The Ringer-Verse - 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' Instant Reactions and the End of the DCEU | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: December 23, 2023

This pod was born to be wild. The Midnight Boys are here to dive into the murky waters of 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' (04:50). They also discuss this being the final DCEU film and how this will affect the state of fandom in film (51:18). Later they also touch on the news that Marvel has parted ways with Jonathan Majors (81:36). Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Galaxy Lights, Coachella, Lightning Bolt Necklaces. 20203 was the year of Scandival. On March 3rd, one cheating scandal launched a reality TV investigation that generated hundreds of conspiracy theories, thousands of podcast episodes, and millions of dollars in revenue. I'm Jody Walker, host of an American Scandival. One retrospective story told in three salacious parts. Listen, December 26th on the Ringer Reality Feast. feed. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

Trimphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tremfaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease, and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis, serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine.

Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more, or visit Trimfairadio.com. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer.

You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. visit weathertech.com today. Welcome into the ringerverse. This is, of course, the ringer's Nexus podcast, Steve, for all things, fandom. We are. Steve, the architect, almond, the builder of things. We are.

Jomey to explainer at dinner on, you've got questions. He's got answers. We are. Old Man, Van, he of the receding research and hairline. We are Coke, baby Chuck. The L.A. baby. Oh, baby. baby he in LA.

He's driving in the rain in LA. He got a haircut in LA. He lives in LA. Together, we are known as of our midnight boys. Let's have some fun here at the beginning because this is not going to be a great episode of the podcast.

This is going to be a great episode of the podcast. There's just so much game left. There's so much game left. Don't bring with that attitude already. Shut up. Follow us on socials. Insta, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, save Jomey's job.

Jomi. What's up? Guys, I don't know if you guys are locked in on the socials, but we had a little, little music video drop the other day, you know? Shout out to everybody in the Ring ofverse who participated. Had a lot of fun making that holiday carol for you guys. It's just a lot of fun,

a lot of goofy fun that we had. But yeah, wanted to show love to you guys at the end of the year. So again, shout out to everybody in the Ring of Verse who participated and, you know, shout to the Ring of Verse for loving it, man. It was a whole bunch of fun to make.

You can tell Jomi's black as hell because he's the first spot. employee who's trying to make a music career pop off at the studios. You know what I'm saying? You see that free studio space, grabbing the engineer. Next Price and Tiller over here. All right, let's get into it. Bro, I hear, my gosh! Okay, on Tuesday, the House of Ars giving you their deep dive into the Doctor Who Christmas

special. It's over on the House of Our feed on Tuesday, reverse feed. We have a very special surprise for you guys. The live show video from our live show, it drops on the 26. It's a boxing day surprise. Or boxing day. and you guys get to have a part of what we were doing and how things were going and all of that.

It was very fun. You guys, everyone share one memory of the live show quickly. I came out just as Ken. That's enough. Next Wednesday, we're coming back with Midnight Mulligans. Oh my God. You guys, this was a crazy episode of Mulligans. We were mulliganing it up all over the place.

Favorite episode of the year. That's good. It's good. My victory lap. I felt great about it. You guys, Charles will be replaced here on The Midnight Boys pretty soon. We're probably going to end up bringing in because you just don't like the content enough.

He's too humble now. Whoa, whoa, whoa, after this movie, you're telling me that I'm in the wrong. I'm not telling. I'm just saying that you like it, you're becoming, it was one thing when you were Alex Luther. Now you're becoming the Joker. You just want to watch the world burn. It's like you're going, like you love it.

Are you going to try to swap me out with like Chris Ryan or some shit? There's not one Midnight Boy that can be replaced, but if we were going to replace the Midnight Boys, this would be the new Midnight Boys. I would be replaced with Was. Jomey would be replaced with either D.C., okay? Okay, maybe.

Or, or Nephew Caugh. Steve would be replaced with, let's see. Oh, Craig. Steve would be replaced with, replaced with Craig and Charles, who would Charles be replaced with? Who would, who is this in this bizarro midnight boys, this earth 838 midnight boys? Who's the biggest hater at the at the ringer not named me? Oh, Greenwald.

He would be, that's the new midnight boys. That's a new midnight boys. Honestly, I feel like Andy is kind of like, I'm Darth Vader. You know, he's the emperor. I look up to him. That's true. All right. Friday, button mash talks about the game.

of the year. On today's show, we're going to give our thoughts on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Spoiler warning by Aquaman. If you've ever watched anything in the DCEU,

read any D.C. comic books, if you've ever had your nuts cut off, if you've ever experienced waterboarding, you've ever had your fingernails pulled out of your hands or anything else that is really, really unenjoyable. We're going to be spoiling it for you here. I'm mad. I'm going to be honest with you guys. I've never felt like this before. I'm mad.

I'm mad. I'm mad. I'm mad at you. You said that this was a must. You like, my black guys shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Run a spoiler warning. We're getting ready to talk about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. You're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. Midnight Manifest, Charles Go. All right, guys, this is your Midnight Manifest for Aquaman and Lost Kingdom, directed by James Wan, written by David Leslie Johnson, McGulrick,

starring Jason Mammaoah, Patrick Wilson, Amber Hurd, Yaya Abdul Mateen II. And I've got to be real. Describing the plot of this movie is almost giving it too much credit, but the Midnight Manifest is My Cross-Savere alone. So we begin with Aquaman, who is married to Mara, has a kid, and wants to reveal Atlantis to the world, but there's some deep sea bureaucracy afoot. Meanwhile, Black Manta is still pissed at Aquaman over some shit you probably forgot about

from the first film. But Manta finds a Black Trident. The Trident possesses him because it has an evil zombie inside of it, and it gives him the strength to finally fight Aquaman and the rest of Atlantis. Atlantis is attacked by Manta, and Arthur Yada Yada is his way into freeing his brother from the first film Ocean Master, who knows a bunch about Manta and can help him stop the villain. Together, Aquaman Ocean Master must stop Manta from using Eraculum, an ancient Atlantean power source that's causing global warming. Yes, I'm being very, very serious

about this plot thread. And Black Manta steals Aquabody because he needs his blood for some type of magic trick that'll destroy the world, fight ensues, Aquaman saves the day, and in the process, kills superhero movies potentially forever. And that has been your midnight manifest for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. All right, instant reactions. Chuck, give it away, take it away, go. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Like, there's no need to be dramatic about it.

Get to the shit. Yeah. This shit stinks. The DCEU can rest in piss. I have never felt more taking advantage of the movie theater. I was sitting, first of all, I went to, like, my local theater. and I was running late and I was just like, hey, it's the first day

I scroll up. I'm like, yo, to the little lady at the checkout or I'm just like, hey, are there any tickets left for Aquaman? And she kind of like laughs. I walk into that theater. I'm the only motherfucker there. It's me and then like an older Asian couple and one other black dude.

And when I tell you, this is probably the first movie ever where I've done this where I pulled out my phone, took it off airplane mode, and was literally like, how long is this movie? because it was unwatchable. It is a cliche mess.

I think this is potentially salted the earth for every single superhero movie to come after it. How does this even, like, Zazlov should have backgirled this movie, if we're being real. Like, if we're being, like, there's no way that this movie is better than that girl. This was terrible. Like, it is, guys. God damn it. It was bad. Dan, am I just being Coke, baby Chuck? Or has this reached just a new depth for superhero movies?

I just got comfortable in my chair, okay? Because I have something to say here. Making movies is difficult. It's a tough thing. It's hard. Yes. Right? It's a hard endeavor.

No one sets out to make a bad movie. We always say this. This is what you want out of anything. To me, what you want is not a serious. in the product, but a seriousness in the craft. You want people in anything that you're being sold. Doesn't care what it is. Forget about movies.

Let's take movies off the table for a second. You go and you buy something that you expect to be of quality. Could be a car, could be a pair of jeans, could be a PlayStation Xbox. What you want is for people to care. that they're selling you something. Because I want people to understand something. As you get older, this is what you figure out. The money that you give in this capitalist society,

it's actually little life tokens. We all work, right? And it changed for the work and the time that we give to some corporate entity. They give us money. So that money doesn't matter if you make millions of it, or if you make thousands of it, or if you make hundreds of it. they're essentially little life tokens.

You've given your life for this little bread, for this little money, right? For this time, right? This guy very existential. Right. I'm just being for real. Now, normally, when you give that, you expect a certain give back.

And what we've seen is that some of these Super Euro movies, some of these things aren't worth the life tokens that you give to them. Life wassters. In a way, this movie, more than any of them, and I don't know why I'm taking it so personally. It felt like they were fucking with us. It felt like they were fucking with us with the piss poor CGI. It felt like they were fucking with us with the way that the lead in this movie overtly and flagrantly males in his performance.

I'm talking about from the beginning of the film, unsurious, unsurious, stupid, goofy, ridiculous. He looked bad. He acted bad. He performed bad. The movie looked bad. Not a clear narrative.

One guy in the whole movie seemed like he was taking the movie seriously. Two guys. Black Manta and goddamn, Patrick Wilson. Black Manta, like, wasn't even in the movie enough and had a, like, a confusing muddled narrative.

