The Big Picture - The ‘Free Guy’ Watch-along

Episode Date: March 10, 2022

That’s right—we are watching ‘Free Guy,’ one of the biggest hits of 2021 and a very divisive movie. Chris joins Sean and Amanda to discuss the Ryan Reynolds action-comedy for its entire running time. The movie is now available on HBO Max and Disney+, so you can stream along with 'The Big Picture.' Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Benifer is back. Brad and Jen are friends again. And Paris Hilton is somehow still making headlines. 20 years later, we're living in the world that the 2000s tabloids created. On this series, I'm going to tell you the story of a decade of American life through the trash we love to consume. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Claire Malone, and this is Just Like Us, the tabloids that changed America. Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about, well, it's about going to hell, which is ruled by the Antichrist. This is a very special trip to the underworld and joining us today for our watch along podcast of the 2021 film Free Guy is Chris Ryan. Hi, Chris.

Hi, Sean. Thanks for having me on the Big Picture Podcast again. Thank you. You're welcome for being here and you're welcome everyone listening to the show because yes, you heard me right. we are watching along with free guy a movie that I did not enjoy though I do find fascinating as an artifact of these dark times that we live in so Chris and Amanda have never seen this movie before and if you haven't you can stream it

right now and listen along and watch along with us the movie is available on not one but two major streaming outlets right now HBO Max and Disney+. If you're a listener of this show, you more than likely have a subscription to one of those two services.

So when I count us down to begin the movie, join along and press play when we reach the end of the countdown. If you'd prefer not to watch along and just listen to this podcast while we're watching, you can do that though. I think that is slightly sociopathic. Anyhow, here we go.

Five, four, three, two, one. Okay, Amanda, you want to open this conversation by explaining your circumstances? Is there something unusual about an incredibly pregnant woman lounging on her bed with a full pregnancy pillow. The extra long size, by the way, just so you know, full U-shape. If you're on the taller side, I recommend the extra length for you. I got a lot of snacks. I got my water.

I have to be honest. This is the only way that I can be at least a tiny bit comfortable for the next two hours at this state. Because emotionally, you're not going to be comfortable. No. I mean, I'm already in hell, and I'm just waiting for a major life event to happen, so why not watch this movie that I know nothing about?

CR, you're also eight and a half months pregnant. How are you feeling? I'm about to give birth to culture. I can't wait to watch this. So Amanda, you really don't know anything about this he's like in a video game but he's not okay sort of um and then he wants to be free and he's the background of the video game yeah he's like the extra player we can you can you you see in the background of video games right yes he's not even an extra player he's literally just like a

he's just he's just another i don't know a bystander really to the action that you see in a video game so if you murder a stranger in grand theft auto you're murdering a free guy i appreciate the subtitles that are like guns continue firing that makes me feel welcome here so chris this obviously is opening explaining the kind of the world that we're about to enter which is of course a video game and it's an introduction to ryan reynolds who you recently dubbed the antichrist yeah that's the intro to this conversation um did you avoid this movie on purpose last year you know i just think it was one of those movies. It was one of those situations where obviously this did quite well at the box office, but it was one of those things where I was like, do I want to put myself at personal risk for this?

And the answer was no. You know, like I went and saw old. I saw a bunch of movies at the end of last year, especially, but I didn't, I didn't feel like this was worth it. I was waiting for a moment like this that we could share it together. Can I ask a question very quickly? Of course. Was the man in the convertible Channing Tatum

or just a Channing? No, he was Channing Tatum. That was Channing Tatum. Okay, great. Didn't know Channing Tatum was in this movie. I'm a fan. Channing Tatum spent the last eight years basically just doing cameos and other stuff, right?

Yeah. I just saw a new film that he's in, which actually will be out by the time this is out called dog yeah enjoyed it oh good i'm glad i'm ready for like the second channing tatum renaissance did you enjoy it because you've tapped into a new level of like love and understanding with your child or is it just because it's like actually a good movie did you just compare my child to a dog no but like i had this phase with andy for a while where he was like this was quite moving because i understand true love of a parent with a with a child and i was like but it is actually actively like a bad movie so i just wanted to but was it like a good movie or was it

just because like you feel like now you have like a wider emotional spectrum to pull from i just reject the premise okay question uh are you you kidding? You've been girl-dadding for a full year now. I saw this film after my daughter was born and I loathed it. So clearly the bar has not moved too high or too low for me. Certain things, certain content featuring young children and parents, it's inevitable.

You can't help but feel something. It hits different. Amanda, soon you'll understand. CR, this is where you are. You're taking care of Free Guy. This is your baby. You're taking care of Rye Reynolds. There's Lil' Roe Howry. He's also in this film. Ryan Reynolds is named Guy.

Right? Right. That's very clever. I see what they're doing. And this kind of has already a what if Truman show was an action movie vibe right very much so I think that's a good call what do you think of this gear that Ryan Reynolds' character is in sky blue

zip up powder blue zip up khakis those look like some khakis I would wear honestly guy works in a bank okay I don't think anybody really dresses like this in either in video games or in reality, right? You're well documented

to be against khakis in general. He's dressed like a blockbuster employee, which I have a lot of fondness for blockbuster employees. Oh, you think that's a callback of some kind?

To a time when movies were good? What's Free Guy's stance on the demilitarization of our police force? I mean, it's all in the name right there. Just free the guys. Just free us. Oh, so it's a libertarian movie.

Yeah, I think so. This is about militias, this film. All right, so I have some more questions as a person who has just been watching images on a screen and not really following. So what video game is this supposed to be talk to me through some of the video game references well it's not explicitly a game that exists they will will will at a certain point and i'm sorry to spoil this for anybody who's never seen it but we will kind of exit this game world

and enter the real world and this is an immersive game that people, you know, you can wear a headset and experience the game. It's, you know, it's not a first person shooter. It's more like a Grand Theft Auto open world game. And so GTA,

I think is the closest analog that you can make to what they were going for. I'm not a gamer. So there's, I'm sure a lot of references here that I'll follow. I did. Yeah. I did. Yeah, I did. Were you the kind of person who would just like drive around and commit

mayhem rather than try to like solve the, like the, the quests of the, of the different boards? Um, Oh, that's Jodi Comer. Yeah,

that is Jodi Comer. Yes. Jodi Comer's in this. Is she in this wig the whole time? Well, I'm reluctant to spoil anything for you. Oh, this is the video game, like Avatar, and then maybe in real life she has normal hair?

Possibly. Okay. You're very smart, Amanda. Thank you so much. You must say. You're very intelligent. You're a very intelligent film watcher. You know, your child will be very intelligent at watching films.

I'm just trying to follow along. A lot of people loved the film freak guy. You sure did. I'm learning about video games. I'm learning about film. I'm learning about Ryan Reynolds layering with different shades of blue. Well, do you think that one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy it and maybe you guys were a little reluctant is because you're also not gamers or at least not at this stage of your life. Bob, you're not a gamer either, really, are you? I play nothing but MLB The Show. Okay.

I play FIFA, but I also play Red Dead Redemption. I feel like I've gone through, every three or four or five years I get into video games, pretty hardcore, usually when I'm living on my own because my wife has gone back east for some reason, and I just really dial it up. And then I'm able to put it aside. It's not a major addiction for me.

Just want to point out that we just heard Mariah Carey's fantasy, which is sort of the theme song of this movie. And hard to be mad at that. Oh, it is. It is arguably the best part of the movie. Ryan Reynolds, his character has just noticed Jodie Comer's character inside of this game

life that they live. And this is basically, forgive me for being a complete D-bag about this, but the core philosophical question of the movie, which is this guy is a programmed character in a video game, not a real human. And he is expressing interest that is outside of his predetermined existence

inside of the game. Oh God, this is like a can robots feel? Are they human moving? It's Pinocchio, baby. Yeah, a. Yeah. Jesus. A little bit. No one told me that.

I'm so mad. I'm digging the your loan is already approved sign behind him. Yes, Bob. That's what I'm here for. I can assure you, Bobby, this film has no socialist overtones whatsoever. And so there I can find them. With free guys or like with these characters in

video games or just also video game logic in general is that you can read pop. You can regenerate very easily. Oh, this is the real world.

So we've exited the game and you're seeing Jodie Comer. She's blonde, but they've really still messed up her hair. That's just unfair. So she's a slightly

grungier existence in this real world. She's in a coffee shop. I don't know. Those bangs are pretty well-styled. Nobody's bangs look like that in real life. If this movie was real, first of all, Ken Loach would be the director. And Jodie Comer would be using her Liverpool accent.

She'd be like, can I play another game? But wouldn't it be called Free Guinevere? Can I play another game? I'm like... But wouldn't it be called like Free Guinevere? You know, it'd be a slightly different... That's Ridley Scott's next movie after Kit Bag. Pretty excited about that. Okay, we're back in the game. Okay. I like his pajamas.

He has some colorways. There's some tones that he sticks to. The whites, the baby blues. So, Sean, going into this movie, what's the best case scenario for something like this? He ordered a cappuccino. He ordered something different. He's becoming sentient.

Yeah, he's expressing his self-determination. See, things are changing. And it's not just him. It's this character that he's opposing is also confused by the order and look at this police officer is confused by the order everyone in this world has no power over their future how did he get power well i think it's the power of jody comer and then i think ultimately maybe the power of attraction obsession love feelings i don't know it's uh it's a good question that doesn't have a good answer. Okay, TBD. I'll keep watching.

You guys go ahead and talk about philosophy or whatever. I think you were saying, like, what's the good version of this movie, right, Chris? Yeah, I was going to say, like, what's the ceiling for something like this? Is it big? Well, you hit it all right.

I think you nailed it with the Truman Show. I think that we did get... We got a movie that reflected our evolving reality TV always on 24-7 culture times in the late 90s. That was a great film. And now we are in an era in which the Netflix stock price is tanking, and so they're shifting their strategy into gaming

because gaming is the most profitable entertainment center in the world. And so one of the biggest movies of 2021 was free guy i mean i've only seen like 15 minutes of this movie but the matrix resurrections was that the most recent one the matrix 4 the one we just watched is also doing a lot of this in the first half of the movie specifically video games um yes that is very true and i would say doing it more interestingly yes even though i think we all agree that that movie was very flawed yeah it's not a good action movie the tricky thing about this movie is on the one hand it plays perfectly to ryan reynolds's strengths as like blank handsome man who's a little bit snarky. On the other hand,

sometimes you can be too well cast. It's like two magnets rubbing against each other. They won't connect. They don't click. I would posit... I could never say that I was like ever Ryan Reynolds' biggest fan.

But I would posit that Deadpool is probably the end of his acting career because he's really only ever done Deadpool since Deadpool in a lot of ways where it's just like action comedies where he gets to get off like lots and lots and lots of one liners. They all kind of look like, um, like a google commercial or something and yeah like i mean he used to do like i mean we made like that movie

buried where like he's he's in iraq and he's like in a coffin and it's all like set in that one that one setting like he did try some stuff earlier on his career he was obviously in a lot of straight comedies like waiting and everything definitely maybe the proposal yeah but i i would suggest that what happened is is that the movies around him changed so he was forced to change and so he had to pivot from trying to be chevy chase or bill murray to trying to be tom Cruise. The Rock. Yeah, right. The Rock. You know, an action star. And, you know, he's a very fit guy. But like, I don't know.

