Sardonicast - Sardonicast 138: John Wick 4, Ant-Man Quantumania, La Haine

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

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Three, two, one. The world is yours. That's a quote. It's on a billboard that, on the movie that we're going to talk about later, called La Hainey. Oh, Lahine. Called John Wick.

I'm Adam from your movie sex. La Hiney. This is Sardonicat. Hello, everybody. I'm Ralph Seppie. Yeah, I'm Alex from Reachee. Cool. Oh, did I take you a place?

No, I'm just stupid. Okay. Man, I don't know what it is about these intros, man. Yeah, that's part of the charm. Exactly. They like the awkwardness. I just can't do it. I don't know what it is.

Welcome to the show, everyone. It's the Discord thing. It's all, you know, people don't give us enough credit for the Discord thing. Like, there's always lag and, like, there's always lag and, like, I don't know. like shit going wrong and like, you know, we have an editor, like, put this together. Like, that's why it's like awkward sometimes, you know? Like, people don't realize that. I don't think. There is a delay between like countries on the other side of the planet. Because sometimes people are like, why is Ralph laughing at, but, but it's because sometimes

there's like a delay or like shit gets like reedited. Like. And yeah, you know, I appreciate like how, just how much of conversation is just body language that you don't even get to. to see. Isn't it like 90% of... Yeah. Huh? We're just three floating heads. Yeah, we're just three floating heads trying to make it in this crazy internet.

I'm really confused. So I sometimes see things on the internet that I don't care enough about to look into, but they happen every year and I don't know. what's going on and I just maybe I need to look into it. What the fuck is the Met Gala? Is it just celebrities try to dress as weird as possible? That's the goal. What is it? It's a profession show, right? Jared Letto's in a fur suit now. It's not even a real fur suit. It's a fake furry furtuit. I'm walking out of year. Get a hell out of year. Oh, is that Jared Lotto in that suit? That was Jared Letto. That was Jared Letto. Our community is ruined now. Oh, Jared Lotto's a furry? He's not. It's not a real furry.

I'm gatekeeping Wow I had no idea that was Jared I saw that picture floating around but I didn't realize it was him How do we know? How do we actually know? Because he took out There's a picture of him with the Here I'll show you

Oh he took it off Yeah Because of course he'd have to Like what's the point then What's the point of wearing that If you're just going to walk around and Take the head off And be like, ooh it's me

It's me, Jim Oh my God. Look how big the head is. Yeah, because they have like a theme right, and they're supposed to design a costume or have a costume designed around a theme. I think it was supposed to, some kind of artist they were referencing. I don't know what this cat of their suit is about there. I don't know if he's aware that furries exist. I think he just dressed up as a cat.

This is definitely like a millionaire's interpretation of a fur suit. You know? Like, look at that head. It's definitely like, like, a, what's that word? Like a taxidermy kind of, not like really, but it looks like a real fucking cathead. It's so weird. Yeah, it looks very, like, good. Yeah.

Very detailed. Like, it looks expensive. Or he's like more tuny shit, you know. Yeah, it looks like a very expensive suit. Yeah. It looks like, definitely looks like a designer outfit. Yeah Million dollar fur suit

But so what is it They just Yeah It's a fashion show And every celebrity Just shows up It's just yeah Fashion show

You're right about the theme I see they're all like They look kind of similar All the The fashion You know It's like black and white This year's theme was narcissism

That's every year's theme Oh They look like You know What's like Jennifer Lawrence series Where they're like Playing Battle Royale

the Hunger Games. They look like Hunger Games characters, you know. Pretty much, yeah, at this point. Yeah, which the new trailer dropped for the new one. I hope we'll hype for that. Oh, yeah. It's fantastic. Another ones keep going.

It drops? Woo! Oh, it dropped. Okay, I'll react to that. Like a character out of the battle bus. Later. Not yet. Adding that to my list.

Yeah. The new Dune trailers out tomorrow, apparently. Oh, yeah. I saw the teaser for the teaser. I know, right? sick of up. Just stop. Yeah.

Is that coming back to form now? I feel like that kind of went away for a while. After like COVID. But now, yeah. Now we're getting ads for ads again. Yeah. Fuck. Okay.

You know what? I just, I searched MetGala on Twitter and I found a good one. Fangoria posted breaking. The Skinnamarink phone has arrived in the 2020s. That's funny. Okay. I like shit. I like shit post,

There we go. Yeah. Like Sam Smith's Brit Awards outfit was pretty funny. That was, the odd little meme comes out of it. Okay. Here's, here's, uh, here's one for the British. Hmm. Ooh.

I got Queen Elizabeth the second that arrived at the 2023 men. That Gallo, Red Carbett. Okay. I kind of like the shit posty things. I like, I like making fun of it. I just want to see more like Sasha Baron Cohen making fun of like crazy fashion people. That was fun in the movie Bruno and also on his Ali G show. Yeah, it was funny in Bruno.

Yeah. It's just, this is like, there's very few things that I don't quite get where I, most things that I see people taking interest in, even if I don't have like a particular interest in my sport in myself, like sports. I'm like, I get it. There's very few things I don't get, and that's fashion and wrestling. Pro wrestling. Really? Yeah.

I just kind of look at it, and I'm like, man, this is so odd. Yeah, it is a bit wacky. Have you seen the Louis Theroux where he goes to the wrestlers? That's like a great episode of that. No, I haven't. Louis Thruh's weird weekends, I think.

Okay, I'll search that up. It's funny. Well, we all watched a different man dress up, but he shot people instead. We all watched Mr. Week. Damn. Yeah. Rip F, actually. Yeah, Lance Riddick, Rip.

Yeah, 60 years old. He was great in these. Yeah, so fucking young. What the fuck. And he was, you know, he's in the fucking wire. He's an amazing actor. I was like, what the fuck? when that happened.

Yeah, that was quite surprised. Yeah, that was a surprise. Mm-hmm. And he's great in these movies. And yeah, the John Wick movies,

one of the strengths about them is the supporting cast, I'd say, like Lance Riddick and Ian McShane and, you know, Lawrence Fishburn. Lawrence Fishburn, right. And Hallie Berry.

They've got to do everything they can to prop up Mr. Reeves. He's, he's got his skills. He's got his skills. He's got a look and he's got very good, like, gun training. He's a very nice kind of man.

He's a physical performance. And he does all his own stunts. And he's a very cool guy. Yeah. He takes the subway and he gives the seat to an elderly person that needs it the most. Yeah, but he says, what, like three words in this movie? He says, like, yeah. That's what's good about it.

Yeah. I love that about this movie. They make John, what, barely. say anything, which is awesome. It's like, gives him this mystique that I think is cool. And plus, yeah, Keanu Reeves, he works better as like a, saying less. I don't think he's a bad actor. I think he's like mostly bad.

He's got limited range, maybe in some ways, but I like him as this character. I think we're saying the same thing. Yeah, I like him as this character because he doesn't talk and he's like, it just like says shit like, yeah, I'm going to kill you or like, give me a gun. Like, that's better You're gonna dog Kicked my dog Your neighbor came to my house

And she kicked my dog Yeah I like that dialogue Gives him Personality Oh my God And yeah You're right Alex

Like how it props up All the other actors Prop up him And all these great actors Like make it work Yeah And I think that's why the movies Work as well as they do

And this is what four movies in Like I think we've mentioned This franchise Really at all this podcast anyway. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

How do you guys feel about the stuff before this? Because for me, like, I liked that first movie. I thought it was a fun surprise. Didn't really care that much about two. I only recently saw three just ready to see four. And I thought, like, it wasn't really till four where I was kind of connecting more with it. It's so funny.

I have a bunch of issues. I don't know. I kind of took a step back with this franchise because, yeah, it's not exactly my thing all over. It's got, like, uh, details. I do like about it and I think Ford probably is the best one. But yeah, it's kind of a rocky franchise for me. Yeah, I guess like on the surface, I don't think I would like it either because on the surface,

it is like a kind of gun-cata, almost like Freddie Wong video, like just a bunch of shootouts with like, you know, I hate, I hate like the CGI squibs and whatever. It's all done in post-production. But I think I really like the John Wick movies and what makes them work is that there's really like craft put into the choreography. Like, even if you can tell, there's, like, bullet squib that are, like, done in CG. Like, the choreography is really impressive, and it's almost like watching a ballet of, like, brutal violence. And I really did enjoy that about all four of the movies.

I think they're great action movies. I have issues with, like, the story, maybe. But, like, the action scenes is, like, they get better as they go along. I think each one, the first one's probably my least favorite now because, like, even, like, the third one, like, it's got kind of a dumb story, but some really cool action. scenes in it, like, when they're getting chased, like, the mortoicles there on the bridge, or, I don't know, the final fight with, like, zero and whatever. Like, those scenes are really cool.

I think they're great action movies. This is, like, my point. The fight scenes get more interesting and elaborate and also kind of cheesy as they go along. It's kind of fun. But what really makes the second and third films kind of irritating for me is just how much you have to sit through to get to the action scenes. Like they spend a long time with this like cool music, serious tone, like developing this story that essentially just feels like it's written by a 14 year old anyway of like the assassins kill the assassins and they'll kill you anyway.

And they treat like those parts they feel like in the context of the movie they're treated super seriously and they take up a lot of time. And I'm just kind of like just get to the action. Like this is an action movie. Everybody likes it for the action. Nobody cares about this part. And the amount of time that they spent on that shit in the second and the third movie really dragged them down for me. Although, you know, I don't think they're terrible. It's just the fourth one, it does it well, I think.

But yeah. Yeah, I think there's a charm to like the simplicity of them for me. The fourth one, the pacing was much better. I like the world of assassins that they established in this, you know, series. I think that is cool. So I did like scenes in between the action. It eventually pays off, yes. And the fourth one, it really pays off.

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's like it's an inherently kind of video gamey concept right, right down to things like power creep and whatnot, like affecting the action scenes. They've got to like, they invent the suits that are bulletproof and then that like escalates the action a certain way. And then they just keep having to basically figure out new ways to refresh this main gimmick they have with these kind of CQC up close gun slash melee fights. And then like, yeah, what environment can we put them in? What who can we put them up against? and they come up with like over the franchise a bunch of like fun different hooks like in three I kind of like the those villainous characters who were they were kind of like fan boys of John Wick

which is kind of a fun dynamic which is a bit more kind of like nod nod to the audience I thought that was like a fun thing and then but one of the big things that was holding this franchise back for me was up until this fourth movie they didn't really have the strongest antagonist to me I really felt like having Donnie Yen as this kind of of antagonist figure like he really like carried a lot of the action for me I've his like gimmick as a character was really fun for me to watch and he like really added a lot of the those action scenes and just having someone like equally capable as John Finn to kind of constantly be clashing against like that was the dynamic I was like looking for from this franchise because yeah it does kind of acknowledge the kind of goofier side he's doing the rogue one blind like assassin type guy again so silly

yeah so it is silly and there is silly and there is almost this weird, it does almost like, acknowledge its goofiness sometimes. It sometimes feels almost like a musical where like, when it would get to a musical number, it's like equated with an action scene instead and kind of rules are a bit different and they will be in like a crowded environment, like firing guns and stuff and people aren't really reacting, but that doesn't really matter and that's not the point. It's just like the spectacle of the action and four definitely is the most consistent with that like delivering on the spectacle and ramping it up again and again and not really lingering on the stuff that Adam was just saying about the two and three,

which I agree with. I do still think it's way too long for what it is. I would trim a bunch of this out and it would be perfect for me because I do feel like as this one does have a better pace compared to the previous, where it does kind of falter for me is like it does start getting exhausting after a while when like each fight is like multiple waves of enemies and I'm there for like the first three waves or so. but by the time he gets to like the fifth or sixth, I'm kind of like, all right, I need like a new gimmick now. It is nearly a three-hour-long movie.

