Sardonicast - Sardonicast #57: Onward, Contagion, Bad Genius

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

Timecodes: 1:20 : Onward 22:43 : Contagion 47:18 : Bad Genius 1:01:50 : Q&A

Three, two, one. Hello, I'm Shelley Duval, but I'm not. I'm Adam Johnston, your movie sex man, from SardanaCast. This is SardanaCast. Who are these other people? I'm Ralph the Movie Maker from Yves on a lot of Rob the Movie Maker. And I'm Alex from Ritchie, and I really enjoyed that intro. I don't know.

Yeah, okay, thank you. I feel kind of sad when I think about Shelley Tuvala. Yeah. Like all the things that happen after. Yeah, as well, it's that side. I know barely anything about her as a person other than she lost her mind and Dr. Phil exploited her. But just looking through her performances, I always got the impression that she was like a really sweet person. And I don't know why.

Yeah. Well, because everything I've ever seen her in is like... It's really empathetic. Very earnest. Yeah. She's on a horse, like, running around. Hi, I'm Shelly Duvall. Hello.

So earnest and sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Fucked. Dr. Phil. I'm here to help you, and the only way I can do it is if we televise it on national television. I'm here to help you. Sorry.

So Alex saw the new Pixar movie, and also I did because it's on digital, because everything's moving to digital really quickly. Right. They just dump Pixar movies on whatever now. Yeah. It's not like anybody saw it in theaters anyway It's pretty not successful I think I don't know what I'm coming out this year anyway. It doesn't matter You got one of two Pixar movies this year

That's the magic number two per year It's maintain the quality of Pixar What did you think enough? We're rambling We're complaining about Disney again I thought it was a Lame idea executed Fairly like well What's the idea of it? I don't even know that

I I didn't like really like the movie but I thought it was fine. I thought it was absolutely fine in a lot of ways. It was very much that Pixar formula, which we would constantly complain about the repetition of it at this point. But it really didn't feel like a Pixar movie to me, aside from just the pure mechanics of the story. Like it, yeah, it was fairly well structured in the way, you know,

there's set up and payoffs and a fairly good arc for the main two characters. But at the same time, it just didn't have anything that really, really no hook that's what I kept describing it as when I was watching it yeah it didn't really have a hook to me like the the universe is is really not that clever or interesting to me if anything it kept reminding me of that bloody Netflix film a bright oh god you know this idea of taking his fantasy characters and like oh look but look they're in like a civilization like ours yeah it's like more boring now we take everything that's cool about a fantasy universe and we get rid of it we check it out the window now they're driving cars and just doing their tax

and shit. Yeah, exactly. And like being cops and driving cars around and stuff like that. It's very, it's like, there's no hook to it. I kept thinking in scenes where they were like doing their magic and the classical fantasy stuff. And I was like, change the costumes here and get rid of the car and just make it a fantasy. And this would be way more enjoyable to me. Yeah, exactly.

I still don't, I still wouldn't love it, but it would be slightly better. And another thing was that I really feel like the character design is starting to slip for me. I didn't like really the look of the movie. It was fine. It was like serviceable, but it didn't feel like, it felt like just a Disney 3D movie and, you know, none of the special kind of Pixar touch

from the early days that we all got along for. They're kind of like swapping now. Like now the actual Disney ones are looking better than the Pixar ones. Yeah, they've made some okay stuff. Tangle and shit and, like, I don't know, Frozen. Zootopia was much better than this. But yeah, I agree with you. The character design is stupid.

They both have like, they both have like a social commentary aspect to it about like modern day. Mm-hmm. Like Zootopia. Um, the, the commentary was, was,

I don't know, it was fairly, it took a back seat to the, the main focus, which was the kind of brother dynamic and this idea of the, the dad. Um, I don't know how much we can say without spoiling.

Fucking spoil it. It's out on digital right now. I don't care. If you don't want to hear spoilers, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there really isn't much to spoil.

to be honest. It's a Pixar movie. How can you spoil it? People love Pixar movies. Not anymore. I think even now people are starting to get a little tired, especially with this one. Nobody saw it. Like, nobody cared. Yeah, because when they are this mechanical, like, people aren't going to be as reverent to these as, you know, like we were to the original kind of movies as kids. There's just nothing there in the same way. Yeah. They do just feel part of a system now, like Disney system. Just pump them out. about the sequels. I'm glad they're making something original at least, but... But it really wasn't. It sounds like it's Toy Story again.

Yeah, it sounds like it's the Toy Story Buddy Adventure thing that they did an inside out and what they always do. Yeah. Very video gamey as well. The whole story's very like, you know, they're just following like a D&D kind of quest type thing, which is... It felt very 90s to me. It felt like this really should have come out in like late 90s or something like that.

It felt very kind of out of place and not like a contemporary film to me. Yeah, very unambiguous. inspired and yeah the main character looks like linguine from Ratatouille I feel that exactly same same guy and then they stole a joke

or recycled a joke from Ratatoui when the Oh which one? It's like a visual gag kind of where basically the it's in the quickie review I posted if you want a visual reference but like the

dad with the fabric body and the sunglasses or whatever And then the biker pixies are like, what's your problem? And then the head kind of just slouches over to the side to give like a like, huh? Like what? Yeah, yeah. Right? But he's not actually controlling it.

He's got the sunglasses on. And that's literally the exact same thing that happened in Ratatouille with Languini when he was sleeping and he had the sunglasses on. And the female chef is next to him. And she's like, what's your deal? And he does the exact same head movement. And she also gets offended. And it's just like, oh, wow, I've seen this before. Yeah, people just like seeing things they've seen before.

I don't know. So I looked up the box office. It made only $100 million worldwide, yeah. That's really bad. Which is a funny thing to say. It was from the director of what Monsters University wasn't it, which wasn't like anything special either. I think that coasted more of the fact people kind of already like Monsters Inc, where this doesn't have that. All it has is the Disney logo.

That was really forgettable for me. And I love Monsters Inc. I think that's like one of my favorite ones of their yeah I can't remember anything about I can't remember anything about university some challenges they did I don't get I remember the name of their frat what was it wasma Kappa I don't know I don't know okay I've seen it once and I remember that I might be wrong but I think that's it yeah it was like there was literally nothing special about Onward and it was just my biggest issue is that like even though there are a lot of the same issues in this film as there are in a lot of other Pixar movies,

this still felt worse because there was no character dynamic between the two main characters. Like, I really didn't give a shit about them. I didn't give a shit about their journey. I didn't give a shit about their relationship. Like, there was nothing to grasp onto there. There was no, like, fun banter between them. It just all felt really forced and awkward. They didn't connect.

Did you know, like, the one time my kind of eyebrow raised was when, the kind of older brother learns that the younger brother basically thinks he's lame. That was annoying. That was the only thing that added some kind of dynamic to them to me. That felt really forced to me. It was like, you think I'm a screw up. It's just like, oh, well, here comes this part of the movie. It's definitely like a trope, yeah.

They have to be mad at each other. The lie or the truth being revealed. Oh, yeah, it's very like formulaic, but I mean, that's, I was kind of grasping at straws at that point. Yeah, I'm getting fed up with these like Disney movies that just have like just Marvel actors just, just, I'm just sick of it, man. That's what I liked about Coco. Um, is it felt more like a genuine kind of story they wanted to tell. Yeah. Like kind of more, you know, less known voice actors. The main character I really like in that movie. He's like really earnest and nice. Yeah. The cool voice. Didn't have that. It felt more like a Disney product. Yeah. I didn't even

love Coco, but there are things that I can pick out from it that I appreciate. You know, I've, I mentioned it on the last episode. There are details that I appreciate about that movie, even if I don't think the whole thing's great. But, yeah, it does feel like a lot more of a genuine expression than just a, yeah, let's fucking pump out another one sort of thing. Yeah, there's really very little of note about it. What did you think of Pixar's first LGBT character?

It honestly felt very pandering to me. It felt like it was structured in a way where it would be very very, very easy to tamper with and change for markets that disagree. Literally just a throwaway line so that Russian and China can be like... For a character that doesn't matter. Who's the character though? It's just like a random police officer. Oh.

And she has one line she's like, my girlfriend, blah, blah, blah. And you can easily edit out that line because it means nothing to the story. It's one of those. It's like in finding Dory. There was like a lesbian couple. That's right. Yeah, the park or something in the background. Yeah, they were in the background.

It is a cowardly way of doing it. Yeah, just don't fucking do it at all then. Either do it or don't. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Either commit or don't. You know, it's like, so they've always had this idea where, yeah, story comes first.

