Ep. 331: Netflix Buys WB?

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:53):
Welcome Friends Podcasts Podcasting the show Jacky Bryan talking.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
To Welcome to Movie Film. It's episode three thirty one,
brought to you by mister Boy Productions. I'm Zachy issign.
I'm here with Brian Hall. Hey, how's it going, Zachie.
Happy December, Brian, Wow, Yes, happy December.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Last we talked, it was before Thanksgiving. No, it was
Thanksgiving when we recorded the GoldenEye commentary.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
That's right. Yeah, yeah, twenty twenty five is about to
enter the history books. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
You know, it's been a good year. But I will
say November did was it just me? Or did that
go by in a blink of an eye?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Very much so.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
I mean it's been a pretty fast year for me.
But November I don't even remember it. I keep thinking
it is November right now.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Well, I will just say it. Remember remember November, just
all of No, it doesn't have to be the fifth
of November. Just remember it all. I'll try what I
can remember of it. It was. It was a good month.
It was a good month. But yeah, to your point,
it has been a good year. Let me let me
couch it. It's been a good year for movies. Yeah,
I think so. I think as far as just everything else,

(02:15):
as I gesture broadly at the flaming wreck of society,
that's kind of I'm kind of torn on that, but
certainly movie wise, entertainment wise, there have been some some
some prime choice options out there. You know.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
I was just talking to someone recently about, oh, movies
you like this year?

Speaker 3 (02:32):
And sometimes you think.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh, you know, and you try to recall the year.
But I was like, oh, man, I mean one Battle
after another, Weapons, Superman, you know, Ciners, Companion, like all
these movies just started coming to me. I was like, yeah,
it was pretty pretty stacked year. You had a new
Naked Gun movie that was good, that's right. You know,

(02:54):
a new Mission Impossible movie.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Good year. Well, you've watched a
lot of TV lately.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, I have a handful of things I want to cover,
so I'll make TV a bit of a lightning round.
But I just want to I haven't referenced this yet,
but I've been watching The Chair Company a.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yes, Tim Robinson's new thing, yeah, which is just wrapped up.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
And it's funny because I didn't see it the night
it aired, but I got multiple texts from different people
saying did you catch The.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Chair Company finale? So it's like, Okay, there must be
something here that I need to check out. But have
you seen this? I have not. I've been seeing the
Little Tile on it's on HBO, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
so that's beckoning towards me.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
So it's interesting Tim Robinson has for his humor is
so immediately recognizable, but it's interesting how different his projects
can feel. Right because Detroitter's which is wonderful and I
highly recommend to anybody who likes Tim Robinson. It's very
bright and upbeat and sweet and about these two best friends.

(04:07):
Maybe one of my favorite things he's done. I Think
You Should Leave, is very fun and silly, you know,
a sketch show, but it can also lean into the
like super strange and the Chair Company. I swear literally
it's like Tim Robinson in a David Lynch movie. Not
so you know, like if David Lynch made a comedy
with Tim Robinson, which is to say, it has comedic

(04:31):
moments and it has very Robinson like you know flares
where it's like this guy who becomes obsessed with things
to a kind of funny degree and then to an
almost scary degree, but there's just this other worldliness that's
you know, humming underneath all of it. And it's been
like that the whole season, but then in the finale.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
It just like goes full, like.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
You know, I keep David Lynch I use as a
shorthand I mean, obviously it has its own voice, but
I mean just that ooh, this supernatural you know kind
of a thing, and just even the sound design. You know,
one of the big things with David Lynch films is
this very subtle, slightly unnerving, you know, sounds coming out
of the rear speakers where you just don't feel comfortable

(05:15):
and you don't know why, and it's because, oh, there's
this weird thrumbing happening or something. And there's a lot
of that going on in this. But the premise, i'll
say real fast is Tim Robinson plays a guy who's
on stage at a presentation at his work and he
sits on a chair when he's done speaking, and the
chair breaks on stage and everyone laughs and then they

(05:37):
move on, but he cannot move on and he's like,
why did that chair break?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Right? Yeah, that's either the premise of a three minute
sketch or yes, an entire series.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well, so then it sends him down this rabbit hole
where he is finding a potential conspiracy that takes over
his life.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
That's basically what the show was about.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
And like I say, this isn't the Detroiters. This is
like darker kind of friendship, that kind of more uncomfortable
sort of thing, and it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
I honestly can't.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Say that I loved it, but I was constantly intrigued
by it, like I did want to keep watching because
it was so you just literally could never predict what
was going to happen next. But I also at the
can't at the same time can't say that I like
loved it, you know what I mean. But and it

(06:35):
got renewed for a season two and I will absolutely
be watching it because I have to see what happens next,
and I am intrigued by it, and I I love
that I don't know what to expect and that it
will surprise me and probably disturb me and make me
laugh and all of those things. So it's a it's
a weird It gives me a weird feeling, And maybe
that's the best compliment I can give it, because I

(06:55):
think that's what it's going for. So Chair Company very
curious for people out there who've been checking out if
they want to write in their opinions, because you know,
it's something you definitely feel like you want to talk about.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
After you witness it real quick.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
I also want to mention, I mean, I'll just say
real fast, I'm still watching Pluribus on Apple TV plus
new one drop today.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
I love this show.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
It's just, you know, the mystery of what's going on.
You are continually pulled along through it. The way that
unfolds is just so Vince Gilligan, where there's a lot
of process. You know, people will be in the middle
of doing something that's very process oriented and you don't
quite know what they're doing, and it gets revealed eventually,

(07:40):
but you're just so riveted by what's happening that you
want to know what's happening, you know. And then of
course there's a big I won't even get into it
for people haven't started, but there's a big sort of
mystery that's happening and we're continuing to learn about it,
and I continue to be fascinated by it and loving
Racy Horn, and I.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Can't wait to watch it tonight. So plurbis still I
recommend and I am looking forward to finally diving into
that series. Yes, and you know what it. Severance, which
was on Apple TV Plus, is another sort of what
the heck is going on kind of show, and that
is I think the only show I've ever binged the

(08:17):
entire season in one day. Wow. And I feel like
Pluribis would be a really great.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Show to be able to binge, okay, because you just
want to keep going and going, and at the I
don't know, it moves at at like an interesting rate
where it's always intriguing, but I'm always thirsty for more,
which I obviously is a success on their behalf. But
like I, it's really hard for me when it ends.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
I'm like, no, I have to wait a week? What
was this nineteen eighty eight?

Speaker 1 (08:47):
But anyway, real quick, I'll just cover just a couple
of movies because then I have another TV show that
you and I can talk about together, and these will
be kind of fast. But I just want to acknowledge
I saw a Wicked for Good?

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Acknowledged? Did that reveal how I felt about it? I
gotta acknowledge I saw Wicked for Good? No, I saw
Wicked for Good? Have you seen either Wicked movies? Not
as of yet? Okay, are you now done with Wicked
for Good?

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well, universal certainly won't be, you know, I think I
said with the first one, I'd never seen the musical.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
I like musicals. I'm not opposed to them.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
I would actually still like to see the musical Wicked,
because I think i'd like to see it in its
original form, as one complete piece. I'm curious what that
experience would be like. The first one, I was like,
this fun. You know, I didn't, you know, get much
more out of me than that. But I also I
was there with people who were wearing green and pink

(09:45):
and singing along, and I was like, that's awesome, Like
it seems like the fans really love it and they
love the casting and the interpretations.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
That made me happy.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Wicked for Good I was looking forward to because I
don't think this is a spoiler, but this is the
of the story where the Wizard of Oz, you know,
Dorothy and the tin Man and the Scarecrow now is
happening in the background, like in tandem with the Wicked story.
So I was really looking forward to that. And I
will say that that's probably the parts I enjoyed most. Okay,

(10:17):
I just I don't know, I just can't completely find
my way into this. You know, it's pretty to look at,
and I I don't know, I just never quite found
my way in, but whenever it did, you know, Dorothy
would sort of be in the background, or they'd be
you know, like there's a moment where.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Alphaba and Glinda.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Meet in front of the house that's crashed on the witch,
you know, with the slippers, and Dorothy's already left.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
So I was like, oh the house, Oh the yellower
growed a.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
You know, like when it started becoming things I recognized,
and then they were building out from the things that
I knew.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
That was the stuff that I was most like, Hey,
that's fun.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
But yeah, at the I saw that even reviews and
maybe even some fans are feeling like a little not
as enthusiastic about this one, and just by virtue of
this isn't really a complete tale. It really is like
the ending of the thing that started last year. So
I maybe will never feel wholly satisfying, but I could

(11:21):
see someday watching maybe both back to back, you know,
like a couple of years from now, and just seeing
how they feel as a whole. But like what I
kept thinking of, you know, people who are getting excited
about it, Oh they added that song, or oh this
is that thing that's in the stage play, and they
do it this way. It reminded me of how it
must feel for someone who doesn't know anything about Star Wars. Sure,

(11:41):
and when the whole world seems to be obsessed with
something and you're like in the new movie, they you know,
name checked Chewbacca's cousin and like everyone went crazy, you know,
but I don't know why, you know, but I would
understand that, But that person would feel on the outside.
Now I finally feel on the outside of something. Yeah,
and I'm like, hey, I'm I'm glad they're enjoying it.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
But okay, so so kind of a mixed mixed reaction
at Fast.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, I didn't mind watching it, but I can't say
I got super into it either.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Unfortunately, two more real fast. I saw the movie Sentimental Value.
Have you heard of this? It sounds familiar. Refresh my memory, you.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Know, this is one that's in all now this time
of year, a lot of movies are coming out there,
like awards hopeful movies, right, and this is one that
kept coming up. And I just knew that it had
Stellin Scar's Guard in it, and Elf Fanning and.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
That's all I knew. And yeah, this is this is
what I was thinking of. Okay, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
So basically, I mean I didn't even know the story,
and I'll say I'm gonna say a little bit more
than IMDb says, because it's very very.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Does does Stellin scars Guard lug around half of el
Fanning on his back for the movie, I know.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
But I was thinking she has she's had quite a
year and and and seeing quite a month. Yeah, I
was gonna say seeing her made me happy, and I
was like, oh, I like, she's really popping up in
a lot of things that I'm watching, and she's a
welcome presence.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
You know, she's very cheerful.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
And so anyway, the plot that uh, I don't think
really spoils anything. But basically it's a it's a family
drama about an absentee father played by scars Guard who's
a film director and he wants his daughter to play
a role in his newest movie. That the story seems
to be vaguely about his ex wife or no, I'm sorry,

(13:34):
his mother. It's it's vaguely about the directors scars Guard's mother,
but it could all. It also has some elements, like
family elements that make the daughter uncomfortable because he's like
I say, he's kind of an absentee father. She feels
uncomfortable with it. So then he goes to this known
actress played by Elf Fanning, and it's just how does

(13:54):
this make everyone feel? How does that even make the
actress feel? You know, she's being kind of brought into
this family drama kind of stuff, and it's it's it's
a very grounded human drama just about relationships and the
effects of trauma and even generational trauma, and it just

(14:15):
it's just really solid, you know. It's just a real
good human story and it's very well acted. Something it
did really well.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
I thought it it.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Captured like the nuance of dynamics between people. So El
Fanning is as weird to understand it, like one of
the biggest actresses in the world. Everyone knows who she is,
but she's in awe of Scarsguard who we first meets
this kind of crummy father. But when she meets him,
she's like, oh, you made that that movie that like

(14:51):
changed my life, and so she really revers him and
so we get to see how the daughters look at him,
but then we also see how this actress looks up
to him as a director, you know, and then how
he has to be delicate around his daughters, but then
he can sort of be this, well you.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Know why is sage sort of figure to the actress?

