You know what that sound means? It's another
episode of Game for a Movie where we ask, are
you game for a movie? I'm your host, Mike. I'm
joined by... Andre. Jill. Yes. Did it, friends.
Good job. Also, that sound means it's a new year.
It is a new year, yes. And I was going to say,
it's not just Game for a Movie today. We are
Game for a Movie TV show video game because we
are doing the best media of 2021. everything
that we've taken in we've riddled it down to
lists um not necessarily in order we're gonna
go as we go we're gonna loosey -goosey this as
andre said yeah yeah yeah i like to keep it loose
you know okay loose man but first to help us
get a little more loose what are we drinking
Jill, you are doing the non -alcoholic route,
so we're going to get you first. We had a fun
New Year's Eve. Collectively, our group drinks
seven bottles of champagne. I was determined
to get rid of the stash of champagne that was
in our fridge. That's fantastic. We play a game
of will it saber? I'm not going to saber any
bottles inside. No champagne. I am drinking it's
a little behind the season now but a harney incense
white christmas this is a white tea with almond
flavors in it and it's quite good almond flavored
tea sounds pretty awesome i'm not gonna it has
a lot of things that i like it's a good smelling
tea too nice andre what are you drinking over
there um uh so i'm drinking a dogfish head 90
minutes imperial ipa yeah so um we were visiting
some relatives and they live within driving distance
of dogfish head in delaware so i took the opportunity
to go pick up some beers that i don't normally
see like dogfish is everywhere but like they'll
usually it's like the 60 minute and like a handful
of other ones i went to we took the opportunity
grab a grab a six pack of a 90 minute ipa which
i don't usually see in our liquor store shelves
so right it's a good one so it's more reliable
and i'm enjoying it yeah we just passed the season
of uh 120 minute ipa yeah and uh that one that
one has some good memories for me yeah that stuff
is potent yeah i am drinking Discount Nachos,
a double dry hopped IPA from Hoof Hearted Brewing.
Hoof Hearted Brewing is in Ohio. Claire was just
recently in Ohio. She brought me a bunch of stuff
back. She also brought me Rheingeist, but I don't
have big tall boys of Rheingeist. That's why
I don't have any on me right now. This Hoof Hearted
is a tall boy. And it's nachos in a little quarter
dispenser. Oh, look at that. I love the can.
Andre, you know what you should have brought?
Well, we gave it to a person, but you should
have done the pickle beer. I can't. Oh, God.
Fine. All right. Let's rattle off our beers of
2021. I would say that the pickle beer, what
is it from? Oh, my God. I need to properly credit
it. Looking it up again. Yes. We happened upon
a pickle sour. It literally tasted like pickle.
Pickle brine. Godfish had had a pickle beer apparently
at one point. In my advent calendar with the
beer, they had a cucumber sour. That sounds better
than the pickle sour. Yeah, that was really good.
crisp and refreshing like i love i love pickles
don't get me wrong but i don't want to drink
a beer out of it you know right i don't beer
ohio we have a video we can share it's uh share
to mike maybe michael share it to the world oh
it's urban artifacts urban artifacts christmas
pickle xmas pickle it was not very christmasy
themed and i you know hey it it was what it was
it was it was on the label you know downright
speechless from this experience yeah right i'm
i'm gobsmacked by how bizarre it is but i'm gonna
share the video with to your mic on in our chat
so you can enjoy it and then i'll if i can find
a way i'll share it with the world so you can
see the pickle beer um yeah Probably wouldn't
make our top list of the year of 2021, but we
will go over what did. Now, we said media, which
can be anything in this category. Technically,
music counts, too, but we're not really a music
podcast. But if anybody has music, go ahead.
You can do that, too. We said movies, TV shows,
video games. That's the clarification. I don't
know about you. I didn't make this clarification.
I pick things that exclusively came out in 2021.
Okay. Okay. So see, I'm already going to be for
everybody. I'm already going to cheat and it's
stuff that I consumed in 2021. It's all very
recent though. That's fair. Cause like season
two of Ted Lasso was excellent. I left it off
the list since it came out early. You know what
I mean? Yes. Oh, wow. You're right. It did come
out early. Yeah. yeah so that's that's what i'm
saying is for me anyway i'll make that clarification
for you guys i'd never said that um so it does
not matter whenever you watch as long as you
watched it in 2021 or consumed it in 2021 okay
i can do that yeah no one thing in particular
that's coming to mind that definitely did not
come out in 2021 but i played it in 2021 yes
technically one of mine splitting hairs too but
i'll explain when we get there yeah i think i'm
gonna so i'll go ahead and launch into my first
one and i'll explain why it gets in on a technicality
so this is uh wait for clarification this is
100 things you liked or is this like an honorable
mention no i mean this is like this is well i
guess to open up for me when i think of 2021
in terms of my uh gaming uh you know habits this
was the year of the ps5 for me so i was lucky
enough to get a PS5 around February of 2021.
Cause those things were got, yeah. Mike's giving
me the bird over the zoom because they're so
goddamn hard to find. Right. So there was no
way I was going to be playing a PS5 in 2020,
you know, I didn't, I didn't, it wasn't able
to snag the pre -orders. So yeah, February, 2021,
I, I, I. got ps5 showed up at our doorstep from
walmart and uh it was awesome it comes with a
pack -in game that i want to give a shout out
to called astrobots playroom and i don't think
people enough people are talking about it because
it is it's such a not enough people have a ps5
that's a good point all right you're right but
like i don't know i feel like people like whatever
yeah you're absolutely right because not enough
people have a ps5 but when you get it oh boy
When you get your hands on one of this. I'm ready
for Astrobots. Well, so it's such a, it's, it's,
well, right. Yeah. Like, like what, what, who,
what the, what the heck is an Astrobot? So it's
just, it's just a small, like little four hour
long platformer that. just is a total love letter
to the playstation like brand and that sounds
lame as hell but it's it's i find myself being
super nostalgic for these old games i didn't
know i had this nostalgia for it really tapped
into something that i only kind of feel for nintendo
properties it was kind of when i realized like
wow like i have you know PlayStation's been a
part of my life since the PS2 back in the early
2000s and so that's been a huge part of my childhood
so basically it's just like little mini platformer
levels but the whole conceit is that you're this
little robot guy and you're like exploring different
parts of the PlayStation 5 itself so you'll go
to the fans you'll go to the GPU and then like
you know you'll see other little robots like
doing poses from famous PlayStation games and
then you'll find they call them artifacts and
it's just you know peripherals that Sony's had
put out for the PlayStation. Like you'll find
the PS2 Eye toy or like the PlayStation Move
controllers or like an old PS1 memory card or
something. And it's just something so fun about
just, you know, collecting these little trophies
and having them in this little virtual room where
you can have this little mini museum of PlayStation
gadgets. Right. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I like
it. It's cute. Hopefully you guys can get a PS5
soon. I don't know. Hopefully. Chip shortage
is still hitting rough. So you took me on the
nostalgia trip. So I will jump into one of my
honorable mentions. I needed to give an honorable
mention to this because I've been playing a lot
lately. Mario Party Superstars. Oh, yeah, that's
on my I just wrote down some video game ones
and that's on one of mine. Yeah, that's on my
list just for pure nostalgia factor. The old
boards, the old games, like everything about
it has brought me back. And like I had the N64,
Mario Party 2, you know, this is definitely right
up my alley. So it's been a lot of fun to play
these. So it is on my honorable mention list.
It wasn't good enough to make the top 10 list.
Cause I do have a full top 10 list. I agree with
that. You know, it's great. It's, it's, you know,
I would not call it. Well, it's telling that
I completely forgot to put it on my list. I,
we have it too. And I was like, Oh shit. Yeah.
Mario party came out. Oh man. They did the right
thing in that they finally realized they just
needed to put out the old maps. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly right. And the games are still fun. And
I mean, Jill and I have played a couple of rounds,
but we definitely need to play more of it. Yeah,
Mario Party 2 is my favorite as well. An honorable
mention in video game plans that I'll throw out
is in the same vein, the Mario Golf that came
out this year. Oh yeah, Mario Golf Super Rush.
