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Avatar, Stephen King & the Movies That Broke Us · Brainwaves

• 0:08
  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to an all new episode of Two shot
• 0:11
  Tuesday with Barry Nixon and the Maestro with the man at the top
• 0:15
  of the pile, Jason Riley. Jay, it's great to see you and I
• 0:18
  have some good news. At the time of this recording,
• 0:22
  as we're sitting here together, I am celebrating 19 years
• 0:25
  married to executive producer Linda LeBron.
• 0:28
  That's pretty crazy. I mean, that's a milestone.
• 0:31
  The fact that you're here recording is also your
• 0:35
  unwavering dedication to me and our fans is, that's right,
• 0:38
  amazing. Do you want to share any details
• 0:41
  about what you've got planned for anything, or is this all a
• 0:44
  surprise and you just let us know after it's happened?
• 0:47
  I think it's better to share it after it happened, OK?
• 0:50
  Good, we'll do so. We'll stand by.
• 0:52
  So many other things. Yeah, we have.
• 0:54
  So we have a packed show. There's a lot of other stuff to
• 0:56
  cover. We do, and we always start with,
• 0:58
  as you know. Maybe you're not familiar with
• 1:00
  our format, but I'm pretty sure you are.
• 1:01
  And what do? We do.
• 1:03
  We do two shots, no more, no less, of anything we choose.
• 1:06
  So, Barry, what are you going to do to get us in the spirits
• 1:09
  today? Well, Speaking of spirits, it's
• 1:11
  an old favorite, Jay, and it commemorates almost every
• 1:15
  special occasion in The Newsroom.
• 1:17
  It's the Bushmills, 12 year. What have you got?
• 1:20
  I am going to be doing something that I could say has not been
• 1:23
  debuted on the show before. My mom would be especially
• 1:27
  excited by this one and proud of me.
• 1:29
  I'm a little under the weather today, so I'm having a nice a
• 1:32
  sip of tea, a sip of tea, a steaming hot cup of tea.
• 1:37
  With. No booze in it, no blue in it,
• 1:40
  just straight tea with some lemon and some honey.
• 1:43
  OK. Well, cheers.
• 1:44
  Cheers. Yours looks better.
• 1:50
  Oh, it tastes amazing. Does it?
• 1:53
  Yeah, it's that winter chill, all right.
• 1:56
  All right, Berry, one thing I think we should start to talk
• 2:00
  about because we didn't, we didn't cast back to our New
• 2:03
  Year's at all. We we had so many topics and
• 2:04
  exciting things come up. There was something I wanted to
• 2:07
  touch on that executive producer Aldo and Roma and I got up to
• 2:10
  still worth talking about now is a movie review.
• 2:12
  Would you be interested in hearing about that?
• 2:13
  Yeah, please. I love movie reviews.
• 2:16
  And then I will I I have one of my own.
• 2:18
  So this is good. This is great.
• 2:20
  Yeah. OK.
• 2:20
  So we were thinking about what we were going to do on New
• 2:23
  Year's Eve to keep us awake till midnight because sometimes we're
• 2:26
  challenged to do that. And some of these countdown
• 2:28
  shows are just a little bit boring when they go on for hours
• 2:31
  and hours. So we decided that we were going
• 2:34
  to go take in. There was executive producer
• 2:35
  Alda Roma's idea, a movie, and you know me and run times on
• 2:40
  movies so you can. I'm sure your jaw was on the
• 2:43
  floor when I texted you that very night and said.
• 2:46
  I thought your phone had been hacked in fact, because your
• 2:50
  comfort zone where you like to live is the same word place that
• 2:53
  I want to live, Jay, in the one hour, 30 minute runtime.
• 2:56
  But you got something that was far more bloated than that.
• 3:00
  What was it? We went to go see Avatar Fire
• 3:03
  and Ash. The three hour and 17 minute
• 3:08
  runtime plus previews started at six.
