Mount Rushmore of Marvel Heroes and Villains + Movie Review: Deadpool and Wolverine + Trailer Park: Cuckoo

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike. It has been a great summer. But what makes us summer better A big Marvel release. That's what we're talking about all episode long. I'm going to give you my mount rushmore of Marvel villains, heroes, female characters. We're talking MCU today because in the movie review we have Dead Poll and Wolverine. Is it worth your money? And where does it fit? Inside the MCU in the trailer park, we're talking about a new horror mystery coming out next week starring Hunter Schaeffer. It's called Cuckoo. It looks great, big year for horror. Thank you for being here. I said horror, not the other word horror. Rhr. I don't like saying scary movie anyway. Thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning movie crew. This episode is going to be unhinged. If that intro is indication enough a movie crew, let's get into it. Let's talk movies.

00:00:54
Speaker 2: In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infols rate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTB with glasses from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is movie Mikes, movie podcasts.

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Speaker 1: I can't tell I am firing on all cylinders. I just had my coffee. There goes to can Here we go. Let's talk about Marvel, one of my favorite genres of movies to talk about. For the longest amount of time, superhero movies were my number one go to genre. Probably a big reason why I do this podcast was because of the MCU's run from twenty and eight to twenty nineteen. I've been there, standing by its side all along the way, seen every Marvel movie multiple times. For most of them. We'll get into the ones I've only seen once, and I'll let you know exactly why. But in celebration of Deadpool and Wolverine, I wanted to talk about my Mount Rushmoores inside the MCU. So let's kick off first. Because there have been now thirty three Marvel movies prior to Deadpool and Wolverine, which makes it thirty four. But I'm only pulling from the thirty three to talk about this Mount rushmore because I can include something so fresh and brand new, because recency bias, and also because every time a new Marvel movie comes out, with a few exceptions, it always just happens to be my favorite. Because I'm writing off of that excitement, I always have to give it a little bit before I start talking about my favorite one. So I'm not including that one whatsoever. But from the thirty three movies, and I'm also gonna include the ten series on Disney Plus because those are also cannon to the MCU. None of the Fox stuff counts, nothing that came out before two thousand and eighths. Iron Man will be on this list. First, I'm gonna give you my mount rushmore of MCU hero, So the first face I have to carve in, without a doubt, it only felt fitting that this would be the first character we break stone with, So here we go. Oh yeah, Number one. It has to be iron Man because in two thousand and eight kicked off the entire MCU. If this movie would have failed, if iron Man wouldn't have been so dominant in this one, then all the other movies that followed it just wouldn't have had a lect to stand on. But not only because of that first movie. It's because of Ironman's presence in every single MCU movie. He was the poster child. Robert Downey Junior was essentially the face and the mascot of the MCU, which it needed. It needed that person to rely on. He was so influential in all the Avengers movies, and then eventually, whenever they brought Spider Man into the mix, you had to have Tony Stark in the movie almost for the movie to be as successful. If you look at some of the other ones that are looked at some of the weak points in the MCU early in those days, what are they missing? They are missing Robert Downey Junior. And even the worst iron Man movie, iron Man three, isn't closed of being one of the worst Marvel movies of all time. So all those things considered, I have to put iron Man as that first head on my mount Rushmore of MCU heroes as that second head, I'm putting Tom Holland Spider Man. Obviously I have some Spider Man bias here, but I think Tom Holland as Spider Man was the breath of fresh air the MCU needed when he debuted in Civil War. It was such a huge moment that first time his character came on to screen, and I think he brought back that youthful energy into the Avengers, and it was so important moving forward to have that. Without him, I feel like the tone of the MCU would have greatly suffered and maybe fizzled out by the time we got to Infinity War and Endgame. So it was also a thing that I was not expecting to see because of the rights of Spider Man being split between Sony and then Disney coming in and making a big deal for him, and I just didn't think I would see Tom Holland Spider Man in that movie and then also get his own solo films, which are all fantastic. And once he debuted, I think he went up there into the number two on the ranking. It was Iron Man and Spider Man, in my opinion, as the best heroes in the MCU. Once he debuted, everybody else was still there. Arguably Captain America would be rivaling Spider Man for that too, but I still think he falls down too. With three. Then you drop Thor in there, and Black Panther would probably follow behind that. And not only that, we still have more to come. They are talking about right now, the future of Tom Holland to Spider Man. Hopefully we get a Spider Man four in my lifetime. If I had to guess, I would have to say twenty twenty six, oh at the earliest, and that hurts me. Most likely twenty twenty seven, but Spider Man would be there at that. Number two head on my Mount rushmoreber heroes in the MCU, and number three. This one's gonna be controversial. I love this character in the MCU has their own solo film that came out very early on that most people hate. But in that third slot, I'm going with Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, that two thousand and eight movie with Edward Norton. I don't understand why people hate that movie so much. Maybe it's because they got the motion captured down better once Mark Ruffalo was around. Maybe the overall story didn't really play too much into the world they decided to create. I will agree the tone is so much different. I loved Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. I thought he brought an entirely different side out of it. There's no comedy whatsoever in that movie. There's a love story y at the basis of it. Abomination is a great villain. I don't understand why so many people have a problem