Bookwild - Recapping the 33 Movies We Saw in Theaters in 2024 Part One

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

This week, Tyler joins me to discuss the many movies we saw in 2024 thanks to our AMC membership.Movies We Talked AboutAnyone But YouAmerican FictionArgylleDuneDune 2Civil WarMonkey ManChallengersThe Fall GuyFuriosa: A Mad Max SagaInside Out 2Bad Boys: Ride or DieThe BikeridersMaxxxineLonglegsTwistersA Quite Place: Day OneDeadpool & Wolverine Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

So we've got the second episode of 2025. And today I have a co-host that none of you have met before, or maybe kind of. I don't know if you've been in some episodes, kind of or not. I can't remember. But Tyler's here today. And he even made his office like pink and purple. I did. I spent way too long trying to be on brand.

It was a really good procrastination after. afternoon for it though. You're welcome. I gave you purpose today. You did. So we think it's kind of weird to be like, oh, this is my husband and my wife, but technically, y'all, this is my husband if you haven't caught on yet. How else would you describe yourself? I think, I think my only claim to fame that your audience might know would be the story of how Book Wild became Book Wild. Oh, that's true. The name.

It is from you calling me Buck Wild for so long. Yep. And now I still am, but I'm also Book Wild. Yep. You're both types of Wild. You're just so crazy. I'm insane. We were just referencing last week how Gare one time was like,

you're such an adventurous woman and I was like from my couch sure we've been very adventurous with TV lately too we're technically going to talk about all of the movies we saw in theaters in 2024 but we've also really been going at it with spy thrillers TV wise slow horses is like amazing for anyone who watched black doves recently and talked with me about it, you need to consider slow horses. It's on Apple TV. And the thing that we think is the most brilliant about it is it's six episode seasons. So it doesn't drag.

And it's just great. Yeah. Yeah. No wasted time. No wasted time. Much like the last movie that we win, Salton Theaters. We really did not end the year on a good one. We walked out of our very first movie.

Ever. Ever. It was. I even need a plot. Like, they can't just be pretty camera work and people. I need a naked. I need some substance. I know. I wanted to love it. You guys all know how much I wanted to love it. But it didn't feel like anything was happening. And then there were just some things like why were interns starting in December? That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense. You don't start in December. And how did Harrison's character just know that she wanted to be walked like a dog? Lots of things that you're just not supposed to ask questions about. Yeah, you turned to me at one point and said, I just don't know what this movie's about.

And I was like, I was 45 minutes in. I remember looking at my stopwatch. Yeah. And every time we go to a movie, I always start my watch or my stopwatch or my, watch and just so that we can kind of know the pacing like when we hit the midpoint and like we we're pretty we're pretty we're moving it's like easier to reference like what's happening at what point like when we don't talk about later when we know kind of like what time stamp it is for yeah yeah we've seen our fair share of movies and you guys know that I also try to take as many notes as I can

but since okay so i saw 33 movies in theater in 2024 and you saw 28 i saw five of them by myself um if you really love movies um i highly recommend amc a list plus you pay $19 a month and you can see up to three movies a week um but you as long as you see two a month, you're saving money. And we realized we were definitely seeing two a month, or there were two that we would be interested in most months. So now we've used this for a while. And it's nice.

So since we have 33 movies to kind of get through. We definitely need to get going. I will get started with our first one. This is kind of crazy, though. The first three movies of the year that we saw all started with A. don't know how that worked out but first one we saw was anyone but you with sidney and glen powell what were your initial reactions it was like nice to finally have a rom-com out in theaters that did really well like it it was fun throughout it didn't like there's a couple

of like kind of kind of cringy moments that you're just going to get in any type of like rom-com but that's just preference at that point, but I felt like it was an upbeat, fun, predictable, but not. Like, they just, they found ways to like kind of keep it surprising and moving along throughout the whole movie I thought. Yeah. I thought that was, that was fun. I wish there was more movies like that where it's like, you too. You don't have to like sit and you don't have to think or you don't have to like wait for a

jump scare. It's just like, it was a nice casual, fun viewing experience. It was. It was a lot of fun. I remember I liked it way more than I thought I was going to. Like, I expected to enjoy it generally. But then it was like so entertaining. Like it really did make me laugh multiple times. And that one had like, and it's based off of, I think, Taming of the Shrew. I don't know. It's loosely based off a Shakespearean play. And they did this whole thing where like the characters would like feel like chorus characters to the side. So there were things that also like were an homage to the fact that it was a play. And so it would sometimes feel like you were in and aside with the chorus characters. And it was just funny. And they're both hot. That helps.

Agreed. That helps. And then we went to another movie that was not a rom-com. Not a rom-com, but it was fantastic humor and satire-wise. American fiction Why can't I think of the guy's name Who stars in it? Oh my God

Jeffrey Wright Is the main character In it It is so good It's I mean The log line is Monk is a frustrated novelist Who's fed up with the establishment

That profits from Black Entertainment That relies on tired And offensive tropes To prove his point He uses a pen names right an outlandish black book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain. So it like is satirical in terms of race conversations in America, but also publishing conversations. There was like a lot of funny publishing and reader type

humor in it. They cracked me up and it made me cry a couple times. It's definitely, it's a really good drama like it does have all of it going for it and you so raised in it too it like wrapped up perfectly too like it was just like there was a couple of good side stories happening throughout um yeah it everybody did like it was like that movie was ridden with the cast in mind because i felt like everybody just like really played the play their roles just perfectly like yeah that one was a that was cool especially just like seeing the like publishing industry adjacent references i thought was kind of cool and they got kind of meta about some of the things too yeah it was very meta and it was just so funny like him like playing these like hardened uh black stereotypes when like it's

not what he's like at all is like it was very good it had a good sense of humor about itself Yeah, it was cool to see how he would like write a scene by imagining it. And that scene would happen like in his living room. You're right. I thought that was really cool. It made me wonder if any of the authors you've talked with have ever like straight up visualized people around their room. Yasmin Ongo does when she writes action scenes. She moves around her office and like plays it out.

