Strange Aeons Radio

149 HIGHWAY STARS!

December 09, 2021 Strange Aeons Radio Season 3 Episode 149
Strange Aeons Radio
149 HIGHWAY STARS!
Show Notes Transcript

149 HIGHWAY STARS!

I mean, really... what IS League of Legends? Also discussed: The Wheel of Time, Arcane, and the Guardians of the Galaxy video game.

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I'm sorry did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition such sigh to show you strange aeons. Welcome strange aeons radio. That's Eric over there. Who? That's Vaness over there. Hello. Hello, guys. Howdy, howdy. That makes me Kelly, how about that Emerald City? Huh? So good. What a city of emeralds that we experienced together. Whoo team. I hope you liked the actual episode. I'm sure it was. I'm sure everything about it was amazing. Because it sure was amazing to be there. So a little peek behind the curtain. We haven't actually gone to Emerald City. We are recording this just before we do that episode. So hopefully it all went well. And hopefully it's been released as bonus content. But we have no idea this time. Yeah. In keeping with that, what I'd like to talk about is also next week's episode. Yeah. Which is number 150. Ah, da, that is true. site. And we're doing something a little different there. As you guys know, I always like to do themed stuff and things like that. I mean, the gimmick of our shows a theme. But this next week is going to be all about us. God, what Okay, what does that mean all about us? Well, I figure you know, we'll go into it with the same way we always do. We talked about some movies and all that stuff. But instead of a topic, we're going to be talking about what we are all up to. Okay. So, you know, this is something that the projection booth does every year, and they call it ego fest. It's basically just catching up everybody on our projects. If there are any questions that listeners want, answered, you know, they should, they should send us something I'm I'm holding in my hand right here. Right here. You get a handwritten letter from Danny Wilford. Oh my god. And it's fucking great. I mean, hand drawn envelopes to oh my god, that's so cool. He asked some questions. And I thought, fuck that I'm not writing back. I will answer these questions on the air. That's how I roll. He did say something about also let's keep this just between you and I but no, yeah. He didn't mean, I'm an open book. That's so cool. Yeah. So yeah, I guess if anybody has any questions they've been dying to ask us or things they want to mention to us, then this is the time as well as getting an opportunity for us to talk about what we're up to do not promise to answer all of them. No, no, we do not. But we will at least address that you asked. Sure. Yeah. Sure thing. Danny asks this battle. No, I'm not answering that. Absolutely not. These are all great people. I'm not expecting any questions. I only would go off God. That's that sounds really fun. And yeah, I'm really stoked because I feel like sometimes I only see you guys in the context of the show. So I don't even know all the time what you're up to. If you really really great to hear what everyone's doing. Yeah, I killed a guy. I mean, like I knew one or because I feel like this happens pretty regularly. Tune in next week. Oh, before that, though. Let me tell you what I watched. Yes. I saw Venom let there be carnage. Oh, hey, this movie is garbage. It's still better than the first one. I I can't remember enough to agree or disagree. It's there is a certain amount of charm to the venom character they have created. Yeah, not there. In the comic books. There's a real loving relationship between a tear characters that is really fun to watch and this one little bit of that and also just the humor, they've made him an asshole as a superhero. Okay, and you know, finding out that he was kind of the nerd geek of the symbiotes and that he was kind of a weakling and all that you know, that stuff gets played upon in this movie and I can't remember if you liked I think I remember you saying it was trashed, but it was exactly what you needed. Yeah, that's about right. It was it was pretty bad. I didn't like it as much as the first one as far as I could remember. But I mean, it was it was fine. It I think my my final I came to the conclusion that It was missing a bunch of contents that was probably going to show back up in a DVD or Blu Ray edition. Right? Yeah, I could. I could believe that. Here's my takeaway from it was I can't believe that we missed out on having Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson do a good movie. Cuz they were busy making this movie. They were supposed to do another movie together. Well, who knows, but we got this movie instead those are two powerhouse actors in a really shitty movie. Yeah. And I think I remember hearing or seeing that Tom Hardy had co written I saw. Yeah. And the other writer she's like not I mean, this doesn't seem like her wheelhouse. This doesn't seem like the kind of content she's done before. So if you were to tell me that Tom Hardy was like a big Venom fan. And he was writing this because he loved the character. I would, I would be very disappointed. But I think that's the case. I think he's just a bad writer. He can't be perfect at everything. I Tom Hardy wrote, co wrote this. Wow. I mean, he's listed as a writer now that could just be that he comes in he punches up his own dialogue. I think it was his thing. I think it's like his baby. Wow. Yeah. So my understanding the the reason I say so bad is that there are enough nods to other Marvel properties that unlike Could he really know this much about the Marvel Universe? And, and he's got they introduced the character of shriek Yep, in this right. Yeah. I was like, wow, I was not expecting this. Not really much like the comic version of her. She's got her powers and got a weird eye thing going on. Woody Harrelson was definitely chewing up the scenery and this Yeah, he's got really bad hairpiece on really bad. Really, really bad. But I don't know why. At the end of it, I was like, Alright, that was shit, but I watched the entire thing. But you go wait a second. Okay, now so strange tomatoes ratings. Now this movie already has a 66% Does it that's the problem with the strange tomatoes rating is if you just like this shitty movie, Eric, it now has a 99% So I love that it'll never be able to reach 100 just never know if this goes a letterbox we can refine it a little bit more because it's a star system. It's five stars, so I'm a little better. Oh man. Well, um, I you know, I was trying to figure out what I've been doing with all my time lately. And I was like, Man, I haven't seen as many movies as I normally do. What on earth have been I've been doing. Save this for episode 150 No, definitely not. This is almost embarrassing. I've been playing the Guardians of the Galaxy video game a lot. Which I have to say is one of the better games I've played in last few years. It's just it's got the heart and the feel of the Guardians characters it's not necessarily based on the the film's it's more based on the comic characters, so they aren't designed after the actors there. You can get skins you find costumes all over the