The Flop House - Ep. #334 - The New Mutants, with Arnie Niekamp

Episode Date: January 30, 2021

Yeah, but what if the mutants... were NEW? Hello from the Magic Tavern's Arnie Niekamp joins the Peaches to talk about the long-anticipated, long-troubled, X-Men universe teen horror movie, The New Mutants!PLEASE NOTE! The audio at the beginning of the episode is pretty bad, due to technical problems that had our guest's audio dropping out occasionally, but it DOES clear up fairly quickly, so please bear with us.Also, we’re doing a new Flop House VIRTUAL LIVE SHOW! On Saturday, February 6th, at 9 pm Eastern, we’ll be talking about TEEN WOLF, America’s top basketball movie! We’ll also be doing presentations, Q&A, and a few NEW SURPRISES! Worried that you CAN’T WATCH LIVE? Worry not! Ticket holders have a week to watch! Just $10 for a ticket! Buy them HERE!Wikipedia entry for The New MutantsMovies recommended in this episode:Psycho GoremanOne Night in MiamiThe QueenThe January Man, first five minutes of

Hi everybody, my name is LA Kale and the Flophouse podcast on the Max Fun Network. I just want to let you know that we had kind of a bad internet connection at the very beginning of the recording of this episode. And it will improve, so please bear with it. Thanks to the magic of futuristic 21st century technology and the amazing skills of our editor Jordan Cowling, it will improve. So please bear with us and you'll know when you get to the point where it's fixed because it sounds better. Thank you very much. Enjoy the show! On this episode we discuss the new Mutants! They still got that new mutant smell. Love it. Hey everyone, welcome to the Flap House, I'm Dan McCoy. Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington.

I'm Elliot Kaelin. And joining us, we have a special guest this time, Game Director, designer for Jackbox Games and host of the Hit Podcast Hello from the Magic Tavern. It's Arnie Neekamp, not a Camp Neekamp. It's Arnie Neekamp Now I can't knee camp. It's Arnie knee camp. That's all right. Everyone gets it wrong. It's one of those names where you either get it wrong or you don't have any certainty that you got it right. I covered my bases. We've got Arnie Mike. I'm very excited about it. It's a kind of a good word. It's where parents send their knees during the summer. Yeah. Now let's cut that off at the knees. That little bit. I'm sure it was

going to develop into something great. I just want to remind listeners of, we'll go on that we do have a live show coming up Saturday, February 6th at 9 PM Eastern 6 PM Pacific. We're going to be talking about the movie teen wolf, one of the most requested movies for us to talk about. Again, that Saturday, February 6th, 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific, and for tickets, just go to www.thoflophouse.simpletix.com. I'll be telling you more about the show later in this show. Let's get back to this hilarious kneecamp bit. So yeah, what kind of activities they have for knees and knee camp?

I wanted to keep it short, because it's perilously close to just making fun of someone's name, which I don't want to do. But I will say. Wait, wait, when did you start not wanting to do that i don't i mean i i do a lot of uh... name puns i wouldn't call them like making fun of but i feel like if we went further down this road it might turn into that perhaps you don't remember the old etiquette rule saying upon pun is still making fun. As a kid, definitely people always said knee camp. Do you can't be? And I'm realizing as an adult, I think the reason people often think my name is ni camp is they're like, well, I can't,

well, I can't be knee camp, right? That would be absurd. What kind of a name would that be? As if Nigh Camp is any less of a, like, there's some kind of abstract value to Nigh Camp, and that is greater than knee camp. Like. Nigh Camp sounds like words? Well, impossible.

Yeah. And I mean, like, do you think it's that people would think like, no adult would ruin their child's life by naming them Arni, knee camp? Oh wow. That's very, that's the thing. Somehow I didn't even, like I think I didn't discover how dumb that was for a lot of my life because I, as a child I was focused on how close to Ernie it was.

I really like latched onto that. And everyone's called to Ernie it was. I really latched onto that. And then it was called the Ernie. And then there was a long period of my life where everyone would assume it was every version close to Ernie. Like there are a lot of not common, but just subtly more common names than Ernie. And Ernie. And yeah.

So then I realized, Ernie knee camp is horrible to say. No, why don't you just run them together and be Arnie camp? Just be like a one word like a Madonna or a share or a Prometheus, you know, just a one word name, you know, their icons icons. Arnie, I want to stop talking about your name and actually start talking about your work. How does it mean for me if he has only had like the one hit? No, I don't think it's fair to put it in the same.

Fire is a big hit still and he could have had it's not fair to judge him by against the records of recording artists who are not chained to a rock so that a Vulture can rip their liver out every day. It's true. It's going to impede your work. But yeah, let's talk about your work, Arnie. I just wanted to ask Arnie How does it feel to know

the the light and joy and And saving that has come into people's lives through jackbox games during this pandemic because I know that I certainly Have played more of them during this time and dance a huge gamer now I am. I've become a gamer except for the ones you like. Dan said he heard about this game or gate and he wanted to go through. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no good to be like, yeah, now people have to play my games and they love them. Yeah, it does. I've been working at Jackbox for like 15 years now and they were definitely watches where it not a given that it would stay. And you know, like, and we've sort of made seven, I guess, party packs now, 30 some games. And it's kind of incredible. It's sort of made seven, I guess, party packs now, 30-some games. And it's kind of incredible. It's sort of slowly started at more and more people kind of aware of it over the last couple of years. And then, yeah, it kind of exploded during a pandemic.

Now, with that much time at Jackbox, do you think it's safe to say that you do know Jack? at Jackbox. Do you think it's safe to say that you do know Jack? Jack. Stuart. And now watching Stuart cross that off from his pre-written jokes list. Oh, so yeah, Jack, you're saying Jack is kind of unknowable. Muscles Stuart's cat just came and started like ramming its base into Stuart. As if to say like it's something wrong. Yeah, that was close. I've seen do a cat trying to take the keys away from somebody.

Yeah. So, uh, so you're saying you don't know Jack. I used to, there were periods where I really felt like back and but I'm always constantly reminded that it's a lifelong to know Jack. Yeah, he's one of those one where I can't share from me this on a camp and Jack. This is just, okay, well. That's enough nonsense. So Arnie, thanks so much for coming on the show.

We've been wanting to have you on for a while. We love hello from the Magic Tavern. I think L.A.T. and I have both been lucky enough to be guests on that program. And so it's great to have you on here. Now why did you say, I want to be on this show, New Mutants, that's the key to my enjoyment of the flop house. You know, I will say first of all, I didn't just pull new mutants out of like a world of movie going on. Uh huh.

Sure. Okay. It was definitely my favorite of the ones presented to me. And also I legitimately was looking for an excuse to watch this movie because I was kind of all on board with the idea of it. I wasn't like an intense and comic book reader, but I definitely went through a new mutants phase and the whole idea of a new mutants comic movie like in combined with horror seemed like to me and then

Yeah, a lot of things happened and then eventually it came out and I was less excited about seeing it Eventually it came out. I feel like is a truncated version of the troubled production history of this movie Yeah, the movie had like the kind of production history and a normal movie has just drawn out over a much longer period of time. And it's interesting when you watch the movie that you watch it and you're like, oh, this is not just jump head to the,

this is the movie that they had to keep going back and remaking. Yeah. I didn't want to skip ahead to like final judgments, but that was what I kept asking myself too, because I'm like, there are movies, like not that this is particularly great, we'll get to it, but like,

there are movies far worse than this that they just toss on screen without thought, and like with like advertising budgets and everything, and I was like, what it wasn't about this one that they were just like, we gotta keep working on it. There, my guess is that, so there is, I was reading up a little bit about this one that they're just like, we got to keep working on it. My guess is that, so there is, I was reading up a little bit about this. So this was, I think, very much seen as like, this is going to be the way that Fox holds on to, or 20th century, holds on to the X-Men license.

The last few X-Men movies were kind of running out of steam. Time for some new mutants, if you will. And the people who made it wanted it to be a horror movie and the studio did not and then The last X-man movie but X and it was supposed to tied more directly into X-Men apocalypse Then X-Men apocalypse did not do else. They're like take all the X-Men apocalypse stuff out And then they're like but we don't want to be a horror movie and then the trailer for it came out apparently and the trailer Was such a big hit that they were like make it a horror movie again So it was really like, the studio was really chasing

what they thought would be the hottest version of this movie and not letting the filmmakers just get to a regular tale of new mutants run around a hospital being chased by silent Hill Monsters. Hot off of the it trailer, they were like, make it a trailer. Could you, I kept you reading it. I don't know, 92 minutes out of this.

I kept reading how the director would like send the trailer to people and they'd be like, you got it, you nailed it, and be like, how can you tell from the trailer? Like, that Bill Sinkevich was like, you did it based off the trailer. And it's, I don't know. Yeah. But I say this having, I was on Twitter earlier today and saw the teaser for the King Kong versus Godzilla trailer. And it was like, man How much how much pre-selling is the trailer can I have to have and then I watch the trailer and I was like?

Oh, yeah, this is what I thought King Kong versus Godzilla would look like. It's a King Kong fighting Godzilla Direct by Adam Wingard. It's crazy Not is he related to Jason Wingard a K.A. mastermind of the Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? An X-Men character? I don't know. Dan, what are you going to say? A segue as good as that? I don't think so, but say it. Well, no, I guess that is kind of a good segue because I was going to ask two questions. Number one, what is he going to say? What's a new mutant? What sex? No, number one, what is you guys' history with the new Mutants of Any? And how do you think this would play to someone who

has no association with the comic or the extended mutant diverse? I will quickly say, I know that I read the stories that this was based on. Like I read the Claremont Synkevich period of Numerians. I really liked those spin-offs. That and Excalibur, I think at the time I enjoyed almost more than X-Men. But I'd forgotten all of it. And I guess this stands alone,

but I do think it would confuse people like why all of this was happening. But anyway, you guys, go, Ali, you look like you have something to say. Well, so the thing is, my experience with the new mutants in the comics has been a conflicted one because when I was growing up, the new mutants was over pretty much

and they had already transformed into the much cooler ex-force, led by K-Ball. Absolutely. And instead of like Wolf's B wolves being the goody-two shoes, you had feral and Kenan ball was still in there, but you know like Shatterstar was in there with this double sword blades and his double ponytails. He got two of everything with Shatterstar. Even the word Shatter and Star kind of sound like the same word. Double ponytails, pigtails, is that? No, because they both came out of the back in the same play. I don't know, dude. Anyway, but that? No, because they both came out of the back in the same play.

I don't know, dude. Anyway, but so, so it's so the new means I've always seemed to me kind of like a when I was like growing up was like, oh, these are the doll characters that turned into the crazy like teen hormone explosion that is. Yeah, the pouch delivery system. Yeah, because when there's nothing teens more more than guys covered in pouches and they never open those pouches. Little tiny lines that don't seem to indicate anything.