It's like an endless onslaught. But the character is exhausted. This is like Gene Dealman. Yeah. It is like, it's just like Gene Dealman. It's like exactly like that. That's the other thing, though, about John Wick is the thing that made him a fun character originally was the fact that like his, his past was kind of shrouded in mystery and, The premise of like some asshole guy messing with the wrong person and like you killed this dog and it happens to be this pro assassin who's like just like retired.

And it's like that's a funny reveal and the whole like assassin law is comical. But the more and more they're stretching it like the more and more silly it becomes. Yeah. I just, you know, I disagree with like a lot of what you said. I, you know, I like that the movie's long and that there's like this world building. We mentioned how John Wick or Keanu Reeves doesn't really say a lot, and they focus a lot on these other characters like Donnie Yen and like this Osaka, I guess, Continental and like all this other shit going on. It makes the world feel like it's alive and like it's, you know, like it's going on outside of the character. And also, I think they did keep some mystery to John Wick too.

I think they, you know, like they teach you enough about him. You know enough about his past, but they don't go too far into it. I think they kept it still vague enough in these movies. We didn't get a flashback to teenage John. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. No, Wicks kind of like, I saw it was, I think it was Joel Haver's review of this movie.

I saw on Letterbox, he made like a good observation where, like, John Wick is quite a nihilistic character. Like, he has nothing to fight for. Like, the whole point of his character is that, yeah, he's got nothing to. to lose. So he's like constantly on this revenge mission and to me it kind of makes him a bit more of like a hollow character because I feel like he doesn't really have anything to fight for apart from this like primal revenge type thing. And that's fun within like pockets. But for me like I'm cool with just the first John Wick and this one. Like I feel like those two are kind of enough to get to this point. I didn't even really need some of the previous stuff. Because even stuff down to

like you said, the whole scene in Osaka, that was like the first time in the franchise, I felt like the whole kind of neon aesthetic was working a bit more because like it, it does become a bit much for me in two and three, like, they're not like the prettiest movies to me. They're quite a bombardment of like neon mess. And I just felt like it was, it was finding its voice a bit more in this one. And I just felt way more confident in that kind of side of things. Yeah. Okay, I can see that. Yeah, there was some point. I wanted, yeah, about the action. It's really silly. It's really stupid. Obviously, people don't have bulletproof suits and whatever. But I love the action scenes in this. And I just think I've seen so many action scenes in my life that are so fucking boring. And let me just use like a Stephen Seagall movie as an example. Usually, like in those shitty Steven Seagal movies, it's like a shot of Stephen Seagull holding a gun, right? He shoots. And then there's a reverse shot of the bad guy. Quick kind.

Um, getting hit. Yeah. And it's really boring because that's like the whole. action scene. It's like shot, reverse shot. What's interesting about the gun kata, I guess, and why they like really doubled down on it. It's like, you know, they're in the same frame. Like you see two subjects fighting. They're in the same frame. They're shooting at each other. But it's more visually interesting to watch, you know, and that's really what the point of the action is. It's not about being realistic. It's about being visually interesting. Yeah. And that's why I compare it to a ballet, you know, because they're doing insane shit. And

and yet, Donnie Yen's blind and he's putting door bells on the walls and like people might walk by them and it's like fucking crazy shit but like it's entertaining yeah it's really entertaining and that's more I think what worked about it for me almost like kind of slapsticky have you ever seen the raid

in the raid too? Yeah I love those movies also I also love those movies I consider those to be like really top tier like action choreography that and like I don't know kill Bill or like maybe the Matrix, like, and John Wick has very competent action choreography, and it's refreshing

in today's current landscape of films, especially action films, to see, like, oh, this is actual real coordination with effort put into it, and there's stunt people that are actually, you know, doing a good job and cheated relatively well, and it's not all this quick cut bullshit where you can't tell what's going on, you know, like, it's very refreshing to see that. I don't think that this is anywhere near the level of, well, the first three films anyway, I don't think is anywhere near the level of like coordination and overall choreography as those other films that I'd mentioned. But I think that the success of this franchise in general is kind of a byproduct of just how generally terrible the landscape of action films are

currently. Like there's really not a lot of action films or films at all. that have decent choreography. Like, every time action happens in a movie, it's always quick-cut bullshit. It's always like, oh, you can't tell what's going on. And they just cheated it in a way where it was the easiest to film for the directors and they didn't have to put any effort into it.

Yeah, where the actors comes along. And people are like, whoa, an action movie? Like, that isn't just such garbage? And so then, yeah, this is like one of the most successful franchises. It gets four movies. where the lead does his own stunts. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, he's riding horses and whatever. Exactly. And that's why like the acting, okay, whatever from Keanu. Like, at least he's doing his own stunt work. That's more important to me. Yeah, I agree. So many action movies, they fall apart with that. And it's nice to see something that they really put like work into the choreography and that stuff. Yeah. I would say this is probably the best action movie I've seen since the raid movies. And I'm not saying, they're better but I'm not saying John Wickford's better but it's probably the best I've seen like the choreography just speaking on that not like the story or anything I think the choreography is about

as good if not better than the raid movies like this one this one is great super impressive yeah this one is really impressive definitely the appeal what really won me over was the hotline Miami shot the top down like seemingly all in one take but not really but you know like the fucking the flame shotgun or whatever was happening. Yeah, the Dragon Breath. Yeah. Oh man, that was so cool.

Yeah. It was like, that was great. That was a very insanely well realized action sequence where every single element was coming together, the coordination and the cinematography and just, yeah, that, that really felt like a ballet dance. Like it just, yeah, it was exactly what it should have been. Like that, that was like the best moment from the franchise for me.

and I just Yeah, I was really impressed by that staircase fight at the end. Yeah, that was also a lot of fun. Even just, yeah, conceptually, that's a great, like, idea for an action scene. Like, he has to get up the stairs and he keeps getting kicked down.

It's so much fun to see. And it's like a good kind of metaphor for like the whole franchise, really, or just life. Like, you got to climb up the stairs and you keep getting kicked down. Not getting knocked down. Yeah.

And that's kind of like the whole point of these. Like, he keeps getting knocked down. him and he keeps getting back up again. Right. There is something about the simplicity of John Wick that I do like. I like that he's just like a revenge seeking like just guy with no purpose set in life. But, you know, like usually I would criticize something like that, but they give it a personality. Yeah, like they make him like this ghost.

Like, you know, he's mysterious, you know. And I like that about the character. So how long do you think before Lionsgate forces a John Wick fight? Oh, they're going to do it. Last I heard they're doing some kind of spin-off movie. Oh. They were supposed to be set, like, in the hotel with Lance Redick and stuff like that? They're doing a, I think they're doing a spinoff show about the Continental.

It's a show, is it? Yeah, and they're making a movie with Anna Deer Moss where she's like a ballerina or something, and it's set in that world. I think that's the plan. Okay, there you go. Yeah. Well, that could be good. Look, as long as they make good action scenes, I don't really care what they do. Like, I would watch more movies from these guys.

Like, any, like, just for the action. If there is good as those two last action scenes in this movie, then fucking make whatever you want, I'll watch it. Yeah. Just try not to, like, even, you know, even if, like, let's say there was the same amount of, like, bullshit dialogue scenes as, like, the second and third movie, like, at least there would be so much more of a payoff, right? Johnwick Chapter 4, I found was, even the dialogue scenes were a lot more digested.

adjustable, like it was leading more towards something, like the stakes were higher and, you know, the culmination of events was, you know, it was all getting there. And no scene dragged on for too long individually. But even if they were dragging on, the payoff at the end of this movie is like pretty insane. At least you get somewhere with it, you know? Yeah, it's all action. Like the last like half hours, all action, I felt. It's really great action, yeah. Yeah. And it's just like constant like yeah it's like a bombardment of action like thrown at you and yeah it's really satisfying i love that little uh i don't know how to say the the the per reff the the circle in paris the circle road oh yeah yeah where he's like drifting around it with like poking up the yeah

that was a great uh sequence that was a lot of fun that was a great action sequence yeah there's some memorable ones who is the wrestler there in the purple suit That whole action sequence. Yeah, who was that? Oh, the like side quest. Yeah, he's kind of like the penguin type duo. He looked like Sasha Baron Cohen in a fat suit. If he wasn't, but...

Yeah, I could see it. Yeah, yeah. He looked like one of those characters. Yeah. Scott Atkins? Yeah, I have no idea. It's Scott Atkins. This is really...

It was bizarre, but, like, I liked... You know, they were, again, building this world and these, like, crazy... assassin characters and I felt like as these movies got along they got better at kind of making these characters like that the purple suit guy in this like he stood out to me he's like a memorable like antagonist like oh John Witch just has to like assassinate him yeah it is kind of video gamey but it's like fun it's it's fun yeah yeah now I'm with you and on the same observations it's just for me it doesn't all come together mostly

because of that pace like I just I do feel that length and it I it I I just get frustrated because I feel like I should be loving it more because this is like exactly what I'm looking for, but I just get a bit stuck on the spectacle action when I can't. I'm not really feeling the tension and I'm just kind of awing at the pure like stuntsman work. I'm not really connecting on anything beyond that. And I think that's cool for a couple hours, but yeah, I start feeling fatigued at a certain point. And I feel that way about most of these movies, to be honest. I just think this is the best one.

It has like the most spectacle, the most memorable scenes, the most. stuff I'd actually want to revisit is definitely in chapter four. Yeah, I'll watch chapter four again. I don't think I'll watch any of the other ones again. Honestly. Mm-hmm. For sure.

Three has some cool action for me. Yeah, well, I'll watch the fan cut where they cut out the bullshit or something. Yeah. I won't actually watch the whole movie. I'd agree four is the best one. I like all of them. Everyone seems to think so, yeah.

I agree. Mm-hmm. I didn't feel the length really I found like this was maybe the most digestible John Wick film in terms of pacing for me Yeah me either and I think it's the longest one Yeah yeah I was surprised actually

Yeah definitely is Yeah I wasn't really bothered by the length I saw it twice Damn How many movies do you watch in theaters twice The last time I saw twice was Avatar Too Sometimes

I like to see big sports spectacle movies and theaters twice. Yeah. It's the ideal setting. Yeah, exactly. You don't want to watch John Wick at like home. It's not as cool. On your fucking telephone.

I mean, you can, but yeah, on your fucking telephone. David Lynch is still going on about that. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. Hey, you know, look, he's fucking old. It's like with Ridley Scott. Like, these guys are fucking old. What do you expect?