game. And you can get a skin that is the costume which is the quote unquote look, or at least the dressing of what they were in previous movies, but but they didn't get actor. None of those. None of those actors and they do not look like the actors except for maybe Groot. Stick looks like Vin Diesel. Oh, shocking. But no, it's so fun. And there's a lot so in games, I think it's really hard to find that balance where it's like, okay, well, I have player agency, but I want to do good. But also what would those actual characters do? And there's a lot of moments in the game where if you purposely choose to fuck up, it rewards you for it, which is really fun. And there's a lot of conversation dialogue choices, and you can play stupid like he there's early on in the game, there's a moment where Peter Quill may or may not have sired a child and there's a girl he dated a girl and there's a daughter that she has that would be about the right time and there's a conversation pop up that goes do the math. Ignore the math. You can choose it's really fun. There was a few puzzles I purposely messed up because I wanted to open the wrong door and see what was behind the wrong door was really really neat. It would reward you by giving you a bunch of enemies you had to kill but then get have like a neat little thing in the back of the room. So I don't know I've just I have Haven't had a game playthrough that felt so right to the actual property in a long time. That's cool. What is your preferred platform? Playstation and that's what this is. I think it's it might be out on a few things, but I believe on playing this on thing. I'm playing it. I'll play I might be playing on Xbox. It's dark. I'm holding a controller. I don't know. Somebody handed it to me and I started pressing buttons. And here we are. I think I think it might actually be on Xbox. Alright then. Sure. Why not? What are you even doing? Well, I finally watch Shang Shang See, just doesn't see. And I'm glad both of you prepared me for it. Because I was able to enjoy it for probably longer than you guys did. But at some point, it definitely hits that. Okay. Like, why are you writing a dragon? Like so weird? Damn it. But, man that the casting, he is fantastic. He's so good. Yeah, I like them. And the, like you said awkwafina was really good for most of the film. It's not her fault. That writing made her weird by the end. But actually, it's pretty strong. And it's sort of like their, I don't know if they were afraid of the Hawkeye Black Widow problem for this character and decided we have to give him the rings and make him into a superhero. Instead of just doing like he said this thing, go the Netflix route with this character have him be that Daredevil, Luke Cage, Punisher series or something instead? Because that first half was really good. It was really fun. So I have not kept up with the Shang Qi character in the comics. So I don't know. Is that what he does? No. I don't know, either. Yeah. I don't know, either. I know that there's in more recent run, but I it's hard to say. I mean, it is it's frustrating too, because I feel like they could have kept his abilities as being just incredible martial artists and gone to fantastical places with it without involving rings and dragons and shit. Because when he does the MMA fight in like, with aliens or space people are fantastic. People don't fucking buy was. That was a high point. Yeah. I just, it's that it's that problem that Marvel is going to start bumping up against if every single movie is an end of the world scenario. Yeah. Then, you know, that's not a big deal. Yeah. I mean, they spent but 789 movies building up to the fan house, storyline, and it which is why it was so good. I mean, have that final end movie basically be just a giant battle? Almost. It goes on for two and a half hours in various ways. Yeah. But yeah, now they're, they're losing that ability to build something. Yeah, I honestly, I had a moment last week where I was asking a friend of mine. How, how is he fitting it? How wishing he could have fit into which next Marvel edition like where is it going to be a multiverse? Is it going to be like, How is this all going to fit together? Is he going to be part of the Eternals? And I had like, it took some puzzling, and I think he's probably going to be part of the turtles maybe? I don't know. It's yeah, yeah. Interesting to see, I guess. I mean, you know, objectively a good movie. Yeah, it looked great. The acting was great. The effects were great. All of that stuff. I just was. I just wanted what I wanted. But like five more times, but yeah, the problem was they set it up so beautifully that it looked like it was going to be you know, the the battle on the side of the building and this stuff with this. Yeah, I was like, great. This is so cool. Okay, I guess it's a Marvel movie now. It's so much into between, like the sister and then the, it was like two or three endings at that. But of it. We're like, Oh, God, how many movies are we gonna have to do to explain all this crap you just put out here? Yeah, well, I watched something. It is the polar opposite of that. It is from I believe, yeah. 1936. So it is called the devil doll. When this is directed by Todd Browning, oh my God, and it's got Lionel Barrymore in it and this movie is so fucking bonkers. It has gone into my top 10 Whoa, just like wow, have I missed this and I was scrolling through something and I saw the Tod Browning thing. And look, I'm not a Tod Browning devotee. I like freaks way more than I like Dracula and I think his rise is kind of weak. Yeah, but this movie is my favorite Todd Browning movie. No, I don't think I've ever heard of This and I feel like I've heard a lot of things that I have done wrong or escapes prison. Okay, and he then dresses as an old lady who is a doll maker my revenge on the people who put them in prison, but his dolls are actually shrunken humans that he has go out and do his bidding. Oh my god, this people these living dolls. Oh my god then kill the people. I was like, What is going on here? It's so fucking sounds fucking bonkers. is available only as a rental or a purchase for like $1 more. I'm glad I decided to purchase it. Because now I can watch it over and over. Yeah, well 1960 or 8036 Do not get the 1960 Something Devil Dog movie. Very, very different. Different. Yeah, this one has the devil doll with a bash. Yes, yes. Wow, that sounds fucking bonkers. Um, well, I checked something out. This was the other thing that I was spending all my time on when I was like, I'm sure I also have spending hours and hours and hours doing something else to the net. Netflix put out a animated series based off of the League of Legends property called arcane. Did either of you guys catch this? No. And all of those words you said to me made no sense. Sure. What is League of Legends. League of Legends is a very, very, very popular game online. It's kind of like you, you form little groups and to go and attack other little groups kind of the foremost competitive competitive for money. Video games. I think in the world, one of the big tournament games, it's a big tournament game for sure. MMO RPG, or as I like to say, a multi biome for somebody who works almost