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 am Mike, joined by Andre.
Jill. Oh, I almost got you. I thought we were
gonna, yeah, okay. What's wrong? We didn't even
talk about how to deorder. Yeah, we didn't. Did
we mess it up or what? How could we mess up what
was not planned? Right, I think we're good. I
thought we did a great job. Cool. Yeah, I just
thought I would get you. I was trying to get
you. That's really what it was. I was just trying
to catch you off guard. Well, I'm ready for anything.
Oh, are you? Are you ready for anything? All
right, then what are you drinking? I'm drinking
grapefruit sparkling water from Whole Foods.
grapefruit sparkling water jill i am drinking
a passion fruit green bubble tea from kung fu
tea i guess this is an ad not sponsored now not
sponsored you know it's refreshing it's got boba
i'll ignore the minions that are on the packaging
yeah right yeah right it's filthy with minions
oh of course oh my gosh but at least i get to
stab the eye You have to commit eye violence
to get into the boba tea on a minion. And I feel
nothing as I plunge it in there. I just learned
a lot about you, Jill. Just cold -blooded. Absolutely
cold -blooded. This is not a minion household.
Not a minion household. Definitely not. Well,
I guess I'll hold down the fort with the alcohol
because I am alcohol. I have from Vermont Zero
Gravity Power Suit. Obviously, you guys can't
see it. I was about to say, it is getting green
-screened. It is green -screened beyond belief.
I'm sure it's a very lovely can. Power suit,
not leisure suit? It is power suit. It has old
-school... It looks like Kamen Rider stuff. That's
awesome. Yeah. As soon as I saw the can design,
I was like, I need this. Yeah, that's awesome.
It's pretty good. It is a... It's a dippa? No,
it's just an ippa. But yeah, Tropical Hop Trifecta
of Flavor. It says unleashing a tropical. How
is it? You enjoying it? It's very good. This
is actually my third of the four pack. It's good.
And like, I can't say anything bad about it,
but it's just that, you know, it's middle of
the road. You see it, you grab it. You're just
like, I know what I'm getting with this. So it's
good. Yeah. Look at me now for it. You know,
good to have in the fridge. Exactly. It's at
the new. So we have new liquor store down the
road. Oh, you do? I do. And it's honestly awesome.
We walked in and it's just like this little place.
But when I tell you they have walls and walls
of booze, they have walls and walls of booze.
Do you think I could get bougie -ass rum there?
Probably. You remember when I was like, it was
like last year, I was super pumped to find that
Denizen rum. I need another bottle of that. Think
they could have that? Maybe. I'm willing to look
for you because I need beer soon anyway. But
yeah, so that place is awesome. Highly recommend
it. I can't remember the name of it off the top
of my head. I just know where it is. It's one
of those places like you just know where it is.
You don't know the name of it, but you're like,
it's right there around the corner. Right, right,
right. Yeah. So we have talked about our drinks.
Yes. Let's talk about some TV and movies. We're
stretching the definition a little bit here today
on the media we consume. Game for a TV show.
All right. game for a series game for a series
okay series we're yeah all right chooms jack
in we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna chat about
uh cyberpunk edge runners nerd sorry i haven't
even heard of it yet so nerd you haven't you
haven't heard oh you haven't heard of it i haven't
heard of this at all but i see g and carlo esposito
and now you got carlo esposito is in there it's
by the same anime studio studio trigger who did
gurren lagann Well, same staff that worked out,
you know, Guy and X did Gurren Lagann, and then
people from Studio Guy and X left and made their
own studio. Well, I thought Trigger did, it was
the same studio that did Gurren Lagann. And it's
the bones of the people who did Gurren Lagann.
That is correct. Studio Trigger's big anime,
they have a bunch of them, but their big anime
is like Kill la Kill, Lich Academia, their most
recent big movie was Promare, that was a little
more, either way, this is like a well -known
Studio Trigger is like a well -known anime studio.
If you're into anime, you're familiar with Trigger
and their works are pretty popular and very stylistic.
So Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a 10 -episode miniseries
based off of the Cyberpunk universe. So it's
based off of the game, which is based off of
the tabletop game, right? Yeah. There's a lot
of layers. Yeah. So basically, this anime has
kind of taken the nerd world by storm, I feel
like, in my social circles at least, insofar
as it's kind of redeemed Cyberpunk 2077 as a
product. Nerd. Hey, come on. Don't knock until
you try it, man. You guys take this as offensive.
I'm just calling you a nerd. well i mean you're
not wrong um right either way so so i guess mike
like zooming out a little bit like were you how
familiar with cyberpunk 2077 like the video game
so i know of it um i never actually played it
i was kind of waiting to see um i know it was
project cd red cd project red yeah yeah i had
the letters right just in the wrong order yeah
just yeah you know What? The soundtrack opening
theme is by Franz Ferdinand? Yeah, the opening
is This Fire by Franz Ferdinand. The whole soundtrack
is so far pretty good. Just watch the intro and
you'll get an idea of how stylized it is. It's
awesome. This show just oozes style. It's definitely
very over the top. And so I guess circling back,
Cyberpunk 2077, huge video game that came out
at the end of 2020, kind of notorious for coming
out in an unfinished state, super buggy, super
massive disappointment. This is supposed to be
the future GTA game, right? This is supposed
to be GTA, but... but but sci -fi yeah and people
have like are hyping this up to be the next gta
and it was definitely not that and there's a
lot of controversy around that there was yeah
what they promised versus what they delivered
yada yada yada all this is to say there's been
a dark dark cloud over cyberpunk 2077 as a franchise
yeah and this is kind this anime coming out is
kind of like a perfect storm because they've
been steadily working on the video game fixing
doing a bunch of bug fixes it's in a stable state
now adding on to it etc etc um this show has
kind of garnered a lot of goodwill and a lot
of people are kind of jumping back into the video
game and realizing oh hey for what this is this
is a fun game and what i've heard is they're
fixing the video game so it's not like it's like
a train wreck anymore yeah it's it's kind of
getting the um it's no man's sky no man's sky
yes that's exactly what you're going to compare
it to yes exactly Andre's actually started playing
the video game. This show was successful in that
I got the video. I noticed they tied it perfectly.
