January 6, 2024 • 37 mins
Joe Escalante's dip into the murky waters of the business end of showbiz. This week: a look back at the top movies of 2023!!!
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(00:07):
Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood. Ifby Hollywood you mean Burbank, across the
street from a Wiener Schnitzel that servesbeer. We are live today in a
New Year's Eve. How do youlike that? Two hours of the business
end of show business every Sunday hereon KiB eleven fifty on your AM dial.
It is the last show of theyear. We'll be doing some top
(00:30):
ten stuff, my top ten moviesof the year that was not easy in
a year like this, and wewill you know, the usual ridiculous Hollywood
lawsuits, celebrities behaving badly, andthe box office. But first, let's
go to a couple of stories emblematicLive from Hollywood legal stories. This one
(00:57):
maybe you saw it on my Facebookpage. Yes, I have a Facebook
page, Joe's Golante Life from Hollywood. A Florida woman is suing Hershey for
five million dollars over a misleading Reese'spackaging that trick customers. Okay, the
woman's name is Cynthia Kelly. Imention her name in the hopes that she'll
(01:19):
be shamed publicly for this. Imean, who does this? Do you
have time for this? Okay,I've looked at the packaging. Her problem
with the packaging is this, it'slike a Reese's, like a chocolate covered
Reese's thing. Basically, it's somechocolate with some kind of poisonous a peanut
(01:47):
butter treat inside. When I saypoisonous, I mean this stuff isn't good
for you. What are you eatingthis for? Anyway? If you're eating
this, just eat it in bedor in your car, don't tell anyone,
and get over it. But she'ssuing because they said this. Like
what her she does is they justcover something with chocolate and then they make
(02:10):
a different image of what it lookslike on the packaging. So the packaging
like it's a jack o' lantern.The packaging is shaped like a jack o'
lantern. I mean the actual treatis shaped like a jack o' lantern.
But where are the eyes in themouth like it shows on the package?
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And you know, I get it. You look at the package, it
looks fun. You open it up, it's not very fun. Now you're
just left with the poison. Now. I'm not a licensed doctor in California,
so I can't tell you if it'sreally poison, but I can tell
you it's not a health treat.So Cynthia Kelly of Tampa, Florida decides
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that that's not fair, and thenshe looks at other packaging they have.
Sure enough, they have other treatsthat look kind of more fun on the
packaging than they do when you openit up and you actually look at the
chocolate. Okay, so she's madthey're not drilling holes in it. Basically,
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she's mad they're not carving out eyesand teeth for the pumpkin and stuff
for the football shaped one and otherlike a ghost shaped one. She wants
eyes. She just wants eyes mostlycarved in her candy. And for her
suffering, she would like five milliondollars. Now, granted, it's a
(03:36):
class action suit, So I wouldsay the way these things work is you
would send out a blank if itwas recognized as a class and it survived
certain levels of the court scrutiny,would they'd look for other people who were
similarly harmed, and then let's saythey got paid five million dollars, forty
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five percent probably would go to theattorneys. And I don't know if if
she gets money from being the leadplaintiff, but theoretically they have to get
everybody involved in this class action suit. And then you know, I just
got paid for a class action suittoday. It was like five hundred and
sixty dollars or whatever because an oiltanker went, oh, they ruptured an
(04:21):
oil line on the ocean in frontof my house. And they sent letters
to everybody who lived on the beachand said to fill this out because you've
been harmed by the oil that leakedinto your toes. Between your toes,
I guess that one. I thoughtthat's worth filling out. Money's going to
go somewhere, why not me?And Okay, but these kind of things,
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you end up with a coupon fora free candy barly literally that's what
you get. So I don't wastemy time with them. But this lady
does. Maybe she gets more moneysome corrupt way. The law firm isn't
allowed to pay her unless she's anattorney, and she's not an attorney.
According to my research on the Facebookapplication, she is a manager at a
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Popeye's and she's in debt. Theif she's the same one that I found
on Facebook Tampa, Cynthia Kelly andall her A lot of her posts are
about like getting out of debt withoutpaying your debt. So this is another
get rich quick scheme, some maysay, and to me, it's just
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like this is what Okay, isshe gonna win? Let's get to that
first. Is she gonna win?Uh? You know, I don't do
consumer fraud cases or anything, butyou know, from going back to law
school, I would say my defenseis, if i'm her, she is.
This is puffing. Puffing is somethingthat's allowed when you're selling a product
and you can't be held liable forpuffing. Puffing is like if you say,
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ah, this car will get youa girlfriend. Buy this car and
you will get a girlfriend. Okay, you buy the car, you don't
get a girlfriend, and then yousue, and the court says, now
that's just puffing. This is thefastest car in town. You buy the
car, you're driving around, someonebeats you in a race. Do you
sue them? I mean, youwere wrong. Do you believe that?
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And then you bought it and thenmaybe even lost money in the race.
Maybe you lost your pink slip ifyou're that bold. But no, there's
a legal doctrine called puffing, andyou can puff when you're selling something.
So that would be my defense,I guess for Hershey just say that we're
just puffing. You know you buythis looks I would show. I would
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go into court and show, youknow, a hundred pictures of things that
look better than they are. Thisis what a Carl's Junior Famous star looks
like on TV. And I submitto you, ladies and gentlemen, the
journal of the jury, as Ipull this Charles Junior Famous star out of
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a bag, this is what itreally looks like. Are we going to
hold Carl's Uni reliable for making thesereally cool commercials? And no we're not,
because we don't want to live inthat world. So you get the
Carls Junior Star. It's flat.The lettuce, it's not even just the
lettuce as wilted. They give youthe very center of the lettuce head like
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that little like that thing looks likea tree trunk. We put that on
your burger. All that stuff.It doesn't look good. It might taste
okay, but it's not fun asthe one on TV. It's puffing.
We're gonna make it look as goodas we can on the commercial, on
the packaging. When we get inside, we all know, I think as
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Americans, we know what it's gonnabe like on the inside. We do
that calculation to ourselves. And shouldthis lady get five million dollars because she
hasn't figured out what the rest ofus figured out when we were like seven
years old. I don't think so. But there she is and is the
courts. Does she think this isa good use of the courts? And
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I say this every time the courtsare used. The main purpose of the
courts and why our court system isso valuable and so you know, separates
this from third world countries, isbecause this is how the regular man can
get back at the powerful, andwe look after the marginalized. And if
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they are getting screwed by the man, we'd like to let him go to
the courts and the man must pay. But if the courts are clogged with
Cynthia Kelly's of the world trying toget five million dollars because a jack O'Lantern
hershey, candy, didn't have theeyes in it when she opened up and
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didn't have the smile, you know, there's a less room for justice for
the little man. Cynthia Kelly careabout that, No, she's just looking
to get a chunk of money.So she doesn't have to pay her credit
card bills where she took her familyto Disney World and just went big and
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I couldn't pay for it. Soshame on you, Cynthia Kelly. I
can read more about that and lookat the pictures on my Facebook page.
