How bad is Bad Times at the El Royale?

In 2018, Drew Goddard wrote and produced a film about 4 people who were stuck at a hotel called, The El Royale. Will this crime drama be enough to free our crew who's stuck in a wormhole? Join us as we ask the question, "Is Bad Times at the El Royale good? Or is it just a bad time that belongs on... The Bottom Shelf?" Connect with John: https://linktr.ee/johnharju    Connect with Dallas & Celeste Via Geek Devotions: YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/geekdevotions TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/geekdevotions INSTAGRAM: http://www.instagram.com/geekdevotions FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GeekDevotions/

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hello, kitties. It's your old pal John Kucier,
the voice of the cryptkeeper,
and you're listening
to the bottom shelf.
Hey, guys.
Celeste, where have you been?

(00:24):
Wait. Where is,
where's
Branson?
Due to space time conflict,
I have removed him from this reality.
In order to offset the imbalance, I have
deleted my boy John from the Gundam Universe
as well. You're welcome.
Also, Westside.
Glix?
Glix?
You're not like us.

(00:45):
Not like us.
Glix.
Ma'am,
take a take a day,
Prepare yourself to discover a world of terrible
movies.
See you, boo, over.

(01:15):
On the bottom shelf.
Welcome, movie lovers and movie haters.

(01:38):
A little bit of awkwardness
there for you,
What What was that? I'm so confused by
Glix.
Why is Glix a man?
Anyway,

(01:59):
hello, everybody.
We are
nearing the end of the wormhole. We have
3.
But no one box left.
Just Unmas. So it I we're hoping it's
my turn because so far,
boy, have I lost this game of roulette.
And I lost the game.

(02:20):
Oh, man.
And you know who else lost the game?
Everybody out there who's participating in that nonsense.
I, however, have chosen not to play the
game. You're always part of the game, John.
I I refuse.
Simply by With that being said, let me
open this box here and

(02:42):
oh, bro.
Mhmm. Okay. So
well, we'll we'll get into this when we
get to the expectations, but check it out.
Check it out. Check it out. Check
out here. When is this bad times at
Battle Royale? No. No. No. No. No. There's
no bad. That would be amazing.
Oh, bad times at the El Royale. Wait.
Why is it called the El Royale or
or El Royale? That's kinda redundant. It's because

(03:05):
because El Royale is the name of a
hotel.
And so the would be appropriate because it's
in reference to the title of a specific
place.
It still translates weird. Only if you're translating
it instead of seeing it as a proper
noun.
Yeah. Okay. What is this? Well, the computer

(03:26):
over here says this. Bad Times at the
El Royale
is a 2018
thriller written
by The Lost Martian director, Drew Goddard.
It stars the original fighter
for the user, the dude himself, Jeff Bridges,
the soulful voice of Cynthia
Evereaux,
Dakota Johnson before got lost

(03:47):
before she got lost in the web
of lies in Madame Web,
mad man himself,
John Hamm, and Lewis Pullman before he decided
to be a bull rider in on the
outer range.
It's the 20th Century Fox movie that takes
place over a single night and leaves you
wondering if you spent your night wisely as
the dead characters.

(04:08):
Okay. That sounds exciting.
Let's see. Let me read the back of
the box.
It was 1969,
and the lull at a once trendy hotel
on the California, Nevada border
ended with a rush of clientele, including an
aging priest, Jeff Bridges, a vacuum salesman, Jon
Hamm, a drifter, Dakota Johnson, and then the

(04:29):
soul singer,
Cynthia Erivo.
However, agendas and identities Erevio. Oh, Erevio.
However,
agendas and identities aren't all what they seem.
In between a hunt for the hidden banked
loot in between the hunt for the hidden
bank loot and the cultists arriving at the
door, no one should expect a good night's

(04:51):
rest. Stylish contemporary
noir costars Chris Helmsworth,
Lewis Pullman, and
Kylie Spany.
Yep. Alright.
Alright. Yeah. That that kinda covers it. That
intro sounds like the beginning of a joke.
A priest, a salesman, and a drifter
walking through a bar.
Alright. So let's crank some trivia out on

(05:12):
this because I'm assuming we got, again because
we're in this black hole. There's no
access to help or possibly Apparently not.
Alright.
The El Royale was built from scratch on
a soundstage,
with much of the furniture and decor being
custom made, including
branded matchboxes and coasters

(05:32):
reals.
The color scheme was meticulously
set out so that the California side was
mostly yellows and oranges,
while the Nevada side was
purples and blues.
Red was was
reserved for the borderline
jukebox and chandelier,
while green is almost entirely absent until the

(05:54):
end.
The El Royale is based on the famous
Cal Nevada Resort and Casino that was once
owned by Frank Sinatra.
And assuming the Richard Nixon press coverage shown
on the TV in this movie is happening
live or earlier that day,
This film takes place specifically on January 27,

(06:17):
1969.
Oh, wow.
This movie was shot on actual film without
traditional light setting. The hotel was specifically designed
to allow enough light to shoot by,
And
all the all the cast and the writer
or director Drew Goddard
took a pay cut in order to get

(06:38):
this film made. Oh, wow. That's Because they
all believed in it that much. I appreciate
that. So those are my trivia tidbits for
this film.
Let's break it down to expectations.
I'll jump in on this one because this
is apparently my movie. I finally get one
to go my way. I'm so excited. I'm
gonna tell you, I have seen this movie
a lot. Lot. Like, the year it came

(06:58):
out, I saw it like 5 times.
Oh, wow.
It's a really
good movie.
Every time I see it, I I have
the same thought every time. It's like, wow.
This is like Tarantino
meets Hitchcock.
And it
yeah. I'm very much expecting more of that.
I'm expecting a blown out color palette with

(07:20):
a heady plot.
And, yeah, I'm I'm very excited. I'm going
to like this.
Cool.
I'm not sure what to expect because,
all I know is the title.
You know that I like it. I mean
yeah. But you you like a range of
things,
Everything from The Exorcist to Dora the Explorer.

