You know what that sound means? It's a brand
new year and it's a new episode of Game for a
Movie, episode 27. Happy New Year, guys. Yeah,
happy 2021. Off to a great start. Off to a great
start. I've been trying to, like, temper my expectations
going into this. I posted a bunch of memes on
our Twitter and stuff to try to, like, hey, just
a reminder, 2021 is the year of Mad Max. Like,
don't get too ahead of yourselves. And then things
happened. But we won't talk about that. All of
my YouTubers who are, like, inspirational are,
like, 2021 is going to be a fresh start. Clean
slate. Great things lie ahead. Lies. Try to temper
my expectations. It's not lies. It's just too
high of optimism for, you know. It's a shrug.
It's a shrug. I just don't, I don't get people
that think that 2021 was going to be so much
better when we're still in a pandemic. Like,
we know this year started and we knew it was
not going to be. Their jobs are meant, are. inspirational
YouTubers, so they can't just break out the doom
and gloom umbrella and be like, yep, it's a reign
of sorrow. Nope, that's our job. You gotta keep
your brand. That's our job, apparently. We can't
be inspirational. We gotta be doom and gloom.
I am your host, Mike Butank. I am joined by...
It's Jill. Andre. And Mitchell. Ah, yes. You
guys are virtual. I'm all alone here. I miss
you guys. I miss you too. I miss you too. Hey,
congrats on the half marathon, by the way. Thanks,
guys. Thank you. I'm literally trying to get
downstairs. Took all of my energy that I had
left, which was zero. I could breathe on you
and you'd fall over. The dog jumped on me and
I almost fell. You know, I'm extremely proud
of it, but I'm also very glad it's done. Shout
out to Nick DePace, who already invited me to
the Hartford Marathon. Whoa. When is that scheduled?
October. Okay. Do it. This is not the right day
to ask me. I'll help train me with you for that
one, if somehow, because I really want to get
back into running once the weather is... consistently
above 45 degrees. I'm happy to train with you,
but once I realized that today's run would be
like a practice for that, yeah, I'm probably
not going to jump on that. But I've earned this
beer. I'm sure you guys have earned your drinks
as well. We'll start with Jill again. Jill, what
are you drinking? So I'm going to be switching
off, but currently I am drinking a Dogfish Head
Campfire Amplifier. It is a stout with probably
a shot and a half of Screwball peanut butter
whiskey. I've been working on this since 2 o
'clock. And then my follow -up is a classic Down
East double blend. Shout -out to Down East. I
love you. Nice. Dre, what are you drinking over
there? I made myself a Moscow beer. That's your
favorite. Yeah, you know, with a shot of Esplante
Keto. and some ginger beer. Mexico meal, whatever
they call it. A riff on a Moscow meal. That's
what I got. There you go. I love it. I gotta
say, you were gone for a while when we first
started talking before we started recording.
We were all wondering where you were. We were
going to play Where's T -Dog with Where's Andre.
The world is Andre San Diego. I love it. Mitchell,
what do you got over there? I didn't quite earn
the beer that you got, Mike, with 13 .1 miles.
Hey, you still earned it, buddy. Yeah, what I'm
enjoying right now is a nice old -fashioned with
George Dickel Tennessee whiskey in the mix. Got
some bitters in there. Kelly's parents got me
a nice little cocktail set up so I can make my
own cocktails with all the products. Yeah, so
it's been good. I'm going to start with this,
and then I'm going to finish things off with
the Blue Moon, knowing how long these recordings
tend to be. I'm here for it. Steven Orange sliced
for that Blue Moon. Um, yeah, because I used
some orange slice here as well. Yeah, it's good
to get the peel and the garnish in the drink,
so that's what you need. Andre, we've added another
to the cocktail off whenever we do another cocktail
off. Yes, I have plans for this cocktail off.
Oh. Secret, not secret, I have an idea for a
game for a movie thing that involves a murder
mystery party set in 1920 Chicago. It's got Italian
food and outfits, and I want this to happen so
badly. Yes, it will happen. That sounds amazing.
My beer is Pug. It's a New England IPA from Reverie
Brewing. It's where I host trivia on Wednesday
nights. Highly suggest it if you're anywhere
in the area. Please come on out. I host outside,
so at the very least you can watch me freeze
to death. But yeah, it's a good time. all involved.
So that will bring us to our movies. But actually,
I wanted to introduce the new segment before
we get started. Jill and Andre already know about
it. I'm going to throw Mitchell under the bus
here because we didn't bring it up. So I am doing
something with my hair that's different. Claire
and I have been, we watched a movie like two
months ago. I'll give you guys the full look.
You guys can see everything. We're playing Mike's
Mane. You have to guess the movie. You have to
guess the movie I am trying to model my hair
after one of the characters in it. But I can
tell you that Claire and I watched this a couple
months ago. So I will lift off my headphones.
I will show you. It's still early. But here is
my hair. So you can kind of guess. Look, I'm
going to sound like an asshole, but I'm going
to say Kris Kringle from... I'm going to say
that is not the winner. I know at least one person
has seen this. I'm pretty confident all three
of you have, but I don't want to ask you because
I don't want to give it away, obviously. Is it
like a punchable character? Wow, you have a comfortable
face, Mike. Like, what did I do to you? Nothing.
But I'm trying to, like, suss out some clues.
I can see that. Am I rooting for them like Rudy
from the movie Rudy? I would say you're rooting
for them. I'm not going to give you many hints,
but I would say you're rooting for them. Like
Rudy from Rudy. And we're going to play this
game until either I get bored or somebody guesses
it. You get one guess a week. One guess a week?
Yep. So we're going to continue this particular
look? Each of you get one, yeah. Okay. And I
can tell you it's still early. Like I said, it's
still early. I haven't done a whole lot. So it's
still early in the process. And it came out in
2020, this movie? I did not say that ever. There's
so many movies that you could be... There's a
lot. ...lampooning. Yeah. So it's just a character
from a movie, and that's it? You just gotta name
the movie. That's it. You don't even need to
name the character. If you can guess the character,
I'll give you a bonus point, but honestly, if
you get the movie, that's the winner. And what
does the points go towards? The points don't
matter. Okay. No, Price is right. Or, whose line
is it anyway? Price is right. Who knows? Maybe
it makes the other two see a bad movie. Are we
trying to be like a Domohill Gleeson character
because of the hair color? I don't know. I got
nothing. You got nothing? No movies? No guesses?
Is your hair color accurate to the actor that
you're trying to portray? Not terribly. Okay.
Got it. That's good to know, so I'll just...
play with different hues of color. I don't know
if that's really going to help you much, because
most of the people in movies have different color
hair than me. Oh, that's true. That's true. It
would have almost helped you the other way. I'm
going to say Batflick. Really? It is not Batflick.
Doesn't Batman have a beard in Justice League?
Not like this, though. The facial hair is part
of it. The facial hair is a part of it. I have
been trying to keep that... The facial hair is
close. The rest of it is not. Well, I'm disappointed
we're not going mutton chops. Yeah, mutton chops
would have been fun. I gave my guess. Batflick.
Batflick doesn't have that beard. No, he does
not have a beard. I've only seen him in Justice
League. I have not had the pleasure or interest
to watch Batman v Superman. Probably stick it
that way. Yeah, you can spare yourself some time.
Andre, do you have a guess? Two hours, pretty
bad. productive, but I cannot for the life of
me because I have basically nothing to go off
of. It's basically your hair slightly grown out.
It's a weird game. This is why I wanted to do
it, because I like it. You're not... I'm just
going to throw it out there just to eliminate
it. You're not trying to go for Thor from Dark
World specifically. That's my only guess. It's
not Thor from Dark World. Dark World Thor has
long hair. You gotta give Mike at least a month.
I can say that I started this two months ago
and my hair is pretty long for me. Yeah, the
reason I said Dark World because I'm pretty sure
that's when he has that level of beard in Thor
2, right? Maybe. Are you trying to do the fishtail?
Are you trying to do the endgame fishtail? Yeah,
no, maybe not. Thor has a beard in... You guessed
Thor Dark World. That is your guess. That's my
guess. I shot my shot. You shot your shot. So
we'll try again next time. But yeah. So now we'll
jump into movies. Jill, you're going to get us
started. All right. Well, I can tell you that
you're definitely not lampooning or mimicking
George Clooney's beard. For this podcast, I decided
to kind of go and lean towards my sci -fi leaning
side. And I decided to check out George Clooney's
newest film, The Midnight Sky. He directed this.
It came out in 2020. It's a Netflix original.
