Sardonicast - Sardonicast 193: 28 Years Later, Legally Blonde 1&2

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Support the Show for $2 a month and receive all future episodes early at https://sardonicast.com and https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sardonicast.bsky.social Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Sardonicast Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8AhJ0bzQgs5fb9m_ZCRqkw/featured Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/YourMovieSucksDOTorg Jake's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ManCarryingThing Jake's movie channel: https://www.youtube.com/@womancarryingman Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/yms.bsky.social Jake's twitter: https://x.com/ManCarrying Jake's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mancarryingthing.bsky.social Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Jake's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mancarryingthing Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Timestamps: 0:00 On Cinema 4:50 Movie Poll 9:32 28 Years Later 53:40 Legally Blonde 1:12:00 Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde 1:31:15 Questions 2:00:50 Recommendation + outro

Three, two, one. Your dogs are gay. That was a quote. Nice. From Zootopia 2. I'm Adam from your movie sex. This is Sardinacast. How's it going?

I'm Alex from I.G. I'm not going to say Jim will fix it. Oh. No. I had to look up what the hell was going on in that last game because I was not aware. I can't wait to get talk about this. Oh my God. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm Jake from Man Caring Thing. That's all. That's all. That's all. Yeah, that's all. Simple and clean. Nothing cute today.

This is serious, serious business. That's everything. Okay, goodbye, everybody. That was a good episode. Check out our Patreon. Bye. Sardonicat.com slash whatever. And, you know, you get some stuff.

No, serious business. We're talking about some serious, frightening films. And I'm not just talking about legally blonde. Yeah. Nice. Have you started watching the on cinema universe, on cinema at the cinema? Oh, I have been in and out. I watch it like older stuff and clips and it's fascinating to me, but painful to watch at times.

Small doses. No, I haven't seen. I'm going in order. No way. Like someone suggested the compilation of like all of the end universe stuff in chronological order and so I've just been listening to it like as a podcast so so I can just do it while I'm like in the car or something it's funny it's great do you do you feel self-conscious now like talking about movies because you're like no like they do such a good like parody of of me reviews films of you yeah

direct parody of you yeah I mean like there I think that critics should be made fun of and have you know playful jabs at

for sure absolutely I think that some of Tim Heidecker's best skits are ones where he's he's accurately portraying a character

of just someone he's clearly met in L.A. Or many people he's met in L.A. Like the There was one on Bedtime Stories where he

He does this like pretentious ass Like artist who's Trying to make it big And on his YouTube channel And doing these fucking live One act performances And it's just the most self-indulgent thing But it's perfect

He captures it so well Yeah But yeah It's very funny I feel like they don't even talk about Like the whole thing They make fun of everyone Or everything

But they don't never talk about movies. I think that's the best bit. It's like a movie parody show. That's not about movies. They just read the IMDB. Yeah, and mispronounce the name. And then Greg, you know, just has random information about some thriller from the 90s. It's great. Yeah. Alex, have you watched it? No, I haven't. I feel like I've really missed a lot of Tim Hideker stuff, especially like Tim and Eric. I don't know how I feel about it because I would see like random skits and be like, that's really funny and weird and off the beat and then see another one and be like, I don't know about this.

Yeah. But I can't see I've given it a proper chance, to be fair. If you do start the awesome show and you're unsure about it, don't start with season one because that's definitely the most, like it starts out more polarizing than it eventually winds up as. I'd say season four is the best. Polarizing is in just too weird? Polarizing is in like weird to the point where. it's funny because it's not funny.

Like, it's funny because it's not. Right? Right. Anti-humor. And so, like, there's a very special brand of humor that's only going to connect with enough people. And I think you're more likely to connect to what they're doing in season one if you watch season four and get a bit more of their vibe in what they're going for

and see, like, what the ideal version of it is. Right. But, yeah, very... Weird. Very, very good stuff. I like the Pink Panther review on the, on cinema, the original podcast version, was a very funny.

I would say that's a good place for people to jump in. Okay. I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I was curious. I didn't mean to drop this on you guys all of a sudden, but I know like on Twitter, everyone is posting their top 10 of the past 25 years because the New York Times, I guess, is doing some.

Because you can vote on it. Yeah, you can vote on it. So I voted on it. And I was wondering if you guys did or put any thought into that. I saw yours. Okay. Well, I went to the website and I started typing the word fateful findings and it didn't autocomplete.

And so I realized I would have to add it in manually. And at that point, the fucking poster wouldn't be there. and the screenshot wouldn't be funny, so I just stopped doing it and I gave up. I respect that. What was this list at the best of the last 20 years or of the 2020-20s so far? Of the since 2000.

Yeah, since 21st century, I mean. I haven't seen this list going around. Yeah, the list doesn't exist yet. Okay, so we have a question later that's kind of similar. Just people are posting their own top 10 as their submissions for what will eventually be in the list. maybe but here's the thing though like I was kind of hoping less people would be sharing that because the more the more it gets outside of people who know about it because they're interested

in film the worst the list is going to get right it's just going to be the IMDB top 250 who cares so I don't know I don't know I don't know I think it's interesting I mean I feel like there are people taking different approaches. I mean, you can take it any which way of like, these are just my personal favorites or these, I think, are like great representatives of what's great about the 21st century cinema, et cetera. I don't know. I kind of tried to do a little bit both here. I'll read mine real quick. Yes. And I didn't put a lot of thought to this. This was just off the cuff. Catch me if you can. The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mistress America. That's a Noah Bomb Back movie. I know. I know. I've seen that. Mr. Turner, Mike Lee movie.

Killers of the Flower Moon, no country for old men, uncut gems, the Lost City of Z, train to Busan, and Mulholland Drive. Now, you guys can applaud me

for my terrific taste or not, but I feel like that's a pretty good list. Yeah, some bangs on there. There's some stuff on there that you clearly like

a lot more than I do, but there's other stuff on there that's really great. And then there's a couple I haven't seen, actually, but I've got them on my list. Hmm.

Excellent. Anyways, I thought it was a fun exercise to think about. Mm-hmm. I like the list. They made people mad. It seems like like 75% of the reason that lots of these online lists exist is to make you mad.

I guess they get shared around. It's like, can you believe they put that on number five? You joke him right now? Yeah. If it's like online vote though, I don't know. Just have, I don't know. So the Snyder cut will be like number one. That would be nice.

Like, I just don't, I just don't know. We'll see whenever the list gets made. I just don't have high hopes for it. But generally, like, public audience award type things just are not relatable to me when I see the final results. We should do the Sardonicast list. And so we don't get mad and share that. Yeah, we should have our own non-woke awards show. Or we celebrate the best means.

Now you're talking. Now you're thinking. Yeah. And the number, the highest award you can get is an ormy masterpiece. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Yes Then we must be

We've said that phrase At least once per episode Since I coined it It is such a cultural milestone It's We gotta make some merch with that I mean come on You're right

I feel like it's stuck Dude yeah we have to You've changed the culture I have changed the culture People are saying it in my subreddit all the time Now It'll make it sway into web one day.

I think we should have definitely like a yearly awards show and that should be one of the awards. We should do it like in March but only include movies from that year like the first three months. The first three months.

The worst months for movies. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be a fun concept actually. I like it. Yeah. Some years there would be like a really great one But most years, maybe not. The beekeeper. That's an ormy masterpiece.

I've heard it's hilarious. I actually really want to see that. 28 beers later. That would be a great parody title. Oh, my God. Where'd you go? Wayans Brothers. We need another parody film.

Anyway, 28 years later, I'm kind of tired, everybody. Sorry. It's a film. We got It is a film D to the B A to the G Another collab

Another one for the books Jake have you seen the other ones No And you guys can crucify me That's interesting Yeah you know I was going to watch 28 days later But I didn't

That's not a very interesting story But I did not And I didn't think you're like have to to enjoy this film. Yeah, I was seeing that online too. Like, you don't have to see it. It's like, I don't have a lot of time to watch anything.

So I was like... No character overlaps. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I heard. So I went in blind and I guess that'll be part of the conversation. But when I did, posted my review on woman carrying man channel, they, a lot of people were like, what is wrong with you? Like, they acted like I had, I had really transgressed.

I had done something really horrible. So please, please forgive me, everyone. Yeah, that's my favorite reaction Yeah When you haven't experienced something yet How could you not? Like, what do you mean? I haven't done it yet Do you understand the concept of time?

Yeah, it's not like you start with a middle Lord of the Rings or something Like it's a completely different part of the country For the most part it's in London in the original Different characters Okay There's some overlap as far as like structure and some of the themes they're playing with But quite a different movie I'm totally going to see it now

And unlike a lot of these complaints we have about like, I don't know, there's like a How to Train a Dragon remake and all these other just IP cash grabs. It feels like the opposite of a cash grab with how kind of weird and risky it is despite it still being like Danny Boyle and Alex Garland making this so many years later. Yeah. Like 20 years later basically. Almost the amount of years that's in the title. And I'm kind of, I'm on the verge of loving this. Caviats aside and some things will bring up, I'm sure. But I was quite impressed with the direction they took this.

And I think it does actually go hand in hand really well with that original movie and go in directions I wasn't expecting. What about you guys? Adam. Yeah, honestly, I think one of my, one of the phrases I kept saying to myself as I was watching this movie is like, hey, this is a new movie. They actually made a new movie. like in a in a sense that's more than like literal oh a new film was released in theaters no they created something new they they deviated enough away from the original the tone was pretty different its goals were very different it was very experimental in terms of its filmmaking and and

yeah it's wacky the tone also like i was one of my concerns before going into this film pretty much my only concern, I guess, was that I saw that Clint Mansell was no longer doing the score. And I was like, damn, because that's like the voice of the original film. That's such an important component to the feeling of the original. But after watching this or during watching this, it became clear that they weren't trying to replicate the exact tone of the original, at least through the score. And so the new music, even though, sure, it doesn't compare to Clint Mansell. It's never it's a pretty high bar to fulfill it was doing it was doing its own thing and I think it worked really well for that

So I'm glad it didn't try to imitate I'm glad we it wasn't like a shell of the other score It was just a completely separate thing completely different tone And I loved that it decided to do something new Yeah by the end of it was glad that it didn't actually incorporate that iconic theme in any way Like it's just competent enough to be its own thing we did get one callbacks song true um but i mean like a whole scene dedicated to the song in a in a similar way type thing like it yeah it knew what it was and the kind of new direction i wanted to go in i really enjoyed because like you say about that fear is going into this and one of mine was man by 2025 this

zombie genre in cinema it's pretty tired like what is there to do like i was i was just searching up some of the recent zombie films like there was resident evil welcome to raccoon city which was trash army of the dead that Snyder film which was also trash like man I guess when was the last time like zombies were actually enticing and maybe like the last of us in 2013 was like the last time I remember being like that's kind of a cool spin they're like mushrooms yeah that's interesting and I feel like they actually found an angle here by basically in a way making more of a fantasy movie than a zombie movie like it feels way more to me like a classic fantasy thing with this imagery of the like bows and arrows and the kind of camelot that they're traveling from.