But how does that, like, add anything to the story? It's not crucial to the character or anything, really. It's just such a, yes, we'll get internet brownie points for throwing this one in. Yeah, I guess. I think most people are actually seeing through it, to be honest online. Yeah, good. I'd hope so anyway. Yeah.

Did you feel like Chris Pratt's character was kind of like written for Jack Black? And it would have been better with Jack Black? Yes, yes. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, I kept thinking that. It was like a total Jack Black character, and it just wasn't him. It was just Chris Pratt pretending to be, and it was so annoying.

It's like Chris Pratt's more popular right now, I guess. But Jack Black would have been so much better in that role. And Jack Black's already reserved for Kung Fu Panda, so he was taken. I mean, he can be in more than one movie. No, no, he can't. What did you think of the, uh, what? is it the Manticore character? Who was that again?

It's like that lion scorpion thing. Oh, she was kind of annoying. I don't know. Yeah, I found that the most irritating character to me. Yeah. Look, she's drinking coffee, so she's twitching. Like, what the fuck is the point of this? Yeah, you can see these moments where they're trying to replicate other successful moments

from other films and other Pixar films. And it just falls flat on its face every single time. And you see that, like, that mascot in the medieval-themed restaurant doing, like, a couple quirky things in the background. It's like, oh, man, they're really pausing for the laughter right after this gag sort of thing. They're really anticipating people to be hysterical from this. And it's just like, well, we've seen it a billion times before, and this one wasn't

particularly funny or interesting. I mean, it seemed like they were aiming for like an extremely young kind of demographic for this one. Like more... I would say so, yeah, because there's like very little for like an adult to enjoy, like, in my opinion anyway. In the same way that there are like quirky, more interesting dynamics and hooks in their other movies. Like I really was disinterested most of the time. It felt so formulaic and predictable. It was kind of long and repetitive.

Yeah. Every single fucking time. the main character is like, oh no, I got to do this thing with the magic, I can't. And then he just gets a pep talk from his brother like, no, dude, you're the best. And then he's like, oh, I believe in myself now. And then immediately loses all of his confidence by the time he hits the next one. It's like, well, okay, just keep doing this again. And he literally has his checklist of things his characters to achieve.

Yeah, and then he's like crossing the mouth as if he didn't do it. Like, dude, you did go for a walk with your dad. He's nothing but legs. You walked with him plenty of places. You literally did that. What's wrong with you? And then by the end of it, yeah, we're spoiling this shit. You kind of mentioned that you thought the arc was like, okay.

I really, I was really unsatisfied by like the main character's conclusion where he was like, you know what? I really wanted to meet my dad this whole time, but I got a brother and that's cool. Like, fuck off. That was really unsatisfying to me. That was the only thing that showed any kind of guts to me. Like agency? Yeah. At least they committed.

to this idea that the idea is that he learns to appreciate his brother and that his brother kind of filled the gap that his dad left because of him dying of illness. My brother's my dad now. Yeah. Which, you know, it's, I think it came from this idea that the director, I don't know, I think he lost his dad at a young age and he was kind of trying to tell that through this movie. But it didn't come together in the way that would be entertaining to me.

Like they're really, and by the time it gets to that huge, like, climax at the end, with like the rock dragon and stuff. I was so disinterested by then and I was just thinking about contrasting it to some of the other like Pixar movies and their last act and some of them are like really exciting and have a lot of tension

and fun like character reveals and stuff and they really isn't, it just didn't move the needle really at all. Yeah, I liked the animation with that concrete thing. Yeah, yeah, that was cool. Yeah, I liked how that looked. That was very well detailed and stuff. Yeah, I feel like if they had structured it in a different way or perhaps better emphasized

what they were trying to eventually lead up to at the end, then it would have made more sense because the kind of reveal of being like, oh, I just need to learn to be okay with the fact that I have a brother and he's pretty cool too. Like, there's barely any hints of him hating his brother. Like, for the most part, it just seems like the typical duo in any movie where one of them's kind of embarrassed by the other, you know?

He still went on this big road trip with him, right? He doesn't like hate his gut. He's not like a bully. He's not like, he doesn't like have any sort of disdain for his, brother he was just kind of keeping a secret where he thinks he's a bit of a screw-up sort of thing and then it's like oh yeah that's gonna be his arc okay like that was barely there I don't know it's very simplified and like down to the bare essentials most scenes are dedicated to like a little gimmick like be it the manticle

restaurant scene which is my least favorite scene in the whole movie then the little biker elf thing I hated those things so much yeah I really disliked that that entire thing. It reminded me of... It's another thing that these Disney anime movies keep doing with these scenes

where... I think they did it in Moana as well. Just loads of like little creatures like for a crazy chase scene type thing. Merchandising.

Little doll things. Yeah, nobody can buy in toys of these things. I can tell you that right now. Yeah, no one's going out. Yeah. So... Because my favorite scene

was the one where they've got to kind of cross over this ravine. thing to put a bridge down that was the only scene I kind of liked the use of magic and the the dynamic and those it was the only time I really felt tension for the characters I was I'm grasping at straws because I I don't really like it much more than I was I was I was becoming like a parody of myself with what I was thinking during

that scene I was like fuck man like he's like oh you didn't you didn't believe hard enough on your second step what he just he confidently walked out with his second See, he couldn't have been believing more. How come that one didn't work? And then by the time he gets like all the way to the end, it's like, well, okay, even if the rope was still on him and it didn't accidentally fall off, if he fell all the way at that end, he would still die. He would smash right into the other, like, what do you think would happen?

It doesn't really matter if the rope falls off at this moment. He would die regardless, even if he was attached to the rope. So... See, by that point, I was really not thinking about it that deeply, like that they kind of just say yeah there's magic don't even think about it so the the world building's inherently kind of uninteresting from the beginning so then it falls back onto these characters and the characters aren't you know very special or anything that would be the biggest issue left with this kind of shell yeah exactly everything else would be like more or less forgivable in some way and it would

just be like another Pixar movie to me if it had some sort of engaging character dynamic and there was something at its core but yeah there was literally nothing to to be interested in unfortunately. It was just a below average Pixar movie. Music was good, animation was good, but then there was just like nothing there to hold it together. Yeah, no, the animation was very good and it is worth mentioning. But like, it's in service of something pretty forgettable. Like I watched it yesterday and I can barely remember. Sad to hear about Pixar.

We're also hitting that point where like it's really difficult for these types of animated movies to look. really, really impressive anymore. Because they've all kind of just like flattened out in a sense. That's what I really liked about Spiderverse because they were actually were bold with some kind of crazy art direction. Right. As far as the technology, we've kind of hit

a peak. Not like total perfection, but the buildup is more gradual now. It's really subtle the changes that are being. They were flexing their kind of particle effects and stuff like that in Onward quite a lot. Yeah, I'm sure it looks good. Like the hair. Yeah, I like the water.

But yeah. I haven't been truly blown away by that for a while. Yeah, I mean, it's a given at this point. It's Disney funding it. It should look great. Because I remember the first time I noticed it in one of these Disney movies was like, wow, this is actually really impressive how ridiculously good these look and how far ahead of the curve they are. But now, yeah, there are other companies that are at the same level effectively, because you're right.

It can only go so far, so they've got to get more creative with the stories now. Do you think they're going to start remastering their old movies? because of... I think so, man. I doubted it at some point, but that happened with cats, which we talked about. Yeah, yeah. But, like, they just started re-releasing the movie, and they, like, made visual effects adjustments and all this stuff.

Patched it, like, a video game. So you're talking about, like, a animation from the ground up thing? Maybe. I mean, it would give them an excuse to re-release it, and Disney loves making money off the same movie over and over, so... Yeah. But I had rather encouraging... I encourage them doing that than remastering the old movies.

Because I don't know how I feel about that. What do you mean, though? To remaster a whole movie is like, it kind of takes away the magic of the original. It's like there are, it's like... So like reanimated you're talking about. Needed to be updated. Yeah. You'd rather just have like a 4K release of the same thing as what you're saying.

Can they even do that? I guess they have the files. Like, yeah, I guess so. But I don't know if that's possible. Wouldn't they have to update all the textures and everything? No. It was, it's just the rest of the files. resolution of the video output, really.

So, like, when you look at, like, an old Disney movie on Blu-ray, like Toy Story, like Monsters Inc, the animation looks a lot worse, mainly the textures. You're like, wow, everything looks really plasticy. But the resolution's better, but everything looks worse because of the resolution sort of thing. Maybe the resolution will make it look worse, too, yeah. Exactly, exactly. But would they update, would they update the hair, would they update?

