The Ringer-Verse - 'Blue Eye Samurai' and 'Godzilla Minus One' Reactions | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

They choose to live, and the Midnight Boys are here to give you their reactions to some of their favorite properties of the year! They break down the animated epic 'Blue Eye Samurai' (09:26). Later, they talk about the surprising monster hit 'Godzilla Minus One' (53:16). 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

Hey, everyone. I'm Mallory Rubin and I am thrilled to tell you that House of our has a new podcast feed. Joanna Robinson and I will now be with you twice a week with more of the deep dives you've come to know and love on the ring of universe. In addition to exploring all of your favorite nerd culture new releases, we'll have nostalgic revisitations, hype meters, hall of fame inductions, tropes courses, drafts, and more. All bad babies are welcome as we dive into Star Wars, Marvel, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and beyond. Follow the new House of Our feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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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 WeatherTech seat protectors.

So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need WeatherTech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Welcome into the Ringiverse. This is, of course, the Ringers Nexus podcast, Feed for All Things, fandom. We are. Steve, the architect Almond, the tinker and builder of things. He's out.

We are. Jomi, the explainer, Adiron, you've got questions. He's got answers. We are. Old Man, Van. He of the receding and retreating hairline. We are. Mr. L.A.

themselves. Niggas, I'm here. In the city. Chuck. We keep a rocking. Together, we are known as of our midnight boys. Fouts on socials,

Instagram, Facebook, TikTok save Jomi's job. Jomi, we're not going to do a social's update today because we have to talk about the recent development. You know what it is. Jomi, tell the people what, who, what additions we've just made to the

Midnight Boys crew. Well, you're not going to to believe this guys. But guess who decided to leave the the dark gray skies of New York for the beautiful

70 degree weather out here in Los Angeles, California? That's right. Charles Holmes is in LA, everybody. I got my thighs out. I'm feeling the sexy this morning. No wonder y'all are all happy when y'all watch a marveling Star Wars shit. You wake up in the morning here

just starting right. I expect things to change for you, Charles. This is the new era. Happy Charles? I do. I expect Charles to be less confrontational. I expect you to soften up a little bit now that you're with us. I don't know. I mean, if you want to know what was fate?

My next door neighbor is a One Piece fan. They got the One Piece stickers on their car. Their Wi-Fi is all Straw Hat pirate crew. I'm like, all right, word. I need to be out with the One Piece fans in unfortunately then you're not on the one piece team we'll talk about that later we'll talk about it later i have things to say about the one piece uh you guys uh program and reminders okay today house of r gave

you their deep dive on boy and the what and the heron and the heron and the heron boy and the heron boy and the fuck is that yo put some respect on miazaki san's name okay it's the new miazaki film for real what's boy in the heron though what's that about have you never seen a miyzaki film What else did Miyazaki do? What else did Miyazaki do? He did spirited away. Howell's moving castle? I saw, I saw, I saw Spirited Away.

He did Spirit It Away. He's one of the greatest directors of by time. Spirit away, great. Beautiful. Beautiful. I don't know. You never seen my neighbor Totoro? I don't know.

Nah, I don't see it. I'm going to be honest. If you watch my neighbor Totoro, you'll cry. You'll cry. I cry. You cried to my neighbor. Have y'all ever seen rebound the Earl Managal's story? What is that?

So it's stuff that y'all haven't seen that I saw. So get off me. No. So boy and the hair on. What's it called? Boy in the heroin. Bowen the hair on? The heron.

Not the heron. What's the only? Whoa. I'm sorry. Do you have something against Japanese people? Because any single time is the Japanese title. What? You'll be mispronouncing that shit.

What? Well, first of all, I'm not mispronouncing it. I'm asking you guys. It's boy and the what now? It's not Harron. Heron, the bird. He's not heroin. You're not dealing drugs.

In the 80s, bro. But wait a second, though. Wait a second, though. See, this is how trauma gets it to your brain. Well, I'm from that hair on is that hair on. So to me, boy and the hair on, that's a movie. That's some shit I understand. You know what I'm saying?

You think Joe and Mal are doing a deep dive on a young black man in the streets just having a sling that shit? It's Jay Z's biopic, man. Look, that's what I would love to see. That's kind of shit I would love to see. I would love to see. I challenge Joe and Mal, Mal and Joe.

I challenged them to do a whole house of R on Payton Full. Three hours. I was going to say, I want a deep dive on power season one. I just need to. I want them to do it. That would be so funny.

Shout out to them. On Monday, Button MASH is back with a look at the new game, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. It's the name of the game that they're doing it over on Button Mash. I have something to say about video games real quick. And on Monday, House of R gives you another Doctor Who deep dive on the third holiday special.

Before we get into what we're doing right now, I would just like to say for all of the people in the discourse on the Twitter sphere, I feel Spider-Man 2 was robbed. Oh, because it didn't win any. awards last night? You can't tell me. I know that Baldigate

and the rest of his game. Baldigate? Dog. I know that those games are dope. I know that everybody likes to play them. Spider-Man has dominated me to the point that you can't tell me they shouldn't have won one award.

One award. They can't get one award. You really got to be on Alan Wake too as well. Like, that's culture. That's amazing. So you're telling me Alan Wake 2 is better than Spider-Man 2. I have to be honest, I'm deferring to you guys.

I haven't played the game. But what I would just say is I would think that Spider-Man 2, the excellence, Kalika's right here. Kalika, come over here real quick, baby. Tell them how much I play Spider-Man 2. Probably too much.

See what I'm saying? Probably too much. Wait, whoa, real quick question, though. Van. Van is very obsessed with this game. He's learning everything about New York. it's the first thing he said he went to New York Is that like his virtual tour of New York?

Yeah, it's his virtual tour of New York. He's like, I know where this is, I know where that is, all because of Spider-Man. I'm not going to lie. When I played the first Spider-Man game and then I went to New York a couple years later, I was like, I'm tapped in. Oh, I was just swimming past this. I was like, yeah, I swam past this spot. Jamie, you might have to be a little careful.

You go to Brownsville. You'd be like, This is why I wasn't Spider-Man when you go there. Nah, I didn't go north of Central Park. Don't worry. But real quick, before we get into what we're doing today, Van, have you started using your specials yet?

Because Van is the only motherfucker I know when I watch and play Spider-Man. He just like punches and kicks. He don't use... He don't use his gadgets. He don't use none of his miles powers. None of them. Okay, so I have now.

I'm on a different level. I had to because as you... I'll just be honest with you, as you go further in the game, you just can't win fights without it. You physically... You physically can't win the fight without it, without using it. You have to use it, right?

And so now, you know what I'm saying? Br, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm kind of a G at this shit now. I've been playing so much. I put the time in, bro. All my mysterious levels are golds. You know what I'm saying? Y'all don't fuck on.

Oh, no. Say less. Say less. Sunday. We're going to see who's the best player. Oh, let's do it. Everybody over the house, except for Steve. Okay.

On today's show, now that we've done 10 minutes of preamble, on today's show, we're taking a look at the full season of Blue-Eyat Samarite and our reactions to Godzilla minus one. You guys, I won't let you know something. This is a Charles Holmes orgasm hour. Come on. Let's go. Charles Home Run. This is a Charles Holmes run. This, I got to be honest with you.

I don't know how much I'm going to be involved. Why? This is, first of all, I loved both of these properties. Loved them immensely. Like, I can't believe it. But Charles, I want to make sure that you get the opportunity to cook here because this is your moment. This is your moment. You know, this is your, this is like when the movie is bad.

This is more so. I have to shout out Jomi because Jomi, like, Jomi's been on a heater. Jomi's like, yo, you got to tap into a blue-eyed samurai. I'm like, you can know. He's like, Godzilla-minded. I'm like, Jomey. I don't know what happened recently, but your taste has been elevated. Oh, wow.

Thank you, Charles. Wow. Thank you, Mr. Condescension, son of a bitch. Okay. He kind of corny. He got me. He got me. Spoiler warning for Buoy Samurai.

Steve, take it away. We're getting ready to talk about... You're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. All right, this is your Midnight Manifest for Blue Eyes Samurai, created and written by husband and wife team Michael Green and Amber Nozumi. You're asking, do I know Michael Green? You do, because he's written such films as Logan, Alien Covenant, Blade Runner 2049,

Murder on the Orient Express, and it was directed by Jane Wu. We start in the Edo period of Japan. The Shogun has closed the borders outlong all European and white travelers from coming into the country. Mizu, a half-white, half-Japanese ronin, is on a revenge mission to find the white father that abandoned her mother and caused her life of constant shame and ridicule. Her mission includes killing the four white men that were in Japan before the borders were closed. This leads Mizu on a quest to find Fowler, a smuggler who is still secretly in the country and allied with the Shogun.