Speaker 1 (15:12):
And like, I just it gave me these feelings that
I didn't even I just felt I didn't even identify them,
just about how I feel in the presence of different
types of people. And I thought that was kind of
amazing how well they captured that that sort of thing,
and that's very important to the story, how everyone feels
about each other and in the presence of one another.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
You know, it's really mature. It's it's a little over
two hours, you know, it's it's it's interesting because it's
it's it takes its time and it's paced in such
a way. And I had this thought, and I have
to admit it.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
I was like, oh, I felt like I was watching
a really great TV show, which I was like, that's
so sad, and really it.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Just what you're describing sounds like a season of one
of these prestige streaming shows.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
One hundred percent, And strangely that's kind of a compliment.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, you know what I mean. So it it's not
like a big.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
You know, a lot of punches in it as a
movie within two hours. Like it just feels like you're
watching a great series kind of unfold at its pace
in a way that keeps you engaged, and you know
you are invested in each character equally and you want
to you know, you want to see them come out
the other side together.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah. Yeah, sentimental value is really good.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
I can't I can't say like, oh, man, like this
is going to sweep all the awards, go catch this
while this is this is in theaters. But this is
like a solid human drama for you know, an evening
you're in the mood for.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
That stellone Scars guard Man. Here's a guy who I
feel like does not get nearly enough credit for how
consistently good he is.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
He is so effortless in this at what he's doing.
It's it's yeah, I mean everybody is good. Oh and
I should say, I'm gonna say this name incorrectly but
renate Rhindzef with apologies to renate rhinds Off. But I
believe she was in a movie called The Worst Person

(17:15):
in the World, Okay, which I know a lot of
people really loved. And I think this is a second
collaboration between hers.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
It's about Quentin Tarantino, right, Yeah, we should get to that.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
But yeah, her and this director work before on that,
I believe. And she plays the daughter in here, and
she's very very good. She's she's doing a lot of
subtle things that involve a lot of complicated feelings.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
It's it's very good.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Just no, you know, no, you know, you're you're settling
in for like a patiently paced human drama. But like,
if you're in the mood for that, you're gonna get
a lot out of this great performance. Is interesting story.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
I enjoyed it, so okay, I recommend.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
And then finally I saw a movie that I feel
like just was a blip, but it's called Rental Family.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I just got the screener for this, so I'm
actually very much looking forward to watching it.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
This is just a nice movie. I mean, basically, maybe
I will read the IMDb wanted to try to sum
this up, but basically says Brendan Fraser plays an American
actor in Tokyo struggling to find purpose and acting gigs,
and he lands an unusual gig working for a Japanese
rental family agency where he stands in in various roles

(18:37):
for strangers. So he'll pretend to be someone will hire
him to be, like, say, tell this girl you're her
long lost father because she needs this right now, or
like a woman will need her family to believe she's
getting married, and so they hire him to pretend to
be the husband.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Even though that's not true.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Like you know, so he's doing these acting roles, but
they're actually, you know, affecting people's lives or making people
believe certain things that aren't exactly true. And it's funny
because in some ways it's kind of sweet, but in
other ways it's I mean, you're lying to a lot
of people, you're manipulating people, manipulating people, and even if

(19:18):
the person who hired you that's what they want, it's like,
you know, this can affect people's lives, and it's you know,
it's very sweet, is ultimately the feeling of this movie.
It's I'd call it a dramedy, but it's very sweet.
I almost even thought.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Kind of Frank Capra esque in a way.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Wow, And I mean that's I don't mean to go
that far, but it's just in the terms that it's well, yeah,
I mean, it's it's very light, and it really means well,
and it's trying to shine a light on just being
positive forces in other people's lives, you know, and you
might make mistakes, but how can.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
You correct those mistakes? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Like it it almost and I guess I think of
capra because in a way that almost feels old.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Fashioned, right right.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
I will say it's not particularly deep. You don't necessarily
dig in as much as I imagine you could with
some of these things that it is, you.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Know, pretty.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
I don't know, like there are consequences, but everything kind
of happens and it's nice and light, and then it's
a little dark, but we'll get out of that and
we'll just you know what I mean, Like it just
kind of breezes past. Yeah, but maybe that's okay because
then you walk out and you get to enjoy a
version of this story that is, you walk out feeling good, okay,

(20:41):
And I enjoyed my time with it. So I think
this is probably not gonna be in theaters much longer, unfortunately.
But I think for people looking for like a nice
you know where sentimental value is a little bit more
of a drama, but very human and very much about
the characters and how they feel even more so maybe
then the story I would say this is similar but

(21:02):
a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Sweets and breezy. When I saw the trailer, the thought
I had was, I felt like I felt like it
was a great showcase for what makes Brendan Fraser a
unique performer because he's just he's sort of effortlessly likable,

(21:26):
and he's also like really benefited from these smaller type
of films. You know, you know, he had his blockbuster moment,
but like his best performances are the ones where he
gets to just be a person. You know, I'm thinking
of school ties and you know, gods and monsters and

(21:47):
you know, even the quiet American, which is a much
darker character for him. But I mean, you know, he
is a very good actor. Yeah, And so my thought was,
I'm glad that he used his host Oscar moment to
lean into actorly stuff totally. And I think he's a
producer on this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
But you know, he's also he's a he's a gentle giant, yeah, right,
Like he's very big, he has a big frame, you know,
but he's also unquestionably sweet. You know, you never question
that he has any bad intentions or there's like a
darkness lurking like he just wants In this movie especially,
I mean that's what I think he brings to a

(22:28):
lot of things, but in this movie especially, he's just
a guy who's got some things he needs to work
through himself. But he just wants to make everybody's life better,
and he worries at times if he really is and
he just the sweetness and soulfulness that Brendan Fraser has

(22:48):
in those kind of big eyes of his definitely make
him perfect for this story.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
So I think you'll like it.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think i'd say it's like mostly family friend friendly.
There's like a moment where he visits a prostitute, but
it's not like it's really more about them talking to
one another, like there's nothing graphic. But I would say
this is a pretty nice movie that most people would enjoy.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
You know. Well, it's again in that vein before we
before we move on, I wanted to mention speaking a
nice you know, good hearted characters. I wanted to mention
Zutopia too, Yeah, yeah, tell me about it, which man,
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. You know, I don't think
it's as good as the first one. You've seen Zutopia, right,
the first one I did. Yeah, I think z Utopia,

(23:36):
the first one was just a diamond. I think it's
one of the best Disney movies of the last ten years. Yeah. Yeah,
And I think I think both those two characters, Judy
Hops and Nick Wilde, they are to me as instantly
iconic as Buzz and Woody were when got that first

(23:58):
toy story, you know, And I just say, you know,
I think Judy Hops is just adorable and relatable, and
she's she's somebody you wish you could be, like, right,
because she's so good hearted, yeah, tenacious and exactly you know.
And so you know, I remember when they announced Utopia too,

(24:18):
I was like, well, I get it, but I was like, like,
we don't need it, you know. But that's never stopped Disney.
But it's always like, well, hopefully the fact that they
waited so long to make it, they didn't just crank
it out, was an indication that they waited for the
right story. I think they did, you know. Yeah, I
think it's a very solid follow up, and it's just
you know, the great, great chemistry between U, you know,

(24:42):
Jennifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman as Nick and Judy and
and it's just it's just nice. And you know, I
think you leave the theater feeling good. Yeah, and sometimes
you need that, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Well, it's makes me think of like Wreck at Ralph
for something, also, where it's another world and they mine
as much.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
As possible out of that, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Like sort of doing funny one to ones from our
world to what their world is like, Like what if
it was a world of all animals and how is
that similar to ours? And what kind of jokes can
we make? And yeah, you know, as I had heard
about this one, it's like that too, where there's just
so much going on creative.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
There's there's one beat and I don't even I won't
even I won't consider it's a spoiler. There's one moment
that's a very clever homage to the Shining, which what
I loved about it is that it to me, it's
like those great Simpsons gags from when we were kids,
where you don't even know it's a thing until you
see the real thing later. Oh you know. Hm that

(25:45):
so I was like, I was like jealous of all
the kids who are going to watch this movie completely
oblivious and then they'll watch The Shining Way later and
just appreciate the genius of this gag all over again.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
You know.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Ah, that's I love that. I love that obviously.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, those sorts of things from this instance meant so
much to us.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, exactly so. This movie, unfortunately, you know, part of
the reason Rental Family made, you know, like eight dollars
and seventy cents at the box offices, because between Zutopia
two and Wicked for Good all the money was getting
hoovered up. But at least in the case of Utopia,
I'll say, you know, it was It's worth seeing in

(26:23):
the theater and it was worth the wait.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Great, I'm in the mood for that. I want to
see something fun and poppy and you.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Will enjoy it. I don't see you not like Ann.
I might have to revisit the first one though it's
been a minute. Yeah, well, I mean this isn't exactly
Stranger Things where there's like a labyrinthine mythology. You can
get the highlights. Speaking of Stranger Things. Oh so, so

(26:52):
they dropped the first four episodes of the final season
this past week. Netflix crashed Yeah, yeah, within hours, But
were you able to watch the episodes. I did, yes,
because I didn't watch them right away, Okay, but yes
I did, and I was reading.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
This morning just how wildly successful it's been. I mean,
this show has just always been like I read so
many amazing things for Netflix, right, like, yeah, it's it's
and it's never it's been consistent. It's not like it's
even waned. I mean, this is their final season. It's
not like there's been a drop off.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
It's like their highest debut or something. That's the most
interesting thing to me, because this is the conversation we're
having in our last episode, like is there are they
Are they sort of kai bashing the enthusiasm of the
fan base by having these long gaps, And I guess
clearly the answer is no.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
And I know, and we have talked about that in
past episodes that that's a downside of modern TV, right where,
you know, I really enjoy those Seth Rogan shows, right
Studio and Platonic, But I doubt I'll see another season
for another two years, you know. So it's but obviously
there was a lot of things working against stranger things,

(28:12):
strikes and COVID and all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, But.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Speaking of its popularity. I mean, I think I sent
a thing to you where they're going to show the
finale in theaters right right and so on on New
Year's Eve. And in my head I was like, oh.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
New Year's Eve. I don't know, Like who knows what's
going on that day? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
But anyway, I got a notification that tickets were available,
and just out of curiosity, I was I wanted to
see how many seats had been sold. And so I
go over there sold out, like it's all sold out.
So I was like, whoa, Okay, so that like the
eight of a PM is sold out. So I look,
they had four showings, all four showings on New Year's
Eve sold out completely, like every seat and uh so

(28:56):
I was like whoa. So then later I went back
and I saw they had add times and those were
sold out. Man, So I mean this, I mean, obviously
we like it. There's a lot of people that like it,
But I do wonder if this is in particular with
maybe a specific generation, right, is something that they came
up with and this is you know what I'm saying. Yeah,

(29:18):
I feel like I sense that a little bit online
there's like a certain generation that kind of grew up
with this, and.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Well, I mean, I mean, yeah it could because we're
talking about roughly ten years since the show started, right,
That's wild. Ten years kids have grown up with the
main characters. Although the main characters are like basically the
same age on the show, but still, you know, because
I have kids in my classes where like I was

(29:44):
in middle school when it started, you know that, and
they're in college now, right. Wow. I wrote a little
piece for the paper about about these new episodes, and
what I what I said in that is that as
it's working towards the end, there's a little bit of
a feeling like, Okay, we're getting like things are starting

(30:04):
to wrap up now, and it's sort of like it's
it's you're feeling nostalgic for this whole experience, m you know.
And that made me think, like, you know, when this
is all said and done, and let's stipulate that they
don't completely shit the bed at the end of the
which could happen. I said, they could Game of Thrones
this thing. Sure, Well, let's assume it's like a satisfying ending.

(30:27):
Then then the whole the whole conversation people have with
Game with excuse me, the Stranger Things is going to
be very different because it's going to be these you know,
this completed thing. It's not this thing that we're waiting
several years to see the next thing. You know. So
like from now on, it's going to be viewed holistically.

(30:48):
M h and that's going to be something completely different. Yep.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
You know, well, what do you think of their strategy
of not dropping all the episodes on one day. They're
doing two volumes, you know, one November one and December,
and then the finale.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
As a separate a third drop on New Year's Eve?
I mean, how do you I well, I don't what
do you make of that? I actually think in this
particular instance, it's smart because you know it, we're not
waiting six months at a time. Mm hmmm. So like right,
like like if it was, oh, the next three are

(31:25):
in March and then July one the final year, I'd
be a little more circumspect about that. Yeah, But I mean,
you know, this is in essence, this is like, uh,
you know, it's as if the episodes were being released weekly,
but just with with different gaps in between. You know.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
My read on it was I had heard the Duffer
brothers talk about making these shows and being like, I mean,
we were making.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Like eight movies.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yeah, some of these episodes are ninety minutes. That's like
a feature film and longer, I think, and I'm wondering
if they were like, we can't make eight freaking movies
and just have them drop on one day, right, and
then next week everyone's talking about something else, Like if

(32:18):
this is the end and we've put in this much work,
we need these to be people to digest them a
little bit. And so I wonder if that was part
of the conversation, like, Okay, then put like this chunk,
give it a little space. Then they can appreciate that chunk,
you know, and then it doesn't just become one big gobble.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
I definitely agree with that. I also think that the
nature of where the fourth episode left things, it's it's like,
give us a little breather and then let's get back
into it, as opposed to waiting longer than that. Yeah,
I think, you know, what is it about about about
three weeks? Right, four weeks whatever, that's like the right

(32:58):
amount of time.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I gotta say, I mean, we haven't really said what
we think about it, but I'm really enjoying it. Yeah,
and I have one left in the first batch.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Oh you haven't watched the Oh.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
You know why though, Like I've been spacing it because
I want to savor. When I started it up, it
had been obviously, however many years since the last one,
and there was part of me that was like, oh,
this show is like actually like cornier than I remember.
But then it like right off the you know, when
it started. But then I was like, oh yeah, but

(33:31):
like I love that about it, Like I love the
goofiness of these characters and the way that they interact
with each other. And it's kind of cheesy, but like
in the best possible way. And it's also genuinely scary.
And it has a totally singular tone, like this doesn't
feel like kind of like it. It doesn't feel kind

(33:53):
of like this. Like obviously it's a big pastiche in
a lot of ways, but it really does have its
own voice. And I was really happy to be back
in it, and so yeah, I didn't want to just
gobble them all down in one night.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
I've been kind of spacing them out right. I mentioned
in my article that I think this show has grown
beyond pastiche at this point, right, it's created mythology all
its own, and it's sure, you know, and it's going
to end up inspiring future generations, you know.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
I feel like they've found a brilliant balance where I think,
without saying spoilers, but I think it's particularly Episode two,
huge poultry geist vibes, yes, like just straight up like
visually like whoa damn poultry geist?