That's what they have, they haven't really been doing that when they release something on, like, Blu-ray or 4K, like one of their old ones. It's literally just an output resolution thing. Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't mind a whole reanimated version. If they kept the same audio and they just like, I don't know, improve the textures or something. And it wasn't like completely different shots. Then I wouldn't mind seeing that just out of curiosity.

And, you know, as long as the old movie still exists and they don't pull a George Lucas and, you know, throw that in the Disney vault forever or whatever. I feel like it doesn't work. George Lucas tried it. I don't know. It might just be better to release the 1080p or whatever the highest resolution they have of it at that point when it came out and just put that up. Yeah, can you trust them not to tamper with the original kind of look at the movie? So I think about like the only standard we have for things like this is like in the video game world where there's just huge. The beginning of like last generation there was just so many like remasters and remakes and everything.

And there's a bit of like controversy with some of them where they do. change the art direction and the lighting and everything and it kind of looks completely different silent LHD I have a bit of an issue with the the original Halo remaster it changes the mood the atmosphere the lighting and I fear that would be the unintended consequence of remaking these movies kind of like with how like this new Lion King kind of misses the whole point of the art direction and everything like that that kind of vein yeah at least on HALA you can change to the old graphics any point in time exactly And there are differences that people have pointed out even in the old graphics.

Like, there are some downgrades here and there, unfortunately. But for the most part, it's, like, relatively unnoticeable for me. Just a couple annoying things and glitches. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like a super realistic Bugs Life. If they made that. Oh, God. It would be terrifying.

John Favreau Bugs Life. They look like real ants. It's like a documentary. Everyone is you shoot a like a documentary. There's no documentary. Dialogue. It's just David Attenborough. All right. I guess let's talk about another movie.

What would you give Onward out of ten or five? I gave it two and a half stars out of five. I thought it was right down the middle. Completely serviceable. I thought it was pretty below average. I gave it a four out of ten. There's other Pixar movies that were better than it that I gave a five. All right.

We all watched an older. film, I guess not like super old. 2011 or something. Nearly decades old. At this point, it's a classic. I guess so, yeah. It's a film that has now surged to the top of Netflix streaming platforms over the course of the past month called Contagion by Stephen Sutterberg. And I guess this will be a spoiler discussion.

It doesn't really matter. A little bit. Maybe not a first because I don't know what you could spoil about this movie and it's a great movie Yeah well it's about a virus that breaks out yeah And starts contaminating the planet yeah topical and as usual the virus is far from the only thing to worry about in that situation Because then people turn on each other government shut down people exploit the situation for money And it's about all of that it's a brilliant movie I'm glad people realize now that it's great Because like there's so much about it that was like

That's accurate to what's kind of happening now with it's starting in China The art nod and like people just dying and you don't know what's happening to them You know it's confusing and terrifying it's a great movie I remember when it came out I think there was some kind of like a strategic release In terms of what time of the year they released it I could be wrong But I very vividly remember it was like a big thing in theaters

just literally in the middle of like cold and flu season and so like everybody was fucking paranoid there would be like someone would like cough on a bus and people would be like even though there was no like actual pandemic at the time but yeah definitely left like somewhat of an impact and was a very paranoia inducing movie when it first came out

I think you love it a lot more than I do Ralph like I still enjoy it I think it's good. But yeah, it definitely left an impact when it was out, and that was entertaining to see. It might have even more of an impact now for me, because I first watched it a couple years ago, and I found it to be very effective in how kind of restrained it was and how it did seem really realistic and kind of accurate to how he would respond. But now it has this extra layer of it kind of reflecting what is happening.

So I don't know if I could recommend to honestly watch this if you're freaked out about the situation right now, because this will not help you calm down and distract you from it, obviously. And this is nowhere near what's going on now. Like, in terms of what they're... It's kind of like worst-case scenario, isn't it? Yeah, it's a way worse. Millions upon millions of people are dying in this,

thanks to this virus in this movie. We'll see. We'll see. But I think this actually wouldn't be a bad movie to watch for people who, I guess, are not really taking the COVID-19 stuff seriously because one of my takeaways from this movie is it really kind of emphasizes sometimes subtly sometimes not so much but it really kind of emphasizes the level at which people are constantly compromising and exposing themselves to this kind of thing yeah where it's like

okay that person didn't wash their hands and then like a scene will literally just end with a shot on like a door handle just like oh yeah those two characters touched that that's in a public place there will be more characters touching that. This character touched their face. Yeah, you start to pay attention to these tiny things throughout the movie. And, yeah, depending on the scene, sometimes it's more obvious. But, yeah, I enjoyed that aspect for sure. It's such a genius kind of horror kind of angle to take because it is such a day-to-day.

It's just illuminating something we do constantly, like with them spouting out little facts, like you touch your face thousands times a day, thousands of times a day. And you're like, really? it does get you thinking about the way you know viruses spread and the I love the way it kind of relies on the like the soundtrack and visuals for a lot of the scenes like that which is just showing just the point by point of how this stuff spreading I really like the kind of energy to that cliff Martinez right yeah I think so yeah love the score yeah it's amazing I think I think in some scenes it works really well I think there were a couple parts near the beginning that I was like

kind of iffy on it, but there are definitely some, like, really good, like, subtly energetic moments with, with how things are presented with the soundtrack. Yeah. I especially love the very end sequence and that kind of, like, storyboard. That's, like, such a great way to wrap everything up. Because the movie, it starts with day two, doesn't it? And then at the end, it shows you day one. Kind of, like, wraps background.

Yeah, that's a really cool ending. I guess we're in spoilers now. Right? Or did we start spoilers already? It's like what do you What can you spoil about this movie? The only major spoilers are just characters that Don't we won't say specific characters

Which is pretty significant Like no one's safe in this They get a lot of A-listers who aren't in it a lot Some of them Some of them just get killed You're like holy shit Which I think is kind of the point too You don't want to have it be like some random nobody

That dies you want to kind of communicate The idea where it's like oh yeah Well nobody's safe here Yeah, and I like how many characters there are. It makes the whole situation feel complex because like in a bad movie it would be one guy solving the whole thing and he has to go to Russia and then like World War C or what's like Patriots Day where it's like Mark Walberg goes everywhere. It's like he's at every big event. It's like ridiculous.

So you have all these people spread out and they're all doing their own thing. This person's managing the politics of it and this person's trying to find the cure. It all makes sense and it's like everyone acts like rational people. and no one's doing anything stupid, they're just like doing their job and they're fighting a serial killer almost. The movie treats the virus like a killer. Like it's a character in the movie or something.

Disaster, yeah. Yeah. And even at the very end when, you know, they put it in the vat and seal it up, it's like them defeating it almost. I love that moment. It was so bold up. Yeah, I like that.

I guess this is kind of spoilery, even though it happens near the beginning, like very beginning of the movie. What did you guys think of Matt Damon's reaction to his wife dying? I don't have an issue with it. It's supposed to be like a... He's supposed to be so shocked. You can't actually comprehend what's happening, right?

I've watched it a few times, and it makes people laugh. Every time I've seen it. His reaction where he just like kind of... He's like, what? Like, he doesn't even hear it. What are you talking about? Yeah, because he just saw her, like 10 minutes before. And they were fine.

He just had a little cold and then 10 minutes later she's dead. So it made sense to me his reaction. Yeah, I completely understand the intent of what it's going for. I'm not sure I'm huge on Matt Damon's like performance overall. I don't know. I just find him distracting because I always see Matt David. Yeah, exactly. I see him as like The Martian or I actually think he works on The Martian because it's like a comedic bit

where he uses his personality to like his advantage and that makes the character work. Here he's like it's way more serious and dramatic. Yeah, I would have preferred someone else in that role is what I'm saying. Yeah, I would have too. Yeah, it was kind of distracting. It wasn't like having Ben Affleck in there or something, but he was better than that. The cause for the most points, very good. Ameri-Art, I thought, was like kind of the worst character in the whole thing.

She felt really separated from the rest of it, and it felt like most of her stuff was cut down or cut out or like putting montages. and it didn't have like the dramatic umph I wanted it to okay did you guys show that about her or any of them yeah she wasn't my favorite but yeah I wasn't like annoyed by her she feels more like uh like she was kind of made to show off a point instead of it making really adding too much because because her whole story is about kind of the the crime aspect

of how anyone who's kind of in the know starts being kidnapped and extorted so they could get vaccines which is an interesting idea and it's the kind of thing you could imagine being expanded in like a mini series or something like that but yeah yeah I didn't feel as kind of crucial as the rest of what was happening what did you think of uh Jude liar I love I have a huge issue with him with his character okay I don't know if there's something that's just bothers me sure if you guys even notice but I can't stand his accent in the movie oh yeah it bothers me so much because He's supposed to be Australian, right?

