The Kristian Harloff Show - BEST MOVIES AND TV OF 2022 | Big Thing

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

Well, they year is almost over! There were so many great movies and television shows this year. Who better to join me on todays episode than Dan Murrell and John Rocha to discuss our favorites from this year. The format is fun, loose. We have a list and will talk about some of the ones that stood out. Hope you enjoy! #movies #bestof #topgun #strangerthings THANKS TO CARBON HEALTH FOR SPONSORING THIS EPISODE: http://www.carbonhealth.com OUR MERCH STORE IS LIVE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-big-thing-kh-channel?ref_id=27393 AMAZON WISHLIST: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1KPH42T0TP0PG?ref=cm_sw_em_r_un_un_djbxgIW5ZQMMg PATREON: http://www.patreon.com/thebigthingshow SCHMOEDOWN ARCHIVE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMovieTriviaSchmoedownArchives Ask Kristian questions for next time! https://facebook.com/harloff Become a Patreon of the Schmoedown: http://patreon.com/schmoedown OTHER GREAT CONTENT: REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT368qY7sfE0nKE4c04CqGvu TV REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT1LU-t2Z9AD5UJDiWW4pS_E STAR WARS SHOW https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT0XmfpbblkF9PY7uO2qhbN6 THE BIG THING PODCAST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT3KAwbzDsv6mdR-gwUiydQg FOLLOW KRISTIAN + FIND HIM ON CAMEO https://cameo.com/kristianharloff https://twitter.com/kristianharloff https://facebook.com/harloff https://instagram.com/kristianharloff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How's it going, everybody? Happy Thursday. Oh, man, it's going to be a good show. The best of movies and TV, 2022. I got two great guests here in both John Roka, Dan Merle. They're in studio with me. We're going to talk about all those things. We're going to go over this big list that we came up with, and we're going to just pick a bunch of different movies and TV over the year.

We're going to talk about it in depth. So I'm glad you're joining us here today for that particular thing. Now, look, we have a lot to talk about, but before we do, make sure, head on over to that merch store, man, we got the big thing show, we got The Sith Council, got show some class, we got all of it. We got all of it. And if you haven't already subscribed to the channel,

come on, show a little class. Will you do that? Apple Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere podcasts are found. Head on over there. Do it. All right, no more talking. Let's get to the big thing.

It's me. It's Roca. It's Dan. Let's do it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back. It's the big thing. And as you have seen,

up top, And even in that little corner right there, and you've seen it every Monday, but on this Thursday episode, really excited to be working with Carbon Health. Carbon Health sponsoring this entire episode here. Carbon Health. You know about Carbon Health.

Well, you should know about carbon health. Now, if you've been watching the show long enough, you know that Carbon Health, it's got over 120 plus locations that handle urgent care, COVID-R-SV, and flu testing and vaccinations. But what people should be looking into is how they're expanding into primary care service that include connected health.

Now, what is connected health? It's the idea that our health isn't just about our bodies, but also our mind. Carbon health providers, they come connected with mental health specialists as well. So, Carbon Health will be expanding these primary care services further in 2023. If you're in Massachusetts,

you're going to be able to access the connected care next month since it's now expanded from California to Massachusetts. Carbon Health, it's an excellent, urgent care and testing center, but don't sleep on their primary care services. We're very excited to be working with Carbon Health, we have been. We're excited that they're going to be sponsoring the show. And also, to give us this opportunity, hang out with my boys.

John Roka. Hello. Dan Murrell, the gang's back together. Look at this. Look at this. We're back. Can we stop being serious now? Jesus Christ.

Stop being serious? Cheese and rice. Do the Massachusetts accent. I like this idea. I don't have a Massachusetts. You don't have a Boston accent? What are you talking about? We have Boston accent.

Yeah, but it's like, you know, get in the car. Getting the cabin health. Get in the car. for. Cabin. Cabin. You're hopping health. Come on. Get there. All right. So this was fun because we were talking about this for all. You and I were talking about doing something for a bit. Yeah. Dan's able to.

We're still talking about it. Well, Dan's here and, you know, able to come into town. And we're like, let's do it. Let's do it in the studio. And we'll talk about the best of. There's tons of stuff to talk about. I mean, there really is. We had a, 2023 is going to be insane when it comes to movies and TV. I did a preview episode that's going up on the channel later this week, and I was listing everything out, and I'm like, what the hell? There's no, I mean, on the flip side, that's great, on the bad side, it's like, how much of this stuff's going to flock?

Because it's every week. It's like, week after week after week. It's like, people aren't going that often. It's that summer of 2019 where things right fell on top of each other the whole time. It was like, how do you even have a chance to breathe or pick of the stuff that you want to watch? So, yeah, it's the backup from things that weren't doing, like the stuff that stop production and now it's all done and it's crazy plus all the film tv stuff yeah yeah yeah all the tv stuff and all that because tv changed the game and that's that's the thing is that for 2023 is that i think that we get back into when we were in 2018 2019 before the

pandemic release after release after release and the and the business was booming and obviously nothing in 2020 limited in 2021 and 2022 started to see that peak back where you get like one major release in a month maybe two but like the big releases really just one And next year, starting like February, March, it's like, boom, boom, boom, plus, as you mentioned, the TV shows, right? So we had a lot of great TV this year. We had a lot of great movies that popped out. So we're going to start the way we're going to do it. So as I mentioned, we're going to, we have this whole list.

I'm going to throw it to one of the guys they don't know. Oh, we're going to have this list back and forth, where we're going to start. We could start movies. We could start TV. We're going to talk about it. We're talking about in depth. Now, not guaranteeing that if I bring up a movie that John and Dan might not have seen or vice versa. So we're going to start, and I'm going to start with John Roken.

Yeah. John, we're going to go, we're going to start with movies, man. You've got a whole list of movies here. You can talk about any movies you want to talk. This is the best of list, something you really, something that stood out, something you enjoyed, something you really wanted to talk about. Whatever. There was this Thai film, The Cow's Left Leg. No, I'm joking.

This is a great movie. I've seen it. It's great. I'm starting with Top Gun Maverick. How can I not start with Top Gun Maverick? I mean, I have been a massive Top Gun Defender since that film first came out back at 1980. It changed my life as a teenager. It taught me that, hey, you could find a way to be smooth with ladies and just incredible flying going on, the action, the cinematography, the late great Tony Scott directing this thing, great companionship.

And it's the beginning of Tom Cruise. So to come back 30 years later and deliver a sequel like this, when so many other sequels that have gone back or that have been delivered and there's a lot of time has passed, they haven't always worked. dumb and dumberer, I'm looking at you. This one really worked. And it gave you pathos. It gave you vulnerability. It gave you, dare I say it, gravitas to a character like Maverick, who you really didn't anticipate would be there.

His chemistry with Jennifer Connolly and bringing in who they brought in here with all these new actors that they brought in to essentially build the team all over again. It was incredible and it made one and a half billion dollars. Yeah, it started off. And remember, you know, you just said it took 30 years. and it probably could have taken two years less had, again, because of the pandemic and all that.

I remember seeing a trailer for this thing at Comic-Con in 2019 or whatever it was. Riley and I did a trailer reaction, a collider. We covered the first trailer on Screen Junkies News. Right. And then I reviewed the movie this year. That's how long it took that movie to come out.

And that's a testament, though, to Tom Cruise. Right. Because that... And there are not yet. Okay. Because at first, Tom Cruise was... he was getting pressure. Hey, man, we don't know when this movie's going on.

We don't know how long the pandemic. So we got to put this on Paramount Plus. He can do big business. He's like, no chance. Oh, good point. No chance. Because Paramount was, like everybody, was panicking going, let's put it, all of our big releases, got to put them out.

No. Tom Cruise has that type of gravitas to say, no, thank you. But let's put it out there. And what a smart decision it was. Because the thing with this movie, like, I love the first movie. And I don't necessarily know if the first movie transfers over today the way it did when we saw it as kids, right? It's a different time.

I can tell you from a lot of patron reactions and stuff. Like, people like it, but it does not. It doesn't hold over the cinema. That happens. It's a very 80s movie. Yes. And it has the tone of the 80s is what it was intended for at the time, but it doesn't hold up. This movie, I remember saying these people are like, I don't know, I don't like the first one.

You don't need to like the first one. This movie, what I really enjoyed about it was that it took, it really reminded me of why I like going to the movies. It got me back to that feeling. It has emotion. It has, like, it's got a good character. character build, it focuses, it does what Cobra Kai does very well also, by the way. It's like it focuses on the legacy characters,

but it also now puts some spin on a new generation that brings in a newer audience. I think it's a gorgeous score. I think that it's, in general, it's just a, it is one of my favorite movies in the last, like, five or ten years. I really enjoyed it a lot. The filmmaking is what I put out my list of best and

least favorite movies of the year today and, you know, so if anyone has a scene, I won't spoil it, but this movie's on that list. Right. The best list. Or favorite. And one thing that I said is there's this, you know, there's not all folks, but some folks that generate these lists, it seems like when they're looking at the movies, if it's got a budget above X or if it made above X in the box, obviously, like, well, no.

I don't include that. And it's like, well, but wait a minute. Because, like, even if you take the story part out of it, which I don't think that it's a bad story, but from a technical aspect, the craft of it, the filmmaking of that movie is incredible. sound design, cinematography, score. I mean, just on that alone,

it is one of the best made films of the year. And then you put on top of that, there's one of my favorite things about it that all these legacy sequels don't always do is, yes, you're bringing back these characters, but you give them something to do. They didn't just bring back Maverick to just be in the movie.

They didn't just bring Ice Man to just be in the movie. They have a function in the movie and a payoff, and there's a relationship there. It's an actual follow-up to the previous movie, and not just like, oh, well, we hired Tom Cruise because we want to put him on the poster. And there's growth in the character. And you see that with that scene with him and Iceman is, I mean, I cry every time I watch that scene. And his reaction with Penny Benjamin near the end when he's realizing the price of it all,

and go all the way to where he sees Goose's son for the first time, looking through that bar window, and just the feelings that are all coming back, the missing of Goose, and then wondering if he's ready to walk back into it. And what you find out when you watch the whole movie is the things he did to keep Goose's son from becoming, rooster from becoming a pilot. So there's all of that in that face. And you have to go back and watch it again to really get all the levels Tom is working. He's a good actor.

And this film proves it yet again. He's not just a movie star. He's a damn good actor. It absolutely does. And the other things are they could have easily fallen into cliches of making, well, that's clearly characters based all of that person. And that's based on the same. What they did was someone like Glenn Powell, right?

Glenn Powell was a mixture of both Iceman and Maver. Yeah, yeah. And the way that they played that together and all the stuff, and the way that they set you up on this emotional roller coaster, a couple different times, like, oh, that person's going to die now. That's just, you know, that's going to happen. Again, they need it because it's got to play the same beats, and they don't do that.

And, yeah, it's a, I think that it was going to be on everybody's list. I'm glad you brought it up first because that's one that I think is, everyone's going to be talking about it, and the fact that it's getting the Oscar buzz, and it's getting, now, whether or not it gets nominated or anything to, it's getting nominated for other awards. It's got an opportunity. Let me, let me ask you, What do you think? Does this thing get nominated for Best Picture?

I think it's got a chance. Yeah. But I think it depends on, the Academy is so unpredictable. But more often than not, they are not going to recognize the big budget movie. What do you think, John? It's interesting because I think we're in this transition phase with the Academy. Because they brought in younger people. They brought in more diverse people.

And also, they're desperate for ratings. Right. So there's a lot of that. That's big. Yeah. There's a lot of that. in. So I would be very surprised if they didn't. Because remember, the expanding to 10 was because of 2008's Dark Night, which was a popular film. This is a popular film. And don't be surprised if both

this film and Avatar the Way of Water are both on the Best Picture nominee list. I agree with you. And I think that they desperately need ratings because people aren't tuning in because no one sees the majority of the movies that are nominated minus our circle because we have to and we get access to these things. But I don't know. My dad doesn't know what the hell. certain movies are like, what the hell's this? What the hell's that? I don't know what that is. I am watching it. All right, let's shift to TV. We're going to shift to TV here and let's get to, we're going to go to Dan here. Dan, let's go to your first pick on TV. Let's bring up that list for you. It's TV and we have a lot of great TV so far. What do you got?

All right. Well, I mean, I saw it there at the top of the list and it's the top of my list. I don't watch a whole lot of streaming shows. Okay. But I tend to focus on a lot of the bigger ones. Andor. I got to talk about Andor. I was jealous that you had Diego Luna in here just because I want to ask eight million questions about Andor. Ditto. Star Wars streaming has been such a mixed bag for me. Even inside of a show. Oh, yeah. Like even inside Obi-1 Kenobi had some of my favorite Star Wars stuff of all time in it. And then some stuff that I'm just like, what are you doing? Yeah. Book of Boba Fed was half of two different, it was three different shows. Yeah. It was the prequel. It was the sequel. It was the sequel.

And then it was season three of Mandalorian. Right. Like. And never. And never Godfather like they pitch. Right. And he never ran the crime syndicate. Right. The show was about him running the crime syndicate. And he did everything except that. So it's been very hit or miss.

And so and, and, and D'R's just like, I like, I like, casting me in. Okay, whatever.

Right. It's the best Star Wars thing I've seen since a long time. I mean, it's definitely up there with, of the new batch for me, top two or three projects. But like, even inside of that,

the fact that it basically was like, well, it's set in the Star Wars universe, but this is, a show about espionage. This is a show about this person. It's kind of like how Boca Boba Fett was never about him running the crime syndicate. This show was about how does Cassie and Andor go from the person at the beginning of this show

to the person that we see in Rogue One. And then Stellan Scars Guard, that character, one of my favorite TV characters. I mean, just the conflict inside of him. And the empire, the way they show, the empire, it's not this. We've seen the big, mighty Star Destroyer's Death Star, Ugh. We go inside the conference rooms and the bureaucracy and the politics and that I loved it. I was shocked. I mean, and the finale blew me away.

The whole fight the empire. I mean, it was so Star Wars and also not Star Wars at the same time. I love that show so much. Outside of being a Star Wars fan. I love that show so much. I think you could watch it not being a Star Wars fan and really appreciate it because I think, I don't know what happened. I don't know how Tony Gilroy got this through. It's really a shock because it is so distinctly different from anything we've ever seen Star Wars.

Now, for those who might get upset, yes, there are shades of darkness, shades of surely. There's all of that, the rebellion, all of that, of that, of course. But Andor operates on such a ground level, a gritty level, a rebel level that we have not seen before. And in such a way that is just phenomenal to see the levels that they've put into all of the characters here. And a lot of people were complaining that Andor was kind of, the character was kind of boring in the first few episodes. But it's like because we had to establish this world, establish these characters, and they richly established all these characters.

What's the thing I complain about all my reviews is, don't hand me ensemble characters with no depth. I don't, it frustrates me. They did not do that here. They had 10 episodes. They were able to give you everything you wanted from Deidramiro, from Cyril Karn, from Luton, from his mom. Everything was here, and they all got their moments to shine.

