304 REGARDING GERARD!

304 REGARDING GERARD!
Listen, if you can come up with a better title for a Gerard Butler episode, we're willing to hear it!
Also discussed: Humanist Vampire Seeking Suicidal person, Squid Game 2, Monster Summer.

Transcript

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I put on my shoes once as a kid and got into the ferry line, was walking down and got bit by one that had been hitchhiking with me. Had no idea what it looked like because I took off my shoe and it ran off, and it turned some interesting colors. I was fine, wow. But it was one of those things where the doctors were like, what was the spider the biggie. I'm like, I don't, I don't know. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration? Somewhere between science and a superstition. Show you. Strange eons. Welcome to strangeeons radio. That is Eric over there. Hello, that is Vanessa over there. Hello, and I am Kelly gang still got a cold, not loving it. I am the biggest baby when it comes to cold, although I also don't let anyone around me, you fucking asshole. So I said, You guys sure you want to come. And you were like, Yeah, let's do it. Let's see what Kelly's like, yeah, you seem fine. Normally, I I just hide away and don't let anyone see me for the seven days that it takes to get over a cold. Instead, you have to get a YouTube ready. Clean your house. Allow us to be here. So thanks. Yeah, you're very welcome. I'm gonna dive right into stuff that I have seen. Okay. Hope everybody has had a fantastic week 2025, buzzing along, right? How come nobody told me that the new season of COVID Quiet come out? Oh, like ages ago? Yes, it wasn't that several months ago, December. Oh, is it just because it comes out in three parts, right? So November was the first six. December was the second six, which I just finished watching, and then January, now there will be a new six. I gotta love, I gotta love, hate. Thing going on with this show. It is so stupid, yeah, and it all follows the same pattern, which is, there's going to be a misunderstanding. People aren't going to get along until they suddenly have to get along, and then everything's fine. And now a new group of people won't be getting which was, you know, pretty good for two, maybe three seasons, and then it's like, yeah, yeah, I'm eager for this to be winding down, but I did just see a trailer for some Cobra Kai movie. I heard about that. Yeah, with Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, I'm like, wait a second. Are they going to somehow explain that Jackie Chan is in the same universe as these other Mr. Miyagis, is this a multiverse of Miyagi, the Miyagi verse? I don't know, but this time, they are in Japan, and they are fighting a huge tournament against not just Kreese, okay, because Cobra Kai has joined forces with Miyagi Joe, and Kreese has his own group of people, but also now silver is back in the picture somehow, and he's pulling strings and and it's just like, yeah, for God's sakes, it went from good, male ish soap opera to this has been taken over by, I don't know, some psychotic director, yeah, it does feel really samey like I when it when the newest season dropped. I watched the first episode or two, and I'm just so tired. I was like, you know, I keep meaning to go back and watch more, and I just don't have it in me. I just, I want a fresh plot line. It's quite silly, but everybody is so fun. Yeah, you know? Like, I love what's his name, from Cobra Kai, the lead. Like, I love watching him, and I love the whole premise. Is cool, but I just want something a little different. Yeah, that's, that's that's why I'm saying. I'm eager for this to wind up, because I I want to finish it, but I also want it to be finished. Yeah, that's super fair. Clever guy. Netflix, so I watched a movie that Eric had talked about earlier carry on, which I watched last night with was his name, Edgerton Bucha from Yeah, yeah, I know who you mean. I don't, but yeah, like, from the, oh, my God was disappearing from my brain, from that the gentleman, yes, yeah, that shitty Robin Hood, yes. The movie started, and I was like, Hey, is it? That guy, oh, what is that guy? Why is he doing an American accent? I'm sorry, but when British people do American accents, because just like Americans doing British accents, there's good versions and bad versions. A lot of times when British people do American accents, they just go flat. And I was like, Oh, it's so flat. Oh, your voice is so flat. But he did do a good job. It was. It was a really fun movie, like, I had such a good time watching this. Just that throwback action doesn't this need to make sense, because it's so damn much fun. It feels like, you know, of that sort of die Hardy style of just like dumb, fun action movie with, like, some interesting little pieces in there that make it feel like it's well written it, you know, it's probably somewhere in the middle, but it's not, but it's not a look alike. It's not like you're watching it and going. This is heavily inspired by x insert thing here. This is a remake of insert thing here. It's like, a unique story that I just yeah, I really enjoyed it. That's cool. Good stuff, very cool. That's fun. That's on my list, too. What's his name, though? Aaron Edgerton, no, it's Oswald. It's gonna kill me talking about, yeah, yeah, that guyran, yes, close. But you can watch that