Joe's goalante Live from Hollywood, andwe will now take a break and check
the traffic. Say live from Hollywood, it's a business. End up,
show business here. Let's get tothe box office. So I know you
want to know what's big in thisweird weekend where it's New Year's Eve tonight
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Sunday, but it's you know,the movies are crowded during Christmas all the
time anyway, And yesterday I wentto see a movie and as I walked
into the movie with my gorgeous wifeSandra, I showed her the take and
I go, look, we're inC four and five. Okay, remember
(10:03):
that four and five because when weget there, there's going to be someone
in our seat, and we wantto know, we don't want to fudge
around for our tickets. So weget we walk in and sure enough,
two people in our seats. They'relike, oh, are these a your
seats. Yes, oh sorry,then they move into their seats which are
in the front row. You know, nobody wants those seats, but they
(10:24):
bought them, but they like ourseats look better. So you know,
it's the people and Christmas time wherethis is the worst time of the year
to go to the movies in manyways, because all the people that got
gift cards for the movies are aregoing, and you don't want to be
around those people because they will onlygo to the movies if it's free.
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So you know, it's amateur hour. Why do we want to be around
these people. But we need them, Actually we don't need them. As
long as someone buys the gift cards, that's good, I guess keep the
theaters open. So that was atthe Huntington Beach Beltara and where I go
where I'm a platinum member and therewards program, Yes, platinum. So
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this is it's a rough time.It's a rough time. So but you
know, we made it. Wemade it through. Let's go through the
box office. Number one in thebox office, surprising me, surprising your
host. Wonka. Okay, wow, that movie came out a while ago,
two weeks ago, and it's done. One hundred and thirty four million.
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I think word of mouth, maybefrom me too, a word of
mouth. It went up like itdropped off. It Usually movies drop off,
they drop off, they drop off. This one is thirty three percent
higher than the week before. Well, actually a couple movies are like that
because everybody's going to the movies rightnow. So Wanka is a very good
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movie. Timothy shallamay and the songsare good. It's very good. Achoman
and the Lost Kingdom is number two. I think this one is down.
This okay, this is This isdown thirty percent from last week? Why
is this down and Wonka's up?Because people like me are saying Wonka's good.
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People who saw Acaman are saying,look, this is someone said they
thought it was just the same movie. I was really Aquaman, the last
Aquaman. They just changed the title. They're trying to fool you. But
this movie was in eighty one morescreens and made thirty percent less. Wonka,
on the other hand, was inninety eight less screens than last week
and made thirty three percent more shocking. So what you want to know from
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that is, as you might likeWonka of cose Hee, it migration also
did something interesting. I mean itincreased in the theaters, but it went
up thirty eight percent since last week. Migration is a cartoon, but it's
written by Michael White. Does thatname sound familiar to you. He's the
guy who wrote the TV series TheWhite Lotus and another great overlooked TV series
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called Enlightened. Enlightened is a LouraDern stars in the HBO movie I'm it
mightn't have only gone one season,but man isn't great. So if you
can look at Enlightened on HBO,you'll be happy. White Lotus. I'm
sure you've heard of that. Hisearlier works include the film Orange County and
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one of the greatest movies ever made, Chuck and Buck. Yes, I
said it, Chuck and Buck.It's a classic. If you haven't seen
it, that's a recommendation. Gosee Chuck and Buck. Now, how
do you see Chuck and Buck?I've told you this before too. You
get the app Just Played or JustPlay Just Play as an app that tells
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you where movies are playing, andthey always start with free. You can
watch this movie free here, andthen they go down the list like,
well you can, you're gonna rentit? Here or Anna. If you
have HBO, you can watch ithere. But they always start with the
free ones because they know how cheapyou are. So Mike, he writes,
Migration this cartoon, so I thinkthat's a game changer, and all
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of a sudden, I'm gonna gosee this universal cartoon Migration because Michael right
would Michael White wrote it. TheColor Purple is number four, and that's
solid forty five million as a newmovie over the weekend, so forty five
million weekend one. But it didn'tcrack. It didn't. It wasn't able
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to beat these movies that were alreadyout anyone but you from Sony Pictures is
number five. The Boys in theBoat. You've seen that about the Rowers,
the old timey clothing. Number six, Number seven, The Iron Claw.
That's a wrestling movie from a twentyfour about the von eric family.
Number eight Ferrari. People say Ferrari'sgreat, even ladies like it. The
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Hunger Games number nine still strong atone hundred fifty nine million out of the
US box office. On that.The Boy and the Hair on which from
the studio Ghibli's done thirty five millionin the US so far. Number eleven
Godzilla minus one forty five million outof the box office. That's the best
movie playing in theaters right now ifyou ask me. And I will do
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my top ten soon. First ofall, I'll tell you the movie I
saw today or yesterday, which isThe Iron Claw. Iron Claw. It's
a movie about, first of all, a twenty fours, like you know,
cool the cool people movies. They'renever big movies, but they're usually
always really good. This one isa true story about the von Eric brothers
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and they made history in the intenselycompetitive world of professional wrestling in the early
nineteen eighties. But they underwent moretragedy than probably than like the Kennedys,
under the shadow of their domineering fatherand coach. It's kind of an indictment
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against him. I assume he's deadbecause you know he's they're seeking larger than
life, you know, immortality,just to please him, and he's an
a hole. Oh there I saidit. So very sad movie. I
just warn you, it's very sad. There's a lot of tragedy involved.
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What movies are we anticipating right now? We're anticipating The Beekeeper, the New
Lord of the Rings, and theBob Marley movie One Love That One Looks
Good biopic. This was a biopic, the Iron Claw Biopictu are still big.
And wrestling is better on movies.If you don't like wrestling, you
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might say, Joe, I don'tlike professional wrestling. I don't watch that
junk. Well, let me tellyou wrestling is a lot better on TV.
I mean in movies, like whenthey're like re enacting it because it's
fake anyway, and you can sayit's not fake and they say in the
movie that it's not fake, butit's fake. But it's is it very
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physical? Yes? Could I doit? Yes, But it's it's written
contrived, and it's a it's anentertainment. It's not a sport. It's
not it's it is athletic the sameway sir Do Sleay is athletic, but
it's not. I mean these it'snot like these guys are going in the
ring with Cassius Clay and they're gonnaget there, they're going to get knocked
out now, but they do beyou know what, in many ways it's
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more dangerous than boxing or uh cagefighting because they it's such on it's such
on the margins, you know,of of athletics that I don't think these
people are getting proper athletic care.You know, they're definitely not going to
the you know Lakers, Sentinella,you know sports injury clinic. H They're
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just going then I go anywhere.Okay. So in that way, it's
it's very dangerous and but it's somuch better this kind of wrestling to me
anyway, Like Nacho Libre, Icould watch Nacho Libre a hundred times,
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but can I watch a Lucha Libreactual fight. I'll get bored after ten
minutos. So if you don't likewrestling, you'll still like The Iron Claw.