You talk about that speech from her at the end. that I would put that on par with any speech in any Star Wars project ever. This is my favorite thing since Empire Strikes Back. And depending on the day, it can sometimes be above it. And I'll have to throw this in, seeing a Latino lead in a film like this,

really take the mantle. And he talked about it that this is a migrant story, an immigrant story. In our history, as Latinos, our countries, numerous revolutions, numerous rebellions, all those things happen. So seeing that happen on such a ground level and watch the journey

that they had the guts to show the journey of a guy becoming a rebel who didn't want to even take part and was happy just being a drifter who was like eking his way out in the universe, now having purpose, right? Luton says to him, don't you want it to mean something? Don't you want to do something that will leave a legacy

and taps into that thing that his mom saw when he was a child? So all of that came through and it was so great to see. It's a brilliant show and it's one of my, I agree with you. I think for me, it's, it's, the best written show. It's the best written material since Empire Strikes Back. There's no doubt. And this isn't a, I love Andoran. Mandalorian just scratches a couple of little more things in the Star Wars world than me,

but I think that as an overall written show, Andor is just so good and the acting and everything. Adja Arjona, she is so fantastic. Vicks. And so I'm a massive fan of her and what she's able to do in little things, and little things in the way they set it up, where I've always pushed back against people who say it's boring. I don't argue with anybody when they say it's slow. Because I don't think there's anything wrong with slow when it's a build. And the way that I've said this, and if you've been watching my show, you're sick of death for me saying this.

But the way that I've said this, the way that I thought what Tony Gilroy did so brilliantly was the way that he wrote this show in arc episodes. So it would be like episode, if you look at it as like fighters, right? It's like episode one, jab, episode two, hook, episode three, uppercut, you're out. And then there was like, there was one episode, I think, that stood on its own that was like the haymaker. Yeah. Right.

I think it was seven. Right. The great performance by Andy Circus and that whole thing. And you're talking about rebellion because similar to you, Dan, like when it came out, because it was announced in like 2018 or 2019. And when it came out, I was like, okay, look, I don't necessarily think, I mean, we know what happens to Cassie and Andor. I don't know how much detail there is behind it.

I said, but the one thing that could be intriguing if they go this route, because at that time I was reading all the novels. Right. And I'm like, okay, what they've doing so well in novels is they're exploring the human inside of the empire. They're exploring more of the depth within the rebellion. Are they going to do that here? If they do that, this could be interesting. And it turns out it's exactly what they did, and they made it really interesting. And as answer your question, as far as how Tony Gilroy got it pushed through, remember, he saved Rogue One. Because this is something I haven't talked about

yet that I found very interesting. I talked to Diego Luna for about 25 minutes, and I asked him a couple things about Rogue One. Never mentioned Gareth Edwards by name once. He said the director. Right. Has he met him? Right? Like, I don't, I mean, I didn't ask him on it, but he kept on Tony Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, Tony Gilroy directed Rogue One. That's why they brought him back.

It's kind of an open secret. Yeah. Yeah. Is that, I mean, and this has been a recurring thing with Star Wars, honestly, is they hired Garrett Edwards, who, by the way, I think is, oh, has made incredible. I love Garrett Edwards. I like that. But they seem to have this issue sometimes with hiring directors that just don't quite deliver

what they're looking for. And sometimes I think maybe they should have kept the director's solo. But obviously Tony Gilroy came in and, I mean, that's kind of an open secret. It's like he came in and did a hefty amount, particularly of access. You know what he also did, John? He added detail in that movie, and he certainly adds detail in Rogue One. That's why Rogue One is my favorite of the new stuff. And so I was much more excited than you two when they announced the cast scene.

Because I was like, oh my God, this is great. First of all, it's a Latino lead. But also, what are they going to show about his Rebels journey? What more of Star Wars were going to get? I did not anticipate this. Imagine what he could have done with World One if he was there from the beginning, you know, with Gilroy. So the fact that we get a second season to go jumping all these time, doing all these time jumps, I think it's going to be really fascinating to see how he holds it together.

And we may see some guest stars that we didn't anticipate popping in in the second season. Because now, although it's not a ratings hit, it is certainly, which it'll get there, I think. It already is, by the way. People keep saying, people keep saying that. And I don't want to continue your point in a second. But people keep saying that about the ratings. see, well, you know, it didn't do that. Streaming doesn't work like movies.

Movies, when they come out, they have that opening weekend, and you can start to tell, Dan, as you know, with the box office, it's, it's, you're either, you're going to be in this place. If you get a critical response off of something that you're already subscribed to, and you're like, okay, everybody keeps talking about this and or show, and I had Disney Plus, let me try it. And ratings keep going up for it. It's a very different circumstance.

Be pleased you were saying. No, just saying that all of the, in spite of all of that, it's going to work, and I think it's a path forward for, at least having this section of Star Wars exist. It does not mean, and I hated that there was this battle between the people who went to the other Star Wars, classic Star Wars, and or Star Wars. All of it can exist like it does in every universe. So let it happen. Ant Man is not the same as Iron Man is not the same as Dr. Strange to me is not the same as Black Panther. They're all existing in separate universes, and they dictate the parameters

of their universe in this universe. This is the way it has to be. All right. So, and that's, we've covered two so far. Yeah. So we're going to speed up of it. No, it's okay. There's some of that we're going to spend a little more time on than others. But one that I'm going to go to movies now, and I'm going to bring my choice up here. And I just watched this.

I just watched it. I finished it last night, and it's definitely going to be in my list. And that is Gammo Dutoro's Pinocchio. I had a chance. I've been hearing great things about it, and I wanted to check it out. I finally got a chance to check it out. And what everyone was saying is fact. The people that I was listening to is fact.

This is an emotional story, but then looking at what Del Toro does with the stop motion and the way that he is able to take into detail. You talk about detail, the detail that went into this, 15 years it took to make this movie. And everything that they did with it from the crafting and the idea between the puppetry

and the idea of what Pinocchio is, and when you compare it to that fart box that came out with Tom Hanks. Now what I will say is this. The Tom Hanks movie did. that was interesting, and then it stopped being interesting at all, was in the very beginning where they explore the loss of Geppetto and what had happened. I go, whoa, well, this is good.

Are they going to explore in this? And then it just drops, and they turn into this complete not. They do this. Deltoro does this. And it's the whole theme of the movie. It's understanding oneself. It's believing in oneself. It's understanding of who the person is, believing,

like, you know, sticking to what you are and who you are and understanding how the world works. And it's not always going to be, as Rocky says, sunshine and rainbows and all these things. And it was a relationship between father and son. There was just so much to it. And the music is brilliant. And Ewan McGregor is his best performance of the year, honestly.

There's lots of things that he did. But for me, it was this emotional. It was this Sebastian Cricket, now Jiminy Cricket. There was just these things that really worked. And I know this might be blasphemous. I think it's the best version of Pinocchio I've ever seen. I love the 1940s version. I love it.

I watched it recently. But this movie is so, He says it. And one of the things he's talking about, he goes, this is the story you know that you don't really know. Right. I loved it.

But Dan, what did you think? Did you see the movie? Did you like it? It's amongst my favorite movies of the year, too. Although the 1940, Pinocchio is like literally, top,

however many movies of all the time, top 10 maybe. But it's, this is so good. And it's, I mean, how many Pinocchio movies are they been? A hundred maybe.

And the fact that, and the fact that Giamer de Latoro was like, wanted to make this movie. The thing that shows, and I always say in my reviews, you can tell when it shows, and it didn't show, and Disney's Pinocchio, is passion.

Right. Robert Zemeckis, watching that crap box, a fart box, as you called it. No passion. Nothing. No director's stamp.

Everybody in that movie felt like they were just doing a job. And you could tell. Nobody wanted to make the movie. Disney was like, what's on the list, whatever. Let's do Pinocchio.

This was the passion behind this movie and taking it and putting it against the, you know, leading into World War II and tying in the fascist stuff. But it didn't seem weird or out of place. It was the spirit of the story. It was the broad strokes of the story. But it was Guillermo del Toro had a vision for how he wanted to tell this story. And you could tell. It wasn't just corporate obligation. Which is what the other one felt like.

And it's stop motion. God bless the people that do stop motion because there isn't any money in it. Yeah. No. It's all passion. And just a gorgeous movie, beautiful film. That's not one thing you'd say about Guillermo, right? Passion. I mean, he has that for the things he believes in, he is one of the warmest, most affable pieces of sunshine in human form that you're ever going to be around.

And the fact that he creates these horror films that can be quite effective and stay with you for years afterwards speaks volumes of the way he's able to compartmentalize and approach his work with such love and passion. And certainly hearing Pinocchio comes through. I agree with you, to an extent, I think it's on par with 1940. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which was the first film I ever saw in theaters with my mom. So it has a special place.

But the fact that this could even come close, I think speaks volumes of how great it was. I almost didn't go to the screening because I was like, oh, another Pinocchio movie, do I really need to go to this? It's 30 minutes to drive to the screening. But when I got there, it was like five people in the theater. 20 minutes into the film,

I was just blown away by what I was seeing, design-wise, artistically, the story, the emotion, and they weren't ashamed to show a Geppetto who was mean, who was rough, who was alcoholic, who was dismissive, who was dealing with the trauma of loss in his way, even though other people were trying to tell him a better way to be. And it's not- I'd say- I mean? I mean, he threw the way off.

He's a rough edge. Yeah, he's brash. Come on. But, yeah, but I hear what you're saying. I agree with you. I thought was great. And then you throw in, I thought the music, I like the songs. Yeah.

The songs were great. I heard some people dinging the songs, but you're all insane. The music was fantastic. And the vocal work, the emotional performances from every actor, from Kitt to Christoph Waltz. Oh, he's so good at that. You went to Finn Wolfart. All of it worked so well. And yes, which you mentioned, Dan, the politics, but the Italian approach.

This is an Italian approach made for a universal audience. So it's so worked. top to bottom, and I cry it three or four times. That's a great movie. That's seen by the cemetery, by the headstone. Oh, God. And Tom Kenny, as Mussolini works pretty good for me. It's so good.

All right, we're going to, um, so as we move on to the next one, we're going to go into some TV here now again. We're going to, we're going to drop into TV and we're going to go back to Roka. So John, you got, you got TV, you got a list, you got a bunch of stuff. Well, let's lighten things up. Peacemaker. Let's talk about Peacemaker for the love of God. Yes, yes, yes, yes, please. Talk about a large cock and a speedo, American Speedo.

I mean, I was so blown away. It's the original title of the show. Yes. By peacemaker. I mean, you know, I know we all get caught up in the idea of fighting woke or not woke. Well, here comes the show that's like, this is what it is, deal with it, accept it, and look at the humanity behind it. And I thought that was so gutsy and incredible to see. And having John Sina, who I did not know could carry a show acting-wise, come in and absolutely knock it out of the park.

We talk about Diego Luna. He had certainly credits. and we'd seen him do things, but leading something like this was a huge task to take on. You look at Sina with way less credits, way less experience, no offense to the WWE,

and you go, well, what can he do? Can he really make me care about this character? Oh, I didn't even like the character in the Suicide Squad. It was a bad guy, but they made you care about him and the jokes were right on the edge that were great.

The journey he was going on, that scene in the second or third episode when he is on the bed, yelling at himself and crying, and who hasn't been there who's a sensitive person, who's an emotional person who's had a terrible childhood and has those feelings of low self-worth. Though it's all going through, the mental health aspect of it all, I thought was genius in the way

they did this. And then throwing in Jennifer Holland, and I thought she was fantastic as well. And I can't remember the actress who plays Amanda Waller's daughter. She was great throughout the whole show. The chemistry from everybody involved and the Robert Patrick stuff worked really, really well because there are a portion of people who've had a shitty shity. dad. And so it's like, can you connect to that and what he's trying to do?

And that finale was phenomenal. It was good. Having Aquaman and Flash show up right at the end, genius. Dan? Yeah, ironic that James Gunn would put Aquaman and Flash at the end of the show. Who knew? Who knew? Yeah, this is a word of mouth thing because I'm kind of like John.

I like, I like, oh, I like to do a peacemaker show. I was like, okay, whatever. And then it came out and I didn't watch it. And then I kept hearing week after week, I'm like, Peacemakers, great. Peacemakers. I'm like, okay, whatever. So I caught up, and by the end I was watching it when it was coming out because it was weekly, right?

Yes, it was. And it's, yeah, it's hilarious. I mean, again, it's kind of like Andor in the sense of like, here's a character I didn't really care that much about or I didn't feel like I didn't care about seeing their own show. And then you make an actually great show. Shout out to Steve Agee. Also great for a show. Yes. Oh, my goodness.

An incredibly nice person. And I don't, it's a real quandary because looking at all this stuff that's going on. with DC is how I don't see how we get more. Right. Because I don't see how James Gunn can throw everybody else out and be like, except peacemaker. We're going to do more of that because that's just politically and everything else.

I don't know how you can do it. Exactly. I don't know how you can do it, but that sucks because I think by necessity throwing out some things, you also have to throw out the stuff that's working, which is this show. So I don't know how you get more because how do you politically, how do you even do that?

Well, what are... I think the fans wouldn't care, but... I don't know. Some of them would. That's the problem. The problem is the plan that you have, but I will say that the... But the show itself was...

I'm a little in a different place than you guys were because I love... I love the show. I love the suicide squad, right? Yeah. And it was the suicide squad that made me watch this show. Because when Sina... I've always thought Sina was fine.

And I thought he was funny in roles like train wrecked and other things, but I thought he was the worst part of Bumblebee. and I'm like, I don't know. They keep trying to push Sina as an actor. I'm like, I don't know. And the suicide squad comes out, and there's a scene with him and Idris Elba that is one of the funniest scenes

that I've seen a movie in a long time. And it's when they're going through the camp. Yeah, yeah. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. And I watched it in here, and I was just belting out laughing, right? So when they said they're doing this show,

I'm like, okay, sign me up. I want to see him. The trailers were coming out. I'm like, Look, you got me with Suicide Squad. Can they deliver? And they delivered and then some because I was concerned of like the idea of like, well, they made me not like him at the end.

I'm like, I appreciated his performance. But it made me not like him. And the way that they did that and they spun that. But also, Freddie Stroma to me was a stand. Freddie Stroma was just so good in that role. But I love the show. I'm with you guys that it sucks. They're probably not going to get a season two.

And I'm kind of with you, Dan, as much as I want to see it. I don't think it's the best move politically for them to do at the moment. And then you also have another show. similar to it, which is the boys, which we can talk about, which we can talk about in a little bit. But Dan's on the clock now, and now we're going to get to,

now we're going to get to some, we're going to get to some movies here because we got a couple more movies. Dan, you got a bunch of them up here. What do you got? We talked about a bunch of blockbusters. Let's talk about one that nobody saw.