exclusively in game. I don't know, I think because I've never played it. But I do know people who are obsessed with it. And you know, people have been cosplaying it for years. And it's a huge, huge part of the game universe. When you look at the shots I've seen it looks sort of like a top down version of like Mortal Kombat or something except everybody's fighting at the same time. Yeah, it's I don't know, Starcraft. Like, I feel like you set everything up and then all these people who are listening are gonna be screaming, they're so fucking wrong. So anyway, the so like I said, I don't know much about League of Legends, I it came, this show came out. And a lot of people were excited about it. And I was like, I don't think I'm going to be able to watch this because this is just not my thing. And then I went ahead and just caved and start watching it has. Really, if you like League of Legends, it's just sort of going to be a little bit more fun. But as a property itself, it is incredible. It is an incredibly well told, sort of steampunk feels almost like a French retro, fantastical series. And it is so much deeper and darker and more beautiful than it has any right to be anime or what country is it? No, it's um, I don't know. I mean, it's American. I mean, it's English speaking, it just has those kind of vibes who is not treated like anime, though. It's animated in a little bit more of a, you know, normative classical style that we see nowadays. But it is beautiful. And there were moments in it that I was like, What the actual fuck her inside there was an episode that I spent three days just being really like, it was weighing on me. And I think for people who had played the game, they are a little bit more familiar with these characters, these characters are not super deeply. The whole idea behind Liga Legends is they're kind of leaving it open for your interpretation. So they presents very basic, you know, surface level ideas about these different characters. By way to describe how you didn't want to write a whole bunch of stuff about the characters you're creating for a game. We're leaving it open, so you can interpret and then we're gonna give it to this property here to Gil you. Exactly. Yeah, and for all four years, they've left I think they've left the rights open. So if you want to do something creative with this property, you can they're like, trying to engage the fans in this way. Or at least that's how it's been for a long time. But now, I mean, this shows it's, it just goes creates this whole universe that I think they've already said. This was kind of like a side version of what this world could be. So they're not even committing to this, but as from the games perspective, but the actual show is fucking unreal. And it's called arcane, Arcane. Okay. Yeah. Check it out. I've got another one that I've been anticipating a long time. Amazon's Wheel of Time. Yeah, and this is a series that's been weird for me and that I there's about 14 books I think Yeah, is it is Robert Jordan still with us? No, no. Okay, I think I think there's at least three, maybe four of the books are not him, okay. But I've read the first three or four books probably three times. And I've read up to eight or nine twice, and I keep getting bogged down and just, it became such a giant world check. None of the original characters seem to be in it anymore. Like, whatever. But those first few books I freaking love. And so far, pretty solid interpretation. I mean, there's some stuff moved around. And there's some things that are done differently, which, you know, is some smart choices, because these books are gigantic. Some of the complaints I've heard is that it is blatantly ripping off the Lord of the Rings moments. Did you feel that at all? And are the books that way? Any fantasy book you want to sort of like if you were to, like we were with? The Mars movie came out? Where people are saying, well, this is just ripping off Star Wars like, Well, no, actually Star Wars rip this off. John Carter. Yeah, John Carter of Mars, you could trace very, very tons of properties in sci fi back to John Carter of Mars. You can take I don't know if I've ever read a fantasy novel that you cannot directly trace back to Lord of the Rings that has stuff from it and things from it. And it's just a there's a local writer who did the same not saber Hagen up that writer Terry Brooks. Yeah, who I mean, if you want to talk blatantly ripping off a Lord of the Rings, those books are flat out or rewriting up Lord of the Rings, but they're great books. So as far as fantasy novels go, and fantasy stories go. Yeah, of course. So does every other fantasy movie. Well, I just I thought that was an interesting way to go. Because this is on prime, right? Yes. Isn't prime also the one that is making the new Lord of the Rings? Yes. So it seems like Oh, well. Alright. Nevermind. It's like you could watch this. And if you want to find things that make you think Lord of the Rings, you can find them. If you're just watching as a fantasy. It's not like Rand since down with a old wizard, and they get together and buddy up and then go on a trip to help the world. There's a guy who teams up with a wizard lady, and they get up to go trade the world, but the way they get from point A to point B is completely different. And so it's just like, yeah, you could find it if you want to, if you want to say it's a Lord of the Rings rip off, you can definitely figure that out. Do you think it helps to have read the books? I don't know. See, the problem is I've read them two or three times. So somebody says I said, I know what they're talking about. And I know all the wires that bring the waters together. And so I don't know, I I feel like, if you hadn't read the books, it seems like you might get a little like, I don't know, if they're planting seeds, and they're gonna explain as it goes along. Or if they're just sort of skipping stuff, which I don't care. I don't care that that one character that everybody complains about wasn't in Lord of the Rings. Wasn't in Lord of the Rings, like because he's a great character. But his story doesn't advance the story, the Lord of the Rings at all. Right? He's not there fine. So I love the Alan Moore way of looking at interpretation things. His take was I wrote my version of the watchman, whatever, these people I sold the rights to make out of it. That's their version, right? So I don't care what they do with it, because I already did my ultimate version of my story. And I feel that way with books like that. That's the book, right? If you want to interpret it directly, great if you want to interpret it differently and create something kind of new. Let's see how good it is. I'm right there with you. I will check this out. I haven't read the books. I shall report back before then, how about we take a little break. And then when we come back? We're talking road movies should we pick him up? He has but he has an axe. What do you guys Bud Light? And an axe? Sure there's a reason for it. Hey, buddy, what's with the axe? It's a bottle opener. I've been refreshing the smooth Bud Light. always worth it. Work this Bud Light in a chainsaw we have a turn really what is League of Legends anyway. I like