The Breakdown of Where We Are Now

It’s been a while, but Christopher is back! In this episode, he dives into why certain movies became box office hits in 2025, which films he's still eager to catch up on, what upcoming releases he’s most excited for, and how his neurodivergence shapes the way he experiences and critiques movies.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
They're coming to get you, Barbara. They're coming for you, Babra.
That comes one of them. Now, welcome to the latest
episode of The Movie Breakdown, the podcast that at one

(00:36):
time was a weekly show. Well at one time it
also had two hosts, but today you just have me,
Christopher Spicer, and it has once again been a long
time since you've last heard my dulcet tones on this podcast.
Of course, longtime listeners knows that The Movie Breakdown has

(00:57):
been around since twenty thirteen and me and Scott on
a weekly basis would discuss movies and discuss the hottest
movie news. But the last few years, if you are
a newer listener, you think it's a show that happens
maybe once a year and it's just me coming on
and keep on promising it'll be weekly again. I promise,

(01:19):
weekly again, I promise, But things have definitely changed. As
you know, Scott Martin has taken a leave of absence
from the podcast, and despite evidence, this is something that
I want to keep going on a weekly basis, and
the goal at this point, as I've said in previous shows,
is to do it solo for a little bit as

(01:42):
I seek out either a new host for the next
little while or have a collection of guest hosts, but
for now it will be solo until we really feel like,
you know, I get this back into the weekly groove.
And yes, twenty twenty five has definitely not been a

(02:03):
great year for relaunching the movie Breakdown or a great
year for sort of getting the beyond the balcony my
sight going where I promise that I'd be reviewing weekly
new releases twenty twenty five movies, and I haven't even
seen one twenty twenty five movie yet. And that is
partly as I had said in the previous show, if

(02:24):
you remember that from many weeks back, part of it
is this has been sort of a year where I
have been going through sort of therapy and counseling to
work through a lot of long time struggles with emotional health,
which I've then learned through this process a lot of
it came from undiagnosed Neil divergence autism and ADHD, and

(02:48):
not having the strategies in place for living my best self,
for that idea of working with my brain rather than
against my brain. There was decades of trying to fix
myself or thinking I was broken, and it wasn't until
this year I really realized that's not the case. It

(03:10):
is just I'm wired a little bit differently. I am
Windows ninety five trying to run on a Mac type thing,
and now learning to sort of try to work through
that and to really take advantage of the strength of
my narrow divergence, which is sort of that creativity and
seeing the world through a different lens and that whole

(03:34):
sort of the way I see patterns and the way
that I connect trying to take advantage of that well
also sort of managing the challenges that come with, you know,
the executive dysfunction and the struggles of focusing and that
sort of feeling awkward and seeing sort of simple tasks

(03:57):
very differently than your typical neurotypical and so just trying
to balance all those struggles. And my plan is with
Beyond the Balcony and with the movie Breakdown, is sort
of exploring and embracing mint divergence and my differences and

(04:19):
sort of the things that come from that, be it
the creativity, the storytelling, but most definitely sort of the
empathy and sort of the justice and how I view
the world today and how I want there definitely to
be a more open minded and loving and capassionate world.

(04:41):
All those aspects. I want to bring that to this podcast,
bring that to this site through the lens of obviously
reviewing movies and talking about movies. And that was something
I talked a bit about on the last podcast, and
that is something that I want to do. And I
think one of the big challenges that I've had most

(05:03):
of my life and I know is realized sort of
with that neo divergence, is the all or nothing mentality,
that idea that I want something that is perfect, I
want what's in my head to completely come out and
wow right away, and that is just not realistic. It's

(05:25):
sort of, like I said, the all or nothing. And
one of the big things that my therapist has been
pushing is done is better than perfect. And so I'm
trying to get over that hurdle and realizing I've got
these big dreams for the podcast, big dreams for the site,
big dreams for my career, big dreams for creative projects,

(05:46):
and realizing rather than sort of being like, well, I
can't really do this until everything is perfect and set,
and realize it's better just to jump into it and
embrace all its messy, and so that's what this podcast
is is an attempt to once again get things going.
And this is a show where I haven't really done

(06:08):
a whole lot of preparation. It's just let's get to
show up again. And of course this show is brought
to you by a Speaker Prime, our amazing hosting site
which also has a huge collection of great podcasts you
can check out as well as Beyond the Balcony. It's

(06:28):
been on my site since day one, and if you
want to sort of help out the podcast support it,
you can consider listening to it through the Speaker app,
which is obviously brought to you by a Spreaker. And
so I've already admitted I have not reviewed or even

(06:51):
watched any twenty twenty five movies. I keep on saying,
I gotta get into that mode. I gotta be ready,
and then once I start watching my first movie, I'm
gonna review it and then kind of jump on that
too true train of movie reviewing magic. And so I've
kept on sort of pushing it off, and so I
haven't done that, but hopefully starting this week I will

(07:13):
start finally catching up on those movies I really got
to watch that Wallson, Grammt Vengeance, Most Foul with My Kids,
that is, I love Watson Grammat and I feel like
there's a good chance that could be one of the
best movies I see of the year. So I can't
avoid that one for much longer. But I did want
to quickly look at the movies, some of the movies

(07:36):
that came out this year that you know, I haven't seen,
but sort of look at how they did in the
domestic box office, and well, I can't necessarily talk on
their quality, sort of just look at sort of what
is the state of movies and what why. I think
some of these movies were sort of the big hits.