Tar. Okay. I really love Tar. I love this movie. And I didn't think, I didn't think I would like this. Not that I didn't think I like it, but it's like,

I was really put off by the promotion. in the marketing and it was just like, oh boy, this movie looks like it's all the way up its own butthole. It's like, oh, yeah, here we go. And so I didn't, I didn't see it when it first came out. And then I tried to see as much as I can toward the end of the year. And Kate Blanchett was getting a lot of buzz. And I'm like, all right, well, I feel like to be an informed awards voter, I know, shocking, right? I feel like I need to watch this movie for at least Kate Blanchett. And it ended up being like one of my favorite movies this year. I just found it so, for me, the mark of a good movie or one that, like, I can list

is my favorite's one I can't stop thinking about. I'm thinking about this movie in a good way. And it was just so, it would be easy to go in this movie in one way where it's like, she's a terrible person, which she is, by the way. But the movie itself portrays things as, to me it was a lot more realistic in the sense of,

she's a terrible person, but at the same time, there is nuance in what's happening here. Sure. There's nuance in the world. She's doing objectively bad things, and she's being held accountable for some of them, but in the process of that,

people kind of run with it in another way, and so, okay, well, that's interesting as well, and so it's sort of this idea of accountability, but everything that also comes with accountability, but also sort of this rise and fall thing and the characterization of her, the movie kind of inducks

you into this cult of Lydia Tar as it begins, and it basically is telling you that she is this genius, that she is this, you know, art at all costs, whatever. And then it's slowly dismay Like piece by piece over the course of that movie. It's slowly dismantled.

Is that a black swan kind of vibe to it? I mean, it's not quite as like the psychological horror type thing. But a little bit more of like, you know, a look at the artist. But then it almost almost kind of like, whereas Black Swan is sort of like all about the art. And it's like how the art is the transformative thing. Tar is a lot more about how the art is, what's your language policy here? Well, you just said, it doesn't matter. This is talking about this is.

That's a chicken turk. Yeah. big thing. Exactly. This movie is much more about the art is bullshit. Yeah. And it's more about the person

underneath, the damaged, flawed person underneath who hides behind the art. Sure. And it was just so complex. And like I said, I've talked about the scene and I'm sure it's gotten,

it's one that the people talk about is like there's a scene where she's teaching a class and you have a student who says that they don't like Bach because Bach is a, you know, straight white male and misogynistic. And so I can't relate to the music.

And there's this discussion between them where it's a scene where not, Neither person is entirely right. And neither person is entirely wrong. There are some ways in which the student is completely right. Right. And there are other ways in which Lydia Tar is completely right.

And it's such a good scene. After the movie, I was reading about it. And we know that scene was done in one take. It's a 10-minute long take. Wow. And I didn't even notice it when I was watching the movie. Because I was following the movie along. That's great.

I found it a very complex and interesting movie. Well, I haven't seen this one yet, so I can't really speak on it. I know that I, like you, want to watch it because of the awards and other stuff. And John, do you get a chance to see this? I haven't seen this yet. But the way you're talking about it and the reviews I've read about it, I'm even more interested to see it now because, yes, it's time to have a little more nuanced

conversation about stuff like that we're talking about in these movies. And we're starting to see a pushback within our own community about this idea of just accepting one way of seeing these things. There's more nuance to be had. There's more ways to have this conversation and more elements need to be thrown. And even I'm having to take a look at some of these things. in a different way now because of what I'm hearing in arguments. And so I like that the movie

confronts that and deals with that with someone like Kate Blanchett who is such an incredible actress. But yeah, by the aside from story stuff, she just nails it. Yeah, just Kate Blanchett. She almost is not fair at some of it's like she should just get like every five years, just give her an Oscar. Right. Her and street. You don't have to worry about it.

So like she's just taking care of for five years and everybody else. I felt the way about Hopkins for years. Just give it to them every three years. Exactly. All right. So as we go, that's, then we're sticking it. We stayed with with movies here, I'm going to stay in movies. And speaking of never doubting and never, you know, giving someone an award because of their body work,

I think you got to just consider Cameron one of the goats of all. Absolutely. When you go to Avatar, the way of water, I have now seen this movie twice. I saw it again with my 11-year-old because a lot of different reasons. One, she's a massive fan of the first one, and I also wanted to go and I wanted to see, because when you can get caught up in that movie,

because it's such a visual spectacle that when you see it for the first time, you're like, whoa, look at the bright lights and candy. I love this movie. And I'm like, I don't want to do that again. I want to make sure, and that again, because I've gone back and watched the first avatar many times over

and really enjoy it. So I'm more of a fan of it, the first one than say like John of the movie. But like, but I, a lot of people, a lot of people, it doesn't transfer over, the first movie doesn't transfer over for some people on, like, streaming or on TV, the way it does in the theater.

And I don't know. necessarily think that this movie will transform the same way because it's just such an event in the theater. However, did it hold up for me as emotional as it did the first time? It did. And then some. I teared up in the same spots. I did the first time. You talk about what we were talking about before with family and relationships. It does that. I think it has more of an original take than the first movie did. I can acknowledge that there's a lot of things. I mean, I think a lot of movies, where people always say Fereng Gulli and Dance of Wolves and all this stuff too. But like you could say the same thing about Star Wars, Flash Gordon.

you know, Dune, whatever. But this movie had just, and I was worried about the fact that they were going to focus on the kids and take away from the main character. They did focus on the kids, but it didn't take away from anything except just it added to more of the mythology. And I was also wondering, Cameron loves the water, man, so of course we're going on the water. But it worked. And even watching like the magic of the movie through my daughter's eyes as she's sitting there and during the fish and she's like reaching out of the screen and trying to touch stuff. And I'm like, yeah, but now I'm watching it and going. and like, I know what happens here, but man, I'm going on this journey.

And Zoe Saldana, I don't know if she's going to be nominated. I probably won't, but she should. She's got such a moment, a couple different moments, but there's particular moments that just stand out. And I think she does so well. And when you go back and look at the way that these movies are made and how they've got all this shit on their heads and they're all. And it's not easy to do.

And it shows the kind of, you look at, and George Lucas is fantastic. He's a great storyteller, not the best traditionally with actors. we know that. There's something about Cameron what he's able to do. Even they have, you've got like a full computer on your head and he's still able to pull this kind of stuff out of you. This movie is a masterpiece. It really is. It's just, it's a technical

masterpiece. And it just is, there's so much to it. It's, I don't know yet where it lands on my list, but it's pretty damn high. But John, now, I know that you were, you were someone who wasn't a fan of the first movie and we spoke, I texted you after I saw it. And when I was very curious to your thoughts and we've talked since, but I want to get your thoughts on it.

Yeah, I'm not, and I rewatched the first one on Disney Plus just to get me back into the world, because I'm not one of these people that went back to it multiple times. I felt the story was a bit cliche and stolen and, you know, so I was like, I wasn't into it. The visual effects were incredible, though. So I was like, okay, at least, you know, he waited all this time. He said he wanted to wait until the special effects caught up to his vision for what he wanted the movie to be. And damn it if he didn't knock it out of the park.

I love, love this movie. I've seen it three times now. Have you really? In 3D, I went saw it in 40X. Yeah. And then I saw the one with ScreenX. And the ScreenX down in San Diego where I live, beautiful to see the movie projected across three walls.

Oh, that's cool. It's incredible, the breadth of what he was doing in his vision. And look, Cameron is a DGAF person. He does not care. He's got a vision. He is going to kick you out of his office. He's going to do what he wants to do, because guess what?

The movie made a billion dollars. already. Already a billion dollars as we're recording this. He knows that he understands the audience better than maybe any director modern director consistently has ever done. Almost all of his films have been hits and here's another one. And the special effects

are great. The revolutionary, the underwater stuff is beautiful. The introducing of the reef people was great. All of it. Bringing back Horwich was great. Stephen Lang, another person we should talk about who's a key to this movie. Zoe Zeldin, I agree with you. But also the story, and this is the thing that was missing from me in the first one. I care about the characters in this one. I cared about the connections.

I cared about their journeys. I cared about what was happening. And so for me, this works as well as it does because the story works. You can wow me with special effects as the Transformers movies do. But to go to the next level, that's what Avatar, the way Water does. And I was so surprised

at how much I've loved this film. Yeah, you know, Dan, what I thought was very interesting about this movie also is you hear some, like John who thought the first, I don't know where you stand in the first movie, but I'm sure you'll talk about it in a second, but I think what it did was people who didn't love the first movie as much. A lot of people I heard beforehand going, okay, the second one, I'll see it,

but who cares if they're going to do three and four? Those people that I've spoken to, they all want to go back to Pandora and three. Much of people who didn't like it, like, I got to see where this story goes. Now, I want to go back there. First of all, where'd you stand on the first movie and then where'd you land with the second one?

I mean, I'm one of those people that went and saw the first movie and I was like, wow, that was incredible. But I never really gave it a whole lot of thought afterwards. I didn't own it until, I think this year I was doing a movie club for it. And I was like, well, all right, I don't get it. I think the first one is, it's fine. You know, the technical stuff is incredible and it's outstanding. I thought this one was, I think that the focus was more on character, which I think was probably a smart choice. Technically, it was brilliant.

It's James Cameron. Yeah. You know, it's fine. not it's more than fine it's it's he he pushes himself so hard and i think he sometimes pushes everybody else a little too hard too but he pushes himself hard first and foremost um you know story wise i thought that it was okay you know it didn't really connect to me that emotionally on the story level i thought that it was fell into a lot of the tropes that you've seen in a lot of other movies but i cannot deny the technical brilliance of it um you know so it wasn't one of my

favorite necessarily movies of the year but i didn't not like it either and i I saw it twice as well. And the second time I was even more just, I mean, it's just the construction of that world, the imagination and the talent and the skill that it takes to think of that and assemble the team that can execute that is mind-blowing. And, you know, as a box office guy, I thought it was hilarious. It's one of the things that annoys the piss out of me is, you know.

People saying it bombed. People get people, well, no, because you'll get five times the audience. If you make a video that says Avatar is a bomb, you get five times the audience and you're never held accountable for it. Right. And I was the guy out there saying, like, are you stupid? Do you not pay attention? Do you not understand that this happens every time James Cameron makes one of these movies?

And it comes out this time of year is it comes out. And people say it didn't make enough money. And then over the next two weeks, it explodes. And it's exactly what's been going on, especially worldwide with this movie. A couple of different things with that. The first is that it was projected at first. It was projected at 500 million. Yeah.

So when it made 430, it bombed. Yeah. 430 is a great projection. That's first. I said at part one. Part two, the first avatar did not make 100 million open weekend. 77 million. Right.

There was not a movie until the Force Awakens that opened up in 100 million in December. There was no, there was no movie before that that that had ever done that. So the fact that it did it now, and now, as you said, it made a billion dollars ready in what, 10 days, it's going to continue. And the other, a lot of people, I was talking to somebody last night, like, yeah, but it still needs to make $2 billion to break even. No, it needs, what Cameron was talking about was domestic. He's talking about domestic inside of that. So it's already broken even because they also shot a lot of three.

Well, that's the other thing is people quote the budget and they're like, well, I mean, there's so much, again, it's like, it's so easy to make these like hard proclamations about this stuff. And it's like the budget was two and three, some indeterminate amount of three and part of four. Part of four, right. So it's like, it's, I mean, it's crazy that we are at a point.

Like, yes, the movie did honestly need to make a billion for budget-wise. But at this point, like to continue with this, narrative of just like, it's, I don't know. Yeah. We still gotta wait and see. People love failure, but it's like, it's like, be nice for God's sakes. Yeah. I want to throw three quick things to do. One, nothing else is going to challenge it to Ant Man of Waspantamania, which is near the end

of the festival. Right. That's right. Unopposed, basically. It just push right over Puss and boots. Poor Puss. Yeah, which is a good movie. Really good movie. It's a good. Maybe the best dreamings ever done. Yeah. The other part of this is, this was such a high wire act. Wakano forever fell apart in moments because they tried to shove too much in.

Here's Cameron establishing what you're going to see. These kids are going to be predominant in three, four, and five, while also respecting the story from one and these characters from one and fleshing out their relationships more, take you on the journey farther. So the fact that he was able to do that high wire act with both of these things, I think is incredible. And you're right. The box office situation here, and both of you are absolutely right here.

negativity sells more, but it is going to surprise so many people. I said this on the hot mic that it was going to make $3 billion. And I think if it had been before COVID, there was a real possibility to make $3 billion. Now, here's what Jeff said on the hot mic, Jeff Snyder. He hears that Cameron has already turned in a cut of Avatar 3. Awesome. It is nine hours. And he wants them to do full VFX on it.

before he cuts it down. Well, that's a dumb idea. Sorry, that's how you bankrupt. That's how you bankrupt a movie. Unless you're going to turn it, unless you're going to turn it into three and four. Right. That's what I wonder. But that's a whole different podcast.

But that's a whole different podcast. But it's a whole different podcast. I like that all. I say, don't doubt James Cameron. Exactly. That is insane. But look, I know we could probably spend four hours just along on avatar. But we're going to move over.

We're going to stick with movies, man. We're going to go. We're staying in the movie realm, and we're going to get something else. You want to talk about here? What do you got? I mean, I want to talk about Elvis. Come on.

Elvis. Come on, people. Who saw this coming? Look, I'm going to tube my own horn. 55,000 views on my trailer reacts and Elvis. I had no idea that was going to do anywhere as well as it did on my channel. I didn't think anybody cared anymore. So I was shocked when they announced that they were doing,

and I was like Boss Lerman, not really known for making a lot of money. Certainly people like his movies, but box office, I don't know. Who is Austin, Butler, boom, he comes out, and that's from that first trailer on, I was like, oh, this could be something really good. Then we got to see some of it at CinemaCon, and I was like, oh, my God, this could be great,

because I love Elvis to pieces, worship Elvis. And then this comes out and is absolutely incredible with one of the best performances of the year. I think he's going to be overlooked in the end and not get a nomination, but he is so, so cool. You don't think he's going to get a nomination? I don't know. Oh, that would be a criminal. I think he'll get nominated.

I don't think he wins. I don't know. Oh, yeah. Probably may know. It does not win. But his performance here is fantastic. And Boslerman's style in telling this story, I think too many people wanted a straightforward biopic. This is an artist.

He is a director. He's an auteur. And what he was able to do, taking you from place to place in Elvis's life. But having the moments where he has, where he's changing, where he's progressing and he's maturing, but he's realizing harder and harder how the prison that he's in with Colonel Tom Parker is restricting him more and more. and then by the end, accepting his fate in this terrible scene of resignation in Vegas that I think is devastating. Absolutely devastating. And I didn't mind Tom Hanks. I know some people going back and more.

I like Tom Hanks in that movie, man. Let a stretch. But I liked it overall. Chemistry-wise, direction-wise. The music came back to life for me in a way that I have not seen. And I hadn't seen a great Elvis film since Kurt Russell doing him in 1970 for John Carpenter. And that was TV. And that was TV.

So to see him come back and do a theatrical film like this, and Boz Lerman bring Elvis back to life and see the box office for it, things endure. There's a reason icons endure because the music or the work is timeless, Elvis is timeless, and he caught it like lightning in a bottle in this movie. Austin Butler was that movie. Yeah. If it had been a guy that was just doing an Elvis impression,

that movie would have been an absolute disaster. And I think that Boslerman did push things too far in a few places. I like his style. Mulan Rue is one of my favorite movies. but there were sometimes so it was just like, calm down. Just tell the story. And Tom Hanks for me...

