Producer Eddie from the Bobby Bones Show Stops by to Discuss ‘Rope’ (1948) and His Love of Classic Movies + Movie Review Double Feature! No Hard Feelings + Astroid City

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike, and today I'm bringing in my friend, producer Eddie from The Bobby Bone Show, and we're breaking down a movie from nineteen forty eight called Rope. We'll tell you exactly why we both watched this movie. I'll also share with you my top five Alfred Hitchcock movies of all time. And then I'm hitting you with a double feature movie review. I want to talk about Jennifer Lawrence and No Hard Feelings. Did it live up to my expectations of wanting it to be a revival of the two thousands raunchy comedy? And then I got to talk about Wes Anderson's Asteroid City. Did I love it? Because he's one of my favorite directors. So we'll do a double feature movie review instead of the Trailer Park this week because there are so many movies and I just got to talk about all of them. So thank you for being subscribed, thank you for listening every single week. Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie Crew. And now let's talk movies.

00:00:49
Speaker 2: In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast, a man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like.

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Speaker 3: A walking IMTB. What's glasses?

00:01:06
Speaker 4: From the Nashville Podcast Network. This is Movie Mike Movie Podcast. All right, I'm in studio now with Eddie.

00:01:13
Speaker 2: How are you?

00:01:14
Speaker 3: I'm good, Mike E.

00:01:15
Speaker 4: This is like the exit interview from the Bobby Bone Show. Movie Club.

00:01:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, but look, here's the deal. I'm a little butt hurt about this. You have never asked me to be on your podcast, and I love movies.

00:01:26
Speaker 4: You have been on the podcast when we talked about love Amba.

00:01:29
Speaker 3: Okay, that's true. All yeah, you know what, I'm no longer about her.

00:01:32
Speaker 4: You're returning.

00:01:33
Speaker 3: I'm back. We're good.

00:01:34
Speaker 4: So we have this cinema club going on.

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Speaker 1: We're all watching a movie that we draw out of a hat and we come on and review it, and now we're gonna talk about it because I ended up really liking this movie. And the movie is called Rope. It came out in nineteen forty eight from Alfred Hitchcock. I want to start first before we get into We're gonna go full spoiler.

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Speaker 4: On this because it's an old movie.

00:01:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, come on, does you really matter.

00:01:55
Speaker 1: But if for some reason you still want to go and watch this movie, we'll just get into a little bit what it's about and why you pick this movie.

00:02:02
Speaker 4: So that's the first question, Why did you pick this movie?

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Speaker 5: This was a movie that well, see, first off, all the old movies. I love old movies, black and white movies, nineteen not nine.

00:02:11
Speaker 1: Is that I love old movies, but you specifically go to Turner Classic Movies and just watch movies.

00:02:17
Speaker 3: I think it goes back to my childhood there.

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Speaker 5: I have a memory, and I don't know whose house it was or where we were, but my parents had they went to a party and they took all us kids with them.

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Speaker 3: I played with all these kids that I don't remember their names.

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Speaker 5: And then to the end of the night, my dad would like get drunk with whoever was there, and they'd keep drinking beer, and I would like doze off in the living room, and I'll never forget in this house they had an old black and white movie and I was like, this is really whatever movie.

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Speaker 3: This is never seen before in my life. It's kind of cool.

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Speaker 5: But the sound of their voices, the crackling of the film, you know, all that stuff, and I slowly went to bed, and I remember like that feeling so well, and that's kind of how it started. So now I'm at home, I'm getting kind of sleep. Let me put on an old movie. I'll watch it for about fifteen minutes and slowly doze off. And so that's just But sometimes, Mike, when the movie's really really good, I don't sleep and I'm like, I end up watching the entire thing. I'm like, this movie's really good. And Rope was one of those.

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Speaker 1: I definitely feel that going into watching this movie, I didn't want to go into thinking I'm not gonna like this. Yeah, but I just didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did.

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Speaker 5: Well, I knew you would like it because you're such a film guy, and this is next level film love, right, Like Rope, Alfred Hitchcock in general, it's not just a film that you watch or a movie and you're like, that's pretty good. There's so much to it, the writing, the build up, his cameos. Like in every one of Alfred Hitchcock's movies he does a cameo. He's in it somewhere, and that's kind of cool to watch and see if you can find him.

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Speaker 3: Did you know this?

00:03:46
Speaker 4: I did not know that.

00:03:46
Speaker 5: Okay, so you should watch Rope again and try to find him.

00:03:49
Speaker 1: So he is in this movie, yes, all right, Now I have to go watch it, and I'm not gonna tell you guys where he is.

00:03:54
Speaker 5: And I'm not one hundred percent sure I know he's in one for sure, but I think there are two spots in the movies where he has a cameo.

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Speaker 4: Interesting.

00:04:02
Speaker 1: I could maybe think of places I could possibly go back and to try and find.

00:04:06
Speaker 3: It, or just watch the whole movie again.

