Sardonicast - Sardonicast 137: The Mario Movie, Alien, Aliens

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Support the Show for $2 a month and receive all future episodes early at https://sardonicast.com and https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Buy Sardonicast T-Shirts, and other merchandise at https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast. Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Sardonicast Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8AhJ0bzQgs5fb9m_ZCRqkw/featured Ralph's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ralphthemoviemaker Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/YourMovieSucksDOTorg Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Ralph's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ralphsepe Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Ralph's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ralphthemoviemaker Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Fan art: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/12is8ct/learning_pixel_art_so_thought_id_pixel_the_lads/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/a1gfmr/sardonicast_but_theyre_cartoon_lions/ https://twitter.com/JunoIsLucky/status/1648455470758375426 Timestamps: 0:00 The Mario Movie 39:18 Alien 1:15:35 Aliens 1:42:45 Questions 2:08:30 Recommendation

Three, two, one. Let's a go. I'm Chris Pratt. People call me C.P. This is Sardonicat. I'm Adam from your movie sucks also, actually. Hello. I'm Ralph the Movie Maker.

I'm Alex Machi and... Can you not get a little bit more vigor in the... Yaku! This is hype. You just didn't. fans here, aren't we? Oh, yeah. We're so hyped about this.

Oh, my God. This is the number one Nintendo podcast. Bully everyone who isn't enjoying the movie. Let's do it. That's what was happening before the movie was even out. You saw on Twitter, like, there was one critic who said, like, it's not my thing. You know, it's kind of, it was kind of boring for me personally. He never tried to make any sort of, like, you're dumb if you enjoyed it statements.

He never tried to say, like, Oh, yeah, this is not for fans or anything. And people were just fucking quote tweeting and clouting on him for this review. For a movie that wasn't even out yet? And they were like, oh, yeah. What, you think that this was supposed to be some sort of masterpiece? It's a kid's movie. And it's like, you're already getting defensive over it before it's out.

And you're making excuses for it saying, oh, well, it's supposed to be bad because it's a kid's movie. Like, holy fuck. Why do you need that validation? This is just as bad as Suicide Squad when that came out. It's not worse. I reckon this is much worse. It might be insane. Like I was seeing like quote tweets of, yeah, when those reviews like drop for the first time,

it's got like a 46 meta score and like the amount of quote tweets of like huge numbers attached to them saying things. So yeah, people just don't know how to have fun. Critics are just miserable, you know? Whereas like if it was positive, they'd be like, nice. Yeah, I hate critics. That's why I talk about their scores so much. Critics don't matter. I'm going to only talk about critics now.

Yeah. It's like what people said. the Transformers movies came out. They're like, oh, just shut your brain off. It's fun. It's for kids. It's for family. Yeah, it's big excuses for it.

Yeah. It's like what the Rock says when his movie isn't performing as well as he hoped. Ignore the critics. It's like Goddy. Yeah. The critics put out the hit. Ignore the zero rotten tomatoes. Ignore that.

Yeah. Critics are inhuman. Yeah, just kind of reeks of insecurity, you know? Ignore the fact. but not a single critic liked the movie. Yeah. Don't pay attention to that. Critics put out the head.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there is a difference between, you know, the critics and the fans. And that's that the fans of this movie were going to be fans no matter what the movie was. Most of them. Most of the ones that are, like, crying about this on Twitter, the ones that are so defensive that they can't understand if somebody has a different experience with art. Like, yeah, no shit. The critics wanted to see the movie because they wanted to see.

art because they want to have an experience with art, you know? Like, it's, you're looking at, you're looking at two different goals here for watching a movie. One of them is just, I want to be validated because this is a game I played when I was a child and I'm just a brand loyalist, apparently. It's something about Nintendo. It's just ingrained in people. And this is the thing, though, right? Like, I grew up on Mario.

I loved these games. I'm a big fan of loads of them, going back to the originals. But there's like a division in my mind. My affection and childhood nostalgia for Mario is not strong enough to overpower my feelings of illumination and their goals. Yeah. This is an illumination movie. Like, first and foremost. That's the review.

Especially with the soundtrack. Yeah. That really stood out to me the most. It felt like an illumination. Yeah. Yeah, it's distracting. It was fucking awful. Yeah.

It was like every most obvious. pick for every song ever. And it wasn't just obvious. It was like, this is just unfitting and inappropriate. This is like, if you asked an AI, what song to play in this scene. Yeah, it was like pretty obvious. Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking of the exact thing. Like, if you asked chat, GPT, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Aha, take on me. Yeah. Give me flashbacks to Zach Snyder's watchman. Yeah, with like the song selection on that. Supposedly, there was a full kind of original score that was full of like odes to songs beyond what is in there, but I don't know, I guess it was tinkered with or something.

That's more what I was expecting. Yeah, like a kind of eight-bit theme or some kind of themes like that. I think I would have preferred that. One of the best pieces of Mario music is called Gusty Garden Galaxy from Mary Galaxy, and they actually play it in the credits of this movie. Nice. While I sat there, kind of like with my head on my hands, I heard it playing with my ears worked up. And it was like, oh, oh, wow, that's cool.

So they do know this exists. They just didn't want to put it in the movie. Yeah, that would take an effort and, you know, to coordinate that. There were quite a few parts in the score where, you know, you could hear the different renditions of other sort of like, ooh, remember the underground music sort of thing? Like the bam, bam, bar, bar, you know. They did that enough for it to work. But yeah, I mean, like, just throwing in random licensed music for no reason that doesn't serve a purpose and is just like, what was that song that was played?

Was it like an ACDC song when they were building the Mario Carts? I don't remember what it was. It was like just some generic, obvious rock song of like, yeah, we're building the cars. Just be more creative, you know? There's nothing that says that just because you're a kid's movie, you can't be creative and you have to do the laziest, most obvious thing every single scene, every single moment of the script getting from point A to point B to point C in the plot.

Like, this is barely a story. It's not even a story. It's just, let's move on to the next set piece. This one's the carts. Yeah. This one's the pipes. Let's go to the next one. Woo.

This one's the, remember this shit? It's like, there's nothing. You can still include every single fucking one of those things and put effort into your script. The Lego movie put effort into its script and presentation. Right? Exactly. They're talented writers on board. They're on directors.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. It takes effort. Yeah. It's easier to just plop in a pop song that's popular. Yeah. And there's a lot of those.

What is it? Take on me. Yeah. Like that was fucking take on me, thunderstruck, no sleep till Brooklyn, Mr. Blue Sky. Yeah, like Mr. Blue Sky.

That was used better in a freaking Guardians of the Galaxy too. It's so uncreative. It's just plop a song. It's better in the Eternal Sunshine trailer. Yeah. The worst trailer ever. I am absolutely sick of the idea that people keep,

like, just these absolute fucking morons that say like, oh but it's a kids movie it's like there can be good kids movies like there are good kids movies as if there aren't any good ones there are countless of great ones they think that in order to have these set pieces and the references for them to enjoy that inherently the script has to be bad apparently the voice acting acting has to be bad I don't know why they would think that apparently like all of the music supervision has to be bad like what is wrong with these people like how is that

an excuse at all. Like, it has to be bad. It's for kids. What you're saying is you have low expectations for it because it's a kid's movie. And that's fine. If you can role play as a baby so hard that you can enjoy it as a baby, then great. Power to you. But I can't. Yeah. Let's just, let's just be honest about what this is. It's just like a string of Mario vignettes to kind of like advertise the brand, go into the transmedia space. sell like a few more games, advertise the theme part, because that's got like the whole new Donkey Kong section, so that has to be part of the movie.

Like, yeah, it just, I just need that line blurred a little bit more between it feeling like an ad or like a YouTube short. Like, I could imagine this movie just existing as like five or six shorts uploaded to Nintendo's official YouTube channel. Yeah, it felt like it could have been like an ad for one of their games. Like, not even a cutscene, but just, like, marketing for one of the games in terms of how it functioned. Mm-hmm.

Like, it was supposed to be playing at, like, E3, and you would have, like, all these soy-faced, like, cheering, like, woo! Like, whoa! They do the carts! Yeah. Why are we home? Yeah. Yeah. As far as being a kid's movie, I feel like a lot of adults saw this.

It's, like, a movie with a huge adult audience, and pulled up a indie wire article. I think this is the week it came out. 84% of the audience is 13 or older 52% of the audience is 25 or older I mean that's really yeah that's insane that's unsurprising to me and it's unsurprising to me too

and I notice that in the theater it seems like a lot of adult fans of you know Nintendo and that sort of thing so people want to say oh it's a kids movie it's a kids movie first of all the movie's made by adults which is what I always say so what the fuck is the play it's made by it's made by adults yeah I'd be more impressed if it were made by children

like children made the movie. That would be impressive. It's like, it's made for like, it's clearly appealing to an adult audience to some extent, at least fans of the games when they played it when they were a kid. And yet it is very lazy because it's illumination. And that's, it's just, you know, it's exactly what I've come to expect from illumination. When you said a Mario movie made by illumination, this is exactly like what I pictured. It's not any better or worse than that to me.

Yeah. It's like, on the. Those lines, that's like the only positive I can really bring out is that if we're just talking pure visuals here compared to their other movies, it is way more polished. There's like way more going on compared to their other movies, but that is a comparison. Sure. We're talking about some of the worst animated movies in Hollywood. Like that. Yeah, it's better than hop.

Yeah. Apart from Despicably Me One, like who's passionate about this studio, you know? Like they make stuff for babies that is supposed to be on like advertised on toilet paper, you know? Like, that's, that's their market. That's funny. I feel like, I feel like in terms of the, um, audience demographic, so lying, Lion King 2019, that was like, not for children at all and exclusively just for millennials who remember watching the movie as a kid, right?

Like, that, that's, that was essentially the target demographic. Like, it was never made for any children. Children would not be interested in seeing those, like, disgusting looking, like, uncartoony. dumb ass lions that in a dark universe and blah, blah, blah, blah. Whereas this Mario movie, I feel like it is marketed towards children, but the reason why you have this like huge demo of children and adults is because Nintendo has been making Mario games every single console for decades.

It's like, it's not just like, oh, this old thing that we have to remember that that's just trapped in our childhood. It's like, there are kids growing up with Mario today on the switch. There were kids growing up with Mario on the fucking Wii. I mean, no one had a Wii. There were kids growing up with Mario on the GameCube and the Wii and the fucking Super Nintendo and all that. You know, like, it's something that is so consistent in our culture that every generation is essentially growing up with it simultaneously. Yeah, it's an icon.

Yeah, Nintendo just makes the same games over and over. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, but that's the thing. Like, we're entering this era of all these video game adaptations. right and there is room in there there is space for it to work like we just saw The Last of Us show

it was cool make the Mario movie like the last of us show yeah that's what we're saying but it's like from a base concept level like this isn't I'm sorry I don't think this is a good idea like it no like this character doesn't really

resemble much the he's a catchphrase dispenser and that's fine I like that I think that's what he should be for the games and it's perfect for the games. It's all I would ever want or need for those games. But adapting it into a film, that's a different story. There's so much you could do if you're willing to take risks. And I know this is an illumination film.

They would never, ever, ever, ever do anything remotely risky. But there are things they could do. And there's little flashes here or there where you see, like, they show little references or bits of dialogue. Like, early on, they're referencing this, like, ad that they've made because they're, like, living in New York, which is quite funny. And yeah, there's like a throwaway line that kind of references the self-aware advertising advertisement nature of the movie. And it kind of made my eyebrow raise for a second thinking like, oh, is there going to be like a little bit more edge to this maybe?

Are they going to kind of lean into something a little bit more clever with this? But no, it's just like a throwaway line. And they don't really do anything with the humor. It's all just like the most obvious kind of stuff. Like lots of screaming jokes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The movie really isn't that.

funny. There was nothing that stood out to me. That was... You didn't like the Peaches song? No, I didn't. He said peaches more than once. It sounded like Jack Black. You know Jack Black. It sounded like him. Oh, that was the song Bowser's

sang or whatever. Yeah, he said peaches and he said it more than one time. Yeah. Sorry. Man, I didn't... Yeah. No, it's fine. Sorry. I'll let you finish and I'll keep complaining. I can't. No, no, no. I was just shocked when Alex said he, like, stayed for the credits. Like, I got up and not like intentionally. Like my view, I guess you were saying

your viewing was a bit more mixed with like the demographics. Mine was basically just babies, just screaming at the screen for the entire time. That's great. Oh yeah. I'm glad they're enjoying this. This is clearly who this is. There were there. There were kids there. Like, yeah. Like when the Bowser or no, it's like in the middle of the movie when like they go to Donkey Kong's, whatever Coliseum, whatever the fuck that was, there was a kid in front of me. He was like waving his napkin like up in the air. Yeah. There's a little boy behind me through the entire runtime. He was, God bless this little kid, he was screaming.

He was screaming every time he saw a reference he recognized. He was like, that's from Mary Galaxy. That's from New Yorker, Brose. That's what this movie is. That's what it is. Yeah. It's like a, where's Waldo of references? And you can still have that and make it not lazy.

We just want to clarify, you can still have that and not make it lazy. You're insane if you think otherwise. Yeah. The Lego movie's. full of references, you know? Like, the Lego movie is a kid's movie. Exactly. Full of references even ushered in this horrible crossover nightmare that is like leaking everywhere

now, or at least had a part to play in that. But it worked. That was like a good film. And like visually have way more stuff going on. It has the people keep praising the set pieces in the movie. And I guess they're a thing. They're kind of like, you know, when they tease like a video game or used to tease games at like E3 when that was a thing?

