Sardonicast - Sardonicast 135: Knock at the Cabin, The Last of Us Season 1, Dial M for Murder

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

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Three, two, one. Oh my God, there's a banging at the door. That's a quote from Knock at the Cabin, directed by M. Knight Shyamalan. Is it? Yes, I memorized the movie. That classic quote. I'm Adam from your movie sex. This is Sardonicast.

I'm Ralph from Ralph the movie maker. And I'm Alex from I, Ritchie. and that was a reference to the new one the new M-night, he's here again He's back boys concept movie Yeah another short story

turned into a film And yeah the general consensus Same with old seems to be just like Oh the short story wasn't even that great But he made it worse That's what everybody says He's like read the original

Well he made it worse by making it like longer which is not always the case like I think of like a rival that's a that was a short story written by like a famous like writer who was like a claimed award winning writer but like that translated well to like a feature film you know

that's just like a good example when it's not M-night doing it it can go well it depends on the story the director a variety of factors what did you think a knock at the cabin though I thought it was really lame

I thought it was really unspecial Like, just one of the most... Olds was a good thing to bring up. That is his last movie. I thought it was, like, about the same. Oh, no. Like, to me, like, I don't have a strong preference

between these two movies, personally. Yeah. I was just like, yep, it's another M-night movie. Like, it's got the twist. It's got, well, it's like what you'd expect. It's got some good moments in there, like, some, like, kind of thrilling moments. I'm not sure where Adam stands on this.

Is there even like a twist in this movie? The twist is that there's no twist, right? No, the twist is that they were, well, I don't want to spoil it. We can get into the twists. There's a few twists. Well, let's go into spoiler talk. Who the fuck? Everybody who wants to see it has already seen it.

We think it's bad. Spoiler discussion. Yeah. You don't know if you're going to get a twist now. So I think like the twist thing, it didn't work for a while because it became like every movie he made had a twist. But then some of them didn't. And now it's like, oh, so. So it's like, you don't know if there's going to be a twist now.

So it like works again, you know? Yeah, like the twist is kind of like the four horsemen thing. You know, that was kind of the twist. Like, that they were the four horsemen of the apocalypse, like, actually. Is that even a twist? I don't know if it's a twist. You're supposed to think they were crazy people. Yeah, that's like the twist.

So it turned out they were right. No, but there was always, no, because it was always one of two options. Like, from the moment the trailer was released, It's either option A, they're crazy people, or option B, what they're saying is true. And that was, so, like, it's weird to call it a twist when they just picked one of option A or option B that was clearly established from the trailer of the film. It's not really a twist. I'd say, like, that was supposed to be the twist. How's it a twist?

It was either going to be one of the two. What are the other? I'm not going to defend the movie because I'm really, it's like old. I wasn't really that fond of it. Like, I was just not. I thought old was much worse, but more memorable. I could say more things about old. It was funny.

Exactly. But I think it was cut from the same cloth in the sense that, like, his latest movies are just like, the concept is the movie, you know? Yeah. The beach that makes you old, the, the doomsday preppers that turn out to be right. And then that's kind of like all the movie has to offer. Beyond that, there's really nothing memorable, you know, like they get some kind of kind of big actors and so they can like sell it.

His movies are, I guess that's how he keeps being able to do this, is that they're marketable, they're kind of sellable. They become jokes like AI, like Jordan Peterson talking about old and stuff. Like, it's an insight guy still, I guess, because they are just kind of like, I guess stupid and silly. And everyone just goes to see them anyway. The concept of old was much more sticky. It had its stickiness. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, like, the stickiness. Yeah, there was something memorable about that, but I don't think this was nearly as successful, and nobody's going to be talking about it. Like, nobody's going to be making AI Jordan Peterson memes with the cabin in the woods, because you can't say anything about it. The beach that turns you old, there's a stickiness there, whereas gay the strangers, who gives a shit? That's really what it is.

Gay the stranger's apocalypse. That's it. But then I'm looking at the budget right here, 20 million. And it's supposedly grossed 54. So, I mean, it's not too bad. Like, that's how he keeps being able to do this. Like, just find another short story. Depends on how much they spend on marketing.

Yeah, just like enough to kind of scoop by. It's crazy. We've all seen the movie, but we're describing it like, like, just from stuff you'd see in the trailer. Like, there's nothing actually in the movie. That's all that the movie is. They say, they're either crazy or they're not. And then the movie happens. And by the end, they pick one of the answers.

And that's the entire fucking movie. They don't explore anything beyond that. Yeah, that's like the whole point. That's why it's just sad. Like, I didn't feel like I really watched much, much of a movie there. No. I was just like, yeah, that was fine. It felt like a river.

It was like something to do with my friends, but that was it. Like, it was completely, yeah. It doesn't really feel that's cinematic, does it? Because, like, each time there's like a big reveal that, like, it leans towards them being right, it's always revealed through, like, the news, you know, something kind of detached where it's just, I guess they wanted it to feel like a bottle movie, but it's like, like, what we're talking about, like somewhat more of a bottle movie later. And that's kind of how you do it.

Not whatever, whatever this was. There's no like big arching questions outside of the premise and the characters don't really go anywhere. And yeah, it really just is a nothing movie. Mm-hmm. Each progression point in the plot does not actually change the stakes at all.

In any way. Yeah, it's quite static. Yeah. It's like, oh, no. One of the people that is threatening you just died. They killed one. And you've explained it, like, at the very beginning, it's like, oh, we're going to kill one by one. This one's going to say, I have a family.

Like, that matters more? Okay. But really, they're just, like, characters that could have just not shown up there in the first place. You know, they're not, like, a part of the main cast of characters that you're supposed to care about, I guess. Yeah. Not a part of the two men and a baby. There's scenes of this movie of just, like, people brutally, like, killing. themselves in front of like a small child and I was just like oh okay it's mostly off

screen yeah yeah most of the violence is off screen but even if it wasn't you could you can still make that work and like hide it but it was just not really yeah effective funny games is a great example right or yeah that guy even cachet or whatever thank you champ but yeah this is like this is just like yeah it didn't really have the impact it kind of wanted to at points I did think Dave Batista was pretty good. I like that he is a versatile actor and he can take on different roles and this was like more of a crazy character, like a morally ambiguous guy, but I think I think he worked in the role.

Like I thought the acting was fine. I thought the guy from Harry Potter was fine. And it sucks that we will never learn his name. Yeah. Ronald Weasley did a great job. Someone knows it. He's a fan of him. Yeah, you know, like all the acting was fine.

I liked the cast of it. Even the little girl was like solid actor, I thought. And it was just the story itself was not very... I thought she dragged it down. Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, she did a good job for a kid. But yeah, that's what I mean. Make a performance that made me believe that it was a character and not an actor,

which is the only really important part. Yeah. Overall, I just thought it was like competent. No, I thought, I'm with you, man. Like the performances were fine. It's more that script. It's more just everything around it that's like pulling it down. It was just, it was so like fine, so just nothing to me.

I wasn't like groaning, wanting to pull my hair out in the same way I was during like glass or after earth or something like that. But then it's nowhere near as good as, you know, his best either. So it is just kind of middling, like sat like right in the middle of his filmography for me. Yeah. Doesn't really take many chances. Yeah. Like even some of his more bad movies do. It's just one of those in the middle, right?

Not terrible. Not the best. It's just somewhere in there. I happen to rewatch the happening like a couple weeks back and that's like... Masterpiece. Man, like anything after that is like a growth in terms of like getting an actor, a performance out of an actor. Right. That one's like shocking.

Yeah, it doesn't seem real. It seems like it's like a gag on you. The performances definitely seem. like a joke. No. Yeah. That's a very bizarre movie to come out of like a, like the studio system. You know, like, at millions of dollars.

It was spent on that shit. But yeah, he's like that kind of director. This is, it's not as bad as that, but it had the happening or whatever. After Earth has those moments that you like remember, deny, sit down or like whatever. Yeah, yeah. What we need to do is we need to give him too much money again. I think that's what I would ideally want out of an M-night Shamalan film is knowing that it had a high budget and he had all of the creative control he wanted and just watching that happen.

Because those seem to be the best train wrecks. Yeah, that is crazy. But like quadrility of shit. That's the thing. This is his budget range. This is, you know, this is where he should be like thriving is this kind of budget range. like the medium budget I saw like a tweet

like someone praising him for like how much funding he's able to get still for his films and like an independent like original artist who just makes original films and I really respect that it's just like why isn't like the movie better that's all like I just don't like the movies themselves

I think they're very like just making kind of disappointing movies right I wish they were like better because considering the resources he has, they should be better. Yeah, if he didn't make like three movies in a row that were like cultural phenomenon then he would be nowhere

because that's what solidified his name. Like everybody knows M. Knight-Chamalan. Everybody fights like he's one of few directors that every like is a household name. Right. Split kind of was a comeback. But then how many directors could survive that string that being? the lady of the water, in the water, the happening, the last airbender, and then after Earth.

Like, that is... Still got the name. That was, like, quite a strange. Yeah, that's the thing. Stephen Spielberg survived fucking, like, the BFG, you know, because he's still got the name. That is no last air vendor there, you know? Like, that's fine. No, it's not...

Stephen Spielberg survived a shit ton of, like, really bad movies in a row, you know? But he's still got the name. That's exactly why. Not like this, though, man. Not in a roll. Yeah, not like, yeah, I can't, I can't see that. But he hasn't had to string like, like, M. Knight does. They're not as funny.

Yeah, never that comically bad. Because M. Knight is worst. It's like, it's like shocking. It's like amazing that it's even the same person who like put together like the six cents or unbreakable. It almost seems like, were you just not like trying? Like, did you rush this? Was there some reason you had to rush this? because this is actually crazy.

You have to wonder. You wonder if that's it. He's just like doesn't give a shit. Maybe he's just happy that he's just working consistently. He's just so fucking, like he's weird and just he's kind of full of himself. And he doesn't understand what he's doing. And he blames his children if it goes wrong. I'm not.

Yeah. That's what he does whenever he makes a bad movie. He's like, no, this is for my children, actually. Oh, oh, that's funny. Yeah. That's what he said for Lady in the Water. He said he was making it for his child's self. Yeah.

Or like, it was his childhood. He said it for the last Airbender also. I think he even said that for after Earth. His child. Yeah. He was making it for, you know, he wanted to tell Lady in the Water that story since he was like a child. Since he was like a kid or like a teenager or something. Yeah.

So he's like, I know. I see. Yeah. So he just makes movies for children. through that. That's sick, guys. He makes children's films. We just don't...

Oh, yes. Knock at the cat. We just haven't realized. Yeah. This got an R rating, um... What was it? For language, I guess?

Like, that's about it. Like, it wasn't really that gory or any... Like, that could have easily been... I thought it was PG-13. Exactly. It got an R rating. I thought it was PG-13. I think because they said fuck a couple times and there's gay people in it.

Yeah, it's probably because it's gay people on it. Yeah. Yeah, it seemed like it was specifically edited to avoid getting and our raising it to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. Watching the movie, it would appear like that would be the case. Like, oh, the violence is just off-screen.