It's a well made film. Theonly problem was I get I took
off a half a point for theweeks. Wigs are terrible in movies these
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days. I don't know why theythink it doesn't matter, you know,
I say, if you're gonna bein a movie with a wig, shave
your head. If you're a man. The women wigs are fine, it's
the male wigs that I have alove movie. And Zac Efron's wig,
it made him look like Nora Efron. Probably let's take a break. When
when we come back. Joe Escalante'sTop ten Movies twenty twenty three. We
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are back Joe Ascolante live from Hollywoodwith the Business end of Show Business every
Sunday from five to seven pm ke IB eleven fifty on your AM dial.
And it is the year end show, New Year's Eve, twenty twenty
three. Congratulations you made it.And like unlike most shows, this is
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not a best of show. Thisis not a or just an all like
countdown thing or review. This isit is a real show. Let's go
to my list of the top moviesof the year. I do with that
list. Fall down? Heck now, let's go. Oh here it did?
(19:48):
It did fall down. I'm havingin my hot hands right here written
on a deeal blue post it note. Okay, let's start. You know
we're gonn start at the end.We're going to go to number ten,
number ten movie of the year,The Sound of Freedom. Yes, the
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Sound of Freedom. You know,this movie about the human trafficking. Very
controversial film because people, it didso well and it beat like everybody.
It's one of the biggest movies ofthe year, starring Jim Caviezel, a
guy who played Jesus in The Passion. Myras Sorvino, son of the late
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and great Paul Sorvino, Bill CampAnd it's a true story about a guy
who was a cop and then hejust had to go down and bust this
Colombian sex trafficking operation. And itwas shocking to see how the sex trafficking
works in these countries. And itwas a great film directed by Alejandro Monteverde.
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Now he directed another film called Bellawith Eduardo Verastigi. That's like this
really like over the top, goodlooking Latin actor who produced this movie starred
in monteverde'es Bella. This is anothergood movie. You should see Bella.
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And this is a good movie.Now it got a little boosted in my
rating because it was so unfairly maligned, so it might have knocked it up
half a point. But yeah,very good movie and doesn't have any of
the cringe of some Christian movies.But it's not really a Christian movie.
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It's just an anti sex trafficking.But since it was made by a Christian
company, people were like just comingdown on it and they were saying things
like, oh, I heard theit won the box office, But if
you actually went into the theaters,the theaters were empty. Okay, that's
all you could come up with.It had two hundred and fifty million at
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the box office on a fourteen milliondollar film. These people making this film
became wealthy from sticking to their gunsand making this movie a movie no one
else wanted to make because sex trafficking, for some reason is controversial. So
yeah, did some companies buy atheater like they buy out a screening and
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tell their employees to go? Yeah? Probably, And did all the employees
come. No, maybe they didn'twant to go, but they bought out
the theater for their employees and whoevercame king, So there probably were some
theaters where there were you know,some you know, and then there's people
running around trying to find these buttwod Okay, so let's take ten million
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off. That make two hundred andforty million. Anyway, good movie number
ten of the year for Joe.And you know it's number ten because I
don't know how much of me isjust mad that it got attacked, So
I don't really know. I can'treally say how much I liked it compared
to these other movies. But theysay, mostly this is a movie year
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that wasn't very good. I didn'treally have any solid four and a half
star movies. My rating system isone to five because I put them on
the application letterboxed. That's where Iput all them my list every movie I
saw to to remember them mainly,and I used their five star system.
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I didn't see any five star moviesthis year. I didn't see any four
and a half stars. Really afew four star movies I saw, and
that's what makes up my list mainly. So Number nine is a film called
No Hard Feelings starring Jennifer Lawrence,directed by a guy named Jean Stupinsky,
was basically just a writer and directorfor the office sitcom. It did eighty
(24:03):
seven million at the box office ona budget of forty five million. Jennifer
Lawrence is great in it. It'sa little bit morally offensive, but for
as far as R rated comedies go, it is funny, like in the
Something about Mary Vain. Maybe maybenot that over the top funny, but
it's a good movie. Jennifer Lawrenceis a great performance. So that's number
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nine for me. Number eight isa film called Are You There, God,
It's me Margaret. This is basedon the book Judy Bloom who writes
these kinds of books for young girlsa thousand years ago, and that's good.
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It's a funny movie. The GirlIs I don't remember what it was
rated, but it was mainly aboutthis girl that has been given a choice
to pick her own religion or herfather's Jewish or mother's Christian, or the
other way around. I don't remember. Anyway, it was just funny from
Wayan'sgate did thirty million, thirty millionfor just a you know, a low
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budget comedy. Both sorry, Itake it back. It did twenty million
on a thirty million dollar budget.So, uh, that's a bit of
a failure, I guess. Butyou know, they probably sold it to
streaming and made some of the moneyback. Anyway. I mean, it
wasn't great movie. It wasn't.I mean it was a great movie.
It was a good movie. It'snot a great year for movies. So
this is what we get. Let'sgo down the line. Number seven,
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Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part one. Oh yeah, it was pretty good.
You know, did it do thatgreat? I don't know. You
know, it didn't do as goodas it came out when Barbie and Oppenheimer
came out and Tim Tim Cruz.Tom Cruise is that his name? Oh
yeah, I guess so. SoTom Cruise gets all mad and starts calling
(26:04):
Oppenheimer and the Barbie people and say, hey, move your move your movie.
Come on, don't do this tome. Even and he even called
yep, Oppenheimer guy and said getthat. I need to be in the
IMAX, so move it. Andno one would listen to him, even
though he just almost single handedly broughtback the film industry with his last top
(26:27):
Gun movie. You know, peoplesaid go pound sand So a two hundred
and ninety one million dollar budget boxoffice five sixty seven and some overseas stuff.
It made some money. It's ait's a great film and he's great
in it. And so it's numberseven for Joe scoll on Ten's Top ten.
(26:47):
It's time we got to keep upthis gag. Maybe I can do
one more before the break. Sowe have a film called number six,
Renfield, starring Nicholas k Did yousee Renfield? You should have super funny,
super fun Nicholas Cage is great init. The film tells a story
(27:08):
of the character Renfield from the Draculauniverse, and he's, you know,
just a funny he's a funny,troubled vampire. In the early nineteen hundreds.