I looked on Steam. It was on sale for $30. I
was like, okay, fine. I'll try it. Keanu Reeves
is inside my head talking trash to me. It's all
great. What was the whole thing when he was there?
You're breathtaking. No, you're breathtaking.
It was awesome. anyways so about the actual flippant
show uh so cyberpunk ed runners uh takes place
in night city uh that's like the quintessential
setting for both the game and the show love that
name night city yeah it's you know hyper stylized
near future think blade runner as like kind of
like a template for it right yeah blade runner
akira but akira yeah exactly like but turned
all the way up to 11 in terms of just ridiculousness
like it's just they it's it's kind of like a
world where corporate greed is taken completely
taken over and everybody has just given into
their hedonistic desires if that makes sense
i just want one of these days personal greed
instead of corporate greed like just once right
yeah i mean just once um so yeah it's definitely
very cynical very tough very like on the nose
commentary about our you know society and our
and capitalism at large whatever you know this
is like a world where like everybody has cybernetic
enhancements you know some people are more chrome
than than than flesh at this point you know okay
um uh you get you get cybernetic like limb enhancements
by going to what's called a ripper dock where
they literally like you just bring a bring a
part to you that's like this thing's gonna supposed
to go in my spine you're gonna attach it to me
and rip it and and just merge it into me like
okay cool you just yeah we mentioned that this
thing is incredibly gory there's so much the
show is incredibly gory and incredibly sexual
like it's super horny is not the right word for
it's horny No, it's horny. It's horny. It's horny.
Yeah, I mean... It's not a hentai by any means.
This movie's thirsty. This is not a judgment
on any anime. This show's thirsty. Finish your
thought, Mike, yeah? Oh, I was just saying, this
is not a judgment on any anime, but they all
have at least a little bit of horn. Like, a little
bit of horny. For the most part, yeah, I agree
with that. Yeah, this is like I would say the
horniness here is in line with also the video
game. You know what I mean? The video is also
very horny. And that's just a Polish video game,
right? Yeah, right. You know, yeah, there's there's
a lot of sex. There's a lot of violence, a lot
of gore, a lot of a lot of action. So definitely
not for kids. Don't want don't show the show
to your kids. This is not definitely not going
to show up on the kids version of Netflix. This
is TVMA. yes yep don't don't yeah and they're
milking that for all it's worth yeah okay um
and yeah i mean yeah it just does a really well
really solid job of kind of showing you this
world and through the perspective of like a young
uh i guess teenager right david martinez he's
kind of yeah He's kind of like shown as this
street kid who, whose mom is trying to get him
through the super prestigious, like Arasaka Academy,
Arasaka being the main corporation that controls
most of night city. So like, you know, he's growing
up in the streets, but he's attending school
to super high prestigious, like prep school almost.
Right. And long story short, he finds himself
in a situation where he needs to essentially
breaking bad. It's not the right word for it,
but like, you know, he needs to hit the streets
and start, you know, getting, getting getting
work through the underbelly of society and so
he kind of falls in street smart yes and he kind
of stumbles into this super awesome um spinal
cord uh extension uh like what we call it sandevistan
which is sandevistan it's a military grade cybernetic
enhancement that lets you basically go like the
flash for a few seconds right like where he moves
around basically that's the plot mcguffin that
kind of thrusts him into the cyberpunk like role
as in like you know a mercenary for hire living
in a society and it's just kind of following
the adventures of the edge runners game that
he kind of you know pals up with full of different
personalities different styles and it's you know
we're a full disclosure we're 10 that's 10 episodes
we're we're halfway through yeah and it's just
a really solid vibe you know okay it's it's like
it'll change tones on a dime where it'll be kind
of like this kind of buddy buddy kind of lovable
cast of characters and then all of a sudden extreme
violence or stuff breaks out and it kind of just
it keeps you on your toes and then it'll suddenly
shift to this really serene really cool like
moon dance sequence that's like i don't know
it does a really good job okay of flipping and
shifting shifting through tones and okay kind
of taps into why this kind of cyberpunk setting
is so interesting to people i feel like yeah
it's kind of you know retroactively revitalized
interest in what used to be a pretty busted game
so it's kind of a cool story what used to be
a busted game yeah okay okay interesting um i
gotta say like i had minor interest in the game
and then when everything was going wrong and
everything like that um because i do like the
idea of this world and everything yeah This might
be the way to get in. Yeah, and I think it did
that for a lot of people. You do not need to
play the game to watch this show. I don't remember
if Andre mentioned it, but, like, around the
same time that the show came out, the game was
put on sale for $30. That's what you were saying,
yeah. So, yeah, sorry. I knew what they were
doing. Exactly. They were very aware that, like,
oh, this would be a really good time to make
it more affordable, and it worked. And they've
gone through this before because, you know, obviously
they kind of had the same brain synergy with
the Witcher Netflix show because the same studio,
same game studio worked on the Witcher video
games, right? Yeah. three saw its peak player
count after the netflix show came out by that
point witcher three was like a five -year -old
game right and didn't they release a like uh
i'm not i'm they released they released some
like in -game items from the netflix show like
you can basically wear the henry cavill like
gerald outfit in which really Yes. I was going
to say, there was extra DLC on there. Yes. They've
also done the same thing with Edgerunners. You
can get David Martinez's, like, coat in Cyberpunk
2077 now. Yeah. Everything's connected. Exactly.
