Mike’s wife Kelsey is an avid book reader. She shares her list of amazing books she has read that thinks deserve to be turned into a book. Mike and Kelsey share the synopsis of the books and who they think would be perfect to be cast in the movie adaptations. In the movie review, Mike and Kelsey give a spoiler free review of BJ Novak’s new dark comedy / thriller Vengeance which is in theaters now. And in the trailer park, Mike talks about Shazam: Fury of the Gods coming out this December and how it can be a big win for DC movies.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mix movie Podcast. I
am your host movie Mike. Today I am joined by
my co host and wife, Kelsey. How are you great?
And we're gonna be talking about books that you think
should be turned into movies, which I am curious to
see your list. In the movie review, will be talking
about Vengeance, which is a new movie by bj Novak,
which you said is one of your favorite day of
the entire year. Yes, I did bold statement. I don't
(00:20):
know if I still stand by it. We'll see. We'll
see when we get to the review, and then in
the trailer park we'll talk about the new Chazam movie
coming from d C later this year. Appreciate you for
listening every single week, for being subscribed. Movie crew, you
already know what this is. Let's talk movies. In a
world where everyone and their mother has a podcast. One
man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never
(00:43):
before in a movie podcast. A man with so much
movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking AUDIMTV Who's glasses
from the Nashville Podcast Networking Movie Mi Movie Podcast. So
about a month ago, we did a review of Where
the craw Dat saying and you said that that movie
(01:05):
was actually better than the book. And you read a
lot of books. How many books do you think you've
read so far this year? Let everybody know I can
tell you exactly how many. It is one and my
goal is that is a lot of books you can
probably read if you tried really hard. How quickly could
you finish a book that's fast for me to complete? Opposite,
I've probably read half a book a year. I started
(01:28):
a book over vacation and I am about sixty done,
still haven't picked it back up, and then I'm probably
gonna hop to another book, because that's kind of how
I read books, that is how you read books. So
since you've read so many, we thought and had that
idea last time that you should come up with the
list of books that you think would be great movies.
I think there's only one of these, maybe in development,
but all these seem like they would be great movies.
(01:49):
So what is first on your list? First? Is the
one that actually is in development. It is Beneath a
Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. And I'll just read the
snopsis for all of these, but this one says Pino
Lela wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis.
He's a normal Italian teenager, obsessed with music, food, and girls,
but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family
home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs. Pino joins
(02:10):
an underground railroad, helping Jews escape over the Alps and
falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.
In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents forced him
to enlist as a German soldier, a move they think
will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured,
he has recruited at the tender age of eighteen to
become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler's left hand in Italy,
(02:31):
General Hans Layers, one of the Third Rites, most mysterious
and powerful commanders. Now with the opportunity to spire for
the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino enders the
horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting
in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna
and for the life he dreams that will one day share.
Sounds pretty intense, it's true story, and the author went
(02:53):
to Italy and like met with Pino and walked through
all of the places where the story takes place, and
got his account, and I think there's only he even
says in the author's note, there's like a few things
like details that Pino can't remember. So Mark Sullivan did
the research filled him into the best of his ability.
But it's a true story, like overall, in all of
the major events of Pino's life. What makes you think
(03:15):
that this would make a good movie. What cinematic quality
did it have when you were reading it? I mean,
it's got everything. It's just got like emotion. I don't
know how to describe, like how good it was. Like
this is what kicked off my love of like reading
World War two books earlier this year, I love a
World War two movie. It is and I think just
knowing like that it's a true story. And obviously, like
(03:36):
most war movies are, they're based on the war, which
is a factual true story, but this one being so
like specific about one person um and so interesting of
how he kind of infiltrated and was able to get
inside and get inside information. I always find any time
a movie depicts Hitler, I find it very fascinating. He
was a terrible human and it seems like so long
(04:00):
ago that I don't really have an image of it
in my head, and seeing it on film, it just
adds like a really sinister quality to a movie, whether
it be like Glorious Bastards, it's just really weird to
see and it's such an intense character to portray that
I do think this sounds like a really good movie,
and it is in development now. I haven't seen anything
(04:21):
pushed along in like four or five years. Tom Holland
is said to star in this movie. I haven't seen
that he's still going to. I think after about three
or four years of a movie getting pushed and pushed
of being made, he probably won't be anymore. He would
be he would be really so good in it, like
that's I read the book picturing him as Pino and
(04:44):
so like now I have Tom Holland in my head.
How old is the character in the book? Does it say, yeah,
he was a normal Italian teenager Tom Holland still playing
Spider Man. He could, Yeah, he was injured and then
at the age of eighteen he was the personal driver,
so he could still pull that off. Hopefully he's still
attached to the project, because this does sound like it
could be a really good movie. And he is really
(05:05):
kind of leaning into that dramatic stage of his career
where I don't really just associate Tom Hollng with Spider Man,
like I love him as Spider Man and he's a
great Avenger, but he's done other movies that are action based,
that are drama. Base was It wasn't Cherry. He wasn't cherry.
Was Cherry that he was in? Yeah, And he shows
(05:26):
that he has some range, especially in The Devil all
the time I didn't watch some One. Well, he's very
like dramatic and intense in that he can show that
he can play an American accent. He can do really
a lot of things early in his career. So this
almost sounds like the right director was attached to it
if the story was closely followed. What the book does?
(05:46):
I mean, this could be like an Oscar contender. It
sounds like I would love to see it on screen.
All right, what do you have next? I have a
book called We're Switching Gears are going to like a drama. Also,
I should add the only things I really have read
lately or like I go back and forth between like
a World were two book and a thriller this year.
That's just like my genre with a couple memoirs biographies,
so we're onto a drama, which is interesting going back
(06:07):
to that that you really love reading about World War Two,
but you don't like war movies. I don't like the
gory nous of them, which is typically what war movies.
I like Nineteen seventeen, it was a great movie. Um
hacks All Ridge was lid little too bloody for me.
Didn't watch the trailer. Very a lot of bloodshed in
(06:29):
that movie. So yeah, I just can't handle like the gory,
like limbs everywhere that but just like stresses me out. Yeah,
I like the stressfulness of a war movie, but reading
I can dissociate, Like the there's not the gory nous
as much in a book. And it sounds like with
Beneath the Scarlet Sky it's a little more character based.
(06:49):
Let's it happens during World War Two, but it's not
like in the Battles all that. So yeah, that sounds
like something I would really want to see. But next movie, Okay.
So with the Push by Ashley Audrain and the synopsis
is blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm,
comforting mother to her new baby, Violet, that she herself
never had. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days,
(07:13):
Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter.
She doesn't behave like most children do. Or is it
all in Blythe's head? Her husband Fox says she's imagining things.
The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins
to question her own sanity, and the more we begin
to question Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born, and with him life
has the most blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child.
(07:36):
Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when
life as they know it is changed in an instant,
the devastating fallout forces Blythe to face the truth. Interesting.
So what makes you think this one would be a
good movie? Oh, it's such a good thriller and the
twist is so good. It's very Her daughter is pretty sinister,
not not great child. It gives me like kind of
(07:59):
gone girl all vibes, like in the creepy thriller kind
of way. So are you thinking of somebody like an
Amy Adams in this role? I think Amy Adams would
be good. She does a good thriller, like I could
see her in that. We were watching her and No
Clonal Animals recently. Yeah, I think she would be really
good in it. What about the husband in this book?
What kind of character is he dismisses like all of
(08:21):
the wife's concerns, so like, not very attentive to her concerns,
and she's like, everything's fine. Who could you see playing
the husband? Give me Amy Adams and Ryan Gosling together.
That sounds like a movie I would want to see
Ryan Gosling over Ryan Reynolds. Yeah, Gosling just does a
better drama. He does, And I recently posted that I
(08:45):
find I like Ryan Gosling more than I like Ryan Reynolds.
I think the only reason I compare them to is
because they're both named Ryan. They're both very big movie stars,
and they're both Canadian. That is true, and they play
very different character is in very different movies. But I
feel like Ryan Gosling has more of the range where
(09:07):
he doesn't really dip that much into comedy, but when
it comes into his dramatic roles, he can do just
just straight on drama. He can do the action and
then if he really wants to, he can do a
movie like The Good Guys where he's a little bit comedy,
a little bit of action. I feel like Ryan Reynolds
does the same character all the time. I mean Ryan
Gosling and gray Man. It was drama and like a
(09:29):
witty comedy, like a sarcastic, like a dry humor, which
I think is his knee, Whereas like Ryan Reynolds goes
for like free Guy, which is meant to get the
l O ls, which he does really well he does.
I just feel like he does it again and again.
But if you're so good at something, why would you
deny everybody that of what people love you for? Yeah,
Ryan Reynolds is I mean he's the funniest person on
(09:51):
like when he and Blake Lively troll each other on
social media. I live for it. Which one do you
think is more attractive? Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling. Oh,
it was a really hard question for me. If I
had to pick one, I would go with Ryan Gosling.
I think I go Gosling. I think about like the
scenes and like crazy stupid love the Notebook. Yeah, hands down.
(10:12):
Gosling didn't have to think about that one. Too hard. Yeah,
in this story, with this book into a movie, if
you put Ryan Gosling and Amy Adams together, I think
that's a pretty good pairing. Yeah. Back to the book.
Read it. You will gasp so good and I will
say this, Actually, I think I read this one early
(10:33):
one and it's stuck with me in my head. That's
not even I've read one like this year. What do
you have next on your list? I have a memoir
called Tell Me Everything by Erica Krause. So the synopsis
Erica Krause has one of those faces I don't know
why I'm telling you this people say, spilling confessions and
follow two thousand two, Erica accepts a new contract job
(10:55):
investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect
for she quickly realizes she has no idea what she's
doing that A lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate
a sexual assault a college student who was attacked by
football players and recruits at a party a year earlier.
Erica knows she should turn the assignment down. Her own
history with sexual violence makes it all too personal, but
(11:15):
she takes the job anyway, inspired by Grayson's conviction that
he could help change things forever, and maybe she could too.
