The Weekly Planet - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Caravan Of Garbage has returned to look at what is probably considered the second most disappointing prequel trilogy of all time. Director of The Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson reluctantly returns to the directors chair for 2013's An Unexpected Journey, the first very long entry in an adaptation of a very short book. Come with us as we talk about the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Grey and twelve mostly interchangeable tiny bearded men. Thanks for listening to our review!SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNVideo Edition ► https://youtu.be/BPQyBvl3SJ8Help support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 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+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care.

From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca.

Welcome back, everybody, to the return of Caravan of Garbage. Yes, we're well west. Yes, we are. Yes, we are well rested. We're well wested, James. Shut up, Mason. You're going to leave all that in? Shut up, Mason.

We're not two exhausted men recording this before we go on vacation. No, Mason, because we're here and we're very excited both to be back and also to be talking about the Hobbit trilogy. Three movies, Mason, somehow? Oh, my God. Now, leading up to these movies, obviously both of us were huge fans of Lord of the Rings, the movies, and both of us have read some of the books, maybe.

There's some bold statements to make. Look, I enjoyed the cinematic releases of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I don't think I've ever seen the extended versions, honestly. They're wonderful and delightful. In what way? They're longer. But they're also wonderful and delightful. I'm going to be loving this version of The Hobbit, aren't I?

Because it's way longer. So I've seen the Lord of the Rings movies, but I've never gotten through the Lord of the Rings books. I give it a crack every couple of years, and it gets to the singing, and I have to tap out, which is about three pages in, honestly. But I have read The Hobbit in its entirety, because it is way shorter and a breezier read.

But prior to this, I'd not seen the Hobbit movies. I'd only seen the third one for some reason. Yeah, that's right. So I'm diving in headfirst into this movie from 2013? 2012, this one. But long delayed, of course. Also, if people could leave a like, that would be fantastic. And I've got to say, Mason, leading up to these movies,

I wasn't really feeling the hype. The gap had been kind of too long. And I'm like, I don't know. I've seen prequels before. And I don't know whether this can be anything. Oh, Peter Jackson's back. Okay, I guess that's what he's... He's reluctantly back, isn't he? Yeah.

He's back on this series that nearly killed him, right? Yeah, that's right. So why don't we talk a bit about the lead up to this. So Guillermo del Toro, he spent three years of pre-production on this. But delays and legal disputes between New Line and peter jackson and the tolkien estate and mgm entered bankruptcy as they often do oh sure that's that's their defining characteristic a new line was like can we turn this into a nightmare on elm street movie somehow yeah that's our bread and butter really so we're just a bunch of grubby little goblins basically here at new line New Line. So I do want to talk about...

We'll eat you. We'll put you on a spit and we'll eat you. So I do want to talk about Guillermo del Toro's version of this, the two movies that he was going to make. But I might save that for the third video. Two movies, weak. Yeah, I know, right? But I might save that for the third video of this.

So we'll circle back around. So this is how it started, right? Peter Jackson wanted the rights to The Hobbit initially, so that would be the first movie he ever made from this universe, right? So this is years ago. This was years ago. This is in like the mid-90s. Because I was going to say, if he'd done it after the Lord of the Rings trilogy, mate,

you've played yourself. It's too late. You already made three massive blockbusters. Exactly. So this is before that. This is before that, yeah. This is after that movie where he blows up like a cow or a goat or something with a rocket launcher. What movie is that?

Bad Taste? Bad Taste. Or the sheep one, the murderous sheep one. Did he direct the murderous sheep one? I don't know. These are such vague memories, James. Yeah, yeah. And also, he was happy to write on these movies.

He was happy to produce. He was happy for them to be set in the same universe. He was happy to attach some dynamite to a goat or a sheep or something and just blow it up in a field. That's right. But he also didn't want to compete with these previous films, right? But after Guillermo del Toro left because of multiple production delays and all of that, he kind of realized that it was too late to hire somebody competent enough to do this. So he reluctantly stepped back in. But he did so without doing any of the things he'd previously done. Before they shot on Lord of the Rings,

there was three and a half years of preparation. Sure. They did not shoot anything. It was just figuring out the storyboards, the animatics, the previews. None of that was done here. They just kind of blocked out some scenes and went, okay, if you stand here

and I'll stand here and then, you know. Guys, I don't have time to read the book, honestly. So just improv. Just say know. Guys, I don't have time to read the book, honestly. So just improv. Just say some medieval stuff, I reckon, and that should be good, right? Yeah. And also, he completely restructured the story to make it his own version of this. The original structure of this, completely different. And his idea also was to keep it as two movies initially, right?

idea also was to keep it as two movies initially right so what happened he did and the crew a 254 day consecutive shoot right sure and this also came right off the back of him doing Tintin he got like a stomach ulcer he was out for a lot of it he was basically trying to play catch up the entire time the way that they described it the people behind it was they were basically laying tracks in front of them as the train was going. Oh, no. Right? But that ends well usually, right? No, Mason.

