Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Does EVERYONE love Twisters… except Mark?

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Another guestless week but that just means more musings, fun and general nonsense from your favourite Good Doctors. Mark gives his thoughts on various new releases, including ‘Blur: To The End’, a documentary depicting the comeback of the classic Britpop band; ‘Thelma’, a June Squibb-starring comedy about a 93-year-old who gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, prompting her to set out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her; ‘Chuck Chuck Baby’, an emotionally charged musical drama in which a chicken factory worker sees her dreary life interrupted when her schoolgirl crush arrives back in town; and ‘Twisters’, a sequel to the 1996 Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton-starring disaster film, which sees a retired tornado-chaser and meteorologist persuaded to return to Oklahoma to work with a new team and new technologies. A packed-out week of new movies and takes for your listening pleasure! Timecodes (relevant only for the Vanguard - who are also ad-free!):  11:44 - Blur: To The End Review  16:48 - BO10  28:58 - Thelma Review  36:26 - Chuck Chuck Baby Review  44:52 - Twisters Review    You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo   EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!  A Sony Music Entertainment production.     Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts    To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail]  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca.yamx. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Well, it's very good to see you, Mark. You're looking tippity-top and hang-dang-doodie there.

Tippity-top and hang-dang-doodie there in your cell. Tippity-top and hang-dang-doodie? Yeah, I just want to say that. Have you gone back to the 1930s? Are you riding a boxcar? I don't even know what a boxcar is. You know, a boxcar on a railway. You jump on a boxcar. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's right. That's what I do. Are you doing that? No. You're looking great as well, Simon. Thank you.

You're looking weird. You're wearing a Ramones t-shirt, which is very teenage, but you're also looking quite fresh-faced and youthful and lively. Are you using a new skin product? No, I've got a special filter which I've downloaded onto this hardware which says, how many years do you want to wind off your face? Is that the same filter that Emma Freud introduced me to, which is the touch-up filter? I think it's only on Zoom. You look at it and you look like the old guy from Up, and then you put touch-up on full,

and then the next thing you look like Carrie Lake, which is terrifying. Oh, okay. So touch-up advice from Emma Freud. Just as an insight into the production of this podcast, thank you very much, Adif, for downloading and listening. Let me just give you an insight into the enormous difference between the world everyone lives in and then there's Mark. Okay.

So Sunday night, this is a message from Mark to everybody who works on the program, timed at one minute to eight, 19.59 hours. Just confirming the films for this week, we're also doing this, this, this. Is it okay if we do this? Can someone take it? Thanks, Mark. That's one minute to eight. A reply from the redactor, this is now at eight o'clock. Thanks, Mark. Will do with an England flag next to the answer, to which Mark says, oh yes, there's a football match on. Sorry. One minute past eight. So the whole pretty, even people who aren't that interested in football, at one minute

to eight, have got their nachos and a beer or something or a cup of tea and they're sitting watching the final of the Euros. But there we go. I'm mentioning this because first of all, top production from the redactor to actually bother to reply to you at Kickoff, precisely at Kickoff in the most nervy match of all time. But the one minute to wait, oh, hey guys, just I'd call telling you all this stuff. Thanks, Marge. Bye.

Bye. Yeah. Can I say what I take away from that is that no matter what else is going on in the world, my brain is focused entirely on what films we're doing, what order of films we're doing, what clips we're doing, the prereq that we're going to have to do for the thing. And then, oh, and then- Thanks, Mark. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Kick off. Thanks. Thanks. Oh, there's a Jehovah's Witness at the door.

No, I'm, thanks, thanks. Oh, there's a Jehovah's Witness at the door. No, I'm not gonna talk. Okay, but in my defense, when the redacted sent back the thing when he said, yes, thank you very much, and then just a flag, I did know enough to go, oh, yes, sorry, there's a football match. And then I thought, oh, it must be happening now. Because, and then I looked at the clock and thought,

is that, is it eight o'clock kickoff? And then did you turn on the television and watch? No. What did you do on Sunday night at eight o'clock? I had preparation to do. I had notes to prepare about the films that are coming out. What needs to be done on Sunday night when the Eurofinals are? Preparing to make this show as tippity-top and ding-a-dee-dang as it could possibly be.

What about a hang-down duty? A hang-down duty, exactly. You didn't mention that. We lost, right? England lost, yes. To the better team, it has to be said, but you know, it's still, you know. Who was the better team? Spain, Mark.

Spain, okay. Did they play up or play on? Play up and play the game. Yes, they did. They had been, and clearly what's brought the fun is that they'd been rehearsing, which really, that's not fair. It had never been allowed back in the day and we used to win these matches, but now everyone else has cottoned on. So they're rehearsing so we don't win anymore. Anyway, committing to the course. Was it an ignominious defeat or was it an all right defeat?

No, it was basically people. Now I'm going to summarize for everybody. Gareth Southgate is a good guy. He's the manager. Yeah, he was the manager. He's quit. I can't believe I'm having to explain this, but in general, if you are English, he made England an easier team to support. And under his manager ship, if that is indeed the word, they got to four semi-finals, two semis and two finals, which hasn't happened. And he did that in eight

years. So that's the extent of the knowledge that you need to know. Okay. And the semi-final is nearer to the final and the quarter-final, right? It goes quarter-final, semi-final, final. Yes, that way around. Yes, that's right. The same is true in all sports. Well, no, because semi sounds like, you know, like a quarterfinal sounds like you're actually in the running, but a semi final sounds like, well, this is semi final. Really? Okay.

