The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.18 What The Zack Snyder Justice League Controversy Really Exposes & Review, ACE Family, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 So I know there's real things going on in the world But why there are different parts of my hair that are seceding from the Union right now So what happens when I don't immediately put gel in my hair? Hi, I'm fine. It's Thursday Also the sample from my hoodie didn't come out right? I look like a budget Power Ranger unless unlike me you like horizontal stripes in which case just send me money now Yeah, welcome to the Thursday show hit that subscribe button like button all button, all the good stuff. And let's just jump into it. And the first thing that we're gonna talk about today is Zack Snyder's Justice League, right?

Starting point is 00:00:29 The Snyder Cut. After years of talk, speculation, hope, and later excitement, the Zack Snyder Cut of Justice League has finally launched on HBO Max. All coming in at a whopping four hour, two minute runtime. The 2017 Justice League, which came in at just under two hours at a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, a movie that one critic described as,

Starting point is 00:00:48 I'm not even sure it's an actual movie. It's a two hour trailer with some okay visuals and some decent sound design. And hey, like with every movie, it ultimately comes down to you. You're not gonna have the same opinion as me. You're not gonna have the same opinion as some critic or your friend.

Starting point is 00:01:01 So far, the Zack Snyder cut has actually gotten good reviews. As of filming on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 78% critic score, a 97% from fans. How much of that is based off of how much they actually liked the movie compared to how much they like it compared to what they had last time? That remains to be seen, but what I can do for you is as someone that never watched the original Justice League,

Starting point is 00:01:20 my quickie review is I actually really like it, and if you have the time, I recommend it. At four hours, it's gonna be kind of slow for some as someone that thanks to the pandemic has gone on a crazy series binging spree. It felt fantastically paced. I kind of just treated it like I was watching a mini series which Snyder actually splits the story into parts.

Starting point is 00:01:35 I personally didn't think things overstayed their welcome but there are gonna be people that have that problem. And I've seen criticisms like sometimes it feels like there's overwhelming fan service moments. But one of the biggest keys that people seem to be happy about is that Cyborg gets an actual story, which I mean, after watching this version, it would be criminal to cut him out, why?

Starting point is 00:01:54 But for me, I give it the thumbs up. I give it the recommendation. I'm not giving it a score, but I liked it, which I am aware for some reason, opinions on movies and video games are sometimes more divisive than political stuff, which is crazy. Cause it's not like you do or you don't get healthcare if you like the Snyder cut or not

Starting point is 00:02:10 until Biden passes it next month. Great job liberals. But in addition to all of that, question number two is will all this translate into a win for HBO Max? Right, part of the original reason it was thought to be unthinkable that a Snyder cut would be released in addition to it just not being a thing that happens

Starting point is 00:02:27 is that people knew it would cost just a crazy amount of money. And reportedly it costs $70 million just to make this version of the movie. And as others have noted, it sets up sequels that may never actually happen. So unlike Disney Plus, who's pumping out a steady stream of MCU content this year,

Starting point is 00:02:42 there's no real promise of new DC related content on the horizon, at least for HBO Max right now. With some places like CNBC incredibly critical of the time and calling it a missed opportunity that HBO didn't wait to release the film with its June international and ad tier launches. But even with criticisms like that, it's incredibly important to note that ahead

Starting point is 00:02:58 of the Snyder Cut premiere, we saw HBO Max boost its subscriber projection from 75 to 90 million subscribers by the end of 2025 to 120 to 150 million subscribers in that same timeframe. And really we won't know if this was a winning or a losing move as far as the monetary aspect for a few weeks, maybe a month. Or when we get to see how many subscribers they actually were able to onboard because of this movie,

Starting point is 00:03:18 how, what is their staying power like? Or there are other movies like Godzilla versus Kong coming in at the end of the month. You have Suicide Squad and Dune later this year. Yeah, ultimately we'll have to wait and see. And the question I'll have with this story, if you watch the original Justice League, are you giving the Snyder Cut a chance?

Starting point is 00:03:33 If you skip the one in 2017, are you gonna watch this new one now like I did? And also for those that watched it, what is your view? Did you like it? Was it underwhelming? What, why? Then in a different kind of entertainment, it appears that celebrity boxing is still going strong

Starting point is 00:03:46 Oh in this specific instance, it does not involve one of the Paul brothers, but instead this time headlined by the depending on the group controversial creators one tick tocker Bryce Hall and to Austin McBroom primarily known for the ace family here on YouTube these two had been kind of blah blah blahing Online a lot of it felt really phony and fake to me, but who knows? It appeared a few days ago, oh, they're actually gonna fight

Starting point is 00:04:07 with Bryce Hall posting a photo that appeared to be a $5 million contract. And then it started coming out in part from Austin McBroom that this is actually a much larger event. With McBroom at one point framing it as YouTubers versus TikTokers. And in fact, today we saw LiveXLive post this kind of a fight card.

