Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Neill Blomkamp, Gran Turismo, Haunted Mansion & Meg 2: The Trench

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

With Simon still chugging along on the UK’s glorious waterways, beloved actor and Take fave Sanjeev Bhaskar steps in to chat nonsense – ahem, review films - with Mark. Sanjeev speaks with director Neill Blomkamp about his new stranger-than-fiction biographical sports drama ‘Gran Turismo’, covering everything from Blomkamp’s motivations for making the film to the challenges of shooting in a moving race car - or as the directors puts it, a “motion sickness, nausea machine”. Mark offers his thoughts on Blomkamp’s new film, which sees a young man win an opportunity to become a real racing driver because of his prowess playing the Gran Turismo video game. He also reviews ‘Haunted Mansion’, a star-studded remake of the Eddie Murphy-helmed 2003 supernatural comedy of the same name, which sees Rosario Dawson and Lakeith Stanfield take the spooky baton; and ‘Meg 2: The Trench’, indie director Ben Wheatley’s stab at a sequel for the arguably soon-to-be-cult-classic prehistoric shark franchise. Time Codes (relevant only for the Vanguard - who are ad-free!): 14:13 Haunted Mansion Review 23:38 Box Office top 10 41:13 Neill Blomkamp Interview 55:57 Gran Turismo Review 01:01:03 Laughter lift 01:03:53 Meg 2: The Trench Review 01:14:02 What’s On 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

Hi, esteemed podcast listeners, Simon Mayer. A Mark Kermot here. I'm excited to let you know that the new season of the Crown and the Crown, the official podcast, returns on 16th of November to accompany the sixth and final season of the Netflix epic Royal Drama Series. Very exciting, especially because Superstar and friend of the show Edith Bowman hosts this one.

Indeed, Edith will take you behind the scenes. You can also catch up with the story so far by searching the Crown, the official podcast, wherever you behind the scenes. You can also catch up with the story so far by searching the Crown, the official podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe now and get the new series of The Crown, the official podcast first on November the 16th. Well, hurrah, it's me. Do I have to do that now?

Do I have to do it? Because I have a go, Harah! Sanjeev, I don't think there's any, I mean, do you feel it? Well, I do, I feel it, but it's the rule now. Has anyone done it? Has anyone gone? Harah, Sanjeev. I got a Harah on social media after that particular show.

Okay, but not in person. Not in person. I think, well, Mira, the good lady actor writer, producer, her indoors. Good lady, BAFTA fellow. Yeah, BAFTA fellow, sorry, we got straight to that. Doors.

She wanted to write in after that was mentioned on this show to say, look, do I have to do it? Because I see him every day. Yes. And that would get tasked. I think it would be funny though, because repetition is a form of comedy. Repetition is a form of comedy. It is indeed. Thank you. That's hilarious.

You know, like you were saying the other day that if you're in the presence of Mel Brooks, you feel duty bound to make Mel Brooks last. I did. Yeah. The one time I met. So now this is it. So I've now I've made you. You've done it. I've done it. I did. Yeah, the one time I met. So now this is a time now I've made you. You've done it. I've done it. I wish I'd made it. Go for it. For those of you who are still wondering what the heck I'm on about, this is Sandjef

Baskart and Hello and I'm sitting in for Simon. So I'm sort of, I'm a sub, but also I'm sub-simon. I'm a bit less than Simon. I think you're Simon adjacent. Am I? Yes. That's Engie's I. I don't know.

I don't think I like that. I think he wants me to be slightly sub. Okay. I'm a bit slightly sub-simon. Okay. Well, I'm not, I'm not buying it. And the part of the reason I'm not buying it is because you're here today.

So usually if this was Simon, I would have gone to stay at Simon's house last night and you were very gracious and you said, oh well, look, if you haven't got anywhere to stay other than the travel lodge, the premier in hub incidentally, never is the word hub, being more it's the word is doing a lot of lifting in that sentence.

So I came to your house. You did, well, you know, we did. Oh, wow. Well, we figured that you'd got used to show business in North London. And so why change that for you? Because that might just completely throw you. It's just, because the whole way too much of,

because what are you usually, with Simon, I just said, because I wanna get under his feet because I'm there, so I turn up at 9.30 and I have a thing. And you said, no, come early. You made food, There was food. Did your family was there? Was lovely. You showed me the Thunderbird puppet of you.

I, yes. Which was next to the good lady, BAFTA winner, Herendor Seas Award. Yeah. Well, wait, can I have to say the Thunderbird puppet was more of a press. Brilliant. I'm gonna add that as a note and stick it

to my Thunderbird puppet's head. I get back. Just in case anyone doesn't know this, you were a Thunderbird puppet. Yeah, so what happened was that there were some audio recordings in the form of an LP, a disc vinyl that was kind of released in around 1965 or 66 of Thunderbirds, the Thunderbird show. So they had these audio adventures. And so these guys who were kind of passionate about the show thought, wouldn't it be great if we just made the puppets and did the visuals for those shows? And so they said to me, look, one of the characters is an agent in India in the Himalayas. And they said, look, it's voiced by someone from that time. I hope you're not offended.

And I said, no, I'm not offended because it's of that time. And that's kind of funny. And they said, but we have this tradition of making puppets with, you know, someone's likeness, you know, someone's real person's likeness. And can we base this on you? And I went, I could not be more delighted.

So the character of my likeness is called Gallopedin. Gallopedin. Gallopedin. Gallopedin. Gallopedin. Gallopedin. Himalayan agent. But the lady penalty goes to me. And so the weird thing was kind of when they finished it was seeing my likeness on there.

But with a voice from 1965 of a very, very British actor doing an Indian accent. So my son, who was quite young at the time, he just looked and went, that is the weirdest thing ever. Because the voice goes like this, and he goes up and, oh, because this is how people thought that people are from the Asia, used to speak. And so it was, yeah, but it was such an honor. And then they gave me the pump it as a prize. And it's in a glass box. It is.

It's presentation box. It's just, it is magnificent. And it's head is hanging slightly, slightly as I like it's going to play with me. Well, well, now you've said that, that's going to scare me. I thought it was kind of cocked to one side in the slightly empathetic. Oh, okay, it's okay. But now you've said that, it's going to go all chucky. Yeah, I'm going to find the empty.

It's like magic. It is definitely. Yeah, I'm going to go back and it'll be empty and some of our kitchen knives will be missing. And then that'll be it. Then I'll be barricading myself in a door, killed by your own Thunderbird puppet. Yeah, exactly. That is a turn on the unexpective.

Strung up. But also shit. I was going to say, man, I drank us back to the script, but why bother? Well, there's a script. Aren't we following it now? But also I have to say, but you were very welcome and you were lovely. It was lovely last night. But also, it was slightly kind of through me that you were discovered outside our house by the good lady, BAFTA fellow, sitting on a bench.

All right, she brought you in like a kind of, you know, the drag-old cat. I want to be clear about this, okay? If I say to somebody, I will arrive at your house at seven o'clock. I will arrive at your house at seven o'clock. Okay, so when I go to Simon's house, I say 9.30 because, you know, I arrived there at 9.30. I hadn't been to your house before, so I did the tube and then I did the walk, and the walk was slightly shorter than you said, it's about 10 minutes, seven and a half. So I got to your house and it was two and a half minutes to go

or something like that, maybe a little bit longer. So there was a bench, so I sat on the bench thinking, I'll just wait because I don't want to ring on a doorbell before because it's rude to turn up early. I turn up when I, and then suddenly, I had a tap on the shoulder, went, Mark and I looked at it and I, because the sun was like, I couldn't quite see who it was, it was weird.

And she went, why are you sitting on a bench outside our house? I mean, it was also a bench in full view of our house. Yes, but I, I mean, you open the door and we see Mark her mode sitting on a bench. So how'd you see me from in the house? I hadn't. But she had.

Yeah, I was too busy trying to prepare it to stand it. We got the Thunderbird puppets head in the right shape. Yeah, anyway, then I tried to explain it and then I made a pig zero of explaining it. And then we came in and she went, Sandra, I just found Mark on a bench. And that was the beginning of a wonderful evening. It was.

Well, that was again, you were most welcome and you will be again, but next time, don't sit on the bench. I mean, if you're going to sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the

bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the

sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the bench, sit on the the bench, sit on the bench, for me. So I'm very excited to be here on the take, sitting in for Simon, and especially with you Mark, especially with you. So let's run through what we're gonna do today. So in take one day, we are covering. Well, Gran Turismo with our special guest, Neil Blancam, who you have interviewed. I indeed I did, over Zoom.

