Sardonicast - Sardonicast 213: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, The Drama, Uglies

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Extended, ad-free version at https://sardonicast.com or https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Merch: https://ymsmerch.com/products/normie-masterpiece-sticker-sheet 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 Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@YMS Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial 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 Intro 2:02 The Super Mario Galaxy Movie 27:01 The Drama 1:04:01 Uglies 1:32:36 Questions 2:09:31 Recommendation + outro

Three, two, one. Use your words. That was a quote from the drama. I watched it last night, actually. Yes, so did I. It was fun. Was it a relaxing time for you? Yeah, it was actually.

Yeah, figured. I'm Adam from your movie sex. This is Sardana cast. I'm Alex from A.E., and I'm going to say, It's a me. C.P. Yeah. I'm changing the culture.

It rhymed. That was sweet. Oh, God. I'm Jake from Man Caring Thing, and I'm going to say, all my life, I wanted to be a Normie. I thought it would change everything. In my world, you're too gay to lift your entire life until Laverne Cox lets you watch sinners in Project Hail Mary.

Then you're allowed to ascend. You can ride skateboards and have gold eyes and watch everything everywhere all at once with your normie friends. But it turns out, it was all a lie. The Normies were lying to us. The Normies were brainwashed, convinced that F1 was God-tiered dad's cinema, when in reality they were the most gay and the weakest physically because they were being denied true cinema.

Well, my name is Avatar Chud, Phoenix Rising, and this is how I became a Normie masterpiece. That's from the film, Uncleys. Yeah. Very nice. I didn't. I think I wrote that at like midnight last night while I was watching the film, and I did not read it back until right now.

Oh, that's perfect. That's awesome. Sorry, everyone. No, that was great. Yeah, that was from the film. Thank you. Yeah, well, this is an episode, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. What would make it not? I mean, well, some episodes are technically episodes. This one's like undeniably an episode. This is an episode, episode. We're having an episode. We're having an episode. This is episode.

Yeah, that's how it feels. Can I ask you guys a question? Yes. You know, okay, Super Mario Galaxy movie, it's not good. But it's not like it's a significant step down from the first one. Did everyone just kind of like stop giving these movies a pass all of a sudden? Yes. Yes.

No, that's literally what fucking happens. There's like this weird psychological phenomenon where when something is new, like, especially if it's a remake or an existing IP or something, right? Like suicide squad, the exact same thing happened, where as it's in theaters for the first like week or two, there's this rabid fan base that just will not let down. And they will not accept if somebody else doesn't like the thing because they take it personally and they feel like it invalidates them as a human being because they've attached their identity to this product for some reason. I mean, that's also a byproduct of just how we raise kids on products now. But anyway, that just fucking happens.

It literally happens. People will go like, oh, yeah, I guess it wasn't that good. Especially with like a Nintendo, right? Okay. Like it's often like fostered in your childhood. You have like a strong emotional attachment. Yeah, people are very intense Nintendo fans and, you know, other big franchises. It seemed like people were just, people were just happy that it was a movie, like the first one.

They were just like, hey, it's a movie, it's fun. They showed the thing. They showed the thing. Like they did their job. And now the second one, they did exactly the same thing. And everyone's just like, this is like nonsense garbage. Like none of this makes sense. You know what I think got them?

The fact that Rosalina had such little screen time is what I hear. Is that? That's true. They wanted more real. Yeah, they betrayed the fans. The weird bind they're in with this movie is that they specifically named it after Mario Galaxy, a game from what, 2007, 2008? So as Target audience that it's kind of channeling are like 30-year-olds like me who grow up with this game and love this game.

But most of the movie is about just random Mario references from the past few years more so than Galaxy. So I don't even know why you would even do that with your fans that this is Illumination, right? They can't even do the key jangling reference stuff, right? I mean, I listened to your review because I was, and I didn't realize like the amount of vitriol you had for this film because I was like, okay, yeah, it's pretty. lame like but it's pretty much the same movie but you're like I love super Mario galaxy like they could have done all these things and I was like oh that's interesting and I was getting more of a perspective of people who are like really big fans of these games I've never played Super Mario Galaxy you know I'm I'm

I just never had the opportunity or whatever not like I was imprisoned or anything as a child but I just didn't do it sure and so getting that perspective really helped and I could understand why people would be pissed in the same way I was kind of pissed about Minecraft because I was like you had all this opportunity to like do something interesting. Yeah, it's a similar thing and people write it off

or hand wave it with like, well, it's for kids. It's a kid's property, whatever. Let's just be fine with all these kids movies just being adverts. Food fights for kids.

All the adverts before the movie were like, hey, buy a switch and play this phone thing and da-da-da. And then the movie starts and it's just like more ads basically.

It doesn't even feel like a movie. There's no balance of like them caring about this as a film at all. It barely cares about Mario or any of it. And it doesn't need to be this bad. It doesn't. There's no reason for it to be this bad.

I was thinking the other day just how insane it is that, like, us as a species having this strong psychological attachment and, like, instinctual defense protocols for brands being entirely a result of just raising children on brands. Because there's something instinctual in our brains that makes us want to protect things that we grew up. up with, right? And it might evolutionarily be that that should be, like, parents or community or like a sense of belonging or place or tradition or, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But now we raise kids on television and video games. And, you know, like there's different mediums and different stories. And I'm not trying to say all those things are bad. But as a byproduct, the unintended byproduct is because all of this advertising

is just bombarding children at every possible step including just the brands themselves being the things that they play. The attachment in their brains gets imprinted onto fucking brands. Isn't that insane? Like it happens to me too.

I fucking love Pokemon and the Lion King and shit. It's just insane that this is where we are. It's been going on for a very long time. I mean, speak for yourself about raising your kids on brands. I'm raising my kid on Pasolini films. Oh shit. Yeah. So, I mean, it just, I don't know. At this point, this cycle just keeps going on and onward, like the nostalgia cycle. And it's become like inescapable. So the thing is though,

like Mario, while it is a brand, it's also like a creative, you know, thing, you know, something that's good and that people really enjoy. And really good stuff has come out of it. So it's like you could feel in the movie this push and pull between like, this sterile corporate product and people who are like, hey, let's try to do something interesting. Like, let's try to have Bowser have like a dynamic with Mario and Luigi. But it's like barely. And it just gets crushed.

It just gets trashed. Because, yeah, the games are a gold standard. So you would hope that Nintendo being evolved the way they are, they would want to elevate it or have it stand for something outside of it just being an advert for theme park. You know, like I'm saying it again, it doesn't have to be this bad. And I guess they've finally learned these big companies, like how to do this, how to maximize engagement, basically, because it's not like it's the first attempt at a Mario movie. We had the Super Mario Bros. 93 movie, but it's just kind of clowned on because it was like, this doesn't marry. This doesn't look like Mario.

It doesn't feel like Mario. And it was so weird and strange and honestly way more interesting than the elimination ones. But you could kind of, yeah, just forget about that. And then I guess fast forward a few decades. And so as long as it looks right, I guess the Sonic movie. taught studios this lesson that there's a fan base to tap into just from as Adam is saying this kind of branding the recognizable visuals in a Mickey Mouse kind of way and that's all these films are especially when it it wouldn't be that hard to make a merry galaxy movie it wouldn't but it just can't

it just has to fast forward everything it has to have all the Nintendo characters it's got to tease these crossover events and it's just about like the leo decaprio pointing at the screen like reference thing and it's it's just so it's just a visual bombardment of just iconography just smeared across the screen with like screaming and it does barely a film it's just like this advert it's obnoxious but it's like they're not incentivized to do anything interesting because it works it's gonna make a billion dollars because people fucking bought the tickets and they settled for fucking Chris Pratt voice sorry CP yeah I won't dead name but all the voices are even worse in this one it's like so half-fast and don't really seems to care about anything. It's lazy. I don't think they're

inspired very much by the screenplay and their characters. No. But I guess people are saying it is significantly worse. There are some things that are, you know, like, sure. They address the music thing a little bit. That's maybe the one thing they improved at the original, where it actually has a bunch of compositions from the games that they use and kind of remix and the score is decent. It's okay. They did put one needle drop in there with like Yoshi walking around to a biggie song, but it's an illumination movie, so what do you expect? That's going to be in there.

But it's just about nothing. There's no arc. There's no like moments, really. It just does just feel like a string of vignettes or references. Yeah, we'll just turn into Yoshi's Island for 10 minutes for no reason. Like it's, yeah. Well, it seems like what works for the game, and is like the fact that these characters

don't really change and they're just kind of like static characters but also like that doesn't work in a movie and if Nintendo is saying hey Mario can't do this Mario can't be in a relationship with Peach it's like why are we teasing that? Why are we setting that up if you can't follow through on any of that you know and

Bowser's son like they're setting up things I like the scene with the puppet show you know like there was some cute stuff being developed and I was like oh where's this headed I kind of like this there's like an interesting conflict here with Bowser who's like, you know, the best character in the movie. And then it just the third act, it just is action and that's it. And it just wraps up so fast. It's really bizarre. Like, I really wonder if there were changes made like late in the process where they were like,

okay, never mind, we're not going to be doing these things. Yeah, I can't decide what it wants to be. It's just like rainbow vomit all over the screen. Yeah. Yeah, it's like no main character. It's just a bunch of references. Always goes for cute. you know, which is okay to a degree with this target audience, but man, like, that's the only gag they have in all their movies. It's like, look, a cute thing with the baby voice being a baby. Look, it's a baby T-Rex. Look, it's baby Mario. Look, it's baby.

It's just like everything's a baby constantly because it's like the baby movie. You can't call it that. But also, I'm going to use that as an excuse for why it's not good. And you should lower your expectations because it's a baby movie. But you can't call it that. Um, there were some fun, okay, to be fair, you know, as a, a fan of baby movies. Like, it, it had some fun action, you know, like there were some interesting, it literally had a casino planet subplot like The Last Jedi, you know, that was just like pointless, but it was

just like a kid's movie for babies. Yeah. The casino world. Yeah, the Kalshi ad running along the bottom of the screen was really weird. Yeah. Um, asking us to bet on who wins. Um, anyways. Yeah, it's, it's, just it really had nothing inspiring or fun it was diverting for like i don't even think it was 90 minutes it's really short um and nothing new or fun was at it it was just like it you know what if my son was old enough to go see this movie then it would be like great here's some babysitting for 90 minutes he can just we can just go watch this movie yeah and i'd just leave him there and leave him there while he watches it because i'm not watching that shit um but um

I did watch it, and it was fun time. And it wasn't the, like, I feel like, again, like, it is basically as good as the first one, which was not good, but people were treating it like it was kind of better than it really was. This one's doing the exact same thing, adding nothing new. Maybe it's a little worse story-wise, but they were both thin, super, you know, story-wise. It's just kind of like fun references and action. And this one did the exact same thing. Like, I don't know.

Why would you, I don't get why people are mad. Like, what did you expect? What did you expect from your Mario movie? I guess what bugs me more is just like, why do they, why did they choose that name? If like that game meant nothing to anything really to do with the music. Focus tested it with people. Yeah, so people buy the ticket. So they can throw in Starbucks.

I get it. I get it. It's like pointless getting mad at illumination at this point for this shit. But this game, right, it's known for how inventive and creative it is. And this music that comes from it. And it's so hilarious that it's all the. with a character kind of as goofy on its face as Mario. I love that about that original game.

And there is something, it's exactly what we're saying about that Minecraft movie, where there's like a range of emotions you can get out of the original property that they're just not interested in exploring. And I just, I'm so against just, yeah, it's, everyone knows it's going to be bad and it's shit. So let's just be okay with that. I just feel like it doesn't need to be that bad. And yeah, it is kind of interesting. The range of emotions doesn't matter as much as the range of dollars.

Yeah. I don't mean what in like one weekend. It's hundreds of millions. Eight billion dollars. It's going to be one of the biggest movies of the year. But I'm just kind of like, what are they planning to do with this? Because they've already kind of shot their load early. They're just like blowing all these references.

Like they're running out. Desert. They did the desert. They did like a bunch of Mario Odyssey locations, which was, why didn't they just call it the Odyssey movie? I don't... Water level. Don't get it.