Starting point is 00:04:22 There's two fighters that are to be determined, but they kind of turned it into an interactive thing where they're like, you pick. And while I only know some of these people and I'm not even sure that I would spend money on this, I welcome it. The first KSI Logan Paul fight was fantastic because it was a bunch of people

Starting point is 00:04:37 that shouldn't be fighting, fighting. Comparatively, right? To these guys, not, you get it. And at times, yeah, it was boring and sloppy but then other times it was really weird and sloppy and kind of fun because of it. Yeah, like looking at this list, I'm rooting for one guy. Because once again, I'm not dropping money

Starting point is 00:04:50 and worst case scenario, we get some memes out of it. Remember Nate Robinson? I hate Jake Paul and that was a great 72 hours. Although I will say, I have a feeling if you do watch this card, you're gonna get an appreciation for the technique of Jake Paul. Anyway, I love and hate this stuff.

Starting point is 00:05:04 Then I kind of have to start this story with welcome to Utah. I always remember those words because my first time in Utah, I went to a restaurant that had a bar. I asked for a double and they said, nope, can't do it. Welcome to Utah. Things are just a little bit different here, which by the way, the liquor laws are all over the place

Starting point is 00:05:21 in Utah, but the reason that we're talking about Utah today is that Utah, which is a state that considers porn a public health crisis, is poised to potentially pass a bill that will require all cell phones and tablets sold in the state to come pre-installed with filters that block porn. And understand, like this is almost across the finish line. Earlier this month, the GOP-controlled state legislature

Starting point is 00:05:38 passed the bill. It now sits on the desk of Republican governor, Spencer Cox. He has until next Thursday to decide whether or not he is signing it. And actually regarding that in an email to the AP, his spokesperson said that he will carefully consider this bill

Starting point is 00:05:49 during the bill signing period. And as far as what others are saying, you have supporters heralding the bill as an answer to helping parents keep explicit content away from their kids, especially since screen time has really gone up during the pandemic. But on the other end, you have opponents saying you've basically got the state mandating the filtering

Starting point is 00:06:04 of lawful content, which raises immediate first amendment flags. Also, there are concerns because yes, adults would be able to turn the filter off. However, it's being argued that the way that the bill is currently written could actually apply to all devices activated in Utah, raising the possibility that it could require

Starting point is 00:06:18 location tracking to activate filters on the phones of anyone coming into the state. But then to make things even weirder, and it makes you go, why is this even happening? Even if Cox does sign this bill, it would not immediately go into effect. In fact, it is unclear when it would ever go into effect. And that's because manufacturers and retailers

Starting point is 00:06:35 managed to convince lawmakers to add a provision in this bill saying that it will not go into effect unless five other states enact similar laws. Which is the weirdest thing to put in an actual law. This is the legislative equivalent of your mom going, would you jump off a bridge if your friends did? No, but if five of them do. And so it's just this weird, messy situation.

Starting point is 00:06:55 It's a ridiculous law in my opinion. It's also, it feels like theater because it's not actually going into effect. It's a state law, but it requires other states to jump on board. It means well, but it's kind of weird. And it's definitely different. Welcome to Utah.

Starting point is 00:07:11 Yeah. Then this is for anyone that ever asked me or any other creator to add captions to their video. One, I actually do, but it's through a service that takes several hours. So it's not always there at launch. But two, Google Chrome did a fantastic thing today. If you have the newest version of Chrome on your desktop

Starting point is 00:07:26 or mobile, you go into settings, you go into advanced and there you will now see live captions. And from then on in your browser, if there's a video or audio playing, including here on YouTube, captions will appear on your screen in this little box. You can actually move it around to wherever is good for you. So far from my experience, they're actually really good. Even on my videos, though, I talk really fast,

Starting point is 00:07:44 like a jerk sometimes. So that'll sometimes, you know, mess it up. It's great. And if you're someone that has actually used this feature because you've had a Pixel phone or a Samsung phone before, it's essentially that, but now just to a much wider audience. So yeah, if you love captions

Starting point is 00:07:56 or you or someone you know is hearing impaired, definitely tell them about this. Then in good, but also at the same time, maybe bad because it's confusing news, let's talk about the IRS. They have announced that they're moving the tax filing deadline from April 15th to May 17th. With the exception of people filing federal taxes in Texas,

Starting point is 00:08:11 Oklahoma, and Louisiana, who have until June 15th under a previous IRS announcement due to the winter storms. And the reason they're doing this is purely because of the kindness that is in their heart for Americans that are suffering. And there were complicated changes to the tax code under the most recent stimulus package, and the IRS reportedly has a crazy backlog.