Are they wrinkles? I don't know. When I was 13, I loved that stuff. Give me more little lines. And looking back at this issue now, it is hilarious just how ridiculous the art, like it's unlookable. But I've gone back and reread some of the new mutants, ones from from that run and they're good books, but they just kind of like don't I don't know what it is. They don't grab me the way that like Claremont's like Uncanny X-Men run or is it Scalibor run or

I mean at Scalibor it's Alan Davis is the secret weapon on that title, but The so watching this movie I was like, oh, yeah, these characters like Danny Moonstar as a character I've never felt much connection to. Dan, obviously you do the same thing. And this movie will not change that. No, and we were like watching it like, oh, they made the least engaging one of these people, the central character, but we'll be able to do it.

The weird thing is watching it, it did feel like, oh, I didn't know the X-Men movies, I'd be really lost in this, but it also, yeah, I've had no, I wouldn't have a connection to it, but I do know the X-Men movies. So when Dr. Cecilia Reyes shows up, I'm like, wait a minute, that's not the way that characters portrayed in the comic books. Stu, what are your feelings for?

Yeah, I mean, I worked my way backwards through the new mutants starting with X-Force. And I remember really liking some of the stuff when they would, you know, the crossovers with the X-Men, the annuals where they would go to Asgard when Danny Moonstar becomes one of the Valkyries. I thought that stuff was all great, and also it had art by Art Adams, which is great. And I always had a huge crush growing up. I had a huge crush on magic, because she's awesome, and like a weird brat, sword slinging, dimension hopping monster. And I don't know, I don't know if that character was totally translated to the movies, but whatever.

No. I mean, that's one of the reasons I liked New Mutants too, because I remember reading the Magic Limited series, kind of catapulted me into that. Hello, hi, this is Elliot Kaelin, interrupting the show. I know what else is new. Anyway, I'm talking to you from the future compared to what you were just listening to,

but the past compared to where you are right now listening. You might have noticed that the connection earlier between us and our guest was kind of bad earlier in the episode. Thankfully, from this point on, we were able to correct it using the power of technology and also our editor, Jordan Cowling. And so we now return to the slightly better sounding and half rest of the episode of New

Mutants. You've already been listening to. Thank you. I was very drawn to the new mutants, I think, from the covers. As a, I was kind of just young enough that I was really into, like, Warlock, the robot who I guess is, which I was really into, like Warlock, the robot who I guess is, which I'm saying. Sad was, yeah, you're right, he is an alien robot,

like genetic robot, I don't know. It's too hard. He's a techno organic being and the makes him a mutant is that on his world, they are naturally aggressive and hostile, but he is friendly. And so he's like a programming mutant. That's how they got him in the group. You can explain it that way. I prefer how they got him in the group. Yeah, you guys play that way.

I prefer to like stammer on for about a minute, trying to figure out how to explain what warlock is. You know, to each their own, I apologize. Let's do it your way. He was definitely one of my favorites in the new mutant. So I'm sad that he was not in this. I guess they kind of nod to it with a Leria's arm. It's a little bit.

No, that's, I mean, that's her armor that she has in the comic suit. They originally at one point wanted warlock in this, but it was going to be too expensive. So the plan was to introduce him in the sequel where the new mutants go to Brazil. That sequel was not made. And then apparently the third was going to be the inferno comic book story, which would have been cool as well. It would have been really interesting to see how they do in Fernow with nut. They cannot have a lot of the characters that are central to Fernow because they're ex-mate characters,

you know, unless they bring it back, I don't know. Maybe they'll have the, maybe they'll have the hop goblin become an actual monster like he did in the Fernow stories. That was great. I mean, again, that's a different company has the Spider-Man movies, but, you know, I mean, they're all one, they're all Disney now. Let's do it.

Let's see it happen. But he's a Spider-Man villain. Does that mean that Sony has the rights to him? It is, exactly. And so the MCU only gets you Spider-Man. That's why Venom has his own spin-off series. So I guess Hobgoblin would turn into a demon in Inferno in the Venom movies,

which would be a strange distortion of the original actual history that happened uh... but uh... i'm still at fort so uh... our movie opens with dandy moon star giving us a little bit of a monologue about how every human being as two bears living inside that's not true is because i'm with the i don't think good things come in bears uh... that's i I mean, Dan, do not, you have to stop sticking your hand down bears

this mouth and into their butts because you're not going to find, you haven't found a good thing yet and you're not going to find anything. That best you're going to find a half-digested salmon. And I don't think that's what you want. Dan, it's talking like that that got you fired from the care bear store. You just has a pen knife and it's just digging open all the bears to find the good things the jewels inside because this this monologue it bothered me too because I know sometimes my tummy growls and I was like is that because there's a bear in there?

Yeah, I mean I know that I've put on a little weight recently but I don't think there's enough space in me for two bears. What would it be like to work with someone in an office who really bought into this two bear theory and explained everything It is like oh, sorry guys today. It's a bad bear day for me Trying to be more of a good bear tomorrow the bears are not happy right now I mean it's all people have have duality you know, there's a good side and a bad side and a bear side Well, when you put it that way,

it's like, why do we have to bring bears into this? Oh, there's a duality. People have a good side, and bears are great. There's also bears inside you. Well, now I'm confused. And in that office break room, you're now allowed to have one of those little honey containers that looks like a bear because that worker gets upset.

Yeah, that would be, that would be, it's problematic for them. Now, here's the problem is that every now and then, someone is born with three bears inside them. And that makes them vulnerable to having little blonde girls just climbing their mouths and sit on their chairs that are in there, eat all the porridge, sleep in the beds, you don't want that. So Danny gives this little monologue about how everybody's

got a good, got a good bear and a bad bear. Well, young Danny gets woken up by her dad, something large and unseen is attacking the trailer got a good bear and a bad bear. Well, young Danny gets woken up by her dad. Something large and unseen is attacking the trailer that they live in. She runs off into the woods. This thing kills her dad. She is left knocked out in the snow. Only to wake up in a mental hospital, chain to a gurney. Can I just just for a second go back the part where her father is killed was pretty comically bad I thought like he just walks off screen and immediately like hops back on to screen dead.

Yeah, well, it's all the timing of that scene and and what planet terror where the kid gets left alone with a gun immediately. And instantly shoots himself. Now, I was the father's death before or was that when it happened that there was just basically total blackness on screen with a bunch of sound effects. Probably around there. I mean, I feel like that whole opening was, it was shot in a way to make it look like it's like

in the middle of a snow storm, and it's intentionally obscuring what could be behind them. But it's, yeah, I mean, it's, it doesn't look good, it looks bad, it looks very cheap. There's also, there, it's a little bit, I think of them trying to be a little cheap

and also they want to save what that bear looks like for the big climax. So they're doing a little bit, a little bit of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, in here, where they're like, let's have this monster be obscured by snow and darkness, but it doesn't help with the poignancy of the dad's death. But again, Stuart, as you're saying, we don't have long to focus on that because she wakes up handcuffed to a gurney. Uh-oh, did the bear do that? There's a good bear, right? The good bear probably came in and got it to a gurney. Uh oh, did the bear do that? She, uh, bear did not do that.

Right. The good bear probably came in and got it to the local hospital. Yeah. So she's, she's introduced to Dr. Reyes, uh, who it's, you know, seems to be a psychiatrist or something at this mental hospital, uh, who tries to comfort and gas lighter at the same time, telling her that it was a tornado that killed her family and her whole town. And then Dr. Ray is welcome to her to a place for new mutants, title, though we don't know

what her mutant power is. So I just want to say a word about this institution since we just arrived there. This kind of like it's like, you know, like a halfway house for it. Like they're trying to like, no, it's a horse. Like it's for like troubled teenage mutants and the it will surprise no one who has seen a movie before that ultimately there was more to this institution than meets the eye but it seems like it takes the kids a very long time to like really have that sink in considering that it appears that Dr. Reyes is the only doctor. Yes, is the only staff member at all. There's no main and staff, no janitorial, there's nobody who works the front desk. It like

Bain and staff, no janitorial, there's nobody who works the front desk. It like, from moment one feels like a woman is squatting in an abandoned hospital and is kidnapped several children, which is not that different from, you know what it's like, I was like the whole movie, I was like, they're not gonna have anyone else work at this place.

Like, the fact that one of the new mutants is seen cooking and doing the dishes for the others. And it's like, this is weird that he also, I guess, works there. Even in glass where the fake institution was understaffed and incompetently staffed, they at least had like five people there. Yeah. But no, this is just the one person. Yeah. And the whole place, the whole place feels run down. There's no, like, there's no fence, There's no fence around it.

There's like a gate, but the gate is open. There's an abandoned clock tower for some reason. And church. And church, yeah. It's a whole abandoned church. There's an entire abandoned church. And I could never be quite sure. The kids seem to have the run of the place,

except for the times of day when the movie needs them to not have the run of the place. And they need to escape to have the run of the place. Otherwise, they seem to just be able to go wherever. It's got a real, it's got a real resonant evil silent hill feeling of like, here's your limited area that you have freedom of movement in and you're going to be walking through a lot of empty rooms. But anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.

It's got a real dream like quality that I kept trying to figure out if it was a choice, but I think wasn't. Yeah, and it, yeah, it feels unstuck in time as well. I mean, part of it is that this is a movie that will, based on the slaying the kids use and the musical choices, feels like it's set in the 80s, I'm guessing. Yes. And there's nothing to indicate other than a few odd mentions of mutants and the X-Men, there's nothing kind of tying it to a greater world that we understand.

Like it could just exist in some kind of like, Sart style, like, you know, existentialist prison. They do. Maybe it does. The vampire slayer at one point, so I guess that's at least in the 90s. So this movie apparently was supposed, again, it was supposed to be a follow-up

to X-Men apocalypse. So it was supposed to take place in the 80s. And when X-Men Apocalypse didn't do well, they were like, forget the 80s stuff. And I think they just didn't, it's not like they didn't go out of their way being like, hey, do you hear Billie Eilish's song? I love it, just to get modern references in there. So I think they were going, I think it was probably originally written

as an 80s set thing, and they just didn't feel the need to like put them all on Instagram, you know. But if it was, I mean, Buffy would be later than that, but that I assume came from the... No, no, I think that was, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. If you guys saw Mank, we're in a studio meeting, they're talking about movies that haven't been made yet, disparagingly.