What was that? she plays it out i don't know how she does it but maybe like that it was like a karate chop or something yeah but yeah if you are a bookish person which if you're listening to this podcast the chances are high that you are and you haven't seen american fiction yet very fun very fun won't depress you not not bleak necessarily um i forgot how stack the cast is there's tracy l's wrong Ross is in it to Adam Brody, Sterling K. Brown. That cast was stacked. But then we transitioned into another stacked cast because I started seeing everything that was coming out about Dune 2. And we hadn't seen Dune 1, which actually a lot of people hadn't. It came out

during the pandemic. So it was like shortly in theaters and then went to streaming really quickly. So it like didn't have like the cultural impact that Dune 2 had this year for sure. But I started seeing the buzz about it. And then I saw that they were doing a re-release of the first one. And I was like, we need to go see the first one in IMAX because I think this is going to be worth it. And when we first got there, I literally was like, oh, I thought this was going to be action packed. There was like a moment 30 or 40 minutes in where I was like, is stuff going to start happening? Not that it wasn't, but it's like an epic. So, and I just, for whatever reason, I didn't put that together.

It's more of like a political sci-fi epic. So they kind of had to set everything up for us. And then you get so hooked to all the different like races of people and planets and just all of it Zendaya Timetei Han Zimmer yeah we went home after that and watched like everything from Hans Zimmer

afterwards it was so fun he like made instruments yeah that didn't exist before for this movie and you feel it it's like it's so worth of seeing in theaters and I really really really

I can't remember if 2026 is when the third one's coming out or the end of 2025. I can't remember, but I hope they replay one and two in IMAX again because it's so worth it to experience it that way. So we saw the first one and we were hooked. Yeah.

And then we saw the second one. And but before we talked about the second one, we went to Argyll as well. Oh, I forgot Argyll. I skipped right over it. Argyll was fun. It was different. It was really fun, especially for like the first 80%.

And then the last 20%, it's if you, if you need everything to make perfect sense and follow to a linear conclusion, I see why people, people rated it so low, though. And I was like, it was still fun. I thought it really still played with like spy tropes in a really fun way. there are some pretty cool reveals there was Rodin tomato gave it a 33% it's definitely not 33%. No, like that's at least a 60%

in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah, it got so much hate. Yeah, I thought it was just a fun it was like similar to anyone but you. It was just a fun movie to watch, especially in theaters too. I think theaters always just make it better

to begin with. but yeah the last 20% it was just kind of like okay yeah and then it just kind of ended and like I could see why it how you can see why but it's just yeah it wrapped things up but it was just kind of like okay but the rest of the movie I felt like was it was funny it was just fun yeah because it did it did make fun of the like spy tropes kind of in a way that like um like knives out will kind of play stuff up yeah like it's a uh an exaggerated version of the genre but yeah the ending the ending wasn't like amazing this is also the book or this is also the movie that had a book that was released alongside it because the character the main character

is an author who writes spy novels and so like her novel argyle was also actually released so they did all this like buzz with pin names and like who is Argyle at one point the internet had convinced themselves that Taylor Swift wrote it because there is a cat in it and because Taylor Swift started wearing a shit ton of Argyle

last year people were so convinced I was like I don't think this is how she's going to premiere the first movie that she writes so yeah that I mean that one had so much media attention and then it got so much negative attention

when it came out. I felt bad for it. Yeah. I did develop a crush on Duolipa, though. Oh, you're right. That was kind of your introduction to Duolipa. And then the next time you saw her was at the VMAs, and you were like, damn. Like really quickly after that.

And I was like, that's Duolipa. You're like, that's her too. It was like within days of seeing it. Yeah. I was like. Girlie loves her wigs. So. Yeah.

if you don't if you don't know nowhere yet but now you do now i do now you do um okay so then we went to dune two then dune two it's even better than the first one i mean it lived up to every expectation i had yeah the audio i think the audio was my literally my favorite part of the whole movie just like re-watch like i watched it again the other night oh really like with my like one air pod and it was just it wasn't the same but it was still awesome because you get to see the like excitement from like when it all starts and then like the main music hits when all the things come together is just and then like the uh um uh what's his name austin oh austin butler austin bauder yeah perfectly creepy yeah just crushed his role i love

that in that whole scene too yeah he felt like a total sociopath yeah they just yeah they in this one i felt like had a lot more action in it it did and build up like you had action kind of throughout because there was so like because the stage was set that there was just room for a lot of action to happen and a lot of things needed to happen and then um it's going to be interesting to see what they do with doing three i went and talk to chat gpt about what happens in the series for the movies and it gets weird informed it gets it gets it gets pretty wild yeah like i there's some weird stuff being done around three yeah that's what a lot and i think uh villa villanou said like it's just a trilogy.

Yeah. I don't blame on me either. A lot of the fandom feels like it goes off the tracks. And then it was like also like the author's son picked it up just to keep it going. So like, yeah, there's weird stuff the further you get into Dune Dumb. Yeah. Yeah. It got, it got pretty wild.