And there's like a bone temple. And it almost feels like a different genre entirely. But it still has the sort of adventure and travel elements. And that was really kind of what hooked me in. And like the zombies at this point, they're more like, like ogres. And is it really like wacky and like over the top and like bloaters and things like crawling around on the floor. It just feels more like a fantasy kind of setting at this point. And they're completely isolated UK, which is kind of fun.

funny, they kind of wreck on a little bit of the implication of the end of 28 weeks, was it, where they show like Paris being over on, I guess, spoilers for that movie, but I would recommend actually not watching that movie. Yeah, nobody watched the second movie. It's fucking garbage. Yeah. And there's still like a lot of conversation around that movie saying about how good it is and how that's...

They haven't seen it since it came out. There's no way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. There's no way. Because that's like, that movie is what I would fear this to be, where it's like it goes too big, doesn't really know what it's doing. It's trying to recapture that first movie, but it can't really find an angle and it just gets big, dumb and stupid. And this kind of gets smaller and more intimate, which I thought was such a good direction to take it.

And also, like, the, I don't know, this is quite a polarizing film online, especially I see with a lot of American audiences, especially with that ending. I won't spoil anything yet if we're not in the spoiler section. But, yeah, we'll get into that in more detail as it goes, I guess. and I could see preferring one of the acts over others because it's quite different per act, which is actually one of the things I love about it, where to me kind of cements the film in these different perspective characters, like the first act's kind of the dad's perspective of the world, the middle, it's the mothers, and then the third is more of the sons, and it gives it quite a nice structure and a nice sort of cadence as it moves along, keeps it unpredictable and strange and experimental.

But the weirdness of it is kind of what made the zombie stuff stick to me, like reinvent itself, so it doesn't feel like it's just trying to be one of these nostalgia films that were sick of. It does feel like, oh, you actually had an idea here. This is cool. I like this world you've set up. I like this isolated UK. Is this very much like a post-Brexit-y kind of feeling?

Well, yeah. We've isolated ourselves and no one around us wants to, and we're just, falling into smaller and smaller cults that don't listen to each other and are eating ourselves alive and we're all scared of one another so I like that element of it yeah that was that was your punishment for getting out of Brexit was like well yeah this is a documentary this is real you would you would be able to go to the rest of Europe but you decided not to yeah we introduced the T virus did you hear that Canada just announced like a new strengthened partnership with the EU like today?

Wow. Yeah, so we're filling your shoes. Trying to hurt me today? Yeah, we're not like literally in the EU, but we're getting a bunch of perks or something. God damn. Yeah, we're combining like economic and military

favors. We're over here fighting for survival. Running from the T zombies. Nice voice break there. On your little island, you got your moat. Keep everybody out. Yeah. That's definitely like part of the film with the way it's like, it builds in that really creepy World War I poem that's in that original trailer, I think.

Yeah. Yes. That was the best part of the movie. Yeah. Yeah. They actually found, especially for that first act, a way to make these things scary. Like, I was actually tense and felt like, ugh. This environment's horrible.

The silhouettes of these zombies just kind of standing there watching in the background and these alphas and these new. introductions and like well-winning stuff was like oh i love the setting they're in the wilderness now it's not like a big empty city anymore feels different yeah i love they're up in scotland yeah i mean i hadn't even seen the first one but i was able to figure out so clearly like what the stakes were and where the human's vulnerability was like they really established very well those first interactions with the zombies when the dad and the kid go on to the mainland of like okay this is what it takes to kill them you know this is these are the slal ones, these are the fast ones.

Like, okay, you're kind of screwed if your dad's not with you. You know, like it establishes it so well. And I feel like that first act is so long, but it's so well done. It's like its own little movie. And the people saying, I keep saying this in reviews of like, oh, it's nowhere near as scary as the first one. This isn't even a horror movie. It's not scary at all.

I'm like, what? Like, this was intense. Like, there were some sequences, and I don't want to get into spoilers, but like with the alpha zombie. Like, holy shit. Like the editing, the way the montage is like the cross-cutting and everything, it's so like really well done and very tense with the music and everything. Just damn, like there's some amazing sequences.

The editing especially is like what brings the discomfort to life. That's so frenetic. Yeah, yeah. The weird like the infrared. Yeah, not just the infrared. but like how separate scenes are like stitched into each other and like woven in like kind of like a non-chronological way where like the next scene will happen earlier than it should and you're cutting back and forth. Or like cutting back and forth to things that are not even like necessarily in the timeline but are more of the setting. Like some of the scenes we literally just get like shots to zombies that I guess are just somewhere else.

but it works really well. Like, you know, it's kind of, it's almost like showcasing the constant tension that would be on everyone's mind, like the fears and insecurities, the anxieties that would be in these characters' brains, right? But yeah, let's let us get into spoiler territory.

Right. Because the alpha and I guess the other zombie types, there were no types of zombies in the first film and I forget if there were in the second because the second is just the most forgettable film of all time. I don't think so. Yeah, I think not in the second. So when honestly, when they announced

that there would be like an alpha thing, they're like, oh, the alphas. I almost had, I had another like bit of concern like, okay, are we doing like left for dead type video gamey? Yeah, it's a corny name. Yeah, and I don't know. I've seen a bunch of,

of I've seen a bunch of zombie movies where they've tried to do the same thing and it's like, I don't know, I find myself always just kind of like asking silly questions like, why does that one, the fat one is like that, what happened to them? How come they get to explode or whatever? It doesn't really matter. But with what they did with these characters, I was pretty impressed that I was able to feel like a genuine sense of like dread and intimidation from the alpha characters, despite how silly in concept it is, the way it was executed was really well done.

And so I wound up just, you know, appreciating that as a concept that they threw into the film and not being annoyed by it at all. Yeah, I was sold by that in the first act when they're hiding after being overrun in the attic space. and there is just that silhouette shot of the alpha just standing watching. That's really creepy to me. Like, implying there's a level of intelligence and there's something going on with these things and, like, they're fucking and having kids and stuff.

It's like, this is really freaky. And that dialogue implying that they're basically roid-raged up, like the evolution of this virus and all of this time. That makes sense to me that it's like evolving, it's changing, it kind of makes sense how they're staying alive, if some of them are eating worms. Yeah, true. Eating animals.

I would like to point out that it was never confirmed that they were fucking. That was just what someone said because they assumed it. I think that there's also a possibility that, you know, if fucking Ray Fines characters out there, I think there's probably some other humans out there. So there might have been a pregnant woman who wasn't a zombie when she was pregnant and then got bitten by a zombie, you know, sometime within the nine months. I guess I felt that was the implication because the alpha, the alpha seemed to have some connection to the pregnant one,

and the Ray Fein's character mentions that he's known, he calls him Samson or something, and he's been there around for like three years. So I just figure the timeline of being pregnant, whatever would. I don't know, that seemed to be the implication to me that they're like getting pregnant and whatnot or not now. I don't know. Yeah. creepy, though.

The inclusion of the alphas definitely makes it so that if I have any weird, like, what would I do in this universe fantasies? It definitely makes it a lot less likely that I would survive. Because, you know, just fast zombies and they're all the same. You can start making plans, right? You can start to fortify your apartment or whatever, you know, do similar things to what people were doing in the first film. Yeah, you're not doing anything against these.

Yeah, the alpha, when they're in there, you're fucked, you're done. Dunzo. That big dick swinging? I love that they were naked. That makes it, like, so scary to me, they're not, like, wearing the nappies from the Human Centipy trilogy or whatever to avoid sensors. Like, man, these are just, like, derange naked people sprinting around. And some of them are just enormous and can literally tear your head with its spine

attached from your body. If that was scary for you, I couldn't imagine how scary it would be for Americans. True Why is that? Because Americans are afraid of nudity And generally Other Western countries That have a bit more European culture in them

There was nudity in this I just blacked out I just blacked out She's having a panic attack for two hours That's huge Wow But But guess what everyone

Prostetic You know They had to, you know, the actor was probably like bragging all his friends, like, yeah, you know, you might see me in the movie. And then Danny Boyle has to be like, yeah, it's brusted it because of child labor laws. Like, oh, of course, of course. Good. What would child labor laws have to do with that? What are you talking about?

You didn't see this? Child labor laws of not having full frontal nudity around kids. You know. Since when? I feel like that's a pretty good one. What are you talking about? What? Did you not see this?

It was an interview with Danny Boyle talking about. Oh, I didn't see that. Everyone online is freaking out because there's like a dong in the movie. Yeah, yeah. It's like a fairly big one. And Danny Ball was like, yeah, obviously it's not real. Like, this is a movie. If you see a dick in a movie, it's probably not real.

Oh, he said it's a prosthetic. Yeah, yeah. You confirmed it. Yeah, yeah. As Jake said, because of the child labor laws. Kids on set. Okay. I thought you were just riffing.

I wonder if that's specific to the UK. Hmm. That's interesting. In the U.S., it's the opposite. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's not like unusual for a movie, right? Like, if you see a dick, it's going to be a prosthetic, like, most of the time. Yeah.

I don't always make that assumption. It depends on the movie. I normally do. Do you think that in the film, shame, directed by Steve McQueen, I think that was a real dong, Michael Fastbender. Do you think that was a prosthetic? I'd have to rewatch it. It's been a while since I've seen it.

What about Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights? We need to have a lengthy discussion. Lengthy. On film dicks. You guys can do a spin-off podcast for that. Antichrist, that was real. That was a body double, but it was real. That was in Antichrist.

True. Yeah. Because William Defoe's dick was too big, apparently. Okay, so in the UK, you can't have any nudity if children are hired to make a film but in Hollywood a kid can't get hired unless they see a penis right?

Wow there's a divide right there okay I was just making sure I understood I like the UK one better that's on the books man people should people should take a look at that it's the way it's always been Jay

okay guys I'm gonna say something that might anger you. Go for it. I feel like Danny Boyle, in this film at least, reminded me and had the energy of the filmmaker Baz Luhrman. That's fine. Oh, man.

You're breaking my heart. No, it's not fine by me. No, I understand why you would say that. I feel like there's some sense. The maximalism, the cutting, the energy, the cross-cutting. I mean, it just feels very energetic and big. Maybe not as wild and over-the-top. as Baz Luhrman, but there's some of that in there.

See, that's a perfectly fine thing to say. And this makes me feel like, oh, this is like if Baz Luhrman was well realized. It's like you can see what Baz Luhrman was trying to do his entire career and failed at doing. Well, ouch. Yeah, it made me feel an emotion, which is cool, uncomfortable, fearful. I love the inclusion of these weird, like, Renaissance England shots of like some kind of movie or

reference it was very good Henry the 5th wasn't it was it yeah it's very like unsettling and weird all these like clips are putting in I already mentioned the World War I poem and yeah it seemed quite random but also there was an intent there to making you feel uncomfortable

it feels unpredictable you have these weird matrix rig shots and then these infrared shots and some people are upset by those matrix things and with the like 20 iPhones and a half moon around these actors, but I love that. I thought that was cool every time they implemented it. Yeah, I found bullet time.

I guess just anything stylistic can put people off. Yeah, you said it's maximalist as hell. That will put some people off, I'm sure. But it's also like Danny Boyle, this is what I want to see from him. This is why I like most of his movies. And it was like yesterday was really a letdown for me. And it felt like, oh, there's like none of them. this, like, energy that has made you who you are.

So it's nice to see that this, at this point, old-ass man can, has still got it in him. He's got it. It's like bringing these strange ideas. Well, that's because they copied the whole thing from Kimba. Is Danny Boyle the best living British filmmaker? Probably. Wait, Mike Lee. I got to go with Mike Lee.