And it was like these fully rendered like Assassin's Creed thing. and it's like a crazy action scene. It's kind of like those, you know? Yeah. It just feels like an appetizement. I'm sorry. Yeah. It's like super polished, yeah, but it's not.

Yeah, I guess I get what you mean with the animation. It's like too polished. It feels like you're watching an ad the whole movie. And you're basically... It's like a big ad for Nintendo. And yeah, there was like no depth to the film. The best thing. Yeah.

That's the best part. Yeah, it makes you want to get a switch after as well to spend even more money. But it's like a big... you know, add. It has no depth. There's nothing going on under the surface of it. Yeah, like, I can't, like, nothing really stood out to me. I thought the movie was pretty boring. It's insanely boring. Expecting me to like it. Yeah. But I didn't really enjoy it at all. Yeah. I thought it was pretty boring, actually. Not a fan. It's clearly for a fan base out there. It's not me.

It's for people with low expectations and low standards. People love Mario. Yeah. But yeah, I can't help but be, like, I'm glad people are enjoying it genuinely. Fine. If you really like this cool. But I can't help but feel a bit crestfallen by how successful it has been with just the other day, Miyamoto coming out, reiterating that, yeah, more Nintendo movies are coming.

I've been screaming about this video game onslaught for, it feels like years at this point. And it's coming to fruition. You're right. The difference was, like, back in the day. video game movies were a joke no one went to see them then suddenly Uncharted comes out the last first comes out this Marry movie comes out the Sonic movies come out and everyone's like down for it now I guess we're just like trained for it we got superhero movie fatigue this is gonna be next is this going to be the next big thing video game movies I think so yeah yeah it already kind of is

kind of yeah we're watching it happen unfold before us yeah I'm sure there will be more yeah damn could you imagine like scraping the bottom of the barrel with that like how many obscure video games, like a studio is going to try and get the rights too. Like, we're going to make a game to battle toads. That's not even obscure. That could easily happen, actually.

That could easily happen. That would just be TMNT. Yeah, I could see that being like a Netflix show or something. Yeah, okay. A couple thing they did, didn't they? You heard it here first, folks. We're going into the video game movie era. We're entering.

Yeah, this is it. This is it. It's something like the It's the most successful animated movie, right? Like of all time now For opening. I don't think it's gross the highest yet, but it could easily.

I think it might overtake. Yeah. Either way, it's huge. Huge, huge, huge, huge. Yeah, huge movie. That's very, very funny. They played it very safe. It's like they knew it would do well.

So they just took no risks with it, like the actual storytelling or anything. We talked about the story. It's bullshit. Yeah. Let's talk about the voice acting. I think if you got pretty much anyone on the planet other than Chris Pratt, it would have been better. I think for the main character, like, it's just the fucking most horrendous thing they possibly could have done.

I just, yeah, it just, I honestly wasn't even bothered by him. I thought it was just, yep, this is illumination all over, you know. I was much more irritated, weirdly, by, um, Kegan Michael Key is towed. Really? I found that, like, quite an irritating performance. Did you actually? Okay. I mean, he was irritating, but I was under the impression the character was supposed to be kind of irritating.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's such like a fine line in kids movies, though, you know? I think he did a good job, is what I'm saying. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, as a voice performance, I think he did a good job. Yeah, I'm with you on Chris Pratt. He was better in the Lego movie. He prefers to be called.

C.P. actually. Oh yeah, that's right. C.P. says how he's so out of touch. I didn't mind Charlie Day, really, as Luigi. He did good. I thought he was fine. Yeah. Yeah. And Jack Black as Bowser, I thought, was fine. He put in an effort.

If anyone... Yeah, those two. Everyone else take it or leave it. Nothing stood out to it. Panya was stupid. Seth Rogen was stupid. Yeah. Seth Rogen is... It sounded like Seth Rowe's. The standout kind of bad voice to me was actually a cranky con. That was like a weird casting to me.

Yeah, that was like, Fred Armisen. Yeah. I didn't even know that it was him until like yesterday. Uh-huh. His name's cranky Kong. Why are you voicing him like that? Yeah, I didn't have a said idea of like what he was supposed to sound like.

And I watched the Donkey Kong TV show when I was younger, but I just don't. He's supposed to be an old. He barely had. any screen time and so it was kind of just over and done with and then I didn't think about it. Yeah. Cranky. That seemed more like just kind of like a reference that he exists sort of thing. A reference in this movie, really?

References. You know what's so funny? There was a moment where they could have just done like a reference to Diddy Kong, but they actually had to say his name. He's like, that means you too, Diddy Kong. Like, you could have shown him clapping and then everybody in the theater would have been like, it's Diddy Kong, but they actually had to say Diddy Kong out loud. I'm like, okay.

Even for the. The babies didn't need that. You didn't even have to dumb it down for the baby. The babies would have figured it out. Guaranteed. It's like, why do you have to be even more obvious? Why do you have to insult the baby's intelligence? The baby's watching this film.

Yeah, voice acting sucked. I liked some of the sound design choices, actually. There was some, like, nice kind of, like, when he's, when he's going back to his room and he's, like, sad after the ad campaign didn't work, and he's, like, after he talked to his family, there's this nice kind of, like, like atmospheric room noise like kind of white noise stuff and it's kind of subtle and it really added a lot to like the the tone and atmosphere of the scene I'm not being sarcastic like there were some interesting sounds like I know but here's the thing I don't think that the people

who soy over this movie could point out things about like the actual craft of the film that they even enjoy you know I think they're just they're just like the references were good and I like the animation and that's it whereas like I, there's things that I'm looking out for that I'm like, oh, that was pretty, you know, there was some good sound design in it. Like, the Foley for the most part, like, it was really good. It was like really, really well, uh, put together. Yeah, I don't know.

I just didn't even pick up on any of that. The whole movie just came and went. Like, I just didn't even pick up on anything specific. I'm like, yep, that was bland. That was like the most average film they could have possibly made. It's exactly what I expected. Yeah. Yeah, it's nothing.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it just, it is just a celebration of the IP, and if you're down with that, I guess this is where it's kind of come down in this conversation of like your definition of what a good movie is. Because that's kind of my issue with this whole conversation where it's like, I think it's fine to enjoy it. I don't even know if they think it's a good movie. I don't even know if they actually think it's a good movie.

I think they're standing. Because I feel like that's where the disconnect is, right? I think they're defending it without actually believing it. Is that like the insecurity coming out? Why would they give a shit about what critics are saying if they didn't if they thought it was a good movie Why would they care what anybody else thinks if you think it's a good movie? You wouldn't give a shit if other people don't think it's a good movie That is insane insecurity if you care about whether or not somebody else needs to validate your experience with a movie that you like

There's movies that I like that barely anybody fucking likes. I still like them And it's funny the way the critics are like throwing around just depending on what the point you want to make is, you know. Because they'd be sharing, if it had good reviews, it would be being shared everywhere and celebrated, like, yeah, exact opposite way. It's literally like DC fanboys, like, oh, see? This is a good, this one's good.

It's on that level. Don't pay attention to them. Yeah, I just feel like, if this is like ushering in more and more more of these Nintendo movies and they're already like this kind of just bland and nothing and really do not utilize the medium of animation or film in any creative or fun or unique way. It's like the most algorithm created fucking. Yeah, it does feel like an AI generation. Yeah.

Like, where is this kind of going to? Everyone's going to want a piece of this pie, you know? Uh-huh. Yeah. Like, I just prefer like, you know, like the Spider-Ver movie coming out. That looks great to me. Like the style of it and the. animation. That's more of what I'm interested in and what I'm engaged in than something like this.

It's a way to, yeah, it felt like a giant commercial. Even the parts of the movie that are shared in like a kind of meme way, like the Bowser playing on the piano, peaches, peaches, whatever, right? That feels AI generated in concept. Like that literally feels like that was a like a calculated boardroom. Like, like, no, yeah. They're like, here's the part that people are going to share on Twitter. It was like so... Exactly. That's what it felt like to me too.

It was designed purely for that and not for like it's seen in the film. It was like, this is the part that people are going to meme. And people memed it. And it was just so lazy, too. Like, it's literally like they just got Jack Black to like ad lib in front of a mic. I don't know if he wrote anything, you know? Like, and then him singing, like, sure, if you love Tenacious D and you just love hearing that, great but he didn't sound like Bowser as he sang the rest of his performance he was putting an effort in and he sounded like a different character I wish that he sounded like the character as he was singing and not just I'm Jack Black now like that was fucking weird he's doing doing the whole Jack Blackisms with his his voice like it's that was so bizarre like you put that song on the radio you wouldn't know it's Bowser singing you go oh tenacious D made another song right whereas like the rest of his performance it's not like you just hear

Jack Black. He's playing a character. He just apparently can't keep the voice when he's singing. Yeah, yeah. I guess Jack Black just wanted to be in the movie for his kid and that's fine. Yeah, I didn't mind him in the movie. He's probably my favorite part of it. I didn't mind him for the part. Yeah, that Peach's song. Yeah, but you're right. The Peach's song, it's like, totally like, right, trying to like market a meme. And I hate that. It's just like, so forced. Here's the one for social media. Yeah. Yeah. It should be. be organic when the movie's memes. Like, that's funny when a, when a genuine meme comes out. And also like, yeah. And memes can really depend. Like, usually it means the movie's bad if it's

memes. Not all the time, but like, you know, everything all at once last year, people talked about that movie on Twitter or whatever, but it wasn't like people made fun of it. They were sharing scenes and complimenting it. They weren't like meaning parts of it that they thought were bad. People memes like Morbius or whatever. But yeah, it was, it's like so forced. Like, you Yeah, that Peach's song did nothing for me. Like, I don't remember it. It's just like, yeah, they just shove it on the radio or whatever. It's such a fucking whatever movie.

Like, I can't believe, like, I guess I can believe it would make so much money. It's so middle of the road. It takes no chances at all because they just wanted to, like, yeah, just, you know, milk it for as much fucking money as we can make and just shove it out there, take, like, no risks. it does feel like the whole movie was like almost overwritten, overcalculated, everything that happens in it. It's just like, what's the next set piece we can get to? Like, what's the next, you know, what's the next piece of iconography we can get to, you know, get it in people's minds and get them excited or to sell them, Nintendo Switch to them. It's the whole movie. It's like 90 minutes

of that. It gets incredibly dull very quickly. And in Illumination, they're not funny. These vacuous reference films though it is Illumination's whole it is the whole deal yeah you know it's like Secret Life of Pets it's just like cat videos on YouTube as a movie saying is X Factor auditions but they're animals as a movie you know it's like

it's usually and they're animals that's usually like the hook to get a heck you know unless they have a recognizable IP also the beginning of the movie it had the minion in the fucking logo it's so lazy I'm just so sick of that it's like a culmination

He's a little... Yeah. He's a little Mario Kart. Like, stop. It's so lazy. So they're going to do like a Donkey Kong spin-off, Seth Rogen film? Is that what we're into now? Probably.

I think it's going to build. I think they're going to... You model it on the MCU and do like a smash-based thing. Yeah. This is the Iron Man of the new universe that we've created here. Yeah. Oh my God. What are we in for, everybody?

And Uncharted is the... Incredible Hulk. It's the one we're not going to talk about. Never. This is a bleak future that we're, oh my God. And then all of the video game characters from the different franchises come together in a Super Smash Bros movie. Oh my God. Yeah. I'm soying already. The Mr. Game and Watch movie, that's going to be fire. Oh, my God. Oh, they're going to do that, yeah. You know, Game and Watch probably has like the most potential to because it would be an artistic it would be like, this is different at least. Yeah, they'd actually be limited by something. And then Nintendo, they have a ton of IP.

I mean, they could make like a Metroid movie and a Zelda movie and whatever movie. Like all those characters they have, Star Fox or what is it called? I don't even know them all, but, you know, and then you could just, yeah, shove them all in an Avengers type movie. I think it's called a Fox in Space show. Fantastic Mr. Fox. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. I think that's the name of the game.

That's the name of the game. Yeah, eight Fire Emblem movies. Take these ideas, Nintendo. Just take them for free. Pay me, money. Money. Yeah. Yeah.

Don't take down the, don't take down this podcast episode. Give money now. It's me. Did you guys watch the, I didn't watch the 80s Mario movie. Oh, I didn't rewatch it for this, but I've seen it before. Yeah, I was thinking maybe we should like rewatch it.

I would have maybe recommended it for this, but, you know, there's like nothing to say about it really. Is there? Like people want us to talk about it. It's just like a shitty. Oh, you can watch it. It's just like a shitty, like... I bet you it's more interesting than this movie.

I bet you. I haven't seen it, but from all I've seen, it looks crazy enough to be more interesting than this movie. I mean... It's a little out there. A strange film. Yeah. Definitely a strange film that released to children back then.

It's fucking really creepy at points. Like the lizard people... Yeah, was that even for children? Like, in 1993, was Mario even considered, like, this is exclusively for children? video games were not necessarily like they they were kind of like young boy demo i guess to some degree but not like it wasn't like Nintendo is now yeah 1993 i think there was a good adult market in video games as well i think it was just like mostly just male focused at the time yeah

for sure yeah i would say this this new movie is probably better than that old one it's just like it's like it's like more of like a kids movie It's actually true to the franchise, I guess. I don't know what they're doing with that other. Yeah, like, even like that old one, the production design of it is like very, um, it's almost like a Freddie Kruger nightmare. Like, wasn't it inspired by Blade Runner or something bizarre like that? Yeah, I was thinking that too.

