Sardonicast - Sardonicast 140: Beau is Afraid, Cocaine Bear, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

Support the Show for $2 a month and receive all future episodes early at https://sardonicast.com and https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Buy Sardonicast T-Shirts, and other merchandise at https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast. Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Sardonicast Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8AhJ0bzQgs5fb9m_ZCRqkw/featured Ralph's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ralphthemoviemaker Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/YourMovieSucksDOTorg Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Ralph's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ralphsepe Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Ralph's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ralphthemoviemaker Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Fan art: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/zl1x6a/so_no_one_told_your_life_was_gonna_be_sardonic/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/z6fgiq/heres_my_sardonicast_fan_art_xd/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/zorp93/sardonicast_age_of_resistance/ Timestamps: 0:00 Beau is Afraid 34:42 Cocaine Bear 52:13 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within 1:32:42 Questions 2:01:09 Outro / recommendation

All right. Three, two, one. What are we? Some kind of Final Fantasy the Spirits Within? That was a quote from Final Fantasy 7, popular video game. I'm Adam from Your Movie Sex. And this is a podcast. I don't remember the name.

That was a quote from, Bo is Afraid. I'm Ralph Seppie or I'm Bo. Are you afraid? Yeah, I'm terrified. Of what? Of Alex. Yeah. It's making me scared of here.

Alex is afraid over here. That's who I am. Yeah. Yeah, there are whether to leave into the, the, the, the, uh, I don't know, have you collected your spirit waves over here? What's, what's your phantom intensity right now? Oh, no. Oh, shit.

I'm getting out of myself. I'm getting ahead myself. What was the line from the way? We don't use the S word around here. That's, I, I, I love that you love that movie. It's a. you seem to have like at least remembered that it exists you recommended it there's something about it that clearly clicks with you there is something yeah yeah there's

stories attached to this movie is okay cool yeah but we'll save that for later okay yeah yeah yeah little box yeah put that a little box to save it for later a little tease a little set up for later yeah yeah yeah a little tasting hmm um do we want to just go right in a bow bow bow bow yeah Bo is scared. Uh-huh. Bo's a little bit frightened. If either of you seen the short film, it's based on.

Oh. It's like he made a little short film. Ariastery years ago called Bo. It's just called Bo. Kind of made it. Yeah, it's called Bo. I had no idea. No, I haven't seen this.

Oh, you didn't even know. No. I knew this was like a project that he'd wanted to make for a long time. I didn't realize it was based on a short that got that far. I also seemed to remember this was originally called Disappointment Boulevard. yeah well apparently that was just like a ruse like a way it was apparently always supposed to be called beau is afraid oh it was just like a it was just so we got disappointed by the title change yeah yeah okay i don't know after seeing the movie i'm fine with bo's afraid to be honest um i get it i mean it's it makes what it's

going for a little more obvious with that title yeah yeah and plus it's like the short film bow and then I was afraid. It's like an extension of the short film. Bo more like boo. Well, not a fan, are we? No, I like it. I mean, I have my criticisms, obviously. I like it overall. More like boo. I'm not anti-Aster. No.

It's crazy, though. Yeah, because of course, this is what his third feature, right? And it's kind of what drew me to it. I remember saying in a midsummer discussion, like, he seems to have nailed this kind of specific type of genre trappings, this kind of tone. What can he do kind of outside of that? And I feel like that's kind of what he's leaned into with Bo's afraid. It doesn't feel restrained by genre trappings.

It doesn't feel like a modernization of the wicker man or whatever you want it to be. It does feel like its own thing. And that kind of is both its strength and weakness because it is quite inaccessible. It's quite an obtuse film. It's extremely long. it kind of devolves as it goes along it's uh yeah like quite non-literal at points it's three hours long answers yeah it's it's it's an odyssey yeah it's it's a whole journey the budget on this is crazy believe it's 35 million which is the highest day 24 budget high

budgeted thing they've ever done and it's yeah i was gonna ask you guys about like what do you think they're thinking with that was i don't know what the fuck they were going to get it back because no. There is literally no, no. There is no way they were going to make that back. They fucking released this movie in like IMAXs. I feel like they at least had some structure where like they were maybe hoping like even if they weren't confident about it.

Then they were completely delusional. I think that they were, well, I mean, they were at least giving a lot of leeway to the guy that like basically made their brand. You know? Yeah. They gave him a lot of faith. I think they really believe their directors. But yeah, there's like no, there is no planet where like this movie would do well.

It was a freebie. It's just like a fucking three hour long. weird, like it's so inaccessible. It's like completely inaccessible. We compare it to like everything everywhere all at once from last year. That was the highest budgeted thing they've ever done before this. But that movie is super accessible. So it makes sense while you like spend so much money on it.

But there's absolutely no way that they thought they were getting their money back with this movie. There's just not a fucking chance. Because it's so out there. And it's three hours long. Maybe they thought the Joaquin Phoenix inclusion. I don't know. There's a lot of people at because, Cinos that hit the slot machines and they think they're getting their money back maybe.

So maybe it's one of those. Maybe it's one of those like delusional like, oh, you know, it's probably not likely, but it'll be really cool if it does happen. Yeah. I just hope it doesn't hurt his career in any way. I don't think it will. It's kind of an upward trajectory. Yeah. I don't think so.

I'm looking at like the stats on IMDB right now. It's 17,000 ratings. When it came out, there were people like, oh, this is a career. render. Their careers are over. Oh yeah, Wachin's gonna be removed from Joker too. Like he's done. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's over.

I mean, it seems like people like working with them. So that's not it. It's just like a really fucking weird movie. Yeah. And it's not a horror movie. Do we just get into spoilers or what? Yeah, I think we're going to have to. Is there something to spoil?

It's like watching a three hour long, like escalating intrusive thought, you know? Like there's very little that grounds it and it just gets more and more obtuse and insane. Like, it's kind of categorized by these four main locations and each time they kind of switch location, things kind of start escalating. Like the first part of the movie that's set in Bo's apartment, it's not really going out of certain bounds beyond little hints here and there of like the surreal nature. But yeah, each time, with each hour that passes, the more kind of out there it becomes and yeah, spoilers, I guess, but by the time you're in that last setting where you, like, confronts his mum and it's like totally going off the deep end and you'll see in giant

dick puppets and it's just absolute sanity. It's definitely, I don't know, it's consistently entertaining and all the performances are amazing and the production was just consistently varied and interesting and I love the way it was all put together. It's just, once it ends, I'm a little bit like. What am I missing? What am I? I don't know.

They felt like there was a point two and a half hours in where I was like, I've kind of got to accept at this point that there's pretty much no way the last half an hour can make the previous two and a half hours make sense in a kind of linear, obvious way. Yeah, I wasn't holding out for that. I wasn't holding out for that at all. I was, you know, my expectation was, or my hope at least, was to get some sort of like satisfying payoffs, but that didn't really happen. Yeah, that was kind of my biggest problem is that each one of these locations was setting up like an intriguing situation, whether it be his reliance on these drugs and he's got to drink water with them at the right time, but the water's come off and there's all this homeless stuff going on, and it's like this really tense situation.

That's kind of a fun little vignette in and of itself, but then, yeah, we shift to a different location. Suddenly there's this new doctor character in his wife and there's this vet guy who's clearly losing his mind and there's setting all that up, but then it would jump. to another location as a new set of characters and like this whole side story like with these traveling theater people and it yeah it does feel like it keeps it becomes like a dream sequence of like his whole life yeah and then it really into being an entire dream sequence and it totally as far as like any kind of linear plot I was like really checked out at a certain point it's very episodic it's mostly like yeah just like these little vignettes because the whole framing is like his mom like is taken out by accident so he thinks he gets a phone call from like a

UPS driver who's found her body um that had been crushed by a chandelier so then it's kind of bow's mission it's his odyssey to travel across the country to try and get to his mom's funeral and yeah it does shift to this point where it turns out his mother was never dead all along and it was all this kind of crazy conspiracy because she was there's like so she like controlled controls a company or owns a company that like a big CEO yeah yeah but it's like one of the like controls the entire world or it like makes everything like microwaves and whatever she controls his life it's like a me it's you know the the commentary of the film is about how his psyche has been damaged by like a controlling yeah basically yeah yeah yeah so she controls like literally

everything to an exaggerate agree in the same way that like all of his fears throughout the film are exaggerated and yeah but like what like the whole he's actually like codependent on her and he's kind of this helpless character with no agency super surreal yeah i mean i it kind of says like i don't like the movie i do like the movie i was just puzzled by why they gave him that money to make it because there's no way they were going to make that back on this fucking movie i mean it is like a total fever dream like the whole thing and it's like it's not a horror movie but did make me super anxious at points. That last half hour

or whatever when he's with his... It's like some really anxiety-induced. Like, if you have anxiety, like, it's, like, stressful. It's just, like, screaming. It's a lot of the rational fears that... Yeah. But it's like a fucking nightmare,

like, especially at the end. I felt like it was most effective for me in the first half of the film. Like, before we got to the play scene, like, I was totally into it, and I was totally willing, able to absorb the intended emotions and anxiety that the film was bringing towards me. But I feel like there's something about that play scene.

And in of itself, like it makes for a really good short film within the movie. But I feel like it kind of derails the progression of the plot. Because up until that point, it's a very clear like, I've got to find my mother, got to find my mother. And the heightened anxiety of like, you know, him when Nathan Lane is like trying to prevent him from going anywhere and he's like, no, we'll just stay another day. Oh, it's another day. And it turns into another day. Like, that's a building heightened tension where it's just like, oh, it's getting worse and worse. And if I don't go now, blah, blah, blah, blah. The clock's ticking. And then all of a sudden

we get to the play scene and the clock isn't ticking anymore. And I get that thematically, you know, you want to have this moment of like levity or escape for the character where it's like, okay, this is the one part of the film where he isn't being controlled by his mother and he gets to, you know, escape to this fantasy. But I feel like as a viewer's experience, in terms of like really trying to be drawn to something or grounded to something, even though it's a surrealist film, there was that one thing that was keeping me interested in the movie and it was the progression of him going to his mother. And then at that point, it was like, okay, well, I guess I'm not really supposed to care about that according to this film because we're spending

so much time on this. And then like, directly after that whole army guy just dies immediately. I was like, okay, that was kind of an unsatisfying buildup to that. And then, you know, he gets to his mom and then there's a lot of unsatisfying conclusions to that whole thing and it's just like yeah i don't know i i like the movie overall but i just really um wasn't a fan of how long it was and what uh it wound up doing i feel like there's a better two hour long movie within this in the editing room it does yeah i'm torn i'm torn because on that that whole like tangential sidequess sinecest scene with the traveling theater like i agree with you it does it does kind of feel like it's changing direction all of a sudden, but that was almost what was so kind of refreshing about it to me,

the way it was like, you're grounded throughout the entire previous, like, running time with, like, how this character just has nothing and he's, like, so ground down by his mother and it is just, like, stacking misery on misery on misery. And it is this one, like, kind of shining hope of, like, the future or some kind of, yeah, something for this character outside of this oppression that he's experience and it is this weird kind of sad, ironic joy that he finds through this like theater that he's like stumbled across and there was something that was where I was, yeah, I was kind of really into the movie during that sequence and the way it was pulled off and the way he does go from being like. Okay. Because it seems, yeah, a lot of people didn't like that sequence.

A lot of people find that to be their favorite part of the movie. Like it's very distinct and it's very nice looking. A lot of people I know like the first part, the best, they were more on like Adams side. Yeah, I agree with where it sits in the movie. the movie perhaps kind of pulling me out of it somewhat but as far as like memorable scenes and parts that I'm thinking about like some of the dialogue in there it's like a really beautiful sequence the way it's a nice short film that interrupts the plight yeah but I feel like it doesn't like the more I think about it the more I feel it enriches the character and kind of enriches the experience and I feel like maybe upon a second watch I wouldn't feel like it would disrupt me that much

that's kind of how I'm feeling now but I feel like it exists perfectly fine within the movie but the movie's three hours long and that adds to it feeling like like come on and get on with it sort of thing like I wouldn't feel that way if it wasn't so long like not just the sequence within the in the middle of the movie but the whole movie itself like there's nothing about that even the people that love this movie like no one seems to be thinking that there's any justification for this movie being three hours long right no like it should be there's a better two hour long movie in here. And I feel like you could still have that entire story maybe like condensed a little bit within that. I feel like you could still have that sequence. And it would. Yeah. I even think

about like midsummer was quite long and they released the extended cut that was more the length of those afraid. Maybe that would have been a better route to take and release an extended version after. Yeah, which is weird. Because I think the extended cut of midsummer is like way better. It like changes the movie entirely in terms of like what's intent is. But yeah, different contexts. You're able to watch it in the, you know, safety of your own home. This was like, yeah, they let Ariaster do whatever they want, whatever he wanted, basically.