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Speaker 1: But the movie is about these two guys and they decide to kill again. It's weird, and that's how it starts. That's what I loved about to me, right at the very beginning. It gets right to it. They kill the guy, and the entire thing is they want to get away with the perfect crime, so they hide him in the apartment and then have a dinner party.

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Speaker 5: It's like so bizarre that you think, like this is this doesn't happen, Like why would two dudes kill a friend of theirs and then invite their relatives and their friends to have a dinner party. Because if you notice, they go to the dinner party and they're just like what's this party about.

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Speaker 3: Everyone that's invited is like what are we doing here?

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Speaker 5: And the guy's like, Hey, we're just celebrating, you know, like I have found some books and we're like celebrating some stuff.

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Speaker 3: And they're just like, Okay, that's kind of weird.

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Speaker 5: But no one suspects of anything except they're waiting for so instead of show up.

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Speaker 4: Now, we'll get into full of spoilers here.

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Speaker 1: Basically, one guy feels bad about it and is struggling with what he just did, and the other guy's like, hey, this is fine, Like killing someone is a privilege. And I think that's what I really enjoyed about what this movie explored was their whole thing of like, certain people should be allowed to kill people that weird.

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Speaker 4: It should be like this special.

00:05:16
Speaker 1: Privilege that only the most elite should be able to get away with this.

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Speaker 3: Like it's not a bad thing, yeah, murder and get away with it.

00:05:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: And I thought that was like I've never really thought about it like that, and it leads you down this hole of just name, maybe some people should be allowed to kill.

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Speaker 5: And even the way that when the professor's talking about murder, can the camera kind of goes to you know, the main character and his eyes are just like excited, like yeah, he's talking about me, Like I just I just murdered someone, and he's talking about me. I'm superior to all these other people and the victim, I mean, they deserved it. Yeah, you know, so I love that kind of stuff, where like it just zooms into his face and he has this look on his face of just pure joy that I just killed someone. It's crazy, dude, And think of nineteen forty eight.

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Speaker 3: This was wacky.

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Speaker 1: I can only imagine. I like, if I went to a theater in nineteen forty eight watches movie, my mind.

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Speaker 4: Would be blown.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And a couple of things happen in this movie that are my just favorite things in movies. One of them is a movie that takes place primarily in one location because of the performances that the actors have to put on to make that captivating.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, and on top of that, I think, don't quote me, but I think there's a total of ten shots in the movie. It's hard. That's kind of fun too, to kind of see where the edits are.

00:06:27
Speaker 4: That's what I'm watching the whole time.

00:06:29
Speaker 3: You go.

00:06:29
Speaker 1: Mainly they use, they suzume the camera into somebody's bag and then they do.

00:06:33
Speaker 4: That's like such an ultiicle thing.

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Speaker 1: Like if you took any kind of film class in like high school or college, that's the thing they kind of teach you.

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Speaker 5: But they taught you that because Hitchcock did that for the first time, and that was to show that or to give you the idea that it was all shot at one exact moment and no breaks, no edits. But I think that they did that in ten days, like really, so every time there's a cut, that was a rap for the day, and the next day they would pick it up wherever they left off.

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Speaker 1: And what it kind of gives the movie a feeling of It feels like a play.

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Speaker 4: It feels like the entire thing is alive.

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Speaker 1: It's all happening in the moment because it's just going from scene to scene, you go to room to room, and it kind of personifies the room. It also becomes this living and breathing thing because this is where everything's going down. The reason they have to be in one room and not the other is very important throughout the entire movie. So that is one of my favorite things. When it all takes place in one location because it has to make it amplifies everything else. But also the fact that movies that take place in one day. I just love that idea. Barispieler's day Off, Yeah, Friday, Friday, movies that just training day, very beginning of the day and you just run this course with these characters.

00:07:35
Speaker 4: I just love that too, because kind of the same thing. You have to have such great writing for a movie to work in one day.

00:07:42
Speaker 3: Did you like the writing in this movie?

00:07:43
Speaker 5: Did you like the way they talked, which is, you know, it's hard, we don't talk like that.

00:07:47
Speaker 1: But I love it though, because it transports you back into the forties and I just start thinking of, like what was life like then, and it gives you a peek into just all the things that they find important and the way they kind of interact with each other.

00:07:59
Speaker 4: And it didn't feel like as data is.

00:08:00
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be nineteen forty It seems like so long ago, But when you see it in this movie, it doesn't really feel as far off as I was expecting. I was Gonnacay, like, ah shit, see yah.

00:08:11
Speaker 5: But see then you'll see another movie in nineteen forty five and it's totally. Ah, why I ought to, you know, And so that's weird like that.

00:08:19
Speaker 4: That's why I feel like this movie was kind of ahead of its day.

00:08:22
Speaker 5: Oh I think that was Alfred Hitchcock, like with all his movies. It was just so next level that people were just like, that's what they That's why they gravitated to it, because it was so different for that time.