It is based on a novel called Good Morning Midnight
by Lily Brooks Dalton. Good Morning Midnight,
okay. Yeah, and it has a pretty good cast. It
has Felicity Jones, who I think is the name that
I recognize the most. Some other really great
actors, probably big in the UK. Yeah, British.
It was a decent middling two -hour ride. 118
minutes. I looked up a review after the fact,
and it did a pretty good job of essentially saying
this film wears its influences on its sleeves.
It tries and pulls a lot from films like Interstellar,
Gravity, The Martian, and a few others. I'll
do a quick summary. The world has ended. It's
2049. The world has ended. It's done. People
have left. There is, from what we know, one man
left in the world. George Clooney's character.
He's a scientist. Did you say 2021? 2049. 2021.
Got it. Okay. He's left on Earth. He's up in
the Arctic because the Arctic area is... They
figured out would be the last areas affected
by whatever caused the apocalypse. They never
really say, but it's heavily insinuated to probably
be nuclear because there's radiation levels.
And he realizes that there is a space mission
that's still active and it's on its way back
to Earth. So the real plot of the movie is him
trying to get in contact with the people on the
spaceship coming back from, I think it's Jupiter.
To tell them, don't come back here, there's nothing
here for you. And it's two stories, really. It's
him on Earth, he discovers a little girl, and
they decide to go to another base to contact
the spaceship, and then the people on the spaceship.
And the spaceship side of it is where you really
see the gravity and the interstellar. The Martian
influences is that it's like the last guy out
there. It oddly made me really want to re -watch
The Tree of Life. Even though the tree of life
is infinitely deeper than this movie even tries
to be. Interesting, okay. But it made me want
to watch it. And, you know, it's not his worst
film ever, but it's also by far not his best.
And it just, anyone I think who's going to watch
it is going to want to watch the films that inspired
it, particularly Interstellar and Gravity. And
I don't even like Gravity. I've seen it. It didn't
do anything for me. It's well acted. You care
about these characters. I don't want to spoil
the ending, but it's moving. Okay. My biggest,
besides the fact that it's not trying to hide
what inspired it, my biggest complaint is that
the movie just kind of ends. You kind of get
a reveal, but you kind of guessed that's where
it was going. And it just kind of stops. And
the closing credits... characters just doing
a thing. I don't want to spoil what it is, but
the credits roll silently as these characters
are doing some actions. And that's the movie.
It doesn't go out with a bang, but it doesn't
go out with a whimper. It just kind of goes out
and they lived. How long was the movie you said
again? 118 minutes. And did you feel those 118
minutes? So you would say like slow burn kind
of? Yes, but then it's not because when you're
there in space, there has to naturally be some
tension. So something happens and they're like,
well, we have to go out and fix the ship. So
some characters go out and they do that. There's
a very bizarre moment where somebody blasts Sweet
Caroline and they sing Sweet Caroline. And there's
a character who's like, I don't know the song.
I don't know the song, and I'm like, are you
being sarcastic, or do you genuinely not know
this song in 2049? It would be a classic hit
at that point. I mean, that would be the first
song I think I would play out to space to aliens,
because nobody can resist going, bah, bah, bah.
Well, they've determined that there is no alien
life yet that humans have found. That's not really
a spoiler. I wish that this movie had leaned
more into the science, the way that the Martian...
does, which I highly recommend if you haven't
seen it, and I also highly recommend reading
the book. Or instead of leaning into the hard
sciences and explaining why all these things
are happening and how one could survive or not
survive, I wish they leaned on the other side
of the spectrum, harder towards the interstellar.
Give me that grand space opera rather than a
not quite deep meditation on... And they don't
really even do that. So, you know, it's middling.
It's not bad. It's not amazing. But it's by no
means a horrible film. I think we're in a weird
era for space movies because I'm a huge fan of
those as well, Joe. And the movies that immediately
come to mind for me of ones that are middling,
and I think for different reasons, but we have
Ad Astra, which was the Brad Pitt movie that
came out two years ago or a year and a half ago.
It's been a while. Which I haven't seen, and
the review that I read, which was from Roger
Eber, identified Ad Astra as another influence.
I didn't list that one because I have not seen
it. I was going to say, to your point, Mitchell,
because we were talking about this earlier, we
did see Ad Astra, and Midnight Sky really feels
a lot like it. And I have not seen it, I'm just,
based on the little bit I've seen of it, which
is like a trailer and a clip of it, it feels
very similar. Most of these space movies now,
and I appreciate what the artists are going for.
The other one that comes to mind is Robert Pattinson's
High Life, which was directed by Claire Denis,
very famous French director. Her whole thing
was, this isn't a movie so much about space as
much as it is about people in prison. And that's
ultimately what their spaceship was. It was these...
Criminals who are sent out into space to do tasks
because they shouldn't be on Earth. And this
is their punishment. This is them serving time.
So that was both interesting looks of what space
could mean. And then for Ad Astra, it was a father
or a son with daddy issues. You know, spoiler
alert. But it's very interesting how high art
has been brought into this. And this is a departure
from the Martian and Interstellar, it sounds
like. So, yeah, very interesting. Yeah, if anything,
I wish that this movie had picked an area to
lean in. So either the meditation of the existence
of life, the deeper introspection on space and
what is out there or not out there, or just the
characters. And unfortunately, it didn't really
pick a direction. It decided to just kind of
stay in the middle. And I love a good highbrow.
I don't understand exactly what I'm watching,
but I'm going to watch it. The Fountain is one
of my favorite movies of all time. I saw that
movie with my dad in theaters. We still talk
about what exactly did we see? What is that movie
trying to say? This movie's not really saying
anything, which is unfortunate. It is very pretty.
It's shot wonderfully. And, I mean, George Clooney
is, you know, with many talents and he directed
it and I think he did a very good job with the
direction but it just wasn't I wanted more and
it to the film's credit it never tried to suggest
it was going to give me more than what it was
giving so with that in mind I'd give it I hate
to do this I'm going to do like the weird not
official you know not a full score but I'll give
it a 2 .8 2 .8 okay 2 .8 out of what though?
2 .8. Let's see. There's a lot of things in this
one. 2 .8 Sweet Carolines out of 5. Oh, Sweet
Carolines. Oh, my gosh. It was a moment where
I'm like, this is happening. All right, they're
doing this. I will say something that very distracted
me, and it's not this movie's fault, is that
the main male character from Godzilla, King of
Monsters, was in it. And I was just like, oh,
my God, Ghidorah's going to come down. I'm ready.
I'm ready. Yeah, if all of a sudden Godzilla's
in it. Or Mothra just flapped by in space. Make
it a kaiju movie in space. I'm down for that.
Yeah, that'd be awesome. Okay, I guess I go next.
I watched a Netflix documentary called The Speedcubers.
It takes place all at the World National Tournament
for Rubik's Cube Solving. and it follows two
people Max and Felix what's cool about this is
the premise of it it doesn't go in like making
it hey you're cheering for one or the other obviously
but it follows these two so Felix is from Australia
Max is from USA Max is autistic and it dives
into 20 minutes of it probably is all about his
autism and like the, how he got to be a Rubik's
cube solver. Dude solves a Rubik's cube in six
seconds. Like he is insane. Uh, so is Felix.
Felix has always been in the light about, uh,
Rubik's cube solving. So when he was like a kid,
he came on the equivalent of the tonight show
and just went boom, here's the cube, you know,
like that kind of stuff. And this was like when
he was a kid. So he's been in this life forever.
They each constantly break each other's records.
They each constantly are, like, competing against
each other at World Nationals. Felix, what I
like about his story is he is now 17 or 18. I
don't really remember which of them. And he is
living on his own and trying to, like, find life
past cubing, which, like, there's no real money
in it. And what he's dealing with that they go
into is usually at this point you become less
of a cuber because there's girls, there's jobs,
there's schoolwork. All this stuff gets in the
way so you're not as practicing as much. But
what also is cool is they go into the relationship
between Max and Felix. So the tournament is in
Australia. Max flies with his family. Felix is
like, this might be my last tournament. I really
want to give it my all. But at the same time,
they go to dinner together. They go to karaoke
bars together. Max is obviously infatuated with
Felix and like has so much respect for him. So
when there was a point where Felix was about
to go on and like Max is just like, I hope he
does well, I hope he does well, like that kind
of stuff. And it's really cool because they're
competitors, but they have this respect for each
other, this friendship together. It's a very
cool film. It's 40 minutes. It's quick, breezy.
It doesn't overstay its welcome. It doesn't understay
its welcome. I actually really love this film.