Speaker 3 (34:38):
You know. But I think you're right, Like they don't
lean on those things. Those are almost like.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Little easter eggs, kind of a weird alternate version of
what you were talking about with Zootopia and the Shining,
you know what I mean, where we get to watch
this and for people of our generation, we go, oh.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Oh, I should show my kids pultry Geist, right, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
But that's not it's those aren't crush they do have.
It's not leaning on that stuff. That's just a fun
little thing that happens as a part of a much
larger story that is very much its own thing.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Yeah, And and I think the mythology holds together pretty well, yeah,
you know. And I feel like, you know, what I
always think about is like Lost, which just stretched it
stretched itself too thin, trying to go longer and longer,
and I don't feel like we've we've hit that place,

(35:33):
not particularly with this. I mean, there's moments where it
feels like, Okay, let's wrap it up, you know, But
I think overall, it's it's it's paced itself pretty well,
you know, I think so.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
And I think we mentioned this in a past episode.
But I feel like this is my memory, and this
could be like a symptom of you know, me watching
all the episodes in one day and then not thinking
about it for like two years and then another one comes.
But I remember the upside down sort of the I
remember that big spidery sort of ominous creature, you know,

(36:05):
seeing it over Hawkins, and I'm.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Like, this is great imagery. This is scary. I know
we need to need to defeat that.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
But I can't say I completely understand this, Like I'm
not sure I understand the threat or what it wants
or what it means if it wins, or that's my
memory of it. But I feel like in season four
they did a really great job of being like bring
all that into a sharper focus where it's like, this
is the bad guy.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
He's got a name.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
You know, he's got a persona and there's you know,
and this is what he wants and this is what
this means for the town.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
So I think that's as they've gone along, it's gotten.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Stronger, I think the mythology, and so now I totally
get it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they
conquer it save the day this season.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
I do find it amusing that just some of the
online discourse. One thing I said this to you earlier,
where we have Lucas makes a reference to Mission Impossible.
Oh yeah, and people online are like, how does Lucas
know about Mission Impossible? It came out in nineteen ninety six.
The show is of course set in like nineteen eighty seven,

(37:14):
And I just look at that and I just I
just kind of weep for humanity, right because because, okay,
so for those of you listening, I'm sure you all
know this Mission Impossible. It was a television show in
the nineteen sixties into the seventies. It existed well before
the movie came out, Right Now, it's okay to not
know that. It's that's fine, right, because there's plenty of things.

(37:38):
There are plenty of gaps we all have in our
pop culture memory. My thought is, why don't you just
google it? Right? Like it's easier to find shit out?

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Do you find just generally speaking, that a lot of
people don't tend to google stuff as much as I
think you and I do. Like when I don't know
something or you know, sometimes and this isn't like a
putdown or anything, but sometimes people would be like, oh man,
this happened and I don't know.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
What it is.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I'm like google it, like I That's my first thing
when some my faucets linking it, you know, like I
just I don't know. That's such like my go to
mode that I'm always surprised that people don't think of
that right away.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
It's it's very odd, right because because you know there
maybe it's just because we we remember the before times,
like pre google, where you would have a question about
something and you would just never know the answer. Yeah, right,
Like I talk about this all the time, you know,

(38:40):
during the pandemic, when when my wife and I we
were going through Er, you know, the entire Er series.
There'd be episodes where like some person is a patient
and be like, Hey, who's that guy? And then I'd
pull out my phone and within three seconds, I'm like, oh,
that's the guy who was in the thing with the
thing and the other thing. Oh okay. You know, I
was thinking about how there was a time when you'd
be like, hey, guy looks familiar. Oh well I'll never

(39:02):
know every Yeah, Like I just never know that, right, Yeah.
And now it's like we have access to every piece
of information we could possibly want, and yet we have
never been more lazy and unmotivated to just find stuff
out right. And and my point is like, now, because
of social media, you can put something like that out
there and you're gonna have people dunking on you like forever.

(39:25):
And I'm like, well, if you don't know, just like
don't post about it. But you don't know, you know, sure? Sure. Anyway,
that was my thought where I'm like, this is this
makes me makes me sad, just it is strange. Yeah,
I mean, what's coming.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
But I do feel like we're that cusp for that
because I remember my dad watching.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
The uh not a remake, but it was like a
follow up right in the eighties, the Mission Impossible.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Seriously, Yeah, this said Peter Graves in it. And that's
how I became aware that there was one from the
sixties or whatever. So but I wouldn't be surprised if
people slightly younger than us didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
I mean, I can see not watching it and not
having seen it, but like the notion of it existing,
and then you know, it's like that would be such
a big error for a show like this too, like it.
Why not do the minimal amount of legwork to just
make sure that you're dunk is well founded.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Right if you're going to go on the record and yeah, yeah,
I see what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yeah, yeah, well I do. I'll tell you what. Oh no,
go ahead and go ahead, No, no, that's all.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Well, we did a commentary and I made I said
some sort of trivia thing because I'd read it somewhere
and doing my research, and then we had someone right
in and be like, actually, that's not entirely correct. And
I try to be really good about that and that
I wouldn't say it haunts me, but it is like
now always in my mind, so when I'm looking things

(41:02):
up or if I'm going to say something on the show.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
I do.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
I thought I had done my due diligence before, but
now I really do make sure before I say something
on the record.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
I want to make sure that I can back it up. Yeah. Yeah,
Well in that vein, I got a message from from
Adam Ox who listened to our Oh darn it well
it was our Golden Eye commentary, and he pointed something
out the mistake that I can't remember. No, but I

(41:30):
was like, oh my gosh. I was like, I realized
that after we had recorded what was Oh you know
what it was. It was about. It was that M
I five versus I six and M I six. I
alluded to it being fictional and it's not. It's a
real thing. Oh and and Adam said something to the
effect of like, you know, like I make those mistakes

(41:51):
all the time, but mine aren't. Mine aren't like you know,
put on wax. And I was like, yeah, so kind
of to your point, like yeah, it's like try to
be good about that stuff, but yeah, sometimes it just
slips out, but you feel awkward and embarrassed about it.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, that it exists, you know, Yeah, or do you
find I do this all the time where I am
trying to express the thought and I'm like sitting here
trying to find the words, and the second we hang up,
I think of the most like concise, eloquent, perfect way
to express myself. And I think, well, damn.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
It, yeah, you have your your jerk store moment. Yeah right, exactly, exactly, yeah,
yeah all the time. This is a life that's not
even confined to this show. That's true, that's true, you know.
But hey, hey, speaking of letters, we we got we
got a handful of letters, Brian, Yeah, you have for

(42:48):
eighteen addressed. You've got Mayo. Thanks everybody who has written in.
Here's a comment we got from Luke's mail twenty four.
This was on YouTube, and this was in reference to
our last episode where we talked about the trailer for Moana,

(43:15):
the live action Moana remake. Ye, and Luke says, hey, guys,
I haven't seen the Moana live action trailer, but I
just saw the trailer viewing numbers for it, and it
had one hundred and thirty two million viewers in twenty
four hours. For people wondering why Disney are making this
so soon after the original, there's your answer right there there.

(43:36):
It is pretty hard to argue with that. I saw
a funny thing I kept meaning to send to you,
and I didn't. I screen grabbed it. It was like a
tweet or something where.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
It was like, just prepare yourself and in a couple
of years it'd be Zootopia and it was a real
rabbit and a real.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Fox with like a tie.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
And they just look so like dead eyed, like just
these animals that don't know where they are. It was
so perfect and probably true.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
That feels very accurate. Yeah, yeah, that's a coming. So yeah,
thank you for that. I think that those numbers put
things in a certain amount of perspective. You know what,
if I was on the board of that company, you
bet that'd get a ya from me. Yeah. Hey, here's
a note we got from alex Naom, who emailed us
at MOVIEFILM podcast at gmail dot com. He says, get

(44:25):
a ye, bloody bleepin' drongos. I like that the cartoonish,
ausy slang of my greeting. Realized the seriousness of what
I wanted to write to you about, he says. To
end the working week at home, I've been working through
my hard drive of movies, a kind of channel surfing
in the good old days. And when I embark on
one of these adventures, I dip in and out of movies.

(44:45):
I held dear as a kid or young adult. We're
talking films released at least twenty years ago. When I
watch these films, I hold so dear. I can't help
but feel nostalgic for filmmaking styles I know are long gone,
but I still feel a sense of sadness of the
fact that they just do not make films they used to,
and that time may never come around again. I know
you both hold dear to your heart those bygone eras

(45:06):
of filmmaking. I wonder how you reconcile the fact that
these eras are long behind us, and how you don't
don't both just curl up in the fetal position day
after day and wish for those happy times to be
upon us once again. Forgive me if I'm speaking too
deeply about what is, in essence a form of pop entertainment.
I hope you, too, and all your listeners are doing well.
I'm so glad to have you both still podcasting and

(45:27):
sharing your love of film and all things good and wholesome.
I've spoken at you enough. What are some Christmas movies
and TV shows you watch as traditions during the silly season. Well,
let's go first A then B Brian H fetal position,
who says I'm not in one. I was about to say,
I'm kind of I'm recording in that right now. As

(45:50):
a matter of fact. As far as wanting to revisit
bygone eras you know, I just I did my like
YouTube gave me like it's twenty twenty five wrap up thing.
You know, everybody's posting their Spotify thing. I don't have
this on Spotify enough, so I don't really have one
but a YouTube. It's like my number one category. And

(46:11):
I'm sure you would find this very predictable. Old commercials,
no really, yeah, well yeah, no, I believe that for
you old commercials. And then like number two or three
is disaster videos, which is also oh, like the hiking thing,
like the hiking thing. Oh yeah. I found this one guy.

(46:35):
His name is mister Balin, Okay, and I'm sure some
folks listening to this show know that name. He's just
this dude who finds these stories that have real things
that happen and nothing fancy, no production value. It's just
him telling these stories, okay, and damned if he doesn't
tell it in the most compelling, gripping way possible. And

(46:57):
I'll be damned if that mfor has not taken over
my algorithm. Like disaster stories, yeah, like like things that
happened to people. Yeah, like disaster stories. Yeah. Yeah. I'm
not gonna say it's easy listening, but it is one
of those things where it's like, if it comes up,
I just end up letting it play and I sort

(47:19):
of lean forward as I'm driving or whatever.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
You know, it would be like kind of fascinating getting
to glimpse someone's algorithm. Yeah, you know, like the suggested
thing on Instagram or whatever. Like you know what the
most specific thing that I keep getting right now is is,
you know, with Ringo of the Beatles, sometimes people will
be like, you know, he's not this very showy drummer,

(47:42):
so like was he really that good a drummer?