for free on Netflix. Karen Edgerton watched a weird one which had a surprise appearance by a character, though I didn't know he was in this. This movie called a monster summer from this year, from 2024, well, from last year, and a bunch of kids having fun. Weird summer. Is this a monster? Is it not a monster looking, uh, trying to find capture the witch that might be killing kids or stealing their souls? And the lead adult hero is Mel Gibson, yeah, I saw the trailer for this. Yeah. And you kind of forget, because, well, he's done some real shitty movies for a while, but he's done some pretty good ones. He's still very charming on screen, sure, and he, he pulls that into full effect in this movie, because he he even kind of leans into his bad reputation, because he starts off as the guy, the old guy, who's got that house that no kids can go to, and he's mean and scary, and, you know, till he actually starts to interact with the kid, it's like, okay, he's pretty he's pretty fun. So he's good in the film. It's just a fun little middle of the road. There's always panels at Suncoast or not Suncoast at crypto in Seattle, where people are going, what's a good entry level kids horror movie? This? This would be, this would be a good maybe even under 10 year old. It's right in PG 13. But under 10 year old, kind of intro to creepy films. Is there anything supernatural going on? Oh, there is, oh, I couldn't tell from the trailer, yeah, oh, yeah. Is it, um, is it a rental at this point, or is it free to stream somewhere? I forgot that's fair. But I think it's, I think it's is, I'm guessing it's not a rental, because it's, you know, I'm going through, what's the 2024, horror films that come out. And there's ones I look for, and then there's the ones that just kind of pop up. I don't usually rent those, so I'm guessing it's probably Amazon Prime or Netflix or something like that. It looks like a film that Netflix would have. So this is a recommend, though. Yeah, yeah, for fun. Let's just, was it goosebumps? Kind of Yeah, I was definitely interested, and I think I'm gonna have to check this out. That's cool. Well, I don't even know if I can really talk about this, because I've only seen the first two episodes. But did you guys see that squid games? Season two has started. I saw that it dropped. I have not watched it, yet watched it, but I've heard it mixed. It starts in a really interesting fashion, in that it's like five years after the first one, because it is five years, and for those five years, the winner has been trying to find the guy who gave him the card originally, again, because he wants to put a stop to this? Oh sure. And so he's spending all of his winnings trying to he's got this kind of shady group of people who are hanging out in the subways looking for this guy constantly. The guy from Train to Busan, right? It gave him that card. Yeah. It took me a minute, but as soon as he popped up, I was like, Oh yeah, because I just, I just re watched trained person holds up very well. Holds up very well. But I wasn't sure how I would feel about this, with this starting this way, and by the second episode, it has kicked in very hard, and I'm really, really enjoying it. So it's a very different feel. So. So far, it would have been, yeah, that's very cool here, because I was kind of hesitant on it, just thinking it would just be that the same thing, different characters. Here's your new season of Survivor. It's exactly the same season that's ever been. It doesn't feel like that is what they're going for. And I was really glad to see that too. Speaking of Train to Busan, whatever happened to train to New York. What are they we're gonna do, like a train to New York. I saw posters for it. I saw that it was in post production, and then it just fucking disappeared, really. I didn't, yeah, I remember hearing about it. I just thought. It just never got made, but it made the post. I thought so. I kept thinking, you know, oh boy, okay, let's see what they do. Yeah, that's, that's a cool idea. I've never heard of that, but like, that's, I'm guessing, if they made it, then maybe it became a tax write off, because that's what happens to movies now, so many good movies being made, or maybe movies being made, and just, we're just not going to release it well, as you're watching a show that I wasn't sure if I wanted to get into but Kelly had talked about it before, which is creature, commandos. Commandos. Yeah, I watched a couple of those too. Yeah, yeah. That has been kind of a fun surprise to me. The thing I don't like about it is James Gunn being in the title sequence at the start. It's a little, I feel narcissistic. Is too much, guys like, you didn't need to. Like, I get the James Gunn's name is, you know, getting people excited about stuff, but we don't. We don't like him that much. I'm sorry. Like, he's cool dude, but like, I don't want to. I don't know it's gross, but the show itself, like there's been a lot of really neat stuff, like I am enjoying each episode sort of seems to be going into different characters backstories. So I loved seeing how the bride got to be there. I really enjoyed the the robot guy, the Nazi killer robot. He was so good. I just really love that. Yeah, so I'm having a really good time with it. Weasel episode, it was fine. I've seen that one, yeah, I like that one quite a bit. But I was like, I feel