It looks like, yeah, it looks like something at a nightmare or Elm Street or some shit. It's fucking really weird. Mm-hmm. And it doesn't match the aesthetic of Mario. That's like the kind of crazy failure that's like interesting to me, where this is like a crazy failure that is a huge success that everyone loves and wants more of. Yeah. Here's a question.

Did any of you laugh or chuckle at any time in this film? No. I didn't find it funny. Yeah. Oh, okay. I let air out of my nose. You held your breath the entire rest of the film? Yeah.

I can't even remember what the gag was. I think it was Jack Black's bowser saying something like. that was weird. Something like that. It was something. It was nothing, man. I can only remember it. Yeah.

Near the beginning when they, when they're fixing the plumbing, and then they walk through the door and they've got the dog out of the toilet. They're like, ah, here's your problem. I thought that was kind of funny. And then the rest of the movie was downhill from there. I was kind of way more into it

when they were trying to run their little plumbing company in New York. Yeah. I like that way more than when they actually went to the mushroom kingdom, ironically. Because it was like the new part that they added and not just here's a reference to other things. And you'll see like Mario's entire family and out of the crazy character designs and then eating spaghetti and stuff. You wrote something. Congratulations.

You actually wrote something. The rest of the movie they didn't. Yeah. Once they went in the pipe there like what even was that? Like how did they like? It was the multiverse. It was like changing channels. It was like fucking go.

It was like scrolling through TikTok videos. Holy shit. So ADHD. The story just didn't even make sense. There is no story. Yeah. You don't piss me off. Like, even if I were to be like, okay, let's say like, I love Bowser or something,

let's say I really enjoy Bowser. Like, he's barely in the fucking movie. He's not, like, people are fucking soying and meming over this character that's in it for like, what, four minutes or something? Like, he's barely in the movie. Same with Luigi. Like, Luigi's just barely in it. Yeah, Bowser in the Regi, the best.

Like, things are so cosmically underdeveloped and just like, oh my God. Like, you don't need to, like, give him an entire backstory, but you just do something. Not just, this person is inherently the villain character, and then we're going to ignore about them throughout the entire movie, and then just occasionally remind you that they exist so that at the end they can have a scene where they beat the villain at the end. Like, you did nothing with the character. They don't give a shit about any of the characters in this No, they characterize Mario loads They make it so he doesn't like mushrooms Oh yeah

So then when he has to eat a mushroom, it's like funny It was funny when the ate a mushroom Because he didn't want to Yeah, it's dumb Dumb movie I just can't stress enough My eyes were like glazing over Like there was a point where I just

I didn't even give a fuck what was going on Yeah, yeah Wow, this is boring Surprisingly boring for an hour and a half movie that is like over stimulating. Yeah, it was so short too, yeah, and it's like, it feels long. It feels longer than it is. It does feel longer than it is for sure.

Because there's nothing happening the entire time. It's like everything is happening, but nothing is happening. Nothing happened. Yeah, it's a lot of like noise. Man, yeah, to not enjoy that. All right, two out of ten for me, boys. Stinks. Yeah, I feel like from the conversation, the score I've given it seems too generous, but I'm going to stick with it for now, that being a two star out of five.

I just, I think compared to their previous movies, they're actually somehow is much worse than this, like hop or something. Oh, yeah? Saying like these are worse. So it is an improvement for illumination, but that's probably only because Nintendo would not let illumination release something of their usual quality. Yeah. Yeah, I just think Illumination are horrible storytellers. Yeah. Amazing advertisers.

They are amazing advertising. That's their skill. That's it. They're amazing at it. They really know how to speak to the babies. They're really one with that generation. But this is a movie and I want to see something, you know? Like, I want to see something risky and weird.

Like, yeah, we keep referencing the Lego movie, but that did take risks and it did have, like, surprising moments. And it did have all this surprising commentary shoved in there and like a new visual look and something. It was doing something, you know? This did nothing. Lego movies, Spider-Verse, from last year, Marcel the Shell, like, these are all animated movies that are better. Yeah, the last, Puss and Boots. Puss and Boots.

Yeah, Puss and Boots. Like, you don't, I wouldn't even call, like, they did things different. I don't even know if risky almost seems like too strong of a word, because immediately there's people going to go, like, what, it's Mario, you can't take a risk. They need their money bag. It's like, you can still do something talented and different without it necessarily being a risk. I think that it's, I think that it's, I think. that it's a mis-calculated risk and a misunderstanding that it's risky. I think you can still,

if you're, if you have any concept for art, you can do something in not the laziest most bland way possible and it wouldn't be a risk if you just know what you're fucking doing and you have actual talented artists working on the project. It's only risky because these people don't know what the fuck they're doing and they don't know what actually works other than one thing, which is just the thing. That's the only reason why it's risky. It shouldn't be. Their priorities are just in a different place, yeah. Yeah. It's like a bunch of business people.

I think it's, yeah, they don't even have the interest. I don't think the thought even crossed their minds to do something with this, you know? I think this is not about it always was. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not about it's about advertisement, yeah. Yeah. It doesn't feel like it is about art. Yeah.

My rating, I'm like with Alex, I'd probably give it two out of five. It's an illumination Mario movie. It's exactly what I expected from that. Yeah. It is, it's, yeah, it's probably better than hop or something like that. Yeah. That's not saying much. This was my first illumination film. Hmm.

Wow. You start with the best movie and it still sucks. So, so I'm, you know, I'm vindicated for not having watched any of the others if this is what they're like. And it was kind of just what I expected them to be. Yeah. You might, yeah. I don't know if you could, I don't know what happened to you if you saw like hop or something. I would wind up in the hospital.

Yeah. Yeah. If you do ever watch one of them. I'll make sure I'm in Canada when I see it. I don't want to do that in the States. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You're going to have to pay a lot of bills. Yeah. Yeah. But it's all downhill from here if you decide to watch an illumination movie because it only gets worse. Yeah. Yeah. I'd probably agree. This is like one of their better movies.

That's insane. Except maybe the first, maybe the first despicable me. I think maybe that's better. That's the only other one. Yeah. It's just like fun. Yeah. Yeah.

That one, yeah, is the highest. I haven't seen that movie. Mm-hmm. I haven't seen that movie in forever, so it could be dated by now. We also came up against Megamind, which was the superior bad guy in animated movie. Yeah. At least Dispicable Me was like an idea that someone had, like, as a creative spark there when they wrote the script as opposed to just, yeah, like a bunch of my feet. That was fire?

Yeah, they invented minions for that film. Yeah. And they were actually like tertiary. characters they weren't like too annoying yet it's it's like the Hillary Clinton of movies it started with good intentions and then just turned into a monster and then we can Pokemon go to see the Pokemon go movie to the polls all right uh there was a film recommendation kind of two movies yeah started with one but you know I thought it made sense to do the second one as well and I'm really glad we watched both back to back because that's an interesting conversation. But take it

away, Ralph. Yeah. Yeah. So I recommended Alien directed by Ridley Scott. It's from 1979. And yeah, starts Sigourney Weaver. It's about, she plays a character Ripley and they're on a spaceship. And it gets hijacked by a xenomorph. And they have to survive for her and the crew. And that's basically it. Yeah, great fucking movie. Alex, I remember you mentioning this is one of your favorite movies and it made me want to talk about it. Yeah, it's got like a special place in my heart this movie.

It's got a really, yeah, great atmosphere and set design, prop design, obviously creature design with the xenomorph. And yeah, it's just like, it's fantastic. It's one of the best science fiction movies and it's one of the best horror movies. in my mind and it's really yeah fantastic you guys I'm sure I have a lot to had yeah no I say it's like seminal for me I kind of credit it as the movie that kind of got me interested in movies to be honest partially because when I saw this as a as I was pretty young 11 years old or so and I found the concept so kind of deeply disturbing the whole parasitic nature of the alien and the kind of

sexual themes that everything about is really uncomfortable and claustrophobic and moody and as a kid That's like a lot to take in. And it was like, I found it so disturbing. The only way for me to kind of, I guess, internalize what it was doing to me was to research the movie and find clips on YouTube of how they made it and going in behind the, yeah, all the behind the scenes of it. And yeah, it really like unlocked something in me and I've just always loved it since. And it's one of those movies every time I revisit. I see new things about it. I appreciate new things about it.

It was just a joy revisiting this one in particular. Yeah, I think everything about it is pretty much perfect for what I'm looking for. It's like, yeah, it almost feels like it was just perfectly made for me, everything I'd want from something like this. Love sci-fi, love horror, perfect combo. Not to get, like, too much into the second one. I love both of them, and I think they're both perfect, and like, they're so different, you know, they have such different ways of, like, approaching. You really notice it when you watch them back to back, too. Yeah, I'm glad.

But they're both really cool. Yeah, they're both, yeah, they're, I think they're cool in the ways that they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, I think they're cool. and the ways that they are different. And they almost kind of, in a way, elevate each other because of their differences, which we can get into. Just as far as like, I don't know, I always thought the marketing was interesting for it. I don't know if you guys know, there's, like, the initial ads for it was like a Thanksgiving dinner or so.

And there's kind of like an egg, like one of the eggs that those, you know, things comes out of the facehuggers. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, it comes out. It has nothing to do with like anything that happens in the film at all. It's just like a little teaser. But it was like kind of creepy and interesting. I always, I always enjoyed that.

It's like this little extra added element. And even like the Prometheus trailer, there was this like noise, this siren noise. Yeah, that's like incorporated. Yeah, it's incorporated into like the teaser of Alien. It's like where it came from. So like it originates from that. It originates from the teasers for Alien. and it was really cool marketing, I thought, for the film.

And I didn't give away anything about it because, you know, there's a lot of, like, mystery, I think to the movie. And, like, I think that's part of, like, what's cool about it. You, like, you discover, like, what's happening, what these, you know, things are. And, you know, it's like, it slowly builds. And I think the way it builds is really, like, satisfying and interesting. When I saw the movie as, like, a kid, I thought it was slow. But I didn't kind of like that, too.

like it's like a lot of character stuff in the beginning and it's not a lot of action even like later on it's mostly like suspense and like building of tension you don't see the the xenomorph a lot and even like at the end it's just like her running around it's like a lot of her running around you know it's like i don't know it just it builds a lot of tension there's a lot of like stuff going on that's like slow moving and building like characters and i really like that about the movie I like that it's slow and that it takes its time at points. Yeah. Yeah, it feels very realistic.

I've always loved that pace of it. Like the, I don't think the chess-bursts scene is till, it's like a good hour just about into the movie, you know? So you have a real good foundation. And it kind of makes it unpredictable, too, because you don't really know who the lead character is supposed to be or like what the stakes are. And it keeps, yeah, it keeps that tension up because, yeah, when people start just suddenly dying, like, they just fall in, like, flies. and it, yeah, it keeps the tension up. Yeah, I guess the way I described it was misleading. Because, yeah, I said, like, Ripley's, like, the main character.

But you don't really see Ripley as the lead until later on. Like, she kind of, like, takes control of the situation. But, yeah, at first, she's just another character. And, yeah, they kind of picked them off one by one. And that's what's so good. Like, you said, it's unpredictable. Like, that just-bursts scene happens. It's like, holy shit, you have no fucking idea.

Like, that's about to happen. Because we don't know the rules of the alien yet. And, you know, once you learn that it comes out of people like that, you're like, holy fuck. I love the rules of the alien as well. They, like, make sense. And, like, it's really grotesque and disturbing and just the look of it. And the way, like, it implants an egg into you and it pops out of your chest. It's, like, really gross.

And they keep, like, escalating what it's capable of, you know, like, and answering questions alongside, like, the same questions that audience would have, you know, like, why don't you just cut it off? They try to cut it off his face. It has acid blood that goes through layers of the ship. They can't do that. They just keep escalating how terrifying the thing is. And yeah, I do love how they constantly keep addressing, like,

questions that would be naturally coming up to the audience. There's normally a character that will say, like, something obvious, like, why don't you just freeze him or this is against quarantine? The kind of things that, like, it's such a trope in horror movies like now, like characters being stupid,

characters going, just being irrational in a way that's not fun to watch. This feels like, and you get the answers, as to why it all unfolds the way it does and it feels really satisfying. Like all the levels of corporate intrigue and espionage and these weird like this mother AI they're constantly talking to in this booth. It's like everything about it's like really creepy and...

Yeah, the Android character. It's almost like the corporation's almost more scary than the creature in a way. And that's kind of... Yeah. Yeah. It kind of the... Yeah. It's like surrounds them.

It's like the environment of the movie, right? It's like that ship that the company built. And yeah, it's like claustrophobic and the pipes everywhere. Yeah, it like adds to the tension. Yeah, even with, you know, them getting the alien into the ship, you're right. Like it was later revealed that it, I guess, spoilers. There's a spoiler discussion. You know, it's a 20, fucking 50 year old movie or some shit.