Speaker 3 (47:43):
And of course Mark Simpson would would say very much
in the affirmative.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yeah, I mean I think the correct answer is he
was the right drummer for the Beatles. He was right, like,
I mean, all their songs sound exactly the way they
should and he's the one that provided those beats. But
because of that notion, people have taken that and made
jokes out of it, where it's basically like, you know,
how Ringo should have played, you know, Penny Lane, and

(48:09):
it's these like thrash metal drummers like playing to Penny
Lane but doing like but it isn't beat, it's just extra,
you know what I mean. And I get those so
many different versions of that same joke over and over
and over in my algorithm. So that's like, it's just
funny how that happens.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
But I'm very you know, cautious about things taking over
my algorithm for exactly that reason, because I, you know,
just like two weeks ago, you know, I mentioned this too,
I had cataract surgery. And after I had this, after
I had the surgery, I went on YouTube to just
be like, how does like what happens during cataract surgery,
like the actual procedure visualization. I didn't want to see

(48:52):
that before because I didn't want to get needlessly freaked out.
I watched a video and it was fascinating, and then
wouldn't you know, yeah, put on YouTube it's like top
five regrets from catteracxcergy. I'm like, nope, yeah, I wish
I knew this before my cat exergy. I'm like nope, nope, nope, yep, Oh.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Dude, I put in something the other day where it
was like, I don't remember what it was, but it's
something about popping, Okay, I don't remember if it's like
a popping noise or something about popping. And then it
was all these like ZiT popping videos and I was like.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
No, no, no, no, no hard pass.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
I was like, don't invade my space, like give me
some eighties commercials exactly. You have to correct that's my
safe space.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Now I have to be like Ringo heavy metal, Ringo
heavy Metal. Like I'm kind of enjoying that.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
I have said this before. You know, when I'm in
my cave, I'll be flipping through some old comic books
or rifling through boxes, and I play I just got
like old like w PWR commercials plane And right then
I'm like, I'm like Indiana Jones and in you know,
an ancient wherever the hell in the last movie. Yeah,

(50:03):
and he's like, let me stay here, ye leave me wombat.
That's that's that. Me and Andy. We're a lot alike
in that way. What's kind of funny.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
I remember with that ending, there's a lot of people
that thought, no, Indy should have stayed Yeah, And there
are other people well, and there's other people who didn't,
but it is maybe it's a little bit of a
glimpse inside people's.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
You know, leave me here with my commercials wambat. It
was that man. Okay, So first of all, we're gonna
be coming back to that movie at some point doing
our commentary track, and I'm looking forward to it. Yeah.
But but yeah, the some of the some of the no,
they should have done this instead, and and whatever was presented.
I was like, well, I'm glad y'all ain't ain't screenwriters,

(50:49):
because that is just ass. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
I mean, I can understand the thing, because I mean, nostalgia,
especially at my age, nostalgia has a strong pull on me.
But truly, at the end of the day, that's not
you don't want to live of where you aren't, you know.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
What I mean?

Speaker 1 (51:03):
And so I do think they made the right decision.
But I can understand the temptation.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Yeah, yeah, we haven't answered this question. Yeah, we went
off on a tangent that maybe there is an answer
buried in there somewhere. Look, you were talking recently about
a video you saw right about like why movies look different?

Speaker 1 (51:23):
You know, why don't It's like, why don't movies look
like movies anymore or something like that.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Yeah, something to that effect. And look in reference to
that video, you know, I was thinking about our discussion afterwards,
and I was like, look, man, this is we get
to have our moment where things look a certain way
and we take them in having a certain aesthetic or whatever,
but that esthetic is not owed to us for the

(51:50):
rest of our days. These things change. They change all
the time, right, So you know, it's I can imagine
that when you know, when you know the color the

(52:10):
style of color changed with movies as we moved into
the the late sixties seventies, people were like, why doesn't
it look like technicolor anymore? You know, And I'm like, well,
that's that's just how it is. And that's okay. We
have those moments and they will you know. Again, it's
like look at look at Stranger Things. It's clearly indebted

(52:33):
to that same raft of influences that we speak about,
but it's doing something different. You're not going to mistake
Stranger Things for a lost artifact from the nineteen eighties.
It is very much a twenty tens, twenty twenties production,
and that's just how it is.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
You know, My answer is a little bit of that
and a little something else. Also going back to Wicked,
I feel, you know, I'm glad for anyone who enjoyed
the way that it looked.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
I did not. I thought it looked kind of bad. Actually,
it's it's very overprocessed, right, it is That is most
movies these days. It feels like, yes, and it's kind
of my point. Like it it it looks over processed.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
It doesn't look like they're actually in any sort of
real reality. And there's a scene where Alpha bas attacking
these people who are building the yellow Brick road and
I was listening to some podcasts and they were talking
about this thrilling sequence and I was like.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
No, it it wasn't for me.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
And it's because the way it was captured, none of
it looked real. It looked very very video gamey to
my eyes. To my eyes, and that's a bummer. But
like you said, time marches on and for some people
that will be a thrilling kind of sequence. And does
that make me sad slightly? However, not only do I

(54:00):
have the things that I love forever that I will
keep going back to, you know, your Diehards, your Star Wars, speed,
you know, those for action and stuff, But.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
There is a lot of great stuff.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
That's still coming out right, you know, and do that
doesn't mean that every action movie that comes out now
is going to look the way I wish it did,
because it won't, but there is still you know, I
thinking of the movies from this past year, I like,
I don't know. A companion really stuck with me and
I was like, I don't know this story. I thought

(54:33):
it was filmed really well. It's pretty damn good. And
then like something like Ballad of Wallace Island, which was
like a very sweet human comedy that didn't look like
it was filmed on the volume, you know, like that
was great centering Caught Stealing. Caught Stealing was like a
real nineties gem for anyone's listening that misses those nineties

(54:56):
kind of violent, funny R rated K totally recommend Caught
Stealing and Sinners. Sinners shot in seventy millimeters or IMAX
or whatever it was, and it looks like it. You
can tell that movie shot in film if you have
the eyes for that, and that means something to you.
It's sumptuous to look at and it's a great film. Likewise,

(55:20):
one battle after another shot in VistaVision and Begonia by
the way, which I really love too. I was like,
this is beautiful. I remember thinking a couple of times,
this is beautiful. And then I learned afterwards that it
was shot in VistaVision, and I was like, oh, I
could tell, Like I didn't know what it was, but
I could tell it was filmic, and it just, you know,

(55:41):
it had that thing that reminds me of the way
I like movies to look so.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
Like they're peppered in.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
I feel like, thank goodness, those things still are somewhat
peppered in. Yeah, And while I wish more movies look
like those things, I'm happy that many movies still do.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
That's kind of my feeling about it. I like it.
Chris Traditions, Real Quick Home Alone, Christmas Vacation is. I mean,
I probably watched it like five times every year, just
because it's always always on and it's one of those
miracle movies that you never get tired of and it's
a wonderful life. I try to watch The Grinch animated

(56:17):
and I love that one. And then you know, on.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
Christmas Day they show a Christmas story on TBS, like
a marathon, and it's one of those things that I
used to actually watch and now I can't say I do,
but it's become this comfort background thing for me as
the day is going on. What about you, well, I mean,
I know Christmas a little different for you, but like,
are there like seasonal movies that you.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Yeah, well, Home Alone has been a tradition for a
long time. Die Hard, That's what I always do, die
hard with my older ones. And I was thinking about
Sprinkling and Violent Night this year because I really did
love it. I want to go back to that.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Violent Night was one of those movies that, like, yeah,
it leaned towards the sensibilities that I prefer for that
kind of story, Whereas you could imagine in the version
that feels a little bit more like the streamer version,
you know, kind of everything feels flat and not like that's.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
Really I mean, there there's a sequel coming out, but
I haven't heard neither Hide nor Hair about it.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
I haven't either, but speaking of that'd be speaking of hair,
that'd be kind of fun if the Easter Button he
got involved, That's right, Yeah, I to.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
The best of my knowledge, there is a let me
let me just double check that. Let me let me
google it, Brian. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
And while you're saying that, I want to throw in there,
The Holdovers, Uh was a movie that came out last year,
so brand new, but it felt like a movie that
has existed for decades and I really really loved it.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
And that's something that I mean to revisit this month. Also,
So Violent Night two is coming out one year from
from today, exactly one year from today as we record
this great so I will I will watch that. Give
me that, Santa, give me Jim Hopper Santa. Yeah, I'm

(57:58):
all about that. Yeah, thank you Alex for that. Here
is a note we got on Patreon, and this is
from Hamsumoiyan who says, I like the discussion about the
decline of the TV opening credits theme. You mentioned the
best openings like The Simpsons help calibrate the viewer. My
question to you both, are there any modern shows that
have themes slash opening credits so fascinating you never hit

(58:21):
skip two for me? First? Is BoJack Horseman a theme
that shows the opening sequence changing every episode depending on
what's happening in BoJack's life, eg. Friends dropping in and
out of the opening based off Bojak's relationship with them.
Great Sequence and Second Severance. The unforgettable visuals mixed with
the creepy music and cross cuts really sets the mood
for the show. You know, you watch more more modern

(58:45):
TV than I do. I realize that's quite a statement
because I feel like I don't watch a lot of TV.
But it's you're right, I probably you know.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
I would say I have this thing that I do
now where I will watch the opening credits thing because
I feel like they prepare you. It's like an overture
at the beginning in a way gets you in the mood.
I'll watch it on the first episode, and then I'll
skip it for all the other episodes till.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
The final episode. Then I'll watch it one last time.
It's like a weirdest thing that I do.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
The only one that I feel like I never skip
is only Murders in the Building, Okay, because I love
the song. I never get tired of hearing that song.
It's just so interesting, and the visuals are just really
interesting and evocative and fun to look at. And sometimes
they change. I know that would happen on Game of

(59:34):
Thrones also, like they would change depending on what lands
they were going to feature in that episode, but otherwise, yeah,
maybe I'll watch. Like I watched Pluribus once and I
was like, eh, like, I didn't I didn't need it,
So I watched it once to know what it was.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
And yeah, I you know, I just I feel like
I want, I want give me your modern cheers theme,
you know what I mean? Sure, give me that, right,
you hear that cheers music and you cannot skip it.
If you do, you're a goddamn communist.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Well I agree with BoJack too, by the way, with Hanzo,
that's it's a great song.

Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
It I don't know it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
It brings you in, it brings you into the tone,
and and of course you have the stuff happening in
the background is interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
But that was a good one too. Certainly on broadcast,
the amount of program time per hour has dropped so
precipitously that you're never gonna get those minute long themes anymore,
you know, And that frustrates me because you know, it's like,
you know, in our day, we had like the Magnum

(01:00:47):
p I theme or the Chips theme or you know,
and this stuff you remember, oh yeah, you know, when
they brought back Magnum a couple of years ago, and
the show was fine. It was a good show. They
chopped that music down to like fifteen seconds if I'm
being generous, right, one of the greatest TV themes ever made, Right,
they just murdered it with that with a machete. You know,

(01:01:08):
just just unconscionable. Yeah, I miss that. You know, I've
said this before. Back in our day, you know, we
had we had these lush orchestral themes that would stretch
over a minute min and a half. Now, if you're lucky,
you get a.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
You know, what's the best version of that? Actually it's
more than that, But like Stranger Things, it's very.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
Brief, but it's recognizable.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Though it's recognizable, you could sort of humm it. It's
it's a song, but it's very brief. It gets you
in the right mood. It's short enough that I'm not
going to skip it. And I love the way that
it does the title and then the title, you know,
sort of comes at you and reveals the scene you're
about to watch.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Yeah, that's kind of to me. That's the perfect balance.
I feel like the streaming shows do that right. I
think broadcasts just because of the limitations of having to
swat slot in commercials. It's it's a whole different beast, right. Yeah.
But yeah, because like even you know, when when Marvel
was doing their shows, like I thought the Daredevil theme

(01:02:07):
was like really good, you know, and they have a
version of that with the new Born Again series. But
it's like, give us, give us themes. I agree, you know,
I agree. Well, thank you for that. Hopefully that that
answers your question.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
You know what, By the way, I had something I
kind of wanted to add to Alex's message real quick too,
okay for missing things from the past.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
Sorry, Brian, we moved on. Sorry Alex, what's up? Zachy?

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
You know, it's a it's a great opportunity when you're
missing things from the past to look at the things
that you've missed, you know what I mean. Like I'm
kind of looking at my I write down everything that
I watch, and I'm looking at what I watched this
past year. And I saw Malcolm X for the first time,
Spike Lee's Malcolm X. I saw this Nicole Kidman movie
called Birth that is a really interesting movie, but it's

(01:02:55):
it's an incredible movie about grief that I will never
forget and that's you know, from like two thousand and
five or something. Never seen it, and it's beautiful and
it looks the way that I like movies to look.
And it's one of the most impactful movie watching experiences
I had this year.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
You know, High and Low.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
I watched the original High and Low for the first
time because of the remake that was coming out, so
I would I would recommend that too, Like going back.
I remember when I saw two thousand and one for
the first time. I hadn't seen it tell it like
my thirties, and then it was playing in a movie
theater and I was like, well, it just feels like
something I should do. And when it ended, I was like,
where's that been my whole life? Like I just really

(01:03:35):
loved it, and I've just feel like.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
You saw it at the right age. I almost feel like,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
That could be part of it too, but like it's
comes from an era. It looks like how I like
movies to look. It just and so that's that's kind
of a fun. Those are gifts, like all these gifts
that are waiting for you that you didn't even realize
had been waiting for you to open them too, so
I would say go back to those decades and see
the ones you're like, oh, well that's from a filmmaker

(01:04:00):
like that. I hadn't seen that, or that's why i'd
heard of that, and people recommend that maybe check that out.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
That's kind of a fun opportunity. Also, what did you
think of Malcolm X? Oh? I can't remember I talked
about it, but I remember, Oh, I loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
It was just it's a masterpiece. It's one of those
things where I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it, and
one of my favorite types of movies. And it doesn't
necessarily have to do with length, but like when you
begin in one place, like you see him as a
young man and in his zoit suit, you know, strutting
down the street, and then the movie ends and you're like, dude,

(01:04:37):
I just lived a lifetime.

Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
Yeah, yeah, I love movies like that where I feel
like it's only been like three hours, but like I
really feel like I lived a lifetime, like you just
it's a special thing to experience. You also appreciate the filmmaking,
just how expertly it's scripted and captured and edited to
not make that feel like a slog but feel like,

(01:05:00):
you know, I never questioned it, but I do feel
like I woke up from someone else's life in the
best way possible. Yeah, it's it's amazing. You know that
that's a film where, even if you don't know what
happened to Malcolm X, you know the way the film
stages the lead up to his assassination. You know, it's

(01:05:21):
it's ominous and it's portentous to the point where you're
like something, something bad's gonna happen. You have a sense,
you know, and I think you know. To me at least,
I remember watching it the first time and and hoping
he'd be okay, uh, because you grow to love the
character so.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Much absolutely, you know, you know it's funny. I mean
it's a little little different, but like I think that
way with Titanic. I mean, I love Titanic. I've seen
it many many times. I think I remember even in
the theater. I saw it a couple times in the
theater when it came out, and you still somehow are
rooting for those characters to get out, you know, to

(01:06:00):
get away or the or some of them do. So
I guess a better example is when they're approaching the iceberg,
and the guy's like, oh, crap, iceberg, and they're like quick,
turn turn, and I can hear the James Horner that
that horn thing does no no, no, no, you know,
and you're just watching the boat slow and you're like,

(01:06:21):
they might make it this time. Yeah, that's good filmmaking.
You know what's gonna happen. But every time you're like,
maybe they won't hit it, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
I just I just wish he built her a better boat.
So Victor Garber, mister Anders, okay, so so have you
have you tackled that question to you know, we move
on now, but I reserve the right to go back, Alex.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
So just you know, well, I'm speaking to Zachie actually
in that tone, I'm saying, Alex, just just wait. If
I have something else to say, I'm gonna say it
because it was a great question.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
It is a great question. Thank you for that, Thank
you for all the letters, and as always, you can
you can, you can contact us in a multitude of ways.
We are we are always happy to hear from from everybody.
But we have several headlines to discuss. Brian, I should

(01:07:24):
say every time that music plays, you obviously can't see,
but people people listening to know, my head is bopping
back and forth. Oh really, here is some sad news,
just to just to get things started, Brian Carrie. Here,
Yuki Tagawa passed away. I just saw that. Yeah, yeah,
talk about one of the most iconic voices and faces.

(01:07:46):
Like it's somebody who people probably did not know his name,
but if you saw his face, you're like, oh, I
know him, absolutely right. I think best known for people
of our vintage as Shang Sung in Mortal Kombat from
nineteen ninety five, but of course he had a very
long storied history. He appeared recently on the Man of
the High Castle. He was in he was in the

(01:08:07):
Tim Burton Planet of the Apes. He was in The
Phantom as the villainous Cubby Saying. He was also one
of the regulars on the Don Johnson series Nash Bridges,
set right here in the Bay Area. Seventy five years old.
This is in the Hollywood Reporter. He died from complications
of a stroke. And you know, we talk often on

(01:08:29):
the show about character actors. Here was a character actor's
character actor. He embodied a type you could just slot
him in and you knew exactly what to expect, and
you knew it was going to be at a certain level.
You know. I think you and I both talked about
him being in Mortal Kombat and really being singularly distinctive

(01:08:51):
in that movie totally. It's you know, it's kind of special.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
That he you know when you said, I had this
thought when you were talking about these character actors, and
it's you know, it's sad and when they pass, but
they have this special sort of thing where they will
live forever, you know, like they will their work will
continue to delight and entertain and and that's a really
cool and magical thing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
Yeah, I was. I was thinking about how they have
that Mortal Kombat sequel film coming up, you know, it's
a sequel to the one from a couple years back,
and I'm like, I hope they acknowledge him. Yeah, you know,
because the truth is, you wouldn't be getting these new
movies if not for that movie from thirty years ago
really building out the mythology and showing it's possible to

(01:09:41):
appeal to a wider audience. You know, right, he will
be missed, Kerrie Hero Tagawa. We have other headlines that
are less complimentary, referred earlier to Quentin Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino,
I think I think you and I would both agree
one of one of the greatest rectors of all time.
Absolutely one of the greatest people of all time. I'm

(01:10:06):
gonna say that that is in doubt. So yeah, we
should say that the interwebs have been have been piping
up on this story for the last few days. Which
is that Quentin Tarantino. So this is while he's talking
up the one, the whole bloody affair release of kill Bill. Yeah,

(01:10:26):
which are you going to see that? I really want to,
I really really want to, but I don't know where
I can find the six hours or whatever. It's quite
a commitment. Yeah, I'm seeing it on Monday with Chad and.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
It's over four hours I think, and we're going at
eight pm and I'm like, WHOA, that feels like if
ever there was a one to start at five or six.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
Yeah. Right. So he appeared on the Brett Easton Ellis
podcast and so that right there, I'm starting to see
the mix of ingredients at work. Here he's talking about
some of his favorite movies. He mentions and this is
I'm reading this from CNN. I mentioned that Paul Thomas

(01:11:12):
Anderson's two thousand and seven film There Will Be Blood
was his fifth favorite movie of the twenty first century,
but he said he would have listed it first or
second where it not for quote a big giant flaw
in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano. He is weak.
Sauce Man Tarantino said he's a weak sister, and Brett

(01:11:34):
easton Elli said, yeah, Austin Butler would have been better.
So Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role,
saying I like Austin Butler, but that role would not
have worked from him. He was like a little kid
at the time. Byther, he says, Paul Daniel was just
a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. Now here's now there's.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
One more quote. Were you going to say the other one?
Basically he's like the weakest actor in sag or something.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
That's right. Yeah, yeah, there you go, Thank you for that.
I had many Oh oh, and we should say he
didn't stop there. He's like, oh, by the way, I
hate Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard. He sucks too. Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah. And I'm like, did did Paul Dano kill
Quentin's cat or something. He is Geez Louise right, And

(01:12:21):
and I have many thoughts on this because I'm like,
I'm picturing now I have no reason to assume Paul
Dano is anything but a decent guy. That's my sense.
But I'm picturing him getting this news being like what
the f Like, what did I do? Right? Yeah? Like this,
And I when I when you and I were texting
about the story, I was like, you know, maybe it's

(01:12:42):
for the best that Quentin's like got one movie left,
because I don't know who's gonna want to work with
them after this frigging shit.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
That's the thing, right, I mean, going back to how
you even started this, Like he's an excellent filmmaker, Like
I love his movies.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
I do, but like.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
When you listen to interviews with him, especially long form
ones on podcast, sufferable. He's insufferable.

Speaker 3 (01:13:02):
He's I mean, he's his ego.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
It's one thing to have an ego, but his ego
has an ego, you know, like it's it's insufferable. I
don't even need to keep talking you you have the
perfect word for it. And it's one of those things
where you kind of have to you know, there's many
reasons you have to separate art from artists, but his
is just he is so obnoxious and insufferable, and it's
it's gross.

Speaker 3 (01:13:24):
It's gross to say just sorry, no, no, no, no sorry.
You could well I'll just add and you can jump.
I'm like, there was a way, yeah, to convey the
exact thought, yes, that he without sounding like an effing asshole,
you'd just be like, you know, I would, I would
have placed a hire. But you know, Paul Dano didn't
really work for me in that movie. And you just

(01:13:45):
stopped there. You stop there, and it's not a headline.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
Exactly like it's it almost felt personal, That's what I'm saying.
Like saying, I mean saying someone who is not a
bad actor is like the word actor in sag. It's
like it feels like he has it out for him.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
That's right. It felt it felt needlessly mean spirited. I mean,
he kept kicking and then again. To me, it's just
extra humorous that somehow Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard catched
some shrapnel too. Yeah, and I'm picturing I'm picturing Matthew
Lillard just mining his own business. Listen to this podcast,

(01:14:24):
be like what the hell.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
And I'm kind of curious if Tarantino himself is in
SAG just saying that's a good point.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Yeah. So this has been, you know, sort of making
the rounds or in both traditional media and social media
over the last few days. And I have to say,
I mean, I mean, Quentin Tarantino has taken heavy fire,
some of it ridiculous, where it's like, oh, and none
of his movies are good either, which like, okay, let's
let's pull that back a bit. But I you know,

(01:14:53):
I was talking about this in my class yesterday. I'm like,
doesn't matter how successful you are, you still need to
act like a person. You still need to you still
need to demonstrate empathy and just basic humanity.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
Nobody is saying, you like, if you don't like a
guy's work, you don't like his work, that's fine, right,
But there's a way to articulate that without just being
an absolute jackass. I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
I agree, I mean, especially someone his age. I mean,
you just yeah, tact civility like whatever. I mean, if
you want to have that drunken conversation with your friends,
I still would say that's not nice.

Speaker 3 (01:15:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:15:30):
The way the way he's saying these things like you said,
it's like, hey, if it didn't work for you that performance,
then it didn't work for you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
There's a way to say that, Yeah, but to just
be so nasty about it, it's just weird. Well, and
what's what's extra odd to me is like, as soon
as he says this, you know, I'm like winding my
mental rolodex back and I'm thinking of like the Paul
Dane performances I've seen, right, there will be blood. I
certainly did not think that was a bad performance. But

(01:15:57):
you know, Looper, Money, the Batman, what's the the Brian
Wilson movie. Oh yeah, Love and Mercy. Great, he's great
in that Fableman's Dad. I mean there there's not a
performance he's given to me that where I'm like, well
that sucked. Yeah, or did you say a little miss Sunshine?

(01:16:19):
I didn't say little excellent in that? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:21):
Yeah, it's weird. It's very strange. It just feels like
there's more going on here or something.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
That's Yeah, And and I guess that that was my takeaway.
Whatever I want to add to this is like, look,
it doesn't matter how successful you are. It that doesn't
obviate your need to just be decent in how you
conduct yourself, you know. Yeah, And actually I'm gonna take
that back.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
The more going on here, I don't know that that's
necessarily true. I think what Tarantino has proved over the
years is that he enjoys the sound of his own voice.
So like, if he is like I don't like this actor, well,
in fact, you know, and I can just see him okay, yeah,
like but you know, like off the energy of it
and then just like starting to make it a performance itself,

(01:17:04):
him saying how much he doesn't like something.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Well, speaking of performances, I sent you this this video
of Norm MacDonald playing Quentin Tarantino from a SNL sketch
in the nineties. Yea, And not only was it like
dead on, I watched that clip and I was like,
I think Norm kind of hates Quentin turned Yeah, that
was my thought because it was so dead on that
it really did feel like there was something going on

(01:17:28):
there that's funny. So that's where we're seeking out. If
you're listening to this, I haven't seen it. Yeah, but hey,
that's not the only bizarre news coming out of coming
out of tensel Town this week. Here here's something interesting.
Did you know that there is a new Rush Hour
movie coming out? Frank, Uh, yes, I've heard so. So

(01:17:51):
I heard there was demand demand, not a ground swell,
just just from from one very specific fan. So this
is fascinating to me. There was a story in Semaphore
on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So this is like the
twenty third about how Donald Trump. You may have heard

(01:18:13):
of him. He's the forty seventh president of these United
States and the guy in Home Alone two. Yes, he
known mostly for his cameo or he would say starring
role in hom Alone two. So he you know, he's
talking about his ties with the Ellison family, who are
currently are you know, by virtue of Larry Ellison father

(01:18:34):
David Ellison who runs Paramount, you know, sort of He's
getting mixed up in all these media things and one
thing that he had been stumping for, it says this
is this is a quote. This is from Samophor says
Trump appears to want to revive the raucous comedies and
action movies of the late nineteen eighties to late nineteen nineties.
He's passionate, for instance, about the nineteen eighty eight Jean
Claude Band, Damn sports flick blood Sport actually knew that