(07:56):
I will say right off the bat that the number
one movie of the year so far, a Minecraft movie,
absolutely shocked me. Like I've been talking about movies since
twenty thirteen, and I've definitely got some of my predictions
wrong in the past, but I think I have a

(08:18):
pretty decent record when it comes to predicting stuff or
seeing what is going to sort of resonate with an audience.
I've been doing this long enough where I feel like
I'm pretty good at that. But I completely was wrong
on a Minecraft movie. When I know This was announced
like years and years and years ago and has gone

(08:39):
through a whole bunch of different writers and directors. And this,
to me always seem like trying to jump on something
that is popular without really having a good idea of
what the story is, or something that is popular that
isn't really designed to be a movie. I mean, the

(09:01):
Minecraft game itself is not a narrative game. It doesn't
really have a built in sort of story. It's it's
a building game. It's sort of an open world, immersive experience,
something that doesn't really lend itself to sort of a
compelling movie. And so I thought this was just such

(09:22):
a cash grab idea. I'll also admit that I thought
the Lego movie was a horrible idea, and then I
ended up loving that movie and they because they actually
had an interesting story in there, and they did you
sort of the idea of Lego, that idea of creativity
and the idea of sort of exploring what you can
do with these blocks and using your imagination, and they

(09:45):
turned it into an interesting movie. They took the themes
of Lego and created into something compelling with a great
sense of humor. But you also had great directors there
a Minecraft movie. To me, I just felt like that's
sort of what it was like. I think got greenlit
right around the time that the Lego movie was a hit,
and I'm just like, can you really do that twice?

(10:08):
And while I can't speak you, I can't speak into
its quality. My son ever saw it, and he enjoyed
it well enough. I don't think it ended up being
one of his favorites, but he liked it well enough.
He said it was fine. Obviously it connected with an audience.
It is by far the biggest hit domestically with four

(10:32):
hundred and four hundred, four hundred and twenty three million
is what it's made so far. It's halfway to sort
of almost halfway to the billion dollar magic mark. But
it's one of the easily the biggest hit of the year.
And Yeah, like I said, I saw this as a
cast grab. I saw it as something that wouldn't essay

(10:53):
connect with people. I mean, there is a history of
that happening where you grab something that is popular and
then it doesn't translate into a big box office hit.
The Super Mario movie, the version of the nineteen nineties
You have Yourself, that was back when Nintendo was sort
of at its height, it was a massive hit. People

(11:13):
loved the Mario movie or loved the Mario games, but
it didn't translate into a successful movie. I think one
of the big things is that was one of those
things where you got someone who created a movie that
really didn't know anything about the game. It was not

(11:35):
leading into what it was that people loved about that game.
I mean, the esthetic everything about it looked really almost
nothing like Mario, and I think that was a big
reason why it flopped. And where in this case a
Minecraft movie, it really did look like Minecraft. They were
definitely trying to be faithful into what people loved about Minecraft.

(11:57):
You made the Minecraft world look like what it does
in the game, and the characters and the homes. I
think also, even though we're in an era where movies
aren't necessarily star driven anymore, I think there is an
idea where people want to see certain actors in certain

(12:18):
type of movies, and when you see that type of
actor in that movie, it sort of cements that, Okay,
this is the type of movie that I want. And
so Jack Black was sort of Joemanji and being in
recent sort of video game movies. Jack Black, I think

(12:39):
really was the right fit because people connect him to
these type of movies, and so his humor and the
fact that a lot of people like him he is obviously,
I think his casting helped sort of affirm that Minecraft
was gonna work. Another big thing is the movies in
the last few years that have been major hits. They

(13:01):
are I think there is sort of this idea of
being part of a cultural zeitgeist, of it being a
bit of an event. I think that's what the Barbie
and Oppenheimer movies pulled off, and I think that's why
those end up being a massive hit. Is this idea
that you need to be a part of something it
is something that is culturally relevant right now. And the

(13:22):
Minecraft movie had a lot of these memes and a
lot of these sort of there is these conversations around it,
and there is almost a little bit of sort of
this rocky horror aspect where the audience was interacting with
this movie. And so again it became a bit of
a cultural zeitgeist statement. It became a thing where you

(13:43):
need to be a part of the conversation, so you
seem to so you need to see this movie. And
that's where we're at, is you want to create movies
that seem to be a major part of the culture
that that have maybe the inside jokes or the memes
or something that is connected sort of with this online discussion,

(14:05):
online world part of the social media and Minecraft was
it's also again something where people will watch Minecraft videos
and they've connected that obviously with the movie and with
that culture and with that sort of demographic, and so
they were smart how they did it with marketing and
connecting that, and so I think that was a big

(14:25):
reason why it was a major hit. The second highest
grossing movie of the year is another one that I
probably would have predicted to do as well as it did.
But again, it sort of makes sense, and that's Lelo
and Stitch, And I think part of that is I
think it's time for the studios to realize, like we've

(14:48):
leaned so much into the nostalgia of like the nineties
and the nineteen eighties in the last few years, but
the gen Z demographic that age, the people who were
growing up in the two thousands, it is not only
a very large group of people, but that's really the

(15:12):
last generation where movie going, going to the theater was
sort of still a very major thing. A major part
of people's sort of habits and something that would still
happen several times a year. It was the last time
before streaming became a major thing, and that streaming started

(15:36):
kind of eating into sort of the movie going experience,
the idea that you can easily watch movies at home,
which is what would then happen with the next generations.
This is the last generation where there would still be
a heavy nostalgia to movie going in your childhood. And
so even though I think Disney saw Leel's Stitch as

(15:58):
a bit of sort of one of their throwaways things,
not sort of a major priority is live action. Apparently
at one point it was going to be on Disney. Plus,
I think Leland Stitch has a very special spot for
that gen z. For those people who are growing up
in the two thousands, that was their Disney movie, that

(16:18):
is one of their all time favorite Disney movies. That
is something that is connected to their childhood. And so
I think that is a major reason because you now
have the gen z where they have families, now they
have kids, and so they very much, at least very
young kids, they'd be very much wanting to take their
kids and be able to live that experience of something

(16:41):
from their childhood. That's something that I mean, parents love
to do. There's a reason why I showed my kids
and Anne Jones and Star Wars. You want to share
your childhood with your kids. And so I think that
that was a big strength of this Leland Stitch live
action picture is the fact that it is it came
right out during a peace where even though that wasn't

(17:02):
considered the height of Disney animation, the Disney renaissance was over,
the golden era of sort of the nineteen nineties was done,
and so Leol' Stitch maybe wasn't seen on the same
level of a hit with Disney. It is something that
is cherished and treasured by people growing up in the

(17:22):
two thousands. And also it is pretty obvious that Stitch
is someone who has really that is a character that
has really lasted and has connected because I mean, my
daughter's birthday, not this year, but the year before. Every
present she got was like a Stitch in some form,

