Latest / Off The Shelf With Phil and Dave- A Movie Review Podcast / 2016's The Great Wall
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to Off the Shelf with Phil and Dave, the
- 0:06movie talk show where each week one of us takes a movie off our
- 0:08shelf presents it to the other for discussion.
- 0:21This week we've got coming off of Dave's Shelf, 2016's The
- 0:26Great Wall. David, welcome back to the
- 0:29couch. Thank you.
- 0:30I have to ask, yes, you do. Contractually obligated.
- 0:35Why is this movie on your shelf? Don't like the tone as usual,
- 0:40but let me tell you, I'm attracted to strong, beautiful
- 0:44Asian women with leadership skills.
- 0:46OK, I say that as a joke but then I realize I am married to a
- 0:51eastern Central Asian woman. Depending on who you talk to,
- 0:55right? You're getting pretty specific
- 0:56if you're talking to the UK. They like to dictate these
- 0:58things. Yes, they did.
- 0:59For years, centuries, yeah. I like to think my wife is
- 1:02beautiful and. I liked it, I like to think.
- 1:06That's all it matters. What?
- 1:06I think her thighs could easily snap my neck.
- 1:10So she's strong. She's definitely smarter than
- 1:12me. And these days, she wears the
- 1:14pants because I don't really bother wearing pants because,
- 1:17you know, it's not really going out a lot.
- 1:19It's still unemployed. Yeah.
- 1:21And she's also displayed leadership skills in her
- 1:24profession and her involvement in soccer.
- 1:27So it turns out I do like that type of woman, incidentally.
- 1:31There it is. Wow.
- 1:33But the actual reason to why this movie is on my shelf is in
- 1:372017, which I imagine that when this was released in 4K, I was
- 1:41really just trying to expand my wall.
- 1:43My shelf. Yes, yes, slip of the tongue
- 1:46there. I think 4K might have been in
- 1:49around that time where it was gaining in numbers.
- 1:52Certainly more things were coming out.
- 1:55New movies were automatically going to 4K.
- 1:57Yeah. And I have no aversion to having
- 2:01the acting prowess of Matt Damon on my.
- 2:04Show you're a demon guy you've. Gone on the I I mean this is
- 2:06prime time Damon in my opinion. Prime time 2016.
- 2:10Twenty years after Goodwill hunting.
- 2:12You're saying hi sometime, Matt Damon.
- 2:14Wow. Let me finish.
- 2:16Let me finish for me, Yes. I have never seen Goodwill
- 2:19hunting, OK? I've never hunted.
- 2:22Dad never took me, had a gun, never once.
- 2:25And that's it. And I'm hoping today that I can
- 2:29try to convince you to add this movie into your G spot on your
- 2:34shelf. That's true.
- 2:38It starts with the letter G It'll get any weird ideas there?
- 2:41Got it. Yeah, because I have my concerns
- 2:44that this might not. Exactly.
- 2:46Be your genre. Six years of yeah.
- 2:51But. We'll see.
- 2:53OK. Yeah, Well, I look forward to
- 2:56the discussion. Wonderful.
- 2:57Great to hear. How many times we can use the
- 2:59word great? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 3:02Let's go to the great IMDb. Let's go to Old Faithful.
- 3:06Who got this movie wrong, by the way?
- 3:08Maybe not the description of it, but.
- 3:10The numerical representation. Yeah, we'll talk about that
- 3:13later if there's a glitch in the app, apparently.
- 3:18Here we have In ancient China, a group of European mercenaries
- 3:23encounters a secret army that maintains and defends the Great
- 3:26Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures.
- 3:30Sums it up, yeah. That's all you need to get me
- 3:32into it. Yeah, I like a good horde.
- 3:35You should play Gears of War horde mode.
- 3:37Lot of fun. Absolutely.
- 3:38Lot of fun. And this is very Hardy.
- 3:42Little too hearty, some might say.
- 3:44Some might. Say, some might say, even if
- 3:46it's a few minutes. Before we get too deep into the
- 3:49movie though, I do want to talk about walls in general.
- 3:51OK, you have walls here. It's nice to see some speakers
- 3:55are near the wall. They're not attached on the
- 3:58wall. So I think there's still some
- 3:59wall work to be done here once the Renault is done.
- 4:02Yeah. I don't know a lot about the
- 4:03Great Wall itself other than it's pretty great.
- 4:06It's big, it's long, but there's a lot of other walls that I'm
- 4:09interested in. And for us in our generation, I
- 4:12think the Berlin Wall is a big one.
- 4:14I want to know where you were when it came down.
- 4:17Watching it on TV, watching on the news, you remember that was
- 4:19a big deal 19899090. Yeah, so you're about 10-11
- 4:23years old. That wasn't a big thing in my
- 4:24house. My parents weren't big on.
- 4:25Walls, We watched David Hasselhoff perform these huge in
- 4:29Germany. But yeah, tearing it down.
- 4:32It was a huge, huge thing for the family.
- 4:33We just watched it. Who was crazy?
- 4:35Sort of asking. You ingest?
- 4:37Yeah. Surprise, no.
- 4:38We were big fans. And then soon thereafter, Roger
- 4:41Waters performed Pink Floyd's The Wall, OK in and around that
- 4:46site with the Scorpions and Cyndi Lauper and Bryan Adams and
- 4:49the band. 'S other great walls we have,
- 4:52the one they tried to build, didn't take the Mexican wall.
- 4:56Oh gosh. They give that a name?
- 4:58I'm not sure. But we have ones like Hadrian's
- 5:01Wall. OK, we have the Western Wall.
- 5:05Jerusalem. MMM, Walls of Babylon.
- 5:08I know the whores of Babylon. I didn't know that there was
- 5:10walls. They had walls as well, OK.
- 5:12They're on the other side of it. My favorite one is the Great
- 5:14Wall of Gorgon. Which TG it sounds.
- 5:18It sounds very Klingon. It really does.
- 5:21Gorkon. Yeah.
- 5:22It's called the Red Snake Barrier.
- 5:23It's the nickname for. It's in Iran.
- 5:25We have the walls of Constantinople.
- 5:28Constantinople. Thank you.
- 5:30Should rehearse that. Way too many letters.
- 5:32Phillip. And we have the walls of stone
- 5:36in Croatia. Awesome.
- 5:38Just to name a few. It's a lot, actually.
- 5:41Have you seen any of them in person?
- 5:42No, no, no. Maybe.
- 5:44I've been to Turkey. They have some walls there.
- 5:48I don't. It's not sure.
- 5:52Was I supposed to see him? I don't.
- 5:54Know you seem really invested in the 40.
- 5:56Five walls you just named, I thought.
- 5:57Maybe you would have. Seen well, I think it's gonna be
- 6:00our only one research to talk about Walls is this movie, so I
- 6:03want to take the full opportunity.
- 6:05Yeah, OK. And that's the extent of my.
- 6:07But this one's the. Greatest, This is the greatest,
- 6:09arguably the greatest wall, the best wall, best wall, wonderful
- 6:14wall. It is 5500 miles long and it
- 6:19took 1700 years to build, which tells me Ottawa construction
- 6:24companies were involved or Montreal because I went down
- 6:29McKenzie Bridge the other day. It's been how many years?
- 6:325-6 years? They're still working on it.
- 6:34I put the working in quotations like what are we doing here?
- 6:38Why does everything take so long?
- 6:40Mafia. But anyways I don't.
- 6:41Know, I'll tell you why. One of the things my theories is
- 6:44that it's only really good to work in the city for about 2 1/2
- 6:48months of a year. OK, so with the weather being
- 6:51what it is, it feels like God shut it down.
- 6:53What's funny about that once at the end of my circle, I live on
- 6:57a circle, you can't get out. It's no exit.
- 6:59All walled in. One of those wouldn't go that
- 7:01far, but they knocked down a couple of houses and they're
- 7:04putting up like a couple small apartment, very small, not
- 7:08there's not a lot of space. They had that thing up three
- 7:11weeks ago and in no time. So whether it didn't stop them,
- 7:15just saying. My question on things like that
- 7:17often do I want to live in a house that has been built in 2
- 7:201/2 weeks? That part is what scares me
- 7:23because they build this building all over and you drive past in
- 7:26one week you're like, oh, it's they're digging.
- 7:28And then the next week somehow it's like waiting for Windows.
- 7:31You talking about right? And then three weeks after that,
- 7:34you're like for sale. What happened?
- 7:37Why do a little research on who, unless you know it's God doing
- 7:40it because he can, you know, put things together pretty quickly.
- 7:43Yeah, Allegedly. Allegedly.
- 7:44Yeah, yeah. Speaking of legends.
- 7:48Uh, now, yeah. Now that we know what the kind
- 7:50of wall that we're dealing with, Phil, you probably want to ask
- 7:53yourself what the wall is for. Yeah, Yeah.
- 7:56That was the first question. It's for a couple of things.
- 8:00In real life, it was to keep out nomadic people.
- 8:04Nomads, yeah, which are generally not bad people, but
- 8:07you maybe don't want them in your house.
- 8:08Sure, maybe they have dirt on their shoes.
- 8:10Well, my issue is, you know, you think about these people and
- 8:13you're like, you know what, I want a couple of nomad, right?
- 8:16There's too much mad happening in the world, you know, couple
- 8:19of nomads. It's like a political stance,
- 8:22you know, Not that they're wandering the earth, but really
- 8:24they're just like Nomad. Yeah.
- 8:26Like no ma'am. Yeah, the mental note.
- 8:30Edit that out fills nomad time. I brought it up.
- 8:35That's on me yeah. Let me bring out the other thing
- 8:37that the not real stuff legends. It also is to keep that out as
- 8:42well. And this is one of those stories
- 8:45that's a lot of stories about this wall, but we're going to
- 8:47focus on. This one, yes.
- 8:49Protecting against the known and the unknown.
- 8:53Yeah. This was heretofore very
- 8:56unknown. Very unknown.
- 8:57Nobody really knew about it. Very under wraps.
- 8:59Wang knew about. It because he's the smart one.
- 9:01Wang knows what's up. He knows what's up.
- 9:04Around for a few years. He gets it.
- 9:06Nobody listens to him. Though No, you know what?
- 9:07I wish I wasn't listening to Matt Damon's accent.
- 9:10Let's call. It Alright, let's get in.
- 9:12Get it. Let's get it over with.
- 9:13I want to leave it here. We've talked a lot about accent
- 9:15work, yes, usually it doesn't bother me.
- 9:18It's no worthy often, but not really deleterious to the movie.
- 9:22Yeah, this is fucking terrible. What was it?
- 9:25It's so bad. I think he's going for Irish.
- 9:28I sicken Scottish something that's part of the UK, something
- 9:32Celtic, yeah. But it is a fiasco.