Super Rush? We've never actually played the Super
Rush. rush well right i know i feel bad like
it's all the actual golf right i feel like we're
super boring we're like we're not gonna play
the dumb super rush mode that no we're gonna
we're gonna play boring ass golf damn it this
is why it's an honorable mention because i we
technically haven't played the full game but
me and andre get a lot of amusement um playing
99 or even full 18 rounds of golf especially
now that they have fixed some of our biggest
grapes which was mainly that the ai was drunk
the whole time now you can toggle now you can
toggle uh difficulty from the ai which makes
such a big difference and they've added in a
bunch of courses since the game dropped for free
which is fantastic and when we were over um in
ohio for thanksgiving we we played a game of
golf and his uncle who's a big golf guy but not
really big in the video games was very into it
he was riveted so it's really fun for the full
for the whole family so it's actually on my top
10 list it is number seven on my list wow nice
super rush on my list because it's been fun it's
been a great time i wish you guys would play
the story because the story is actually a lot
of fun played some of the story i have yeah i
i got through like three of the courses i think
whatever like i got to like the fourth level
or whatever the fourth home and i was i don't
know i tapped out but maybe i'll go back to it
it's a very short story like you're not far from
the end it's like two or three more courses left
gotcha so it's really yeah it's not it's not
like a long story or anything like that um you
can play through it in pretty much like two three
days it's never meant to be that long um but
definitely the multiplayer is the crux of it
and been a lot of fun yeah yeah So you did an
honorable, Andre did an actual item. You did
an honorable mention. Do you want to break into
your top 10? I can break into my top 10. So I'll
break into my top 10 with number 10. Number 10,
Shang -Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. We've
talked about it on the show before. A lot of
people have listened to that episode. So I won't
dive into it because we have talked about it.
Love the villain. Love this intro story. This
is one of my favorite solo heroes that we've
had in a while. And especially with a year that
had Black Widow, which was very disappointing,
and Eternals, which was disappointing, which
we may get into later. This was a very bright
spot for Marvel. Of course, we're big Marvel
fans here. So that is my number 10 on my list.
I feel I need to rewatch it because we were I
enjoyed it greatly, but I was also pretty blitzed
when I saw it. And I think I said as much when
we talked about it on the show. Right. But it
was it was I had a great time because that was
kind of the that was we didn't we ended up skipping
Black Widow. So that was kind of like the first
superhero movie. Well, I guess first MCU movie
rather that we watched, you know, post post post
pandemic or whatever. And it was fun. It was
fun to be in a Marvel movie, be in the theater,
watching a Marvel movie, having fun again. It
was it was great. So you bring that up and I.
I don't mean to shit on it, but is Black Widow
the most skippable MCU movie? I don't know because
I haven't watched it. I would say pretty much.
I do think from what the rumors I've heard on
the internet, there are some things that happen
in Black Widow that may have weight in Hawkeye,
but we haven't finished Hawkeye and we haven't
encountered that yet. But I think so. What episode
are you in in Hawkeye? we're like literally in
episode three four four yeah four okay we're
not that far okay out of six we're not we're
not going to talk about this now but um okay
yes there are some things that affect it but
not greatly that's good um yeah there's like
yeah that it sounds like it is skippable yeah
yeah right yeah true Jill you have not touched
an actual item no I have not yeah so um I did
an honorable mention uh I'll do something that
for my top 10 that actually came out in 2021
um this will be the only music item that I'll
at least talk about um but I have to do it it's
gonna be uh Taylor Swift's re -release of her
album Red that came out um right at the end of
the year um Now I can't even remember if it was
November or December. Time is a flat circle,
as they say. But it was great to have it out.
My Peloton instructors really embraced it because
now there are all these Taylor Swift rides and
it's great. And as someone who's kind of late
to the Taylor Swift game, rediscovering her or
discovering her older work has been really exciting
because you kind of get to see her trajectory
into where she is now. And then hearing her rerecord
these albums. from an older standpoint because
she is older it adds new weight to a lot of songs
um that you know she was singing about when she
wrote them when she was like 16 17 and now she's
singing as a 31 year old and you know some stuff
still sounds like you know what would come out
of a 16 year old's mind but then others the fact
that she is older just makes it feel so much
stronger so that that's my number 10 for best
thing of 2021 you just reminded me i turned 31
next month yeah happy early birthday hello darkness
my old friend no blast what's my age again that's
what yeah right there you go yeah that's what
i need to do blast what's my age again oh my
god oh my gosh andre do you have an actual one
or do you have an honorable mention you thought
of well i want to do an honorable mention only
because i want to talk about this we didn't get
to talk about it In another episode. And that
is Zack Snyder's The Justice League. That's an
honorable mention for me. Yeah, no, right. I
wouldn't put it in like, oh man, this is one
of the seminal things I experienced in 2021.
A touchstone film. Yeah, right. I wouldn't call
it a touchstone for me, but it does seem like
a few people see it that way. It's interesting
seeing all of the widespread of reactions to
this movie, right? Snyder fans on Twitter. Yeah.
Oh my gosh. At the top of it, I'm very glad this
exists. you know i'm i'm happy i saw it and hey
maybe we'll i'll even watch it again someday
right yeah um yeah i would definitely watch it
again like yeah without a question i would it
was probably the most enjoyable zack snyder dc
film i've watched so far i like it better than
man of steel i like definitely like it way better
than yeah batman v superman so um super cute
yeah it's uh not good seeing his vision but like
this the thing is is that this justice league
I feel like retroactively makes Batman v Superman
a little better because at least now that you
can you can call it a trilogy right you can call
Man of Steel Batman v Superman and Zack Snyder's
Justice League a cohesive trilogy at this point
right there's some cohesion there that wasn't
there before in my opinion um It's still goddamn
four and a half hours long? Or just four hours?
It's like almost four, I think. It feels like
seven. I'm really glad that they broke it up
into chapters. I think that's the smartest thing
going for it. You can re -watch this and not
have to take four hours. And that's how we watched
it, right? We watched it in two spots. We watched
it in two as well. I mean, it's still Zack Snyder.
If you don't like his direction, you're going
to hate this movie because it is peak Zack Snyder
in all the pros and cons that entails. But, you
know, hey, it made me like Ben Affleck's Batman
a little bit more, which is saying something.
It made me like Henry Cavill's take on Superman
a little bit more, which is also saying something.
It made me remember why I liked Wonder Woman
after Wonder Woman 1984. I destroyed that. That's
from 2020. I almost wish that movie came out
two weeks later so we could shit on it more.
It was so bad, dude. Holy moly. It's the bottom
of my DC list. I was talking about it with my
sister. It's almost poetic how opposite direction
it went from the first one. Going back to the
Snyder Cut. like i said it's on my honorable
mention um yeah it made it actually made me like
uh cavill as spider -man as a super oh that's
a timeline probably get to that one too but as
superman um and affleck as batman it also it
was good for the redeeming for the flash and
all of it for victor stone um i feel very bad
for that actor and how he's been treated yes
ray fisher but um Yeah, like I would happily
sit down and watch that one more time. But the
biggest caveat here is I still don't think that
would have saved the DC franchise if that movie
had come out anyway. Like now people want the
Snyder timeline and I don't think DC is going
to do it. But better than the Joss Whedon version
by far. By far. And that's what I was going to
say is that I'm glad this exists in the fact
that it is just better than the Whedon version
by far. And it's not in my honorable mention.
It's not in my top 10. But it is definitely,
I would say, in my top 20 of the year, probably,
if I were to go that far, just because it is
so much better. And it is something that I would
watch again. And if you're in the top 20 of any
year. that's not a bad year for you you know
like a bad look for you so um i don't have it
in my honorable mention because i stopped at
six because i could have probably kept going
forever um hell last night yeah last night so
didn't even make my honorable mention i thought
that movie was beautiful so besides besides the
end but that's a different story for a different
time we've talked about that i'm trying to not
talk about things that we've actually talked
about already because We don't need to talk about
it anymore. This is why it's on my list. Here's
the reasoning. Boom. Done. Okay. Do you want
me to get a few off my list? Yes. Go for it.
I'm crossing out things as we talk about them
so I don't retread. Number nine is a two -parter,
but it just works together. I think this is also
why it fell to number nine. I think if it was
just part one, it probably would have slipped
higher. But part one and part two of Batman The
Long Halloween, the animated movie, I thought
it was excellent. I thought part two was not
as good as part one, but it was still excellent.
So that's why I say it fell to nine. I think
if it was just part one, it probably would have
gone four or five on my list. Okay. But I'm finally
so glad to see The Long Halloween has been animated
and made into a movie. Yeah. I'm sticking on
the animation number eight for me. was the mitchells
versus the machines i finally saw it and it's
so good it is such a delightful movie like it
is just such a delight i absolutely loved it
um everything about it was great it actually
i did like five lists before i actually sat down
and looked at movies and completely forgot i
saw it this year and once i saw it i was like
no this needs to make it on the list yeah then
i have one more animated uh thing before i turn
it to somebody else i'm just getting off my list
like checking things off yeah yeah obviously
seven i said was already mario golf super rush
number six on my list invincible the tv series
yes we have that as well yeah it's on another
comic book series that i read that i absolutely
love to see i remember i was like kind of like
what is like because they were showing out or
they were they they literally were just advertising
it on twitter or whatever and you literally said
to on the side like no like be excited for this
this is this is gonna be really good and literally
okay so you may hear me getting out of my chair
uh we found my old book collection Oh, hell yeah.
