Strange Aeons Radio

114 LEADER OF THE BANNED!

April 08, 2021 Strange Aeons Radio Season 3 Episode 114
Strange Aeons Radio
114 LEADER OF THE BANNED!
Show Notes Transcript

114 LEADER OF THE BANNED!

More talk of the Cult of Snyder as his true believers try to derail the glory of James Gunn's Suicide Squad trailer... Other films discussed include Come True, The Last Blockbuster, and the animated Invincible show. 

Support the show
Unknown:

Oh, sorry, did I break your concentration? Somewhere between science and superstition to show you Strange Aeons Southern Strange Aeons radio that is Eric over there. That's finesse over there. Oh, boy, you guys it's a blustery spring day here. Yes. I saw the trailer for the Zack or not Zack. James Gunn James Gunn Suicide Squad. And I was before seeing this I was like, there's no possible way he can do King Shark better than they did on the Harley Quinn animated show. But it looks like he might have nailed him for this fake they might have taken a little bit of that. Yeah, show and God Hey, let's make him more violent. Yeah, it did look like I didn't realize I mean, I haven't read it in the comments. So I wasn't aware of the universe, but I didn't realize there were multiple Suicide Squad teams. So is it like a whole new it's like a whole new crew for the most part right? Well, I think the way it works is like any special forces up they've got a number of criminals who have been given this option and they will be picked and chosen from for whatever the team needs to be for whatever the threat is. Okay, interest that would that's my guess I was never a fan of the comic book or anything. But this this looks good. My fingers kind of like you know what? I didn't see the original. I probably still won't. I'll just watch this one. It looks so like such a fun cast with like Channing Tatum wearing like a bucket on his head or whatever is going on. Kimber, who else was there in there, but I remember being like, oh, man, this is gonna be really neat. Well, Idris Elba Yes. Goodness. Yes. Particular man crush of mine. So I'm very much looking forward to enable DC seems to be still kind of grasping at trying to figure out what makes Marvel work. You know, they they did it when they brought Joss Whedon into to do justice league and didn't quite work. And now it seems like they're going to try and do this because this felt very much like I was watching a Guardians of the Galaxy trailer with 70s music and the quick cutting and all that so yeah, I think I think the answer is figure out something cool to do. Don't just rip off and try to predict the market. And like I hate that hate that pre emptive of like, well, what are the fans wants? Like no, ignore the fans make something you want to make that you think is cool. And if you think it's cool, other people will think it's cool to hashtag keep the Snyder universe going. And compared to some of the others. Yes. All and I did see there was some backlash to the trailer of our fanboys saying, Who cares? Why would we do this? We want the Snyder universe to continue. Well, first, the movie that's already done. And also you know, every single one of them are going to see it anyway. Of course. So part of the difference there being is the only thing I could think is obviously you've never directed a goddamn movie. If you want the Snyder verse to continue and he be the only guy to direct DC know he's gonna burn out very fast. Yeah, that is not gonna last. I'm okay with like Snyder doing a Justice League three, but they kind of messed up because right before they put out the HBO Justice League, when the exact said, Now we're letting Snyder put out this thing and like, we're gonna let him have his time in the sun. And, you know, we really feel like we owe it to him. But But don't you know, there's not going to be any future justice like films, just so you know. And I'm like, Oh, you idiot. Like, why did you say that before it even came out? Just wait, just wait a week, and then decide whether or not you want to make like a public disclaimer that could just make you money? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that I mean, this is a business and if the Justice League Snyder cut does that, well, they'll they will find a way to, like Spider Man all over again. Yeah. And I've long believed that the fans are the worst part of fandom and you know, allowing them to kind of push this is is not going down well. Except for Star Trek fans. They're pretty cool. Yeah. I'm a part of a lot of Facebook starter groups and they are lovely human being And they're always positive and they're never like mean to each other. It's really nice nice. Dad that said, You're not gonna find that DC no Star Wars Star Wars. No, absolutely not. The different kinds of people feel like this. I started watching the invincible animated series. Oh my god, I didn't realize it was out already. Yes, I watched it. I think I have like 10 minutes left in the second episode, but Oh, you're further ahead than me. Okay, I watched the full first one and most of the second What do you think so far? I was a little disappointed how quickly they made the big reveal. I was very I don't know if I was disappointed, but I was kind of shocked. I was like, this is a episode three reveal, right? Why Why did you do that? But I will say this. I'm super disappointed in the animation itself. It looks very cookie cutter GI Joe, you know, it definitely has that. Factory made animation. Look, the voice acting is great. Okay, Simmons is on the mat. The talent involved in the voice is great. But the animation is is tough. They certainly are not shying away from the incredible violence, right. But I wish they'd given it just a little more just a little bit more stylized. Even. It wouldn't have taken away their drawing it they wouldn't not have taken much to tweak it to make it look very similar to a comic book. Yeah, yeah, I guess that's what bothered me. I was like, Okay, this almost looks like the comic book. So why not just go all the way? Yeah, the comic book always had a very comic book II style of art. It just had a ton of gore in it also. Yeah. And if they had taken the time like the book dead to me, I still gonna watch it. I like it. But that reveal of did the reason it was so powerful in the comics is they spent a long time building the family and building the father son relationship and the relationship with the guardians. And there's some major characters that they just wiped out in first episode that had wonderful stories for them, but Oh, well. Yeah. So I think that's, that's a failure on their part to understand that people would have stuck with it. You know, I think that I think it was Eric Larson, who said that he didn't believe that Kirkman had that plan the entire time. He believed that that was Crispin's idea once the sale started slipping on the book. And equipment has always said, you know, no, you got to you got to get these people invested in these people before you suddenly start killing them off. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I can't imagine he's the kind of guy who would have like, suddenly diverted his pot due to sales. But I've also read a lot of bad career days back in the early days when he was a money grabbing 1980s business artists. I don't know that but I know he wanted to keep his jobs. Oh, yeah. Sure. That there, that's fair. But yeah. I'm glad the voice acting is so stronger. Be really. Yeah. And surprisingly, you know, it's Steven yen as Mark. And I didn't realize he had such a recognizable voice. Or maybe it's just because of so many years of The Walking Dead that I just see his face when I hear his voice. So I was like, Oh, this was actually a really solid choice. Yeah. The other one who I was surprised to, I forgot the guy from justified in the shield and vice principals. Walter Yeah, well, this is the Scarface guy with the scars on his face. Right. And I knew that, and then he speaks What? He sounds different. I don't know what he's doing. But I didn't have Walters. Just go right in my face. When he started talking. He's like, Oh, that's interesting, because I certainly did with Stephen and his dad. Yeah. Yeah, definitely gonna keep watching it. But it wasn't the big burst of Hope I was. Yeah, I was hoping for Japan. I also saw something semi disappointing. I watched one late night while probably making notes for the show. I threw on the last blockbuster, which is that Netflix, Doc? Yeah. didn't love it. No. Okay. It was fine. I mean, it wasn't bad, but I just I don't know. I don't know. It felt like kind of a lazy or rushed documentary. It just didn't feel like there was a lot of purpose behind it or like heart to it. And I The irony is not lost on me that of course it was playing on Netflix. Sure. It's about the last question how many times is Kevin Smith cry during his interviews? I don't know that he actually cried at all during this Whoa, whoa, whoa, he was very reaction to a trailer or the end of a movie maybe I want to see it. But my concept of blockbuster does not have that rosy sheen that so many people do because you're pretty good at not just giving it the positive. They're a terrible company. They're a god awful company. What they represent that video world that rental thing I absolutely have a massive Rosie missing of Yeah, but working at suncoast and getting the industry magazines and stuff. They're a terrible, awful company just absolutely as cutthroat as you get. And they would move into like a mom and pop store in the same strip mall, reduce all rentals for everything to 99 cents for three days, until mom and Paul went out of business and then raised their prices up to their normal like $5 for a new release and two bucks for whatever it was kinda like when I first moved to issaquah you are getting you at really cheap rentals at blockbuster. Right? And I there were like $5 a night or something is o'clock because there's nothing else around. So and they did a lot of other horrible shit as far as like editing movies and things. But the concept in the style of video rental stores, right? Luckily, my favorite one still exists. Oh, that's cool Scarecrow. Oh, Oh, sure. Of course Scarecrow, which is is that officially like a nonprofit? They're basically a museum now is how they're set up. Yeah, it's really smart. Very, very smart is a great way to go. I mean, I only went to Scarecrow, I've only been there once. Yeah. And it was like right before COVID. So I can really participate in anything. But of course, all of that being said, the last blockbuster seems like a really cool fun store. And I will say that's actually what a lot of the heart of the movie hinges on is the last blockbuster and who the person who runs it and how it's been like, it's this place that pretty much everyone in the town of Bend Oregon has at one point or