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Fist My Bump (Anachrony - Project Hail Mary) · Dice Camera Action!

• Mat Cousineau: Hello! I want to play game. Any plans for this evening? Perhaps a game night? Game over, man! It's game over! Shut up! Play the game! Play it from your heart! 26 years ago, we started playing a little game. Now, we're all gonna sit down... finish it. Here we go. Each time each time cycle we look at board game. We think we share then you like movies to you stay We talk one movie one game same idea theme game and movie match smart. Yes, you listen you enjoy you happy good good good That's my impersonation of Rocky from Project Hail Mary. ⁓ Please don't roast me too hard. Yeah, so ⁓ welcome. I've got ⁓ a return host from across the pond, fellow Canadian who now lives over in the UK, Sean Holt. Welcome to Dice Camera Action. I'm really excited to have you back on. Thanks so much for having me again. Thank you for getting up early in the morning to work with my UK schedule. So if Matt sounds sleepy at all, that is a hundred percent my fault. It's not that it's 10, it's 10 20 AM. So I've been up for a little while now. I've got little kids. So, yeah. So I'm sipping away on my coffee. is morning. Typically I record it at in the evening or at night, but, yeah, it's good. I guess maybe I'll have a little bit more energy. I on the last episode, which I literally recorded night before last, my brain was a little mushy because I'd gotten up at 5am, worked a 12 hour shift of like, you know, a job where you're pretty, you know, focused mentally all day, and then got home and podcasted for like two, two and a half hours. And I joked with Isaac that like, I feel like half the episodes I say that like, I've been working all day or I just came off night shifts and I'm only on three hours sleep. I guess it's the life of a shift working dispatcher. But today I am well rested. It's the morning. My brain should be functioning properly despite that terrible intro. Yeah, you're going to be so sharp. It's great. I've got you at your absolute best. So I'm looking forward to it. Right on. Yeah, so Sean, ⁓ thanks for coming on. I'm excited to have you on. You last did Shackleton Base with me, and then we had paired that with Moon. And then today we're going to be talking about Anachrony and Project Hail Mary. So we're staying on theme here with the space stuff, which is totally fine by me. This is my favourite genre, so it should be fun episode. Yeah, I have watched non-sci-fi movies, I promise, but... Uh, yeah, it just seems like that's what keeps coming up. So that's, that's fine with me too. Cool. And I think you were the catalyst for this episode. You'd watched project Hail Mary and you were like, Matt, we got to talk about this movie. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was coming up. So I'd read the book. Um, and I was excited about it happening. And so I was like, once this movie comes out, we got to talk about it. Cause I'm, I'm pumped for it to come out. So now it's happened and, and yeah, I'm excited to. to relay what I thought about it if it met my expectations from the book, because I like the book a lot. Yeah, same, same. We'll get into all that just down the line here a little bit in the podcast. Excuse me. So before we get into all of that stuff, just a couple of things we wanted to kind of chat about speaking of space. I thought like there's been a major world event lately or at least in my eyes, it's a major world event that's worth talking about and very on theme. ⁓ so I thought maybe we'd talk about the Artemis two missions. Did you follow along? ⁓ Sean? I did. Yeah. Yeah. More or less. Yeah. I had a Canadian involved. I love it. They were like, it's so diverse. There's like a person of color, a woman and a Canadian as though we're like a race. felt like you're stretching there a little bit. Sure. Well, it was it was great. Everyone seemed lovely. Like I watched a little bit of the stuff because they had that Netflix stream. I watched a bit of that I watched some of the highlights. There's a lot of really nice moments. It's just I love space stuff. Going out into space. I feel like it's especially when it's not celebrities for a change. Yeah, it's nice when it's like astronauts and not like Lance Bass of Backstreet Boys are in sync or whatever. It's I appreciate that having actual scientists in space is a nice change. And there's a big difference between just going to like the very edge of our atmosphere in like, don't even know if they go to the, I don't even think, I don't even know if they go as far as like low earth orbit where the ISS is. So, you know, obviously they still go to quote unquote space, but it's not the same as going to the moon, ⁓ you know, and then orbiting the moon, ⁓ you know, doing the flybys that they did and then coming back. ⁓ It's especially the danger level is like ⁓ completely different, right? Primarily just because of the speed of reentry, right? Like if you just go to where Katy Perry went, you can just come back down as if you were. You don't, you're not hitting the atmosphere at speeds that cause, ⁓ you know, metal to melt for the whole thing to like start to fall apart. You don't need a heat shield, et cetera, et cetera. But when you go all the way to the moon, you know, ⁓ the entire way to the moon and then on is kind of like throwing a ball up in the air. ⁓ And then when you turn around and start coming back, that's the ball coming back. And because there's no atmosphere and oxygen and whatnot in space, your speed increases and increases and increases and increases and keeps going until you hit something that's going to like dissipate that energy. And yeah, the speed at which a spacecraft that goes all the way to the moon ⁓ hitting our atmosphere is what causes that like violent re-entry. So massive, massive difference between doing a mission like that and ⁓ just going to ⁓ going on a plane, more or less, just really, really high on a plane is sort of the equivalent. It's a little bit more than that, of course, but ⁓ yeah, we followed super closely here. I have a nine year old and a six year old, Charlie and Remy were like right into it as well. pretty much had sort of a live stream going. I forget if it was on YouTube. I think it might have been on YouTube. Maybe on YouTube as well. think they had multiple problems. You're right. Netflix had an event for re-entry and all that, think. But YouTube had a live ongoing stream throughout most of the mission. So even when not much was going on, it was still just on in the background. we could kind of see where they were at, what they were doing and whatnot. So we were following really, really closely here at our house. And yeah, I just find all this stuff fascinating. And the thing that I think I take away from it in this time of like a lot of really not great stuff going on in the world, ⁓ you know, we don't need to get into all of it, but... ⁓ It's just really cool to see humanity, people from different backgrounds and like the whole world sort of gets behind this thing. You know, it's a collaborative project between multiple nations. ⁓ And like these astronauts ⁓ are really like put on a pedestal as heroes. ⁓ The type of heroes that like I think are the type of heroes or type of people that should be put out. as great role models, know, like my sons got to see, again, a person of colour, a woman, a Canadian, you know, this team go out and do this incredible thing, work together, come back safely. And then if you listen to any of their ⁓ press conferences and their talks and the things that, like, these just seem like incredibly amazing people with like great morals and like, these are the heroes that we should be looking up to. ⁓ you know, ⁓ and I, and I'm very happy that my kids got, got to see all that. So pretty, pretty cool moment. And I'm super excited for like Artemis three and four and everything coming up. yeah. I just, I want to still be alive when we go to Mars. It's just, it's, it's so exciting. The whole thing is ever since I was a kid, just the thought of that or building moon bases. Like I know that there's potential negatives for all this stuff, but the kid in me, it's just, it's so exciting. It's just so exciting, this stuff that might happen because that's the next plan, right? Build a base on the moon, have that as the launch point, and then go to Mars. I'm sure there's many steps between, but that's the stuff I'm excited about. Yeah, and they might even have to do a similar type of ⁓ recon fly-by mission that they did to the moon with Mars before they even land because they're not, you know, having never gone out there, you never, you don't really know everything, all the challenges that you might face. So They might have to do an unmanned one the way that they did with Artemis one. And then they might have to do a fly by on Mars the way they did with Artemis two before they actually land, et cetera. So, but they are predicting that it's going to happen in our lifetime. So, ⁓ know, fingers crossed. I know they have a lot of hurdles to jump over before they can do that. But yeah, we live in exciting times. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. No, it really cool. Should I introduce myself as well? We just kind of got rolling, but I don't think I ever actually introduced myself. Sure. Yeah. Let's do the whole thing. You know, I mentioned, I mentioned your name, but I don't think we talked about like, you I want to give you an opportunity to plug all your stuff. let's do that. Great. Yeah. So I'm Sean allies are enemies. So I do a YouTube channel with my wife allies are enemies. We're also a publisher. We got two games. that are on the ocean right now and hopefully will be in like where people can buy them soon. So that's last week of summer, which is a worker placement game about it's 1986. You just finished high school and you're trying to make the most out of your last week of summer before you got to go be a grownup with all these modular eighties locations. And then the other one is Shakespeare, the card game, which is a two player only card game that uses all different characters from Shakespeare. You can win by comedy, tragedy or history. and it kind of is like a mush together Shakespeare characters, like a Shakespeare MCU. So those are the two games that we've got heading out right now. So you can find those on our website too, and that's Allies or Enemies for more info. But yeah, let's get back to chatting about stuff. Thanks. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'm excited for both those games. ⁓ Sometimes backing projects on Kickstarters is fairly prohibitive in Canada because It's really tough to back stuff from Canada. It's like so expensive for the shipping here. It's just, doesn't even, yeah, it's, it doesn't even really matter what you ship with because Canada has got the problem of it's huge and it's just really expensive. When I moved here, I couldn't believe how cheap mail was because just using Canada post, just a normal thing in Canada would cost me like 20 bucks regularly. And here is like three pounds for everything. it just blew my mind. just feels like I'm just mailing stuff for fun. ⁓ Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. find it really tough to back as many projects as I would like. know, ⁓ it's, so I'm waiting for retail and all of this ⁓ is, is ⁓ the reason I'm saying all this is it's going to be available in retail. I be able to buy it at board game bliss or ⁓ it'll be available. in retail in the UK. And we're, we're, we're, we're looking at partners in Canada and the U S. ⁓ very cool. So last days of summer and Shakespeare, ⁓ is, is there still, ⁓ ability to do like late pledges at the moment? They're just barely. Yeah. Yeah. So it's last week of summer and Shakespeare, the card game, and they're both on game found and they're on late pledge. Depending on when this goes up, it's, it's going to be closing at the end of the month. ⁓ maybe it'll stretch a little bit past that, but yeah, they'll, they'll still be some avenue to find it. So if you don't see it on there, just go to our website and you'll be able to figure it out. And it's allies or enemies, allies or enemies. That's us. Right on. Cool. ⁓ and you had one more thing you wanted to bring up before we got into the rest of the stuff. You went to see a musical over there. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. That was right. Yes, I changed my mind on what I was going to talk about. But we'll talk about Totoro. Yeah, I want to hear about my neighbor. was excited. My neighbor Totoro. Yeah. So we go to because we got the West End here. ⁓ It's kind of amazing. There's only kind of two cities where you can really see musicals whenever you want. So we try and take advantage of that. So we went and saw my neighbor Totoro. And it was a Christmas present actually for my wife from her folks, I think, or her brother. I don't know. I've Whoever, if I got it wrong, I'm sorry. Let's just say her whole family did I'm sure her whole family listens to Dice Camera Action. it's, You're really gonna cover your... Yeah, they sit around the old timey radio all sitting together in the room. But yeah, so as her whole family listens to this. ⁓ So we went and saw My Neighbor Totoro and it was pretty much... just captured exactly what is in the movie. Like it was everything. And there was stuff I thought, well, obviously they're not going to do that bit. They totally did everything. And Totoro is huge. And I was shocked by it because I thought, well, how are they going to do it? They're going to like, they're going to have some screen thing. They're going to have something else. No, they had this giant moving, like not talking because he doesn't talk about like doing his giant yawns and giant roars and all that stuff Totoro he was controlled by all these kind of puppeteers but they would you know they fit inside of him when he was standing up there was someone like in his head there were people like moving his legs there are people moving his arms but they're all in these all black kind of ninja suits ⁓ controlling him and it was amazing how quickly you just ignored that they were there they did such a great job and all of it was all these wonderful because obviously because it's theater everything's practical effects always but all these wonderful practical effects and the acting was tremendous. was really, really good. Everyone, everyone there was really into it. And it was, it's nice to go to the theater and see a show that kids are at. Cause so often you go to West End shows and you know, they're, they're not really for kids, yeah, it was nice. Cause there was a lot of kids in, the theater and they were really into it. Awesome. Yeah. was great when he comes out and lays down and the girl like bounces on his stomach. The kids were just like in awe that this was happening. Right on. Yeah. So really, really cool. Because of where I live, I haven't been able to see a ton of like live theatre. You know, my wife and I from time to time go see like the local theatre here in Sudbury. But it's just a small theatre company. They do an amazing job for the resources and the size that they have. But, you know, we're not too far from Toronto ⁓ and Toronto has a decent theatre scene as well. You know, it's not it's not Broadway or or what you've got over there, Yeah, it's it's decent and I've seen a handful of plays there and you're right like it is amazing What they can accomplish? ⁓ You know with with you know, I mean for lack of a better term visual of like practical visual effects like in person ⁓ it's incredible what what they're able to do and and and what your mind is able to sort of like block out and imagine and just take in what you need to want to take in. ⁓ it's really, really, really cool what they can pull off. ⁓ we saw it back to the future recently and the end of that, the car fly. I've never seen anything as amazing as how that effect works in back to the future. Make the car move. That sounds really cool and amazing. Yeah. Experience. Very cool. ⁓ Alright, so before we move into the meat of the episode here, let's have another word from Board Game Bliss. I want to take a quick moment to shout out our sponsor BoardGameBliss.com, which is honestly where I've been buying games for years. This isn't some random ad read. They're literally the only people I reached out to because I already love what they do, and I was relieved when they said yes so could be fully genuine when endorsing them. They've got a huge inventory of games and are always super competitive price-wise, which is important to At Board Game Bliss we believe in the magic of play. Board games spark joy, forge connections