(07:42):
So Fair.
That doesn't give me a good gauge of
what I'm walking into.
I I will say this, although this is
kind of trivia, although it's not so much
trivia.
But when I first started listening to Geek
Devotions, there was one movie I was hampering
on you guys to do a devotion about
back when you guys were like, oh, make

(08:03):
a donation,
and you'll maybe we'll do a devotion on
a movie if you like.
Which is Sullivan. Why why sound like Ernie?
It's just that's just how I do third
person voices.
But
but, yeah, this this was that movie. I've
I've I've been trying to make you guys

(08:23):
watch this movie, the almost the entirety
of our relationship. So
this is an exciting moment for me.
I hear some of the making?
About yeah. That's that's about right. Cool.
So, anyways, Celeste, you said just okay. Just
the title. How about you Dallas?
So I'm looking at the box and

(08:44):
I'm having memories of seeing a commercial for
this.
Like, when it first came out. Of course,
2018 was a start of, like, just some
wild times for us. And so I never
got just to watch it, but I feel
like I wanted to watch it. Like, I
seem to have members that are going, oh,
this will be a a pretty nifty movie
to watch. Oh, yeah. 2018 would not have
been a good movie good time for me
to watch a movie like this.

(09:05):
No. Not a good time for you at
all. Yeah. But,
I thought it looked like a pretty cool
movie to watch, and, we just never have
a time to. And,
so I'm excited to check it out.
I have a fascination with films that pull
off this 19
sixties
feel to it. I'm just you know, because
sometimes they do it and it's super stylized

(09:27):
and interesting, and sometimes it's just not. So
I'm intrigued to see what happens.
Yeah. I think that's about the by contrast
to last week's
or the last episode,
that was about as
I feel like we just rushed through that.
Do we have anything else to I don't
think so. I mean, we're just
Celeste has never seen I've never seen it.

(09:47):
You're hyped about it. That's right.
I I'm intrigued by it because it looks
gonna look at the box. I I remember
going, oh, this might be a fun movie.
I just don't know anything about it. K.
Alright. Well, let's go watch a movie. Let's
go.
Can I get popcorn?
Dear listeners,
this is your opportunity to escape. Our crew

(10:10):
has just entered into the media projection chamber.
What horrors and madness that they consume are
unknown?
Their mental state upon their return is
unknown.
You have been warned.
Squee.
Squee.
I'll tell you what. The music was kinda
kinda jammed.

(10:31):
Yeah. Bro. Okay. So That soundtrack?
For real. For real. That that's, like, one
of my favorite things about this movie, and
I'm so excited about is, like, they use
music to tell so much of the story
in this movie. Yeah. I noticed that. I
genuinely did. I thought it was I thought
it was and I appreciate again, fact of
the matter is the music they played

(10:53):
is a lot of the music I grew
up on. And I'm not old. And so,
but, like, I grew up listening to the
4 tops, the 4th,
4 seasons,
all those fans. Sound bit. Yeah. That was
my whole that was my my whole vibe
as a as a young man. So I
was I was jamming to the music pretty
hard during the entire time. When homegirl was

(11:13):
singing,
that's a not a spoiler, but there was
a point where she sang by herself acapella.
I was like, come on, girl. Do it.
Singing the Isley Brothers, this whole heart of
mine? She sang that a lot. They they
definitely did a lot of foreshadowing
with the music. Mhmm. Yeah. Definitely.
Yeah.
It's
I I think when I was watching this

(11:34):
movie, I think what I realized I realized
something about myself. I think I just like
movies
where you have a very small cast that
are trapped in a secluded place. Mhmm.
And something happens, and it turns out everybody
in the secluded place
isn't who they say they are, like those
types of movies. Yeah. I don't know I

(11:54):
don't know, like, have I don't know if
you guys has have ever seen the movie
identity.
Man. I don't know. That sounds familiar. It's
a it's a John Cusack movie.
I remember seeing the box.
Yeah. I have seen this. Yeah.
That that's another great example of the type
of movie that like, just the strangers trapped
in a hotel

(12:15):
sort of scenario. And there's so many different
plots you can play out that way. Yeah.
It's or murder on the Orient Express is
another one that Yeah. See Murder on the
Orient Express.
Yeah. So, yeah, the storytelling was definitely interesting.
I'm trying to figure I don't want to
get into spoiled stuff, but the storytelling
It's so hard because, like, you just don't

(12:36):
wanna step on anything in this movie because
there is so much that unfolds over such
a short what feels like a short period
of time.
Mhmm. I'll say this. The, the set design
was beautiful. I really liked how how they
did it.
It feels like the luxurious,
quote, unquote, luxurious motels
that were that littered the countryside,

(12:57):
at one point in time. Mhmm. And,
this the world felt
felt real at the same time, and it
felt like out of place. Like, you knew
this was, like, back then, but you because
sometimes when you watch films that take place,
like,
back in time, back in the sixties, back
there's a there's a feeling to you. Like,
man, this is foreign. You don't feel like
you're connected to the world. It wasn't that
way. It was super stylized, but it was

(13:19):
also like yeah. This could be a place
you could see in real life at some
point in time. It felt very well thought
out. Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely.
I will say there was one one one
singular thing that I was like, really? We
couldn't have have fixed that,
where it they
were
highlighting

(13:39):
the singer, and they showed her hand
trying to do something.
I think she was starting a car, which
I feel like is not a too big
of a spoiler.
Mhmm. And she had modern day press on
nails.
I'm like, y'all couldn't have gone somewhere other
than Target to get them nails.

(14:00):
I will
say, and I may I may just be
trying to be the devil's advocate here, but
I think I think back in the day,
like, Lee, press on nails were still a
thing back in the day It's not. In
1969.
They were, but they didn't look like that.
Okay.
I'll I'll take your word for it. I'd
me being who I am, I wouldn't know

(14:20):
that. So Right. The the press on nails
have come a long way from from just
from the nineties to now. Uh-huh. And those
looked like
modern
press on nails to me. Gotcha. Gotcha. Now
I'm not not an expert, but just from
press on nails I grew up with
to now, there is a difference.

