322 1990's SCI-FI!

322 1990's SCI-FI!
The gang discusses the lack of films actually being made in Hollywood before diving into their picks for 1990's sci-fi flicks!
Also Discussed: Locked, Heavier Trip, The Dead Talents Society.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Sword with a sword on the cover and like leather straps. No, thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition. Ah, we have such sights to show you. Strange eons. Welcome to strangeeons radio. That is Eric over there. Hello. That is Vanessa over there. Hello. I am Kelly. Man, it's gonna be a sassy episode. FUCKING kidding. You guys. I was reading this article. We talked a little bit about Seattle, oh yeah, trying to figure out their their film industry here, we've been involved in this, and since the beginning of us doing this, one of the problems is, I mean, I'm not sure where you're going, but just as an overall introduction to the problems of Seattle filmmaking, oh god, there's this group of people that work together, there's this group of people that work together. There's this and sometimes they'll cross over and they'll intersect, but not very often. Dude, this was exactly what I was gonna say, I know, Kelly, you're probably gonna divert here. But when I moved here from the UK in one 2008 I was like, Oh, I'm just hopping from group to group, just seeing what everybody's up to. Like, okay, cool. There's cool cinematographer. Here's good director over there. There's a great sound guy here. And I would jump into a group and be like, Oh yeah, why don't you guys hire so and so they're great at this. And they'd be like, who? And I'm like, they've been working here for like, 1520, years. They were back on the Bill Nye show. I got Bill Nye show guys, why aren't you working with them? They're like, I don't know. We've got our group. I'm like, Are you stupid? Are you just stupid? Just hire this cool person. You should talk to them. Why have you never talked to this other human being before? And it was an endless experience that I was because I don't time myself necessarily to just one, yeah, you know, like I'm, I'm an editor for hire, or, you know, I'm doing whatever I'm doing, trying to find the cool people I need to work with. And it was, it's weird. It's a weird town for that. Well, a lot of the angle I was going to talk about is the fact that Seattle's tax benefits gone from making a movie here are non existent. They don't, yeah, there's pointless why everybody was going up to Vancouver, and technically they're there, but I think it's half a million in money and a half maybe for a feature, and yeah, 30 to 50,000 for a commercial. It's no, it's just, so I was reading this article that was talking about how California is not even getting films made there anymore. So it says here, from the 80s to now, film production has almost entirely left the state of California by 2016 only 12 of the 100 highest grossing films were filmed in California. Wow. California was fourth in film production, the leader in 2016 you guys know Georgia, Georgia. Listen to this before George's 2008 entertainment industry Investment Act. Their entertainment industry was making about 200 million annually. This is before 2008 today. It makes $9.5 billion a year, yep, on their film industry, Yep, yeah. This could have been us. Oh yeah. Oh, easy. It still could, if we got our asses in gear. But for some reason, we don't like money, so that's fine. I don't know if you guys remember, there was a point where I got really close to potentially going out to Georgia. I went out a few times to check out their scene. I knew a lot of people who were on Netflix. Pieces out there visited sets. I mean, every single town, every single street, people like, you know, it's just, it was just broken down, abandoned places, things that were just underserved, underutilized, whatever. And they like, you want to film here, cool. You want to give us a little bit of money? Great. We love that. And all of a sudden, you know, your entire neighborhood becomes the set for Stranger Things, you know, it becomes the set for whatever else people are getting up to. Marvel is building there. You know, you've got Disney putting up huge studios there. Every everybody's showing up. And that entire city became purple because they had such a huge influx of industry. Restaurants appeared out of nowhere, housing appeared out of nowhere, and it just gave such a huge boost the economy. And yeah, it changed the flavor of the place a lot, but at the same time, it felt like what they were changing was a bunch of streets that were covered in kudzu, like they were fully abandoned places. So, yeah. Yeah, it brings a lot of money in. Real quick, real quick, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know why. Super interesting. I wish I knew what our hesitation is. I wish I knew what we were fighting against long ago. I gotta name names because I can't remember. But when Kelly and I were first looking at making movies and we had Sleepless in Seattle, we had assassins, we had a whole little flux of huge things, the Washington State version of the Washington State Film Board, which is completely different now not even associated, instead of marketing to film from top to bottom, they went straight to top. And the problem is, if you're going for Sleepless in Seattle, you know, Tom Hanks, Sylvester, Stallone films, you're needing big money films. And those are rare. You know, you're lucky if your city gets one a year. If you're a big film city, but $2 million films,$20 million films, you could have had, we could add a huge, huge market, I don't know if it's been strong enough to attack what happened in Vancouver, but it would have at least been a starting point to where we had the base. There's a thing called, I think it's called crude depth, or something to that effect, which means, if production comes into a city, they know, I've got six levels of really good fill. I could hire these crew people and they'll be top notch. Seattle has one, yeah, one level, yep. And it's like, it could do more. We could do so much better, but we just gotta, gotta figure