This is full, unadulterated vision on screen. And if, you know, if you like that, great. I mean, I did really enjoy the movie, but it is like, it is a lot. And I was unclear, like, what I was supposed to really get out of it other than, like, oh, it's about this character. He has, like, mama's shoes and anxiety, I guess. like, yeah, this absurdism. Like, was I even supposed to care about the plot?

I don't know. Because it's like, it's so fucking out there that it's like kind of hard to care. But at the same time, it was interesting. It does change a lot, which is good. Like, it's not the same shit the whole movie. It does constantly, like, progress and escalate and go different places, which is fun. Like, it was never really boring. For a three-hour movie, I actually thought it was pretty, like, entertaining throughout.

Like, I actually didn't. mind being there, which I was surprised by actually, usually on the one saying like movies are too long, this is too long, but I actually thought this was like fine, its length because it was like constantly changing. It doesn't matter how long a movie is as long as it's like progressing. It ends its front time. Yeah, changing constantly. Yeah, it's like, yeah, this was. It wasn't like the Eternals or whatever. Like it's the same fucking shit the whole movie. And yeah, like visually, I thought it looked beautiful. That's really what kept me going through it too. Like, it looked amazing, I thought.

Really creative cinematography and sets and lots of, like, makeup and, like, effects. And, like, it was very, like, you see the money that went into it. It looks like an expensive movie. I'm just, I am fucking shocked they gave him that money to make this. I'm absolutely shocked because this is not, like, anything that you really see in theaters right now. Which is maybe, maybe that's why they gave them money because they're like, you know, this is something different. And it is kind of refreshing. If there's anything to compare it to, it would probably be like Charlie Kaufman's movies is what I was thinking of.

I was thinking of like Synecichie, New York and like I'm thinking of ending things because of how like absurd those kinds of those kinds of movies are too. Yeah, it was reminding me this thing. This was leaning more into like comedic tone with this one. Yeah, like there were parts that were funny. Yeah, and also like the horror. Like it was like an Ariaster movie like with like a kind of Charlie Kaufman framing. Yeah, it's dancing a fine line. isn't it? Because it still has the kind of, it has that gruesome of nature like his previous films do. Yeah.

Is it a particular way of kind of showing off dead bodies and gore? Oh, yeah. The dead body props were great. Like, whenever someone died, it just immediately became, they became like this horribly deformed, like bloated corpse. That was great. I really like that about. Yeah. And it goes with the absurdist tone.

Like, oh, that fits the movie just fine. Yeah. But it is like, you know, it's a lot for like a, a. mainstream audience member to like take in and but I think people are smart too like I don't just like think people are stupid they just want to see shit like the little mermaid like I do think there's an audience for something like this something a little more absurd it's just uh you know it's a big risk it's a huge risk to take and I don't think it really paid off really because critically it was like yeah it was fine like I think critics liked it um it's got like positive reviews but financially

you know didn't really pay off at well and that's why like you know the horror trappings or whatever, that that works great for him, I think, like having some kind of genre to kind of tie him down. Because, yeah, like, he's a very creative guy, very ambitious guy, but it's like, you know, like some restraint really would have benefited the movie a bit. And I think that really would have helped with this movie. And like his horror movies are fantastic because he does show that restraint. It's like, you know, at the end of the day, like, he has to have certain scenes in there. And, you know, I love that about his movies. Like, he pulls those off great. Like, his horror movies, I like his horror movies more than this

But yeah I think you're right in that like It's good that he did something different to show like He doesn't just have to be like a horror movie director And that's not like all that works about him Yeah because he does have a lot of range Yeah he's very talented His movies look great

Really great acting in this movie Yeah like Joaquin was great Um The yeah everyone was great And basically it's mostly him Like the whole movie Um and he carries it Yeah I think he's what kind of carries it

And ties it together for me because this could be kind of a frustrating character, you know, like he is like kind of whimpering and like the whole point of his character is that he doesn't really have a backbone and he doesn't really know how to fight for himself and put up for himself. So that's kind of the main beat that's hammered home again and again and again. So yeah, without the right performance like kind of selling that. And he really does a good job of selling that kind of childlike innocence carried into this fully grown man. And there is a deeply sad performance that he brings with that. But yeah, there's just something I'm underwood about it. I kept thinking about under the Silver Lake with this movie, the kind of paranoid main character, just that kind of dreamlike tone, not really knowing like what's real, what isn't.

The same could be said with like men or mother, that kind of term where it's like. Yeah, it's like mother. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, where it is just kind of slowly unraveling as it goes along. And man, I'm with you. Yeah, men's like absurd, but I know, like it takes place in. the real world of that like when there's like tension or ten scenes in that movie i felt tension for the main character whereas this is like it's so out there i mean you can't really you can't

take any of it literally so it's just like deflates that tension for me location for me because yeah yeah i was kind of taking it literally for that first section in his apartment but yeah as it goes to once he was in the house with the doctor and his wife i was kind of like yeah there is the framing of this seems like it's just too much that's like fitting into place it's seems a bit too dreamlike the things they're talking about, the, like, weird surveillance stuff on the screens and this weird kind of paranoia that's going on the seams. Like, it's non-literal at a certain point. That's my biggest obstacle with, like, movies like this. It's like, okay, so then if it's all like an allegory or whatever, then, like, why should I care about anything?

And that's, like, the best movies, like, find that balance. Like, like, a lot of Charlie Kaufman's movies or, like, everything everywhere all at once is, like, really absurd, but there's still, like, things grounding it, like, a story grounding it. This is just, like, it's just, like, It's like watching a nightmare. It is like the whole movie is like a fucking nightmare. And I don't know if people want to watch a nightmare. I think the intent with that kind of dark comedy edge is that you're supposed to be kind of laughing and chuckling and finding humor to this darkness. Sure.

Which I did. I can within a degree, but it depends on the section of the movie. For the first third, maybe I was kind of like, yeah, this is kind of an interesting tone. Like the severe violence and the sadness and the like the drug abuse and the therapy stuff. It's all like really sad framing, but there's finding the humor in all of this. There is something unique and interesting about that. But yeah, as it goes on and on, the sadness does kind of override any of that comedy. I'm not laughing at a certain point.

That's a huge reason as to why I enjoy the first half more is I feel like it tries to, the first half is just so absurd and comical that like it's just an absolute riot. it. And then over time, it kind of like, it tries to wrap itself up in a way where, sure, maybe narratively, we don't get the exact same conclusions that we would in like a standard non-absurdist film. But it does try to like, it insists a level of like self-importance in a way. It insists a level of like tone kind of like concluding like, oh, this is something that's meaningful, you know, and I'm just like, I missed the comedy. I missed the comedy aspects. And not saying that that doesn't exist at all in the second half, but it definitely takes

itself more seriously. Yeah, it leans much more into the horror or like the existentialness. Yeah, it was interesting how it wrapped up to me. What, that last bit? Yeah, yeah. No, the way it wrapped up, I was like. Yeah, I like the last part. Yeah, exactly.

When the mother reveal, it like kind of was losing me that she was back and it was like, you really don't want me to engage in this as if it was like a linear narrative like a hereditary like any number of other movies like this so so then what am i getting from this but then it kind of shifts into that whole trial sequence where he's like on the boat and it's kind of being stuck in place and there's the whole imagery with that big stadium and i thought that was like a lovely framing and like a good visual way to wrap up his story but yeah again just where it happens and By the time you get to what it is just like so exhausted and over the top. But what you're saying with it being so kind of exacerbated and almost self-indulgent to a point, I almost feel like, that's the whole point of the project in a way.

And that's kind of what I like about it. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Again, it almost depends like what his ideas for the future are and like how he's going to follow this project up. Is this just like a showing what you can do type thing? And it's like his passion project. Now let's go back to something a bit more constrained and explore. a different area or I find him,

I continuously finding him interesting. Yeah, he's definitely interesting. I like that it ended with, you know, the whole like, you're guilty sort of thing. Kind of wraps it up in a way thematically because like guilt is the first thing that the,

the psychologist therapist, fake whatever, wrote down. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's obviously like a recurring theme of like self-gilt and, you know, why he's such a pushover and just listens to everything that everyone else is doing just so he doesn't have to make any real decisions.

And they say that like pretty explicitly in the movie too. It's not even just like, oh, you have to like interpret it. Like there's, I forget there's like actually a line where they just say that. Yeah, there's a lot of dialogue fitting into it. It's fun and interesting, but yeah, no way it can connect with the average audience member. And fuck, I just wish it was shorter. I would have seen it twice in theaters if it was like two hours probably. But it is asking a lot of you.

It's asking a lot. Yeah, without an intermission, like, I'm happy waiting for this to come out on digital to see it again, because I am kind of leaning more that direction where, like, I'm kind of holding off a little bit to rewatch this and kind of see where it lies, because I just feel like it's almost what it deserves, almost what it's begging for. Yeah. Because of just how dense it is, how much it is trying to do, how much is in there, how much, like, I was just reading some of the trivia and, like, some of the setups that visual setups that are in the, like, first act that, you know. You wouldn't even know we're like setting stuff up in the later ones, much like in hereditary and midsummer. But yeah, there is like a joy to be found through exploring again. Yeah.

In a time where we're getting movies like The Little Mermaid and like Transformers Rise of the Beasts or whatever, Transformers 7, I don't even know what we're up to. Yeah, this is like, you know, very refreshing and there's an audience for it. But yeah, I feel like they probably could have made it for a bit less money and it, you know, maybe had a chance at succeeding. Yeah, I just can't get over the resources he was given to like make this. And it's just like, you know, it barely makes sense, like, the first time you see it. It does require like another viewing, yeah, but it is so long as well.

I sound kind of harsh on it. But yeah, I'm more just like shocked by it and the fact that they even made it. Like what did they want to happen? Yeah, what was the strategy? Yeah, like what was the, yeah, what was like the desired result? was it supposed to be like, oh yeah, people are going to love this. It's like this three-hour movie. That's really weird.

Yeah, I just don't see it with this, not at all. Whereas everything everywhere at once, that was super accessible. This is like, yeah. Yeah, what was the last, like, explicitly surrealist movie that was successful even? Like, clearly they should know at this point, right? Mm-hmm. Not this one. Yeah.

Yeah. From May 24, I can't really think. Like, a lot of the time, they actually get, like, back. accessible? No, people hated that movie. Like, that was controversial. It comes at night. That was controversial.

I mean, people hated it, but was it, like, financially? Because Jennifer Lawrence was in it, right? Yeah. The Hunger Games crowd went to go see it. And they're like, this is not catness. The weird, like, Bible adaptation. Okay. It wasn't a huge, yeah, it didn't, like,

depends how much they spent on marketing. It was a budget of 30 million. They made 44.5. You know, I think of, like, Charlie Coffin stuff like adaptation and eternal sunshine and like those like those are surreal but those are like mainstream those aren't surrealist those are way more grounded those are super surreal as well like being John Malcovich is a super surreal movie I know but there's something grounding those films yeah they they grounded in like some kind of logic

yeah yeah that's why he's so good at what he does but that's why people like it yeah he explores the consciousness without making it like entirely inaccessible. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably like a good filmmaker I could think of. And you know, his stuff has gotten more surreal. Yeah, as it goes along. But, you know, it's fine with him because you kind of, it's kind of his style. Like, you know what you're getting into with Charlie Coffin. Yeah. You know, this is just such a weird fucking movie. It's hard to make heads of tail, heads or tails of it. Yeah. That's kind of what I love about it. Yeah. It's, it is unique in that way. It is super unique, yeah. It's not even, like, accessible for, like, the average Arioster fan.

Like, someone's seen his other two movies. They're like, oh, I hope it's, like, hereditary. Like, no. Sorry. Maybe next time. Yeah. I still really did enjoy it. Like I said, I don't regret sitting there for three hours.

But, yeah, I'm more shocked by, like, the behind the scenes, the business angle of it, which is usually, like, the most important part of, like, a lot of these movies. And they're just, like, I... It's crazy to see a studio just not care. Like, oh, okay, fine. It's just, that's honestly, it just seems like they don't care. They're like, this is art. This is what the guy wants to make.

And if you don't like it, don't watch it. We're making enough money. Which is, you know, ballsy attitude. Now, we can do this. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, they get their money with, like, other stuff. Thank you, Ari. You know.

They're charging. I looked on their merch recently, A24, because they, sometimes they have, like, kind of cool, you know, either Blu-rayes or, like, they have some vinyl LPs that are kind of interesting. The Moonlight soundtrack is $200 and it looks like a nice like quality fucking vinyl, but holy, that should be like a hundred bucks max. Holy shit.