But anyway, Dune 2 though, perfect. It was such an intense ending. I remember like I got a heart rate notification. Oh yeah, you did. watch during the first like fight scene with uh in black and white when they use the infrared camera or black and white whatever but it was just like because they have like the heartbeat you can feel it in the chair and then like you just it is just really intense like you're like okay I'm sure I'm sure the bad guy's about to win but like win yeah so it was just yeah that one yeah literally

had a heart rate notification go off on that one that was I was like, it was, that was fun. That's, that's cinema, baby. Mm-hmm. Yeah, their Coliseum scene was better than another Coliseum scene that we saw later in the year. And we'll get to that here in a little bit. Same, same composer for that one, though, actually. Then, actually, similar messaging.

We saw Civil War was the next one. And without getting into spoilers, Dune also, Dune really is a commentary on like, politics, religion, um, colonization. It really, like, hits all of those big subjects, um, especially though, too, with religion, they really dive into, like, how much you can control a group of people if you're just perpetuating the same message across, like, decades of people. So Dune does that with those topics. And then Civil War was one of the more unique movies we saw this year. It's A24. Yeah. Yeah. You, so it's following, um, it's following some photojournalists. I, I don't, I can't remember how far into the future, but sometime into the future. So in it, in a, in a,

dystopian future America team of military embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House. Yeah. So yeah, we don't even know how far into the future. And that like came out like at the like right when the election cycle like really was starting to pick up too. So it was like also strategic as fun. Definitely.

It also, but also I, what do I will say is I don't feel like it picks aside at all. No. That's that was the like it's not it's not propaganda about the election it just happens as we were all starting to have to think about it. But it's like it shows some pretty unflinching like truths of war. I'm sure. I mean, obviously it's way worse than even what this movie shows. But like makes you just stare at it and look at it, which is also so into. To the photo.

Like the way that they would cut away to the photos that the journalist would take. Yeah. I thought it was just like when you say they made you stare at it. They like, and they would cut the audio. Yes. So like it would just be quiet and you would just see the photo and just like. And it's just like it. Yeah.

That's where it's so central to the story that they're making us just look at stuff because that's the role of like the all the characters that were following the whole. time like they are photojournalists and then it brings up all the weird questions of like needing to have photos of history and like what happened but then like in the moment they're not super protected they typically don't have guns on them like it was just very nuanced the way it approached some of the morality issues and then also like but what is the value of people who are kind of like preserving history even when it's bad. It was fascinating. I also saw this one around the same time that I read the man who saw seconds, the man who saw seconds, I think, which was another one, or which was a book that, like, part of my review even is

like, it's going to make you uncomfortable while you're reading it, but that's kind of the point. And I felt like that was the point of this movie too was like, let's actually look at how uncomfortable it is when we start killing each other. On another note of the movie, I was watching it as somebody that uses a camera for a living. And I couldn't get past the fact that she was using a film camera. Yes. And still just taking epic shots.

Film cameras just are so much more manual, but they have a very distinct look. But she had a manual focus lens, and she was, like, getting really good shots of very intense situations. And that was that I couldn't stop thinking about it from the very beginning of the movie. Like, it was just in my head. But, like, I was like, somebody did do that before. And so I just had, like, whole respect for the people that are, like, at one point, there, there's, there's, people like out getting shot at and like focusing and taking a photo like that to me is wild but nowadays like our camera is like it tracks the left or right eye which one ever you choose and it can like the

auto focus can track a bird's eye when flying it's wild how much better the cameras are nowadays so I had that like knowledge going into it and so then when this person was like, this is relevant. This is a film camera. Oh, yeah. Okay. And then this is like the camera that we literally have a whole career around. Yeah.

This, like, we'll just, like, half press and it'll just take, like, 15 photos in a second. But this one, you have to, like, like, wind it up. This one's broke. But, oh, there we go. I just took a picture of that actually. There's still filming this. Meta. But, and you have to use like the like, like, I got a whole finder. Yeah, I've got a whole monitor on the back of this. Yes. This. I've got to look at, like, I got to focus on this still. Like, look how long this has taken me. Imagine me being shot at right now. Or your subject is getting shot at. And you're like, I'm going to.

get this shot and you got to like and you have to like know what film you have and like how like the lighting is so much more sensitive that like with this you have to know so much more so much more manual but like the technology and the newer cameras which everybody else had everybody everybody else in the video yeah except kirsten does this character yeah when she even had a sony a seven r oh no you're right i was like yeah yeah but like they referenced film stuff, but the Nikon F2, I think is what the

camera was that they used. Anyway, that was like what I got distracted by that whole movie. But it was but it didn't like led down a whole path of like dang, maybe I should learn how to use film

cameras. So it's about as far as I made it. I got, I acquired said film camera. Now I'm, you'd actually Fuck around with it Anyway Yeah I digress It was very thought provoking in multiple ways

Yeah It was it was so intense So intense It was just we saw that one in IMAX too And it was just Yeah Like there is so much like Firefight fighting throughout the movie

Like I even got to a point where I was like I need head I need to dampen the sound Like it was just it's a loud in your face movie essentially and it and it's not like tons of music playing over it either. No. Like it is just like bullets whizzing by. Yeah. And yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, they did. There was a lot of element. It was just a creepy movie, but it was really I thought I felt like it was really well done. I agree. But yeah, it was just kind of like. But what was really good was this next one. Oh, so good.