(17:45):
and so clearly Stitch is someone who has injured. And
so even now this younger generation has connected to Stitch.
And so you've got a movie that really hit on
many many generations and I think it was. It has
a bigger fan base than maybe a lot of people expected,

(18:08):
and I mean based off reviews, it's one of the better,
more successful live action adaptations from their animated works. It
seemed to sort of one that translated better and it
actually had something to say, which kind of leads to

(18:29):
what is the ninth highest grocery movie this year, snow White,
which is another live action movie, and all the talk
around that seemed to be that it was a massive flop.
And I think with something where there's they made it

(18:50):
with the idea of it being a big, massive blockbuster,
there might be a little bit disappointment of the fact
that it didn't even break one hundred million. It's eighty
seven million right now. Domestically, it's still one of those ideas,
whereas one of the top ten grossy movies so far,
and so that probably comes from a place of in

(19:12):
some ways blockbusters were kind of getting out of hand
with the production budgets. When something that almost makes one
hundred million is domestically it's considered a flop, especially when
they still made even more money when you go internationally.
But I also think that snow White dialogue this idea

(19:35):
of I think a lot of the people who jump
on it being a flop are also sort of those
which I've talked a bit on this show in the past,
is those sort of toxic commentators, those people who consider
themselves anti woke, those people who they were going to
always frame the story that Snow White was a mass

(20:00):
of bum because they didn't like the fact of who
was cast Rachel Ziggler cast as snow White. They opposed
that from day one. They didn't like her politics, they
didn't like some of the things that she said in
the media. They also didn't like the fact that she
wasn't Caucasian. There was a lot of things that they're
pushing back with that Snow White movie, And so I

(20:23):
think sometimes that narrative also just came from a lot
of really negative commentators and podcasters and critics, people who
sort of came out with their agenda no matter what. Well,
on the other hand, I mean, people critics that I
even respect, really disliked Snow White, and it's probably hard

(20:48):
to shake the fact that Snow White was more of
a cast grab movie. And definitely you look at the
Dwarfs and the CGI looks like it's something from a
horror movie. And so I'm not trying to one hundred
percent defend the movie. And I'm definitely at a time
where I'm more than happy to say goodbye to live

(21:10):
action remakes from Disney. But I do want to say
that it's not like I am opposed to any type
of remake, even when it comes to sort of Disney
doing live action remakes. It's more for me that I've
it comes to anything when you're taking something that's already
a recognizable story, when be it a remake or a

(21:35):
sequel or something based off a book is or you know,
returning to something like those legacy sequels. You think of
something like a Creed. Ryan Coogler returned to the Rocky
World because he had a story to tell. He had
a story to tell, and then he went to the

(21:55):
studio and says, I want to make this movie. And
that's where I'd rather they approach sort of the live
action where hemakes. As you look at something like a
treasure planet, or you look at something like a sword
in the stone or aristocrats. I'm trying to think of

(22:16):
movies that they haven't turned into live action yet, and
I'd rather there to be a director or a screenwriter
or some type of artist that they look at that
and say, there's a new way of approaching that. I
want to tell that story in a different way. Or
I'm looking at this and I'm passionate about a tale

(22:37):
and that's how you approach it rather than dizzy just
say what do we have in the vault and let's
turn it into a movie. And I think the ones
where it's obvious that the director had an actual story
to tell something, where it was driven by that, you
tend to have much better movies than you know. The
case is something like The Snow White where like they

(23:00):
were trying to just turn something into a movie where
they can make a whole lot of money. I mean,
I still stand strong on what I want to see
as a live actually remake is The Black Cauldron, because
I think that would be really cool and immersive and
evocative type of dark fantasy tale. I think it there's

(23:24):
there's at least like three or five it's a book series,
and so there's a lot of other stories that they
could still tell it. It doesn't even have to be
a straight adaptation. You can go into that sort of
book material and make something a little bit different and
not necessarily following the animated movie, but returning to that

(23:45):
world with those villains and those creatures and those characters,
I think would be interesting. It's also like Disney's biggest
sort of box office flop, sort of their dark period,
and so I'm they're probably not that interested in returning
to that movie, and so that's probably one of the
less likely especially since it would also require a pretty

(24:08):
big budget to make it work. But that's what I'd
be more interested is taking something that hasn't already told
the story perfectly and taken another stab at it, rather
than these pictures that are already considered classics and then
it sort of disappoints people. It's interesting that Captain America

(24:29):
A Brave New World is another one that sort of
the dialogue around it is it was a flop, but
we're looking now at it being right now domestically the
fourth highest grossing movie of the year, and maybe that's
part of a sign where the box office this year,
it's only been a very few movies that have really

(24:52):
been sort of those breakout hits, and it's been sort
of a lot of disappointing movies when it comes to
the box office, there's been a lot of slow periods.
I think the month of March was considered a real
massive disappointment where there's a lot of weeks where they
made very little money at the box office, And that
might be part of the reason why Captain America sort

(25:15):
of is still one of the highest grossing movies but
considered disappointment. But I think part of it also is
the fact that it sort of has the Captain American
name behind it. But I also think we might once
again have some of that sort of those agenda pushing
commentators that were out to kind of get to Captain

(25:38):
America anyways, because of the fact that Anthony Mackie and
not Chris Evans in the Captain America role. Noll. At
the same time, I will be honest that none of
the trailers for Captain America Brave neew World really ever
appealed to me. And the whole Hulk thing that they
were sort of hyping up he looked like a video game. Basically,

(25:59):
the whole wasn't all that thrilling to me. But it
is interesting that Captain America sort of is in the
fourth spot it's considered disappointment. Well, the dialogue round the
Thunderbolts was that it was a hit box office wise,
but it's actually number five. It's blow Captain America when

(26:21):
it comes to box office grosses domestically. So I always
find that fascinating that the thing that was considered the
flop actually made more money than the thing that's considered
a hit. Now again, Captain America, you're looking at an
established name, and there was three Captain America movies prior
to this one, and so it is sort of again

