The Weekly Planet - 91 Terminator: Genisys (with Nicholas J Johnson)

Episode Date: July 5, 2015

This week, James is dead or something, so Maso enlists the help of author, comedian, magician, con artist and old mate Nicholas J Johnson! We talk all kinds of news, and discuss why Terminator: Genisys is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Terminator movie at this point. Also, Johnson explains the easiest way to steal a car. Don't do it though! *wink* nah but seriously don't You can read the first chapter of Nicholas J Johnson's new novel "Fast And Loose" at http://www.conman.com.au Send your e-mails to [e-mail] ! Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Oh folks, welcome once again to another episode of The Weekly Planet, the official podcast of ComicBookMovie.com. This week I am your host, Nick Mason. James missed a Sunday movie. He's off on a somewhat deserved break. Look, I'll be honest with you, I don't actually know

where he went. He did mention it. He's gone somewhere, but the destination had more than two syllables, so I sort of tuned out. But he's definitely, he's fine. Everything's fine. He'll be back next week, but never fear. I have roped in a very capable co-host this week in the form of a comedian, published author, magician,

general shady character, Nicholas J. Johnson. Welcome to the show. Thank you. And thank you for not putting magician first. Because people always put magician first and then you don't get to comedian, published author, shady character. And I feel like... People just tune out. Yeah, because they go wait magician oh yeah okay and then they

have opinions and that that sort of hijacks the conversation well first off show us a trick then all right hang on oh my god how did your thumbs are incredible yeah my thumbs are incredible so okay here's a here's a hypothetical question let's say i end up at a party filled with magicians yeah like it's not the plan but i've just i fall unconscious and i wake up and i'm in a party full of magicians sure how many of those men and women have a trick ready to go look i i reckon all of them could do something uh-huh and i reckon maybe 75 would be super keen to oh yes but and here's the thing you you don't want to ask them to do something. And I reckon maybe 75% would be super keen to. Oh, yes. And here's the thing.

You don't want to ask them to do a trick. Why is that? Well, because they will. And then they'll do like four more. And then they won't. Yeah. It's a little bit like going to a party full of magicians. It's a bit like ironic hell.

Oh, yes. I'd love to see a magic trick. Oh, you'd like to see a magic trick? Well, the magic trick is in the world. Okay, but what if they're incredible though? What if it's like fireballs out of the sleeve? But you know what? There's only so much,

like amazement is also novelty. So you see like a million miracles. Like Jesus, he would have gotten bored with the water into wine trick very, very quickly. So then it would become

fireballs out of the sleeve. Exactly. Yeah, fireballs out of the sleeve. There's a, this is way off topic and this is a podcast where we talk about comic books and movies and TV shows

and all sorts of stuff like that. But I was reading a passage from the Bible recently. I don't know how that came up. But anyway, Jesus is, it's in the New Testament. Jesus is having a little bit of trouble with some people. You know, they're having a go at him or whatever. And one of the disciples is like, hey, Jesus, should we call down fire from the sky and smite these people? And Jesus is like, no, no, I got this.

It's fine. Don't worry about it. And then it's never brought up again. So these disciples, they can shoot fire out of the sky and it's never, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, exactly. But do you know what it is? It's bad plot contrivance is what it is.

It definitely is. But you see, that's the difference between a professional magician and an amateur magician. So Jesus is the amateur magician, always pulling out tricks left right and center boring his friends and family single because he's a magician yep gotcha disciples right they're the ones who just occasionally just perform a little miracle over the dinner table sure but then back into the witty conversation and then betraying jesus for the pieces of silver and you know they've got other things going on in their lives whereas j, it was just about the tricks.

That's very true. This got very blasphemous very quickly. Very quickly. Well, that's the plan, really. So, you are billed as Australia's honest con man. Yes. So, you go to... Some parts of your job, you might go to, like, a conference

or a corporate event or a school, and you might show people how they're fooled by scams you might show them you know some common cons that people are involved in yeah so my question is so so popular media would tell me that anyone who has a job like that like using their powers for good has also in the past used them for evil so my question is specifically what crimes have you done um a little murder. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. I should tell you that all crimes are absolved if you mention them on a podcast. I've heard that.

This is like a confessional. Yeah, do anything you want. Yeah, sure. Most of the stuff I've pulled myself has always been pretty small scale. I've done a lot for TV shows, sort of candid camera hidden, you know, sort of behind the scenes. This is how Connors work. And so I've stolen people's cars and, you know, done a lot of fraud that way. But it was always with the expectation.

How do you steal a car? What I did was I dressed up. Is hot wiring harder than you'd think? No, it was much easier. What I did was I dressed up as a security guard. And I stood down at the Channel 7 boom gate. And then as people came up and asked, you know, like, could they get in? I'd sort of stand in front of the thing where they're supposed to swipe their RDO card.

And just went, oh, no, no, boom gate's broken, mate. But tell you what, just park your car over there, give me the keys and I'll run it up to you in 20. That was my character's voice. Oh, yes. Run it up to you in 20. Excellent. And then just drove off with their car.

But that was, you know, with the expectation I'm going to give the car back. So I don't know if that counts. But most of the stuff I've done where I've kept the money has all been small scale. Right. Just to clarify you are not in fact

an actual con man we had this conversation prior to the podcast yeah people like to paint you in the media as like you're a you've had a life of crime

and then it's yeah they want to paint me as Frank Abagnale Jr you know Leonardo DiCaprio from Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can

exactly that's what people want but really I'm just I always say like if you've ever seen the movie Catch Me If You Can we're Leonardo DiCaprio from Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can exactly that's what people want but really I'm just I always say like if you've ever seen the movie Catch Me If You Can where Leonardo DiCaprio

plays the suave good looking con man who beds beautiful women and makes millions of dollars I'm the nerd from Preston who saw that movie four times so that's the little that I'm at

great but it's true you know technically I have committed fraud minor fraud on several occasions but I think calling me a former con man would probably be more of a fraud

than any fraud I've committed. Right, but you are a current magician. I am a magician, which in many ways is much, much worse. So much worse. Side note, if you had to guess, how many children do you think you've turned to a life of crime by showing them cons and scams? I don't know. I genuinely don't know. do you look into the crowd and see like a kids they've got a

little twinkle in their eye and they're like oh this is good this is what i was born for yeah it is yeah and i think because i mean while i do these shows where it's meant to be educational i'm going to be explaining how they work so people can protect themselves the real reason i get hired and the real reason people pay attention is because the stuff's cool yeah yeah because it's like you want to know how it's done like smoking exactly like smoking

people don't do smoking do smoking because it's gosh you are a magician I am a magician people don't smoke yeah because it's good for them they do it because it's cool

yes now so we're going to get into the news just as a side note you have a book out I do we're going to plug that at the end Just as a side note, you have a book out. I do. We're going to plug that at the end of the show,

but we'll plug it now as well because it's a book. It's called Fast and Loose. The book is called Fast and Loose. Tell me about it. The book is a 300-page romp through the world of the professional con artist and also the sleazy world of tabloid current affairs. Ooh, which you have a lot of actual real-world experience with. Yeah, so I've been the sort of expert on scams on, on any, any sort of dodgy news television show you care to name. And so it's

a combination of my experiences meeting con artists and also meeting TV journalists and producers and, and which is worst. Uh, listeners will know that I love a romp. So that's going to be very exciting. Uh, is it on Kindle? It is. Yeah. It's Excellent. It's on Kindle. It's on every possible format. Are you going to do the audio book yourself? I would love to do the audio book. I think that'd be great. But what I'd like to do is to do racist accents. Oh, you sure?

Like a sort of racist Chinaman accent. Did you write in some Chinaman into the story? No, that's what makes it racist. Oh, fantastic. Sure. Yeah, and a few sort of, I don't know if you'd even call them racist, but just sort of stereo, like an Italian chef. Oh, sure.

Yeah. It wouldn't be an Italian chef character, but there'd just be lots of vowels. Oh, sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. He swings his hands wildly. You could narrate.

Exactly. That would be an option. Yeah. Also, you are doing a promotional tour, but we are mates in real life. That's why I have you on the show. Just in the interest of full disclosure. Yeah. It's a bit of both. Yeah. Anyway, we're going to get into the news. We're going to do some nerd news. And I why I have you on the show. Just in the interest of full disclosure. Yeah, it's a bit of both.