John Wick, do we have ratings? Do we have anything more to say? Yes, I got a rating. I would give it. a six out of ten. Loved it. Dumb fun. I'll re-watch it at some point.

Maybe I'll give it a seven that day, but we'll see. Loved it. Six out of ten. Well, yeah, you know, I mean, the other ones were lower. I'd ever thought that I would actually enjoy truly a John Wick film, and this won me over by the end, but I'll have to see how I feel about the whole thing next time I watch it. I will watch it again. I definitely agree it's the best one.

I really enjoyed this whole franchise, and I enjoyed this one the most. I'd give it an eight out of ten. I really liked it. I thought it was awesome. Yeah, I'm kind of like a really high six, three star for me. I do think it's the best one. It's the one I was kind of least bored in, like I had the least sags, but I did feel that runtime, unlike you guys.

Yeah, I can get down with a spectacle. I love this dedication to the stunt work and the action. I want to see more of that. I just, yeah, I just wish I care more about this franchise and character, but I just, I can't fear, I don't really connect with these movies beyond that pure spectacle. Hence my school. That's fine. All right.

Ralph and Alex saw something that I have no plans on ever watching, and I'm kind of interested to hear them talk about it anyway. Yeah, quantum mania, on the other hand. Yeah. So take it away, because I just want, I heard this as a train wreck, and I kind of want to hear what you have to say about it. You want to take it away, Alex? Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, so Peyton Reed has dropped a new classic for us. Ant Man and the Bosp, Quantum Mania, Marvel's latest, big promise. It was kind of like a lot riding on this movie as far as like this whole big franchise plan is concerned. The most notable aspect being that the new Thanos is here. Kang is being properly introduced in this movie and he's... Like Codos? Ant Man's got to fight Kang.

Yeah. This also happens to be the third in the Antman's. trilogy all directed by Peyton Reed. God bless his soul. And yeah, this just kind of continues this run of these Marvel movies kind of coming out and not really moving their needle that much, especially this one. It feels like, you know, like people were here and there about a Doctor Strange or whatever. We quite liked it being Ramey fans, but I don't know how people felt about that outside of it. And then Black Panther had the whole fucking unfortunate event with their main character so it feels like this weird kind of aimless project, Eternals. Right, Eternals didn't

hit well. Yeah. The only thing that really hit well was Spider-Man and that was also Sony collaborating. Yeah, and it was like, yeah, had the whole member berries aspect. I suppose there was, what was it, Shang Chi, that was okay. Shang-Chi was, yeah, that was fine. Just fine, though. Like, none of these movies are really moving the needle that much. Yeah. But this is just the latest one of those and people have been clowning it a fair amount I saw, especially with the like Spy Kids 3 comparisons because as the title suggests, like quantum mania, like most of the movie is set in the quantum realm,

which is just like really, really, really tiny place. Yeah. You could probably do like a bunch of fun stuff with conceptually, like a movie based in just micro, micro, micro worlds, micro cities, whatever you want to conceptualize it as. I'm sure there's loads of stuff. after reference in the comics, but what they go for here is more of like this Star Wars rip-off type thing.

You can tell Peyton Reed, like, that's what he really wants to be making, because they just take the laziest road here. And like, yep, they shrink really tiny and it's Star Wars for some reason. Like, there's, like, rebellion, alien factions, like, warring. Like, and it's like, you get, like, no point of reference or context as to why any of this matters or why we should care. Like, that man, as a character, and he really works when you see him, like, grow big enough to, like, pick up a bus, you know? Because you know how big a bus is. Take him into this realm where everything is tiny. It's like, nothing matters. Like, none of these powers don't matter. None of this, like, is a fun hook at all.

We're not the first people to say this. Yeah. Because, like, in the real world, when Ant Man shrinks, like, you have some relation. Because, you know, you live in the real world, too. So you know how big a car is supposed to be, right? Yeah. In this quantum realm, everything's a fucking blob. Everything's a purple and orange, you know, and it's like, just blob. And it's like, like, there's a scene. Yeah, there's a scene where like, Ant Man and his daughter are big, like, giant. And they run at each other and hug in a field.

Yeah. So, but there's no relation to like anything. It's just an empty field So there's just like It doesn't have an impact Like it doesn't matter Until I heard like the sound design Where they like make them sound big

You know It's like oh they're supposed to be big right now That's it just looks like a normal shot of them Yeah Yeah Uh huh It completely like ruins his powers Yeah

That was the movie just looked Terrible that was Yeah visually it's like man Visually it's just so hard to look at Man Yeah It's so hard. They're stretched so thin, man.

Like, all these projects they're doing. And with the amount of visual effects, where it required to even get something like this out of the door, like it needs more time. It needs way more time in the oven than what it gets. It's all CG. Like most of the movies, CGI. And yeah, it looks like shit.

Yeah. Because I think they used that, you know, that dome they created for the Mandalorian, you know, where you can kind of use on your engine to project stuff in the dome so you can get the lighting right on armor and stuff. they like used it a ton I think for this movie because

man a lot of it looks really bad and Peyton Reed I guess used it a bunch I think he directed some episodes of the Mandalorian so that Star Wars is leaking out man it's just the wrong approach everything with it

because the Ant Man character as well is like he's always kind of been heralded as like one of the more comedic characters you know it's not like Iron Man has his comment factor, but they get like serious, you know, they have drama and whatnot. The Ant Man movies, they're way more kind of lighthearted, a bit more comic, Paul Rudd's obviously the lead, so you have that going on. And they try to like pull out jokes, but I don't know about you,

man, like the way they executed, I don't think a single one landed. It was like a really weird tone because there was simultaneously trying to have this Ant Man silly tone as well as established the new threat that's supposed to be so frightening and important and scary that he's the new big bird in this whole universe or whatever that's supposed to fear. And also at the same time as that, his main henchman is this character Modoc. Yeah, that was awful. I don't know about this character, Modoc. He's basically a floating head.

He's a floating head in a robot suit. Yeah, look him up. It looks cool in the comic, but in the movie. they really Oh this fucking, yeah, I've seen an image of this stupid thing. Yeah, I'm sure you've seen images being shed. Oh my God, it's disgusting. In the movie it looks terrible.

Yeah. Oh, you're looking it up in the movie. Yeah, I'm just like, I'm looking at Google Images right now. This is disgusting. Yeah, it's hard to look at in the film. And I don't know. I was glued. Yeah, the villain from the first movie, I guess went into the quantum realm,

played by, I think Corey Stoll is his name. He was like crushed or something in his suit. Yeah. Yeah. like sent into the quantum realm or like squashed. Okay. Yeah. And all that was left was his head.

And so they put his, a Kang put his head on a robot body. But like, I don't think that's Modok's backstory in the, in the comics or whatever. I think they just made that bullshit up. No, I think that's like a new thing. Because,

because I mean, like, to be fair, adapting that character would be a challenge probably until like action anyway. But they took like the, let's just make it a joke angle. Uh-huh. Yeah.

That was the worst route to take. It looks, it looks like in the comic, there's at least like a, kind of creepy face, creepy evil smile thing that you could... Yeah. Whereas he has like a mask. Yeah, he has like a metal mask that comes on sometimes.

Like, there he looks fine. It's when he takes the mask off and you see the, you know, weird looking human head. I had to like look over to my friends like, is this like bothering you too? Because I felt like, you know, I felt like I was on a different planet, like watching the movie with like a full crowd of people and we're all looking at this effect. and we're like, is this right? Is this done? Okay. Because for me, like, these Ant Man movies are like the most boring MCU projects to me,

especially like the second one. To me, this single inclusion of this one character, to me, makes it like the, the most interesting Ant Man movie. Just this one guy being in there because it is so crazy. Yeah. Wow, they didn't put him in the trailer. No, they didn't because it looked so bad. camera up right now he's attached to the hip to this new big bad and it's like oh really it kind of yeah

he makes out they're like yeah Kang he's the new leader and he brought me back and he put me in the suit and gave me these powers what what and it's like well now my first thought whenever i think of Kang is going to be this guy you know yeah wow yeah he kind of steals the spotlight and it's funny how people were meming the conclusion of that like character arc for modoc because it ends so unsatisfying. Like, Cassie is just like, you're a dick. And then, like, walks away. And he's like, oh, man.

Yeah, don't be a dick. And then I guess he does. He has like some noble sacrifice. Oh, I guess spoilers. Spoilers for Ant Man and the Wasp, Quantumania. Yeah, there's like a noble sacrifice. And yeah, the audience was left confused because we're like, were we supposed to like Modoc or not?

like did modoc sacrifice themselves? Yeah, but it wasn't clear like what you were supposed to be feeling when he sacrifices himself. Is it like, is it supposed to be a redemption moment or is this supposed to be a gag? Like the, her delivery in that scene is almost seems confused, you know?

Like she doesn't really know what the intent of the delivery is supposed to be because I guess she was just in a dome like just acting against nothing and maybe the only decided way to look like, yeah, you know, like. Yeah. It's just a crazy movie.

that's all over the place. And you have, like, this really frustrating characters. They have this, like, team. You know,

it's Ant Man, it's the Wasp, it's Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer. Michelle Pfeiffer. Yeah, it's like this whole crew. And Matt,

they don't really have much chemistry. They're just kind of irritating the way they bounce off each other. Like Michelle Pfeiffer's whole, like, gimmick of the movie is she's the one character who actually knows what's going on, like in the quantum realm or whatever,

but just any chance they get to delay the exposition dump. She's always just like, oh, no, it's too dangerous right now, or I'm just trying to protect you. She just won't deliver the information. So, like, half the movie is them just asking her, like, what's going on? I don't have time to explain. Let's go.

Quick, keep moving, keep moving to the crazy cameos and the next bit. And, like, man, they have whole, like, Bill Murray shows up for this, like, random cameo, and it, like, goes nowhere. That was terrible. It seems so pointless. Isn't funny. Yeah, he was in the trailer, wasn't he? It's like one scene

He's in the trail He's in one scene He's in it less than Monarch is Yeah And that scene was a fucking waste It seemed like they were trying to do Like a Thor Ragnarok type thing

You know You get the Jeff Goblin You have the kind of scene And it like works Or is a bit more improv-y I don't know But like Yeah

That's done now You can't just keep trying That's a comparison I was gonna bring up too In Ragnarok You remember those characters Like Valkry And Corg and whatever

Do you remember Any of the fucking characters In the quantum realm Like you're never gonna see any of them again probably who was the the warrior lady and the guy who shot a laser out of his face and like a there's like a jello guy they tried to do this weird like grout thing then they had this whole gag with this like slime character who's like what was going on about slime and then he gets

like shot through the stomach and it creates a hole in him and then he's like I've got a hole and then he like runs around like sucking the bad guys into his hole and it's like playing as if it's this like hero moment, like, doing something. It's really weird and just like totally doesn't mind. There's just way too much going on. So I'm looking at clips of Modoc on YouTube that I found a comment. I want to know if you agree with someone. Keyboard Warrior says,

What I find so crazy about this film is that nothing actually happens. The start of this film is literally the same as the ending. If you were to cut out the quantum realm, nothing would change. Oh, yeah, that's so true. Yeah, because it does have the same intro and outro. Yeah, yeah, nothing happens. And the biggest conflict of the movie is solved by Michael Douglas just like summoning his ants that have been like traveling through time or some insane thing. They've like learned everything in history and then they've like come through.

