Indiana Jones and the Last Podcast!! Film Foundations Franchise: An Intro to Temple of Doom, That Damn Refrigerator, and more!!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Film Foundations, the collaborative show
between weirding Way Media and Someone's Favorite Productions. I am
Chris Dashue. One are your co hosts from weirding Way Media,
but more pacifically the Culture Cast.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Is this gonna be a thing? Now? Moving forward? Why
am right? I'm Ryan Varrel from The Disconnected and Someone's
Favorite Productions.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
On this show, it is our job to entice you
into talk about or listen to us talk about either
a actor, director, micro genre, or in this episode's case,
if you've clicked on it, you know that we are
going to be talking about the franchise that is Indiana Jones.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yay was there was there a question mark on the
end of that?

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, Indiana Jones question mark. Our job is to entice
you to go down side roads and tangents of film
that you may not have otherwise, and to broaden your horizons,
because hey, who wants to watch the same thing over
and over again? Not you, dear listener. That's why you're here.
So there is no guest today. It's just Ryan and

(01:36):
I spouting our nonsense about Indiana Jones. So I'm gonna
kick it to you first. Ryan, your earliest memory of
Indiana Jones in your life.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
That I actually remember is not even that old of
a memory. It's probably just a handful of years ago
rewatching these again as an adult, and then a couple
of years after that showing them to my kids, which
has been fun. But yeah, yeah, I mean I saw
them when I was younger once or twice. These Unfortunately,
they don't have the major nostalgia grab that a lot

(02:08):
of people around my age and maybe slightly older tend
to have, because I kind of missed the boat a
little bit. I mean, the the third movie came out.
The third movie came out when I was two years old,
and so by the time I was like five or six,
I was into other things and the movies at that

(02:28):
point weren't. I mean, they were relevant and they were Spielberg,
but there was the world had moved on by the
mid nineties at that point, so it's not something that
was on, you know, all the time in my house
when I was a kid. I definitely saw him a
couple of times, but nothing where it was man, I
worship at the feet of Indiana Jones, like the people
that were ten years older than me.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Huh hmmm. So is this gonna be like a me episode?
Then I guess kind of found that out here. What's
funny is I, like yourself, a child of the nineties,
little younger child of the nineties than you'll, but like
only by a couple years. Indiana Jones movie had not

(03:11):
come out in my lifetime until the fourth one, which
is very fun I can remember my earliest memory with
Indiana Jones being the ad that they showed before The
Last Crusade on VHS, and it was like this weird
pepsi ad that was like Indiana Jones inspired, and it had,

(03:34):
you know, the guy going to the refrigerator and there
was a coke and a pepsi and he grabbed the
pepsi and you chose wisely, like all of that. I
remember all of that like that. That was a thing
that I remember from the VHS for that movie. And
I remember watching The Last Crusade a lot because that
was my family's favorite, my grandfather's favorite, clearly, probably because

(03:58):
of the Sean Connery of it all. But Indiana Jones
is something that unlike yourself, I do have a fair
bit of nostalgia for. However, I have good nostalgia and
I have not so good nostalgia because, like I alluded to,
I was alive in two thousand and eight. I was
graduating high school the day after this movie came out

(04:20):
May twenty second, two thousand and eight. I saw this
movie at midnight, and then I saw it again the
same day. Yeah. Boy, we'll talk about our thoughts when
we get to it. But that's the kind of person
that I am. I was an am a huge fan
of Indiana Jones. Maybe not so much recent stuff, but
in terms of the character at large and what the

(04:43):
character has had done to him in various forms of media,
bea books, TV shows, video games, or everything essentially in
between rides at Disneyland.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
That's one of my actually about to bring up. I
think that may have been my first introduction to the
character itself because I grew up in southern California. I'd
not like a rich family, but my grandmother was one
that lived fairly close to Disneyland, and as grandparents do,
at least once a year or once every two years,
we'd go to Disneyland. And that ride opened in I

(05:20):
think ninety five, and so I definitely wrote it in
those first couple of years that it was open and
by then I'd probably seen at least one of the films.
But yeah, the Right's fantastic, always has been.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
So I actually have a funny story about the ride
I went to similarly to yourself. I didn't grow up
in southern California, but my dad did, and his parents
lived in southern California when I was growing up as
a kid, and so we would go to Disneyland and
we would go to Universal Studios. And when we went
to Disneyland, I remember that I was just too short

(05:53):
to ride on the ride. This has been like ninety
six or ninety seven. We did not go back to
Disneyland for a deck almost so I and this is
my hand to God or whoever, whomever she ever. When
I rode on the ride finally as a teenager, I
cried at the end because I was like, this was

(06:14):
worth it. It It was you know what I mean,
Like it's there are plenty of rides in the world
where if you're too short to go on it, you're
not missing anything. The Indiana Jones Ride. If I had
been able to go on that as a kid, it
would have blown my fucking brain out of the back
of my skull. Because that ride still does as an
adult like like genuinely, it's still like one of the great,

(06:39):
if not like, I think it's in the s tier
of great theme park rides done in a way that
like only Disney can really do. Universal Studios is trying,
but Disney is Disney and will always be Disney. And
for me, the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland is the
quintessential like Disney Ride and Dark Ride as well. It's

(07:00):
like nobody has done that right better. Since all of
that to say, Indiana Jones is a very important character
to me personally, However, I am not without the ability
to step out of the bubble of influence and look
at it critically and objectively, because boy, it is in

(07:21):
dire need of some critical and I think critical reappreciation.
I mean, I don't think anybody is sitting and going, oh,
Indiana Jones one is not a great movie. It's widely
considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made.
So I mean that's the thing, Like, this is a
franchise where, unlike Star Wars or some of the other things,
I don't know if anyone would consider one of the

(07:42):
Star Wars movies one of the great movies ever made,
but this franchise has one of them, a movie that
is considered to be like the pinnacle of the genre
that it is in, which is like an action adventure movie.
So India Jones is interesting because, again, in a lot
of ways, the genesis of the character comes from Steven
Spielberg's love of forties and fifties serialized entertainment like Flash Gordon,

(08:07):
but it also comes from something else that I am
personally spending a fair amount of time with with Mike
White and Richard Haddam, which is James Bond, Steven Speed.
They wouldn't let Steven Spielberg do a James Bond movie
because the whole director's name can't come before James Bond's
name in the title crawl is important to people over
there Eon Productions. I understand why. However, not wanting Steven

(08:30):
Spielberg to direct a James Bond movie is fucking dumb
period why, Like, I get why you don't, but I
actually think that the reasons why you would outweigh the
don'ts a lot more case in point, Indiana Jones, which
is part serialized, you know, kind of again nostalgia trip

(08:52):
for Spielberg, but also it's him saying, fuck you, I
want to make a movie with a character that is
as well known, as well beloved and talked about forever
like James Bond. Because James Bond's gonna be talked about forever.
That's been made abundantly clear. Even when he's not out
and about, people are still talking about him, wondering when
the new one's going to be cast. And Indiana Jones

(09:15):
in a lot of ways doesn't have the casting problem, thankfully,
but it does have that same like you alluded to
a certain group of people, a certain age swath of
people may have even gotten jobs because of Indiana Jones,
as in they wanted to become archaeologists because they saw
Indiana Jones. That's a thing, obviously. So I mean it's

(09:38):
a big deal. And I think in a lot of ways,
Spielberg succeeded in making a character as memorable as James
Bond to the point where they were like, who could
be his father? Oh right, James Bond. So I mean
it's you know, it's a kind of it's eating its
own tail. But that's kind of the point. So all
that to say, I'm really excited to talk about Indiana Jones.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
So let's break it down. We got five films in
this franchise. First one is out in June of nineteen
eighty one, that's Raiders Are Lost Art. We've got the
second one, Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom in
May of nineteen eighty four. The third in the original trilogy,
Last Crusade, comes out in May of nineteen eighty nine,
five years later, and then we get a long break

(10:23):
another nineteen years Gobye, and then we get Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull comes out in May of two thousand
and eight, followed by fifteen year wait for Dial of
Destiny to come out June of twenty twenty three, The
Big Thing. The first four all directed by Steven Spielberg,
newest one directed by James Mangold. We've got George Lucas

(10:44):
with story by credits on the first four films. It's
a huge name, obviously, especially for that time. Frank Marshall
produced a couple of them.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Larry k Larry Kasden, and there's a lot of names
in this like Larry Kasden, Frank Marshall, Athleen Kennedy ends
up being involved in the last one.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, it's a big, big deal. Obviously, Harrison Ford is
the biggest part of all of these. Karen Allen is
a big part. We got Jeanrey Stavies, that's man. I
was watching the first one again this morning, and yeah,
he's a big part of that movie. Kate Capshaw's in these,
Key kwon. Obviously this was a big story surrounding the

(11:25):
twenty twenty two oscars. Of course, Sean Connery comes in
does great as Andy's dad, and then Shilah Puff and
Kate Blanchett come onto the scene for the fourth movie.
Chris is real stoke to talk about those people.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
I will actually tell you that my feelings on his
character in the fourth movie have changed significantly based on
the fifth movie, right right, Yeah, Actually, I'll just have
a hot take right here for you, hot take lovers.
I think Indiana Jones four has aged a hell of
a lot better in light of the fifth movie coming
out and kind of just being a dud of a movie,

(12:00):
like it's not we'll talk about it. I mean, I
don't think it's going to be either of our answers anywhere,
So I think now might be as just as good
a time as any to bring it up the newest movie.
They spent fifteen years making that movie. I don't feel
like it if this is what we get after fifteen years,
it's kind of a bummer, is what I'm getting at.