Over the next five years, Erica learns everything she can
about p I technique, tracking down witnesses, and investigating a
culture of sexual assault and harassment and grained in the
university's football program. That is, the investigation grows into a
national scandal. In a historic civil rights case, Erica finds
(11:37):
herself increasingly consumed in the case and her life both
implode at the same time. Erica must figure out how
to help win the case without losing herself. So a memoire, Yes,
so a true story? Correct? Why do you think this
one would be a good movie? It gives me Aaron
Brockovitch vibes. So I'm gonna I'm gonna nominate Julia Roberts
to play Erica. Oh that's an interesting cast thing there,
(11:58):
one of your favorite movies of it. So it's like
court movie. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of follows what
Aaron Brockovich like. She wasn't a lawyer. She gets this
job and then starts finding all of the cases Aaron
Brockovich of, like the medical problems associated with the water there.
She ends up helping when the case same here, Eric
is not a lawyer, she's not even a p I,
(12:21):
but she has one of those one of those faces
where people just kind of start telling her things they're
comfortable with her, and she starts using that to her
advantage and becomes a p I and helps take down
this program. Which I don't think that's a spoiler. It's
a memoir and you can read about the case, but
it's how she does it along the way, and like
all the obstacles that they had to get to and
(12:42):
how it changed things for college campuses. Some interesting things
I see from the synopsis in this book of how
it would be a good movie. First of all, it
takes place in two thousand and two, which I think
people are looking at two thousand's culture right now. If
you find movies and stories too. I think that's kind
of a popular thing of just people reliving a little
(13:03):
bit of nostalgia. And I feel like the stuff from
the two thousands is slowly creeping back over the nineties stuff.
And then I mean, in my head, I just have
Julia Roberts now, and she's not doing a whole lot
of movies. I think he has like one Netflix movie
coming out pretty soon. She has a movie with George
Clooney coming out in October. Okay, but aside from that,
she takes maybe one two movies every five years. So
(13:28):
if you could attach this is somebody like her, I
could see this movie getting made. And I haven't really
seen a whole lot of good courtroom style dramas or
just legal dramas that something like this would be perfect for.
I think to like we saw Bombshell a couple of
years ago, you didn't love the way that it was portrayed,
(13:48):
you didn't think it was the best story of like
the Me Too movement Fox News, I think this one
could be done really well and add to that genre
of starting to really live sent to women and their
stories and their experiences. So I think if this one
was well done, but Julia Roberts in it, and I
think it's gonna be great. Yeah, Bombshell was an interesting
(14:08):
movie because what was the actual story of it. I
loved it was the way in the style of that
movie that I felt like it didn't do the story
justice and also thought Margot Robbie was going to be
a bigger part in that movie. She deserved more screen
time in that movie. You fell asleep during the movie.
I did I'll admit to that. And it was also
(14:28):
a weird thing to be entertained by, Like it covers
such an awful thing that happened, and you're kind of
rating it by like how entertaining it is, which it
shouldn't be have like this weird entertainment value. It's just like,
I don't know really that it's the entertainment value, but
like the portrayal of the story, does it keep you
engaged and do the story justice? So I don't know
(14:49):
if it's as much the entertainment as well as I
don't think it did the story justice. Yeah, I just
felt weird saying that I didn't like that movie like this.
I wasn't discrediting like what it was about or anything
like that. You didn't like what was done. I don't
think that discredits it. I just feel like when you
have such a powerful like rights to a movie to
make something like that, it could have been better agreed.
So that's how I feel about Bombshell. But yeah, I
(15:11):
think this one also sounds like a pretty good one.
You're doing really good here, thank you. What do you
have next for us? I have Breathless by Amy McCullough,
and it is journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head.
She's come to manislew, the eighth highest peak in the world,
to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last
leg of a record breaking series of summits. She's given
(15:34):
up everything for this story, her boyfriend, her life savings,
the piece she's made with her climbing failures in the past.
But it's a career making opportunity. It could finally put
her life back on track. But when one climber dies,
and when everyone else assumes is a freak accident, she
fears their expedition is in danger, and by the time
a second climber dies, it's too late to turn back.
Stranded on a mountain in one of the most remote
(15:54):
regions of the world, she'll have to battle more than
the elements and a herring fight for survival against a
killer who was picking them off one by one. This
sounds good. I'm into this one. It was a really
good book. So it's a survival type movie. Yeah, on
a mountain. I mean, that sounds like a documentary that
I would be into. But the fact that it's fictional,
I mean, I can only imagine the places that this
(16:16):
movie could go of trying to survive while somebody's trying
to kill you and then just the harsh environment. Who
could you see playing the lead in this movie. I'm
gonna go with Jamie Chung. I think she's super talented.
I haven't seen her in a big movie like this
in a while, and I think she could just do
like the action intensity like I think she could play
(16:37):
it so well. Is there a lot of physical things
that happened throughout the movie or throughout the book and
they're literally climbing like the what was it the eighth
highest mountain in the world. Sounds pretty intense. Yeah, so
I would I would go Jamie Chung. I love her.
Out of both of us, who do you think could
survive on a mountain for longer? Okay, well, I have actually,
fun fact, climbed a fourteen er in Colorado, which is
(16:59):
a fourteen thousand the mountain, which I know it's not Everest,
but um that was an experience without any training and
without any acclamation and the only thing you had to
eat was a cliff bar and one leader of v
on and it made it to the top and the
top mynad is what's called a Class three scramble in
which you were on your hands and knees at the
top of the mountain. And I'm in like hocas, not
(17:19):
even hiking boots. I am in hoca running shoes. It
was not my choice. This was part of a trip
that I went on and someone else planned that, and
I didn't really understand what we were getting ourselves into. Her.
I probably would have said, hey, guys, I'm not going
to do that. My favorite part of that entire story
is you guys left behind one of the members of
the group. It's not great because it was so intense.
(17:39):
We're like, we'll go on without you. She was like, hey, guys,
I'm gonna turn around. We should have sent someone back
with her. I should have gone back with her. But
we were all like, okay. She was like, I can
make it down by myself. No, she had like altitude sickness.
It was. It was not a good experience. No one
come at me for that. But I have climbed a
fourteen mountain. So with your experience here, you're saying you
would also be qualified to play the role in this movie. Yeah,
cast me. There we go casting Kelsey. All right, what
(18:02):
do you have next on your list. I have one
that I just recently read, kind of a sci fi
type book. It's called The Measure by Nikki Irlick, and
the synopsis says, it seems like any other day you
wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out.
But today, when you open your front door, waiting for
you as a small wooden box. This box holds your
fate inside, the answer to the exact number of years
(18:22):
you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every
person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant,
the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did
these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is their
truth to what they promise? As society comes together and
pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice. Do they
wish to know how long they'll live? And if so,
(18:44):
what will they do with that knowledge? Now? This is
one of the coolest books you told me about of
all the books you've read. It was amazing, and I
think what sets this apart is the trope of what
are you going to do with your life? If you
knew you were going to die? Can be overdone, It
can be dramatic, it's like kind of gives me. It
(19:04):
reminds me of like timgrawl live like you were dying,
but in a way where I think people are just like,
I'm going to live in this fantasy world, but this
one people are faced with. They know when they're going
to die, they don't know the exact day, and they
don't know how they know in how many years, And
so it makes people wonder like do I change what
I'm doing with my life? Do I keep on going?
(19:24):
And some people don't even open their box. So it's
a string inside, and then scientists create like this predictor
that tells you, based on the length of your string,
how long you have. So some people are like, I
don't want to know. I don't want to know. I
just want to live life. And when it's my time,
it's my time. And these stories are woven together. There's
(19:46):
about eight characters. I think that it focuses on and
the ways in which the stories weave in and out.
I loved that it reminded me kind of like the
TV show A Million Little Things, where like it's about
a group of friends, but yeah, the side by aspect,
but it wasn't like dystopian sci Fi. It was just
this idea of like, could this happen in the society.
(20:08):
There's so many things screaming at me that would make
this a great movie. I think it has like that
black Mirror type feel of like it being something that
could actually happen in our lifetime. It has the I
think what a great movie does is bring back a
question on everybody. And I think the marketing on this
movie would be easy of like, well, what would you
(20:29):
do in this situation? Would you open your box? Would
you want to know? For you? Would you want to know?
Would you open the box? Open the box? I think
I would too. Like I think I even now somebody said,
would you want to know when you're dying? I think
I would want to know? Yeah? Am I like wasting
my time working eight to five? If it's already like
said and determined and I could find out, I would
(20:50):
want to know, and I think I would change my
life accordingly. I feel like now sometimes I do things,
maybe not every day, maybe not even a week, but
knowing that it might not be I might not have
another chance to do this. I think most recently, what
I've kind of adopted is I try to tell people
when I'm thinking about them, especially like family. I had
(21:13):
a really sad I thought the other day. I even
made a note of this of like, someday I'll go
to like text my mom and she won't like respond,
she won't like answer the phone, and I think about
that if just like well, sometimes I put off calling her,
sometimes I don't text her. Knowing that I might not
always have that chance makes me do it more. So
I think, along the same lines of the plot of
(21:34):
this movie, I would want to know just to make
sure I'm doing everything in my life to not have
any regrets and know when I should be living life
a little more because I don't have as much time
left or that I'm good, I can. I have time
to do it later. But I think I would want
to know it doesn't really freak me out. We're all
gonna die, Like that's just that's just fact, and we're
(21:57):
not like guaranteed. And I also, I think, coming from
a perspective of and I've said this on the podcast before,
i lost my dad when I was two and a half,
and so I've always grown up like knowing nothing's guaranteed.
Like I've always been very like tell people you love them,
all the time. Like if you're thinking about someone cinema text,
She's like, hey, he was thinking about you. Love you
Call your parents, call your family, call your friends. So
(22:18):
I've always grown up with that mindset. Um. Yeah, And
I think another really interesting aspect of this book was
what they started to do in society with the boxes.