It's later revealed that the AI was trying to get the alien on the ship that it was trying to bring it back for the corporation. So it's like, okay, well, Ripley, the character who's, not in on it, was trying to prevent that, was trying to follow protocol. So yeah, there's really like, there's no part of this movie where it's just like, oh, the characters were stupid and that's why they're going to die sort of, like, it's, it's not a film where the plot continues only just because it has to. There's a logical reason for things to happen. And it also makes the characters more likable and respectable. It's like, okay, I care about these characters a bit more. Because you're not yelling at them going like, why are you?

you doing this, just do that, blah, blah, blah, blah, that can get really frustrating in a movie. And I find it fascinating that that's essentially what Prometheus is, which same director, same franchise. Like, Ridley Scott has directed three different alien movies right now. He created the first one. He should know what makes it work, because there are very specific things about this particular film that make it work. And he somehow forgot those things, or just doesn't care, or he's lazy, I don't know.

but it's crazy that he's still involved, like, as the director, continuing to create alien films, at least two more. And it seems like he doesn't understand what made the first one work. Or he has no interest in trying to even try to recapture any of the magic of the original film. And I just think that's insane. I rewatched Alien Covenant yesterday. Wow. Just because I saw it there on Disney Plus and all these movies are there.

And that's why I was thinking the whole time, because I was like so riding high off the original alien. and the viewing I had of that and like the joy I felt. Big mistake. I'm watching that. It's like so bizarre. Like this is the same guy. Like what on earth? Fucking hate that movie.

It's crazy. And it's one of the reasons. Yeah. Like he's created like two of the best sci-fi films of all time. But I can't call him one of my favorite directors just for these kind of reasons. Because it makes you question like what, what, how much of this was kind of like the perfect mixing part of all these variables happening to come together in 79? Like just the right script. enough limitations with

you know that whole the alien of course is just a man in a suit and that can yeah you don't want to look like zat basically you know you don't want to look goofy you don't want to look silly so you don't want to see the guy in the fucking tennis shoes or whatever like yeah exactly yeah so they had to shoot

it a certain way they had to hide things and obscure things and that really adds to the mood and the tone and that's what's really lost and especially in Covenant like there's no attempt to even obscure or hold back the The mystery of like the alien is gone too. Like you know everything about it.

Oh yeah. And the origins and everything sucks too. Yeah, they fucking ruin the origin. Here's who created it and this is why and this is the thing. Like, fuck off. The mystery adds to the fear. Yeah, it's so dumb. It doesn't seem accidental.

It doesn't seem incidental. This film seems to know that that's what makes it work. Right? Like it seems to have a concrete understanding about less is more, about the fact that there's a fear of the unknown. And it's, you know, think about we were just mentioning the marketing right like it barely showed anything right think about how slow the opening title crawl comes in like everything fits like a puzzle piece in terms of what

it's going for in terms of atmosphere and tone this is not accidental it seems like he's just he just doesn't give a shit anymore that seems to be like yeah what's happening because there's this is not an this is not like a fluke this is somebody knew what they were doing and they made this film with that understanding. Yeah, with Alien, it's inspired by great horror and slasher movies like Jaws and Halloween and, you know, where they don't really show the monster and that's what makes it creepy. That's clearly what they were going for here. And that's what makes the Xenomorph work. Because, yeah, it is just a guy in a suit. And, you know, there's points where you do notice that, even though they hide it really well and it's, like, kind of silly, but it's still a great movie.

It's still really well written and intense. And yet, it's great, like, lighting. And there's some shots of the alien in this that are like really excellent. I guess more so the puppet shots of it. It just looks, it looks so good. And like, I love the lighting of this movie. It just looks amazing. Every technical aspect, like, we're talking about

the sound design of the Mario movie, but I was yeah, really noticing it in this movie. Like, it's excellent. I love like, it's like, these harsh cuts when they're like going from interior and exteriors of the ship. And it's like, all very jarring and unnatural feeling. And yeah, you're right there with those characters in this

kind of strange, scary environment. Yeah, like just, yeah, the scale of some of these sets, the production, when they go to that the space jockey set or whatever, the engineers, whatever you want to call them, that is an immense set. And it really is creepy, you know, when they're, like, investigating this, like, huge thing that never gets explained, but it foreshadows, like, what the aliens capable of. They're, like, touching where the chest buster came out of it or whatever. It's just all these questions, all these big question marks that aren't.

answered and that's what makes it scary. It's such a pitfall, so many horror slash sci-fi franchises kind of fall into where it's like sometimes not answering the question is what you need. I don't need to know what the reapers are from as a fact, like where they come from or what they are because it kind of ruins the cosmic horror of it. Like that is that is what's so good about it. It is a frightening concept and there's so many inhuman things. The whole HR Geiger like a art production. Yeah. The design of the alien of course being this creepy unnatural hybrid of something, like a, it's natural, but also mechanical in a way. The alien looks like it has all these kind of pipes coming off its back, but it looks natural

in a weird way, and there's all the sexual imagery. Yeah, kind of phallic looking. Dicks and vaginas like everywhere. Like, everywhere you look, especially in the ship, like, yeah, that's Geiger's whole thing. That's part of the fear of it. It's, yeah. Sorry, I will make a tiny correction. It's pronounced Giger.

I believe. HR Geiger. I was going to say, I think so too. I think it's Geiger, yeah. But yeah, like, the sexual stuff makes people, like, uncomfortable. That's what's great about the horror of it. Yeah, it looks like a dick kind of like the face of it. Yeah.

It's a dick coming out of a pussy that impregnates your throat. It's, like, pretty hardcore. Uh-huh. It's fucking creepy looking. That's interesting. Because, like, I don't, I see, I see the inspiration from, like, the, you know, sexual aspect, HR Geiger in design and stuff. I don't like watch this movie and go like this is like a weird.

I don't think of anything sexual with the creature in the context of this movie. You know, like it is. Really? Yeah, I don't. It doesn't feel like a sexual thing to me anyway. Even things that aren't to do with the alien like when Ian Holmes, uh, Android character starts breaking and he goes to that corner of the ship with this like, like, like, porno, like all over the walls and he grabs a pornomag and,

and yeah, he rolls it up and, tries shoving it in Sigoni Weaver's mouth and it's all like, yeah, there is a pornomeg. That's funny. Yeah, yeah. It's all like plastered all over the wall there. All this like top the swim in. Plus the android's blood is, uh, it's jizz. Yeah, but that's one of the things. It makes it so unnerving and creepy. Yeah. Sure. That whole undertone. I really feel kind of like sexual undertones to the whole thing. Mm-hmm. For sure. I feel like that's definitely part of the film and the production design and everything. And I just said, yeah, the Android's blood is like, you can say it's like cheese or something.

I mean, I love the android character and just, yeah, that dynamic of him turning on the crew. You're right, Alex. It is like the company is a threat in the movie and the fact that they keep the alien on there. They're trying to get it back to Earth. Obviously, it's a bad idea. It's motivated by greed. Yeah, it's great. I think what makes the movie really work are those characters.

And yeah, when we talk about Covenant, Alien Covenant and Prometheus. Those characters are really fucking annoying and stupid. Yeah. And these characters, they're just kind of like, there's nothing that special about them. They're kind of space miners or space truckers and they just kind of happen to stumble on this situation. It makes them much more relatable than the characters in Prometheus. And, yeah, they talk normally. Yeah.

I really like the, it's kind of like a negative chemistry a lot of the crew have, where it feels like a working relationship. You know, they're talking about their contracts. they all feel like very kind of working class and it's all like, well, you're going to pay me more to do this job kind of thing? Yeah, they will feel like real people. Like it really grounds it because they do feel like real people, but just in a space setting. They're likable. Yeah. There's great chemistry. Like the conversations they have like talking while they're eating their meals is like that's a good part of the movie for me. I don't feel like it's wasting time. I don't feel like it's blue-balling me. It's like, oh, this is just more of the film. I'm learning about the character

and how they interact with each other and what their personalities are like and I'm enjoying it, right? Like, that's cool. I like that aspect of it and it's good to have in a horror movie, especially if you want people to care about whether or not they're about to die

or whether or not they're in danger, right? Yeah, you're scared for them later. And it's just, like, the three of them at the end, I'm like, I actually care. It's not like a horror movie where I'm like, I'm just fucking kill these stupid idiot. Like, no, I'm like, oh, shit, I don't.

want you to die, I'm scared, you know, like, I don't want, you don't deserve it. Yeah, but you're not like, oh, who's that guy? Or like, you don't notice when people are gone. You're like, yeah, you fucking, you know, you know all of them. And it's, it's scary when they're in situations that are dangerous. You know, you fear for them. And it is really intense, like the sound design there of their heart monitors. Like, I love that detail. Yeah. The people get louder and faster as it gets closer. It's, it's great tension. It's really well done. It's such a well-made movie. great conceptually Yeah, great concept

And just like great execution Like I can't imagine it better Even like the design of like the alien Like that could be corny I think But they made it work Like they made it like really creepy And yeah Yeah, I was doing some reading about

One of the writers of the movie Dan O'Bannon I found a couple of interesting links He wrote with John Carpenter On a movie I hadn't actually seen I didn't know Dan what it was cool But it was a few years before Alien had a similar concept of kind of going into space. I don't think many people have seen it and it wasn't a huge success or anything.

And he was also linked to Jodaraski's Dune somehow. So he clearly had some idea of this like sci-fi setting and trying to get something made. And I think the story was that after the success of Star Wars and there being the sudden demand for like movies with space ships and space, that it helped get this kind of together. But with the whole horror angle being the unique thing. Yeah, that's cool. It feels so different than Star Wars. Yeah, because like that more, like, kind of realistic, industrial angle feels like our world, like just a little more in the future, like in your future kind of.

Weirdly, the way it's aged has made it cooler to me. I love the idea of this, like, analog future, you know, where they're like in the 70s. They're like, what's the future going to look like? For sure. I hate that about Prometheus. Yeah, like, they just have like normal. Yeah, and Alien Covenant. So why did you not continue that aesthetic?

That would be a really fun, intentional thing to carry on. instead of making it all Iron Man, like, lasers everywhere and, like, big screens. And, yeah, it's lame. Yeah. Because that, that winds up being dated eventually, too. Yeah, yeah. Just in a different way. Like, keep consistency.

I love the old future. Shit. Retro future or whatever we're going to. Like, it's a good aesthetic. That's something that, you know, like, there's a bunch of people that will just love a movie just because of, like, a certain aesthetic in terms of, like, some people are looking for like steampunk or like Victorian or something like that. I kind of like retro future.

I'm not saying like I'd fucking cream myself even if a bad movie had it sort of thing, but I just, I like seeing it, the retro future shit. Yeah. It's a cool aesthetic. It's something stylish and cool about it. Yeah. And all the sounds that accompany it. Yeah.

Yeah. It's so, yeah, engaging. Uh-huh. Yeah. I think that what makes this movie really special is that it's, it sets up an interesting. universe that the fact that it doesn't explain everything helps its complexity, but in reality, it's very simple what we're being shown. But just because of what we're not being shown,

there's just so much more to pick at. It's something that, you know, if it has any kind of success at all, there's going to be people wanting to see more because they want to see more of the universe, because there's more to explore. It's like, yeah, yeah, corporation and the fuck, and like the way that the AI robots function and like their white blood, it's like, okay, yeah, like, that's, that's something that's an alien and I want to see more of it. Like, it's cool. I like these characters. I want to see what you can do with that. It just, it explores things just enough to get you so much more interested in what they can possibly do. And then unfortunately, it's just a lot of the sequels just don't really. Yeah. And despite the claustrophobic nature of the film, it has a huge scale. You do get

the like huge landscape shots of the crash ship in the background and then walking across the planet's surface. Like you really do get it all in a nice like variety of locations and nice contrast of locations. Yeah. Yeah. The world is so. There's a lot more wide shots in this movie than the sequel. Yeah.

Yeah. The world was so well developed in this. Yeah. Definitely. And yeah, it's all like so like so like I think what really works about it is the minimal list like kind of storytelling. The fact that it's so small also so small. scale like it's really about the ship it stays on the ship and it doesn't need to show you anything

that you don't need to see like you know you need to see all this analog technology because they need to work the ship somehow the the ship needs to work somehow you know and the android has white blood because it needs to have something inside of it to like operate you know these things like need to have some kind of logic to it but it doesn't show you anything more than you really need to see for this story. It doesn't take you to, you know, any other planet or you don't even know what the fuck's going on outside this story. And that's what's so great about it. Yeah, because it adds to that mystery. Yeah. The more you try to explain, the more it just like ruins that suspense and that, that horror of alien. And I can still watch this movie like disconnected from

that. But yeah, it's a, this is a great movie. And yeah, Prometheus obviously doesn't live up to what this movie is doing, not even close. Yeah. So, before we give ratings, I'm going to disappoint you a little and throw some shade at my experience of the movie for a bit. Go on. It's obviously something that's particular to me, but what's really keeping me from just absolutely, like, you've heard me gush about all the technical aspects of the movie and all

the choices and decisions, and I love and respect and appreciate it. so much about it, but what prevents this movie from fully working for me is that I never am able to see the alien as anything more than a guy in a suit in this movie. And it's because it's because of the way in which it's shown, and not just in the way in which it's shown, which is minimalist, I'll give you that, but there's something, there's something about, like, the physical performance of the guy in a suit where if they maybe just like cut the shot a earlier or had him do a different pose or just had like a better actor in the suit that it would have worked better for me. So you have scenes like the, you know, tunnel radar scene or whatever.

Like that shot at the very end where it's like, ah, and then they, and the aliens right behind him, like, if the alien was just standing there. He does the jazz hands. No, yeah. It's like he's proposing. It's like he's like, he's like in a musical theater and he's going like, my love. And he like has his arms out exclaiming. I'm like, fuck, fuck. Because otherwise, like, I would just be able to get into that scene. I would, like, I can't deny the part of my brain that knows that that's a guy in a suit at that point. Because he's just acting like a human being in a suit with how his hand mannerisms are, right?