00:08:32
Speaker 1: Those are the two aspects that really drew me in, and just from the very start of it, I was like, I'm all in, Like I thought I was gonna get sleepy or bored. It's also a very quick movie, an hour in twenty minute. I love that waste no time. So that's my third favorite thing, movies that are under ninety minutes.

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Speaker 5: That was cool and what like I said, if I don't know a lot of people that watch, they are going to want to go back and watch it again. But when you watch it again, you start seeing different things. It's really cool to see it is like I read about since they're doing that. In one take, there were wires everywhere in chords and people were tripping. I heard one of the camera men got his foot ran over by the trolley the camera stand and apparently it's in the movie somewhere where it bumps and so like you see the camera bump a little bit while they're moving, and that's where the.

00:09:15
Speaker 3: Dude broke his leg.

00:09:16
Speaker 4: That makes sense. I heard it, guy, go.

00:09:19
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:09:20
Speaker 5: And then there's another spot too, where somebody knocks a glass over and it was gonna break, but one of the State, one of the Grip guys caught it before it broke. Because it was all so quick moving, it was like, all right, they're moving to the right. Everything starts shifting to the right. Even the detail of the sun setting in the window. You see the colors of like it kind of slowly setting, which is crazy, man, Like nineteen forty eight, they're having to like recreate the hues of the sun in one take.

00:09:47
Speaker 1: I also thought the acting was surprisingly really good in this movie.

00:09:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:09:51
Speaker 1: I think it's because I have like this fascination with like old school movie stars of like people who are famous back in the day and their name is on the you know, on the movie poster and we're gonna go see the new picture from like I have a fascination with that, and just thinking like how well they did in this movie. I can only imagine like the level of stardom that they were out when this movie came out.

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Speaker 3: I mean, Jimmy Stewart was like an uber movie star.

00:10:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, like one of the best.

00:10:17
Speaker 5: Like one of the biggest names in Hollywood, and he's in this film and do it not and playing a part that he normally doesn't play.

00:10:25
Speaker 3: So think about that.

00:10:26
Speaker 5: That's like Tom Hanks Forrest Gump being a murderer in a movie, you know something. We're like, oh, he's usually this like good old guy, like, hey, I'm gonna go see the world.

00:10:34
Speaker 3: Yeah two, like you killed so much murder, murder, you know. So that was pretty interesting too.

00:10:41
Speaker 1: And what this movie did really well was build that tension because they're trying to keep this a secret, even though they invited everybody here and the.

00:10:48
Speaker 4: Dead body is there.

00:10:49
Speaker 1: But it builds the tension because you're wondering, Oh, who's gonna find out, how are they gonna find out?

00:10:53
Speaker 4: How are they going to sleep up? Are they going to open the box?

00:10:56
Speaker 5: Literally, when I was watching it with my wife and she saw at the first time too, but I guess like it had been a few years since you'd seen it, and we're watching it, and when they go to the chest and they're about to open it. She's like, oh, like you know what's in there, but she's sighed really big.

00:11:12
Speaker 1: And I think that's part of like the way we get introduced to this movie as the viewer, Like we know the whole time that that dead person is.

00:11:20
Speaker 4: In that thing.

00:11:21
Speaker 3: It's like you and them too know and you're in on it. That's it.

00:11:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like, Oh, I committed murder too, you feel bad about it.

00:11:28
Speaker 4: I'm going down. I'm going down.

00:11:30
Speaker 3: Do you like how they keep showing the rope too?

00:11:32
Speaker 5: Like I like that part where it's like that you see the rope in these scenes, like in the first part where you see it hanging from the chest and I'm like, oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, they left the rope there like somebody. And then they finally catch Oh the ropes there. Okay, great, And then he sees it on the books.

00:11:46
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I love the reference to At the beginning, he's like, what are you gonna do with it?

00:11:51
Speaker 4: We'll just put it in here. It's just rope.

00:11:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just rope put in the kitchen.

00:11:54
Speaker 1: By the end of this movie, I was like, I can't believe I haven't seen this yet, and I also can't believe that it hasn't been remade yet. Yeah, because the story is at the core of it is so great. And I think the issue people will have watching this movie, which we heard on the show the negative reviews.

00:12:11
Speaker 4: A lot of listeners watched it too. He's they're not liking it.

00:12:14
Speaker 5: Let me tell you, Like everyone on the show, they're like, uh, negative reviews. But when I went when we went to break and I heard everyone talking about the movie in the hallway, like they were all talking about what about that part?

00:12:24
Speaker 3: Oh, that part was so stupid?

00:12:26
Speaker 5: Oh, but that part was funny, Because that's what's so cool about it, is like, yeah, you it's nineteen forty eight. You're not gonna love it. You're not gonna give it five stars. You and I, yeah, because we love films. But a normal movie viewer is going to be like, why am I watching a movie from nineteen forty This is so dumb. But they loved the concept of it, and that's the sign of a great movie.

00:12:43
Speaker 3: That's all right.