That's what he was trying to do. It's just not how Australian people sound. I'm sorry. It sounds like a really, really British person trying to do, like an Australian accent. He sounds like a Bond villain. It sounds like an evil accent, almost. I guess I forgot any mention of him being Australian or something. I just assumed he was British.

No, that's what it's so weird, because I obviously am British and I have family. members that are Australian so I know how it sounds and it's like dude just and I don't understand why it was important to the character at all because like Jude law he's got a cool voice anyway just let him speak in his English accent it wasn't crucial to the character was it if I miss something I don't think so it it seemed like he just kind of wanted to do it or it was like you just threw it out there and they're like fuck it just let Jude law do his thing yeah it's weird accent yeah it's so weird his whole character's very on the nose he's supposed to represent all the bad like basically how the news or blogs and yeah opportunists take advantage of the situation to make money

he pushes like a fake drug that doesn't really do anything and causes mass riots he's supposed to be like the most despicable character in the whole thing and i like that he plays it up and that he's really goofy and like mean instead of like yeah i just like that they did that with it yeah i like the character on paper my only issue is just that accent that's it which i'll admit Yeah, it's goofy. He's the goofies character the whole thing. I was looking through the IMDB awards for this movie, and there's a really weird one that showed up,

and it's called the Urania Palm Door. Right. And it looks like, I don't know if this is like a yearly thing that happens. It seems like another Razies or something, because Jude Law was nominated for worst supporting British actor. Really? I think it's literally just a British Razies thing or something. thing? I have no idea.

God, I've never heard of it if it is. Yeah, it doesn't seem like a very popular thing. It might not even be happening anymore. Maybe just nobody gave a shit. And he won the award for worst. Jude Law was nominated for supporting, and Gordon Ramsey won worst British supporting actor for Love's Kitchen. Is that a movie?

I didn't know what? I acted. Oh, my God, I got to watch that. That sounds awesome. Love's Kitchen. 2011. He's probably a terrible actor. Yeah, I guess so.

He's not even on the poster. It just says with Gordon Ramsey. So supporting actor, I guess. I know Ralph, you're pretty somewhat familiar with Soderberg. How familiar are you with his other works, Alex? Just out of curiosity. I've seen some of his more modern work. Side effects I enjoyed quite a lot.

And behind the candelabre, didn't he do that? Yeah, for HBO. That was great. He's done a lot of stuff for TV. That's really good. He did a show on Cinemax called The Nick with Clive Allen. That was excellent. It's about like a hospital in like the early 1900s.

I wish this was a mini series almost, this contagion movie. I kept thinking. Because there's parts I wanted, like I wanted stretched out. I wanted to learn more about it. It's interesting. And it gets you interested in the topic too, the germs and whatever. What else have you seen? Those are the main ones I've seen Oceans 11 years ago.

I can't really remember it. I think I saw the Che movies, but again, it was so long ago, I can barely remember it. What is his go-to classics then that I need to kind of watch? Well, I was kind of curious about it because, like, when I think of Soderberg, when I think of him, I'm not even, like, necessarily thinking of his classics. One might consider, like, Oceans 11 or Traffic to be a classic of his. I haven't seen Traffic yet. Apparently, it's really good.

But when I think of him, I just think of, like, this weirdly kind of, like, version. presentation he's got going on where he'll make things that are really, really widely accessible, just kind of like big movies with a lot of a list actors in them, kind of like contagion or whatever. And then he'll just decide on a way I'm like, you know what, I'm going to make some random, low, super low budget movie with like no real actors in it. So like I watched Bubble when I was younger and I don't even, I don't remember two. much about it. But I remember just being left with this weird impression of like, wow, you just went to a small town and decided to film some random woman, make a movie out of it for like no

money. And I just, I find that kind of interesting. You don't see a lot of directors that jump back and forth between that kind of thing. He made a movie with Sasha Gray called the girlfriend experience and she's like a porn star. Didn't he do Magic Mike? Magic Mike was about male strippers. He's got such weird versatility. Yeah. Right. That's why I consider him interesting, even if I don't.

He made Unsaid, which was like shot on an iPhone. He's made a ton of stuff. He's very versatile and he's very, like, ambitious with the different genres. And I love Haywire, which is like an action movie. And that was great. He directed like some of the best action scenes. And, you know, he's not really known for that. Gina Carrano's in it.

There's another movie with Matt Damon where he's actually good. What is it? The Informant. That was pretty funny. Oh, yeah. So if you want to see Matt Damon be good in something. Sex Lides and Videos Tape, I think that's the one, like that one at Con. Oh, yeah.

I think that's the one, too. Familiar title, but I haven't seen it yet. I think that might have a criterion. Traffic also. Yeah, I got to see Traffic. I haven't seen it. That was Logan Lucky because he did that. That one's great.

Seth McFarlane's in it. He almost ruins the movie, but... Is there a Soderberg movie that you don't like Ralph? I don't think so. Yeah? I think I like... I haven't seen his really... bad movies from what I heard like the one he made with Merrill Street recently I think the

laundry mat I heard that was big on it I don't I don't know if I could say that you would enjoy that really yeah we'll see but everything I've seen from him I've enjoyed and again I like how versatile he is with his movies how he picks all these different genres he's the kind of director where I could see a movie from him and not know it was from him because he doesn't like stick to like one particular style throughout his whole career which I find really interesting. Yeah. But also the interesting thing with him,

he takes all these weird things that he does in like his indie movies made for nobody. And then he puts them in big movies like contagion and like behind the condolabre and these movies that tons of people see. And they get like exposed to like these experimental editing choices and like music. This movie was like entirely synth.

And I think that's a, that's not something that's done a lot. Especially when this came out. Yeah, because it was before the kind of 80s jerk off that began It was kind of after this movie And yeah And it's not like an 80s synth

It's really droning And like disturbing Like the whole movie You're just It's the exact like soundscape You'd imagine For like a horrendous virus Like it just captures the sound

And anxiety of it really well Yeah it's just perfect All right Anything else to say about Contagent? I mean that's most of it The only other thing I'd say Is you have to kind of

accept that a lot of it is kind of truthful where research when you have like characters kind of talking about each other about like that's a BSL3 go down to the and there's like all this bizarre dialogue and all this

it sounds very technical but you just have to kind of take it and trust it for what it is and there were a couple times where I noticed like some dialogue that seemed a bit I don't know silly to me because it is so realistic for a lot of it, but then you have things like,

the main one that stood out to me was when they make like a big discovery. And they're like, should I call someone? They're like, call everyone. Like the most dramatic way possible. It's very like silly. And over the top. But aside from that, it is very enjoyable.

Yeah, I enjoyed watching it again. I wasn't like huge on it when it came out. Still not like huge on it now. But yeah, it was a fun, enjoyable experience. I liked the interesting parallels between what was happening in the film and what's happening today. So that was just kind of a bizarre, kind of surreal experience watching it. Good performances for the most part could do without Matt Damon. Some cheesiness in the dialogue wasn't huge on every moment of the soundtrack, but I think things got a lot better overall as the film went along.

I was more engaged in the second half. the soundtrack worked better and everything just kind of came together really well in the second half I'm giving it a six out of ten closer to a seven than a five yeah it's uh it's really well-paced too um I think it's the perfect length for what it is doesn't stick around for too long but yeah I'll give it a three and a half stars really enjoy it recommend it if you're not scared of the idea of freaking yourself more with this virus and freaking yourself out is fun though uh 9 out of 10 love it don't get sick stay at home and watch this.

You like yourself out. All right. All right. Yeah, I'm fine. I did this like, do you ever hate when you like, um, sorry? Do you ever hate when you like,

you eat like a, some kind of food? Like, there was like a pinini and it was like, toasted on the edges. And I guess I didn't chew it properly. And I was just eating it. And then I swallow it.

And then like that, that, that, abrasive sandpapery toasted part of the panini just slowly went down my throat and I was like uh oh this is pain this is not good this is not what it's supposed to be just and that that was literally just yesterday and now my throat's fucking sucks because of it so I don't think it's coronavirus related it was just one of those annoying things yeah and that was like right before I was doing my Sunday game stream too did you take like an extra large bite so your mouth was just full of sharp red I just I didn't because I was doing my setup for the half

Life Alex stuff and that took a while and then my roommate made some sandwiches. I was like, well, I'm just going to steal one right now and then go back up sort of thing. I was just kind of wanted to get back to setting up that shit. So I was in a hurry and then I fucked up my through. How was it, by the way? It was good. It's like a good toasted, a lot of cheese. Oh, no, I meant Half Life Alex.