I'm surprised you remember this much about what I remember that happening? I remember the ants, but I don't remember the fever dream. Yeah, I don't remember the like the time traveling thing. But I guess that, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Yeah. Wow. It is just nothing. I rewatched the other Ant Man movies, like, after Quantumania to see if I like them better.

And yeah, I do. Even Ant Man and the Wasp is a better movie. Like, those take place in our world. And there's, like, some fun action scenes in there, some fun set pieces, you know, like, Ant Man and the Wasp, I know you don't like it, Alex, but, like, the car chase at the end when, like, the cars are shrinking and growing. That's kind of fun. Hmm.

And here, this is, like, the worst Ant Man movie. It's the worst one. It's just like none of the chemistry works, none of the action works. It's visually repulsive. Like that's like, it's just ugly to look at. And that's, it's like fucking unwatchable for that. Yeah. Yeah.

Which to me is what makes it the best outman because it's like the, it's such a spectacular failure. It's like a $200 million like just, just what the what were you thinking? Just a dud. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's got nothing going on. on. Did it ever feel anything remotely close to the tone of that repurposed Elton John song in the trailer? Oh yeah. No. Oh yeah. I did. Do you know, it reminded me. It reminded me of Valerian. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah, it's like Valerian. Yeah, I will never forget, actually. Yeah. It was Valerian vibes. That's what it was. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's a good one. A lot of people are going to hop off the MCU after this movie.

I bet they hopped off already, even before this. I mean, fucking Guardians 3 is coming out soon. I don't know if I actually want to see it. I feel like, I feel like I'm like, do I really just give in to this sort of like, I'm obligated to watch it because I watch the other ones? Like, I don't really care what's happening in his universe anymore. Am I going to watch it? See, for me, that might be the last one I care about, you know,

Yeah, me too. I'm invested in those characters a little bit. Mm-hmm. And I want to see how that ends. But, like, yeah, this stuff, like, yeah, there's nothing. I don't know if I am invested in any of the characters in the fucking net one, Guardians. No? So, yeah, I like them a lot more.

I'm looking forward to Guardians, but yeah, it's like Marvel spread themselves too thin with all these shows, with all these movies. The quality is completely plummeted, you know? It's so bad. Now, like, as of what today, like, these new writer strikes have been announced. I wonder if that will throw more spanners in the cogs because, like, the writing in these movies has not been great. Weirdly, a bunch of, like, Rick and Morty writers keep being attached to these scripts. There is a little bit of that DNA in there as well with the, like, the quantum realm and

all these wacky aliens making their crazy jokes. And it's just like, man, maybe, maybe 10 years ago, but this is getting really, really, really, repetitive and I wouldn't just kind of annoying now you know all these kind of copycats of copycats of copycats it's yeah it's got like no voice of its own and yeah they got to be scared about their future man because I don't know about you but this kang guy I don't really care oh yeah Jonathan majors is like in a scandal right now he's in big trouble oh and that too yeah is he's gonna be recast he's probably gonna get recast I mean there's no way it's not like an Ezra Miller thing where they already shot the movie I don't think they shot a factories yet so they're gonna just

recast him. Yeah, he's a, he's got some allegations against him for abuse. Yeah. Which, you know, he's not bad in the movie. It's just the character. You know, there's just like a million fucking things going on. It's budding heads with the tone of Ant Man. You have like this very serious character talking about genocide or whatever. And then you have Ant Man with his silly antics and it's completely budding heads. Yeah, the intensity of the character like doesn't match. And maybe they could have done something with that if they were like willing to have stakes and maybe just like, take Ant Man out at the end of this movie or something, you know? You'd be like, yep, can't kill him.

That's the end of Ant Man. Like, why do you need to, like, keep everything around and have it? It will be so sacred. It, like, makes every one of them, like, just blend into each other, you know? And it's like, no. There's nothing different at the end as there is at the beginning. Yeah, they tried to play it safe, but also they took risks in the wrong areas. All the wrong places, yeah.

Yeah, it's, like, shocking. All right, what are our ratings? I give this one a seven out of ten. Oh. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I have this rated as a two star, which might be generous. That might be just adding a bit of like the cherry on top of just how, how utterly bizarre this movie is. I mean, how much of like a weird failure.

That's fine. Two star. The ironic enjoyment I get. But yeah, it's not good. And I'm finding the way this whole, like, frown. The franchise seems to be unraveling before our eyes to be quite a spectacle in and of itself. Yeah. I am curious to see where this goes, yeah. I would give the first Ant Man and the second one, like seven or six out of ten, or like three and a half star, three star.

I like those movies, okay. This new one, I'd probably give a five out of ten or two and a half star out of five star. It really didn't do much for me. At first I, you know, I was hanging in there because it's the MCU. you and I want to you know give them some credit but it came a point where I'm I couldn't really defend the movie anymore the effects are terrible the look of modoc is weird the characters are lame the bill Murray cameo's weird Kang is out of place none of the characters are memorable the story sucks it's not funny yeah it's like man if you can't even deliver on the base level

of the spectacle visual effects which are the very very very least, you know, that's normally been the thing that's there. But we're not even getting that anymore with some of these, you know? Like, they just look so bad. Yeah, I hate to keep bringing up Avatar the Way of Water, but those effects are amazing. They really put a lot of work and time into making that movie look great. And it's, like, you enjoy watching that movie's visuals. And, and this movie just looks so ugly. You want to, you want to turn away from the screen because it's so ugly to look at. There's nothing to ground any of it or the action is just like this weightless, gross.

goo in a dome. It's like really unengaging. A bunch of umibos and blobs that are all orange and gray and purple. And like robots with like lampshades for heads or it's just like nothing ground in this shit. Yeah. And that character died. I felt nothing for that. The guy who shot lasers out of his head.

Yeah. Yeah. I just felt nothing. But please give paint and read another trilogy of these. That's what we need. Yeah. It would be funny if he just kept doing Ant-Man movies. for the rest of his career

So their plan right now is just Like Thanos 2 Is that what you're telling me? Yeah Kang is Thanos 2 Except much lamer Yeah And Kang's whole thing is he

He's like can control the multiverse Or there's like multiple versions of him That's one of the post-credit scenes Is like they zoom out of a stadium And you see like a stadium full of Kang's There's like thousands of Kangs and they all look different and they're all cheering. Yeah, but that's really to go nowhere now.

Yeah, exactly, yeah. We were like soy facing at Rick coming in. That's great. Yeah, that was like a Rick and Morty thing. Yeah. That's funny. All right. Yeah.

Stupid, stupid movie. Okay. All right, time for the recommendation. Yeah. We watched La Hain, translated to hate or hatred. It was directed by Mathieu Kasavitz.

It came out in 1995. I believe it premiered at Cannes Film Festival. And it is a black and white, kind of interesting, artistically presented French drama film

following, I guess, three main characters and this French series of riots and protests against police brutality, has some interesting commentary on people and power systems. And yeah, it's very well made. Love it.

What do you think about it? Yeah, it's great. Yeah, this was excellent. It fit, like, firmly in that place for me where some of my favorite films, be it, transpotting, do the right thing. This is England, like, focusing on, like, the lower class struggles. Yeah, and the kind of socioeconomic, political impact of, like, what's going on in these time periods. and the character, the humor, the sadness that comes as a result of these things.

Yeah, well packaged with this really creative visual flare and intensity, a real great, just escalating tension that just builds and builds and builds and is released in the most satisfying, elevating way towards the end. I was really liking this movie and then it wasn't until that last like five minutes where I was like, okay, nah. I think this is something special, something great. Yeah, punchy as well. It, like, builds to that, like, conclusion. And that's what the writer or director said of the film. He said he wrote, he came up with the ending first and then built the film around it, which I thought was interesting.

And it definitely feels that way. It's almost like a whiplash ending where the whole movie like builds to this. Spoiler discussion. We can talk about the ending. Mm-hmm. Okay. And just like great pacing and structure. just like not just the ending the whole film and how it built to that moment and how I saw a video essay on this movie too so it's not all my original thoughts but there's divided how the film's divided into two halves the first half being like in their home like kind of outside the city and and the wide shots gave the locations personality and you could see the locations and see the culture and their culture and their culture and

And then in the second half of the film, when they're in Paris, the background of Paris becomes much more abstract and it becomes much closer shots, much more close-ups. And the framing becomes more fragmented and little details like that that just made the film more like uncomfortable and unnerving in the second half and made like the class divide more like clear like oh that's obviously what this movie is about and the way they showed these two different parts of you know society and how they shot them differently i thought was very interesting and it created a very interesting effect i thought and yeah the slice of life you get the three characters they kind of chose to frame the story around like yeah the perfect little microcosm of the

conflict where you have kind of the mediator character who's somewhere not in the middle, being the Arab immigrant. And then there's the Jewish fellow who's kind of obsessed with taxi driver in rehearsing it. And he's got this outward kind of expression of violence. And you can see there's a lot going on behind his eyes, a lot of hatred. He's carrying around that kind of his arc is revealing that it's more of like a front. And it's kind of posturing, comes down to it when he has that gun. and the black guy who,

he kind of, he has a better moral sense of what's right and wrong and the way he kind of interjects and clashes with the lead on, over this, this gun conundrum where the cop loses his gun. It's kind of kept in the background. It's just, yeah, all these little details that kind of just boil and boil the tension.

Because, yeah, from the get-go, it's like set the day after a protest, a riot. So, and one of their friends was captured by the police. And that's one of the, that's one of the threads that kind of radicalizes or would be the thing to radicalize the main character with him passing while in police custody. And you get, like, to see a slice of how brutal the police can be just for like no reason, just rounding people up and this tension. And yeah, it all felt very relevant. And despite being from the 90s, like a lot of this kind of messaging and imagery and the point of the story, like it, yeah. It's still hamas home just as hard now.

Like, still plenty of riots going on today. Still, still have attention. Even outside of just talking about France and Paris. Yeah, it kind of is just universally true. I think it's particularly true in France. I think there's a protest. There's a reason it comes from there.

Anti-authoritarian culture. French people protest. Yeah. It's like built into the DNA of their country, isn't it? That violence and the revolutionary aspect. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. A very well-shot.

film yes everything is very sensibly presented like all the effects look great like you know the shotgun on the car effect it's like oh holy shit feels like real yeah yeah yeah but and the shots are very creative too yeah I love the shot and I'm going down the staircase and like you know it like rotates around there's a lot of great shots one through the mirror too where you know I guess they they like duplicated the room and used a a double and it wasn't a mirror, but in the context of the film, it was a mirror. Yeah, that must be the most famous shot from the movie, right? I've seen that shot a bunch of times before, but never realized it was actually from this film.