out how to then they're trying. There's a few places that are trying to change our tax thing. The other problem with the tax thing is it's not an incentive, it's a refund. You have to spend the money first, yeah, and then you'll get it back, right, which is really hard to fill in a lot of forms, indie Well, if you're an indie film, to raise half a million dollars here is almost impossible. Yeah, I just get really I mean, I have a lot of frustrations with our local scene, but I think one of the hardest things is that we kind of hate ourselves here. Everybody who has managed to raise even a little bit of money, and is getting their way and starting to scrap themselves together. And I've been on a few of these productions, gets no support, gets a lot of people, you know, just being really catty towards them, talking them down, not being available together, pure straight up jealousy. And I remember one of the films I was on, they were like, Yeah, we're trying to get the help from the Seattle, you know, Film Commission, or whatever. We're trying to get this. We're trying that no one's talking to us. Blah, blah. I was like, let me tell you right now, when you guys start getting to festivals, when the film is done, when it starts playing and is streaming, these people are going to show up. Yeah, they're going to show up in force, and they're going to be like, we were so proud of you. We were so glad. We are so excited. They're going to be standing next to you at Sif, and they're going to be patting you on the back. And every time it happens. That's not unique to Seattle. That's the film industry. I don't know it's way worse here, it's way worse here. It's sort of like traffic. Whatever place you live in, it's the worst. You may actually be the worst, but every place, every city that has any level of something, feels that, because when you're looking at anything that's got big money, there's going to be people that are going to show up when the money's already been spent to try to make themselves look better. Yeah. I mean, I've got, like I mentioned the last episode, the crypto con Seattle film festivals Northwest block, which has started that, along with bleeding hands doing some great stuff and going back as starting to bring that together a little bit more. And a lot of cross work, like the death of Snow White movie has people that I don't know, and I'm not saying they met at cryptolon. And say, I don't think, Hey, look at me. But I was like, Oh, this guy who did all these films was his DP, yeah. And this guy who did and this woman who did all these effects works with him too, and all this, there's a great cross pollination going on with that film, yeah. So hopefully, I mean, I feel like the horror scene is like, somehow different. It has a different attitude than, like, the drama scene, or people who get, like viko Morton sent out for one scene, not to name anything in particular, but it just, there's certain films where I just, you just feel this weird underlying vitriol and like I watch these people struggle and just do everything they can. I mean, every large moment. I've been on here, I've made no money. I mean, I've made minimum wage, but, like, close to criminal low amounts of cash and high budget in this area, that's high budget. What you're getting. I'm talking about one to $3 million films that I've been a part of that have been the more successful things that have managed to actually get on. And those are things where, like, I was in a basement. I was in abandoned police station. I was in somebody's house who moved, you know, just like in the corner of their kitchen, working for months at a time, and and those have ended up being the best projects, and the ones that have done them the most out of what what they had. But, yeah, like, just, just really heartbreaking to watch people in the community not band together and not not show up, and also, yeah, money not showing up for the money either. Like, that's, that's pretty rough. So I don't know I I've kind of lost faith in the scene, but I feel like maybe, if anything, genre and horror and people who are outside of the actual like industry structure of it might actually do well, yeah. I mean, we lost faith too. You mean, we had a we had some strange meetings with some strange pitch things that went ways to go and, well, we don't really belong. Let me tell you, yeah, I've been to so many meetings where I'm like, I should not be here. You sure don't want me here. I know you're just patting yourself on the back being like. I took a meeting with this young lady who had a lot of energy, and I got to tell her to fuck off. Glad. I glad I drove all the way here, sir, and bought my own meal. Seattle. Good time. Let's, uh, let's get into some movies we've watched this week because I watched two really good ones. The first one is available on Netflix, and nobody's talking about this. And I can't remember how it got on my radar, but it is called the Dead talents society, and it is a Taiwanese film, and it is a horror comedy. Vanessa, I think you would love this movie. Eric, I know you would love this movie. It is about these it's set in the afterlife, and all of these ghosts, mostly female, are competing as kind of ghost influencers to become like the biggest urban legend. And so they will, they will, you know, they will be haunting their place, and you don't see that there's just a team of people helping them achieve this haunt effect that they're doing. And then, wow, they show these things every year at the awards, and they all vote on who's the best urban legend to come out of this thing. So it's very meta in that, you know, there's these, the throwbacks to the black haired ghosts, you know, crawling out of a television or twisting backwards and crab walking and all of this shit. And it is so fun because it's about a young ghost who has been killed. And there's, there's a ticking time bomb here in that one of her effects from her family, one of her awards that was given to her as a living person. They accidentally misplaced it, and that sets her on us. She's got about 30 days, and she will disappear because