Sardonicast - Sardonicast #22: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, A. I. Artificial Intelligence

Episode Date: December 5, 2018

3, 2, 1. Number 15. Burger King foot lettuce. The last thing you want in your Burger King burger is someone's foot fungus, but as it turns out, that might be what you get. If 4chanter uploaded a photo anonymously to the site, showcasing his feet in a plastic bin of lettuce, with this statement,

this is the lettuce you eat at Burger King. admittedly he had shoes on but that's even worse we're sardana cast everybody nice you're good at that oh thank you so you know who that is oh you don't know uh chills yeah that is i think the name is funny as fuck yeah i don't have the internet what i'm amish okay uh i'm adam from your movie sucks i'm alex you my hit everything i'm ralph from youtube.com

Slash Rolf the Movie Maker. Yeah. Yeah. We've got... How's everybody? Good. Decent. I'm okay.

Good. Yeah, decent. Fine. Decent. I guess. That's as good as it gets for us. So not a guess. We've got some very exciting news.

Everybody. I'm very excited about it. Alex, why don't Don't you tell everybody the exciting news? Oh, yes, of course. Just in time for the festivities. You know, Christmas and all that, Hanukkah, you know, all them, all them things. So Donnercast merch is finally here.

Woo! We got store shut up, set up. We got T-shirts. It's a mug probably. Yeah, there's a mug. It's cool, man. There's a pillow. There's an iPhone case.

There's a crew neck. The only thing you could ever want is in this shop. There's a hoodie? There is a hoodie. What's the difference between the t-shirt and the Bella Plus Canvas T-shirt? Yeah, man. I think one's thinner. I guess it's just the color options.

Okay. Yeah, I don't know, man. I'll order them and let you know. Where do people find these t-shirts? I'm checking one out right now. $109. Woof. The easiest way to find them.

It's probably in the description, and I'm sure we'll share it on Twitter and everything, but the URL is shop. dot ritual network.com slash collection slash sardonicust. You'll find it on there. You'll be able to find it. We'll be posting it around.

Hopefully. I'm excited to wear all of our faces on my body. I'm excited to buy the pillow and sleep with both of you right next to my face. Yeah, why would you not want to buy it and sleep with this? What we really need to get is Sardonicast body pillows, like dockies. I don't know. We'll draw the full body.

Just look really cuddly. I'm liking this. Yeah. I'm liking it. Someone would want it. Right in the comments if you want a Sardonic, Sardockiki cast. Sardani Makara. Well, anyway, if you know somebody,

that likes the podcast, even yourself, get some shit for Christmas, because it's great. We're just natural born salesman, can I just say that? Yeah. Well, you're going to be walking like in public and someone's going to see that Sarnatka's shirt. And they're going to be like, oh, cool. That's how they know you're cool. Yeah, exactly. Well.

We did it, guys. You know, it's really cool? There's some new movie trailers that came out recently that are in very similar themes to the movie trailers we talked about last episode. And by that, I mean, they're pointless remakes. Dumbo with... By Tim Burton, right?

Tim Burton. Dumbra. Oh, cool. It's like Tim Burton's Awesome Wonderland. It was great. And Tim Burton's, what was the other one he did? There was another one. Oh, Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

That was a good one. He made big eyes. He's just the king of remix. Which nobody remembers. Yeah. I didn't even see that one. Yeah. I don't really have anything to say about the Dumbo trailer.

I just wanted to mention it because it's sad. Didn't even see it. Didn't even see it. I saw it, but I forgot that I saw it. Did you see the new Lion King live action trailer? It's not live action. I know, right? We were talking about this before.

It's 3D animated, but it's still animated. It looks not good. Well, here's... My biggest issue with it is like, okay, you can make something photorealistic in a sense. You can be like, oh, look at the graphical capability. and how realistic all these animals look. But at the end of the day, there's a reason why it was presented in a traditionally animated way. When you decide to go for realism in the way that this trailer is clearly going for,

you're sacrificing things like facial expressions, you know, things that you express through animation. Like Pixar never does anything super realistic. Their characters are always cartoony, and that's part of why it works, right? But in this trailer all we see is like, wow, a real lion who I don't know how I'm going to be able to emotionally relate to. If you can't even tell what they're feeling at any given time. It's very uncanny valley. Yeah. In that trailer.

And it's also way too dark. They look like real animals. Did you see Jungle Book? Like John Favre, he directed that, didn't he as well? I didn't yet, but I'm going to. I don't know. That seems like slightly more interesting to me than the Lion King. that the story is told through a human character in that, at least, for the most part.

Whereas the Lion King, if you don't have any characters that have, I don't know, facial expressions, if you don't have anything to relate to, then what are you going to get? And they're keeping some songs in there too, right? I'm pretty sure they're keeping like, I just can't wait to be king. But the whole thing's so dark, it looks like a fucking Zach Snyder movie in the trailer. And they're getting rid of be prepared, which is like the darkest song, but the whole movie is dark and they're keeping all the not dark songs. They got rid of Jeremy Irons but kept James Earl Jones. Lots of questionable decisions.

And I'm not sure I really want to see John Oliver as Zazu, to be honest. I was thinking the same thing. What about Timoon and Pumba? They're like Seth Rogen now. God damn it. Yeah, come on here eat some grass Is Timo now? Do we know who Timoire?

Someone who's in Bigmouth? Oh, oh, what a hit. Like, I don't know. If you're going to keep James Earl Jones, then why not keep some of the other cast members that are still alive? I can understand not wanting to keep what's his face from home improvement

because he's an adult now for like the kid Simba, but... I don't remember his name. name. Jonathan Taylor Thomas? Where's the fun in? You know every beat that the story's gonna hit.

Where's the tension and surprising that? Maybe they'll change it up. Nostalgia bait, I guess. They weren't, though. They'll add in just like 30 minutes of extra fluff. Unnecessary fluff. See, I can watch the original movie and know every single beat of where the story is

going and still enjoy it. But I'm uncertain I'll be able to do that for this one. Yeah. It's just like, yeah, when it already, a version of it that already exists, which you probably already prefer, because it's way more visually interesting and appealing. Why would you ever bother with that? That's what I don't get about any of these. Like, did you guys see the Pete's dragon?

No. No. That looked bad too. What's a goddamn point, man? They had Beauty and the Beast too and Cinderella. They do well. That's why they make them. But, I mean, someone must get a kick out of this.

It's the same story. I guess people just want something to see The guy who directed Pete's Dragon directed that movie that's on Netflix right now called Ghost Story from last year starring Casey Affleck

and Rooney Mara and it was actually pretty good and it was like wow this does not seem like something that would come from the director of Pete's Dragon I guess guys didn't watch it It was like a Hollywood studio production They Yeah you know

It's not his movie, it's Disney's movie, and he's just pointing the camera and working with the actors. It's not really his vision. I imagine ghost story is something he actually wanted to do, like a passion project. I find it amusing that they thought that Pete's Dragon was a popular enough intellectual

property that they could remake it and make money off of it. Like, I guess they learned... Well, did it make money? No, it didn't. It was like a flop. Let's see. Yeah, I don't think so. Nobody watched it. You know, it seems like a lot of filmmakers are just using these huge Disney franchise

is to just kind of get their names out there, you know, just to... Yeah. You know, it's just like a job for them, so then they're a bit of a name. They're tempted by Satan. So, yeah, then they can actually fund a project they want. Yeah. And we can deal with the devil, yeah. Exactly.

That's Disney. They keep scooping up all the directors and actors who should be working on better projects. Could you imagine if they got, like, Charlie Kaufman to do a Disney movie? Could you imagine? I don't know if they'd get him. They definitely limit it. his creativity a little bit. Exactly why he wouldn't do it.

Yeah. But I'm being some of these people got to get paid too. And to stay in these guilds, you have to work a certain amount of hours and do a certain amount of movies so they do them. Like, oh, I'll be in the Lion King. Fuck getting paid. They don't deserve any money. They should be doing it for free.

But you should still buy our T-shirts because they look really cool. Yeah. It's capitalism. It's like the Cole Kidman. She's in a bunch of great stuff, but then she's in that movie that I saw this trailer for with Kevin Hart and Brian Cranston Brian Cranston's like in a wheelchair. Did you see that? Well, let me look this up. You guys haven't even heard of this? I've never heard of it. It's like Brian Cranston and Kevin Hart and like Brian Cranston's a You can't move his legs and his arms so Kevin Hart helps him out and they become like friends

Looks fucking awful but she's in it she's also in Aquaman yeah she's in Aquaman too they gotta get paid they gotta do some dumb movies so they could do good stuff

I'm excited to see Aquaman because it looks terrible and also it's directed by James 1 for some reason I can't wait for that I'm hyped for Aquaman I'm gonna be their opening night it's gonna be so bad

you know it's apparently a really funny movie in theaters that I haven't had the time to check out is the new Robin Hood. Apparently that's like hilarious. Oh yeah. I haven't seen it yet, but I would love to catch it. I've just been busy.

Been all over the place. That looks pretty bad too. Who's that for? Jesus Christ. I know, right? They already did like a Russell Crow one, didn't they? Yeah, and that one bombed. They've done many of them.

And now they have Taryn Edgerton and Jamie Fox. Yep. Oh, God. Here, let's see. Robin Hood. I want to look up how much it made. They should do a dark and gritty. Five dollars.

Dark and gritty remake of the Disney Robin Hood. Just because... I mean, they're rattling them off so quickly. It's going to be coming up soon. I'm just upset that it's such a lucrative decision that they keep doing it. Because it's like, okay, well, we don't really have to write a script. We don't really need any ideas. Yeah, all the hard work is done for them.

It's brilliant for them. It's just printing money for just paying a bunch of animators. Low risk. Yeah. Yeah, and animators don't get paid shit. Yeah, just gonna make a lot of money. Round recognition, yeah. Valuable names and properties.

It's just lame, man. Do you know how many are coming out next year? More than five? Four of them. Oh. Four of them are coming out. Just from Disney? In 2019.

