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January 2025 Movie Roundup · Pick Up and Deliver

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  Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I step
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  out for a walk and deliver an episode to you while I stroll around.
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  I'm Brendan Riley.
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  Greetings listeners, it's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago.
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  The sun is out.
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  It is lightly cloudy.
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  It's breezy and chilly, but warm enough that I'm just wearing... I didn't wear a jacket,
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  I just wore a hoodie and I've got a winter cap on to keep myself just a little bit warmer
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  than the wind would like to make me.
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  I decided to go out for a stroll today.
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  It's the last Friday of the work week before spring break.
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  I did some work taking a break now.
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  Maybe do a little bit more work before I call it a day, but a stroll seemed like a
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  good idea and a good chance to connect with you all.
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  So I was looking back over my notes and it's been more than a month since I did a movie
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  roundup and last January I watched a bunch of movies, so I thought I ought to talk to you
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  about them before I forget them all.
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  That's right, it's time for the January 2024 [sic] movie roundup.
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  Well, I'm just going to go in chronological order because I should have time to cover
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  all the movies this time around.
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  To start with, right as the post-new year's winter break began, I went and saw the movie
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  "Nosferatu", which was the David Eggers, or no Robert Eggers remake of the classic movie,
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  which I watched in the fall.
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  I watched the Werner Herzog version or Vim Vendors.
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  No, it was Werner Herzog.
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  And then I had previously seen the version, the 1923 black and white film, the original
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  that got sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and so on.
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  This was a very close adaptation of that film, not of the story of Dracula.
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  "Nosferatu" changes a few things that really do shift how we understand what's going
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  on in the Dracula story.
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  Count Orlock is a Dracula-type figure and the person who goes to visit him, Mr. Harker,
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  is kind of like Jonathan Harker from the Dracula novel, but there are some differences.
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  The main thing is he's got this very pretty wife, he leaves at home, who sort of ends up
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  psychically connected to Dracula or at "Nosferatu" there.
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  But the thing that makes this movie stand out is the mood.
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  Robert Eggers dumped a ton of energy into building a really dramatic and fascinating mood
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  for the movie.
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  It's got incredible imagery, incredible darkness.
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  It's got very striking moments of cinematic artistry.
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  It's very slow.
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  I thought it was pretty enrapturing, but I could see how people might find it boring and
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  I wonder if I watched it in a different context or in a different mood or maybe not in
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  a theater if I would find it boring also.
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  I could see that.
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  Bill Skarsgard is really coming to stand out as a phenomenal actor, a phenomenal actor
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  of strange characters.
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  His portrayal of Count Orlock is pretty stunning.
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  He develops this very deep sort of raspy voice for it and the costuming makes him look
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  like he's sort of rotting and he has this sort of very big old West style mustache that is
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  genuinely creepy in a way that I wouldn't have anticipated.
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  All the things together make for a really striking movie.
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  If you're a fan of horror movies that operate more on mood than on, I don't know, thrills,
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  I think it's definitely a must see.
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  Very compelling, really good.
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  For a game that goes with it, I mean, it does probably tire, so I always recommend Fury
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  of Dracula for horror movies and that clearly is the one here.
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  The big thing that might push against that a little bit is that Dracula is too weak in
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  Fury of Dracula.
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  And Nosferatu, he's incredibly powerful.
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  He puts a plague on the city when he visits it and there's a level of dread and disturbing
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  elements that just doesn't match.
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  In some ways, it seems like Arkham Horror might even be a better fit than Fury of Dracula.
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  But I don't think there's an Arkham Horror story with a kind of malevolent plague-ridden
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  force.
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  Though there should be.
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  I don't know why there hasn't been yet.
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  There might be.
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  I wonder if Lovecraft wrote any stories about a malevolent being coming and bringing with
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  them all kinds of plagues.
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  It sounds like the kind of thing he would write about.
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  Although one in charge wouldn't really be his style.
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  He would be a mob of them because he's xenophobic.
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  Anyway, that's Nosferatu.
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  I watched the 1990s adaptation of the Crucible, starring Winona Ryder as the teen, I can't
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  remember her name, and Daniel Day Lewis as the main male lead.
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  From really compelling acting in that one as well, Jeffrey Jones is in it and he's become
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  a terrible person or was discovered to be a terrible person.
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  But a number of other really strong actors in that film.