• 3:11
  We probably got out of there closer to 10.
• 3:13
  By the time you're you're done 930.
• 3:16
  I had never we hadn't seen Avatar 2 the way of water.
• 3:19
  We'd seen the first Avatar when it first came out, so I had no
• 3:22
  memory of it almost. But I took a page out of your
• 3:25
  book. I took a page out of your book,
• 3:27
  Barry and I went on YouTube and I found a nice 20 minute recap
• 3:31
  of the 1st 2 Avatar movies. That's something that's a pro
• 3:34
  move that you taught me how you catch catch up with Marvel
• 3:37
  series before you go see a Marvel movie.
• 3:39
  Well, that's true and thank you for the credit.
• 3:41
  But in fact, I have to really deflect that to our movie guy,
• 3:44
  Rob Peetz. He's the one who found the
• 3:47
  synopsis, the catch up video and simply sent it to me.
• 3:50
  So got to cut clean and yeah, and give credit where credit is
• 3:54
  due. Perfect.
• 3:55
  So watch that when in sort of having an idea what was going
• 3:59
  on. You know, it was a visual feast.
• 4:01
  It was in 3D. We saw it in AVIP setting.
• 4:04
  That's yeah. You're wearing the glasses.
• 4:06
  Yeah, that's the only way we're going to do it.
• 4:07
  And it was nice. Like it was a nice by the book,
• 4:11
  kind of like it looked great. It was like blue people running
• 4:13
  around doing blue people stuff, getting into fights with each
• 4:16
  other, swimming with these fishes that they communicate
• 4:19
  with. There's really no point in
• 4:20
  trying to explain the movie because you kind of have.
• 4:23
  You have be well immersed. Definitely have to be immersed.
• 4:26
  If I didn't get the 20 minute update, I would have been
• 4:28
  totally clueless instead of mostly clueless.
• 4:31
  Did the runtime feel like 3 hours and 17 minutes?
• 4:34
  The 1st 2 1/2 hours flew by the last bit.
• 4:37
  You're looking to land the plane at that point.
• 4:39
  But here's the thing, and this is I think important for a big
• 4:42
  movie like that, a long runtime. You have to be doing it for a
• 4:45
  purpose other than just seeing the movie.
• 4:47
  And ours was to fill time up until New Year's.
• 4:50
  So we had something to do afterwards.
• 4:52
  We had a goal. And so like training, you kind
• 4:55
  of get through that. It's like your training program
• 4:56
  to get through to your goal, which is to stay up till
• 4:58
  midnight. And that served that purpose.
• 5:01
  So I give it, you know, 4 out of five stars on the basis of that.
• 5:05
  Four out of five as a time filler waiting.
• 5:07
  Because. You'd rather spend time with
• 5:09
  James Cameron and the blue people then with Ryan Seacrest?
• 5:12
  I'm sorry, what's going on, 100? Percent.
• 5:15
  I would. I'm a little bored of Brian
• 5:18
  Seacrest and the. Agree to disagree?
• 5:20
  Yeah, Act of. The day, but I'm not.
• 5:23
  Yeah, actually, I didn't watch his at all.
• 5:24
  I watched the CNN one with Andy and Anderson.
• 5:27
  OK, that's fine too. So we differ on those things.
• 5:30
  But we differ. My New Year's and my movie
• 5:33
  review. I'm giving it 4 out of five.
• 5:34
  It fulfilled the task that we needed.
• 5:36
  To generous. And it looked spectacular.
• 5:39
  So I'm. Sure it did.
• 5:40
  Yeah. Did it look good enough that you
• 5:42
  didn't even care that you didn't remember any of the previous
• 5:46
  entries? I only saw the.
• 5:47
  You skipped the second one. Yeah, I only saw the first one
• 5:50
  and that was like 16 years ago, so yeah.
• 5:53
  They should have just left that where it was.