Yeah. Yeah. The three characters that we follow, they each provide something special to the chemistry that they have with each other. And just watching them bounce off of each other is super entertaining throughout the entire film. because it's almost like every scene in this movie is almost like detached. Not interchangeable, but like they're so separated from each other, but they all still seem to fit and they all still seem to have like a real good sense of buildup. It's almost like a series of like different scenarios or vignettes or whatever.

But yeah, each one of them is just so entertaining. And it's very funny too. Like this movie had a great sense of humor. Yeah, great dialogue. It's very sharp and witty and yeah, just every little detail of it. Like I loved on like the dialogue slash writing, like the incorporation of graffiti and just the environment on the walls. There are a bunch of lingering shots that will say like linger on graffiti that says we are the future kind of playing into this sad state of the, you know, the socioeconomic reality of these characters. I think that's part of what binds them is that kind of that kind of that. class issue that is bringing them all together, putting them in the same environment, forcing them

to deal drugs to be kind of aimless and, yeah, just be this victim of the environment that they're in. Yeah, the dialogue felt very natural and that really helped the film because it's not like, oh, these characters are talking like, I don't know, cartoons or whatever. They felt like real people and when things happen to them, you actually care because they feel like real people. It feels like there's consequences to things. Yeah, it's like the weighty setting, like never really gets in the way it never feels like too self-important or anything like this it is grounded by yeah when they were all sat around talking about like who did the stinky fart and stuff like this where it does ground it it does make it feel real yeah it makes it that much more painful

where they make references to movies yeah yeah yeah yeah when they're arguing about the the cartoon characters and like who would win in fights or whatever oh yeah it's like a funny bit loads of great dialogue yeah hercules is the original gangster he said. But just FYI, they're talking about a French, like, comic strip,

Hercules, the cat. They're not talking about Disney Hercules. Oh. Yeah. So Hercules was like another French comic,

kind of like the, you know, Smurfs or Tintin or. Yeah. Esteriques. Oh, speaking of Asteriques. That was a great character.

That was, the, the scene where they're like going to meet him at his apartment. And they're like, We don't know our friend's real name. And everybody in the apartment is just getting pissed at them. And this delightful, just insane chaos that arises from that.

And the musical chime that plays every time they ring the bell also is just like kind of, it's so playful. And there's this, how do I describe it? There's this subtle kind of insanity. That goes along with a detail like that of just that chime playing. And then when they get into the apartment and they're like, he's asked Tolik's like, oh, do you want to do some cocaine? And then starts playing rush and relet.

Yeah. He's got, yeah, the gun tucked into his waist. That was one of the best scenes, yeah. It reminded me of like Alfred Molina in. Oh, boogie nights. Boogie nights scene. Yeah. This came first, too.

It reminded me of something. I couldn't place it. No, that is, yeah. Oh man, that's what it was. Yeah, it was very similar. So it turns out Paul Thomas Anderson's a hack and he's fired. Yeah, he's a hack. Like David Lynch and Ridley Scott, big hacks.

Everybody's a hack. Everyone's a hack the planet. That has a great payoff too. After that, the tension of that scene is kind of dissolve when they're like, oh, how much did that guy owe you? like a hundred bucks, you know? So we did all that for a hundred bucks. It's all like so frivolous and all just, yeah, reinforces this like pointless

violence and like just angst that it's like just in the air. Uh-huh. So on paper, or if you were to like summarize this film, a lot of it is, you know, dialogue and, you know, character interaction. But what surprised me about this film is that in execution, it's one of the most physical movies I've ever seen. And that's what can make dialogue scenes and character interaction really great is when you fill the space in the scene with visual movement and you have the characters doing something

interesting visually. Like, there's a part where it's just like on the subway and the character to the right side of the frame is the one speaking dialogue. But on the left side of the frame, you see Vincent Cassell just like kind of chewing his necklace, right? And just doing this kind of like weird kind of compulsive. action. And that fills up the frame and it makes it more interesting. You have scenes like the, where they're on the roof and there's, they're making hot dogs or whatever. And the guy's like,

should I give it to your sister on credit too? He's like, oh no, don't talk about my sister like that. When he says, don't talk about my sister like that, like on paper, you can have a very different context to how the character's reacting. Like, I would imagine it would be like actually offended. But the way that he's kind of over-exaggerating his movements, he puts his head in his hand, and then he runs away stealing the hot dog just like all this fun staging and using the space and the camera following them like

it's everything in terms of like realizing an actual open space is just so well executed and every character is always doing something interesting and so you take this film where like it's a lot of dialogue it's a lot of dialogue with like tiny bits of action here and there but even the dialogue scenes always have something

that makes it feel like really vibrant and moving and alive and just it's it's so engaging especially you know you compare it to other films where you know what are they what are the characters do they're talking and eating or what are the characters do they're talking and walking like those are the instincts those are the laziest ways to have characters just like doing a thing while they're talking and that's what most movies do but they really got creative with this film and they really used it as an opportunity to express more about the characters. And I found that really great.

Yeah, I love the shot with those four pillars with the four characters. And each one of them is doing some kind of quirky idiosyncrasy, one of them's like throwing stones, the one next to him or the guy at the end, he's like playing with his hands, making like a little beat. And yeah, it does ground it. It makes it feel way more engaging and realistic. And yeah, it sells any time it is just dialogue and just delivers it in a fun way. Yeah, Adam, you're right about the background.

So there's usually stuff going on in the background, like Vincent Castel eating, or there's like eating his neck, or there's like a shot where like characters are talking in the background, but there's action going on in the foreground, like handing money or whatever. Yeah. And it's not only visually creative. It enforces the themes of the movie too, which are that the characters are kind of informed and a product of their environment and of their background. And that, gee, it's just hammered that home to me. So it's thematically poignant and also, yeah, visually interesting. Right. It's like, you know, the way they filmed dialogue scenes in this movie is like how they filmed

the action scenes in John Wick. Yeah. It's like, you're not lazy. You know, they just put a lot of, yeah, not lazy. They put thought into, yeah, moving the camera, moving the actors, blocking and all these things, props. And yeah, it blends together and it feels so natural while you're watching it. Like, you're not thinking about staging or any of the shit while you're watching

the movie. You're invested in it. You're invested in the characters. I feel so real. Yeah. Almost like a documentary. There's also like a really great variety of like filming techniques in this movie. You know, some of it.

Some of it, it doesn't look like it's made by a multi-million dollar production. It looks like it's all very kind of like DIY, but they're trying anyway. And it, you know, there's sometimes they're, when the camera zooms, there's a little bit of like jitteriness to it. But it's like kind of adds to the personality also. Yeah. I like that. I never mind. Yeah, I like that as well.

The imperfection of it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I like film grain and, you know, imperfections. I tend to like that in a lot of movies. I love the black and white, too. Mm-hmm. I just wanted to say.

And I think there's some thematic relevance to that. Mm-hmm. Maybe like the divide between, you know, the two different worlds that are explored in this movie. So like black and white, maybe it's like the police, black and white, something like that. Mm-hmm. I was just trying to find some meaning to like the black and white. and obviously looks visually stunning too.

Yeah. It kind of emphasizes like the futility as well of this like, there's that ongoing theme of the hate begets hate. There's that line isn't there where you're saying, but yeah, in school we learned hate breeds hate and there is just this kind of apathetic, kind of frivolous nature to all the pain that you get to see. Yeah.

A little window into all this pain and it is all just kind of like for nothing. It's kind of the ultimate point. especially the way the the central conflicts kind of resolve with that final confrontation and there is something futile about it like everything you'd expect to happen in like a traditional

obvious story is that that lead character with the taxi driver fan would be the one to snap after their friend been taken out in the hospital yeah in the yeah from the coma but yeah it kind of plays out in the inverse way and the character you'd at least

expect to pull the trip well it's left to as a mystery isn't it's kind of the final sting of the movie is that you hear one bullet shot and you don't know if it's the cop or the the character who pulls the trigger so you can kind of have your own theories uh but just watching that character be reduced to that level because you see how defensive he is in previous scenes like the torture scene where he's being held and you see that rage come out and that character he like owned the gym and he has like a lot of reasons to like snap and because yeah and the riots like he lost everything he's like dealing drugs to survive.

He has that really disturbing scene with his mother where he's like saying that he can't be in this environment anymore. It's like breaking him and it's wearing him down and she doesn't even really credit his response at all. And it's like, oh, but if you see a lettuce in the shops, can you grab one when you're out? Like it doesn't even listen to him. Yeah, which kind of just emphasizes how just hopeless

this whole scenario and scene is. And yeah, the way it just matches every part of, every technical part of it, I was really noticing the audio and sound editing, just in like small scenes when he's shuffling around in the movie theater, watching his stuff and just everything, like, flows so well. And the integration of these, like, little, it keeps showing what the time is on, like, a little title card. Yeah.

With the, like, ticking clock and then how that comes together towards the end where, yeah, it interjects the one minute later. And the ticking is just filling the screen, making it as tense as possible. And yeah, it all just bubbles to this moment. And the way it comes together is just like, it's quite immense. When they are in the police custody being interrogated and like physically abused, like that's some really good physical performance. Like when he's saying shit like, here's this one, the Shanghai squeeze and he does it.

I'm like, I don't know what the fuck that is. I've never heard about that before. But it looks like he's in serious pain. Like it looks like it hurts, you know? And it's a really, a lot of really. long takes in this movie too. Just watching the characters like build off of each other in like a natural sort of performance way.

I think the long takes really help there too. Yeah. And just like squirming the tension. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That torture scene was horrible like, like, because I had that whole angle of them. They were like teaching like a newer recruit or someone who doesn't know how to torture

people like how to torture. Just like just as if it's not bad enough on its own like just having a character explained bit by bit and like how to maximize the. The suffering is like quite a, quite a powerful moment. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, it's interesting how that character's reaction to it too. The new, the cop you see his reaction to the torture. He doesn't seem very, like, you know, pleased by it.

I guess it's kind of like vague what he's thinking. The scene toward the end where they like kind of kidnap a cop and hold them at gunpoint. And, you know, Vincent Cassell, like. like Colts the gun like right at his face and I felt that was very effective in making you feel kind of sick like how he did like just the shot that they held on with the guy like the cop like covered in blood like his I think that was a skinhead oh okay they pointed a gun at a cop earlier though yeah but the one that they were in the alley with was a skinhead I think yeah the skinhead yeah that's right yeah because yeah yeah yeah because that's right yeah because that's

That's right. He says, he says, shoot the skinhead. That's right. But it's just like, yeah, the way they dragged it out and the way the shot held on like that guy's face. Like, it made you feel like disturbed. Like, you don't want to kill this guy either. Like, if you were in that situation, you wouldn't want to do that. I mean, it looks fucking horrified. And the character that had previously been the voice of reason is now egging him on too. And then he realizes he can't do it and just fucking throws up. It gets like such a visceral. like human reaction out of it. Yeah, and you got a reaction out of me too. Like, I was like, don't do it, you know, because it's so shocked. It was like so shocking the way it was done.

