Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Sean Means Movie Reviews For March 21st, 2025

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Sean Means Movie Reviews For March 21st, 2025 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well he's here. Sean Patrick means. He is a reporter
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and editor at the Salt Lake Pribune low these many years.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Sltrib dot com is where you will find that sort
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of thing. And Sean is also a movie critic and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: you can find his reviews collected at movie cricket dot net. Correct.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: That is great, all right, all right, so we got
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  Speaker 2: three movies, and uh, I guess we start with the controversial.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Why, I don't know.
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  Speaker 3: Let's do let's do the art house.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Let's do art house, and then and then we'll get
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  Speaker 4: and then we'll get to the Macay. We'll start with
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  Speaker 4: universal language. This is a sort of absurdist comedy drama
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: from Canada, so that'd be controversial, now, I guess. With
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  Speaker 4: a filmmaker named Matthew Rankin. Uh, there are a bunch
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  Speaker 4: of characters whose story is interlock and I won't go
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: into the details on that, but through it all there's
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  Speaker 4: one guy who one guy who sort of threads through
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: them all. He's come home to Winnipeg to help his
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: aging mother, but he's having trouble finding her. And as
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: he keeps looking, he keeps crossing paths with all these
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  Speaker 4: other characters, and and their kindness sort of becomes sort
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  Speaker 4: of a running thread through this and helping this guy out.
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  Speaker 4: The weirdest bit is that in this version of Canada,
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  Speaker 4: so Canada is bilingual, right, well in this in this
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  Speaker 4: version of Canada, it's not English and French. It's French
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: and Farsi, the language of Iran, and the main like
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  Speaker 4: I said, the main point here, it's very odd kind
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  Speaker 4: of movie. The main point here is the kindness is universal,
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  Speaker 4: cutting through any language barrier, which you know is something
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  Speaker 4: we probably need to hear right now, and especially here
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: from our friends in Canada who who have so little
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  Speaker 4: to be angry about nowadays. This takes a lot to
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: get Canadians angry. Just don't do much.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: But we've done what we've done a pretty good Don't.
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  Speaker 4: Beat them, don't beat them in hockey, and don't say
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: you're gonna make them the fifty first state and you're fine. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: three three and a half stars for universal language. It's
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  Speaker 4: it's little weird, but you know, go with it.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: All, right.
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: Then, on becoming a guinea fowl.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, this is this is a fascinating, heartbreaking drama from Zambia.
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  Speaker 4: But don't let that, you know, put you off because
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  Speaker 4: there's something there's there's very familiar things.
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  Speaker 3: You'll get the gist as you go. There are people
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  Speaker 3: just like uh exactly.
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  Speaker 4: So you start with a woman who's driving home from
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: a party and and we know she's cool because she's
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: she's got a Missy Elliott costume on. As she's driving
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  Speaker 4: home and she sees a body in the road and
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: she stops and she sees that it's her uncle Fred,
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: and she wonders what Fred is doing out in this
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  Speaker 4: part of town after dark. And you also realize very
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  Speaker 4: quickly that this this woman, Shula, she she has history
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: with uncle Fred, and she knows, she knows a lot
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: about Uncle Fred. And something all the female cousins her
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: age know about Uncle Fred. Fred is dead, Fred is
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  Speaker 4: now dead, and and yeah and and and what what?
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  Speaker 4: What they all know about Uncle Fred is something that
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  Speaker 4: no but he talks about and and and Shula is
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: very much under pressure not to talk about it as
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  Speaker 4: the funeral is starting up. Oh okay, and we get
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  Speaker 4: to see what a funeral is like in Zambia. It's basically,
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  Speaker 4: every relative male female comes to one house, comes to
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  Speaker 4: one house and they sit, they talk about the deceased
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: and they eat a lot of food, and Shula and
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  Speaker 4: the women of her generation are the ones expected to
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  Speaker 4: make the food.
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  Speaker 3: So while the men sit around and do nothing and
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  Speaker 3: just yea and.
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  Speaker 1: Not say anything bad about it.
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  Speaker 4: And not say anything bad about Uncle Fred and you
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  Speaker 4: and and and the while the women of the older
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  Speaker 4: generation mostly sit around and try to behave like they're
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  Speaker 4: the ones who are most aggrieved and most grieving about
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  Speaker 4: Uncle Fred going away.