Along the way, she faces off against her former tormentor-turned maybe lover, Taigin, a scary samurai trying to win back his honor from Mizu. She becomes a teacher to Sekai, a handicapped former Soba Nudokokok, and struggles to heed the wise words of her sword-making master, Eiji, that has been your midnight manifest for Blue Eye Samurai. Let me tell you something right now. Blue Eye Samurai got me, baby. But before I even talk about it,

we got to get to the answer reactions. We have to know what people thought, what the Midnight Boys thought. Chuck, why don't you go first? I see what y'all motherfuckers say on that Facebook group. Them Reddit, y'all like, Charles don't like nothing. What is it going to take? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Blue Eye Samurai, Godzilla, Minor, Zero. This is what I'm talking about. this is penmanship. Like, this is creators creating at the highest level. I just, I'm not going to lie. I thought blue-eye samurai already. It's probably the light skin of it all. I'm like, dog, I don't want to hear about a biracial samurai.

Like, fuck off. But that first episode just brought me into the world. I cared about Mizo. I cared about her journey. And then as the other character started popping up, I'm like, who are all these, like, where's Mizo? Fuck all these other characters. And then slowly but surely through the TV show, Ringo, Tyg and Akeme, all of them.

I was like, this is what TV is supposed to do. I cared about these characters. I wanted them to win. When they lost, I felt their struggle. And I just think if everybody's like, oh, why is, why are you so hard on like Marvel, Star Wars, all this stuff? It's because I think because Blue Eye Samurai is not IP, I think they had to go back to basics. They had to make us care about these characters.

And they just had to do very fundamental things with story, with structure, with the fight sequences and choreography, everything. I just don't think this is one of the best animated shows. I think this might possibly be the best Netflix show and one of the best TV shows I've seen all fucking year. I cannot speak highly of it.

So do you know what I call storytelling like Blue Eye Samurai? It's trapeze without a net, right? There's no net here. I don't know these characters. I don't care about them going in. I don't give a shit what happens. It's all risk. You have to make me care.

You have to rope me in with story. If I don't care about your lead, your show doesn't work. If I don't care about the subplots, your show doesn't have the depth that it needs. I don't care about the end. If you now pull me a bunch of different ways, if I can predict your store, then I won't be down to continue to tune in. There's no net. There's no net of, I can't wait to see this or I can't wait to see that or what if they give us this or what if they give us that.

And this is, there's something about it that reminds us of why we watch and read stuff in the first place. Like even when I'm reading something nonfiction, right? when I'm reading something nonfiction on a topic that I know something about, I'm still expecting to have the gaps in my knowledge, memory, and experience filled in. And if they don't fill those gaps in, it was like, what's the point of me reading this book, right? And so when I watch this, I wasn't thinking about any. anything else but either what was happening or what was going to happen next. And I know that seems very elementary, but it's hard to do.

You have to be writing at a high level. I thought I would know how the story would go. And once they're like, oh, she was married before. Oh, I was like, oh, it's doing the story thing where I'm like, oh, y'all are surprising me and staying ahead of me. And I almost want to, I'm playing catch up. That is something I haven't felt before. or at least I haven't felt in a very long time.

There's so much of it, right? There's so much of it that it's not just unpredictable, but it's deeply, deeply satisfying in the way it negotiates its stakes and its characters. The show's got breathtaking action, breathtaking visuals. We haven't even talked about how beautiful it looks and how it plays with your eyes

and your senses, right, in different episodes. There's a through line that, narratively, that takes you from beginning to end, right? Which is the through line of revenge, of obsession. And you start to wonder whether or not the character, whether or not the goal of the character is even noble or worth it. But there's too much going on around her

for you to get caught up and whether or not she should be doing what she's doing. You just know that she has to, and you know that she's continued to learn and overcome along the way. I just thought it was brilliantly done. Yeah. I was knocked on my ass. I had so much fun, but I also felt a lot. Mint boys.

I can't babble on about this too much longer. Jomi, you were one of the early advocates of the goddamn show. Tell us why it got to you. I mean, I was looked from like the first 15 minutes. As soon as as Musu started talking, I was like, oh, this samurai is female. Oh, this is going to go crazy. they already They already changing the paradise

What was it the half white thing? Milk merchant Jomi that you were like yeah That's what you liked You couldn't wait I like strong female protagonists Sue me Strong white female protagonist

Damn Jomey As soon as she got I should have known that As soon as she got out of the lake And she had no clothes on I bet Jomey was like Oh again When she was in that noodle shop

And old boy was like Our boy Ringo was like You know trying to help her She was like I don't worry I'm good But let's be clear before I let you go, Jomey, when she hooked my man up,

when she was trying to lose him, and she's just like to the sex work and she's like, oh, yo, can you destroy my man? I was like, yo, I was locked the fuck in. I was like, let's go. I'll tell you what, bro. At the end of episode one, when dude was like, peaches.

I was dead, man. I was dead, man. That was a good bit. But not, the show is a masterful, a mix of storytelling and art. Like the way they put this thing together, like you guys said, you think you know where it's going,

but it surprises you at every turn. The action's incredible. The voice acting is incredible. And you get there and you're thinking like, all right, me's just the main character. That's the person. We're a false person.

They're going to get me to care about the most. But when you're sitting there, Ringo, Tygin, Akemi, Seki, Kiji Shindo, Like, everybody gets these little moments to shine and to really stand out. And it's over 80 episodes. We talk about how many shows have, like, six to eight episodes, and we're sitting there at the end going, like, I didn't care about anybody.

With all this history, all this past, this show came out. Again, we don't know anything about these characters. By the end, we're like, if they lay one hand on Ringo, I'm going to be upset. I'm going to be mad. You know, the show. does an incredible job of giving every single character moments. And yeah, like I said, like I was just locked in from the jump and I can't wait.

Hopefully, you know, hey, Netflix, if you're listening, give this show a season two. It's incredible. Co-sign everything that Jomi just said. My biggest praise that I could give the show is that it's instant immersion. The moment that you start episode one, you're already invested in what might happen. and then, like we've said before,

at every turn, it will surprise you at what it gives you next. I think that, like, I was kind of, like, scratching my head as to why this show felt the necessary, felt it necessary to be so adults, like, not just with the violence, but, like, with, like, overtly sexual

and, like, very, like, coarse language and, like, heavy themes. And as the show goes on, it proves itself to be handling so many things, things that just like not so much like not only typical animated shows handle but like something on the caliber of like Game of Thrones can handle where like there's sexual politics there are like weird questions of identity and a lot of like great profound themes that are in every single one of these episodes that honestly like from a show that was a surprising it is like barely

had any right to be as good as it was and I was thoroughly thoroughly. impressed by it. Like, I, I couldn't be more, more shocked. You was watching the show and you was like, why they got to do all that cussing? I'm not, listen, I'm not prudish by any means. Conservative, Steve. It's, no, no, no, no, here's the thing. Here's the thing.

Oh, conservative Steve. Steve, there's another debate coming up is going to be Steve, Christy, Nikki, Haley, and Ron DeSantis up there. The four white men in Japan, yeah. Now, I, I, talk to us, Steve. No, truly. And I was trying to think about how this, like, actually affecting me because, like, up until, like, maybe the end of episode one, I was thinking I was like, well, like,

why does it have to be like this? Because it's probably because it was animated and, like, seemingly, like, you could sell this to younger kids if there weren't as many themes like this. I thought. But then as I go through the show, I'm like, oh, no, absolutely not. Like, there's a lot more. I agree with Steve. There's, like, but like, there's, because there's so many things that are, like,

adventure like adventure centric property adjacent so can be honest with you the one reason why i feel like you can't really sell it to younger kids as much as some other things is because of misu's goal her goal is just to kill exactly right so if that's the goal you can sell the younger kids we're trying to free ourselves from the empire or we're trying to find the one thing for 50 years that nobody's ever found. And you like you can you can you can you can you can you can you can sell that to kids. But like just a mission of killing that's probably going to be tough. I get it. But like it hit me so hard when when Tygen was introduced because he is so Zuko from avatar coded that yeah. I was just like, wait a minute. Are they doing this thing? Like are they are they are they just doing

this? And like they kind of are he's got to restore his honor. He's got a restore his honor like he got he got shit on by the chosen one or whatever and he's on a quest to keep doing this but then he's going to like come around and I was like wait a minute. Oh I mean the only difference though is Tygans little Tygian. No right. He was looking at Mizoo and he's just like

damn what's going on? What is like what do I got to do? What are these feelings? I don't know. Anyway but but I get it like the themes are there but like they elevate themselves like the ways that this show elevates those mature themes to actually enhance the story was incredible to me.

And it actually did the show a very good service to have those adult themes, in my opinion. I want people, as we talk about just how enamored we are with a good story, I want people to remember something about Will I Samurai. And everybody that's consuming stuff,

and particularly people out there that have stories swimming around in their head. They didn't reinvent the will here. They did. Not really. It's a story about someone who views himself as an outcast, someone who's outside of their culture for whatever reason,

someone who wants to destroy the thing that created them, that has a bloodlust and revenge tale and has trained their entire life to make sure that they're the baddest ass of badasses to go accomplish that. Every lone, lonesome hero, fastest gun in the West, sharpest knife and sharpest sword in the east type of situations is the same way it's all like this is not a new story but it's told in a breathtaking effective way it's told in a way that like change you to each of the themes by the time you get to the end of this you know everything about your lead character you know why every single decision she makes is the decision she makes You understand the obsession, you understand the emptiness, you understand the reason why lives can be taken, why you have to kill when you have to kill.

