The Breakdown of Civil War, Shirley, Rebel Moon Part 2 : The Scargiver, and Summer Box Office Challenge Draft

It is an episode recorded a few months back, but very late is better than absolutely never. This is a big one as we hold the annual Summer Box Office Challenge Draft. We also review three movies including the sci-fi picture 'Civil War', the biopic 'Shirley' and Zack Snyder's space opera 'Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver'. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hi there, it's me Christopher Spicer, and yes, it's been a long
time since you've had a new episodeof the Movie Breakdown, And if you've
listened to previous episodes, I've donemy apologies. I've made my excuses.
I've talked about the ever going whirlwindthat has been my life. But oddly

(00:26):
enough, Scott and I have recordedsome episodes and they've been just sitting there
in the can waiting to be editedand thrown out to the world. And
so I apologize for all that.As we've said before the show, and
as I will say on this showthat you're about to listen to, it's

(00:46):
just been a tough past year,trying to work on my mental health,
trying to basically going out to differentmedical professionals getting help, but as well
gain my career on. I'm stillfeeling the ramifications of that old thing called
COVID, but it seems I'm slowlybuilding back my career. And the plan

(01:08):
going forward is to have weekly podcastsagain, weekly Movie Breakdown, and on
top of that, get the sitegoing again and having movie reviews and articles
over beyond the balcony. I'm thisis a summer that I'm hoping for rainbows
and skittles and unicorns, dancing andprancing, or at least podcasts on a

(01:30):
weekly basis. This podcast was recordedall the way back at the beginning of
May. It is our Summer boxOffice Challenge, So there's gonna be the
show's gonna feel a little dated whenit comes to the draft, because we're
gonna be making some predictions about showabout movies that you already know how they

(01:53):
did in the box office. Soyou get to hear about how wrong we
were about stuff like fall Guy Fariosa. We got to expose ourselves as maybe
not be the experts that we wantyou to believe sometimes. But I think
that it was important since the Summerbox Office Challenge is still happening all summer,
that you at least should be ableto see the draft. And so

(02:15):
we are posting up this episode ofthe Box Office Challenge Draft Summer box Office
Challenge Draft, and so I hopefullyyou enjoy that. There is a few
other shows that have been recorded thathave not seen the light of day.
My plan is to edit it afew of sort of the different movie reviews

(02:37):
into sort of one big episode thatwill hopefully come up this week. We
then also have another episode on topof that that will hopefully get posted in
this coming week, so you willmaybe have three three episodes to listen to
over this week, and then wewill return with brand new episodes next week.

(02:57):
But for now it's a few datedepisodes. I thank you for your
patience. Like I said, lotsof crazy stuff going on in my life.
But hopefully from now on you willget regular podcasts. We'll make up
for it for three this week,and then next week we'll get back into
our regular schedule. So enjoy thisepisode of the Summer Box Office Challenge Draft.

(03:32):
They're coming to get you, Barbara. They're coming for you, Barbra.
Look that comes one of them.Now, welcome to the Movie Breakdown,
and we've got one of our bigannual episodes of the year coming at

(03:57):
you. That is right, Itis tough for the latest Summer Box Office
Challenge Draft. But before we getto that, we also have three movies
that we're reviewing this week, includingAlex Garland's latest in Civil War. I'm
Christopher Spicer and I'm Scott Martin.And before we get into the review,

(04:20):
this cast brought to you a SpreakerPrime and Beyond the Balcony. Spreaker Prime
is a great podcast hosting site andas well, you can support us a
lot by listening to this podcast throughthe spreaker app, and you know that'll
support us and the find people atSpreaker. Now, as Christopher mentioned,

(04:42):
Civil War directed by Alex Garland.This is someone we've talked about in the
past. He's got quite the quitethe history in movie directing and writing.
He had written the script for TwentyDays Later, and he had written and
directed Ex Machina back in twenty fourteen. Here Alex Garland is back with A
twenty four doing Civil War, andthis is definitely feeling like A twenty four's

(05:09):
biggest picture that they've done. Thisis a movie that is grand scale.
It is a big screen picture.This is a movie where that the size
of the screen, the strength ofthe audio is going to help tell the
tale, help put you into thisfilm. Well. One of the interesting

(05:30):
things where there's a number of interestingthings about Civil War, one of them
is the perspective of a civil warthat is being battled in modern day United
States, and that is that theperspective is that of journalists. And I
was reading one piece that kind ofput it in good perspective, is that
in most war movies, we're usedto seeing it through the eyes of a

(05:53):
soldier carrying a gun, someone who'sinvested in the fight, and this the
only thing they have is their cameras, and they're there for a different reason,
and it makes the experience feel quitefresh, quite riveting, quite scary.
The main journalists we follow our leadplayed by Kirsten Dunst. She is

(06:15):
a war correspondent who's been around theblock. As well. We have Joel
played by Wagner Mora Jesse. She'syoung young journalist wants to become a war
correspondent. She's played by Kaylee Spainey. They basically are going off on a
Oh and Sammy played by Stephen mclaney, and they're basically set in this world

(06:40):
where the United States is in acivil war and they want the big story
from the White House. They're inNew York and they're going to make the
dangerous trip to the White House totry to get an interview with the President.
One of the things that I loveabout what Alex Garland did here is

(07:02):
there is no expository dialogue at allin this film. We do not know
why there civil war. We haveno clue. There's allusions to the president,
you know, ended up taking athird term, which you know would
make things would rile up some people, is that's unconstitutional, But you don't

(07:28):
know if he did it for theright reasons, Like we don't. We're
just told that he did. Thingscould have been crazy, and that could
have been the only course of actionforward for the country. We didn't know.
We know that on the one sideis the armies of California and Texas,
and that would cause a lot ofpeople to think, why would California

(07:53):
and Texas team up? But that'sthe beauty of this. It doesn't make
any sense. But all it tellsyou is something happened and two states that
are very unlikely to one that wouldbe, you know, very right wing,
one that would be very left wing, they have joined forces. So

(08:13):
something big happened and we're just thrownin the middle of it. We have
no clue. And these journalists goout on the road and the fascinating thing
is they come across a few battlesand a few situations and they embed themselves
with forces. We don't know ifthey're with the good guys or the bad

(08:35):
guys. We don't know who thegood guys and bad guys are. They're
with one group of soldiers or they'rewith one group of ununiformed fighters in one
sequence, and it's easy to think, Okay, so these are the good
guys. But in the next sequencethey come across a uniformed sniper and his
spotter, and all of a sudden, well, are they the good guy?

(09:00):
Sides have uniformed like is this aare they fighting a ragtag group of
people or just other random factions joiningin on the fight? Like what's going
on? We don't know, Sowherever they go, the war is crazy.
There's a line that Kristen Dunce saidthe film about how she was a
war correspondent for so many years soshe could send images back to the States

(09:22):
as a warning of what war couldbe, so that people don't experience it
for themselves, and here she isstuck in it in her home country.
The only time where we're in asituation where we know who the bad guy
is is a cameo starring Jesse Plemons. It is one of the most chilling

(09:43):
scenes I've seen in a movie ina long time. Jesse Plemmons came in.
He got hired for this role.I think like two days before he
filmed it. The person who wassupposed to play his character dropped out for
whatever reason. His wife, KirstenDunst, recommended him. Plemmons does what
Plemmons does and absolutely steals the moviefrom everyone around him. And the interesting

(10:09):
thing is the last thirty minutes ofthis movie are larger scale wars. Is
a larger scale war sequence, whichis incredibly riveting. You're still following the
journalists. They're marching in. They'regoing in to try to go take the
White House to capture the president.We still don't know if this is the
right thing morally, but that's whowe're with at the time, so they're

(10:33):
just trying to get the story.That's all that matters to them, not
whose side is who on. I'mleft wondering was that more riveting than the
three minutes we got with Jesse PlemmonsAnd I don't know. This movie is
great in that there's a lot ofmoments the movie kicks off. Civil War
kicks off with a sequence that essentiallytells people, if you came for a

(10:58):
raw, raw, let's get awar movie. You've come to the wrong
place. It sets the tone immediately. Some flow issues. I wouldn't say
pacing issues, but there's maybe afew flow issues that are present in this
present in this movie. And Ibounce back and forth between you know,
do I give it three and ahalf stars? Do I give it four

(11:20):
stars based on the amount of timeI've spent thinking about this film, though
I'm going with a full four stars. Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
This is not a perfect movie.Could I get this out of my mind?
No. I asked a friend togo with me to see it,
and I pitched him the fact thatOfferman was in it, you played the

(11:45):
president. My friend was already interestedin the movie as it was, But
the next three or four times wehung out assuredly we were talking about civil
war. And that's the sign ofa movie you can't escape, regardless if
there's some issues within it. Thisis a movie that Alex Garland pulled off

(12:09):
to the fullest that doesn't lay intopolitics at all. It doesn't lay into
the typical aspects of war. Itdoesn't play into which side is right,
which side is wrong. It's justhere is this horrible situation, and you're
following journalists. It's sort of anmonument to what war correspondents do. But

(12:33):
at the same time, by theend of the movie, you're left still
wondering what kind of person does this, what kind of person chooses to do
this, So there's a lot ofquestions you have coming out of this.
The four main journalists in the movie, they their motivations are all shown,
but they all come to a reckoningwith their motivations throughout the story. It's

(12:56):
really really well told, beautiful film. You never would have known this was
made on a fifty million dollar budget, especially with the final war sequence and
just how thrilling it was. Likethere's aspects of it where a lot of
this stuff is since you're just followingthe journalist is close in on that final
assault on Washington, but it neverfeels like that's the only thing that's going

(13:20):
on. It feels like it's partof this large battle. So you never
feel like, oh, this ishindered by the budget. It was,
it was, but it never feltthat. And so if you hear Chris
and I complain sometimes about movies overreachingand trying to do stuff they can't do,
and like, know what your limitationsare, This is a perfect example.