Now we hit. This was like swinging. into summer because i think dune was may and then we like swung into a bunch of civil war was uh april i did just i just happened to look that up okay um you're right so monkey monkey man is the next one we saw oh this is still april you're right so it was like it wasn't quite summer yet well monkey man is written acted directed and produced by dev petel Um, one, if you love action movies. Um, this one is just, it's incredibly fun. He even talks about it as like the John Wick, but make him Indian. Indian. I really hope I'm writing. Did you read the, uh, synopsis of it? Yeah. I will read it. So somebody doesn't know. Yep. A young man eeks out a meager living in an underground fight club where night after night wearing a gorilla mask, he's beaten bloody by more popular fighters for. cash. After years of suppressed rage, he discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city's

sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands, unleashed an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him. It's amazing. And we kind of went in without even knowing that whole structure. We knew it was like action. But the way, one of the things, I took so many notes on this movie, but one of the things from the very beginning, I was like, they're doing such a good job. You need to pull up a screenshot of all your notes. Yeah. Yeah. I'll pull up all my notes from the, but like she does, she really does like take copious notes. Yeah. When I'm so we strategically will so that and because we always

try to find like back row corner. Yes. So that we can block you off basically. Yeah. So I can take my notes. I think it, well, there are a few, but I think Monkey Man challengers and Heretic, Heretic I took so much notes for, but we'll get to that one. But Monkey Man, like what had me like immediately taking those, they asked, they introduced so many questions, like, in the first, like, 15 to 20 minutes. Like, you're like, oh, why is he doing this? What is, why am I watching this? Like, it really draws you in and the pacing is, so fast. So even though you're like trying to figure out what's happening, like you're learning new stuff like so quickly. And then it devolves into John Wick type retribution, which is the way I love revenge. I just love it. It was, well, it's satisfying to watch him like, kick ass. Do what he said he's going to fucking do. Yeah. Like, you're like, oh shit. He just, dude. Yeah. She's not.

fucking around. Yeah. And then it then it it's also almost a superhero story. I remember my review. I was like there's so much to say about how many genres that fits. It has the like fighting subgenres. So it has some of the like rocky feeling to it still has John Wick feeling to it. Has like like the the light like the the light of the I was just saying I'm looking through some images now and like the lighting. I remember like they just lit all their scenes so well that it was just like it complimented the scene

perfectly. Yeah. It was yeah. Like there was like lots of red and then there'd be really warm yellows and like flashback looking. It was yeah they crushed on that front too. Yeah.

It's fantastic. I think I interrupted you though. I was just saying all the different genres it fits because then it also hits like the folklore genre because like monkey man is like a folklore that his like mom or sister but I think mom told him when he was growing up. And then there's even like fuck the system. There's like commentary on religion, high demand religion overreaching its power essentially. So it just put so many genres into one thing and then I of course had to go home and watch like everything about it especially when it's like someone writes it acts it directs it like it truly was a passion project yeah it took forever to produce yeah and so I won't get into all of it

because it was also so long ago I'm not perfect with the facts at this point but if you see it you love it go watch some of the interviews with him on YouTube because it is crazy like the amount of bones he broke while he was on set one time he was keeping it from people that he had like a broken finger or something because he was like we have to keep shooting and then they almost didn't have enough money to do post-production and jordan peel saw a version of it came in and was like first of all you're not going to streaming this is going to theaters and like second of all here's what we're going to do so i also love jordan peel and his

storytelling so i love i love them teaming up at the end and jordan peels the reason it was in theaters it was going to be a netflix release i think yeah dude so thank you jordan i saw the budget was 10 million wow that that like there's a scope of set pieces in that movie yeah yeah and they used an iphone i feel like i think they used an iphone for some of the footage too yeah yeah what was that it was like some fight scene or something where like someone caught a phone I think yeah oh no it was like one of those trivia facts it was like all they had at that scene and there was like a yeah like they yeah I think it was oh man I need to find that article yeah so I can because I do I remember seeing that and like all of my algorithm uh people like camera enthusiast for all like this was part of us on an iPhone

Yeah. It might have been during, because I know they were filming during the pandemic too, and I wonder if that was it too. I remember he was saying they had to stop multiple times because they were literally like, this was like beginning of pandemic when the COVID tests would like assault your whole face. Okay. So here's one first hand pops up on Google when I put iPhone Monkey Man filming. was Monkey Man While you'd expect Bronze Bankruptcy to be the nail in the coffin or Monkey Man

Pet has it Patel? Ted Patel It just says Patel That's probably why Anyway Filming mini scenes on an iPhone 15 After the crew could no longer

forward filming content equipment In I don't know. Yeah. So basically, yeah. That's so cool. All that's a, yeah, part of it was definitely filmed on an iPhone.

Mm-hmm. It also has humor throughout, which is so fun when action movies have their little dark moments of humor that break up the heaviness of the story. But yeah, iPhone footage made it to the silver screen. It did it. I'm just down the rabbit hole of Monkey Man trivia now Monkey Man trivia, yeah and just anyway

Let's do the next movie Oh my gosh, the next one We got these two In a row, guys, we got Monkey Man and then Challengers I will never forget Challenges or Monkey Man actually but challengers with Zendaya

and Josh O'Connor and I'm sorry I don't know the men I think most of us knew Zendaya Mike Faced and Josh O'Connor so fucking good non-linear storytelling

there's some weird suspense and tension between the relationship of Zendaya with these two boys well at the beginning of the film two men and then we start learning parts of their backstory It's not told linearly. I already said that, but that, like, it made it feel like reading a book.