(26:43):
considered one of the high earning box office kind of
pictures franchises. This is something where it's considered a hit. Well, Thunderbolts,
it's basically a collection of sidekicks that were either in
they were only in kind of Disney Plus series, or

(27:06):
they were a side character in a bigger picture, and
they're all now put together as a reg k group.
And so maybe it didn't necessarily have the same kind
of box office power with Sebastian Stan probably being the
sort of biggest name there, or maybe a Florist Pew
would be sort of your two biggest, and then Dave

(27:27):
Harbor because of like Stranger Things, And so I think
it's one of those ideas that maybe it was a
gamble sort of like Guards of the Galaxy, like almost
ten years ago, and it paid off. And so that's
probably why the dialogue kind of surrounded it being sort
of a surprise hit. But I think in both cases

(27:50):
Marvel shouldn't be too upset with how it's done. I
mean Marvel, I think it's used to the movie being
almost one of the highest grossing movies of the year,
and at the end of the year, both these movies
are going to either be sort of in the middle
of the top ten or at the bottom of the
top ten, depending one movie is end up being big
hits at the second half of the year. So I

(28:12):
could see in some ways where those are disappointments. We'll
see how Fantastic Four does. That's the last Marvel movie.
There's a chance that it could do better than both
of these movies. But again thunder Bolts, with it being
sort of less kind of guaranteed hit kind of characters
in it, I think, yeah, you could see it as

(28:33):
a success. And so those are that's kind of the
state of the Marvel right now. We're in a spot
where Marvel it's not a guarantee to be a big
box office smash anymore with their movies. One of the
things I'm really happy about the number three spot is Sinners,

(28:53):
one because it's a horror movie that did really, really well.
It's a movie directed by Ryan Coogler, who I'm a
big fan of. But it's there an original movie, it's
not based off anything, and so it's evidence once again
that if you have an intriguing, interesting, original story, it
can still be a hit in the box office. And

(29:15):
Sinners is a massive sign of a win for creativity
and this idea for studios to realize, you know, it's
okay to green light original movies and they can still
be big hits at the box office, not what Sinners was.

(29:35):
Now I also realize we're in a place where studios
are willing to take original ideas. On animated family movies,
those are ones where you still sometimes have pictures that
are not based off something that's established, and then horror movies.
Those seem to be the two genres where they kind

(29:57):
of allow you to come up with some being original
and they still think it has a chance of being
a box office hit. And that's not necessarily the case
in sort of any other genre, which is disappointing. But
the good thing about Sinners is it's not sort of

(30:17):
pure horror, and so that'd be one area where I
would consider. Another area where because the Sinner's a big win,
is the fact that it's not It wasn't a jump
scary movie. It wasn't just sort of a pure throwaway
horror picture. This is one that it had the slow build,

(30:41):
it was having a clear story to tell. It has
horror elements in it, it obviously has vampires, but it
was trying to say something about society today. It was
exploring themes. It was dramatic, and that type of picture,
despite what certain groups would tell you, resonate with audiences

(31:04):
and it was a huge hit. And so this is
once again sort of encouraging sort of horror type stories
that are more than just being jumped scares, just real, great, intriguing,
exciting type of horror movies, those type of movies that
you know would have the opportunity to be at least

(31:26):
considered for an OSCAR because they have something to tell.
Those The get Out and the Hereditary, those those kind
of great horror movies. And as people that have been
listening to the show for a long time. You know,
I'm a huge horror fan, and I want all types
of horror movies because like Final Destination Bloodlines shows up,
there's also a place for those type of horror movies.

(31:48):
As it's in the top ten right now. Though from
what I've heard, this movie it has more to say
than just its kills, and it's sort of talking I
think a bit about that idea of survivor's guilt and
working through grief, and this one with the bloodlines, the

(32:09):
idea being the fact that someone survived many decades ago
and now death is catching up with sort of that
lineage with people who are the sort of the people
that the child the children of the survivors, and sort

(32:31):
of that legacy, the bloodline, as you would say, as
I stumble over my words. And so yeah, I'm happy
to see something like that do well too, and I
want all types of horror movies to do well, but
I really do want all I want original stories to
do well. And I mean Mickey seventeen didn't do horribly.

(32:53):
It's in the top twenty. It's the thirteenth highest grossing
domestic movie forty six million. The dialogue around that is
that it was a box office disappointment. So that might
be a case of sort of budget and stuff, but
at least it's something that performed at some level, maybe
you wish it to perform a bit better based off

(33:16):
probably it's budget. A movie that I don't even really
no One of Them Days, which is sort of a comedy,
sort of a road trip movie with best friends. It
came out in January and it is in the top twenty,

(33:39):
so that's always fun to see a comedy still doing
okay in the box office. It made fifty million and
it's the twelfth highest grossing movie of the year, so
I think that's interesting too. Now I want to look
ahead a little bit, not just necessarily look ahead, but
look at twenty twenty five and sort of the movies

(34:01):
I am looking forward to seeing. But also, as I've
already confessed, I'm way behind. I'm watching twenty five movies,
and so I sort of want to quickly look at
sort of the twenty twenty twenty five movies that I
feel like I really need to review and catch up on.

(34:23):
I know that wolf Man didn't necessarily review great, but
I think still the pedigree behind that movie and once
again it being like a horror movie, a picture that
sort of I believe Lee when Yeah, he directed this

(34:48):
picture and wrote the screenplay. I sort of want to
see everything that Lee Wne does because I think he's
just a terrific creator, filmmaker. And Julia Garner someone who
I've really enjoyed. I loved her in The Americans, of
my all time favorite TV series, and so her being

(35:08):
in a lead role Wolf Band, despite maybe it not
being a massive critical darling, it's still something I want
to sort of track down and figure out what my
own thoughts are on it. Another movie that didn't as
I get great critical response and looks absolutely ridiculous, and

(35:28):
that's why I kind of want to see it is
Flight Risk, with Mark Wahlberg playing an assassin who is balding.
We all need more balding assassins. Grace is in it,
so I feel is a lot better than maybe what
his reputations in certain circles. I always like sort of