(13:45):
You know your limitations of the budget, but it never felt once like
it was limited by budget. SoI highly recommend Civil War, not your
typical war movie, but a greatfilm. Yeah, and I think your
review encapsulates what, at least inmy opinion, is what a four star
movie is, because I don't knowreally what perfect is, because there's always

(14:11):
gonna be something that people can findflaws and something, especially when it comes
to art, because it's going toconnect with people different ways. But a
four star movie is that movie thathaunts you. If you're still thinking about
it weeks after you've seen it,and you're still sort of talking to your
friend about it, then that isexactly what sort of makes a four star

(14:35):
movie. It's interesting because war moviesstarted sort of in like the forties and
the fifties. It's kind of likePropaganda and America Raw Raw and Somebody's Gonna
be sort of seen as the venturemovies. And it wasn't until the seventies
when you start doing the Vietnam pictureswhere you had Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter,

(14:56):
and then in the eighties you havePlatoon where you started to kind of
getting these anti war movies sort ofmovies that were they're about war, but
you didn't come out of them getexcited about war. They were short of
the atrocities and the dangers and thedamage they do, and how there isn't
necessarily heroes in war because all thosecharacters came out so broken and it wasn't

(15:20):
necessarily like America Raw Raw. Andwhile PLATWO was going out, the America
Raw Raw was sort of taken backagain when you had sort of the rambos
that we talked about recently at TopGun and such like that, and so
then we started getting back to sortof the almost pro war type pictures and

(15:41):
then like this Born on fourth ofJuly, Like, there's still some definitely
anti war movies that came out inthe eighties, and I would say Saving
Private Ryan's another one that shows kindof the atrosities of war. I'm wondering,
would you deem this as another picturethat sort of is seen as an
anti war movie or do you feelthat's not really even the message either,

(16:04):
it's not the message the Yeah,that's the very interesting and fresh thing about
Civil War, because if it wasanti war, they would have told us
the bickering that happened to lead tothe senseless war. Would there would have
been some sort of message on anythinglike that, but the fact that there

(16:25):
isn't. It's just it's happening.One side could be terrible, one side
could be just we don't know.And it's more about just these people caught
up in it. There's no oneto cheer against. You don't come out
of it thinking, see, thisis why we should never vote for that
guy. There's no overall feeling ofwar is bad, war as hell?

(16:45):
Who are these people? What arethey doing there? What drives them,
what motivates them? Their driving forceof reporting it? And for different reasons
Like I mentioned why Kirsten Dunce reportsit. The other main character played by
Wagner Mora, he basically gets offon the excitement of it. So there's

(17:06):
no like perfect example of what warcorrespondent is like. They're all, you
know, just trying to send thoseimages home, so that doesn't happen at
home. This guy even talks abouthow he gets hard. They all have
their different motivations. It doesn't answerany questions or puts you in any state
to think this is what Alex Garlandwas saying about war. One thing I

(17:30):
do find really interested in here isI know that there's a lot of people
that felt there was some poor timingwhere they're like, what you're bringing a
movie called Civil War where Americans fightingduring an election year and an election year
that we know is going to bevery controversial and one where I basically just
want to stay away from the newsbecause of who's involved. Again, but

(17:52):
anyways, we'll leave it out.This is not a political podcast. But
there's a lot of controversy about thispicture that way. But then when it
started to get reviewed, they weretalking about the fact of exactly what you
were saying was it's not really pickingany sides. Almost the controversy is the
fact that it's not picking aside,it's not trying to necessarily tell you anything.

(18:15):
And to the point where which reallystands out to me is the fact
that California Texas are united to beThat totally shows that there isn't like an
agenda here because you're putting two statesthat are very abouch because you don't know
is that a liberal or is thata conservative like army that we have here,

(18:36):
because you don't know because of thosetwo kind of being together, and
the fact that you're saying that wedon't even know why the president has a
second term, Like there's so manyvague things. It kind of keeps it
away from being political in any wayand having having some like it's one of
those things where you can be conservativeor liberal kind of see this and and

(19:00):
make your own interpretations. What's interesting, though, is you're talking about how
there's a big war sequence at theend, and you've got this big war.
Do you feel though that one ofthe challenges that Garland could have with
this picture, with this story connectwith so many people, is the fact
that there's all that kind of baguenessthat there isn't necessarily kind of that stake

(19:25):
to the war, or there's anaction sequence that people don't have things invested,
or is it to you even withthose action sequences, it's so little
about the war. It's more aboutthese journalists that there's still something for the
average viewer to attach to. Ithink the problem with this movie is the
time that it came out. Ithink people are probably writing it off because

(19:45):
it hasn't done as well in thebox office as I think it should have,
and I think people probably wrote itoff as a political film. I
think if people, like I said, there's an opening sequence in the movie
that just sort of snaps you outof it and says, yeah, this
is the kind of movie you're sittingin and everyone in the theater is quiet,

(20:06):
their eyes are glued to the screen, and now we're just sharing this
communal experience. Regardless of what yourpolitical views are. None of that matters
in this film, and I thinkit's the kind of movie that people really
would enjoy, not from an entertainmentperspective necessarily, but from viewing and just

(20:30):
storytelling perspective. Well, it's stillentertainment, but you know what I mean,
it's not a block it's not aten pole Marvel film. I think
the fact that the political climate issuch and the movie came out, even
though the trailers try to show thatit's not about one side, I think

(20:52):
it's inevitable that everyone who sees thetrailer at first is probably gonna think that
this is a very political film.I felt that when I first saw the
trailer and didn't know anything about themovie, I just assumed it must have
been considering the climate of North Americanpolitics, and so I think that that
is the biggest struggle it has itwill grip people if they watch it,

(21:15):
and I think people will enjoy it. It's just there's a huge barrier of
misconception around the film. I alsothink the fact that it's coming from a
twenty four and it's a Hollywood picture, that there's some that will probably jump
to conclusion that it must be liberal, which will maybe alienate the Midwest and

(21:37):
sort of the heart of the Americantype crowd, even though it's not,
and you've made that clear. Ifeel like people will assume, well,
it's not coming from a Christian studio, it's coming from a twenty four,
it's a Hollywood movie. Well,I know where they're standing. Well,
and that's the thing, is youit's easy to assume this is a director

(21:59):
in a studio standing on a soapbox saying like, if you vote Trump,
this is what you're getting. Butit's it's it's not. It backs
away from the politics altogether. Andit's hard to know that, and you
don't know that without seeing it,just because of the political climate and just
the assumption that we have that Hollywoodhates the conservative right and therefore this movie

(22:26):
will be bashing them, and it'snot that at all. It's a very
even keeled, non political film.I do want to bet you were saying
that maybe Civil War didn't do aswell as they're hoping. It is,
though, the eighth highest grossing domesticmovie of this year and the last two
weeks now they have it as abig competitive weeks. April's been kind of

(22:48):
a slow month, but for thesecond straight week, Civil War was the
number one highest grossing movie and itonly took a fifty four point three percent
draw. So I would still considerthis the big hit for a twenty four.
For a twenty four, this ismassive. This is really massive.
I wish it was doing better.I wish because of the quality of the

(23:10):
film. I still wish that itwas doing much better. I could see
this movie doing a good post release. I think people need to talk about
it. I think word of mouthhelps it because you talked about the drop,
the limited drop that it had inthe box office, and I think
word of mouth is only going tohelp this film out because of those misconceptions

(23:33):
people have about what it could beabout or what you know. People could
think it's going to be a preachymovie, but it absolutely is not,
which is part of the freshness ofit. So that is four stars from
Scott and I gotta see it fromme. And now we are going to
move on to a bio pick becausewe don't get those enough, and we're

(23:59):
now get to file pick on Netflix, so we just can't get them everywhere
now in theaters and streaming. Andif you want a fictional take on real
life characters, well Hollywood and themovie makers have you covered. And this
latest one is called Shirley, andit is based off the first black woman

(24:25):
elected to Congress, which obviously wasa big, massive thing. This happened
in the early nineteen seventies, latenineteen sixties. She was voted into Congress,
and so this was a trail blazingwoman. Surely chit's home and I

(24:47):
would encourage everyone to sort of alsoget to know more about this woman.
This is a big historical figure,someone major in American history that I don't
think has been talked about enough.And so this is definitely the type of
character that I would loved them tomake file picks about characters that maybe aren't
as known but played a major partin history, as this is a woman

(25:08):
that inspired very many other women inthe future. And this movie kind of
hints at the fact that it motivatedmany other women to get into politics and
motivate other people that did major things. She did an historic attempt of running
for president in nineteen seventy two,and that's what this picture is about.