It's also very cool to see somebody who is autistic.
at the top of their field like this. Um, it's
a very cool perspective because everybody knows
who Max is. Everybody cheers for Max, but at
the same time, like wants to compete with him.
But Max is just so freaking good at it. Even
like when, uh, so they basically like show it
to you on like a dinner plate, you know, and
they remove the plate and then you get to look
at it once, put it down, start the clock, go,
go, go, go, clock down, that kind of stuff. Um,
and, You get three times to solve a cube, and
then they take your average, and then that's
your final score is your average score. It's
just a very cool movie. It is so well done because
it all takes place at one thing. So it's not
like they've been waiting for this tournament.
They knew they were going to this tournament,
so the results are what the results are. But
one of the coolest moments, I think, of this
movie, is Max and Felix are backstage waiting
on the results. They know that Max has won something.
There's so many events that it's not the... I
won't go into details about which one it is.
This is one of the events. They know he's won.
So they call his name, and Felix just grabs him
and is like, Max, that's you! Get out of his
way! Here he comes! And he's leading him to the
stage and that kind of stuff. And it's such a
cool moment to see because both of them are so
happy for each other. That's beautiful. Yeah,
it's a very cool moment. It sounds like a really
sweet movie. Yeah, it sounds awesome. Yeah, oh,
it's very cool. Like I said, it's 40 minutes.
It's well worth its time. And especially when
I was going to watch a different movie and decided
to change my mind. And that other movie was a
33 % on Rotten Tomatoes that I learned later.
Oh, you dodged a bullet. I dodged a bullet, yes.
And so it made it that much better for me. So,
I think this is my first time on the show. I
give it a 5 seconds out of 5 for Rubik's Cube.
Wow! I'll have to check it out. The only way
that I can add to this conversation is that what...
The way you discussed it kind of reminds me of
a handful of speedrunners that I'm familiar with
that I've said that are on the spectrum. And
I kind of just want to give a shout out to, there's
a charity stream going on actually right now
for the next couple of days called Awesome Games
Done Quick. And it's basically just an event
where... All of these well -known speedrunners
will just stream them trying to speedrun through
a game for charity, and they kind of just go
through their process and kind of talk a little
bit about their life story, etc. And these stories
you brought up about these two kids kind of just
reminded me of that, where I've kind of seen
that kind of development coming out of just these
kids that are insanely talented trying to hone
their craft on one specific very fine task. I
would say if you enjoyed that film, and I want
to check it out too, I would definitely say try
checking out a few speedrunners. For sure. Very
cool. For sure. No, that sounds awesome, really.
This is such a cool thing that I really enjoyed,
especially because we don't see a lot of autistic
people in movies, TV shows, that kind of thing,
that get this kind of treatment. So it's something
that's very cool to me. discovering how he learned
to love his mom, how he learned to love the Rubik's
Cube, that kind of stuff, and his infatuation
with Felix. It's really cool to experience. That
will bring us to you, Andre. Oh, me? Yeah. Hey!
So, the movie I'm going to be talking about is
a film called Bad Education. It is a film starring
one Allison Janney and Hugh Jackman. I was going
to say, Hugh Jackman. It technically came out
in 2019, but it was released on streaming on
HBO, I think, back in April 2020. And so this
is kind of a dramatization based on a true story
of the largest embezzlement scheme of a public
school system in American history. It happened
in Roslyn High in Long Island back in 2002. And
it's kind of funny because Jill and I watched
this together, and Jill grew up in Long Island.
You didn't go to Roslyn, obviously, but you were
very familiar with the story, and I was not going
into this. I had never heard it before. It sounded
like it made waves in the tri -state area. I
wasn't super familiar with what happened here
in this movie. Okay. It actually just occurred
to me. It happened in 2003, 2003. Okay. Yeah,
it was a year off. But yeah, early 2000s. But
basically, it sounds like, upon further research,
that this is very much... The screenwriter, I
believe this came about because the screenwriter
for this went to the Roslin school system in,
I think he was in middle school at the time that
this happened. So he met the, but anyway, so
I'll get into it. It's definitely dramatization.
It doesn't sound like it's very like super factual,
but I mean, that doesn't mean that it's not compelling
at all. It's a really fascinating character study.
And basically the high -level concept is that
superintendent and the assistant superintendent
are basically, like, over a series of years and
years and years, are just kind of chipping away
at a school's budget and just kind of pocketing
it secretly. And so Hugh Jackman plays the superintendent,
Dr. Frank DeSone, and Allison Janney plays the
assistant superintendent, Pam Cluckin. And it's
really fun to watch. These two leads are just
super great. They really steal all the scenes.
I don't want to spoil it too much because I feel
like this movie kind of flew under the radar.
So I'll just kind of try to explain why I liked
it. Basically, Hugh Jackman is really good at
playing... Sociopath isn't the right word, but...
Frank Tassone, the film establishes him as a
really good superintendent. He establishes him
as a teacher, as an educator, that actually genuinely
cares about... the students um you see him kind
of going through him like he knows like every
single student he in his school district every
time like whenever he meets a parent he says
oh hey like your daughter's doing this like how's
that going like oh like you're like your son
he's playing trombone like is he is he doing
well like in band uh etc etc etc and you know
a lot of these parents a lot of teachers really
respond to that and you can tell you can see
how he's kind of cultivated sort of like a following
around himself. Everyone kind of trusts him.
Everyone kind of thinks that he's the go -to
guy. He's the reason that Roslyn High is the
number four school district in Long Island. And
the big goal is to try to get to number one.
And that's kind of how all this stuff kind of
flew under the radar where he and Pam were...
stealing money from off the top of the budget,
and their auditor just never checked on them
because they trusted both of them so much. Like,
oh, yeah, Pam and Frank, they're great. Like,
they know what they're doing. No reason to have
any oversight over them. And, you know, basically,
I won't go too deep into the narrative, but so
basically a plot is kind of Hugh Jackman's character
kind of having to deal with his whole entire
Ponzi scheme is kind of coming to light. And
he's trying to kind of control it and deal with
the fallout and trying to damage control it.
And the B plot is about Rachel, a student at
Roslyn High who's trying to work for the student
paper. And she's basically trying to – she's
slowly kind of uncovering something's not right
here, like the school budget isn't lining up.
And it's kind of following her plot and trying
to uncover what kind of fraud's going on and
how deep does it go. I would say definitely the
more compelling part is definitely the scenes
with Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney and them.
Like, they just absence to the show, where Jill
and I are watching West Wing right now, where
Allison Janney plays the president, C .J. Craig.
And it's just so funny to watch her play up this,
play up Pam Gluckin, who she just has, like,
the thickest Long Island accent she has. She's
all of her stolen money to buy a home in the
Hamptons. So it's just so funny to see her play
a different character than what she is in West
Wing. Um, but she really does bring it. And yeah,
I, I don't know. Uh, I can kind of ramble on
about this movie for a while, but, uh, just seeing
that what I really liked about this movie, like
I wouldn't go, I went in knowing that Hugh Jackman's
playing a character who's stolen a bunch of money.
But the really striking thing to me is that he
also is genuinely a proud educator who wants
to, wants the best for his students. He also
just wants the best for himself by stealing a
shitload of money. And you can definitely believe
how he, kind of capitulated with himself about
how much money he's been stealing over these
years. I think he ended up stealing around $2
.2 million from the school system over a series
of years, over like four or five years. And,
you know, you definitely, the movie kind of ends
up in a morally gray area where you're not sure,
where it's definitely condemnable behavior, but
also you can't really say that he didn't benefit
that school system greatly and he still, you
know, was somebody that genuinely cared about
the benefit, the fate of the students, rather.
Yeah. Let's see. I mean, honestly, I could talk
about this for a while, but I'm just going to
hear about, I'm going to give this movie 4 .3
accelerates out of 5. It's really good. I really
enjoyed this. I enjoyed watching this movie.
It was weird because, as Andre said, I remember
this happening, not closely, because I think...
We decided that when all of the events started
to go public, I would have been in sixth grade.
So I was old enough to be reading the local newspaper,
one of them, Newsday, which ran the story, but
definitely not old enough to really put all of
it together to realize the ramifications and
what this means. But I remember him, I remember
getting blown open, and I remember him getting
sentenced. And it was just kind of nice seeing
Long Island in a movie that... They actually
filmed most of it on Long Island. There were
parts of it where I'm like, oh, that's supposed
to be the Hamptons. And then later that got confirmed.
It's like, oh, that's the Hamptons. Yay! The
only thing, there's one thing that I don't think
is accurate. I am excusing you. It's not a five
out of five right here, Jill. Go on and take
it away. That was me knocking over my water bottle.