Literally every new character introduced was like, hey, here's a cute character. They're not going to do anything. They're just going to be around. Here's Yoshi. Okay, here's Fox McLeod. Like, Fox McLeod is so funny because they're setting up a dynamic

that could be like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker where it's like, oh, they're kind of competing over Princess Peach or like Mario's like, dang, he's like so cool. He's going to get with Princess Pete. But it's like, they neutralize it immediately. He's just like, oh, I like this guy. There's no conflict here.

And there's no. there's no world building. It doesn't care about like explaining or exploring like a world or an atmosphere in any way. It's just things are as they are and you only know that they are because of the video games if you played them. Like did you even understand like what was being referenced as someone who hasn't played them? Like oh that power up you can just like fly around now I guess and it must be so random for someone who doesn't have the context of the games. No, I'm like oh I remember playing you know, the game where he gets the firepower and he just throws little fireballs.

Like, yeah, the cool. Okay, there's Yoshi. I know Yoshi. He poops eggs or whatever. Like, it's great. But everything else, like all the little things. And there were people in my screening who were kind of like going like,

oh, they were doing, you know, they were soy face, sent pointing at the screen. Yeah. Wow. They were having fun. Yeah. They were like Pride Rock. Yeah, but I do wonder, like,

what do they do? do these Mario Odyssey movie? Do they do, like, what is your, what are in your opinion? Do you think they're going to do next? I mean, they'll do, what, so have, Wario and Waluichi, probably. That'd be a big, like, marketing push. Can have those as, like, villains for a movie. No, they haven't done those.

No, it's kind of the big thing, the only thing left, really. They had, like, warped in this movie. Like, it's not like the deep cuts on the table. I don't know. I don't know when audiences would get sick of it. Do you think they're just going to be able to make Mario movie? with just random references just from this point forever because there's always going to be kids this brand is like Mickey Mouse it's an incredibly powerful brand like

this is just a new thing now I guess yeah and they've got the Universal Studios expansion of the Mario Nintendo stuff you know I don't know if you guys have been to Universal lately but they've got like a whole Nintendo world so yeah well that's a big impetus for these movies right it was like the Australian Dragon remake that was a big reason for that being made. Same with this. It's like a way, a lot of Disney movies too. But at a certain point, it's like, you're not really making anything new that you can make theme parks about. Like, you're stuck in this kind of space of just working in the same zone for years and years and years. And you get into an issue like that, that Harry Potter remake that

we're saying, where it's stylistically, like, all kind of trapped into being quite similar to those original movies because they have all these theme parks that have this iconography that just has to constantly be referenced and exist in the exact same way. So it can never really explore anywhere interesting from that point or get weird or get different and make a new thing. So it is just, yeah, this kind of brand nightmare world. There's so much fear. Yeah, there's so much fear in this movie. Like, they're just afraid to do anything new.

And the thing is that I don't understand is that like the bar is not super high for the sequel to the Mario movie. Like people are just like they're willing to put up with stuff that's not good because, they want to like it a lot. And also people are going to see it. People are going to buy tickets no matter what. If they put in a little bit of complexity or like a little, you know, character moment or a character beat between Mario and Peach to kind of wrap things up or like something a little bit more that it was clearly hinting at like they were maybe trying to do.

Like if you include that, like, okay, are the babies going to maybe get bored for like a minute? Is that the worst thing? You know, like what are they calculating? 10 seconds? Yeah, it's like TikTok editing. The whole thing is just like, designed to be like watching a bunch of reels.

So every, yeah, the way the scenes are linked together does feel about as random as an algorithm when you're swiping on reels. It's like, oh, we're over here now, blah, blah, blah. Scroll, oh, we're over here now, blah, blah, blah. And it's just like loads of movement and references and action. And yeah, what's just interesting to me is that it is, I don't know, it's getting a lot less pushback than that first movie as far as, as far as it. quality. Oh, really?

Less pushback? Yeah, from what I've seen anyway, like in comparison. I mean, the ratings are lower across the board. User ratings are lower. Yeah, yeah. I don't know.

It's still going to do extremely well. Yeah. Well, get ready. In a few years, we'll do a full episode reviewing all the Mario movies and it'll kill Alex. You'll quit the podcast. Yeah.

Well, I mean, what's funny, I didn't say this directly this episode. I didn't watch the movie. Alex and Dick knew that. Wait, I forgot you didn't say that when you were, yeah. Oh, yeah, oops, yeah, I guess we just knew that. Yeah, yeah, no, I thought it would be funny to just keep it going for a while. And then maybe people were like, Adam, why isn't Adam saying much about this? Yeah, because you actually love it and you went into it.

Yeah. Well, I mean, also, it's, did I have to? No. No. I'm walking away with the exact same opinion. As someone who didn't watch the film, what would you rate it, Adam? Two. Well, that grief you got for when you were talking about the first movie, you know, the principles of animation thing.

It was funny. People were mad at you. That was from the trailer, by the way. Oh, yeah, that was from the trailer. That was like, that was me taking issue with like one shot in the trailer of how it was animated. Mm-hmm. But I thought that was like an ongoing thing with that first movie. There was some stuff that was like a little bit kind of off here and there.

Like I feel about all the illumination movies to some degree. But this one, I don't know, it was better as far as that stuff. It's very glossy. It looks extremely expensive, as you'd expect. It looks like a really polished advert as it should. And, you know, it looks right. It has character designs that are fitting. It's not like an original Sonic movie situation.

And that's kind of all that needs to be, I guess, if it wants to be a huge branding monolith thing. Alex, what would you read it? Like a one star. The only positive is really that I've revisited like old Marri Galaxy clips in the soundtrack and stuff like that. I have a lot of emotion attached to this in a way that I'd kind of forgotten about or lost touch with, so that's kind of cool, I guess.

But not because of the quality of the movie. I initially gave this I was overrating this because I was like Okay yeah it wasn't like the worst thing ever But it also wasn't good But I also feel like The more I keep talking about it It's just like yeah that was really so par

So I'll give it a four Destroyed Just like such a nothing experience Yeah Got them Thanks Mary Thanks for elimination Thank you

Movies are safe How do you guys feel about Movies like this Keeping theaters alive It's a shame I reject your premise Oh okay Because like the theaters that I like

The independent theaters are not playing this And they're staying alive Well I mean vast The majority of theater is theater chains All over the country You know you have more options in the States For theater chains Cineplex is like the one movie theater chain

In Canada like they've just bought everything Which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if they didn't have the worst fucking food and drinks ever on the planet of all time. If they, if fucking Alamo draft house decided to launch just one location in Toronto or Vancouver, I think people would flock to it because all they would have to do

is have food and drinks a tenth as good as any of their locations in the States and it would still be better than fucking Cineplex. It's disgusting. The CEOs have no idea what the fuck they're doing. They look at something successful in the States and go like, oh, we can do that too. and then just missed the entire fucking point.

The rec room is like the most embarrassing thing in Canada. I hate them. I want them to go out of business. Okay, but what I'm saying is like, I'm pretty confident, like 99% sure. If movies like this didn't exist, if the Mari movie didn't exist, I would not have a theater 10 minutes away from my house.

Oh, yeah. In the middle of the suburbs. Yeah, no. My screening was the busiest I have seen that theater in a while. Oh, my God. Every single seat booked. Well, like, usually it's a small handful of people at these screenings, but when it's something like this, yeah, every single seat, every booking. Parents were getting into arguments at my show because, like, people thought they'd booked the same seats, but they were getting different days mixed up.

It was like chaos in there. It was Bedlam. Oh, my God. Well, yeah, I mean, it's like we need these movies, but it's like they know they're going to make a ton of money. So just put a little bit of more quality in there, you know, just a little bit of creativity. That's all we're asking for. They don't know how. I generally don't think they know how.

Yeah. Like an illumination anymore. It's like not even a decision for them. It's like they just, they think that they're putting in quality. It feels like a very top-down structure, like way too much control. But just based on what I've heard and I know about Nintendo and how they work.

Like it just sounds like there's so much control over what the story is in these, these films. Because, yeah, they got all paranoid right after. how they were represented in, like, the weird animated show and that movie and that Donkey Kong show that was super strange. Like, and they got cold feet for, like, the transmedia stuff. But now they're realizing just how much money and branding and merch they can sell from movies. So, you know, getting a bit more confidence of we're going to get a Rob TV show probably now and a Star Fox spin-off universe.

And it's, yeah, yeah, let's get ready. The thing is, you can see, like, I'm not trying to, like, disparage these. I mean, these actors, they're trying to make a living, you know, but you can tell that they're really like, okay, I need to get in with the Mario movie and, like, my own spin-off, like Glenn Powell, and Bree Larson is, like, really going out there with her love for Mario and everything.

And it's like, this is the new, this is, I mean, this is a type of Avengers, you know, Marvel thing. Like, the Marvel pipeline now is no longer, like, a guaranteed route to, like, success. and longevity as an actor in Hollywood. So voice acting, that's one of the ways, I guess. It's the easiest work as an actor. Is it?

Unless you're a real voice actor. But if you're voice acting and they wanted you for the voice that you just have normally, then you're not really working. I mean, CP basically did this exact thing in Mercy. he just sat in a chair and recorded lines yeah he's the George Lucas

of actors it just gets to sit but it's what like an afternoon's work to do a movie like this like everyone is on screen for such a small amount of time and it's not like it's dialogue heavy

like it's really not that much work that's what yeah they're all big names like making the big deal about Donald Glover being Yoshi I guess he does a more accurate thing than Chris Pratt

but it's like How much was he paid for that? Like, for real. It's so stupid. That's the best joke in the movie, like a meta joke. Well, it's like a grout type of thing. Yeah. I was like, oh, no way.

Yeah, I don't know. The more I talk about this, the more it just kind of like makes my soul feel. All right, let's move on. Sad. Solace, yeah. Solus slop. We saw the drama. directed by

what's his name Christopher Christopher Borgley Borgley the director of Sick of myself which I really enjoyed and

dream scenario with Nick Cage which I didn't enjoy as much but it was still pretty great pretty good yeah it was really fun better than good

creative and weird yeah yeah and this film I thought was not disappointing. What do you guys think? No. I'm feeling lucky that I went into this completely blind.

Like I knew nothing, hadn't seen any of the trailers. I was just going in knowing the director's known for kind of making you a little bit uncomfortable. So that was kind of my only expectation. So I feel like the surprise elements of this movie that I'm sure we'll get into during spoilers really hit me in the way I think it was going for very much feels like a European's perspective on some of the stuff that's going on in America the satirical elements this pitch black comedy element that it was finding from this uncomfortable awkward film about kind of exploring what the worst thing you've ever done is and

escalating from there yeah I really enjoyed this nice Yeah, so I went to a press screening where it was back-to-back Mario movie and then this. Oh, no. So it was hard. It was hard going from the high of Mario to something like this because I was just like, I was like dancing and have so much fun. And I was thinking about like how cool Rosalina was. And then I went into this movie and, man, it was great. I mean, it was so fun.

Like everyone was uncomfortable and tons of laughter. I was spoiled by what the big reveal is and we'll get into that later of course but I feel like it did not detract from my experience watching the film because the reveal is pretty early on and that's what the movie's about so I think 824 was really smart

to like conceal that from all the marketing but I was spoiled by TMZ like a few days beforehand and yeah it's kind of instantly become a lightning road right there's a bunch of like op-eds and oh yeah But I think it's completely intentional from like what the movie's going for. I think it exactly wants together.

Yeah, but intentional, but not in a way that I expected. Like there was less controversy than I expected. Like there was some more from like mainstream like papers and reporting. But it seems like in general people are like on board with what this is trying to explore. And it's doing it in a really kind of like thoughtful way. That's also very funny. So I loved it. And it's a pretty short movie.

It really packs a lot. of ideas and feelings and emotions in there and I don't know what much more you'd want from time of the movies, you know? Yeah, I know I'm excited to talk about the spoilery stuff. I don't want to get into that just yet. I think I should get people to want to watch it before also. This movie, I feel, is his most professional-looking film. previous to despite still loving them, I did have an issue with like a lack of variety in terms

of shot composition and framing being like a little too tight, just kind of like, you know, wanting more wide shots and more motivated looking filmmaking. And this one actually delivered. Like it wasn't an issue at all. There was a really nice variety of different angles, different framing. and it felt really motivated as well in terms of how it was expressing itself in any given moment,

the context of the scene, and also editing, really, really strong editing, a huge voice in the film. And Christopher Borgley is also credited as one of the editors, which makes a lot of sense because it's very, very intentional.