The scene takes place in what, 1930, 31, and they're talking about the Wolfman, that wasn't made yet. Excuse me. Take that bank. I kind of want to arrest whoever let Elliott watch make because it's been Our conversations too often. I was about to suggest a new segment on our show which is every episode Elliott brings up one more small grievance about make I've got there's it's the problem

I have with the man because that is seem if the movie is not made for people like me who is it made for and yet it is not made for people like it seems to be here's a movie for people who are really interested in behind the scenes that says in Cain but if you know about the behind the scenes that says in Cain you will not be you will not like what you see like man anyway so that's my recommendation is the new

man gets that's my version of bank where I've reed it and and recut it. It's me playing the Gary Oldman parts since I'm closer to man's actual age than Gary Oldman is. So yeah, the whole place feels run down in the band-in, but there are a few, if you like high-tech security systems, there's families, there's special marks. Sorry, so what if this movie was called the new Muppets and it was all the Muppets that got kicked off like the host of that Muppets and it was all the Muppets that got kicked off like the host of that that Muppets live show, whatever, the weird humanoid robot and uh, like being bunny, like all the Muppets that were never that popular in their stuff.

That like Caribbean Muppet that was from Muppets tonight. A Muppet tonight. That's one thing. What the one? Who's the host of Muppets tonight and then they just kind of like this isn't working out. And the, what if it was that? Like permanent here. Would that be if it was that permanent here?

Would that be better? Are you asking me? Yeah. Oh, okay. Let's see. I don't care. So what would the second and third movie in the muppets trilogy be about? That's a good point.

Well, the new muppets I think go to Brazil. There's no reason for that not to. I'd like to point out Stuart that if it suddenly becomes allowed to not care about dumb bullshit, then our entire podcast is the house and cards was just going to crumble fall to the ground. And by crumble, I don't just mean the cards are going to fall. The cards will crumble to dust.

Yeah. So, uh, we meet the other, uh, we meet the other inmate slash patients, uh, that kind of form like a weird little support group. For the most part, these kids just kind of hang around and occasionally sit around in chairs and like share their stories and listen to Dr. Reyes. We have Reign played by, uh, oh man, don't know, I didn't write that part down. From Game of Thrones. She's from Game of Thrones.

We have Reyn who's like a wolf girl, she's sympathetic, she's got a Scottish accent. We have Eliana. That's amazing Williams, amazing Williams. That's great. Thank you. We have Iliana Rasbutin, who is the Lord of Limbo. She's bitchy, she's Russian. Well, I think she's literally could not figure out what her, I didn't hear her name,

I didn't figure out what character she was supposed to be until much later. I could not unravel the accent. Oh, yeah, I think I'm in a mistake. I mean, with that. I'm your Taylor Joy. I think is just transfix say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I'm gonna say, I mean, I mean a lot of, part of the reason why I blame the director is there are multiple weird accents.

Like the kid from Stranger Things has the broadest appellation accent. Which is like, I mean, it's actually kind of okay in the quieter scenes, but as soon as he gets mad, he's like, well, hey, you. You. He might as well be blowing in a jug the whole time

and like, and dancing around singing which side are you on or something. The characters in this movie are less mutants the aggressive accent choices. No, no. Their power is the power to caricature actual regional dialects and sounds. But yeah, on your Taylor joy, I think they would have another thing where in the comics of course, Ilion is the younger sister of Colossus, the Russian X-man, and I think they probably should have just cut the cord and made her Russian American and within American accent because it doesn't help her to have this kind of like,

it's not even, it would have been better if it was way over the top and it was like a Boris Badnov, like Moussen squirrel type of Russian accent, but instead it's kind of like it sounds like a teen girl who is trying on a persona, you know. Yeah. So she had for a second just had a character say, oh, she's Russian. Like when I'm saying that, I'm like, okay. Okay, yeah, yeah, I can kind of hear it, but I was literally spent 15 minutes of this movie

trying to figure it out. The, she's kind of like the troublemaker bad boy the group, which my wife pointed out, it makes it weird that she was the one selected to give Danny the tour around the place. Like she clearly didn't want the job. Oh, well, I assume that was a punishment on the part of Dr. Rage. Like you're being a jerk. Also, oh, here's my problem, guys. Russian accent aside, how are we not talking about how she is a puppet named Lockheed,

who's a little dragon? Lockheed is shadow cat straggan illiana's best friend what is this all about suddenly I can't believe I lost the bet that you brought that up first Lockheed did come from limbo right like that's where uh kitty pride encountered Lockheed is it like I honestly don't bring Lockhe lucky back and then sort of kitty like inherited lucky? I, the, no, because they, I think they went to, I'm trying to remember when they first went to Limbo and fought Balasco, but I think they had gone there before Iliana was a character.

I'm not sure about that. Okay, well, I mean, this is all nonsense that, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, this is, this is a very small subset of people who listen to our show but guys guys if you are if you're watching man get ready for some problems if you're watching this get ready for some historical areas and the circle error here is that Lockheed is Kitty Pride Stragon although in the version of this does the muppet that is magic have a human on her hand yes in the muppet version I think the dragon is probably

what's his name uncle Uncle Deadly, the actual, you know, kind of, dragony character, and Miss Piggy, of course, would be El Yana, but she's not like a cast off Muppet. She's the one big name Muppet that they bring in for the movie, to like, so that the real Muppet Efficient Auto has to be in there. And you know, okay, okay, okay, okay. I looked it up. All right.

Kitty. Yes. Kitty found Lockheed, but, and it was, you know, Kitty's dragon mostly, but Lockheed occasionally accompanies Iliana after she joins the X-Men's junior team, the new mutants. So this actually, this would be appropriate to the comic Ilya. All right.

I'll allow it. Okay, this is not what I would call an MS, a bank situation. I don't have a good argument. So, okay, and what are the other... Okay, thank you. So we're halfway through our mutant descriptions. We have Sam, who has the mutant power to cannonball all over the place. He's kind of a blue collar guy from Kentucky.

He's quiet, brooding, has a very, let's say, aggressive accent. Yeah, I think Ernie knew the best. So when he isn't being quiet, he is, you know, you know, he's constantly talking about him. He's the older brother from Stranger Things. Have we mentioned that? I can't, I can't. I don't think so.

He's constantly talking about being in the minds in Kentucky constantly. Like never stop talking about being in the minds. He's like Madeline. And then we have Roberto, who is a young Brazilian guy. He's kind of a rich macho jock character. Who it's clearly a facade. He doesn't want people getting too close so they don't get burned up literally.

Yeah, I agree that these are things that have. Okay, so we're introducing these characters as I said. Dan seconds that cast of characters. Yep. Motion carried and proceed. And that's who's in the movie. During your tour, Danny tries to run away. She tries to get out of there. Of course, she runs right into an invisible wall. There's a force field around the whole place. I also like the clumsy shorthand during this tour where they walk outside and immediately, Iliana takes a, takes some like spray paint out of a hiding place and starts, like she's going to do some graffiti and it's like, you're my look out and I'm like, wow, shorthand for bad girl, right?

Like very quick. So Danny then has a flashback to about 10 minutes ago from the opening sequence of the movie. She then climbs at the top of the abandoned clock tower. She appears to be contemplating suicide and then rain shows up and they have a little chat and bonding and then they like fall down the floor and hug. But they don't fall off the clock tower onto the floor. They fall backwards, back into the cart. Yeah. There was a step in between where they went back inside.

Yeah. All the kids are being observed. The, as I said, the high-tech security systems are doing biometric scans on everybody to tell us how mutant they are. The kids are all told that if they complete the treatment, that they're going to be able to leave, possibly graduate and join the X-Men, and that Dr. Reyes has a mysterious like boss benefactor, partner figure, who the kids all assume is Professor X.

Around now Sam has a, this is when the movie kicks into the real horror horror gear where Sam is in the washing room The laundry room they call it or the washing room. I don't know You know they don't really address it. They never actually refer to it by any So that's in the that's in the goof section of the eye I have to be patient. They don't address whether this is a watch room Our laundry room unlike unlike most movies that involve washing machines, this movie never addresses what the name of the room in which they're located is.

Sam has a psionic ghost event where he touches a washing machine and finds himself transported deep into the minds of Kentucky, surrounded by minors and his father before being slammed out of it and slammed up against the wall. Spooky. Yeah, what's going on? I don't know.

But during this whole time, the registers are reading psionic activity coming out of Danny, so there's an obvious connection there, at least for us, the viewers. And the psionic readings explain why they picked up Danny in the first place, and everyone keeps saying, what's your power? What's your power? What's your power? That's the way they know she is a mutant.

Because otherwise, they were part of their time. So I was like, well, how do they know she is a mutant? If they don't know what her power is, they've never seen her use it. But. Thank you for that explanation, Ellie, because I had the same question. Yeah, I mean, this is me providing an explanation

based on the clues in the movie. They never say that. But I was like, yeah, I didn't even, they didn't take any midi-chlorian levels. So how do I know? So Danny and Ilyana get in a fight and they get stuck in solitary. This is when we get a little bit more of an idea that Ilyana, despite her, you know, her bad boy or bad girl front, has, you know, she's got, she's got a troubled

past. She has dreams of being a child surrounded by smiley face, monster slenderman that dress like European fellows. And I have to say these slenderman, so not to spoil what you've probably already surmised. That's a spoil way. This, all of these manifestations are like the fears of these characters. And I had to look on the Wikipedia page to figure out what the Hellianna's fear was because this is the most,

well, because it's the most abstractly suggested one. It was like just these smiling men, whereas everyone else's fear is literally a horrible thing that happens to them presented very straightforwardly. I mean, I thought it was pretty clear that she was being human trafficked or something. Yeah, that's pretty clear to me. Maybe Dan just is a pure heart and he doesn't think the worst of the world. No, I just, they're the only ones that are not like a direct representation of the thing. Like, these are monsters because the metaphor is that, you know, she had these monsters,

people do this to her. Whereas the other ones are basically what happened. Sam being in a mine and then be seeing his dad and then blowing things up is not a metaphor for anything. Like it's, yeah, that's what happened to him. But yeah, I think the movie is rightfully recognizing that it does not have the shoulders and the gravitas to carry a realistic depiction of trafficking and so as

decided to do it in the form of slender man. Well, let's be clear. I was not arguing for that. That's the thing. No, I don't think you are arguing either way. Just, you know, that's why are these smiley slenderman all over the place? I mean, it's also possible that the city of things that look or feel scary in any way. So they're just like, maybe we can add this. Yeah. I mean, unless it is a little representation and she was kidnapped by a bunch of slenderman with smiley faces. And I mean, that would be, you think she would make that clear to them that she would mention. Oh, yeah, these are the monsters that I that actually took me because we live in a superhero fantasy world. So why can't that exist? You know, I tell them, I teleport and I have a

soul sword and one armored arm and a dragon puppet that is kind of also a dragon, so why not? I live in a magic world, why not guys? What's wrong with that? And the character she's telling this to is a puppet anyway. So like, if Muppets can be in this world, why not? We didn't really talk about how Iliana's power is to create these like stepping discs that allow her to teleport away.

