0:00

Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast.

0:02

I am your host. Movie Mike joined this week with

0:04

my wife and co host Kelsey. How are you?

0:07

I'm great.

0:07

We're going to talk about the best and worst movies,

0:10

our first best and worst of the year February

0:13

January. We're kind of slow, so we're grouping it all

0:15

together. In the movie review, we'll

0:18

be talking about Dune Part two, which

0:20

you're not looking forward to because it's almost three hours

0:23

long.

0:23

It's very long, and I think

0:25

I fell asleep during the first Dune Dune.

0:28

Is it worth the runtime? We'll get into that

0:30

in the movie review, and then in the trailer park

0:32

we'll talk about Wicked, which I'm oddly

0:35

surprised how good it looks,

0:38

and I just have kind of this weird fascination

0:40

with anything Wizard of Oz. I'm actually looking

0:43

forward to it, so we'll talk about that in the trailer park.

0:45

Thank you for being subscribed, Thank you for listening

0:47

every single week. Shout out to the Monday Morning

0:49

movie crew. Now let's

0:51

talk movies.

0:52

I would like to just say we're

0:54

recording this.

0:55

I've already begun the intro.

0:57

What I'm the co host. I can

1:00

cut you off. Okay, we're recording this on Thursday

1:02

evening. I'm going into

1:04

Dune saying I'm not gonna like it.

1:06

Okay.

1:07

I would love to come back to the movie

1:09

review and say that I

1:12

enjoyed it, but I'm putting it out there at the start of this

1:14

podcast that I'm not looking forward to it.

1:16

Okay, Hopefully it changes your mind.

1:18

And to find out if I liked it or not, you

1:20

have to listen to the whole episode.

1:21

There you go. Now can we talk movies?

1:24

Yeah?

1:24

Okay, and now let's

1:26

talk movies.

1:28

In a world where everyone and their mother

1:30

has a podcast, one man

1:32

stands to infiltrate the ears

1:34

of listeners like never before in a

1:37

movie podcast.

1:39

A man with so much movie knowledge.

1:41

He's basically like a walking

1:43

IMTB with glasses.

1:45

From the Nashville Podcast Network.

1:47

This is Movie Mikes,

1:50

Movie Podcast.

1:52

All right, let's get right into it. Like

1:54

we said earlier January

1:56

February, where the dump months of the year meeting

1:59

that student just kind of throw

2:01

crap at the wall and see what sticks.

2:03

And I think this year in particular, there's

2:06

a lot of crap. It was a lot of crap. Like I know

2:08

sometimes in January, we get like a horror

2:10

movie that ends up being pretty good.

2:13

I feel like this year so

2:15

far, we've had some real bombs

2:17

out there, just straight up not even

2:19

the worst movies of the year, but the worst movie is in a really

2:22

long time.

2:22

I had to think long and hard about what was my favorite.

2:24

Well, it's saying a lot when the highest

2:27

grossing movie so far of the year is The Beekeeper

2:29

with Jason Stathum. It's made one hundred

2:31

and fifty million worldwide, which

2:33

isn't that much for the highest grossing

2:36

That is the highest grossing right now. If all

2:38

movies were set and done today, the highest grossing

2:40

movies would be The Beekeeper, Bob Marley,

2:42

Mean Girls, Argyle, and Madam Webb. Did

2:45

I just give you the landscape with movies right now?

2:47

Kick it off with you first? What was the best

2:49

movie we saw so far this year? For you?

2:51

Like I said, I had to think long and hard. I had to re

2:54

examine the list. It would

2:56

be Self Reliance on Hulu, which

2:58

I didn't even really want to watch.

3:00

Now, I feel like people are you

3:02

either loved that movie like we did, or you

3:04

hate it because it's about Jake Johnson's

3:06

character who essentially is playing this

3:09

dark web reality show where

3:11

if he can stay alive for thirty days, he wins

3:13

a million dollars.

3:15

And this is also not to say I loved the movie.

3:17

It just is the best out of what we've

3:19

seen.

3:19

See. I ended up really enjoying it.

3:21

I'm just saying it's not like something that I'm like, you must

3:24

go out and watch it. It is just from the list

3:26

of things that we saw.

3:27

Yeah, I think so far there's this year, there's

3:30

not one movie that has implanted

3:32

itself into my fiber of movie

3:34

watching that this is a movie I highly

3:36

highly recommend. Haven't got there yet.

3:38

I would, I almost, but I

3:40

know. We saw it on the thirtieth of December. We talked about

3:42

it, but like I wish American Fiction could

3:44

count because that would be my favorite.

3:46

We'll see how it does it the Oscars next or

3:48

this weekend.

3:49

I guess, okay, that was my favorite. I don't really have

3:51

much else to say. It was a decent, entertaining

3:53

movie.

3:54

See.

3:55

That's probably the movie I was most excited

3:57

to do a review one. And that

3:59

was also the movie that a lot of people watched and told

4:01

me, like, you got this one wrong.

4:03

Bro, I'm more passionate about my worst

4:05

film of the month.

4:05

That's the other thing with streaming movies. They come out

4:08

and they have about a shelf life of two weeks,

4:10

maybe three if that. Because a

4:12

movie is like number one for a while, people

4:14

watch it, there's a little bit of buzz, a little

4:16

bit of word amount, and then they're just gone. For

4:19

my best of the year so

4:21

far in the last two months, I'm going to go with Sometimes

4:23

I Think About Dying, which I gave a four hine of five.

4:26

It was a really good movie. The more I've thought

4:28

about that movie, the more I was impressed

4:30

by it, And out of all the movies we've seen

4:33

so far this year, it's the only movie that's made

4:35

me feel anything. And I

4:37

really think it's because the Daisy Ridley's amazing

4:39

performance in that movie and seeing

4:41

a completely different side of her, and

4:44

then also that it was dealing with

4:46

such a heavy subject, which her character

4:48

in that movie does what the title says. She

4:50

thinks about dying, but tries to have a normal life,

4:52

tries to make connections with people, but struggles

4:54

to do that because she's socially awkward. She's a really

4:56

quiet person. But in that kind

4:58

of depressing prem it also has a lot

5:01

of fun moments that we saw it in a sold out

5:03

theater and there was a lot of people laughing

5:05

throughout the movie.

5:06

I was gonna say that socially awkward, did

5:08

you relate to that?

5:09

Oh yeah, that was like exactly.

5:12

I've never seen socially awkward portrayed

5:15

so well in a movie that I was like, that

5:17

is me, Like, that is how the

5:19

struggles I have as a socially awkward

5:21

person. I feel like you either watched

5:23

that movie and think I know somebody in

5:25

my life or that is me.

5:28

I was once told by a boss that I'm socially awkward,

5:30

and I was offended. Not all, I'm an

5:32

introvert, but I'll make friends in the post office.

5:35

Yeah maybe FF's with the trader Joe's cashier.

5:37

Before we even leave, you were like, you

5:40

can go and be very social and talk

5:43

to people that you don't know. And

5:45

then yes, you have your recharge moments where

5:47

you're just like, I just want to go home a weekend.

5:49

We don't go out anywhere, but I feel like you

5:52

flourish in that social setting as well,

5:54

unlike me where I just like.

5:56

When she said that and I was like, I think she

5:59

wanted me to like flirt with someone,

6:01

and I was like, I just don't like this

6:03

person. Like I don't think I'm socially awkward. I'm

6:06

just picky.

6:07

I don't you're not at all.

6:08

Okay, thank you for reassuring me.

6:09

Okay, So now we'll get into the movies. We'll

6:11

be more passionate about our

6:14

worst movies so far in the last

6:16

sixty days. What is your worst, Madam

6:18

web Yeah?

