Film critic Hap Erstein says 'Dumb Money' is good, while 'Expendables 4' is just plain dumb.

Longtime local film critic Hap Erstein reviews:

"Dumb Money" and "Expendables 4" which are new in theaters this weekend.

He also tells us about "A Million Miles Away" on Prime.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcoln four w Jand O dot com, and we're gonna

(00:04):
talk some movies with Happerstein from pombCharts paper dot com. Around these parts,
we call him the movie guy.How you telling you need to know?
I'm doing great? Yeah, Iwas gonna say, it looks like
it's picking up a little bit attheaters with the stuff that's coming out.
Not that all of it looks great, but you're gonna tell now about it.

(00:25):
We're starting to accelerate to the endof the year when the good stuff
will finally come, so beating theend of the summer blaws. There's a
smart new comedy called Dumb Money,based on recent real life events in which
a bunch of little guys individual retailinvestors beat up the smart money hedge fund
gurus. Now, the year istwenty twenty, at the beginning of the

(00:47):
COVID pandemic, and an internet stockprofit named Keith Gill. His trimming name
is Roaring Kitty, and he's playedvery well by Paul Dano. Is telling
his loyal audience to invest in games. Stop the video game maul retailer,
which he feels certain Wall Street isundervalued, so he thinks his own money

(01:07):
into game Stop as well, andhe makes millions for himself and for others
on the other side of the equation, or the hedge fund billionaires Seth Rogan
and Nick Kauferman, who they losemillions and become convincedent Keith must have some
insider information to beat him up sofinancially. Now, all this could have

(01:29):
been very dry and technical, butdirector Craig Gillespie he directed I Tonia a
few years ago, and a teamof writers led by Laura Shuger Bloom,
best known for Orange Is a NewBlack, they keep it light. The
movie Duck Money will remind you mostof is the big short that puckish ostro

(01:52):
winning financial comedy from twenty fifteen.Filling out the cast to some of Keith's
investor disciples are America Ferrara as ahospital nurse and Anthony Ramos as a game
Stop story clerk. The only wrongnote for me was Pete Davidson Saturday Night
Live fame as Keith's brother. Notmuch of an actor, Believe me.

(02:16):
The Money opens this weekend in theatersand it deserves the much of the following
as the game Stop stock it Imean, yank it, and yet Pete
Davidson keeps getting hired and I'm justwondering who he's got naked pictures of.
I'm thinking everybody, because yeah,right, what else could explain it?
The only thing that he was good, and I will say this, and

(02:38):
I didn't realize it was him untilmidway through the movie, and then I
kind of didn't like it anymore.Was the most recent Transformers movie, which
I know got kind of blasted bycritics and didn't make a lot of money.
I actually enjoyed that movie. Buthe plays a voye, you know,
he's it's his voice. He's notin it physically, which maybe that's
why I liked it. That canhealth second only, but uh but yeah,

(03:00):
I don't. I don't understand whythey keep you know, I never
saw that what was it King ofStaten Island? Never that Island, because
I ever did see that, becausewhen I went out, it's pretty good,
darn good. But I think itwas called that a fluke. So
what was he good in it?He was quite good in it? Yeah,

(03:21):
interesting, I understated, Yeah,yeah, not bad. This is
not that well. When that firstcame out, that was I think that
was only only streaming. I don'tremember if it was in theaters, but
I didn't want to pay twenty bucksfor it at the time, and I
haven't looked for it since, somaybe i'll check that out. But yeah,
but despite him this look, thisis exactly good film. It's he's

(03:45):
the only sort of time in thewhole thing. Otherwise it's nice. I
did love it, Tania, andI loved what they I didn't realize it
was the same director, and Iloved how they because that's another story that
you know, you could add alittle bit of action, obviously, but
that you know, that could havebeen a pretty worring story. You know
that the first time we realized thatMargaret Robbie could act, and she was
also good in that. Yeah,yeah, as opposed to just you know,

(04:09):
looking, yeah, look ating,I can't Yeah, all right,
a couple of old men saying thata woman in what he early thirties is
all right, we can't, wecan't do Okay, stop ruling, stopeling.
Well she got there's nothing new aboutA Million Miles Away two story of
Hispanic migrant worker who dreams of becomingan astronaut, but its theme of having

