Warner Brothers has cancelled plans to release the $90 million "Batgirl" movie. Mike shares other movies over the years that have been cancelled and the reasons why they never made it into theaters. From a Fantastic Four movie from 1994 to a movie in the 2010’s that was said to rival Avatar. In the movie review, Mike gives his thoughts on the action/comedy Bullet Train starring Brad Pitt. And in the trailer park, Mike takes a look at the new Sylvester Stallone superhero movie coming to Amazon Video called Samaritan.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to talk
about movies that never saw the light of day and
the reasons why you may have seen some controversy going
around with a new Backgirl movie and d C and
Warner Brothers completely shelving the product. We'll talk all about that,
and then in the movie review I'll talk about the
new Brad Pitt action movie called Bullet Train. And in
(00:21):
the trailer park there is another superhero movie, this time
with Sylvester Stallone. It's a very Sylvester Stallone role and
I think I'm here for it. Thanks everybody for being
subscribed to the podcast, listening every single week. Movie Crew,
you guys 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
(00:45):
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking on MTV
with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Network. Movie mis Movie Podcast.
Unreleased never before seen movies and the shocking reasons why
(01:05):
I got completely obsessed with this topic in the last
week and It all started because of what happened with
the new Batgirl movie. And maybe you haven't heard about this,
but what has happened is that Warner Brothers and d
C have decided to completely shelve the product. Warner Brothers
is going through a lot right now, a lot of
big changes that they are making for their streaming platform,
(01:25):
HBO Max, and they have made the decision to not
release this ninety million dollar film. It won't go to theaters,
it won't even go up on HBO Max. And there
are a lot of reasons why, and none of them
really make that much sense to me. Something that the director,
the actors in this movie have been working on for
the last couple of years to get this movie made.
(01:46):
You can only imagine how excited you are to release
this movie. And now nobody's gonna see it. And this
isn't the first time this has happened. This has happened
a lot in history, and each of these cases we'll
talk about it's pretty mind blowing. So on the Back
Girl case, it had a production budget of ninety million dollars.
They say they started screen testing it, which is where
(02:08):
they bring in audiences. They watched the movie, they give
their thoughts on it, and the movie is supposedly tested
pretty badly, and they were gonna, you know, a movie
that was already complete, they would have to go in
and maybe make some changes, reshoot some things. But instead
of that, they have just decided that they are not
going to put out a movie unless they completely believe
(02:29):
in it. And I think this has to do a
lot with d C wanting to rival Marvel right now,
and they have since said that they have this tenure
plan that's along the same lines of what Marvel does.
Every movie comes out, it's part of their DC universe
and it all has to fit together and every piece
has to be up to their standards because in the past,
DC has been, you know, just said that they don't
(02:49):
put out the best movies. They get ridiculed when some
of these movies come out, and they are always kind
of seen as the ones who can't get it together.
So for them, it would be worth it more to
take the ninety mill llion dollar hit and not put
this movie out, not have that image on their movies.
And there's another report saying that the movie is essentially
(03:10):
not coming out because there is this tax loophole and
in order for Warner Brothers to take advantage of this
tax loophole that they'll make their money back from this movie.
As being able to completely write it off is that
it can't exist anywhere. They can't even throw it up
on their streaming services because if they do, that loophole
no longer exists. There's also a specific window where they
(03:32):
can take this loophole in, and that time is now.
I guess the sad thing for me is seeing Leslie Grace,
who was a newer actress, and she put up this
whole message saying that they had filmed this movie over
seven months, put a lot into it, created a lot
of good memories, but now it's sad that it's not
actually coming out. She played the character back Girl in
(03:53):
this movie. She was supposed to team up with Batman
played by Michael Keaton, who was reprising the role from
back in the Tim Burton days, and they were supposed
to team up together and fight the super villain Firefly
played by Brendan Fraser, who was also having a bit
of a resurgence right now, kind of a comeback in
his career, and this also sucks for him too. He's
still gonna be in some other movies coming out that
(04:15):
I'm excited about. But all these characters in this movie,
you have Michael Keaton backs Batman, which he's also still
supposed to be in the upcoming Flash movie. No definitive
word yet on that movie even coming out, but it's
still set for June. So I'm curious to see what
this new tenure plan is and how the new Chazanne
(04:36):
movie and how Black Adam is going to play into that.
Is that now going to be the book end on
this or is that the new kickoff for it. I
don't really know at this point. And I talked about
fairly recently how I was saying that I was more
excited about the upcoming DC projects and maybe some of
the stuff in Marvel, and I had so much faith
in them. I think in the last few years, my
(04:58):
favorite superhero was that have really stayed with me have
been DC films. The Batman and The Suicide Squad have
been some that have left this kind of imprint in
my head of being some of my favorite movies because
they were so different, because I felt like the quality
was a lot stronger. I found those movies to have
a longer impression on me and as the type of
(05:20):
film fan that I am, they kind of spoke to
me a little more than some of the Marvel movies,
even though I love those as well, But there was
just a little bit more to the style of those
two movies, and they just happened to be DC movies.
And in the back of my head, I'm just wondering,
is this some kind of marketing plan, because if it is,
that would be amazing. If they canceled this movie, create
all this uproar, create all this rising in their fandoms,
(05:44):
that would be one of the smartest moves ever. And
then come another couple of months they're like, you know what,
We're gonna put it out on HBO Max. Anyway, here
it is, and then it becomes the highest streaming movie
ever on the platform. If they do that, kudos to them,
because I think so many people would be following along
to this plot line. That would be the only way
(06:04):
we get to see this if they end up making
that decision, or somebody hacks into Warner Brothers and leaks
the footage, which a lot of these movies I'm gonna
talk about, even though they never came out in theaters,
some of them are still available on YouTube, so who knows,
maybe in ten years we'll get to at least see
a few scenes or maybe some clips from the back
Girl movie. And the last thing I'll say about that
(06:26):
is I did see more about this announcement they made
and some changes to HBO Max that are upcoming next
year that they are going to merge with Discovery Plus,
which is interesting. Of the shows they are bringing over,
I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen with all
the movies. As we've seen in the last week that
HBO Max has quietly removed some of their original movies,
(06:48):
which was another thing I hadn't really seen before. I
feel like once movies go onto streaming services, they just
exist there forever. And this kind of goes back to
me wanting to own some of my favorite movies as
actual physical copies because you can't take those away. And
I know sometimes people make fun of people who will
still buy blue rays. They're still collect DVDs because there
(07:10):
is something to having something tangible, and you think, why
collect them when you can just watch them on your
favorite streaming service. Well that's why. Because they're not guaranteed
to be there, even the originals that they spend so
much money on that they put on there, they can
take those away too. So if you really love something
and you never want to go away, have that physical
copy unless somebody comes to your house and melts it
(07:31):
or steals it. At least you own that. But let's
continue on with the topic. While we're talking about superhero movies.
Did you know there was a Fantastic Four movie made
that was never released in theaters. Some say it was
because it was never supposed to be released, that they
only made this movie so they could keep the film rights.
(07:53):
Stan Lee says, one thing that they made this movie
with the intention of just that it never actually coming out.
The director who was a known B movie director, and
what that means is kind of like cheesier, less quality
type movies, movies just not up to that Hollywood standard.
He was like, no, I put my entire creative process
(08:14):
and my entire being into making this movie. But this
is back in long before the Marvel we know now,
when they did make movies that weren't guaranteed hits, whether
it be this Fantastic Four movie or even movies like
Howard the Duck, they weren't as mainstream as they are now,
But after watching some clips of this movie on YouTube,
(08:35):
I honestly think that it never saw the light of
day because it is so bad. It is so cheesy.