(25:32):
This movie is not about the wholelife of Shirley. It's really about her
presidential campaign in nineteen seventy two.This was directed by John Ridley, who
is probably best known for writing TwelveYears a Slave, and he's done some

(25:52):
other pictures as well. Apparently healso wrote Ben Herb, but he probably
doesn't want me to mention that one, but he did do Twelve Years a
Slave, and he is a prettywell respected writer and director. The big
stand out for me, surprise,surprise, re Geena King, someone we
praised many times. She plays Shirleyand she is a powerhouse in this picture

(26:15):
because Shirley is a woman who isnot going to back down. They established
right at the beginning there's a there'sanother congress white man who's uncomfortable with her
being in Congress and be paid thesame amount as him, and she basically
puts him in his place and dresseshim down, and he walks off and

(26:36):
doesn't confront her. Again, andso you really get the idea of this
is who she had to be inthe seventies, being black and being a
woman. She needed to be apowerhouse. She needed to be someone who
had her principles. And in thepresidential campaign, the big conflict throughout this
picture is the fact that she doesn'twant to be your typical president. She
wants to be for the people,and so she maybe is not willing to

(27:00):
say the things that need to besaid to be elected. She's maybe too
truthful for her own good, andshe clashes with some of her campaign party
members, and with her being sodevoted to politics, there is some tension
that happens between her as her longsuffering husband, Conrad, and so those

(27:22):
aspects and basically what I said isRegina is incredible in this picture. She
has a president, She has apower. Regina, I think always does
a great job of playing strong,powerful, opinionated women, and that aspect
really attaches you to this picture.You believe it, Shirley. You believe

(27:44):
in her cause. You believe thatthis is someone that would have had the
chance to become the first black femalepresident, the first female president, and
you believe what she's motivating but youalso there is a tenderness to Shirley.
She is driven and she she's opitionatedand she won't back down. But she's
kind and she's loving, and thereis a lot of sweet tender moments here

(28:07):
with people that she mentors and andshe has that compassion and you can see
that her heart drives her and allthat is conveyed from Regina's performance here and
that nuance and just she's just someonewho can convey so much from those facial
moments and the silent moments. Unfortunately, though, all my praise for Regina

(28:27):
is what elevates what is a Wikipediamovie. This is what I kind of
felt like, sort of Behemo Rhapsodyand some of these other bopics I haven't
been to. Is it really justfeels like it's rallying off events. This
is something she did, and nowthis is something else she did, and
this is another accomplishment, This isanother moment in her life. And like

(28:48):
Bohita raps It, I don't evenknow if half these things are factual.
It just seems like some people believethis is what bile picks need to be.
And so it's really unfortunate that Icould never connect falling to this picture
because it did feel like a realstory. I did feel like I was
really learning who Shirley is. Despitethe movie being called Shirley, I didn't
feel I had those opportunities to reallydig in this picture and connect to her

(29:12):
because it just felt like it wasa collection of scenes. And that's one
of my biggest nippick with a lotof bile picks, It's just a collection
of moments, and there are somegood moments. There are some good moments
here. I mean, you've gotactors like Lance Reddick, and you've got
Terrence Howard here, and you've gotsome really talented people. Barbara Lee,

(29:37):
well, sorry, Christina Jackson playedBarbara Lee's She is a fantastic character here.
I think Christina Jackson had some greatmoments with Regeita King. Those are
some of my favorite moments throughout themovie. And because she's sort of a
mentor character and she's trying to sortof she's not sure she wants to get
into politics, and Shirley's the onethat sort of pushes and encourages Barbara and

(30:02):
so these are there is great moments, but it never comes as a full
movie and story. I never feltlike I learned anything about these characters.
It was just these are things thathappen. It's really unfortunate, even like
it would be nice to know abit more. Like Barbara Lee is a

(30:22):
real life person who also went intopolitics. It was a social worker,
was a US representative of California,and at least in the movies, she
credits Shirley for sort of her career. But I never really know why people
made the decisions or what makes Shirleytick. And I agree with just focusing

(30:44):
on the presidential campaign in that smallperiod, but I felt the movie didn't
take advantage of it being a smallperiod first to really have a story and
dig in and so it's unfortunate.But I love all the performances here.
So that's why I am going ashigh as two and a half because Regina
is a powerhouse and there is goodmoments. It's just the movie as a

(31:04):
whole doesn't quite work. One creditI will give John Ridley here though,
is I did enjoy sort of thesort of how they use a cinematography and
the color aid here, because attimes it very much looks like seventies.
It felt something of that time.It feels like sort of a picture that
makes you set in that time period, lets you know how volatile that time

(31:29):
was with sort of the gas andthe Vietnam War and people were So I
think they did do a great jobof setting the period and the tone through
sort of the visual choices. Butas a picture, it's just so standard
and I feel like Shirley Chisholm sodo, I don't know very well,
deserves a better movie. So twoand a half and one thing I've learned

(31:52):
about biopics is when you haven't seenas many, it's not as big of
a crime. A lot of themfollow the exact same format, and I
mean we've talked about like with romcomms. Some rom comms follow the formula,
but they're still entertaining. A moviecan follow a formula and still be

(32:14):
really good. It doesn't have tobe civil war and a whole you know,
fresh look at a genre. Theproblem with biopics is, at least
with rom comms, there's a higherpercentage of formula rom comms that I like.
Then there is a percentage of formulabiopics that I like. I think
the big difference between the two isa rom comms entire intention is to entertain

(32:40):
you. It's entire at touch isto be fun. So even when it's
generic, you're still having a goodtime. A lot of these generic biopics
are super serious and take themselves asthis is prestige cinema. That's the problem.
Yeah, it's the tone. You'reabsolutely right. I have to say,

(33:00):
Lance Reddick are rest in peace.It's over a year now. I
can't believe it's been over a yearsince he passed away. He still showed
up in movies. Man, theguy was amazing. Any he is good
here and I do want like itis two and a half and so it
was a movie that was fine.It went down easy, and I think

(33:22):
the advantages are all these great performersand the fact that this is a very
interesting historical figure. Sir. It'sjust home is a very interesting person and
had an interesting story. It's isone of those cases where sometimes when you
have people that's interesting, I wishyou had a movie that matched probably their
real life story. Well to moveon to a movie with people who are

(33:44):
super interesting and characters that we caninvest in. Oh, we're not doing
Rebel Mood Part two anymore. Weare jumping into Rebel Moon Part two,
The Scargiver Zack Snyder's follow up toPart one, The Whatever and I get
it, And I said this lasttime, I get it. You like

(34:06):
slow moe. Harvesting wheat in slowmotion does not a good picture make.
And I'm not just talking about onemoment of harvesting wheat, like a whole
sequence of slow motion wheat harvesting.We're talking a full rocky montage length.

(34:27):
It was. Look, I'll saythis about this film is it felt a
lot shorter than the first one.Did. I liked this one more than
I liked the first one. I'mgonna give it two stars because I feel
like I'm being super generous. Butfrom just a visual perspective, it is
not a bad film. Fairly funbattle sequence in the movie. It felt

(34:53):
like the pacing was better in thismovie than in the first one. So
I'm gonna be gonna be nice toit. Well, it's not good about
this film. Why I think I'mbeing generous is because if we thought that
the first movie was derivative, wethought that there was some like straight up
ripping off of things in the firstmovie. This movie, the whole thing,

(35:17):
This is seven Samurai. This isthe Magnificent seven. This is let's
train the village to fight. Let'sdo all the things in those films that
were iconic and follow it to at. And then, oh, right
before the big battle, we remember, we don't know anything about these characters

(35:37):
at all. So we're gonna havea situation where they sit around the table
and they give a little bit ofbackstory and slow motion backstory, every slow
every backstory that these people give isdone almost one hundred percent in slow motion.
I don't mind slow motion. There'stricks to the trade. There's things

(35:59):
that directors can do. There's thingsyou can do as a storyteller, and
you can deep into the and youuse them when they're effective. If you
do the same thing all the time, it loses its effectiveness. It's just
it is so the slow motion inthis film is so obnoxious. The characters
are pointless. After watching Okay,so Zack Snyder, the real movie is

(36:28):
gonna be coming out soon. Iguess the R rated versions, which are
gonna make each portion like three hourslong. The problem is not these movies
needed to be longer. The problemis these movies needed to be shorter.
This the Part one and Part two, these are actually one film and should

(36:52):
have been one film, and Ithink may have been if you put them
in one film, even though it'sderivative, it could have been a three
star movie. There was focus onwhat needed to be focused on. Drop
out this idea that everything has,like all the backstory has to be expository,

(37:13):
and you need people like doing theas you know sequences, and this
could have been one two hour movie, and it probably would have been a
lot more successful. It would havebeen more succinct. You would have had
to get rid of all those youknow, ten minute long exposition dumps we
don't need. Here's the thing inA New Hope because this was supposed to

(37:37):
be a Star Wars movie. You'dnever know that because there's nothing Star Wars
about this at all. No lightsabers, no lightsabers. Oh my gosh.
I thought that was supposed to besomething special she had, but it turns
out everyone's got them. I wasconfused by that, Okay, In a

(37:59):
New Hope, yes, there's expositorydialogue scrawled on the screen, but guess
what that's like all there is inthe movie. What do we know about
the Empire? Why are they bad? We actually don't know if you watch
that movie again, well you learnwhen let's blow up a town, or
not just a town, let's blowup a planet, because you know,

(38:22):
we got to flex our muscles.That's how you learn things. You don't
need this long history that actually doesn'tadd any weight to the story, because
the thing in Rebel Moon Part oneand two, this history doesn't add anything
to the actual present story that we'rewatching. This could have been one film.