- 9:35It's even worse, and I didn't know I could have it worse than
- 9:38Brad Pitt. In the Devil's first accent,
- 9:41people, they reach for it, yeah, and they fail.
- 9:44And The funny thing is it's probably in their blood.
- 9:46Because a lot of people are Irish, sure.
- 9:48Like deep in their roots, I guess.
- 9:50I guess, but still, who the hell cares?
- 9:53We watched a movie about Russians on a submarine that
- 9:58spoke with Scottish and English and American accents and nobody
- 10:02gave a shit. So why do these actors want to
- 10:05just ruin their movies? Well, I think in that.
- 10:08Kevin Costner and Prince of Thieves is going.
- 10:10For some, you did better effect there, yeah.
- 10:12Just stop. Luckily, he just like, I'm not
- 10:14gonna do it. I just gave up.
- 10:15Just I'm not Yeah, these things don't bother me in the grand
- 10:18scheme. Just like why the choice?
- 10:21How does it slip through the cracks?
- 10:22How does it get released on like the director must know it's not
- 10:25good. Like at some point just.
- 10:26Stop. And do you think that the people
- 10:28won't accept that? Do you think the audience again
- 10:30we're accepting Sean Connery as a Russian commander of?
- 10:33Submarine, respect your elders. I think that's.
- 10:35That's Dave is not old enough to get.
- 10:37Away with it, no. It just feels so silly.
- 10:40This is my 5th or 6th watch, maybe 7th or 8th and it's never
- 10:44bothered me. That's my first note of the.
- 10:46Movie. I figured it was going to.
- 10:48Wow, what is this? Yeah, so.
- 10:50Too bad we acknowledge it. Yes, that's it.
- 10:53And now we can move on. Luckily, the dialogue in general
- 10:56I wouldn't say is probably the primary focus in this.
- 10:58Movie No no. And that's OK, Yes.
- 11:01And that's where we're going to get into later.
- 11:02Phil is going to ask you to be prepared as you think this movie
- 11:05is successful in what it wants to do because it's it's not a
- 11:09heavy story. It's not it's not that.
- 11:11And it doesn't claim to be. But does it do what's supposed
- 11:15to do? You know the answer.
- 11:16Now no, I just want to say I will need to convince.
- 11:19I will address the fact that I thought that this was going to
- 11:24be a lot longer. Oht no.
- 11:27Then then anybody. So the fact that it was $1.46.
- 11:32And that's with 16 minutes of. Credit.
- 11:34So the fact that it can be that is both helpful in that I didn't
- 11:39have to watch it that long, but also I think it hurts some of
- 11:42the stuff you're about to talk about.
- 11:43So we'll get to that later. I agree.
- 11:45But I do appreciate that it's short.
- 11:46Yeah, you know me. Yeah, I think maybe that's why I
- 11:49watch it so many times and why I enjoy going back to it.
- 11:52But one thing we do learn in that 1st 10 minutes, it's good
- 11:55to keep spare horses. Yes.
- 11:59For that sort of situation. Yeah, you need a couple of
- 12:01extras. Yeah, just to bring up some
- 12:03dust. Lead away the the bad guys.
- 12:07Yeah. It opens and it's chased through
- 12:08the desert. Yeah.
- 12:09What do you think of the backdrop land?
- 12:12It felt really painted to me. Yeah.
- 12:15Nothing in this movie is real. Almost like they tried to make a
- 12:17really cool and overdid it. Or like we brought in what's
- 12:20that painter guy's name? Bob.
- 12:22OHS. So what's his name?
- 12:28Bob Ross. Bob Ross, OH.
- 12:30Yeah, maybe he was. He was.
- 12:31I didn't see the credits. There's 16 minutes of credits.
- 12:34Actually. I want to make a correction
- 12:35right away. It was an hour, 4313 minutes of
- 12:39credits. Real time corrections.
- 12:40Right here, real time. I don't want to have to do it
- 12:42later because. You do a blunder.
- 12:43Later you know what happened with that when I addressed it
- 12:45and I said addressed instead of address and you would called.
- 12:48Yeah, I did call you out. And then the movie I was
- 12:51referring to was Remember When It's actually Remember Me?
- 12:56I think that ones a Mandy Moore movie.
- 12:58So I paid 2 blunder. To remember as the Mandy Moore
- 13:01movie. Anyway, I got it wrong, so I
- 13:03made two blunders and trying to correct one blunder barrier.
- 13:07I think it is. I think I've learned my lesson,
- 13:09so just know that I know. Yeah, we'll leave it at that.
- 13:13And we know the motivation pretty quickly as well in this
- 13:17film is black. Powder.
- 13:19Sure. Yeah, searching for black
- 13:21powder, I guess. Gunpowder.
- 13:23Were you surprised to see Pascal?
- 13:25I was surprised that anybody made this movie but Pascal in
- 13:28particular because he's so ubiquitous now.
- 13:31He's everywhere, yeah. Yeah, shockingly so.
- 13:35I was bizarrely not surprised when he showed up in this.
- 13:37Like, Oh yeah, somehow. Of course Pedro Pascal is in
- 13:40this. This got his career going
- 13:42though. This is what really put them
- 13:43into the limelight. Questionable.
- 13:45I don't remember the exact dates but I only I remembered him from
- 13:49Game of Thrones. I thought it was fantastic.
- 13:50In TV Phillip Yeah ohk OK, this is back when you.
- 13:53Watched some TV? Watch.
- 13:54Some TV and I have not seen one minute of that show.
- 13:57It's really good for the first little while, I thought.
- 14:00But he shows up in Season 3 or 4 or something like that, and he's
- 14:04great. This guys got charisma, this
- 14:05guy's Got Talent and didn't really ever think about him
- 14:08again. And then somehow this year I
- 14:09managed to see him in five different movies, Last of Us and
- 14:12The Materialists and Fantastic Four, you guys kind of
- 14:16everywhere. He's fine though.
- 14:18Like I have no real problem with him, but I'm shocked at how much
- 14:21the culture is really embraced this guy.
- 14:23So I was both surprised because I don't know anything about this
- 14:27movie, but then also sort of like, yeah, sure, why wouldn't
- 14:29he be in this? But I think he's not very good
- 14:31in this. I don't.
- 14:32Think he has much of an. Opportunity.
- 14:34I wouldn't say everything he says generally.
- 14:37Speaking little stiff. Little stiff, yes the delivery,
- 14:40but for me the dialogue he has is all just like snippy snippy 1
- 14:45liners chirpy like is like the sidekick who's just chirping
- 14:49from the bench amigo amigo all the time.
- 14:51It's just constant chirp that to me is like like nails on a
- 14:55chalkboard I just can't get into.
- 14:57It I, I agree with you that it's not the highlight of the movie,
- 15:02The dialogue in general, and it's not what keeps me coming
- 15:05back, but there's other things that.
- 15:07You couldn't be. Yeah, nothing really up until
- 15:09they get to the wall itself. Before we get there, they do
- 15:14encounter the beast. Yes.
- 15:18They have two, three friends. They're still there.
- 15:20Ones dying. Yeah.
- 15:22Not going to make it. No, he's not.
- 15:24He heard that. Yeah.
- 15:25And this beast comes. And the one reason I didn't like
- 15:27it is I got the impression as I watched the rest of the movie
- 15:30that why is there just one of. Them that's a good question
- 15:33because it's one that it came up to me.
- 15:35The second time I watched it this time around, Scout, so you
- 15:37did pick up on that. So I'm like, OK, thank you for
- 15:40that. I appreciate it.
- 15:42Understood. And the fact that the magnets
- 15:44there, OK, you might win this because that seems to be their
- 15:49kryptonite. Yeah, real problems with the
- 15:51magnet in general, the introduction of the man magnet.
- 15:54I don't care that it factors into the play, you know,
- 15:56whatever. But the the fact that it's so
- 15:58short, the movie, I feel like it's rushing to any of these
- 16:00plot points and the idea of must have been this magnet.
- 16:06What? Oh, we'll leave it and not I'll,
- 16:09I'll, I'll, I'll keep it. He's going to make something out
- 16:11of it, like a compass. Compass.
- 16:12But sure. But like, ultimately these guys
- 16:14have lived without it. The thought to create a company
- 16:17has never occurred. If it's been around for awhile.
- 16:19Did they just find it? Just found it, Phil.
- 16:20And they're tired of using the sun.
- 16:22Yeah, this does explain why your fridge has no magnets.
- 16:25You have nothing. Up there, there's 400 Magnum is
- 16:28there? And that is why my house remains
- 16:31safe. Yeah, there we go.
- 16:32No green beasts anywhere. Site no good.
- 16:36It's just so contrived, so convenient that I'm starting to
- 16:41lose my faith, if you will, pretty quickly.
- 16:44Like you're saying, this is the first 10 minutes, so this is
- 16:46where you get the hooks, ideally at least settings your story up
- 16:50and your consequences. And I don't feel like any of
- 16:52that is really succeeding at this point.
- 16:54The tempo changes, the vibe changes.
- 16:57Certainly when they approach the wall, yes, they find right.
- 17:00OK, so here we are and surrounded by arrows.
- 17:04And then I thought to myself, good.
- 17:05Move. Oh, this movie is a comedy.
- 17:10Really. With the way Pascal is chirping
- 17:12and not taking anything seriously, yes, in the 1st 10 or
- 17:1515, you really should. The accent is silly and this is
- 17:18kind of a comedic introduction. They both kind of look at one
- 17:21another like what, what, what? And they're surrounded by all
- 17:23these arrows. I was like, oh.
- 17:25I haven't surrendered. I've got it.
- 17:26It's a comedy then unfortunately, the rest of the
- 17:29movie tells me that I was wrong. You are definitely wrong.
- 17:31That's just precision Arrow ship.
- 17:34Yeah, I don't think the skill is comedic.
- 17:36I think the scene is comedic. I think the fact that you've got
- 17:38these two lone people and they're looking wood is there
- 17:42surrounded by these arrows. I'm like, OK, this is a movie,
- 17:45is a comedy. And it, it, it isn't, is what I
- 17:47find out. No, that's the problem.
- 17:50Well, I think it would have been better if it wanted to.
- 17:51This is what we want. One of the things we'll talk
- 17:53more about when you talk about if the movie is what it's
- 17:56supposed to do. Whatever.
- 17:57Yeah, just discuss. I'm in trouble already, I could
- 18:00feel it. I love a good drum roll, Oh my
- 18:12God. OK, I did not know.
- 18:14This. I'm just looking over at your
- 18:15empty space where a subwoofer should be.
- 18:18So I got a birthday coming up buddy.
- 18:20That's true. April 12th.
- 18:22That's right. Helps that my anniversary is
- 18:24April 11th. Yeah, I know, trying to stick
- 18:27it. Use your birthday to remind
- 18:30myself of my anniversary so it's.