Just Disney, like, remakes of their old movies, yeah? Four. It's just obscene. Apparently, Ralph breaks the internet isn't very good. Yeah, it doesn't look very good. Yeah. Yeah, the trailers were embarrassing. I'm not going to see that.

I had the emoji movie vibe. Yeah, you're right. It felt like the emoji movie. It felt more like the emoji movie than record of mouth. Let's go into eBay and do some bidding, yo. That looks fun. I hope they dab in the movie. 100%.

Did that do well? I'm sure it's done somewhat well. I mean, I have Robin Hood right here. Let me just say how much it made quick. 14 million and with a budget of 100 million. Oof. That's been out at least a. week or so has it well yeah and that's like not counting marketing which is like

probably 20 million wow that's a huge flop they lost like a hundred million to see that actually that's fucking amazing imagine just a hundred million dollars burning just burning that's what studio released that uh Lionsgate Summings Gate has been really fucking struggling recently like I know why when you release from Robin Hood well well Jigsaw was good at least. It wasn't good. I'm sure it made like

a bit of money, but like ever since the Hunger Games stopped, they weren't able to find another franchise to pick up. Like they've been really shit in the bed when it comes to getting properties.

Yeah, there's no franchises really anymore in movies, just Marvel. Well, Disney owns all of them, I mean. Yeah. Like the rest of these studios really don't have much. Universal has Jurassic Park. And then is that it?

And Universal also has like, the animated stuff. Universal has been doing great though. Jurassic Park. Yeah, they've been doing good. Like, those are some of the, what, the biggest movies of all time now? Uh-huh. And Halloween did well. They did Halloween.

Fox has been doing fine. They got the fucking Deadpool PG-13 coming out soon. Yeah. I can't believe they did that. I can't believe it. Because Disney guys and now, Disney has Fox, right? Can you explain? whole PG-13 Deadpool thing to me?

It's like a recut... It looked like a new movie, but it's not. But I guess maybe they filmed a little bit more. I wonder if they'll just stop doing R-rated shit now. How much of Deadpool 2 would even be suitable for PG-13? He says like swear words every three seconds. Yeah, well, they'll just change it. They'll just redub the whole movie.

The blood will be replaced by confetti. They'll do an ET and give them all walkie-talkies instead of like guns. One of the lesbians will be replaced by a man. Nobody dies. Yeah. You're just describing an awesome movie, guys. It's right up my alley. PG-13.

Well, I guess that wraps up our depressing conversation on things coming out. There's a lot of them. Two remakes. Yeah. A bunch of remakes. And more to come. Yeah. I hope you're excited

for Aquaman Oh yeah And another remake of something I'm sure there'll be some other reboot Or something coming out Why don't they reboot the show reboot That would make sense Did you guys ever watch that?

It was Canadian But I think it was I think it had a bit more of a Range I guess it might be You might be too young Ralph It was like it was a Definitely It was the

I think it might have been like the first computer animated television series. I'm pretty sure it was in Vancouver. Let's check this out. reboot. Have you guys like... 94 came out the year I was born. Oh wow. Jesus. Yeah, it was on until I don't know it had four seasons but I'm not gonna fact check that but I'm pretty sure it was like the first actual computer animated television series. Fact check me. Screenshots look pretty funny. It worked. I mean, like, it was, sure, it was, you know, it's really dated now.

But, like, the whole plot was that they're in a computer, so it makes sense. Like, lawnmower man. So, Trump. Yeah. Tron. That's all they could do with CG back then, because it was so bad, they were just like, okay. We can't pretend it's real life. You got to go on a computer.

Yeah, you can't pretend it's real life. You got to go in the digital world, okay? And then Pixar step up. it up by saying, okay, it's toys now. Oh my God, I'm watching some footage of reboot now. This looks fucking awful. You mean awesome. Do you guys remember?

Did you guys watch like Beast Wars or Beasties? They had like two names. I don't know why. Beasties. Was that Transformers? Yeah. When was that? I had a friend who liked it. I never saw it myself. Yeah, it was a bunch of a bunch of old nostalgic

things for me anyway. Beast Wars Transformers Beast Wars Oh my god This looks so bad too Oh my god It was also a Canadian production When the fuck was this on

1996 There we go It was pretty funny The animation is hilarious The guy So basically like It was like Transformers And they show up on planet Earth

But instead of like imprinting on cars They transform into like robotic animals for some reason and they have guns it looks pretty epic I bet if I was like six I'd fucking watch this all day the guy who was a cheat cheetah

was named it was named Cheetor is it CG? Yeah it's CG oh really very dated but whatever it convinced me when I was the start of that like a lot of those CG animated show started to pop up in the early 2000s and late 90s.

Like Jimmy Neutron. It always looked bad. Yeah, Jimmy Neutron. And like, they're still trying it. And I guess the CG has gotten a bit better, like that Star Wars show. It doesn't look half bad. It looks better than that, certainly. But it still doesn't look that good.

I still prefer 2D. Yeah, 2D. Always better. We need a dark and gritty Jimmy Neutron reboot. Live action? Yeah. I mean, you joke. With Steve Ode Kirk.

probably be talking about it next episode. Yeah. The guy who created Kung Pow created Jimmy Neutron. Really? Yeah. I never knew that. That's so cool. Kung Pow is an interesting one.

Have you seen it, Alex? No, I saw Jimmy Neutron. Oh, my God. Oh, it's so quotable. Maybe we'll talk about that one day. It's so quotable. It's like, it's one of the silliest. It's like kind of bad.

Like, it's in the realms of guilty pleasure. Yeah. But it's, it's one of the funniest. most quotable movies ever. It's up there not quite as great as black dynamite, but like it's it's up there, especially for like nostalgia for me. Like 60% of it is really bad and unfunny, but there's this 40% that's so fucking hilarious. Like you're going to love it if you ever see it.

There's going to be points where you're going to drop out of it a bit, but then something really funny is going to happen and you're going to stick with it. So what? This is a movie. Yes, it's a movie. Kung Pow Answer the fist, right? Yeah. Yes.

Steve Ode Kirk. That's some really good jokes in that. That's the guy's name, right? Steve Odecirk? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Bob Odenkirk's brother? What?

I don't think they're related. Yeah, related. Odecirk and Odenkirk. Those are two last names. Yeah. They're different. Oh, yeah? Oh, I always thought they were related.

Whatever. Basically, the premise of the film is Steve Ode Kirk took some 1970s Chinese action film that basically no one had seen. They bought the rights to it and Steve Odeke's voicing all of the characters and he green screened himself into the film as the lead

and basically rewrote the story and it's just it's really, really funny. And so like there's characters that just sound like absolute caricatures every time they talk. It's like, I'm Ling's father. We-oh-we-oh. It's just it's you won't get the full effect by me just quoting it but it's it's lovely. It's so funny. Yeah, it's really funny. Yeah, you sobed me. Oh man. Watch it. Watch it with some friends. It's ridiculous. Speaking of things that we watch called movies, we saw the new Cohen Brothers film, the Ballad of Buster Scruggs. What did you guys think?

funny film. Damn straight. I loved it. I think we all liked it. Yeah, we all loved it. I think. I said in the letterboxed post, it's a good, funny version of once upon a time, or not once upon time in the West, a million ways to die in the West. Oh, really? What's his name? Seth McFarlane. Yeah. That movie is fucking horrendous and unfunny. Oh yeah. He has no charisma. The trailer was bad. It was, the trailer was bad. The movie's even worse. It is awful. The trailer at me at least makes it seem like it has some potential. Really? The trailer is what sold me on not watching the movie. Okay, but like let's look at it from like the least cynical point of view where you go

Okay, so he's like making fun of how brutal the West was and how people died all the time and how everyone got diseases all the time That could be funny. That could work and there could be some things you could do with it and he does nothing with it It's like 10 minutes of Neil Patrick Harris shitting in a hat. But Cohen Brothers took this theme of death and he made it, they made it fucking interesting and sad and funny. And it was amazing. Yeah, I was reading up online that they decided to pursue Netflix eventually just because they wanted to, they weren't sure about exactly how sellable it would be to have like a wide release in theaters. and they were just looking at getting funding,

and by the end of it, they were like, yeah, you know, this is just a different way of promoting and distributing a movie, but it's just as legitimate. And I think that's pretty cool, because I appreciate having the option. Like, it had a limited release.

It would have been cooler if it had a wide release, but, you know, I guess there's no point if it's on Netflix, but, and also, I don't know how many people honestly would have seen it in theaters. Right. That's true. It is a weird kind of,

unique, different thing that they've made. And I love how they're always willing to try new things. Very crazy. And I love how the first segment was where it was, because immediately it's like, okay, this is not completely serious. If you had a different segment first, then it might not be as obvious at the beginning. Yeah, if you had like the segment with Liam Neeson and the guy with no arms and legs, that's way more serious than the Buster Scruggs one.

breaking the fourth wall immediately. So entertaining. I loved it. Yeah, I liked how they were all completely different tones and the stories and morals behind all of them were completely different. Because I don't know how you guys feel about the anthology movies normally

because I don't really like the concept from the films I've seen beforehand like VHS, you know, films like that. Yeah, yeah. It has some, like, really good segments, but all it takes is for half the segments to be bad and then half the film is like nigh unwatchable. Yeah.

But each one of them is interesting enough on its own. Some of them do seem kind of slow at first, but they always have a payoff and a meaning behind it and it's just a joy to watch. Mm-hmm. I think that part of what increases that risk is having so many different directors on the project, like VHS. Yeah.

Especially fucking ABCs of death where just most of them are, awful. But when you when you have like a solid consistent voice even if they're totally inconsistent you have people that see the bigger picture I guess or have the same

ability to curate their own content and decide what's good and what stays and what works and what doesn't because by the end at the end of the day it's like they easily could have had another segment and cut it out you know when you're doing a film like this I think that it's an interesting kind of

to tell stories by essentially making a theatrical version of several short films. And I would like to see more directors do it, more good directors at least. Yes, I agree. What was your guy's favorite one of the stories? I would have to say the first one would be my favorite. Yeah, I'd say too, but I love them all for different reasons. Yeah. Because I think the third one is fantastic too.