• 5:55
  I mean, I don't understand why James Cameron feels that he
• 5:57
  needs to tell the story of these blue people.
• 5:59
  Skinny blue people. Yeah, it's just it, the whole
• 6:03
  thing it. Yeah, it's basic.
• 6:06
  That's the word fantastic. That's the exact.
• 6:08
  Word. Amazing it is.
• 6:09
  Basic, that was the word I was holding back to come out of my
• 6:12
  mouth. And you said it basic.
• 6:13
  It's very by the book how it gets done.
• 6:16
  It's like a Disney movie kind of thing.
• 6:18
  The characters all behave as you would expect them to behave.
• 6:21
  There's not a lot of layers, but a billion dollars this one made
• 6:24
  just like the other ones. So yeah, it's.
• 6:27
  I guess people love it. They like going.
• 6:29
  Maybe a lot of people because you've uncovered something.
• 6:31
  I think here truly going to see a movie simply to fill time.
• 6:35
  I don't think it's been a thing since, like, we were kids and,
• 6:39
  you know, like, you had to kill time before your parents got
• 6:42
  home from work or something. You know, you needed something
• 6:44
  to fill that gap. Yeah.
• 6:46
  I've never heard of anyone doing it in the modern era.
• 6:48
  But you, my friend, once again break the mold.
• 6:51
  And that's interesting. I don't think I would do it if I
• 6:54
  had three hours to kill. I think I would find something
• 6:56
  else perhaps to do, but that's just me.
• 6:58
  And that is just you on that. Case, yeah, just beyond that
• 7:02
  one. I yes and it that was a pure yes
• 7:04
  and exactly that was pretty sure all the Roma brought it up.
• 7:06
  I yes and did it. We found a nice comfortable
• 7:08
  theater and did it. Did you have a couple of beers?
• 7:12
  We had sorry at home, I. Know you don't drink wine, but
• 7:15
  you're at the VIP Margarita, yeah.
• 7:17
  I had a Margarita and I had to go ahead and get some water
• 7:20
  because all I got was a Margarita and popcorn and my
• 7:22
  mouth was completely dry because I was eating the popcorn.
• 7:25
  It's drying out it. Take a sip of the Margarita with
• 7:28
  the salt rim. Yeah.
• 7:30
  I'm like, like everything is just seized up.
• 7:32
  So I was like, I got to get a bottle of water.
• 7:34
  So I went out and got us both a bottle of Dude, a bottle of
• 7:37
  water. I would pay just to watch the
• 7:39
  live stream of you with a Margarita eating popcorn for
• 7:42
  three hours. I'd be happy with that.
• 7:44
  That'd be my stop gap for sure. Next time, record yourself.
• 7:51
  All right, that's my movie. Do you want to?
• 7:53
  Should we do a shot and then we'll get into, Yeah, let's do a
• 7:55
  shot, All right? Definitely need a shot before I
• 7:57
  start talking about this next movie, because boy, you'll see.
• 8:00
  Do you want to kick us off with more of your tea there?
• 8:03
  Tea, tea, virgin tea. All right.
• 8:06
  And I got some down and dirty 12 year Bushmills, baby.
• 8:11
  This stuff is good. Here's to you, Jay.
• 8:15
  All right, what have you got that can talk James Cameron's
• 8:18
  Avatar, Fire and Ash? I'm not sure it tops it.
• 8:22
  These are completely different. 1 is very effects laden, which
• 8:27
  is what you saw. This one is pretty.
• 8:29
  It could have been shot on an iPhone 17.
• 8:32
  Stephen King's The Long Walk, starring Mark Hamill and the son
• 8:38
  of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.
• 8:41
  Are you familiar? No.
• 8:42
  Is this new? Yeah, It came out this year.
• 8:44
  It was on demand, Rogers, on demand for the princely sum of
• 8:47
  $2.00 in the rent. Yeah.
• 8:49
  And so I thought, that's perfect.
