The Reel Rejects - MISERY (1990) IS BRUTAL!! MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching

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Starting point is 00:01:04 Reject Nation, right now, I am at the Preserve here in LA. We're on February 22nd this coming Saturday. The real rejects, all of us, are going to be having a panel here at Multicon. In addition to that, myself and Koi are going to be hosting two separate other panels. And there's going to be a lot of guests way bigger than ourselves who are going to be here. And yes, we're going to get a hang out with us. We're going to talk or chat. We're going to have a great old time.

Starting point is 00:01:26 Please, if you haven't gotten your tickets, go get your tickets. And oh, yeah, all proceeds go to the Los Angeles wildfire recovery efforts. So it's all band together for a good cause. Getting your ticket is going to be for a good cause. Hope to see you there, Saturday, Reject Nation. All right, should we get to it? Let's do it. Let's do it.

Starting point is 00:01:51 Now, if you are listening to us on Apple or Spotify, give us a five-star rating, comment, tell us how cool we are. comment on the YouTube video. You know all the juice. Give us the juice. Okay. Andrew. Now, before we even get into it, how did this movie make you feel?

Starting point is 00:02:11 It makes me feel like if we ever get picked up from our fans at Reject Nation here after some kind of an accident, I feel like they would be a little bit kinder than this woman and not do as crazy things as this woman because we have the best fans in the world.

Starting point is 00:02:29 I Geez, I can't I get off the screen Here, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it I'm not good at this guys Fine, so how do you feel? How do I feel? I feel icky Yeah, but it was a great movie Like it's yeah, it's the, by the way

Starting point is 00:02:44 If you guys want to get cool Ties like this Reject Nation Shop.com Yes. Coolest sweatser I've ever seen in my life By the way, Terra's own design. Yeah, I feel icky just because like And again, that's, I think that's a credit to Kathy Bates's performance and also the writer William Goldman, phenomenal writer. I think he wrote some novels, Lord of the Flies and some other things,

Starting point is 00:03:03 if I'm remembering correctly. But credit to them, because that's how I feel. I think we're meant to feel that way. Based on what we just saw, so I would say that's how I would describe how I'm feeling. But I think it's the perfect definition of, like you said earlier, a suspenseful film. Because from the moment the car crashed,

Starting point is 00:03:20 and she picked them up, and once we got there and we got the vibe of what was going on, the film just never let go of that pedal. and every scene I was like literally on the edge of my seat. So I would say that's the way I'm feeling. How are you feeling right now? I love this movie. I'm literally just like, wow, that was exciting. I feel better than how I did prior to watching this movie.

Starting point is 00:03:44 I thought that when a movie has such good writing towards like, sure, we can call some things out and like we watch so many movies and I can maybe see what's coming. And the ending, I mean, I just love the writing. When you watch a good film, you just go, dang, it makes you just want to, like, jump into another movie because you're like, films can make you feel so many things. And I, this made me feel, yes. It's insane. But to watch a really good thriller full of suspense and great writing and really good Oscar winning performances is an exciting thing for me. And I know a lot of people love jump scares, which obviously,

Starting point is 00:04:26 makes fun for uh makes good reactions and there was that one good jump scare that got us where she was hovering over him on the bed when he woke up that was great but this movie like i was scared the whole time for paul like and there was no basically no jump scares are at the film but because i kept on putting myself in his shoes yeah or in his in the bed with him i don't know is that the proper uh burbage whatever i mean in his shoes yeah i was vicariously i was living through his eyes like and the film did a good job of doing that like what would you do you do do in this situation and I like that we kept on going like hey maybe he should do this maybe you should do that oh with the pills do with that and I like how you kept coming up with suggestions

Starting point is 00:05:04 too okay like tell her to go get that like distract or like I like how the um like the film makes you like you know it's it's unpredictable there are times it's predictable like oh the cops coming out there alone yeah that kind of thing but overall it's like wait what would I do in this situation so it it's suspenseful in that way it's also suspenseful in the way like oh my gosh she's coming home right now he's He's like only got a certain. He's injured right now. So like there's actual stakes. He doesn't have his full like bodily functions and his full like autonomy and he's not 100% right now. So like it adds to the the situation right now that we're in. So like from that perspective like yeah. And obviously incredible performances by both Kathy Bates and James Kahn. Now the only reason I knew a tiny, tiny tiny bit about this film is because. the show I always mentioned on this channel, Smallville, paid a little homage to this episode. I think it was season seven where Lionel was being held captive by a woman.