this. This is still boggling. They're still bouncing around in there. Come back to record the next couple weeks and because Yeah, well I entered my first tournament illegal Legends rabbits awesome. Really good. I'm Team inserting team name here strange aeons video games. Oh my God if we start that this was your southern Yeah, so we've got two road games, road games. Well, that's anyways I get to that road, road trips hitchhikers travel kind of stuff. And the movie I went with was 1980 ones, road games, road games truck driver plays games he plays games. But you got a young dragon out here all by yourself. And you kind of old to be picking me up. And a killer is playing the deadliest game of all. Time. It's just killed a girl. If you make love to her first. I don't know. What's the difference? It makes a lot of difference. I think in order to play the game properly, we have to know what he thinks a woman. Stacy Keach has quit. No, no, it's qu ID D the death of young girls Great. Jamie Lee Curtis is on camera. You're in for a little adventure. go to Disneyland for mentioned. But I'm looking for subtle excitement. road games across 1600 miles of desert highway that play in games of violence and sudden death. Row games is my game. If someone doesn't stop soon, there won't be anyone left alive to play games. Is this why you chose this sub genre? Because I remember we were talking about this movie with Peter rollick. Down at the Lovecraft theater. Yeah. And he said it was one of his top 80s Yeah, and I was like, What is this phobia? So you know, me being the way I am now is I popped hot. See if it's a hot blue, a blue and Scream Factory has a pretty good version. That's like 15 bucks or less on the times. I'll just get it. I'm glad I did. Oh. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for the critics 91 Whoa. And from the crowd 60 to ask. The budget was approximately 1.8 million director directed by Richard Franklin, the director, the Australian film Patrick. Cloak and Dagger. Link the monkey. Okay, moving on. Psycho to Oh, man, and dig down under. Sounds like a weird porn movie, but I don't think is written by every Roach who wrote Razorback link fortress, Patrick, the 2013 Patrick evil awakens. And Richard Franklin was involved in the story, but he didn't do much of the script, starring Stacy Keach. Yeah, 215 credits. He's still got three films in pre production right now. Oh, yeah. Ninth configuration, my camera and several movies just, he's all over the place. And the wonderful Jamie Lee Curtis from Grandview USA, The Love Boat and The Little Engine That Could couple Australians Marian Edward, who was in raw silk and Steve Miller champions and Mad Max as Roop. And in rubber stopper, very good Australian films. romper stoppers, not a comfortable watch, but it's well done. Not yet seen. The film starts with Stacey who's playing a character named quid. It's got a long haul trucker. And if you're a long haul trucker in Australia at all. And he is pulling up for the night at a place and gets a call that there's a strike going on and they're having a hard time getting meat moved as you want to do another thing right away is that I'm supposed to have a 12 hour break by the time he's done with the talk the hotel he was going to stay has gone from vacancy to no vacancy. The guy who took the last room apparently was somebody he saw on the road pick up a hitchhiker that he ignored. It goes to the scene of this hitchhiker. And the guy picked her up in a room and it's up beautiful JLo almost level shot where she's nude completely covered by the guitar she's playing. And the the the bathroom I'm assuming he's in has this bright, super bright white light outlining the doorframe and she's all in really a strong red color. And it just looks awesome. Okay, there's a filmmaker making this one doesn't go real well for the checker. The next morning you wake up and the hitchhiker is very, very curious about the garbage being taken out or the excuse me, the guy driving and quids dog is over there sniffing at the garbage and trying to figure out what's going on. But nothing really comes to that except for quid noticing it. So now we go onto the road and it's time to introduce us to quit. How do they introduce us saying a bunch of funny shit about people he's driving by. It is some great, really fun lines, even passed by a station wagon with kids who looks like they're the director. Somebody wanted to put them in Kiss makeup, but couldn't quite get the things that sort of like a half kiss have something else. But I recognize that Blackstar on your eye. And he travels with a wonderfully adorable dog. And it's well shot and interesting. There's cute little moments like the dog gets scared by something he does. And it's not like a jump up. It's just this little jump that dogs do and you scare them a little bit. It's just really, really well done. He spent a fair amount of time doing that, but it doesn't get bad because Stacy Keach is fun to watch and the lines are relatively clever. But then we see the the van from last night shows up behind him following him. So it's time to ratchet up the tension a little bit. He's kind of quids avoiding picking up hitchhikers because he's sort of watching this guy trying to figure out what up and somebody does a cute little trick, which I'll leave because it's fun to watch in the movie to get him to pick her up. But unfortunately, for the film, Jamie Lee Curtis doesn't show into 40 minutes in Oh, interesting. And I say unfortunately, because their chemistry on screen is phenomenal, higher, so good together. It is a little odd in that every place he stops. It's the same people. You see, like all the people who's making fun of at the beginning like in the station wagon, or the guy that sneezes in his motorcycle helmet and all the stuff like that they keep showing up at wherever he goes. They film is loosely, actually not that loosely but adapted to the concept or rear window where it's a guy you know, who sees something and he's trying to figure out what's going on and he keeps seeing the guy like kill one thing he sees the guy see burying something out there in the outback with little things like that. And they even managed to get Hitchcock a cameo. Wait, Hitchcock's in this Jamie Lee Curtis picks up a pack of magazines and is flipping through them. And one of them is Hitchcock rizos. Oh my guys, they also twist it to where the cops are starting to think maybe he's the killer. As a long haul truck driver, apparently I don't know if it's from the movie or if it's actually true in Australia, he had his full name on the outside of his truck. So the guy could the guy in the van could have easily gotten his name off of that. They nicely don't sit down and tie all these things together. A lot of little segments and things are mentioned as a one off quick thing like when the cop says what your name was registered, that guy could have seen on the site. It's just these quick little things. It's not a major plot point that we have to make sure you hear what we're saying. So it's really, really well done. Very, there's a long scene, which is they think they've caught him. And what makes the scene really good. But then really annoying, is