The hubris on you, Dan Marl. Tom Hanks for me was just... I get what they were going for. Too cartooning for you? Too cartooning. Austin Butler grounded that movie. He kept it in the realm of believability and actual honest emotion.

And I put that movie on my... When I predicted the summer top ten, I put Elvis on my list. And I even thought I was a little bit crazy. And a lot of people certainly did, too, like Elvis, that movie's not going to do anything. And I was kind of like you. I didn't see the, you know, cinema con and stuff, but I'd seen the trailers and stuff. And I just had a feeling. Just from that look at the performance, I'm like, I think this guy is going to nail it. And he did. And I think that he is, for me, the number

one reason that movie did well was because he gave that movie a believability and a humanity that would not have been there. He was the hot ticket. Yeah, it was a parody of it. Yeah, yeah, he was the hot ticket. He was the one to because, as John said, you're looking, go, who's this? And I had just mentioned this on a show we may or may not get to there. So there's a certain character in a show that I turn to my wife and I go, who the hell is this? This is, this is, I'm watching this show because of this person now. And Austin Butler, I agree with you. What you're saying, Dan, is that he really sold like the essence of Elvis, right?

And that idea of it. And I also agree with you, John, where there's just this devastating scene as someone who's, as a performer, you know, doing stand-up comedy. And being, I remember being in a hotel room when I was not. I was not married. I didn't have a girlfriend at the time. I had nothing. And I was just going on the road. And I remember having a great set one night.

Really great set. And then I went home and looked up at the hotel. I forget where the hell it was. I might have been in Alabama. I don't remember where I was. And I looked up and I went, huh. And it was that kind of went.

And that wasn't every night in Vegas doing this. And he brought that. But it was the dance. It was the, and you said the music. I was listening to Elvis like throughout the next couple of months. I went on a road trip to Solvang with my family, and we're listening to it on the road,

and my kids were dancing to it. And yes, you're right. It shows you, if it's there, it's there. And it might, like you're saying, but maybe don't people care. People will always care if it's there, it's there. So, but yeah, that movie was great. I do think he'll get nominated.

I want to push back real quick. What Boslerman captured was the spirit of Elvis in the movie. Butler is a great performer for playing Elvis, of course. But Boslerman understood. every human being has a rebellion inside of themselves. Every human being is a little rebel. And he captured that rebellion in how he portrayed Elvis. And all of us who become rebels get older

and we realize we can't rebel as much as we did. And that's what he captures in the end. So he spoke to the humanity of that with the story construction and direction. You may have thought he'd go too far. But for me, I thought he captured the soul of Elvis along with Austin Butler, capturing the performance of who the human man was.

Well, I'm realizing this, and you guys will probably know if you saw it when I uploaded, this is a two-hour show. So we, and that's fine. No, I'm really enjoying the conversation. I feel like everybody else will be too. And I want to make sure that we don't miss anything. So I think two hours will be, will be enough for this one. Now, I will, I'm going to go into TV, and I'm going to go with House of the Dragon. Yeah, House of the Dragon.

House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, the Prequel series. And so I was one of the few people. that did not mind the last season of Game of Thrones. I wasn't making videos about how much I hated it. I wasn't doing a stance about it. I was not a Game of Thrones book person. I was just watching, and I totally agree that the first few seasons of Game of Thrones

was far superior than the last, because the last one was just basically, hey, this is a popular show, and what do we want everybody to see? And I got it, it was rushed, and I understood that, but I enjoyed it for what it was. But I understood criticisms for it. So when House of the Dragon came,

out and it was based off of fire and ice and it was this basically making the show off of a history book I thought was an idea but what sold me on it was the idea that they were going to take george r martin who's going to be heavily involved and they were going to really go off of that time period and the way that they did it and the characters you're talking about you're talking about before with development this show is so rich in character and I think one of the benefits it has over the original game of thrones is the fact that it stood into we really learned about one pocket of characters because Game of Thrones could jump back and forth in so many different realms, which was cool. But this was really all about that house and the idea.

And I thought Matt Smith was a standout, no doubt about it. But I'll tell you, Emma Darcy. I knew nothing about Emma Darcy. I just knew that they were going to be cast as the older Renera. And, man, I remember saying, well, I really like the younger Renera. Meli Alcon. Meli Alcon was amazing. I don't know, man.

And then right away, I'm gonna say, shut up, stupid, watch this. Within seconds of appearing, you're just like, okay, this, and it was everything about that. You talk about season finale. That season finale, I do reactions on this channel, and normally, and a lot of people will say, well, one of the reasons they like my reactions, because I'm not doing the big, oh, oh, I'm just, to me, I'm just reacting. Okay, look at that. I'm, blah, blah. I was out of my seat.

I'm jumping on my legs. And it was all genuine. and because I was like, what is happening in the show? And it was because I was invested. That show is pure investment. And I cannot wait for the second season. There's so many things that happened in that season that set it up brilliantly. This civil war that's going on in general.

It's a brilliant show. But Dan, you watched the show. You dug it. I did. Yeah. I was one of those people that's kind of on the fence about it. I didn't, like when the Game of Thrones ended, I was okay with the ending. It hadn't sat quite as well with me over time.

but I still am not like virulently, but I just didn't really have a desire for more. I wasn't like, I need more Game of Thrones right now. And I really likes the show. I think, you know, hindsight's 2020. And I think that there may have been some pressure either within the creative team or with HBO Max to get through the younger version quicker

and, you know, the Patti Cunt, the early Patti Cunts of the stuff with Millie Alcock because we only got them, I think, for four episodes. I think if they had known, how much people were to get connected to those actors that they maybe could have spent some more time and lessened to the time with the adult versions

but that's all hindsight stuff and I also understand like the need like well we feel like we need to get to the main thrust of the story quicker because my only major criticism of the show would be I think they did speed through and take some bigger jumps that sometimes they're like oh no I want to spend more time with that or I wanted to get to know this character better

but I think now going into season two you have a great foundation and a great cast And I think now, maybe with the performance of the show, they have a little bit more permission to be like, people aren't just going to be anxious to get to the dragons as quickly. We can spend a little bit more time on these character moments because what time they had was spent really well.

And I was, if you would have told me, how's the dragon rings of power? One of these shows you're going to love and it's going to surprise the hell out of you. And one of these shows, you're going to be like, I honestly would have put it the other way around. Right. And you wind up loving shield.

Yeah, same. Favorite show of the year. Same. Go ahead, John. Yeah, yeah. I mean, what can I? I don't know if there's much more to add to what you guys said. It was an incredible show.

They took a chance. They didn't know after the... And I had a, as you will say, if you can find it on YouTube, I had a much more stronger reaction in the finale than you two did. Because I had defended that season all the way to that episode, that final episode, I think, betrayed everything. that they had established in Game of Thrones, and I was so mad about it.

So I was nervous about this. I love Game of Thrones. I was nervous. But after the first episode, I'm like, oh, my God, they understand this. Once again, they could bring us back to the first few seasons, as you mentioned, the best of Game of Thrones. And they took their time and established these characters.

And I think they jumped as much as they did, Dan, because I don't think they knew they were going to get a second season. So they're like, let's just throw everything in here, try to make it work as much as possible. and then we'll see what we have at the end. So they were shooting their shot, and I think now that we are going to get more seasons, I think you're 100% right, Dan,

we're going to get to dive in much more. And don't be surprised if we don't have flashback episodes with these characters coming back. I think they're going to do too. I know Paddy Constantine's like, I'm not doing it, I'm not going back. I think they write of a great episode. I can see them coming back.

Cool. All right, so we're going to shift on over now. John, I'm going to give you, where do you want to go? You want to go? We want to go. We just did TV. So let's go to movies.

Let's go to movies. Let's go to everything everywhere all at once. Come on. All right. That's the one we have to talk about for God's six. Yeah, yeah. I think that was my top performing review of the year. Really?

What's it really? Literally. I have everything I did. I think that because people just, they want to talk about that. It's so funny how that works, isn't it? Yeah.

Because that movie is such a smaller movie and I remember people, I didn't see that movie until I don't you get your thoughts on this movie. I didn't get a chance to see that because everyone's like, I'm the parallel universe guy. Like that's, I mean,

I'm fascinated by it. it. I believe dreams are parallel universes, all this types of things. I'm like, I'm fascinated by it. Before Marvel made it cool. Right? I was, I was, and then parallel universes. I was into multiverses. That's right. That's right. The multi-buses. When I see multiverse now, they go, oh, that's a comic book thing. Like, no. It's not a comic thing. But yes, but this movie comes out. I took a long time to see it. It's brilliant. But John, please go. Why did you choose? Yeah, exactly. It's brilliant. It really, what a surprising movie to come out of nowhere. First of all, all Asian cast. So you're taking a chance there.

Then you're throwing in multiverses with no foundation in Marvel or DC or anything. And you're just introducing everything step by step as it goes along. But you're not forgetting that the number one thing is the connection of the family, the story of the family. They establish that so well. You bring in Jamie Lee Curtis, great stuff. Michelle Yao to lead the cast. And then Ki Hui Kwan, bringing him in from the frozen tundra to come back into the sunlight. And everybody loves him in the movie.

In fact, I got offended the other day when it started going around that Barry Kegan scene from Banshees of Inish here, which is a great scene, by the way. Him and Kerry Condon are fantastic. People are like, if there's any justice, don't just give him the award. I mean, y'all can shut up, all right. Keehui Kwan deserves that award. Barry Kagan was great, but Keehu Kuan deserves that award for what he did in that film. And Michelle Yawa as well deserves to be up there with Kate Blanchett going toe to toe all the way to the end.

The movie itself just delivers a very powerful story about family and disconnect and how to reconnect as well as introducing these insane multiverses that are not just done for goofy fun. Even with hot dog fingers, they're done to really show you the different stages of how relationships can go, the different possibilities of what can be in your life. If you just make a decision in one moment or another, what it can lead to. And I love that they brought it all to life. And then right at the end, Stephanie Hsu, the daughter,

she's so great in the back and forth with her and Michelle Yao. I'm going to cry talking about it. Just that ending in the conversation. they have, if you've ever had a difficult time with your parents, finding that piece between you two, there is no way to quantify that with any kind of wealth. It is incredible to see it so well done here in this movie. Yeah, it was, and I think that what really worked for me also was... And the visuals.

The visuals were incredible, and I think that it did a lot of... Everything that you said about family and that emotional level is spot on. But I also think that when the lure of getting the people who want to see that science fiction, I mean, it pulled on elements from the Matrix, right? It pulled on those things. I love the idea that you can tap into the multiverse and learn those skills and be able to do these things and understand. And there was so much that was going on in that and that if you really ought to lock in. And Jamie Lee Curtis, by the way, who's getting a lot of buzz and rightfully so,

what she's able to do inside of it. It's a balsy movie. It's a bizarre movie. Hot dog fingers a little bit too much for me. But I understood what they were going for. And I think it makes your Tom Hanks of the thing. Yeah, yeah. I think it makes.

sense for what was going on, but it was a couple of moments that, like, that, that when they went to that, because it is a comedy, too. It's as much as a comedy as anything else, as much of the drama. It's, it's a comedy, and it plays into a bunch of different things, but bringing him back Kehukon, I mean, what he's able to do in that role and that opening, that scene of him ultimately being the one to let her know what's going down. And us, too. He lets us know, like, oh, that's where we're going with this. It's a brilliant movie. It's, it's visual. It's, it's visually incredible. So I think it deserves the praise that it's

gotten him. Do you think it wins best picture? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it was a, I don't know. I think the academy is still old. I think a large portion of the academy is still old. And I'm not saying that older people won't get the movie.

I just think that it's a little out there for older voters, some older voters. And in a year where it's weird, a lot of the quote unquote awards movies actually fell short. Yeah. Empire of Light. Babylon. Armageddon time. Like movies that just aren't getting

that buzz, so I think it does open the race up quite a bit. It wouldn't be the most shocking thing in the world, but no, I don't think it wins. I do feel like we went through a wormhole though, like seven or eight years ago because it's like, I feel like if it was back to the future and I was Doc Brown and I was asked at the time travel, it's like, all right, future boy,

who's the lead runner for Best Supporting Actor in 2020? And they're like, Ki-Hi-Quah! Short rounds? Right, right. Data? It's so, yeah. So unbelievable. And it's like, and I said to this when I was talking about it on my channel. It's not like one of those things where it's like you had an actor who came back and everyone's just like,

give him the Oscar. It's a great story. Both him and Brendan Fraser this year. Oh, yeah. Yes, it is. But if either or both of them were to win, it's also, apart from that, 100% deserve. 100% because their performance are so good. He wasn't as in the obscurity as they were.

But I would say John Gibraltar when he was in Pulp Fiction was similar to that kind of. Ron, but Dan, overall thoughts of the movie in general, and then we'll move on to your pick. I know, you guys all said it. I just think it's really interesting that we've had in the last, well, they were released in the same calendar year. Three, what I consider to be, outstanding movies about generational history inside of non-white families. We had in Conto, we had Turning Red from Pixar, and then we had everything everywhere all at once.

And they all three, I thought, were so richly told. And again, when I talk about perspective, and it's important to make movies from different cultural perspectives because, you know, the interactions and families around the world are different from the interactions and other families around the world.

And to see three stories like that that were brought to life so beautifully, I think was so refreshing for me because it just brings you that extra perspective. Yeah. You know, because I don't come from that back. No, no, totally. And that's why if you see those movies.

And if you push into TV, I think that's why I enjoyed Ms. Marvel so much. Same. The family stuff I love. More than super. The hoopier or stuff, I was like, yeah. I wanted more of the family stuff. Yeah, I agree.

But I don't know. That's on, that's potentially on the list. We'll wait. Well, Dan, so let's go. We're going to go stay with movies here. What do you got? Well, I mean, John, you mentioned it briefly, the banshees of In and Sharon. Yeah, man.

One of those movies that I think the title might put some people on it. But it's so, I mean, I love Martin McDonald's. And Bruges is so great. Brendan Gleason and Colin Farrell is such a great team. My family has Irish heritage, and so I was brought, up with an appreciation of Irish history and Irish, you know, not as necessarily like versed in it because there were a lot of historical metaphors and allegory in this movie that I didn't even pick up on when I first saw it

and it's interesting to read about, but just an appreciation for that culture. And it's hilarious, it's dramatic, it's a movie about a guy who doesn't want to be friends with another guy anymore. That's literally the movie, but it's symbolic of so much else. And I just, it's not a movie for everyone. but I loved it so much. As a purveyor of Irish cinema, I was so, from the first trailer,

I was looking forward to this one. And the studio reached out to me when I did my trailer reaction and they were like, my God, thank you for doing something to highlight this film because they knew they were pushing a boulder up a hill with this small story set in the past

that is a microcosm of the Irish Civil War that happened after they fought off the Brits and they fought within themselves. and then having all the, yes, you're bringing back Brendan Gleason, Colin Farrell, but I mean, neither one of them are, you know,

going to lead a film to a box office. So all of this stuff, plus you're bringing Carrie Condon in which I thought was great, and Barry Keegan in a smaller role, it's the acting, it's the writing, it's the character, it's the nuance,

all of it that's here to enjoy. The dark humor of Irish films is there from moment one, and Dan is absolutely right. If you're not into that kind of humor, you're not going to get this movie. But if you are into it, this movie is going to work for you on so many levels.