You have to film the movie knowing exactly how it's going to be edited. There's so many, like half second shots thrown in of like communicating passage of time and it makes it feel a lot bigger than what they filmed. And yeah, the way that's worked in with the sound choices. The sound editing is very, very good for kind of emphasis in the way it moves. Right, right.

It kind of reminded me that a little bit of the beginning of sentimental value, which I loved. Like the type of impressionistic editing somewhat, especially at the start of this film, which is just really effective. Yeah, visually beautiful. I think Dream scenario was shot in 16mm. This was 35, I'm pretty sure. So, yeah, it looks really crisp and beautiful. It's in New York and, like, wonderful locations.

The atmosphere is there. You know, it exists and you feel like you're there. So all of that worked, but I think the most effective stuff was just like the way it balanced, the drama and the comedy. And Dream scenario, while I thought was a pretty, all right movie. I think it had flaws in that it was kind of surrounding a fantastical scenario and it didn't really explore things. It felt kind of one note and this one could have been one note. It could have been a one joke movie and instead it really takes it to new areas and it not just, it doesn't feel glib. It doesn't

feel half-assed in how it's exploring the themes. It really does feel like a sincere movie, all things considered. Yeah, it feels way less gimmicky then the kind of concept movie, um, we're kind of both sort of concept movies in a way, but dream scenario is so sort of out there. This is more, yeah, the drama. What is the drama and the whole framing of this wedding, which I really loved, like the structure of that and the way that tied into like the tension and that almost like sitcom level like awkwardness that it gets into with that that balance of the humor and kind of darkness of the subject matter that explores. but it does extremely well.

Yeah, better than dream scenario. I think it's a cathartic experience too, just for like, it feels very modern and it's very much about our current times and it's about shame and, you know, public shame,

but also just like deep personal shame and how we, how we contend with people's actions and our understanding of our past selves and how we incorporate that into our current lives. And it just, it feels like this sense of, of like shame and anger that is really being processed in a cathartic way that I think people are

reacting so positively because it's like you're seeing the worst possible situation unfold and anyway, I'll leave it there. I don't want to get into spoilers. Yeah, no, I love a good high pressure mental deterioration in the film. I know you do. They're fun. No, yeah. And I feel like Patinson did a really great job communicating that with his character.

He was obviously having a lot of fun with his role. I love that we got British Patinson because that is a rare occurrence as well. 100%. I don't think that's an accident either. Without spoiling anything, they used it in the script. Like, it's a part. It makes it better that he is British, a British character. It's kind of cool to the story working.

for me. Yeah, yeah. No, it's, it's really, uh, there, there's a lot of fun performances and performance moments for sure. A lot of characters that don't even have much screen time, but you can tell just by like their overall presence, their screen presence, a look that they give that feels really human, you know, really genuine. And it, it's not like the entire film feels like it's like ad libid or anything like that, you know. Uh, but, But it seems like how it was directed, the actors were given a lot of opportunity to be able to showcase these quirks and mannerisms that feel really genuine. Everybody gets to have at least a couple moments of those. And there's some actors that really, really shine in this film.

Yeah, definitely agree. It's such a well-constructed script. Like, it's really tightly packed. I can't think of any any like really baggy scenes stuff that felt unnecessary like it is weird and off the wall and uncomfortable but like structurally

it's super tight it's like a very restraint yeah it flew by it doesn't feel like it was close to two hours yeah so no extremely nimble only an hour of 45 yeah it achieves a lot for how quick it is

yeah there was nothing wrong with the pacing whatsoever Yeah, I'm glad to see that it's doing well. I think it's one of the, I think it's the third highest opening of a 824 film in the States behind, behind Marty Supreme and Civil War. So it's been, it's been doing well. Yeah, I think when you put fucking Pattinson and Zendaya on the poster, plus the obvious, you know, implication that they're in a romantic relationship of some kind, you know, I feel like that in of itself. It's sort of like beckoning people to... And the vagueness of the name and stuff.

It's all just begging you to like, what is this? What is this about? What's the drama? And also that poll of like, hey, a little bit of controversy doesn't hurt, you know? What is this? Kind of like Civil War had that same kind of thing. Like, oh, they're going to get the discourse, you know? Like, it's kind of the same thing.

Should we get into spoiler talk? Yeah, I think I've been dancing around it at this point. All right. You go, Jake. Oh, you want me to say? Yeah. So Zendaya is an attempted school shooter, not even attempted. She thought about doing it and had a gun and everything.

So they're talking around, they're having like a wine tasting before their wedding. It's Zendaya and Robert Pattinson and their two friends who's like the best man and everything. So they're talking about somehow, for some reason, Alana Hame's character starts talking about, hey, what's the worst thing you've ever done? I really, God, I could not stand her fucking character. But she, like, forces her husband. She does it so well. Oh, my God.

She's so good as such a hateable character. The look she was giving when she was, like, drinking wine at the end, communicated so much just via that look. Anyway, she, like, pressures her husband into sharing a story of the worst thing that he ever did. And so they each start going around sharing the worst thing they have. ever did. And what she did was pretty bad, right? So, and then we get to Zendaya and she says, like, yeah, I planned a school shooting. I didn't go through with it, but I got a gun and I was going to go do it. And then I didn't. And Robert Pattinson's character, Charlie, he's just like,

um, okay, rip. Like, you know, like laughing it off. But Alana Hame's character is like, my cousin was in a shooting. Yeah. And this is not. That's why she's disabled. Yeah. How could you? this is not a joke. And so that's when things spiral in. This is probably like 20 minutes into the movie. And this is what the whole movie is about. I'm contending with this reveal. And I think part of the main problem is that she reveals this in front of their friends.

Because if she had just told him privately, it probably would have gone over much better. But, you know, he starts like getting paranoid and falling apart. And he's like having a breakdown. and he's like throwing away any signs of like guns within, like a mug that has a gun on it. And he's like, he gets scared when she's holding a knife when she's making a smoothie.

Like it's just very silly stuff. And one of my favorite things too is shortly out. And not to like make it seem like it's all just jokes. Like it's very dark. Like they're very much like depressed and sitting in that feeling of shame and sadness. And but then you have these little light touches where like Zendaya, Zendaya is having like this image of Charlie talking to her friend afterwards and they're like, hey, do you want me to call the cops and arrest her? Hey, I can beat her up for you.

Like just the lengths your mind goes to. And then the movie just kind of spirals from there. So I don't know. Do you guys want to? Yeah. It kind of, it poses an intriguing question from that point about this character, like the moral question. of like when is when is someone crossed that barrier and like why are they that way and because she's in the story she's what like 14 15 she starts like glorifying this aesthetic

and yeah like it wasn't just an idea it wasn't there oh yeah I had a fantastical idea of getting revenge on someone who like bullied me at school it was like no she really took this to a degree where the rest of the script is kind of like the characters exploring excuses or like the the roads you might go down as far as like trying to justify it in your head for someone else and just bringing you to that kind of emotional place of just paranoia by the time you it builds up to the wedding and the DJ equipment like payoff going off it's like you're right there with the way that lead character and we mentioned that he's British in this movie and I love that especially with the director and writer of the film being Norwegian.

So there is this, it is a way that, like, Europeans look at kind of gun culture and that whole attitude over there as this kind of like, this is like a problem at this level for you guys. Like, this is kind of fucking unhinged. And I think it captures that kind of paranoia and energy in a way that kind of makes you emotionally understand it.

So yeah, having him be this kind of outsider perspective is a good way to kind of get you, the audience on board. Right. Not only having him as British that was super interesting, but also like the fact that Zendaya is a black woman

and the fact that the majority of school shootings are not done by black women, you know, like... Least likely demo, basically. Yeah, that's like a really weird you know, like thought experiment.

Like what is going on? And I love how Charlie is trying to like find justifications and reasons for why she do this. Like, hey, your friend died, right? So you're like, kind of traumatized and she's just like, no, I just got into this. Like I, like, I kind of respect her a lot more and I'm way more on her side because she's

just kind of like owning up to it. Like, hey, yeah, I like went down this pipeline on the internet and then I just like stopped. You know? Yeah. And, you know, just the way it explores shame and something that is really relevant to us because, you know, on the internet, I feel like there's this feeling that everyone is held to everything that they've ever done and there's no concept of change. And although most people are hypocritical about this because we like to all agree that, hey, we are not who we are when we're at our

worst, you know, and we all are not proud of things we've done and we expect and we understand that people change and grow over time and that you are not who you are at your worst. So it's like the fact that Alana Haim kind of represents this type of person that you see online, you see all over the world that is hypocritical about this and has no sense of grace or understanding about, you know, letting people change, you know, like that's kind of what the whole movie's about. And the way it explores it is, again, I feel like it's cathartic, especially in an era when we're all bombarded by this and see examples of this all the time. Yeah, no, what I would, so I'm curious where the controversy is coming from in that sense.

So what I saw was there were some like parents of former shootings, like shooting victims, like Columbine victims. So what I saw, what spoiled the movie for me was like a TMZ reveal that was like Columbine parent has complained about this movie that's coming out from 824. But was the movie out yet when they wrote the article? No, it was like short. Well, then what are they complaining about? It was probably like an early, early screening. or whatever, like, as a team, should I look it at? Yeah, I saw a couple as well from different people, like victims of shootings and stuff like that being interviewed to give their opinion on the movie.

Right, right. And, like, I could understand, like, anyone who's been through something like that, you know, not wanting to watch this film and having a certain response to this. Because although I don't feel like this movie, like, doesn't take the topic seriously. But it's also, it's like, it's a performance. provocative film and it's like taking a piss out of some of it, you know. And it's also not an American director. You see young, young Zendaya kind of like, you know, having a manifesto moment talking to her camera, you know, while holding a gun. And it's like a funny moment, you know, because it's stupid. So I could understand why people would have an issue with the film, but I think, feel like it serves a higher,

a better purpose. Yeah, it's not like certain reasons why trying to pull off this. subject matter you know like with that okay they do like a character like that you know it's way more offensive yeah exactly it's it's nowhere near like that there's a there's a cleverness to the complexity of the characters here like actually cares about that and it will flip the sympathy in ways that genuinely interesting and clever like the the opening meet cute and him like pretending to read this book and the the reveal of the disability with her ear and that like building up to the reveal of the reveal of like why she has that and yeah it's like emotionally complicated and weird makes you think so i found the TMZ article um it's they interviewed a father whose son died in columbine

and he's saying that he thinks it's awful uh that sorry blah blah blah blah yeah sorry i'll read the quote here says he's completely floored that anyone would think a school shooting would be a good fit for a romantic comedy, even a dark one, and tells us it's awful that of all the shocking twists to make someone rethink their partner, this is where the filmmakers landed. So this is, like, this is kind of a nothing burger in terms of, like. Sounds like you didn't even see the film. Yeah, no, I mean, like, so there, he's, he then goes on to like, talk about how he was basically seeing Zendaya on Jimmy Kimmel. So he didn't even watch the movie. So he says, Mauser tells us he was particularly irked by Zendaya recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live,

where Moser thought she was laughing off the twist, as Jimmy seemed to be talking about how it impact some viewers much more seriously. Mouser feels the subject in a rom-com starring a beloved actress like Zendaya, quote, humanizes, end quote, shooters, and quote, normalizes, end quote, the shootings. To reiterate, Zendaya's character did not go through the shooting, mass violence is not depicted in the film. To be clear, Mouser doesn't think anyone who has ever considered violence but not gone through with it should be condemned. On the contrary, he's encouraging anyone who has had these ideations. Is that how do you pronounce? Ideations. Is that how you pronounce it? Thank you. Yeah, ideations. To go talk it out with a therapist.