You understand the hollows that are inside of her soul, all of it. And you can do that with any story. People keep wondering, oh, who's next to come here? What are we going to talk next? Are we running out of ideas? No, we're not running out of ideas. What we're running out of is ambition, not ideas. The ideas are still there.

The ideas are the story. We're telling the same stories we've been telling. running out of ambition, we're running out of a work ethic and will to tell in a certain way. And when you get something like this, you realize there's still people with pins making amazing stuff and not just even in the story, in the whole globule of it. My favorite episode was episode five. I want to ask everybody what their favorite episode was. My favorite episode was episode five.

Episode five was such a heart-wrencher. It's one of the best episodes of TV I've ever seen of anything, man. It was incredible. What were you guys' favorite episodes of Blue Eye Samurai and why? Oh, I think it has to be episode five because it does something where at first they're doing the puppet theater play. And it's almost, it was annoying to me at first because I'm like, wait, you're taking away from the action. I feel like this is slowing it down. But as they keep going through the story and they keep going and the animation becomes more exaggerated and the themes come through, it just.

it just hits you. And I think what that episode does and what everything does, shout out to the, to the, because they had a real stunt crew doing this. Shout out to the stunt men, shout out to the animators. What I think that episode and all the episodes do well is that as we've gotten more genre films,

as there's become thousands of Star Wars, thousands of Marvel, thousands of John Wicks, our heroes almost start to become invincible almost, where it's like, by the last John Wick, that motherfucker was falling through like 50 stories and just walk it up like it was nothing. And I think what I loved about this first season is

as badass as Mizu was, there were certain episodes where I'm like, she going to die. How's she going to do this? Like there's no way. Every single time she got cut, stabbed, whatever, I felt it. I felt her physical pain as much as her emotional pain.

And that's very, very hard to do in, in 2023, three because she's like, there's going to be like two more seasons of this. And I still was like, it was heart-wrenching. Every single time she failed or didn't get something accomplished, I felt that. And you don't,

shit doesn't make me feel like that that often. Jones, favorite episode. Oh, it has to be the tale of the Ronan and the Bride. It's, I mean, I haven't said this in a long time, but it's real cinema in that episode.

Real cinema. the dichotomy between the her story with her husband and then going back to the brothel and taking out all those claw the claw dudes and then at the end when she you know she's in the fight and she's building the same weapon that you know ended her relationship with the husband you know in the sparring match let me tell you something let me tell you something You see shit like that. That's what I don't even, that right there is what I'm talking about.

Yeah. That is storytelling. Yes. And you're like, oh, she's putting it together. Oh, these dudes don't stand a chance. She could have pulled out that weapon on her own, right? And it would have been such a badass scene. But for you to understand the emotional base of why you hadn't seen that,

weapon before, why she pulled it out to beat the biggest challenge she had ever, all of that stuff, that's what I'm like, man, this show is, but like, but even, even in the flashback, when her, she sees her husband ride up, he rides away. And then at the end, when, when, when the mom and her husband are fighting, I was like, bro, what? She throws that dagger through his fuck. I was like, he kills her mother. Yo, I was like, I was like, I was an animated show, too. doing this to me. She was so empty at that point.

Yes. She was so empty. She's walking away as someone is killing her mother, her husband who abandoned her, killing her mother. And she just, and she,

and for her to be who she is, all of them had to die. That whole part of her life had to die. But if we're going to be real, I think everybody loves the present fight with like all the thousands of the clawed people. but I think the fight that I love from this episode is when she's, she has the highest ecstasy when she can finally be her full self in front of her husband.

She's battling him and she's just like, oh, finally I found a man in someone who will love me for me. And everything I'm good at and the look of disgust he had when, when he beats her. I was like, no, this is what we talk about when I'm saying like action scenes need to tell a story. They made me, I need to feel something. And at the end of that fight, I was so heartbroken for her. I was like, it ripped my fucking heart out of my chest. I remember in that scene, she is having the time of her life. Yeah.

Open. And like she's so, this is the first time and a long time. And you can see it on a face where she feels like, oh, I can be myself. I can really be me. And it's liberating for her to a point where she is so. happy with her husband. She wants to kiss him. He's like, I don't want. Oh. You are a monster.

Yeah. That's what he told him. I was like, again, I'm in my house. I'm just like, bro, man. Like, oh. Why don't you love her, bro? Like, what's wrong with you? I ain't going to lie. I've had some of those moments when, like, my girl beats me at Uno where I'm just like, don't talk to me. Like, don't like, you know what I'm saying?

There's certain games where I'm like, don't talk. God damn. You have an OO night? Competitive, bro. No, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be. like, give me an hour. I'm gonna walk around. Give me an hour.

That happened on Save by the Bell. Y'all went outside. Oh, wait. I was outside. I've seen. Wait. Yeah, I happen on save by the bell. So remember when there was a new girl at, uh, at Bayside and she was a dope-ass wrestler.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. She was a wrestler and Zach started dating her. And then Zach had beef with some nigger. And she fucking. grabbed the guy and put him in some kind of arm lock and threw him down. And Zach, and Zach was pissed. Zach felt emasculated by her because she, because she, because she remember that.

That's crazy. And I was like, God damn, Zach, that nigga, Zach ain't no forward-thinking ass motherfucker. Zach is fucked. And so I knew, I knew when she did that, when she put, when she put that, when she put it on his ass, I knew that he was going to say about the biller. I was like, that's too much for him. I've had that. It didn't happen to me, but y'all know I was on the wrestling team.

Shout out Hurricane Holmes. Anyway, here's the thing. The patriarchy was bad back in the day. You know, we weren't as advanced. So if there was ever like a woman wrestler, I remember, like, especially if you was on JV varsity and shit, I remember my friend, you know, he would have to go out. And like, there was one time a woman wrestler.

When she beat that man's ass, he came back, that bus ride home was the most toxic shit ever. I mean, it's high school, bro. I mean, you know what I mean? It's, in high school, that's not going to be a by-de-bye. I'm sorry. Like, it is, is, it should,

first of all. It should not happen. It should not happen. Right. Well, look, it should not happen, but you're in high school. Can we give a little bit of daylight to the fact that your brain isn't, like, fully formed? You're not going to be able to have all the right thoughts. You're still wondering

who you are. And then you go out there and you get, in high school, that's going to be, you're going to have to come home and have a very special talk with your dad about that. You know?

Like, you're going to have to sit down. The violin music is going to have to play right after commercial. Your dad's going to be like, what's up, Tommy? And you're like, Dad, Bethany from across the way,

beat my motherfucking ass in a wrestling. I'm saying. It's high school. It's high school. You know what? You know what the crazy thing to me is? I get it.

Brough, I'm 43. I have to be able to look at these things. in a completely holistic way. If I'm in the fucking 10th grade and I get beaten by a lady wrestler, I'm going to need some counsel from an OG. It's going to feel in a way. I'm a kid.

Anyway. Oh, man, the women hating on this pod from Van is crazy, bro. Now, actually, if I'm being serious, if I will say this about Van, and then we'll get back to him, he is right in terms of, like, we have this thing in the society where we expect, like,

15 and 16 year olds who are on like social media to be like these fully formed humans with like opinion and i'm just like do you all remember what you're like a six them hormones because the motherfuckers to go crazy they kids look at johnmy and steve steve i don't i agree i'm i'm talking high school or sometimes in my family and i'm like oh you young and dumb like no no before before social media man people we was like you know what i mean like y'allel there's no history there's no background of what was going on back then now kids got tic-tok twitter instagram walling i understand that it's just it's just more public you know what i mean like speaking speaking of stuff like this i have i ever told you guys about the time that calica abused me wait what she's right here

where did she she she put calica took her shoulder and she put it into my chest and she used her legs and she ejected me throughout the kitchen and I hit a wall of knives. I could have been, I could have been like permanently hurt. I hit a wall of knives. Get Khalik on the- No, no, no, no, no. I need the real story.

I need the real story. Come here real story. Come here. Did she hit you like Brian Dawkins over the middle? Did you not shoulder me into a wall of knives and like, you did? You shoulder me into a wall of knives. This is untrue. What happened?

Tell me what happened. You came at me. I told you to stop coming at me. Whoa. And I turned and I put my shoulder directly in your chest and pushed you back. There was no wall of knives. Who even owns a wall of knives? So I was telling Kalika.

I was telling Kalika, yo, it's time to wrestle. You know, I was having the energy burst. I'm like, it's time to. It's time. Is that Van Lathan just gets the zoomies? I get the zoomies. I get the zoomies sometimes. Sometimes I'm like, ah.

