasts and Spotify.
You might even find your view read on a future episode.
Got a question for us?
Visit us at movie hyphen smash.com and send us a note.
It too can be read on a future episode.
If you haven't already, please subscribe to movie smash wherever you listen to your podcasts.

(01:05:29):
I would not want to meet her in a back alley.
I should kick my ass and take my wallet.