(35:50):
a very kind of closeted, closed space thriller, and so
that's something I would like to catch up on. Compliant,
which is the late and sort of the evil AI movies,
reminds me a bit of a Megan but This is
a bit different. Where I think I said compliant, I
should have said companion because that's what it's called. I

(36:12):
should call it what its actual title is, Companion, where
basically it's like an AI girlfriend that doesn't know that
she's an AI girlfriend and is being treated poorly and
then realizes what she is and seeks out for revenge.
So very kind of megan ish. But it looks can'ty.
It looks like it's aware of what it is. Hard eyes,

(36:34):
sort of our rom com slasher. I have a soft
spot for slashers. I grew up in the eighties and
so I'm well aware of what slashers are. Halloween is
still one of my all time favorite movies, as well
as Scream, and this looks like one that's sort of
done in a different way. So there's definitely one I
want to catch up on. I definitely have to catch
up on pat Patting Ting in Peru because the first
two Patting movies are two of the best family movies

(36:57):
of all time, and Dame Peru is supposedly just as adorable.
And then we've got another horror movie I'm really interested
that I missed, and that is the monkey part of
that is it's based office Stephen King's short story that
I really like. But another major reason is it was

(37:17):
directed by Oz Perkins, who did the really awesome Long
Legs from last year, which was one of my favorite
movies I saw last year. That was a terrific horror movie,
and so I'm interested to see sort of his mixic
kind of dark humor with Apparently there's some great gory
kills and some great scares, and so that's definitely one

(37:39):
that is that I'm really interested in. I mentioned Mickey
seventeen being a bit of a disappointment, but I still
very much want to see this. This was a one
of my most anticipated movies, and I love everything that
Bung Jung ho has done, so there's no reason to

(38:00):
not track this one down hopefully and be able to
see it before I do my end of the year,
and all of a sudden, not going to be able
to do a MIDI year because I haven't seen anything yet,
so the traditional sort of best of the mediear will
not be happening. But hopefully I'll catch up on enough
movies to be able to do a really solid end
of the year type show. Stevens Saldeberg obviously gave us

(38:23):
another thiller in Black Bag. I know very little bit
about it, but I like his thrillers, and so that's
one that Alsos have my eyes on. Grew up loving
the Looney Tunes, and so I definitely want to see
the Day There blew up with some traditional animation. That's
a great thing to see. So that's very much high
on the list of pictures that I want to see

(38:46):
this year that I want to track down that I
haven't seen yet. That's an important one. Drop is sort
of a thriller where a woman is going on a
date and then she's getting texts from someone who's basically threatening.
I think it's like the babysitter and her daughter at home,

(39:07):
and so she has to go through this date while
trying to figure out who this killer is. That's right
up my bag on the type of movies that kind
of connect with me. Sinners would be another one that
I'm very much interested in seeing, or he talked about
it a bit. Ryan Cooglo's vampire movie The Wedding Banquet,
which is our remake on Angley Picture. Interested in seeing that,

(39:32):
where basically it is a gay man who has to
pretend that he is getting married to a woman to
appease his family from back in Asia. I think it
might be China Hong Kong and wants to essentially convince
him that, you know, he's not gay and so that

(39:55):
he doesn't get pulled out of America. And the woman
that he is is saying he's going to marry she's
trying to get I think it would be seat of
a green card so that she can stay in America too.
The first movie is considered sort of an independent movie classic.
It's what launched kind of a Ley's career, and this
one looks just as interesting and got some decent reviews,

(40:17):
so that's obviously something I want to track down. I'm
also intrigued to see A twenty four's version of sort
of a family movie and Legend of Achi. They have
a smaller budget. The Little Creature, the little almost like
gremlin looking like creature, Maguai looking creature. I think it's
one of the better looking believable creatures. In sort of
the CGI era, where there's so many creatures will look

(40:39):
like they're from a video game. This one actually looks
like it's got some weight and looks interesting. I want
to see Thunderbolts basically hearing good things about it, and
obviously it being a big blockbuster. I should definitely see
that so I can be sort of part of the
conversation and speak of being part of the conversation. Gotta

(41:01):
see Mission Impossible, the Final Reckoning. I love the Mission
Impossible movies. They're probably my favorite action series of all time,
well rivaled maybe with John Wick, and I definitely want
to see the previous movie sort of first, Mister Postle Reckoning,
write a review of that, and then this one being

(41:22):
the direct ball that I'll watch this one and have
reviews for both of those. Final Destination always have enjoyed
that franchise, and Bloodlines looks really interesting, so that's another
one that's on there. I'll probably watch a Little and
Stitch with my daughter at some points. That'd be another
one I got a review. I would love to maybe
go through all the Karate Kid movies again and maybe

(41:44):
even review Cobra Kai and then review Kardikidd Legends. Not
sure if I'll be able to get in all the
Kardikid movies this year with all the different things I
want to do, all the different projects that I want
to finally get going. But it's you know, a man
good dream. But I definitely should catch up on Cridi
Kid Legends because I'm a big Cridi Kid fan. Ballerina

(42:07):
I've always spoke how I really like John Wick and
so I would definitely like to check that one out.
Her sort of decent reviews of that one, and so
definitely something that is worth tracking down and seeing. On
a Damas is someone who I have on a Damas

(42:29):
is someone who I've always really enjoyed as an actor.
I think she is definitely one of the big stars
of recent times, and I would look forward to see
what she would do in the action in an action
movie in the John Wick world. So that is definitely
something that I need to track down as well. A
Life of Chuck is a really great novelop by Steve King.

(42:53):
I honestly am like, if you look at a lot
of stupid King works, like that's one that I don't
think would translate well to a movie, but it's got
really good reviews and it definitely would be a very
experimental picture. It's basically done and done in kind of
three different parts, and so you're not necessarily going to
have a clear star if you're following the novella because

(43:16):
it's different characters almost in each segment. But I am
very intrigued on sort of how they would how they
adapt the life of Chuck, because that's something that, again
I said, I really enjoyed. Now we're looking ahead to
movies that are still coming. What are the things I'm
looking forward to twenty eight years later. I was not

(43:39):
initially looking forward to that. I felt like twenty eight
days later, it gave me my zombie fix. I think
it's one of the best zombie movies. Twenty eight weeks later,
It's been a long time since I've seen that one,
but I remember being disappointed about it. But I've seen
the trailers for twenty years later. Danny Boyle's behind it,
so there's a lot of reasons to be excited about that.