You know, it's not even that... Interesting. See, yeah, I did not realize. I thought it was PG-13 while I was watching it. Exactly. Because they didn't show the violence, like, at all. Like, not even, like, a little bit. No.

Even those Michael Hanneke movies you mentioned, they show, like... Well, like, in Cache, they show something. Like, this, it was, like, nothing. And the performances are so horrific that you believe it's happening. everything's just so fucking... Yeah, they actually sell it.

Yeah, they sell it so well. Yeah, it's crazy. It's like worse than showing in the Hanukkah film. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's just in this movie, though, it's in... Yeah. No, not at all. No.

And yeah, good performances, not good enough for what it needed to be for the child actor, but whatever, you can kind of tell that was going to happen from the trailer. What pisses me off about this movie, there's a couple things that piss me off about it, but they set up this concept, and they very clearly say,

all three of you are going to have to decide who to kill. And then the girl goes off to, like, a tree house, and she's not a part of the decision. Right? And so it's like, well, then, why would you set up the stakes in that way and clearly say that that was going to be the case? Even if, let's say that's not how the universe functioned, why would you say that?

because it sets up unrealistic expectations in the viewer's minds, and it makes it seem as though the stakes are higher than they actually are. Because when you hear that in the trailer, or at the beginning of the movie, you think, oh, no, either both of them are going to have to decide to kill the little girl in front of her, or they're going to have to get the little girl to agree to kill one of her fathers. Like, the fact that there's a little girl in the trio and that premise is set out loud, that implies a level of stakes that the film does not. live up to. And according to people that read the short story, it does not bullshit people like that.

But in this film, it just decided to bullshit people. She goes away to a tree house. She's not a part of the decision. It still worked anyway. So the guy, they just lied to them. They just lied to them in the prophecy wasn't really true in the way that they said it was. She wasn't a part of the decision. That's so stupid. It was a cop out. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. They were trying to get out of that. Absolutely cowards. Like, we already knew they were going to be cowards and nothing was going to happen to the little girl. Like, that was already pretty apparent. But to be cowards emotionally and, like, not even have her be a part of the decision, like, that's

bullshit. I'm sorry. You've just, you've, you're betraying the premise of your film. Don't, don't have that premise then if you don't want to do it. Don't even suggest it, coward. Yeah, a lot of it just feels like first draft material that's just kind of been used as the final draft. Like, so many of his movies come across to me like that.

It's like, you're playing with some kind of cool ideas and you just kind of sat on this or rearranged this here or changed the dialogue up or something had a bit more subtext or something. Yeah. They're a bit rushed. Like in the writing phase, I mean. Like, even just like the pre-production phase. There's like a kernel of like a good idea there. But then he's just like, they're just like, oh, you got to rush it out. You got to like get out the next M-night joint.

and it's like, all right, like, I don't even know what to make of it, you know? Aside from that, it's an M. Night film. You're just like, it's another one of those. I was like kind of sick of them. There was a really funny moment where the news broadcaster is saying which areas of the world are affected by the storm. And there was a, it was pretty apparent. there was a disconnect between what was written on the script versus how she said it,

and then also just people on set not correcting her or not understanding. So British Columbia is a part of Canada. And so in the script, they wrote it down, British Columbia, comma, Canada, and then a list of other places. But the way she read it was like, the storm is approaching British Columbia, Canada, Paraguay. It just like slipped another thing.

And it was so obvious thing that she didn't know that British Columbia was in Canada and she read it as two different places. And nobody corrected her on set. M. Knight never corrected her. He was ostensibly directing that scene. I don't know. Maybe it was his B team. I don't know. But nobody corrected her.

And it was just like a very silly mistake that I felt. It's probably like a second, like an assistant team. You know, they film it like the guys who like film shots of the bridge is like or establish. shots for movies, yeah. Yeah, because it's like news footage. Yeah, that's a pretty funny flub. Yeah, that's funny. It is very funny.

Yeah, that's pretty bad. Yeah, it's just like rushed. Yeah, it just points to how like rushed together it seems. Yeah. The word British is in it. How could an American possibly know? It happens to the best thing. That is funny.

And yeah, I just didn't really care about the characters. There's a lot of flashbacks that didn't really matter. It's just a nothing movie. Very nothing. Three out of ten. Uh-huh. We can move on. It's just like...

In one era. Yeah, this is nothing to say. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's one of those. I'd give it a... Fuck, I don't even know. Five out of ten?

So what, the two and a half stars out of five stars? Yeah, I think I gave this like a two-star... Two-star out five. But, yeah. Absolutely fine. Yeah. Never going to think about this again. It's not even bad.

It's just like, whatever. Yeah, it didn't really move the needle either way, particularly. I thought it was kind of bad, but it was too forgettable. Yeah, exactly. It's annoying. It just, yeah, if it didn't, if it wasn't so cowardly and just copped out of its own plot, maybe I would have liked it a bit more. Yeah, or just came up with a more creative way to present it.

Yeah. It's just anything else. Or just like build off of the concept instead of just presenting the concept and then end Mm-hmm. Build off of it next time, maybe. Yeah. Like, holy shit. Old was more entertaining.

I thought old was more entertaining. Yeah. Yeah, definitely funny. I actually remember that movie and more detail. I remember it was 2021. Sure, maybe worse, but more entertaining than this. All right, we also saw an Achebo show called The Last of Us. Boom, boom.

Boom, boom. It was based off of a not short story. It was based off of a video game. A video game. We watched all nine episodes. Oh, you did? Okay. You did, right?

I did too. Okay. We should have checked us before, but, uh, no, I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, uh, I love their show. I thought it was great. I made a video about the first few episodes. Mm-hmm.

Because I knew people would start shun on it later, because people are homophobic and they'd be like, oh, episode 8 was pointless or whatever, whichever one the left behind episode was, left behind episode, I think, yeah, yeah. Or episode three, people, you know, they rated it low on IMD. It has like the lowest ratings. Particularly.

Of, yeah, the third one and the left behind episode. There's twice as many ratings on that episode than like the pilot episode. Yeah, I was looking at that this morning. Yeah. Yeah. It's 100,000 more. people rated it. Yeah, and I might just talk about these, like, I'm going to speak kind of like cavalier in terms of like spoilers and whatever. I'm just going to like spoil stuff because I don't, I,

I'm a yeah, okay, yeah, everybody, this is a spoiler discussion. We all recommend it. Yeah, yeah, it's just easy. We're recommending the show. Yeah, I'm going to assume you've either played the game or watch the show. I assume most of our audience. I should also be clear, it doesn't matter which one you do first. You can watch the show without playing the game. You can play the game without watching the show. They're different enough. They're similar and different, but yeah, the beats of the story that are important and impactful are effective in both properties to differing degrees, I guess, but... Yeah. There's some that, like, the game did better, some of the show did better, I thought.

That's how I... Really? Yeah, I don't know. My main takeaway was kind of like, this is no doubt in my mind probably the best adaptation of any video game material. Oh, easily. No doubt. Yeah. I agree.

Production value, writing quality, just like admiration for the source material. Like, it's all there. I don't know what more you could want in terms of like a direct adaptation. And the source material's good. And so they've got, yeah, they're working with a good story.

And it's adapted by the people that wrote the game. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's true. It's not really bastardized. Yeah, it's not bastardized. However, I do think it does. does really highlight to me how good that game is.

I still do you think the game is superior. I think the experience of the game cannot be matched by the show. In kind of ways, I wasn't anticipating, because, like, we're saying, it's nine episodes here in the game winds up being, what, like between 15 and 20 hours. So you kind of get a lot more time, a lot of downtime in the game with the characters,

little character moments that, and I don't know if this is just that pure contrast because of how well I know that original game. But in contrast, it does seem like, I just know the characters better in the game. I know the dynamics better. I feel the emotional beats more. I feel like even down to small details,

like how the music is used and whatnot. Not that it's bad in the show by any means. I just think overall, the game is way more punchy to me. And I feel like especially considering just that time period it came out. We've mentioned before, like how the 2010s was kind of all about zombies and the last of us kind of in 2013 spinning that the mushroom zombie idea and that whole thing was so like creative and fresh to me around that time and I know like people in the general

audience who didn't play the game are kind of experiencing that now but for me it's more like yeah like a lot of the zombie beats I'm fairly familiar with now we have had the walking dead we've had just myriad zombie stuff in between that so some of that punch is gone it to me that's brought back the whole zombie thing because I thought it was kind of dead for a while. Undead? My friend mentioned to me... My friend mentioned to me cam last year.

Like, the Walking Dead show ended. No one made a big deal of it at all. Is it actually over now? Did anyone? Did they have the finale? Did you even know that, right? I knew it was coming close. I knew it was like ending sometime soon, but like, I don't know anybody who's watching it. That's what I mean.

The whole zombie thing was so fucking played out. Yeah, it was so played out. And to me, this brought it back. This is like a hugely successful show. more successful than that House of the Dragon show, thank God, because that show's fucking boring. I've said that many times, but like, it's boring. And this is so much better. And, um, yeah, Alex, like, I agree there's some things the game did better, but there's some things the show did better. Like, I mostly liked when the show kind of wasn't adapting the game at all and kind of did its own thing and its own,

because there's plenty of original scenes in here that I thought were, you know, like really interesting. and they kind of changed up. They added like more, like there was plenty of that camaraderie between Ellie and Joel in the show for me. Like I did like them. And like how much of like us,

because I do prefer the game probably, but how much of that is me that I played the game first, you know? Yeah, that's what I was kind of struggling with. Yeah, I was kind of struggling with that too because I don't think I can get over that. But as far as an adaptation, I thought it was good.

And, you know, like the most important parts, Like the casting of Ellie, like that was great. Bella Ramsey was great. Pedro Pascal was great. I can't complain about the casting at all there. The effects were fantastic for a show. It's like some of the best I've ever seen. Like the look of the show looks great.

Yeah, the whole production value is immense. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like a pretty great production design and like all that stuff. Like all that the world building we've been saying, it really like delivers in that respect. I thought, you know. Yeah. Pedro does a really great job in the role. Uh-huh.

Yeah. It really embodies the character. Yeah, it's like a... Yeah, it did bring back the whole zombie thing. It did really bring that back for me. I'm looking at the Wikipedia for the Walking Dead episodes and just like how much the viewership dropped off at the last season. Yeah.

Totally fall off. They really killed the shit. They would have kept going. They really fucking. killed the show. They made it so that no one was even interested for the entire fucking final season before they decided to kill the show. He's idiots. Yeah, that's what happened. It's sad. Right, they totally ran it down. Yeah. Uh-huh. Is it that crazy how it ended and no one like even knew? I know. They don't care about the art. 11 seasons. Yeah. MC is such a hassle.

Like when when better call soul ended, everyone was talking about it. It's just like compare the reaction. Yeah. Never give AMC. full control of a property. But yeah, that's like where zombie stuff was at for like, for like at least a while. But I think people were craving like that next good zombie show and this this delivered it because I think people love zombies. There's clearly like an audience for it. This compared to the Walking Dead. Like even even when the Walking Dead was in its first season and it was good. Like this is just miles above. Like this is completely different beast. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's much better. I would say that something that's really special about it is, like, the universe and the production design especially.