He clearly in waiting or in Van Wilder or whatever, he was doing Chevy Chase. He was doing Motormouth and hapless handsome guy. And now he owns a gin empire. Yeah, but he was always a little too slick for being like the new Chevy Chase also. He was also doing. Chevy Chase but he was always a little too slick for being the new Chevy Chase also. But Chevy Chase used to be accused of being too slick. I know, but Ryan Reynolds was doing Hugo Boss ads or whatever.

That's true. So now he has these magic sunglasses on where he can see all the rewards that people see in this place, right? This is what people see in the game. How did he get that? So the people who wear these glasses, he got them off of somebody who came into the game to in the game yes so the people who wear these glasses he got them off of somebody who came into the game to rob the bank so the people who came in to rob the bank were sort of avatars for people playing the game in the real world just like

jody comer oh right one of them was wearing a cloud bucket hat i just wanted to remark on that pretty sick but so he got a hold of those glasses and now this this freestanding figure in the world can see what players can see even though he's not a player also we didn't comment that the players in this round are like a eight and ten year old girl or maybe 10 and 12 year old was that right that's what they were cutting to in the bedroom yeah i think it's a at that's yeah the robbers you're saying yes yeah like a 10 year old being like waste this guy i mean that was funny eight to ten years from now that's what you'll be experiencing nope nope just a little little kid no video games in this house nope oh when is the heart a hard no yeah i wasn't allowed

to have video games growing up were you guys for sure sorry excuse me i was five years old when i got nes wow i mean i definitely had friends that i had just for the purpose of like can i come to your house and play super mario brothers and name those people on the podcast yeah one of them was named leslie she's really lovely i drive by her house when or her parents house when i'm home in atlanta all the time and i feel guilty that i just used her for her Nintendo set. I hope she's well. But you didn't actually like her as a person? No, I liked her a lot.

And her parents were really cool, actually. And they had a real Nancy Meyers kitchen before that was a thing. And a lot of interesting decor tastes. I liked them a lot. But I definitely rolled up and I was like, can we play Nintendo right now? know i didn't acknowledge the human in front of me so that's not good i don't want to be teaching that to a kid but on the other hand i like still read books which sean definitely doesn't so what's the take here the take is that i don't read books because my parents gave me video games when i was five what's happening do you have a gaming system in the home currently, Sean?

I do. We know you play FIFA. Yeah, it's in storage. I actually have a, not a replica, but like the mini NES that has like 40 games on one disc. Because I still like NES games a lot and Super Nintendo games a lot. When Zach and I moved in together, he, without my knowledge, I just wanted to be clear, like got rid of his PlayStation. He was just like, not bringing a PlayStation to a new location, which I felt kind of bad about, though I can't imagine. Oh, is that like never going to meet a hippie for drugs in a second location?

Yeah. He was like, I'm done with playstation now i like live with a woman instead but i can't imagine like walking into the living room and finding someone being like yeah i'm on hour six of like fifa or whatever would you rather walk in on somebody looking at porn yes you are you are so screwed as a parent i can't even believe it like i you are so you think this kid's not gonna want to play video games imagine 10 years from now we're right what video games are gonna be in our life here's a video game of the mind it's called a book you can have another one if you'd like kids love that they love when their parents tell them they can't do the one thing they want to do and they you want a movie would love to watch a movie i just need this kid to be like nine immediately so that i can like introduce

him to like like like converge and listen to metal and we'll play nothing but like vikings you'll go to sean's house to watch animated movies he'll go to chris's house to watch horror movies and play video games it's good for him to have to like show some initiative as well you know like i'm gonna hand him everything he wants in life then that's ruining him in two ways. Yeah, but I'm also going to get this kid edibles, sour candy. That sounds great. And I'm going to get him going on Aviator Gin at like 12 or 13. He's going to live a well-rounded life.

He's going to know what that is before the age of 12. You don't need to worry about the gin. It's going to be fine. Should we mention this is Joe Keery from Stranger Things? Is it in the film right now? Just to put a little fencing around this. So, Adkar Shambudkar and Joe Keery play programmers at the video game company.

And they are operating as police officers inside of the world because they've identified that Guy is operating outside of the system. He's basically an Agent Smith. Yes, exactly. And so, they're trying to convince him to take the glasses off or to play the game.

I think, basically, Guy is trying to exit the extension of the game. There's a little bit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit going on here, where if you cross the train tracks and go over to the other side of Toontown. You guys know that reference? You guys see that film? It's been a long time, but yeah, it rings a bell. Quality picture. And so now he's being pursued by these two guys who exist in the real world

and have also entered the game. You want to go back to how we're going to manipulate your child, Amanda? I think that's great. I want him to find life outside this house. But it can't be easy. What? Your kid's going to be recreating every Nick Foles highlight from the Super Bowl by age six. It's like you two just like Brie Larson-ing it up.

On an Oculus. Right, exactly. No. If he really wants to play video games and he's going to go have to learn about it on his own time,

seek it out, make some friends, make some money. Put together a PowerPoint presentation. This movie and Mark Zuckerberg and everybody else is telling us

is that you will not have to leave the house for anything ever again. You will be living in the metaverse. And in some ways, if this movie was coming out in 2022 rather than 21, it might even seem more prescient because it would be on the wave of all the meta stuff,

which sucks. Are you saying that this is our Citizen Kane? I'm saying that you were talking about the Truman Show predicting reality always on TV. And I'm just like, well well you watch this show we watch this movie and it certainly feels like you know like the the pitfalls and like and mountains of being inside of like a virtual world right so we're what we're about 20 minutes into the movie 18 minutes in which so is that a hard recommend from you see you You're in? Free Guy?

Here's the problem with Free Guy. It's the context of it. It's not necessarily that this movie is any worse than any other good or bad movie that Hollywood puts out. It's the fact that it feels like this is their like, oh, we hit on something here. This is a way station for all this random IP that we have sitting around. We can cross-promote it. It feels good for dipshit gamers who want to get involved with going to one movie a year, but it also might be cool for somebody to take their 12-year-old to.

And I think that's where we're not necessarily... It's not the movie. It's the disease that it's a symptom of. Can I ask a very literal question? So these, these cops, these developers are a cop and a bunny trying to stop guy from being free in the video game.

Why can't they, why can't they restart the game? Aha. Well, once again, the very intelligent movie watcher, Amanda Dobbins rears her head. That'll come up. I really do like this Miley Cyrus song.rus song so oh i wish they played more of it i mean soundtrack a plus literally

a wrecking ball was on screen and they played the song wrecking ball though well no points for obviousness sometimes it's okay to be obvious my issue here is every single tech problem i've ever had in my entire life they're just like you know what you gotta do is you gotta unplug that and then you gotta plug it back in no no better example than in video games when you would take the cartridge out blow on that joint put it back in press restart and get going well however games are different now that's the thing is this is an online experience and multiple people are invested over multiple years in the characters that they've built and the missions they've completed and so restarting the game is a little bit more i'm not sharing this with you as somebody who's saying that's good or bad i actually don't care i know but you just spent 20 minutes being like yeah but your son is gonna be deprived of all of

life's delights because you're not letting him spend three years developing a character in the metaverse to me it's not about him being deprived. It's about him despising you openly when you tell him he can't have those things. Again, it's like I have been there before. I'm not afraid, you know? That's how it is, kid. That's good.

Being online is good training for being a parent. When your kid looks at you, I've already started the kid a Twitter account. Maybe a Twitch account too soon. Is that the CR Army Twitter account? That's what you started for Amanda's son? Should we have done this on Twitch? I once tried to use Twitch because Ben Affleck was, I think it was Twitch.

Ben Affleck was doing like a live celebrity poker tournament. And I thought I was going to get to like watch, you know, the celebrity poker show, but with Ben Affleck, which subscribe, absolutely. But then I was just watching a video game and I was like, no, I'm going to close this tab. I think if we did this on Twitch would be sued out of existence by 20th century. Is this a flashback to when Joe Curia and Jodie Comer's characters were just fresh-faced video game designers, independent, trying to make meaningful,

non-capitalistic content for people who love games? That is absolutely correct. Is this about ethics in gaming? And more. God, I'm disgusted. Yeah. So obviously,

Jokiri, we now know, works for the company that puts on the game. But Jodie Comer sits at a coffee shop. Jodie Comer does not. She does not. She plays the game.

She's engaged in the game. Is the game the same as the game that they developed? Not exactly. We'll get to that. I was allowed to play computer games. A company called Tsunami is buying their company.

One thing that we missed is we didn't identify that the kind of character that Ryan Reynolds in this game is a non-player character. It's known as an NPC and he's referred to as an NPC throughout the entire movie which is a real-player character. It's known as an NPC. And he's referred to as an NPC throughout the entire movie, which is a real thing. Okay.

It's also a meme now. Ryan Reynolds? Or being an NPC? Or just NPC is a meme? How would I employ that meme, Bobby? So, like, you want to downplay the importance of someone in a certain situation

and be like, you're a non-playable character. So it'splay the importance of someone in a certain situation and be like you're a non-playable non-playable character energy yes exactly or a hurtful thing that you might say to someone who has main character energy is actually you're an NPC get out of my face you're an NPC right okay you can use that against Sean on the big picture. Thank you. That was really educational. If only it were ever going to be true. Some Mike Nichols vibes here. Just like Sean Levy's composition here and like the performances. Oh my God, Chris.

Sean Levy, of course, is the director of this film. He also makes, he's one of the main people behind stranger things which i like a lot so i'm not trying to sound like a complete asshole on this i actually like a couple of people in this movie he has a real well that's this is actually my issue with the movie and i'm glad you said that is there's a lot of people who are kind of interesting or have done good work in the past partaking in this and we'll get to it as the movie goes along but it's a movie

that is like a tale of two studios as well it was developed at fox and built out as an original fox movie and then literally after the film was finished or some three quarters of the way through production they were acquired by disney and then the movie went through some changes as well and it became an ip bonanza and so you know Sean Levy I don't really care for most of his movies he made the night at the museum movies he made date night he made

the internship this is where I leave you but I've liked a couple of things he's done including stranger things obviously Joe Keery's got the connectivity there we got we love Jodie Comer

she's great mm-hmm a few more few more actors will find in this movie who are like I said a little rels in this he's great but uh great on Southside. Too bad that Jodie Comer's not going to be in Kit Bagg slash Napoleon.

I was just thinking that. I mean, I'm happy that Vanessa Kirby, you know, got the call-up. That's good as well. But I do feel bad for Jodie Comer because Last Duel didn't really give her the shine that she deserved I thought.

Oh, okay. Vanessa Kirby as the sexual motivator behind the Napoleonic Wars though is very believable. It's really good. It's plausible. Yeah, I buy it.