However, Mazur doesn't want it to be used for entertainment. So the reason why this feels like a nothing burger is because they're just getting, they just found some random person that doesn't understand what art is. Like, that's the problem, right? I wouldn't say that necessarily. sounds like this is something that they haven't actually seen the film and also like because what they're saying is sort of what the movie's doing like it's humanizing people um not for entertainment but like for you know a purpose and to explore this theme you know it's like even if it was just for entertainment it would be fine though yeah i mean i look i understand why why this person would be like hey like let's not do this but also i feel like it's uh you know that's

the area of art is to explore these things. And also, like, the movie, again, while it does, it, it does try to explain, like, how people like this can get radicalized, but also more importantly, how they are deradicalized, you know, like that whole story. And we get to see, you know, young Zendaya's character go through this process, like seeing an actual school shooting, or not a school, a mall shooting, another shooting happened while she's planning this and seeing the effects of it and how she, is horribly bullied, but there's this one moment that just stuck with me so powerfully in this movie

that otherwise is so funny and cringy, but it's this moment when this young girl who gives such a wonderful performance, they're in the gym, doing some exercise where they have to like look into each other's eyes and have like a meaningful moment. And she looks into the eyes of her bully and she just starts sobbing, you know, and that she builds community from that and she becomes anti-gun and everything. So it's like the fact that we get to explore that means that it is really like contending with this topic and trying to explain and see and ask questions about why a person would fall into this and also how it's a good thing to humanize them and try to understand them and try to pull them out of that, you know? So it's like, I don't know. Like I felt like it was a very,

it was done very well, although, you know, this TMZ thing and all of that, I could understand why on the surface of things. It's like, they probably reached. out to him. They probably showed him the fucking Jimmy Kimmel thing. Like they're just trying to get clicks, right? Yeah, you don't know how they ask the question. Yeah. No, TMZ is like a terrible, terrible company. Yeah, they're not exactly reputable. Yeah, no, I agree. I think it, it's, yeah, it's definitely provocative, but I think it plays with it in an interesting way that does create a lightning bolt with, you know, the lead cast. It's going to get eyes on it. It's creating, like, conversations. This is one of those movies where like on the drive home with who I saw it with,

it was like a non-stop conversation about like what it was bringing up and these ideas of what it's getting out of like, where is this coming from? Like what is this about? This shouldn't be normal. This is not normal. And there's that line in the movie where the Charlie character says something to the effect of it's not like she came up with the idea and talking about like glorifying glorifying the aesthetic. So it is like pointing kind of fingers in certain directions of like yeah this is this isn't just one individual there's something greater going on here and yeah there's layers to this well like people yeah the movie also makes this compelling like point about like for every shooting how many almost shootings happen how many people are out there

you know with these thoughts in their head you know and how do we help them you know like um that was a creepy scene the way that was like showing the yeah just random citizens walking around and just thinking about that. Yeah, yeah, just that, that whole idea of, yeah, having to do drills at like school and just having this energy and this like thought process being looped constantly, culturally everywhere that does something. I do think it's generational as well, you know, like we grew up where it's just like this is normal and you just, it's the subject of constant humor because that's the only way to deal

with it, especially when you're a kid in high school and it's just like, yeah, what else do you do? Like you just joke about, hey, this could happen and does happen all the time now. Yeah. No, I mean, like, we joke about death in general. So, like, just because we get more specific about, like, a type of death. Like, it's terrifying, for sure. Like, we want it to not happen. But, like, fucking a Norwegian director making an A-24 film is not the cause of this problem.

Like, is not affecting this in any negative way. And like, how about it doesn't matter how many fucking shooters you inspire if they don't have access to guns? Right? How about you start with the fucking obvious thing? Funny that. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah.

And yeah, and this movie is more about like, like, how are we going to stop this also if we don't, if we treat these people who do these things like human beings? We need to treat them like human beings. Yes. And try to find ways to rehabilit. them and bring them into society and help them, you know, from ever having these thoughts or needing to do this. You know, it's like, and that's what this movie's about. Like Zendaya is someone who's like,

clearly not ever going to do something. Like, she's changed completely as a human being from when she was a literal kid, you know, who fell into this horrible pipeline, you know, was radicalized online. And it's like, this movie's about like, how do you treat a person who admits this and talks about this in an open way. And it's like you get to see all the layers and all the different things and how it affects their social world in like one of the most complicated ways, which is like a wedding when,

yeah, it just really felt like it challenged, challenges everyone's like expectations and morals. So it was definitely, yeah, worthwhile. Yeah, no, I'm kind of shocked that this has such a low metascore. Like, critically, it's 59 metascore. Like, what? Yeah, yeah. I'm so confused.

Hmm. I don't know if people are finding it tacky or something in the way it's playing with that. Or if it is a, it's happened before, the 824 movies, right? Like, adverse tricking people. like the media literacy thing being so bad with it. I just thought this was going to be a breezy romantic comedy with my favorite actors in it. What the hell?

And that's like making me feel bad. The user rating is 7.5 on IMDB. Like that's a good score. So audiences seem to be enjoying it. Critics shouldn't be, you'd think that people that watch a lot of movies would have more media literacy and be able to, you know,

determine whether or not a trailer is being honest or at least be familiar with the concept of a trailer being able to be dishonest, right? Or having realistic expectations for a movie. I'm just confused about the metascared. I wonder. I think like one part of my theory is maybe why the critical reception is a little more muted.

Like I know it's generally positive, but there's been some more muted reactions because this is like a European film kind of like transported into the US and made mainstream with these big stars. So it is like an more accessible version of something you'd see, you know, at the Cannes Film Festival or something. So it's like, is that maybe part of it where it's like, hey, this could be explored deeper

in this way. But, you know, I feel like this is also trying to be bigger, like, entertainment in a way, you know, and reach a wider audience through. Well, yeah, I feel like that's part of the statement of the movie, right? It's like it getting more eyes on it and getting like a conversation going about. It's kind of the point of it existing in the way it is, with it. it being provocative. It's like, yeah, we're going to leverage, like, these particularly famous cast members

and almost, like, intrigue you to watching it to a degree where you can't resist. What if you could sort metacritic reviews by what country they live in? What if they're all from, what if they're all Americans? Yeah, I'd be really curious about that, actually, because you can do that with, yeah, you can do that, I think, with the IMDB one. So look at the... Oh? Yeah, there's not...

Yeah, you can filter. by country if you like click on the actual rating. Oh cool, yeah, no. I remember filtering by like age and gender. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it breaks it down by that too. Okay, cool, yeah. I see that.

With a few more ratings, it might be a bit more interesting. Yeah, US, UK, Italy, Germany. I mean, everything seems to be 7.5 with this film, so around there. So 1,7.4. Seems fine. I didn't have any fucking time to like meaningfully look into this. I don't know if you guys have heard about this at all.

But people are resurfacing the director's 2012 essay on his age gap romance. So he was I think 26, sorry, 26 years old dating like a 16 year old. Oh, geez. Any, yeah, any references Woody Allen. And he. That's something about Manhattan, right? like yeah i haven't deeply looked into this either but it's yes creepy for sure yeah you know i i look at people responding to this uh and making defenses in whichever direction i think it would just

things would be a lot less complicated if we just raise the age of consent to 18 because like the you know that the age of consent in norway is 16 so if she was 16 then it's like okay well legally that's what he was doing. Socially, that seems like most people seem to agree that, like, you shouldn't. So why don't we change the fucking laws? Like, why is the age of consent 16? If it seems like culturally, we all agree that it should be 18. Yeah. I'm confused about that one. Yeah. Yeah, I really don't know. I mean, it's, it's never good when you're, I do think it is interesting that in it it's that he is so obsessed in his work with public shame and all that because of learning about this then it's just kind of like oh okay huh new new perspective on on your

your interest as an artist so um i yeah i don't know yeah big oof sorry yeah sorry christopher people are talking about it people are present in my subreddit so no I mean it's worth bringing up yeah it's it's weird creepy hmm he's fuck I don't know what they do in Europe

okay they do school shootings in your country that's a culture they say in the movie it's a cultural thing and it's true yeah no comment what's going on in Europe I have no idea it's a French thing yeah we got school

shootings. We got plenty of the other bad stuff too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If people can just fucking be kind to each other and not take advantage of children, then the world's a good place. Also don't do a school shoot. Fuck, if Cool Cat would just release his movie, then he would be stopping school shooting. It could be a utopia right now. What, Derek Savage is delaying the end of school shooting. Yeah. I mean, our president told his best friend, Jeffrey Epstein, to get the hell out of Maralago when he found out that he was a bad man. So it's like, use that as an example. His zero connections to any of that because he's an honorable gentleman, you know? Oh, yeah. That's an example. Just too honorable. Yeah, that's his problem. He helped catch him with the FBI. Did you know that? fucking out.

Mm-hmm. True story. Fucking. Fucking now. Everything is a big headache. I know, right. It's really tiring. Like people,

people would just be fucking chill if the age of consent was 18. So call your local, who does this? Is this federal law? Is it by country? I think it might be by state. Right?

The states. Well, yeah, there's states. No, yeah. I wonder if it's provincially in Canada. We should just call someone who has all of this memorized. The person who has all this memorized is not someone you want to talk to. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Anyways, I would give this film an 8 out of 10. Oh. Yeah. It's a good film. Yeah. I'd be, I guess, a smidge lower, like a three and a half star, strong high, with a like. I just would need to see this at least one more time to check if that, like, surprise factor kind of hits, how it hits the second time, how it flows.

But as far as I was put together, excellent stuff, like really good. Hell yeah, yeah, no, I'm glad that this didn't disappoint. and it was a very it's it's great to just go out to a movie and enjoy the movie yeah please more challenging adult films yeah not a million caveats yeah so you know I hope it does well I hope I see more interesting challenging movies yeah I love his art but I don't love whatever the fuck he was doing in 2012 And I've separated those two things. Yeah, I think it's going to do extremely well, actually.

Hopefully, yeah. I think it's going to be a little of a lightning rod, discal, C type situation. You know, Trump could change the age of consent right now. You could executive order and say it's an emergency. Yeah, but he might go the other way. Oh, true. Well, as of the date of this recording, we're waiting until 8 p.m. Eastern Time. time to see if he

Genocide. Yeah. To see if he destroys Iranian civilization. So yeah, nuke might have dropped. Fuck. We're going to lose a few

great directors too if he does that. It's so funny. It's going to suck if he actually does something. Then this conversation's going to feel like it didn't take it too seriously. Theoretically he won't. He's not going to. Well, we'll see.

I have no idea. Your country is insane. Yeah. What the fuck is happening? Yeah. Can we all just like chill? Can we chill? Take a chope over just one minute.

Donald Trump, just take a chope. Can you call him? Be like, yo, can we just like chill right now? Brough? Brough? Like for serious? Let's just go see Mario and calm down. Everybody.

Mario would be like. I feel like ever since Alex made that prediction about Venezuela. Although it wasn't only about Venezuela, like at the start of the year. The year has just been nonstop foreign policy nightmare U.S. destroying its empire and eating the entire world, like nonstop, just to avoid releasing the Epstein files, you know? So don't ever make a goddamn prediction again, please. Oh, yeah, yeah, this is your fault, Al.

Maybe I can undo it with another one. Yeah, I'll take it, America. You can blame me. It's my fault. permission to blame, okay. I feel like, I don't know about you guys, but I feel like escaping to like a cool dystopian fantasy world where people are hot

and Laverne Cox is there. Can we do that? Sure. Well, you want to get ugly about this? Let's do it. Take it away, Jake. Okay, well, the movie I recommended is called Uglies.

It is a release from 2024. It stars Joey King and is directed by a man entity, I don't know, called Mick G, MCG, who directed Charlie's Angels. He directed The Babysitter. No, sorry. He directed the sequel to the remake of Charlie's Angels. You can't just say Charlie's Angel. He directed Charlie's Angels full throttle.

No, he directed Charlie's Angels, 2000. Charlie's Angels. Yeah. Who directed he also directed Charlie's Angels full throttle. Oh,

it's the same guy. I just didn't even see the other credit. All right, never mind. Don't dismiss Mick G. American director

and producer of film and television. Why is full throttle the one that shows up first? Is that more successful? He made Terminator Salvation.

He was on set when Christian Bale yelled at that lighting guy. Yeah, classic. Oh, shit. He probably has some PTSD from that.

That's probably why you made this film. Yeah, so this is 2024, came out. It feels like it came out in 2011, and it would have come out in 2011, and probably made like $300 million domestic. Sure. Because times have changed. This movie comes out on Netflix, and it's 2024, and it sucks ass, and I wanted

to share it with you guys. it's a very silly film what did you guys think of it's very silly yeah I guess we're back in spite huh did I do something to you no there was that was this was a blessing Alex excuse me thank you Adam thank you I was being nice

a blessing okay why is ugly's a blessing what are you talking about this is perfect it's a perfect movie we got Joey King right first of all sounds like an Italian mobster. She's making her rounds.