• 8:51
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 8:53
  It is a tough, arduous. Like when they say the long
• 8:56
  walk, they're not kidding. And.
• 8:58
  By the time it's done, you really feel like you have been
• 9:01
  through a 300 mile ordeal with these walkers.
• 9:04
  OK. It's really wild.
• 9:06
  It's basically it's kind of like Running Man in that it's set and
• 9:09
  comes sort of a dystopian future.
• 9:11
  Yeah. It's running, you know, at a
• 9:13
  slower pace. Yeah, it.
• 9:14
  Blocks that brace. Brisk walk, but you, you have to
• 9:17
  maintain a speed of over 3 miles an hour.
• 9:20
  And if you don't, you, you, you, well, it's, it's, that's a quick
• 9:23
  walk. For me.
• 9:25
  That's probably, that's probably my pace in the city.
• 9:27
  Yeah, and for how long? Well, that's the thing.
• 9:29
  There is no finish line. You just keep going until you
• 9:32
  are literally the last participant and people are dying
• 9:35
  all around you. Why are they dying?
• 9:37
  Well, if they fall below the three mile an hour threshold,
• 9:40
  they get a warning, they do it again, you do it a third time,
• 9:43
  you're done. They just shoot you.
• 9:46
  Yeah. And if you step off the road
• 9:48
  onto the grassy area, you're dead.
• 9:50
  You must stay on the asphalt the entire time.
• 9:52
  There's. There's some pretty hard and
• 9:54
  fast rules about this thing and as you go through it, people
• 9:58
  start becoming sick. Like they can't even stop and
• 10:01
  use the bathroom, like they got to do that whilst they're still
• 10:03
  walking. So there's a couple of really
• 10:06
  nasty scenes that involve that function and man it like someone
• 10:11
  twist their ankle and their their leg is all mangled up and
• 10:14
  they just get run over by this tank.
• 10:16
  It's, it's just, it's kind of heartless, but it's also these
• 10:19
  guys are actually forming a friendship as they continue to
• 10:22
  walk through this whole ordeal. And what's the prize at the end?
• 10:25
  You might be wondering for all this aggravation, what you get
• 10:29
  endless riches. They don't put us a sum of money
• 10:32
  like they don't say you're getting 20 million or 20
• 10:35
  billion, endless, endless sum of money and you get 1 wish.
• 10:39
  You get one wish. That's different.
• 10:41
  That is, I guess, in addition to the money.
• 10:45
  OK. And it's just kind of wild.
• 10:48
  And the guy who's in charge of this whole thing, the, I guess
• 10:50
  the drill Sergeant, Army commander guy is Mark Hamill.
• 10:55
  And he is just about as cold as you've ever seen him.
• 10:58
  And I thought he did a great job.
• 10:59
  Overall, though, it's, like I said, it's a tough watch.
• 11:02
  We got to the end. I was kind of relieved that it
• 11:04
  was over. Yeah.
• 11:06
  It won't be one I'll be revisiting because it is a it's
• 11:09
  a it's a heavy dose, but it is well acted and good pacing.
• 11:13
  Yeah. I mean, overall, if you if you
• 11:15
  like Stephen King and like this is like an old story from like a
• 11:18
  novella of his from like way, way back.
• 11:20
  Apparently I haven't. Of course I've not read.
• 11:22
  You've read it. No, I've never read it.
• 11:24
  I've never heard. Of you've never read it.
• 11:25
  OK, anyway, so star rating, I mean, yeah, it was a three.
• 11:29
  I'm going to say, I'm going to say 3 1/2, three and a half
• 11:32
  because it is, it is good. But you got to be really in the
• 11:35
  in the in the mood for something that's pretty grotesque.
• 11:38
  And, and the executions that happen to these people as they
• 11:41
  break various rules or fall behind pace or whatever is
• 11:44
  pretty nasty. Like there's some they're,
• 11:45
  they're not really holding back back with that.