They started to kind of make these restrictions like if
you had a short string, you couldn't do this kind
of job. Oh yeah, that brings in a whole other Yeah,
(22:39):
that was the other interesting. It wasn't just like the
heart strings part, but it was the like how does
where does where? Does it stop? With the rules? Yes,
and it's actually as a political figure in it, and
that's kind of factored in. So I thought that was
really interesting. It reminds me of like how entrance companies
won't give some people in trance if you have a
pre existing condition. Kind of gave me that vibe. So anyways,
(23:00):
read this book. I think it's awesome. It's a quick,
easy read. The chapters are pretty short, go back and
forth between the characters, and I think kind of initially
is like over a year. I think it's divide into spring, summer, fall,
and Winter and everyone gets the box from their twenty
two interested on your twenty second birthday. After this initial
day of everyone getting the boxes, who could you see
(23:20):
in this movie? So I think this would be like
a really good opportunity for like an ensemble cast of
like because it's a lot of a lot of characters intertwined.
I'm gonna cast Sandra Bullock because I love her. Oh,
I like Sandra Bullock, you know what, you know, he's
been a good trio lately, Sandy be Brad Pitt, and
Channing Tatum. Put them all in here, bringing back that
cru They are really great. They are great together. We
(23:41):
have seen them in two movies this year, in the
Last City and another one which we can't say because
it would be a spoiler. But we've seen them in
two movies. Yes, there's been another movie. They were great
in The Lost City. I think put all three of
them in and then I'm trying to think, like Sprinkle
in you know, it hasn't been in anything in a while,
to my knowledge, Let's put Dawn Cheatle in it. Don
Cheatle is great in an ensemble and an underrated actor.
(24:05):
He's in so many movies. I feel like maybe sometimes
if you sat down to make a list of all
the movies he's been in, you'd forget. But yes, he
is so good and everything that he is in. Yeah,
I love don Cheatle. Let's put him in. How about
could I throw in an Aubrey Plaza? Did she fit anywhere? Yes?
I was just thinking. I was like, we need like
another like younger female pup plause in it. Love It,
(24:26):
She's another one. I feel like you love. I love
all of her movies. I feel like she takes on
roles that she really cares about, that the story is different,
and that she whenever she promotes a movie which is weird,
she like really, I feel at least like she really
believes in it, and that takes a lot from an actor.
I feel like some actors just keep working for the
(24:46):
sake of, you know, keeping the work, because it is
hard to keep getting work in Hollywood. But I feel
like she's been very selective in the movie she picks,
and a lot of them are just things that automatically
appeal to me. I really liked her movie Black Bear,
which it's kind of like an indie horror type movie
but has a little bit more of a stylistic approach
(25:07):
to it. And then I am wanting to go see
your new movie Emily the Criminal, So I think she
would be great in this, And I have two more.
I'm gonna suggest jim A Chan from Eternals and Crazy
Rich Asians. I think she's wildly talented, she would be
excellent in this. And then my wild card, Selena Gomez.
Oh yeah, we were talking about her the other day
(25:28):
that I forgot how big of a pop star she
was and how famous she was. But we've really been
enjoying her and only Murders in the Building and the
only other movie I can think about that wasn't a
great movie. But I liked her in with spring Breakers
with James Breakup, which I think a lot of people
hated that movie. But she is a great actress. Nonetheless, Listen,
(25:49):
Selena is a great actress. Her makeup company's great, rare
beauty Shoutout's funny on TikTok. She's funny on TikTok. She
talks about mental health. I think she's so well rounded,
like she has gone through the waves of like child
fame and still come out like standing and like she
has like this persona now, like she doesn't really care
(26:09):
what anybody else says. I want to be best friends.
So they're just two hours from Texas. She sounds awesome.
All right, what do you have? How many more do
you have? One? Last one? All right? What do you have? Okay?
This is called The Last Flight about Julie Clark. I
also read this one last year, but it's stuck with me.
It's a great one. Synopsis. Clara Cook has a perfect life,
married to the scion of a political dynasty, with the
Manhattan townhouse and the staff of ten. Her surroundings are elegant,
(26:31):
her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind
closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect
husband has a temper that burns bright, and he's not
above using his staff to track clears every move. What
he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months
on a plan to vanish, a plan that takes her
to the airport, poised to run from it all, but
a chance meeting in the airport bar brings her together
(26:54):
with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together, they
make a last minute decision. The two women switched tickets,
with Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland and Eva traveling
to Puerto Rico is clear. They believe the swap will
give each of them the head start they need to
begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to
Puerto Rico crashes, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start,
(27:16):
but a new life, cut off, out of options. With
the news of her death about to explode the media,
Claire will assume Eva's identity and along with it, the
secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden. Now I
remember this one. You tell me about it, all right,
Let's get into the casting first. On this Who do
you think could be the main Emma Stone? Some of
these I'm just picking like my favorite people. She's so talented.
(27:40):
Emma Stone is phenomenal La La Land, crazy, stupid, love
easy a. I love Emma Stone. She started range Spider Man. Duhn.
Ever get that, I see like a Dakota Johnson kind
of in that same We're so into Dakota Johnson and
movies lately, kind of in that same category of every
last movie we've seen her in I've really enjoyed. We
(28:02):
just watched that Apple Plus movie Cha cha real smooth,
and I feel like a lot of people associator so
much with the fifty Shades of Gray movies. I feel
like she has that kind of hanging over her whenever
she takes on another role, and it's hard being like
a part of a movie that is so defining, kind
of like the same way people still associate Robert Pattinson
(28:24):
with Twilight and you go down all the book adaptations.
But I feel like she has really broke out of
that mold in the last five years that she really
doesn't get the recognition she deserves. And just by hearing
you talk about this book again, I feel like she
would be good in that. What about this book made
you feel like it would be a good movie. It's
(28:44):
such like an interesting story, like these two women trying
to escape their lives. They're gonna switch, but then something
terrible happens to one of them and the other is like,
oh no, Like is this my fault? Like I was
supposed to be on the flight, but like now that
she's gone, like I just have a free life, Like
when don't even switching lives anymore, I'm just starting over.
After you read this book, is there like a jaw
(29:04):
drop moment of like, oh, I wasn't expecting that, Yeah,
because I feel like just from what you read of
the synopsis, I feel and maybe you can lend a
little more light to this, but it seems like an
almost easy plug and play. Like I could see somebody
just wanting to buy the rights of this movie and
all they have to do is take the story as
it is and just adapted, adapted, Like that's like changes
(29:26):
like a lot of times in a book, you know,
they kind of have to put in like one more
like jaw dropping like movie type twist, like I think
of the one that comes to mind is My Sister's
Keeper by Jodi Picoult, which um sure a lot of
people have seen. But anyways, they like completely switched the
ending from the book to the movie, and I didn't
necessarily feel like that was they didn't have to do that,
(29:47):
but they did to kind of give it more of
like a type moment. But I don't even think this
book needs anything. It just it sounds cinematic enough that good.
All you have to do is like you can't screw
that movie up. And I feel if you putting the
right but the wrong director, just follow book, I think
you'll be good. I feel like the sign of a
(30:08):
good book to movie is not having to change things
to make it more like film, ask but the trouble
being what you take out to make it fit into
a two hour or two and a half hour movie.
And that sounds like there's already a lot of story there,
and based upon what you said how you felt after
you finished the book, I think that's a good one.
(30:29):
If you could only have one of these books turned
into a movie, which one would you pick? I think
I have mine kill. I'm gonna take off beneath the
Scarlet Sky because I'm holding I hope that that one
that was still could happen. I'm gonna got the measure taking.
That's the one I was going to pick of all these.
I feel like that is what speaks to me plot wise,
(30:52):
and I would love to see that play out and
just be able to visualize it all more. But I
think that one would make the best one, The measure
of the push. Oh, I was gonna go to the
last flight next. I mean, they're all good, That's why
I picked them all. That's why I only picked six
out of like the forty I've read this year, and
then however many read last year. So if anybody wants
(31:13):
to follow you along on good Reads? You cool with that? Yeah,
we're gonna put I don't remember use your name, but
we have a link and we'll put it in the
podcast notes. I think my user name is honestly just
like Kelsey Rodriguez or something, but that's probably a pretty
common name. Still put the exact link. I think you
have to request to follow me, but I will approve this.
So there you go. And next up, we're going to
(31:34):
talk about the movie Vengeance, and we'll do that after this.
All right, let's talk about the movie Vengeance. What you
said is one of your favorites out of the entire year.
I said that immediately upon watching. I don't know if
I still stand by that. All right, So we'll play
a little bit of the trailer and then come back
(31:54):
with our spoiler free review. I have a story, okay,
I in West Texas where this family just lost their
daughter to an opiate overdo Oh my god, I'm so sorry.
It's okay, it's not someone else close to him, but
he flew to Texas for it. Uh. Yes, it was
a girl I hooked up with a few times. Her
family thought that we weren't more serious than I do.
(32:15):
If I've heard so much values I've I've heard, Yeah,
I really and just didn't die. She was murdered. What
the two of us are one venture? I feel like
Vengeance is a hidden gem of a movie. It was
one that I was curious about because I like PJ.
Novak mostly known from the office. He also had a
(32:37):
small part in Inglorious Bastards, and he was in The
Mini Project, which you love. He was only in a
couple episodes, but he was in it. He was in
I do love The Mini Project. I love Mindy and
b J. They're great and then they dated off and
on and they're just like BFFs now but in my
heart like they're infre But he wrote, directed, and started
this movie, which is about this journalist slash podcaster who
(33:00):
goes from New York City to Texas to investigate this
death of this woman that he really just hooked up
with and her family thinks that they were her boyfriend,
and he goes kind of looking for a new story,
looking for a new podcast concept, and then decides to
turn his investigation of her death into a podcast. So
(33:22):
the movie is a bit of a hidden gem. And
why I think that is because it is a lower
budget movie. I think it only has made three millions
so far. But upon watching it, it felt like a
very refreshing movie, even though it doesn't do anything completely crazy.
It's also it's not heartwarming, so like when we say,
when we say refreshing, it's not like you're gonna leave
(33:43):
like wow, that made me feel so good inside. Yeah,
because it's a dark comedy, there is some obviously it's
dealing with death, so it's not like you said, yeah,
like a very it's gonna uplift me type movie. But
it does such a great job at creating these characters,
which in the movie he is, you know, recording and
(34:06):
doing this podcast and trying to find unique characters. That's
why he thinks that there's a story there. It's the
family of the girl and they live in a small
town in West Texas, which we are both from Texas.