That was the one where I leaned over to you and was like, this is what reading a book is like when it bounces between timelines. So that part was cool. It added suspense to a story that is literally all about how Tashi Duncan just wants to watch some fucking good tennis. like that's what the whole story is about but they managed to make it suspenseful the uh composition is also why it feels like a fever dream and suspenseful the whole time like so fucking good they just wanted the golden globe for composition for a movie basically um and they deserved it Like if I hear the match point song on TikTok still, like, you're just like, I want to go run. Like it just, it's just amazing.

It was the same thing as like I was going to say about Monkey Man was they made the lighting in different scenes just really compliment the scene in a big way. I thought it. And it's like, it's coming back to me. um oh yes uh my mind went from you be like in these flashback you just so in my mind you were in these flashbacks and then you would uh cut away but you they did it without having to like lose camera quality that makes sense like sometimes i feel like in flashback scenes you always see like grainy old footage but they just literally would shift timelines but then alter the way that the characters are dressed or actor and then you find out like oh what where like when are we right now that's and so they

I think what I'm trying to say is it was fun figuring it out specifically like being able to see the the back and forth and it's just so perfect because like the tennis ball yes action shots like the camera is the tennis ball it is it like that to me epitomizes the back and forth camera work that happens like which speaking of there is a scene where you are the tennis ball and it is so much better than you i remember hearing that being like okay it's kind of gimmicky whatever it works you are the tennis ball it's amazing yeah also that was that was one that had erotic elements technically, but actually still had plot. And that's what pulled it off.

So like the trailer would make you think it was sexier. What baby girl was. Yeah, exactly. But no, it was not. And it was cool because I didn't ever really have to get into tennis until that movie where I was like, damn, that was, I need to learn to play tennis. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that was.

You did play it a couple of times. year right yeah yeah dude i wouldn't play it and then i then i quit so i was like like this is going to take a while but i thought it was cool though because i just felt like they made tennis look cool it did for somebody that doesn't watch or follow tennis on a regular basis yeah zendaya has that effect she'll get you interested in anything in some ways what was the other thing that i was thinking about with that one god i can't remember um Oh, then all the little theories I saw on like subreddits and stuff of all the ways that he made it the movie about tennis. It also, the movie also starts at love and ends at 40.

They're all 40 years old at the end. And it starts with them in a more loving place and then it ends at 40. and it's just like the levels of like Easter eggs in it are really fun to look up after you watch it too. Also, I have to pull these recommendations out. The Favorites by Lane Fargo, which officially comes out January 14th, but if you have a book of the month or Nightgallie, you may have already read it. And I have such similar vibes. Kat Shaw is so similar to Tashi Duncan. so much so that when I talked, I've already interviewed Lane and that episode will come out next Tuesday.

It'll come out on the 14th. That when I brought up Challenger, she was like, oh my gosh, yes, Kat is Tashi. Like, that is the biggest compliment ever. So also, if you love characters like that, very much the favorite. And Carrie Soto is back is very much the same thing. like women obsessed with their ambition to the point that the public has opinions about them. So go watch Challengers. That's the moral of this segment.

And then we had another good one. And this is another one. I'm shocked that both of these didn't do better than they did. I kind of understand Challenger's was pretty niche, like how many people were hearing about the sexy, threesome-ish. tennis movie. But the fall guy, I thought was so much fun, like so much movie fun. It has like meta movie references. It's with Ryan Gosling. I almost said Reynolds. And Emily Blunt. And he essentially is the stunt man or the fall guy. And basically things start. going wrong on set but it's it has action it's also it also has the comedy that makes it like

really really fun um Ryan Gosling's hot Emily Blunt's hot uh it was just really fun and I'm shocked that like I remember hearing people talk about like it was just not doing well at the box office and I don't know why because it was like even um so your your brother and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law whatever their kids are 14 and is Gavin 11 or 10 i don't know but like it's even a PG-13 movie that like they watched with their kids but like i didn't feel sometimes PG-13 feels like they're like pulling punches on like action or stuff it was still like perfectly enjoyable so i'm like how did more families not go see this one.

Like, you were such an approachable movie. It was just, it was, it was, uh, flat tire there. Yeah.

It was a other, it was like another comedy, like action comedy that you didn't have to pay a whole lot of attention to to still have like a good time. Like, whereas like challengers like you can't there, while it's like fun to watch the back and forth with the time lines, it's like,

with the fall guy, It was You could just watch and see what's happening Yeah Put it all together Challenge unique context You need to remember that one thing To appreciate like what's happening

With the next thing Yep There's not as much of that with Fall Guy No Super entertaining Yep In an easy way Ben

We really thought that we were gonna like Love Furiosa You were a little more disappointed with it than I was. I it wasn't everything I thought it was going to be but even so this is kind of like the origin story of uh Charlize's Thrones character in Mad Max how she became the war rider that she is um but I think our main takeaway though when we left though that like I was like oh yeah you're right that's what it wasn't there you were like They didn't have like the music in the like wars, the fighting scenes, like between the cars and

stuff. And that was such a like unique part of Mad Max. So I understood why you were like, but what about this? Yeah. It goes. It is just like it. It's interesting. I just put it together right.

This minute. I remember I was like mentioning how in Dune. I was like, first thing I said was like the. something about how great the audio was and seeing it in theaters and i feel like it's when there is something lacking in the audio department it like will take you out or it'll take you out of it or it can like enhance everything yeah and so and i just felt like i went in with the expectation that it was going to be like that i don't know it's like rock some yeah yeah they were like electric guitars.

Yeah, there was everything. It was just really interesting. It was memorable. Obviously not that I can't specifically talk about it. Well, yeah. It was like the cars and stuff. I need to learn an actual like definition of like what it is that I like about the thing. Oh, yeah.