Like, that one really was gripping the story between Liam Neeson and the dude Yeah, that's my favorite one. Yeah, like, I fucking love that one. But that's not the funniest one. Buster Scruggs. Like, that skit was fucking hilarious. That was a great way to open the movie. And then I love the last skit, too, where it's just, you know, the car full of terrific

actors all, like, having these long monologues about whatever. It was great. I really enjoyed the fourth one also, the digging for gold guy. Loved his character. No, that was, was that the fourth one? That was the fourth one. The fifth one was the... The fifth one was the girl.

Yeah, the wife. Not really a wife yet, but theoretically. Yeah. Eventually. Yeah. What about you, Alex? I did really like the chicken one with Liam Neeson. I really like the moral lesson behind that one.

But we haven't even mentioned the James Franco one. It's like a short but sweet. Yeah. Quite excited. That was a really funny one too. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the pans is all I'm going to. gonna say that was awesome. So, so many great moments in that movie. I saw some people complaining that it's too dark or miserable for some reason. I didn't feel that at all.

It just, it fits in perfectly. And some of them aren't as dark, you know. People have got reasonings behind what happens in them. And like, it's not just like, it's not like a Seth Macfald in comedy where they're just dying. And that's like the punchline, you know?

Yeah. It's a payoff normally Plus it was all very intentionally Comical and phony looking The way it looked it looked very Clean and digital and kind of cheap But I like that I think they did that on purpose

In some ways yeah Yeah to make you see through it You see the seams in it But in other ways it was the exact opposite Yeah in other ways yeah But like in terms of it's all very simple It's all shot you know in plain feel simple sets, there's points where the buildings look fake, like the windows are painted on.

That was all intentional to give it that phony feel. And that's something I loved about it too. Yeah, the only thing I didn't like along those lines was, I just hate CG deer, man. Yeah, that was pretty bad. Always bugs me in any, any film. Specifically deer. Deer aren't exactly rare. Yeah, it's always deer because they never look good enough, ever.

Yeah. Well, how many trained deers do people have? But it doesn't do anything. It just walks into like a river, right? Like, could you, you know, just like push it? And it would just walk into it, you know. Yeah. I don't know.

Maybe it's like cruel to grab one of these deer out of the woods and make it act. I have no fucking idea. That was literally my only gripe. Yeah. I thought it looked pretty good for a CG deer, though. It was one of the better ones. I was thinking in terms of like, if you go back in 10 years' time and watch it, I reckon it will look pretty bad. Yeah.

Everything else will look quite good. Yeah. I wish they'd gotten a real deer. Well, I mean, when the rest of the film isn't exactly literal, you know, I feel like there's some leeway for having things like that. That's what made me accept it. It wasn't trying to be like this gritty Western. Yeah. They already made that movie.

They made True Grit already. So I like that they took the Western genre. a totally different direction. It felt like six Red Dead side quests or something. I was thinking the same thing because Buster Struggs reminds me of me in Red Dead. And I'm fucking like in the town and I just shoot everybody for no reason. Fucking throw dynamite everywhere. I find it interesting that this film came out right when Red Dead is at its most popular.

Like Red Dead too anyway. Yeah. It's kind of convenient timing, I guess. Convenient, yeah. One of my favorite aspects about the movie is they're, dialogue. Like it's so, so well written. Like these... Yeah. It is. These words that are appropriate for the time period that I didn't even know existed. Like, they do so much research into this shit. And they, how many

Coen brothers have existed that weren't period pieces? Like, are there any... Yeah, all of them are period pieces. They love doing that shit and they're really good at it. Yeah. The dialogue in the last one I thought, especially, because it is so dialogue heavy. Mm-hmm. Just, you know, in the little, this kind of a bottom. in the cart or whatever they were just sat there talking for the whole thing yeah there's an awful lot of range in their direction throughout it

because the third one has no dialogue at all basically and you know first one's very narration breaking forth wall heavy they're all different styles of writing and they pull them all off really well if there's any complaint I would have to make about the film I do feel as though

the pacing was a bit slower in the fifth segment. I felt like that one could have moved along a little quicker, especially considering all the other ones were so short. Like, the first four segments took up half the movie, and then the third segment took up like a good third of the movie or something. Yeah. I felt like this could have been like a Netflix episodic thing,

where you can watch a few and then back off from it, because that's what I did. Because I watched up to, the one right before the one with the wife. I watched up to that and then I shut it off and then the following day I watched the rest of them. And like I have no issues with the pacing because I watched it in two different chunks.

I feel like it would have worked better like that, honestly, but I guess either way it works. They wanted to call it a Coen Brothers. Yeah, I thought that one was slower as well but just because I was trying to guess where is this going, you know, whereas all the other ones, it seemed a bit clearer, quicker,

sort of what the direction was. I think if I rewatched it, though, now that I know what it's all about, exactly. It might go a bit quicker. Yeah. Yeah. That's usually how these things go. Yeah, solid, man.

And no excuse to not see it if it's just on Netflix. Yeah. Watch it. Exactly. Unless you don't have Netflix. Who doesn't? What are you, poor? What can you not afford it?

Because you've got to buy food. Yeah. Netflix has really some good films this year. They have. Proud of it. coming out next month on Netflix. That I'm really excited for. Yeah.

No, because I was hyped to see that and I thought, when's it going to come out here? But God damn, it's just going to be on Netflix. It's amazing. Yeah, there are a lot of benefits towards having a film released on Netflix because it's like when they own the actual title, they're not going to region lock it.

You know, the only times you have region locked content on Netflix is because of distribution rights from other companies. and that's always a piss off. Did you guys get an annihilation on Netflix as it came out? Well, I don't know when it came out.

Not when it came out in theaters. Because I don't think it got a theatrical release here but it was released on Netflix around the same time as it came out in cinemas in America. Yeah, that was an interesting choice. And I think it paid off for it from what I know.

Like about it. Like it didn't make its money back I think in the theater. But I think a lot of people saw it on Netflix. I don't know how that's a... I really don't know. I don't know if the titles on Netflix make a commission based on how popular they are,

or if they're just bought from the service and then have a license period and say, we're going to pay you this much for a year or something. I'm not exactly sure how all that works. Yeah, I don't know either. But either way, I mean, like, if you have something that's successful on Netflix, then that helps your career, that's for sure.

absolutely a lot of people are going to see it and annihilation is great just saying and so was cloverfield paradox speaking of good science fiction yeah that's them yeah they got mostly bad stuff but whatever that's most services and companies yeah exactly we were talking like earlier this year like netflix has nothing but shit but they got better yeah you know toward the end of the year the good stuff starts to come out. Yeah, it's just that reflects movies, you know. It's like no different of the cinema. Yeah, exactly.

The majority of stuff that's playing is going to be shit. But then there's some good stuff. The new Charlie Kaufman thing is for Netflix. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. It's an adaptation of a book called I'm Thinking of Ending Things written by some Canadian guy

and I don't know exactly what he's going to do to it. I haven't read this novel, but, yeah, apparently it's a Netflix film. I have no idea what he's going to do with it. But I'm excited for that. Yeah, there's also, Scorsese's making something for Netflix. Oh, shit. Oh, really? Yeah, De Niro and Joe Pescher in it, from what I know.

I think so. Fucking everybody's getting on board. Well, because everyone understands now. That's the future. Everyone's on Netflix. If you want to get something seen, go on Netflix or Amazon. the fucking theaters What's in the theaters

Aside from Justice League And Black Panther And annoying people Antman and annoying people And yeah the barrier A Disney remake You know it really fucking sucks There's those like VIP theater

Things in Canada Where it's like okay So we have the Cineplex chain And then we have certain theaters That are like Okay you get to like eat and drink in the movie They're comfy seats Less people whatever

But if I'm visiting my parents For like Christmas or something because we don't live in the same province. And they want to see a movie and it's like, okay, well, what's in theaters right now? Every time it's just like Disney. Because they have the Christmas market, especially. Like, not even just Christmas.

It's just like all the fucking time. If you want to see it in this VIP theater, you've got to see a shit movie. Very rarely do they play something that's not going to be some blockbuster dumb thing. I think the last one I saw in VIP theater was Venom. but yeah it's really annoying

it's crap it's like I want the theater experience but I want to watch a good movie too you know yeah just go home just go home and watch something exactly anything on Amazon or Netflix is going to be better and you can have a nice sound system

and a projector now you can get a projector for $100 hmm it's not going to be a good projector for $100 though well it's Cyber Monday so probably you could find a decent one

oh yeah so it's okay to cyber bully today yeah it is yeah it doesn't even question the future of this all you know like is it just going to become a sort of exclusive well it's just going to be Disney movies isn't it

big blockbusters and the sort of middle has fallen out isn't it and the lower yeah but how long can those movies do well you know like how long are people are going to see Marvel movies for I know a long time I like Marvel too, but is there going to be a point where people get sick of it 20 years from now? And then what do they have after that?

They'll just snatch up, weren't they? But I don't know. And Star Wars as well. Yeah. Which people already want them to reboot Star Wars because they hate it. I mean, I don't know. You just don't know what these things. And then anything else Disney makes, aside from Star Wars or Marvel or their animated stuff,

like it just doesn't do well. Like, wrinkle in time or they had something. the Nutcracker movie. Like, even they have bombs. Yeah, I just don't know. I guess it's kind of a no-brainer why they keep doing all these remakes is because those are the ones that make money

and they don't have any actual ideas anymore. Yeah. Well, because they don't even want to risk new ideas because if they do, they're going to fucking lose hundreds of millions of dollars. I think they're doing fine. Yeah, but still, why would you greenlight something

you know is going to do bad? Yeah. Like a wrinkle in time Yeah Did you watch that? It's interesting No not yet I do want to see it one day though Yeah

It was very boring Yeah that was my fear I didn't even want to watch it for the funnies Yeah I think it was a Less satisfying theater experience than Slender Man Wow God

And I can't even be bothered to watch Slenderman It would be my least favorite of the year Really? Wow Can't wait to see it Yeah, you really sold me on that one Good job Disney Well, I guess we don't really have anything more to say about Buster Scruggs It's awesome, man

It's just a great experience It's very good movie, yeah Really refreshing after Venom Yeah Oh, a real movie, oh my God Yeah They make those There was a

Thing that I guess we wanted to mention Even though we don't know what the fuck we're talking about but apparently there's this Article 13 thing happening in the EU. Yeah. Does that affect the UK, Alex? Yes. Okay.