So there's a scene with the B -plot character,
Rachel, who's a junior at Roslyn High. She, as
Andre said, is doing a story. It's originally
started as a puff piece. She goes to interview
Frank. He encourages her to dig deeper because
it's only a puff piece if you make it a puff
piece. If you want to be a journalist, you got
to know how to find a story. So under his advice,
she starts digging and discovers all these things.
So she's starting to dig deeper, and she and
her dad share some pizza, and the pizza just
did not look accurate. That was not the pizza
of my Long Island piece. It looked wrong. And
maybe it was accurate to the area. I don't know.
As a pizza judger. As a pizza judger, no. That's
the lactose intolerant. individual is judging
what pizza looks like um but no it's a really
fantastic film and i highly recommend um giving
it a watch it's on hbo and yeah and what's interesting
is that you know there's i don't want to spoil
too much but like unfortunately pam got passed
away but some of this stuff is still important
to history so it's nice kind of seeing not post
-credit, but during the credits, they're saying,
like, what happened to the people? Where are
they now? And there are some things in there
that are really, like, eyebrow -raising. And
I agree with Andre that despite what he does,
and you could argue that it is almost sociopathic
because when things start to go south for the
plan, they first figure it out because they think
it's all Pam, and he doesn't say anything, and
then over the course of the film... Me and Andre
were saying, like, is he in on it? I don't know
if he's in. Like, did he know? Did he not know?
And then you find out, yeah, he did. He definitely
knew. Yeah, okay. He definitely knew, and he
was taking advantage of it. But, you know, every
time someone's like, we need to go, when more
and more of the story becomes real to the school
board, Ray Romano plays the head of the school
board. He's like, we need to go public. We need
to call the police. We need to call the FBI.
Frank Tassone is like, no, we need to wait until
the school budget passes. Because if the school
budget doesn't pass, then all of our hard work
is nothing. So he really did care about those
students, even though he also really cared about
himself. Yeah, and he'd also show that he's such
a good social manipulator, too. Like, immediately
was able to diffuse the situation. Oh, Frank's
our guy. Frank can figure all this out. He's
right. This is for the good of the school system.
Let's keep this quiet. Yeah. I also love the
fact that it's Ray Romano in there. Yeah. Great
casting choices all around here. And I think
I read that to study for the accent. Hugh Jackman
was like, this was one of the hardest accents
for me to pick up. Right, yeah. I wasn't paying
attention too close, Jill, but, I mean, Allison
Jane did a great job. Oh, God, it's just so Long
Island. But how did Hugh Jackman do in your...
Well, his character's supposed to be from Brooklyn,
so there's a lot of Brooklyn in there. It all
sounded very accurate, and, like, you know, Ray
Romano's the first voice you hear, so not only
is, like, yep, that's Ray, but it's, like, Ray
leaning into the New Yorker. Oh, Ray. What would
you give it rating -wise then? I would share
Andre's pretty high ranking. I would, to be honest,
I would give it a five out of five. Five out
of five Sony PlayStations. Two? Five? Because
there's a thing, and I even think we... pause
the movie and I'm like, Andre, is that like how
much they cost back then? One of the fraudulent
expenses is a Sony Playstation 2. Come on, nerd.
How little things have actually changed over
time. It was only $300. $300, yeah. Okay, so
if my math's correct, we've had two fives on
the show. Let's keep the ball rolling to another
five, right, Mitchell? Uh -oh. Uh -oh. I'm so
excited for this. I cannot wait to tell you the
actual rating of this movie. It is, of course,
the classic from 2018 from director Ann Debra
Fishman, Swiped. Okay? This is not a gritty origin
story for Dora the Explorer's villain, though
I wish it was. Swiper goes swiping. This is a
movie about dating apps. And more so about how
young people are so addicted to their phones.
And the message is oh so heavy handed. I hate
this movie so much. Who's ready for a little
synopsis? Because I wrote 700 words worth of
notes. I'm looking it up on IMTV because I've
never heard of this movie. I'm not looking it
up. Please enlighten me. Just to gauge the temperature
in the room, I believe all of us who are in couples,
we have met our significant others via social
media, or via apps, via dating apps. There are
three couples on this call. Two of them are from
Hinge, and one of them are from Coffee Meets
Bagel. Coffee Meets Bagel! Let's go! You can
all attest to the actual benefit of dating apps
and what they can lead to. Actual good things
and more than just hookups. Can I just go back
and say, when Claire and I met, Hinge wasn't
a thing. That's how old I am. I used Coffee Meets
Bagel before you had to, because I think now
it's all fee -based, because I used it in like
2016. I haven't used it since. Really, it's all
fee -based. Interesting. Yeah, I haven't used
it since 2015, 2016. 2016, yeah. Yeah, I haven't
used it since like earlier 2020, you know. Sorry,
Mitchell, back to it. No, it's all good. So we
are just going through basically how dating apps
can be good, but the premise of this movie is
that dating apps are bad and they're mainly bad
because they are created by men to hook up with
women okay that is the jumping off point for
this movie keep in mind this came out in 2018
so i think the stigma of dating apps probably
has faded away at this point so even the premise
felt very dated but that's only surfaced because
oh my god the acting It's just horrendous. And
not to say that the script was any good either,
no matter, you know, you could have had the best
actors of all time. You could have Daniel Day
-Lewis, Olivier, all saying these words and you
would sound like shit the entire time. But there
was one standout and it is a young man named
Noah Centineo who is actually into All the Boys
I've Loved Before. I've never seen that. But
this guy, the only dude who seemed like his character
and was not speaking words. and actually acting
very well. Was he in other things? What was that?
Well, I was going to say, was he in other things?
No, my hand was really because Andre was making
noise over there. I apologize. Yeah, my computer
just wanted to update everything all at the same
time. I apologize. You're good. Was Noah in other
things? He has been. Yes. Yeah, so he's been
in The Perfect Dig. He's been in a ton of movies.
He's actually going to be He -Man in the upcoming
Masters of the Universe. What? Hold on. Why are
they remaking that classic with Frank Langella
and... Because it's a reboot culture, man. Reboot
culture. I am actually on board for a He -Man
reboot. 100%. The universe is so fantastic. Anyway,
we're getting away from the top to get him. Keep
going. He's the only actor and his IMDb proves
that he is getting more work despite having this
movie on there. OK, so let's start with this.
James is a freshman computer science major. And
guys, he's been coding since he was seven years
old. So, you know, this guy's wicked smart, wicked
smart, wicked smart, knows how to code. But the
thing is, he actually isn't very sociable. He
doesn't have a lot of friends. And if you cut,
he's so. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are you telling
me that a young programmer is not. Is it having
trouble making friends? Somebody has trouble
making friends, but Andre, the worst part is
they cast a guy who is tall and pretty good -looking,
and you're asking me to believe that this guy
can't make friends? You better be good at video
games, because if he doesn't touch a single video
game in the movie, then I don't buy it. I can
also say this guy is also not good at acting,
which is another reason why I don't buy it. Moving
on. Moving on to Lance Black, who is actually
played by Noah Centineo, as I mentioned before,
who I actually thought did a really good job.
He is James' roommate. He is the conventional
cool guy. We meet him after he hooks up with
the girl in the dorm room. They're freshmen,
by the way, so this guy is already laying pipe
on the first day of school. So you know this
guy is so sick and all the girls love him. But
the thing is, he is also a womanizer. Oh, no.
What? It's like itch. The best part is, he's
so cool that he's a computer science major. but
he's completely apathetic when it comes to actually
doing computer science. He wants to create the
next great dating app, but he's going to have
his roommate James do it for him. Oh, by the
way, Mr. Lance Black calls dating apps mating
apps. So if you want to know where his head is.
Oh, yeah. So it's like the social network, but
with... This is the dumb social network. And
also, is he the quote -unquote ideas guy? Is
he basically like, I'll come up with the ideas
and you code everything? Yeah, there's actually
a great scene where James kind of throws his
arms in the air and says, I'm not going to code
this thing. And then Lance happens upon all of
his coding notes. He's just like, fine, I'll
do it myself. And then he looks at it. This is
probably the only truthful part of the movie.
And he's like, okay, we need to get him back.