Haunted Mansion and the Meg II, which came out last week, I was off last week, is currently number one in the worldwide box office ahead of Barbie. Which is quite something. Also given that it had almost celebratedly low Rotten Tomato School. Yeah, well, it just, well, firstly, Rotten Tomatoes. Yabo sucks. Yeah, and also, you know, Anton Betel, you know, well, I will review the film in full,

you know, because I started a little while ago, I have a slightly different view to most critics and it turns out that the worldwide box office seems to be... We'll look forward to that. And in in take two I will have bonus reviews which will include limit ceter catac the brave beluga and puffing rock and the new friends those two are kind of like a very nice double bill because they're both animated features indeed they are think there is something else is well we'll have one frame back which is inspired this week by grand tourism I would be looking at films about video game competitions.

Mark returns to pretentious. Moire. Mark, did you know, and I got both of hers over the last two weeks? I didn't. OK, but you don't know. Yeah, but I've been doing it longer. And so obviously, I've, you know, got more wrong that they're, you know, yeah, I don't like this feature.

That sounded confident. And you can support us via Apple Podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit related devices. And we also have a take three. And in this week's take three, we are talking about enter the dragon 4K restoration 50th anniversary. Plus we're looking back at, yeah, so I should just say this at the beginning of the show. So, as you may well know, William Friedkin, who is one of my favorite film makes of all time, who made what I consider to be the greatest movie ever made. The exorcist died this week. It's very sad news. I knew Billy for several decades and had many interactions with him

over the years. And I think he had an extraordinary career, I mean, not just French connection and exorcist, but Sorcerer with you and I have talked about, we'll talk about again, a bug which I think is absolutely brilliant. I mean, he's just an extraordinary body of work and also just somebody whose company I enjoyed enormously. I will miss Billy terribly. and we're going to be

celebrating his life and work in take three. So if you get a chance to listen to that. Excellent. And so now, Mark, just diverting for a second. Yes. Are you looking forward to your curated weekend of movies for the rooftop film? It's funny you should bring the ups and ginsengus. I'm very much looking forward to my curated weekend. So this is the rooftop film club. It's the Peckinham site, which is the Bussey building on Saturday, the 19th, which is this Saturday and Sunday, the 20th. So that's not this Saturday, it's a week away, 19th, 20th.

Still I've tickets for available for Saturdays, day of sci-fi films. Triple build that you would love back to the future. A rival, which the good lady, BAFTA winner, her's a triple bill that you would love back to the future, a rival, which the good lady, BAFTA winner, her indoors said is one of her favorite sci-fi films. And into Stella, which last night I said to you, what's your favorite Chris Nolan film? And you said that's the one that you'd go back to. That's the one I'd go back to immediately. And then Sunday's romcom day, very special for you, Notting Hill.

My film debut. Your film debut. The third Angry Man in restaurant. Excellent. You've got my Alan Went Harry Met Sally, and again, we were having a conversation about whether or not when Harry Met Sally is one of the most perfectly constructed comedy scripts, Nora Efron's,

just the structure of it is extraordinary. There are special exclusive intros by me and Simon. We recorded them here. It's basically us just talking a bunch of waffle before the film. Roof Top Film Club has comfy deck chairs, iconic London views and irresistible food and drink. The bar is marvelous. For tickets, go to kermadomeo.com. That's kermadomeo.com to get your tickets now. Also, we've teamed up with, I'll just read this bit out. Also, kermadomeo's takers teamed up with Roof Club Film Club,, Roof Top, Film Club, to offer listeners two-for-one tickets across their London sites on Wednesdays

throughout their summer program. Just use the code, The Take, at checkout, to redeem the offer. I think I did that adequately. It was beautifully done. Beautifully done. I can't imagine it being done better, actually, other than by someone else.

Now, I'm just, was that your bit? No, I'm sorry, I just, sorry, it's just beautifully done. It's in a break from tradition. I was actually reading the script. I would take the compliments, whether they were suggested or not. Okay. The emails, greetings, top production team and super subs. Just wanted to drop a quick line to praise Anna Rihanna for keeping the ship steady. Well, my Mark and Simon are off, galavanting. Inspired by Anna and the fact that Greta Goig is awesome, I ordered my

Greta Goig Barbie shirt from Girls on Topse. Received it today, smashing. I love it. I'm a member at my local cineplex and tend to see at least two films a week. A good, so impressive film. One this week was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Anna please note the order, which I found far more enjoyable than I was expecting. Great voice acting, ice cube. Exxon soundtrack, a trifle quest, delusual, great animation, and a reasonably snappy script. Film 2 was talked to me. I'm not typically a horror fan, I tend to find them samey and not very interesting.

However I found this to be a fairly original take on the genre with a pleasingly twisted sensibility, decent acting, good practical effects, and despite some jumps in plot logic, I felt it rattled along at a good pace and held my interest. Next week will be the Meg 2, almost certainly rubbish, despite then weekly, and joyride. I've seen the trailer which did not enamel me, so I'm pretty uneasy about this one. As a PS, I recently watched Hyjak on Apple TV, which is properly rubbish, some awful acting, terrible scripts, and bewildering behaviour behaving from most of the characters, for shame Mr. Elba. BPS, I lived near the canal in Laten Buzzard, so we'll wave and hollown Malken Simon's boat passes. Up we've got a goig and down with anyone who seeks to drain joy from the world, That's from Kevin and he's included a picture of himself

in the said t-shirt. Well done for using the phrase properly rubbish. Which is, what was the other thing reasonably adequate script? Was it, it was not reasonably reasonably, I'd be wondering behaving. Be wondering, but be wondering behaving. Very good. For most of the characters, there we go. So you have seen Haunted Mansion Mark. Yeah, Haunted Mansion comedy horror

based on Disneyland theme park ride, rebooting the, was it 2003 version with Eddie Murphy? This is part of Disney's ongoing project to turn all their theme park rides into films. So I mean, parts of the Caribbean, obviously the big success jungle cruise is actually color, rather light. So this is directed by Justin Simeon,

who made dear white people from a script by Kate Dippel, who went from writing parks and recreation to writing the much maligned Ghostbusters reboot, which I thought was better than a lot of people gave it credit for. And there is a lot of Ghostbusters in this visually, along with, remember that, there's a bit middle of film,

Hocus Pocus. How did you play the witch? Yeah, that's right, a little bit of that. So, the Keith Stamfield, who Simon interviewed for Judas and the Black Messiah, is astrophysicist turned paranormal to a guy Ben. He lost his wife, he now carries on her spirit photography. Rosario Dawson is recently

with a New York doctor, Gabby, who moves with her son into the titular mansion in New Orleans, where I mean, the title is haunted by their spirit. Owen Wilson is father Kent, who is the priest exorcist with the backstory. He persuades Ben to come and try and photograph the hauntings in the mansion, only for them all to become trapped in there, like the rest of the Antiphany had issues, Harriet, Jamie Lee Curtis is maddenly otter for whose ghosts they end up, I mean, everyone's in it. Here's a clip. And let me tell you, it will fight back. Ghosts like to fight. For example, 1813, a group of mediums went into the house,

just a little north of here. It's a 21 days. They worked their butts off and they got that deceased owner out of there. But they were all found... How old are you? Nine. Okay, I'm talking organs on the outside. Nine is young.

It's not that young, girl. I was driving by nine. Look, I know that might have been an extreme example. on that outside. Yeah, it is young. It's not that young girl. I was driving by nine. Look, I know that might have been an extreme example. Yes. That they were a group of amateurs. I am a professional. Okay.

