Latest / Off The Shelf With Phil and Dave- A Movie Review Podcast / 2012's Looper

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2012's Looper · Off The Shelf With Phil and Dave- A Movie Review Podcast

0:01
Hello and welcome to Off the Shelf with Phil and Dave, the
0:06
movie talk show where each week when it was takes a movie off
0:08
our shelf, presents it to the other and discusses it at
0:11
length. This week we've got Coming off
0:22
of Dave's Shelf 2012 Looper directed by Ryan Johnson,
0:27
starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Emily Blunt and of course, back
0:31
off the bench comes Bruce. Willis.
0:35
For the win, David, here we are. We're back on the couch.
0:40
You liar. Lies, we're off the couch, we're
0:45
off the shelf. Everything's happening a little
0:47
differently, but here we are. David, I wanted to welcome you,
0:50
of course, to the episode as we always appreciate you joining
0:53
us. Thank you, special guest star
0:54
David. But more importantly, perhaps,
0:57
how are you doing this week? And of course, the traditional
1:01
why this movie? Why now?
1:04
First of all, Phil, I want to get this out of the way, 6767.
1:09
It just needs to be said. Yeah, I guess it has to be said.
1:11
Really understand it. Care to?
1:13
I mean, I guess are you giving me your review of this movie?
1:17
It's like, yeah, 67. I would say not 6.7, but a six
1:21
or seven. OK, somewhere in between, like
1:24
maybe a six point. Seven, I'm not confident in the
1:26
6.7. I think it might.
1:28
I don't know. I don't know.
1:29
I don't know. We'll see.
1:30
We'll see if you. Can get away to the end, gotta
1:32
wait to the end. Yeah, because I think a couple
1:34
weeks ago you threw me a curveball if you recall.
1:40
I know you don't recall trouble with the curve.
1:41
I know that. We.
1:43
Never recorded it, but you significantly liked my pick last
1:47
time. More so I'm curious what the
1:49
Bruce factor and what have you, but we'll get into that.
1:52
First of all, I need to answer your question.
1:55
They do. And by the way, great intro,
1:56
great intro. You adapted well.
1:58
Yeah, I thought so. I felt really good about it.
2:00
You should. You should.
2:01
It's the only thing any listener hears.
2:02
So intro. Yeah, and I think it's important
2:08
to know, though, this is our second try at this episode.
2:11
Someone came back in time, 30 years, 30 year future.
2:16
Dave came back and said that's not good enough, that's not good
2:18
enough. I'm going to delete this and
2:22
we're going to start the loop over.
2:24
Oh my gosh, I didn't realize we were looping.
2:27
Damn. It we're looping couple loopers.
2:29
This movie I probably didn't see in theatre, realistically
2:33
speaking. It's from 2012.
2:35
I did purchase it soon thereafter.
2:38
It's theatrical debut. Probably 2013.
2:42
You know, it's a safe guess. Back then, the DVD would be out
2:46
within eight months. Maybe.
2:48
Yeah, Yeah, now it's 8. Hours it's released so a.
2:53
Quick turn around. Yeah.
2:54
Yeah, I didn't have to make the conversion.
2:56
I got it in Blu-ray, got the nice sleeve, and I was happy to
3:01
add it to the Bruce Collection. That's why I owned it.
3:06
Why this movie? Why now, though?
3:07
Phillip, if you recall, a few weeks ago this movie came up in
3:12
conversation. Why?
3:13
Who the heck knows? We don't even know we're talking
3:15
about at the time, but I promised you the next Bruce
3:19
movie would be this one. So in order for me to do any
3:22
future Bruce Willis movies, I need to get this.
3:25
Out of the way, this is a purging if you will.
3:28
Yes, just to pave the way for so many Bruces.
3:31
I have coming in 2026 and I think the reason we brought it
3:35
up because we were talking about movies later in people's careers
3:39
and this was one of the couple that was still received well,
3:43
generally speaking, by the general public.
3:45
Yes Sir, 67. That's better than a lot of what
3:49
he was putting out near the end. So, well, that's right, right.
3:51
So that this is kind of the exception to the rule, and it's
3:54
probably because he's not the main character in it, which I'm
3:57
sure you're very happy about that fact.
4:01
But I I wonder if this was a movie that slipped through your
4:05
cracks. Not not your have a lot of
4:08
cracks in particular around this era 2012, I want to say I was
4:13
done at the video store at this point.
4:15
I was working for the airline. That's true.
4:17
And so that in and of itself just kind of has its own, there
4:22
was a bit of a cultural dip, let's say in my movie watching
4:26
and movie going experiences. No more free rental.
4:29
Exactly right. It's a game, it's a game
4:31
changer. So as a result, I do think that
4:33
this one, well, certainly it fell through the cracks, but not
4:36
necessarily by accident, right? Like I don't know that this was
4:40
a movie. I'd heard of this movie.
4:42
I certainly was aware of it, but I can't tell you that I had any
4:45
interest whatsoever in seeing it because of the Bruce factor.
4:51
Despite the fact, and we can get into this a little bit here, but
4:53
it's written and directed by Ryan Johnson.
4:55
My memory, I've never seen it again since, but I remember
4:58
loving Brick when it came out and thinking, oh, this, this is
5:03
really good. And I like JGL in it.
5:05
Generally speaking, I don't have a real problem with him.
5:07
I mean, we talked about a relatively recently on
5:09
Halloween. Age 20, Yeah, that was a great
5:13
1st 10 minutes of a Halloween. I said relatively recently.
5:17
I guess that was at least a year ago.
5:19
Yeah, I guess it would be. It would be a Halloween last
5:22
year and we talked about him also in 500 days of summer off
5:26
of your. Shelf that's right movie I love.
5:28
So he's not a person that keeps me away certainly.
5:31
And Emily Blunt, we've talked about her a couple of times as
5:33
well and the Adjustment Bureau of course, and I remember her
5:37
certainly from. Day after tomorrow or tomorrow's
5:40
edge. Tomorrow or tomorrow, Edge.
5:42
Edge. Tomorrow, Edge of Tomorrow, also
5:44
known as Live, Die, repeat. There was enough things in that
5:48
would have gotten me into this movie.
5:49
So I can either assume that it was just absent mindedness and
5:52
just not being interested as connected, let's say to the
5:54
movie world, or it was a very conscious, I do not see Bruce
5:59
Willis movies, which I stand by the most part.
6:03
Yeah. Only by force.
6:05
So, yeah, so that's probably why.
6:08
That's fair. And I never.
6:09
Felt like I was missing something.
6:10
Well, do you know, like sometimes you sort of like, oh,
6:13
I heard that, you know, people excellent.
6:14
And you just sort of like 6 through the track, something
6:16
like Sopranos, which is on TV shows that I never got into OHT.
6:20
But like I know enough about it by osmosis or cultural identity
6:24
or conversations in and around this or the work or whatever.
6:27
But this is not a movie that really feels like it's got any
6:30
real imprint on the world. That's a good point.
6:32
I mean Sopranos is so synonymous with TMN like that launched the
6:36
Movie Network and that may not be accurate.
6:38
Most of my things that come out of my mouth are not accurate.
6:44
I try though. I try.
6:45
Weirdly, the most confident things you say in this podcast
6:48
are the things that you absolutely have no idea.
6:51
Just trying to fit in, just trying to fit in with the world
6:53
we live in today. A lot of people were saying
6:56
like, yeah, Looper is a solid movie, and I remember people
6:59
talking about that. But 2012 when it came out, which
7:03
you probably know this from working together just before
7:07
this the video store, you knew my tendencies, my routine.
7:11
Predilections. Yeah, yeah.
7:13
It was heavy into the sauce at the time.
7:15
So I attempted to watch this movie many times at late at
7:18
night. I'm like, yeah, yeah, let's
7:21
watch Looper, let's do it, let's do it.
7:22
Tonight's the night. And I would just pass out five
7:25
minutes in. And I did that a lot with a lot
7:27
of movies, to the point where it almost got me kicked out of
7:30
apartments because I would put on Saving Private Ryan like
7:33
twice a week at midnight. And you could just imagine at
7:37
that time 5.2, maybe 7.2, so. Nobody wants to hear.
7:42
It right Yeah, a few knocks on the door and actually did get
7:45
kicked out of a previous apartment for that reason.
7:48
Came close again. Yeah, it's true true story, true
7:51
story. Palm St.
7:52
Reminds me of my dad. I think we talked about with
7:54
Diehard 2. I coincidentally have Bruce
7:56
Willis movie as well. Didn't matter what time of year,
7:58
what time of day, what time of whatever we press play on it and
8:01
he was out within 10 minutes so wow.
8:04
Movies were just like. That and what's funny about it
8:05
is I would wake up always around the same part, which is them too
8:09
in the diner. OHS yes, like I would say 80% of
8:12
the time. So I tried probably watching
8:14
this movie like 5 times and I would say four of those times
8:17
and that's what I woke up briefly and then I'm out again.
8:20
So I never actually got a full watch of this movie.
8:23
I'm going in pretty clean, oddly enough.