He meets an English lawyer, CountDracula meets an English lawyer r In
Renfield. Renfield becomes an assistant thatis, like, you know, giving
(27:30):
him people to kill, et cetera, trying to find, like, you
know, bad people that he won'tfeel remorse for having Dracula to chew him
up. Directed by Chris McKay,a guy known for the Lego Batman movie
and a couple episodes of Robot Chicken. Good movie. It didn't do well
at the box office, kind ofa flop. Cost sixty five million to
(27:53):
make and only did twenty something million. But that doesn't mean you're not gonna
like it, and actually you're gonnalove it. So Reinfield, let's take
a break and we'll check the trafficand we'll get to number five on the
Top ten Movies of twenty twenty three. From Joe Scolante Live from Hollywood,
(28:32):
Joe Ascalante, here's my lawyer.You don't want money, he does at
all. Joe Scollante Live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean Burbank across
the street from a Wiener schnitzel thatserves beer. We are going down.
We're doing the campdown because that's whatyou do. But this is this is
(28:52):
getting real fun if you like that. Some these movies. I feel like
most people you didn't see any ofthese movies because you stop going to movies
because now you go to like municipalconcerts and you go to wine tastings and
stuff like that. So you mightnot have seen any of them. So
I'm trying to help you out.Saltburn this is one of the few movies
that I have on this list thatis still in the theaters. It might
(29:15):
be the only one. Saltburn isa English film that stars see Saltburn is
(29:45):
a I guess you would call ita black comedy, maybe a psychological drama.
It's written, directed, and producedby a woman named Emerald Finelle or
Fennel, I don't know. Butshe's an English actress. She's got you
know, Academy Award for something,BAFT Award, She's got a Primetime Emmy
nomination and a Golden Globe nomination,three of them. Anyway, she's accomplished.
(30:11):
And the film is what did Icall it? I called it a
like a French New wave version ofthe Korean film Parasite takes place in England
in the early two thousands and aguy gets a scholarship at Oxford University and
(30:36):
he's struggling to fit in and hemeets some upper class people. He ends
up going to this castle called Saltburn, and all kinds of parasite stuff happened
from there. Stars Barry Keegan.You might remember him from the Irish film
where the guy gets his fingers cutoff? Remember this one. What's it
(31:03):
called The Banchees of Ina Sheering.That's right, that's what it's called.
He's the guy that plays the spectrmey young kid on The Banchees of Ina
Sheering. He's great in the film, and you will like the film morally
offensive and moderately. Did nineteen millionat the box office. I don't know
(31:23):
what it costs, but still intheaters right now, Saltburn, go see
it. Number four is a filmcalled one thousand and one, and that's
an indie movie that we interact.We interviewed the director on this show.
Her name is av Rockwell. Idon't know if I gave it such a
high rating because I got so investedin it because I interviewed the director.
(31:45):
That's what sometimes happens. But itmade me like, really pay attention to
the film and study the film.And it's about like a nineteen ninety four
hairdresser who's released from Riker's Island andturns to Brooklyn where she sees her son
and she kind of kidnaps him andtries to take care of him. And
(32:07):
it's very sad, but very wellmade and just the realism of nineteen ninety
four New York. Was fun towatch, and I look forward to more
of av Rockwell's films in the future. Let's go to the number three film
in the world, which is shoothmm. Let's go to the number three
(32:57):
film on my list, which isthere. It's a science fiction film produced
and directed by Gareth Edwards. GarethEdwords you might remember him for he did
a Godzilla film and he did aRogue what's it called Rogue one, a
(33:20):
Star Wars story in twenty sixteen.He's a good director and this is a
good film. Overlooked did one hundredand four million at the box office on
an eighty million dollar budget, sodefinitely a successful film. He's just a
great filmmaker and this is a greatStar Wars type film, which isn't a
(33:45):
part of the Star Wars canon.I guess you would call that, but
you probably missed it, and ifyou get a chance, check it out.
It was just attributed by twentieth CenturyStudios, which is owned by Disney.
So I think at the beginning ofhis journey with this movie, it
(34:07):
was a Fox thing, and thenthey and then Disney bought it and it
became a Disney thing. And itdidn't get a lot of promo because it
was during the strike where they couldn'tthey couldn't do promo. And but if
you see it come up on yourstreamer. The Creator, directed by Gareth
Edwards, is my number three movieof the year. Number two I have
(34:27):
a tie. My number two moviesof the year are tied is Barbie and
Oppenheimer. How can you pick betweenthose two? They were both excellent and
they one could not exist without theother. Am I right? I think
I'm a right. So now you'reasking Joe, what is your number one
movie of the year. Now,now let me let me preface this by
saying, this is not a greatyear for movies. This is this is
(34:47):
a year where there were some prettycool movies, and there weren't any like
you know, once upon a timein Hollywood's or like the twenty nineteen year
that I you know still or pineAway for that's what I'm doing, or
even last year was my top movie? Last year it was maybe that film
(35:12):
Living Maybe it was twenty twenty filmtwenty twenty two film from the Issue Gurro
screenplay with Bill Nye. This yearmy number one film, go in a
different direction. Number one film fortwenty twenty three, Cocaine Bear, directed
(35:32):
by Elizabeth Banks and featuring a whatlooks to me a final performance by Ray
Liotta before his untimely death. Ilike this film. It was feel good.
They did it the old fashioned way. You find an article. The
article is about cocaine falling out ofa plane, and the bear finds it
goes crazy, and then you takethat story which is outrageous, and you
(35:54):
make a good movie instead of aterrible movie like many people would have made,
like maybe that. I need thePooh horror film. So high concept,
very well made film, is veryrare, and it made me feel
good and it's so it's my numberone movie of twenty twenty three. I
have a Cocaine bear t shirt.Wherever I wear it, it makes everybody
happy. So is it ben Her? No, but it's my number one
(36:15):
movie of the year. Maybe never. Next year will be a better year.
We'll find out, and that's whenI'll see you on the next episode
of Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood.I now leave you with a word from
the good folks at Coca Cola,and then just the taste of the greatest
song ever written one more time intwenty twenty three, Happy New Year.
(36:37):
You know this was me five yearsago and it's still me as I confess
I'm a waistline watcher from way back. Well that's enough for today. Now
for a lively lift, ice coldCoca Cola. There's no waistliney with cocaine
though. Actually this individual sized bottlehas no more calories than half a grapefruit.
Mmm. Another thing, The coldchris taste of co okas so satisfying.
(37:00):
It keeps me from eating something elsethat might really add those pounds coax.
The natural, wholesome blending of purefood flavors. I guess that's why
everyone likes the rushing new feeling againonly from not too sweet Coca Cola and
no wonder lively lifty Coca Cola providesa welcome bit of quick energy between meals.
Thanks for a pleasant pause and agoody day. I remember Coca's low
(37:23):
en calories too, Hey, now, don't you get any sooner
Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood. Ifby Hollywood you mean Burbank, across the
street from a Wiener Schnitzel that servesbeer. We are live today in a
New Year's Eve. How do youlike that? Two hours of the business
end of show business every Sunday hereon KiB eleven fifty on your AM dial.
