From the Dungeons of Morningstar, I'm Clint.
And I'm Stretch. And this is Prevailing Strange.
Welcome back to this week's Week in Review, a
segment of Prevailing Strange where Clint and
I get to share our thoughts on some of the content
that we've checked out this week. I can pretty
much guarantee that Clint has checked out more
than I have. So hit me, buddy. You say that like
it's a negative thing, like all I do is watch
TV. Well, I'm a busy man, so, you know, not all
of us are. So I can't even keep a straight face.
What have you watched? Well, today I watched
the Fantastic Four trailer and at the end of
it there's an alarm that goes off and if they
just turned around they would have seen what
the fuck with the alarm was. Matt Shackman, you
should know better than that, buddy. You've been
around, you should know. Blip, blip, blip. They
didn't even know that that's where it was coming
from. They heard the sonic boom coming through.
So if they just waited, if they saved 35 cents
on that text to let them know that there was
something coming in. They could have saved at
least $1 .40 on that. Okay, this is not Rant
and Sundry. This is our week in review. I just
reviewed a trailer that was shit. Actually, the
trailer was pretty good, but that was bullshit.
Do you want me to go first? No. Because I watched
something this week. What did you watch? I went
to the movies with the kids. You told me about
this. And I watched How to Train Your Dragon,
and it was actually pretty good. Let me guess
what happens. It's exactly the same. I thought
it would be. There's a few extra little bits.
Like what? Some of the scenes are more extended,
more kind of. So I felt like the comedy fell
short a little bit in places compared to the
original animated show, movie. Okay. Have you
ever watched it? Yeah. Did you enjoy it? Loved
it. Okay. So the comedy falls short a little
bit and I think it's less slapstick. Especially
between Roughnut and Toughnut. Yeah. But, you
know, there was kind of things constraining that
because it's not animated. But the dragons look
fucking sick in this. And the emotional beats
hit harder. This is where I run into an issue.
If it's basically shot for shot the exact same.
Basically. You're not doing anything revolutionary.
No. Legitimately, you're not a writer. You're
not a director. You're a copy -paster. I get
that. You basically watch something and go, ooh,
I'll do it with technology and actors. I think
if you changed up the, yeah, made all the money.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Man, people are raving about
it. Of course it's going to be good. But see,
that's the problem, man. You remake these things,
you're going to have the people that say, oh,
you changed it, rah, rah, rah. Yeah. And then
you've got the people that, oh, it's just the
same thing, rah, rah. It's a slight upgrade.
Yeah, it's like going from VHS to 4K. Basically.
But, like, the dragons look way more formidable.
They're cartoony in the original thing. It seemed
to have more gravitas. It's more impactful. It's
well worth checking out, in my opinion. I'm going
to watch it because Logan loves it. Yeah. But
I just, how cool would it have been, right? So
the original How to Train Your Dragon came out
2007. Yeah. So if it came out in 2007, say you
were five years old, you're over 18 now. Yeah.
Let's get dark. It is darker. Yeah, but when
he loses his limb, is it like a Quentin Tarantino
losing a limb? Is it like Toxic Avenger losing
a limb? No. No. It's basically the same, but
I don't know. Oh, I'm going to watch it regardless
because, let's face it, the animated ones would
fucking kick ass. Yeah. They were sick. I'll
watch the other two if they remake them. Well,
they are. They've already. Okay. They've already
greenlit the second and third one because this
one was just a stark raving success anyway. It's
funny because Toothless basically looks exactly
the same. It's the other dragons. Well, they
actually released images of when they were going
to make it more realistic and they showed pictures
of Toothless and he didn't look, yeah, he looked
more real, but it didn't look nowhere near as.
See, this is the thing where we're saying, oh,
you should change it. You shouldn't change it.
You should change it. You shouldn't change it.
It didn't look aesthetically pleasing as well.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Toothless has all this kind
of emotion that it portrays through its facial
features. If they try to make it more realistic,
like that stupid smile that he pulls off to begin
with. Even when the shapes of his pupils change.
Oh, they go square and then they go the elliptical
cat's eye look. Yeah. That changes and it changes
the whole tone of that scene. It goes from feral
cat to puppy to kind of. Yeah. I'm going to watch
it regardless. So, yeah. But like I said, they're
not reinventing the wheel with that one. No.