8:27
OK, OK, good. I love getting this history
8:30
lesson, but I coincidentally watched this movie three times
8:36
and two of the three times I nodded off at the diner scene.
8:41
So while you were waking up. I was passing out somehow.
8:46
That's a bigger paradox than Joe and Joe in the same scene, I
8:50
would say. That's right, That's right
8:51
again. I pulled it together.
8:53
I've seen it again and it was fine.
8:54
But both times I found myself drifting and it was right at
8:57
that moment. Wakes you up, puts me down.
8:59
Well, Phil, for those who are awake right now, how about you
9:02
give us the synopsis of our good friend You know who?
9:07
All right, I'll try and keep everybody awake with this burn
9:09
burner of a synopsis from Old Faithful.
9:12
In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target
9:16
was sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits someone like
9:20
Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to close the loop by
9:24
sending back Joe's future self for assassination.
9:27
That's garbage. It's too much.
9:29
It's too much bad information. Absolutely.
9:32
I don't think they need to include setting himself back.
9:35
Well, I think right away it's like.
9:36
When the mob wants to get rid of someone like who gives a shit?
9:39
That part is not necessary. Someone like Joe as well.
9:42
Like don't be colloquial. Fuck off I hate this.
9:47
Do you like our last few IBD have really been?
9:50
Disappointed. Let us down.
9:51
Big, big let downs. I have an e-mail ready to send
9:55
to the people at the IMDb head office to wonderful make some
10:00
changes make. E-mail goes a long way, my man.
10:04
Absolutely. You know, it's good as anybody.
10:07
OK, let's let's talk about the concept of this movie.
10:10
It's futuristic, it's time travel.
10:13
These are a few things. We've dabbled it a little bit,
10:16
but we haven't done a lot of time travel movies.
10:18
I feel. I know I got a couple on the
10:20
short list, which one also includes Rob Bruce Willis, But
10:24
you like that one. Don't worry, you will like that
10:25
one. You do like that one.
10:26
I know you do. I know you do.
10:28
These movies can be tricky. Give me your just initial
10:32
thoughts on how Ryan Johnson did, like how how we how did he
10:37
do? Well, you know, I mean, the fact
10:39
is with Ryan Johnson, he's obviously a very talented
10:41
writer. I mean, as I mentioned earlier,
10:43
I loved Brick, at least my memory of Brick.
10:45
I remember that being complex and interesting and the concept
10:48
behind that I thought was kind of interesting film.
10:50
Warren High School. I like that.
10:52
And then obviously he wrote and directed really the only Star
10:55
Wars movie made after 1999, or I guess made after 1983, frankly,
11:01
that I found OK. Wow, wow.
11:03
That's yeah. I hated all the prequels and I
11:06
absolutely detested The Force Awakens and I saw this one and I
11:09
was like, that's OK, The Last Jedi, I'm Speaking of.
11:12
But it was so like just OK that I never saw another one I saw in
11:17
the theatre anyway. No, that's fair.
11:19
Put up some more leniency to the prequels for whatever reason,
11:22
just because I'm a generous man to George.
11:26
But at that point, we're talking Disney, and that is the best
11:30
one, if not the only good one. What I will say is that he's
11:33
obviously kind of created his own niche now with the Knives
11:38
Out movies, and those have some very similar things to this,
11:42
which I would say is sort of some intricate applauding.
11:44
And obviously there's murder mysteries.
11:46
You're playing with time a little bit and like who knows
11:48
what where and when and so forth, but obviously Back to the
11:52
Future is the the sort of gold standard for time travel movies.
11:56
I would say this movie thought made me think of a little one
11:58
like Frequency. Obviously the movie you alluded
12:01
to earlier, 12 Monkeys, kind of falls into this category.
12:04
Oht you picked up on that he. I have it in my notes as well.
12:09
So what are your thoughts sort of time travel movie generally
12:13
because we haven't talked about those movies on the podcast yet.
12:16
Of course, that's true. They're very.
12:17
Difficult to do when you're playing with time.
12:20
Even if you, if you really wanted to, you could pick a part
12:24
back to the future very easily. There's 1000 things like no, no,
12:29
no, if you wanted to, but you don't, right?
12:31
And I think it's such. A fun.
12:33
Movie. Yeah, exactly.
12:34
But for this one specifically, I felt overall it did pretty well
12:38
at the very least of masking a lot of the could be issues.
12:42
And I think if you do a great job with your story, the
12:45
direction and keeping us busy as the viewer and entertained,
12:49
you're not going to think about, oh, wait a minute, that's
12:51
bullshit. That's bullshit.
12:53
So I think it succeeds in that they never really talk about the
12:57
mechanics. Like there's no DeLorean in this
13:00
movie. They don't bother with it
13:02
because it's just going to bring up those questions, like wait a
13:05
minute. So the more you spend time with
13:07
these things, the more questions we have.
13:09
So I think it does a good job of just telling the story he wants
13:12
to tell without being bogged down with all that extra stuff.
13:17
Like the most people would watch the movie, especially a time
13:19
travel movie, and accept the terms on which it's being
13:22
presented. And so asking too many questions
13:24
or them trying to explain this or that might work against the
13:28
movie. Now it gets bogged down.
13:29
You don't want to be. Bogged.
13:30
No one wants that. OK.
13:31
I think we're both on the same page then with the general idea
13:34
of the movie, The concept, and we'll dive a little bit deeper
13:38
as the movie as we go out, but I think we really should talk
13:42
about a couple looks in the. Movie.
13:44
Oh, OK. Yeah, a couple.
13:46
Let's start with a broader look of the city wide angle, 16 by 9,
13:53
the year 2044, which is hold on 24, 2025.
14:00
But what, 19 years in the 19? Yeah, it took a long time to get
14:03
there. It really did.
14:07
Brian Johnson builds this year. Is it ever mentioned what city
14:11
they're in? No, for some reason San
14:15
Francisco is sticking out to me. I definitely feel California.
14:18
Why? Yeah.
14:19
Yeah. But I don't know.
14:21
It doesn't matter. It's a makeable deep town.
14:23
Did you think it portrayed it pretty good with, you know,
14:25
where we are now to where we could be then as things go?
14:31
Sure. I mean, one of the things that
14:33
this doesn't seem to do that drives me crazy about any future
14:36
Mystic movie like Minority Report or even Dark City to a
14:39
certain extent. And that's a separate planet.
14:41
So you can give that a little bit of a break.
14:43
Stuff in Minority Report where you just, or Star Wars actually
14:45
more specifically, you just end up with buildings that are 2000
14:49
feet. Tall and.
14:49
Like flying cars and whatever else.
14:53
It's like, why is it that we all just live in the sky in the
14:56
future, right? It's like Bespin exists just
14:58
because what's happening beneath Bespin?
15:01
What's going on? Or like, who questions?
15:03
How do you build that space station in the middle of the
15:06
sky, the, you know, the city of clouds?
15:08
That's things like that. Again, I'm not asking those
15:10
questions. I don't care.
15:11
But fundamentally, I like the fact that it's more gritty.
15:14
It's something like Blade Runner or yeah, alien, sort of
15:18
futuristic breakdown. Things are different, but
15:20
they're similar enough that you're like, yeah, this is the
15:23
natural progression of things rather than trajectory.
15:26
Such a leap. Yeah, I don't know if the Cubs
15:29
won the World Series in 2044, but yeah, I I loved it.
15:33
I thought he did really good job creating 2044.
15:37
I'm like, yeah, in a sad way. I'm like, oh, yeah, it's
15:40
awesome. So much to look forward to with
15:43
these little glass phones. That was the one thing I thought
15:46
was peculiar. That is just not practical.
15:48
Yeah. It misses the mark a little bit,
15:50
but I thought overall, some of the other stuff, it just isn't
15:53
so grandiose. You know, it's like future
15:55
doesn't have to be, yeah, bigger, you know, such leaps and
15:59
bounds. You know, so high.
16:02
That's why the height. That thing just really pisses me
16:04
off when I watch a futuristic movie.
16:06
That's good to know. Good to know that's a red flag.
16:08
I'll make sure I don't bring. It off.
16:10
I don't want it. I got a couple of notes on the
16:12
short list there. That just was really huge
16:15
building. Branch them off.
16:18
This one I have a feeling he may not be quite as on board with.
16:23
I don't know why. I just have this feeling that
16:26
you may have annoyed you a little bit, but that's the look
16:29
of Joseph Gordon Levitt. I got his name right.
16:33
This is the second time he recorded this.
16:35
No excuses, but he had some body parts altered to look more like
16:41
a younger Bruce Willis. You got a penis enlargement, is
16:44
that what you're saying? For what I heard, buddy, what I
16:47
heard. Is that colour of night?
16:51
It's on the shelf. It's on the shelf.
16:52
Cut it off and we'll see. We'll see.
16:56
I hate his look today at least. Like right away I'm like I don't
16:59
like it. It feels like he's wearing
17:01
mascara. It feels like his eyebrows are
17:03
certain particular thing. It's 20. 44 yeah, I guess that's
17:07
how they do it. Look at the vice.