I'm bona fide and qualified, certified. And I can get rid of what died. So, that's kind of the tone of it. So, loads and loads of people in it. We also have Danny DeVito, who I always think is, you know, a great, great, great, great, great value. A bunch of other people. Anyway, so, oh, and Jared Lito as the hat box ghost, no, no, no, no, no, no, I think he's

still, I think he's, it's kind of, I'm not quite sure what accent is, anyway, apparently, so originally, Guillermo del Toro was doing a version of this. This is his way, way back, I think it was 2010 and Guillermo del Toro was doing a version of this. This is his way, way back, I think it was 2010. And Guillermo del Toro was talking about the hat box ghost and how much he was kind of, that was a central character. And then he said that his film was going to be scary, but fun, but the scary will be scary. And then it was decided that he moved away from directing

and then his script was too scary. So they started again, too scary, family audiences. Now what we have is a film which cost a huge amount of money. The problem with it is it isn't scary, fine, but it isn't particularly funny either. There is a lot going on, there's a lot of stuff, but there is nothing going on. There is lots of, you know, lots of sort of visuals

and stuff flying and kind of sub-timbered bits that remind you how much you preferred beetle juice, but precious little involvement. And there are a couple of scenes because they're a good performer, isn't it? I mean, there's a scene in which the Keith Stanfield talks about grief. And there's a moment when Danny DeVito does his wisecracking thing. In fact, Danny DeVito wisecracking is, I miss why I love Matilda. I think Danny DeVito is a really, really funny screaming. But these are individual bits in what is essentially

a smogous board of stuff. I confess, I found it surprisingly dull, when you consider how much is going on and how much talent there is on screen, you go, okay, fine, this is what happens when you try to adapt to theme park ride. You've got that bit and you've got that bit and you've got that bit and you've got that bit over there

and you go, okay, now make a story out of that. Oh, it doesn't. I mean, they're aiming for a Disney family or a Disney family audience thing. But what Guillermo is right about is that those things only work if there is a free song of horror and a free song and comedy has to be funny. You take an example, Evil Dead, right, which is a horror movie, is really scary and really funny and it's very, very surprising. There are other things, I mean, there are elements of movies like, Raiders of the Lost Star that are really kind of, oh, you know, that really alone. There's nothing in this that makes you shiver and there's very, very little in it that

makes you laugh out loud. What there is is a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff, a lot of quite expensive stuff, and some actors that we all admire going, okay, well, it'll pay the bills, and considering the talent behind it, I just surprisingly dull. Well, that was haunted mansion, and still to come, Mark.

Oh, still to come. We're going to be talking to the director of Gran Turismo, who is Neil Blancamp. And we will also be reviewing Lutz Backto's beginning of the script. Help me out. The Meg. Oh, the Meg too. Sorry. The Meg to the trench. No, no, not Le. Még du, the trench. Or as one could make du. We'll be back after this short break. MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC Happy Nord Christmas. Protect yourself while Christmas shopping online and access all the Christmas films from around the globe. Plus, when you shop online, you'll have to give websites your card details and other sensitive data like your personal addresses. Those websites should already have their own

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the link is in the podcast episode description box. Hi, esteemed podcast listeners, Simon Mayo. I'm Mark Kermot here. I'm excited to let you know that the new season of the Crown and the Crown, the official podcast, returns on 16th of November to accompany the sixth and final season of the Netflix epic Royal Drama series.

Very exciting, especially because SuperSub and Friend of the Show Edith Bowman hosts this one. Indeed, Edith will take you behind the scenes, dive into conversation with the talented cast and crew from writer and creator Peter Morgan to the crown's Queen Elizabeth, Emelda Staunton. Other guests on the new series include the Crown's research team, the directors, executive producers Suzanne Mackie and specialists such as Voice Coach William Connaker and props master Owen Harrison.

Cast members including Jonathan Price, Selim Dor, Khalid Abdullah, Dominic West and Elizabeth Tabicki. You can also catch up with the story so far by searching The Crown, the official podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe now and get the new series of The Crown, the official podcast, first you get your podcast. Subscribe now and get the new series of the crown, the official podcast, first on November 16th. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Harrah, it's us.

Harrah, Sanjeev. I think it's us. I like the Harrah, it's us. No, you have to have your own thing, though. Maybe I should be a... Maybe it should be a... It's Sanjeev. Harrah, it's us. I feel more comfortable with that. You know, you have to have your own thing though. Maybe I should be a, maybe it should be a, it's Sanjeev. All right, it's us.

I feel more comfortable with that. Anyway, we have more emails. By the way, if you do want to send emails any future point, it's Correspondents at kermode and mayo.com. I am assured that you can spell the word any way you like, because we bought all the domains. Did you? Because we figured that none of us could spell,

but there was a whole discussion about Simon Goe, how do you spell correspondence? So pull the great redacted, just figure out all versions of it and just... It's something slightly unnerving about someone saying we bought all the domains. It's like everything. We own everything. Kind of like Marvel villain. This is an email which is...

On the subject of which? Well done. No, I mean, you're not a vet, but you turn up in a... You a, you're in that you are one of the best things in the flash. Well, thank you very stick you stole the sea. Is that isn't being utterly damned with faint praise? I don't know what he is. Listen, you're in it. I was there. You're in there. I was there. I was there. Back to emails. this one is from Eve and Eve says, dear Pinc and Blue, it's pretty tough being trans in the UK at the moment and often makes it difficult

to celebrate how far I have come. Having recently watched Nimonah, however, it gave such a reaffirming feeling and made me cry, jumped for joy and everything in between. With the source material being created by a trans artist and having so many allegories for how trans people are treated, it hit close to home, but celebrated it in such an unapologetic way that was just so joyful to watch. It was amazing. Very good. Also, I have, unfortunately, not watched Barbie yet, but seen clips of Harry Neff just joyfully existing in the world of other

Barbies is an amazing feeling and shows such a positive trajectory towards positive trans representation that provides so much hope and joy to the community. I hope things change for the better and thank you for the entertainment. Up with LGBTQ plus community and down with TERFs, Eve. Very good, thank you for the email. I'm thrilled that you're like in the moment and I've now seen Barbie twice

because when I was off, there was the moment I said, Dad, we're going to see Barbie. He was like, yeah. And we, and actually we saw it in the New Lynn film house, which is lovely. And half the audience was dressed in pink. And I thought, I was going to ask you, did you, they were a fantastically code compliant, dressed in pink, when the film started really fabulously well behaved. And did you, you know, there's a kind of website where you can sort of, you basically input a picture and they'll send you a picture back of yourself.

Yeah, my kids did it. Barbie or Ken. Yeah, what was yours like? It just weird. I didn't, it looked like neither Ken nor me. It just looked like some horrible, okay, when we next take a break I'll show you mine. Okay, I want you to tell me who you think it looks like. It's good as the Thunderbird perfect. It's, well, I'll show you mine. Okay. I want you to tell me who you think it looks like. It's good as the thunder of a puppet.

It's a, well, I'll leave that to you. Okay. To decide. Okay, so we have top 10 and we have streamers coming up. So last week streamers, heart stoppers series two, this is me, is this ip or one p, can't be one p, me ip on YouTube. Just finished watching season two

and I absolutely love it. We'll have to watch both seasons again now. I wish there was season three right now instead of waiting a year for it. I love how it represents everyone in the queer community. And it's so rare for by people to be represented this well. You hurt my feelings. This is at why ballerine, why 88 on YouTube? I'm glad you got to do this.

You know what? It's kind of, I mean, I'm just assuming that's the name. I just said I'd love to see some one of Hot Stoppers haven't seen season two about season one, it's very charming. Excellent. This, you have my feelings, given the recent celebration of Greta Goig

as a female writer, director. Now, you might have to help me with this. Like a whole lot of center. That's it, with her work across film and TV seems quite underrated. So we're onto the box office, top 10. This week UK number 10, US number 9, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I'm kind of surprised by how Sniffy many of the reviews were. I mean, it's, it is what it is. A lot of people got off their

bike about, well, you know, it's so old-fashioned. So it's Indiana Jones. It has a lot of Toby Jones and it has Toby Jones fighting on a train. I actually didn't think the de-aging stuff was bad. Simon didn't, it wasn't, you know, but it's, I thought it was pretty good. It's fine. I thought it was pretty good. I think the only thing that I didn't be smart with it. Yeah, we see, I think the Indiana Jones films that were best are one and three. And in both occasions, they were sort of religious relics that had some sort of power. Once you kind of drift away from that and you can time travel, I think it's not an Indiana Jones film anymore. Is it three, is last crusade right? Yes, but that's my favourite.

Yes, which is lovely because of the relationship between them. And it's funny and the action sequence is good. And I like James Mangold as a director. Yeah, me too. Yeah, everything from Copland to Logan Heffy, of course, which actually is a really great film. Terrific, terrific director. But I think that Spielberg films in their action

have a certain kind of wit. And there was a certain wit in the action that was missing in this. They were all very clever. But there was just a lack of wit. And there was a certain wit in the action that was missing in this. They were all very clever, but there was just a lack of wit in it. Well, it also didn't help that it opened back to back with Mission Impossible in which you go, yeah, no, there, that's,

we were like, exciting action sequence on a train. It's that one. I have to say, you know, the combination of kind of Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible, you know, you have leading actors whose combined age is about 140. And they both managed to combine to make me feel inadequate. Yes, that is what they're there for. Oh, if Tom Cruise isn't there to make everyone feel inadequate, I don't know why he's there for. Excellent. At UK number nine, US number eight

is talk to me, which I think is really interesting. The thing I like about it is that it takes a sort of a bunch of ideas that you've seen done before. I mean, it's kind of on one level, like evil day for the snapchat generation, but it's got them, it sets out its parameters quite clearly, which is, you know, that basically kids are using demonic possession as a way to get high. And it's a lot of it is about addiction and a lot of it is, you know, it has a kind of real world grounding, but it's a fantastical story. And it's just very, very efficiently played.