She's in like... What else is she in? She was in Wishapon. Oh, right. Right? I've only seen your video on Wishapon. She's got such a weird filmography where like it seems like most of the shit that she's in is just like terrible. She was in Slender Man, I think.

Oh, nice. Was she in Slender Man? I've only seen her like, she was in Bullet Train. I remember her in that. Yeah, she was in Slender Man. And then apparently this thing called the Kissing booth, which has three movies and is also Netflix and people make fun of it.

And now I want to see it. Because why not? Has she ever played anyone older than 20 years old? I don't know. I don't even know how old she is in real life right now. Because I've only seen her play. She's 26 years old. But I've only seen her play like teenagers and Yeah.

I mean, that's what you do. when you're the king. Joey King. This was really weird. Like, I've never seen a movie that is clearly trying to be serious, like following in the footsteps of Hunger Games,

divergent maze runner. But like the main threat of this universe is that of yassification. Like, that is what you're threatened with. You're a way to put it. Like, that is the set of.

Yeah. Like, that is what, like, is the big threat of the movie, right? This is a world where, what was it on your 16th birthday

that you are I guess like forced to have surgery to be hot I don't know who defines what hot is no but they want it they get to be hot they want it yeah they're kind of like brainwashed it's like a revolutionary

kind of like a Hunger Games thing where you have the elite the preties they have the surgery it's never really explained in the world building why this surgery makes everything just like this utopia yeah it's kind of like eugenic but they never really delve into it at all.

That's the kind of the implication. That's why it's scary. The movie starts with like five minutes of exposition explaining how all of it works and yet it doesn't explain any part of it. Nothing. All right. They found out that if everyone looks the same

then everyone is happy and you're like the fuck did you just say? Hold on. Hold on, hold on. And they're like, let's just not explore that. And everyone becomes hot when you're 16. And then you go live in happy hot world and all the uglies are. There's not even like a class explanation.

It literally is just like everyone becomes so it makes no sense. It's based off of a book, I think. I'm sure the book explains it more. It is. It's based off of a book series. The book's from like 2005 too and it feels like a film from 2005. Oh God. They just held on to it.

That's so funny. I don't know why. It's a concept movie, but like the concept is. just completely ridiculous. There's nothing good about this concept. Oh, it's so good. Have you seen like those skits?

I think SNL did one, but I've seen other YouTubers do it where it's just like parodies of this type of Y.A. dystopia movie, you know? Like, divergent and Hunger Games and all that. Like, there was such a boom that you could just maize run it. You could easily make fun of it so quickly.

And this movie is like, it literally just feels like an S&L parody of YA dystopian stuff. Like she literally has the love triangle with like the two guys and, Yeah, yeah. That's how you sell it. Exactly. It's an important part of the recipe.

And it's so weirdly paste. Like it's so fast paced, yet it feels so slow and drawn out. Because it's like an action movie too, right? Like you listed McG's movies and a bunch of them are like these popcorny action movies. Yeah. And it does have these like elaborate, just CG goo, like hoverboard scenes, which seem to be like the, yeah, this is like a quidditch, I guess. This is our thing. It was like bionical.

Yeah, it was like bionical. It was very radical like 2000s, right? It was like everything about surfing and skateboarding. Yeah, it felt very out of place and just like, wow. This has like nothing to it. The whole, it's called uglies. And it like, they couldn't even find like anyone who's actually ugly. Everyone was just like fine.

No, they never, they never bother committing to their fucking concept in these types of movies. Because you're trying to sell it to fucking. dumb little kids and they're like, well, they're not going to watch an uggo in a movie. So we have to say their uggo and then they aren't actually. Fuck on. Like from minute one, they just flat out say to the camera basically. Like, oh, hi, we're not committing to the concept. Enjoy the film.

Fuck you. Yeah. They didn't care about it. We're not committing to. What are you talking about? Why are you making the movie? Do you guys mind if we go into full spoilers for this film? Oh, God.

What are the people going to do if you spoil the film, sure. Okay. Please spoil uglies. Because I think one of the most important pieces of context about this film related to its source material is that, and I don't know, people who have read the book can correct me if I'm wrong. But from what I've read in the book series, because it's like a subjective POV, right? And you're not seeing what the pretty people actually look like. But a big twist in the book is that when you become pretty, you actually. look like a scary monster.

So they're like, so funny. Oh my God. It's like a comment on our perspective of like beauty standards. And it's like, you know, but you can only convey that in a book. You can't convey that visually.

So it's like if that they did that in this movie, like it would just kind of be weird, but it's already weird enough because it's like they just look, they don't even look prettier. They just look like they went to Mara Lago and got a bunch of like work done. Yeah. It's like a TikTok filter. Yeah, everybody looks like they have a fucking filter.

Like, I think they were actually using that kind of weird filter technology, like an Instagram filter thing. Because, like, their faces look airbrushed in a very unnatural way. Yeah. If they played into the camp element, this could have been so, like, if it was like a John Waters, like, they suddenly have, like, huge boobs and they're just like, like, if they've played into how silly it is of, like, when they, get yassified.

And it could be fun, but it's just so stupid. Like, they just have gold eyes. Like, who the fuck? Who wants gold eyes? Yeah, you'd have to make it so cartoonish and like over the top and ridiculous. But I guess it makes it funnier as a bad movie. Like, everyone's taking it so seriously. And everyone is in a competition for who can do the worst line reading.

It is crazy how bad. Like, all the performances in this movie are. Like, it's the next level the stuff they're saying, the way they're in charge too. Laverne Cox. I love Leverne Cox, but my God, just like, yeah.

Incredibly bad line reading in this film, just all timers. Dr. Cable. Let's go. Yeah. No, this was,

this was a fun time. I enjoyed this movie. Good. I'm glad. I'm glad. It's so up my alley. I just love bad twain movies. It's a feel good film,

you know, and it ends on a huge cliffhanger. Yeah, huge cliffhanger. Because I guess it's like three books or something and spin-off books, which unfortunately, I guess we're never going to get film versions of. I don't know. This was considered a success.

I think it did pretty well. It was pretty big when it came up. Oh, that would be good then. Yeah, I suppose it's only been a couple years. It's a well-timed wreck, too, as well with it. This is basically like, this is Clivoculars' dream future. It's like a looks-maxing, like, universe. Like, it's a ridiculous premise.

Sure. I mean, Netflix does like to just cancel things even if they are successful. so you never know. Yeah, true. I love movies like this that are premised upon the fact that, like, wow, everyone is turned the same by society. And, like, what you need to do is just, like, go be a revolutionary and reject society. And how do you do that?

You just go meet up with some hot guy and then just things happen. That's it. And, like, they really don't do anything. Like, I really, like, the movie really drags. Like, it's fun and stupid for most of it because, like, she's bouncing, literally bouncing around in this weird CGI city. And then she goes out into the woods

where it's clearly like, okay, budgetary reasons. We're going to be filming in the woods now. Yeah. And there's probably supposed to be like 100,000 people, but it's like 10 people in the woods. Yeah. And it's just like really boring where she's just like having like a moral,

complexity like oh what do I do like I need to bring her back so I can be pretty but also like I'm secretly like against them but I'm also falling in love with this guy and I kind of like their movement and they're quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson like that's so cool and but it really drags in the middle until they decide to go back and like what do they do they feel yeah it feels like the more they try and explain this world the more confusing it gets right because it starts from being like being hot like save the world to create this utopia somehow but then there's these orchids that create this smoke sandstorm thing that looks like madmax free road and that's like a big part of it the smoke but then there's all it's all a lie and it's just it's the hunker games you know it's like the exact same thing um but somehow

dama like it's called uglies it's funny it's like it's impossible to take seriously and you mentioned that like bouncing around the city thing you're right so when there's not action happening it's the slowest most dull thing ever but then it will go into an action scene just it just comes out of nowhere and what was that about she like puts on a jacket jumps off

like a building and then like bounces like literally like a bouncy ball they I'm pretty sure they called it like the bungee jump jacket or something a bungee jacket yeah yeah I noted this down the bungee jacket but that to me is I was like oh like a bungee jump. Right. There's a rope or something. Yeah, name it something else. It was like a,

you didn't even do it. Bouncy ball. Like, what's the point? Why would you, why would you name it that? Remember when she took the, uh, she took like a toothbrush pill? I was like, I want to know a bit more about that too. Because you, if you have a pill in the future that cleans your mouth, I don't think you would call it a toothbrush pill unless it's like a fucking little robot that comes out of the pill and starts brushing your teeth. You wouldn't call it a toothbrush pill, surely, right? You'd have a different association with what it's doing. Yeah.

Would you not? You're taking out the manual aspect. Oh. We just lost Jake, I think, on the call, Adam. Oh, did Jake leave? Oh, was it? Yeah, Jake has gone. I think there's something going on for the last few seconds.

Yeah. Maybe his government finally did it. The ugly's finally gone The pretty's got him Yeah Have you tried a bottle of all bits Yeah when I was a kid Is that like a weird Canadian drink or something

Because I'd never heard of that shit Technically it originates from Canada But it was in the States as well Okay It looks Yeah Bizar It was basically

Yeah it was literally just A soda But like little Tiny balls in it Hey guys Sorry about that Oh, no problem. Are you still recording on the same thing?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, did you see my message? I, um... Sorry, your voice is cutting out again. Hold on. Say something again? Yeah, I can't hear him. His internet might have died a second time.

We'll wait. Oh. Hello? Yeah, can you hear me? I can hear you again. There we go. Yeah, sorry, my, the entire power to the house just like went off and then turned back on.

Oh, okay. So is your laptop is still recording, though? Yeah, yeah, it's still recording. I've just, I lost Wi-Fi for like five minutes, I'm sorry. Sure, that's no problem. That's fine. That's fine. We started talking about

orbits. I guess you're too young for orbits. Oh, he's gone again. Oh, you're back. Is he back? This is fun. His nose. Damn. Oh, he's back.

Okay. Hello. Can you guys hear me? Not hearing him though. Well, can you guys hear me? I can hear you again. There we go. Did your power go out his second, third time?

No, no, no, no, that wasn't that. I have no idea what that is. I'm sorry. It could just be your internet being. If it happens again, you guys might need to wrap up the episode without me. I'm sorry. Or you can hot spot your laptop from your phone. It doesn't work.

I have zero service out. here of zero service. Because yeah, it's literally just for the Discord call. It's not for like anything outside of that. I know, but I can't even make phone calls. It's that bad. You can't even make, oh, that sucks. Wow.

But we can keep going. But if it happens again and I drop out, I think you guys should just go on without me. We can wait. Well, if it happens again, we'll wait another five or ten minutes. No, just let, just leave, just go on. You're sacrificing us. Go on without me. This is your Will Smith.

I am legending. The show is more important than my Wi-Fi. And I know you guys have a lot to say about Uglies. And, yeah. But we can keep talking for now. I'm sorry. Alex, you were making a point about something, I'm sure. But yeah, I can't.

What was I doing about? The bungee jacket. Oh, yeah. No, the bungee jacket. So fucking stupid. God damn my Wi-Fi. You had gold. You had gold that you were talking about.

The bungee jacket? Yeah, it was so cool. It's so cool. I thought the roller coaster scene was awesome. Yes. That was a brilliant action sequence. It was reminding me of the prequels, like the green screen soundstage use was hardcore in the film. There was so much original music, too, that they were like, really like, this is going to look so cool.

Oh, my God, the needle drops. It was like Jack Frost. It was like a Jack Frost moment with the stuff. snowboard. Yeah, none of the music like matched what was happening. Like it was a real clash every time the original score and the needle drops were like trying to sell some kind of like mood or something. But it was just just kind of funny, just kind of like goofy. Yeah. In a way it's not going for. I also like the way that they named each other. Like it was just a very natural thing. Which is like, hey, everyone calls me a nose because I have a big nose. And he's like, what am I supposed to

call you? CP. And she, I love the little flashback to some woman to be like, Like, you squint too much. She was like, oh, yeah. Call me squint. I wonder, like, see, that would have been problematic if it was an Asian character. But she didn't even look like, she didn't even look like she was squinting. So like they're not, they're not even committing to that basic concept. So you're describing it.