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  It is a story, of course, of people giving in to madness and hysteria and other people standing
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  up for what's right.
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  And in the face of the diarist of circumstances feels pretty relevant these days and scary.
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  But the Arthur Miller play, it represents an important idea in American democracy.
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  It was good to watch again.
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  Or a good to watch.
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  I had never seen it actually.
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  I think Winona Ryder does a fantastic job as the sort of paranoiac teen who is leading
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  a group of sort of similar teens in their panicked discussion of witchcraft and which bewitchment.
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  Yeah, so if you haven't seen this one, it's definitely worth checking out.
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  I mean, Daniel Day Lewis does a great job.
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  Winona Ryder does a great job.
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  The actors who play the different judges are all suitably gross in their piety and hypocrisy.
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  It's definitely worth checking out if you get a chance.
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  That's the crucible adaptation of the Arthur Miller play.
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  If you haven't seen the Witch of Salem, excellent film to check out.
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  Or excellent game to check out in the context of the Salem Witch trials, which is what the
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  crucible is about.
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  Or you could perhaps check out Septima, which takes place in a card of nondescript European
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  village but has a similar idea behind it.
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  That one has a little bit more interesting stuff going on with the jury and narratively
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  the witches are banished from town rather than murdered.
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  So that one's less dramatic perhaps than the actual events where or the crucible is.
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  The next movie I want to talk about is Roman J. Israel Esquire.
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  This was a Denzel Washington movie.
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  It's a character study about a man who had desire and history as an activist.
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  He had a very strong sense of justice but very little patience or ability to deal with
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  the justice system and the way that things were rigged against his clients.
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  Washington plays this character in a really compelling way in a really empathetic way.
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  He's a flawed individual.
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  It's implied perhaps that he has some neurodivergent qualities but it's unclear.
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  The film doesn't ever suggest that directly but rather more through performance and perhaps
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  our cultural moment.
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  Perhaps 20 years ago he would have just been called idiosyncratic.
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  Now people might be tempted to label his idiosyncrasies as neurodivergent.
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  But I think the idea of the film is really just to kind of put pressure on this idea that
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  we are who we are by choice and that making choices to explore ourselves in different
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  ways has effects on our ethics and our morality and our experiences and I don't know it's
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  a good movie.
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  It's a nice character study and worth looking at I think.
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  That's Roman J. Israel Esquire.
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  I don't really know very much in the way of legal games to play doing trials isn't really
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  a game.
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  Theme that's very common often they're tied around a specific trial and this game is more
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  just about being a lawyer.
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  So I'm not sure exactly this is one of the first ones in a while I'd have trouble really
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  being able to point to and say like here's a game that I think you would it would make
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  sense to try to pair up with this other game.
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  I don't know what that would be.
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  Next up is Old Boy.
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  I had never seen this movie I'd heard about a lot about it particularly I remember it
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  coming up when Daredevil the TV show came out and there was the sequence where Daredevil
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  gets in this long exhausting fight in a hallway and people sort of talked about it as being
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  an homage to Old Boy.
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  So the movie if you haven't seen it is about a guy who gets kidnapped one day and ends
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  up in like basically an apartment where he's got a TV but nothing else really and every
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  day he's given food like he's in prison but he was never convicted of any crime and no
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  one will talk to him and he has no communication with the outside world and then one day I
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  can't remember if he escapes or they let him out but then his life he stuff happens it's
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  a very dramatic very violent story there's an incredible scene where he's attacking somebody
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  with a hammer in a hallway that is really dramatic.
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  It's a weird twisted story really dark but an interesting vengeance tale probably worth
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  seeing if you if those things I said sounded intriguing if you're like oh I could I could
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  enjoy as a film an intriguing dark violent revenge tale Old Boy is probably for you then
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  really interesting.