It's like a two LP thing. It's got like a nice case and everything and some like artwork and blah blah blah blah blah. $200. Jesus Christ. Isn't there the rock with eyes on their store for like $50 or something? Yeah. You can make that yourself. Go to fucking yeah, Michael's and get Googly eyes and find a rock, right?

Yeah, Jesus. Yeah. They were selling after some Blu-ray that had no bonus features or something. Yeah, what the fuck? It's not even 4K. Yeah. It's sold out. They'll probably restock it, but, yeah, fuck.

They sold like a climax VHS that sold out immediately. It was very low print. I wish I would have had one because that would have been a cool collector. Yeah, I remember that. God damn, you A-24. When will you have? ever be quenched, you freaking fricks? What did you think about? Yeah, what would you rate it, Alex? Yeah, I think I'm a little bit more positive than you guys are, yeah, as an admitted fan of Ariester

and is exactly what I was saying in our last discussion about his movies. Like, I did want to see something a little bit different. I kind of wanted to see what he would do outside of those horror genre trappings, and I feel like that's kind of what I got. It's kind of more thematically interesting than like anything literal that happens in the plot and I know that's going to put a lot of people off mentioning movies like men or under the silver lake or these kind of films but that's really my jam I feel like there's a lot visually to explore there's a bunch of great characters and performances a really unique tone that you're not really going to find anywhere else I just like encouraging this kind of weird stuff it definitely doesn't all come together and it is big bloated

ambitious, self-indulgent. But man, this is like a strong three and a half star seven out of ten for me. Like, I'm like I've seen this again. But it will be in the comfort of my own home, that's for sure. Yeah, I wish it was reined in more. But I did really like it. I don't want to undersell how much I liked it.

It's just, I'm like, I don't get the thought process of 824 given this guy $35 million to make this movie. But I would probably give it the same as you, seven or ten, seven out of ten, maybe even an 8 on a rewatch just because I was so into certain parts of it but really

I don't know there's something about it I just didn't entirely connect with really and it just needed to be rained in a bit more or not even by like producers just like Ariaster needed to rain himself in a bit and like tighten it a little bit because there's a lot of good stuff in here

it's like great you know I was pretty much entertained the entire time it's just yeah it's like you know like what is what's like the ultimate? point, like, what's this movie, like, trying to do? And it's just, like, I guess it's about his mom and his

like anxiety with his mom and, and I guess it's like three hours of that. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like exploring conditional love, you know? Yeah. Yeah, like, I got it, but it's like, okay. Didn't need to be three hours.

Yeah, so that's a lot of time to commit to. I fucking love under the Silver Lake and I wish that I was watching that instead for most of the movie it's, you know

there's so much more satisfying conclusions in that movie it's like you know like there's set up and there's payoff and the payoff is great and there's more to think about there's more to you know pick on after the film's done and it's not three hours it's two hours 20 it doesn't feel bloated

that's still pretty long yeah and it's it fucking flies by in my opinion, Under Silver Lake. I've seen that movie a bunch of times. So yeah, Bo's Afraid. Good, good movie, six out of ten. But, like, yeah, it's weird.

It's weird to see a movie that on paper I should love because it follows, you know, it has a lot of the same aspects that my favorite movies of all time have. You know, have a flawed main character. Everything goes wrong around them. Very surrealist, sort of interpretable, very well shot, talented actors, et cetera, et cetera. but it's just it feels so much less intentful and cohesive in terms of like making an entertaining narrative at least for me

yeah it's weird seeing a film that I want to watch a second time and I could have seen in theaters a second time and I was just like no because as much as I love it it was also undeniably an exhausting experience that I just wasn't you know I'll catch it in another couple years or something Yeah, I definitely agree that it is exhausting. Yeah. Yeah, I would watch it again. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

Six out of ten for me. It's a good movie. I might even raise my rating on a rewatch yet, but it's just like, you know, I'm like, what am I supposed to get out of this? It's so crazy and absurd. We watched Cocaine Bear a while ago. It was sitting in our back pocket for a while. Cocaine Bear.

Yeah. So we're going to fucking talk about it. Because there's just like so much other stuff to talk about. Yeah. There's a bunch of stuff. Another thanatically deep movie. So cocaine bear from the director of Charlie's Angels. Yeah, that was a weird one.

Elizabeth Banks. Elizabeth Banks. Elizabeth Banks. And this movie sucked too, but not as much as Charlie's Angels. Slightly better. It's about a bear wheat's cocaine. That's the plot. Yeah, it's kind of one of those Reddit movies, you know.

It's exactly a Reddit movie. Yeah, where the advertising is the name. All it is is like the description. You know, yeah. The bear that's the gets a brick of cocaine. Yeah. That's the, that's the, you know, that's everything about it. I posted the poster on Twitter like, what is this movie?

And everyone's like, what? Because, you know, it's like cocaine bear. What? What is that? Some kind of cocaine bear? What are we? Some kind of cocaine bear? Yeah, like suicide squad.

But the movie itself is like really fucking dull ultimately. Somehow. Yeah, right? Yeah. Like watching that movie about, The guy with anxiety or whatever and mommy issues was like more entertaining. That's like three hours long. It was more entertaining than watching this somehow.

And yeah, it's because like it's just like nothing in the movie fucking mattered, I felt. Like it was just like a big joke the whole movie. It was just like, oh. But not even in a good way, you know? There is like an angle where it could be kind of exaggerated to a certain degree or comedic in a way where it's like, oh, this is like over the top and funny and like kind of leaning into how ridiculous this concept is. Whereas yeah, it was kind of stuck. awkwardly in the middle where it's like yeah trying to have these kind of characters with a bit of dynamic going on it's like it needed to lean more way one or like it needed to either be

super absurd and goofy or it needed to actually be a good movie and it's neither here's what would fix the fucking movie is not having the cocaine bear be cg and have it be like either a gut just like the shittiest fucking costume or something cool with like maybe some animatronics you know or maybe like a few different costumes that you cheat depending on the anger And do you know why that would have made it better? Because then they wouldn't have spent the entire movie trying to figure out how not to show the bear. Because that's what they were doing the entire fucking time is like, well, every second we show the bear is going to be like another fucking million dollars. Like when you do it computer animated, you're constantly watching films where it's like they're trying to show it the least amount as possible.

And then I watched a shitty film from I think it was the early 2000s. I did like an Adam and Pals thing on it. It was called Congo. and it had some animatronic gorillas and people in suits and stuff and some of it looked kind of cool but the one thing that stuck out to me was like wow they're really just they're showing it as much as possible because you make something practical like that for a movie

you want to show it off you want to show it the entire movie and then cocaine bear it's like no you we're trying to hide the bear the entire time we're going to have most of the movie without the bear the bear's going to show up and then it's immediately going to run away and be like ooh I'm like hiding in a bush or something and where's the bear Where's the bearer? Like, fuck off. You're just trying to save money.

And then the movie's too dark, too. It's too dark because of the animation, too. It's like it kneecaps the entire fucking film. The fact that it was computer animated and they don't want to spend more money on it. Yeah, and it's not like a jaws or an alien situation where it's like the way it's school kind of leans into the tension. Yeah, wasn't it one of those big effects studios that did it? Like, I don't know. I think it was winner.

Yeah, that's crazy. Because I didn't think, I thought the bearer kind of looked bad the whole movie. Yeah. Like it just didn't look good. It wasn't like good, C.G. But it's because like the bear, it was so ridiculous, like the stuff it was doing. It didn't even act like a bear. Like you need to like ground it, you know, more.

I think it's just the problem with the premise, you know, like what are you actually gonna do? You know, when you actually sit down to write the script and it's like, well, I guess the bear finds a brick of cocaine and then is just going on a murderous rampage. So it's like, what, is the gore like really fun and crazy? And it doesn't keep escalating on that? Maybe once or twice. There's like an ambulance kill where someone gets like Spruce face scraped against the ground. That's all I remember really.

I thought that was going to be like the end of the movie and then it just kept going. It really like fucking blew its load early. That lady who had infinite ammunition in her revolver, yeah. It was just fucking dumb the whole movie. It's like there was that part with O'Shea Jackson Jr. They find like the kids in the bathroom there and he's like looking for the cocaine or whatever. And there's like a flight scene in the bus? Yeah.

But he like finds the cocaine like after Like afterwards Like I think he searches their bodies or something And it doesn't find I don't remember exactly what happened But like Ray Leota was in there He was like the drug king ping girl

Yeah Yeah Ray Leota in one of his last roles And he was like wasted in it One of the guys from From the wire is in it He's probably my favorite character Yeah I was happy when he showed up Yeah

But that's it Like there was very little I actually enjoyed About the movie It was mostly kind of dull. It could have been so much better, but yeah. Nobody acted like they were on cocaine. Nobody.

They had to remind us verbally that the kids had cocaine earlier. You know that joke where they're like, oh, mom, what would you do if I did cocaine? You just act like a normal kid. None of you were acting like you're on cocaine. None of you were acting like you're on cocaine. The bear might as well not have been on cocaine. It didn't even act like it was on cocaine. It just wanted more cocaine.

That was the whole thing. That early seemed like not to pull from your rulebook Adam, but man, the kids kind of like settled the tone for me. You can pull from the... Oh, one of the kids has been dragged away. Yeah, but I was kind of like, this scene right now, what they choose to do with these kids that are in danger from the cocaine bear? This is going to like set the tone of what's the come.

Exactly. They're fine. Like, it's not one of those kind of movies. It's not. They're not ever really in danger. That would be too upsetting. Yeah. So then it's like, why are you even making this movie?

It's an R-rated movie. You don't want to show anything explicit or sad. Yeah, so it's like, yeah, what is even the point of any of this aside from just the obvious marketing? It's just because like Elizabeth Banks, she has like no edge as a filmmaker, just all of her movies are safe and boring. You know what's fucking so apparent with this film is like the, clearly the visual effects supervisor was like doing a lot of the work when it came to how the film was shot. Like every time the bear is in the scene, Every sequence with the bear, I'm like, oh, there's, you know, the framing's not bad. Every time the bear is out of the movie, it's like, holy shit, you can't even shoot.

Like, they had one action scene without the bear in the bathroom. Like, you can't tell what's fucking going on. Yeah, that's the scene I was talking about. Way too close. Like, oh my God, awful, terrible camera work, terrible direction. Like, nothing's coordinated. You can barely tell what's going on the laziest most awful filmmaking imaginable. And then the bears on screen and it's like, okay, well, this had to be shot this way to include the bear.

Yeah. Somebody else directed this part. Yeah, right. Because there affects people on set. Like, oh, shoot it this way to get the bear to look certain. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Which is just like so much more embarrassing that you're watching essentially like two different movies or two different directors throughout one movie and you can tell exactly what's happening. You know? Yeah. Do you guys remember that Olivia, the Olivia Wild movie from last year? The what is it? Hollywood. Don't worry, darling. Yeah. Don't worry darling. Yeah. I don't know. What about like just Hollywood Hollywood actors. they like transition into directing for some reason. And they just make, yeah, they just make like the worst movies. It like, it's unbelievable. You know, even like George Clooney or, you know, whatever.

Fucking Philip Seymour Hoffman directed a really boring movie. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Jack goes boating. Well, like, Charlie Day. Charlie Day just directed a movie. I like Charlie Day, but apparently wasn't very, yeah. Yeah.

I was like, when I heard about that when I was like, ooh, maybe I'll, like, you know, write it on my calendar. and then I watched the trailer I was like actually I don't need to watch this movie No, but I just found that the budget for cocaine bear It was the same as Beaux's afraid 35 million Yeah, yeah, that's funny Afraid looks much better

That is funny I mean, this does have a catchy title And concept Cocaine Bear probably made more money, yeah Yeah, 87 million gross worldwide according to Oh, wow So I think they're probably happy How can you make a movie called Cocaine Bear so boring

like it's just it's so fucking boring yeah like how do you be elizabeth banks yeah how do you make a bad movie just like added like it's like such an easy to make easy movie to make on the surface it's like you just need some good kills you need some dumb jokes that are funny like but it just doesn't deliver on like any of that it's just like a fucking boring movie it just doesn't like i said it needs to like be more ridiculous and like be fucking silly and do stupid shit and like make me laugh or just be a good movie and have like good characters. Need a better direction and a better script. Yeah.

Because like yeah, it's a silly concept. But if you have like good characters going through it, like characters you care about, it doesn't matter like how goofy the premise is. You care about the characters maybe. Maybe take that route with it. But they don't do anything with it. It's the whole movie just like struggles to get to the ending. It's just like they were constantly like meandering the whole film.