Yeah, it's tough. I like them both, but. I'd have to think about that, honestly. I don't know if I can give an answer. he's up there for like people that I will watch a new movie of you know when it comes to like the iPhone bullet time stuff you know it was it was kind of interesting in the sense that it felt like 90% of kills like headshots or whatever would get that treatment and I thought about the the way it was presented it avoided being to

quote unquote cool. Like it wasn't doing it in a Zach Snydery kind of way. It wasn't doing it in like, oh, wow, this is epic or like, you know, the zombie land slow-mo stuff. Like it wasn't doing it as a show-offy way. It was doing it in a creative way. It was when I watched it, I didn't feel like, oh, wow, this is trying to give us the impression of some sort of spectacle in like a serious type.

this is supposed to be weird. And the overwhelming vibe I got from it was weird. And I was happy about that, because this is a film that should be weird. It's a fucking weird movie. And that's what makes it unique. Like, I love how it flows with itself. Yeah. And it kind of helped with the clarity and pace of the action as well, like when it would

emphasize a moment with how, like, frenetic that editing is. Like, when it would do that, it's like, oh, I can see what the error was. They, like, missed this shot or they nailed that short. Okay, I understand. especially what's going on right now. It's not aestheticizing the violence as much. I mean, it is partially, I think any movie is, but that's not the primary focus.

The primary focus is to like immerse you viscerally within the scene, you know, and the character's feelings. It's not trying to do anything like, yeah, like Zach Snyder, like making a painterly thing. Even though some shots in this movie are very beautiful. I really liked how it took this kind of unrealistic look and expressionistic look, along with this grimy iPhone appearance.

Like it kind of does both, especially in that sequence with the alpha chasing them across the land bridge right before. We're talking spoilers, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Spoiler way. Yeah, right before they get back from their,

you know, his first outing within the mainland, that whole sequence, you see the stars and galaxies up behind them in a very intense action sequence. That was my favorite scene. This is an interesting choice. But, yeah, like you were talking about the cross-cutting, how they're cutting to the party sequence, You don't realize that it's after you know very tricky devious like fuck yeah like I love this intense like fucking with the audience type of thing like they just really ramped up the tension and they really knew how to do that in that scene I just was like god damn after after that scene I was like I'm all on board this movie's sold yeah that was a absolutely beautiful scene and the music choice worked with it really really well yeah that the editing and even like the iPhone bullet time they all can

contribute to this like not only weird feeling but like the the feeling of unease that it's giving, right? Like it's it's all contributing to the overall feeling of the film like it's all purposeful. It's all meaningful in like an artistic way. And I guess that's where some of the critiques come in because I've seen a lot of people say that they love that first act, but don't love where it goes in the second and third. And I would agree in terms of like I, I, think the first act is my favorite as far as like an intense. It's kind of simple as Jake was saying almost like a short like it works just in and of itself. But there is also that expectation with kind of Danny Boyle and the way movies move around where they often will change in direction at a certain point. And it's almost like the inverse of 28 days later where the last act of that movie kind of turns more into this isn't really about zombies anymore.

This is more about how disgusting humans can be. And this one is kind of the inverse where it's like actually there can be some uh philanthropy in here they can be like a nice person who can do something uh for other people the uh kind of misdirect of the rave finds character and this whole bone temple thing which as i say i actually love that kind of fantasy the set with all the skulls everywhere and how wacky that is with the you know melting people's skins off and keeping all these bodies and whatnot i love the whole like set up of that and the buildup and law of like this just this doctor dude who's been surviving and he's kind of implied to be a pacifist and won't kill the uh the alpha which i could have actually

done with maybe one scene of the spike trying to kill the alpha when he's like paused with the morphine or whatever with the refaunx character maybe saying like hey we don't want to kill them i'm a pacifist blah blah blah or something just to explain why they left this dangerous monstrosity alive when they have multiple chances to take it out or deal with it in some way. Could have done with that. There were a couple of moments like that where I'm like, maybe that was a bit convenient. Maybe we've glossed over something a bit here.

Like the wasn't fully sold on Spike pulling the knife on his dad, even though I kind of understood what they were getting out with the motivation of him. I love that. I love that. I think it made sense. I like it in premise, but I just feel like it got there so quick for me as far as like, I understand what they were going where he wasn't enjoying.

he obviously saw his dad he was lying about the accomplishments on the trip he was cheating on his wife he was all this kind of like masculinity that he wasn't vibing with and the switch there felt a bit sudden for me maybe it maybe it'll work better on a second watch

but I did have to admit it felt like a bit of an escalation I don't think he was literally going to stab him I think he was just kind of like having an emotional desperate moment emotional yeah yeah like it it fit with teenage you know emotions also like that turn in the story was just so well done because the whole first act we're setting up like this kid doesn't really have a shit together yet his dad is there for him his

dad is good like he takes care of him like they have a good bond and everything and then you see that turn where he's cheating on the mom and then suddenly that changes everything and get that just that whole premise of setting up the second act of like this is so such a great concept he's taking his mom who is like not all mentally there, he's not really well equipped to go do this and they go. And it's, they feel, it's so, you feel so vulnerable with these characters and you're so concerned for them. Just the way it's set up is so well. The only problem I have with the story, because I think the story's amazing is that it does feel like the first part of a trilogy. And I started questioning while I was watching it like, wait, didn't I hear somewhere?

This is the first part of a trilogy? because the pacing got a little wonky. I'm like, we're kind of like, it feels like there should be another hour on this movie to wrap things up. You know, the dad goes after them to try, you know, this relationship between Spike and his dad needs to come to some kind of resolution. And it felt like we're leaving so much there to be picked up in the sequels that it wasn't as bad as like, say, Dune Part 1 or across the Spider-Verse where it's like, here's half of a movie. It's not done yet. it felt like there was an arc and we came to a resolution, but I was still somewhat like unsatisfied. I do feel like my rating might shoot up if the sequels land some of these, you know,

character arcs. Yeah, that was kind of what I was getting at with the caveats, because that is not clear in the marketing at all that it's going to spiderverse you. Because I do kind of think it was about as bad as Spider-Bus with like how much they've set up and how little of it is like paid off outside. I do like where it goes with the mum stuff. That's kind of like the emotional heart of the movie, but there is still so much left, especially with how it ends, like so abruptly. And I'm a bit kind of like, oh, like, I'm with you.

This rating might actually go up or down depending on how this is followed up, especially because Danny Boyle is not directing the next one. Garland's writing all three, which is cool. And I think Boyle's planning to do the third one, but it's near DeCosta's lined up to do the second. which is coming out in like six or seven months. Yeah. So I'm glad they shot them so close together.

But I'm just wondering, like, does she have the chops to, like the Altura chops to bring the style and maximalism that Boyle does to this movie? I'd be curious to see how that comes together, especially with how out there the, the Jimmy group is. Like, I'm very curious to see what they're going to do with that. But yeah, it does feel like there are these threads because the opening of the movie obviously is setting up that Jimmy character and you don't get any resolution or continuation of that outside of that one scene at the end that is annoying some people

online but I actually quite enjoy with what it says about with how it contrasts with the spike character who does have this very clear arc where he does kind of transition into adulthood throughout the movie he does put the Power Rangers toy down he changes as a character he kind of grows up and then to be confronted with this group of like man children who idolized this pop culture from the early 2000s in the UK and the underlying kind of sinister nature of them all being like visually and in name. Yeah.

Kind of evoking Jimmy Saville and the fact that that wouldn't have been known in the UK if there was a huge pandemic that brought everyone to their knees. It was in like 2010 or something that people found out. So it makes sense that this manchild who idolizes pop culture and like color coordinates like telitubbies and. and dresses like Jimmy Saville and has this whole Power Rangers thing and kills them in that way

felt like, oh, there's something really sinister and weird and cool about this cult, like, where could this go? And the upside down, cross and stuff, there's lots to play with there as far as where they can take that. But man, it's going to be a challenge. It felt like a post-credit scene, though. Yeah.

Yeah, you're right. You know, regardless of what the sequel to this is like, I think it's pretty clear just with the ending of this movie that they're setting expectations for it to be different, right? Like, if it's,

if it's gonna be some Jimmy story, I'm excited, I'm hyped for it, but, you know, it feels like it probably won't be trying to just do this same movie again. Yeah,

I hope not. But also, you do want some kind of consistency with the plot, because presumably it's gonna have the dad character in there or something and, uh,

it's got it to incorporate. The subtitle is the Bone Temple, so they're probably going to go back to... Let's just do a Last Jedi. Yeah, Last Jedi. Cool. Everyone will be happy and love it then. Yeah. Yeah, I guess the Bone Temple stuff will come back in and...

Yeah, I'm very curious what they're going to do about that, but I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't, like, judge anyone for being kind of upset that it does just... Hey, by the way, there's another one. I'll see you in six months. It's like, oh, okay. Cool. That wasn't clear at all. It could have left on a better, a better note, I will say.

Like, I was super into the emotions of it, and then that scene happened. I was just kind of like, okay, all right. Yeah, there's a sequel coming. But I don't know. Do you guys feel confident in Nia da Costa? I feel like I'm a little confident because Alex Garland and Danny Boyle are still producing, you know, and Alex Garland is writing the sequel. So, I don't know, maybe it's just, we'll have to wait and see.

Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I remember there was some stuff that I enjoyed about the can. Handyman remake that she directed. Like, it wasn't, it wasn't a movie that I loved overall. But, like, there was some good stuff in there. So, you know, I haven't seen her other stuff because it's marveled shit, but. The marvels. Well, people are like, oh, she made the marvels.

Like, how could she possibly make this? I'm like, she didn't make the marvels. Like, she was hired to take the- Her name was attached to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, hopefully she brings something like a, new voice to it and can continue this story.

There's plenty to do. But I don't know. We'll see. Maybe the fact that they did film so close to each other, well, at the same time, maybe that will help it feel kind of cohesive. Yeah. Like there isn't like a weird rake that ruins the flow of it, but we'll have to wait and see. Who knows? But I do got to say, though, the kind of like emotional pull of this movie I was not anticipating.

Like the whole second act when it turns more. into like that first act is like the the macho dad like you know I'm showing you how to survive and then it shifts into this more like gentle just story about a mother and his son like just trying to get medical help and something like really sad and uh quite emotional with the way the way it goes and it doesn't work for some people and ralph finds it's like yeah we're gonna basically drug the child and uh boil her uh her bones down and you can come to the top of this apparently the skull pyramid and plays her at the top, the best place.

But it's a beautiful sequence. I mean, that's what's crazy. It's like, we know he's just like burning her and boiling her skull, but it's like, done so well. Weirdly it reminded me of the ending of The Lost City of Z. I'm not going to spoil how that movie ends, but the same emotions I felt.

Like, it was just like weirdly dark, but kind of like peaceful and beautiful. And I was like, what the fuck? Why is this happening in a zombie movie? This is really, Interesting. Yeah. It was kind of odd

watching him like kiss his dead mother's skull and put it on a stack of bones. That's why I mean about the fancy imagery though. Yeah. The Eldermring movie stuff now is kind of like, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, true.

This is just straight up a fancy movie. Like, I could see a bone temple in like an Aldermring movie and the structure of it. I'm all with Garland. I think he's a really interesting writer and director. Yeah. Yeah, no matter what I watch from him, I know that it'll at least be interesting. Mm-hmm.