Like, there's so much that you can interpret just from how a scene is presented visually. And I love that there's a lot of, like, very similar imagery to the games. And I love how much they tried to capture it with, you know, the lighting and, like, the overgrowth and trees. like all this plant life coming through and abandoned buildings. And it's, it doesn't look cliched. It still looks like it has that distinct feeling of the game. And there's so much character to the environment.

I think they did a really great job. And even when they do use CG to help fill in parts of backgrounds, it still looks like it fits in the environment. And a lot of the times you can't tell it's CG. You just have to assume it is just based, on practical reasons. Yeah. It looks really, really good.

There's only a few parts in the show where I watched it and I was like, oh, that looks kind of bad. But they were very few and far between. And it's a television shot. Yeah, and so many of those sets are direct, like, one-to-one adaptations of areas from the game.

And, like, if you're a big fan of the game, you'll just be picking on that up and up on that constantly. And it is, like, really attention to detail focus. Like, that really does add something to it. It makes it feel really faithful. yeah it's really made for fans like that yeah and yeah as a fan I was like I loved it I savored every moment of it not to say I think the show's perfect but I enjoyed it a lot no no it has its issues but I did as you were kind of alluding to earlier some of the the stuff they've

expanded upon around the edges also my favorite details of the show like at first like I think the first episode starts with it's like a flashback to the 90s Araitis, where there's like the mushroom expert being interviewed on TV, and it's like really kind of creepy and sets the scene. Oh, yeah. That was great. The early, like, flashbacks to the outbreak in, I can't remember which episode two or four or so. Like, it's the cold open. That kind of stuff I really liked.

And also, of course, episode three, which is the whole doesn't even really have Joel and Ellie. And it's all about Bill and his compound. Yeah, they changed that a lot from the game. That's, like, totally different from the game. Although you could... I thought it was much better too. Yeah, it probably is better. It's definitely less morbid and harsh.

Like in the game, it's like very frank. Yeah. And yeah, cold and sad. No pun intended. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. They definitely soften the character for this.

But yeah, like the change worked for it mostly. It's funny, like the people complaining about it. Like, they clearly didn't play the game or like. They didn't pick up on the fact that Bill is gay in the game or whatever. Like, you know, obviously the Ben Shapiro reaction to the episode. And he wrote some kind of review on Facebook. It was like, this is a show about zombies. And I'm watching like two gay guys or whatever.

Where are zombies? It's just gay guys. What the hell is he literally lied about it. He said that there were no zombies in the episode, but there were. There was a zombie at the beginning. Yeah, there's a zombie toward the end. You could say there was one zombie. Like, if you want, but...

Yeah, there's zombies in it. There's plenty, actually. Anyway. But, yeah, it's about, like, they're... Like, that is really the point of the game. It's about humanity and, you know, people's relationships in the post-apocalypse. And that was, like, a beautiful example of that. Like, that whole episode was fantastic.

And the same with the left behind one. You know, people are like, oh, it's not important. I'm like, it is important. You see, like, how she got bit. You see that she's a lesbian, like, or whatever. Like you need to see like these are important parts of her character that you need to see So I guess with those two episodes specifically I enjoyed episode three a lot more than I enjoyed episode seven

I did as well but yes they're both good episodes I don't see the Well here's here's the thing episode seven is something that I also experienced in the game already Whereas episode three was like a completely new experience yeah and and so So, especially when I was able to compare episode seven to the game, where not only in the context of the game was it like DLC, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. But also, I just, my biggest issue with that episode is that the chemistry between the two actors and their level of performances bouncing off of each other just didn't work for the most part. I think they're both good actors. They're both really good actors.

they're just not quite at the level where I can be like, oh yeah, I believe your relationship, aside from like maybe a couple parts closer to the end. I think that they get better at it as the episode goes on. But for the most part, I found it just wasn't strong enough. And I was wishing, really hoping for something a bit stronger there. Whereas Nick Offerman and like, holy shit, the filmmaking and especially the performances in episode three, like that was, that was my favorite episode. That was an incredible piece of filmmaking and the way that everything functioned narratively and yeah, damn. Like it was just such a great story told so well and just so artistically. Yeah. Damn. Yeah, episode three was incredible. That's what I mean when I say like the

stuff, like the stuff they invented for the show. Some of it is like really great. It's better than the game. Some of the stuff they created. Usually what bogged down the show was when it was like almost too faithful to the game or would almost recreate scenes. There's a scene where like she steals one of Bill's magazines and she's like, why all the pages stuck together? And in the game, it's funny. In the show, I don't know if it worked as well. It didn't feel as like natural.

And again, that might just be because I've seen the fucking scene already. Like, I'm just watching the same exact scene again just created by, but it just felt there was something about it that felt unnatural to me. Like this, it just didn't feel like the same character, you know? It's just to me a bit faster. Right, right. Just Ellie in the game is just an inherently different character than the Ellie in the show. They're just so different.

I don't know why the same scene would happen in the same way, you know, but whatever. Speaking of scenes that are translated from the game to the show, I want to talk a bit about the combat scenes because there's some. So I think it was like episode four. Was it episode four or episode? I think it was episode five actually where they had the sniper, yeah. and yeah at the end it was the whole like oh stealth and he goes up to the top of the tower like I remember playing a section like that in the game yeah that's in the game it's kind of different it's like the exact same set piece the way that it was translated to the show I thought worked

really well he didn't you know I don't remember the nuance differences or or anything between the game in the show but in the show it worked there was nothing really well he didn't you know I don't nothing wrong with it in terms of how it was presented. I thought that the combat scene in episode nine, how it was kind of just treated as a montage, and it still, by the end of it, the end result of it felt kind of video gamey. I'm not sure how I felt about that. I felt like in your last episode of the season, especially considering it's like the shortest episode of the season, like it could have been longer, you know? Rather than having a montage of him just killing everybody in the hospital,

I feel like you could have presented that in a way that would have been closer to the sniper scene where it doesn't have to, like, you can follow it in real time. You know, maybe you can have him kill the same amount of people. Maybe it can be just as much of a, like, brutal sort of massacre. I don't know. But I was hoping for something, you know, maybe not to the same exact quality. as children of men, but something where they could really show off and something where they could showcase the struggle of how he gets there rather than it just being like, I'm a video game guy,

bam, bam. I get the narrative and character purpose of having him easily killing people from his mind. I get what that means to the character and him in the situation and how he doesn't flinch when he's shooting someone, but I think that in terms of how he just kind of like effortlessly does that and the fact that it's a montage and there's music over it and we're kind of just getting like a, you know, little bits of it. And I just, I needed something more important in that scene. I needed, I needed a better translation of showing him get to the same place, but just, it felt so cheesy. You know? Yeah, they made it quite, clinical. Like, I'm just

contrasting it to the game where it's like a mad dash and you're right there with the character because of course you're controlling him which is just an advantage the game has but there is just a completely different kind of atmosphere and tone to that moment specifically compared to the show because yeah

it's like a violent kind of scrappy you're just there with Joel he's like crawling through the corridors, it's like red light bleeding everywhere and it's just like a mad moment where he's not really being rational but the way presented in that montage is just kind of more clinical and rational and I don't know it doesn't it doesn't like hammer home the point that that whole ending builds to as strong as the game no it feels

kind of rushed that last episode and I don't know why they would do that I thought the last moment was good with um you know it's like a big scene in the game like the last scene I thought that was great how they handled that the very last scene yeah yeah essential that was more important than the shootout. Yeah. And that was more one-to-one, yeah. I feel like we still could have gotten more out of it. Yeah, again, to have action there would have been,

like you said, it would have been video-gamy. No, but it was. Like any kind of action. It was any way. Maybe, but, you know, I don't know how you could have avoided that. Was children of men video-gamy? It's not based on a video game, so. No, but you, I'm talking about the,

action set piece. You can still have someone survive against all odds and get from point A to point B. And, you know, you could throw in a bit more element of... Shoulder of men, yeah. You could have him, like, maybe struggle a bit more, like, almost fail or, like... You know, I just... Yeah, that might have taken away from the drama of, like, what was happening. No.

No, I don't believe. I don't know. I think that it would have been more grounded. That's what I'm trying to get at. I think the montage was the attempt to ground it because it's so... Like, in the video game, you can kill like 20 people. It was an attempt, yeah. In a show.

I don't think it worked. Yeah, it's an attempt. I think an action scene would have been too video gamey there. Yeah, I get why they did it. But I'm not saying an action scene translated one to one from a video game. The most video gaming part of the show was probably like the opening, like, car chase. Like, you know, with his daughter. there, that one take

when they're going through the town. Well, all right, that's fine. It felt the most like. That's actually like the exact, that's actually like the exact same. It felt the most like the original game, but it did not feel video game because the original game felt cinematic.

The scene where I just described, that's the, like, the exact same scene in the video game. Like, you understand it's the exact same thing. Exactly. But the original video game, wasn't a video gamey video game in that scene. It was a cinematic scene. And the original video game, part of the reason why I love it so much, is because it feels like a movie, right? Sure, there are parts of the video game, like in stealth sections where you're just

like going up behind people and go, whip, like a lot of the gameplay feels video gamey. But just because the show is translating a scene from the game that in the original game wasn't video game. But so just because it feels like the game that is technically a game doesn't make it video game. When I say video gaming, I mean stereotypical video games. We're really splitting hairs here.

Really splitting hairs. I guess their fear is like they don't want that, you know, that doom moment, you know, where it's like... Right. Or like the Halo show did it recently where it's like, yeah, we're going to do a gameplay bit now where it's like mimicking the HUD from the game. Like, obviously they're, it's, yeah, maybe they were frightened of it coming across like that. That would be worst case scenario. but we haven't mentioned the whole like Craig Mazin, who's like the showrunner.

Craig Mason. Yeah, I think it's Craig Mason. Craig Mason. Craig Mason. No. It's sorry. Yeah, he was kind of taking the Chernobyl approach where it is more about the like, a bit more of the science of like how the mushroom works and delving into that side of it,

which is cool. I like that approach. Yeah. It does give it a kind of a unique slant. Like you were saying, that was a big selling point of the first. one, but it wasn't actually in the game much, like the explanation of the, I guess it was, but it was way more part of the marketing I felt, whereas here, like, the first scene of the show, they established, like, what these things are and, like, the science behind it.

And that made it, yeah, like, kind of creepy and, like, contagion, clinical, right? Yeah, yeah. Because, of course, that's another thing, like, the game has an advantage in is that you can world build in just way more of a, like, slow methodical way, you know? So, like, you can pick up collectibles and it, like, will just, flesh little details out here and there it's yeah it's just an inherent advantage I feel like to that

medium you know because they did delve into like little details and creepy things about like how the like the host is still kind of like alive and sentient inside the body and stuff but this is all like revealed through collectibles and what it's obviously that's not you're not

wandering around of your own volition within the show so they've got to find other avenues to kind of exposition dump and that probably is the best way to do it to be honest with this more like showing the outbreak from different perspectives and people on TV talking about and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good show. I don't know.