(12:20):
It's one of those things where maybe maybe we were
a little too long in the tooth. Maybe twenty fifteen
is the latest we should have made another one of
these movies, is what I'm getting at. Because there are
a lot of There are a lot of yeah, a
lot of shortcuts and narrative crutches that are used in
the Dial of Destiny that are very apparent the moment
someone points them out to you. Let's just put it

(12:42):
that way.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
That fifth movie, Dial of Destiny had Phoebe waller Bridge,
Toby Jones, Man's Michelson all with the fairly big parts
in it. But yeah, that's the bulk of the franchise
of fear. Warning, if you've genuinely never seen any of
these this this episode might get a little more into spoilers.
Compare it to some of our other episodes, because when

(13:05):
you're talking about some of the franchises, there might be
a couple of nuggets that we throw out there. However,
I would say this is probably one of those franchises
that I don't really think spoilers can ruin the experience
of this franchise at all.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
No, And in this day and age, I mean, so
many of the things in Indiana Jones have kind of
become woven into the pap the pack, the pop culture,
the pop culture tapestry that is being ever weaved by
content creators and filmmakers and TV showrunners. I mean, it's
a if you look at the pop culture tapestry and

(13:41):
you were to take a step back, Indiana Jones has
a very big part at a very big time. Has
it tapered off now, sure, But that's the way these
kinds of things go. Not everything is ever green, holy shit.
For twenty years, Star Wars wasn't ever green. Like for
a time there in the nineties, Star Wars was not
a fucking thing. Like they had to remaster the movies

(14:04):
and do the special editions and then we got the prequels.
But there was a time where Star Wars was just
that was a movie that came out in the eighties. Yep,
you're a fucking nerd in a weirdo if you like
it now, it's like you've never seen Star Wars my God,
like that was not a thing in the nineties. Nobody cared,
not like not like they care now, not as ubiquitous

(14:24):
as it is now, obviously, And that's the thing I mean.
Same with Indiana Jones. Like Indiana Jones third movie came
out in eighty nine, people wanted a fourth movie. I
always bring up this Entertainment Weekly I had in the nineties,
early two thousands that had a bunch of movies in development. Hell,
and that was the big one. The big one was

(14:45):
Indiana Jones four. I'm trying to remember. Indiana Jones four
was a big one, and there were like I think
Blade Runner two was a big one. There were a
couple of these like big movies that again I want
to I want to remember if someone in the audience
remembers this and can point me at it. So I
bring it up all the time because I would like
to go back in there and see how many of

(15:05):
those movies ended up getting fucking made. Because it is
twenty twenty four. Indiana Jones five got made last year.
I was reading that when I was a child in
the nineties, and it actually not only did it happen,
not only did the movie that was in development hell happened,
another one happened, but that second one was even in

(15:26):
bigger development hell for fifteen more years on top of
everything else. So it's absolutely insane because on top of
I think the influence of Indiana Jones maybe not as
evergreen as Star Wars is now, and I think Indiana
Jones has kind of always been a secondary franchise to
Star Wars, kind of like the sister franchise to Star

(15:48):
Wars in a lot of ways, because I think Indiana
Jones has not less mainstream appeal, but it is appealing
to a different audience Theoretically, I think if you like
Star Wars, obviously check out Indiana Jones. But Indiana Jones
is a franchise that has a certain amount of longevity

(16:09):
to it that I think everyone is surprised by, myself included.
I do think again, they've overstepped the longevity range at
this point clearly. But it's weird to me that in
twenty twenty three we have had five Indiana Jones movies.
Two came out in the last thirty years, and there
will be now no more. So this is kind of

(16:31):
we're doing this because we know there's nothing else they've
said as much. Harrison Ford said he will not be
portraying the character again, which good.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
We'll get into why that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
I'm sure, yeah, boy, won't we.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Anything else on the history you wanna throw out there
before we start if.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
You're if you're interested in hearing the creative process behind
the writing of Raiders of the Lost Arc over on
the Projection Booth, White author Andy Rausch and I did
a table read of the Kasden, Spielberg and Lucas research
sessions and kind of brainstorming sessions, and so I played

(17:14):
George Lucas, who ended up having the bulk majority of
the speaking to the point where I was speaking like
pages of dialogue, These like long fucking diatribes for a page.
It's just me talking and them sitting there like listening
to me do a George Lucas. I would say, if
you're interested in the history behind Indiana Jones, you could

(17:35):
and should check that out. It's it's interesting to see
how some of the things that they were thinking about
in the first movie that they wanted to do don't
show up in the first movie, but they show up
in the second one, or they show up in the
third one, and it's like, oh man, you're getting to
see them kind of It's like that Beatles documentary that
Peter Jackson did a couple of years ago, where it's
like just seeing the creative process and you're sitting there

(17:57):
watching Paul McCartney just riffing on the guitar, and then
you hear one note and then you hear another note,
and you can hear him putting it together right there,
and then all of a sudden, it's like he just
created one of the greatest songs ever just fucking sitting there.
That's how that felt. Listening and participating in that is
like these three guys sitting in this room talking about

(18:17):
how like these ideas that they're called Indiana Smith, Indiana Jones.
This girl's fourteen. That's a little problematic, Steve or George.
I think George is the one who's talking about him
having sex like a fifteen year old, which is not great.
Like they even say it and they're like, maybe we
shouldn't do that. It's like, yeah, maybe you shouldn't. But
getting to see that creative process is so wild because

(18:39):
they didn't know at the time that two guys in
twenty twenty four or three guys in twenty twenty two
would be spending time rereading and you know, kind of
giving our voice to their voice to be part of
that process. But it's interesting, to say the least, because, again,
for how iconic, so many parts of these movies are
to just be like, oh, maybe they should fight next

(19:01):
to a flying wing, like then it fucking happens, like
I don't know. For me, that's that's a little peek
behind the curtain that we don't really get with a
lot of things, and especially things this high profile is
as Raiders of the Lost Art or the Indiana Jones
franchise writ large.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
All right, well that means it's time for our first question.
So what is the foundational film for Indiana Jones?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Chris Ah, I'm wondering if your answer and my answer
are the same here, because there was a there's kind
of this. I have this kind of push and pull
tug of war going on in my head before I answer,
and I'll tell you why. I know which of these

(19:49):
five movies is the one that you should tell anyone
to watch for good reason. I'm not gonna say which one,
but I think everybody and their mother who has seeing
these movies can agree there's probably one here that is
the one you should start with. And I get why
I would concede that it is probably the perfect movie

(20:11):
of the bunch. It's the one that is the the
movie that is in the film archive for a reason. However,
I think that and this, you know, like I said,
this might ruffle some feathers, and I'm okay with that.
I'll be that guy this episode. And I've said it
plenty of other places before, so this will not come

(20:32):
as a shock to anyone who has followed the things
that I work on and the content that I create.
I think just to be a chronological troll. Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom is my answer here for
a couple reasons. A. It technically comes before all the
other movies. It is a prequel film. B. I think

(20:53):
it does something interesting with the character. And if you
were to watch it first, you would actually see kind
of a character arc with Indiana Jones, because we're kind
of seeing it in reverse in these movies because we
see Temple second, but it's a prequel, and so we
don't understand why he's kind of more of a dick

(21:13):
in Temple of Doomed, and then he is in Raiders.
He's kind of mellowed out a little bit in Raiders,
and then by Last Crusade he's completely mellowed out. I
think that for me, if you are to watch Indiana Jones,
the starting place to start is Temple of Doom. I
think it has a perfectly suitable way to introduce the
character to people that I've never seen him before. I

(21:35):
think the opening set piece is still amazing the movie.
It goes directly to the kinds of movies that are
being inspired by. So read that as kind of high
adventures in play in exotic places. Not saying Raiders doesn't

(21:57):
do that, but Raiders goes to Egypt. So it's like
most of the movie is like most of that movie
is spent in tombs underground. Really like for the most part,
Indiana Jones and the Tumble of Dooms kind of all
over the place. I mean, we have all sorts of
things happening, and I think, yes, is it a darker movie, Sure,
but I think the darkness of the movie comes from

(22:19):
Indiana Jones as a character being p played a little differently,
a little more gruff than he is in Raiders, which
allows that movie's tone to kind of adapt to that key.
K Kwan is in it, obviously, he's amazing. Kate Capshaw
is in it. She's amazing. She's playing that character perfectly.
You might be annoyed by the character, but that is
the intent of the character. It's like my issue with

(22:41):
Sharon Stone and Casino. I don't like her in Casino. Well,
then she's doing her job like and Kate Capshaw is
doing her job as Willie Scott. I love Willie Scott,
I love Short Round, I love Indiana Jones, I love
all the characters. Mola ram Is. I mean, he's not
maybe my favorite villain, but he's the perfect villain for
that movie. And I'm Rishpuri is an amazing Indian actor.

