WAR! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

WAR! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
Good God, y'all! Kelly jammed 30 hours of a WWII podcast in his brain, which might explain why he's so mad about the Star Trek musical. Also discussed: Insidious: The Red Door, White Lotus, Subspecies V: Bloodrise.

Transcript

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Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition such sights to show you strange aeons. Welcome to strange aeons radio. That's Eric over there. Hello. That is Vanessa over there. Hello. I'm Kelly. Hey, Vanessa. One week ago, you mentioned a supernova in the east. Yes. And it really caught my attention. And in this one week, I have listened to all 31 hours of it. Oh, my God. I guess don't spoil the last four. Because the various let me tell you that. Four is, is tough listening. But that Dan Carlin guy is so interesting. The way he speaks is so soothing. And so that when he gets wound up about something, yeah, man, what a what an amazing series. I had very little knowledge of everything that happened in the Pacific Theater. Yeah, exactly how I felt. It's amazing how much I mean, we hear about the European Yeah, aspect of the war, but so little about Japan's, which is crazy, because we really weren't at war with Germany. We were at war with Japan and then got into a war with Germany because of that. So, yeah, it is really interesting. He doesn't sugarcoat it. No, he does not. And I was, I mean, I just could not stop listening. And Eric, you know, I listened to a lot of podcasts. During the week, I listened to nothing but this podcast. Oh, my God. So I must thank you. This is the value that we give is putting this stuff like this into people's brains. And then I had no idea that this this is going to be my new favorite podcasts just scrolling through all of his other episodes going well, I better add that one better add that one. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, everyone I've told this podcast to has been so excited about the content of it, and just been like, I gotta listen to this thing. But it's also like the most harrowing stuff. I mean, I've never, I know wars, awful. But I was like, That is truly awful. One of the things she keeps bringing up is the numbers, the numbers guilties. And he, he's right. Those are just numbers. So then he starts backing it with these personal stories, and you're like, Oh, my God, how horrible his testimonials that he's reading from and it's such a huge swath of different like books and letters and audio, that it feels very well researched and really holds up every one of his points. Yeah. Which makes every one that much more devastating. I think it will mention one point he mentioned the Doolittle Raid and how, you know, by virtue of the fact that oh, maybe I saw this and something else, but okay, I'm gonna rewind that. Sorry. Nevermind. I saw that in Midway. Right. That's, it's a it's a bad story. But yeah, just like the sheer numbers of Chinese people that were killed. Yeah, consistently throughout. It's unfathomable. Like your brain cannot wrap around it. Yeah, yeah. Amazing stuff. So I just wanted to thank you for that. That was just such a such a, an eye opening experience for me. I'm so glad it's a good example of because we were so good as humans at dehumanizing others, quote, unquote, whatever, whatever you choose to be your other. But they become like you said, it's just a statistic. It's just a number. But all these people had families and loved ones had something they wanted to do there. I mean, it's all we're all people. Yeah. And that is really cool that they are able to crush us entirely with his story of that aspect. Yeah, so So I needed something to kind of Cleanse the palate and what I did was watch insidious the red door. Did you watch the other insidious is to prepare yourself for insidious? Fine. I was gonna say three and I knew that was wrong. Did you think that I needed to watch the other ones to understand what was going on in these movies? So much. So this is kind of insidious three in that it is the only sequel that deals with the people from the first two movies so like insidious three and four or A spin off stories kind of, ah, not very good. No, no, but I know that it is the highest grossing film in the series now. And it was directed by Patrick Wilson. And that makes me very happy for him. And I hope that he gets to move on to directing other things. But I thought this was not very scary. And you know, it's fine. So So didn't have the same. My biggest problem with a lot of big ghost stories that come out of Blumhouse is they're not ghost stories as much as they are advancing action movies, you know, where it starts off, and there's some really cool creepy stuff. But they feel the weird need. We've got to build this. It's got to be bigger and bigger. We have to have trees slamming through walls and all right, you don't? Does it do that? Well, if you're asking does it rely on effects rather than mood, then yes, you're right, it does exactly. Which kills any kind of creep momentum that might have. So your mileage may vary, but insidious the red door not my favorite of this series. Well, speaking of Patrick Wilson, just a quick shout out this isn't I what I watched this week, but I had seen midwife a couple of weeks ago, and I'd forgotten why on earth. He was in moon for Oh, yeah. For Roland Emmerich. And I was like, why is he starring in this? He's, he's a huge part of Midway. And he's really good in it. And I was like, oh, that's why you put Patrick Wilson as your lead. Action Hero. That midway movie doesn't get enough love. I thought that was a really good movie. I rewatched it after listening to, of course, Nova nice. And it was great. It was great. How accurate it was. Some really great. I was like, oh, no, there are they're going to show the oil being lit on the ships and Pearl Harbor and people burning alive when they jump in the water. Oh, yeah, there. Yeah. Anyways, last week, I had a headache for about three, four days straight fun. So that was that's been good. I've had some really, truly wonderful teeth adventures recently, probably tomorrow as well. It is an ulcer, which is like a tumor, but it goes away and it's not cancerous. Back and then goes away and then comes back. But so I ended up watching all of Ted last. Oh, okay. All three seasons. Three seasons? Yeah, yeah. And I'd seen season one and half of season two. And so I was like, Well, it's been long enough. I need to jump back in all the way from the start. And that's really good. I can see why people like it. I need to watch the rest of that series only see the first season. It's it has some it continues to be great. There's there's never really a moment where you feel like that's really lost its way like it's really it feels continuously pretty strong. This is one that I keep forgetting about, quite honestly. Is it just kind of like a feel good show? Or? Yeah, what do you