(04:32):
her goal and sticking to it iswell worth telling and worth and joining.
Jose or Nandez is played by reliably. I understand that Michael Penia. He
goes up picking grapes in the fieldsof California, noble but brack backbreaking work
that would seem to be his life'sdestiny. But Jose has a dream of

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being shot into space and he won'ttake no for an answer. Actually no
is exactly the respond he gets fromNASSA for thirteen years, but his persistence
eventually pays off and he's accepted intothe astronaut training program. Now that would
normally be a spoiler, but youknow, none miles away, it would
be much of a movie if hedidn't nearly start reaching his goal. The

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bulk of the film is that NASAboot Camp, shot very effectively by director
co writer Alejandra marquees Abena with apparentcooperation from the Space Agency, and why
not. The film has a stirringand positive message zoo to impart, both

(05:38):
about Hernandez and about NASA, bothin a really positive light. Now it
streams on priv video, so gocheck it out. So Michael Pania came
on the scene, he had alreadybeen working but you know, his big
I think his big break was inmovies was Crash that they've done Zombo.

(06:00):
Yeah, I look back and thatwas so for Wow, that's twenty Oscar
winner. Yeah, and he diduh you know, and that was a
really good movie. And he dida good job in that. Then in
oh six, he know, he'sdone some other stuff, but he's a
World Trade Center, which was well, I was gonna say the World Trade
Center. No, it was OliverStone. Oliver Stone. Yeah, yeah,

(06:23):
I just I only remember. Idon't remember a lot about it except
that it could have been done better. It was like, okay, yeah.
And then then then he started todo some things like observe and report.
Uh, let's see here. Ohwe got paid well for it.
He did that Cower heist movie.Uh. I could have liked that one.

(06:45):
Yeah, all right, Gangster Squad, American Hustle. I'm just kind
of looking through some of the onesI've heard of, uh in his IMDb
list. And then of course heshowed up. He works a lot.
He showed up in the ant Manmovies. Okay, so so there's that.
But I remember talking to you abouthim a while back, and you
weren't you weren't big on him.I don't think I'm trying to remember what

(07:06):
that was. I'm sure he's maybebad. Well, he was in well,
he was in Tom and Jerry Ohokay, which that was kind of
a I enjoyed the movie, tobe honest, but he was kind of
odd in that anybody was playing it. He was. He was like the
boss at the I think at thehotel boy. I have repressed that movie.

(07:30):
Well, actually I didn't remember ifyou'd seen it or not. Yeah,
he's also he's also he's in amovie called Jets, which I thought
was hilarious. But he plays ahe plays a very odd character. He's
like a magazine like or a socialmedia boss guy that comes up all these

(07:51):
crazy ideas of what what kinds ofthings people need to be putting out online
and stuff. And of course thatwas the Adam Divine movie. So yeah,
that's a guy that doesn't do muchfor me personally. But anyway,
million miles away, I've seen thisadvertwelve. He's very secre. It comes

(08:11):
off very well in this movie andit's it's a nice picture what we're seeing.
He was also what was that moviehe had cancer in it? He
was in it was a Christmas timemovie with Will Smith, which I really
Collateral Beauty that was in twenty sixteen. Oh, really like that. That's
a movie. I really like that. That got that got so trashed by

(08:35):
critics. Yeah it did not goodmovie. Yeah, I know, we're
in the same boat with that one. I thought that one was. I
loved that movie. And it's it'sjust it just touched every time. It
gets you exactly, bring bring cleanex well, you probably not bringing it
anywhere, well unless you're go intoa friend's house to watch. All right,

(08:56):
Now, tell me about a movieyou didn't like. Oh my god.
Last, and I feel the leastis the fourth film and the Expendables
franchise, which, in my opinion, absolutely lives up to its name.
It is an Expendable movie, completelyunnecessary. I checked out of Washington series
after the first one, so I'mnot quite sure where it ran out of

(09:16):
steam, but Expendables four has unquestionablyjumped the shark. To remind you,
the Expendables are a band of heavilyarmed mercenaries, the ones you call on
when all other efforts have been exhausted. And speaking of exhausted, many of
the principles in the group are nowbeyond those security age, including the movies