(38:44):
It should have been one film.No check that I'm giving it one
and a half stars, and Istill feel that's generous. I'm changing my
rating one and a half stars.This is not good storytelling. It looks
good, and I'll say this,so the budget for the for these two
films is about one hundred and sixtyto one hundred and eighty million dollars,

(39:04):
which means that per film that's likeeighty or ninety million dollars each. They
look good for that budget that Idon't think there's any other other than hair
and makeup that they look with Belisarius. They they look good for what they
coused. If you ask Zack Snyder, there's another four of these movies on

(39:27):
the way. He thinks that thestory could be wrapped up in another forty
for another two to four movies,making six total. He also believes that
more people watched Rebel Moon Part onethan saw the Barbie movie in theaters.
Like it's I'm having a hard timewith Zack Snyder. Now he has listened

(39:51):
to his small group of fans waytoo much. He's now believing everything,
like he seems like the word isdelusional, Like he really seems delusional.
Barbie was one of the biggest culturalmoment movie moments in the last ten years,

(40:12):
would we say ten years easily?Easily? And his film got fewed
more than it Zach, And no, it's talking about this movie signed to
rupt, But no, it's talkingnobody's no way, he's the truth.
Nobody's talking about it. I thinkit was Jogan's podcast. He even broke

(40:34):
down numbers like if we look atthese numbers and these numbers and multiply them
by this, and assume that twopeople are watching per viewing and blah blah
blah blah blah, and then wemultiply it by how many dollars he would
make in the theater. Like no, Zach, Like, it's not that
he just had a whim he satdown. He's actually crunched the numbers.
He believes this fictional numbers absolutely.So I think delusional is a good word.

(41:00):
Like Zack Snyder, I have likedsome of your movies, but you
need something needs to be freshened up. More people listen to the movie Breakdown,
then they drink water. The movieBreakdown is the most consumed thing in

(41:22):
the world because if you think aboutit, if one person's listening, they're
probably listening with about one hundred peoplein an auditorium, and then that's connected
to like like another auditorium that haslike a thousand people, and then that
one like they're like satelliting it andstreaming it to another auditorium that has a

(41:43):
million people. And so the amountof people listen to movie Breakdown is just
absolutely baffling. And a few timesthat buy a million just because like,
wow, look at those stats.I gain not wrong, though, you're
not wrong, Like those are crazystats, but they all line up like

(42:08):
that. That's that's along the linesof the Zack Snyder logic. I don't
get it. You can't assume thingsif who's in a room. My goodness,
But okay, so we reviewed thefirst episos the first movie because a
listener really wanted us to review it. He really wanted us to hear his

(42:31):
take on Zack Snyder, and Imean, I'd like to please our listeners.
I was actually going to skip theoriginal Rebel Moon just because of us
missing Sony episodes as being behind.But with the with the listener said,
I really want to hear your take, and I've told all my coworkers and
we're all excited to hear your reviews, Like, well, now we definitely

(42:52):
have to review Rebel Mood. Andthen he actually made a comment say that
he thought we were too easy RebelMood. He really enjoyed our review,
he says, worth the wait,but he was actually surprised we went easy
on it. So to that listener, I give you Rebel Mood Part two,

(43:12):
and I promise you now that Iwon't go as easy as I did
on the original Rebel Mood. Yeah, this movie's awful, and I think
one of the big things that reallymade me dislike this picture is the fact
that when we saw the first one, I was like, well, this
feels like half of a movie.This feels like the ten minute montage at

(43:36):
the beginning of the movie, gavethe team together and that's literally the whole
movie. What a ridiculous concept.But let's see what the second one does.
When I watched the second one,I realized it was basically the rest
of Magnificence at seven the rest ofthe seventh Samurai. I hated the first
one even more and this one evenmore because I was like, there is

(43:58):
no reason in the world need tobe two movies, because this story's already
been told. If they were ableto do it in two hours, why
did this they have to be whatfour or five hours in this version and
then six or seven hours and theupcoming version. I mean, this is

(44:19):
the first movie, Like you takeout the big battle sequence at the end
of the first one, and youput all that at the end of this
movie, and you have a fullmovie. But for some reason, he
cut it into two pieces at thispicture. So this one there's not as
much battle sequences as the first one. We basically are on one planet for

(44:42):
most of it. And so heeven lose like there weren't really cool aliens
of worlds in the first one,but at least there weren't aliens and worlds
here. We lose a lot ofthe aliens. We lose all the different
worlds. It's on one world andthe first half, the first stretch of
the movie basically has no big actionsequences. And I believe this movie thinks

(45:04):
it's doing the character development scenes likethis is the building and we're learning about
the characters. And I learned absolutelynothing. It was such inane and useless
dialogue, Like I have never seena ninety minute stretch of character development that
did less. I mean, therewas so much talking. It was just

(45:25):
filler. It was just bubblegum.It was just like those rice crists that
you have. It was vapor like. It was just it was almost nothing.
It's as if I decided to eatjust oxygen the whole day. Like
there was nothing of these ninety minuteswhere like there was I guess a love
affair that started between the leads,which had absolutely no chemistry, and I

(45:52):
get there. It was supposed tobe sexy time, but I didn't believe
they loved each other. I didn'tunderstand where their affection for each other came.
It was completely flat. We hadto put up with that, and
then all these characters that came inor trained the villagers and you get some
screen time for these villagers. Noneof them do I learn anything other than
they want to save their village.Thanks. I figured that the very beginning

(46:14):
of the first one. None ofthese characters really have any development out of
that. One guy likes to liftup his acts, another guy can scream,
another one has a light sword.Like that. Those are their characters,
and we had to go with ninetyminutes of just absolute fluff. The
most interesting character is Deanroid, whodisappears for most of the movie. Again

(46:37):
shows up a little bit, andreally it's kind of superfrious. He doesn't
really have much of a point either. I guess he's building for the next
ones, which I really do notwant to see. I don't even know
what's the point of anymore. Andthen we get to the action sequence and
thank goodness it's in slowbo so Icould catch all the action. Oh wait,

(46:59):
no, oh I can't because it'sdirected it's shaky cam fast cut style.
That like, there's one major characterthat's like dies and it's mostly this
big emotional moment and I don't evenknow how he died or why he was
hurt, just also like, ohhe's dying now, Oh, Okay,
I guess because it's time for theother character to be sad and that like

(47:22):
we have the big showdown, thebig battie and the hero we feel I
get to see it. I don'tknow what happened there other than eventually one
of them I know, got killed, but I don't know what, Like
it lost all its big showdown becausejust the camera is just like having a
ray, Like it's all over theplace, and once in a while I
see a limb, and once ina while I see ahead. Like the

(47:44):
action sequences. There is some bigexplosions and there is some cool sound design,
but as actually following the world forforty minutes, like we're building this
big final battle, and I justfelt like there's nothing there but flashy colors
and explosions. So I'm going onestar because I did not enjoy myself.

(48:04):
I didn't there. Listener, Yeah, enjoy it. Take that listener.
You've pushed us to this. Therewas something you said about the first film
that there was no thought put intothe world building because you had like this
incredibly incredibly rustic like peasant village,but then like sliding mechanical doors and stuff
like that. Zack Snyder remembers therewas a time when steampunk was a thing,

(48:30):
and so it's like, let's havethese these ships running off of coal,
and let's have like crank wheels toturn the big cannons right, But
also you have the technology to justguide a shuttle into your ship. Oh
we're having a problem here, Ohwe'll guide you in. Let's enter that

(48:52):
into the computer. There's no actualconsistency to this world. I have no
problems that everything's running off of coaland there's like rudimentary technology behind things.
But make that consistent. Oh,I forgot to say. If you've read
Julius Caesar, I don't know.It's just a little play written by some

(49:13):
dude back in the years ago.You may catch a moment in this movie
that you're like, this may havebeen lifted directly from Julius Caesar, with
for some reason an orchestra playing inthe same room. That was horrible.
That whole sequence was horrible. I'msorry, but that was supposed to be

(49:37):
like some epic moment, and itwas just so poorly put together, and
it would straight out for so longwhen everyone knew the conclusion, and you
got your local theater performers in therewith their amazing costumes. My good I
didn't even understand when it came toactual logistics, an actual sort of underst

(50:00):
day in the world. After twomovies, I'm clueless, Like I don't
even understand how did they get intopower? Like I get the killed,
Like I just I don't understand anything, Like how they all said rule so
quickly because it seems like this justhappened recently and now they've basically ruled the
whole galaxy? How did this happen? Well? And that's the thing.