You don't watch a lot of sport, do you? No, I don't. But then you don't employ me here to do that. And also think how much worse it would be if I actually came on this podcast and said, hello, Simon, I watched the match with Spain, and now I'd like to tell you what I thought about it. Yeah, I don't want to hear that, actually. Can I just say before we get going, if you hear any screeching on the podcast today, the reason is the Swifts down my way are particularly screechy today, which is one of my favorite

sounds in the entire world, but they're hurtling around the house and screeching their little heads off. And it's wonderful to behold, but if you hear any screeching, then it's, that's what it is. What do you say hurtling around the house? Are they in the house? No, they hurtle, they go around it. They like do laps and they're having a fantastic time. I mean, I know they're probably, you know, catching insects and all that kind of stuff,

but for all the world, they're having an absolute blast. So that's what's going on. What are you reviewing a little bit later on? Pac-Show. So Twisters, which is the inventively titled sequel to Twister. You put an S on the end of it. Thelma with the fabulous June Squibb. Blur to the End, which is a documentary about Blur to the End, and Chuck Chuck Baby, a fabulous new Brit prick. Is that related to Ice Ice Baby in some way? No, but I did think exactly the same thing. And for the elite, for subscribers, for the Vanguard Easter, what are you, like premium

reviews, I think, what are you offering there? It is 30 years of Forrest Gump. Oh, really? Which is, again, one of these things that is designed to make everyone feel very, very old. So we'll be looking back at Forrest Gump. And can we say right from the beginning, when he says, mama always said life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get, which the answer is yes, you do. You open a box of chocolates, there's a guide.

But maybe he was talking about a mixed bag of revels because then you genuinely didn't know. Yeah, but life is like a mixed bag of revels is a far less memorable one. Also a weekend watch this weekend, not less TV movie of the week, Twisters. You've mentioned and we're going to do some further viewing suggestions in one frame back based on weather based disaster movies, which is fabulous. Also you get ad free episodes of Ben Baby Smith and Nemoans Shrink the Box. Plus, we answer your film and non-film related queries and quandaries in questions, Schmestrens.

Everything you can get via Apple podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit related devices. If you are already a Vanguardista as ever. We salute you. That's a couple of old guys really there. So exciting news from our friends at Rooftop Film Club. You know all our friends there? Yes, I know all of them. Up on the roof. Up on the roof. London's king of outdoor cinema. There are rooftop experiences located at Bussey Building in Peckham and Roofeast in Stratford.

Feel free to just say Peckham or Stratford if easier. See, that's the point of sending you the script earlier so that you actually have looked at it beforehand. And on the 10th and 11th of August, we're going to bring you a selection of specially created films in Peckham. The Incredibles, The Mask, Birdman, Vertigo, Westside Story, 1961 version and Almost Famous. Over to you, Mark, for your bit. As of Vanguard Easter, you get 241 with the code TheTake24. That's T-H-E-T-A-K-E-2-4. In addition, you also get 241 on every Wednesday as well on any booking using the same code.

Normally, 241 is fine as opposed to 241. Well, it's written down as two, four, one. Anyway, visit rooftopfilmclub.com to book. Wow, that was much harder work than it needed to be. Thank you very much, Edith. We asked you for rave reviews. We wanted sicker fancy and boy, did we get it. Five star, I'll just pick a couple here. Like bickering angels from above, five-stars.

They once were two angels, no doubt. Mark and Simon, they'd chatter about. With film reviews clever, they're as sharp as ever. Heaven's movies, they'd roundly tout, but not Heaven's Gate. That's very good. That's very good. Well done with Heaven's Gate, Gag. This from Bebop Film Reviews.

The podcast is characterized by a meandering tempo, complex conceptual progression with rapid tonal changes and numerous incidental anecdotes, intellectual virtuosity, although I can't say virtuosity, and improvisation based on a combination of oneric structure. I think it's oneric structure relating to dreams. The use of repetition and occasional references to film. Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode are the Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie of podcasting, breaking the boundaries of what is possible. This is bebop film reviewing, influencing the way we understand the universe and quite

probably changing the very nature of reality itself. I mean, fair enough. This from someone calling themselves orgiastic. This show both literally and figuratively changed my life. All other podcasts pale into infinitesimal insignificance in comparison to the magnificent munificence of these exceptionally competent co-hosts. Best show I've ever heard in my entire life. 11 out of 10. Subscribe now or

forever hold your peace." There you go. Which of those would you go with, Mark? Well, I'm wondering whether the orgiastic is the F. Scott Fitzgerald reference because in the end of The Great Gatsby, he talks about the Augustic future, which year by year recedes before us. But in some editions of Gatsby, Augustic is subbed to orgiastic, which is a very different thing. Apparently Fitzgerald had originally intended it to be Augustic.

I just wonder whether that sounds to me like an F. Scott Fitzgerald reference, in which case I salute you. Okay. I thought it was a reference to Mr. Boombastic. Is he very fantastic? Apparently so. Anyway, if you think you can beat that, I don't think so. Correspondence at Kermit and Mayo dot com, five star reviews. It helps the algorithm. That's basically it. I know it's pathetically needy, but hey, I think you know what you're dealing with here. Mark, what is out? What might we do? Okay, Blur to the End, which is a documentary in which the Britpop, former Britpoppers, Blur reunite after several years apart to record, I think it's their ninth album, Ballad

of Darren, and then play Wembley after a brief warm-up tour whilst looking back on their career. Here's a clip. Bands start usually when people are quite young. You're still finding yourself. You have to work through that relationship where you can be relaxed and comfortable and not want to push each other's buttons and want to be supportive. That takes time to work through. buttons and want to be supportive, you know, that takes time to work through. And ideally the best place to do that working through is not in the full glare of the public. We've had times where we really not wanted to be even in the same room as each other. When you're in the thick of it and you know, you've just been touring for three

years with two days off, it can feel like what you're actually engaged in is politics and the music is a kind of sideshow to that. So documentary about Blur getting back together again to do their thing again. I like, there's a lot of people being interviewed in different places, kind of domestic. So it's directed by Toby L. That's the name. There have been previous blur docs. There was a thing that we reviewed, I think it was 2010,

No Distance Left to Run, which was again doing a similar, let's get the band back together again. This opens with Damon Albom being interviewed in his car, driving very fast down a country road, musing on the subject of mortality and then having to suddenly slam on the brakes because a car's coming the other way. It's like, wow, we were talking about mortality and then suddenly a car was coming the other way.