We need to stop shitting on the ideas guy because
I am the ideas guy. I love shitting on the ideas
guy. No, don't shit on me. If you're going to
be the ideas guy, at least know the basics of
the tools that you're going to use. It looks
like Lance does not care at all. He just wants
to be the next guy to create the next dating
app. ultimately wants to use it for himself to
hook up with girls because the premise for him
is that all the current dating apps, they add
too much information. What? Yeah, here's the
thing. Girls want to know your name. They want
to know where you're from. How dare I? I know,
how dare I? So his whole thing is, let's make
an app, we're going to call it The Jungle, and
it is just a swiping basis. You only see photos,
you swipe, and there's a... code of conduct that
you have to adhere by, and part of that code
of conduct, quote -unquote, is not revealing
your name or any personal information. This entire
thing is just to get in the sack with someone.
It is disgusting. So this is Tinder, but just
way more seedy, and Upton Sinclair is probably
rolling in his grave because they named it The
Jungle. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think Upton Sinclair...
Upton Sinclair has two reasons to be upset over
the movies that I have, or maybe not upset, because
Bill Nye as a science guy played him in Mank,
which I think he was probably happy about, as
everyone was. And then here he is, yeah, the
namesake of his book. Sorry to derail, I just
looked up Kendall Sanders, the guy who's playing
the hacker, right? This guy's way too hot, what
the fuck? He's too handsome. And is this movie
set in 2018 or is it at least set in 2011? If
anything, I mean, I have the whole note about
how I know it's a low -production movie, but
everything that the script is saying makes it
look like it's modern day, so 2018. So because
they mention the other apps, not by name, but
they say those other apps. are doing all these
different things. So there's already, you know,
an environment with Tinder and Coffee Meets Bagel
and all that. So anyway, the whole thing stops
or, like, hits a turning point when James, the
coder, his mom actually starts using the app.
This thing is a huge success. It comes off campus
pretty quickly, and then suddenly middle -aged
people are now using it. That's all of them.
I know. His mom is single, recently divorced.
The dad's in the picture in the movie, by the
way. And the mom is played by the mother who
is in Good Luck Charlie. For whoever has seen
that Disney Channel series, I've seen it because
my siblings were watching it. I think all of
us were a little bit too old when that premiered.
But I recognized her, and I couldn't put my finger
on it until I looked on IMDb. So she's in it
delivering great Disney Channel -level acting.
And she goes on a date on this app. Her son is
petrified. Like, oh, my God, this happens for
monsters who just want to hook up with people.
I don't want this to happen to my mom. So as
one does, he brings his dad, his sister, her
sister's friend, and then himself over to the
mall where this date is happening. And they kind
of spy on them to make sure nothing happens.
Of course, the date turns out bad. And James
is like, oh, phew, I don't have to worry about
this with my mom this time. But this could be
a problem if she continues to use the app. So
what he does, because, Andre, you know, this
is very possible. Not only does he shut down
the app that he has made, the Jungle, he also
goes down to shut down every other social media,
or excuse me, dating app that is out there in
the marketplace. So Tinder goes down. Red button.
It just all goes dark. What? Yeah, it's amazing.
Hit the button, bro. Yeah. Hit the button. I
have it in my basement, actually. I just haven't
hit it yet. He does this in the span of 30 seconds.
Like, he's doing it in a panic, and his mom's
like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm fixing
the problem. And it's just like, okay, dude.
And then suddenly everyone at the bar. By the
way, if you're at a bar, you're not updating
your dating app, right? Like, you're actually
going to be interacting with other people at
that point. Actually, it depends on who you're
with at the bar. If you were with your gal pals,
you're probably either updating it because your
friends are like, you ask them a question. I'll
use OKCupid with their crazy algorithm quiz thing.
Or my personal favorite was, I'll swipe for you
if you swipe for me. Gotcha. So by this, I mean
the jungle. And people were already on the app
while they were on their current dates. So this
is how fucked up the characters are. Anyway,
at least they know what they're playing with.
So, oh, did I mention who James' love interest
is? He's 11 years old? Of course. She is a beautiful
girl next door. Her name is Hannah. And through
one of the biggest exposition... examples of
dialogue that i've ever seen in my life they
introduced her as a freshman at this college
and james walks up to her and he's like hannah
hannah remember me i'm james and they go on to
have the uh lay down the foundation of where
their relationship is at as if these people don't
know each other at all and he's like oh i am
so sorry for serenading you at senior prom i
know that you're humiliated by that And she's
just like, yeah, I was really embarrassed. And
by the way, yes, anyone, that was the most real
response you could have. Yeah, I was really embarrassed
by that, dude. That's why I'm not talking to
you. That was awful. Why'd you put me on the
spot? And then what's funny is they bring up
later in the movie, James approaches Hannah,
completely different conversation. And he's just
like, you know, Hannah, I was thinking, why are
you so shy? And then I thought to myself. At
what point was it introduced that she was shy?
And then I thought, oh, shit, he's talking about
the prom situation and how she reacted. And that's
to say that, oh, the way you reacted isn't a
normal thing. It's because of something else.
And what the fucked up part is, the movie does
give her another reason. It's because she had
a stutter when she was younger. And she's super
shy of big crowds, even though she doesn't have
a stutter anymore. She doesn't attempt one, which
is fine, by the way. That probably would have
been awful. Oh, my God. Let her have a legitimate
human reaction to being serenaded at senior prom.
There doesn't have to be this whole back story
as to like some childhood trauma as to why she
had this random dude singing to her in front
of the entire school. I don't know. I'm just
throwing it out there. Well, it's because they
clearly couldn't have her be annoyed or concerned
or freaked out. It had to be a very simple reason
of, I just, I had a stutter and it's embarrassing
and it's not you, it's me. Exactly. And oh my
goodness, Hannah delivers, actually, no, I'm
looking at it. Yeah, one of my favorite lines.
I'll get there in a second. So just to finish
the plot synopsis, after he shuts down the app,
James decides, you know what, I'm going to make
a better version of this thing where it's not
about not so much the male gaze and just trying
to hook up with other people, but now it's going
to be more about what women want and all that
kind of stuff. So in his mind, he feels like
he's heading towards something good. So what
he does is he leaves his dorm, getting away from
the guys, and Hannah and him at this point are
at a good point. spot in their relationship he's
like yo can i crash at your place and her place
is the apparently one sorority house in this
entire college because every woman character
that we have met so far in this movie all lives
in this sorority house hashtag convenience so
his whole thing is i'm now living in this house
and i'm gonna study the women it sounds weird
but he does say that and they basically he's
like based on these interactions of uh Asking
them questions, I'll know how to build a better
app. And after all of this, I get one of my all
-time favorite line readings, where he's just
like, you know what, I think I'm going to call
it Eve, to which one of the sorority sisters
says, Eve, oh, like the first woman. And it's
just like, yeah, no shit. We didn't mean that.
I wonder if she's like a philosophy major or
something. Dude, it was totally based on the
robot and WALL -E. Or the biblical character,
luckily our friend in the sorority house told
us the difference. And then when he's, so in
that same conversation, he's like, oh, Eva, that's
who I'm going to call. And he starts asking everyone,
oh, what do you want to see in this app? And
then he finally goes to Hannah, who's just quietly
in the corner reading a book. And then she looks
over and says, you know what, James? I don't
think a nap is the proper solution for relationships.
I don't know. Maybe I was just born in the wrong
century. Which, by the way, is this movie's version
of I'm not like other girls. And it's just like,
what the fuck? Like, this is the way that you're
going to distinguish your main female character?
So she writes letters with a feather pen and
doesn't have a cell phone. She's a pager. Here's
a boombox. Oh, yeah. Walkman. Yeah, that's better.
So there's literally a cock in the hen house
figuring out what women want. Yes. Who has very
limited experience around said women. Yes. Creating
a product named Eve, even though Eve Online is
already a thing. And as a shut -in who probably
likes video games, he should know better. Hey,
Jill, luckily he actually doesn't go through
with Eve because how the movie ends. After toying
with the app a little bit more, he becomes Mel
Gibson in What Women Want. He realizes that Hannah
was right, and he comes downstairs. The entire
sorority is there for his quote -unquote app
presentation, and he gives this long and awful
speech that ends with, I can't create the app
because you are the app. No. Wow. Guys, this
is... They were trying so hard to make this We
Are Groot, and it is the worst thing about it.
He's saying, you, the women, need to take the
power back in dating and relationship dynamics
and stop leaving the apps to these coders who
are primarily male who are trying to hook up
with you. Oh, so it's our fault? Oh, it's the
coders. No, no, no, no, no. It's the coders'
fault. It's everyone's fault. We're all together
in this. Oh, by the way, Hannah goes on to kiss
James after James comes back. After this piece
of dialogue, there's another scene. They come
back to sorority house. He professes his love
to her. Not in front of the entire school, like
at senior prom, but this time just in front of
the entire sorority. Somehow she's now cool with
this. And all the sorority sisters are like,
oh, Hannah, you should kiss him before I do.