another worked at. And so they have like an annual like picnic where everybody who's part of part of the quote unquote, blockbuster family shows up and they close down and they have like, handwritten signs. And they made their own t shirts. And like she she goes around and just drives to different stores to buy, like, as many of the new releases as she can. And you know, stocks. It's this one woman who's really running it. So it feels like that thing that was the movie store lived. It's almost like a full circle like, mom and pop stores just 100% like a family run like all her kids help run it like her kids like who was I think like five or six, they would put him in a little blockbuster shirt and have him walk around and like say like, Can I help you? Do you want help finding a rental? So there was just that part is very sweet. It just feels a little bit random and scattered side of it. I don't know what the main point. I don't know what the point of the movie? Yes, there's a big difference between the franchises and the corporate run. stores. The franchises were a lot of great rental stores. Yeah. And that's what they said is basically it was a rental store and then blockbuster bought it but it remained the thing that it was before it just had new marketing. Yeah, it was fine. It was fine as a movie if you want to stay awake and just need something on. Then I recommend it ringing endorsement. Yeah. Let's see. Well, I watched one called bloodfest. shift gears. Blood says I wrote that down, right. It's a a convention. Giant out door convention. Is this a doc? No. Oh, no. And it's the story starts off and it's a guy who loves horror films. But his mother was murdered when he was very young murdered in front of this as in the movie is murdered in front of him and his dad goes off the deep end and becomes like a satanic panic kind of guys. Just like all horror movies are bad. Everything about them is bad. But his mother just before she died was telling him we watch these scary movies. So we know we can handle them. So when real scary things happen. We've felt fear before kind of that setup. And it was fun. It was it wasn't great when something happens at this. Oh, yeah. convention then. Yeah. It starts off very quickly. They get into the fast and there is an opening stage show and I'm watching this go on. thinking okay, nobody likes cryptic on we are never going to be able to afford to do anything similar to this. Just so you know. But then all hell breaks loose because they pull up. Can we bring up a couple of people from the audience and they probably killed them on stage. Holy crap, I mean, so half the people are going around half the people are getting shit that was real. And then it just, it's the guy set up cameras all over the field and they're just going to kill a bunch of people. And it's that kind of a, you can make it if you know all the rules you can escape alive. But it's fun. The biggest problem was the the director is also one of the big actors. And this is a big movie. It's not big budget, but there's a lot going on. It's this the control center where they're controlling all the stuff. There's the cabins and the stages, at least a very big movie. I think he might have been better served just directing it cuz it's pretty good. But it just needs a little little push more. And I think he could have had something really really good. What did you watch this on? Pretty sure it was shatter. This sounds fun. I get it. It is. It is definitely fun. No doubt about that. There's a lot of over the top goofiness that some work, some doesn't. But it's all well worth watching. Cool. I rented a movie that just came out called come true. Have you heard about this? Oh, it is about a girl who is suffering from these kind of recurring dreams of a dark figure in her dreams. And she is starting to affect your life and everything. She's She's young. And she signs up for like a university sleep study. And she goes in there and they hook her up to this thing. And it gets into some science fictiony shit where they can kind of see what she's dreaming, you know, images on a screen and stuff like this. And they they realize that everybody in the sleep study is having a dream of this dark figure with these kind of glowing eyes. And it's pretty dang creepy. It's really slow, the effects are minimal. The Dream effects are, are pretty cool. You can clearly tell the difference between you know, it's not A Nightmare on Elm Street type of thing where you're like, Am I dreaming? Is this real? It's it goes into like a different almost like a fantasy world when she's dreaming. And I just thought it was really smartly written, well directed, very well acted. I didn't know any of these actors. And just at the end of it, I was like, boy, that was a cool little movie. You know? Nothing that was gonna be a franchise or anything like that. Just a really solid eerie little horror flick. Well, last night night before last night, I saw the second episode of something but I can only assume we've all watched Falcon and dude, bro, Falcon and the snowman. Our man, our man arm dude. I'm never gonna remember man. Yeah, and they're never gonna remember the name of the show. I can't get it to work in my head. But yeah, it's interesting, because Have you have you guys watched it? Yes. Okay. I do like that. They already gave me a twist. Because I was like, at the end of episode one. I was like, Oh, no, new Captain America that we don't know anything about. He's gonna be a dick or evil or Hydra or whatever. And then it's just a really good guy who's like really kind of deserving to a certain extent of the title and like, he's a war hero, and he has really good intentions. And he just rings that like, very similar Captain America vibe. Now obviously, we all know that. He's not the one who should have this mantle. But I liked that as a twist more than what the twist would have been if it was like a but he's evil. But maybe he could still be evil. I mean, he is based on a character from the comics. Oh, Izzy. I know. And I wouldn't say that he was evil, but he didn't exactly the attributes of Captain America that one would hope for. Well, so far. He has they It was nice. They redesigned his helmet a little bit, too. Yeah, I noticed that it looked a bit draw was no longer squished. Yeah, his face. Oh my god. Awful big, big jaw. But he takes that helmet off like Oh, why? Yeah, no wonder that looked weird in that original. Yeah. And he's such a handsome man. I mean, he looks so much like his dad. kind of ridiculous. It's ridiculous. You're like, Oh, I can every time he like turns his head. I'm like, Oh, it's Kurt. Every time anyone says anything about a Big Trouble in Little China reboot. I'm like, I don't as much. You know. I love the rock. I don't want the rock in that. I want. Wyatt. Russell. Yeah. And just playing the same character. Yeah, and I will say that therapy scene was pretty solid. I I like this show a lot. Yeah. So I've got very high hopes for it. Yeah. And again, going back to the DC Marvel thing, the balls these producers have to do these mini series is that are setting up phenomenally deep storylines for future movies and stuff. It's just great. Yeah. Oh, cool. I'm glad they're not worried about oh, wow, one division was a big hit. We got to do a season two, like, no, that's what we did. We had that universe set up and you'll find out more when you go to see Dr. Strange to like you were saying, Eric, that they've got like 13 shows or something to come out something like that they had planned up to 13 or 14 of these things. And I don't know if it's these specifically like eight episode things, or if they're doing other little things, but like, Damn, crazy. Yeah, I remember when they did the Yeah, the guy who came up on the stage and was like, and we've got this coming in this coming. I was like, Oh my god, take a breath, sir. This is legal. Why? I'm glad because I'm bored. But Whoa. Well, and they're, you know, we've been saying this, they're doing it right. And DC continues to do it wrong, because there was no reason why. Titans couldn't have somehow been connected to the Justice League universe. You know, part of my complaint of Cyborg in Zack Snyder's film is that he's not nearly as good as a cyborg and doom patrol is just his effects are way better. The guy who plays him in Doom patrol is fantastic. He seems to have read the comic you know, which Zack clearly has not friend. And kind of Cyborg is kind of powerful in that movies like Cyborg can do like anything he wants. Basically, he set him up basically as the most powerful person in the DC Universe. Yeah. Weiss I want to delve different again. I watched I showed her short film the stylist at cryptic con two years ago. So it's like well, let's check out the feature on arrow right. Available for sponsorship here. We love you. I would love a free arrow movies to just watch and talk about it's pretty good. It's same story So first, I believe the first like few minutes are the short basically reshot okay. But strong acting really good stuff incredibly deep character with the stylist and her confusion in the world and trying to get along as a person. what's the what's the premise? She is a serial killer that is a hairstylist that drugs and scalps people that she's styling their hair. And she will she's got like a collection in her basement of hair that she occasionally puts on the so it's kind of a reimagining to a certain extent. mainiac sort of but she's a lot deeper character. Yeah. But yeah, that's actually not conceptually Yeah, there's a lot of that idea there. But really well shot I was worried it didn't feel to me like this was an idea that could be expanded into a feature but you feel like it worked that was my that was my thinking too as I cut the short nails and it's they're they're really good. But then they expand on her with like suddenly understanding the world of how she made how she can make friends are not make friends are like the main storyline is one of our clients wants her to do weddings and she's like, I don't do weddings. And she eventually agrees to do it and then also gets pulled in to be part of like the bridesmaids. Yeah, parties and things and is a fish out of water and those and it's a strong film. And I I hope she continues to do more stuff because this looks great. The acting is good. There's a lot of uniqueness going on here. I suppose. Pretty good. Even though I'd point I'm going this isn't entirely made for me. There's a very I'd be curious if you would see it run so what you would think because it's got a very strong living female world feeling that I haven't gotten from a lot of movies. Yeah, God That sounds really curious. See what you think because there's times I felt like this is telling a real story that I don't know. Wow. So that's very cool. I