(23:03):
Is it a little on brand that I picked the
Indian movie? Maybe? But I loved Indiana Jones and The
Temple of Doom long before I watched a single celluloid
frame of Indian cinema. I had a poster of it
hanging in my room in my parents' house. My entire
childhood of Temple of Doom, the Drew Streusen one, not Raiders,

(23:24):
not Last Crusade, Temple of Doom, and I still stand
by it. It's my favorite. I think it's just as
good as the other three. And I think that again,
if you're gonna watch these movies and you've never seen
them before, you get a little bit of a different
flavor with Temple that I think is interesting to then

(23:44):
pair it to go into Raiders. If you watch them
in that order, you actually get to see a character
arc of Indiana Jones kind of softening who he is,
because by the end of Temple you're like, oh, wow,
this guy has a kid sidekick. He's actually charmed the
woman who found him to be detestable, and he saved
a village of children. Ultimately, Temple of Doom is about

(24:05):
saving a village of children from, you know, the thuggy cult.
So is this my impassioned plea for people to take
Temple of Doom more seriously. I don't really care if
you take it seriously or not. It is ultimately a big, fun,
dumb movie. But this will rattle some people. But I
think Temple of Doom is the foundational title. But I'm

(24:27):
not gonna sit here and say I don't understand why
Raiders are the Lost Ark is a perfect movie because
I do. I'm saying that in knowing that that is
the case as well. I get it. So that's my answer.
Ryan thoughts.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
A few one Temple of Doom is I think either
the best or like tied with the best. I actually
like this and Last Crusade more than Raiders the Lost
Ark myself. I've watched them both more than Raiders. Nothing
against Raiders. I think Raiders is a great film to
establish character. And I'm gonna talk about Raiders in the

(25:05):
second because spoilers. That's my choice for this one. But
what I would say is, as we are discussing this
with a listening audience that potentially has never seen in
Indiana Jones movie, templea Doom kinda to me at least
doesn't establish the character in the way that introduces you
to the rest of the franchise. Like you said, it

(25:26):
is a bit of an outlier film, Like the archaeology
hardly plays a part in this movie at all. There's
no I don't think there's any scenes of him at
the at his university, which is kind of a big
part of him. And then the big thing is there's
no like overarching negative political force that he's fighting in

(25:46):
this one, it's just sort of fun adventures, which is
great personally. I think that makes it a better movie.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
However, it's the only one where he doesn't literally look
at all of them. This is the only one where
it's not the not Sees or Russians standing in as
the right seas.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
So that's what I'm getting at is I feel like
this doesn't wouldn't give the best intro to the franchise
itself to somebody that's never seen any of them, because
it's it is just a different take on the character.
And again, it's not bad. I think again, it might
be my favorite of the entire franchise. This and Last

(26:24):
Crusade are pretty damn close to me.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
I have a question theoretical, Yeah, so you said it right,
What if someone had never seen these so we have
a a blank slate, what order would you tell them
to watch these movies? And again, because like you just said,
you have admitted and I would one agree, that is

(26:48):
not what Indiana Jones is known for. However, if the
first movie is the prequel, which is doing things that
he doesn't do anywhere else, and everything else is where
he's doing those things, it almost feels like why would
you have them watch it anywhere other than at the beginning.
I am also part and parcel. You said it like

(27:08):
all the other things are Nazis or Russians or you know,
state government type things. This is not that. This is
the only one where it's Indiana Jones versus just like
a death cult.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Really, I'm a big fan of not putting your best
foot forward for something like this. So if somebody's saying,
I am agreeing right now to watch all five of them,
I would probably go Raiders, Crystal Skull, and then Temple
of Doom, Last Crusade, and then Dial of Destiny. I

(27:42):
feel like Dial of Desny kind of has to come last,
just because of the whole storyline of it all.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
So you're throwing it out of chronological order.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Just cuz yeah, because to me, like the whole the
the second movie is a prequel. It was already screwed
up anyway, so that doesn't matter that much. So what
I'm getting at is as quality wise, I don't want
somebody to watch the best movies first and then immediately like, oh,
everything else after this is shit.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Oh I see what you mean. Well, and that's the
and that's the thing I think if it were me,
I would do two. It would it would just be
changing the position of two. It'd be two, one, three,
four five. Because look, too, you get the introduction to
the character. He's not the character that we are really
introduced to in Raiders, and then you go right into Raiders,

(28:32):
you see that now he is a professor. He's doing
this professionally. He's maybe hung up the mantle of being
the guy going out all the time, but he does
become an expert for the government who then volunteers to
go out, similarly into Last Crusade and Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull. I think Temple of Doom has to be watched.
I think Temple of Doom should have come out first.

(28:53):
I just don't think Indiana Jones would be the franchise
that it is now if it had come out first.
That's the problem, that's the prole with the movie. That's
why it's a prequel film made second. I mean, that's
the thing people tend to forget it's a prequel film.
It's it takes place before Raiders. He's a younger Indiana Jones,
and that's how they get away with some of the

(29:15):
more unique and distinct choices that they make. But yeah,
I mean again, I'm I am a person who is
one hundred percent willing and able to say look objectively,
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a perfect movie. It
is a movie that has some of the greatest stunt
work ever done in a big budget studio film. It
has Harrison Ford at peek Harrison Ford. It is the

(29:37):
movie where he fights the Nazis and they melt. We
just talked about it on our Melt episode, Like it's
an iconic film for a reason. If you know Indiana Jones,
you know Raiders of the Lost Ark and maybe nothing else.
And I think that that is important, But that is
not my favorite one, and that I don't think is
the foundational one. If you're talking about watching these now

(29:58):
in twenty twenty four as a contemporary viewer that has
I'm saying that because that's the only people that I
can tell to watch this now. Of course, contemporary viewers
like I can't go, well, if you were around in
eighty one, of course Raiders first, Like, well, Raiders is
the only thing that's that's the you know, hindsight thing,
like hindsight right now, they probably wish they could have

(30:18):
made seven Indiana Jones movies from nineteen eighty one to
nineteen ninety eight. Do you know what I mean? Like
now the way things are, they probably wish they didn't
have to wait twenty years or fifteen years in between
each one.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, that's that's sort of what I was getting at.
I just I don't want I don't want it to
blow it to load early basically and be like, here's
the best movies and now everything else is just gonna
feel like it's trying to live up to that. And
I bet for some people that loved the loved Raiders
when it came out, they kind of feel that already
because I know a lot of people look at Temple

(30:54):
and Last Crusade as lesser, but right I don't personally
they're not. I Yeah, I would definitely go show show
somebody Raiders brand new, to say this is Indiana Jones,
this is what he's like in most of the movies,
and then uh, then go to Crystal School and be like, well,
this is like the Redheaded Stepchild that came out, and uh,

(31:15):
well we'll talk about it. It's kind of similar whatever,
And then then you go into like, but this is
the magic for a couple and then also at the end,
we're gonna have a little epilogue. It's a little bit
of a letdown, but hey, it's part of the story,
so I can.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
I think it's weird you're putting Crystal Skull up second,
but I get I get what you're getting at in
terms of you know, and I think again, like, like
we've kind of alluded to the idea here that there
is a universe where we could get someone who's never
seen these movies, never heard of them, to sit in
a room and watch them, get one person to watch
them your way, get one person to watch them my way,

(31:49):
and get one person to watch them another way. Because
I'm sure there's someone out there screaming right now. Well,
I would do it, okay, I mean, like, and that's
the thing I would love to know if it even
affects your ability to enjoy the movie, because that's all
does Yeah. I don't think so either. But at the
same time, I wonder what would be more fulfilling as
an audience member. Would it be to see young Indie

(32:10):
transition into the person he is now or just to
kind of have it set out to me so that
I don't have all of the quality things up front,
because that's the thing. There are plenty of people that
don't even like anything past Raiders. It's like, yo, I
get it. Raiders is a great movie. Raiders is a
perfect movie. It's up there with films that like Silence

(32:31):
of the Lambs, like Casablanca, like movies that are important
to us as a Western culture.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Genuinely, you went super into detail and Temple of Doom.
Why don't we do the same for Raiders since Raiders
is going to be my pick here? Yeah, sure, Raiders.
Raiders is the first movie in the franchise. We don't
know anything about it. And man, this movie, first off iconic.
You were talking about it earlier, like there's so many
things from this franchise as a whole of iconic. But

(32:59):
this movie, like with in within like the first five
or six minutes, you've already got the gold transfer scene,
You've already got the giant Boulder. There's so many.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Things that idol, the Golden idol.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Literally immediately in this movie that will just be burned
into your brain. And so yeah, this is this is
easily the most iconic of franchise by far. Great movie,
acted really well. I think Karen Allen is pretty good
in this. I think that the whole fighting Nazis thing

(33:33):
is a good call, especially for the time that it's
set in. Obviously it's set in the late thirties, nineteen
thirty six. He is this college professor, He is a
you know, somebody that's globe trotting around trying to rescue things.
And it really delivers on who this character is going

(33:53):
to be for the entire franchise.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, I mean, look, here's I mean, here's the reality
of something like Ray of the Lost Arc. Like every
single frame of that movie, for the most part, has
something iconic or something about it that like, again, it's
in a lot of ways. And I've said this before
about other people, and I'll say it here about Spielberg.
If Raiders was the only movie you made as a filmmaker,

(34:17):
you'd be like fucking on cloud nine. But the fact
that this man has made that and Jaws and all
the other Indiana Jones movies aside from the last one
and Chindler's List and Saving like and like Stevens, and
this is just this is early. He's just getting his
footing as a director, and he makes one of the
like one of the preeminent like American action adventure films

(34:41):
of ever and to the point where this character is
known worldwide, I would assume based off of this movie,
and you didn't mention I think this movie has I
think this movie has the second best villain in the series,
with Renee Bellock played by Paul Freeman, otherwise known as
I even Ooze for all you nineties and that's out there.

(35:03):
He's amazing. He gets his just deserves and he is
introduced in the first ten minutes of the movie as well,
which is really smart because I don't think in the
other no, in the other two, you're not introduced to
the main villain of the movie in the kind of
cold open as it were, right, And that's the other
thing I mean again, very Indiana Jones are very Indiana Jones.