00:12:44
Speaker 1: If this movie came out right now with this concept you heard that, you would want to go watch it immediately.

00:12:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I feel like if it were.

00:12:49
Speaker 1: To be remade now, some few changes make it a little bit more modern, I think it.

00:12:54
Speaker 3: Would you still shoot it in one place?

00:12:56
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I think I shooting in one place.

00:12:58
Speaker 1: And I mean even now, movies that like nineteen seventeen was made to be shown like it was all one continuous shot, I think you can do it a lot more smoothly now.

00:13:08
Speaker 4: You don't have to do all the whole into the back.

00:13:10
Speaker 1: You can find different ways to make it feel like it's one continuous shot. I think that would really make it a novel movie now. But if you take it out of the forties and put it into now, I feel like everybody would love it.

00:13:20
Speaker 3: What director would you hire to do this movie?

00:13:22
Speaker 4: Jordan Peele?

00:13:23
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I think it would do so his style completely. That is who I was imagining the entire time. Like, if Jordan Peele took the same concept, he wouldn't make this movie amazing.

00:13:32
Speaker 3: That'd be really cool, So I think.

00:13:33
Speaker 4: He would be the one to do it.

00:13:35
Speaker 1: But now, after watching this easily entered my top five Alfred Hitchcock movies.

00:13:40
Speaker 3: Okay, skim let me hear your time.

00:13:41
Speaker 1: I would probably put this one at number four because at number five.

00:13:44
Speaker 4: I would put north By Northwest amazing. I think Rope.

00:13:47
Speaker 1: I ended up liking it more at number so I put Rope at four. I put the Birds at three. Birds is so good. I'd put Rear Window at two.

00:13:55
Speaker 3: What's the plot of Rear Window?

00:13:57
Speaker 1: So it's also Jimmy Stewart and it's whenever he suspects a neighbor of murder and he's just watching them from his house with the binoculars.

00:14:06
Speaker 5: I've for sure seen that, but I'm sure you've seen it. It's been a bit so I'm riding that down.

00:14:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's in a wheelchair and you're just firing on his neighbor.

00:14:12
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:14:13
Speaker 1: And then at number one is Psycho. Yeah, that's the best one. That's the first one I ever watched.

00:14:17
Speaker 3: Have you seen Verdigo?

00:14:18
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:14:18
Speaker 1: I would probably put that top ten. It's been a while since I've seen that one though, Okay, but that's my top five.

00:14:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, and those are like the big ones, right, like Birds, Psycho, north By Northwest, but no one talks about Rope.

00:14:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:14:31
Speaker 1: That's why I was like, ever I've ever seen it, and now looking at him like, dang, one of my favorites.

00:14:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, theude Alberad Hitchcock was like you know, you hear the name or whatever, but it was like truly a groundbreaking director.

00:14:42
Speaker 1: And he was the director that before Alfred Hitchcock, all movies were just shown continuously in movie theater. Yeah, you would go to a theater and they'd just be playing movie and you'd come in and watch him. He was the one that said no, like this movie has to be shown. You have to be there at the beginning to get the entire thing. Yeah, he is the one who started showtimes and that is why theaters are the way they are now.

00:15:01
Speaker 3: That's crazy.

00:15:01
Speaker 1: Otherwise, if we just walk it in halfway through in the vEDS, we like what the hell is going on exactly?

00:15:06
Speaker 3: But Mike, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

00:15:08
Speaker 4: I loved it. Great pick.

00:15:09
Speaker 1: I'm now going to go deep dive into any other Alfred Hitchcock movies I haven't seen. Yeah, So if there's any you know that you've watched and you think I should watch.

00:15:17
Speaker 5: I think the main ones that you've mentioned are the ones that I've seen. Honestly, what I'd like to do is I like to see kind of So if you go like on, if you have Hulu turn her classic movies on there, but they have like if it's played within that month, they have all the movies that they've played, so like there's a list of maybe one hundred and fifty movies, and so what I like to do is just kind of go down the list and kind of see, like, oh have I seen that? Then I'll read the synopsis I have never seen that, or like nineteen forties nore is my favorite, which is like crime black and white, Crime, that's my favorite. So I'll try to go through those first. But Alfred Hitchcock, if it's in there and it shows it's an Alfred Hitchcock movie, I'm watching that one hundred percent.

00:15:56
Speaker 4: Yeah me too.

00:15:57
Speaker 3: Now, yeah, dude, it's best.

00:15:58
Speaker 1: I would say, what do you have to promote now, but you're not on any other podcast, so we just promote you as the person on.

00:16:04
Speaker 3: The Bobby Bone.

00:16:06
Speaker 4: Hey, listen to Bobby Bone Show, all right, Monday to Friday. Producer Ready, Yeah, all right, thanks.