And I'm like, oh. Let's go. You know, and I was trying to, she didn't feel like it. She wasn't fucking with it. I don't know what was going on. She's sometimes she's not fucking with the horseplay. And I didn't even really get a chance to really get on her, right? Before she hit me with the shoulder.

And bro, she measled me. I fucking flew back into a wall of sharp knives that we had gotten from IKEA. What era then was this? Like, was this you were in the gym? Like, how much did you add this place? Oh, no, I was the man. I was this. This was the best shape of my life type, man.

Damn. And she, she, she, so, but look, did I freak out? No. From this entire thing, I took that as a warning. Don't horseplay with Kalika. She doesn't like it. You'll get, you'll get fucking shouldered into a wall of sharp knives. But this guy, he, he, he left his whole life behind.

And I will say this. The claw guys, I thought that they would capture her or something. That was one of the times where I wasn't sure she could overcome. because you have the claw guys. It's not like she had the Avengers with her. You know what I mean? She didn't have a squad backing her up. Ringo is my guy,

but I didn't think Ringo was going to be up to the task. I got to be honest with you. Ringo and a Kimmy, I was just like, damn, bro. This is like Steph Curry with the current warriors. I'm like, bro, I don't. Don't do,

don't do Klanwiggins like that. Don't do Klanwig is like that. That's crazy. What about our villain here? Jummy, Steve, what do you guys think? I love this guy. Of course you do, Steve. Well, no, here's the thing.

I love how he's portrayed because... Of course. Yeah, give it. No, it was that scene when... No, it... When his boy came back with a chopped off hand and he passes a chapel and he talks... And he does the Eddie Brock thing where he asks Jesus to kill his enemies.

But he does the thing where it's just like, listen, I'm not going to beg. But like, if this goes my way... maybe I'll reform this nation in the form of Christianity. Maybe I'll do that. And if you want to see it, like, see if you could fit it in. And then he leaves. Like that was, that, that felt, that felt gangster. That was great.

There's a scene where he's, like, he's painting some art. He's like, oh, yeah. This is all I've done. I'm too good at this. I'm too good at this. Get me out of here. And like, I ain't going to hold you. I don't know what kind of accent Kenne Brana is doing right there.

Like, I have no idea where he's from. It's got to be Irish. It's got to be Irish, but brother, it's Irish, it's Wells. It's all over them four islands they got up there. But at the same time, I was like, oh, this dude is nothing to me to be messed with. He's not, this is not light work for Mizu, you know. And over the course episodes, we see, like, he's like, he's like, A guy gives him bad news and he murders him, right?

What he was doing to Tigin torturing him. This is not- Pretty fire lord coded. Well, not really. It's like an R-rated fire lord. So, you know. Y'all ain't even given the most evil thing he did. When he had all the other Japanese people at his crib

and he rolls out that nasty ass fucking shit. Milk, Kurt, whatever he was trying to. I was like, like, he was eating that shit. I was just like, this is true. evil because sometimes I've been over my white homies house when they mom is cooking and you're like, damn, we have a fucking tuna fish casserole for real. You just got to have to smile through it. Yeah. It's rough. It's tough. It's tough. I think the thing about the show that I love the most, and you mentioned this earlier, like it surprises you. When they're talking to Haji Shindo about

his cast, whatever, in my head, I'm thinking, that's the finale. That's the finale. That's, where the whole thing ends. That's where... Oh, it's like you gotta... You gotta climb these unclimable walls and then you gotta get through the roof and then you gotta do this, yeah.

Exactly. After the tale of the Bride and the Ronan, that's the next episode. And at first I'm like, wait, don't we get two left after this? You're already at the boss. What's going on? But then it becomes

part of Mizu's journey where she has the chance to take out foul if she has the chance to do it, it might cost to her life and Tygans' life, and because everything she's went through to that moment, she chooses her and Tyin. Is she a hero or vigilante?

She gets a chance to make the decision, whether or not she's a hero or a vigilante. A vigilante doesn't care. A hero saves a vigilante kills. Exactly. And it's one of those, okay, the story got me. Here I am thinking this is supposed to be the finale,

but there's more coming. We're seeing the growth of the kids. character. Like, it really doesn't get better than this. It really doesn't. I mean, we haven't talked about her yet, but I even think Princess Akimmy and her journey from, from the beginning, you're like, oh, well, she just wants to find Tygin. She's in love with this man to her journey mirroring Mizus. And by the end, she chooses power. She's just like, you know, fuck all this shit. When she has the, when you see her black teeth for the first time and she's going through that transformation of, okay, I finally realized that I can't let all these men control me.

I need to prove what I'm capable of. That was heartbreaking because you're like, oh, shit, two of the most important characters in this series, they choose, to your point, the vigilante course, the, hey, I'm going to get mine at any cost. And I just thought that was brilliant writing. Because in the beginning, I was like, when I saw the princess of Kimmy, I'm like, I don't give a fuck about this woman. the end, I was like, God damn.

How could she do me like this? And that's brilliant writing. Think about how many times you've seen that story. Think about how many times you've seen the story of the young woman who is being arranged to marry the man she doesn't want to marry and how that works for her. And what she has to do with that and the struggle against that. Whether or not love will conquer all. What you expect is at some point she's going to get what she wants.

but she doesn't get what she wants, she gets what's coming to her, right? And what's coming to her is the experience that birthed her. You know? Yeah. It's like sometimes a story is about how you become something that you didn't want to become, and sometimes a story is about how you become something,

how you become something that you are always destined to become. You know? And I think that's kind of the problem we have now. Now we kind of know how the story ends. We know the beats of it. And sometimes they're not good at the journey, right? We just want to know which cameos are going to pop out. With her, I didn't care about her until I did.

They had to really, really sink the well. They had to put the fucking work in. And they did. By the way, not a wasted scene. Eight episodes, not one wasted scene. Nope. No. lean as shit and every scene is doing work.

At a gentleman's hour, an episode, by the way. No 45 minute, like a whole hour. We haven't even talked about blind blacksmith master. Oh, he's my favorite, bro. He was great. When they were doing the flashbacks of when she's learning how to make a sword, and he's talking about how, once again, we go back to themes in writing about him talking about how a sword,

doesn't have to be pure, the minerals and the rocks and everything you're using. Sometimes impurities are good. And her kind of learning how to forge a weapon as she's learning from all the samurai around her, I was so invested in that. That is something like, like you said, Van, it's, this is almost proves where I think all of these genre tory telling, it's kind of like a hamburger. I think they expect because we've eaten so many hamburgers that they're just like, oh, well, I got to put a little truffle oil on it. Oh, I got to use this premium ingredient. I got to do all like the cameos and multiverse and everything.

And Blue Eyes Samurai is like, no, you've seen this master and apprentice story before, but we are going to just give it to you in the most simple way. It's a bun. It's a meat. It's cheese. It's everything. And we're doing every single ingredient so well that you're like, okay, this is classic storytelling. They didn't, to your point, I don't think they did anything radically new.

They just followed the rule. in a way that I think, I wish more stories would get back to that very simple, just do something simple and do it well at the highest degree possible. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

You know what my favorite villain was? Bloodthirsty guy with the broken sword. Oh, what? Which one? The one that smacked her around when she was a kid. Oh, Jesus. And then, and then I, look,

I hated that. That dude was, I mean, I do love a shit heel, but yeah. He was like, Little boy smacker, and I knew he was going to pop back up again. And when they got busy, when they got busy, I thought that was just very important. I love this show.

It's so good, right. Guys, I love this show. Should we give it a midnight meter? We will. I want to know one thing before we get to the midnight meter on Blu Y, summer off the run. There's one thing that bothered me. me about blue eyes and moron before i went into it who can guess pluck

nope not plucked it's free of plucked oh wringo is a little plucky he's a little ringo's the good pluck though it kind of you know he kills but but if i will say motherfucker came throughout that like when i said like wringo he had his strut he had heart and it broke me when wringo got to go back with master e g i'm just like mezzie you don't know what you need. Measie, like, you don't know. But what was it then? At first, I thought this was another white person.

Comes to Japan and becomes the baddest samurai of all time. Oh. I don't, I don't, man, look, it ended up not being that. But, you know, even in the first episode, a top knot gets sliced off just like a last samurai, you know? And I was thinking to myself, when I was watching this, I was like, man, why white people got to go to different places and train for X amount of time and they become the baddest motherfuckers that ever did it.

What does that mean? Is this the equivalent of like how with every NBA draft should be going from like chocolate and over the years it's just been getting more milk, more cream to the point where you're like, damn, like all these motherfuckers coming in the league. I wanted to do something on that and it was denied. I wanted to do something on the fact that all of these guys went to our. Australia to play in these other leagues. And they went all around the world to play in these leagues.

And they was in Turkey, like having sex. And it's a black guy that comes from Turkey. And his name is like, is a Jason Jenkins Jr. His father played for Villanova, 1987. Then he played in Turkey for 13 years. Look at him. Turkish mom, boom. Everybody got the same Duke, 2015 haircut, curly.