nobody will remember her anymore. So she decides she has to become a ghost, which are a haunting ghost, which is how you are able to continue living in the after World. And she's got a team of people who are not the smartest trying to help her achieve this. And it is really, really clever. It's really funny as really kind of heartwarming. A lot of the same energy as was the movie that everybody loved, that I didn't love, one cut of the dead. A lot of that same energy. Just real. Feel good. Oh, cool. And and I just, I ended up, you know, I wasn't crying or anything, but I was, I was emotionally touched by this film. I thought it was really, really neat and unusual. Very original. Wow. So it is called the Dead talents society, and it is on Netflix, incredible. Okay, well, I'll definitely have to hunt that down. Well, I've been going back and watching a lot of Star Trek Next Generation. I think I'm now in season six, so I'm getting there. There is a special kind of joy watching something you've seen 1000 times before with somebody who is not and you see the next episode in the line, and you're like, Oh, are you counting your child as the person who has not seen this? No, my husband, my poor husband, could do the good then another option. Oh, yeah, oh no. Once she's old enough, it's happening. It's definitely happening. But it's so funny because I'm like, oh, oh, it's gonna be that cute episode. Oh. Oh, oh, my God. It's got the flute. Oh, the flute episodes coming out, and every Star Trek nerd out there right now knows what I'm talking about. But yeah, so it's been, it's been really fun. It's, it's getting towards silly land so near the last couple seasons of next gen, it gets fucking weird. I don't know why it gets weird. I don't know why. They take the brakes off, and they're like, old long run shows, man, oh my god. They're like, let's turn, I think, Troy, into a birthday cake and have, like, cut her up. Like, I know that's coming up sometime soon. It's on the horizon. I can see it. So you say you're on episode or season six, yeah. And it's already starting to wind up. I thought this thing went for 15 seasons. No, it only went for seven seasons. Oh, wow, yeah. So, yeah, it's getting towards the end of it. I know that once we get into Dr crusher is doing her grandma's ghost lover, that we're near in the end. So, yeah, like maybe veer off and look, we're gonna stop watching now. We gotta watch this whole thing. You either love it all or you don't. You know, did it get bad at the end? It is weird. It gets really weird. I wouldn't say bad. I think there's a couple bad episodes in there, but it's just because fucking worse. Son is the worst. And every time you see he's gonna be in an episode, you just wanna hang yourself that actor. He never gets better. Same thing for fucking DS nine every time he's in. Doesn't matter that he's a teenager now he's still a piece of shit. Oh my, there are okay children, child actors. Wesley Crusher is not bad compared to some of these kids. But anyway, so it's been a lot of fun. I've been I've been enjoying it. Okay, so I moved into one that, shockingly, I had never seen from the 80s barbarian movement, barbarians. Whoa, the movie with the two weightlifting barbarian twin brothers. Yeah, they actually went by the barbarian twins, right? Yeah, and it's as good as you'd imagine, even with my appreciation of being able to watch Andy Milligan, yeah, some of the other stuff. Al Adamson, it's a rough film. It's sometimes hilarious and fun to watch, but wow, it is. It's Oh, weird. They make this strange little ah noise every once in a while that is, like the emotional cue. Sorry, spoiling the movie for the end, where the group that is looking for them here say, make that weird ass noise. That's that's not a good call there, but it is. It is occasionally a lot of fun to watch. It was not as terrible as I thought it would be, but it's not good. What are you watching that on? It's on em. I think it's prime and it's completely Remastered. Somebody got a hold of it somewhere because it looked fantastic. Wow. What did Marty think of that? Oh, he wasn't watching that one. He is very, very limited in what he watches. I was curious who's in the room with you when you're watching some of this stuff, like, no, just most of them is probably me, barbarians boy. I remember that one. I remember the cover yes or the poster. I don't think I would watch that I I could call, yeah, okay. The other one I watched is brand new and rental, and it is called locked with Bill Skarsgard and Anthony Hopkins. Oh, that's the remake of that movie I talked about on here, four by four. Yeah, and I didn't realize that until the end, when it comes up in the credits, but it's about a small time criminal who breaks into the wrong vehicle, and the vehicle is set up as a trap. Yeah, I saw the trailer for this. Yeah, I can't even tell if it's that good, except that Bill scars guard is excellent, and Anthony Hopkins is excellent, and it's very intense. I mean, I was, I was, you know, because at one point, different from four by four, I'm guessing, which was pretty low budget, right? Pretty low budget. But very well, yeah, at one point, this vehicle takes him on a ride. No, that happened. Oh, okay, and it's, you know, basically being remote controlled and hitting people and stuff like this. Yeah, I don't think he got that elaborate. I seem to remember it driving at some point. Yeah, yeah, he's terrorized. And, you know, it's a, it's a morality tale. You know, if you're a bad person, bad things will happen to you, kind of thing. Anthony Hopkins turns out to not be a very good person in this either, though. So it's available as a rental, and I would say, you. Give it a shot. I I liked it. I just was a little tired at the end. I do want to watch it. I'm really curious. The first one, I thought was excellent. Okay, and when I think about it, it was so oppressive that thinking about that movie just makes me think of being in a locked car when it's 110 degrees outside, and it just feels like a hot space. It's really wild. It's, I really did enjoy the first one. Okay, I want to see