- 18:32Better if you got married on the 13th.
- 18:34That way you could sort of, I can say, Dave, remember.
- 18:36Yeah. Alright, damn shame.
- 18:38Should have waited. Now I get the benefit.
- 18:40You're like, oh, we got married. Oh yeah, that's right, Phil's
- 18:42birthday tomorrow. But the drum roll is something
- 18:46that is music to my ears for some reason.
- 18:49I don't know why. I just love the rhythm of it.
- 18:51Sure, it's a haunted thing. He's not involved here.
- 18:54No, let's talk about it right now.
- 18:56The soundtrack is pretty much the same all the way through,
- 18:59but I will say it suits the film.
- 19:02OK. That's my call on it.
- 19:04I don't love it, but I feel like I feel like it goes along as a
- 19:09partner. With the movie, sure, it's not
- 19:11discordant. It's not like an Irish accent
- 19:13from Matt Damon. No, it is not.
- 19:15It doesn't stick out Clang against the.
- 19:17Movie no Celtic in this one it has more of a a Chinese Asian
- 19:21makes sort of. Very Chinese movie directed by
- 19:23Imu Jiang which. Have not seen anything of his.
- 19:27Let's get that out there, no? Read Where the Red Fern Grows.
- 19:30You had a flower, one that did well.
- 19:33Yes. So a name that is notable, I
- 19:36suppose, in the in China. Yeah.
- 19:39In the Chinese film culture, yeah, for sure.
- 19:41Working with the hero Jet Li, you know, and House of Flying
- 19:44Daggers, Like he's got obviously some chops.
- 19:46Yeah, mostly in action films. That's the impression I got from
- 19:50this. That might be his specialty
- 19:51because there's a few moments in this for, like, this is your
- 19:54thing. Yeah, this is your thing.
- 19:55And here we are at that moment where we are introduced to
- 19:59Commander Lynn, not General yet. She'll get there, though.
- 20:02Get there. And she just.
- 20:05Jumps off the screen for me. Luminous 100% she looks like AI
- 20:09to me. I.
- 20:11Like she isn't right, it's human but looks a little like a I'm an
- 20:14AI though. I like AI.
- 20:16I don't know much about her film attic career though.
- 20:19She was in Kong Pacific Rim uprising.
- 20:25OK, because I have one of them on my.
- 20:27Shelf. I think probably not.
- 20:29I don't know why. That's a question I ask every
- 20:31other. Must be part of the expansion of
- 20:34my shelf just to get more 4K because I don't know.
- 20:38But if she's not in that one, I really have no reason to.
- 20:39Have that the other one. You might need to go get that
- 20:42one, yeah. But I think it's a combination
- 20:44of her look and also the. Colour schemes of everybody.
- 20:48Yeah, the visual of that particular choice, you're saying
- 20:51when you're talking about the blue and the red costuming.
- 20:54Blue, gold, red, Gray and purple.
- 20:57I'm colorblind. I only saw the 2.
- 21:01It might be. Such a small thing, but I think
- 21:03it really helps elevate the visual aspect of this film.
- 21:06Those colours definitely do pop, considering what's about to
- 21:09happen in the movie is a disjointed mess to me, having
- 21:14something specific to to hold on to, to keep your.
- 21:17We talk about sometimes in action sequences or in horror
- 21:21movies, the geography, Right. Yeah.
- 21:23And what I found, the colours do both pop visually, but they also
- 21:27keep it organized. Keep it a little organized.
- 21:29OK We're doing this type of attack now with these people.
- 21:33Women are on blue and then the leaders, I think are the Gray
- 21:36ones. The golds might be The Archers.
- 21:38But yeah, exactly. I couldn't tell you right now,
- 21:40but in the context of the movie, I felt like that was helpful to
- 21:43me figure out because it's a bit sometimes indistinguishable.
- 21:46Yeah, looks good and serves a purpose.
- 21:48Yeah. There you go.
- 21:49Now they talk about 60 years they've been preparing for this.
- 21:53I know if it was me, I'd be leaving until last year.
- 21:55Year 59. Like, we really should prepare
- 21:58for this guys. Like I'm the guy that's doing
- 22:00the essay on the school bus on the way to school do that day.
- 22:04So fortunately, we have a gentleman named Wang.
- 22:09No offence. He's the wise guy.
- 22:11Yeah. I don't mean funny because you
- 22:13you thought this was a comedy. I did.
- 22:15He's the man of wisdom and I think they may have
- 22:19underestimated these these beasts.
- 22:21The tow tie I believe is their official term.
- 22:23You believe so? Yeah.
- 22:24I don't know if they call themselves that.
- 22:26I don't think they speak English.
- 22:27These green beasts. They're doing a lot of ear.
- 22:31Work out of your work. They're specialty.
- 22:34Buddy, Yeah. And we really get right into the
- 22:36action. Boy, do we.
- 22:38And I like that in a movie. Yes, you do have a note.
- 22:43Here it is 10 minutes of the 1st 24 minutes is action, action
- 22:48sequences. Yeah, sounds about right.
- 22:49And this, for me, is this movie, The purpose of this.
- 22:52Film is the action sequences. I'm much more interested in the.
- 22:57Prep You need some foreplay. I just think that when the
- 23:01action is hitting, I don't care. But we talked about montages and
- 23:04Swiss Family Robinson. The enemy is coming, we need to
- 23:06fortify. So for 59 years later it starts.
- 23:11But I like the prepping of loading up the weaponry, getting
- 23:14the set, getting the spikes and the Spears and the blades or
- 23:18whatever the case is. Yeah, we actually go through the
- 23:20levels. If you notice some interesting
- 23:22camera work when they realize they can't find the key to
- 23:25imprison them, that's. Such a silly scene.
- 23:27Gets them up there, right? We need them.
- 23:29There, but there's just better ways, and I think that is
- 23:31something's going to come up through the rest of the movie.
- 23:33It's just choices like that. What, fumbles with a key for 220
- 23:37seconds, drops them and goes I don't know.
- 23:39He did drop the sleepy spear stuff later.
- 23:42So there's there's president. Yeah, but did you notice that?
- 23:46I didn't notice it. I noticed it more in panic Room,
- 23:49which we've talked about. Yeah.
- 23:50It's sort of similar where we are the wall and we're just
- 23:53going through the levels, more levels every week with the
- 23:55levels and taking us to the top. But just showing the the
- 24:00mechanics of where are these fireballs coming from?
- 24:02And the music is good for this, I think.
- 24:04Yeah, I think, though I think it's, yeah, appropriate in this
- 24:06moment for sure. In setting up this huge set
- 24:09piece that we're going to spend, like you said, a fair amount of
- 24:12time with. Yeah, but once we get into the
- 24:15actual battle, into the. Grit.
- 24:17I lose interest really immediately, yeah.
- 24:20Almost immediately. What is it specifically?
- 24:22Because there's certain things that I love the first time I
- 24:26watched it and I love as much, if not more now.
- 24:29So what was it specifically that you're like, Oh.
- 24:32I think we've talked a lot about CGI and there are elements where
- 24:37I don't mind. And every movie and it has it.
- 24:39You build a certain set and then you build.
- 24:40Out serves a purpose. It comes into every movie in one
- 24:43form other as a visual effect. Those days of not is are long
- 24:47gone and it's necessary to tell big stories.
- 24:49Even movies like The Killers of the Flower Moon.
- 24:51Beautiful, crazy, amazing movie with lots of set design,
- 24:54brilliant work. It's got CGI on top to build it
- 24:56out. It's being used correctly to me
- 24:59in. Those kind of functions, yeah,
- 25:00here when this happens and the initial wave hits, it is just a
- 25:05sloppy mess that I find 0 grounding.
- 25:10I find nothing of note or interest or compelling story.
- 25:15Like there's nothing about it. I find it just a little bland,
- 25:18boring maybe. Just too too many of them and
- 25:21just too much green blobs on the screen essentially.
- 25:24And so I don't think any of this is really happening and I want
- 25:27in a movie always. Want to be in?
- 25:29It to feel like something real happened.
- 25:31Doesn't have to be reality happening of course.
- 25:33It just has to be something like real.
- 25:35Happening. Yes, I understand the.
- 25:36Difference, right? And I think this movie in these
- 25:39early scenes failed to really give me that.
- 25:42I don't completely disagree. You just don't care.
- 25:46Well, I or doesn't bother. You Sometimes they do, sometimes
- 25:49they don't. I have noticed in other movies
- 25:51the numbers game where there's too many enemies coming and
- 25:56there's only a couple of you and the numbers, it just doesn't add
- 26:00up. There's just like thousands upon
- 26:02thousands, and they make a point of showing how many there are.
- 26:05There's no way these two people can take on a swarm of millions
- 26:11of ants from MacGyver episode, which I love, Season 1, great
- 26:15episode, but they're basically surrounded by ants.
- 26:18Yeah, ants. Whatever would they do?
- 26:23And so I do take issue with it, but there's things happening in
- 26:27this movie that somehow. You.
- 26:29Ignore it. Yeah, well, I take my focus away
- 26:32from it, I guess would be the best way of saying.
- 26:35And we were both guilty of maybe making apologies.
- 26:38Yeah. Sure.
- 26:39The movie now, is that what it is?
- 26:40Is it just too many of them? It's definitely a big, big
- 26:43factor. 100%. I think CGI of it maybe isn't.
- 26:46Yeah, well, the CGI, I think everyone just looks like shit.
- 26:48Yeah, right. There's this green blobs kind of
- 26:50running down the screen. Means no, like it has no
- 26:52relevance or resonance. But yeah.
- 26:54I mean, I remember walking out of the Return of the King OHP.
- 26:58That's a good example, yeah. Right.
- 26:59It's just like 3 people against a million orcs or something.
- 27:03Yeah, and I'm like, well this is boring, it's silly and there's
- 27:07just no fucking way this is possible.
- 27:08And another example, I stopped watching The Walking Dead.
- 27:11You walked out of that. Yeah, that show was dead to me
- 27:16after this moment where one of the guys think Glenn is his
- 27:19name, he is trapped in a wall, is against him.
- 27:23He's under a dumpster or something.
- 27:25Is a dump I heard about. This Yeah, Yeah.
- 27:26And so it's like an alley of 1,000,000 zombies.
- 27:30The scene goes black. Oht My gosh.
- 27:32Season ends or whatever. The break happens.
- 27:35First episode of the next season or the next break or the next
- 27:38moment. OHK.
- 27:39He snuck underneath the dumpster and there was a hole in the
- 27:43fence that he wiggled his way out of.
- 27:45And now he lives to fight another day.
- 27:47And I just went, that is garbage.
- 27:49I'm out. Done.