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A sensible star Sylvester Salone, nowseventy seven years old. Now he gets
prominent building, but he's really onlyin the opening and closing segments rock'em soock'em
action sequences. Also in the ensemblecast Adolph Longgren, Jason Stapan Katur,

(10:00):
to name some of the prominent returnees. A wall Is Arnold Schwarzenegger, I
can only imagine read the script anddecided to need to wash his hair instead.
The group was previously all man,of course, but this fourth installment
includes Megan Fox as Satan's kickbut girlfriendas she definitely ups the eye candy level,

(10:22):
but otherwise I don't have much todo about. The new members of
the team include fifty Cents and AndyGarcia, both of them who fit right
in anyway. The plot this timearound concerns an effort to prevent World War
three. I hate when that happensWorld War three by thwarting the theft of
nuclear bomb debt daters. This requiresglobe trotting to the Middle East in the

(10:46):
story at least, though Greece wasthe film's location and the special effects are
about a court low on effectiveness.I mean, it just looks cheap.
As long as this movie gets theweek box office and results it deserves,
I think this would be the endof the line for the Expendables. Well,

(11:07):
I hate to say it didn't carefor it. We might start losing
some of the stars eventually. Imean, well there is that. I
mean they're trying to replenish it.Some of the newer ones are slightly younger,
but not much. Yeah. Sodo you think the fact that you
didn't see numbers two and three hadanything to do with you not enjoying it?
Like it is? Is a majorvoid in my life, Joel.

(11:28):
One of my point is my pointis where you lost as far as like
is it carried on from like ifhe didn't see three, you're gonna not
know what the heck's going on.It's entirely possible. There's some nuances,
but I don't think there's a moviethat cares for nuances. It's a basic
setup. They're a group, they'vegot guns, and they have to get

(11:48):
the bad guys. I mean,and it's not good. Who's this cotour
guy? Isn't he like a fight? Like an MMA guy? Like a
retired MMA fighter or something, becauseI've heard of name, but he's not
like a real actor the Mare.Well, yeah, go on, I've
jag the Statham. Come on,I think the Legatories has only been in

(12:11):
these movies, so I think youmaybe it'll be right you do some research
on that. Of course, CurtisJackson fifty cent so this is the first
one he's showing up in. Right, And then you say that Magan Fox
is the first time she showed up. I'll colute honest. And they see
it first time too. I knowyou think I'm a mouth breather, so

(12:33):
you'll find this surprising. I neversaid get the first three. I never
saw any of these movies. Well, then you'll have no problem just jumping
into the fourth. Well that wasmy concern was you know it'll be it'll
be your favorite of the four.Do I have to go on the hunt
for the first three, which whichall got bad reviews. Also, by
the way, by the way,how were you able to see was there

(12:54):
a screening or did you actually payto see this? And I'll tell you
why there was this screening? Wow, And because I knew you cared,
I went far. Well, they'reRotten Tomatoes doesn't have a score for this,
so I'm like, well, isthere no were there no screenings for
this? How did I see?I think the other critics were just so

(13:16):
appalled by it. They didn't botherselling out their forms selling in they were
Rotten Tomatoes scores. Let's see,it's only in an hour and forty three
minutes. So it's I feel somuch longer with my with my unlimited package
that I pay for anyway, andthe fact that my regal theater is not
playing dumb Money. Uh see,that's the one to see this week.

(13:39):
I'm a little uptight about that.I live on the trade. How many
theaters in your in your regal?Uh they're sixteen, I think, And
they found sixteen movies other than notgoing through the list, but they've got
movies that you think we're gone bynow. Blue Beetles still playing. For
God's sakes, what mayn ten bucksa day? Who's seeing that movie at

(14:03):
this point? They didn't see itwhen it first came out, so that
in the afternoon and with something realin the evening, I think it lost
more money than the than than theDwayne Johnson DC movie. If I remember
correctly. I think I think itactually made less in the theaters than that
one. Nobody's there, that's themain thing. Yeah, so yeah,
so dumb money. I might haveto go spend some money on, which

(14:26):
would be kind of dumb because Icould just wait. Uh. I'm sure
it would be streaming at some point. But some of those yeah, but
some of those, uh, Idon't have all of them. I don't
have Hulu, I don't have AppleTV. So it depends on who gets
it, you know, if itgoes to Prime. I don't think it's
a Disney Movies. It's probably notgoing there. Who's who produced it?
Like, what was the company?Do you remember? No, probably a