It goes nowhere. And it's so episodic. And the editing and the past. pacing is like fucking horrible. Like characters just like remember those hiking characters. They're like in the first 10 minutes of the movie and they don't show up again until like an hour. And this just sit like characters just like disappear for like long periods of time. And you're like what the fuck's going on with them? There's too many characters in the movie too.

It felt like a TV show. It was so like episodic. It's the kind of thing where like maybe I could imagine like a Lord and Miller coming in and taking like an awful premise like this and making it into something. And they were involved somehow with like Mark. or whatever they were constantly like pimping this movie out on social media but um they didn't write it themselves so it must have been their production company or something but yeah not the right team to do this not the right script just just man it's so forgettable

it's like the worst type of movie to me where it's like it really is yeah just doing nothing mm-hmm and you know I was kind of looking forward to it like oh it could be funny but no it it's just it's just fucking boring it really is just completely fucking boring and reeks of like ego like a vanity project for Elizabeth Banks Just to like get something out there Yeah it's the whole movie is one joke It's the Bears on Coke And that's like 90 minutes of that

Like toward the end I was just like zoned out of the movie Like completely zoned out Yeah The end there in the waterfall It's all poorly lit fucking dark That was terrible The whole thing

It's just so dumb The whole fucking thing And poorly made That's really The movie's just poorly done Like every everything about it and not in a funny way in a way that's like just incredibly boring like it almost would have worked better if it costs like if it was like the room it costs like like no money to

make or something like was just like terrible green screen that would have even been better that would be like a style you know yeah like a len kavisinski movie or something like something really bad or like a neil breen style but it's like a studio movie with this dumb premise and it's like yeah okay like this it's fine I guess but there's nothing to stand out about it it's not even the worst movie I've ever seen it's like really in the middle which is like the worst thing a movie can be it's just completely like middling yeah exactly if I remember correctly oh because it's set in the 80s of course it has it's a obligatory like synth score as well like it's just oh yeah the score was terrible it was terrible not an original burn its body or anything to say it doesn't even

lean into it like I'd forgotten that it was even set in the 80s it wasn't even really visually it was like that like that Wonder Woman 1984 movie where it had like no 80s music right it's like don't you like do it or do you like commit to this in some way yeah it just seems so lazy easy project yeah that's what it was it's just lazy they just threw the thing together like who cares the normies will watch it because it's called cocaine bear it's honestly it feels like such a condescending fucking movie if it yeah it's like it's like it's like it's banking on the audience being in on the joke already like they quote like a Wikipedia article like in the opening or something right that's funny that should tell you right away yeah yeah exactly

that's kind of the bar for the humor and it never goes above that yeah exactly yeah that's yeah it's incredibly lame movie for sure all right i guess uh after this discussion i'm lowering my rating from a five to a four i think i might lower to a four i think i already did if i didn't already i'm gonna I'm gonna look up what I read it. You know, it's one of those, give it some time, and do you even remember anything fun? Like, was it even that special? No. Yeah, the ambulance seemed as fun.

That's about it. I don't remember, like. That's the only thing I remember. You're not really left with much. And even that, it's just because, like, in contrast to everything else that's happening, it's like, oh, something crazy is happening that seems like it fits the premise outside of that, yeah, nothing. Yeah, it's like a hint of something interesting in the movie.

But yeah, it's not enough. It's just not enough to save the film from being, like, I don't care about any of the characters because they keep jumping around to like all these different characters. There's so many. It's like, why do you need like 12 characters in this fucking movie? Like, yeah, and it's not funny. Like it's supposed to be a comedy. That's supposed to be what carries it. And it's just not funny enough it doesn't have the, the wits or the jokes to carry it beyond just, yeah, no, the initial premise. It's so lazy. Yeah. Like Elizabeth Banks, she was trying to do something with the Charlie's Angeles movie and it didn't work out. So now she's like, it's like she doesn't care. It's like just like,

put this movie out and like who cares it's just like make something dumb because why even try why even try to do anything. She was really passionate about the script. She was really she was like oh I just love the story of cocaine bear you have to let me make this movie. It's like we're talking about Ariaster and like

what he has been like she's like trying to prove himself at least like oh look what I'm capable of like look what different kinds of movies I can make as a director and this is like a step backwards for Elizabeth banks. It's like, yeah, it's technically a better movie than Charlie's Angels, but it's a much less ambitious film in like a lot of ways. There's less money behind it, less like, it's, you know,

it's just, it's not like a valuable IP or anything. It's just like they treated the whole movie like a joke. Like they just did not care. It seems like it's Reddit in the sense where it's like, you could imagine the original cocaine bear Wikipedia article that this is very, very, very, very extremely, extremely loosely based on like being upverted a bunch and then like producers seeing it and being like oh there's potential you know there's there's something we can sell like people spreading it like a meme must monetize

this meme it's monetized this thing yeah it's just vapid it is vap it's incredibly vapid yeah that's a good word for it and boring you vet bro the worst vap niche you vap

yeah it's incredibly boring which is the worst thing a movie can be. Not even fucking horrible necessarily. Like, Charlie's Angels is actually like torture. But this is like just boring. It's just boring. Proves nothing to me about like her directorial style or anything.

Boring is a freak. Yeah. It seemed like a job a job for her, yeah. Yeah. But it's like, you know, you're making fucking cocaine beer. Like, do something fun with it. Like, my God. It's almost like you're the perfect playground in a way to just do whatever you could creatively think of to, you know, just

explore the silliness, you know? Yeah, yeah. Because someone who's like ready to show something off to... Talented people. Show their voice off to the world. You know, what it's supposed to be for about like expression. Yeah, exactly. It's, uh, hmm.

Yeah, a big mess for me. Just like, I wasn't that surprised. It's not like I was expecting anything from this, but it's somehow undercut those already low expectations. Yeah, just two star for me, like four at ten. Yeah. Just savage. I was expecting it to at least be funny at point.

And I don't think I laughed once. I don't think I even chuckled. I chuckled at like how bad some of the special effects were. Yeah. Which is shocking because, you know, it is like Weta. But like it's just, it's not the effects or the texturing or lighting or anything. It's just the way the bear is animated. It acts, it doesn't act like a real bear.

So you don't believe like anything is happening in the movie. Well, it's like the bear in the Revenant is CG, isn't it? Like for that tax sequence. Oh, yeah. That's a great scene. That's a great scene. That for a second. Oh, yeah.

But it's, because it's, like, grounded. It feels real, you know, like the way it's interacting with the environment and whatever. And it's like, like, especially with a horror comedy, you can really emphasize these parts with the bear and make them scary, which is what they are. I think they were trying to do at points and they completely failed at. But it's like, oh, you can make like a good horror movie about this bear, like trying to kill people. There are good horror movies about bears, like killing people in the woods. There's plenty of those. They just didn't go there.

Like, take it like Sean Lee the Dead. That is great fucking horror scenes in it And has great comedy This movie basically has neither Yeah I'm with you two stars Yeah trash Yeah Hell yeah

All right we got a movie that Alex recommended Mine yeah so okay We ready? We ready for this? I guess so Okay so my recommendation Was the 2001 Epic Final Fantasy the Spirits Within What a fitting year

To release it Yeah yeah I'm I don't man I'm not trying to like think of the best angle to approach this this movie from Um I'm like the final fan it's just everything about this project like it's just so bizarre Like everything from every angle they matter how you look at it it's just a crazy crazy thing It's there's something about this intersection of where Technology crosses over with film where I feel like a lot of filmmakers or storytellers get like so lost in like the potential

or concept of what they can do with this emerging technology that it's like these decisions can be made at such a high level that involve tens of millions of dollars and like the end result can just be such a mess and yeah this is the story of final fantasy the spirits within um so final fancy is a brand right already quite quite weird that this was like the the franchise they kind of chose to jump into Hollywood I guess this was shortly after the success of final fantasy seven which kind of took the world by storm and is kind of really well known for its pre-rended cutscenes. And that was like a big thing as a game company. SquareSoft at the time were really invested in.

And they were leading in that market as far as these hyper-detailed, pre-rendered, like, video game cutscenes. So yeah, it was this intersection in the early 2000s where I guess they saw and some kind of future in this technology that somehow this is going to reinvigorate film and change everything. thing, almost in like a polar express kind of way where it's like just this new emerging technology. And it was to the point where it had actors like Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, who was quoted saying in relation to this movie, when talking about Final Fancy and its digital characters, Tom Hanks said, I'm very troubled by it, but it's coming down, man. It's going to happen. And I'm not sure what actors can do about it.

So there was this whole just focus on the technology, like was really like, I don't know, scaring people and so many people have been drawn to this like a James Cameron being quoted again and again like just in the 90s and the late 80s like having this idea for avatar just waiting for this technology to be pushed forward and he was supposedly like blown away by the tech in this movie and a bunch of filmmakers were like really really impressed with the technology behind this yeah yeah I was fucking impressed by it like just anecdotally I remember that was the only yeah exactly my that's the only reason I watched this as a kid The hair.

Yeah, outside of being a fan, a fancy fan and kind of coming from that angle of it, those pre-rended cutscenes were like a big draw at the time. Like, we really hadn't seen anything quite to this level before. Like, it really was impressive at the time, which is like really funny to think about now. And I'm sure we'll get into it in a bit more detail. We're actually talking about the movie. But, yeah, let me read this. Prior to this film's release, there was speculation that the photorealistic computer-generated actors would revolutionize moviemaking.

There were news reports of plans for the digital actress used for Aki Ross to appear in another movie or possibly be included in a live action production amongst real actors. The box office failure of this film put those plans on hold, however a special sequence created for the special edition version of the DVD, which opens disc two, does in fact show Aki and other Final Fantasy characters interacting with real people. So somewhere down the line, like a bunch of people with a lot of money behind them thought that there was some. some potential in this and that if this project, because of course this is kind of shortly following this is the success of toy story, um, which had the blanket of the more being toys. So the kind of textures and stuff. Exactly. Play around with an ad like good writing, good voice cast, really good story. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of things beyond just the technology that kind of carried it forward and sold this idea

of the three, the three D kind of imagery. Um, yeah. But yeah, so they've, Squarespace off founded this company square pictures which cost them $46 million just to like found and set up just because they needed all of these pension processes

so that's not even like in the movie like that's not the budget yeah it's like that's not even part of it yeah exactly yeah so that's already tens of millions down the drain and then four years later four years of production on this

because every second requires so many hours of rendering and throughout the entire writing process they were like tweaking the script they didn't have anything settled they went working on a finished script it was just being tinkled with the entire time this the directors they chose for this uh one of them was the man who kind of directed the cutscenes from final fantasy seven and eight so you can kind of see some sense if you know he was around for the forming of these kind of uh cutscenes and what was required for those games but weird choice with uh

jumping over to then, you know, Hollywood narratives and... Yeah. Man, like, I... Yeah, it's like a real mess because beyond that, the, there's obviously the disconnect of... It's like a Japanese... Very ambitious. Like a Japanese studio, Japanese writers, Japanese directors, writing a script for a movie that's being animated in English.

So, of course, they needed to find someone to adapt their work into... to localize it into English. So they got... the writers of iRobot and apollo 13 to try and adapt it yeah al reinhart ryanard and and jeff vintar yeah um so that's all that out of the way like just just the beginning of the production like this is one of those movies where it's like everything outside of it is interesting and the second the movie starts like it's it's the end this is all in all of this work all of this dedication all of this in service for what you know It's like a You mentioned the Mario movie Like when we talked about

This latest illumination one You know the original one The really bizarre Blade runner inspired one It's almost like Is disconnected To its original IP Than that is like

What does what comes to mind When I say Final Fantasy To you guys Like what kind of What imagery Fantasy? Yeah Yeah fantasy

Like this movie has none of I think of what Chocobos Crystals The music The theatrics of it like airships, I suppose there's an airship or two in this, but that's kind of about it. It's, I think, in order for, um, for them to placate Columbia pictures, they kind of had to

neuter anything remotely risky about the, the core brand, that being the kind of, you know, androgynous, crazy, Final Fantasy design that everyone, like, buys the games to experience and play. And that's completely neutered from whatever this is. the spirits within is reference to man the premise is it's a post-apocalyptic new york is the main setting which already is weird because i don't think any of the final fantasy games are even set in in reality it's all like fantasy worlds you know like a

middle earth like somewhere that doesn't exist so already that's kind of a weird disconnect um and then outside the kind of main villainous force are yeah these spirits within It's framed as like an alien invasion and that's what you're kind of told at the start and all the characters think that there is some kind of alien invasion that's taken over Earth and they've had to build these like the shield technology to protect from the alien invasion. But it turns out they're just ghosts. The aliens are ghosts. Yeah, there's spirits. Yeah. It's like the most convoluted, ridiculous, ridiculously told.