mean, like and the bridal industry is his own weird thing as somebody who's done some wedding wedding videography and, and I also had to cut a series where a makeup artists was talking about doing specifically wedding makeup. So it sounds very interesting. Yeah, I don't like it. Yeah, I'll try it. Know what is available arrow arrow exclusive right now but I'm sure it'll go to other arrows started in October and this was their big launching thing here in January whatever and they released this it seems to have done very well for them very well. Oh cool. Well, why don't we take a little break and I can scrub all this talk about women and everything on the brain we can get back to cool stuff when we come back. Straight snacktime kid she really loves to snack. She really cares so much fun. You've all theater. And when you think she's coming back. Cabbage Patch Kids snacktime kit comes with all the plates that you see here. It's sold separately, including ruido back Eric, yes was your topic chip by golly I suppose. And got returning director here. Alex della Iglesia who I talked about for the day of the beast in Episode 73 the devil you say, Oh, ah, and he also directed the last circuit switching and bitching and the very good 30 coins. witching and bitching is a great movie with a bad title. Yes. I've just started getting into 30 coins. So far so good. She is a crazy. I was kind of like, well, this is fun. It's a little weird, but then I heard he was the director of gone Okay, makes perfect sense now. Just a little off if you've seen any of those films I listed and I saw the last circus first long ago no idea who he was my watch Come on. This is really weird, but really good. Is it a horror film? Oh, yeah. Oh, really crazy dark. Killer circus kind of thing. Is it Spanish? Yeah. writer was Barry Gifford who was also involved in writing Wild at Heart novelization of the film apparently. Wait and he also wrote last highway and then there's It's been a while since I had this one. That one this hard, but it's also the guy who wrote the day of the beast 30 coins live flash. Your Hey. Good Gary cha Chavarria. Like, letters long. David truvia, who's living in living is easy with eyes closed. And Alex also was a writer on the film he's writer on almost everything he directs the star lady who I haven't always liked in movies but is phenomenal in this is Rosie Perez. From do the right thing Pineapple Express. So many things her iron appeal is gigantic. And heavy heavy. Heavier bar Dame Oh, nice. Second lead here from golden balls. The kitten the moon No Country for Old Men is probably most known for in Skyfall and the upcoming Bride of Frankenstein which would be playing Frankenstein. Whoa. Wait Is this harkening back to that dark universe can't forget it. He was in the photo shoots for those for the like magazine covers for the dark universe universals disastrous first one yeah, the mummy. Yeah, I mean, I didn't see them on me but like he was one of the people in their lineup. And James Gandolfini from Yeah, the sopranos and screamin Jay Hawkins Wow. That but a spell on you. That sounds like a journey. Oh, it is. Oh my God, this movie is absolutely insane. It starts with Rosie Perez having some kind of a leopard dream or a leopard comes in and it's not it's not wrong. interferes wakes her up as I say joins her in bed but that sounds completely like not what happened at all. It's more like a kiddie coming to say hello. It starts off with her getting hit on by a guy and it does not go well for him. Not violent wise but just her her takedown of why he really doesn't want to be involved with her is just a lot of fun and really well delivered. The opening credits have a phenomenal This was made and what I didn't even say I didn't even say the name of the movie. I just dove right Under the director I barely listened to you So yeah, but I recognize it so let me go back here. Perdita Durango, also known as dance with the devil the rotten tomatoes on this one is 33 from the critics out 63 from the crowd Oh made for 4.2 million euro and you probably don't have a view like that didn't have any box office for a lot of reasons. But the the okay then bla bla bla bla bla isn't it and is dragged by and is written by the opening credits have this amazing series of helicopter shots over Mexico in this giant graveyard where she has gone to spread the ashes of her sister. Then Javier Bardem shows up in his terrible haircut it's like on par with like I think it was scream three where she had the horrible bangs at certain like that but he also has really long hair oh he's he's not a nice guy. He robs a bank and makes the lady of the teller Take your shirt off at you make this so quickly, incredibly sleazy. Failing, the film does a really neat job of switching between English and Spanish. It's almost all in English, but there's also all the actors just move right into speaking Spanish at times, and it's completely seamless, really well done. bardem says he is a powerful practitioner of century a fusion of Catholic and African folk beliefs that emerged in Cuba in the 17th century and still has practitioners to this day. They didn't couldn't quite figure out how accurate what he does is I'm sure it's not fully accurate considering Cuban sacrifices are involved. not part of the religion not not part of anything and Catholic I always man, is it is it real because like Voodoo is a mix of African, you know, culture and some Catholicism. Yeah, so I don't know. I've never heard of Santa Maria though. It's more prevalent in Mexico and Cuba, Cuba. Yeah, for sure. Wow. We're in Cuban communities and big cities New York. That song suddenly makes so much sense. I don't practice Santa Maria I just thought it was a beer I don't know. I don't know it just I was in high school is an ESA never change. Oh, and the film came out in 1997 perfect timing. Let's see the if they do part of how he raises his money other than robbing banks is he performs versions of century rituals for tourists. And they're crazy. Wow, he the first one he does he's got a body that he's stolen from a graveyard and he's chopping legs off the body and arms and spitting blood in the face of the people that are watching it now this I mean it is Whoa. And James Gandolfini shows up with a video camera trying to videotape everything that's going on. Is this something like Why? Why is he filming? You don't know yet? Okay. Just the and 97 that pre Sopranos are right around in soprano. Pre read around. It's pretty close. So he wasn't really a household face yet. I don't know he would recognize them right away but so now they're setting up the other two couple. The other couple in the movie. They go to a family, white family with absolutely every inch of their furniture covered in plastic and the dad's using some purchased on TV exercise gear, I think it was called the crossbow or something like that. And wife is very bizarre and they are as arion as you could get both very the guy who's picking the girl up and the daughter are both non hair blue eyes. So they head on out for their supposedly, we have fun. Meanwhile, Javier and Rosie have that this plan to kidnap someone. And because the he's got a giant job coming up where he is going to drive illegal fetuses to Nevada, to Las Vegas for makeup companies. Okay, so it's such a big job, he feels he needs a human sacrifice to make sure it goes well. And they show a little bit about how he gets away with stuff like music, he uses his religion to cross the border at one point and they've got the stolen body and a whole bunch of cash like$20,000 in cash sitting in the back seat with a blanket over it. And he says a prayer and puts the their version of prayer beads over the body and the border guys just like looks at it like flashlight. Okay, good go on. So it's part of his thinking that his religion keeps us safe. And this is such a big job. He's got to find somebody to, to do a big ritual with heavier keeps. There's some strange backstory, I'm not entirely certain why it's here, because it's written like it's Rosie's movie. But Javier has got more backstory going on. And he's featured a little bit more. So it's, it's an uncomfortable balance to who's the lead in this, which works really well in some scenes and really doesn't work at other times. They show his background, and I may imply he was in a war, but I'm not sure if he's making that up. Or if it was real, because they don't really verify. So they get hired to do the fetus for makeup drive. And they have this wild scene, which is really well done, where the two of them go to this incredibly busy street. And just he gets out of the car wash rows, he sits in the car watching me grab somebody off the street said this guy. No, no, no, no. turns around, grab some other guy brings them up to the truck door that come about him. No, no, no, he's not right. And she eventually gets annoyed with him picking all the wrong people. So she goes out and grabs that guy from earlier, the young blonde guy and his girlfriend. So they're the ones that get picked out of the crowd, and they just drag them screaming in terror, all these people standing around watching what's going on doing anything, but it works. It doesn't feel like well, somebody would do something to stop them. It feels like and nobody wants to fuck with these two. So they get kidnapped. And you find out after that, that James is a federal agent who has been following her specifically for a long time. And boy, he gets the crap kicked out of him in this movie, that scene, the end of that scene, he starts to go over to try to stop and probably do something and get hit by a car and then just stands up and limps away from a very bad car wreck. That's he's all right. But as the movie progresses, he gets more scars and he's got the neck brace thing going on. And as they take the two kids to a holding area, the timeline in this movie is very hard to figure out. I'm not quite sure how long after they get hired to take the fetuses over the border they have until they do but it's sort of seems like they got as long as they need was they just kidnap these two and they bring them back to their place for keeping first numero uno have uncomfortable scenes. There's a very strange rape scenes in this movie. Okay, where Javier decides he's going to you know, rape the woman. Rosie gets character gets very jealous and rapes the guy. Whoa. So this is going on at the same time. So it's it's a really bizarre juxtaposition of scenes and it's like really hard to swallow. That works. So of course, after that happens, the relationship hits a momentary rough spot where they proceed to beat the crap out of each other for a little while. Rosie ends up winning that battle, and then they enjoy each other in a more and more nice way. After it's called for play, you guys. Yeah, that's