And then Patrick Wilson's character seemed to be the only person who was giving anything to the film. So, to me, when I'm sitting here and I'm watching it, and I'm watching it in the theater with Jomi and some other people,

I'm like, if I was going to show people the worst parts of a comic book movie and why these movies shouldn't be made anymore, this would be the movie I would show them. Last thing I'll say, you guys have brought up a lot of movies to me that you say are worse than this one. And I've heard them. You've said that Shazam Fury to Gods is worse. I don't think it is.

You've said that Catwoman is worse. I don't think that it necessarily is, although it might be. Superman Ford of Quest for Peace, I have a very odd connection to that movie. Here's the one thing that none of those movies have in common with this movie. Besides maybe Shazam, which I don't think this movie is... I don't think Shazam is as bad as this. That there's no reason this film should be bad. This movie right here is coming off of a $1 billion filmmaking success.

There's no reason that this movie should be bad. Like the fact that this film is this poorly made, not that it's this bad, that it's this poorly made, is a testament to not only the dysfunction over at D.C., which is completely self-inflicted, but it's also the fact that they just stopped carrying. They just stopped caring. They stopped giving a shit.

This film, even Wonder Woman 1984, at least it was inventive. At least they tried a bunch of wacky shit that didn't work. This movie is just a combination of some of the worst ideas and worst execution that I've ever seen, and there's no real reason why it should have been that way. I'm done. I think this is overall a reflection of my morale

when it comes to the DCEU and like what we'll eventually talk about is the end of the Snyder versus we know it that it goes out not with a bang but a whimper it passes through us like a silent fart when we're meditating we'll forget about it right. This is diarrhea for me.

No, I forgot about this the moment that it passed through me. Like that's the worst part. It's not even worth remembering. But I would say that there can't, like, I can, I'm, I've been good about finding positive things out of a lot of the DC fair that I have not liked and actively disliked. I, I could kind of start to agree with the sort of malintent or, like, laziness that comes off as, like, crass and malicious that turns out into a worse experience than actually is probably presented. but I still find a tiny bit of seriousness and a bit of craft. It's minimal, but not a lot. I'm just more, it's more relief than anything else that with the, like,

laissez-faire attitude that this movie carries itself with is going to be the thing that, you know, this weird, fucked up cinematic endeavor known as Warner Brothers, as Snyderverse ends with. And this isn't exactly putting it with Zach's beat. I just say it because that's its namesake at this point. It's the sort of so-called universe that they're trying to build up, and this is the last breath of that. And it's just some dumb yip-yip from Jason Momoa that I really couldn't stand.

I'll take a minute later to talk about the things that I might have liked here. But no, this is really bad. This is like there's no two ways. Talk about them now. Get freaky with it. Why wait? Yeah, talk about what you liked. I have to be real.

And I support my kings out there. Keep like, keep doing your thing. This movie did nothing for y'all, yeah. Like, I will say this. Fouchy got to be on the phone because sorry Jason Mamoa, whatever Jason Mamo was infected with, that stripped him of all acting ability in this was infectious.

Because every single person felt like they were in this movie to buy a second home. Like, everybody, From the top of the list to the bottom of the list, I'm like, y'all don't want to be here. They looked miserable. I think Yaya was underused

and was overacting. I thought, what's his face? Who's the new guy? We love him. Randall Park. Randall Park was phoning it in. No, shout to Randall's Randall.

He's the top person that I'm happy, got a check from this movie. I'm happy. He got his check. I love him. Does he have gambling debts or something? Because he was like,

dog, like, it was bad. I don't think there was a good performance in this movie. Patrick Wilson is the closest, but there's not one good performance in this movie. I think, like, if they were doing, like, silver, gold and bronze in the performances of the movie, he's probably silver.

You know, I don't think he got a lot to work with because a lot of the stuff was dealing with the Black Manta stuff, and that was all dumb. So, like, it's hard. I mean, like, we mean, Van's already gone on his diatribe about the film. So there's not much else to say.

It's not good. I think what it boils down to for me was there's the scene with Aquaman and Patrick Wilson in the jungle. And they're doing this like little brother, big brother thing. And that has like you can see that. Like you see that in movies all the time where two people like kind of like a buddy comedy thing. but like two people have this like little argument or whatever and it's funny. He's supposed to like connect with them. And that doesn't land.

And I was like, oh, that was, this is probably like the best part of the movie so far. And it stinks. Oh, no. That's the part they put in the trailer. So this is the part they like they thought was really good to work. Yeah. I was like, this is probably like the most fun I've had this movie so far. And I don't like it.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And yeah, the rest of the movie just, like, saying it fell flat would be like a compliment. It's, it doesn't meet any, not even close. It doesn't even hit the lows at the first Aquaman. You know, it's just completely unbearable. It's not at fun.

The first Aquaman is no masterpiece, but the movie is wacky out there enough. And you have a legitimate movie star in the movie that's giving you enough. For you to say, hey, I see why a lot of people wanted to come see that. Now, we can talk about a couple of things here. Number one, we can talk about this overall dysfunction that infected this film and stopped it from being something that was competently made. A couple of different things. Number one, the turnover and the vacuum of leadership at the top of Warner Brothers in D.C.

That was not able to shepherd this movie's post-production into being something that was consumable. Number one. Number two, Amber Heard. The way that they probably had to shuffle and reshuffle her around because of what happened in actuality in real life. The movie faced a lot of hurdles. There were a lot of things that were in the way of this movie.

They absolutely did. They absolutely did. They absolutely did. She was like not in that much of the movie, but when she was, I'm like, you guys cut out at least like five scenes that would have made this make sense. But not only what they did is she's in the movie, but they muted her. Like, they muted her. She's his co-lead in the first one, right?

They're on the journey together. And because of everything that went down, the thing to do in that case is just fucking sack up and either recast or kill the character. Like, make a decision. Like, make a decision in the movie so that we still get a movie. Like, make a decision either recast that role. or fucking cut her out of it. Cut her out of it. Bring somebody else in

and fucking bite the bullet on the motherfucking shit. But you're half-assing it. You're half-assing it. Jason Mamoa didn't even get in shape for the movie. I don't even know if he went to wardrobe half the time.

I think he just brought on the shit that he was wearing that day. Real quick, though, on Steve. Oh, no, wait, but wait, wait, real quick, my ass. We'll get to everybody. Like, what I'm saying is that

when you look at the over, all situation of the film. It was just like, all right, we can put it out, hide it, and we move on and stuff. You guys, look, we make a lot of jokes here on the podcast. I'm not going to be over serious. I'll snap back to old van, porny, horny old man after this. But look, here, this is the thing. There's a narrative about this stuff that is not serious and actual filmmaking.

And we are in the middle right now of a prolonged, protracted, uh, reinforcement of that idea. And this sent me over the edge. This one sit me over the edge. I'm not going to lie. I went in there last night. I'm watching them sit down.

The CGI when they're underwater is terrible. The baby piss in his face a couple of times. It's not funny. It's not funny. working, the whole thing. This sent me over the edge. It sent me over the edge. Charles always talks about what movies that he does or doesn't want to do when it's

literally his job to do this. So like, and I get it. But it kind of makes you wonder, like, if we're going to have enough stuff that's awesome for us to even be doing this podcast in a year, in a year and a half, in two years, I'm serious. Like, if there's going to be enough stuff. moralized you, Van. Like, we don't have nothing to talk about you.

If there's going to be enough stuff. I tried to save y'all. This did psychic damage. It's not about you grandstanding right now. It's about a serious and real conversation about what we expect from filmmakers, studios, and actors when it comes to this content that we've been consuming since we were in elementary school. We've had this conversation every other month on this podcast. We have not.

We have not. Not in a robust way. What we've done is not in a real way, Charles. Charles, what we've talked about is... After Assoca. It's hors d'oeuvre. Ossoca wasn't even bad enough to have this conversation. Soca was just fine compared to this movie,

Osoca was fucking citizen-t. We had a whole episode called State of the MCU. It was not that positive. That's state of the MCU, not state of old man Vance childhood. I'm sick of the bullshit. Now look, let's get to the... Okay, cool, fine. You want to talk about it?

what you liked. What did we like? My answer, nothing. Nothing. I liked nothing about the movie. When I tell you that there was nothing how I liked, this is how positive I am. Nothing. I didn't like anything. I literally didn't like anything. I couldn't wait to leave. I could not wait to leave. This is true. That's Jamie. Jomi was with me. I couldn't wait to leave. I thought I was going to walk out of the theater. I was like, would the boys know if I just walked out after the first half hour. Can I also ask this, guys, I really have to, what happened with Jason Mamela?

Because I remember him, whether it's Justice League, whether it is the first Aquaman being a very, very charming actor. And I'm like, he's not, he's not the best actor or even the best wrestler turned actor, but he had something.

And in this movie, it is quite literally, he had the acting chops of the fucking all that cast. And Jason Mamma, Jason Mamois ain't no wrestler. What are you talking about? He never been no wrestler. I'm talking about.

Anyway, continue. Doesn't even fucking matter. Doesn't you thought that's crazy. You thought Jason Mamoa was in the bloodline? He thought he was killed. He thought he was the tribal chief. That's crazy, Charles. You thought Jason Mamo was an awesome.

That's crazy. You racist, bitch. Anyway, dog, when they're walking through the forest, and he starts like fucking acting like Ed from Goodberger and he's like, you never had a cheeseburger bro? You never had Zah? Did he think he was like Jack Black or something in this movie?