So the relationship obviously between these two characters is the centerpiece of the movie and the Ryan Reynolds character is not a human. He is a video game character, an NPC. so he's just a piece of code correct very much like the matrix

which you guys pointed out very very very similar circumstance oh she fell into a hole some sort of portal there that's the thing is like like in video games you can kind of find weapons that give you powers to move from place to place randomly or to fire that's so great definitely lessons i want to teach my kid so her character is named molotov girl correct her character in this game yes which is uh that was actually our first choice for uh our daughter's name but um there was actually another child that was born that day that got it first is Is that how naming children works? I was going to say it sounds like an all-girl hardcore band that Chris Ryan would have seen

in Philadelphia in the 1990s. That's true. We're Molotov Girl. We're from fucking Philadelphia. Thank you for coming. Take care of yourselves. But also fuck you for coming. This song is about fucking cops. I've been listening to a lot of hardcore recently.

I think off of the back of Turnstiles. Fantastic 2021 release. But maybe I'll start bringing a hardcore punk rock aesthetic to my podcasting you know like minimal but shouty okay like call and response

will you be doing it on the pitchfork review podcast where will you be talking about these things on the big picture as soon as Amanda goes away

I'm going to turn into like Ian McKay there is espousing ethics yeah that's going to go well with your Pat McAfee standing up strategy here's the problem. Espousing ethics? Yeah. That's going to go well with your Pat McAfee standing up strategy.

Here's the problem with espousing ethics. I feel like I've now painted myself into a corner where like the major contributions I've had to this podcast so far is that this movie

is a sin against God and man. And I don't know how to get myself out of the corner. Well, you could pivot. You know, you could pivot to free guy you could be like actually i see something pure in this film and i i recognize that for

americans both born and unborn there's something very very special about what ryan reynolds and the crew have put together what do you think thank you tony kushner i i honestly wasn't listening to anything that you said because i was trying to understand what this movie's about okay so let me let me float with to you guys what i understand so far okay so he's a minor character an npc as the kids say who's gone rogue. Well, he was inspired because he saw Jodie Comer's character singing Fantasy by Mariah Carey, which is his favorite song, and that triggered something in him that allowed him to become more sentient.

Okay, but so the robot has learned something in the context of the game. So this is just the Matrix. And so then Jodie Comer real life Jodie Comer is playing the game as Molotov

girl in order to try to understand what's going on with the code. I think she's trying to disrupt the game because she was the odd person out

when the company was bought by this tsunami, this other company. And just as a note, Ryan Reynolds now wearing a Henley, which is the sign of a cool guy anywhere you go. So his character is changing. I'm actually pro-Henley.

I'm just going to say that. I like Henley's fine. I feel like you have to have Ryan Reynolds' physique to wear it. If you've got a soft front, it doesn't look great. Okay, now he's just solving crimes or something? Or stopping crimes?

He's learning how to be a better player of the game. So you see him going through a lot of different trials and tribulations and dying and waking back up because you always get regenerated as sean laid out has the movie shared with us what the objectives of free city the game are well if it's like it's sims it's just to live but i think it's where people can go and be anything they want so like these people who are all robbing banks and stuff. Who's that? Isn't she real?

That's Lara What's-Her-Face, right? There are a number of real life media figures who participate in this movie. We'll see some. For shame. That's great. We'll see some vloggers as well. Is this guy a podcaster? Yes, these are all video game podcasters. Sean, are you in this movie? Yep.

I actually play Free Guy. What movie do you think we could be in. Sean, are you in this movie? Yep. I actually play Free Guy. What movie do you think we could be in? You want to be in a movie? I mean, not right now. This isn't my best thing. The hosts of the Dead Meat podcast were in Scream 5. Okay. They were like material figures in a scene in Scream 5.

Do you think that now is the time to announce that we're in The Northman? Chris, what kind of a movie would you want to be in? Would you want to be killed in a horror movie? I think it would be pretty cool. The thing is, is in horror movies, the people who get killed really are characters. So I would have to have like a relatively big role in a horror movie to be worthy of getting killed.

You just pivoted from what movie would you want to appear in to I have to be a very big figure in a movie. I have to be a very big figure in a movie. I have to be one of the stars. What do you think I could be in Scream 6? I think you should be Ghostface. I think of you as the Ghostface of the big picture. So this guy, I think it's worth mentioning that when people do play Grand Theft Auto,

which they still do, a lot of the times, I alluded to this in my question to Sean, but they just go to cause mayhem like they just go and shoot up the police and rob rob people and like just cause crazy chaos rather than try to like solve the game yes and ryan reynolds's character seems to be like the moral compass of the free guy world i believe that's correct i think actually that that that chaos that violence and robbery and whatnot is the point of free city right is you get to be do you have to do whatever you want here yeah yeah okay the more money you have the more freedom another question from someone

who doesn't play video games so in this video game in free city god i don't know the terminology but are all of the people all of the characters that we're seeing corresponding to like real life people who have agreed to have their players in a room together like is it one world where everyone is competing with each other a shared game like a shared platform yeah is that what it's called like a shared game or it does have an official term it's called a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game m-m-o-r-p-g so they all are yes they're playing online together okay so multiplayer is what like everyone signing on together is about got it correct but i think that these are all npcs too like i think the implication is that everybody who he talked to in his daily routine before.

Yeah. Before he got the glasses. It's all about the glasses guys. If you're wearing glasses, you are a player who is playing, who has an avatar in the game. If you don't have the glasses, you aren't effectively an NPC. Okay. Does that make sense? See this guy who he is having a showdown with right now is wearing glasses.

I see. That's the giveaway. These puppies changed my life he said okay that was what i said to my parents when they got me nes at five years old thank you for all these cartridges changed my life legend of zelda mike tyson's punch out metroid megaman are you just reading a list of the games no duck hunt what else did you ever obviously super mario brothers one two three did you ever play any of Metroid, Mega Man. Are you just reading a list of the games? No, Duck Hunt. What else was I playing? Obviously, Super Mario Brothers. One, two, three. Did you ever play any of the James Bond games? Like Goldeneye or... I've heard a lot of stories about you smoking cigs

and playing Goldeneye for hours. Yeah, cigarettes. That's what we were smoking. You smoking crack? There was one night when me and my friends got an advanced copy of Iron Flag by Wu-Tang Clan. Oh, yeah. And just played GoldenEye until like four in the morning in Brooklyn listening to that.

That was one of the top ten. Me and my friends meeting you and all the NPCs? It was like a top ten night of my life. And I'm just saying, like, Amanda, don't shut that door for your child. Listen, how old were you at that point? In my 20s. Okay, well, I hope that he gets to have many such nights if that's what he wants.

Iron Flag is slept on. It is. Uzi, Pinky Ring, that song is awesome. It's probably considered like the fourth best Wu-Tang album, right? Enter the Wu-Tang, the W. Yeah. What's the third best? Wu-Tang Forever. Oh, yeah. I think it's Enter the Wu-T third best Wu-Tang Forever

oh yeah I think it's I think it's enter the Wu-Tang Wu-Tang Forever the W Iron Flag it goes in order okay

what about the Shkreli album that you just bought Chris by liquidating your 401k yeah you sold your NFT so you can get the Shkreli Wu-Tang I wonder if Shkreli's in this movie I think you I think the Kiri character was inspired by Shkreli remember that lady who fell in love with Shkreli's in this movie. I think the Kiri character was inspired by Shkreli.

Remember that lady who fell in love with Shkreli and then wrote about it and dunked on herself? That was wild. That was really wild. That was just like people got to log off. Her film should be called Free Girl. That should be the title of her film. She was a real employed journalist somewhere, right?

Yeah. I think it... Was it at Elle was it i thought it was a women's magazine i honestly like thought it was bloomberg or something crazy but anyway she was the the editor-in-chief of the new york times this is a actually footage of me at the ringer, just blogging from the toilet. When I used to just be up at 10.30 p.m. PST, just being like, what another solid 18-point game from Klay Thompson. You know what I feel like is getting lost in time, Chris, is you as not just blog manager,

but blogger. You think it's lost to time? Yeah, I just feel like you're not celebrated enough. Your greatness as a blogger. You think it's lost to time? B-L-O-G-G-E-R. Yeah, I just feel like you're not celebrated enough. Your greatness as a blogger is not celebrated enough. Haven't we as a society also moved on from the written word? Doesn't this movie prove that?

Well, Amanda's trying to fight that battle with her son. And I'm like, no, come to my side. Let's play GTA. Okay. We'll watch Fellini movies

and I'll feed you whiskey. You know? Two out of three sound great sean okay um what are these cartridges so she's in the source code here huh oh i guess so the source code also has a car garage here yeah cars so here we have what appears to be the eighth or ninth shootout of this movie and this is one of the other things that i don't really like about this movie and i realize i've recommended michael

bay movies in the past on this podcast and i am a hypocrite but for a movie that has aspirations towards a kind of modern truman show it's real shooty shooty and it's every 10 minutes kind of boring yeah this does sort of have a these are like the defense agents of the company who run the game sorry they are the agents for sure Bobby this movie is sort of like if Michael Bay

tried to put ideas into his films Michael Bay does put ideas into his films yeah the greatness of the American Eagle have you considered that idea the importance of the american eagle have you considered that idea the importance of sports cars what really happened at benghazi he did he did 13 hours rewatch next wags from billions just wouldn't let those guys cook was wags from Billions playing Hillary Clinton

in that movie? No, he was the chief of station of the CIA in Benghazi and he wouldn't let the special forces guys go protect the ambassador's villa. We've done a really good job

of staying on topic on this watch along. Is it weird that I know I can just remember what happens in 13 hours the Benghazi movie? No, that's literally why you are you and have a job

I don't think Bill knows that I think I'm like Bill just so you know I just know a lot about Benghazi yes he does know that like see the JFK rewatchables just you know he knew who to point to for the theories.

And it wasn't Sean. Sean, who do you think killed JFK? Free guy. Okay. Bob, do you have a theory? Because like as a younger person, do you get involved in that kind of 1960s sociopolitical turmoil?

Speaking for all younger people, I don't really want to share anything. Hashtag JFK was a cop. Is that what you did? I haven't done the proper research. Okay. Yeah, but that was more or less what I said on the podcast, Bobby.

I think that's the best way to be. Did you guys catch that Mama Cass make your own kind of music? Needle drop there? Asynchronous to the violent action happening on screen. No one's ever done that in a movie. Never seen anybody do that. Not at all a cliche.

Who do you think is the greatest filmmaker who thinks this is a good movie? That's a great question. Does director bong think this is sick right so we know we know scorsese's out right yeah but but we know paul thomas anderson was a was all about shang chi and and venomom too. Right? He dug those movies. I believe the exact quote was I liked Venom too. Truly one of the greatest quotes of the year.

That should have been Time's Person of the Year is PTA's quote about Venom too. But I don't... I think PTA would have cited this if he enjoyed it in that interview. So did this guy do something there?

Did he... I'm not really sure. He was running the defense operation trying to stop them from what they were doing by stealing the code and he failed.

And here comes Anton. Is this going to be Mark Strong? Is this going to be Kieran Hines? You don't know who this is? Is this going to be Jeremy Irons?

Is it Channing Tatum? No. Oh, it's Taika. Oh. It's Taika Waititi. Okay. This is by far the most dispiriting thing Taika Waititi has ever done, is this performance that we're about to watch.