No, they know, like, CD Projekt Red has kind
of seen the dollar signs on this one, and so
now Cyberpunk has had its highest player count
on Steam, which is insane. That is pretty crazy.
Yeah. I would say definitely check out the anime,
I would say. Start with the opening. I agree
with Andre. That's a great place to start to
kind of get a sense of what you're about to watch.
And I mean, Franz Ferdinand. Yeah, exactly. And,
you know, I would say two episodes, give it two
episodes before you're like, is this for me?
This is not for me. That's always what you gotta
do with TV. Yeah, you gotta be a little generous.
Exactly. You can't just run on the pilot because
they have so much information to dump on you.
Yes. If you give it one episode, you're going
to hate every TV show ever, except for maybe
like one or two. Yep. I will say that like they
definitely like lead into like the made up slang
for cyberpunk, you know, like I called you a
choom, which is like basically like the word
for buddy, pal. yeah yeah yeah but like they
will just throw out these words and you'll just
have to be like i don't know what that means
but yeah they call it super nova and preem just
means cool like preem is like premium like oh
like preem ride dude like oh man that's so nova
like they will just say that and i love how corny
it is because it is very like it's very earnest
and it's and it's like mike looks like he's very
paid right now stop trying to make fetch happen
it's not going to happen they but they sell it
though they sell yeah So, yeah, it's a fun show
right now. I mean, I don't I don't want to give
it a definitive rating because we haven't finished
yet. It could dive in the latter half. But right
now that is it is a solid four net runners out
of five. Nice. Wow. I agree with that. OK. Jill,
you have a new movie for us. You know, 29 years
after it came onto the scene in the summer of
1993, at long last, the fans can rejoice because
Hocus Pocus 2 has landed on Disney+. Yay! And
it's, you know, I'll just start it off. It is
exactly what you think it's going to be on the
tin. I appreciate that this movie. did not try
to play fast and loose with what it was going
to do with the plot it knew that they had the
original sanderson sisters back that middler
sorry could jessica parker and cavine genie and
they put them right up front this movie does
not waste time getting them back from the dead
i mean the tagline is we're back witches yep
basically um so yeah like there's there's all
there's There's only so much I can say because
I don't want to spoil too much of the plot. Bro,
I mean, I feel like the plot was just like...
Yeah, but that's the other side of the coin here
is I don't want to spoil the plot, but there's
also not a lot of plot. Yeah, I will say I saw
the last half of it and I felt like I... The
last half, I got home while Claire was watching
it, just jumped in and said basically, okay,
cool, I know what's happening. Yeah. Sanderson
sisters are back. Yeah, the Sanderson sisters
are brought back. The movie actually does a great
job with its opening because it starts in the
past. Allegedly 10 years before Thackeray banks
in his sister. died slash turned into a cat um
i don't know if i believe that but yeah right
i don't want you to think that winifred was only
26 yeah if you do that wait wait hold on hold
on when it wait i'm sorry when did um when did
uh the thackery banks get get killed 18 uh not
18 16 93 or something okay okay i have an agenda
to make i apparently okay you are very upset
about this i i know i apparently probably misread
it i'm looking at the wikipedia article now the
the opening intro for hocus pocus 2 is in 1653
so that's 40 years difference that makes much
more sense okay that makes way more sense because
you're like wait this it starts in 18 in 1686
so she was only bett midler allegedly in 1993
26 years old big wink right there yeah So it
starts, the film starts with actually focusing
on the young Sanderson sisters. And when I say
young, I mean like teenagers. They're supposed
to be 16, I believe. Yeah, they're supposed to
be 16 if they're all actually the same age. And
we get to find out how they became witches. And
the reason that they became witches is because
everybody's favorite soccer club owner, Hannah
Wenningham. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I was just
like, wait, there's soccer in this. UFC Richmond.
All right. Yeah. AFC Richmond. AFC Richmond.
Yep. Existed in Salem. Yep. Yeah. All right.
She is the quote unquote mother, which she gives
them. She gives them book. Good old book. And
that is how they become. Nice. You gotta have
the octave change. I just gotta make sure I had
that recorded right, because I was interrupting
for a second. No worries. So, like I said, she
gives them the book, That's How They Become Witches,
and then it jumps forward to present day, and
we meet our new main characters. They're three
high school girls. It's one of them's 16th birthday.
They have a ritual where they go off to the woods,
and they do a little circle and some Wiccan pagan
things, but one of them has a new boyfriend,
so there's some... divisions there. And you kind
of can guess where the plot goes and how the
Sanderson sisters get brought back. Orgy. What?
What? Yeah, that one. Yep. What? Nope, you're
correct. What? What? What? Who said orgy? Orgy.
Oh, that's what you said. Yeah, totally. In a
Disney movie. In a Disney movie. And like I said,
the movie, within the first 15 minutes, the Sanderson
sisters are back. They're singing. They're doing
a whole bunch of callbacks to the original movie.