So the, it's not loud, you know, quite, quite loud jump scares, although there are a few jumps in it, but it's, it's intelligent because it's about something, but the mechanics of the horror are done very well. So I think, you know, what it's really about it's about something, but the mechanics of the horror are done very well. So I think what it's really about is how difficult it is to be an adolescent, how difficult it is to find your identity in the world and the issues of addiction, but it's telling that story through a teenage party trick, which is that you hold this mummified hand and you become possessed by a spirit, but only for 90 seconds unless you don't let go of the

hand. You're like, okay, that's a, unless you don't let go of the hand. You're like, okay, that's a really smart idea. And they do it really well. At number eight in the UK, not charted in the US, is Rocky or Rani Gibrem-Gahani. Now, this is Hindi language, rom-com, family drama. I haven't seen it because I've been off for the last two weeks. I don't think it was press-screened anyway,

because most of those movies don't tend to get press-screens in advance. So if anyone has seen it, please let us know. Please let us know. The translation for that. Since I'm here, I can do this. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Is Rocky and Rani's love story. Very good. That's what it means. Do you speak fluent? Are you fluent in Hindi? Yeah. Yes. I can read and write.

Oh, well. And penchant. How many languages do you speak? I can read and write. How many languages do you speak? I can speak English. Does that count? I can do different accents. Do they count the language? Hindi Punjabi, a little bit of French,

which I've been learning from an app for the past year. And a little bit of German that I remember from my school. And then just click on. And it's kind of a whole bunch that I remember from my school. Well. And then just click on. And it's kind of, and a whole bunch like I just made. I'm so, I speak one language. That's it. Which one? Excellent.

Shh. You can have a seven. Try the way you can. You can have a seven. You can have a seven. US not charted. It is joyride. Which I think is kind of fun.

A little bit, you know, a lot of vom, a lot of gross out, but some sort of sharp observations on identity. Yeah, perfectly fun. I have an email from Lee and this says, dear Joy and Joyful, just out in my local picture house in Shobu's North London of Joyride, what a glorious, raucous and very funny exhibition of friendship and narcotics. It all screamed through at a fine pace, even the stuff that didn't always work worked for the bigger picture. The observations and wit from the script of abiding friendship and growing up and comprehending a 90 to 99% white environment were easy to relate to. Even as in my case, a Korean British and Aussie male adoptee growing up in Essex in the early 80s. Right. Of the four or five other patrons, I couldn't help but notice, I blame Essex, I was the only

Asian in the house. It was the same for a packed house screening of Parasite too. Anyway, it probably says more about the fact that it was a Monday at one o'clock in Crouch End than any race relation study. Down with the shrill haters up with the relaxed presence and presentation evidenced by your friendship, love and lo-lo-ly. That's your and Simon's friendship. Oh, but could also be yours in mind. Well, that's nice.

At UK number six and US number 10 is elemental, which I think it was funny. I don't know whether you heard Simon's interview with the director, but it's very moving. Yes. And my view of the film has been irrevocably changed by hearing the director interviewed. So I no longer know whether I'm talking about the film or the interview. And I saw the film, I thought it's okay, I don't quite get the elements thing. And then I heard his interview with Simon. Suddenly, it was like, oh, actually, this seems much more profound to me now. So it was a perfect case of an interview actually made the film better for me.

So you can number five, US number seven, mentioned impossible, dead reckoning, part one. How'd you hat? I would have, yeah. I would have, you know what I had, I told you I had a new, any Malcolm, I think was one of the elices or something asked whether they could have that framed.

I have kept that notebook. It's just, it's so exciting. And I know the plot doesn't make any sense. It doesn't matter. It is so exciting. It's the kind of movie in which you can put a face mask on and suddenly the eyes match up and the teeth match up and your height changes and everything.

But everything, it's fine. It's much, but the action sequences are just, you know, it's buster-key in level of wow, isn't it? It's just... Yeah, I mean, I really, really enjoyed it. And it is a thrill ride. But also, and Simon Pegs, a friend of mine, and I'm just really proud and pleased

of Simon's character's development from, you know, slightly comedy sidekick in his first appearance, now being a fully fledged member of the team. And he's still got, obviously, he's got great comic timing, and he's a good actor. And now he's kind of running around as well.

And you know that he said that when he was doing the stuff when Tom Cruise is in the parachutes, and he's talking to the other thing, the dialogue is actually Tom Cruise in the parachute. He said, because Tom insisted on that was, you know, way, way, way, way, way, it won't work otherwise. You know what I'm saying?

Okay, so you've got to drive the bike off the cliff again. Yeah, I know, you were doing it six times, I'm saying. Six times. The first time he thought you let go drive the bike off the cliff again. Yeah, I know you were doing it six times. Six times, I was the first time, first time you thought you'd let go of the bike a bit late. I know, it's not. Are you a little surprised that it has, perhaps, underperformed at the box office? Has it underperformed?

I think it has a bit. Really? Yeah, I think that the last, I mean, we haven't got the totals yet, but I think that the last two mission impossible did better, box office-wise. Really? Okay, well, I mean, we did have an email from somebody

who said that they were bored by it. Really? Yeah, no, I know. My reaction is the same. I mean, obviously, everybody's response is valid and, you know, whether or not because all responses are completely subjective. But I did think Tom Cruise threw himself off the side of a mountain on a bike six times

and the thing with the train at the end, there's the carriage and then there's the carriage and then there's the other carriage and then there's the other carriage. But what more does he need to do? Is Russell Crowley glad youier. Are you not entertained? He should have held onto that bike a little longer. Just a little longer. UK number four, US number four, is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I haven't seen this. I was often, I confess,

that I didn't rush to see. I will catch up with it. But the thing is worth, the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, did you know that when it came out, it was in 1990, was the most successful independent movie of all time? I did not know that. Yeah, isn't that interesting? Wow. Took a huge amount of me, cost nothing at all, but it wasn't independent. I was independent outside the studio system.

It was the most successful independent movie of all time. And that wasn't animation, wasn't it? No, no, that was live. It was like, I was in Robbersoot. Guys in Robbersoot. Yeah, there was that movie. all time. And that wasn't animation. Was it? No, no, that was not. It was in Robber's suit. Guys in Robber's suit. Yeah, that was that. It tells.

You can number three, US number two, the Meg two. So currently, according to just the screening to Ashletay, number one in the global box office ahead of Barbie, we will do a full review later on in the show, because it wasn't reviewed last week. I think I'm out of step with critics, but I think I'm in step with the audience. We have a correspondence on that. Oh, good, great it was just, it's fascinating to hear what people take from it.

The thing that everyone's agreed on is that Killian Murphy is astonishing. If he doesn't get Oscar nominee, well, I mean, I know the Oscars, Oscar Schroesker, but he deserves, because it's extraordinary. I think the most remarkable thing about the film is using the iMacs format to do close face stuff. Because when you think of iMacs, you think of landscapes,

you think of, you know, huge explosions, you think of, you know, all the spectacle. The most interesting thing about Oppenheimer is that they've turned the face and his face into a spectacle and there are very few people who could get away with that level of, I mean, his face is the size of a house. I have some reservations, but I still feel I've only seen it the once and it felt slightly cold to me, but that may be me. You've seen it, right? Yeah, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was incredibly absorbing. I mean, it's a three hour courtroom drama really with some bits kind of, yeah, I didn't. But I think

in customary style, I think Christopher Nolan does something different with that courtroom format in terms of time, in terms of action, in terms of sound, particularly, which I thought was brilliant. I did, and I did love it. I did enjoy it. I thought Robert Downey Jr. was brilliant in it as well. Always great to talk on Conti, because the last time I saw him was in Paddington, big attack and having his head shaved, hair shaved off by Paddington. But the two things I wanted to mention, well, I thought, I don't know if you think this, I thought there was unnecessary nudity. Yes, as I'm thinking about it, I'm trying to remember previous Cristóon and Saxaines and I can't. And I do think that the sequence