So, and you know, you know me, my favorite, my favorite X-Men, andcillary characters are always the teleporters. I love Lila Cheney. I love magic. Zero. Yep, I love them all. So, why does she stay in the place? Why does the team just leave? Do they address that? They do not.

My guess is that perhaps there's some kind of block going on for her power that the force fields are also affecting her ability to use her power to do that. Or also, she recognizes that you know what, deep down I do need help. And I have trauma that I need to deal with, and maybe this isn't the best place to deal with it, a severely understaffed haunted hospital.

But you gotta play the cards live deals, yeah. Now the first time she teleports, forgive me if I'm wrong, I may have blinked and missed it. I don't think they do the portal thing, which annoyed me. She just like kind of bamps like Nightcrawler. No, that's true. Later on, you see a portal. Well, I think they're making a distinction, I think, between when she teleports in this

world and when she travels through the magical universe of limbo, which she has either discovered through escaping trauma or has invented. I think they've just kind of given her general like magic powers, you know you know yeah not to get Again way back too deep into nurtured, but i guess it's the new mutant. So what are you gonna do? I I always thought that her teleportation power always was through limbo though. She's like yeah, I was yeah, okay Hey man, I just tell you what it looks like in the movie. Yeah, yeah, so Around now rain has her own like psychic psionic ghost event where she is, she's at the rundown church, the abandoned church, and she's

confessing her sins to what you assumed to be no one. And then she hears a ghostly voice of a priest who had abused her in the past. The kids that we find out. She is kind of, have she mentioned already that she went to a priest and told him what her, told her about her power and he told her she was evil that she was a demon. And she has either an M or a W branded on her neck. I believe it is a W for which.

Or Wolfstein also works. Or Wolf or Wolf or M also for me because Rey has, or M up am also for me because rain has or or mubbett yeah because rain as you'll notice has Lou Zeeland powers where she kind of puts on a fluff of really outfit and throws fish. I throw the fish and they come back to me. I maybe maybe that's why he chose a W because he knew that it could be seen as an M and there are all these levels. They're all these Yeah, I'm pretty much references

He likes you know, he likes somebody given giving you something to think about so the kids have Good is religion if not to give us something to think about, you know Yeah, no, that's a good point. The kids have a secret attic where they claim there's no cameras so they can do whatever they want Although I think we do see that there is a camera there watching them uh... and they decide to play a game of truth or dare but actually there's no dare it's just truth and they use a lie detector which they use the blood pressure gauge and put they put that sleeve right over their clothes which i think is probably a representation of their their mutant powers their

heavy fucking denim jacket and i'm like what do you think that's going to do? I mean, guys, I hate to bring it to you. Lighted extra tests also don't work. So it's fine. Just like put it over a hat. Like who cares? Do you think the actor who plays Sam when they're like,

okay, so you have to take off the denim jacket and he's like, oh no, I just got this full sleeve of tattoo. He goes, read my contract. It says no jacket, no shoot. Okay, let's see. It does say that. He does not have to shoot scenes without the jacket on. Oh boy. Also kids that are spending or teenagers that are spending a lot of their days doing group counseling at night, they like to blow off steam by forcing each other and burden themselves with stories. That's a good point. They probably don't have secrets from each other at this point.

So why, you think they would really heavily go on to Dare since they're all mutants and they can do crazy mutant things, but no truth. They're like, you know, we were going to do Dare, but there's no budget. It's like some of the works at an ice cream store and they're like, I got to go home and get some scooping in. I just got to relax this arm and scoop some more. Yeah. and get some scooping in. I just gotta relax this arm and scoop some more. Yeah, so Danny shares that story, the demon bear. Once again, just do a little flashback.

So everybody has two bears living inside them. It's good bear and a bad bear. We call it a little kid. Danny describes them as a yoga and a booboo. And the booboo is good bear and the yogi is the bad bear. So, I mean, heis the bad bear. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, he's a bad bear. We're just not that bad.

It's mostly like pickin' a basket theft. He's a thief, Dan. He's a thief. Okay, imagine. Yeah, I just feed himself. Okay, I'm someone living close to if not below the poverty line. I don't have a home and I don't,

and this is the only food I've been able to scrounge up. I'm gonna go to the park to eat it and a bear takes it from me. A very well fed bear wearing a hat and I don't and this is the only food I've been able to scrounge up. I'm going to go to the park to eat it and a bear takes it from me. A very well fed bear wearing a hat and a tie. That's right. It's a white collar bear and he's stealing my only meal, not okay. That's, that's, that's a hard crime. That's bad.

So when you're a little kid, this bear, the, the bad bear starts real small, but as you get older, that bad bear inside you gets way bigger, right? Guys, you can feel it. You can feel it getting bigger inside of you. Well, I mean, this last few years, like you feel the bad bear getting bigger inside of me, certainly. So they have this little hang and then the next morning, Reyes, Dr. Reyes yells at them. She gets mad and tells them that they keep fucking around. They'll never get to leave. So of course, they drug her and knock her out and they have another breakfast club style style 90s kids party where they dance to

Bastards of Young and I'm like, I don't know that's like that feels like when you watch a movie from the 80s and the kids are all dancing to fucking do Wop songs. Well, but also I was like, I love the replacements. I was thrilled to hear Bastards of Young play, but yeah, no, I was like, is this what people like kids this age at this time period were listening to? Well, even the fact that they literally drugged the tea of their only authority and what they're doing stuff they could have done probably when she was awake. They're just dancing to music, you know, unless she's Dr. Footloose, I don't see it as a problem.

Dr. Footloose, I've come as soon as I can, my foot is falling off my leg. No, that's not the actual problem. We get this a lack that's actually a mistake, that's not what I specialize in. It's just a name. It's from the German foot lotion. Yeah, so it does feel a little bit the the the non like the media in this movie whether it's the music or the Buffy the Vampire Slayer feels a little bit like a dad is forcing his teenage kids to watch what he likes growing up.

Yeah, yeah. So now that they have no supervision, they go off and do their fun things. Rain and Danny go out into a graveyard and watch the rain fall in the force field and they make out a little bit. Bertow and Iliana go swimming or so he thinks because Bertow gets a visit from a little flaming ghost of his dead girlfriend. That's right. He has a psionic ghost event.

Uh oh. And that forces him to manifest his mutant power, which is to turn into a big flaming version of himself, which is the same size. This is the normal version of himself. And everybody freaks out and then Dr. Reyes grabs a stick and pushes him into the pool, which was pretty funny. Yeah. You said you said that as if you thought it was disappointing that he didn't turn into a giant version of himself. Yeah. I so okay this this this this flaming ghost is his girlfriend the great name for a 90 spand flint the flaming ghost. His girlfriend he actually accidentally sat on fire. Now this butts up against like one of my problems with the X-Men and mutant books in general as much as I love them. So you've got, he killed his girlfriend, Cannonball killed his dad and all of the like people in the

mind. Danny is causing untold like chaos and I do not, I don't think I need to say this, I do not sanction the kidnapping and either euthanation or weaponization of these mutants in it, but it also does raise the question like, well, these people are kind of dangerous, they've killed a lot of people. Well, it is accidental, but... I mean in Ilyana's case, it was not accidental. She brags about killing 18 men with her sword. Sure, but those were her captors. That's like a little more understandable than just like, you know, that couple of them killed their parents accidentally. I'm not, you know, like, they should be punished for it at all, but it is, it does like cut against this idea of like, yeah, but they, they've killed these

people. Well, this is, I'm gonna let you in on two thoughts I've had about the X, my two of my issues with the X-Men. One is societal and the other is biological. So societal. The X-Men, it's basically understood as canon in comic books readership world for anyone who's not a comic book reader, that the X-Men are a civil rights allegory where it is about people who are different

than everyone else who are demonized for their differences. But you're right. What they have is genuinely very dangerous. And it's like the analogy starts to fall apart when it's like, well, non-white people can't shoot laser beams. Uncontrollable laser beams from their eyes. Or like, you know, like it's there's no danger that a gay person is going to dark Phoenix on you.

No, yeah, that a black person at the age of 13 will accidentally explode and kill a town. Like, that doesn't happen. So that's where that analogy starts to fall apart. But the other thing is that, so they're always talking about how they're the next step in evolution, like homo superiors here. And it's hard for me to see what is the evolutionary advantage

of getting so burning hot that you cannot mate and reproduce and pass on your genes to another generation. Or like, what is the evolutionary advantage of getting so burning hot that you cannot mate and reproduce and pass on your genes to another generation or like what is the evolutionary advantage of like, you know, of exploding sometimes and accidentally, like it's evolution usually, I mean, there's all sorts of different mutations in nature, but often the mutations that are dead that are hurt the host or their mate, don't pass on because, and the things that are, so it's like, you'd think that they're, I just don't say, is they'd think they'd be more useful and less fighting based, evolution, X-Men powers. Evolution usually, it's not like,

suddenly someone is born with a sword for a hand because it helps them be a better fighter. Fighting is not really one of the things that evolution gets you to. Well, I mean, like what you're saying makes sense in the context of like actual evolution as it happens, although it does, like, I mean, like there are all sorts of, you know, as you say, detrimental mutations that aren't passed down, like that's how they're filtered

out over the years, but but mutations. Like I understand. Like I understand. In Marvel universe, or just randomly springing up extremely powerful deviations from the norm. Well, yeah, but it's like I understand the evolutionary advantage of being able to control the weather, that would be great.

That would help humanity immensely. But again, the lasers shooting out of the eyes or like so many of you have the ability to absorb energy and then blast it out as lasers. And it's like, how is that helpful helpful in any way it seems like the only evolution you take now I just directly respond to Elliot it seems like these mutations are not like naturally selected for the well you're saying makes sense in the context of national selection not the context of like oh we gave birth to

someone who's a teleporting demon. Well, also, well, it also because the, I guess the evolutionary purpose is to make them cool badlers for superhero battles, but like, there's some, I've been reading a lot of the old X-Men issues with my older son, we're going through the first 60-Somod issues in order. And it's so often so many times that he's like, why are they not using their power smarter?

Or at a point at beast and he'll be like, well, beast just has big feet. Like, is that, like that's his mutation? He's got big feet, but. Sorry, Arnie, what were you saying? I was just gonna say in this movie, their only really evolutionary advantage is the ability to kill their parents.

Which, I mean, Freud would tell you is the ultimate mutant power. The ultimate one, yeah. Yeah, anytime I got assigned extra chores, I wish I was a mutant, right? A lyrgic to homework. OK, so that's not a mutant. That's not a power.