They do the book joke with the sing -song call
for it multiple times because they know exactly
what they had. Yeah, I got that one. And the
rest of the movie is the girls trying to run
away from the Sanderson sisters. The Sanderson
sisters trying to accomplish what their goals
are. I appreciate that this is not a complete
retread of the original film. They got Doug Jones
back as Billy Peterson. Yes. And he and Sam Richardson,
who plays the character Gilbert, if you've seen
the after party on Apple TV, he played Mike and
Dave need wedding dates. Oh, he's in that. Yeah.
He's the husband. Oh, I've never actually seen
that, but I really liked him in the after party.
So I was very happy to see him in things. Yeah.
Anyway. He is very good, and I saw him in it,
and I was like, oh, okay, cool, yeah. Oh, he's
going to be in the new Velma show. He's going
to be shaggy. Yes, he is. He's going to be shaggy?
Yeah, he's going to be shaggy. It wasn't me,
man. Oh, aren't they calling him by his dead
name, Norville, in that show? Norville, probably.
I'm a little stuck by that. I'm really worried
about that show. Well, like, Scooby's not even
in it, they said. Yeah, they said that they couldn't
get him. That's not my problem and everything.
I feel like they're checking so many boxes. They
have a black Shaggy, they have Velma's a lesbian,
they have, you know, and it's just... Daphne
also might be bi. Okay, yeah, but I just feel
like they're checking boxes for checking boxes,
not actually, like, doing justice to the character.
mini kaling yeah we'll see it'll probably be
funny like i'm just the thing that i may raise
is my umbrella it's like we're gonna do a scooby
-doo show but like i don't know we couldn't fit
the dog in there like that's the part that's
raising we don't have the budget like okay like
what are we doing here then like what what's
what do you got here you know like it would be
like i don't know whatever we're so off topic
guys i can't wait until simu lu is playing fred
jones That would be awesome. That would be amazing.
That would make my day, actually. So as I was
saying before we got off the Velma sidetrack
here, Sam Richardson is in there. He plays a
magic shop owner named Gilbert. He and Doug Jones
is Billy Butcherson. They have a cute little
subplot that I loved. They would be good in a
buddy comedy. Those two were kind of fun together.
The most disappointing thing to me is the way
that this movie looked. And it's a combination
of two things. One, they had this weird -ass
filter on this movie the entire time to give
it an aesthetic. It looked like a filter you
could add on from Instagram. And then the other
thing is that it looks like a Disney Channel
original movie, not a movie movie. I'm not expecting
it to look like War of the Rings, but it looks
like a made -for -TV movie. Does the first one
look like that, too, though? No, that one looks...
Like a film. Yeah. Right. And it was also shot
on film. So. Right. Yeah. There's that. It's
not like the first one has like these amazing
special effects, but no, I mean, like it is,
Jill absolutely hits a nail on the head. This
is like the classic, like straight to streaming
budget kind of cinematography that you kind of
know it's like, okay, this was kind of made on
the cheap. But like, you know, if you're showing
up to this movie because you have fond memories
of Hocus Pocus, the first one, the first Hocus
Pocus, you're going to have a fun time. I think
you're going to walk out of it. probably feeling
like you don't need to see it again yeah um i
know this does not like i'm happy it exists good
for all the actresses coming back and you know
especially from like seeing sarah sarah jessica
parker like actually look like she was having
a good time yeah right a thing i didn't know
i needed um so it's nice to see that but it doesn't
it's not replacing the first one i still have
that I don't think I'll come back to this because
I need the next chapter. On the other hand, if
you did not grow up watching Hocus Pocus and
this is your first entry point, I think you could
just jump in here and it'd be fine. You would,
things would go over your head. So you wouldn't
understand what these callbacks are, but they're
subtle enough. Yeah. And then I don't, don't
quote me on this because it might not happen.
The film. Could spin off into another franchise
that has nothing to do with the Sanderson sisters,
but more on the three present day characters
because of how their story goes. And I mean,
spooky things are in Disney. Disney Plus is going
to have a Goosebumps series somewhere down the
line. People like scary things. We're having
that revival. Like, give me my, are you afraid
of the dark? The story, the stories that they
could tell with these present day characters,
these girls, there's a hole in their programming
for something like this that would slot in very,
very nicely. I don't know if that's what they
were thinking or if this was an indirect backdoor
pilot for that series. Right. All three of the
Sanderson sisters' actresses have said that they
would come back for a third one if they could
make it work. Oh, interesting. Okay. They like
to do this. Yeah. But it's not a hard requirement
for them. Right. But, you know. It's a lot of
makeup and stuff, but other than that, I mean.
Yeah, no, as in it's like they don't need to
be brought back with a lot of money to do it.
I think they like being these characters enough
that if they had a good script in their hands
that justified why they were in it. they they
probably would be game and it is a game i see
what you did there uh it is a good like character
too like all three of them i say a character
because i really have them as one real character
like they all have their different personalities
and everything but as the sanderson sisters it's
not as winning as you know like yeah it's the
unit is a character yeah And I will say that
this film does a good job of kind of giving Sarah
and Mary, Sarah, Jessica Parker and Kathy Nijini,
respectively, a little bit more to do and flesh
them out a bit. Yeah. But, you know, I also could
just very much see Disney execs looking at the
film and saying like, hey, those three present
day girls, Becca, Izzy and Kathy, I could see
stories. I see those dollar signs. So time will
tell on that one. Yeah, exactly. But, you know,
I don't know. This was not. Almost two hours
that I regret. I'm happy I've seen it. We're
still going to watch the original one this Halloween.