(50:22):
That's the thing, right, It'slike if you did none of those big
expository dumps, we wouldn't even carebecause we wouldn't be like picking it apart.
We're just like, we just knowthat they're they're the bad guys.
We don't need to know all thatstuff. But if you start talking about
how important it is how they gotinto power but it doesn't make sense,

(50:45):
then there's a problem. If hejust left all that stuff out, it
would have been fine. And likeAndy Hopkin was grabbed on his lunch break,
right, oh gosh, yeah,like he was out between having a
big back and they're like, OK, you read some lines for us an
pitty. Actually he was supposed tobe in Civil War and they said,

(51:06):
we've got a great job for youplaying a star war. And he's like,
oh gosh. And so that's whenthey had to get Plemons. They
had to get Plemens to come into fill in for Anthony Hopkins. But
little did he know that he wasn'tactually gonna be in a real star war.
Anthony Hopkins was going to be inthis star War. He doesn't even

(51:27):
have a real part. And theway the like doesn't the first movie like
end with him like a picture ofhim thinking leaving us, thinking like he's
gonna be an integral part of thefilms. Yes, yeah, definitely.
I thought he was gonna be hugehere and he still was not. So
I was generous. I gave itone and a half star. Chris gave

(51:50):
it one. There you go,Yeah, I don't. I don't like
this movie. This is the typeof movie that I have to watch after
are fair in a certain contest,a contest known as the Summer box Office
Challenge. And yes, that's right, folks, we are now ready for
the Summer box Office Challenge twenty twentyfour draft. And I have to say

(52:17):
that after losing that I don't necessarilyhave the same panic anymore. Now that
both me and Scott have had ourmoments of loss, there's not sort of
the same amount of stress of tryingto win this time, even though I
do want to win. But that'sa good thing because I have to say,
maybe we say this every year,but I think this year because there

(52:40):
wasn't it's not that typical summer wherethere's these really obvious tent poles. I
thought this was a really hard draftto figure out, even like usually I
find okay, I know my topfour or five. I struggled even with
that, Oh yeah, this isthere's nothing certain about this, Like this

(53:01):
is all guesswork, all right.So now all that to say, I
don't want to go through that again. And you're like, if you're a
first time listener or you worked withus last year, you're like, what
are you guys even talking about?Well, the summer box office challenge is
when both me and Scott look atthe summer and we've tried to predict what

(53:21):
we think will be the movies thatget the highest domestic opening weekend. And
a domestic opening weekend is a Fridayto a Sunday, no matter when it
actually comes out. So if itcomes out all the Wednesday or also you
got your Thursday screenings, we lookat the Friday to the Sunday to make

(53:43):
it fair with every single movie,and so we just look at that weekend.
So there is some movies where ifthey come out a Wednesday, you
could potentially have a bit of achallenge because they've already been out for a
few days. But that's what wedo. We're looking for the highest gross
state domestic picture, so that's NorthAmerica from Friday to Sunday, and we

(54:05):
are drafting ten movies each and thenwhoever has the highest total at the end,
he is our champion. He isour winner, he's our paragon,
and that he gets to laugh atthe loser and then tell the loser that
they have to watch three movies.That person gets to choose the three movies,
and then that person has to watchthem and review them. And I

(54:30):
apologize that it has been this longbefore I've reviewed it. I meant to
do it back in September. AndI know you people are probably so tired
of excuses, but all I cansay is I've just been in a tornado
you can tell it by the movieBreakdown not coming out as much as it
should, my sight not be veryfrequent. It's been a really tough year

(54:55):
getting my career back on track.I lost a long line during pandemic,
which then put me through a bigemotional spiral and it led to a lot
of other relationships with many issues.It has been. It's not been a
banner time. I'm hoping it turnedthings around of Tobo Ford that I am
pursuing a lot of medical professionals toget back on track. I am trying

(55:20):
to put on a lot of strategiesabout confidence again things. I think things
are going to get better. ButI really do apologize of my part of
what's happened with the podcast that ithas not been as posted as regularly the
last year. Hopefully, going forward, it's a new month and a new
beginning. The summer's here. Hopethe movie Breakdown will be coming at you

(55:43):
every Wednesday. Going forward, podcastswill be busy again, the website will
be busy again, and I'm hopingmy life is going to be in a
lot better place. I'm lady abit of work and I am trying to
focus the more, but just tobe vulnerable with you. It's been tough,
and I no excuses suck, butthat really is I just forgot about
these movies because I've been just panicated. There's just there hasn't been a lot

(56:06):
done in the last year. Andit's sad to say that there's been a
lot of things I haven't even gota lot of pleasure from because where I've
been through, and so I've justbeen forgetting things, discarding things. One
great kind of beacon of my lifeis that I have been able to do
theater and musicals with my family.We did be in The Beast upcoming Nastasia,

(56:27):
and that has been one thing that'skind of given me something, give
me energy, give me hope.But that's also a thing where like you
gotta memorize lines, you gotta memorizesongs, you gotta memorize dance numbers,
and so it has given me something, but it's also very time consuming.
It's a time consuming hobby and soit's been a lot of challenges. So
I do apologize to my listeners.We do value. I will take I

(56:50):
will take at stake. It's itis my fault. I am trying to
get things back on track. Andif we talk about another pleasure, it
is doing the show with Scott Scott. I love Scott. I do like
this show, even though if youhaven't seen as much. I love our
listeners. So all that to say, we are gonna do a draft.
Now to my first pick, becauseI was the loser, this year is

(57:13):
crazy, absolutely crazy. I haveno clue what's gonna be the highest grossing
movie this summer. Due to thestrike. I mean, you don't have
a lot of those big traditional tentpoll pictures. There's I don't think there's
gonna be very many movies that breakone hundred million this this summer. And
so again the strike delayed the lowstuff, pushed the law stuff. There's

(57:36):
not a lot of MCU. There'sall all of those superhero movies and all
all of those traditional big tent polls, and so this was a crazy year.
But my number one pick there wasthere is one superhero movie. And
I know we talk about superhero fatigue, and I know we also talk about
sort of R rated movies aren't gonnatypically be your highest grossy movie. But

(58:01):
I am as my number one pickgoing for Deadpool Wolverine for a few reasons.
One we haven't had any mc moviesthis year, and I think the
lack of MCU movies it's gonna makethis one more appealing. On top of
that, the first two Deadpool moviesis what got studios believing, oh,
you can do our rated movies becauseit does make a lot of money.

(58:22):
They have broke one hundred million.I think this one will break a hundred
million plus. You have two hugeJackman returning, which I think is a
huge draw, Wolverine versus Deadpool asthe actual characters against each other in sort
of that Deadpool style. People likethe Deadpool movies, people love Wolverine.
You put those things together, HughJackman doing the character one more time,

(58:45):
and I know it's our rated butI really think, and I've had this
experience with when Rock was an Rrated movies, that parents are dumb and
they're not even gonna pay attention tothat. I fully expect there being a
whole bunch of kids in this moviein this theater because it is it's an
MCU movie and it's Wolverine. Ithink parents are gonna bring it. I

(59:07):
think teenagers are gonna find a wayto get in. I think this is
gonna be a huge draw. Idon't think the R rated thing is gonna
affect this kind of movie at all. I bet studio like theaters will barely
even like check them for this movie. And if they do again, they
just have to find a parent andcome in. Just have to find someone
who's eighteen. This is gonna bea huge hit. I'm projected it over

(59:28):
one hundred million, and it's theonly one that confident that will get over
one hundred million. So I feelthis is a good number one picks.
It's the number one picks. It'sa Deadpool movie. There's been enough time
between Deadpool movies and Hugh Jackman,not just Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine,
but like classic Wolverine, which you'venever seen. No, So this is

(59:52):
the only movie on my list thatI thought it was a sure pick.
My first pick is just a guess. I'm going with Fall Guy. There's
in a lot of promos for it. It's got Ryan Gosling, it's got
Emily Blunt. Looks like it's gota good mix of humor and comedy.
This could be an action, actionpacked film that the family can enjoy.