Maybe that came from the books. Yeah. I'm sure it did. I'm sure it did. I mean, you know, the books are probably, I think the books preceded the Hunger Games, actually. So it's like they were kind of like early to the dystopia dystopian curve. So props to the props to the books. Should have been uglies.

Should have been uglies. Ugly should have been the Hunger Games. We could have Jennifer Lawrence in the uglies, you know. It would have been a better future. Can one of you guys explain the cure to me? Because it starts becoming about like this bigger thing of like, we stop getting the surgeries. The like the rebellion leader like mentions.

But you can stop getting the surgeries at some point. It seemed like at first it was presented as one surgery that you get when you're 16 and then you're just like hot forever. But then, yeah, they mentioned later on you, I guess you have to get them periodically to keep being hot. But then there's a cure and they're finding a cure for the legions. And that's somehow going to defeat Dr. Cable. Like I was trying to figure out like, why should I care about any of this? What are these like non-existent stakes? You know, because you age, right?

So you got to keep getting the surgeon. Once you get the Botox, it dissolves, right? So you got to keep getting the Botox. And can you guys hear me? Jake, are you still here? Oh, God, I think we've... It shows him in the call. I don't know.

We down. Well, wait. Jake, say something. He's got... Oh. Can you guys hear me? Yes. No, you're fine.

We can keep doing this. This is fine. This is great. This is exactly what the movie deserves. Yeah, true. Yeah. I think also, I like the implication that, like, the harder you... you get the dumber you get. So it's like

we don't know what they're putting in their brain. I think they're just doing plastic surgery and they're just like, oh yeah, I'm hot now and I'm like, have no thoughts. And it's and that's how society works. And I, fuck. And he's gone. We lost him again.

It's going to be a difficult one to edit because he's still maybe talking on his end. Yeah, sorry, sorry editor. Yeah. I wonder and he's back. All right, guys. I'm leaving. I'm leaving. You guys, Don't leave. Don't leave. No, no, no. It's too much. It's too much. You guys continue, wrap up the storyline of uglies and tell the viewers what happens with the twist.

And then have fun with the questions. What was the twist again? God, she has to become yassified so that she can, you know, experiment with the drug or whatever. She's kind of like goes undercover. Yeah. Yeah. To find the cure or some shit. Exactly. But like, was anything? a twist, though? I don't know. How was anything a twist? You know what? You guys figure this out amongst yourselves. I'm going to say goodbye before my internet checks out again. Whatever. You don't want to, you don't want to ask your questions? Okay, Jay, quick, before you leave, what's the worst thing you've ever done? Um, uh, let's say September 11th, 2001. Anyways, I'll talk to you guys later. Okay,

Bye bye. Bye. Okay. Bye. Coward. We lost it. We lost a pretty amount. It's just us.

The oglies left. Whatever. Yeah. We were like pretty. I don't know how much we were going to talk about. Uglies anyway. Yeah. I felt like we're kind of getting.

We'll get in there. Like we got to the cure. Like what the fuck else is that? We talked about what the movie is and why it's funny. Yeah. I didn't even take notes for it. I was just kind of enjoying myself. of.

There's not really that much you need to remember. It's pretty simple. Yeah, exceptionally simple. Yeah, I guess it's just the cliffhanger element, which I guess was like, yep, ready for the next part of the story.

We're going to get them with this one. She's going to get prettied. She's going to get the gold eyes, which she's been building up this whole movie. And then she looks at the camera and then we get credits and I'm like, okay, I love it. I love it when they look at the camera. And I knew, I could see that coming too. I'm like, I looked at the runtime.

I'm like, there's no way they're going to wrap this up like in 10 minutes. Prepare for this to be an unsatisfying cliffhanger. Yeah, it felt really weirdly paced with that kind of stuff. It was just like flinging out all these random ideas just moved in such a strange way. And it's not even long. Like it's under two hours. It feels short and long at the same time. It's a weird liminal.

kind of film. Short and long. Time out of its mind. Yeah. You could call it schlung. It's a shlong type movie. It's an ugly and schlong type movie. Yeah.

What's the series called? Does it go like from uglies to fugglies to? Like what's, Uglies too? That's a good question. I didn't look up anything about the book. Was it literally also just called Ugly's?

Super Ugly's. What's the, This is the... Or is it like... Ugly's the Reckoning. Some shit. Novel series by Scott Westerfield. Oh, here we go.

Uglies, Preeties, specials, extra. Wait, is that the books or those... Yeah, those are the books. Oh, so the first one's Uglies. The second one is Preetys. Because I guess she becomes pretty at the end, right? So then she becomes a pretty. Specials.

And then you have a fourth book named extras, which just seems insane. Extras. Is that like a spin-off something? Yeah, because they kept using... all the like cringy terminology that like is such a delicate game with these post-apocalyptic movies where it can be so cool or so lame they keep saying like i'm like i'm a rusty the rusty was funny you don't want to be a rusty it's like what are you talking about this is so lame when they go to music class they play the rusty trombone so true do you ever think that like young

adult novelists get into the profession because they look down on it and think i could do that or like a going where the money is type thing Well, it's like writing a book but for idiots. Like literally, that's what the premise is. You can get more past the goalie. Yeah. You're like, I could try to write a story or I could write a story for dumb shits.

There's like, there are people that do that well. Like, I feel like Michael Morpogo does that well. Who's that? Just like a writer kind of aiming at younger. of audiences um um christ was a i think they were like war horse oh shit a spielberg um yeah i never actually saw that movie but i like a lot of the books yeah yeah it's just so like why would you do this now i guess we're going to get a whole franchise of this what i don't even know anymore like everyone wants everything it could be some it could be something called uglies and

come out in 2005 and it's still going to be this huge Netflix thing So what do I know? Let's see. If I look up Ugly's film sequel. Oh, hopefully what G comes back. Google AI says it's highly likely to be developed. I don't know about that. What are you talking about?

Source IMDB. What are you talking about? What are we talking about here? And then the IMDB links to a screen rant article. And then the screen rant article is just someone's fucking opinion. who's not involved with the film. So what are we talking about? What are we talking about?

Oh, my God. There's nothing in like the upcoming, you know, on IMDB when you go to upcoming movies. There's nothing about uglies too. Well, pretties, I guess would be cool. Yeah, no, it's not confirmed. It's not announced. It's not greenlit.

So, whatever. Please make it, though. Netflix, please make it. So how do you even know if a film like this even did well? You don't. Unless Netflix brags about it like they did with Birdbox They're like this is the most watched thing of all time Yeah

But even when they do write articles and brag about it They'll have like these weird metrics that are confusing to understand So I would 20 million views in first three days Yeah What does that actually mean? Does it count the auto play when you're just like Trying to fucking find something to watch And it starts playing for no reason

Yeah Like if you watch three minutes of it Is that like the same value as somebody watched like 90? Yeah. I don't really, I don't get what they're looking for. Or if your entire house's power goes out and you start again, is that two views? Yeah. Okay, well, I don't know.

I give it a three. Like, it was a very funny, nice movie. Like, I would totally watch the sequel. A three out of ten. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'd watch a sequel at this point. I think I give it slightly lower though, the one star. But with a like.

Plenty of laughs, all in ways unintended, hideous, hideous film. But I guess unique in its own way. The threat of yassification is just, wow, not seeing that before, quite like this. So fair play, McGee. I've always looked at his account on like, IMDBM and like, what is this dude's story?

Why are you named that? You don't just go by Mukji without having some kind of like story behind that, you know? Who is Mick G? Yeah, make a movie about that. Why is his name that? Okay, so his real full name, Joseph McGinty, Nickel.

So McGy comes from the McGinty. McGinty. So I would also change my name. He was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Is that like a Kalamazoo? It might be a fake place. McGinty from Kalamazoo. It sounds like a fairy tale like character.

Wow, it's like in a shit part of Michigan. Cool. Nice one, McJ. Do you know how difficult it? When I was doing my fucking road trip from Atlanta to Vancouver, driving all my shit back, do you know how difficult it was to find places that didn't have incredibly high car break-in?

Freight's like you just had to give up and be like, okay, we're parking the U-Haul against the side of a building and I've got a, I bought a fucking trail cam that I'm sticking in the back of it. Oh shit. It couldn't avoid that. That was that bad. Oh, yeah. It had to be strategic. A lot of crime. I guess question time.

Yeah. Let's do a handful of questions then from the Saldon cost community. Head over to the suggestion thread over on the subreddit if you want to leave questions for future episodes. just like T.C. Drum did who asks the next Sam Mendez project, The Beatles for film cinematic event,

has a new update. The basic idea of this project is there will be four movie biopics about the Beatles from each band member's perspective. Originally the plan was to release them in theaters spread out during the year, but recently it was announced

all four movies would be released the same day, April 7th, 2028, as the first. first bingeable theatrical experience. We don't know how long the movies are, but I imagine they won't be short. My question is, do you think this is a good idea? Or should they release them separately like the original plan? In my opinion, I feel like it's weird to release them all at once and have them compete against each other. I mean, it gets people to talk about it if they

do. I would say don't make four movies about it. Are all of their life stories that interesting? I guess anyone's could be really, depending on what you focus on. But, like, Like how? Already a wild idea. It would, it would be wild to release four movies in the same kind of like idea or grouping in one year, let alone on the same day. Like I thought,

I saw that this was like a rumor that was building momentum and I guess there's some truth to it. I was just thinking like, okay, maybe I'll just see the Ringo one. Like that's kind of funny. Yeah, sure. But I don't know what the strategy is because that's a, that's a lot of like investment for a low likelihood. of everyone seeing four films, like at once.

You know, maybe, even if they were staggered, like, I feel like that's a lot to ask of the audience. How many diehard Beatles fans are there? Because to watch all four, you'd have to be a diehard Beatles fan. I think, yeah, you would have to be like the diehard of the die hard, because that's... If one of them's boring, you're not watching the other three. Yeah, what if one is like so much better than the others, too?

Is there an order? Is there a suggested order to watch them? We'll find out. Also, like, how are they going to communicate that as, like, a marketing plan? Are they going to be four different trailers? Like, imagine all the poor people working and the staff, like, selling tickets to people. Hey, I was trying to get to the Ringo one, but I wound up sat in the pool one. Like, what?

What a nightmare. Like, what a terrible idea. Yeah, no, this is a... it's also Sam Mendez though like there's no guarantee

that it's going to be good at all no no my assumption for these biopics based on like pop stars is usually that they're going to be kind of milk toast and just kind of

adverts for their discography or sure you know like astroturfing anything interesting about like their relationships

or what is cool or interesting about them it's just yeah not what I'm looking for from a biopic personally but people love them ever since

beaming Rhapsody made they don't make a billion bucks because this is what we got thanks to shit like that yeah and I guess this year's one is Michael

which you mocked in your I mean it's it's gonna be a one that people watch it's the king of pop yeah I guess yeah no it's gonna be huge

yeah I hope that also has the, that's rumored to have some weird marketing kind of spider verse thing going on, right? I hope there's some truth for that to that. Oh yeah, it'll be a second, there'll be a second movie. Well, if the first one's called Michael, then the second one has to be called Jackson. Yeah, I didn't even consider that. Damn. Their genius is over there with these biopics. I know what the people want. Sure, I guess. I don't know. Release the second film on the same day, but as a surprise.

No one could plan for it. Are you much of a Beatles guy? Your Beatles head? I mean, not, I don't think I've listened to a full album. I've enjoyed a good chunk of what I've heard. Maybe I listened to the white album, I think, when I was younger. Yeah, great album. Revolution 9 was so weird that I was intrigued by it.

Yeah, and I don't know. I think maybe my favorite track is not actually a Beatles track, and it's just a John Lennon one. What is it called? Yesterday? Wait, is that Beetle? That is Beatles? Yesterday.

That is, yeah. Okay, yeah. I like that track. That's one of my go-to karaoke tracks, as long as the room isn't people that would get mad if I sing a song. Yeah, they kind of got like countless. great songs and countless great albums but sergeant pepper and magical mystery tour

my go-toes um yeah they'll say like I'm always shocked by how short the amount of time that they're actually producing albums was for the continued impact it was like six years or something maybe less yeah no that is that is crazy wow okay yeah and then the solo stuff it would not yeah pretty incredible I don't really need a movie about it, though, I don't think. Especially four of them on the same day.