It does have that B movie feel to it. The
special effects aren't there, especially when it comes to the
character the Thing. It kind of just looks like a
parody of a superhero movie. And just to give you
a feel for this movie, here's just a clip of
(08:56):
the Fantastic Four. This is the moment where the character
the Ing sees what he has become for the first time.
And listen to this clip and visualize that the thing,
even though he sounds like Patrick Starr from SpongeBob SquarePants.
(09:25):
Then we're all gonna go get some help. So it
seems that we didn't really miss a whole lot not
seeing that Fantastic Four movie, a movie that Marvel is
still yet to get down perfectly. Maybe hopefully in the
oncoming phases, Maybe hopefully in the upcoming phase five and
phase six where we get that superhero movie, they'll actually
(09:46):
do it some justice. But if you want to see
clips of that movie, or want to watch the entire thing,
you can just search Fantastic four on YouTube and there's
even a documentary called Doomed, the Untold Story of Roger
your Corman's The Fantastic Four, which is all about the
making of that movie and how it never got released.
Let's move on now to a movie called Empires of
(10:08):
the Deep was supposed to come out in This is
probably the most expensive movie on this list to never
be released. At the end of production, this movie ended
up costing a hundred and thirty million dollars. A lot
of these other movies did not cost the fraction of
this a hundred and thirty million dollars. This movie was
said to be a movie that was going to rival
(10:31):
James Cameron's Avatar, which came out a few years before
in two thousand and nine. This was an American and
China joint adventure. It's supposed to be this movie about
this war happens under water between these two different kingdoms
of mermaids and crabs. So many three D special effects
were supposed to be in this movie, but if you
(10:52):
go and watch the trailer, it doesn't even look up
to quality as like a cable TV movie. It actually
looks more like a bad sci fi movie from the
eighties instead of a movie being produced in the twenty tens.
Just to give you a little taste of this, here
is a little bit of the Empires of the Deep trailer.
Thousand years have passed since kest lies in the prophecy
(11:17):
and the power of the sacred. So the reason this
movie never came out, even though there was a trailer
out it was being shown in theaters. That trailer was
at least and the movie went through forty drafts of
the script over five years, eight different screenwriters. It went
through so many directors. You had actors who were there
(11:39):
at the beginning of the movie and then we're either
fired or quit halfway through. So the entire thing was
just a disaster. So on top of that, the cast
ended up being made up primarily by unknown actors, and
they were supposed to really be banging on all these
special effects, but with all those delays, all those changes,
they never really got to the quality that they were
(12:01):
looking for when it came to using this three D technology.
Once that trailer finally came out, it was released, as
you can imagine, fairly poorly. People ripped it to shreds,
and therefore this movie never came out. Aside from this
trailer will probably never get to see it up. Next
is a movie called Dark Blood, which is supposed to
(12:22):
come out in nineteen three. Dark Blood is the story
of this young man known only as the Boy, and
this boy believes that the end of the world is near,
so he lives in this self imposed exile out in
the desert. And this boy is played by no other
than River Phoenix, who you may remember died in the
(12:43):
nineties and he passed away when roughly eight of this
movie was already done, So what a tragic death. In Hollywood.
Sometimes we forget about River Phoenix passing away. And after
his death, the director was really set on finishing the
movie because yeah, eighty cent of it was already done,
so he even approached his brother, Joaquin Phoenix, but his
(13:05):
family rejected the idea of his younger brother being in
the film. And essentially what he did to complete the
movie was he filled in not having River Phoenix with
some narration, put that over some of the missing scenes,
but again at the request of the family, at them
just rejecting the idea of completing the movie without River Phoenix.
(13:27):
The movie was never fully released, although it has been
screened a handful of times at Film festivals, most recently
in twelve, which was almost twenty years after the movie
was originally filmed. Out of all the movies on this list,
I think this is one that actually would have done well,
and it was shelled more due to a real life situation,
(13:48):
a real tragedy, other than it just being a bad
movie not deserving to see the light of day, starring
an actor that we just lost too soon. Next up,
I want to talk about a movie called Don's Plum
from two thousand and one, and this movie is about
a group of Los Angeles teenagers and they meet every
week at this local diner and the movie is shot
in black and white. It's a very jarring movie to
(14:10):
look at, but it's all these pretty well known actors now.
It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a character named Derek, Toby
Maguire as Ian, and Kevin Connolly, who you may remember
from Entourage, as another character named Jeremy. And the movie
Dawn's Plum is centered around this group of friends, all
twenty something year old and they meet at this restaurant
(14:32):
which is called Don's Plum every single Saturday night. It's
them hanging out with girls. They get into a lot
of verbal and physical altercations, and there was really very
little of a plot at all. It was kind of
just the hangout movie supposed to be a lot of improv.
Just to give you kind of a feel for it,
here's the clip of the movie that's actually posted on YouTube.
(14:58):
I want you guys right whatever this is all about
ten years from now, you know what I'm saying, And
that just happens to be one of the best clips
of the movie because much of the movie is improvised.
A lot of it I heard and from my research
(15:19):
was saying that you're not a DiCaprio and Toby maguire
just kind of pulled a lot from their real life
and got into their characters. But we're really kind of
portraying some things. Maybe they went through some of their
own feelings, but it's all improv. That's what you do
in improv. You pull from your real life experiences and
bring that out through a character. But I think once
the movie was done, they realized maybe it didn't show
(15:41):
them in the best light. And when they signed up
for the movie it was only supposed to be a short.
They had no idea it was actually going to be
a feature linked movie. They were only paid five and
seventy five dollars per day to appear in this film,
so one of the producers on the movie actually allegedly
said that Toby aguire didn't want the movie to come
out because he felt his improvised performance just revealed too
(16:06):
much about him, and this producer named David Stuttman actually
filed a lawsuit in nineteen against dicabrio and McGuire and
they were able to settle on allowing the film to
be released outside of the US outside of Canada after
some of the scenes were removed, but the movie is
available on YouTube. But it is kind of interesting to
(16:26):
see them that young, especially because Toby maguire and Leonardo
DiCaprio have been friends since they were young, and Don's
Plum was actually the second movie they did together. They
did another movie in nine called This Boy's Life, and
they would do their third movie together in with The
Great Gatsby. I think they actually have a lot of
(16:47):
great on screen chemistry because they are friends. Aside from that,
there's nothing really making me want to sit down and
watch Don's Plum. Now, you probably know the movie Revenge
of the Nerds, which came out in nineteen eighty four,
but it was supposed to be revived and rebooted in
the two thousands. In two thousand and six, there was
a movie starring Adam Brody and Jenna Dewan, directed by
(17:09):
Kyle Newman, who also did a movie in two thousand
and nine later called Fanboys, and it was actually filmed
partially in two thousand and six, but production was quickly
put to a stop, and the movie had issues right
off the bat. First of all, they were filming on
Emory University, and they ended up objecting to the script
and forced the filmmakers to go out and find a
(17:32):
new location because they didn't want them anymore. And that
all happened on pretty short notice. And then about two
weeks after filming, the executives at the studio felt the
movie look too small and decided the entire project wasn't
coming together how they had hoped, so they completely shut
down filming. The cast and crew did end up getting paid,
(17:52):
but they all just ended up having to go their
separate ways. If you look back on the original Revenge
of the Nerds, there are some things in that movie
you probably couldn't make today. So I think when they
were making this movie. Maybe they were going a little
bit harder at some of those themes, some of those topics,
some of those scenes, and it was seen maybe as inappropriate,
(18:12):
maybe as something that maybe something so bad or just
at times to progress in the two thousands that they
didn't want to be a part of that college just
didn't want to be associated with that. Maybe it's just
the movie that didn't really need to be rebooted. There's
a really interesting case of a movie from nineteen seventy
two called The Day of the Clown Died. There's quite
(18:32):
an interesting urban legend surrounding this movie, which stars Jerry
Lewis who plays a clown at a Nazi interment camp.