It is the last show of theyear. We'll be doing some top
(00:30):
ten stuff, my top ten moviesof the year that was not easy in
a year like this, and wewill you know, the usual ridiculous Hollywood
lawsuits, celebrities behaving badly, andthe box office. But first, let's
go to a couple of stories emblematicLive from Hollywood legal stories. This one
(00:57):
maybe you saw it on my Facebookpage. Yes, I have a Facebook
page, Joe's Golante Life from Hollywood. A Florida woman is suing Hershey for
five million dollars over a misleading Reese'spackaging that trick customers. Okay, the
woman's name is Cynthia Kelly. Imention her name in the hopes that she'll
(01:19):
be shamed publicly for this. Imean, who does this? Do you
have time for this? Okay,I've looked at the packaging. Her problem
with the packaging is this, it'slike a Reese's, like a chocolate covered
Reese's thing. Basically, it's somechocolate with some kind of poisonous a peanut
(01:47):
butter treat inside. When I saypoisonous, I mean this stuff isn't good
for you. What are you eatingthis for? Anyway? If you're eating
this, just eat it in bedor in your car, don't tell anyone,
and get over it. But she'ssuing because they said this. Like
what her she does is they justcover something with chocolate and then they make
(02:10):
a different image of what it lookslike on the packaging. So the packaging
like it's a jack o' lantern.The packaging is shaped like a jack o'
lantern. I mean the actual treatis shaped like a jack o' lantern.
But where are the eyes in themouth like it shows on the package?
(02:31):
And you know, I get it. You look at the package, it
looks fun. You open it up, it's not very fun. Now you're
just left with the poison. Now. I'm not a licensed doctor in California,
so I can't tell you if it'sreally poison, but I can tell
you it's not a health treat.So Cynthia Kelly of Tampa, Florida decides
(02:55):
that that's not fair, and thenshe looks at other packaging they have.
Sure enough, they have other treatsthat look kind of more fun on the
packaging than they do when you openit up and you actually look at the
chocolate. Okay, so she's madthey're not drilling holes in it. Basically,
(03:16):
she's mad they're not carving out eyesand teeth for the pumpkin and stuff
for the football shaped one and otherlike a ghost shaped one. She wants
eyes. She just wants eyes mostlycarved in her candy. And for her
suffering, she would like five milliondollars. Now, granted, it's a
(03:36):
class action suit, So I wouldsay the way these things work is you
would send out a blank if itwas recognized as a class and it survived
certain levels of the court scrutiny,would they'd look for other people who were
similarly harmed, and then let's saythey got paid five million dollars, forty
(03:57):
five percent probably would go to theattorneys. And I don't know if if
she gets money from being the leadplaintiff, but theoretically they have to get
everybody involved in this class action suit. And then you know, I just
got paid for a class action suittoday. It was like five hundred and
sixty dollars or whatever because an oiltanker went, oh, they ruptured an
(04:21):
oil line on the ocean in frontof my house. And they sent letters
to everybody who lived on the beachand said to fill this out because you've
been harmed by the oil that leakedinto your toes. Between your toes,
I guess that one. I thoughtthat's worth filling out. Money's going to
go somewhere, why not me?And Okay, but these kind of things,
(04:43):
you end up with a coupon fora free candy barly literally that's what
you get. So I don't wastemy time with them. But this lady
does. Maybe she gets more moneysome corrupt way. The law firm isn't
allowed to pay her unless she's anattorney, and she's not an attorney.
According to my research on the Facebookapplication, she is a manager at a
(05:03):
Popeye's and she's in debt. Theif she's the same one that I found
on Facebook Tampa, Cynthia Kelly andall her A lot of her posts are
about like getting out of debt withoutpaying your debt. So this is another
get rich quick scheme, some maysay, and to me, it's just
(05:27):
like this is what Okay, isshe gonna win? Let's get to that
first. Is she gonna win?Uh? You know, I don't do
consumer fraud cases or anything, butyou know, from going back to law
school, I would say my defenseis, if i'm her, she is.
This is puffing. Puffing is somethingthat's allowed when you're selling a product
and you can't be held liable forpuffing. Puffing is like if you say,
(05:54):
ah, this car will get youa girlfriend. Buy this car and
you will get a girlfriend. Okay, you buy the car, you don't
get a girlfriend, and then yousue, and the court says, now
that's just puffing. This is thefastest car in town. You buy the
car, you're driving around, someonebeats you in a race. Do you
sue them? I mean, youwere wrong. Do you believe that?
(06:15):
And then you bought it and thenmaybe even lost money in the race.
Maybe you lost your pink slip ifyou're that bold. But no, there's
a legal doctrine called puffing, andyou can puff when you're selling something.
So that would be my defense,I guess for Hershey just say that we're
just puffing. You know you buythis looks I would show. I would
(06:35):
go into court and show, youknow, a hundred pictures of things that
look better than they are. Thisis what a Carl's Junior Famous star looks
like on TV. And I submitto you, ladies and gentlemen, the
journal of the jury, as Ipull this Charles Junior Famous star out of
(06:56):
a bag, this is what itreally looks like. Are we going to
hold Carl's Uni reliable for making thesereally cool commercials? And no we're not,
because we don't want to live inthat world. So you get the
Carls Junior Star. It's flat.The lettuce, it's not even just the
lettuce as wilted. They give youthe very center of the lettuce head like
(07:17):
that little like that thing looks likea tree trunk. We put that on
your burger. All that stuff.It doesn't look good. It might taste
okay, but it's not fun asthe one on TV. It's puffing.
We're gonna make it look as goodas we can on the commercial, on
the packaging. When we get inside, we all know, I think as
(07:38):
Americans, we know what it's gonnabe like on the inside. We do
that calculation to ourselves. And shouldthis lady get five million dollars because she
hasn't figured out what the rest ofus figured out when we were like seven
years old. I don't think so. But there she is and is the
courts. Does she think this isa good use of the courts? And
(08:00):
I say this every time the courtsare used. The main purpose of the
courts and why our court system isso valuable and so you know, separates
this from third world countries, isbecause this is how the regular man can
get back at the powerful, andwe look after the marginalized. And if
(08:28):
they are getting screwed by the man, we'd like to let him go to
the courts and the man must pay. But if the courts are clogged with
Cynthia Kelly's of the world trying toget five million dollars because a jack O'Lantern
hershey, candy, didn't have theeyes in it when she opened up and
(08:48):
didn't have the smile, you know, there's a less room for justice for
the little man. Cynthia Kelly careabout that, No, she's just looking
to get a chunk of money.So she doesn't have to pay her credit
card bills where she took her familyto Disney World and just went big and
(09:13):
I couldn't pay for it. Soshame on you, Cynthia Kelly. I
can read more about that and lookat the pictures on my Facebook page.