think about it? I think the fact that there's, they do bring up some real topics, but in a way that, like, you're familiar with the movie Major League, and the story that that is kind of similar to that story. Oh, where the she hires this useless coach from America who knows nothing about football. And with the idea of crushing the team and the attendance and everything, and he's such in possibly positive about everything that just kind of pushes through all the bullshit. It's all there is like she has a ex who constantly shows up and he used to own the team. And you know, He belittles her and he, you know, there's there's some weird difficult and that's not the thing. The other thing I really like about it is how sex positive it is to. So at one point, there's a girl who there's a girl and a guy and you're like, are they won't they? Yes, no. Are they going to finally get together and they they have a kiss? And then he kind of doesn't ask her out and she's like, What the fuck is mean? And she gets sad and she sleeps with her ex. And then the guy finds out and because it's like, let's Okay, let's go ahead and move forward. And she was like, Okay, great. But yesterday, I did sleep with my ex just like no, I just don't want to be surprises. And in a typical show, he's gonna be mad, it's gonna cause a lot of drama. And in this he gets upset. He tells his friends and they say, Well, were you together now? Okay, so you've worked together, but you're mad about everyone she's had sex with the for you. She gets to be mad about everyone you've had sex with before you know, there's just this kind of like, why are you being stupid sense to those moment and I really appreciated how they address the stuff that would typically be used as like emotional fodder and other shows that's a good because saying he's relentlessly positive is not fair to his character TCS credibly three dimensional character that's just his defining characteristic, but he has all kinds of weird shit going on with his family back in the US and all kinds of things. So it's yeah, it's a nice show. Yeah. And later on, he ends up developing panic attacks. So the way they did they work with that to somebody who's relentlessly positive, but then turns their head and it's can't breathe. You know, there's this kind of because of how relentlessly positive they are that they've been crushing the badness inside them. Anyway, good show. I need to give it a try. Yeah. subspecies five. This is a this is seriously you have a soft spot? Yeah. So this one's subsidies five blood rise. It's very different from the rest of the subsidiary. It's basically kind of what's his name? Blank, radish, radish, radish. I do well, no, who is? It's sort of his origin story. Okay. So it covers like 500 years or something. It's incredibly well shot. And it might be one of the best looking Full Moon pictures I've seen in a very long time. It's also one of the best Full Moon pictures I've seen in a very long time. It's not great. It's a little two. Part of the, that's fun with this series is that they don't, they're kind of not so serious. They're serious. But they've got a weird tinge of oddities. And like the little clay guys that run around and strange little things going on. Yeah, this one's much more straightforward. It's very much a vampire story. And what he the people that come in and out of his life and the way he works with stuff, so it's really different. But it's pretty good. It's well done. It's a nice addition to the series. Is it all the same actors and all these movies? It has some of the same yet the red new guys the same is okay. Finally, Swami is quite a bit older, which looks interesting at times. And that was, what, 20 years ago or around the 90s? Or if it was the 90s That's 30 years ago now. God, them ox always get lost. It's easy to forget, um, that's high school years do not need to be remembered. That's yeah, well, species five. Would you recommend? He liked the series? Absolutely. If you've never even heard of it? Probably not. Okay, there we go. Probably not. You know, if you're familiar with full Mon, you kind of know what you're getting into with the original subspecies series. But this one's a little different. And again, the last few full moons I've seen have been just awful. Not just it like they don't care. In this one is very much a lot of effort was put into it. Yeah, it does seem like full moon has, like no money to spend on anything right now. Well, Vanessa will try to keep it brief. But Eric, you and I have to talk about this Star Trek. The musical. Just the entire season has just been such a bummer for me. It was one more episode. So I'm gonna Total Redemption is on the horizon. I guess I will watch this final episode, because I don't know why. I did realize that. First of all, I just, you know, I grown my way. And I felt embarrassed for everybody involved in this musical episode. And I realized, Okay, I think that the Star Trek fandom is much younger than me in general. I don't think the fans of the original series and the original movies are necessarily loving this season or, or new Star Trek in general. I mean, I'm sure that there are people like you guys. And but I don't think that people who, who originally just loved that original series, like I could never get into next generation or any of that stuff. That sounds very much like somebody who watched the original. There were a lot of people who got turned away students, they went to the next generation. Yeah, I ended. I watched all of the My mom and I watched all of the next gen and then almost all of Voyager and all that together. So it's, it's when He speaks to me a little bit. Every Sunday. I watched next time with my brother. Yeah, so I just thought that I didn't know. I laughed a little bit at how much outer tuning was needed to make Spock sound like a good singer. And I was like, Oh, this poor guy probably was like we're doing In a word musical episode, does everybody know that I can't sing? I think Pike was even worse they he seemed like he had like, a big group sings and then a couple lines. Yeah individual, like how about you just say it, but like, with a little bit of emphasis, just hold on to those last words and then it it seemed like they had a Buffy reference that episode. The Buffy the musical reference, did you catch that? Now? They're talking about, oh, different things or however the music thing came about? They said, Yeah, and another dimension. We could be bunnies. Oh, oh, I hope it's not bunnies. That's 100% dead on. Yeah, somebody's a Buffy fan. Doing this at all. You have to be a Buffy fan. I mean, they're they are the other people who started this sort of tradition of a musical episode, especially as people who can't sing. Yeah, I and Eric Gnosis. I am a huge, huge fan of musical musical theater. I love some my favorite films are musicals. And I love that Buffy episode. The demon who makes you do this seemed like, I don't know, it seemed like an easier pill to swallow than this