Anyway, we're going to get into the news. We're going to do some nerd news and I thought I'd ease you into it with something that's in your wheelhouse. So, there was an interview with Channing Tatum this week. He isn't sure he's going to go full Gambit. He's got a Gambit solo movie, the card-throwing

mutant. He's doing the promo tour for magic mike double xl which is not another magic reference yes there we go yeah not the purview of this podcast though so ladies find your enjoyment somewhere else uh but uh he's not going to go full gamut he's not going to wear the the costume the 90s costume which was all trench coats and abs and and like unnecessary gauntlets and etc but that's what the 90s were all about in comics yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah

what about the headgear because he had those weird he had the weird mask half mask thing that just went around his forehead mask yeah um and I so apparently he's uh he's doing a lot of like even when his trainer isn't around he's doing a lot of card tricks he's working on that his magic consultant is David Kwong.

I know David. Personally, you know him personally? I do, yeah. You got any fun stories? I Twitter know him. No, David Kwong is legitimately a fantastic magician. He's done a couple of TED Talks. And he also writes...

He didn't already have his nerd credentials by being a magician who's working on a comic book movie. He also writes the New York Times crossword on occasion. That's one of the TED Talks is about. Yeah, exactly. He's a really great magician. Magicians, 99% of them are the same. And it's really difficult for magicians to kind of find their niche.

Whereas he's got this fantastic niche of being the puzzle guy. So he does stuff with Scrabble and crosswords and chess. Normally I roll my eyes when people tell me the magician who's managed to get themselves on a movie. For example, the movie Now You See Me, for which he was head magic consultant. Was he really? Yes.

I won't hold that against him. Okay, right. You're not a fan of that movie. I am not a fan of that movie. I am not a fan of that movie as a magician, as a filmgoer, as a writer, as a person who understands the laws of logic. Oh, sure, yeah. On every possible level, that is a terrible film for terrible people.

What about the scene where they all escape in giant bubbles? I've turned you around. I've turned you around. I've turned you around. Oh my God. That was just rage strike. Couldn't handle it. I understand. It was the bit where they leapt off the building

and turned into a pile of money. They did that as well. Yeah. How do you think they could have done that? I don't know. I don't know because well, that's why you got David Kwong working on the show. Oh, sure.

He knows how to leap off a building and turn into a pile of money without using CGI. Do you think he's just really good at convincingly saying, magic did it? And then all the producers are like, oh yeah, people will believe that. It's pretty good.

Yeah, magic done it. Magic definitely did that. So, yeah. Channing Tatum, Gambit. It's going to be the best. And I think he's going to be great. Is he going to do the accent? That's what I want to know.

He's working on it, but we don't know. I don't think he knows which. I think there's a lot of dialects and I think there's a lot of different... Does Gambit have a specific... I mean, is this going to be a little bit like having a black Peter Parker?

I'm sorry, but Spider-Man. It's going to be a tiny little bit of racism involved. I'm going to say, if he comes and his Cajun accent isn't perfect, like he's from the wrong area. Maybe, yeah. I'm sorry, that's a Savannah accent. We wanted Louisiana that people will be up in arms on the internet.

Yeah, I think so. But there's bigger stuff to worry about. For example, the next news. So we have a rule on the podcast. We're not allowed to do Batman v Superman news and Shia LaBeouf news in the same episode because it's so prevalent. But James isn't here, so we're going to break all the rules.

Batman v Superman news. Batman is calling... Ben Affleck is calling Batman... He's the American Hamlet. What do you think about that? Love it. Yeah, good, right? Totally on board.

But he's Hamlet as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Last Action Hero. Oh, sure, yeah. Because actual Hamlet just sits there and goes, oh, my parents are dead, oh, life is miserable. In Arnold Schwarzenegger version, he just starts killing people. He's crushing skulls. He's crushing skulls.

Yeah. So that's Batman is absolutely, yeah. So Ben Affleck is talking about the characterization of Batman in Batman v Superman. And he said he's at the end of his run and maybe the end of his life. There's this sort of world weariness to it. You see, that would be, I would buy that, except for the fact that we know that it's not the end of his life. There's this sort of world weariness to it. You see, I would buy that, except for the fact that we know that it's not the end of his life.

Yeah, exactly. Because he's signed on to direct and star in The Batman. Yeah, exactly. And also, I don't want to see... Like, we've seen that already. We saw that in Dark Knight Rises. He's sort of the man at the end of his rope, and that was not good or interesting.

No. But I do want to see a grizzled battle scar a barrel chested you know not sure what scar tissue we're definitely getting that i think yeah that's what i want yeah not the lanky sort of machinist christian bale yeah but at the same time like if you're building this movie franchise and you want to get all these characters together you don't want a character who's at the end of his rope and the end of his life you're like you're a guy who's got a few good years left in him, right? Unless Batman Beyond.

Maybe that's what they're getting ready for. They want to bring in the whole... Terry McGinnis, the future Batman. Yeah, future Batman, time travel. Well, yeah. Other news only tangentially related. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have separated. That's not really comic book related news.

I only bring it up because someone on Twitter tweeted at me, Mr. Mix's Piddalick, Affleck and Garner should playground fight for custody of their kids. Daredevil style. Affleck blindfolded to make it fair. I think that's some excellent work. Yes. That's really, yeah, no, that's totally comic book news.

I mean, they met on the set of a comic book movie. Yeah. And now they've divorced on the set of another one. And I think... I've said this on the podcast. I maintain that scene where they play fight on a playground is pretty good. It is, yeah. I might be the only person in the world who thinks that.

I think that movie holds up. It's just uneven. Right, yeah. It goes from kind of gritty street crime, Bronx tale kind of feel to suddenly being playground fighting to special effects, sonar stuff. To Evanescence in the soundtrack.

Yes, exactly. So all those individual parts are okay, except maybe the soundtrack. Yeah. But just some of its parts don't really hold up. Okay, Shia LaBeouf news. We'll get this out of the way really quickly so James doesn't notice when he listens to this episode inevitably.

Shia LaBeouf has suffered a head injury on the set of his movie American Honey, which I'd never heard of up until this point. It required 20 stitches and 13 staples. And okay, if you want to learn about the movie, it's a teenage girl who joins a travelling magazine sales crew finding herself caught up in a world of law-bending and partying. What do you think of that?

You don't have to have an opinion. You don't have to have an opinion. I'm going to give you a pass on this one because I'm not interested either. Honestly, you said the S word and I just... That's fair. He's got to be good at something, right? Does he? No. There's a fairly solid... This also came out this week. the S word and I just that's fair disappeared he's gotta be good in something right does he no

there's a fairly solid this also came out this week there's a fairly solid on the set of this movie he's doing a freestyle rap to impress I guess cast and crew

and bystanders and it's not bad except it's turned out that not all of his rhymes are original he's stolen them from

a rap group called the Anomalies from the 90s uh an all-girl group uh and that's not surprising at all really because that's his that's what he does that's what he does he he made a short film that was a ripoff of like a dan clowes comic book and then he apologized for that yeah and then it turned out his apology was stolen from somebody else like it's a it's an unending like if i don know. Do you think he's trying to pass it off as some sort of art installation or something?

No, I don't. I think he would say that. But I think he's the Buzzfeed of human beings. Like, he just wants to regurgitate stuff that other people said that he thought was kind of cool. Right, exactly. In a vain and sort of pointless attempt to get relevance. But, no, he's a good guy.

Yeah, he's great, isn't he? We love him. Yeah, no, he's great in the Charlie's Angels sequel. Is he in that But no, he's a good guy. Yeah, he's great, isn't he? We love him. Yeah, no, he's great in the Charlie's Angels sequel. Is he that? Yeah, he's a little kid. A little motorbike cross. Wow. You know, dirt bike guy.

Uh-huh. Good on him. Good on him. Yeah. He provides content for the show, and that's, we appreciate for... Okay, so you may not be aware of this. Do you know the Suicide Squad movies?