like I know exactly where they're going to go with this. Yeah, from the first like frame they show you of is like, backstory, you're like, Well, I know what you're doing, yeah. But I mean, yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's cute. I think it was just, like, a little predictable. So I guess we're probably gonna spend the next few episodes following the other backstory, like Dr phosphorus and, yeah, for who else there is, but Nina. And Nina, she's the outlier for me. I'm like, What is your power? I know. Why are you guys bringing her? Like, as soon as her little water tank goes she's useless, and she doesn't seem to do anything. We're going to a coastal land. All right, okay. Finally, they did say, at one point, they were like, Oh yeah, she's wait until you see the water. And I'm like, why would you send her on an expedition that's not in the water, if you're if she's only helpful in that situation? I I guess I was really hoping that this would be a throwback to the comic in that it took place during World War Two. But, you know, I can see why that might be a little risky. So I, I think I told you guys originally, I was like, has nothing special. I've come to really enjoy the last couple episodes, so I've got high hopes for it, but yeah, that that pulled me out immediately. That first episode where the end credits, or the opening credits, have James Gunn as an animated character. Yeah, he's just sitting there, and it's the last thing you see before the show starts. And it's like, I don't need this. I really and same with the Superman trailer, it was like, it had it in such big letters just hanging on screen, like from James Gunn, who brought you guardians and galaxy. I'm like, I mean, not the not the not the cartoon, but the movie. If it was James Cameron, it'd be the same thing. No giant director gets you're totally right. I think I'm just getting it too much from too many angles. Like it was funny when he showed up in Harley Quinn, and I was like, That's hilarious. Like, there's James Gunn as a character in the show. But now I feel like I'm seeing too much of him himself. He just has too much of a public presence. And I'm just like, I just need it's fine. You don't have to be on everything. They're definitely hanging their shingle on his name, yeah, which means, if the Superman movie sucks, it's, it's gonna be his name. Yeah? Yep. Alright. So some places said 2023 some said 2024 so I watched humanist, vampire seeking, consenting, suicidal person. God, I have heard all sorts of good things about this. Overall, it's a fun film. It's got some elements that were. Is grading on me, just with the the level they take with her not wanting to kill people is overdone, almost, which is weird because, you know, it's basic with the premise of the film, but it still feels like I got the point. Let's go to her trying to figure out how to live without killing people. And when that kicks in little more, it does get pretty good. There's a lot of fun. There's a neat, neat aspect of vampire existence in this world, where it's a family unit, and it's part of growing up where you get your teeth at a certain age, and there's some neat stuff in it. Performances are all good. It is very artsy. It has a real like, got that one she walked walked home alone at night. Oh, girl who walked home, yeah, girl who walked home at night. It's got a lot of that feel to it, but more is going on. It's a little more going on in this film that I went to that one, but it's not when I go, you have to go out and watch this. But if you read that tidy and you go, I'm intrigued, you're probably going to at least be intrigued by the film, because that title is just kind of makes it sound like it's gonna be a comedy though. Oh, it's funny. Oh, okay, it's got a lot of humor. Can you give me that full title again? Yes, humanist, vampire seeking, consenting, suicidal person, right? What did you watch this on? Because this is one I've been kind of waiting for that is a prime. This was good video. It might have been a rental, just because, if it's a $3 rental, what the hell. But right, I was like, get the delayed shipping. So almost all my $3 rentals are free because I'm like, Ah, yeah, it's using my digital Koopa, yeah. If you didn't know that, you can do the delayed shifting, and they'll they put a little button under there that says, you know, if you do delayed, you get a $3 digital thing. So I've gotten a lot of my Kindle purchases the same way. Was there anybody of note in this? Not really. No looking through the cast. I'm sure there are people, people, what are you talking about? So, as I was in this, right? But I mean, not, they're not inexperienced performers, but they're like, the lead has four credits. Okay, sure, okay. But again, yeah, performances, though I really liked, I was looking forward to that, because that along with some of the other movies that came out this last year, I was just kind of like, Okay, how are people getting money for these films anymore? You know, because kick starting a movie is really not even a thing anymore. So I'm just always curious how they're making these, you know, $500,000 films. Yeah, yeah. This, it does look pretty. Doesn't look cheap. It looks pretty damn good. Okay, all right. Well, how about we take a little break and we ponder how these people are getting the money? I might have found