6:19

What was that movie?

6:20

Very pointless?

6:22

It was so dumb, Like I

6:24

have so many questions.

6:26

Starting with keep it Spoiler Free.

6:29

WTFF was the plot?

6:30

The plot is weird because it felt like the

6:32

same thing over and over again.

6:34

Of again, I won't give too much away. Even

6:37

if you go see it won't really ruin much for you.

6:39

But it's it's the coda Johnson's character

6:42

trying to figure things out and then leaving

6:44

these girls behind. So in the movie,

6:46

she discovers that she can see into the future,

6:49

and then she's connected with these three other girls,

6:52

and this whole time, they're just believing everything

6:54

she says and going along with it, not questioning

6:57

anything. And she's like, all right, you guys, wait

6:59

here I'm gonna go research some stuff,

7:01

leaves them there, and then later she's like, Okay,

7:03

I'm gonna go do this. Now I'm gonna leave you here, and it

7:05

just kept happening over and over. It didn't feel

7:08

like a superhero movie to me because really

7:10

nothing heroic happened in the movie. There

7:12

was no qualities of her character that

7:14

had anything superhero related.

7:16

It was really just her running around

7:18

the city doing normal things.

7:21

And then it had the worst villain of all time,

7:24

and just the movie that completely

7:26

was like, what are we watching the entire

7:28

time?

7:29

Listen, no one has done having

7:32

visions telling the future quite like, that's

7:34

so raven.

7:35

They should have just made it. That's so raven.

7:37

Superhero movie would one hundred

7:39

percent have been better. That's all I have to say about Madam Web.

7:41

As my little brother would say, it was trash.

7:43

And the thing I wondered about that movie is

7:46

at what point did they realize that

7:48

we have something really bad in her hands? And

7:51

how are we gonna save this and try to make a little

7:53

bit of money off of it?

7:54

I mean, Dakota Johnson's press tour was

7:56

indicative of it, because she was apathetic

7:59

on inter i don't even know that she

8:01

knit what the movie was about it. For being honest, she

8:03

really didn't.

8:04

Because she said that I have no idea if this

8:06

movie is good or not, because I was just on a blue

8:08

screen the entire time. So it's almost

8:11

what I've been saying is that the issue

8:13

with superhero movies not really having

8:15

that energy to them those big moments

8:17

anymore, is because the actors don't know what

8:19

they are doing. They don't know how to

8:21

act in those situations. With Dakota, Johnson has

8:24

been not really in movies that cgi

8:26

heavy. She's used to interacting

8:28

with characters in a setting that she can. You

8:30

know, you're there, you visualize it, you see like, I'm

8:32

in the stream right now, this is how my character is going to be.

8:35

But when you take that away and you're just acting

8:37

to people in front of a blue screen,

8:40

you're just getting all these plot points thrown at

8:42

you and you don't really have a grasp on your character

8:45

at all. It's just gonna feel

8:47

like a bunch of random things that you're gonna

8:49

hope in posts they cut

8:51

it just right for it to make sense or

8:53

have any kind of and they didn't gravity

8:56

to your performance and they didn't. So

8:59

it's really comes down to how

9:01

these movies are being made, relying on

9:03

so much special effects and

9:05

you know, post production that you

9:07

kind of got to go back to the basics of doing practical

9:10

effects and doing things where the actor feels

9:13

and can react to things.

9:14

The ending scene was so bad. I audibly laughed.

9:17

It was very bad. One of the worst endings

9:19

of all time.

9:20

And I've been seeing so many tiktoks of

9:22

people like really enjoyed laughing out loud

9:24

for two hours with a sold out crowd at Madam Webb,

9:26

and I'm like, I love that it's brought us all together and

9:29

that it was so bad and that we're all just like sharing

9:31

that experience because bad movies

9:33

and good movies are the same, and that they're best

9:36

shared in camaraderie.

9:38

I agree, But it has to be that

9:40

level of bad to be enjoyable.

9:43

Again, yes, because what my worst movie

9:45

is wasn't that level of like it's so bad, it's

9:47

good. But with Madam Webb, it did achieve

9:49

that level that you could poke fun

9:51

at it, you could make jokes and find

9:53

some enjoyment in it because it was so off

9:56

the wall.

9:56

All right, let's get into your worst.

9:58

My worst was Argyle so bad. It

10:00

was also just like two and a half hours, which

10:02

at least Madam Webb was a shorter run time.

10:04

I got sick of Argyle just from the seven thousand previews

10:07

we saw of it.

10:08

Yes, they hyped that movie up so much, which

10:10

is also an indicator if a movie has a

10:12

preview shown at every single thing. Granted,

10:15

we do go to the movies a lot, but when they spend

10:17

so much money on advertising

10:19

like that, you kind of think,

10:21

oh, man, I don't think the product here is actually

10:23

worth it, and they're trying to make it up of just everybody

10:26

knowing that this movie is coming out and hopefully

10:28

we make some money back now. After

10:30

I did that review, it was

10:32

kind of the opposite effect

10:35

of when I reviewed Self Reliance is a lot of people

10:38

said that I didn't get Argyle.

10:40

There was nothing to get.

10:41

I don't think so now the movie

10:44

I understood what it was trying to do. It was trying

10:46

to be this campy take on a spy thriller

10:49

and be quirky.

10:50

And a lot within a plot within a plot.

10:52

Too many levels of it for it to really

10:54

resonate.

10:55

And as someone who loves books and

10:57

thrillers. I don't even want to read the

10:59

Argyle book. I don't think there was anything

11:01

to get. I'm gonna agree with you on that. It

11:03

wasn't even like campy. It was just dumb.

11:06

It was a waste of money, Like you could tell they

11:08

spent so much like the Apple film quality

11:10

is great, like colors

11:12

are just like vibrant.

11:14

A lot of action sequences dumb

11:16

ones. They weren't even good. No,

11:19

two of the worst scenes I've ever seen in a movie

11:21

took place in our gyle.

11:23

Have we said what those are? No?

11:25

It's I mean, you kind of can, but

11:27

it's too spoilery. But it's just so

11:29

I want to talk about one of them. It's just so I

11:32

keep calling movies dumb, but it is so pointless,

11:35

and it's trying to be so over the

11:37

top that it's like, ah, this is fun. It's

11:39

supposed to be that ridiculous. But I

11:41

felt like the movie had a level of seriousness

11:43

to it that you can't really do both at the same

11:45

time. You can't try to be serious

11:47

telling the story and then also have these supernatural

11:50

elements that are so over

11:52

the top. It just doesn't feel

11:54

like it takes place in any one setting,

11:57

so I wanted to leave that movie.

11:59

We did consider it, and we were just kind of, h I guess

12:01

we'll stick it out.

12:02

Yeah. It got to a point of like, all right, I just

12:04

want to see how this is going to end. And by the time

12:06

it ended, I was like, yep, I was right waste

12:08

the time. That was our best and worst. I did

12:10

do some movie rewatches in

12:12

the last month, and we'll go through some of these.

12:14

One of them we did together, the Titanic.

12:17

Yes, maybe a couple of them. We did together. Titanic,

12:19

which I don't even know how we got started

12:21

on wanting to watch. I think we were just looking for a disaster

12:23

movie, and technically Titanic is a disaster

12:25

movie.

12:26

Yes, we were looking for something to watch. Really played scrabble.

12:28

And we watched Titanic, And first

12:30

of all, I kind of forgot about the opening sequence.