For sure. Yeah. There's a standard of quality. I'm rooting for them. I'll definitely be, you know, first in line to go see the sequel, though. The first? Yeah, the first. What do you think of the Swedish guy?

Oh, that was funny. I mean, it was good bit, good bit of him, you know, showing the kid the phone and being like, That's my girlfriend. What's wrong with her face? It's great. Yeah, it's fairly humorless outside of that. So it was nice to have that bit of relief like in the middle. I just like the idea that the whole world is just normal.

Like everything is gone exactly the same. It's just the UK that's completely ruin. We're literally, we're moving on without you. Yeah. Fair enough. Sorry. Yeah, he had a funny death. Have a good run.

That's the thing about this movie is like, I love it. I don't take it as seriously as the first film in terms of like my investment for the characters and if they die sort of thing and how they die. Like I think that this movie has a bit more leeway in terms of how much ridiculousness and cheese it can bring to it because of its style clearly going in that direction. by the time the ending scene happened, I was like,

okay, yeah, this reaffirms what I was feeling the entire time, but it wasn't as explicit, I guess, until the very end. And then,

you know, with Jimmy, I'm like, okay, this is pretty, this is undeniably clear. Like, like,

this is what I thought you were doing happy about it. So yeah, like the first film is always going to have like a very special place in my heart. I still think it's the best one. And in terms of like a horror movie, especially like the dramatic elements of horror I think that it works a lot better in that sense

but yeah this is this is fucking still awesome like I enjoyed it yeah I agree I like that it's different I think the original one is probably better overall but um I don't know there's some goofy stuff in that first movie too like when killing Murphy just turns into a ninja like in the last act pretty cartoonish and goofy like

sure there is some like romanticization of these movies especially when they're so old and so you haven't seen them in ages. I feel like, I don't know, sometimes you've got to revisit it and see how it goes without the benefit of hindsight. But yeah, I agree. It's definitely way kind of more out there and strange and cartoonish than that original movie. But I, I'm glad they went their direction because I feel like trying to capture that lightning in a bottle of the original would just be a mistake if they, you know, set it in a city again and just go through the beats of every zombie thing we've seen and that it has inspired over the decades since. And like this

weird snake eating its own tail where it inspires the last of us and then this is inspired by the last of us and so we're going. Let's just make it weird. Let's just make it different. I think that was the correct choice. Dank. Well, I'm given this one for now

a seven out of ten. And it could be bumped up to an eight if they get rid of those child labor lies and show some real pain. Do you like that I opened on a scene of like a bunch of kids being mauled by zombies? You know, it's all in on paper it's like that scene was made for me, but I just like I was kind of watching it and it the opening scene I felt was like a little not quite there yet in terms of like what I was feeling because I wasn't really like you wanted them to have the

kids skeletons pulled apart like they didn't show like in detail. It's like linger on it. I don't know, like, when it's just like a bunch of random kids who you're introducing only to die, it kind of just reminds me of like, I don't know, like, AVP Requiem or like fucking postal or like any film that's just kind of like, no, I know, but I'm like reminded of those things. Like, I don't know, what I'm looking for in terms of like a horror experience, I want to care that someone dies, you know? When a death happens, I want to care that they die. But how could you care if they die if they're a kid?

Because you don't care about the kids. Well, because I don't know the kid. Kids are dying every day. Okay. So if you know the kid, then you'll care. Am I going to have a mental breakdown over every single death happening in the world right now? No, I have to know them. Right?

Okay. I mean, by the end of this trilogy, I guess we will know the main kid from that sequence. In theory, anyway, right? A little Jimmy boy. Oh, is that Jimmy? That is Jimmy. Yeah, that's Jimmy. He's in the church.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I love the culties slash religious stuff going on. True. That's one of the creepiest scenes in the original movie is that church scene. There is some underlying, there's something they're hiding about the little island, the little Camelot place that they're residing in in these creepy, like, masks and these rituals they have. But I don't know if that's pointing at something sinister lurking that might be explored

in the other movies, but I hope they kind of go more in that direction and have, like, cult the zombie in some way go down that'll be cool I hope it's like even wackier I hope

I hope this makes this first film makes enough money for them to green light a third because that's what they want to do and I think it's based on the success of this

and then I hope the second one is the most polarizing thing in the world that's my ideal and then bring back Danny for the third one yeah and then bring back

detail the B, A to the G. Because yeah, we don't know exactly what is, what is set up for this trilogy, because it was, it was all like mapped out. It's not like the writing bit from scratch, uh, second and third one. So hopefully there's some stuff that was in retrospect. It would be like, oh, that was cool that they, they laid that down there and yeah, could flesh it out. It could be cool. I don't know if it's necessarily what I wanted from a 28 years later, like it for it to be a trilogy, but so far, so good.

What are your ratings? All right. I think I'm giving it a seven out of ten. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you guys. Nice. This is a good seven. Strong seven. Strong, sturdy seven. Up or down, actually, depending on where this goes. Is this our first unanimous since no country?

No, I think we've... No, yeah, maybe, actually. Maybe. Because you loved the second human centipede. Here's a weird bit of information They're doing a 4K Blu-ray of the first film How? That's really how

So the question will be So Jake, if you didn't know this about the first film It was filmed on digital cameras way before it was even like A thing that people did So it was like an artistic choice And so the regular Blu-ray of this film People go, why is it look so pixelated? It's like it's not the Blu-ray

It's just how they film it, right? So it's going to look pixelated no matter what. So the fact that they're doing a 4K, either they're going to do some weird nonsense upscaling or something or like interpolation or something. I don't know. I don't know.

Either that or it's going to look the exact same except the last scene in the film that was shot on film. So maybe the title font in the credits will be like, really 4K, like high-depth, ultra-high-deaf? Which is so sharp. Yeah. But I'm going to buy it because it's so silly. Didn't they have this issue with Inland Empire when Criterion did their Blu-ray? Oh, yeah. They had to do some tricky stuff.

Right, yeah. They did some weird, weird stuff with that. Yeah. That lots of people are still complaining about. So I don't know. It is a weird thing to do to like, it's intentionally not supposed to look pristine. And also like, you see James King. Cameron doing his like AI upscaling of the abyss and aliens. It's like what are you doing man?

Yeah. And then he gets mad when people are criticizing it. You live in a basement if you care about quality of films, says the guy who's been spending the last two decades on fucking Avatar. What are you talking about it? Avatar is a quality cinema. Let's not besmirch. James Cameron.

He can make mistakes. Getting besmirched up in here. Yeah, getting besmirched. All right. Jake it away. Jake it away. Yeah. Good one.

All right, everyone, today's viewing classic. Today's recommendation is the double feature of legally blonde and legally blonde to red, white, and blonde. So I am so curious to hear. here, what you guys have to say about these movies? I very much enjoy the first one. The second one is an abomination. I hate it so much. But I think the first one is a stone cold classic. Apparently there is a third one in development with Reese Witherspoon. Not surprising. There was also like a spin-off series. What's Legally Blonde's? What was that the spin-off? Legally Blonde's. I guess was technically like a spit-off film.

I don't know. Like kids or something? I don't know. Yeah, no one gives a fuck about that one. It's not canon. Everyone's not canon. So I guess I'll just start off asking both of you. What did you think of Legally Blonde?

You first, Alex. I'm still eating my protein bar. I actually watched Legally Blonde like a year ago for the first time. I was showing it. my girlfriend. And I enjoyed it. I actually thought it was pretty funny. I don't think it's quite as good as like a clueless or something like this.

But for what it's going for, I think that I don't know, it passes the commode laugh test. There are enough good lines in there. I think once you get past the first act, I enjoy it a lot more, once it actually gets into the sort of murder mystery aspect of it. And the absurdity of where it goes at some points,

it's charming enough. I'm into Bruiser. I think that's a fun little character. It's cute, it's playful, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's cartoonish as hell. I quite like the first one, but I'm definitely with you where I did a double bill. I just watched it in one very pink chunk, and I was like just tearing my hair up for that second one, but I guess we'll get into that when we get to that one in more detail. Yeah.

Yeah, it was all right. Not my type of thing. No. It was pretty repetitive. It has some charm. I spent some amount of time wondering if this was like a surprise, secret spite recommendation

to like make up for your last one. I was like, is this what's happening? I wasn't sure. Like it's fine. It's just not what I'm looking for in a movie. Like the things that I like movies aren't really in here.

Yeah, it's not your taste. Yeah, I don't particularly feel like the target demographic, but I can still find things to enjoy about it. How do you guys feel about early 2000s, rom-coms, and, you know, chick flicks, so-called? Well, name a few, and I'll let you know if I've even seen them. Oh, let's see, how to lose a guy in 10 days. I haven't seen it.

Classic. the wedding planner. Haven't seen it. What else? I do have to admit, I tend to avoid movies that have the white poster with the big text and the two characters standing there.

You know what you're getting? Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is good because I feel like, you know, I grew up, I have an older sister and I have a mom, as we all do. That'll do it.

And they watched, tons of, I mean, it was like the perfect time for these types of movies and rom-coms and I was subjected to them against my will. At the time, I was the worst, most horrible thing. I think Legally Blonde was like torment for me. And I probably saw it so many times when I was little. But now, I guess I rewatched it with Nadia a few years ago. And I was like, dang, this is actually like a well-done comedy. It's a well-written movie. The script is pretty tight and has good. character arc for our hero and protagonist. It feels kind of progressive for its time. It doesn't really condescend or look down on the audience. I was just very impressed and happy with the movie that it was and it was a lot smarter than I expected. So I was like, this is really great.

Let's watch the sequel. And I was like, what happened? Now, we're going to talk about the sequel in a second. But I have something to share. I don't know if you guys are aware. Legally Blonde 1 came out in July of 2001. Legally Blonde 2 came out in July of 2003. Now, I don't know if you guys are history fans, but something happened.

9-11. 9-11. Now, I know. I was ridiculed a little bit when I talked about Fantastic for, you know, being in relationship to the Iraq War. But, guys, the Iraq War and its effect on Legally Blonde 2, there is something in the water that happened. You can feel it. There's a cynicism. There's a darkness in the sequel.

L. Woods is no longer, you know, our lovable protagonist, you know, who we sympathize with, who maybe is, you know, not super. self-aware, but is smart and a strong person. In the sequel, she is just a cartoon character, just a bizarre caricature of herself. All of her character development has been erased. Now, I think that post-9-11, you know, one could look at the World Trade Center as a fallace. Let's say like... What are you going? Okay. He's cooking.

Let him cook. Okay. Okay. No, no. And America's manhood was attacked. And there was, if you look at any of the culture around this time, hyper masculine stuff. One needs only to look at country music. I know Todd in the Shadows did like a video essay about this that was so illuminating to me of how all these popular female country stars like.

their careers tanked after 9-11. And there was way more popularity with male country music stars. People like Toby Keith, very like macho, you know, will put a boo in their ass because we're the US of A kind of shit. Interesting. This stuff is all interesting to me because, of course, I grew up in a very conservative part of this country. And this was like, you know, beamed into my brain from the youngest age of, you know, all this crazy culture stuff that I didn't understand what it meant until, you know, know, later on. But I feel like it's an interesting case study to see how, like, legally blonde, the first one, really feels like a movie of the 90s. And legally blonde, too, which deals a lot

with politics and with, you know, the culture of the time and tries to tackle these things from a unique angle. It feels like just a different world and things had changed. And there's darkness in there. Do you guys see what I'm cooking up here? I do. I do. I see what you're cooking. I hear that.