(01:18:58):
a person directly familiar with the conversations told some for
that the President of United States has personally pressed the
Paramount owner to revive another franchise from Brett Ratner, Rush Hour.
Now a little bit of backstory here. Brett Ratner, who
is a notorious piece of shit saying sex, predator, all

(01:19:18):
the bad stuff, has been effectively persona on Groud in
Hollywood for gosh, close to ten years at this point. Yeah,
he got caught up in me too, right, so that
would be like twenty seventeen. So he made the movie
Tower Heist in Trump Tower, Yeah yeah. And then he

(01:19:38):
is directing a documentary for Amazon about Milania Trump, for
which Amazon paid forty fing million dollars, which tell me
that's not a bribe, right, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's wild.
And so Ratner's in good with Trump, and now Trump

(01:19:58):
wants Rush Hour four. So this story breaks again. It's
like the you know, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and then
the Tuesday before Thanksgiving it drops that Paramount is going
to distribute Rush Hour four.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
I didn't I heard that he would like it to happen.
I didn't know it was actually.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
To Yeah, the ball is rolling. The ball is rolling.
Now now, I will say I remained somewhat skeptical that
this movie does get made.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
I mean, Jackie Chan, you know, is in his seventies, right,
he's seventy plus.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
Yeah, And I don't want Jackie Chan to die in
service of Donald Trump's little boy from the Twilight Zone
view of reality, because that's really what it is. I
want Rush Hour four make it. That's very funny, that's
very true. So this is via Puck and Kim Masters,

(01:20:56):
who spoke with various sources and even had a brief
text of change with Brett Rattner and get this. The
source claims of the film will have a budget well
over one hundred million dollars. Some of that money will
come from Saudi Arabia, because of course it will. The
country also backing David Ellison's bid for the Paramount's guidance
acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery, which is not happening. We'll

(01:21:16):
talk about that in a second Master's text at Ratner,
who confirmed the budget is over one hundred million. Paramount
reportedly be handling distribution for Warrener brothers in exchange for
a percentage fee in the double digits. Okay, So I
have many thoughts on this. First of all, I'm like,
if it does get made, I hope Jackie Chan and
Chris Tucker are like fifty dollars fifty million dollars up

(01:21:40):
front or no deal. Yeah, oh dude, I mean they're
in a great position. Yeah. Yeah, there's no movie without them.
So number one, they should make their money upfront. Second
of all, one hundred million plus on Rush Hour four,
almost twenty years after the last one. Are you guys
freaking crazy? Yeah? But I mean how much did Beverly
Hill Cop eight cost? Well, Beverett, think about it, Beverly

(01:22:04):
Hills Cop four went straight to streaming, which, despite the
conversation you and I had, I think what may have
been kind of the smartest play for that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:22:14):
Oh sure, sure versus yeah, having Netflix make it versus
Paramount right, Yeah, yeah, it fits in their matrix a
little bit better.

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
Yeah. And because because what happened with with with AXLF
is that it burned white hot for about a week
and then it and it dropped down, which you know,
I suppose it's not that surprising, but but one hundred
million plus. I think that one two factor in salaries
are by involved, you're looking at close to two hundred million,
would be my guess. Totally. I'm sure. And I'm just

(01:22:42):
like the people forget the last one, didn't even do that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:45):
Well yeah, yeah, I remember seeing that. Like, I mean, look,
I'm not gonna pretend like I don't enjoy those movies
like I enjoyed them in their time.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
Well, here here's my thing. If this is Rush Hour
four directed by literally anybody other than Brett Ratner, then
I'm interested.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's just, yeah, there's a
lot going on with this specific.

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
That's that's my point, right, And and it it almost
feels like the specific mix of ingredients that this is
like a witch's brew, you know what I mean. It's
like this this brewing cauldron and you just, oh, it's
like coming arising out of this this bubbling broth, you know,
the specific mix of ingredient. Imageries like that's good. You're

(01:23:34):
you're practically encouraging people to boycott the movie. Well that's
the the you know what. I didn't even thought about
it that much, but as with everything these days, it's
gonna be political support, your non support, if you like it,
if you don't like it, and like, it's just absolutely

(01:23:55):
nothing cannot be politicized exactly right, because because if the
movie gets made, there's no way Trump doesn't get brought
into it. And last I checked, he's a fairly polarizing feller.
You know, I don't get it. You know, I was
talking in my class yesterday. We were talking about late
night talk shows, and I was saying that, you know,
this is a format that's probably dying out right, and

(01:24:17):
I was talking about Colbert getting canceled, and then I said,
you know, if anything, Trump has sort of put gas
in the tank for shows that were probably nearing the
end of the natural life span of the format, because,
like you said, because now it's become political. Right, So
in other words, Jimmy Kimmel probably got like four more

(01:24:38):
years on his show than he might otherwise have had, right, right, right,
right right, and and so yeah, to that point, like
if they announced Rush Hour four anyway, I still would
have been like, well, I think that's a dumb idea
because I just don't think there's an audience for it, right,
But now you're you're announcing it and everybody knows the
specific list sequence of events leading to it. I think

(01:25:01):
there's going to be even less of a desire from
a lot of folks who who might otherwise have been interested.
And and I don't know that there's enough like Trump
fans who are gonna be like, we gotta go watch
the new Jackie chan Chris Tucker movie. You know, I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
I'm just so curious about Chris Tucker and Jackie Channer,
thinking like maybe they're you know, on their rocking chairs
on the porch, just enjoying life, like we gotta do
what now.

Speaker 3 (01:25:30):
Well, look, each of them made something in the in
the neighborhood of twenty five million for the last one,
so I'm like, well, you better ask for at least that.
Oh yeah, they absolutely so. If they can make a bank,
look that's fine, you know, because as you said earlier, look,
I mean they have all the leverage. Mm hmm. You know.

(01:25:50):
I think the really kind of shitty part of this
is make rush out for but it has to be
directed by Brett Ratner, right right? If that guy which way.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
Yeah, No, he's like he's a he's a bona fide creep.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
Yeah. He was a well known piece of shit long
before he got me too, I know, I know, right,
So that's what really irks me about this. It was
announced with anybody else directing, I'd be like, well, sure,
I guess right, this the trump of it all to
one side. I'm like, I'm not gonna root for anything
that Brett Rantner directs, right right, But this is this

(01:26:28):
is the world we live in.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
I was That was literally the feeling I was having, like, somehow,
this is the world we're living in.

Speaker 3 (01:26:36):
So will it happen? I? As I said, I remain
very circumspect.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
I mean, dude, all of Jackie Chan's action in the
Karate Kid Legends had to take place in the dark
because it wasn't him.

Speaker 3 (01:26:49):
Wow, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:26:51):
So, and by the way, of course, because he's seventy
something like, that's not taking anything away from him.

Speaker 3 (01:26:58):
I do not want him doing his own stuff. I
do not want him.

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
Yeah, like no, he's he's one of the best that
ever was like that, you know, that stands forever. But
it's just at some point you reach a certain age
and you just that's just the way life heads and.

Speaker 3 (01:27:11):
Time is undefeated. Yeah. Yeah, So it's like I don't know,
let's not break him. I mean that is just fascinating, right,
like the sense of like and this is not a
Trump exclusive phenomenon, but like, oh, let's bring back this thing.
And it's like yeah, but like time moves forward, like

(01:27:31):
you know, Like this is why I've been saying all along,
I do not want lethal weapon five same. I agree, right,
and and for a whole host of reasons, among among
them being that both of these men are demonstrably older,
and I don't want to watch them running around and
dodging gunfire and stuff because they just shouldn't be doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Yeah, that's a good comp too, because I mean I
can't really get behind mel Gibson these days, like he's
there's an era of him that's kind of locked in
and protected from me just because it's a little grandfathered.
I suppose, you know, the lethal weapons and the brave
hearts and the whatever, but like I just can't get
on board with that guy anymore, you know, And so
it brings us It's a great comp it's a similar elements.

(01:28:14):
It'd be very complicated and maybe it's best to just
leave it be.

Speaker 3 (01:28:17):
I'm surprised Trump isn't leaning on somebody for Lethal four,
considering he's you know, he's like Buddies with the with
the with with me. Gi mel Gibson is like the
ambassador to Hollywood. Remember, Yeah, that's right. I forgot, but
it'd be funny too.

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
And he's just like yeah, and Richard Donner has to direct,
and like sir, he passed away several years ago, I said,
he has to directring him back.

Speaker 3 (01:28:39):
Yeah exactly. Well, hey, real quick, while we're talking about
franchises coming back, here's one whose future may actually be
in question. And this is this just fascinates me on
a whole host of levels. You know, Fast and Fury
is ten fast X huh as all the cool kids
call it. Uh that that ended on somewhat of a
cliff hanger.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
Yes, oh well yeah, I'm almost quite literally him going
down a damn.

Speaker 3 (01:29:07):
And and we and and and damn indeed, because because
and it's just damn yeah, because because ever since that
movie came out, Universal and Vin Diesel cannot seem to
get their act together as far as getting getting the
last Fast and Furious movie. Uh even forget like starting filming,

(01:29:30):
like they don't have any idea what they're doing. Well,
I mean, yeah, how do you wrap that up?

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
And I think there's uh realities that you know, right,
like universals, like we want to this is what we
want to spend and you need to like bring everything
to a satisfying conclusion. And I think Vin Diesel's got
ideas of things he wants to do and that conflicts
creatively with other people, or at least it has for
the past several years, and that's led to this.

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
Is the problem, right the So, so the last film
was made during It was supposed to come out in
twenty twenty, right, M yeah, I guess I no, no, no, no, no,
it was supposed to come out see, I don't even remember.
We got pushed because of COVID. Yeah, so I think
it's supposed to come out in twenty twenty one. No no, no, wait,

(01:30:22):
that's Fast nine. See I'm getting Yeah, so Fast nine
got delayed. That was supposed to be twenty twenty. That
came out in twenty twenty one. Oh, I see that's right.
And then and then Fast X got you know, Justin
Lynn dropped out and Louili Terrier jumped in and did

(01:30:45):
a heck of a job. Yeah, I mean I think
Louil Terry is a very talented director, and he he,
I mean, he did what was required. However, the movie
cost like eleventy bajillion dollars I think is the final
it cost three hundred and seventy eight million dollars, which

(01:31:05):
is just I mean, well, yeah, you're gonna have trouble
making that back. Yeah, So universal is not wrong to
be like, hey, guys, can we can we bring it
down a shade in it. And so there's all this
there's all this chaos about whether this next one is
going to happen even and and it's to me this

(01:31:28):
is the net result of basically having Vin Diesel as
the boss of bosses when it comes to the Fast franchise,
because I'm like, I think this is a man who
loves the smell of his own farts, and he views
Dom Toretto in much more iconic terms than I think

(01:31:52):
the rest of the world does. This is my opinion. Sure,
I think Dom's a cool character. Yeah, I think what
the what we have seen is that as we move
further away from from the Paul Walker films, Dom becomes
less interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:32:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah. The way that they bounced off one
another was an enormous part of the magic.

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
Yeah. So there is a book out right now which
I I have not read yet, but I very much
want to about, uh, the whole making of the Fast
and Furious franchise. It's called Welcome to the Family, but
it specifically looks at the the the lead up to
events where Justin Lynn, who Justin Lynn, I mean he

(01:32:42):
is sort of like the MVP of these films because
he he went from Tokyo Drift to just its highest
highs and so him coming back to do you know
he did he did Fast nine, he was going to
do he was going to do ten. The fact that
he chose to walk away, yeah, rather than than just
indulge in the crazy that is revealing in and of itself.

(01:33:04):
And it's it's very funny where it's just describing his
like sort of the soul deadening process of trying to
work through story beats with with Vin, right, because he.

Speaker 1 (01:33:15):
Had a lot of demands for the story, yeah, right.

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
And and it is it is weird because I think
they have boxed themselves in because I don't think you
can't go back to a you know, the Fast and
the Furious kind of scenario, which.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
Is funny because yeah, they keep bringing more characters in,
which is fun, but also when you think about the uh,
I don't know the economics of that. Yeah, so now
you have all these you know, your Helen Mirren's and
your Bree Larsen's and your Jason Momoa's, and you know,
there's just so many people to cater to now. I

(01:33:53):
mean that just thinking of that in terms of budget alone,
before you even get to stunts and set pieces and things.