What are we doing? Like that shit was bad. Like it was really, like this entire movie I was like, Arthur never acted this dumb in any of the other movies. And for some reason, I don't know what happened. They treated this man like,

honestly, he needed so much help. I don't think he, like, I don't think you had lines, like, you know, sides to read. It's like, hey, Jason, like, to Steve's point, his wardrobe was just the stuff he wears all the time. Yeah. I kind of feel like he left. An obnoxious amount of rings. Right? He got off the limo, just went straight to the set, and they were like, roll camera.

Let's go. They did some powder makeup, and then that's it. He's good to go. And just let the thing go, you know? And you feel it through the film. Like, I feel like after, I don't know, maybe it was like, The first awkward man and his powers got zapped. I don't know what happened because, like, even if you count this, fast X,

oh my God, it's tough. It's tough for Jason. To be fair, to be fair, he is going through a divorce. Like, he might've had a couple rough days. If we're going to be nice to Mamoa, he's going through it, I think, a little bit. And, you know, you lose your shoddy. Sometimes you lose the juice. I think Jason Mamoa is an awesome guy.

I've always enjoyed him. I've never thought of him as anything less than a capable actor. I've seen him do really amazing acting jobs before. I don't think that there was any intensity or any intent in this movie to make a good film. Yeah. I really don't. It's like remember when he was introduced in the Justice League and he was really cool because he like throws a sailor on like a table and like takes a jar whiskey and he's like,

respect the sea next time. It's on his tab. And then he just jumps in the ocean like all cool and shit. Yeah. And then it's this. It's this. Steve, you said you like the movie. Why are you, why are you jumping into pill pressure?

I didn't say, I didn't say, I didn't say that I liked the movie. I said I like parts of this movie. I don't, I'm not going to let this. What part? I'm not going to defeat me. Positiveity corner. Oh, yeah, do it, do it. What you like?

I really liked when Patrick Wilson did the Naruto run. And he's like, I don't know how to run. Hey, let me tell you something, man. I see that. I turn 90 degrees to Vexam. He's like, is he doing the Naruto run? And Vandis got the most, his eyes are dead. There's no life in there.

There's no blood in his face. He's like, it's like watching the end of the world. He's comitose. He's watching like the land, the last like come right to origin. He's like, this is my life. This is how it ends. I was crying. It's the most ridiculous I've ever seen.

Wait, can I also just, this is a nitpick, but this is also like, does this make sense? when I really knew, like, the movie not only looks like trash, but makes no sense, is A, why does Aquaman have goldfish? Like, why does he have goldfish in a tank? This motherfucker can talk to fish. I'm sure that those goldfish are like, we want our freedom. And I was just like, when the baby starts doing the sonar shit to the fish, and then fucking Aquaman is like, I've been waiting my whole life for this, someone who understands me. nigger what what are we doing here nah it's great you've been waiting your whole life

to have a son who can talk to goldfish get this fucking movie I but like here's the thing I start to find my own fun in this and it's by no means the intent of the movie but there were options there were moments in this where like there's like I kind of

dug some of the sets I liked how that big giant submarine oh no bridge of that submarine looked like I think it was like kind of cool. That shit was shoe mocker Batman level. Yeah, but it was like some Flash Gordon shit. It was like, I love a dumb looking henchman in a scuba suit.

Like where did they get those suits from by the way? Where? We're like reaching like we're doing like we're doing too much frankly. But I'm watching the thing. Hey, I'm like, okay, cool. They got the submarine. How does that work? And then rental parks characters like retrofitted it.

But that's something like, how does you know how ancient Atlanta stuff cool, whatever. And then they all have matching suits? Steve, let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question,

Steve. The green nigga that kept popping up in the movie. Yeah. What's his name? Oh, I don't know.

Shut the... See what I'm saying? Well, here's the thing. I do know that the Lost Kingdom is called necress. Like, the green nigga

that kept popping up, I want to kill that gets fucked over in 4.5 seconds at the end of the movie. What's like, who is he? Oh, I don't know.

It's dumb. Yeah, of course it's dumb. Of course it's dumb. We're not leaving this podcast thinking that it's anything less than dumb. I'm just trying to find my own fun here. I'm glad you know what. I'm not going to be like Charles. You know, you had a good time with it, Steve.

That's great. I'm happy for you, bro. Why am I getting strays? Why am I like, why are you talking to me to this? Because you always attack people when they, when they like the movie that nobody else. Like, I'm not going to fall for it. This movie genuinely defeated back. I just interrogate why y'all can't be real.

Why y'all can't be real? serious about this shit. Here's the thing. This movie, this movie, if they shot that fucking Sonic Canon one more time, I'm like, dog, like, is this how this works? When all the whales, this is Animal Corner,

does whale sonar work like that? Because of course it doesn't work like that. Again, he says he could talk to fish. Those are mammals. I'm confused. They have built an entire underwater kingdom with some of the most advanced technology known

to man. They have one weakness and they haven't figured it out. The whole fucking thing is, bro, it's like they come in there, that submarine was from like Jules Verne,

20,000 leagues under the sea type shit. They got, and they fucked over all in Atlantis. And away game. In a way game. In a way game, bro.

Look, I'll tell you something. Give an example of serious filmmakers in the way you do Atlantis. You guys all had a problem with Coogler and, and and

Wakanda now. Hold on. That shit looks like God damn the Godfather. Avatar is right there,

Van. Avatar's right there. But they weren't underwater in Avatar. Yeah, they were. In Wavewater? No,

you mean like living underwater. They didn't have no underwater. They didn't have like an underwater civilization. Yes. I saw the movie. You can't tell me

that it wasn't no underwater kingdom. They went underwater to talk to So that old girl, Scorni Weaver girl, who they never really explained could have a Messiah moment with the thing. I'm talking about underwater kingdoms and how they've been portrayed. Can you direct your anger to D.C. Jason Mamoa and Zad? Because, like, here's the thing.

You're attacking us today because they broke your spirit. I didn't make this movie, Van. But you're part of the problem. And we're going to address it. And we're going to address it. Right. We're going to address it on this podcast day. you and Steve

and to a degree show me are a part of the problem I look at the computer the computer to say fuck Nelly fuck 50 fuck Tia

what the fuck you save me for what did I do to Steve's point of finding your own like humor with the thing I forgot it was necrus because what I'm watching

the movie I double took when I heard that name I was like no but here's the thing the black kingdom the black trident I was calling it

niggurish the whole time I was like, oh, there you're a niggress. Like, I would even think about Nekris. Cindy said, I was like, oh, yeah, that's what it's actually called, man. The black, you know, the whole thing. I was just like, yeah, this movie's not serious. I'm not going to take it seriously. When are we, when we get in the nigguris, bro?

When are we, when we, we get all the black folk in here, bro. Let's just keep it pushing, man, you know. I didn't see any black Atlanteans, though. That's, but while I'm here and I'm on my victory lap tour, I got a question. Are we sure that we, should be doing this with our C-list characters anymore. Because I think the MCU tricked us for years into being like, yo, there's no bad

characters, there's just bad stories. Everybody, we should have five Ant-Man movies. And I'm like, I mean, I respect to Man. Here's the thing. I'll say it about Captain Marvel. I'm not even, I'm not even taught. I'm going back to the comics. Captain Marvel as a character has never worked.

We're talking about Marvel Negabans. That nigger was never cool. I was in the shops. Them fucking comic books from the 80s was still in the dollar bin. Nobody wanted them. Like, people were curious about the first Aquaman movie.

They're like, oh, Aquaman movie, we've never seen this before. Dude, we need a second one. Was it a director or writer's dream? Aquaman is not a ceiless character. I'm about saying, like he's a member of the Justice.

He's not even not. He's nice. Let's be true. Let's be true. Name me three. Three icon. Aquaman stories always. It doesn't matter.

Yes, it does. When you talk about CELIS characters, you're talking about the cultural penetration of the character, right? Everybody knows who Aquaman is. Aquaman was a thing in Artax. Do people want to pay for Aquaman shit? Everybody knows who I. They played a billion dollars

for the first one. Everybody knows. And how much is this one going to make? This one's going to make a fucking nickel. Can't I'll tell you something? Can you tell you something? Everything you're saying is wrong. Nobody's not. Aquaman is not a C-less character.

He might not be an A-less character, but Aquaman and the Justice League, the iteration of Aquaman, everybody knows who Aquaman is. He's so... Do people want to pay and consume Aquaman content? It's looking like they don't. They already pay for it, Charles.

Once, once. Because they were curious. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Same thing with Apple. Same thing with Amman. Niggas don't want this shit anymore because the stories aren't there. It's nobody's dream to direct the third Ant Man movie. It's nobody's dream to direct the second Captain Marvel movie.

What I'm telling you is it's more of a commentary on the movies themselves. Can I ask you a question? You know who is a Seeless character? Legitimately a Seelous character. Maybe D. Black Panther. That's a legit Seeless character. A legitimate one, right? And this has to do more with filmmaking than it has to do with the best.

background of the character. Now, if you're telling me that they're not enough runs in Aquaman for you to make people care, I could tell you right now that what they could have done in the second Aquaman has had a Themiscair versus Atlantean War. And I still think that that movie would have been terrible. I disagree.