set was a very convoluted way to come up with no, it happened to set a no problem. And then if you put too much thought into it, you're like, how interesting that in 400 years all they listened to his music from our century, and stuff like that. And I would have liked to have seen the Klingons do something so ridiculously out of place, because it was their music that we would all just be going the fuck are they even doing instead of more of our music? So I don't know. I've just been really unhappy with this. I realized what attracted me to this was my my Star Trek crew. Oh, my Star Trek crew are adults. And these are kids. And it's just like, Yeah, it's like, I am just just bombed. I think I'll probably be given up on Star Trek again. You never know. I mean, there's there's a lot of others. That didn't give up. Okay, no, it's all good. You don't have to go get your nice box out of the original movies. You can just enjoy this. I do have to give a shout out to Michael de Bronzo, who contacted me through private messaging to say, this season is garbage. And have you watched a musical episode yet? And I was like, No. And he goes, Well, I can't wait to hear what you thought of it. Oh, so because I really need to wait to know what you think about it. Come on. I am. I feel a little bit better knowing that I'm not the only person who's it's a pop culture thing. Which means there's going to be a giant segment no matter how good it is, or how bad it is. There's going to be a giant segment that hates it with a passion of anything they've ever seen. It's the worst Star Trek the world has ever created. Or it's the greatest Star Trek the world has ever created. Where I'm guessing most of Trek fans kind of sit in the middle of that gone. Because I'm I've enjoyed it a lot, ya know? And so but I don't necessarily think that's the greatest Star Trek ever. It could reach that level. Who knows but Yeah, same like I'm very much in the same boat as you and I think the reason why I have a lot of patience for Trek and maybe a way that that you might not Kelly is after watching next gen. ndS nine. And then at the time, I really didn't like Voyager I now love it. But at the time, I was kind of pissed off with it. Enterprise was one of the biggest disappointment for the longest time. It hurt. How bad it was. It was not just bad for bad sake, like Voyager. It was bad and boring. And that's such a horrible combo combo. And then we had the desert years where there was no Trek and discovery came along and we're like, Oh no, we got so excited. And it was almost good for like half a second. There are some really good episodes but there's some real crap in there. Most of it I'd say 90% Bad 10% Oh shit, it's gonna get I get on. So in of course, like the best stuff is pike stuff as well. I only really liked Michael when she got completely like rewritten essentially. Yeah. And was lost in space. And then so you're like discovery, I almost got excited. And then we had you know, Picard, which was awful. And then this and and lowered X. And I was like, oh my god, okay, I have something to live for. With a fandom that I've, I've loved and I've obsessed over and I've hoped for and rooted for. It's like when your team starts to do good. Yeah. And you're just like, I want to see I'm going to watch them go All the way this season I just want to know I even if they don't make it all the way, even if they only get most of the way I still want to see it. i Yeah, I think that there was a real conscious turn this season to go into wackiness. There was weird. We're not a wacky Yeah, because I loved that first season. Yeah, man. It's just like okay, if we're going to tell cool Star Trek stories again with a cast that you know, we get to see some backstory on a lot of these. You know, the be characters that I was like, Okay, this is by something I can definitely get behind. But yeah, I'm not the audience. One One wacky episode per season feels like enough. So it has been a lot you're trying stuff and, and I appreciate and don't appreciate that at the same time. Yeah, sure. Oh, yeah, my turn. Alright. So I finished up a show that you got me hooked on Kelly, which is well, I guess Kellyanne, Eric hijack, because you guys hijacked hijack hijack, because you had been speaking about it so excitedly. And then I spoke to my mom on the phone about, you know, other things she could watch beyond her watching a TED lasso. I was like, What about hijack, and she has my apple login. And she was like, Oh, I already watched that. I was like, Are you kidding me? So I just sat my butt down. And I started it. And I loved it. And it's now finished. Yeah, I will say I really, really, really enjoyed it up until some shit that happened at the very end. Yeah, I thought it was completely unnecessary. Oh, there's like a couple of really weird things until that point. Oh, sorry. It was just fun to watch. Yeah. There's, there's so many yeah, there's so many good moments. And even most of the very end, I was like, oh, yeah, pretty excited by it. There's just like, there were a couple of decisions. I was like, Oh, okay. I guess. Sure. I mean, I, I can't not see that. But I also, did you have to do that? I don't know. Right. Yeah, that's true. It's hard to talk about a show without ruining it. Well, yeah, but glad watch it. No, no problem with that. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So we finally started. Season Two of white lotus after all this time. Oh, sorry. One episode. I finish it tonight. Boy, it is a drop off from the first season. Holy shit. The first season was so interesting. And you know how those shows like The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy afterwards did have the post show thing where they just talk shit about the show or whatever. Last year, we watched a couple of those last season. I mean, watch a couple of those guys. Okay, now what are we? Are we getting everything that's going on here? This one mean to watch one of them is so straightforward. And the anchor for the first season was the guy running the luxury hotel, who was just fantastic. He was hilarious. He was caustic behind the s the overly arrogant, super rich people's backs but really good is what at his job. So he was really neat. The version of him in this season is horribly underwritten. She could be because when she's good, she's really good. But she has so little to do. Oh no. And there's two takes place in Italy in this one. And there's two local leaders of the evening, shall we say? Who are far too involved? For far little that they actually do. That's like what they do has a good story point. But they probably could have been in three episodes instead of every episode. And it's just a lot of and we still good. But it's definitely the first season is so great. So that go well, is good. I didn't realize this as a show that starts with a brand new cast and location and everything it has worked think there's one continuing character from the first season but other than that, yes, pretty