What else? I was just going to mention like the episode. Well, I think there's like only one we didn't really mention. It's like the one they're in the snow there. Oh, no, there's a couple. There's the one where they meet his brother, Tommy. That one was decent enough and like changed enough from the game I thought. to make it like interesting.

Like it wasn't engaging. That's just something I liked about these episodes too. They were actually engaging for someone who has played the game because they were like changing enough up to like keep things interesting. There was enough added content, additional scenes or change scenes that made you want to watch it. It wasn't like literally the exact same shit again. Yeah. Which was much appreciated.

I don't know if it would have translated either. I think for me it was actually that episode where I was. starting to feel like a bit more solidly like yeah I think the game is more powerful for me personally because I think that's the episode where they have that like famous scene that argument in the in the bedroom which again I just feel like hits just so much harder in the game just because of yeah as I keep saying like the advantage especially of like pace that the game has like everything's like kind of slowly trickled out you are interrupted by stealth segments combat sequences and it all just kind of en masses you in the world and it just you in the world and

different way than a show can. So I understand the changes, but like, I feel like, yeah, those moments just hit way better for me in the game. That scene there I actually liked. That was one of the scenes I thought was that worked in the show for me, the acting in that scene specifically. Yeah, that's the thing that the acting in the scene is like so one-to-one that is good, like, they're effective scenes and they do like hit, but it's just like, it's this comparison game. It's kind of like the inverse Snyder cut, you know, instead of like comparing shit to shit it's like good to good

yeah but like can you say the same thing when like when you're adapting a book like you know well a lot that's I think this is it's yeah it's the only example of this I can think of where it's like a lot of people will say that the that like no film can compare to that book because you know

your imagination is able to like just tell the story in a way that no film can match so it's weirdly and it is different one to one thing but it's like yeah I've never like experienced this with a game before which is part of what makes this so interesting because it's just never been done so well. Right.

Video games have scenes and like blocking that you can compare it to. It's not just like reading a book. So I didn't mean to make like a little. It's not like quite... And with how cinematic it was originally. Right. It's not such a literal comparison I mean, but...

You know, it's like it's hard to talk about and like the emotion of it when I've already experienced to these emotions from the... All I can say is like, you know, they adapted it pretty well. There's some scenes where I was like, wow, that was really good, especially that one.

That one was like, I thought that was one of the better scenes for me. You know, the one where she finds Bill's magazine or whatever. Like that one, she throws it away in the car. Like, that one didn't work for me so much. I'm trying to think of one that didn't work like a change. There's one, like the only other episode I didn't mention. It's the one toward, I think it's the second to last one. It's like when Ellie meets the crazy religious fanatics.

That episode didn't work for me entirely. And there's like a scene toward the end when she like kills him. And in the game, the sound cuts out. and there's music. I thought that was much more effective in the game. And then Joel comes and comforts her. And in the show, they kind of changed it up to where you,

you know, the sound is on and she just kills them. It's differently executed. And I just thought it was not as effective in this, in the show anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because I did remember that about the game that, that scene specifically. So it's a shame they didn't do that, you know. Yeah. That was like a bit of fun I was having, like after watching an episode,

it'd be like, yeah I'd remember little details like that and then go watch like the on YouTube like the the game version and be like oh okay so that's what they've changed here they just I wonder why they decided to tweak this or there's that line from that yeah it's cool being able to do that but it does like illuminate weaknesses of both mediums I guess I just replayed like the remake so I had like all the scenes memorizing I played the games many times before anyway yeah I love the games I think they're great I remember so much about them it's crazy they couldn't even fit like it in a nine episodes though. Like it didn't really, like even the ninth episode was kind of short. I thought it would last, like I thought there was more story there. I was shocked that the final episode was like the shortest one. I thought it was going to be like an hour and a half thing. And they're saying season two is going to be like that second game won't even cover season

two. Yeah. Like they're going to need two seasons. They're going to need two or three seasons at least to cover the second game. Which makes sense the second game's longer. It is. It feels like a slog. And they do have more opportunity to develop more.

Yeah. But they're going to have to change, like, the order. And we're not going to say anything because we just said spoilers for the first game. So we're not going to say anything specific about the second game. But they're going to have to change around. Like some of the second game is like flashbacks and like, I don't know how they're going to. Yeah. I'm actually kind of more interested.

The second game seems like a challenge to adapt for a television show in terms of what they were trying to do with it. I don't know how the fuck they're going to do that. That being said, some of the best parts of this show were the stuff they changed, the stuff they added, I really liked. So the stuff they changed for the second season could work. Like, they could actually make that character work. You know, they could actually think something there. I don't know how they're going to be able to carry forward that brutality of that game. Because like the last was one is a brutal game already.

But like they really like ramp it up in the. the sequel is kind of part of the point of it. I don't really like that point and don't really like the game very much, but that is definitely kind of ingrained in the DNA, so I'm very curious how they are going to. How do you translate it? Yeah. It's like, all the biggest scenes I can think of from that game are all like,

vicious. Very, yeah. So vicious. Yeah. Which you can kind of pluck out of, that was actually one of the things I do think the game is a bit better on, too, just with the harshness. of the violence and how it is extremely brutal, like all that hand-to-hand combat and, like,

smacking people with bits of wood and stuff. It's, like, a bit more viscerally violent in that sense. And, like, throwing, like, pipe bombs with, like, exploding people. Like, it's really, I remember when I played that in 2013, like, not seeing, like, kind of gore, like, of people's legs, like, exploding off in such a, like, brutally realistic. Yeah, imagining of it. Call out the names of their friends. friends and like the dogs.

Yeah. Can I see like Ellie light a dog on fire with a Maltov in season too? Like can we see that? Like, I don't know. Is she going to be dog murder? Yeah. Like I'm kind of more curious because I feel like it's much,

it's actually much more of a challenge I feel like to adopt the second game. I don't know how the fuck you're going to do that. Yeah. Yeah. So that's going to be really interesting. I'm very interested in seeing how the fuck they're going to do that. I'm interested too. But, you know.

I feel like it could go one way or the other. It could just absolutely suck and the show could tank or it could be fine. I don't think it'll be great. You never know. I think the best stuff we've seen, you know. Yeah. I'm glad they made this show anyway. I'm glad it was a show because it wasn't to work as a movie.

It would have been really rushed. Yeah. Yeah. And like it didn't suffer from like a low production value. Oh yeah, that's good. Yeah, I feel like it's a very accessible show. Yeah. I don't watch it.

They're enjoying it. Yeah. Like whenever I go out, it's usually like a topic of conversation. Like, it's very, like, casual viewing. Everyone knows you. Yeah, it's crazy. It's super popular. Good.

You know, I wanted it to be. Man, I remember back in 2013, like, the debates and arguments that, like, sparked after the end of the game and, like, the moral arguments that went down and just seeing that, like, same conversation happening again was, like, quite a cool, weird moment. The show some success it had in the end. Been 10 years. I'm just so ecstatic. It's doing better than House of the Dragon, because that show is so boring.

Yeah. It's like, yep. This is what HBO should be investing in. Like, this is what people want to watch. Not that boring, like, crap. This is actually, like, a good story. It's some to talk about. I guess one last point.

I really like the score. We've mentioned the music from this guy. It's Gustavo Santolalla. I think Santola. Gustavo. Yeah, he's a good composer. This music was great for this show. Yep.

Yeah. Music was great for the show. Fit perfectly. It wasn't like, oh, it's like, he's using the scene. themes and it's like distracting or whatever. Nope, it was perfect. Never distracted me at all. Never. I haven't memorized the games or anything. I've played the first one at least three times that I've played the second one once. Something that is noticeable is that certain songs that were used in particular contexts in the game were used in other context in the show. So if you're if you're

more of a nerd and more like if you're if you've played the first game so many times and you're so familiar with the particular songs and how they're used I can see how that could be distracting it was fine for me but I could see how that could be like kind of they played like the end credit song

of the first game like at a completely different part in the game which was kind of weird and then they played it at the end credits like at the end of the season Also, little fun fact here, I noticed, so there was a controversy with Noddy Dog with the trailer of The Last of Us 2. They used, they basically, they literally, whoever did the music for that trailer, they ripped off a cover that someone else made that they just an independent artist on YouTube. I think her name was like Lottie Kessner or something like that. And it was it was one of those things where like I went over it, you know, whenever somebody says, oh, you rip me off.

I'm always skeptical, obviously, Kimba, etc. But I went over and I was like, okay, like, that's a really particular, like, that is something unique that she created that was then translated into that. They should have credited her, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I was vindicated with that perspective. Noddy Dog actually apologized to her. They said that they made a mistake and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What's cool is in the end credits to one of the episodes, like halfway through the season,

they included the original artist's cover. So they kind of got. got to do like a little, hey, we're acknowledging you and she got paid licensing and, you know, like that's, that's cool. They got to kind of apologize to her in like a more meaningful and kind of formal way. So that's a little fun Easter egg for anybody taking attention to that. Yeah, together on an HBO show is probably just an ad. So yeah, I'm glad there was a little happy ending to that controversy. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. And there's anybody who's curious. I think there's a video on my highlights channel of me going over the songs and just why what makes

them particular and unique. But yeah, that was cool. And yeah, love Gustavo. One issue I had with the music was in episode three, uh, where it's my only issue with the episode. And they, I love Gustavo's music. Everything about it. I just wish they kept using it because there's a point at like the client. IMAX on the episode. Yeah, they used the song that was in Arrival. And now I'm like, okay, now I'm thinking, like, I shouldn't be familiar with the track playing in this episode that has nothing to do with the game. Like, sure, maybe familiar with a track that's in the game, but not something from a different property. What's his name?

The good guy, Max Richter. Oh, I don't remember. But it was just like... The good guy, the pianist. It's pissing me off just being like, what? Why is this? And it felt listening to it. It felt like, okay, this is from something else.

It doesn't feel like it's from the show And it felt manipulative too You know Using that pre-existing It's like cheating It's like cheating But yeah I made a note of that

I thought it worked for the episode But yeah I thought it was weird I thought it was weird They didn't just use music from Gustavo That pissed me off That was that was something I noticed

It's not like the games lacking music There are tons of good tracks On the original game soundtrack You know that might have been my only issue with that. It shows the cheap option. That episode too. But aside from that, it's great. I mean, that's one music choice. But yeah, I wish it was

Gustavo there. One last thing that I'll mention, just because we kind of glossed over it at the beginning. In terms of episode three and I guess like people's reaction to it, I find it interesting because there's a lot of people that wouldn't even consider themselves to be homophobic, but

they just felt like, oh, no, it just felt like it was you know, we were following this story and this just felt like they stopped the story and then we had to see Brokeback Man. Every single, I've seen a bunch of reviews about this episode and everyone who's critical about it always says it's like we got

Brokeback Mountain. And that right there is kind of revealing in a way that is unintentional to these people where it's like as soon as you see a gay relationship on screen, your only point of reference is Brokeback Mountain. Like that's it. From like 2006,

that's your only point of, like, it is, it is nothing like Brokeback Mountain at all, other than the fact that there's two gay characters that are in love with each other. Yeah. That it is literally nothing like, you could not name more different properties

in terms of just romances other than just what their genders are. So that's kind of like unintentionally revealing is all I want to comment on. Like that's kind of weird. Not, you know, just kind of bizarre things. to say. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. It's not the insult they think it is either because it's like, yeah, that's an excellent film too, you know, so it's like, what are you even trying to,

yeah, what are you trying to say? Yeah, that stuff is just, you know, pathetic. Yeah, it is. I thought we were kind of past it, but I guess not, whatever, just like laugh it off. It's like, just dumb. You look? Yeah. Yeah. What about like, like, this is like really dorky stuff at this point, But there were like little changes here and there that I was just confused by like in the second episode when Tess dies They kind of add the sequence where a clicker like Almost like kisses her right What was that? Yeah, I didn't know yeah, I didn't know if that was like opening a door One for the boys

Some new clicker lore or some creepy shit, but it was it just seemed like for that one moment and that was that was them veering off from The source material for something I didn't really get compared to like oh yeah i didn't get that either yeah it's not it's not a perfect show i got my issues with it like that yeah yeah that was a weird scene and why do you think they changed the fact they made like a an effort a distinct effort to make it so it wasn't airborne anymore because remember in the game there were like all these sequences where they had to go on masks and go through like the sports oh yeah i think that's just because of the narratively working with masks and Yeah, they would have to...