in which they're in the courtroom, she imagines, you know, the love of... Sorry, it's here. Yeah, you go, you go. I mean, I kind of know that already. I'm not sure that that's the way to do that. It seemed a little misplaced to me actually. And the other thing I just wanted to flag up, you raised something last night which I had never heard of which was. So this

was in the news when Oppenheimer was released in India, which is that there is a scene where Oppenheimer's famous quote, which is, I have become death, a destroyer of worlds, which is aligned from the Bhagavad Gita, which is a Hindu holy book. And in India, they were protests because the alteration of that phrase is used sort of mid-during a sex scene. Yeah, because she flourishes, she finds it in a book. Yes. And so where it stands in the film is that she finds it in a book. She says, oh look, there's a book. What's this? He says Sanskrit. She goes, you can read it, read that line. And he translates it to his famous quote. And initially, I just thought, I'm not,

sort of prudish about these things, but I thought, I had to film, you kind of like, juxtapose this that and the other. And when I saw the film, I thought, do you know what? I mean, I kind of get the complaint because to me, that famous quote is powerful because it was a reaction to seeing the bomb go off. In the film, it's done as well I'm learning Sanskrit and we as the audience are supposed to know that's his famous line that he says after the bomb went off. He doesn't say it then, it's not repeated

and it just sits at this moment of Nukki of kind of like intense Nukki And so it's kind of it felt for those listeners who weren't alive in the 1970s Nukki is sex Can be It's just a word that has fallen out of currency It's like I'm glad that you're bringing it back. I can't highlight the key. I mean, I mean, I'll put it out there. I'll put it out there. I'll put it out there. No, but it was a fascinating point because it had not even occurred to me. And then when you said it, I was surprised that it hadn't occurred to me.

It was like, I was suffering from a cultural blind spot that I didn't even notice it. No, well, it was kind of because I'd sort of read about the protests and stuff. But it would have struck me as an order anyway, because the nudity struck me as an order, because it didn't really kind of help or aid the story in any way, or the characters. You know, if that had been shot differently, I wouldn't have thought, well, what that needed was a nookie scene up in the high. It would have been great, four out of five, five if it had the nookie scene. And so, anyway, that's just that. There was a guy called Craig Hesoda who sometime ago wrote a book called The Bear Facts video

Guide where to find your favourite film actors naked on film. And it was literally just a list of like the title and it went 53 minutes left buttock. No, really? Literally. Literally. Did anyone buy that? I mean, it was a cultural thing. Really? Well, I'm... No, it was literally a previous century. I have a no nudity clause in all my contracts. Yeah, insisted upon by the filmmakers. It's not my day. Tell him to keep his clothes on. So, we'll have some, there's a couple of bits of correspondence about Oppenheim, which we'll get to in take two, but more importantly, at UK number one, US number one is Barbie.

Well, I reviewed it. I loved it. I've seen it twice. We have an email here, which says, Hi, Barbie and Hi, Barbie MTL FTE Grade Three Violet at the risk of contradicting myself. I wanted to add to the litany of comments that have been written about the Barbie movie. Yeah. I went to see it over the opening weekend,

and quite frankly, I loved it. Excellent. It was joyful. It was smart. the opening weekend, and quite frankly, I loved it. Excellent. It was joyful, it was smart, it was funny, and it was packed out. I left with a spring in my flat feet after seeing a blockbuster, and with a joke about a very female right of passage. What has left me really disappointed over the last few weeks

is the huge number of articles written about how Barbie is not feminist enough, or the lack of diversity of body shape within the KEN's in the film. Complaints that this movie is being held as a feminist masterpiece, but it's just a vehicle for capitalism, and maybe going isn't the progressives she claimed to be. Quite frankly, it boils my blood. This is the biggest box office success by an original film written and directed by a woman ever, and all we can do is criticise it for not being feminist enough. I'm reminded

of Glorious Rant in the movie of the inherent contradictions of trying to exist as a woman within the patriarchy. But somehow the writers of these articles didn't think about this, and how they were precisely playing into this trope that nothing we do is ever enough. You know what Barbie is? It's a wonderful joyful blockbuster movie, which by some miracle also gets to be feminist and full of jokes that would have been written off as not mainstream enough because they're about the female experience just a few years ago. Goig did films like Lady Bird and Little Women, which were thoughtful and dramatic films about the female experience, acted amazingly and brilliantly written and directed, and she did not get the recognition she deserved.

She is now written and directed one of the biggest box office successes of recent years, yet we still want to tear her down for not being feminist enough. I can't help but think of all the wonderful, fun and action-packed movies directed by men that were never subjected to this level of scrutiny. Christopher Nolan can write and direct lots of films of white men talking to other white men, and he is the visionary. Seriously, I want to go and live in Barbie land for all its flaws. Down with the patriarchy, up with women supporting women, Susie.

Susie, that is absolutely on the nail. Nail, hammer, hit, hit, whatever the thing is. I mean, I always remember the old analogy, you know, as somebody who's bleeding heart lefty, I am. Everybody always said, you know, the right don't have to fight the left, just let the left fight itself. And it is, it's like, yeah, for heaven's sake, it's a barbie movie that actually owes a debt to Todd Haynes' superstar, the Karen Carpenter story. That is wildly subversive, and it's really good fun. Well, while we go and play guitar at someone.

But that's always my favourite line in the film. Well, that's absolutely right. This episode is brought to you by Mooby, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema from around the globe. From my connect directors to emerging otters, there's always something new to discover, for example. Well, for example, the new Aki Karri's Mackey film Fallen Leaves, which won the jury prize at Can, that's in cinemas at the moment. And if you see that and think I want to know more about Aki Karri's Mackey, you can go to movie The Streaming Service and there is a retrospective of his films called

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Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware and stay safe. Welcome back to today's guest is the director of Gran Turismo, he's known for sci-fi films District 9, Elysium and Chappy, its director Neil Blonkamp. You'll hear my interview with him after this clip from the film. set, right? How many guys you go to before you went to me? I feel. Yeah, I feel. A lot. These kids, they're outsiders too. And that was a clip from Gran Turismo and I'm delighted to be joined by its director,

Neil Blancamp, Neil Welcome. Where do we find you? I'm in Barcelona right now at a race track, which is kind of awesome. I sort of wish I used this track in the movie, actually, to be honest. Well, the ones that you used in the movie are pretty awesome in themselves, actually. Neil, could you please just introduce us to the world of Gran Turismo and the extraordinary story of Jan Martebra. Well, so Columbia offered me this film and I had no idea how you could make a movie about grand terismo because I know it as basically as a racing simulator. I wouldn't even say it's a game. Like, it's a racing simulator. And I just didn't understand what the approach would be to make a film about this particular game. There's no narrative,

there's no characters. And then, then, I learned about you on Martin Berah, and I learned about GT Academy. And GT Academy was this idea that was a combination between Nissen and the Motorsports Division of Nissen, pairing up with Polyphony, which is a company that made Brent Rismot, the video game company that made Brent Rizmo. And basically, their plan was to find the world's best simulation races that played GT and see what would happen if they put them in real race cars on real racetracks and teach them how to drive an actual car. And there were a bunch of successful drivers, but Jan Marnberer was one of the drivers of this film

is based on because he went on to race in GT3 classification and he raced at Lamar, and he raced GT500 I think in Japan. So it's just an amazing story. It's like taking someone from their parents bedroom who's playing PlayStation at home, learning skills well enough to be put on a racetrack with professional racetrackers. I mean, it's like, it's very interesting.

Do you know what was interesting about that as well is that A. How young Jan was the fact that he beat, I think, 90,000 other people to get the gig. He'd only passed his driving test, I sure wasn't before he kind of embarked on all of this. And it's a premise that sounds like it was written for a Hollywood film. Yeah, I mean, that's one part of it, but the Hollywood film sort of three-act structure continues, and it's the movie in the way that it structured.

I think people will think that we embellished a lot of it and we did it. You know, it's like, this is this is actually how how it played out up until the point that the movie stops. And then obviously his life continued. And he's still a young man, isn't he? Yeah, he's 30. Yeah, I was just spring chicken. And now this film is obviously, you know obviously different from your previous films that involved a lot of science fiction elements and horror, I suppose. What was it that drew you to this film about gaming and racing? It was immediately interesting to me because, I mean, there were a bunch of different factors, but I think maybe there are of equal importance to me, but

Maybe there of equal importance to me, but I feel like the most important element that drew me in was the movies that I naturally make, that have left to my own devices are quite, at their core, they're kind of pessimistic. Like, I'm naturally a little bit more upbeat than I think people would assume I would be, given the subject matter that I'm interested in and how I have I think a kind of negative outlook on humanity.