I am familiar with the Suicide Squad movie. So last week, Jared Leto, in character as the Joker, sent Margot Robbie, who's playing Harley Quinn, a rat in the mail. Wait, he sent it in character? Yeah, he sent it. How do you know he was in character? Like, he went down to the post office in character?

Well, we don't know. I assume he got his assistant to send the rat. But he's not breaking character on set and stuff like that so wait no sorry are you saying that the joker sent her the rat oh yes assistant oh did was was the assistant dressed up as like one of batman's henchmen from the oh my goodness that's a good point like the stripey the stripey jumpers and the yeah okay gosh i don't know i don't have all the information here. I'm so sorry. No, it's okay.

Look, but anyway, that happened last week. I assume assistants sent it to assistants. Or maybe it didn't even happen. Maybe it was just a case of like, let's just email. But apparently, so Jai Courtney, who's also in Suicide Squad as Captain Boomerang, he was asked during the Terminator Genisys publicity situation what happened to the rat. And it went around the whole cast, apparently.

Like, everybody took turns rat-sitting the rat. Wait, is this a live rat or a dead rat? It's a live rat. Oh, okay. A live rat was sent in the mail. Okay, sorry, I thought it was like a dead rat. Oh, no, no, no. Wrapped up in newspaper.

Oh, sure, yeah. as some sort of weird well you have to well you have to wonder how it got through the mail i'm thinking assistant centered yeah like on one of those little scooters that one of those little segue yeah one of the segue or one of those little golf carts that you drive around movie studios with uh but anyway um this was more like a daniel day lewis thing this is this is more of just a sort of japes and pranks. It's japes and pranks, yeah. Okay, I'm sorry. Go on. So, but okay.

So, Jai Courtney says, the owner of the rat, the Joker gave to her. He's saying in character, the Joker gave it to Harley Quinn. It went around the rest of the cast. It's now living with Guillermo del Toro. Oh, nice. Director Guillermo del Toro. I'll start that whole sentence again. Guillermo del Toro.

I've done it. I'm a success. Okay, here's a little bit more news. Guillermo del Toro, if we're going to segue over. Speaking of segues. Does this end with the words Hellboy 3? No, it doesn't.

It ends with, we'll no longer direct Justice League Dark, which is the magic-based Justice League movie. I didn't know there was a magic-based Justice League movie. Wow, okay. Your hopes have been raised a magic-based Justice League movie. Yeah. Okay. Your hopes have been raised and dashed in the one sentence. Yeah.

Luckily, you raised them after you dashed them, so it's okay. Exactly. Thoughts? Do you want to say? What do you think about magic in the movies? I know the magic you do is real. Yeah, sure. I don't like it.

I like what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done with magic so far. Still waiting to see what the Doctor Strange situation is. But Thor is not a god. He is an alien. He's an alien, right. Who has inspired our religion. Everything has a science or pseudoscience background. Right, right.

I like that. Because then you can just go, ah, magic did it. Right, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that, to me, that makes it so much stronger. like that i think because then you can just go magic did it right exactly yeah yeah um you know and that's that to me that makes it so much stronger because you you as soon as you say it's science uh or science fiction you see sort of limits but as soon as you say magic you can just you can solve any problem instantly snapping your fingers snapping your fingers or fairy dust or

whatever it is i i'm not a fan of the magic um Yeah, of the magic. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the Nicolas Cage film. Yes, I'm not a fan of that. Purely because I found that it's because of its desire to be more magical than science fiction. Yeah, exactly. So, but what if they... See, but that's the thing. Magic is going to be part of these movies at some point. There's a Doctor Strange movie coming out.

But what if they make it the magic, in inverted commas, is a type of science? See, there we go. That works. Okay. I don't know, nanobots or something. I don't know. I don't want it to be nanobots. No, it's not going to be nanobots.

Midichlorians. It could be midichlorians. It could be. Yeah. I mean, okay. The thing about... Okay. The force, though, I don't think is magic.

The force is just mysterious. And midichlorians ruin the mystery. Yep. And that's my issue with that. But I just... Yeah. Just calling magic as a as a sort of blanket term is frustrating so but we're gonna need and i i agree with you i think i i'm on

board with magic as long as you go well it's a it's some sort of rules that have been built into the universe and once you know what they are you can you can mess with that sort of thing so we're gonna need a really long expositional scene in doctor strange where they go, okay, here's how magic works and you can do this, but you need this and it's going to cost this kind of thing. Yeah. Although, I mean, the Marvel Cinematic Universe already know that Doctor Strange exists. That's true, yeah.

He was name-checked in... Captain America 2. Yeah, Captain America 2. So not only does he exist, he is known by the authorities to exist. And you would imagine that S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra, who both know about the existence of this guy, would have tried to weaponize him.

Yes, that's true. If it was real magic. So we've got to hope that it's science magic. Alright, well Guillermo's out. It's probably because he's working on the Pacific Rim sequel. What do you think of Pacific Rim? Well, it's no Hellboy 3. No, I did like it. I liked the fact that it delivered completely on its promise,

which was giant robots fighting giant sea creatures from another dimension. Lots of things, yeah. Exactly, yeah. And that's what we were promised. That's what they delivered. Oh, they delivered. And, yeah, here's the packet. What it says on the packet, open up, bang, deliver, done. And original.

Yeah. It's not a reboot. It's not based on a comic book or a video game or anything like that i didn't think i'd bother so i didn't realize how much i enjoyed it until people started talking about how it was a box office failure and how you know no one liked it no one saw it so now you like it because it's the underdog no i just suddenly felt the need to defend it uh-huh and look up statistics and check that it was actually a success which it was internationally yeah huge money just not america and I suddenly thought, well, maybe I did like it after all. You know, a bit like the girl, you know,

that you never knew you liked in primary school. And then you see her get pushed in a mud puddle by a bully and, you know, you suddenly sit in there and realise, you know, you cared for her all along. Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you. Anyway, Del Toro's out. Pacific Room's in.

Bron Perlman, I think, put up a Twitter. Yeah, he did. He's done a hashtag for Hellboy 3, which is all you need these days. Yeah. You just hashtag. Someone else go and sort that. Yeah. There was a sort of quiet desperation to the tweet, I felt.

Right, okay. Guys, wouldn't it be fun if we made Hellboy 3? Wouldn't it be... We could do that. No? Okay. But he's fine, right? Yeah.

He's not... Oh, he's got skills. Oh, he's got skills. Yeah, he's got skills. And he's not like, he doesn't have like a massive drug habit or seven ex-wives or anything like that. No, I don't think so. Just greedy, Ron Perlman.

Yeah. No, you're right. Robert Zemeckis says, a Back to the Future reboot won't happen while he's alive. So talking time travel, talking reboots. You see, there is just a studio executive up in a clock tower right now just taking Robert Zemeckis out.

And you know what's going to happen? Someone's going to come along and say, this isn't actually technically a remake or a reboot. We're going to call it a re-sideways in, which is actually the same timeline but from an alternate angle, which is something I'm not a fan of, for reasons we will probably discuss later. Oh my goodness, okay.

Do you have opinions on Terminator Genisys? I've got strong opinions on Terminator Genisys. I'm not a fan of. The reasons we will probably discuss later. Oh my goodness. Okay. Do you have opinions on Terminator Genisys? I've got a strong opinion on Terminator Genisys. I'm ready. I'm ready for it. Okay. So he said, because he's one of the two rights holders for the film. So he's not like,

he didn't direct, he wasn't like a gun for hire director. Oh, right. He's got the keys to this franchise. And so him and his other writer. Bob Gale, exactly. The co-writer. And basically he's never going to give it away.

And he said, look, this can't happen until Bob and I are dead. And then I'm sure they'll do it unless there's a way our estates can stop it. Because this is kind of the last big 80s franchise that hasn't been. Like all your Teen Wolves and all that sort of stuff. Chud's? Oh, Chud. Okay, right. Okay, let's distract them with Chud so they can't reboot.

Fantastic. Okay. Good call. Oh, Chud. Okay, right. Okay, let's distract them with Chud so they can't reboot. Fantastic. Okay, good call. Oh, okay, here's the last bit of news and then we'll get into Terminator Genisys of which apparently you have many opinions. Many. James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, says Ant-Man may be his favourite Marvel movie

since Iron Man. He's seen it and he's given it the James Gunn seal of approval. What do you think? They've released so many trailers and so many little spots. I just watched the final trailer, and I'm totally on board.