Like man, I don't even know like what they were thinking because like they get together like Alec Baldwin, Steve Bishamie. Oh yeah, the cast is crazy. Keith David. Yeah. And I guess the DNA was supposed to be because like each final fantasy game has like the party of characters. It's like a big party and it's them going on some kind of adventure to like solve some world ending calamity. So I guess that's like the only thing that kind of really connects this story to. to the brand in my mind, because it's more of like a, it's a science fiction kind of military

aesthetic, almost like aliens thing. Yeah, like, I imagine aliens, but just really neat and boring. Yeah, or like something like that. Yeah, like Marines and like military kind of tech. I mean, I've never played a Final Fantasy game, so I have no idea what's in those games. But yeah, I saw some video about it. And it's like, they were trying to market it basically to a more Western audience. So they like removed all of the elements of Final Fantasy basically, which is like what people

like that. Which is weird. Then why even like keep the title? I even fucking do it. Yeah, just just make something else. Rebranded. Make an original IP. Because you know, they're like trying to market to like Western people who don't really watch this kind of stuff anyway.

Like it doesn't matter like what you put in it. They're not going to go see Final Fantasy. Like the people who are going to see Final Fantasy are the fans of it. So you should make the movie for them and you should include this stuff. It betrays its own identity. It's like even if you liked. this movie and then go to play one of the games it's like it's so different yeah sure it's so you're not even going to get the same it's just it's just scratched even if you did like it so it's

just every angle like just doesn't make sense no they'll clearly say i didn't i yeah let me just say i did not like the animation i think it's aged poorly and it just did not like watching the movie i thought it's aged very maybe for the time it looked fine but watching it today it just looked like a PS3 cut scene the whole time. It did not do shit for me. It just wasn't impressed by it at all. Especially the humans. I mean, like, I think in the context of, of the year that it's made, it's fucking incredible. I think, I think that it had the, it has the Robert Zemeckis problem of, like, all the people look like, you know, plastic people. And there's no emotion. I think it looks way better than a Robert Zemeckis film. That had way more uncanny valley,

whereas this looks a bit more consistent with its own style. You know, the Robert Zemeckas shit, like the eye is in that, like, oh, they always look so weird. And the fact that it was like all, like, I think Robert Zamek has kept everything too, right? But himself? Yeah, maybe. But like, just like the voice acting too really distract him. Like Steve Bouchemey was super distracted. That was insanely disturbing.

Yeah. Steve was not, it should not have been the movie. Yeah. Yeah. Like some of the actor, other actors were doing okay. But then, yeah, like, him was like, oh, that's, that's, that's Steve Bouchemy. And like Alec Baldwin too. I'm like, oh, that's Alec Baldwin.

Like, it's so distracting the whole movie. For the time period, there was literally nothing else that looked like this, which is why anybody saw it. It's like, oh, the hair physics, like, it moves. How do you make the hair do that? Like, because everything else before that was like really blocky toy story shit, you know, like how the humans look like dolls too. Yeah.

You know? But that's the whole movie, though. It has nothing else going on other than the animation. Because, like, the story sucks. The dialogue sucks. Yeah, like Toy Story is actually like a good film Like it has good story and character Yeah, this is like

As some of the words dialogue I wrote some of the dialogue down Because I thought it was so funny I said one earlier Spirits, I thought we weren't supposed to use the S word Yeah Oh my God And then remember what happened to Galileo

They threw him in jail Because he said the world was not the center of the universe That could happen to us Like literally fucking kill me Like so bad There was one line that was really funny funny to me. Everything has a spirit. Dogs, cats, trees, little girls. Like, humans was last on the list. Like, whoa, like, you put trees before he was like, everything has a spirit. Even

girls. Like, what? Yeah. Yeah. Because they were trying to do this whole Gaia thing where it's like, the spirits of Gaia and it's all spreading through everything. We're all connected. It's like a, It's just the wrong concept to be shoving into this, you know, because I guess they were trying to... It didn't need to exist at all. They were trying to shift it, so the alien invasion was actually not what it seems, and they're way more innocent and, uh... Yeah, it's less nefarious. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

The writing is just like terrible. I did not give a shit about anything that was happening. It's just like awful. I had no idea what was happening, honestly. Exactly. It was just like a bunch of science fiction. concepts thrown at me and a bunch of exposition. Yeah.

Horrible, horrible exposition. The way they, like, explain the rules of this universe is, like, some of the most clunky. Yeah. Well, it does just remind me of, like, how video games written. And, like, the early 2000s, but it was just like, yeah, just, man, we don't, we don't have expertise in, like, dialogue right now, but, man, we're just going to drop a bunch of concepts and just keep it moving.

We've got the barrier cities. We got phantom surgery. Like, the main character kind of has this. almost infected dynamic going on where like a spirit's like infected her and it's giving her these visions where she's like hallucinating these like dream sequences but they're not really dreams they're kind of like a valerian message that has been like sent to her and that's like how a lot of the exposition is carried forward and there's this James Woods's like villain character who's like really crazy yeah right it's like why don't you find like one concept to focus on or like rein this in a bit

guys because this is like I have I literally had no idea what was happening the whole movie. It's just like, I watched this movie like multiple times when I was a kid too. And I was like really, apparently really into it or something because when I was watching it this time, well, I remember vividly the first time I watched it. I remember where that was. I must have watched it multiple times because when I was watching it this most recent time for the podcast, every single scene was like familiar. But it was just like barely unearthed in terms of like, if you ask me before I. started watching like a week ago or whatever

I would not be able to tell you fucking anything about the movie but as I'm watching I'm like oh I remember this part I remember this part I remember this part I remember I was freaked out at like the the whole like you know Ray Quaza stealing people's blue souls and shit

and like you know that imagery of like oh you know they touch you and then it steals your soul or whatever I was like oh it's so scary so I had a fun time revisiting it just for nostalgic purposes, even though it's not like a good movie or anything. And I still don't know what the fuck the plot's about, really. I still don't know anything. I can see for the time.

Yeah, I can definitely see for the time why people were impressed by the animation and they watch it just for that. Because there were movies I like watch like that as a kid too. Like, that's probably why I like the first Transformers as a kid. Like, I like the effects or whatever. But there's just like, there is nothing going on in this movie. There's no characters to care about. Like, the dialogue is just awful. It's like, the movie was like in some. I couldn't watch it. I was just like, oh my god. Yeah, I was kind of curious what your experience would be like. This is like my, this is like my death to smoochie. Oh really? This is like unwatchable. Yeah. Wow. And you know, it's just I can't stand anime either, but this is technically anime, right? I don't know. Who cares? It's Japanese animation. Yeah, I guess. It's CG anime, which I've seen like Resident Evil Vendetta or whatever, which was also horrible. You know, this is probably better than that. It was probably better than that.

But, you know, it's just not saying much. And did you say, like, the budget on this? Outside of that initial $45 million just to set up the studio, we're looking at about $137 million in 2001. So that is obscene. That is crazy. Especially for, like, how it came together. Because, yeah, all it boils down to is that the,

one fact that yeah, this is the first computer generated, generated, animated motion picture with photo realistic characters. It kind of begins and ends there. Like, it does nothing outside of that. And it seems like they're so laser focused on that one thing and just achieving that one thing. It's like the story is like secondhand. The characters is like nothing actually to do with the movie is actually interesting.

It's all about the tech. And that's all they seem to care about. And they seem to think that they had something with this. Like there's this. On the Wikipedia page for this movie. Yeah, but on the wiki page, there's this crazy section dedicated to the reception of Aki Ross, which is like the main character slash digital actor thing they were pushing. Oh, yeah. There's a cover of Maxim where they have like this Aki Ross character in underwear and they're kind of pushing it as if to say like, here we go.

This is like the future. Like get ready to see her in every movie. This is the new Tom Cruise, but it's a it's a digital wafu. You know, that's clearly. what they were envisioning. They were trying to make the digital wifu like yeah, mainstream. But yeah, just totally

misreading the audience. That's very funny. Well, Roger Ebert was like fucking into it. He gave it three and a half stars and he called this the last line of his review. It exists in a category of its own, the first citizen of the new world

of cyber film is what he said. That's funny. It is very funny. Cyber film. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you didn't always bat, you know, a thousand or whatever. Especially when it came to, like, new technology, he always had, like, really weird opinions. Video games aren't art.

Well, the thing with this technology, it's just, it's aged poorly. In a weird way, though, he's almost been proven right. Like, there is a lot of truth to, like, what this pushed. Like, this technology, this motion capture work by the guy Remington Scott that he pioneered for this film, led direct. to Gollum and Lord of the Rings. Like, it's the same tag. Oh, okay. Cool.

Yeah. I didn't know that. There's always like a little spark in there where it's like this technology can be used to do something to service some kind of story. It's just so rare for like if that is the impetus of the entire project for it to actually come together. It's just not a compelling story. Like, and even the animation, it's just aged really poorly. Like it looks like an animated movie from 20 years ago when like I just watched the original Little Mermaid and that's like 2D animation. And that still looks great.

Like, it's just, you know, it's, it's just like the animation you use, you know, like, think about, like, how it ages. And, like, they weren't thinking about that with this movie. They just, like, it'll look good for the time. But five years after it came out, you had Gallum and you had, you know, all kinds of other shit that probably would better. And I feel like, I feel like you could forgive more if there was a more interesting art direction, if there was an engaging story, if there were characters you cared about.

But, yeah, the whole aesthetic is. is so wrong. Like I saw a weird little reference from the art director for the Mass Effect Games cited this movie as one of the biggest inspirations. And you can really see it, especially with the like the army soldier outfit, sci-fi mask with the two eyes. That's directly in the Massifaxit games, like that armor and everything. But it's like if something has gotten lost, if that's like if a Final Fantasy movie was able to inspire this like hard sci-fi

Star Trek-esque video game something has gotten lost there like it just doesn't make sense with the brand everything about this just really doesn't make sense like nothing about this like it's funny Ralph you've never played a Final Fantasy game and you probably know less about the franchise after watching this movie

than someone who actually like knows it like it's a baffling baffling product everything about it Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It didn't even, wasn't even successful financially, I don't think. I think the studio lost a lot of money on it and it almost like, they almost went under or something, where I think they got bought. They almost went to Australia.

They almost went to Australia. They merged with like another studio. Yeah. But like after. But yeah, like they needed to be like bailed out basically because like they spent so much money on this project that it's just like, man, like the risk versus the reward was, it just wasn't worth it for this. And is this the only movie they fucking made?

there were like kind of direct to DVD Final Fantasy projects like there was one popular one called Advent Children That one was better That had more of like a video gamey feel And it was more true to like What it should have been I feel It was like yeah

It felt like a Final Fantasy thing You know at least Someone who's a fan would actually be like Oh that's that thing Actually from the thing I'm sure it holds up like terribly it's like a 2005 movie and yeah they've like dabbled in other things

I remember when Final Fantasy 15 came out there was like a tie-in movie that was like the majority of the setup of the story with like Aaron Paul in it it was it was really bad I personally don't think this franchise really is very ripe for cinema and a lot of the stories like are only good because of the framing as video games like I got a big soft spot for like Final Fantasy 12 that's my one but man like there's not a lot of things about it I'd want to see in like a feature film I feel like they are where what's good about them is because of the medium they're in and it's kind of where they belong a lot of these things just need to stay where they are you know like it just man it just does not make sense and even if you are going to adapt it like why would you abandon there's not even a chocobo you know it would be like making a Mario movie without Bowser in it without I don't know I don't know what that is

Yeah, it's... Yeah, it is, like, baffling. I could get over Steve Bouchemey in it. Every time he talked, I was like, oh, Steve Bouchemy, like, oh, what's up, guys? It is incredibly distracting. It's so budding heads with, like, everything else going on. The dialogue, especially, it's like... It is bad.