Okay. I'm glad it was good. Totally misinterpreted. Yeah, I think I made it through like the first half of it. supposedly the game's around like 15 hours or something and I'm enjoying it for sure as good as they say I don't know I haven't really been paying attention to what they say

I mean it's well received it's a valve game it plays really well the mechanics for VR are well thought out I like the grab things from a distance and kind of like flick your wrist and catch it sort of mechanic it's a lot of fun I like the tone it kind of feels like a mix between Half Life and Portal because this is kind of a spin-up off Half-Life game, so it's like, there's some comedic moments for sure.

Awesome. Yeah. I think it's okay. Oh, how much have you played? Have you finished it? I haven't finished yet. I've played probably as much as Adam, like halfway, a little less. Okay.

I like it. It's definitely very polished, especially for like a VR game, because a lot of them are not as polished as this. You could tell, like, a big company made it. But is it worth the investment of like $1,000 plus the game? I don't know. I don't think so. And I think a lot of people are asking that question.

And I'm saying like, I don't think so. I really don't think it's worth that. I mean, it's really cool. It's, but. It's not the only VR game that exists. I was playing Doom, also. I was playing Doom Eternal, and I'm having way more fun playing Doom Eternal than I am playing Half-Life Out.

I'm also playing both of those games right now. And nothing against Half-Life Alex. It says there's something about sitting on a couch and just relaxing and playing a video game. And plus, having a controller. it's just faster-paced you could do more and having to work around with this wire and like use my real body

to move and shoot to reload you ever see videos of people trying to reload in this game it's like a nightmare for some people yeah you just gotta get comfortable with it

you gotta just keep doing until it's like muscle memory but there's a big learning curve and there's all this money it's a lot you gotta put into it and it's for an experience that I think is decent but I don't know

I think I can afford to do this I don't know if ever gone I think it's worth it For like the entire library of VR stuff that's out right now And plus on a story level I mean it's a prequel It's like a half-life it's not half-life frame It's not what happens after

Yeah it's like Or two and two and okay Is it between one and two I bet it's something that will happen I think it's one between one and two isn't it I don't remember where it is in the timeline actually Ah whatever it's about Alex Shit

I thought I had everything figured out Now I'm not sure I think it's more convenient in VR to have the The ammo pouch in the front of you than like in your backpack I've probably tossed it over your shoulder Sounds like it makes sense Have you ever played? Did you ever play boneworks? I haven't played bone works I've played a few other ones that are like VR shooters And they all have like the ammo pouch in the front and you pick it up

I like that way better Yeah you have like a pouch on your hip basically for your ammo Yeah which works pretty well It's clunky It's a clunky game, but it's also really fun It's got some issues Yeah It's great

I feel like we're not quite there yet With VR We're like almost there Yeah Like maybe the next thing I appreciate that Valve was able to Like do this and take a risk on making a VR game Because no one else is

Because so many So few people have it I guess these video game companies Don't even see it as a worthwhile investment To like pump all this money And we gain that like A very small percentage of people can play. Yeah.

People have a PlayStation or, you know, they have a PC that can't handle this. Most of their money comes from Steam now anyway, so. Exactly. Sales don't really matter anymore for the whatever game they published. There were a lot of people saying they didn't want to make Half-Life 3 because it would actually be detrimental to the image of the company because there's no way they can live up to it at this point. I think that's interesting.

I think it's, well, you can think about it whatever you want, but it's something that a lot of people say. The cool thing about Valve, and I guess particularly Half-Life, is like they've always seen it as kind of like a boundary-pushing kind of game. You know, each installment in the series was one where they were pushing the limits of like technology and physics. And they've always had some sort of excuse to continue. And now VR is that excuse. So who knows if they're actually going to do like Half-Life 3 in VR? I don't know if that would happen.

I don't know if I would want that to happen, but I'm happy that there's more Half-Ly. I enjoy... I enjoy the universe and I enjoy the tone. I enjoy the experience. And I really like Valve games for the most part, yeah. The writing is still pretty good too. Yeah, they're always funny. Like the exchanges you have with that guy over the phone and are always good.

Yeah, the guy from Flight of the Concords or whatever. Yeah. Oh, is it? It's like Wheatley and Portal. I love that dynamic between Wheatley and a glass and all that. So it is something like that. Anyway, Ralph recommended a movie last episode, and we're going to talk about. Spoiler discussion.

Spoilers for Bad Genius. So, it's a teen drama, comedy, crime movie made in Thailand. They came out in 2017. It's about a girl who comes from a poor family, just her and her dad, and to help her pay for education at this prestigious private school, she starts tutoring other students. What she's really doing is helping all them. sheet on their exams and this operation that they've made become so advanced and complicated it's almost

like a like a crime syndicate or like this it's entertaining to watch definitely yeah i saw it when it came out like a few months after i loved it it starts as just like a teen comedy and then it becomes like a really good heist movie it's really exciting and funny and and from thailand especially like i don't watch a lot of movies from thailand and he's another that no not a no not a top of my head but yeah exactly this was like a prestigious like I won a ton of awards there yeah I think it was the most successful of that year in Thailand mm-hmm I think it made a lot of money too box office the only other Thai movies I've seen were like really weird like kind of art movies from a guy named a Pichipong was the third girl made uncle boon me and cemetery of

splendor which I wasn't huge on either of them but they were at can so one of them won the palm door so I guess I mean means it's great. Anyway, what do you think of it, Alex? I really enjoyed it. It's probably the sweatiest movie I've ever seen. A lot of sweat in this fucking film. So much sweat and lots of close-ups of little pencil holes being scribbled in.

But yeah, it is a really good heist movie. It kind of reminded me of like the premise of something like Brick where it's like taking like a high school and like a genre movie, like a noir movie. like a noir thriller type thing and seeing how it would play out is a similar kind of idea with these high school students doing something that you typically wouldn't see them do and that's kind of what makes the film fresh and exciting yeah it is really likable especially because of the presentation to me I think that really drives the movie along it has a real clear kind of cartoony over-the-top style to it lots of frantic camera work and over-the-top

facial expressions and sound effects and all this. Yeah. I can see why it could put some people off, but for me that gave it a lot of personality and charm and gave it an identity that helped carry it. Because it's a fairly long movie. I was actually, I paused it about halfway through to go to the toilet or something.

I was a little bit fearful when I saw how much was left because I thought, I really feel like this is kind of almost exhausted its premise. But I felt they did keep it interesting, enough and they built up that final heist enough to keep it engaging and keep the characters interesting enough and have enough kind of dynamics going on

to keep me entertained to the end. I can't say I really loved it or left like a strong kind of message or idea, but I definitely enjoyed it all the way through. Do you think that the kind of over-the-top presentation is more to do with a specific stylistic choice

from the director to this movie? or do you think that that might be kind of like a cultural kind of thing? Because in a way, it kind of reminded me of like almost Bollywood in terms of how like over the top the editing and like a lot of

the presentation was. Yeah, especially during the test taking scenes. Like that's when it really gets like to 11. Yeah. It reminded me like Hong Kong Cinema too, like Stephen Chow and all that. Like the really over the top zooms and like crazy editing like you said. It helps the movie. I think. I don't think it takes away from it.

It's like a live action anime or something like that. Kind of. It's very very exaggerated. Yeah, even with the drama between the characters, there's like little, you know, things going on. I love the character of a bank and the main girl, too. I forgot her name at this moment. Lynn?

Lynn? Yeah. But they were just, first of all, they were the only ones who deserved to be in the school because everyone else was just like the kid of a rich family. Yeah. They just, they paid these two to take their test for them. and that's what made them so likables like they actually they're there they're there because they worked hard for it and they're going to continue to work hard for it as opposed to the

rest of these people so it made you want to root for them bank was kind of an asshole at points though yeah but he was also like because people try to get him the cheat too at first and he's like no I'm not buying into it he was trying to be the moral one and people just keep fucking up his life and making it worse until he gives in and helps them so I felt bad for him at the same time as I also kind of hated him and he does some shit in this movie especially toward the end it's like ballsy and like all right I kind of I'm on this guy's side now because yeah it's like a hostage negotiation almost at the end yeah I loved it because yeah because he gets the shit kicked out of him and he finds out the truth that it was like some thugs

were paid to do it so of course he's rightfully upset about it and he gets a bit more money out of them yeah I think for the for the most part the acting worked well well, like those two characters I didn't really have an issue with. The other girl, Grace, I couldn't believe anything she was doing. She's definitely the weakest. Yeah.