I mean, I love everyone involved. I just have a bad taste in my mouth after the firing of Edgar Wright. Oh, yeah. It still sticks with me, and even if it's fantastic, it's like 10 out of 10. Like, oh, but it would have been 11 out of 10 if Edgar Wright. Oh, yeah. It still sticks with me. And even if it's fantastic, it's like, you know, 10 out of 10. Like, oh, but it would have been 11 out of 10. Right, exactly.

Edgar Wright had been there. I feel so far it looks a little generic to me. Yeah. I don't know why. No, you're right. I don't know because the Marvel movies are quite funny, generally speaking, and Paul Rudd's a very funny guy. And I don't know, I expected more jokes.

I don't know what I'm expecting. I expected more jokes in the trailer or them to be pulled off better or to be more funnier generally. I don't know. Yeah, you're right. The action looks great and it's a different world because they have literally shrunk it down. And so they can occupy a very, very small corner

of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it feels like it should be funny. I'm glad that he's not going to be a, you know, it seems like he's not going to be as a terrible person as he is in some of the comics. Right, yeah. There's not going to be the sexual assault. There's a bit of that Ant-Man sexual assault going on.

Well, yeah, and Hank Pym beat his wife. It's kind of a shady, and well, that's the thing, because there's Hank Pym played by Michael Douglas hank pimp played by michael douglas and then paul rudd is playing scott lang and there's a third ant man in the comic books eric o'grady who stole an ant man suit and became the irredeemable ant man briefly um and i thought initially they were going to go with that guy and he's like he's he's a former criminal but he didn't beat his wife for any of these other things so I don't know but anyway James Gunn called it

deft and nimble and a joyous and he said it's up there with Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy which is his but yeah I don't know um

Guardians of the Galaxy has a title now apparently the new one it's Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 yeah which that's fun

it's nice yeah it's nice because it's the awesome mix Volume 1 Volume 2 I think it's fun yeah but yeah so he thinks it's great um and but i don't know james cameron has given his blessing to terminated genesis let's talk about terminated genesis so do you think that uh james james cameron's given his blessing he's like it's

right up there with the first two do you think j James Cameron has lost his mind? I don't think he's lost his mind, but I think he is allowed to be wrong about movies that he created the franchise for. Sure. Because it's not. It's just not. It's not up there. To me, it felt like a fan film.

It felt like cosplay. Oh, interesting. It sounded as if they got a big, fat, sweaty nerd in a room and said, okay, give me all of your... One of us. One, interesting. It was, it sounded as if they got like, like a big fat sweaty nerd in a room. Okay. Give me all of you. One of us. One of us. Um,

yeah, I'm big and fat. You're sweaty. Um, and, and just give us all of your ideas and it's just all of the sort of drunken middle of the night ideas. Oh my God.

Okay. What if it's like, okay, no, no. Like what if it's like a Terminator, but Sarah Connor's like Khaleesi. Oh my God.

No, what if, I have, I have that same thought about the Matrix sequels. Yes. Because I really enjoyed the first one. And I may have said this in the podcast before, but I have this theory that when the Wachowski siblings were in high school,

they had a scrapbook and they wrote down all the cool things that people in movies would say and all the cool kung fu things they would do in an action movie. And then they put that away and then they got a chance to make The Matrix. And then as soon as they were the it people in movies would say and like all the cool kung fu things they would do in a like an action movie and then they put that away and then they got a chance to make the matrix and then as soon as they were the people in hollywood they were like get the scrapbook out let's let's do this let's make these sequels the way we've always wanted them to be and then they were just atrocious yeah and that's that's how the movie felt it felt as if they were basically worried about what the fans would think we've got to we've got to get some little nods to the previous right okay so it's just an entire film of nods to previous movies to the extent of like yeah i don't really i mean i like those movies but if i wanted

to see those movies i would just see them right okay you haven't made a remake you've just you've just picked out various bits and drop it's basically it's just a basket of easter eggs it's for the fair so uh we have a theory on this podcast which hasn't it hasn't borne out yet but we're we're building the theories the fast and the furious theory so the first two movies are good they're the best two the third one's quite bad okay the fourth one it's a soft reboot they don't put the number in the title yeah because they're like okay let's let's trick people into thinking this isn't a third sequel and then five it gets good again like five that five well five it's not that it gets good again but five they're like all right let's just let's just do this for the fans let's just let's just put everything in the one basket and and give it a bash and for the fans Fast and the Furious movies, it worked. 5, 6, and 7 are very good.

They're ridiculous. This is not ridiculous enough, is what you say. Or it's too ridiculous. I think it's too ridiculous. But with the Fast and Furious, the original films were vaguely serious. But they're not beloved. They're enjoyed.

And so to say, what's anything stupid we can do with fast cars and these cool characters? Whereas with Terminator, you have... I mean, those first two films, and even the third film when you get into the final act, they've got some balls to them. The third one, the parody of the first two. Yeah.

Yeah. They've got some balls to them. Yeah, okay. They're dark. I mean, the third film is, you know, for all its flaws, like, okay, yep, okay, great. Oh, you've got this cool new Terminator. It's a woman, and oh, the boobs got bigger.'s very funny that's very funny very Arnold Schwarzenegger if we've mentioned this before but if you listen to the the com the

dvd commentary Arnold Schwarzenegger has some great stuff to say about the the boob enlarging scene in that he loves it it's just he just loves it he just like he's just like on and women women see you see them seeing this in the cinema and they go oh oh, that would be great to be able to do that. It's pretty solid. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. So we'll talk about Terminator Genisys. We'll talk about it without spoiling it for a little bit. We'll give our ratings and then we'll get into spoilers, or I like to call it, hey, remember this bit.

That's our greatest segment. Okay, cool. Because I was about just to spoil everything. Okay, so plot. No idea. Couldn't tell you. Fantastic. Okay.

Because this one... Okay, so... Yeah. That awkward silence. I'm going to leave that awkward silence in. Yeah, look, it's essentially... I don't think this is spoiling it, but essentially it's inserting the characters from the future

in between the previous movies and it's building a new timeline, essentially. Yeah, so it starts as basically being the first film from Kyle Reese's point of view rather than Sarah Connor's point of view. And so you get to see him in the future you get to see him hanging out with john connor and then you see them defeat skynet and then you see them oh no we need to go back to the future we need to go back to the past and and defeat um the skynet yep skynet the whole thing and so we get to see all of that stuff that we already know yes know for the first half an hour of the film from his perspective.

And he comes back and instead of getting the weak, meek Sarah Connor. Sarah Connor from the first movie. Yeah, we get the ball-busting Sarah Connor from the second movie. Right. Although tiny. Wee and small. Yeah, she is tiny, isn't she? Because Linda Hamilton is not super tall, but she's reasonable.

She's a normal human height. Yes, Emilia Clarke is very petite. She's small. She's got the face down. She totally gets normal human height. Yes, Emilia Clarke is very petite. She's small. She's got the face down. She totally gets the face down. She really looks, particularly in that opening, Come With Me If You Want To Live. Yes.

That was brilliant. I hadn't seen it like 50 times when I'd watched the trailer. But it was amazing. But she was so small. And there were even jokes about it at various points about her being very tiny. And what I did was... I think maybe all the pull-ups in Terminator 2 lengthened her out.

Yeah. In the hospital. Yeah, I kept looking at her arms. I know, she needs more muscular arms. Right. The Terminator movies have a really bad habit of spoiling things that happen. Like, if you watch the trailer, it's ruined the movie for you. Terminator 2, famously,

like, it revealed the T-1000. And I guess that kind of makes sense because that's the new special effect and it's the most amazing special effect we've ever seen to that point. So you've got to put it in, I guess. But it also spoiled, like, who the... Who the bad guy was.