(14:40):
Yeah. I I will tell you this much.
In fact, did not take me out of
the movie at all.
It did me a little bit.
So I did appreciate the,
the details that like, you you know, we
had that, the details of it. It it
felt good. I mean, I was little like,
that's that's a minor thing, but for the
most part, you're like, yeah. This is pretty
cool. Like, the rooms, I liked how every

(15:01):
room was different. Oh, yeah. And, like, everyone's
room and it had different color tone and
everything. Like, it was really neat how they
played all that out. Well, the the use
of color in the movie was interesting to
me because not only did you have
California and Nevada being different shades Mhmm. They
themed the rooms to fit the characters.

(15:21):
Not only that, but I think that with
each room looking
similar but different
Mhmm.
It enhances the feeling of unease because not
you don't expect that at a like a
hotel. You know, you expect everything to be
pretty much stock.
Mhmm. And so when you see that between
the rooms, it creates a certain sense of
unease in the mind. And I almost am

(15:43):
willing to bet that that was intentional
by the set by the, set designer.
Yeah. Quite likely. But, like, for the,
for the singer,
everything with
her, when it was her,
was all very purple.
Like, her room was purple. They always almost
always showed her

(16:04):
with the Nevada side
in the background.
It was very intentional.
Now why? I don't know.
But it was an interesting
effect,
except for at one point, her dress was
yellow.
And while the
Nevada was in the background,
her dress matched the tones
Mhmm. In California,

(16:26):
the California side of the lobby. The the
use of color in this movie was 100%
intentional.
Mhmm. It feel it it really feels like,
you know, the here comes the geek in
me. It feels like Ghost of Tsushima.
How the use of color in that, how,
you know, the palette changes basis based off
of where you're at and to increase certain

(16:49):
feelings first for a scene or whatever.
Right.
And so it kind of has that old
19 seventies
samurai film feel to it where the colors
are there for a reason, but Right. The
reason may not necessarily be known to the
viewer.
Mhmm. Yeah. Definitely.
Definitely feels that way.

(17:10):
I don't the whole thing the fact that
they they took a pay cut to do
this film tells me that they they were
really there was passion to it. And you
could tell, like, the shots themselves were very
intentional. The the framing of it,
there there's a portion that I'll talk about.
We'll get to our spoiler section that I
was like, that's really intentional on how they
pull that off. But I appreciate that there

(17:32):
was there's a lot of detail from the
music selection to the camera angles to the
coloring. Mhmm.
That that tells me that there's talent and
passion in this whole thing.
And one thing I do wanna tap on
here,
just because if somebody does make the decision
not to listen to the spoiler section,

(17:52):
I I I want them to to hear
this before they click off the episode.
But there was there is an overarching
spiritual
themes
that go throughout this movie.
Mhmm.
That
just shake me every time I see it
and even this time. So
I want to put that out there. This

(18:13):
this this movie is a R rated movie
and
it
needs to be an R rated movie.
But that this is going to be one
of the ones that I would recommend to
people to see just because of certain
messages that are in it, you know? So
Mhmm.
Yeah. Cool beans. Anybody else got anything you
wanna say before we hit the spoiler section?

(18:33):
Because I don't need to hit the spoiler
section because
there's a lot to talk about.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the spoiler section.
We are at that point of the show
where
it's like at Thanksgiving where you can undo

(18:54):
your belt a little bit, may
maybe pop open a few shirt buttons to
let it out because,
boy, does this movie beg to be talked
about? Boy, can you not talk about this
movie in front of people who haven't seen
this movie.
And and I will say if you have
not seen this movie, please do not listen
to this part. Go see the movie and
then come back because

(19:15):
It's really a really a movie you need
to see it. You have to go in
blank.
Yeah. You really do. Like, literally, to give
you a peek behind the curtain when when
I we brought this movie to the forefront,
and I made a joke to when to
Celeste, I said my, excitement is like diarrhea.

(19:35):
It can't be contained.
She goes, oh, no. Does that mean this
one's gonna stink too? And I said, no.
But I'm gonna make you feel a lot
of things very fast, and that's all I'm
gonna say on it because it's best that
you guys go in blank.
Yes. Absolutely.
So with that being said, are you guys
happy that you went in blank on this
movie?
I did.

(19:55):
The the preview that I saw
almost gives away certain details. I was like,
I wish they I didn't know about that.
Mhmm. But the the detail that they give
in the preview, which is simply that there
are there is a viewing windows into every
room, wasn't too much. It kinda misled me
a little bit actually to who the actual
villain was.

(20:16):
But it was I'm glad that it I
did not know too much going into it.
Yeah.
I actually knew that about the windows into
the rooms before the preview because I didn't
go in completely blind. I mean, I did,
but I didn't because I look up, every
movie,
just to make sure that there's nothing that's
gonna freak me out in it.