That is a mutation in allergy, but it's not. OK, so Danny's powers continue to intensify. The nightmares become even more vivid and they're having more of an effect on reality. At one point, rain gets assaulted in the shower by the like a zombie version of the priest that she had killed who had previously branded her and he brands her again this time on her neck. answer again this time on our neck and it's horrible. And then Ray is around now, Ray is gets a hilariously long loading email where it's one of those like, those like sci-fi emails where like you're slowly watching it to get typed out and you're like, why is this worse? I love the idea of a software developer that was like, I want people to feel the excitement

of watching a story unfold. So I'll have each word type out individually instead of just all the text coming up on screen which would take less power, less computing power. Yeah. I mean, it's got killer graphics and that's what kids like. Can I say, if you could send a dramatic email like that, like, if that was just an option in your Gmail or whatever,

I would do it occasionally, if not too much. I think you're right. I mean, I think we're making, we got a TM this shit right now, right? So somebody doesn't steal our idea. Damn, let's copy this. This is your idea too. You gotta get in on this.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, when was Dan involved in this idea? So you're saying, I seem like Stewart is saying that it's a covenant that must be entered into with all parties. Yeah, everybody here, and putting in the room. Otherwise, smiley will show up and kill us. Exactly.

And steer. So, rip. Yeah, so, Rea's gets this email and explains that Dani is too powerful that she has to eliminate Danny. So, Dan, I'm sorry if by saying Danny all this time, it makes you uncomfortable. She just has the same name as you basically. So, Rayas takes Danny to the basement. Uh, she, you know, she, I think she explains to do tests or something, but then she, at this point, she's like, even though

she, that Danny is too powerful to live, Ray is no, she has to kill her. She slowly poisons her, giving her ample time to use her mutant powers to create an army of slender men that attack Yliana, Sam, Beiruto. There's slenderman running all over this asylum, right? Attacking everybody except the one person who is hurting Danny at that moment. Mm-hmm. All right. So well, she doesn't have control over her powers yet. That's kind of the point. I guess that's true.

That's fair. Rain sneaks through the ducks and jumps down on, they, they, they, at the, like, rain is sneaking through the ducks. Iliana is teleporting all over the place. Sam is using his blasting powers, which basically like he explodes and flies, blowing up everything near him, which is great in these enclosed hallways.

There's a reason his mutant power, his mutant superhero name is Cannonball. But it's also, it makes me think like, if old boy in the movie, old boy had had this power, that fight scene wouldn't have been as cool, instead of having the power of looking old even when he's a young man which is the same power Gary oldman has in an X-Men movie or comic who's like trying to get rid of mutants, but your reasoning was just like how it would make old boy less cool. Now if old boy had telekinesis, for instance, he could just pick people up and throw them around.

Now, I'm sending a Stuart Wellington from the great stale of Louisiana. Now, let's say old boy had a ruby quartz eye lasers then that home if I've seen would be over real fast. Well, how do you say to that? Professor Xavier Every time old boy stared at his daughter lover you would accidentally blast your two pieces this this This argument is basically like anti-mutant in the same way you'd be like anti-self-ones and movies like it ruined all the plot points I do want to point out that Sam uses power and he blows these slender men apart

But previously they'd address that though he can use his power He can never land and so he's always like slamming into things and he's got broken bones and his face is all fucked up But he uses power here and then like the next time we see him, he's totally fine. Like they don't even show him land. I'm guessing it's because there's, I mean, this whole movie feels like there's about a third of the effects shots were just not included. Well, here's my guess. Here's my guess about why he's so, why he's so beat up. So I don't know if it's this way, but in the comic books, Cannonball, when he's in Cannonball form, cannot be hurt.

He's super tough. So I think it's because I think he's those are his injuries from the mind disaster that like he set off his mind disaster and then broke his arm when it Caved in on him or maybe a grendel was like, hey, why'd you blow up my mind and beat him up or something like that? Yeah. So, so they realize that they've been duped that they find like the files in Ray's office as because once again, there's nobody else in this place. And they realize that they're being trained to be killers and they decide to turn on Ray's, which is great because at this point, Ray has already jumped down out of the ducks and slashed up Ray is super fucking bad. Yeah.

Like, rain, like at first I'm like, oh, she just scratched her. But later on we see Ray is and she's like ripped to shreds, dude. She's been pretty cruigered in a half. She's like holding her innards in with her arm basically. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So they think they, they think they got the jump on her and Ray is instead traps them in force bubbles which look

terrible This is a terrible fact and they are in like glowing like like Star Trek bubbles and she's slowly smushing Danny and smushing them all in these bubbles while giving some kind of a speech about how I don't know like they're too powerful to live or something and they should have been more respectful or something. Now I want to I want to briefly defend not this scene or the bubbles which do look terrible but the character of Cecilia Reyes in the comic books what sets her apart from the others

is she is a good person who does not want to be a superhero and just wants to be a doctor. And so I felt like they are really slandering this character by making her so incredibly evil. When in the comics she is maybe the most reasonable character in the entire Marvel Universe. She's like, okay, I can make force fields, but I can probably help people more by being a trauma surgeon. Then by fighting Mr. Sinister, who gets hinted at in this movie, but we never actually see him. Maybe they wanted to use her because we need at least one super power that we can actually depict in this movie. Because every other, even like, even, even, uh,

bear wolf transformation, they can't depict almost any of the powers in this movie very well, which is one of the bigger problems, I think. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's because they chose characters that are hard like, I don't know if they chose Illiana Rasputin if they, the script originally had like shadow cat or something, that's why Lockheed's there. But then they're like oh we got Ina Taylor choice she'd be perfect for this role I don't know. She does such a great Russian accent. Yeah. The horizon may says does Russian accent so this is perfect. Do we need to hear the accent

first to try it out? No no no she's great. Did you see Queen's Gambit? It's not out yet but I saw an early cut of it. It's fantastic. And then she gets unsaid and she's like, y'all, this is my ex-yent. And they're like, oh boy. Oh. He. OK. So she's great in Emma.

She'll be great in this. Again, great actor. She's really good. She's really good in lots of, she's great in the witch. Like, she's really good at lots of stuff. But this accent does not. Thorebreds, very, very good. And, yeah, and the split glass of verse, right?

Yeah. So, yeah, so, Rayas has him in force bubbles, she's slowly smushed him, and then, uh-oh, what's that? There's no outside, it sounds like a wind, uh-oh, the wall gets ripped open and there's a giant demon bear there and the demon bear totally Scarfs down Ray is just like in deep blue sea. It's awesome. It is just like a deep blue sea Can we talk a little let's talk a little bit about this demon bear? So there are a few things No, Dan. Let's not let's talk about muffits again Well, Dan it the thing is everybody has two bears living inside it's again. Well, Dan, the thing is, everybody has two bears living inside. I know this is meant to be up to the audience interpretation, but do we think that's a good bear or a bad

bear? Now, I think it's a good question, because it is a bad bear who becomes kind of a good bear. Yeah. Well, she says, she also, as it hears it later, she says that the two bears, you decide what you feed them. That's the empowering message of the movie is you can feed the bad bear with your fears and your hatred or you can feed the good bear with love and that's the one that gets stronger is the one that you feed. So maybe she feeds it a bunch of love and that's why it turns into a good bear. She feeds it? No, she feeds it a doctor.

That's true. A bad doctor. So it makes it into a good bear. This is confusing. I guess in every bear there are two bears, a good bear and a bad doctor. So it makes it into a good bear. This is confusing. I guess in every bear There are two bears a good bear and a bad bear and depending on which one is I guess I getting it's getting It's tummy scratched at the moment. That's how the hair goes dance. It's all bears all the way down everything's got two bears in it I'm staring into the void and it's staring back

No, when you stare into the a bears the a bears also stare into you Yeah, that's what my buddy Burn her hair talk says he says y'all Well, there's two bears in the everybody a little bear and a big bear one I think you're ready to be a character and in one bear there's two people. That's the bear from Grizzly man Yeah, yeah, it's me better Hats off My power is a secret.

It's me, Vada Hatog. You've been checking out the 10 hottest spring bake beaches today on ease hottest spring break beaches hosted by me, Vada Herzog. So Danny at this point is passed out and the team is left with this fucking team and bear. I want to talk about this bear a bit. Number one, I genuinely like the look of this bear. I like the demon eyes.

I like the way the fur kind of coils into smoke. It gets indistinct on the edges. But I do think that there's a weird thing that movies always do, which is they put a little too, uh, too much sugar in the sauce or something like. Like it doesn't, I think this bear would have been much more scary if it was just maybe slightly bigger than a real grizzly bear and just a little more like, just a solid thing that a human mind you know has some sort of familiarity with it.

Because when this is big, albeit cool looking bear, I'm just like, okay, well this is CGI. And if it was a little more like fantastic but down to earth, I would have been a lot more frank and bite. Oh see, I have to disagree with you there because I think I like this bear a lot, but I think they do they're on the side and making it look too much like a real bear. And I wish it had more of that Bilsen cabbage feel of being like semi abstract

and scratchy and hard to wrap your mind around. But that's a very different thing to you. That's a very different thing to you. No, no, Elliot, Elliot, I think that you make a good point. I think maybe the problem is it's neither fish nor foul. Like it should have gone one way or the other. They show some of the original drawings or at least recreations of them during the credits

as if to say like, see, this could work. And Bill Sincavitch did the art during the credits to all the character art. Oh, that's the answer. Yeah, surprisingly involved. Yeah. Yeah, give that man money, please. So

Danny's passed out and of course she's passed out of the party and she invited this fucking demon bear that everyone else has to deal with So they spear it Danny away rain takes her along over to the she takes Danny into the abandoned church Iliana decides hey, it's time for me to use my powers. I'm magical, so she pulls out her soul sword and starts flipping around, jumping, flipping, cutting at the bear. Sam tries to help. He starts blasting.

Beto eventually decides to use his powers and he burns his clothes off, and then he briefly fights the bear before getting smushed Uh, and it's great. They all get to use their powers. They all kind of come together Uh, and then Danny eventually wakes up and calms down the demon bear and pats its nose Lee end movie and I guess everything's forgiven What are they gonna take her to bear court? Like I'm. Well, she even apologizes, right?

She's like, I'm sorry I brought this demon bear in there like, no, you freed us with this demon bear. And she's like, I guess I did. And then they find Dr. Rays' chunky heel covered in blood. So she's totally dead. Full of blood. Not just covered, full of like poor, yeah. Look at the idea that they're like,

well, we saw her swallowed whole by a bear. Is she dead? Here's her shoe. That clinches it. She must be. There's no other way for her shoe to be removed from her foot other than death. At least in real red,

it's a real Ruby slippers type situation. It's either her shoe, or it's the shoe of the evil step sisters, the original version of Cinderella. I don't know. The Alan O's just blood in a shoe. In this jacket, I am Verna Hershue. Welcome down to Verna Hershue's Hershue's where you can find the best and ladies shoes.