You get to the station, you lay your last track down, and then you're in the station. No, you get to the station and there's no station because you've just got off into the woods. Oh, no. Yeah. Anyways, I guess that also explains why this movie and these movies look like shit.

And I think also a lot of that has to do with... That's a fun lady. I like that. I like the pre-production thing, and then you just took a real big swipe at them. Well, the thing is, right... You beat me to it, honestly. Because it was filmed in 48 frames per second,

because apparently the human eye perceives things in 60 frames per second, so they thought the closer we get to that, the better. So they filmed it 48 frames per second in 5K in 3D. And as a result of that, this is just a hideous set of films that look fake the entire way through. And I think it's because there's this weird bloom and sheen over the top of everything. Everybody moves in a weird way, especially when you watch it as it was originally intended. And I think the reason there is that bloom and it's been brightened so much is because you'd be wearing 3d glasses watching this so it needs to be kind of

elevated do you think perhaps the mistake was only limiting themselves to 3d you think 4d could have done it some rumble seats or something smell a vision maybe smell that blackberry wine yum yum i wouldn't mind smelling some bloody blackberry well i'm not gonna tell you that much to tell that much but the thing is as well in in preparation for that, to be fair, they got the original concept artists back and they actually put on those red and blue glasses and drew 3D concept art to get a sense of this. And I'm like, that's a waste of time.

Those people have gone insane now. They're like, you remember, you've heard of that experiment where these people put on glasses that made them see upside down yeah and eventually their real vision flipped and they just started seeing upside down already these people are seeing 3d they're seeing double 3d they're seeing because real life is 3d 6d but the problem is also when you film it with this higher def you can see the makeup you can see the wig line you can see individual strands of hair you know you can see when a tree doesn't look right whether a rock is fake or a creature is cgi all of those things kind

of go away when you pare it down a bit there's a reason movies they're not they're not supposed to look like this oh for sure yeah and i think you know that that is you know there's a we're leaning towards like that that digital hot super high def digital trend where you uh you know you you watch a scene and it's a bunch of characters in a room and it kind of feels like you are literally in the scene and it doesn't feel good at all. I want to be there. It feels super uncomfortable. It feels unsafe.

Especially if they're having an argument. You're like, should I step in? Should I say something here? Should I tell Iron Man to come down? This has all just been a misunderstanding, this. But is the solution then to watch it on a really low res thing like your phone yes quite frankly yeah uh but that being said uh one thing that i did like about this uh all the all the deadbeat dwarves love their all their little outfits and i loved

all their little they've got all fun little different types of hair and facial hair which i loved but i hate them to be clear i hate. I think from the first scene that they arrive in, just Gandalf and his deadbeat mates just showing up at Frodo's house. Frodo's house. They both own that house eventually. They both own that house. So Bilbo's house. Just get out of here.

I'm going to call the cops on them. And it's crazy that they're like, we did the dishes. You ate all the food. Yeah. You ate like his entire pantry. His whole larder, Mason. His whole larder. He's gone.

All his blackberry wine. Scratched a bloody thing into his door. Yeah. No good. I think also Martin Freeman is a wonderful choice. Even if it does break with the Lord of the Rings continuity, because there is a flashback in the original Lord of the Rings where we see Ian Holm collect the ring.