12:33

I think we both kind of did. I remember

12:36

watching it as a kid and just thinking

12:38

that was like one quick scene of them getting

12:40

into the story of Titanic, But

12:43

it really was a It's a big

12:45

significant part of the movie, probably like twenty thirty

12:47

minutes of them finding

12:49

her and all of the research guys trying

12:51

to find and do all the backstory of the

12:54

Titanic. I thought that was fascinating because

12:56

I totally forgot about that part of the movie.

12:58

I would like to say kids these days do not know the show having

13:00

to change out the VHS.

13:01

Yeah, it is a long movie.

13:03

It is a long movie because what VHS could only

13:05

hold like two hours, so to change.

13:07

It out a double VHS to get the three

13:09

that was luxury.

13:11

That was awesome when you owned that double VHS.

13:13

But rewatching it, it just reminded

13:16

me how many iconic moments

13:18

are in Titanic, as far

13:20

as like all the meme, like it's been eighty

13:22

four years, like all those little things we.

13:24

Said it together.

13:25

There are so many things in that movie that are

13:28

iconic that it's crazy

13:30

to think a movie could even replicate

13:33

that.

13:33

Again, oh it couldn't. I also

13:35

think it was such a cinematic

13:39

feat of like James Cameron to do something

13:41

on that scale, Like I mean even just

13:43

watching the ship sink little by

13:46

little and I feel like it still holds up. Like

13:48

some movies you watch and they like look

13:50

old, I don't feel like The Titanic's ever gonna

13:52

look old.

13:53

Because it has a lot of practical things in it.

13:55

A lot of it is them actually building

13:57

sets using regal water. They

14:00

do use some trickery where they actually have like

14:02

a small model of it and they make it look

14:04

bigger. So some of the scenes where like the water is crashing

14:06

through, yeah it's a small scale,

14:09

but a lot of it is actual

14:12

sets, so that stuff ages

14:14

so much better. That's why I always prefer movies

14:16

to use practical effects. And

14:19

I feel like a lot of filmmakers now

14:21

think, oh, we have all this technology, we

14:24

should probably use visual effects to make it look

14:26

better.

14:27

They don't hold up.

14:27

They don't hold up, and I think that is a

14:30

great reason why movies like that,

14:32

even movies like Star Wars that use practical effects

14:35

have a more timeless feel. There are

14:37

moments in Titanic, I think particular,

14:40

when like the smokestack

14:42

things are falling down, like some of that stuff

14:44

is ninety cgi, but it doesn't

14:47

take you that much out of it because everything else that's

14:49

so big and elaborate is actual

14:51

practical effects. I even saw the

14:54

actor who's gonna play the thing in the new movie

14:57

saying that, oh, the new thing costing

14:59

will probably be sy effects because practical

15:02

effects are so outdated. And

15:04

I just felt like that what he said didn't hit well

15:07

with me because I don't think practical

15:09

effects are outdated. It's almost harder to

15:11

do.

15:11

Yeah, I feel like it takes a special

15:14

team to be able to put together better

15:16

practical effects.

15:17

I think, Yeah, I think that is much more talent than

15:19

Okay, we'll just put you in a suit

15:21

and put some tracking on you, and then we'll put it all on

15:24

special effects, and then if it looks bad,

15:26

everybody's gonna hate it.

15:27

Yeah, but I'll have to say Titanic still

15:30

a great film, still.

15:31

A great movie. The other movie, we don't.

15:34

I feel like we had watched it at some point, but

15:36

then I don't think we did. We watched Geostorm

15:39

because we were itching for a yet again

15:41

a disaster movie. We were thinking of one

15:43

on Hulu called what super Cellic?

15:46

It looks like a dollar bin movie, that

15:49

one.

15:49

The special effects are clearly special

15:51

effects.

15:52

But I think even the worst

15:54

disaster movie I still find enjoyment

15:56

in.

15:57

Oh I've watched sci fi disaster movies that

15:59

are made on probably a five dollars

16:01

budget. I love I love a weather

16:03

related disaster film.

16:05

And Geostorm has basically

16:07

all the cliche points of a standard hit

16:10

them all disaster movie. It hits them all, and

16:12

by the end of it, I was like, oh, that actually wasn't as

16:14

bad as I thought it was going to be. Because we ended

16:16

up watching the movie we didn't think about exactly.

16:19

But I don't really recommend that

16:22

one. But if you're like us and you're itching

16:24

for a disaster movie.

16:25

Here's the thing. Number of the good ones are free

16:27

and streaming. I wanted the day after Tomorrow wasn't

16:30

available. We need to just buy it. We do watch the movie,

16:33

we do.

16:33

Want it a lot. The other movie I watched that

16:35

I was a little bit embarrassed to buy because

16:37

I rented it was the Pokemon first movie

16:39

from the nineties.

16:40

Can we tell people about this? So I'm going through a

16:42

bank account and I see

16:44

an Apple charge and we rented Anatomy

16:47

of a Fall on Apple but it was like six

16:49

dollars. I was like, we have a ten ninety three charge,

16:51

just trying to figure out what it was. You were like, huh,

16:53

sure it was an Anatomy of a Fall. I'm

16:56

like, no, it wasn't really, I don't know. Five

16:58

minutes later, you really the

17:00

Pokemon movie, and I was like, why didn't you just tell

17:02

me?

17:03

I haven't seen that movie since I was a kid,

17:05

and I've been getting more

17:08

back into Pokemon lately. Pokemon Day

17:10

was just this past week, and I wanted to

17:12

rewatch it, and there's nowhere you can scream it.

17:14

But why were you embarrassed to tell me? I went to

17:16

two stores with you last week to find the Pokemon

17:19

magazine, and I drove thirty minutes

17:21

each way yesterday to buy you Pokemon

17:24

Funko pops, Like, I don't know why you were ashamed

17:26

to tell me you rented the Pokemon movie.

17:28

I don't know. I guess it's just that I like, of

17:30

all the movies to pay for, it was that one, and

17:32

it was like four bucks to rent and the movie is only like

17:34

an hour and fifteen minutes. And then

17:36

I don't know.

17:37

I just I felt I

17:39

don't judge you for your hobbies.

17:41

I know, I just feel childish watching

17:43

it. Sometimes.

17:44

I literally get excited when

17:46

they put a Mary kay in Ashley film on Hulu.

17:48

Those are good and those go way back.

17:51

I watched Passport to Paris.

17:53

Our lips are sealed. Nothing to be embarrassed about

17:55

nostalgia.

17:56

Yeah, I'm like heavily searching out

17:58

nostalgia right now.

17:59

We see kids movies in theaters. We have tickets to

18:01

Kung Fu Pana before next weekend.

18:03

Man, wait for that one. But Rewatching

18:06

it as an adult for the first time

18:08

since I was a kid was interesting because I

18:10

remember that movie feeling so big

18:13

and I just remember being so

18:15

excited to see it in theaters. I went with my brother,

18:17

I got the card that came

18:19

with your ticket, and then rewatching

18:22

it, I was like, oh, this doesn't look as good as

18:24

I remember. It doesn't really

18:26

hold up as well because

18:29

it feels a little empty to me, which

18:32

I was like, oh, man, I remember this movie being like NonStop

18:34

action and like fast paced.

18:36

Well, how old were you when you saw it.

18:37

I was probably eight or nine years

18:39

old exactly. It's just weird because

18:43

at that time I was like, oh, man, a Pokemon

18:45

movie. To see him more than

18:47

twenty minutes at a time, which I was so used to watching

18:49

the TV show. It felt so big and

18:51

longer to me that watching

18:54

it now was like, oh, not a whole lot happened

18:56

in this movie. And I

18:58

also went and saw like the critic reviews

19:00

when that movie came out, and they were like ripping

19:03

that movie to shreds, which

19:05

it made me think about, like everybody who

19:07

was an adult film critic now probably didn't

19:09

get it, Like they probably hated the

19:11

fact that a movie like that was making so much money.