Okay. Why did he decide to do this? I think he's pretty savvy as we know and i think he's a real high low guy and sometimes he gets reservation dogs on tv which is awesome sometimes he makes thor movies which is actually weirdly awesome And sometimes he chooses a blockbuster film and wants to be the villain in the film. What is the name of the movie with the tiny person in the Jojo rabbit? That's what it was. Stewart Little.

Tiny person? Yeah. It's a kid. You better get used to this, Amanda. This is tough. What? It's a child yeah no i know but i was i was you know imagining them in those little they aren't they aren't like robot costumes but you know when they're just going around being like metal for hitler um which is the thing that

happened in jojo rabbit i don't know i'm really proud of you that you got to say that on this pod. I feel like it's a huge accomplishment. Let's make that the breakout. In my head, I was like, countdown clock to when Amanda says that, now that Tyke is on the screen. It's really the only thing that he's contributed that stayed with me. Tyke makes good shit.

I hope that this was because he needed another mil to finish next goal wins or something. Or maybe he thinks this is dope. One thing I did do in my prep is I did see a blog post where he's like, I just made up all my dialogue. I mean, I believe that. You know how I feel about improv. You love it and you've performed it for years on stage.

But I do think that it's having a deleterious effect on cinematic comedy. Wow. That's a bold stroke right there. We just talked about how in Casino all the lines are improvised. All the lines of a movie are like Adam McKay behind a camera being like, now say this. Now say this. Are we really writing

for characters? Is this from the same... What rewatchables did you do where you were just like, this is... The big winner here is screenwriting and screenwriters. Oh, City Slickers.

Yeah. And you just kept being like, screenwriters are so great and improv is terrible. That was a funny bit. I enjoyed that. Chris thought that was a great act of screenwriting because it's a film that centers

middle-aged white men sure and that's what he wants to get back to at the cinema and their their crises amanda do you relate to the city slickers characters at all i honestly haven't seen city slickers in like 30 years quality flick okay and i think i'm sort of what what happens in it they uh are each each of the three guys are having kind of like a midlife crisis they're quality flick. Okay. And I think I'm sort of what happens in it? They are each of the three guys are having kind of like a midlife crisis. They're New Yorkers.

Mitch, who's played by Billy Crystal is like an advertising exec who's sort of lost his mojo. Daniel Stern is a guy who's Are you really like just going through the whole thing?

Yes. I'm wrapped. Go ahead. Keep going. A clerk at his grocery store that's owned by his wife's father. And then Bruno Kirby is just like a womanizer.

They decide to go away on this cattle drive, like a vacation cattle drive together. And when they get out there, they meet a man named Curly played by Jack Palance who teaches them what life is really about.

Okay. But spoiler alert, Curly dies. Oh no. and they have to bring the cattle home alone and they do it and they all come home better men and city slickers to the Legend of Curly's Gold They find out that they're just NPCs in a massive Red Dead Redemption trilogy and that I have been playing them for my

Silver Lake Bungalow You landed the plane there too Incredible act That's really good That's why you're in the top 1% CR. I mean, listen, that's a pro-improv argument right there. Yep, that's true. But that's also why you got to get back to blogging.

Sean. So that you can tap into screenwriting. You loved Her. I did, the film Her. Don't you think that this is like even better? Like just this is a real woman falling in love with a not real piece of digital code. They're not wearing their glasses right now.

Because they can see the real them. Is that what it is? That's not what the glasses do, guys. The glasses show you the things in the game that you can grab, like the advantages. Okay, so they're just having a nice time having ice cream? Yeah, they're saying ice cream does look really cream? Yeah, they're not on the job.

That ice cream does look good. Here's a cool story. Once I went to Ojai with my wife and Sean and his wife, and I watched Sean at like 3 p.m. walk into an ice cream parlor, an old school fountain shop, and order an electric green mint chocolate chip ice cream for himself. And as his wife

sat like six inches from his face, just inhaled this dish of ice cream. And she just kept saying I'd love a taste. This is a lie. What has got this to do with this? This is a pattern of behavior. Never forget.

The birthday dinner where you ate the ice cream in front of the five of us. With your elbows out like you were living in a pack of wolves. And no one got any dessert. Just you eating the ice cream. I don't know where this narrative came from, but I relate now to John Kerry. I have been an American hero. We're swift voting you. now to John Kerry. I have been an American hero for several decades serving audiences

around the world with ringer content and for some reason my character has been assassinated by my closest allies. How can this be? You do like the electric green mint chocolate chip though. No Eileen eats that. I don't eat that. What are you talking about? That's my flavor.

You fucking lied on this podcast about how I took ice cream from my wife, which definitely didn't happen. You don't like the electric green mint chocolate chip? It's perfectly fine. I would never order it. Would you seriously walk into an old timey soda shop and order strawberry ice cream? Of course. I honestly...

That is weird. I wish... Why? What's wrong with strawberry ice cream? Of course. I honestly... That is weird. I wish... Why? What's wrong with strawberry ice cream? There's so many other flavors. And then when you're there, you can get like a, you know, a sundae, a banana split, a milkshake. They're doing all of the varieties

and you're just getting like strawberry ice cream. I got to swing by my local Rite Aid and see what's going on with thrifty ice cream. Because I always am fascinated by going to Rite Aid for ice what's going on with thrifty ice cream because I always am fascinated by going to Rite Aid for ice cream. Oh yeah, with the stand in the drugstore? Yeah.

That sounds like a sick way to get COVID. That's like, you come out with COVID, you're like, I won. Spending two hours looking at ice cream flavors inside of Rite Aid. Well, I'd like to get past Chris's lie because that hurt. And circle back to this love story.

Here's some VR sex. Okay. So she's not writing the code, or is she? She's not writing the code, but what's happening in the story is that she and joe

curie developed a game together that was called i want to make sure i get this right i feel like it was like it's like real world you know it's something about a kind of alternative reality oh it's life itself is the game that they've created together. And the code from Life itself has been basically like ripped out by... Taika. The Taika character, who has basically borrowed it to build Free City, this big game,

which is a huge international sensation. But because this is a multiplayer game and many people can watch other people playing it, people are starting to observe what's happening here in this story. Free will is what's happening. Well, they're getting invested in Guy and in Molotov. This is what happens when you start

listening to the right podcasts. Start thinking for yourself. Is this movie about corporate espionage? Once again. A little bit. I'm in then. It is a little bit. Well, I think it's really aspiring to be about how corporations take advantage of the little guy and you told me there were no socialist undertones

though well the movie completely betrays those undertones like radically in the final act so i i would say it evaporates spoiler sorry i didn't mean to ruin the fact that the t-rex little handheld this is a little handheld from sean levy getting a little verite with it Sorry. I didn't mean to ruin the fact that the T-Rex from Jurassic Park shows up. This is a little handheld from Sean Levy, getting a little verite with it. Yeah. Well, you said before Mike Nichols, and now I feel like Cassavetes is the big influence here.

Sure, yeah. Fun fact, Ryan Reynolds is actually the son of John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow. He was born in the basement of a large apartment building in New York City, christened as Morningstar, the son. The son.

Son of Rosemary? Yeah. How wonderful. His eyes. What have you done to his eyes? We should do a Rosemary's Baby watch-along. That would be fun. That would be perfect while you're giving birth.

Yeah, I think that sounds like a great idea straight into alien the alien alien is the best movie ever made i know we're not talking about that movie right now but it's you like it's not too scary for you no it's definitely really scary but like my i am just like in about to have a chest burst scene like that's the only way that I can describe to you like physically what's happening right now. It is so weird. So very, very strong case across the board on alien is the best movie ever made.

Yeah. I think red notice is better, but that's okay. How do you, what do you guys think of Jodi Comer's American accent? It's pretty good because she's hiding something incredibly disruptive. The Scouse accent, you just basically have to

love Liverpool as much as I do to really go with it. Although I guess the Beatles had it too. But they lost it over time. Amanda, do you like Joe Keery? What's he saying about fucking patriarchy and gender yeah no i was reading

the i was reading the subtitle one of the bombshell characters figured out how to write um a memoir that's a searing manifesto of gender roles so i think what he's saying is that the characters are becoming alive is that right yeah one of the baristas figured out how to froth his own oat milk okay chris can you that? How's your latte making capability? I go a little bit of Oatly, no free ads, and then a giant cup of coffee. Yeah. Like on top.

So I don't really froth. I don't really mix it in. I just let it. You pulling espresso shots these days or no? No, I just have like a real simple Mr. Coffee setup. Please don't hit me with Chemex recommendations. I don't care. You guys just missed

Jodie Comer's character saying the first time I kiss a non-toxic guy in forever and he's not even real. And she did not realize that guy was not a real human. Is that because she was just so lost in the game? I think that's a factor. I think

Ryan Reynolds' stunning gaze is an issue. Ryan Reynolds approaches you, Amanda, today. And he's like, I want to take you away from all this. I'm going to leave Blake Lively. You and your unborn child.

Yeah. Your child may be raised by Sean and Chris. Zach Barron. No. Leave him in the dust. No. It's just me and you

and we'll drop the baby off in a basket. And all the money that I have from my weird cell network or whatever. He has to give all of his money to Blake Lively. So it's just Ryan Reynolds, but he's like, I'm starting over. He has his abs.

It was no even with the money, but it's a real no now. This isn't my type. There are some people who could roll up and I mean, that's not true. Zach, I'm very excited to be married to you and have a child with you. But I mean, Ben Affleck, it's a conversation.

There are some people who could roll up. See, our same question for you, Blake Lively. I haven't seen her in a while, but you know what? She made a very deep impression on me in the town. Yeah. You and Ryan Russillo. That's right. Should I send Russillo the zoom link to this pod right now?

To do a quick five on Blake Lively in the town? I don't think Ryan would enjoy this setup, honestly. I wonder if Russillo likes this movie. Probably not. I don't think he's seen it. I think he'd think it's pretty stupid incredible stuff from ryan reynolds right there comic gold so one thing i will say about this movie obviously i was very critical of it when we first talked

about it last year manda i saw it with a lot with like a bunch of families were in the theater and they had the time of their lives. This movie made them really happy. And while I don't have that sensation that Chris was mocking about having love for my daughter and wanting her to be happy and better understanding the world because of her, I think

it's a tough spot when someone's like, this movie made me happy and you shit on it. That being said, we're not stopping the pod and we're going for another hour. We always grapple with this. It's like the let people enjoy what they like thing versus. I think we could do better. Sometimes you can just tell that things are pretty evil, you know, even if you're having a good time. For example, second season of Emily in if you're having a good time for example

second season of emily in paris i had a lovely time that's a really evil product and what's evil about it because it's just all about marketing and branding and collabs the corporate like awfulness of it is the text not even the subtext and they're not mocking it and it makes me feel really slimy sort of like this movie it's tough i mean obviously one of the great things about sharing your opinion all day long is that people are encouraged this guy also learning about his identity right now npc yeah yeah see i feel like it's in play that you're an npc but you realize something about yourself and you took control like have you ever

considered that have you ever considered like the matrix like possibilities of your existence. In this analogy, are you Morpheus or are you Agent Smith? I'm the architect, obviously. I thought Bill would be the architect. Yeah. Bill is the Mervin gene. Chris, can you change your Twitter name to like a full sentence like people do? Chris Ryan is a red-pilled NPC.