Oh, it's a young Ian Holm. Yeah, and Ian Holm, as we see in this, he's not the Ian Holm that he was. There's even a scene in the original Lord of the Rings where he's played by Andrew Dice Clay. It's insane. Hey, hit your indicator. Yeah, and Gandalf says to him, he's like,

you haven't aged a day. And it's like, well, no, because he looked like Martin Freeman and now he looks like Ian Holm. He looks good for a man in his 80s don't get me wrong but i'm okay with the recast because again martin freeman is terrific i think ian mckellen is great but i think as you mentioned with the dwarves there's too many and they don't really distinguish them enough because they're all bearded dwarf men with heavy prosthetics and and coats on and as the movies go on we forget about eight of them yeah they just kind of blend into the background do they die who knows some do here's a question though go on the story of this they're like we

have to get the arkenstone which is basically like the ring of power oh is that the plot of this that's the plot of this mason huh and you know i was just swept away by the majesty of it by the end i'm like all right i guess you should get that i reckon yeah this? That's the plot of this, Mason. Huh. And, you know. I was just swept away by the majesty of it. By the end, I'm like, all right, I guess. You should get that, I reckon. Yeah. Oh, because it's the thing they find. It's in the mountain. It's a big gem or whatever.

I have seen this, to be clear. No, I know. On your phone. You don't know, really. No, I don't. But they chipped through. They were mining the mine. The thing or whatever.

The heart of the mountain. Okay, right. But I think also this movie leans too heavily into the Lord of the Rings-iness of this universe where they need to really pare it down because it tries to be like, this is a big deal. Gandalf's meeting Galadriel. And he's like, well, we have to stop the dragon because what if Sauron gets a dragon? And it's like, who gives a shit?

He's got like giant elephants and trolls and he's got those dragon-esque creatures that are flying around. You know those big like snake bird things? If he had another dragon, that would be like giving the US military a fighter jet that can shoot fire. It's like, who cares? It's an additional thing. He's got enough. It's not that big a deal. It goes too big

and there's too much guff in this. Too much noise and wasted space. For example, the bird shit-eared wizard who's barely in this book. Oh, Radagast the Brown. Yeah. Yeah, he's got that goop on his face the whole time. Very distracting. It's bird shit, Mason.

I like that. I mean, it's better than some alternatives, but... Some, I guess, yeah. But, like, you know, he's on his little rabbit sleigh and there was a point in this where I'm like, I need to read this book because I remember the moment where Gandalf shows up at the trolls when they're going to eat everybody

and that's a fun little moment and he's doing a bit of like, he's throwing his voice and he's making them argue against each other and then as a result, they don't realise the sun's coming up and he tricks them into freezing in a very argumentative position and we see that in lord of the rings they come across them right whereas this he turns up and he goes bam i broke this rock and then they freeze into like an argumentative pose sure that's right and i think they also gandalf does a lot of just showing up after all the action has already

taken place after the dwarves and and bilbo slash frodo have gotten into a spot of bother yeah and they've nearly worked it out then he showed do you think he's just hiding behind like a like a rock or something that that ties into the story as well because as a result of that i'm like i'm gonna read this so look when we come back to the next episode you haven't read it yet i will have read it terrific oh you didn't have time during our time off to read it? No, Mason. Interesting. I was too busy reading books that I like. Wow. Also, if you get any copy of The Hobbit, on the cover it's just maybe a little slice of life in Hobbit and maybe a little house built into a hillside,

maybe a little fire going or a little lantern going or something like that. It's not dragons and trolls. No. There's too much to this movie, I think. It's supposed to be a fun little adventure. Exactly. It's basically, you know, it's a kid's book.

And just to quickly get back to Gandalf, he's throwing pine cones that are grenades. One moment he zaps a boulder off a roof. And again, in the original Lord of the Rings, he does magic, but it's more kind of vague, you know what I mean? It's like when he comes over the hill to like the two towers or whatever, it also coincides with the light coming over the rings. He does magic, but it's more kind of vague, you know what I mean? It's like, when he comes over the hill to, like, the two towers or whatever, it also coincides with the light coming over the mountain, you know? And it's like, is this magic? How is he doing this kind of thing?

Is it just very well-timed? I'm loving this guy. I'm loving what he's about. Well, let me tell you this, James. I would rather it be very well-defined. I would rather we see his Dungeons & Dragons stat sheet on screen every time he uses it, and we see the spell slots, like, he selects all his spells as he does them. Maybe he takes a potion out of his bag.

Yeah, and we see the dice rolls happen, et cetera. I want to know his level. Andrew dice rolls. Yes, exactly. I want to see all his equipment. I want to see all his various stat numbers. I don't want any vagueness whatsoever. James, look, if this movie were a smaller adventure,

I wouldn't care. But I think the fact that they have to face off against all these monsters and creatures and invading armies and trolls and orcs and all this sort of stuff, tell us exactly what your powers are. Sometimes he gets in there, sometimes he doesn't. Yeah, exactly.