19:14

And when all these other movies are coming

19:16

out that are more like film

19:18

darlings, and then you have all these kids going to watch

19:21

Pokemon. I just love

19:23

now that those kids

19:25

are my age and doing things like this now.

19:27

And when a Pokemon movie comes out now, it'll

19:30

probably get good reviews, but because it will be all

19:32

those people who watch it as a kid and can

19:34

appreciate it and be able to talk

19:36

about it from a way of understanding it. Back

19:38

then, it was just like this is dumb, this is for kids,

19:40

this is garbage.

19:41

I also feel like we're in an era of

19:43

reclaiming our hobbies and

19:46

like the things that make us happy. And

19:48

I feel like it's cool to like own your

19:51

hobbies and be proud of it. And if you enjoy

19:53

Pokemon, great, like I don't care.

19:56

I enjoy watching grown women on the Housewives

19:58

yell at each other every week to each throne

20:01

that was the.

20:01

Other point I made of I was

20:03

thinking of how I feel kind of not

20:05

ashamed of it. I just feel like it's a nerdy

20:08

thing to like Pokemon, even though a lot of adults

20:10

like it. Now being a nerd is cool. Yeah.

20:12

I think the person who has made me be more comfortable

20:15

with it recently was Miles Turner when

20:17

whenever he's the NBA player, plays for the

20:19

Pacers, and he was talking about playing with legos,

20:22

building legos. So I was gonna

20:24

say, and for somebody like that,

20:26

who people.

20:28

I want his budget to buy legos?

20:30

I know who people see like, Oh, he's an

20:32

athlete, he must be cool doing all these awesome

20:34

things. And he's building legos,

20:36

watching Pokemon. He has a Miles

20:38

Morales tattoo on his leg. And

20:41

just to see somebody like that be into

20:43

nerdy things and kind of be a spokesperson

20:46

for it kind of made me feel a little bit

20:48

more like I should embrace it more.

20:50

I think we're also ingrained still, like that

20:52

train of thought in high school that like nerd

20:54

is a bad thing, Like it's like a pejorative

20:57

term when you get to college. Was

20:59

being ad was cool in college?

21:01

Yeah? I mean being yeah, I do feel like

21:03

I.

21:03

Was a nerd. I'm still a nerd. I read books.

21:05

I read science books for fun, like

21:07

I sit at my desk and I have several books

21:10

about like genes and like virology.

21:13

I think learning and like having nerdy hobbies at

21:15

school. I hope our future kids have nerdy

21:17

hobbies.

21:18

Because I was also thinking of in terms

21:21

of other things I was a fan

21:23

of as a kid that I'm still a fan of now

21:25

that I love just as much. It's like it's more

21:27

socially acceptable for me to be as

21:29

big of a Dallas Cowboys fan as I am. The

21:31

reason I'm a big fan is because I grew up in

21:34

the Dallas area in the nineties.

21:36

I was surrounded by it. Like my earliest memories

21:38

of watching sports on TV were the Dallas

21:40

Cowboys. I don't think in any way that's

21:42

different of me liking them now

21:45

for the sake of it reminding me of my childhood

21:47

than liking Pokemon now or being such a big

21:49

Spider Man fan. It's really all the same. It's

21:52

just that sports is seen

21:54

as cooler, more manly, more

21:57

ah. Yes, sports are more acceptable and

22:00

if you collect Pokemon cards you're weird and

22:02

a nerd. It's really the same thing. Wearing

22:05

an adult man wearing an NFL

22:08

jersey is in my eyes, just

22:10

as nerdy as a grown man wearing a Pokemon

22:12

T shirt. I mean, and both are acceptable.

22:14

Do what you want, you.

22:15

Know my thoughts on fantasy football, It's exactly

22:18

It's a grown man drafting a made up

22:20

team.

22:21

It is no different than playing World of

22:23

Warcraft.

22:24

I've I don't think I've talked about it on hare, but

22:27

my favorite podcaster besides you, of course,

22:29

Kate Kennedy of b there in five, just

22:31

wrote a book about like being a fangirl

22:34

and loving pop culture

22:36

and loving makeup and like

22:38

just all the things that enjoy what

22:41

you want to enjoy. If it's something nostalgic,

22:43

great, if it's something nerdy

22:46

cool, if it's sports, like I'm

22:48

just like life is hard enough, like it is hard

22:50

to just be a human, and if you have something

22:53

that brings you joy, go for it.

22:55

I think this has inspired me to go back

22:57

and revisit more movies from

22:59

my childhood that I haven't seen in a long time and not

23:01

be afraid to watch them. I think the one I

23:04

watched before this was probably Max Keeble's

23:06

Big Move. You did watch that, which was another

23:08

one that didn't really hold up as much because I

23:10

love that movie as a kid.

23:11

None of those hold up.

23:12

It was one of the first movies that I got

23:15

on DVD because I got it at the flea

23:17

market and I was like, ah, I want to go because

23:19

I didn't see it in theaters, but I saw it on DVD and

23:22

I watched it NonStop because it was one of the only DVDs

23:24

we had, and then rewatching it

23:26

on Disney Plus, I was like, not

23:28

as funny, not as good, but

23:31

yeah, let this.

23:33

Let us be a reminder if you have

23:35

any nerdy hobbies that you're like, it's not cool

23:37

to like that. So what like, if there is

23:39

something that brings you joy in the evenings

23:42

or the weekends after working

23:44

and just like paying bills and trying

23:47

to be a functioning member of society,

23:49

do it. I don't care what it is. If you want to make

23:52

those like little things that you

23:54

put beads together and like iron them together,

23:56

if you want to paint, if you want to do puzzles

23:59

all the time, like cool Sudoku,

24:01

crosswords, read a book, bird

24:03

watch, I don't know. Just if there is something

24:06

that like brings you joy in this life.

24:08

As long as you're not hurting other people.

24:10

Yes, do it.

24:11

I don't hunt for humans for sport. Probably

24:13

not a good idea, thank you.

24:14

I don't think anyone really thought that was their hobby.

24:16

Somebody may have been like I was on my I was.

24:18

Really on my soapbox. Coming there.

24:19

I'm going to follow my dream of hunting the

24:21

human race.

24:23

Okay, legal dreams, Legal

24:25

dreams, al right.

24:26

We always wrap it up with our honorable

24:28

mentions with TV shows and a book

24:31

and a book. I think collectively, the

24:33

show we both loved the most was one

24:36

two three Smith.

24:38

I love Donald Glover, probably have a bit of a

24:40

man crush on him. Probably he

24:43

is my music comedy

24:46

fashion like he is. He's just he

24:49

is my muse, so I'll watch anything he is

24:51

in. And when it was first announced that he was going to be a

24:53

part of a Mister and Missus Smith series, I

24:55

was like, that doesn't sound good to me. But

24:58

after watching the first episode, completely

25:00

hooked, it was so good.

25:01

I loved it.

25:02

Probably the fastest we've watched the show

25:04

in a very long time. Of every episode, roll it

25:06

roll it in like forty minutes or so.

25:07

Every other show we've started, we're on like episode three

25:10

and like six weeks behind, but that one we were like,

25:12

gotta watch it.

25:13

Same basis as the movie, but I

25:15

feel like it works so much better as a series

25:17

because every episode has

25:20

its own mission, digs in a little more

25:22

and it it's so much more emotional

25:24

and grounded in reality. I love the way that

25:26

he acts in that he has like this

25:28

very it almost feels

25:30

like he's not acting because he's so chill

25:33

and calm, and I just love the way that he

25:35

speaks. It's like a normal human speaking

25:38

and not acting, but he is acting.