And I always take it very personally when a movie
portrays Texas because I feel like there are a lot
of stereotypes associated with people who live there. But I
(34:27):
thought it did a pretty good representation of what like
a really small rural town in Texas is like where yes,
there is a lot of that country aspect to it.
But we're not like riding around on horses everywhere, which
you know, sometimes it just gets portrayed in a movie.
But a lot of what this family does is I
(34:49):
feel pretty true to a small Texas town, especially their
love for water Burger. I think this is the first
time I've seen water Burger in a movie portrayed like
this really ever, it's usually like in the discussion of
best burgers, it's like in and out five Guys, But
in this movie, it really explains why people from Texas
love water burger, which that was funny. You're a water
(35:12):
burger guy, not a water burger guy. Yeah, it's what
a burger. You say water burger is when you've just
said it's almost like water burger. Yeah, that's how I
say it, Like you're drinking water burger. Yeah. I mean
I say the same thing, but I'm just pointing out
that you're all You're all, yeah, it's what a burger.
I had two favorite things about this movie. One, the
self aware self deprecation cameo from John Mayer is kind
(35:34):
of like a womanizer BJ's friend in New York, and
I thought that was very just like tongue in cheek
because that's also kind of like b J is I
feel like reputation around like New York in l A.
So I thought that was funny that at the beginning
they're just like going through their phones. They're like, oh,
this girl like I don't remember the names, somebody like Stephanie,
like tender, like that sort of thing. I thought that
(35:55):
was funny. The second, thank you, b J. Novac for
casting the Grahama from Friday Night as the grandma in
this movie. She was Grandma Saracen. If you watch Friday
Night Lights, you know where um I'm at her. That's
my claim to fame in this movie. So Sweet matter
in Austin at like a TV festival a couple of
years ago. I thought she was fabulous as a grandma. Again,
she's just like the like quick witted, like sharp, doesn't
(36:18):
mince her words. Thought she was so good in this
thought Dove Cameron was really good as one of the sisters.
Thought it was great. So maybe I do still stand
by I don't know. And then you have Ashton Kutcher
in this movie. He hasn't been in anything in a while,
and he plays a character that I don't think I've
really ever seen him play before. Plays a record producer,
(36:38):
and he has like a very kind of cool, ominous persona.
You can't really figure him out throughout the movie. And
that's also what this movie did a really good job at.
As the main character is trying to figure out what happened,
you are too, So it's kind of like that murder
mystery thriller type. There's some danger here and there. I
(37:00):
think why it feels like a even more of a
hidden gym movie, and one that's maybe I guess harder
to recommend to people is it's kind of like a
slice of life movie with a little bit more of
dark darkness to it. There's just like it's just like
this piece of this family dealing with this death, and
(37:22):
the added element is him trying to make a podcast
out of it. But I thought the acting and it
was pretty good, and for a lower budget movie and
for mostly unknown actors on the family side, I thought
that dynamic kind of added a little bit more to it.
I think lower budget movies have an advantage and that
(37:43):
you don't have to pick a list actors and you
end up getting some really fresh talent and you get
some people that you wouldn't expect to be so good, Like,
you don't have to because it's already a low budget
kind of indie. You're not looking to sell it. I mean,
had Ashton Kuttry, but you're not looking to sell it
by the names on the poster. You're looking to sell
(38:04):
it by the story and the way that people portray it.
So I thought I thought it gave actors a great
chance to be like, oh wow, these people are really talented.
And I think with a movie like this, you have
to have a really good story to get it made.
It's hard to get any movie made, but for a
lower budget movie like this to get picked up and
distributed the way it has been, it's something different. So
(38:25):
I think that's what I was talking about. That's why
I find it refreshing because I didn't really know exactly
what we were getting into when we watched this movie.
I didn't even watch a trailer, And I like that
part of it, like just going into it having not
the highest expectations, but just knowing you're going to watch
something unlike anything you've seen in a while. As long
as it's not scary. I'm like, and we don't have
(38:45):
any plans and I'm like, cool, let's go see a movie,
and that was kind of one of the only things
out there. You go. So, if you had to rate Vengeance,
what would you give it? Being one of your favorites
so far? Four point to five out of five honey
better chicken biscuits from a burger? What a burger? I
would just like, I would give it four out of
five podcasts. I feel like this movie since it is
(39:10):
lower budget, since it has kind of an indie field
to it. I feel like when I rank anything above
a four, it's a life changing movie. And it's also
a movie that had maybe like Black Panther. Yeah, Like
it's a movie that's gonna stick with me for a
very long time. That's why I feel this movie kind
of hits that threshold of four, which I really enjoyed it.
(39:31):
I would really like to see another movie from bj Novak,
but it's not necessarily one I'm going to keep revisiting.
All right, Well, thank you for bringing the topic today.
You're welcome. I did a lot of prep for this.
You crush it with your list. Anything else you would
like to say? Um? Everyone, feel free to follow me
on good Reads see what I'm reading. Got a lot
of good ones on deck. I think, hope. Let me
(39:51):
know if I should pursue a career as like an
audiobook narrator. I don't know. I felt like I did
pretty good reading those synopsis. I thought kind of reminded
me of like when you had read aloud in school
and you get that like formal voice. Oh yeah, he
must not trip over the words. You crushed it. Thank you, um,
everyone enjoy. Let me know if you read any of
those books too, let me know if I inspire you
to start reading. There we go. All right, thank you
(40:13):
for joining me. You're welcome. Good Bye, It's Todd. Head
down to movie Paul. All right, let's talk about Shazam
Fury of the Gods, which is coming out on December one.
I think this is going to be one of the
most pivotal movies for d C. Who is I don't know,
(40:36):
low key going under a crisis right now after putting
an axe to the Bad Girl movie. The fate is
up in the air for what's going on with the Flash.
But they have two movies coming out this year before this.
We'll get Black Adam with the Rock on October one,
but I think Shazam two has a really good chance
(40:56):
to kind of just I don't know if it's going
to reinvent you see or get people excited about him again.
I just think it's has the chance to be a
win for them, because I really enjoyed Sham one, and
I'll talk about more why and why I think this
movie is going to be a step in the right
direction for them before we get into Sham two. Here's
(41:17):
just a little bit of the trailer. I don't deserve
these powers. And I'm being honest, Like, what am I
even contributing. Oh there's already a superhero with the red
suit with a lightning bolt on it. Aquaman is literally
huge and so manly, and Batman it's so cool and
I'm just me. So you have Zachary Levi back at Shazam,
(41:46):
and what I think the first movie got right is
it made DC movies like fun again. And I think
that's what the problem is with some of the DC
movies and why they haven't performed as well. And I
feel like this was the most Marvel like DC movie,
which is kind of unfair to compare them, But what
(42:07):
Marvel does so well is bringing really bright, fun characters
that everybody can enjoy. And I think what d C
has been known for and how they kind of feel
to me is they're all very moody movies. They're very
just dark in the way that they look. They all
kind of look like two thousands metal music videos. And
(42:28):
some of this could be because of Zack Snyder, but
just every DC movie I watch it has like this
grainy green look to it, a lot of just dark.
It feels very dramatic, and the characters are very like
almost regal, like to make it kind of stiff. And
that's why I don't always love everything they put out,
(42:50):
and why I kind of lean more towards always liking
Marvel movies because they are brighter, they are funner, and
they don't take themselves as seriously. I think when you
boil it down like that kind of what it feels like,
it feels like the DC movies take themselves very seriously,
but when it comes to Shazam, they kind of throw
that all out the window. And that's largely due to
(43:12):
what the character is. It's this kid who becomes Shazam,
and he is essentially this adult like hero figure, but
inside he is just a child. And in this sequel,
Shazam Fury of the Gods. It will continue the story
of this teenager named Billy, and he still has these
superpowers to where every time he says Shazam, he turns
(43:34):
into the superhero alter ego Shazam, which is just fun
in itself. And in the first one, all of the
action is just very fun because it is from the
perspective of a teenager. And I think it's as close
as DC can get to what Marvel did with Tom
Holland as Spider Man. You have this character who is,
you know, just discovering really how to use their powers,
(43:57):
really how to be a superhero. But the ad an
element here is he looks like a full adult man.
He is Zachary Levi, So unlike Tom Holland playing what
is a younger Spider Man, you have Zachary Levi doing
a really good job at portraying what a teenager is like.
And then you put them with some other people who
also have superpowers. And the first movie had a pretty
(44:19):
good villain. I feel like they may be getting a
little bit more ambitious and this one by adding some
villains to where that is the only thing and the
only reason I have a little bit of hesitation, and
after watching this trailer, is I wonder if they're like,
all right, we had some success with the first one,
let's at some more villains. And that is where DC
really tends to lose me. I feel like a lot
(44:39):
of their villains are, when it comes down to it,
kind of boring. I think they have a shot at
really having another hit on their hands, but I don't
know if it's going to be enough to change the
perception of d C, which I think is what they're
really trying to do. Maybe Black Animal Help coming out
just a couple of months before this, but I think
(45:00):
nothing else. It will be a pretty good day at
the box office for them and maybe continue at least
one of their franchises in the upward direction. But shas
Am to Fury of the Gods comes out on December one,
which is a pretty ambitious time to put out a movie,
so we'll see how that plays out for them. That
this links edition of Movie bar and that's gonna do
(45:24):
it for this week's episode. But before I hop out
of here, I gotta give my listeners shout out who
I give to anyone who sends me a d M,
sends me an email at movie Mike d at gmail
dot com, and this one, I'm actually doing my shout
out to somebody I met over the weekend. I did
a couple of live events where I met some listeners
over the weekend, and it was cool getting to meet
(45:46):
people who said they listened to the podcast. I haven't
done a whole lot of live events since I've started
this podcast, so it was cool getting to put faces
to some of you who listen. So my listeners shout
out today is too Higgy. I met on Saturday night
who said he's a listener of the podcast. Cool getting
to meet and talk to you in person. It's always
(46:07):
just like interesting to me, and it feels weird because
I just sit and on microphone and I know you
guys exist. I see you online, tweeting me, sending me messages,
so I know you are real people. But taking that
a step further and actually meeting you in real life
makes it all just feel like I'm not just speaking
into a void or a black hole. So thanks, Higgy,
Appreciate your listening, Appreciate you saying hello. I hope everybody
(46:30):
else has a great rest of your week, And until
next time, go out and watch good movies and I'll
talk to you later.