I hate it. Remember we fought that Balrog in... Yeah, that was sick. That was sick. He was going off chops, mate. Why didn't he do it in this? He didn't want to. But sometimes he does want to.

Maybe he hadn't rested and his spell slots hadn't regenerated. Exactly, yeah. He needs to build the fire and recoup his energies. Maybe collect some coin. Anyways, here's something I love. I love Hobbiton. Now, in the first movie, they rented this land from a local New Zealand farmer. Okay.

They built temporary- Sam Neill? Yeah, Sam Neill. They built temporary housing structures upon it with the condition being that when we go, this will be restored back to the way it was. With dynamite. Yeah, exactly. But that person who owns that land-

Peter Jackson style will dynamite this. Yeah, that's right. We're going to dynamite all of your creatures and all this land so it went back to the way it was but though the person who owns that land was running tours right so in between movies so this time around the decision was to build this permanently into the land so they rebuilt hobbiton and it's still there you can visit it and it's incredible it's really. There's like real stone structures and bridges and roofs and wooden doors. Can I take something out of the larder?

No, Mason. The dwarves took all the stuff out of the larder. You can blame them. Well, if this guy's got a free tourist attraction on his land, the least he can do is refill the larder and I can take a big wheel of cheese on the way out the door. All right? Yeah, you're not wrong. Yeah.

The other thing which I think is really missing from this is the way that they didn't break Ian McKellen like they did on these set of movies. Oh, sure. So I don't know if you've seen the behind-the-scenes imagery of the original movie, but a lot of the times when he's interacting with hobbits or dwarves or anybody who's of a different stature, they use a forced perspective trick.

Sure, a funny little building that's shaped in a weird way. Yeah, exactly. A real MC Esch style building. Like the table will be positioned you know, positioned a certain way. And then also. FX is 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+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Center for Addiction and Mental Health to support life-saving progress in mental health care.

From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca. Even when the camera is moving moving the sets will move so you don't lose that perspective but here's the thing you can't do that when you're shooting 3d because you're shooting on two cameras so that forced perspective trick does not work in 3d so they had to shoot him entirely separately on a green screen and it just broke his brain interesting

there's moments where he's just like got his head in his hands and he's like, I can't. I'm a real actor and you're killing me. You are literally killing me. Oh, no. Yeah. He's still good. He's still great. I wish I was being Magneto right now.

Yeah. Here's something I also like, though. I like Thorin Oakenshield's sick name and origin. Same, yeah. He's just like, he's out there, he picks up that thing and he's like, I'm going to kill this, I'm going to take this guy's arm off this big orc and whatever. And there's a moment where they're like, this orc is dead,

this orc is gone. I'm like, he's not gone, that guy. Come on. And, you know, he's the only giant CGI white bald orc in this movie with one arm. Yes. And then there's a moment where you see an orc who's bald and CGI with one arm with his back to camera.

And then he turns around and the music is like, dun, dun, dun, dun. And it's like, yeah, no, I know who that is. That's Andrew Dice Clay. Hey! Something rude. Nice. You know what he's like. Yeah, hell yeah.

Something rude but medieval. Yeah. Middle Earth, more. Something rude but medieval. Yeah. Middle Earth, more like middle of my ass. You know what I mean? I do. I do know what you mean. Yeah, it would be like that. We'll get more into this in the next videos, but also the elves, awful.

Why would they help these horrible little men in their caves collecting gold? You know where they're like, come and help us, come and help us get our caves and our gold back. Why? Why should they do that? Because it's nice. Nice thing to do. You know what?

The dwarves should just invent a paper currency. Let it go. Sure. It's not a big deal. Perhaps some sort of blockchain-based digital currency? Something that is basically outside of all required legal systems and outcomes, Mason. Interesting. You know what I mean?

Yeah, sure. It's not so much about owning the gold. It's about owning a picture of the gold. And then you know that you have that gold. Hell yeah. Yeah. But yeah, look, I don't like the elves in this because they're rude and hoity-toity, unlike the books where they're very much like, fa-la-la, fiddle-dee-dee.

I read a little bit of The Hobbit, I should point out. The fa-la-la, fiddle-dee-dee bit. a little bit of The Hobbit, I should point out. The fa la la fiddle dee dee bit. Yeah. And they're always like, look at this guy. He's walking around. Where in the movies they're like, look at this guy walking around. I'll get him with my big curved sword. There's also a lot of running around pointlessly, right?