this. This one has some really amazing camera movements, because he's in the car and the camera is winding around him the entire time. And you realize, you know, okay, some of these walls don't really exist. Oh, yeah, but it's done beautifully, and in no way did it look like you just kind of realized there's no way this movie could have happened, right? Yes, yeah. It's weird, because it feels like there's a whole string of films kind of in this nature that have come out recently, because there was that William Defoe like he's stealing art and gets locked in some guy's apartment movie that came out like last year, which I did not see, but I know that, like, they control the apartment from within. They know he's in there, and they're like, putting up the heat or making it so he can't eat anything, and doing all kinds of stuff to him too. So that one from many years ago, phone booth was kind of a one too. I have not seen phone booth, but I always meant to get around her locked Excellent. Well, I've been reading quite a few comic books recently. I'm making use of my local library, since the economy is getting weird, so trying to save on some cash, and there's this comic that I recently read called in utero. It's really fascinating sci fi comic that takes place after a strange like nuclear explosion, essentially happens in the middle of Australia, in the middle of a city there, and two monsters crawl out, having like a giant battle with each other. And so the zone has been sort of quarantined off, and it's, I don't know, like 1010, years later or something, and there's still, like bones and weird things that are growing out of there. And there's a kid who gets dropped off at this really cheap ass summer camp that's basically in the zone in an abandoned Mall. But it turns out that also in the abandoned mall are the eggs of one of the creatures. And she gets a psychic communication from a being that's in there, and starts kind of talking to it, and finding out that around the time that her mom gave birth to her, during this big event, at the same time, these two creatures were having a battle, and one of them was pregnant, and the other laid eggs. And it's all about kind of birth and and beings kind of figuring out who they are in the aftermath of war. And anyways, this really cool, weird, fucking weird comic that's a one off, and definitely, highly recommend. It's got a strange art style, very dark. Just a one off, then just a one off. Yeah, it's, but it's like, it's pretty thick, okay, yeah, it's like, a nice, thick novel is a graphic novel, is a indie graphic novel. But, bro, that sounds like that's right up nice. I think you, I think you'd enjoy it a lot, honestly. And it's a pretty quick read it. I read it in maybe a couple hours. So, okay, cool. I watched a sequel. A sequel, you say That's right, to a movie called heavy trip from a few years ago, the movie of a Finland band that's starting up, and they get invited to play in a massive festival, so they have to figure out how to get there. Okay, this is heavier trip. Oh, which is the same band now in prison for what happened in the first movie. Oh, God, this was a, this was not a documentary. No, no, okay, definitely not comedy film. Now, kind of disappointed. Actually, give you an idea of some of the silly comedy level it goes to at times they're, I forgot why they weren't, but they go into this one store that's like a museum of metal, and they said, Whoa, Jimi Hendrix, fire guitar. And it shows her guitar, and the guitar's on fire. They knock over this container when the fight starts, and it's got this little stone hedge on top of it that falls off. It's just full of those little kind of things. But it's they have to, they get invited to play at a large thing because of their reputation from the all the trouble they got in. And they have to escape from prison and go to this festival. And it's a lot of fun. It has the classic storyline of the manager saying the real talent is the singer. So, you know, he tries to separate them and do all that. And it's Finland. I believe it's, it's original look. Uh, country. So it's mixed. It's got a lot of English, but then it also has, you know, subtitled stuff, but a lot of fun. I really liked heavy trip. This came out, um, I think it was arrow or Severan, the heavier trip, going auto, automatic, buying like that. Up. Got it like, two days ago, and watched it almost immediately and did not disappoint. It's sillier, it's stranger, it's everything a sequel to a comedy should be, but really kind of a feel good comedy movie. What kind of music does this band play? The kind of stuff? Steve, Well, it's goes to deep, heavy metal. Craig's music. I was wondering, when you said Finland, if exactly there's even one of the characters is the full corpse makeup. He's the guy who's like, we will not sell out. We only do real music. It's, it's a lot of fun. Really good. So heavier trip is brand new. Heavy trip is available to stream, or probably it came out like 2018 quite a while ago. I think it's almost all the same cast. Again, that sounds fun. Oh, and Baby Metal has a strong part in this movie that familiar with Baby Metal. No, what is Baby Metal? Japanese school girl heavy metal. Very catchy choruses and then give me chocolate. Oh yeah, okay, I've seen, I've seen, I think, a little video that way. Yeah, they have a pretty amusing, prominent role in this film. Well, I gotta, I gotta watch this. Okay, guys, how about we take a little break, and then when we come back, we're gonna be talking about science fiction movies from the from the amazing 1990s love the 90s. Every Blockbuster Video has 1000s of great movies, which means every Blockbuster Video has 1000s of great gifts, plus great new releases like this. Once he was programmed to destroy the future. Now his mission is to protect it. Get down. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator two, Judgment Day, rated R from Carol co home video, this time he's back for good. Blockbuster Video, 1000s of great gifts at great prices for everyone on your list. And we have returned, Eric, this was your sub genre. Yes, yes, it is. I fought long and hard and thought, I'll just do what Kelly did. But 10 years later, the less than stellar decade for sci fi movies, wow, 90s. Yeah, thanks, Eric. You're welcome. You want to start us off then, buddy? I think I found a good one too. Oh, wow. I watched. It really the only requirement we have. 1998 almost the end of The decade, Dark City. I It, which I also rented on Apple, but is available free on canopy, which I found out afterwards, of course, and to rent on several places directed by Alex Proyas, who also directed lots of music videos, which of course, led him to directing the crow and Gods of Egypt. Oh, wow, yeah, and a fair amount of stuff. He's also the writer. He wrote garage days, which I constantly have no idea what that is, and a whole bunch of short also writing. Was LEM Dobbs, who wrote Gotti the limey, which freaking love Kafka and the hard way so. And David S Goyer wrote Man of Steel, the darks, Dark Knight movies, the Call of Duty games and so lot. He has a ton of credits. Oh, also the blade movies, Demonic Toys and the puppet master of 1994 starring Rufus Sewell, who's in old and Gods of Egypt, Knights tale and Hamlet, Kiefer Sutherland, you might know from Metal Gear, solid and The Simpsons, the call of duty, games and corner gas. And Jennifer Connolly, most recently seen at least on the big budget scale, and Top Gun Maverick. She was also in Noah Pollock and phenomena. So pretty, pretty damn good career. Three of these people there. So this is second movie I watched in a row with a sci fi voiceover introduction, but it's Kiefer's voice. So the voice is awesome. His cadence is weird, but it fits the once you know the characters no longer weird. This is a gorgeous film. Holy shit. This is dystopian film. Pick your poison, obviously, Blade Runner and a whole lot of other films, just dark, wet, not quite as futuristic as blade run, not not as futuristic place where it's actually older looking stuff, like 30s, 40s, buildings kind of level, but They still look futuristic and really freaking cool. This man walks it, wakes up in a bathtub with no idea who he is or what is going on, and starts to look around to see if he can figure out the answers to who he is and what's what's going on. Runs into some creepy guys. Well, he doesn't run into him right away, rerun into the creepy guys who are known as the strangers that are looking for him, because they have some questions about his Well, frankly, his existence cut to Jennifer Connelly singing. In the theatrical version, they used other singers voices, but apparently, when it went to home video, the director said, you're using Jennifer's voice, and can she sing? Yeah, she's good. I mean, not great, but it's always nicer if somebody's good enough. I think it's always nicer to hear that person's voice when they're singing all all aside for, you know, Streets of Fire, because that's awesome. So the guy that work up in the tub seems to have some kind of strange powers, where he, when he gets in big trouble, this weird thing comes out of his head like a almost like comic book esque, and attacks things, moves things, messes with the strangers quite thoroughly. The Strangers are, as we find out very quickly, are a giant group of people. They have, they do this choice that always bugs me. In sci fi movies, we'd have to have a kid. No, you don't, because if the kid does something interesting and adds to the story, as opposed to just being a kid, fine, but this kid does not just a kid. Every night, at midnight, the entire world goes to sleep, and the strangers do shit not gonna go too much detail after that, because this is a wonderful film, and if you're a sci fi fan, you haven't seen it, go see it. It's got phenomenal pacing. I'm watching this from man. I don't think I've watched this too long, like 10 minutes, maybe 40 minutes into the movie, and it's just breakneck, solid, easy structure. It's not like a lot of action is going on, but there's just it's something's always going on. The a nice part about this too, is the ending is kind of like. Shit. But much like the sixth sense, re watching, it is rewarding, not discouraging, where you realize, well, they really set that shit up. Well, it's not a cheap surprise. It's built into the story, and it really, really works. Let's see if I got a few things in here. The Matrix said they borrowed heavily from this film, which is really obvious. This movie has the shortest average shot length of any modern film at the time at 1.8 seconds. Wow. That means there's a cut almost every two seconds. Good God, which is probably why the pacing is how it feels. Oh the 90s, but it doesn't feel erratic. It doesn't feel messed up, and I don't sit there going, Oh my God, my God. It it's smooth as hell. So obviously built on sets, but this looked a lot better than the enemy mindsets from the 80s movie. There's a few computer effects, like little early for that. I think you should have built that creature. But the one final weird note, the American heavy metal band Iced Earth wrote a song titled dark cities, based directly on this film, and I like this one. It stood up almost better for me than the first time I watched it. I haven't seen this since it came out, and I remember liking it. And then I think I tried to watch it maybe 15 years ago, and for some reason, I didn't make it through it. So maybe I need to give this another try. Yeah, I think I watched it a couple years ago, and I remember at first being like, Man, I got to get my head in here. But I feel like, once you click in and you're willing to go for the ride, then it definitely works. It's kind of like Brazil in that way. It's like, oh, we're in a Gilead. Okay, all right. It's fine. It's great. It's brilliant. Definitely that kind of a film where, if you go with it, you're great. And I could see, if it did not catch you, it is going to be vicious to watch. It is just that world. Yeah, 100% did you? You said you had to rent it? Yeah? This one was, this is a film you love. You don't own this. I do storage right now. And I was under the gun a little bit, and it was like a two or $3 rentals, okay? I feel, yeah, I