There's a bitterness in that second movie. Yeah. That warm on graying aspect of the second movie. I think like, and let's get back to the first one because there's, of course, plenty more to say about the first one because it is like a unique thing in itself. I really love how in the first film, the character, she has like a strong character arc. Like she starts out in the movie wanting to pursue Harvard and go to Harvard in order to win back her boyfriend who breaks up with her at the start of the film. And that's like a clear character path for her.

She is like a Beverly Hills blonde stereotype, materialistic, whatever. and the subject of like plenty of like ridicule and gentle humor but there's also like an intelligence there she's a smart person and part of the fun of that movie is just seeing her uh you know the expectations of her against what she's actually capable of and halfway through the movie like perfectly like it's a really well-structured screenplay halfway through the movie almost exactly is the scene where she talks to her boyfriend she realizes oh you don't respect me you know and you never will. And that's when she changes where her,

her, she starts to self-actualize. And then we get the murder mystery plot, which is fun and interesting in itself. And her skills are put to use in a unique way. And, like, that's what's fun and great about this movie. And part of what was good about the culture of the time is of that, you know what?

Like, girl power. Like, that's great. Like, you can be feminine and all these things. And, like, that doesn't define, or make you worse, you know, and you can be smart and a good person too, you know, like there's a scene where there's like a lesbian character and there, she's like assuming L is going to be, is going to be like mean and homophobic. And she isn't, you know, it's these other characters. So, yeah, it's kind of like a warm movie. It has like a nice message.

And, yeah. It's like it's representing the innocence and opposite. optimism of pre 9-11 America. Yes. Yes. Despite her being for the first act, well half of the movie, as you said, a spite-driven character almost entirely. Like that's like her entire motivation for going to Harvard is to basically mess with her boyfriend who broke up with her, but obviously. Well, at first she wants to win him back and then. I was thinking it should just like turn into Kill Bill, like halfway through the movie. It could you could just edit in Kill Bill.

Yeah. Like she, I want her to get real revenge. Yeah, but once it gets into that, that section where, uh, when Jennifer Coolidge comes in, that's where I'm, I'm quite into it. I think she's just such a strange, like, presence in the movie. The cadence and, like, delivery of lines is so unusual. And I really like her and Mike Lotus and whatnot. I dig her.

She's, like, one of the funnier parts to me. Now, I have a lot of nostalgia for pre-9-11 90s vibes for sure. But as a cynic, I will admit that, you know, there is something that kind of like irks me about, you know, being essentially like nepo propaganda. Like, we live in a meritocracy. And like, all you have to do is just like, if you want to get the best grades, all you have to do is just like try really hard. And sure, that's true for a lot of people. But like I feel like it kind of represented itself in a way of like, oh, but she's the dumbest. Oh, and then it turns out that

if you're actually really dumb and you still fail, that it's because you didn't try hard enough. Like, I don't know. But do you feel like the movie kind of comments, like that is true in some aspect, but do you feel like it comments on that at least somewhat where her ex-boyfriend, And it's revealed, you know, his dad had to make a call to get into Harvard, you know, so he didn't actually earn it. Yeah, true. No one earns anything except her. Yeah, and also Elle finds out, you know, the big turn later in the movie that the lawyer guy, whatever, leading the case, just hired her on the team because he wants to get in her pants. Yeah, messed up.

Or even at the beginning of the movie, well,'s dad by the pool with that martini, he's like, law schools for people. were boring, ugly, and serious. It's so, like, cartoonish and on the nose, it seemed like, yeah, that arc of her, self-actualizing, as I said, is, as you said, is the kind of heart of it and the best part of it to me. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's really, it's really well done, and it's very, it's very, it tells the story very simply, but very clearly, and it doesn't waste time very much. It doesn't turn it into just this, like, romantic plot because it starts out that way. But, like, Luke Wilson's character is kind of like this perfect person who's just very understanding and doesn't, you know, limit her capabilities.

Yeah, you know, but it's not really about, like, I know the last shot of the movie is saying, like, oh, he proposed to her. But that's not really the win of the movie. The win of the movie is her, you know, winning the case and then becoming the, lawyer and you know the the blending of like you can be this person who's very feminine and you can have all of these qualities that are looked down upon in this you know stuffy harvard setting and you can also be brilliant and smart and that's like a great feminist message it's a good movie that's not a perfect movie it is not by any means but i feel like it um it was a nice uh most moment in time and I think that I don't know if it I don't know if they could do this today in the

in the same way or how they would take that approach yeah yeah it would be tough so one of my favorite things about it is the the humor the the lines that they'd be pulling out the jokes that they're using this funny cartoonish framing together like the don't you look like a walking felony or I know you're upset about all this can't you just take a percassette There's like some really funny stuff in there Like when she screams I object to someone like wolf whistling her Like it That's funny to me

Oh yeah Some like cleverness in her My favorite line was with the Chuck boyfriend It's like you bitch Just from the background In the back of the That was a fun moment I would also like to point out

Her lipstick fucking pops You know Like it's it's it's fucking distracting but like not not in a way where I'd be like that's bad but in a way where it's just like very notable I was reminded of like the sin city color grading almost as if it were like a selective hue that was taken and exaggerated from the rest of the colors in the film no that's another great thing about the movie the uh the hair costumes makeup it's all really great.

But I got to say, I was super distracted by the director of Long Legs, just like being in this film. Osgood Perkins. It's just like, there. More like, oh, it's bad. I was just like, wait, what? Okay.

Yeah, that was pretty funny. I forgot that he was in this movie. Lots of good character actors. I mean, yeah, Jennifer Coolidge is great. But who's the woman who plays the professor? Gosh, she's in so many things, but she's really good in this. Yeah, I mean, I don't really have that much to say about it.

I feel like it does fit into just a very, like, stereotypical setup, like classic Hollywood rom-com of this time period. But I think it's held up very well because of its themes and because of like the humor. Yeah, the little comedy bits, bend and snap, like iconic things that have kind of like seeped into the culture. Jennifer Coolidge is in the fucking Minecraft movie now, you know? Like, yeah.

Like, just iconic things that I'm happy that we have this movie. I'm happy you guys watched it, even if it wasn't necessarily all your thing, Adam. Of course. And for a little bit of an edgy comedy from 2001. Not that much stuff that's like, oh, you can't say that anymore. I only know two. No, yeah. It's so true.

I was thinking about that also recently with what was this other comic oh white chicks I watched white chicks Nadia wanted to watch that with me I'm like there's no way this is aged well at all this is probably going to be so bad it kind of aged really well I mean not perfectly like there's still shit that's like oh damn like it's not great but it's uh it's kind of sort of like legally blonde in that way where it's like oh this kind of has a nice message and it's not horribly offensive. Yeah, it's a real coin flip with comedies from that time period. Like, you forget there's like an N-word in a Sean of the Dead and stuff like that.

It was funny. All right, we're not going to cater to the woke mob. That was funny. It'll continue to be fun. Bro. I was going to say about white chicks. I like that every scene was dinner and drinks. Every single scene.

Trying to get me to remember white chicks right now? No. I think that's got to be a new wreck. No. It doesn't got to be. I mean, sure, if you want, if you really want, there's no rules, I guess. Do you guys want to talk about the sequel? Of course I do.

What's our ratings for Legally 1, 2001? Oh, yeah, yeah. I give this a 5 out of 10. It's not bad. It's not great. It's, you know, it's a part of the time period. It's a little time capsule or whatever. It's got some charm.

I was not very invested. And, you know, perhaps this isn't the fault of the film itself. Perhaps it's more so the fault of other films kind of emulating and imitating it in a way where eventually something just becomes like. the feeling of of being generic because it was successful. But yeah, it just, it was, it was all right. Just not, not my thing. Yeah, for a second watch, I thought it was fun.

I'd probably give this a three styles and letters of box with a like. I liked how the, all the court cases like she's solved through something to do with, like, her link to fashion or style or hair care. I thought it was just a good gag overall and it doesn't really linger to me outside of that kind of first act it really like flies by once you

get to Harvard yeah I dig it fun cool well I'm glad I give this an eight out of ten nice and um nice I am excited to talk about the second one because I think there is so much to be said

uh I think it's easier to talk about movies that are have horrendous gaping flaws. So let's put our, let's get into the mindset here. 9-11 has happened. Yes. 9-11, 2001. In March 20th, 2003, America enters, America invades Iraq.

And in July of that same year, legally blonde two, red, white and blonde, hits theaters. How are we feeling about this movie? Painful. Difficult sit-through. Yeah. It's definitely worse. Uh-huh. You know, if I were more into and invested in the first film, I think that I would have been in more pain.

But I, you know, I was kind of amused at some of this film's shortcomings. Some very awkward editing choices. there was at least one moment where like the shots were distracting because they broke the 180 degree rule I'm like oh interesting you know like you're doing that like in the first 10 minutes I'm like oh wow you're really set in the tone experimental it was shoddy man it's kind of yeah it's it's fun when you just give a sequel like you give a successful

franchise or a successful IP to a different director and you kind of appreciate the previous director more because you're like oh there was definitely more competency there significantly more despite the budget is so much higher on the second one too but it looks like a straight to DVD like budget version of the first movie and yeah it feels so insincere and like

oh we've got to do the band and snap again and this time it's going to be the snap cup that's like not funny there are like no good jokes the only time I'm laughing is kind of at it with like Oh god, really? That was supposed to be a joke. Oh, that was rough. Lighting's kind of wonky. Yeah. So this movie sucks. It is so bad. And like, like yeah, you guys are talking about like the editing, the filmmaking. Yeah, it's definitely worse. It's not also interesting. It's not scope. I don't think it's what, it's a 16 by 9 change aspect ratio. So it does feel more like TV. But I think the the cruiser. element of what breaks this movie is first off like the tone how it relates to

Elwoods and almost like the fantastical elements and the break from reality in how it treats like the dog plot everything like that but mainly as a character Elwoods has no character arc she had her character arc in the first movie where she self-actualizes she becomes her own person and the second one she is in a frictionless world for the most part. She basically just has a mission. She wants to pass this bill. But with that, there comes no character arc. She wants to marry her boyfriend, who is perfect. Luke Wilson has like two scenes in this movie. He was shot in another city, probably. He just talked to her on the phone. But she has basically the movie is trying to do the exact same thing, except not let her have any character arc.

and replace the college setting for Congress, which is, of course, the same exact dynamic, you know, just like going to college. It's stupid, it's tedious, and the weird dog, gay dog plot is kind of like, yeah, like there's some weird self-conscious, like politics going on here. Like, I don't know.

It's such a weird movie. Bruiser's Bill. Bruiser's Bill. Yeah. The gay dog bill. All of the returning characters are like, they just feel like different people. Like Jennifer Cooley is just like annoying in this movie. The new crew that they try and establish in Congress.

It's boring. Just irritating, boring, nothing to him. No good lines, no good jokes. Yeah, just a stinker. It's all the same turns. Sally Field is like the law professor this time. And, you know, it turns out that she's actually working again. the bill because she made some deal with another, you know, with a lobby or something like that.