I mean, hold on. Hold on. Wait. Well, hold on. I don't disagree that the movie might have been terrible. I think that the premise would have been different. No, the premise would have been better. So what I'm telling you what I'm telling you right now is

if we want to blame, now look, there are characters that are a tougher sell. I'm not saying that that's not true. I'm not saying that there are characters that are tougher sell. But I think you're talking about a Shang Shi more than you're talking about an Aquaman.

I'm talking about all of them. And what I'm really talking about is we can debate who is a B, C, D-List character until the cows come home. What I'm actually talking about is creatively. Like, when you watch the First Guardians of the Galaxy,

like, they're F-less characters. Nobody gives a fuck about it. them. But you can tell that James Gunn, as a creative, the screenwriters, the actors are like, all right, there's something emotionally in here that we need to tell. Like, there is something that we're trying to get across to

the world. And we've just seen over the course of this year, shit being made for money and greed and just to keep the wheels spinning where I'm like, there's nobody on this Aquaman 2 set that believes in this movie or wants to be here. And you can see it on screen. Well, that's just

problem and not the character. No, but what I'm saying is if people don't love the character, if they don't have anything interesting to tell about the character, we shouldn't be making these movies anymore. Every superhero movie shouldn't get a trilogy just because we think it's just something we've been doing forever. You're right. Charles Holmes, 100% right.

What I'm saying is that doesn't have to do, you can make a Superman movie that's uninspired. We've seen that. You can make a Batman movie that's uninspired. Batman and Robin comes out, and the movie tanks at the box office, and it's also terrible, that doesn't mean that people don't know

or care who Batman is. It just means that a filmmaker got the movie that didn't understand what makes Batman so important to audiences and didn't really take the film as seriously as he needed to in order to deliver on it. There have been comic book movies

that are comic book movies that people don't even know are based on comic books that people love because you adapt the thing in a thematically and cinematically and cinematically competent way. So it's not the characters. And it's never going to be the characters. Are there characters that have stories that we should watch

and we should pay attention to? Yeah. Are we getting to a point to where we're scraping bottom of the barrel for characters? Yeah. But I don't believe that there's any character out there that's had a thousand comic books written about them that you can't in the hands of a competent filmmaker have a great movie made out of.

I don't. When Blade first came out, nobody, come up, bro, nobody give a fuck about Blade. Like, Blade, you know what I mean?

Like, Blade and the Sparta, now people care about Blade, but nobody even knew who Blade was. Who Blade was. Blade, to me, is still a Seeless comic book character. Still, to this day.

I mean, I would agree. But here, but my only issue, especially as we keep going, is like, I haven't seen it yet, it might be great.

But why did we greenlight an Echo TV show? Echo barely worked in the show that she came from. Why are we greenlighting Agatha or like any of these fucking shows? What if? A second season? I don't care, guys. Here's the thing. And you know what?

Play the drop. I'm going off the fucking reservation. People thinking, people thinking that all of these fucking shows that have black leads and female leads that are from comic books and shit are just like, oh, man, we're really sure. showing power. Disney's really giving us what we want. No. The double.

The fucking MCU is not starting the revolution. It is not. I'm sorry. The Disney Plus ain't saving y'all, niggas. There are people out there that I'm sure love the Aquaman movie. Look, there are movies out there that are bad that I like. And I'm sorry that you guys are listening to this. But this conversation has to be had.

It has to be had. If I was running the town, say no superhero movies for a year. Get you guys, give you guys an opportunity to cobble all of your insights and stuff together. Because the bubbles burst. And it's our job here on the Midnight Boys to give you instant reactions to this. This would have been worse had we done this podcast on Thursday. Jomi saw it.

We were in a theater laughing. It's the Late Night Movie Society. Otto. Shout out to Otto. We're in there laughing. DC, we laughed at you. We laughed at you guys, bro. We laughed.

Not when we were supposed to laugh. We laughed because we could see on screen when something was re-shot and the actors didn't match. We could see unfinished CGI. We could see it all. We laughed at you. You guys are more talented than us. Fucking, hey, News Flash. Everybody's more...

News Flash, you're more talented than the geeks. News Flash, you're more talented. Newsflash, you guys are doing it in the big huge billion dollar way newsflash. That doesn't mean we're going to eat this slop forever. Bye, Mrs. Silence. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul Predicts. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes, wishes, and misses. Predict the spread, the total points, and even the game winner.

Sign up for Fandual Predicts and predict it from the couch. Offered by Fandul Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant. 18 plus. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty, limited time flavors.

New Whole Foods, Market Peach, Apricot, Rose, Italian soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch. As is their trending mango, Yuzu, Shantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sales signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies.

Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts. Everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken. Garlic aoli. Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa.

40 grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweet green wraps hit different. Order now at order. Dot sweetgreen.com. Do you think the effect of like, hey, they're moving on from this type, this type movie. They got James Gunn and all that stuff. Do you think it led to the movie?

having kind of like a lame duck lame duck mentality in terms of they're not going to use this stuff anymore like they're going to move on from us like these people I'll just make this thing and get this out of here you know what I mean? It struck me as like senioritis the paper that you're about to turn in

will not matter even though it's graded so you don't care. That's why I like that ending monologue just sounded like a fucking seventh grade book report on why global warming's bad and I really do feel like this was like a quick hit of like, all right, I'm out the door.

Like, da-da-da-da-da. Let's go. James Gunn's guys work cut out for us. We're out the door. Graduating class of Snyder. We out. I mean, even here's the reality of the situation is like, even if they did blow out this movie and gave it kind of like the Barbie or the Oppenheimer treatment where it's like

marketing and we're making sure people know that this is in theaters, nobody's a seeing this shit. This was dead on arrival. Like, you could tell everybody involved in this was like, we made a stinker and we know we made a stinker. What I want to ask y'all, though, is this year was a bad superhero movie, but I want to read you the slate for next year and decide if next year is potentially going to be worse. So on the TV show side, we have Echo, X-Men 97, Agatha Coven of Chaos, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Potentially Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies. Guys of Wakanda will come out in 24. I mean, they mentioned 2024, so.

They did? Kind of feel like, yeah, in the in the, in the, in the, the, the teaser we got with for anybody who's listening, we went to a what-of screening and they showed us a little 2024 animation teaser of what to come. And it was friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, X-Men 97 and Wakanda, eyes of Wakanda, right? I think there was one more of the thing. But I think that was also a part of it. So should come out 2024, but sure.

And then on the movie. side we have Madam Webb, Venom 3, Deadpool 3, Craven the Hunter, and Star Wars, we just have out-acallite, skeleton crew,

and what's the, I think we have one more. I forget, I think next year might be worse than this year, if I'm going to be honest. Respect X-Men 97. No, come on.

Respect X-M-N. If I'm going to be real, if I'm going to be real, Fagie, get it out of your system. I never want to hear the fucking theme song again. Make something new. I just get the fucking X-Men 90s cartoon out of your system. What I will say, and I think maybe this is partly where we're in a crossroads in terms of this content.

Because we have, you know, we're getting a lot of stuff out the way. Everybody's retooling. Everybody's like, all right, 2023 was kind of a mess. We might, you might, it's like, it's like a tanking year in terms of, all right, well, we thought we had to juice for last. year, right? None of our players were good enough. None of our coach were good enough. We kind of have to start from scratch. You can't, you know, you're not going to win, you know, 24 out of the first 28 games of the year when you got to like reboot the whole thing, you know. But are people going to want to come back by 2025? Like, if we deal with another year of this,

I don't know if people are like, yeah, James Gunn, Superman, 2025. If we have another year like this year, I don't know. And that has nothing to do with James Gunn and everything to do with. People are done with these movies. These movies are making less than fucking indies from A-24 now. But there's also like this weird like inflated price tag that a lot of these movies are coming with now. And it's not

even so much with just superhero movies, but IP in general. Like that Indiana Jones cost $300 million to make. And no wonder it flopped because... 200 million of it was redoing Harrison Ford's face. Exactly. And the fact that like all of these movies have inflated

price tags and the return on investment is not becoming what it is, the scaling back of budget to get returns seems to be something that's not in these corporations' wheelhouse. They would rather, WB would rather merge with Paramount than scale back, then like, say, you know, up the price of HBO Max, which will be coming anyway,

or something that's going to actually, like, add value to them or try to slow down. They can't afford to slow. down. None of these IP projects seemingly can afford to slow down. We're on the train and it's not going to stop. And it's either going to be something that we can find our tiny little spaces of good or somebody's going to have to have the wherewithal to actually slow this train down in order to make it stop and make it better. Tired metaphor, but yeah. There's a couple of other things that play here too. We always talk about how genius marble is. The MCU is. We also don't talk about timing, right? Iron Man comes out, 2008. I'm 28 years old when the movie comes out.

Iron Man as a character I'm very familiar with. These stories are stories I'm very familiar with. I'm curious about what they're going to do with Iron Man. The person was going to be Tom Cruise, demon in a bottle, different type of situation. I want to go see it. I go see it. Iron Man comes.