Like how do I actually articulate the rockish music of, because it was so unique. and I guess that's what's fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. Audio. It was very steampunky. I think it was really cool. From a visual perspective, I feel like they did a really cool job with the steampunk dystopian world.

Yeah, that part's always cool. Yeah. I like her revenge story, so I was there for it with her. But it wasn't, we thought it was going to be like, holy shit. We're going to have like six really good ones in a row. It was good. It was good. It was good.

Yeah. Another good one was bad boys ride or die. Yeah. That was, dude. That was just another just fun one. It was like the fun guy. It was just fun. Like you knew what was going to happen probably.

Most of the time. But then it would just be, it was just still fun to watch. Yeah. And I, uh, it was. At first I remember being like, I kind of had to do it. just to the type of storytelling that they like the way they

because they kind of it's almost this is going to sound goofy but bookish people know what I mean it's almost like magical realism like some of their scenes get really like trippy and hyperbolic then once I got used to it I was like oh okay this is like

this is just the way that they're telling this story but it was it was very funny and then there was still the action just very fun. Yeah, they had the, when you said the trippy, like, style, it made me think of, like, the, I feel like it was like the hot dog scene or something. Yeah.

It was in the very beginning. It was like when he went to go get something, there was, like, camera in this, like, yeah, in the roller. Yeah. Yeah. So it was, they just, they really went heavy on the, like, the visuals. What's the coolest way we can just, like, make a cutaway? Yeah.

And so it was like everything was done with like an exclamation mark. Like, okay, that's a good idea. Let's add an exclamation mark to it. That's what I feel like, Hallie sometimes says about books. She's like, you can tell the writer was having fun writing it. And I think that's the same thing that you're saying. Like, you can tell they were just having so much fun with this one. That was the other thing.

And that they just had the budget. it because I remember he leaned over like when he goes home to like his family's house they have like a camera in the pantry so there's like just a shot where like

so you're like someone set up a whole camera just so that he could open the pantry and grab something and you're like just because they had the budget for it so they it is fun visually like it is visually different movie too I remember like one of the fight scenes, like, being kind of at, like, a kid-themed party or something,

because there were, like, all these, like, brilliant, like, scenes of, like, candy, like, rainbow-colored candy, like, flying through the air. And one of the storylines is, like, that he can't eat junk food anymore. So it's, like, even funier. So it's just fun. It was really fun. Yeah. They used an FPV drone for a lot of stuff, too.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, they just, you get us to, I just, I do just feel like everybody on set, I hope, hope it's his way for every, every set. But I feel like everybody's having fun on this set, though. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Everybody's like, we can't take ourselves too seriously. Mm-hmm.

Like we're making the fifth bad boys movie. Right. Like, we're going to lean into these characters that have been developed over 20 years. Yeah. Like people just know it's like it is cool because it's unique in the sense of there's not a lot of like this started like in the mid 90s. And so it's like it has just gone on for a hot minute. So it is cool to see them pick back up and then just how they all kind of stayed true to the like Michael Bay explosions. Yeah.

Like it's it's it's been like that since the beginning and they're still able to still do it because it's like it found. a big enough of an audience that can like kind of follow along that type of fun that they exude like going through like opening a cabinet and then there's like the whole camera rig that's set up yeah like it's just that kind of stuff but it's just kind of create it yeah it is the type of stuff that is feel like everybody's hat I I would just assume that they're all just having so much fun putting all that together. I think so. Yeah. It had to be. I mean, I know we never know they're actors, but I would assume so. Yeah. Well, you were out of town for a little bit at that time, and I saw Inside Out too, actually with brother and sister-in-law that I, well, not just my sister-in-law

and her kids. So I went and saw that. It's just as good as the first. one. It introduces, I can't remember, I mean, I'll just look it up right now. New emotions. It introduces anxiety, envy, embarrassment, and on we. It's just very, very good. They, we all know that Pixar just knows how to write stories that engage kids and adults. Is the humor there like there was in the first one? Yeah, Onwee is really funny too because onwee is like a feeling of boredom, dissatisfaction and lack of energy. So it's like the teenagers are so onwee because they're just like,

oh, this is so boring or like. we could be doing something better and just like trying to be like it's such a teenager emotion not that we don't feel it later in life but there's it was it made me laugh a lot and then oh it made me cry so hard at the end so hard like I remember you texted me like yeah hardcore yeah you were just like I can't stop crying I know like I and I expected to I didn't expect for them to just knock it out of the park. And they did on that first one too. I mean, they left you feeling that way where you're just like, I know.

Yeah, because like sadness being useful. Yeah, the ending of the first one. Spoiler alert. It's been out for years. Yeah, the second one is fantastic. For a year. What? Inside two, right?

Well, I was just referencing the first one, how sadness. was the answer at the end of the first one. Like you have to actually attach with your sadness, unfortunately. As someone who prefers anger. Yeah, what was the type of female character that you described earlier? Yeah, my female rage episodes really popping off on YouTube right now. But yeah, Inside Out too really is fantastic. Mackenzie Green, who's been on here before and who I've just quoted more and more in my life lately,

there's a scene with anxiety that it helps her when she's being hella anxious to visualize that because it's such a good visual of it. And now I use it sometimes to be like, hey, this is what's happening. That's all. So it was really good. And, And again, my niece and nephew are like 14 and 10. And like 14, literally like the on we age. She was like looking at me like, oh, someone is crying as much as my mom right now. Like what is happening? And she was like, you guys are crying a lot.

