The Reel Rejects - M3GAN (2022) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING! Unrated |

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Starting point is 00:01:30 special right now because we're doing the unrated version, so you get unrated right now. I think we're ready. Are we ready? We are ready. Let's go. Wow. Nice. Hell, yeah.

Starting point is 00:01:46 Gerard Johnston. I don't know who you are, but great job. Story by James Wan. Yeah, dude. This is that Blumhouse. Jason Blum and James Wan. I think this is one of their first, like, we're going to do stuff together.

Starting point is 00:01:56 I had no idea. This was so. much fun. What a bop. We just got done watching Megan. So if you're listening to us on Apple or Spotify, give us a five-star rating, comments, all the stuff. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. Rejectnation shop.com. Go get your gear. Uh, you can get shirts. You guys know and get the, the spooky shirt by the Cheex or Reject sweater. Get all this stuff. Okay. Oh, my God. This movie is so much fun. I did not expect the pacing and the tone of this movie to move so perfectly. Like they knew the tone that they needed to go for and the pacing I thought was just right.

Starting point is 00:02:34 And obviously the acting was amazing. And I did, I do think I saw like a partial interview, a long time when this came out, of the little girl that did the actual dance. She's a dancer. And I don't know if she played her the whole time. I have no idea. But if she did, she did a phenomenal job. But I'm going to let these guys get into it. And then we can continue the conversation.

Starting point is 00:02:56 But what did you guys think? Yeah. No, I really enjoyed it. I mean, I didn't know anything about it other than like a killer robot doll or whatever. And I was just expecting jump scares, which we got a couple in areas I did not expect. But I thought this was really smartly written. And also, too, for someone who has actually lost a parent, like a lot of this resonated with me, especially at such a... Yes, yes, we are.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And someone at such a young age, I wasn't as young as Katie, but it was still pretty young. So, like, I understood a lot of how she felt just the loneliness. And so, again, a lot of this just, I just, I felt what she felt in again. Yeah, very resonating for me. But I really like the arc, the main character, Gemma, is it? And I thought she did great in her performance because you could tell, like, at the very beginning, she's very married to her career. And she's put in a very tough position, not only the position of she just lost a family

Starting point is 00:03:47 member as well, but she's kind of a fish out of water. She's really out of her element having to take care of her niece. You know, like, she's not in a place in her life or career where she's, she's ready to take this on. It's a lot for her. And, you know, the idea of, like, she's doing what she does best, creating and inventing, and she invents the perfect parent in her mind. And I like that she sees the air of her ways. And, you know, that just humanizes the character to me because at first I was like, God, what do you do? Like, this is not how you parent a kid, but also at the same time, like, I'm like, I could understand where she's

Starting point is 00:04:20 coming from because she wasn't, this was just thrust upon her. So I like, again, it just, that's what humanized her to me. And again, I love that. she saw the error in her ways and like the way it naturally and frenetically like how she grew in her role and like when she saw that hey this is not the right way to parent this child and also the attachment theory was a great line from the therapist yeah you know the first one that like starts talking and starts being there for the child after the loss of a parent or a loved one like is the one that you know the child is going to be attached to the most I thought that was again after what had happened to me I'm like I understand that so yeah I just thought this was

Starting point is 00:04:57 really well done really well made and again like you said I love the pacing of it didn't feel like a drag really at all very frenetic and I thought the visuals too just with it seemed like it was a person but again with the way the bit it seemed like it was also a doll so I was just I was really impressed with it but uh my fellow geek checked what did you think I felt so silly when I was like guys is that a person because I was with you so you should feel silly it's impressive I don't know if it was a practical robot half a person facial replacement. I have no idea.

Starting point is 00:05:28 Technology is at such a point where I'm like, what's real? And that's always disconcerting when that's the point of the movie. So I really, really thought the writing was so much better than I had expected. I thought I'd have a fun, silly,

Starting point is 00:05:39 you know, AI doll kills people movie. And that's all I really had thought. And since I was lucky enough to avoid a lot of the conversations around it, and it's tricky because Universal is the studio I probably work with most often and Blumhouse is a team that means a lot to me because they do stuff so lean and mean.