There's a... In the intro, there's some narration. I wrote it down, because I was, like, laughing out loud at how, like, just on the nose. Yeah, the main character says, I believe my dreams hold the key. The question is, will it be in time to see? save the earth. Like she says that. Like she says that out loud. It's like so corny. It thinks it's like important or like man, yeah, they were just completely. It's really funny to watch like 20 years later because it is just riding off the visual so hard. It's like it almost knows it. It's like

dangling that that shiny thing in front of you trying to distract you. But it's like, well, it's not really that shiny anymore. It's kind of like really dull. And yeah, it is an ugly film. It is, man, I don't think there's like a single good scene. Um, you know, like, is even utilizing this technology particularly well. Like, I'm thinking about, like, all those dream sequences and, like, the design of the, like, enemy alien spirit characters. Like, it's so visually muddy and difficult to kind of comprehend, like, what's going on with the action. And when you do get action and it's, like, these, these marine, these sci-fi marines with these big guns,

like, shooting at these see-through blobs. Like, it's, like, conceptually the least engaged. like ideas that they're playing with and yeah it's it's just a an utter utter failure and I just find this era of films this this this early kind of 2000s era where you got your Mars need moms your final fantasies and these weird like the Zemeckas projects like I find this like fascinating with this obsession with the technology to be just such like a warning you know such a big big a space that just you need to think about it, you need to avoid, just going back to that,

it's that George, that infamous George Lucas quote, you know, where like if the technology is supposed to be in service of a story and when there is nothing, if it's just technology, like it is just this empty thing, the super unengaging thing, it's, it's just an utter mess of a film. Yeah, but I love this kind of thing. It's, it was very funny, like, revisiting this Because, like, Adam, I did watch this a couple times as a kid, and I had, like, a few memories. Like, one of the only scenes I actually really cemented in my brain for some reason was the Steve Bouchemmy death scene.

Like, he's taken out. It's supposed to be this, like, moment. But I remember just, like, even as a kid watching it being, like, I'm, like, feeling nothing. Yeah. That's just. That's funny. No emotion.

Oh, no. Guys, help. Steve Bouchemi's voice. So distracting. I was like, I don't know, like, the, I think that the imagery was enough for me of like the, oh, it touches you and that, like, it was like kind of scary. But, like, I just, I still had no idea what the fuck was going on. I didn't know what was at stake. But I did, I did enjoy it when I was a kid for sure.

Like enough to, like, what, revisit it sort of thing. Not for any good reason. I think I was just kind of, like, enthralled by the visuals, I guess, but. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the biggest sin for me for this movie. And sin, isn't that a Final Fantasy character? Sin?

Sid, yeah. It's Sid? I think there's Sin, too. Sin, I just looked that up. Sin is the main antagonist in Final Fantasy X. Oh, interesting. Okay, but anyway, the biggest sin of this movie for me was that it was just kind of boring.

Now it's just kind of boring. It was just boring. And so I just wasn't interested in anything, you know? Yeah, that's funny. George Lucas said that, of all people. but yeah, you need a good story first, and then the effects come later. Or you need to like stylize the animation a bit. Like everything, they were trying to go for like almost photo realistic.

That was definitely what they were pushing for this whole era. And it's what they were riding on. I think the failure of this film was was so bad as well that actually like delayed the famous merger with Squarespace and Venus. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's what I was thinking of. Yeah. Yeah, it delayed the merger because, yeah, that they didn't want to be a part of it.

Like, after the loss that they had on this movie, just like the financial loss of it. Yeah, just like a big miscalculation, like trying to like appeal to like Western audiences. And like I think the technology was a good hook, but that's like all they had. And you know, it's like a, it's a waste of potential really because they could have done something with like a good story. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. It could have also kind of opened the doors to maybe. you know, slightly more adult themed like animation. Like if this was actually like a good movie and was a success,

just like Toy Story opened that kind of door, like this could have opened another one. But yeah, yeah. Kind of did the inverse. Like it was already a video game movie, so it had that stigma. Then it was also working in this just unproven field and kind of showed exactly all the ways it could fail.

And it failed in all of them. Yeah. And it was foreign to like just not connecting with the American audience. Or like they were trying to with like the mechs and whatever, like that kind of shit. But it's like they were abandoning the fan base that like actually like that kind of stuff. And that's what they should have been marketing to. Because those are the people who are going to see it.

People were like, you know, Joe Schmo goes to what plays Call of Duty or whatever. Like they're not going to see a final fantasy movie. So there's no point trying to get them to try to go see it. There's just no point. They're not going to see it. Yeah. And so they marketed for them diluting their brand and appealing to no one. Yeah.

Exactly. such a waste and yeah like just wrong decisions all around yeah I just yeah I just love thinking about like what like where the buck stops

with like projects of this magnitude like coming together in this kind of fashion you know like it's it's so much money you can't even like comprehend it you know and that that like what was it is it like the directors is it the company like

how did they not stop this It's just like a sun concussed fallacy thing Where it's like man We've spent like three plus years on this We've really dumped so much into the tech It's weird Because like we just have to show something You have a lot of films

That do like test screenings and shit Like what they really need to workshop Is the script You know They really need to like Find a way To make sure that they're working With a good skeleton

Before they spend Hundreds of millions of dollars On that skeleton that they can't really go back on. Seems crazy. Yeah. Well, their attempt was like to get those writers involved who like, you know, wrote I robot and whatever, like real science fiction writers.

That was like their attempt to do that. But it just didn't work. Like the pieces didn't come together really. Like, I don't know. It's just none of it worked. It's kind of just like a bad idea from the get-go. Horrible idea. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think like once they realized the story wasn't, working they pushed for the effects more so and like just focused on that. I don't know if they realized the story wasn't working. I think they probably thought the story was fine, but just fucking well I mean it's been tweaking it does feel it does feel like something that has been just kind of like Frankenstein together you know over the four years of like yeah we've got this bit of tech working here. We got this effect working. Let's put it in this scene. Blah blah blah. And by the time it's all actually come together at the end the end of those four years. It's just like this

incomprehensible mess. Like, there may be some fun ideas that you could explore here, but the way they're established and explored, man, it's so convoluted and,

like, unfun to listen to these characters talk about these concepts. And it's like, yeah, they've got all this wacky tech and sci-fi things going on, but it's like,

the least interesting way of presenting it. It's actually crazy how bad and just needlessly complicated. Like, just keep it simple. Like, why have you made this bed for yourselves? It's so complicated.

and so ridiculously like scatterbrain. And it's, I guess they were trying to have this like, these lead to characters be kind of like the emotional heart of it, the Alec Baldwin relationship. The guy who, I was so distracted just on the Albert Baldwin character alone because they, like, they modeled his face to look so much like Ben Affleck. It was like really confusing me hearing, hearing Alec Baldwin's voice coming up, Ben Affleck's bass.

Alec Borgleck. But yeah, just. Yeah I'm just hearing the boss baby talking up against the Jesus Book of Bobba lady like it's just a lot That's what do you associate his voice with now That's great

Yes yes I'm afraid it is I feel for you It's very sad I don't know man I'd rather watch the boss baby Of this probably You know Wow

I would too Wow I've never seen boss baby I would rather watch like any other animated movie. I saw it over someone's shoulder on a plane with no audio. I bet you were giggling. Yeah, you know what?

Every time I go on a plane, it reminds me of what the average movie goer is watching. If every time I go on a plane, I see like all these shit, I'm like, no fucking wonder the box office is the way it is. Sometimes I... It's all just jungle crews and shit. Okay, I'm just going to give the rating.

Three out of ten. Do you ever get, like, you're on a plane, and you see someone like hopelessly scrolling through the movies list and you can tell like they're just like trying to see what's there. They don't know what they want to watch. They have no idea what the fuck they want to watch. Do you ever get that urge to like approach them and just be like, hey, I can help you find a movie that you like if you tell me what other movies. I feel that way and I have to hold myself back from doing it because I know it would probably like just be way too autistic. But like, I feel, I have to, like, fight.

There's an intrusive thought there where I'm like, I want to help you. Just tell me what other movies you like. I can give you a good recommendation. But what if, like, what if they turned around and were like, oh, yeah, my favorite film is jungle crews. Then I give them fucking another rock movie. My favorite movie is the new Lion King movie. The new one. Then I would give them fucking Aladdin 2019.

Yeah, the stuff, like, normal people watch. you would be like shocked at like their taste like the shit like that they watch and like put up with like young sheldon or whatever i'm a pretty firm believer that like there are great movies that are accessible to everybody too i feel like the average person who watches like eternal sunshine even though that's like way out there in terms of like narrative and you know absurdist kind of ideas presented in a movie i think i feel like that's a really accessible good, smart movie. I feel like the average person

still likes that movie. Anyway, say your ratings. Yeah, I meant more like, you know, like Toy Story, like the Pixar movies. Like, that's a good example. Toy Story and Crows. Like, most people like those movies. Yeah, right of to do you. Yeah, right, that one. All right, what do you rate the final? Yeah, what's your rating for this? I'm curious.

That one star. Fuck this shit. I'm right there with you, man. One star. I can't in good faith give it anything higher because it really doesn't succeed. by any metric. Like, it wasn't even a success, you know? But if the technology was a success.

It has an age, well. It ushered in Lord of the Rings, but that's where it was used well, you know? Like, not here. I can't put it with credit for it because it didn't use it well. Yeah, I give them credit for the effects,

but it doesn't save the movie. The movie's terrible. It's my death to Smucci. Literally unwatchable. Yeah, for how short it is as well, it does feel a lot longer. It's only an hour of 46. I think that drive.

dragged it down too because Final Fantasy seems very complicated and like that's just like doesn't there like 25 of those games or whatever and they like have to condense the story in like 90 minutes that's what's weird because like they're all none of them are linked really like they're all just kind of their own universe and each one is like a different setting different story different bunch of characters so just yeah just crazy like you'd have this because I think it was probably the peak of the the series as far as like brand recognition and popularity it was probably around the early 2000s, like just post seven and as I were going into the bigger 3D games. So there probably was a chance where they could have maybe broken that video game

curse, but not with like the angle they chose to approach. I feel like there was there would have been some extremely entertaining fly on the wall conversations with the behind the scenes of like this. And that's that's really where my mind goes when I think about projects like this. Just everything outside it is so much more interesting than the actual products itself and I just love trying to figure out like how did this go so so wrong. It's interesting to throw money at something and just have like no story. Like you go, what's the story? Like I don't know.

Yeah, you're like, I don't know. Magic. Like, how do you not? Like, is it that hard to just come up with a story? Yeah. It's like, yeah, you're telling me out of all of your history with this franchise, you couldn't have like combined a bunch of the imagery and characters and stories that you already have. Yeah.

And just like reframe it and kind of a slightly broader. big movie. It's like an hour and a half long. It's so easy to write a story. It's so easy. You just need beginning, middle, and end. It's the easiest thing in the world. And like, this movie couldn't do it. I don't think I was, yeah, I don't think there's any of those. It's just, yeah,

it's just one meandering act that like never really goes outside of certain bounds. You need cocaine, you need a bear, done. Yeah. Yeah, put that in this movie maybe. You need bow. You need fear. You need children with plot armor.

All right, that's fun. Thanks for that, Alex. Thank you. It's definitely different. Yeah, you're welcome. I'm glad you thought it was hype. Yeah, I enjoyed it the most out of anybody, I guess. But I was also like, you know, I did it on a watch-along thing and I was kind of like, you know, I wasn't I wasn't like quietly glued to the film.

I was kind of like just talking about my experience with the film and being like, oh, I remember this part. You know, under those conditions, I, you know, there's better circumstances to watch this film. Yeah, I had to look up like on the Reddit to like, because I forgot the title of it. So I had to look on the Reddit to like find the poster or whatever. That's funny. Like, was it called Final Fantasy in the City of a Thousand Planets? Yeah. Valerian and the Spirits Within.

So I feel like I feel like maybe next time I'm on a plane if I, if I experienced that again and they're sitting next to me then maybe I'll like approach them and I'll tell you how it goes because now I've opened the I've opened the box now I have to feel like I need to know how it ends I need to like choose that story option you can tell them like you're a film critic yeah I would say I'm a movie guy I can help you figure out what movies you like yeah yeah and then they'd be like don't touch me yeah you could say uh well you're like toy story right go go for the spirits a game of Final Fantasy that'll scratch the itch for you Oh, God.

There's some good shit on airplanes. There's not, there's not believe that. You should tell them to watch, like, yeah. Oh, yeah. They have stuff in theaters that's, like, still out. Yeah. You should, you should tell them to watch Boas's afraid. That's what on, man.

On a plane. This guy's screaming. Yeah. I'll tell him to watch United 93 on an airplane. Yeah. Oh, Christ. Yeah, watch snakes on a plane or, yeah, some fucking movie about plane crashes or something. Yeah.

I'll tell them to watch the bus baby. No, it's actually good. And see how long they watch it for before they're, like, will they, will they feel bad if they stop it halfway through? If I pretend like I'm so excited about the movie and I'm like, oh, no, you get, it's the best. Will they pretend to like it out of social pressure? I don't know. They might just love it and then ask for the sequel, which you could happily deliver because, man, there's a sequel. There's a whole TV show.

I'm going to blow your mind. There's tons of best maybe content out there. More. Whoa. I'm not going to believe this shit, man. This person that's never heard of the bus. I got a new content. That's the thing.