this stationwagon pulls up in for summarizing and has a reason has an alarm going off in it. And it's really loud. And it goes off the whole scene. There's some great shots in the movie, like he makes a call. He's in a weird bar. And there's this great 360 shot of the entire bar. See, see all the people and all the quirky little things that are going on. It's a smart filmmaking. This is a well done film. They use the dog a few times to go investigating stuff pulls the movie together in all the right ways. So as you can tell, I really liked this one and large largely due to Stacy Keach and then when Jamie Lee Curtis shows up as man they're good together on screen. I'd say the last 20 minutes or so for you to enjoy because I do Fully unlike the last movie I talked about, I do fully encourage you to go out and check this one out. It is a lot of fun. Now I mentioned earlier, it's 1.8 million, which seems kind of piddly at the time. It was the most expensive film shot in Australia. Wow. There's an interview with Stacy Keach on there and he loved working on the movie. He said it was just a lot of fun. And they're driving in the middle of nowhere and traveling. And they'd set up as a group at the hotels as they're going and they traveled the road that they were shooting on. Richard Franklin gave the writer a copy of rear window to say this is kind of the script I want you to write. He loved he loved what he put together and but developed the idea and brought it to the the while they were working together on the Blue Lagoon. It seems like a small a small, extremely large country town in which filmmakers cross paths frequently. Yes, we wrote the first draft or road games in eight days in the hotel at night during hooligans production. Whoa, I don't know how many trips we went through after that. Ben Franklin did acknowledge and boy do I agree with him. He really wishes he didn't enlarge Jamie Lee Curtis his role. She's not in a lot. Jamie Lee Curtis, on the other hand, did not necessarily have the greatest time on the shoot. Because at the time in Australia, if you shot a film, you could replace Australian actors. If the person had a big enough name, Stacey word, it's like yeah, somehow I squeaked into that, and they were okay with me. But Jamie's like, yeah, I really wasn't a name yet. So she apparently got some harassment from the crew and stuff about how you like stealing Australian jobs. That's suck, but it wasn't all bad. But she did have a few moments of that. And here to me is an example of the stupid shit people write about on that matters not at all to the quality of a film truck he's driving had the Thermo King read your refrigeration unit on it, which apparently is a real thing. And I know he used it because the look was really cool. But somebody wrote that the problem is the refrigeration. refrigeration units are powered by a separate and very noisy engine. Attached to the trailer. It's almost the size of a small car engine that runs 24/7. And you never want to hear that engine noise in this movie. Unfortunately, I really wish I really wish all the sounds that we heard and real life was constantly braiding my films. Exactly. There you go. Stacy Keach, actually learn to drive a 16 year semi for this girl. Wow, wow, film was considered us flotation. Yeah, if you haven't seen it, it's covered in night. Not quite Hollywood, which is a phenomenal documentary about Australian films. That one of the extras on this is the unedited interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis and Stacy Keach and stuff that were featured on there and they're really good. road games was not successful at the box office. Anywhere it was released. Really, Franklin thanks it's because it was the era of the slashers and nobody was going to see this kind of a movie but for whatever reason didn't do well but it did get him the gig for psycho to I got to see this it sounds great. Yeah, it does sound incredible I really I yeah, I want to go on shell factory and pick this thing up. Maybe it'll still be on sale somehow. Or the movie I chose. Now it might kind of be looser fitting into your into your criteria that it should be but damn it I watched it and I want credit for that. So the movie I'm going with is in the tall grass from 2019 Did you hear that someone out there we go something's not right about this. I think we should head back to the road Travis, are you what's going on? Why did you get here before? My boy he's lost in here too. This is nuts. feel you can find things but it's easier once they're dead How long have we been here that sounded like this feel doesn't make any sense. And then one thing in here that does think this is just chance. We're all here for reason. Graphs I call bullshit. There is a road. There is a road, sir. And it plays an incredibly important part in this whole thing. I don't think I've seen this one. Have you seen contempt you have for our listeners? I know shock. It's pretty bad. I'm sorry, everybody. I need to publicly apologize. But I watched this fucking film. And now you're going to hear about it. So this has a rotten tomato score of 36% from critics 33% from audience. It is obviously a very recent movie from Netflix, which means there is no budget or box office information that is publicly available. Of course. The director and writer is Vincenzo Natali, who has 31 credits, most notably Acube cipher and splice. Nowadays, you will find him directing a lot of one off or two off or three off episodes of TV series including the Stan lock and key Westworld lesson space. So he's definitely still out there. I also he has an interesting background where he has a really really strong presence as an art department person. His 18 credits for that including a huge section of eek the cat, LITTLE BEAR Beetlejuice. He did 65 episodes of the animation bar and Tintin. So I think that's I think that's kind of cool and interesting and by explain a lot about the kinds of shots that he captures. This is of course, based on in the tall grass by Stephen King and Joe Hill, Father Son together at last writing picket. Kelly seen this one. I have seen this this would have been a great pick for a movie that was about grass. But not a movie about roads. There is a road that the grass is on the side of Sir. The road is very involved. Oh, we'll get there is starring LEILA DE Allah varia who plays Becky slash the sister. She's been in 19 things including a pretty heavy, heavy role in lock and key, where she's 11 episodes of that as Ellie slash dodge. She's also in code eight and a lot of random other TV. Every wintered who plays cowl slash the brother, he has been in six things, including a New York wedding, which is a TV film and a lot of kind of bad random one off episode stuff. We have Harrison Gilbertson, who is Travis slash backseat Becky's boyfriend. He's been in 21 things including 10 episodes of Harrow, six episodes of Picnic at Hanging Rock. He was also in fallen in Need for Speed, and 12 episodes of conspiracy 365 which I have no idea what that is. We'll Bill Jr. who plays Tobin, which is the little kid lost in the grass. He has been in 10 things he's really really good, but not a lot of a lot of stuff. But 68 episodes is something called