You don't see the actors as much. I mean, yeah, the masks would be annoying, and then they would have to account for a lot of things narratively. It would just open it up to just more, like, oh, why don't they, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, why aren't they doing that? Yeah. Yeah, and they've gone for more of like a hive mind type thing now,

which supposedly they're going to, they're going to, like, elaborate on in future seasons or whatever. I could see that being like an interesting different slant or whatever. Yeah. There's ways they could take it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'm glad that this show exists. And I'm very interested in seeing what happens.

And so, yeah, I mean, supposedly season two of the show will come, I don't know, either 2025, maybe late 2024. But now I'm just kind of interested like, it's going to take them a while, a few years at least, for them to even get to the end of season two. Will we have a third game by that point? Will there be a point where they intentionally deviate a la Game of Thrones? Will there be, you know, like, will there be more pressure getting the games out on a certain time because of needing to catch up with a show in terms of like production schedules. Yeah, I don't think a game can keep up with a show.

I think the show will just probably go off and do it something. Because it is so, like, what's the fuck's going to happen? There might be pressure to alter what happens in part two, like really play around with it more. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, this is like a huge success now. So yeah, they might really like play around with that to try and get all the water from that stone that they can. Yeah.

Very interesting either way. Yeah. Enjoying it. Glad other people are enjoying it. And let's see just how nonsense and toxic the discourse gets in a couple of years. Oh, man. Yeah, it's just going to be revisiting all that one again, man. We're doing it again.

Yeah. The last Jedi. Well, if you had to, if you had to rate it on IMDB, like, what would you give the show? The show? From what I've seen so far, like an eight. I would give it episode three and nine, but yeah, like everything overall, I would say like an eight. Uh-huh. I think I'm exactly there with you, yeah.

Yeah, everything is like the acting, the production, the story is just baseline very good. It is an eight and I have ten for me. Wow. I'm shocked you guys rated it so high, giving your criticisms. But yeah, I'd give it four stars too. Yeah, but I guess this is just coming from, I really like, in 2013 when that game hit, like it really, hit me a certain way. So it's like just comparing that. Yeah, me too. This game, this, this didn't hit me nearly the same way. But again, is that just, I don't know what that is.

It could just be that I've experienced it or maybe. Yeah. That's why we, I guess we spent most of the conversation like in the nuance between like just the little details that via here and there. That's kind of just a nod to how good the original kind of source material is, to be honest. And that's what the nerds want to hear. They want to hear us talk about the details, the details, the Deets. Yeah. So I think honestly, if like my biggest takeaway is that I want to play the game again, that's kind of a result for me anyway, you know. Oh yeah, I'm going to play it again. Not the second one. Man, that second one, I wish I could, which is such a slog. It's just so long. I'll do it. I'll do it. I really like the gameplay in that game. And I would like to, I'm interested enough in the story, even though it didn't work for me. But like, it's one of those things where it's like, I'd like to know how I feel. feel about it after having sat on it for a couple years. It's like the house that Jack Bill, you know? Where I'm like, I had a very strong hate to that.

But part of me wants to watch it again and see how I feel about it, knowing what to expect. Because sometimes knowing what to expect and just kind of accepting it for what it is, can change how you feel about it when you're anticipating it in a different way. But I don't know. I have no idea. Yeah. I did replay Last of Us Part 2 like a year or two ago. And yeah, the story didn't work for me, but I did find things to like in, especially the environmental artwork.

It's actually incredible in that game. It's insane, the level of detail. It's off to you for playing that whole game again. I know, it's because I got like the PS5 and I wanted to play it with like a better frame rate and see how it looked. I also like a good challenge. I played through all the uncharted games on brutal difficulty, which is a lot of fun. Yeah. I don't know if I'm up for the challenge of no deaths grounded.

Like, if you die once, you die forever, like, and you have to restart your play. I don't know if I want to do that. But I feel like I could do at least, you know, all, you know, some sort of challenge on it. That could be fun. I like the gameplay in those games. Yeah, you can do. Yeah. The clicker gameplay loops like really fun and really tense.

I think I did grounded on my last Not grounded, you know You can't die but Like grounded AI or whatever Because you can alter like You can alter the difficulty settings Like for certain things So like you can turn it like easy for ammo

Collection or like looting But you can make it hard for the AI I think I did some like that Oh is this in the remake one Yeah the remake Yeah that's cool Yeah it's like Yeah they've got

Difficulty options options, yeah. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah. This makes me wonder, though, like, uh, when, when there's a big success like this, they're going to be copycats, what, what studios are like, what are they looking at? What IPs are, are they're available to milk? Because I think PlayStation, like, they're doing a twisted metal show.

They've got like, uh, what? Really? They've got a bunch of weird projects. Yeah, yeah, Will Arnette's going to be that ice cream clown or whatever. What? I'm serious. That's great. I love it.

They're doing a Ghost of Sushima movie. Like, PlayStation seems, they did that uncharted movie that, like, really was bad from a year ago. Yeah, that was garbage.

Very a ghost of Sishima movie. I wonder how good that'll be. So they clearly see the potential in this, because I think there's been like a direct correlation with, like, sales of Last of Us Part 1 and 2 after the, like, crazy hit success of the show.

Because I didn't quite see it, like, I thought it would be like good being an HBO show and everything, but I didn't expect it to gel with the general public like so, so well. But yeah, I'm happy for them. Yeah, I am too. Awesome. Because it's something I like. Yes.

Yeah. Good stuff. We also watched a film that I recommended called Dial M for murder, directed by Alfred Hitchcockook. Never heard of him Who's that? Alfredo Alfred Hitchcock Noted famous man

We've never talked about a Hitchcock movie I know right So I've seen But you know it's good It gives us like It's credibility Which Hitchcocks have we all seen I think I've seen

I've seen a decent amount Yeah Wait let me pull up my letter box Psycho the birds Vertigo And now this star Okay. It's good like we cover these now, like, because we're on like episode 100 gives us like some credibility.

I've always felt like, you know, like if you have like 100 episodes of a podcast, you're like more credible. So yeah, we get to like this really classic movie. But like we get to Hitchcock like now. Yeah. But yeah, Adam, I cut you off. What were you saying? I've seen Vertigo and Rear Window in this one. And Rear Window is my favorite by quite a bit.

Rear Windows great. Yeah. I like this one more than Vertigo, actually. I vertigo Vertigo is great too A lot of people really love I thought the ending was laughable

What about Psycho Psycho? Well the problem is I saw the stupid remake And Why'd you do that Because I was like fucking You saw it first

14 or something I don't know Vince Von Was it a mistake Or was that Was that a mistake Or on purpose You did that

I was 14 And I saw Psycho at the deep TV store and I rented it and it was like kind of bad. You're like, what the fuck is this? I heard it was the best. I heard it's the best movie ever. What the fuck is this shit? I was somewhere

between the age of 13 and 15. I don't think I had the original film in mind as like a, oh, I know that this is a film from like the 60s or something. I just saw the name Psycho and I was like, oh, this is a, like I probably assumed this is a classic or something or like, I don't know. Like,

I couldn't tell you what my mindset was, but I watched it and it was bad. And so I don't know, I'll watch the original at some point. Like everyone's seen the shower scene, even if they haven't seen the entire original film. It's one of those osmosis movies. It's one of those things where it's like so in pop culture that I'm like, oh, I'll probably love it when I watch it. But I don't, like, I don't feel compelled to watch it because I kind of, I feel like I know what it is. You know?

Whereas I'm more compelled to watch things when I'm curious about what they are. Whereas I kind of... Yeah. You know? Does that make sense? Anyway, so yeah, I'll watch Psycho at some point. Thanks, Gus Van Sands. I've seen a few Alfred Hitchcox.

I've seen Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window. The Birds, of course, how can you forget the Birds? That's what Bird Demic is a rip-off... I've heard the Birds is kind of silly. It's good. It's silly. It's silly concept, but it's like better than Bird Demic. I mean, it's not a high board.

but it's a good, it's like, you know, that concept executed by Alfred Hcock, so it's a good movie. North Boy, Northwest, I've seen that. I've seen rope. That's supposed to be good, yeah. And I've seen Dial M for Murder. I think I've seen the man who knew too much,

but that was, like, I saw it when I was like 10 years old or whatever, you know? I don't remember anything about it. The others I've revisited a few times and so on. I'd probably say Vertigo is actually my favorite or Psycho. Well, Rear Windows up there. I thought rear window is, like, incredible. The one thing that really sticks at,

so what's interesting is rear window, and Dial M for Murder were released the same year. They're both in 1954. Yeah. But they feel so different for me. Like, I really enjoyed Dial M for Murder a lot. But Rear Window, the one element that really sticks out about it for me and which elevates it above Dial M for Murder is just how much they were able to capture on screen visually.

Like that whole back terrace or whatever you want to call it. Like that whole. environment and just like the camera movements and just the wide shots and you're capturing like I love the look of that film so much and that's what really helps it for me to be my favorite hitchcock film uh dial in for murder feels like it could be like a easily like a stage play kind of yeah because it was right it's it's mostly dialogue and sure there are some interesting shots in it you know sometimes we get like an overhead kind of like high angle shot, but for the most part, it's not all that varied. Not saying it looks bad. It's not

like, oh, like a Judd-Apato film or anything. Yeah. But it doesn't really have, it doesn't really use the opportunity as much as rear window does to showcase some like really incredible visuals. Sure. I thought it looked great though. This movie. It looks great. There's real like utility to like how it's shot and whatever. Sorry, I was just going to say like, you mentioned the year this was made, 1954 and I said like I had to like take a like I was taking like taking like taking like taking a back for a sec

you know because it's like yeah this is like made in the 50s but like the craft of this it's just so yeah like immaculate you know it feels like something made easily 20 years later or like

because I almost feel inverse as to what you were saying just then Adam despite that claustrophobic setting I feel like it was visually consistently actually quite varied and it was all feeding into this kind of claustrophobic like yeah it does feel like a play but it also doesn't like enhance the story

it didn't it didn't like boil down into like a like the environment didn't feel positive to me and the and none of the way it was presented did I was just saying mostly in comparison to rear window okay I was saying rear window utilized it a lot more okay well just the fact they're out the same year and everything and yeah it elevated it a lot more and rear window was also like very like one location mostly Okay, yeah, I haven't checked that one out yet. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I did really like this because you mentioned the kind of play aspect of it. It feels very much like one because it is one and it's based on one. That's also like the advantage of the movie. It is a strong story, a strong script, like fun characters and the kind of Hitchcock tropes you'd expect with the tension and the story flopping here and there and the voyeurism of it all. Yeah. Yeah, I thought this was great. just nice and snappy too, like the runtime of his movies tend to be quite, just to the point.