(20:36):
Mhmm. Basically, no. You're you're checking for triggers
this week. Yeah. Yeah. I'm checking for my
triggers to make sure that I'll be okay
watching it. And so
it said something about I don't know what
what it said
specifically, but I when I clicked on it,
I was like, what is what what does
it mean by this? Oh, voyeurism.
Maybe. I don't know. Probably didn't use that
word, but it was it said that there

(20:58):
were
it it was revealed that there were windows
behind
every room Mhmm. That people could see.
What is this? Some kind of curvy hotel?
Jeff Bridges does so good at that. That
That that was
that was the running joke throughout the movie.
Every time someone found out that there was

(21:19):
observation windows into all the rooms, that was
the first thing that someone's was it some
kind of pervert hotel?
That's a fairly
fair assumption.
Yeah. They all say it. They all say
it.
Oh my gosh. That's funny.
Oh, man. Alright. We need to get into
the back conversation about the film. I I
would point like, this is one of the

(21:39):
things you could not get into is that
the structure of everyone's backstory was so well
told Oh, yeah. And understanding. Like, you open
up and I was still I'm very curious.
I didn't get an answer, but it opens
up with a man getting shot. Like, he's
he gets a hotel room, and I love
the I love the shot itself. Yeah. It's
like, on the back end, you realize it's
going through that window. Mhmm. And it's it's

(22:00):
almost like a stage performance, and he's, like,
rolling away the carpet. He's bearing the bag,
and he's putting it back and everything else.
And I'm just like, man, what's happening? You
know? And he's waiting, and all of a
sudden, he opens the door and somebody shoots
him. Who shot him? It was the rest
of the team.
Jeff Bridges says that later on in the
movie.
He said the rest of my team killed
my brother. Yeah. See, I I miss I

(22:21):
must be that the other kid. The the
rest of it was a small kid. The
one that they were like, do you not
know how to drive?
Right. Right. Right. That one. Gotcha. I missed
that. But you can start with the Oh,
no. Go ahead. No. You start off with
that, and then you had Jeff Bridges' character.
And then you realize at the scene where
he's, like, in the floor
trying to find it, you're like, oh, he's

(22:42):
connected somehow to this ordeal.
Mhmm. So I I appreciate the way and
then they tell his story.
It was it was fascinating to see that
play out. And almost heartbreaking also when you
realize that he genuinely has a a mental
issue going on. He has It's suggesting that
he has Alzheimer's is what's going on. Yeah.
So So I appreciate it. I thought it
was interesting with that

(23:04):
whole whole storyline that weaves into this the
bigger storyline
that he and his brother both when they
were hammering
the Mhmm. The the floor
that they were doing it to the beat
of whatever song was Yeah. I didn't catch
that. Yeah. And I've seen this movie many
times, so that's super
weird. To the

(23:24):
the beat
that was on the radio that he had
cranked up Mhmm.
Before he died, and then Jeff Broges did
it when she was clapping.
Mhmm.
I really that was one of the things
I noticed throughout the battle. I was like,
oh, that's that's smart. He's doing it to
the beat. I will
I will say this to go with your,
catching just minor

(23:45):
intentional things. There there are so many intentional
details that are throughout this movie
that I promise if you go back and
watch this movie, you're going to catch other
things that you didn't notice.
I think this is probably about the 7th
time I've seen this movie.
Mhmm. And
I literally am still catching things I haven't
noticed. Like, I finally figured out I figured

(24:06):
out who's on the film.
Who's on the film? JFK.
That's Kennedy.
Yeah.
And the reason why I got this is
because,
the guy on the the guy the FBI
guy who was proposing as the vacuum cleaner
salesman.
Mhmm.
He was there to collect their own wiretaps.

(24:28):
Mhmm.
And he found other people's.
And so
and so there was that. Plus,
Nixon was taking office. And of course, we
know Nixon was accused of the Watergate
Hotel wiretaps.
Mhmm. So it's
it's also and then at the very end,
when they're looking at that and the little
girl the little girl who's looking at the

(24:49):
film goes, oh, he's
our yeah. It was the the thing where
he said, yeah, I lied to them and
told them that there wasn't a woman in
there with him because he was nice to
me
Mhmm. Was what made me go, I bet
it's JFK because he was very well known
for being very charismatic
and very kind to most people.

(25:11):
But there there's a lot of there's a
lot of little breadcrumb trails in there that
aren't important to the movie.
Mhmm. But it's just if you've seen the
movie before, you're a bit more receptive to
catching other details
of questions that you're left with, and you
go back. You're like, oh, no. They explain
it here by this detail and they look
and it's just minor stuff. And so every
time you go, there's a lot of replay

(25:32):
value to it just for that very thing
where you can just go back and pick
up on the details that you missed that
you missed the first time. Right. Oh, God.
I love this movie so much.
Oh, my gosh. It was really good. And
just
I'm I'm trying to find
the version of it. The the prayer that

(25:52):
he does at the beginning of the movie
where they redo Now I Lay Myself Down
to Sleep.
Mhmm. Oh, yeah. They even the rewrite that
was a foreshadowing
of Mhmm. Of how the movie's gonna end.
And I appreciate that that book in detail
that they did there.
Again, this is part of where I was
like, I the fact that they gave up
their income just to do the movie, it

(26:14):
tells you how much passion they had behind
every aspect. It was the whole thing was
super,
intentional.
So good.
Oh my gosh.
There was something else too. It's gone. It'll
be back, but it's gone. I'm sorry. This
talking about this movie makes me feel manic.
Like, I'm like, I need
to proselytize or something or give a hallelujah

(26:35):
because this movie just gets me excited.
Oh, here we go. This is this is
the, the, the, the rewrite that prayer goes.
Now lay me down to sleep. I pray
the Lord, my soul to keep. And when
I wake in the morning light, teach me
to do what's right. Amen.
And that's what happens at the end is
that you have this,
the priest,

(26:55):
air quote, Jeff Bridges character.
In the morning light, he learns to do
what is right. And I really appreciate how
they played that whole thing out. I I
can dig that.
I remember what I was gonna say now.
This movie is about dichotomies. I mean, if
you wanna break it down to the themes.
Mhmm.
It's, it this movie talks about everything,

(27:17):
and it talks about nothing at all all
at the same time.
Right. There it makes points on
many different topics,
but
it doesn't
try to say anything about those points at
all.
Like you tap on the racism of the
late sixties and during that era,
you tap on the way women were treated.