- 27:50And you know what? That makes me think of Misery.
- 27:53OK, Do you remember? Probably not because you're
- 27:56terrible with these things, but Kathy Bates is talking about how
- 27:59angry she got when watching the serials in the movies.
- 28:03And he was hanging off of the the train and she says he fell
- 28:08off the cockadoodle train and she was so angry because the
- 28:12movie thinks we're stupid. That's what these movies I think
- 28:15do to me. They make me feel like they
- 28:17think I'm stupid. Well, there's no way those three
- 28:19people would do that. There's no way those five people
- 28:21could survive. No, absolutely.
- 28:24Where it succeeds is die hard Bruce Willis in that Nakatomi
- 28:29building. Yes, against eight or nine guys,
- 28:32different, completely different. He's gotta be very strategic.
- 28:35Yes, he's got floors to work with.
- 28:37Yeah, those nine people weren't attacking at the same time.
- 28:39Yeah, if those nine people had walked in at the same time in
- 28:42the same moment. And he's in the washroom movies.
- 28:45Over Gruber had hindsight, yeah, maybe that's what he would have
- 28:47done, yeah. But those are elements that that
- 28:49that's one person could kill or beat. 10:15, 20-30 people even
- 28:54in that scenario. This is not that scenario.
- 28:57It's not strategically picking somebody off.
- 28:59It is a swarm of things presenting themselves and not
- 29:04winning. I think we're at that time in
- 29:06movies with the CGI. We're like, let's go big just
- 29:10because we can spectacle now. Why I apologize for it.
- 29:14In this movie are a few moments which give me a rush of
- 29:19adrenaline. There it is.
- 29:21It still does after the 7th watching.
- 29:23I love this scene and a couple of examples.
- 29:26The director slows the camera down.
- 29:28You love that one. Of the Beasts is up on the
- 29:30ledge, and William and Tovar have been released by the foe.
- 29:34Yes. And he kicks the kid out of the
- 29:38way. Yeah, he swings him around in
- 29:40one instance, holding slow motion.
- 29:42Course. Tovar comes down with his
- 29:45shield, cuts him as he pulls back the arrow, the red Cape
- 29:49sequence. I don't normally like slow
- 29:52motion. We did talk about slow motion a
- 29:54little bit in Volcano and neither one of us really
- 29:56appreciated that exactly the volcano soul motion.
- 29:58In that, yeah. But this?
- 30:00Oh my God, you like it. Honestly, this is the best
- 30:05moment of this movie right here. Well, that's his fighting.
- 30:09May be true. Yeah.
- 30:10The timing of everything this I believe.
- 30:13OK, Forget what's happening on the other side of the wall.
- 30:15You have to. Yeah.
- 30:16It's one beast against two guys that I can get behind.
- 30:21Sure. And I think that's where I'm
- 30:24just locked. In when you make it more
- 30:26personal like that, it's always going to be better.
- 30:29For me, it was lost in the mix that that scene happened.
- 30:32It was too showy, too flashy, too silly to me.
- 30:35A little overdone. But on the heels of the rest of
- 30:37it, that's where my issue is, that gap in between.
- 30:40Whereas you can enjoy that one, yeah.
- 30:43Well, now that I've watched it, I know it's coming.
- 30:45So I can like, OK, just look the other way.
- 30:48The other thing is the weaponry, their fireballs, the arrows.
- 30:53What do you think about the women who are on blue?
- 30:56They are the crane jumpers. They are glorifying bungee
- 31:00jumpers. And they just go down there and.
- 31:04I think it's. Silly give it all, but it's
- 31:06interesting. Though.
- 31:07Oh yeah. I mean, it's visually
- 31:08interesting. Sure, it's a choice.
- 31:09I just thought of all your abilities and techniques and so
- 31:13forth, I wondered if that was the most efficient.
- 31:15Probably not. Like I feel like you put
- 31:17yourself in a lot of danger with a pretty minimal weapon.
- 31:21Not good odds, no. After maybe the next sequence,
- 31:24I'll ask you what your favorite one was and see if we line up
- 31:27there because it might be more in line with effectiveness.
- 31:30OK. And does bring into question why
- 31:32didn't they use that the first time?
- 31:34Yeah, which leads me to my final question is why did they
- 31:37retreat? Yeah, I don't know.
- 31:39All they want here, Phil, one line to explain the retreat.
- 31:42Yes. Oh, they always do this to test
- 31:45the waters. Then they go back.
- 31:47Oh, the sun is dawning. Yes, how hard could that be to
- 31:50give me that one line? That's not interested in.
- 31:53Words. I know, I know, that is my one
- 31:56nitpick, despite the fact that I like this movie and still do.
- 31:59I just need a reason why because like you said, if you're
- 32:01counting the numbers, this is an easy win for.
- 32:04Yeah, just don't stop. You've got attrition, right?
- 32:07Like you outnumber them, you have more power.
- 32:10More because William Tovar took out this one.
- 32:12Like, oh, wait a minute, We better back off.
- 32:15This guys got a boat. Yeah.
- 32:17A fucking bow. We better go.
- 32:19Come on, this guys got 12 arrows.
- 32:22We can't possibly compete. Maybe that was in their pregame.
- 32:25Say listen, if there's a guy with a bow, we go.
- 32:30That's what the Queen said. That's the game plan.
- 32:32If you see a bow, we go. That's the mantra.
- 32:35Exactly, they even say like the enemy is smarter.
- 32:39Wang was saying it along there. These are the people moving.
- 32:43They are the peak villain possible right?
- 32:46Like they are the T1 thousands. These are the best of the best,
- 32:50the smartest, strongest, most capable villains they've ever
- 32:53seen. But six bows we gotta get out
- 32:55of. Here self-confidence.
- 32:58Self-confidence. Let me quiet things down after
- 33:09the batale. Yes, yes.
- 33:11And they asked him to do a bit of a trick.
- 33:13The old arrow and the bowl, and they joke about him not being
- 33:17able to do it in front of people.
- 33:18Yeah, he's fine. Of course he's fine.
- 33:21I like the trick. Yeah, sure doesn't serve much of
- 33:23A purpose. Are you supposed to eat out of
- 33:24the bowl? Afterwards, it reminded me a
- 33:26little bit of Prince of Thieves we talked about earlier, a
- 33:28little bit of that. Yeah, that was CG. 2 arrow work
- 33:31man. Yeah it's fun to do.
- 33:32Totally a lot of BS. But in a lot of slow mode, yeah.
- 33:35I like it. Yeah, this again is more
- 33:37humorous than me. Back to comedy.
- 33:38The way it's played feels comedic, but it's meant as
- 33:42serious. And they have a more serious
- 33:45look. They're clean shaven now.
- 33:48They got applause for that. I think it's like people really
- 33:51come. On We do smell, he says.
- 33:53We really do. It's really this movie I think
- 33:55wants to be a comedy. Fortunately they clean up nice,
- 33:58which is good. I think that needs to be said.
- 34:00They look sharp and we talked a couple of weeks ago about eating
- 34:04in movies, how you have to do so many takes.
- 34:06How much solo was eating in this one?
- 34:08Or you have Pedro Pascal's character, like he's eating
- 34:12well, it'll be a fair fight. He's just like, you better get
- 34:15this one take. Yeah, you're slopping that up.
- 34:18You're steady meals here. I don't have to act like you're
- 34:20like me on a cruise ship. We do have Commander Lynn here
- 34:25in a bigger role at this point. She's talking to William.
- 34:29They're talking about who they fight for.
- 34:31Yeah, William has fought for a lot of flags.
- 34:34Yes, a bit of a whore comes that, but he's just doing it for
- 34:37hot meal. Yes, she's in it for the
- 34:39science. I think he's in it for the
- 34:41money. They do lay a an egg.
- 34:46Is that the right term? Something for us later about
- 34:49trust And they're like, we're not the same and they're not
- 34:53ones. A gorgeous Asian woman and you
- 34:56know, it's Matt Damon. He's not a bad looking.
- 34:58Guy anymore, he's got himself cleaned up.
- 35:02But he is unwilling to do the bungee, which I don't blame him.
- 35:05My wife did it, I didn't. Yeah, I remember that.
- 35:07I remember that I would have done.
- 35:08It was just, Oh yeah, sure. A lot of money for one little
- 35:11jump. OK, all I'm saying.
- 35:13Yeah, you measure once, you cut twice.
- 35:15I heard the story recently. It popped up because you know
- 35:17how the Internet is, even though it happened 10 years ago.
- 35:19It's new to me. Sure, showing up on Instagram or
- 35:22Facebook, but. Someone's 90th.
- 35:23Birthday, It's something else, something in Norway where a
- 35:26woman died on a bungee because of a language barrier, he said.
- 35:31No jump and she heard go jump or something and they got sued
- 35:36because his English was broken so she.
- 35:39Jumped. And so she wasn't really a
- 35:41language barrier at that point. It was probably like the
- 35:43barrier. Of the actual barrier.
- 35:45So I've been a big lawsuit there.
- 35:47Maybe don't jump would have been better than no jump.
- 35:49Yeah, I think they probably will lose that.
- 35:52The fact that you don't understand what the guy is
- 35:54saying, that seems like it's your.
- 35:55Problem. I don't know what happened 10
- 35:56years ago. I'm sure it's settled now.
- 35:58Anyways, point is, he won't do it because of trust.
- 36:02Yeah. Some seeds.
- 36:05Well, yes, for a guy that you think he would just do it
- 36:07because he's the Invincible, you know, Leo or Bruce kind of
- 36:12character. Right, Yes.
- 36:13I don't think he's established. And this is my bigger problem
- 36:15with this character in general is because there's no dialogue
- 36:17and because there's nothing. Yeah, we.
- 36:19Don't. Really know.
- 36:19I have no idea who this person is.
- 36:21We're depending on Covar. Yeah.
- 36:23One or two blanks. All this is chirping, right.
- 36:26Later he says you're not a hero, you're a liar.
- 36:28You're a thief. You're a killer.
- 36:29But that's not for another half hour of the movie.
- 36:31In this moment. Or do we trust him or not?
- 36:33We've last seen him being chased by a gang of other people in the
- 36:37desert. So did he steal from them?
- 36:39Did he kill them? And who is this guy?
- 36:41And because of no dialogue, I don't know or I don't care.
- 36:43We just know he's after gunpowder, that's really all we.
- 36:45Know so the fact they're having this communication between them
- 36:49that's do you trust and how do I trust?
- 36:51And this is how I know. I don't know as an audience
- 36:53member, I know because he's Matt Damon, but that's not enough.
- 36:56I don't I don't like that. No, we don't in movies.
- 36:58That's right. It is do the work, get in there.
- 37:01And if that's the work, it's not happening.