(01:00:13):
My pick is fall The Fall Guy. You don't know how bummed I am
that you swept in and got fallGuy. That's early. I thought it
was going to be my sleeper pick. This is one where what the analysts
I think it, I think they'rewrong. I think Fall Guy is going
to be a massive surprise hit.You've got Right Gosly coming off of the

(01:00:37):
Barbie movie. You got Ryan Gosple, Emily Blunt, two likable characters.
Movies like Lost City in some recentromantic comedies show that people are kind of
into romance again, and this hasgot romance. It's got real legit stunts,
it's got amazing action sequences, it'sgot comedy. It feels like a
throwback movie. I feel this isa movie that is going I don't think

(01:01:00):
the IP matters, Like it's areally old TV show that not even selling
it on that. They're selling ongostling, they're selling on humor, they're
selling on stunts, And I thinkthat the younger crowd's not gonna care they've
never seen that show, because thisjust looks like a fun movie. Well
that's the thing. They're not tyingit to the show at all, and
it doesn't need to. This isif you're gonna revive a property. This

(01:01:21):
is a great way to do it. Just take take the concept from a
property, acknowledge it in the title, just go your own way with it.
My second one comes down to thebattle of which animated movie am I
gonna choose because they're sequels and theirprevious movies did really well. I've got
I went back and forth on this, but in the end I'm going out

(01:01:45):
with Inside Out Too. Because InsideOut Too is getting a lot of talk
at my kids playgrounds and at school. They're really excited about there's new emotions,
and that seems to have actually gotpeople excited to see the new emotions.
Inside Out seems to be a moviethat most people fondly remember. And
so I know Pixar is a bitof a slump. I think it's going
to break here. I think it'sgoing to do great in the theater.

(01:02:07):
I think it is too. Ithink I think this is gonna be a
win for Pixar. They kind ofneed it. We'll see. I think
the downside with Pixar is maybe Idon't know, if it was they got
complacent, didn't see the challenges risingfrom the quality of animation on things like
Netflix. It almost seemed like theyweren't adjusting to the times, to the

(01:02:32):
quality that was out there on otherplatforms, and just taking more Pixar.
We're gonna have hits. I thinkInside Out two is gonna be that hit,
and it seems like people are talkingabout it and it's not coming down
until June, so I feel like, yeah, I think it's gonna do
really well. My next pick,bring it on, Furiosa. We are
going back to the wild world ofthe post apocalyptic sand dunes, and this

(01:03:00):
is a guess. Everything. Everythingis a guess as far as one i'm
picking, but I'm guessing furios isgonna do well. Yeah, that's a
super solid pick because I'm pretty convinced, and I could be wrong because it's
all guesses. Like you said,I think this is actually going to do
better than the previous Mad Max becausethe previous Mad Max was a movie where

(01:03:23):
I mean, it was twenty twentyyears since the previous one, so a
lot of people are like, whatwas Mad Max again? And it was
a different star with Tom Hardy,and so I think there's a lot of
things kind of working against it.The trailers made it look so different,
but that one did so well critically, and it's a movie that people still

(01:03:43):
talk about and still like, oh, it's the type of movie they don't
make it anymore, and the stuntsand just how it has become such a
big part of the cultural zeitgeist.It attached it. You got Ai tailor
Joy here, You've got to starthat people love, You've got the province
those big action sequel is again aworld that's engaging. I think it's doing
better than the original. I thinkwe've got a huge hit here. I

(01:04:05):
think the original, well, it'sone of my favorite movies of all time.
It was a bit of a wordof mouth film, and there was
a lot of word of mouth,but I think a lot of people discovered
it after had left the theaters,whereas something like Top Gun the word was
instantaneous. And I think that Furiosadoes have a chance, like you said,

(01:04:30):
of doing better. It's time tocall me the animated guy, because
I'm going with yet another animated movie. I didn't think I was going to
get both of them, so Ihope they both deliver. My next pick
is The Spic will Be four.I know that the Spic will Be movies
don't do as well as Omidian movies. But the marketing seems to be leading
in on the Minians here, andthis is a franchise that always seems to

(01:04:57):
do super well, least close toone hundred MILLI and it's about it's a
few weeks to remove from Inside Outtwo, so I don't think they'll compete.
Inside Out too, could dominate June, the strict will be, could
dominate July. I think that's agood pick. That was my next pick.
You swipped in and took it.Boo on you. Despicable Me is
a very very consistent yes performer.It absolutely is, which leaves me having

(01:05:23):
to guess one or the other.Ah, I don't I'm not confident in
this at all. I think thetime for this franchise has gone. The
trailers don't look as crisp in theCGI department as the previous movies. I
don't think there's a The trailers haven'tconvinced me there's a reason to return to

(01:05:45):
the Planet of the Apes. ButI'm going with The Kingdom of the Planet
of the Apes as my pick becausethere's very little as far as big blockbuster
style movies. That's the only reasonI'm picking it. In another year,
this would have been a much lowerpick. I that's a great pick.
You just snaged what was going tobe my next pick. So I agree

(01:06:10):
with where you put this one becauseyou nailed it. There's not a lot
of big tempole movies coming out thissummer. It's still coming out fairly early.
It's coming out this month, soit's got a lot of advantages.
It's coming in early in the summer, people are just getting into the movie
going season, and it's from afranchise. It's done fairly well. I

(01:06:34):
think this is gonna be a bighit, and I think you might be
surprised of how well this one doesfor you, even at number three.
I hope last year I picked Barbieat number five, so let's hope my
fifth pick is as good. Iam not a huge fan of my next

(01:06:54):
pick, but I don't know whatto pick instead. We've already come to
that spot number four, and I'mlike, do I like this movie?
No? I don't, But Imean I get Will Smith has maybe not
endeared himself to people, and hewill go to now find out if he's
hurt his draw with that famous slap, and it's in a franchise. I

(01:07:17):
don't know if any it was demandingsequels, but recently action comedies have done
fairly well, and with people gettired of blockbusters, the sort of I
think gravitate towards these kind of movies. So I'm going with Bad Boys for
Ride or Die. I'm not onehundred percent confident in this picture, but
I think it has the potential togive me at least sixty million, And

(01:07:41):
at this point I think that's adecent pick. I had it on my
list, but much further down Ihave this fear that it's gonna crash and
burn. This is also a veryunpredictable summer. My next pick. I'm
doing this just because if family moviesare successful this year, I need to
have one. You picked the twothat were high up on my list.

(01:08:02):
You pick, you rob them rightout from under me. So I'm going
with if. Uh. It's it'sgot Ryan Reynolds, it's got John Krasinski,
Steve Krell doing a voice. Thiscould be a fun film. It's
directed by John Krasinski. It's it'sgot the late Lewis Gossit Junior. I
didn't realize that he was in this. Bring it on, okay, If

(01:08:24):
is my guaranteed, pick if it'sgonna win, because everyone's like, I
remember Iron Eagle, Let's go seethat movie with the guy from Iron Eagle.
If you want to base picks offwhat my daughter's excited to see,
like what trailers have captured her attype. So like what my daughter said,
can we go to the theater tosee this, then you have just got
the golden one. Because of allthe movies this well, actually Inside Out

(01:08:47):
Too, is the movie she wantsto see the most. But after that
she has talked about IF quite abit, and I feel like it can't
be just here. I think thisis a movie that kids are going to
be asking their parents to take themto. I think the trailer is appealing
to kids, and I mean,we're always looking for things to occupy our

(01:09:09):
kids time. Yeah, so bringit on. This one is based off
a horror movie that was a big, massive hit. But I realized this
is a spinoff, and spinoffs neverdo as well as like a straight sequel.
But I mean, it's got PetaDeongo, it's got a world that
people enjoy. It's been a fewyears, not tons, but there's a

(01:09:31):
few years in between, so Ifeel like people are ready to return to
a quiet place and to see howit all happened. So my next pick
is a quiet place Day one.That was my next pick as well.
This is this is one that couldbe breakout this This could be the pick
that you know, determines who wins, because it's the kind of movie that

(01:09:56):
could have a shocking opening weekend,and I hope it doesn't. That was
my It was my next pick.My pick, though, is gonna be
Twisters. Why because Twisters are cooland it's got Glenn Powell. Glenn Powell,
his name is rising after anyone butyou. Him and Sydney Sweeney.
They're both getting a huge boost fromthat. He was in Top Gun.

(01:10:20):
Did a great job in that asthe Val Kilmersh kind of character. Hey
he was the Val Kilmersh kind ofcharacter in a movie with Val kilmer Or.
That's impressive. But I think thiscould do well. It could be
it could be a flop, butit could be a movie that makes enough

(01:10:43):
on its opening weekend. What Ilove about this contest we do is the
sleeper heads, those movies that getpicked sort of in the middle a little
bit later in the draft, we'renot that confident and then all of a
sudden, you know, they doa Barbie. And I'm not saying Twisters
is going to do a Barbie,but I think Twisters could be the game

(01:11:05):
changer potentially. I didn't know whento pick this one, had a hard
time with this one, but Ifeel you may pick the movie that really
changes who wins this because I mean, I don't think people necessarily think super
funny the first Twister, but they'rekind of aware of it, and I
think it was one that some peoplehave some nostalgient affection for. We haven't

(01:11:29):
had a lot of natural disaster movieson the big screen in a long time,
and I think one of the thingsthat's come from a superhel fatigue.
I think the big thing is peoplewant new kind of movies. They want
something different that they haven't seen ina while. Twisters delivering something we haven't
seen in a while, and soI think it's going to appeal to those
people who do want to go tothe movies, but they just don't want

(01:11:50):
to see the same thing again andthey're like, oh, I remember Twister.
What it's more than one tornado?Count me in Tornado are gonna fight.
I don't know if they will,but they are maybe they knows,
But what I'm saying is, Ithink this is a type of movie that
may really shock people middle of thesummer and looking for something to do.