That is pretty much as deep as it gets. Beyond that, it's very likable. You get Albarn and I think it's Graham go back to the Stanway School where they met and they bemoan the disappearance of a porter cabin, which is very important to them. They get shown the music room that was named after them and they say, yeah, well, this is great, but it needs more posters on the wall and a big bowl of weed to inspire the music writing, which doesn't seem particularly thrilled. There's quite a lot of stuff about the rigors of aging, you know, three of them, including

the drummer, have got bad knees. Alex James still looks like he wants to fight for the right to party. Lots of reflecting on the history and the brotherhood of the band. A little bit of stuff of them getting a bit chippy with each other in the studio, but nothing eye-opening. And I have to say a lot that borders on what's now known on social media as humble bragging, you know, saying, well, yeah, it's been difficult, but we are the biggest band in the world. There's one sequence in it which comes perilously close to, you know the scene in Spinal Tap

when they're on the roof. I think it is the Hyatt Hilton in LA in which they're doing the thing about the band is ending. And somebody says, you know, is this the end? And Davidson Hubbin says, well, you know, when you say the end, I mean, you know, how far is all the way? And then if it stops, then what's stopping it? And then behind what's behind what's stopping it?

So the end, that will be my question to you. There is literally a moment in this in which it comes within a hair's breadth of doing Spinal Tap. And the thing about it is I don't think it's deliberate. I don't think it's ironic. I think it's actually just, it gets a bit Spinal Tappy. Phil Daniels is in there, which is always good. There is some stage footage, although there's not sort of whole songs or performances because with that goes, there's going to be a concert movie coming out later on, which feels a little bit kind of like, okay, fine, we've seen just enough of this to make us work. Anyway, look,

I like Blur. They seem interesting. I'm not entirely sure that this is anything other than a promotional work, but you know, I've seen worse. The enthusiastic vibes pouring out of my headphones. It sounds a bit like the way, in the same way that Python spoiled all movies about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. That spinal tap means that you have to be, you know, it's almost impossible to escape that chatter. No, except when you're in the editing room, as soon as anyone starts doing that stuff, just cut.

Just literally cut. Because the thing is, there's only a limited number of things you can say. You met when you were young, you were in a band, the band became incredibly successful. You had some ups and downs. You were together, you weren't together, you did other stuff, you got back together, you did a thing, you weren't together, you got back together, you played well. Opened a cheese shop. Opened a cheese shop.

Opened a cheese shop. Did very well. Yeah, exactly. But there's only a, I mean, you know, it's not like you split the atom. The story is what the story is. You wrote some good songs and some of them were great. More in a moment. Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast, Dinners on Me.

I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my modern family co-stars, like Ed O'Neill. I had friends in Organized Cry. Sofia Vergara. Why do you want to be comfortable? Julie Bowen. I used to be the crier. And Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.

I was so down bad for the middle of Miranda when I was like 18. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dan Jones and this is history a dynasty to die for is back for a brand new season. This time we meet Edward II, a larger than life character who starts out as the party boy prince and ends up, well, I don't want to give too much away. He's got one thing on his mind, not war, not ambition, but love. And it's a love that will get him in burning hot trouble with his barons, his family, and his queen. The king's affection for his favorite knight kicks off a wild roller coaster reign full of love and hate, war and grief, famine and just about all the horsemen of the apocalypse. Along the way we'll meet tiger mums, Scottish legends, murderous cousins, a herd of camels

and one extremely hot iron poker. Listen to and follow This Is History A Dynasty To Die For, available wherever you get your podcasts. Hey let's rock now with the box office top 10. At 31, hundreds of beavers. Which I think is really fun and we've had some very nice emails from people telling us that they've enjoyed it as much as we did. So I'll tell you this, you won't see another film like it this year.

And there aren't many times you can say that. No, there really aren't. Anyways, 31, I imagine it's not going to trouble the chart too much. At number 10, In a Violent Nature, new entry. This is the film that we decided was probably not for you because it does exactly what it says on the tin. I think it's a throwback 70s slasher movie. It has been described as an ambient slasher movie, whatever that may mean.

Yeah. Well, that usually means Enya's on the soundtrack. That's what you said, Enya with an X. They've missed a trick not putting that on the poster. I think that works for me. And also gives a tip for Enya's next project. Maxine with three Xs of course, UK's number nine, US it's number eight. I really like this. I think Miragoth's performance is terrific. I actually think all the X movies

are very good. I know that some people have felt this is the weaker of the three installments, but I really enjoyed it. Bike riders are number eight. Looks fantastic. Not perhaps the movie that's on the poster, but if you see this, I say this every week, if you see this and you like it, see the Cathy Bigelow, The Loveless, which I think is coming quite soon to BFI player and it's very, very good companion piece. Number seven is Bad Boys Ride or Die. Number six is Indian 2. This wasn't press screened.

I did see a news report about it which said, Indian II crashes and burns in every territory. Although it is doing all right in the UK box office. If anyone's seen it, let me know. One thing that has not improved in all the time we've been doing this show is the number of times you said this wasn't press screened. Why can't films like Indian II get press screened so that we can so that it can be part of the national film conversation? A lot of the time, it's to do with the fact that in order to press screen something, you have to hire a screening room and put the thing on. Quite often, they don't get the prints until the very last moment, particularly with Indian movies because there's a lot of worry

about piracy. Also, I wrote a piece about this for the New Statesman 25 years ago. Their target audience was not affected by what us critics thought. It just didn't make any difference. Literally. When they started, okay, it was like it wasn't necessary. There have been many moves for critics saying we would love to be able to review the films if they were press screened in advance, but quite often it's to do with the fact that the prints actually won't arrive in the country until the day that the film opens.