Starting point is 00:08:29 And we're talking nearly 24 million filings, half of which are paper-based returns that the agency has received, but not processed over the last two years. And all of this is happening while their processing rates are even lower than last year. And on top of all that, like there wasn't already enough, the IRS is overwhelmed with trying to get

Starting point is 00:08:43 the most recent round of stimulus checks out to Americans. Even though, yes, millions have still not received their checks from last year's stimulus bills. Also, as far as why I said this is gonna be confusing for some, it's because this deadline moving, right, this postponement, it only applies to federal returns and payments, not state returns. So if you live in one of the 42 states and DC

Starting point is 00:09:00 that collects income tax, make sure you file by those state deadlines. Then, kind of great news if you hate robocalls. And this because the Federal Communications Commission issued a record $225 million fine to two Texas-based telemarketing companies for making 1 billion spoofed robocalls back in 2019. Or rather, it issued that fine to two men

Starting point is 00:09:19 who used two fake company names in an attempt to sell fraudulent short-term health insurance plans. The FCC saying that one of the men made millions of spoofed calls per day and knowingly called consumers on the do not call list as he believed that it was more profitable to target these consumers. And while yes, that is good news, this is the Philip DeFranco show, I gotta ruin it somehow. That fine was only about calls that happened two years ago. And according to the anti-spam app RoboKiller,

Starting point is 00:09:40 spam calls have actually increased 26% from last year, which is also probably why we're now seeing the FCC saying they're forming a robo-call response team made up of 51 employees in an attempt to better crack down on increased robo-calls. Then let's talk about Cherokee County Sheriff spokesman Jay Baker, who made waves yesterday for saying that the man who confessed to murdering eight people, including six Asian women.

Starting point is 00:09:59 He was pretty much fed up at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him. Right, and yesterday we talked about how that comment drew a lot of backlash. And as we've seen many times before, when that spotlight is on you, journalists and internet sleuths start looking. With them finding in this instance,

Starting point is 00:10:15 posts from his Facebook page last year, where he promoted what people have called racist anti-Asian t-shirts. The t-shirts in question played off the Corona beer logo with the text that reads, COVID-19 imported virus from China.'" And according to screenshots of the posts that have now been made unavailable,

Starting point is 00:10:28 Baker shared images and links encouraging people to go buy the shirts in two separate posts. Baker himself has not addressed the post, but Sheriff Frank Reynolds, who's also friends with Baker on Facebook, told the Daily Beast that he wasn't familiar with the photos saying, I will have to contact him, but thank you for bringing that to my attention.

Starting point is 00:10:41 And what followed with all of this is you had people calling for him to resign or be removed from the investigation to determine whether or not this was a hate crime committed against Asian Americans. People also mocking, Baker saying, "'I think Captain J. Baker is going to have a really bad day.'" You see all of that happening there.

Starting point is 00:10:55 And then separately, but still connected to this, you had people angry about a different thing, right? Many people, and actually many Asian American people, angry at Asian American media firm 88 Rising. And this because yesterday in response to these killings, they posted a yellow square to show support for the Asian community. Right, their idea here is seeming to be their take

Starting point is 00:11:10 on Blackout Tuesday, when social media users posted black squares during the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, but instead here with yellow, which was a problem for a lot of people. Yellow is stereotypically used to represent Asian skin tones when used to reference Asian people, it's often received as a slur. Plus, in addition to the race side of this, you had people saying, we already knew that this wasn't a great idea represent Asian skin tones when used to reference Asian people, it's often received as a slur.

Starting point is 00:11:25 Plus, in addition to the race side of this, you had people saying, we already knew that this wasn't a great idea after the black squares. Right, well, yes, you had a lot of people showing solidarity. One of the biggest things that came out from the whole blackout movement were people saying, don't do this. This is actually stopping the flow of information. Overwhelming hashtags and feeds, let's use the space

Starting point is 00:11:42 that we have online to promote something or to help one another. But ultimately with this situation, we saw 88rising delete the post, apologizing. I think they were not trying to start a yellow square movement, though we understand how it was misinterpreted. And ultimately with this and actually anything

Starting point is 00:11:55 we talked about today, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below, because this is the end of the show. As always, if you like getting the news and some perspective from me, hit that like button, subscribe button, all the good stuff. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, I got it covered right here or in those top links down below.

Starting point is 00:12:09 But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you next time.

Your Ad Here

The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.18 What The Zack Snyder Justice League Controversy Really Exposes & Review, ACE Family, & More

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.