And they just light skins. It's dunking on each other. The whole league, light skins dunking on each other and Cooper Flagg. That's a future of basketball. Just like Blue Eye Samurai, it's like a half-white samurai

that just kills up all of these people that have been studying this for all the times. At first I was salty about it. I was like, there's only Steve's race of people that will come back and always make themselves the best at everything. When black people write stories, we make ourselves the worst.

And that's the way it's supposed to be. I mean, whoa, whoa, I'm not, I'm not going to hold you, though. At first I was like, Van, I'm just like, I was like, I'm not fucking with this in the first episode. It won me over. But I think what won me over, it was so funny every single time in Japanese person would see her blue eyes and they was just disgusting. Dog. It was like, oh. See?

My favorite was when Ringo was like, is it true that white people's skin burns in the sun? Is it true that they drink milk from other animals? See? And see, look, this is, y'all don't understand how, this is how the CIA gets to us. Y'all don't understand the messages in this. The messages in this is okay to be white, which we know is not true. So the messages, it's how the CIA, that's a joke, white people, please don't get upset. The messages in this is like she's being discriminated against because she's white, right?

white, white, white, and now she has to kill because she's white. Really, when you get to the basis of it, you could argue that blue eyes? I don't know. Let me push back, Van. Was this more so where it was just like, damn, you like, okay, she's going to win out. At the end of that, like, at the last episode, you're like, she's going to make the right choice. She's going to make the right choice. And then her colonizer half is the one that betrayed, is that maybe that was it.

Whereas just like her colonizer half, you know. chooses the dark side. Yeah, it's tough. It's one thing before we get to the midnight meter. We didn't really mention this character, but Madam Kaji, the madam. Oh, she was great. She was fantastic. Just an incredible actress who, you know, is Ming Na Wen.

And I don't know if you guys have ever heard of Mingna Wen, but she played Melinda May in a little known television series called Ages of Shield, baby. Right, let's get to the midnight eater, bro. I don't know. I don't know who Ming now when is because we didn't watch all of Book of Boba fat. We're fucking out of you. Been a chance. I have to get that in there for all. All right, midnight.

Midnight meter, you know, you guys know how it goes. 1 to 12. 1 to 10, but then 11 and 12 being reserved for game changing amazing products. Start with Charles. All right. I thought long and hard about this. I think I'm going to give it the strongest possible. Strongest possible, 10.

I think here's the thing. Because this is the first season, the thing that's stopping it from an 11 or 12, we know 12 is a game changer. I think if it gets a season 2, season 3, we can have that conversation. I don't know if its influence or its impact has reached that level yet.

And that's the only thing stopping it from being an 11 or 12. Because it's a heater. It's growing. More people are watching it. But I think it's a 10. I love this series, and I think if it gets two, three more seasons, it might get 11, 12 territory for me. I feel exactly the same.

It is a perfect 10, perfect 10. I can't do 11 or 12 because those things are rated on impact and television shows have a harder ladder to climb when you're evaluating them based on individual seasons because it's, It's hard to judge that off one season of television, what the exact impact will be. So I'm going with a perfect 10 as well. And also, I want to say something. We have to have some respect in the midnight meter for the perfect 10. This is essentially means it's a perfect show that hasn't yet had the ability or the opportunity to be game changer plus. Yeah.

And so that's not no fault of the show, but I really thought the show was perfect. And also, the midnight meter is fluid. if in five years, six years, it can become an 11 or 12. It's just for some of these things that are little, it's not IP, this is original. The 11 or 12, it might take a little bit more time for us to get there.

And it's not like there are other shows that like right away reach a certain ubiquity shows like a squid game, which was everywhere. I'm not saying a squid game or a game of being 11th. Or a game of Thrones where it's like everybody is talking about it. Everybody is talking about it off one season. You can't really say that. for Blue Eye Samurai, but that's not to say that it won't get there.

Okay, now for the men boys. It is a 10. Were you going nine or were you going to? I was going to go nine. But I immediately gave it like an unfair comparison to Scavenger's Reign, the like... The show to put people to sleep? No, the show that put you to sleep, Jomey. I like, and I wanted to unfairly compare that, but that's not the case here.

this is like it's a singular achievement in the way that it's establishing an incredibly great world and it has like if this maintains its level of quality

it is nowhere to go but a 12 but yes like in time but for now 10 I'm torn between my my head and my heart right now

because my heart is telling me one thing my head is telling me another thing this is a crazy way to You've never You've never heard

Your head's getting you in trouble Jome? Out in Vegas? All right, let's relax Slow down You know what? I'm going to go with my heart

On this one I'm going to give it At 11 There you're not mad at it I'm not mad at 11 I really like this show And You know like again

Another surprise Where you just like Maybe what is this This is something This could be something and it was everything. And so for me that, you know, that's an 11 for sure. Okay.

10, 10, 10, 11 for Blue Eye Samarad. You guys, please give us another season. It was such a delight to watch. I got all blue with it. It was so blue daddy, yeah. 100 free events. 6,000 kids, one mission. Clinic Kids is using sports and evidence-based wellness coaching

to help kids build confidence, resilience, and the tools they need for life, challenges and opportunities. Up through August 2026, they're running 100 free sessions for school and community-based organizations near you. Learn more at clinickids.com slash 100KK. That's Clinic with a K. Clinic Kids is registered 501c3 nonprofit. 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 chantilly cake. But if you're on the go,

new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with the yellow sale sign 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 Nass Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat, and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard-fought place. They're all jammed inside every can of Nass energy, high-performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage, and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of Nass energy and get after it.

It's time to get to our next property. And this is one that the Midnight Boy is hyped up to the if degree. And I went in to see it trying to hate. I'm not going to lie. Didn't want to like it. Oh, I love that. You know I love that. And that lovable kajou with the nuclear breath just took my nuclear breath away.

Spoiler warning for Godzilla minus one. Let's get into it. We're getting ready to talk about you're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. Chuck, take it away. Midnight Manifest. All right, this is your midnight manifest for Godzilla minus one, written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki. I'm going to say this. I am American. If I butcher the pronunciation of any of these names,

give me a little grace. I will do my best. So, we begin in 1945 as World War II draws to a close. Koichi Shikishima flees duties as a kamikaze pilot and lands on Odo Island, asking the military engineers there to fix problems with his plane that aren't there. Tashibana, the lead engineer, knows Koichi is lying, but the crew. are attacked by Godzilla, and the duo are all the only survivors. Koichi returns to Tokyo, stripped of his honor, experiencing PTSD, and finding his parents going with everyone else he knew, destroyed in the bombing of Tokyo. It takes him two survivors, Noriko, and Akiko, and the trio start a loving family.

To make money, Koichi joins a Minesweeper team, but Godzilla returns with his eyes now set on destroying Tokyo. Koichi, along with the Minesweeper ships crew, the kid, the dock, and the captain, joined forces with Japan's veterans to scout Godzilla, and Koichi must find a way to learn how to live for himself and his family, while also being the only pilot available who knows how to stop the raging monster. And that has been your Midnight Manifest for Godzilla minus one. Let's get into it.

Charles. This movie is what I want from Blockbuster Cinema. This is what I've been missing all year. I went in expecting nothing. The hype was out. It was insane. And I think I'm going to copy what I said about Blue Eye Samurai. Back to basics, simple storytelling.

I've seen a lot of fucking Godzilla movies. And the thing, I mean, I just watched the Godzilla in Kong trailer. I think in America especially, we have this thing where we're like, we need to make the CGI bigger, the monsters bigger. This has to do, da, da, da. And this was a back to basics where, for the first time and forever, I cared about the humans more than I cared about Godzilla. I cared so much about Koichi.

Boiler alert. When Noriko dies, I was about to walk out. I was like, fuck this movie. Fuck this shit. I was so hard, bro. I was like, bro. That part was random as fuck. I'll be honest with you, bro.

At that part, when that part came, I was like, say, man, this niggas had the worst life, bro. Yes. I'm like, give him to anything, bro. That part was random as shit, bro. I was like, and then, because. Because, I mean, it's not like you know that she's, it's not to the end of the movie. No, she was blown to smithereens.

Oh, no, no, no, no. I knew she was coming back. I was just like, there's no way. I did. Come on. Especially at the end when, when home, the neighbor. When she gets the telegraph, I'm like, there's no way. And she's coming, but I will say, I started clapping when Noriko shows up again.

I was like, fuck. Like, I felt so happy. But going back to my, like, in my instant. reactions. It's so hard to get me invested in some of these characters and these big blockbuster animated, big blockbuster CG shit. And Doc Coichi's life was so terrible, bro. He comes back from war.

His neighbor is like, damn, you got no honor. Fuck you. He meets this woman and they love each other so much. And when Akiko is like, Daddy. And he's like, I'm not your daddy. I was so cold. What fuck? You sick.

Say that's like the cutest little girl ever put on screen. Like what the fuck? We'll get to that. We'll get to that. When Noriko dies and like the aunt is like, you get to hang out with me. And she starts crying. This is this.