I say prints, DCPs. Okay, beg your pardon. Quiet Place Day One is number five. I like it. I mean, it's not scary, but it's tense and Lupita Nyong'o is terrific. Number four here, five in the States is Fly Me to the Moon. Mark Scanlon says, enjoyed Fly Me to the Moon, fun, light, romantic comedy, drama, with decent writing and chemistry between the leads, plus a quirky turn from Woody Harrelson. However, I cannot believe that anyone could take against it for supposedly not making it clear

that the moon landings happened. Beneath the froth of the light-hearted comedy drama was an important story about truth and integrity. By the end, the whole point is that the reality of what is happening on the moon matters. That this did happen and being clear on the truth cannot be sacrificed. I think the film had a clear anti-conspiracy theory thread underpinning it. As one character says, the truth is the truth even if no one believes it. And this is a vital message for our times. Thank you, Mark.

That's Fly Me to the Moon, number four. Well, we're on exactly the same page. As I said, a fellow critic felt differently about it and felt that it fudged the issue. I don't think it does. I think it is exactly as that email just says. It says the truth is the truth even if no one believes it. And it's fun. The film's fun.

Number three is Long Legs. Number two in the States, Fiona, midterm listeners, who signs off by saying still traumatized by James and the Giant Peach in 1996. Broaching again the question of whether the BBFC full screen content advice at the start of the movie can be classified as a spoiler. On Friday night at East London Heartland Hackney Picture House, I settled down to watch the Mark Certified Scary Long Legs.

Partway through the trailers, a young girl walks in holding a popcorn in the company of two adults. They settle into seats in my row, pausing to take a selfie to mark this important cinematic occasion. I'd guess the girl was around seven. Indeed, her legs were not long enough to bend at the knee in the luxurious cinema seat. What? That's exactly what Fiona thought.

This is going to be scary. Should I say something? Isn't this about girls being murdered? What if I say something and am told to keep out of our parenting decisions? What if I don't say something and this car advert is replaced by a genuinely traumatizing spooky scene. Fiona says, I shrugged off my Britishness. I leant over and said, I just wanted to check that you are really 100% sure you're in the

right screen. I think this is going to be quite scary. Isn't this Despicable Me 4? They hurried off and we all had a good laugh. Well done. Well done. Well done you for doing that. It was only when the BBFC content advice flashed up a few minutes later after the scary trailers

that I realized, spoilers aside, maybe it's making sure people aren't confusing their grooves from their gruesome in cinemas up and down the country. Up with BBFC certification and occasionally talking to strangers at cinemas. A lot of people, Fiona, would have not done, clearly I might not have done what you did, but it was clearly the right thing. They just got the wrong screening. Imagine a seven-year-old watching Long Legs, which you told us last week is very scary. Yeah, well done. I mean, it is very scary and it's very creepy, very kind of brooding

atmosphere. I really like it, but you're out. Well done for having the guts to do that because you're right. I would have been the same as you just tied up in a knot of anxiety, which would have made the film more effective, but it's pretty much full of dread anyway. I really enjoyed it. Number two is Inside Out 2, number three in the States. Huge runaway hit. Despite my reservations, turns out that people young and old absolutely love it and having a really profound experience with it.

Number one here, number one in America as well is Despicable Me 4. John in Bracknell, very long-term listener, first-time emailer, Vanguard Easter, ex-Battenberg Whitter user, cycling proficiency certificate holder, long expired. I don't think, if you've passed the cycling proficiency test, I don't think it expires. No, you're proficient. Once you're proficient, riding a bike is one of the things that you never forget. The good lady here indoors and I took granddaughter number two to see a Despicable Me 4 at our local world of Sydney on Saturday,

splashed out on the full 3D, 4DX package, laughed out loud several times. I'm not normally given to doing that in public, but even that pulled into insignificance with the raucous cackling from the group in the next bank who sits to us. Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially all the Easter eggs like the Terminator music in the supermarket and the mega minion stopping the runway was a clear nod to one of the early Spider-Man films. Definitely one for the collection when it comes out on home release. No up with or down with because that list could go on forever, but hello of course to Jason Pentangle and Fairport Convention. John in Bracknell, thank you very much indeed.

That's Despicable Me 4 at number one. So on Monday I was doing a show and there was Dave Norris and Dave Norris goes, I've got a bone to pick with you. And I said, what? He went, you said in your review, I thought, what have I done wrong? He likes Minions. Because I said, you know, Dave Norris finds Minions funny. He said, you said the only thing wrong with Despicable Me 4 is there isn't Minions 2.

And I said, yes. He said we had Minions 2. It was Rise of Gru, keep up. I went, yeah, you know, you're absolutely right. I just, I forget which movie is which because basically it's just with them and makes me laugh. So yeah, Dave, sorry, apologies. Won't happen again.

Honest. Mark Dunne in Toronto. Mark and Simon, occasional email and long-term list. I wanted to write in and express how appalled I was at the prices and our local multiplex here in Toronto and how much they were charging for a kids movie. My in-laws are visiting from Ireland and said they would take our six and four-year-old boys to see Despicable Me 4 on a rainy afternoon since my wife and I had to work. I opened up the Multiplex app and

picked a showtime and some seats for the four of them and hit checkout. What was the price for four tickets to a kids movie on a Wednesday afternoon, you ask? And the answer, says Mark, is $75. I was absolutely appalled. Had I been paying, I would have closed the app and refused to pay such extortionate prices. My in-laws were equally aghast, but since they'd promised to take the kids and didn't want to disappoint them, they said they would pay. Now, I did a check this morning, and if I've got this right, $75 is £42.29, which I have to say, I'm not appalled by. Not surprised by. I'm not surprised by it. It's a lot of money for sure.

In London, I would expect to be paying that amount of money. Would you think $75 slash £42 was a lot for four people? It's not unexpected. And as you say, in showbiz North London, where you live, you can pay like 18 quid for a cinema ticket. You can pay 20 quid if you go into one, or 22 you're going to one of the sort of the poshest. So yes, we're a long way from the time when, you know, one pound 50 would get you a seat and a packet of chocolate raisins. Mark says the whole thing reeks of greedflation.