(27:38):
You start talking, you know, you talk about
all these different
aspects
of what life was like, but they don't
try to make a point. They're like, Hey,
this is a thing.
Yeah. And they just leave it there. And
I love that because they don't try to
spoon feed the audience.
They give you a good glazing on the
culture without making the culture a thing. The
the Yeah. The point is the story they're

(28:00):
telling, not they it doesn't look like they're
trying to make a a cultural point about
what was taking place there. Like, this is
the setting. Let's move on with the story.
Holy crap. Drew Goddard,
was part of Lost. Doesn't show me. That's
why that's why I'm interested as the lost
martian because he did the martian and he
did the lost.
I didn't know that.

(28:20):
Right.
I'm late to the party.
The other the other thing that's that that's
very stark in this movie is its core
message that goes through each and every individual
story, which is two things.
Nobody is innocent
and everybody needs redemption.
Mhmm.
That's the theme through every for every character

(28:41):
in the story.
And
people who are earnestly looking for redemption find
it in this movie, and people who
aren't don't. I mean,
there are so many low key, there are
so many different sermons you can pull out
of this movie that just it. Oh, yeah.
Definitely. I'm I'm just gonna shut up so
everybody else can talk because I could take
this whole podcast by myself.

(29:04):
No. It's all good. You're right, though. And
it's the the the there's a lot of
depth to this I wasn't expecting,
just through and through. And appreciated the way
they handled the storytelling by flipping back and
forth. I know for some people, that would
have been confusing.
But for me, it made me more engaged
with the story Mhmm. By getting the multiple

(29:24):
POVs.
Mhmm. And then the backstory of each person
to explain
why they saw things the way they saw
them. Mhmm. Yep. There was a speaking with
the Doug Connor things, you had the, you
had,
Jeff Bridges' character, Flynn, and then you had
Chris Hemsworth,
Billy Lee. Was that his name? Yeah.

(29:44):
Yeah. And,
it was there's a moment in Billy's, like,
in his his grand staging, making himself seem
like he's this person, like, where he's standing
and, like, there's, like, this artificial halo that
they've made around him using the lighting in
the background.
Like, he really saw himself as this divine
figure even though he, at the same time,
was saying there was no God. But then
you have a man who's who's pretending to

(30:06):
be a priest
who lived a terrible life himself, and he's
having
to be godly in this moment for the
person at the very end. I really appreciate
that dichotomy between the 2 ego, 2 personalities
there. Okay. So how many people when this
movie really started getting into it, you started
wondering if this was actually all happening in
purgatory?

(30:27):
I did not ask that question. Couldn't go
that. That's interesting. Just me? Yeah. Just you.
The first time I saw this movie, I'm
like, this is an allegory for purgatory.
Oh my goodness. Apparently, I I I apparently,
I'm getting too deep here.
A little bit. A little bit.
So
it was I don't know. Again, it was
it was a good movie. Like, it but

(30:48):
it happened so fast, like, the entirety of
the film. Okay. I mean, it was it
was booking. Do you know how long this
movie is?
It's like 2 hours. 2 hours and 20
minutes, my man. Yeah. It's not fast. It
just feels like it because you are processing
so much as you're watching it. Mhmm. Well
and because, again, the way they did the
storytelling by the jumping back and forth.

(31:10):
You it didn't feel like it was that
long. Because had they told that same story
linearly
instead of going back and and forth,
then it wouldn't have been that long. Well,
it's like the scene where
Homebrew smashes, Jeff Bridges in the head. I
was just about to talk about that scene.
And then and then they cut back to
it, and you see, like, you're like they

(31:30):
as they're zooming in and you see,
him waking up Jeff Bridges, and you see
her heels there, and I'm like, oh, that's
smart. She probably took him off to run
up and do that. And then they cut
back and they show her jumping off her
heels to running and take him out. And
it was that's that there was this constant
overlap of storytelling.
And sometimes when they do that, when people
tell us tell stories that way, it can

(31:50):
get confusing. It didn't. Everything kinda really made
sense.
I'm almost wondering because of how they design
excuse me. How they designed the whole hotel
Mhmm.
On a sound stage. I almost wonder if,
like, all the camera is it like this?
If this was filmed, like, mostly Hell's Kitchen
style on
on just stationary

(32:12):
cameras,
And they just did
this all in, like, 1 or 2 takes.
Maybe. I don't know. There there was so
much overlap that they showed from different perspectives.
Mhmm.
As certain so.
It's just a thought I have every time
I watch this movie because the the way
they overlap it is so precise.
Mhmm. Yeah. It is. And I think they

(32:34):
might have have done
all the different story trails that took place
in the same spots. Mhmm. I think that
they did them all at the same time.
Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Am I
just not I am I just
okay. Okay. It's just it's just you would
have to be thinking about those shots. If
you don't have stationary cameras hidden in the,
in the interior, so to speak, then then

(32:56):
you're gonna have to be fit you're gonna
have to be planning all those shots all
at the same time, which if that's what
happens, then
bravo, sir, because
Well, and the reason I said that I
don't think they were stationary cameras is because
some of the shots they did with Billy
Lee
in
the l No. No. No. I wasn't suggesting
that every single shot was stationary, but it's,

(33:17):
like, the majority of a you know? Gotcha.
Okay.
But going back to the champagne bottle, okay,
how many people were caught off guard when
Homeboy took that bottle to the dome? Right?
Man, I was like, what happened?
Because I'm I'm I'm still watching her. I'm
going, man, I hope she doesn't see him,
like, spiking her drink, and all of a
sudden, crash. I'm and I was sitting there
going, how did she even see that? That

(33:38):
was the one thing I was like, at
that angle's off. Like, she she was not
looking at him doing that, and she was
like, I'm gonna take you out. She had
something Sherry saw something bad about him. Well,
she says that later on that she had
just had a feeling. Mhmm. And then he
said, well, if your feeling would have been
wrong, you would have you would have
smacked a bottle, hit a priest with a

(33:58):
bottle. And she goes, well, I could've find
a way to forgive myself.
Well and it it also that also speaks
to the world that she's lived in because
she's lived in a world where she has
to be constantly aware
of what's being said around her, what's being
done.
Mhmm. And in her backstory, we see that
she