(44:02):
As you know, I will always be down with a
Pixar movie. I haven't really seen a lot of like
trailers and promotion for Ilio, but it's a Pixar movie,
so I'm obviously very interested in that. I am not
a race car guy at all. I'm not a car
guy at all, but f one the movie. I've liked

(44:26):
a lot of racing movies I think they are sometimes
some of the most captivating stuff on the big screen,
and just when they're directed, well, I think they are
really fascinating movies. And I loved Ford versus Ferrari. I
was a huge fan of Rush, and this is being

(44:47):
directed by the man who gave us Top Gun maverick In,
Joe Kosinski, and I have every faith when it comes
to sort of doing a big kind of spectacle visual
picture for the big screen, because f one movie will
be really fascinating. I don't really think we need a
sequel to Megan, but we're getting one, and I did

(45:10):
it like the trailers, and so I think there might
be going a different approach with this. I think they're
leading a bit more on the camp make it a
bit more silly. So I mean, we'll give it a shot.
We'll see where it's going. Superman. I am looking forward
to this movie because I enjoy all James Gunn movies,

(45:32):
and initially I was like, I'm sort of kind of
done a lot of superhero movies, and so when I
first heard about sort of rebooting the whole DC universe
of cinema, I rolled my eyes, saying, we don't really
need this. We don't need any more interconnected Cinemati Universus movies.
I feel like Marvel has really dropped the ball on

(45:55):
that and it's no longer really that interesting in how
they're connecting the movies. I feel like we get a
bunch of trail uh stingers, rail and credit scenes that
absolutely go nowhere, and I just find it's a bit
of a mess. And so I'm sort of done on
seeing the MCU as a big connected world and just

(46:16):
kind of we'll see what each individual movie's like. And
so I'm not really interested in DC going in that direction.
But the trailers for Superman look really intriguing. It looks
like we're not gonna get bogged down with an origin story,
and there might be a little bit of that, but
it seems like they're really jumping into sort of looking
at sort of some meaty things and where Superman's placed

(46:36):
in the world, on the people he's trying to protect
or pushing against him. So I'm intrigued where it's going.
But it also has like Crypto has like a Superman
has a dog, and so it looks like it's also
not afraid of being kind of fun and weird and quirky.
So those are all the things that I'm interested in.
I was not really interested in Fantastic Four, again being

(46:59):
sort of tired of compook movies. But I really liked
the last trailer. I like the aesthetic. I like the
fact that it's considered into sort of an alternate world,
alternate version of like I think, like the nineteen fifties,
like the nineteen fifties with a futuristic take. All that
stuff is interesting to me, and so I am a

(47:20):
lot more interested in the picture than I thought before
I started start seeing the trailers and all that type
of stuff, And so that's interesting kind of just looking Oh,
speaking of Stephen King, as I'm just sort of looking
through movies are being released. Another one that I'm really

(47:41):
interested to see is The Long Walk. This was a
Richard Bachmann book under Stephen King's pseudonym, and it's it's
an interesting dystopian tale. It's kind of it's kind of
like Hunger Games, but it came out like thirty years
before Hunger Games came out. This idea of this dystopian

(48:03):
world and sort of this one world kind of government,
and they do a game where basically teenagers have to
basically do a long walk and the moment they tire out,
they get shot and killed. And so it's it's a
really intriguing dark book, and I think it could make

(48:25):
into a really interesting movie. I don't know much about him,
but it's sort of about a football player who wants
to achieve success and he may make some questionable sacrifices

(48:46):
to get there. It's very much a horror movie. I
believe Jordan Peele is attached as a producer in some way,
and so that's enough for me to be kind of
interested in where they're going with this. And I always
like sort of an original story, and it's kind of
an original dark horror tale, maybe a bit of a

(49:09):
monkey pole thing of what do you sacrifice for success?
And so obviously that type of thing is always going
to intrigue me. It's in September, so when it's getting
a little bit closer to the Halloween season. So that's
something that I've got my eyes on. Talking about a
biopic The Smashing Machine, Duane Johnson sort of doing his

(49:35):
first in a while, all this obviously like a bid
for an Oscar and so intrigued to see I think
he does a really good job of looking like Mark Kerr.
Mark Kerr was a UFC fighter in sort of the
early ages, and he definitely transforms into him, and that's

(49:57):
what the Academy likes, and so he may have a
shot there. It's an interesting story. Mark Kurr is a
very interesting character, sort of the up and downs of
his career. So I think this could have the potential
of being a cool biopic. And you've got a pretty
solid director in Denny Sadfee who did like I've Cut

(50:20):
Gems and some of those incredible pictures, so I'm interested
to see what he is going to do with the
Smashing Machine. I think this is definitely one you don't
want to sleep on. It's got a lot of potential.
I'm going to say that I am interested in Tron
even if the sequel was more sort of flash and

(50:45):
visuals rather than a really intriguing story. Tron Aris, I
think has potential to be interesting. Jacam Renning is directing
this one. He did parts of Caribbean Men Tell No Tales,
which I wasn't all that excited about. He also did Maleficent,

(51:06):
another one that wasn't really all that interested about, but
I want to give this a shot. I'm interested to
seeing why they're returning to the Tron world, and I'm
sure the visuals will be really interesting, and so we'll
put that on something that I'm happy to do. I'm
kind of just looking at the things going down a

(51:28):
list of movies coming out, and Kiss of the Spider Woman.
I've not even heard of this. Apparently it's starring Jennifer Lopez,
but you know, I'm always interested in Just that title
makes me sound like it's kind of a thriller, and
so I probably can't put it on my list of

(51:48):
anticipated because I literally just saw it right now. But
I like Jennifer Lopez. I've liked most of the movies
that She's been a huge fan of. Hustlers from a
few years ago. I thought that was just a terrific
kind of thriller drama movie about strippers that are trying
to pull off sort of a heist type thing. The