At the end of the day, was I upset this movie
exists? No. Do I ever want to see it again? also
know yeah yeah i'll close by saying that this
while they didn't there was some callbacks i
wish they did do they did keep some of that like
adult humor that was littered throughout the
first one that is not raunchy is the right word
but not as like pushing the envelope like the
way that it was pretty funny yeah yeah the humor
in this was still Pretty good. I got a couple
laughs out of me. So the orgy did not happen
because they needed a virgin. That's the reason.
Otherwise, you know, it's the Black Flame, you
know? Yeah, exactly. When do they go to Halloween
Town? When does that happen? Halloween Town 5?
yeah because they've really been that many jesus
yeah because there's halloween town one two and
then they had the one the third one which is
where the last one that had the main original
actress she brings the kids from halloween town
to the human world and then halloween town four
is a completely different actress who goes to
college okay that's what you do and that's just
bad although um uh not angel lansbury um maybe
it was angel no no not angel lansbury debbie
reynolds yeah debbie reynolds um was uh in the
original two and then possibly no and she's in
the third one okay it's not she's not in it but
um oh she is in it yep because i'm looking at
the return to halloween town poster right now
horrible logo um anyway i i just ends in college
it's bad don't watch the last two watch the first
two I just immediately think of Nightmare Before
Christmas when you say Halloween Town. Like,
I'm just thinking it's the Kingdom Hearts level
or whatever, you know? The Kingdom Hearts level.
Did you realize there was a movie, right? Yes,
of course. The Halloween Town 2 plot, basically.
Yeah, right. Yeah, that's true. So, yeah. On
an out of five, I will give Hocus Pocus to three
out of five Roombas. Okay, Roombas. I got how
you get there. All right. Well, we've got one
more movie to discuss. We are going to take a
quick break, though, because we have to get those
breaks in. So we're going to take a quick break
and come back on the other side with another
movie. I'll see you then. And we're back with
Game for a Movie. We've got one more movie to
discuss. It is Spooky Season. And if you didn't
know, I have been watching iconic horror characters.
I had you guys vote. This is what I've been watching.
I've been putting it on our letterboxd. We do
have a letterboxd, guys. I don't know if I ever
told you that. Yeah, I can get you to log in
for that if you need. So you can start reviewing
on there, too, if you that would be a good call.
Yeah. Yeah. If you ever feel any interest. So
I'll send that stuff your way. So iconic horror
characters. So I kind of thought, OK, what can
I watch that's kind of newer that has an iconic
horror character? Hellraiser just came out on
Hulu as of Friday, I believe, which, yeah, was
yesterday as of this recording. So I watched
it day one. Wow. Okay. Hellraiser, if you don't
know, is a series that has been going on way
too long. Ouch. Well, it has. The first one was
like mid -80s, right? Yeah, the first movie was
87, I believe. If I remember correctly. A story
based off of Clive Barker. Yep, exactly. Yes,
the first one was 87. This series, if you're
familiar with it, Lots of deformity, lots of
blood, lots of body horror. Exactly. Especially
with characters like Pinhead. Pinhead. Chatterbox.
Chatterbox. I can't remember what the woman one
is called. I'm trying to remember as well. And
you can't say the woman one anymore because this
is a change for Pinhead. Pinhead was played by
a woman this time. Gender swapped. I like that.
Yes. The Weeper. and the gasp and the sphix are
the other ones that i can see here sorry chatterbox
is actually the chattering but i call him chatterbox
there's also butterball butterball yes butterball
butterball is not in this one actually according
to oh sorry i thought you meant the first the
original the first one yes no butterball in this
one yeah so um it's funny as well because this
year was the first time I ever watched a single
Hellraiser movie. Really? I had never seen it
before. I still haven't seen any Hellraisers.
The first? Okay, I like the first two. The second
one is actually better than the first one, in
my opinion, and I think both were great. If you
have time, well worth the watch. Of course, it's
older, so you don't expect the most amazing.
Oh my god, there's 11 of these goddamn movies.
I told you it's been going on way too long. put
it on the directed vhs circuit yeah exactly yes
yeah there there are a ton of these um so this
is a complete rebrand of the series um it's a
different director it's still based on clive
barker and you can definitely tell there's some
love um it's not like it's uh sorry i'm also
looking up the movies because i just want to
see how many yeah uh hellraiser judgment was
the last one in 2018 oh my god Hellraiser Hellworld.
I remember seeing an ad for that on like another
DVD I had and it looked miserable. Jesus, they
put out two in one year. Yeah, exactly. Hellraiser
Deader and Hellraiser Hellworld were released
in the same year. They named it Deader. Deader.
More dead. More dead. Dead harder. I mean, they
were probably very cheap to make. Yes. After
a certain point. Oh, I'm sure. And I mean, what
you can see from these, besides like the costumes
and stuff like that, or like the look, it is
very cheap. The original was made for $1 million.
That is so inexpensive. I can't believe that.
Which one? The original, the 1987 one was made
for $1 million. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. You're good.