And yeah, yeah, the way that things are cheated and shown in terms of the alien, like, if they had shown less of it or if they had gotten like a different guy to act in the suit or just cut the shots in a different way, like, every single time I'm just like I'm, I wish I could believe that it was an alien there. And unfortunately, it does kill a lot of the fear factor for me. It's just like, it doesn't feel like it's an alien. And what's weird is like, this is not a problem in every alien movie. It's just pretty much just this one for me, which I'll still say, it's the best alien movie regardless. I love what it's doing tone wise and atmosphere wise. But like, I, in my experience, you know, like, even as a kid, Even when I was watching this is like at age 13, I just still, those exact same things.

Like, I wasn't into the tone and atmosphere as much, but I still had those same issues of just like, it's just a guy in a suit. And even like, I'm not even like trying to retain that. Like, I'll forget about it. And then I'll watch it again. I'm like, oh, yeah, this is the guy in a suit issue again, you know? It's just, it's preventing me from like truly experiencing the film and it's unfortunate. I hear you.

I hear you. Yeah, there are a couple shots where it is noticeable that way. But yeah, it doesn't take me out the movie as much as it does for you. Yeah. I find it kind of just, yeah, a little bit kind of aged and charming. But the tension and the buildup is more the part that I get into. And there's so much of that and there's so much great buildup and tension. I feel like there's way more good examples of it than the couple of shots that don't work for me.

Because for me, there is one, my only real, like, aside from that little observation, my only other kind of negative comment, And it's just one shot in the movie that I just wish. I wish they could have sort it or figured out a different way to resent it. But it's just when after Ian Holmes' character, Android character, gets decapitated, when they pick up his head, they don't really change the angle when it changes from a puppet or whatever to Ian Holmes' real face. And it's kind of within the same angle and it's kind of an awkward transition. That's just the one thing that's always bugged me about this movie. That bugs me way more than like the jazz house. aliens or whatever because yeah it's just kind of funny to me see what what you just mentioned doesn't

really bug me at all like that that I I would use the same words as like it is like oh it you know feels a bit dated but it doesn't in the context of what the movie is trying to make me feel in terms of like there's an alien right I feel like that's at it at its core is like to to be scared of what's happening sure most of the movie is like atmosphere and build up but the alien it's is ostensibly kind of the payoff. And even though, yes, like, it is shown to a very limited degree. There's just tiny things that could have been done to make that moment just so much more effective for me and just not fall flat, really.

It's just, it's kind of unfortunate for my experience. Yeah, I guess for me, the kind of more psychological, like, impregnation aspect is really what disturbed me most. That was really what got me more than it kind of going around being like a slasher villain type thing. So I guess, yeah. Yeah, because it's not a really like bloody movie either. It's just, it's not like a Friday of the 13th word's about like the kills.

Like I don't think you really see much blood or anyone die. It's more about like, yeah, that tension. And yeah, that stuff's really great. And yeah, a lot of the implied violence is actually much scarier. Like when, I can't remember her name of the character that isn't Ripley, when when she gets taken out and it's all like over the radio and you just. hear like her screams and it's just yeah the implied violence and then and then when ridley finds her body and she's just she's kind of like naked like hanging with her leg down in the

foreground they're so what happened this is like really disturbing mm-hmm yeah for sure did you ever see the the test footage for this movie no should I look it up it's it's almost creepier I can I can link it in discord if you want yeah it's almost creepier than the way they present it in the film was obviously test footage of them trying to like figure out how to make this this thing move and walk around but I just put the test footage if you want to find it just search alien 1979 test footage that's so funny yeah so slow so you can see like that's more like traditional kind of alien looking yeah exactly so you can kind of imagine like it's kind of cool yeah where it could have gone wrong could have there's also like certain bits in it

they're like, oh, that's kind of really creepy the way it looks and the way it moves. Yeah. No, yeah. It's a very different feel. See, when he's, like, crouched at like two minutes, 30 seconds, something like that, if that was the pose in like the air duct scene or whatever, instead of the arms out to look like you're trying to spook or surprise, like, it's happy 45th birthday. Like, surprise, we're all here. Like, if you weren't doing that weird.

obviously human gesture with your hands. And you, like, even if we were just motionless. Like, it would have, it would have worked for me. It would have worked for me. But just, like, there's this so, I don't, they made, they made some weird choices for me, you know, where, like, I can't. Oh, yeah, that does look, that does look cool. It's interesting, yeah.

They got a really skinny guy here. Yeah, he's super skinny and tall. Yeah, because I think that's the same actor who played him, played the alien in the movie. Hmm. But yeah. Yeah, it's about the limited amount of time you have to show something, you can cheat it in a way 100% to make it look more like it's an actual alien creature in terms of its posture, its movement, you know, just even like the angle of how you're showing it. There's ways in which you can do it. And so I'm just, I feel I feel like it wasn't fully realized for my experience because a part of the movie, you know, even though I love the other element.

and the other aspects, like, the creature itself is kind of like a part of the payoff for me. And yeah, this is just doesn't fully realize that. But otherwise, great movie. Just, yeah, appreciate it more than I can enjoy it. For some aspects of it. Like, it's such minimal parts of the movie, but they matter a little too much for me, you know? Like, in terms of the runtime, it's like barely anything. But it's like, I feel like those are kind of important.

moments to show and how you show it, right? Like, if it, if it looked much goofier, then everybody would be on my side about it, right? Like, if you had this entire movie where, like, the tone is fucking perfect, and then the alien was just, like, big chungus, right? Like, just literally big chungis. Like, you couldn't get it. You, sure, it makes up, like, a tiny part of the movie. Sure, it's only, like, you know, a fraction of the amount of the runtime.

Sure. Yeah. But, like, if you, if you can't take it seriously, that's kind of a problem, right? So that's, that's where I'm at. Yeah. Yeah, I've always noticed little details here and there like that. Like, when the chess buster first comes out, I do something a little bit humorous about the way it runs off the table and stuff.

It's like clearly on a track. Yeah. It's like an RC track. It just doesn't pull me out or ruin the atmosphere. It's the same way it does to you. I just, it's just like a shot for me. And I just get it straight back in after it's done. I wish it was done better.

Because when I think of like my favorite horror movies, like those, like the thing, how many years later is that like 10 years later? Oh, wow. Only three years later. Three years later? Damn. Oh, really? Yeah, 1982.

The thing is like incredible in terms of like it's, it's puppetry and practical effects and creature effects and animatronics. Like, that's like maybe like best of all time like right there. That's only three years later. right? Yeah, it's definitely up there. There's some stuff in that movie. Yeah, there's some stuff in that movie too, like toward the end. Yeah, some more could stop motion and stuff from, yeah. You know, none of these movies are perfect with the effects. Like, with this, I was trying to think, like, is there, like, any other way they could have achieved it at the time other than, like, doing the track

or whatever, like, the alien, like, running out of the room? I don't think there is. I think that's, like, the only way. I, 100% think there is. Yeah. You just, I mean, it's, stop motion, maybe. It's not expected. It's not, like the standard, but like, of course there is, right? Fucking Stanley Kubrick, Megan, fucking 2001 in the 60s. It's about how you, if it doesn't look great, then you change how you show it, right? If it doesn't look great in real life, you change how you show it in the film, right? But anyway, yeah, want to get onto ratings and move on to the next film? Oh, yeah, one other part that I really like, I loved how at the end when she's escaping,

her response to mother is like, you bitch! I love that. I love the character moments with Ripley. She's a really likable character. I love how she reacts in scenario. Yeah, there are tons of great character moments. I love that character moment where the engineers are like trying to talk to Ripley through that, like, steam that's rocketing through the corridor they're in. And then as soon as Ripley leaves, they just like turn it off because they just, they didn't want to have a conversation with like a higher up or whatever.

So there's a great moment. It's like that. We didn't mention the music either, actually, the Jerry Goldsmith school. I really like the music. Especially, we mentioned the title sequence already, but the really, it really. does set the scene, just establish where you are and the foreboding kind of buildup of it. It's like it is unnerving. It's cool. But it's also kind of there's something like beautiful about it too. It's like something epic about it. Yeah. memorable too. Yeah. Like nostalgic kind of hearing it

again, you know. Mm-hmm. All right. What would you give it? Oh, 10 out of 10. Yeah. I'm right there with you. This is a 10 out of 10 for me. Anything, any problems I have with it, I just consider nitpicks. I don't pull me out of the overall experience. I just, yeah, I love every element of this movie. Well, can't change. Can't change my emotional response, but I got to be true to it. Got to be true to the emotional being in my head.

And unfortunately, yeah, it just prevents me from fully experiencing the film in the way that I feel like I should. Some great stuff, but as I've, you know, you've heard the whole discussion. But seven out of ten, can't give it any higher for a movie that I can't believe. is the alien's not there. Because, yeah, one of the barriers for me, like, inherently is, like, what has been done to this creature over time. Like, the alien is not scary at this point.

Yeah, that doesn't bother me, though. Like, this movie's still, you know, it exists. It's untouched. They didn't look a sedition it. Yeah, yeah. I can always watch this at any point and still enjoy it, but that is something that's, like, there. Here's a question before we move on to the next film.

I watched the Blu-rays and there were two different versions on each, but I just chose theatrical. I didn't realize they were different versions, but the first alien movie, there was apparently like a, I think they called it a director's cut, but some people didn't like it because it like, basically what Ridley Scott did was he made scenes shorter to include more deleted scenes. And so some people like the extra context of some lines or whatever. I don't remember what is added but other people were complaining that like it ruins the atmosphere and pacing

of like what is supposed to be like a slow burn sort of thing so I just stuck with theatrical for both because I didn't want to risk you know having like a weird version but Oh right yeah I watched the 4K Disney Plus version so I'm not actually sure which cut that is I'd imagine theatrical yeah

I watched the theatrical The aliens extended cut the directors one I'm not really like a fan of that. I'm more familiar with the aliens extended. Yeah, that like ruins, kind of ruins the pacing of it. James Cameron, so the second one?

Yeah, the second one. I meant aliens, yeah. Yeah, I watched the actual book for both. I guess we could get into that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, so did I. So aliens, directed by James Cameron.

Seven years later. Can get into that. Wow, it's that far. And yeah, it's, it's, it's, the first one was alien. This one is aliens. There's more. So now there's multiple. Billions, yeah.

And, yeah, that's like the whole thing. Now there's more. And now the tone is a little more of an action film than it is a horror film. Although there's still elements of horror and science fiction blended in there. Yeah, I love this movie too. I don't really know if I have a preference between these two films. I like them both equally for different reasons. and they're both great.

And I love how different they are. Like, watching them back to back, they are very different movies. And I love the decisions that they take with the story that are different. Like, in the first film, the android is the antagonist's character. And in this film, something great about James Cameron, he, like, subverts it. He always does this with sequels. He subverts it in a way where, you know, it not only makes this movie better, it makes the other film better because it makes it a more unique experience because the android in

this film is a good character and he's helping Ripley and that that dynamic right there just separates the two films like immediately it's like oh why is it's not the same shit again like these characters are like different and it's like a different dynamic going on and you have Ripley trying to like get over her like kind of bitterness toward androids or whatever and that whole dynamic it's like so interesting and it reminded me of like Terminator 2. And that's kind of what they did with Terminator too also making the Terminator the good guy. But I love that subversion. I think that's great writing. And they do that with a lot of different things in this. And yeah, I love the acting. You know, everyone's great in it. And Sigourney Weaver's great. And yeah. Yeah. I'm a big fan of the

framing of like taking this group of like hypermasculine like hoorah soldiers, putting them in a situation where they're like scared shitless and they get their asses kicked. It's like a fun dynamic and they're like really pushing to a corner and like the character the characters you see some of them change more than others once they're put in that corner. Yeah like the Bill Paxton character. The Bill Paxton character being the name one. Yeah, I love that performance in this. That is so great. I love that character. It's so many iconic lines and scenes. Like when I talk about a movie being memed that's like a good movie like this movie gets like his lines or memes. Yeah, Game Over Man and all that. Yeah. Game Over Man and all that. Yeah. Game Over Man.

whatever, but like, these are good lines. These are parts of the movie that you remember because he's, like, such a funny character. Yeah, like, that is interesting seeing that character, like, in that situation later on in the movie, because at first he, like, doesn't take anything seriously and he's a fucking douchebag. But then once he's in that shit, like, getting attacked by aliens or whatever, it's, like, it's just interesting.

You want to see how that character reacts, you know? You want to see how that character reacts to this kind of situation. And that's just how everyone's written. The camaraderie's great. And, yeah, all those. all those characters there, those Marines, they're really, um, cool and they're really, they have really cool, like, equipment. Like, this is one of those movies where I noticed, like, the guns and whatever, like, they have really cool, like, weaponry and equipment that helps them. That, like, kind of

steady arm, I think, what's her name, Rodriguez or Ramirez or something? She, she, like, has, like, I think it's, like, what they use for, like, steady cameras, like, on a film set, usually. But, like, they just used it as, like, part of this world. Like, it's, it's, it's just her machine, gun thing. It helps her withholder machine gun. And I love that. It's like so organic to the world. And yeah, I love that. I love the, just like the design of everything. And it's more ambitious in that way, too, I feel than like the first one, right? Like a lot more like, like a lot more aliens, a lot more sets and like grander kind of stakes and action sequences. It's just a completely different tone, you know, like it's like comic relief. It's just James Cameron's whole shebang, you know,

Yeah. It's very, it makes it very clear very quickly that it is going for something quite different than that first movie. Yeah. But yeah, it's, it does feel a little bit like whiplash, like when you watch it right after. And it takes a little while to get to the, you know, the creepy atmosphere that you kind of remember and expect from that original. Especially in the kind of, the very beginning of the movie, the first act, I find like a little bit awkward and clunky as they're just trying to establish everything. And there is, like, a lot of dialogue and exposition. And it's cheesy as fuck.