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  Speaker 3: And it becomes almost performative and competitive.
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  Speaker 4: And this is so, this is, like I said, it's
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  Speaker 4: fascinating look at sort of generational trauma and how and
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  Speaker 4: and how women hold things together when maybe they should
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  Speaker 4: be letting them fly apart a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, it's really gripping. It's this one. This is a
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  Speaker 3: movie that just sort of grabs you by the heart and.
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  Speaker 1: You explain the title.
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  Speaker 3: The movie does explain it.
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  Speaker 4: It involves it involves guinea fowl being a animal that
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  Speaker 4: warns against predators.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, there you go, right, it comes into play.
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  Speaker 1: I think we figured it out. It's all right there,
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  Speaker 1: all right, Sean.
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  Speaker 4: How many star three and a half on Becoming a
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  Speaker 4: guinea Fowl? Is that at the broad That is at
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  Speaker 4: the Broadway. It might be in a couple other places too.
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  Speaker 4: Pick it got picked up a twenty four, which is
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  Speaker 4: yeah right, uh snow White, snow White.
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  Speaker 2: Now, this is only controversial because of because people are idiots.
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  Speaker 5: Because people are idio.
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  Speaker 2: It's just another and a long line of Disney doing
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  Speaker 2: live action versions of their classic animated films right now.
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  Speaker 4: For a long time, they wouldn't touch this one because
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  Speaker 4: and not not mostly because it was the first animated
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  Speaker 4: feature length film ever made.
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  Speaker 3: You know, well Girty the Dinosaur for purists.
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  Speaker 4: But but but but it's the it's the first. It
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  Speaker 4: was Disney's first full length movie, and he and and
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  Speaker 4: it was it was a risk, it was they called
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  Speaker 4: it Disney's folly. They thought he was going to lose
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  Speaker 4: a shirt on it. It is a beautifully animated it
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  Speaker 4: is a work of art. Seen I've seen documentaries about this.
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  Speaker 4: I watched it again. I watched it again last week,
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  Speaker 4: just sort of get prepped for this. And it is
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  Speaker 4: a work of art. But is there some amount of Okay,
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: so Snowlite's going to go clean their house and she
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: can stay with them if she cleans their house.
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  Speaker 3: And how does that translate today?
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  Speaker 4: There's a there's a there's a bit of that, although
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  Speaker 4: it's it's a little more. You know, this isn't eighty
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  Speaker 4: I mean eighty eight years old movie. There are some
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  Speaker 4: things that need updating.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: For one thing, she's not just sitting around for her
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  Speaker 4: prince to come. Oh good, she's she's much And that's
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  Speaker 4: something that strikes you nowadays watching the original is that
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  Speaker 4: she is a very passive character in her own movie. Yes, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: so so now the books so, and you know, we
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: redo Hamlet from time to time, we do other stories
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  Speaker 4: from time to time. Why is it taking us eighty
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: eight years to come back around the snow White?
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  Speaker 3: Really?
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: So the basic story, you know, snow White's a young princess.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: The evil Queen looks in her magic mirror and says,
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: who's the fairest of them all? And when the mirror
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: says snow White, uh, the evil Queen gets mad and
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  Speaker 4: orders the huntsman to take her out to the woods
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  Speaker 4: and kill her.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: This is, this, is, and that.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: But the huntsman can't do it, and so she escapes
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  Speaker 4: into the forest and she finds a cottage where seven
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  Speaker 4: little people.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the huntsman takes her like the heart of a
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  Speaker 1: deer or something back to the.
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  Speaker 3: Queen something different this time.
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  Speaker 4: But it was a heart of a pig in the
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: original would you never actually saw you just saw the
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  Speaker 4: chest so in this so there are some changes here.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: Like I said, snow White is a little more uh proactive.