And it's just like, what the fuck? So they kiss.
And that puts the bow on his storyline. And then
going back to Lance, our resident douchebag.
I was wondering what happened to Lance. So Lance
this entire time, by the way, is basically chasing
James around, trying to get him to. So he's the
Winklevoss twins, right? So he's just trying
to get James to make this app for him. And he's
pulling all these different stunts to get at
him, including he calls his dad's publicist.
This movie's set in L .A., by the way, so he
has a powerful dad. And the publicist is able
to get a live radio read. proclaiming James as
the creator of the Jungle app, which has gotten
a terrible reputation around town. I wonder why.
I wonder why. And this whole thing about that,
I'm not going to get into it. It works out fine
for him in the end. But Lance, his story ends
by him realizing, you know what, I don't want
to be a CS major. I want to be a business major.
It's just like, yeah, no fucking shit. And then
he goes on to say to his boys, you know what,
that Rachel girl, who we had met, In this movie,
by the way, who is kind of portrayed as the local
slut, he's just like, I really like her, and
I want to ask her out on a real date. And that's
what he does. He goes to the sorority house.
He asks her on a date, and she turns him down.
Good for her. And he continues to walk her to
class as they flirt. And that's it. And he does
it in person, not over the phone, which is Anne
Deborah Fishman's point in directing this movie.
And that is 2018 Swiped. Wow. I feel like he
should have been catfished. Yeah. I'm surprised
there wasn't a catfishing plot here. And what
about the mom? Did she find happiness? I also
feel like this movie should have... I got the
mom for you. So after the date, the jungle date,
because as you remember, the dad... was also
spying with James on this date to make sure everything
was okay. And they have this moment later, the
mom and dad come back together, and he's just
like, you know what? I saw you on that date,
and I realized, wow, how wrong I was. I don't
want to lose you. And of course, they get back
together. So it's just like, here you go. Jesus
Christ. This movie, from how you were describing
it, I really thought it was going to go the avenue
of Cyrano de Bergerac, if you've ever seen that
play. Basically, it's the trope of the guy who's
not quite good -looking writing letters to a
very beautiful woman, and then there's the puppet
guy who either is in on it, he knows that it's
not genuine, or he's very blissfully unaware
that the guy writing the love letters is actually
into the woman. So that's where I thought that
this was going, was that, like, oh, James is,
like, I don't really believe in this, so he has,
like, on the side, maybe he's writing a lady
letters, but then he also has the dating app
persona. There's also a good Cyrano de Bergerac
movie that I believe is called Roxanne, and it's
with Steve Martin as Cyrano. Really? He has,
like, a prosthetic nose, and that's what's wrong
with him. That's typical for Cyrano. The play
is that he has a very ridiculous nose. It's very
comedic, and the love interest is Roxanne. That's
why it's called Roxanne. But I highly recommend
that. But yes, I could have seen it going that
way as well. Oh no, this movie's way too dumb
to actually draw from legitimate art. Can I tell
you guys the list of reasons why I know this
was a low -budget movie? Go on. Sometimes it's
not about how you end it, it's how you start
it. And how this movie starts is the opening
credit sequence, which looks like it was made
on Adobe After Effects. And don't get me wrong,
I love After Effects. But this looks like it
was someone's very first Adobe After Effects
project, where you got like an animated finger
coming up and swiping right on people's names.
It's very slow, meticulous. The motion looks
so... rigid it's awful so i'm like oh wow this
is this movie is telling me exactly the quality
that it's going to present to me for the next
90 minutes so i did appreciate that a little
bit but i also knew it was low budget the next
thing the imdb page for the director sorry to
interrupt you yes i did and it's um very sad
i'm looking at it too right now right i'm looking
at it hey mike you know how we got a lot of props
from the director of the last bad movie we um
Andre, did you watch it? What was the movie called?
No, it was Kilosova. Jill watched it, yeah. And
Debra Fishman, I doubt, is going to give us the
same love and affection. You never know. You
never know. I'm getting the shit out of this
movie right now, so I would give her a lot of
props. I want to know point number two, why this
is a low -budget movie. Oh, yes. The notification
for getting a swipe in Jungle is just the airdrop
sound that you hear on that. So they recite a
lot of those sounds. Oh, the soundtrack, by the
way, yes, someone did compose the score, but
they also spent a lot of time using basically
copyright -free music. So, you know, the Nutcracker
stuff because there's a Christmas scene. Oh,
it's a Christmas movie. Yeah, suddenly. So there's
all these different moments where I'm like, hey,
I recognize that. I recognize that. It's like,
oh, because it's all in the public domain. It's
just like, okay, I get it. You want to save money
on the budget. Also, the sound, the sound of
the dialogue. If someone was in the sorority
house, where this is most obvious, everyone's
voice echoes in a very distracting way. So I
think they're only using a boom mic here. When
most movies, you'll do a process called ADR,
where you go into a booth and you re -record
your lines so they sound cleaner. And I don't
think this movie had the post -production budget
to do that. And unfortunately, we have a very
distracting echo in a lot of the indoor scenes.
And then also where the computer science class
is set. So we get a couple scenes in the movie
where they're all in class together. This is
an introductory class. If anyone's been to college,
and granted, this looks like a smaller private
school, so it's a little bit different. Introductory
classes tend to be big. There's a lot of people
in there, and then eventually you weed out the
folks who go on to major in other things. Anyway,
this one takes in... takes place in a computer
lab that is in a glorified walk -in closet it
feels very uh it looks like the cinematography
uh did it no favors in trying to make the room
feel bigger at the very least everyone especially
in a post -covid world looked awkwardly tight
and sat next to each other like two inches away
from each other i felt a little weird just watching
it uh oh my god those are just yeah those are
just some of the notes and Sometimes the quality
just stands out from the technical stuff and
not even the writing. What do you want to rate
this monstrosity? Mike, Jill, Andre, friends
of all ages, a lot of people like to call this
the Mitchell Zero, the Gentleman's Sweep. I like
to call it a half star. At the end of the day,
And Debra Fishman and the rest of this cast and
crew made a movie. And I admire the fact that
people are able to make movies because it's an
incredibly hard task, no matter the quality that
you get at the end. So while most people would
say zero, and if I were other people, because
I'm not like other movie critics. You sound like
other girls. I'm just not like other girls. I'm
going to give this a half swipe out of five.
I'm just wiping left or right, though. Left,
as fast as I can. Would you rather watch this
game or The Room by yourself? By yourself. Okay,
so the thing about The Room, I can still laugh
at it. This movie, it's not a fun hang, you know,
because Tommy Wiseau, like, you could just, you
could see all the scenes of him trying to make
this movie, and it's comical. And in this one,
I think Aunt Deborah Fishman knows how to piece
together a movie and all that kind of stuff.
So you lay out all the things, and yes, there
are different technical aspects that rub off
in a weird way. But at the end of the day, the
messaging here is so ham -fisted and kind of
condescending to people our age, and I completely
disagree with the messaging, by the way. That's
true. You know what I mean? At least with the
room, I don't know what the fuck. The message
I'm supposed to interpret to change every time
I watch it. Oh, that's right. Yeah, he wants
to make a Tennessee Williams movie. It's a botched
love tragedy that doesn't have a condescending
message, at least, to being like, wow, what if
online dating was actually bad, though? Like,
that's just so... Dude, the message... The problem
with the whole thing is that it's just they made
the movie 10 years too late because by 2018...
think it's pretty common in the digital age that
this is really the new way of dating and that
the concept of just meeting going up to someone
in a bar and saying doesn't it doesn't work and
that this is really just this is the new normal
and I'm kind of not like offended but it's just
like you know don't don't hate on this because
for a lot of people this really is how they meet
people and I think one of the biggest and for
the fact that his ring from his marriage And
from a college, okay, sure, dating apps on a
college campus, why do they need to do that when
you're in college? But I can't even imagine them
trying to make this movie and have them all be
like 23, 24, 25 because one of the biggest secrets
about becoming an adult is nobody told you how
to make friends outside of college. Making friends
in the real world is very hard. Yes, it is. I
don't know what you're talking about with that.
Guys! You're like my dad. The extrovert that
I just latched onto, my introvert self, and he
just tags me along on stuff. I did not expect
this to go down this hole, but I really appreciate
it. You guys are making me feel really good.