And I was like, I'm just going to say the thing that a boring adults always say. And one day you're going to understand and it'll make you cry too. And she just rolled her eyes at us. So we just cried together and it's great. It's, it's amazing, really. It's the only thing that will get me to go see cartoon more animated in theaters. I think the Lego movie was the last one we did.

Mario. Oh, Mario, you're right, Mario came out. Yep. That's a good one. So the next one was the bike riders It was decent It was good Austin Butler was good in it

You're right So it was Tom Hardy Got us there Yeah Yeah Like it was all done very well I just didn't really care for the storyline I thought it was going to have a little bit more action

And we thought there was going to be more action Yeah Like the gist of it is over the course of a decade of Midwestern motorcycle club evolves from a gathering place for local outsiders to a sinister game threatening the original group's way of life and i mean there is violence it's not that there's not violence but it was much more historical fiction feeling and that's what it was and technically for that it was good but yeah it wasn't as fast-paced as what yeah it wasn't a bad boys you know yeah it wasn't a no bad boys you know yeah it wasn't a no bad boys

ride or die. Yeah, it wasn't that. It was a slow motion version of that. Yeah. Yeah, if you like historical fiction or historical dramas, I think you love it, which is what I have said for one other one that I saw this year. Then we saw Maxine. Trying to remember this one. We loved. Okay, so Pearl, we saw a couple of years ago, I think is when it came out. We went kind of expecting one thing, and we're not expecting what it was when we got there. In the first 15 minutes, we were looking at each other. We were like, we don't watch movies from the 1930s, 30s or 40s. We're like, and then we ended up loving it by the end of it.

Such a good, like, descent into madness story. And so then after that, we watched X. It's just called X, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty cool. which is in the 70s and also has like me and having a hiccup attack also has me a goff in it as well she's the through line i can't remember if anyone else is a through line and all of them um and then maxine is the 80s and like i went in expecting this to be like an like an eight or nine out of 10 for and

it wasn't for me it was not that it didn't hit for me. But what I've also learned from the experience is 80s was all about campy horror. And I don't, I kind of, Gare is going to kill me if he's listening right now. He's going to kill me, but it's just personal preference. It just didn't work for me. The ending was so wild. And I just didn't feel grounded in the story almost at any point.

yeah i had to look up to remember it so yeah you didn't even remember and it's this is one that like it's like you either really loved it or you were just like i don't know it wasn't my favorite in the trilogy like that's what it it's i'm trying to say that like if you love 80s campy horror you would love this one it didn't feel grounded enough for me and it's just like literally a genre preference that i'm so intrigued by how we can't even control our preferences but like that one like doesn't work for me what did work for me yeah yeah was long legs i was gonna say okay so i got to look that one up now too you'll remember here soon so long legs was which it's pretty it's pretty funny we do it all the time there was all of this

hype about like this is the scariest movie in in the last decade um everyone like surprised promise that. And this year, since I just started watching more horror and also reading more horror, um, I've learned I don't get terrified by too much, not like terrified, terrified, um, because some people really were like terrified watching that one. I loved it. I thought it was so beautifully shot. Um, I thought Michael Monroe's performance was amazing. Like you just like, feel how tightly wound and stressed out she is through the entire movie. And Nicholas Cage is creepy. Like, Long Legs is creepy.

Didn't terrify me. But I thought the story was fascinating and beautifully shot. Yeah, it was creepy. I'm not a huge creepy movie fan, though. Yeah. But they had, like, straight. Yeah. there was a lot of like I remember like really good tripod shots like establishing shots they would always like they would like center them up they would take their time to like everything just felt deliberate with their camera work all is but like that to me I just the like stillness of the camera to allow for everything that's happening that's crazy happening that's in the scene it's I thought that was cool because it was able to like

freak you out a little bit. Because they had he's in the background of so many scenes. That's what it also does that you're talking about. Because I remember like I noticed a few of them, but then I remember being on TikTok after we watched it and being like, oh my God. They fit him in or his shadow or whatever in so many scenes where they are just holding

that. So to your point, kind of the longer you're looking at it, the more scary shit you find. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's like a I spy book. Yeah. You're over here.

Yeah. Oz Perkins is the director and he did some really cool interviews. So you can definitely, did I say his name right? Yeah. It sounded weird. But he did some cool interviews about the cinematography of it, all of it. I could, I definitely want to rewatch that one because it's another one that you notice more once you know what happened.

Yeah, you can appreciate it. That's what I'll say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I need to rewatch it. Switching lanes, we went back to pure summer high-octane entertainment, just some

American entertainment. If you can't guess what we're about to talk about, were you on this planet this year? Twisters. Twisters, yeah. just super entertaining actually had more plot than I expected there to be I went I went in expecting no plot

and then there was yeah wow I care about the same I want to see this I want to see how that unfolds like it is okay like yeah I was expecting crazy CGI tornado things to be happening there were but they just brought such a fun element to it I did. I felt like it was just a really.

Yeah, it was, because it also was in theaters, dude. Like that sound, you felt a rumble of a tornado and that was like. I know. We need to try to the intensity so much. Yeah. Go to a 40x sometime this year. Because that was the movie that also, dude, I'm just going to keep talking about McKinsey apparently in this episode. But she talked on multiple podcasts about how she saw that one in 40X with like,

the sound, the rain, the wind, the moving chair. We need to like see which ones are going to be for you. Did we see that one in Dolby though? I feel like we saw that one on the south side. I don't think is the sound was. Yeah. I thought we saw it in the IMAX one, but maybe we did. But yeah, I feel like the Solby sound.