Did you not read that as the Hubert character kind of calling his bluff in that moment? Yeah, it could be. You think he was egging him on in earnest? I don't know. That's how I was kind of interpreting it. I think that it can be true and untrue at the same time. Like, I think in a character's mind, they can say something where they might

not fully mean it, but it accept the consequences of what happens if he does it? Yeah. Yeah. I believe it either way, to be honest. Yeah. Man, there's a lot going on in this movie. There are a couple of really kind of great, thoughtful moments like,

there's that guy coming down the escalator in this little monologue saying about this group of people that aren't racist, but vote right, which is like part of the reason these kind of situations keep arising. I thought that was like a good observation. And there was that other really interesting scene where they're just in the bathroom and this old man comes out at the bathroom and has this like whole monologue about how he was like in the gulags. And he was telling the story of the man who died because he didn't want to go to the toilet. He didn't want to defecate near everyone else.

So he got left behind on the train and froze to death. And the main characters are just like, oh, why did you tell me that story? like what does that mean and I don't really have any concrete ideas as to what that that was bringing forward or meant but I thought that was like a fun just like a out of the blue scene that just made the characters think differently for a second and question things and yeah just a cool idea I love the uh the dude in the uh the bathroom stall he just makes himself known as he's exiting. Wow, a wonderful day to take a big shit. Yeah. Whatever he says. And then he goes off on like his own little monologue.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So many, like it's, it's one of those movies where like just every scene feels like a classic scene, you know, every scene feels like a great scene and they're all just like, oh. Oh, these big characters, like really memorable. Lots of very memorable moments. Shots. Yeah.

Yeah. other Vincent shows up in the movie Vincent Lindon from Measure of a Man and Titan Titan Titan Titan Titan Titan titanium He was great He was the guy that was

drunk outside While they were outside the car While they were breaking into the car And they were stealing it Oh that's right He's the only one who actually knows how to drive Yeah Yeah that was another fun scene

Yeah he allows them to escape He's like jumping on the cup car That was fun and I love like it's there's parts about this movie that I appreciate the subtlety and how things are expressed

it's not like so gratuitous like when Vincent Lindon is like outside the vehicle you tell by you can tell by the end of the scene you know as he's jumping on the car cop car obviously he's like shit face he's like absolutely drunk but there's

there's like subtleties in terms of his performance that allow you to interpret that before that point. You only see him through the interior of the vehicle through like the window. But he does this subtle kind of like stumbling outside the car, this like half stumble during his conversation. And at that moment, I'm like, oh, wow, he's like drunk. Whereas like, I think about how another film might have presented that. They probably would have cut to like a wide exterior shot of the car to show the stumble and like really sell that and be like, oh yeah, he's like drunk or like, you know, have it be much more gratuitous.

it isn't obvious, but I like that I like that I was able to tell through his performance. I love that that was just something that I could experience as an audience member rather than just having it be like spoon fed to me at that point. Yeah. Yeah, the movie doesn't spoon feed anything to you. It just like shows. Yeah, you get to absorb it. Yeah, and you absorb it. Like the characters and what they're thinking, you're just left to like interpret that in ways. Like sometimes there's just like staring off and you're just like, oh, I wonder what they're like what they're taking from this situation or what they're thinking. Yeah, I love that. I love them just following their perspective. I thought they were interesting characters. Yeah. And the whole like message of the

movies like really worked for me. It really hammered home. I love the beginning like them showing like the footage of like the riots. I assume it's like real footage of like a real riot. And it just, it made it feel more grounded and more realistic. It made it feel more like a documentary kind of style. Like you're watching something that's, you know, you're watching real characters and real people. And these things matter. This is like something that could actually happen. And yeah, I love that.

Yeah. Yeah. It feels like a real earnest, genuine snapshot of like a time and a culture and a statement, an idea, you know, like, it just feels like a real slice of reality. Yeah, absolutely. I saw on the subreddit, some people were making comparisons to do the right thing, which we also talked about. Yeah.

We could, I guess, compare. I love both the movies. But, yeah, I agree. There's, like, very similar kind of, not structure, but similar, like, themes of police brutality, you know, culture and also, like, yeah, just like, following characters a day in the life kind of story yeah the right thing kind of humor and then it going wrong towards yeah yeah definitely something like that very different feel very and very different yeah tones sure different setting different culture different yeah different attitudes yeah but the same

kind of themes hammer home which kind of also shows how universal these themes are these themes of like oppression and authoritarianism. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I bring up This is England because it does have the whole kind of tired working class that have been like abandoned and they're aimless and they'll often turn to crime or, yeah, any of these kind of oppressive things that, or this like a frustration that doesn't really know where to be channeled in like a healthy way. So yeah, it does come out in riots. It does come out in violence, which feeds back to. the title of the movie, the whole, you know, The Last of Us 2, Hate Begets Hate,

this vicious cycle thing that just seems like this never-ending cyclone that just can't be stopped. Yeah. I want to get back to just like, I guess the physical performances in this film, they're all so consistently great that you have to attribute it to the directing, right? You have to attribute a lot of it as somebody has an idea, somebody has like a way that they want to communicate, things and the director was obviously very intentful, if that's a word. He was obviously paying a lot of attention to how things were physically performed. Vincent Cassell, there's this way that he communicates his posture in this film where he's kind of like, you know, he's a little bit taller and he's kind of like trying to hunch over other

characters, especially after he gets his gun and he's trying to like be cocky towards certain people. there's a scene like when they're I think they kind of like crashed that function or whatever and there's like hors d'oeuvres being handed out and they like start arguing with like a group of girls or whatever and he's like clearly just trying to like

hunch over people like being like oh you're tough shit he's got this almost kind of like quasi-modo kind of like posture comparing that to like his performance in Black Swan where it's like an entirely different character like physically

and just how he moves and how the type of like status that you can interpret from the character in each of these films like same guy but like wildly different physical performance I love that yeah well I read that he was I think it's 28 years old when he when this was shot and he's playing a teenager and it didn't there was no disconnect there for a second for me like I didn't I didn't even question that until reading that after the fact yeah he does can fully transform yeah Yeah, because that could be distracting. So like a really interesting face to look at as well, the actor. Like, that does bring something to it. Mm-hmm. He's got a look, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah, do you know anything about this director otherwise? Like, I was looking a little bit through his stuff on IMDB, and there were a couple of surprises in there. Remember Babylon AD? He did that? He directed that. Oh, that movie sucks. And the only one I'd seen, aside from this one, is Gothica.

Early 2000's psychological horror movie with Harry. Yeah. I saw Gothica back in the day. I remember that being quite odd. Yeah, I hear Babylon AD is like really bad also. It's so funny because this movie is so great. And so much of it, like you have to attribute to the directing. He wrote and directed it.

is a this is like clearly his his passion project his idea like him shining through and creating this then you take a look at all of the other works he's associated with all of his other directorial projects and uh they all look bad they all look really bad yeah yeah crimson rivers gothic yeah there's nothing really on that level it's the no no it's one of those where i was like oh damn shit is there another director i have to like check out all their works for i want to see what else this guy's made and then i just immediately see gothica baby i'm like oh that's funny but yeah yeah but this is so yeah great movie he was apparently 29 years old when he made it i'm reading that from the roger ebert movie yeah yeah yeah it's pretty impressive

i better get on it making a five-star movie i'm 25 now make a five-star movie i'm kidding but you know I thought it was great, like, you know, even though he made Babylon AD or whatever. It's this movie, it's written and directed by him, Lahain. It definitely feels like a passion project. And, you know, that's fine. You know, if that's the only movie you ever wanted to really say something with, I think that's fine. You could go back to being a, you know, studio director. Yeah.

If that's what he wants to do, I mean, this is still a great movie. He does mostly acting, it seems. Yeah, he's acted in some stuff. He acted in... Valerian? Yeah. Happy end. Happy end.

The Michael Hockey. Who wasn't in Valerian? Someone, yeah. He played someone called Hocker. I don't know if that is. Couldn't tell you. We should do a Valerian rewatch. We should all rewatch Valerian.

Yeah, we should. I got it on 4K Blu-ray. I'm ready at any moment. You do? I think someone got it for me as a gag. That's funny. Yeah, Adam got me the Hurricane Heist Blu-ray.

Is that not an epic movie, though? That's epic. Come on. It's fun. I'm glad I have that in 4K. What else do we have to say about Lahane? It was great. Lahini.

Yeah, it was great. La Hine. I will check it out again one day. Yeah. Yeah, definitely will watch this again. Yeah. Yeah, I'd happy to watch this again. Yeah.

It's definitely, definitely feels like a classic. And I would love to get it in 4K. I thought you got the 4K for this, like, you know, discussion. That's why I thought you recommended it. No, I read, well, I posted on, I didn't know what I was going to recommend last episode. And I posted on Twitter, what should I recommend? And then this one, some, you know, had some likes in the responses. And it was under two hours.

Oh, okay. And it's probably because the 4K was coming out that people like... Is the 4K coming out? I think it's either coming out or it is out. I heard that there was like a French one and a German one, but I'm not sure if they actually have English subtitles. So I don't know. But whatever.

I'm going to look it up for you now. It's not the end of the world. Anyway, I could give this one a 9 out of 10. I could give it a 10 at some point in the future. For now I'm giving it a 9. Loved it. I thought it was fantastic. Very, very fun to watch.

And just really well-making. need. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty much right there with you. This would be a high nine out of ten for me, four and a half star on first watch. Yeah, I love that intensity. I loved every individual element on its own. And yeah, the way it comes together, especially towards the end is like such a elegant take on such like a complicated topic that would be easy to kind of blunder. I think it's just, yeah, a very witty and tactful like approach to this whole thing. I'd really recommend it. Oh. So I don't think there is a 4K criterion. Yeah, I think there is a 4K. Yeah, but it's not in America. It's like $110 to.

Yeah. So I'm not doing that. I heard it doesn't even have English subtitles. Oh, wow. Okay. So yeah, that's definitely not worth it. Yeah, we'll wait for criteria. I would give it, you know, I'm going to go five star on it because I think it's, you know,

poignant. You know, it's really everything I look for in a film. It's poignant and well shot. I think it's beautiful visually. It's great. And grotesque, too. It's both. It's, you know, a whirlwind of emotion, which is what film should be.

I felt like every emotion during it, disgust and happiness and sadness and attention, hate, hatred. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. Yeah. I also didn't mention just one tiny thing. Music was very sparingly used and it all sounded great.

There are a bunch of different genres in here. I loved that fucking remix of like, whoop-whoop sounded a police plus like Edith Piaf, like no genre, or whatever. Like, that was a fun mashup. I'm like a big fan of like punchy kind of like mid-90s hip-hop beats.

Like the snare sounds like, you know. Love it. Yeah. Great stuff. All right. Question time? Yeah, do you mind if I just pee quickly?

Is that our first question? Yeah. Yeah, I need your guys feedback on that. Okay, cool. Give me a set. All right, we're back. Time for questions. I'm going to actually supersede the questions.

I just want to hear what you guys think of this, like, dumb-looking fucking thing. I saw this ad on TV. I think this is what I saw, where I just like, I looked at... Sits it out. There's some, well, I'm trying to, is this exactly what I saw? I don't fucking knew. There's a bunch of it, there's a bunch of shots from this that just look like they're trying to be like, they rip off Christopher Nolan shit.