Thank you. You can thank Swiped for that. Oh,
Swiped. So mostly because my phone is dying,
but also because we have a promo to include in
our show. We're going to take a quick break.
Perfect. I have to feed. Perfect. That's great.
We're going to take a quick break. You're going
to hear a promo from our friends at Film Busters.
Great podcast that follows us on Twitter. Also,
I just want to give a shout out just because
you reminded me of this, dating apps and everything
like that. There's another show called You Should
Have Ghosted. They're our friends. They are in
Connecticut as well. Fantastic podcast. They're
all about the downside of online dating. Lots
of true crime in online dating. They are a blast.
Love them to death. Shout out to them. Here's
a promo from our friends at Film Busters, which
is in the UK, and they just got Allagash White
this year. Are you troubled by the dominance
of the Marvel and DC cinematic universes? Do
you experience feelings of dread and dreamscapes
while watching the latest David Lynch offerings?
Have you or your family seen anything better
than Whiplash? If the answer is yes, then don't
wait another minute. Open your podcast catcher
and subscribe to the professionals. Film Busters.
Our courteous and efficient staff is on call
24 hours a day to serve all your cinematic needs.
Oh, come on. How can it not? That was so interesting.
I didn't care for shit. It's one of the worst
I've seen this year. But I think it's a great
study on mental health. It's great. And give
Joaquin that Oscar. Give it to him. Well, there
might be someone else. There might be, but give
it to him. Just give him an extra one. Wait a
minute. Did you say you shed a tear? Yeah. Oh,
victory, victory. Sweet victory. At the very
end. I was actually handing an olive branch.
but then you could not accept it. That's right.
Bullshit. I'm sorry. It's an empty shell of a
film. This film, I can't see anyone who'd enjoy
it. I don't even know who it's for. I think it's
probably even meant to be for us. And like, if
we're not finding it good, who's finding it good?
Well, that's fucking cinema, man. Film Busters.
We're ready to enlighten you. Thank you to our
friends at Film Busters for their promo there.
Go check them out. They are pretty awesome. Highly
suggest after you're done listening to us, of
course. Mike, by the way, thanks for the warning.
So I spent about 20 minutes dunking on dating
apps, and then you're promoting a podcast about
how dating apps can kill you. It would have been
nice synergy to just say, maybe I could have
just lightened it a little bit, but put it back
on it. For all of our listeners out there who
are utilizing dating apps, be safe, be smart.
If things feel a little skeevy, talk to your
friends, talk to your family. Don't go anywhere
without telling people where you are going. And
come up with some escape routes if necessary.
Be smart. I fail to see the problem. So that
jumps into our next thing, which was kind of
skeevy. Yes, transitions, they're great. We're
going to talk about a movie we've all seen, just
to kind of close up the show, and our thoughts
on it, because we have individual thoughts on
it. Wonder Woman 1984. It was a film. It happened.
It is a film. They released it on HBO Max. That
is the one thing I got going for it, that on
Christmas Day you could watch it on HBO Max versus
going to a theater. That's about where it ends.
Is this a spoilers or no spoilers discussion?
I think we should blow shit out of this, I feel
like. Yeah, spoiler alert. Spoiler warning for
those of you who have not seen Wonder Woman 1984
either at home on HBO or in theaters. I don't
recommend it, but whatever. All right, way to
bury the lead. Just saying, if you have any interest
in seeing this film, please stop the podcast
here or regroup at the end. Perhaps Mike will
put a timestamp in, but we are about to discuss
spoilers. Probably not putting a timestamp in.
I'm not good enough at that. Never mind. You've
informed everybody. You have way too much confidence
in my skills here. Yeah, so we're going to talk
about Wonder Woman 84. It is the 9th as we are
recording this, so you had since Christmas if
you are still listening and haven't seen it yet.
But yes, agreed. Skip the rest of this podcast
probably because all we're really going to do
is close it up after this. So just skip the rest
of the podcast. You're right, Joe. So Wonder
Woman 1984 is a film sequel to Wonder Woman that
came out 2016? 2017? I think it's 2017. Best
movie at the time. The best movie in the DC Universe.
It still remains at the top of my DCEU list.
Same with me. I would agree. I think I need to
re -watch the original, but it's either number
one or number two behind Shazam. I really enjoyed
Shazam. I think Shazam was my number three, but
two and three were interchangeable because two
would have been Aquaman. Aquaman? I liked Aquaman.
It was goofy. 1984. We're now in 1984. Wonder
Woman is a hero that's hiding. She lost her love
interest, Steven Trevor, in the first movie.
Pedro Pascal is in it. Kristen Wiig. Kristen
Wiig plays Cheetah. Pedro Pascal plays Max Power.
No. Maxwell Lord. Maxwell Lord. Thank you. I
was like Max Power. I think that's a Simpsons
reference. Of course, Simpsons would have been
great. yeah right exactly I was going to say
I think it's the Simpsons reference so Maxwell
Lord who comes into contact with a wishing stone
yeah life is good but it can be better this is
the year of Pedro Pascal's hot dad yeah Pedro
Pascal is hot dad every year I will say I like
Pedro Pascal hamming it up. I feel like that's
the only way you could take that character, the
way he's written at least, right? Yeah, and I
would say that his performance is fine, and in
fact, with the exception of one particular character,
everyone's performance is fine. It's the material
that they have to work with. I won't sugarcoat
it. Gal Gadot is a beautiful actress. She's a
fun part of the Fast and the Furious franchise.
She is not... Best actor in this movie. Wow.
Okay. The movie called Wonder Woman. So I had
no problem with gal. Christian Bale wasn't the
best actor in a movie called the dark night.
You know, it's just like, I think that's fine.
So for me though, for me, I mean, it's one thing
for it. Yeah. Totally. Let's only keep ledger.
Take, take the wheel. But I mean, other than
the fact that he passed away, but I feel like
everyone knew going into the dark night that
that really is the star is the Joker. Okay, so
there's a difference, right? Are you talking
about star or are you talking about, because
I totally agree with you, this movie did not
feel like a Wonder Woman movie for so much of
the run time. And it's two and a half hours long.
Is it more about acting or is it more about star
power? It's present. A little column A, a little
column B. I just, I don't, I mean, I think it's
some of the material that she had to work with,
but I just, Yeah. She's so blah. And she's not
given room to be better. So my opinion is that
Gal Gadot was fine. Pedro Pascal stole it from
me. 100%. My problem is Kristen Wiig. And it
could be part of it's material. Part of it. Part
of it is just like can we lose the nerd trope?
Can we lose it? Yeah. There's like a very specific
concept. comic book villain, comic movie villain
trope where you have like the nerd character
that adores the superhero that becomes this badass
monster. It's like, it's in this movie, it's
in Amazing Spider -Man 2. I'm glad you brought
that up. I was going to say Jamie Foxx's Electro
feels the same way. It's that exact plot line.
Yeah. Catwoman, it's Poison Ivy. Yeah. Of course,
you can't, because, you know, if you're a female
character in a, in a movie in a comic book or
superhero film you either really have one of
two trajectories you can either be the hero or
if you're going to be the villain you naturally
have to go from you know the ugly duckling into
the sultry swan and there's you know there's
no other no other option I submit the only time
it worked was Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in
Batman Returns yeah I gotta I gotta confession
make because the entire time I was thinking are
they gonna are they gonna show Kristen Wiig as
Cheetah as I came to know that character in the
comics who actually looks like a cheetah, like
a humanoid cheetah. And once we get to the part
in the White House where she's dressed up in
cheetah print clothing and stuff like that, I'm
like, okay, this is as far they're going to take
it. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed.
I was just like, oh, man, I really want her to
do the whole thing. And then they showed me the
whole thing, and I was like, oh, man, I did not
want this. I did not want the whole thing. Yeah.
But she wore amazing shoes. You're saying you
revoke your wish, Mitchell? God damn it. Can
someone explain to me the logic of the wishing?
Because it wasn't really at the end. It's not
really wishes. It's more of saying a sentence
that starts with I wish. That's not really a
wish, right? No. I don't know. No, I desire.
I'm still stuck on how did all this stuff happen
and people still clearly remember. But no, what?
the continuity of the world. It's very problematic
when you view this film as a part of a cinematic
universe. You know what I mean? If this was by
itself, it's one thing, but this is supposed
to be in the DC cinematic universe, and there
was essentially World War III that was wished
away, and everyone remembers World War III happening,
all those nukes just randomly appearing in the
climax, and we're just cool with that. It's whatever.
Oh, yeah, bygones be bygones. My bad. Can we
also tell... Can we also talk about the fact
that at the end of the movie, nobody got any
repercussions? Maxwell Lord still gets his kid.