I felt for this family. I was about to start tearing up. I felt for what they were fighting for. When they all band together, this felt like. And the director said Jaws was an influence. This reminded me of like a Jaws or an aliens or any of those really classic, like 80s, 90s movies where you care about the people more than, you care about Ripley. You care.

Like the aliens and Jaws are cool. The sharks are cool. All that is cool. But the fear that they instill, the first time you see the atomic breath. How many single times have we seen the atomic breath in all these Godzilla movies? Countless. And this one was like. This scared me.

When that motherfucker, like, his scale started turning blue, I was like, all right. Like, come on. This motherfucker is a force of nature. How are they going to beat it? And that is just great storytelling. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. What about you, Ben? I'm going to let Steve go.

Okay, hold on. I got to stand on business real quick. Oh, wow. I got to stand on business right now. Hold on. Steve has a Godzilla minus one figuring. I got to say something real quick. Everybody's got their thing.

Vans got Superman. Jomey's got agents to shield. Charles has J. Cole or whatever. What are you talking about J. Cole? One piece. Godzilla's my thing. I fucking love Godzilla, man. Can I just say that statue is,

it is close to scaring the host territory. Like, is really close. I don't care. You know what? It's a test of the real ones if they stick around and see it. That statue, that statue, looks like Godzilla's giving somebody a rainbow kiss. He's given the atomic breath.

No, we're joking. That statue is hard. This might have been my stimmy check. Anyway, no, I'm going to acknowledge that this was, like, I'm not really qualified to talk about this movie rationally. Suffice it to say that this was incredible. What I could always want in a Godzilla movie, and I'm not going to actively say that, like,

either the legendary or American versions of Godzilla have been bad. Or wanting? But perhaps wanting. But like there's a certain way that like Toho has done this for decades upon decades. And they haven't been able to make a Godzilla movie in quite a long time because of this agreement with legendary to make them in the States. And to come out of the gate after Shin Godzilla and now this. it's nothing short of moving because it feels like a cultural reclamation because the amount of themes that come from the origins of this character

the like the elevated drama that comes from these human characters like every time that we watch one of these movies we're just like man we really got to suffer through all these human characters just so we can see Godzilla smash some shit you didn't give fuck about Millie Bobby Brown no and Brian Krista No. You're not locked in a Brian Tyree Henry getting his checks?

No, I'm not. Not in this case. Like all of those elevated stakes bring this completely to life. Like all of that, like when they're in the boat, that's so evocative of jaws. Like the actual time when he's like destroying Ginza, it's like genuinely terrifying. Wholesale, like I was just genuinely shocked at the types of things that like they could put on the screen. and he just walks like a fucking robot. Like it's like this.

Like he's not even doing like the crazy running shit. It's perfect for me. I have nothing bad to say about this movie. It's great. Joe Me hit me. Love this film. When I think about these things, and I kept,

every time I thought about this movie, I kept thinking back to Transformers. And the reason is because you come for the robot fights. you come for the big CGI battles you come for the Godzilla of it all and at least in those films there's way too much humans in there there's way too much

you don't fuck with Sandwitwiki and Megafox I'm not doing all that I'm not here for really not here for Mark Wahlberg right bumbleby got it right to a degree but at the end of the day the human stuff bogs down the film I'm not here for that let's see Optimus Prime Megatron go 12 rounds

that's what I'm here for. But in Godzilla minus one, I don't really care what Godzilla was up to. I mean, it was cool. Don't get me wrong. Of course, I loved it. It's great. But the human element of this film was so heartbreaking and endearing and emotional.

They never get this right in these movies, especially the American versions. They never get this right. And for the first time, in a long time, I'm like, hey, man, that Godzilla scene was crazy. Now, get me back to the homies, bro. What are they doing? How's my baby going to Kiko doing? You know what I mean?

Like, the human element of this movie is so great. The Godzilla stuff just seems like frosting, like the cherry on top of the Sunday, man. It was an incredible film. There's the scene, and this is why there's so much action and there's so much heart. But the scene that I knew I was watching a different film, and I don't know, like, it's very, like, not out of left field, but it's just very different. It's when it's the scene where they're at the house, like, they've got the whole family there with the boatmates, right? And they're like, oh, you know, Noriko, thank you for the dinner. you know, means a lot.

I'm sure you guys, you know, have been, how long guys have been married? And then, Shikisha Shikshima's like, no, we're not married.

And then all the dudes looking, are you crazy? Are you an idiot? Coichi better than me. Because once, because once home girl, like,

switch this is a different clothes, I'm like, hey, she could ruin my life. Like, come on, man. Like, I would give her a ring first.

I would have, I'm there no matter what. I will be there. no matter what. I'm watching the thing. I'm like, brother, you not, she loves you, dog. What are you doing? And again, and that's part of the movie. He knows that she loves him. She, he loves her too, but because of his PTSD and everything he's been going through, he can't accept that love until he's defeated what he has to defeat, right? Until he, he finally gets over the nightmares of leaving everybody to die on the island, right?

Jomi, really quick question. Do you think Coichi ever gave Nariko the atomic breath Just one night One drunken night No man He's not built for it

I see that man's eyes Right When push came to shove When it was when it was game time He wasn't locked in He was like Zion Last night You know what I'm saying

Just not The lights were too bright For oh boy You know It wasn't until His back was against the wall And he only had to one shot one opportunity that he made it happen, but it took it took too long. And by then we thought

she was gone, you know? So I want to get to what DeVance thoughts, but the human element of this movie carried it in a Godzilla film. I don't think like we're wrapping our head around that, like a Godzilla from where you come to see Godzilla just destroy CDs, wreck things. The human element was the best part of the film. It's just an incredible work of storytelling. and I loved it from beginning to end. Van, what do you think? So Godzilla has long suffered from Hannibal Lecter disease

and that Hannibal Lecter disease is this. So, fucking, the silence of the lamps comes out and, you know, Clary's is cool, and everybody else is cool, and it's great. But the most compelling part of the movie

is Hannibal Lecter, who is not exactly, the villain of the film, but is, in fact, a serial killer and kills people in the movie, right? And so there has to be something, you know, in subsequent films with Hannibal Lecter that people are able to relate to, that they're able to get into. He almost becomes an anti-hero by the time Hannibal comes. He only eats the rude. Everything that he does is too bad people. He'll basically let someone who is pretty cool off the hook.

and if you're an asshole, he'll eat you, whole thing. Opens up guy's brain, whole nine, whatever, whatever, that guy was a dick. Okay. Godzilla destroys shit and blows shit the fuck up. So the Godzilla that we've been seeing here on American screens for the last 15 to 20 years has been a Godzilla that was kind of our pal, right? It's like, oh, he's here to save us. These other monsters are coming, and Godzilla is absolutely.

actually fighting for us. Oh, we like him, or he's confused, or whatever. All right, this Godzilla, no. This Godzilla is representing a bunch of different things that human beings deal with. One, the fleeting nature of life, the fact that it can all be taken away at any time, when he comes back to his village and he sees the village completely destroyed, that lets you know that when he left there, everybody was okay. And he came back and it was all gone. And people blamed him. Therefore, he has something inside of him that says,

I eventually have to stop the destruction of people that I love. I wasn't able to do it this time, and I have to do it in this next time. Godzilla represents like another war, essentially. They'd say it in the movie. It's the doom that you feel. It's the fact that it all can. be taken away by something that's unpredictable, random that you have to fight for, right?

That you have to fight against and you fight for the people that are in your life. That's what Godzilla is. Because of that, you don't need to see Godzilla that much. You don't need to see Godzilla and little Godzilla lizards and all. Godzilla doesn't have to be, I didn't even finish my popcorn in this movie because it's not a popcorn movie, right? It's a movie where you're literally hanging on every scene to see how these characters are going to negotiate the situation that they're in.

He pops up whenever you need a reminder that the bad day that you think is coming, is coming for sure. That it's coming regardless of anything that you do. And you have best be prepared for it, and you have best be ready to either fight or run. And that's what your main character in this film is running from. He's running from the past bad day,

that he has and the future bad days that he knows are coming. And everybody gets swept up into the same thing. The war is such an important theme in this movie because the war is the worst day. It's the worst things can get. The question is, if you have the opportunity to go through that again, not the opportunity, if you know that you're going to go through that again, what choice will you make? Will you make the choice like he'd made before to run and sacrifice every, that was on the island with you.

If he runs this time, he sacrifices the little daughter he doesn't want, the found family that he has, or will you fight and potentially die rather than cur out again? And it's just, it's right there. It's like, like we talked about before, it's right there, but it's all easy. But the movie continues to ask that question over and over again. They take you to the bottom. These people are fucking dirty when you first meet them.

And then you watch them build up. Everything that you build in your life for everyone, listening to me. Everything that you build in your life is just more that you can lose. I think about it all the time. I think about it all the time. Everything that you do, every single thing, it's just you have every time you go, yeah, I did it. I got the job. You could be fired from that job. Yeah, I did it. I got the girl. She could break up with you. Every single step forward you take, you're just making the eventual calamity loss that is life that much more hard. And that movie, this movie makes you think about that every single second.