I have old Compendium. The Ultimate Collection.
So this is volume two. I have volume one somewhere
as well. This was just right on top, so it was
easy for me to grab. I have like one, two, three,
and four. Wow. So how far did this season go
in terms of those books? So I think there's eight
total of the Ultimate Collections. So if it was
like this big. It's probably like that big. Oh
my gosh. Okay. Yeah. It covered probably three,
four comic book lines and there was like 64,
65 storylines. Wow. Or 64 like comics, you know?
Yeah. So there's still a lot of material to work
through. I would probably say it's going to be
like three or four seasons at least. OK, that's
exciting. That's really exciting. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, this show is just so solid. Like, I don't
know. The voice acting just alone is great. I
mean, J .K. Simmons, not enough good things can
be said about that man. He is just great as Omni
-Man. And I don't know, I feel like I can't really
talk about spoilers because I don't, well, I
think it got a lot of buzz and I know that they
got renewed for a season. I feel like people
are, I think it got the attention it rightly
deserved. Yeah, there's memes out there now of
the end. Yes, that's true. Although I will say
the memes spoiled the ending a little bit, right?
Like, you know, but yeah, they were so good.
Think Mark. Yeah, think Mark, think. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. oh that was a fun watch a really fun watch
yeah i'm excited to see more that's why i wanted
to include it on this i felt like i just did
a ton of uh animated and it wasn't my intention
that they would all be at the bottom of my top
10 well usually we're the animator we're the
animators over here right so i'm glad i'm glad
you're you're uh you know you got some animation
representation on there Exactly. No, I love animated
stuff. It's not like I don't. So it's just, it's
amazing to me that I have three things on my
top 10 list of 2021 that are animated. I mean,
my top either two, number one or number two item
is an animated thing. Just revealing that right
now. And I don't even have an order for my list.
Yeah, right. But I have a very clear favorite
that I'll save to the end so I can gush about
it. But yeah. um i think jill knows what it is
but yeah i mean i think you and i are aligned
on what it is uh yeah okay i think you're also
going to be able to guess what my number one
is but i'm not going to reveal that until later
so okay all right all right wow i love it we're
we're we're we're we're we're keeping you in
suspense over here you know you gotta you gotta
keeping in suspense now actually seems like a
great time let's take a quick commercial break
and okay more of andre and jill's lists uh just
because we need to get these breaks in as well
yeah And we're back. Hell yeah. So we kept in
suspense long enough. Jill, you were just about
to say, what do you got? So I'll come back around
to some animated things that I have on my not
organized list at all. But my number nine and
eight, I'm going to kind of cheat and put them
together and kind of slightly count them apart.
is uh the mcu tv series uh specifically wandavision
and loki with a nice little honorable mention
oh man you're really gonna do falcon oh oh you're
gonna do falcon the winter soldier like that
you're gonna put falcon winter soldier below
what if no i'm not i mean what if gets an honor
what if gets an honorable mention because i stuck
with the soldier get nothing you know nothing
you lose falcon and the winter soldier is fine
oh i was not i don't want to say great it's good
i enjoyed it suffers this is turning into a completely
different conversation falcon in the winter suffers
the biggest problem of they wasted the very first
episode and it's already a short series so why
did you do that and then once you hit episode
three which is where zemo shows up that's when
it starts its upward climb and it's great Until
you remember that there's all these other side
characters that need to be pulled in and the
villain, main villain, the extremist girl, that
was kind of an eye roll. So it's like parts of
it were good. Lots of parts of it were not so
good. Hats off to Captain America, John Walker.
I was about to say John Walker. John Walker.
I hate him, but I love him. More with Wyatt.
Wyatt Russell. Yeah, Wyatt Russell. More with
him. Yeah. I absolutely love Wyatt Russell and
he's great in that role, but it's funny to me
that I actually think Falcon and Winter Soldier
had the best ending episode of all of them. Yes,
I would agree. Right. It ended really strongly,
but it started weak. But it's the worst of the
series. Yeah. Besides, I don't know. I didn't
really like What If. I stuck with it and I liked
How it ultimately ended. Which is why it's getting
the honorable mention. But WandaVision and Loki
to me are the. the peak MCU series of the year.
Hawkeye I am leaving off primarily just because
we have not finished it so it's not fair for
me to really rank it but WandaVision and Loki
just very high up there. I like them for very
different reasons. I can't really decide which
one I like more. Most of the time it is WandaVision
because I like those characters a lot and seeing
them do different things in going through the
different eras of TV is so cool but the ending
is a bit of a wet fart. Loki on the other hand
really loved the setup the characters the atmosphere
the mystery what's gonna what season two might
possibly be but at the same time it's 11 it's
been like what 11 12 years of loki so it's like
this is really cool bring in i want to see more
characters interact with loki who i haven't seen
before or i want to see what's next and please
bring back owen wilson yes please die if owen
wilson does not come back um but those are my
eight and nine and eight eight nine duking it
out up there okay thank you marvel for those
tv series yeah it was a lot of fun what honestly
being watching all those tv series throughout
the year like i i never i expected that i would
have had been i feel like i got mcu'd out when
what if came out right because we watched it
and it didn't hit those first episodes for me
so i you know stopped you know i stopped after
cha -cha and i was like okay like this is supposed
to be the good one and i was like okay like i
think i'm good yeah right but it's been it's
been fun to kind of have these little sides they're
not even side stories loki i most certainly isn't
a side story at this point um but it's been fun
watching it in a new format um well that's why
i'm interested in hearing your opinion after
you finished hawkeye yeah because hawkeye definitely
feels like a side story but in a good way sure
like it's lower stakes well to the to that to
that point right like so falcon winter soldier
and so those first three shows falcon winter
soldier loki and wandavision those felt like
appointment they call like they phrase it's like
appointment tv where it's like you had to tune
in this week or else you're gonna get spoiled
on social media oh my gosh what's gonna happen
and i never ran into that with with hawkeye which
is why we're only halfway through it but not
in a bad way, right? Like we're enjoying it.
It's just that, you know, Loki, especially I
think, and this is why it's kind of my, the favorite
is that was going to happen immediately. Yeah.
Yeah. Like I knew about Gator Loki before I actually
saw the, yeah, it was just kind of fun being
part of that discourse in real time. Something
that all of this makes me think about in food
for thought is whenever it comes time to do another
Marvel rewatch, what does that include? Because
up to Endgame, it's obviously just the movies.
But when you get to the next big team -up movie,
be it Avengers 2 .0, whatever they're going to
call it, what do you do to prepare for that?
Do you watch all the movies and all the TV shows?
Or do you just start with where Endgame left
off and just... the TV shows and the movies,
or does it depend on who you know is in the movie?
It's very interesting now. I think the MCU is
reaching a point where I think you just are going
to have to interact with the parts that interest
you. You can choose. Yes, you can be the Uber
fan and follow everything, but I think it's no
longer... With the rate that they're putting
out content... I'm not going to say it's unsustainable,
but it's more like I don't think they're designing
it in such a way where you have to watch everything
to understand. You have to be caught up on everything.
I don't think there will ever be an endgame kind
of movie where you need to have watched all the
other MCU films before it to get the full experience
out of it. I just don't think that's going to
happen. I'm going to close out this list with
this little note because this is the only opportunity
I'm going to have to bring it up. I finally got
to watch Lovecraft Country this past week and
a half. Hats off to Jonathan Majors. Very excited
to have him now in the MCU as, spoiler alert,
as Commander Kang. Can't wait to see what else
you're going to do because you're a great actor.
You could have phrased it as the one who watches.
The one who watches. No, it's the one who remains.
The one who remains. Yeah, Kang the Conqueror.
What were you calling him? Captain Kang? Captain
Kang, I said last time. Regardless, it's great
to have him in Marvel MCU land. Looking forward
to seeing what else he brings in. It's been too
long since we talked about video games, so I
want to talk about a video game. I got to give
a shout out to, and this is probably one of my
top five things this year, and it's a PS5 game.
It's Returnal. Mike, are you familiar? I know
Jill had to sit there. Jill had to live through
this. I was obsessed with this game. Have you
heard anything about this, Mike? I have not,
no. Okay, so Returnal. It's a PS5 exclusive,
so once you get one, get this for sure. It is
a roguelike shooter made by the guys who made,
oh my gosh, they're called Housemarque Studios.
