Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Sean Means Movie Reviews for January 31st 2025

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Sean Means Movie Reviews for January 31st 2025 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

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  Speaker 1: Well, here he is, Ladies and gentlemen. That voice you
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  Speaker 1: heard was Sean Means. He is a writer and editor
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  Speaker 1: at the Salt Lake Tribune. You can find his stuff
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  Speaker 1: off in there at sltrib dot com. He's a movie
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  Speaker 1: reviewer and critic, and you will find that stuff at
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  Speaker 1: movie cricket dot net. And we'll talk about a couple
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  Speaker 1: of movies and then hopefully talk a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: Sundance as well.
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  Speaker 2: Morning, Sean, Morning, what do we got We have two
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  Speaker 2: new movies in theaters today. We will start with Love Me,
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  Speaker 2: which I actually saw at Sundance last year.
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  Speaker 3: Oh.
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  Speaker 2: This movie happens after the Apocalypse and the only two
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  Speaker 2: speaking roles are machines. There's a booie on the Earth surface,
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  Speaker 2: and there's a satellite orbiting Earth, calling out to any
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  Speaker 2: potential life forms that might be coming by. The booie
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  Speaker 2: tries to get the satellite's attention, but the satellite won't
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  Speaker 2: talk to the buoy because it's not alive.
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  Speaker 3: It only talks, It only talks to life forms.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So the buoy gets into the satellite's memory banks
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  Speaker 2: of Earth, including everything ever posted on YouTube, and finds
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  Speaker 2: a human that can pretend to be That would be
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  Speaker 2: a social media influencer named Deja played by Christen Steart.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, this sounds interesting.
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  Speaker 2: And then that gets that gets the satellite's attention, and
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  Speaker 2: soon the satellite is using an app but the avatar
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  Speaker 2: of Deja's on screen boyfriend Liam played by Stephen Ewan,
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  Speaker 2: And these machines try to recreate the picture perfect relationship
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  Speaker 2: they see in YouTube videos.
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  Speaker 3: But there are no live people anywhere.
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  Speaker 2: To be fair, this is yeah, the Earth is Earth is,
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  Speaker 2: Earth is gone, Earth is there. But it's it's It's
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  Speaker 2: a Scendario is a comedy. This is a comedy.
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  Speaker 3: This is this is.
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  Speaker 2: It reminded me a lot of everything everywhere all at once,
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  Speaker 2: a gray, rapid rapid fire imagery and so on. And
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  Speaker 2: it's really smart in the points about romance and how
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  Speaker 2: what's on the surface sometimes gets in the way of
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  Speaker 2: what's in your heart, even even if you're a machine.
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  Speaker 2: Uh uh, it's it's. I thought it was very clever.
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  Speaker 2: It's three and a half stars, and it's playing at
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  Speaker 2: several theaters around three.
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  Speaker 1: And a half for that, Okay, I'll give it a trend.
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  Speaker 3: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: September five, September five, I have been waiting for this one.
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  Speaker 2: This this is uh this was number five on my
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  Speaker 2: top ten list for the year for twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, we it is nineteen seventy two.
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  Speaker 2: We are in the control room of ABC Sports during
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  Speaker 2: the Olympics in Munich, Okay. Pretty routine day, covering events,
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  Speaker 2: feeding them to the satellite to get back to the
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  Speaker 2: viewers back home in the States. And the director in
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  Speaker 2: the control room is a rookie Jeff Mason played by
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  Speaker 2: John mcgaro. And nothing nothing he shouldn't be able to handle.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, sure, there's a boxing match, there's swimming, it's on,
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  Speaker 2: and so on and so on. Then they hear gunshots ah
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  Speaker 2: outside in the Olympic just just a little a little
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  Speaker 2: ways away over in the Olympic village, and so the
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  Speaker 2: ABC Sports team has to spring into action, and soon
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  Speaker 2: they realized arm gunmen have taken the Israeli Olympic team hostage.
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  Speaker 2: Now bear in mind, this is real, this happened. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: people don't know this actually happened.
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  Speaker 1: I remember.
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  Speaker 2: And Mason has to deploy the crew, get the cameras
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  Speaker 2: close to the canaday action, smuggle film in and out.
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  Speaker 3: You know. This is this is this is.