Starting point is 00:05:55 Like the credits are almost over. And that's crazy. So they do stuff their way. And I think that's really wonderful. And I love that instead of it being a rush slasher film with a fun premise of AI doll, it was an incredible arc for Gemma, for the little girl, for the therapist. I love that. They introduced the therapist as in a lesser film that would have been the antagonist

Starting point is 00:06:19 because she clearly wasn't raising her well. But then she was supportive the next time she was on screen and had actual things to say. and that was kind of the arc for every character it was like, hey, we could zig here and it would be what you'd expect, but instead we're going to zag and make things, like, richer. And I really liked that. Even the lackey to Ronnie Chang's character,

Starting point is 00:06:38 his, like, I'm going to leak this information could have been... I feel bad for him. Yeah, but I love that that was manipulation that we were going to get to with her, where she was like, oh, this is how you killed him and why. But it didn't turn into a whole, like, you know, Robocop, you know, other Robocop company trying to take each other

Starting point is 00:06:53 out. It was instead, an excuse for Megan to let him get away with it. So all those details were great. You know, more and more visuals are such an integral part of storytelling. But as technology gets so advanced, I do find writing is something I'm noticing more because it was a, you know, miracle to see something like Jurassic Park on screen in 93. And arguably, it's still some of the best, even if you go back to, like 30 years ago, why is that the best CGS?

Starting point is 00:07:23 Yeah. But we now have a lot of. But we now have a lot more of medium quality visuals. Like, so that's the exceptional and it was 30 years ago. But like a lot more we see stuff that looks very passable. So I more and more go, oh my God, they did this level of visual and the writing is good. And they did it this lean and mean. And so I'm just really impressed that Blumhouse made something so original, so weird, so fun.

Starting point is 00:07:46 You're rooting for Megan to kill people. You're rooting for them to defend Megan. You're rooting for her to go. Like, it is a fucking riot. Like, it's just a journey. Like, the whole thing's a riot. Totally. And I love the line when she goes,

Starting point is 00:07:58 we'd like to introduce you to another member of the family. Like, that to me is a line that will forever stay in my head and then Barry comes out. I love that so much. I also think that in regards to, like, the relationship between the kid and Megan, the best part in the arc with the little girl was seeing her freak out. And then giving us a really clear example. of what that attachment looks like and what could possibly in the future

Starting point is 00:08:28 happen with children if their freaking little AI doll is not around and they rely on them solely for emotional and physical support and the parents are just too busy with work making money, I don't know. I mean, parenting is rough as hell.

Starting point is 00:08:41 I'm not a parent, but like, I've babysat and I'm like, yeah, it's tough, okay? If it was 24-7 all the time, we would probably be getting closer to this point where people want that sort of help, but the very clear example they gave us of the kid freaking out was terrifying and her having a tantrum

Starting point is 00:08:58 in the back of the car kicking her aunt like the that I mean that is a real kid thing I've had a kid do a tantrum like that and they freak out and I think they did a really good job of showing us how a kid could reach the extremes in putting this AI doll into her life

Starting point is 00:09:15 and taking it away and what that could mean realistically in real life because, I mean, we all know, we've seen, like, the Tesla robots are, like, being made. And, I mean, we're just, we're close to this. And I also like that at the end, of course, her little, like, Alexa looking thing. I knew that was going to move. But that is, those are things that are in our homes right now, everywhere, right? You got a Google dot and Alexa, whatever, I use her a lot.

Starting point is 00:09:42 And that is, it's bringing it more home to the audience of like, oh, I'm kind of close to these things. which makes it even scarier. The psychology of withdrawal from iPads and technology is the fastest growing market in mental health. Because it's literally how people are parenting a lot. And it's really interesting that we grew up at a time where it was like, oh, TV is the thing that's going to end all of us. And then as we got a little bit older, it was video games.

Starting point is 00:10:12 And now it's this. And there is always going to be that every generation thinks they have at worst. And there's always going to be the newest thing is what's going to finally rot our brains. And like, we're all doomed. but what's interesting in our case is we have the benefit of hindsight and we can see stuff like this which is why it is so interesting how aggressively we're rushing towards it because like we we didn't know what TV would do and the olds of them were like doom and gloom and now I see there is some merit

Starting point is 00:10:38 in certain things we're doing to make life easier but we're so clearly seeing the last 10 years of kids not being socialized we're so clearly seeing how it's affecting things negatively but we're rushing the other way and I love that this movie was just this amazing horror take on the cautionary tale of like hey and maybe raise your kids yeah it's like you go in public like you go to the movie theater and man do you want to see some unsocialized youths yeah I'm so old man yells at cloud once I go to a public theater I don't think taran I know what a movie theater is anymore you guys haven't been in a couple years yeah it's been a while I live here I don't have you either have you seen the film with Arnold Schwarzener called the sixth day where there's cloning involved

Starting point is 00:11:18 I saw, like, some of it when I was a kid because it was on a VHS I had. So in that movie, his daughter in that movie, she's got a doll. It's called Cindy. And it reminds me a little bit of what they're trying to do here with Megan, where they have, it's not like a replacement as a parent, but it's like a doll that's in real life like this. But this is a lot more like visually, like, appealing and create, like, more real looking. Yeah. Like I saw what Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis were trying to do in that.