They made Rezogun. They're really good at making
arcade -y like games. They really have that.
that feeling of like so like just they all the
games they've made so far are pretty relatively
simple high score shooting games okay so they
have that that kind of feel down that kind of
visceral like i just want to get you know they
have that kind of gameplay game feel down um
and they applied it brilliantly to this roguelike
sci -fi horror shooter that is brutally difficult
um it's a time it's you but the whole premise
is that you're an astronaut uh selene and uh
sci -fi future and you crash land you follow
a signal to this uh remote planet called atropos
and you crash land on it and you're all alone
your ship is gone and basically you all you have
is your pistol and every time you die you immediately
wake back up in the middle of this you know barren
uh wasteland uh alien world and you have to start
the loop again um and you kind of will pick up
you'll see your court you're like you'll see
corpses of selene on other dead runs and you
pick up logs of her and she'll uh you kind of
like like experience her mind kind of slowly
unraveling due to the time loop um and it's just
it's it's it's totally my aesthetic it's kind
of like a sci -fi meets lovecraft you know all
the all the aliens are really weird and nasty
looking and You got these awesome sci -fi weapons
that feel really good to shoot. It feels really
good to move around that game. It is brutally,
brutally difficult though. Like you will, you
will die and you'll lose like an hour, hours
of progress at times. It's just soul crushing,
but it's part of the experience. I don't know.
It's so good. I like death loops and stuff like
that too. Like Groundhog Day and Happy Death
Day and stuff like that. I do like those. this
this definitely for video games this felt like
the year of the time loop because there was this
game returnal there was death loop um 12 minutes
was a game where you had a world outer wilds
had a dlc uh there's the forgotten city that
had a time loop this was probably my favorite
like minute two was the minute minute was not
this year but it came out last year yeah yeah
This is definitely my favorite of those time
loop games. It's really just... It's a really
brutal, difficult experience, but it's a super
memorable one, and it draws a lot of inspiration
from all my favorite stuff. So, yeah, I would
highly recommend checking it out if you can.
The one small shout -out, and I didn't shout
this out in Astro, but the game makes excellent
use of the PS5's DualSense controller, and that's
just, it has very fancy rumble, which doesn't
sound great on paper, but when you're holding
the controller, they flex on you right away because
you wake up in basically a rainy alien rainforest
that you can feel the droplets on the helmet
like on the controller like they haven't that
precise it just feels good to shoot guns in that
game it's awesome i i can't remember it enough
um yeah returnal so i have four i guess related
things then okay honorable mention i have a video
game hitman 3 hitman 3 hitman 3 and like hitman
just has me now whenever they release something
they just have me now agent 47 agent 47 i love
it um Also on my honorable mention list, I have
Loki and then Hawkeye. Because I do like Hawkeye
better than Loki. And then going to my real list,
number five, WandaVision. WandaVision is your
favorite out of all of them. WandaVision is so
creative. Yes. It started off so strong. It did
not. But the start was so amazing to me. And
then just the feeling of the Marvel community
online. With this show, since it was like the
first one, you know, and that was so much fun
to be a part of from the beginning. So that's
why it's so high is because of the experience
for me. Loki was fine. I loved Loki. Hawkeye,
I edge it like slightly above. And then going
back, Hitman 3 was on my honorable mention list
because Hitman is just so much fun to dress up,
figure out all these different missions and different
ways and everything like that. It's just always
fun. Even to watch others play. It's just a blast.
Yeah, I mean, if Hitman's one of those games
where I've watched it way more than I've played
it to that point, it's so much fun to watch.
Just people try to scramble to like, you know,
it's such a. man those so that new this new trilogy
hitman one two and three they just their tone
is so perfect because it's just the right amount
of ridiculous but also agent 47 is so self -serious
that it just plays so goddamn well like you're
literally like throwing like you know you're
dressed up as a sushi chef like throwing dead
fish at people to knock them out or something
or like new berlin level is literally a nightclub
where you like are just making people take bad
acid and stuff like yeah right you're a dj and
you make the the booth explode to kill somebody
like yeah and there's a new one they have like
that basically a knives out level right where
you get to you get to impersonate yeah it's a
murder mystery and you get to impersonate the
detective but then you get to kill one of your
targets as part of the murder mystery so you
can just kill them while you're investigating
the murder it's so good people it's amazing yeah
it's just so well done Yeah. So that's on my
honorable mention as well. Just to relate that
to everything we've talked about so far. Yeah.
Jill, you got some others. I do. So from my list.
So I think this would be number seven. And I
got an honorable mention to come along with this.
So number seven for me is from Amazon Prime Clarkson's
Farm. This was I talked about this on the show
over the summer, but this was a documentary series
following a grand tour slash Top Gear host Jeremy
Clarkson as he. builds and works on this farm
he owns in the cults waltz region of the uk or
england um and it's you know it's him shouting
at farming machinery and not understanding why
he cannot go fast and use heavy power to make
things happen for him because of course that's
not gonna work um it's hilarious i love it everyone
gives him shit about buying a lamborghini tractor
because he only bought it because it's a freaking
lambo and it's massive and he can't park it in
his farm barn thing and he makes messes and explodes
things and then dedicates an entire episode about
how i'm gonna help the the environment and all
the local animals and he does some like really
nice sweet things he tries to build a pond makes
a mess he tries to build nests for birds makes
a mess about that um he gets bees he makes honey
that kind of works out for him although he gets
stung on the ass um it's great it's it's hilarious
and if you're already a fan of jeremy clarkson
from his other work then you're definitely going
to enjoy this so that's the side on the tag on
item for honorable mention is the grand tours
lockdown series that came out um in 2021 as well
there's a couple episodes that go into it but
the one that really stuck out to me was i think
think episode three where they are trying to
figure out why american muscle cars never caught
on in um in the uk so they drive cars from the
1970s uh to nowhere land in i think outside of
scotland um and at one point one segment they
uh shit on the pontiac aztec because the the
challenge is to figure out what is the worst
car american car ever made um and so they have
a couple of cars all american they also have
some uh russian cars and the way to determine
the worst car is the car that dies the first
the first car to die and the first car that dies
is they're bashing it into each other is the
aztec and i grew up with an aztec my dad loved
his i loved it i would have inherited that car
Walter White made it cool. So watching Jeremy,
Richard, and James just shit on that car was
so funny. Honorable mention to Lockdown. Andre,
you got something else for us? Uh, yeah, sure.
Let's see. I am going to pivot away from video
games and instead talk about a TV show about
a video game. Um, arcane, we got to give a shout
out to Jill and I just finished it, uh, about
a few days ago. Um, and this is kind of the surprise
of the year for me. Cause I mean, I had no, I'm
not a league legends. So yes, we talked about
it very briefly for a little bit. So, uh, our
last episode, so I'll keep this short. I'm not
a league legends guy at all. Had no idea the
show was a thing until everyone started talking
about it. And I begrudge. kind of we will we
kind of want we don't have progression but we're
like all right cool we should check this out
and it was great i highly recommend it uh you
don't need to know anything about league of legends
beforehand to watch this show um it's just such
a it's a really well animated you know series
i guess right not much more else to say about
it um excited for season two which i've already
confirmed and it's maybe more invested in the
league of legends larger universe it's a really
good commercial for the game i guess it's good
enough that i was like man i kind of want to
play league but i haven't yet so we'll uh Highly
recommend that. You don't need to be into games
at all. It's just a really well written show
with fleshed out characters and it's really gorgeous
to look at too. Two thumbs up. I'm surprised
you mentioned that so soon. It's really good.
That's all I'll say right now. Alright. I have
two honorable mentions and I'll share my number
four and then The top three after that. How are
we already at top three for you? How am I so
behind? I'm sitting at number six. I'm not going
to have to stop. Literally, what I'm doing is
revealing three at a time. Catch up if you want
to. I'll buckle up that. I'm ready. Let's go.
You first. The two honorable mentions I have
that are remaining. One is Mortal Kombat because
I'm so happy that Mortal Kombat is back. And
I love this one. I thought it was very, very
good. It was better than the original, which
I still have a soft spot for the original. Yeah,
I know. It's probably on your worst list. I don't
care. It's not on my worst list. Definitely not
on my worst list. Okay. All right. The other
one I have on my honorable mention, it did not
crack the top 10. But it is a return to form
for a series that I'm glad is there. The Suicide
Squad. We haven't seen this one yet. Oh, yeah.
I haven't seen any of it. It is one of the first
movies we went back to the theaters for, even
though it was on HBO Max the same day. We decided
that I decided it. Claire went with me, basically
said, you know what? I'm just going to go to
the theaters because this is what I want to see
in theaters. So the Suicide Squad, much better
than Suicide Squad. That's not confusing at all.