As for the movie, the two kids loved it and were acting out scenes from the movie all evening before bedtime. Excellent. Okay. Well, so maybe, hopefully, Mark, your parents and your kids had their money's worth. Although the redactors said, if you move to East Kent, six pounds per seat at the Herne Bay Cavern on Saturday afternoon, or four pounds seventy-five at the Carlton West Gate, including a booking fee.

So, clearly, it can be done. All you have to do is move to East Kent, which if you're in Toronto is not a lot of help. Child One saw Casablanca in a cinema just outside Liverpool with her and a companion. Tickets were £1.50 each, so total, and they were the only two people in the cinema, So three pounds for the screening. Wow. That is, they loved it. Before the laughter lift, Mike in Beeston says, I'm not sure if I'm the first to point this out, but in this week's take one, Mark mentioned the last night, I shot an elephant in my pajamas joke from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. My understanding is that it originally came from Groucho Marx in the film Animal Crackers. Entirely possible. And if you go on YouTube, that will be there. Entirely possible.

Okay. Mike, thank you very much indeed, which tees up very nicely already. I can sense people laughing and just getting in the fine mood for this week's laughter lift. Hey, Mark. Bit of a mixed week so far. Child 3, rather uncharacteristically, but for the sake of this joke, got sent to jail on Saturday night. Didn't react well at all. He started screaming and shouting and hollering, threw things around and performed what they call, I believe, a dirty protest.

Well, we certainly won't be playing Monopoly with him again. And we were, in fact, playing with my special limited edition U2 themed... This works better as a written joke. Bonopoly. Bonoopoly. Yeah. It's just like normal Monopoly, but the streets have no name. Hey!

And we're not going well at home, you won't be surprised to learn. Bit of a row broke out after the game, Mark. Good lady ceramicist, her indoors says, I don't give her enough privacy. At least that's what she wrote in the diary. She hides in her studio in a box marked secret diary do not open. Anyway, that's the latest from Lake Wobegon. Mark, what is still to come? Still to come, reviews of Thelma, ChuckChuckBaby, and Twisters…

After this. on Getting Curious, I sit down for a gorgeous conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. Join me every Wednesday as we set off on a stunning journey of curiosity on a new subject and dive into the archive of more than 370 episodes. Listen to Getting Curious wherever you get your podcasts. Xtree, Xtree, your favorite anime is getting a new season. Hi, I'm Nick Friedman.

And I'm Lee-Alec Murray. And I'm Leah Presenet. Every week, you can listen in while we break down the latest pop culture news and dish on what new releases we can't get enough of. We're covering the latest in film, video games, music, manga, and obviously, anime. Get the latest on the anime effect.

So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts. And watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. Hey, we're back. Unless obviously you're a Vanguard Easter, in which case we've never been away. It makes no sense. And You haven't had to fast forward 30 seconds or anything. Okay, Mark, what's next? What can we go and see? Okay, Thelma, which is a comedy from writer-director Josh Margolin premiered at the Sundance last year and stars June Squibb.

Now, you remember June Squibb from Nebraska? You remember the brilliant film Nebraska? June Squibb is the older lady who at one point gets taken to a grave site. She finds Keith's grave and she says, oh yeah, he was always trying to get into my pants. And then she raises her skirt and says, hey, Keith, see what you could have had if you weren't talking about weed all the time. It's one of the great performances anyway. She stars in this film now. So she's a 90something-year-old Thelma, lives alone in LA. Her grandson, Danny, tries his best to look after her, but he thinks he's useless, which

not least because his parents are completely suffocating. He teaches Thelma to use the computer, he runs errands, but she wants to be independent. One day, she is scammed into parting with $10,000 after being rung up by somebody claiming to be her grandson, Danny, who tells her that he's been arrested after an accident. She pays the money and then she realizes that it was a scam, is a clip. He was going on and on about how you hit someone and it was worse than you think and she was pregnant. I hit a pregnant woman?

Like I struck her with my feels? No, no, no. It was a car accident. Yeah, this is all happening inside of the car. and she was pregnant and... I hit a pregnant woman? Like I struck her with my feels? No, no, no, it was a car accident. Oh, okay, but that makes more sense. Well, what are you talking about? I misunderstood. Why weren't you picking up your phone?

I was asleep. At 10.30? I called you at 10.30 and then... Yeah, but I went out last night with some friends. You didn't drive, did you? Did you get drunk? You know, alcohol is a major depressant. It's... Wendy Horowitz's son is completely hooked on Don Julio. Don Julio.

He can't hold a job, he's in and out of rehabs. He has no sense of agency. And he vapes. He vapes. He's completely lost and he may never find himself. Are you paying attention? Yes. I thought you were paying attention? Yes, I absolutely am. So what then happens is that the police won't help. And so Helen, our heroine, Thelma decides to take matters into her own hands.

She teams up with Ben, who's played by Richard Rountree. Richard Rountree is probably best known as Shaft, who I think died October last year. So this, I think, was his last film. He's got a scooter. She gets herself a gun, and she goes off in search of the scammers. Now, the film may revolve around two elderly characters with bad knees and replacement hips on an electric scooter, but it is packed with jokes about Mission Impossible. Thelma sees Ethan Hunt on the telly

and she sees Tom Cruise in the papers, and then she decides to go on her own Mission Possible as one of the headlines says. When they do that, the whole thing is felt like a Mission Impossible heist. They've got hearing aids which become like earpieces, like you'd use in a spy movie. This is walk through a junk shop which

becomes like one of the high-tech vaults in the Mission Impossible movies. It's very funny. It's very, very charming. It's got great performances by June Squibb and Richard Rantry. They are really, really likeable company and really, really enjoyable. There's a terrific late in the day appearance by Malcolm McDowell, who incidentally will be talking about in

the Not Too Distant Future in the recut version of Caligula, which adds some grit and pathos. But the whole thing was really life-affirming and really had spirit to spare. Incidentally, if you see the movie and love it, which you will do, stay to the end, because there's a lovely little tag at the end with a clip of the person that inspired the central character. I don't know, it's just one of those films that it makes you