Crazy work. No. Yeah, we'll see how that comes together. Let's do this one then from Uncle Sam, number one. Andy Weir, writer of the Project Hail Mary novel, was recently on the Critical Drinkers podcast and stated that the reason for the film's success was that there are no politics in the movie.

Why do you think there is such a heavy emphasis on a movie not being political in some circles, even though art is inherently political. Yes, I saw this like pop up on my YouTube. Didn't watch it, I thought it was quite odd. This is just kind of an ongoing sentiment. Yeah, it was kind of interesting. Yeah, I didn't realize. Like, that was a-

I didn't watch it. I've been busy moving. No, I haven't watched it. I'd have to do more research on the full interview. But as like a premise, I find it an odd thing. at least to attribute to the success of that movie, because I feel like there are a lot of, like, obvious things about Project Hail Mary

that kind of mark it more as a success than just that fact that it's like, well, not overtly political about politics, what, because it's a hopeful sci-fi romp adventure. Like, I don't know. How did this strike you? I don't have, like, a super strong, like, enjoyment of Andy Weird to begin with.

So this doesn't catch me off guard. I've never read either of his books. I've just seen two films that are based off of his books. Yes. And so I don't know how closely it relates to the books, I guess. From what I've heard, the books feel similar and that, you know, it is more or less just like this joky sort of buddy, like, oh, alien friend, bad jokes, or whatever. Like, that's what the book is too, with, I guess, just enough science stuff.

Yeah, like a bit broader, a bit friendlier. Yeah. Which is kind of funny because the entire concept of science is politicized, is it not? Like, if you accept certain scientific truths that is political, especially in the United States. Because, like, let's think of it this way. in a real future where the end of the world is happening and, you know, the sun is dying, in the United States of America, there would be an equal contrarian pushback against acknowledging that that's happening, right? Just got like, that's literally what would happen.

So if you, if let's say you're only concerned about accuracy, then you would have to include like a little bit of politics, right? unless your strat is just ignore that that's happening. Space programs are inherently political. True, yeah. Like, so, yeah, I don't really know. Well, that's trying to get at. What point is even being made by that comment, really? I just feel like there's so many other reasons

that it's found success the way it has, you know? I'm pulling up the fucking quote. Because, like, he made a commentary on Star Trek. and said some weird shit about it. I'm just going to... Oh, yeah, I did. I saw some, like, headlines about that, yeah. Oh.

Is this just like a confirmation bias type thing, do you think? What do you mean? It's like... Yeah, of course it's done well because of this thing that I think is the reason that everything does or doesn't do well. Yeah, I mean, Barbie did well.

Like, Barbie did really, really well. I think the average person is not thinking about whether or not a movie is political, and they just watch what they enjoy and what they enjoy is fucking the buddy space thing. And if the, you know, Ryan Gosling, what was it called again? Project Hail Mary. If that movie was political, it would have done just as well, right? Like, it's insane to think like, oh yeah, yeah, if the movie took a stance on global warming for like a minute. or less or something right like like as if that would have tanked it in the box office like oh yeah the entire success of this film is because it avoided politics which is i don't know it's it's a silly thing to say yeah because if you but if you just so play that's if you were saying that about what like iron lung it's like well yeah like okay it made a lids money i guess is that the reason why no what was it. So in the quote from I guess Critical Drinkers podcast here, quote, and here's another thing. I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the TV shows and spent

a lot of time talking to executive producer Alex Kersman. We're continued, I don't like the new lot. I don't like a lot of the new Star Trek. He as a person is a really nice guy, but at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. And then March the third. 30th, Reid posted an apology to Kurtzman via Facebook. Open letter to Alex Kurtzman. Hey Alex, Andy, we're here. I'm posting to apologize about stuff I said on the critical drinker podcast. Oh, my God.

I feel like my quotes who were taken out of context is salacious soundbites. I hope you and you saw the other parts where I said how much I like you as a person and what a nice guy you are. also how I like SNW and LD okay well that's kind of funny so there I I was aware of more quotes of him

talking about Star Trek and implying that it wasn't like a political thing but I guess I'd have to find those quotes if I'm gonna comment on those that's what I was trying to find yeah yeah I'm no Star Trek guy yeah so weird it's just yeah

this level of access we have to these people at this point is it bites them sometimes. It's, it's very, very odd. And I, at least I'm not having to grapple or come to terms with anything about this author and be like, oh, what? It's so weird that this writer would say this thing. Like, it's just, I don't know. It doesn't, it doesn't seem that crazy.

The United States is a crazy place. Yeah, true. and we don't have a resident to defend it. Yeah, well, it's so crazy that someone gets mad in the comment section every time. That's how crazy. Yeah, that's true. Every single time there's always a market. Why do you have to single out the country that's destroying the planet right now?

Why do you have to single out the country that's starting a war for no reason and saying that they're going to genocide an entire, like literally today as we're recording it? Yeah. Supposedly at 2 p.m. or some shit. Why do you have to single out the country? that's made threats to your own sovereignty of your country. And it started a trade war with you based off of literally fucking nothing. And pretended it was an emergency to subvert Congress and pretended it was about fucking fentanyl,

of which more comes across the U.S. border to Canada. And from Canada to the U.S. makes up less than 0.1% of your fentanyl. Oh, why do you have to single out this fucking country? Go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Holy shit. Are you that fucking stupid? All right.

Jake needs to come back. I'm losing my mind. Keeps it, yeah. Help. I saw that screenshot earlier. I was like, there's no of a true social post. I was like, there's no way that's real. Come on.

Did some more research. Oh my fuck. Oh my fucking God, dude. I like where I like when he said praise be to Allah on Easter Sunday. Yeah. That's fine. I feel like I'm being trolled. Like I'm being.

rage baited. Oh, you might be. But it's the most powerful man on the planet, Earth, who was it just me months ago was revealed to be linked to like dude, I can't. He's only powerful because

Congress won't do anything about it. He's only powerful because literally the country's representatives are allowing him to be. Why do you have to single out our fucking, why do you talk about your name state? Why you talk about you a night date? like you go a bunch of TDS right now. That's what you sound like you go that TDS syndrome.

Oh yeah, yeah. I got USADS. Which they fucking gutted USA. Sorry, that's a different thing. Oh my God. Literally a bunch of fucking, bunch of fucking African children are dying now. Because Elon Musk decided it was woke. Can't make up. Through a chat GPT. It's endless. It's endless. There's too much. It's an overload of fucking horrific information. Yeah.

No, it is an overload. And then people pretend as if there's nothing. When there's like six new things a day. Go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Yeah, because that's like a real meme now. You know, they're like, nothing ever happens meme. It's like kind of the opposite of that, I feel.

It's like everything is always happening and we're aware of all of it at all times. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how you're supposed to decompartmentalize that. You got like notifications of like some crazy news thing. It's like, breaking news. There's been an enormous strike somewhere. It's like cool. Great.

No one wanted it even. Breaking news. Derek Savage stopped school shootings. Yeah, see what Derek could have avoided? Yeah. It's a bad timeline. Yeah, I think we answered that question. That's the Epstein universe.

Yeah. Dude. Yeah, when's they going to be Cool Cat like defeating Epstein or Marilago or whatever, you know? Oh, no, that's fine. There's no problem there, actually. Oh, okay.

Well, an equally cheery news, Butter 4,67 has one for us. What are your thoughts on the upcoming Escape from Tomorrow's sequel called Return from Tomorrow, where they didn't even bother to shoot at Disney World this time and is being described as a lynchian style film while also having a plot description that reads like a 13 year old who thinks Disney being edgy equals funny

Do you know anything about this? Is it fucking Randy Moore again? Let's find out. Return from tomorrow. Yeah, I'm going to, because I mean he hasn't really done anything. Okay, 2026. I guess I'll watch list it. Where is it? Is it premiering somewhere? Let's find out. Is it, okay, Florida Film Festival, April.

11, so that's in four days. So I guess we'll find out based on the buzz. Yeah, I don't know if, I don't know anything about this. Udo's in it. Descriptions with a paranoid conspiracy thriller about a man who thinks his wife doesn't love him and his hero,

Davy Crockett. Well, I just wanted to know after him directing Escape from Tomorrow. I just wanted to know if he was able to make a real movie after, so I guess we'll find out. Yeah, 13 years later. Yeah, what's he been doing?

Yeah. Yeah. What's he been doing? Yeah, I don't know about that one. Yeah, I wonder about that with those filmmakers that just kind of like disappear for these huge chunks of time. Like, whoa, what are you up to? What are you doing? I don't know.

I mean, some of them have films that are successful enough that they can take a break. True. I don't know if Escape from Tomorrow was. No, it doesn't really have that vibe. Yeah, I guess we'll see. Jojo's crazy Reddit, that's one. Cool. Because the amazing digital circus is coming to an end on June 19th, with its ninth episode.

What do you guys' thoughts on this series becoming a worldwide phenomenon? On not just to the animation community, or those inspired by Harlan Ellison's post-apocalyptic short story, I have no mouth, and I must scream. But the glitch production becoming the most recognizable independent animation studio in recent years. Would a limited series such as this be open to discussion sometimes in the future? I'm not particularly interested in watching it, but I've seen, I feel like I've seen all the characters and like clips here and there of what it is. And I guess I've seen him in porn.

Oh, right. It's one of those. There's like an alligator that's made out of goo and he's Australian. Oh, okay. He's called gummy goo. Is it like a kids show? Well, it's an independent, like, YouTube animation thing that, like, essentially, like, in the same way that, like, Vivsi Pop made stuff that got attention. This also just had, you know, enough talented people involved and someone actually with a good enough concept and a good enough ability to, like, wrangle those people into creating something that looks professional.

You've released that into the world as like a pilot. And then a lot of people are going to flock to that. So I don't from, so I watch the pilot. And I'll watch the rest at some point. I just haven't, you know, I haven't felt rushed to. I enjoyed the pilot. Yeah. The animation is really cool.

Especially conceptually with like the teeth character. I forget his name. Whereas like eyes are inside the teeth and like, oh, how do you show a facial expression, right? You like imitate the eyebrows with the top layer of teeth, but you're still showing them out of expression. It's cool. Yeah, yeah, there's like there's some fun stuff going on in it. And I can see why it connected with so many people. It's not explicitly for children.

I don't think it's trying to be. It's one of those, right? so even if kids are flocking to it it's not trying to be edgy either it's not like necessarily you know it's not catering towards children let's just say right yeah no I'm looking at like some of these characters here they're fun designs um it does look extremely professional and like I've seen from it do look that way um so I'm down with it

existing and kind of legitimizing YouTube as a way of like launching these projects and hell yeah I'm seeing more stream on Netflix at this point so I know isn't that crazy yeah so yeah I've got I've got nothing against that all I think that's that's cool um yeah animation seems to be one of those things don't know if it's really for me maybe maybe I check out an episode I guess sure I think you would enjoy it maybe not like I finally maybe something to appreciate I don't know if I get into the whole thing, but as an avenue, I think it's really cool that it exists. The more of these the better, I reckon.

Especially for these small independent animation companies, so if you can make it work through something like this, go for it, because it's so difficult to get these projects made at all. Yeah, you're pretty limited options. So, you know, do what you can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Fix my heart, 16 as one. After losing out on Harry Potter, it was reported Netflix as searching for a new adaptation to become their next big franchise series, whether it would be a book series, a video game series. What do you think has potential to be a great television series if adapted well? Man. Uglies. Not many things I didn't trust Netflix with. Yeah, Ugly's is a good one, but we might really get that one. That one's ahead of the curve.

I don't know, like, it's getting to a point with some of these adaptations where I'm like scared to give Netflix anything. They seem to just kind of waste it. I guess people, they like that one piece show. Yeah, yeah, but like I couldn't even comment on that. Because I, apparently it's just like accurate to the show. But then what's the point? You're like, like show to show one to one. Yeah, I don't really get that either.

Like the show's. been going on for how many years now? It's kind of like a fucking literally over a thousand episodes. It's past a thousand episodes. Literally a thousand. So the actors are going to be dead before they finish if they're going to try to continue doing the whole thing. Yeah, there's no

way. Right? Yeah. It's quite young, like the main character so he's going to be like this old ass man by like season three or whatever. Yeah, and it's not like an invincible situation where Kirkman can kind of like make tweaks and almost

get like a second go at the same story, just in a different medium? It's like, we've already got the show. I, well, here's an easy answer because it's already the most profitable franchise of all time, Pokemon. Adly. Oh, right, yeah.