Who the good guy is. And so that famous scene where he has the gun in the roses and he pulls it out and you think he's going to shoot... John Connor, yeah. John Connor, and he doesn't. And it turns out he's going to protect him and then they're going to bond

and they're going to do the thumbs up and I'm going to cry. And all of that is sort of, yeah, it's going to be ruined. And three, you know, well, like the TX was the... We knew that was coming. Yeah. Salvation, we already know that Sam Wor the, we knew that was coming. Yeah. Salvation, we already know that Sam Worthington's character is

half robot. Yeah. And in this one, they spoiled look, we won't say what the spoiler is in the non-spoiler space. If somehow you've avoided all the previews and trailers from this point, it reveals the main twist and it reveals the main bad

guy. So if you, you know... And a lot of people say, oh no, there's more. There's more. I hope there was more, but there is no more. No, there is no more. I thought there'd be a further reveal

and you go, oh, of course. But it's exactly what you think. Yeah. Everything is as it seems. Yes. So basically we've built this new timeline. Now, Star Trek, the reboot, that built a new timeline

and I thought that worked very effectively because nerds couldn't get mad at it. We've built this new timeline. Now, Star Trek, the reboot, that built a new timeline. And I thought that worked very effectively because nerds couldn't get mad at it. Because if you reboot the series and you have new actors in the roles and they go on often different adventures, you know, you have nerds, myself included, who'd be like, well, you can't have that character doing that. That's out of character. Or you can't have him go there because in the history of the movies, he was in a different part of the soul you know the galaxy or whatever but with the reboot you go well we we rebooted the universe before all of that happened so now any changes are just the rebooted universe yeah and you can still have

your original cast yes yeah exactly you can have your spot showing up to offer time advice so what you're saying is this didn't work for you at all? It did not, no. That said, though, I think every Terminator film has done that. Yes. Every Terminator film is a reboot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Using the timeline reboot. Yeah. Star Trek has really sort of copied that from Terminator 2 and Terminator 3.

And we're not Terminator Salvation because there's no time travel. There's no time travel. Why is there no time travel? Because they were concentrating on it, the rest of it being really bad. Yeah, yeah. I didn't ask you before how many Terminator movies you'd seen before this. All of them.

And the Sarah Connor Chronicles. And the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I feel this podcast would only work if you've either seen all the Terminator movies or none of the Terminator movies. Because I would have liked to see the perspective of somebody incredibly bewildered going to this and being like,

what's the time? Why is there two Arnolds? What happened? Two Arnolds? There happened? Two Arnolds? There's like 50 Arnolds. This is like too many Arnolds. I lost count of them. So do you think the characters had any chemistry?

No. No? Okay. No chemistry at all. Like there was the whole thing about, because the whole premise of the first film is that, can we spoil the first film? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

We spoiled them last week. In the space of 48 hours, fall in love. We spoiled them last week. It's fine. It's in the space of 48 hours. Fall in love. Yep. She gets knocked up and he dies. And he dies. And so the idea, like in this film, they explore the idea of what if you know

that that's what you're going to do. Then will you do it anyway? Will you do it anyway? Will you won't? And they kept talking about them falling in love, but they were just bickering. The whole time, like children, yeah. Yeah.

And there's this weird, vaguely rapey bit where they travel in time together. They have to be naked to travel in time. Yeah, of course, yep. And I got distracted by that because I went, wait, I don't want to... No, I've seen her naked. It's okay. Yeah, absolutely. I wonder if she looks the same naked in this as she does in Game of Thrones.

And so, she gets naked and she steps into the time machine with her back to the camera. Oh, yes. And then he gets naked and he steps into the time machine with her back to the camera. Oh, yes. And then he gets naked and he steps up behind her. Yep. And then walks around her and stands a good sort of 10 centimetres away from her. Right up in her face. Yeah. But I feel like it's a little bit like sharing a bed.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe top and tail, maybe back to back. It's like walking past someone at the movies. What if he has a wartime boner, you know? Like a time travel boner, you know? That is a thing. And so they ended up sort of squished together in the timeline. And it made me feel, it felt a bit off.

It felt a bit gross. Yeah, okay. And then when they decided that they were in love, I went, oh, that happened. Okay, I missed it. You sure did. Yeah, we missed it. It was all behind the scenes. Yeah. yeah action sequences let's talk about them there there were some moments i guess but

i'm struggling to think of any the the one thing i loved was the tearing off of the arm fashioning it into a spear and throwing it that was solid yeah that was that was that was a moment that i there you go there's your little moment. We're talking about naked people. James, Mr. Sunday Movies, the other host, he wanted me to point out that there's no way that Jai Courtney could be as buff as he is, given that it's the future and he should be eating rats. But he was very...

That's true, because the original Kyle Reese, well, he was muscular, but he was lean. He was, yeah, he was wiry, yeah. Jai Courtney is disturbing. He's Hollywood super buff. He is. I'm not sure how he gets work. I don't understand what is he?

What is he for? He's the perfect Captain Boomerang. We've talked about this before. Right, okay. To me, he's the Sam Worthington of actors. Yeah. You know, like, why? Okay, like, sure, yeah, he gets some jobs. He should be henchman number two. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. To me, he's the Sam Worthington of actors. Yeah. You know, like, why? Okay, like, sure, yeah, he gets some jobs.

He should be henchman number two or something. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yep, he could be in something. I can see him, you know. Well, I feel Sam Worthington was the same thing where he's the new it guy and they're like, okay, well, this studio's got him for this movie.

We'd better get him so we don't miss out. And then everybody gets him and then after like okay well this studio's got him for this movie we'd better get him so we don't miss out and then everybody gets him and then after like eight movies they're like oh he's not very good is he yeah and they realized i didn't hate his performance but i i didn't understand why he was there and yeah and yeah what was the possible use and and john connor as well was also i felt he looked to be honest he looked like a robot that had human skin. Sure. Australia's own Jason. How dare you?

Australia's own Jason Clarke. Whatever else he's been in, I don't know. Neighbours? He's probably been in Neighbours. They've all been in Neighbours. I should crack open IMDB and pretend that I know. Yeah, so some of the action was all right it was but again it suffered from that the problem that we have now with cgi yes i've talked about this before yeah it went at cgi

oh cool yep the impossible is possible yeah we kind of discovered that yeah years ago you can do anything you can blow anything up and make anything look like anything. But we just don't, we don't care about the characters or the plot or the story. Then I just don't care. Fair enough. There is, there is that fairly dodgy scene where CGI, oh, we can't, that's in the trailer. CGI Arnold Schwarzenegger leaps out of a helicopter and crashes into a CGI helicopter and destroys it all. Yeah.

And it didn't look, that that that whole sequence is not not great yeah and there was even some bits that i didn't feel like needed to be cgi like he he smashes his face into a cop car and i think he says get out oh yep um and but it looked odd it looked odd in cgi and is that just because arnold's very old now it is yeah can we count the the uh the swartz niggers that we managed to see in the movie? Because I feel like there was a lot of different variations of him. We'll get to it in spoilers, I think. Okay.

We're nearly done here, I think. But this movie, yeah, again, it assumes a massive amount of prior knowledge of all the previous movies. It does, yeah. If you don't, you have no idea what's happening. If you've not seen at least one and two, but then again, I don't know. Okay, so our rating system, we can either give it a best movie ever or a worst movie ever, because there's no nuance on the internet. So, just, you've got to pick one.

Worst movie ever. There you go. I'm just going to be contrarian and say best movie ever. Some of it's pretty, I don't know, I had a good time despite myself. I'm not sure why that was.'s pretty I don't know I had a good time despite myself I'm not sure why that was I yeah I don't know I think that's something you need to work through

in therapy I've got to work through in therapy I just remembered and definitely not from looking up Jason Clarke is from Stingers

oh our famous cop show Stingers there you go delightful Australia's Jason Clarke okay so let's let's do spoilers now and this is our

famous segment hey do you remember the bit when this happened I'm gonna I'm gonna we're gonna get some help from a listener Stefan DeJesus

or maybe it's Stefan DeJesus but I'm gonna assume that it's like oh DeJesus this is he's emailed in and he's gone

sigh here we go and here's all his problems with Terminator 5. So if we want to run through a few of these. Let's see. Okay.