feel good. It's got, it's got lovely performances, lovely script, really well judged. And it is, it owes more to Mission Impossible than it does to Nebraska. Very good. It sounds very engaging. Oh, it's lovely. You'd love it. It's really, really good. I can't believe they've recut Caligula again. Yeah. And it's really interesting. Really interesting. I'll talk about it at length. I'm sure you will. John, on an email here, I'm going to preface this email by stating that like Simon, I am also a Spurs fan and therefore I'm very much accustomed to

miserable Mondays after weekend matches. I'm living in Cambridge at the moment, but from Ireland. So following yesterday's, that's Sunday, football, this is again, this is a Euros reference. Mark, I'll remind you. This was England, Spain. Spain two, England one. Okay. My phone was pinging with messages from friends on both sides of the water. I've attached one crudely photoshopped image that I received of Garret Southgate wearing an Irish Gaelic football jersey. The reason this picture is doing the rounds is because the team who wears said jersey have consistently fallen short of winning an All-Ireland senior men's final since 1951 and over the last decade have lost several finals by a single point. I'm referring to County Mayo, of course. There has been speculation

around a curse associated with the last winning team after a priest scolded them for disrupting a funeral on their return home from the match. It was assumed that Mayo would not have any more success until all the players and staff associated with the 1951 team had passed away. I'm beginning to think, however, that this curse may now have spread to any team that Simon and his extended family are supporting, as the timelines of Spurs and England's last successes aren't far off. Actually, they are, but still. So now, this is terrible.

Now I'm thinking it's my fault, right? May I suggest, says John, that for the upcoming Premier League season, Simon switches his allegiance to another club in the hopes that he could pass the curse on, preferably Arsenal, but I'm not sure he could stomach that. Down with religion in sports and anything else for that matter, says John. Anyway, so, okay, so the suggestion is that because of my surname, the curse has transferred from County Mayo in Irish Gaelic football to any team that I support.

In which case, let me say from here on in, I support Spain and Arsenal from now on. Do I have to be sincere in this, do you think? Can I just make a public declaration? I think you have to be sincere, otherwise it doesn't work. Incidentally, I just had a too Ronnie's joke moment when you said, and I'm sorry, this genuinely did happen in my head. You said Spain 2 England 1 and I thought we lost. Yes, Spain 2 England 1. Spain 2 England 1, that's a too Ronnie's joke. I genuinely thought we lost. Here all week.

Yes, very good. Tip your waitress and so on. Correspondence at kodemayor.com. I don't know whether I go along with curses in general. Well, you don't. You don't believe in superstition. You walk on the ladders on purpose. You deliberately, you say hello. It's different when it comes to sports because clearly superstition does work when it comes

to sport. It's just everything else. It doesn't work. Well, don't you ever think that if you watch your team on television, they lose? Yes, and that's probably why we lost. Although it doesn't work because I did watch all the other matches and they won those. So anyway, it's almost as though superstition is just utterly pointless and ridiculous. It's just made up Ooga Booga, is it? Yeah. Anyway, John, thanks for just planting the thought that it's all my fault. Fantastic. Yeah. Welcome to my world.

I believe that all the time about everything. Oh, okay. That's a very revealing aside. Tell us about an interesting film. We've already had Thelma, which might be a film of the week, I would have thought based on what you were saying. What else is out? Chuck Chuck Baby, which is an absolutely enchanting British romantic drama that skirts the edge

of musical fantasy while keeping its feet firmly on the ground. So this is written and directed by feature first-timer Janice Pugh. And it stars Louise Brehle, who is brilliant in Brian and Charles. She is perfectly cast as Helen, who is this down-at-heel but somehow indomitable, quietly indomitable woman who's just about had enough of life. Her husband, Gary, with whom she still lives, has taken up with a younger girlfriend with whom he now has a child. She still lives in the house, taking care of Gary's ailing mother. It's a lovely performance by Sush Kusak, who is the mother I never had. Their domestic situation is miserable. Her only relief is working in the local chicken factory, which above the door as you go in, as in neon sign which says Chuck Chuck Baby,

where the company of the other women in the factory offers camaraderie. Here's a clip. A breaking game. High spy. Board. Bingo. How do you play bingo with your hands?

Disabled people play bingo, then. Memory games are good for stimulating the brain. Okay, memory games. Helen, first man you had sex with. I think the sound is too high in the mix there. I think the effects just need to come back just a little and just more of the vocal. Thanks. That's great. I'll get you and Walter Murch to remix the film the next time you have an afternoon free. So anyway, one day Joanne comes back into town. She's come back to close up her old house after a bereavement.

And it's clear that Joanne meant something to Helen when they were younger, although she says that she was too shy to talk to her. Now her reappearance awakens something or reawakens something in Helen that may change her life or may not. Helen may just be stuck where she is. I had the pleasure of interviewing the star and the director at the BFI IMAX. It was described, Louise Brehley said it was, I'm probably not, she said it was like

a Northern lesbian chicken factory romance. The director said, it's Ken Loach meets La La Land. The reason that is, is because I said it skirts the edge of musicals. There is a sequence early on when Louise Brehley's character is driving, and she puts on the radio. It's that Neil Diamond song, I Am, I Said, which is a song I absolutely love. She starts singing along to it.

It's really, really moving. You remember the Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares to You video, in which it was just the shot of her face and as she sings, a tear comes down her face. You also remember the sequence in Magnolia, which I know you love as well, in which everyone sings along to Amy Mann's Wise Up.

Yes. This sequence in Chuck Chuck Baby is like those two. I was knocked out by just thought, this is one of the best sequences I've seen in cinema in a really long time. Of course, what it is, is it's just one of a number of musical sequences, which are like impromptu karaoke sing-alongs that morph into full-blown musical numbers. It takes inspiration to some extent from Jacques Demy's Umbrellas of Sherbourg, which is very directly referenced in one scene with colorful rainbow umbrellas.