- 37:03So to me, whether he's a bungee jumper or not, or that he's
- 37:07committed the cause or not, they have not established anything to
- 37:10me that sells that. So why would I fight for you?
- 37:13You're nobody to me. Hold on.
- 37:15Yeah. She's gorgeous.
- 37:17Yeah, there it is. That's honestly the strength of
- 37:20this movie is not that is not depicting him as a specific type
- 37:23of guy. The arc of this character is
- 37:25weak. Yeah, 100%.
- 37:28No arguments, but she is my magnet.
- 37:31I am locked in her. Look, you will bungee jump for.
- 37:34Her with bungee jump for her. Whatever you want.
- 37:36Honey. Honey, I'm there.
- 37:38Let's go. I am glued to the screen.
- 37:41Yeah, OK. Anyways, maybe the character
- 37:43development isn't great. They do try to explain at this
- 37:47point the myth of these monsters, like where they came
- 37:51from. Why they are attacking?
- 37:53Why, Yeah. What's the deal with them?
- 37:56What I gather from it, 20 centuries ago, a meteor hits,
- 38:00turns a rock green and creates these beasts.
- 38:04And they activate every 60 years.
- 38:06And they all feed the queen. They go out, they grab people,
- 38:10They digest them like birds. Yes.
- 38:12You know, I'm talking about recited to their mouth.
- 38:14I'm into that. And if they eat enough, they'll
- 38:17be able to go further to the cities, to the world.
- 38:20So it's best that you keep their diet to a minimum.
- 38:24So that makes them stronger every time they come out.
- 38:27Makes every 60 years. Works for me.
- 38:30Yeah. The simple plot.
- 38:32The lore of it, yeah. If you're going to commit to it
- 38:34then make sure OK do it so it gives you some explanation.
- 38:37It doesn't explain the why they retreated stuff, but at least
- 38:39explains why they're even in this predicament to begin.
- 38:41With exactly. And they find the magnets, yeah,
- 38:45that William has been carrying around.
- 38:47Pretty convenient they worked this morning around little
- 38:49contrived Ramsey. One piece of materials that
- 38:52could possibly save this band of warriors is a magnet.
- 38:57Now, they're not all warriors. There's one person we haven't
- 39:00talked about yet. As of the time, this is the time
- 39:03Willem Dafoe. Willie.
- 39:06He sticks out to me like a sore thumb in this.
- 39:09Movie. To be fair, he kind of sticks
- 39:11out in every. Movie, I suppose so he is, but I
- 39:15feel that this movie is below him and I know that.
- 39:18And I don't think that about Matt Damon for some reason,
- 39:21maybe because he's the lead and the action sequences.
- 39:23He's amazing at it. I like it.
- 39:25But for him, he's just off in the corner doing nothing, doing
- 39:28nothing. Like why are you here?
- 39:30This could have been done by you, you know, if you want to
- 39:33look some weird guy in the corner.
- 39:34Sure, popping his head out. Huh.
- 39:36Yeah, you've done that, and it always stuck out to me.
- 39:41Yeah, it's stupid. And I don't think he's good in
- 39:43this movie. No, he's not giving anything to
- 39:45be good. Now I think he's.
- 39:46A good actor, Ohe generally right, that's clear is nothing
- 39:49for him and there's nothing really for anybody, and that's
- 39:51another issue kind of runs throughout.
- 39:53But if you're going to have an actor like Willem Dafoe, you
- 39:56know he's done shit like he's not a guy that's like only the
- 39:58best of the best. He needs money, but that sort of
- 40:01quality, if you will, or that face.
- 40:04Does not fit the character. I think that's why it doesn't
- 40:07really fit the movie. So it's another example of
- 40:09something like Damon's accent, which just distracts from what's
- 40:12happening. And if what's happening isn't
- 40:13that interesting in my case, it's just another layer of
- 40:15something where it's like this doesn't feel real.
- 40:18That doesn't feel like a character.
- 40:19It just feels like William Dafoe just, you know, goofing right
- 40:24for a couple of weeks in China and those things just start to
- 40:26hurt the movie over the long term.
- 40:28That could be part of the reason that I am honed in on Tianjing
- 40:33Commander Lin. Yeah, because of all of that.
- 40:36That could be it just elevates her even more like, OK, I like
- 40:39you already. There's no other character
- 40:41really to sink my teeth into, so I'm really glued to you so.
- 40:45That could be it as well. Totally.
- 40:46And I am at this point, I am like I love you.
- 40:50I will leave it all. I have a tight, but we're going
- 40:54to move right along while Defoe is scheming.
- 40:58Yes, Tovar. Yep, they want the gunpowder.
- 41:00Who doesn't want the black powder?
- 41:02I guess he needs help to get. It but defoe's been here 2520
- 41:06years, 30 years he says. What is the need for the black
- 41:09powder that he is not getting? He's biting his time for some 22
- 41:13chemos to show up. Like I know plot mechanics of
- 41:17this movie are so bereft of logic it just makes it really
- 41:22hard for me to to buy. In I think he is there literally
- 41:25to get Tovar away. Sure, there it is.
- 41:28Yeah, he's a device. That's his function and I think
- 41:31that's more evident now that I think about it.
- 41:35But we go to the bridge and it's night time.
- 41:38I know you like a nice night time scene.
- 41:40Sure. Yeah, the moon and the stars and
- 41:43a couple to take. What are they called again to
- 41:47tie toe tie. But the general and commander
- 41:50are about to get Maloney, and that's from Untouchables.
- 41:54Yes, where Malone. He's the origin of that.
- 41:57Of course he gets tricked. Yep.
- 41:59And that's what happens here, sending a decoy at the front end
- 42:02and gets distracted and they're waiting for him right outside.
- 42:05Yeah, God damn Malone. I think the purpose for this
- 42:08scene is to show that the toe tie get it right that time. 1A
- 42:14regime change. They want to take out the
- 42:15general and they want my girl in charge, which I can get behind.
- 42:21This one. You're on I'm team toe tie.
- 42:24Change up that regime. But really, I think they want
- 42:28just her to run the show. There's no reason for the actual
- 42:31general in the movie anymore. He's a weak character.
- 42:33No, there's no point for anybody in the movie, right?
- 42:35Ultimately, but for her succession, right?
- 42:37This is a love story now somehow is developing, and she is given
- 42:42an arc that doesn't really relate to anything that we're
- 42:45really watching in the movie. Because it's not always based on
- 42:47her strengths. It's that she succeeds because
- 42:50someone else fails. So that is not to me like a real
- 42:54growth opportunity, let's say. Oh, I see.
- 42:57Come on. She's been doing good work.
- 42:59She's been doing fine work. She came from, she's proven
- 43:02herself. He even said 5 situations, he
- 43:05said. You're blind.
- 43:07As seen earlier, you're doing a great job.
- 43:09Keep it up. You part of the nameless order.
- 43:11You came from nothing. I'm not suggesting that it's not
- 43:14warranted, but I just meant like she doesn't get the moment of
- 43:16success. She gets the succession because
- 43:19somebody else died and that's fine, but I don't really feel
- 43:21excited about it. I don't feel like she's done
- 43:23anything different or better than someone else.
- 43:26Leading by example, though, even in a commander position before
- 43:29General, she was part of the corpse crew.
- 43:32She was going down there. Yeah.
- 43:34With the Spears. Yeah.
- 43:35Usually in in that position of power, you're not doing that.
- 43:39And I appreciate that because in my profession, when I was
- 43:42working, I was a leader by example type of guy.
- 43:46So I think that could be another reason why I'm locked in on this
- 43:50character because I had the same leadership skills as her.
- 43:53I once heard a quote that was we led by being followed, and I
- 43:58interpreted that as being someone that was not
- 44:00particularly a leader, but rather had a charisma or
- 44:03something that just left people following.
- 44:06That's me. And that's sort of his, her
- 44:08situation here where it feels like she's not really leading,
- 44:12she just has people following. Her I would do anything she
- 44:14asked me to. Anything bungee jumping.
- 44:18Even that spear and lastly to finish off that scene is I don't
- 44:22think that kills him. No, it feels very minimal
- 44:25shoulder. Wounds.
- 44:26Maybe you would have a scar. This looks like a scratch.
- 44:29Yeah, he's weak. It's another incongruity in the
- 44:31movie that just fails. Give me the tension, give me the
- 44:35suspension disbelief. But I I just never had.
- 44:37It this is for me, a product of watching it 7 Times Now.
- 44:40I'm kind of picking that out like I think you live.
- 44:43Sure. But I will say that's probably
- 44:44the only thing that's been added to the list from the rewatching.
- 44:48Let's say nothing outfits that they didn't already not love,
- 44:53which is not a lot, no surprisingly.
- 44:55No, it's not that surprising. I suppose not.
- 44:58You know what kind of shelf? I given the history of.
- 45:10One thing I'll talk about is that I did like the mist.
- 45:14You can't really see with the fog, this and that.
- 45:16Love it. In the movie The mist certainly,
- 45:19but specifically in our history in the archives is Road to
- 45:23Perdition. If you recall, like in the rain,
- 45:25the mist, it just was an extra layer of haunting or dread or
- 45:28what have you. So this next action sequence,
- 45:32the 5th or 6th, 1:00 in, you know, an hour.
- 45:35No, no, see, you're exaggerating.
- 45:37It's actually really only the second set piece.
- 45:40We're about 50 minutes in and they've come back.
- 45:42There's no real rhyme or reason to when they come back, it
- 45:44seems. We were in on that meeting,
- 45:47yeah, that was behind closed doors in the Great Hall.
- 45:49I don't know what happened here, but it is interesting because
- 45:51they have a whole other set of defence which is interesting.
- 45:55Yeah, that is bizarre, but I like the setting.
- 45:58That's about the only thing though, because the rest of
- 46:00these scene I really don't like and I've got some specific
- 46:02problems with it. But the setting in that
- 46:04environment gets me at least more interested than clear blue
- 46:08skies, right? Give me some tension.
- 46:09Pro fog, where am I? I'm lost in the mist of this and
- 46:12that. But the movie doesn't really
- 46:14deliver on that afterwards. Now forget the fact that they're
- 46:16using different weapons. Do you find this set better?
- 46:22Worse difference more effective? They got blades coming out of
- 46:25the God damn wall. That's genius.
- 46:27That was pretty. Cool, this should be a a
- 46:29standard feature of this. Wall.
- 46:31What are you hiding for? Just let him go.
- 46:33Exactly 59 years. You unleash them, you let them
- 46:35go and then wait. Yeah.
- 46:37It's shocking to me why this wasn't used the first one.
- 46:39Especially if they were just climbing up the walls.
- 46:41So we can agree that's the most effective defence.
- 46:44Yeah, and there's also at the end of this season.