(35:26):
Yes it is Indiana Jones, very James Bond. Like these
movies are not sequels. I mean they're sequels, but they're
not a continuing story as it were, Like Raiders Are
the Lost Arc self contained story, Temple of Doom self
contained story, Last Crusade self contained story, Crystal Skull self
contained story, the last one. It tries to do something

(35:49):
a little different, and I'm not sure how much it succeeds.
But that's the other thing. Technically, you can just watch
these movies in whatever fucking order you want because they're
all self contained. It's not a sequel. It's just another
adventure in the life of Indiana Jones. So it feels
very James BONDI feels very mad Maxie. Like it's just
the character is the important thing. There will be other

(36:10):
characters that come back. I mean, they made a big
deal about bringing Karen Allen back for the new movies, Okay,
but like, I don't have nostalgia for her the same
way I do for Kate Capshaw. And it's like, and
where did that come from? Because Raiders of the Lost
Arc is the iconic movie. That's why it has the
iconography of Indiana Jones in the way that most people

(36:32):
like the iconography of Indiana Jones.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
I agree. Yeah, there's a lot in this first movie
that is going to be relied upon for I mean,
at this point decades, they're setting up the lore of
a character that you're going to be hearing about all
the way up through twenty twenty three, which is a lot.
You know, we probably should mention, and I don't think
you and I've ever talked about it before. How do

(36:57):
you feel about the young Indiana Jones.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, the Sean Patrick Flannery stuff. Yeah, I think if
you want to see Indiana Jones fight Vlad the Impaler
is Dracula, that's where you can go and do it. Uh.
It's I think it's a weird show in terms of
when it came out because it feels so much more
like a thing that should be coming out now like that,

(37:20):
like right, like if they hadn't done it then now
they could just be like, we're just gonna do a
young Indiana Jones thing. Like you could see that they
kind of speaking of blowing their load, they blew their
load on that way too early, like way too early,
because yeah, I mean you could have because you wouldn't
have ever you would have been able to get away
with the thing that they'd never have wanted to do,
which is recast the role Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones,

(37:41):
And that is part and parcel to all of this.
But what's interesting is that show is the only time
he's ever been recast outside of a River Phoenix, and
I guess there is probably one there is another actor
who plays Indiana Jones in the show when they like
flash forward and it's like Grandpa Indiana Jones and he's
like missing an eye and has like missing a leg,

(38:05):
which I don't think is Cannon anymore. I've got to
assume at this point, or maybe it is. I don't know,
but that show I think came out way too early,
and I think in terms of it being something worth
checking out if you can find it easily, which maybe
you could clue me in if there's like a Kenot
release or something.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
I'm not sure of that. I don't think there is
anything not anything modern.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
At least because they had like a they had a
DVD box set at one point, and they also had
it on VHS because I had it on VHS as
a kid growing up because the episode of Flad the
Impaler scared the shit out of me.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah, you can still get it. It's that DVD Set's
only like thirty thirty three bucks on Amazon.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
It's a good pickup if you're if you like Indiana
Jones and you've never seen it. It's Indiana Jones light
Sean Patrick Flannery, I mean, is believable enough as Indiana Jones.
I wouldn't say, like he's the best person that they
could have cast, but right, he's fine. I think it
introduced him to a wider world. I got no problem

(39:08):
with it. I used to watch it a lot growing up.
Like I said, that episode of Ladi Impaler scared the
shit out of me. What about you, you a fan?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Uh, I've only watched it once. I don't have great
detailed memories of it. I remember liking it enough, but
also it just felt like, uh, maybe a little more
of my speed at the time rather than like rather
than Raiders. And it's I'm not at all saying that
the quality was higher. It was just I was literally
a child, right.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
He like interacts with historical figures and people through that,
and that was always kind of fun. I aw, he's
found that kind of fun. It was a little like
Forrest Gumpy where it's like, oh, he's running into all
these really famous people and all he's talking to you know, T. L. Lawrence,
and you know, all, yeah, it's like okay, like fine,
like cool, Like I said, Vlad dam Paler, like literally

(39:58):
Vlad dam Paler fights it. Indiana Jones, Okay, and like
for me, honestly, you know, and this is probably the
sad thing, and that'll probably be the answer to the
third question, like there's more non mainline stuff of Indiana
Jones that's way better than even the good stuff that
the movies have made. But that's a discussion further along
the road.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Well, I'm very eager to get to that point. So
let's go through our second question. What is the like
secret hidden gym for this franchise for you? One that
may not be the great to show somebody first, but
you think is still an amazing movie.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Can I have you answer first? I want to see
if I have to change my answer or not.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
I mean, I'm gonna say last Crusade since we've talked
about the other two. This movie, I mean, first of all,
I like puzzles and stuff, so this fits.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
Square X rarely marks the spot, Ryan X rarely marks
the spot.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah, this this just scratches a lot of those. It
is like, you still get a lot of the same characters.
You get the introduction to Connery as the dad. You
get that fun chemistry which really works Harrison Ford and
Sean Connery together, The chemistry is perfect, cell good. It's
it's genuinely I don't think anybody else could have been
a better dad for him. But like the whole journey

(41:18):
for the Holy Grail is, it's another one of those
like I hate to just overuse the word again and again,
but it's so incredibly iconic. Everything is. You know, everybody
has seen these scenes hundreds of times and you may
not have even seen the movie, but you've probably seen
the scenes in you know, a flourish before a film,
or some sort of trailer or YouTube, you know, some

(41:42):
sort of I don't know, highlight reel of something like
this is the type of thing that people look back
on and go, yeah, this is iconic from this movie.
We're gonna do it to highlight Lucas or Spielberg or
Ford or whoever you're gonna talk about. And the movie
is great. Like there's there's other scenes in the beginning
of this that are very very just the like peak

(42:05):
Indiana Jones. The second and third movie for me, is
is like one continuous just great time. They're both full
of adventure, both full of exciting stories, and uh, just
so well made. The movies are great. My big thing
that I take away from these that I miss in
so much of modern cinema that they go somewhere and

(42:27):
film that. This is not just done in a giant
room in London or you know, some small town in
Canada because they're getting a tax break. They're going to
a fucking jungle to film a lot of this there
by real waterfalls. They're in some random ass temple set

(42:47):
that they built close to where they're in the jungle. Like,
there's so much of this that is on site, and
they they put real money in like that sort of thing.
We don't get that anymore from the screen. Shit, and
it God, it hurts. It hurts every aspect of this process.
Everything looks cheaper, everything looks sad, everything looks small, everything

(43:11):
looks fake because it is.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah, I've heard the criticism that I have heard leveled
against Last Crusade is that it is too jokey and
it is too funny of a movie. I mean, yes,
I think it is more comedic than the first two.
But at the same time, like one of the most
iconic moments in Indiana Jones is a funny bit. It's

(43:40):
the Cairo Swordsman. I mean, that's a funny gag that's
well known. Like, if you don't think Indiana Jones has
some level of humor in it. You've never seen the franchise,
Like for someone to say Last Crusade is the jokey
when it's like it wasn't a comedy. It just had
more one liners because you have like one of the
king of one liners from back in the day, Sean Connery,

(44:02):
you know, shocking, like, I mean, that's that's all. I mean,
that's James Bond right there. So are we really surprised
that there's more of that dynamic? No, you know, no
ticket I mean again, Indiana Jones didn't necessarily have like
a catchphrase, but in Last Crusade we kind of get
some you know, like no ticket or X rarely marks
the spot, like those those are iconic lines because of

(44:24):
that movie kind of not having the tone. It doesn't
have the tone of the second movie for the most
part until you get to the end and there's like
the heightened stakes of like people are dying and stuff
like that, but it has more of the tone of
the first movie.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
It's kind of the cool thing though, is when you
look at the first half and the second half, it
kind of has like uh, lost Arc and Temple kind
of blended.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
Yeah, a little bit. The whole out, the whole tanks
scene out before they get into Petra. Yeah, is pretty
much just like it's a bigger budget version. I don't
think done as well as the one in Raiders. I mean,
I think Raiders has one of the greatest stunt set
pieces in film history, the truck chase at the say,

(45:14):
the climax of the movie, but it's one of the
many climaxes of the film. That is one of the
and still like a great practical stunt effect that every
time I watch it, I'm like, that looks so dangerous, man,
And it was, but it was being done a bit safely,
as safely as they could. And yet to your point,
Last Crusade second act of the movie is a little

(45:34):
Temple of Doom, a little Raiders of the Lost Dark.
I think the first half of Last Crusade's pretty damn great.
I think that whole movie is great. I look, I think,
you know, I think that Last Crusade is the one
that I've seen the most because it was the one that,
like I said, my grandfather gravitated towards. I don't know why,
I mean, other than the whole Sean Connery of it,

(45:55):
I gotta assume, but I love Last Crusade. I love
them all equally. I mean, and maybe I don't love
Raiders as much as I love the other ones because
but that's like, because everybody else loves Raiders enough, I
don't feel like I have to, you know what I mean,
Like everybody else can sing the praise, like everybody and
their mother will sing the praises of Raiders the Lost Ark.
I don't have to do that for the movie, like

(46:16):
at all. There are plenty of other people who have
been doing it for longer than I've been alive, and
those people are right, because we got four other movies
from that series.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
You sound like a reverse Hipsters. It's I wasn't there first.
You could love it?

Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yeah, like whatever, like in my mind, Like I don't
if you saw it when you were ten years old
in the eighties, Like fuck, I can't blame you for
thinking it's like the greatest thing you've ever seen. And
you might still feel that way, and like you said,
you kind of you said it, you kind of passed
over it. Like people didn't know that they were getting
the best movie in the series right out of the gate, right,

(46:53):
and so they kind of I mean, the response to
Temple of Doom. The response to Last Crusade, the response
to all of the movies is it's unfortunate that they're
all just not Raiders. Huh. Right, It's like the sad
thing about every Indiana Jones movie post Raiders is that
they're just not Raiders because that's what people wanted, was
just more of Raiders. And I get it. But if

(47:14):
not for the fact that Spielberg was going through a
divorce and Lucas kind of stepped back, we wouldn't have
Temple of Doom or Last Crusade. So, right, Last Crusade's
a good one. I think Last Crusade has the best
villain in the series, Julian Glover playing the like the
most realistic of the villains in the movies.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Yeah, he's up there. I'd Freeman in the first one
is really great.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
But again, like that's the thing, like, yeah, like discounting,
not discounting the first movie. But if we just set
the first movie up on a shelf, right and we say,
like everything about the movie is perfect, it's a perfect movie.
So if we were to answer, oh, the perfect villain
for Indiana Jones, of course is just dark Indiana Jones, Right,
like he's just Indiana Jones's shadow. He does the thing

(47:59):
Indiana Jones won't do Last Crusade. I like the idea
of an American businessman selling his soul to the Nazis
for eternal youth, Like that is a interesting character. And
he and there and he is irredeemable to the last moment.
And he's an idiot, which is even better, which again
speaks to the idea of the tech bros. And people

(48:21):
like that now, people who will who will go and
do and say things and throw their money at things
just because because they can. And sometimes the things that
they're choosing to throw their money behind aren't great in
this movie's case Nazis in real life case Nazis Nazis.
And also will the Uh I forget what his name is.

(48:44):
He's the like the commander, the guy who Indiana Jones
fights on top of the tank. None of the other
movies really have a secondary villain that Indiana Jones fights with. Well,
they have, they have Tote in the first movie, but
he's not a physical threat, like he burns his hand
on a medallion and then Indian and him never interact again. Uh.

(49:07):
In Last Crusade, that tank fight. While that might not
be as thrilling as the truck chase, it's thrilling in
a different way. And that fight on top of the
tank and that whole tank chase is great. But for
the most part it's played for laughs. Like a lot
of the things are like, oh, and he sticks a
rock in the thing and it blows up on and
he shoots the gun and it shoots through five people,

(49:29):
like all of it. It's like a gag. It's like site
site gags galore. So, yeah, I'm glad you picked Last
Crusade so that I don't have to.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Well, then let's hear yours.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
Oh God, this is where I this is This is
where I have to do a thing I never thought
I would. Yeah, you're right, I'm going to go out
on a lemon and say that if you are not
wanting to start at the places that Ryan and I
have given you one or two or watching three uh four,
I think now in retrospect, look up. I'm not gonna

(50:04):
sit here and pretend like I loved this movie when
it came out. I've done an episode on this movie
recently in the last couple years on the Culture Cast,
So I've been kind of preparing myself for this because
I already did it there a little bit. I didn't
like this movie when it came out. I saw it
the night it came out, at midnight. I saw it
the next day at like three in the afternoon when

(50:24):
I was out of school. So I saw this movie
twice in one day. You would think that I love
this film. I don't hate this film as much as
I used to. I used to. Really, I don't know
what the word is shudder to think about having to
watch the movie or people taking it seriously in the

(50:46):
scope and scheme of the other three movies at the time,
it look. I think the problem with Crystal Skull is
that it's a movie about aliens, which doesn't really feel
like an Indiana Jones thing. Indiana Jones was always religious adjacent,
and introducing straight up goddamn aliens is it's a bit

(51:06):
of a leap, I will say. I think Crystal Skull
also suffers from, at the time, an over usage of CGI,
an over reliance on CGI. We'll fix it in post
or these entire scenes are prevised. Look, I don't have
any problem with practical effects or CGI effects like I
don't any more than you do. I just think that

(51:28):
when you forego using practical effects because digital is easier,
you can tell you should use digital to fill in
the gaps of the practical. Don't just do things. We're
gonna do this in a studio sound stage. Yeah, it's yeah,
And so it's used as a crutch, less as a tool.
And Kingdom in the Crystal Skull is is kind of

(51:52):
not not an offender, like a repeat offender. It is
an offender of like not great CGI, I will say,
but a lot of it is still being done practically.
Harrison Ford is still able to do the thing. He
still is whipping around, flying around, fistfighting people, doing the
Indiana Jones thing that we expect from Indiana Jones. Do

(52:14):
I like what the mcguffin is at the center of
the movie. I like it the least of No. I
don't like it the least of all of them. I
like it second least, the least one being Dial of Destiny.
I think Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in retrospect has
aged better because Dial of Destiny was such a disappointment

(52:34):
and to look back on it, it's like, well, at
least that was directed by Spielberg. At least the first
half of the movie two thirds is pretty fun. I'll
even say, you know, as someone who will have to
come around on Shila Buff, because you are my friend
and I owe it to you to listen to your
impassioned plea about Shilah Buff and why I may be

(52:55):
miss miss misconstruing him as someone who is only in Transformers,
even though he was in Transformers movies, just like Robert
Pattinson was in Twilight. I have to remember that. I
have to remind myself of that. As much as I'm
not a fan of Shia Labuff, He's actually not bad
in this movie. Now, is he Indiana Jones's son. He's

(53:17):
not the most egregious choice. There could have been a
lot weirder people. They could have picked a lot less
charming and charismatic people. I think Shila Buff's I think Shilabuff.
At the time, people thought he was gonna be the
next big thing, And Shilabuff is not the next big
thing of his own choice. He's a very complex person,
clearly who has dealt with a lot of things. Look,

(53:39):
I wasn't a child actor. You weren't a child actor.
I can't pretend to know what it's like to have
been on even Stevens as a child and have my
entire life under a microscope because oh, you're a child actor,
which means now we have to focus on the fact
that you're probably gonna be a fucked up adult. And look,
Shila Buff was dealing with stuff long before even Stevens.

(54:00):
I mean, his upbringing and everything like not great, like
not a great relationship with his parents a lot. And
this is all publicly known stuff. It's not me expousing
or you know, making a fucking assumption. This is He's
talked about it. He made a movie about it, more
or less sure. So all of that to say, I
don't find him to be as much of an affront

(54:22):
to my good senses as he was when I originally
saw the movie, because when I originally saw it in
two thousand and eight, this is like Transformers, Shia Lahbuff.
That's the mindset I put myself in to get there.
I think that the first two thirds of Kingdom and
the Crystal Skull are actually pretty good. Are they the best?
Are they the best Indiana Jones movie? I would say

(54:44):
the first two thirds of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
are as good as are as good as a lot
of Last Crusade. Now is it a funny or as
well written as Last Crusade. No, But in terms of
it being like action adventure high stakes, I mean, we

(55:06):
have a pretty entertaining chase through the Amazon rainforest. It's
a little cgi heavy looking at you, Shila buff swinging
with monkeys on vines through the trees. But I don't know.
I mean, I find Kingdom of the Crystal Skull kind
of a charming failure. It's a weird failure. I mean,
Dial of Destiny fails because it just tries to well,

(55:28):
we'll talk about it when we get there. But Dial
of Destiny is a very different movie from all four
of these other movies. I think that's the thing. At
the end of the day, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull still feels like an Indiana Jones movie.
Be it because Bielberg directed it. Be it because Indiana
Jones played by Harrison Ford can actually move and do things.
Be it because again, it's still close to being an

(55:52):
Arc of the Covenant or Holy Grail or Sean Carstones
Like it is kind of close. I mean, again, the
Aliens don't. Maybe I'd feel differently if the aliens never
showed up, right, you know, cause there's the other thing.
The aliens show up in like the last two minutes
of the movie, and then there's a spaceship and it
flies away, and it's like, oh, so it was aliens
up until that point. It's just kind of an Indiana

(56:12):
Jones adventure. They're running around in the rainforest. There's a
couple set pieces that are pretty interesting that they the
one where it's kind of the tower that leads down
into where the aliens are, where there's sand coming out
and stuff like. That's a pretty interesting set piece. But look,
I get it. People had waited nineteen years to see

(56:33):
Indiana Jones again. And the people that were really disappointed
were the people older than us, like our gen x
er friends are the ones that were really disappointed. They
were the ones who made their episode of South Park
about how George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were sexually assaulting
Indiana Jones and them saying that that was their childhood.

(56:53):
Here you're I think not to diminish the use of
the word, but I believe they said, you're raping our
childhood is what they said, right, and it's like, you
still have the original three movies Chill the fuck Out
like Chill the fuck Out, and if anything, it makes
you appreciate those first three movies that much more, like
at the end of the day, because the fifth movie

(57:14):
has made me appreciate the fourth movie that much more. So,
that's my impassioned plea. It is not a bad movie.
I think it is a misguided movie. I think it
makes some choices that don't necessarily hang with Indiana Jones
as a franchise that we've seen, and even in the
extended fiction, he has not really engaged with aliens. They

(57:37):
have all been like pseudo religious or religious things that
he's engaged with, not actual aliens.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Gotta point out that in this entire impassioned review of
Crystal School, we didn't talk about the fridge scene. At
That's what everybody complains about about this damn movie. Watching
that again, how do you feel about that scene?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
So what's funny is have you watched the TV show
fall Out yet? There's a scene in Fallout that feels
like somebody was like, but see that is the truth.
Because a character crawls out of the lead line refrigerator
and survives a nuke being dropped in a city because
they're in a refrigerator. And I couldn't help think to myself, like,
is this them saying that Crystal Skull was right. It's

(58:22):
not that he's in a refrigerator. That's the problem for me.
It's that we watch the refrigerator turn whatever would have
been inside it to mush because it flies at like
one hundred miles an hour, bouncing around like he'd be dead,
not because of the radiation, but because he'd be like
a literal puddle of broken bones and skin in that
he's not like strapped in. He doesn't have like any

(58:44):
sort of protection. He's in a fucking metal box being
thrown by a nuke.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
What do you think is shaking?