Yeah, that's part of James Cameron's, like, I don't know, he loves the cheesy, and when it works, it, like, really works. Does he even know it's cheesy at this point? How much is he aware? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I've always kind of read it as more of a, like, kind of an over-the-top James Cameronism. Like, he just, he likes the bombastic, hurrah type dialogue is...

Yeah, it was very, uh, I was getting a lot of enjoyment actually from just being reminded of how much Halo actually was inspired by this one hundred percent. Yeah, oh my God. Yeah, and just visually even, like the, the design of the Marines, the vehicles they're flying around, like so much of it, the Sajunson, basically. And like, the death scene shown by the handheld video camera aesthetic, the fucking game over guy, Like, yeah, the Halo devs watched this movie for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and the whole like military aesthetic with the music. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but once it gets going. Yeah. Vasquez, that's her name. That's it, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't want to call the racist.

Michelle Rodriguez. Yeah, Vasquez, I like that character. And when they remake Elians, that's who they'll get to play that character. They'll get Michelle Rodriguez. is. Yeah, I mean, he's already put her in Avatar, so, right? Yeah, exactly. James Cameron has two settings, water and space marines. His last film, he got to do both. There's a little both in this film, too, actually. There's water in this movie. He finds a way to put it in there. At this point, I don't know. It's like a fetish, right? When you just do one thing over and over.

Can you have a fetish for water? He's got a, he's got a, he's got a, he's got a A fetish for water and space marines. He's got, he came, he gets to come hard in Avatar too, I think. I think that's what's going on. He's funny. He likes, he likes a broader appeal,

doesn't it? He knows exactly how to get an audience really engaged with the sort of characters, hence like the inclusion of Newt and stuff like that. And yeah, the Marines and it's just way more kind of cartoonish in that way. But I personally like it.

I do appreciate how different it is to that original because like we kind of see with like alien cubed what where it could have gone you know it's like kind of the same movie again but just worse in every way yeah it's like dark and dry and yeah I don't like that movie really um it's like yeah this this one's like so much like yeah it's corny but it leads to like these really memorable scenes and setpaces that i like love and think are really fun and that's not something you know alien cubed did no and i just love the concepts like, okay, aliens, let's take the alien and make more of them, like, call it aliens. It's a great, it's a great idea for a sequel.

Like it's, yeah, and it doesn't overdo the answers, you know, to the questions that alien left open. It, like, answers a couple things here or there, mostly the kind of queen reveal being a bit one. But that's like my favorite part of the movie is that, is that whole climax and that just is that insane puppet that they create. Yeah, massive puppet. Yeah. That looks sick that thing. It was so cool, yeah.

Just this whole movie, I just kept going. That is so cool. It's like a movie. I mean, when I saw it as a kid, there's so many things. I just like remember so many scenes. And the pacing for it's great. We're talking about the pacing of the first one. It's like, I think it really gets going.

Maybe after that first 20 minutes, it's a little slow. But like once it gets past that exposition or whatever in the first 20 minutes, it like really, like there's a lot of great scenes like back to back. And it really kept up that tension for me. I was never bored. And it's even though I've like seen the movie before, I'm like, oh, this, this scene's coming up. Oh, this scene with like nude and Ripley when they're stuck on the thing and they get locked in. And they're trying to break the glass and the facehunkers like trying to get her.

Like, oh, fuck. And then the next scene is like another great thing. And yeah, it's like constant. Yeah. Once they prep kind of like the mission and get all the chess pieces in play to like get Ridley back into an environment where she has to interact with these creatures again. that's where I fall into like loving it a bit more. Like that whole mission where they're like trying to find where everyone is and they're finding like the lab with the face huggers and tubes and going into the dingy, they're going layers and layers down.

But then it's like revealed that they can't use their explosive rounds. So they can't, they're to like collect all the mags up and it just like keeps increasing the tension. They find that woman embedded in the wall and she's like the chest burst that comes out. I found that really horrifying as a kid. That was brutal. Yeah. There's things about this movie that I just, that I, that I, that I associate with, like,

the overall universe of the franchise as a whole in a way that's not, like, bastardized or, like, you know, we think about the newer alien films. It's like, they added, but they added too much. This is a film where, you know, they added a few interesting things, and they explored the lore in a different way than the original showed, but it didn't feel so betray. There was still a sense of mystery to it. You learned a bit more about how these things function. It's like, oh, they have the queen and the eggs and that's how they do the thing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But it still functions, right? It doesn't ruin the original. It's nice and complimentary in terms of what it adds to the universe, I feel. Yeah, it's just taking the concept to its logical extreme, you know? So there are eggs everywhere in the first movie. They had to get there somehow. It makes sense. Just, you know, the queen thing laying it.

And same with the Androids too. Like having good Android characters too. Yeah, but I loved all the world building. Yeah, you're right. Like, all the world building felt organic. Like, even the power loader thing, that's just something they were like, okay, this has been something that's been in the universe, like even in the first film. And it just feels completely organic to like the movie.

It's like, oh, it's just a machine, but it fits great for the film. And yeah, the way it's like paid off in that climax where she uses it to fight the queen alien. That's great. That's really fun. Yeah, lots of great setups like that. I love the lighting. I love... It's very blue.

It's another James Cameron trademark. It looks noticeably different, I think, than... Yeah. You know, the other movie, too. It's more of a James Cameron style. But I don't mind it. I felt like the exterior shots of the ship looked worse. And I don't know if it was because of the blue space lighting or, like, what?

But, like, damn, like, seven years later, the really Scott ones looked so much better. Yeah, there were some... spaceship shots I noticed, yeah. Even like 2001, yeah, looked better. Yeah. Yeah, I know. But like the models were like, how do you think the original does look better? Yeah, but like the actual like models and like the detail and like the models, I think was really well done. Like I think those spaceships looked great as far as like the design of the models themselves. Maybe like the green screen in the background or some of that stuff look kind of corny. But I really like the design of everything. And I really like the sets. That stuff was all like excellent. I love the colony.

again going into like that extended cut kind of they show more of like the colony i think getting like attacked by the aliens right do you know alice they show yeah they show don't they show newts parents finding the ship from the first alien they show all that and that stuff it's like it drags the movie down like you just don't need that you know like it's great how it's edited in aliens like the theatrical cut you just like see her and like you don't need to know any of that you know i like how they just get right in they give they give ripley like a whole subplot with like finding out about her and like she's out aged her daughter and her daughter has died and that's like oh yeah what the fuck i forgot about that just so unnecessary really um because like completely unnecessary because yeah new being

there i do like that dynamic because it does bring out kind of a more sensitive side to her and you can see a more kind of love motherly dynamic in this yeah this group of these hypermasculine macho army dudes is like a fun, fun dynamic going on. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. Completely. Yeah, a lot of fun. I think this movie's an absolute blast.

Yeah. The things that worked about the first film the best for me, I feel just aren't really in this film as much until like the very end. I feel like the very end of this film saves it and we'll get into that a bit more later. But like, not a huge fan of just extremely unlikable character. I get it. They're space marines. They got to have this like macho attitude, but I was just like fuck, like they, you know, I miss. I was just thinking about like the dinner conversations in the first film. I'm like, damn, I miss when I cared about whether or not the characters died sort of thing. Like I miss those aspects of it. Really, I feel like they flesh out the dynamics just enough, you know, where they do have the Bill Paxton. He has the major switch. He's like kind of overly confident at first and he switches to be in like a nervous wreck. Yeah, he's a cowlum at the end.

Why am I forgetting his damn name? Like the lead, yeah, Michael Bean. Yeah. He's got some nice little characterization moments. Or the guy, their like military leader who's only run the simulations

and doesn't know what he's doing and they don't really trust him and he's like sweating as their combat dropping and then like shows what Michael Bean's up to and he's like asleep. And it just implies that he's, he's seen a lot and he just doesn't care. I feel like there's a nice amount of subtle characterization for the main crew going on.

Yeah, I agree with that. And it kind of makes the Bishop character more likable because it's in relation to the Marines, I guess, because he's like a little more sympathetic. Yeah, and Bishop has that good line about the Androids from the original Alien. I love Bishop. That model always was a bit twitchy. Yeah, Bishop's a great character. Yeah, Bishop's the most likable character in this film for me. I think that's intentional, kind of like the Michael Fasbender character in Prometheus.

Like, yeah, they really wanted you to like humanizing the non-human characters and kind of making the human characters, you know, kind of unlikable. I think that's something like a James Cameron Hallmark almost at this point. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I like Bishop, too. I like when he gets ripped in half.

I was very unexpected when I first saw it. And that looks amazing. Oh, yeah. That way that's achieved looks so good. Incredible set. Yeah, absolutely. Amazing. Great reveal.

Yeah, the ending is awesome. Yeah, the entire ending sequence saves the movie for me. And when I say saves, I mean, like, it brings it up a rating, like one point. Because otherwise, like, yeah, I hate to be another Debbie Downer, but. I was going to say, Debbie Downer. Go for it. This movie as a whole really does not work for me. The shots are, like, way too close and tight.

I don't really feel like I'm experiencing. much of the visuals. Like, I love the set design. You know, I love a lot of what's happening production-wise, but, like, it just doesn't show it properly for me. And I'm like, I'm always feeling this sort of like, God damn, it's like a little too claustrophobic, especially after just having watched the first film. I hate Newt.

Newt fucking sucks. Newt's like so annoying. Child actors just, at first in the movie when they're just like, okay, she's not going to talk. It was fine. But then second half of the movie, all she does is fucking scream like an idiot and just like I don't believe her screams they're like held back she's like smiling essentially as she's doing it that part where she's like slowly

falling down the hamster wheel like ah I was laughing it was so fucking it's I she's so absolutely irritating I cannot stand nude at all and the fact that she's essentially just there to act as a stand in for the cat in the first movie of like oh she's got to go back for the thing for the creed the little innocent thing that you's got to go back you can't can't explode the ship just yet. It's like, I cared more about the cat than I did about Newt.

Like, Newt's just, I just wanted you to fucking die. Stupid kid. And then if you're just going to scream the entire time and act like an idiot, like, how am I supposed to believe

that you're the only survivor on this ship? Like, really? And that's all you do is you go, eh! Like, fuck off. You'd be dead in a second. You know?

Yeah, didn't buy it. I don't really blame her in the moment where she falls down the little hatch thing because that's the sacrifice moment, right? And the, like,

explosive goes off. and she goes flying down, loses our balance. Yeah. That was so funny. She was saying, but she's got her moments. Yeah. The performance associated with that was really bad, though, is what I'm saying.

Like, in that moment, I'm not saying like, oh, yeah, I don't like that the character fell. She should have had better balance. I'm saying, like, I didn't believe a second of the performance. And it just, you know, like, you're just child actor in the space marine movie. Just shouldn't be there. I really just did not like her inclusion. And yeah, just the aliens were shown better. The criticisms that I had for the first film in terms of like my believability for whether

or not it's a guy in a suit. I feel like the way that the actors in the suits were moving in this were overwhelmingly for the most part, like a lot better. Like they were moving more alien-like. They never did that weird like pose. I'm in a musical theater production thing. like that never happened and then you know really like that yeah i think the effects in this one are better than than the first one for sure the entire last 15 20 minutes of the movie

where we have that the the queen alien and just like holy shit like that thing's huge and there's no it's like i don't have a firm grasp by watching any individual shot over like what's happening happening mechanically to make that move or how big it is or how it's being cheated I just believe that there's the creature there, which is awesome. And that's what I'm supposed to feel watching the movie. I don't see the actor behind it. I don't see the crew behind it. That's like some of the best creature effects ever.

Like that fucking queen alien, holy shit. That makes the movie just so much better. If that wasn't in the movie, I would not be feeling positively about it at all, really. Yeah. It's like the ultimate payoff because they like sow the seeds early on where they're like, what laid those eggs, man. and then you just kind of forget about it and it just the way it unravels towards the end and that that reveal moment where you see it and it's like yeah it doesn't hold back it's not obscuring anything it's like you are seeing every little detail an inch of that monstrosity and it is glorious yeah yeah not a fan of the the cheesy tone and just the way that everything's shot like for the for everything but the last 20 minutes for me it was just like really bland like James Cameron is. and just not feeling it, not, didn't feel special and was just kind of like, after I've seen him do the same thing so many times now too, it's kind of like, it's worse retrospectively after having seen like Avatar too, you know.

For me, this is like, yeah, for me this is more where it belongs, you know. It's kind of like the most 80s movie imaginable, you know. It does have the corniness. It does have all of this over the top kind of nature. And I do like it for that. Yeah, I like the contrast. I think I'm more with Ralph on this, where I, yeah, because if it was either, yeah, going straight to Alien 3 and resurrection and these type of things where they, they were kind of more trying to go towards that first movie again. Yeah. They've just never been able to recapture it. So it's, yeah, there's definitely something about the approach that I think was a correct decision. Mm-hmm. I think so, too. I liked, I liked how it built on the world and I like the characters.