Thor comes. All of this stuff comes. There's a generation of kids. that know these characters, not from a background in comic books because I'm part of the comic book boom era. You guys come in on the tail end of it, but still basically a part of it

except for maybe Jomi's generation who is less attached because the circulation of comic books is way way down, right? So our generation gets fed something that we, to a large part, invested a large part of our childhood in, the word of mouth is big,

and then everything Changes. A lot of people out there were introduced to maybe not so much Spider-Man, but Iron Man Thor, the rest of these characters in the movies. They were introduced to them in the movies. That's what they know them from. They know Black Panther from the movies, from the MCU. A lot of, and then you get to a point, those characters aren't in the movies anymore. Like, they're not around anymore. You don't have them anymore. Like for us, we we're like, oh my God, let's do Howard to Duck. All right, you did this.

Let's fucking do Night Thrasher. When the fuck is Rhino showing up? And they're new warriors. And like, we have this endless list of characters that we want to see on the screen when a large portion of the people that are watching this stuff want to see those guys. They want to see them keep making them for time and time again. Like they keep making Batman. Like they keep making Superman.

Like they keep, they want to see those guys. They don't look at this stuff in the comic book type way. So when these new characters come out, yeah, you got to do a better job at making those characters hit. But I don't think Marvel understood, well, I don't think a lot of these people understand the fact that the generation changed towards the end of them making their stuff. If somebody was born in 2008, right? When Engang came out, they were 11 or 12 years old.

If they were born, if they were born, they weren't watching the movie. So if they were like seven, then they were like almost like, I don't know, 19 or 20 when it was coming out. And so now what do you give to that person for the rest of their 20s? Like they might not be holding on as much as we are. And it comes back down to the story and stuff rather than the characters or it's either the story or the characters. Because the characters that they know and love, they killed them and they're gone. And they're like, one of these guys coming back so I can care about this stuff again. So there are a lot of things that are going on here that if you really want to,

want to discuss them, all led up to us. But the bottom line is this. To Steve's point, to Charles's point, is that nobody saw it coming with all of this stuff. No one thought that we would ever get tired of Indiana Jones. We tired of that nigga. I'm sorry. That nigga is a dog.

I love him. A nigga been a dog. A nigga do all kinds. We're tired. We're sick of that nigga. Skywalker's Fast and Furious. All that shit. We're done.

I'm just being for real. We're sick of it. We're not sick of the feeling that we felt from indulging into this content. I'm going to watch superhero movies forever. And they've always made superhero movies. People talk about the serial. It's not that they haven't always made superhero movies. It's just that they didn't used to only make superhero movies.

There's always been Superman in theaters. There's always been Batman in theaters. They made a Punisher movie with Dolph Lundgren, which my friend Boas wrote. They've always made these movies because they're good fodder. for on-screen content. They just didn't use to only make them. Now, try something else for a little while and let somebody coming in with real inspiration

take a crack at it. Because we're in the end game now, baby. We're in the dark times. All right? And we got to do this for a living. I mean, Madam Webb is coming, and Madam Webb, I think, is going to give us a second wind. We'll take us into the next phase of these year movies.

What if it's good? Let me ask you a question. What if it's good? This is what I low-key respect about Sony. They're not budging when it comes to this. Warner Brothers is in the gutter. They're thinking about merging with Paramount. Sony, train keeps on rolling.

Madam Webb. They're selling PS5s. They're not worried about the movies. I know. It's like, they keep going. We'll give you, we'll give you bottom tier Spider-Man shit for the rest of your life. We're not letting go of him, baby. Let me tell you something.

They just made $150 million right now selling PS-5s. He's like, hey, here you go. his 150 meal. Go make your art house movie. Go crazy. You know? We got PlayStation money. We're fine.

Not worried about that. Yeah, that movie's going to be terrible. But continue. So this is the last DCEU movie. Finally. God damn. What? I've been trying to think about this.

What is the lasting impact of the DCEU? Because I can't think that it's anything but just an abject failure. And when we look back in 10, 15. years, we're going to be like, we wasted so much money, so much time on something that just never worked. We are at least in our fourth or fifth rebirth of the DCEU. And each time they sell us the same thing, we're like, yo, Black Adam, Black Adam, that's the one.

Hey, Flash, Blue Beetle, we got y'all. We got Superman, it's not DCU, but super, we're doing Superman again. We got, come on. And at a certain point, I'm like, how many more times am I going to be Charlie Brown with the football? As many times as they want, and you'll eat the slop and you'll like it. Whoa, whoa, I was forced to eat this slop. I knew this was get on the line.

And you're going to be forced to eat the next slot, okay? The reality is this. Superman is a billion-dollar entity. Batman is a billion-dollar entity. Blah, blah, blah is a billion dollars. And money, money, money, water tower down in Burbank is always going to make more content. They're going to take the characters that were fucking born out

before the United States got involved in World War II and they're going to make more content with them. Mickey Mouse is always going to have a place to laugh. Hey, hey, Mickey. Always going to be there. Hey, I'm Donald Duck. Always going to be. Donald Duck is going to be there. They're going to keep doing this.

The next generation of kids is going to come up like, oh, my God, Fantasia, Mickey and the Mops dancing and all that until there's no more. Until Solar Flair takes us out, asteroid, pandemic, whatever happens. Jesus comes back and I say I knew it was me and you for eternity, baby. This stuff is going to exist. So the question is not whether or not it will exist, but whether or not it will be good or not. That is the only question. What is the difference between Superman 1977 and Superman the man of steel?

The answer is Richard Donner. That's the difference. It's the filmmakers. It's the filmmakers. It's the filmmakers. You can do a movie about Batman that is Batman and Robin, and then basically fucking five years later,

you can do Batman begins. It's the filmmaker. It's the filmmaker. It's the filmmaker. it's the filmmaker, it's the filmmaker. You could do a movie about Bruce Wayne where he never turned into Batman and that shit could be fired.

I mean, the show was literally called Pennyworth the origin of Batman's butler. It was fire. So that's all I'm saying. What I'm saying is we can talk about do we need more, do we need more, do we need more, there will be more. So the question is not will it exist but who's going to do it.

Sick of this shit. All right. Can we really quick, what are the three worst DCEU movies? Oh, boy. Aquaman, this Aquaman, Aquaman 2 is already in there.

That's, you'll really get two, totally two slots. Their original Justice League is probably number two. No, Wonder Woman 1984 is number two. Number three. Number three is the original

Justice League. No, Justice League is worse than Wonder Woman 1984, I think. Are we really, are we not counting the Flash at all? Oh, yeah, Flash is in that. I forgot about the Flash. But I kind of fucked with the Flash.

You like the Flash, Van. You like the Flash. Actually, I take it back. I'm swapping out the Flash. The Flash is worse than Wonder Woman 1984. Here's the thing. Aquaman did not break my spirit like the Flash did. At which my role is swapped with Van.

Like, Aquaman clearly broke your spirit, Van. All right. You did it again. Is Aquaman too worse than the Flash? Yes. We'll talk about it. We'll do it.

We'll, well, no, it's not. We got to talk about it. I think if I had to pick my top three, you'd probably go, Wonder Woman 1984, because that ruined Christmas for everybody. True. With HBO Max. I got, I'm going to go with the first suicide squad as well. That movie's terrible.

See, no, we're not being serious, man. The first suicide squad is not that bad. It's not good, but it's not that bad. Are you on drugs? It's not that bad. If we were doing a midnight meter on the first suicide squad, I'd honestly give it like a six, six or seven. A six?

Here's a problem. Well, if you give it a seven, that's pretty bold. Here's the problem. The problem is, compared to this shit, the movie looks, okay? That's the problem. The problem, because think about the first suicide squad. It has a Bill Smith in it.

He's good. Smith. the first suicide squad has watchable elements. It's not a good movie. She's not good in the first suicide squad. She is good. She is good. It doesn't work.

Amanda Waller is good in that. Viola Davis is good in that. It's Margo Robbie and Will Smith doing like prom, Shaq and Kobe level stuff. But in the back, it's just six Smush Parkers. Like, that's it. Hey, can we do something? Can we leave Smush alone?

Did you see Smush? That's exactly. It's like, we got to get off Smush's ass, bro. Smush, I felt for Smush, if you listen to this somewhere. I heard it. I was like, if you listen to this somewhere, bro, I'm fucking with you, G. I couldn't imagine not speaking to somebody I work with for two years. Bro, this guy right next to each other in the locker room.

I don't want nothing to do with them, bro. Y'all going to be mad at me. I've never finished Birds of Prey. I couldn't. I watched like the first, like, hour and I'm like, hell no. That's a, but you know. But you like suicide squad? Suicide squad is better.

I like suicide squad. I was in the theater watching suicide. We're back to the bullshit. There's a problem with Charles. You're back to the bullshit. You guys have to watch. You have to listen to me and Charles on the rewatchable search for Bobby Fishing.

You guys have to listen. Like, watch, watch Bill. I already know you're going to make me mad on search for Bobby Fission. You didn't even finish Birds of Prey. That's insane. That's insane. That's a great movie. That's a great movie.

If we're being like, we're being like honest. Ever since like the, like the decade turned to the 2020s, that movie and suicide squad and you could probably put Zach Snyder's just something in there. Only good movies they've made since the calendar of 2020.

Let's not throw around good that lightly. That's how we get in trouble like this. Like a tons of movies like I didn't hate myself after watching. You guys are fucking 2016 suicide squad. Not that bad. That's nuts. All right. Let's let's.

let's list the top three DZEU movies. The top three ones? Oh, boy. So, number one, the top of the woman. Wonder Woman is the best one. Wonder Woman's the best one?