25:40

So he's just so good at your crush

25:43

about Donald lover now, but a great

25:45

show. I feel like the movie is overshadowed

25:48

by the fact that it's when like Brad and Angelina got

25:50

together. I honestly, that's all I can say. Yeah

25:52

that overshadows me the movie with

25:55

Yeah.

25:55

That overshadows it for me. But collectively,

25:58

that is the best TV show we've

26:00

watched. The worst show is

26:03

one that I am not going to finish. You'll

26:05

probably finish is Death and Other Details on Hulu.

26:08

Yeah, but I it doesn't work every

26:10

time we try to watch it on the Hulah app or TV,

26:12

so I might not finish it.

26:14

The first episode was interesting.

26:16

I like, this was good.

26:17

It's kind of like a death on

26:19

the Nile Knives, murder on the Orient

26:21

Express, et cetera.

26:23

Visually, it's very colorful, colorful and

26:25

fun. But it really lost me after

26:27

that first episode of like, I don't really get

26:29

what they're trying to do here. I'm out.

26:31

I honestly kind of forgot about the show, so maybe,

26:33

yeah, maybe I won't finish it.

26:35

I did the Shark Tank. I'm out.

26:36

I'm out for that reason. I'm

26:39

out.

26:39

And your honorable mentioned book The.

26:41

Women by Kristin Hannah. It is almost five hundred

26:44

pages and I read it in forty seven hours.

26:46

That is impressive.

26:47

I stayed up late two nights in a row and

26:49

power through. She does historical fiction

26:52

really well, but unlike most of the ones I

26:54

read, it is not World War Two. It is set in the Vietnam

26:56

War, and it is about a female

26:59

nurse who enrolled in the army and

27:02

goes to Vietnam, and it's about like the friendship

27:04

she makes, and it's about trying to assimilate

27:06

back into life in

27:09

the us after the Vietnam War, and

27:11

just like the power of female friendships and just

27:13

the power of like women in

27:15

general. And it was

27:18

fantastic. I think Kristin hann is one of the best

27:20

writers. And interestingly enough,

27:22

I don't even know if you knew this, the movie rights have already been purchased.

27:24

Yeah, film, and

27:27

I think that'll be really good. She did

27:29

an Instagram post and was asking people just like who

27:31

they wanted to see cast, and Glenn Palell was

27:33

a very common suggestion.

27:35

Everybody wants him right now, I do.

27:38

I can picture a character he'd be really good for. I

27:40

think he could be good in it. So read

27:43

the Women. It's fantastic, very

27:46

ahead of reading the book before the movie. On that one,

27:48

Yeah, that's my book recognition. And then an honorable

27:50

mention. TV show would be One Day on Netflix.

27:53

It's based on the book, and there

27:55

was a movie in twenty eleven with me in Halfway. But

27:58

it's fourteen episodes. Some of the I'm only

28:00

like twenty minutes. We'll slow at times,

28:03

but it's sweet, it's good. I stayed

28:05

up late finishing it one night. I knew how it was gonna

28:07

end, and I still was like Okay,

28:10

those are my honorable mentions. Oh

28:13

my favorite one, Kate Kennedy won a Millennial.

28:16

I'm just gonna plug her on this because

28:19

I listened to her podcast all day long. Her

28:21

book's fabulous. That's what it's called. One a

28:23

Millennial, and it's just about like girlhood

28:26

and nostalgia in the nineties and Mary

28:29

Kate Nashley and sleepovers

28:31

and American girl dolls, all

28:34

the fun things.

28:35

There you go. We'll come back and give our review

28:37

of Done two.

28:39

Did I or did I not like it?

28:41

And then the trailer park we'll talk about Wicked.

28:46

Let's get into it now. A spoiler free review

28:49

of Dune Part two, a movie that

28:51

had so much hype built around

28:53

it. Again, I don't go read reviews.

28:55

I don't listen to reviews going into a movie,

28:58

but it was hard to ofvoid all

29:01

of the tweets and people posting

29:03

in their stories of how much they loved

29:06

it. But that's where I stopped going into

29:08

it. But I knew

29:11

that there was gonna be more action in this one,

29:13

just given the trailer given with the director

29:15

dnievil Knew, who said that

29:17

the first one was essentially setting up

29:19

all the big action in the second one,

29:22

and I was not a fan of Dune

29:24

Part one. Quite frankly, I

29:27

found that movie to be very boring.

29:29

It was a lot of walking in the sand. It felt

29:31

like Game of Thrones in the desert to

29:33

me. Trying to build this big,

29:35

elaborate world in just one film

29:38

for me felt like too big of a task.

29:40

So I wasn't the big a fan of it. I didn't hate

29:42

it by any means, because I still think visually

29:45

it looked amazing and the action that we did

29:47

have towards the end of the movie had

29:49

me excited going into this one. And

29:51

really I just wanted to see Timothy shallow

29:54

May write a word. I was all in it for

29:56

that. And this movie has an incredible

29:58

cast with Timothy Schallo, May Sendaia,

30:01

Josh Brolin, Austin Butler who

30:03

did a really good job in this movie. They

30:05

brought in Florence Pew Dave Bautista,

30:07

who is proving that

30:09

he can really do it at all, and I love

30:11

that he takes on every single role

30:14

with so much just charisma

30:16

and power, and he can do so many different

30:18

things, and for I

30:21

know, I compare him to The Rock a lot, because

30:23

they both came from the WWE, but

30:25

the Rock will only do movies where he is the

30:27

star. Dave Bautista will do roles

30:30

in a big movie like this as a supporting

30:32

actor and completely crush it,

30:34

which I think is a great, great value

30:36

to you as an actor. You don't have to be

30:38

the star every time, and for that reason,

30:40

I think he is winning in the game of

30:43

WWE wrestler's turned actors.

30:45

You also have Christopher Walkin, Javier

30:48

Bardem which seeing him

30:50

and Josh Brolin in a movie together gave

30:52

me no Country for Old Men vibes. So

30:55

I love the cast. I love the director

30:57

denievil Neuve, who has done movies like Blade Runner,

30:59

twenty four, forty nine, Secario, and

31:02

of course he did Part One, so he is

31:04

somebody who has a really

31:06

big grasp on doing big action

31:09

movies, big sci fi movies. He

31:11

also finds great cinematographers to make

31:13

his vision come to life. Greg Frasier in this

31:15

movie crushed it. And that is where

31:17

I want to start, is the visual aspect

31:19

of this movie. That first action sequence

31:22

had me on my toes and there were

31:24

these really slick movements that were definite

31:26

upgrades from Part One. That led me to

31:28

believe that this movie was gonna have so much more action

31:30

and have a completely different profile

31:33

than doing Part one, leading me to believe

31:35

that the director wasn't lying and this is where all

31:38

the action is going to be. So there

31:40

are so many great things I can say about

31:42

how good this movie looked visually, and

31:44

I think where it really shined was

31:46

the action. It had such beautiful

31:48

explosions. I'm not sure I've

31:50

ever described an explosion

31:53

as being beautiful, but there were these big

31:55

bursts of flames, and you combine it

31:57

with the unique sound design that this movie had

32:00

that it had the theater rumbling,

32:02

and this is a movie that even if

32:04

you're not the biggest fan of the franchise,

32:06

or the characters or the story, it still

32:09

demands the big screen because of the scale

32:11

of the sets, because of the scale of the

32:13

action. And this is a very very

32:16

cinematic movie that I

32:18

think seeing it in theaters is the only

32:20

way to see it. But that being said,

32:23

I don't think this movie is for everybody.