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  Speaker 2: Before videotape before video, and so they had to they
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  Speaker 2: had like film and had to get it in, shoot it,
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  Speaker 2: get it out, processing all that they and you know,
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  Speaker 2: like like you know, chiron on the screen is like
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  Speaker 2: little plastic letters that somebody has to be putting into,
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  Speaker 2: putting into place and stuff.
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  Speaker 3: No mean.
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  Speaker 2: Now, while while while they're trying to figure this out
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  Speaker 2: in the control room, the boss of ABC Sports ruined
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  Speaker 2: ourlic classic you know, the famous he's the guy who
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  Speaker 2: he's the guy who invented up close and personal sports covers.
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  Speaker 2: He's dealing with, like the big Boss problems like getting
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  Speaker 2: time on the satellite feed and keeping ABC's news division
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  Speaker 2: from trying to take the story over.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the news division keeps saying, what we can't have
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  Speaker 1: the sports.
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  Speaker 2: This is yeah that you guys, you guys are at
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  Speaker 2: your you guys are at your depth here. And there's
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  Speaker 2: also moral questions like what happens if somebody gets killed
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  Speaker 2: on live TV?
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  Speaker 3: How do you do that?
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  Speaker 2: How do you deal with that? And how careful do
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  Speaker 2: you have to be about what you put on the TV.
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  Speaker 2: Because they at one point they point the camera toward
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  Speaker 2: the Olympic village and they look in the look in
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  Speaker 2: the window and they say there's a TV in there,
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  Speaker 2: It's like, oh, they might be watching this. So the
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  Speaker 2: amazing thing about this is that, like I said, I
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  Speaker 2: knew how this is all going to end. Was I
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  Speaker 2: was nearly eight years old when this happened, and I
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  Speaker 2: was riveted when I watched it. And there's a and
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  Speaker 2: there was a great documentary back in ninety nine called
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  Speaker 2: One Day in September. Yeah, if you didn't if you
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  Speaker 2: didn't know it personally, then you at least knew that
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  Speaker 2: much or show it a great documentary. And even with
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  Speaker 2: all that in the back of my head, I could
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  Speaker 2: watch this and actually be surprised about what happens next.
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  Speaker 1: Who plays the main anchor Jim McKay, who plays him?
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  Speaker 3: Jim m kay plays Jim McKay.
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  Speaker 2: They that's a very very clever thing they do that
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  Speaker 2: that everything that is, everything that is on screen is
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  Speaker 2: the real stuff used. They use the actual footage from
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  Speaker 2: seventy two.
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  Speaker 3: But that's all it is. That's just he's not in
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  Speaker 3: it any other way. Yeah, there's no there's no actor.
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  Speaker 2: There's no there's there's an actor who plays Peter Jennings
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  Speaker 2: because he's just like coming into ruins saying you guys
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  Speaker 2: got to let us do that, let the News Division
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  Speaker 2: take over and stuff. Played by Benjamin Walker, Abraham Lincoln,
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  Speaker 2: Vampire Hunter. All right, so you give a lot of stars.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: The director Timid Album really notice set up a shot
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  Speaker 2: at it tightly. How to get the most out of
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  Speaker 2: this ensemble? Cast this John mcgaro great actors in past lives.
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  Speaker 2: He was in First Cow, He's in a movie that
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  Speaker 2: the movie that's filmed the Utah in filmed in Utah,
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  Speaker 2: that was at Sundance is your omaha. He is great,
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  Speaker 2: trying to show confidence in the center chair while you
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  Speaker 2: know that inside he's scared to death of making the
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  Speaker 2: wrong move. Great four stars this is So does this.
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  Speaker 1: Four stars count as last year's four stars or this year's.
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  Speaker 2: Technically last year's technically last years I was going to
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  Speaker 2: say this is the first four stars of the year,
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  Speaker 2: but it is not.
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  Speaker 1: All right now, so let's talk a little bit about
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  Speaker 1: what's going on. You're going up to Sundance today. Is
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  Speaker 1: this the final day?
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  Speaker 3: This is my last day?
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  Speaker 2: There will be screenings today Saturday and Sunday, both up
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  Speaker 2: in Park City and at the Broadway and the Rose
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  Speaker 2: Wagner down.
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  Speaker 3: It's all Lake and it is winding down.
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  Speaker 2: That the awards ceremony is this morning, so we'll find
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  Speaker 2: out who won all the jury awards and whatnot, and
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  Speaker 2: then we'll be they'll be showing the winners. They'll be
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  Speaker 2: showing other movies through the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: Predictions.