Starting point is 00:06:05 So I had always heard that that was misery. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So I knew a tiny bit, but again, I like that the film doesn't go right into that. Obviously, she saves him. You got the sweet. And then the naivit sweetness from her and the caring, a good Samaritan from Kathy Bates. And then, you know, from James Con perspective, oh, my God, there's a blizzard outside.

Starting point is 00:06:26 here's this good nice sweet woman and he's very naive and just being cared for and also hey she's got the IV and she's caring for him and the nurse like this is all very plausible the situation that we're in that he can't go to a hospital with the weather outside and I also like how the storm and the snow kind of plays a character

Starting point is 00:06:44 in itself you know but yeah it set up it was a good setup for the film like okay like she is trustful right now at first but there is something askew here as well. No, but there's something as skewed here, even though she's coming off as sweet and caring. It's like something also is very off here. There's something underlying in her performance that you were not quite sure at the top because I wasn't sure exactly where this movie was headed. I didn't know that it was, I mean, after five minutes, you're kind of going like, is she going to keep him here? But you could feel it in her underlying performance that something was going to creep up on us. And we could feel it sort of the entire time, which is why I'm not surprised. if Kathy Bates won, you know, so many awards for this because of what you kind of feel lying underneath from the second that she's on screen.

Starting point is 00:07:34 But what this brings to light to me, it's like when a stalker's dream comes true and she gets access to the kill of her life, which would be killing her number one like celebrity, right? this is like this is a stalker's dream sherry stalks him she knows everything about him she's a nurse she killing babies she has a murderer instinct and then now she is in this prime position where it's like she's been out in the middle of nowhere hasn't killed anything hasn't gotten that itch and now she gets this guy a just happenstance gets to run into her favorite freaking author yeah save him and then

Starting point is 00:08:21 obviously juice him up to where she assumes they're going to have a Romeo and Juliet ending. For sure. I think the film also did a brilliant job taking its time reeling that information about who she was. Obviously we got the unhinged moments every once in a while like, holy shit, she's got a temper.

Starting point is 00:08:37 She's a little cray cray! No, she's really crazy. But I like to like the things that we started off like, oh, he's a little OCD, but he's got his little thing that he does where he lights up the cigarette. He drinks the Don Perignon and like kind of the victory, like, ah, I finished the book. Obviously, we saw how that paid back.

Starting point is 00:08:55 But I thought it was interesting what you said earlier because, like, she's from Bakersfield. I guess that's where she did all the atrocities with the infant stuff. But of all the places she decided to. She's next to the place that he goes. That he goes to. Like, yeah, she moved to a quiet rural town and all that, but she wanted to be next to the us. Because she knows him very well. And she said, like, oh, I heard on your interview 11 years ago, you go to Silver Creekla.

Starting point is 00:09:18 That's where she ended up in a zoo. I just go, they didn't show us that. but could be a thing where she's like eventually on the snow, this fool's going to, right? But she's able to stalk him. And that's why she was able like within five. Absolutely. I mean, within two minutes saves that guy.

Starting point is 00:09:32 Yeah, within two minutes. She didn't save him like a few hours later. She's saved him two minutes after you can crash. You know what? Now that we're saying that, I believe that in her moving that close to where he's writing, that eventually at some point something like this disastrous with him and her would have happened.

Starting point is 00:09:48 She would have made it happen, whether it's at the lodge. or convincing him to come to her. This movie could have, oh, my God. She's scheming and conniving. I wouldn't put that faster. This movie could have gone so many ways like all the chapters in the books of misery. Yeah, no, for sure.

Starting point is 00:10:05 That is what we're setting up. This is like one book of that, but imagine that she is in that town. She knows where he writes. She would have found a way to get to him. And that leads us to so many options. Yeah, I got to imagine, too. This was such a incredible watch

Starting point is 00:10:21 in the theaters. Like it's one of those moan and groan type films. When she spills the wine, like, ugh. Kill me. Like, yeah, no, there were definitely a bunch of moments. But again, that's why, because we're pulled in as an audience and we want this poor soul, Paul, to get out of there. He did

Starting point is 00:10:37 an incredible job to James Kahn. I loved his facial reactions, how he was hamming it up in certain scenes. And again, we kept on saying, too, at the once he got, once we really realized her ulterior motives and what she was like, really doing, in terms of stalking him

Starting point is 00:10:53 and had no intention of ever letting him go okay you're not at full strength you don't have the means to get out of here you gotta play it as cool as humanly possible for as long as you can that's the best thing you can do and I thought he like I love how resourceful and intuitive

Starting point is 00:11:09 he was in that situation because if it were me I don't know how like how long I could keep my cool in that situation I might like I might snap being honest I might snap in that situation understandably so. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:22 So I like that he kept a calm and collected cool head and like he was a very intelligent character. I mean, the fact that he was able to write those books, obviously that you got to be intelligent. But in that type of situation too, that's a different type of common collected intellect. And I appreciate that about his character. And like it was just insane and wild watch. But yeah, the only thing that really, and again, it's in the book.