Joe's goalante Live from Hollywood, andwe will now take a break and check
the traffic. Say live from Hollywood, it's a business. End up,
show business here. Let's get tothe box office. So I know you
want to know what's big in thisweird weekend where it's New Year's Eve tonight
(09:41):
Sunday, but it's you know,the movies are crowded during Christmas all the
time anyway, And yesterday I wentto see a movie and as I walked
into the movie with my gorgeous wifeSandra, I showed her the take and
I go, look, we're inC four and five. Okay, remember
(10:03):
that four and five because when weget there, there's going to be someone
in our seat, and we wantto know, we don't want to fudge
around for our tickets. So weget we walk in and sure enough,
two people in our seats. They'relike, oh, are these a your
seats. Yes, oh sorry,then they move into their seats which are
in the front row. You know, nobody wants those seats, but they
(10:24):
bought them, but they like ourseats look better. So you know,
it's the people and Christmas time wherethis is the worst time of the year
to go to the movies in manyways, because all the people that got
gift cards for the movies are aregoing, and you don't want to be
around those people because they will onlygo to the movies if it's free.
(10:46):
So you know, it's amateur hour. Why do we want to be around
these people. But we need them, Actually we don't need them. As
long as someone buys the gift cards, that's good, I guess keep the
theaters open. So that was atthe Huntington Beach Beltara and where I go
where I'm a platinum member and therewards program, Yes, platinum. So
(11:09):
this is it's a rough time.It's a rough time. So but you
know, we made it. Wemade it through. Let's go through the
box office. Number one in thebox office, surprising me, surprising your
host. Wonka. Okay, wow, that movie came out a while ago,
two weeks ago, and it's done. One hundred and thirty four million.
(11:31):
I think word of mouth, maybefrom me too, a word of
mouth. It went up like itdropped off. It Usually movies drop off,
they drop off, they drop off. This one is thirty three percent
higher than the week before. Well, actually a couple movies are like that
because everybody's going to the movies rightnow. So Wanka is a very good
(11:52):
movie. Timothy shallamay and the songsare good. It's very good. Achoman
and the Lost Kingdom is number two. I think this one is down.
This okay, this is This isdown thirty percent from last week? Why
is this down and Wonka's up?Because people like me are saying Wonka's good.
(12:15):
People who saw Acaman are saying,look, this is someone said they
thought it was just the same movie. I was really Aquaman, the last
Aquaman. They just changed the title. They're trying to fool you. But
this movie was in eighty one morescreens and made thirty percent less. Wonka,
on the other hand, was inninety eight less screens than last week
and made thirty three percent more shocking. So what you want to know from
(12:41):
that is, as you might likeWonka of cose Hee, it migration also
did something interesting. I mean itincreased in the theaters, but it went
up thirty eight percent since last week. Migration is a cartoon, but it's
written by Michael White. Does thatname sound familiar to you. He's the
guy who wrote the TV series TheWhite Lotus and another great overlooked TV series
(13:01):
called Enlightened. Enlightened is a LouraDern stars in the HBO movie I'm it
mightn't have only gone one season,but man isn't great. So if you
can look at Enlightened on HBO,you'll be happy. White Lotus. I'm
sure you've heard of that. Hisearlier works include the film Orange County and
(13:26):
one of the greatest movies ever made, Chuck and Buck. Yes, I
said it, Chuck and Buck.It's a classic. If you haven't seen
it, that's a recommendation. Gosee Chuck and Buck. Now, how
do you see Chuck and Buck?I've told you this before too. You
get the app Just Played or JustPlay Just Play as an app that tells
(13:48):
you where movies are playing, andthey always start with free. You can
watch this movie free here, andthen they go down the list like,
well you can, you're gonna rentit? Here or Anna. If you
have HBO, you can watch ithere. But they always start with the
free ones because they know how cheapyou are. So Mike, he writes,
Migration this cartoon, so I thinkthat's a game changer, and all
(14:11):
of a sudden, I'm gonna gosee this universal cartoon Migration because Michael right
would Michael White wrote it. TheColor Purple is number four, and that's
solid forty five million as a newmovie over the weekend, so forty five
million weekend one. But it didn'tcrack. It didn't. It wasn't able
(14:33):
to beat these movies that were alreadyout anyone but you from Sony Pictures is
number five. The Boys in theBoat. You've seen that about the Rowers,
the old timey clothing. Number six, Number seven, The Iron Claw.
That's a wrestling movie from a twentyfour about the von eric family.
Number eight Ferrari. People say Ferrari'sgreat, even ladies like it. The
(14:56):
Hunger Games number nine still strong atone hundred fifty nine million out of the
US box office. On that.The Boy and the Hair on which from
the studio Ghibli's done thirty five millionin the US so far. Number eleven
Godzilla minus one forty five million outof the box office. That's the best
movie playing in theaters right now ifyou ask me. And I will do
(15:20):
my top ten soon. First ofall, I'll tell you the movie I
saw today or yesterday, which isThe Iron Claw. Iron Claw. It's
a movie about, first of all, a twenty fours, like you know,
cool the cool people movies. They'renever big movies, but they're usually
always really good. This one isa true story about the von Eric brothers
(15:46):
and they made history in the intenselycompetitive world of professional wrestling in the early
nineteen eighties. But they underwent moretragedy than probably than like the Kennedys,
under the shadow of their domineering fatherand coach. It's kind of an indictment
(16:06):
against him. I assume he's deadbecause you know he's they're seeking larger than
life, you know, immortality,just to please him, and he's an
a hole. Oh there I saidit. So very sad movie. I
just warn you, it's very sad. There's a lot of tragedy involved.
(16:26):
What movies are we anticipating right now? We're anticipating The Beekeeper, the New
Lord of the Rings, and theBob Marley movie One Love That One Looks
Good biopic. This was a biopic, the Iron Claw Biopictu are still big.
And wrestling is better on movies.If you don't like wrestling, you
(16:47):
might say, Joe, I don'tlike professional wrestling. I don't watch that
junk. Well, let me tellyou wrestling is a lot better on TV.
I mean in movies, like whenthey're like re enacting it because it's
fake anyway, and you can sayit's not fake and they say in the
movie that it's not fake, butit's fake. But it's is it very
(17:07):
physical? Yes? Could I doit? Yes, But it's it's written
contrived, and it's a it's anentertainment. It's not a sport. It's
not it's it is athletic the sameway sir Do Sleay is athletic, but
it's not. I mean these it'snot like these guys are going in the
ring with Cassius Clay and they're gonnaget there, they're going to get knocked
out now, but they do beyou know what, in many ways it's
(17:30):
more dangerous than boxing or uh cagefighting because they it's such on it's such
on the margins, you know,of of athletics that I don't think these
people are getting proper athletic care.You know, they're definitely not going to
the you know Lakers, Sentinella,you know sports injury clinic. H They're
(17:55):
just going then I go anywhere.Okay. So in that way, it's
it's very dangerous and but it's somuch better this kind of wrestling to me
anyway, Like Nacho Libre, Icould watch Nacho Libre a hundred times,
(18:17):
but can I watch a Lucha Libreactual fight. I'll get bored after ten
minutos. So if you don't likewrestling, you'll still like The Iron Claw.