bonked. So I'm guessing that's probably a Disney thing. Rachel Wilson, who? Apparently not the wife of Patrick Wilson, which I was going off the assumption of for a while there. She plays Tobin's mom slash the wife of Ross. She's part of the family that gets lost in the grass. She's in 106 things she's a Canadian actress who is in Austin power Spy Who Shagged Me mystery Alaska, and a ton of TV episodes of things I've never heard of because they are Canadian. And Patrick Wilson who plays Ross slash the husband, you would know Him as King arm and Aqua Man and night owl I will in Watchmen, and apparently he started the episodes of Angels in America which I did not realize. Also, I guess you might know him as Ed Warren in conjuring and Josh Lambert and insidious but whatever. Don't worry about that. The plot, there's a road there's a road and people are driving along it namely Becky and her brother Cowell who are traveling across America. They are traveling people. They're going from one point to another on this road. And she is super, super pregnant. They are going to San Diego because she is going to give her baby up for adoption. Her and her boyfriend are seriously super on the rocks if not fully broken up. Because he basically found out she was preggers, freaked out told her she should get an abortion and kind of abandoned her into the situation. So her brother has swooped in to help. And he is driving her over to San Diego so she can give a random couple her baby. He's eating a burger on the road in the car. It smells real strong. She can't handle it, she asked him to pull over. Which is the only reason we're at the grass at all. Because otherwise we're at Foley in a road movie. And she has to nerf because it smells very strong. While she is busy puking. She hears some people in this grass or a person in this grass calling for help. In fact, it's a young boy, they are trying to help this kid figure out how to get out of the grass from not going inside. But it seems like he's clearly lost. And they're like, well, he sounds like he's right here. So we can just like, you know, just walk a few feet and grab him like he's obviously having trouble. So of course they go into the grass immediately cannot find this boy, it always sounds like he's right there. But he isn't. So they decided they need to go back to the roadside to figure shit out and they cannot leave, they cannot get out of the grass to the road, which is the most important part of this. In the tall grass a really road movie. So what like five minutes into the movie at this point, the rope comes back twice at least. So I'm gonna put that out there. We're not even five minutes in this movie. So they realize they cannot get out of the grass and that they are stuck. They are trying to figure out what this all means. time's going by they lose sight of each other. And finally a cow finds Tobin, who is standing next to a dead crow. Tobin tells him that dead things won't move in the grass, just very ominous. Many other things obviously do the grass has a mind of its own and a kind of recreate space and maybe even time. He also tells Cal that Becky will die soon, and that the rock told him that Tobin then leads Cal to a fun big rock out in this grass and tells him to touch it but before he can get his hand reaching for this giant black obelisk thing. The hair standing up off the top of his arm and we hear Becky scream and he runs after her cut to Travis the shithead father of Becky's child arrives at the road. He's driving alongside it he pulls over. He sees their car abandoned next to this church that's across the street from the road. And it looks like all the cars are really dusty and dirty. It looks like some time has passed. Well, it certainly doesn't feel like it. He finds a book on the ground with her name, scroll inside so he knows it's her and he decides to go ahead and investigate the grass and try and figure out what happened to her. So he enters the grass and discovers Tobin. Tobin shows Travis's Travis Becky's corpse because she's dead, for reasons as he had told Cal to open, then also arrives outside of the grass with his parents, because they're on a road trip going down the road. And they they stop and Tobin hear something off in the grass. And it's Travis calling for Tobin, because Travis was just with Tobin. And then of course, the family dog runs into the grass and therefore, Ross, the Father, and the mother all run out into the grass. Inside the grass Ross kind of discovers the stone and touches it. Meanwhile, Tobin, Travis, Becky, and Cal all find one another all from slightly different times because obviously Becky is now still alive. What does it mean? So essentially, this movie, time is out of sync. The grass seems to be made stronger by the strange there's all these hints of the strange, ancient, ancient tribal group that sacrifices bodies to the grass, they worship the grass. They live with the grass and some kind of harm. Many, this rock is also a big part of it. It whispers to people and makes them go mad and murder each other within the grass. But it's also begging for sacrifice. There are time loops happening. Ross, by touching the stone becomes sort of the hand of the grass God, and he does his bidding. And the baby may or may not be a sacrifice at some point in this movie, and at least one of the versions. So really fucked up, by the way. In the meantime, basically, Travis, this is a redemption story for Travis. He's trying to do the right thing and save Becky stand up in the way that he previously did not. And also, we have to put up with random villains that come along the way including Kyle, the brother, who has a creepy gross ass thing for his sister that Travis does call him out on it's like, Dude, you just want a boner. And I'm sorry that you can't because you're her brother. And it's clear that he does. So um, this movie, what I like about it, it has a road in it. And they travel on that road. And that's pretty neat. I like how much of a road movie this is. Um, it's I really like this sort of redemption of Travis. I think that that's really interesting. I think that's a cool storyline. I like the set. I don't think that the grass ever really got stale for me. And that's partly because of how its shot, but also how it's broken up between adding new information about the grass and how dead things can act as markers and tomes and how you also have that rock and then there's a bowling alley that's like in the middle of this grass too. So you get these sort of interesting other features that you discover in this grass that help make it feel like a larger space. There's a bowling alley in the middle of this grass. What are you talking about? Yeah, there is I know well, why does the problem Hey, man, the bowling alley is pretty freakin cool. I like Patrick Wilson being a scary motherfucker. The thing I don't like about it is it has the same problem that a lot of Stephen King adaptations into films have where it feels like there are a bunch of things and there's just like one thing too many. Somewhere in here. There's just or two or three things too many like this kind of weird, ancient, like Aztec InStyle Colt worshipping grass people out there and then like Ross