part of it. Oh, Canadian. Oh, so Canada actually supports their ourselves. They've probably got a big old they've got a film collective up there. So yeah, Canada's like, we gotta find the next Cronenberg for the love of Christ. That's right, perfect. Okay, well, now we can contemplate something else during the break, but I still need the break, and then when we come back, we're talking Gerard Butler. So hello, Mr. Butler, how can we help you today? Problem, take a right, and you're going to go across the bridge. Jump. There you go. Jump. What was that downstairs through those doors, and the car should be there, right in front of you that you can unlock with your phone, Mr. Butler choose for more vehicles at more UK locations than anyone else, whatever the mission enterprise, we have returned. Oh, my God, that was amazing commercial, Eric, I just want everyone to know that. I don't know exactly how Eric searches for these commercials, but I really appreciate it, and sometimes I just get a nice big laugh. Yeah, something will happen in the commercial. I'll be like, I get it incredible. Yeah, for our 300 that for. Episode You played the trailer for 300 which I thought was funny and also ties in. This is a nice segue to talk about our first new sub genre of 2025 which you picked. Yes, Gerard Butler. Gerard Butler, we're going to talk about Gerard Butler. How am I gonna name this episode? I don't know what rhymes with Butler. Butler, original G, but Oh, muddler, swap out the T for a D, and you're good. I'm gonna give you five minutes to talk about your Gerard Butler. Well, I'm not doing 300 by I'm gonna talk about Gods of Egypt from 2016 Egypt has always been a paradise, but now there is chaos, god of the air. You must protect the mortals. I don't know if I'm strong enough then become stronger. Soon I will love the world. My legions of the desert, you have the power to make this right. So how do we stop him? Raja, keep up. You. Are you sure you're not a god? What would I be the God of impossible? Go, Yeah, this has a rotten tomato of 14% from critics, 37 audience, but budget was 140 mil. Box Office, 150.6 read that as you will, directed by Alex Preuss, 42 credits, including Dark City The Crow, which we talked about, both of those knowing we also talked about, and since this movie is only done short films, weird, although he is slated to direct r, u, r, which I read many years ago, so I'm kind of excited about that, and I'm hoping that he does something interesting with it. It's where the word robot is generated from. So this is starring Nicola caster Waldo, which you have talked about before. Kelly with night watch. He played Jamie Lannister in Game of Thrones. Also, of course, Gerard Butler, who's done 300 Greenland geo storm, How to Train Your Dragon, and was the leading seaman and Tomorrow Never Dies, which was one of his first roles. I'm just gonna let that alone. Breton Thwaites, who we would know as Nightwing in Titans, a lot of young who is a beautiful French actress who played Electra and Daredevil the TV series. Joffrey rush from care Pirates of the Caribbean, Shakespeare in Love, Mystery Men, Rufus seawell, Dark City and the holiday. And Chad Bozeman from Black Panther. So the plot is, Egypt is Egypt is inhabited by both gods and men. You can tell because Gods are enormous and they bleed gold like they're like, double or triple the size of normal people. Two Brothers rule, which is Osiris, who has the good bits and set who has the desert. When Osiris decides to pass the Kingdom of Egypt onto his son, Horus, at his coronation, set arrives and challenges him to a battle. He kills Osiris and then blinds Horus, who really sucks for because he has perfect vision and knows how to fly, but without his cool eyes can't fly and can't see. So he also makes this even worse, because set, who now is the ruler, is a madman. He decides that humans can only go to the afterlife if they're mega rich, so everybody has to try to acquire wealth. He also forces them to build a giant tower to his father, ra, who's he's trying to get in favor with which kills over 5000 slaves. That's fine. And meanwhile, two humans who are in love back a thief and Saya, a slave to sets architect aka rufa Sewell, decides to steal back horse's eyes to help him. Him take back Egypt. Beck is freaking good at jumping and somehow manages to get through a really crazy trap set and steal one of the eyes back for him as they are trying to get back to Horus to give him the eye, the architect shoots an arrow that pierces say his heart and she is dead. Beck finds Horus and offers him the eyeball only if he will bring say it back to life. At first, Horace says it's impossible, but then suggests maybe there is a way he can help. And the two then go on a basically a road movie, buddy adventure, plucky kind of situation, to try and get what they need to take down set. But unfortunately, set is growing ever more powerful and getting his own extra appendages, like a brain and a heart and a big gold staff, and he's become basically unkillable, but he has a new vision that includes taking over the sky, which is Roz turf, and the underworld, which is death, and thus destroying them and Making the entire universe is over again, which is not good. So this film is mostly CGI, just CGI after CGI after CGI crowds and everything CGI, but even and the visuals are