It's a well made film. Theonly problem was I get I took
off a half a point for theweeks. Wigs are terrible in movies these
(18:37):
days. I don't know why theythink it doesn't matter, you know,
I say, if you're gonna bein a movie with a wig, shave
your head. If you're a man. The women wigs are fine, it's
the male wigs that I have alove movie. And Zac Efron's wig,
it made him look like Nora Efron. Probably let's take a break. When
when we come back. Joe Escalante'sTop ten Movies twenty twenty three. We
(19:03):
are back Joe Ascolante live from Hollywoodwith the Business end of Show Business every
Sunday from five to seven pm ke IB eleven fifty on your AM dial.
And it is the year end show, New Year's Eve, twenty twenty
three. Congratulations you made it.And like unlike most shows, this is
(19:25):
not a best of show. Thisis not a or just an all like
countdown thing or review. This isit is a real show. Let's go
to my list of the top moviesof the year. I do with that
list. Fall down? Heck now, let's go. Oh here it did?
(19:48):
It did fall down. I'm havingin my hot hands right here written
on a deeal blue post it note. Okay, let's start. You know
we're gonn start at the end.We're going to go to number ten,
number ten movie of the year,The Sound of Freedom. Yes, the
(20:11):
Sound of Freedom. You know,this movie about the human trafficking. Very
controversial film because people, it didso well and it beat like everybody.
It's one of the biggest movies ofthe year, starring Jim Caviezel, a
guy who played Jesus in The Passion. Myras Sorvino, son of the late
(20:33):
and great Paul Sorvino, Bill CampAnd it's a true story about a guy
who was a cop and then hejust had to go down and bust this
Colombian sex trafficking operation. And itwas shocking to see how the sex trafficking
works in these countries. And itwas a great film directed by Alejandro Monteverde.
(21:00):
Now he directed another film called Bellawith Eduardo Verastigi. That's like this
really like over the top, goodlooking Latin actor who produced this movie starred
in monteverde'es Bella. This is anothergood movie. You should see Bella.
(21:22):
And this is a good movie.Now it got a little boosted in my
rating because it was so unfairly maligned, so it might have knocked it up
half a point. But yeah,very good movie and doesn't have any of
the cringe of some Christian movies.But it's not really a Christian movie.
(21:44):
It's just an anti sex trafficking.But since it was made by a Christian
company, people were like just comingdown on it and they were saying things
like, oh, I heard theit won the box office, But if
you actually went into the theaters,the theaters were empty. Okay, that's
all you could come up with.It had two hundred and fifty million at
(22:06):
the box office on a fourteen milliondollar film. These people making this film
became wealthy from sticking to their gunsand making this movie a movie no one
else wanted to make because sex trafficking, for some reason is controversial. So
yeah, did some companies buy atheater like they buy out a screening and
(22:30):
tell their employees to go? Yeah? Probably, And did all the employees
come. No, maybe they didn'twant to go, but they bought out
the theater for their employees and whoevercame king, So there probably were some
theaters where there were you know,some you know, and then there's people
running around trying to find these buttwod Okay, so let's take ten million
(22:51):
off. That make two hundred andforty million. Anyway, good movie number
ten of the year for Joe.And you know it's number ten because I
don't know how much of me isjust mad that it got attacked, So
I don't really know. I can'treally say how much I liked it compared
to these other movies. But theysay, mostly this is a movie year
(23:12):
that wasn't very good. I didn'treally have any solid four and a half
star movies. My rating system isone to five because I put them on
the application letterboxed. That's where Iput all them my list every movie I
saw to to remember them mainly,and I used their five star system.
(23:40):
I didn't see any five star moviesthis year. I didn't see any four
and a half stars. Really afew four star movies I saw, and
that's what makes up my list mainly. So Number nine is a film called
No Hard Feelings starring Jennifer Lawrence,directed by a guy named Jean Stupinsky,
was basically just a writer and directorfor the office sitcom. It did eighty
(24:03):
seven million at the box office ona budget of forty five million. Jennifer
Lawrence is great in it. It'sa little bit morally offensive, but for
as far as R rated comedies go, it is funny, like in the
Something about Mary Vain. Maybe maybenot that over the top funny, but
it's a good movie. Jennifer Lawrenceis a great performance. So that's number
(24:27):
nine for me. Number eight isa film called Are You There, God,
It's me Margaret. This is basedon the book Judy Bloom who writes
these kinds of books for young girlsa thousand years ago, and that's good.
(24:48):
It's a funny movie. The GirlIs I don't remember what it was
rated, but it was mainly aboutthis girl that has been given a choice
to pick her own religion or herfather's Jewish or mother's Christian, or the
other way around. I don't remember. Anyway, it was just funny from
Wayan'sgate did thirty million, thirty millionfor just a you know, a low
(25:14):
budget comedy. Both sorry, Itake it back. It did twenty million
on a thirty million dollar budget.So, uh, that's a bit of
a failure, I guess. Butyou know, they probably sold it to
streaming and made some of the moneyback. Anyway. I mean, it
wasn't great movie. It wasn't.I mean it was a great movie.
It was a good movie. It'snot a great year for movies. So
this is what we get. Let'sgo down the line. Number seven,
(25:41):
Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part one. Oh yeah, it was pretty good.
You know, did it do thatgreat? I don't know. You
know, it didn't do as goodas it came out when Barbie and Oppenheimer
came out and Tim Tim Cruz.Tom Cruise is that his name? Oh
yeah, I guess so. SoTom Cruise gets all mad and starts calling
(26:04):
Oppenheimer and the Barbie people and say, hey, move your move your movie.
Come on, don't do this tome. Even and he even called
yep, Oppenheimer guy and said getthat. I need to be in the
IMAX, so move it. Andno one would listen to him, even
though he just almost single handedly broughtback the film industry with his last top
(26:27):
Gun movie. You know, peoplesaid go pound sand So a two hundred
and ninety one million dollar budget boxoffice five sixty seven and some overseas stuff.
It made some money. It's ait's a great film and he's great
in it. And so it's numberseven for Joe scoll on Ten's Top ten.
(26:47):
It's time we got to keep upthis gag. Maybe I can do
one more before the break. Sowe have a film called number six,
Renfield, starring Nicholas k Did yousee Renfield? You should have super funny,
super fun Nicholas Cage is great init. The film tells a story
(27:08):
of the character Renfield from the Draculauniverse, and he's, you know,
just a funny he's a funny,troubled vampire. In the early nineteen hundreds.