and create unbelievable moments. We source exceptional titles from around the globe, so your table always has something exciting to offer. Whether you're just starting out or you're seasoned pro, there's always a new favourite waiting to be found. Go to BoardGameBliss.com and find out why they're my personal favourite place to buy All right, so let's get into it. So today on the podcast, we're going to be reviewing Anachrony, which I believe is one of your all time favorite games. I followed along a little bit on your on your channel where you did your top 100 games of all time counting down and all that. And I definitely checked out the top the top videos and I scrolled through it through a lot of the others to just to kind of see the taste and the other stuff that that you've got. that you got going on there on the channel. So yeah, I'm excited to hear, you know, I've played the game only twice at this point. So it'll be more of a first impressions for me and that kind of thing. But I'm excited to hear what you've got to say. And I've only played the base game. I assume you've played some expansions too. So we'll get into all of that. And then we'll review Project Hail Mary, which obviously is a huge hit. in theaters lately. So we'll get into all that before we do. We are going to do a couple of shout outs. Stop shouting! I'm not deaf! You like that bumper? See you giggling. It was surprising. was shocking to me. Perfect. accomplished. Cool. So ⁓ why don't you get us started with either a game or a movie that you've taken in lately? Great. I'm going to kind of cheat on the movie because we just watched every episode of Degrassi. We just rewatched all of Degrassi the next generation, all of Degrassi the new class. all 18 seasons over the last year and we just finished it. And it is so good. It's better than I remembered because I was like, I don't know if this is going to live up. And then each what I love about Degrassi is that everyone like ages out. They like graduate out of the show. Then you get this new cast. And every time you get the switch over, it's like, I don't know how this is going to work without Marco and Paige and Spinner. Like, and then it's like, I don't know how this is going to work without Holly J. And then it's like, I don't know how this is going to work without Claire. And it always works. And it just moves on to this new cast and it's always good. And yeah, I learned a lot about not doing drugs. I learned a lot of a lot of real solid life lessons from from Degrassi. And it's just it's so good. I don't know if there's another show there must be but ⁓ I just don't know of other shows that really hit that same kind of perfect. like a cool after school special almost and the bands in that show. didn't remember because all I remembered really was Zip Remedy and ⁓ Everybody Wants Something from like the early Joey Jeremiah years but the like legit bands that pop up all because everyone in that cast can sing all the time and like downtown Sasquatch have some bangers all the way through. That's a great name for a man. isn't it? It's yeah, yeah, they during their funk period. That's really when they're best when they're a funk based wedding band. ⁓ I just I love I loved it. We were so sad to finish Degrassia. Now we don't know what to do with ourselves. Start watching. Now I'm to blank on it. What's the HBO one that is on the they were high school Zendaya. euphoria. Euphoria. I tried to watch that. tone, right? Yeah, a little different. A little different. It's a lot. just felt like I'm too old. I'm too old for this now. Degrassi was my nice... I feel like downtown Sasquatch would not survive in the world of euphoria. Fair enough. It's funny because as you were talking about Degrassi, was like in the back of my head, like, wasn't Ryan Gosling in Degrassi? Didn't he start there? No, he's in Breaker High. That's exactly it. It says he was not a cast member of Degrassi's frequently confused with actors from the Canadian teen drama franchise because he started in a similar nineties classic show, Breaker High. ⁓ So I hadn't played my name. ⁓ yeah. He played Sean on Breaker High. He's a he's a real troublemaker. Him and his buddy. I forget his buddy's name now. Great. Great. The amazing thing about Breaker High is the whole premise is it's a high school on a cruise ship. basically, and they go to all these like wonderful different places. But because they have basically no budget, because it's like this Canadian show, they go somewhere and they're like, ⁓ we're in Rio, but it doesn't follow the people who are in Rio. just follows like you two are in detention. And then that's the whole story. So it always like stays on the ship. Maybe not always. But this is my memory of it that they would be like, something awesome is outside, but let's just stick to the ship. ⁓ So that's, but Breaker High is legitimately good from what I remember. Yeah. Maybe one of these days I'll have to check it out. Like my growing list of, yeah. Okay. My list of, my list of like shows, TV shows that I'm currently watching or want to watch is like longer than, than I have time in the rest of my life to watch them. ⁓ so it's tough to like, you know, stick, stick new shows and old shows, especially in the mix, but, ⁓ right on. So that was Degrassi. Funny story, when I moved down to Toronto, the idea was to work in the television and film industry at the time, because I'd come out of college where I took television production and video production. ⁓ And I did do that for a couple of years down in Toronto, but I lived on Degrassi Street. which was either the school or the dude or who had some sort of affiliation to the show, but I actually lived on Degrassi Street, which is kind of fun. It's where they filmed the original because the original original show was kids of Degrassi Street where they just interviewed kids. So it was nothing to do with what we know as Degrassi. It was just this weird little show where I think maybe they were teachers. I'm not sure. They're like documentarians and they just interviewed a bunch of kids about like going into school and then they kind of mix that with little like lessons to make kids not as scared of going into school. I might have a lot of these facts wrong. the gist is right. And that's why it's always called kids of Degrassi Street. So it started on actual they were literally just kids who lived on Degrassi Street. The opinions of Sean Holt are the opinions of his individual person and not reflect the ⁓ does not reflect dice camera, actually, etc, etc. Anyways, they don't even they don't even reflect me. Honestly, I want my own thing of my own opinions. Yeah. Right on. So a movie that I watched recently on Netflix, which is I was gonna shout this out on the last episode. And I thought, no, no, I'll save it for this episode because it has time travel in it. ⁓ so it is a movie that recently hit Netflix called Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. Have you heard of this one? I tried to watch it yesterday. Yeah. I'll let you talk about it first. I watched it. He tried to watch it. Okay. Interesting. ⁓ yeah. So, ⁓ Mike is played by James Marsden. ⁓ Nick and Nick are played by, ⁓ Vince Vaughn. ⁓ and, yeah, it's like, ⁓ I mean, the time travel is fairly, ⁓ like the It's not a very flashy, like, effects-driven time travel movie. There just happens to be two Vince Vaughns in the movie, one from present time and one from six months from now, who traveled back in time to, you know, maybe change things or like affect the situation that was going to be happening that night. I won't go too much more into the plot because it's fun to kind of discover all of that along the way. But I had a really good time with this movie. Again, it's called Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. And James Marsden, this guy's underrated. Like I know he's played like he plays the like, the Sonic's buddy in those movies. And I think he was in like the like an Easter bunny movie where he basically played the same role to like a cartoon character. called Hop or Hoppy or something like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Hop. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, he has a little bit of a reputation for being in these kids shows, but like the guy's a legit. good actor. He was in Westworld and did a great job there. ⁓ Huge, I got to give the guy huge props. And the reason he kind of like popped for me, and I'm like, we got to pay more attention to this guy. It was his role in jury duty. Did you watch jury duty from a couple years ago? Like, do you mean the the Polly Shore movie? No. Okay. The Polly Shore movie. I hated I watched in the drive in I hated so much that I threw up. was getting so like angry at it. And and I had eaten an entire pack of nibs and it was too many nibs. But it Yeah, I barf at my hatred of the Polly Shore movie jury duty. Does anybody in the world who likes any Polly Shore movie? I'm not sure I know like teenager mad like 14 year old. You know, immature Matt had a good time with maybe like bio dome and stuff like that. But those are just really silly. And Encino Man is legit Encino Man was fun. Yeah. I haven't seen it I'll go to bat for him on Encino Man. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. My vague memory of that movie is that it's actually pretty fun. And like Brendan Fraser, is there a more likely to you gotta love Brendan Fraser. Yeah. But anyways, we have gone down a rabbit hole here. James Marsden was in Jury Duty. It's a reality TV show. You're not familiar with this? No, no idea what it I'm doing you the biggest favor. This has to be your next watch. You said you're a little bit lost after what to do after Degrassi. This is your next watch. I think it's on Amazon Prime. The regional stuff is different, right? So it might not be on Amazon Prime for you guys over there, but it's called Jury Duty and it is a reality show. I hate reality shows. Don't like them as a print. it just not a fan at all. ⁓ And ⁓ this is a reality show where only one person is in the reality show. So meaning only one person doesn't know that they're in a reality show. Okay. So basically what they did was they casted this dude by ⁓ doing a whole bunch of interviews with a whole bunch of people and they kind of vetted it and wanted to get a certain personality type for the show. And what they did was they told them they were shooting a documentary around a real case. And so there would be camera crews around and they would be just kind of shooting the proceedings of this real case, this real jury duty case. So not only was he gonna potentially be selected for jury duty to deal with this real case, but he would all, there would also be cameras and they would like do interviews and stuff, okay? So he thinks he's there for like, there's going to be some cameras on the side and whatnot, but he's there for jury duty. And so he goes in there and every single other person, the judge, the defendants, the lawyers, the other jury members, the people that work at the court, every soul is our actors except for him. And so he gets put in this scenario and then essentially what they do is they kind of strain the reality of what's plausibly realistic, all kinds of weird and crazy things happen. And because he's in a quote unquote serious setting and he's a jury member and there's a judge there telling him to follow the proceedings and be whatever, even though he's looking around going, what the heck is going on here? you don't really want to just kind of like stand up and go like, what is this? Like you sort of can't, right? So like the, that's the premise, right? And it's like eight, seven or eight one hour episodes of him like going through, ⁓ you know, and they're all sequestered to a hotel. ⁓ so they like live in this hotel with their other jury members and like all kinds of crazy things happen with the case and with other jury members and James, this is all takes place in LA. That's the setting. That's where these people live. And James Marsden as himself is also got called for jury duty and he plays this like slightly more cocky, like self-important version of himself where he's like, you know, I love this. Like I'm too cool and I'm like too popular and rich for like all of this. And it's just like super fun. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I forgot he was Cyclops. Anyways, all that to say James, James Marsden is great and he's low key the hero of that show. He's so good in it and so funny and the show is incredible. And the reason I love this show so much, this is turning into a separate shadow thing. The reason I love this show so much, Jerry duty is because it's not mean Okay, like the Joe Schmo show some of the some of these other shows when you were describing it I thought I hate because I hate it when they're mean I really don't like a million reality show Yeah, it's the Canadian in you I get you ⁓ but hundred percent it's like it's hilarious because Strange things are happening things that like strain again, you know credibility of like could this even really happen? But because of the setting, he's just got to go with it. And like, he's just got to whatever, right. And I remember at one point late, he I remember him even saying he turns to like one of the other jury members, he's like, this is some reality TV shit going on here. Saying that kind of sarcastically, but like, he's not realizing he's actually in a reality TV show. But yeah, he's this like, you fall in love with this dude. He's the biggest sweetheart of a man. He's super nice to everybody. Every scenario he's in and he gets put in these like scenarios where he's like, he has the option of like doing the right thing or saving face, doing the right thing or doing something selfish for himself. And he just like always does the right thing. He always looks out for other people and whatever. He's just like this lovable guy. ⁓ It's such a great show. It's excellent. And season two just, just came out and it's called, company retreat, a jury duty show or jury duty company retreat. It's the same premise, but it's a company retreat. so anyways, ⁓ I'm excited to jump into that one cause I've heard great things, but check out jury duty. James Marsden is amazing. Anyways, going back to you. Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. There's a time travel element and the big thing that I think that stands out for this movie, it's basically like a crime dramedy where Vince Vaughn plays like this crime boss. James Marsden plays like his main thug, the guy that does a lot of the violent stuff. Vince, the thing that I think is really fun about this movie is that Vince Vaughn plays two versions of himself. We get to see the like cocky, ⁓ fast talking, ⁓ really like quippy version of Vince Vaughn that we all love. But then the like six months from now, Vince Vaughn that like goes back in time has gone through some stuff and is a lot Even though it's only six months, he went through some stuff, right? And so he's a lot wiser and more like open to like listening and just being more empathetic and ⁓ that kind of thing. So it's really interesting to see two versions of Vince Vaughn ⁓ kind of like playing against himself. he like, I was really impressed by his performance there. So ⁓ it's, and it's fun. It's a funny, silly. ⁓ crime drama. ⁓ And definitely would recommend Mike and Nick and Nick analysis. Yeah, we so I tried to watch it a little bit last night, but it was too late when I started it. And then I kind of gave up after 15 ish minutes. But there was a weird so the thing I liked in it was Keith David, because I love Keith David, Keith David and anything. ⁓ I'm just a huge fan ever since they live. ⁓ He's just always great. And he's great in this. ⁓ yes. But yes, he's he's great. ⁓ yeah. Where it looked like a movie that people in a movie are watching on TV. And I just got this thing in my head that something about it looked like a movie that people in a movie are watching on TV. And then I could not get three of that. ⁓ I don't know, maybe when I got maybe just because it was late at night. So I was feeling goofy. And this was just like, I just had this thought and then it would not leave. And there's just something about like the lighting or the something in it that I just, I don't know. It's not even necessarily a negative. It was just weird. It was just, yeah, I just felt like, they going to cut to the movie and the people watching this movie at some point? And I really thought that was going to happen at the beginning. And then it didn't. And I was like, okay, this is the movie. That's just sort of the tone of it, guess. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. There's just something about it. I don't know. I'm interested if anyone else has had that experience with this movie. Yeah, I didn't notice that. Now that you say that, I can see what you're kind of mean. It's not a very like pretty movie. It's not like incredibly shot. It's not doesn't have great, you know, it's a very straight in terms of like its quality. It's a very straightforward in terms of what it looks like and sounds like. The fun to be had here is just with the characters. and the story beats and it's this timey wimey back and forth thing that has some interesting plot developments as well. but I think I think that even what you're talking about sort of works for the tone in the end, because it is sort of ⁓ silly. It is a silly sort of comedy at the end of it, right? Like it doesn't take it's not completely silly. You know, it's not like biodome. or Encino Man. But it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's still funny. And the characters are sort of interesting in a Vince Vaughn kind of way, right? Like in that sort of tone, but it did work for me. I had a really good time with it. It's not going to make my top 10 of the year or anything like that, but it's worth checking out, you know, on a Saturday night to watch. You'll have a little bit of Ben Schwartz in it too. And I always appreciate Ben Schwartz. Yes. Yes. That opening scene with Ben Schwartz is a blast. Yeah. Love that ⁓ guy. Okay. You got a game for us that you've been playing? ⁓ Yeah. Well, let's just real quick. So we've been playing peak team or the peak team, I think it's called. It's a game where you are a whole bunch of Rangers and you're in a big national park. you're doing rangery things, you got to look at animals, you got to go to different places to, I assume, like fix things in the park. And how you play though, is it's all cooperative. So at the start of the round, everyone's given four cards, and then you give two cards to each neighbor. And so then they're going to get four cards, getting two cards from each neighbor, and then those are the cards that you can play each turn. So that's, I think, it's like a simple little thing, but it's really fun. And it's fun because you can kind of see which way they might want to go. And you're thinking, like, I'd like you to because you got to look at animals and you got to move about. So you're in cards do both things. So you're thinking, I really want you to look at this eagle. And then I'm hoping that you move, but you can't tell them that you can't tell the other people what cards you're giving them. And you obviously you can hint to them what to do, but you can't tell them what to do. And so it's it's like a co-op game of imperfect information and some limited communication, but you still do a lot of chit chatting while you play. It's not like a game you play in silence. And we've had a lot of fun with it. I think it's it's surprising because it feels easy at first. And even every game, feels really easy for about 80 percent of the way. And then it gets real hard. And if you haven't been banking stuff while it was easy, when it gets hard, it's really going to kick you in the butt. And it's an interesting flow that it has that I enjoy. Very cool. Yeah, I'm watching looking at the pictures now. It's very charming. I like the look and feel of it. Yeah, it's got a presence for sure. Yeah, it's really, really a cool game. Yeah, it's a Matagot, I think, put it out and they always do good stuff. Right on. OK, so that was peak team, the peak team Rangers. Is that what it's called? The peak team Rangers or the peak? It says on the box the peak team Rangers, but it's GGG says the peak team and then I only call the peak team. So. And I'm sure it'll answer to ⁓ more on on subtitles or secondary titles in a moment. ⁓ So the the game I want to talk about really quickly is wattle from all play. It's in one of their like standard little all play ⁓ boxes. Have you played wattle? I haven't. I just got my first little all play bar. box in ⁓ Oddland and I love how much game they put in a little box is lovely. Yes. Yeah. And the presentation is always good. Like all play your, can expect quality for sure. Maybe not all of their games are going to be for everybody, but you can definitely expect quality and like some solid amount of game in their, in their little boxes for sure. So this one's called waddle. it's sort of reminds me a tiny bit of like a Kramer and Keasling kind of area control tiling sort of thing. but obviously simplified, ⁓ I played this with my, my son, Remy, who's six and my, my older son, Charlie, who's nine. and they loved it. And, ⁓ it's, so it's fairly simple, but there's enough game there that, you know, for a short, simple game for guys like us, ⁓ it's still a good time and there's still enough to crunch on and, try to make some decisions. There's some expansions too, that I might look into to just kind of add a tiny bit extra crunch. But essentially you're gonna lay out a modular board that has a whole bunch of like ice ⁓ pieces of penguins in the Arctic kind of theme. So every piece is either ice or it has like breaks in the ice and which make these little like lakes, I guess, for lack of a better term or breaks in the ice that make water. And then in these water spaces, there's fish that are worth a certain amount of points. And in turn order, you will, ⁓ place a penguin on one of the spaces. ⁓ And then each of these lakes has a number in it ranging from one to 16. So for round one, we put the like focus on the little tile number one, which is like one of these water spaces. And then we take turns placing penguins around that space. ⁓ And then on your turn, you have played it. So I didn't know what it was called. Yes, played this. Okay. Yeah, it's called waddle. ⁓ And ⁓ yeah, so you'll on your turn, you'll either place a penguin or you'll what's called scout for later or scout for this for the future or something like that. ⁓ And instead of placing a penguin, you're kind of passing and putting yourself as ⁓ as the first player to go in the next round. ⁓ And then the next player can go and again, they can choose to either place a penguin down around that space. or they can again scout and then become the second player for the next round. And as soon as somebody is the last player in the round, they have to, they don't have a choice. They have to fill out the rest of the spaces around that water space with their penguins. So there is a really interesting decision space there. And that's probably what makes takes the game from being like, of like too simple to like just crunchy enough that I can have a good time with it as like a player who likes strategy and. thinking forward and planning and that kind of thing. But yeah, so at the end of the game, you're essentially going to score for waddles when a waddle is a group of penguins. ⁓ And so if you have ⁓ two penguins in a waddle, that's worth three points. If you have four, that's worth like six points, etc, etc, all the way up to like eight waddle or eight penguins in a waddle is worth like 36 points, I think. ⁓ So it's exponential and you're trying to make big groups. But also, You're also going to score the lakes or the water areas. Whoever has the most around a water body of water will draft the fish that are in that space first. And obviously the draft, ones that are worth more and then whoever's second and third, et cetera. ⁓ So that's basically it. But the crux of the game is like really trying to make a decision of like, does it make more sense to me to continue to place penguins around this space? Or do I just like put myself in a better position for next turn for next round or whatever. So yeah, it's a really cute little night, really great table presence for a little, a little boss, small box game. And, ⁓ the boys really liked it and yeah, it's, it's a, it's a good little game. definitely recommend it. Yeah. I thought it was ⁓ super charming. Actually. I did not remember the name at all, but I played it at my buddy's house and, ⁓ yeah, we really enjoyed it. Yeah, and it plays in like 20 minutes, like it's super short, even like three four players, it's going to play under half an hour for sure. So you get a little bit of that competitive like area majority kind of feeling, but as a kind of a filler game. So it fits kind of a bit of a niche ⁓ in a collection potentially for that reason. All right, so ⁓ I texted you last night, Sean, to come up with a handful of games that you had either opinions on or hot takes on. Did you get a chance to do that? I noticed this text right before we went up. So I wrote down five games that were on the shelf in front of me, which I don't think is quite what you want, but it's what I've got to give you. yeah, I very, very quickly wrote down. the five games that were directly in my eye line. wasn't your note. No, it's, wasn't even a necessary, like I have enough titles lined up here to make this, ⁓ this little mini game work hopefully. and, yeah. And we can throw some of yours in if you feel like they're going to fit. there's, there's, there's, there's some good games in here. yeah, I'm happy to chat about these. Okay. So last time you were on the show, ⁓ We had this moment, so I'm gonna play it for you guys now. I rarely in this game, you're like, nothing feels good. I don't know what to do because if I do this, it's not great. If I do that, it's not great. Most of the time I'm like, which of these three amazing things do I want to do? So it has really a lot of that. So satisfying turns where I do a thing and I'm like, bam, suck on that. You know, it just feels great. Yeah. And I believe that is actually what it's like. That was originally the subtitle. Shackleton Bay suck on that. I think you're right. Yeah. And then they switched it to journey to the moon. I don't know why, which honestly I think is like wrong. Where's the journey? There's no journey. We're on the moon. That is true. Yeah. It should be called Shackleton base. We're already on the moon. We're already on the get used to it. So yeah, I'm charmed by myself. You're so charming. You can't even help it. Oh, that's Sean. Yeah, so I that moment was super fun and I thought, why don't we make a game out of it? ⁓ So what I have done is I've got a whole bunch of games and movies. And we're just going to sort of riff a little bit ⁓ and, just kind of like give what our ⁓ will give these movies and or games, subtitles. ⁓ So are you ready, Sean? Yeah, let's let's give it a whirl. Sure. Let's give it a whirl. Okay. Let's see. Let's start with 12 rivers. 12 rivers. Oh, I do. I have 12 rivers. It's actually you can't see it. It's behind me somewhere. It's got marbles in it. It's got 12 rivers. got marbles. There you go. Okay. We're going to do ⁓ the movie that you reviewed with me last time, Moon, but with Sam Rockwell. ⁓ boy. This is one of your favorite movies. I know. Well, I don't know if it's one of my favorites, but it's a movie. It's a movie that I like. Maybe that Moon. It's a movie that I like. I like it. I like it a favorite? No, but I like it. It's fine. Sam Rockwell. Yeah, I love Sam Rockwell. We've had this conversation before. Did you see? Sam tremendous. Good luck. Have fun. die. Yes. Okay. I liked it. It wasn't the best, but I liked it. ⁓ I just, wanted it to go somewhere else a little bit, but yeah, but it was, I thought pretty good. Yeah, I agree. think the Sam Raquel of it all is what really elevates it for me. ⁓ And I do enjoy going down the thinking rabbit hole of what it all means and stuff. yeah, there's enough there. My favorite from him is the Way Way Back. Maybe that's Moon not as good as Way Way Back, but pretty good. It's funny. I watched... Now I'm going to completely blank on what it was. I watched another movie. No, Sam Rockwell wasn't even in it. was, um, Paul Rudd was in it. Well, he was in Sam Rockwell are kind of like a Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster. Like they're, they're of the same ilk. Uh, is it mute? It might've been me. yeah. you familiar with the weird director? think it's Yes, mute by Duncan Jones. Okay, so this is after we watched Moon and reviewed it together. ⁓ I decided to check out this mute movie because Duncan Jones had directed it. And yeah, I agree. It's like, you know, better than you think. And it's not great, but I had a decent time with it. And ⁓ I just, don't know if you remember this, but there's a scene in mute. where we sort of linger on a screen in the background where there's news happening and it is news of the stuff happening in moon like the moon is happening and moon is happening in the background of mute. So it's just a little easter egg that he's that he threw in there and I meant to like message you about it I guess I'd forgotten but ⁓ Yeah, that's really cool. Well, how about that then moon as seen on mute as seen on mute? Perfect. Okay. ⁓ Let's go with a feast for Odin. ⁓ feast for Odin. Yeah. Feast for Odin is great. That's one of my favorite games. It's weird though, because it's just about not getting negatives. So it's like feast for Odin who sucks the least. Because that's kind of the like you win for Odin with very, especially when you first play feast rodent our first games, the scores are like minus two to minus 17. Like it's like a real downer when you look at it. Now that's better at it than we used to. But maybe that is well feast rodent. It's going to be tough for the first three games, but you'll get better at it. That's kind of long. Maybe feast rodent just wait till the fourth game. Trust me. Don't skip the first three games. Just play the fourth game right away. Let's keep in the same kind of vein here and go with a Gricola. ⁓ Gricola. Gricola is just boy. It's going to be tough. A Gricola. about this? A Gricola. The one where animals f**k. Yeah. You know what I love? Have you played Cabrera? I have yeah, the the sequel to Agricola. I love that in caverna. It's so PG that the dwarves when you have kids, you wish for children. You just and then they appear. There's no sex. It just says specifically wish for children. then it just kind of like, dance in from nowhere. So maybe that they got that note. You don't know how dwarves you don't know how dwarves reproduce. I guess that's it. But I think that was the note. So maybe it's a Gricola too sexy. Too sexy. So sexy. So PG 13. I think when I look at that box, think, ⁓ my, ⁓ my, some late night play in here. Okay. Here's an interesting one. Star Wars, the rise of Skywalker. ⁓ the last one. ⁓ I think my dad's favorite, I'm gonna put that as the line, my dad's favorite. Your dad's favorite. swears by it, he loves it. He thinks it's so good. He was like, it all came together, all the people I wanted to see, and I loved that because so many people were down on it. And I actually went into it just hoping it was okay. And I had fun. I get the complaints, but when my dad loved it, that just made me happy. was like, great. I've got like permission to like this more than other folks maybe do because my dad loves it. So it's awesome. I wanted to like it so bad, so bad. I convinced myself it was okay. And then the, know, I rewatched it and I'm like, anyways, not, not a, not a huge fan for me. It's Ryza Skywalker, not in my head. Cannon. Fair enough. That's me a little bit with number eight. I haven't warmed up to it still. It's okay. I'm up and down with it. The last Jedi would be Star Wars. The Star Wars The Last Jedi. My favorite Star Wars. Is it your favorite Star Wars? It is. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's it's it's bottom of my list. I don't love it. And I love seven though. I loved seven. I know people don't like it. They think it's a repeat of four or whatever. But I loved it. had, I've never had that much fun in the theater. I went again next day and the next day after that. Yeah. I love, love, loved it. I was so good. I'm a big, big fan of seven as well. And I, yes, I agree that it's like very much a retreads almost like too much. And, know, but, but it was 30 years later and I felt like, I felt like it just kind of like needed to remind us. what Star Wars was, know? So I think for that reason, I sort of like was okay with it. And then everything else was so great about it. I loved the characters and I loved the action and I loved a lot of what was going on there. You know, the big piece that I struggle with is like, did we really have to do another Death Star? But like, we won't get into that. No, I love, love Dove. And even though I kind of crap on eight, I've watched it like 12 times. So it's like, I try so hard to like it. I've watched it so many times. Yeah. Just to try and force myself. I want to soak it in. I just, love star wars so much. Yeah. Yeah. Right on. Okay. So that was a, that star wars in general, uh, Azul, I noticed that you reviewed this on your channel. I was going through your channel cause I wanted to like make sure to grab games that I knew you would. be very familiar with. So I appreciate it. Let's go with Azul dual Azul dual. Oh, the one people forget about the secret one. don't know what to say about Azul. Azul. If you only have one, check this one out too. Cause I think it's, it's, it's a solid second as well. The tricky thing is all the Azuls play well at two. So you don't really need a two player, but it does have It does have some interesting mechanics that are just a little bit different. There you go. I specifically chose that one because when I saw it, my first thought was like, that's a missed opportunity. So like my, my subtitle would be Azul Duel should have been called as dual. ⁓ yeah, it should have. should have. That is really a yes. Yeah. They fully missed that. Okay. Twilight Imperium. ⁓ Twilight Imperium. I've never played it. That's I mean, I think this is a lot of people, though, like Twilight and I'll play it one day. I think would be like, you should play it exactly right. Because I have I've also never played it. I want to I mean to. Yeah. One of these days somebody will make me play it. And that's how I'll play it. Because it's like to play a game all day like that. I think I would almost ⁓ Honestly, that might be my subtitle. ⁓ Twilight Imperium. I'd rather play three games, three different games. maybe. I don't have a lot of patience, so it's hard to play a big game like that for that long. But it's an experience I feel like I have to have as a board gamer. So I'm open to it. But I don't know. Yeah. One day, one day I'll do it. Here's one. Flip 7. I can't believe I didn't design this game. It's like the simplest game that made so much, so much money sold so many copies. It's like full mainstream. It has and I'll be so flip sevens a game I'm glad I've got around like the holidays and stuff or with folks who don't play games because I can explain it in a second. can play it. But if I'm going to convention, I'm not a big fan of playing it. It's just there's something I appreciate it. But there's something about it that stresses me out. So for me, it's flip seven. ⁓ suddenly I got to go to the washroom. As soon as my friends break that out. I'm like, ⁓ I'll be back in a sec. just got to, ⁓ guys go ahead. I don't to get in anyone's way. For me, it's like a five minute game. Yeah. For me, it might be flip seven. I usually score zero. Yes. ⁓ this is my problem. Yes. Because I'm like, I could take another one. I could take another one. I could take another one. Like, ⁓ crap. Literally almost always score zero. And then like at some point you get so far behind that you have to be aggressive. Otherwise you don't stand a chance. You just got to go for it every time. Otherwise you just not going to happen. right on. It would be for me flip seven. Great time to go to the bathroom. All right, so an acronym. Let's get into this beast of a game. So it's published in 2017 by Mind Clash Games, designed by David Tertzi and Victor Peter. Art by George Alexi and Adam S Varga. Plays one to four players in 60 to 120 minutes. The BGG weight is 4.0. And it is currently an 8.0 rating, overall rating or average rating on BGG as well. So Sean, having played this way more than me, I'm going to hand it over to you to give us a little bit of a high level overview of what this game is and how it plays. Great. And I'm kind of going off memory, so no one take me at my word on this stuff, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. So in anachrony, there's just been an apocalypse. and there's an impending apocalypse. So you're a squish, you're sandwiched between two apocalypse, I believe, which is not a great place to be. And you've got this board of people who have to go out to a planet and do stuff on your own board. So this is a work replacement game where you've got kind of two different fields that you're worrying about. So when you go out onto this planet, importantly, you need to put your people into mech suits to protect them. So they got to go into mech suits, then they're going to go out onto the shared board. And on that board, you're to be doing stuff like, ⁓ you're going to be getting water, which you're going to need for an awful lot of different things. Cause like most sci-fi things, water is very scarce. You're going to be getting other workers. You're going to be hiring them to help out your, whatever your path they're called different paths. And they're kind of like the companies in the future. And you are also going to be getting different minerals. and you're gonna be using those to build buildings that you're gonna put on your own player board, and we'll come back to that part in a sec. You're also gonna be getting these scientific breakthroughs. Those are gonna help you get super buildings, these super projects they're called, and you're gonna be building those buildings. On your own board, you're gonna have the buildings that you've built, and so you're also going to be ⁓ assigning workers to all of those buildings, there's going to be four different kinds of buildings, they're going to get you stuff like water, they're going to get you other minerals and more, more these cores that you need to power up your mech suits, the beginning of each round, so you don't just automatically get mech suits, you've got to actually power those up. They're also going to help you move through time. And this is an important part of the game is because one of the phases of the game, the beginning of each round, you can get stuff you're kind of getting it on loan, but you're going to have to pay it back in the future. And how you pay it back is to come back in time and drop that stuff off again. So one of the buildings that you need to get is to actually move through time. Another interesting thing that you're doing with all these workers that you're gaining and you're sending out is every turn they're going to get sleepy and you got to wake them up and you either going to wake them up nicely. And every time you wake them up nicely, you get more points or you can wake them up rudely. And that's going to actually drop you back in points. And this is the only game I know that has this feature to wake them up nicely. Interestingly enough, you use water. I don't know if you just throw water on them. And if so, don't know what you do to wake them up rude. That's not nicer. I know. Well, I guess it's the nicer of the two options. So the bad option is terrible in this future. There's an apocalypse coming. So they don't have time to mess around with waking people up. Basically the gist of like the stuff you're doing in the game, why you're doing it is everyone has got a special leader that they get at the beginning of the game. That leader has got a goal that you have to achieve in order for whatever your path is. The paths are like the path of unity, the path of harmony, all these different kind of futuristic ways of seeing the world. And so whatever your path is, you've got a goal of something that you have to do. So one of them might be to have six buildings built. By the time you reach that second apocalypse, so there's like a asteroid that's coming, it's gonna crush the earth, by that point, you've gotta have finished whatever your goal is and be ready to go. And so you've got that thing that you need to do and then you also are gonna have some bonus thing that you have to achieve. You're gonna get points from that. That's gonna be a good chunk of your points for the game. There's also a bunch of final goals. Those are things that you're racing for, competing with the other players. ⁓ There's also just going to be some little points that you're going to get throughout the game. But a lot of it is going to be for that path and for those final goals. And then the end of the game, once that asteroid hits, all of those spaces are slowly going to disappear. Every time someone goes to it, it's going to be the last time someone can go to it. Once all of the spaces have been flipped over, so everyone has been gone to one last time, then the game is over. The world collapses. And hopefully you've managed to get off the planet before that happened. And that's just a very quick overview. There's a lot, lot, lot in this game. It's quite heavy. And that's not even talking about the 11 D five expansions that there are for it as well. Right. Yeah. I believe I played mostly the base game and I think with maybe a tiny sprinkle of other stuff because ⁓ friends of the show, ⁓ Shelley, ⁓ from Michiana board, Gamery on an Instagram. and Hannah, who've also been mentioned on the show recently. So Shelly and her husband Lance taught us how to play and Hannah and I think played for the first time. And I think Shelly and Lance might have sprinkled a couple of little modules or little things in there. But for I think it was like 95 % just the base game that we played. And yeah, there's a lot. going on and ⁓ we split that first game into two different sessions ⁓ because we were at a con and we started playing it at like nine o'clock at night after we put the kids to bed at the Airbnb and we're like, let's play anacrony. And it obviously takes a long time to set up because there's lots of stuff going on. And so we split it into two nights, which probably doesn't help my ability to kind of like... you know critique this game efficiently, but ⁓ yeah, I will say for sure that I had I had a good time and I think I would need to play at least one or two more times to really Grok it and really see if this is my jam But I but I you know the the theme alone and what we're doing and the way this game looks ⁓ and the mechanisms and everything's like, you know, very much interest me and so regardless you in my first couple of games, I'm fascinated by all the stuff that I'm doing. Once that fashion fascination wears off, you know, is there is there like, is this really my jam or not? I guess we'll see. But I but I definitely had a good time for my first couple of games. But this is like, this is like one of your all time favorites, right? It's in your like top five or something. Yeah, I've probably played this game 50 ish times now. And it's, it's it's a game that I loved. right away. And there's something about I found like its rules just kind of clicked in my head. Like I find it's it's not too much really of rules overhead for how much it does. Like the stuff to learn really is just put a person in a mech suit to put them out. All the spaces have you know, like, because there's four different kinds of workers. And but every space shows what kind of worker can be there what bonus they will get. So there's nothing to memorize the really, really solid iconography. Yes, whole game. And then even if if any of the iconography fails you, they've got all the pieces, all the cards numbered. So you just go in the row book, like, okay, let's look at 315. It's explained perfectly. That's how this thing works. I never even noticed that. Yeah, yeah. So I found that really, really helpful. ⁓ Really kind of hold your hand through those first few games because there's a lot of thinking. But the nice thing is I found that the thinking wasn't so much the initial rules overhead, but the like, How do I be good at this thing? Because it's very easy to be bad at. I still, played it 50-ish times. I still don't think I'm very good at this. ⁓ But it's, I really like it. It's the only game I can think of that I actually bought extra bling stuff for. I never do this. But halfway through the first game, I was ordering the mech suits. And ⁓ boy, they're so worth it. Because the little people slot right in. And the head stick out of the top. It's so nice. I've seen pictures and it looks really cool. And the mechs are all like the design of the mechs are asymmetric to their faction. So they're like themed differently. I'm just looking at the pictures and they're so cool. ⁓ Yeah. There's four different kinds of mechs. Yeah. They're all really different as well. Yeah. The yellow ones have kind of a lion thing going on and yeah, they're all a little bit different. I think it's a beautiful game, I think it's just, so like, just, ⁓ it's so nails the point. What am I trying to say? It's, it's got such a slim rule set for how much it does. just doesn't. For the size of it and for how much you're doing. I agree a hundred percent that like for this size of game, for a 4.0, it is very streamlined ⁓ and very. I think the mechanisms are tied to the theme in such a way that it's fairly intuitive is probably the best way to say it is that like, once you kind of understand the bare bones of ⁓ or the foundation of how this game runs and how the iconography works and you start to kind of speak that language, it becomes very intuitive. And you're right, like when you want to go to a certain spot, it tells you this kind of worker can go here. this kind of worker can't go here, but if you send this kind of worker, you'll get a bonus. And like, you can immediately glance at that and know exactly what works. ⁓ And it's the kind of game that you have to plan ahead, right? At the beginning of the turn, you're gonna be like, okay, how many mech suits do I want? How many workers am I gonna have? And it's tough to plan ahead because like, you're not always sure that those plans are gonna work out. You're not always sure, like maybe you need a specific kind of worker that you need to go hire. but somebody else grabs them first. And then you're like, I don't have enough of that kind of worker to be able to do the thing that I want to do. Or I ran out of water and I can't wake up my people or, you I have to do it in the mean way and that sets me back and whatever. there's, definitely so much to think about that you cannot plan it all the way. You know, you're gonna, you're gonna make, you know, your plans and then like 85 % of your plans are gonna come to fruition. And in such a way that like the ones that do are satisfying and the ones that don't kind of like stress you in a good way, stress you in like, oh, I almost got there. And then when you do get there, it's that much more satisfying to like pull off the things that you're trying to pull off. Yeah, no, I love that about it. It's very tight. Like resources are very, very tight, but there's almost always a second or a third way to get to what you want to get to. once you figure out how to do it, where it's like, I can't get this mineral, but if I build this other building, and then I have that building, or if I go get water, and then I trade that water, or like you, you can find these other routes, not always, but usually you can find these other routes. And even the, like, I can't wake up my workers, but you always can, you just have to do it the bad way. But you can still wake them up, you still, like, you're not going to be totally without them. Yeah. So there's always not always, but there's often going to be another thing that you can do. But the, many mech suits is such a tricky thing. Cause those cores are so hard to come by. So you really have to, and initially first games I'm like, I want six every time I want max mech suits every time. And then you realize like I've just wasted all these resources. Yeah. I only need four. can squeeze by with four or with three. So you you're always thinking about that. And it's interesting, too, because halfway through the game, when that asteroid hits, you lose the ability to get half of your mech suits, a bunch of your spaces to put those on go away. And as people go to those worker spaces on the board, those go away. So it kind of is like, I hope you've built up the stuff on your board, because that's really the shift is going from that shared board to what you've built. And at that point, it's like, I hope you figured it out. Cause if you have it, you're going to have a tough round or two now. Cause yeah, you've got to hopefully have built up that engine enough, but I like that. Like it's tough on you. doesn't hold your hand. It's like, if you didn't do it, ⁓ you're going to learn for next time. Just a tough lesson. Yeah, for sure. That's okay. I'm okay with a game doing that. Yeah, I agree. And I want to key in on, on one thing that you said, you said like the game is so tight. Resources are really tough to come by. And I think this game has to be like that because one of the main mechanisms that I find super interesting and fun is the time travel element, right? So at a certain point in the beginning of each round, we have a handful of tokens that we secretly will choose one or two of these tokens. And then we'll all reveal at the same time ⁓ what resources we've gone back in time and ⁓ are gone forward in time. And