insane. So if you're not going to get on board with it, you're not going to enjoy this movie. You have to be okay with there being just giant, big people walking around randomly, and then little people, and you have to not laugh every single time I did see this in the theaters, I'm not surprised I didn't remember anything because it's pretty bonkers and kind of hard to follow, if you aren't literally taking notes, like I was this Time. Gerard Ballmer feels like a weird choice. He comes across like a Scottish drunkard. I don't know. It was just kind of hard to see him in this role. I didn't love it, but he was trying. Damn five minutes just isn't what it used to be. Nicola is Great Britain. Thwaites is great. A lot of young is so charismatic, so gorgeous. I was kind of disappointed to realize she's a lecture from Daredevil because I hated her in that Chadwick Boseman is genuinely the worst part of the acting of this film. He is incredibly bad. It's, it's tough. I didn't know it was him until I looked it up and oh my god, it's, it's awful. And the next film he does after this is Black Panther. Well, not Black Panther, but Thor or, sorry, Captain America. So you see him as Black Panther the next in the next film. So it's like, where did you get this talent from? Because you didn't have it for this moment. I did laugh out loud at the ending, when Nicola bursts into his gold super self and flies off. I just You cannot. It's not as terrible as I remember, but it's certainly not good. So, yeah, I do have a little bit of trivia I'm gonna try to get through this quickly. It's based on the Egyptian myth of the contendings of Horus and Set prey said he sought to make a big budget film with the original premise. To contrast franchise films, the director cited following the influences of things like gods of Egypt, lords of Arabia, blah, blah, blah, Lions Gate anticipated Gods of Egypt would be the first in a new franchise after finishing the Hunger Games films. Obviously that didn't happen filmed in the Australian desert because the Sahara was too dangerous. Gerard Butler read the word God in the script and just to describe his character, and he knew he'd have to embark on a huge body building process, so he started his workouts immediately, because he wanted to make sure he looked good, looked like one by the time shooting began in the film, the gods in human eye form, are nine feet tall, and battle in battle beast mode, they're 12 feet tall. He used Proust, used force perspective and motion control photography to portray the difference in height between the actors portraying the gods and the humans. Yeah, there you go. So Chadwick Boseman, yes. I mean, pretty ballsy. The filmmakers to even put a person of color in Egypt. That's wild. That was the biggest backlash. This actually started a huge discussion on Hollywood white washing, yeah, you don't say not one. Wow, pretty rough. This movie is awful. I am really surprised you decided to go with this video. It is so dumb, it is truly terrible, but I remember it being really weird. And was like, You know what? I just watched, Noah, I'm just gonna watch some weird shit and see what happens. But yeah, there was one quote I want to mention really quickly before you start the timer. Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian said, This is ridiculous. This is a. Offensive. This shouldn't be, and I'm not going to say otherwise, if you can't bring yourself to buy a ticket for this movie, but if you're on the fence, you can always offset your karmic footprint with a donation to charity, because the movie is tremendous amount of fun. Nice, Eric, if you don't mind, I'll go first second. How long have I been sleeping? Five minutes, and I'm talking about a movie called gamer. It's me, it's Simon. I'm playing you. Turn me around. I want the call it a game players. Gives the gamer full control of a human being in full scale combat. But the players are real. Every one of our slayers is a death row inmate. Stay alive for 30 sessions. You get set free. That's not a bad deal. Some tried to beat the system, but no one has ever survived cables a perfect soldier. He is what they want, just the game. We're all slaves. My husband, he's due to be released soon. Your wife and your daughter need you. It's the only thing that keeps you alive. We know where she is, so I can keep them, not with you, controlling you want to win. Totally loose you. Loose. You're pulling all the strings around you. I think if you do it, you're mine, boy, You You can hear me, if I don't you this is not something you can control. From 2009 Have you guys seen gamer? I have not. Yeah, what I know, I know it sounds I would have done it for this, but I'm really glad you chose it. Oh, whoops. Okay. This was written and directed by Mark Neville Dean and Brian Taylor, who are a writing, directing team responsible for crank crank, high voltage and ghost writer, spare dimensions. As an aside, Brian Taylor has also directed mom and dad and her latest Hellboy movie, which I fucking loved, the Crooked Man, wow, starring Gerard Butler, 66 credits, including Dracula, 2000 movie, 43 and PS, I love you. Michael C Hall, who has 41 credits, one episode of As the World Turns 63 episodes of six feet under, but is probably most remembered as the character Dexter, and what has to be hundreds of episodes of various series like