Mm-hmm. Just show, just visually, just communicate exactly all they need to, and it's just like in and out, just perfect. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it really, uh, after the first, like, 15 minutes, it's just, it's so intriguing and it's so, right. It takes you along on a ride, narratively. It's a good plot. Yeah.

Like really, like compelling, like... The conundrum. It's just people talking, really. The whole movie is people talking in one room. And yet there's just this intrigue. Yeah, this suspense. You're just like, you're hanging on every word. And it's just because the script is so good.

It's like, it's got a good structure. It's like, you know, it's always moving forward. There's always like intrigue and something going on. And it's just like really compelling storytelling. Yeah, like Halford Hitchcock might be the most. most important director, like, ever. Just like the way he transformed cinema and the way he told stories, the way he told these thrillers.

And I don't know, he just kind of shattered a lot of expectations in the way he made his films. And his craft was just like, like we're saying, impeccable. And really, yeah, really well done here, especially. I was just looking at his filmography earlier. And it spans, what, like six decades or something. Like, it's prolific to the point where it's like, it's mind-blowing. Yeah, he's an inspiration to every great director.

It's especially interesting, though, seeing how, like, of course, like, just living and working in the time he did, going from silent films early on and shifting into audio, but then retaining that, like, focus on the visuals that, like, obviously you have to focus on working in, like, the silent era. And just, like, the evolution of that over time and what it was. able to do with that. It's like so, so impressive and ground breaking. And the same with color,

too. You know, the way he uses color in his films is really impressive and, you know, very notable. His movies look excellent. You know what's? And yeah, I just feel like there was a different way of making a movie before Alfred Hitchcock,

you know? Like, he just kind of transformed the way people directed movies. Yeah, incredibly influential to all these filmmakers we know now, like Spielberg and Luke, you know, everybody everybody he's one of the most formative important directors ever this film was shot to be

released in 3d oh really yeah that explains the lamp thing right and i have a 3d blu-ray of it but i didn't watch it in 3d because i just didn't want to it's a 3d blu-ray of it yeah like i have a 3d that's silly that was the only way i could get a blu-ray it was like the combo 3d regular that is so funny dial m for murder in 3d but you don't you don't have a 3d tv though uh i do have a 3d projector and I just didn't feel like using it. Oh, okay. All right. So you can watch it in 3D.

I can, but I've lost the interest of ever doing it. It's just such a, like, yeah, the fad is over. I don't give a shit about it. Yeah, I don't see what that would add to this film specifically. Yeah, there's not a lot of shots that look like they're trying to be, like, a 3D thing. And it's just, it's people talking in an apartment. I'm not saying that as a thing. I know, right?

Like, it's a weird choice. Yeah, it's not like life of pie or something. No, I was surprised to read that too because it was like, what? I guess their money grubbing knows no bounds. Of course they were trying to push it this early, but in the 50s, they were on this 3D nonsense. Do you think Hitchcock like approved of that or he was like fighting with the studio? Can you imagine? Yeah, who knows?

I don't want it 3D. I have no idea. Well, something Hitchcock always does in his movies that I love is he always has a cameo. He has a little cameo in this movie, if you noticed. Yeah, the little photograph there. Yeah. That was funny. Yeah.

I love his cameos. Yeah, just like good dialogue, good story. Like, you know, even though it's just people talking, you're really invested in what they're saying because there's like this murder plot. You're like, uh, and you, it's like, it's really clever actually like how the guy like tricks the dude into killing his wife. Because you're like, he basically figured out every way. Yeah. It was like every way in which the guy could like, he's like, I'm going to blackmail you and every way which you can get out of it is like bad. Like I trapped you basically in this situation. And it's like, I was like, oh, this interesting. Like that's something that could like happen to someone now. It might be a bit far fetched. But, you know, it's like something that could happen. It's like a plausible concept because it's just like these two characters in an apartment. And then yeah, like just where it builds from there, like the murder happens. But then like the guy dies and then it becomes about the war. woman and her trial and how she's like convicted of this crime. It's like what I love about a story. It's like it takes all these turns. It's not just like the same shit the whole movie.

Yeah. You know, even though it's in the same location, there's all these different like character dynamics that shift. And it's very interesting to watch, you know. And that's how you like, you keep something compelling when it's just two characters talking or three characters talking. Yeah. And it keeps like changing focus of the characters and you get like the investigator coming towards the end and kind of switch for it. Yeah. It's really, it's really, it's really, you can't like predict where it's going. Yeah, yeah. When he comes into the story, him and the boyfriend or like her, you know, the guy she's

seeing. Yeah, the guy she's seeing like those two characters, they come in like later on into the movie, right? Because like that first part, just like those two dudes and the wife and you think like the murder might happen and might not. You don't know where it's going. And that's where like the suspense. Like that's why it's such a good story.

You don't know where like it's going to go at that point because it could go either direction. Yeah. And then it goes into like, oh, it goes into her trial and all that. They introduce these new characters. And it keeps things like fresh. You're just like always on, you know, you're always on the edge of your seat because you're always like, there's always just something happening.

That's interesting. Yeah. In the story. And it always avoids like the obvious beats that it could go down, you know? Like the plan goes wrong. And then it's like, oh, so he's going to have to like murder her? What is that just where this is going to go? It's like, nope.

Like the way it wraps up especially towards the end, like when he just gets outsmarted by the writer and the investigator work together. Yeah. This is a spoiler discussion. Oh yes now yeah full spoilers you've had 70 years to watch it

but yeah the way it wraps up at the end with that main character like he doesn't like break down in tears or get angry he just like

offers everyone a drink I love that character I loved how like once the murder plot didn't happen he just kind of kept going with it and kept trying to make it work in his favor he kept lying

psyched yeah I love that fucking character that's so psycho right The way that like the investigation and justice system and like all of these precautions that are in my mind that should be taking place that just weren't considered for a film in the 50. Like at the end when he's offering everyone drinks, I'm like, he could have poisoned them. Don't take it. Don't let him pour his own drink.

You know, like, oh, I'm about to go to jail. I'm going to pour myself a drink. Does anybody want to drink? Like, no, you got to stop him right now. And then like the investigator just casually admitting to like breaking and entering two different. homes like oh yeah I use the key here and his girlfriend's place I okay well that would I don't know if that would be admissible in court and then Grace Kelly's character just like oh I'm about to be executed like what a quick justice is presumably some time has passed but she's about to be executed right

away and then the day before he's like oh wait I've got some new information and the investigator on his own just has so much sway that he's like oh yeah I could just stop you from being executed he just calls up somebody like oh yeah well let's take her off of death row I know she was being executed tomorrow, but we're just going to have her free walking around over here and so she can help us figure out the rest of this crime based on a hunt. Based on a hunch he had. It's very silly. Because people didn't think of it.

Not only did people, I'm not sure if it was necessarily like, oh, just people didn't think about it. It might just also be one of these things of movies kind of influencing people's ideas and expectations, creating like falsehoods of what people think about the justice system like everybody has all these weird like like oh you can't you can't report a missing person because it hasn't been 72 hours it's like okay well you can that's just something that movies have said for a while and you believe it because it's been in a movie where it's like media can kind of like influence how people think about it without it being accurate i don't know but yeah there was a lot of that in this movie yeah we're just like general understanding like if you rewind back

that far like DNA was like discovered in like the 50s you know like it's but we're winding back and there's that whole bit towards the end where there's the the one of the the police officers has to carry a handbag oh yeah I was gonna I was just about to mention that yeah you got stuff that away into a different bag so no one thinks you're because of course it was like he literally says don't go down the yeah they'll arrest you you're gonna get arrested I was like whoa go. Yeah, pretty uncomfortable, right.

I think that that's probably what they were hinting out, but the alternate way to interpret that would be, you'll get arrested because someone thinks you stole the purse. That's another way to interpret it. But yeah, I think they were kind of hinting at the gay thing. No, why would a police officer steal a purse? Hmm. You'll be arrested. Yeah.

For carrying a purse. Just that whole setting, you know. Just a little window into the 50s. I think it wasn't that long ago, but it's also that's crazy. I made a note of that too. You have the handbag line out because I was like, whoa, where the fuck did that come from? But yeah, it's like aside from dated shit like that, I mean, the movie, it just comes with the time.

I mean, we see so much of that kind of shit. I mean, it is technically just accurate to the time. Like, it is what they would be doing. Like, it was illegal, you know? Or it technically true, right? I love the title, Dial-in for Murder. That's such a great title. It is, yeah. We have some good posters out there.

Yeah, it's fun. It's great. It fits in the movie perfectly. You're not like, oh, why is it called that? It makes sense why it's called that. Like, if you watch the movie, it's perfect, perfect title. Yeah. I love the way that the characters were portrayed in this film. So, like, combination of the acting and the writing, you know, just like the intent of how these characters are behaving. There's a lot of character to them. Yeah. Their accents are fun. And just the way that, like, They are. You know, I guess we call him the main character. Like, he, the villain, he is just casually, like, wiping off fingerprints in the middle of his conversation and, like, the fake pretending to drop the letter so that the other guy gets his fingerprints on it. And, yeah, I loved the inspector.

He reminded me a bit of John Cleese, just how he was kind of handling his character, was kind of interesting. I like the, the ends of the movies, like, calming his story. mustache. That's the very end of the movie. That's the last thing you see. That was very funny. I like that. His, uh, the actor's name was John Williams, which was fun. Yeah, I saw that in the credits and so. What? That's not the John Williams, is it? Yeah, it's not anything. Wow, John Williams is a great actor. Who would have thought? Speaking of John Williams, I thought the music was well handled for the most part, but there were scenes near the end where I was just like, what are

you doing? Like the tone and the fact that it's existing in those scenes was just kind of off-putting. The first half of the movie I thought was perfect. It was really sparingly used and when it was used, it was appropriately toned. But it's like, there's this weird kind of like, what's the word? It was like silly or just like too light-hearted. It's a bit comedic. Yeah, when they were kind of discovering things. It's just the time. It's like when we were talking about Nospheratu. It's like just music from the time was different. Yeah, that's what I was thinking about it was like, yeah, we're so like spoiled now, however many years later with all these different expectations for like...

Different expectations. How you'd implement music of this style, that's kind of how it was coming across to me, yeah. Yeah, well, it definitely has a style, like Hitchcock. The, like, the flourishes, like, when you see your trial or whatever, and it's just like a purple background or... I don't remember exactly what color, but it's just like a colored background. And I was like... Yeah, that was a cool.