much different hotel, different location, all kinds of stuff. So So and there's a is there a season through it? Well, there's says there is there's one coming it's not Oh, okay, so I assume that will be at a new location as well. Hmm, probably. That was one of those shows that never really stuck with me like I watched a couple episodes and was like, not Yeah, the first one once he gets going, it's really good, but it's definitely the build of the story. This than this one just like it's fine. Okay, White Lotus. Well, why don't we take a break, guys. And then when we come back, we're talking about your sub genre Vanessa, which was war for some reason on the brain, or weird I don't know. I'd be talking about war right now even they're ready for war commando report ready to annihilate the major artillery living from slam command as always when I see it differently you could get a hold of a small soldier to vehicle sold separately we have returned Vanessa, this was your sub genre. Yes. What are you so interested in war for? I don't know. I'm a girl. I shouldn't be very confusing, right? Do you said everyone's thinking it? Yeah, you know I feel like we hadn't touched on some of the war films out there that I was really interested in especially horror films that had worn it and I just thought you know what, this is a great excuse to finally check out something that I've been meaning to. And then I forgot the title of the film that I wanted to watch awesome. I was Googling and instead I ended up watching our point from 2004. Gentlemen, you John Keegan and Chillida urban church anymore he went on pebble conjunct. We're going to continue stick around this has a rotten tomato score of 55% from critics and 65% from audience which is too bad I think it's because it have subtitles. This is I believe a Korean film. It's written and directed by Sue Chang Khan affectionately has three credits to his name. And it was written by a young whoop pill whose This is literally the only film that they've ever worked on. So and I can tell you the films the director, the guard post and coma does not mean anything because we are not watching random Korean movies. Starring WUSA or Singh Kham who has 14 credits including the king of the clown should we kiss first spider forest. Marriage is a crazy thing. Beyond hosts on who has 63 credits, including the good, the bad and the weird. I'm not a robot TV series and the good detective TV series, not American. Lee SunCom it was 46 credits including parasite a hard day Doctor brain TV show and pies you and park one saying 75 credits including w a TV series, the game towards zero, a TV series last a TV series and the king Eternal Monarch a TV series. I think they have a lot of TV out there. The story is we're in 1972 in the Vietnam War, the South Korean there's a South Korean base in Vietnam that receives this radio transmission from a missing platoon presumed dead from what they call our point, which is an island near Saigon. They've been missing for six months. And they get this kind of haunting transmission asking people to come because otherwise they will all be killed. So Lieutenant choice is on leave With another soldier when they end up in this brothel, and while they're sleeping off of good hard workout, an attack happens. His friend is killed, he runs out on a balcony sees a young girl with a basket. It tells her to stop, she doesn't stop and he ends up killing her. In the basket, of course, is a gone. So I don't know quite how this works out, because I think there's just some differences in cultural stuff, but he gets in trouble. Despite this, so he is sent out for discipline and informed that the only way that he's gonna be able to get his honor back is to lead the mission to retrieve the soldiers at our point. The troops who are assigned to him are not thrilled he's eccentric and known for getting his soldiers or the enemy soldiers killed. did not understand that problems are just like, it's not a good thing. Like, either your people end up dead or the other people end up dead. I'm like, why? Sure. Okay. But they have an incentive. So the soldiers get one. After doing this one week mission will be extracted with an honorable discharge for all of them afterwards, and they get to have a nice ride out with hot ladies serving them drinks. So they're like, Yeah, this actually sounds great. This is our ticket out of the war. And they have one week to help find these missing soldiers. And they must bring back either proof of life or death. They take a boat to the remote island and are quickly ambushed by by a Vietnamese woman who is hiding with a week old corpse. They make their way inland and come across a strange marker on the ground that says a village was in this kind of big huge field in front of them. A village was drowned by the Vietcong and a lake there. And it was uncovered in dirt to bury the dead. So it's kind of this mass cemetery. It says those who cross into this area with blood on their hands will not leave one guy, of course, pees on it. As you do, because military, guys, guys, he's like, Fuck you, I'm gonna come back. They post up for the night. And in the morning, they just cover a deserted French plantation, literally next to their tents, which is nice and creepy. It's huge. It's like multiple storeys tall, they make their way in, but something seems to be watching them. And all of a sudden, as they spend each day in this strange place, they get really odd sightings. One guy is separated from his group who are out looking through the grass at one point, and he rejoins the unit only does discover that they like don't turn their heads and then they all get down on the grass and he gets down on the grass, because there must be a reason why. And then it gets up because they've been there a long time and they're all gone. There's no one there. A radio, the radio guy, the radio operator starts talking to a French group who say they're going to be coming by and checking up on him a couple of days. And he tells his commander who says there is no French anywhere near here. So there's just a lot of strange stuff happening. So as as the film continues, you have a real struggle with what's real, and what are seemingly ghosts of dead soldiers that are indistinguishable from real ones. And knowing when you're being shot at when it's friendly versus enemy. It's all kind of crazy. So they must kind of abandon the mission and try and figure out if they can escape or survive this scenario. Some thoughts on it. There's, there's some, there's some gaps between me and this film. There's, there's a moment where a couple of guys like become sort of frenemies and just start slapping each other on the head all the time. And it gets it becomes very slapstick, but near the end, it's almost like a touching relationship. But I was like, why do they just keep hitting each other on the head? They've got to stop. This is getting irritating. It's also came on the early aughts. So the music is this sort of electronic