They had me. It's probably for a whole other
generation, like a whole new generation of kids.
Yeah, I guess. And I guess it's now it's parents
taking their kids and going, oh, I watched this
when I was your age sort of thing. Yeah. Now
I get it. All right. I'm going to start. Is that
all you've watched this week? That's all I've
watched. We have a podcast, mate. I've listened
to two books this week. What were they? You want
me to go first? Yeah. And so the Red Rising series,
have you ever heard of it? No. It's pretty popular
at the moment. Pierce Brown. Sounds Russian.
No, so it's basically we've started colonising
the solar system. Red kind of alludes to Mars
and the human race has kind of gone past the
point that we're at at the moment and everyone's
in kind of like a colour -coded class. Right,
okay. So there's like reds are worker class.
Isn't it amazing that the further we go into
the future, the more the classes are going to
be divided? Exaggerated, yeah, divided. Yeah,
there's like violets are the artistics. There's
blues are like the technological. And there's
the golds who rule over everyone kind of. We're
going to be golds. Yeah, it's pretty much red
rising. So lower classes, Mars kind of rising.
Right, okay. Yeah. See, and that's the thing.
The class differentiation is like even in time
with Justin Timberlake. And then even in Star
Trek, dude, their classes are all different coloured
shirts. If you're a red shirt, you're dead. Always.
You sign up for that. Fodder. Yeah, you're fodder.
Yeah. I might like the sound of that. The opening
act. Had me feeling things that I didn't want
to feel in a workshop full of men. Shit, yes.
Oh, yeah. It was pretty heavy. But then kind
of in the middle of the first book, Red Rising,
bogged down a little bit. It was very Hunger
Games -esque, which isn't, I don't fuck with
that trope, the whole kind of battle school type
shit. Yep. But in the end, it fucking came back
pretty good. I'll finish the second one today.
and it steps away from that whole kind of thing.
It didn't just continue to do the Hunger Games
thing. Yeah. How many books are out of it so
far? I believe there's five. Okay. Yeah. You're
a late bloomer. Yeah. How did you find out about
it? Books are sick book club. Books are sick.
Mm -hmm. I like it. Yeah. In the future or? Yeah.
Very sci -fi or not really sci -fi? Very sci
-fi. My wheelhouse. Yeah, they've got, like,
body mods and fucking futuristic armour and,
yeah, it's pretty cool. All right, I dig that.
I think I might give that a go. Red Rising. It's
a graphic audio production. Nice. So it has,
like, so the opening kind of scene, they're very
kind of the people's culture, very musical. They
dance and stuff like that. Very swelling, emotional
songs and shit. I think that's probably what
hit pretty hard in the beginning. So they sing
these songs in this graphic audio where if you
just read the book, it probably wouldn't hit
as hard. Again, yeah. Yeah, it's quite good.
Full cast. Nice. Sensational. I'm going to give
that a roll. And what's the other book? Or was
that just them two? So Red Rising is the first
one. Golden Sun is the second one. That's the
ones I've checked out so far. Yep. After that,
there's Iron Gold, Morningstar. Hell yeah. I'm
pretty sure it's Morningstar, and then there's
another one. I can't remember the name of it.
Morningstar, Morningwood. Either way, you're
coming out with the winner. Yeah, dude, I'll
give that a raise. Okay, so I've – mate, are
you ready? I'm ready. I've watched some shit.
Hit me. So we've seen two Peter Dinklage trailers
today. Yeah. I watched a movie with him in it
this week called The Knights of Bad Aston. Knights
of Bad Aston. It's old. Who else is in that?
It's got Steve Zahn, and it's got the bloke out
of True Blood that was on his Ryan Kwan. He was
in Home and Away as well, an Australian movie.
So it's that, but they're LARPers. So our mate's
going through a breakup and he's a fucking black
metal, he's in a black metal band. Yeah. So him
and his mates, Steve Zahn and Peter Dinklage,
they all live in a castle and they're LARPers.