So if you don't know anything about Hellraiser,
basically there's always a puzzle box. And if
you solve this puzzle box, you bring the Cenobites
to Earth. The Cenobites are those characters
that look deformed, like they're missing skin
in places. And then, of course, there's the leader
of the Cenobites, Pinhead, which I actually think
in this movie they called her the priest. That's
a twist. Yeah. So I don't know if they're I'm
for it because hearing the name Pinhead. doesn't
bring any fear into my heart. But basically the
main part of this, there's a, there's two real
parts to it. So the beginning, there's this guy
Voight who sends his secretary to pick up the
puzzle box. And basically what Voight is doing
is sacrificing people so that if, if you sacrifice,
I think it's seven people, you, get a reward
is what the idea is the rewards are um i don't
remember all of them but the the two big ones
to remember are resurrection and leviathan okay
um basically voight gets to gets to this reward
and then he disappears for the other half of
the movie um He does come back later and through
happenstance and everything like that. So now
it's kind of flash forward a little bit. And
this girl, Riley, who is a recovering drug addict,
because of course, she finds the puzzle box.
And her boyfriend, Trevor, is the one that kind
of put her on this path and everything. And she
realizes as she solves the puzzle box, this blade
keeps popping up in the blade. Once it gets your
blood, you're the target for the center. So at
first she doesn't think anything of it. And her
brother accidentally cuts his hand and he disappears
without her knowing what's happening because
she was on a drug trip. She doesn't remember
anything. then it gets to other points so basically
she keeps solving the puzzle box it changes form
and gets the next victim next victim next victim
um whoever gets the blood and everything and
trying to figure out she wants to get to the
reward when she finds out about it so that she
can resurrect her brother but how does she do
that without killing somebody or how does she
do that without hurting anybody That's the whole
point of it. I highly recommend checking it out.
I'm just laying the bare bones. There's a lot
more that happens in it. So I highly recommend
it. I think David Bruckner is the director. And
then one of the writers. So the writers are Ben
Collins, Luke Pietrowski, and David S. Goyer.
David S. Goyer is the one I wanted to talk about.
He's written. for uh dark city was one of his
writings and batman begins and the dark knight
and probably the dark knight rises too but it's
not in his top four um he also has written for
guillermo del toro's cabinet of curiosities uh
he wrote for the sandman and he uh was the creator
of that show as well and so it's i'm just keep
naming all these things because It's very obvious
his pull on this. He's very like dark, supernatural,
that kind of stuff. So this very much makes sense.
The two things I wanted to talk about most with
this is the gender swap. They don't address it
at all, which is great. It's a whole different
world. Pinhead has always been a woman in this
world. Okay, got it. So there's no, like, but
there's no, like, canon, like, comedy, whatever.
This is just a totally new... Yeah, in the original
series, there is, like, an explanation as to
how Pinhead became Pinhead. Yeah. But this seems
like if, like, I'm guessing she looks like Pinhead,
but it might, you said she's called the Priest.
The Priest, yeah. So she might just be a whole
other character that also happens to have the
pins in there, because that is an iconic component
of the Hellraiser, visually, franchise. Yeah.
And, like, the... You got the chatterer. You
got like everybody's still the same except for
Butterball's not in it. Yeah, right. Exactly.
But you still see all of them and everything.
And like they do say the line, greater delights
await. We wish to see you proceed. You know that.
Do they say lament configuration? I believe so.
Yes, that sounds right. They do definitely say
a lot of configuration quotes because they call
it the reward. leviathan configuration or the
um resurrection configuration um and the box
does all these different configurations as well
you have to get through all the configurations
to get to your reward um it's very interesting
um and then the other thing i wanted to say is
going back to this check boxes thing the brother
and the other main character colin are gay lovers
oh but I do not feel like it was a checkbox.
I don't feel like it was. Didn't seem forced.
It didn't seem forced. Exactly. It's just part
of the story. Exactly. And it gave another person
to care about Matt's, the brother's name. It
gave another character to care about Matt. So
Colin was willing to go with Riley through a
lot of this. Colin's the gay lover, was willing
to go with Riley for a lot of this because she
said we can resurrect him. and so i like that
because truly it did not feel like oh we're just
throwing this in there because you know everybody
loves the gay agenda now and that kind of sure
sure you know and i hate to say that but that's
kind of what movies do um but this one didn't
feel forced and so yeah um I have a question
about the visuals. Was there a lot of practical
effects used in this? Yes, 100%. It's a hallmark
of the originals. Exactly, yes. It is a ton of
practical effects. There's not very much CGI.
Yeah, it was very well done. I actually really
enjoyed it. Comparing it, because again, all
I've seen is Hellraiser, Hellraiser 2, and then
this one, Hellraiser 2022. I would say this is
above the original for me. That's being said
that Hellraiser 2 was better than Hellraiser
1. I would say, but all three are great. I highly
recommend any of them. This one, it has some
lulls, so I don't want to hold against it, but
there are some lulls where it's just kind of
like, okay, why isn't anybody doing anything?
Just kill the people. You're monologuing. Stop
it. get on with it exactly um but there's plenty
of cannon fodder there's plenty of um centibites
um yeah so i really enjoyed it um i would say
probably i'll go three and a half out of five
configurations cool there you go on the spooky
scale like how scary is it like nah nah Really?
Yeah, the original's not even that scary. I have
no reference. Like, I don't know. It didn't sound
like it was a jump scare fest. It was just more
of, like, a creepy vibe, you know? It's graphic.
It's creepy and it's gory, yeah. Gory, okay,
yeah. Yeah, and I won't even say, like, it's
not even creepy in the fact that I watched this
at 2 in the morning. I didn't have any problems
going to sleep, you know? Oh, sure, sure, sure.