Sounds like a pretty wild premise, and Jerry Lewis, who
was known primarily for comedy, he was reluctant to take
on this role of a clown, but agreed to star
in and direct the movie. I think in the beginning
(18:55):
stages of this movie while they were writing it, while
he agreed to direct it, he fell like he was
doing something that would be exposing the horrors of the Holocaust.
And then as production started and they're filming this movie
kind of realized that they were doing something that they
weren't really going to be proud of. The message wasn't
getting out there, and even right off the bat, and
(19:16):
the movie had financial problems. They disagreed on parts of
the script. They had some arguments with the writer of
the movie. Jerry Lewis had made some changes to the
script to make the clown more sympathetic instead of being
this cowardly and selfish character that was written. And then
the rights of the film got ripped to shreds. But
what ended up happening is that Jerry Lewis himself was
(19:38):
able to secure the rights to this movie. He had
the rough cut, and at the end of it he
was just embarrassed by it and didn't want this movie
to come out. And in the end he was embarrassed
by the little quality of the film and was happy
when it never saw the light of day. But before
he died in August of seventeen, he donated the incomplete
(19:58):
copy of the movie to the lie Bury of Congress.
He did this in and it was under the stipulation
that the movie not be screen before June, so we
have a couple of years until we can actually see
this movie. And then finally I want to talk about
a movie called one hundred Years, which was filmed and
(20:18):
advertised back in two thousand and five with the tagline
of the movie you will never see. This movie hasn't
been seen by anybody because it's supposed to be released
on November. That is correct, two thousand, one hundred and
fifteen is when this movie is supposed to be released,
(20:39):
a hundred years after it was filmed. Now why is that,
you may ask, Well, the movie A hundred years is
this experimental sci fi movie written by John Malkovich and
directed by Robert Rodriguez. And what it seems on the
surface of this movie, it was all kind of a
marketing thing for this alcohol that I won't even mention
the name of, but that they say takes a hundred
(21:00):
in years to make a bottle of this. So paired
with that advertisement on this alcohol, there's this short film
that exists that they say was actually filmed, that it
is a real thing that was locked away in this
safe that will somehow automatically open on November and that's
(21:21):
when we can finally see this movie. So what the
whole thing just kind of feels like a commercial because
they say the entire plot of this movie is completely secret.
They put out some trailers of the movie which you
see this safe and this alcohol in it, and there's
some exterior shots of this very futuristic world. I guess
what they envisioned the world will look like. But none
(21:42):
of us will be around to see the premiere, and
it's being kept in this really high tech safe behind
bullet proof glass. I think there's probably nothing in there.
I guess that same year we'll also get the Backgirl movie.
But I hope you enjoyed that those are movies that
have never seen the light of day. Coming up, i'll
give my review of Bullet Train, and then we'll talk
(22:04):
about a new Sylvestor stallone movie where you played a superhero.
Let's get into a movie review. Let's talk about Bullet Train,
starring Brad Pitt. It's an action thriller, but really not
one of your typical action movies. It really wasn't what
I was expecting at all. It's about these five assassins.
(22:24):
They all get on board this fast moving bullet train,
so it's kind of like a bottle movie. And then
the entire thing is a little bit mystery. You're trying
to figure out how all of their lives intertwined, which
I really like that aspect to it. Before I get
into my full review, here's just a little taste of
Bullet Train. Just men, nurse, do I my stop? Something
(22:51):
else going on here? Hi? You don't remember me? You
look like everyone home this man I've ever saying, really,
you don't remember me? So maybe that trailer paints a
little bit more of a picture of what this movie
is about, what the style is. I think it took
me about twenty maybe even twenty five minutes to get
into this movie. It's a little bit of an acquired taste,
and I think that may take some people out of
(23:13):
this movie. But once you get into it, you realize
the comedic style, you realize the over the top action style.
It really is a fun ride because the movie is
part murder mystery, part action, part comedy, so it's all
these things kind of working together. But the jokes are
very exaggerated, the action is very exaggerated, and the movie
is based on a Japanese novel. It takes place on
(23:35):
this bullet train in Japan, so I almost feel like
it borrows from that kind of anime style where you know,
it's very expressive, which on the service level may feel
a little bit corny, especially when you go into it
just expecting, oh, it's Brad Pitt in an action movie.
But once you allow yourself to understand what is going on,
know that it's supposed to be over exaggerated for a reason,
(24:00):
to realize there's something a little bit more there. And
what I really liked about this is the direction on
the action. It's very practical, and I think that's because
it's directed by David Leach. She also did movies like
Deadpool too. He worked on the first John Wick movie,
so I know that's why a lot of people are
comparing it to that he has a relationship with Brad Pitt.
He was a stunt double in movies like Fight Club, Troy,
(24:21):
Mr and Mrs Smith, and he worked with Brad Pitt
to get him to be able to do his own
stunts in this movie, and I thought that added a
pretty good touch to it. It's not like he's jumping
off of buildings or doing anything too out there, but
the fact that it is Brad Pitt, who is almost sixty,
which I found pretty surprising doing about of his stunts.
I think that shows his commitment at his point in
(24:43):
his career where he could just hop out and have
a stunt double do this, and within that action, it
kind of feels like part kill bill, part anime, part comedy.
And at moments it does kind of feel like it's
trying a little bit too hard to have that tarantino
esque style to it, but it's not as artsy, it's
not as cinematic enough to be a Quentin Tarantino movie.
(25:06):
But I do think it is the overexaggeration of these
characters of the comedy that gives this movie a little
bit of charm. I ended up enjoying that all the
senses were overheightened, all the facial expressions were very kind
of comical, cartoon like, but I can see where that
may lose some people. I think I actually saw a
couple get up at one point during the movie and
(25:28):
leave and never come back. And maybe it's because it
is over the top violent. I'm talking people getting stabbed,
sliced in half, that kind of thing where it doesn't
really feel completely realistic. But if you're not comfortable with
a lot of blood and guts, maybe really not your thing.
Even though it happens so frequently throughout the entire movie.
It's not really shocking, it's just kind of like, oh,
(25:49):
that's what this movie is. So it's kind of in
that same John Wick. We're going for a lot of blood,
a lot of death in this movie. But I think
where this movie really shines is with the movie star,
Brad Pitt. If it wouldn't have been for Brad Pitt,
I'm not sure I would have liked this movie at all.
I kind of realize why he is a movie star,
(26:10):
and because he is so captivating to watch. There's something
about Brad Pitt being on screen that really just pulls
me into the movie. And he knows what it takes
to create a character to live in that character, and
I really enjoyed seeing this performance of playing this assassin
who is kind of on the road to recovery. He
(26:30):
is very in touch with his emotions and wanting to
get to a place where he doesn't have to do
this type of work. So he almost has this very
chills and like attitude throughout the movie while he's getting
into fights and trying to avoid being killed. And from
an interview I saw with the director that was largely
due to Brad Pitt putting that into his own character,
so you have Brad Pitt really carrying this movie. But
(26:54):
it's also just a really great cast all the way around,
from Bad Bunny to Joey King. And I thought Brian
Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor Johnson were a really great duo.