Starting point is 00:11:44 So I'm assuming you got to keep it. But I hated when the cop went there by himself. I'm like and again I get it He just had been like the clues Were there and you had the probable cause I know it's a small town He's probably the only sheriff I think they mentioned that in the scene before

Starting point is 00:11:59 So I don't know if he actually had backup I think his wife was his only backup Yeah his wife was his wife So I know the complaint I'm probably making you guys There is no other cops He's just his wife but that kind of That was the only thing that slightly bothered me But I'm like

Starting point is 00:12:11 Why is the only cop in town as well I know it's a small town But I think that's why I said This movie made me feel excited Because most of the time when we're talking about an intelligence, intelligence as part of a character. So in me going, normally, I would be yelling at the screen going, no, use those pills, put them in a thing. And then, you know, I had already said, get a weapon. How can we now kill her?

Starting point is 00:12:37 Go to the kitchen, get a knife. He does that, right? And then you're like, you're like, oh, just pretend. Say you love her back, right? Feed into this story for her until we can get her in this, in the. this really right position to where we can take over the power either with the knife or the pills. And so that to me is like I couldn't call out. I mean, I am constantly, you guys know, if you watch movies and me and rocks are really anyone else. But you know me and rocks cover

Starting point is 00:13:04 a lot of the horror that I'm constantly saying things like this. Like why wouldn't you take that thing, grab that weapon stuff, throwing that thing away? This movie from start to finish made the smartest choices that I go, yeah, I'm calling stuff out. but he's doing it. Thank goodness, because anybody with their right mind, please make the character, even though we want them to feel like they are in danger. They can be murdered.

Starting point is 00:13:32 That character does not need to be stupid for us to believe that they could die. And this movie does the best job at delivering that. I think there can be two intelligent people, one can be the murderer, one can be the victim, It doesn't mean that the victim has to be dumb in order for us to believe that their life is at risk. For sure. And I think in contrast to your point as well, I think Annie, as psychotic and crazy as she was, she was pretty smart herself too. She would always lock the door.

Starting point is 00:14:05 She'd put the fake phone there. She covered her tracks as well. Too intelligent, right? Yeah. So it's like. And normally we're dealing with where we don't get that. Yeah. We get a girl who's like, what do I do? And like, blah, or whatever, not always.

Starting point is 00:14:18 Yeah, and it adds to the satisfaction when he finally gets free at the end. It's like, thank God. But, like, what a obstacle he had to get through to get to that point. Of course. And then, of course, when she eventually, you know, calls out the penguin, there's little things that are placed in this movie that are very smart. And there's not, I mean, we watch so many movies. There's plenty of times I just go, I like the movie.

Starting point is 00:14:43 I'll give you some plot holes for it. Here we go. love this movie start to finish fellow rejects the other day we had one of those days where everything just piled all at once our back studio flooded it actually flooded and in that same exact time frame

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Starting point is 00:15:16 Corn's account. And it was this huge relief to see that if I needed to, I had enough built up to cover everything. Just knowing that we had that safety net, even though we didn't actually have to touch it, it actually made all the difference. And that's why I love this freaking app Acorns. Because let's be real, investing can feel overwhelming. Like, I know plenty of people who invest. But even with all their advice, I used to feel pretty intimidated by the whole process. Like where you start, how much you need. Then there's that myth that you need a ton of money to begin. That is actually why I gave Acorn. a shot. I know these can sound like just talking points, but this is weirdly all true. It's an easy, automated way to start saving and investing for your future. And you don't need

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Starting point is 00:16:49 I mean it. By the way, I'm really upset. Actually, I'm angered at myself. When the cop, the sheriff, was in the helicopter, I didn't recognize the helicopter pilot. Who was it? Stupid, stupid me. It was the director, Rob Reiner, and I know exactly what he looks like. Oh.