And they're like, we're going to LARP, man. He's
like, just broken up with his missus. He's like,
I don't want to go on the LARP. I'm like, no,
you'll come with the LARP. And they drug him
and put him to sleep and they chucked him in
the van. They take him to this LARP and then
he starts getting into it. It's got – For people
who don't know what LARP means. Live action role
play. And it's just – look, honestly, if you
want to just brain check just a great movie that's
funny as shit and entertaining from start to
finish, it's one for you. Honestly, I love Peter
Dinklage in it. He's just – A bloke that runs
around in knight's clothing, tripping balls and
mushrooms the entire time. Oh, I think I've seen
bits of it. If you haven't seen it, I'm going
to kick you square in the dick. I haven't seen
it. Because it hits every one of your beats.
It's got music in it. It's got Peter Dinklage
in it. And it's laughing. For the record, I don't
laugh. We should. No, it's a bit too much for
me. No way. No. We need to LARP one day. Yeah,
I want to do some LARPing. But it's like a day
in this LARP where they've got to go and do set
tasks and there's things that – but there's a
book that he's bought and he thinks it's just
an artifact for the LARP, but it's actually a
real artifact and he conjures a demon, a real
demon. Okay. And it's just hilarious. Right.
So, yeah, I give that a four and a half out of
five stars. It's that good. It's just check your
brain at the door, eat some popcorn, get a hands
-on. That's great. Is that a four and a half
stars on a comedy rating or is that on a four
and a half stars against Interstellar as well?
No, no, no. That's not. You're being subjective.
Yeah, we're going to have the Interstellar scale,
okay? This isn't on the Interstellar scale. This
is just on the. Comedy movie scale. Yeah. On
the movie scale, not the interstellar scale.
Yeah, okay. I will, if there's ever something
that comes up that gets on the interstellar level,
then I'll compare. Right. As for now, Knights
of Bad Aston, give it a watch. Another movie
that I finished this morning, which you told
me that I needed to watch, was Vampire Hunter
D Bloodlust. Oh, yeah. If that's what anime was
animated like. you'd sign me up in a day. It
was good. I enjoyed it. I liked the characters.
I liked that not everybody looked the same. I
liked that. Very stylistic. Very, dude. You know,
I loved how wide the characters were and just
it was visually appealing as well as the story
and it was great. That troop. Yes, dude. Oh,
mate, they can project old love with a gun. Yeah,
no, very cool cast of characters. I liked it.
And I liked that there wasn't – I didn't have
to watch seven seasons of something to understand
it. It was really good. I enjoyed it. So I give
that three stars. It was fun. I enjoyed it. I
probably will watch more of Vampire Hunter D.
It's the only one I've ever watched. Because
I've heard the other ones kind of aren't as good.
Right, okay. But that vibe in that movie was
sensational. I enjoyed it. I really did enjoy
it. Another movie I watched this week, Mickey
17. Ooh. Yeah, I haven't watched it yet. The
trailer looked funny. It's not funny. It looked
like a comedy. It was fucking sad, dude. Oh,
no. It was existential crises up in this bitch.
Yeah? There was tears. Oh, man, they did not
allude to that at all. I mean, like, okay, this
whole, that whole subject of cloning yourself,
reprinting yourself type of thing, that does
very much lend to that. Yeah. It was some parts
of that movie were freaking heart -wrenching,
dude. Would you call it a dark comedy because
it was dark but it's got comedy elements to it?
There wasn't any comedy in it. I don't think
I laughed once in it. Right, so they just cut
the trailer to make it look funny. It was horrendous.
Oh, no. Dude, Robert Pattinson, again, fucking
wow. Yeah. He knocked it out of the park. Every
single one of his roles you watch, completely
different to the next. Yeah, he just gets better
every time too. But he plays multiple versions
of his own character in this movie. Each version
is printed slightly different. Very Jamie Madrox.
Yeah. So the two that have survived, Mickey 17
and Mickey 18, they coexist for a time. But you
can tell just by the look on his face which one's
17 and 18. Right. And he's got a love interest
in it. Who knows what he does? He's called an
expendable in the movie. And it was. Completely
out of necessity that he did it. The whole he
was on earth and him and his mate had a bad business
plan, making macarons. So they went to a loan
shark for all the money. The shop went under.