getting overtaken and there's just a lot of set pieces that just become bigger and bigger. And it's it gets us further away from the core story. And I think if you do the core story, right, you don't need all that extra stuff. So worse. He looks so unhappy. Well, I I hate this movie. This is a terrible movie. Yeah, it is a horrible adaptation. The story is eight pages long, sir. So yeah, it's just I think they gave who's this? Vincenzo Natali Oh, yes. I think Netflix basically said, whatever you want. Yeah. No, I believe in you. And so he, he gave them this and they were all like, right. I do like, you know how much I love Patrick Wilson and doesn't have like a thin mustache. And this Yeah, it was like a guy. He's like a real creepy pencil thin mustache or something. And I was like, You know what? It looks good on you. Yeah. You just know from the instant you see this guy that he's like, there's something wrong trouble. Yeah, absolutely. Um, a little bit of fun trivia about it. This was in development initially in 2015, but it failed to start and then in May of 2018, Netflix announced it and purchased the film rights with Natalie directed up as the director VINs are certain Nataly director Vincenzo Natali said, quote who would think that grasp could be frightening trust Stephen King and Joe Hill to find a way they have transformed and otherwise innocuous Kansas field into a stage for some of the most disturbing horror fiction I've ever read. Those eight pages really had a impression on him. manga artists Shintaro Kago, did the concept art design for the film adaptation which I think makes a lot of sense since the director had such a strong like art background. Patrick Wilson stepped in for James Marsden who was originally meant to be in that role for this film, but had to decline because he went off to do Sonic the Hedgehog and other film I love the Kelly's film was shot in Ontario, Ontario to the dilapidated church was constructed for the film in Perth south and the filming took place outside of a bowling alley in Elmira, Ontario, Ontario. There is a 1959 Chevrolet standing outside the church with its grill customized to resemble Christine, the 1958 Plymouth from Stephen King's novel with the same name. If you look carefully the stained glass in the church looks like grass and it feels premiered at Fantastic Fest and basically a month later came out on Netflix the tagline is, some places have a mind of their own. It is a terrible tagline. They could have done so much better. Shame on them. IMDB topper view from Fela Shibby says, quote, I got trapped into this purgatory only after seeing Patrick Wilson in the trailer week plot stretched unnecessarily into 101 mins of boring grasses in WTF stone. And Claudio Carvalho on the other side of the coin says, the intriguing supernatural field. Yeah, the original story is just I don't know if there's any of the pregnancy stuff, but it's just a couple who here a kid in a field of tall grass, and then they get you know, lost in the grass and they realize that the grass does this to people. It brings them in by having a voice I don't think they ever get to see the kid or anything like that. And you realize, oh, this is a this is a field of grass that lures people into it by pretending there's somebody stuck in it's the Stephen King curse of lawn based adaptations. I guess the worst ones probably Lawnmower Man. Well, first of all, let me just say that I really care for the listeners but I also have the utmost respect for our fellow podcaster Eric for a particular genre of film, so I went and found one in that genre Yeah, well Eric, I respect you in my own way. Not only that road game sounds amazing. But this movie is so fucking good and it is from 1973 It is a little British film called The Death wheelers also known as psycho media. Have do the day come back with some so what are you gonna kill die once Wow, this is a cool fucking thing really is I can find no budget or box office information on it. The Rotten Tomatoes critics have it at 86% Oh, and the audience has it at 53% was directed by Don sharp who has directed a bunch of films. Kiss of the vampire face of Fu Manchu Curse of the fly and 35 other credits written by are not the ASUW who wrote lady Scarface the man who wouldn't die and horror Express and also written by Julia Julian ZDNet who wrote sek 59 Cracking the world punch of via and was a co writer on horror Express. It stars Nikki Henson literally Nikki NIC ky. The man is he goes by Nikki Wow. Not even NIC k i? Well, that would be the way if it was a woman I imagine. Well, it's a little more manly that I think that you would just go by Nick at some point in your and that does make sense. So Nikki Hansen had 111 credits, including Witchfinder General, Syriana, a ton of British television, like the Avengers shine on Harvey moon and 36 episodes of EastEnders it's also serves Mary Larkin, who's mostly British TV including Crown Court EastEnders and BBC Playhouse. And Michelle same thing bunch of British TV the Two Ronnies lol oh man Wow. And is also starred George Sanders, but 138 credits including Rebecca, the larger The Picture of Dorian Gray All About Eve Village of the Damned. He was Mr. Freeze and the Batman 66 TV show. And he was the voice of Shere Khan in The Jungle Book or wow, that's cool. So Eric, you've seen this Vanessa, you have not seen? Yes, correct. There's a road. Okay, sounds just like Tallgrass so far. So, our main characters Tom, who is described at one point in the movie as an amiable psychopath. He is the leader of a violent team game gang named the living dead. He loves his mother, and riding his motorcycle with his girlfriend, Abby. And there is a ton of motorcycle gang activity out in this movie, just like disturbing driving scenes, the stunts in this whole like somebody had to have been killed in that. So Tom, he dabbles in a bit of black magic, as you do okay, and his gang spends a fair amount of time at this ancient ruin located in the Surrey countryside known as the seven witches. It is kind of a Stonehenge likes a circle of stones that are all about six feet tall, and called the Seven witches. Similarly, his mom also dabbles in a bit of magic and her sinister Butler. Shadwell, oh my God. They get their kicks out of holding seances in their home while they worship some sort of frog God. It's very Lovecraftian. Wow. We are. We are told that Tom's father had vanished in a mysterious room in their house shortly after Tom's birth. And now that we are hitting Tom's 18th birthday, he goes into that room and he sees the frog God. This incident leads Tom to kill himself. Yeah. And it's suicide by vehicle. He has the cops chasing him and he's got his girlfriend on the back of the thing. And as he turns the corner, he drops her off. And then he goes driving straight off a bridge. Whoa, wait, wasn't that our main character? Yep. Okay, whoa, whoa. And the whole thing is that this whole thing kind of starts from his mom, we get the feeling that his mom wanted him to do exactly. This. Oh. So per his wishes, he is buried with his motorcycle. Oh, my God, at the center of the seven witches. That's a really big casket. And there is this spectacular scene where there's a young couple