17:09
President me out, I think when I see him and Bruce together or
17:14
when I kind of put together the fact that he is Bruce and I
17:18
probably knew that going in, but just.
17:21
In the synopsis in the trailer. When I see them side by side in
17:25
the diner in particular, or when he is speaking with Abe, which
17:29
we'll get to later, those are looks.
17:31
Sometimes I'm like, Oh yeah, I see he's got the smirk, he's got
17:34
the squint. He doesn't do the whisper voice.
17:36
But everything else I'm like, yeah, he's pretty good, but I
17:38
don't like the look generally. It's not really my favorite.
17:41
OK, it threw me off a little bit, but once I adapted to it, I
17:44
actually kind of liked it and I really enjoyed Joseph's
17:49
mannerisms and it seemed to have coming up with apes.
17:52
I just thought he did a really good job of playing cool.
17:55
Breeze, smirk and a squid. Yeah, kind of whisper.
17:59
Greatest Hits. Nobody can match that whisper he
18:02
didn't like. I can't do it.
18:03
I'm not even going to try. That's Bruce Willis trademark.
18:06
You have to pay money to do the whisper.
18:08
Alright, Well, as long as it didn't like take you out.
18:10
I don't want you be out of the film in the first, you know, 7
18:13
minutes. Well, like we've talked about,
18:15
man, it takes a lot to actually kick me out of a movie.
18:17
I can be knocked back a peg or two but it's not often that
18:21
someone thing will just be like I'm out forget it, stupid like
18:24
me, there's no dirt on the face, sorry.
18:27
Exactly right. I'm done.
18:28
I'm done with this movie is bullshit.
18:31
Why am I watching? We did do a Paul Dano movie.
18:42
He was the main character, the main guy in the movie, other
18:46
than maybe Batman and Penguin. Yeah.
18:48
Yeah, I mean, but Batman's just taking a step back and letting
18:53
someone else run the movie. He was the Riddler in 2022
18:57
Batman, and that's pretty much all I know him from, although I
19:01
imagine I've seen him in something before.
19:03
Because he has a face like a lot of us.
19:06
Yeah, he's in a lot of great movies.
19:08
He was in There Will Be Blood. He's phenomenal in that.
19:11
He's really great in the Fable Means.
19:13
He's good in Love and Mercy. He's good in Swiss Army Man.
19:18
You've had a lot of Paul Dano exposure then?
19:21
Absolutely. I've tried to seek out.
19:22
I think he's really good. I'm not really seeking him out,
19:24
but he works with people that I like to see so.
19:26
Do you like his choice of playing a character that's got
19:28
TK telekinesis? It's a thing.
19:33
It's 2044. Somehow our bodies have, you
19:37
know, changed a little bit scientifically.
19:42
I don't know how that would happen.
19:44
But again, you gotta, you gotta buy it.
19:46
It's in it. You gotta accept it.
19:47
Yeah, yeah, You know, the TK stuff, it is thrown in.
19:50
And certainly when I first watched it, I didn't really
19:53
understand or care or even frankly, notice what that all
19:58
meant, Right. So he's getting to play with 1/4
20:00
and JGL is kind of joking about how everybody's.
20:05
It's like it was such a big deal, but at the end of the day,
20:07
nobody gives a shit. So those are things that I kind
20:09
of see that they have an opening for which I don't unappreciated.
20:12
But it made no impression on me, certainly the first time I
20:14
watched it. I just.
20:15
But yeah, whatever. But I like Dano.
20:17
I like his performance generally so it was nice.
20:19
Yeah, He brings it to the screen.
20:20
It felt like it's a futuristic version of someone who could do,
20:23
like, card tricks at a bar. And you're supposed to be like,
20:25
oh, this is cool. And it's a way of getting chicks
20:27
if you have a little, you know, TK ability, which I imagine I
20:31
would not have that. No, no, no.
20:35
You've got no, no abilities at all, really.
20:39
What Paul Dano does really well, I think he gives us in a short
20:43
moment. He, I find him to be pretty
20:45
memorable. He really only seems to have a
20:47
role in this movie as the triggering effect, right?
20:50
Yeah. We get a little bit of
20:51
exposition as to looping and how everyone has to close the loops
20:55
and the time will come when you're confronted with yourself
20:59
almost. And.
21:00
Yeah. And it's a job of the future
21:02
because like the IMDb says, when you need a job done, you have to
21:06
send it back to another guy like Joe to take care of the
21:10
business. And then we build on that as
21:12
we're watching JGL kind of do a, a montage, almost like this is
21:17
his profession. Yeah.
21:19
Stowing away the silvers and kills more and more and more
21:22
people. Yeah, a lot of Reds repeat.
21:24
This is 9 to five job. I'm not sure his hours may vary
21:27
depending on the requirements in 30 years from now.
21:31
But yeah, Dano is just that setup character to really get
21:35
things rolling for JGL for the rest of the film.
21:39
Exactly. It's also mentioned during this
21:41
period that a lot of loops are closing more than the average.
21:46
The if you look at the stats, there's an uptick in loops being
21:50
closed. That's right, we have an
21:53
introduction to a throwaway character.
21:54
I don't remember his name. He's not going to be in the
21:57
movie for long. He has just closed his own loop.
22:00
That's right, they have a little party.
22:03
Yeah, he has that moment where this really the sadness, and
22:06
then he's like, alright, let's go party.
22:07
I got 30 years of life left, which isn't terrible.
22:10
What's important to know about this movie is when you closed
22:13
your loop, you pretty much have a guaranteed 30 years of pretty
22:16
good living if you've saved enough to get some.
22:19
That's right when you do the job.
22:22
And I think I just answered one of my problems I had with the
22:26
movie, if not the biggest problem with the film is why
22:30
would you have to kill your own loop like your own version?
22:34
Why wouldn't say, Joe take care of Seth and vice versa?
22:39
You don't know who swap it doing it, swap it out so you're not
22:42
left with the decision of I can't do it.
22:44
I get cold feet and we'll find out very soon what happens if
22:48
that's the. Case never happens, Dave.
22:50
Don't worry. About it never happens because
22:53
it's a big risk. Clearly it's shown in the movie,
22:55
like if it goes wrong, it's like all hands on deck, shits gonna
22:58
hit the fan. But I think one thing that might
23:00
answered a little bit is the fact that here's your gold here
23:04
it is part of the body that's shipped back to you.
23:07
You shoot it, you take the gold. So that could be the only reason
23:10
why you have to do it yourself. But the goal is the gold is the
23:13
gold to certain extent, right? Like if JGL kills Seth and Seth
23:17
kills JGL, they still have the same theoretically the same
23:20
goal, the same. Pay.
23:21
Yeah, you just get it at different times.
23:24
Swap. I don't know but I.
23:26
Don't know. It is a logic and internal logic
23:28
that doesn't fully play out to me because I agree.
23:30
What it does set up, unfortunately, is what happens
23:32
next, which is Seth comes face to face ultimately with himself
23:37
and he basically lets him go. Yeah, hesitation.
23:40
Hesitation. Once you hesitate, it's all
23:43
over. JGL for cover is trying to get
23:46
him out of a jam GL kind of doesn't want much to do with it,
23:49
but ultimately does give him a little bit of sanctuary, but it
23:53
doesn't take. I don't think it was the right
23:55
call. No, I don't think so.
23:56
He kind of alludes to this rainmaker thing.
23:59
I like that sort of brings a sense of urgency into the movie.
24:02
We're about, you know, maybe not even 10 minutes in at this
24:04
point. So we're really in a position of
24:06
let's find out the stakes. And Phil, I want to ask you this
24:09
question. Would you help Seth?
24:13
Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's Paul Dano.
24:14
It's alright. That's all I need to know.
24:17
That's all I need to know. Jeff Daniels, Phillip.
24:20
I think we both have a fondness for this guy and I could tell by
24:25
our fire archives. Check the spreadsheet, but I I
24:30
can't think of a movie that included Jeff Daniels because he
24:34
is a standout character. Even in this.
24:37
He's going to be in this scene and that's more or less it, but
24:41
he's going to be worth talking about.
24:42
But I mean dumb and Dumber arachnophobia.
24:46
Yeah, terms of endearment. That's a great movie.
24:50
Great movie, haven't seen it. Great lookout.
24:54
Right around the same time, actually, also with GOP.
24:57
There you go. So they've worked together.
24:58
I've seen him a little bit on TV.
25:00
I didn't watch that one show the The Newsroom.
25:03
Newsroom. Yeah, I saw some clips of it,
25:05
but I watched this one called Rust.
25:08
Something, something, something on my streaming service that
25:10
will not be named. And it's pretty new and it's not
25:14
a show that me or my wife would have normally gravitated to.
25:18
But I'll watch this show about a small town with fentanyl
25:20
problems, with a lot of issues. Younger kids or younger
25:24
generations are kind of dealing with the stuff that wouldn't
25:27
really necessarily appeal to me. Sure, but he's enough.
25:30
I'm in. It's the Daniels of it.
25:31
Yeah. There's only two seasons, so
25:32
it's pretty easy watch. And just him alone.
25:34
He's the main lead and he's absolutely.