Starting point is 00:11:44 And like, they took it to the next level in this. But I still wanted to give them recognition. for the awesome work they did back in 2000, but this is just on another level. I'm hard to compare the two because, again, that's 23 years, 24 years, whatever it is. But, yeah, no, it's, I agree with you guys. It's just, it's insane where we're going. And it's like this company, too, like they had those fur, what was it, whatever, funkies or whatever it was called, yeah, yeah, how they were trying to replace pets with that,

Starting point is 00:12:09 which again, that's another staple of the sixth day. They have something called repet whenever your pet dies. You can get your pet, basically you get it a new body with the, the, it's called a sincording. Basically, it's had all the memories of its entire life in a new body, which I thought was fascinating. But, like, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:28 you're replacing a pet with these fur things, which I get, the only appealing thing I see about that other than the crap that was coming out of its butt was that kids were learning a little bit about responsibility, but I don't like the detachment away from the social, you know, socializing

Starting point is 00:12:44 with other children. That part I didn't like. But then, again, what she was doing, I get what she was trying to go for But again, the only thing I liked that came out of that That was her arc Yeah, the relationship did blossom and develop As a result of that, but I thought it was good they cut the movie when they did

Starting point is 00:12:57 Because the whole third act, I was like, A lot of people go to jail And then like when they cut them like, well, we can have a happy ending of before they go to jail Yeah, well, if there is a sequel, right? Yeah, it comes out, there is, 2025. It's like upcoming, it comes out. Oh, God.

Starting point is 00:13:10 So when that comes out, I'm sure, there's got to be consequences to what happened. Blumhouse have 10 movies coming out in 2025. That's it? Holy crap. Only 10. Only 10? They've got Black Phone 2.

Starting point is 00:13:21 They've got this two. They've got five nights at Freddie too. They've got the woman in the chair, which is the new James Wan joint. They've got a video game coming out. They've got like, I went to the panel at New York Comic Con and I was like, this is just next year. This is, uh, we're just, how many for 2026? I don't even know, but I'm because they teamed up with James Wan's company. So Blumhouse and Wan are, but like, but even five a year for each company's crazy.

Starting point is 00:13:44 That's insane. If you told me a film company who's putting out five movies in your, be like, that's crazy. But now one is doing 10? Right, because normally it's, it's, it's B and C type movie production companies that can really poop out movies in two weeks. And they make, they make quality.

Starting point is 00:13:58 They make quality. I mean, this is a great film. So that's insane to me that they're making 10. I'm very surprised by that. But I just want to say another thought, like when he was saying about socialization in kids, meaning like 80s, 90s babies, raise kind of like with the movies and on TV

Starting point is 00:14:13 and it might have been like, and then it progresses to video games. and now it's like AI. But the thing that I think about is that with babies who are like, oh, we're raised on TV and movies, we still had to go outside of the house and still socialize with people. And when you're in a waiting room,

Starting point is 00:14:30 you don't have another piece of technology to keep you there. And now, if you look at our lives now, wherever we go, it's technology. It's TV. It's our phones. It's a computer. It's in the freaking car. And you're like, here's this computer that I put in.

Starting point is 00:14:46 And you go anywhere, and now it's like AI is helping you. You do AI, you try on clothes if you go like to the store. I mean, we are exposed to technology everywhere. It's like going from zero to Blade Runner 2049, almost like we're almost there. And it's a little terrifying, but I'm glad that this movie brings that to light. And that was a big, like that line at the beginning where they said, I thought we said 30 minutes of screen time. Like that was a big thing in my household. I had two hours.

Starting point is 00:15:14 Yeah, my parents. Because if I watched a show, then I couldn't watch a movie with the family. So it made me pick if I was going to have time with my family. It had to be selective. Yeah, I thought that was smart. It's strategic and selective. Yeah, because, like, my parents were totally cool with me playing video games and watching TV. I had to go outside and play, too.

Starting point is 00:15:28 That's why I had a whole crew in my neighborhood where we played street hockey outside. We played baseball. We went to the park. I was a big bike. We did out that. I even went down a hill when it rained. Oh, I'm already. I got you beat.

Starting point is 00:15:39 I got you beat. Cool. But by the way, do you guys know what the title of the second movie is going to be called? M2 Jan. That's a good one. M4Gahn. Megan 2.0. Okay.