Yeah. Things that they should have cut out. So in the first movies, right, Mordor is a big deal and it takes three years, three movies I should say, it takes three movies to get to Mordor. One does not simply walk into Mordor, et cetera, and so forth. Sure, sure, sure. People have made the complaint that, you know, that those movies are just three movies of walking.

I absolutely do not think that is the case. That is like a very massive simplification of this. But here though, it's just going to a dragon, right? Sure, yeah. And it's just noise in the middle. There's a moment where they come across, like, Big Stone Rockman, and they're like, it's Big Stone Rockman! I hope they don't crush us!

Oh, they didn't. They nearly did, though. It's pretty exciting, isn't it? Yeah. It really developed our characters as people who live in fear of Rockman crushing us, but then they didn't crush us. Yeah, it's like... That's character development.

I think it is. But it's like, is this cool? I guess, you know? Here's something I also think that this movie showed great restraint in. Here's a compliment, Mason. Oh, I'm excited to hear about this. There's a moment where Bilbo is sneaking up on one of the trolls and he's right behind his big troll bottom

and the troll doesn't do a big fart when he's there. That is very restrained, isn't it? Yes, that's very good. I was just waiting for it. I'm like, when's the troll going to do a big fart? Oh, he didn't. Very classy. You know what I thought was very restrained as well

is that at one point Gandalf is like, they're running in fear of something, probably orcs or something. And Gandalf's like, come down here, you fools. Yeah. And I'm like, are they trying to make that his catchphrase? Because remember in the Lord of the Rings,

he's like, fly you fools. Do you think they were trying to make it like, you they trying to make that his catchphrase? Because remember in The Lord of the Rings, he's like, fly, you fools. Do you think they were trying to make it like, you know, everything would be like. I think because it's a prequel, he's workshopping some stuff. Pass me that pipe weed, you fools. That's rude, Gandalf. It is rude, yeah. Sorry. I am a bit rude.

Anyway, they got Christopher Lee back, didn't they? They filmed all that stuff in. A closet? No, in England. Blue screen. Yeah. Blue slash green screen closet because christopher lee was a million years old when they filmed this and if they put him on a plane he

would have died yeah yeah so you know that's good though it's good they got him back just unambiguously evil you know always he's always just been yeah is there any clues he's gonna turn bad in lord of the rings well he looks like that and he sounds like that and he acts like that again off slight there's a big spooky necromancer. I think it's that dude with the ring. I think he's back. And Christopher Lee's like, I don't think so. I don't reckon you'd even look at that, I reckon.

Yeah. What about the golem scene? I think there are a couple of CGI characters in this. Well, there's quite a few. There's Dame Edna Everidge playing the king of the cave trolls with a big rubbery beard. That's a local reference. It certainly is, Mason.

Love all that performance, by the way. You know, Azog, as mentioned, he also... Oh, is it actually Barry Humphreys? Yeah, no, it is. Oh, okay, right. I thought we were just saying that that monster was Dame Edna-esque. Okay, right. Yeah, so Azog, as mentioned,

well, he was actually a last-minute digital edition. They had to CGI out a... Andrew Dice Clay. That's right. Yeah. So Azog, as mentioned, well, he was actually a last-minute digital edition. They had to CGI out a- Andrew Dice Clay. That's right. Hey, you'll never get rid of me. You'll have to use your fancy computers. Why have I decided on this? I don't know.

He's a big fan? I just guess I'm always thinking about him. Anyway. So Azog, the white orc, they had to digitally remove him and then put him back in. Manu Bennett actually plays him, which is fun, but it just seems like... He was Deathstroke. Yeah, he was Deathstroke for a time, yeah. It just seems like

unnecessary, and he looks so different than everybody else that it's strange. Yeah, right. But Gollum, though, it's a great scene. It's just straight out of the book. They're doing little riddles, which I can't really keep up with, because in a book you can kind of like, okay, what's his name?

I'll tell you this much, though, James. For a guy, given that Bilbo challenges Gollum... I think his name's Frodo, but go on. Yeah, well, this Hobbit guy, he challenges Gollum to a test of riddles. Yeah. If I was going to do that, I reckon I'd have more than, like, two

riddles ready to go. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Don't run out of riddles on Yeah. If I was going to do that, I reckon I'd have more than like two riddles ready to go. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Don't run out of riddles on round three. Also, and I've, look, what have I got in my pockets is not a riddle. No. And Gollum should have killed him.