00:16:11
Speaker 3: Dude, all righty, thank you.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into our first spoiler free review of the episode. I want to start with Jennifer Lawrence and no hard feelings. I was excited going into this movie because by the looks of the trailer, it looked like it was going to be very reminiscent of early two thousands raunchy comedy, and I have been on the quest for a new original comedy that isn't a part of any franchise. It isn't a revival or a sequel, which I feel like that's really the only things people get excited about now, and I just wanted to go watch a new original story with Jennifer Lawrence, who hasn't done a comedy ever in her career, which is surprising to me because I feel like she is a very funny person in her interviews, but has not done a full on comm so I think it's an interesting time for this movie to come out for her career. But what this movie is about. Her character is named Maddie. She is on the verge of losing her childhood home and she has a job working as a bartender and also a job working as an uber driver, and the movie starts out with her car getting repossessed. She's lived in this small beach town her entire life, and now a great part of her income has to do with the people who come and visit during the summer, but since she doesn't have a car, she is not able to make any money driving for Uber, and she is running out of time because she owes all this money in taxes on her house. So now she's out of a car, her home is about to get repossessed. She needs to find a way to make money, and then it gets really ridiculous really quickly. But I like the commitment to it because her friends stumble on this Craigslist ad. It's from these parents of a nineteen year old who is very socially awkward. Basically he's a huge nerd, which I highly related to that part of it, and he hasn't really had any luck with girls or really meeting any friends. So they want to hire somebody to date him, really date him, if you know what I'm saying. Given this as a R rated, raunchy comedy in order to give him some experience going into college so he doesn't get eaten alive. Really, they are very just helicopter over protective parents, and they are also very wealthy, so they have a lot of money. So you learn about this character, Percy, who's nineteen years old and has had everything in life, kind of handed to him and controlled by his parents, and that is where we find our characters. They set up this plan for Jennifer Lawrence's character to go and meet him at this animal shelter where he volunteers, with the idea of just being they'll go on one day, they'll hook up, and then she'll get her car.

00:18:46
Speaker 4: But obviously it's.

00:18:47
Speaker 3: An entire thing.

00:18:48
Speaker 1: When they start forming a relationship, they start hanging out more, but really the underlying reason that she doesn't want him to find out she's only hanging out with them because she wants that car in order to be able to save her house. So, as far as crude rom coms go, I felt like this one did a pretty good job. I just think it's kind of hard to market a comedy in twenty twenty three, so I can't ignore the fact that the concept is really ridiculous.

00:19:15
Speaker 4: Almost dumb really if you think about it.

00:19:17
Speaker 1: So it's not something you need to go into and think, oh man, this is going to be side splitting funny. I don't really think comedies are that anymore. I don't really think you will feel that by watching a comedy movie unless you are still in your early developmental stages. And after watching this movie, I realized that some of the most formative comedies were in my early years when I was a preteen teenager. That is when I found movies like this to be the most funny. So I don't even think it's now that comedies aren't funny anymore or it's just not the way it used to be. I think we just all got older, and this movie made me realize that in many ways. So I actually think if I had watched this movie in like six grade, it would have been one of my favorite movies because it had exactly all the things I was looking for.

00:20:07
Speaker 4: So watching this.

00:20:08
Speaker 1: Movie it did make me feel nostalgic in a way of with such a big A list star like Jennifer Lawrence, who has really impeccable comedic timing and delivery. But not only that, is you realize how good of an actor she is because there are moments in this movie where it gets a little bit more emotional. Her character actually has some pretty good character development throughout the entire movie. It starts out with her really being kind of ruthless and mean, and over the tomp and over the time of hanging out with Percy, she softens up just a little bit here, a little bit there, more and more throughout the entire movie, and you start to care more about her as a person. So I think that actually took some real acting ability. So as ridiculous as it is, as dumb as some of the jokes are and some of the physical comedy aspect, there is some real talent there that kind of brings it all together. So if you watch this movie and maybe in the first twenty minutes you don't think it's that funny, no, that it goes on this entire journey that ends up really paying off in the end. And I credit that so much to Jennifer Lawrence, who I feel like really carried this movie and she brought a lot to the table. And then you also have Percy, who is played by Andrew bart Feldman, who is really charming in his own way. And what I really enjoyed that they did is they didn't really just always make fun of the fact that he is a nerd, And as a fellow nerd, I respected that because you could easily just make this like, ah, look at this idiot. He's such a loser. He's never been with the girl. He spends all of his time in his room, and you could have really played to all of the nerd stereotypes, all of the nerd cliches, and really just made him a laughing stock. But I feel like they did a pretty good job at giving Percy some real good qualities.

00:21:50
Speaker 4: And even though he hasn't.