And then I see the poster and I'm like, you're just trying to, you're, it's like you're trying to make the poster look like tenant. Yeah. It looks like it's trying to look like tenant. I saw that too. The, the, that poster. I'm like, it looks like tenant. And how embarrassing is it that I've like never even heard of that.

show or like never watched it like I have no idea what that is Citadel like you spent all this show is it on Amazon Prime yeah it's like that rings of power oh produced from the Russo brothers man they're really into the spy army stuff yeah they're obsessed with it but they're all like it's like forgettable projects they're like 13 year old boys like playing with toy soldiers Yeah, really. Yeah, like that gray man movie. That was terrible, the gray man. And the Russo's were talking like, in two years, like, they said the Russo brothers,

like, in two years, like, AI will be making movies in Hollywood. I'm like, that's basically what the gray man was. It felt like an AI made movie. Jesus. It was their little experiment. Yeah, that's a funny. Citadel. I wonder, okay, now you just sparked a thought in my head.

I wonder, so writer's strike happening, they're just going to use chat GPT. Exactly. Why wouldn't you? Yeah. It's reasonable to assume. This isn't like the 2007 writer's strike. They'll just use AI.

Yeah. We don't need writers anymore. There might be a huge, like, bump in quality or a huge reduction in quality. Everything gets fixed. Everything gets better. Things will be better. Yeah, it's actually way better.

That would be great. But yeah, just like the Citadel thing. I love that Prime, Amazon. They just keep throwing money at these shows that no one watches. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars on it and no one watches it. Amazon sticks out as like having not a lot of great content, which is surprising because they spend a lot of money on it. I look at like Apple TV plus I'm starting to be like, I might get that at some point. Like, there's a couple things on there that look interesting.

There's enough. Oh, yeah. That looks interesting. I haven't seen, what is it, Ted Lassow? Yeah, everyone likes Ted Lasson. The other one. Macbeth, the Cohen Macbeth movie? Yeah, well, yeah, the movies, yeah.

Severance as well. Severance, yeah, that's the one people are telling me to watch. Severance. They got Wolf Walkers, although I got the Blu-Ray for that. Mm-hmm. They got that. Yeah, they have some good stuff on that. Yeah, they have some good stuff on that.

documentary thing. They got fucking John Favreau's dinosaur show. Did you see those articles going around about how bad the engagement was on that Lord of the Rings Amazon Prime show?

Yeah. I just pulled out of the stats. Yeah. Was it like 90% of people didn't finish it? That's great. That was this. According to the Hollywood reporter viewership for the Lord of the Rings,

the Rings of Power may reflect the critiques with only 37% of viewers finishing the series domestically. Not surprised. Also the 2 billion Lord of the Rings show, whatever it costs them. So sad. See, they should have gotten an AI.

That was your mistake. Yeah, it might have helped. It's like that Walking Dead show by the end of it. They had like 90% of the audience that originally watched it were gone. It was like 10% of the audience. Yeah, that was like 11 seasons through. They couldn't even make it one season on Amazon.

Yeah, they couldn't make it to one season without losing most of their audience. finale. Yeah, I dropped off that. I only watched two episodes of Rings of Power. I never picked it up. I never finished it. Yeah, I'm happy for you guys.

Just to see my friend have a heart attack. Yeah. That's the whole prime thing though, right? Like, no one's like screaming about how good prime is outside of just like you want your packages to arrive. That's why most people have prime, you know? Yeah. Maybe Mr. Robot.

Yeah. Mr. Robots on there, yeah. That's the one thing. But that wasn't even like an Amazon original, though. It just happens to be like this. No, no, it's just there. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. That's funny. Okay, let's do some questions from the Sardonicast community. Head over to the suggestion thread on the subreddit where you can ask us, anything you feel like. Just like Adidas, 198 did, who says, given the recent finger pointing, Zachary Levi is doing for Shiz's exam too, not doing well at the box office.

what should the appropriate way for actors and directors to address their movies not doing well? Do you mean Adidas, by the way? That's a very Britishism, Adidas. I don't know. I never know of Reddit names, to be honest. Like, it's always up in the air with that. Is it spelled like the shoe brand? Okay, never mind.

It's like slightly, yeah, I don't know. I know a lot of UK people pronounce the shoe brand Adidas. Yeah, what are you supposed to say, Adidas? Yeah, well, in America, yeah. Okay. A duties. I don't know. I mean, like, I would just imagine...

Do you have to say anything? You don't have to say anything, but you do sign a contract where probably, like, I don't know, if you're perceived as making statements that would harm the film, like, maybe they'll come after you or something. Like, I don't know how often that would even happen, but I'd imagine there's probably something like that in one of the contracts. I don't know. but yeah as soon as you're acknowledging that like people aren't seeing it and it seems like

you're coping like the rock does you kind of already lost you know so what was Zachary Levi trying to blame so if I'm remembering correctly it was something to do with the rock well then I agree the rock it is yeah and he was like he was and like kind of it was all like boiling down to this, what was happening with James Gunn, like, reorganizing things. And obviously, the Snyder fans come out and have their problems with things and things to say. Oh, yeah. I did get some comments on my Shazam review that were like, well, none of this matters because James Gunn's going to reset the universe. So I'm not going to see Shazam too.

That's like kind of the logic. I guess maybe. I don't, yeah, I don't entirely see that. But I just think it's, you know, I, more to answer the question. I think the actors shouldn't take it so personally and just see it as a film that they're in and a product and just kind of move on with their lives. I don't know why they take it to heart so much like it's part of their identity. Well, because it's not just a film. It's like a film and a franchise and then like if it does well, then they're definitely making another one.

And if it doesn't, then they're probably not. So I think his ego is probably attached to the idea of him being like a superhero character. And The Rock is the same way, you know? like yeah they're both kind of like their egos are attached to the character and they want to see the character do well so that they get to be the star of the universe or whatever you know the next robert downy j and plus that means more money which is an incentive too but yeah there's definitely some ego there as well yeah just don't like say anything or just say like well you know sometimes it doesn't work yeah it seems like there's so much more to lose from being

uh flagrant on Twitter in a fit of like emotions after your movie doesn't do well you know like what like why even go near it even if it yeah and there's just many movies that don't do well it's just like shows insecurity it does yeah yeah because you can just move on and say well that was like anyone who's done anything in life knows that sometimes you fail spectacularly yeah it's part of success is failure so it's about how you take it and if you act like a bitch and act insecure, then that doesn't look at that. But every time I fail, it's not my fault. It's someone else's fault. So that's not fair.

I blame the Rock, actually. I'm going to blame the Rock next time something goes wrong for me. The Rock's the most embarrassing one. Like, it is like, what do you expect from like rampage, you know? Why are you actually taking this so personal? You got yours? How many times you have to be on that list of highest paid actors at the number one spot before you're like okay with your existence, you know.

Yeah, isn't that fucking insane? I was watching the, there was a bit from an interview with Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk. And Elon Musk was asked about like alien life. And Elon's like, well, you know, I, you know, I'm always about aliens. If aliens existed, I would be the first to know and I would tell everybody. And then you can, he like gets so giddy and excited with this next part. He's like, oh, then I could talk.

tweet about it. That would be like the number one tweet of all time. Like that's that's a gold mine right there. And all I'm thinking is like, dude, you're the richest fucking person on the planet. And you care about like tweet engagements? Like, how desperate for validation are you? Like, you've got so many fucking simps that just love you no matter what you do because you're rich and because they think you might give them some money someday or that you might like be able to, they might be able to build their brand off of like leaching off of you or knowing you indirectly, like, and he's still so desperate for validation that he's concerned about like, oh, that would be, that's a gold mind to him is like a great tweet, a tweet that gets a lot of

engagement. He's actually thinking about it. Isn't that insane? That's where his mind went when he was asked about aliens. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I just lost my train of thought. Maybe he should be buying some therapy instead of Twitter, you know?

Like, Yeah. That boy needs therapy. Yeah, all those Twitter blue subscriptions. Man, imagine tanking your other companies, your other investments, just so you could buy Twitter, you know? And tank that too. How lame of it. Yeah, Twitter's a fucking embarrassment.

Well, he was like probably joking and then he affected like the market enough that he was forced into buying it. Because he wanted to back out and then they had to like sue him to. to get him to actually buy it and now he's just kind of stuck with it. Oh, okay. And he has a bunch of bad ideas. Yeah. It's crazy.

Like being that comically rich, like it makes me think of being like a kid in the 90s watching like superheroes. The superhero that was a billionaire, like that was such a crazy concept. It was reserved for a superhero that could like never really resemble reality that being like Batman. But now it's like,

there's so many billionaires and the wealth is so like, messed up, it's almost like a negative on these characters like Batman now. So they've got to like write into the scripts now. It's like, this is not complicated. It's like, and it's not just like a crazy, exaggerated comic book thing. This is just like a reality now. What do they say at the end of the like the blue beetle trailer? Batman's a fascist. Yeah, he's a fascist. They're calling him now. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. You saw the blue beetle trailer? Hell yeah. It's my favorite. It's kicking off the new one, isn't it? Cool.

Super hero. Yeah, that's the new James Gun kicking off. That's why Shazam failed, guys, because everyone wanted to see Blue Beetle instead. Oh, that's part of the James Gunn universe? I think so. I'm pretty sure it's like the official beginning of it, but I'm fairly sure it was supposed to be an HBO Max project that was like tracking well that they've like pumped a bunch more money into or something like this. Yeah, that's cool, but not that backroll movie.

That one they scrapped. No, no, no, no, that was long gone. Yeah, I guess maybe they thought they could sell Blue Beetle better. I don't know, to be honest. I don't really know what they can do if they can really counteract the wider fatigue, you know. Yeah. Of like the superhero thing? Well, I'm definitely going to be seeing the new, what's he called?

Oh, yeah, Flash. Oh, the new Flash. Yeah, I'll be seeing that one. They keep dropping advertising for this. And every time I see it, it doesn't look real. Like, it looks like a fake movie. That's why we have to see it. I keep

Yeah There's the show Like a debate going down on Twitter Where they would They'd taken this shot It's like the whole movie looks like It's in this like barren desert Like whenever I see a clip from it

Looks like they're just in this Nowhere land with like all these weird man of steel references I don't know what's going on Yeah there's this shot where like Two versions of the Flash and Supergirl Kind of like Slide into the center of the screen At Super Speed

It's like It's like a video game The fakeest looking most video game ass shot and people are like debating about it on Twitter like oh if you don't like this then you just don't like comic books and it's like man like this that's so funny I can't even relate on like any level as to like what like are people like really hyped for this like I am we're all seeing an opening night right I want to talk about this show soon as though can you we all pick you swear promise that we see it immediately fine yeah I will but man you're not excited it's

I'm excited For all the wrong reasons But like there seem to be like a lot of people They're excited in earnest You know that like this is like they've been waiting for this type thing You know? Yeah because the Flash is just such a great character And not annoying in the other movies

Yeah And Isra Miller is such a great person Yeah you know what's funny Ezra Miller gets cancelled They don't remove them from the movie But they put two of them in the movie That's doubling down we're going to put two Ezra Millers in the movie

how do you like that I'd like to imagine the CEO of Warner Discovery is like actually saying that yeah yeah yeah that kills that conversation quick doesn't it yeah we had the budget to to get rid of one of them but there's two of them so we can't do it's funny reportedly 220 million dollars

is the budget for the flash wow I'm very excited To answer the question Yeah I don't know Probably don't complain on Twitter About your movie failing as an actor Yeah

Okay Ivan JC98 has this to say Seeing how much attention The lack of daysy pilot Is received in recent animated series On YouTube popping up Like hell of a boss and murder drones What are your thoughts regarding

The Rise of Internet Series In light of the mass cancellations of so many animated programs on Netflix and HBO Max. You guys heard of any of these? Seen any of these? After I saw this question, I kind of scrolled through this Lacadaisie pilot just to see what it was like.