And if you're staring to the shoe, you'll see the total emptiness of the cosmos. We live in a random universe with no god in charge, but I'm in charge of getting you the best shoes at Werner Hershoes. Now do not confuse this with Werner Hershoes, which is a separate nature of mine. That's it. It's a horse. It's a horseshoe range attached to a bar. It's a kind of bar game.

It's horseshoes. You're throwing horses. And don't and please do not confuse it with Werder Herzogs in her shoes, my sharp-for-shut remake of the film in her shoes. Ernie, do you have any fun accents you like to do? No, but I would just like to let the listener know that it's very, it's extra enjoyable to get to actually watch these moments because I enjoy watching Stewart kind of, you can tell he's like, I'm waiting this one out. Yeah. Anyway, I'm waiting this one out.

Yeah. Anyway, I'm supposed to be telling you about Camcoon. Here in Camcoon, we're having the hardest ladies and the hunkiest guys, the odd spring break. Let's go on to Miami Beach. Miami Beach is famous for its spring break parties. And I'm enjoying them all. Anyway, we've got eight more beaches to get to.

I'm gonna hurt somebody. Oh wow. Oh, yeah. So now our team, they now they're free. They kind of set off down the road. And their only clue is that their that Ray is was working for the Essex Corporation, of course, a reference to Nathaniel. Is it Nathaniel Essex?

Nathaniel Essex. Nathaniel Essex. Yeah. So that was a tease. Apparently John Hamm was even cast to play, Mr. Sinister. What a Mr. Sinister. So that was a tease. Apparently John Hamm was even cast to play Mr. Sinister. What a shame. What a great character. Okay.

Well, that's the end of the new mutants. So we should do our final judgments, whether this is a good bad movie, a bad bad movie, or a movie we kind of liked. Before I'm sorry, before we make the judgment sorry. Can I ask is this the only superhero movie where at the end the superheroes are the only characters alive? And in fact every other character in the movie is dead at the hands of those superheroes. Yeah. Yeah. So good question. That is a question. Every character you ever see in the past or present

has been killed by the superheroes except I guess we're buffy the vampire slayer on TV. Yeah, wow That's I remember let's see the Incredibles know Incredibles to know Spider-Man to know Superman for no Yeah, so this movie when when we were watching it earlier today, Audrey said a line that I had to write down, which is, I feel like I've hated better movies, which is not to say that like, that is not saying like, oh, this is below hatred. It's more that like, there are films that have inspired an emotional reaction, like a negative one that are better than this.

Like the fact that this is just kind of there. Like I don't dislike this movie, but there's not, like it's almost like everything is in perfect balance, good and bad, such as to make it nothing. Everything is in perfect balance. Raeves, Dan McCoy of The New Mutants. Both bears are the same size. I mean like I guess if I was pressed. There are two bears in this movie, great and better. If I was pressed to put this into one of our bullshit categories,

I guess the closest one is kind of liked it because I like this kind of stuff and nothing in it like made me mad and it's of that thing that we've invoked a lot of times where like, oh, if you're like dosing on the couch, this would be a great way to spend your time. But what do you guys have to say? No, I would also call this a movie I kind of like just because it's fine. I didn't, it's not terrible even though it's we've made fun of it a sure bunch, but it's like not really scary for a horror movie.

It's not really exciting for a superhero movie. And I again, I'd be curious to have to have somebody to just watch it with somebody who doesn't know the new mutant sense. Like why is this happening? Who are these people? But it's not terrible. It's just kind of like, all right, like in a world where there are 40 superhero movies a year, it seems coming out like there's room

for a mediocre superhero movie like this. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of tough. Like I obviously like the Breakfast Club. I like Nightmare on Elm Street, three Dream Warriors. But, and I feel like this movie obviously tries to reference those and it tries to reference various like coming of age stuff. And it I don't know like I feel like it it doesn't do. I mean as you said, it's not really scary. And the attempt to like

do coming of eight like a coming of age age story or like coming into your powers has been done so many times and so many times in bears. Or coming into bears. But like, I mean, after seeing Spider-Man into the spiderverse, or the same amount. Wait, hold on, I'm so sorry, I gotta stop, Dan. It's the other way around. It's not coming into bears.

It's the other, that's gross. It's coming in bears. No, it's getting out of bears. You want to get out of that bear? Yeah, you want to get all the come out of that bear But like with something like spider-meaning to the spiderverse where we see Miles Morales like take his leap of faith like and it Miles Morales like take his leap of faith like and it actually elicits a movie that actually elicits an emotional response. It feels it's just it's like to see the like warmed over warm over warmed over version of that. Yeah. Is is pretty lame. So I don't know. I feel like I'd say bad bad just because it like it just washed over me and is going to be forgotten. Yeah. I mean, I sort of, I did kind of like it.

It was weird though. I think I would almost like, is there a category that's bad good, where it's like not bad enough to be entertaining? Like, it's almost worse than being good bad, because there just wasn't enough of the sort of joy of how bad it was. And mostly what pulled me through was being like,

hypothetically, I like a lot of this stuff, but it's just, the movie, it's almost as empty as that weird hospital. It's just like there's not enough in it. Yeah, not enough bears. Yeah, both bears are too small. The, yeah, I mean, I think, actually, I feel like Arnie,

you have done this podcast a service because we have been dancing around this idea for fucking years. The idea of a movie that is well-made enough but is clearly bad, like a bad good movie. Like it's not actually interesting enough to be a good bad. I don't know.

Yeah, no, no, the problem is not the production or the logic or anything like that. It's just a certain solosness that comes with being sent back by the studio to remake the movie several times. Yeah, and I like the way Arnie put it because while watching it, I did invoke a philosophy that we've espoused on the show a few times, which is, if this movie was a better movie, this movie would be good. So are you saying that I'm kind of like the Danny of this podcast, a stranger who comes in and sort of brings something new out of everybody?

Torments us with our past traumas. Yeah, and eats a doctor. Sure. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ I'm going first. It's me, Jackie K. K. Shit. Man, she's always this bossy.

I'm Laura Kilhart. We're a bunch of stand-up comics, and we've been doing comedy like 60 years total. We've both been talking to us, but we look amazing. And we're running out. stand-up comics and we've been doing comedy like 60 years total of us but we look amazing. We drop every Monday on max fun and it's called the Jackie Laurie show and you could listen to it and learn about comedy and learn about anger management and all the

things and Jackie is married but childless and I'm unmarried but child full so together together one complete woman. Is that just what that one's gonna do? Yeah. Yeah. And we try to make Kyle laugh just like that and say, oh my god, every episode. It's a good job.

Jackie and Laurie show. Mondays, only on maximum fun. Hi, I'm James, host of Minority Corner, which is a podcast that's all about intersectionality. It's hosted by James with a guest host every week, discussing all sorts of wonderful issues, nerdy and political pop culture, black queer feminism, race, sexuality, news. You're gonna learn your history, their self-empowerment, and it's told by what feels like your best friend. Why should someone listen to my minority corner? Why not? Oh my god, free stuff. There's not free stuff. The listeners of Minority Corner will enjoy some necessary LOLs, but mainly a look at what's happening in our world through a colorful lens.

People will get the perspective of marginalized communities. I feel heard, I feel seen. Like you said, you need to understand how to be more proactive in your community. And this is a great way to get started. Join us every Friday on Max Fun wherever you get your podcast. My Nordic Corner because together with majority. Hey, you know what? The flop house is sponsored in part by Express VPN. When you use the bathroom, you always close the door behind you right? You don't want random pass or buy looking in on you.

So why would you let people look in on you when you go online using the internet without express VPN? It's like going to the bathroom and not closing the door. Now this is this is some interesting ad copy. Stuart, do you do you always close the bathroom door? You seem to make a noise If I close the bathroom door my cats will yell at me Oh, so I have to leave it to open so they can come in and brush up against my My your meaty thighs my legs. Yeah, my meaty thighs. Yeah, all right the same issue same issue with my children But I keep that door closed and I just let them scratch at it and go. Daddy, daddy, we want to see you peeing.

And I say, no thank you. They hurl themselves against it. Yeah. So many assaulters on precinct 13. Yeah. But I think we can all agree that we would prefer privacy. So why not have privacy with your express VPN? Did you know that your internet service provider like Comcast or Verizon knows every single website you visit and can sell this

info to ad companies? ExpressVPN creates a secure encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet so that your online activity can't be seen by anyone. It works on phones, laptops, even routers, so everyone who shares your Wi-Fi can still be protected even if they don't have ExpressVPN. So if you believe your online activity is your business, secure yourself by visitingPRESVPN.com slash flop and you can get an extra three months free that's express VPN.com slash flop. Sounds great. I think that people should do that. I have an ad. I'd like to talk about guys. We're also sponsored and part by Storyblocks. Now, more than ever, storytellers and content creators,

same thing in my opinion, are challenged with producing more video content at a higher quality than ever before. That's true. The standards are higher, and you gotta keep up with them. Keep up with that growing demand for modern video content without sacrificing your vision with stock media from Storyblocks, what's dedicated to being the world's best royalty freefree stock media subscription service.

Their library is always growing and has over 1 million high-quality stock assets including 4K HD footage, After Effects, and Premiere Pro templates, music, images, sound effects, and more. They've got affordable subscription plans and tools and with their unlimited all-access plan that's the story blocks, unlimited all-access plan, you get unlimited downloads of everything in their library. And even if your subscription ends, you get to keep the stuff you downloaded. It doesn't disappear. Like at a magic as if Marty McFly's parents didn't get together. It doesn't disappear in fade away. Now I love stock footage. I'm they I'm very excited about being able to put things together for the story blocks stock media. Dan, you actually made something for our upcoming live show using story blocks.

And how was the experience? Was it super smooth? Because it seems to take you no time. It was actually very smooth. You just, you can search through their library. You can find what you want. They have many different variations on basically anything you can think of. And you just download it straight. Use it. It looks beautiful

That's great. You'll see the results in our live show more about that live show in a little bit But first why don't go to Storyblocks explore their library and subscribe today at storyblocks.com slash flop that storyblocks.com slash flop And I got some Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jojo Jo jojo jojo jojo jojo jojo jojo mo tron. That's right. Are you at home right now unable to deal with the existential dread of daily life? Well, then you're probably on Netflix, but there's just so much there and so little time. Well, on every day in 2021, Netflix and chillyear.com will go through every Netflix original movie and talk about what's great about it, what's weird about it, and what it's all about.