Speaker 1 (58:51):
Yeah, he get out and he's just like would stand
up and all of his bones are just broken. So
he's just like on the ground. Like you ever seen
someone put a brick into a block under and turn
it on. It's like that the thing bounces around a
lot and eventually it'll break it down. That that nuking
the fridge thing. Look, that's just another classified entire group

(59:11):
of people. But if they are horror bros And they're
action movie man babies, and that is a big complaint.
I don't like the nuke the fridge. Fucking it's one
part of the movie. You gotta get hung up on
that for like there, if that's what you want to
get hung up on. Cool, I don't really want to
have a conversation with you because you're not interested in
talking about anything conductive to having an interesting conversation. You

(59:34):
just want to focus on some stupid shit that is stupid.
I'll agree it's stupid. You'll agree it's stupid. It was
a dumb decision. It's cool. I mean, the thing that
is cool, I will say is that shot of Indiana
Jones with a mushroom cloud in the background when he
steps out of the fridge. That is a well done
shot that has some nice iconography to it. But yeah,

(59:57):
I get it. The fridge thing. Yeah, it's dumb. I agree.
Move on. That's my point. It's like it's like the
Blade Runner thing, like it's deckerd a replicant. I don't
fucking care. Move on, Like, let's talk about something else.
There's there's got to be something else in this two
hour movie that we could talk about other than the
nuking of the fridge, like fucking come on, guys. That

(01:00:17):
is such a that is such a pedantic and infantile
way of looking at movies where it's like, I'm just
gonna focus on this one thing, and that one thing
makes the whole movie bad, Like, oh god, really, really
come on?

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Speaking of having more to talk about, oh dear, now
move our attention to the dial of destiny. And this
movie comes out in twenty twenty three, directed by James Mangold,
and first off, this movie is two and a half
hours long. Boy is I just watched this for the
first time a couple weeks ago. It does not feel
two and a half hours long. This movie feels like
it's about seven hours long. This movie plods at a

(01:00:53):
snail's pace, primarily because they coddle Harrison Ford for the
entire film. He is relegated to sitting in the backseat
of cars or being locked to random ass vehicles or
a train or whatever because he just can't get up

(01:01:14):
and run anymore or anything like that. So, man, this movie,
like this was a chore to watch. This was the
first out of the five films that I wanted to
not finish.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
I saw it in theaters. I know people that like
this movie. I don't get it. It's so sad to
have to talk about this movie a because this movie
exists and we have to talk about it at all.
I'm not saying that because the movie is like some
sort of like cinematic abortion. I'm saying that only because

(01:01:56):
I kind of if this is what we were going
to get after fifteen years, just we.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Don't scrap it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Yeah, we don't need it like you didn't. At the
end of the day, the way this movie ends is
no different than the way Crystal Skull ends, other than
the fact that characters from that last movie are killed
off off screen, which is just the laziest shit possible.
And that's and on top of everything else, I really
wish that this movie had come out two years after

(01:02:25):
the fact, because then Key k Kwan would have been
in the movie. Short Round would have been in the movie.
There's no way he wouldn't have been in the movie.
And then the movie would have been an interesting kind
of not coming of age but winding down of age
story because you could have him being you know, asking you.
I mean, just think about the dynamic between him still

(01:02:45):
younger and him now older, right, Like, that's those scenes
right themselves, and he could even and you know what,
you could have even had it where Mutt Shila Buff's character. Uh,
let's just say he's not in Dial of Destiny. Guess
how much you could have mined a relationship between Indie
and Key k Kwan as the son. He didn't get

(01:03:07):
a chance to say the things he wanted to and
raise the way he wanted to, and that dynamic would
possibly be beautiful, frankly if if you got it there.
Because James Mangold can make a good movie. They didn't
hire him to do dial Adestiny because he's a fucking clown.
They hired him because he makes compelling cinema. I'm not
the biggest fan of Logan, but fucking everybody else's I know,

(01:03:32):
so that's fine. I mean, look, I'm a huge fan
of his version of three ten to Yuma. Walk the
Line is obviously a movie that I can't help but love.
I am thankful that Walk the Line exists, because Walk
Hard exists. But James Mangle's a fantastic writer director, and
seemed like a slam dunk to bring him on board.

(01:03:54):
I think he could have done a lot better and
worked a lot harder. And the people who worked on
the screen could have done better if they had actually
had something to say, and there isn't something to say,
and if you had had short round in the movie,
and you really lean on the trauma that Indiana Jones
is not dealing with about his son because spoilers, Mutt

(01:04:16):
dies in Vietnam.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
And that's all we get is one sentence, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
And not like I'm sad that my son is dead.
I couldn't stop him from going. It broke my marriage
with Mary in a part. None of that, Like it's
implied kind of, But we never see Indie dealing with
it the way he should be dealing with it. This
film is made in twenty twenty three. It's being made
in a time in a place post ted Lasso posts

(01:04:43):
so many shows that have bucked the trend of the
way male characters are written in terms of their ability
to approach their emotions. That's why you need to watch
ted Lasso, by the way, that's the reason any guy
needs to watch ted Lasso's because there's a better way
of doing things that isn't what so many of us
are doing. Now. I'm not saying you're doing it anymore
than I am. But media and entertainment can be transformative.

(01:05:06):
I genuinely look at Last Crusade as like that movie
I hope brought fathers and sons together in a way
that they hoped it could, because that's clearly that's a
big part of that movie is, you know, examining a
relationship between a father and son who one was not
present for the other, and what does it mean when
given the opportunity to be there, you take advantage of

(01:05:28):
it and you do it. And not only do you
do it, but then you also like you have to
save you have to you're saving your father as part
and parcel to making that choice at the end of
that film, and Dial of Destiny just misses it all
the way down. Like you said, Harrison Ford relegated to
effectively a cameo in his own movie because he can't

(01:05:49):
really do what he did in those movies because he's
eighty years old. Not saying eighty year old people can't
do it, but that specific eighty year old person cannot,
and it's a shame. Antonio Bendarris is in the movie why,
I do not know for how long it is one
scene no I Am not fucking kidding. It's it's just

(01:06:12):
a I don't know. And Matt's Michelson is in the
movie man like that. That for me is the big shame.
Matt's Michelson is in the movie and they don't give
him a fucking thing to do at all. At all.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
I mean, gotta mention Phoebe waller Bridge, gotta gotta admit,
she's not terrible in this movie. She's she's bringing the
bulk of the charisma. She's funny, she's happy, she is
somebody that can act really well when she's given the
great script, and this was not it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
She kind of comes off as a nagging woman in
this script, like which is which is terrible because Phoebe
waller Bridge wrote some of the dialogue for that last
James Bond movie and Phoebe waller Bridge wrote Fleabag and
she's no idiot, and yeah, not not the best use
of her talents as a creator. I don't think this
movie is the best use of anybody's talents. I guess

(01:07:07):
I'm just sad that it came out and this is
what it is. I kind of figured it was gonna
be this guy, Victory lap of a movie, But it's
not really it would have been a victory lap if
it had been directed by Spielberg and George Lucas had
helped him. It would have been a victory lap if
Indiana Jones wasn't eighty fucking years old. I mean, that's
the reality here. I don't know what the fuck they
were waiting for. I don't know what thumb was up

(01:07:28):
what ass in the nineties and two thousands, but I
guess people didn't like making money because they released the
movies so late that by the time they released and
there were plenty of other things that had replaced Indiana Jones.
I mean, yeah, at one point everybody knew Indiana Jones
not the case anymore. When the pipe is so much
bigger than it used to be. And frankly, it's not

(01:07:49):
just one pipe being a lot bigger, it's there's thousands
upon thousands of pipes. Now that you some people will
never even engage with watching YouTube videos for their entire life,
and I watch YouTube video was every day. Just think
about that, and that's content there, let alone, you know,
professionally made content by big production houses like there. There

(01:08:10):
will be people who will go their entire lives now
being born now that will never see an Indiana Jones movie,
let alone it even be mentioned to them possibly, which
is crazy to think about, Like Indiana Jones does not
have the pop culture relevancy anymore that he used to,
and the budget for the movie and the amount of
money that the movie made show that the movie was

(01:08:32):
like a four hundred million dollar movie and it made
like little less than four hundred million dollars it did.
It was a box office not bomb, but it seems
like it broke even is kind of what. Yeah, it
was a flop for for it being Indiana Jones coming
out in a time and a place where you can
make a billion dollars on a movie like Endgame. The

(01:08:53):
fact that they thought that this would somehow be that
is a little much.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
But to that point too, the hard part is, I
think kind of we're getting to a point where all
of cinemas like that there are people that just simply
don't watch movies at all, and that's that's, you know,
our hope for the show actually is, you know, unless
they're seeking it out, they're never gonna find this. But
it is our mission that we're putting out of the

(01:09:20):
ether that we hope that we can excite some people
to watch some new films and to keep up with
your film.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Yeah, yeah, because film's that ever changing thing, like you
know film as it is, like there are trends within
film that are ever changing, their trends within the industry
that are ever changing. And Indiana Jones four and Indiana
Jones five are very good examples of the good and
the bad styles and trends that were popular at the time.

(01:09:46):
And I mean, I would say Indiana Jones in the
dial of Destiny is more a legacy sequel than Kingdom
and the Crystal Skull is. Actually think Kingdom the Crystal
Skull fits nicer into those first three movies than Dialogus
he does. It is a legacy sequel. You just happened
to have the character in the title in the movie

(01:10:07):
the entire movie, but he's not doing much right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
Well, we're kind of talking about all around the pop
culture side of things, so let's let's break it down.
What is the biggest impact that Indiana Jones has had
on pop culture?