Yeah, that was cool. I really enjoyed that little moment because, yeah, it's mostly set in the apartment. So whenever it leaves that, they try to do something like visually creative for. Yeah, that was a cool way to show, passing of time, actually, that little sequence. Yeah. Yeah, that was super cool. I like when you see the, like, the husband or whatever outside of the house, it's like through a window. Like, the characters looking at him through a window.

I thought that was like a clever, like. way of filming that rather than like I don't know just from outside or something there's like all these creative choices that you don't really that you take for granted I feel

that like you don't think about but when you see them in the movie it's like oh that was the perfect choice to make their the way they frame that the way they you know delivered that dialogue yeah it's just really fun movie

it's really entertaining I'd say for like a Hitchcock movie it's I mean all of his movies are great but it's a very entertaining movie. And it reminded me a lot of rear window from the one location, but also of the film Rope, which I think, I don't think you guys have seen. But that's like an all one location movie too. It's like a murder mystery. And that was 1948, I think. That was like even earlier than this. Yeah. And they're both, yeah, they're both great. I think that one's done in like three takes

or something like that. It's like three shots. That's interesting. So that was super cool. Yeah. But yeah, this one, I guess this one connects more with people. I probably prefer this film, honestly. It's just like a little more entertaining. Like, the pacing was so great.

It was like so interesting the whole time. Yeah, I'm glad you recommended this because I've never seen it. And yeah, I thought it was great. I loved it. Yeah, I had a great time of this. Yeah, I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. They'd expect nothing less from my boy Hitchcock, though.

Your best friend, Alfred Hitchcock. Yeah, it had a really great hook and it just, the intrigue from the get-go was just, it grabs you and then you're interested in seeing how it plays out. And then, yeah, over the course of, it was almost like two hours, wasn't it? Let's see. An hour 45. An hour 45, yeah. Just about. Yeah.

Like maybe, personally, the first 15 minutes were like, it was like, it was like, they should pick up at some point and then as soon as I felt as if it should it did. But there was a lot of exposition. See for me, yeah, as soon as the husband comes home and you figure out the like dynamic then I was like in. That's what they took for me. Yeah. There was some stuff that they had to set up

but it was all important. Yeah, once they got into the murder mystery and all that or the murder plot, that's when it got super good. Yeah, love the movie. That was fantastic. 8 out of 10 All right solid I'll give it a

A 5 out of 5 stars Because it's Hitchcock I can't give my boy anything less Are you saying that there will never be a Hitchcock film That you see that you give anything lower There might be some that aren't as good But this is one of the This is one of his top

This is one of my top Or not one of my top movies This is one of his top movies as far as I know As long as you look on letterbox It was weird Because it's not in these, like, I get these Hitchcock collections of, like, Blu-ray and 4K Blurays, and this one's never in them. I had to get this one separately.

Yeah. Because there's just so many. He's just got so many great movies that you can't even, like, collect them all. Because I have those collections, too. I have, like, I have, like, three different ones. There's some, like, weird or obscure ones in some of these collections. I thought this one would be, but... Yeah, I know, right?

But even his obscure movies, like, I just watched Rope on, like, a whim. And I'm like, wow, that was fucking awesome. That's, like, way better than, like, like, Something you'd see, I don't know, like half the shit that comes out today even. Like, I'm so impressed by how old like these movies are and that they're still like so interesting that they still work as well as they do. Yeah, they shows me they really understood. Yeah. And he understands like writing that craft of like just telling a good story, writing a plot that just like moves forward.

It's like, oh, what a relief. And it's not too long either. It's just complex enough. It's just go everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. favor all the dialogue the story and it's not like too long it's not too short it's just like the

perfect length just get it like everything you need out of it yeah yeah yeah I didn't say my rating but I don't know I'm sick I'm sorry probably right between you guys being the centrist here and I guess a nine out of ten four and a half star for me maybe reassess once I see your rear window because that does sound interesting yeah I love that saying about that yeah rear window's great yeah that's my favorite hitchcock for sure. I don't think your score for this will go down, but rear window is, yeah, that's a five star. I don't think I've seen an Alfred Hitchcock that isn't a five star at this point. Hmm. Suspicious. All of them I've seen are five stars. Question time. Okay, we're

we're ready. I guess we're good. Question time. Oh nice, we're singing it in this time. Yes. I've got, do you remember that artist, I think they were called me. and they were just kind of doing the Freddie Mercury thing. Remember? I can be around. No, I don't know. What you mean doing the Freddie Mercury? Oh, her.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I remember. Yeah. Her? I thought it was a guy. Well, whatever they are. Oh, I guess I've heard, like, so many covers and shit. I don't even know the original, too, honestly. Yeah, because I, that's been stuck in my head every time that I'd pull up Dial M for murder,

because there's a lyric where the, They talk about Grace Kelly, and Grace Kelly's in it. It'd be like, I can be like, Grace Kelly. And now it's just in my head off. And it's just pissing me up. I never even wanted to hear that song. It's just on the radio, and I worked in customer service. Sometimes it helps if you just, like, listen to the song in full.

No. So you can, like, really? Does that not work for you? No, it does not. No, it does not work for me. Really? Because I had the, you had that conversation about the black eyed peas. a few episodes again, you know, the original, let's get it started.

That's what it was. I saw a clip of, um, yeah, it was like a clip from MTV from like 2003 or something. And it was like, it was preface of like this, how badly could this have aged? And it was like Chris Rock making this like joke about the Olson twins. And then they come out on stage to the unfiltered, let's get it started. Oh, that's so good. Is that on YouTube? Oh, man, it was, I was dying.

It was like a clip someone sent me Oh, send it to me It was absolutely golden Yeah, put in the Discord I want to see it Yeah I'm a terrible person I'm a terrible person for wanting to see this

It is funny It is very funny Oh it's fucking hilarious It's too good It's just like It's take it's really It builds a certain perspective to like see how quickly things change, you know, because that's like all of our childhoods, basically.

That's like, what we were. Comedy is illegal now. Oh, yeah. Well, like in mean girls, we were watching this, like, saying like the N-word and like all kinds of, like, crazy shit. Most comedies, like, from that area would have all kinds of, like, slurs and... Well, like, it's fucking mean girls. I didn't expect it from that. Yeah, that's the thing.

It was so, like, innocuous. Mm-hmm. Okay, I've sent a message to try and get this sent to me, but in the meantime. Let's do some questions from the Sardonicast community. If you want to leave your own questions, first answer in the future, head over to the suggestion thread in the subreddit. Just like, oh, let's do this one from Ethan Mars origami. Oh, God. You know what that's a reference to you, right?

No. No, tell me. Heavy rain. Oh, Ethan Mars is the main character's name and the origami killer. I've never actually played heavy rain. Oh shit. Sean! You gotta do it.

Yeah. You gotta play that. We're speaking of great video game stories. I mean... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sean!

Jason. Yeah, but your favorite board game? Oh shit! Well, so I... This is interesting because I've recently just started getting into like modern board games in the past like few years, I guess. Oh, yeah? Because everybody, you know, everybody's. played the classic like monopoly or like risk or like all these yeah old ones but there's actually a lot of

really cool innovative new board games being made that are a lot of fun and they can seem like intimidating at first of like oh wow this is like complicated there's a lot of rules but all you have to do is just like read through the rulebook once do like a little practice thing and then it's like okay now you know it and it's really simple and you just follow the rules of like the cards or whatever they tell you to do essentially. There's one that I like called Lords of Waterdeep, and I have the expansion for that, and that's really fun. And then my brother introduced me also to a one called Terraforming Mars,

which I've played a couple times now, and is also really, really fun, but apparently like getting all the expansions for it, like if you wanted to include all of them you wouldn't be able to fit it on like any table so like you'd have to like play it on the floor or something like apparently that goes like fucking hard I'm kind of curious about that but just play with one expansion at a time sort of thing

yeah oh and I played the binding of Isaac card game like a couple a few nights ago actually that was pretty fun nice nice so I'll say you know it's a good time for me to plug this uno like contacted me and they sent me like this Marvel, like, version of Uno. It's Uno, but with, like, this added element of, like, kind of characters with special cards, and they're all, you know, Spider-Man, Captain America, whatever. And it's basically Uno, but you have special abilities, too. And yeah, that was a lot of fun.

There was actually a really cool game that they sent me. So, like, thank you, Mattel. I really appreciated that. They just sent me it for free. Yeah. They didn't say I had to make a video or anything. They just, like, sent it to me, like, because they're like, we like your stuff. Here you go. I'm like, thank you. And it was Marvel theme, too. They're getting their money's worth because you talked about it on a podcast. Yeah, so at least poke that. So check out Marvel Uno. But yeah, that being said, other games I love, but we're at board games. You mentioned risk. I've had some really good games of risk. I go on, you know, days sometimes, especially that Game of Thrones risk. I don't know if you've ever played that. That's a lot of fun, the Game of Thrones version of Risk.

It's just risk, but, you know, the lands of whatever they're called, Westeros. And it's, yeah, it's really cool. You know what's actually even also really cool about board games like Risk is now a lot of these classic things have like console adaptation. So I think we played it like on the switch or something. And it was just so much more streamlined because it's just like. I played it on my phone. Yeah, a lot of things that take longer when you're playing it. physically or just like oh it just happens really quickly oh yeah yeah yeah like the dice rolls and

like moving the guy yeah it's like oh it takes forever we're like people messing up the rolls and then you don't have to worry if you're doing like in a legal move when you're doing it like digitally too it'll just not let you yeah it just does all that shit for you yes right exactly uh-huh i definitely agree with you like i like the automation of those kind of video game board games like risk and and monopoly i've been playing a bit of chess just like on mobile, like if I'm in a in a cinch or whatever. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

That's the reason it's good on there. Are you good? Oh, I'm not good, no. Like, I never really played chess much, but I just figure it's a pretty good app for it. Like, it's fun to go try and improve. There's a good Steam game. I think it's called Tabletop Simulator. Yes.

I want to double check, but it is called that. It just have like every, yeah, it's just every game. Like, you can basically not every game, but it's like enough tools to make your own custom games. So basically everyone's modded in their own version of risk or their own. Yeah, I've played like custom games made by my friends, you know, with these weird rules. Like I can't even tell you like some of the weird games like we played on tabletop simulator. But yeah, it's like stuff like that, like stuff they just introduced to me that day and like, oh, let's play it. And yeah, in addition to like risk and stuff like that.

So yeah, tabletop simulator's fun. That's if you want to play like games over Discord or Zoom. like board games, I'd say that's a great way to do it. So I got, uh, I got two favorites. Lies Dice. I'm addicted to Lies Dice. What a game. What is that?

Yeah. It's, uh, everyone has like, they start with five die and they hide them under a cup. And you've got to keep escalating the number saying like, oh, four fives. And the next person has to say, well, six, six is. And until someone calls you out for being a liar and then you count up, how many of the number that was shouted out and you throw a dice in the middle if you lose and yeah, it's just really fun.