Speaker 3 (01:33:59):
You know, Yeah, I feel like they they've created such
an expansive mythology that it's I mean, it is hilarious.
Like we talk whenever we talk about these movies, we
have our tongue firmly in cheek, you know, because it's
it's all pretty silly, you know, they're fun. Part of
its charm, I think, you know, when they're in space

(01:34:22):
and doing all all that kind of stuff, and it's
always amusing to remember where this where it all started.
But to me, the fact that we got next year
is the twenty fifth anniversary of the first movie coming out,
and you're there is no illusions of trying to make
that date, right, is itself very telling?

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:34:40):
Right? I don't know I'm I'm sort of the behind
the scenes of this whole thing is almost more interesting
to me at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:34:49):
It's you know, that book sounds really interesting, but there's
part of me that thinks the story isn't finished yet.

Speaker 3 (01:34:54):
Oh yeah, you know, well.

Speaker 1 (01:34:56):
I mean it literally isn't well yeah, yeah, it's know,
it's kind of like missing its third act, you know. So,
I mean, I am curious to listen to it or
read it or something at some point, but I am
curious where this is all heading.

Speaker 3 (01:35:07):
I saw that that Vin Diesel put out a post
on Instagram or some such where he was congratulating, you know,
Dwayne Johnson for his work in The Smashing Machine, and
he's like, you know and my brother Dwayne and does
and it's such a it's such a like fake ass kiss.
He was very performative, yeah, very much so. And I'm
like these both of these two, these two muscle bound behemoths,

(01:35:32):
are the most uh, you know, fragile people, based on
what we hear in these you know, like, how can
you be like this? You know, I know, I know
it just just the like contain your ego, yeah, your
your massive frames cannot contain their egos. It just make

(01:35:54):
life so much easier for so many Seriously, so odd,
so so Fast X Part two or Fast eleven, whatever
the hell they're gonna call it. Yeah, is arriving very slowly.

Speaker 1 (01:36:05):
Yeah, well it wasn't there talk or maybe it's Vin
Diesels so who knows, but saying they want to bring
it back to the beginning where it's about kind of
la street racing.

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
Look, I mean, if you're if you're rapping things up,
you kind of gotta go in that direction. I would
love that, but I just I don't think that's what
the audience wants. I will say, and I can't remember
if we talked about this, but I mean there was
talk of bringing back the Brian O'Connor character. I've read that.
I don't know how you do that, but I don't
know how you do it, but I do think you
need to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:36:32):
You have to somehow, because as far as we understand,
he's he's alive and he's just kind of watching, you know,
his kids.

Speaker 3 (01:36:41):
Yeah, it's back at all. All these adventures are going on.
It's gotten preposterous because literally, I think it's the ninth
movie ends with like they're at the barbecue and it
ends with like Brian's car pulling up. Yeah right, right,
and I'm like, w t F come on, like yeah, like,
especially now that they've brought back Jordana Brewster, so she's
going on all the missions. I know, I know, I
think they maybe should have just like I look, it's

(01:37:04):
been it's been twelve years since Paul Walker passed. I
think I think you can recast the role and people
will will go with it, you know. You know, actually
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:37:13):
At this point because they've stretched it out as long
as they had.

Speaker 3 (01:37:17):
You know, I don't have have one of his brothers
place and maybe do a little digital uh you know,
fut zinc, which they kind of did in one of them, right,
they did that in yeah, in Furious seven, which was
his last one. Yeah yeah, I mean, look, you I
said at the time, I was like, I think you
need to kill Brian. Otherwise I think so too. That's
probably what they should have done. In my opinion. This

(01:37:39):
is this is the this is weird, right, Like with
Fast and Furious, they left Brian alive as a tribute
to Paul Walker. With Black Panther, they killed ch'chala as
a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, and I feel like we
needed to flip those Yeah, I remember you saying that,
yeah about Black Panther. Yeah, I still feel that. I
think it was I think it was a really stupid

(01:37:59):
decision to kill off T'Challa. That's my opinion. And I
think Marvel's realizing it because I think I think they're they're,
mark my words, on the other side of these Avengers movies,
you're gonna have like you're gonna have a T'challah. I
don't know how that's going to work, but I think
I think Marvel's recognizing that. Yeah. Anyway, Hey, we got
we got one more piece of news I wanted to
I wanted to bounce off of you. We got actually

(01:38:21):
we got this, and then I got one thing that
I think might actually surprise you. Oh it's a happy thing,
So I'll save that for the end. Interesting, Okay, well,
well this is not a happy Yeah, That's why I'm
gonna save it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:38:34):
Uh. You know, Warner Brothers has been on on the
chopping block for several months now, you know it's uh
uh uh David. David Zaslov had announced a while ago
that Warnerber's Discovery was in the process of splitting, so
the studio and streaming arm was going to go in
one direction and the television, all the linear cable was
going to go in a different direction. And they were

(01:38:56):
taking various bids. And I would say, you know, David
Zaslov has not done an exceptional job running that place.
That's me. I'm I don't have experience running a multinational
multimedia studio, but I think I could do a better job.
That's all. I'm just saying. I agree. I don't mean
to I don't mean to get all Vin Diesel, but
I could do it. But regardless, there there have been

(01:39:19):
many there there have been many folks, uh, you know, bidding.
So so this is we had Comcast and Paramount and
and Netflix, and again we talked about, you know how
everything gets political. Uh, Paramount had the blessing of Donald Trump,
and so there was this sort of this expectation that
regulatory approval would be no sweat because Paramount and the

(01:39:42):
Ellison's they're all they're all you know, they're they're cozy
with Trump, and so it would be, you know, they
could just glide through. But Netflix made a deal, made
an offer, I should say and and Warner Brothers has
has accepted that deal. So so Netflix would if this
passes muster, Netflix would take on the studio and streaming,

(01:40:09):
but all the cables, so ceeing and everything else that
would get spun off, that would become its own company,
separate company. So potentially we're looking at Netflix being the
home of bugs, Bunny and Batman and Harry Potter and
BORI mere, I'm just gonna throw and and this this

(01:40:32):
makes me sad. Yeah, and it makes me sad. Not
I think Paramount. I would have rather not had Paramount
take over this. So of the options, I suppose Netflix
is a better bad option. Yeah, but I just don't
like what's about to happen, which is another legendary studio

(01:40:58):
being stripped down for parts and just subsumed by a
streaming company, a streaming company that has, by the way,
made it very clear that they don't like theatrical Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
I mean I had to quote because I was like,
I have to get this right. Ted Sarandos said that
he thinks the theatrical experience is quote outmoded for most.

Speaker 3 (01:41:15):
People, which is a hell of a thing to say
in a year where just looking at Warner Brothers. They
have performed exceptionally.

Speaker 1 (01:41:24):
Yes, and by the way, for Netflix, they're K pop
demon Hunters was like a phenomenon in theaters.

Speaker 3 (01:41:31):
Yeah, you know, and it's it's you And I spent
so much time on this show talking about how important
the theatrical experience is and seeing what sure feels like.
It feels like we're looking down the road to you know,
another steak being driven into the industry. That's obviously concerning.

(01:41:52):
But again, I just don't, you know, I'm you know,
we talked on this show about Disney absorbing twenty century Fox,
and I you know, I wasn't thrilled about that. Yes, yeah,
you're you're losing.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
Voices in a way, right, Like where where you have
more studios, you have more creative executives, and you know,
people with different tastes and interests and things, and so
you get more variety out in the marketplace.

Speaker 3 (01:42:20):
But if you know, people keep.

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
Gobbling these things up and then there's only like three
places left, everything's gonna start to have like the same
sort of feeling, you know, And and it just look
sometimes I think I get a little hard on streamers there.
I don't tend to love the stuff that they put out.
But they do put out good things from time to time,

(01:42:45):
but like I don't like their ethos, you know what
I mean, where it's like like Frankenstein, you know this,
and and and Wake Up dead Man, the New Knives
Out movie, you know, two big movies, two big important
filmmakers in this moment at Netflix, and those filmmakers want

(01:43:06):
their their movies and theaters, and Netflix is like, yeah, sure,
I guess, and they put them out in like six
hundred theaters. You know, I live in freaking Los Angeles
and I don't even have these things playing near me,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:43:18):
And I mean they're around. I could make the effort,
but like.

Speaker 1 (01:43:21):
The fact that it's like, okay, yeah, sure, we'll put
your thing in theaters, but like it's the most half
hearted attempt at doing that with these people where theatrical
means something to them. And if you're going to do
it for just two weeks, you know, as just like
a way to make those people happy and then you'll
put it on your service, well then do it right,
you know what I mean. Don't just willie nilly put

(01:43:41):
it out there in like six hundred theaters, because then
that tells me how you really feel about it, right,
you know, like that's what makes me feel. And recently
there were news stories about, you know, Zach Kreger, who
made Weapons, one of the most exciting theatrical movies of
this year. He was developing something with Netflix, but when
he couldn't be assured that his next movie he was
developing with them would be in.

Speaker 3 (01:44:01):
Theaters, he walked.

Speaker 1 (01:44:03):
And this is really telling the Duffer Brothers, you know,
like Netflix Golden Children, you know, after Stranger Things was
this phenom success at Netflix, they make their next deal
elsewhere because they were not assured that the movies they
worked on would have theatrical releases. And so if those

(01:44:26):
two people that you know, Netflix wanted to work with
didn't feel safe enough, you know, having theatrical experiences with
the stuff they were working on, that doesn't make me
feel good about that company taking over Warner Brothers. Very
telling to be fair to give the whole context of
what sarandos. When he was talking about theatrical experience being outmoded,

(01:44:47):
he also said he doesn't have a problem with theatrical period.
For him, it's the theatrical windows, right.

Speaker 3 (01:44:55):
He wants them shorter, yes.

Speaker 1 (01:44:57):
Because he doesn't find them consumer friendly in this day
and a.

Speaker 3 (01:45:01):
And that's freaking horseshit, man, because because if this last
year proved anything specifically with regards to Warner Brothers is
people will show up. Sinners was making bank long after
it was on streaming. Yes, yes, yes, So like it's
just a.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
Swirl of feelings in my mind where it's like, Okay,
I mean I half believe him that he's like yeah, yeah, yeah, theatrical,
Like I'm not gonna kill theatrical. However, you know, he
kind of reveals where his heart is, and so it's theatric.
It's half hearted, you know. So if he's gonna do
his you know, a big Warner Brothers release, like the

(01:45:42):
next The Batman, you know, Part two is going to
come out for two weeks, maybe in a thousand theaters,
I don't know, but it's gonna be on Netflix in
two weeks, I know, you know what I mean, Like
that's my fear.

Speaker 3 (01:45:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's the world we're headed into.
I think any I think we should treat any assurance
about theatrical not being in danger with with a you
know a fair amount of suspicion it's certainly going to
look different, I think, so, you know, and I think again,
I think it's very short sighted as far I should say.

(01:46:18):
I think all the Snyder bros. I'm sure are like, hey,
Snyder Verse about to come back. I'm like, okay, oh
that's fun. I didn't even think about that. I'm sure
they're thinking that because Zack Snyder made a bunch of
stuff at Netflix, but he ain't at Netflix anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:46:31):
Yeah, I mean you've got to imagine too. I mean,
there's going to be a lot of people losing their jobs.

Speaker 2 (01:46:37):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:46:37):
You know, that's going to be a nightmare, as if
Hollywood han't suffered enough with that. And like, I mean,
if I'm just being real, like I don't really tend
to love the creative departments over at Netflix, at least
when it comes to their films. They put out these
things that maybe have some you know, name actors in

(01:46:58):
them or whatever, and then they are a blip one
week and then they disappear forever the next, and that
seems to be okay with them. They're not like we've
got to rethink this. That's they're fine with it, you know.
That's and so I don't love the idea of those
people now taking over Warner Brothers, because then it's like

(01:47:20):
you need the people who are passionate about risks. I
think you know, your your one battle after another and
your centers and your whatever, and maybe that's not going
to fit their algorithm.