Oh. It would be Chris Ryan 77 parentheses. Won't sleep till Trump's in jail. Hashtag. Are you going to be in J6? Am I going to be what? You're going to be featured in J6, the new film coming out.

Oh. He's writing the screenplay. The Adam McKay one? Is Adam McKay just going to be throwing cool one-liners to people about January 6th? I think that's in play. I don't know. What's the awful Viking guy's name?

From that horrible insurrection against the White House? The Shaman? Q Shaman? Oh yeah, Q Shaman. You feel like he's got some goodaman? Q Shaman? Oh, yeah, Q Shaman. You feel like he's got some good material for Q Shaman? Similar body type to the Northmen,

which you already had to prepare for. Skarsgård should definitely play Q Shaman. That's actually funny. It should be a mock sequel to the Northmen. The other thing with this movie is it's like

it's really trying to be sincere at times, which just bums me out. It's like if you're going to be this cynical inside a video game corporatist garbagey mock action comedy

have some balls, you know, stop trying to pull my heartstrings. This is like Dunkirk. Garbagey mock action comedy. Have some balls. Stop trying to pull my heartstrings. This is like Dunkirk. So the beach is the free... Remember when that dude just took his clothes off and walked into the ocean? And I was like, Christopher Nolan,

you are the fucking best. What city is this supposed to be modeled on? Feels like Miami. Los Angeles, right? Is it? It doesn't look very Miami. Los Angeles, right? Is it? It doesn't look very much like Los Angeles. My sense is, I mean, Miami was a very famous Grand Theft Auto city edition. Oh, okay.

And I feel like Skyscraper on the ocean line is, the ocean front is similar to Miami. So you can just reach through? Yeah, I mean, this is truly Truman Show-esque. This recalls the conclusion of Truman Show. And not in a good way.

It does not compare favorably. So the world here now we see is starting to come apart. And since he doesn't care anymore, it's like Batman

not, you know, not doing, like, not solving crimes. Yeah. This would be like if you hung up

podcasting for six months what would happen to the ringer podcast network tanks in the street wow wow geez it's tough this is very tough he's just being a truth teller mal would hate this scene. Anti-cat propaganda. We're going to have to take a bathroom break soon here and also make a little ad break. This doesn't look like Miami, though.

No, it doesn't. The whole thing is it's like... He just got hit by a lot of cars. This is kind of Chicago-esque, I would say. It's back loud for sure but it looks i don't know yeah i guess so i was just like is it supposed to be like chicago like what i love that you really want this to be a real thing i mean none of them like do they have deep dish like what are we talking about i would love some deep dish

uh do you ever get masa amanda yeah i do actually i really like masa it's so good but it's not always what zach wants so we kind of have to when it's like every third pizza night i can kind of go with masa you know it's kind of enough food for like three consecutive nights it's really really good leftover yeah um but then there's also i don't know how I became fixated on this. There's a Gold Belly offering that's like a Detroit style pizza that comes like half frozen. You know what I think it was is that Lance Bass of NSYNC recommended it in New York Magazine's The Strategist. And it's really just what I've been spending a lot of time thinking about. And I just have a renewed interest in Detroit and the Midwest as a result. That's why I'm like, is this Chicago?

Could I be nearby? Sometimes I think of you as like a somewhat more normal counterpart to me, but in fact, you're really weird. Like whatever you were just talking about,

that was just very strange. Lance Bass in The Strategist recommended the Detroit-style pizza from Goldman. Amanda, have you ever had DoDaddy? Have you ever had DoDaddy? No,

because you got to go to somebody's house, right? Yeah. Yeah. That was like a little more intimate that I was willing to get.

It's fire though. It did look really good. Here we see Lil Rel also coming to the realization that he is not a real person, that he doesn't have a real life.

He's informing Guy of that and they're coping. How are they realizing this? I think that Guy was made aware of it by Jodie Comer's character. And so he is having this nihilistic moment of realization. And it is spinning the world out, truly. Spreading in the source code. and it is spinning the world out, truly. Okay. Spreading in the source code,

because the original thing that Sean was referring to, the game life itself, is what this game is based on, and in life itself, they were supposed to create AI NPCs that could grow and change and become real people and learn things like real people do. That was the premise of the game. Okay, I see. So there's something in the code

that is now allowing all the NPCs to access this. Okay, that's great. Thank you, Bobby. And now Channing Tatum is back. It is nice that we're going to welcome Channing back to movies. He's not listed in the credits though. This was not known that he was in this, right?

I don't think the movie was promoted on his back, but I assume he received a fee of some kind. No, I didn't think he was doing it for free. Should we start a GoFundMe for Channing Tatum's performance in Free Guy? Amanda, do you think you will go see

Magic Mike on Broadway? I don't... Is Channing Tatum in it? I think that there's just going to be just a lot of beefcakes. I don't know think Channing Tatum's singular performance and then also the Matthew McConaughey of it all is if they were doing it, sure, I would try to go there. I'd be so embarrassed. Like, wouldn't you? I like it would be when I'd be embarrassed to go see Magic Mike live on Broadway. No, no, no, no. It's not like I would be embarrassed to say, oh, I went to see Magic Mike on Broadway with Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey, but I don't like audience participation.

I don't like interaction. I wouldn't be good as one of the women at that club. I'm only going if Taika and Lil Rel are in it. Amanda, CR takes a helicopter to the Spearmint Rhino every Friday night. You think he's going to be embarrassed to go to Magic Mike on Broadway? No chance.

No chance. Banana cream sandwiches, that sounds good. I think there's a strong chance I went to the bathroom during the scene when I saw it in movie theaters. No, not really, but I definitely don't remember any of this. For anyone yearning for more Channing Tatum content,

the Tea Time is doing a great Chanuary at the moment. He's in two movies coming up, right? Yeah, a different Channing Tatum film from his history. Channing Tatum's best performance is Haywire as the hungover guy who gets the shit kicked out of him in the first scene. I think it's safe to say his best performance is in Magic Mike. Yeah, it's definitely Pony in Magic Mike, but that's a great runner up. Actually, no, it's in freaking it's in uh 21 jump street oh he is very good in 21 jump street amazing in 21 and 22 jump street

do you guys remember the movie that he made with rachel mcadams called the vow where i'm trying to remember the plot here i think that she gets amnesia somehow they're like engaged but then she forgets that they're engaged and so he has to like win her love back every day but it's like so it's like 50 first dates i guess but sad is it a free guy prequel i've seen a couple of log lines for upcoming tv shows that involve either cops or spies with amnesia oh brother and in tribute do you think that i should be a podcaster with Amnesia for 2022?

And like every pod I do I should just be like I don't know who I am or how I got here or like what I like or why I'm being asked my opinions on winning time. You know? That bit definitely won't go cold in 20 minutes.

So unfortunately I don't know what Channing Tatum wanted in that. He's the quote unquote hero of the game, right? Yeah, it doesn't really matter. He's just another in-game avatar. His character's name is Revengeman Buttons, which is pretty funny. That is awesome. Which actually, that's a good Twitter handle for UCR. Revengeman Buttons.

Think about that. I think they're basically trying to figure out how to break the game, how to get out of the game, how to acquire like a true free will instead of this like... Aren't they worried about whether or not this guy could ever achieve corporeal form?

Well, I think what they want to do is actually access the source code so they can build a new world. Oh, so he's like safer world. He's like Christ.

It's so funny. We started at Antichrist and we have pivoted all the way to Christ. You guys also notice how the game obviously looks different and more like a video game

when you see people playing it and watching it. Yeah. what filmmaking yes now people people are thinking like what how to how to do this ethically this guy t-bagged video game characters oh these are some of the vloggers that you said cr there he is chris you got your you got in the film. There's me. There's my earrings. You should get gauged earrings, Sean. There's Amanda. Pokey Mane. Yes, that's me.

Yep. How'd you know? Pokey Mane. These are all real video game vloggers, by the way. That's me and my friends right there. Yeah.

Yeah, there's Bobby. So glad to be represented. Bobby and pals. No, no. Me and my friends don't think Ryan Reynolds is hot. so glad to be represented Bobby and pals nah nah me and my friends don't think Ryan Reynolds is hot this is Bobby

super serious question for you have you ever jerked into a video game character no but I have to

erotic Lara Croft fan fiction but it's usually like Lara Croft fan fiction, but it's usually like Lara Croft, like doing really like pedestrian domestic things, like making avocado toast. So messed up. You've written this fan fiction or acquired it?

I'm part of a community, you know, and there's give and take. I see. Here we see taika's character becoming deeply disturbed by losing control of his own game the the the overarching aspect of the story here is that they're in they're about to launch free city 2 the big sequel and so the free guy is kind of fucking with their ability to retain control of this very valuable ip self-aware and so causing an issue do we know what's gonna happen what's gonna be different in free city too is it just like a new city are they're making a sequel they're making a sequel yeah great question i'm not really sure i mean i think joe curie's character has been working on it i think tyke has been trying to add ideas into it. Here he's trying to kick up, and he can't do it.

What do you think of that duster, Chris? Would you wear that? When is there a time in LA when you can wear a duster? We had a week there. I was in the rains. I was in New York. Oh, here they're answering my reboot question. He's going to revert to being a non-player guy.

When they reset the game. Yeah. Oh, I see. Okay. So they don't want Guy to be free. They want money. But Steve from Stranger Things is saying that they've made a very important discovery. A scientific discovery. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Once again, this is a lot like Alien. Yeah. Oh, and Paul Reiser is just like this is a very important discovery for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

That's right. Exactly. Our weapons division. Should we take a break? Should we do some business of our own? Yeah, let's take a break. Let's take a break.

We'll read some ads just press pause here and pause with us as we uh run to the bathroom and and do a little business and we'll be right back with more of the startling cinematic vision you guys Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Welcome back to our Free Guy Watch Along.

We are at a moment right now at 1.0806. Utkarsh Ambedkar is sitting in front of his laptop preparing to reboot the game. There's a lot of anxiety in the middle of the movie. Let's restart our conversation. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Sean, are you happy that we chose this movie? Well, we haven't gotten to the

true anxiety making part yet in the film. So, Sean Fennessey in 2021, he's in the movie theory. He's watching Free Guy. And you're like, this is fine. Correct. Correct.

At this moment, I you're like this is fine correct okay correct i as i was at this moment i was like this is pretty drab cgi movie making but with the dispensation that it's a video game so it's gonna look fake like it doesn't have to look real it's not supposed to look real and so i was willing to give it a pass on that front I've gotten less and less interested in Ryan Reynolds as an actor over time and this is almost like a parody of what people think he is but I was willing to let it go love Jodie Comer I think she's the best part of this movie I was frustrated by Taika

who I generally support I would say the plot's narrative has many many logical holes. The game has just been rebooted here, where we're watching. Oh, so they had to reboot the whole game. That is costly.