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
Introducing the world to Indiana Jones yet another thing that
could be franchised out and turned into a multitude of
entertaining things that then would go on to be a
ride at Disneyland, a series of computer and video games
that do a better job at characterizing Indiana Jones than
even the movies do. Plenty of books, a TV show

(01:10:47):
we just talked about for a little bit, I mean
introducing the world to Indiana Jones. But I also think
furthering the power of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, because
obviously those two guys kind of at the top of
the table here with this. This is this, I think
for me shows that a Spielberg can do big budget right,

(01:11:07):
and also that George Lucas is is kind of a
genius when it comes to coming up with ideas. Maybe
his ability to execute on them kind of you know,
you your mile Edgual theary there. But I think Indiana
Jones is an important piece of the pop culture tapestry
for a certain swath of time. After a while, I
don't think Indiana Jones is relevant, and I think I think,

(01:11:30):
unfortunately we're coming to the end of the time of
Indiana Jones's relevancy being important for a certain group of people. Look,
there's an Indiana Jones video game coming out later this year,
made by the people who made Wolfenstein. A little on
the nose that the people who make games about killing
Nazis are having a character who kills Nazis Oro is
known for killing Nazis, But I am super excited for it.

(01:11:51):
It's the one game this year that I would buy new,
brand new, I would purchase it physically. And again, I
think maybe for me, it's a hard question to answer
because I know that I have friends younger than me
that I've never seen Indiana Jones that had no parents
telling them to watch them. And at this point, that's
what it has to come from. It has to come
from someone older than you, indoctrinating you into Indiana Jones movies,

(01:12:16):
kind of like Star Wars, like either you did or
you didn't, either your parents, because now there's gonna be
people growing up that it's like Star Wars Harry Potter,
and it's like, you know what I mean, Like Harry
Potter has kind of supplanted that, and then Harry Potter
got supplanted by Marvel even like as like the modern
topical pop culture thing. For a while, it was Indiana

(01:12:39):
Jones for a while, it was Star Wars for a while.
It was Harry Potter. For a while, it was the MCU,
and those trends exist because of something like Indiana Jones,
like a big pop culture franchise. Indiana Jones is one
of the first ones, just like Star Wars, and that's
a thing, like they kind of made that thing a
thing that now everything is.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
It's a good point. My My answer for this is
pretty obvious and on the on the nose here, but
it's mostly just it solidified Spielberg and Harrison Ford as
not just like a flash in the pan type of creator.
Before before the before Raiders, Spielberg had directed like four

(01:13:26):
or five movies, but the big ones were really only
Jaws and Close Encounters. And at this point it was
this movie where somebody went, oh, okay, okay, he is
here to stay, totally get it, and that was that
was a big deal for him. Harrison Ford. Obviously, he
had a handful of gigantic movies before this, the Conversation,

(01:13:47):
Star Wars. Both Star Wars came out before the first
Indiana Jones, American Graffiti another one with George Lucas. He
was in a handful of things, but even then, this
is where he like leapt to induce super stardom and
much more. Again, like you mentioned earlier, the whole Star
Wars thing was much more low key, like the nerd

(01:14:11):
side of things. It wasn't the popular thing to be
a nerd at that time. So this is what brought
him the mainstream success, the big household name in every household,
and it was something that he wasn't going to let
go for four decades and he's still here. It's kind
of crazy. The other thing too, I kind of want

(01:14:32):
to point out, just for genre adventure movies like this,
we're not done on this scale and this popular until these,
and that's inspired tons of movies since then. I mean,
we probably don't get something like Goonies without these being made.
The modern stuff that has attempted to get some of

(01:14:53):
the same feelings obviously all started with Indiana Jones. Not
saying that they're good or bad or anything, just you
know the handful of movies that The Rock has done
that are similar to this feeling or stuff like that.
But yeah, this movie has inspired a lot of people,
inspired a generation, inspired actors, inspired full blown movies to

(01:15:17):
be written in this specific genre because this exists.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
Yeah, and also, you know what's funny is you know,
as we say here and kind of do a post
mortem on Indiana Jones, given that there isn't going to
be anything else and there will be no more. I mean,
I don't think that they're going to like add Indiana
Jones things to Disneyland at any point. I mean, the
stuff that they have is what they have, and they're

(01:15:44):
not going to do anymore because why would you. I mean,
in twenty fifteen, Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar opened in Disney
Springs and Walt Disney World, which is Jock Lindsay is
the pilot from the beginning of Raiders the Lost Arc.
But in a lot of ways, like yeah, it's Indiana
Jones is just like it's a thing that a lot
of people are into, were into, but I don't know

(01:16:07):
if it has the staying power of Star Wars, And
they've also made it clear that they don't think it does,
because after Dialadestiny came out, all those things that they
said they were going to do evaporated into the air,
which is fine, I mean good. Maybe, if anything, the
continuation of the Indiana Jones story will will come from

(01:16:29):
a different medium. And I think that Indiana Jones and
their The Great Circle is the name of the game
that's coming out later this year, made by Bethesda and
Machine Games, which again the Machine Games are the ones
who worked on Wolfenstein and Bethesda. If you're listening to
this and you're a gamer, you're either gonna have a
chill sent up your spine or you're gonna be happy.

(01:16:49):
Take your pick. It's I mean, it's a first person
Indiana Jones game that then transitions to third person when
you fight people hand to hand, and they have I
think it's they might be Troy Baker who's doing Indiana
Jones's voice. Sounds close enough, But that's probably gonna be
where Indiana Jones lives from now on, is in the

(01:17:10):
digital sphere. But again, that game is just gonna be
like watching a movie, am I I mean? And that's
the thing that I'm excited for with that is and
this is something I wanted to talk about here because
we're not gonna get any other chance to talk about it.
There are so many great Indiana Jones things that are
not the movies. Indiana Jones and The Emperor's Tomb, Indiana

(01:17:32):
Jones in The Infernal Machine, Indiana Jones in the Fate
of Atlantis, the Indiana Jones game based off of Last Crusade.
Some of those games are like a point and click
like adventure game where you like, you're not necessarily like fighting,
but you're, you know, answering questions point and click text
based adventure games. And then you get to something like

(01:17:54):
Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb. Emperor's Tomb is a prequel
to Temple of Doom. You are stealing Nu Hachi's ashes
in that game, and that game ends at the beginning
of Temple of Doom. It's literally like he's walking into
the club, and that's what it is. Like. So much
of the cool Indiana Jones stuff has nothing to do

(01:18:15):
with the movies. The movies where the vehicle to introduces
to the character, but I think the Indiana Jones Fate
of Atlantis stuff is really cool. I think for me,
that's like, that's probably that the Indiana Jones story that
I wish they had done, because, my god, the way
that that ends is epic and insane. The Infernal Machine
is interesting as well, because he's going back to like

(01:18:36):
Babylonian times and dealing with like Babylonian gods. Emperor's tomb
is when he's in China and he's dealing with like
ancient Chinese mythology. Stapha King's less said about that the
better That game is a nightmare. But a lot of
Indiana Jones stuff is just like nothing to do with
the movies. It's just the character is there, and Okay,

(01:18:58):
Indiana Jones is in fucking fort night for fuck's sake.
There are there are not just one, but two Indiana
Jones lego games that they released for the character. Like
that's that's my point. Like in a lot of ways,
I actually wonder how many people engage with Indiana Jones
outside of the movies, because at this point there's only
five movies and there are right buckets mountains of stuff,

(01:19:23):
And so for me, honestly, like if you are an
Indiana Jones fan and you did not know that these
things are out there, like like all the books that
you can read were Indiana Jones. Oh my god. Some
of the books are great Indiana Jones and the Peril
at Delphi, Indiana Jones in the Seven Vales, Indiana Jones
and the Unicorns Legacy, or my favorite, Indiana Jones and

(01:19:46):
the Dinosaur eggs. Those are all novels written in the
nineties that you can read, because again, we didn't have
any Indiana Jones in the nineties movies, but we had
people writing tons of books. And when I was on
vacation recently, my dad found one of those Indiana Jones
books and was reading it. He was just reading, and
he bought it, like we were at like a thrift

(01:20:08):
story and he bought it and was reading it. That
book is worth one hundred dollars because those books are
also hard to find now too. On top of everything else.
So all of this to say, I think if you're
gonna engage with Indiana Jones at this point and you're
not interested in the movies, there are plenty of other
avenues that you can go down that would be just
as entertaining or interesting, depending on your level of interest

(01:20:29):
in engaging with interactive media see that as comic books
or video games or kind of anything in between. And
like we've said, honest to god, Indiana Jones has one
of the best rides based off of it in any
major theme park in the world. And I mean, the
fucking queue to that ride is amazing. Everything about that

(01:20:51):
ride is amazing. It will never not. Every time I
ride that ride for the first time, I'm writing it
for that visit that when I go, it gives me
fucking goosebumps being on that ride, because it's like, this
is the closest we can get to the thing that
so many of us grew up with wanting to be.
I wanted to be Indiana Jones as a child, Like
I think there are a lot of people that did,

(01:21:13):
maybe you as well, And that's like the closest any
of us can ever get other than being archaeologists. But
archaeologists found out very quickly you don't fight Nazis as
an archaeologist who kind of just go and yeah, dig
shit up. So that's my impassioned plea for Indiana Jones
as a franchise holistically less just a movie series, you know,

(01:21:35):
presented the way we've talked about.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
And to be cynical about that last sentence there, we
got to be honest with ourselves. It is the Hollywood machine.
So I guarantee you in sixteen years or something like that,
we will get a reboot of the Indiana Jones franchise
after Harrison Ford is dead, and we will get some
somebody that's probably not even an actor right now that
will be playing a young Indiana Jones and they'll give

(01:21:59):
us life six movies and in a span of like
ten years.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
And yeah, can I tell you who I would totally
want to see? Before we transition to the last question,
I was, there's a question I wanted to ask you,
So say, say tomorrow Harrison Ford kicks the bucket. Not
gonna happen, but say it were to happen right now.
They go, all right, Harrison Ford's passed away. We are

(01:22:24):
recasting Indiana Jones. He's going to he's going to be
he's going to be yeah, right, or he's going to
be younger. So he has to that which fucking no shit, Yes,
younger than eighty Okay, well good? Uh. He has to
be younger, as in the only the only rule that
I would have here, the only constraint for our answers.