Wait, wait, wait, so we're not playing the music for Steve. Wait, wait a second. Wait, no, we're not playing it. Wait, stop. No, we shouldn't play it. I tell you why. It's okay to have an opinion. But when that big opinion becomes a trend,

how is it a trend? That's what you get the music. All right. We are seeing some pattern recognition from Charles. No, because here's, this is also what I don't like. Yo, we got to be real. Just because there's a black character in a superhero movie doesn't mean that shit's going to be good. It just doesn't.

Just because there's a woman as a lead doesn't mean it's going to be good. Like, it just doesn't. I don't care. Sometimes it sucks. She Hulk sucks. Fucking Wakanda forever was not that great. Like, we're allowed to say it. Oh, there's a cool.

Oh, that's the whole drop. Steve, are you police in my blackness right now? Steve. I'm taking cues from band where he's just like doing like, no, that's not true. And then let me tell you what he did, Charles. He did it on his own. And now you wrap me out, man.

Rather than take accountability, rather than take accountability, you're going to blame it back on the black man. Steve, I want you to watch a documentary on HBO Max right now. It's called Murder in Boston. Roots, rampage, and reckoning. Oh, my gosh. It's about a very something,

blame it on a black person, all right? Steven Susan Smith Alman. All right. So if you guys, if I'm being very, very real, top three DCU movies, Wonder Woman is number one.

Okay. Okay. Then we're going suicide squad number two. And that's fucking, Black Adam. No. No, okay. Yeah, it's not serious.

Cut his mind. Cut his mind. Five minutes. I'm serious. I'm going in the penalty box. That's a five minute major. Sit in a box. Honestly,

that's a red card. You should be suspended for the rest of this match. And then the next three. But that's what he wants, though. But the punishment is you got to come back for Echo. And what if, baby? Fuck in. Lock in.

So this is mine. Wonder Woman number one. Birds of prey. Number two. That's fair. Number three. Yeah, talk to him. Say it.

Say it. Batman versus Superman. Oh, God. You're insane. Let's go. No, what I'm telling you. I'm telling you know. I swear to go on, bro.

Batman versus Superman, bro. The other cut of that bitch, that's the third one. That's fire. Y'all starving. You don't get any opinion on this whatsoever, brother.

You've lost. Whoa, the first suicide squad is better than Batman versus Superman. Let's be clear. Not even close to being true. I'm talking about the ultimate cut edition.

All right. Ultimate cut's a solid movie. Both this had Aquaman unnecessary uses of piss. Actually, now that I look at it, Shazam was, the first Shazam was pretty good. It's up there. It's up there. The second one

kind of like fucking poison the water. The first Shazam is really good. Let's do this. So these are the good in no order. Let's not rank them. To me, these are the good D.C.E.U. Movies. Pass fail. Manor still I can fuck with. Ultimate cut I can fuck with. Okay.

Snyder cut. You guys don't agree, but I can fuck with it. This is just mine. Birds will pray. is actually good. Yes. Wonder Woman. Shazam. No first Aquaman?

Um, yeah, I could put it in there. It's not my favorite movie. It's not a great movie, but it passed. It's a pass. Yeah, it passed. It's a pass. Now, look, can I be honest with you guys? As much bullshitting and belly aching as there is,

that's a lot of movies. Yeah. Well, guys, guys, we're judging them on a pat. Just because you pass, like, muffins can pass on a 75. I'm with what I mean? I think the problem is is that they've never made a truly great movie.

That's true. They haven't even come close to the heights of Marvel. They've never come close. They've never, they don't have, none of these movies is as good as Iron Man. None of these movies is as good as none of these movies. I mean, all of these are basically Dr. Strange level movies. That's the best. Oh, the first, Dr. Strange.

Does any of these movies even get close to like even a 10 on the midnight meter? Maybe the closest is Wonder Woman? But, like, the last act of that movie is not great. I give Birds of Prey, which might be my favorite, like, a solid eight, a rock solid eight. I like Birds of Prey a lot. I like Birds of Prey a lot. Like an eight? An eight?

Would you give it a nine? It's as solid a eight as it's ever existed. Yeah. It's a eight. Yeah, it's a solid. If that's the ceiling, though, if a ceiling for the whole DCEU is an eight, that's a failure. I think Wonder Woman is a nine. I would say Wonder Woman is a nine.

I think they're both age. I think what. You know what? I can see them both being age. You know what? I think Wonder Woman just made so much money, but I could see it being an age. The last third of Wonder Woman is really bad. It's not true.

When she talks about love, you don't like that? No, it is when what's the series. I think it's, Aries shows up on the fucking play. Yeah, Aries. Tom Act actually was bad, no. Br, Bray, Arise, bro. Bro, I tell you what, bro. Bro, I wish everybody was in town.

I'd invite you out over the night. to make y'all look at that shit. We would wear Santa hats and we'll watch some of these movies, bro. I love it. You know what I want to do? I want to have a midnight boys watch along.

I want to invite, I don't know, 50 of our fans, I'm doing it. Figure it out on the back end. I want to invite 50 of our friends to the Spotify offices and we just take a day a midnight film festival. A midnight film festival?

Oh, we would program a Bro, we're going to do it in the theater room at Spotify. Come to the room and we're going to watch these fucking movies. We're going to be on the mics. And we could do three and four. We're going to look at these movies, man. These movies are funny, bro. Some of that shit that happens in Wonder Woman towards the end,

like, Kalika was very emotionally involved. And she was getting mad at me because I was like, come on, nigger. Man, punch this nigger so we could get to the end of the movie. Like walking down the thing, talking about for love. Man, punch this nigga. I mean, the problem with the DCEU,

I mean, like, not like the overarching problem, but the problem we're talking about, like, these movies and how they, like, how they stand there's a time. It's essentially, like, while none of them have reached the heights of our favorite MCU movies, even some of our, like, you know, mid-MCU movies,

the bottom has fallen out, like, completely. For sure. Like, the worst DC movies aren't even close or like not really even on the same level of the worst MCU movies. Is that way? What's the worst? What's the worst?

It's probably Thor the Dark World, but if we're thinking... No, there has to be one worse than Dark World. That's what I'm thinking. I think that's like the first answer. But even then, like, dark world's like incredibly enjoyable by comparison. Aquaman 2 makes Thor the Dark World

look like fucking Casablanca. I can tell you guys. You guys are... You know what the midnight... You know what the midnight film festival should be? we should each get to pick a movie that we ride for. And we should be able to... Oh, the first suicide race,

and we should be able to... Steve, hold off, Steve. It has to be some shit that people saw, bro. Yeah, people saw that. So before... Welcome to Van Lathen's fifth screening of Matrix Resurrections. I'm into that.

I'm not going to do that one, though, because I don't expect people to do the lore. But it has to be a movie. So we'll do a midnight film, but it has to be a movie that we ride for and while the movie is going we get the mic and we get to talk to people about the film why the movie is on there it's like a live thing that's going on that's the thing because throw the dark world i know that it's people it's it's reviled i'm not about to try to but it at least has a point of view of course you know what i'm saying you're not you're telling me you ride for the low lake scene when he goes into the fucking water and has the fucking, that shit's terrible, bro. It's okay, I feel you, I feel you, I feel you, but it at least has a point of view, right?

All right, that's fair. Yeah, at least, no, I'm not going to ride for it no more because I watched it again, not too long ago, not, you know, but at least, at least it has something. At least it takes itself seriously. You know what I mean? It's bad filmmaking and not bad inspiration, which is, I guess, my problem with this entire thing.

But if we talk about the worst MCU movie, the very worst one, so you're going to have a whole class of movie that's going to be Thor to Dark World. What else? It's Edman the Wasp. Oh, I'm never on that level. Yeah, but even Edmian. That's what I'm saying. Like, it's hard.

Oh, I would love to do an Eternals rewatch. You know what? I got to be, I got to be real. Watch this is coming around on Eternals, man. Oh, I looked at, I looked at Eternals when I was on the plane, bro. It's just. It's not that bad. It's not that bad, bro.

It's a little long, it's a little long, but not too bad. I mean, but. Once again, here's a thing. Eternal, like, everything in the DCU makes Eternals look like a masterclass filmmaking, and that's the problem. Can I say something about that? Do you know one reason why that is, with, particularly with a movie like Aquaman? Here's the thing.

You know what we're really talking about when you get down to brass tacks? Does the movie get anything right? And when it gets something right, does it get it right to a competent, to a high degree, to a high level, should I say? If you look at Eternals, the movie looks good. That's the first thing. It looks good, right? So if you want to look at a bunch of hot, beautiful,

you could look at, like, Jimmer for the whole movie and just be like, okay. You know what I mean? Like, the whole movie, the movie looks good at least. She's beautiful. I don't give a fuck what y'all say. Nope. What's your moment, Jeremy?

That's racist. And you should check yourself and leave your privilege at the door. I mean. to be fair, Van. What's my favorite anime called? That's not one piece. Juju Hakishu.

What's it called? Oh, man. That's one of the best ones yet. You got close. Jitsu Kaisi. Jiu Jitsu Kaysen. Jiujitsu? Jiujitsu Kaysen.