Yeah. Correct. And now we're going to see across the globe, everybody playing Free City just like WTF, man. So much like that character, I've also begun to dug into that about red vines it's rather uncanny yeah so i am sitting in front of a screen watching a representation of real life that isn't real do you hate it because it's too close to home for you i'm playing with my friends i

mean yeah of course there's a lot of self-loathing here this is like all of my interests coming real and making fun of me in some respects and And so that's a, that's problematic. I mean, relative to, so we've done this twice before, right? We did the justice league film, the Snyder cut as our first watch along smash success, 700 hour pod. So then we did,

then we did tenant, which was, I think more challenging because it's harder to understand that movie. And we talked over a lot of it. And I was told after the fact that I got a lot of stuff wrong, which is understandable. Who told you that?

My wife. She listened really closely. She watched it. Chris Nolan? She was like, you fucked up. So this guy has been cucked by corporate America again. Basically, yeah. So Free Guy doesn't know who Jodie Comer is now. Basically, yeah.

So Free Guy is doesn't know who Jodie Comer is now. Oh, no. So he's back to who he was. So he needs something to jog his memory. So he got like Spider-Man.

Spider-Man? He's more like Men in Black. Like Neuralizer. Right. But you know, at the end when like for the good of the world Zendaya has to forget

who Spider-Man is. Yes. Good call. Well, I spoiled Spider-Man is. Oh, right. Yes. Good call. Wow, you spoiled Spider-Man on this pod? Shit. There's not a person left in the world who hasn't seen Spider-Man. Damn. Someone's gonna tweet at you. Someone's gonna tweet at your child. Amanda, have you been watching Euphoria? No.

It's too upsetting. I really kind of love it, even though I think it's deeply flawed and stupid. Okay. Well, I think that's good I'm a fan of Zendaya she's great Chris you like Euphoria? I do

yeah is it the behaviors that you identify with or no I just think Eric Dane is a really cool character in that show

you start ending every episode of the big picture by saying don't have a good day have a great day it's strange because the drugs that they do on Euphoria I can't tell what they are You start ending every episode of the big picture by saying, don't have a good day. Have a great day. It's strange because the drugs that they do on euphoria,

I can't tell what they are, even though they're just snorting powder. And, but it doesn't look like it's, it doesn't seem like there are people on cocaine. So they'll just like do a line and then they'll just be like, man, and like, I read an interview with Sam Levinson and he talked about this and he said,

it's all ivermectin man is just looking at her phone guys this is extremely dark so dark we don't need anything I know she wasn't paying attention because I made an actual legit funny joke and she just blanked me you made an ivermectin joke about the teens on Euphoria doing Invermectin.

Don't do the thing that I do to you, which is like I heard what you said and I repeat it back to you, but I didn't actually feel it. I know you're talking about how she had a nice kitchen and it was proto Nancy Meyers, right? Do you do that with Greenwald, Chris? No, I think the life just goes out of my eyes. And then I'm like, yeah, totally.

Speaking of which. But that's not because Andy's not ever revelatory on his podcasting. It's just because I do a lot of pods and I have a short attention span. I think it's safe to say that while Amanda and I really care for each other, we do get pretty bored of each other and annoyed and we just check out right well you just you literally went into like blah blah blah mode looked at your phone in the middle

of a watch along podcast so we're not even watching the movie I don't really they were rebooting I was waiting for the system to load again you know so now Keri and Comer are like how can we take the power how can we do the power? How can we do? How can we refree guy against the machine?

Yeah. Yes. Okay. Holy shit. The sun just came out super hardcore over my house. Yeah. Trying to shine a light on the truth of free guy. Would it be great if they just started playing Bulls on Parade in this movie? If they play Bulls on Parade as the last song of this movie, I'll walk

into the Pacific Ocean like Dunkirk oh it's Molotov girl she's here to free guy get it it's a double entendre all those things it's a thing is like this movie,

you know, we're hour plus in. It's kind of conventional. I think I was expecting something a little bit more radical. That was probably stupid of me to be expecting something a little more radical. But it like aspires to or spouses,

you know, some of Bobby's politics, maybe some of my politics too, but doesn't really care. What do you think me and Amanda's politics are? Green party. Hard green. You already talked libertarian, and you've been watching so much Yellowstone recently. That's a good

point. Yeah. He put the glasses back on, and the first thing he saw was Bank Heist, which I'm all in on. Let's rob that fucking bank. Speaking of my politics. I mean, the movie opens with a bank heist, and it's the most boring bank heist which i'm all in on let's let's rob that fucking bank speaking my politics i mean the movie opens with a bank heist and it's the most boring bank heist of all time oh true love it's always the kiss that does it man upbeat music playing this this is the end of the matrix though this is i mean like this isn't that much. Yeah, no, I know.

What are we seeing here? Rainbows, love, memories. Sean, this is cool that you like they use your SoundCloud to score this film. I wish you made inspirational trance music on the side. And you're lying about all the movies you watch. You're like, oh, last night I watched two and a half movies while I had a whiskey and thought about Alfred Hitchcock's middle period it's like in fact your name is Lucas Sorenstrom

and you made trance and when you say you go to Telluride you really go to Ibiza would that really be so bad why would I be ashamed i would respect that more i would love it are you kidding what i feel like every time you guys say wouldn't it be funny if you did blank it's just mocking my actual life it's like now your real life which sucks ass what if you actually were doing this other thing it could be cool but you don't because you suck i just genuinely think it would be funny if you went to a this other thing? It could be cool, but you don't because you suck. This isn't really a bad beat. I just genuinely think it would be funny if you went to Ibiza and said, I'll tell you, right?

Imagine if I didn't tell Eileen either. I was like, okay, babe, I'm going to Colorado. See you in a few days. Just partying from noon to midnight. Yeah, I don't know so this guy is doing all this like rebellious shit from within the confines of the office that Tycho owns

that's correct oh that's very upsetting free guy now addressing Millie through the game oh he looks creepy so free guide now is is radicalizing people this is awesome these are all the npcs in the game oh he's drawing them all together

to create an army a revolution this is it bobby bobby you think this is cool are you kidding me? This is what I'm doing after this. You see yourself as an NPC. I see you as a fully fleshed out character. That's why I'm Reynolds. This is what Bobby looked like after the Nevada primary, after the caucus.

He was like, this is it. We're going. I had a gigantic Greek food dinner that night it's delicious it's the last good day of my life there's Bob there he is no that's Craig Horldeck Chris do you feel like you're a pawn in the game

no I see the whole chessboard you do chris is clearly taika like clearly taika amanda d like honestly how when you assess your standing in our society oh my god are you like i am the author of my own fate i have a sense of you know authority in the world i can i can do what i want to do and i'm not did do you talk about this like are you worried about you that you live in the desert of the real no i like do i spend a lot of time being like is is this a simulation you know can i break free no i i really don't.

I'm sorry. And I get kind of bored by people who do. What about like the strictures that big tech have imposed upon you? Does that concern you? I mean, I try not to participate except for when we do a live podcast about- Are you on TikTok?

No, I'm not. I don't like TikTok. Thanks so much for asking. I just sort of think like editorially and like just what they're selling. I don't, I'm not really taken by a lot of TikTok. Like every once in a while, there's like a funny animal. I was just going to say, do you know what is absolutely like the best content out there is the cats of TikTok?

Yeah. No, there are obviously good applications. I've also learned some, you know, great like cooking tricks or whatever, but sort of the standard TikTok where someone is doing a meme being like TFW, you know, I missed like my class or whatever to whatever weird. And it's, it's not what I want. I'm not, I just just I just don't enjoy it. And Instagram is trying to have more TikTok on Instagram. And I hate that as well. Just let me be old and stare at still images in peace.

You know. One thing that I've been doing lately, really, my favorite thing to do is to find a TikTok controversy of some kind and then send Chris the TikToks and say, when will you publicly address this? Invariably, he backs out yeah every time yes this is just westworld like this is straight up exactly the plot of westworld didn't really like westworld that's a great comp it is very much out of westworld i mean the matrix

westworld sentience being like i think like the robots are gonna rise up against us? I'm not too worried about that. One to ten, where's your concern? I'm worried about societal collapse, but I'm not worried about the robots.

Okay. You want to expand on that? I just think we're testing some pressure points, you know? Okay. I just got to interrupt for a second and just stress about one thing in the movie, okay? we're we're like we're testing some pressure points you know okay and i just gotta interrupt for a second and just one stress about one thing in the movie okay i just like don't want a movie that just keeps showing me youtube yeah like this is a fucking movie like make it make it take advantage of the fact that you have the entire cinematic digital real everything palette to put on screen in your movie. Not what's on my computer

with one tap. My YouTube page right now, the recommended videos would be this sick spice mix for popcorn, trick to chicken breasts in a cast iron,

and turnstile live in Philadelphia 2021. Maybe I just don't like Taika because he's meant to be unlikable and he's succeeding. Chris, you were asking who wrote this movie.

It's Matt Lieberman who's a screenwriter who primarily has written animated kids films. The Christmas Chronicles, The Addams Family, films like that. Scoob and then zach penn who is an ip master that's true has multiple x-men credits to his name he wrote the story for the incredible hulk he had the story for the avengers he wrote

the screenplay for ready Player One. He is actually the guy, interestingly enough, who was going to be the writer of The Matrix 4 had the Wachowskis turned down the opportunity to make the movie. And you would have been directing. That's right.

I also would have been playing Morpheus in that version. Dude, Bobby, there's a general strike in the free city. I'm sharpening my pitchfork right now. I'm ready to give assistance. What will you do when the revolution comes, Amanda? Where will you hide? Well, we've talked about this, right?

Any breakdown of society involves me at some point not having access to contact lenses or glasses and vision. And then I'm kind of the first to go. But this is not a zombie takeover. This is the global socialist revolution. Okay. With whom will you side? You'll get your glasses. You just won't be able to choose the frames or whatever.

You know what I mean? But they'll be free. They'll be free. They'll be free. They'll be free. I mean, honestly, that I'm on their side, that would be great. Because as a person who has terrible vision, I really pay a premium. Because the lenses are just like two giants.

So they have to spend extra money on the technology. I had to go get some new glasses last week. Because know i'm gonna need them at three in the morning it was not cheap guys are you did you get like james worthy x-ray like x-specs kind of rec specs no i just got normal glasses but um i paid a lot of money for them. And Zach was with me who has no vision problems. And he was like, wow, that's expensive. Yeah. Thanks so much. CR, when the revolution comes,

will you abdicate like Czar Nicholas II and then die quietly a year later? Oh, no, I'm being, I'm the kind of guy who immediately. Die quietly? Is that how we're describing what happened? That's what happened to Nicholas II, yeah. I would like to immediately... I'm currently listening

to a 400-part podcast about the Russian Revolution, so thank you for spoiling that for me. Are you listening? Are you really? I actually am, yeah. Did you think Nicholas

was still alive, Bob? You're still looking for Anastasia? Yeah. What the fuck is happening in this movie right now? 100 years ago, we got the Russian Revolution. A century later, we get Free Guy.