definitely A former that I guess, so they get ready to do let's see where Oh, there's, so they get ready to do the sacrifice place this horrible game of theirs for people and they're like, okay, vote for who you want to be sacrificed, have your votes for the boy, Rosie votes for the girl and then they vote for you against each other and that creates a nice little back and forth between them about screw you What's wrong with you and all this but since he's the priest and the Auntie grabs a woman and they head out for a sacrifice, so he he goes out into this room again which is filled with people watching. Like they're gone to church and he drags this screaming girl out into the center and talks about he's going to kill her. And this is our sacrifice for the day and everybody's getting excited and jumping up and down well then shows up the man who screwed over in the bank robbery proceeds to mess up the whole situation. Of course the key four people get away so they have to figure out well what are we going to sacrifice now? Cops are following them and they realize that they're meeting up with the fetus struck and this is a lot of feed I guess I'm gonna I'm imagining like a liquid container with just one Oh no, no, it is a semi truck with containers on both sides. chilled truck with baby fetus, you know, actually look like probably cry after you've been born level fetus lining this truck like a ballsy decision to see why this movie was bad. I'm really I kind of forgot that was the topic I like this is a lot. This is a lot. Jesus. So the cops show up and they try to stop them don't go particularly well. But then the truck starts to drive away and fetuses fall off the back. Oh my god Geldof Ed gets the shit kicked out of him here as well. Now they're on the run from the law and from Crazy Eyes, who's the guy who hired them to transport them across the border? Because they had some that dropped off? I don't know. They had some people driving it to them. So I'm like, why didn't you just use those guys? I'm going to tell you guys this scene and then I'm going to cut it the fuck out of the final thing. Because there's a crazy I guys. Jeez, oh my god, like lucky. I don't. Yeah, I'm not gonna put that in the final episode. But to see you guys get the full picture. I'll just say unfortunately for those that might watch this movie, the crazy guys is kind of a well, I kind of he is a pedophile. Nothing graphic is done, but it is a truly disturbing way you find out he is so Javier decides he's going to get revenge on the guys who tried to kill him and hey, Lucha door. And they end up in Vegas. Somehow this movie is very complicated. But like I said, the timeline is really hard to figure out. But they end up staying and another. I think I lost one asset entirely. Now. I'm trying so hard to keep up with this. All I can see are the fetuses rolling off the truck. And you see I'm stuck in that moment. Well, one of the cops does come up, pick up one of the fetus and give us a proper burial. None of this is better. The whole time the Father has been searching for his daughter who's kidnapped. And she shows up behind him and he looks around Oh my god, it's her starts to walk over. gets hit by a car dies. Like Jesus not a cheery movie. It has some elements of his weird sense of humor. But no. The storyline is dark is out. In the end, well not in the end. It's not the end of the movie. But in the end, they just as far as the couple that kidnapped they just let them go. No. After all that, yes, sir. All that they just go you can go run. Right. Okay. As they're running by the ambulance with her father being put in the back of it. Jesus Christ, this dude is dark. And from there, you get to the final and battle scene. Now just if you want to watch this movie, I'll just let you watch it on your own so you can get to get the fun of the last moments of Rosie of have here. Who knows? You just have to find out. Hey, all right. Do you recommend or not recommend this very boy. If you're a big fan of either of those actors. Yeah, yeah. If you're a big fan of his work, the directors work you If you're not familiar with his directing style, don't make this your first movie you watch from him, because you hate him forever. I would recommend starting with you know, 30 coins or the day of the beast day, the basis so much is a much better film. Yeah, because it's got the humor, like lace throughout the whole thing. I don't think I can judge you for that. I've seen snuff. I've seen Cannibal Holocaust. I don't think I can see this. One huge thing that I'm kind of curious. I want to kind of go back I don't think the Crazy Eyes guy gets punished, which is a real problem. It needs to be. It's based on very different book from a novel from 1992 called 59 degrees and raining. The story of bernita Durango there's also a comic style adaptation by Barry Giffords, Dorito Durango, a graphic thriller from neon lit. The movie was shot in Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Mexico. Carlos bardem. Javier his older brother got badly burnt due to excessive gunpowder and a badly synchronized explosion caused by special effects technician and another crew member got second and third degree burns and 80% of his body Oh my god, no. Oh my god watches the original person slated direct this movie was might recognize this name. If not, I'll tell you why you might have biggest Luna director of anguish. No. Okay. With Madonna and Javier and Dennis Hopper, in the leads. Oh, my. Johnny Depp was also in line for a little bit as one of the characters and Ray Liotta. But once Luna abandoned the project they had to with with the exception of Burnham they've just recast everybody. Let's see. Some of the killings are based on real people I couldn't quite figure out I don't think the Perdita Durango is based on it was a real person. But the references to the story are depicted in documentaries, the rituals to sondre the true story behind the matamoras cult killings so his rituals might have been based on not the religion but a bastardized version of it that a cult leader did. The original Spanish version ran 10 minutes longer than what was released in the US. Let's say the film is available in the US in two versions the edited 115 minute are rated version 121 minute unrated version. Not anymore. Sarah severan release the entire Director's Cut, which I think is like three or four minutes longer. The title character Perdita is make some kind of an appearance in Wild at Heart. originally played by Isabella wrestling me, okay, and here's a fun one. And Amazon one star review. Oh God, Phil said this movie is so violent and so evil. It's for those who love Sex, drugs, etc. Children must be wary of that's an understatement. So he should have flesh that review out a little. Yeah, yes. So as far as you know, some of the horrifying, deeply, deeply nasty films like we've talked about that before. This is not fully hit there. It's not like after watching Solow or something like that I felt physically ill. Yeah, there are moments in this one that I felt kind of like. But the the two leads are so charismatic, and they're so interesting on screen. Yeah. If this was played by a couple really good actors that we didn't know, I think it would have been a very different feeling. And it might have been really, really, really dark. But since you know these two actors, you're comfortable with them. That relaxes the feeling of the film overall. But yeah, it's a dark one. I see why it was banned. It actually was only banned. Its full version. I found a loophole. Because once I saw that the director was I wanted to watch this film. I'm not sure that was the right idea. Now that I've watched it, but from the period of 1997 to 2006, I believe every film that was released in America, which this one was released in America, even a shorter one was banned in Afghanistan. So that was its banning. It wasn't. It was kind of instead of purely banned from us and stuff, but it was banned in Afghanistan. shocking to me because they're so progressive. I'm not going to touch that at all. Um, so my movie, I picked something out that I wasn't sure if I'd watched or not. I feel like I saw it in when I was like, in film school or doing film studies or something, but I don't think I was super paying attention to it or like, I just didn't have the I don't have the site. I have now film, the understanding or the appreciation, so I picked the 2000 movie, Battle Royale. ej Madden lawyer. Do like how you just totally skipped down I'm not gonna come in and have like a movie here. I'm just going. This is an excellent one. I am very, very curious to hear what you say on this. Yeah, yeah, no, I? Well, first of all, Rotten Tomatoes, critics 88%. Audience 89% so super high ratings out there. budget was 4.5 million. Box Office 30. Point 6 million. Is that in Japan? Or is that why? It should be worldwide? Yeah. Made in Japan. If you want to watch this movie, be warned. It is incredibly hard to find it not dubbed. As you both know, because I was messaging you in a sort of frustrated anxi semi panic. I tried to watch it on Amazon, dubbed Plex. Dubbed, I was like I was in the middle of like downloading it because I was like, I'm not gonna spend money on this thing and then find out it's dubbed, like I cannot do it. There are a lot of dubbed versions of it. And I don't recommend seeing that. It's just it's not the same. I did finally find it on Roku. They had a sub diversion. So that was great. It does surprise me that you don't own this. Yeah, I'm actually kind of surprised to because I actually have a lot of like Asian horror that I picked up when I lived in the UK and actually had to look through my list of movies I own and be like, I don't I guess I don't have this. And now I've got three versions. Yeah, yeah and anchor button. It's finally in the US it took a long time to get here but Anchor Bay released it I don't know who else is released aside from arrow in the UK. But I don't know whose versions I have. I don't have either those. Yeah, if you have a good one, let me know. I'd be interested. So beware, if you're trying to find this, if you're trying to stream this movie, I'm sure if you buy it, you're fine. Directed by King fuka Sokka. He's done 68 titles. He actually died in 2003. right around the time that battle. Battle Royale two was being filmed. I think he managed to make one scene be Takeshi before he passed away. It's based on Battle Royale by Christian taka takami as published in 1999, which I'll get more into later. Music but masamichi Amato starring. I'm going to try my best guys, Tatsuya Fujiwara, who plays Shuja who is in a better way to and death note from 2006. So he is our male lead. Akki moto plays Noriko who's been in 75 things including battle rail, too, and she's a voice in the cat returns. Takashi