It had very good animation. I'll give them that. Clearly a bunch of talented animators got this together. The only one I hadn't heard of was murder drones. No idea what that is. But yeah, Lackadaisie is something that I'll be checking out at some point soon. And the VivC ones, obviously,

the has-been hotel and Hello Bus. I'm familiar enough with those. Yeah, I love to say. So these animators, yeah. They, like, used to do other projects, like, for studio, and then they kind of transition to web series? I think most of these are just, like, YouTubers that just got enough people together

and got enough talent coordinated and created, like, a real project that gets positive attention and has good animation and might get picked up by traditional media, you know? Yeah. Well, I'm in favor of that, yeah. I love the posting movies on the internet and sharing them. I think that's great.

Any creative way to fund your project just so can get made like I'm down for, you know? Just do whatever you can, I say. The creative landscape now is just so different, like funding and creating. You can like kickstart something now and make it, you know, like back then it was like 10 years ago. It was just so different. You got, you know, you needed studio money.

You needed the studios. Now it's different. You have, you can have like an online audience that will give you money or help you in some way, support you, work for free. I'm sure some people even volunteer their time to help. Yeah. And I was looking like in the description of the video for this lack of daisy one. They've got like patrons and big like, yeah. like tens and tens of animators working on these things.

So they're like big projects. But yeah, they seem more kind of independent and able to a bit more loose to be able to get these projects done. Yeah. And I'm sure there's a lot of passion behind them. Because they're so small, so such small crews behind them. Yeah.

So I think that's great. I haven't heard of these movies. I haven't seen any of them. So I don't have much to add aside from that. But I think that's great idea. I think totally go forward. with that. I'd like to see more. Yeah, it seems like one of the only true avenues,

especially for like 2D animation, is for it to be like fan funded and be channeled that way because there's just not that larger interest outside of kind of more niche communities. So if this can mean, more projects can be made, like, go for it. I mean, I don't know. I don't know how much of the... Part of me feels as though

the only reason there isn't as much interest in 2D animation is because they're just not making, like, the interest didn't die in Japan, it's because they kept making them, right? It's like an attitude, isn't it? Where it's kind of regarded a certain way here, so it's not like a marketable thing. I don't think there's that many people saying it. I think, I think that we probably find the people that are saying that and we project their voices louder by going, look at how crazy this person is. And then we think that it's more of a thing than it actually is. I don't think most people,

I don't think the overwhelming majority of people think that, like, 2D animation is, like, outdated or that they wouldn't want to see it. I think, I think people, a lot of people still watch,

like, older 2D animation, too, you know? Yeah, it just needs that, like, contemporary spiderverse type product, you know,

for everyone's start, oh, this is a viable business thing now we can do, you know, like, uh, I can't remember, like,

the last big success outside of the Japanese market, as far as animated stuff, is concerned in the 2D space. It tends to be relegated more to your wolf walkers and things of that kind of scope, which I love, but I mean, they're just not seen on the same scale as some of these larger animated projects

that are in for kids. All right, next question. Okay, let's do this one from Dab Sloth 710. Hey Sards, what's your favorite alcoholic beverage, whether it be a type of beer, salsa, hard liquor, or mixed drink? What would be your drink of choice? Hmm. Depends on my mood, actually. Yeah?

I like Negronies. I like... Okay, give me your good mood drink and your bad mood drink. Oh, bad mood drink? I don't think it's a good idea to drink on a bad mood, actually. I don't think you should drink, right? I don't think you should drink, right? So let's say you're in a bad mood, what would you...

towards. I don't know if when I say depends on my mood I don't know if I was just I don't know if I was necessarily saying like good mood or bad mood like if I there's a couple of drinks that I'll have

if I want more energy right that don't necessarily have caffeine in them I find like a nagroney or a nagroney or like some variation of a white Russian will kind of like perk me up and I'll get a bit more energy

and they'll be able to like get more work done or whatever whereas like a beer wouldn't do that that's interesting yeah I'm not sure if I've ever really experienced boosts of energy from drinking it's nearly always acts as a depressant for me

I haven't had a white rush in a long time I have to give that a little try actually there's like coffee liqueur in it so that maybe there's like an espresso martini or something like this yeah yeah they are if those are done white right

alcohol gives me energy too yeah I'm like that or if I have like a little bit alcohol gives me energy yeah there was a period, yeah, I don't drink much. Really? Yeah.

There's like a period, like, last year I drank like, I drank beer for like a couple months, like, you know, like pretty like regularly. Like I just became like a beer drinker. I don't really know why. I guess it was like anxiety or whatever, like dealing with it. Yeah. I got like really fat. I get like a bunch of weight.

Yeah. Well, especially beer. Yeah. Because beer is like a lot of calories in it. It's like a lot of empty calories. Like if you, if it's like hard liquor, then you're fine. But like, it was. It was just like, I was drinking so much beer.

But empty calories, it messes with your metabolism. And the way your body processes it, too. Uh-huh. I find I eat a lot more when I drink, too. Yeah. You have, like, less impulse control. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, um...

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't know. It's just, like, lots of beer. I couldn't... I don't know what I was doing, but then I laid off the beer. Yeah, I'm with you. Like, lost weight. Yeah, it makes me want to lean more towards, like, smaller spirits or, like...

gin or something. Yeah, I like a good gin soda. Because, yeah, it just feels less weighty. Gin and soda with like a little bit of lime. Sometimes it'll do like a half splash of tonic in there. But have it mostly soda water and then you're good. Good to go. Ooh, cranberry juice is also good.

You don't need to put too much in it. And it enhances the flavor. If you got like a good gin, like Tank 10. Friedrich's gin is really great, but you can't fucking get that anywhere. do you have that in the UK? Yeah, I'm pretty sure we have that here. Yeah, it's from Germany and I can't find it anywhere here now. Yeah, obviously a bit closer here, so.

Yeah, bad damn. You're going to need to smuggle me some, actually, next time you're in town, please. What do you think of martinis? I like a good martini. I don't know enough about martinis to be able to like tell a bartender exactly what I want out of it. But sometimes like, I think the last martini I had was like at a James Bond themed bar actually. That's cool. Yeah, I'm sure I'd expect it to be good.

Yeah, I like him with some olive juice in it. I like him dirty. Nice. Yeah, I'm not sure if I've tried a martini. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not firstly though. I'll have like a glass of whiskey with a cigar or a glass of wine or any of it. I like wine. Wine is, yeah, because, you know, I'm Italian.

A nice wine drinker. I like wine, but it fucks me up. It'll, if I drink too much red wine, I get a headache. Yeah, it's a different kind of drunk. And then, like, my nights, if I incorporate more than, like, a sip of wine into my night or day or whatever, it's just like, I drink way too much. And I get more drunk, but I don't feel drunk. Wine drunk is really weird.

And I just like I just have like a miserable sleep and a miserable next day. Yeah. Yeah, I can't. Yeah, like the stained lips and stained tongue. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I try to stay away from wine. Italians drink it like every day. Yeah, Italians, yeah.

Like kids have it in Italy. Like kids drink wine with dinner. Like, it's fine. Yeah. That one gives a shit. Yeah. Yeah. Love it.

Yeah. I like mescal. I like a good balanced drink that has like kind of a little bit of smokiness in it,

maybe a bit of citrus and then like some like egg weight. I find like most drinks you could order that have like the frothed egg white on top usually are pretty good. What do you think of like IPAs and these kind of things?

I like IPAs. Yep. I'm not big on those Very earthy I can have a couple They can be like quite sickly sometimes Yeah I prefer like normal beer

Yeah There's a really great IPA called fat tug In Vancouver And then in Georgia There's an IPA that they have everywhere That's also really good called

Tropicalia by Athens Brewing Company and I like that it's everywhere I like being in places where there's a really great local beer that's like everywhere on tap every restaurant you go into

they'll just have Tropicalia on tap I'm like damn you know there's always like one dependable option and then I visited my family in Edmonton Alberta recently and just like you go to a bar or a restaurant everything they have on tap is just bullshit fucking

bullshit like no interesting no good choices and then I'm just like damn I you know I like those I like places

that have dependable choices yeah something nice something yeah I just don't have as much of a taste for liquor so I'm just yeah

I'm like Alex I'm not fussy I'll drink whatever like I don't really have a preference do you have like the whole ale thing there's obviously like the the whole pub ale coach is like huge

in the UK Well, we don't drink them room temperature, but there's different hails. Yeah, no, I've got some, oh man, my nan, like, lived in America for, like, a couple years, and she would, she'd get sold, served a cold beer, and she'd ask them to put it in the, in the microphone. Oh, my God. Wow. That's funny. I've never forgiven her for that, because I come more from, like, the New Zealand side where, like, everything's ice cold, and I have to have all my drinks, like, freezing cold. so I can't agree with that one culturally.

That's hilarious. Some ales actually are nice root temperature to be fair, like in winter or whatever. Yeah. All right. Is that it? Yeah, I think that's it. Okay.

Ralph, give us a movie. It's my turn to recommend a movie. And we mentioned it this podcast. I figured we might as well just recommend it if you want. We can, let's do Valerian. And the city of 1,000 planets. Is that what it's called? Yay.

Valerian. Yeah, let's just talk about Valerian. In the city of, yes, 2017 classic. We're back, baby. We're going Valerian. So you can watch your 4K. Watch your 4K Blu-ray. Yeah, I do it.

I hope you guys do research on all the comic books, right? Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, I'll expect you to, actually. I'll let you take care of that one. The graphic novel. Okay. Yeah.

Sounds good. If you don't want to be spoiled for Valerian and the city of a thousand planets, directed by Luke Besant. What year did it come out in 2017? Then watch it before the next episode. These episodes come out every two weeks. But you can listen to them early by going to patreon.com slash sardonicast or sardonicast.com. Sign up for premium. only $2 a month.

That's only a fraction of what the budget of Valerian is, actually. You could make... I don't even know where I was going with that one, but it's cheap, and you get to support the show. We also got merch, link in the description. We also have a Sardonicast Highlights channel. Go check it out, subscribe, turn on the bell, leave a like, and happy.

Valerian. Happy Valerian. Have a happy Valerian. Have a happy, have a happy thousandth planet. All right. Thanks for listening, everybody. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.