I agree. It's nothing. Do you think that's... Oh, it's actually a question? And you said, ask me any questions. No, you said riddles. You challenged him to riddles, not a riddle. Do you think Tolkien just ran out of riddles? He's like, we need to move this along.

Yeah, I think so, because you couldn't just Google riddles back then. No, you couldn't. You couldn't. You had to think of a riddle or know somebody who knew a riddle. And nobody knew anybody then. They were looking to Tolkien for riddles. They only had the two. So they didn't have, like, workplace email forwards.

No. Oh, my God. Where you could print them off and show your family and friends. Show your family and friends, yeah. Yeah. But I think Gollum, that's a really good example of tech evolving, but keeping the core of what that character looks like.

Because he's clearly- Yeah, gross. Because he's clearly, like there's more detail on the skin texture and the hair and the eyes. It's clearly come along in leaps and bounds, but it still feels very much like the original one. And again, Andy Serkis,

who eventually stepped in and started doing a lot of second unit directing on this because they shot for a million years. Oh, interesting. And where is he now? Venom 2? He's doing Venom 2, mate. It's a great scene. Those eagles, though. I know people always talk about the eagles. Why don't the eagles come in and save the day and whatever? Well, they did. Why do the eagles keep saying they were

going to retire, but then they said we're going to retire when hell freezes over, and then the hell freezes over tour. Yeah. I'm talking about the bad Eagles. The bad, yeah. Isn't it wild, James, that the same band produced the song Take It Easy and Hotel California?

Yeah, I guess. You can take this out. That's fine. Why is it wild, though? I don't know. So they made two songs. They just sound very different. They sound like two different bands.

But Red Hot Chili Peppers have two different songs. No, they don't. They've got the song that goes, flippity-bidipity. Bidipity-bidipity. And then they've got the song about California. The sad one. The sad one about California.

Okay, you're right. But so, anyway, to get back to the Eagles, I don't understand why they didn't drop them closer to the mountain. Like, the Eagles pick them up and go, we've rescued you. Thorin thanks and is like, Bilbo, you all right, for a second time. He gives Bilbo actually you're all right twice. He does, yeah.

You don't need to do that. For the second time he gave him the classic fake out. Yeah. I'm going to kill you. Just kidding. You're all right. You're actually great. You know, when we went on this adventure, I said, Bilbo, you're awful and you suck and you're ugly.

Yeah. And your feet are weird. And we've got weird feet. But you, your feet actually take the disgusting cake. You upset me. You upset everybody you're around. You upset your mother. Just laid into it.

But actually, I love you like a brother. Yeah. Big hugs. But the eagles are like, oh love you, like a brother. Yeah, big hugs. But the eagles are like, oh, look, look where the eagles have dropped us. About 40 kilometres from where you need to be. Terrific. Maybe there's turrets. As in, like, they skin a turret and they get shot the rest of the way? Yep.

That seems plausible. No, I meant, like, maybe there's, like, air defence. The eagles can't get close, you know? Yeah,'s like air defence. The Eagles can't get close, you know? Yeah, yeah. I guess the Eagles can't get close. Like a ballista or a trebuchet. Maybe the Eagles fear trebuchets like the band the Eagles do. Do they?

Yeah. Wow. Had a bad experience at Woodstock with those trebuchets. Cowards Mason. The Hells Angels were operating trebuchets. Oh, my God. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's true.

It's crazy. Anyways, it's time for green trivia. Whoa. Here are some names which auditioned for the role of Bilbo Baggins. Whom's auditioned? Here we go. The role of Bilbo Baggins. Daniel Radcliffe.

Oh. Shia LaBeouf. Oh. Eddie Redmayne. Oh. James McAvoy. A lot of these people are way too tall. I know they fit.

You can be any height. Yeah, I know, but I feel like the technology requires a shortish person to start with, I think. Yeah, fair enough. Daniel Radcliffe, he's like four foot two. Yeah, I'm talking more about Redmayne. That's like nine feet tall. Are you Googling the height of Eddie Redmayne right now? What if I am, Mason?

I bet he's 6'1". Eddie Redmayne height is 5'11 and a half. 5'11 and a quarter, sorry. Okay, still too tall. And that's Hollywood tall, which means he's probably... Oh, he's probably 5'8". Yeah, you're right. Tobey Maguire.