Yeah, right. Exactly. James Gunn, of course,
all the characters are excellent, including the
new ones. Really enjoyed it. The fact that it's
a freaking starfish is the main bad. It's incredible.
And so it didn't crack the top 10, but I'm very
glad to see it's still alive and kicking. So
that is the end of my honorable mention list.
Do I do number four or do I wait for you? Because
I'm happy to wait. If you're cool waiting, let
me throw some honorable mentions. This is going
to be so unorganized. I'm going to start with
some honorable mentions and then I'll go to numbers
four and five in my top list. So honorable mentions
that I want to throw out. Mortal Kombat is one
of them. I really liked most of Mortal Kombat
except for the main character. Yes. Fair. Cold
sucks ass. The big bugaboo here is there's no
freaking Mortal Kombat in this movie, so it shouldn't
actually be called Mortal Kombat. There are people
that died. Mortal Kombat is literally... the
tournament, and there is no tournament. They're
training for the tournament. So that's why it
shouldn't be called Mortal Kombat. It should
be called something else, and then at the end,
they hit you with a fist to the face and be like,
tune in next time for Mortal Kombat. The actual
tournament. Alright, fine. So Audible mentions
Mortal Kombat. Another Audible mention is a TV
series. This is something that Andre and I...
threw on to watch while we ate dinner and did
not expect to get very invested and then my god
did we crime scene kitchen yeah crime scene kitchen
brought unexpected joy it did yes it was a nice
it was a fun few months and we were tuning in
every week you know we enjoy trying to figure
out the clues ourselves and whether or not we
would have missed some obvious things like some
contestants definitely were just not paying attention
um so those are two honorable mentions and then
Now we're in the best of list. Number six is...
If you couldn't tell, she's organizing this on
the spot. No, I'm just scrolling through. I'm
going through my list. I'm already trimming out
stuff because I feel like I have to get to my
top three. Number six is In the Heights. I love
a music... music movie music music movie musical
oh my god it was for you to say not at all you
can just edit that out i love a post i love a
movie musical There it is. There it is. Based
off of Lin -Manuel Miranda's first Tony Award
winning musical, In the Heights was vibrant,
well acted, well choreographed. I watched it
at home. I did not go to the theaters to see
this. But if you want a film that kind of just
is summer on the screen. In the Heights is that.
I really had a great time watching it. I've listened
to the soundtrack from both the show and the
movie multiple times. I've done a Peloton ride
to the music. I didn't realize this was sponsored
by Peloton. I love my Peloton. Our lives are
sponsored by Peloton at this point. I love Peloton.
When I'm on the Peloton, I go into this fugue
state where I'm just thinking about other things.
It's wonderful. That's my number six. And then
number five is a book. We're getting one piece
of literature on here, and that is Andy Weir's,
I believe it's his third novel, Project Hail
Mary. This is the same author who wrote The Martian,
which was made into a small little movie a couple
years ago with a no -name actor named Matt Damon.
Maybe you've heard of him. Project Hail Mary,
I would say, is not as good personally as The
Martian, both the book and the movie, but I really
enjoyed reading it. I don't want there's a lot
going on in it, so I don't want to spoil too
much. But the basic premise is an astronaut wakes
up on a ship, but he doesn't remember why he's
there, doesn't know what he's supposed to do
or even how he got there. And the book is him
remembering the situations that brought him to
this moment and then what he has to do. after
what the actual mission is um and i found it
to be a really great read and i'm happy i got
a copy from the library so if you don't feel
like buying a book use your local library library
yeah so those are now we're caught up okay so
we're caught okay i gotta rattle off some honorable
mentions then these are going to be mostly games
but whatever um honorable mentions to a gretzico
season Four that we're on. We're about to finish
it out now. I highly recommend Regrets Go. It's
Hello Kitty meets an office office space. It's
so good. It's on. Mike is very confused. It's
a it's a long running anime series. Netflix has
it. I think I know it, but I've talked about
it before. It's Hello Kitty plus office space.
That's an interesting combination. So Hello Kitty
herself is not a red panda. Yeah. Yeah. It's
done by the studio who makes Hello Kitty. Right.
So it's in that it's very much in that vein,
all talking animals. But it's it's an adult office
comedy instead of whatever the heck a little
kitty is. I actually don't watch Hello Kitty.
So little girl that wears a kitty outfit. Yes.
Yeah. Shin Megami Tensei five. We talked about
it, I think, last couple of weeks ago. But that's
been great. Let's see. Ratchet and Clank on Ratchet
and Clank. Rift Apart was a fantastic game. Also,
I recommend whenever you get your PS5 to just
check that out. It's basically like a playable
Pixar movie at this point. It's insane. I was
giving shit to Peloton, but really we're sponsored
by PS5. We're sponsored by Sony PlayStation.
Peloton and PS. Notice I'm talking about all
these to get through that when really Sony would
definitely not pay me to talk about one of my
top. four things um and then death store um is
a small is an indie game it's kind of like a
zelda uh dark souls kind of kind of game you
play as a cute little uh a cute little raven
that has a little sword and a bow and your whole
it's it's it's uh isometric it's it's a fun little
zelda zelda game um with really fun characters
and really great music uh highly recommend just
a fun little experience um okay we got to talk
about Dune, guys. Did you watch Dune, Mike? Nope.
Well, we can't be friends anymore. Well, right.
Well, now I kind of just like, well, what do
I say? He just took the wins out of his stale.
I know. So, I mean, it tells you how much, how
excited I was for this movie. I'm a Denny Villeneuve.
It tells you how little I was excited about this
movie. So I haven't read the books. I have not
read any single page of the Dune series, but
I am a Denny Villeneuve stan, okay? Blade Runner
2049 is one of my favorite movies ever. And I
mean, the guy, like this guy just doesn't miss,
honestly. He hasn't put out a bit of movie. don't
like. Go ahead and spoil it. What's that? Go
ahead and spoil it. There's not much to spoil.
I say one of the weaker parts of this movie is
the narrative itself, which sounds damning, but
if I just gave you a Wikipedia summary of the
things that happened in this movie... This is
on your top list? This is on your top list? Yeah,
this is on my top list. Get your damn in the
story. Well, no, the story is not bad. Danny
didn't write the story. Well, that and then also
like. All I'm saying is that if I gave you a
Wikipedia summary of the things that happens
in the plot of this movie, this specific movie,
because it is just the first half of the book,
you'd be like, okay, sure, whatever. But it is
an audio -visual experience, my guy. We went
to go see this in IMAX. It was awesome. I would
actually say what more important part is the
audio. If you ever watch this movie, I would
say put on headphones or watch it with a good
sound system or something. because the sound
is just, oh, like Denny has, so he just knows
how to give the viewer a sense of scale for all
of these crazy giant ass sci -fi ships, these
battles, the giant sandworm. Oh my God. It really,
he really does a good job of pulling you into
this world of Arrakis and making you feel like
you are there. in a new in a different sci -fi
reality almost right all like all these characters
all these political this political intrigue it
just draws you in and he just knows exactly how
to frame a scene to just make you want to watch
more on the edge of your seat i love this movie
it was a visual masterpiece i am so pumped that
they are making a second one and potentially
more because it would be it would be significantly
harder to recommend If we didn't like we watch
this knowing there is going to be a follow up.
Right. And the movie opens with Dune part one.
Right. If they didn't get a part two, that would
simply put a damper on things because this kind
of this movie ends right as the story is kind
of ramping up. Right. And yeah, I mean, honestly,
just. everybody it's a star -studded cast and
they're all bought in you know like no one's
phoning it in even timothy chalamet's not not
not phoning it and i think he's fine i just don't
think paul atreides is very interesting as a
character he's not written he's not written to
be interesting exactly right um so it's not his
fault i guess but um yeah i mean i just i loved
the way this movie looks i love this way this
movie sounds um and it just it definitely serves
being on the big screen with a really great sound
system. So it's one of my favorite experiences
of this year and I will equally enjoy it again.
And, and probably the plan is I'm going to read
the book next year, the full first book, and
then the Dune two or whatever Dune part two is
set for 2023 at this point. So, yeah. You're
better than me. I planned on reading a book a
month this year. Guess how many books I got done
this year. One. Do you want some book recommendations?
2021 was the year I rediscovered reading. I just
don't read. I don't know how to read either,
man. You just got to find the thing that like,
you know, try Project Hail Mary. It was very
good. All right. All right. I'm going to do four
and three. Okay. Four and three on my list. Top
10. Summer of Soul, number four. which was to
see that i wanted to yeah it's so recommend it
it's um the uh harlem culture festival it is
the unaired footage that was basically hidden
away forever questlove got his hands on it he
directed it majority of it's just a concert of
just music that you can just groove to sure uh
the rest is social commentary on the time And
one of the lines that still sticks with me today
that I hope you guys will watch it and enjoy.