25:36
Fantastic. Yeah, he's great.
25:37
He was on Broadway, played Atticus Finch.
25:39
He may have won a Tony Award for that.
25:40
He's a great actor. Yeah, there we.
25:42
Go. He may have won a Tony Award.
25:44
That's the research she may have well.
25:46
That's right, he's definitely nominated.
25:48
Stand on solid ground with that one.
25:52
I got and I gotta go out on a huge limb with you and say that
25:55
you loved this scene, as small as it is.
25:58
Just Jeff's demeanor, his attitude, his character
26:02
actually. I would not say that I loved the
26:04
scene, but I liked it. I thought he was good in it.
26:06
I enjoyed the banter between the two and this is where I first
26:11
got the real sense of JGL as Bruce with the squinting and the
26:15
whispering. Yes exactly.
26:17
This is smirking. This is where I latched on to
26:19
this character. Like, OK, I love everything
26:22
about. Yeah, is it?
26:24
I really enjoyed that scene. And like you said, the banter
26:27
between the two of them, like, I'm not going to kill you.
26:29
You just going to talk for a little bit and they talk about
26:32
China. I'm going to France.
26:35
It just basically gives up like, yeah, whatever.
26:37
That part reminds me of frequency where the guy in the
26:40
future is telling the guy in the past to buy stock in Yahoo.
26:43
OHK. OK, you know, back in 2000 made
26:45
some sense, maybe not so much in 2025 now.
26:48
They came into a fantasy app right now.
26:50
Jesus, get their shit together. At all garbage.
26:53
I think it's why I'm losing your fantasy Football League.
26:58
You and Mike are down there. Yeah, it's a real shit show.
27:01
Two time champion. I mean, I can't win them all,
27:03
but clearly not. What is the scene that I
27:06
absolutely. Love.
27:08
Is what happens next. So ultimately we have this
27:11
exchange with JL Abe and sort of setting up the future and
27:14
whatnot. But here we get what I
27:16
ultimately think is the best scene in the movie, which is old
27:19
Seth and. Yeah, and we're basically
27:22
watching him get killed, tortured, murdered.
27:26
Yeah, in slow aggression and it's think it's just wonderful.
27:30
It's I think the best scene in the movie.
27:31
It's such an effective way of showing the stakes like we
27:34
talked about yeah damage. And I just think it's really
27:37
cool visual storytelling because it isn't gory at all because we
27:40
just see the scar tissue. But it's like lose a finger,
27:42
lose 2 fingers, lose a nose, lose a leg, lose a foot, falls
27:46
down. Right, like all.
27:47
Of that I think is really excellent.
27:48
I get the sense of gorgeous because of the imagination,
27:53
right? Yeah.
27:55
I feel like the audience could go really either way on this
27:58
scene. I was really curious of where
28:00
you landed on us. I'm happy to hear you.
28:02
You liked it, loved it. Because if you didn't, I would
28:06
have to play the Back to the Future card because I think it's
28:11
better than your sister and brother slowly disappearing in a
28:15
photo. Sure.
28:16
Bit bit basically. The same thing.
28:18
And then his hands as he's playing the guitar.
28:21
Marty McFly. Great effects, great visual
28:23
effects, way ahead of its time. So I just saw that the theatre
28:27
and IMAX it holds up. Exactly.
28:29
So if you're OK with that, you have to be on board with this.
28:31
And I think the visual of it, the style of it, it's good
28:34
makeup artistry. I love it.
28:37
I think it's. Excellent.
28:37
And the way it ends, Phillip. Oh, the way it ends with the doc
28:40
in the room with the young Seth. Poor kid, this is poor.
28:44
This is why you don't do it. That's why you just take the 30
28:47
years, take the gold, mind your P's and Q's.
28:50
That's right, which is ultimately what JGL is trying to
28:53
do in the next scene. He's getting ready, he's waiting
28:55
to collect. But what happens, David?
28:58
Well, someone's a little late, a little target party, and you get
29:01
the sense that they're always on time.
29:04
You seen a number of these now it's 11:30, same time, same bat
29:07
channel. Yeah, even with daylight
29:09
savings, probably not a thing in 2044 though, but I think we
29:12
almost got rid of it this year. I think we're we're one step
29:15
closer to putting the whole kibosh on that, I hope.
29:19
And it really throws them off for a loop, no pun intended.
29:24
Pun was intended. Yeah, I felt the fact that
29:28
because it's so routine for him, I feel like he would have that
29:32
moment of confusion, giving Bruce's character, old Joe, a
29:37
chance to turn around and block that heavy duty shotgun,
29:42
whatever type of gun that is with the gold.
29:45
Because I don't think that's going through gold.
29:47
Gold's pretty thick and heavy. We don't see the heaviness of it
29:50
in the movie, ever. We know.
29:52
We do see the durability. When you're running away with
29:55
all this gold on you, you're fine.
29:57
You're like a cheetah. No problem.
30:00
Yeah. So are you OK with Bruce just
30:02
showing up like that abruptly? Were you ready for him?
30:05
Well, I'll tell you, I was happy that he got shot because I
30:10
thought maybe it would be over. Yeah, but.
30:13
He's very short. Appearance, though, yeah, it's
30:16
fine. There's nothing that happens in
30:18
this movie that really throws me off the map here.
30:21
I figured it was time for him to show up new.
30:23
Just through conversations over the last 20 years, I've heard
30:27
hearsay, like, kind of who he is or how he is and how he fits
30:30
into the story, but not with too much detail.
30:32
So seeing him pop up, like, OK, well, now the movie is starting,
30:35
right? Seth gives us the sense of the
30:37
stakes. Yeah.
30:39
And then we have this happen again, which, to your point, we
30:42
chatted about, it feels like we've had two out of the last
30:45
three scenes where they confront their old selves and don't know
30:49
what to do about it. And it causes real problems.
30:52
And presumably this has been going on for decades.
30:55
So it just is like, OK, it's a little convenient, little
30:57
contrived. It's fine.
30:59
But it doesn't give me a lot of, like, Yahoo, let's take off
31:02
here. It feels a little like, oh, this
31:04
is sloppy storytelling to me. A little.
31:06
Bit a little bit, a little bit. I think that's really the only
31:08
one mark against it. If it's OK problematic, there's
31:11
gotta be a better way, but. Doesn't really matter because
31:14
what happens is we ultimately see Bruce come back.
31:19
Hmm. And then he gets shot.
31:22
Yeah, this was a little confusing the first time I
31:24
watched it because we get about 5 minutes of the actions after
31:28
he gets away and isn't killed. That's right, just a little bit.
31:32
And young Joe's like, I'll fix it, I'll make it right.
31:35
And then the next scene, he's back in the corn.
31:40
Place the field. That's it.
31:41
Cornfield is going to say corn yard.
31:44
Sure. Look for the baseball diamond
31:46
and hang a left. That's how you know you're
31:47
right, Cornfield. There's no corn dogs, No corn
31:49
dogs. And he said, I hope you listened
31:55
to last week's episode. That makes no sense to anybody.
31:58
It's lovely, Michelle Pfeiffer. And he successfully shoots
32:00
himself. But we we understand that that
32:02
needs to happen in order for him to come back 30 years.
32:08
So for me, I'm like, OK, I'm not going to think about it too much
32:11
because he has to live out that 30 years.
32:14
Yeah. And that's really the next chunk
32:17
of movie is that? Yes, that's right.
32:19
We get a sense as to what that 30 years looks like.
32:22
JGL has obviously been saving up for this occasion.
32:25
He's got a lot of silver in storage and he's ready to go to
32:29
No, he's going to China, so. We kind of.
32:32
See year one, year 2 and he's basically just a dastardly dude.
32:36
Yeah, he's having a good time. He's having a good time, seems
32:39
to enjoy partying. Drugs, yeah.
32:41
Lot of drugs, but hey, you're young.
32:44
But let me tell you before we get to the transition to Bruce.
32:47
I really like his look JGL. Oh, yes, yes, yes.
32:51
Longer. Longer.
32:52
Hair. At running of Sin City,
32:55
actually, yeah, just really sharp looking guy and I wanted
33:00
to spend a little bit more time with that version of Joe.
33:04
You get no time with him there. I get no time, no time with.
33:07
Them in 5 minutes. It's all over and we get a Bruce
33:10
Willis who clearly continued down the road of drug use and
33:15
guns like they were just doing Dr. Bys like it was not a pretty
33:20
sight and hair loss in hair loss.
33:22
Yeah, we do get that crossover. Where?
33:24
Yeah. Like, ooh, yeah, it's not so.
33:26
Great, but the choice to live that way for the next 25 years?
33:31
Let's be clear on that. Not the full 30 Phillip.
33:34
That's right, it's year 25. He meets a woman, Chinese woman,
33:38
and yes, they seem to be enamored of one another.
33:41
You all. She flips the bird.
33:43
But you know what that means? Love.
33:44
You know, love, No. It's been my experience.
33:52
And then we get a pretty good sense of the fact that he cleans
33:55
up. We get a little bit of a brief
33:58
little flutter. Brief yeah talks.