But the first choice was, of course, Martin Freeman. And the whole shooting schedule of this had to be changed because Peter Jackson wanted him so badly that this was all built around the TV show Sherlock, which was good for an episode or two, I believe. First two, yeah. Thinking back to that show. Brett from Flight of the Conchords reprises his role as Elf that was barely in the previous

trilogy. But he gets a big speaking part and he's like, hello, I was in the previous one and now I'm here and I'm from New Zealand, so I'm here. I got famous in between movies. Yeah, right. Also one of the dwarfs is, he's that guy. He's the guy we all know. He played Jekyll in the TV series Jekyll.

Oh, James Nesbitt. Speaking of Sherlock, what else has he been in? Other stuff. British funny sitcom. A lot of British funny sitcom, Sean. Yeah. The working title of this movie was actually Blue Harvest. That's interesting.

The same working title for the original Star Wars from 1977. So the fans wouldn't get cotton on. That's right. They didn't know. Exactly. Also, here's some catering numbers numbers because this was an absolutely breathtaking undertaking. You have catering numbers there. You better believe I did.

How many wheels of cheese? Did they eat authentically? Nah, I don't reckon. Just McDonald's every day? Yeah, here's some. That spread of cold McDonald's that a president might supply you with. Yeah. Oh, you want something vegetarian?

Here's some rice that fell on the floor. Uncooked. Pick out the weevils. So they maxed out at food, including, you know, crew and extras and all of that, at 580 people per day. Whoa. Yeah. That's a bloody army.

Too many people. I just do box office, but I actually haven't looked it up yet. Oh, my goodness. James, you have all the time in the world la la la la la james the listeners the viewers are waiting all right yeah they can wait on my balls mason oh what what did andrew dice clay just jump in for a second there so mason the production budget of this movie alone was $200 million. That's quite a lot, actually. I agree. And overall, the worldwide box office was $1,014,000 something,

something, something, et cetera. You mean $1 billion. Sorry, I'll start that again. But I'll leave this in for the extra part. That's terrific. And the overall worldwide box office was $1 billion, just over $1 billion, Mason, and $14,000, et cetera, and so forth. There's a variety of numbers here.

Here they are. Ben and Lawrence who edited this would have put them in. I'd be happy with that return. That's right. So people, you know, they were very excited to go back to theatres to see this movie. Now, look, after I saw this one, I went, okay, I, yeah, hmm, I guess we'll see, won't we?

I guess I'll wait a year for this story I don't give a shit about to wrap up. And I did, and then I waited another year. But you guys, listening to this and watching this, you only have to wait a week till we come back to talk about The Hobbit, smalgy time. Smab to the future. Yeah. Which I think has some good stuff in it,

which we will talk about again next week. All in all, Mason, how did you feel? Well, I was going to say revisiting. Visiting for the first time, this movie. It was alright. For a movie that cost $200 million and shaved a few years off everybody's life. It was fun, I guess. Yeah. Well done, everybody.

I got 50 minutes in and I'm like, damn. There's nine hours of this. Sure is. And no, we are not doing the extended version. I know we're going to get the comments. No, yes we are, James. No. How could they? They'd never know. Yeah, I guess they wouldn't. Anyways, this is

Caravan of Garbage. Yes, we do this every week. And if you would like to see these early, you can. If you head over to BigSandwich.co, where in addition to early videos, there is also bonus movie commentaries, where there is also bonus podcasts, including our comic book club, or the one that we do on Clickbait. There's also our podcast, The Weekly Planet,

where we talk movies and comics and TV shows. That comes out a day early on Sunday, as opposed to Monday Mason, which is available on all platforms. It's got its own YouTube channel. You can find it basically everywhere. If you walked outside in Thrill Rock, you'd probably hit somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who accidentally downloaded

an episode once. That's terrific. That's how popular we are. Hit somebody in the rock and be like, listen to the Weekly Planet Podcast. You know, because it's rude. You hit Andrew Dice Clay. Oh, did you? I thought you were Andrew Dice Clay. No. Okay, great. He's a singular individual. Yeah, I guess he is, isn't he? Alright, thanks everybody.? All right, thanks, everybody.

I mean, him and Dennis Leary. And what's his name? Bill Hicks. Bill Hicks also. Yeah. They're all very unique in the sense that they all copy Bill Hicks. All right, thanks, everyone. Grab that jam, you guys.

We'll see you next week. Goodbye. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors, like high blood pressure developed during pregnancy, which can put us two times more at risk of heart disease or stroke. Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. 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+.