But, like, you know, yeah. Yeah, it's not like
that. Yeah, exactly. It's not going to keep you
up at night. It says horror, mystery, thriller.
on the imdb page i would say more so mystery
thriller yeah really yeah because horror i mean
they're definitely horror elements don't get
me wrong i'm not gonna say it's not a horror
movie but it's really more of a thriller in my
mind than anything else because they lay out
everything you know exactly what they need to
do and it's just a matter of does this person
survive or does this person not survive pretty
much yeah you know and that's every horror movie
ever, but it's thriller more so. And the fact
that they get into situations that are not that
scary, but you know, are creepy. Trevor and Riley
are pinned down at one point up against like
this gate and the chatterer is there just. Yeah.
With the teeth. Yeah. With the teeth and like
trying to like bite at them and get through and
everything. And that it's not scary. It's just,
Okay, what's going to happen? Don't get them,
don't get them. Yeah, so. Yeah. I think the original
is worth seeing for those who are listening who
have not seen it. Just, you know, if you have,
if you have a, if your stomach is not one for
gore and body horror, neither of these is going
to change your mind on that. But I agree with
Mike, they're not scary, they're just unsettling
yes in in the way that um i was gonna say like
saw because i don't think saws are scared saw
is a scary franchise no it's very yeah i would
agree with that i they find themselves in traps
and they have to do self -harm mutilation to
get out yeah those are going to be gory yeah
so i would i would agree with that it's a it's
a good comparison yeah the first one is so hokey
though like this yeah yeah uncle frank anybody
Oh, my God, the Blood Frank. That's so gross.
It is. It is very gross. Blood Frank is one of
my favorite characters, though, from the whole
series that I've seen. Yeah, he's creepy. I like
her stepmother. Okay, yeah. The other villain
character that's not a Cenobite. Yeah, and there
are other villains in this besides the Cenobites.
And I think that's always been the point of these
series. The Cenobites are going to do their thing
and everything like that, but they are essentially
controlled by the puzzle box and blood. There
needs to be somebody really pulling the strings
to make them out. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah. But
yeah, I thought it was very good. I was happy
with it. I would probably watch more if they
made another one. um they definitely could do
something with it i don't know what but they
could do something with it um yeah they left
the door open so it's anything can happen plus
there's a fun little scene where they make a
centibite from scratch and you get to see that
whole process oh it's it's gruesome but it's
awesome actually so yeah keep that in mind yeah
well i guess that's it isn't it I kind of want
to talk about the Mario trailer. Oh, okay. Let's
talk about the Mario trailer. Just real quick.
It was a teaser, so we don't really have much
to talk about. It's the second best trailer of
the day that was released that day. What was
released that day? Violent Night, which I sent
to you guys in the chat. I did not watch it.
I'll be honest with you. Is it like Silent Night,
the horror movie that they remade, but not? basically
what there it is okay yeah uh basically what
this is is there is um these people led by john
leguizamo for whatever reason they break into
this house um to steal all their money because
they're very rich uh and this little girl is
talking with santa claus and just wants her family
to be safe and because she's on the nice list
santa claus obliges And it's David Harbour as
Santa Claus. Oh, that's why he's Santa Claus.
Yes. Oh, I didn't realize this was the movie.
Yes. And it's like a killing spree. It's by the
same people that did Bullet Train and John Wick.
And Nobody. Which is the Bobby Kirk movie. Yeah.
So it looks ridiculous. Yeah. It released the
same day as the Mario trailer. And I was like,
this is the trailer. Yeah, no, it looks fun.
I will watch it with audio on once we're done
with this podcast. You really don't need to.
I mean, you can kind of. I know I'm getting it.
I'm getting a pretty good vibe right now. Right.
OK, this goddamn Mario trailer, guys. Like, what
did you think about it? Thumbs up, thumbs down.
I think it was a nice, steady thumbs up until,
you know, the last 30 seconds when the man himself
appeared. And then it kind of became the it's
just Chris Pratt. Yeah, it's just Chris Pratt.
I don't want to gatekeep because I think gatekeeping
is one of the shittiest things you can do. I
think Mario is one of the most accessible IPs
in the world. I'm not going to say you're not
a true Mario fan. That's one of the dumbest sentences
ever or whatever. I don't believe Chris Pratt
actually played a lot of Mario growing up. I
don't either. They had like a little for the,
for context, they had like a little stinger with
Jack Black and Chris Pratt, like just talking
about the teaser and like Chris Pratt paused
for just a bit too long of a beat when he said
like, and I grew, I spent hours stomping. Koopas,
you know what I mean? I feel like he was going
to say Goombas and that's why he had to stop
himself. Well, right, maybe. I don't know. I'm
just imagining somebody holding a key card behind
his phone being like, it's Koopa! And he doesn't,
again, you don't have to, whatever. We don't
have much to work off of because he literally
has one line of dialogue. Yeah, with the nature
of these characters, you're going to have to
lend a lot of your own persona to them because
they don't usually talk. Hey, yo, it's me, Mario.
Yeah, right. But, you know, that aside, it looks
great. It does. Yeah, it looks nice. Yeah, who
knew Illumination, the people behind the Minions,
actually had it in them to make a good -looking
film? Yes. Because they don't, like, I... The
Minions, once again. The Minions. I think they
did. Maybe they don't do sing. The Grinch movie.
They look good. This looks great. This is a level
up. This looks like Disney money. I didn't even
look it up. Sorry, I didn't even look it up.
Yeah. But no, it looks great. Jack Black as Bowser
is awesome. Dude, Jack Black's Bowser sounds
great. Sounds great, and I know he's going to
have a musical moment. I saw that somewhere.