They asked people at this festival, because it
was right around the time of the moon landing,
how do you feel about the moon landing? And the
one guy goes, why do I care about rich people
going to space? We've got problems here. It still
resonates today, especially with Elon Musk flying
Michael Strahan to space for no reason other
than he can say he went to space and blah, blah,
blah. It's such a good line. Such a good movie.
Highly recommend. And number three, we didn't
really get the chance to talk to it about it
because you guys still haven't seen it. I don't
think, but it's TV show. Squid Game. Yes. We
have not seen it. Squid Game is so good. It is
my caveat for this list. I said that I had a
caveat for it. Technically speaking, it came
out in 2020, but it didn't come to the States
until 2021. Okay, got it. Right. I mean, there's
no way of, yeah. America at large experienced
this show in 2021, right? Exactly. It became
a phenomenon in America in 2021. So I think it
counts. Highly recommend it. It is outstanding.
I'm surprised you guys still have avoided spoilers
because I feel like it's everywhere now. But
Squid Game is excellent. Highly recommend. If
you haven't seen it yet, watch it with subtitles.
Do not watch it dubbed. It annoyed me dubbed.
And I didn't realize I had it first originally
dubbed. But I went back to subtitles. Highly
recommend it. You just need to read it. It's
a thin little line. That's it. So yeah, that's
my soapbox for that. Yeah. Cool. All right. I
will do my four and three. Yeah, definitely four
and three, but some more honorable mentions.
Hooray. So some honorable mentions that I have
things I enjoyed. Muppets Haunted Mansion. I
talked about this on a Halloween podcast that
we did. So fun. And Will Arnett is so great to
see, even though he cannot sing. I'm sorry, Will.
Don't become a singer. He just got a role in
a movie replacing Armie Hammer. He did? I thought
that was somebody else. Oh, yes. No, that's Will
Arnett. No, no, no, no, no. Good for you, Will.
Replacing Armie Hammer in a Taika Waititi film
because, you know, Armie Hammer is a cannibal.
Yeah. Next goal wins. That's the movie. Next
goal wins. That's it. Yeah. Well, this actually
is a really nice segue into another honorable
mention, which is actually for another podcast
with Will Arnett. It's Smart List. Will Arnett,
Sean Hayes, and Jason Bateman. Just three friends
talking to other celebrity friends of theirs
or gushing over their own superstar crushes,
which include Ken Burns. If you have not heard
of this podcast, it's fantastic. There are quite
a few commercials, but you can just skip right
through them. Don't say that. You're not allowed
to say that. Don't say that. I did. We have commercials.
Don't do it. Yeah, what the fuck? Get us money.
Arliss just has so many of them. It's like five
minutes. They're loaded up. They're loaded up.
They're loaded up, but it's a really great listen.
This one might be loaded up too. Yeah, right.
I was about to say, we shouldn't be complaining
about buying us lots of commercials. Well, I
did it anyway. Okay. And then the final honorable
mention is Luca. yes gorgeous pixar film loved
the story loved the characters i want to live
in this fictional slice of italy that they have
created um also a really great example if you
just want like summer in a film luca's got it
for you as for my number four and five um number
no four and three number four is a documentary
that recently came on to hbo max it's street
gang how we got to sesame street which is actually
based on a book i read a couple years ago and
if the name doesn't check that out yeah the name
doesn't uh give it away it is about the creation
of sesame street in 1969 and how it's continued
on with its legacy and what it did which that
was so innovative at the time and what it continues
to do. Everybody knows I love puppets. So of
course I had to catch this. And then number three
is, I guess, slightly cheating because we haven't
finished it, but. It's Peter Jackson's Get Back
three -part documentary on the Beatles when they
came together to record the album that would
become Let It Be. And then later they will record
what will become Abbey Road. I'm a Beatles fan.
Really enjoyed the first, saw all part one, saw
half of part two. It's really fantastic. If you
are a Beatles fan, this is a must watch. If you
are curious about the Beatles, you're going to
watch some really great moments where they create
songs that are going to become some of the best
things they've ever written. There is some parts
where it's like they're just kind of fiddle faddling
around and having fun. But it really turns what
we thought we knew about this period in the Beatles
era around on its head. There was a documentary
called Let It Be. or yeah let it be that really
it twisted what the narrative actually is so
this kind of sets a straighter story um and you
know yoko didn't deserve all that hate who knew
who knew it wasn't it wasn't just yoko nope i
mean yoko but not really all right who's who's
up you it would be you okay all right cool cool
all right so this is a shout out this is this
is not an honorable mention this is probably
actually one of my top five maybe even top three
um but we had a whole episode for my part of
it already and that's the green knight this is
probably this is probably my favorite movie i
watched this year i'm not gonna lie um and i'm
not gonna expand on it too much because i kind
of hold to what i said in our previous podcast
where we spent i probably spent like 20 -ish
minutes talking about it but Yeah, I'm still
thinking about it. I need to watch it again.
This is definitely it's probably because I wasn't
anticipating it, if that makes sense. Right.
Like Dune, I knew I was going to like, you know,
and I mean, even the Spider -Man, which will
come up in a little bit. I knew I was going to
like this. This is definitely a different movie
than what I'm used to watching. But it really
drew me in. I'm still thinking about it. And
it's yeah, I want it. it's such a fascinating
take on this old medieval tale, right? Gotta,
I want to rewatch it again. So yeah. Shout out
screen night. Hell yeah. Let's see. Hell yeah.
Okay. So probably my second favorite game that
I've played this year. I don't know. It's tough
to say top three game for sure. um it's halo
infinite um i was shocked by how much that's
impressive since you only recently really got
i know and that's that's why i'm like qualifying
it because it's definitely recency biased this
game and it's multiplayer came out only a month
ago so pretty late into 2020 right 2021, yes.
And I wasn't even really all that excited for
it. It wasn't like I was like, oh, man, Halo's
going to come out. I'm going to be so pumped
for it. They shadow dropped the multiplayer,
you know, three weeks early. And I was like,
sure, yeah, it's free. I'll download it. And,
you know, that scene in Ratatouille where Ego
has, is that the critic's name? Yeah, it's Ego.
And he gets instantly transported back to his
childhood. That was me playing Halo Infinite.
I immediately felt like it was 2007 again, and
I was booting up Halo 3 for the first time, and
I just felt right back into it. I had been addicted
to this multiplayer for weeks, still can attest.
And I'm just chewing through the campaign now.
And there are, I have issues with it. I have
qualms with it, but this is the first time I
felt like I've really enjoyed a Halo game since
Halo Reach. And like, what, that was like 2010.
And it's just, it's comfort food for me. It's
video game comfort food. The game, the Halo,
it's on PC and Xbox. If you have access to it,
the multiplayer is free to play. It's so easy
to recommend that. Sony's at your door. they're
i know right now they're pulling my my shadow
sponsor now yeah right and uh it it really does
feel like a great return to form i think the
actual narrative of the the campaign so far seems
kind of weak but and and the whole campaign is
open world quote unquote now but the world itself
is a little smaller than you think so it's not
like hey like people were like oh it's like halo
meets zelda breath of the wild i'm like no it's
it's not that but it's still it's still a really
they 343 industries finally nailed the halo the
32nd gameplay loop the fun gameplay loop of just
going around shooting aliens picking up power
weapons and wreaking havoc um and it's it it
feels good to be playing a good halo game again
so that's good to hear my big entry in the top
three probably yep okay All right. I'm going
to do my number two and then we'll go around
and do our number one. Well, I'll do our number
two and then we'll do our number one. I still
have to do my number three. No, I did four and
five. Five and four. You did four and three.
I thought I did five. What was my five? I don't
know. Okay. Well, I'll say a third. I'll say
an extra thing just to be thorough. Okay. My
number two, because it's no surprise what my
number one is. My number two. is spider -man
no way home and that's my number three so we're
overlapping let's go yeah i thought you had your
three already too no he's not even counting i
don't even know i kept it i kept spider -man
for last because i thought you were going to
bring it up later so i didn't i was like i was
just going through my list checking stuff off
and i was like okay release spider -man open
in case mike wants to bring it up later so spider
-man is in my top spider -man is in my top three
the spider -man spider -man no way home is number
two for me okay so at the top are we spoiling
this i don't know if there's a way to talk about
this not spoiling it go ahead No, no, no. I mean,
like, like, like, I want to. I think that's an
OK to go ahead to spoil it. We're going to spoil
it. Well, I'm just warning. Dive right in, baby.
Dive right in. We're going to warn everybody.