• 11:47
  So if you're like me and, and you don't necessarily want to
• 11:50
  see that, I have a bit of AI. Wouldn't say a weak stomach, but
• 11:52
  I don't necessarily enjoy seeing gore all over the place.
• 11:55
  Yes, it gives you nightmares. Well, it has.
• 11:58
  It has In the past. It's also made me puke when I've
• 12:01
  seen things that have been nice. Really.
• 12:03
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. OK.
• 12:04
  Well, yeah, you gotta watch. That so if that didn't happen,
• 12:07
  but I'm not saying it couldn't have.
• 12:09
  There was a there was a couple of scenes where like, Oh my God,
• 12:12
  I can't believe that they cast someone to do that part.
• 12:14
  And I was hoping it was going to be AI, but I don't know whether
• 12:17
  it was. There's one scene in particular
• 12:18
  that I won't spoil just in case you decide to take the long
• 12:21
  walk. Sure.
• 12:23
  Anyway, so 3 1/2 out of five. How?
• 12:25
  Is it on? But a sensible runtime?
• 12:27
  Yeah. What is that more sensible than?
• 12:29
  Well, it it wasn't anywhere close to three in a bit hours,
• 12:31
  no. So on the scale of just filling
• 12:34
  time didn't didn't score too highly on that, but.
• 12:36
  Yeah, it fell short of your desired effect to get you to up
• 12:40
  to 11. Yeah, Yeah, it fell well, well
• 12:42
  short of that. Anyway, it's worth a look.
• 12:45
  Nice. All right, well, that's a couple
• 12:47
  movie reviews. If you're interested in checking
• 12:49
  out some mediocre movies, you're going to want to run, Don't
• 12:51
  walk. Who is And walk?
• 12:53
  Yeah. Yeah, who doesn't have an
• 12:54
  appetite for mediocre? Fire and ash.
• 12:56
  Hey Barry, before we go, should we do a RIP from the headlines?
• 12:59
  I think we should. I think we got a couple of
• 13:00
  minutes. It's what?
• 13:01
  We do. You sent me some earlier.
• 13:03
  I did not look at them. I'm going to scroll to one at
• 13:06
  random. And how about this?
• 13:08
  Embrace the imperfection colon 8 Quick fixes to revitalize your
• 13:12
  home. Interesting.
• 13:14
  Sending me a little home 1 so we don't go by that.
• 13:18
  Yeah, yeah. I just want you to understand
• 13:20
  this has something. You're the mini mansion is a
• 13:22
  fucking thing of beauty. So this is not some kind of
• 13:25
  subconscious thing to be like, well, you could maybe think
• 13:28
  about this, Jay. No, no, Yeah, we're set.
• 13:30
  You got it locked. Well, you got a.
• 13:32
  Lock, but if you didn't have it locked.
• 13:33
  Yeah, this is where you may want to go.
• 13:35
  We don't go beyond the headline. What could it be?
• 13:37
  I am looking at pictures. There's lots of frames, hats
• 13:40
  hanging on walls and cushions. What?
• 13:42
  Would what would cushions on walls that that would be
• 13:44
  something I'd like to see. OK.
• 13:46
  That's going to be my question is what couple things would you
• 13:48
  like to see in a house that maybe is not so usual that would
• 13:51
  spruce it up? Cushions on walls?
• 13:53
  Yeah, nailed to the wall. May I?
• 13:54
  Maybe even a mattress on the ceiling, just for fun.
• 13:57
  Maybe it also has some soundproofing ability.
• 14:00
  Yeah. What else?
• 14:02
  Goofy trophies. More and more hunting trophies.
• 14:05
  About that. Like a Buffalo head.
• 14:06
  That'd be cool. That's nice.
• 14:07
  That'll spruce up the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:09
  Goofy lamps, I think. Like a woman's leg.
• 14:13
  Like on the good one story, Yeah, that could be one or
• 14:16
  something like that, like a real.