(52:08):
cast of this looks pretty good, but I have no
idea what it is. I just kind of learned about
it today, So there we go. As I go down there,
I don't really know what I feel about Black Phone two.
It's kind of like Megan, I love the first Black Phone.
I think it's an absolutely fantastic horror movie. But I
also think it's a movie that didn't really open itself

(52:29):
up for a sequel, but it did and I saw
the trailer and I did like it. It looks like
the killer from the first one somehow has come back
from the dead, and it does definitely look like they
are trying something different. It's not just the first one
all over again. It's not just a boy gets trapped
and put in the basement. It looks like they are
going in a new direction with it, making it more

(52:49):
sort of maybe delving a bit more into the supernatural
elements of that picture of the original. So I'm interested
to ceo where it's going. Predator bad Lands is definitely
on my list because I thought Pray was amazing and
we've got the same director behind this one. He delivered

(53:11):
it with He delivered it totally with Prey. I thought
that's one of the best Predator movies, and so I
am willing to give this one a chance as well
and see where they're going to go with Predator bad Lands.
This one looks like I think it's kind of in
the future now rather than in the past. Ellie Fanning

(53:32):
is in it, and I'm hearing that there's a bigger
focus on kind of the Predator itself as the lead character.
Very very very very very very very down with the
Running Man they are doing. This is another Bachmann book,
and it is a great Stephen King book. But not

(53:56):
only that, am I interested in them? See, like, apparently
this version of Writting Man is gonna be less like
the Schwarzenegger version, which is a great action picture, and
this is going to be more of the thriller element,
more just the average guy trying to survive in the
city and avoiding the hunters that are pursuing him. And
so I'm intrigued in that. But another big reason I'm

(54:17):
intrigued in it is it's being directed by Edgar Wright,
who you know did the excellent Baby Driver and Shot
of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, And here's a guy
who's just delivered great movie after a great movie, and
I'm intrigued to see what he will do as a
great visual director for The Running Man. So that's very

(54:38):
much on my list of stuff. I still need to
see Wicked from last year, but I will be more
than happy to watch Wicked from last year, and then
the second half of Wicked Utopia too. I love Zutopia.
It was one of my favorite movies of the year
it came out. I think it came out with the
same as Majuana, so you got two great anime movies

(54:59):
that year, and there's no reason not to love Zutopia too.
I think it will be fantastic. I'm just quickly looking
to see Yeah, Avatar, obviously, I really like the last
Avatar and so I'm interested to see what they're doing
with Avatar, fire and ash and so, and also it
will be a lot of other stuff. That's just the
stuff that kind of jumped out at me. But I'm excited.

(55:23):
And the plan now is to review a new movie
at least one new movie every week new release in
the theater. On top of that, catching up on all
the stuff that I've missed, and if there is a
movie that you that I've missed that you really want
to hear my thoughts on, you know, please shout out
to me. You can contact me at the Movie Breakdown

(55:47):
at gmail dot com or over on social media. And
you don't just have to do it on the Breakdown account.
You could do it all my social media accounts. I'm
on Twitter and Instagram and just send out and say, Hey,
I want to have to see this movie because you
know I like movies, and so let's make sure I
track them all down and get some great reviews going.

(56:12):
I just want to. I was talking about how I
sort of want to. I've always sort of wanted this
to be more than just a movie review show. Like
when me and Scott review movies. We talked about themes,
and we've talked about politics, we've talked about social issues,
but we've also delved into our mental health. And so
one of the big things that I do want to

(56:34):
lean in more about this show and my writing. It's
sort of my nero divergence because I've written a lot
about my journey of finding out that I'm autistic and
ADHD this year, and it seems to really connected on
social media and on the site. Now I just don't
want to write about that. I want to start writing
about movies and culture again, but through maybe the lens

(56:55):
of just realizing who I am. And it's interesting. I
think I talked about a bit on the previous show,
but I was going through with my therapist and it's
very clear before I even knew my diagnosis that there
is clear signs of me being autistic and me being IDHD,

(57:16):
me being a divergent because of the way that I wrote.
Part of it is that idea of catching patterns that
people may miss or sort of projecting yourself into a
lot of kind of your writing and sort of the
personal feelings when it comes to sort of analyzing art
is a very sort of neurodivergent trait, and that is

(57:38):
throughout my writing. But another big thing has been my
attachment to sort of the outsiders and realizing now that
a lot of the movies I'm drawn to often are
sort of about that person who doesn't feel like he's
quite fitting in, or that person who is trying to
make sense of the world, and I think that is

(58:01):
a thing that I'm deeply attached to. Like we mentioned
Kardikid already, and I think the reason, one of the
big reasons why I've always really liked Karate Kid is
it's a guy who's moved in to the other side
of the country. He doesn't know anybody, he doesn't really
know his place, and is until he finds sort of
mister Miyagi where he feels kind of a SENSI be

(58:23):
longing and acceptance, and mister Miyoggi himself in an immigrant,
someone who isn't quite understanding his place in the world,
and these two come together and they lift each other
up and they kind of make a home for each other.
And that I think has always been a big thing
for me because it's always that idea of not always

(58:44):
quite understanding relationships, not often understanding how close I am
with somebody, and often feeling awkward, and so I've always
been drawn to sort of those type of movies. Back
to the Future with this fortieth anniversary, you've got a
guy who's literally in the wrong. He's trying to make
sense of the nineteen fifties. He does not fit there
while trying to sort of correct things and trying to

(59:09):
make things better and fix relationships, and those things always
are something that I attached to. I think that's a
big reason why I've always liked coming of age stories
and kind of high school movies, because the character is
always in a place of trying to figure himself out
and try to find out where he fits in the world.
And that's where I've always connected to. That something that

(59:30):
I want to explore. I'm probably going to try to
write for write an article about it for one of
the bigger publications. Is sort of Hollywood's idea of the outsider.
I've always found that kind of fascinating because often like
the outsider who doesn't have to change is he's always