But there's a mixture in the stuff that I've done before, which is sort of a combination of on a societal level quite bleak and on an individual or personal level quite optimistic or quite finding the good in humans, but on an individual level. And this movie was completely different because it felt like it actually was just a straight-up positive aspirational story. And I realized that there was no plan in future for me to ever make something that would make, you know, the 13-year-old version of me leave a theater feeling inspired the way that I did when I saw a rocky or something like that. And I just immediately decided that I wanted to make at least one film that did that.

And then, you know, I could happily return back to some ultra-vivalent dark pessimistic. So it was super, super clear to me that it wasviolent, dark, pessimistic. So it was super, super clear to me that it was like, no, I want to do exactly that. And then the other two elements was, one is I love cars. And then I also was sort of blown away by this concept of being interested in video games

and thinking about video games in fulfill adaptations, but never seeing something that was basically a biography mixed with a video game. I thought that was a super interesting way to make a film that was basically a video game title. And those three things, the things that I think made me want to make it. We can't just establish that it's a true life story and all the protagonists are still around. I was just wondering if there's a different kind of pressure on you as a director in doing that, because it's real people in real life as opposed to fictional characters that you can create. Like an authenticity that you get the story right. Yeah, I see. Yeah, I mean, in that regard, that pressure swirled entirely around Jan, because it was

so centric around him. It's like the other characters are much less important. It's his story. And I checked with him, I don't know about daily, but I would say almost daily, I would check with him in pre-production and also in production about elements like whether it's a larger story elements or even a smaller set decoration or art department question, you know, like anything that could add authenticity, I would check with him. I have to confess, I did play Gran Turismo. Can you play it? Now you've said it's not a game. I'm not sure what the right word for it. No, you definitely would play it. you've said it's not a game. I'm not sure what the right word for it. No, you definitely would play it.

I mean, it's just a weird, it's hard to quantify exactly what it is. Like if people don't know it, you know, it's like you're basically just driving cars very realistically, whatever that is. That's what you do. Yeah, I played the first two versions that came out and then a friend of mine had a steering wheel

and I couldn't afford one. And I'm to give up because it was kind of like well less more fun than me sitting in my bedroom with a little controller. But had you played the game before? Yeah, I had played it but I wasn't like an avid player. My video game interest is usually more in like first-person shooters or multiplayer shooters for whatever reason it's just like what I'm interested in, but I had definitely played Gran Turismo. And my brother is like a sim racing fanatic. So I also had this other level of exposure with him where, you know, it's been in my environment for a decade. I mean, after I saw the film, I drove home after the screening, and I've never been

more aware of seeing race lines on the roads around London. I mean, to remember, there's a 30-month-on-hour speed limit. That's hilarious. But you certainly captured the feeling and look of the game, actually as certainly as I remembered it. And I wondered how much of a challenge that was in terms of cinematography, particularly, to get those textures.

Yeah, the movie was pretty difficult to film, actually, because there was a lot of different technical elements that I wanted to include that all were very real world. The VFX elements, there were substantial amounts of VFX that were done and I'm super happy with the VFX work that we did, but the technical elements in the real world were quite hard to execute. Like even just the POV shot, like in Gran Turismo you have the grill and then you have the in the driver seat POV and then you have the shot behind the car

where you can see the whole vehicle and I want it all three of those in the movie so the grill is easy The whole car is a little bit more difficult because you need a super stable arm to hold the camera and then you've got a paint out This support so it looks like the car is just hovering in 3d space But interestingly the most difficult one is is the driver's POV. Like, it's super complicated because the camera's immense and you've got to bolt it in place of where the head of the driver would be. So all of a sudden, it's like you need a right-hand drive vehicle

for a left-hand driver peering vehicle where the stunt driver who's lying under the camera with his hands on the steering wheel, you know, and another driver driving the car. So it's like everything like that just adds up. But I tried to, I tried to basically make a real world version of what the game, what, what my perception of what the game felt like. And then also to use VFX to bring the sort of holographic projection of what I imagine the PlayStation computing into the real world. So you could see around the console that he's playing on,

like, how this is being computed inside the mind of the PlayStation, essentially, that it's like, the car is the correct size, and this track is eight kilometers long. So it's like, those elements are all really there, even when you're playing on a small PlayStation that's sitting next to you and you're using a TV, it's calculating it in real space. And that's a very interesting concept that you could like holographically project for the audience and let them see. I'd certainly captured that. It was the other thing that really struck me actually seeing

in cinema was the sound. Yeah, sound is extraordinary. I'm not just a super-super happy with the sound design in the full. I love all the sound designers did such good work. And that must have been was that a post production. Notions or what did you have that in mind when you were. It was it was 100% thought of like right off the bat like there was one sound engineer actually that. I brought on who mostly works in commercials and I had done a commercial with before who's kind of really well-known for putting together just insane vehicle sounds.

And then through the ultra professional feature film sound designers and mixers, we just basically ended up with this like triple A group of sound people that was like, I was just lucky to work with. We must mention Archie Medoque, who stars as Jan Mumbra, who put in such a believable performance. What was it about him specifically that you felt was right to the part? Well, I'd gotten to know Jan to some degree and you know what what you were referring to earlier about trying to make something that felt

Authentic to the story of his life particularly and Archie are she was right for a whole number of different reasons, but I initially did a zoom with him and Met him for the first time and I could just tell instantly that he was the right person for the movie. And then I met him in real life in London. And he encaps- Like, on one hand, he's just a very, very talented actor. And then on the other hand, he sort of, even though physically he's very different from Jan, his energy, like the charisma of him, is sort of in line with Jan.

Like, they're both very grounded. I just felt like he was right immediately. And then I ended up loving working with him. You know, it was like a very professional, very attentive actor who is just a great collaborator. He's also exceptionally tall. Yeah, it's crazy. It was about six and a half feet tall,

or something he looks. Yeah, yeah, he is exactly like six and a half feet, total something he looks. Yeah, yeah, he is exactly like Six and a half feet. And it was, it was actually physically troublesome like to get him into the car and make, you know, we had to. Well, that's what I was wondering, yeah. It was like, it was difficult. And he hated being in the car, absolutely hated it.

It's funny, like, you know, for someone who leads the movie, he has no interest in cars, no interest in racing and no interest in granteurismo, which basically tells you he's a good actor. Like those are the requirements, essentially. If he was into any of those, I would be concerned. Well, those are great notes when I go into my next audition for the next film I go up for. And how much of the driving did he and the other cast members do? I heard quite a lot.

Well, you know, it's none of them are driving in the sense that they're hitting like the accelerator or the brakes. But every single time you see him or any of the other actors in the cars, it is 100% real. I mean, there's like meaning, meaning that there's a stunt driver in a pod system that's either almost always on the roof, which frees up your entire internal cabin for whatever camera placement you want. The thing also to remember that's really insane is the driver is above him and he's having to have faith

in the driver, but the other thing is that firstly, he has the cameras in front of him. But we also put diffusion on the windshield and the windows to try to control the light. So he has no field of view, basically. You have all those G-forces within an enclosed environment and a seat of the car. So it's basically like a motion sickness nausea machine. That's absolutely terrifying. I mean, I've done lots of kind of car sequences when you've got the camera rig in front of you. And it's really disconcerting.

Yeah. And you know, on a low loader or something like that. Carving trail behind for those people who don't know. And that's really unnerving on its own. Yeah. But thank you Neil. I mean, whatever it is that you do next to quote from a grand to Rizmo, take that Kenny G anger and unleash it.

Oh, cool. Neil Blomkamp. Oh, well, very much appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. That was Neil Blomkamp.