I almost feel like they could have had a movie
on their own. The other parts of this that I liked.
It did all take place within one location, which you
think could get boring after a while, and you think
(27:15):
of movies like Murder on the Orient Express or Death
on the Nile, where it's not something that hasn't been
done before. But I thought, unlike other movies where it
just takes place primarily in one location, there was so
much going on because it goes between all the five
Assassin storylines, there's flashbacks, so it always feels like it's
moving along, and as far as only really seeing the
(27:35):
bullet train in the entire movie, doesn't really feel like
I gets stale at any point. And I guess what
I was expecting was a little bit more straight on
of an action movie, a little bit more of a
darker tone, and this movie just has a lot of
bright comedic spots and it's pretty hard to get me
to laugh during a movie, but I did find myself
maybe not like dying laughing, but a couple of outward chuckles.
(27:58):
This movie got out of me so almost hesitant to
say that it is a comedy, because you could go
into this and think that wasn't funny at all. I
found it kind of stupid. That's kind of the line
that this movie walks. You could either totally be in
the mood for this. It's a very good Friday night
almost reminiscent of like the nineties action comedy movie. But
if you're not in the mood for that, you could
(28:19):
think this is one of the dumbest movies you'll see
all year, because even though it has the star power,
it has some fun action, it doesn't do anything particularly well.
There's not one quality of this movie that I felt
really defined this that created something long lasting with me.
It kind of just felt like, oh, that was a fun,
entertaining ride. Nothing completely novel. Nothing. I think that it's
(28:41):
going to change the way action movies are made. It
almost kind of felt like riding the wave down and
all the summer action we've had so far, but it's
a pretty fun way down. So I think if you're
a fan of movies like Kill Bill, if you like
very campy animated things and over the top blood and
viole lens, I think this could be in the movie
(29:01):
for you. But if you're going in expecting to be
wowed by Brad Pitt being an action star, I don't
really think that movie will meet those needs for you.
So it's not one I would say to rush to
the theater and watch right now. Unless you have very
low expectations on what you take from an action movie,
then you might find this one as enjoyable as I did.
(29:21):
So if I had to write Bullet Train, I would
give it three point five out of five man buns.
And that is a reference to a moment in the
movie where Brad Pitt puts his hair up into a
man bun and I realized, man, dude still has it.
It's time to head down the movie, Mike Paul. This
(29:43):
week we're talking about Samaritan, which is a new superhero
movie starring Sylvester Stallone. He plays the character Samaritan, who
apparently died many many years ago, has gone into hiding
is now working picking up garbage. But there is this
kid who is thirteen years old and suspects him to
be a superhero. So before we get into what we
(30:06):
think about this trailer, here's just a little bit of Samaritan.
I found him Samaritan. Samaritan died years ago. That's what
do they say. Do you think you live across from
a superhero? Do you have a therapist? Kid? Good? Samaritans
(30:26):
is dead. I picked up garbage. We're living about. Samaritan
cleaned up the streets. You mind your business on my mind.
So what you here there at the end of the
trailer is Sylvester Sloan's character, who is Joe Smith, a
(30:48):
k a. Samaritan getting hit by a car and totally
gets annihilated, taken out by this car, is all bruised
up and broken bone and then is able to pop
all those bones back into place because he is a superhero.
And the kid in that clip is Sam Cleary, who
is played by the same actor who is Ashtray in Euphoria.
(31:09):
And you also hear Martin Starr in that who is
in Freaks and Geeks back in the day, is also
in Silicon Valley, a very funny actor. And what this
movie is about is twenty four years ago there was
this superpowered vigilante named Samaritan. He supposedly died in a
warehouse battle with his rival. The whole thing went up
(31:29):
in flames. He was taken out by Nemesis, but he
has stayed living in secret, and now crime is coming
back up, and you have this kid Sam who wants
him to come out of hiding to save the city.
And it kind of feels like an old school eighties
action movie, very similar to what we have seen Sylvester
(31:50):
Stallone in before. But I'm kind of all about it.
I like the idea of an age superhero. It kind
of reminds me of one of my favorite animated bat
Man movies called The Dark Knight Returns, which came out
has nothing to do really with the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight.
That movie is about Batman coming out of retirement. He's
(32:11):
in his fifties now and he fights the Joker, he
fights to face and then gets involved in this battle
to the death against Superman. There is a part one
and part two on HBO Max if you haven't seen that,
But that is what this new Sylvestor Stalone movie kind
of reminds me of. This idea of a superhero who
isn't as strong or fast, or doesn't even recover as
(32:33):
quickly as he used to. I think that's a pretty
interesting premise. And if you put him against his old
arch nemesis, I think even if it's a little bit cheesy,
even if it's a little bit cliche, at least there's
something a little bit more here to chew on. This
movie was actually supposed to come out in theaters and
has been delayed time after time. They filmed it back
(32:55):
in and it was supposed to be released in November,
and that got pushed back all the way to June
fourth of last year, never came out in theaters. But
now it's coming out on August two after Amazon bought MGM,
and they're like, you know what, let's just put it
out on prime video. And I just got to say
(33:15):
shout out to Sylvester Stallone who is seventy six years
old and still doing this type of action movie. He
doesn't have to do this at seventy six years old.
I'm just gonna be chilling. I'm not trying to fight
anybody anymore. I don't know if he's still just enjoys
making movies that much, or this was just something that
he really believed in. I feel like he's still a
(33:36):
very passionate actor who I feel like he will keep
making movies probably until his eighties. So this is one
I'm curious to check out on Amazon. This makes ad
and that's gonna do it for another episode here on
the podcast and from my listeners shout out this week,
(33:58):
I am going over to my Instagram M d M
S and I got a d M from Basto Ovayl
and he wrote, Hey Mike, I am learning English and
practicing while listening to Movie mis Movie Podcast. I'm a
Venezuelan actor living in Mexico City and I appreciate the
content that you were doing. By the way, Leela and
Stitch is my favorite animated film. I think it's amazing
(34:18):
you're trying to learn English. I may not be the
best example as the one to listen to to learn
how to speak English, but I remember this is something
I experienced as well. My parents were both born and
raised in Mehicol. They moved to the United States and
had to learn English primarily by watching TV. My older
brother and sister learned so much by watching Sesame Street,
(34:41):
and I think my parents watched it with them too
and picked up on things because they didn't speak any English.