I think Christian Wig's alive. Yep. Totally.
Totally alive. So, like, nobody got anything
except for Stephen Trevor is dead again. Well,
right. By the way, okay, the whole wish of him
coming back. Okay, can someone explain to me?
So she doesn't say it out loud. right when she's
holding the stone we just say like wind blow
over her yeah my whole thing is she doesn't believe
that at least at that point in the movie that
the stone legitimately had powers unless i just
read her character there oh right so if she had
said that in her head is it more of one a little
part of her believes in it or two is it more
of a daydream wish you know it's just like oh
I wish I could, you know, tell folks from A to
B so I don't have to go through traffic. Do you
think anybody who held Maxwell's hands when he's
like, tell me you wish for this thing, do you
think they actually believed it too? Exactly,
yeah. It's very flimsy. Yeah, none of this makes
sense. Well, it's fine. You can honestly write
around a plot device like that. It would be very
lazy, but like, you know, if you just go like,
oh, this thing grants your desires, you know,
like whatever, like your deepest desires, blah,
whatever. That's fine. Make it generic enough.
And you can write a movie around that. But they
try to like make it like, oh, no, the wish zone
has mechanics where you have to say I wish and
then I get to pick whatever price it is or whatever.
And they try to make it weird where like, oh,
Steve Trevor's back. Oh, but he has to inhabit
some rando's body in his apartment. So that dude
really he just is like he looks like somebody
else. That part actually bugged me a lot because
all of a sudden you're just wearing a meat puppet.
Yeah, who apparently didn't have any friends
or family or a job. No one was concerned about
him being missing or whatever. You get to some
really weird, bad morality when you realize that
Steve and Diana hook up that first night and
it's in somebody else's body. That dude got raped.
He just said the word, but no, like, I've seen
a lot of discussions being like, so, um, let's
talk about consent. Yeah. Right. Yeah. No, 100%.
That dude had no say in it whatsoever, and he
was just around for it. And it's just like, you
didn't have to have that extra layer to that,
like, that didn't add, that didn't make the movie
more interesting, that just was like, okay, this
raises some weird questions and makes Diane look
worse. So Jill... If you're gonna make his leap
in logic, may as well bring him back in his body.
that's exactly right right out of the grave nukes
are showing up out of nowhere you know like walls
are are raising from the ground out of nowhere
you can just have a guy pop out and apparate
out of thin air i would believe it at that point
and to be honest if they had gone that direction
of you know it is steve trevor in steve trevor's
body that would have been at least more compelling
like i'll admit i actually did not he take out
the in a vacuum I didn't hate the Steve Trevor,
Diana stuff. I actually, I liked it together.
That was the best part of the movie. Like, not
even close. Yeah, so, they should have, to me,
what they could have done is, you know, she's
holding the thing, she wishes for him to come
back, and then, you know, he somehow, you know,
he crawls out of his own grave. It's really dark,
but then he at least would have, there would
have been more for him struggling to transition,
because he takes it. the difference between being
in, like, 1913, 1914, to 1984 pretty damn fucking
well. You know? Yeah, that's true. It's a role
reversal from the first Wonder Woman, right?
Yeah, it is. So, it's just like, I thought it
was cute. I thought it was cute. I like the dashed
montage, or just the choices, the little choices.
Yeah, that's fair. It didn't feel like an 80s
movie in a lot of ways. But Gal Gadot and Chris
Pine. They have legitimate chemistry. They're
so much fun to watch. The invisible jet scene
is a little cheesy. I loved it. I love that.
When she's in the mall, that whole mall, early
in the film, there's a sequence where she's stopping
a robbery inside a mall, and it's kind of campy.
There's a scene with a little kid who sees her,
and she gives her a knowing wink. I'm like, yes,
leave it to this 1980s camp. Yeah. Also, the
opening, as awesome as the opening is, it doesn't
really come back. It doesn't serve a point. That's
another thing, is that this opening felt like...
So the opening scene in Themyscira just kind
of felt pointless? I don't know. It's already
two and a half hours long, and you feel that
run time. It felt like you didn't really need
to see that. I'm right there with it. You can't
take shortcuts in life on Drake. I actually thought
that when she in the race takes the tunnel, I
thought that was clever. I thought that was clever.
Using your terrain and thinking outside the box.
I completely agree. I completely agree. Alright,
so we're going to get to our ratings on this
because we've already droned on. I love this
movie. I do want to just make... There's one
more thing I want to say. Okay. I am not a DC
comic book reader. What I know about the DC comic
book universe is limited to some people I watch
on YouTube who've talked much more in length
about it. Where I thought this was going for
Pedro Pascal's villain, and it's really even
hard to call him a villain, I thought he was
going to turn into this weird, grotesque monster.
Because you clearly see the Witchstone that he
now is taking a toll on him. Because in the comics,
Wonder Woman kills Max Lord. For reasons. She
killed him. She snapped his neck, I believe.
I thought that is where it was going. And then
we got too close to the climax. I'm like, no,
he just said he's just going to keep wishing
for his health to come back. Or whatever. No.
This is not... There's no stakes now. So, Jill,
the run that you're talking about, the crossover
event where that happens, is Infinite Crisis,
which is... Probably the biggest DC event that
I read actively when I was still a month -to
-month reader of comics. And he was a guy who
set up the OMAC project, which is these robots
that just killed all the superheroes, blah, blah,
blah. It got really intense, and that was the
first time when I read a comic, oh, shit, Wonder
Woman actually killed someone. That was a big
turning point. So, yes, Infinity Crisis. Do recommend
it if you like that era in comics. Thumbs up.
Okay, so we need a number rating. Collectively
or just individually? Individually. So, Jill,
you can start us off. It definitely does not
help the rating. Andre and I last night re -watched
Captain Marvel because we're doing an Avengers
Marvel Universe re -watch, and my opinion of
Captain Marvel has gone up tremendously, and
it definitely pulled my opinion of Wonder Woman
down. I probably would have said, you know, a
three. Maybe 2 .8, 2 .6. But now I will give
Wonder Woman 1984 a 2 .5 invisible jets. Okay.
Andre? Just the amount of times that I was checking
my phone in this movie because I was just kind
of checked out. Even though it was a new superhero
movie in 2020 and that was a novelty in and of
itself, I got to give it a flat two rescinded
wishes out of five, man. Jeez. Mitchell? Yeah,
for me, the first 50 minutes did not feel like
a Wonder Woman movie to me at all. To Jill's
point, Gal Gadot did not command the screen the
way that she had in the first Wonder Woman movie,
and that could be anything from the script to
Patty Jenkins directing, who I think is really
talented, really looking forward to her upcoming
Disney Plus series. But overall, this was a middling
movie, and definitely on the same batting average
as most of the DCEU, and I'm just going to give
this one a solid... Two out of five. Kristen
wig shoes in this one. Let's go with that. She
can walk with confidence now that she's mastered
the art of humor. That's it. I agree with everybody's
what you've been saying and everything like that.
I got it middle of the road. 2 .5. Lasso lightning
swings. That part was cool. I liked when she
learned to fly. Didn't that happen right after,
or right before she learned how to fly? Like,
she lasted a lightning strike, and then she learned
how to fly, right? Yeah. It was, like, in the
same time period. Right. It was, like, literally
back -to -back, so it was, like... Okay, you
want a different rating? I got another one. 2
.5 useless armors out of 5. Oh, my God. Yeah.
That shit lasted, like, two minutes? Yep. I didn't
like the cameo. I didn't like the cameo that
came with it. I have no idea, but I think I was
something. Yeah. Also, just for the record, Patty
Jenkins did not write the first Wonder Woman.
She co -wrote this one. She wrote Monster, and
that was, like, I think the last movie she did
write, and that one is a very good film. I don't
know if she's the best writer. Well, we're going
to get Wonder Woman 3. There are five? Am I counting
five writers on this? No, four writers. Okay,
never mind. There are some people repeated. So
it's Patty Jenkins. Dave Callaghan and Jeff Johns,
who's actually a very talented comic book writer
who is now running, he's basically the Kevin
Beige of DC, and unfortunately his talents do
not cross over to the screen, and he is actually
responsible for a lot of the scripts that have
been made in the DCU, and it's been a rough one
as a fan of Jeff Johns, not gonna lie. Fair.
Okay, well that will do it for this episode of
Game for a Movie. Or we ask, are you Game for
a Movie? I've been host Mike. I'm joined by...
Jill. Andre. Mitchell. We'll see you next time
on Game for a Movie.