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mix movie Podcast. I
am your host movie Mike. Today I am joined by
my co host and wife, Kelsey. How are you great?
And we're gonna be talking about books that you think
should be turned into movies, which I am curious to
see your list. In the movie review, will be talking
about Vengeance, which is a new movie by bj Novak,
which you said is one of your favorite day of
the entire year. Yes, I did bold statement. I don't
(00:20):
know if I still stand by it. We'll see. We'll
see when we get to the review, and then in
the trailer park we'll talk about the new Chazam movie
coming from d C later this year. Appreciate you for
listening every single week, for being subscribed. Movie crew, you
already know what this is. Let's talk movies. In a
world where everyone and their mother has a podcast. One
man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never
(00:43):
before in a movie podcast. A man with so much
movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking AUDIMTV Who's glasses
from the Nashville Podcast Networking Movie Mi Movie Podcast. So
about a month ago, we did a review of Where
the craw Dat saying and you said that that movie
(01:05):
was actually better than the book. And you read a
lot of books. How many books do you think you've
read so far this year? Let everybody know I can
tell you exactly how many. It is one and my
goal is that is a lot of books you can
probably read if you tried really hard. How quickly could
you finish a book that's fast for me to complete? Opposite,
I've probably read half a book a year. I started
(01:28):
a book over vacation and I am about sixty done,
still haven't picked it back up, and then I'm probably
gonna hop to another book, because that's kind of how
I read books, that is how you read books. So
since you've read so many, we thought and had that
idea last time that you should come up with the
list of books that you think would be great movies.
I think there's only one of these, maybe in development,
but all these seem like they would be great movies.
(01:49):
So what is first on your list? First? Is the
one that actually is in development. It is Beneath a
Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. And I'll just read the
snopsis for all of these, but this one says Pino
Lela wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis.
He's a normal Italian teenager, obsessed with music, food, and girls,
but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family
home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs. Pino joins
(02:10):
an underground railroad, helping Jews escape over the Alps and
falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.
In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents forced him
to enlist as a German soldier, a move they think
will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured,
he has recruited at the tender age of eighteen to
become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler's left hand in Italy,
(02:31):
General Hans Layers, one of the Third Rites, most mysterious
and powerful commanders. Now with the opportunity to spire for
the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino enders the
horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting
in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna
and for the life he dreams that will one day share.
Sounds pretty intense, it's true story, and the author went
(02:53):
to Italy and like met with Pino and walked through
all of the places where the story takes place, and
got his account, and I think there's only he even
says in the author's note, there's like a few things
like details that Pino can't remember. So Mark Sullivan did
the research filled him into the best of his ability.
But it's a true story, like overall, in all of
the major events of Pino's life. What makes you think
(03:15):
that this would make a good movie. What cinematic quality
did it have when you were reading it? I mean,
it's got everything. It's just got like emotion. I don't
know how to describe, like how good it was. Like
this is what kicked off my love of like reading
World War two books earlier this year, I love a
World War two movie. It is and I think just
knowing like that it's a true story. And obviously, like
(03:36):
most war movies are, they're based on the war, which
is a factual true story, but this one being so
like specific about one person um and so interesting of
how he kind of infiltrated and was able to get
inside and get inside information. I always find any time
a movie depicts Hitler, I find it very fascinating. He
was a terrible human and it seems like so long
(04:00):
ago that I don't really have an image of it
in my head, and seeing it on film, it just
adds like a really sinister quality to a movie, whether
it be like Glorious Bastards, it's just really weird to
see and it's such an intense character to portray that
I do think this sounds like a really good movie,
and it is in development now. I haven't seen anything
(04:21):
pushed along in like four or five years. Tom Holland
is said to star in this movie. I haven't seen
that he's still going to. I think after about three
or four years of a movie getting pushed and pushed
of being made, he probably won't be anymore. He would
be he would be really so good in it, like
that's I read the book picturing him as Pino and
(04:44):
so like now I have Tom Holland in my head.
How old is the character in the book? Does it say, yeah,
he was a normal Italian teenager Tom Holland still playing
Spider Man. He could, Yeah, he was injured and then
at the age of eighteen he was the personal driver,
so he could still pull that off. Hopefully he's still
attached to the project, because this does sound like it
could be a really good movie. And he is really
(05:05):
kind of leaning into that dramatic stage of his career
where I don't really just associate Tom Hollng with Spider Man,
like I love him as Spider Man and he's a
great Avenger, but he's done other movies that are action based,
that are drama. Base was It wasn't Cherry. He wasn't cherry.
Was Cherry that he was in? Yeah, And he shows
(05:26):
that he has some range, especially in The Devil all
the time I didn't watch some One. Well, he's very
like dramatic and intense in that he can show that
he can play an American accent. He can do really
a lot of things early in his career. So this
almost sounds like the right director was attached to it
if the story was closely followed. What the book does?
(05:46):
I mean, this could be like an Oscar contender. It
sounds like I would love to see it on screen.
All right, what do you have next? I have a
book called We're Switching Gears are going to like a drama. Also,
I should add the only things I really have read
lately or like I go back and forth between like
a World were two book and a thriller this year.
That's just like my genre with a couple memoirs biographies,
so we're onto a drama, which is interesting going back
(06:07):
to that that you really love reading about World War Two,
but you don't like war movies. I don't like the
gory nous of them, which is typically what war movies.
I like Nineteen seventeen, it was a great movie. Um
hacks All Ridge was lid little too bloody for me.
Didn't watch the trailer. Very a lot of bloodshed in
(06:29):
that movie. So yeah, I just can't handle like the gory,
like limbs everywhere that but just like stresses me out. Yeah,
I like the stressfulness of a war movie, but reading
I can dissociate, Like the there's not the gory nous
as much in a book. And it sounds like with
Beneath the Scarlet Sky it's a little more character based.
(06:49):
Let's it happens during World War Two, but it's not
like in the Battles all that. So yeah, that sounds
like something I would really want to see. But next movie, Okay.
So with the Push by Ashley Audrain and the synopsis
is blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm,
comforting mother to her new baby, Violet, that she herself
never had. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days,
(07:13):
Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter.
She doesn't behave like most children do. Or is it
all in Blythe's head? Her husband Fox says she's imagining things.
The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins
to question her own sanity, and the more we begin
to question Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born, and with him life
has the most blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child.
(07:36):
Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when
life as they know it is changed in an instant,
the devastating fallout forces Blythe to face the truth. Interesting.
So what makes you think this one would be a
good movie? Oh, it's such a good thriller and the
twist is so good. It's very Her daughter is pretty sinister,
not not great child. It gives me like kind of
(07:59):
gone girl all vibes, like in the creepy thriller kind
of way. So are you thinking of somebody like an
Amy Adams in this role? I think Amy Adams would
be good. She does a good thriller, like I could
see her in that. We were watching her and No
Clonal Animals recently. Yeah, I think she would be really
good in it. What about the husband in this book?
What kind of character is he dismisses like all of
(08:21):
the wife's concerns, so like, not very attentive to her concerns,
and she's like, everything's fine. Who could you see playing
the husband? Give me Amy Adams and Ryan Gosling together.
That sounds like a movie I would want to see
Ryan Gosling over Ryan Reynolds. Yeah, Gosling just does a
better drama. He does, And I recently posted that I
(08:45):
find I like Ryan Gosling more than I like Ryan Reynolds.
I think the only reason I compare them to is
because they're both named Ryan. They're both very big movie stars,
and they're both Canadian. That is true, and they play
very different character is in very different movies. But I
feel like Ryan Gosling has more of the range where
(09:07):
he doesn't really dip that much into comedy, but when
it comes into his dramatic roles, he can do just
just straight on drama. He can do the action and
then if he really wants to, he can do a
movie like The Good Guys where he's a little bit comedy,
a little bit of action. I feel like Ryan Reynolds
does the same character all the time. I mean Ryan
Gosling and gray Man. It was drama and like a
(09:29):
witty comedy, like a sarcastic, like a dry humor, which
I think is his knee, Whereas like Ryan Reynolds goes
for like free Guy, which is meant to get the
l O ls, which he does really well he does.
I just feel like he does it again and again.
But if you're so good at something, why would you
deny everybody that of what people love you for? Yeah,
Ryan Reynolds is I mean he's the funniest person on
(09:51):
like when he and Blake Lively troll each other on
social media. I live for it. Which one do you
think is more attractive? Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling. Oh,
it was a really hard question for me. If I
had to pick one, I would go with Ryan Gosling.
I think I go Gosling. I think about like the
scenes and like crazy stupid love the Notebook. Yeah, hands down.
(10:12):
Gosling didn't have to think about that one. Too hard. Yeah,
in this story, with this book into a movie, if
you put Ryan Gosling and Amy Adams together, I think
that's a pretty good pairing. Yeah. Back to the book.
Read it. You will gasp so good and I will
say this, Actually, I think I read this one early
(10:33):
one and it's stuck with me in my head. That's
not even I've read one like this year. What do
you have next on your list? I have a memoir
called Tell Me Everything by Erica Krause. So the synopsis
Erica Krause has one of those faces I don't know
why I'm telling you this people say, spilling confessions and
follow two thousand two, Erica accepts a new contract job
(10:55):
investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect
for she quickly realizes she has no idea what she's
doing that A lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate
a sexual assault a college student who was attacked by
football players and recruits at a party a year earlier.
Erica knows she should turn the assignment down. Her own
history with sexual violence makes it all too personal, but
(11:15):
she takes the job anyway, inspired by Grayson's conviction that
he could help change things forever, and maybe she could too.