So go to Netflix and chillyear.com, or if you want a daily e-mail full of netflix goodness, go to netflixandchillyear.substac.com. That's right, visit netflixandchillyear.com or subscribe at netflixandchillyear.substac.com. I got a second jumbo tron while my mouth gets used to talking again. There we go. Did you have to do like a hard reboot or was it? Ivan, Ivan, Ivan, Vanya, Bubola.

You can't just then mow me 69.69 and on Christmas Day is a present. That's not the Christmas spirit. Now, you have to listen to the peaches tell you how much I love you and have steward apologize on my behalf. For what a sloppy game master I can be. Sorry dude. Ra-rou. Yeah. Dude. Raral. Yeah, yeah. Yep, that's it message. Dan co-signs on that message.

Okay, guys, I mentioned a live show earlier. Let's talk briefly about that. And I mentioned it even earlier before that. That's right, Saturday, February 6th at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. We're gonna be doing our first virtual zoom live show of the year You'll be able to watch it What through our YouTube page or something? I don't remember anyway

All the information will be with you when you get the tickets so we're gonna be talking about the movie Teen Wolf That's right everyone's favorite movie about a basketball playing werewolf. Tell me when you like war. Tell me a basketball playing werewolf movie that you like more. I defy it. We're gonna have an in-depth, but not too long discussion of the movie where each gonna give original presentations

will mine have more monster content. You better believe it. There's gonna be an audience Q&A section and much more. I already told you Dan's been messing around with Storyblocks footage, making something for the show. The price, only $10, and don't worry.

If you're not available, Saturday, February 6th at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific, because you have some other thing going on in your life other than wanting to hear three old friends of yours talking about a teenage wolf, that's okay. The show is going to be up for you, archive for one week after the event. That's right, until Saturday, February 16th, you'll be able to just watch that video, just light it up and let it roll and then watch it up and watch it down. Just go to theflophouse.simpletics.com.

Don't worry about the WWW, just go to theflophouse.simpletics.com because Dan, was there an issue of some kind with internet URL language that you want to talk about? Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, the last episode I mentioned that I said that if you don't put the HTTP part in, it would go to it, or if you did put it in, it wouldn't go to it. That is incorrect. Someone had tweeted at me that there were a problem. I misremembered, the problem is do not put the WWW in. That will take you to a dead link.

If you do not put it in, it works. I have no idea why the modern internet browser cannot figure that out for you, but in the absence of a smarter one, don't put the WWW in. Yeah, don't confuse your dumb stupid internet browser. Just go to theflaphouse.simpletix.com and get ready to laugh as we three guys, Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington, and of course America's Rascal, Ilyek Kaelin, talk about the movie that catapulted Michael J. Fox to Lycanthropic Stardom. That's Teen Wolf featuring the flop house guys Saturday, February 6th, that 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific other time zones please do the math. I do not know what time it will be in the other time zones. That's fluffflophouse.simpletics.com

only $10 just go ahead and do it just come and join us. Well now let's move on to letters from listeners listeners have things to say too we've been hogging the microphone what is it what's going on in their minds Elliott you don't have I mean okay if yes worth it It's your turn listeners. It's your turn to make your voice heard. You've been listening to us yacking around Talking about mutants and all that stuff, and now it's your turn Tell us what song your mind listeners tell us to be more kind listeners or tell us to have Richard kind on the show listeners That's kind. I rhymed it with crime.

That's right, listeners. Write it and tell us what you've got to say. That's right, listeners. Write it and tell us whatever you want. Whatever you may. Listeners, it's your turn. Listeners don't be burned. Cause listeners, this is your chance to be the stars of the flop-hous.

Listeners, hey listeners don't let this chance pass you up. Hey, letters, this is your time to get the best, hey letters, this is the time. Jim Spieman write this list. To be the ones with the spotlight on you at Burns your eyes a little that's okay because now you're the star of the day Listeners right on in and tell us what you want to say to us at the flop house featuring Arnie night camp But it's Arnie need camp really Thank all right now you got the name right you got to start the song over sorry

All right, now you got the name right you got to start the song over sorry Now this was this first letters from Elizabeth last name with held who writes Elizabeth my my features You're many about prequels reminded me of an odd prequel watching experience I had my little job used to take the whole Office to the movies every summer we would would go to an 8am screening. They bought us popcorn, so did candy for breakfast, and we went to work afterwards. This was called without irony a morale event. I don't know, that sounds great. Yeah, what did they work with? A kid-based company company run by kids because that sounds amazing. Yeah, but anyway, Elizabeth goes on to say the first summer I worked there, we went to see

X-Men first class. I'd never seen any X-Men movies and knew nothing about them, but figured since it was a prequel, I wouldn't be confused. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly and was probably alone in the audience in finding Magneto's heel turn to be a shocking betrayal to this day. Yeah, I have never watched another X-Men movie because all I want from the franchises for Charles and Magneto to be best friends. Have any of you ever had a similar experience being blindsided by a plot twist that you really should have seen coming? Thanks for all the last Elizabeth last name withheld. You know this is get this is an even dumber one than usual but what remember the letter I thought it was perfectly great no no no Daniel and also and also Elizabeth don't take it personal. Data's working through some things and

I'm gonna sing about how much we love that you wrote into us. I know I was gonna, I was saying what I was about to say it was gonna be dumb. Yeah, you just insulted a listener that was dumb. Super dumb. Yeah. Okay, well, Ernie looks concerned over there.

He's like, I can't believe what a shit show operation there is. You're getting the classic knee camp glare. Okay, so I remember I watched Tim Burton's movie of Sweeney Todd, which I had. So I watched it. It was the first version of Sweeney Todd that I ever saw much later. I became like a bit of a fanatic watching three different recorded versions in one live, but when I revisited the Burton movie, like years later before I had seen it again, I found

myself involved in it and I totally forgot until like right before he kills the beggar woman that it's his wife and I have no idea how like the most obvious twist but also like I'd seen the movie before and somehow my brain had like erased on it so I can enjoy yet again and be like no no sweetie no no. I guess spoiler alert. Yes. Spoiler alert. I mean that I feel like spoiler alert for a lot of what we'll talk about here right. Yeah. Talking about twists. I mean I I couldn't think of any particular twists that have blinds to me. I'm sure there are but I often am the guy who when it looks like the heroes are about to win. I'm like great. Movie's almost. And then it turns out that this is the part where the hero's almost winning and then lose. And then you have the real climax a little bit later. And every

time I'm like, oh, there's more movie. Oh, okay. Never mind then. You hate third acts. It sounds like. I want them. It's more I want shorter second acts. I don't like the second act fake out. I'd rather just be like, guys, give me a story. Let's do it. Unless it's like a really good fake out. I'd rather just be like, guys, give me a story. Let's do it unless it's like a really good Fake out and then a really good third act. But there's a lot of there's a lot of movies where there's a kind of satisfying Fight scene and I'm like, great. Thank you movie and then it goes on to a big like Explosions and glowy things ending and I don't yeah, it's more like there's a fourth act and the thing is like I agree with you overall. I want these movies to be more streamlined

but then sometimes I will see one that I like and will be a little disappointed that that fourth act isn't there just because my brain has been trained by other worse movies to expect it. Yeah. I guess there's a movie I recommended a few episodes ago and Dan recommended hundreds of episodes ago called on the silent partner and there's a character I recommended a few episodes ago and Dan recommended hundreds of episodes ago called on the silent partner And there's a character in that who's literally like oh the bad guy's gonna kill us. Oh he won't stand for this He's gonna kill us and then that character he gets gets murdered and I was like oh this is I did I was not sure That was gonna happen and it so much more gruesome that I expected it to be so So that was gonna be kind of getting surprised by twist about you guys you know you like twists, right?

I'm I'm usually surprised by him. I feel like, I think it's because I'm a non-creative, but I'm not like, when I'm enjoying a movie or something, I'm not like, my brain doesn't click over into how this was made or what I would do in this situation. But I will say I was quite surprised by the twist. I was watching, I was in the theater, watching a midnight screening on opening night of Lord of the Rings the Two Towers.

And man, I'm like halfway through my popcorn, and I'm like, man, this movie feels like it's wrapping up, but we still got Shilob to go, right? And then those credits roll roll and I'm like, what? Where's Shilob? And then I like stand up and I start looking around. Like, we've been duped. So that was a twist that totally got me.

You know, when I saw the fellowship of the rings in the theater with my family, walking out my mother was like, I can't believe that whole movie and they never even got where they were going. That's like, no, this is the first part of the book. There are sequels and she says, that was trying to get your money. That happened to me with the fifth Harry Potter movie. I had only seen the first Harry Potter movie and then I would see the fifth one and I was like,

oh boy, this is going to be a big showdown with Voldemort and then they just kind of leave and I was like, oh yeah, there's more stuff that happens after this. After seeing the princess bride, my mother who is delightful said, that couldn't happen. There's no way Fred Savage would sit through that story. My movie that really surprised me, it's pretty obviously, it surprised a lot of people.

I knew there was a twist and actually saw it when it first opened the sixth sense. cents but for some reason it was the weirdest reason that I was distracted because I just saw in the opening credits that Donnie Walberg was in the movie and somehow did not put together that the like intruder or whatever at the beginning of the movie was Donnie Walberg because I guess it didn't look like him and so the whole movie I'm using that kind of like movie logic which is the thing that usually gives away what the ending is gonna be and I'm so distracted and be like oh it's getting pretty late but she's gonna get crazy when Donnie Walberg cheers

Yeah, yeah Donnie Walberg's the she-law of that movie. Exactly. Shit's gonna get crazy when Donnie Walberg's- I mean, that's a good rule for life, too, for movies and for life. That's true. Yeah. Okay, well, the second and final letter is from Mitchell Last Name With Held. Mitchell writes,

You guys often play up how painful it is to watch these movies and I get that you're doing a bit But do you ever sincerely regret making this a bad movie podcast if you just made a good movie podcast instead You could have spent all this time watching good movies sincerely Mitchell less than Oh sincerely the voice in my head all the time No, sincerely the voice in my head all the time Yeah, send that send that fucking message back in time dude tenant that shit back to me I was thinking about it. I was I

Obviously it's more pleasurable to Watch a good movie, but in terms of like the conversations we've had afterwards, like I wouldn't change anything personally. I watch a lot of bad movies on my own recognizance too, so maybe I'm just a glutton for it. Dan Loffin. Dan Loffin. The conversation is very similar to the one we're going to have as we're lying in our death beds, stuck in the same room. Three old turds. Well, because we all had a diet.

And old men recording this show. Dan will often send us texts and be like, hey, I had this Italian exploitation film on while I was working. And check out this crazy scene. And I'm like, Dan, you're on your own time. Just like, watch something that's going to be good. I think there is a, I enjoy watching good movies more, but I kind of enjoy talking about bad movies more.