00:21:51
Speaker 1: Really flourished, he is a late bloomer, he's not really seen as a loser. It really just showed how misunderstood he is. And also, it's not so much his problem. It's the fact that he has these really overbearing, protective parents who have tried to control every aspect of his life. And underneath all that, there is something inside of him that wants to flourish and wants to be a normal person and have friends, but it's almost been suppressed by this little bubble that his parents have put him in. So it really isn't his fault that he is as big of a nerd as he is. And when he is able to show his true self and open up to other people, he shows that he has a lot to offer. He just needed someone to really break him out of his shell. And that is what Jennifer Lawrence does in this movie. In a really, really ridiculous way. So overall I thought their character development and their chemistry was really good throughout the entire movie. Was it side splitting funny? Nah, it was a little bit more slapstick than I was expecting, And I would say some aspects of Jennifer Lawrence's character didn't really add up. And then she also did a few out of pocket things that I felt they wrote in for the sake of them being more comedic, but they didn't really add up to her character. And in a way, this movie made me feel old for the first time watching a comedy like this. Final watch this movie ten years ago, I would have related so much with Percy's character. I was probably in a similar position when I was just graduating high school going into college that he was in this movie, But instead I found myself identifying more with Jennifer Lawrence's character. I went to go see this movie on my birthday when I turned thirty two years old, and Jennifer Lawrence's character makes a reference to being thirty two years old and what she experiences in the movie going to hang around Percy's pears, who are all ten years younger than her, making fun of her for being.

00:23:44
Speaker 4: A quote unquote old lady.

00:23:46
Speaker 1: It really for the first time made me think, oh, man, I have shifted a generation, and I'm now identifying with the older character in a movie. So I felt old in the sense that I had shifted perspective. It kind of reminded me also when I went to go see The Little Mermaid and I not only saw it from the Little Mermaid's point of view, but also her parents' point of view, which I feel like a lot of people had that shift being a fan of the original movie and then going to rewatch the remake. So maybe it's just a rite of passage that you start identifying with the older characters and the older generations and movies. My real beef with this movie is that it kind of fell apart in the third act. I feel like they almost wrote themselves into a corner and thought, Okay, how are we going to get out of this, How we're going to wrap this up. I didn't really think we would get this far, but now we have to bring this story on home. And again I don't want to spoil the ending, but some of the actions and reactions didn't really end up at the end. I didn't really have that good feeling once this movie was finally over that I thought it was going to leave me with. But I did enjoy the fact that it was only an hour forty five minutes, so by the time it was actually over, even though I wasn't completely satisfied, I felt like it didn't waste any more time than it needed to. So overall, this movie did decent at the box office. I don't really think a movie like this is gonna be a blockbuster like it was ten years ago. When comedies can still pull in those kind of numbers. I think that is kind of going away now. I do think this movie will have a second life once it goes out onto streaming services and people give it a chance then, which I've seen with rom comms, which I've seen with comedies. But I almost credit that to the marketing, because it's hard to sell something as this is gonna.

00:25:24
Speaker 4: Be so funny and hilarious.

00:25:26
Speaker 1: You build it up in your mind and then you go watch it, and if you don't leave in stitches, you think that was a waste of time.

00:25:32
Speaker 4: I'm gonna rate that poorly.

00:25:34
Speaker 1: I would say overall, it's a fun movie, not the funniest movie I've seen in the last five years, but I did enjoy their commitment to having a good number of jokes throughout the entire movie, combined with physical comedy and also having a little bit of an emotional aspect. But I just think the overall premise of this movie is pretty ridiculous and kind of a hard sell. And when you get into all the dynamics of the deception that his parents did and how weird this would be if it actually happened in real life, you get into this whole other conversation of why does this movie even exist right now? So you have to go into it with pretty low expectations, have an open mind, and just want to watch something completely dumb and mindless. And the other thing that I felt like was the kiss of death and the marketing of this movie. They did a thing that I tell you guys to look out for. If ever a movie uses Twitter reviews to sell it, that's a bad sign. That is the kiss of death to movies to me. Whenever they just start pulling out tweets of random reviews that make the movie look so much better than it actually is. That's telling you something, because obviously this is a movie that critics are gonna rip to shreds. If you don't go into it wanting to have a good time, you're gonna have a bad time. So did it revive the two thousand's raunchy comedy. Not quite, but I think it is a step in the right direction. I think if more movies can pull in an A list star like Jennifer Lawrence, who has some really great commedy timing but also acting ability, I think we could have one. It is still possible, and that's what this movie proved to me, even though it didn't get it completely right. So for no hard feelings, I give it three out of five Craigslist ads. I'm going to get into another movie review. It is a movie Mike double feature. Like if you would go to a drive through movie and get not only one, but two movies for the price of one.

00:27:26
Speaker 4: That is what's happening right now.