34:01
Session Yeah, we love these detoxes.
34:04
Like, how did you feel about this one?
34:06
As much as you love Paschendale, you raved about it.
34:09
You want on social media afterwards, just plugging it, go
34:11
see this movie. You felt that the detox scene
34:15
was a little bit short? Short, rushed.
34:18
Yeah. It didn't feel it.
34:19
No Nick Nolte moment of unstoppable vomiting, which I
34:24
know you'll love. I know you love Hollywood vomit.
34:27
I think actually you've probably helped me in this instance after
34:31
the discussion of passion. Again, these things don't bother
34:34
me enough. I thought it noteworthy and
34:36
Passionale was disappointed that there was a love story built out
34:39
of this a little bit. And he was there to nurture her,
34:41
to guide her, and I felt like it let that relationship down.
34:44
Whereas in this one, she's only there to die, ultimately this
34:47
woman, and only there to really give him motivation.
34:50
It would probably detract from the movie to deviate into their
34:53
home life to kind of establish how important they were to one
34:57
another and how this thing is. But I will say I do think it
35:01
does in the movie a disservice because the relationship isn't
35:04
well developed. So we have to believe that Bruce
35:07
is willing to give up everything and to fight for everything.
35:10
So his motivations are a little specious, but it doesn't bother
35:13
me. It's just not great.
35:14
Chicks, man chicks. We do everything for chicks.
35:18
The craziest things. That part checks out.
35:22
Yeah, when you're in love. But I I would agree, I don't
35:24
think that the movie wants to spend too much time.
35:27
This whole 30 year process is a little bit speedy for me.
35:31
Now. I'm not sure where I would shave
35:33
off any other part of the movie. However, I don't think I want a
35:37
longer movie, so maybe it is the right call just to get a little
35:40
taste of it. Agreed.
35:42
And it's really the next scene where Bruce's character really
35:46
drives home his motivations and he is left a note young Joe to
35:53
meet old Joe at the diner, which we haven't talked about the one
35:58
of the main scenes in this movie, a very quiet diner, not a
36:01
lot of traffic. We.
36:02
Did talk about right? Yeah, off the beaten path as it.
36:07
Were off the I-90. Yeah, and I love the joke.
36:11
Well, there's another waitress that works on the weekends,
36:14
which is shorter. Name that you could have burned
36:18
into your arm. That's right.
36:19
If you're going to do that, and you may do me a bone here, do me
36:22
a favor. I like this scene when I did
36:25
watch it. When I finally.
36:28
Watched it for the third. Time.
36:30
I did enjoy the scene overall. I like the banter between the
36:33
two. As I said, I kind of saw more of
36:35
the similarities in the performances.
36:38
And I like that Bruce just throws his weight around, let's
36:41
say, you know, speaks French and JG hasn't caught up yet.
36:44
So he's, you know, you'll get there eventually.
36:45
He also knows what he's going to do.
36:47
And it starts to poke holes a little bit into the concept of
36:49
the movie, which I think the movie benefits from by allowing
36:53
JGL in some ways to be a surrogate for the audience,
36:57
right? If the audience could be sitting
36:59
watching it and thinking, well, why doesn't he just do this?
37:02
Or why doesn't that happen? Or why couldn't he just do or
37:05
just say whatever and he gets to say things like, OK, well, you
37:09
did this, I just won't do that. Tell me where you meet her.
37:12
I won't be there. I won't go to China.
37:14
I'll go to France. Whatever these things.
37:16
Yeah. Marry somebody else.
37:17
Exactly. You nailed it.
37:20
You know, that's all you gotta do.
37:22
That's all you got to do. Yeah, problem solved.
37:24
So that I kind of think is interesting and and allows for
37:27
that surrogacy in the audience, but it also allows Bruce to be
37:31
more forceful, more aggressive, more insistent that no, this has
37:37
to happen. We need to save her life.
37:39
She's an Angel. She helped me.
37:40
She helped you, right. Like, you make a lot of stupid
37:43
mistakes. I, you know, kind of thing.
37:47
We could all use that older version of ourselves to come
37:49
back when we're, you know, 20 years.
37:52
My question, Phil, would you listen to your actual self?
37:55
We didn't listen to our parents clearly.
37:57
No, I get the sense that neither of us listen to good advice from
38:00
friends and other family members.
38:03
If there was a person that I would listen to, it's me.
38:06
It might be myself 30 years from now or 40 or whatever the number
38:10
because I would think, well, yeah, you're me, right?
38:13
You're the byproduct of all of those decisions.
38:15
Whereas when you're young and you have a parent that says
38:18
something, you're just like, I'm not you.
38:20
You don't know me. You know you're.
38:22
Like, no, everybody at 14 makes the same stupid mistakes when
38:25
you're like everyone at 24 says don't do that or at 54 says
38:29
don't do that. But exactly you think you go old
38:31
man, you don't know shit. But I think, as I said, if it
38:34
were me staring me back in the face and saying like don't do
38:37
this or or do do that, I might be more considerate.
38:41
Don't do it. Because yeah, because at 14
38:43
you're only listening to yourself, right?
38:46
So why would you listen to an older, wiser, possibly version?
38:50
Of yourself. So that's right.
38:52
Hey Pop, you were old in the 60s, you know, it's the 80s now.
38:55
You don't know shit. Kind of.
38:56
Thing and young Joe does give him a little bit of that.
38:58
He's like yeah, a lot of it. You had your life that you live
39:01
my life and Doc Brown would not have any of this.
39:04
That's a major paradox. It's not a written in stone for
39:08
all time travel movies. It's it's written in stone for
39:11
Back to the Future, specifically maybe 5 ones.
39:15
What I like about Bruce's approach, or like the writing in
39:17
general, the scene, is that we're just kind of dispenses
39:19
with that right away, right? Like we could be talking about
39:22
all the ways in which we shouldn't be sitting here and we
39:24
couldn't do this time travel and how does this happen?
39:27
But it just says, fuck it, we're just gonna skip over that and
39:30
let's just talk 1 to one man to man about this one specific
39:34
thing rather than all the other stuff.
39:36
And as an audience, I think it's appropriate and it keeps us
39:39
connected to the movie. And we're like 40 minutes in,
39:41
right? So still another hour left.
39:43
So this is a moment to maybe dispense of the questions that
39:46
may or may not be happening. And it kicks it into a higher
39:49
gear moving forward. Absolutely.
39:51
Oh, and by the way, Surrogates is actually quite a good film
39:54
with Bruce Willis in it. So you talked about Surrogacy 8%
40:00
next week. Coming your way, Coming your
40:03
way, right? After an action sequence we're
40:11
not going to talk much about because there's not really much
40:13
to it, we end up with our third lead effectively, Emily.
40:18
What are your overall thoughts on the character?
40:20
I didn't recognize her at first. I'll be completely honest.
40:22
There's a quick moment where she's axing away at this tree
40:25
and it took me a second or two to really think, is that her?
40:29
That's good performance. Yeah, absolutely.
40:32
Ohe Emily Blunt? I know she doesn't.
40:34
Act that. No, no, I think I've really only
40:37
seen her in the Adjustment Bureau.
40:40
I've seen a little bit of, I've seen part of it.
40:43
I haven't got through the movie actually.
40:46
I know that's on my shelf. I have no excuse.
40:48
I don't know. I don't know what's happening.
40:49
I haven't. 4 surrogates is the problem.
40:53
Yeah, that is the problem. Watch another shitty Bruce movie
40:56
instead of this relatively good film and she looks good with an
40:59
axe. She looked like she practiced
41:02
her acts work for this role specifically.
41:05
Some will argue she was miscast. You know how I love to read and
41:11
find out other people's opinions and sometimes use them as my
41:14
own? I just take their opinions and
41:17
say, you know what, I'm going to feel that way.
41:19
Do they have a problem with her axe or her?
41:21
Axe and everything. Everything outside of the axe.
41:25
But I'm going to do what I famously do, and I'm going to
41:27
sit on the fence. He's six.
41:31
Yeah, I think she's a good actress, and I think she was
41:34
lying. Yeah, she's fine for this role.
41:35
Your research has brought up someone just complained they
41:38
didn't offer a solution it. Was exactly nonsense.
41:41
Pierre Pallier. Exactly.
41:44
Fucking guy and she's also really good at fake smoking.
41:49
Jason Robards from Magnolia if you.
41:51
Remember. Oh, that's the only scene I
41:54
remember from that movie. Phil the only moment.
41:57
Realtor gem pusher one. Yeah, one day we'll remaster
42:02
that and 4K Absolutely gorgeous. I'll book the week off but she
42:07
seems to deal with a lot of vagrants.
42:09
It seems to have a few people coming and going.
42:11
Yeah, I guess that's part of the farm life now.
42:14
You make it very clear to our audience that I'm from the farm.