His partner, who is Glenn from The Walking Dead,
put everything in Mickey's name. So they're like,
fuck, what are we going to do? How are we going
to do this? We've got to get off planet. So they
get on a ship and he's like, oh, the only job
they're fully going to accept because no one
signs up for it is an expendable. Now, an expendable,
you sign up and then you have no rights. Basically,
they will use you for medical testing. If there's
some sort of shielding that he's going awry,
they will test it on you. So there's a lot of
time there just watching him die painfully, dude.
And it's sad as shit. It's heartbreaking. Like
they just say, oh, it's closing down, it's closing
down. He's like, get me out, get me out. And
they're like, no, no, we're going to leave you
there because we're going to learn some shit.
So he's just getting tortured for 70 % of this
movie. It's just Robert Pattinson getting tortured
in different ways. Okay. So what's the continuation
of his consciousness? Does he remember the last
death? If he survives longer than 24 hours, they
back up his memory. So at the end of every working
shift, they back up his memory. But there's times
there where there's one of them where he's like,
oh, everyone's cheering around him. They're like,
oh, you're going to be the shortest living Mickey.
Woo. He lives for 15 minutes. So, no, he's not
going to remember that. Yeah. But he's experiencing
all that pain, all that anguish, all that sadness
for the 15 minutes. And you watch it with him.
Yeah. Heartbreaking. Disgustingly heartbreaking.
It's not funny. It's not a good time. I was stoned
when I was watching it, so I got uber emotional.
Heartbreaking, dude. Just great movie, though.
Good movie. Beautiful movie. Well shot. The sets
are incredible. And Robert Pattinson just knocks
it out of the park. Supporting cast is great.
His partner, I'm pretty sure she was in The Umbrella
Academy, knocks it out of the park. Great. Good
movie. I would watch it. Will I watch it again?
I'm still going to watch it again. Will I watch
it again? Not right now. Give me some time. Another
movie I'll watch this week, Sinners. Oh, yeah?
Mm -hmm. You can tell it's a love letter to black
culture. Mm -hmm. It's, you know, Mississippi
during the prohibition. The prohibition is just
breaking. You know, they've got people that are
importing Irish beer and the two twins are gangsters.
They've been in Chicago for a time but now they've
come home. They've stolen a heap of liquor from
a bar down there that they worked for and they're
bringing it home to start their own little club,
their own little speakeasy. And whilst they're
organising this thing, it's essentially a day
in the life of these twins. Right. And there's
a part in it where right at the end there's one
survivor and he says to another, up until that
time it was the perfect day. And the other fella
goes, yes, we were finally free. And it fucking
just hits it, dude. That's the last line in the
movie. Yep. And it's like, holy shit, dude. I'm
getting emotional now thinking about it. I can
see you cracking. Dude, I'm cracking. And it's
like the worst part of my day at the moment,
the worst part of my day is having to wake up
and go to work. These fucking ball cunts, dude,
had nothing. Oh, yeah. Had nothing. They had
music. They had food. And Ryan Coogler just knocks
it out of the park. Beautiful movie. Beautifully
cast, dude. Everybody does their job in this
movie. The music in it, sensational. The way
it's filmed, perfect. The White Devil. The villain
in it is a white fella. You're like, all right.
I get it. But, dude, everybody does their job.
And I was sitting there and I'm like, I'm sitting
there trying to pick, you know, trying to pick
where it was a double and where it wasn't a double.
You can't pick, dude. Okay. It's so well done.
No. But, you know, it's just – and they're –
You know, the two blokes that have come back
and they're trying to get rid of all this liquor
and get rich, but they also want to give their
people somewhere to go that isn't run by the
white folk. So they're there and, you know, there's
even a scene where they're just trying to sell
their beer over the bar and everyone's like,
oh, beer, we haven't had beer here for years.
Oh, my God, beer, let me buy some beer. They're
like, yeah, no worries, you know, 17 cents. And
they're ponying up plantation dollars. And like,
we don't want to accept that. We want American
dollars. And they're like, mate, I'm sorry, but
that's all we get paid. Yeah. So even when you're
off the plantation, you still couldn't buy shit.