And yeah, I think it's a technically amazing movie. The special effects are just amazing for it. Yeah. For a movie that's so old, yeah. I do think it beats the movie, the first movie in that way, and just the special effects. Yeah. Yeah, there's definitely parts that this movie does better. Just what I love the most about the first movie is not in it.

It's just like the look of the creatures. I'm like, yeah, you like really believe it. And yeah, even just like the kind of saliva or, you know, like the. whatever guck comes out of its mouth. It's like really gross, and I like that. It's, like, very believable. I think that's, like, an extra detail that they, like, you know, really included that I think really makes it more gross and feel more like a real creature and not like a puppet.

It's like this mucus almost that it's like, you know, it's very gross. Yeah, it's a great movie. I don't know. I like the cornice. I don't mind it. It doesn't betray the intent to me. seems like pretty early on it kind of establishes what it's trying to be and trying to do. And while I do think the original alien is superior, I do like that this exists and there is this kind

of interpretational angle of it and angle of it. So the things that we ever mention, like I do like that character of Burke, the kind of antagonist, slimy, corpo guy. And it brings out that really good line that Ripley has, which is like, I don't know who's worse between like us and the aliens. You don't see them fucking each other over for a percentage and this kind of stuff. Yeah, I did like that. And I like they made that traitor character who like works for the company, a human this time, instead of the Android because, yeah, Sigourney Weaver's character, she's like looking this way. I mean, well, this guy's going to fuck her over, you know, when she's not looking. And that's great. Yeah, it shows, like, her flaws. Yeah, that too, like she's a flawed character. And that makes her interesting.

And yeah, the way, like, her and Bishop, like, become kind of friends at that. the end. It's a good payoff as well. Yeah, just a lot of good stuff here. A lot of good writing. I don't know. I like this movie. I love this movie. I should say it like it. It's kind of like underselling it. Should we get into ratings? Sure. I don't have a ton more to say. I'm going to give this one of five out of five as well. I love this movie. And yeah, it's not much more to say. Yeah, I'm just a, I'm a tab below. I think for like an action interpretation of that kind of first alien movie, I think it's great. I really like places they take it.

And man, yeah, we've gone on about that, that queen section towards the end, but that really does make it. Like that, it is such a good sequence, all of that, going all the, seeing all the eggs and aiming the flamethrower at them and seeing a more like retreating. That's more what I wanted. Yeah, that's more what I wanted from the conclusion of. the thing, then like I got, because that became like a stop motion effect. This is like more what I wanted from that conclusion. Yeah. Because this is like truly like, yeah, spectacular.

That's a great. Yeah, you're right. Great set piece at the end. Yeah. I do. I will always just treasure that tone and slow plodding atmosphere of that original. I don't really find this movie scary in the same way, really at all to be honest. There's the one scary scene with the woman embedded in the wall and the whole kind of egg thing is creepy, but it, it is much scary.

area the way it's kind of handled. And I feel like there's just a bit more depth to that original movie. But this is a fantastic 80s action movie, one of my favorites. I'd give it a four star, I think. Nice. I just wish the fucking, the kid, the child actor drags it down a lot, you know, when they're in the face hugger scene like, help me, let me out. Like she's not even hitting the fucking window, you know?

She's like tapping it. It's like, uh, help me, help. Fuck you. I hate it. Stupid dumb kid. James Cameron's a fucking hack. I hate him. I'm sick of his shit.

uh six out of ten but the ending's great like there's a lot that i like about this movie you know but i just fucking holy shit i'm so sick of a shit i think that retrospectively in the context of like his filmography it made it worse for me and i'm hoping that doesn't happen to the terminator movies because i'd like to revisit those but this is just yeah i fucking don't i'm like in james cameron less every day yeah there was

something about him. He's kind of a, he's a character. He's quite a, like, a cocky, he's always pushing, he's always pushing, especially like the technology and the scope of things. That's kind of, I'm pushing your buttons in particular. Yeah. I quite like it, though. I think you, even like Avatar, too, like, I know you hate that movie, but it's, that movie's kind of like ruined a bunch of other, like, big spectacle movies for me just in terms of just visually. Yeah. Like that new Ant-Man movie? Holy fuck. Yeah.

Like you look at the visual effects in that. You're like, holy fuck. Yeah. It's like comical in comparison. It's like going, it's, you know, it's like leaving the matrix, you know? It's like, you feel like you're like, yeah, there's like a new standard now. And that's what he always does with his movies. That's why I like him too.

It's like once he makes a movie, like a lot of people shit in Hollywood, they're just like done. Like they're just like over. Like when the first avatar came out. And there was like all these visual effects, spectacles coming out. They were just like done after Avatar. Because like you can't compete with like, yeah.

Seeing any water movie like little mermaid looks like shit. Like that's not even out yet. You know, we had water scenes in a couple other big movies. Yeah, Black Panther too. Yeah, exactly. But it's just like he put a lot of time and work into that. Not just him. This is his team obviously.

But he at least fought to have time to make the movie look good. Yeah. It shows. Yeah. right, like at least he cares in that respect and pushing those boundaries, right? And that's why I've always respected him. And, and Ridley Scott, too. I think they both have good track record of stuff.

Yeah. All right, I guess. Question time. Ooh. Okay, let's do a couple questions here from the Sardonicast community. Head over to the suggestion thread on the subreddit if you want to leave questions for future episodes. Let's do this one. This was the most upvote.

comment from a BBD 4116. What was the incident at your high school? I've got one if you want to think. Quite weird. I don't know what you guys would call them. We didn't call them high schools. I was in sixth form, like 1617. And on Leavers Day, a bunch of people like painted the sheep that were like on site.

There was like an agriculture like. of the school I went to, so they were like sheep and like a field. You would sheep at your school? Yeah, I know. It's like the most country thing ever. Yeah, on leave his day, like a bunch of sick formers like spray painted the resident sheep nice and bright. And that was one of the incidents of mine.

Mm. That's funny. I don't know if I have one. Maybe my school is just really lame. My class. Really no shit in a year. urinal or anything crazy like that? I don't know.

I don't think so. I can't recall. It's got so bad at my school, they had to, like, put up, like, cameras on the outside. So they try and figure out and he was, like, shitty. Yeah, it was fucking foul.

Yeah, it was bad. That's funny. My God. Yeah, I guess I just went to a good school. I think my high school was, like, a repurposed prison. Because, like, it had no windows, yeah. Um, that was weird.

That's impressive. Yeah, it really was. Yeah. It's like how my mom's school was in like Queen. She'd tell me there were like bars on the windows. It was like prison. I was like, I didn't go to school there. Bonds on the window.

Yeah. It's like fucking prison. Yeah, yours has no windows. I don't have like a, uh, there's something that I thought was kind of like a high school thing, but I guess it really wasn't because I guess the guy was at a high school by the time this happened. but I'll tell the story anyway, just because it reminded me of this. But some people that I went to high school, so there's this filmmaker from Edmonton

that made some like indie stuff or whatever. Like he might have gotten into a festival or something before. I don't remember. But he wound up, I guess, getting inspired by like Dexter. Oh, no. And being like a sicko. He like held auditions for like a thing and just like murdered people. Like he would, yeah, you can look this up.

It was like he would tie people up in his garage and be like, pretend like he's filming a scene. Like, oh, yeah, this is like an indie thing. It's just like me filming like a thing. And one guy actually escaped and I guess didn't notify the authorities because I don't know why. So then he wound up killing another person. But I think he only wound up killing like one guy successfully. But I had friends in my high school that like auditioned for like some of his stuff, which was like kind of creepy. Yeah, that's horrifying.

fine. Yeah, you can look. I think this is Mark Twitchell is the name. They are in prison right now. So, yeah, Edmonton Filmmaker Killer thing. That's weird. Yeah, I guess that was after high school. Make a good movie. Yeah.

To make like a true crime movie out of it. The Netflix, they should get the rights to that. Yeah, there was definitely, there was like a mini thing on some, there was something I watched on YouTube, some cheesy television things. did some story on it. But I don't know. I don't know how much there is to get out of it.

But you could, you know, take some creative liberties and make more of a thing out of it, I guess. Yeah, I guess you could. Yeah, in terms of like high school incidents, like, I don't know. I was only in high school for a year and a half before I dropped out to like focus on art. And I wound up getting my equivalency later. But, yeah. Okay.

Mad Movie Hero has one for us. There's been recent news that Disney is working on a live action remake of Moana and that Warner Bros will soon reboot Harry Potter as a series on HBO. Given the fact that Moana and the original Harry Potter films came out not that long ago, what do you think about this situation? It's bad. I think the Moana one is just like, it's so crazy. Did you see that video The Rock put on his Twitter? He's like standing on the beach in Hawaii. Oh my God.

Yeah. He's like with his little girls, like, announced him like, I know. you are as hyped as I am. LinkedIn. You got to give me a second. It's so cringy, man. Yeah, it's the same cast, right? Because Moana just came out

like a couple years ago. Like, it's the same exact cast. It's not even... Like, what's even the point? Isn't it like five years or something? Yeah, what's the point? It makes no sense. Like...

What can I say except this is lame? Yeah, it's really lame. So, why would they announce that? Why would they not do a sequel? I think the Harry Potter. hotter ones really lame. Like, I wonder how that's going to go. I wonder if these live action versions are just cheaper to make than the animated ones.

And now they're like, well, why not? Yeah. And, like, yeah, you don't have to come up with any, like, ideas or writing. This announcement. Oh, yeah. You just copy the same movie. It's such a cringe announcement. What is with this, like, epic action music as he's announcing this?

Like, just holding his daughter. It's like, big burly man as they're just, like, chilling on the beach. I'm watching this shit Yeah The comments are like Every year that passes by Hollywood Hollywood's reputation sinks further

People seem to be turning on the rocks The rock a little bit it seems Sorry, just read in the comments They're fucking roasting it I mean It's like the official Announcement It's embarrassing

Yeah Come on Like it's so uncreative Like people fucking hate These live action remakes Does anyone like them? I haven't heard a single positive thing. I mean, they are continuing to be successful.

It's the problem. Yeah, because I guess... Little Mermaid's gonna make money. Like, Garen fucking T. The new Little Mermaid movie coming out in like two months is gonna make money. It probably will. It's not only gonna make money for that movie. Do you think so?

Was what, Lady in the Tramp and Pinocchio were like... Yeah, Pinocchio was a dump onto Disney Plus, right? I don't know about Pinocchio. Yeah. Those were both dumps. And Pinocchio was too, but that had like Tom Hanks in it? Yeah, so I don't know, but like these... They're all dumps though.

All these movies are dumbs. But even so, like, I'm willing to bet that they were still profitable. Because every time that you release one of these live action remakes, it's essentially also an ad for the original. And enough people like the original that even if you hate the live action remake and you're like, I'm going to protest this. I'm just going to watch the original. You're still rewarding them for creating the live action remake because what they've done is they've increased their sales by making it because you're you were reminded of the original and it served as an ad, right? So, like, people are going to be like, oh, Moana, right?

It's news about Moana. I'm going to rent Moana on video on demand. Like, people are going to be watching the little mermaid. People, whether or not they're excited for the new Little Mermaid are going to be watching the old one. I'm going to watch the old one before I watch the fucking new one, you know, like. Yeah, I watched Pinocchio after the new Pinocchio. Exactly.

Just because I had to cleanse my fucking palate. Shit. I think they're all profitable. really in some way or another like maybe not directly for every single one of them but they're at least worth making they see it as a advantage to them but it's just like so bad the uh i find the harry potter conversation kind of more interesting though because yeah first of HBO right like they don't make trash for the most part like they make some of the best long-form content around and there's like i don't know if this is like a hot take or whatever but there's only really

one Harry Potter movie I really give a shit about the third one first three are like okay and cute and I just feel like it's overall not the best like franchise of movies yeah they're not like sacred like Lord of the Rings or something to me you know like yeah yeah feel like that in my mind I was rewatching them yeah so yeah I agree those first two are not great the third one's really good um the third one is the one that's like yeah that one's great that one's great Alfonso Corone directed. But yeah, I don't know, man. I know Harry Potter is like really controversial now or whatever.

And more so the author. I don't know. Long form content adapting these big chunky books. I feel like you could do something with that. I don't know. There is like there's at least some room there. I could see where you could do something. It'd be difficult.

And there's a lot of baggage coming in obviously because those treasured movies and the cast is treasured and everything. but yeah I don't know and I feel like they weren't that long ago either like I guess they were that's the egregious part yeah yeah like those actors are still around like you know emma Watson like Daniel Radcliffe I still see them in movies it's kind of weird like at this point you think they'd wait a little longer and um I guess you're all right there is material there I was watching the fourth one recently and there was a lot of like stuff in that movie there was like a lot going on in that film and like from what what I know about book readers, they said there's a lot of stuff. It was like a very busy book as well.

So I'm sure they could like adapt it into something, especially with that book or like some of the later ones because they get pretty like lofty and like mature later on. They just get bigger and bigger the books. Yeah. But yeah, as far as those early ones, you know, I don't know if it's going to be something where they make a season and just drop it, you know, HBO. They usually make like adult content and not kid stuff. But you know, like you said, If anyone could do it well, it'd probably be HBO. I mean, they made that last of a show pretty good, you know, but I have faith in them. I don't like House of the Dragon, but...