I noticed some... That one face she kept doing where she was, like, trying to do, like, a concerned face, but it looked like she was, like, smiling and cringing or something. Yeah, it reminded me of what, like, six-year-olds do when they're on camera

for the first time. It was, like, a TV movie acting almost. It feels the most, like a kind of, I don't know, like Zoe 101 or something, like a teen show when she's on screen or like when she's acting. Especially toward the beginning, there was like a lot of that that's like corny. And I wasn't at that point aware that that was the point of the movie to kind of be over the top. That was the style of it.

But once it gets into the heists and the test taking, that's why it becomes clear like what it is. And it becomes really original and fun to watch. What did you think of the Australian character? characters Alex. Only I that was another thing that was actually fucking because none of them

had an Australian accent apart from one one person obviously there's a lot of different cultures that live there so yeah the main guy

that kind of chases the main character he almost sounded European or something he definitely wasn't Australian yeah there was some weird accent anyway it seems like

they just got English speaking actors but the crew didn't speak English at all because like the acting from the English speaking people and it wasn't very good and some of it's really bad like really distracting but if I if you can get past that I just look past it I enjoy just fine

that that happens a decent amount in films in other cultures where they'll you know have English speaking characters but it's not necessarily for an English speaking audience and so they just get random people and it doesn't matter as much yeah yeah well our audience isn't gonna tell the difference. Like in Shin Godzilla, there was a lot of people speaking like phonetic English, but you could tell that they didn't understand exactly what they were saying at all. I like, there were a couple clever ideas in there. I liked the barcode thing. I thought that that was kind of clever.

Yeah, well, there's a lot of good like setups and payoffs. Even when like bank got beat up and there was like a detail that he revealed during the interview that bank only knew about, and so that's what made him realize it. Like, it's really well written how everything ties together. The structure is very good, yeah. Yeah. It's a really tight movie. It's a really tight movie.

And comes back in on itself, and then they do the final heist. And I especially really liked that scene where they're in the test, and they find out in the test that they've got, like, a choice of different papers. I want three papers, and they got a, like, problem solved to, like, figure out the solution. That was a really fun kind of set up. Yeah. Really cheesy and over the top for sure There were quite a few moments where I was Looking at these kids taking the test and being like

You're being so fucking obvious right now If the teacher just looked up for one second He'd be like what the fuck are you guys doing You're all cheating But that's why I didn't butt teeth Just like fall asleep in like the background Yeah it's really over the top I feel like that's the only way the movie works

Is it's like that over the top Because really it's just a bunch of tests Yeah Because, like, for the movie to even work, you have to, like, just believe that you have these two, like, genius characters that are able to just, like, memorize everything they have to see and stuff like that. It is inherently kind of silly. Yeah. Interesting stakes in the movie. It's, like, I don't know.

It's fun to watch for sure. But I don't know how much I was really that invested in terms of, like, whether or not things worked out for them. There's something just humorous, though, about, like, such a benign activity being presented. in such an exciting way. Yeah, and it was fun to watch unfold. That's why I wanted to see what would happen. Yeah, and they throw in enough kind of, you know, hurdles for the characters to have to problem sort. And there's good drama and conflict between them so that like these things, like between Bank and Lynn, like just unfold naturally and it feels really organic.

So it was based on like real shit that happened. Like people cheat on these tests all the time and form little syndicates like this and they cheat. And I liked how the movie was really about that. It's about like this desperation people have been for an education a good education and they're forced to do bad things to make money to afford it Meanwhile this is like a perfectly capable girl who's like forced to do all this shit because she needs to Yeah, yeah, it's I love when she says to them towards the end that even when you get into like university Like you cheated. It's not gonna like aid I can't do all your essays for you Yeah, my education you idiots like what you expect?

acting. The students who we've put in these universities are like total idiots because they're just the sons and daughters of people who can afford it. Yeah. It's kind of picking at that a little. It's like the commentary. Brilliant. I enjoyed the piano kind of memorization technique. I thought that that was kind of clever. Yeah, it made a lot sense to me. Yeah. Because you can remember things a lot easier if it's kind of like a song rather than just like ACBD-D-C-A you know yeah I like to look at the movie a lot the color palette and the

depth of field stuff they were doing just the presentation in general I really enjoyed elevating the just the you know it's just a test so they did have to do extra work to make it as exciting as possible yeah really exciting over the top as possible super over the top it's like mostly in one room that last test sequence I think it's like a half hour

40 minutes or something And it's between the test-taking room and the bathrooms. They keep going into the bathroom because the toilets and, like, texts all the people back in their hometown. It's fucking awesome and, like, really suspenseful. And I was just impressed that they could pull me along for that long in, like, that one scene. Just that one's sequence. Does it hold up on the rewatches? Yeah, I think so.

Especially knowing what's going to happen, it's cool to see the setups, like, earlier on. It's just cool to see the characters again, because I do think they're funny. I think Bank is, like, a funny, inherently. funny character, just like how much he gets beaten down by everybody else. And he just looks ridiculous, like, the silly hair. Like, he's a very cartoonish character. And everyone is, but I just enjoyed that. Yeah, it certainly gets better as it goes along.

I enjoyed the second half more than I enjoyed the first half. I think that in terms of, like, the soundtrack, the music worked really well for the test scenes, because it's so over-dramatic and over-the-top. It's pretty amusing. There was a moment near the beginning where there was this kind of, I think it was just a conversation between Lynn and Grace where they were doing this kind of like implied humor type music where it's like

and I was kind of annoyed by that part but that wasn't, that didn't really take up a lot of the movie. It's just a tiny thing I guess. Yeah, there are definitely moments like that that took me out of it too that don't feel entirely like intentional. There's some moments of conflict in this movie. They're just like so ridiculous where it's like well why didn't you think this one through like we ran out of barcode stickers It's just like you didn't count how many you thought you would need It's just like adding one more layer to the conflict and it's it's kind of funny No cell reception just like he hit one of the Printing machines or something with his foot because he was angry

They're just morons and then the rest of the movie was walking around with a limp I like that they had like that much attention to detail to it. But yeah, those characters are just totally incompetent. Any character who wasn't the main two was just like a total idiot and couldn't do anything. And I enjoyed that. It was solely on these two to like do everything correctly. All right. I think I've said everything I want to say about it. Yeah, it's fairly, you know, there isn't much to tear down in terms of like commentary or anything too deep, but it is just so entertaining. It is just one that is worth a watch on that front alone. Yeah, it's a very unique film. It's on Netflix. in the UK, right?

I bought it on iTunes, I didn't realize if it was on Netflix. Yeah, I think it's on Netflix. Like, everywhere, I think. I know it's in the US, for sure. Hmm. Okay. What would you rate the movie?

I'd give it eight out of ten. Yeah, I'm just a tad under. This is a seven out of ten for me. I'm giving this one a six out of ten. I enjoyed it. Eight seven, six. It wasn't huge, but yeah, it was a fun watch,

not a regrettable experience at all and there were definitely things to appreciate about it and yeah it was fun it's different nice change of pace yes it's worth a watch but I wouldn't rush back to rewatch it anytime soon I don't think yeah all right epic time for question

okay let's do some equally epic questions then from the hell yeah sardonicar subreddit which you can leave us any questions you like on the suggestion thread which Ralph would put in there for you to access. Let's start off with this one then from the most downvoted comment in the whole thread. Oh, no. Really?

From a Uji Doggy Dank. Yeah, I look through every question, so I don't know why. It's not like controversial or anything. It's simply just, what director do you think should be a meatball? Why did you guys downvote that? That's a great question. Yeah. Just why?

You don't have to actually answer it. I just want to throw that out there just for, you know. Should they have to be alive? Just why? Like a living director? Do we want them to get murdered and thrown into a meat grinder? Is that the question? Christ, I suppose that is the implication, isn't it?

What director do you think should be a meatball? I saw it as more abstract. I'm picturing like an anthropomorphic meatball. Yeah, yeah. Meatball with arms and legs and eyes. Like meat wide. Yeah, like that. So you're right.

actually, you're reading it as a director that we want to actually, you know, crush in a machine and turn into paste and squidge together. Oh, I don't know. I'm just trying to understand the question here. It's very... Which director would be the most delicious as a meatball? Is that easy to answer? Most delicious.

Hmm. I think, uh, Guillermo del Toro would make a good meatball. I refuse to answer the question. I'm going to move on. I, I, I, I think, uh, Luke. Guadagnino would make a great meatball because they're Italian. Italian. Yeah.

That's my answer. Okay, let's do this one then from Greenhood 300. He says, who are you guys' favorite voice actors? Underappreciated a bunch of people, those voice actors. Yeah. Because they're kind of hidden behind their face. That isn't theirs. Yeah.