(14:50):
smaller Yeah. I don't want topay twenty bucks for it. I'd rather
go pay twelve at some other theaterthan wait for it and pay twenty.
So we'll see. He These arethe kind of things, These are the
kind of problems I have in mylife, My friend, I understand.
I mean, you know, theUS is twenty bucks. There is a
horror film that is playing at myregal, so I don't have to pay

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extra for it. I might.I might go ahead and give it a
shot. And it is called itLives Inside, and it's hey, this
is all right. This has arotten tomato score and you don't want to
know what it is. It's beteenseventy three. What these last couple of

(15:31):
smaller unlesser known horror films. That'swhy critics that are seeing them are liking
them. And I think they Ithink they have a little bit of an
art house feel to them as opposedto just the slasher pick or you know,
things like that. So you mightbe missing out, but this I'm
not going to read. This isa long thing, but I'm more than

(15:54):
made to miss out. This isessentially Sam is an Indian American team.
She lives in the suburbs with hermother and her father, and she's got
a friend she's gonna get stalked.She's got an estranged friend, so her
friend is no like for one reasonor another, they were estranged and her
friend carries around an empty Mason jar. In a moment of anger, Sam

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brakes the jar and apparently unleashes anancient Indian demonic force that kidnaps the friend.
And you're gonna watch this. Itgoes from there. You gonna take
this seriously? Wow? Wow,I like horror films and it's almost time.
Well, but they have to begood. Well, I'll make with

(16:41):
that plot. Come on, okay, I'll be only the only thing I'm
worried about is I just I hadn'theard about it till just get ready for
your call and I pulled it up. I'm like, oh, this,
this was not on my radar.I'm waiting for The Exorcist moving on October
six. This was not on myradar. So I'm like, I'm looking
at I'm watching the trailer and theseare Indian American actors, one of them.

(17:04):
There's two directors, one of themI think is in Indian Americans.
His name is Michel Duta. So, but the accents are so thick,
especially the one the person that playsthe mother in this. And I'm like,
huh, so those subtitles, wellthere are in the trailer, but
I'm assuming it's not going to bein the movie. Uh, Van Dango's

(17:25):
doing this name when they're putting,they're putting for some reason, they're putting
subtitles in the trailers regardless of whetheryou need him or not. But so,
what what's your take advance on onthe extracist movie The trailers look amazing.
I've been fifty fifty years the movieand what I forget her name now,

(17:45):
the old lady Ellen. They gotperson to to to beer and they
got her in this film, whichI think was a big you know,
a big haul, you know,being able to talk her and I don't
know how much their painter, buttalking her into doing this it is I
don't know that anybody else is exactlygoing after in their movies. Well,

(18:07):
but I mean, you know she'sretired. It gives a certain credibility to
the movie. That's what I'm saying. And now this is this is you
remember the most recent Halloween trilogy.The folks that did that, that produced,
directed that, and wrote that.That's David Gordon Green and his buddies.

(18:27):
These are the people that are behindthis movie, which I'm going to
assume is gonna end up being atrilogy too, but you know, the
start of a who know the boxoffice, Yeah, that depends, but
I think it'll make money. Iknow a lot of Jordan Green started out
and making art films, did hea lot of people? Movie? Well,

(18:48):
this looks like anything exactly, butI look, there is a scene
in in the R rated trailer forthis movie because I go to heart rated
movies. When you go and yousee a PG thirteen movie, you don't
see the best trailers. You gotto pull them up online sometimes. But
there is a scene in this trailerthere's so there's two girls. There's there's

(19:08):
two little girls, and they're apparentlypossessed, and they tie it into the
original one. It appears in thetrailer. I haven't seen this, so
I'm not given any spoilers, butit appears to me that it might be
the same spirit, demonic spirit thatwas possessing Reagan, not the former president.