You had to buy from the plantation with the plantation
dollars. So it's just, it is a massive love letter
to black culture. It's just, he's already signed
on for another one, I think. Yeah, okay. But
I can tell, you can see in it the amount of love
that he's put in it. And you can really, really,
really, really see why he said what he said.
Like he said to the studio, you can have this.
You can sell this. I'll make money from it. But
in 20 years, I will get that back. So that's
going to go to his kids. So everything gets brought
back to him. And you can tell why. It's basically
him going, here's my heart, here's what I want
to tell, here's the story I want to tell, and
he told it to perfection. And the fact that it's
vampires, man, just makes it that much better.
What's the vampire lore like in it? Is it different?
You don't hear much. At the start, there's a
Native American tribe and they're telling their
story around a fire and they're like, this happened,
this happened, that happened. And then you...
meet a bunch of vampire hunters that are Native
American and they come to this house and they're
like, have you got someone here that goes under,
that looks like this? He's not who he pretends
to be. And they're like, oh, you need to get
out of here. Get out of here. And they're like,
okay, we tried to warn you. And they leave. That's
the last you see the vampire hunters. Yeah, okay.
And then the rest is just, yeah. See, I think
that's really, that's excellent world building.
introducing little facets of like everybody knows
that's watching or most people know about vampire,
vampire lore, that kind of stuff. Just to touch
on little aspects of it. Yeah. Hint and then
let it go. Obviously they're part of a bigger
world. Yeah. This is just this corner. Don't
hang on to it. Don't sort of bang on about it
all the time. And one of the things I like too
is then you've got obviously. The oblivious characters.
Yeah. Because that drives me up the wall when,
you know, all of a sudden the characters just
seem to know how to take care of a vampire and
all that kind of stuff. It's good when they're
oblivious where it's actually happening to them
for the first time. Yeah. I think that's cool.
You know, you see, so one of the main characters,
he's the son of a preacher. And, you know, you
see a bit of that and he's like, oh, you know.
Rock and roll music's the devil, blah, blah,
blah, blah. He's like, well, that's what I want
to do with my life. I want to play blues. I want
to play rock and roll. So he's got this guitar.
And this guitar, he tells his cousins, which
are the twins, telling this story that that guitar
belonged to a world -famous guitarist. And he
owed us money, and we gave it to you. They're
a very feared pair of gangsters. And, you know,
that's the story. And it's like, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. a story to why he's got the
guitar. But the thing that gets even better is
there's another story about the guitar later
on that you find out about. And it's, at the
start, it's a flash forward to the next day.
So it's one of the lead characters walking in
and he's got this guitar neck that's been snapped
and it's got a point on it covered in blood.
So he's been using that to stay. Because he's
covered in blood. He's got massive marks on his
face. And then his dad's like, put down the guitar,
son. Because he walks into the church and he's
like, put down the guitar. We'll absolve you
of all your sins. And you're just seeing grip
that guitar just that little bit tighter. And
then it moves into the story. You're like, okay,
so there's more about the guitar. And they don't
just leave that hanging. They explain why he
gripped the guitar tighter. It's shit like that
that make him a great storyteller, dude. Yeah,
nice. And I thoroughly recommend it 100%. Anybody,
watch Sinners. Will do. It was good. And an old
one, a movie that's as old as me, one of James
Cameron's OGs, The Abyss. Oh, yeah, I haven't
seen that for a minute. Dude. So still good?
Still good, man. Yeah, nice. Still great. Still
well acted. Still beautifully shot. The special
effects, dude, still hold up. And it's 1983,
I think. Still holds up. Still beautiful. Still
incredible. The aliens in it are still one of
my favourite iterations of an alien. The spaceships,
beautiful, gorgeous. And the scale, and it just
hits all the right notes. The thing that I can't
believe in it, though, that wasn't a fart, by
the way. The thing that I can't believe in it,
though, Ed Harris is 32 years old in that movie.
Yeah, right. He looks 50. That's pretty funny.
Oh, yeah. But, yeah, I think that's all I've
got for you in this week in review, my dear friend.
Okay. That's it for our week in review. Thanks
for joining us, guys. Like, comment, subscribe,
do all the things, ask questions, tell us what
you want to hear, and we'll see you next time.
Love, Peace, Chicken grease.