Revitalize Pokemon, do only the original 151 just as a starting point, right? You're making shit, make it for millennials, okay? Don't make it for babies. Make it for millennials. which I mean it's going to be made for either way, but don't pretend you're making it for babies also.

Yeah. Just fucking just be honest. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised they haven't done something like that with Pokemon, but I'm so out of the loop of Pokemon at this point. I was into it in the early 2000s, like the first movie and, yeah, the first, what do you even call them, phase or whatever? I can't even remember it. Generations.

Generation, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know with that one. The only thing I The only thing I could really think of with this was like I want to see an adaptation of disco Elysium

I feel like you could What makes it cool is it being a game But I feel like you could With the right writers or write creative force It's got a really cool like art style If you could translate that into some Some kind of animated form and maybe do like a Like a mini series or something

Where like it's the same story but told in different ways, kind of like in the game, exploring the choice aspect of it, the politics of it. Like, I feel like you could do something with that, like you could do with a lot of these kind of properties that are kind of ruined once you try and make it as broad as possible.

Like this Harry Potter shit, which I'm still like, seems so weird that they've made it at all. Why wouldn't they? It's probably going to be huge and do really well. Yeah, exactly. Why wouldn't they? They got theme parks to sell. They got merch to sell.

Yeah. It's like straight to streaming. Like in the last 10 years in the UK, like Harry Potter shit is like really, it's like everywhere now in a way. Like there was a lot of it in like London. But now every like seaside town you go to and like every town just has like a Harry Potter shop. It's really weird. I'm like sick of it. That's odd actually. Yeah.

It's kind of like a last like big. I guess super connected brand like that of that kind of scale and size. Yeah, it's weird. They're already doing trailers for like the behind the scenes making of like. Sorry, trailers for a behind the scenes? Yeah, yeah. It was like John Lithgow like saying, it's amazing to be part of something like this.

Like already trying to, already playing on like nostalgia for the, it's like, we're doing this for the wrong way around. This like doesn't make sense. yeah you're already nostalgic for the thing and I don't know if there's some decisions and like choices in that world that maybe like flew when they were adapting it the first time how they're going to do it now I did it's gonna be funny at least but yeah yeah let's just calm down

ban Harry Potter yeah I feel like we could why can't we just let it go you know why do we have to hold on to that one. Like, just let it be its early 2000s, late 90s thing, products of its time. It's money. Because, like, Harry Potter's kind of like a, he's not like the most inspiring character. He's kind of like a nepo baby. Like, everything about him is like, oh, he's... You got the good blood. He's chosen from birth, kind of. He's like super rich. Like, he's like a multimillionaire. Just like, it's just given to him at the start of the book. Like, it's, I don't know.

I don't know about Harry. That's the fantasy. I much prefer. Yeah, yeah, it's very much that. But I much prefer like a Lord of the Rings or something more kind of timeless like that. Yeah. It was supposed to be about what we wanted adapted and just turned into a hard about a rant bit. Oh.

That's usually what I'm feeling, unless you're just picking some random niche thing that lets you actually do something interesting or someone interesting is attached. like the they're trying Resident Evil again I'd be curious if that works out like there's something you can bind in there

like as a show no as a movie oh yeah the weapons guy is oh yeah yeah yeah I forgot together yeah I wouldn't care otherwise but Zach Greger

like writing directing that's like okay let's see what we can do with that yeah there's nothing like really jumping out of me that's like

Adapt me now. Yeah. Pokemon. How about you do a redo of fucking Death Note? Right? How about you do a second take at that, Netflix? In live action, you mean? Sure, yeah.

Whatever the fuck you want to do. Just don't do the Adam Winkered version. Yeah. Buddy's sick of it. Got this one then. From Diligent Cake, 6173. Do you ever have trouble following a movie due to mixing up or not recognizing characters' faces.

It's a huge issue for me personally. The first half of Sorcerer was unintelligible for me due to all the characters being middle-aged men who's apparel. Apparel. Apparel sprits. Nice. And complexion changes in the first act.

I kind of have the inverse issue where I'm extremely good with faces, but terrible with names. So like, a story like a game of the same. Thrones or something where it's all these names and these families and family trees to remember. I really struggle with that until it's visualized, which is a, it's not as much of an issue in in films.

Actually, it's more like a reading thing where it gets complicated first. But do you have any like sensory things like that? Because I found before when I was watching movies without the subtitle, there was, once I started doing that, I was picking up a lot more kind of like complexities in a script. things were just, I was memorizing them better. I was like, yeah, should have been doing this a long time before. Yeah, no, sabotables can help definitely. I found myself not as good at faces when I didn't know about actors as much. So when did, I think that, yeah, the last time that it happened to me, like, in a significant way where I couldn't tell the difference between two people

was like the departed 2006. When I saw that when it was new, I was young enough, yeah, where I was like just confusing Leo and Matt Damon. Or sorry, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg? I don't remember. There was just like, they looked similar enough.

Yeah, Leo and Matt Dave. But I don't remember. Yeah, Leo and Matt Damon. I don't remember which character. Mark Wahlberg is also in the movie. I don't remember which characters I was confused. He is in there too. But there were two,

there were two that were like too similar. And, you know, like, it's, if they're big enough name actors and I, you know, pay way more attention to movies in the film industry now than when I was younger, that like a mistake like that is unlikely for me, but I have also noticed if let's say it's a movie like, like, uh, Saw Six. and you've just got like oh random side character who has big tits and is blind

and acts like an idiot and there's not much character hurt like then yeah then it can get a little bit confusing and also the script is a mess and everything's a flashback right like then it's not even the viewer's fault

at that point and it comes down to mistakes being made in the production so there's a little bit of both directions in terms of where blame can be placed, I guess. I think filmmakers should be aware enough to try and make characters more visually distinct if they can,

as long as, you know, it complements the, the story and vision. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, it hasn't happened to me for a while unless there's like a significant,

recent one that, yeah. Yeah, I do wonder of like, especially the bigger and broader focus tested films, how much they account that sort of thing like sensory issues and the way you're using sound and whatnot and how much that restricts expression or whatnot

because a lot of films have the flashing warnings for people for seizures and stuff like that but there's obviously a whole range of audiovisual processing things that people can have yeah warning we flash images of ghost goat see in this movie. Yeah, I thought that was weird in a goat when they started like when the goat started

goat seeing that was pretty hardcore. Yeah, they're too far. Warning, there are there are clumsily disguised fetishes in this kid's movie. Yeah, it wouldn't be the first time and won't be the last time. I'm guessing. Yeah, I just found it funny how like it's called goat and it like fucking sucks. You're calling it the greatest of all time. It sucks.

That's kind of funny. Yeah, and him also sucks. That was originally going to be called go. Yeah, true. Oh, yeah. Oh my God. It's just a cursed name, I guess. Yeah, I guess so.

Should we do one more here? Sure. I'll wrap this one up. All right, let's end on this one from Die With You. Hey, Sal, my question pertains to the idea of different film cuts, directors cuts, editors cut, final cut, etc. What movie would you want to make your

own cut of? What would you name that version? Either as an attempt at fixing a broken film with a good idea or simply create a different version with a new perspective. My example would be for cats. And I'd put all the buttholes back in and call it the butthole cut.

Nice? I've actually done this. I made a fan cut of Man in Black International just the porny scenes oh obviously or the porny cut oh no

so that's kind of my my addition to this hall of cuts because like maybe I'd consider doing the obvious one to me is like the Hobbit maybe but that already exists there's like 58 million Hobbit cuts

yeah I don't really feel like I could really add anything to that unless I somehow had access access to original files or whatever. Yeah. Have you ever delved into that? The fan cut,

the final cut or whatever. But I've been aware of them and I've been, you know, I'll have that thought in my head for sure. Like so for me, it was the Justice League and the Flash. Like any movie that the DC Flash is in, but you're,

you like AI deep fake him with Nathan Fielder and get, them the same voice to Nathan feel? And then it's a better movie. Then he's like way more tolerable, right? There's also like, I think every film should have like a no special effects cut. I think that should be law. Yeah, that would actually be cool.

Like you can actually learn a lot. Yeah, Call of the Wild and it's just a guy pretending to be a dog. Yeah. Like that would be fun. I still need to watch, they did that with, what's the new of the of the movie called oh my god the was it shit this is like there was rise done and war was the third one and then so then what's the fourth one i've seen it and i'm like blank i do i do very much enjoy that you knew what i was talking

about when i said of the of the oh kingdom kingdom kingdom of the kingdom of the kingdom of the kingdom of the Yeah, yeah. They did a no special effects cut for that that's on the Blu-ray and I'll watch through that at some point. I am a little disappointed that in the cut from what I saw as I skimmed through it

it was like no special effects above the finished product. So it's like, oh, you watch it as a comparison. No, I don't want the comparison. I want only the green screen. Like I'm going to, that's my fan cut of that is I'm going to crop out the actual movie and then

watch it for the first time just the green screen. Yeah. That's my fan cut. On the ugly screen screen cut, you know? Release the fucking Rob Tappert cut of the first Evil Dead, which is just the original movie. I want to see him in the bushes. So many films would be improved by that version of the cut.

What, the Rob Tapper cut or the green screen cut? Oh, no. The green screen cut. I think every movie should have Rob Tappert hiding in the bushes. Damn. All right, I guess it's your wreck, right? I think we did it, yeah. Thanks for the questions, everybody.

Yeah, thanks for the questions, everyone. But I don't know, now that Jake left, I was kind of, I was feeling more spiteful. You wanted his reaction? That's what, yeah, he pushed out. Yeah, it was more of a spiteful thing. So I don't feel like it has the same energy. So I'm going to switch up, actually, and do one. Oh, my God.

Wow, he subverted you. That was tactical. He cut out his own internet. Yeah. He like got me before he even had a chance. Like it was going to be weird too. It was going to be like annoying. And instead, yeah, I'm going to do Terrence Malick's

1978 film Days of Heaven. Okay, cool. I don't think I've seen that, actually. So I guess we'll have to let him know. That's hilarious. Damn, I would. Whatever. It will come out.

Strategically, he left. He didn't even know any. 40 chest me. Now he's just going to leave every time he thinks you're going to. Yeah. You're reinforcing a bad behavior. I didn't even tease it. You read my damn mind.

Yeah. Well, if you don't want to be spoiled for days of heaven, watch it before the next episode comes out. Everybody listening at home, these episodes come out every two weeks. You can listen to them early by going to sardonicast.com. Sign up for premium. It's only a few bucks a month.

Also, patreon.com, slash Sardonicast. Same thing. And also members, okay? You can just click the join underneath the YouTube video. You get to listen early. Also, there's going to be a Patreon and members and I guess website exclusive. I have to talk to the website person to figure out how I'm going to put that there.

We had, there was like another episode like two months ago or something. where we started talking about the trailer for the drama and I was like, no, now we can't even include this in the episode because people will know I don't want it to be spoiled and then they'll spoil it. Oh, right. And so then I said I would hang on to that recording and release it later.

So I guess that would be a good member's exclusive thing. It's probably only a couple of minutes. Maybe I'll just make like an extended cut of this episode and throw it at the end. So the members version is an extended. That's funny. Okay. And so members on YouTube, to get to the real members version,

you don't click on the videos that says members, you go to the community tab because that's where it's ad-free. Yeah. Okay, YouTube did this. It's not our fault. It's complicated. Listen to the other episodes. We give more explanations.

Yeah. Okay. Certified Normie Masterpiece stickers. Okay. YMSmerch.com Get them before they're gone They might be gone I don't know

Cool All right days of heaven Who knows Have a happy Have a happy day in heaven Yeah That's a Good

thing That's like That sounds That sounds bad To say Yeah kind of There's something ominous about that Yeah

We're only Happy Day in Heaven. We're 15 minutes away from like a potential genocide if Donald Trump was talking about Pacific time. He said 2 p.m. right? Shit, fuck. I don't know what the hell is happening. It's nearly 10 p.m. for me, so

I'll be snuggled up in bed while the world ends. Yeah, you'd sleep through it or whatever. All right. Sorry, everybody. That was darned that night. Yeah, sorry if we've been down it. Have a happy fuck the planet, everybody. Bye.

strike planet bye bye bye you