He meets an English lawyer, CountDracula meets an English lawyer r In
Renfield. Renfield becomes an assistant thatis, like, you know, giving
(27:30):
him people to kill, et cetera, trying to find, like, you
know, bad people that he won'tfeel remorse for having Dracula to chew him
up. Directed by Chris McKay,a guy known for the Lego Batman movie
and a couple episodes of Robot Chicken. Good movie. It didn't do well
at the box office, kind ofa flop. Cost sixty five million to
(27:53):
make and only did twenty something million. But that doesn't mean you're not gonna
like it, and actually you're gonnalove it. So Reinfield, let's take
a break and we'll check the trafficand we'll get to number five on the
Top ten Movies of twenty twenty three. From Joe Scolante Live from Hollywood,
(28:32):
Joe Ascalante, here's my lawyer.You don't want money, he does at
all. Joe Scollante Live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean Burbank across
the street from a Wiener schnitzel thatserves beer. We are going down.
We're doing the campdown because that's whatyou do. But this is this is
(28:52):
getting real fun if you like that. Some these movies. I feel like
most people you didn't see any ofthese movies because you stop going to movies
because now you go to like municipalconcerts and you go to wine tastings and
stuff like that. So you mightnot have seen any of them. So
I'm trying to help you out.Saltburn this is one of the few movies
that I have on this list thatis still in the theaters. It might
(29:15):
be the only one. Saltburn isa English film that stars see Saltburn is
(29:45):
a I guess you would call ita black comedy, maybe a psychological drama.
It's written, directed, and producedby a woman named Emerald Finelle or
Fennel, I don't know. Butshe's an English actress. She's got you
know, Academy Award for something,BAFT Award, She's got a Primetime Emmy
nomination and a Golden Globe nomination,three of them. Anyway, she's accomplished.
(30:11):
And the film is what did Icall it? I called it a
like a French New wave version ofthe Korean film Parasite takes place in England
in the early two thousands and aguy gets a scholarship at Oxford University and
(30:36):
he's struggling to fit in and hemeets some upper class people. He ends
up going to this castle called Saltburn, and all kinds of parasite stuff happened
from there. Stars Barry Keegan.You might remember him from the Irish film
where the guy gets his fingers cutoff? Remember this one. What's it
(31:03):
called The Banchees of Ina Sheering.That's right, that's what it's called.
He's the guy that plays the spectrmey young kid on The Banchees of Ina
Sheering. He's great in the film, and you will like the film morally
offensive and moderately. Did nineteen millionat the box office. I don't know
(31:23):
what it costs, but still intheaters right now, Saltburn, go see
it. Number four is a filmcalled one thousand and one, and that's
an indie movie that we interact.We interviewed the director on this show.
Her name is av Rockwell. Idon't know if I gave it such a
high rating because I got so investedin it because I interviewed the director.
(31:45):
That's what sometimes happens. But itmade me like, really pay attention to
the film and study the film.And it's about like a nineteen ninety four
hairdresser who's released from Riker's Island andturns to Brooklyn where she sees her son
and she kind of kidnaps him andtries to take care of him. And
(32:07):
it's very sad, but very wellmade and just the realism of nineteen ninety
four New York. Was fun towatch, and I look forward to more
of av Rockwell's films in the future. Let's go to the number three film
in the world, which is shoothmm. Let's go to the number three
(32:57):
film on my list, which isthere. It's a science fiction film produced
and directed by Gareth Edwards. GarethEdwords you might remember him for he did
a Godzilla film and he did aRogue what's it called Rogue one, a
(33:20):
Star Wars story in twenty sixteen.He's a good director and this is a
good film. Overlooked did one hundredand four million at the box office on
an eighty million dollar budget, sodefinitely a successful film. He's just a
great filmmaker and this is a greatStar Wars type film, which isn't a
(33:45):
part of the Star Wars canon.I guess you would call that, but
you probably missed it, and ifyou get a chance, check it out.
It was just attributed by twentieth CenturyStudios, which is owned by Disney.
So I think at the beginning ofhis journey with this movie, it
(34:07):
was a Fox thing, and thenthey and then Disney bought it and it
became a Disney thing. And itdidn't get a lot of promo because it
was during the strike where they couldn'tthey couldn't do promo. And but if
you see it come up on yourstreamer. The Creator, directed by Gareth
Edwards, is my number three movieof the year. Number two I have
(34:27):
a tie. My number two moviesof the year are tied is Barbie and
Oppenheimer. How can you pick betweenthose two? They were both excellent and
they one could not exist without theother. Am I right? I think
I'm a right. So now you'reasking Joe, what is your number one
movie of the year. Now,now let me let me preface this by
saying, this is not a greatyear for movies. This is this is
(34:47):
a year where there were some prettycool movies, and there weren't any like
you know, once upon a timein Hollywood's or like the twenty nineteen year
that I you know still or pineAway for that's what I'm doing, or
even last year was my top movie? Last year it was maybe that film
(35:12):
Living Maybe it was twenty twenty filmtwenty twenty two film from the Issue Gurro
screenplay with Bill Nye. This yearmy number one film, go in a
different direction. Number one film fortwenty twenty three, Cocaine Bear, directed
(35:32):
by Elizabeth Banks and featuring a whatlooks to me a final performance by Ray
Liotta before his untimely death. Ilike this film. It was feel good.
They did it the old fashioned way. You find an article. The
article is about cocaine falling out ofa plane, and the bear finds it
goes crazy, and then you takethat story which is outrageous, and you
(35:54):
make a good movie instead of aterrible movie like many people would have made,
like maybe that. I need thePooh horror film. So high concept,
very well made film, is veryrare, and it made me feel
good and it's so it's my numberone movie of twenty twenty three. I
have a Cocaine bear t shirt.Wherever I wear it, it makes everybody
happy. So is it ben Her? No, but it's my number one
(36:15):
movie of the year. Maybe never. Next year will be a better year.
We'll find out, and that's whenI'll see you on the next episode
of Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood.I now leave you with a word from
the good folks at Coca Cola,and then just the taste of the greatest
song ever written one more time intwenty twenty three, Happy New Year.
(36:37):
You know this was me five yearsago and it's still me as I confess
I'm a waistline watcher from way back. Well that's enough for today. Now
for a lively lift, ice coldCoca Cola. There's no waistliney with cocaine
though. Actually this individual sized bottlehas no more calories than half a grapefruit.
Mmm. Another thing, The coldchris taste of co okas so satisfying.
(37:00):
It keeps me from eating something elsethat might really add those pounds coax.
The natural, wholesome blending of purefood flavors. I guess that's why
everyone likes the rushing new feeling againonly from not too sweet Coca Cola and
no wonder lively lifty Coca Cola providesa welcome bit of quick energy between meals.
Thanks for a pleasant pause and agoody day. I remember Coca's low
(37:23):
en calories too, Hey, now, don't you get any sooner
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