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  I watched the original version I did not watch the remake they didn't English language remake
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  I don't know anything about that but it's a pretty compelling movie as for a game that
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  would go with it I think there's a game that came out called vengeance which is meant
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  to be a revenge film as a board game I don't know much about it I know that one of the guys
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  at my board game club has it I've seen it played a couple times but never had the opportunity
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  myself it was very well very positively reviewed on So Very Wrong About Board Games the podcast
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  they really like that they also like the vengeance role and right that was made afterward
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  although they like the original game better as a dice chucking people on the map sort of
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  fighting game next up is Twisters this is the sequel to the original Twister movie there is
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  a sort of homage a little bit to the original movie a suggestion of it but they don't ever
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  make any explicit connections which is I think annoying there were a couple opportunities
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  where you could definitely have had characters from the original be in the new one so it was
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  annoying that they didn't do that but it's a pretty dumb movie but really fun the idea
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  is you know there are these storm chasers in there running around trying to find out a storm
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  and one of them has some science ideas about how we can understand tornadoes better and
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  with those ideas we will then be able to better protect people from tornadoes there are
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  corporate villains who seem to be in it for other reasons other than the science I don't
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  know if you remember the first movie but there was a sort of hilarious villainization of
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  the corporate weather stewge's because they're in it for the money not the science and there's
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  a lovable cast of sidekicks they're not quite as enjoyable as the original group but I mean
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  nobody could really be as enjoyable as Philip Seymour Hoffman so that was a little little
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  I really didn't miss him because I think even though he's a huge actor now I totally think
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  he would have come back and played Dusty again they say I like to think he would have so it's
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  amusing if you like the original Twister there's no reason you wouldn't like Twisters I think
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  it's probably suffers from my nostalgia for the first movie in terms of my understanding
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  of the second one but overall pretty enjoyable pretty fun let's Twisters all right next
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  up we have Wallace and Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl.
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  Wallace and Gromit is my favorite animation series I've seen all of the Wallace and Gromit
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  shorts and films I like them all the most recent one's called Vengeance Most Fowl. Feathers
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  McGraw, the penguin, escapes from the zoo and causes trouble he actually frames Wallace for
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  some heists and starts causing all kinds of trouble and Wallace and Gromit have to solve
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  it in their amusing way. They do feel like British cousins of the Muppets in terms of their
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  spirit and their delight and their animations and I love them so much if you are a Wallace
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  and Gromit fan don't sleep on Vengeance Most Fowl it's pretty great. well worth a look. I don't
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  have any Wallace and Gromit movies but it feels like a Burgle Bros has an amusing
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  similar tone
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  that would fit playing alongside Wallace and Gromit so I'll say Burgle Bros is what you
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  should watch [sic] if you are going to watch something. All right I'm just about out of time but I
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  have two quick quick movies I want to talk about more. I won't talk about games in connection
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  with these or maybe I will we'll see. One of them is Boy Kills World -- this is another revenge
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  tale. The qualities about it it's a really fun action movie with really great fight sequences
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  it stars Bill SKarsgard and the part that makes it amazing is the Bill SKarsgard plays it
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  as a mute who has had his tongue cut out and instead he has an internal monologue voiced
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  by H. Jon Benjamin who is the voice of Archer and it is perfect casting it is so funny
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  and so enjoyable it's one of the best action movies I've seen in a while. really amusing. I mean
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  it's really dumb but very fun, great action sequences, good elaborate imagery. it's sort of the
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  world of the movie sort of reminds me of Repo A Genetic Opera, the sort of like crazy royalty
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  and almost Japanese video game style characters wrapped up in a really amusing story. so worth
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  checking out if you get chance that's boy kills world. and finally I watched the Duke which falls
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  into the category of lighthearted British tale about an amusing eccentric person who does
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  something great. I've seen a number of these movies I've reviewed them on the podcast here
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  and this is another one that I love. Jim Broadbent plays a guy who is tired of England revenue
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  and he wants to make a difference in the world and he doesn't like the TV license rule he
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  doesn't like that you should have to pay for a license for your TV and he's trying to make
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  a name for himself so he steals a painting from the British Museum of the Archduke Ferdinand
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  or Duke Charles or some famous painting of a Duke that was worth a lot of money in the day.
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  He steals it and keeps it for several months and then finally he goes and turns it back in
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  when somebody is about to blackmail him for having stolen it. He turns it in and faces the
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  music--it's an amusing movie if you like the other ones like this that I've talked about the
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  Bank of Paul or whatever they that is this one is also going to fit that category it's
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  a delight. so if you have a chance to watch the Duke. well that's about it for movies I watched in January
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  I'd love to know what you watched head over to board game geek guild 3269 and share your
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  viewing habits there I'd love to hear them. thanks for joining me on the walk today I
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  hope your next walk is as pleasant as mine was.
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  [MUSIC]