(34:18):
almost fell victim to some of that. And
so
just
the amount of
it fit her character that she would be
like, you know what? This guy's sus
and grabs a champagne bottle and knocks him
out and then runs.
Homegirl didn't even get her shoes. She said,
I don't need them.
So I had a I was thinking about

(34:40):
the film, the talking about the nobody
talking about nobody was who they who we
thought they were. Like,
the the salesman,
he, you know, he's a jerk and he's
foul, and then you find out he's this
loving father and he's a secret agent also
or CIA agent. And then, of course, you
have the priest who's supposed to be this,
you know, very pious individual. Turns out he's

(35:00):
a criminal. The girl, she was hiding her
skill and her abilities.
Mhmm. And then you had the, the hippie,
and she comes off front. The front end
is very brash, very, like, I don't care,
blah blah blah. But then it turned out
she's actually very loving. She's just concerned about
her her sister. Trying to get her sister
out of some kind of a cult. Yeah.
Exactly. And so, like, everyone had this thing
on the inside that they were they were

(35:21):
masking something else,
about themselves. And I found that very interesting.
Well, it goes back to the whole dichotomy
thing where Mhmm. Where people are
every if you look at each of the
characters that you said and the how there
are two sides to them. Mhmm. It's
the perspective is is constantly a dark and
a light.
A dark and a light. And and there

(35:44):
it goes back to the whole nobody's innocent.
Everybody needs redemption.
And
you'll notice as people choose the dark or
the light dichotomy that each character is,
that's what dictates the fate of each character.
Mhmm. Yeah. Definitely. And and who who who
who got at least a little bit misty

(36:04):
when Miles died?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was that was sad
watching that take place. It was
it was sweet watching it happen, but it
was it was genuinely like, oh, man. This
guy.
Oh, dude. I was having more of an
issue
with,
when he was going,
I don't wanna kill anybody else
because

(36:25):
that is
to me, that was a bit more
relevant, I guess. I don't know how to
say it. It it made more sense to
me because of the time frame. Mhmm. And
then we got his back story, and it
went, oh, that explains why he's a drug
addict because that is very common
amongst
specifically Vietnam vets.
Like, that that is a thing. Those are

(36:45):
statistics we know.
Mhmm. And so I was like, oh, that
tracks
this poor kid. No wonder he wants to
confess to this priest.
Yeah.
This
I I y'all.
I I know I'm telegraphing, but,
I mean, there's there's so much depth you
could go into in this movie. And I'm,

(37:06):
like, we have spoiled so much in this
movie, but just with the basic scenes that
we've talked about, there's still gonna be people
people who
did not listen to us and say when
we told them to turn it off and
go watch the movie,
that are gonna be, like, you know what?
Wait. What?
Yeah. It it was genuinely an interesting experience

(37:26):
watching it. And
we keep saying this or whatever. It was
just good storytelling, which honestly is something that
I I miss in cinema sometimes
is it's just it's a really interesting story
that kept you going. What's happening next? What's
happening next? And they did a great job
with it. And I appreciate that, you know,
it was so contained. You're talking about the
front end, about those movies that are, like,

(37:46):
like, it's just a small cast and a
small space like that. When you can do
that and do that well, it it comes
off great.
Now some people try doing that, and it's
not good, and you could just tell it
was cheap.
But they did a really great job of
making that happen. Yeah. Now I might have
done a bit of a history search while
we were watching the movie.
Mhmm. And the hotel that this is based

(38:08):
off of has a lot of fun conspiracy
theory
things surrounding it.
One of which and I'll I'll I won't
mention the rest of them. I'll just mention
this one.
The hotel that this is based off of
actually burned down
right before opening season
of, like, the Tahoe area,

(38:30):
the day before they were gonna put in
the
sprinkler system.
Oh. Considering it was also owned by the
mob, that makes you go,
what was in there?
What what were they hiding?
Right. I mean
well, cool. Does anybody have anything else to

(38:50):
say before we get to the,
ratings?
No. I think it's I'm gonna give a
rating on it. Alright. Celeste, you look like
you're about to say something and just didn't.
No. I was thinking.
Okay.
Alright. Well,
why don't
you, Dallas, go ahead and introduce the ratings,
and then I'll go first because this was
my movie, and I don't think mine's a
surprise. So Yeah. We know you're gonna put

(39:11):
it in an upsurfire. Anyways, so the rating
system we have here is, kind of a
4 tier system. We have top shelf, which
means I need to own this right now.
I need this on DVD. I need to
have this DRM so I can stream it
on everything.
I need the cellophoid, like, printed out and
on my wall and possibly tattooed to my
left butt cheek. That's what top shelf means.
2nd shelf is middle shelf, and it means

(39:33):
maybe if it's streaming, I might watch it.
You know, it's it's a good film. It's
not a terrible film at all. I enjoy
it. I just don't feel the need to
go out and buy it right now.
Bottom shelf means I probably won't watch this
again.
Good, bad, or different. I'm just like, nah.
And then we have dumpster fire, which means
I will actively try to keep people from
watching this film, and it's terrible. It is

(39:53):
trash. And to our understanding.
When things go in here, they disappear, and
nothing's ever gone in there before. Right? Right.
Right. There is no Avatar movie. What? What's
Avatar? Right.
So I'll go first.
Yeah. Mine's like mine's the toppest of top
shelves. Like, if I could
institute this as

(40:13):
mandatory high school watching, I would.
Just just just just in creative writing classes
alone to show how to write a character.
Mhmm.
I I've I've not
veiled anything that I feel about this movie.
I could gush about this movie all day.
So,
yeah, mandatory watching, toppest of top shelf, however

(40:34):
you wanna put it. 10 out of 10.
Dig it. Dig it.
Dallas.
I'm gonna put this I'm I'm kind of
torn. I'm probably gonna put it on a
high middle shelf.
Like, I don't wanna like, it was a
good movie. I would definitely watch it with
streaming. I don't feel the need to go
out and buy it. But like you, I'm
like, this is good storytelling. Like and I
would wreck if somebody is like, hey. What's
a movie that would be great for tell

(40:55):
me for to show me how it's a
good do good storytelling character development. I would
point this movie out,
because it keeps you guessing and it keeps
you, the story flowing as we talked about
before, and it just it felt quick. It
wasn't quick, but it felt quick. And,
so I'm gonna put it on as a
high middle shelf.
And the music bops, y'all. It does. Really
does. Genuinely does.