(59:50):
the one. You know, he's like riding a motorcycle and
he's got the leather jacket, the idea that he's an outsider,
but he really is kind of cool, and he's projecting
that coolness and that sort of I'm going to be
my self type thing. He's an outsider in a world
of squares, and so it's sort of that cool thing
and something you ge attached to. And when the outside

(01:00:11):
is sort of the nerd or is coded in sort
of narrative vergence, the story is often about them becoming
cooler by the end and almost sort of fixing themselves.
This idea that the nerdiness is something that has to
be kind of cured so that they can eventually be

(01:00:34):
accepted in a world. Because I think he was like
Harry Potter, there's a bit of this idea of him
being kind of nerdy and not quite fitting with his family,
but then you realize, like he's really good at sports,
and when he comes into the wiziting world, everyone thinks
he is the coolest thing. And so it's interesting that
Hollywood seems to always need to put in a coolness

(01:00:57):
when it comes to sort of the nerdy character. He
needs to get the girl at the end, and he
needs to or she They need to basically at some
point become cool and become sort of not who they
are anymore. And I think that is something that Hollywood

(01:01:17):
really needs to sort of fix, because there is characters
that I have connected to, but at the end when
they become sort of this they're the cool person, like
they haven't really won until they've truly sort of won
every one over and fit into the world with something again,
like something like a Karate kid. Though I think the

(01:01:38):
best parts of Crewdate Kid are more about the relationships
he builds too, rather than maybe him winning the big
term in the end. But I think there is sort
of value in having it where we have sort of
that outsider character or in the end, you can still
have those happy endings, you can have those victories, but
have them victorious through who they really are, through that

(01:02:02):
neial divergence coding and that quirkiness and that weirdness. And
I mean there is examples of movies that have not
that have kind of kept that formula, something like a
Napoleon Dynamite, which I wasn't a huge fan of. But
Napoleon is still Napoleon at the end of the movie.
He doesn't really transform he is. He's still Napoleon at

(01:02:27):
the end, even though he gets his moment of victory.
MLA same thing. She is socially awkward. There's definitely some
neuro divergent coding in her, and she is still who
she is by the end of the movie. And so
there is kind of examples of that, and it's just

(01:02:48):
an interesting thing. I want to explore that a bit more.
I might look at different movies, exploil the idea of
I might do a podcast where I look at different
kind of movies of sort of the outsider characters and
what their arc is and what Hollywood is saying about that.
Well also I'll probably write an arc about that too,
But just something that I'm sort of intrigued in. And Yeah,

(01:03:12):
and I think one of the things that I've also
kind of realized again with my neio divergence and sort
of my storytelling and reviewing is realizing that sort of
I want to lean into sort of my uniqueness and

(01:03:32):
and sort of who I am and kind of use
the podcast am I writing as a way to I
sort of unmask and just sort of really be more
sincere and honest and how I see kind of stories
and characters and movies differently and lean into that and
hopefully add a different voice. And I've said before my

(01:03:53):
main goal of this show, in sight is for this
to be kind of a safe place, for this to
be a place that's open minded, for people to feel accepted,
and to really lead into sort of my ways of
seeing things different and offering different perspectives. So I just
want to thank you for yeah listening to this show.

(01:04:16):
I think I've definitely gone on long enough, and the
plant is to really try to get this back to
being weekly, and next week I'm really hoping to have
a review of Walson grommut Vengeance, Most Foul, and at
least have one of my kids kind of review it
with me where we can discuss that, and I might
try to do a catch up on a few other

(01:04:37):
twenty twenty five movies next week and maybe throw in
a new release as well. I'm trying to let me
see if I did do a new release looking right
now at the handy schedule, and this makes for great
podcasting my arms and aws. I'm just sure you absolutely
love it. That would mean actually, twenty eight years La.

(01:05:00):
Maybe I'll try to review twenty eight years later or
Ilio a Pixar movie for next week as well. We'll
see how that goes. And so once again I will
give you a question of the week, and that is
what is the movie that turned you into a movie fan?
What does that movie sell in the theater that made

(01:05:21):
you believe in movie magic? So it would be that
childhood movie that it doesn't have to be your favorite movie,
but what is the movie that you realized I love movies.
You can give me that answer. You can also give
me recommendations for movies I need to catch up on
for this year. You can contact me at the Movie
Breakdown at gmail dot com. You can also contact me

(01:05:41):
at Christopher Dspicer at gmail dot com, especially if it's
sort of you want me to write something on Beyond
the Balcony written a review, but I could do a
written review and the podcast. I'm also on Twitter at
movie Breakdown One, Facebook at the movie breakdown page. I
also have a be on the Balcony page that you

(01:06:02):
can check out the website, and if you want to
help us out, you can do that by subscribing and
writing us on Spreaker, Spotify, cast Box, Apple Podcasts, Amima,
Amazon Music, don't go to Animal Music because that's something
completely different. And wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget,
it'd be awesome if you listen to us on the
Speaker app because it helps us out, and please share

(01:06:26):
us on social media if you really enjoyed the show,
that would be great. And of course don't forget my
website Beyond the Balcony. You can check me out there
on Beyond the Balcony dot com and there's a lot
of different things that are on there right now that

(01:06:47):
you can check out. Like I said, I haven't really
done any movie reviews. A lot of pop culture this year,
A lot of it is sort of about neurodivergence or
small little pieces. But I recently wrote about teen years
of marriage and learning that I'm nairo divergent and my
wife is neotypical and sort of what that's meant and

(01:07:07):
learning about that as well. I did a mental health
manifesto sort of how I my plans of going forward
with nail divergence and looking back at my depression and
what my goals are of being sort of a healthier,
more balanced person going forward emotionally. That's a pretty vulnerable piece,

(01:07:27):
so you might want to be interested in that. But
once again, I should be back next week and every
week after that. We're going to get this thing rolling
and rocking. Thank you for being such loyal listeners, and
I apologize for sort of the kind of sketchy output
over the last several years, but we're going to get
back on track. I should have a movie review for

(01:07:48):
you next week, at least Wallace and growmet Vengeance, Most Foul,
and maybe a new release too. So this is the
movie breakdown. I'm Christopher Spicer. Thank you for the seeing
to me can help a quick meet