42:18
That's right. And we're not talking Langley
42:20
here, we're talking an acre. And I don't know if we had any
42:26
vagrants or not. I don't know if anybody came to
42:28
our door, but this is 2044. But Joe's a little bit
42:31
different. He's better looking than the
42:35
maybe. That's why that's that's that's
42:37
the trade off. If all vagrants look like that,
42:40
my gosh, now. Did you get the sense that he
42:43
was detoxing in this? Scene that's disappointing
42:48
because this movie has two detox scenes, Yeah, and while the
42:53
first one I think is like the barest of minimum to indicate
42:58
that someone is struggling. Yeah, this is wrong.
43:01
It's just not. Barely.
43:02
Barely has any indication. I had no idea that that's what
43:06
happening. Because she's diagnosing him,
43:08
right? Oh yeah?
43:09
When was the last time you dropped him?
43:10
Like, what are you talking about?
43:12
Like I see nothing in this performance that says I'm all
43:15
messed up and need your help. Like party animal right in his
43:18
20s, which I think we can all relate to you and I, We didn't
43:21
become junkies because we went out every night when we're 24.
43:25
So yeah, we could have done a little bit more there.
43:27
I think he's functioning. He's a, he's a drug addict who
43:30
does it every day, but functions.
43:32
And if you stop doing it, yeah, you're going to get a headache,
43:35
you're going to get some sweats, sure.
43:38
But I wouldn't put them at junkie level, you know, because
43:41
he, he's doing OK for himself, generally speaking.
43:45
As you know it around, he's moving around.
43:47
He's pretty good. There's a big gap between
43:49
drinking your junkie and someone who partakes.
43:52
Yeah, if you will. But.
43:55
But she's not partaking in any of his nonsense.
43:58
Is Tom foolery? He ends up kind of, I don't want
44:01
to say, threatening her, but she knows what a looper is.
44:05
Yeah, and interesting. I'm not really sure why.
44:08
I can't remember necessarily. I don't think.
44:10
It wasn't very satisfying a solution or an answer to.
44:13
Me. Yeah, what I like is a pretty
44:16
good exchange between the two where he talks about how you're
44:19
not, you just saved my life. You're not going to threaten
44:21
you, not gonna kill me. You're not gonna shoot me.
44:23
That's a safe bet, maybe. I don't know.
44:26
Well, it turned out, because she showed up.
44:27
She did shoot him full of gravel.
44:31
That's the sense I got. Yes, a lot of gravel where I'm
44:33
from, you know, gravel roads, gravel pits, the whole world of
44:39
gravel out in the country, buddy, you really gotta get out
44:41
there. You really gotta get out,
44:43
explore all the gravel. I like her reaction when she has
44:47
the piece of paper that he had. That's right.
44:50
And it clearly means something to her.
44:52
And it's her kids birthday year in the day and also the
44:56
hospital, which will obviously get into that a little bit
44:59
later. But that's I like her reaction.
45:01
So they slowly warm up to a degree and the sun.
45:08
He's been told don't talk to this guy, stay away from him.
45:12
And I love the kid. I think it's Sid.
45:14
Sid the kid, the kid. That's absolutely, that's how I
45:16
remember numbers. And seven, actually, yeah.
45:21
And it's been extremely well documented.
45:24
Extremely well documented that you're not typically a big fan
45:28
of child actors, Correct. Not even Drew Barrymore.
45:31
You hated Drew Barrymore in ET. You like this is garbage or
45:35
smoothie ever. But I think you're, I imagine
45:39
this is probably one of the few that we've done in the last five
45:42
years. You have enjoyed a couple.
45:44
And I think this one would fall in this category.
45:45
I'd be really surprised if you weren't at the very least mildly
45:49
impressed by his performance. Well, I have to agree with you.
45:52
I also have to acknowledge that you know this because we did
45:56
record this episode before which we acknowledged.
45:59
Here pepper in the loop buddy. So yes I I did have some
46:07
information from my my past self.
46:11
Future Dave do it again knowledge now.
46:15
But anyway, as a result, I think this kids performance is really
46:17
good. And his relationship with JGL
46:19
throughout, I find is one that is sweet at times.
46:24
Yeah, yeah. And then knowing that he could
46:26
be both sides of that, right. Like that he can be the cute,
46:29
curious kid who's playing with his toys and yet can also
46:32
basically ring the rain down the, you know, the planets and.
46:37
Yeah, we get a little bit of dialogue, which indicates that
46:40
he doesn't feel Emily Blunt's character forgot her name in the
46:45
movie, isn't her mom. Yes.
46:48
He's not a small. She's not my mom.
46:50
Yeah, and during another act scene, there's a couple of
46:54
accents. Don't get them mixed up here.
46:56
Emily Blunt gives Joe that, you know, this is what happened.
47:00
I left him here on the farm. My sister raised him.
47:03
That's right. Something happened to her.
47:05
And that's a lot for a kid, A lot for a kid to be abandoned.
47:10
Will. Totally, at least into care, but
47:12
absolutely. Your mother though.
47:13
It just messes with your brain, right?
47:15
Who is my mother? And you grow up to think 1 is
47:17
and then later not. And then he also mentions
47:20
confusing time. He really just wants to stop bad
47:22
things from happening, as is one of his sort of main motives,
47:25
which is kind of strange to me a little bit because of what he
47:28
does, obviously. But ultimately I think
47:29
fundamentally he thinks that that is him helping.
47:32
What have we eventually figure out is that he is the rainmaker
47:34
that they're talking about throughout.
47:36
And I think his stopping bad things from happening is closing
47:40
these loops prematurely and trying to stop the underground,
47:44
you know, murder, whatever I think is what that sort of
47:47
indicating. It could be.
47:49
It could be. Bruce doesn't care.
47:51
Another mission happening. Yeah.
47:53
Bruce. Yeah.
47:54
He's got the two other parts. Well, he knows.
47:57
He knows all three addresses of these kids.
48:00
That's right. And he visits the first house,
48:02
and he ultimately kills the kid off screen.
48:08
And it's the first moment where I noticed the music in the
48:11
movie, the soundtrack. And it's not a close up, which I
48:15
already know that you're happy That's not the case.
48:18
But you get a real sense of what he's done.
48:20
Yeah, we know his mission and we've seen up until he goes into
48:25
the room or whatever, but I think that's the best use of
48:28
Bruce Willis and his emotions because frankly, he doesn't have
48:32
them right. The whole thing of him has to be
48:33
cool all the time and don't you dare bring up striking distance.
48:37
Dare bring up striking distance. The worst try and put them on a
48:40
bridge crying and have some emotional resonance.
48:42
He just can't do it. It's not in his range.
48:44
It's fine. Actors have their things, but
48:46
that is not one of his tools in the shed.
48:49
So by removing that and not having to focus on his face, his
48:54
crying, his wrestling with it emotionally, you get everything
48:58
by the high angle shot means he's low.
49:00
He's a small speck in the grand, right.
49:03
This is what makes Ryan Johnson a good filmmaker is that he can
49:06
stay away from the things that are not going to benefit and to
49:09
make things better by doing whether camera work or music or
49:12
score like you're saying. And so, yeah, those things, I
49:15
think it's really effective. Yeah, not forcing it.
49:17
Absolutely. It's a good call, Ryan Johnson,
49:19
smart guy. It's.
49:20
A good director, right? You know what you're cast can
49:22
and can't do, and make them shine in the process.
49:24
That's good directing. Probably didn't even figure it
49:27
out what he was. Doing No, I think he was having
49:29
lunch. Have a sandwich.
49:32
He looked like he had a rap if you zoomed in.
49:34
I think he had a wrap. Yeah.
49:38
It's. Funny, but back at the farm,
49:40
while Bruce is killing kids, yeah, we get a glimpse of Sid's
49:49
TK ability. Oh, yes, Which was like you said
49:53
earlier, it was a bit of a throwaway at the beginning with
49:55
Seth, but he's getting quite upset.
49:58
And Emily Blunt's character goes into this little metal.
50:03
I'm not sure if it was aluminum, if it was plutonium.
50:07
And I didn't quite click into what was happening.
50:10
I thought it was all just visual effects for us to get a a
50:13
feeling of he's just really upset.
50:15
And I still didn't clue into the TK of the moment.
50:18
Oh, wow. Well, I'm not very smart.
50:20
Well, it's also not really laid out and we haven't heard about
50:23
it for an hour at this point, so it's just not at top of mind.
50:27
So I don't think, hmm, I think you're an idiot, but you're not
50:30
an idiot for that reason, I would say.
50:31
That for that reason, but the other 36 reasons, right?
50:34
Now my question to you is did you know the answer to the math
50:37
problem? Cause they're doing the
50:38
multiplication tables. And I know you grew up in.
50:40
The country, I wasn't sure if they had multiplication.
50:43
Tables. That was my best class, Phillip.
50:47
My strongest subject was mathematics and I I take pride
50:51
in it today. I think, I think you're.
50:52
Great. Yeah, no calculator here. 8 * 3
50:55
is 24, it is not 32. Correct, but he does not like
51:00
that. He doesn't like.
51:01
Me. No, he does.
51:02
Not typical kids, exactly. Typical kid.
51:05
Yeah, but so we get a sense now the implications, right?
51:08
This kid has powers beyond and the TK of it, I agree.
51:12
It doesn't really beat it over its head, but now is starting to
51:15
fall really into place. Right.