32:25

And this is coming from me who as a

32:27

self proclaimed nerd. I tell

32:30

people that I'm into sci fi, but this

32:32

movie has to me questioning whether or not

32:34

I'm into this type of sci fi. I

32:37

think there are two different levels of nerds.

32:39

One that's a little bit more fun,

32:41

lighthearted, still nerdy stuff, and

32:44

there's this more like refined, hardcore

32:47

nerdom. The way I describe my

32:49

nerd friends is I have some who are more

32:51

into Star Wars and I have some that are more

32:54

into Star Trek. If

32:56

you were more into Star Wars, you might not

32:58

be the biggest fan of do Un. If

33:00

you're more into Star Trek, you probably

33:02

love it. And I know what the comments

33:05

are gonna say is that Dune was

33:07

essentially ripped off by Star Wars, which

33:09

is a little bit more of a digestible, family

33:11

friendly, appeals to kids' version of Dune.

33:14

The book came out before the first Star Wars movie,

33:16

so George Lucas pulled a lot of

33:18

inspiration from Dune and you can see

33:21

that. So when I sit

33:23

down to watch a sci fi movie,

33:25

a movie like Dune is one that

33:27

I kind of need to spend more time with. And

33:30

I know after watching this movie it was by no

33:32

means bad. I just feel like

33:34

it's not entirely for me. I

33:37

have trouble connecting with the characters

33:39

and the themes in this movie, which

33:41

there are very big, complex themes.

33:44

What it is about essentially is Timothy

33:46

Shalomay's character trying to seek

33:48

revenge against the people who destroyed

33:50

his family. He teams up with India and

33:52

her crew and they are going into war

33:55

defeating these enemies, and the overarching

33:57

theme is him having to choose

33:59

between the love of his life and the

34:01

fate of the universe. He's having these visions

34:04

of what is going to happen in the future.

34:07

And then there's this other big theme that has a

34:09

lot of religious undertones about what

34:11

it means to have a messiah, what it

34:13

means to be waiting for a person who is

34:15

said to you know, guide you, be

34:18

your beacon, be the person you are going

34:20

to follow those religious undertones,

34:23

but really it is a story about good and

34:25

evil, with Timothy Shallowmay being the hero,

34:28

Austin Butler and Dave Batista being

34:30

the villains here. And while I understand

34:33

this, and I can already read the comments again of people

34:35

saying, well, you just didn't get it. I

34:37

understand all that, but the level of storytelling

34:39

that it has, even though

34:42

I'm understanding these plot points and following

34:44

along all these characters, which it does take

34:46

a lot of paying attention. This is a movie you really

34:48

have to be dialed into, because if you

34:50

miss one line, if you miss one little part,

34:53

you may be confused throughout the movie, even

34:56

if you understand all the plot points. For

34:58

me, anyway, I had trouble connecting

35:01

with the characters and really

35:03

feeling the things that I normally feel

35:06

in a movie of this scale. And

35:08

that was even with this one having

35:10

a little bit more levity to it, with Javier

35:12

Bardam's character cracking some jokes

35:15

here and there. There was a little bit more camaraderie,

35:17

people poking fun at Timothy Chalomey.

35:20

This one had a lot more of those elements

35:22

that lacked in the first one. But

35:24

it always comes back to that connection between

35:27

the spice and the moisture that

35:30

is so specialized

35:32

to me that I don't really

35:34

care about it. And that's probably

35:36

my dumb brain of not wanting to grasp

35:39

that concept or think it's that interesting

35:42

that I'm like, they're doing this all because of

35:45

spice and moisture. So I

35:47

was just trying to visualize exactly

35:49

where this is taking place in the world and allow

35:52

myself to fully be a part of that

35:54

world, but there were things throughout

35:56

that just took me out of it. And

35:58

as much as I loved tim with the Chalo May, maybe

36:01

it's because it was coming off Wonka,

36:03

it was I found it hard for me, probably

36:05

unfairly, that he is

36:08

the person for this role. And

36:10

maybe it's just because of the way he talks to

36:12

me. He just sounded like Timmy tim delivering

36:15

some of these speeches and talking so just

36:18

normally when everybody around him

36:20

has a cool accent, they're speaking a different language,

36:22

which his character did too,

36:24

But I just found it to be like, Oh, it's

36:27

just Timothy Shallome in there. So

36:29

I think this is a movie in about five years,

36:31

much like I did with Interstellar that I didn't

36:33

love the first time I saw it in theaters, but years

36:36

later, after revisiting it, learning

36:38

more about it, researching more about it, I

36:40

understand that film and what it was trying

36:43

to do and what it was trying to say.

36:46

Same case will probably be here and

36:48

I'll look back and think, ah, I really got this review

36:50

wrong upon my first reactions.

36:53

But I couldn't come on here

36:55

and tell you that I completely loved

36:57

all of the storytelling elements and

37:00

that I'm fully into dune, because I

37:02

didn't really leave with that impression in

37:04

those first ninety minutes. If it would have ended there,

37:07

I'd have came on here and give it a four point

37:09

five out of five. But after

37:11

about that ninety minute mark, towards the back

37:13

half of Act two into Act three,

37:16

it got Doney again, and by Douney again,

37:18

I mean it got a little bit boring.

37:21

The dialogue started to feel a little bit more

37:23

like a chore, and when all of these big

37:25

epic moments start happening, I

37:28

don't have that connection with these characters

37:30

to really make me get riled up in my seat

37:32

and want to cheer along. And maybe it's

37:35

because my brain has been ruined

37:37

by the MCU of expecting some witty

37:39

catchphrase or some big heroic

37:41

moment for something to pop to get me excited.

37:44

I just didn't really have that feeling.

37:46

And once it was over, I thought it went on

37:49

probably twenty to twenty five minutes too

37:51

long. Probably unfair for me

37:53

to say that if it just made it shorter, it would have been

37:55

better. But when it started to

37:57

dip for me, it dipped pretty hard,

38:00

and I just kind of wanted it to be over. But

38:02

I just know that there is such a big fandom

38:04

for this movie of people who truly get it, because

38:06

if you look at the box office numbers in the United

38:09

States, it made eighty one point five million dollars.

38:11

Worldwide, it's almost one hundred and eighty million

38:13

dollars, So the fandom is there.

38:16

I just think there are two different kinds of nerds

38:18

again, the more refined nerds who are going to

38:20

love this, people who like sci fi

38:22

with big, complex themes, a lot of

38:24

characters, different languages. If

38:27

you're more into like reading a book and then going

38:29

to see the movie, this is all for you. But

38:32

if you're like me that usually

38:34

gets more invested in the emotional side

38:36

of things, likes a little bit

38:38

more action throughout the entire movie and

38:40

not just a lot of dialogue of people speaking

38:43

in these weird chambers, then you might

38:45

find it to be a little bit boring

38:47

and tedious at times. The one thing

38:49

I think we can all agree upon is that cinematically

38:53

it is unmatched. This is how you do special

38:55

effects. All of the action sequences

38:58

were magnificent, seeing

39:00

Sandaia shoot these amazing guns, seeing

39:02

all of the choppers, those little things

39:04

that they would use to attract

39:06

all of the worms. So the action and

39:08

the visual aspect are amazing,

39:11

So I still think you will enjoy that even if

39:13

you don't enjoy the other themes. So for

39:15

Dune Part two, I give it

39:17

three point five out of five sandworms.

39:20

And now that you've heard of my thoughts, Kelsey will now give

39:22

her uninterrupted feedback

39:24

on Dune Part two, Take it Away.