(41:16):
Celeste.
So
I'm
going
to rate this based on the fact that
I really want to go and rewatch it
right now.
So I'm gonna put it in the top
shelf because,
like,
I there's so many small things that I
feel like I missed. Like, it's been niggling
me in the back of my head going,

(41:37):
wasn't there something there? But I really love
good storytelling, and I love a good mystery.
And so if you put a good mystery
in the midst of
really good storytelling
with all of the
attention to detail that they have,
then it's it's gonna be something I enjoy

(41:59):
as long as it doesn't cross boundaries.
So there you have it, everybody.
This movie is a disputed top shelf. I
am so excited because I love this movie
so so so much.
So if how do you how do you
guys feel out there in listener line? Do
you agree with this or not? Shoot us
a message. Let's know what you think. Interact

(42:20):
with us.
In the meantime,
it is time
to do
the weak connections. I had to look for
my my, bumper here.
Welcome to the weak connection. This is the
part of the podcast where we
go line by line verse by no. Wait.

(42:41):
That's a different podcast.
Where podcast. Where we break down,
what we just watched and try to glean
some message of hope,
some
spiritual context, anything good or redemptive
that we can find in this movie.
And as per usual, we will open it

(43:03):
up
to pastor Dallas,
please.
Yeah. So one of the, like, prevailing
themes I think it is a conversation about,
have has somebody done too much to be
redeemed?
And,
specifically, with the one character, the, kind of
the the bellhop
manager of it,

(43:23):
who, like Celeste mentioned in the episode, the
the kid's dealing with some
serious level of PTSD coming out of Vietnam.
And then at the same time, dealing with
the guilt of everything he's been doing
at this hotel.
And,
the entire time he's wanting to confess his
sins.
And while we hear,
at the bombshell, we're not saying you need

(43:44):
to go see a priest to,
be redeemed, to have confess your sins.
There is a need to confess things that
is in our spirits that, you know, our
sin. And there are some people and I've
talked to people who have said, I've done
too much to be forgiven. I've gone too
far to be forgiven. I have, you know,
I've done x y z thing. God can
never love me. God would never care for
me. If I walk into a church, a

(44:04):
whole building will fall on top of me.
And that
is a lie. That is flat out a
lie. And there's a verse
Romans chapter 5 verse 8 says this, but
God showed his love for us that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ knew knows
what you've done, what you will do,
and he doesn't care.
He died so you could be redeemed. Doesn't

(44:25):
matter what you have done or will not
do or will, what you have done or
will will do. He died so you could
be redeemed, and all we have to do
is ask for that forgiveness. And there's this
really touching scene at the movie where
where the kid is giving his confession to
the the priest, to the father. And there's
this this genuine thing where the kid's like,
I've done too much. He's like, no. Like,
will you give yourself to the Lord in

(44:45):
this day? Live out for the rest of
your days. And he's like, I've it's too
late for me. He's like, it's not too
late. And so for whoever's listening,
no matter what's happening in your life, no
matter where you've gone, it's not too late
to give your life to Christ and to
live out the rest of your days. You
may have done some horrific things.
And I'm telling
you that while those things may not have
been okay,

(45:05):
Christ forgives, and he forgives perfectly.
And he redeems our lives, and he can
redeem the moment you in this moment if
you are willing to surrender your life to
him
and live this out with him. And that's
my, weak connection.
I wanna point out a line that was
said in this movie, and I I know
it's I'm this isn't my weak connection, and
I'm kinda stepping in on this, but it
it it it kinda it kinda rides with

(45:27):
that a little bit when Billy Lee was
talking to the kid when the kid was
trying to confess to the priest when he
said, well, if you're so concerned about all
if you're so concerned about the state of
your soul, then you probably shouldn't have been
doing all that wicked stuff to begin with.
I'm like that.
You know,
I know he's a bad guy, but he's
not wrong.

(45:50):
Well, that just plays into the whole
even if you
were a Christian and you've left the faith
and you think you've done something, you think
that
that God doesn't love you anymore, that that's
not true. You just have to seek.
You have to look for the
redemption. You have to to look for the

(46:12):
forgiveness.
You have to look for the opening strike.
What?
Come on, Dallas. What?
Oh, goodness gracious. But Celeste is wrong. Like,
she's, like, you know,
The opening thread.
So but she's right. I mean, it you
know, you may have messed up. And that's
the thing is there are a lot of

(46:32):
people that, you know, they were certainly walk
with Christ and maybe they they had a
a a failure
and they they walked away from him And
they did some stuff. And there's a lot
of people that they hold that judgment on
their heads, and
they feel like they can't we we just
talked about this in church actually today, and
there are some people that they feel like
they're second class Christians because they know God's
forgiven them, but God's just disappointed to them.