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Before you make a antire Republican joke, do you know whose voice it
was originally for Reagan? No,Mercedes McCambridge. Who's that she's don't know?
Well, she's she's an Oscar winningactress from All the All the King's
Men. Sounds very classy. Andwait, it wasn't one because it sounded
like a mid word voice. It'svery very dark, deep voice. Yes,

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well the voice, there's a voice, and it sounds very similar.
So I don't know. I can'timagine that she's so image you anyway.
Anyway, there's a scene where thisand I'm just gonna get this one away
because in the trailer there's a scenewhere this the one little girl is crying
for her mother. She's in themiddle of the possession, and then it's
her her regular voice and she's cryingand she goes, I don't want to

(20:15):
go to Hell, and I'm like, oh my god, that it's just
it's I'm getting chills just saying it. This movie looks crazy. There are
people that hated the Halloween trilogy andnow hate David Gordon Green for what they
think he did to it. Ifor the record, like the first two
movies, the third one, itwas horrible. But they're saying on social
media this is gonna suck. He'sgonna ruin Exorcist. Well that's all they

(20:41):
do on social media. Give mea pro that's true. That's true.
So we'll see. I'm I amso looking forward to it. I absolutely
going to see it myself. Areyou really absolutely? Oh my god?
Did you you so you've seen thefirst one? I'm well, maybe when
you were a younger gentleman, maybeyou well, or a Jena. I
think I saw it when I wasn'tactually allowed to. I think it was

(21:02):
the first movie. They really wasvery strict about eighteen or older. And
I wasn't eighteen. And yet atthat point, you way, you weren't
eighteen at the time. When tothat? What was that seventy four?
Is that true? I'm not tryingto age just here, but no,
no, no, well, Ben, Ben, I'll tell you I was
sixteen. Well hang on, letme let me we have to look this
up. What the hell nobody's listeninganymore anyway, Hey, I'm just kidding.

(21:26):
Let's see seventy three, seventy three, that was fifteen and when we
I think they took our money,that's for sure. And was it our
it was our rated I assume yes, by they were making a big deal
about being strict about it. Wellyou know our rated What the hell?

(21:47):
And even back then, you know, some of those movies you look back
on that we're are, you'd sathey didn't have PG thirteen back in the
seventies, and you would look backon and you'd go, that could have
probably today been PG thirteen. ButI don't believe The Exorcist would have been.
I think that that's uh, that'sthat would have been in our movie,
even with PG thirteen around it.Was. It was strong stuff.
And of course I was in Washington, DC at the time where there's this

(22:10):
famous staircase in Georgetown where that thepriest rolls down, oh wow, and
then gets killed. That's a spoiler. But if I put a spoiler on
a on a what fifty fifty yearold year old movie right time, yeah,
I think it's I think it's okay, all right, well, I

(22:33):
yeah, so that's what I'm waitingon out how I went off on that
tangent, so anyway that it livesinside if you want to something to hold
you over. But okay, wegotta go horror movies coming in October that
I'm looking forward. Well is themonth for it? Of course? Yeah,
yep, they put them all inthere. And that poor Hound Favorite
Month and that poor Haunted Mansion moviethat that that nobody. I saw that

(22:56):
movie three times. I love thatmovie, and I just feel so bad
it didn't have any of the stuffthat people like to say Disney's woke whatever.
We don't have to get into thatdiscussion. But if you even thought
that you see that movie, youjust struggled to find anything like that in
Auto Mansion and it makes no money. So I think it'll probably be here

(23:18):
soon. It'll be on Disney Plusor or Streaming Plus. It's already advertising
it. I saw an ad onTV for Disney Plus and it says on
a mansion. It shows a scenefrom it, and it says streaming soon.
So they're already pushing it, Iguess as a way to get a
big lower for the for the DisneyPlus. I got a lot of people,
a lot of people on social mediasaid they hadn't even they didn't even

(23:38):
know there was an onuno mansion movieout. They couldn't advert they couldn't go
out and promote it, right,stright, you know? So anyway,
all right, we're off on sucha tangent. If anybody's listening, let's
wrap it up for them. Okay, we got this week, we got
Creator right, next week, Creative. We do absolutely do looking forward to
now one before that. Yeah,I hope that's when I hope that the

(24:02):
government AI. Yeah, and Ihope the government is of this country and
others are watching that movie very closelybecause of where we're going with AI.
I mean, it's clearly a cautionarytale about AI. Yes, I hope
it's hope it's entertaining. That's uh, that's Denzel's son, right right,
right, John David, all right, we'll talk more about it next week,

(24:26):
why not. All Right, Ihave a good week. I'll let
us dumb money somewhere, all right. See bye bye