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  Speaker 2: I know I haven't seen. I haven't seen enough to
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  Speaker 2: do too much predictions. I've seen eight of the ten
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  Speaker 2: US Dramatic Competition films. I've seen a smattering of other stuff.
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  Speaker 3: What's your favorite so far?
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  Speaker 2: My favorite last thing I saw actually on Wednesday was
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  Speaker 2: it is called Sorry Baby. It is a There's this
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  Speaker 2: this young woman who've never heard of before. Name is
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  Speaker 2: Eva Victor. She's she wrote it, she directed it, she
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  Speaker 2: stars in it. She plays a New England literary professor,
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  Speaker 2: very young. And because we we go back and forth
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  Speaker 2: through about four years from her being a grad student
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  Speaker 2: to her being a professor, and how she's basically sort
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  Speaker 2: of stuck in place in her life because of a
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  Speaker 2: of something that happens fairly early in the movie.
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  Speaker 1: What you What did you see that you hated?
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  Speaker 2: The only one that the only one that I didn't
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  Speaker 2: really groove on is and I luck out, I think
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  Speaker 2: partly because I go to the US competition films I don't.
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  Speaker 2: There's some categories where the bad movies tend to sort
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  Speaker 2: of congregate, and I don't.
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  Speaker 1: Usually the ones in that category are pretty solid.
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  Speaker 2: That usually in US, the US competition US competitions, they're
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  Speaker 2: pretty solid. But the one that I did not groove
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  Speaker 2: on is called a Tropia, which was sort of a
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  Speaker 2: military satire set in two thousand and six in a
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  Speaker 2: in a like simulate a corporate owned simulated military camp
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  Speaker 2: where they sent soldiers in to have simulated situations of
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  Speaker 2: what they're going to face when they go to Iraq.
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  Speaker 2: Nice idea, nice idea, good premise, but it just doesn't
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  Speaker 2: It just doesn't doesn't execute. It does have the lead
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  Speaker 2: the lead roles played by Alia Shakat, who we love
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  Speaker 2: from the rest of the development and search party and
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  Speaker 2: other stuff. The old man, and she's she's really good.
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  Speaker 2: She's really good. She was eight months pregnant when she
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  Speaker 2: filmed this movie, uh and uh, and that they work
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  Speaker 2: that into the story. And she plays an actress who
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  Speaker 2: is who who's got a gig playing in an Iraqi
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  Speaker 2: peasant in this scenario and she's She's really good and
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  Speaker 2: it but yeah, it doesn't really hold together the way
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  Speaker 2: it should.
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  Speaker 3: There's a lot of great ideas going on, but it doesn't.
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  Speaker 3: It sort of falls.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think Sundance Film Festival will remain here or not?
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  Speaker 2: I still have no idea, I really, I mean I
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  Speaker 2: have gone back and forth from thinking that they're going
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  Speaker 2: to squeak it out to thinking it's going to go
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  Speaker 2: go to somewhere else.
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  Speaker 3: And I've talked to a lot of people.
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  Speaker 2: Nobody knows, nobody has a sense of and Sundance is
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  Speaker 2: keeping it very close to the vest. And I mean
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  Speaker 2: their claim is that they're still looking, that they are
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  Speaker 2: still actually taking made. This decision has not been made.
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  Speaker 2: They're still taking trips to the three locations. They have
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  Speaker 2: been getting lobbied like crazy from the Utah contingent over
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  Speaker 2: this last week. Boon Yang actually came out and said
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  Speaker 2: that his vote, his vote would be for Salt Lake.
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  Speaker 1: Oh really.
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  Speaker 2: He was here for the wedding banquet, a remake of
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  Speaker 2: the ninety three Anglee movie, which apparently is very good.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't see it, but I will see it. It's
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  Speaker 2: opening in April and theater and he enjoyed his time here.
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  Speaker 2: He enjoyed his time here. He thinks that he thinks
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  Speaker 2: that Salt Lake. Salt Lake is the He's going to
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  Speaker 2: be the one that has the closest vibe to what
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  Speaker 2: Park City has been.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, Hey, you going all right? Sean means sl
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  Speaker 1: trip dot com, moviecricket dot net. Next week we'll talk
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  Speaker 1: about love Hurts, becoming led Zeppelin and heart Eyes, heart Eyes,
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  Speaker 1: art Eyes.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Sean,