• 14:17
  Talk man's leg. Yeah, it could be anybody's leg,
• 14:19
  depending on. The road could be like Arnold's
• 14:21
  leg from his last Mr. Olympia appearance for certain buyers.
• 14:24
  I could see that in your house. Yeah, as a motivational lamp.
• 14:28
  Yeah, yes. I'd have to have two of them
• 14:30
  though. Imagine that that would be great
• 14:32
  and they just go over, click them on and that could be like
• 14:34
  part of the workout lamps for your Imagine motivational lamps.
• 14:38
  What about that? That might be something for
• 14:39
  people like, yeah, what do you? Because you're always that's
• 14:42
  where the light shines and that it comes around.
• 14:44
  So it's like if you were, if you wanted to be thin, you might
• 14:47
  have like a really thin person or a salad, maybe a salad lamp,
• 14:51
  something like that to motivate. You or.
• 14:54
  Shaped like a Ozempic shot dispenser.
• 14:56
  Like just that thing to keep you motivated.
• 14:58
  What else? Yeah.
• 14:59
  What are the kind of lamps might motivate?
• 15:01
  You well, I had no idea that anyone would ever consider a
• 15:04
  lamp as a way of, you know, giving a motivational message.
• 15:09
  Nobody's thought of it. That's.
• 15:10
  Why really thought of it? This is new, new, new territory,
• 15:12
  Jay. Yeah, because.
• 15:13
  You turn the switch, light cascades around it and there's
• 15:16
  nothing more motivating than that.
• 15:18
  We haven't been putting enough. Yeah, I think we haven't been
• 15:20
  putting enough thought into into lamp bases.
• 15:23
  OK, lots of shade work, but I think a lamp base, I think
• 15:26
  there's more the. Motivation truly comes from from
• 15:29
  the base, yeah. Like the leg, I think that's
• 15:32
  good. A salad leg, as I said.
• 15:34
  You know. If you wanted money, you could
• 15:36
  have like lamp made of stacks of money.
• 15:38
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 15:40
  It's like you wish it and it comes true.
• 15:41
  What is that willing things into existence like?
• 15:43
  Maybe. Yeah.
• 15:44
  It's your will, will it? It is no dream.
• 15:47
  That's right. That's.
• 15:47
  Theodore Herzl, Big Lebowski. Yeah, exactly.
• 15:50
  I love that. Yeah, not bad.
• 15:52
  Patent pending. So if anyone thinks that they're
• 15:54
  gonna steal our idea, just you know, know that this is the
• 15:56
  property of two Shot 2, yes. All right, Barry.
• 15:59
  I mean, that's a show. I love talking to you man this
• 16:02
  is so fun. Me too.
• 16:04
  Look, thank you for taking time away from your anniversary.
• 16:07
  It's a pleasure. To talk to me and to all of our
• 16:09
  fans here. Of course, we all look forward
• 16:11
  to seeing you next week. In fact, let me speak for all of
• 16:14
  us. We can't wait to see you till
• 16:16
  next week. I love.
• 16:17
  Luckily, we won't have to because we got a hangout coming
• 16:19
  at the end of this week. We'll update our listeners and
• 16:21
  viewers on that. Yes, we will, because that's
• 16:23
  pretty exciting stuff. Yeah, because what's coming back
• 16:25
  is chicken roulette. You don't know what that is.
• 16:29
  TuneIn next week. See you later.
• 16:32
  Thank you for listening to Two Shot Tuesday.
• 16:34
  The show was produced by Barry and I and edited by me.
• 16:37
  If you have yet to rate and review.
• 16:39
  The show on Apple Podcasts. Please take a second to do so
• 16:41
  now. It helps us grow and it helps
• 16:43
  new audiences. To find the show, you can find
• 16:45
  us on Facebook and Instagram at Two Shot Tuesday and on Twitter
• 16:48
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