And I saw people like, choose sides, which is kind of opposite of the point of the movie. But I saw people choose sides. And I'm like, this is fascinating because it is so, so well-acted, well-directed.

And there are some painfully devastating scenes between some broken people on this small island with Barry Keegan and Colin Farrell reacting to these things. And also the idea of Brennan Gleason doing what he does.

to himself as a representation of how deep into his psychosis he's gone in wanting to separate himself from this person. So everything you guys said, I agree with as far as performances and I think it's gorgeous. I think that and the humor I understand it for sure. I'm just at that level right now. So every time someone says, what's a movie that everyone loves that you're like, that's this one? I don't know. It's like, I think it's a really brilliantly directed film.

Colin Farrell. And this movie is made like without knowing anything. I wish I would have seen it way before anybody else did, right? Because this movie is essentially made for me because Brennan Gleason and Colin Farrell, some of my favorite actor, Brendan Gleason from Back for Braveheart. And Colin Farrell, I think is one of, even though he's a celebrity and he's a star, I think he's one of the most underrated and underappreciated actors out there today. And I think that everything about it from when they were in the Bruges together and all this stuff.

And I'm like, okay, this and Barry Cook, I think it's like Keogun. It's Keogne. Oh, is it Keogne? I had to look it up. Yeah, it's, if I get a syllable, literally if I get a syllable wrong. You hear about it. Yeah, same, same. I apologize to everybody.

Yeah, but he and he's just one of those up-and-coming guys that, you know, even from Dunkirk, I remember seeing him. Yeah. But it's something about it. Like, my wife, it's just not for her. She's like, I'm done. And she left, she left like 45 minutes into. She's like, let me know how it ends. She made it 45?

Maybe, maybe even 45. It was when you just mentioned the Brendan Gleason thing when he did it, when he did this that thing the very first time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's like, I'm done. And she walks, she goes, tell me what you think. Because I had told her, everybody's raving about this movie, got all these nominations. And she said, all right, let's watch it.

And she's like, well, what did you think? And I go, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I loved it. Yeah. I enjoyed watching it. But it's not going to be one for me where, I mean, Koi was like, it's on you guys. number one on your list. It's like, and it's like,

what am I missing? Hearing the points, I get it. But I think for this particular thing, it just didn't land with me the way it landed with everybody else. It's subjective. Yeah,

it's subjective. It's a good movie, though. I understand that. It's a good movie. It's a good movie. Just didn't land for me. Yeah. All right.

Speaking of which, what did land for me? If we're going to go into, everybody talked about it. Yeah. Okay. So we're going to go into TV now. Go back into TV.

And I'm going to bring this up because there's only two episodes into it. I'm bringing up 1923. Wow. It's only two episodes in, but it's a very special show. There's something about it, and I made this point the other day, and I'll make it again here today. Movie stars don't sell movies anymore, the way that they used to back in the day when we were kids. They don't.

But movies stars sell TV shows, and they get ratings for TV shows because of what we just talked about before. When you are subscribed to a platform already, whether it's HBO Max, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, whatever it is, If you're already subscribed to those things and you see Paramount Plus in this case and you see Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Well, I'm subscribed to that. I'm going to check it out. Or if you're not, you might pay the $499 to see a series for at least a little bit with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. And that was the show I was talking about before. I don't even have the guy's name yet, but we will know it.

And this will be one of the last times I ever forget the guy's name. There's an actor who plays Harrison Ford's nephew who is on the African Plains at this point. This guy is going to be the guy that people start. going to for these roles. He's got that machismo. He's got that thing. He could have played solo. He could have played Indiana Jones.

I never even seen this guy before. He's just that guy. He's got that thing. And when you watch this in episode two, is where he really shines. But the show, and I'm not, I don't watch Yellowstone. I've watched like maybe four episodes

of first season liked it, but it's in 75 different places you've got to find. I know, and people tell me it's on Peacock, I'll eventually get to it. Paramount Plus. It's not. It's not a paranormal plus. It's all over the place.

1883 is on P. The reruns are on Peacom. The new ones are on Paramount. They're all over the place. They're all over the place. So the other one, so what's it called 18, 18, what? 1890. 1883 is on with Sam Elliott, right?

And that's another one I didn't watch. But as I was just mentioning, Harrison Ford, Helimer. I'm going to check it out. It is two episodes in, but we're just talking about the best of 2022 so far. And I'm loving this show. I am just on the edge of my seat watching. My wife is really into it. We watch it.

It's got everything for everyone. There's a nice moment in the end of two that I was like, I reminded of like the romantic movies that my wife loves. And it's just, it's a blend of these different things. And it's brilliant. I really, if you guys haven't had a chance to see it yet, right? No.

I'm not inducted into the Yellowstone universe. But this is a way that you might, because it's a prequel, I don't feel like I'm lost at all. Like I know the Dutton's. I know the Dutton's. I know what we all follow. But that's basically all you need to know. I mean, I mean, because I was told by other people,

well, yeah, well, that character is somewhat, connected to that, who cares? It doesn't take away from anything in it. Maybe eventually if I go back and watch, I go, ah, you know, but this, but for what I'm enjoying right now, I love this show, but this will be the shortest segment so far because I'm the only one to watch it. All right, now we'll go.

You talk me into it, though, because I quit on Yellowstone during the second season. It got too soapy. My brother did too. My brother did too. My brother bailed on it, on it, but this is not a soapy show. Okay, good. This show, and maybe it gets there, but this show is awesome. All right, we'll go back to John, John, where you want to go?

TV? I guess TV. All right, where do you want to go? What do we got here? I see like, press your luck. I know, right? Well, look, we might as well talk about Miss Marvel, right? Yeah, go ahead, please.

I mean, this is, I didn't know what to expect from this phone. Look, we're three older dudes talking about this show, but it worked, right? It absolutely worked for the most part. Loved everything about the way they presented this character, the way they established the family, the way they established her desire to be a hero. because the Marvel universe now has to operate in the reality that the Marvel universe exists with in its own reality. So how are people going to react to it?

So having her come in, especially as Comic Con, has already been established in the comics and people had high expectations for what to expect here. It was a hell of a task that they took on. And I think they, for the most part, absolutely knocked it out of the park with the performances,

with the connection with the family here, with the way they developed her role as she was going along in the show itself. and I liked that it was a new style of direction, a new approach to telling this kind of story. I thought it was inventive. It asked you to catch up. It did not waste time making sure you caught up.

It kept going and you're going to have to catch up. Get all the slang words, get all the code words, get all the anagrams, get all the stuff that they're throwing in as visual stuff. They're adjusting the camera, moving stuff around. Oh, they're taking you into multiple universes, dimensions, and also messing around with presenting new characters that are going to pay. dividends down the road and new villains that are going to pay dividends down the road. And I thought they just absolutely got it right. And I was really surprised by it because I did not go in expecting

much and I was blown away. Yeah, same. So for me, I didn't know enough about the character. And it was when I saw it, I was intrigued by it because I was intrigued saying, you know, this is going to be a show I can watch with my, with my 10 year, then 10 year old. So, and I saw the Scott Pilgrim stuff and I'm like, this is going to be a fun show for us to watch. I'm like, I don't necessarily think this is gear for me. I didn't watch one. episode with my 10-year-old. I watched the whole thing by myself, and I loved it. And what I've said over and over again is the fact that what I learned a lot about was not, it was, and I agree with you, it's the family stuff more so than the superhero stuff that really played. But I also learned

things inside of the Muslim culture that I didn't know before. But it was inviting. It was inviting. And it was accessible. Yes. And it did, it didn't make you feel like you're on the outside. I said, learn. And I learned. And I wanted to eat everything that was on the table because it was so delicious that when that family had that food and the dinners had, I'm like, please, give it to me. But they didn't shame you for not no. No, that's what I'm saying. I felt it was inviting. It was inviting on how they did it.

And it was like, they was teaching you, but it was inside of the family dynamic of what I could relate to. And I think she, by the way, the actress who plays Kamala is so wonderful. And she just has. She's fantastic. She has, she is going to be, mark my words, whatever. Everyone is talking about in the Marvels. Sorry, B. Larson? Maybe.

And who's the actress who plays Rambo? Oh, Tiana Paris, I think. Yeah. Nothing against both of those ladies. I think they're really good. She's going to steal the show. I saw just a brief thing from D23 that they showed of that trailer. It was, I was a two, three minute trailer, whatever it was.

She's got one, this particular scene where she's in space. And they show both, they saw all three of them. It's the only thing I really remember as much because she just does this. got that thing. She's so likable. She's funny. I believe everything she's saying. And I think that the Marvel's franchise should go with her. Even after the Marvel's, I think you focus. I think she should be the Cat the Marvel. I watched Captain Marvel the other watching that. We're doing a rewatch. I think Bree Larson is great in movies like Room and the other things. It's a little kind of acty in this. When I go, like there's a couple things she's doing. She's doing that thing.

I've been calling Chase Face lately. She's just this thing. she just kind of go, well, she goes, and she comes after you. It's like, a lot of this stuff going on. Hmm. Huh. And I was like, no, just, just, no. But I think, anyway. I think there's a better role in the Marvel universe for Bray Lars. In the Marvel universe?

I think down the road. There's a recaster. He moved past something. There was a better role. And I wonder if they'll ever find it in the future. Because she's such a damn good actor. She's great actors. I just don't think this is the role.

I don't know. I wonder how much was direction. Yeah. Could be part. Because there have been other actors that. that Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson, for example. I think that she was all right in Iron Man too. Right.

Then they gave her character more. And I think that that role grew. So I wonder how much of it, because if I said that, Brie Larson, I think is a really, really good. Really good. Yeah. I just, I, I understand the intention of her character in Captain Marvel, but I feel like there was a vision for it that didn't quite translate.

But Amon Valani, I, which is awesome. I don't ever want to hear somebody say. If they don't watch a movie or TV show because they don't think they can relate to it. Because if it's well made, then you can't. Because that's what storytelling is. I've never been to space. I love Star Trek.

I can't relate to what it's like to be on a spaceship. You fly around in the galaxy, but you make a show that makes me relate to it. There's always elements you can relate to. And that's why the one thing that I talk about is like, you know, it's sort of become, it's one of the most important things in Hollywood, and it's also become a buzzword, diversity, inclusion, and representation. It's incredibly important, and we've seen so much extra. and I'm the most perfect person to talk about this.

Truth. But I think that that show, I will always say, is a perfect example of what I think that really means, which is to take a cultural perspective from someone and a team who understands that life, who translates it into a movie. It's not, you know, I think that some studios use it as a marketing gimmick. A hundred percent. It doesn't feel forced.

It doesn't feel forced. It feels unauthentic. It doesn't feel forced. It feels earned. I was so fascinated by the dynamic in that family, their history. I didn't partition. I didn't know anything about that. Everything that was about that I loved.

And then she would fight some bad guys and I was just like, uh. Right, right. It was more about the family that man. I'd seen that. Uh-huh. And I hadn't seen all of these great characters and that rich family. I just, I really connected to that part of the show.

And she, I agree. Like the reason I'm excited about the Marvels is her. It's her. Wait until you see that scene. She's going to win you over. She has a confidence beyond her years. She does.

She does. Yeah. All right. So we'll go to Dan. So Dan, Let's go to the movie realm, man. Let's go back to the movies, and let's see,

we'll pick some... We have not talked about it. We have not talked about a few. We're never going to get to all of this stuff. So let's see. Oh, holy. There's a lot. There's so much to talk about.

Let's see. Let's talk about Nope. No, we have not. I know that some people were let down by it. For me, it didn't gel as much as Jordan Piel's other two films. But I really enjoyed it. First of all, I think when you're talking about growth as a director,

technically. It's one of my, it's maybe my favorite use of IMAX this year, but it's not like Avatar and it's not like, you know, these movies that are like shot on IMAX. It's he, as a director with his DP, he understood

the possibilities of the size of the frame. And there are scenes that's just the farm and the sky. But Jordan Peel, in constructing the movie, knew that with that size of frame, you can make it so that you're looking at the, you're trying to find the ship or the thing.

You see a shadow over here and you're like, what's that? It was such a smart, brilliant way of using the format. And it also had me, like, there's a moment in a, there's a scene where they're in the stables. And it's, there's something that happens. It's not even the thing that you're worried. It's a total, like, but it was horrified. It was like, I was literally going like, no, I said the name of the, I said the name of the other. Nope.

And then to bring in the idea of... I think he does too at that point, too, by the way. To bring in that idea of this aspect of film history. Yeah. And the idea of a cultural appropriation starting at the very inception of motion pictures as an art form. And then on top of that, the alien stuff, I mean, like I said, I think there was a big criticism for the movies that had so many ideas that it didn't all quite come together as well as his other two. films, but I also think that it's somewhat being underrated because I thought that it showed so much potential, not not that potential, but so much growth, um, directorially, especially on the

technical level. And also, by the way, the characters, um, were so just, like, you understood Kiki Palmer and, um, Daniel Kaluya and that relationship between them. And that moment where, like, they just get super excited about the, and I mean, it's just like, you understood that, the crazy, uh, cinematographer that was coming out to capture the impossible thing. Michael Wincott. Oh, I loved bringing him back, too. He was bringing him back. The crow and the doors.

It's really good at the doors. I think that it's sort of suffers from comparison to his other movies, but I still think that it was a really, really, really, really strong movie. He is Wells. He is Orson Wells. He has come out, and I know people go, oh, he has come out with a film that was so good in Get Out that everything he does will be compared to him for eternity. Shaman.

Shaman did too up top. Yeah, but I'm much more. faith with Jordan Pee. And I think what he, what you have to understand is you're watching an artist grow and you're watching an artist take swings within the construct of what he's created. And that's what Nope is. And I loved it for that. And Dan, it's great you point that out. Didn't even think about it. But that's how he viscerally brings you into the film by making you look to the left and light of the screen. It's brilliant how he just kind of immerses you in it. And I loved it. And again, cultural appropriation is absolutely correct. The way, again, he does it with every one of the

films. It's not teaching you. It's just showing you this is what happened. This is what it was. It's if you want to explore it, you can. And I love that he does that. But he never loses the connection between his characters. Even in us, I liked us for what it showed you about that family. Here's same thing and what they're going through. And the faith they have in each other, right? And what happens at the end, really, that moment between them at the end. Oh, so devastating. But still having the humor of the guy coming in, putting up the audio visual equipment, man, still not losing the humor within the madness of this darkness

and the horror images. And you're right to bring him to that stuff in the thing. But also what happens, the stuff falling from the sky like, what is all of this? That one shot that was inside. Yes. That was like 10 seconds long was maybe the scariest thing in the whole movie because you see this reality of what's

happening. It's these little things. You're watching a genius filmmaker. Yeah, well, so I can't disagree with any of that. I think that the filmmaking in general what he's done And as we were talking earlier, there's really no movie star right now, but there are a handful of directors that will get you into theater

without knowing anything about what their movies are about, right? I think like Nolan is somebody, Tarantino, Scraese. Edgar Wright for me. Edgar Wright. Eric Arroy Astor now. And Jordan Peel, I think is, well, Jordan Peel doesn't, you don't have to, you didn't even really know what this movie was about

until whatever was coming out. People started guessing it was about aliens and things. But I did, and I think that I agree with, I do agree with what you said. I think he's guilty by comparison or whatever. Because I didn't love this movie, but I can't disagree with anything you said about the filmmaking aspect and the idea that he's taking swings. I just didn't respond to the story as much because as you mentioned that barn scene, that's where, I know the whole point was not go that way. I wish they would have went that way because if they went, because that shows up and I'm like, whoa.