Kyle and Sarah arrive in the future in traffic and are both pegged in the back by a car going at least 25 miles per hour and neither remotely react to that at all. Yeah. Remember that bit? I do remember that and was surprised by it. Also, when they're in a bus,

she's wearing a seatbelt. He's not. And the bus flips forwards, does several forward flips, hits the ground, rolls, falls off the side of a bridge and is hanging there. Yes. And she says, are you okay? And he says, never better. Yeah. And it's meant to be a joke.

Yep. But it's true. Yeah, yeah. He's never been better. He just keeps on going. Oh, boy. That's never been better. He just keeps on going. Oh boy. That's also in there. Okay.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator that's waited around several decades, gets a job at Cyberdyne working construction until he's laid off. There's another little joke for you. There's quite a few attempts at comedy in this movie. There's quite a few attempts at comedy. That was one one of them and that to me felt again like i was seeing they're going no how's he gonna how surely they would recognize him surely john connor who's been around for a little while would recognize him right being wait aren't you that guy more than that i feel that also if he'd been working construction there for several years couldn't

he have put some explosives around the building already? Yeah. Couldn't he have destroyed it from the inside out way before they got there? He set up various other plot points to do with biometrics and information. Yeah, he did too. That's true. Most of his job was not fighting, but it was all exposition.

Logistics, yeah. Logistics and exposition and saying things that made very little sense. That was, to me, a big problem was that there was a lot of time machine did it and ran away. Right, right. Nexus points. Nexus points.

They talk about Nexus points. And, oh, you can have memories from both timelines because when important events and things happen and then, you know, and then quickly look over here. I feel like at least it was kind of internally consistent. Like none of it made sense. In that none of it made sense, but Kyle Reese, when he's going through time, he remembers that Sarah Connor told him to run, go in a straight line, and then he told Sarah Connor that,

so then she believed him to go to 2017, and then she found the young Kyle Reese, and she did the same thing. So internally that worked, but it didn't make any sense. Listeners will know that as far as time travel movies go, I really demand that they be internally consistent and they make sense. Because it's like watching a mystery movie

or like a whodunit and it turns out that the killer couldn't possibly have been the butler or whatever. And people go, oh, why don't you just enjoy the story? Why don't you just enjoy the acting? Blah, blah, blah. Well, I can't because it's... It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.

It has to... There's always going to be a point, though. Time travel movies are always going to have a flaw somewhere. Something's not going to make sense. Oddly, I give all the Terminator movies a pass. I don't know why that is. Except for this one, surely. I want to see where it goes.

This is the first... There's going to be two sequels to this,'s apparently major problem is that the the difference between so this is essentially terminator one yep if um what had happened was that uh someone who we don't know sent back another arnie yes when sarah connor was a little girl the 1970s. The 1970s and raised her for 15, 20 years. Yeah, yeah. And made her into an ass-kicking... I feel I missed a trick in not showing us like a groovy 1970s Terminator.

Yes. Like bell-bottoms and a big afro or something like that. That would have been good. We should have seen that. And that's the big difference. Yeah. And also, it's something we never learn. We never learn.

And we never learn also who sent the initial T-1000 back to... So they sent a T-1000 back to the 70s. We don't know who sent that either, because if Skynet sent... If the Skynet we know sent a T-1000 back to the 70s and it was destroyed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, like the 1970s Terminator that raised it, Skynet would know,

and instead of sending regular Arnold back to 1984, they'd send something else, right? Yes. I mean, is the T-1000 we see in 1984 the same one from the 70s? It's hard to say, right? Is there two? Oh, maybe, because we never see the one in the 70s.

Yeah, that's true. Tell, don't show. That's what they say in the storytelling business, right? That's the storytelling business. Just have one of your characters describe what happened in the scene that is the linchpin

of this entire movie. It was really exciting, let me tell you. All kinds of things blew up, but we can't show it to you. Yeah. I'll just be hiding under a dock if you wouldn't mind.

That's like Game of Thrones season three, I think, where Tyrion Lannister gets knocked unconscious for the entire battle and wakes up, oh, it was a great battle.

That's right, exactly. We don't have the budget yet. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, can I count the Arnies now? Okay, let's count the Arnies. So we had 1970s Arnie. Yep. So it's CGI'd Arnie.

He's wearing full leather, awesome sunglasses. Oh, yep, sure. And then we get a 20 years later version of him where he's looking a little saggy, but they've given him a bit of work done. Yep. Then we get another 20 years later version of him, which is the one we see for most of the film which is him as the old man yes but then we also see the younger somewhere in the middle arnie who's been sent back

who's the one from the original film who gets killed in the bill paxton scene yes from the first movie actually is quite good those scenes are apparently all refilmed yeah like i mean obviously the one with Bill Paxton because they couldn't, apparently Arnold did a Q&A and all those scenes had to be refilmed. So the version where,

like there's a scene in the first Terminator where Arnold arrives in front of like a garbage truck and the guy runs away. I thought that was original footage and I've just seen Terminator 1

fairly recently, like in the last week or so. That's all new footage. Yeah. That's actually quite impressive. It is and you can can do it there's a shot by shot oh yes online and see different things I don't ruin the magic for me I'm just something you can see okay you can do a spot the difference yeah yeah it is impressive yeah but when the most impressive thing about a film is a garbage truck yeah a garbage truck that we may look exactly the same as another garbage truck. It's like, it's not, yeah.

And from there, it just descends into ridiculousness. Right, right. And not the good type of ridiculousness. Yeah. The type we are supposed to care and get excited and just don't. So, John Connor, the twist we couldn't reveal before, because apparently there's one person in the world who hasn't seen the trailer yet. He's the bad guy. He's the bad guy.

And we hope that there would be another twist. Like, maybe he's fighting back against El Webb. No, he's just the bad guy. He's the bad guy. And we hope that there would be another twist. Like maybe he's fighting back against... No, he's just the bad guy now. Yeah, great. He got infected, I guess is maybe the best word. By Matthew Smith. He's not Matt Smith anymore. The credits call him Matthew Smith.

Oh my God. I didn't... I forgot. I remember ages ago they said he's going to be in it, but I forgot. Yeah. And so you're watching this time travel movie and his introduction is he's just... There's a line of soldiers. Yes.

And the camera is sort of panning, sorry, the camera is panning along the line of soldiers. Yep. And you just see Matt Smith standing there looking just slightly shifty. Oh, yeah. Oh my God, it's Doctor Who. Yeah. Like Doctor Who has just flown in. Oh no, I've just thought about the incredible amount of Doctor Who Terminator fanfic that's going to result in this.

It must. I don't, I don't want it to happen. But it's such a ridiculous. I mean, good on you if you're writing this. It must. I don't. I don't want it to happen. But it's such a ridiculous... I mean, good on you if you're writing one right now, but I don't. I don't want to read it. Yeah. Please don't.

But it was such a nice... I don't know. Like, it was such a weird, surreal moment of just... Like, them trying to put him in the background. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just another regular soldier who is played by Matt... The new James Bond film, Spectre,

has the actor who plays Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes TV series. And he's clearly... He's like an MI6 agent, but he's clearly the one who's going to turn heel and be the villain. And like at all the press conferences, he's all shifty.

And he's sort of standing on the villain side, but he's sort of standing on the good guy side. And it's kind of... He's clearly the villain side but he's sort of standing on the good guy side and it's kind of... He's clearly the villain. Don't pretend. It'd be amazing if that was in fact an extraordinarily complex double bluff. Like an artificial reality game.

Yeah. I'm not excited at all about... Expect it, really. Let's talk about it. We can talk about it. Okay. Just because I just don't care anymore. I just...

It's just... It's too much of the same over and over again. The man from Uncle though. That looked really good. I saw that we saw the trailer for that. Just so good. So good. In every way.

Totally. It's like the Kingsman, but better. Henry Cavill. Whoever the other person is. Arnie Hammer. There we go. Yeah.

Arnie Hammer doing a dodgy, dodgy Russian accent. Yeah. Hugh Grant being, being a cad. Yeah. Speaking of people who are clearly going to turn out

to be a turncoat. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. What were we talking about? Terminator Genisys. Terminator Genisys. Oh, yeah.