vibe music. So it's like doo doo doo doo. And you're like, This is so weird. This like almost matrix, the style of music is there running around and hiding and hedges. Very odd. Of course they have cultural aspects they don't understand there's a white lady who shows up a lot. I don't know why it's I mean, I kind of know why it's bad but not fully. There's bells. There's a rumor about touching dead people's things, meaning that your hand is going to rods. There's just a bit of a divide. But that being said, the shots and the edits are really good. There's some great cinematography there's some great cutting. There's some very freaky eerie moments throughout quite a few actually. I don't even want to spoil it but one of the one of the things I will say that happens pretty early on is the first guy who dies out of their their platoon. The guy the soldier calls it in and says okay, we need help we need backup because one of our men is down and he gives the name and they were like that's not one of your men. What's wrong with you? That's one of the dead guys are looking for it yeah, there's these but they'd hung out with him ever since they got to the beach and he's in a photo with them he hung out with them he talked to the so there's really interesting little details throughout like that, that make it really strong. Honestly, I just wish I'd seen it in theaters I watched it on canopy for free. It was a very bad copy of it, unfortunately was just lose just the SD copy clearly, like ripped off a DVD or something. And, and I really wish I'd seen it on the big screen. I think that would have made a huge impact. A little bit of trivia before the film was released, the filmmakers conducted viral marketing to promote the film. The official website www dot our point.com carried several fictional articles such as journal, written by an American war correspondent statements made by various soldiers who witnessed events portrayed in the film, radio transmissions supposedly received by Korean soldiers and internet news links about missing Korean soldiers in Vietnam and a fictional timeline of our points, which does not exist. It was shot in Cambodia and the tagline who said other others blood will not return not even his soul. Funky will look funky. There's a lot of dots in here too. And some capitalization. That was my movie. Very weird. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I remember seeing this movie and I can't remember a thing about it. Sure. But I remember seeing it on Netflix. Oh, really? 10 years ago, there's a lot of Korean shows and movies on Netflix. Yeah, it got. It's one of those ones that got removed and put onto a different service. I wonder if it was part of tartan extreme? Because I remember seeing the poster. Yeah, or something along that. Yeah, exactly. So this was not the film you were trying to Oh, and you still haven't been able to remember I cannot figure out what the film was for the life. I was really googling I was like a lot of like war ghost Island cave. You could not treat and I get to it. I didn't know what other things from the movie you want to see the you know from the trailer that I have remember of the movie I want to see. So now I'm wondering if this movie exists. Somebody out there is listening. chime in I'm sure. Eric How about I put 10 minutes on the buzzer for you. That sounds good. Another one of those classics I've been meaning to see forever. And I want to share is a war movie but it kept showing up on war movie lists so that now's the time 2000 and one's brotherhood of the wolf it was at the dawn of the Age of Reason. That first appeared the beast upon the county of Jevons possessed with enormous strength and to destroy strike without warning and disappear without a trace. When all seemed lost the king sent two men determined to unravel the mystery. What they uncovered was a world of deception, and a struggle for power that was far more dangerous than anything they could have imagined. Day Universal Pictures and Studio can proudly present to American audiences. The French motion picture sensation brotherhood would like as a 2001 Rotten Tomatoes rating 73 from critics 78 For crowds so it seems about right yeah. A budget of approximately 24 million in France in 2001 So maybe the Euro francs the box office was a worldwide was 70 million so it did well and worldwide it did really well. And France was the number one movie of the year for their directed by Christopher guns who did Necronomicon book of the dead silent hill and a Beauty and the Beast not the Disney one. Stefan caboodle who would writing was from the astronaut for rang and the big picture. All stuffer, all stuffer, Christopher cons is also currently working on a new return to Silent Hill and robots to the movies he directed, starring Samuel L behind who was in one of the real violent French movies in that early time frontiers is also in a very different style movie three colors red. Sure, the woman with red hair and disco. He is also one of the most popular actors in France. Or was for one time being Mark Dacascos who's in that Double Dragon. John Wick three. Warrior five episodes. Hawaii Five o 18 episodes. The CRO Stairway to Heaven where he played Eric Draven I never say that. Have you seen that one? I don't remember that movie. But he was the CRO in the TV series. That was the TV show. Okay. Yeah. And I actually kind of liked it. Cool. The Island of Dr. Moreau. Yes, that one now God. perhaps best known though as the chairman on Food Network's Iron Chef America. From 2005 till 2022. Wow. Oh my gosh, he's still doing a new one on Netflix Iron Chef quest for an iron legend. Excellent. And Jeremy Renner? No, not not. Who, but he wasn't in Brutus and criminal. Criminal lovers, the child cavalcade which is another weird movie, Monica Bellucci and we're all familiar from from The Matrix sequels. But she's also in Diablo league Ginko attacks. Irreversible Yee Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of the bride's and the soul. The nevermind something autocorrected there and this makes no sense. It says the A who sold his skin so I don't know if word is missing there. Vincent Castle who's in Black Swan, seven episodes of Westworld. Eastern Promises Ocean's 12 also an irreversible and one of his weird little side gigs for French films is dubbing Hugh Grant movies. Oh my god. That's incredible. The number one Hugh Grant man anyways, this is about a group of hunters trying to find a creature that's killing people in the French fire French countryside. This is being written by a French man who is writing his memoirs at the beginning of the movie recounting the times of this very interesting period for him. The base story is two men arrived to hunt the beasts and look damn badass doing it. The intro with the long coats and the high collars and the pulling off three point hats and looking badass so you know they're impressive. A good place and a nice touch of almost Shaw Brothers level as kicking for the intro of