This is the thing. This is the deal. I noticed that when it's time to liberate the world, they're driving an American car. Just a thing I noticed. Intriguing. What are they trying to say? That's actually what this film is is missing is a Tesla I gotta

get back in American cars it's my it's my fuck up what you've been buying by World War two death machine I've been collecting Suzuki's but only the ones that were recalled for flipping over too easy. And then I tried taking turns really fast. Because I think that would be,

that would be like one of the funniest things is if you and Amanda and Bobby had to have a memorial podcast for me because I flipped a Suzuki going 45. Chris, I promise you if you die, I will not address it on a podcast. It's how we would want it done.

Maybe you should do it in a blog. It's another movie draft. Van's here as always. Okay, honest question if I died mid pod should we publish the pod oh that's a very good ethical question I think it's really your last wishes

so like if you if you want to say yeah you need to write that in or just write it in somewhere we can get Bobby to go get that notarized right now and that's your that's your

end of life care an mp3 file just take that he died doing what he loves getting roasted by his friends on a frivolous movie i think i'd have to run that one all the way up the chain all the way to stockholm can i like be really can i be really honest about one of my fears for this podcast the specific episode or the no literally this specific episode how far how much longer do we have in the movie? 15 minutes, maybe. Okay.

So I think we're probably in the clear, but there's a tiny chance that I go into labor during this episode, and that's unacceptable. If my child decides to arrive during a viewing of Free Guy, I have to send him back. I was pretty nervous. To where? I mean, I don't know.

But imagine if that were actually the story. That would be the story, right? have to send him back uh i was like pretty nervous to where so i mean i don't know but like can you like imagine the 20th century russia story that would be the story right like oh yeah i was doing a like live podcast about free guy not only would we have to go to the hospital it would be memorialized for all of eternity i know i like i was very nervous that that was gonna happen but like what do you think is gonna be happening're not going to be writing one of the great works of fiction when the child is coming into the world. Pretty much anything would be better. You would rather be watching the Australian Open.

Yeah. Or some funny anecdote rather than like, yeah, I was watching Free Guy with my chucklehead podcast friends. If you don't think that's the best possible story, you don't understand stories. Also, don't box us in as podcast friends that's right god damn it it's like if we were honestly if we were doing another episode of this show it would be okay but like free guy i don't know i think we have 10 more chances then i thought well i really thought i could have potentially gotten you with the uh

with the auction pod yeah i was really yeah you were close auction pod. I was tempting the fates there. I was tempting the fates. We were on serious call to midwife duty. He was really mad. There was definitely a lot of action in there that I think was responding to my energy. Sean, do you remember what's happening here? He's wearing regular glasses. All these people

are getting turned off. He's preparing to leave, I think, is the idea. He's preparing to exit the game and is the idea. He's preparing to exit the game and exit the strictures of this world to find a new world. They've built this bridge to the new world.

Which is a new video game. Which I believe is ostensibly the bones of the game that they had created together, the Comer character. A lot of the times when guys get fired and they're carrying their stuff out

in a box, they always are still online doing stuff. Chris, have you ever been fired in that fashion? Not in that fashion. I've lost jobs in the past, but I've never liked that. I witnessed something in a magazine in 2006. It was absolutely brutal.

Did somebody try to Jerry Maguire it? No, somebody, we used to go to Chun-Li Palace for lunch when I worked at a magazine and we'd get Chinese food and soupy dumplings in the middle of the day. And these were back in the magazine days. Yeah, days for sure. And

one of the guys that we were dining with, we came back to the office and there was a giant lock on his computer screen. And that meant that he was going to be let go. And that was understood as the international symbol of you've been laid off. And he was the only person. That's so brutal. And so he had to pack all his shit up, couldn't take anything off his computer, nothing.

And got fired. Oh no, I just looked at Ryan Reynolds. Why is he? This is not ryan reynolds this is a figure that has been created to battle ryan reynolds to disallow him from leaving the game and disrupting the future of free city 2 he's fighting 2.0 version of himself that was going to be put in the sequel game amanda do you think that this version of ryan reynolds is hot no i do not like but like what's gonna happen if ryan reynolds leaves the game like what's the

what's the damage that's what for you guys part two is about okay great so chris have you ever made physical contact with a man with a physique like this i haven't i haven't no you've never touched one pectoral do you think i do think it would be really funny if i got into bodybuilding though dude that's i will produce that pod yeah bulking with cr bobby is the ep oh God. He just got pile-drived. All these moves Sean used to pull on his younger brother. It's facts only. These are the facts. Can you remember what... Can we say your brother's name?

Sure, of course. Do you remember what Kyle... It's Free Guy. What Kyle would do to invoke your wrath when you were children? Honestly, nothing. Everything I did to him was my fault. It was my spite and weirdness and anxiety and frustration.

My brother is this absolute sweetheart. He's one of the best people I've ever met. And then you would just DDT him? Honestly, yes. 100%. I have not a bad word to say about Kyle. He's only been a great person. Kyle's the best.

I wonder if Kyle will get an hour and 45 minutes and do a Free Guy podcast. He actually is a faithful listener of this show and a huge CR fan, as we all are. But he will not listen to this episode. Oh, shit. So here comes the stuff, right? Here comes all the IP.

Oh, no. You can literally hear the Captain America theme. Oh, no. Chris Evans. That's Chris Evans. Hulk arm. That's a Hulk fist. Okay.

Now... What? I have a question. This doesn't even make sense. Chris Evans. That's Chris Evans. Hulk arm. That's a Hulk fist. Okay. Now. What? I have a question. This doesn't even make sense. Yes, this was my reaction. Why was Chris Evans in this for a second? Did Kevin Feige sign off on this? Oh, 100%.

You think he thinks this is cool? I think what was... Does this guy have a fucking lightsaber? Yes, he has a lightsaber. Oh my God. John Williams does not deserve this. So this obviously sucks. This definitively sucks.

They're literally playing the theme song from Star Wars. Now, it's been explained to me that in games like this, you actually can access tools from other IP. This is like a Fortnite thing. It's very much Fortnite. And that that's the rationale

for why they're able to introduce Captain America's shield, the Hulk's fist, a lightsaber, etc. Which I guess is okay if we were to believe that this game was ever Fortnite, which it was never really communicated that it was a Fortnite-esque game. I love it when everybody gathers in Times Square to watch something that they would never gather in Times Square to watch. Yeah. Those glasses are obviously meaningful. Amanda, do you think if the Martian really happened

in real life, you would gather in Times Square to see if he got back? I think maybe I would have if I still lived in New York. You wouldn't fly to New York to go to Times Square to watch it? No, I think that boarding, again, a second location would be too much of an ask. But oh, he

radicalized this dude. Oh, they put the glasses on this guy. Send him one Reddit link. Was it from CR heads? No way, brother. But in general, I'd love to watch a space. This is our slash yellow jackets.

I mean, so Amanda, you may recall this when I came back. Yeah. You were so angry about this. Yeah. Do you, does it make more sense now that obviously the,

the story of this, this film is that these two developers created this game that was meant to be a kind of non-addictive but immersive sim ai sim experience that was completely original and reflected aspects of real life but also had a video game experience and it was acquired and manipulated and bastardized by this big corporation that made it into a violent video game and that these two lead characters, Jodie Comer and Joe Keery, are fighting on behalf of seizing back the freedom and beauty of their original creation and taking it out of corporate hands.

And then they're using Captain America's shield and the lightsaber. And so when this all happened in the movie theater, people were really psyched. They were fucking crying. They were like, this is the best thing ever. This is the best thing that's ever happened to me is this guy has a lightsaber.

And I was like, we're dead inside. We are all dead. I'm just also, even if you're willing to go along with all of the corporate grossness,

aren't people who are this excited about a, either Captain America shields or lightsabers supposed to care about how it's used universes yeah and wouldn't the fact that they're all in together be disrespectful to the various source materials

yeah it's like it's a fair point we had we like they they really really debate hotly like who should be able to hold the shield right so like then ryan reynolds is just like let me grip this in my movie about a video game character yeah that's one part of it I mean I think it's easy to say like you guys like the Spider-Man movie you're hypocrites but the difference is is like I thought the Spider-Man movie was clever this movie is not clever and it's not emotionally affecting and it's cheap and the other thing is that like it's it's believed though I guess not not officially confirmed that they shot this whole movie and then they tested it and it didn't work as well and they shot this whole movie and then they tested it

and it didn't work as well and they got bought by Disney and they were like you know what this needs actually now that you're owned by Disney is a lightsaber and a shield and a bunch of stuff we can put in the movie now because of who's selling the movie and that sucks that's fucking lame that is lame I thought that was pretty lame it also just didn't really make sense like why does he suddenly have a lightsaber and now they're running oh this is the bridge so the imagination of the world is falling apart a little inception here yeah i'm sure that's what they were watching so we got inception in dunkirk here in the conclusion of this film i'm sure christopher nolan's very proud i'm sure christopher nolan saw this in the theater and was like the crisp images and the

sense of community what do you guys think of um this film appearing on two different streaming services that's pretty weird what's up with that i had something about the agreements in 2022 now that the fox films which were slated for hbo max but are also owned by disney they kind of double brokered wow because we were kind of like oh maybe we should we should do House of Gucci or maybe we should, like, what could we do as a watch-along? And it's sort of hard to sort of determine

what's showing up where, when. It's honestly one of the reasons why this was the best candidate is because it was going to be a lot easier for people to watch along with us. Yes.

I don't want to make people rent a movie to do this. That doesn't seem, I don't want people to spend money. Oh, no, here's fantasy again. for their subscriptions. But a slow version

so taika much like the global elite would rather see the entire world burn than let anybody get freedom that's right that's right tell us more s putin this is this this is tough what's at the end of the bridge does he just have to take a leap of faith like we all do to be the main character in our own lives

wow what ready player two Amanda and baby so he reached the end of the bridge, which is now vanished, and Guy is gone. I took a leap and... Look at that.

They're all... It's like the Hollywood's idea of what people in Brazil do, where it's just like, we just wear Brazil's soccer shirts and sit around watching fucking small TVs. Yeah. Look.

Who's doing this cover of fantasy this is this is blasphemous to mariah oh and there's a new island honestly if lucy dacus got some free guy money that's that's great that would be funny i wouldn't put it past phoebe ridgers to do

that she might do it. Is this Avatar 2 now? Kind of, yeah. I'm finally getting ready if it just started. Now this guy's alone on an island. Yeah. Yeah. Which is where we all really want to be.

Or is he alone? We're about to find out. So we're zooming out. Is this Chris Evans' phone still? No. Chris Evans is not back. Joe Keery's fired up. What was I supposed to understand that Chris Evans' phone still? No. Chris Evans is not back. Joe Keery's fired up. What was I supposed to understand that Chris Evans was doing?