was real disappointed, too, because I'm going, Oh, cool. There's a part of the reason. I thought I'm gonna use this as an excuse to maybe buy a new version, because arrows coming out with an updated multi box set in like July. Maybe I'll get it. Maybe I won't, but multi box set, dang box. I'm gonna have to get that. That sounds cool. Vanessa, you want to go next? Sure? Why not? All right, so I went with 1999 movie Wing Commander March 15 Earth year, 2454 Earth defenses are threatened. Message from Health Command, they don't believe they can withstand a kill Rathi battle group without the support of the fleet. This tactical schematic outlines a nightmare. We need to buy our future, and only a team of young fighter pilots stands between Earth and destruction. Lieutenant JG, Christopher Blair, reporting for duty, sir Todd maniac, Marshall, it's your service. Mail this hand in, Commander Deborah, your wing. Commander, in those kids hands now, all right, ladies, let's do it. You In all likelihood, you're going to die out here. We're all going to die out here, but none of us need to be reminded of that. Fact, this is your own COVID fire. You if you endanger another pilot, you're dead. Emotion gets in the way commander. Emotion is what separates us from the correct I don't think I can. I don't have the faith. It's not faith. Let's make our miracle. We commander Whoo. I. I had not seen this. Just for you to hold to this guys a YouTube rental. You can't get it any other way, so I gave money to YouTube. That was a new process. This had a budget of 25 to 720. 7 million. Box office, 11 point 6 million. Wow, yep. Directed and written by Chris Roberts, who only has 13 credits to his name. He's mostly a producer, but I'll get more into his background in a bit, starring Freddie Prinze Jr, 61 credits. Scooby Doo I Know What You Did Last Summer, Star Wars, rebels, 24 and one of the best movies, or at least one of the best scenes in cinematic history. She's all that the poetry, hacky sax scene is one of my favorite things on planet Earth. Matthew Lillard, 175 credits, including screen hackers, Scooby Doo as well, and Twin Peaks and a great guy. Well, yeah, he's a cool guy. He just wasn't nice to me. Saffron burrow, 76 credits, including you, Mozart in the jungle, Deep Blue Sea and chat skirt. Cario, 142 credits, bad boys, the Patriot la FEM, Nikita the core and David Suchet, 119 credits, you would know him as Poirot. But in 2654 a weight war rages between the Terran Confederation and the Kilrathi Empire, the cat like kalrathy seek to eradicate the human race. A massive Kilrathi Armada attacks a Pegasus station and captures the nav computer, which is used to locate Earth. The admiral, a Admiral, I guess, recalls the Terran fleet to defend Earth, but it will arrive two hours too late before the Kilrathi get there and kill everybody. They contact a ship out in the vicinity carrying two new pilots on their way to a fighter ship called the tiger claw, and send a message to that when they arrive at the tiger claw, they need to basically go and fight a suicidal mission to delay the attack in order for the fleet to get there in time. The two pilots on their way to there are two young guys, Blair, a pilot with crazy navigational abilities and a descendant from the pilgrim race, who have a special ability that allows them to out math computers, dude and Todd Marshall, a cocky, fun Buddy Guy, when they arrive, they have to convince the crew of the mission, then they have to convince them of their worth, then the women of their coolness. And then eventually, they have to fight a bunch of the kilrothy in various situations and try and help keep the human race alive. This has some truly bad CGI, the ships, the asteroid textures, the cat enemies look like ass. It is bad, and it's also, unfortunately, even worse, mostly pretty boring. It has some incredibly clunky acting. I think there's some cool ideas in here, overall, but the execution is just poor across the board. It's also just got this constant, weird, inflated drama and boring, hard sci fi military behind it. I do think like this, the suits and the sets are good looking. I think that those are great, but it just is not enough that all the ideas are not handled well. Nothing lands. Feel free to skip this movie trivia. This is one of only three films that was released with the theatrical trailer for Star Wars Episode One, Phantom Menace in 1999 many people paid admission to see the trailer then walked out after good idea, guys wow in the interview, in an interview, Freddie Prinze Jr discussed his hatred for Wing Commander, stating, I can't stand a Wing Commander. I can't watch one scene of that movie. I read the script. I loved it. So did my buddy Matthew Lillard. We got to the we both got the parts. We went to the location. They said, here's the new script, and it was a piece of shit. The voice of Blair's fighters on board computer Merlin is listed as question mark in the credits. It is Mark Hamill who previously played Blair in the computer game series. Chris Roberts, the director. This was his directorial debut. He had created the five Wing Commander games that had preceded it. The film was rushed into production as Fox wanted Wing Commander delivered by november of 1998 so that they could release it before Star Wars Phantom Menace came out in 1999 they gave Chris Roberts only three months of pre production, rather than the six to nine months required for PrEP, especially for something this visually VFX heavy, Chris Roberts felt that the Original Screenplay by Kevin droney was revised, which was revised by Roberts and Larry Wilson, while not a masterpiece, was better than what they ended up being filmed, but the changes they were requested by the producer, Todd Moyer ultimately led to the script quality worsening with each rewrite. That's impressive. My. Favorite piece of trivia is that in the DVD, insert the page. So close, so close. In the DVD, insert the page, listing actor, character, bios, next to Chesky carriers, bio is actually a picture of you're gone, perch, perched now, just a different Russian actor. So anyway, yeah, I