(46:54):
And that's not who God is. That's not
the father that we have in heaven.
When he forgives, he forgives totally and completely,
and you may have made mistakes.
You may have genuinely
messed up and done some terrible things, but
God's love and grace is so perfect that
if you repent, he'll restore you. We just
talked about on Geek Devotions,

(47:14):
a little bit about this,
last week.
And when we were we were talking about
the, the suicide squad, isekai.
And,
I brought the fact that if we the
way that we treat people today,
if we treated
king David the way we treat people today
with his mistakes, with his,

(47:35):
his,
affair,
and some people think possible rape of,
the the the woman and then the murder
of her husband.
If we were to treat him the way
we treat people today, we would have
completely deleted those chapters about him, every good
thing, every Psalm he ever wrote, every proverb.
Well, he didn't do any proverbs, but everything
that he's ever did, everything good. Jesus wouldn't

(47:57):
be called Jesus, the son of David. That
would have been wiped out completely,
but God is gracious.
Yeah. And he when he forgives, he forgives
fully. Doesn't mean there's, like, consequences of things.
Doesn't mean people need to be restored in
an appropriate manner,
but he does forgive.
Celeste, did you have a weak connection?
I did.
So Oh, we're got a full house because

(48:17):
I got one loaded too. Alright. Go ahead,
Celeste. Go ahead and do yours because I've
lost track of mine because I was
going yeah. That's good. So I need to
circle my brain back around. No worries. Alright.
Well, mine, I do have a scriptural reference.
I'm not gonna read it because it's long.
Mine is from the book of Judges.
That's it. The book of Judges.
And,

(48:39):
the point is and it's a it's a
theme that happens throughout this movie
is that God has called you to be
who you are in that moment regardless
of what your current planning
is.
And you see this throughout the movie.
Jeff Bridges' character was not in fact a
Catholic priest,
although in that moment, God needed him to

(49:01):
be that for
that kid,
so he could be at peace in his
final moments.
You know, in in the same way,
got you know, they needed that kid to
be the soldier again
despite the fact that he did not want
to.
Yeah.
You know,
and it's all about doing being the being

(49:23):
who God wants you to be when it's
timely, not when it's convenient.
Mhmm. And that happens so many times throughout
the book of Judges.
Best example I can think of off the
top of my head is Gideon
in that he was from the least
what was it? The the lowest clan of
the lowest tribe.

(49:43):
Mhmm.
And God still rose him up to be
a conquering
judge over Israel.
Or you could even go to Moses when
God approached him in the burning bush in
Exodus,
or rather when he approached the burning bush
in Exodus rather,

(50:03):
where Moses said, you know, I'm not the
guy and God says, I just told you
you're the guy. Do it.
So maybe there's somebody out there right now.
You know, Dallas's appeal was to people, you
know, there's time for you to repent now,
but it may be you're out there and
you're already
a Christian or already a believer. And but
there's there's,
you know, there's things, you know, there's

(50:27):
excuse me. I'm getting a little bit congested
in my throat. There's things that, you know,
it feels uncomfortable. Like, you know, this isn't
what I was planning for with my Christian
walk and God's like, so I wanna encourage
you to lean into that because that can
that can take you into places you weren't
expecting.
I could testify to that, but I'm not
gonna right now because this isn't the place.

(50:47):
So,
I just wanna encourage you to live out
your live out what God's calling in you
and lean not so much onto
your
own ideas as far as what you think
you're supposed to be.
So
mine kind of plays into that ish. Mine
also plays into what we talked about today
at church.

(51:07):
And I was thinking it anyway while we
were watching it, but Jeff Bridges because he's
has a memory loss.
He doesn't he doesn't remember things that he
should.
He
and at one point, he says,
I've been a little bit of everything, and
I don't it wasn't exactly that. But, basically,
he was a master of

(51:28):
pretending to be someone he's not.
And
Billy Lee goes, well, what's your name? What's
your real name? And he can't remember.
And he looks at
the singer,
and he goes, did I ever tell you
my name?
And she goes, no. You didn't.
There

(51:49):
are people out there who have
forgotten who they are in God.
They have forgotten
that they are a child of God and
that they're not just doing this Christian thing
just because.
They're that there that there is a an
actual god out there who they are worshiping.
They're doing things out of habit rather than
out of worship or out of desire,

(52:13):
or that they've attached their identity to something
else.
Mhmm. And
that's a dangerous thing to do.
Because if you attach your identity to something
else,
to another part that you're playing, to a
role that you're fulfilling, to a
job you're doing,
then you
run the risk of your identity being taken

(52:34):
away because nothing but God is permanent.
Mhmm. And so what happens if
you're no longer
mom? What happens if you're no longer,
you know, the team lead? What happens if
you're no longer whatever it is that you
have put
your identity in? Well, then you've lost your
identity,
and you don't know

(52:55):
that you are a child of God, that
you are all of these things that we
are told in scriptures that we are. Yeah.
And it was a it it did not
necessarily get resolved in the movie.
I don't know if he ever remembered his
name.
Sorry. Of you shouting it at the screen
too? No. Oh.

(53:15):
Sorry. I was taking too many breaths in,
and I wasn't breathing out.
Sorry. I I was trying to fill that.
I'm sorry. I'll I'll shut up. You're good.
You're good.
But
there can be resolution for us. If we
forget
who our identity is found in, there is
grace for us to remember.

(53:37):
There is a God who's willing to tell
us. And
assuming that you are in
a healthy church,
there are people around you who are there
to remind you or a healthy community,
either way. Yeah. That's that's my thing.
Cool.
Well, alright, everybody. I wanna thank everybody so
much for
swinging by

(53:58):
and hanging out with us on this space
station.
Oh,
Admiral?
Yeah.
This,
this screen here says
we there's a split in the wormhole. We
have to choose a direction.
Oh, no.
It,
don't touch anything.

(54:18):
Well, there's a decision that needs to be
made. Do
do we want more
mixed,
more of a mix of movies or go
back to just straight bad movies?
Red pill or blue pill? What do we
think?
Oh, let's ask the listeners
what they think.

(54:38):
We're we're go check out the Geek Devotions
Facebook
group.
We're gonna put a we're gonna put a
poll out there, and we'll put one out
on our Discord and actually all the socials
rather,
and, go vote for what you want more.
If you want more varied movies or if
you just want us to be

(54:59):
digging up the stinkers, let us know,
because we wanted I wanted to give you
guys a sampling of what it would taste
like if we were if we did movies
that weren't necessarily so bad.
So let us know, and we'll see where
this where are these, two wormholes
go. So until next time,
stay devoted.
Peace and love.