- 46:45So just the idea that they have other tools that they have not.
- 46:51Utilized feels really silly. It feels like they're doing it
- 46:55for the movie. Exactly.
- 46:56And I love it. Amping it up.
- 46:59I do. Oh my God.
- 47:00I know I shouldn't. Maybe because of the Doesn't
- 47:03make any sense. Yes, Yeah.
- 47:04But I know what he's trying to do.
- 47:06And I. Know what is he trying to do?
- 47:08You say things like this. What is he trying to explain?
- 47:10To showcase, showcase trying new things.
- 47:14And I think the visuals of this is effective, like seeing the
- 47:18beasts get sliced up. I think that's represented
- 47:20relatively well. CGI perspective.
- 47:23There's too many of them. I mean, I like dispatching
- 47:26things like that and bloody is possible and I like the fact
- 47:30that that this thing exists. I just I'm wondering however
- 47:33many people died the first time. Could have been saved because if
- 47:35they just use. Your instead of having four
- 47:38women on bungee cords and a spear, it's just for camera
- 47:42work. It's just for a movie.
- 47:43And I'm like, this is already very, very thinly connected and
- 47:47now I'm like, what? What am I even?
- 47:48Watching, I think that's why I'm appreciating it as that.
- 47:51Yeah, I think that's why. Teach their own.
- 47:55Let me ask you this. So are you a fan of Johnny Cash?
- 48:00You know where I'm going with this.
- 48:01One, yeah. And Ring of Fire.
- 48:02Ring of Fire, baby. Yes, yes.
- 48:04That's great song. Yeah.
- 48:06And that's great visual. It's good move.
- 48:08Yeah, great move. They decided to go down.
- 48:10They have sleepy Spears. Yeah.
- 48:12That's like coin them. Yeah.
- 48:13Because they want to. They want to catch the whole
- 48:15thing, right. This whole mission is they gotta
- 48:17catch 1. Because I want to test the
- 48:18kryptonite. Yes, the magnet.
- 48:20Exactly. Makes sense.
- 48:22And also Williams, like, part of this idea came up with it.
- 48:26It's his magnet. And Tovar is like, what's going
- 48:29on here? So that was a bit of a rift.
- 48:32This is a dramatic turn about halfway through 2/3 of the way
- 48:35through the movie. Filmmaking 101, buddy.
- 48:37Yeah, to create some tension with the two protagonists.
- 48:39We're checking boxes here. Oh my God.
- 48:42But I found it all pretty tedious and certainly what comes
- 48:46next, no problems with OK, so Damon's down there.
- 48:50Not yet. OK, they hooked one and they're
- 48:53trying to get him up Yes. And they're failing.
- 48:56They're cranking all the things they can The.
- 48:58Beasts are pulling it out because they're all one big
- 49:00happy family. That's right.
- 49:01And they say the chain won't hold.
- 49:05There's too much tension. That's correct.
- 49:07The chain won't. Hold.
- 49:08I know chains. Yep.
- 49:09So if you know chains, you know the chain cannot take anymore
- 49:13tension. Do you think the answer to that
- 49:16is having a £200 man slide down the chain?
- 49:21That's going to create more attention and probably snap it
- 49:23if they put anymore torque in it.
- 49:25He's sliding on it. No, it's putting the torque it's
- 49:28breaking. I ask my dad about this.
- 49:30He's a mathematician. He knows torque, he's got a lot
- 49:32of lawn mowers. He knows these things.
- 49:34He says it all checks out. Him sliding down.
- 49:38It's so Shane is bullshit. Come on.
- 49:39Absolutely. You gotta get me, You gotta get
- 49:42on. Board here.
- 49:43I'm not an idiot, I do like the whistling idea of arrows the.
- 49:50Whistling arrows. But at that point I'm just like,
- 49:53I'm really, I'm struggling to, I'm really struggling to care,
- 49:56right? Like I don't have any character
- 49:58stuff. Nothing's happening that's
- 49:59interesting. The action sequences aren't
- 50:01compelling. And then this sort of leaping
- 50:02logic, I'm just like, man, give me something.
- 50:05Yeah, that's the concern I had with this movie.
- 50:07I mean, I was gonna do it no matter what because I love it.
- 50:09Of course is. I know it's not going to give
- 50:12you what you typically like. Sure.
- 50:15Dialogue, story. Yeah.
- 50:17Yeah. And like, I'm hoping he's gonna
- 50:21at least appreciate the action sequences because I think most
- 50:26of it is well done outside of the ones I also agree with are
- 50:29BS. But if you're not latching on to
- 50:33these action sequences, that is the movie.
- 50:35And if you're not getting that, then it's not looking good.
- 50:38This might be harder to get on your shelf than I initially
- 50:41thought staying here, and I'm sure it doesn't help that Tovar
- 50:47shows up out of nowhere. Just nowhere.
- 50:49He somehow was just hanging. Out transported down there?
- 50:51Yep. To save the day in the last
- 50:53possible second. Yeah.
- 50:54And then they have this 2 verses.
- 50:57How many? This is where the numbers, I
- 51:00don't care about a Ring of Fire, The Ring of Fire.
- 51:03And they have the whistling coming in.
- 51:06Yeah, but it doesn't all go as planned.
- 51:08They both Chuck their acts at the same time to make this
- 51:10amazing cool move and they hit each other.
- 51:13It's a big double team. Yeah, so that kind of failed a
- 51:17lot of arrow work. Yeah, he's the bow guy.
- 51:20It's just really tough to fully buy in when random dudes are
- 51:24showing up in the nick of time. Not to mention what happens
- 51:28next. There was a door at the bottom,
- 51:30the whole. Time damn door David, what are
- 51:34we talking about? And this is the first time I
- 51:37questioned in like, oh, he could have just taken.
- 51:38The door. Why is anybody up?
- 51:40There. Bring a fire buddy showcase.
- 51:43Why are they trying to drag this fucking beast and all the
- 51:47cranking and all the talking and all the time and energy and.
- 51:50I didn't even think about that part.
- 51:52Walk him in the fucking door. You got a.
- 51:54Door. I was just thinking they could
- 51:55just access down. There that too.
- 51:57It's like there is nothing logical AND.
- 52:00You said it was a comedy, so it felt.
- 52:02Comedic. At this point, it just felt like
- 52:03there was no thought whatsoever given to anything in the movie.
- 52:07If William would have said, why do you tell me there was a door
- 52:11here? Now we're talking comedy, right?
- 52:12Yeah, that's a missed opportunity.
- 52:14It's just, it's so silly to me. I was like, I think I'm gonna
- 52:16leave, I'm gonna walk out. This is a bad situation here.
- 52:20Yeah, it's amazing how a movie can have certain faults and you
- 52:25can't argue them. They're there, they're on the
- 52:27screen, but they're doing some things that you are craving for
- 52:31or doing it so well that when you go back to I remember that
- 52:35adrenaline rush, sure. Oh, I love that.
- 52:37I love this moment and it's enough to somehow carry through
- 52:40or push through these little issues, that one little issues.
- 52:44If you will. Yeah, I think that's the trick
- 52:46of movies, right? If you do one thing really well,
- 52:48then you can get away with doing a couple things not so well or
- 52:51whatever metrics. But the problem is for me, it's
- 52:54doing nothing well. It's not your genre, right?
- 52:56Anything. And even actually we've talked
- 52:58about I love those Bond movies like, so it's not just action
- 53:01blanket that I'm out. It's a harder bar to cross for
- 53:04sure. Yeah, but it's not like just as
- 53:06you've liked horror movies that we've watched, it's a harder
- 53:08bar. But if you're doing it right,
- 53:11that element of it I can cross over.
- 53:13And that was really my motivation to bring this one
- 53:16off. It was thought the action, yeah.
- 53:18So I'm curious to see if, because if what I think of the
- 53:21action is enough for Phil to say, OK, these set pieces are
- 53:24good. I can ignore some of the faults
- 53:26that you would normally. I think that's possible.
- 53:28Just I don't think this is the movie for it.
- 53:29I think that the stuff that's delivering on the action.
- 53:31I'll keep is, of course. I'll keep trying.
- 53:33I want you to good. I appreciate that.
- 53:35Just as I'll keep bringing the horror, you know, whatever else,
- 53:37we'll find a middle ground. But we're discovering these are
- 53:40really too big leaps. I just don't want you to come
- 53:43back next week with a revenge piece, you know, like, you know,
- 53:48sure it's not November, so it can't be a horror movie.
- 53:51We have a. We have a deal.
- 53:53We have a deal, not November. Uber Seattle.
- 53:57I'm already hoping it's over. That's right.
- 53:59Let's jump. They did capture the beasts.
- 54:03They did it the hard way. Yeah, the magnet works.
- 54:06And of course, buddy from the big city comes and like, well,
- 54:10I'm taking it because that's what we do.
- 54:11And yeah, that's what you would do.
- 54:13Sure. You have the big wigs that come
- 54:14in. Think they know?
- 54:15It all, of course we'll take it from here.
- 54:17You got us here, but we know what to do.
- 54:18Very relevant. Totally felt.
- 54:20Yeah, we'll take. Over.
- 54:22And this is where the two guys, Tover and William, really butt
- 54:25heads. Yeah, they're on two different
- 54:28characters. Tovar is is about the mission.
- 54:31Yeah, rightfully so. He came here looking for black
- 54:33powder you found, and we found Defoe.
- 54:36Defoe. Yeah.
- 54:37So, like, mission accomplished. Let's get the fuck out of here.
- 54:40And Damon somehow has a change of heart now.
- 54:42You're obviously smitten. So you believe that they have
- 54:46the relationship that no brainer?
- 54:48Yeah, it's an easy decision. Got banned in your family?
- 54:51Your life. Take care.
- 54:54Don't care. Cut my hand off.
- 54:55I don't know. I live here now.
- 54:57So whatever you. Give me my own room, my man
- 55:01cave. Good.
- 55:03OK. I struggled a little bit with
- 55:05Damon as OHT. No, I'm one of you now.
- 55:09I don't really buy. It yeah, I mean, I connect a
- 55:11couple of dots where I think he doesn't want to be that thief
- 55:15anymore. He wants to have a little more
- 55:17honor and I think general in which she earned, she's been
- 55:21upgraded, is rubbing off on her little bit saying I want to
- 55:25fight for more than just food. I wanted to count.
- 55:28I want to be something better. I don't think the movie displays
- 55:33that well enough. I'm putting that in there and I
- 55:37don't mind putting a little bit of work into the movie if it's
- 55:40doing things that I'm liking, which this movie is.
- 55:43So I think that's why I allow that and why I don't mind doing
- 55:46that. Can I ask you a question around
- 55:49this? Just popped in my brain so bear
- 55:50with. It unscripted.