Dexter, Dexter, serial killer by night. Dexter, early cuts. Dexter, new blood and Dexter, Original Sin. Did you guys know that this was a thing. No, yeah, I knew that there was a new one that was coming out. Apparently, there's been new ones every couple of years, and he just shows up that is pretty crazy. Ludicrous. Is also in this, 99 credits, including Hustle and Flow, Fred Claus and every Fast and Furious sequel, starting with number two. Also in this is curious. Edgewick, Terry Crews, John Delancey, Keith David Sam Witwer, John Leguizamo, and even Lloyd Coffman. Story, it is the very near future. I think I saw it was supposed to be 2034, and we see ads everywhere, building walls, bus stops, billboards for the hit game slayers, which is a lot like Sims, except as a player, you get to control a real human in this game, case, a convicted murderer, and use them like you would play a first person shooter video game. Our story revolves around one such character called cable in the game, who is being played by a. 17 year old kid named Simon. And this kid is so good at the game that cable may be the first combatant to win his freedom. He only needs to win four more games and he will be pardoned. Cable is, of course, Gerard Butler. There is some people who think that no one will ever be allowed to leave the game, because no one has this kind of has a similar feel to me as the movie Rollerball, and that everyone on the planet is just enthralled with these games and watches them constantly. So they'll have a football stadium full of people, and then this game on a gigantic screen, we are also introduced to society, which is another game, kind of like The Sims, where you control real people and make them do whatever. So it seems like in the near future, everyone either wants to control or be controlled. Anyway. There is also a resistance group known as humans with a Z that is trying to shut all of this down. And they decide to use cable as their way of doing this, because he has become so high profile. So while he's just trying to stay alive, there's all this other stuff going on in the real world where everyone is hacking into each other's corporations and stuff, trying to break him out. It sounds kind of confusing, but it's actually pretty easy to follow. The only real problem with the movie is that it is really just a collection of kind of interesting ideas, and then so, so story execution. So I was like, I was fine with it. It really just showed me that there are a number of Gerard Butler films that I haven't seen, and I wish I had picked law abiding citizen instead. And I plan on doing that probably tonight. This is a super violent film. So if that's not your thing, you have been warned. I would say that the filmmakers are huge fans of Blade Runner, as there are several homages hidden in the flick, including the final scene, which I was like, did they just take this from the beginning of The Shining? So anyway, trivia was originally titled citizen game and screening tests, which I thought was kind of funny, the opening montage of time lapse shots and other scenes of the world, where we see ads for cable and or graffiti of Ken Castle overlaid on buildings or walls are mostly taken from Ron Frick's wordless film baraka from 1992 for example, the shots of the gaze of pyramids India and homeless man sleeping under the bridge, among others. Okay. Overall, the film grossed 21 point 5 million in the United States and Canada, and 20 point 7 million in other territories, for worldwide cumulative of 42 million against its a worldwide cumulative of 42 million against its $50 million budget. So a flop, and I think this was one of the big ones for Gerard Butler, and that his career was really on the upswing. And then this came out, and it was no longer on the upswing. 2009 so, well, wait, that can't be right, right? When was Butler? When was 300 that was like, Oh, that was before. That wasn't five or something. Okay, yeah, I don't know. I thought he was really good in this he's just got a very likable presence. And even though he is a murderer, you will find out that he's not really a murderer, right? Something was, there was a little bit of the running man in his past, so I don't know. Mostly I was, like, for a movie that has a lot of bullets, explosions and blood. I was like, I sure wish something would happen. Yeah, I remember seeing it, but I it, it didn't really stick. Yeah? So yeah. Does it have, like, a lot of CGI like, do they have when they go into the well, no, because they're controlling real people. Yeah, there is no game world. So the kid, the kid who's controlling him, is doing everything, like Tony Stark, so he's just moving his hands in the air, and you're seeing people flip, pass forth and stuff like that. And when, when they go into the society game, which Gerard Butler's wife has done because she's so distraught she has allowed herself to become one of these people who gets used in this other game. You You do see some uncomfortable shots of, like, you know, a big, very, very heavy dude naked in a chair controlling the beautiful woman that he's pretending to be in society and stuff like that. So, like I said, a lot of interesting ideas and maybe even a message. But it's, it's just not done very well. Yeah, it's and it's weird too, because we are in this kind of society where people do watch other people