39:26

I came up with the punt. I do not like

39:28

it. It's bad, okay bad, but that's how

39:30

I felt. It wasn't for me. I understand

39:33

why people like it. I can see that it's like

39:36

cinematographically really

39:38

cool. You got a great cast.

39:41

The color palette's a little brown. Visually

39:43

did not keep my eye. I understand it's desert.

39:46

You didn't I talk about it. I like the color palette,

39:48

Oh I didn't. Didn't keep me going. Yeah,

39:50

I think I probably should have rewatched the first one.

39:52

But to be fair, the first one did put me to sleep.

39:54

Was boring, so I was

39:57

a little confused.

39:58

Should have refreshed myself on what spice was because

40:00

the whole time I'm like, are we fighting over? Like Paprika? Turned

40:03

out spice as a hallucinogenic substance.

40:06

I learned that last night of Wikipedia when I was like

40:08

trying to understand and I get that this

40:10

book was in nineteen sixty five, huge Dystopian,

40:13

really revolutionized dystopian

40:15

novels. Maybe I'd like the book

40:17

better, but it wasn't for me.

40:19

What do you rate it?

40:20

Hmmmm? I mean the cast was amazing.

40:23

I'm gonna give it one point five.

40:26

She went low folks.

40:27

Yeah, and that is attributed

40:29

to Zindia.

40:30

All right, we'll come back and talk about

40:32

Wicked. It's

40:36

time to head down to movie.

40:38

Mike Tylor Paul.

40:41

I have always had this odd fascination

40:43

with The Wizard of Oz. The original one from nineteen

40:45

thirty nine. I believe is

40:47

one of the best movies of all time because

40:50

it is a spectacle. And that

40:52

is what I love about filmmaking, movies that

40:55

go to extreme lengths

40:57

to make something look so cinematic.

40:59

And I can only imagine what it

41:01

would have been like to

41:03

watch the original Wizard of Oz in theaters

41:05

back in thirty nine. There

41:08

are so many elements of that movie that

41:10

still watching them now, just realizing

41:13

the technology or lack thereof, they

41:15

had back in the thirties making that movie, thinking

41:18

of all the awful stories that

41:21

are like this urban legend, but they actually

41:23

happened. About the horrors those

41:26

actors went through to make

41:28

that movie. Judy Garland's life was basically

41:30

ruined by the Wizard of Oz. People

41:33

were burned, injured,

41:35

later died as a result of

41:38

the makeup they used in the process of making

41:40

that movie. The lion wore

41:42

an actual lion fur,

41:44

and oh my gosh, all these crazy things they

41:46

did to make these movies because they didn't

41:49

have CGHI. But we've been

41:51

talking on this episode about the use of

41:53

practical effects, and that is

41:55

why that movie holds up because you can

41:57

watch it now, and yes, it does

41:59

look like it was made a long time ago, but

42:02

because they used so many practical

42:04

effects in big sets, the

42:06

movie still holds up. And that's why

42:08

it continues to be such

42:10

a fixture in American film, and now

42:13

this year it is celebrating its eighty fifth

42:15

anniversary. Eighty fifth anniversary

42:18

is crazy. So I've always had

42:20

a weird place in my

42:23

cinematic brain for that movie that I'll

42:25

sit down and watch it really just to study

42:28

it. I don't know if I just love the concept of the

42:30

movie, the songs in the movie. I think, I

42:32

just love it as a piece of movie history, so

42:34

I like to watch it to see how

42:36

exactly this came to be and

42:38

the legacy it has left on filmmaking. But

42:41

it also led to me to want to go

42:43

see the twenty thirteen version Oz

42:45

the Great and Powerful, that was the origin story of

42:47

the Wizard. James Franco played him in

42:49

that movie, and the story was

42:51

okay as a prequel. But

42:54

what I really thought that movie got right with director

42:56

Sam Raimi were the visual I thought that

42:58

movie was very esthetically please to me, didn't

43:01

really cement itself in Wizard

43:03

of Oz history. But I still think

43:05

that it's a pretty good movie if you happen to miss

43:07

that one back when it came out well eleven years ago

43:10

now. But with that being said of me loving

43:12

the original movie loving the twenty

43:14

thirteen prequel, I am not familiar

43:17

with Wicked whatsoever. I've never

43:20

seen the musical. I've

43:22

heard about as far as what the plotline

43:24

entails. It is essentially the origin

43:27

story of the Wicked Witch of the West.

43:29

But everybody I know who has seen

43:31

the musical says they love it. And

43:34

obviously I am missing out on something here.

43:36

I am a fairly new lover

43:39

of musicals, which after talking

43:41

to director Paul King and of

43:44

the last couple musicals I've seen in theaters,

43:46

I realized that I've been lying to myself for a very

43:49

long time saying that I don't really like musicals.

43:51

I really do enjoy them, but for some reason

43:54

in our mind, we just think a musical

43:56

is going to be lame. But since

43:58

I hadn't seen this, and knowing

44:01

that throughout history of different

44:03

types of iterations of the Wizard of Oz,

44:05

they have been hit or miss and they

44:07

haven't done a live action movie in

44:09

a long time, since twenty thirteen, so

44:12

I didn't really have the highest expectations

44:14

for this movie. But after

44:16

seeing this trailer and really

44:19

getting a sense of the tone they're going

44:21

for in this movie, but not only

44:23

that, of how much this trailer honors

44:25

that original movie, and really how

44:27

good the visuals look with all the cast

44:29

members in this movie, now I am really

44:32

looking forward to seeing this. So Wicked is

44:34

coming out in two parts. Part one is coming

44:36

out this Thanksgiving. It'll be followed

44:39

up with Part two, which is coming out November

44:41

twenty six, twenty twenty five, so about

44:43

a year apart. So what this movie

44:46

is about? And again, if you're familiar with Wicked,

44:48

you know all this. And if I get any details

44:50

wrong, forgive me because I am looking

44:52

at this merely as the plotline

44:55

of this movie without any real knowledge

44:57

of the musical. But it is set in the land

44:59

of Alle before and continuing

45:02

after Dorothy Gale's arrival from Kansas,

45:04

and its centers around Alphaba, who

45:06

is a green skinned woman and explores the path

45:09

that leads her to becoming the Wicked Witch of

45:11

the West, all while forming this unlikely

45:13

relationship and rivalry with Glinda

45:15

Upland, who will go on to be Glinda

45:18

the Good. In this movie, you have Cynthia

45:21

Arrivo who is playing Alphaba,

45:23

Ariana Grande who is playing Glinda.

45:26

You also have Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yao,

45:28

Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, and Jeff

45:31

Goldbloom as the Wizard of Oz.

45:33

So before I get into more of Wicked,

45:35

here is just a little bit of the trailer. The

45:38

best way to bring folks

45:41

together is to give him a real

45:43

good anime. You

45:46

agree, I

45:48

am something is

45:51

not the same.

45:53

Something just takes over me. And

45:55

what it does bad

45:58

things happening, wants

46:01

you.

46:02

To harness your emotions.

46:05

Sky's the limited. I

46:08

think this movie is going to be

46:11

made with the cast. I think sometimes

46:13

when pop stars get cast in

46:15

a movie, it leads me to believe

46:17

that the movie isn't going to be very good,

46:20

because sometimes in musicals they just

46:22

cast somebody who has a major

46:24

following and obviously somebody who can

46:27

sing. But I feel like that is more

46:29

oftentimes a marketing tactic

46:31

than it is who can we get that is the

46:33

best person to play this

46:35

role. So when Ariana

46:38

Grande was attached to this movie, I was

46:40

a little bit hesitant because of that. Even

46:42

though Ariana Grande got her start in acting

46:45

on Nickelodeon, she hasn't

46:47

really done a whole lot of movies that make

46:50

me think of her as an actor before I

46:52

think of her as a musician, which is

46:54

fine, but again I was just thinking, Oh,

46:56

they're going for somebody who has a major

46:58

following, going for a big pops star, and

47:01

hopefully we bank on the

47:03

fact that her audience is going to come

47:06

in and watch this movie and make it successful.