the main guy, or one of the main guys quickly realized they're one of many people hunting these beasts and or this beast or whatever. They're wondering what it is still at this point. So I guess it's a war movie against the beast, a mental war. I really expected a lot more war for this movie that kept listing as a war film in so many things, but I thought it was like took place during a war that takes place during the French French Revolutionary War. Yeah, but they don't do a lot with that. Basically, that's most of the movie is them kind of hunting and looking around. There's a great scene in a French camp, which is a war encampment where they come along and a fight starts. So the Native American guy, well get back to that kicks the crap out of a whole bunch of men and Women quite thoroughly in a very well choreographed fight scene, there's a scene or two that if you love wolves, it's not great to watch the hunting of the wolves and then the stuffing of one of the wolves to make it look like somebody wants him to fake that they've captured this beast. And, yeah, that does not look like a beast that would kill people that he makes. But that's okay. The large part of the movie is also the politics kind of a Game of Thrones style, Royal intrigue, between the leads and various other groups trying to show up to get the hunt the beast. I'm kind of wondering, my first thought when they showed the beast is what the fuck is this? What is going on with this creature? It is wild looking. It turns out to be pretty interesting. I think what it is, yeah, and what's going on. But I will say the final 90 minutes of this movie are basically them hunting, they finally kind of find it and the rest of them just hunting it. And yeah, this is a long ass movie. It could have I think it could have benefited greatly from about a half an hour trim or more. Because the stuff that's good is really good. But then there are scenes where you're just like, Yeah, I'm not interested. I'm not invested in these royal people bitching and complaining. I don't care. But that's alright. tagline the year is 1766 The hunt for a killer has begun. And like I mentioned it's over two and a half hours long. I do think it's an incredibly well directed movie. It looks fantastic. It moves interesting. It's it's shot constructed well overall, there's some very weird effects that I don't know if it was that was remastered weirdly or if it just looked weird, but that are very odd. But that's okay. Universal pay 2 million for the rice to distribute the movie in the US and it made 11.2 here so good. All right. Someone claims that there was actually a beast of God in who was which this is based on the legend. That was a real wolf like creature that prowl reaches of France from 1764 to 1767. Killing 100 People in bizarre circumstances so not quite sure like a serial killer. Yeah. Seems like a person based thing or a urban urban legend but you know to be where it's just Well, yes, of course it happened. To prepare for the role mark to caucus, learned how to ride a horse studied Mohawk Indian culture and became fluent in French, fam. Here's the interesting part of him playing a Native American. His parents originated from the Philippines and were of Chinese, Filipino and Spanish industry. His mother is Irish and Japanese. So you know, he's got boxes, not a whole lot of stuff. But that's alright. He looks badass. Yeah, absolutely works in the role is so cool in this movie. On the History Channel presentation of something called Samurai, he revealed that many members of his family were killed in the bombing of Hiroshima. Oh gosh, stepmothers also a war award winning martial artist. He attended Las Vegas college. And he went to Portland State University down in Portland, Oregon. You can see who the most interesting character to me. The acting is superb. The guy he works with is the most popular guy I mentioned is also fairly good. Some of the supporting people are fine. Most these two other than these two guys. Everybody in the movie is based on a real person. At least their name is a real person may not necessarily fall into what they're doing in the movie, but they found real people have that time period to build the world around. Michael Atkins of The Village Voice right it's easily the most disarming and inventive movie made for genre geeks in years because it's filled with a variety of weird genres. Such as search for it also called it a little Sergio Leone, a little Sleepy Hollow, martial arts confrontations and all about the urban legend to the beast of karate. So I am glad I took this one off. It was fun. I remember seeing this in theater and I have zero memories of this movie because no one was a little while ago. Yes, it was only two years. I this is one of those movies that I keep going back to because I think I like it. And then it is so slow in parts that I'm like, Oh, do I really liked this movie or do I just want to like it, because the parts that I do like are great. Yeah, I feel it's sort of like when I watch David Lynch's dune. I will skip large portions of that movie, but the parts are good are so good. Yeah, and this one's the same thing. The parts that are good are really good, but man watching it again it could be very like a watch a 90 minute version or less of it. Absolutely. That's interesting. Yeah, cuz I keep hearing from people. You've got to see this movie. You've got you haven't you don't remember? Oh my gosh, go watch it now. I'm like, oh, yeah, well, maybe I guess the creature reveal the first time is really cool. And then when it is actually revealed, it's kind of like, Oh, yes. Possible. Yeah, it was. It was a little bizarre. It's kind of I expected a little bit more of a mystical reveal. Yeah, come along, but it really didn't. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it ends oddly. Yeah. Mark de cosas is one of those guys that I've always liked, probably from this movie, and always wanted him to succeed. And it feels like finally he is yeah, he's done some good stuff. Well, okay. I chose then from 1969 a movie called Castle keep. Once upon a time, there was a war. Was it yesterday? Or was it tomorrow? Taffy when goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life you will keep hearing many things about Castle key. You'll hear about the one eyed Falcon I don't think you know what this castle means. It stands on the most important crossroads in the IDF stands on the road to best dog and the dove is something isn't saved. And then what's it all for? The preacher he thanks to the ministry didn't want to Chapter cowboy. Yes, sir. Is the world suffering a water shortage corporate man by now sir. But But suppose this war just goes on and on and on and destroys everything in the world. Since the Volkswagen can get along without water. She's bound to survive when other creatures die off the count. Did I select Mr. Falconer or did you use it only? Most important you must make love but not been that where he can control the child will