We're going to warn everybody. I mean, at this
point. It's the best of the year list. They're
spoilers, y 'all. Yeah, OK. You knew what you
were getting into when you clicked this. OK,
fine. All right. You pretty much knew what you
were getting into when you saw this movie because
you knew. what was a possibility. Yes. Right.
The very obvious. If you have any imagination,
you probably know what happened. Yes. Getting
the band back together again. This is absolutely
Spider -Man end game, you know, and I'm here
for it. I really enjoyed it. Into the Spider
-Verse, but live action. Yeah. So the rumor is
that Tobey Maguire is in Multiverse of Madness,
and I really hope not. What about Andrew Garfield?
He was the more entertaining Spider -Man. I feel
like the rumor that started is because it's Sam
Raimi, right? So it's like, of course, they're
playing to the idea of like, yeah, come back
and be in my movie, my MCU movie. And Bruce Campbell's
supposed to be in it. He better be in it. That
would be great. I want Bruce Campbell. I would
hope that Bruce Campbell would be in it because
of Sam Raimi and everything like that, but I
just don't know. Don't know. Yeah, because there's
so much stuff with this one that is now laid
out for you, kind of. I don't know. there's a
lot that has to be covered in this movie and
to try to get a bruce campbell cameo i mean you
could do it you could pull it off but it's a
lot all right so we're talking about multiverse
of madness let's talk about let's talk about
yeah um i'm glad to see the spider -man back
together yeah Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire,
all of them. The Garfield redemption arc. Oh,
it definitely was the Garfield redemption movie.
Not that I've seen Amazing Spider -Man 1 and
2. Oh, boy. We're planning on watching. What's
that? I don't think he needs redemption. I think
the movies need redemption, but Andrew Garfield
doesn't need redemption. He needs a hug. That's
what that means. He needs to be told it's not
his fault. It's okay. Because clearly no one's
telling him that. I loved Andrew Garfield. I
thought he was great as Spider -Man, even though
the movies sucked. My umbrage with the first
one, and I don't think he played it poorly, I
just think it was the way it was written, is
that his his his peter parker is too cool for
school for me in the first one i think it's closer
i think once we see him in amazing spider -man
2 where he's the more seasoned peter parker that
makes a little more sense but in seat in in the
first movie i didn't like his peter parker as
much you know fair you know and he was cool acted
you know no well exactly that's what i'm saying
is it's the writing so yes again i think andrew
garfield did fine yeah um the villains were great
um the fact that alfred molina even said that
he just did this for a paycheck he still was
one of my favorite parts of this whole thing
um yeah i need to address something on the podcast
what episode two of the podcast we're going way
back all right i wasn't even around this is yes
this is pre -jill wow i said andre do you remember
life before me i was about to say wow i was single
and ready to mingle back then huh wow wow anyways
this is pretty chill i said after seeing aquaman
that willem dafoe needed to stop acting oh no
wow that must have been before you saw lighthouse
too yes right that was before lighthouse came
out too yes because in aquaman he was just hokey
and over the top and annoying I take it all back.
Forgive me, Willem. Forgive me, Willem Dafoe.
He fucking nailed it, man. And it's clear that
he's having such a blast playing that role again.
Oh, my God. He was so happy to play that role.
So I take it back, Willem Dafoe. I still think
you were not great in Aquaman, but I don't think
you need to retire from acting anymore. that's
good so no this this movie it's hard to like
i don't know if i could call it a capital g m
good movie or whatever but like my my smile i
i was smiling the whole time watching this movie
it was such a fun experience and wait you you
smiled when it may die you monster yes i was
wrong with you i was cackling will finally die
But yeah, it was just such a fun, fun, fun watch.
Yes, I'm very glad I went and saw this in theaters.
Spider -Man No Way Home, highly recommend if
you haven't seen it yet, but now you know everything.
I'm going to jump in on this just because I also
have Spider -Man in my top three. I really enjoyed
it. It's not a perfect film. There are a few
characters that, villain characters from the
past films that got pulled in that are effectively
useless. I'm looking at you, Sandman. Well, sorry,
yeah, Sandman, I don't, did they actually not
get the guy to play, I forget who's the actor.
I think that was him. No, that was him. But they
probably, they voiced, I think they got him in
the booth, so they probably got him for four
hours or whatever. No, but he physically shows
up. But he physically shows up in the stock footage,
though, isn't it? I didn't think it was stock
footage. I could have sworn it was stock footage,
like, because you only see him, you know. No,
they had to de -age him. Ah, maybe. No, no, no.
So, like, okay, with Sandman. he's obviously
he's he's he's sandy the whole time right so
he's all cgi sandy sandy well but you know what
i mean though like he's not you know but he only
when he's quote unquote cured at the end and
he's in the statue of liberty like you know like
he looks out and that's the only thing you see
of him you know i'm pretty sure that real that
that footage of him was stock stock if it was
it further reinforces why he was superfluous
to this movie yeah right yeah all right that's
fair um My thing with him was I thought he was
real, but the problem is they wanted him to look
like old him, so they had to de -age him. Okay.
Well, they were de -aging. They de -aged Molina
and Dafoe, right? Both of them. Yeah, it's still
Thomas Hayden Church. He's put on a lot of weight,
too. Oh, has he? Okay, got it. Yeah, and he also
has a beard. So maybe it was stock photo of his
footage of his old face. That's what I'm saying.
If they de -aged him, then yeah, they used some
technology of stock footage. But that aside,
I really enjoyed, I really enjoyed, we all enjoyed
No Way Home. I'm very excited to see what this
means for Spider -Man, Tom Holland's Spider -Man.
Very confused about how this works with Venom.
let there be carnage because i have not seen
any of them but uh one of the post -credit scenes
shows tom hardy's uh eddie brock watching on
tv and he gets snapped back to i guess his his
uh dimension but he leaves a little bit of the
symbiote so are they never is that it for eddie
brock are we ever going to see tom holland and
eddie brock together how does that fit in what
about morbius the vampire who's not dracula i
don't know also has the vulture Yeah, so many
questions. I'm excited to see where this goes,
but my head hurts thinking about it. It's very
screwy. Also, one final thing about No Way Home.
Peter Parker, you only applied to three colleges.
What the fuck is wrong with you? Who does that?
I applied to eight. I was a theater major and
they told me to apply to 10 to 12 to maybe get
one or two because I also had to audition for
the program. So I applied to 14. but that's even
that's like a very like in your case that's a
very specific program we don't for peter harger
like i feel like he was just like i know i want
to go to mit because that's where my friends
want to go to and then let's throw in two other
baby like two other possibly ivy leagues i don't
remember if we saw the names but you don't apply
for three just to three schools come on but it's
so weird now because like in the comics in the
video game he went to empire state just because
it was like a real It was a fake college in New
York. It's basically NYU, but they didn't want
to pay them to have it in there. So it just throws
me off now that he goes to MIT. MIT, yeah. Yeah,
whatever. Spider -Man, two thumbs up. What's
your number two? If you didn't do number three,
you said it was in your top three. It's in my
top three. So my number two is going to be Arcane.
okay wow it was mentioned it was mentioned by
andre already i loved arcane i love the way it
looked i love the way it sounded i liked the
just the plot was really good they diverted a
lot of possibilities i was like wow yeah yeah
no i love it yeah that makes sense great um and
then i'll give an honorable mention to a video
game that definitely did not come out in 2021
or possibly in the 2020s at all um and uh but
i i played it this in 2021 and i freaking loved
it and that is xenoblade chronicles oh nice yeah
i think it came out in 2009 originally but it
did and then the remaster which you played came
out in 2020 um there you go close enough yeah
my roommate played that in college i remember
that so good i have a poster now that is of guar
planes which is not my favorite place in xenoblade
but you know what they had man it's what they
have man and it was you like japanese rpgs and
you haven't checked this one out it's great it's
fully voice acted by a british cast um future
doctor who companion um jenna not jenna coleman
um no it is jenna coleman uh she's in it I was
like, I don't want to get her confused with another
British. Right. And then like, it's, it's a small
change, but the reason it's an all British cash
is because, so this is a Nintendo property. It's
like a second party. Nintendo owns like distributing
rights to the studio. And so Nintendo of America,
when the game first came out, they didn't pick
it up. Right. They thought this isn't going to
do well enough in America. We're not going to
bother localizing it. but Nintendo of Europe
picked it up instead. So all the voices they
brought in were ones they had in -house, which
were all British. So it's just such, it's a cool
RPG because you hear voices in this anime game
that you don't usually hear because they don't
go by the old standbys. Not that the old standbys
are bad. I like hearing those voices too, but
it gives Xenoblade Chronicles 1 a very unique
flavor on the dub. And it's a great game. Like
Jill said, it takes a game of high quality for
somebody to stick with it for, I don't know,
you probably played it close to 90 -ish hours,
Jill? I can tell you right now. I have my switcher
in front of me. I didn't want to say Olivia Colman
because sometimes I flip the names. I think I
sunk over 120 hours into it. It's a long game.