And then like the moral of it, I guess, is like, yeah, politics is bad and corruption exists. You know, that's not good. But we got to fight and do the right thing, you know, and it's like, I'm all for animal rights. I think that's great. And it makes sense for her character to make that the plot. But literally the way it's introduced in how the movie starts, it's like she has a perfect life, perfect world, everything's going for her. And then her dog, like, discovers, helps her discover that the dog's mom, well, first off, she needs to find her dog's mom,

right? And she hires like a genealogist or something to find the dog's mom, discovers the dog's mom is... Private investigator. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So already we're entering the fucking fantasy world. Like, what is going on? Like, there was some groundedness to the first one where it's like, yeah, she has a dog. That's cute, you know, and she's like obsessed with her dog, of course. But it's not like, the dog isn't like an autonomous, like leading the plot. Like, it feels cartoon world. And the dumbest bullshit should just get us into, okay, well, we need to get to Washington, D.C. So, oh, the dog has a mom and they find out the mom is being fucking tortured by, you know, a makeup company. Like, so let's do something about this. And this is

the plot. And we'll do the same exact. fucking plot, except without any of the tension and any of the character development. It's just fucking, it's so lazy. It's so lazy. I, for one, thought it was really cool to see all of this ancient technology that was one state of the art when this film was made. So that was a fun thing I got out of it. I was like, oh, that's an old computer.

That's an old phone. I feel like you should, I feel like you guys should be more mad about this. I feel like you need to be mad I don't know I can't even muster the energy That's my secret captain Where's the anger The whole animal rights plot

I was actually thinking that's That's kind of cool But like you've started the movie there Considering like I guess The fashion stuff The fast fashion like stuff That is jerked off in the first movie To kind of acknowledge like

Some of the darkness behind Some of these big like companies and corporations that make makeup and stuff like that would be kind of fun if you could turn that into like a funny plot or go somewhere with it but you're right they they do nothing with it like it's so like dry and boring like despite how colorful the outfits are there's nothing colorful about what they actually do with the humor like what is there a single good joke in this movie foe sizzle my hizzle god it felt like a time capsule like just in the worst way possible um just yeah

hearkening back to these like straight to DVD tier even though this did go to theater and made a lot of money it just felt super lazy these like cheap green screens and everyone's kind of like a pastiche of their old character it just feels like oh yeah that that optimism is gone maybe everyone was just like scared after 9-11 and they don't know they couldn't find that happiness anymore but uh yeah it's just something off about it something wrong yeah there's kind of like a self-loathing there i feel like especially towards Elle's character. Like, they're like, yeah, like, it's cute and everything, you know, feminism, girly, whatever. She can be however she wants.

But also, like, she is an annoying person, right? The writers are kind of like, yeah, she's like, she'd be an annoying coworker. Like, when she shows up at Congress, she just, like, immediately is like, okay, I need to decorate my desk with all pink. And it's just, like, so ridiculously over the top. I'm like, she wasn't like that in the first movie. Like, there were, like, little touches of it. But, you know, it's like, okay. Okay, let's just make this her thing of how she's just annoying about this.

And there's nothing else there. Yeah, like you're saying, Alex, everyone's just a pastiche of their former selves. And one of the weirdest sequences and plot developments is that she finds out her dog is gay. And also this congressman finds out his dog is gay. And there's like this gay panic for a moment. And it's played out so excruciatingly long for laughs. It's like, oh, they were helping each other. And they're like, oh, our dogs are gay.

What? And then in the next scene, remind me, am I forgetting or did I misread this or whatever? But the dog is, her dog is like in leather, like immediately in the next scene. Yeah. That was a weird moment. That was weird. She's like, oh, my dog's gay. I got to get him some, like, kink clothes or something.

Like, I don't know what the fuck that was all that. Like my most charitable interpretation of that would be Oh She's going from pink to black Because did she think that Did she think no Did she think the dog was a female before? No

I don't think so I forget if that was a bruiser No no she knew he was a guy Okay Yeah Also She's got him some leather Shout out to buy erasure

What if the dogs were by? Yes. You don't even know. You don't. Or pan. Or omnisexual. Exactly. I mean, the fact that it's, the fact that they make a whole big deal out of it just goes to show like the shift in culture because I feel like it wouldn't have even been like, like maybe that that could have been even a plot in the first one.

it but it wouldn't have been like put so much attention on it of like oh wow like the the dog is gay and the guy like freaking out oh my god our dog is gay it's like a big deal for some reason yeah it's like a big deal and then it becomes a plot development of him being like i don't care if my dog is is a girly little you know whatever like it's it's just so overblown and it feels like just in like the movie movie just insecure with being a legally blonde movie Like, I don't know. Which is weird, because there are a bunch of, like, gay jokes in the original. And some are pretty funny.

Like, it doesn't feel the same. Yeah, it does feel insecure. If we're talking about the style, there's like a really bizarre scene early on where it's shot handheld, for some reason. I don't know, like, it's veed. I was like weird like that. It just felt like, what? What is this to do with legal people? This is so strange.

This doesn't work. There were some handheld shots that were like, what? Yeah, it's very weird. Yeah. Also, there was, like, kind of a, like a punchline that gave some kind of transphobic vibes. Hi, Allison, it's cookie. True. The deep voice at the end of that, like, ooh.

Yeah, yeah. That's the joke. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That did age it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I, you know, I might be more mad about this, but I kind of, like, mentally checked out, like, about 30% through the film.

And I was just kind of there. Sure. but not sure yeah it's hard to feel engaged with this the like it's just not there's not the mystery of the first one that that it had in like the second half it's just like we need to pass this bill and let's do these things and you know summon girl power to to make congress work and America is an inherently you know great place and we can we can create change and it is clearly trying to do the mr smith goes to Washington um it they literally watch it in the movie. We see it. It's like very clear that they're trying to make this

comparison and it has this kind of like patriotic feel to it. I don't know if you guys have seen that movie. It's a great, I love that movie. But this does feel like it's trying to force like America is good. Let's, you know, there are some bad things going on in Congress, but we just need the right people to turn things around and we can make this country great again. What is funny about bruises bill? Like the first movie, the murder mystery is funny. Like there's countless jokes. It's a liposuction joke.

There's the gay joke. The boyfriend saying his name in court and all of that. Like, there are ongoing building jokes around the structure of that murder mystery, whereas the bruiser's bill? Like, what is the gay dog thing? And then I guess the million dog march. But what's funny about any of that? Nothing.

Nothing. Yeah. There's no, like, pay off or setup or... Yeah, Subalame. It's just kind of poorly realized. Like, starting from an idea that's not even that great, and then you still could have made something better out of it, but it just not the best writing, for sure.

Yeah. I mean, I was thinking while watching this, like, what would I have done if I were in control of Legally Blonde 2? I wouldn't have done taking this direction. I mean, I feel like you've got to find a way to give her a new character arc. Like she ends the last movie kind of perfectly of like she self-actualizes. She's going to get married to the really nice guy. So then what do you do?

I feel like in the sequel, you'd have to like build it to this next level of like she has become corporate. She's become, she's lost her the magic of El. Woods of, you know, the legally blonde attitude and some, something's got to change about her to rediscover that or something like that, but not, not this. I mean, that, I'm worried, like, what, because they're working on the third one. Is it just going to be, they really? I know, I think Reese Witherspoon teased like, oh, well, she's got to now run for president. I'm like, are we just going to do like a presidential, like campaign movie for L. Woods?

and it's just going to be the same shit but with, you know, the same type of jokes, but with being president? Like, I don't know. Like, House of Cards with L Woods. I'd watch that. I feel like it's a hard concept to build on. Yeah.

I would have made it rated R. Yeah, but Jennifer Coolidge, Jennifer Coolidge gets a hot dog, though, so that's pretty funny. Oh, that hot dog thing was such a fucking unsatisfying payoff. It looked dry as fuck. That's the hot dog you wanted? Yeah, it did look dry.

There were like no condiments on it or any. It looked it was small it was tiny. It was dry. That was like that you couldn't have gotten a better looking hot dog for that payoff Get it go to fucking Costco or some shit. Okay, I cared I cared because they were teasing the hot dog And then yeah, now I'm angry finally you got me So does this count does this count as continuing the spite era? I don't know do you want it to I don't know. Who's a recommendation I said this week? That's key.

I think it's Alex's. It's mine, yeah. I've got some options. He-he-he-he. Well, thank you. I don't know if you guys have any more commentary on these masterpieces. What else is I say, really? Like, we've covered basically the whole movie, you know?

Bruce's Bill, gay dogs. Gay dogs. Some, like, spy music and a scene. for some reason. I get that's kind of it. It looks worse despite the higher budget. I guess Reese Witherspoon got 15 million bucks. Fair play.

Whatever. Garbage. All right. Garbage. Thank you everyone for watching. Legally blonde and legally blonde two. Please leave all your questions about the Iraq War for me in the comment section. I will answer them.

Low four out of ten. Okay. I think I'd go a little bit lower, one and a half, star for me. Not even with a like, no like. Damn. Don't even like it. One out of ten. Damn.

Bad. Damn. Fuck George Bush. Fucking weird timing, too, because, like, I think this is news of, like, this day. Someone actually, like, some crazy person stabbed her. Reese, what's her name? Witherspoon? No, with a knife.

Wait, what? Gotcha. What? All right. It was just for buying. What the fuck? No. This is not.

That's not, that's not cool. That's not cool. That's fucked. It was funny. That is fucked. I think I stole it from someone else, though. She's a national treasure. You can't scare people like that.

Yeah. I was having palpitations. Well, I'm all right. What are we talking about now? Right, it worked. We're moving on. I guess it's question time. Yeah, it's question time.

Yeah, let's do some questions then from the Saldoncast community. Head over to the suggestion thread over on the subreddit. If you want to leave questions for future episodes, just like Butter 4-6-7 did. This kind of continues a little bit of that conversation we opened the episode on, bringing it full circle. Since we're at a halfway point of the decade, I have to ask, what would you guys consider your favorite and least favorite movies of the 2020s so far? So narrowing it down a bit more, not 25 years, just five. We got some good picks.

My mind, it flashed to zone of interest. That's a big one, I feel. That one's going to age very well, I think. Brutalus too. Might be a bit of recency bias, but I feel like that's a big one for me. I've re-watched queer a couple times, and I really feel like that's a special movie that not enough people have seen, but it's...

Absolutely excellent. And for a normally masterpiece, maybe like a Dune Part 2, I think that's a fantastic sci-fi spectacle film. I think deserves the title. What about some favorites from you guys for 2020s? Before we do some of the bads? Hundreds of beavers. Oh, yeah.

Tar. I'm thinking of ending things. The brutalist. Nice. I haven't seen a lot of these. I haven't seen tar. The substance. Poor things.

Yeah, I'd say poor things. Pooh things. Yeah. I just, I went to my IMDB and then just filtered all of the 10 out of tens I've given since 2020. Right. Yeah. And that was all of them aside from some Neil Breen films. So I hope to add more.