So I'm like, yeah, Tenacious B, let's go. I mean,
again, only a few lines, but it sounded like
a lot of, like he was having a lot of fun with
it. They made Bowser's jawline look like Jack
Black's in a weird way. You know what I mean?
They did a good job with that. It's very, you
can see Jack Black in the character. Exactly,
yes, yes. And I'm here for that. That sounds
like a lot of fun. He also only said, like, two
lines, but I'm here for Keegan -Michael Key's
Toad. Yeah, no, the Toad voice was good. I'm
happy they did something to it to make it sound
closer, like what Toad sounds like. I'm glad
it's not just his voice, you know what I mean?
That's what I was worried it was going to be.
Okay, friends, what is the tagline for this movie?
What do you mean, what's the tagline? Do we have
one? Am I guessing it? Yeah, guessing it. Do
you have it in front of you? Yes, I do. We're
going to want something with one up. I don't
know. Okay. That's hard. How do you market this?
It's not let's go. That's too easy. It might
be let's go. Yeah. I don't even know. Yeah. Is
there a level up put in there? Please tell me.
Okay, cool. There's something with the Power
Star? Yeah. Okay, give me the tagline. Yeah,
what is it? Let's -a -go! Is it actually? It's
Let's -a -go! That's the tagline. Wow. Actually,
they have two taglines written here. Let's -a
-go and okie -dokie. Okie -dokie. Okay, that's
funny. Thank you so much for watching my movie.
Nintendo has obviously had a... a hand in making
this this was not here's the rights do whatever
um yeah i think nintendo is being absolutely
draconian with this shit i'm sure they're gonna
make sure that whatever the end product is even
if it is not the greatest the best animated movie
of the year yeah it's gonna at least honor mario
i think like the night the the original this
this movie was in production long before sonic
was even announced as a movie i think yeah but
they are definitely looking at the success sonic
wanted to had and that the in theaters they're
like okay like that's the bar it's so it's interesting
we can make a universe off of this so this one
just needs a hit Yeah, well, because Nintendo
has been kind of pretty famously, like, up until
recent years, they've been pretty, like, very
protective of their IPs. They don't do a lot
of collaborations because of, obviously, the
disaster that was the live -action Mario movie,
Mario Bros. movie in the early 90s, and also
the Philips CD -i, all those janky -ass, like,
Zelda Mario games. That was them making a deal
with Philips, and they just were like, okay.
You gave us a shit ton of money, so we'll let
you do whatever you want. And whatever they wanted
was really bad garbage that is memed to this
day. And it says black stain on those IPs. So
that's why Nintendo, I'm sure, is very, very,
very involved with this movie. And Jill, you
suggested we watch the Super Mario Brothers movie.
I did. I haven't seen it in a while. I'm really
down for that, honestly. I've never seen it.
I am too. I honestly think this is, yeah, let's
do it. it's not good like i mean besides the
fact you obviously know it's not good it's just
my my most like the last time i watched it was
in college and i would just say it's joyless
yeah because it's such an insult to like what
your original property is nobody nobody played
the video game or maybe somebody played it one
of the screen one of the many screenwriters played
it for one day yeah and was like okay I've got
this. We're going to take the Dinotopolis or
whatever and make a thing. In fairness to them,
this came out probably when Super Mario Bros.
3 was out. We had a handful of NES games that
were super popular, but it still wasn't the level
of... There wasn't Mario Kart yet. There wasn't
Mario Golf. I shared that in our group chat.
I shared an article. um from grantland .com it
was written in 2013 it's by karina longworth
oh karina longworth it's you must remember this
it's the karina longworth she does a podcast
you must remember this it's a great one in 2013
she wrote an article called um hollywood archaeology
the super mario bros movie unearthing a major
disaster to learn the lessons held within and
In that article, she does a really great job
of kind of tracking the, the, the thread line
of how this movie was made. And again, and again,
and again, what comes back to it always is they
just didn't, it's either they didn't, besides
the fact that they didn't know or understand
what the IP was, they either did not care. Because
it was a kids movie and all you need is kids
to show up and it'll be a success, obviously,
because kids have no opinions and can be entertained
by a thing of jingling keys. Or they thought
that they could improve. upon this ip by injecting
it with things that are just so holy on mario
and that would be enough to sate satiate the
audiences because it would be not high class
cinema per se but it would be something else
yeah and it's just it's so misguided yeah and
i like that the article posits that Because this
movie came out two weeks before Jurassic Park.
There could have been a timeline where Jurassic
Park was the flop. and the super mario movie
movie was the the blockbuster wow franchise instead
of a game franchise yeah i know steven spielberg
who what we could be playing the shitty movie
adaptation a shitty video game adaptation of
the mario brothers yeah with mario mario and
mario wow holy shit that's wild oh we need to
watch this we do all right i'm excited for it
that's probably yeah okay that needs to happen
yeah all right Well, friends, that'll do it for
this episode of Game for a Movie. I've been your
host, Mike. Joined by... It's -a me, Andre. It's
-a me, Jill. I put more mustard on that than
Chris Pratt did in the trailer. Hey, guys, I'm
Chris Pratt. Game for a movie, here we come.
Well, I was just going to say, we're about to
leave, so here we go. Yeah, there you go. You
should find like a little sound bite of like
them hitting like the one up or something to
put it like the stinger at the end of this podcast.
Okie dokie. Okie dokie. All right. Bye, everybody.
Bye.