The whole tension of the film is this kind of, on the one hand, they're in a chicken factory and chicken carcasses are being thrown around. On the other hand, they're singing along to a song that's playing on a boom box or they're having a flight of fantasy, but they're all in a shopping trolley. Again, with a cassette player playing a tune, or there's a blossoming romance which plays out on a pair of stilts and a reconstituted go-kart and an abandoned bathtub, and it sounds like it shouldn't work. There's another scene where they're up on a hill and there's a thing about hallucinogenic mushrooms, which is suddenly brought down to Earth when one of the women

remembers that she hasn't got anything in the house for tea. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it really does. It really does because it does have that thing about feet in the ground, head in the air, heart absolutely right in the right place. Just a lovely central force by Louise Brearley, who is a terrific actor. Weirdly enough, I first met her years ago when she was a reporter for Film 4. She did a report which now gone kind of virally, which she saw the Blair Witch project and was completely wigged out by it. There's a famous bit of film of her,

like almost in tears on the pavement afterwards because she was so scared by the film. Anyway, she's a great actor and she is just on the top of her game in this film. I thought it was lovely. I think there's a section in it which I think is a reference to an officer and a gentleman or maybe it isn't, maybe I just love that. But it's just great and the use of music is fabulous and the performances are great and it's love that. But it's just great. And the use of music is fabulous. And the performances are great. And it's got that, you know, it's like I said, Ken Loach meets La La Land.

And then the Neil Diamond song, which I love. And I said to the director, was that really expensive? And she said, Neil Diamond personally signed off on it. They had to ask him and they described the film to him. And as a result of him liking it, he let them use it. And that song is just, I mean, that song gets me in the feels every time. But that's- I'm not a man who likes to swear, but I never care for the sound of being

alone. Yeah. I've never quite understood that line. This comes back to the Paul Simon thing, isn't it? Sometimes things sound- It just sounds, I mean, it does sound fantastic. But honestly, I'm not being funny, but that sequence in which Louise Brearley sings along to that song is one of the most moving things I've seen recently. I love the film. I love the spirit of it. It's a smaller movie, but boy, it's got a big heart. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

It's just lovely. I think it's the first episode of Midnight Mass. Remember when we talked about that? Yes. It's like the first episode of Midnight Mass. Remember when we talked about that? There's a key bit where they get out a very old copy of Neil Diamond's 12 greatest hits back from the day when 12 was considered. Wow, really? All 12? All 12 of them. Yes. Do they put on Suleiman? I think that's the track they play. Anyway, fantastic. Okay. It's called Chuck Chuck Baby. And hopefully it'll be at a cinema near you. We're going to talk twisters after this.

An email from Jacob in Camden Town. Dear Effing and Jeffing, I listened with intrigue and delight last week as Alex from Bristol revealed that you too have ruined Birdsong for those in the West Country. This is because there was a cafe or something. It was Birdsong Antiques. Birdsong Antiques. Birdsong Arts and Crafts. That's right.

And he now thinks of it as Effing and Jeffing Arts and Crafts. That's right. And he now thinks of it as F'ing Arts and Crafts. Here is a clipping from the village newsletter in my parents' home village of Walberswijk in Suffolk. And it's just, I'll just show you, this is a classic kind of, like a village newsletter, which you probably have down your way. Anyways, just advertising the fact that the annual Wolberswick Birdsong Walk is going to be held. Commencing at half past five in the morning, a meeting at the Old Hoist Covert Car Park and then having breakfast at the anchor, which is a fantastic pub. It is a fantastic pub. Even though I don't want to get up at half past five just to have a birdsong walk. Can you imagine?

Where are you going? I'm going on a birdsong walk. An FN and Jeff in walk at half past five in the morning just so that I can have breakfast at the anchor. Actually, I could just get up a bit later and go straight to the anchor. Anyway, Jacob, thank you very much indeed. Birdsong, we have spoiled that. I can only apologize.

I remember we talked about Twister a long time ago and as soon as anyone mentions Twister, I see that scene in front of my eyes with the cow spinning around over and over and then flying off thinking, this is great, this is great fun. When I saw Twister's, I was thinking, okay, well, I hope this is great fun as well. Let's find out. Okay, so the original Twister, fun, action, disaster hybrid from Yander Bond, who was the cinematographer on films like Die Hard and then directed Speed. So the plot of Twister, which was co-written by Michael Crichton, there are people who run toward tornadoes. Wow.

Okay. In this case, they run toward tornadoes in order to get a device called Dorothy inside the tornado so they can understand it and do something. But that's literally the setup. It was Twisty Fun, became the second highest grossing film of the year that came out. Did it need a sequel? No. There was a reboot in development 2020 with Joseph Giminski from the Top Gun franchise. Apparently, Helen Hunt wanted to write and direct a sequel. She wrote a script that she wanted to direct in which her character appears at the beginning would be killed off early on and would then tell a different story. Anyway, that didn't happen.

Now what we have is a standalone sequel from a story by Joseph Kaminsky and a script by Mark L. Smith who's worked with George Clooney on things like Boys in the Boat and directed by- And he's in the fall, wasn't he? That's right. Mark L. Smith, brother of Mark E. Smith. And directed by the guy who directed Minari. So a director with a track record of low key character development. Obviously, we'll be able to bring that to the twisty fun of this $200 million blockbuster. Does he bring that? No.

If Minari met twisters, the latter would literally just tear through the farm where they were planting that Korean titular plant and just throw everything out the window. Because here is the plot of twisters. The plot of Twister is there are people who run towards tornadoes. The plot of Twisters is there's a lot more people who run towards a lot more tornadoes. Okay. So literally the plot goes like this. Oh, oh, oh, there's a tornado. Let's run towards tornadoes. Run towards tornado. Oh no, it's scary. Scary, scary. Let's run away. Let's run away. Oh no, terrible things have happened. I must now run away from tornadoes. Now cut a few years later. Oh, I'm now living a long way away from tornadoes now. Oh, and there's a friend sitting, let's get back to tornadoes.