Every single second till the end where they blow up Godzilla, which I'm not sure is even fair, because if I'm Godzilla, I'm like, I mean, what are my poses do? Like, I don't know where I'm at. Like, I'm an animal. As an animal lover, I felt kind of sad for Godzilla because Godzilla was like, look, everywhere I come, nobody tried to, like, roll out the welcome at. Everywhere I go, people are fucking screaming, shooting at me. people are doing all kinds of stuff. I like, you know, I'm just trying to walk. Excuse me that I step on people.

I'm big. You know, you guys aren't making any a tip to, like, be my pal. So yeah. And then I was chill at the bottom of the ocean, not even bothering y'all. Y'all blew up a nuclear bomb in my home, and now I got atomic breath. So what you want me to do?

They blew Godzilla up Godzilla really and do nothing. I mean, he's just trying to walk. I'm walking here. is what Godzilla saying. I can't co-sign this. Godzilla was an asshole in this movie. This is what I like. Because, you know, in a man, we've been,

we've gotten the nice Godzilla. Oh, Godzilla. That's what I'm saying about Godzilla. This Godzilla lets Godzilla be that doom. Yeah. Yeah. So this movie, the budget was $15 million. The last Godzilla Kong movie was $200 million.

Do you think that this is kind of proof that maybe we've lost the plot in kind of our American block? Walkbusters a little bit where limitations are actually good because I'm like, I'm the first person to complain about like CG and whatever. And there's some shots in this movie that are like, whatever. But because Godzilla is designed so well, because they designed this world, I was never taken out. I was never like, oh, I was always like, no, this works. Like you guys have limitations and you made something beautiful within it versus, hey, we have all this money at our disposal, we're going to throw it all at the screen, and we're going to forget, like, hey,

you could have crazy CGI in the world. If I don't give a fuck about anybody or the human emotions on screen, I'm going to walk out feeling empty. And this, I think this movie did a very good job of being like, hey, if we hook them emotionally, you're going to be afraid of Godzilla no matter how he looks. And Godzilla look great in this movie. But this was like, this was one of the first times. I'm like, maybe our American blockbusters need to go back to basics.

Maybe we need to stop doing 250,000 million fucking movies. Steve, Steve talked about Jaws, right? Yeah. Steve that talked about Jaws? Yeah. Well, why did we get the POV of the fucking shark? They couldn't afford it, right? The fucking shark broke.

Yep. Yeah. So what do you have to do? You have to get crazy with your camera. Shark didn't work. It's expensive to do. You have to get crazy with your camera. and create an iconic scene of the Sharks POV,

you have to answer the question with talent. In art, there is no question that cannot be answered with talent. The problem is that we're answering questions with money when we should be answering questions with talent. This guy had a beautiful family, didn't even want them. I'm like, what the fuck is this nigga on? Whoa, no, no, no, no. He did want them.

No, he didn't think he deserved them. He didn't think he deserved them. Let's be real. Yeah. I hated this dude, bro. This dude was a hole from the beginning of the movie. Why? Hold on.

No, I can't let you spot on that. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on, no, no. Hold on, no, no. Hold on, no. Hold on. Hold on, bro. Hold on.

Hold on. One of the big achievements of this movie is the journey of Arley, because he starts off as the biggest fucking hoe that's ever existed. Like he, okay, I'm not bothering I'm not mad because he didn't want to be a kamikaze pilot. I'm not going to lie.

I've thought a lot about the kamikaze pilots over the years. That's a fucked up job. Okay? I actually thought he was very smart. When I made him, I'm just like, he bailed out. I'm like, Dan, I know what you were about to say. Tachibana, I was pissed at that motherfucker because he's like,

hey, yo, go get in the plane and shoot. I got to, I'm like, that plane ain't doing nothing to go. Godzilla, bro. See, my thing is this. My black ass would be like, fuck off. Okay, so my thing is this. My thing is this.

You see, if I'm not going to shoot in the plane, I'm not going to be fucking tortured about that shit for the next six years. If I'm not, if, if I'm not going to shoot at the plane when I see him again, I would be like, fuck it, nigga. I'm fucking chilling.

Well, obviously we have a metaphor for survivors' guilt and all of this stuff from war. I got a, I got a, I got a job playing mind sweeper every day. I'm stacking up high scores. Nigin, you should have gotten a plane. And shot the motherfucker.

You know what I'm saying? Don't you tell me? Elizabeth was biggest shit. Fuck you. And then when I get back to the earth where I'm from, who's shorting popped up out of the blue? What's you talking about? It's like karate kid part two, my nigga.

Like I didn't, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, she had popped up out of the blue like right here. I didn't even have to go to the club. And boom, she had a kid, didn't even have to go through the whole, you know? It's like, boom. It's like, and he's blocking his blessings, looking to give horse. He has a lot of the SD, man. Here's the thing, man, because I felt the same way.

He didn't even fight in a fucking war. He, J-E. All of his family was destroyed and his neighbor, the first time he goes back to his neighborhood, yo, that neighbor was so funny. She's just like, hey, you a ho. You know what I would have told her? I had told her, look. No, I'm not going to curse her out.

But I said, look, you're off me. You weren't there. You wasn't outside. You wasn't outside. You don't talk to me. Like, by the way, what was my plane going to do? So my plane was going to change it? She was like, we wouldn't be here if you did your job.

It's like, I don't, no, no, no. Back to Odo Island, when Tashiband is like, oh, that shit was your fault. I'm like, yo motherfuckers were going to die whether he shot at Godzilla or not.

What are you talking about? But either you shoot, this is my problem with people. Either you shoot and you take what comes with shooting or you don't shoot and you like, yo, fuck you.

But I'm not the type of person that's going to not shoot and begin to your body. Like, Like, I'm not shooting. And then I'm going to have everybody over to my house and be showing pictures from the war. Yeah, this is when I was supposed to be a kamikaze pilot, but I said, fuck that shit. Wait, can I ask this question?

Can I ask this question? Does it make it worse that we know he's like a generational talent? Where it's like, he gets on the boat and he shows him up, he's like, yo, give me that gun. And he's like, blows up the mind. Is it like, is it like, yo, you pass the right? Like, you should take the shot. Like, you know how to do this. He's very, very talented.

Does that make it worse? That he's not tapped into how talented he is. I mean, maybe. Because they say in the beginning, they say at the beginning, he's a great pilot. He has not been to like, he hasn't tested that out in the field,

but when it comes to training, he's just like top, like Luke Skywalker in the fucking X-wing. So does that make it worse? Well, no, because he's not really flying the plane. He's just shooting the gun out of the plane. And he's really good with the gun. He's really good at aiming too.

And that fear stopped him from the plane. Yeah. And his fear, His fear stopped him from doing literally everything in that first act anyway. And then now his fear is the only thing that's driving him to do anything and keep away all the things that could be good in his life. Like that's easily the thing that he's overcoming. Well, here's the thing. And I'm, um, his op is Godzilla, guys.

Yeah. I think we have to remember when it, you know, because I was feeling the same way Van was feeling. And I'm like, bro, like, what's going on with him? Like, right? You're supposed to be locked into your family life. Like, forget all this stuff. And I understand the journey that he's going through. But at the end of the day, if every time you close your eyes, you got to see Godzilla.

And then you go out to the, like, you got a light's little job. I'm finally, you know, figuring stuff out. Nope. Godzilla come through to your crib and to your job. Then you're like, oh, my girl in town, get her life together. Nope. Godzilla there. Like, get her train.

I would be mad. Here's the thing, though, he's kind of like Tangin, though, because he's like he's not sleeping until he restores his honor by dying, killing Godzilla. I wait, but we also have to be fair to him. Like, in terms of my performance of my little Willie with like Noriko and shit, if I, if Godzilla sons me, I might be a little impotent to. But you know, I might not really feel myself as much. Godzilla comes to town, wrecks all that shit. I'm like, I'm not a man. Like, what am I going to do?

I'm not a man. To me. How are you supposed to run the ones with Godzilla, bro? I'm just saying. All right, whoa, whoa, whoa, let me ask you all this. Let me ask all this. If LeBron steals your girl tomorrow, you ain't feeling this type, like, what am I going to? It's LeBron.

Like, I got to go get the blicky. Like, it's just like, what else am I going to do? You want to kill LeBron James? What's happening? I'm just saying, I'm not going to beat up LeBron James. He's going to steal my girl, happy by ass. I kick LeBron in this goddamn knee. Hey,

that's gonna win this tournament. He needs this knee. That bitch gotta give out one. You know what I'm saying? Like, I kick out. No. There's so much fucking.

How are you gonna feel with the championship? Chill. Rich Paul and Adele just like, oh, by the way, bro, getting,

for me, getting packed out by the whole Spring Hill crew, shout out to my, my homies over at Spring Hill. But getting packed out by them would be like the best thing that could happen.

if I got packed out by Mav LeBron, Rich Paul like Adele, if I got packed out by them that'll be dope. I will run Spring Hill. You know what I'm saying? That's a pack out I would accept. Be like, you know I fought Godzilla, right? Yeah.