Yeah. What would you throw in there, Jake? man I'm looking you know through my letterbox and I'm like there have been some great movies of the past five years I'm gonna say oh let's see no once upon a time in Hollywood that's not 2019 so but it is marked by I guess the pandemic so it makes it a very weird past five years as well let's see a few of my favorites would be Westside Story um I would also put in their top gun maverick I would also put in there

Nice Skinnamarink Nice I would also put in there The Fablemans I would also put in there Babylon Johnwick

Chapter 4 Bo is Afraid and Killers of the Flower Moon Bo's Afraid Nice yeah I nearly note that one down Yeah I'm gonna join you with that one I'm gonna add that one to mine too Yeah shout out Bo's Afraid

dig that movie I feel like it's underrated at this point I do too it is weird oh challengers also oh challenges yeah yeah

what about least favorite then because there are some that really jump out to me in different ways actually like a more sort of smaller movie like a music

that's just like such a wow this is like insulting to in so many different ways like your approach to this did you guys did you guys review that on the channel

I don't like forget. We did it. Okay. I'm glad I missed that. It was great. Yeah. Yeah, that one's rough. But I've actually,

I'd actually bought it on iTunes and watched it a couple times because I think it's like spectacularly bad. Kind of, a funny way. It's like, wow. So you'll love it. Unlike something like a, like a Pinocchio live action, like from Robert Zanakas, where it just feels like this idea. It definitely defines part of the 2020s, like the, the petering out of that Disney live action stuff. Like, it's, you know, you've got your Aladdin's and your Mulans and Lion Kings,

but there was something about that Pinocchio one where it was like, they weren't even confident enough to put it out in cinemas. Like, it was straight to Disney Plus, and it's abysmal. Absolutely abysmal. In a similar way, something like Megalopolis, I feel. like just with the cachet of who it's coming from and the way that just thinks. I actually found a list where someone had put that on best of the decade, so maybe people feel different.

And last I'll shout out, Free Guy, just for like the product movie that too many people like, but just what it represents to me is just so, like, disgusting. Not just because of Ryan Reynolds, I just, come on, we can do better than this. Yeah. Ah, those are some good ones. Spiral from the Book of Saw is a plague on our society. Right, yeah, that's a good pick. Yeah, awful.

And it's the reason why we don't have more Tobin Bell Saw films. It's embarrassing. Genuinely, one of the worst pieces of shit ever made. Yeah, it's bad. And then a weird one from, I was going through my one out of tens, crazy samurai musashi kind of an unknown film that was just so poorly realized

2020 yeah it was like we're we're doing this all in one take it's an action movie and then it was just like the most larpy fucking like none of the hits felt real

it's like what's the point it was actually embarrassing and then it wasn't even in one take it wasn't even in one take And it wasn't it wasn't even like they cheated it They like they had it was so fucking It was one of the most irritating moments Of any film where they had this like fake

Like glitch effect like oh something went wrong with the TV or something I'm like that's what you did in this fucking samurai Period piece to Correct for the fact that you needed another take what disgusting movie nobody's seen it

yeah good by the sounds things unfrosted also unfrosted I'm kind of curious to watch that one still from auteur Jerry Seinfeldon what about you Jake well I think that

at least the first half of the 2020 is maybe all of the 2020s we have yet to see I think 2025 is kind of a crucial year for the superhero genre big budget superhero genre. So it's a crucial year and we're going to see what happens with Superman and with Fantastic Four. That might be what breaks it if they don't perform well. But yeah, there's just been some epic, epic, very classic horrible superhero movies. Thor, Love and Thunder. Madam Webb. Craven the Hunter. Captain America, Brave New World.

Of, still haven't seen that. Wakanda Forever, I think, is dog shit. Yeah, I agree, actually. Quantumania. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Just Shazam 2, just epic run of dog shit. Really, really bad superhero films.

And the ones that broke out and did well, like the Batman, Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse, they are kind of like anomalies or they're doing something different. Yeah, so that's what I do Of course there are like random ones that I Hate for Crazy reason Horizon that's one of my least favorite movies of the last few years Um

But yeah Wasn't there some drama with that though Oh my God Something happened with the Kevin Costner There was like a Lawsuits Yeah Yeah

Because that was supposed to be like a three part thing right Because I did watch that first one Yeah It was like a complete mess It was It was horrible. I was just shocked that they're... I'm still surprised there's people who are like,

oh yeah, it's actually pretty good and decent. I'm like, I feel like I've one of those things... Which maybe? Horizon and American Saga. Oh, I never left it. Yeah. Like they're super ambitious. You wanted to be five parts, right? Like five part, three hour long each.

I guess it's kind of his Melalopolis kind of attempt at an epic. Yeah, it looks like History Channel, and it just feels like a gigantic TV show that they tried to fit. And yeah, it's supposed to be four-part series. The first one came out, bombed so hard that they're like, wait, whoa, whoa, we can't release the second one. The second one was ready to go. They were going to release it a couple months later. They already shot it, right? Yeah. They already shot it. People have seen it at Ken. But they won't release it. And now, who knows if they will because of all of these lawsuits that are happening, you know, unpaid bills,

but also the woman who, the stunt woman who claims, you know, to have been violated during a scene. I mean, people can read into it. It's kind of crazy. Yeah, it's horrible. But, yeah, so who knows what's going to happen with that? But it's definitely one of my least favorite movies of the 2020s. Very nice. Also shout out like a Drosset World Dominion type thing.

Um, by trying to force awakens like, trust, like, bring it, bring in Laura Dern out and, come on, man. Sam Neal. No. Who likes that movie? Is that anyone? Nobody liked it. I don't think there's anyone. No one.

Everyone's seen it. No one cares about it. Yeah. It made over a billion dollars. That's my least favorite genre is movies that, that break a billion dollars that nobody likes. Yeah. Like, you, you all knew it was going to be. bad. People were talking about how bad it was, but everybody felt compelled to watch it because it was

the third in a trilogy. Like, it seems like, Minecraft. Seems like everybody's got fucking sunken cost fallacy. Like, well, I already watched the other ones. Fucking rise of Skywalker, Jurassic World Dominion. Like, there's no excuse. Nobody enjoyed those. Not a single person liked this movie. Yeah, there is no excuse. There's absolutely no excuse. Are you going to be checking out the new Jurassic World? Both of you I have no plans to If I do it will be on digital I might do

I wish I didn't like dinosaurs I feel like if next episode I feel like if Adam showed up To one of these episodes and then like yeah I just went out and saw Jurassic World I think he'd been replaced by a clone I'd be really scared You know the reason I saw Jurassic World Dominion

is because the previous one was so funny bad That I was hoping for more of that And the way that they ended it I was like Oh it's good you They're gonna be Dinosaurs and they're bugging people in the Normal society

But then they didn't even fucking deliver on that They fucking pushed out so hard Mm-hmm They didn't even deliver See now I was getting mad On the basic premise That they clearly set up at the end of the previous film Yeah I hear you

I'm right that with you Hmm Disgusting Absolutely disgusting A little bit like this weird question from minimum plenty, 6895. Hello, Adam, Alex, and BBS Survivor. I'd like to preface my question by apologising for the previous one. It was not my intention to be uncharitable towards Adam when formulating the baby-brained horror trope question.

Sorry, Adam, I simply wanted to make you guys laugh. On to my new question for Jake. Since you are an American, I think I speak for all other American listeners when I ask, what your favorite method of consuming corn syrup is. As I'm sure you're aware, our great nation spends billions of dollars subsidizing corn farms across the Midwest. And the sweet nectar of the corn must be injected into a huge chunk of our foodstuffs. I personally enjoy hostess snowballs and nerds gummy clusters. So what is the corn of chourn of choice?

Do you like sodies, sodie pops? This is frankly, this is frankly an offensive question. You know, I know people like to think us Americans, oh, we're so fat and we eat corn syrup with 90% of everything. Well, it's actually 100% of everything. We have no fucking choice, all right? So it's a plague upon us. I don't know what is or isn't corn syrup, you know? I eat something I think is fine.

And then it's like corn syrup. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess it's a fair question. So I don't have any favors. I mean, I'm vegan. So I have already an unusual diet for an American. Exposed. Exposed.

So yeah, there you go. I don't have an answer. Is the corn syrup soda that much worse? I don't think I've ever tried it, even when I've been in America. I don't think. Yeah, it doesn't taste as good, in my opinion. I'd be curious to try. I will say, when we went to London, it was,

like heaven for for me and Nadia being vegan because we we'd go to like fast food food place and it's like oh here's all this vegan I'm like what yeah there's heaps of options in London oh it's crazy we're like this is amazing you know here in Washington I guess there's some good places in Seattle but we don't live you know we're like an hour from Seattle so we're just eating grass in the yard yeah really if the big city's not caught up yeah well even your livestock doesn't eat grass, they get fed corn. Right. The corn cycle.

Wow. It's a vicious cycle. I guess seeing as well on these Jake questions, I'm curious about this one from silver champagne stars. A few years on from the childhood trauma series, do you have any others you'd add to the list, especially for Jake, as I don't believe he's ever shared his answers. So what media, what films traumatized you as a child? I don't think I have any new ones to add that aren't already known. Wait, which ones have you guys talked about being traumatic for you?

Dark Crystal was a big one for me, labyrinth. Pengoo. Pengoo, yeah. This is that an episode. Yeah, there was, I did a childhood trauma series on my channel of, like, things that don't scare me as an adult, but, like, fucked me up when I was a kid in some way. They included like some goose bumps episodes There was the stop motion

Reindeer thing The Rudolph Oh those are cute Like the Yeti in that was just fucking terrifying to me Yeah Pingu Robs, yeah There's something about stop motion and the way it moves Like when it's done

It can be so scary Yeah It's terrifying Like that's still scary Yeah. These are good ones. I mean, I don't know. I can't really think of any off the top of my head. I mean, it was probably some random bullshit. I was such a scaredy cat kid. I was like everything scared me, horror trailers, whatever. Oh, maybe like, you know that show Heroes? That was on NBC all those years ago. Scared the hell out of me when I watched that. But, Siler, whatever it was called. Siler, yeah, yeah. My dad used to, like, we watch an episode, and I'd be, like, scared to go up stairs alone,

and he'd be like, oh, it's fine, it's fine. And he'd point at my forehead and do that, like, little, like, cutting my head open. Like, she's going to take my superpowers. Dumb shit like that. Psychological torture. I like it. I remember watching scary movie. It was on TV once, and I could not, like, distinguish that it was supposed to be funny.

It was just horrifying to me. Sorry, what age were you when you watch a story? scary movie. I was on TV or something. I don't know. Yeah, what age were you? I have no clue. Probably pretty young.

I had really no limits on what I could watch. It was just all whatever was on. You know, I remember distinctly something, though, that really traumatized me. It was Halloween 5. Was on TV or whatever during Halloween season. was just like transfixed. Specific. One of the worst ones in the series, but there's like that sequence where the little girl is

like hiding in the air vent or air shaft or something and Michael Myers is stabbing it. She's like trying not to get stabbed. That's like a good, thrilling little sequence, but it made me scared. Fair enough. Very nice. Yeah, I think my list was thoroughly extensive enough. Yeah, same. I don't know if there's more that I could add to it.

Okay. Because I did try really hard to like delve into my, the recesses of my brain to find more as I was making it. Into those traumas. Yeah. Yeah. Deeply buried traumas. Yeah. I'm in a similar place.