He was just watching from afar. Okay. He was watching what was transpiring in the game in a coffee shop. Was he watching as Chris Evans? Was he watching as Steve Rogers? Was he watching as Captain America? What a great question for Free Guy 2. I believe he's hung up his Captain America gear. Yeah, he has to be Buzz Lightyear,

but the man that the cartoon and the toy was based on? Yes, not the toy, but the man, Buzz. We all understood that Buzz Lightyear was a man. So it's nice to have some confirmation on that. So isn't this equally megalomaniacal on the part of the jody comber part yes chris i would agree with you my creation is the only creation that matters and i will profit off of it how in whatever way i choose only i can fix it what we have here is the fountainhead this is my version of free will and capital

who's more right a woman seeking a non-toxic man who has ip or a guy who wants to wear a duster and make cake two of our great young talents in this business that's right this is what we have reduced Comer and Tyka to what's Comer up to these days like on a personal level

how's she doing that's a pretty creepy question no I just mean like is she seeing someone like what's the deal she's collecting Instagram likes from current and former

ringer employees yeah oh yeah big hype out there for her here's your gal from GMA oh so they ruined free city too because everyone wants to be on the island with with with

guy who is free that is correct hmm okay I don't really know what that would happen but do you believe that this is what Jodie Comer's character and Joe Curie's character are meant for one another oh that would be nice. We've reached the phase of the podcast where we don't speak as much.

I'm just trying to understand what's happening. I like Joe Curie's glasses. So they've made their indie games. Yeah, that's definitely who they're going for I think that Ryan Reynolds' first directorial debut

will be a Malcolm X film with Joe Currie in the lead role by any means necessary you didn't make enough Ryan Reynolds jokes in this podcast

Chris well I started off calling him the Antichrist so it's like I was sort of you know I was boxed in. Chris, did you watch Red Notice?

No. No, I wanted to see Free Guy first. Now that you've seen it, will you start Red Notice immediately? Well, so this is interesting that like, you know, we've complained in the past that... Oh shit, there are dinosaurs in their world? That's pretty, that's a good idea. Honestly, I'm just going to tell you that's like the one good idea I've seen so far.

Hard against that. We're not supposed to occupy the same physical space as dinosaurs. There's an entire other franchise that warns us against this. Listen, they have the friendly dinosaurs and it's very oh my god, it's very verdant in

this world which i like a lot all his pals are there i don't know amanda are you okay i'm just kind of like you made me watch two hours of video game content at some point they put dinosaurs in the video game and i was like oh interesting okay um so sean levy and and um ryan reynolds are reuniting this year in a feature film for netflix that film is called the adam project are you guys familiar with this is it about the first man ever like adam and eve a man travels back in time to get help from his younger self to confront their late father oh no the stars of this film are ryan reynolds jennifer garner zoe saldana mark ruffalo and katherine keener oh no is it like a crypto family movie like like is it like a weird like kind of like hallmark movie but made with like hollywood blockbuster the producers of this film

include skydance media oh boy only the best cr only. Only the best. My guy Dave. That's for you, bud. That's for you, buddy. I think I watched a lot of Jennifer Garner like quarantine content when she was, you know, because I believe it was filmed in Vancouver

and she spent two weeks like in the hotel and choir making Instagram videos before making this movie. Yeah. I was just thinking about

Jennifer Garner because I was reading about Lena Dunham's comeback. Right. Yeah. Camp was just thinking about Jennifer Garner because I was reading about Lena Dunham's comeback. Right, yeah. I remember camping. That was a thing that happened that I watched 10 minutes of.

talking over the emotional climax of this film. Guy has just revealed that he is a love letter to Millie and that he is in love with her because someone wrote him. Oh my God.

Was it Joe Keery? Is this Keery? Of course it was Keery. Wow. God. Boom my God. Is this Kiri? Of course it was Kiri. Wow. Boom. I don't know. Isn't this kind of gaslighting her though? Yeah.

This is sort of like, it's a little bit like, Isn't this kind of weird? It's kind of like the ending of You've Got Mail where, you know, it's like if you think about it for half a second, things were done wrong. This is not ethics in gaming. Also, doesn't Joe Kiri look like he might murder you at any second?

I mean, that's a little bit the appeal, so I'm not as concerned as it is. Can you talk about that a little bit, Amanda? You know, he's charming in a weird way. Oh, good. Okay, so they're going to find each other. Oh, this is like

the end of licorice pizza. Oh, boy. Wow. You know what? You're right. You literally are right. I don't think dudes wear those sneakers.

Do they? Has my estimation of licorice pizza fallen? Because it's basically a free guy rip off? Or is my estimation of free guy rising? Because of the way that they're concluding

their film. I gotta be consistent. If this was S.D. Heim, is this movie better? She is kind of doing an Sd heim thing here so we get a hit by a car right yep that was another sean fennessey original composition at the end of that film there yeah love my soft trance chris have have you ever kissed a woman in the middle of traffic like that? No, I don't think so, actually. Bobby, have you?

Have you kissed your girlfriend in the middle of traffic? I'm pretty stressed when I'm crossing the street, so no. Are you? I mean, if I'm standing in the middle of the street. When you go to New York, man,

you know you just gotta walk out of traffic, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. But let me give you a tip because Zach just always walks into traffic and then leaves me on the sidewalk. And then I got to do it by myself. And then we have to have a fight when we make it to the other side because it's like you

left me. So you got to make sure that... You left me on the other side of 6th Avenue. Yeah. It's like you didn't check back to see whether I was ready to go with you. We managed it okay for the three years that we were there.

Three and a half years. Okay. All right. We're both pretty fast walkers. Well. Where are they now? Is this the new world? This is the cool,

this is the utopian vision of life itself or whatever it's called. Life itself. They're in life itself. Lil Rel made it. I can't believe that you guys

wouldn't want friendly dinosaurs hanging around. Seems like an unnecessary gamble. So Amanda, now that you've seen this movie, will you be tuning in to Pokimane

or Ninja's streams? I have to say, like I think I know what happened in this movie I know exactly what happened in this movie I guess I do know

exactly what happened in this movie I honestly almost have like a weird appreciation for like the storytelling because I didn't have to pay attention to any

of the dialogue and I think I knew what happened in every scene that's true I feel like you both predicted it frequently we did have Sean to answer some questions

about like glasses and stuff. I think for the most part, you guys were on it though. This song is really a jam though. So what really happens is that they were placated by bourgeois society. Yeah. And then they go to Elysium at the end.

And dinosaurs. Yep. How much do you think Mariah Carey got for this? Quite a large sum of money. I would say north of $1 million. Ryan Reynolds really flexing the Producers Guild title there. Also produced by Greg Berlanti

and Sarah Schechter, two of the most powerful producers in television. Okay. You know who made a lot of money on this movie? Ryan Reynolds. Everybody involved. Yeah. okay you know who made a lot of money on this movie brian reynolds everybody involved everyone who was involved did very well and we're look at us yeah we're looking at each other on screens stuck in our homes in year three of a global pandemic chuckling away

thinking we got our leg up on the world and guess what we don't know what we did though it's like we we provided fellowship to each other to each other what about to the listeners yeah I think so I think it's like it's just like let's spend some time together how many people do you think are listening right now at this point he'll check he'll look at the stats and he'll okay and you can

we can find out minute by minute and then I won't be on the pot anymore yeah Chris can you do that floss dance that Channing Tatum was just doing are you capable of doing that you've never tried to floss i can floss yeah you can let's see right now no but i like i will tell you that the probably the most absurd thing you've ever seen is a pregnant woman trying to do the floss yeah i feel like that could induce labor that's that's another tick-tock hashtag like pregnant ladies flossing you know I

don't look did we do the Justice League pod before after we recorded a commentary track for criterion I don't remember I feel like it was after and I love the fact that the movies are

just getting worse and worse and worse so do you think we need to do a really good one next well the challenge of that is and are just getting worse and worse and worse. So do you think we need to do a really good one next? Well, the challenge of that is, and I'm so earnest and we're like,

Ooh, yeah, but there's, you could say some, you could share some interesting information or insights. There's no downside to doing that in this format. It doesn't have to just be Chris reciting the Wikipedia from city slickers. I didn't, that was off the top of my head.

That was really good. It was very vivid. It was very good. Um, I don'tickers. I didn't. That was off the top of my head. That was really good. It was very vivid. It was very good. I don't know. I mean, I like doing movies that we wouldn't necessarily deem like historically rewatchable. You know, they have to have

like a different kind of place in the culture. That doesn't mean they have to be bad, but they have to occupy a different tone and level of respectability. So, I don't know. What would you want to do as these credits roll? Clockwork Orange, Chris?

I was going to say, should we do something truly disturbing? Would that be really on brand? While Amanda's away, you and I did a rewatch of something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm just like, brand if while Amanda's away you and I did like a rewatch of like something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and we're just like what the fuck is wrong with us? Do you want

to do that? I think it would actually be cool to do a horror movie because there's lots of downtime in horror movies. We can look for one. I mean if I'm being totally honest I would prefer to do a horror movie with Amanda so I could get Amanda's reactions. That's mean, but okay. I want to share my screen so that we can take a photograph of us at this extraordinary moment. How do you guys feel about that?

Hold on. Sitting up is hard, but I got to sit up a little. Hold on. Hold on one second it's just there's no way to be comfortable okay hold on how do i get a look at you guys now I can take this picture with can you do it can you see everything can you see the title screen as well as

as well as Amanda are you ready I think this is as good as I'm going to do okay did you get a good one there CR yeah I'll just drop it in the slack it's very exciting um should I should I wrap up this conversation yeah I guess so let's wrap it up this has been this has been a watch along podcast to free guy We haven't decided what we're watching along next. Amanda will be watching...

Oh, I forgot to record. Literally had me for a second. Amanda, your only movie you'll be watching is A Baby Monitor, which is sick for you. That's true. Chris and I will be figuring out what to do next. Did you guys learn a lot about the nature of reality and the metaverse i think i wanted to be more offended

more put off more like what's wrong with everybody and i was kind of like maybe this is just the same bad movie that comes out every year and we just chose to be upset about this one if i'd had to watch it by myself i would have been really mad. You never would have gotten 35 minutes into it. Yeah, exactly. Would have turned it off. Was that just the testimony to your love

for the rest of us on this podcast? Sure, yeah. Or at least you can be funny when talking about seasuckers. One day I'm going to flip a Suzuki

and you're just going to be like the last thing I said to Chris. I know, that's really sad. He's not my real friend. He's my chucklehead podcaster. I think honestly, if there was anybody on this podcast

who really felt seen by Free Guy, it was Bobby. That's right. Yeah, that's so beautiful, Bobby. Congratulations, comrade, but crushed at the end. You know, we failed.

We failed. We always win. You had to go kissing the ring of Bob Iger to save your body no this was JPEG's reign that's true this is pure JPEG JPEG rises

JPEG rises we fall here on the big picture we're falling once again I don't know what we're going to be doing on the next episode of this show because frankly we're recording from the future but thank you of course to Bobby Wagner for his work on this episode and I must say that enduring these episodes for him is particularly But thank you, of course, to Bobby Wagner for his work on this episode. And I must say that enduring these episodes for him

is particularly difficult. Thank you to Amanda and her unborn child. And I'm grateful for his contributions to this podcast. Thank you to Chris Ryan. Yeah, thanks, man.

Truly one of the greatest bloggers I've ever known. I hope I did okay. I hope I brought enough expertise and conviviality and just a sense of like we're on this adventure together I mean I hope I didn't abandon you just circling back you said you

did jerk it to video game characters I just want to get a final confirm on that no you didn't okay good thanks for clearing that up thank you everyone for listening to the show which is of course very strange we really appreciate you and we'll see you in the next one.