me Kitano aka Beto Takashi, who's one of my favorite actors of all fucking time. This movie. Oh my God, he's so good. She's so good. He plays guitar, Caetano sensei. And when I was looking through his credits, I realized like, a lot of times, he's either playing a character called Takeshi or Kitano. And I was like, Is this just like a thing with him? He's like, I'm just gonna play people who have my name. And we'll just go with it. Like you guys. Just whatever character you came up with, forget it. He's been in 68 things, including a Senate to me, which is something that I've seen, I really liked ghosts in the show, the outrage. And of course, I mentioned him before in Johnny anomic. He's also in boiling, boiling point and Yakuza six, the song of life video game, which I also really want to play, or Yeah, I really want to play. And he actually originally studied to be an engineer, but was thrown out of school for his rebellious behavior. Yeah, and then he got into comedy, which is very strange to think about. I know he, like start off as a comedian. It's really weird. The plot of this movie, so we started off with like a bunch of intertitles. The future is bleak. As it turns out, at the dawn of the millennia, society has collapsed 15% of unemployment, 10 million out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school and juvenile crime rates soar. Adults lost all confidence. It that's that's all it says is adults lost all confidence. I was like, tell me more about what's in something specific, they pass the Millennium educational reform act, aka the br act. This basically equates to once a year, they have an annual sort of a event, slash show slash, they don't get super into the details behind this. They give you hints as to what's going on. But it seems like a sort of big brother ask, aired, or at least public publicly known about competition, where a class is chosen out of Japan and they're sent to a small islands, and only one can survive, they have three days to murder each other. And if they don't end up with just one person, then they have special necklaces that go off and they're all beheaded. So you better go ahead and kill your classmates because that's just how it's going to roll. I don't know how this solves the problem and mass. I had a little problem with that. I was like how is this helping crime rate overall, and like getting students to go to school because that zero problem, but that's fine. I'm not gonna worry about it. So we open on this empty classroom and Mr. Caetano beat Takeshi is standing in there alone young sweet Noriko, who's our kind of female lead arrives for class and apologizes for being late. She's extremely sweet, very, like cute little Japanese middle school kid. And Kitano points to the board where it says written in Japanese classes taking a day off because they want to sincerely Class B. He looks very sad, and basically without a word leaves and she's like, Okay, I guess class isn't happening. He leaves the classroom and while walking down the hall, no boom. It was one of his students, runs past him with a knife a switchblade and slashes his kind of ass basically, the top of his legs slash bottoms, but with a knife and runs off. Caetano looks sort of at him, and then returns there's a hallway like Middle School sink, just in there and he looks everyone's like, okay, go back to class, he starts washing the blood off his leg, getting back to business. And Noriko just kind of stands there in shock, stirring years later, a graduation trip for class B. So they're all much older now. And they're I was a little confused because I kept kept finding references and saying that they're now all in middle school, but they look like seniors in high school. Yeah, it feels like a senior crease thing, where you know, they're they're supposed to be middle schoolers, but it doesn't feel like it and didn't quite read like it and I get the harrowing harrowing concept of if they are middle schoolers. But I think it works just as well by being high school like age. Just From a visual standpoint, so they're all on a bus. They're all much older. We're really focused on a different lead now. So we're in the world of Shuja, I. He's there with his best friend Nobu, who we just seen slicing and dicing beat catching a moment ago. And his crush is crushing her ego. So they're all hanging out. I mean, it's definitely like a very happy, celebratory mood. They're like sharing cookies. And they're, yeah, they're taking photos, and they're just goofing off. And the teacher in the back obviously loves his students. He's goofing around with them and playing games with like a bunch of the girls and back like some card game. And as they drive on, they see all these military vehicles are passing by seems a little strange. And they go in this tunnel. And then we wake up with Shuja and everyone on the buses passed out. And except for the driver, and a woman, a strange woman at the front who has a gas mask, they see that he's woken up, they walk over the back with a nice pipe, hit him on the head, and he's out again. So wake up again, in this sort of strange, empty classroom with like desks kind of toppled over and just weird setup, everyone's kind of just been thrown in there like chucked in there while they were still asleep. And the door opens and the military shows up with Mr. Caetano, the Takeshi basically, kind of walks in, he's like, Hey, everybody, how's it going? He remembers everyone's names. He's clearly like one of those teachers. It's like, Oh, yeah, I remember this class and pull a lot. He's now kind of in like a tracksuit. So it looks like it's switched over to like gym teaching or something. And he informs them that they have been selected. And he is there to kind of give them the rules and explain to them the Battle Royale. And of course, he puts in this cassette video, VHS tape on this, like big car TV. And it's got this extremely peppy, like Japanese lady in it like crop top with like a military helmet on going Hello, this is what you're gonna get up to today. She's telling them you have three days to complete it. And she's very upbeat. If not, this special color will explode your head. So you better make it count. And then they're each given like a bag. And in the bag, they've got some food and some water and a weapon of some kind. And she's some of the, if you're lucky, maybe you'll get one of the guns. And if you're not, you might get something very useless. And we start to realize that this is serious, like very serious when some girls are whispering, and beat two caches, like, stop whispering, please. And they don't incite just throws a knife into the forehead, one of the girls, and we get a countdown, like 41 left to go. It says the name of the student who's dead. And then of course, he sees no blue, there are no booze acting out and starts trying to rush him. He's like, You can't do this to us. And he slashes no booze, but in the same way that he was slashed. And then he's like, I can just see that you are never going to change, you're never going to prove you've learned nothing. And so he's like, oh, great demonstration. So he presses a button on a little remote. And no booze necklace, device. lights up. And there's a countdown he's running around from student to student like oh my God, help me, help me help me. And they're just shoving him off. And of course, Shuja his best friend looks over at him is like oh, my God and starts to go towards him. No book splits. We all know that this is extremely serious. So the video now counts off each student's is going to go in order, boy, girl, boy, girl, they get to grab their stuff, and a bag of random decision bag and run out and start the games. So they they run out. And it it just I don't even know how to describe the rest of this film. I'm giving you a lot of details in the lead up because at this point, there's one reference that could work fairly well. Yes. And of course, Hunger Games. Yes. It's Hunger Games. So with all of the violence added in? Yes, absolutely. I mean, if you read Hunger Games, they do have like a fair amount of description of like some of the content but there's weirdly too much stolen from this story from Hunger Games is a little frustrating. So for example, the no bye bye hunger pig's Sorry, I was trying to make that really clear and somehow messed it up by trying too hard. Fuck you Hunger Games is what I'm trying to say. Let's make that very clear. So for example, like they have these little maps in this like plastic sleeve, it's so Japanese, it's so cute on like these lanyards around their neck just to make it you know, easy, they've a little pen so they can mark off sections of the map. And it's almost like playing battleship where they're like e one F, you know, six, and between the hours of such and such and such and such, alright, hazard zone. And so they have to, like, keep up with it and cross off sections and make sure they're not in that zone, because otherwise their heads will be exploded. Hunger Games steals that exact same concept, except for they like release poison gas because it's unique, or they have like Tigers or whatever the hell they have. That game is, or sorry, in that movie slash book. Just to give you a little bit of detail, because I feel like this, this feeling just needs to be seen to be understood fully. So we're following around Noriko and shriya. And they kind of join forces. And we're seeing a lot of this through their lens as they're trying to survive the chaos. But as soon as the students like run out, they've got to transfer students quote, unquote, one of whom is a psycho, and one of whom is a winner of a previous year, just to mix things up and make it exciting ringers. Oh my god total ringers. It's so funny to you, because at 1.1 of them, gets a bag and runs out. And then he comes back in Chuck's the bag down, grabs another bag, and he said, this one's mine and runs back out. Because he didn't like the weapon that was in there. Just so good. So as soon as they start running out, of course, the the psycho kid is like ready to get action going. And one of the other ones, they're so haphazard. Like, there's such kids, they're just like, yeah, yeah, this one kid is like, I have a bow and arrow and start trying to shoot people, but he doesn't know what he's doing. And then the other kids like, no, and like runs at him. And then he actually ends up with this Blake thing in his hand that goes off and kills the other kid. He's like, ah, I guess I killed somebody. So the numbers just start like going and we get this like awesome headcount that we keep cutting to. And often the headcount. It's like a black screen. And it usually has like a quote, from like, whoever just died. And sometimes it's the thing they just said a second ago. And sometimes it's just something that they