I'm pretty sure it affects all of the... How does Brexit work then? I thought Brexit was like... I don't understand anything. Well, of course I don't. It doesn't concern. No, no, I'm saying... We don't understand.

Brits don't even understand how it works. Or like, what's happening with it? Every headline, every week is like this glacial... move has happened to do with Brexit and it's like Jesus Christ the referendum was years ago now and we haven't even left. Yeah

nothing's changed. Completely inept, yeah, because it's literally split down the middle like half the country really doesn't want it and the other half doesn't supposedly. Split the country in half. Could do that, I suppose. Half Brexit. Half not Brexit.

I don't think that's a good idea. Anyway, Article 13 is apparently some new copyright bill kind of in the same vein as like Sopa and PIPA where a bunch of old farts are legislating things that they don't understand and

apparently it's going to take a huge blow for content creators on YouTube particularly ones in the EU or it has the potential to we don't know what's going to happen but I don't think it's actually coming to law yet I think they're still

voting on it I'm not sure yeah I'm pretty sure it's the end of January. I'm very uninformed about this, but there are a few YouTubers that have made some videos on the subject. I've watched a couple of them. So go check out and be informed. Just search up Article 13 on YouTube. Sorry that we can't be the bastion of information for this,

because we don't know what the fuck we're talking about, but... Yeah, we're dumb. We figured that... Any insight from us. It would at least be a good idea to mention it, so that people could look it up for themselves and hopefully get some traction and contact their representatives

and be like, yo, what are you doing? Stop. It is scary that it's always these people that barely understand the internet making all the laws for it, you know? Trying to copyright memes and stuff. Like, God damn it, guys. Just go to copyright everything.

Go to bed and die. Jesus. All of these are all under the premise that like the entertainment industry is not making enough money already Like that's not the reason why these things come into play Yeah Like they didn't even get hit hit by the financial crisis It's like all of us watch these things and talk about them on the internet and that's gain so much publicity for these things It's free advertising and then they're like no we don't want it

What are you fucking dumb Make a video on something that sucks people are going to go out and watch it just that curiosity because people are talking about it yeah just people want to be part of the conversation people like talking about things that's the biggest marketing tool you have you think people watch something because they see a fucking billboard they go on the internet and talk about it fucking dummies i think the people voting on this watch things because they see a billboard but yeah because they're from fucking the 1950s yeah i saw fucking fred flintstone smoking cigarettes on television

That's what they're fucking used to They think they think kids our age to watch ads on TV Oh yeah They're fucking crazy Fuck man My cable subscription is just for the Oscars now Right I wish I could cancel it most of the year

But I can't I used to have the HBO But now I just have the HBO internet service HBO now whatever it's called Like just the internet version of it like no one my age or in this age range watches TV yeah I don't even have a satellite dish yeah we watch it online yeah FX now and HBO now

and showtime anytime like pretty much anything you could watch on TV at this point is on iTunes anyway right so it's like I would rather just pay for something and have it and watch it when I want with no commercials then go through the hassle of like recording all of these things on a hard drive that you can't even like copy things over onto where like if your hard drive fails you can't even recover any of your shit anymore like there's so many fucking DRM restrictions and it's really annoying like the industry is killing itself I know they're like that fucking robot in the Incredibles that's like stabbing itself I guess you don't remember that no I remember that of course I

okay there's someone taking irresponsibility this don't understand what's going on no They're out of fetch. If they embraced it, it would just, it would only help them. Yeah. Of course it would. It's like the taxi lobby. If they're not making all the money, then they're not happy. If they're losing two pennies, then they want to just reform everything.

Yeah. Yeah. Cable's so fucking expensive, too. For a worse service. Yeah. Let me just get one channel. Make the $2 or whatever. I don't know.

Pick out the channels I want. Whatever. All right. More depressing shit. Talk about a movie. I guess so. Is that what we do on this podcast? Sometimes.

Well, I guess it was my choice this time. Mm-hmm. And I picked a movie. I know you guys love. AI, artificial intelligence was my pick, and we're going to be spoiling the whole movie I expect. Yep. So be wary of that before we go into it.

I guess I'll give a brief synopsis of what AI, artificial intelligence is about, by the way, I hate the name. Thanks for saying the whole title. Yeah. The movie that's so confused, its own title had to re-eriterate its own name because they were scared people would confuse it with steak sauce. You know, that's the actual reason. That's funny.

They did like a test or whatever, and people thought it said A1 for A1 source. that's why it's got that stupid elongated name. They should have just called it Bicentennial Boy. Why didn't they just call it artificial intelligence? I guess that's an easier

compromise isn't it? But the story is about a world in the far future humanities pretty fuck to be honest like New York's underwater

and we're highly reliant on AIs I guess mostly primitive but a sort of new experimental design comes about sort of like a child and the idea is this family who have a super ill kid sort of inherit or do they buy it I guess it's just like a well the company gives it to them yeah the husband is working for the company that designs them and they decide that he is the perfect candidate to basically be a beta tester or basically just take home this fresh new line of child AIs. They're like, oh yeah, this guy would be perfect for this.

And he already works for the company. And before that point, AI in this universe had never been allowed to have sort of programmed artificial affection or love. So the idea is he's the first robot that can imprint on a parent figure. Yes. So the whole film is sort of a deconstruction of identity and love and affection. And if robots, you know, it's the age old question, if robots can, if they can simulate love perfectly, is that love or not, you know, or is it just a robot pretending? Exactly.

And how do we feel about AI artificial intelligence? Are we mixed on it? I'm next. I'm kind of conflicted because I found the film really entertaining. I was never bored. It's nearly two and a half hours long, but it just flew by for me. Stephen Spielberg's direction is super solid throughout the whole thing. It's got tons of really interesting ideas, loads of fantastic scenes, props, sets, really creative in a lot of ways.

You can see, I'm sure we'll get into the whole Kubrick Spielberg thing in a minute, but I was under the impression that this film is kind of hated by a lot of people. It is. I can see why. But I really didn't feel that way at all. It's kind of brilliant in a lot of ways, I thought. What do you guys think before we sort of go into the interesting things about it? I liked it. I think it has a lot of merit, like you said.

I think it's confused and a little messy and I think the second half isn't as good as the first half of it because the first half mainly focuses on that age-old question kind of robot love and you see the formation of this bond between the mom and the kid and that was all excellent up to when he's given away and then the movie kind of meanders I think it's trying to be like a fairy tale and it has the logic of a fairy tale it's Pinocchio they bring up

Pinocchio a lot it's not it's not all that subtle but like once it got into the second half where he's trying to chase down this blue fairy which is like a metaphor for consciousness I guess or like or like gods you know the ability to have you know to have a goal which is what they wanted it to have I don't know if I found that as interesting and And then the last part with the aliens I thought was fucking crazy. And I don't know how it to feel about that either. Because it's kind of bizarre and I like things that are that bizarre, but at the same time, it kind of felt like a cheap excuse to have a happy ending.

If we put a pin on the ending for a sec, can we come back to that? Yes, absolutely. There's a lot to dissect, I know. Yeah. So, Ralph, just quickly before Adam says his initial thoughts, you liked it more this time. I did? Because you had it as like a two-star. I did the first time.

But I think this time I went into it more expecting. I knew what I was expecting this time. And I tried to embrace it more. And it's like a really well-made movie. Everything. The music is fucking great. All of the acting, for the most part, is good. There's some corny dialogue.

But again, it's along the lines of like a fairy tale logic. So it didn't really bother me as much this time. Like the first time I saw it, I didn't know any of the fairy tale stuff till. you know, once they start mentioning it in the movie, which is like 40 minutes in, but, you know, I appreciated it more a lot more this time. Okay. I'm adding.

This movie, regardless of its flaws, it always has held some sort of special, I guess, sentiment for me. Ralph, you're going to hate me for saying this, but part of the reason why I wasn't completely blown away by ex machina is because a lot of the same philosophical concepts were in this film and got me to think about them at a much younger age. And although it didn't explore them in an as artistic of a way, I guess, or as subtle of a way, I still value this movie quite a lot for tackling those concepts. And I like it overall.

It's definitely flawed. there's a lot of choices that I wish they had reconsidered or changed. And I agree with you the first segment of the film. Like, that easily could have just been a short film, like one of the best short films ever made and just ended when she gave him away or something. Like that, all of that was relatively brilliant. And the tone of it was so creepy. And it was just disturbing and unsettling.

And I think it achieved exactly what it was going for. But then after that point, it starts to turn a bit more into a Stephen Spielberg movie, if that makes sense. Yeah. You know, like running around. Not a good way. These fucking dudes on motorbikes with glowy helmets and throwing nets at them. And they're basically like Power Ranger villains and shit. Like, it got cheesy, that's for sure.

I reckon that's the goofiest part of the movie. Those bunch of dudes is the most like 2001 thing. Yeah. Like Spielberg's, uh, it's cheap. Easingness gets old toward like the the later half of his career. And this is like that, like the cornyness. I didn't like it. Yeah.

As much as I would in a movie like E.T. Where that was like, you know, fresh back then. Mm-hmm. I don't know. But it kind of does fit into the fairy tale aspect, you know. Yeah. I agree with what you said, Adam, about X. Machina. Mm-hmm.

But this is going for something totally different than X. Oh, yeah. They're completely different. main character is a kid. So to tell it like a fairy tale, it works a lot better for a story like this than XMachina. I think it's just as artful. It's just, you know, the way they told the story fits this story better, I guess. But, yeah, I agree with you that XMachina basically told the same story as this and changed elements of it.