Starting point is 00:17:03 By the way, I think a nickname of his was, and I'm not looking at the trivia yet. I think a nickname of his, if I'm not mistaken, you guys let me know, was Meatlo. and they were eating meatloaf in that one scene. Oh, cool. So again, let's get to it. I will. Okay. I mentioned, remember that cop was J.T. Walsh, but we didn't see him in the credits.

Starting point is 00:17:19 Yes, you did. I'm probably wrong. No, you're right. Yeah. Uncredited. Called it. And I said he passed in 97 or 98. 98.

Starting point is 00:17:29 I try. I try. This guy right here. Let's get to the, oh, by the way, this is a game I like to play now in the channel. Okay. At a 10, what do you think I'm with the dot, with the decimal point? What do you think this got out of 10, IMDB rating? Oh, an IMDB rating.

Starting point is 00:17:44 If people are smart and not the stupidest people I've ever known, I'm going to assume it's high. I would hope it's high. I want to say it's an 8.7. Lower. Okay, give me a say. Wait, wait, wait. 8.7 is really high.

Starting point is 00:18:02 I know, but this, I like this movie. Fine. I'm going to go with what I probably think idiots. I'm going to give it a 7.1. Higher. Thank God. So we're not all, we're not living in hell. 7.8.

Starting point is 00:18:20 Bingo. And that's just so you know 7.8 is a phenomenal rating. I know it. That's why I went, I went, well, let's see. 8.7 is like to the moon rating. It's very high. Yeah. You know, you don't ever get that even on really good movies in IMDB, but I was making a leap.

Starting point is 00:18:36 Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. I wouldn't, if it got an 8.7. 7-1-1, damn, but I wouldn't have argued it either. Okay, so let's get into some trivia. Let's do it. Stephen King was quite impressed with Kathy Bates' performance in this film, so much so that he later wrote two more roles for her.

Starting point is 00:18:53 Yeah, baby. The title role in his novel, Dolores Cleoborne, was written with Bates in mind, and Bates later starred in the film adaptation, Dolores Cleoborne. King also wrote the script for the TV miniseries, The Stand, his original novel featured a male character named Ray Flowers upon hearing that Bates wanted to be involved in the miniseries. He made her

Starting point is 00:19:12 right. As a woman, Ray Flowers just so Bates could play the role uncredited. Smart. I love that. You know that I will tell just one quick thing. There's a director that is one of my friends and he wrote a short film and he's like listen, Charlie Autumn is supposed to be a guy

Starting point is 00:19:28 but I like you and you're acting the way saying things. I'm going to change it to a girl. Sounds like a smart man. I loved it. I'm sure you were incredible. I want to see that performance on James Kahn once showed up to the set hungover And all the scenes he shot that day were unusable Rob Reiner told James Kahn

Starting point is 00:19:48 That he had to do the scenes again Because there was a problem at the lab When Kahn learned it had nothing to do with the labs He offered to cover the money he lost the studio What a true gentleman Good for you Kahn Really quick story I know it has nothing to do with this So unprofessional

Starting point is 00:20:02 Jaws one of my all time Have you seen Jaws? Yeah Okay great One of my all time favorite movies one of my, probably my favorite monologue, which I know the whole thing, Greg will vouch for me. The USS Indianapolis monologue that Quint says in that film, which is

Starting point is 00:20:14 probably the most famous thing in that movie, besides the shark, of course. Robert Schau, who plays Quint, he was drunk the first time they tried filming that, like, major drunk. Yeah. And they could not shoot it that day, and Robert Chow really quickly calls Steven Spielberg, that night and says, how bad

Starting point is 00:20:30 did I F up? He goes, pretty bad, but it's just, if you can nail it tomorrow in one take, we'll be good. Next day tomorrow. The first take is what you saw in the film. Yeah. Nailed it. Professionals.

Starting point is 00:20:42 James Conn and Kathy Bates clashed over their acting methods. Khan believed in as little rehearsal as possible. Bates with her theater background was used to practicing a lot. Yeah. When she commented to Rob Reiner that Conn was not attempting to relate or listen to her, Reiner told her to use the frustration towards her character. Love it. Smart.