That film we saw. Yeah. Matt Smith, he's at the beginning of the film and has this little moment of grabbing John Connor and burning him. Nanotechnologying him. Nanotech-ing him. Yep. And then he shows up at the end as a hologram yeah sort of say this is hey he's he

is skynet so they give skynet a character yeah and then do you think it might have been wiser for the the good guys to actually time travel to 1997 and then they would have had 20 years to stop genesis as opposed to a day or whatever it was yeah why, why would you go to the day before they... You wouldn't. Yeah, why not go and stop it before it's even started? Yeah, yeah. Which is what they keep saying, let's stop before it's even started.

Just immediately before it. Yeah. But with 1997, they were like, well, let's stop. Let's stop the apocalypse that day. It's fine. Yeah. You've got time travel technology.

Go anywhere. It made sense with the first film to say, okay, let's first film to say, okay, let's send back to when, before John Connor's born, kill his mother. Yep. And it's clearly a big deal to send someone through time. Yeah, yeah.

And so they've only got one shot at this and so does the resistance and they do it and it sort of holds together and it's all happening in the far distant past. Yep. But as they keep sending these robots and humans back to various times, you feel like their strategy game would lift? Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Okay. Well, it didn't work sending them back to 94. Why don't we try 1992 when he's a teenager and rides a dirt bike? Yeah. Maybe it would work. Yeah. Maybe like 1999 when he's a... He's a disaffected sort of young man who's off the grid.

Living off the grid. Yeah. No, okay, yeah. I don't know. I still like Terminator 3 much more than this. Way more than this. That's interesting. Okay.

But do you... Okay, well, I think here's the key is do you like it more than Terminator Salvation? I like Terminator Salvation more. Wow. That is a very big call. Yeah, because the Terminator movies, we always remember the cool time travel twist craziness, but they're never really a massive part of the film.

You know, like your first one is basically send people back to kill someone and send someone else back to stop them. Right, right, right. That's all of those movies. Yes. And they all end with various degrees of self-sacrifice by the hero. And that's it. And then so the Terminator Salvation decides to do the same thing,

essentially, but without the time travel. And you have sort of- Just a series of punched hearts. Yeah, exactly. Just punched in the heart and saying, why don't we just show a whole bunch of stuff in the future? Because that stuff was always really cool in the previous films where we could only afford just to show a flash and we just have lots of crazy stuff blowing up and lots of cool missions and we'll see john

connor you know in his element and yeah i mean they had sam withington in there as the weird half robot half man yeah cyborg and the helen bonham carter weirdness and all of that kind of stuff but ultimately i forgot helena bonham car. Yeah, she showed up at the very beginning as a cancer patient. And then she became Skynet. And then she became like a... Oh, she became like the image of Skynet that talked to him. Right. So he'd recognize this woman.

So did you stay for the mid-credit sequence? Oh, was there a mid-credit sequence? There was, yeah. To be honest, I... No, that's fine. It's okay. I don't want to say I stormed out, but I definitely skulked out of the cinema i'm sorry i made you see this movie that's all right i probably would have seen it exactly it's it's this movie everything everything pointed it to being kind

of bad but with this element of hope to it like sure much like the post-apocalyptic future of the terminator universe mostly bad mostly bad little bit of. And then we went in and we're like, oh, okay. Yeah. What did you think of the new Terminator, John Connor? Oh, no. I mean, terrible. It was the TX, but it wasn't. Yeah.

And that's the problem is that they've just, I think they already, they perfected Terminator 2. That is the ultimate Terminator. He's liquid metal. You know, adding a gun isn't going to help. It doesn't make any sense. Making him out of weird nanotech gravel isn't yeah that's what he was he was basically so rather than sort of having the liquid metal come together it was little piles of iron fillings yeah yeah you know stacking on top of each other like one of those magnetic children's

toys yeah yeah and that was it yeah yeah and that was really the only major difference and he kind of had a weird structure underneath his skin but not really he didn't really but then he was sort of liquid metal but then he wasn't kind of thing yeah again i just didn't care yeah and he also he didn't really look like a robot and i think that's the thing with all of the all of the terminators is that they look weird and robotic yeah and they might spend a couple of moments pretending to be you know the foster mum or the fat security guard in the hospital. But ultimately, you know, the main characters, you have Arnie and Robert Patrick and the blonde lady. Kristana Loken, thank you.

I apologise. Look sort of weirdly robotic. And he did not. He just looked weird. He did look like a weird man. He just looked like a funny looking dude. Yeah. And I say that as a funny looking dude.

Oh, sure. Well, we're all funny looking dudes here. We're doing a podcast. We're all funny looking dudes. There's no... Any handsome men doing podcasts and ladies, get out. This is not your business. We're doing podcasts.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Vlogging. They're probably vlogging. Vlogging their little hearts out. Okay. Well, that's Terminator. That's Terminator Salvation, I guess.

Wait. Genesis. Whatever. I don'tvation, I guess. Wait, Genesis. Whatever, I don't know. I've lost the plot. I mean, what they did was they took the best bits of all of the films and then sort of gaffer-taped on some sort of weird bonus.

I feel sometimes that works. Let's do it with a Game of Thrones character. I've said this before, but I feel they did that with Doctor Who, the series. I'm not a huge fan of Doctor Who necessarily, but I think they just got all the best bits and they sort of sticky-taped them together. And a lot of people are enjoying that.

And I think they tried really hard to do this. And yeah. So anyway, the mid-credits sequence, basically it's post the destruction of the building, the Genesis building, and we go underground to one of those underground bunkers where Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese survived. And we go down into this building, into this bunker,

and there's like a big red spherical structure, like a big glowing red one. And then the Matt Smith hologram appears. It's like 10 seconds long and then it's over. And I think that was the tease. So he's not dead? He's not dead, no. Okay, right.

No. But I don't know what the... So it's like the final scene of every single horror movie. Yeah, every single horror movie ever. Exactly, yeah. I think... I don't know what it's supposed to mean. I think maybe...

You know, potentially it doesn't mean anything because they haven't thought it through yet. I think that's probably most likely. They made the first movie in this movie and they hadn't thought it through. Yeah, that's true. I think the big sphere is the original Skynet and Matt Smith is the new Skynet.

And I think they're going to team up. I think that's the plot they've developed. Sure. Like Smokey and the Bandits. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like another 48 hours. Like Any Which Way But Loose.

Yes. Clint Eastwood and a monkey. Which one is the monkey? He's loose. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we He's loose. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we've done it.

Okay. We've successfully done something with Terminator South. Yeah. Okay. Genesis. Just quickly. Yeah, I'm ready. Terminator 1 is a horror film.

Yes. Yes, it is. Absolutely. The second one is a science fiction. Sorry, it's an action film. The third one is like- It's a romantic comedy. Romantic comedy.

Yeah. It's like an adventure. It's a caper. I know you love capers. That has this sort of- Sorry, that has like a dark twist at the end. And the fourth one is a war movie. That's all it is. And this one is just a mess.

It is a fan, it's a fan film. It's a fan film. Okay, that's fair. It's cosplay. It's glorified cosplay. But sometimes you want to watch a fan film, right? You do, sure. But you want to watch it at like, you know, two in the morning

in your underwear on your laptop. You don't want to pay money and go to IMAX to watch it. Yeah, I guess that's true. Well, we did it. I was going to have a big long discussion about the various fractured timelines of the Terminator universe,

but I don't think I'm going to do that anymore. I don't have it in me. Neither do I. Okay, well, let's get to our most famous segment, What You Read and What You're Going to Read. Then we put in the theme song. added that in i'm doing the thing what are we reading today and then it's there okay uh what you read what have you been reading recently i i've been reading um i'm firstly i i need to say i haven't been reading it because i

just have no time to actually read oh you can you can read you can this is a very vague segment you can read you can listen to it you can watch a movie yeah it's like book on tape yeah i mean this it's a it's a mystery novel oh yes and it's called elizabeth is missing and it is the kind of book that you would recommend for your mom oh yes or your elderly grandmother because it's a mystery and it's basically about an old lady who has dementia, whose friend goes missing. Sounds delightful. Friend goes missing, and she not only, she can't get anyone to believe her that her friend's gone missing

because she has dementia, and she's also trying to solve the crime, but has dementia. Interesting. It's extraordinarily sad, but also really great. It reminded me a bit of Memento. I was just going to say Memento. Yeah, like Memento or Before I Sleep, which is another thriller about someone with memory loss.