Over the next five years, Erica learns everything she can
about p I technique, tracking down witnesses, and investigating a
culture of sexual assault and harassment and grained in the
university's football program. That is, the investigation grows into a
national scandal. In a historic civil rights case, Erica finds
(11:37):
herself increasingly consumed in the case and her life both
implode at the same time. Erica must figure out how
to help win the case without losing herself. So a memoire, Yes,
so a true story? Correct? Why do you think this
one would be a good movie? It gives me Aaron
Brockovitch vibes. So I'm gonna I'm gonna nominate Julia Roberts
to play Erica. Oh that's an interesting cast thing there,
(11:58):
one of your favorite movies of it. So it's like
court movie. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of follows what
Aaron Brockovich like. She wasn't a lawyer. She gets this
job and then starts finding all of the cases Aaron
Brockovich of, like the medical problems associated with the water there.
She ends up helping when the case same here, Eric
is not a lawyer, she's not even a p I,
(12:21):
but she has one of those one of those faces
where people just kind of start telling her things they're
comfortable with her, and she starts using that to her
advantage and becomes a p I and helps take down
this program. Which I don't think that's a spoiler. It's
a memoir and you can read about the case, but
it's how she does it along the way, and like
all the obstacles that they had to get to and
(12:42):
how it changed things for college campuses. Some interesting things
I see from the synopsis in this book of how
it would be a good movie. First of all, it
takes place in two thousand and two, which I think
people are looking at two thousand's culture right now. If
you find movies and stories too. I think that's kind
of a popular thing of just people reliving a little
(13:03):
bit of nostalgia. And I feel like the stuff from
the two thousands is slowly creeping back over the nineties stuff.
And then I mean, in my head, I just have
Julia Roberts now, and she's not doing a whole lot
of movies. I think he has like one Netflix movie
coming out pretty soon. She has a movie with George
Clooney coming out in October. Okay, but aside from that,
she takes maybe one two movies every five years. So
(13:28):
if you could attach this is somebody like her, I
could see this movie getting made. And I haven't really
seen a whole lot of good courtroom style dramas or
just legal dramas that something like this would be perfect for.
I think to like we saw Bombshell a couple of
years ago, you didn't love the way that it was portrayed,
(13:48):
you didn't think it was the best story of like
the Me Too movement Fox News, I think this one
could be done really well and add to that genre
of starting to really live sent to women and their
stories and their experiences. So I think if this one
was well done, but Julia Roberts in it, and I
think it's gonna be great. Yeah, Bombshell was an interesting
(14:08):
movie because what was the actual story of it. I
loved it was the way in the style of that
movie that I felt like it didn't do the story
justice and also thought Margot Robbie was going to be
a bigger part in that movie. She deserved more screen
time in that movie. You fell asleep during the movie.
I did I'll admit to that. And it was also
(14:28):
a weird thing to be entertained by, Like it covers
such an awful thing that happened, and you're kind of
rating it by like how entertaining it is, which it
shouldn't be have like this weird entertainment value. It's just like,
I don't know really that it's the entertainment value, but
like the portrayal of the story, does it keep you
engaged and do the story justice? So I don't know
(14:49):
if it's as much the entertainment as well as I
don't think it did the story justice. Yeah, I just
felt weird saying that I didn't like that movie like this.
I wasn't discrediting like what it was about or anything
like that. You didn't like what was done. I don't
think that discredits it. I just feel like when you
have such a powerful like rights to a movie to
make something like that, it could have been better agreed.
So that's how I feel about Bombshell. But yeah, I
(15:11):
think this one also sounds like a pretty good one.
You're doing really good here, thank you. What do you
have next for us? I have Breathless by Amy McCullough,
and it is journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head.
She's come to manislew, the eighth highest peak in the world,
to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last
leg of a record breaking series of summits. She's given
(15:34):
up everything for this story, her boyfriend, her life savings,
the piece she's made with her climbing failures in the past.
But it's a career making opportunity. It could finally put
her life back on track. But when one climber dies,
and when everyone else assumes is a freak accident, she
fears their expedition is in danger, and by the time
a second climber dies, it's too late to turn back.
Stranded on a mountain in one of the most remote
(15:54):
regions of the world, she'll have to battle more than
the elements and a herring fight for survival against a
killer who was picking them off one by one. This
sounds good. I'm into this one. It was a really
good book. So it's a survival type movie. Yeah, on
a mountain. I mean, that sounds like a documentary that
I would be into. But the fact that it's fictional,
I mean, I can only imagine the places that this
(16:16):
movie could go of trying to survive while somebody's trying
to kill you and then just the harsh environment. Who
could you see playing the lead in this movie. I'm
gonna go with Jamie Chung. I think she's super talented.
I haven't seen her in a big movie like this
in a while, and I think she could just do
like the action intensity like I think she could play
(16:37):
it so well. Is there a lot of physical things
that happened throughout the movie or throughout the book and
they're literally climbing like the what was it the eighth
highest mountain in the world. Sounds pretty intense. Yeah, so
I would I would go Jamie Chung. I love her.
Out of both of us, who do you think could
survive on a mountain for longer? Okay, well, I have actually,
fun fact, climbed a fourteen er in Colorado, which is
(16:59):
a fourteen thousand the mountain, which I know it's not Everest,
but um that was an experience without any training and
without any acclamation and the only thing you had to
eat was a cliff bar and one leader of v
on and it made it to the top and the
top mynad is what's called a Class three scramble in
which you were on your hands and knees at the
top of the mountain. And I'm in like hocas, not
(17:19):
even hiking boots. I am in hoca running shoes. It
was not my choice. This was part of a trip
that I went on and someone else planned that, and
I didn't really understand what we were getting ourselves into. Her.
I probably would have said, hey, guys, I'm not going
to do that. My favorite part of that entire story
is you guys left behind one of the members of
the group. It's not great because it was so intense.
(17:39):
We're like, we'll go on without you. She was like, hey, guys,
I'm gonna turn around. We should have sent someone back
with her. I should have gone back with her. But
we were all like, okay. She was like, I can
make it down by myself. No, she had like altitude sickness.
It was. It was not a good experience. No one
come at me for that. But I have climbed a
fourteen mountain. So with your experience here, you're saying you
would also be qualified to play the role in this movie. Yeah,
cast me. There we go casting Kelsey. All right, what
(18:02):
do you have next on your list. I have one
that I just recently read, kind of a sci fi
type book. It's called The Measure by Nikki Irlick, and
the synopsis says, it seems like any other day you
wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out.
But today, when you open your front door, waiting for
you as a small wooden box. This box holds your
fate inside, the answer to the exact number of years
(18:22):
you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every
person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant,
the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did
these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is their
truth to what they promise? As society comes together and
pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice. Do they
wish to know how long they'll live? And if so,
(18:44):
what will they do with that knowledge? Now? This is
one of the coolest books you told me about of
all the books you've read. It was amazing, and I
think what sets this apart is the trope of what
are you going to do with your life? If you
knew you were going to die? Can be overdone, It
can be dramatic, it's like kind of gives me. It
(19:04):
reminds me of like timgrawl live like you were dying,
but in a way where I think people are just like,
I'm going to live in this fantasy world, but this
one people are faced with. They know when they're going
to die, they don't know the exact day, and they
don't know how they know in how many years, And
so it makes people wonder like do I change what
I'm doing with my life? Do I keep on going?
(19:24):
And some people don't even open their box. So it's
a string inside, and then scientists create like this predictor
that tells you, based on the length of your string,
how long you have. So some people are like, I
don't want to know. I don't want to know. I
just want to live life. And when it's my time,
it's my time. And these stories are woven together. There's
(19:46):
about eight characters. I think that it focuses on and
the ways in which the stories weave in and out.
I loved that it reminded me kind of like the
TV show A Million Little Things, where like it's about
a group of friends, but yeah, the side by aspect,
but it wasn't like dystopian sci Fi. It was just
this idea of like, could this happen in the society.
(20:08):
There's so many things screaming at me that would make
this a great movie. I think it has like that
black Mirror type feel of like it being something that
could actually happen in our lifetime. It has the I
think what a great movie does is bring back a
question on everybody. And I think the marketing on this
movie would be easy of like, well, what would you
(20:29):
do in this situation? Would you open your box? Would
you want to know? For you? Would you want to know?
Would you open the box? Open the box? I think
I would too. Like I think I even now somebody said,
would you want to know when you're dying? I think
I would want to know? Yeah? Am I like wasting
my time working eight to five? If it's already like
said and determined and I could find out, I would
(20:50):
want to know, and I think I would change my
life accordingly. I feel like now sometimes I do things,
maybe not every day, maybe not even a week, but
knowing that it might not be I might not have
another chance to do this. I think most recently, what
I've kind of adopted is I try to tell people
when I'm thinking about them, especially like family. I had
(21:13):
a really sad I thought the other day. I even
made a note of this of like, someday I'll go
to like text my mom and she won't like respond,
she won't like answer the phone, and I think about
that if just like well, sometimes I put off calling her,
sometimes I don't text her. Knowing that I might not
always have that chance makes me do it more. So
I think, along the same lines of the plot of
(21:34):
this movie, I would want to know just to make
sure I'm doing everything in my life to not have
any regrets and know when I should be living life
a little more because I don't have as much time
left or that I'm good, I can. I have time
to do it later. But I think I would want
to know it doesn't really freak me out. We're all
gonna die, Like that's just that's just fact, and we're
(21:57):
not like guaranteed. And I also, I think, coming from
a perspective of and I've said this on the podcast before,
i lost my dad when I was two and a half,
and so I've always grown up like knowing nothing's guaranteed.
Like I've always been very like tell people you love them,
all the time. Like if you're thinking about someone cinema text,
She's like, hey, he was thinking about you. Love you
Call your parents, call your family, call your friends. So
(22:18):
I've always grown up with that mindset. Um. Yeah, And
I think another really interesting aspect of this book was
what they started to do in society with the boxes.
They started to kind of make these restrictions like if
you had a short string, you couldn't do this kind
of job. Oh yeah, that brings in a whole other Yeah,
(22:39):
that was the other interesting. It wasn't just like the
heart strings part, but it was the like how does
where does where? Does it stop? With the rules? Yes,
and it's actually as a political figure in it, and
that's kind of factored in. So I thought that was
really interesting. It reminds me of like how entrance companies
won't give some people in trance if you have a
pre existing condition. Kind of gave me that vibe. So anyways,
(23:00):
read this book. I think it's awesome. It's a quick,
easy read. The chapters are pretty short, go back and
forth between the characters, and I think kind of initially
is like over a year. I think it's divide into spring, summer, fall,
and Winter and everyone gets the box from their twenty
two interested on your twenty second birthday. After this initial
day of everyone getting the boxes, who could you see
(23:20):
in this movie? So I think this would be like
a really good opportunity for like an ensemble cast of
like because it's a lot of a lot of characters intertwined.