The film was grand to Rizmo and here comes the review. So firstly, I'm not a gamer. And what I know about racing cars would not fill the back of a postage tab. So I didn't know any of this. I didn't know the story of young modern era at all. I went in thinking, it's a computer game movie, let's see what happens. I'm a fan of Neil Boncombe, I mean, I love District 9. I actually liked Lysium, which had a slightly harder time with the critics. And so the story itself is kind of rather extraordinary. And you said, you know, it's a bit of a left turn in terms of his previous period, but

there is still a central thing about alien world colliding. Is that on the one hand, you have the gamer community, and on the other hand, you have the racing community, the sim races and the real races, and somebody goes from this world into this world, which is not a million miles away from people come from outer space and arrive on Earth and find it to be a hostile and harsh place. So I think actually there is a tie up with the rest of Blancampe's back catalog,

and I think that thing about him saying, it was a chance to make a movie that would make the young version of me come out of the cinema feeling uplifted, which I think works well. Archie Madokui is really good in the central role, again, as I said, I didn't know the character beforehand. I'm slightly taking it back at the beginning to find out that his parents are played by Jim Hansu and Ginger Spice. But actually, weirdly enough,

I thought that very quickly, I got over that. It was very quickly, it was just like, okay, fine, well, that's, you know, a strange bit of casting initially, but then perfectly fine. The person who steals the show, of course, is David Harbour, who plays the trainer, who basically is doing Lou Gossett Jr. from an officer in general. You're all rubbish and none of you are going to get through and I'm going to give you all going to do by the end of the thing. And then, of course, he starts to rest because he's told by Orlando Bloom, Orlando Bloom, who is cast as this slime ball sort of motorsport wheeladilla. And it's an interesting bit of casting, but actually kind of, I think, oddly works quite well. He said, yeah, but the thing is, they're outsiders, and you're an outsider, because you're a racer,

and then you stepped away in you're an outsider. So at the center of it, is that relationship between the trainer and the drone, they discover that they have more income than you think. I think the stuff that works is that all the stuff when he's gaming, he makes it, he sort of imagines it as a real world thing. So when he's sitting there playing at his console, he imagines the car, it sort of virtually appears around him. But then when they get out on the racetrack, he imagines it as a game. So you get, I mean, we had a little bit of this in Tetris, which we talked about a little while ago,

that when he's on the racetrack, you get the visuals from the game, you know, first place, second place, goal achieved, all that stuff. And I actually thought that that blurring of the two worlds was well done. There are some drawbacks. The script, to say the script is on the nose,

is to understate the punch you in the nose, nature of the script. I mean, it is a script in which people do sort of say things out loud in a way that you think, okay, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have gone that way, but you know, since you are literally stating what we're seeing right now, right in front of it, there's way more text than sub. Yeah, it's all text. It's not, there is, there is no underlying message that somebody doesn't shout.

You get this at the back. Two worlds colliding. It's virtual, but it's, you know, that said, I thought the racing sequences were very exciting. I didn't know the story. I mean, somebody said, well, of course you know, I didn't know the story. And I did find some of those bits really, really tense.

And somebody who isn't a gamer, I was drawn into the story. And I did think, guys, it's true. He literally went from being a kid, playing a game at home in Cardiff, to doing Lamon, which is my dad took me to see the film of Lamon when I was a kid. And I was always in this a bit when, I think David Harvey gets one like, you know, Lamon, is it my dad took me to see the film of Lamon when I was a kid. And I was always in this a bit when I think David Harvey gets one like, you know, Lamon is it, it will test

your, it was almost like it will test your head, your mind and your brain. It was one of those. I enjoyed it more than I thought. I mean, I, there are things wrong with it, but nothing, nothing that made me not think that if I was a, you know, if I was a teenager watching that film, I'd be swept up in it. Come on, what did you think? No, I can't, I enjoyed the racing scenes very much. I completely agree with you actually. I think that, you know, I'm a sucker for parent-child relationships in films. And I thought the heart of this was a father song, one with his actual father, and then one with his surrogate father, neither of which stories

were developed as much as I would have liked. Although Jerry Halliwell does get to deliver the immortal line, these lentils, they're nice. I did wonder on set whether Jerry Halliwell had asked Neil Blancamp, or told Neil Blancamp, what she wanted, what she really, really wanted. I'll just leave that out. Here all week. I did.

Don't you go changing. Murph and the magic times. That's a great reference. Okay, cool. Well, that was Gran Turismo. We are now, I believe, looking at my script. It's time, Sange. It's time to take your career once and for all. I'm going to read this with one slight self-edit. Okay. I just like to read this up as star of stage, screen, and radio, funny man,eev Baskar leads us into...

Here's the script. It's the ads in a minute, Mark. But first, it's time once again to step into your... it says our... your laughter lift. Oh, blame me. Hey, Mark! Hey, Sanjeev. In light of your review of Upcoming Meg 2 this week, who's a shark's favourite Star Wars character? Who's a, I don't know, Sanj, who is a shark's favourite Star Wars character?

George your binks? Chewbacca. George your binks is funnier. Chewbacca doesn't, I mean, it's got a word, Chew in it. And also Chewbacca's name is literally a parlon. Yeah. Chewbacker doesn't I mean, it's got a word chew in it. And also Chewbacker's name is literally a part on Chewbacker. Yeah. Okay, but hey, let's move on. Let's very poor. Let's not be held back by that. And since we're also reviewing Gran Turismo, at least we just have. And since we've just reviewed Gran Turismo, you haven't checked this script. A bit of a test for you now. Who won the 1975 F1 World Championship?

I don't know, Sanj. Who won the 19... Yeah, you've got a specific thing to say. Oh, I've got a... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. I said, up again. Wait, no, hold on, I haven't got it.

I haven't given it a bit. Pate 14. Yeah, but look, they blanked my bits out. They've literally... Look, it's... Okay, I see it. Tell me what to say. I'll read it. I'll be okay Bit of a test for you now who won the 1975 Formula 1 World Championship louder

Who won? It's just okay Anyway, we've got one more great that sound you can hear is your career in free-fall. It's the hope, it's the hope. Okay, okay, okay, let's get it, get it. Anyway, I know you're missing Simon since he's left you, so I've just bought a race horse and named it Mayo. Mayo, Nays, sometimes.

By Grabfars Hammer. What are the savings? What are the savings? Anyway, we're still here, we've survived. What's still to come? I don't think anything is still to go to Meg 2. We'll be back after this, unless you're a vanguardista, in which case we'll be back after this. Or your sange's agent going, I don't want to work with you anymore. Your business has grown fast,

from opening your first location to planning an expansion in no time. And with your business platinum card from American Express, you can access spending power and payment flexibility to fuel your growth. Sarah, the contractor's here with the plans. American Express, don't do business without it. Terms and conditions apply if it is at mx.ca slash business platinum. Get holiday ready at Real Canadian Superstore.

Where you'll find more legendary ways to save than any other major grocer. Until December 13th, you'll get a free PC turkey when you spend $300 or more. That's right, free only at your Super Holiday store. Conditions apply to fly for details. I went back and now it's time for Meg-Duh. It's funny, whenever anybody ever does the Duh thing, because it was, was it naked, was it naked gun part Duh? I think that was where that all began.

No, I think it was naked gun two and a half. No, there is a naked gun two and a half, but that's the third one. No, no, no, no. It was hot shots. It was hot shot part Duh. Well done, that's right. And it was naked gun, then naked gun two and a half, then naked gun. This is the best one. 33 and a third. Fantastic. Just for the record. Yeah. I think was it number two that was the smell of fear? Yes. I think that's

right. But just for the record, that's it. Okay. So, Meg to the trench, which is the sequel to the Meg based on the series of Meg novels. This is based on the sequel of the very, very loosely. Incidentally, in the series of Meg Novels, they are Meg Primal Waters, Meg Hells Aquarium and the forthcoming Meg Purgatory. So there isn't a Meg Richardson. Very good, or indeed a Meg Ryan. No.

So this is, the big news is it was, it's directly by Ben Wheatley and I I'm a fan of Ben Wheatley's films and Ben Wheatley started his career with sort of viral comedies and then he graduated to low budget works like down terrace and kill list and sightseers and Phil in England. He did high rise which I thought was a really kind of ambitious adaptation of that free file which I loved and then the Netflix Rebecca remake most recently recently he made that eco-horror in the earth which they made during lockdown, which I thought was terrific. And when he said that, he said, what are you doing next? He said, I'm doing the Meg two. I'm sorry. He said, I'm doing Meg two with Jason State. Pardon me. And of course,

you know, it sort of actually makes sense when you know Ben Wheatley's sensibility. But so It sort of actually makes sense when you know Ben Wheatley's sensibility, but so, this opens 65 million years ago. There's a food chain, there's bugs, and then a bug's eaten by a bigger creature, and then a bug's eaten by a dinosaur, and then, so it's, it sets itself up as Jurassic Shark, okay? Boom, thank you, I was very proud of that joke.