Speaker 3 (01:47:32):
Yeah, I mean, look right now, basically we're we're setting
ourselves up for a world where you've got Apple and
Amazon and Netflix as like the pre eminent media companies
because they've got the bottomless wallet to be able to
be that. Yeah. And and I don't know, man, the

(01:47:56):
idea like I'm I'm still not not about James Bond
being owned by Jeff Bezos, and I just I don't
something about DC Comics being absorbed into this massive streaming company.
I don't know it. Just it here, here's me longing
for a reality that just does not exist anymore. Yeah,

(01:48:19):
you know so so yeah, this is a little bit
old man yelling at the cloud, I guess. But but
I miss the days when these companies were self sufficient
on their own. I mean, Warner Brothers used to be
its own thing before it was getting passed around, you know.
I Mean, I'm old enough to remember when AOL bought

(01:48:39):
time Warner. Yeah, and from then to now, how many
corporations have taken a whack you know. Yeah, so we're
looking at at least a year, possibly more before this
thing even goes through, if it goes through, right, because
I have to imagine that the paramount folks are going
to pitch a mighty fit and lean into their government connections. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:49:03):
that's a good point, and I should say that's not
how it's supposed to be. By the way, regulatory approval
is not supposed to hinge on who relationships the president
happens to be buddies with. Yeah, yeah, it's not supposed
to be like a junta situation. But here we are.
So I suppose there is there's like a TVD element here.
But but at least initially, I know it was inevitable

(01:49:27):
because the studio is up for sale anyway, and it
was gonna land at one of three options. I'm not
crazy about what it says about where we're headed. Yeah,
but that's me. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:49:40):
It's funny in the movie sentimental Value, which I talked
about earlier. So Scars Guard plays, you know, an older director,
and the way that he's getting his movie made is
he's getting it made at Netflix. And so he's at
this junket and he's sitting with you know, El Fanning
and he's being interviewed, and the interviewer is like, so,
I mean, are you going.

Speaker 3 (01:50:01):
To try to have a theatrical release?

Speaker 1 (01:50:04):
Have you talked in Netflix about trying to have a
theatrical release for this movie? And Scar's guards like, of
course we're gonna have a theatrical release.

Speaker 3 (01:50:09):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (01:50:10):
And then you see like his producer like, well, that's
an open discussion, but we're feeling very good about that.
And it's just like such a sad reality, you know,
like he just wasn't even aware that, of course I'm
making a movie, it's going to be in theaters, right.

Speaker 3 (01:50:29):
Well, I think it's I think it's very telling that,
like Ryan and Ryan Johnson is talking about the future
of Knives Out, you know, Netflix doesn't really seem to
be part of the calculus. Oh tell me more right,
I mean he he he signed a contract for two
movies and this is this is second of two. He's
not talking about like, oh yeah, I'm looking forward to
working in Netflix again. He's looking he's he's speaking of

(01:50:53):
Knives out from a framing that sure seems like it's
It's not. Netflix isn't gonna be in the mix anymore interesting?
Ye make of that what you will. Yeah, I mean, look,
who knows, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:51:06):
They always like hoping for the best, But yeah, I
just I don't know, I don't know. I just don't
love the Warner Brothers used to be one of those
exciting studios. They really believed in filmmakers, and you know
who would give all that money to make a Mad
Max sequel all those years later and then wind up
letting them make the most gonzo, crazy, unexpected thing that

(01:51:26):
ends up getting nominated for Best Picture, right, you know
what I mean? Like, we need places that will do
bonkers things like that, you know, and that doesn't seem
to be what Netflix is about. And so that just
everything that I care about with movies and get excited
about with movies, Netflix isn't that. And they have their place.
I subscribe to Netflix. I like a lot of things

(01:51:47):
that are on Netflix, but I feel like they do
what they do well, and I would like there to
be these studios to continue doing what they do well.

Speaker 3 (01:51:57):
Yeah. But the other thing is, assuming this goes through. Look,
I mean, HBO Max is going to be rip, dude,
So we're gonna have to like pay fifty dollars to
subscribe to some sort of megastreaming surface basically service soon, right, Yeah?
Because that yeah, I mean obviously that's that's going to

(01:52:18):
get absorbed into Netflix, you know. Yeah. Anyway, me give
me something happy, Brian, give me give me a squirrel.
That water skis.

Speaker 1 (01:52:29):
Our last story tonight. This is from star Wars dot Com.

Speaker 3 (01:52:37):
I have not seen this. This is you're breaking news
with me. I'm reading now.

Speaker 1 (01:52:42):
Experience the original nineteen seventy seven film with a theatrical
re release in twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (01:52:48):
Get the f out of here.

Speaker 1 (01:52:50):
On February nineteenth, twenty twenty seven, we'll celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of Star Wars with a re release of the
nineteen seventy seven original back for a limited time in
theaters everywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:53:01):
So like the original original, the original original. Wow, there
had been rumors on reddity. I've been seeing stuff. Yeah, yeah,
there was some leaks of some clean mastering. Yeah, and
looks like they were true.

Speaker 1 (01:53:17):
So, I mean, after I mean decades of people ever
since nineteen ninety seven, you know, people just begging please please,
just you know, restore the original versions.

Speaker 3 (01:53:28):
We want to see the original versions and buy gum.
It's going to happen. That is. First of all, I'm glad.
I'm glad that that version will exist in a you know,
like they've made an effort to preserve it. So that's
all good. But I also feel like they missed their
window a little bit on this because yeah, yeah, I
think people will get excited about it.

Speaker 1 (01:53:51):
But if they had done this like ten fifteen years
ago or something.

Speaker 3 (01:53:54):
Yeah, I mean the special edition versions have been in
essence some some version of the special Editions have been
in place since for thirty years now. But yes, and
like I mean they were talking about a couple of
generations where that yes, Star Wars, Yes, special editions, Yes,
the Special Editions. That's Star Wars. And it'll be like, well,

(01:54:14):
where's the little gleep clops you know in in moss Isley,
and you know what are the other changes? I can't
even remember where's where's uh, you know, where's the scene
with with Bigs before they go to fight the death start,
you know, like or the you know solo yeah thing. Yeah,

(01:54:35):
so they better have the fat Irish guy and then
put it in but prev effects.

Speaker 1 (01:54:41):
But it's funny because I did get those despecialized versions.
Oh no, where these people online. It's been a project
where they've scanned thirty five millimeters prints and they've made
the closest approximation of painstakingly.

Speaker 3 (01:54:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54:57):
I of HD versions of the original originals Star Wars films,
and when you watch them some of it you are like, oh,
this is you know, like they I don't like all
the extra stuff that they'd have added in the scenes.
You don't need all the like you say, the greebles
and things moving around that don't fit in quite well
to my eyes. However, the fight, you know, all the

(01:55:21):
dog fights and stuff outside the Death Star at the end.

Speaker 3 (01:55:24):
Oh, sure, those are pretty good the way that they've
en hands them, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:55:27):
And when you look at the originals, it's really nice
to have those preserved because those were pioneering you know,
special effects in their day.

Speaker 3 (01:55:35):
But they do.

Speaker 1 (01:55:36):
Look pretty old and pretty slow to our eyes now,
especially after watching the special editions for thirty years.

Speaker 3 (01:55:43):
I think Lucas just made this into more of a
thing than it really needed to be.

Speaker 1 (01:55:50):
Eggs, Yes, yes, right, it didn't need to be this.
Just put it out and have it. You know what
he should have done. He should have put it out
as the bonus feature like he did, but not like
you know, with half a middle finger sticking up.

Speaker 3 (01:56:02):
Yeah, I mean, were you want it here? Let me
buy my ass for it first here you.

Speaker 1 (01:56:07):
Yeah, people don't understand what we're saying. Like people were
begging for the original versions and he's like, fine, I'll
put them as a bonus feature on the DVD release.
But what he gave us were these uh like scans
they had done for the laser disc in the mid eighties.

Speaker 3 (01:56:24):
Yeah. They were not anamorphic. Yeah, they're not anamorphic. They
look like crap. And they were SD yeah, and they're
SD yes. So it was sort of like, oh, okay, yeah,
like because because no matter what, any future films we're
going to uh you know, use the special edition versions
as the canonical you know thing to spin off of,

(01:56:46):
so whatever, at least just make it available. Why turn
it into a site of conflict, right, and his whole thing,
I remember him saying like, well, I'm sorry you fell
in love with my unfinished movie, and he was being
kind of a kind of a pain in the ass
about it, right, right. I mean he's entitled to he
does to do what he wants, but it became more
of a thing than it needed to. And so I

(01:57:08):
guess my point is, like this news, while cool, I
would have been excited twenty years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:57:16):
Yeah, and I do think it's neat, but I don't
think it's going to be the event that it could
have been.

Speaker 3 (01:57:23):
I definitely don't think that.

Speaker 1 (01:57:25):
And like you said, I mean there's a generation of
people that know it a different way that are probably
going to see this and go, eh, like this this
feels like, you know, like I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:57:33):
Like I'm watching a work print of something before it's finished. Yeah. Yeah,
So I'm glad they're doing I think, for nothing else
for the historical preservation aspect of it. I'm glad that
it's happening. I think it's cool. I mean, I'm looking
forward to it absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:57:51):
What besides the things that have been added, Oh well,
Hans shooting first, I'm trying to think what's been taken
away that will be back.

Speaker 3 (01:58:00):
Some of the creatures in uh yeah, like the werewolf
looking guy, uh huh yeah in the CANTEENA. I think
that that's the only thing that comes to mind.

Speaker 1 (01:58:09):
Yeah, there's some slight, very very I mean imperceptible violence
that was toned down. Do you remember that, Like there
were people that had like squibs. It wasn't blood, obviously,
but it was like kind of these their holes would
blow in their uniforms when Han and Luker disguis as stormtroopers,
and they cut some of that stuff down.

Speaker 3 (01:58:29):
They cut those and also they changed the language from
English to raa besh. It's all like super nerdy stuff
that most people aren't gonna care about. Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:58:42):
Yeah, I think the only thing that is really going
to be perceptible is all the action at the end
will feel a little different.

Speaker 3 (01:58:49):
Yeah, although I mean that the CGI in some of
those shots has not held up great either. M m. Certainly.
You know there's that one where it's almost like a
close up of the X Wings as they as they
get to to the Death Star you know, talking about
and it looks very late nineties CGI. Oh interesting, I

(01:59:11):
guess I haven't thought about it. Yeah, I mean that's
the any any effects, whether practical or visual or digital,
you're gonna you're gonna encounter that, you know. Yeah, but hey,
I'm gonna take this news, Brian, in the spirit you
intended it, which is, Hey, at least history is being
preserved and that that's always a good thing. Yeah, it's cool.
I'm I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (01:59:31):
Any chance to watch Star Wars, especially ot Star Wars
in the theater. I mean when Return of the Jedi
came out a couple of years ago, that was like
one of my favorite experiences that year.

Speaker 3 (01:59:43):
Yeah. May the Force be with us. May the Force
be with us everyone. Uh, that wraps up this episode.
What do you think we covered a lot of ground? Yeah,
we did. This is fun.

Speaker 2 (01:59:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:59:56):
We got angry, we got emotional, we got have we
we we we covered all the basis, we learned a
little bit a bit about ourselves. We went on. We
want all kinds of all kinds of emotional journeys by
by by this moment, right.

Speaker 1 (02:00:09):
Now, right here, right here, right now. There's no other
place I want to be.

Speaker 3 (02:00:19):
Hey, let us know your thoughts about any of the
topics we covered. We certainly ran the gamut. You can
email us at Moviefilm Podcast at gmail dot com. You
can also hit like on our Facebook page Facebook dot com,
slash Movie Film Podcast and message us there as always.
If you like what we're doing, please go to Apple
Podcasts and leave review, leave a star rating. If you're
listening to us on YouTube, please subscribe and and hit

(02:00:39):
like and obviously leave comments because because we do try
to respond to those on the show whenever we can. Hey,
we also have a Patreon page, Brian. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:00:48):
If you head over to patreon dot com Slash Movie
Film Podcast and hit subscribe for only five dollars a month,
you'll find every commentary we've ever done and every episode
moving forward.

Speaker 3 (02:00:58):
Absolutely add free.

Speaker 1 (02:01:00):
Our free feed will always be available, but this is
our way of providing what we believe is the most
satisfying way to enjoy the show. So no random ads
or interruptions butting in. Plus, your subscription goes a long
way and helping to support us and helping to sustain
producing the show. So if you're interested in able, please
head over to patreon dot com Slash Movie Film Podcast

(02:01:20):
and subscribe.

Speaker 3 (02:01:21):
We'd be very grateful. And if you're looking for me online,
you can find me on social media at Zaki's corner.
That's the Akis Corner. You can also find my reviews
at the San Francisco Chronicle and also at IGN and
the rap Brian What About You.

Speaker 1 (02:01:34):
You can find episodes I've written of Puppy Dog Pals
and Young Jedi Adventures streaming on Disney Plus.

Speaker 3 (02:01:41):
Well with that on behalf of my partner Brian Hall.
My name is Zachie Hassa. This has been Movie Film
three thirty one. We'll catch you next time. Thanks everybody.

Speaker 2 (02:01:49):
Welcome Friendsis podcast podcasting time show Jack again by Talking.

Speaker 3 (02:02:00):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:02:00):
Mark has only back tse

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