Kaysen. That's crazy, brother. Y'all will be on some crazy shit with this animation. This animation is crazy. Bro, bro. Like we don't have shit to talk about after this. Bro, I was watching somebody.

every time so, it's always a new anime that you can't miss. It's like people are, it is, bro. People on the internet talk about, yeah, people are talking about this, but I like, Keodo Dragon more than anything else. And I'm like, what the fuck? What's Keogito Dragon might be firehole, bro. Let me write that down.

I'm going to get you on that live action, Roni Kenshin. See? Oh, whoa. Oh, Steve. No. What? He was Steve. Wait. Wait.

Wait. Yo. Yo. Did you watch more? I got to say, I did, dog. I got to say, bro. Steve, bro, man. Midnight meter, quick.

Rony Kenshin live action movie. Bro, fucking 10, bro. Steve put us on the craziest nigger, bro. What's his name? Roney Kenshin. That's his name. Rony Kinchin is his name. Roney Kitchin is a fucking dog.

Charles was trying to hate all Rony Kinchin. He was hate. Charles who was at the house. Wait, did you, so wait, did you watch? watched the whole live action movie? I watched more YouTube clips. I didn't watch the whole movie. But, but, but, but, because you left and Calico was like, what is this on

the history of the YouTube? And I was like, oh my God, this is the number one dog in all of fucking fandom. We're watching this guy and Charles was trying to, hey, this dude doesn't kill. He uses the opposite side of his sword and just blunt swords people to death.

And he's the coldest motherfucker ever. Charles, I want you to admit, what's his name again? Roni Kenshin. I just don't like live action anime. I wasn't hating. I just don't like you. The first Rooney Kenchin is really good.

There was, well, I'm being real, if I take my hater cap off, there was one moment where this nigga does this like run on the grass. Oh my God. I was like, that shit's cold. I'm not going to lie. I can't even hate it. They fight in this entire like courtyard. And then he

wants to get this one dude with this big ass fucking sword. You got the bustle sword. Yeah. You see that? You see that. You remember him. And then Rony, he runs in like a circle on the ground. It just saws fucking people up. Then the dude at the gun with the gun, hey, bro, I'm gonna be real with you. I'm fucking with Roney, bro.

I think Rony a dog. Was there a misopportunity? Because when Black Panther comes out, Wonder Woman comes out, there was so much positivity in the ecosystem. Like, oh, man, they're finally going to get black superheroes, right? Oh, man, they're going to give women superheroes, right? This is great. This is great.

and the track record since, like, are those two movies kind of like a curse in a way? It's not that it's, it's the credit that all of those movies have, have, like, glided on. Like, Marvel took a long time

to turn off, like, a very bad one. And even then, when we, like, see the likes of Thor the Dark world, we're like, ah, well, I mean, like, we got the next one. Like, that was okay, but, like, the next one's gonna be great. Oh, we got this.

We got this coming. Like, that high lasted so long. And the drop, upoff wasn't even that hard. It was just like a slow dissent. Snyderverse is like up down, left, right, and center with quality. And it always has been that way. Yeah, but I just don't I don't know why they struggle. Like I don't know why they're, I mean, yes, a lot of stuff happened with Amber Hurd, a lot of misogynistic shit. I don't

know why in this movie, she's just so it's egregious. It's because the movie's hacked to pieces and it's clearly not highlighting her at all. Same thing with like Wakanda forever. Like that is, that movie was struck by tragedy. They did the best with what they could do. It's not a bad movie at all. It's good.

But there is a level of, I'm like, what is not working with these types of stories in terms of like, why is it so hard to get the second and third one right? Especially when they're just not Chris Evans. You know what I mean? I think that there isn't one easy answer here. and I think that a lot of, at least from what the fallout

of Warner Brothers and the Zazlov situation is, I think that a lot of that blame can be placed at the top rather than anything either at the bottom or the below the line creatives with that. Because this seems like a mismanagement issue. Do you think Blade will be good?

Do you guys think that the Blade film will be good? I mean, I think there's a chance. There's always a chance. Ultimately. Then what's our confidence? on like from one to 100, what's your confidence that'll be good? Let's keep it all the way real.

Let's keep it all the way real. There's no fucking reason to believe that it'll be a good movie. I see what you say. I know what you mean because Marisela is 95 years old and the time made this movie for a thousand years.

And if you're going to be Blade, you got it like kicking people and me slicing people. And the order you get, the harder it is to do that. And, you know, what you get stunts involved just becomes like a little different.

I get it. I, like, there's a chance. I'm not going to like close my heart. because God, man. You're asking me to make an intellectual assessment. I'm hoping. I'm going to sit down for Blade, hoping and expecting that it's going to be a great movie.

But it's such a trouble production is all I'm saying, Joe. Yeah, I don't disagree. I don't disagree. Like, with all the riders and, like, they've had, like, what, like, what, three, four riders at least? You know what I'm saying? Trying to make this thing happen. Like, I think there's obviously a chance it could be good.

But in fact that I give it a scale to one in 100, maybe like, if I be honest, like a 40, you know? That's still high, bro. Really? I guess, yeah. I mean, you know, I want this stuff to be good. I want a little bit. You mentioned all this stuff that's coming out next year.

Tough. You know what I mean? I think. I want Agatha. I want Agatha and Echo and like all this shit. I want all of it to be good. But it's just bumming me out that the superhero genre is kind of dying. And it's dying at the point when they finally give.

diverse people a chance at it. Yeah. Where it's like every single, every single news I hear about the new Captain America movie makes me so fucking sad. I'm like, dog, really? We got like one trash Captain America movie and then two brilliant ones.

And then when it's fucking Anthony Mackey's turn, like we got to deal with this shit. Come on. This is my thing. Anything can be good. We're going to have varying interests of stuff based upon our familiarity with the source material.

So, you know, we might really, really, really want a Blay movie and not be so into an Agatha movie. I think the Echo trailer looks great. I think it's premature to say that Echo's going to be bad. I think the trailer looks great. I think they don't believe in Echo, which obviously doesn't bode well for what they're going to put on the screen.

But guess what? They also believe in Quantumania, and look how that turned out. Jesus Christ. I mean, I'm a little, they, they treat an echo like DC treated. Can I ask you a question? Because we'll know Echo will be up in a couple of months. Can I ask you? Yeah, I'm taking the first two weeks of January off. So y'all got you.

If Echo is good, Charles, will you admit it? I always admit it. That's not true. Well, when Black Adam was good. Let's get to the midnight meeting. When Madam Webb, the rest of y'all, massaginous, don't want to see Madam Webb being good. And I'm ready for Sony to uplift.

Nobody said we don't want to see it be good. Four talented actresses at the top of their game. You know who you are? You have a new nickname. You're not Coke baby Chuck anymore. It's not the Coke. You are now Charles Vivek Ramoswamy Holmes. Oh, whoa.

You are. You say stuff. You say stuff and then you act like you didn't say it. You say stuff that people never say it. You're a conspiracy theorist. You are, but you're smooth talking and you're so smart that nobody can nail you down, right? Like, I want to have a- Just talk longer.

Just keep talking over them. I want to have a Charles Holmes town hall. I think we should do this too. Bro, I'm up for all live events. A lot of events. I want to have a- Oh, Charlie's Angels are ready. We're growing so strong right now.

The Charlie's Angels, y'all don't want any part of us, okay? We know how, man, when I'm in the fucking White House, y'all are going to be sorry. Y'all going to be sorry. That's awesome. All right. Midnight meter. You guys know what it is. You know it.

You hate it. We don't give a fuck. It's the way we rate things. One to 10 and then 11 to 12 reserved for game changing amazing stuff. Guys, it's a two. And let me tell you why I didn't give the movie a zero. I'll tell you why. seriously because it's disrespectful to all of,

when you watch the credits of a movie, you see lines and lines and lines and lines of people who did stuff, all the way up, all the way down. So to me, the baseline score that you can get is a two because you have to respect the time and the work that people put in. I hate the movie, almost everything about it. I had zero fun. I'm giving it a two for the effort.

Yeah, this is an easy one. I think this might be the first one I've ever awarded, but this is a one. everything that Van said, I'm like, co-signing, nobody sets out to make a bad movie. I think a lot of these people, like, did their best. It's just sometimes you just make a stinker. This is a stinker.

I don't know what's saying. Steve, where you going? I'll take it to a four. A four? Yeah. I was able to find some fun. Oh, four, Steve. Yes.

That's a fine score. Stop being so incredulous towards him. I don't know I'm looking at the stuff that Steve's given a four Man Jomey I am gonna go ahead and give this movie three

It's Everybody get a movie your real scores Don't feel pressure to give the movie I want to give this movie negative nine But I can't do that That's not part of the rules So if you want to We actually didn't

make rules for how low we can go. Does no point. To be honest, I think this is a new time in our country. We should open up the midnight constitution. And I think we should institute half scores. And we should institute negative scores in the new year. I don't,

I don't believe in half scores. I will listen to negative scores. I think if we're being like completely honest, like this is probably like, okay, if we're given negative numbers, we give negative numbers, I'll give it a negative three. I legitimately hated every single second.

I spent watching this film. I think what it boils down to is that they came in with, like you said, Steve, some senioritis. And I watching it, I was like, oh, yeah, y'all not trying, y'all for real. Like, y'all not being for real right now. Y'all, y'all, y'all messing with me. Y'all taking my time. I saw this movie at 12 midnight, guys, 12 midnight. I had a flight the next day at 6 a.m.