I'm gonna cast Sandra Bullock because I love her. Oh,
I like Sandra Bullock, you know what, you know, he's
been a good trio lately, Sandy be Brad Pitt, and
Channing Tatum. Put them all in here, bringing back that
cru They are really great. They are great together. We
(23:41):
have seen them in two movies this year, in the
Last City and another one which we can't say because
it would be a spoiler. But we've seen them in
two movies. Yes, there's been another movie. They were great
in The Lost City. I think put all three of
them in and then I'm trying to think, like Sprinkle
in you know, it hasn't been in anything in a while,
to my knowledge, Let's put Dawn Cheatle in it. Don
Cheatle is great in an ensemble and an underrated actor.
(24:05):
He's in so many movies. I feel like maybe sometimes
if you sat down to make a list of all
the movies he's been in, you'd forget. But yes, he
is so good and everything that he is in. Yeah,
I love don Cheatle. Let's put him in. How about
could I throw in an Aubrey Plaza? Did she fit anywhere? Yes?
I was just thinking. I was like, we need like
another like younger female pup plause in it. Love It,
(24:26):
She's another one. I feel like you love. I love
all of her movies. I feel like she takes on
roles that she really cares about, that the story is different,
and that she whenever she promotes a movie which is weird,
she like really, I feel at least like she really
believes in it, and that takes a lot from an actor.
I feel like some actors just keep working for the
(24:46):
sake of, you know, keeping the work, because it is
hard to keep getting work in Hollywood. But I feel
like she's been very selective in the movie she picks,
and a lot of them are just things that automatically
appeal to me. I really liked her movie Black Bear,
which it's kind of like an indie horror type movie
but has a little bit more of a stylistic approach
(25:07):
to it. And then I am wanting to go see
your new movie Emily the Criminal, So I think she
would be great in this, And I have two more.
I'm gonna suggest jim A Chan from Eternals and Crazy
Rich Asians. I think she's wildly talented, she would be
excellent in this. And then my wild card, Selena Gomez.
Oh yeah, we were talking about her the other day
(25:28):
that I forgot how big of a pop star she
was and how famous she was. But we've really been
enjoying her and only Murders in the Building and the
only other movie I can think about that wasn't a
great movie. But I liked her in with spring Breakers
with James Breakup, which I think a lot of people
hated that movie. But she is a great actress. Nonetheless, Listen,
(25:49):
Selena is a great actress. Her makeup company's great, rare
beauty Shoutout's funny on TikTok. She's funny on TikTok. She
talks about mental health. I think she's so well rounded,
like she has gone through the waves of like child
fame and still come out like standing and like she
has like this persona now, like she doesn't really care
(26:09):
what anybody else says. I want to be best friends.
So they're just two hours from Texas. She sounds awesome.
All right, what do you have? How many more do
you have? One? Last one? All right? What do you have? Okay?
This is called The Last Flight about Julie Clark. I
also read this one last year, but it's stuck with me.
It's a great one. Synopsis. Clara Cook has a perfect life,
married to the scion of a political dynasty, with the
Manhattan townhouse and the staff of ten. Her surroundings are elegant,
(26:31):
her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind
closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect
husband has a temper that burns bright, and he's not
above using his staff to track clears every move. What
he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months
on a plan to vanish, a plan that takes her
to the airport, poised to run from it all, but
a chance meeting in the airport bar brings her together
(26:54):
with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together, they
make a last minute decision. The two women switched tickets,
with Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland and Eva traveling
to Puerto Rico is clear. They believe the swap will
give each of them the head start they need to
begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to
Puerto Rico crashes, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start,
(27:16):
but a new life, cut off, out of options. With
the news of her death about to explode the media,
Claire will assume Eva's identity and along with it, the
secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden. Now I
remember this one. You tell me about it, all right,
Let's get into the casting first. On this Who do
you think could be the main Emma Stone? Some of
these I'm just picking like my favorite people. She's so talented.
(27:40):
Emma Stone is phenomenal La La Land, crazy, stupid, love
easy a. I love Emma Stone. She started range Spider Man. Duhn.
Ever get that, I see like a Dakota Johnson kind
of in that same We're so into Dakota Johnson and
movies lately, kind of in that same category of every
last movie we've seen her in I've really enjoyed. We
(28:02):
just watched that Apple Plus movie Cha cha real smooth,
and I feel like a lot of people associator so
much with the fifty Shades of Gray movies. I feel
like she has that kind of hanging over her whenever
she takes on another role, and it's hard being like
a part of a movie that is so defining, kind
of like the same way people still associate Robert Pattinson
(28:24):
with Twilight and you go down all the book adaptations.
But I feel like she has really broke out of
that mold in the last five years that she really
doesn't get the recognition she deserves. And just by hearing
you talk about this book again, I feel like she
would be good in that. What about this book made
you feel like it would be a good movie. It's
(28:44):
such like an interesting story, like these two women trying
to escape their lives. They're gonna switch, but then something
terrible happens to one of them and the other is like,
oh no, Like is this my fault? Like I was
supposed to be on the flight, but like now that
she's gone, like I just have a free life, Like
when don't even switching lives anymore, I'm just starting over.
After you read this book, is there like a jaw
(29:04):
drop moment of like, oh, I wasn't expecting that, Yeah,
because I feel like just from what you read of
the synopsis, I feel and maybe you can lend a
little more light to this, but it seems like an
almost easy plug and play. Like I could see somebody
just wanting to buy the rights of this movie and
all they have to do is take the story as
it is and just adapted, adapted, Like that's like changes
(29:26):
like a lot of times in a book, you know,
they kind of have to put in like one more
like jaw dropping like movie type twist, like I think
of the one that comes to mind is My Sister's
Keeper by Jodi Picoult, which um sure a lot of
people have seen. But anyways, they like completely switched the
ending from the book to the movie, and I didn't
necessarily feel like that was they didn't have to do that,
(29:47):
but they did to kind of give it more of
like a type moment. But I don't even think this
book needs anything. It just it sounds cinematic enough that good.
All you have to do is like you can't screw
that movie up. And I feel if you putting the
right but the wrong director, just follow book, I think
you'll be good. I feel like the sign of a
(30:08):
good book to movie is not having to change things
to make it more like film, ask but the trouble
being what you take out to make it fit into
a two hour or two and a half hour movie.
And that sounds like there's already a lot of story there,
and based upon what you said how you felt after
you finished the book, I think that's a good one.
(30:29):
If you could only have one of these books turned
into a movie, which one would you pick? I think
I have mine kill. I'm gonna take off beneath the
Scarlet Sky because I'm holding I hope that that one
that was still could happen. I'm gonna got the measure taking.
That's the one I was going to pick of all these.
I feel like that is what speaks to me plot wise,
(30:52):
and I would love to see that play out and
just be able to visualize it all more. But I
think that one would make the best one, The measure
of the push. Oh, I was gonna go to the
last flight next. I mean, they're all good, That's why
I picked them all. That's why I only picked six
out of like the forty I've read this year, and
then however many read last year. So if anybody wants
(31:13):
to follow you along on good Reads? You cool with that? Yeah,
we're gonna put I don't remember use your name, but
we have a link and we'll put it in the
podcast notes. I think my user name is honestly just
like Kelsey Rodriguez or something, but that's probably a pretty
common name. Still put the exact link. I think you
have to request to follow me, but I will approve this.
So there you go. And next up, we're going to
(31:34):
talk about the movie Vengeance, and we'll do that after this.
All right, let's talk about the movie Vengeance. What you
said is one of your favorites out of the entire year.
I said that immediately upon watching. I don't know if
I still stand by that. All right, So we'll play
a little bit of the trailer and then come back
(31:54):
with our spoiler free review. I have a story, okay,
I in West Texas where this family just lost their
daughter to an opiate overdo Oh my god, I'm so sorry.
It's okay, it's not someone else close to him, but
he flew to Texas for it. Uh. Yes, it was
a girl I hooked up with a few times. Her
family thought that we weren't more serious than I do.
(32:15):
If I've heard so much values I've I've heard, Yeah,
I really and just didn't die. She was murdered. What
the two of us are one venture? I feel like
Vengeance is a hidden gem of a movie. It was
one that I was curious about because I like PJ.
Novak mostly known from the office. He also had a
(32:37):
small part in Inglorious Bastards, and he was in The
Mini Project, which you love. He was only in a
couple episodes, but he was in it. He was in
I do love The Mini Project. I love Mindy and
b J. They're great and then they dated off and
on and they're just like BFFs now but in my
heart like they're infre But he wrote, directed, and started
this movie, which is about this journalist slash podcaster who
(33:00):
goes from New York City to Texas to investigate this
death of this woman that he really just hooked up
with and her family thinks that they were her boyfriend,
and he goes kind of looking for a new story,
looking for a new podcast concept, and then decides to
turn his investigation of her death into a podcast. So
(33:22):
the movie is a bit of a hidden gem. And
why I think that is because it is a lower
budget movie. I think it only has made three millions
so far. But upon watching it, it felt like a
very refreshing movie, even though it doesn't do anything completely crazy.
It's also it's not heartwarming, so like when we say,
when we say refreshing, it's not like you're gonna leave
(33:43):
like wow, that made me feel so good inside. Yeah,
because it's a dark comedy, there is some obviously it's
dealing with death, so it's not like you said, yeah,
like a very it's gonna uplift me type movie. But
it does such a great job at creating these characters,
which in the movie he is, you know, recording and
(34:06):
doing this podcast and trying to find unique characters. That's
why he thinks that there's a story there. It's the
family of the girl and they live in a small
town in West Texas, which we are both from Texas.
And I always take it very personally when a movie
portrays Texas because I feel like there are a lot
of stereotypes associated with people who live there. But I
(34:27):
thought it did a pretty good representation of what like
a really small rural town in Texas is like where yes,
there is a lot of that country aspect to it.