120 hours well spent, though. I really enjoyed
it. um so that's my number two arcane is my official
number two so if you want to wrap it around back
to andre what's your number one all right mike
wait did you go andre number two my number two
was well my number two slash three was halo and
uh and spider -man i'm not gonna lie right so
i'm down to one final thing right okay do you
want to start us or do i fire it off I have one
final good thing, and then I've got a list of
not honorable mentions. Mine's very anticlimactic
for my number one. It sounds like I'm going to
do my number one. Do I do my number one? Do it.
My favorite thing that I consumed this year is
Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch. I'm still
very early in the process, but it's been a blast
so far. Oh, you have it. You got it. yes we talked
about this last episode oh that's right we did
yes okay cool right oh my god yeah metroid dread
is my game of the year for 2021 that's awesome
um i love this i love metroid as a series since
i'm like i grew up with it it's it's it's right
there next to zelda for me in terms of my favorite
nintendo series and this is so metroid dread
is the first wholly new metroid game in uh 2d
metroid game in 19 years right so yeah all the
other 2d game like the last 2d game we got was
a remake of metroid 2 samus returns which is
also fine it was good or it was good on the 3ds
that was a fun game i really liked that too the
this is maybe the same studio uh and it feels
like just what they really want like like it
feels unshackled by the constraints of the 3ds
it's it's it's everything samus returns was but
just 100 better um samus as a character is super
fun to inhabit she totally lets you live out
the power fantasy of exploring the salient world
finding cool upgrades facing super tough bosses
using those upgrades in creative and unique ways
that make you feel like this ultimate badass
uh it just it feels great to play the story itself
is whatever it's fine there whatever but like
the cut scenes are fun you get to see samus totally
kick ass and um yeah i don't know i would say
the only small disappointing thing about this
is that the music isn't at the supreme awesome
level of the other series like they're like most
of the other Metroid games I can listen to their
soundtrack like all the time I have those tunes
burned into my brain Metroid Dreads music didn't
quite reach that level for me but everything
else about it the gameplay the the visuals the
just the exploration all the new items it it
was such a blast to play it feels great to have
Metroid It echoes a lot of similar thoughts that
I have with Halo, where it feels good playing
an old series again, but all the more because
it sounds like this game is selling really well,
and Metroid historically has not done the greatest,
which is why it's been 19 years since there's
been a new Metroid game, or 2D Metroid. 2D Metroid,
yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's probably my second
favorite Metroid game next to Metroid Prime 2,
and it's just... i can't recommend this game
enough it it sounds like i don't have much to
say about it because there's really not much
i don't like about it it's yeah it was it was
and it's such a it's a tight 10 hour experience
you know it didn't feel bloated i didn't usually
honestly i play a lot of video games i get tired
of by about like i get tired playing them and
i never really beat them even though i enjoy
them you just committed to red dead i know right
yeah because i hired a redemption 2 again and
that's an example of that right where that's
that's a really good game i bought it when it
came out got probably seven or like three -fourths
of the way through it dropped it i just downloaded
it again started up again i have no idea if i'm
ever going to beat it but Metroid is not one
of those games. I beat that game twice in like
two weeks, basically. I love that game so much.
There we go. Favorite thing of 2021. Done. All
right. My favorite thing of 2021, shocker to
everyone, is Pig. Pig. It's a cage movie. It
still resonates with me. It was so freaking good.
Just his understated performance, because I expected
ultraviolence, like I said on our previous episode.
I don't need to dive into it anymore because
I've said it all before. But Pig still resonates
with me. I hope he gets a nomination for best
actor because he truly deserves it. This is Nick
Cage, by the way, in case you haven't known.
Yes, Nick Cage. And then Alex Wolfe, if he gets
a supporting actor, I wouldn't be shocked. But
at the same time, yeah, both of them were excellent
in this. But Nick Cage deserves a Best Actor
nominee for sure. Even if he doesn't win, he
deserves a Best Actor nomination at least. So
that is my number one of 2021. Is this on anywhere,
Pig? It is now on Hulu. It's on Hulu? Yes, it
is now on Hulu since December. Okay. All right,
I'll watch it. Yeah, so highly recommend. Awesome.
so for my number one I'm going to do an honorable
mention Green Knight is very loved that film
very happy I got to see that in a theater but
since it was already mentioned I'll do something
that has not and that's Ted Lasso season two
and it was a little cheating because I think
it came out right at the end of 2020 the show
came out in 2020 the season was this season was
the good so yeah then my memory of the timeline
so yeah the first season dropped in 2020 and
it was like a slice of heaven and amidst the
darkness and then season two came out this year
over the summer i believe and it was great uh
there was only september was the christmas episode
yeah but i think it started in june i think the
first the second august or september they did
the christmas episode and it was like A Christmas
episode in August or September? Okay. Why not?
Christmas in July or August in this case. Yeah.
So with the exception of possibly one episode
that I actually really, really like, this is
a really tight season with a great overarching
story for multiple characters that has a really
great payoff in the final episode. The one episode
that's not as good actually follows one character,
Coach Beard, pretty much exclusively. And a lot
of people didn't like it because it was very
different and weird. I actually loved it. I was
in the weird camp. I thought it was delightfully
weird and I think it sheds a lot of insight into
his character and I hope we get more. I don't
want that to be the one -off where it's like
we see him be vulnerable and all of that and
recognize that there are problems around him
and then from here on out, well, we dealt with
it. He's got his own things. It's kept under
the beard. We'll never see it again. all the
characters just having them around made some
very stressful points of 20 of the later part
of 2021 feel better. I just, I look forward to
seeing more. I think they only have one more
season left in their contract. I have. I personally
want them to do like a Ted Lasso -esque anthology
series where once Ted Lasso ends, they wait a
year or two and then they do another fish out
of water story. Maybe a British coach who does
like cricket comes over to the United States
and has to coach a basketball team. Something
like that. I don't know. You have baseball right
there. I was about to say baseball would be the
closer analog. I want the basketball stories.
All right. I'm digging my heels in. um but yeah
ted lasso season two is my number one thing um
of 2021 i do have a list of like dishonorable
mentions i don't know if this is the time but
uh let's go quick but yeah let's get it let's
dishonorable mentions 2021 dishonorable mentions
with the quick caveat that it doesn't necessarily
mean that they are hot garbage it means i was
disappointed in them so here we go Eternals.
We've talked about it. Yes. Sad Face. Army of
the Dead. I like parts of it, but then it just
kept going and going and going. I don't think
I was negative enough on it. That movie soured
on me over the months. That movie is too long
with too many characters, but it peaks. very
early very early yes as in as in just watch it
watch the watch the opening credits yeah wait
as soon as the title drops you can stop watching
no as soon as they get into las vegas stop okay
sure okay you gotta get the part where they have
like the vision of like how it's gonna go perfectly
yeah that's hilarious you're right you're right
um and then finally and it really pains me to
say this is cowboy bebop live action yeah i still
i'm still going working my way through it I'm
enjoying the actors. I'm enjoying the visuals.
There's a lot of passion put into this. It's
the writing. It just didn't work at all. It's
unfortunate. I'm sad that they're at least not
going to get that they can't even finish out
what they were going to do. It's going to end.
Season one is it. But hey, you know what? Emily
Paris got a second season. Now they've pissed
off an entire country. Good on you, Netflix.
You really picked the right horse there. So that's
my dishonorable mentions list. Andre, do you
have quick dishonorable mentions? No, I mean,
honestly, Jill hit most of those because we watched
a lot of things together. So, yeah, honestly,
I did know what Jill said. Yeah, I agree with
Army of the Dead being a dishonorable mention.
I also have to include Space Jam 2, a new legacy.
I didn't even write that on my list. I forgot
about that movie because I missed it. Locked
it out. Hey, man, I mean, if there's anybody
on this planet that would have liked Space Jam
2, it probably would have been me. i'm a big
lebron guy i'm really happy i didn't get you
any space jam 2 themed stuff for christmas it
was not good and i mean you know mitchell and
i talked about this it the worst thing that movie
did was it made it literally like the whole main
conflict it revolves around lebron being a bad
dad which makes no sense like it's counter to
his public image at least right so Yikes. Well,
that'll do it for this episode of the best and
a little bit of the worst of 2021 for media.
I have been your host, Mike. I have been joined
by Andre and Jill. We'll see you for many adventures
in 2022 for game for a movie where we ask, are
you game for a movie? Bye. Cheers. Bye.