So later once I was born, I also learned a
lot from Sesame Street because still now to this day,
my parents will speak Spanish to me and we just
kind of have this way of communicating. Of sometimes I
speak a half in English half in Spanish. But I
(35:02):
do owe a lot of learning English to television. I
think if maybe podcasts where a thing back in the day,
I would have taken this approach to But appreciate that message,
pastor and all the luck into learning English. It's a
very weird language. A lot of things don't make sense,
so I will do my best in representing the language
(35:22):
as best as I can. Thanks everybody for listening. If
you don't mind, If you enjoyed this episode and think
you have a friend who may enjoy it, to share
it with them, texted to them, tag them in your
Instagram story, or if you don't want to bother a friend,
just do me a favor. And wherever you're listening, whether
it be on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, rate at five stars,
(35:43):
write a quick little review. It doesn't take a whole
lot of time. You can do it in seconds and
it helps me out in the podcast algorithm helps me
compete with all the other movie podcasts out here. And
until next time, go out and watch good movies and
I will talk to you later
Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I
am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to talk
about movies that never saw the light of day and
the reasons why you may have seen some controversy going
around with a new Backgirl movie and d C and
Warner Brothers completely shelving the product. We'll talk all about that,
and then in the movie review I'll talk about the
new Brad Pitt action movie called Bullet Train. And in
(00:21):
the trailer park there is another superhero movie, this time
with Sylvester Stallone. It's a very Sylvester Stallone role and
I think I'm here for it. Thanks everybody for being
subscribed to the podcast, listening every single week. Movie Crew,
you guys 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
(00:45):
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking on MTV
with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Network. Movie mis Movie Podcast.
Unreleased never before seen movies and the shocking reasons why
(01:05):
I got completely obsessed with this topic in the last
week and It all started because of what happened with
the new Batgirl movie. And maybe you haven't heard about this,
but what has happened is that Warner Brothers and d
C have decided to completely shelve the product. Warner Brothers
is going through a lot right now, a lot of
big changes that they are making for their streaming platform,
(01:25):
HBO Max, and they have made the decision to not
release this ninety million dollar film. It won't go to theaters,
it won't even go up on HBO Max. And there
are a lot of reasons why, and none of them
really make that much sense to me. Something that the director,
the actors in this movie have been working on for
the last couple of years to get this movie made.
(01:46):
You can only imagine how excited you are to release
this movie. And now nobody's gonna see it. And this
isn't the first time this has happened. This has happened
a lot in history, and each of these cases we'll
talk about it's pretty mind blowing. So on the Back
Girl case, it had a production budget of ninety million dollars.
They say they started screen testing it, which is where
(02:08):
they bring in audiences. They watched the movie, they give
their thoughts on it, and the movie is supposedly tested
pretty badly, and they were gonna, you know, a movie
that was already complete, they would have to go in
and maybe make some changes, reshoot some things. But instead
of that, they have just decided that they are not
going to put out a movie unless they completely believe
(02:29):
in it. And I think this has to do a
lot with d C wanting to rival Marvel right now,
and they have since said that they have this tenure
plan that's along the same lines of what Marvel does.
Every movie comes out, it's part of their DC universe
and it all has to fit together and every piece
has to be up to their standards because in the past,
DC has been, you know, just said that they don't
(02:49):
put out the best movies. They get ridiculed when some
of these movies come out, and they are always kind
of seen as the ones who can't get it together.
So for them, it would be worth it more to
take the ninety mill llion dollar hit and not put
this movie out, not have that image on their movies.
And there's another report saying that the movie is essentially
(03:10):
not coming out because there is this tax loophole and
in order for Warner Brothers to take advantage of this
tax loophole that they'll make their money back from this movie.
As being able to completely write it off is that
it can't exist anywhere. They can't even throw it up
on their streaming services because if they do, that loophole
no longer exists. There's also a specific window where they
(03:32):
can take this loophole in, and that time is now.
I guess the sad thing for me is seeing Leslie Grace,
who was a newer actress, and she put up this
whole message saying that they had filmed this movie over
seven months, put a lot into it, created a lot
of good memories, but now it's sad that it's not
actually coming out. She played the character back Girl in
(03:53):
this movie. She was supposed to team up with Batman
played by Michael Keaton, who was reprising the role from
back in the Tim Burton days, and they were supposed
to team up together and fight the super villain Firefly
played by Brendan Fraser, who was also having a bit
of a resurgence right now, kind of a comeback in
his career, and this also sucks for him too. He's
still gonna be in some other movies coming out that
(04:15):
I'm excited about. But all these characters in this movie,
you have Michael Keaton backs Batman, which he's also still
supposed to be in the upcoming Flash movie. No definitive
word yet on that movie even coming out, but it's
still set for June. So I'm curious to see what
this new tenure plan is and how the new Chazanne
(04:36):
movie and how Black Adam is going to play into that.
Is that now going to be the book end on
this or is that the new kickoff for it. I
don't really know at this point. And I talked about
fairly recently how I was saying that I was more
excited about the upcoming DC projects and maybe some of
the stuff in Marvel, and I had so much faith
in them. I think in the last few years, my
(04:58):
favorite superhero was that have really stayed with me have
been DC films. The Batman and The Suicide Squad have
been some that have left this kind of imprint in
my head of being some of my favorite movies because
they were so different, because I felt like the quality
was a lot stronger. I found those movies to have
a longer impression on me and as the type of
(05:20):
film fan that I am, they kind of spoke to
me a little more than some of the Marvel movies,
even though I love those as well, But there was
just a little bit more to the style of those
two movies, and they just happened to be DC movies.
And in the back of my head, I'm just wondering,
is this some kind of marketing plan, because if it is,
that would be amazing. If they canceled this movie, create
all this uproar, create all this rising in their fandoms,
(05:44):
that would be one of the smartest moves ever. And
then come another couple of months they're like, you know what,
We're gonna put it out on HBO Max. Anyway, here
it is, and then it becomes the highest streaming movie
ever on the platform. If they do that, kudos to them,
because I think so many people would be following along
to this plot line. That would be the only way
(06:04):
we get to see this if they end up making
that decision, or somebody hacks into Warner Brothers and leaks
the footage, which a lot of these movies I'm gonna
talk about, even though they never came out in theaters,
some of them are still available on YouTube, so who knows,
maybe in ten years we'll get to at least see
a few scenes or maybe some clips from the back
Girl movie. And the last thing I'll say about that
(06:26):
is I did see more about this announcement they made
and some changes to HBO Max that are upcoming next
year that they are going to merge with Discovery Plus,
which is interesting. Of the shows they are bringing over,
I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen with all
the movies. As we've seen in the last week that
HBO Max has quietly removed some of their original movies,
(06:48):
which was another thing I hadn't really seen before. I
feel like once movies go onto streaming services, they just
exist there forever. And this kind of goes back to
me wanting to own some of my favorite movies as
actual physical copies because you can't take those away. And
I know sometimes people make fun of people who will
still buy blue rays. They're still collect DVDs because there
(07:10):
is something to having something tangible, and you think, why
collect them when you can just watch them on your
favorite streaming service. Well that's why. Because they're not guaranteed
to be there, even the originals that they spend so
much money on that they put on there, they can
take those away too. So if you really love something
and you never want to go away, have that physical
copy unless somebody comes to your house and melts it
(07:31):
or steals it. At least you own that. But let's
continue on with the topic. While we're talking about superhero movies.
Did you know there was a Fantastic Four movie made
that was never released in theaters. Some say it was
because it was never supposed to be released, that they
only made this movie so they could keep the film rights.
(07:53):
Stan Lee says, one thing that they made this movie
with the intention of just that it never actually coming out.
The director who was a known B movie director, and
what that means is kind of like cheesier, less quality
type movies, movies just not up to that Hollywood standard.
He was like, no, I put my entire creative process
(08:14):
and my entire being into making this movie. But this
is back in long before the Marvel we know now,
when they did make movies that weren't guaranteed hits, whether
it be this Fantastic Four movie or even movies like
Howard the Duck, they weren't as mainstream as they are now,
But after watching some clips of this movie on YouTube,
(08:35):
I honestly think that it never saw the light of
day because it is so bad. It is so cheesy.