(01:12:13):
It could either I think this iseither gonna be an Independence Day resurgence,
like a thing where it just doesnot deliver like the first one, or
it could be a top gun Mavericklike I think it's either or. My
fingers are crossed for it. Yes, I'm sorry to see that one go
because I really think it's gonna bea big sleeper hit. My next one's
another one that I think could dosurprisingly well. I don't know how many

(01:12:39):
kids still know who Garfield is,but I think there are some My kids
still do. And the animation herelooks really cheery and energetic, and it's
the first animated movie that's gonna comeout this summer. It's gonna beat Inside
Out, it's gonna be it's gonnabeat Despicable before. And so I think

(01:13:00):
that's to the advantage of Garfield somethingfor the kids in May. It looks
fun, it looks cheery, it'ssomething that parents know. It's not gonna
do Super Mario numbers. But Ithink that idea of something that appeals to
kids but parents. Remember, it'sgonna be what makes Garfield. I'm hoping
like about a thirty million opening.This was, Yeah, this is It's

(01:13:25):
like, we just don't know witha movie like this, Well, it
could be a flaw. You pickingthis saved me though, because the movie
that I'm thinking could be the counterprogramming King slash Queen of the Summer that
you've left it open to me.And so my next pick Channing Tatum,
Scarlett Johansson Fly Me to the Moon. This this could be the counter programming

(01:13:53):
gem of the summer. Oh man, you took Full Guy Fly to the
Mood the two movies that I boththought, oh, these could be sort
of the outside surprises, and Iwas like, do not sleep on these,
and I slip up both of them. I lost Fall Guy and Fly
to the Mood. Yeah, Ithink Fly the Mood. This could be

(01:14:15):
anything. This could be five million, or this could be twenty billion,
because it's coming out I think,right in the heat of the summer and
it's so different than these other kindof action pictures. This could be like
Girls' Trip type numbers. Yeah,it really could be. You've got two
extremely likable leads. I have noidea how there couldn't be chemistry between Tatum

(01:14:43):
and Johansson. I think it's gonnabe brilliant, super confident about bad boys.
I'm less confident about my seventh pick, but I'm like, it's a
recognizable name, and at seventh,like even twenty million might be good.
So even though I'm not confident init, Eliot roblis here, you are,

(01:15:09):
Fetti Alvarez. I love him asa director. I think this could
be better than any of the recentRidley Scott alien movies. Is it gonna
be huge? Well, in August, when it gets quieter, it kind
of stands out as maybe the topchoice. Uh yeah, that and here's
the here's the thing. Okay,So speaking of August, I believe Craven

(01:15:33):
the Hunter just got bumped from Augustthirtieth to like December thirteenth. So either
that says either that says that,Sony, because the December time slot is
no joke. That is a nojoke time. I don't want a weird
time to do it from August AugustDecember competitive month. What's going on here?

(01:15:57):
I don't know, but I wasgonna pick that ahead of Alien because
I just didn't know the Alien franchise. The Alien name is not when it
was not what it once was.But I still think it can be a
draw. Do you know this israted R? I don't. I feel

(01:16:18):
that would benefit it. I feellike it would as well. There's no
rating on IMDb at the moment,because if it are that people will know
all were getting real alien kills.If it's PG thirteen, I actually think
it takes the movie like I thinkit's an expendable situation. The next movie
I'm picking. I'm picking because Ihope it does well, not because I

(01:16:39):
believe it'll do well. But Ithink there was enough interest in X and
in Pearl, especially after release.I think that that they were talked about
well. The Tye West's next film, Maxine. I think that it's gonna
have a fan base going into itthat are very fond of those other two

(01:17:01):
films, and I think that thishas got a good chance. It's got
a great cast. It's got MiaGoth, It's got Elizabeth Debickie, it's
got Michelle Monahan, It's got BobbyKennavali, Lily Collins, Halsey g and
Carlo Esposito. Kevin Bacon like it'sit's it's it's awesome. So I think

(01:17:26):
there's a chance here that this thiscould be a good film. There's also
a chance that it could be justmissed in the theater. Yeah. I
think this is like a Phariosa situationwhere it's not gonna do numbers, but
I feel is doing better than itsprevious movie because the word of mouth is
in there. Now this world isestablished. People are really excited about returning

(01:17:49):
to Mad Max, and they lovethe Phariosa character. I think Max is
the same thing. The first twodidn't do great in theaters, but they
got a great reputation and they didgreat and rentals and word of mouth built,
and so when people find out thisis the third in the trilogy,
I think it does the best ofthe three, and I think it becomes

(01:18:10):
a surprise hit. I think so. So fingers crossed. I've said that
too many times today, but fingerscrossed. Legitimately, they're crossed. And
shrevel On made a comeback and hegot respected again, and he made some
pictures like Split and the Visit thatgot people all back in the shrevel On

(01:18:32):
train. And then Glass disappointed andold was a disaster, and so I
don't know where Shovelon stands with people. I'm still ready to give him a
chance because I enjoy him and Ithink he's a lot of fun. And
so that's why my eighth pick isone where I am very nervous of how

(01:18:55):
this does. All I can sayis that it looks like it's get a
wide release. So that's beneficial.That's a win. I'm going with mm
nite shovel On's Trap. This wasn'teven on my list, mostly because I
just forgot about it. The thingis, uh, you know, it's

(01:19:15):
it's really gonna come down to Jamalan'sname, because okay, so names aren't
the draw anymore. However, namescan be a discouragement if people like if
you're like me and you did notlike it like Glass and you really did
not like Old, then seeing trapis at the name is actually keeping me

(01:19:41):
home from doing it. So whilethis is risky, this is a risky
one, Chris, And it's risky. But I forgot the last movie he
did I actually really liked and Ithink was really well with the Cabin.
That was a good one. Thatwas a good last one. How did
I forget what's that one? Andyou know what the thing is, what
I loved about that movie is inthe opening bit that he used like every

(01:20:06):
obnoxious style of like stylistic directing,and it worked. It still worked,
And I was like, tip ofmy hat to you, because these are
all things I would hate individually,but somehow you got me sold. So
that's what got me to do theeight. I remember now why I went

(01:20:26):
with a because I said his lastnote was Knock at the Cabin, and
I think people largely liked it,so I'm hoping that removes Old from people's
minds. Okay, I am nowgoing with a biopic because it's about time
we get to biopics and this one, this one doesn't need to be good

(01:20:46):
at all. I don't think thisis just gonna tap into how big is
the Amy Winehouse? Yeah, fanbase, this is back to black.
He honestly never cared about Amy Winehouse, but the people who did really really
did, and so it'll be interestingto see if they turn up. Does
the movie on itself outside of hername look very interesting? I don't know,

(01:21:14):
but the crowd may go and seeit. So that's why I'm making
it my pick. This could beanother massive get for you this late because
for a few reasons. One,Bob Marley proved that people love going to
see sort of music. Bil pickPictures because that did really well, and

(01:21:38):
Amy Whitehouse definitely has her crowd,so it being that kind of movie I
think benefits. And the other isthere's not a lot of geared to adult
movies this summer, and so peopleare gonna be waiting for a movie that's
geared to them. Oh, lookBack in Black. Yeah. Yeah,
this could be a winner for me, but it also could be a huge

(01:21:58):
failure. Kind of mad at myselffor this next pick because I don't know
what I'm doing. But I sawthe trailer. It did not appeal to
me. I've never played the videogame, but part of me is like,
it is based off a video game, but apparently the trailer is nothing
like the video game. It's moretrying to mimic Guards of the Galaxy.