It's like, I think the average person is only aware of films that have been like explicitly advertised out the ass to them. Yeah. 100%. There's a lot of accessible films that more people would love if they just knew about them, but they just don't know how to find them. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they don't even hear about it.

Like, how are they supposed to know what even exists? Like, most people just see the billboards or like commercials or shit. Or they like, you know, like, that's like what Disney is. Like, Disney's whole fucking thing is like you go to their park, they market the shit out of all their movies, and then you watch their movies and you watch their TV shows. And in those, they market the same shit to you to go to the parks again. Like, that's like their whole fucking, it's like a cycle of like advertising. Endless. It's kind of brilliant.

It's kind of fucking genius. But also, yeah. Disney is a well-oiled machine is what they are. Yeah, they are. That's like like so many. people go see Little Mermaid. It's like because literally millions of people go to Disney and they see like, you know,

Ariel's fucking poster or whatever. And then it makes them want to. Oh yeah, that's right. Go with good birds. Yeah. All right. Do we want to do questions? Yeah, let's do it.

Oh, no. Let's just skip questions this week. No. Actually, yeah. Fuck these guys. All right. Bye, everybody. Cut it short this week.

Thank God. Dweaves. No, I'm kidding. Get pranked. Yeah. Before we jump into the comments, there was one thing I wanted to mention. Not to do with Final Fantasy or anything, but more just on the video game onslaught that's like on the future. Have you guys seen this like this Grand Tarismo movie?

It's like the next one. Yeah. Yeah. But it's only bringing up because Neil Blancamp's like directed. I know. Quite weird. He's made one good movie. Yeah.

I mean, what else is he doing, really? Did you know that, like, to spell his name, there's actually, like, two L's and Niels in the Niel? It's because the other L. is for his films. Got him. I've been saying that one a lot. Neil L. Blumkin. He has, yeah.

He has ridden off District 9, for sure. Blumkin. It's just like, yeah, well, there's that. There's the Ghost of Tsushima movie that's coming. Man, just... Right. We're entering the gamer era of filmmaking. Yeah.

Yeah, the people making films are old enough to be like gamers, like everyone else. So we're just going to see more and more of it. We'll figure it out eventually. I was thinking you've seen video game movies pop up like a little bit over the past two decades or so. Not like a lot, but they've been there. They haven't done well, but they've been, they've definitely been trying. The studios have been trying to like make it work. And now it's like finally taken off.

And I'm like trying to think of the next one. Like what's the next thing they're going to try to milk or whatever that they're like, attempting to do now. And I was thinking maybe it's like live action anime adaptations because I've seen quite a few of those now. They're not successful enough though. Netflix is trying. They're not doing it very well. They're definitely trying to do that. And like those are awful for sure. But I feel like if they keep trying eventually one might work and people will like not that I'll like it. I probably won't. But there will be people that like it and that'll be the next fucking thing. That's like my production. This Jason Memoa on Minecraft.

movie is probably just going to be disgusting huge. Jason Moa and Minecraft. This is the first I'm hearing of that. That sounds hilarious. What the fuck? Yeah. 2025 that's looking at.

And you know, I had some faith in Jason Moe. Like, I actually like him as an actor. I think he's a good actor. He's the best part of that new Fast and Furious movie. He's probably the best actor. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Performance.

Yeah. And it was just like, I don't know. I feel like he could have done something better than that. That's his free guy, I guess. He'll just make funny. Free Guy. Yeah. Free Guy too, maybe that'll be the next big game movie.

Yeah, yeah. Well, Free Guy is like a video game movie in a way. It wasn't, you know, based on anything, but it had a Fortnite reference. Yeah, had a Fortnite reference. Dude, when he had the lightsaber out and it played the Star Wars music. Dude, Chris Evans showed up. My God, I came. My favorite video game, The Avengers.

I just like seeing myself represented in films. and I felt like he was really me. Oh. I really sought myself. Self-insert guy. Yeah. Yeah, really similar to my fanfic self-insert character, you know?

Yeah. He's got the portal gun. He's got the gravity gun. He's got abilities. Dude, when he liked, when the Thorhammer came out and they played the Avengers music, I was like, dude, that was the Avengers music

that they just played. Yeah, they played the Star Wars music. I got tingles down my spine. I came like the second time. very quickly in succession speaking of succession yeah amazing segue let's talk some questions then from the sardonicast community head over to the suggestion thread

where you can ask us anything you feel like just like Saul Thomas Anderson did thoughts on succession he says as of us recording it finished today so yeah yeah I watched last night. I've seen some stupidity on Twitter of people who hate the ending. There's even like...

Yeah, like I saw a cast photo that someone posts like, hey everyone, thanks for watching the show. This is like the whole cast together, like taken... And then the comments under it were like, the ending sucked. I'm like, wow, guys, you're such fucking asshole. Of course, it's people with like blue verified check marks.

Of course it's on Twitter. Yeah, of course. Yeah. It's a bunch of morons. Right. So that's what I'm saying. Like, ignore the morons. The ending was fucking great. It ended exactly the way it needed to. The ending was perfect.

I was very satisfied with the ending. Feature length, like an hour and a half of goodness. Just giving you a little moment with all the characters, especially fleshing out the main three kids and their conflict. Yeah, it's just everything. Everything was in character. It was exactly like anything you could want.

Yeah. I don't see it. I don't see it ending any other way. You know, like the way it ended. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty much how it should end. Like a big, like, death or a big, you know, like action. I think a lot of people just, like, misinterpreted the show, and they started, it's like,

oh, there's Kendall guy. He's going to, like, fuck everyone up. He's going to, like, but that's, like, not what, you know, it's not that kind of show. It's not like a Kendall bro show. Like, yeah, dude, he's going to take them all. Like, it's not that kind of show at all. Yeah, with the grind set montages and stuff. Like, yeah, he's going to get the deal this time.

Yeah. No, no, it's really not about that. No, no. People just like, yeah, they just. miss the point of the show entirely. I will say, you know, I like the finale. I just saw that better call Saul finale like last year. That was probably, I probably liked that one a bit better as a finale. I felt like more satisfied with that one. But at the same time, like succession, like there were so many good episodes this season. I don't think they could have topped like

some of the best ones. Yeah. Like there were some really good ones. So it's not like the best episode of succession or anything. No, it's not. But I was like happy with it. Like that's, that's a good way to wrap it up. Yeah. Yeah. Overall it's the, best season and definitely like brings it home exact way you'd want because it yeah it couldn't have really gone on much longer than four seasons in my opinion like the at a certain point the structure of having like each season is like a big deal and the fun kind of comes from the backstabbing of the family and like the title of like who's going to you know take over logan roy and run the company um and yeah they kind of stretch that just about as far as it can and yeah take it to

logical extremes in that fourth season especially. Yeah, I've seen like every one of the episodes, apart from this latest one, like two or three times because I just, I'm in love with that dialogue and I love the, the grayness of the characters. And that attention to detail.

There's a lot of details. You pick up on the second time. There's just like so much, like it's funny, this is like a mainstream, successful show because I feel like so much of it goes over people's heads, like what they're talking about, even the business angles of like certain things,

the deals. But that's fine. Like it doesn't really matter. at the end of the day because you like the characters and yeah they are like compelling characters and and like sort of sympathetic to a certain extent they're they're kind of um shitty as well yeah that they do a good job of that's kind of what's fun about it you know it's like uh coming up with these situations where you do empathize with them and yeah just exploring like how this how this succession how this it's almost like shakespearean in a way where it's like set up like

instead of the king and queen framing it's like the company it's kind of like a Greek Like a Greek tragedy. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And all the enjoyment for me comes from, yeah, these like tense relationships where everyone's backstabbing each other and like trying to figure out who can come out on top.

And just the gross way this patriarch at the top of this company is kind of like just the, the gross like result of his dedication to building up this like mega corp. And all the like all the crossovers with reality and like taking. little hints of inspiration from like Rupert Murdoch and like just this whole space of like it's just genius framing I think just taking like a company that's kind of mimicking like kind of Fox News and a bunch of this like new emerging tech stuff and streaming space and yeah this like division with old media and like pre-established newspapers and TV networks like clashing with like you know Silicon Valley and so

media companies and there's this recurring character in later season three and four played by one of the Scars Guards who's like he's one of my favorite parts of the show Swedish like tech bro guy yeah and that's where he was so great the humor comes from yeah he was like a fantastic character the more they reveal about him not only is like funny but it's like really dark and fucked up yeah but he's like a great antagonist character like he is really intimidating. Because you get the sense, like, he could eat them all up, like, whenever he wants. Yeah, he's a very intimidating presence.

And yeah, I love the way, like, Alexander Scarsgaard played that character. Almost like a detached, like, weirdo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It worked great. Yeah, it's amazing parody. I love that dialogue.

I love the cringe humor. Jesse Armstrong, the creator of the show, created Peep Show, one of my favorite sitcoms like a British sitcom which is just the master of like cringe horrible awkward humor um one of the best episodes this season is a actually I can't really say it without spoiling yeah let's just say that there's like cringe comedy in peep show that is like rivaled by this show and I just think yeah finding a way to get that cringe comedy in but also have like the drama work as well and it's there's so many like great lines that I'm always quoting like the hyper decanting just dumb shit like that.

Like, there's so much, like, depth, and I just feel like everything about it. It's just these characters. And Kendall Roy, to me, is, like, one of those great protagonist characters. I think he's, like, such an interesting, like, shell of a guy, like, in his journey through the four seasons. It's, like, so kind of pathetic and clawing and the ups and downs of, like, where he goes.

And the, yeah, the bittersweet nature of how it ends. It's, like, this is perfect. This is everything it needed to. to be yeah just fantastic they kind of up the game of the music as well i felt like in this season um the music's always great yeah yeah um it's one of the best things about it i absolutely i absolutely i just yeah i absolutely yeah this would just be on my regular rotation probably like the whole thing yeah it's a great show absolutely i'm glad they went out on top and yeah it didn't get like too repetitive yeah yeah like the cringe humor there's like yeah

Kendall rapping or whatever in season two. You can like bring out. Yeah. Yeah. This is shit like that. Yeah. I loved it. Love the ending.

No real critic. It's like when the Sopranos ended, people were critical of that. But at the end of the day, you know, people like the show. They'll watch it anyway. Yeah. And it's just like one episode. It's not like such a disastrous ending like the Game of Thrones finale was. And also like I didn't have that same experience finishing the Sopranos.

like I didn't find it because it's such like one of those pop culture things I feel like like just knowing at the end of the sopranos is controversial that kind of going into that going into it with that mindset already doesn't even make it that it has like a different impact I think yeah it's a very fitting ending to that show yeah it felt like kind of a cool ending to me like yeah and that's why I felt about this ending it was very fitting how it ended it might not make everyone happy but it's it pretty much hammers home the theme and, you know, message of the shop. Yeah.

I don't know, like, what people were expecting. Were they expecting more of, like, a happy year? They were expecting Kendall to have a big grow moment and to win the day. And, yeah, it's like, really? Like a Game of Thrones finale where everyone just gets everything. Well, I saw, like, people were comparing it, like, to, you know, those, the, the, whoever who gets the CEO at the end of succession, they were comparing to, like, brand, like, at the end of, but it's not that way at all.

No. It's not even close to the same. to me that it was going to be Kendall. It was more just like, how are we going to get there? You know? Yeah. He was in the lead and, man. Yeah.

I'm kind of dancing around like the details. Everyone should just watch this. But yeah. Amazing. This is not the same show. Yeah. It's nothing like that Game of Thrones ending. Yeah, that was super unsatisfying.

No. Yeah. That's, yeah. It's not like a, that will, that will go down. It's just, yeah. That will go down. It's just one of the worst ending. ever like there's no controversy about that yeah it's no it's interesting like everyone's in agreement

with game of thrones like six months ago or something i i was just thinking about the end that's right because i rewatch game of thrones that was it um and i got to that last season and just gave up and then i was like i'm gonna go listen to the sardonicar's discussion we had on this like when it was fresh when it just dropped and uh yeah i was listening to like man there was still like a little tinge of hope like in me when we recorded that um they like hadn't quite hit me like how truly atrocious um that last season is but man yeah i can i can't even finish it now like is it it's that embarrassing yeah yeah i've been rewatching it too i don't know what i'll do when i get to that part i might just yeah there's just the point we've just kind of got to stop and just like just

let the imagination take over because it yeah just like read the books yeah yeah yeah as much as you can yeah all right I guess that's all yeah do you think you'll check it out Adam I will finish it one day I will finish it

knowing knowing that it has an ending that I'm already halfway over halfway towards reaching is uh giving me a bit more motivation to finish it yeah yeah because it's pretty brief it's only like 10 episodes of season

yeah I'll just pick up where I left off I was I was a little bit into season three oh yeah Yeah, you can do that. All right, great. Tight, tight. Let's do this one from Vince's depressed. Do you think studios will still try to do cinematic universes, or is the trend gone?