like, wrote in a yearbook, or sent to a friend. It's these nice little kind of wrap ups of like, this one's gone. This is who they were. Occasionally, you get these really neat flashbacks from the dead students that either explain what you just saw, or what you're going to see, which I think is especially nice. So you see, for example, one of the students. In fact, our female lead Noriko was super bullied, and like, was locked in the bathroom by some girl, some girls and like, had some really mean things like said to her. And, like later, she runs into one of those girls in the woods. And it's clear that this girl is going to try to kill her because she's not a nice person. But now he goes like, Hi, how's it going? We're friends. Right? Oh, like, I hope you're well. And it's just it has this great mix of like, upbeat, and sort of funny, but really, really harrowing. Murder. Lots of blood Gore, murderousness. I mean, not as much like you're not seeing guts flying everywhere. But you're seeing enough that you're like, Whoa, maybe like the McLaren, the other girls group. They were all together. They weren't gonna be able to work together. Yeah. Well, that was crazy. Yeah, so Exactly. There's these great vignettes that we're getting that explain kind of how all these people end up dying. Like there's a couple of different people who have lovers packs, so to you know, jump off a cliff together holding hands and, and then you get like a group of girls who are at the lighthouse. So there's all these little locations around the island that people are kind of taking over. And then the lighthouse is a group of like fun girl friends, we're working together, and they're besties. And they've known each other forever, and they're gonna make it through. And then one thing happens like one small thing, and then it just becomes a fucking bloodbath, and everyone's neuroses and nerves and like hyper like, female like Middle School, this just comes to a boil, and they're like, you chewed on that dust? And I never said anything. And why would you do this to me? And this one's like, calm down, everybody. We're supposed to work together. Oh my god. It's just so great. And then you have another like on the other side of the island. You have some boys who've gotten together and once a hacker So he's like trying to hack into the devices, and they're trying to build bombs so they can fight back. And you just have all these little things happening all over the island. But the way that it's structured, you're never lost, you're never confused. You never feel like, you know, like, Who's this person, I don't care about them, you care about kind of everybody, even the worst people by the end, you really are, like, invested in in who's got what going on. And then to top it off, you keep kind of flashing back over to the military base would be to catch you. And oh my god, it's so good. He's just like, bored, and like laying on the couch. And then he starts this painting that has like all the different students as they're killing each other, the way they're killing each other. He kind of it's really bad. It's a really badly done little art portrait that he's got going on. And then he gets into like an argument with his like daughter on the phone at one point and earlier in the beginning. Our lead Noriko is giving Shuja and Noby Nobu cookies that she made from home, and he's it's just little details, like, he just opens up the cookies and starts eating the, it's just like, these are good. And it's just his characterization is so fucking funny. But he doesn't it's, he's saying anything, or it's just the way that he's presenting himself. At one point, he just sort of wanders into the chaos with like an umbrella to like check in on a root goo because like, she's one of his favorite students. So he's got like this umbrella and it's raining, he walks over, he hands it to her and kind of looks at her and then walks back out again. He's in his tracks. He's got his like, hands in his pockets. It's just so neat. It's just, it's so fucking weird. But because of all of these unique elements kind of thrown together between the structure, the stories and the investment we have in these characters. It's and this great mix of like horror and fun. It's a fucking awesome film. My my last note about this is basically just fucking watch it. Yeah. But I don't want to say anything really too detailed about like, what I mean, there's a lot going on in this movie. There's a lot of twists and turns and and different people have different endings from what you think are going to be and I just think you got to check it out. The things I like about it all the stuff I just said plus it's like this mix of like carry with a strange like sort of romantic like, I don't know like romantic II sort of music and shots and design and like melodrama, but then like meeting Apocalypse Now. Just like also classical music and war machines and like bombs and explode. It's crazy. Um, it's laid out just in such a unique and interesting way that the flow is constant. I love the dipping in and out of memories so we that we learn who people are. Like I said Takeshi is so good. There's a moment where he literally just blinks, he blinks twice, one eye for two things, and it is perfect. It is perfect acting, buck and opening orchestral music. Like I said, it reminds me a lot of Apocalypse Now. I also wrote, it's so much better than the fucking Hunger Games. And fuck he for stealing so blatantly and poorly in comparison. It's so gross. I mean, it's gross. How much they steal. Like I'm irritated as hell with that lady. Yeah, she claims that she had no knowledge of Battle Royale but even if that were true, editors and publishers had to be aware of this and there's just a little too much that is right on the nose from battle as it's Suzanne Collins. I think it's too Yeah, there's way too much just the fact that like what I just mentioned, the the sort of laid out areas of the map going that's not something you accidentally copy, when it's also a battle rail setup. And the unique weapons you each get to grab a weapon at the start. There's just too much crossover. I think you're preaching to the choir. I know but i don't i want to preach to the choir outside of this room. We're talking to other people out there and I need them to be angry too. Um, one other thing I want to mention is Allison borderland actually feels like a really solid companion piece to this. It does have like a lot of nods and probably a fair amount of borrowing. But I feel like it's a really nice idea of kind of an extended universe of this setup. It's not the same world but it feels like it almost could be dislikes, nothing. I wish arrow had done a US release. That's what I wrote. Um, little a few fun bits of trivia for you guys. In April of 2013, seven years after the film was put on the index for youth endangering media. The film was confiscated by the local court of fulda Hesse, Germany. This meant that no one in Germany was allowed to sell the movie and all copies were to be confiscated by the police. Keep late the German license. Holder appealed the ruling, and in October of 2013, the court revoked its ruling as of February 2017, the movie is no longer confiscated, nor on the index, which is when I think they wrote this note. The movie is also banned in South Korea TV due to graphic violence. I don't know if that means you can somehow get it otherwise you probably can. But on TV, it's banned, I guess. Contrary to popular belief, this film was never banned in the US. There are however several conflicting if possible explanations as to why it wasn't initially released. Poet refused to license the movie for North America distribution and rejected offers from several American companies. The licensing fee from them was unusually high for this kind of film. So smaller, independent distributors could not afford it and larger distributors refuse to pay. And after the Columbine High school shootings and 99 new distributor was willing to pick up the film due to the plotline involving high school students killing each other Jesus Christ. Sorry, it's like Noah's Ark out there. It's just flooding. Like your roof is gonna get inches of water. Yep. Wow, good times. I'm glad I'm glad we're not done. Anchor Bay recorded in 2010 and Battle Royale. the book by a Christian takami was rejected and the final round of a 1997 literary competition. The Japan Grand Prix horror novel due to its controversial content, to think is weird for a poor competition when published in 1999, and went on to become a best seller and one year later made it into both a manga and feature film, since Battle Royale to Cami has not released any work. That's interesting. Yeah, he only ever wrote that one thing. Many members of the Japanese Parliament tried to get the novel banned, but to no avail of fail. That's a hard word to say when it was released, and they attempted to also ban it. Both efforts resulted in the novel and film becoming an even more successful as people bought the book and went to the movie to see what the fuss was about. Oh, roughly 6000 actors audition for the film choose which was narrowed down to 800 potential cast memory members, the finalists were subjected to a six month period of physical fitness training under supervision of the director, Kenji Foucault's focus aku, who eventually cast 42 out of the 800 none of the cast had any stunt doubles not even beat to catch you. She's Yeah, which I found really surprising. So you made sure that her just physically fit. He's like, they'll be fine. Don't worry about it. The painting of all the GLM at the end anyway. Exactly. They just have to lay there really? Knowing how to run over like rocky classes or slip on things or end up in swimming in water. It's fine. The painting of all the students was actually done by to be Takeshi. Oh, that's funny. The actress cheeky cat Yama, who plays Coco, which I didn't mention there's a zillion people in this was cast as gogo, you buddy and Kill Bill Volume One because Quentin Tarantino was such a huge fan of this film. The director also started work on a sequel battle rail two and 22,003. before succumbing to prostate cancer, he had only shot one scene for the follow up movie with the Takashi when he died. The film was completed by his son Kenta Fuca Sokka who dedicated it to his father, which I have not seen, but is any good? No. Oh, it is unfortunately not very good. See it, then. That's a bummer. Yeah. An American remake had been in development, I believe that actually did come out since the early 2000s. And producer Ray Lee reportedly obtained the rights in 2006. After release of The Hunger Games in 2012, Lee stated the project had been cancelled because audiences would see as just a copy of the games. Most of them wouldn't know that battle royale came first. It's unfair, but that's reality. 