Oh yeah, the Dolby's. Definitely are different. They hit different. Yeah. It's fun. In 2023, we saw the airs tour in a Dolby one. That was fun. Oh, my gosh.

Like, it literally, I remember when we left, uh, I was like, can everyone start releasing their concerts in theater? Like, can we have different concerts every weekend? Because I will go watch them like that. Yeah, that would have for real, though. It was so good. We saw. I'd love to just watch old concerts.

Like, imagine watching, um, queen, like, right. after we get in watching like bohemian rap city then you can just go watch a whole concert at that theater that would be so fun it would be so fun so amc if you're listening one i forgot to mention at the top that you can sponsor this podcast so i'm throwing it out there um we are proud a listers already so if you're listening just hit me up somewhere but um two what was the second one that i was going to say about AMC. Dolby sounds are so much better and you can see it in the app. I don't know.

I think I lost my second one. Damn it. I don't know. I was on a roll. Concerts. Concerts. That's what it was. Two,

please start doing concerts. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Please. And thank you. One that we did see in a Dolby. cinema was a quiet place day one and wow that was um very intense i think i think the line that

i said on a podcast a while ago after we saw it was like i knew going in i knew it would make me cry every single one of these is emotionally harrowing and we also just kind of chose to do it like last minute like we both just kind of got done with work and we were like what's playing so it's just kind of like I just like showed up there and then I was like holy shit I was crying so hard at the end oh yeah you were yeah she was that was yeah the what's cool with this one is is we start with um Lupita Yongo's character is in hospice care at the beginning of it and even like that one i remember like just being in such a like work mindset and then i remember seeing that at the beginning and i was like oh man they are gonna bring up some questions and boy did they

um we were just talking about again recently i can't totally remember why but they basically then like the rest of it is the rest of the whole movie is like mostly her and joseph quinn's character navigating their way around the city on day one when like the aliens I think that's or predators I can't remember what they call them because not screechers oh my gosh this is going to drive me nuts clay where place day one because they had a name for it because there's a funny um the monsters are okay all I know is there is literally this funny TikTok of them doing a press junket. And someone asks like,

a death angels. Someone asked him about death angels. He's like, what's a death angel? And Lupita's like the monster in the movie we just made. So that's why I was like, surely I'm going to be able to remember this. There's like this memorable TikTok from their press junket. So anyway, the death angels arrive on day one for this one. And so it's like everyone who doesn't even know what's happening just initially reacting to essentially a prequel to the other ones.

And so they like bring up the question so much of like even if you know you're really close to your death health wise. But when something like this happens, like the will to survive is so strong. And then I can't go into the ending because I don't want to. to give anyone spoilers, but the movie overall started to remind me of the Ram Dass quote, we're all just walking each other home, and that was when I

couldn't stop crying once I realized. I was like, this is the point of the movie. So, that is my really nuanced review of a quiet place, and the way it just slapped me upside the face.

That happened again, like six movies later. But thankfully we broke up the bleakness. Like quiet day or a quiet place, day one, had Gare vibes. I remember being like Gare, you will love this ending so much. And then there was Deadpool and Wolverine, which is very much in the entire opposite direction. Like take nothing seriously.

So good. Except your commitment to mocking. the franchise for whom you are writing your character and also creating engaging action sequences and plot and the soundtrack is insane. I don't think I need to read a description. People know what Deadpool and Wolverine was. But I think you would like it if you like social commentary. mixed in with like silly humor.

Deep cut Marvel references. Yeah, a lot like the more you know, the more you appreciate. I feel like a lot of those superhero movies. But yeah, it was just fun. It was like it was exactly like fall guy, bad boys. I wish I knew what number it was. It's so much easier to remember the number. But anyway.

Right or die? There was twisters. Like, there was just fun visually. There was some great entertaining. Probably. Yeah. Like, it was just entertaining all the way through. And,

uh, I think I've referenced the pop fiction women to you, their podcast. And they had a clip recently about like, people forget that like being entertaining is also just like a big part of like what can make something really fun to watch. Because sometimes people are like, oh, sure.

it's like entertaining but nothing new doesn't always have to be something new like sometimes you can just be extremely entertaining in the way that you're doing it and in like a mass mass consumption way yep yeah yeah everybody's just having fun on that set like it's just like people are in their lane and there's like oh cool let's do that because yeah i think we've listened to that one interview with uh ryan I can't make of it. Actors on actors. Yeah. But I think they said there's only like two jokes that they had to pull out.

Yes. Otherwise, it was like total like freedom to shit on like 20th century fox. I know. And that whole movie franchise is an underdog story, which is crazy too. Now some people are like, no, it's not. He was already an actor. I'm like, no. This was a passion project.

that he was really calculated about, like, his little, like, leaking stuff when the first one wasn't getting funded or whatever. Like, it's, it is an underdog story, and it makes it even better. And the character's an underdog and one of the most meta characters of a franchise. us. It was also, that's what I was going to say earlier. This was also one where like at our AMC, like sometimes there are Thursday night releases for Friday movies. So this was one where like, I recorded an episode with Garen's stuff and then we saw that there was availability. So we were actually seated with a bunch of people. There was a mostly full theater. And this was like the one movie all year in Twisters. There were a lot of people.

at Twisters too. We're like it actually did make it better to see you with a bunch of people too because everyone's cracking up. Yeah. I feel like it's when everybody's laughing together. Yeah. It enhances it all perfectly. So yeah, that's going to conclude part one of all of the movies we saw in 2024.

Come back later this week for part two.