I'm like, and then it turns out that it was just kind of a misdirect and what it really was, I was like, it was very twilight zony. And I think that's what he was going for. but cannot disagree with the relationships and the acting and the filmmaking process? Is this the story for me, as we were talking about previous things? It didn't get me. But it didn't take away from the fact that what is he doing next. I want to see what he is directing next because every time he does, it lands. I also think that Barnes scene is him showing.

I could do this if I wanted. It's so easy. Yes, absolutely. And so that's what he wants to do. No, I know the point. I know. I know. I got it.

But I will say this about bar scene. One last thing. arguably maybe in the top five top three greatest horror scenes of the year and it was a misdirect Yeah It was terrifying It was terrifying

All right so I'm gonna go now And I'm gonna stick with movies as well And where I'm gonna grab I think that I'm probably gonna go And go with hustle Okay Hustle's a movie that I don't think enough people saw I don't think a lot of people

Guilty Because people I think right away We're thinking that it was gonna be just another Adam Sandler Netflix movie, you know, and it was one of these movies that people didn't understand what was going to be. And I think that when Adam Sandler really turns it on inside of an acting performance and he can go, this is a combination where there's some humor in it, but it's not, it's not about that. It's, it's, it was, it's a nice story about the fact of where he is, um, as, as a scout. And he has, and Adam Sandler has a, uh, a love for basketball.

He always has. He goes and he plays, he just goes, plays with random people all the time. And there's videos about it happen. time, but it's about a scout that is, you know, he was attached to, um, who is the, who plays the owner? Do you remember, John? No, I don't know. Oh, no, it's Robert Deval. Oh, yeah, right. Oh, that's right. Robert Duval. Robert Duval, Robert Duval plays the, uh, plays the owner, and then Ben Foster is the, is the owner's son. And he's sent down on the road and he finds it, and he's just, he's broken down and he's, he's married to Queen Latifah, and Queen Latif and him have this great relationship where she's supporting him and he's going on. He's got to go out on the road

again as a scout. He thought he finally couldn't do it. And he goes out and he finds this dude. And I can't remember the actor's name, but he's a player that was... Heardin Gomez. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was really good too for some of it. And it was just, again, a movie that I watched with my wife, not knowing anything about it and just felt good after watching it. And I, and they're starting to get more buzz on Sandler's performance as of late. And I'm glad, because you mentioned Jeff Snyder the day, who said, I thought the performance was great, but why are people talking about him now? I said, because it was a great.

performance. It's one of those performances that I'm glad isn't getting looked over because it looked like it was going to. I just think it was a very special movie and I watched it at a time when I just watched everything everywhere all it wants. I'd watched all these movies and I said this movie's going to land for me in my top ten because it's just so

it's just so enjoyable but you didn't get a chance to see it Dan's you see it John? Yeah, yeah, so I didn't get a chance to see it I just... You chose not to. Yeah, we watched other stuff. I don't think he's one of the most disrespected actors. Yeah, I'm telling you watch this movie, dude. I'm telling me he's He's really good in it.

Two things can be true. Adam Sandler is one of the most disrespected actors working today. And he's made some of the worst movies. 100%. Yeah. Let's play Twister with your sister. I mean,

I mean, he turned Pacino into an ad man, which I thought was great in Jack and Joe. But yeah, I mean, this is the thing about this film that I think works so well. This is his reign over me after Punch Drunk Love. People, because they're so caught up

with the uncut gem stuff, I think they looked over hustle. And hustle is a fantastic performance from him. But also the weight he connects to that family as a way to reconnect himself back into his own family, his own relationship, and where he's at in his life, you know, you work a job long enough, you become cynical, you just become so caught up in the job and the parameters of the job.

You don't say. You forget that there's a human aspect to it all, and that you are a human being, and there are things that you have not come to terms with or not resolved within yourself, and something happens if you're fortunate to trigger that in you, to go. on that self-exploitation. And I think along with him helping him helping this guy's dream come true, he in a way kind of reinvigorates himself, kind of like city slickers, right? I mean, he has to go find his smile.

He went and found his smile in this movie. And I think, you're right. Because I hesitated on the film for weeks. And then finally one day a friend of mine was like, dude, you're a basketball fan. Why the fuck haven't you watched this? That's what Dan said, though, because the problem is that you just, it's like a crapshoot with him sometimes. Yeah, oh, no.

But I'll tell you when it's not a crapshoot when he's doing dramatic roles. How many of his dramatic roles? How many of his dramatic roles have you gone? Now, that one wasn't good. I mean, he hasn't done a ton of them. Even Spanglish. Spanglish wasn't that great in the film. But he's really good in it.

He's good at it. He's funny people, which is 45 minutes too long. He's good at it. But he's really good in it. Anytime he puts this dramatic, because you can tell him, I don't know if you've had a chance to meet him, right? He's a sweetest guy in the world. That's what I hear.

He's a really nice guy. Yeah, we had lunch last week. But you've been in the, but there's people that you've met inside of the space. But there's people that you've met inside of the space. a lot and he would do and he just was very humble, chill, but he's got that thing in general when you meet him, that's the guy

that you're seeing, that likable guy, and there's a reason why he succeeded and he's got his friends around him and all the stuff because that's the guy. When you see the guy that you like on, and even when you cut into something like uncut gems and he goes that dark, right? There's a reason why he can tap into that

and it's a reason why the comedian is always the sad clown because you're able to do that And that's why I thought is one of the more unappreciated movies. Please watch the variety conversation with him and Brendan Fraser. Oh, yeah. It was 30, 45 minutes of some of the best conversation. I saw a little bit of it. But John, we're going to go.

So let's go, let's go TV, John. Yeah, let's go to TV, yeah. What do we got left here? There's tons. Tons of it on there. We've got TV, some certain things. You want to talk about the old man? Did you guys see the old man?

I sure did. I sure did. Go ahead. Let's talk about coming out of the cold. Jeff Bridges overcame. it leukemia or something that he got it he found out during this to film me that's why he was so sure got you during the film he found out he had this and so to see what he was able to do with this character and come back and remind people yet again and you bought some earlier

either on camera or off camera this idea of stars now can sell tv shows over movies this is where they work and jeff bridge is coming in with a show like this i cannot recommend it enough to you dan if you haven't seen i'll tell you why and even more so it's one of the best performances of his career. And bringing in Amy Brennan, who I am seeing and forever.

And having their chemistry, go ahead. No, she was heat. Yes, she was heat. Exactly. They had a similar role in this.

Yes, yes, yes. You could be faulted for thinking. With a twist. With a twist. Exactly. I love to turn NYPD blue.

That's a wiper star. So to see her still keep doing her thing, but to see the breath of this and then John Lithgow, get reminded that John Lithgow can deliver heal or evil stuff

when he wants to. He's got that within him. It's so incredible to see this. and it's great writing, the pacing of it totally works, the drama and the tension, and who is, what's her name from, his daughter? Yeah, his daughter. She was in Arrested Development. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I loved her in Search Party, the five seasons of Search Party. Oh, Alia Shaka. Yeah, Alia Shaka. She's fantastic. She comes in here, and her role to play in all of this is fantastic. You don't know which way to turn. You don't know who's telling the truth. You don't know what's going on half the time, and that's the genius of it,

and going back and forth in time to connect Afghanistan, to present day and what he did. And the actors, they got to play the younger versions of themselves. Incredible as well. It's crazy. So it's got a great breath to it and fantastic writing. Great tension. I agree with everything that John said.

And I think that when you're watching it, if you choose to watch it, the realized that it's a very abrupt ending. They are making a season two. Oh, my God. We thought there was another episode. But it's because you find out it's because they found out that Jeff Bridges was sick and they had to just cut it short. And it's clear as day when it's,

when it's cut because it's not a season finale. It's just like we had to stop filming. But one of the main reasons that this show got me so excited for Star Wars skeleton crew because John Watts is a show running that director.

He directs the first two of the first the whole season's great. The first two episodes are arguably the best of this show. It is intense. It is some of John Watts' best work. I think he's done some great stuff. This is some of his best work. But everything that John just said, there's something about this character, what Jeff Bridges

is able to do and just, yeah, in general, but you... And you got to watch my show, and you move it into this position, you're like, oh, and there's so many of those oh moments. And it's not even as black and white of John Lithgow being, because John Lithgow there's a lot to them. There's a lot.

It had like, it almost had like a if 24 didn't have to be 24 episodes, right? If if you had that kind of character, but it's, he's got like an old kind of Jack Bauer ish thing too but in seven episodes so it's a brilliant show i'm glad john brought it up but um all right dan let's go back to movies now because you've seen tons of movies i have seen tons of movies let's do

some movies and a handful of tv shows yeah um let's see this it's it's like a paralysis from just so many different different different different picks you know what let's talk about because we yeah we can talk about the baby we're talking about the batman let's talk about the batman let's talk about the batman let's talk about the batman batman yeah so um i've seen many i've seen literally every batman movie. My channel earlier this year, I reviewed literally every single feature length Batman movie ever made. That's awesome.

Animated everything. And I really, I was kind of, I mean, I was looking forward to this movie because I love Batman, but I was also like, what do they do? What are they doing? Yeah. I love what they did with this. Yeah. It's, I get why people didn't like it, but we've done so many rounds of Batman

is the, is the, you know, dark guy skulking in the And that's where we started this movie. He's literally the hero skulking in the shadows. To have a movie, the ending of this movie is kind of the anti-dark night. Sure. To have a movie where we end in the place where Batman is the symbol for goodness.

And he's basically saying, I've lived my life in the shadows. And I've realized that that only creates more darkness. Like, I need to be the symbol for what is possible. Like, I love that. I love the idea that moving forward, we're going to have a Batman that is a symbol to Gotham City of anti-evil and the fact that he is there to combat the darkness, not be the darkness.

I understand why a lot of Batman fans were like, I don't like that. Because that's traditionally the Batman that we've always had. And that's where we start this movie. But we're actually seeing growth. We're seeing growth in this, and that's the other thing. This is this version of Batman. You're not saying every version of Batman is this.

You have a Batman here with Robert Pattinson, who starts out the movie, literally just hiding in shadows, doesn't take off the eyeliner, doesn't want to be seen in the real world, doesn't care about Bruce Wayne, doesn't care about the charity, he only wants to be this avenging angel

and just punishing people, punishing himself at the same time. And there's actual character growth made into this movie so he realizes that he needs to be an actual hero to this city. And, you know, I wasn't crazy about the Riddler. Paul Dano either very much did work for me

or very much did not work for me in the role. But there was a lot about this movie. Colin Farrell, MVP year. So good as the penguin. I'm really, I know that they had Barry Keone in the movie and he's the joke. I'm really hoping that they're not just going to do Joker for the second movie because it's like how many times can be doing it. But I mean, like, how? Maybe not. Maybe the third one.

Maybe. Yeah. But it's, it's, I really love where they're taking this. Yeah. And like this whole direction of the Matt Reeves universe, I'm glad that it wasn't incorporated in this. Right. Because otherwise from this would be alive. I know.

What were your thoughts on the movie, John? Oh, I loved it. I've seen it for what? or five times. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, and I like the extra 20 minutes at the end that people wanted to cut

because they earned it. They earned it by doing the first two hours the way they did. I was 100% with like, yeah, go ahead, go crazy with this whole battle sequence in an arena. Let's have fun. And I agree with you.

And that score? Oh, I'm so mad that Mondo sold out of the three discs, three LP set with the images on it. It sold out so fast. I had it in my cart and couldn't get it. And it's the only one of, I want to own. I'm not

a score horror. There are just certain scores that when they hit me, they hit me. Like Hans Zimmer's Man of Steel, this one, this score was just incredible with how it hit you. Something in the way. Exactly. There's something just about it. But, no, the portrayal, but Robert Pattinson, taken on this role and giving you

a whole new point of view, Matt Reeves' approach. It's the anti-Batman Batman movie, and it works. Why? Because as Dan said, we've already had those Batman movies. Let's explore him being a detective. And let's surround him with these Fantastic actors like Jeffrey Wright, like Paul Dano, even though the stuff is where you start to drip away or pull away from him.

And Zoe Kravitz, I thought was great, this Catwoman. All of it. Just all of it, the way they've constructed that world to show. And it connected to what we're going through. There is so much about what we're going through in our current world that I think that Batman spoke to. And I think all the films are now starting to wake up and deal with trauma. And certainly he deals with a lot of trauma,

generational trauma, the loss of his parents. But beyond that, the betrayal of Alfred, what he sees in the betrayal of Alfred and Andy Circus doing a band-eastern job there again. So all of the stuff that he's going through are what people are now being more open to and are talking about more vocally in shows, in podcasts, and whatever.

It understood that. And I think that's why a lot of people actually did love the movie. They connected to the journey of the character. Aside from him being Batman, Bruce Wayne, is what we connected to. I think it's the best comic book movie of the year, for sure. I think that it absolutely hit on those levels. I did think it was a little long,

but I also think that it plays a lot better when you rewatch it at home. So I always agree with that as well. I love the approach of Matt Reeves, David Fincher style, and as you said, John, the detective stuff was what I wanted to see from Batman, but I also liked that the idea

that we didn't have to start in year one. We've seen that already. Year two. And the fact that they emphasized that it was year two. And the idea, as you said, Dan, that he hasn't become Bruce Wayne yet. That's who he really is. He is that guy now. He's Batman. But he just puts on a mask. But that's his, the mask is Bruce Wayne. He hasn't developed that mask. And he's Batman for 80% of the movie.

Right. But I also love every other Batman movie, it's Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton, 80% of the time. And then he goes and fights crime and he's Batman. And then when he has to be Bruce Wayne. Right. They go through. He takes the mask off. Yes. They go through that, that how, what kind of psyche is going on to someone to get into that place that that's all they want to be in the idea. And again, and we've always seen Alfred and Bruce being on the same page. They're not on the same page. And it's not until they have to be. And they finally are. It's funny because as you guys said, the thing that I really loved about the movie was the David Fincher director approach. So everything leading up to the end was for me. That was the thing. And I get your points. I just that the, we were so against the traditional

Batman in this movie that when we got to the traditional ending, I went, well, that seems a little out of place. And I can say, you know, where you're saying, like, it, they earned it. It's a Batman movie. I'm like, yeah, but this movie hasn't been a Batman movie the whole time. I'd be with you if at the end of that thing, he melted it into the shadows and he's like, I miss the heart of Gotham. And instead, he's not. No, no, no.