be truly my creation. The Mistress of the castle don't defend me you want to save it to I want to save you Baker Lake and everybody go back to your office. We have no outfit. We don't believe in fighting. All Volusion fighting the Red Queen and our cam followers Where are you going? Where they're a 10th century castle you know 20th century war When war comes, what is the life of one man or one castle? Budget of $8 million and a box office of $1.8 million. Oh, well if Rotten Tomatoes critics give 44% and the audience gives it 48% Directed by indie directors Sydney Pollack to quit credits including the swimmer the same year. Jeremiah Johnson They Shoot Horses don't they Tootsie? The firm written by William Eastlake, who? Well he's listed as one of the writers. He's the writer of the novel. And then the other writer is Daniel tear Dash was 21 credits including Don't Bother to Knock From Here to Eternity Bell book and candle. And then also David Raphael who has 27 credits including electric horseman out of Africa, Absence of Malice, so this is a this is a powerhouse of a cast and crew starring one Burt Lancaster 87 credits including From Here to Eternity the swimmer airport, the Cassandra crossing, which I spoke about during our pandemic episodes. Patrick O'Neill who has 121 credits including King rat chamber of horrors, Silent Night, bloody night, The Stepford Wives and under siege. Peter Falk is in this 136 credits, including the Great Muppet Caper with Princess Bride The inlaws and 48 episodes as Lieutenant Columbo on Colombo and also stars Bruce Dern, Scott Wilson, Astrid, Hayward, and this is a this is a weird movie. Probably not genre, but I will make an argument for being John. All right. So let me just start with a ragtag group of soldiers that are jammed into one Jeep going down this bumpy dirt road in the middle of a forest. It is December 1944. During the Battle of the Bulge, we get some really weird dreamlike images of a beautiful man and woman riding horses through the woods, very Ridley Scott kind of imagery. And, and then the horse runs right in front of the men, and his writers dress like he's from the French Revolution or something like that. And all the soldiers are stunned, and one of them says, we came to the wrong war. So this is listed as a comedy, drama. And there are some funny lines in it, it is not a comedy. Wow. The man is account and he has these titular Castle, or the soldiers have decided they're going to barrack and decide the Germans are right behind them. So they're like, I guess this is where we're gonna make our final stand. He's not too happy about it. He's like, This is My castle. And they're like, Well, we are going to be making it our place. That's where the title comes in half, we'll keep in as they're heading towards it the count remarks because they have a black soldier that is traveling with the men. And no matter what current films will have, you know, black soldiers were not allowed to mix with white soldiers in World War Two. And the soldier says to the count, these fine men rescued me from a slaver off the coast of Santo Domingo, which is a funny line. And I think it's supposed to be a funny line. There's a lot of strange humor in this movie, but it also plays into my theory. So they enter the castle. And it is just this unbelievable place that is full of the finest art paintings, sculptures as mosaics on the ceiling, and everything is just like what the fuck, and the count is just this art collector, right? Turns out that one of the soldiers is a art collector also before the war. So he's just like in heaven, right? This place is so cool looking. And this happens in like the first five minutes when the soldiers get there, and you're just seeing this amazing castle. So cool. And there's also a woman there, the Countess, who is not the niece of the counters, we are first led to believe but his very young wife. So the major, he starts an affair with a wife, but then finds out that the count actually wants him to do this. And it turns out, the count is impotent, and he's hoping the major will unpregnant his wife so that the council lineage will continue. I told you about the lieutenant who turns out to be an art collector. And the more he sees in the castle, the more overwhelmed he becomes at the thought of using the castle as their last stand. He knows the Nazis are going to come through and just destroy everything. So he's arguing with the major all the time about trying to use someplace else for their last stand. And when the major doesn't budge, he starts cataloging all of the art and trying to store it underneath the castle. The other soldiers they end up heading into this sleepy little Belgium town right to seek pleasure at the whorehouse, which is called the Red Queen. And when they get there, it is this amazing building with almost a carnival atmosphere in the middle of this tiny Belgium. Town. That seems almost deserted, right? One of the men Peter Falk was a baker before the war and instead of going to the whorehouse, he goes to the bakery, which is owned by a beautiful woman whose husband has been killed in the war. She welcomed him into her bakery and her bed and he mostly goes AWOL during the movie, she's. And then one of the soldiers is Scott Wilson, who you might remember as Herschel on The Walking Dead, so it's kind of interesting to see him as a very young, attractive man. He ends up falling in love with a Volkswagen bug. And it actually borders on like, romantic love. He's driving this bug in a circle around the castle and the major comes out and he's like, am I going to have to write you up for this? You're using enemy technology. And he's just sitting there saying, you know Oh, what an amazing, amazing piece of machinery this posture, okay? You always talk in the majors like, Alright, I'm gonna let this pass. And then eventually the Nazis do arrive and we get a pretty amazing battle scene at the end between all the soldiers and no one fares very well. I ended up really loving this movie, not because of the general stuff that you think I would love out of it and like Burt Lancaster in 1969. But because of how weird and dreamlike it is our friend friend of the podcast, which it would he was when you introduced this film to me, and we watched it together, there's a scene that was so strange, they finally commented on it to him, and he just lit up because he has had this amazing theory this entire time. And I caught on to it, right. So one scene, there's hundreds and hundreds of injured soldiers walking through this deserted Belgium town. And they're all walking in the same direction. And they're in bad shape. They're bloody, they're missing limbs, all that kind of stuff. And the major Burt Lancaster is walking a white horse, opposite them. And he's trying to get their attention. And he finally asked one of the soldiers where he's going, and the soldier says he's looking for his captain, and Lancaster says your Captain is dead. And the soldier says, Yes, sir. He's