51:16
OK, Now this is the thing, right?
51:18
This guy's got untapped potential and power that no
51:21
wonder Bruce feels like he needs to take care of.
51:23
It Yeah. And you're going to love the
51:25
next scene because she reveals that she has a lower ability
51:29
with the TK in the bed. She falls for JGL in a moment of
51:36
weakness. She ran day or I would say she
51:39
horny is my my note here is blunt is horny as fuck.
51:45
She gives a look that I'm telling you just like, yeah, OK,
51:47
yeah, this is happening. That's.
51:49
Good writing, that's good directing, that's good acting
51:52
because you're alone on a farm. Very stressful I would imagine
51:56
to raise a kid with those type of abilities.
51:58
Absolutely. And you quit smoking.
52:00
That's right, she doesn't smoke for real now.
52:02
She does relapse here and have a cigarette in bed.
52:05
That's how you and man, that brought back some memories.
52:08
Oh yeah, the post coitus. We talked about an episode
52:12
recently, might have been passion.
52:14
Dale and I spoke as if I still smoke now, and I want it to be
52:18
made clear. I have issue with tenses.
52:20
Remember I said I have issues with tenses.
52:22
That's true. I do not smoke.
52:24
I have been smoke free since 2017 or even 2016.
52:28
And you know, for anybody struggling out there, a smoker,
52:32
you could do it to be a few tries, but it's well worth just
52:36
for financial reasons actually, if nothing else, nothing else.
52:41
Yeah, get yourself a nice 7.2 surround sound, big screen TV,
52:44
all that good stuff. But they Make Love.
52:47
You know how I like to keep it classy?
52:48
That's right. Yes, above board.
52:51
Yeah, and she opens up a little bit and.
52:54
She does open up a lot. I would say opens mouths, opens
53:00
legs. Well, we didn't see it.
53:02
We it's all off camera. Unfortunately, not unlike the
53:05
Seth torture sequence, it's all just the theatre of the mind.
53:08
Yeah, exactly. And I think it's probably best
53:12
that she keeps on smoking. She's got some stressful moments
53:15
coming up. The the gentleman that we saw a
53:18
little while ago, Jesse came sniffing around.
53:21
That's right, looking for. Joe, he's back and actually has
53:26
her hostage. Yeah, it's not great.
53:29
It's problematic. It's a little problematic.
53:31
Situation. And Sid, who's trying to be
53:34
discreet, stumbles on one of his God damn toys that she's
53:40
probably told him 10 times to pick up off the stairs.
53:43
Yeah. But at the end of the day,
53:46
really ultimately what happens is it is mad.
53:48
He's he. Loses it.
53:50
He is not messing around. Someone's messing with Emily
53:53
Blunt, whether it's his mom or not, and he blows up the house
53:57
and frankly blows up Jesse. From the.
54:00
Inside from the inside out like. Yeah, that was a nice visual
54:04
touch. I'm sure you appreciate it.
54:06
And I love Jesse. He was a bad guy in the Burn
54:10
Notice, a real reoccurring role, similar to like a Murdoch role
54:14
from MacGyver. He'd come back and just cause
54:17
problems with the main character.
54:19
Yeah, yeah. But I always thought he was like
54:22
a really good performer in that. And he's not in this much, but
54:25
he's just a cool face and I feel bad for him.
54:28
He's been sent by Abe to try and take care of business, and he
54:30
fails. Yeah, yeah.
54:32
Miserably. That's right.
54:34
Which leads us now. Or slightly before, slightly
54:36
after, but to an even more violent sequence.
54:40
Shades of John McClain. That's right, Say.
54:44
Live in his. Best self.
54:46
Yeah, luckily for the kid #2 he's thwarted by Kid Blue.
54:51
We haven't given any time to Kid Blue because he idiot.
54:54
That's why. He's abes nephew, I imagine.
54:58
Real piece of work, this guy. But he's always trying to
55:00
impress all I can get it right. I can do it.
55:02
I can do it. Give me another chance.
55:03
He's off the job, but he's working pro bono now and and
55:08
halls Bruce into headquarters to the Gatman.
55:12
But Bruce, he has a way of getting out of rope, just like
55:15
you. I seen you out of rope fill.
55:17
I know you've been tied up a few times in your escapades.
55:22
Totally beyond him getting out of that easily.
55:27
Is this the Bruce you like? Can are you?
55:29
OK, I don't know if it's the Bruce I like, but it's where
55:31
Bruce is best suited. It just he's just going to mow.
55:35
He's just going to mow people down.
55:37
It's like diehard 5. There's no nuance to the
55:40
performance, right? I heard one he kills people, but
55:42
it's not like this. This is just give me a machine
55:45
gun and I'm just going to kill 10 different people and these
55:49
are my shoot in the head and everybody else that comes
55:52
nearby, it's just mowing them down.
55:55
It reminds me of Battlefield 1. Yeah, you were a mower.
55:59
Always have been. You're running, Gunner, and I'm
56:01
gonna. I'm gonna plead you again,
56:02
buddy. We'd love to have you.
56:03
We don't have a running. Gunner it'll happen eventually
56:06
once we get the sponsorship money.
56:07
Yeah, it's not a terribly long scene, but it's effective to
56:11
show that old Joe Bruce is going to stop at nothing to eliminate
56:17
the rainmaker and change the future.
56:19
And he ends up at some point throughout the movie as well.
56:21
It's a nice moment where he's forcing himself to remember
56:25
because things get cloudy and fuzzy.
56:27
They kind of allude to that conversation a little earlier.
56:29
Yes, we get the sense that again, that urgency, he is on a
56:31
mission, right? It is to save this woman and
56:34
only this woman ultimately. And so everything else is
56:37
expendable. And the rainmaker is the cause
56:38
of all of these things and therefore he needs to stop it.
56:42
So when he commits to that, checks out and has to kill
56:46
everybody in his way, including Abe, we get a sense of his
56:50
intensity and his his drive, right?
56:52
He has one focus and it doesn't matter who else is in his way.
56:54
So I like that. And they did it all in one take.
56:57
He's so good at it. It only took one take.
57:00
Eastwood would have been happy with it.
57:02
That's right. Break for lunch.
57:04
That's my new thing. I don't know why, but Kid Blue,
57:08
now, it's important to know that he does survive because he needs
57:12
to be a bit of a distraction. Really.
57:15
That's the only reason why he's left alive.
57:17
But it plays like not everybody may die of their wounds.
57:21
We don't know. Major organs.
57:24
Come on. That's a little harsh, Phillip.
57:26
Yeah, I just think it's silly. I think we're having this
57:28
confrontation. Bruce and JGL are face to face.
57:32
It's about to go down away. Bruce throws on the gold.
57:35
Here's your life back. It doesn't matter.
57:37
What? Brick, It's not enough.
57:39
You had a long life, buddy. Come on.
57:41
But yeah, this guy's showing up on the bike.
57:42
It's just like a movie contrivance.
57:44
It doesn't feel real, doesn't feel earned.
57:46
It feels lazy. It's the one part of the movie I
57:49
felt actually really, really bothering me.
57:51
You know, it may have bothered me if they had a lot of other
57:54
contrivances, a lot of obvious like, oh, this is because of
57:57
this, I got you. But it's really the only one.
58:00
And to me, it was believable. Yeah, Kid Blue has shown through
58:03
the whole movie. I have something to prove.
58:06
Yes, I want to catch this guy. I want to show you I could take
58:09
20 bullets and still live. You don't know he took.
58:12
Check the footage. I don't know.
58:14
He might have just taken the one.
58:16
It was just the one shot and it missed all major organs.
58:19
Flesh wound, buddy, flesh wound. But it does allow old Bruce to
58:26
get out or get out of the way, distract Little Joe Young show
58:30
and that really sets up our denum a our last 7-8 minutes.
58:35
That's what's Cumberland Cumulated, cumulated,
58:39
accumulated. Culminate.
58:40
Thank you. Culminate.
58:42
Yeah. The movie culminates in this
58:43
moment. Yes.
58:44
It's an accumulation of all the scenes that happened prior.
58:48
There we go, and there's our definition of the.
58:50
Week this scene. Is great.
58:53
Let's bring it home at this point, you know, with my first
58:56
watch essentially how are you going to wrap this up?
58:59
Who are the winners? Who are the losers?
59:02
Is the rainmaker going to live or does he not?
59:05
So I got a lot of questions. Phillip got a lot of questions
59:08
about this. Yeah, and he answers them.
59:11
And they all get answered. They all get answered.
59:14
This let's maybe go through, just maybe character by
59:17
character. We know old Joe is going to stop
59:20
at nothing. Yes, that's right.
59:22
He's got a mission and. Emily will protect her son at no
59:26
cost either. She's established that in the
59:29
bed scene earlier. Yeah, and she keeps saying if I
59:31
raise them right, if I raise them well, if I treat him well,
59:34
he's going to be OK, Things will be OK if he'll grow up better,
59:37
if I take care of him. Yeah, and he won't turn in the
59:39
Rainmaker. And Young Joe says no, he though
59:42
he does. He does.