He's like, broad daylight. He's helping people. And I think it's because of that that I went, okay, I love the movie. And it's, like I said, I started with, it's the best common movie of the year, for sure. But I can't wait for the second one. And Matt Reeves of what he did when he took over the Apes franchise, which I thought,

you know, because I remember when Rupert was Wyatt, right? Wyatt, yeah. When he started, I'm like, why are they replacing that guy? And I said, Rupert, who? You know, after Matt Reeves did it, because he's just a tremendous filmmaker. So good choice there on the Batman. All right, so I'm going to then out jump then, and I'll go to if I'm going to go. I had something in, I think it was in TV.

Did everyone want it to go? Oh, yeah, I'm going to go on TV. And I'm going to go with the offer. which the offer to me was a show that nobody was was talking about and then I started watching and you talk about Paramount Plus and I started watching it's the making of the godfather and and Miles Teller and another role here and I was I was raving about this show and it was just must watch television for me the week to week I think is another very smart move that I wish more people would start more streaming services would start doing week to week because it kept

me and my wife again locked in There are some tremendous performances. And Matthew Good, I've always been like, yeah, he's good. He is so good in this as Robert Evans. He is so, so good. Everybody is with Dan Fogler, Miles Teller, Juno Temple. The performances are just Giovanni Ribisi. And I think that some people think to Giavani Ribisi

has a similar thing to what you guys were talking about with Tom Hanks, where he might seem a little cartooning. I didn't think so. I thought he played the gangsters, the gangster really well. But this was a show that I think, that it's an underrated show. There were not a lot of people talking about it. I don't know if you guys had an opportunity to watch it,

but I just, I just thought it was phenomenal. That's right up my alley. Didn't watch it. Didn't watch it. It's so much. Yeah, there's a lot. There is. I was going to,

because it's going to be dead January and February. So I'm going to be doing reaction. You're going to love it. Because I'm going to do reaction stuff to watch and severance. I haven't seen severance or the offer. And I've got to watch both of those things and maybe do reaction videos to them because I know my friend Shannon on the geek buddies, he's been.

pounding me verbally about Hope so. As soon as I said, I was like, I was like, I was like, you gotta say, hey, yeah. He's like, you gotta see the offer, especially because I have seen, you know, I love the godfather to peace.

You know that. I love the godfather to peace is not three, but one and two certainly. And so the fact that it's about that story, and I've read books about the story. So to me, it's insane that I haven't watched. So I'm gonna stay there then first. Did you also say you didn't see severance?

No, it's another one that people say, oh, you got to watch it. Let me stick there in her second, too, because I just recently watched it. And so Roxy Stryor's on the show, normally every Thursday, doing her TV picks. And so she has been talking about this. Mark Ellis has been telling me how much I would love this show. And so I started watching this show with my wife again a while ago. And she bailed on it.

And I was like, I'll get back to it. And I started watching it again. And I tweeted out, I'm like, I don't know what I was done. I'm bored out of my skull. Like 15 minutes into it. I'm like, I think I'm done. The first episode. First episode.

And everybody's like, no, no, no, stick with it. And I had just watched, and had it been released this year, it would absolutely be in my list, but dark on Netflix. And I was so, I was coming off of that high. And I'm like, I don't know, guys. And then by the end of one, I'm like, okay, I'm intrigued. And then it just gets you. It is such a smart show. It is so, it is different.

Ben Stiller does a tremendous job. I'm not a Ben Stiller guy at all. I think directing wise, he's a good director, but I'm just not a fan of his. And I think he deserves, he deserves the, the respect for this show. And generally he's a producer on it. He's a director on it. There's just so much going on from Christopher Walkin and Tutoro and shoot.

And the girl plays Hattie, her shoot, the main actress who I'd never heard of. There's so many new people coming out that I'm just so impressed by it that we're discovering in television that Helly, not Hattie. And there's just, it's a great show. It's a phenomenal show. I can't wait for season two. And I highly, highly recommend it. So that's two for me. John, we'll go back to you here.

Let's get a, let's get some, we'll get some movies and then we'll start to wrap up. All right. Can we talk about a woman king? Is that possible? Yeah, I haven't seen that one yet. Really? You know, I know, I know. You saw it, right?

Yeah, go ahead. I love this movie. Absolutely love this movie. I thought, Viola Davis, I mean, Amanda Waller, what? This is what she's born to do. Leading a tribe like this, sorry, leading warriors like this into battle, being a symbol, of good in her community is it's a microcosm of what she wants to be

for the acting community, for her own community. And I love that they turn that into this movie. I know some people have attacked it for its historical accuracy or inaccuracy, whatever. I understand that. No Hollywood movie. Yeah. Braveheart is 100% accurate.

All these people have Braveheart in their collection complaining about the inaccuracy or gladiator or whatever. But anyway. It's a big difference between you. Well, I mean, the guy doesn't die. in real life at the end of Gladys. The big difference on screen between

those two movies and I'll let the audience figure out what that is. Fair point. But yeah, but this one just absolutely phenomenal performance is Lashana Lynch as well, just so good. I started to hear some people talk about Lashana Lynch for Best Supporting Actress. She's great in the movie, what they go through, tackling the idea

of slavery, really kind of putting it in your face, not letting you walk away from it, not making you feel good about it, not trying to smooth it or out with you, but actually putting it out there. John Boyega, who I know a lot of people have been waiting for him to kind of do something else or bust out other than doing Finn. And Small Axe was great to see him in that as well, but to see him here. There's such a presence and a command to him that I'm like, yeah, you really

did mess up, not giving him more to do on the sequel trilogy. So let's give him more stuff down the road because the strength that he has, the chemistry he has with Biola is great. And the journey, this idea of a young warrior being schooled by the older warrior, what they go through, what they have to confront all of it. And Gina Prince Bythwood, who I'm always like half in and half out on as a director, because the old guard was okay. This is a much, much better film

where you can see her vision, her approach, her strength as a filmmaker come through in such incredible way. So if you can set aside the inaccuracy, which may or may not be in historical stuff, which some people have dinged it for, I think you're in for a hell of a movie and a great treat and a surprising one at that.

Yeah, I have that screener. I'm about to watch it. I had two screenings. No, no, no. It was one of my list. I had two screenings for it, and my wife got sick on one of them, and then my kids got sick on the other one. And I was, are you kidding me?

And then, so I finally, I do have it. It's, I have, like, a few movies that I'm waiting to see, and that's one of the ones on my list. I wanted to get to Pinocchio. I wanted to get through these ones. And so, but I've heard, I've heard very similar things. I don't know where you, where you stand there. I enjoy it.

It's not like on my best of list, but I really liked the movie. It was shocking how much. many historical experts revealed themselves when this movie came out. And, you know, and I don't want to discount that. But at the same time, just looking at the tone and tenor of the conversation, it seemed like a lot of people sort of getting upset on behalf of. Yeah. As a matter of how they bring it up, right?

Right. Well, I think every history. Yeah. Right. That's a difference. We see this thing all the time. Right. Miss Marvel was the same thing.

Yeah. And people, it, there's a common thread. And, you know, the math is not hard to do. So I don't want to discount that But I also think at the same time That is a conversation that should be had in parallel With the actual movie itself Which was incredibly well made

Really strong performances all around The filmmaking itself, the action was really, really well executed And I think that it all kind of got swallowed By this I think intentionally larger conversation That was started about it When the reality is That there is almost no movie in Hollywood ever made that is based on history,

there are many, many, many movies that are twice as historically inaccurate as this one that were hailed and it was never brought up. My best picture? It's just like, that is, that is nothing new. And it was very curious to me that this movie specifically was singing out of the one.

Was that the major criticism on it? Yeah, that was sure. Okay, yeah. I reviewed the movie, and it's, I see this a lot where I'll review a movie or I'll talk about something. And, you know, the comments will go a certain way, a certain way, and then there's a corner that says something.

And then it's spread. And then I just get 85 parrots that come to me and tell me the same thing that obviously somebody else that they listen to said. And so then they go out and then they, it's, you know, it's just spreads like. Sometimes, look, I was just mentioning the offer, right? There's a lot inside the offer that was fabricated. Tons of it. I don't, this is how I watch stuff.

I don't give a shit. It's like, it's like, okay, it's certain things. if I want to find out how it all really went down, I'll read history. I'll watch a documentary. I'll watch a documentary. So I want to see a good movie. As long as you know, some of the stuff,

like this particular thing happened, this particular thing happened, like when Rome, when we watched Rome back in the daily. A lot of stuff that was, you know, maybe accurate, maybe not accurate. Who the hell knows? But I'm glad it's both on both your,

well, it's on your list or that we talked about here. It's all my list to talk about. Yeah, and so. I don't know if it's going to make my top tip. Yeah, so we'll see. It's a really well-made movie particular. All right, let's see. So we're about to wrap up pretty quick here.

But Dan, anything else inside of movies that you want to hit or do you want to hit on anything TV? Do you want to do maybe this one? Yeah. Oh, yeah, Stranger Things 4. Yeah. I just want to briefly talk about it. You're talking about the week-to-week thing.

Yeah. Like, that's one thing that I don't understand with Netflix is I feel like they're committed to that binge model. Yep. Every season of Stranger Things, it feels like if they would release it week to week, it would be the number one thing that everyone was talking about for two months straight. The way that it is now, people, it's, it's, people talking about it for a weekend.

Yeah. And then it's gone. everybody watches it at the same time. I really liked this last season. Sadie Sink. I would not have projected that she would be maybe. I would have said before this season, oh, Millie Bobby Brown is going to be the biggest star out of all of them.

And she's great. Sadie Sink, this and the whale. And the other work that she's done, she's got some talent. And she really owned this season, particularly the first half of the season. And I wasn't really sure about, and I'll see what they do in this next season,

the whole idea of constructing this big bad. that was kind of behind everything. But at the same time, Vecna was such a great character, such a great villain. I saw the big twist coming that didn't really surprise me that much. And I think maybe that kind of tainted my initial thought on that whole thing. So it's like, well, it's the guy that, it's the guy that's a big part of the show that nobody's talking about. Right.

Obviously, that's, I mean, that's, but the way that they are building this road, and I think it's a good idea that it's actually ending next season, because you can only imperil Hawkins so many times. Yeah. But there was a lot of growth in this, and it wasn't just more of the same thing. It went to such an emotional place and such a deep place. And I swear to God, if they don't give Will Byers something to actually do next season, they get a haircut, you can do that.

I mean, they keep teasing that he's got all of this emotional. And, I mean, he's been through more on this show than any other character. He did a lot of steering in this one, didn't he? If they turn him in season five into just the kid who has the hair stand up on the back of his decks and go like, guys, Vecanus close by. for the love of God, give this character something. Stop hinting and, and,

and, you know, like, oh, I think based on this, like, let's, it's, it's, it's far past time that we actually develop

his character, and I hope that he's not just in season five. I think he should be the crucial part, the thing around which season five completely pit him. But I agree with you tremendously that I've been,

I've been screaming on the mountaintop on this. The Netflix, binge model, needs to go because by the because what they're outdated it's super outdated because there was no competition when they were doing it before so it was like a fun thing to do because that's what everyone was talking about and I'll talk about it for a little bit but when you have the like you would have if we just talked about how andor had to like build up if andor comes out in a binge model dead dead because it one and now I know people are oh but then to be able to catch up

in 12 episodes yeah but like Dan said you're going to talk about it for a couple weeks and then it's gone the water cooler conference is crucial in television. And especially when you're talking about stranger things, because this was one that, like, to me, this is on par with the first season. Yeah. I thought it was so good in the way that they did it.

Now, I understand that it would probably be if they were going to do a week to week, they couldn't have released it like this because the second half was like a hour and was like a two and a half hour movie. Right. So they did it that particular way. So this is a different circumstance.

But what they did and the way that they brought the kids together. And I think that this is the one thing that we were in disagreement with because I said, I watched your reviews on this, that I actually liked that the kids spent so much time away from each other. Yeah, you were on the other side of that. But I liked it because it reminded me of like Empire Strikes Back or reminded me of these things of where these characters are on,

these other adventures. So when they finally come back together in the moment where it all count to just, they've all been on their separate things and it allows you. And I think one of the reasons that they did it also was COVID. Right. And they had to stop and start. Yeah. I think if they hadn't done it before,

But they already did that. They had that big arc in season two or three with 11 where she was gone the whole time. And then she comes back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the whole Russian thing that is. And then last season with, like, you know, he had the kids in the mall and the kids over here. Yeah, I understand. They just seem to keep.

I understand. And I think that, and I think that I just worked for me on that particular level. But I think that the way that they did in the writing was so good overall. Because I think that I liked, I think for me it's, it's, I don't, I might rank four just slightly over one. I'll probably go four, one. 3-2. It's easily in the top. But imagine the Kate Bush episode.

Oh, yeah. If that had been a week. To week, yeah. That entire week. I mean, it already was. Yeah, it already was all anybody was talking about. But imagine if that was the whole week leading up to that next episode. You're preaching to the choir in this one.

John, what did you think of the show? Oh, I loved it. And I agree with you. I think it's on par, if not better than season one. And you might be like, well, you might criticize that because people might say like, oh, well, we don't get it. get to four if we don't get these other three. And that's fair. It's fair. But I think this season was so well done. And I'm in the middle between you guys, I think a little bit in that

I liked that they spread them out. I think the issue is the stories weren't as strong separately for each of them. And I think that's where the complaint comes. Because I saw some people complaining about the Russia thing. I loved the Russia thing with David Harbour and Winona Ryder and the dude from Game of Thrones. I enjoyed that storyline. The Will buyer stuff, I hate to break it to you. You're talking about 401. What's the big commonality? Will isn't in a lot of it. And I'll tell you why, because he's not that strong of an actor. And I'm telling you that's why they've limited... No, snap, just TikTok's

about you. I'm saying... Fine. Fine, just don't slide in my DMs. But I'm saying this is the truth. But like, this is the thing, and this is the honest truth. You got to tell the truth about things. And this is, I think he's not that strong of it. I think that's why they haven't built seasons around him. And I think we're going to see in season five. And I see already the Stranger Things fans coming after you. Fine. But we'll see in season five what they do. But I think... You can't unearth Sadie Sink and not give her a massive amount to do,

or Millie Bobby Brown. Even Finn is a little bit of behind. I mean, those are the two strongest actors, aside from David Harbor, for me, in the whole series. And there's a reason they run with those two ladies because they're fantastic actresses. And so we're going to see. But everything, Eddie, I mean, all of it.

Oh, Eddie was great. I mean, just the visuals of him up top of the trailer, all of that was so great. Like, just like Peacemaker was like an 80s heavy metal song come to life for 10 episodes. this is the same thing from a younger age. And I loved that and enjoyed the hell out of it. And the duffers, they found their stride,

taking their time, doing it their way. But I agree with you guys. Like, we've got to, Netflix has got to figure this out in terms of how they release this. And it may be because they don't want it to overwhelm all the other stuff to have coming down the road. Maybe, but it's not good. No, I agree.

They don't think so, but I agree with you. All right, look, so we're winding down. This is the end of it. So what we're going to do is, I'll pick one more. Me, you guys pick one more that you wonder whether it's TV or movie. Just think about it. And then what we'll do is we're going to show carbon health picks.