Let me think about that one. I really like John DiMaggio. He's got a very distinct voice. Oh yeah. It's like Bender, Jake the Dog. Oh, oh yeah. I really like him a lot. I mean, we all know Mark Hamill for his face.

Yeah. He's done some good voice acting. I actually think his voice acting work is like better than his regular acting work. Yeah. A Joker, yeah. In the Arkham games especially, he's really good. Hmm. Does the Halo announce a guy count?

Oh God. Yeah. Triple kill. Yeah. Running Riot. Killpocalypse Scullimanjaro I do

think Seth McFarland's pretty talented with voice acting, like doing a bunch of different voices. I agree. Yeah, he's good in Hellboy too. It's one of my favorite voice acting because he's just playing a character just like it's weird I suppose he's doing the German accent. Yeah, exactly.

Part of me wants to say Trey Parker, even though he does a lot of the same shit over and over, but He has a funny voice. Yeah, it's always just so humorous. He's like the one guy that can get away with just having every character be the same voice and it doesn't matter because it's still so funny. Yeah, no, I did think about that.

No, that's a good pick. For some reason, I really like Johnny Depp's voice. I don't know what it is, especially in Rango. I really like his weird tinge he has in his voice in that movie. Like he screams a lot in that movie Which normally bugs me But he's got this really distinct sound in his voice They really like

You know who does a really great job And is a very well-known, reputable voice actor Is Tara Strong I think she's pretty great Yeah She plays two different characters And drawn together Well two different main characters

At the least And they sound very, very different She plays Tute And she plays What's her name? Clara, I think. Yeah, she did, like, stuff from my little pony and Power Puff Girls and, like,

just a whole bunch of stuff. Gosh, she's done so much. Oh, yeah. She's like, the voice acting community, you just pick the same six people over and over. Yeah. Because why, if they can just do a bunch of different voices and you never see their face anyway, why not?

Yeah. That's the good thing about being a voice actor. Like, main actors or main actors, I guess, like, people who just see their face. Real actors. Real actors They just You see them as one thing

Their whole career You see the guy who plays Harry Potter It's hard to break away from that Whereas like voice actors can just kind of go into anything Yeah if you're versatile enough There's plenty of them out It's easier to escape that trap Being typecast is the same thing

Mm-hmm Being recognized Yeah there are some people that just Get every single job Like for video games I feel like every video game I play Nolan North is in it somewhere And I don't even know

Yeah doing a bunch of different and a Troy Baker too yeah those two the video game guys okay I say we've answered that one there's this question here I really want to have answered

from uh callau 888 who says why does Adam hate creep so much just saw his rating on letterboxed because it fucking sucks it's fucking awful it's actually terrible after I watched that movie I was like so irrationally angry at that I

like I made a tweet being like I actually fucking hate Mark Duplas now, and I deleted that later because it was just kind of immature, right? But I was so mad at the time because, like, whatever, horror movies really don't have that high of a bar for people to like them. Creep is, like, on the same level as, like, the visit, possibly worse, because it's lazier than the visit.

But it still does the same bullshit thing of, like, ooh, we're just going to dick around with a handy cam and adlib a bunch of lines, and basically film nothing basically do nothing and then every once in a while fucking Mark de Plas will just go boo in front of the camera and they're like it's just

that's the whole fucking movie and it's so frustrating and annoying and none of it's scary it's just it's so irritating the entire experience is just so fucking painful I hate that movie that's why

I never watched creep too. Why won't I watch the same thing again? There's no way it's going to be any different. It was so frustrating, annoying. None of it was scary. It was just irritating throughout. It was fucking garbage. They seem to be

fairly highly regarded. Exactly. I've seen them both and they didn't piss me off but they are certainly repetitive. And not scary to me. So I guess it's kind of a failure on that regard.

but I do get fed up of the you know the ad lib stuff after a while I've seen a few of Mark DuPos's movies and he kind of ranges from being really good to you know and creep he's quite annoying yeah I mean there's some charm to him for sure like him and his brother are you know

they manage to create names for themselves just by making a whole bunch of low budget nothing movies and you know I watched I watched baghead and that had some charm to it certainly a lot more than creep. Yeah, I enjoy that they've successfully become, I guess you could even argue, like, name actors kind of at this point just by doing their whole indie thing.

Like, that's really respectful. But, yeah, after watching creep, I fucking hated him for a bit. And I just, like, I lost it. Okay, fair enough. You ever seen the creep movies, Ralph? No. You should watch them. I have first good things about them, and I was going to watch them.

Yeah. You don't let me stop you. But okay. You know what's watching them. They're so short. They're barely over an hour. So they're barely movies. If I have time, maybe.

I feel like there's better movies to watch, but I'll see it at some point. Yeah. You might really like it. Everybody says it's great. Yeah, maybe I will. Like they said, yeah, they say a lot of movies are great. They say a lot of things. They.

Okay, we got this one. Everyone can answer from Ozzymandas cock. He says, that's K. A-O-K, not C-O-C-K. Okay. Is there any media that you would consider hypocritical where characters do things or events that transpire that contradict the message of the film?

For example, one of the central messages of Lion King is that you should move on from your past when the main character does the exact opposite of it. But that's the fucking arc. How is that hypocritical? The Lion King has like several messages in it, right? Like it's only when Simba goes up to Rafiki and he's like, okay, well, you can either run from your past or learn from it. Like that's a pivotal moment in the film.

Like that's the whole point, right? The message of the entire film isn't just Hakuna Matata. It's like, hey, you shouldn't worry about things so much, but you should still confront and face things and not run away from things, right? like those two messages are both required for the overall message of the film so i don't consider that to be hypocritical if we're going to talk about hypocritical shit i would say like 13 reasons why is up there and i'm sure you were thinking of that Alex but yeah what pops into my head for when i think hypocritical with movies um is more kind of the business side of it um especially like the laurax for example yeah i was thinking loreax yeah with their like masda sponsorship

where they're like advertising these gas-cussling cars using the fucking little Lorax to sell it. It's just so funny. Weird to me. And the message of the Grinch movie as well is just, it goes against like the whole point of the story. They are just so in net at storytelling, in my opinion. Who would have thought that soulless corporations would be so pandering and not actually have

any principle? Wow. It's just so sad because like, Dr. Zeus was so opinionated and creative and they're the ones that get hold of that license. Did you say Zeus? Yeah. I thought it was Seuss.

I thought it was spelled with an S. Dr. Seuss. Seuss. Yeah. No, I haven't read one of those books since I was a kid, so I haven't seen the name went down in one fucking time. Yeah, what about you, Ralph? Hypocrats in movies.

You took mine, the Lorax. I don't know if I could think of another one. Yeah, I hate that shit. He was like in diaper, and shit. Like, what the fuck? This is the Lorax. It's about the environment

and being clean. Yeah, that was mine. And also, like, yeah, was it that movie as well where they have this, like, the villain is always, like, the money-grubbing guy, and it's always like,

come on, guys, like, it's just you. It's like with the new Star Wars movies, too, with, like, the irony of it all. It's sad that they just don't get the point. Yeah. There's something on the tip of my tongue, and I know I've reviewed,

it. One of the central themes was just like oh man like be original. Nobody. Oh yeah. It was a star is born where it was like one of the most cookie cutter movies ever but the whole point was like you've got to break free and do

something original and like you got to be something that nobody has ever been before because everything's all the same and it's like but this movie was literally just a cookie cutter movie. Like that's kind of hypocritical to the message you're sending right? Like you didn't do anything like really unique or you didn't like like go against the grain.

You made a formulated, pandering, successful movie that was not bad. It was pretty decent, but like you didn't do anything. It's like a remake of another movie. Yeah, it's like the fourth remake or whatever. It's like that's kind of hypocritical to the message you're sending, isn't it? I don't know. Yeah, I never got around to that one. The whole thing is hypocritical.

Well, like Fight Club is like a making fun of, you know, capitalism and making money off art and everything. And it's a movie that is, you know, a corporate product. That is made to make money. So maybe that's hypocritical. Depending on how you view it, depending on your take away from that movie. One could say that it would, you know, it might be like a bit ironic. Yeah, well, it definitely has some self-awareness that that's what it is. But it is still there.

Let's do this one then from Big C-baller. What were your favorite toys growing up with? Have you guys, for example, had Bopit or similar? Hell yeah. I fucking hate Boppet. Who's talking about rule at Boppet? Does everyone know Bopit? Is that still a thing that kids play with?

There's like newer versions now. I don't think that there's like this wave of... No, there's like mini versions. There's like smaller versions of it. There's one where the Bopit thing wasn't even like a button anymore and it was really frustrating because it wouldn't like always register when you hit it. So that was annoying. Yeah, Bopit was fucking awesome.