playing games, and that's. Like, just as big as sports right now. So cool, yeah, alrighty, yeah, I did. I went all the way up to 2021, whoa with cop shop. You rebel Nice. You're a psychopath. I'm a professional. I'm envisioning invisible. That's where I'm gonna be. I got heat all over me. I'm not telling you where I am. What are you gonna arrest me? Who are you people? Please arrest me. You're under arrest. So why were you looking to get locked up. Theodore, everyone's trying to kill me. They nearly killed us. What'd you do? I did what I had to do to get to you. Teddy the legendary Bob Vitt, you're a psychopath. I'm a professional. You piss off the wrong people and I'm gonna kill you. Drop that gun. No one kills anyone in here. You say, Phil, yeah, yeah. Well, to clarify, I shot him in the head, and then he took that little tumble. How bad is it? Are you an idiot? Teddy Anthony, lamb, I'm going by the more friendly and less formal Tony these days. We're off my contract. No candy. This contract is free Fire, as there are competing parties for one, Theodore, moreto Bob, are we gonna duel to the death? Get me out of here. Always and only about Teddy. Here they come. Let's make a deal. Man, I got a lot of money. There's no deal to be made. Come on, Teddy, you know how this goes. I need to know everything. All you have to do is let me blow his head off when I had the chance. I I'm coming in there, whether you like it or not, yeah, now you see the difference that is a psychopath. You it. Rod and meta score is pretty high on this one. So I was like, okay, cool, like 80s for that, this is available on to be shout TV and for rent, directed by John Carnahan, who directed boss level, truly fun film. The gray, hard to watch, but good and well, NARC, so pretty good pedigree there. Kurt McLeod was one of the writers. His only other credit is a movie called laundry. Joe, Joe. Joe carmahan That sounds familiar. Wrote many of the films he directed, plus Death Wish and bad boys for life. Oh, the new Death Wish. Mark Williams wrote 44 episodes of Ozark. So pretty strong writing pedigree too. And listen to this freaking cast, Gerard Butler, who you might know from plane 300 or the has fallen trilogy, and Frank Grillo, who boss level the gray per the best character in the purge, and Tulsa King, and Alexis louder, who's in violent night, five episodes of Watchmen and the tomorrow war. So three, pretty solid heavy hitters for the main part of this movie. Movie opens with she play Alexis plays a cop, and they're kind of in the middle of nowhere. I'm not sure when this took place or where it took place. I'm sure there's more clues to that, but they seem to be in the middle of nowhere. Then they get to the cop shop, and it's this amazing, three, floor, giant police station with like seven cops in it, but in the middle of nowhere at a food truck, and her boss has just purchased a burger and a gun at the food truck. It's a gun for his daughter, who's turning 21 they get a call to come in to go answer a response to a fight. And wherever this is so far away, by the time they get to the fight, it's dark. It went from bright daylight to dark. So it kind of really messes with your idea of what is going on. It's a fun opening. It's big fight at a wedding and Grillo. Plays a guy who punches her so he can get arrested. It's what it amounts to. And they find out later that he's been shot well, he's before he got arrested. And along comes Butler, who's driving this car that RANS into some other cops that are out on the road, really drunk, and gets him arrested to go to the same cop shop. Do they know each other? Maybe, maybe not. There's kind of a connection, I gotta say, man. Alexis in here too has the screen presence of both of these guys. She is just as fun on screen as either one of those and long listeners of the show will know how much we all love Frank Grillo and yeah, although there's one weird choice made for his character, he has a man bun. Oh, and when he takes it down, his long hair looks terrible. Oh, no, it is. Long hair is not a great look for that guy, at least if it's stringy and greasy looking. Yeah, that's a strange choice, but this is very much a kind of almost like a 70s throwback film where there is a lot of talking, there's a lot of back and forth communicating with the when they put Frankie in jail, they make a point of saying, Well, we were putting you in jail. Well, we never put drunks in the same tank or same jail as sober people. So they put Gerard in another jail cell. So they have to deal with that and introduce what a badass he is by the other drunk guy that's in the cell with him. And then so it's a lot of back and forth until about 40 minutes or less, 40 minutes, half an hour, and then it just goes all out, balls to the wall, action starting a little strange with a new killer coming in that he's good, but he's there with Frank, these other two actors you're like, honestly, it drags a little bit. It's a little it. It works so well. And I think part of the problem is, looking at that director and these cast members, it's hard to expect less than an incredibly fun movie. And overall, it's pretty good, but it's it drags a little bit. I'm interested in trying to see the screenwriter, Curt McCloud, ended up suing the production because he was originally given a budget based salary when the budget was supposed to