got him proc now. Thank you. From in the mouth of madness, yeah, okay, so why? Why'd you pick this look? I had a list, and I was I really wanted to do Moon 44 because I have it. I bought it not that long ago on DVD, and I could not find it. I have everything because of our big pipe issue and our downstairs, everything's in piles. And I was looking for piles, looking for piles, and looking for piles. And I was like, I'll do something else. Cool. I haven't seen Wing Commander. It was like, one of three on my list. And then I was like, as the only one I can find for rental streaming. So went with it. Reach out to me. Sometimes, if you're unsure, I'll be like, Oh, definitely water. Do week. That's the problem. Usually, you guys are pretty good at being like, Oh, really, really. And I'll be like, Oh, I have chosen poorly. Well, you so frequently are so close. This one was really close, because with everything going on this week, I did not make it closer. It was, it was too close to really get you guys to change my mind on it, but wow, it is a stinker of a movie. Now I've seen it though. You know what? I don't have to have that on my list ever in the future. No question marks here. Yeah, but that's that is a wonderfully positive. Really good costumes, guys. Seriously, every time they panned out and I saw the costumes, I was like, wow, those are some good decisions. Are there? I applaud y'all. Okay, well, fun. Five minutes on for myself, and I am talking about straight in the middle of the decade 1995 screamers. You a world overlooked and long forgotten by those who settled it for commander Joseph A Hendrickson, it is worse than hell. It is home. Wow. What are they? There is a new terror in their midst. Call it a screamer. Was developed for us by Alliance on Earth to neutralize the war on the ground here, how do you know it's dead? They yank this brain out. Pretty smart, maybe too smart. This one seems to modify itself. It was designed to protect them from their enemies, until it turned in sights on them. Finally, a lie no one knows they make themselves. Now I heard the screaming, and then it got very quiet. Nothing said, the smell of death. Shark, we got a new kind of screamer. Seems like a person. What are they supposed to look like? Oh, you mean, who are they supposed to look like? They're smarter. Now, that's how they get into our bunkers. Once it gets inside, that's when the killing starts. Now, the only way to tell man, he's one of them from the sheep. Is by the sound of their screen, things ain't what they used to be. Directed by Christian Dugway, who has 39 credits, including the art of war right above, and scanners two and scanners three, written by Dan O'Bannon, who you would know from Blue thunder, Return of the Living Dead, dead and buried life force, Invaders from Mars, Total Recall, also written by Miguel trajada Flores, who should sound kind of familiar. He wrote Revenge of the Nerds, Fright Night Two and Frankenstein's army, and based on a short story by Philip K Dick. Of course, we wrote Blade Runner man the High Castle and Minority Report. Those short stories were turned into big films, starting Peter Weller, of unknown origin The Adventures of Bucha Ruby in the eighth dimension, Robocop Leviathan and Naked Lunch. And also on This is Roy Dupuy, who was in something called entangle bleeders and the rocket. And Jennifer Rubin, you would know her from. Ma such other episodes as the crush bad dreams. She is the hot goth chick from Nightmare on Elm Street The Dream Warriors. Have you guys seen screamers? No, this was a first time viewing for me. The movie starts with a shitload of narrative exposition that talks about how Earth has colonized many other planets by the year 2078 which is not that far away. We are on a planet called Sirius 6b which is a ravaged desert planet thanks to our careless mining of its resources and possibly a nuclear war, unclear. There was also a civil war on this planet, and 1000s of civilians died during it, and only a handful of survivors live there now. So we open on a few miners who are playing some kind of game for cigarettes, and an alarm is suddenly raised because there's someone on the surface of the planet stumbling towards their underground base. This is obviously a very unusual event for them. It looks like the person is carrying something, a delivery of some kind. But just then the sand underneath him starts to move as if there were something burrowing towards him, and then suddenly several somethings are burrowing towards him, and these are screamers, AI protector robots. We are performed, I guess, and they will attack anything that doesn't have a wristband that hides their heartbeat. So they attack this messenger and cut his arms and legs off. Oh, pretty fun. Enter Captain Joe Henderson, leader of the mining base. He's not sure what was so important that this messenger died to bring it to them, but they retrieved the cylinder the man was carrying, and it turns out to have a message from Richard Cooper, a commander of the opposing army, to Joe, asking for peace negotiation. And there's also a detailed map of the opposing army's fortress to kind of prove that this is not a trick. I guess. I don't know. This is a confusing movie. There's also a subplot of a commercial transport sending an emergency request to land on the planet, even though they are billions of miles from any commercial transport lanes, I'll be honest, I can't figure out what the fuck this ship was supposed to be doing. It crashes and everyone is killed, except for one soldier, and the screamers show up and make off with the dead bodies. For some reason, anyway, the captain and this soldier decided they're gonna make the perilous trek to the enemy fortress and see if this is legit. So they don all of their product protective wear, including red cigarettes that keep their lungs free of radiation and the wristbands that fool the screamers. So I'm in a way, they run into a small child with a teddy bear that has somehow survived all the screamers and wants to come with them. He's been living in the rooms and surviving on scraps after his parents were