00:27:27
Speaker 1: Another movie review for you, because there's so many movies to review right now. I thrive in the summer, so I actually watch these movies both on the same weekend. But now I want to get into my review of Asteroids City, one of my most anticipated movies of the summer, because for me, Wes Anderson is a top five director, but I get that he is not for everybody, and his movies have such a unique style, such a unique tone, cinematography, dialogue, that I can see why you either love or or hate his work. It is just always spoke to me from his very first early movies. He had my heart at Bottle Rocket, and I'll go into every West Anderson movie now feeling like it is an event. And that's where I want to start when talking about Asteroid City. What the movie is about the way the movie is described anyway in its tagline is world changing events spectacularly disrupt the itinerary of a Junior Stark Aser slash Space Cadet convention in an American desert town circa nineteen fifty five. That is essentially what this movie is about. You have Jason Schwarzman character who is a dad with his son and three daughters. They break down in this small, little desert town called Asteroid City. So you have all the other really smart kids, their parents, and the people who live and work in the town. All the events connect back and to the characters being there for that convention. But of course, in true Wes Anderson fashion, it also pulls back from that and you learn other things about what's going on with these characters, and really it's almost like a play coming to life. And there's a very meta, overarching theme and overarching message that this movie was trying to make. But really, for me, I just love the story that carried out in Asteroid City and every time it was there, and the colors were so vibrant and rich, and all the camera shots and positions were just perfect.

00:29:17
Speaker 3: To me.

00:29:18
Speaker 1: Aesthetically, this movie was exactly what I needed in my life right now. It is the best looking Wes Anderson movie he has ever done. And when I say going to a Wes Anderson movie, to me feels like an event. That is exactly the experience I had. So I went to go watch this movie at the Bellcourt in Nashville, which is a historic theater that has been here for almost one hundred years, and I'm so glad I went to see it there, picking it over my normal regal theater because it felt like going to a concert. I think Wes Anderson is a type of director to have a really passionate fan base, and this movie was never going to be one that was going to dominate at the box office. Despite Tom Hanks Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Jason Schwartzman and all these other ales actors inside of this movie. That's just not exactly how this movie is going to perform. It doesn't have the same kind of marketing. It's a very niche audience going into it, So in no world was this movie expected to make a lot of money. But the crazy thing is he has such a passionate fan base that this entire theater was sold out. I've never seen a movie completely sold out where there was a butt in every single seat in the.

00:30:30
Speaker 4: Theater and the lobby was alive with people buzzing talking about the movie.

00:30:36
Speaker 1: Explaining Wes Anderson to maybe somebody who got Druggle along to this movie and didn't know what to expect, which is exactly what the situation I was in. Because Kelsey really isn't a big fan of wes Anderson's work. She thought she really wasn't gonna enjoy this movie, but ended up really liking it. So I think if you haven't been into his work before, if there were any movie.

00:30:57
Speaker 4: To really get you into it, it would be the one.

00:31:00
Speaker 1: Because there are even some of his movies that I don't fully enjoy I was coming off of rewatching a lot of them, and I rewatched The French Dispatch, and I still don't really get that movie. It was hard for me to stomach that a second time. So even for me being as big of a fan of his that I am, I still think at times he can be hit or miss when things get too meta and maybe a little bit too arsy Farsi for even my taste. But I don't really think that was the case with Asteroids City. There are some elements of that where it kind of pulls back the curtain so it's like a play inside of a movie. But I really enjoyed that aspect of it, and I feel like, unlike some of his other movies, it was really it was a lot easier to pay attention to all of the changes and figure out exactly what he was trying to say and exactly what was going on in the entire movie. Sometimes even myself, I get a little bit lost. So overall, I still feel like his movies are a bit of an acquired taste. It's like drinking coffee or beer for the first time. You're probably gonna hate it upon that first sip, but take another chug, take another swig, and eventually I think it'll grow on you, and if it doesn't, probably just not for you whatsoever.

00:32:10
Speaker 4: And that's fine.

00:32:11
Speaker 1: But what I really love about Wes Anderson is his attention to detail and filmmaking. In twenty twenty three, I feel like some things are a bit of an afterthought when it comes to soundtrack, when it comes to visual effects, really when it comes to just cinematography and framing the movie in a way to give it a distinct style, I feel like sometimes those things just kind of go out the window and people are just trying to crank out movies, get them in theaters and make money. But with every single scene, every single shot, I feel like there's intention to give you something on the screen that you haven't seen before or from an entirely different perspective. And that is what I love, and you guys know I talk about it all the time. I love color palettes in a movie. One of my favorite things to do in my free time is to study scenes and just look at the different color palettes used and the decisions to pick these certain colors to invoke different emotions in the audience. I just love that, and every single detail in The color in this movie was magnificent, and I love that he committed to this saturation look to give it a very fifties old school retro vibe, and it just kept my eye on the screen the entire time. I also love the wardrobe in this movie, which is another really great thing about Wes Anderson movies, so much so that I dressed up going to this movie, and I normally go as comfortable as possible to the movies, but again, I felt like this was an event, like I was going to a concert, so I wore close to this movie that I would where if I was ever cast in a Wes Anderson film. So you have his attention to detail everything from whenever Jason Schwartzman and Tom Hanks are having a conversation on the phone, that their audio is panned from left to right, so say, Jason Schwartzman's character is on the left side of the screen, Tom Hanks's character is on the right side of the split screen. Their dialogue matches up, so in the theater you will hear Jason Schwartzman's audio only coming in on the left speakers and Tom Hanks's audio will only come in on the right speakers. I don't really think I've seen that utilized in a movie before. I know I've heard it like on albums and records, but never before in movie dialogue.