I'm allowed to say Pokemon cards. Is that a toy? That's more of a game, I guess. Yeah. I'd say so. Yeah. Fucking love Pokemon cards. Did you ever mess with Yu-Gio?

No. No, I did not. You miss Yu-Gio. Well, it was around when I was a kid. I just wasn't interested in it. I heard of it. There was also like a Harry Potter trading card game that tried to do its thing around that time because Pokemon was so successful.

Everybody else had to do it. Pretty sure Digimon had trading cards too. Really? How about the toys at like McDonald's? You ever get those? I played with those a lot. Happy Meal? Yeah.

Yeah, the Happy Mill Toys. There's some Toy Story ones, I remember, and Toy Story 2 came out. Yeah. It was where they got some nice merch, that's Disney. How about just action figures? I just played with like soldiers and what superheroes, Marvel guys, just that,

just smash them against each other. Legos. That's what Lego was for for for me. Yeah. The ultimate tool. I always wanted to destroy them too, so I couldn't build them. I was like,

because I know I was just going to want to smash it with my action. He just built it and then just held it. Yeah, I like built a car and then crashed into a wall. Fucking hot wheels, man. Hot wheels are fun. Did you have one of the hot wheels of like the loop-de-loop? Yeah, I had one of those. Toyers are awesome.

Fuck. Yeah. When I was really young, I had Thomas the tank engine and I had like the railroad table. It's like a bunch of wooden tracks and it has like a little station in the middle or whatever. There's also like you could build like little roller coasters in your room like out of I think I know the thing you're like kind of like look like bionicle pieces almost but you're like

it's like this electronic thing and it has it's like a working roller coaster yeah like in your room yeah it's not there's no way it was I mean it's a many I'm trying to think of what it was yeah I don't know what it's called but yeah there's something many of those like train what about like scale X trick

did you have that I have no idea what that is fuck say I hate when this happens I think that's what it's called scale X trick I might be saying It's just a It's like

You build a track And there's two lanes And you have like an electric car You put down Oh yeah In the lane and with the little trigger Yeah yeah Yeah

Yeah I don't know if I ever knew it By that name But yeah There were a bunch of different ones Of those that were kind of fun It is a bad name Scale X trick

It's terrible I don't know if there There might be like a few different brands I just googled it I thought I was losing my mind, but it is genuinely just what it's called. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I'm familiar with that.

There were like action figures from like that movie called Small Soldiers that I had. Oh, snap. I forgot about Small Soldiers. Right? Yeah. There were some interesting characters. The main character's got like a really funny name. I don't remember.

Nerf guns. Hell yeah. I play with those a lot. Did you have the vest that you got to shoot Stuck to the vest? Yeah That's the only way you can keep track of like if you hit anybody Yeah

Yeah so we played that We had like all kinds We had like the machine gun one That's like automatic There's like a shotgun nerf gun Did you all ever have yakbacks? No what's that? Yack back

Yo man Basically it was like Very early personal recording device but marketed at children. So you had like maybe like 15 seconds where you could like record your voice and then you could play it back or you could like play it back in like fast speed or something or like slow speed. And it was so crazy at the time because you know. Yeah, I just Googled it. Yeah. I remember these. Yeah. Hell yeah. God, that's awesome. God, I haven't seen one of

these for like literally like decades. Oh yeah. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah. Man, all these, like, toys are just, like, redundant now because you can just download, like, an app that can do. It looks like fucking anything you can dream of. Oh, shit. Yeah, I just did a Google search, 90s kids' toys. I'm seeing a couple of familiarity here. There's a Furby.

I had a Furby. A lot like Tamagotchi. Oh, yeah, that too. Yeah. They always died, though. I would never keep care of it. Yeah. Yeah, it was hard.

Etch-a-Sketch. Game Boy Colors. listed here. I guess it's a video game more than a toy. Yeah. Yeah, I don't count video games. That's art. Pogs? Yeah, I think I missed Pogs. What about like Thunderbirds? Oh yeah, I had

a couple of those. I love Thunderbirds. Thunderbirds are go, or whatever they would say. It's a weird catchphrase. I always found like the media of Thunderbirds, like the they had like a show or movies or whatever. I always

found it super creepy. the puppets yeah it's like what um Trey Parker and Matt Stone yeah team America parodying team America yeah which is hilarious

I want to watch that again sometime yeah maybe a future recommendation ooh hmm oh yeah and you couldn't even you didn't even have Kinder surprise Ralph because they were banned in the States were they actually when did that happen they've always been banned in the states and now

oh they've never made it though well No, because basically you can't have a toy inside of, like, food. Right. Because they're worried someone will just, like, eat the chocolate egg with the toy inside and die. And the thing, the little pod that the toy is in is, like, just the right size to, like, clog a throat as well. I guess so, yeah. If you're going to eat the whole thing in one gulp, then it might be an issue. But, yeah, now I believe in the States they have, like, ooh,

Kinder surprise, but it's like the chocolate is separate from the toy or something. I'm not sure. It's pointless. Why don't bother? Yeah, it's not the same man. All right, I think we answered that question. Yeah, plenty. All right.

Do we want to do one more? Okay. Yeah, let's go on more. Let me find a good one. Let's do this strange one then to end on. From a tin hymn. Other than movies being a way for people to express themselves, what's the point of filmmaking?

Do films not just distract people from their? lives making them more unproductive question mark will we not be better without them that's bullshit there's a lot of wasted time in life where you're just not doing anything and you can do whatever you want that time the point of filmmaking is expression like that is what makes it valuable through making films and and this whole point of making art is we're like expressing our culture so in a hundred years time we can look back at all the things that were made when we were alive, when we can kind of learn things about how people are feeling and the way we felt about, you know, cultural issues. And there's so much that value towards it.

It's like the main argument. It's the main reason people, I think, like film and all that for what it is. Yeah, I would not consider it to be a waste of time at all. Films can influence how you view the world, how you view yourself. It's no different than self-reflection, depending on the type of purpose. depending on the type of person you are and what you get out of films. Like, sure, you can be someone where it's just an entirely passive experience. You can be someone where you learn literally nothing from any movie that you watch.

But I think that there is definitely, you know, artistic value from films. I learn things from movies. I learn things about myself from movies. You know, I don't consider it to be a waste of time at all. And so what if someone wants to waste time? You can do it a billion other ways other than, movies if movies didn't exist if no art forms existed at all

people would just be twiddling their thumbs to waste time so plus you're supporting an industry people work to make these movies and makes jobs and stimulates the economy so and they get to support their family and stuff they like so that's not a waste. That's how humans have

always kind of communicated through telling stories that go through generations it's just we're drawn to doing it because it's how we communicate and how we teach each other things so these new mediums. come up to do it and they've evolved over time so movies are just like a modern day

it's like a very sophisticated elaborate way of a bunch of people expressing themselves yeah yeah and it's cool it's like social campfire stories but just better way more elaborate yeah more complex we've evolved since the cave paintings to like make something really elaborate like a video game

which is like entirely in a computer and like tells a story you play it. It's insane. The movies are the same way. And then you just cut to like someone teabagging someone in Halo, like right after you say that. They're expressing themselves.

They're expressing their like happiness for winning. We reject your thesis question at Oscar. Yeah. Get out of here. All right. That about wraps things up then. I believe we have a recommendation from Alex. Yeah, yeah, seems it's my turn

And we have nothing but time on our hands, it seems Because we can't go anywhere We thought it would be a good idea to do Another one of these big trilogy episodes I want to do the Godfather trilogy It's time Oh shit It's time, okay

Very nice Yeah Like what Does it even need any introduction or explanation? Yeah Godfather 1 and 2 are considered some of the best movies of all time. I'm almost most curious about three, to be honest.

Yeah, I'm excited to discuss three. Okay. And you've seen all of them, Ralph, right? Yeah. Yeah, okay. They're great movies about Italians making a bunch of pasta. I've only seen the first one, and it was a long time ago. Yeah, same.

I'm in the exact same boat as you, Adam. Okay. Yeah, excited to re-watch the first one and discover what the other two are like. All right, so if you don't want to be spoiled for any of the Godfather movies, watch them before next episode. These episodes come out every two weeks. But you can also listen to these episodes early. Go to sardonicast.com, sign up for premium, $2 a month.

Or patreon.com slash sardonicast. Same thing. You'll get to listen to these episodes as soon as they're edited before they're public. All right. That's right. Thank you. Thank you all for listening. I'm Shelley Duvall.

Take care. Keep the epic, everybody. Bye, everybody.