Yeah. Well, Ernie, do you have any podcast based on Brinnell? You know, Mitchell, thanks for asking. I would say, am I someone that also occasionally regrets the premise of my podcast? Sure. Yeah. I mean, do you ever wish that you were being a proxy character? Do you, except for arbitrage process? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Eventually, arbitrage has become dirt, I guess, but aren't you? It turns into an arbitrage when it decays. Arnie, in your show, Hello, From The Magic Tavern, or do you have more Albatross decomposition bits? Well, I was gonna say that inside every barrier there to Albatross. You can continue being the stealth the only pro in the program. Arnie, so in your show, Hello from the Magic Tavern,

you are the only one who plays basically yourself. Do you ever regret that in which that you were playing like a wackier character? Like, I uh, I don't know, like, uh, like a lot of care or something. You mean a lot of the character from taxi, not the delicious food? They're similar though, right? Yeah, I mean, because Andy Kaufman was also made out of fried potatoes. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when it started, I sort of regretted playing the straight man on the podcast because it seemed like everyone else got to have so much more fun. As the show goes on, though, the fact that like we try to stay true, like everything people say is canon. We sort of try to remember it. You know, my character has actually become kind

of a weirdo anyway, like all the weird things that people have just said about me. The thing I do though sometimes regret just playing my self, like a fictional version of myself, I'm always sort of like, someday this is gonna, I'm gonna really look back and regret this, but what are you gonna do? Yeah, I mean, also your costume from live shows is pretty easy right? That is true.

When Matt Young who plays a wizard is just sweating through a giant beard and thing, and I have to, literally, I do have a costume. I do have one particular polo shirt that I have to change into before every show. But yeah, I'm glad that I don't have to put on anything more than that. I remember the one time I was a guest on your live show and I decided to wear a inflatable, uh, beholder costume. And I didn't realize that when I turned the fan off because I thought the fan would get in the way of the mic that the suit would deflate and that under the hot lights,

I would just be like a sweaty ball sack of a man. Uh, yeah, that was, uh, that was a moment when I'm like, I'm kind of glad the flop has doesn't required me to wear costumes on stage. That was so delightful. You were so great in that live show and I could not believe it when you showed up with that costume. Because it was so good. Also, I know your parents were in the audience for that show, correct? That was the first time my parents had come to any of my performances and There was a point where somebody made me roll around on stage in this costume on a fox face on a taxidermy Fox face That's pretty great and then afterwards we ran out to like you know meet the the people who'd come out to see the show

And I'm like oh, I can't wait to see my parents my parents had already left They could not face me. Oh, dear. Well, love is for long. There's one final thing, man. That's one where we recommend films that we've seen recently that we've enjoyed. And I would like to recommend a little movie called Psycho Gore Man, which

stars an up and coming young actor named Stuart Wellington as Tube Man. Stuart's freaking out. And this is a very funny gory movie as you might expect from the title. It's basically like what if these kids have a pet sort of cosmic evil sadist he's sort of like a space pinhead almost I don't know how you just grab him he's just like you know like an evil conqueror type but with a tragic backstory, and they can control him they've got, and they are just sort of, you know, Brett kids. Everyone in the movie is sort of like self-centered. Yeah, they're little sociopath kids. Yeah, so it's just

fun. Like it's, you know, someone who shouldn't have all that power having control over this evil creature that has all this power and it's a very wacky situation but it's also weirdly played pretty straight even though it's so silly. It strikes like a pretty good tone like I mean you could see like a trauma version of this right that would go way like campy and over the top. And this somehow has like the most bullshit, weird comic premise, but takes it somewhat seriously. So I really enjoyed it.

And watch out for that tube, man. He's going places. Straight into a bear. Anyone else? Stuart, would you like to go? Yeah, I'll recommend something that's on Amazon Prime. Well, before that, obviously, GoSea, GoWatch, PsychoGoreman, it's great, and it does have me playing doing the voice of TubeMan. I'd also like to recommend a movie called One Night in Miami.

It is a movie directed by, it's the directorial debut, I think, of Regina King. And it is a fictional story of the very real friendship between Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cook, and Jim Brown. And it depicts one night of them basically just hanging out in Miami after a big fight. And it is adapted from a stage play and it kind of feels like that, but it's just, it does a really amazing job of presenting for like larger than life men in a moment of like, oh, fairly in some ways, low stakes moment in their lives of them just spending time with each other. And it presents them as like, I don't know, like fully formed three-dimensional men with vulnerabilities,

but also strong passions. And I thought it was really great, and the performances are incredible. And specifically, Lesley Odom Jr. re-recorded who plays Sam Cook in the movie. He recorded a bunch of Sam Cook songs with him doing the vocals, and they play a bunch of them in the movie, and it's, they're incredible. So check it out. I would like to recommend a documentary movie.

That's a movie about a real thing that actually happened, featuring real footage of the thing as it happened. And this is a movie from 1968 that was released in Blu-ray last year. It's called The Queen. And it's a documentary about the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest. And follows the MC of the competition and also a number

of the different competitors as they prepare for it. In some ways, just as like you are there in this moment, experiencing the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest, an early drag contest at a time when there was next to no representation of that kind of lifestyle or interest in mainstream media. And it was really interesting to me to see people living in that time and without a lot of what we take for granted nowadays in terms of just even awareness of different types of people. And there's a bunch of interesting characters in of just even awareness of different types of people.

And there's a bunch of interesting characters in it. I mean, they're real people, you know what I mean by characters. And it's just something that helped me to, I don't know, understand certain aspects of the draw of drag that I didn't fully understand before. And so I thought it was really good. It's called The Queen, and it's on Blu-ray. fully understand before and so I thought it was really good. It's called The Queen and it's on Blu-ray.

I unfortunately haven't had a been a little too busy to watch that many movies, but I will recommend the first 15 minutes of the January man. Don't watch any more than the first 15 minutes because it's not it won't get any better, but the first 15 minutes are pretty entertaining and crazy. And Rod Steiger and Danny Ayello have a scene where they really both go, really go at it. And at some point you have to remind yourself, this is a comedy, but these guys are just screaming at each other. Did we talk about the John Patrick Shanley wrote the January man when we did our wild mountain time episode? I don't think we came up when we did wild mountain time. Very strange. Okay, well, the first 15 minutes, that's, you know, that's a great recommendation for our listeners who maybe have a more packed schedule than the other ones, you know,

and again, you're saying not to watch it in 15 minute bites, but just to watch the first 15 minutes and then turn it right off. Exactly. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yep, put the tape back in the box, drive immediately to your local blockbuster and slip in the return slot. I suppose take a moment to look at the poster of the January man, which is a thing, which

is the whole reason I ever even bothered to watch it because the poster was somehow burned in my mind from childhood. And it was January and I was like, I guess I'll watch this movie finally. But it is. It sure can you describe that poster for me, Arnie? It's Kevin Klein, right? Kevin Klein, he's got kind of floppy hair. He's standing in a doorway holding.

He's got kind of like a longer trench coat. He's holding up a badge. I believe. Mary Stewart. Yeah, she is standing behind. Mary Elizabeth, Mary Elizabeth, Mester Antonio. Yeah, Mary Elizabeth, Mester Antonio. I got the the three named Mary's of the eighties. No, but you're right. She's kind of just peaking around. He's like he's basically like talking to someone in the doorway.

It's not even that. There's not even that much. It's just, you any, I, it's, it's, and ask more questions than it answers. I mean, you should mention, did you mention that the door has been, has been forced down. The door is no longer connected to the doorway. I'm looking at it now and is lying on the floor

at Kevin Klein's feet, almost as if through the sheer force of the zaniness of the film, he has knocked the door down. It's also worth mentioning that nothing even vaguely resembling this happens at any point in the movie. It's not like a French door slamming comedy, right? I would like to ask you about the tone of the January man because like Is it Can eat it because I remember as a kid I was kind of interested in seeing it because I liked Kevin Klein You know and like this is around the time maybe that I would would have been like oh he's so funny in a fish called Wanda and You know a few other things and You know looked wacky, but then I think I tried to watch it and it was a pretty straight cop film. Like what is the tone?

That's the problem. I mean, I think from what I can tell, the main reason I probably flopped at the time besides just being bad was that the tone was so weird. I think, I mean, being a, uh, uh, Shanley, like he, he was trying something, it was just like Jov versus volcano, also is tonally a little strange. But it's trying. And it hit theaters in March too. And people are like,

why would I watch the January man in March? Yeah, I mean, reading the first line of Roger Ebert's contemporary review, the January man is worth studying as a film that fails to find its tone. So I think that's the issue. It's so, I mean the parts that are serious is, it's this movie about a serial killer that's killing women and, uh, but it's also like a comedy and every time you see Danny I.L.O. and Rod Steiger like being like,

there's a dude you hadn't seen that dead woman and her fake and it tell her parents and then it's like, and then it's like, let's go look at a rumpled, let's go look at a rumpled detective try to figure this out and sort of fall in love with a woman that's too young for him.

Okay. It's available on Prime. If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch it for free Yeah, if you've already watched virtuosity and Johnny Namanik Which I watched both of those last year along with lawnmower man. I went on a real kick of wood Yeah, you were you were really scared of the internet for a little bit. Yeah Okay, well anyways

All righty. Thank you so much for being here. Is there anything you want to plug here at the end? Sure, check out my podcast, a look from the Magic Tavern, a totally improvised chat show in a fantasy world. And it's great. It's great. Oh, thank you. And if you're looking for games to play

with your friends either in person someday, or via Zoom or something like that the jackbox party packs I think three is a really good collection they're all good three is a good collection and the most recent one seven I think is one of the better ones we've done nice they're very they're very fun I yeah I have come to like games more over the years knowing Stuart and our mutual friend John, but my favorite type of game still remains the sort of social party game and these are some of the most fun, funniest ones you can do I think.

Yeah, your favorite one's called Leisure Suit Larry, right? Yeah, in the land of the lounge losers. Guys, guys, I know this is kind of off off topic was not a minute but I will say that Amazon Prime does inform me that people who watch January man also watched wagon zest starring John Canyon Richard Lewis so if you liked wagon zest maybe a like January man that sounds about right well on that note thanks to our network maximum fun go to maximum fund org for a lot of other great shows. Tweet about our show, review it, let people know all the stuff that we always ask for. Thank you for doing it all.

Low these many years for us, helping us grow an audience. But until next time, I've been Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. I'm Elliot Kaylen. And I'm Arnie Neckamp reminding you that teenage rattlesnakes are the most dangerous kind. Oh no. Oh Elliot, please, can you just do a whole bunch of bullshit scatting before so I can't introduce him?

Way ahead of you. Maximumfun.org Comedy and Culture. Artist-owned, audience supported. comedy and culture. Artists-owned audience supported.