But here's the thing about the Godzilla, the real thing of the movie at the end, and I don't want to talk too much about a culture that I'm not a part of, but the question of the comic acid pilot, which is death and honor and glory by sacrificing your life

and what was expected of him. He was expected to die for Japan. And I guess the thinking of some of the people in his community was if enough people died for Japan, then Japan would live. By the end of the movie, what you see is people are realizing

that if enough people live for Japan, that Japan would live. live. Everyone was choosing life. The fishermen that were fighting Godzilla, they were choosing to put their lives on the line for life. He was choosing life by ejecting out of it. He was choosing life not just by not dying fighting Godzilla. He was choosing life by embracing the family that he had. Remember? For a lot of what he was going through, it was almost as if he had already died. He wasn't allowing himself to feel. He wasn't allowing himself to build a family,

to feel connection, all the things that we cherish about life. And his entire ordeal of being a purity whole, I don't even fuck what y'all say, of being one of the most irrelatable lead characters. And sometimes that's the story you got to tell. Sometimes your lead

has to be irrelatable. And he was at first, I was like, yo, this nigga gets on my nerves, man. Okay? You made mellow the house. Y'all eating. You got a whole family. Like, just like, just, bro, just get, like, give her a fucking hug, dog. What's wrong with you? My favorite thing in the world was when he sends, like, he blast emails out a hate mail to his war buddy.

To touchy Bono. Oh, my God. Just to be like, I knew that I would piss you off enough for you to come to me to beat my ass. That's a stroke of genius. That's real. That's real. Come meet me in Temecula. You don't want this smoke?

And he was getting paws put on him, too. I know. He's like, wait, I knew you'd. beat me up. That was my plan. But no, but for real, going back to what Van said, it's interesting. The director, he said this was influenced by the pandemic because he started writing it, and then the pandemic hit. And he was feeling like the rest of us were feeling like the government ain't prepared.

They ain't doing shit. They're leaving us out to dry. It's going to take us. And I think what the reason why this is so resonant. So your point, Van, Van, I'm not going to talk about a culture I don't fully understand. But I think a universal feeling is that it's not the military that saves Japan. It's not the government that saves Japan. This ain't like no like Top Gun Maverick type shit.

This is all of the citizens getting together after this war where a bunch of the veterans are like, we didn't even believe what we were fighting for. We like, fuck all this shit. Them having to be like, no, this is going to be us. I thought I was just like, no, this is why this works. because no matter if you live in America, UK, Africa, we've all felt that feeling of like, hey, if we don't do this as community,

shit ain't getting done. And that's what I think I've been missing from Godzilla films is like, oh no, these are people that I can like, when like I felt it gave me that top gun, that never feeling with a motherfucker's starting to walking out being like, hey, yo, yeah, miss me with this shit. I'm not going back to fight. And then that one motherfucker is just like,

fuck them, we're riding. I was just like, I was about to clap. I'm like, let's go. They got a heart, bro. And then when they left, I felt so bad for the kid, the homie. When he was just like, go let me come. I was just like, hey, bro, sit this one out, man. Just sit this one out, okay?

They're looking after you. There were so many moments that that's universal, no matter what. The scene where they're having, like, dinner, the four of them. And the, the, the, I think it was Noda. right was like got gall up into Shikishima's face he was like bro

why don't you marry that girl bro like where was you where was you at you know at the bar he was about to fight him he was about to fight him he was like oh now you want to go now you want to be hard

bro where was that for what was that for Noriko I was like dang yeah because that dude probably had some feelings man the rest of them are sitting around going yo man

what's up with your boy bro it was this guy's problem he mad about everything last thing I'll say before we get to Midnight meter. This is a fucking great movie. But the plan of using free-arm bubbles to sink Godzilla... Give him the bends?

To the bottom of the ocean and then bring them back up. Come on, my G. I knew that she wasn't working. I knew that she was... It worked kind of well. Nah. Nah. Not really.

No, Colichi knew he's just like, come on. I'm trying. We got something. God. No, it's, is gravy, that's not going to

fuck with God's sylilments. But then when you put like a whole set of bombs in a plane and then just shoot it into his mouth, that's the only thing that can prove

to hurt him. We got to go inside. Giving Godzilla a healing factor, that shit was so dope. I'm like, oh. And that effect was so great. So,

that's what I'm saying. When he healed out the, I was like, when he was healing, I'm just like, oh, this is a different motherfucker. It's a different motherfucker.

What? I mean, we talked a lot about the humans. Godzilla in this movie? Putting it work. Terrifying. Putting in work. When the atomic breath, when he like, when it shoots and then it's like a mushroom cloud, I'm like, oh, man.

Oh, man. I will say this. Y'all, y'all not going to remember this. But every time Godzilla's steam played, I kept waiting for that feral box. Me too. Yes. Yes. I remember for Simon Sest to start playing.

Bro, I can't, bro. I can't wait for that for him. Do, do, do, do. Don't do, don't, don't. Get the fuck out. I can't wait for that fair old monster drop, bro. No, that score is incredible. That music is so good.

We're going to get to the midnight meter. My last thing, if I had to have a nitpick, this was a near perfect film. I really wasn't. Like, I clapped. When Noriko comes back, Koichi finally hugs her. I was like, this is perfect. I was like, out of my seat being like, let's fucking go. The little black thing on her neck.

I was like, all right, man. That's whatever. You know, I didn't know what it was. It kind of, a little intrigue, I had to ask Steve what it was. I didn't know what it was. I still don't really know what it is. I think it's the radiation. I'm with Steve because they, they keep saying after the explosion of Inza, they were like,

yo, this is a bunch, there's a bunch of radiation. We need to get people out of there. I think there's probably going to be a sequel to this and that Nariko was going to be somehow affected by the blast and all that. Yeah. All right. Midnight meter, Godzilla left down there, he's throbbing in the ocean. Like all the contestants of Bachelor in Paradise.

What do we give it on the midnight meter? I'll go first, solid nine for me. So my issue is that this is technically a game changer. This is the highest grossing Japanese live action film ever. You know what I mean? Like that is, because if we think about really like how America, feel about action blockbusters that come from a foreign place, we don't give a fuck. If it's not from Hollywood, we don't care.

Unless it's some Oscars shit, like Roma, we're like, get out of here. And this is a film that is subtitled. It is gripping people. It's pure word of mouth. It is just like, I told my friends, friends have told my friends when I'm going out told Bobby, you're like, yo, have you seen minus one? So it is a game changer, but is it at 11? Hmm.

Only time will tell. I'm going to give this a very, very strong 10. I'm going to give this a very strong 10. Steve, this is an 11 for me. I think the only thing that I don't, the thing that stops it from being a 12 is that I actually don't know if this is going to move the needle in making some sort of like

cultural endeavor or making movies cost less money or making things actually better. Like, it's probably cynical of me. but like I time will tell but like this this to me was sensational jumps i gotta give it a 10 i'm with charles the highest highest possible 10 you can give a film loved it from beginning to end i can't wait to see more just a fantastic film that i'm gonna i can't wait to see again honestly because it was that great there you go hi marks this is the most positive midnight boys episode properties that you'll ever see.

High marks from us. High marks from Charles. Oh, we had a... Don't talk about like, and or was like... We're talking about... Charles has already gone soft because he's in L.A. Oh, never. L.A. Chuck.

Everything's getting a 10. And Arjuna, Arjuna was texting me. He was like, yo, you want to do... He was like, you want to do Aquaman 2? I'm like, fuck Aquaman 2. Aquaman 2. When Aquaman 2 comes out and Charles hits Aquaman 2 with that 11-11, dog.

Just wait to what I've said, 11-11. Okay, just wait to Aquaman too, get that 11-11 from Charles. Guys, that is a wrap. Follows on socials, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, save, Jomi's job. House of R, deep dive on the boy and the heron. And the boy and the heron. The boy and the heron over on the House of Our feet. But match returns, Avatar, Frontiers of Pandora.

On Monday, House of R gives you another Doctor Who deep dive on the third holiday special. Our producer is Steve, the architect, Alman. Jomi, a dinner on social. Hashtag Jome Zilla. An additional production from our Juno Ramgapal. Charles, take us out. Godzilla and blue-eyed samurai were sublime. Shit will never be the same.

And there's nothing wrong by getting stomped out by LeBron James. The Pelicans would disagree. The only thing I could think of like the whole time was, man, this gets a live action adaptation. She's going to get played by Scarlett Johansson. I was mad. One more thing before. Before we get to the midnight meter, just real quick, on the Scarjo thing, Joe, I could think of reasons why I would be down for Scarjo taking the roll.

If it's shot for shot. Fuck out of here, bro. All right. Fuck out of you. I just want you guys to think. If they do it, you guys, if it's shot for shot, if it's shot for shot, if they do it exactly the same, scene for scene, I'm down with it.