But we're not like riding around on horses everywhere, which
you know, sometimes it just gets portrayed in a movie.
But a lot of what this family does is I
(34:49):
feel pretty true to a small Texas town, especially their
love for water Burger. I think this is the first
time I've seen water Burger in a movie portrayed like
this really ever, it's usually like in the discussion of
best burgers, it's like in and out five Guys, But
in this movie, it really explains why people from Texas
love water burger, which that was funny. You're a water
(35:12):
burger guy, not a water burger guy. Yeah, it's what
a burger. You say water burger is when you've just
said it's almost like water burger. Yeah, that's how I
say it, Like you're drinking water burger. Yeah. I mean
I say the same thing, but I'm just pointing out
that you're all You're all, yeah, it's what a burger.
I had two favorite things about this movie. One, the
self aware self deprecation cameo from John Mayer is kind
(35:34):
of like a womanizer BJ's friend in New York, and
I thought that was very just like tongue in cheek
because that's also kind of like b J is I
feel like reputation around like New York in l A.
So I thought that was funny that at the beginning
they're just like going through their phones. They're like, oh,
this girl like I don't remember the names, somebody like Stephanie,
like tender, like that sort of thing. I thought that
(35:55):
was funny. The second, thank you, b J. Novac for
casting the Grahama from Friday Night as the grandma in
this movie. She was Grandma Saracen. If you watch Friday
Night Lights, you know where um I'm at her. That's
my claim to fame in this movie. So Sweet matter
in Austin at like a TV festival a couple of
years ago. I thought she was fabulous as a grandma. Again,
she's just like the like quick witted, like sharp, doesn't
(36:18):
mince her words. Thought she was so good in this
thought Dove Cameron was really good as one of the sisters.
Thought it was great. So maybe I do still stand
by I don't know. And then you have Ashton Kutcher
in this movie. He hasn't been in anything in a while,
and he plays a character that I don't think I've
really ever seen him play before. Plays a record producer,
(36:38):
and he has like a very kind of cool, ominous persona.
You can't really figure him out throughout the movie. And
that's also what this movie did a really good job at.
As the main character is trying to figure out what happened,
you are too, So it's kind of like that murder
mystery thriller type. There's some danger here and there. I
(37:00):
think why it feels like a even more of a
hidden gym movie, and one that's maybe I guess harder
to recommend to people is it's kind of like a
slice of life movie with a little bit more of
dark darkness to it. There's just like it's just like
this piece of this family dealing with this death, and
(37:22):
the added element is him trying to make a podcast
out of it. But I thought the acting and it
was pretty good, and for a lower budget movie and
for mostly unknown actors on the family side, I thought
that dynamic kind of added a little bit more to it.
I think lower budget movies have an advantage and that
(37:43):
you don't have to pick a list actors and you
end up getting some really fresh talent and you get
some people that you wouldn't expect to be so good, Like,
you don't have to because it's already a low budget
kind of indie. You're not looking to sell it. I mean,
had Ashton Kuttry, but you're not looking to sell it
by the names on the poster. You're looking to sell
(38:04):
it by the story and the way that people portray it.
So I thought I thought it gave actors a great
chance to be like, oh wow, these people are really talented.
And I think with a movie like this, you have
to have a really good story to get it made.
It's hard to get any movie made, but for a
lower budget movie like this to get picked up and
distributed the way it has been, it's something different. So
(38:25):
I think that's what I was talking about. That's why
I find it refreshing because I didn't really know exactly
what we were getting into when we watched this movie.
I didn't even watch a trailer, And I like that
part of it, like just going into it having not
the highest expectations, but just knowing you're going to watch
something unlike anything you've seen in a while. As long
as it's not scary. I'm like, and we don't have
(38:45):
any plans and I'm like, cool, let's go see a movie,
and that was kind of one of the only things
out there. You go. So, if you had to rate Vengeance,
what would you give it? Being one of your favorites
so far? Four point to five out of five honey
better chicken biscuits from a burger? What a burger? I
would just like, I would give it four out of
five podcasts. I feel like this movie since it is
(39:10):
lower budget, since it has kind of an indie field
to it. I feel like when I rank anything above
a four, it's a life changing movie. And it's also
a movie that had maybe like Black Panther. Yeah, Like
it's a movie that's gonna stick with me for a
very long time. That's why I feel this movie kind
of hits that threshold of four, which I really enjoyed it.
(39:31):
I would really like to see another movie from bj Novak,
but it's not necessarily one I'm going to keep revisiting.
All right, Well, thank you for bringing the topic today.
You're welcome. I did a lot of prep for this.
You crush it with your list. Anything else you would
like to say? Um? Everyone, feel free to follow me
on good Reads see what I'm reading. Got a lot
of good ones on deck. I think, hope. Let me
(39:51):
know if I should pursue a career as like an
audiobook narrator. I don't know. I felt like I did
pretty good reading those synopsis. I thought kind of reminded
me of like when you had read aloud in school
and you get that like formal voice. Oh yeah, he
must not trip over the words. You crushed it. Thank you, um,
everyone enjoy. Let me know if you read any of
those books too, let me know if I inspire you
to start reading. There we go. All right, thank you
(40:13):
for joining me. You're welcome. Good Bye, It's Todd. Head
down to movie Paul. All right, let's talk about Shazam
Fury of the Gods, which is coming out on December one.
I think this is going to be one of the
most pivotal movies for d C. Who is I don't know,
(40:36):
low key going under a crisis right now after putting
an axe to the Bad Girl movie. The fate is
up in the air for what's going on with the Flash.
But they have two movies coming out this year before this.
We'll get Black Adam with the Rock on October one,
but I think Shazam two has a really good chance
(40:56):
to kind of just I don't know if it's going
to reinvent you see or get people excited about him again.
I just think it's has the chance to be a
win for them, because I really enjoyed Sham one, and
I'll talk about more why and why I think this
movie is going to be a step in the right
direction for them before we get into Sham two. Here's
(41:17):
just a little bit of the trailer. I don't deserve
these powers. And I'm being honest, Like, what am I
even contributing. Oh there's already a superhero with the red
suit with a lightning bolt on it. Aquaman is literally
huge and so manly, and Batman it's so cool and
I'm just me. So you have Zachary Levi back at Shazam,
(41:46):
and what I think the first movie got right is
it made DC movies like fun again. And I think
that's what the problem is with some of the DC
movies and why they haven't performed as well. And I
feel like this was the most Marvel like DC movie,
which is kind of unfair to compare them, But what
(42:07):
Marvel does so well is bringing really bright, fun characters
that everybody can enjoy. And I think what d C
has been known for and how they kind of feel
to me is they're all very moody movies. They're very
just dark in the way that they look. They all
kind of look like two thousands metal music videos. And
(42:28):
some of this could be because of Zack Snyder, but
just every DC movie I watch it has like this
grainy green look to it, a lot of just dark.
It feels very dramatic, and the characters are very like
almost regal, like to make it kind of stiff. And
that's why I don't always love everything they put out,
(42:50):
and why I kind of lean more towards always liking
Marvel movies because they are brighter, they are funner, and
they don't take themselves as seriously. I think when you
boil it down like that kind of what it feels like,
it feels like the DC movies take themselves very seriously,
but when it comes to Shazam, they kind of throw
that all out the window. And that's largely due to
(43:12):
what the character is. It's this kid who becomes Shazam,
and he is essentially this adult like hero figure, but
inside he is just a child. And in this sequel,
Shazam Fury of the Gods. It will continue the story
of this teenager named Billy, and he still has these
superpowers to where every time he says Shazam, he turns
(43:34):
into the superhero alter ego Shazam, which is just fun
in itself. And in the first one, all of the
action is just very fun because it is from the
perspective of a teenager. And I think it's as close
as DC can get to what Marvel did with Tom
Holland as Spider Man. You have this character who is,
you know, just discovering really how to use their powers,
(43:57):
really how to be a superhero. But the ad an
element here is he looks like a full adult man.
He is Zachary Levi, So unlike Tom Holland playing what
is a younger Spider Man, you have Zachary Levi doing
a really good job at portraying what a teenager is like.
And then you put them with some other people who
also have superpowers. And the first movie had a pretty
(44:19):
good villain. I feel like they may be getting a
little bit more ambitious and this one by adding some
villains to where that is the only thing and the
only reason I have a little bit of hesitation, and
after watching this trailer, is I wonder if they're like,
all right, we had some success with the first one,
let's at some more villains. And that is where DC
really tends to lose me. I feel like a lot
(44:39):
of their villains are, when it comes down to it,
kind of boring. I think they have a shot at
really having another hit on their hands, but I don't
know if it's going to be enough to change the
perception of d C, which I think is what they're
really trying to do. Maybe Black Animal Help coming out
just a couple of months before this, but I think
(45:00):
nothing else. It will be a pretty good day at
the box office for them and maybe continue at least
one of their franchises in the upward direction. But shas
Am to Fury of the Gods comes out on December one,
which is a pretty ambitious time to put out a movie,
so we'll see how that plays out for them. That
this links edition of Movie bar and that's gonna do
(45:24):
it for this week's episode. But before I hop out
of here, I gotta give my listeners shout out who
I give to anyone who sends me a d M,
sends me an email at movie Mike d at gmail
dot com, and this one, I'm actually doing my shout
out to somebody I met over the weekend. I did
a couple of live events where I met some listeners
over the weekend, and it was cool getting to meet
(45:46):
people who said they listened to the podcast. I haven't
done a whole lot of live events since I've started
this podcast, so it was cool getting to put faces
to some of you who listen. So my listeners shout
out today is too Higgy. I met on Saturday night
who said he's a listener of the podcast. Cool getting
to meet and talk to you in person. It's always
(46:07):
just like interesting to me, and it feels weird because
I just sit and on microphone and I know you
guys exist. I see you online, tweeting me, sending me messages,
so I know you are real people. But taking that
a step further and actually meeting you in real life
makes it all just feel like I'm not just speaking
into a void or a black hole. So thanks, Higgy,
Appreciate your listening, Appreciate you saying hello. I hope everybody
(46:30):
else has a great rest of your week, And until
next time, go out and watch good movies and I'll
talk to you later.
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