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  Speaker 4: She's she's she's been raised to that she will someday
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  Speaker 4: lead the kingdom. And and the kingdom is the kingdom
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  Speaker 4: is a cool, nice place. Everybody's happy and and and prosperous,
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  Speaker 4: and and the and the royalty, the parties with the
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: with the peasants, and it's all good. And then the
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  Speaker 4: queen dies, the king remarries, and she turns out to
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  Speaker 4: be evil and that's galgadd as the evil queen. Uh
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  Speaker 4: and uh and and and basically turns snow White into
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  Speaker 4: Cinderella for a little while. Uh and then uh then
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  Speaker 4: then there's the whole you know, she gets banished to
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  Speaker 4: the woods and and meets the meets the seven Little People.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: The deep word is never said really in this movie anywhere,
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  Speaker 4: so we're not calling them that anymore. But and and
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  Speaker 4: instead of a prince, there is a charming thief who's
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  Speaker 4: standing up to the evil queen and trying to you know,
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  Speaker 4: for the for the for the.
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  Speaker 3: For the people.
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  Speaker 4: It's it's it's more the relationship, frankly is a little
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  Speaker 4: more like Rapunzel and Flynn was entangled.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So, and there's some new songs from the guys who
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: did La La Land and The Greatest Show Showman. Uh
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: they they did keep High Ho and withs while you work.
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  Speaker 4: Those are actually some good musical numbers. They didn't they
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  Speaker 4: did not keep Some day my Prince will come because really, yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it's not perfect. The Seven Little Guys are a little
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: Uncanny Valley.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: They're they're they're there's CG.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: And whatever and whatever and motion capture and voice perk.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Uh. They want them.
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  Speaker 4: The problem is it is that Disney wants them to
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: look too much like the cartoon characters, because you know, that's.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: That's their Their names are sort of indicative of how they.
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  Speaker 3: Should look, yes, and and that's their i P.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: You know, they they can't Galgatad is not bad.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Uh. The real reason to watch here is Rachel Zegler
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: snow White. She is great.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there was controversy quote unquote because oh no, a
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: Latina is playing snow White and.
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  Speaker 1: Her skin is as white as snow. Well, supposed to.
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  Speaker 4: Be the the the the as the story goes, she's
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: named snow White because she was born during a snowstorm. Okay,
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: because Rachel Zegler. We know she she played Maria in
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: West Side Story. That was her big debut, and she's legit.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: She's this is that was not a one off. She
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: can sing, she's got great energy. I honestly think that
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  Speaker 4: in real life she could charm Woodland creatures. That that's
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: that's her vibe. I mean, she's you know, I think
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  Speaker 4: she's wonderful. So so any idea of controversy, Yeah, the
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: controversy was first off, first off, it was people already
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: mad because she's Latina.
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: And then black little Mermaid, we have what's Disney doing right?
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: And and then and then she had the audacity to actually, like,
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: you know, have an opinion about things in the world.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: That just made everybody mad.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Has the has The Trump administration released a statement condemning
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the movie.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't care.
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  Speaker 4: I'm finding myself less interested than what they have to
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: say about most anything. And three stars for snow White.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: It's like I said, it's good, it's not it's good,
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: it's not perfect. It is decent as these things go.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's certainly better than the Lion King movies.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Do they have a change in the mind where there.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Is there the high ho the high ho is the
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: number is all set in the mind. Okay, yes, so
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: it's still not quite clear the economics involved there, but
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: you know, well, just go with it.
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all right, So three stars for snow White. It
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: sounds like a busy weekend.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: What so what do we go next week?
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Next week?
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: Death of a Unicorn is the Biggie dark comedy about
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: a lawyer played by Paul Rudd who brings his daughter
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: played by jenneral Ortega along to meet the super rich
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: head of the pharmaceutical company where he works, and along
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: the way their car hits something and you can take
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: a guess what.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, I can't imagine.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: So there's also a horror movie called The Woman in
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: the Yard and I sail. I saw one trailer. I'm
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: not sure what it's about, other it's about a woman
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: in a yard. Yeah, there's some dark presence out there
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: and well, don't go outside.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: It sounds pretty creepy to me. The trailer is I
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: have gardening to do.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: The trailer is this woman dressed in black with a
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: black veil and everything sitting in the yard.
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: And then every day she gets closer to the house.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: That creepy.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: That's creepy.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, so we'll see about that one. The
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Penguin Lessons, The Penguin Lessons, Steve Coogan as a as
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: a teacher, who who uh the friends of Penguin. Yes,
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: you make sure of that, yeh. Steve Coogan and Jonathan
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: Price are in that.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: All right? All right, sounds good to be all right,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Sean means thank you. You can find Sean's work sl
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: trip dot com and movie cricket dot net.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Shunk, thank you.