47:08

I thought that was merely why she was cast in this

47:10

movie. But after seeing her on screen

47:13

as Glinda, it makes sense

47:15

and all the other members of this cast

47:17

look fantastic. So this movie

47:20

is based on the book that was later

47:22

turned into the musical, which

47:25

was really made popular back in two thousand

47:27

and three when it debuted on Broadway with Kristin

47:30

Chenowith and Adina Menzel. That is

47:32

where all the success of this story

47:34

came from. And this movie has been in

47:36

development for a very long time,

47:38

going through different directors and different

47:40

cast members, and now we finally

47:43

have the first look of it, and I think they got it right.

47:45

The movie is based on the book that

47:47

was turned into the musical. The premise of it,

47:49

Glinda and Alphaba are students

47:52

at his university, where despite

47:54

their differences, they form a relationship,

47:56

navigate friendship, go through magical

47:58

training, and even little bit of romance

48:01

while discovering their own identities.

48:03

However, the world of Oz takes the turn

48:05

whenever Alpha but is wrongfully deemed

48:08

the Wicked Witch. So this part

48:10

one and Part two are going to show

48:13

how she becomes the villain

48:15

and her connections with the other Wizard of Oz

48:17

characters. There's also going to be a couple

48:19

new songs in this movie that were not featured

48:22

in the play, which really to me, all

48:24

of these songs are going to be new because I haven't seen

48:26

any of them. I am familiar with the couple

48:28

just because Dina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith

48:31

made those so famous that I remember

48:33

those cutting over it into the mainstream. But

48:35

still nothing from Wicked is really cemented

48:37

in my head of knowing all of the story's

48:40

elements. So really what resonates

48:42

with me from this trailer is there are a

48:44

lot of shots that are odes to

48:46

the original movie, everything from the flying

48:48

monkeys crashing out of the glass

48:50

window to even the framing

48:52

on some of these shots on Glinda coming down

48:54

in the bubble or the Wicked Witch of the West

48:57

having that same kind of profile look

48:59

in this tray as well, it

49:01

looks like they are very much playing into

49:03

the cinematography that made

49:05

the nineteen thirty nine version so memorable

49:07

and so iconic. And again, I think what is

49:10

going to really make this movie is the incredible

49:12

cast that they landed. Cynthia Arrivo

49:15

plays the Wicked Witch of the West, Ariana

49:17

Grande plays Glinda, Michelle Yao

49:19

plays Madame Morrible. Jeff Goldbloom

49:21

is the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Jonathan

49:23

Bailey is a prince who meets Alphaba

49:25

and Glinda at school. Ethan Slater

49:28

plays a munchkin who is in love with Glinda.

49:30

Bowen Yang plays one of Glinda's college

49:33

friends. So it is interesting

49:35

that they are splitting this movie into two.

49:37

I am hoping it's because whenever they tried

49:39

to tell the story in one, they decided, Oh,

49:42

there's actually a lot more of the story to tell,

49:44

and not a case of, oh, we could probably

49:47

get more out of this movie. We unfairly

49:49

split it into two and make people wait a year

49:52

and get their ticket money again on the back

49:54

end. Hopefully that is not the case. I

49:57

also thought it was cool that there is a

49:59

scene where you see Dorothy, the

50:01

tin Man, the Cowardly Lion,

50:04

and the Scarecrow for like a mere second.

50:07

It's kind of them walking and it panning

50:09

in behind them as they're walking up to meet the Wizard

50:11

of Oz. Which with the little

50:13

research that I did, a lot

50:15

of people were upset about that because, again,

50:18

as I understood it, it's a prequel

50:20

long before Dorothy gets there, So

50:23

is that a way to bait people into

50:25

thinking that Dorothy is going to be in this movie,

50:27

who or maybe like me, not too familiar

50:29

with it. Also, when the description

50:32

of Part one and two, they are saying that part

50:34

of the movie may take place after Dorothy's

50:36

arrival, which I don't believe is

50:39

in Wicked. So some true hardcore

50:41

fans are probably a little bit upset about that,

50:44

But for me, I would love to

50:46

see at least just a little

50:48

hint of that as long as it doesn't take

50:50

away from the integrity of the story. I

50:52

just think the fact that it has been eighty

50:55

five years and it's coming out in the year of

50:57

that anniversary is a pretty big deal,

50:59

and if it's just a small little glimpse

51:02

of it, nothing too overstated, doesn't

51:04

take away at all from the legacy

51:07

of Judy Garland, who deserves to be remembered

51:09

forever as Dorothy Gaale. I think

51:11

I'm okay with it again. This movie is coming

51:14

out this Thanksgiving, with Part two

51:16

coming out next Thanksgiving. I think

51:18

this will be a movie that's gonna crush at the box

51:20

office and definitely warrants the big screen

51:23

at that.

51:23

For was this week's edition of movie.

51:26

Line Framer Bar and

51:28

that is going to do it for another episode here

51:30

of the podcast, but before I go, I gotta give my

51:32

listeners shout out of the week. And last

51:34

week we had an interview with Paul King, the director

51:36

of Wonka. If you miss that, just go

51:39

back one in the feed and listen to that

51:41

full interview. You can also watch it

51:43

on my YouTube channel YouTube dot

51:45

com slash Mike Distro. You can always

51:47

find all those links in the episode notes

51:49

of every single podcast. But every

51:51

time we have an interview, I always give

51:53

a secret emoji. All you have to do is

51:56

comment with that emoji on Facebook, TikTok

51:58

or Instagram or Twist, and I'll

52:00

pick one of those comments to be next week's listener

52:02

shout out. So this week I'm going over

52:05

to Facebook and the shout out goes to Denise

52:07

Watson, who left the comment with the chocolate

52:09

emoji and said, great job, Mike.

52:11

I love hearing you geek out when you do some of these interviews.

52:14

It reminds me that you are a real fan,

52:16

just like I am. Thank you Denise for that comment.

52:19

And I think primarily when I

52:21

do interviews now, I don't do them a

52:23

whole lot. I like to do them when I'm really

52:25

passionate or a big fan of the

52:27

project or the person, And

52:30

I think that's because I owe it to you guys

52:32

to do interviews that I'm

52:34

actually looking forward to do, asking

52:36

questions that I genuinely want to

52:38

know the answer to, and not just doing interviews

52:40

for the sake of doing interviews for somebody to promote

52:43

a movie that I really don't care about. I think

52:45

when that is the case, everybody

52:47

wins. Whoever is promoting their movie,

52:50

they get the great promotion of somebody

52:52

actually asking questions that other fans

52:54

would want to know. I get a lot out of it

52:57

because I feel like I'm able to form a

52:59

better connection with pe people who I'm actually

53:01

a fan of their work. And then for you guys,

53:03

I think that is the best quality

53:05

that comes through the podcast of hearing

53:07

a genuine conversation between two people

53:10

who actually have some respect

53:12

for each other. So thank you Denise

53:14

for hearing that come through in the interviews.

53:17

That is always my goal here, So thank you. You're

53:19

this week's listener shout out of the week. Thanks

53:21

to everybody. Hope you have a great rest of your

53:23

week, and until next time, go out and

53:25

watch good movies. And I will talk to you

53:28

later.