that's arguing around the stones and everything and that they suddenly hear the revving of a motorcycle. And they're like, Where the hell is that coming from? And he explodes out of the ground on his motorcycle. I was like, You know what? This movie if it gets stupid or whatever, it was worth watching just for this. It was so cool. And he of course that kills those two kids who are arguing Oh, sure, no. Okay. It's pretty fucking great taking a twist. So now he is on dead, which means that he has kind of superhuman strength, and he can't be killed, which he proceeds to show everybody bye. Bye. massacring the people drinking at a local pub. Sure, his gang, they don't believe it's him. But he finally convinces them and then he commits his gang that if they commit suicide, and they believe strongly enough that they will all come back that they will all come back and they will be just like him. So they they proceed to do this one by one kill themselves very publicly, like leaping out of buildings, ops and all this stuff. And with the exception of his girlfriend, Abby, who is not into this and she's getting more and more worried about him and his violent tendencies and all this stuff. They then this undead motorcycle gang called the Living Dead. Oh see to terrorize the countryside. Oh my god. So the police chief who is overwhelmed by all the crimes that are happening, and he they're happening and being described to them as Oh, it was this person who did it and he's like, Well, it couldn't be ice that that jumped out of a building in front of me and I know for a fact he is dead. So he thinks that somebody has been stealing the corpses of this biker in return. And so with that in mind, he releases a fake news story that Abby has also died. cuz he's like okay whoever's doing this without come to collect her. Well the problem is the people do come to collector and it's all the dead motorcyclists. But she's not actually dead. So now Tom is very pissed off because he thought, Oh, she finally did it did they kidnap her and they take off with the police, Jason and everything. Now, for whatever reason this, I couldn't figure out why Tom's mom is kind of disgusted with all the crimes they've been committing. Even though she was the one who kind of initiated this whole thing has come back as the living dead, but she decided to put a stop by to put a stop to it. Bye. Bye basic, basically breaking her. Her deal with the frog god. Oh, so that's where everybody's getting their power. So she's like, fuck it. I'm out. So Tom, and the other bikers have kidnapped Abby and they've taken her to the seven witches and they tell her that she has to commit suicide then and there are they're gonna kill her. And she's like, fuck you. I won't do it. And so Tom Sawyer strangling her. But as he started to strangle her we're getting cuts over to his mom who has you know, broken her deal with the frog God, and it gets pretty cool because their power all comes from this deal she made and No, no, it's pretty great movie for a little British 73 film. It's got some crazy driving stunts look very dangerous. And I did read my trivia that there were plenty of injuries from the various sir. I really loved it. The ending is pretty great. I wish the effects were just a tad better, but it's got a fun frog transformation scene, and a very cool explanation of what the seven witches actually are. So trivia, the film was almost universally blasted by critics upon its release. One reviewer for The London Times wrote that the film was only fit to be shown at an SS reunion party. A strange interpretation Yes. During a BBC interview, let's see in like 2013 Oh, okay. Nikki Henson said that he always thought the film was terrible and only decided to be in it because he thought no one would ever see it. Okay, in fact, He is quoted as saying at the time I thought if you do dodgy films, nobody pays to see dodgy films. Of course, you're not realizing that years later they come out on DVD and become culture. Shock till you drop called the film, a great one shot horror movie filled with weird something eerie atmosphere crazy stunt work. Cheeky performances, mild kink, and a unique charm all its own, and variety called it a low budget. Well done shocker with a tightly knit plot and a believable surprise ending. It has, you know, universally bless upon its release, but it has gained cult status. And as you saw 86% from the critics now. So one last final thing, not only the final film of George Sanders, but the legend goes that after filming this movie, he went to his hotel room, swallowed a bottle of pills and left a note saying this is his actual suicide note. Dear World. I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I'm leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck. Oh, hey. Yes. Okay. The death wheelers. It is available. Eric tells me on arrow now. No, I don't think it is anymore. It was briefly. Okay. I think I had to watch it via YouTube. But it had a really nice it was a pristine looking print. So Wow. Boy, this is just a good one. We've got a lot of fun. It's crazy. So we know that next episode is going to be ego fest. Yes. But Vanessa will have the pick for the episode after that. Right. Maybe give us a little hint so we can get started on it early. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that I would love to. We haven't been to outer space in a hot minute or outer space adjacent vehicles. So I'm thinking that we could all kind of pick out a film where spaceship a spaceship is a prime scene place that takes place for the film. Stop talking. We got it. Okay. Please, please let me go go home. I kid spaceships. Okay, so the episode after next is spaceship spaceships. Yeah, like even if they could find a spaceship or maybe they're taken into a spaceship or somebody is in a spaceship flying from place to place. Just spaceship oriented movie. Say say spaceship one motor spaceship. This is the part where I stumble over thanking everybody for participating in the value for value model. We really appreciate that you guys rock. And even if it's just liking and sharing posts that is so important. There's value to that, and we really appreciate it. So thanks everybody was doing that. Thanks to Danny and Ron and Carlos and Jason, Bob. Jason. Support, everybody. Yeah, I can't thank you enough. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, it's it's always, always exciting. I just had some friends speaking of English, films in England and weirdness. I just had some friends from England who I hadn't seen in one in 18 years and one in 10. And at least one of them was like, oh, yeah, let's your podcast. So thanks for checking that out. That's very nice. Hey, Dan, talking about Yeah, for next week, I guess. Sorry. I can't help it. It's just in my blood to be so vain as to talk about myself once per episode. All right, you guys. I'm tired. And I'm tired of you. I don't want you out of my house. Cool. That goes great to see it to see. Our shows 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 nightshade is used with permission. Find strange aeons radio on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Wherever I watched this fucking film, and now you're gonna hear about it.