Well, yeah, it was the same. But tricked you instead of actually having emotion or, you know, what if it had emotion and then tricked you anyway? It was the same philosophical concepts. Yeah, exactly. Explored differently. Yeah. So what do you guys think of the, you were saying it feels very Spielberg-y?

Because I reckon this film is like the least Spielberg-y film. Oh, yeah, that too. A bunch of them. Parts of it are very Spielberg-y. It's really unlike him. it's really creepy really horrific and you said the ending's

kind of corny and happy but I saw it as a complete opposite it's a miserable ending I thought in like in a perfect intended way I thought it was bittersweet I didn't consider it to be miserable or happy somewhere in between

I don't know it's like the kid dies so how do we make this happy like as happy as we can and they're like I don't know aliens. Aliens who create a fake reality from the living.

Wait, well, you know that... I don't know. Actually aliens, right? Yeah, but... They're just machines. They're like robots that have developed past any form

that we could actually recognize. I didn't know that. Yeah, I always just thought they were aliens, but I was doing some reading and they're actually supposed to be machines, like robots. That's why they're so sympathetic towards David.

They see him as like a previous kind of incarnation of what they became. I think the issue with that probably is the just the visual design of them. They look so similar to aliens, you know, the big heads and the slender bodies. They look just like the close encounters aliens, which is also Spielberg. Yeah. And I like the foreshadowing of like the first time you see David, he looks like one of those aliens from the end. I love the way they shot David at first to make him look creepy. like you'd see his reflection on the table, you know.

His face would always be obscured by glass or something. He always looked alien and weird, and you never really trusted him. Haley Joel Isman was the perfect person to cast for this, for sure. What a creepy kid. I thought he was incredible. Yeah, me too. He was so brilliant. Now he looks even creepier as an adult.

I saw him on Eric Andre. That's the last time. I've seen him. That's fucking hilarious on that. I just love the spin on making the film be about how humans treat AI instead of the typical AI is going crazy and enslaving humanity kind of thing. It's more about the, you know, the moral and philosophical battle there. Because the humans, kind of the villains are kind of the villains in the movie.

Yeah. Yeah. They're quite selfish. They use. AI for like their own fulfillment like the the parents kind of in a selfish way use it to sort of get over their kid

you know framing for murder yeah and there's that scene where the robots are like being tortured in that horrible like circus thing that's kind of cheesy though they're just like yeah yeah but that still like the humans are the evil presence in the movie somewhat and I think the idea was

trying to make David, well the irony of making David the most human character where everything else around him is is inhuman and cold and mean because I'm pretty sure I found like this huge Q&A interview thing

to do with everything that went on behind the scenes with Stanley Kubrick and all his pre-production for the movie because we haven't even touched on that part yet because that's such a huge aspect. I suppose we should probably explain that first for those who don't know the whole film is Stanley Kubrick's idea

he developed it for it must have been decades maybe a decade and a half the only thing that was holding him back was the visual effects because I think he had the idea in the early 90s or so maybe a bit earlier

and the film that convinced him that it would be possible was Jurassic Park so of course and he became good friends with Spielberg at the time, and they developed the project together, worked on it a bunch, and that's how Stephen Spielberg kind of came into being the final director on the film, because, of course, Kubrick died.

Yeah. He would have most likely directed it, don't you think, if he didn't die? Hopefully. I mean, it would have been really cool. You see the echoes of Kubrick in it, for sure. I'd say more than echoes. It's like...

Yeah. The whole thing is, it's almost like Spielberg's love letter to Kubrick. Yes, for sure. It's almost like Spielberg dealing with his death, right? Because the whole film's about death and grief and dealing with that kind of acceptance, you know? Yeah, but it's definitely a Spielberg movie. I think it had his style. His style, like he wasn't trying to copy Kubrick, like JJ Abrams trying to copy him with Super 8.

Like he did his totally his own thing with it. Kind of, but it also, I mean, out of every movie he's made, it seems the, most like him trying to make a Kubrick movie. I feel like there's a lot of that in there. But it's not just like the shameless homage or copy. With something like Super 8, it's more shameless and how it's just kind of captured the same magic for this. It felt more genuine and more like of a respectful kind of interpretation of his work and

what he was envisioning for it. Because I think he wanted to do it justice, you know, because he knew what Kubrick wanted out of the movie and he wanted to do his best. and obviously he has his own talents and it's just kind of the product of that love child of the two. When Kubrick had reservations about the capabilities of computer animation, it was because he was unconvinced that any real child actor would be able to properly perform as David.

That was his reservation with computer animation because his idea was to completely computer animate the robot, like the child. And I guess he just didn't really have high expectations for child actors. Yeah. Because I mean, like, Haley Joel Osmond did a fucking great job. So obviously Kubrick was wrong about that,

or I guess just Haley old Joel Osmond didn't exist yet. But that's kind of interesting that he wanted to completely computer animate the child too. Mm-hmm. He wanted something very different, I think. Well. That's the thing. like I don't know how different it really would have been.

We can only speculate. To have a CG kid? It would have been a totally different movie. No, I mean, I mean just, uh, Kubricks. Oh, just in general. Kubrick's like, yeah, what his interpretation of the same ideas would have been. Because I think I remember reading Spielberg's input was like the torture circus scene and stuff. And he liked all the vicious, I guess gory is the right word for it, even though it's not, you know, bloody or whatever.

He liked that kind of stuff Because I guess people think the schmaltziness comes from Spielberg When actually a lot of it did come from Kubrick's original Work on the pre-production Yeah They wanted to tell like a fairy tale from the gut go Yeah although I

Although apparently like in his treatment The mother of the kid was like an alcoholic or something And the kid would make her like cocktails and stuff. So in the ending he would like... Oh yeah, it was supposed to be Bloody Mary's instead of coffee. Yeah, that's the one. I forgot about that.

I feel like if Kubrick had directed it, it would have been more cold and sort of... Yeah, cynical. Yeah, cynical is a good word for it. He looks up to his mother, but his mother's a flawed person too. But in this, again, she's perfect or, you know, she's conflicted, she's not perfect, but she's not an alcoholic, certainly. There's no real way to tell exactly what,

a Kubrick film of this would have been like in my mind I'm just going to assume it would have been a better movie because I like Kubrick more but who knows really who knows you can never tell yeah it's such an out there idea you know there's so much speculation online as to what Kubrick was responsible and what he wasn't and basically most of the places that people are having this conversation it's people just going I didn't like this scene so this was probably Stephen Spielberg's idea When there's really like it's it's not really that easy to tell There's a lot of mystery surrounding it Say the film is the exact same but Kubrick did direct it

Would people like it more? I don't know Just because of the name yeah you know I don't know because I don't think it would have been the same So a lot of the laughably corny dialogue felt like Spielberg Yeah like again I can't discern it as clearly as Joss Whedon and Zachson Snyder in the Justice League movie, but the end with the British narrator, he's like, for the first time in his life, he goes to a place where dreams are born. It's like, I don't fucking know if he would have included that.

But I guess you never, you just don't know. That's the direct fairy tale, um, theme, though, isn't it? Like, it starts like a fair tale and it ends like one. If we got a Kubrick version, it would have had David doing the Kubrick stare. It's the slow zoom fucking face down. He would have killed the mom at the end. Red rum on the mirror. I don't know.

Who knows? Because like even if we're to say like, okay, here's what was in the Kubrick version, doesn't the guy like constantly change and rewrite his own scripts anyway? Who knows what the final product would have been? Yeah, that's a thing. Yeah, exactly. 2001 was a very different movie the month before it came out. He fucking got rid of narration and all kinds of stuff.

He changed the score like last minute. He was changing stuff all the time before the movies came out. You just don't know. The kid in Barry Lyndon, the, what's his fucking face? Lord Bullington? Lord Bullington. Yeah. Kubrick, I found out by watching this Netflix documentary, I forget the title, I think

it's called Film Worker. Kubrick initially didn't have him being as major of a character, but then he was so impressed with the guy for like actually going over his lines and doing a good job. He's like, you know what? I'm going to make you more of a main character and write in a whole bunch of scenes for you. Like, after they had already started filming. And it worked out.

That's a very interesting documentary, though. I would recommend it. Yeah, I check that out. It's on Netflix. We got to talk about the ending. I feel like the ending is one of the most contentious parts that has people arguing about it, right? Because, of course, after David gets to the statue of the fairy

sort of cuts to 2,000 years later or whatever it is, and the super robots unfreeze him and then fulfill his last wishes, and then he dies. And you were saying if you feel it's schmaltzy, I guess, or too happy, or what? Yeah, I think it's schmaltzy. The music and the aliens sitting down with him,

like what you said, the high-tech robots that look like aliens sitting down with him on the bed, I thought it was all corny and it went on for really long. It was like, it felt like a half hour of that part. I didn't like it. But go on about what you liked about it. I like the sort of irony of it because it's the moment.

The whole movie, David, has been this kind of instrument for fulfilling other people's needs and wants, you know. And it's finally being spun around so he can get what he wants because of the, the higher being being the more advanced AI is where everything sort of comes to ahead and it's also the payoff of him sort of becoming a real boy in the sense that I guess he kind of decides to end his life and there's nothing more human than sort of accepting the end you know as opposed to being a infinite living machine yeah so in that sense I kind of like the bittersweet as Adam said sort of nature of it.

But yeah, just the biggest problem I have is the design of those creatures, you know, the super robots, because I think it is confusing because I think most people think they are aliens. I always, the one thing I remembered about this film because I'd only seen it once years ago was, well, that bit with the aliens at the end was weird. Didn't really get that. It is bizarre. And researching it. It is an odd choice, yeah.

The CG wasn't too good either. Most of the effects of this movie are very good. Some of them are a bit dated. Yeah, some of them. But for the time, like, holy crap. There's some really cool effects. Insane production value for the time. Great CG for the time.