- 55:51I don't know. 60 years they've been waiting for these animals.
- 55:57Yeah. Yeah.
- 55:57Every 60 years you've got that. You listening?
- 55:59How long are these battles? A couple days, right?
- 56:05Like, I wonder, is there a set? Like we have a week, we have 4
- 56:09days that we have to defend. Defend Yeah.
- 56:11He is committing to being here and they're reacting is if this
- 56:15is their lives. Room for the long haul, but
- 56:17really it's only like a week. Does that mean they've always
- 56:20won in previous battles or that they've just everyone's been
- 56:24killed every 60 years? You just reset the population.
- 56:27How did they know when it starts and stops?
- 56:29Well, the great thing about this movie is they leave a lot to the
- 56:31imagination. The impression I get is they
- 56:35probably lose a lot of lives of course and.
- 56:37Watched it happen. And then they go dormant once
- 56:40they are fed enough. I see you top up the Queen to
- 56:44whatever she needs, but they're not making anymore.
- 56:46Progress because they. Need the energy to build and go
- 56:49further. Yeah, so I think their job is to
- 56:51make sure that they're only fed so much before they go dormant.
- 56:54I don't know. Again, I don't have a clear
- 56:56answer for you. It's OK.
- 56:58I would watch it again. How are you?
- 56:59Yeah, I reference it only in in context of what Damon is
- 57:02committing to. What's he going to do?
- 57:03After what is this? Is this over in two days?
- 57:06Like now what? Right?
- 57:07Like marriage get both. Like what?
- 57:10Lock it in. Anyway, I'm not really buying
- 57:13that relationship for him to kind of be that rubbed off and
- 57:17and be that committed to the cause.
- 57:19But also I started thinking then what is the cause?
- 57:21Like what is? What are we committing to?
- 57:23We don't know. OK, don't worry about it.
- 57:26What we do know is Defoe and his character and Tovar.
- 57:30They're committed. They are committed with him or
- 57:32not, he says. If they're busy trying to kill
- 57:36William, yeah. That works for them.
- 57:38It works for them. They're distracted.
- 57:39Yeah. Another word for that is every
- 57:41man for themselves. Yeah, exactly.
- 57:44Another issue that arose here is they.
- 57:47Find a hole in the wall. You know what?
- 57:52This might be the answer to why they retreated.
- 57:54The whole point was them just to make the whole.
- 57:56Hmm, it's all a distraction. Again, very relevant.
- 57:59Yeah, yeah. Today's society distracts, is
- 58:01the word of the. Day, but that's going to be a
- 58:03problem because now they could have access to bigger cities and
- 58:08obviously feed the queen more. Sure.
- 58:11Yeah. So maybe they've just been
- 58:13working on this much like Shawshank Redemption.
- 58:16Yeah, it's been plugging away. Every 60 years they get to dig a
- 58:19little bit more. Could be.
- 58:21Keep them busy, you're making sense to me.
- 58:24Now that is more than what the movie gave me, so if that is the
- 58:27case, that good. I'm here to help.
- 58:29But they realized Tovar does that.
- 58:31William's not coming slowly. They knock him out.
- 58:34Yeah, sure, he's that needed to get rid of him.
- 58:36Yep. Not gonna kill him though.
- 58:38Let's show some loyalty there. It's not, I don't want to say
- 58:42the town. It's not quite that
- 58:43relationship. The issue is is General Lynn
- 58:47doesn't believe that Matt Damon was trying to stop.
- 58:50Them. No, there's no trust.
- 58:52There is no trust. I thought she should have given
- 58:54the benefit of doubt at. This point 100%.
- 58:56He's worked with the Sleepy Spears.
- 58:58He went down that chain when he could have used the door, Chose
- 59:01not. He chose not to.
- 59:02He's got his bow. He's doing the work.
- 59:04He's. Coming up with ideas and the
- 59:05kid, the young soldiers, yes, yes, he's like, I was there.
- 59:08Yeah, he did good. Works is what happened, so they
- 59:11decide not to kill him, but still to throw in prison.
- 59:14Silly romantic comedy stuff. Right.
- 59:17Like, oh, understanding we're fighting now.
- 59:19I can't trust you at all. To label this as a romantic
- 59:22comedy, well. It's.
- 59:24How dare you? How dare you Sir.
- 59:28Romantic comedy movies and action masterpiece.
- 59:34Unfortunately, the kid has the keys and now we can find the
- 59:36keys. Finally.
- 59:37It's not fumbling around. Yeah, he's got bigger problems
- 59:40coming up, but. Speaking of bigger problems,
- 59:43Willem Dafoe, let's just put a capper on this.
- 59:46Waste of a character. Yeah, performance.
- 59:48He double crosses Tovar. Could have seen that coming.
- 59:51He's willing to. Fuck, I didn't see it coming.
- 59:53Wow. Yeah.
- 59:54So that's a good twist. But it makes sense.
- 59:57Sure. I love how it didn't.
- 59:58Work out for him? Well, sure.
- 1:00:00When you think about a movie that could get a little bit
- 1:00:02messy on tying up some loose ends, gunpowder, people fumbling
- 1:00:06around with it, don't really know what it is, and you can't
- 1:00:09talk. He's gagged.
- 1:00:10Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:00:11He should know what that is. Experimented for one year?
- 1:00:16OK, that is a nice way to to kill off that character.
- 1:00:22And it's good for Tover, ultimately, because he would
- 1:00:24have had the same fate had he not been double.
- 1:00:26Crossed. Yeah, he.
- 1:00:27Wins. He doesn't lose his big.
- 1:00:28Yeah, yeah, yeah. He comes out of this pretty
- 1:00:31clean for a guy that is so disinterested in everything
- 1:00:33that's happening. Here's a great arc, but this
- 1:00:35talk about Damon's arc here, this is where it really happens.
- 1:00:39Yeah, he really turns him and Wang.
- 1:00:43No offence. Like you know what that means?
- 1:00:47It's reference to Caddyshack. OK, I was like to keep playing.
- 1:00:50Dumb here. This is my partner, Mr. Wang.
- 1:00:52No offence. But if he's gonna go with Wang,
- 1:00:56hmm, he needs his bow. Yeah, who cares?
- 1:01:00I'm really struggling. You gotta bring me.
- 1:01:01Home. I was able to lightly make an
- 1:01:06emotional connection here. The music has amped up just a
- 1:01:10little bit, and again, I think I'm putting the effort into it,
- 1:01:14but I did almost tear up a little.
- 1:01:16Wow, Yeah, I can do that. I don't think you can.
- 1:01:20He has proven on this podcast that you are unable.
- 1:01:22If I. Muster emotion most of the.
- 1:01:24Time. If I have certain investments in
- 1:01:28the movie, OK, I am willing. Like I've said before, give
- 1:01:31yourself over to do a little bit more work to help things move.
- 1:01:34Along impressed and agog. Again, there's no tear.
- 1:01:39Of course, a little bit of the left eye got a little water.
- 1:01:42Alright, no salty discharge. Yeah, when he commits to like
- 1:01:45I'm in this. Yeah, let's go.
- 1:01:47OK. We're going to take this to the
- 1:01:49end. I'm like, yeah.
- 1:01:50Alright, yeah, that's and I'm glad that it gets its hooks in
- 1:01:53you that way. Well, she she got her hooks.
- 1:01:55It helps a lot, it really does. I can't express that enough.
- 1:01:59I hope my wife not listening. Should probably turn it off
- 1:02:03while. 5 minutes and they get in the hot air balloon.
- 1:02:07Another great MacGyver episode if you recall season 1 again.
- 1:02:11Yeah, Wizard of Oz 2. Yeah, sure, whatever.
- 1:02:14I'm talking about classics here and they make our way to the big
- 1:02:16city and we really have our denosumab like our last, you
- 1:02:20know, 10-15 minutes or bringing it home here.
- 1:02:23Yeah. Is there anything here that has
- 1:02:26you at all interested? No, this is the last battle.
- 1:02:30I dare? I asked.
- 1:02:31The last ball battle, I wondered a little bit why they wouldn't
- 1:02:35attack the Queen's feeding because they have that like long
- 1:02:38shot where they're seemingly all busy feeding the queen.
- 1:02:41So you're like, well, you could probably throw a couple things.
- 1:02:43And I know they try it later and.
- 1:02:44They did you not see the defence, they.
- 1:02:46Have they got a good? Defence, Defence wins
- 1:02:47championships because there's about, I want to say 12 Raccoon
- 1:02:51yeah, there's like there's 18 billion of the regular ones, the
- 1:02:55toe ties and there's 12 that have these giant hard shell
- 1:03:00backs and they're like her entourage.
- 1:03:02That's right. So you need a little bit.
- 1:03:04More, I will grant that the hierarchy of these aliens or
- 1:03:08what have you, I think are interesting, but we don't know.
- 1:03:11We're not giving anything with them but the sort of queen bee
- 1:03:14thing, and I did like that there was that defence mechanism.
- 1:03:17I think the way that the movie utilizes it and the way it uses,
- 1:03:21you know, Damon's throwing in the dynamite or whatever and
- 1:03:24it's getting knocked down and up back and they're like, oh, we've
- 1:03:27got another last ditch. Effort one, yeah, which is a
- 1:03:30little weak because the whole movie he's had the shot.
- 1:03:32He's had the shot. Man and after he misses the
- 1:03:34first one, oh, I can go higher up.
- 1:03:36Why wouldn't you do that in the 1st place?
- 1:03:38You've shown us that you're. The guy you know, right?
- 1:03:41You've seen you. Know yeah, you would go with the
- 1:03:43best possible odds I would think.
- 1:03:45And it felt obscenely hard the first shot, and then decidedly
- 1:03:51easy by the end. A lot of luck.
- 1:03:54So I found myself just really rolling my eyes again at feeling
- 1:03:58like a it's a lot of slop crawling up these Spires and
- 1:04:00like it just. Like a mess of fucking couch for
- 1:04:03your eyes. I think when they do too much
- 1:04:05CGI. Boring too.
- 1:04:06To me it's just all like the same bland.
- 1:04:08It just blends into each other. Let's also thankful for all the
- 1:04:11colours before like OK thank you because it helps offset the
- 1:04:15blend. I agree with that 100%.
- 1:04:16That's that's to me like it was a highlight because it at least
- 1:04:18for a moment allowed me to figure out what the hell is
- 1:04:20going on because the rest of it just feels like a bit of a
- 1:04:22disaster. So it didn't feel like it was
- 1:04:24the big payoff maybe that I would have.
- 1:04:26Hoped I 100% agree with you. The payoff isn't there for me.
- 1:04:29What I came to watch this movie before has come and gone at this
- 1:04:32point. But I don't like dislike it.
- 1:04:34I'm willing to see it right to the end because again.