And then we'll just mention some of the other ones that we had that we didn't. I hope I didn't insult anything. Oh my gosh, Carbon Health. I know, no, let's see. So let's see. So I'm going to go one more. John's not going to be on this page, but I'm going to go movies and I'm going to go with the Fableman's. I just watched the Fableman's recently.

I thought it was tremendous. I thought it was one of Spielberg's best movies in quite a while. Um, the struggle that in general of what, you know, in the idea of what he was able to do and you look at this journey from him and his mom, but the idea of just growing up in, again, we're talking about relatability and stuff too. To him, I don't know what it was like growing up as a Latino. I don't know it was like growing up as a Jewish man, uh, or Jewish person in general growing up, but the, the showing this and bringing this in, uh, to this particular environment,

but also latching into love because it could it got heavy at points the movie itself but it also latched into this love of a of a passion that you have and being able to end this great scene that he has with judd hirsch where you know it's just this amazing scene where it's like you've got that fire it's like go for this it's like it reminds me the bronx tale the wasted talent there's so many times that people i always think about this somewhere you know like the best if you think about Muhammad ali or you think about um you think about um you think about um you Serena Williams, you think about all these people that have made it inside their athletic fields. Or in general, you think about like you were just mentioned before with Cape Lanchette. There's somebody out there. There's somebody out there that was the best boxer or the best actress or the best scientist in the world and never explored it. And they were the best. They could have been the goat, but they never explored it. And that is what I loved about this movie.

I love the idea of these different things going maneuvering. And I would agree. And I don't know if this is where you land on some of the two. think it, you know, again, probably a little longer in the tooth. But overall, I thought it was a fantastic movie. I know kind of your thoughts on us. I want to talk to the Spielberg fan here. I'm a Spielberg fan.

But, you know, the guy walked out. Oh, Lord. Okay. So, but where did you land on the table of this? If the whole movie had been as great as that scene with Judd Hirsch, then it would have been one of my favorite movies of the year. Okay. That was one of my, that was, I'm not usually an advocate for an actor

getting nominated for an Academy Award for one scene. Judd Hurst should be. Yeah. He was that good. I thought it was okay. I thought it had some really deep issues. When it worked for me, it really, really, really, really worked. I just thought that it was a bit, like I said,

it was kind of like listening to someone else tell you a story, and you're like, uh-huh. It's, you know, I love the John Ford stuff. That was great. I love that John Ford stuff. I think a big thing for me and a big reason, and it's crucial to the movie is that Michelle Williams' performance didn't work for me.

Really? There's a little over top. I thought it was a little. little, I understood what she was going for and I understand why it works for some people but it didn't work for me and that's such a central part of the movie that when you have a performance like that

that doesn't work for you it sort of drags the whole movie down. Gabriel LeBelle though who played the kid the kid yeah he was great John you hated this movie once I did I was just disappointed by it I really was because I held off on this until I had an afternoon with nothing else going on to

really sink my teeth into it and an hour hour in, I was like, I'm dying. I'm dying. And I agree with you 100%. Michelle Williams, I don't know what she's doing. It's not anything that makes any sense to me that people are like, this, she should be nominee. She should win best actors. It just was driving me insane. Not because she's a person going through trauma or is unstable or all this kind of stuff, which was the point of the movie. It's because it wasn't believable. It was caricature instead of actually really lived in a layered performance, which Michelle. Williams has done multiple times.

She's one of the best actresses working today. I think that was another part of my disappointment in this. I just didn't feel that. And I like the kid, he was good. And certainly there are moments. What I think the film messed up in, in my personal opinion, is if you don't know the Steven Spielberg story, you're not bringing that to the movie and they're just throwing things at you.

Oh, this is happening. And this is happening. And then this is happening. As Dan just eloquently said, I haven't heard it placed that way. It's perfect with Dan said. Someone else is telling you the story. And they're jumping from thing to thing instead of laying. the foundation with these characters.

It's the same way I felt about once upon a time in Hollywood. At the end, what happens at the end is not earned in any way, shape, or form. It's only earned if you know the story of what they end up doing to Sharon Tate. But if you don't know it, then the film makes no sense, and they're essentially committing murder in such horrible ways to these people, because they haven't done the thing that you think they're going to do, that you know they're going to do in the real world. So to me, it doesn't earn, and I felt that way about the film,

it doesn't earn the emotional moments, but the Juddhurst scene works. Well, I'm sorry to farting the car and away to the restaurant. We're the farters. We're the farters. John and I. The car smells great.

It's good. Well, you guys can't eat the restaurant. The David Lynch scene is great. I mean, the John Ford scene, if you haven't seen the TikTok. Don't start giving me napkins. I'm just saying. If you haven't seen the TikTok

where they compare Stephen Spearberg telling the story to what goes on in the scene, incredible. Well, I love it. What's next? So, let's go. Where do you want to go? You're going to finish up. You're going to finish up.

Let's talk about Sandman. All right, Samman. Please, let's talk about that. We're talking about Netflix. We already talked about Household. Oh, I thought Sandman was, I mean, talk about a bar that you have to cross or you have to clear. I am a massive Sandman fan. My fellow geek buddy, Michael Vogel, talked me into watching those things.

And I read them, and I was blown away by them, like 10 years ago, 15 years ago, dove into all of them, read all of them. And so when they announced they were going to do a series, I'm like, oh, man, I don't know. Please don't mess this up. and blah, blah, blah, because Star Dust is a fine movie, but it's not great. And so I'm like, okay, Neil Gaiman's stuff is really tough to adapt, especially something that's deep and complex and nuanced. And you can't have John Constantine be a part of it?

Okay. But it 100% worked for me. Even the supplemental episode really worked for me. The visuals here are stunning. I mean, yeah, gorgeous, absolutely. The acting here is really well done. I thought it's great to see Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine. She was great.

the journey we're going on with dream and what he's confronting with death with his sister, everything that he is going through and the different stories. David Thuleas story in the diner, my God. Gwendolyn Christie, man. Yeah, Gwendolyn Christie. She's so good as Lucifer. All of it just worked so well for me. And they actually translated what this story was about onto screen and it worked.

All top to bottom, it worked. They didn't skimp. They didn't change too much. much. They dived into everything and they told them as separate stories that were interconnected but could stand on their own. I thought it was genius. Did you watch this one? No. Okay. So for me, Samant, I need to finish it. And I was, I'd gotten, I think I'm like six, I know, I think I'm like six episodes into it from where I was. I was watching it. We went to Tampa and at the time and it just premiered and I watched it. I loved it. And I loved everything that I watched. It's just one of those

things that I watched. It was what we were just talking about. The problem was it all dropped that day in Florida and I was it's a lot to take in it once. But it was also from what we do in a matter of what we were covering and I wanted to cover it and I wanted to cover it in time and I was like you know what? I missed the boat. Nobody's talking about it anymore right now. They're not searching for it anymore so I'm going to get back to it because

I really love the show. I just haven't gotten back to it. I need to get back to it because there's nothing that you said that I was like, nah, I don't know about that. It was great. And the other thing with Gwendolyn Christie, which we're not going to go in the depth of me because we missed the boat. Wednesday is another one. My daughter is obsessed with the show. And everyone's time I need to watch this show.

The membership numbers on that show are banana. Dude, it's a really good show. And it's Tim Burton's best work in years. In years. It's a really good show. And Gwendolyn Christie, but, I mean, Jenna Ortega is the reason why you watch that show for sure. But, yeah, Sandman was just something that I, and you said visuals. What I want to do, we finally set the surround sound back here and everything, too.

I'm going to shut the lights off, finish it, watch it on the big TV. But it's a great pick. But, Dan, you're going to end this, man. What do you got for? I'm going to end this the way that I'm sure everybody wants to end this. A quick acknowledgement of international film. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Two movies quickly, I want to acknowledge.

Decision to Leave from Park Chinwick. One of the most beautiful films, maybe the best cinematography of the year. It's up there. And it's a detective story, but it's also kind of a story about obsession and love. And it's a mystery. It's just, I saw it and I liked it. And then I just kept thinking about it, kept thinking about it. And there's an interesting construction.

with the movie where you'll have two characters that are in different places, but they'll put the two characters in the same space. And it's just really kind of an interesting riff. I mean, you wouldn't, practice it in an incredible director. But like riffing with the language of cinema, that was really interesting. And then international sensation, and I'm glad that it's actually getting an Academy Award consideration RRR. Oh, right, right. I still haven't seen it.

People kept saying, go see it, go see it, go see it, go see it. It didn't play that long, you know, where I was because, you know. Netflix? Yeah. Okay. Unless they pulled it off. No, no, it's still long. Which I'm shocked that it's not in the chart every week after week. Right. People kept saying, go see it. It was, I only had a couple weeks to see it in theaters and I didn't get a chance to see it. And I finally one night, we had a free night. I'm like, hey, people keep saying, RR. I was like, I'm just going to see it. I'm just going to see it. So people will stop telling me I have to watch it. Incredible. Okay, good. Like, there's so many people that would be like, oh, it's a three-hour movie from India. I'm not going to like that. Trust me. You are. Because it is because film is. Because film is. is universal.

And it is a story about friendship. It's a historical drama. It's an action movie. It's a crime movie. It's a comedy. Wait, wait, wait, Dan. How accurate is it? True.

Exactly. There's so much in it. But it is just like, I saw it. It's like, I've never seen anybody do this. And a lot of it is because I'm not as familiar with Indian cinema and really a lot of international cinema as I should be. But a lot of it is just, just because this is one of the most singular movies that you're going to see.

I'm glad you brought that up. I love, love, love, love. All right. Did you watch it yet? No. Yeah, see, same. Because I'm with you. I was like,

uh, would you were. Trust me. Trust me. You're going to get 30 minutes into it, and you're going to be like, you're going to get 30 minutes into it, and the title card's going to drop.

And you're like, what? That was just the, that was just a prolog? So I got to give credit where credits do when this movie, like, it had maybe dropped three hours. And then Frankie numbers said,

Tri-Tzy-Z-Z-Z-Z-A. If there's ever a movie you need to see, it's this one. Fast-forward, six months later, I still haven't watched it, right? And it's nothing against Frank. It just, I was like, I never got a chance. And it has nothing to do with the subtitles. I'm on a subtitle, like I said, I just watched all a dark, like that. But I want to, uh, I do want to check it out. I want to see it. I want to, and people said, just an amazing action. It's like, the Raid's one of my favorite. That's a subtitle, too. And I just, I have to see this movie. And I'm glad you brought it up because it is one that constantly gets recommended and probably win best, best film, right? You think?

Like, for, no, is it for the Oscars? Not for best for best, isn't it best for our film? Oh, I believe, yeah, I believe it is up for best international film. I mean, consideration. The thing is, there's so, like I said, decision to leave is also a great movie. There are some great international. All quiet on the Western Front. Yeah.

It's up there too. And I don't know how they view Bardo, but we haven't mentioned that. And to me, Bardo is in my top 10 of the year. And that's also a fantastic exploration of a director. I'm going to take that over Fablewomen's any day. And what he goes through, international film, sometimes as well, but a fantastic imagery-wise, a fantastic film that is as good as eight-and-a-half,

Felini's eight-and-half, in my opinion. Yeah, I think, I was sorry, I was going to say, you would say that because RRR is in line for even maybe a Best Picture nomination, that it would be a shoe-in for Best International feature, but Pans Labroth. Right, I believe it was in the same situation where they're like, oh, well, it's up for the, you know, best, and it didn't win it.

So it's, you never know. It's going to be interesting. All right, look, that was, that was, there was a lot of great stuff there, too, and before we're going to go. I'm going to tell you, as we mentioned, you've seen the whole entire show, Carbon Health, sponsoring the show. They also send in their picks. So we're going to tell you, here are the picks.

Carbon Health's Best of 2022. The Bear. I have to see that. That is a television show. Everyone is talking about, and I start, I'm going to start that one for sure. Winning Time, which also was on John's list that we didn't get a chance to talk about. Under the banner of Heaven is another one that Roxy talks about all the time. And I'm so glad they put Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers on there.

What a fantastic film that was. I had so much fun with that movie. I loved it. I really, really enjoyed it. I thought it was hilarious. And it was just a pleasant surprise. I'm going to just tell you guys some of the movies and TV shows that we missed that were,

that were, we just didn't get a chance to mention. It was been a six-hour show. Wakanda Forever, Prey, Bardo. I don't know why Dan put Halloween on there. You didn't say best. You said the ones you wanted to discuss. That's fun. It's not just a really interesting movie to discuss.

Oh, man. Decision to leave is on. Okay, we did that one. We talked about a fantasy. Pinocchio. No one must have discussed that. The Bad Disney one. Reacher. Reacher's great. Yeah, on TV. Barbarian, the Adam Project, the fallout, jackass forever, Puss and Boots, after Yang, turning red, the Lost City, Sonic 2, the Northman. I love that one, the black phone. Marcel the shell with shoes on, really sweet film, super pets, and then, of course, Chippendale, which we just mentioned. TV, Tulsa King. Yes.

bummed we missed that one. Abbott Elementary, John partially talked about. It's so good. The dropout winning time, which you just mentioned under the better heaven, the Sandman. Okay, we hit that tar. Let's see. Rings of Power. Moon Night.

I loved Moon Night. Yeah, me too. I didn't like the finale, but I liked the penultimate for sure. The offer, Pan and Tommy and the Boys season three, which I think is one of the best shows. Pam and Tommy was also really great. Yeah. Guys, we did it. We did it.

We did a full list. That was the best of 2022. I got to thank both John and Dan for joining us. They both have very great YouTube channels. If you haven't had an opportunity to check them out. John, where can everybody find you, my man? At the Roka says on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, the Outlaw Nation on Twitch and my YouTube channel,

YouTube.com slash John Roka says or just type in Outlaw Nation and John Roker and it'll come up and come and hang out with us for God's six. Dan, you've been doing the thing for a little bit now. Where are you? Dan Merrill Movies on YouTube. I am on Instagram. I'm learning how to use Instagram. Taking a little break from the other places.

And so at Merl Dan on Instagram as I try to learn that new platform. And, yeah, and Patreon. Patreon.com slash Dan Merle. Oh, we can talk on Patreon, patreon. Patreon.com slash John Roka. There you go. There you go. So, yeah, same.

So once again, guys, if you're brand new to the channel, you haven't been here before, do me a favor and subscribe. It was a great conversation now. We had. I want to thank Carbon Health once again for sponsoring the episode. Head on over it. Guys, you mentioned your Patreon. Patreon.com slash the Big Things show.

We have tons of things that we're doing over there right now. We hope you join us. We got the big thing logo. We got some other things. We got the really classy farts on my brand. That's another one up there that's up there now. It's pretty amazing. Get there for anybody in your life for sure.

I'm going to give it a Dan and John for their whole fableman's take. And other than that, guys, I really appreciate you joining us. I'm going to at this point, no, I do not have my best of list. I'm going to have my best of my top 10 list. I'm going to have my top 10 shows. I'm going to have my top 10 most anticipated. All that's coming out really, really soon. So make sure you check it out.

Thanks again to all of you guys. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful Hanukkah. I hope you had wonderful Kwanza. All of them. And I hope that you have a great new year. We'll see you guys soon. Thanks to John and Dan.

Peace out, Mother F's.