But as it is right now, it's like, it would be acceptable for, like, a low-budget film. Like, an indie movie. It would be like, okay. Even if it didn't look real, it was very inspired. Like, the opening, when the girl's face came out, like, her face opened up. They were like, oh, that looks cool. It doesn't look real. But, I mean, it was interesting.

at least. It wasn't like all green screen shit. I didn't really like that one shot where they were clearly just showing off the computer animation. You know, when the... It's like, you can see through her head when the robot girl is running away. It's like, okay, that's a trailer shot, I guess, but fine. Yeah, but it doesn't age well.

All the props and, you know, physical models they built were really impressive, though, I thought. Yeah, I like the... depiction of the future. You see all kinds of different parts of, you see the city, you see like rural life, you see the labs. It all looked cool.

I like the way they depicted the future in it too. Yeah, I have my issues with it, I guess. Well, some of it's a little dated, like how the place is called Cyberdronics. Wasn't it called something like that? Something like that. Like they use lingo that people now would never fucking say, like, oh, it's a cyber boy.

like no one would fucking say that now did you guys notice how similar it was to astro boy it's like the same story yeah yeah yeah I have no idea anything about astro boy wasn't nicholas Cajan astro boy in the movie that came out yeah

yeah the animated one yeah that's all I know about astro boy is that movie I find it funny how they totally just missed where the future was going in at least one sense they go to the fucking and the doctor where you have to pay to Google and Jude lies like, in this day and age, information is the most expensive thing.

Oh, yeah. It's the exact opposite. But... For me, the biggest miss... The biggest miss in terms of stuff like that was in one of the scenes where I think they're just eating breakfast and the mother's reading a newspaper.

I thought that was like a bit of an oversight. They got like insane technology with robots and machines and she's reading a physical newspaper. I thought that was odd. I found it, there's some ways where it kind of did predict accurately where things were going. Like when she was saying,

as they're leaving the house and leaving David there, she's like, okay, when we leave all the doors and windows will go smart. So like a smart home thing. But that didn't exist in like 2000. What, one? What was the year?

This came out? 2001, it came home. Like, she said, she said it'll go. go smart. I'm like, oh, that's a smart home. But did they have smart homes? They're just called smart homes now? Did they have smart? I don't know. Yeah. The fact that they got smart, like, predicting the smart home term is actually pretty cool. They predicted global warming before Al Gore. Yeah. That was funny too. New York City's underwater. And the only thing

left are the Twin Towers. Yeah. Oh, yeah, of course. They didn't see that guy. That year. Oops This is off topic Did you ever see the video About how Back to the Future P predicted 9-11? What?

I highly recommend that video Just a side note Go watch that ASAP It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life Yeah there's There's a couple design choices That I found to be like odd

Like this three-wheeled car Where it's like okay Now I don't have a truck and the car can flip over more easily. Like, when's that going to be practical? Three-wheeled car? Come on.

That was like Mr. Bean's shit. You know? That was a very, we need to make the car look sci-fi. Exactly. Yeah. Some of those choices bug me. I guess I was hip at the time. Like minority reports like that too.

A few movies from that era that depict the future like that. It wasn't until like her that they started changing it. The production of the future. Minority Report is also Stephen Spielberg, though, right? Yeah, it is. Yeah, her was great. I've got a fascinating, like, quote from, I found this website called visual memory.com.uk,

which is, like, a big Q&A where they've compiled a bunch of information from, like, the 90s where all this, these tidbits were coming out about the production of this movie. Because, of course, people are obsessed with it and have all these theories and, you know, all that kind of stuff. But it was about Kubrick's kind of weird obsession with the fairy tale thing. If I would just read it for you guys. Oh, yeah, because he kept bringing in all these different writers and, you know, people to do their own treatment on the work.

So Kubrick's final collaborator on the AI script was English novelist Sarah Maitland, who he felt was necessary in shaping the story into a cohesive hole. He says, by the time I came to the project, it had become enormous, no, sorry, she said. By the time I came to the project, it had become enormous, unwieldy and unfocused, said Miss Maitland. Upon pursuing the piles of unfinished scripts, she concluded that the story needed to make emotional sense as a myth or fairy tale does and believes that Kubrick realized this. In fact, Kubrick also was adamant that the story should work in terms of myth. He never referred to the film as AI. He always called it Pinocchio.

Huh. He decided to make this film because he wanted people to shift to a more positive view of AI. He was quite open to me about that. Kubrick was fascinated by artificial intelligence and was very fond of robots, which he regarded as a more environmentally adaptable form of human being. Fuck you, Stephen Hawking. As I'd like to think of my great grandchildren. And he's very fond of his grandchildren.

So I thought that kind of adds a new context to what the film's going for. It does kind of achieve flipping it all on its head Are you guys like super worried about the AI robot takeover? I mean we don't know What's gonna happen? I'm fine with it

Smart people seem fucking worried Yeah, I'm fine with it too I don't honestly like to upload my consciousness To a robot I think that'd be fucking cool I feel like the actuality of it Would be way more Kind of boring

Than you know they're not gonna have like big space ships flying around enslaving people that will probably just more be like some super intelligent AI system that just exists virtually just controls all you know like water supplies and electricity and stuff and just controls people like that way like that like that Johnny Depp movie that nobody yeah yeah where he decided he needed to continue using his human face yeah well because people had to like him I mean Johnny Depp is a star but like that movie they made it seem like Johnny Depp's a threat and the humans try to attack him.

And then it turns out Johnny Depp was a good guy the whole time trying to save the environment. So we don't know if AI would help us or hurt us or if it has any motivation to. Depends how you program it. Whatever the fuck. Yeah, it depends. Yeah, how you program it. Is it faking emotion? Is it not?

What controls do we give it at first? You know, I have no idea, but smart people seem worried about it. And it's going to happen. It's going to happen eventually. It's just information processing as we get better at that then it's inevitable. It's a fascinating concept for storytelling at the very least. Yeah, it's a very interesting concept. When it comes down to it, like we're all programmed in our own ways, you know, whether-

Yeah, I guess that's the great debate, isn't it? Whether you want to attribute like a creator to it or not, we're programmed by our DNA. Like we have action and reaction responses in the same way that you could program artificial intelligence to have. And I love that it tackles those concepts. And even though it's not like a documentary, it doesn't really flesh out those concepts, it provokes them and it gets you to think about them.

And that's part of what I like about this movie. Definitely gets you thinking, yeah. Yeah, and definitely ahead of its time too. I mean, the fact that they were talking about this shit, when did this come out? 2010-2001. 2001, so whatever. Ironically, yeah.

The fact that they were talking about it back then. Mm-hmm. Yeah. An AI Odyssey. I mean, it's possible that if Kubrick did complete this project, that it would have been a sort of masterpiece on that level, you know? Who knows? Yeah. Yeah, I wish he didn't die, but we all die, so.

Oops. Mm-hmm. If only he could upload his consciousness to an AI. Shit. Someone needs to save his hair so they can recreate him, and then he'll only live for a day and die. when he goes to sleep. It's funny what you said about the scripts, Alex, how they were like a bunch of different ones

and the writers were trying to make sense of them and make it cohesive because it kind of felt like that and I still like the movie and I think as a whole it works but it did feel like a bunch of pieces that were kind of melded together and that's just for me. But talking about it and watching it again, I do like it a lot better this time. Yeah, I can't figure out if I actually like it

or if I just find the whole story around it really fascinating? You know what I mean? That's part of it. The whole Kubrick into, you know, part of it. It's just really interesting, a really interesting film. Yeah. Not only what it's about, but the whole story behind it. It's one of a kind.

Yeah. It's just like, if you'd ask me if I'd recommend it to somebody, I would go, I don't know. It depends what you're looking for. Because, well, it's definitely not a kid's movie, although it's a fairy tale and has that. fairy tale logic. I wouldn't say kids... Not at all, no. It's horrifying. It is basically a horror movie. And the first scene is like a boardroom fucking people talking about AI using big words.

I'm like a kid wouldn't like this. I don't think it's trying to be a kid's movie either. But again, Spielberg uses that schmaltzy, the schmaltzy tricks he always uses and it kind of bothered me. That he uses in kids' movies. He also does it to great effect, though. Like that scene. where she abandons David. It's a really good scene. Yeah.

It was a powerful scene. Yeah. It is confusing, though. Like, how do you feel about that weird scene with a Robin Williams, you know? You mentioned it earlier. Doctor No. Right. That, like, that scene was like, I don't know about that shit.

It was weird. You know, Kubrick directed Robin Williams' voice acting for that scene. What? Really. Yeah. I had no idea. Yeah. that was something that was done years before interesting it's just so many

tidbits like that are like what is this film how would it have looked if he'd done it because like just the design of that of that Robin Williams character looks so kind of cartoony and goofy I just would love to see how Kubrick would have presented it you know we can only speculate I wondered if you would have done it ironically like it had that goofy you know voice acting but it was like a it looked like the monolith or something. Like, it was just like this plain prop. Like, you just don't know.

Yeah. With these things. And then those the crazy designs of the, like the city, like really sexual designs of like mouths with roads going into them and stuff like that and the shady, underbelly stuff. It's just a very strange, interesting film. I have a couple issues with the, I guess, the logic in a couple places. It's kind of nitpicky, but.

That's what we do. Yeah, it's what I do. The whole plot of the movie wouldn't have happened if there wasn't that element of, oh, yeah, once you imprint it, you can't possibly reset it. Like, there's no factory reset on this robot. You can't just revert to a factory setting, you know? Yeah, you got to dispose of the whole thing. It's probably very expensive and uses up a lot of materials. Yeah, I don't know why they did that.

I think it is because it's just the mechanics. It's just the mechanics of like a fairy tale, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's it. If you try to think about it logically, it falls apart. But at no point. Yeah, did I think about it logically like that?

The whole thing's quite fantastical. I found all of the whole subplot with the framing for murder thing to be a little cheesy. Not just the fact that like the guy literally kissed her body, you know? And like, you'd think that they would be able to figure out DNA evidence. or maybe there would be like a log in the in jude law's AI that would show this or something you know be able to search his history and figure out if he did it but then also just like every time they caught him it was really goofy they like used that helicopter and just like magneted him away it was really whimsical wasn't i didn't really like that stuff i like that character too it's just sometimes they did stuff like that with the murder subplot i didn't like but i thought jude law was very good in it I would agree. It was super weird, interesting character. Yeah.