Starting point is 00:21:01 Good note, director. Good direction. He's like, hey, I see a problem here. I'm going to solve this issue. That's smart, actually. by Reiner. Jack Nicholson was offered the role of Paul Shelburne, but passed because he was not sure he wanted to do another movie based on one of Stephen King's novels after what he had experienced with Stanley Kubrick on The Shining, also written by Stephen King. Makes sense. I mean,

Starting point is 00:21:20 that's a lot of, that's a lot of scary stuff falling you around. I still have not seen the shining. I only know the line here's Johnny. I only, I think I've seen it, but it was a very long time. I don't remember much. Terror and I do the Shining, let us know. Let us know. I always wanted to see it. Yeah. James Conn had to stay. in bed for 15 weeks of shooting. Khan said he thought that Rob Reiner was playing a sadistic joke on him. Knowing the actor would not enjoy not moving around for so long, Khan was not used to playing a reactionary character and found it much tougher to play.

Starting point is 00:21:52 I can imagine that. Oh, I would hate that, too. That bed did not look comfy, by the way, too. I would hate that. Yeah. Annie Wilkes is Stephen King's favorite written character because she was always surprising to write with unexpected depth and sympathy. Yeah, look, I hated everything. she did from the infants to what she did to James Con at the end of the day again not defending

Starting point is 00:22:11 her horrible human being she was very lonely and when you're and when you're lonely you do crazy loneliness will make you do crazy stuff there is listen there's plenty of excuses and reasonings that we could give to so many serial murderers that you're like your mom never hugged you and nobody ever loved you and now you turn into psycho these aren't like excuses were making, it just makes sense. And in a movie like this, the way that they portrayed her character, it makes sense for her

Starting point is 00:22:44 to be doing what she's doing. Yeah. Which is good. We need that. We want the movie to make sense. Bet Midler turned down the role of Annie Wilkes because she thought it was too violent. She later called herself, and I quote, stupid for her decision. I'm sure when she was seeing the theater, it's like, why?

Starting point is 00:23:00 Yep. Let's do two spoilers. All right. Let's do it. Get down to it. There's like so much trivia. insane when kathy bates picked up her oscar and made her speech one thing she said humorously was and i quote i would like to thank jimmy con and apologize publicly for the ankles oh wow ow ow annie places a wooden block between paul's ankles and uses a sledgehammer to hobble him don't we know it in the book annie cuts his left foot off with an axe and then cauterizes the stump with a propane torch to stop the blood loss.

Starting point is 00:23:39 Oh. The scene was changed so that there would not be too much gore. Thank God. Oh, just to change the rating, probably. I mean, that sounds like X-rated stuff. I'm going to tell you right now, the sledgehammer was really bad. That was effective. But I will tell you that I still, it really would have added something.

Starting point is 00:23:59 If you would have got his blood off, it got a razzot with a freaking, that's insane. I agree with you. I would have like. to see it's fine either option i'm just saying wow i agree with you that still would have been insane and crazy and effective but i think again with the way the foot went that way after what he just had i mean because again you saw him a year and a half later he was still walking like he's still not going to walk right the rest of his life so i i like what they chose again i still would have accepted if they chose that but that was that's wild because you saw the leg turn the other way

Starting point is 00:24:34 I know, or the foot rather. I know, but imagine a freaking. Oh, no, no, that would. And then imagine this guy's, okay, I'm just going to redo the scene. He's lying in the bed. Axe, and then we know what we're going to see. Blood sprays out. He's spraying out all over, disgusting.

Starting point is 00:24:51 And then she takes out a fucking blow torch and is like, and then he's dying in pain because he's being burned. You know, she's not going to, like, put him to sleep with that. That just would be insane. Yeah. And I love everything. about it. Yeah, no, I would have been interesting with the MPA rating on that one. Oh, they wouldn't. I'm sure they would have had to like viscerally cut in and out of that job.

Starting point is 00:25:13 They wouldn't be able to show us. Right, right. So I get it. Yeah. This movie, I had a lot of fun. Yeah, this was a wild ride. This is an insane movie. What a great, great thriller, horror, like crime. Amazing job. I, I love everything about it. I'm happy that we got to watch this together. We've kind of been in, superhero land sort of like we did the X-Men well we did paranormal activity which we love that series. We love those but this

Starting point is 00:25:44 is very different and I this is I loved it yeah if you guys know any other suspenseful thrillers such as this let us know let us know Tara and I will check them out we would love to check them out love you guys so much don't forget to like comment obviously subscribe join the super

Starting point is 00:26:00 sexes over on Patreon support us at rejectnation shop go to our socials follow us say hello we love you so much and we will see you on the next one

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The Reel Rejects - MISERY (1990) IS BRUTAL!! MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching

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