Yeah, that's the thing. Like, any other company I would not trust at all, but I don't know. Yeah, I just, I don't know, I don't really... I'm not that attached to Harry Potter's an IP, so it doesn't just seem as egregious as it might to some... Yeah, those fantastic beast movies, too. Those are fucking awful. I was watching those. Yeah, they're so bad.

Mm-hmm. I'm just kind of upset at just like these big things that are a part of cultural conversations that I feel like some sort of obligation to see. I wouldn't have watched the Mario movie if it wasn't the most successful fucking animated opening of all time, you know? You know, like I have no interest in Harry Potter at all. And so for this to just be happening and then like maybe it'll be wildly successful, I'm kind of just dreading that moment where it's like, oh, fuck, am I going to have to like,

am I going to have to like check out a Harry Potter movie again just to be? a part of like a cultural conversation and do my fucking job I guess it's like damn it's kind of annoying I don't want to yeah I'm just dreading it

yeah I was I was really I was really into those books as a kid yeah yeah people love those books yeah it just really depends on like

if they make the show good if it's a good show people like it then I think it will be successful I think that will happen but it just depends you know they could

they could tank also. I mean, I don't like those fantastic beast movies. Yeah. There are some big question marks like, what do you do with the music? What do you do with the casting? Like, there's a lot of big things. Right. The music's so iconic. They would probably just reuse the themes. That's one of my least favorite things about House of the Dragon. I know people fucking hate I harp one. But like, they like they reuse like the Game of Thrones theme song. Like why?

Like why do they reuse the theme song? It doesn't make any sense. of that. I wish so too. Exactly. It's like, but they'll probably do the same thing for Harry Potter because, you know, the music's so iconic. They'll just throw the music in because that's what people know. I wonder what they're going to do. It depends. You know, because they could take the Lord of the Rings or the Rings of Power route and do nothing inspired, but, or they could do something really creative with it and

make it good, you know. It is HBO, like you said. I have faith in them, but I just, I don't I feel like those movies are not that old They're not that old Like you could watch them I don't know if I just have faith in HBO Just like that though Mm-hmm I don't know

Especially after the merger Yeah that too And I think that's part of why they like Greenlit this as well It's probably 100% why that's happening Like the Harry Potter movies aren't like Not selling right now Like you go on a fucking airplane

You see all fucking eight Seven or eight Harry Potter movies Just constantly there to watch Like okay these are still getting like residual passive income clearly you know so they just want more they're greedy greedy pigs and i guess they're fantastic beasts yeah franchise didn't go the way they wanted so they've got they've got to find a new angle to and yeah i guess remakes are just so popular right now they're just seeing it like how can we stretch this into and revisit without having to actually make

something new because we can't we can't do it clearly yeah clearly uh yeah my manna not gonna be good. Fuck the right. No, no, fuck that entire project. So stupid and annoying. Should we do one more here? Let's do it. Yeah, sure. We could do, yeah. Abino Basilisk says this. It's interesting that Adam thinks AI reviewing movies is a good

formula for YouTube videos, because in a way he's already right. Recently, there's been an explosion of videos of the AI US presidents making tier lists of any topic you can think of. And they also have all their critical bases covered with one president being negative, one positive, and one in the middle ground. Any thoughts on this? And how would you guys

react if someone made an AI channel that featured your voices? It's been happening to the game theory guy and he doesn't seem too fond of it. That's funny. Yeah, AI channel featuring my voice, well, first of all, keep fucking trying because it seems like my voice is one of the few that you can't really quite nail down. So people have been trying, nobody's gotten it. I don't have like as consistent of a tone as Joe Rogan, which like every single single single. AI can nail Joe Rogan's voice right now. Like it's insane. It's just Joe Rogan. People have been making fake ads to trick old people into buying supplements. Yeah, I saw one of those. Isn't that crazy? That's awesome. That's really fun. The Jordan Pizza ones are quite accurate as well. Like Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson talking about bionical or whatever. It's pretty funny. Oh, yeah. I saw them like reviewing a movie. It's like, yeah, Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro reviewing a movie or some shit. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty funny. That's just hilarious.

passionately interested in the AI technology, both in terms of like recreating voices and like also like text bots and all that. Like I am welcoming our new AI overlords and I'm going to be here for the reckoning and I hope that they think that I'm cool when they replace humanity so that they don't kill me. But yeah, I mean like it's it's I'm just so interested in what is going to happen and what's already had like you we can see it happen. already. Like, you could, it's, it's, it's, oh, we're already entering like her. Like, we're already, we're already really close to like her in terms of the timeline. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm kind of with you in terms of just like, put my hands up like, you can't fight this. No.

It's all, it's already over in a way, you know, so it's already done. Right. Like, when did that, when did AI stuff like this start kind of cropping up? It's only the last like couple years, right? And it's the sophistication of it so quickly. It's huge This is the new internet Like in terms of like a huge Technological Sorry technological leap that's going to change

The way that things Happen and function right Like This is crazy We're entering like a completely uncharted territory Yeah Like you don't even need a search engine You can just ask the AI

Like whatever chat GPT Like whatever the fuck you want No answer It Is that one? I don't know But it's like It's bleeding into like

every sector of life. Like I was talking to someone who knows people who are like writing their dissertations at uni right now. They're using chatGBT and getting like really good grades. The people marking it. The teachers, the, I have an auntie works at university. She uses it for like menial tasks. And then there's the art realm.

There's all this AI generated pictures and like, do you see the, those AI generated images of like Trump being arrested and it's all being spread around? He was running down the street. I'm really convincing and scared. Yeah. It looked real. That did look real. That was really good.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm here for it. You see all kinds of that stuff. I'm excited. You see people just post photos and then there's like a comment saying like, well, you can see here the photo was actually AI generated. But like you can't even tell like just looking at it on the surface like at a glance, you know? Technology is going to have to catch up with itself in terms of like the ability to detect that.

Like we're going to get to a point pretty soon where like it's. good enough that do we trust the technology that's detecting it? Because right now there's like there there's websites that claim like oh yeah put the text in here and we'll tell you if it's a I generated or not. You put in like literally the declaration of independence. It's like this is 98% AI generated. It's like okay clearly the technology is not there yet right for detecting it even right. There's also like issues arise like in a university context where they're developing software that can detect but the implementation of it is kind of a big question marks it's like what if they they start scanning stuff and find out the

40% of people are using it you know probably yeah actually gonna do about that what do you do like what you're just gonna kick out 40% of students like you can't it's like it's too late yeah and then you just release another version of the chat gbt that can yeah that's exponentially better right each one they release is like much better than the last version there's there's very uh urgent issues that we need to address societally, you know, the conversation used to be as simple as like, oh, yeah, you know, it's going to replace our jobs, like, whether it's AI or just even automation. And, like, we've seen that happen with, you know, like, cashiers at McDonald's to some extent. Or, like, obviously, the automotive industry and factory work in the United States, you know,

that's a lot of that's just been outsourced or now it's just being done by machines, right? Like, there's some things that we really need to address in, I'm not going to get too far into it. my opinion, basic income needs to be a necessity. I don't know how we could survive as a society without it. So, whichever societies are going to adopt that and, you know, realize that first, we'll probably, you know, it's probably better sooner than later. But yeah, there's this weird social stigma around it. Like, you know, like, oh, let's, definitely. Let's have, let's have machines take everyone's jobs and then there's just no jobs for people. And it's like, okay, now what? Like, everybody's in poverty. You want your fucking crime rates to go up. That's going to catch up to you,

too rich folks there's gonna be poor people in your neighborhoods stealing your shit you got to like stop with this fuck you got mine attitude that fucking yeah there's there's also like other angles of like the the ethical implications of like what we're doing even you know like they're getting sophisticated to a degree where it's like if we're making something we don't properly understand and like we can't how do you accurately measure like what consciousness is or what life is in that way it brings up these huge great questions. And it's like, yeah, is it kind of inherently unethical to do this without understanding what it's even capable of?

Yeah, it's really crazy. It is her. It is sci-fi just becoming reality before our very eyes. And man, just thinking about just in this field, like with movies and content like that, man, the doors are, there's, have you guys seen the South Park episode? Yes. Yep. No, I haven't.

It's really good. It's really funny. There's a gag where, like, Mr. Garrison's like, it might make Hollywood movies better. They like it. It literally might, yeah. They need it. They're probably already using it for several things. Yeah, I would not be surprised.

You want to think that AI isn't at least being consulted on scripts? You're crazy. Oh, yeah. You think they're not using that technology in any way? Like, remember we covered this like two years ago? We found out that like Warner Brothers patented an algorithm to be able to like tell which actors would be popular to cast in big movies at like at certain time like I forget which which studio but like we covered this years ago and that was already like we were expecting that that was already being used then so like 100% any sort of tool that you can use to maximize your profit right like we're all numbers of course a machine can figure out like basic things about yeah oh yeah you know if you're gonna make a Mario movie you just have Jack Black ad lib some song and he'll say peaches and then people will share it on Twitter of course a machine can figure that out You know, like, it worked.

I think, yeah. I think Illumination's being an AI this whole time in this infancy. Yeah, it's like the Hal 9,000. Yeah, it's going to be like the end of Alien where you're like, you weren't an AI the whole time? It's like people that we know. Damn, there's some ripe concepts for films that we could make about this shit, you know? Get your creative juices flowing. Yeah, I'll go straight to chat, GPT.

Exactly. Could you, wouldn't that be so meta to like get an AI? to write a movie about AI. Wouldn't it be so fucking meta, bro? Yeah, that's kind of like the gag at the end of the South Park episode. Yeah. That's what I was going to say about the South Park one. Yeah, that's what I was going to say about the South Park one.

Like, did they actually, like, have ChatGPT write the episode? Or it's just about, like, yeah, that's funny. Yeah. I'm sure you can tell. Yeah, that is funny. You know, it's a tool. I think you can use it to help you, you know. It is kind of like having a personal assistant in a way.

Like, it helps you write. notes and whatever yeah it could be very dangerous it's not gonna change like my thirst for the types of movies that I'm interested in because like whether or not it's an algorithm or you know a board of executives or like you know fucking what's the word focus group like whether or not it's any one of those things currently big studio movies are deciding what's going to appeal to the widest market possible regardless of whether or not it's a an AI deciding that, I'm still not really a part of that group. I don't really find myself

being appealed to with the Mario movie or insert whatever thing is popular in theaters right now. So it's not really going to change my experience, but it's going to change the landscape. And I think it's going to be really funny, just, I guess, this, I don't know, like, will people be at all introspective about the fact that their tastes are just AI generally? Like that an AI can just decide what you'll like and you like it sort of thing. Yeah. But it's like we're pretty much there already though. Like this Flash movie that's coming out basically looks like a like an AI generated like mash.

Consult the mother's type. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. These things are not that complicated to figure out. Yeah. So I guess it's like why we say AI generated. It's like the most basic shit. But it's like because people are so uncreative now.

It's like, all right, just throw him Batman and Flash and it'll make money. It might even become such a standard where bragging that the lack of AI involvement might actually be like a niche or a marketing arm at some point. I want to see the first completely AI generated movie and I want that to be the selling point. It's so dystopian now that I say it out loud. But like, yeah, there's that AI generated Seinfeld. Oh, that was funny. Yeah, that was funny. Yeah.

I think it made some kind of inappropriate joke and it got. like banned on Twitch. Oh, it was so funny, though. You can find it on YouTube. It was like kind of a transphobic joke, but it wasn't really. Sure, but it was just funny that it was like, I said it and like, yeah. I got the irony.

And it got in trouble. They banned the AI for a few weeks. Yeah, yeah. Damn, it was so funny. Making inappropriate comments. That was like the funniest thing that they had ever said. This is a really good joke. Yeah.

Because it just the funny not funny, ironic nature of it, you know, I love that shit. Yeah, we're in a weird point in time, and that's reason to keep on living, really. So interesting what's going to be happening in the next future. Yeah, I'm getting my deck chair out and I'm ready to watch. This will either be the beginning of something special or the beginning of the end, probably maybe both. Yeah. You might spiral into something that's out of control, although arguably we're already in that, and we always have into the beginning of time and free will is an illusion. And yeah, that's my answer to that question.

Wow, very deep. Yeah, the question to end on. Yeah, I guess we got a wreck. I think it's mine. Yeah. Is it yours? I think it is. La Hain.

I don't think any of us have seen it. And I think I pronounced it currently. 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz. It's on Criterion. And never seen it. A lot of people asking us to cover it. I just, I didn't know what I was going to recommend.

So I sent out a tweet while we were recording the episode. And there were a few that we're on that one. And, yeah, it seems like an interesting thing to check out. I have no fucking idea. Yeah, yeah. My friend was talking to me about this just the other day. Okay, cool.

And I like, I like Vincent Kassell, actually. So, all right. If you don't want to be spoiled, everybody, for Lahain, if I pronounce that correctly,

uh, 1995. Watch it before the next episodes out of this podcast. These episodes come out every two weeks, although you can listen to them early by going to sardonicast.com signing up for premium. It's only $2 a month. That's like, you know,

that's like a quarter of Twitter blue in one month. Yeah, it's like a third of one coffee from Starbucks or something. Also, patreon.com slash sardonicast gets you the same thing. to support the show and listen to it early. We got merch, link in the description. There's also a Sardonicast Highlights Channel on YouTube

if you want to listen to some specific clips or moments from the pod or whatever. Anyway, yeah, have a good Shrek or whatever or something. Happy Shrek. Yeah. Bye-bye. Yeah, hit the question block. Yahoo.

Happy, yeah. Chat, GBT, GBT. Bye, everybody. Bye