59:43
So I don't know what to tell. You heart is still with him to
59:46
try and make it a better world right?
59:48
To keep those things calm because she knows he's a bit of
59:51
a loose cannon. Yeah, So let's set up the scene.
59:53
We have basically the corn field, and then we have young
59:58
Sid and Mom running away. And Old Joe is there with a gun.
1:00:03
He's fully armed, covered in blood.
1:00:05
And Old Joe, he does get a shot off, which grazes young Sid.
1:00:09
That was a bad call, enough to make him.
1:00:11
Well, you want to get it done right?
1:00:13
This time you don't get. Get a lot of options here, but
1:00:17
it really pisses it off. Yeah, you don't get a lot of
1:00:19
second chances with Sid. No, no, that's for certain.
1:00:22
And then we get some I want to call elevation.
1:00:25
Everyone's a little elevated. Yep.
1:00:28
I was like, where's Helen Hunt and Jim Paxson or even Bill
1:00:32
Baxton? Bill Jeb.
1:00:35
I usually brother named Jim. Jeffers Yeah, it's a good scene.
1:00:39
We get the kids wreaking some havoc, and in this sort of
1:00:43
tumult, we get a sense of the future that could be.
1:00:46
We get flashes of Blunt getting shot, basically the path that
1:00:51
could happen, and JGL doesn't want any part of it.
1:00:55
Now you've got it written down. What ties this all together in
1:00:58
the bow? The stakes are here, and JGL's
1:01:01
confronted. What do you got there?
1:01:03
Yeah, Let me articulate it with my own words, please.
1:01:06
To quote UN quote, they say. Then he saw it.
1:01:08
And that's referring to Young Joe, a mom who would die for her
1:01:12
son, a man who would kill for his wife, and an angry boy.
1:01:17
Circle round and round. And some of these lines were
1:01:21
alluded to earlier in the movie, the kind of sprinkled throughout
1:01:24
kind of subtly, but it's just shown here as clear as day.
1:01:29
And ultimately, Young Joe decides to break the loop.
1:01:32
Really. He's got one choice.
1:01:35
It's all going to happen unless he does something about it.
1:01:37
He's the only one that has the hard to do so, and he decides to
1:01:40
change it and doing so turns that gone on himself, shoots
1:01:43
himself in the chest. Old Bruce disappears.
1:01:46
He doesn't bye bye exist and sit in and blunt.
1:01:49
She consoles them in the cornfield.
1:01:52
It's gonna be OK, calms down, so forth.
1:01:55
That's a great scene between mom and son.
1:01:58
It's also the first time he calls her mom mommy and wow.
1:02:04
All jokes aside, I really felt he delivered that moment really
1:02:07
well with that one. Word.
1:02:09
I think he's really. Good.
1:02:10
He's crying, he's got the emotions, he's a kid that's
1:02:13
angry, he's confused, he's sad, he's upset, but he feels can
1:02:17
really connected to his mom. So it's very, very touching
1:02:20
moment, Phillip. Agreed.
1:02:21
I think he really delivers at a time when the movie is at its
1:02:24
end. You want to leave on the right
1:02:26
notes and especially on something where in theory, it's
1:02:29
on a down note. Right.
1:02:30
You're 2 lead characters that you've spent the whole movie
1:02:33
with have basically died. Yeah.
1:02:35
And yet you still leave with a little bit of hope, with a
1:02:38
little bit of positivity and not wondering what the hell you've
1:02:41
done for your last two hours. You know, you as somebody who
1:02:44
expressed a desire to like your protagonists and really get on
1:02:48
board right here. She.
1:02:49
Bruce. That's right.
1:02:50
So here they killed both of your leads.
1:02:52
And yet I think the movie delivers and the performances
1:02:54
are strong enough that it days off.
1:02:56
By the time it's over, you're actually like, oh, that's a
1:02:58
perfectly satisfying ending for the movie that it's setting up.
1:03:01
And I think that's important. I think it's the only way to go.
1:03:04
Totally. They put themselves in the
1:03:05
corner. I guess we're gonna have to kill
1:03:07
off. Yeah.
1:03:08
Yeah. Bruce, JL.
1:03:11
Yeah. I didn't love it all the way
1:03:12
through, but I can at least say that.
1:03:15
Like how they tied it up. But Phil tied up for me.
1:03:19
On your overall thoughts and feelings.
1:03:21
We've talked about the movie for a little bit now.
1:03:24
I certainly didn't get a sense that you hated it, and it's
1:03:26
probably because this wasn't in it enough to qualify to dislike
1:03:30
it that much. But last week we had a lot of I
1:03:34
love it, It's great, it's amazing with Batman Returns, and
1:03:38
so you should have. I'm not disagreeing with that.
1:03:41
I enjoyed it myself as well. But I think you get a lot that
1:03:43
this one. So I'm curious to know where you
1:03:45
land with this one. This is a movie, David, where I
1:03:48
think I should like more than I do, and I think that the sum of
1:03:52
its parts is pretty good. But I don't know if the overall
1:03:55
experience I had walking away was one of I love it.
1:03:58
I like it, I want to watch it again.
1:04:00
I'm kind of playing the Dave role here because I, I don't, I
1:04:03
don't think it's gonna go on the shelf.
1:04:04
I don't think I'll ever watch it again.
1:04:06
But I absolutely didn't hate watching it or have any real
1:04:09
problems while watching it. It's just, it's like a
1:04:11
completely OK movie that doesn't really elevate to where I think
1:04:15
it could go conceptually. I'm happy that you took it off
1:04:18
the shelf. And so much as I can kind of
1:04:20
think, oh, I did see this movie and I'm glad I did.
1:04:23
I have no real problems with it, but I don't really have a desire
1:04:26
to ever see it again. Well, Phil, you kind of stole my
1:04:28
role not to make something. You love it.
1:04:31
It's. Better to 10 out of 10.
1:04:33
What is a movie that I kept reading and hearing that it's
1:04:37
good? They this is a solid film but
1:04:39
despite the ending it didn't satisfy me.
1:04:42
It's going to stay on the shelf because I have spot for it.
1:04:44
I'm not out of room of course. But I'm with you as I don't know
1:04:48
if I'll watch this movie again but it's not bad.
1:04:51
Like there's nothing wrong with it.
1:04:53
It does a pretty good job with the time travel stuff.
1:04:55
It's relatively entertaining throughout.
1:04:58
It gets a little bit slow around the farm part, but visually it
1:05:01
was stunning. The performances were great,
1:05:03
including Bruce Willis first and foremost, of course.
1:05:09
But I wasn't left like, wow, you know, like, I don't think I
1:05:11
would even recommend it. I wouldn't say avoid this movie.
1:05:15
It's terrible. Like, watch it if you want to
1:05:17
watch it, But I I can't really put my stamp on it of approval
1:05:21
for watching it. Yeah.
1:05:22
And I can't put a finger on it why either.
1:05:24
I think it just doesn't do anything very well.
1:05:26
It does everything OK. I think we talked about this
1:05:29
before, but the city we live in often hits it like it's one of
1:05:31
the best places to live in Canada because it has like
1:05:34
straight sevens across the board.
1:05:35
And while other cities like Vancouver will have 10 out of 10
1:05:38
on scenery and Toronto will have 10 out of 10 on accessibility or
1:05:43
diversity or whatever the case, you know, but these days, but
1:05:46
they fail on XY and Z, right? Whereas we're like, we're only
1:05:49
OK or above OK throughout. So we're like non offensive
1:05:53
milktoast. And that's how I feel about the
1:05:55
movie. It's not the best time travel
1:05:57
movie. It's not even a very good time
1:05:58
travel movie. It does the things that 12
1:06:01
Monkeys has done in the past, Frequency has done in the past,
1:06:04
and it iterates and it makes it a little bit better or tweaks to
1:06:07
it, but it doesn't make it own thing.
1:06:09
Yeah. So it's not derivative
1:06:11
necessarily, but it's not bringing anything really fresh
1:06:13
to the table. Bruce's performance in the
1:06:15
province in general, all of everybody doesn't really get
1:06:18
there. It just, you know, it kind of
1:06:21
happens. And so that's kind of where it's
1:06:23
at. Actually, I would say that the
1:06:24
story is quite unique. I don't think we've seen it like
1:06:26
anything quite. I think the story is unique.
1:06:29
I don't think the storytelling is all that unique.
1:06:31
And I think maybe that's the. Difference.
1:06:33
There it is. There it is.
1:06:34
I just had to make that clear. Thanks for clarifying.
1:06:38
Well, now that it's clear, folks, it's clear that this is
1:06:40
the end of the episode, we do appreciate you joining us.
1:06:42
As always, please read us five stars in your podcaster of
1:06:45
choice. Subscribe and never miss an
1:06:47
episode. Join us on the Facebook page and
1:06:49
most importantly, share it with yourself 20 years from now and
1:06:54
20 years ago. You can talk to yourself and you
1:06:57
get a message through. Tell them listen to off the
1:06:59
shelf with full and Dave appreciate it.
1:07:00
Talk to you next week. Good advice, goodnight.