10 years after it's released, the film was formatted to 3d. There you go. I love this movie. It is it is weird. And I think that's why I love it because it's certainly Not something that you should feel good about watching a bunch of school kids murdering each other. Yeah, it is. So I don't know, I think my expectations were like, it's gonna be some crazy bloodbath, like over the top crazy Asian horror film. And it's like, just fun and like well written. Well cast I just is a neat, unique work. And I think it's one of my favorite films now. a testament to all those young actors too, because you're looking at a cast of, you know, 25 kids all with black hair all in school uniforms all about the same age. Yeah. And you're able to tell the difference between all Oh, completely all have really interesting and unique personalities. Absolutely. Absolutely. And like a couple of them change clothing, but not very many. Most of them remain in their school uniforms. So it's, it is just, I think it also helps. There's so much melodrama that's being played into Yeah, that's like really the smart directorial way to go with this. If you have a bunch of young actors, just like lean into it and be like, yeah, just scream just scream like crazy. It'll be fine. There is a blu ray available. collection. It's on 22 bucks, the first two movies plus a bunch of extras, but you know, you can just use the one as a coaster. Eric, were you able to find a subtitled version of that on prime? Yeah. Was What? Are you sure it wasn't the 2012 version? That's the 2012 version. Dude. What do you mean 2012? That wasn't remade, right. remastered and released on 2012. Oh, I looked closer at the I know, when I was posting I didn't know what they look like. Okay, because I kept finding that and being like, Well, great. I don't want to watch some dumb American remake. Reboot. I thought it was a reboot. I didn't. Okay, that explains that. Now I've read. I've got the novel. I've got the manga. involved to end, the best version of the story is probably the manga. But that's like 25 volumes long. It's huge. Yo, every character Yeah, massive background and all that. It's got more detailed than the novel. Wow. But yeah, this is a hell of a movie. I think it's fantastic. Hunger Games didn't bother me too much just because I said, Okay, whatever. I know. And I've already seen, what, 12 years 15 years earlier, whatever. It's like if somebody had to rip it off at some point, I guess. You read nice if it was a little better, ripped off. I was just frustrated. Like, I read Hunger Games. I watched all of them like I'm I love to. Just that's a special place in my heart. But I just I don't know, I felt I felt cheated. I felt cheated. When I watched this. I felt like I was lied to because I felt like oh yeah, like they're, they're ripping off the concept of Battle Royale and they're everywhere. And then I was like, Oh my god, they really she's really plagiarizing some shit here. And yeah, okay, by the third book. There's a few more details you got in there, but not enough for me to feel good about it. The world around was fairly original, but the battle itself was just like Jesus. Battle Royale with none of the violence. Right? It's like you just talk about the areas in? I don't know. Yeah, the world like you said some more. splish splash out. Alright, good choice for NASA. Hell of a movie. Yeah, so Kelly, I'm stoked to hear what you picked out. I picked out the winner. I don't know how you define winner. I might have cheated a little bit but I can defend that. All right. I picked from 1978 the Star Wars Holiday Special. Hey, CBS what's coming on Friday blast off to a galaxy far far away. It's the Star Wars Holiday Special story. Oh, and your Star Wars favorites. Will Chewbacca get home to his planet in time for the big bulky holiday celebration? Watch and find out. When on flying high. The girls put it on and take it off. I don't think you can get much sleep tonight. Join us for a far out Friday beginning at eight seven central in mountain Iran tomorrow. Okay. budget of $1 million. You know that's played on TV, right? Yes. Just not really that much budget alumnae. Wow. None because Rotten Tomatoes. The critics have it at 27%. The audience has it at 19% solid audiences. It was directed by Steve binder, who directed such specials as the Barry Manilow special No, the Mack Davis special and Elvis 68 the comeback special and just tons and tons of episodes of other variety shows. It was written by rod Warren who wrote episodes of Donnie Murray the Donna Summer Special share that many Learn Neil Diamond's specials. Also Bruce Vilanch, who you would know from the Paul in Halloween special and every Academy Awards since 1991. And Pat proft who would go on to write police academy? real genius, the Naked Gun movies and 42 other credits Cheez Its stars Mark Hamill heavily made up and looking nothing like himself best known for Corvette summer. Harrison Ford from the movie Cowboys and Aliens. And Carrie Fisher he might remember from under the rainbow hay and a cast of 1000s including via author art Carney, Harvey Korman, Diane Carroll and Jefferson Starship. Wow. Oh my god. Oh, this is a this is a variety shows special wrapped up in Star Wars. Bullshit. I have never seen this so I'm very excited to hear you. Well, it is a very tough movie to find. There's a reason you've never seen it. So it starts with Chewbacca and Han Solo in the in the Millennium Falcon. In I should say in footage from Star escaping from to Imperial Star Destroyers. And they are running late on the way to choose home and family on Kashi. Han lets him know that he won't let him down and they'll make it in time for the life Day celebration, which is basically Thanksgiving. Then we go to Kashi where we meet chewies family, his wife mala who looks just like him, but with softer eyes. His son lumpy, who is an annoying little fucker who can't even be bothered to do the dishes. And his father or father in law, itchy, if you can believe it. Who is apparently the grandpa Simpson on bookies. And mala calls up the screen on their little counter there and she gets Luke Skywalker on the screen. Who doesn't even look like himself from all the makeup he has to hide the plastic surgery because this was right after he had that near fatal car crash. They they write that off in the beginning of Empire Strikes Back by having an attack by the Wookie. And he gets his face clawed off and then we see and that's why he looks so different between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Let me just also say this, the opening scene of this is the wookies talking to each other in Wookie. Speak okay for 1009 minutes, and no subtitles. Wait. So it's just wrong. and shit like this. You have no idea what the fuck is going on. Except that you can tell that mala asked lumpy to do the dishes and he was playing with his wooden x wing fighter instead. And so she yelled at me. Oh my god. It's almost unbearable. Sounds really bad. So, mala has called up Luke to see if he served from chewy and he kind of blows her off because he's working on an engine with r two. And you are getting variety level humor in these scenes. Like he's trying to talk to her but our two keeps doing something on the engine and steam keeps shooting up into his face. Stuff like this. It's a it's a mere laugh track. No, but that might help. I don't know. I don't know. CUT TO footage from Star Wars, Darth Vader. And he's ordering a system wide search for the rebels. And this is James Earl Jones giving new dialogue but using footage from the film, Darth is on the hunt for the rebels still remember, there's been nothing but the first Star Wars movie when this comes out. So he's on the hunt for the rebels. We're not we're not exactly told where he is. But it's footage of him walking on the Death Star. So I guess we're just supposed to believe that all of their stuff looks like that. Because they blow up the desktop at the end. But it comes back to choose family mala contacts, a trader on the planet, Sean Dan, who is dealing with an imperial trooper and he gives her kind of code through the screen to let her know that he knows Julie is on his way but he's been detained but he's saying this in kind of action. cryptic way so that the Imperial officer he's talking to doesn't understand is it's so heavy handed that anybody there would be like, is this code for something? I'm just assuming this is all canon, right? Yeah. So so he tells her, you know, relax, get the food ready for life day and all this stuff. So remember, this is a variety show. So mama pulls up on the screen basically a Julia Child's Android played by Harvey Korman who teaches her how to make a a new plate it is called Let me see I got it here bantha surprise Oh my god. Oh my god in a bit that has been the banjo was surprised here. Oh laughs then Sean Dan, the trader who is played by art Carney he arrives at the Wookie household now we have seen this household as a painting by the great who's the artist that did all the concept art for I know who you mean, but I don't know man. what his name is escaping me. I'm sure that I can see the front of his book. Yeah, everybody is yelling at me right now. They're listening. But we've seen their home and their home is this. These gigantic elaborate tree houses and the trees on Kashi are hundreds of feet tall, so they're way up in the air. So he shows up. Yes. Ralph McQuarrie. Thank you. He shows up and he's got what when I did my research, it's called a mind evaporator. Which gives to itchy and Vanessa, you you have to watch this for this soft porn that gets put on that he is no that's what makes it grow. Sir. It's a human woman. It's Diane Carroll. And I'm not so I'm not sure why he's so attracted to her but it is clearly in the species beast reality. Oh my god. Then the while he's while he's jerking off to that, that view screen pops up and mala turns it on. And it is a clearly coked up Princess Leia. And see threepio asking if she she's there to wish them a happy life. David asking, you know, can you put Hana chewy on? Because mala starts talking to her? Nah, I'm not sure I understand. Can you put a Hana Chilean? Well, shouldn't it just be Han? Well, you'd understand if chewy was translating it for you? It makes no fucking sense. And by the way, Princess Leia? She in her bikini? No, no, she's in her white with the ball and all that stuff. She is admitted that she was super coked up while this was going on. I mean, Carrie Fisher has been very upfront about Yeah. So Leah instead speaks to Sean, Sean Dan, our attorney who comforts her by revealing that he is in the Alliance. But what else would you say if you had the leader of the Alliance on a screen even if you were an imperial soldier but oh, no, no, I'm cool. I'm with