Starting point is 00:15:52 Because then the third one could be Megan with the three and there's making a bigger. Right, that's true. Or they can be like scream and just keep calling it scream. Why? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:16:00 That's why I was wondering if the fan four stick movies were actually good what they were going to call the fourth movie. I don't know. You'd also be like bad boys where you call the third one

Starting point is 00:16:08 bad boys for life and they go, oh, we wasted this. Yeah. So they thought they were done. They thought they were done and you're like, that should have been on that. Oh, that one did real good.

Starting point is 00:16:14 Yeah. Right her back. So Amy, Amy, excuse me, Amy Donald, a 10-year-old national champion dancer

Starting point is 00:16:21 in Brown Belt and Karate who was discovered at a farm down the road provided the full body moving shots including all the stunts and the dancing scenes for Megan. Director Gerard Johnstone said in an interview, the methodology was essentially

Starting point is 00:16:36 to use an animatronic puppet when she's still. And as soon as she starts moving, she's a girl in a mask. And that it only be, had been possible because the incredible young actress had physical abilities. He hadn't believed anyone would have and was so completely dedicated she would work out how to do anything he asked of her. Donald received coaching from Luke Hawker, a movement coach used to working in prosthetics

Starting point is 00:17:00 and worked with a stunt team who she amazed by not needing any wires or rigging to perform the superhuman feats. On said Donald wore a static silicone Megan mask created by Morat FX, which was later animated with CGI for Megan to appear to be speaking. I love that. Kind of like we talked about, the pieces that we thought all put together. Wow. Amazing. The film was originally R-rated by the MPAA while editing. It was evident that it could be a PG-13

Starting point is 00:17:26 rating by altering a few scenes and attract a larger audience. Due to the trailer's popularity among teens, some scenes were re-shot to tone down the violence and obtain a PG-13 rating. Oh, wow. We'll have to re-watch it and see the... This movie made, like, I remember this being one of the highest profit movies of

Starting point is 00:17:43 2023. Like this is one of the things that made Blumhouse like profit, profit, wow, that's cool. The song Megan plays on the piano is, do you guys know? No.

Starting point is 00:17:52 Toy Soldiers, a 1988. Yeah, that's right. 1988 hit for Martica. Okay. That's cheeky. Cool. Adrian Morat and Kathy Say of Morat FX Studio

Starting point is 00:18:06 created an animatronic puppet version of Megan that was used for dialogue and close-ups. There was also a second animatronic used for certain scenes as well as a possible stunt version of Megan that wasn't puppeteered. The animatronics, Megan was puppeteered via a variety of techniques, which included radio-controlled facial expressions performed by Adrian and Kathy in tandem. Automated lip sync for the dialogue. Temp tracks were provided during filming by New Zealand actress Kimberly Crossman and a puppeteer physically moving Megan's head and body. It's all a team.

Starting point is 00:18:36 It takes a village. Wow. That's amazing. It's literally a puppet. That's cool. Question, what do you guys think the budget of this film was? I know it's low because of the profit, but I want to say $12 million. That's why he's my geek checked.

Starting point is 00:18:53 Oh, he guessed right? I wasn't even going to let you go when he got it. 12. Wow, I was on the money. That's crazy. 12, so you can see, I'm not making that up. I was like, I know it's more than 10 and less than 20. Wow.

Starting point is 00:19:03 Well, you got it. On a budget of $12 million, Fence principal photography began in June 2021, taking place in L.A., California, and Auckland, New Zealand. The suburbs of Auckland were utilized to lend the film a Denver, Colorado feel. Filming was completed by mid-August right before COVID-19 lockdown occurred in New Zealand. The film underwent reshoots in post-production in order to secure a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association after the original cut was deemed too violent. Okay.

Starting point is 00:19:32 We saw that cut. Actresses dressed as Megan showed up to the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers NFL game. Oh, the marketing for this is amazing. Sunday, January 1st, 23 to promote the film. They performed a dance routine during halftime. That's cool. They also went to influencers. Like, there were people desks as her, like dancers' dressers.

Starting point is 00:19:50 They would knock on influencers' houses. And you'd open the door and it would be a Megan dancing. Oh, my God. I love that. It would be awesome and freaked out at the same time. I saw friends get, like, knocked on by Megan. Like, literally just open the door to Megan. I want to get knocked on by Megan.

Starting point is 00:20:04 Maybe for Megan too. All right. Tell Greg, hit up Universal. Come for me. All right, we got three more. There's just three spoilers. All right, let's do it. Writer, Akela Cooper said the original body count was much higher with the film being gorier.