- 1:04:37I'm we're not tearing up at the last moment, you know, like,
- 1:04:39yeah, alright, you know, unbreakable type of elevation.
- 1:04:43Or no, I do like Damon saving her.
- 1:04:46Her spear physics are little jakey like that wouldn't work.
- 1:04:50I did notice that didn't age very well.
- 1:04:53What did you think of the sacrifices though?
- 1:04:55We have the kid who is a little bumbling.
- 1:04:57Yes, he has been accused of not having courage, but Matt Damon
- 1:05:01has some connection to him and he he's wounded, so he can't
- 1:05:05stay up and he sacrifices himself.
- 1:05:07Well, we know if these guys hurt your shoulder, you're.
- 1:05:09Dead so well, that's the thing, it's a similar type of injury,
- 1:05:13right? But he's fine.
- 1:05:14But he has one for the. Team.
- 1:05:15I think it allows the movie to have some modicum of drama
- 1:05:20because the rest of it, as I said, I think it's a comedy.
- 1:05:22And then Wang, not long after, like, well, you need the magnet
- 1:05:25more than me. Chucks it up.
- 1:05:27Yeah. And he's obviously as a result
- 1:05:28power off screen. That's.
- 1:05:29Right. So you get a couple of moments
- 1:05:31to offer some real stakes. Yeah, but I mean, it's too
- 1:05:34little, too late to me. We're talking about the last 10
- 1:05:36minutes of the movie. None of these people have had
- 1:05:38any real character. So when these people go, it's
- 1:05:41not like, oh, I love that guy or that character was really
- 1:05:43interesting or cool or funny, anything, right?
- 1:05:46So it happened. I think it's meant to make us
- 1:05:48feel something. But at the end, I'm so tuned out
- 1:05:50of what's happening O it's like any other nameless, faceless
- 1:05:53person died like they did at the beginning.
- 1:05:55I don't have like that relationship so I didn't care.
- 1:05:58That was one magic blue rope though, you have to admit.
- 1:06:00The whole magical My God, man. But ultimately, it's not a movie
- 1:06:04like Unbreakable or Inception. When I talked about some lulls,
- 1:06:08because I've watched it a few times, this is almost the
- 1:06:10opposite. This is getting better with age.
- 1:06:12It's not the ending that keeps it alive for Inception.
- 1:06:15I'm like a lot of exposition, like, OK, I know this is
- 1:06:18happening, here we go. But I know this scene is coming
- 1:06:21at the end. Unbreakable pretty slow, yeah,
- 1:06:24that movie, but that 40 seconds is amazing yeah, this is the
- 1:06:27opposite of that. I've loved this movie scenes
- 1:06:29before and the ending is like. OK.
- 1:06:32But that is the benefit because you're riding so high, you're
- 1:06:34like, well, yeah, it's like when I was in high school, do really
- 1:06:36well in the first semester just to because I knew I could coast
- 1:06:40for the rest. Like if I start, you know,
- 1:06:42saying half of the year with an A-B.
- 1:06:45Plus bring it down to a C minus. I can, I can not do anything
- 1:06:48more and still get with AC. So I'm like, yeah, I'll do that.
- 1:06:51That explains a. Lot And that feels like what
- 1:06:53this movie is doing for you. It's loading up at the front
- 1:06:56end. Yeah.
- 1:06:57So that it can kind of coast. After Yeah, because I mean that
- 1:07:00that first battle sequence that I love is 10 minutes into the
- 1:07:03movie and I'm just salivating for more than one reason.
- 1:07:07Phillip, the last line of the movie.
- 1:07:09This wrap it up here. Damon's given a choice, his
- 1:07:13character William. You can have Tovar who's been
- 1:07:17caught again. Yep.
- 1:07:19Or you can have the black powder.
- 1:07:22There really should be an option C.
- 1:07:24Lynn. Lynn, this is where I'm like,
- 1:07:27come on, Really. You're picking this guy?
- 1:07:29Yeah, I would totally stay. Yeah. 100%.
- 1:07:33At that point, what are you leaving for?
- 1:07:35We've talked about this before is we don't always want them to
- 1:07:39get together. No, the 2 characters correct,
- 1:07:42they don't effectively. There isn't really any sexual
- 1:07:46tension, nothing. It's between her and me.
- 1:07:50She's there. I don't know if she felt it.
- 1:07:52I certainly did. Yeah, what you one way, But they
- 1:07:57never alluded to them becoming an item.
- 1:08:00And I do appreciate that it's bullshit but whatever.
- 1:08:04But they want these two guys together ultimately at the end
- 1:08:07to book ends. I guess relationship again, just
- 1:08:10nothing makes sense. Why would Damon ever trust him
- 1:08:12again? Why would he come back to go to?
- 1:08:15Damon and it's a toxic relationship.
- 1:08:17You're only about the black powder.
- 1:08:19You're not even getting it. I think there.
- 1:08:21Was the whole thing for There's growth I guess.
- 1:08:24Yeah, there may not be a Great Wall too, as you would probably
- 1:08:28argue that was never there was all.
- 1:08:30For a Great Wall to begin with, there was the Wall.
- 1:08:35It's bad. Well, let me ask you one last
- 1:08:37question. Is it going on your shelf OK?
- 1:08:40No. No.
- 1:08:42Almost immediately failed to cross whatever threshold.
- 1:08:45I had such a good run with you and I took a chance.
- 1:08:47Here, you really did. It's been a good run for both of
- 1:08:50us. I think you've liked a lot of
- 1:08:51what I've come off with generally, generally speaking,
- 1:08:54since the new year. Certainly, you know, American
- 1:08:55president was a big one, Groundhog Day was a big one.
- 1:08:58But even volcano you like, I like volcano Everest, really
- 1:09:02like Everest by comparison. But yeah, this one I just could
- 1:09:04never get my hooks in because. I like this movie significantly
- 1:09:07more than Volcano. Yeah, I did not.
- 1:09:10OK. I really struggled.
- 1:09:11The fact of the matter is it was an early dismissal and it never
- 1:09:17really ever got me back. OK, for you to answer my
- 1:09:19original question, let me speak for you please.
- 1:09:24You don't think this movie was able to be successful in terms
- 1:09:28of, I want to say, being a light action movie?
- 1:09:32No, I think it wants to be a better action movie.
- 1:09:34It wants to be a funnier action movie, wants to be a more
- 1:09:36dramatic action movie, wants to be a more heroic action movie.
- 1:09:40And I think if it succeeds on any of them, the characters
- 1:09:42don't get to be heroes because we don't know anything about
- 1:09:45them. The villains aren't as bad as
- 1:09:47they could be because we're not told anything about them.
- 1:09:49They don't have names. They don't have anything really
- 1:09:51like attached to them. The six year thing is a lot of
- 1:09:53ambiguity around it. What does it mean the
- 1:09:56characters, Lynn and the generals don't have any real
- 1:09:58personalities to make us care that one of them is sacrificing
- 1:10:02or not? The action to me was so CGI
- 1:10:04sloppy that I was never engaged in that long enough.
- 1:10:08And I found it. Honestly, I've wrestled at times
- 1:10:10thinking, is this a comedy? And if I have to ask that
- 1:10:13question, it means you're not doing something right, you're
- 1:10:15not funny enough, or you're not dramatic enough, because it
- 1:10:17shouldn't be a question. I never thought for two seconds
- 1:10:20this was a comedy, which I find strange.
- 1:10:22There's a lot of things in the movie that I think are played
- 1:10:24for laughs or attempted to be played.
- 1:10:25For laughs, I put that under just poor dialogue.
- 1:10:27That's where I categorized that. Sure.
- 1:10:29Just not being incredibly well written movie, which is
- 1:10:31surprising because had five writers on this.
- 1:10:33Yeah, maybe that's just too many.
- 1:10:35Could be to have one. So Phillip is not going on your
- 1:10:38shelf? Absolutely.
- 1:10:39There's nothing I can do to convince you this movie easily
- 1:10:42stays on my shelf. Yeah, there's even a doubt.
- 1:10:45I thought the charm had maybe worn off.
- 1:10:47Hmm. Because I'm banking so much on
- 1:10:51two or three really big set piece scenes.
- 1:10:54But I enjoyed it as much as I ever have.
- 1:10:56Really. That much?
- 1:10:57Those slow motion action sequences?
- 1:11:00Yeah. Yum, Yum, Yum.
- 1:11:01Absolutely love it. It just checks the box of
- 1:11:04entertaining and easy to digest. Not unlike what these animals
- 1:11:09are like humans. The tight 90 minutes up into the
- 1:11:15credits, sure, that's helpful. Yeah, but not really.
- 1:11:18And along with those action sequences, Jing Tian is a magnet
- 1:11:22to me, and I'm never bored. And to me, that's a win.
- 1:11:25If I'm watching a movie, I'm never bored of it.
- 1:11:27And I've enjoyed my 90 minutes. It's one of my 4K favorites.
- 1:11:32Wow. I know.
- 1:11:33In the top tier. No, I have not watched the 30
- 1:11:36plus times, but if I want to go watch that type of movie, it
- 1:11:42represents that on my shelf. It's the best one out of that
- 1:11:45category for me. Wow, it's it's really strange.
- 1:11:48I think IMDb seriously got this one wrong.
- 1:11:51And you got it wrong too. I didn't want to say it now,
- 1:11:55Phil, I did right here. I was going to ask you, because
- 1:11:58this is scripted, have I sold this movie to you?
- 1:12:02But I think you've already. Answered that a number of times.
- 1:12:04I. Think that's too bad?
- 1:12:05I'm sorry to hear it. Buddy, that's OK, David, you
- 1:12:07know you took a gamble. So if you're willing to gamble
- 1:12:09this week, I'm willing to gamble next week, and that's.
- 1:12:12Oh yeah, you want tease what you have next?
- 1:12:14Week I just did that's it yeah I'm not going to go too much OK
- 1:12:18alright Damon movie Ohta Damon I see yeah this is a one up
- 1:12:24another said I couldn't help you out with punishment I'm gonna
- 1:12:26I'm gonna try and one up people with the quality.
- 1:12:28Film You're sick, Man, I love. It that's it, folks.
- 1:12:32We're all a little sick here. Thanks for listening, as always
- 1:12:35with us. Five stars in your podcaster of
- 1:12:37choice. Subscribes in remission episode,
- 1:12:38of course. Share it with all the tortie you
- 1:12:41come. Across, Yeah.
- 1:12:43Every 60 years, we. Need it.
- 1:12:44While we we might need some a little more before that OK,
- 1:12:49season 60, I don't know. If you find him, tell him to
- 1:12:52come listen. Yeah, they're, they're very good
- 1:12:54listening. They are.
- 1:12:55They are very good years. Goodnight.