(01:22:20):
So is that gonna do annoy thevideo game fans and so they won't come?
Or will it make people be like, oh, this looks like Guards
of Galaxy and that's done. SoI want to see a Guardians of the
Galaxy type movie. So I haveno idea if this is going to make
one million or if it's going tomake ten million. We're at that point

(01:22:41):
where I'm happy with that, ButI'm picking Borderlands. I may. I
don't know much about the game,and from what I've heard, it doesn't
look like the trailers following the game, so that could really bite it in
the butt and backfire. But I'mhoping a little of it being a recognizable
ip and the fact that people don'tknow border Lands will look at me like,
oh, a new ViRGE of Guards, a gassy and I like those

(01:23:03):
kind of movies, will make ita decent ninth pick. It was gonna
be my ninth pick. I hateto bring on your hope, but fans
of the game hate, hate howthis movie looks. They hate they hate

(01:23:23):
that Kevin Hart is playing Roland.Roland is this big, serious warrior and
you got in the games that again, right, Like, there's no logical
reason. Kate Blanchett is Lilith.Bring it on, Jimmie Lee Kurnis's Tannis.
Yeah, I've played the games abit. I know by play a
bit, I've sunk a few hundredhours into the games. But I can

(01:23:46):
tell you this. There are somecasting decisions here that have fans of the
games livid, and I don't likethe chances. So here's the thing,
though, Here's a thing. Isthis a movie where fans get so annoyed
we end up with sort of aGhostbuster situation from twenty sixteen, where yeah,

(01:24:12):
people don't show up because this isnot my Borderland. Or do we
get hate watchers? Do we getpeople that can plain but they still go
to see it so that they canhate it and then it turns out,
you know, okay, I don'tthink we're getting hate watchers with this.
It's ninth pick. Well I was, and all I'm remember I did say
it was my ninth pick. Itwas gonna be my next pick. But

(01:24:33):
I really don't know if this iseven a bad pick at nine because I
feel like from looking at it andwhat I heard where this is nothing like
the video game. We could belooking at like literally a one million opening
weekend for a wide release movie.Yeah, And I look at it and
I have no interest in this movie. I saw the trailer and no attachment
to the video game. I justlooked at it and said, oh,

(01:24:55):
this is a Guardians of Galaxy knockoff. This looks stupid. Yeah, it's
it does no justice to the gamewhatsoever. My next pick could be a
one million dollar I wouldn't even besurprised if it turns out this movie is
no longer in wide release when itcomes out and ends up in limited release.
But it's got Nicholas Cage and it'sgot make them Monroe. I'm going

(01:25:16):
with long legs. Oh boy.I yeah, this was not on my
let's just because I didn't know ifit would go wide. But to say
that this is one of the moviesI'm anticipating most of the summer, that
would be a truth. So ifwe're going by my anticipation, this is
making like eighty million. Yeah,this is right up there. I really

(01:25:42):
want to see Nicholas Cage as aserial killer. This looks fantastic. I
just don't know how it will do. It reminds me of like a few
years ago where one of our listenerswas like, so shocked, why didn't
you guys pick Baby Driver? Aren'tyou excited to see it? And we're
like, we are excited to seeit. Don't think anyone else is.
That's that's just it. There's athere's a huge difference there. There's a

(01:26:05):
huge difference. I am excited tosee it, and I hope it does
well. I don't think it will, just being honest. My final pick,
my pick to end this off,is something where if this came out
when I was a kid, Iprobably would have been excited because I loved
the books and I loved the fiveminute cartoons that would show up on TVO.

(01:26:30):
It totally went with my imagination creatingnew worlds. But I don't think
any kids know what this is now, and they're not even doing it as
a little boy. He's now agrown up man, so I don't even
know if that I'm taking the materialseriously or they're making fun of it.
But so I don't know how thiswill hit. But it's a family movie.
It's a family movie in August,and it's about imagination, so there's

(01:26:55):
potential that kids will come to it. Harold the Purple Crayon is my final
pick that was coming up for meas well, because you never know what
with family movies. They could easilyeasily surprise. There's been so many shockers

(01:27:15):
family movies, and things like romcoms can be the or comedies can be
the biggest shockers of the summer season, and I think that's a good pick.
My next pick, who is thiseven gonna still be? This is
gonna be wide released because there's nothinggoing on. But would I be surprised
if it wasn't. No, thisis the Bike Riders, a motorcycle movie.

(01:27:39):
But it's got Jody Comer, it'sgot Austin Butler, it's got Tom
Hardy, it's got Michael Shannon.That's a great list of people. Once
again, wouldn't be surprised if itgets bumped down delimited. But I got
to take a shot on something.Everything on my list right now honestly could
be bumped down delimited. You've gotsome giant leaps there. But I mean,

(01:28:00):
look at your options. I meanthe Crow trailer looked horrible, Like,
so who's gonna go? Like Crowfans don't want to see it,
and then if you're not a Crowfan, it also doesn't look good.
No, and what do you what? You can pick Strangers chapter one.
I haven't even seen a trailer forthat, And so yeah, no,

(01:28:20):
you're right, like, after yearsof like there being a solid horror movie
that comes in the summer, alot of the movies that I would have
normally sort of been like oh Crowyeah, or an other Strangers I would
have potentially picked, but these onesjust look so flat and no one's talking
about them. H Well, wetalked about movies as well. This week.

(01:28:43):
We did movie reviews for three films, and right now I'm gonna run
down through the ratings we gave forthose films. First of all, Civil
War, the Alex Garland movie abouta modern day civil war in America.
Not a perfect movie, but amovie. I'm giving it perfect score,
four stars. It just had methinking too much, and I love that
when a movie haunts me. Andthen Surely Biopic that was, unfortunately for

(01:29:09):
Chris standard biopic fair even though ithad the wonderful acting talents that it did.
Regina King. She that's an Oscarand Emmy Award Women winning talent right
there. She did a great job. Chris just felt like the movie itself
was too formulaic. He gave thattwo and a half stars. And then

(01:29:30):
Rebel Moon Part two, The ScargiverDoes that even mean? Well, gave
her a scar so he called itthe Scargiver, like, well, that's
a great writing. The writing isphenomenal. The movie's phenomenal, that the
character development is phenomenal. I gaveit one and a half stars. Chris

(01:29:54):
gave it one. There you go. Question of the week is what is
your most anticipated summer movie? What'sthe movie you want to see the most?
And for me really into The FallGuy, that The Fall Guy just
looks like so much fun. I'malso very excited about Inside Out, and
of course, as we already mentioned, Long Legs, which is not really

(01:30:16):
a blockbuster, but you need thoseother kind of movies, you absolutely do.
You pretty much nailed the three thatI'm most excited about, as well
as Deadpool. There's just something that'sso nostalgic about classic Wolverine showing up.
They know how to nail nostalgia withthe marketing of that. Those are those
are the boos I'm excited about.And my least, my least interesting movie

(01:30:41):
is Bad Boys, for even thoughit was my fourth pick, go Bad
Boys, I haven't liked The BadBoys since I haven't liked the Bad Boys.
So if you want to answer ourquestion of the week or tell us
how our pick for stupid and whatfools we were and why one of us

(01:31:02):
is going to lose or may willboth lose. I don't know how that
would happen, but you know weboth they picks a total could even make
one hundred millions. We have toforfeit the podcast Who Knows. But you
can contact us at the Movie Breakdownat gmail dot com. You can also
try Twitter at Movie Breakdown one andalso we're over on Facebook. Well say

(01:31:24):
hey there, Facebook dot com atthe Movie Breakdown. Please follow us on
those places become subscribers to them.You can't really do that for a Gmail.
You can't follow email, but youcan follow Twitter or Facebook. I'm
not called it x as well.You can rate to us and subscribe to

(01:31:45):
us on Speaker, Spotify, castBox, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
or wherever you listen to podcasts.You listen to them more probably there and
if you subscribe and rate us,that actually help us in the algorithm,
and it will allow more people toknow about us. And if more people
know about us, so we growour listeners and then we could do more
shows and that things will just becherry pops. And another way you can

(01:32:11):
help us out is listen to uson the spreaker app. It actually helps,
it will increase sort of the adrevenue if we do it through the
Spreaker app, and that would bewonderful. And maybe one day this is
a show that we can devote evenmore time to because it you know,
it's helping us out and we couldcreate more great stuff for you guys,

(01:32:34):
and so that'd be fantastic. Andanother way you can help us out,
or at least me, is checkout Beyond the Balcony, which I am
at. I have not been achampion of posting, but as I said
before, I am committed to gettingback on track. I am copied I'll
get back on track. I've alreadydone my apology before we did the Box

(01:32:58):
Office draft, so I'm not gonnado it again. Just rewind it,
listen to it there and you'll hearwhy and how bad I feel, how
vulnerable I got. How can yoube bad at me when I bear my
soul like that? So yeah,you can go on to the bar on
too. Beyond the Balcony I posted. I posted the Playful Fox is Society

(01:33:20):
of Radio Theater presentation of Weathering Heights. We're both be at Everett provide our
voices. We are voice actors inthat. So you can listen to it
over on the site. And thenthere's a whole bunch of other stuff that
I posted eons ago and you canyou can read that stuff too, and

(01:33:43):
you can also do us. Thefavor of joining us next week is we've
got a lot of fun stuff totalk about, our hopefully fun stuff.
We will have the review for theRyan Gosling and Emily Blunt starring romantic stunt
felt comedy, action or not manyfilms falling into that genre un and I
love it. I love it soexciteless movie. Yeah, The fall Guy.

(01:34:03):
This could be just an absolute blast. It looks fun as well.
We have the Jerry Seinfeld and MelissaMcCarthy starring comedy about pop tarts in Unfrosted,
So please do come back next week. We appreciate you for listening very
very much. I'm Scott Martin.I just want to say I enjoyed Sherry
Seinfeld, I love Melissa McCarthy,and I once love pop tarts. What

(01:34:26):
could go wrong? Nothing? Absolutelynothing. Yes, thank you so much
for listening to us. You guysare great, and I'm Christopher Spicer.
Take care of everyone. Have agreat week at the movies.