be 10 million. So it minimum of 75,000 or 125 Max Gerard Butler signed on, and the budget went from 10 million to 43 million. And the he actually ended up losing that lawsuit. It's like because you weren't guaranteed what the budget was going to be, and you signed this, and you had outside counsel present. And then there's the saga with how to attribute the writing, which he did end up still getting full writing credit. Well, co writing credit. Now here's the tough part of this film. It was released with in 3000 theaters and opened with a $2.3 million weekend, the second worst opening all time for a film playing in over 3000 theater Wow. And went on basis of a $43 million budget, made 6.8 million worldwide. No Wow, 6.8 worldwide. This was a massive flop, partially because I don't quite know how this would have been advertised. Yeah, in the especially in 2021 this kind of should have been a Netflix original or an Amazon kind of thing. Okay, but now he's just said that, let's back up and realize that theaters had not bounced quite 2021, so that explains a lot of why it only got 6 million, yeah, but in 3000 theater 6 million still, like, we're open. We got a film. Want to see it? No, okay, yeah, I think it would have been a lot better received pulling into the screening thing that was going on there that that time, yeah, and debuting it like a $20 rental or something for Disney, or whoever was a distributor of it. But it's a fun film worth watching. I wish, I honestly wish. I think part of what it was, I wanted more of the three of them interacting by the time they really solidly, are all three interacting. She's been shot, so she's sort of energy down. I mean, it would have been fun to just let the three of them go, because every one of them has moments where they are just cool as hell. So it's, it's it's good, if you're a jar of. Adler, Frank Grillo or Alexis fan, definitely check it out. Yeah, I like this film, and I cannot disagree with anything you said. It does drag weirdly in some places. For a film that takes place in one location and it's all action and fighting, there were a couple of scenes that I was like, let's move this along, you guys. And it's also a kind of long movie, too, where I thought, you know, let's cut this out completely. I think they almost could have cut out the entire weird subplot of the cop, the twisted cop, yeah, because that made very little sense. Really went nowhere. Didn't do anything, yeah. I wasn't quite sure what the point of it was by the time it was done, yeah. But overall, pretty decent. You can't go wrong watching those three. I'm excited that Frank Grillo werewolf movie is out for rental, so maybe that's what I'm doing tonight. I'll be talking about that next week. Okay, Vanessa, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this, but I had a really good time with this whole episode. So excellent. And it did make me realize there's like, eight Gerard Butler movies that I still need to watch. There are. There's, like, a weird when you look at his back catalog, it's like, Man, I mean, there's a lot of shit in here, but there's like, some cool, fun stuff that, yeah, you know, is on the floor, so yeah, and he's in it, so it should be fun. Yes, okay, that means it's my sub genre pick, and because I like this so much, I'm gonna go back to last week's episode where I saw a cool Schwarzenegger film that when I started looking at stuff, I hadn't seen a bunch of his movies too. So I'm gonna put Schwarzenegger on the table as as our next step genre. He has done a surprising number of when he faded a little bit, he continued to make movies. Yeah, it was crazy, yeah. So that should be fun. Yeah, I will say, let's not do a t2, everybody's seen t2, fair. So, t1, t1, I mean, there's some cool stuff to talk about in that out there, so I'm not gonna get mad at anybody talking about t1 so okay, this means we have come to the point where we are going to say thank you to everybody who's out there donating money. What the heck? On the side note too, I want to give a thank to Ron for the neat little graphics he creates for us every once in a while, like the magic eight ball and all that stuff that those are really, really neat. Yeah, thanks, Ron. Ron puts those on strange eons radio talk page on Facebook, and so you can see those there. And we do appreciate stuff like that a lot. Yeah, very cool. In fact, that magic eight one, the magic eight ball, just says, you know, instead of seems likely, or something like that, it says strange eons, radio on it. And that's my favorite of the ones he's done. Very cool. You can also help out by donating. You can throw checks at us loose change. You can go through your mom's wallet and steal money. It's not the worst idea. You can go on PayPal and do a sustaining donation. If you want to do something like that, you can go on to buy a pizza. Buy us a pizza. Buy coffee, buy wear pizza nuts. Speaking of which, I got a cold, and I think I'm gonna go buy me some really cheap frozen pizza, because that always goes down well when you got a cold. You can also reach out to us on the strange eons radio hotline, which is 253-237-4266, debranzo is everything. All right. Haven't heard from you. Maybe we need his number so somebody doing a wellness check before this one gets edited and posted, he calls. 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