just up ahead. Oh, and so I said to Wade, are they already dead? And they don't know it. And he was like, no, because he thinks they are all in Purgatory, waiting to figure out if they go to heaven or hell. And it started making some of the things that make no sense. Makes sense. Because the Volkswagen Bug, for example, gets a lot of the soldiers. They don't like the idea of this German machinery here, so they sink it in the boat. But then it suddenly floats to the surface. And Scott Wilson sees it and he jumps into the moon swims out to it gets in it, and drives it back to shore, on top. And, you know, which is a total fantasy moment. And then some of the artists in the castle is clearly Arthur was already in museums during World War Two. So why is it there? And then also, when beautiful goes to the bakery the first time, it's almost like the woman and her child recognize him. And she even grabs his hand. And like, as soon as he comes in, she grabs his hand, she leaves him with the stairs, and she says Come to bed. And it seems like such an intimate thing to say to someone you wouldn't know if you're just gonna have sex or something. Right? It seems more like, you know, I was like, Is this his wife and his child. So during the final battle scene, we see all of our soldiers die. But the narrator explains how all of the American soldiers survive, even though we see that they do not. So if it's not genre, it's definitely surrealism. And I really loved it. I researched the fuck out of the film could find nobody else suggesting that was the case for the story. But there is one mention of eternal recurrence, which is a philosophical concept of time repeating itself in an infinite loop. And that also kind of feels like what's going on. I'm gonna rush through this. Also, at the beginning, the narrator says, and then the snow came, it was a good time to write for all of us had been killed twice, and some of us three times. Maybe that's why we were at the castle. Wow. So trivia, the castle set in Yugoslavia blew up and burned to the ground. It was quite a surprise to the cast and crew. Sydney Pollack immediately grabbed the camera and shot what he could have the burning castle. Oh my god. In some scenes in the film, including the climactic battle at the castle major Falconer wears a tan jumpsuit jacket and pants uniform usually only issued to paratroopers, so the costumes aren't quite matching who they are and all that stuff. And then I'll just mention this last one. Burt Lancaster wears a patch over a good right eye for his character. Peter Falk who actually lost his right eye at the age of three wore a glass eye for the film. Where did you watch this? It is available to rent on prime. Excellent. Oh, that sounds incredible. I mean, I ended up buying it. The after wage showed it to me. So say the swimmer is like one of my favorite Phil. I know this is the same year as a swimmer and the swimmer is considered one of his best films. And then this one is considered a real stinker. And I just like I don't know what's going on here. But I fucking love this movie. It kind of almost sounds like people not dismissing it for its weirdness. And it could be there and and I was just surprised that there was nobody else saying I think they're in purgatory or something like that. Because it seems like super obvious. Yeah. And it's not like I'm a smart guy. I don't catch things that the rest of the world hasn't caught you. I think you're smart. But the things you pointed out do all sound like they have to be Yeah, it's very, very strange movie. Really, really cool though. called Castle keep And I loved watching it again and using it as my possibly genre war film. That's awesome. That sounds great. I mean, I would say if nothing else, it's fantasy. Or surrealism, it's, it's as comedy drama. No. Does not sound like a funny. But anything funny, there are very funny lines in it, you know, and delivery of lines. And so I can see that but it's kind of the kind of humor that will come from a bunch of guys who have seen a lot of shit. They hadn't, you know, they had seen before. And so now you're, you're very comfortable saying the weirdest shit to these people. Yeah. And they're, they all seem very ready to die. They're very aware that the Germans are gonna roll right over them. Not the journalist. So I find it fascinating that both your film and my film kind of take place in this weird extra space in the middle of war. Yeah. Hmm. Actually, that's true of mine, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All three do Yeah. Well, I mean, don't get into genre. Where are you gonna be? I hadn't thought for a minute. It's like, oh, Jacob's Ladder. I know. Then you like how do you? How do you talk about Jacob's Ladder without giving it away to someone who hasn't seen it? Yeah, it's a tough one. And like, in even the war, it's like, arguing I mean, yes. War but also not but yes, but everything about that film is difficult though. Yeah. Tap into Okay, Eric, I think this is the subtopic for you next Yes, yes. Yes. So let's go even grimy or and potentially nasty although there's lots of comedies in this world do cannibal films Jana will the musical if you haven't seen it? I can recommend that. One of my least favorite genres. Thanks so. Okay, well then that means this is the part where we say thank you to everyone who's liking and sharing ghosts who's participating in the value for value model. I like getting messages from will allow old pictures and his vacations are so cool. Or a little memes from Ron or Michael Bronzo. And I constantly talking about what films are coming out what looks awful. What looks great. Did you find out anything on the book? We put out a call to see if anybody would tell you about nobody. Nobody nobody's claim oil for The War of Art. I don't know. It's a ghost because it has accidentally been sent to me and it just happened to be the book I needed to read. Thank you go order it when you were Dario when I was well this time it was late o'clock at night you were very tired. He was sneezy. You know what? That was a nice save so I'm gonna let this slide Okay, so I think that is it. You know if you want to reach out to us you certainly can on the strange aeons radio hotline which is 253-237-4266 drop us a note and let us know that we can use it on the air we always love that kind of stuff. And that's about it guys. We will be back in one week we're talking cannibals See you next Thursday. So your transportation other considerations for strange aeons radio produced by Pan Am airlines. When you think of traveling think of pan and you can't think the experience. Yes, the strange aeons radio stay at econolodge ever. It's an easy stop on the road. Strange aeons radio is recorded live in front of a studio audience. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a positive review on your favorite podcast app. Set we will set as like what about hijack and she's like, Oh, I already watched that. And I was like, my mom has watched hijack.