I was like, I'm going to watch it for y'all. We got to do this podcast. I don't know, when's the next time I'll be able to see it. Let me tap in. And I should have been in bed asleep. I could have done this pod without watching the film. It's how bad it was. I could just read the Wikipedia synopsis online.

Again, there was some stuff that I didn't totally hate. But for the two hours and four minutes, I was in that movie, for 99% of it, I was like, what is the point of any of this? Why are we even alive today? If not only to sit here and watch this movie. what a mistake. So, yeah, it's just not all there. Just not all there for me. All right, nerd news.

Jonathan Majors found guilty two counts. We're not going to get into relegating that whole thing. All the information is out. You guys can go and look it up. Here's the deal. As soon as the verdict came out, Disney, they announced the Kang. It's no longer going to be played by Jonathan Majors. So, I will like to get thoughts on the midnight boys.

And these thoughts consist of a couple of different things that are sort of the round of people's heads. Is King gone all the way? Will they recast Kang? Is the storyline that's so built around the multiverse and time shenanigans, saveable? Is this a back to square one moment? Does Loki make sense if Kang is all of a sudden gone?

Is Loki the new King? I know the question you're asking, and I know it's coming from a good place, but if I'm being totally honest, I don't care. I think it is, people are being really callous. You know,

there was, there was a real trial. People were hurt. Believe women. And fuck King. Fuck King. Fuck the MCU. Fuck the future of it.

It does not matter. You know what I mean? These are like real humans. Like it, these are superhero movies. It does not matter what happens with King or the multiverse saga. There will figure it out.

There were real people. There was real harm. And I'm just seeing the worst type of shit. it happened in the superhero community. And this is why, honestly, sometimes it's just the whole thing disgust me because now people, like, well, Ezra Miller, this and that.

Why are they doing this? I'm like, no, guys, these are real humans. These are real people. Something egregious was done, something that you hate to see. And I just don't give a fuck about King. And I don't give a fuck about this. They'll figure it out. I just, it just makes me. You don't want,

so in your opinion, this is interesting. In your opinion, commenting on the future of the character in the MCU is in some way belittling the actual incident and Grace Jabari and what happened in the way you feel like that. I think so, and I think that this is something that

comic book fans have normalized. When all the shit was going on with Ezra Miller, comic fans were like, well, what's going to happen with our beloved flash? And I'm like, guys, people have suffered. And we don't care. We just care about getting our next fucking hit from the next movie. It happened with Jonathan Majors.

It happened with Amber Hurd where it's like, well, what's happening with Aquaman 2? Who gives a shit? And why is this always, and the thing I really don't like is this tends to happen when a woman was hurt. And all we can talk about is the future of what is essentially our little children's soap operas. And it's like, guys, can we just give this any? can we give these people and these important issues any more grace and understanding? Like we can have these conversations later. Like, but just for now, I just don't care.

I cannot care at all about King. I just don't. Nerd news is done. That's it. I don't feel comfortable doing it anymore. Am I wrong? Wait, you guys, am I wrong? No, you're not wrong.

I feel that was in the same way. That was a perfectly salient answer. It was fucking great. You're like, it's fucking great. It was great. It was great. And I think it was something that needed to be said. Bravo, it's Chuck.

Seriously. That was great. That was great. All right, so we're moving on. Look, that's the end of the episode. Let me tell you guys something right now. Wait, well, before we end, everybody's asking. Before we end.

We're missing a lot of stuff. Are we doing Rebel Moon? Are we doing Echo? Are we doing what if? What are we doing these things? Hey, we'll get to it when we get to it. We'll talk about it. I mean, we're going to do, we're going to do the stuff that's out there.

Man, look, this is the Sith era. I want somebody out there, one of our art people. We have so many great art people. Fucking do us as Sith. We want the yellow eyes. I tried. I tried. I tried to resist. I tried.

Hell yeah. I broke y'all down. No, you didn't do nothing. You didn't do nothing. The Midnight Boys should hold ourselves to a higher standard. We're not in the fucking era anymore where we watch every single X. You shit. I don't understand what you're saying. And everything will be parted on.

And if you're not here, we'll AI your shit in here. You have enough. Yo, Charles, AI would be in state. I hate everything. I hate everything. What are we doing here? The CGI was terrible. The CGI was terrible.

What are we doing here? All right then. All right then. All right then. We can ask you guys, of course, what about this? What about this? We can,

we'll put you in there and just set you and set the difficulty up on 11th? It's fucking three days before Christmas and everybody's attacking me. Why? Not attacking you. You know what?

Y'all are who, you know what? You guys are whoville? I was going to ask you to go to the mall with me later. Oh shit. Really? Yeah. That's crazy coming from the Grinch.

That's crazy coming from the Grinch, I'm gonna be all fucking camera on show and shit. Nah, you ain't taking me ball shopping. You ain't talking me ball shopping. Did you see the childlike wonder? Yo, that is so funny. Wow. That's all you got to do.

I got Christmas shopping to do. I was like, Charles, you go run to the mall with me later? It's like, oh, for real? Charles, you want to go Christmas shopping? Yes, when you said I was uninvited, I was a little hurt. I was like, damn, did I really do that bad today? I'm going to go to the ball. I know what Charles wants.

I know what Charles wants. I'm going to take Charles to the Century City Mall I'm going to give Charles some time with Santa. Oh, yeah, man. Can you get a picture of him sitting on his lap? I'm going to get a picture of Charles with Santa. That's what Charles was. Hell yeah.

All right. Follow some socials, institute of Facebook, save Jomey's job. On Tuesday, the House of Ar is giving you their deep dive to their Doctor Who Christmas special. It's over on their feed. House of R has its own feed. Guys go over there and check out what they're doing

for a Doctor Who Christmas special. and then later on next year there's going to be House of the Dragon over there you guys got to stay with them because House of Dragons come out House of Dragon, 24, right? 24, Summer. We're locked in.

I think we're going to do House of the Dragon too. I'm going to be honest with you. Hot Dragon Summer. Oh, yeah? The Van Nuke boys doing House of the Dragon, bro? Yeah. Oh, okay. Definitely doing House of the Dragon.

I think we're going to do House of the Dragon. I think we're going to do House of the Dragon too. Okay. I think it's time for us to get our dragons away. Yeah, man, let's go. Let's go to Westrose, baby. Let's go. Time for us to go.

We're going to do house of the drag. Niggas in Westeroz? Oh, yeah. Niggas in Westro. Got that's, niggies and Westeroz. And they go. How? Steve?

Steve was dancing a little too much. Steve was dancing a little too. Steve started dancing. I literally just shake my shoulders like this. Okay. All right. It's provocative. I'm not going to, I'm not going to give you a point for that.

No one knows what it means. Nobody knows what it means. It gets the people going. Perfect time for us to talk about Kanye West. Anyway, also on Tuesday, the Ring of Verse feed will have a very special surprise for you. The Ring of Verse Live Show. We're going to bring it to you guys. All right.

We're going to put together a midnight film festival as well. We're going to bring you guys out for it. Midnight Boys. Next Wednesday, the Midnight Boys are bringing you midnight mulligans. You're not going to want to miss it. The Mulligans are flying in this episode. This was one of the. mully ones we've ever had, the most mullie,

Mully and Gully. And Friday, Butemash, we'll be talking about the games of the year. Buttonmash. Our producer is Steve Allman and Jomey the Explaner at Diner on is on socials. Hashtaggsona. Additional production by our Juno Ramgapal. Chuck, take us out. The DCU is dead.

Aquaman 2 sucks. But I don't care because I'm going to the mall. So who gives a fuck? I also found out other things this week. It's been a bad week. That's fair. I want to tell you guys something real quick. Do you guys know who Peter Randolph ventrists is?

No. No shot. So he was born in 1830. Oh, boy. In Mississippi. Oh, man. I heard this, yeah. He was an officer in the Confederate Army.

Okay. He is my great, great, great grandfather. Oh, wow. Between that realization, look at him, look at this nigger. Look at Peter. Oh, they got a picture of this nigga. Wow. Wow.

Did they name a solid friend of that picture real quick? Wait, on whose side? Whose side? Was he carrying like two swords? Wow. That's some real racism right there. So that's your five times great grandfather. So it's my great.

It's my great-grandmother's grandfather. So my big mama, my big mama is her grandfather. Fucked me up. This is an official light-skinned podcast. Welcome to the team, then. All right? We meet on Wednesdays. Think about that betrayal, right?

His brother, actually, his brother, his brother helped found Ole Miss, Ole Miss University. I'm just, I'm stacking up betrayals. Oh, my God. Jesus. His brother helped. Help found Ole Miss University. I'm stacking up betrayals, the Ventress family.

You're the, you're the offspring of super villains. Brough, and then after all of that, all wanted to be was soothed by a movie. And come back and talk to it with my brothers, my friends, my guys, and I couldn't do it. I said, you know what? Five minutes of silence from Van. Take the podcast over. I'm done, guys. No.

Five minutes of silence. It was five minutes. You know what's interesting, though. Go for it. To, you know, to Steve. Steve, Steve, turn my video off. No, power.

No, right.