the Alliance. Still. She is smoking hot. So of course, kept a real fun Yeah. So these the Imperial officers show up and they inspect the home and question the whereabouts of the absent Wilkie because they've got the consensus there and they're like, all right, they're supposed to be a male Wookie here. Where is he? To distract them? Sean plays a hologram of Jefferson Starship. Yeah. Performing a song I don't know when you're gonna lose me but I feel like I don't know if it was already happening. I feel so bad about my pick anymore. Yeah. What song does Jefferson Starship it's a side song No, I'm I'm guessing that they I actually like the song. But I'm guessing the only reason they were grabbed for this is because they have starship in their name of course. So. Meanwhile, the imperious or the Imperial stormtroopers are looking for like any sign of rebel influence in this big tree house and everything. Oh, it's making the son very uncomfortable. So to calm her son down, mala puts on the screen and animated story. Now this is the gem of this show. And it is the only reason to whatever search this out. There is a 10 minute animated sequence in it. It shows a recent adventure of Chewie and Han in pursuit of some kind of mythical talisman doesn't really matter. It is the first appearance of Boba Fett and I just fucking love it. It's very weird. And it is done by the same animation studio that did that droids series I was telling you guys about so it's really, it's really a lot of fun. After that, for some reason we cut to a broadcast of life on tattoo ween where the cantina bartender who was played by Bea Arthur has trouble getting the patrons to go home because the Imperials have announced a curfew and so she basically sings get out now song Oh my god. This is why I want to watch this to the tune of the cantina song slowed way. But you guys have heard the theme song for mod right? Oh, yes. Okay, I just want to make clear. And then there's my back on cache stormtroopers leave, but they leave one trooper there to wait for the missing male Wookie that's supposed to be in the house, which is when Han and Chewie show up and toss him over the railing to the ground several 100 people Oh, sure. And we get the Wilhelm scream when it goes over which is then we get one final scene of all the bookies raising candles and they're in red robes. They're all in one big room and Princess Leia is singing the life day song to the main theme of Star Wars. Oh my god. So you're saying like mash. The Star Wars theme has lyrics to that. Oh my god. So this, this is an absolute shit show. And I will now make my case for why this count was a bad film. Yeah. So well, outlining the original Star Wars and planning its potential sequels, George Lucas imagined a film just about the wookies and nothing else. After the original film success its cast had made a few appearances on TV variety shows. According to Charles Lippincott, who was the head of marketing of the Star Wars Corporation. CBS brought the idea of doing a TV special to him and Lucas. Lucas was busy moving his production company to a new location which was not heavily involved in the special. The Lucas is uncredited, his name shows up nowhere on this. It was his idea to build the narrative around Chewbacca his family. According to Mark Hamill, George Lucas devise this one off television special to keep the unexpected success of the original 1937 release fresh and fans minds and keep the merchandise selling in shops. concerned that the Star Wars brand would quickly be forgotten. When Lucas watched the final production, he was horrified and felt it could easily be seen as an attempt at a cheap Cashin. While he was too late to stop the broadcast in the US and Canada he was able to prevent the show from being aired in most of their territories were Star Wars had been a massive success. So he couldn't stop it from being shown in the US and Canada but everywhere else he was able to get lucky. So the special was broadcast in its entirety in the United States only once. On Friday, November 17 1978, the week before Thanksgiving, and broadcast on the Canadian television networks CTV I am I'm really surprised because for some reason I always thought it was a Christmas special. I think people think that but it actually aired the week before Thanksgiving. Yeah. And the themes when you're watching it are about family and stuff like that. It's nothing about gifts. So Wilkie Jesus is kind of interesting. The holiday special is the first time that James Earl Jones was credited with performing the voice of Darth Vader, if you saw Star Wars. They never mentioned him in that in those original credits. Why do you think that like the guy who plays Darth Vader didn't realize? Look, I'm so credit, I don't know. But it was David Prowse as Darth Vader and that's all he knew. So whenever you got to hear an interview with him and his Welsh accent, we're just like, What? Why quite an acting job. He must be amazing. So the next time would be during the end credits of the Empire Strikes Back the James L. Jones was credited. The Cantina sequence took an entire day to shoot because it is basically the cantina with all of the aliens and everything. They used all the same. masks and stuff. The actors and alien costumes began to pass out due to lack of oxygen so oxygen tanks were provided for them to use between takes beautiful oscillation. Do you guys know who Bruce Vilanch is? Have you seen him? He knows he looks like he looks like a real life Muppet. He's gigantic and his just frizzy hair. Oh. Actors been in dozens of Not hundreds of things. Well, he's not an actor. He has shown up as himself in things but he has admitted that he was using cocaine heavily while he was involved either everybody was doing Coke, everyone a George Lucas famously tried and failed to buy up all of the master copies to make sure that it was never broadcast again, filed the special and never been released on video, but bootleg videos circulated for years and the show can be seen now on like YouTube, which is how I watched it. George Lucas remarked at an Australian convention. If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every bootleg copy of that program, smash it. Oh my god, he has no sense of humor about his work. According to Carrie Fisher, George Lucas gave her a copy of the special as a gift for recording the DVD commentary for Star Wars, New Hope. She claims that she played it at parties when she wanted her guests to leave. That's so good. And finally, it is listed in the book. What were they thinking? The 100 dumbest events in television history are in the number one spot Oh, titled, The worst two hours of television ever. Wow. And here's the kicker the coda, I am hearing that a restored completely restored version of the cartoon segment will begin airing on Disney plus. That's cool. So the only reason to watch it is going to be available to everybody in a very nice looking version shortly. I mean, little pieces of it. I think I would find really fun to look at but I don't think I'd want to watch that whole thing. It's it's something to you know, either get stoned and watch or something like that. Because if you're just watching it, it's the most mind numbing, stupid. Boring, right? I mean, the fucking nine minutes of just wookies it sounds roaring at each other's is like, I can't even handle watching dinosaurs and at least there's like dinosaur puppets here. I can't do it. It's not funny, dude. This is a this is a thing to watch as Oh, what the fuck were they thinking? And can you believe that? You know, they'd had no idea how to kind of handle Star Wars and because variety shows where you know, the staple of of 70s television they decided well a Star Wars variety special with Bill. Well, right. I mean, I remember seeing the Donny Marie show when it was the Star Wars special and you know shit like that they have playing Han Solo and that wasn't somebody big i was i thought was country singer turned actor big in the 70s 80s I don't remember but I think you sent me the link for that. Not too long ago, didn't you? Yeah, cuz I'd never seen it. I never heard about it going. Oh, what is this? But yeah, it's gonna drive me nuts. I piggies in convoy. Only country singer I can think of Jerry Reed. No, no, that was a that was Jerry Reed was smoking the bandit. Okay. All I remember having an I didn't watch the link is that Marie with her hair and the buns and everything look just like Princess Leia. Yeah, that's so cool. I think it's Kris Kristofferson. Oh, wow, when Han Solo in that, but I'm not positive. Kris Kristofferson was a country singer. Oh, yeah. I 530 536 that's his whole listing, not just his acting 55 acting credits, though. Wow. Yeah. So go forth and consume it is on YouTube. I think you're gonna need a lot of cocaine first. No problem. I got you. Excellent. Okay, that brings us to the segment that I like to call. It's your turn, Vanessa. Yeah, I'm super excited. Actually, um, I have this kind of ongoing list of different things to put forward. And this was a hidden gem that I hadn't managed to use yet. So I am going to suggest that for next week, we watch Brave New World, something where someone discovers a new planet dimension or reality. Okay, I like this. I feel like we're gonna get into more sci fi territory with this, I think. Yeah, I think that that's definitely an area that it can head to although, you know, event horizon. Sure. Sure. Yeah. So I think the thing that kind of explains that one Well, I meant as an example. I think the inspiration slightly came from things like sliders and shadow so yeah, go forth like I'm the world is open for this brave new All right, so that's everybody's homework. As usual, thanks so much. really loving the value for value model that's going on. And Mike, I think we'll have a little surprise for you next week too. So everyone tell a friend texture buddy say hey, listen to these weirdos talk about whatever movie you might like what they talk about our whole catalog still available. So yeah, for a short time. Yeah. Is it? Okay, is there it's something I don't know. Do the Disney model develop scarcity? Like they used to do it like, put it in the vault? We should put them on cassettes and like only, like certain ones per year. This is Episode 102. limited time guys. If you buy in the next three years, then you got it. Otherwise it's gone. I love it. And I love you guys. And I love all you guys listening. So thank you so much and we will see you in one week. Our show is recorded somewhere high above Naval Station Everett at the nexus of all realities and is engineered and produced by Eric Margaret. Our theme music is Strange Aeons part one by the band name is user permission. Fine Strange Aeons radio on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, wherever find podcasts