Starting point is 00:20:17 An unrated version released on the Peacock Streaming Service on February 24th, 20203. I wonder how many people didn't die in the regular that we saw die. Right. Curious, let us know in the comments. I'm curious as well. Lydia, I think that's the therapist is my guess. Lydia, right? Lydia was originally killed by Megan during her rampage at funky toys as she had upset Katie

Starting point is 00:20:38 by making her cry during a therapy session. When the film was recut to PG-13, her death scene was removed from the final cut. Lydia's death was not put back in the movie's alternative R-rated cut either. Yeah, she didn't just run out of the room. We never saw her again. I think it's because of the more cliche

Starting point is 00:20:53 like therapist equal bad. They did a good job making her like, I'm trying to help. Yeah, no, after that first scene, first I thought she was going to die. That's one also too. I was like, I see what she's trying to do, but I don't like her at all.

Starting point is 00:21:03 I like that for her arc. Yeah, totally. I'm like, hey, we're taking care of supporting characters here. Yeah. Appreciate that. All right, last one. Allison Williams revealed

Starting point is 00:21:12 there's a certain unrated moment that makes her sick to her stomach. Williams said, the unrated version is a lot of fun. If you have the stomach for it, when asked if there was a specific scene that makes her squirm, she replied, oh my God,

Starting point is 00:21:26 it should be when a child perishes. But at one point, someone's face loses a fight with a pressure washer, and it starts to peel off, even though I know how it works behind the scenes, and I watched all the tests

Starting point is 00:21:36 they did with the special effects, makeup. I still get sick to my stomach when I see it. It just grosses me out. I don't do well with Gore in general so that moment in particular, gnarly to me. She just started a reaction channel. Do the soft films. I'd love to see her reactions. I just love that Allison Williams and get out and this and she's

Starting point is 00:21:51 not much of heart. She's like, I'm not into Gore. But she's good at them. That was a great, I love that scene too. Like that was, I thought that they were going to pressure wash like her head off. But they did the skin, which is even more intense and disgusting. And I hated it.

Starting point is 00:22:07 obvious that the way when she was holding that pressure washer, like, that's coming back to her demise. God, gnarly. Well, we obviously love this. Make sure that you leave a comment. Let us know what you guys thought. And yeah, tell us what was in the unrated if you saw that. Like what? We saw the unrated. The PG-13. I'm sorry, in the PG-13. Let us know the PG-13 because we watched the unrighted. Oh my God. Get it together, Tara. Listen, we love you guys. Leave a like. Leave a comment. You know, subscribe. Go to Patreon. Go to Rejectationshop.com. That's all for us and we will see you on the next one. Bye. Does anyone I want a little robot of,

Starting point is 00:22:47 it would be Brian Perry. Definitely agree. You know why. I'll do a little dance for you. Oh my God. Can you imagine Brian Perry's dance? That's it. That's what I was imagining right there. Right there. You nailed it. It's, we're simpatico. Look at that. My God, you used like that Ridler Batman Forever technology on me. where you could just place that thing on my mind and I could see what is peering through That is amazing John How'd you know Brian Perry moves like

Starting point is 00:23:14 How'd you know Brian Perry moves like I got the moves like Perry I got the whole melody Because I don't want to get flagged Please don't I won't Well dude yeah I mean I want a little robot A Brian Perry that I can like

Starting point is 00:23:28 Because you can do whatever you want to a robot You can and it won't feel it You don't have any remorse for what you do A robot I can smack Brian Perry smack them around on his cheeks. It would mime.

Starting point is 00:23:41 It would, it would, it would, it would, feign, pain, pain, but then it would be like, shut up, you're just programmed to feel that. But you don't really feel it. I'm not being cruel in telling you this because you're not real. So it doesn't matter what my motivations are. Yeah, freaking reset you.

Starting point is 00:24:01 Suffer, suffer for my pleasure. Okay, would that be? Yeah. Did you force him to do all your chores. Brian Perry, the robot. Not Ryan Perry, the person. Not the person. We very much respect.

Starting point is 00:24:11 That is inhumane and disgusting. Oh, totally. I would not want to associate with such an individual. But the robot, you can piss on that thing. You can do whatever you want to. We would invite you to help defile your own robot. Like sometimes, I know you would enjoy it. You might make a mistake because it looks so similar that, okay, I accidentally.

Starting point is 00:24:30 I accidentally. The real bribeer, but it's about intent. Yeah. It truly. Anyway, Brian, happy Halloween. Happy. Yeah.

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The Reel Rejects - M3GAN (2022) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING! Unrated |

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