was it back in time? You get them now. ⁓ you have to go back in time to pay them off. Right. Yeah. So you but where do you get those resources thematically? You have you gone to the future to get them? I think I think you just get them from the current timeline. But the only way to pay them back is to go back to that point in time to like repay them. I think because in this world resources are so tight that you can't really take extra Yeah, regardless of the theming of it, the idea is that you're like borrowing resources and from a different timeline or whatnot. And then you have to go back in time to that space to give it to yourself. ⁓ So that's actually what it is, that like you, right, so it's coming back to me now. So thematically, I need water right now, I'm desperate for it. And here I come, I show up from the future and give myself that water. So now I have it in the now and then I can use it, And then, but what happens is that in the future, I have to go back in time to give myself that water. Otherwise you create a paradox and there can cause some issues and whatnot. So, and that'll cost you points, it'll cost you space, it'll cost you time and all kinds of things. that mechanism will only work and will only sing the way that it does. if the resources are super tight. And that's what makes pulling things off and actually achieving something that you want to do in a specific round so satisfying. Yeah, no, it, it, you're right. It does only work if it's so tight, but it's nice because there's a little bit of push or luck because you don't know you're going to get those paradoxes. You're whoever has the most of those tokens out on each era is going to roll a dice. That's going to give you between zero and two. But once you get three, You're going to get an anomaly, which is a bad building. have to put on your thing. And in order to get rid of that, you have to murder one of your people and give up resources. So it's really tough that you get that. But the good thing about putting things out as well is you're going to get a bunch of points. The more you go back in time, each time you successfully pay off things, you're moving up on this little track. And that is one of the ways you get points is through that time travel aspect of the, are rewarded for like, Yeah, and doesn't mechanically, it doesn't necessarily need to be timed, like it could have been alone, and it would have worked, but it's fun that it's time travel. Definitely, definitely. That just that shift in the way that you think about it makes a big, big difference. Because, you know, other games, you think about loans, and you just grown, right? Because we're all like, we're all living in debt and trying to pay off our own loans and debts in the first place. I don't want to do that on my casual game nights. No, I definitely want to do time travel. Yeah, I hope that the me from the future just shows up with a few thousand bucks at some point. That's you say. that's that. That's everything I'm counting on in real life. But and also just to quickly mention those expansions too. So they've put out a bunch of boxes. They had a big Kickstarter that came with this like giant cube. I didn't get that cube. I just kind of dip my toe in the water with the essential edition. And then I bought more and I bought more. But I will say I don't use them that often. actually really like this as just the base game. There's a couple, Future Imperfect I think is nice. It brings in another faction. It brings in ways that you can move the mech suits around. ⁓ So it gives you more actions on your turn, but it gets rid of a round. it of like speeds things up a bit, but then you can do more in a round. So you feel like you're comboing. I think that one's kind of nice. There's another one that's Guardians, which gives you another way to get mech suits that are kind of these shared mech suits. And then there's a bunch of kind of smaller ones. We tried to play once with all of them. Do not do that. It is a terrible, there's just so, so much. read a thing later of the designer, David Turksey. He hasn't even done that, at least from the one thing I read. I believe he was saying like, no, and yeah, don't it's, it's so, so much to think about. It's, this is really a game one module at a time. Maybe two if you're really feeling like your brain is at full capacity. But even though it's like we mix it in every now and then, but I'd say two out of three games, we play just base game. And I love it with just the base game. I think the base game gives me kind of everything I need. But the base game with those mech suits, because those mech suits are necessary. They're so cool. Yeah, they are really cool. ⁓ I didn't know, I had no idea what version of the game that I had. I traded it and it was a huge box. So I thought maybe the mechs, I didn't even know. So I, when we opened it up for the first time, ⁓ it had, it has a couple of expansions in there. It doesn't have the mechs or anything like that, but there's definitely like at least two extra modules or things that, that we didn't use or didn't play with. So, ⁓ But yeah, I had a really good time with this. I will say that ⁓ on the second play, a little less so. ⁓ One of my minor criticisms is that it doesn't, ⁓ it feels a little bit aimless in what you're trying to do. ⁓ Like you have to build this, know, from the two games that I've played, the like direction that each faction needs to go is essentially just that I need to build three of a certain type of building. by the time the apocalypse comes. ⁓ And then I want to amass a certain specific type of thing to get the bonus points when I evacuate. So I'm working towards that a little bit, but those things are not that difficult to accomplish, in my opinion, or at least in the two games that I've played. I just had to make sure that I had those three buildings constructed by the time we evacuate. ⁓ So it didn't feel like we were progressing towards something specific other than just moving forward in the timeline. I was just trying to do things to get points, right? ⁓ Luckily, again, there's like the theme, the art, the mechanisms, all of these things jived with me really well. And so I was not bored or whatever. When I say aimless, it's not necessarily like this major negative. It just didn't feel like I had a path that I was specifically going towards. ⁓ You might have a little bit more, you know, thoughts on that, but that's again, two games. Yeah. Well, and it sounds like you were using kind of like the starter leaders, because I think if you use the more interesting leaders that have some quirkier goals, you'll find yourself having to do some quite different things. And I find as well the asymmetric, I don't know if you use the asymmetric sides of the boards. But that makes a huge difference in this game because they feel very different and then the different leader powers as well. The stuff that they can do. But yeah, the flip sides of the boards have some real positives and negatives for each one. And so that really changes things if you change which color you're playing as. But the different leaders make a huge difference because I believe you're right that there's four starter leaders that have those have three of red buildings, have three white buildings, have three whatever buildings. But And I don't think I've used those since my first game. So I think we've mostly used all the different, and that might actually be something where the expansions have come in for us. Cause we may be using expansion leaders. I'm not positive, but I certainly, until you said that I didn't even remember having that experience. But now that you've said it, I do remember having that in my first couple of games, but I think once you use the other leaders, gets a lot more interesting and, ⁓ and just mixing up the goals, mixing up. There's a lot of stuff you can mix up in this game to change that experience a bit. But I do kind of get what you are going to be building buildings, you are going to be trying to keep everybody alive. You're going to be doing some of the same stuff each game, but it is going to have just different nuances. Right. Yeah. It felt a little bit like, ⁓ which is funny because it's a... has that theme, right? But it felt a little bit Groundhog Day-ish where like ⁓ a round starts, I wake up my people, I send them out to do stuff, I'm just trying to maximize the amount of points that I'm doing while I'm getting those things. I just had to make sure those buildings were constructed. So it just felt a little bit, ⁓ it didn't feel like I had a specific path that I was going down or an end game goal or that I was ⁓ building towards. ⁓ but I think you're right that we use the simple side of all the stuff, cause it was our first game and I knew it was a beast and I wanted to really wrap my head around the rules so that I could give a proper, you know, critique, ⁓ at least a proper first impressions. but yeah, I had a, I had a really good time with it and I'm looking forward to, ⁓ expanding, ⁓ a little bit on, on, on the type of game that we've played in that. So maybe next time we'll like flip those over and do the, the more asymmetric. boards and leaders and stuff. Yeah, I definitely would suggest it. I think it gets cool. And as you kind of, as people kind of really take it seriously, although I don't think we take anything that seriously, my wife and I, but, ⁓ she's, she's better at it than me. So I've really got to keep my eye on those end game goals. So I'm always thinking about them because I know I've got to play as well as I can play or I'm getting my butt kicked. Right. Yeah. She just has one of those brains. Yeah. Well, she's just smarter than me. That's really, that's all. Is that a high bar? It's a medium bar. It's a medium. Yeah. Yeah. It's at least a medium bar. Yeah. It's getting lower every year. will admit. I'm with you on that one. As the grays come in, I think they pull brain cells and they go into your graze and your beard and your hair. I think that's how that works. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Right on. No, I I really enjoyed this game, especially like this felt really daunting. ⁓ Especially once we opened the box for the first time and saw how much stuff was in there. That's probably another thing that we should mention for anybody who hasn't played who's thinking about it. There's a good amount of setup and tear down. like, you know, what you if you want to get organizers or like get really intricate with your like baggies and whatever way you organize your games, you're going to want to do that for sure with this game. And to add to it, I hadn't realized it because again, I traded for this game and I don't think I had ever opened the box. But when we sat down to play this at 9 p.m. after a day of gaming at a con, it hadn't even been punched. like, we're punching like so much stuff. Like this is a packed box. And I'm like, Oh man, is this a good idea? Cause by the time we even started playing, it must've been after 10, but after the teach and everything. But yeah, I thought it was really good. what I, something new I want to try. I put out a post last night on on board game geek Facebook group, asking for people to give kind of their one line reviews of anachrony. So ⁓ I'll just read a couple here and then we can sort of react. ⁓ So Dora Kinsis says, my all time favorite from Mind Clash games. Have you played many other Mind Clash games? Cause I haven't. I've played all of the other Mind Clash. I have Mind Clash, one of my favorite publishers. I really, really like what they do. So yeah, I there there's probably something that I haven't played. Someone's probably listening and go, ⁓ what about this? But I've played, I'm pretty confident I've played just about everything that they've put out and they got a lot of great. Trecarion is a tremendous game that they've got as well, but a lot of stuff I really like from them. But yeah, it's probably my favorite too. Cool. Mo Tuzinja, who is the host of Tabletop Bellhop YouTube channel, a big fan of what he's done over there. He says, I own over 3000 games and of all of them, this is my favorite. So a glowing review from the tabletop bellhop. Daniel Lubas says, time travel done right. ⁓ Cole Plaskett says, a lifetime of content in a legendary box. There are so many game modes and add-ons and combinations, you'll never play the same game twice. So that's kind of an attractive thing if you wanted to kind of like make sure you had. replayability and modularity and stuff like that. Yeah, and those expansions really do change up the game. So yeah, I, I heartily agree with that. Uh, Josh Fessenden says amazing worker placement game with the most brutal game implementation of opportunity costs. And I think I agree with that. Um, there was a couple here. I wanted to read, um, okay. Yeah, this one. This one kind of echoes what we just talked about a few minutes ago, but Ryan Abrams says an enjoyable worker placement game that proves that loans are much more fun when themed as time travel. Yeah. Yeah. You got to dress them up. ⁓ Yeah, and then Steve Hudson says, great base game, but expansions that add complexity for the sake of complexity. I own the essential addition plus future and fractures and no future and fractures are just going to sit on the shelf. ⁓ Okay, so like Steve, Steve, guess just prefers the base game, which is fair. Well, like I said, two out of three times, I think we just play the base game. So yeah, yeah. Yeah. I guess you, kind of echoed something similar with it. that you know, the base game and again, it's a game that has enough going on, especially if you're talking about adding the asymmetric leaders and having a little bit more complexity and your goals and stuff like that. It's probably enough for most folks. ⁓ Okay. And then finally, Jess Higgins says, I have not played. So thank you for weighing in Jess. I appreciate you. It's good to know. Yeah. Great. Maybe Jess needs to jump in a time machine, go play and then come in and amend her comment. Yes. Yeah. Great. I appreciate someone doing that. I always joke that I'm going to do that sort of thing. I appreciate it. Like, thanks. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. Definitely a great contribution to the conversation. ⁓ Yeah, just overall, I ⁓ really enjoyed it. I think I'm at this point more intrigued and interested and wanting to explore versus ⁓ being super excited about it. ⁓ I think that if this wasn't themed sci-fi ⁓ time travel stuff, I don't know if I would 100 % return ⁓ just based on the mechanisms. ⁓ you know, after the conversation we just had and understanding now that there's a little bit more interesting stuff going on with the goals in that if we go past the like base ⁓ leaders and goals in that, ⁓ that definitely makes me more excited to get it to the table. We're having a game night tonight and ⁓ we may end up pulling this out again. So ⁓ yeah, I the art, the graphic design, the table presence, even without those fancy mechs. is really, cool. I love the vibe of the game. The, ⁓ the leaders are really, really cool. Like, the art, the art and the graphic design is just like really, really great. And on the last episode, you heard me talking about the old King's crown, which I think is maybe the most beautiful game that's ever been made. ⁓ yeah, it's, it's gorgeous. And I, I lived up in Edinburgh, so I actually, ⁓ hung out at the, well, one time went by and visited those folks at their office and so saw some of the art getting done. ⁓ it was gorgeous even then and what they ended up with is just beautiful. Yeah. So after having played the Old King's Crown in an acronym back to back, think it was like an embarrassment of riches in terms of like art and graphic design on my table. Both those games are literally sitting in front of me right now and it's like, Yeah, we live in a time where, you know, we're pretty lucky to have a hobby. was actually talking about this at Nerdfest with some friends where I'm like sitting in a room and there's like hundreds of people in the room and there's a board game library. And I'm like, man, we, this is the best time to be in this kind of hobby. like, there is a game for every soul, a different kind of game. a different look of game, a different style of game, length, you name it. And yeah, we're pretty lucky to be able to do all of this with, and then like the quality of games ⁓ that are coming out on a regular basis, ⁓ like you said, an embarrassment of riches. Yeah, I think we're going to look back on this in 20 years is really the golden age. Like this was, this is the explosion. We're in that tech boom. where yeah, like everything's happening now and everyone keeps saying, you know, it's going to fall off. It's almost done, but I feel like we're still right in there and there. We're still getting so much cool stuff. A hundred percent. Yeah. We, we, think we're at the point now where it's like, there's way more being made than, than the hobby actually needs or wants. so the like general quality probably has dipped on average. but the amount of games that come out that are above that like really good threshold is still super high. So if you do a lot of vetting and you know and listening to fantastic amazing content like allies or enemies and dice camera action you can kind of like zone in on exactly the type of things you like and I find this about movies and games right now there's so much information out there. that it's like really hard to play bad games and watch bad movies. Like, because I'm constantly like doing research and I check out letterbox and Rotten Tomatoes and I'm checking out BGG and reading reviews before I buy anything or watch anything. And so most of what I take in is at the very least good. And then there is a good handful of stuff that's like, ⁓ maybe not for me, maybe not quite my jam, but like, the quality level in general of everything that I take in is like really high at this point. I don't know how you feel about that. I go in, we got this awesome thing in the UK where you can get a, like a membership to the theater. So we pay like a monthly fee, we go watch whatever. So I watch everything. We just go to the theater. So I watch a lot of jokes still. I still, don't, we just think, you know, let's, let's go out to the theater instead of sitting at home. It's like 15 minutes walk for us. Yeah, so we watch everything. There's been a few times in the last year or so that I've thought, should we leave? This isn't gonna get better. But I think for the most part, some very cool stuff coming out. Yeah, including the movie we're gonna talk about in a sec. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, so let's move to our ⁓ rankings ⁓ for anachrony. So those were more or less my final thoughts jumbled in with a bunch of other stuff. So I have it as an eight, ⁓ which is like, you know, would play, would recommend, really enjoying. ⁓ And that again, take with a grain of salt to one way or the other, it's two plays. Those are my kind of first impressions. I'm looking forward to potentially diving a little bit further into this. ⁓ The reason, you know, the reason that it's not higher than that immediately is I feel like it does for my tastes go a little bit long for the level of interaction. ⁓ There's not a ton. It is a work replacement game. So yes, there is the like, ⁓ I took a spot that you can't get now. ⁓ Or I took the worker that you can't get now, but Like you said earlier, there's a lot of different ways to kind of like work around the things that you wanted to get that maybe now you don't have access to because of the worker placement thing. So I feel like, you know, there's, there's the worker placement is not scarce enough to make the player interaction feel really important. ⁓ And that's more or less the only player interaction in the game, at least in the base game. is the like scarcity, quote unquote scarcity of the work replacement locations. So that's sort of like my minor criticisms of the game. ⁓ I'm huge, huge, like that's one of my most important things in gaming is like caring about what my opponents are doing. And in most cases, I was just thinking about what my plan was and thinking things through and waiting for my turn to come. I wasn't overly focused on what other people were doing. ⁓ so yeah, I have it as an eight with a potential to go a little bit higher or with more place. Great. Yeah. So for me, I'm a very different player than you. So I've only played this at two. I only would play this at two. ⁓ I, any heavy game, I can't be bothered to play it at more than two. just don't have the attention span. So, and my wife plays fast. So I, we, we only play these games at two. So anacrony for me is an hour and 15 minute game ⁓ because We play quick and we play too. And also I really don't care about player interaction all that much. Yeah. I do care sometimes a lot, but when it comes to a heavy Euro game, then specifically, kind of don't want people to met. I'm having enough trouble already. I don't need the extra trouble with someone messing with what I'm trying to do. So, so for me, the, game's like a 9.9. Like this is a I think this is a tremendous game, especially the base game. But I do like some of those expansions that I like to sprinkle those into. But I think this is a tremendous game. And I think it too, as well. This game really shines it too. And it's got ⁓ the boards a little tighter. And I wonder, in fact, if it's actually that much tighter at two, because I've never even tried it before. So I don't know. Maybe it is looser there. But yeah, I think as a two player heavy worker placement game, this is tremendous. Yeah. I again, I've only played two games. My first game was four players and two of us was our first game and we had to punch it and teach and everything else. ⁓ you know, that was fairly long. ⁓ and then my second game was two players, ⁓ only, but it was also still a, a first play, ⁓ for my opponent and only my second play in my first time kind of teaching it. ⁓ So like all of those factors have to come into my experience, right, of having only played it twice. ⁓ But yeah, those are kind of our scores for now. I'm looking forward to exploring ⁓ the game a little bit further. Let's move on to our review of Project Hail Mary. So Project Hail Mary was released just recently in 2026, still in theatres, I think, while it is available on digital now as well. ⁓ It's based on the novel by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian. ⁓ It was adapted by Drew Goddard ⁓ to the screenplay and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, stars Ryan Gosling. Sandra Hewler and James Ortiz, who did the voice for Rocky. ⁓ And first of all, I knew this was going to be good ⁓ because of all the names that I just read. ⁓ So really quickly, like Andy Weir also wrote The Martian. ⁓ And then I also read his ⁓ first book called Artemis, which is about a a moon colony ⁓ kind of set in the future where like, you know, I don't know what the number is, but like a hundred thousand, let's say like it's a small city ⁓ lives on the moon, ⁓ which I thought was pretty good. Not as good as The Martian or Project Hail Mary, but it's a solid read. And then if you look at Drew Goddard's ⁓ filmography. I'm just trying to bring it up here. I don't know if you're familiar with his work at all, but basically he was a writer and director on The Cabin in the Woods, which is a top five all time favorite movie for me. Yeah, terrific movie. Yeah, he was one of the creators behind Daredevil, the original Netflix series, which is incredible. obviously wrote The Martian, or sorry, was involved in ⁓ The Martian as well as the, also adapted the novel ⁓ to the screenplay and ⁓ was involved as a director, sorry, as a creator for Cloverfield, Project Hail Mary, and then was the, I believe, writer, but definitely the director of Bad Times at the El Royale. Not sure if you've seen that one. I have, Yeah, solid, solid fun little quirky character movie all set in like a motel ⁓ kind of a crime mystery. feels like one of those movies ⁓ in the like when Tarantino blew up, there was all these weird little scripts he kind of forgot about that got turned into movies like Killing Zoe. It feels like one of those a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. It's a good time. ⁓ It's not a fantastic movie by any means, but like there's really fun characters. The plot is sort of like it reveals itself to you over the course of the movie and it's an interesting little mystery. But ⁓ one of the things I want to key in on is that Drew Goddard adapted The Martian and also adapted Project Hail Mary. And, you know, especially in an age where so many books are being adapted to screenplays and so many people are unhappy, like book readers are unhappy. with the way that the story is being told on screen. First of all, I am not the type of person that will overly analyze one versus the other. I try to take each piece of art on its own terms. And I think you almost have to do it that way because it's such a different method of storytelling. It's impossible to live up to the mind's eye and what you got from the book on a screen. And one of the main reasons for that is that in a book, can, you live in the characters' heads. You can take a whole chapter and give this person a backstory and they'll literally tell you in sort of like, ⁓ literally like narrate in the book how they feel about certain things. You can't do that in a movie. You can't live in somebody's head and know how they feel. You can a tiny little bit by some of the reactions to things and the way that they act and whatnot, but you just can't do it to the same level. ⁓ So it's really difficult ⁓ if you're trying to and hoping that a movie fully lives up to a book. And what I think that Drew Goddard does exceptionally well with both The Martian and Project Hail Mary, ⁓ At the sacrifice of some of the like expanded and more interesting science-y stuff that gets a little bit kind of like ⁓ yada yada'd in the movies compared to the books. ⁓ In replacement of that, you get a way more human story. Because the books are a little bit colder in terms of like the humanity. and the character development and the heart and soul of these people. ⁓ The books are at least for sure for Project Hail Mary. I don't think we focus nearly as much on the like brother, brother character dynamics and like the relationship, the buddy relationship between Rocky and Grace. We don't get quite as much as that and we don't get as much emotionally invested in that relationship in the books. ⁓ but Drew Goddard has kind of adapted that and made it front and center in the movie. And I think in a really positive way that I really, really enjoyed. ⁓ I think the sacrifice a little bit of, cause they would have had to spend probably another 20, 30 minutes of the movie if they wanted to explain all of the science that they explained in the book. I don't know if you agree with all that. ⁓ Not with everything. But I definitely agree with agree with some of that. Yeah, I am the sort of person who what who reads the book and then is like, what the hell when they watch the movie? What small things. I think this one did it mostly pretty well. I think the times that it drives me nuts is when it's like, obviously, a producer has been in there and has been like, ⁓ how about instead of Lex Luthor, they fight a giant spider? ⁓ how about if they just have like an island? Like where they have all of this nonsense that you can see that somebody in advertising said, ⁓ what if we put a wizard in it? Whatever it is. XYZ. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ wouldn't it be great if instead of superhero clothes, they just wore their street clothes? No, it wouldn't. All producers, would never be better. Have them be superheroes. But, but I do feel like here, you can tell that he's got a relationship with the author that he understands what is trying what the book is trying to put forward and does a really good job of like getting the heart of it. They cut out like you said, they cut out some of the science, especially I thought in kind of the last third, there's whole chunks that are just kind of not there. But I also didn't miss them that much. Like I didn't need to know. And I kind of wonder for someone who hasn't read the book, if they even thought like, ⁓ why did this happen? ⁓ Without that chunk, I think it's totally fine and not missed. And ⁓ I I kind of I did see the relationship in the book as well as the movie, but they add more relationships to so they have him in the ⁓ like, what's her faces number two. And they have kind of their little buddy relationship, which I think is really great. It's of like, fun dynamic for sure. Yeah. And it kind of brings you in right at the front and all of the the site gags that come with that as well. And I think That's that's the thing. So I know right now we're talking about Goddard, but I think what Lord and Miller did so well and what I was I was a little worried that they would go too silly and that they would play up the wrong things. But I think they really played up the right things where they have some like little side gags, some silly little site gags like the security guards all eating Sour Patch Kids or there's just a bunch of like little bits that they put in that are quite funny, but don't get in the way of anything totally fit with the characters. ⁓ Yeah, there's never a time that they like step on the narrative to make a joke. I think all of the jokes help push the narrative forward. And they don't even though it's a funny movie throughout, I don't feel like it's too funny. I think it feel like a comedy. Yeah, unlike the Martian, I wouldn't be as appalled if it won a Golden Globe for that. I think it's closer. It's closer to a comedy. than the Martian. Way funnier than the Martian for sure. Yeah, much. But yeah, I wouldn't necessarily put it under comedy. I'd definitely put this under sci-fi. I agree, though. I think it got to the heart of the book. And the book I really liked, and the movie I really liked. And I do think I liked them a little bit differently. both I enjoyed. 100%. I am a science geek. I love exploring ⁓ all this stuff, especially when it comes to space. ⁓ So I really, really enjoyed ⁓ the book for that reason, because it really dives into a lot of the relativity stuff and the radiation stuff and the astrophage and all of these things are explored ⁓ to a much higher degree in the book than they are in the movie. ⁓ And I'm not mad at the movie for not doing it because it's a movie and it just can't spend that much time. with exposition and science stuff, right? It's got to appeal to the masses more. ⁓ So I love the book for a slightly different reason than I love the movie and I love them both. I think they cranked down the science maybe 20 % but Jerr Goddard got in there and cranked up the like heart and soul and relationship between Rocky and grace a little bit, which I thought was was great as well. ⁓ But yeah, speaking of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, again, going back to the idea that like even prior to having seen this, I had a really good gut feeling because you've got Andy Weir who I'm a fan of. You got Drew Goddard who I'm already a big fan of, especially his writing and his adaptation of The Martian. He did very similar things, tone down the science a little bit, toned up the fun and character of ⁓ Watney, the scientist on Mars. ⁓ yeah, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. I was not worried that it would get overly silly because despite these guys having directed 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, also did Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. They also did the Lego Batman movie, the Lego movie, Mitchells versus the Machines. They were involved with not as directors but as creators. And they were also involved with Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse and into the Spider-Verse. So I know that these guys have solo, but we don't know exactly which. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And all I can think of, especially after watching a space adventure movie that they directed is like, man, why can't you just let them have fun with solo? Like that would have been. I enjoyed solo. don't I don't it either. yeah. Yeah. But I totally had the same thought. What would have solo been if he had just did their thing? Cause I bet would have been a lot more fun. Yeah. Cause Ron Howard's not like Ron Howard's no slouch. ⁓ if you're bringing in a guy to, to fix something up, Ron Howard's one of the better choice people you could get. Yeah. But, I do wonder what their movie would have been. And this really made me wonder. Yeah. And, ⁓ yeah. So despite, you know, ⁓ Phil Lord and Chris Miller primarily having done animated stuff and that are mostly comedies, ⁓ There's also like really great storytelling in all of the movies that I just mentioned and really great characters. So yeah, I just had a really good feeling about this team. And then when they announced that Ryan Gosling was going to be in there, I thought, okay, my initial impression was like, yeah, he's like a heartthrob. Like, is he too good looking to be a schlubby teacher? Is he too charismatic or whatever? ⁓ But, you know, five minutes in. you're just like you're in, know, the gosselin just like pulls it off. I think he's he's going to be one of the great actors of our time, especially as he ages. ⁓ And ⁓ and and stops being a little bit more that like young, sexy heartthrob and starts to be more of a more steps out of that kind of like typecast and becomes more of like, ⁓ just a slightly older more. I don't know. just like, yeah, just, just not as, as like, or like, in that way, he doesn't look like a teen heartthrob anymore. You know, like he's a man. So I like the phase of the career that I think he's stepping into now. Yeah, it's like he's, he's moved from tiger beat to lion beat. But ⁓ I wasn't that worried about him playing a teacher because his breakout role, if you remember was half Nelson, that was kind of his yeah, like where people went, ⁓ boy, this this guy could do something, which he's came was a teacher, who also was dealing with addiction, but was like an excellent teacher at the same time. This is a very, very different time, type kind of teacher than that was. But I think he was a fantastic choice. I really liked I've as we said earlier, I've liked him since breaker high. So since he was like 1718, I think on that show. And I think before that he was a in the Mickey Mouse Club. Wasn't it? Yeah, part of that whole gang with Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake and all them I think he was and what's her face from ⁓ that cut her hair? Felicity? ⁓ she in that group too. thinks? Am I? ⁓ I might be wrong. I'll feel real silly if I'm wrong. But yeah, there's a whole mush of people. No, it wasn't her. was Carrie. Carrie Russell is Carrie Russell Felicity. never seen Felicity. think so. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Carrie Russell. I'm pretty sure she was in that. But yeah, I did think he would be solid. And he was he was great. The one I was worried about was how was Rocky's voice going to be over there? You're to go to silly where they're to get a celebrity. ⁓ and I think they nailed that too. think they actually did go too silly and got celebrities for a moment. ⁓ did they, who did they have before? Well, they, they did the whole like, let's try this voice. Let's try this voice. Let's try this voice. And one of the voices was, my brain is not functioning today. the woman who wins all the Oscars, Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep. I don't know for sure that they got her to come in and do a sort of voice or if they just like borrowed a likeness or whatever. But I just watched it again last night in preparation for this and actually finished the last 40 minutes this morning because it was just getting late. yeah, they when they were testing out the voices, they're like, Oh, what about you know, what about this one? And then Gosling has a line where he says, she really can't do anything. Wow. So really no stone unturned. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Nice pun there. Nice. No, rock unturned. Yes. Hi, that's interesting. Accidental pun. I think where they landed was, was great though, because it was sometimes I get thrown out when it's like, ⁓ it's like Stephen Colbert or ⁓ it's like, it's Andy Samberg. Like, and then I picture even though they're terrific. I love Andy Samberg, but then I pictured that voice or that person the whole time. And it was nice to hear I could just be like, ⁓ it's Rocky. It's like Rocky's voice. And I'm, ⁓ yeah. And they could have easily gone Alan Tudyk too, which would have been like, okay, enough of that. I love that guy. yeah, but I think that would have been like, him again. You know, like, we get something different here? ⁓ Yeah, and I was delighted when I found out that Sandra Huler was going to be playing, I don't even know her name of the character, but the kind of leader of the governments of the program. ⁓ So I first saw her in Anatomy of a Fall a couple of years ago. I don't know if you got to see that one. I'm honestly, I'm not that familiar with her. I, I... That's the only other thing I've seen her in. Okay. I think she was nominated for an Oscar for that role. That movie may have won. the international film Oscar. I was nominated Anatomy of a Fall and she was fantastic in that and that was one of my favorite movies of was a 2024 I think it was. ⁓ But yeah, Anatomy of a Fall definitely check that out if you haven't seen it, but she was amazing in that. So I was like, as soon as they announced her, I knew exactly the role she was going to play and I knew she would be perfect. ⁓ Yeah, so big fan of her performance there as well. And when she sings the Harry Styles song, it's such a great moment in the thing because a weird moment that I loved. Yeah, I think it did such a good job because I think in the book, you get a bit of a sense of like their relationship softens, they kind of, you know, there's a bit of a connection between them, their trust builds, they don't have time for that in the movie. And I think this kind of did that. in like a really nice two minutes. And I like it felt like it felt like the actress not the character when she went, that's In the middle of the song when she was like, that's it. We're good. Yeah, we're good. And just watch out. Yeah, that felt like half character half actress like she was like, I nailed it. I'm good. We don't need we don't need the chorus again. I'm done. And I loved that moment. I thought it was so nice. I thought that whole bit was so great, though. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the real kind of miracle of this movie is that the fact that they pulled off Rocky. Yes, that was so great about that. You mentioned the voice, you know, for me, it's just in general, like pulling off an alien that's not just a humanoid alien, which I also very much appreciate. because in a lot of science fiction, I feel like I've talked about this recently on the podcast, but maybe not. In science fiction in general, a lot of times, it just ends up being humanoid aliens. And it's like, I don't know how realistic that would be, right? unless for whatever scientific reason, these aliens originate from Earth or something, right? Then fine. But otherwise, like, why would another life form from a different galaxy from light years and light years away, whatever, be anything like a human? like, usually it's effects budget, right? Like, that's why Star Trek, it's one planet's got pointy ears, one planet's got a ridge nose, one planet's got a rich forehead. And it's it's been one planet. Yeah, yeah. And there's a bit we're kind of, you know, we're at the point now where our regular TV shows have incredible CGI. So we can go beyond that. And yeah, to have a rock spider, and especially because it was a spider too. So I was like, so this could come off kind of like creepy or kind of but he's adorable. At the same time, like he's and sorry to spider lovers out there. But there's no not not for me. But ⁓ but he's terrific. I think that it's and that he doesn't have a face he can't yes, like directly emote, but he still does emote just through body language. Yeah, the CGI, how they did that and how they made him still a person. was mostly not CGI. I don't know if you really know it was almost entirely puppet. Huh, that's interesting. had actor I think they had the main actor who was doing the voice ⁓ participate in that but I think it was like two or three people controlling and it was a puppet for like most of the movie. ⁓ with, you know, obviously they had to use CGI and special effects to like remove the puppeteers and remove some of the stuff. And there were some scenes that you're like completely zoomed out and he's like a little bit more in the background or moving a little bit quicker. They did some CGI, but I want to say like 80 % plus of it was puppeteering and physical actual, you know, thing on set in camera, which I very much appreciate. bet that's why I found it so charming, honestly, because I'm always saying how much I miss the like Jim Henson style. You know, you're really moving real puppets or even when I was talking about Totoro and how much personality that giant Totoro puppet had on stage. is something so much nicer about practical effects than there is about CGI. that does explain it, but that's really impressive. I want to watch it again with that in my mind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple, like if you go on YouTube, there's a couple of clips of like showing some of the puppeteering and all that stuff. It's really fascinating stuff. Uh, worth checking out on that note. I want to play a quick clip here, um, about Rocky. Well, I started off with the real exoplanet, uh, 40 Eridani AB, which is about eight times earth's mass. It orbits the star about every 46 days. So it's very close. It's closer to its star than mercury is to ours. So I said like, okay, if that's gonna be the planet if then What do I have to do to make this a place where life could exist and within the context of the story? There was a pan-spermian event. So it has to be like water based life And so I'm like well to have liquid water that's really really hot you have to have a really high atmospheric pressure because ⁓ You know the the higher the pressure the higher the boiling point of water. So Okay, they're going to have a big thick atmosphere. But if you're going to have a big thick atmosphere and you're right next to a star, the star is basically going to sandblast your atmosphere away. The only way to retain it is to have a really strong magnetic field. So now I know, okay, they have a really thick atmosphere and the planet spins really quickly. Their day is not very long. If they have an atmosphere that thick, I figure maybe light doesn't make it all the way to the surface. So there's no benefit to evolving vision because there's no light on the surface. I figured their biosphere is almost like an ocean. It's like there's ⁓ life forms that absorb light and live that way up at the upper levels of the atmosphere and then things below that that eat those and things below that. I decided the atmosphere is made almost entirely of ammonia. That means there's not free oxygen in the atmosphere, which we rely on, right? So I figured the inside of their body is like a biosphere. They have plant-like cells and animal-like cells that keep in balance. They go back and forth and all they need to do is add energy to the system via food. An iridium is almost like ⁓ It's only got about a kilogram of actual biological matter. The rest of it is all just stuff that those little worker cells built. So an iridium is kind of like a beehive that can move. It's got the vast majority of it is inorganic matter. It's just a container for this biosphere that exists on the inside. Cool. Isn't that fascinating? Yeah, yeah. It's neat that he puts so much thought into it. It's not surprising because that's... You know, Andy Weir's things are so science based. When reading this book, it really made me realize how little I understood about relativity. Basically nothing. So I've really been trying to, ⁓ you know, to watch little videos and to read things. I still can't get my, I've got a buddy who teaches at a high level here at a college. And next time I play board games with him. ⁓ so watch out Greg for when you play with me next time, I'm just going to be like, please, you just need to explain this to me. You need to like. get this into my brain because I hate that I don't understand it. yeah, that makes sense to me because so much of, like you see this in all of his books is this real start at science. And it might just be that I'm a dummy. So I don't know if his science is right or not, but I'm impressed by it. No, from my understanding, his science is bang on. And ⁓ he was a guest on the Neil deGrasse Tyson podcast, which I'm a big fan of. ⁓ Neil deGrasse Tyson kind of like praises Andy Weir for how scientifically accurate all of his stuff is. And Andy Weir even said a few times ⁓ on the podcast when he was talking to Neil deGrasse Tyson, says, what I'm writing, you are present. I picture you looking over my shoulder and paying attention to all the science. And that's what like ⁓ motivates me to make sure that I get all this stuff right. But I love how he backwards engineered Rocky to be like for this for this person to live on this or for this being to live on this planet, it would have to be this, would have to be that. But then the water, if it's that close to the sun would be boiling. So in order for it not to be boiling and overly hot, it's got to have a really thick atmospheric pressure. But in order to have that and be that close to the sun, it's got to spin really fast to create a magnetic field that would protect it. Like there's all this stuff and I'm like, ⁓ man, that's so fascinating. And I only understand some of that stuff at a very, very base level. But I still find it really really fascinating and I hadn't heard that part where he was talking about rocky being this basically like mostly inorganic matter he's just like a crust or a core to like hold What is actually living inside and I just eat all that stuff up. I think it's fascinating Yeah, ⁓ and I I did miss a little bit of that in the movie the relativity part being the main thing because that's not really discussed and it's not really Yeah, like the only way that it's discussed at all is just kind of in how long did it take him to get this far. And that's no one dwells on it. And I found that part fascinating in the book. But to your point earlier, I, it'd be very hard to put that in the movie without just having a like, let's stop for a second. And then Neil deGrasse Tyson pops up and explains, which honestly, I would love and I would like that to be in every movie. But I think a lot of people maybe would. would like that a little bit less, but I would be and imagine being Neil deGrasse Tyson, where you just said to me, well, Neil deGrasse Tyson, like he was on the show, and I immediately went, Oh, well, then it's legit. Like he is like the apex of all scientific, like all scientists. He's like the guy, especially in relation to pop culture. Yeah, he's 100 % right in there. Yeah, you can't beat him. Yeah. Yeah, I picture. I don't know you remember the big short. Yeah. Yeah. So halfway through that movie, that movie talks about fairly complex financial stuff. I found that really helpful in that movie. it's so great. They just pause in the middle of the movie and they're like, here's Margot Robbie in a bathtub to explain this concept. Yes. they fully, they did the same thing, but it's Neil deGrasse Tyson in front of a whiteboard. Yeah. Or in a bathtub. Or in a bathtub. That works fine too. It's been established. This is where we learn our facts. I'm not listening. I'm here for it. If you've got something important to tell me, you better be in a bathtub. That's my number one thing. I'm not listening to you if you're not in a bathtub. You can't take someone seriously. Dry people? wouldn't hurt if it's Margot Robbie either. No, you can trust a wet person. Dry people forget it. You know, for sure their information is going to be clean at the very least. yeah. You know. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, at the very, you know, I mean, we're we're well into spoiler territory and stuff. ⁓ I won one of the things that I was really impressed with, with the movie. And I should have expected this because of like, they didn't they didn't stray too far away from the source material on the Martian either. But ⁓ one thing that I was really impressed with was they still went with that kind of weird stilted ending. where Ryan Gosling is on Arid, ⁓ living alone, teaching like baby Rockies about relativity and speed of light and all this stuff. ⁓ I thought that was really bold because I was sure that they were going to give it a more Hollywood ending where he got his triumphant return to Earth and whatever. ⁓ Instead, we just got like a short clip of him kind of talking on a screen to Sandra Hewler's character on the boat saying like, you know, here's the stuff that you need to save your planet. I'm going to hang out over here with Rocky. Although that was a little bit nicer than in the book because they do have the little like, Hey, people are probably going to be okay. In the book. It's like, who knows? We don't even know. Yeah. We don't even know if it made it back or whatever. Right. Yeah. We are because we're in his shoes and he would have no idea. So we have no idea. So they a little bit, but not that much. The other thing too was they bring in Rocky maybe a little bit sooner. Yes, in the book, because I knew nothing. I do I usually do this. I never read the back of a book. So I knew nothing. ⁓ I was just and so I was like, ⁓ this is just a real sciency book. He's going out to space. He's going to solve this thing. And then like, holy shit, there's an alien. Like I did not expect it at all. And it was shocking to me. ⁓ In the movie, obviously, you don't really get that because he's in all the commercials. He, you know, Yeah, who's like us talk about it on podcasts, but he's too big a selling point. Yeah. they bring them in the marketing, unfortunately, real quick. Like he's yeah. It's and I think it's not a bad idea because otherwise you're going to be waiting for like, where's that alien that I heard about? Yeah. But, I did miss having that and I don't know how you do it, but I missed having that like, ⁓ this is a serious science movie from the Martian guy. Cool. It's going to be a similar thing. And then ⁓ boy, is this a like, there's a ship? Okay, what's happening? ⁓ there's an alien. ⁓ there's like, he's talking to it. Which is very cute and lovable. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're like, is it bad? Is it good? Like, what's going to be this? Are they going to be able to talk and how that progresses? I think they do well in both, but it's just very different in both. Whereas in the movie, it's just like, let's get to the stuff. You know, you're watching this movie, we know what you want to see. Let's get to it. Whereas in the book, it's like, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? Yeah, it's, ⁓ it's way more focused. It's a little bit less focused on the science. And as I said, more focused on the relationship and the fun and everything that happens between grace and Rocky. And I think the that elevates the movie, because it's a movie, you know, you're in a theater, you're in popcorn, you're there for a good time. ⁓ know, when I'm reading a book, it's a different approach, you know, like I want to be entertained, but I also am happy to take in information and education and learn stuff. And I find that all really fascinating. You can't, again, unless you put Neil deGrasse Tyson in a bathtub, you're not going to get that. And that's not going to hit. That's not going to hit, you know, in the theater the way that that it's going to work in the book. So ⁓ I appreciate the ⁓ approach that they took. yeah, if we didn't get Rocky till like, if they hid the fact that Rocky was even in it, and we only got him in the second half of the movie, we're talking about a completely different, different thing. yeah. And it would only work for day one. And then everyone would be like, ⁓ there's this awesome alien that shows up. No, think they I think they made the right choices there in terms of the marketing and the structure of the story. And it works because they're doing this whole like flashback thing, as he starts to remember all of that. ⁓ Yeah, the only thing that my only criticism, it's not a major criticism, but like, I'm not sure I 100 % buy the way that grace completely refuses to go. And I don't remember how I felt about that in the book. I read this book years ago at this point, like three years ago, maybe. So it's not super fresh. Okay. Yeah. It's very much not super fresh. I remember the broad Stokes. I remember loving it. I remember really digging into the science and having fun with that. I didn't remember some of the smaller story beats. So I don't remember how much, prevalent that is in the book. ⁓ But I'm not sure I buy us like, you know, if we built up this character as being kind of a selfish jerk, then maybe you buy it. But like, we do it's not like grace is, is obviously just seems like a good dude. And he loves kids and he like, you know, it just seems like a good guy in general. He's played by Ryan Gosling. Like, come on. So I'm not sure when it get to that point and he completely refuses to go. I'm like, I'm not sure this character, I don't know 100 % by that, that that that he would be that big of a coward. That's the only piece of the whole movie that kind of maybe touched a little bit not quite right for me. Yeah, it is, I guess kind of fair because like he's gonna die for sure. But he's smart enough scientist. He knows he's gonna die for sure if he stays as well. So yeah, I totally like I stopped reading at that point in the book even because I was so like surprised it wasn't I was a little bit disappointed, but it didn't ruin the book for me or anything. But I was like, that's odd. That just seemed unnecessary. Like I didn't need to have this. other thing. And I guess the thought is then he overcomes that. So it gives him another challenge. But I think probably saving the earth is probably a decent size challenge already that I don't know if he needs this other personal challenge of getting over this sudden fear. ⁓ Yeah, it just I totally agree. It felt a little weird. I guess it kind of explains why he's waking up slowly, although also in the movie, the waking up very slowly and understanding things. isn't nearly as obvious as it is in the book. That's such an important part of the first third of the book of him very slowly realizing like, what is even my name? Why am I here? In the movie, you get a little twinge of that, but not much. But I think that's fine. I think that's a decent choice. But yeah, I agree with you. think it's not really a problem with the movie so much as it's a problem with the narrative that is already in the book. A problem. I'm not giving Andy weird notes here, but but it did feel a little out of place and it still felt a little out of place. Yeah. Yeah. And then I still very much appreciated and enjoyed the characters arc of being a little bit of a, or being a major coward and then ultimately overcoming that. So I enjoyed that arc. It just felt like a weird speed bump within that arc for him to be that opposed to it, right? If he really struggled with it and was trying to make the decision and was like hemming and hawing, maybe we have a little bit of a montage where he's like struggling with it. And then they decide, you know what, we're out of time, you don't have time to decide anymore. And they just like drug him and do it. You know, I think that a very little minor tweak like that could have taken that weird hump out of the out of that story arc. it feels like like that little fourth act complication that happens in every single 80s teen movie where everything's going fine. And then there's the little like miscommunication phone call or something that they quickly get over and I've always felt like I could have lived without that. I didn't need that weird little for that. But yeah, it's fine. It was fine without it. And yeah, same thing here. I felt like it would have it would have been just as good without without that. And agree with you that it doesn't ruin the movie for me just for that for a quick moment. I'm like, don't know if I'm like over it because they're doing other cool stuff. And yeah. So it doesn't kill the movie for me, but if that's probably one of the things that, that kind of just like took me out of it for a quick second there. least in the movie they had, it gave the, his relationship with the security guard a little bit more something like, cause that's not really a thing in the book. And so that, that became something that meant maybe a tiny bit more. So that's the one kind of silver lining. Yeah. And they closed it off nicely too, at the very end when ⁓ Gosling sends that video and we don't get this in the, in the book. ⁓ but he sends the video and she sees the video of him saying, kind of repeats a line to her. ⁓ he says, you're, you're smart. You'll figure it out. ⁓ which is what she said to him was the more or less the final line she says to him before he gets kind of taken away. So, and then he says it, you know, with a smile on his face and whatever. So clearly he's forgiven her for having done that. and more or less thanking her for having made the right, clearly the right decision in doing that. the whole, gets tied up nicely. It works. It's just like a weird little, you know, knot in the middle of that story arc that didn't quite ⁓ fully work for me. ⁓ But yeah, otherwise I think most of the decisions that were made here with like, with the story, with the adaptation, I think works. ⁓ I'm a big, big fan of this movie. All that being said, like, ⁓ maybe we could have this one quick conversation before we wrap things up. But, ⁓ you know, I saw the the narrative or the idea that this is this generation's 2001 or this generation's Interstellar. I don't know. how? Yeah, how I felt about it was it felt more like an 80s movie to me. Like this gave me a feeling that I hadn't had. in the theater in a long time and maybe like it doesn't reach the heights of like Back to the Future, which is one of the greatest movies of all time. But it had more of that kind of feel to me like something like that where it's, it's fun kind of pop sci fi even though the book has all the science. It's ⁓ a transcendent generational science fiction philosophical, you know, ⁓ you know, I was told like, there was 2001, or not that I was told that I saw a post, it was 2001 space Odyssey. And then there was interstellar. And now there's project Hail Mary. Whoa, pump the break. Yeah, I don't even think it's trying to be in that lineage. Like, don't think it's Yeah, it's not competing with 2001 at all. I totally think that people will still like think about this movie, I think in 20 years, because I think it's a really, really strong movie. Yeah. But I think they're going to think about it more like they think about Back to the Future. than they are how you think about 2001. comp. That's a great comp. I agree 100%. So and I'm not saying that in a disparaging way, you know, like 2001 and Interstellar are fantastic. And Interstellar is one of my all time favorite movies. I think it's incredible. ⁓ This is like a perfect summer blockbuster. It'll go down as one of the great, fun, silly, you know, adventures, you know, and it's got some smart science in there. But yeah, that that's it doesn't have to be the focus. It's it's there. But even without that, it's just super fun. It's super funny. It's clever. It's exciting. And and I always appreciate when there's like a non IP movie that people really because I've had enough of twos and threes at the end of everything. So I'm always excited. when it's like a new idea and people are going to it. More original stories. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Final thoughts on Project Kilmeri? Yeah, I really like it. It's one of my favorite movies in years. Like I really liked it. I had the sort of fun that I had as a kid going to the drive-in. That's the sort of feeling that it gave me is, you know, watching a, when we used to go to the drive-in and we'd watch the two or three movies back to back and we'd see that sort of that's where I saw back to the future two and three and all that stuff. gave me that sort of feeling and I really appreciate that. And I thought it was terrific. It's like a four and half out of five for me, maybe even higher. I really, really like it. I don't know what, what we're doing at a five out of 10. It's like a 6.7. Yeah. typically do the letter box like five stars. Yeah. ⁓ So yeah, you've got it as like a four and a half, think four and a half even nice. Okay, cool. Really, really fun movie. I could see this being the like, the fun kind of blockbuster slot at the Oscars next year. I could see this fill in that spot really nicely. ⁓ And, know, and winning some stuff along the way. I think it's great. Yeah, I think yeah, I'd love to see it win a couple things, maybe some technical awards or whatever. ⁓ maybe adaptation, drugardered, you know, not nation there, you know, would make sense. ⁓ I think like this year, ⁓ we've gotten a lot of really good movies early. ⁓ yeah, you know, so there's this one, there's Nirvana, the band that showed the movie, is message about that. have to find it. Yeah. Yeah. You have to watch it, especially as a Canadian, like this Nirvana with two ends Nirvana, the band that showed the movie is excellent. ⁓ There's good luck, have fun, don't die, which I think is really strong. It's not going to probably make my top 10 or anything, but ⁓ a really strong. There's a moment in that movie where the teacher is like where she intercepts a note and, and the note said, have you eaten the new ranch Doritos? They're terrific. And this idea that kids are passing notes that are ads is my favorite thing. that I've seen in a movie because it just brings so true in in in don't die. ⁓ There's a little bit when the teachers are hiding out from all the kids in the like teachers lounge and the one teacher says I intercepted a note the other day and it say have you tried the new Southern Ranch Doritos? They're terrific. ⁓ That's incredible. kind of works as an ad but also a bit like a meta. bit. you know? Yeah. didn't remember that. But that's really funny. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I'm trying to think if we had any other like really solid movies at the beginning of this year. I feel like there was one more. ⁓ yeah. Send help. I don't know if you saw that. ⁓ Yeah, I liked it. Yeah. There's a really ⁓ solid return to form ⁓ for Sam Raimi kind of ⁓ throwback to his kind of original horror. ⁓ days. But yeah, I was a big, big fan of Send Help. thought it was really good. Rachel McAdams, another Canadian. Yeah, and she's always really, yeah. And I she was particularly great in that. Yeah, agree. She was she was a yeah, she was amazing in that movie and showing showing that she's got some chops to you. Yeah, because it's really ⁓ against type character for her. And I thought she she did terrific in it. And still looking great. She's always she's always so good. I've always had a huge crush on Rachel McAdams. No, she's I've just I've always enjoyed her work. I think I think she's so good. Yeah. And I think the dude I don't remember who the dude's name but I think he was great. It's such a slimeball in that too. Yeah, he was really good. You're right. I'm trying to remember his name. Classic slimeball role. And yeah, yeah, because it's it's just it's a two hander the whole movie really. is just those two. O'Brien. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I think he's come a long way from being like the Maze Runner guy. ⁓ was he? Okay. Yeah, that was where he got a start in kind of like this like teen teen kind of like movies. Yeah. So he was fine in that and he was in Bumblebee. then he was a surprisingly good movie. I expected that to be junk and I liked it a lot. I didn't watch it because the Transformers movies lost me a long, long time ago. It's a totally different crew that works on Webby and Hailey Steinsfield is always tremendous. John Cena, it's like one of his first roles. He's very good in it. Yeah, it's shockingly good. And I don't like the Transformers movies at all, but I went to see it anyway. And I was shocked by how much I liked it. Probably a scenario where I just put on the blinders for anything Transformers where I was like, I'm not even gonna try, but yeah, I should, I've heard good things. I should probably check it out. Yeah, it is. It's especially if you're going in with no expectations, you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. I mean, the bark can't be set any lower for Transformers. So yeah, cool. Yeah. My, I'm big, big fan of project Hail Mary. I think it's like the very high end of what like a popcorn fun. sci-fi adventure romp can be. ⁓ And I'm a huge fan of everybody involved in this. think they just absolutely nailed it with that one tiny criticism. I have it as a 4.5 as well. think originally I had it as a four rewatch it last night. think it's raising a little bit my estimation here. ⁓ It's probably already going to be in my top 10 of the year. yeah. I can't wait to see what all of these people do next. You know, from Sandra Hewler, Ryan Gosling, I'm always interested in. Lord and Miller have done nothing but great work. ⁓ Andy Weir as well. Big fan of all three of his books at this point. ⁓ Andrew Goddard has, you know, again, everybody involved in this movie. I just knew it was going to be at the very least, it was going to be good. know? Yeah, yeah. No, I really think that Gosling kid is going places. I agree. Yeah, as soon as he gets noticed by Hollywood, know, it's just the sky's the limit for this guy. no, think things are looking up for old baby goose. Little unknown Canadian actor. Yeah, love to see it from break or high to this. Right on. Well, thanks, Sean, for doing this. had a good time. Went a little bit long, but I think hopefully it was worth it. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. It's always a blast. Terrific to talk about, you know, a movie I liked, a game I liked, a whole bunch of other stuff. Yeah, really fun time. Thanks. I'll have to have you on again. All right, great. Okay, fist my bump. All right. See you later. See you later. Cool.