It does have that B movie feel to it. The
special effects aren't there, especially when it comes to the
character the Thing. It kind of just looks like a
parody of a superhero movie. And just to give you
a feel for this movie, here's just a clip of
(08:56):
the Fantastic Four. This is the moment where the character
the Ing sees what he has become for the first time.
And listen to this clip and visualize that the thing,
even though he sounds like Patrick Starr from SpongeBob SquarePants.
(09:25):
Then we're all gonna go get some help. So it
seems that we didn't really miss a whole lot not
seeing that Fantastic Four movie, a movie that Marvel is
still yet to get down perfectly. Maybe hopefully in the
oncoming phases, Maybe hopefully in the upcoming phase five and
phase six where we get that superhero movie, they'll actually
(09:46):
do it some justice. But if you want to see
clips of that movie, or want to watch the entire thing,
you can just search Fantastic four on YouTube and there's
even a documentary called Doomed, the Untold Story of Roger
your Corman's The Fantastic Four, which is all about the
making of that movie and how it never got released.
Let's move on now to a movie called Empires of
(10:08):
the Deep was supposed to come out in This is
probably the most expensive movie on this list to never
be released. At the end of production, this movie ended
up costing a hundred and thirty million dollars. A lot
of these other movies did not cost the fraction of
this a hundred and thirty million dollars. This movie was
said to be a movie that was going to rival
(10:31):
James Cameron's Avatar, which came out a few years before
in two thousand and nine. This was an American and
China joint adventure. It's supposed to be this movie about
this war happens under water between these two different kingdoms
of mermaids and crabs. So many three D special effects
were supposed to be in this movie, but if you
(10:52):
go and watch the trailer, it doesn't even look up
to quality as like a cable TV movie. It actually
looks more like a bad sci fi movie from the
eighties instead of a movie being produced in the twenty tens.
Just to give you a little taste of this, here
is a little bit of the Empires of the Deep trailer.
Thousand years have passed since kest lies in the prophecy
(11:17):
and the power of the sacred. So the reason this
movie never came out, even though there was a trailer
out it was being shown in theaters. That trailer was
at least and the movie went through forty drafts of
the script over five years, eight different screenwriters. It went
through so many directors. You had actors who were there
(11:39):
at the beginning of the movie and then we're either
fired or quit halfway through. So the entire thing was
just a disaster. So on top of that, the cast
ended up being made up primarily by unknown actors, and
they were supposed to really be banging on all these
special effects, but with all those delays, all those changes,
they never really got to the quality that they were
(12:01):
looking for when it came to using this three D technology.
Once that trailer finally came out, it was released, as
you can imagine, fairly poorly. People ripped it to shreds,
and therefore this movie never came out. Aside from this
trailer will probably never get to see it up. Next
is a movie called Dark Blood, which is supposed to
(12:22):
come out in nineteen three. Dark Blood is the story
of this young man known only as the Boy, and
this boy believes that the end of the world is near,
so he lives in this self imposed exile out in
the desert. And this boy is played by no other
than River Phoenix, who you may remember died in the
(12:43):
nineties and he passed away when roughly eight of this
movie was already done, So what a tragic death. In Hollywood.
Sometimes we forget about River Phoenix passing away. And after
his death, the director was really set on finishing the
movie because yeah, eighty cent of it was already done,
so he even approached his brother, Joaquin Phoenix, but his
(13:05):
family rejected the idea of his younger brother being in
the film. And essentially what he did to complete the
movie was he filled in not having River Phoenix with
some narration, put that over some of the missing scenes,
but again at the request of the family, at them
just rejecting the idea of completing the movie without River Phoenix.
(13:27):
The movie was never fully released, although it has been
screened a handful of times at Film festivals, most recently
in twelve, which was almost twenty years after the movie
was originally filmed. Out of all the movies on this list,
I think this is one that actually would have done well,
and it was shelled more due to a real life situation,
(13:48):
a real tragedy, other than it just being a bad
movie not deserving to see the light of day, starring
an actor that we just lost too soon. Next up,
I want to talk about a movie called Don's Plum
from two thousand and one, and this movie is about
a group of Los Angeles teenagers and they meet every
week at this local diner and the movie is shot
in black and white. It's a very jarring movie to
(14:10):
look at, but it's all these pretty well known actors now.
It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a character named Derek, Toby
Maguire as Ian, and Kevin Connolly, who you may remember
from Entourage, as another character named Jeremy. And the movie
Dawn's Plum is centered around this group of friends, all
twenty something year old and they meet at this restaurant
(14:32):
which is called Don's Plum every single Saturday night. It's
them hanging out with girls. They get into a lot
of verbal and physical altercations, and there was really very
little of a plot at all. It was kind of
just the hangout movie supposed to be a lot of improv.
Just to give you kind of a feel for it,
here's the clip of the movie that's actually posted on YouTube.
(14:58):
I want you guys right whatever this is all about
ten years from now, you know what I'm saying, And
that just happens to be one of the best clips
of the movie because much of the movie is improvised.
A lot of it I heard and from my research
(15:19):
was saying that you're not a DiCaprio and Toby maguire
just kind of pulled a lot from their real life
and got into their characters. But we're really kind of
portraying some things. Maybe they went through some of their
own feelings, but it's all improv. That's what you do
in improv. You pull from your real life experiences and
bring that out through a character. But I think once
the movie was done, they realized maybe it didn't show
(15:41):
them in the best light. And when they signed up
for the movie it was only supposed to be a short.
They had no idea it was actually going to be
a feature linked movie. They were only paid five and
seventy five dollars per day to appear in this film,
so one of the producers on the movie actually allegedly
said that Toby aguire didn't want the movie to come
out because he felt his improvised performance just revealed too
(16:06):
much about him, and this producer named David Stuttman actually
filed a lawsuit in nineteen against dicabrio and McGuire and
they were able to settle on allowing the film to
be released outside of the US outside of Canada after
some of the scenes were removed, but the movie is
available on YouTube. But it is kind of interesting to
(16:26):
see them that young, especially because Toby maguire and Leonardo
DiCaprio have been friends since they were young, and Don's
Plum was actually the second movie they did together. They
did another movie in nine called This Boy's Life, and
they would do their third movie together in with The
Great Gatsby. I think they actually have a lot of
(16:47):
great on screen chemistry because they are friends. Aside from that,
there's nothing really making me want to sit down and
watch Don's Plum. Now, you probably know the movie Revenge
of the Nerds, which came out in nineteen eighty four,
but it was supposed to be revived and rebooted in
the two thousands. In two thousand and six, there was
a movie starring Adam Brody and Jenna Dewan, directed by
(17:09):
Kyle Newman, who also did a movie in two thousand
and nine later called Fanboys, and it was actually filmed
partially in two thousand and six, but production was quickly
put to a stop, and the movie had issues right
off the bat. First of all, they were filming on
Emory University, and they ended up objecting to the script
and forced the filmmakers to go out and find a
(17:32):
new location because they didn't want them anymore. And that
all happened on pretty short notice. And then about two
weeks after filming, the executives at the studio felt the
movie look too small and decided the entire project wasn't
coming together how they had hoped, so they completely shut
down filming. The cast and crew did end up getting paid,
(17:52):
but they all just ended up having to go their
separate ways. If you look back on the original Revenge
of the Nerds, there are some things in that movie
you probably couldn't make today. So I think when they
were making this movie. Maybe they were going a little
bit harder at some of those themes, some of those topics,
some of those scenes, and it was seen maybe as inappropriate,
(18:12):
maybe as something that maybe something so bad or just
at times to progress in the two thousands that they
didn't want to be a part of that college just
didn't want to be associated with that. Maybe it's just
the movie that didn't really need to be rebooted. There's
a really interesting case of a movie from nineteen seventy
two called The Day of the Clown Died. There's quite
(18:32):
an interesting urban legend surrounding this movie, which stars Jerry
Lewis who plays a clown at a Nazi interment camp.