Marvel's empire seems to be collapsing. DC is way too behind and failed miserably. Every other attempt failed. Do you think other studios would try or move on to video games? That seems like the obvious thing, right? It's gamer time. Just do it in video games. Yeah.

I think the video game thing will mesh with the, cinematic universe thing so you will get like a cinematic universe of Mario stuff like I think that will happen or like they all connect and like you'll see Mario and like another movie with like some other Nintendo character has to do what's going to happen right like yeah I think that's going to it just makes too much money that stuff the cinematic universe thing yeah it's not enough to just like have the trilogy anymore you know you got to have the empire um yeah there's been cinematic universes for a while. It's like,

you know, Star Wars is a cinematic universe. And I don't know. But like, outside of Marvel, which ones have actually been like, which ones have actually cemented something, you know?

Like the Star Wars one is not gone how they wanted. Like, yeah, they got, they got like big movies out of it, but like, they're not in a state where they can, you know,

MCU pump out multiple projects in here on the big screen. It's too. There's the Monsters Cinematous universe. I didn't go anywhere. Yeah. I feel like you need a lot of material to do something like that. So it's kind of, it's rare. Yeah, that's kind of where it leaned into comic books, right?

Because it's just so much to pluck. You have so many, like, yeah, like literally decades of history you can tap from. Like, they're not even close to what done with all those characters. There's a ton more. And they still have, like, Fantastic Four. They have X-Men. You know, Marvel's going to be fine. You know, they'll figure it out.

Yeah. There's definitely cracks in the armor, but they'll be fine. Yeah, I kind of. I kind of think they're the only company that can really do it, to be honest. Yeah, I don't know if there's really any room. It's kind of like, you know, in the video game space, speaking of, like, everyone's, like, trying to get the call a duty killer, you know, but it's just always there every year.

Yeah. It's like, yeah. Yeah, we've already got it. Like, you can't just replace the thing that's already defined this entire movement, you know? Like, yeah, outside of the big players, like, illumination, making these. The NCU, I'm sure, is going to be a thing soon enough. Yeah. We need the baby-boss cinematic universe, the BBCU.

We need more God movies in the BCU, the Christ Bible. Ooh, yeah, man. God's not dead. Cinematic universe, yeah. Yeah, I guess we're just like running out of IP to phone. Just make, we need a Job film. Ooh. Yeah, maybe Aronofsky can, can do that, you know?

Noah too. I'm like, I just, I'm so exhausted by all this shit. I just want to, I just want to judge movies, like, on their own merit. I just want to watch them, like, do I like the director? Do I like what they're expressing? Like, what is the point of a movie anymore? Yeah, like, to me, it should be about expressing something that the creators of the film want to express, you know? Like, should be a window into their soul, hopefully.

but I just I'm not what do we even do like I don't care super movies could just go on forever video game movies could just they could be an attempt that doesn't work it doesn't really matter does it I don't know yeah it was every time it goes outside of when it's the business model first like before any story before anything it's always so it's always so fucking overt you know because we're so obvious that it is the business model first when it's always so obvious that it is the business model first it cuts to that tease for Godzilla at the end of Kong Skull Island. You know what I mean? Like, it's just these things are not exciting.

All the excitement has already been explored. Like, it's kind of over. It's kind of done. Yeah, it's just not an exciting premise. That's not going to stop them there. You've got to fail publicly and on a scale so embarrassing that it will be written in stone. Yeah. You know, hide for Flash. Oh, dude, Flash is going to be so sick, bro.

Yeah, I thought that was going to do well. I'm not so sure now. It's got like good projections. Oh, yeah? Well, as we get closer, I'm just, I see, they're mostly marketing the Batman angle of it and not like the Flash. Yeah. Yeah. That's what they're doing.

Yeah. It is interesting. Like, it looks like it's going to track okay, but is, is it like, okay enough to fix the whole position that those studios are in with the DC stuff I don't know about that. It seems like probably maybe the swan song of the like Snyder verse or something like I don't know

like the death rattle. Like I don't know like maybe they'll use it they'll probably do here's my prediction they'll probably do like an X-Men thing and they'll be like this is transitioning the universe into the other ones and then everybody will be like oh we got to see the flash because it's going to explain why the universe is James Gunn style now. Yeah, that's the only thing.

That's the only reason it seems like the movie exists, to be honest. And the only reason they didn't cancel it, like... It's a good theory, you know. Yeah. Fuck everything. Do another question. Okay. Let's do this one from Chris Smith 4269.

What's your opinion on the trailer for the movie, The Creator? Personally, I think it's refreshing to see a studio putting a lot of money in faith behind an original idea for a sci-fi movie since studios tend to focus more on reboot, sequels, and superior movies. Cheers, guys, love the podcast. It's about AI. Yeah, Gareth Edwards, the Rogue One director and the Godzilla director speaking of. A very, like, technically impressive director. He's, like, a kind of James Cameron where his movies, like, always push boundaries in that way. Like, apparently the movie was shot on, like, the movie, like, the creator, the whole movie was shot on, like, a consumer-grade, like,

camera like one of those like DSLRs yeah but it looks fucking amazing it looks amazing the movie like it looks like something you you know shot on film so it's pushing that kind of boundary take that red yeah fuck that when I think of monsters Godzilla

Rogue one there are some like there is like a little spark of especially like visual scale kind of genius going on but yes it's more the characters and the scripts that usually let him down a bit more um I'm glad it is like an original IP

I like the AI is like a big part of it that seems like unintentionally well-timed but there is like a when I was watching the trailer there's like a one of the main characters is like a little kid like a little robot kid yeah I don't know it's gonna it could go either way of that character yeah yeah the execution of it will be

what sells it for me here's the thing I watched the trailer and yeah it's an original IP on a technical, like by technicality, it doesn't seem like it's going to be like all that original of a movie. It looks kind of Star Warsy. It looks kind of fucking AI or whatever. You know, it looks pretty derivative and just like, okay, this is a movie. And you don't usually invest that much money into something unless it's bland as fuck.

In this current year, like, it either has to be like existing IP or the safest fucking story you could possibly imagine. So that's my expectation for it. hope to be pleasantly surprised, but who knows, maybe I won't even see it. It could go either way. I'm sure visually it'll be cool. It reminds me a little bit of oblivion. It might kind of go that way.

Remember that one? Yeah, yeah. Tom Hanks movie. Right, which, you know, look great visually, but it was very derivative. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it was like, he was like, yeah. But the movie was, it was like Moon, basically.

Like the same story as Moon. And Moon is much better movie. Was Tom Hanks in Oblivion? you what? No, I don't think so. Okay, Tom Cruz. What did I say Tom Hanks instead of Cruz? I swear you said Tom Hanks

unless I had a brain. Yeah, I must. Yeah, he's on my mind because of that quote from earlier. Because of Chapo and Pinocchio. Yeah, so I don't know. I'm not like hyped for it or anything.

Like as far as sci-fi, I'm much more excited for Dune coming out. But I'll check this out. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that too. Dune. That was a good trip. I like the black and white stuff in that movie. Yeah, I'm excited, man.

I'm ready. I'm ready, too. Let's do it. One more question? I'll send on this one from Realistic Writing 35, one of the most upvoter comments in the thread. What are your thoughts on Hey Arnold? Footballhead.

It's been forever since I've seen that show. I watched it as a kid and I saw the movie, but it's been forever. Like, I can't, I don't know. I don't know if I can pull anything from my memory about, hey, Arnold. Yeah. Yeah. I remember enjoying it when I was younger.

Sorry, guys. There's a grandpa. I enjoyed it. It's not one I've kept up with, like, religiously or, like, rewatch religiously. Yeah. It's not even something that I feel like any sort of compulsion to revisit. No, me either. The character designs are cool.

Like, the distinct shapes. My biggest. Yeah, my biggest takeaway is the character designs, the football-shaped head of the main character, kind of like Stewie. I'm a family guy. I was actually, like, when I screenshot this, I was thinking that it said the show Arthur.

Oh. But, yeah. Yeah, I was getting mixed up with Arthur and Hey, Arnold. You think about it. Hey, what about it? And Arthur was only on my mind because I just, I found out recently that Stephen Crowder was a voice on it. Yes.

Which is quite, that's all I really have to say about Arthur. That's fine. That's fine. And the intro. Yeah, he played one of the characters when he was like a kid or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Arthur went on for a while.

Look how he turned out. Arthur was like one of the longest running kids shows, like animated kid shows. 259 episodes. Holy moly. It's cray, cray. There's some memes from Arthur, you know? Like where he has his fist and he, like, punches D.W. yeah

on the fucking mouth oh yeah he's clenched you know what I have like I have weird memories of Arthur because it like

the show influenced me as a kid in terms of like just seeing something on television and replicating it I distinctly remember there was like

an episode where um there was like the white bunny character I don't remember his name um and there was like I don't remember

his mom was like pushing him in a grocery cart or something and he like grabbed like some lettuce and just like ate it. And then for some reason, I must have been like four years old or some shit. I was born in 91, so it was at least, I don't know, five or six. And then I,

I just remember like, I'm going to do that because I just saw it in the show. And I said, I tried it once and then my mom got mad and then I never did it again. Thanks, Arthur. Encouraging kids to steal. Yeah. I mean, I don't think people often recognize just how much of what children see in media they just imitate, you know? And sometimes I see like a clip from a kid's show. I'm like, just don't put that. Don't put that in the fucking kitchen. Like some kids are going to do that.

Like, far fitter shit. Yeah. Like anything that you don't want kids to be doing, don't show it in a kid's show. Yeah. Or else they'll do it. Just don't give them bad ideas.

Just have your kids show be like either silly, weird SpongeBob shit or like, I don't know, good moral lessons and just be like, oh, you know what? It's actually better when. you share and that you're gonna still be an asshole to people that's all you really need of a kid show they'll fucking watch anything yeah ban furry characters that's that's the author take way yeah yeah all right and i said hey hey hey what a wonderful kind of

see i remember the theme song to arthur but not hey arnold yeah same actually yeah We got asked about Hey Arnold. How did we, how do we get on? Sorry, yeah, I know so little about Hey Arnold. Even if I've seen a bunch of it, my mind just goes straight to Arthur. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Let's see if I can search up the theme song. Let's just talk about another kid show. Yeah. It was Hey Arnold and what was that other recess, right? It was like all these kind of. Recess I never watched. Oh, recess? That was fun.

I remember the themes. I remember that a better. Yeah. All right, well, I guess that's it. Yeah, done and dusted. D.W. was such a shit. I fucking hated her. She's so nice.

DW. Oh, my God. That clip of, what was the bunny's name? He's like, would people really just do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies? I've used that before. Yeah. I love that.

No, it's just looking at the character names. They've got some fun ones. Binky barn. Buster Buster. I think Buster's the rabbit, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Damn. We're having a guest on the next episode.

Yeah, cool. Crestan Rangquest? Huh? Carston Runkwist. It's going to join us on the next episode, and they have recommended a film that we will discuss. It is a 2008 film called Wendy and Lucy by Kelly Reichart. I've seen it.

I don't know if Ralph and Alex have seen it. I don't think so. Okay, cool. All right, if you don't want to be spoiled for Wendy and Lucy 2008 film directed by Kelly Reichart, watch it before the next episode. These episodes come out every two weeks. You can listen to them early by going to sardonicast.com signing up for premium or going to patreon.com slash sardonicast. Only $2 a month. You can feel good about yourself and support the show.

Keep us out of poverty. There's some merch in the description. You can buy some merch if you want. No presch. Keep us out of poverty. Right? Two bucks. It does a lot.

No, sorry. We've got a Sardonicast highlights channel on YouTube. You can subscribe to. And I guess that's about it. Have a happy thousand. the planet. I don't know if we're ever going to spill away. Happy final fantasy. Happy final fantasy

the spirits within. Make sure you go to the dock and get your phantom intensity checked, okay? Because that's something. Oh yeah, please. You got to, you got to watch out for that fandom intensity. It sneaks up on you. After age 35, you really got to get that checked out. Like, frequently.

Yeah, yeah. I didn't, yeah, I forgot to get my phantom intensity checked out. Now I'm like, fuck. I don't think insurance covers it either, so No, I'll check out my phantom intensity when I'm back in Canada. I'll do that. Have a happy Shrek. Bye, everybody.

Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.