Is this an Eddie Izzard picture? Yeah, it is, essentially. Yeah. No, there's a lot of tornadoes, but there's a lot of people running towards them. Let's run towards those. No, no, no, no, it's scary, scary, run away. It's the same plan. So, Daisy Edgar Jones of Ordinary People, who you like very much, you interviewed her, I think, for, did you interview her for ordinary people? I didn't interview her for normal people. I didn't interview her for normal people. I interviewed her for that very handsome- Where the craw dads sing. Correct. That's the bunny. So she's Kate, who is a young tornado chaser who discovers that running towards tornadoes can be

very dangerous and bad things can happen. So traumatic events cause it to step away. And then a former friend and colleague played by Andy Ramos gets in touch and says he's got a new bit of machinery, which is basically the same thing as Dorothy, that they now go back and chase some more tornadoes to track the formation of a tornado. So she comes out every time. It goes back to Oklahoma, wherever, hoping to test a product that will stop tornadoes by causing them to precipitate or something. Anyway, when she gets there, Glenn Powell is there, who is this cowboy style tornado wrangler

with a YouTube channel who is clearly just in it for lulls and glory. Here's a clip. Oh, they're pulling apart. The one's gonna die out. Go faster. Woo! You ready? Let's get our data. He says, yeah, there's two of them. Is he gonna go left or is he gonna go right? We'll go left. He's gonna go right. Run towards the tornado. Oh no, no, we're in the tornado!

He's smashing everything up. Run away from the tornado! I quite like that. Oh no, yeah, but now, you know, now I've got to sit down and, you know, worry about the past and then, and then there's more tornadoes, run to more tornadoes. No, no, it's all terrible again. Run away, run away, run away. And then in the middle of this, there is, there is an undercooked sort of human story going on that is so undercooked that when it was resolved at the end, I didn't understand what was going on. There's literally a thing at the end. I was going, sorry, is there supposed to be chemistry

between those two people? I hadn't even noticed. Here's the thing, right? I saw this in IMAX, right? And I have to tell you, the audience loved it. People were applauding, people were cheering, people were whooping. Robbie Collin of this parish absolutely loved it, particularly loves a scene in which tornado, cinema, interface, blah, blah, blah, which I just thought, oh yes, I like gremlins more. But the audience really, really loved it. Also remember there was a Twister ride at Universal from whenever it was, 1998 to 2015, Twister ride it out. So the whole thing has always kind of been a bit of a theme park ride.

But what I don't understand is how can you do all this and literally have a script that could have been written on the back of a cigarette packet or like some kind of AI character generation software? There is so little chemistry between the central cast, as I said, that I was genuinely baffled when something that was meant to be a sort of broiling tense relationship. I had no idea. I mean, where are Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton when you need them?

This has been compared to Top Gun Maverick for the big screen event of the year. But look, for all its flying sequences, Top Gun Maverick had a plot I can remember and people I actually care about. In this, it's got Harry Haddon-Payton from Downton playing a posh British journo character who's a bit of a, you know, he's a bit of an arse and an utterly empty caricature. The director's previous work had this lovely score by Emil Mosseri. This has got this thunderous romping score that goes, big tornado, big tornado, big tornado. Like the title, it's huge and empty and it will suck in everything around

it. But at the center of it, there's just a big vacuum. I mean, look, I hope it's a hit and I'm sure it will be because from the response that I saw in the IMAX, people were going nuts. I mean, people were the response that I saw in the IMAX, people were going nuts. I mean, people were literally cheering and throwing popcorn in the air. And apparently Tom Cruise was at the screening I was at. I didn't even notice. But from where I was standing, it was literally just the same set piece over and over again. Tornado, run towards the tornado.

Oh no, it's turned the car over. No, that's bad. Being in the tornado is bad. Run away, run away, run away. And then, oh no, no. You can describe any disaster movie car over. No, that's bad. Being in a tornado is bad. Run away, run away, run away. And then, oh no, no. You can describe any disaster movie like that. No, you couldn't. No, absolutely not. Towering Inferno, the building is on fire. Fine, but there are seven different stories going on about people's relationships, including the thing

with Fred Astaire and the cat, which you're actually at least equally interested in as you are with the story of the Towering Inferno. The Poseidon adventure, all the stuff with, you know, I'm thin in the water, all the character development stuff about Gene Hackman and his religion and the fact that, you know, whether or not he's reigning against God. Even Earthquake, which is rubbish really, even Earthquake has got a surprising moment at the end when something you really didn't expect to happen happens. This is literally spectacle. Now, for me, the spectacle was, okay, fine, but special effects can do anything now. When they did the first twister, one of the things it was dependent on was whether or not they could actually generate something that looked like a tornado digitally. When they thought they could, they thought, okay, we better

write a plot around that. The plot is there are people who run toward tornadoes. Now, we know they can do that. The plot is there are more people running toward more tornadoes and the effect is just dissipated. As I said, I know I'm out of step. The audience in the screening I was in loved it. I was bored and I

just wish that somebody has sat down and gone, the tornadoes, we can do that. Could we actually write characters that anyone cares about or believes in? Maybe spectacle is enough, you know? Maybe they were applauding on a whooping because of spectacle. Well, I mean, you know, look, yes, maybe spectacle is enough. It isn't though, is it?

It just isn't. I mean, you know, it just isn't. When you've seen it, correspondence at KevinOBoe.com. That's the end of take one. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. This week's team was Lily, Gully, Vicky, Zaki, Matti and Bethy. The producer was Jem, the redactor was Simon Poole. Mark, your film of the week is Twisters. Clearly, chuck chuck, baby. Thank you very much indeed for downloading. Don't forget, Take Two has landed adjacent for the elite, for the subscribers, for the premium listeners. Subscribe today. Get all the glories of Take Two dropping into your inbox. Thank you for listening.