I also liked his little brother, I guess, technically, but the kid in it, their son, who is comatose for a small part of the movie, but then he comes back. I liked how much of a dick he was. He was, like, jealous of this fucking robot getting attention from his mother, so he would fuck with it and make it do things. And that whole dynamic was really interesting. too.

It seemed really sort of realistic of what an actual kid would do as well. Like I can put myself into the kind of cruel shit I would do to like, you know, my brother when I was that age. Yeah, I could think of that too. And also just the reaction the AI kid had to the other kid, the real kid, calling him a toy and like touching him like he's a toy. You could see in his eyes it was like hurting him a little bit. That was great too.

The parents very clearly told him he was a toy. We don't get to see this conversation, and I would have loved to have seen that conversation. But the parents clearly withhold that information from him so that they didn't have to say, yeah, we replaced you because we thought you weren't going to get better. So, I mean, the kid's a dick, but that was also partially his parents' fault for literally just saying, oh, it's a new super toy. Have fun. I like how the most likable character is the teddy bear.

in my opinion. Yeah, that was fun, too. Fun comedic relief. And actually appropriate, and he wasn't annoying. You actually enjoyed his character. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't annoying. That could have really easily been, like, annoying.

Mm-hmm. Well, because you think of, like, other sidekicks who stick around to just tell jokes, but considering he was good. And I like the effects on him, because some of his animatronics, some of it was CG. Some of the CG didn't look all that good,

but, like, it was still really cool. Speerberg knows how to blend the two. He's very good at that. Even when it's a little distracting, but it's not that distracting when you see the CG. He tried to hide it best he could. If you notice it was all in sort of like dimly lit, you know, scenes like in busy scenes as well,

so there was more to distract the eye. You just knows what he's doing. That's the thing. It's so competent, you know, technically. Yeah. The biggest hangups are just with all the... It does feel like they're... have been quite a few hands in the soup pot, you know.

Mm-hmm. It does come across like that for every emotional scene where he's abandoned, then the crazy scene with the Google bot and the weird sexual set design, and then the aliens at the end. It's just a, it's super just crazy. It's very odd. Yeah. And it's part of, it's both a positive and a negative, I'd say.

Like, it's the most interesting thing about it. but it's also the most difficult thing to try and wrap your head around. Especially for like average mainstream audiences, like so many people hated the way that it ended because it just comes. Yeah. It's just so bizarre and unexpected. Like you wouldn't expect the story to go there and end that way, especially. Exactly.

And obviously it was promoted for a mainstream audience. Yeah. It's a Stephen Spielberg film. It's not like Jurassic Park Blockbuster, Jaws, you know, satisfying, is it? is way more out there and requires you to do more reading and thinking about it. I'm not surprised that it's so controversial. Oh, yeah, but I still liked it. Yeah, as I say, it was for a film this long, for it to never be boring to me.

It was really impressive. So many good shots as well. Just really well shot around. It was great. Just a crazy, awesome movie. we're all in agreement we all like it we all think it has merit we have issues you have issues what would you rate it yeah that's the thing you all have issues i don't actually i don't know how to assign a number to this one i really don't that's how i feel i do six

as you'll stay the same yeah but i i i think it hasn't been as long since i've seen it also i think i saw it maybe like five or six years ago but still i mean like i feel the same way about it as I did the last time I watched it. My rating hasn't changed, but I'm glad I watched it again. I got more out of it, both in positive and negative ways, but it's good to refresh yourself on films that you find at least interesting. So yeah, six out of ten, enjoyable film, lots of great stuff, some cheesy stuff, some questionable choices, but overall definitely worth a watch, that's for sure. Yeah. Same rating, three out of five. Three.

Four six out of ten. Yeah. Got them. It used to be a two, but this time I got more out of it. So three. Everything we've said. It's a little cheesy, but it's still good. Yeah.

I'm feeling between a three and four somewhere in the middle. Mm-hmm. Just because it is just so interesting. And I'd love to see like a documentary about the whole process of making it, you know. That would be a cool documentary. Yeah, it would. it exists. Cool it.

To have you guys looked if there is one. Probably not. DM documentary. It could be the name of it. What? Oh, I get it now. Okay, sorry. I was like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Yeah. Yeah. And that's AI, artificial intelligence. We got him. We got Kubrick. He's gone now. Yeah. I'm curious to see what people say

on the comments on on Reddit about this one. In our community, what they think about this movie. It sucked. It was dumb. It was gay. It was dumb. It was fucking stupid. It was really homophobic how Jude Law's character was like he can please any woman and he didn't say woman or man.

What? So there's no gay people in the future? Fuck you, Spielberg. Okay. Yes or no. Would you fuck a Jude Law sex robot? Go. No.

What? Um, well. he's quite convincing as the thing he does sort of sell his his product doesn't he you can just close your eyes he's got fucked up teeth Jude law is really

fucked up teeth I don't know if you see it really in this movie but in contagion his teeth are all fucked well that's because he was sick wasn't that a prop like thing in that movie was it a prop I thought that was just real teeth I didn't see any fucked up I saw his real British teeth

yeah well then they must have given him fake teeth in this I don't know what is real teeth really yeah Either way. Yeah. I guess if it was a Jude Law sex robot with perfect teeth, maybe I'd consider it if I was a homosexual. Oh, if. Okay. Yeah.

If, yeah. Like, they're so advanced and they're built for one purpose only. They're going to be better than any human being you fuck. Yeah, that's how they work. Yeah. Yeah, I can't wait. How many more years until we get these sex. robots.

They've been promised too many. Probably since 2001 since this movie. They already exist, don't they? Yeah, but they're like

fucking a million dollars and like some dude in Japan has it. Like there's only one. Like I mean like a fucking factory of sex robots that are you know,

pristine. It's like 899 or 8899 or something like a low price. I'm waiting for that. 899. Yeah, not 899. That's a little too cheap. $899 sounds more reasonable.

Yeah. All right, I guess we're going on to questions. Yeah, it's question time, everybody. So if you want to leave your own questions for the Sardonikas crew to answer, head over to the Reddit page where Ralph leaves a nice thread, where you can ask whatever you want, and I'll sift through and find the questions that aren't about what our favorite movies are, or whatever.

Favorite music's normally the one, isn't it? Same question over and over. Okay. Let's start with this one from Emmett underscore S-22. What is your most anticipated movie of next year? He says, personally excited for Chaos Walking, and when you mentioned earlier, the Charlie Kaufman movie, right? Oh, okay.

That's coming out next year, then probably that. Yeah, probably that. Is that what it's called? Chaos Walking? That's what this Reddit thing says. I can double-check that what you think. Okay. Yeah, the title of the book is just so different.

I didn't realize that's what the... Chaos Walking, yeah. He's written at the screenplay. Wait a minute. Okay, I guess that's it. So he's not even directing it. I didn't know that. No, he's not directing it.

Okay, well, I'm a little less excited for it now, but... Hopefully, uh, he has a lot of creative control. I don't know. Fuck. We'll see what happens. The director of American Made? John Wick 3. Damn, I'm a drum.

Johnwick 3. Yeah, he's on a fucking horse now. Really? Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. I can't wait for Johnwick Three. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Tarantino. Yeah, that was gonna be coming out one. Jordan Peel's movie is supposed to come out next year.

Ooh. What is it called? Us. Toy Story 4. Oh. No. We got Dumbo. We got the Lion King.

Stop. You know, I am curious how this, like, Hellboy thing is going to be like Yeah, we'll see It's the guy from Stranger Things, right? It's the guy from Stranger Things directed by the guy who did the dissent Okay, so

it's good people. Ooh, Itchapter 2. Oh yeah. Angry Birds 2? Joker. I'm hope for that one. Star Wars Episode 9 Whee! Glass. We got Detective

Pikachu. A lot of shit, basically. We got the Secret Life of Pets 2. Yeah. Without Lucy K, right? Who's, who's, is it, Pat Nosswald? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. Secret Life of Pets, that's funny. They just got another fat comedian.

Oops. Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a lot of things that I'm more excited for than what I can find by Googling 2019 movies. But I would have to go through, like, each of the director's IMDB profiles and see what their, what their upcoming things are. Why don't I go into my fucking watch list?

that's a good idea because I probably added some things you guys fill up more time by saying some things here what do you think you think the Lego movie 2 has any hope I don't know it's not the same guy I didn't even do Lego bad man honestly so

oh okay yeah I haven't seen Lego Ninjago but surely they'll put more effort into the Lego movie 2 right because the first one's quite beloved isn't it I hope so there's the new Avengers also Part 2. Yeah, I'm excited to see that.

Yeah, that'll be nice. There's an Elton John movie. Once you guys want to hear about Elton John. No. How about a little battle angel? Oh, Spider-Man, okay. How about Rambo 5 with Stallone, who's like 98 years old? Still making those?

Yeah. He's like in the fucking West. He's old as hell. He has a hat on. He's in a wheelchair. He's got an oxygen. tank and a shotgun. Great.

Okay, we got new Bong Joon Ho movie coming out in 2019 called Parasite. Oh, cool. We got the beach bum by Harmony Karin, starring Matthew McConaug

and Snoop Dog. That should be interesting. Door the Explorer, 2019. We got Happy Death Day to You. Oh, that looks really bad.

I'm sure it's going to be great. Shazam. Yeah The Adams family You're making another Adams family They're making a movie About my family

Really I thought they did one of those A couple years ago Oh no that was Dark Shadows But I thought Am I going crazy I know

But they did do an Adam's family Remigues Like 1990 Christina Ricci's in it No yeah We know about that one But yeah

Dark Shadows was not An Adams family Was it technically Maybe that's why I didn't watch it I think so No, it has nothing to do with Adam's family, but it has a Tim Burton thing, right? Yeah, there's another Tim Burton classic.