So now, five years after the original Meg, AKA Jason Statham Shark Puncher. So Jonas, he's been fighting eco-crimes. He's helping to explore the Mariana trench while serving as a single parent who is daughter-me-ing, who would help from the uncle who is played by Eugene, who's a Chinese martial art star. They've been training a baby Meg

to respond to their commands, although Jason thinks you can't train a Meg. A Meg is just a Meg, you know, you can't see it, whatever you, it's, oh my god, it's megalodon. And it proves right, when the mech gets out into the, it goes to the trench and then other mechs are in the trench and they are protected by the thermal barrier, which stops them coming out of the trench. But there are people doing illegal mining in the trench and there's an explosion thingy, which breaks the thermal barrier and so mechs get out of the trench and there's an explosion thingy which breaks

the thermal barrier and so Meg's get out of the trench and there's a whole lot of kind of egg-arized borough stuff. So, Jules Verne, I mean, this is clearly made by somebody who grew up loving land at time, forgot 20,000 leagues under the sea. Mothra, of course, you know, Ben, he's a big fan of Mothra. And actually, in many ways, Meg to the trench is a sort of modern version of Mothra. It's also clearly made by somebody who, because he's kind of the same age as me. Do you remember action comics in the 1970s with Hook Joke, which we always get them taken off you

at school? You can't have that, it was disgraceful. And there are Thunderbirds gags in Meg as well. And I say this to somebody who has a Thunderbird puppet of themselves, set pieces, which is like this underwater thing when they're in this one place, and they have to get to this other place, they have to walk in these suits,

and there's all this sort of magical stuff going on. There are set pieces involving the Steath on a Jetski. A lot of it is apparently the Steath on a Jetski with a pointy stick, fighting monsters that are like the size of a house. And you go, but it's a pointy stick with a thing on the end of it. How's that going to work? It's okay because he's the state. And then it all leads to a place called Fun Island. Fun Island is entirely populated by a bunch of people who, you know, they just look like bait.

That's what they're there for. And then all this stuff's having. So, film wasn't widely press. And I saw it a while ago, because Ben weekly came on MK3D, you know, the show that I do at the BFI, and I saw it in the morning, and I came out of it, and I said, well, that was absolutely mad. And I had enjoyed it. And then, of course, there have been a few critics that have been very, very sniffy about it. The box office, however, has been very, very good. I mean, worldwide, it is currently number one in the box office. Why? Well, the reason is very simple. It may not be a critics film, but it's much more fun than it had any right to be firstly. The problem with the first film, the first film was too well-behaved to be really entertaining.

I get sound, it was a great idea, but it was kind of PG-13 and it didn't have the gawr or the bite that it needed to have. So it was like, you know, after that trailer, oh my god, it's Megalodon. And you go to the film, oh yeah, okay, that's so the Meg too, because they still can't have any more gawr because it still has to be the same sort of family rating. What they've done is cranked up the madness. So it starts in kind of, okay, fine, yeah, this is like a bit more meaghan, you know, I understand that thing. Then the second act picks up the pace, there's the underwater sequence in the trench, you know, in it, it could have been out in space. So that's got, and then the third act goes absolutely looped-y-loo lala, what on earth is going on? And it's everything, everything is thrown at screen. There's more mechs, there's more monsters, there's more whirly copters fighting giant,

big tentacular things that get cut. And there's one moment when literally a huge, big tentacle, then a whirly copter thing goes around and the tentacle comes flying out, and I'm thinking this is insane. This is absolutely, and the best thing about it is that it's paced in a way that kind of goes, you know,

boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and the whole film has got this kind of headlong rush to it. That I really enjoyed myself. I mean, there, okay, on one level, it's a, it's a sort of, you know, a well-made version of Shark Nado or Shark Exorcist. I mean, it's that level of sort of foolishness. But I think that what Ben

Wheatley has done is to understand what it is. It is a fun, ridiculous romp and the way in which it's placed. And the fact that he, I think he loves the same things that I love. I mean, there is an awful lot of those, you know, you keep expecting to see Doug McCluitt turn up or... And, but I wrote down a bunch of lines from the movie which kind of, which delighted me. Okay, so here are some of the dialogue highlights. Staphe them, it's a deviated septum, which is fantastic. Half my team is dead and I'm not gonna lose the other half. I've slightly had to, through this,

this sure is some dumbass spit. Followed by, that was some unfortunate spit back there. And one of my favorites, this feels unpleasantly familiar. About a later on, I still think we look like food. And for standout, he ate the whole boat. He ate the whole boat. He ate the whole boat. Honestly, I grinned all the way through it. And I thought that the thing that was really smart about it, I can say I've seen the reviews

and I, some of the reviews have been really, really, really stinky. I mean, most of the reviews have been really, really stinky. I really enjoyed it. And I know that what everyone says is, I say, well, you really love it mean, most of the reviews have been really, really stinky. I really enjoyed it. And I know that what everyone will say is, let's say, well, you really love it because you love Ben Wheatley. I love Ben Wheatley because he's the kind of guy who can take Meg to the trench.

It's a deviated septum. And make a movie that kicked me out at 11 o'clock on a Thursday morning with a smile on my face from ear to ear. I mean, I've read some of the reviews and there was some that debated whether this, this wasn't a film that was so bad, it was good, it was so bad, it was bad.

But also, it's not right. Sometimes I think you just need silly. Yeah. And it releases a certain amount of tension because you just go, it's just silly and it's supposed to be silly and that's absolutely fine. So it falls into that category. Yeah, and he knows exactly what he's doing and, you know, he's just silly and it's supposed to be silly and that's absolutely fine. So it falls into that category. Yeah.

And he knows exactly what he's doing and you know, he's, yeah, I think it's a film that knows what it's doing and is enjoying doing it. I think in any film where you've got, you know, the stethus effectively saying, just hear me the pointy stick. Yeah, I'm going to go out on a jet ski pointy stick. And I know that the thing is enormous, but I'm going to stick the pointy stick in the end of the thing. I'm going to free dive to the Bartman Trench with my deviated set. With my deviated set.

We have a bit of correspondence that's come in. There you go. Says, D'Arosi and Jim, chatting along on the old rag dog. LTL and FTE always been happy to listen from the periphery rather than sending my opinions. However, it took a recent viewing of Meg to the, to air my views. While watching M2TT, belief was firmly suspended on numerous occasions. I have never faced palm during a film till this, but once that seal

was broken, the well was returned to numerous times. From gaping plot holes with oxygen reserves and underwater atmospheric pressure to special reference to the whole deviated septum diving scene. The film feels it is set in an alternative reality where really and WTF reactions are par for the course. Yes. A second after the film desperately steals plot elements from Avatar Piranha and even looks to go full on Godzilla at one point to keep the action going. And Mothra, I would say I had enjoyed the film, but don't know what I feel as I left the cinema, I'm dumbstruck. David, 465 ranked, magic of the gathering player,

you came to me. Magic the gathering, magic the gathering, magic the gathering, welcome to the family, magic the gathering, big part of our, big part of our household. I love that. I say I enjoyed it,

but I don't know what an author I felt. I came out WTF that I think is exactly right. And can I just reassure you, you did enjoy it. You with all that face bombing, what the actual yeah, it's good face, it's fun. Good face, but just don't deviate except them. Yeah, I mean, you do it. You can do it like that. Pointy stick. That's make too. Of course, send your correspondence in as you get to see it over the coming weeks. And that's time for this week's Listener Correspondence. Hello, Mark and Simon. On our doorstep is the timely new independent documentary about the Calais jungle refugee

camp and the grassroots humanitarian movement that rose to its aid in 2016. After sell-out shows across the country, the film has been called galvanising and inspiring, an essential documentary and a remarkable act of bearing witness. My name is Tom, I'm the director, and I just wanted to let your discerning listeners know that there are two more opportunities to see this documentary on the big screen. This Saturday, the 12th of August, and Tuesday the 15th of August, at Bertha Dockhouse in London. From then onwards, it's available to stream on Curzon Home Cinema. Come down and see it or sit up and stream it. It'll be worth your while.

Go to onourdourstepp.com forward slash screenings. Thanks very much. That was Tom, director of on our doorstep and indie documentary about the Calais refugee camp, which is screening in London this month. And remember, send your 22nd audio trailer about your event anywhere in the world to correspondents at kermodenmayo.com. And that's the end of take one. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. Team was Lily Hamley, Rhino Mirra, Mattias Dodez, Beth was the assistant producer, Michael

Dale wrote the guest notes, Hannah Talbot was the producer, Mark, what is your film of the week? I'm not allowed to do this. I came out last week, but can I have Meg too, please? Meg too, the trench. There you have it. We've got take two and take three coming up, which will also be dropping today. Thanks very much for your time.

Take care of yourselves. Take three coming up, which will also be dropping today. Thanks very much for your time. Take care of yourselves.