killed in the war. That night, they are attacked by a screamer. Because the soldier, this new soldier, didn't know he had to actually be wearing the bracelet to fool the screamers. He thought he could just have it like next to his body. They managed to destroy the Screamer before it can kill anyone, though, and the three of them continue their trek. When they finally make it to the other fortress, one of the soldiers there immediately blows the kid away, and we find out he was a robot. The screamers have evolved somehow, and now they are making new screamers in the form of killer robotic children. And I was like, fuck yeah. Why didn't Cyberdyne and Skynet. Think of this. Why would you make your Terminator look like a huge, scary man instead of a defenseless of a child? So from here, the movie drags along until it finally gets halfway decent again at the end, as it becomes a story of paranoia and wondering who you know is actually human and who might be one of the new screamers. So I didn't love this movie, but I didn't hate it. It had a good beginning, a decent ending, and a real fucking second act problem. The screamer effects, when you finally see them, are stop motion, and that's very fun, even though the spaceship effects are really garbage, CGI effects and Peter Weller is good a little bit of trivia in the original short story by Philip K Dick, the plot takes place on earth instead of Sirius 6b And originally, the screamers were developed by American troops hiding in the moon to destroy the Russian army after the Soviet Union had completely wiped out the United States. This is already a more interesting story, and it could have been the exact same thing. I don't know why it had taken place on a distant planet. Early versions of the screenplay were titled claw in reference to the villainous robots, which are called claws in the original Philip K Dick short story, second variety. At one point, Hendrickson refers to someone sarcastically as a real perky Pat. I guess this is a reference to the short story, the days of perky Pat, and the novel The three stigmata of Palmer eldritch, both of were written by Philip K Dick. This is just a personal note. The film takes place in 2078 which only leaves us 50 years to not only. Colonized several other planets, but colonize them so thoroughly that 1000s of people can be killed in a civil war on one of them, you gotta go. Why not just set it on Earth? So this is probably on to be or something like that. I can't remember what I gotta say. The effects are quite poor. The acting by everyone is a little higher than it had to be, and the second act just fucking is a snooze fest, so, but I loved the idea of the children and spoiler, because I don't want anyone to watch this. But fast forward to the end, where suddenly they are being attacked by a horde of robot children, all carrying teddy bears. That's extremely good. So that was fun. I like that. Vanessa, so I'm not sure what we're doing here. We might be doing a live show of crypto con right now, or we might be doing your next pick. So what is your next pick? Well, my next pick, I mean, I'm gonna get real crazy here, guys and say the early aughts sci fi. Yeah, anything from 2000 to 2009 I was trying to remember. I was like, Wait, 2099 No, wait, hold, that doesn't work at all. You know that the first decade 2000 I have faith, I have faith it's gonna get better, because there's no way that the I love sci fi for a reason. There must be something. It can't just be that we went from 70s to never again. So some point, they did all right. They did all right, all right. I like this idea. This is fun. This is a nice break from all the horror. Yeah, yeah. 2000s sci fi. Here we come. That means that right now, this is the part where we say thanks to everybody out there who's liking and sharing all of our posts, who's reaching out to us, either through youtube comments or the strange hands radio talk page on Facebook or any of that stuff, but especially if you are donating money to the cause. Yeah. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. Yeah, little bit of money put some wind in the sails of this pirate ship, and helps pay for all this crazy equipment, you see, and this new little TV equipment. Oh yeah, we've got new microphones we're using for our live show like cryptocon, that are just these. Thank you. Pre serve to use those. We probably shouldn't have said anything until we actually hear what that live show sounds like afterwards. You kept the receipt, right? Eric, another way to reach out to us is how, Vanessa, you can go ahead and give us a call or a text on the strange eons radio hotline, that number is 25323742662532374266, go ahead and ping us. Call us drunk, dial us sober. Dialysis, sleepy, dialysis, awake. Dialects, any kind of dialysis we are trying to hear from you. Text all the same style too, any, any of those states of mind, just go ahead and reach out. We'd love to hear from you guys. Just set up a memory. I remember getting a drunk email from an ex girlfriend many years ago, and she passed out in the middle of the evening, and it was like she was saying something. Then the G just and then I was like, she hits. Then did she wake up to go? I reached out to her and said, Everything okay. And the next morning, she was like, Oh my god. So please, if you're out there and you want to send us a drunk text, we would love that. Maybe great by all means. All right, guys, that's it for this week. We will be back in seven short days, and we are talking 2000s sci fi movies till 2009 to 2000 to 2000 sci fi, the title will look much better in print. See you next Thursday, transportation and other considerations for strange eons, radio produced by Pan Am airlines. When you think of traveling, think of Pan Am. You can't beat the experience. Guests of strange eons radio stay at econo lodge Everett. It's an easy stop on the road. You know opening strange eons radio is recorded live in front of a studio audience. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a positive review on your favorite podcast. Sit Ubu. Sit trying to find the cool people I need to work with.