Sounds like a pretty wild premise, and Jerry Lewis, who
was known primarily for comedy, he was reluctant to take
on this role of a clown, but agreed to star
in and direct the movie. I think in the beginning
(18:55):
stages of this movie while they were writing it, while
he agreed to direct it, he fell like he was
doing something that would be exposing the horrors of the Holocaust.
And then as production started and they're filming this movie
kind of realized that they were doing something that they
weren't really going to be proud of. The message wasn't
getting out there, and even right off the bat, and
(19:16):
the movie had financial problems. They disagreed on parts of
the script. They had some arguments with the writer of
the movie. Jerry Lewis had made some changes to the
script to make the clown more sympathetic instead of being
this cowardly and selfish character that was written. And then
the rights of the film got ripped to shreds. But
what ended up happening is that Jerry Lewis himself was
(19:38):
able to secure the rights to this movie. He had
the rough cut, and at the end of it he
was just embarrassed by it and didn't want this movie
to come out. And in the end he was embarrassed
by the little quality of the film and was happy
when it never saw the light of day. But before
he died in August of seventeen, he donated the incomplete
(19:58):
copy of the movie to the lie Bury of Congress.
He did this in and it was under the stipulation
that the movie not be screen before June, so we
have a couple of years until we can actually see
this movie. And then finally I want to talk about
a movie called one hundred Years, which was filmed and
(20:18):
advertised back in two thousand and five with the tagline
of the movie you will never see. This movie hasn't
been seen by anybody because it's supposed to be released
on November. That is correct, two thousand, one hundred and
fifteen is when this movie is supposed to be released,
(20:39):
a hundred years after it was filmed. Now why is that,
you may ask, Well, the movie A hundred years is
this experimental sci fi movie written by John Malkovich and
directed by Robert Rodriguez. And what it seems on the
surface of this movie, it was all kind of a
marketing thing for this alcohol that I won't even mention
the name of, but that they say takes a hundred
(21:00):
in years to make a bottle of this. So paired
with that advertisement on this alcohol, there's this short film
that exists that they say was actually filmed, that it
is a real thing that was locked away in this
safe that will somehow automatically open on November and that's
(21:21):
when we can finally see this movie. So what the
whole thing just kind of feels like a commercial because
they say the entire plot of this movie is completely secret.
They put out some trailers of the movie which you
see this safe and this alcohol in it, and there's
some exterior shots of this very futuristic world. I guess
what they envisioned the world will look like. But none
(21:42):
of us will be around to see the premiere, and
it's being kept in this really high tech safe behind
bullet proof glass. I think there's probably nothing in there.
I guess that same year we'll also get the Backgirl movie.
But I hope you enjoyed that those are movies that
have never seen the light of day. Coming up, i'll
give my review of Bullet Train, and then we'll talk
(22:04):
about a new Sylvestor stallone movie where you played a superhero.
Let's get into a movie review. Let's talk about Bullet Train,
starring Brad Pitt. It's an action thriller, but really not
one of your typical action movies. It really wasn't what
I was expecting at all. It's about these five assassins.
(22:24):
They all get on board this fast moving bullet train,
so it's kind of like a bottle movie. And then
the entire thing is a little bit mystery. You're trying
to figure out how all of their lives intertwined, which
I really like that aspect to it. Before I get
into my full review, here's just a little taste of
Bullet Train. Just men, nurse, do I my stop? Something
(22:51):
else going on here? Hi? You don't remember me? You
look like everyone home this man I've ever saying, really,
you don't remember me? So maybe that trailer paints a
little bit more of a picture of what this movie
is about, what the style is. I think it took
me about twenty maybe even twenty five minutes to get
into this movie. It's a little bit of an acquired taste,
and I think that may take some people out of
(23:13):
this movie. But once you get into it, you realize
the comedic style, you realize the over the top action style.
It really is a fun ride because the movie is
part murder mystery, part action, part comedy, so it's all
these things kind of working together. But the jokes are
very exaggerated, the action is very exaggerated, and the movie
is based on a Japanese novel. It takes place on
(23:35):
this bullet train in Japan, so I almost feel like
it borrows from that kind of anime style where you know,
it's very expressive, which on the service level may feel
a little bit corny, especially when you go into it
just expecting, oh, it's Brad Pitt in an action movie.
But once you allow yourself to understand what is going on,
know that it's supposed to be over exaggerated for a reason,
(24:00):
to realize there's something a little bit more there. And
what I really liked about this is the direction on
the action. It's very practical, and I think that's because
it's directed by David Leach. She also did movies like
Deadpool too. He worked on the first John Wick movie,
so I know that's why a lot of people are
comparing it to that he has a relationship with Brad Pitt.
He was a stunt double in movies like Fight Club, Troy,
(24:21):
Mr and Mrs Smith, and he worked with Brad Pitt
to get him to be able to do his own
stunts in this movie, and I thought that added a
pretty good touch to it. It's not like he's jumping
off of buildings or doing anything too out there, but
the fact that it is Brad Pitt, who is almost sixty,
which I found pretty surprising doing about of his stunts.
I think that shows his commitment at his point in
(24:43):
his career where he could just hop out and have
a stunt double do this, and within that action, it
kind of feels like part kill bill, part anime, part comedy.
And at moments it does kind of feel like it's
trying a little bit too hard to have that tarantino
esque style to it, but it's not as artsy, it's
not as cinematic enough to be a Quentin Tarantino movie.
(25:06):
But I do think it is the overexaggeration of these
characters of the comedy that gives this movie a little
bit of charm. I ended up enjoying that all the
senses were overheightened, all the facial expressions were very kind
of comical, cartoon like, but I can see where that
may lose some people. I think I actually saw a
couple get up at one point during the movie and
(25:28):
leave and never come back. And maybe it's because it
is over the top violent. I'm talking people getting stabbed,
sliced in half, that kind of thing where it doesn't
really feel completely realistic. But if you're not comfortable with
a lot of blood and guts, maybe really not your thing.
Even though it happens so frequently throughout the entire movie.
It's not really shocking, it's just kind of like, oh,
(25:49):
that's what this movie is. So it's kind of in
that same John Wick. We're going for a lot of blood,
a lot of death in this movie. But I think
where this movie really shines is with the movie star,
Brad Pitt. If it wouldn't have been for Brad Pitt,
I'm not sure I would have liked this movie at all.
I kind of realize why he is a movie star,
(26:10):
and because he is so captivating to watch. There's something
about Brad Pitt being on screen that really just pulls
me into the movie. And he knows what it takes
to create a character to live in that character, and
I really enjoyed seeing this performance of playing this assassin
who is kind of on the road to recovery. He
(26:30):
is very in touch with his emotions and wanting to
get to a place where he doesn't have to do
this type of work. So he almost has this very
chills and like attitude throughout the movie while he's getting
into fights and trying to avoid being killed. And from
an interview I saw with the director that was largely
due to Brad Pitt putting that into his own character,
so you have Brad Pitt really carrying this movie. But
(26:54):
it's also just a really great cast all the way around,
from Bad Bunny to Joey King. And I thought Brian
Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor Johnson were a really great duo.