(01:22:48):
He has to be around the age Harrison Ford was
when he played Indiana Jones, or slightly younger, so that
he can age into the role a little bit, if
that makes sense. I have my answer right at the
top of my head. But I want to know if
there's anybody and if you say Chris Pratt, So help me. God,

(01:23:08):
I love killing Nazis.

Speaker 3 (01:23:13):
Oh man's gotta have that Riz baby, somebody who's got
to have that Riz like in big amount too.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
I For some reason, the only thing I'm getting in
my mind right now is Daniel Radcliffe and Robert Pattinson.

Speaker 1 (01:23:37):
Wow. Interesting. Do you want to hear what my answer is?
And you're gonna go, holy shit? This is a great
I hope you go holy shit is a great answer.
Austin Butler, it could totally work. It could totally work.
The tone of Indiana Jones would have to be slightly different,
Like anyways, you can't just remake these movies. And I

(01:24:00):
think Austin Butler has like a there's a level of
charm to him that I think would work with indianage.
I mean, he played Elvis, for fuck's sake. Like, I
don't know, he's a charismatic guy. I mean maybe he's
a little I don't know, he doesn't have the quippiness.
But I'll also, we've never seen him do it, you
know what I mean, Right, I've never seen him. Yeah, Like,

(01:24:21):
I've never seen him do that. And to be fair,
like we hadn't seen Harrison Ford do it either. So
I know, Austin Butler just seems cool. He seems like
a cool customer, kind of like Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford
still is an eighty year old man, takes no shit
from nobody. He is very much himself. I see Austin
Butler the same way. I like Austin Butler as an
actor a lot. He makes interesting choices. He was in

(01:24:42):
Yoga Hosers. He's an interesting actor. Not Chris Pratt, though,
please no, please God, no for almost anything Daniel Radcliff
or Robert Pattinson interesting at least you're were in like
Pete Davidson obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:24:59):
Oh man, can.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
You imagine that Indiana Jones movie No Thank You? The
Holy Grail is just full of cocaine? Oh jeez, hey,
that's not the cup of Christ David's it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
They'd have to cast ariana Grande to play with you,
all right, God.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
The most insightful it would be in Indiana Jones movie
like that now, starring Lady Gaga as his love interest.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
Okay, uh, let's pull this in for a landing with
question number four? What is a cinematic bridged Indiana Jones?
Is there any other franchise that you feel like, is
like Indiana Jones? Yeah, it has. Are you just gonna
say Star Wars?

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
I would say, we've talked about one of the obvious
answers that I don't think we should go with, which
is yes, Star Wars. I don't know. I mean, that's
the thing because a lot of the things that inspired
Indiana Jones are so older than Indiana Jones. I'm not
gonna say those things I write. I would say, like,

(01:26:03):
if you're a fan of adventure movies, action adventure movies
where there's globe trotting, if you know what, if you're
a fan of James Bond, you're gonna like Indiana Jones.
How's that? I think that that's an easy I think
that's an easy layup. That's like me taking the ball
standing on a six foot tall ladder and dropping it
in the net. That's an obvious one. Star Wars is

(01:26:25):
another obvious one, just based on the Harrison Ford, George Lucas,
Steven Spielberg connection. This is too specific. I kind of
feel like, if you had seen these movies, you wrote
seen Indiana Jones already, but maybe not. If you find
yourself enjoying the films of Steven Summers, including but not
limited to, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns and Van Helsing.

(01:26:48):
You might enjoy Indiana Jones based on where it comes
in at for the things that the mcguffins are based
off of. Is there something here obvious that you want
to say that I'm missing because there is.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
No You just took my answer right there. Oh, I
really lead into is there's uh? You know, for years
there was a small fan base for the Mummy, but
in the last five years the fan base has gotten
much louder and much larger. And we are we are
many now that we we we can be proud about

(01:27:21):
loving this movie. So yeah, I think the Mummy is
the very very obvious tie. And if you are, if
you're somebody that just went and watched The Mummy while
it played theaters again and that was your first time
seeing it, Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:27:35):
I've loved it time, but I saw it in theaters
and you loved it, maybe go and give Indiana Jones
a watch if you never have, because it's got a
similar action adventure romance type feeling that is classic.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
Yeah. And can I also say, and this is again
speaking of things aging better, The Mummy Returns has also
aged better in light of Indiana Jones four and five
out because The Mummy Returns is still a much better
movie than either of those movies are, even with a
child actor who's annoying, not because he's annoying, just because

(01:28:09):
he's a kid in a movie, and kids in movies
just don't work with kids to work with animals.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
Yeap.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
Yeah, and man, I honestly, God, the Mummy is the
best Indiana Jones movie that's not an Indiana Jones movie.
It captures all of it. And also I think a
lot of people forget the first like forty minutes, Like
first forty minutes of The Mummy are kind of weird
because it's like a horror movie. Like the first forty
minutes of the movie is pretty much a horror movie,

(01:28:36):
and then it ramps up into action adventure. I would
actually say the Mummy, the first one is action horror,
and then the second one is action adventure comedy because
the second movie is not scary at all. First movie
actually has some like interesting creature design, has some like
kind of good scares. I think it's kind of a

(01:28:58):
gross movie as well, and some parts, but yeah, the
Mummy is just there's a reason I love The Mummy
so much. It's because for me, like you know what,
let's end this episode on a real high note. I
like the Mummy more than I like Indiana Jones. It's true,
I do. I will tell you I would revisit The

(01:29:20):
Mummy more frequently than I revisit Indiana Jones. And I
think that's because Brendan Fraser is my kind of action hero,
and so is Harrison Ford. But Harrison Ford, and I
think you would agree, there's a level of disinterest to
Harrison Ford that comes through in all of his roles,
even when he is committed and my boy's yeah, my boy,

(01:29:42):
Brendan Fraser. That is not the case. Like Brendan Fraser,
I don't know. I love him as an actor. I
have not seen The Whale. I do not care to
see it, not because of anything in specific. But I'm
sure he's great. He won an Oscar, so you've told
me already he's great. I don't need to see a
depressing movie about Brendan Fraser in a fat suit that
it doesn't sound fun, that doesn't sound like a good
time to spend my evening. But if I for you know,

(01:30:06):
for an evening. Want to watch The Mummy in theaters
twenty five years after seeing it in the theaters for
the first time. Yeah, I'll go do that, And I did,
and it was still it's such a fun movie to
see on the big screen because it is a big
ass movie. There's a lot of wild stuff going on.
It is practical effects with CGI that still looks pretty
good for the most part in that first one. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:30:30):
you can't say enough good things about The Mummy. Just
there's no time for us to do a Mummy episode
of the show, because there's only three movies, right, and
if someone says four, you know that that person's a liar,
they are a sinner, they are leading you astray. God,
the fact that that's a thing is just God. Yeah,

(01:30:55):
The Mummy with Tom Cruise, everybody who boy, yikes, big yikes, everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:31:03):
Well, if anybody was listening to this episode and really
wanted to hear more of your hot takes on films, Chris,
where would they go?

Speaker 1 (01:31:09):
Check the culture Cast. I mean, I mean, I've had
more hot takes on this show that I have there.
But that's because we're doing essentially like comparative analysis here
on this show. Yeah, I mean culturecast dot coms where
you can find the weekly movie show that I do,
but more aptly, you can go to Weirdingwaymedia dot com
and check out all the things that I work on.
There's over twenty shows. I am not on all of them,

(01:31:29):
so if you don't like me, you probably find somebody
on there who you do like and want to listen
to their stuff. Eighties TV Ladies, The Projection Booth Podcast,
Dark Destinations, Midnight Viewing, Film Enttaries, Feminine Critique, Twisted, and
on Corked. Those are all things I have nothing to
do with for the most part, so yeah, you should
go check them out. What about you, Ryan Verril?

Speaker 2 (01:31:49):
I'm going to shout out a couple other podcasts as
well that are on my podcast network. Please go check
out Unsung Horrors. Incredible podcast hosted by Erica and Lance
that looks at a horror movie and every episode that
has less than one thousand views on Letterbox, so it's
truly unsung. And then the other show is They Live
by Film, another podcast dedicated to film and physical media,

(01:32:12):
kind of like mine. Great interviewers, great great dudes, fun
film analysis. It's a good time.

Speaker 1 (01:32:20):
Is that Chris's show is Chris. I was just on
that show. Do you want to hear me pontificate for
an hour and a half? That's where you would go
to do it, and you should, I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:32:30):
I don't know, even though this episode will come out
like nine months after that appearance.

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
That's fair. Hey, we don't know when someone's listening to this.
They could be listening to this as the as the
fucking sun approaches the earth and is burning us all alive.
This is the last thing that they're watching exuday. Yeah,
well could be hopefully, Hey, all those investments that I
made would just be poof gone in an instant, in
a flash.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
All of mine already are. Anyways, thanks everybody for listening.
We hope you come back for our next episode, where
we will not be talking about Indiana Jones, but we
will be doing our best to continue to push your
boundaries of your interest in film Until next time,

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