Escape Room. I'll watch it, but it's going to be bad. Looks awful. Kim Possible? They're making like live action Kim Possible movie. You serious? Are you going through your watch list right now? No, I'm going through just movies coming out in 2019.

Yeah, I'm not that interested in a Kim Possible movie. And a Sonic the Hedgehog movie with Jim Kemp. What the fuck is that? Oh, boy. Everything just has to be live action. I'm sure that I'll find more movies I'm actually interested in seeing in the comments section for people reminding me that my favorite directors are still making movies. Yeah.

They'll all be for Netflix. Hopefully. Yeah. You never know. I can just sit at home and watch them. Okay. Okay. We got one from Sitoncast, who says,

Do you guys care if a movie based on a true story takes creative freedoms in the writing process? No, because they all do. They have to. Like, the most accurate depiction of something that really happened is probably United 93. Like, that movie, Paul Greengrass tried to, like, as accurate as he could replicate what happened

from, you know, what's recorded. on the plane. He got actors that looked like the real people on the plane. But that's like the most realistic I can think of. Most movies, they have to fucking make up something so that the story structure makes sense. And you know, you just have to accept it. There's that YouTube channel history buffs that goes into detail about those sorts of things. If anybody's looking for some content to watch. Yeah, it never bugs me. It only bugs me when it's like, I guess when horror movies try to do it. Because it's so obviously bullshit

Like the ghosts Things Well that's not even trying It's like this was based on a true story Like okay Maybe when they first started doing that It was a good marketing thing But for me it just makes me roll my eyes at this point

The strangers It's like the only people that were left To tell the story are dead So you made up the whole movie And the true story was Somewhere people died And then the rest is It's just bullshit.

Uh-huh. I like how in Fargo, it says based on a true story, but it's just intentionally just bullshit. Like, they weren't even pretending. It's funny. It's just kind of poking fun at it, and that was in 95.

Yeah. It's still doing it to this day. It depends on how it's done. Because, like, I like kind of alternate history things, too. You could make a movie that's based on a true story and add in things that are clearly fictional. But it elevates the story.

Yeah. Well, like, In Glorious Basters or something, where he blows up Hitler? I guess so. Yeah, that all really happened, though. That's what World War II in. Yeah, depends on the movie. It's all about presentation. It also depends, like, what's changed.

Because if you're, like, telling a true story and you just lie about things that happened that are pretty important. Yeah. That, like, would change to the morals of the villain or the hero. Like if you leave something out like that, then it's a little insulting. Yeah, I'm trying to think of an example. American sniper got some heat for that. Yeah.

Apparently the guy was just an asshole. Like if you made a movie about the Holocaust from the point of view of Nazis or something, like that's when you should fucking watch it. If it's something sensitive, yeah. Yeah, if it's something sensitive, then you've got to try to be a bit more accurate unless you're trying to like do some kind of satire. But then you wouldn't say based on a true story. Okay, we got one from,

artsy film student who says do you think that there is a certain point when a film becomes porn I'm talking about films like Antichrist that have actual non-simulated sex in them or is there no real limit to how much sexuality can be in a film to distinguish it from a porn um I would consider many other films that didn't show unsimulated sex to be more pornographic than antichrist like just because they got body doubles in Antichrist but fucking like blue is the warmest color turned into porn for 20 minutes

even if the actors weren't having sex you know like there was a point where it's like okay you're not really learning anything about the characters anymore you're just trying to give the male audience members a boner here you know like that's that's how it was for me anyway not that I got a boner

I don't know I don't know The difference I guess it's If there's purpose Yeah it's the intent And the purpose of it Well yeah

I just watch some short film About like a BDSM couple I forgot the name of it I should probably look it up But like it was it was written by the BDSM couple And like it was pretty fucking Hardcore shit they were showing But it was the point of the movie

Was like she's into those things and she accepts it and she likes it. So I don't know if that's pornographic because she has a point. It's not just to arouse people. It's to fucking show how a relationship like that works. What about like in shame? It's the whole point of the movie.

Yeah. Yeah. Just because something's graphic doesn't mean it's a fucking porn, but if something's shown without intent just to get you off, then it starts to get pornographic. I just, I don't know. It feels odd that it's even really considered

graphic, especially in America, to show sex, you know? Yeah, Americans are very weird about sex annuity. Yeah, I know, but we shy away from it. It's just a part of our culture. Yeah. We just don't like talking about it really. Repression. Yeah, repression.

Whereas we love showing sex in the UK. Yeah, in Europe, it's big. Fucking France, forget it. People fucking the streets. Neither of you guys have seen short bus, correct? No That's a film that was made That is

Like a real story But with money shots So it's like the actors are all fucking Throughout the movie But it's like a real story It's actually pretty good Yeah What about like

Torture porn Yeah A bit of a spin on the question But like It's not that much different is it If the whole film just exists to show I mean I don't know Do people, like, jerk off to Saw?

I mean, there must be somebody. I'm sure. There's someone who jerks off to everything. Some people jerk off to this podcast, probably. So, I don't know. I guess anything could be porn. Yeah. Like, Saw is just funny, though.

Oh, I love it. That's how I feel about torture porn. It's like, really, you're going to take this shit seriously? It's so fucking dumb. Like, you're actually offended by Saw. What about, like, a Serbian film? Is that what it's called? Yeah.

That was just shock value and nothing else. Yeah, that was just shock value. There wasn't anything really substantive there. Yeah, that's how I felt about it too. Well, I don't know where the line is, but for me, I guess just as soon as it starts to feel as though there's no point to it, and it's just like, okay, well, this is for your sexual gratification and nothing else. And it's like, this might as well be porn, you know? Yeah.

In the U.S., a judge said talking about porn. she said, I'll know it when I see it. Like, that's how I feel. That's what I was thinking as well. Yeah, I know it when I see it. Iyx 12 says, Have you ever experienced a time where you're really enjoying a movie

all the way through until it completely fell apart in its third act? Yes. Is a poorly executed third act enough to ruin an entire movie for you? Yeah. Yes, many times.

And I feel like the third act is like one of the most common places for a film to fall apart because it doesn't really fall apart if it was shitty from the get-go and usually when you set up a story it's like okay now I'm interested in seeing where these characters are going and how this universe

works and then they just can't figure out how to fucking end it because the ending is something where it's like okay on paper in the checklist of things that you need to make this a film you have to have an ending and perhaps this concept of the film was never even

made with an ending considered. And then it's just like, okay, well, now I have to wrap this up and get it going somewhere. Oftentimes it's either sloppy or rushed or just... Formulaic. Betrays the entire first two-thirds of the film. There's several movies, I feel that way, about one of them being Source Code,

2011 film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, directed by Duncan Jones. I don't know if you guys saw it. Yeah, I love that. I've seen it a long time ago. I hated the ending. I hated it so much. I like the ending.

I hated it. It should have ended on the freeze frame. That would have been the perfect ending, and then they just kept going. Well, if you go through the theory, I guess, I don't want to spoil source code. Yeah. Multiple realities, different realities.

Sure. Sure. I am legend. Yeah, I am legend. Yeah, that's a good one. Recently, I don't know how you guys feel, but widows. I didn't like the ending of widows.

I think it all kind of fell apart at the end. I can see why you would think, that trying not to spoil widows I really liked it yeah I don't want to spoil widows yeah I enjoyed it I liked it too till the end zombie land terrible third act yeah well a lot of these movies like you said Adam they sell these movies on the premise and then they write the first two thirds and then they're like I don't know so they usually go with like the formulaic ending like the you know the Hollywood template like oh okay so they they stop the threat and they all go in a

car and then drive off into the sunset. That's usually how it ends. And it's always just shit. The movie ends like that. And then you have times where the movie is perfectly fine and J.J. Abrams comes in and ruins it like 10 Cloverfield Lane. Yeah. Where if you just cut off the movie 10 minutes early, it's a fucking great movie.

That's the way it's like a fourth act. Yeah. That's why I don't even consider that one. Like you can literally just cut the movie fucking when she sees that alien ship or even before that when she just gets out. And then that's it. Just end it there. And it's a great.

movie. I really don't like the third act of Interstellar. Yeah. Yeah. For me that's when it kind of crumbles under its own. I guess so. But Interstellar's like all over the place the whole movie. Like there's shit in the beginning and middle that's bad too. And then there's stuff that's great at the end and stuff that's great in the middle. It's all over the place. Yeah. So to answer your question, yes, that happens. Is a bad ending worse than like a bad beginning? It must be right. I guess.

It's what stays with you, right? So the last thing you experience. But also like a bad beginning, it makes you not even want to watch the movie. They're obviously both important. But like if an ending is really atrocious, just leaves a sour taste, doesn't it? Especially. Yeah. True.

Yeah, I guess you're right. like if a movie gets progressively better I give it more points like if it starts out bad but then earns like it's it earns itself for I guess what's the word I'm looking for but it gets better as it goes along finds its footing

it finds its footing yeah all right I guess we've got a film recommendation yes from you yeah this time I guess so

I hadn't really decided it was between a couple but I guess why not fuck it people have been wanting me to talk about this for a long time the Holy Mountain from 1973

Alejandro Hutterowski I think maybe you guys have seen it before or parts of it I don't know but either way it's something that I would like to talk about and I think would be an interesting discussion it is my favorite movie ever made and it's one

that I would like to encourage more people to see for sure nice it's going to make your brain hurt. Yeah, it's a challenging film is all I'm going to say. Don't expect a traditional narrative structure. Don't expect the traditional anything. Don't expect any movie you've ever seen before is how to watch that movie.

I'm excited. Yeah, me too. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Sardonicast. If you would like to support the show or get the episodes early as they're edited before their public head to sardonicast.com and sign up for premium or go to patreon.com slash sardonicast also what the fuck are you doing we have t-shirts go get get those now it the link is in the description it's Christmas Christmas what are you going to do you got to get a Christmas present you got to do it now bye bye bye

B-U-Y. B-Y-B-Y-B-Y-E. Bye. Bye. Bye.