I almost feel like they could have had a movie
on their own. The other parts of this that I liked.
It did all take place within one location, which you
think could get boring after a while, and you think
(27:15):
of movies like Murder on the Orient Express or Death
on the Nile, where it's not something that hasn't been
done before. But I thought, unlike other movies where it
just takes place primarily in one location, there was so
much going on because it goes between all the five
Assassin storylines, there's flashbacks, so it always feels like it's
moving along, and as far as only really seeing the
(27:35):
bullet train in the entire movie, doesn't really feel like
I gets stale at any point. And I guess what
I was expecting was a little bit more straight on
of an action movie, a little bit more of a
darker tone, and this movie just has a lot of
bright comedic spots and it's pretty hard to get me
to laugh during a movie, but I did find myself
maybe not like dying laughing, but a couple of outward chuckles.
(27:58):
This movie got out of me so almost hesitant to
say that it is a comedy, because you could go
into this and think that wasn't funny at all. I
found it kind of stupid. That's kind of the line
that this movie walks. You could either totally be in
the mood for this. It's a very good Friday night
almost reminiscent of like the nineties action comedy movie. But
if you're not in the mood for that, you could
(28:19):
think this is one of the dumbest movies you'll see
all year, because even though it has the star power,
it has some fun action, it doesn't do anything particularly well.
There's not one quality of this movie that I felt
really defined this that created something long lasting with me.
It kind of just felt like, oh, that was a fun,
entertaining ride. Nothing completely novel. Nothing. I think that it's
(28:41):
going to change the way action movies are made. It
almost kind of felt like riding the wave down and
all the summer action we've had so far, but it's
a pretty fun way down. So I think if you're
a fan of movies like Kill Bill, if you like
very campy animated things and over the top blood and
viole lens, I think this could be in the movie
(29:01):
for you. But if you're going in expecting to be
wowed by Brad Pitt being an action star, I don't
really think that movie will meet those needs for you.
So it's not one I would say to rush to
the theater and watch right now. Unless you have very
low expectations on what you take from an action movie,
then you might find this one as enjoyable as I did.
(29:21):
So if I had to write Bullet Train, I would
give it three point five out of five man buns.
And that is a reference to a moment in the
movie where Brad Pitt puts his hair up into a
man bun and I realized, man, dude still has it.
It's time to head down the movie, Mike Paul. This
(29:43):
week we're talking about Samaritan, which is a new superhero
movie starring Sylvester Stallone. He plays the character Samaritan, who
apparently died many many years ago, has gone into hiding
is now working picking up garbage. But there is this
kid who is thirteen years old and suspects him to
be a superhero. So before we get into what we
(30:06):
think about this trailer, here's just a little bit of Samaritan.
I found him Samaritan. Samaritan died years ago. That's what
do they say. Do you think you live across from
a superhero? Do you have a therapist? Kid? Good? Samaritans
(30:26):
is dead. I picked up garbage. We're living about. Samaritan
cleaned up the streets. You mind your business on my mind.
So what you here there at the end of the
trailer is Sylvester Sloan's character, who is Joe Smith, a
(30:48):
k a. Samaritan getting hit by a car and totally
gets annihilated, taken out by this car, is all bruised
up and broken bone and then is able to pop
all those bones back into place because he is a superhero.
And the kid in that clip is Sam Cleary, who
is played by the same actor who is Ashtray in Euphoria.
(31:09):
And you also hear Martin Starr in that who is
in Freaks and Geeks back in the day, is also
in Silicon Valley, a very funny actor. And what this
movie is about is twenty four years ago there was
this superpowered vigilante named Samaritan. He supposedly died in a
warehouse battle with his rival. The whole thing went up
(31:29):
in flames. He was taken out by Nemesis, but he
has stayed living in secret, and now crime is coming
back up, and you have this kid Sam who wants
him to come out of hiding to save the city.
And it kind of feels like an old school eighties
action movie, very similar to what we have seen Sylvester
(31:50):
Stallone in before. But I'm kind of all about it.
I like the idea of an age superhero. It kind
of reminds me of one of my favorite animated bat
Man movies called The Dark Knight Returns, which came out
has nothing to do really with the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight.
That movie is about Batman coming out of retirement. He's
(32:11):
in his fifties now and he fights the Joker, he
fights to face and then gets involved in this battle
to the death against Superman. There is a part one
and part two on HBO Max if you haven't seen that,
But that is what this new Sylvestor Stalone movie kind
of reminds me of. This idea of a superhero who
isn't as strong or fast, or doesn't even recover as
(32:33):
quickly as he used to. I think that's a pretty
interesting premise. And if you put him against his old
arch nemesis, I think even if it's a little bit cheesy,
even if it's a little bit cliche, at least there's
something a little bit more here to chew on. This
movie was actually supposed to come out in theaters and
has been delayed time after time. They filmed it back
(32:55):
in and it was supposed to be released in November,
and that got pushed back all the way to June
fourth of last year, never came out in theaters. But
now it's coming out on August two after Amazon bought MGM,
and they're like, you know what, let's just put it
out on prime video. And I just got to say
(33:15):
shout out to Sylvester Stallone who is seventy six years
old and still doing this type of action movie. He
doesn't have to do this at seventy six years old.
I'm just gonna be chilling. I'm not trying to fight
anybody anymore. I don't know if he's still just enjoys
making movies that much, or this was just something that
he really believed in. I feel like he's still a
(33:36):
very passionate actor who I feel like he will keep
making movies probably until his eighties. So this is one
I'm curious to check out on Amazon. This makes ad
and that's gonna do it for another episode here on
the podcast and from my listeners shout out this week,
(33:58):
I am going over to my Instagram M d M
S and I got a d M from Basto Ovayl
and he wrote, Hey Mike, I am learning English and
practicing while listening to Movie mis Movie Podcast. I'm a
Venezuelan actor living in Mexico City and I appreciate the
content that you were doing. By the way, Leela and
Stitch is my favorite animated film. I think it's amazing
(34:18):
you're trying to learn English. I may not be the
best example as the one to listen to to learn
how to speak English, but I remember this is something
I experienced as well. My parents were both born and
raised in Mehicol. They moved to the United States and
had to learn English primarily by watching TV. My older
brother and sister learned so much by watching Sesame Street,
(34:41):
and I think my parents watched it with them too
and picked up on things because they didn't speak any English.
So later once I was born, I also learned a
lot from Sesame Street because still now to this day,
my parents will speak Spanish to me and we just
kind of have this way of communicating. Of sometimes I
speak a half in English half in Spanish. But I
(35:02):
do owe a lot of learning English to television. I
think if maybe podcasts where a thing back in the day,
I would have taken this approach to But appreciate that message,
pastor and all the luck into learning English. It's a
very weird language. A lot of things don't make sense,
so I will do my best in representing the language
(35:22):
as best as I can. Thanks everybody for listening. If
you don't mind, If you enjoyed this episode and think
you have a friend who may enjoy it, to share
it with them, texted to them, tag them in your
Instagram story, or if you don't want to bother a friend,
just do me a favor. And wherever you're listening, whether
it be on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, rate at five stars,
(35:43):
write a quick little review. It doesn't take a whole
lot of time. You can do it in seconds and
it helps me out in the podcast algorithm helps me
compete with all the other movie podcasts out here. And
until next time, go out and watch good movies and
I will talk to you later
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