And yeah, it's very similar to Memento, but with a nana. Oh, interesting. A nana trying to solve a mystery. Who's the Joe Pantoliano character? We don't know. Oh. Could be anyone.

Could be anyone. Maybe there isn't one. Who knows? Oh, delightful. So yeah, I'm halfway through that and loving it. It's very good. Well, this week I'm going to read Fast and Loose, the Nicholas J. Johnson novel.

By Nicholas J. Johnson. By Nicholas J. Johnson. That's you, yeah. And on Kindle. Yeah. And you've got, this is your second book. It is. It's a sort of, it's a sequel.

I like to think of it more as a re-book. Oh, boy. It's a re-book. Oh, you've made a mistake. Oh, no. It's, yeah, it's my second book my first one was called Chasing the Ace I've read that one

it's a delight Nick Mason and the second one is I've gone down a different direction but you don't need to read the first one to read the second one but you should purchase and read the first one yeah you should read them all and give them as gifts

you should pre-purchase your third book my preference is for people to read the first one and read the second the first one yeah yeah you should read them all and give them as gifts you should pre-purchase your your third book my preference is for people to read the first one and then the second one just for me as the author yeah you can really do whatever you want it doesn't affect your enjoyment of either excellent good stuff all right we're gonna get to some letters just briefly we're gonna knock these off um so every week uh james refuses to edit in a letters theme tune because it's more editing and he doesn't want to do it. So the rule is I will get listeners to send in their own letters themes and I just play them through my phone, through the microphone. And so we're going to do that right now.

This is courtesy of... Oh, boy. Oh, Henry McComb has sent this one in. It's thematic for this week. So here we go. Letters, da-da-da It's real good Okay It's a little bit of a mash-up of something we did last week

It's pretty great Oh, here we go So let's see Going through the letters here Oh, Isaac Brady He's from West Virginia in the United States He suggests an episode that We might want to do in the future

The Good, the Bad and the Underrated of Crazy Mark Miller. Mark Miller, of course, is the creator of Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, Kingsman, all sorts of other nonsense. What do you think of Mark Miller as a whole? Mixed bag, right? Mixed bag. Okay.

It's 90% love him and then just 10% absolutely hate, loathe, you know, kick ass to rape scene. Yeah. Weird cheerleader scene. Yeah. We've talked about that. Yeah.

Weird cheerleader scene. The Kingsman, the church scene that everyone loves to me. No, not a fan. Yeah. But the rest of it I'm really into. And so it's constant. It's the perennial razor blade in the apple of comic book writers. Now, so his namesake frank miller

not spelt the same wait actual no no that's a coincidence uh spelled differently and the whole thing um he went crazy at a certain point like i'm not sure quite when it was do you think mark miller went crazy or do you think he's i feel mark miller's just sort of shotgunning out ideas like he's just throwing out everything he can and kind of some of it sticks some of it doesn't some of it's worth making or movie some of it isn't I think

getting his insanity down onto the page yes is part of his therapy right okay interesting and that's what's keeping him sane is inflicting

some of his joyless nonsense onto us the reading and viewing public excellent let's see what else have we got here

oh Miguel Horgan do you guys get embarrassed reading and viewing public. Excellent. Let's see. What else have we got here? Oh, Miguel Horgan. Do you guys get embarrassed when you get information wrong and someone calls you out on it? We famously get everything wrong on this podcast. No, I don't. I don't care at all. Yeah, I wouldn't either. I very rarely do that. I like to sort of make it very clear that I have no idea what I'm talking about. I'll

often be arguing a point with a passion and then stop halfway through and just remind the person that I have no idea what I'm talking about, nor do I particularly care about this subject before getting back to it. Thank you. Yes. I got into an argument last night with a vegan about, this might be too much, but I basically, he was telling me about cows and how terrible cows are for the world and i said okay so you've chosen not to eat and you're fighting against cows but you need to get a certain amount of protein would you rather eat that in cow form or in semen form oh sure and he said he would totally just eat the cow without a moment's hesitation where you go very very angry

and upset and i had to apologize for getting angry upset because i don't really care about that issue you've just put something you've painted someone into a corner yeah you've made them make a terrible very, very angry and upset. And then had to apologize for getting angry and upset because I don't really care about that issue. Sure, yeah. You've just put someone, you've painted someone into a corner. Yeah. You've made them make a terrible decision, but you don't care. Yeah.

So I feel like if someone pulls me up on it later on, it's my own fault. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Chris Finn, have you guys ever think about doing commentary tracks for some of the DC animated movies? We will totally,

definitely do that in the future. What do you think about the DC animated movies? I always feel like they're a missed opportunity for a good live action movie. Okay, right. They're a lot cheaper though. They are a lot cheaper.

Yeah. And I kind of wish I could have seen Nathan Fillion, you know, in his prime. He was Green Lantern? I know,

but I want to see him as actual Green Lantern 20 years ago. The 20 year, you know, like that would have been much better than just him just doing the voice. Mark Hamill would have made a great Joker live. Absolutely, yeah. So, yeah, you know, like that would have been much better than just him just doing the voice.

Right, right, right. Mark Hamill would have made a great Joker live. Absolutely, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, they're really great, but yeah, there was a missed opportunity. The Dwayne Cook, not Dane. Dane Cook? Wait, no, no, no, I know who you're talking about. He did the Golden Age.

He did the Justice League. Darwin Cook. Darwin Cook. There we go, yeah. He did the Justice League series Darwin Cook. Darwin Cook. There we go, yeah. He did the Justice League series that was fantastic, that led into that giant ocean battle. And that was such a great book. And then I watched the animated one.

It's like, oh, yeah, you sort of captured it there, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. We'll definitely get to one of those. Mask of the Phantasm is sort of a classic DC Batman animated. We'll probably do that one. Is that the first one that made people say, wow, these can be for adults as well as children?

I think the series as a whole was, like, it was good, but I think that was probably that. And also they did, the one that probably did that was Heart of Ice, which was the origin of Mr Freeze, which changed him from just being this kind of goofy guy who's got a freeze gun to having this sort of really tragic backstory. And I think that won an Emmy, I think.

So I think that's probably where people sort of stood up and went... Is that an episode? That's an episode, yeah. Yeah, I've seen that one. That's quite touching. And a lot of those are quite touching. Yeah, yeah. All right, we'll get to that.

Anyway, that's letters for this week. Great. There were others, but who knows? I'm not good at reading. Anyway, so thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Where can they find you on the internet? You can get me at conman.com.au. Oh, that's a pretty weird website for a reformed, not a conman anymore.

Yeah, it's odd. People always go, oh, you must get a lot of trouble. And that is your website. And it's like, well, you know, as a con man expert, I can tell you that most professional con men don't call themselves con men. Right there in the URL.

They call themselves meter readers. They read the gas meter. Yeah. Not A Con Man. Fantastic. Gotta watch that guy. Yeah. And you're on Twitter at?

At CountLustig. Who is a? Who is a con man. There you go. Yeah. That's it. Maybe just search Nicholas J. Johnson. Nicholas J. Johnson.

That'll be better. Fantastic. Well, you can find this podcast at weeklyplanetpod at Gmail and Facebook and Twitter. I'm at WikipediaBrown. If you want to talk to James and ask him why he wasn't here this week, he is MrSundayMovies.

We're also on Bandcamp, weeklyplanetpod.bandcamp.com. We've got a lot of URLs. That's the problem here. If you want to listen to some of our commentary tracks, if you want to help out the show, just go to patreon.com slash MrSundayMovies if you want to donate like a buck or two a month. Just help out the show.

Otherwise, just listen to the podcast for free. Thanks everyone for listening and subscribing and reviewing. It's all great. It's great stuff. I got through this episode. We did it. Fantastic. Thanks for everyone for listening. Nicholas J. Johnson, we say grab dat gem at the end of the podcast. Can you do that for me? What do I have to say? Say grab dat gem. I'll explain

it later. It's like Carpe Diem, but for nerds. Grab dat gem. You did it. Alright, thanks for listening, everybody. Bye. FX is the veil. Thanks for listening, everybody. Bye. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.