Let's do this one then. Disabled nerd. Hello. Hope you're all well. The new how to train your dragon live action remake is out and appears to better reception than prior remakes. I haven't seen it. But it was one of the directors of the original returning as apparently mostly shot for shot. Does this change the conversation about live action remakes when the original creator returns,

or is it still a soulless cash grab with little artistic value? I'm curious because I can't make up my mind myself. My mind myself. Yeah. It does not change the conversation. It's the same conversation. No, I think it only would if maybe the shots were different, if maybe it was the same director and they did something slightly different with it, but the fact it is a complete shot-for-shot

remake. It just seems like the gold the goldfish brain like, oh, we've forgotten that Disney's already gone through all this. Now it's just DreamWorks Town to do it with their beloved movies. And I guess maybe they'll do Shrek live action and everyone will love

that and it'll be a shot for shot remake. It's, I don't know, it might even be like worse than the, you know, like the jungle book John Vivero, at least that was kind of different you know like it made some different choices it wasn't literally shot for shot which feels so kind of cynical and like we've got a theme park to promote like let's just play this as safe as possible yeah justify the existence of remaking it have a reason for doing it other than money and then it won't be a soulless cash grab right like it's not like oh they would have filmed it in live action but they just like it was it was impossible at the time and now now they get to fully realize

What the product should have been. No, that's not the case. They're just doing a safe enough Live action remake of this of Lilo and Stitch. We almost had them, you know with snow white bombing. We almost fucking had them to the point where they would stop doing this. It was teacher And you assholes all had to go see Lilo and Stitch and how to train your dragon and now they're gonna keep doing them forever. So don't fucking complain about it if you're one of the people that went because you voted for it. Okay? So I didn't, I didn't see it,

but Nadia did. She saw it. What did she think? The same week. She saw it the week. I saw material as she saw this, because we had to split duties for the movies. But she,

she doesn't have the kind of, like she loves this movie and she doesn't have, I think, the kind of principled nature, perhaps of Adam regarding these. I think she was, she's looking at it simply as like,

does it work as a film? And for her, absolutely worked. I didn't watch it, but that's kind of what I heard from people, is that it's like, if you like the original, it's going to work on you. And so she very much enjoyed it. And I think most people aren't really thinking about it in a broader sense of like, well, you know, if we see this, we're going to get more of this type of stuff and maybe we want some new stuff. But I think it's like it's a lose-lose. It's almost like, what's the point of even asking, like, is it good or bad? Because it's like, all right, either they try to do two,

changes like Snow White. Like I kind of respect Snow White for at least trying to do something a little bit with the material different. But people were furious at that for making these changes. And if this one, it's such a recent and beloved animated film that it's like, what could they do? Like, what were they going to do? Make a big narrative shift or do some kind of like, like at least with Snow White,

they have like a hundred years of like cultural changes and different ideas about, you know. all these stuff like that you could take a different take on it. But what could there be a different take on how to train your dragon? There is like not enough time has passed. So you just do the exact same thing. And hopefully it works pretty similarly. So it is, I'm super cynical about it. I don't think they should be doing it.

I think it's like boring bullshit. But, you know, that's what they're doing. I don't know. I just, I wish people understood. that we could, like we collectively have the power to incentivize studios to fund more original projects. Like people complain that we don't have like fucking original movies right now, right? Or that they're very infrequent or that they don't get enough funding, right?

Like we literally have the power to change this. It's just none of you actually want to apparently. No, I want a Harry Potter again. I want a TV show Harry Potter. The thing is, I don't think we should be, I don't think scolding people is going to do anything about it because no one's, you know, the people seeing these movies are, you know, families and they have kids and they want something to do with them, whatever, I think. I'm saying the people that are complaining about it specifically. Okay, yeah, yeah, if you're complaining about it, then yeah, do something. I mean, you can go see something better, or not even like, just go see good original movies.

That'd be my suggestion for people who are. are sick of this, you know, just go throw your support behind good original films and they'll make more of those. But it's kind of like, yeah, you know, most people aren't even aware of what's going on. And if you have a little kids and stuff and you need something to do with them, you know, in the summer, it's like, this is what's in theaters. There's not a ton of options for families unless you stay home and watch stuff on Disney Plus. Like, that's why kids movies, even like mediocre shit, ends up like being a sleeper hit because

there are kids that exist and they need to go see stuff. Yeah, because it's the kids movie in theaters. Yeah, it's in theater, something to do. Yeah, that's the formula to success, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Pixar's Eleo came out. No one's watching it. The marketing was really bad, though.

It does look like a bad movie. The marketing was really bad, very, very bad. Do you think they're deliberately trying to fucking bomb those? Like, is Disney just like... No. That's a fun conspiracy, though. Because Disney didn't promote it at all What's the incentive?

Like, well, maybe he'll work harder on Toy Story Hey guys, you better make some more Toy Stories I'm waiting for Pixar to start doing that, start remaking their old movies Like Toy Story 1 Redux or something Safer Yeah Nostalgic, you get the nostalgia factor Yeah

That's, I see that happening. Yeah, that's a whole other thing. Pixar is, yeah, it's depressing. What's going on over there? Yeah. Shouldn't have went woke. That's the problem. Yeah, damn, that's it. Now you're broke. That is the problem. Um, I'm curious about this one from Frosty Story 887. Last one. Last one. If that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. That he was religious when he was 13. So I was wondering if his religion had affected how he watched movies. For example, did he avoid watching R-rated movies because of his faith or did he watch them anyway but felt religious guilt for Alex and Jake did your upbringing affect the way you watched movies you just kind of mentioned

it Jake how you didn't really have restrictions on stuff you're watching growing up and I didn't either like I was watching like alien and predator and all the classic 80s like super hyper violent movies when I was like 11 so I never really cared about that sort of thing yeah uh culturally At least in Alberta, there wasn't like a strong vibe of like, if you watch a horror movie, you're going to hell. There was mostly a strong vibe of if you're gay, you're going to hell. So that's what affected me more. And in terms of being religious, like, it was more of like just a, that's the default. That's the cultural expectation, right?

It wasn't out of like a passion for the scripture or anything. like that. It was more just this is what you do and this you're not exposed to other ideas so you didn't really have a choice and then of course it's comforting to pretend to believe like there's someone watching out for you in some sort of existential

way right? So yeah I don't think it affected my movie stuff is that expectation not for it to be somewhat more puritanical though like if if that was the expectation for what to be puretack if if what you were raised in

was that expectation of, that's just how people are. So surely the expectation would be to lean towards more sort of puritanical media, that there would be something inherently bad about going to something a bit more violent or sexual or whatever. Yeah, I don't know. There's definitely parts of communities where that is the case. Like I have like an uncle that was like super fundamentalist believes in the rapture shit. And I have a very distinct memory of like,

visiting my cousins at their place. And like, there was one, there was one day where, like, they turned out all the lights in the basement and played some, like, cheesy fucking religious song about, like, like a really sad, sappy song about,

like a shooting where a guy was going up to, yeah, some famous, uh, thing that happened in, I think, maybe in the States, I don't remember, but some guy was like going up to the kids in college and being like, do you believe in God? And if they said yes, he'd like shoot them or something.

And so there's been like movies made about this and stuff. And like Christians love to, you know, have that on repeat to, you know, continue the persecution complex ideas. But yeah, it was so interesting, like looking back on that retrospectively, I'm like, oh, wow, like we literally just like went over to their house and they were like doing weird propaganda kind of stuff. That's what I was like their whole life. So in that sense, yeah, if I was raised in that kind of environment, then maybe. But it was more just like, oh, you go to church because you're supposed to sort of thing. It wasn't as intense as something like that.

Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting. Oh, thank you. A bit of a low drop Yeah Did your mic just get a billion times louder?

Yeah Who? Did you? You, Jake Me? Yeah, say some more things Some more things I didn't change anything

There's some guy out mowing the lawn Somewhere It's your mic Your mic sounds different now Well we're like Basically at the end of the episode So if something happened It's not a big deal

Sorry Yeah maybe you hit like a button on your interface or like a button in your software. Are you sure it's not the sound of this guy like mowing his lawn? I don't know, maybe that was, it was really, we heard that and it was really loud. So I don't know if there's, whatever, it doesn't matter. Well, I'll listen to it.

Yeah, okay, sorry. I figure out if it's okay. Do it live. Fuck it. You sound crispy now. Yeah, you're crispy right there, mate. Not in the M. Night way, though. No.

No. We'll figure it out later. Run some tests. What's our recommend? Wait, are we done with questions? Yeah, you sound. Yeah. You sound like your gain has been turned up quite a lot.

But we'll, don't worry about it. It's a funny way to end the episode. Sounds really good now. Oh my God. Damn. ASMR. As my Jake right now. All right, Alex.

Okay. Hit us with the whatever you want. Okay. So I'm going to do what's kind of like, a halfway point of a spite recommendation. Okay, great. Because we all know the ultimate spite recommendation would be like the original Star Wars movies, right? But I'm not doing that, don't worry.

But that would be spiteful towards the audience who would have to listen to me just checked out the entire episode and not really say anything. So if you want to hurt the audience, then go for it. Yeah, I'm not doing that for the record. What I am doing, though, is pulling Mel Brooks movie Space Bulls. Oh, that's all about it. maybe I'll like it maybe I'll like it I've never actually seen it what you've never seen space balls

I feel like I did when I was younger I've never seen somehow I haven't seen it despite like how much style was media like I've enjoyed over the years I've just I feel like I've absorbed most of it through osmosis but this announcement of the sequel I feel like yeah I'm really curious how this holds up I like some other Melbrook stuff that's good timing me too I haven't seen it in years but I watched it a ton when I was a kid, so this is exciting. Awesome. So we'll have a bunch of different perspectives.

Nice. Spaceball, Mel Brooks, 1987. Cool. Well, let's go. That is a real halfway. Can create it, of you. If you don't want to be spoiled for Spaceballs, 1987, watch it before the next episode comes out. These come out every two weeks.

And have you noticed that we haven't been doing sponsors or anything? fucking help us out. Okay? You can go to sardonicast.com, sign up for premium. It's only a few dollars a month. You get the episodes early. They're ad-free.

Patreon.com slash sardonicast will do the same thing. Or click the members button below the video. And I saw some comments. Some people are still confused about the members thing. So YouTube doesn't allow background play on members' videos, which is why, for the members on YouTube, we also make a community post with a link to the unlisted video version. So if you sign up as a member on YouTube, right?

Very convenient. The button's right there. You can still do background playback. You just need to go to the community post tab. And there's a link right there. So click on that one. Okay? There's two different uploads.

So you can figure it out, please. Click it, man. You know, I wonder if we should just stop even uploading. Let us know in the comments for the members if we should just stop uploading the members version video and just only do the community post because it's the same video, just one's an unlisted link. True, we already have the unlisted link, yeah.

That might be a bit more streamlined. Yeah, like let us know, as long as you have your notifications on for videos and posts. So make sure you click the bell and make sure you're getting notifications for posts as well, then that should be fine. So let us know,

let us know in the comments on the members thing. And that might actually be the better solution if people are accidentally clicking on the members video upload thinking they can do background play and then they can't. I wonder. I wonder.

Yeah. Well, let us know. We also have a Sardonicast highlights channel. Check it out. Subscribe. Do whatever. And, yeah, have a happy space balls. Happy space balls.

Have a happy day. Happy Alio, everybody. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're all going to watch that. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye.

Bye.