00:34:21
Speaker 4: I thought that was a really good touch.

00:34:23
Speaker 1: This movie had so many great performances of people who get his quirky style and quirky delivery in lines, but hands down, Scarlett Johansson for me, stole the show. I really loved the dynamic between her and Jason Schwarzman's character in this movie, who he's been in basically every single Wes Anderson movie. And although this isn't a straight ahead comedy, I don't think any Wes Anderson movie I would really say, oh, it's gonna make it laugh. But there are some funny moments. There was even a movie quote that I remember and still say after watching this movie, and it makes me laugh.

00:34:54
Speaker 4: Thanks a lot, Ricky.

00:34:55
Speaker 1: There's also another moment where a character asked them to dare him to climb a I thought that was funny too, So again, it's not really trying to be funny. It's more quirky than it is just straight on in comedy. But what added to the comedic nature of this movie was seeing it in a sold out theater, and I think the reason I had such a great experience with this movie is because I saw it with a lot of like minded people who are all there wanting to have a good time. And I think that really adds to the charm of this movie. When you see other people laughing at things and reacting to things, it makes you want to pay attention more because you want that feeling. So this is definitely a movie that needs to be seen with people. I think if I watched this movie alone on first watch, I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much. So there are some movies that I say require the big screen because of the visual aspect, because of the action that some movies like the Mission Impossible movie coming out this month, I think that is going to require the big screen for a different reason. Same thing with Oppenheimer, same thing with Barbie, or really any more of a movie. But the reason and I feel that Asteroid City demands an in theater experience is because I think movies like this are much better when they are experienced with other people. So say, even if you just go watch this movie with your best friend or family, or you just go to a busier showtime. I think that will greatly add to you enjoying all the aspects that Asteroid City has to offer. I don't think everyone will love or quote unquote get this movie, but I just think it is a fantastic film. I'm so far into enjoying this movie that, for the first time ever, I saw it out listening to a movie soundtrack. This entire week, I've been listening to the Asteroid City soundtrack. Some of my favorite tracks used in the movie was the Last Train to San Fernando by Johnny Duncan and.

00:36:46
Speaker 4: The Bluegrass Boys.

00:36:47
Speaker 1: I also love a song called Eider Read by Bob Willis and his Texas Playboys, or another song called Jingle Jangle by Tex Ritter. This movie kind of had a setting of an old school fifties Western, and these songs specifically just really said it in that time.

00:37:02
Speaker 4: Specifically with setting.

00:37:03
Speaker 1: The tone at the very beginning of the movie in that opening sequence, I thought was another great visual treat. So I think it was the fact that I had really high expectations going into this movie. Mainly I just didn't want it to suck because I was so excited for it. I'd been hyping it up so much in my head. Just a couple weeks before this, I actually met Tom Hanks, and everything about the movie, from the poster to the trailer, to the actors to the director is everything I look for in a movie. I would easily put this into my top five Wes Anderson movies.

00:37:34
Speaker 4: In that list.

00:37:35
Speaker 1: At number five would be Bottle Rocket, the movie that started it all. That movie will always just have a special place in my heart. With Wes Anderson getting his start in Texas, which is where I am from, and Bottle Rocket being placed and filmed in North Texas, which is where I grew up.

00:37:49
Speaker 4: I will just always love Bottle Rocket.

00:37:51
Speaker 1: And him working with Luke and Owen Wilson, which surprisingly they weren't an Asteroid City, but they've been in a lot of Wes Anderson movies. At number four, that's where I would put Asteroid City. Then at number three, I would put The Royal Tenenbombs. At number two, I would put Fantastic Mister Fox, And depending on the day you asked me, that could easily be my number one because I feel that Wes Anderson's style really does well with animation. I also love the message of that movie. Mister Fox struggling with being poor and being outcasts, of living underground and just wanting to give his family a better life. But at number one, I would put the Grand Budapest Hotel. It has his signature style, but I feel out of any movie. So when you have the style, when you have the cast, and then his most memorable story to date, that is easily going to be my number one. But with it living up to my expectations and making its way into my top five Wes Anderson movies of all time. For Astoid City, I give it four out of five UFOs and that's gonna do it. For another episode here of the podcast. Before I go, I gotta get my listeners shout out of the week, and this week it is going out to Ricky Douglass on Twitter, who is the only person who noticed I didn't have a secret emoji last week. Because every time I do an interview here on the podcast, I always give you a secret emoji to go and comment on that week's video.

00:39:12
Speaker 4: Last week, I didn't do it.

00:39:13
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure if you were paying attention, Ricky Douglas, you were the only one who caught on, and you are this week's listener shout out of the week. So now the secret emoji is if you want to go back a couple on my feed and comment on that video or comment on that TikTok, use the zombie emoji. Hope you enjoyed this week's episode and until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later