Oh, cool. Lires dice. That's amazing and so is the game Boulder Dash. I played that a lot growing up. It's like we've got to like, you pick up a card with like a crazy word on it and the word does actually exist and you've either got to like make up as a group, the definition of the word or what the word means

or whatever and try and convince everyone. Yeah, that's what. as well. Yeah, I see you here. You reminded me when I was very young. I don't remember how old I was under the age of 10. My parents got Yatzi, and I was like trying to figure out how to play it. And they were just like, no, you just like shake it up and then roll the dice. I'm like, okay.

And so I was just like following along. And then I rolled the dice and it was all sixes. And they were like, oh, you won. And then we didn't even play a second game. And I still don't know how the fuck the game works. Really? Yeah. Apparently I got Yatsi and I just, I still don't even know how to play.

That's great. I have a 100% win streak on that game and I will never play another. I'm retiring from Yatsi. Okay, guys, I've got the MTV clip if you want to see it. Oh, please. Yeah. I'll post the discourse. Yeah.

That's so funny. Oh, that's great. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I swear, like, was that song, I'm trying to think. I wonder if that was licensed to certain films and made it in the cut of the film before they decided it's, we should do a radio edit.

I wonder if that happened. Yeah, I don't know. Did they, like, play that on the radio? Yeah, I don't know when that tweak was made. Yeah. Because it seemed like it was just everywhere, to be honest, like that version. I'm going to look up the Wikipedia page to Let's Get It Started. Yeah.

That rewrite of history is hilarious. Like, you can't even listen to it on Spotify anymore. Damn. The Wikipedia page doesn't have like a that part of it on it. Like, what the fuck? Okay, what if I search, let's get our slurred? I think they've tried to just remove it from the history books over here. That's information that should be there.

Why would that like... I need people like us remember. Yeah, we can't memory hole this shit. We need a documentary. Netflix, what the fuck? Give me a documentary on the shit. Somebody, you know, that would make for an interesting series. Not just on that song, but like interesting censorship over the years.

Yeah, stuff they're trying to hide. You get some Disney ones. You know, you could have like an entire Netflix series about that. You could talk about Song of the South. You could talk about the original Fantasia. You could talk about Seleau Greens, uh, forget you. Just like, it would be cool to like interview him and just be like, so how much money do you think you made?

What? Was it the right decision? And he's just like wearing his like entire gold outfit in cane. He's like, yes. I'm just like quiet. I don't even know what to say to that. Yeah. It's just a little lost from the past.

It's shocking. It's like satire Yeah, it doesn't seem real But like that Oh my god No It doesn't seem real Holy shit

Damn Yeah Okay Somebody write a fucking article About let's get arslerd Please Because I need Like that's it

I would like to read The history Yeah Which needs to be cleaned up It should We should at least have a list Of every use of it Before it got

Nerfed Right It was probably on like Cartoon Network or something. No, probably. It was probably in like a Go-Gert commercial. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

It's like how Fred Flintstone used to like smoke cigarettes during like ads. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. That's so good. What a time. That is funny. It's like, what the fuck?

Is this when America was great? Oh, yeah. I think it was like a little before that. Donald Trump. Yeah. trying to get us back to 2004. Let's get our slurred again. Way ahead of you.

Yeah. That's too good. Okay, we've got this one here we can do from Mobile Association 8. What do you guys' thoughts on the controversy surrounding the upcoming HBO series, The Idol? The show has had a massive creative overhaul following the departure of filmmaker Amy Simets. Her take would have been about a troubled singer, falls victim to a predatory industry figure, and fights to reclaim her own agency. But this did not render well with The Weekend, the lead actor, co-creator, and executive producer. After her departure, creator, Sam Levinson took over as writer and director for all the episodes and wanted more graphic sex scenes and nudity, including disturbing fetishes between the female lead and the weekend's character.

Some crew members left the project. It's called The Idol. There are a few ads up. Yeah, heard all about this. Seems like an absolute disaster. Some crew members left the project due to the disturbing sexual nature of the new rewrites, let alone the long filming period following the massive creative overhaul. Yeah.

So what did Amy do? Was she the original writer? Sorry, I just... I believe she was the original director, right? Yeah. But she had to leave for some reason. Weird. Yeah, then Sam Levinson came in.

Sam Levinson. Yeah. Oh, okay, yeah. He's the one like in charge of it now Is the series director? Okay interesting So yeah If you're

She was the The lead female role in upstream color If you're curious who that is Amy Simits Oh okay Yeah She's the one who has a restraining order against

Shane Carruth Shane Carruth Yeah Yeah Yeah um you described it You described it really well Alex That's pretty much exactly Like what's going on

Yeah, I had no idea. Like, I don't have much to add to like what you said. Yeah, that's like, yeah, it's like Sam Levinson took over. He's adding like all these like really gratuitous dude scenes. Man, I just don't like Sam Levinson stuff. I've never seen something from him that I've been impressed by. And I haven't seen Euphoria yet. Oh.

It seems really, it seems really like soap opera. But I did not like Malcolm and Marie at all. So, I've any seen Euphoria. Euphoria is a lot better than Malcolm and Marie. Yeah. I like Tphoria, especially season one. He does this thing with these characters where they're all just mouthpieces for him and for his view of the world. And it's so annoying.

You could say the same thing about Charlie Kaufman, you know? Yeah, except he's a better writer, Charlie Kaufman. Exactly. So that's not inherent. Yeah. Yeah. I guess not always. But for him, it's specifically kind of grading where every character is like, okay, I get that Sam Levinson wrote it.

Yeah, this show just seems like a mess. I guess I just don't have much to add aside from I don't like Sam Levinson. I'm not surprised the Shodun is not going well. Yeah. It's something to do with like him throwing his, because I think he's still doing another season of euphoria. So it's like leveraging that, yeah, if they want another season of euphoria, they're going to be okay with what I'm doing to the production of the idol right now type thing. But he truly knows.

Yeah, interesting. Yeah, there's quite a good Rolling Stone article. about it if anyone wants to read more in depth on that one. He was executive producer on Pearl. Oh, was it? Oh, yeah, that's right. I remember seeing his name. Interesting.

Yeah. Still have to check it out. Okay. Yeah, should we do one more here? One more. Let's do this one with Eyes to the Future then from Roe Moven. What films are you looking forward to this year? Me personally, doing part two, Killers of the Flower Moon and The Killer,

are ones in particular I'm looking forward to John Wick 4 That looks like a lot of fun I'm looking forward to that Oppenheimer Rest and piece of Lance Reddick Just dying Yeah

60 Yeah I wasn't expecting that one He's so young too Yeah so young Yeah But yeah Oppenheimer Barbie

Looking forward to those We've got like a new Scorsesey I think Coming out Killers of the Flower Moon Is that Yeah killers of the flower moon I got a new Lanty mouse

Cross the Spider-verse Coming out Mm-hmm There's some things listed On IMDB that don't have Like years for the release date But so like I don't know Nosphorus is probably not coming out

Until I don't know Bo is Afraid Was the question for this year Yeah it says this year Okay Yeah let's see Yeah I thought the trailer for Boaz Afraid Looks interesting

Of course disappointment boulevard there I think that's a better name than Boe was afraid Oh yeah that's what it originally was supposed to be wasn't it? I agree. Interesting. I forgot. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, a bunch of things in my watch list that have no year that I can't. I don't even know if they're supposed to come out later this year. Maybe I should organize them. See if I can get ones that say 2023. Okay, yeah, here we go. The Flash. Very much.

Very much looking forward to the flash. Because I'm very interested in how that goes. We've got Aquaman the Lost Kingdom. Yes. Okay. Finally. Meg 2, the trench. Oh, Meg 2 is coming out?

I wonder if that one will just get delayed. The new Aquaman? Yeah, Aquaman, right? Because they're like trying to redo the DC shit now. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was looking at how Shazam's doing financially. it doesn't seem to be too impressive right now.

So yeah, then if they're going to have a bit of cold feet. And that last movie made so much money. That made it for a billion. Yeah, I did. Probably hoping for the same. There's a David Fincher movie coming out

called The Killer with Michael Fastbender. Yeah. I guess that's what the comment was saying about. Select theaters and Netflix, Fall 2022. Okay. Tilda Swinton? Okay.

Shit. That sounds fun. Oh, cool. Yeah, that sounds. Sounds like my other. Challenger's Luca Guadagino. I had no idea what that is. Okay, cool.

There's a movie coming that I guess is already out called Inside with Willem Defoe, but I'm not... I'll check it out. I don't even know why. Oh, yeah, yeah, I saw the trailer for that. Yeah, it looks like I. Hmm. I guess we've said enough things. If we're missing anything...

Yeah, that's a good list. Let me know. Oh, past lives is supposed to be really good. that one came out I think it's Sundance but I couldn't see it because I wasn't there in person it wasn't on the digital

Ralph in the Multiverse 2 Oh is that confirmed No that's next year Okay It's not confirmed But probably next year Yeah

well some things to look forward to And then whatever I mean like we'll find out What other movies to look forward to in a few months when con film festival happens and some things show up there. And then I'll see them at TIF or whatever. Perfect.

All right. Thank you so much. Attention podcast listeners. This part of the podcast right now was actually recorded after we recorded the part that you are already listening to because due to a scheduling conflict in the next episode, Ralph will not be here. It'll just be me and Alex or Alex and I. And so we're recording this part.

the episode, the episode later, because we're recording a bunch early anyway because of other things happening in April. So we're going to do a different recommendation. We're saving Ralph's recommendation for the episode after. And so we're swapping Alex is going to recommend something. What is it? Yeah, so save Ralph's one and I figured, why not throw the Prince of Egypt out there, 1998, DreamWorks. Ooh. Yeah. I haven't seen that yet. I definitely We're definitely not about to record the episode where I've already seen it

Anyway, if you don't want to be spoiled For the Prince of Egypt, 1998, Watch it before the next episode These episodes come out every two weeks You can listen to them early By going to sardonicast.com Signing up for premium. It's only $2 a month.

Also patreon.com slash sardonicast. Also, we got merch. And also, there's a Sardonicast highlights channel. And now we will cut back to the previous episode you were already listening to because it had its own kind of funny outro. Okay, bye. Yeah.

If you go to patreon.com slash sardonicast or go to sardonicast.com and sign up for premium, it's only $2 a month. Either way, you get to support the show and feel good about yourself. This show is ad-free, except Ralph mentioning Mattel. Yeah, that was technically product placement. Yeah, we're fine. I don't know, yeah. Two of us didn't get paid.

I don't think you got paid. You got paid in a gift. I didn't get paid either. I got paid in a... Hey, I can bring it to Tiff. I'll bring the game to Tiff and you guys can play it so you can say, like, you got something out of it. All right. We also have a Sardonicast highlights channel that you can subscribe to on YouTube.

We also got merch. Link in the description. Buy some merch. You'll feel good about yourself for the first time in your life. Do it. All right. Thank you so much. happy

Shrek This is what you said at that time Yeah that was a dramatic pulls Happy Shrek It's all about presentation Yeah You just said it like

You know you've said it 50 times before But just that time I don't know why And I'm keeping it fresh Still Yeah It just connected that time And that's why we're still getting All right, thanks everybody. Thanks for listening.

All right. Bye. Bye. See everyone.