with this, often citing that first Incredible Hulk movie is one of the worst MCU movies. If you say that you're you're wrong, You're wrong. I still love it, and aside from that, I still also love Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Did the character get a little bit cartoony and wacky towards the end of it with Smart Hulk, Yeah, a little bit. But what I love about the Hulk is he's used very sparingly. He is like the Kramer from Seinfeld. In the MCU. He barges in he wrex house and then he leaves, much like Kramer would just bust open through the door, say something wacky, come out with some crazy plan, and then he'd be gone. He really wouldn't have any episodes where he would be the main focus or the continuing storyline. He was just used a like Bam, there's Kramer does something hilarious and then he goes away. Same with The Incredible Hulk. Most of the time it is Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner in plain clothes, but then when the Hulk comes out, he is there to play. Especially in the first Avengers movie, but also in Age of Vultron Infinity War, Hulk really shines all the way up until Endgame, which he has I would say his weakest performance out of all the MCU movies, but still great. I have to put Hulk up there as my third slot on my Mount Rushmore at number four. This one I thought pretty hard and long about. I'm putting Rocket Raccoon in that fourth slot because out of anybody in the MCU, I think he has the best hero journey. And I've said this about spider Man, but when I say Spider Man has the best hero journey, I'm talking about Tobey maguire. I think the Spider Man story in the MCU is a little bit fragmented, and a lot of it is a result of the things that happen in the other Marvel movies, in particular the aftermath of Endgame, and a lot of his story is tied to Iron Man, which is great for the MCU, but as far as just my Spider Man fixed, I don't go to the MCU for story. I go to it for more of the spectacle. So that's why I say he doesn't have the best hero journey in the MCU. It is Rocket Raccoon, who does if you look at Guardians of the Galaxy one, two, and three, it is the most complete character development that fills all of the gaps in my soul. He goes from being so ruthless and unable to tame, wanting to work with no one, hating everybody, having this rage, to then discovering this family among the Guardians of the Galaxy, and then being introduced to the other Avengers and kind of warming himself up to those people, but still being very guarded and really only being all about his family, to having this incredible backstory and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three that shows you an entirely different side of him, And the fact that that movie shows his origin story and all the things he went through why he hates this villain so much, and why he has this rage inside of him, and to see everything that his character goes through in that film is just incredible to me. So I think out of any character in the MCU, he is the most well rounded, also probably the most unorthodox. And then you have Bradley Cooper doing the voice of him, who does an amazing job where if you didn't know it was Bradley Cooper maybe you couldn't really pick out his voice, and that is the sign of a great voice acting performance. So that is my mount rushbore of MCU heroes, Iron Man, Spider Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Rocket Raccoon. Chisel it in, guys, kind of a weak chisel? Was that? Even rock? I think that was ice. Can we get some more chisel? Here we go, chisel it up. All right, Let's do my mount rushmore. Let's do villains before we do female heroes. That first head has to go to Thanos. Yeah, hammer in Thanos. Without Thanos, the Infinity Saga would not have worked. He is that driving force. He is that villain that seems unbeatable, like he says, he is inevitable. He is the villain that the MCU needed, which for a majority of the Infinity Saga, the biggest complaint that people had about Marvel was saying that it had a villain problem. They were so forgettable that they would come into a movie and then be gone and not be a threat whatsoever. Thanos changed all that, and I love the fact that he was teased all the way from the beginning in Phase one. Eventually gonna get to Thanos. There's eventually gonna be Thanos, and then once he was there, he was a force to be reckoned with. Josh Brolin did such a great job being such a menacing character. I Lovetdanos so much that at one point, before I got my Spider Man tattoo, I was considering getting a Thanos tattoo before I had any other Marvel hero, because I feel like he had that much impact on the MCU so easily as the first villain on my Mount Rushmore, in the MCU, it has to go to Thanos chiselom in. Yeah, there we go. As we're working on that, let's go through some more of these villains and that too. Slot I'm going with Loki, And like I was saying, the MCU had a problem there with not having memorable villains up until the first Avengers, which Loki. It's hard to look back on that now because of the TV show and of Loki's journey throughout the MCU, how he shifted not really being a villain anymore. But in that first Avengers movie he was so sneaky and slimy, and you really got to know Loki in his truest form, just like he was in the comic books. Being so mischievous and all the twist and turns that happened in that first one where he looked like they were not going to be able to defeat him, and his plan just kept snowballing on all of the Avengers. And it took me a long time to not see Tom Hidleston only as Loki because he plays them so well. But I loved his costume, I loved his performance. I loved how much he rivaled the Avengers in that two slot on the Villains Mount Rushmore, I'm going with Loki as the third head going over to Wakanda. It has to go to Killmonger along those same lines of Loki being such a menacing threat. Right after him is kill Monger and Michael B. Jordan was just made to play such a great villain, which is odd because he is so likable in all of his other movies. But once he has the hair, once he has the markings on his body, I completely forget all that because he is such a good villain. And that is a hard thing to do to go from playing such likable characters, from probably just being a likable person in real life to flipping a switch and becoming one of the most ruthless villains in the MCU, murdering people in cold blood, becoming a thief, and doing all these heinous things in the MCU that up until that point we really hadn't seen. A lot of the villains were more space based and odd creatures, but kill Monger is a very down to earth character, and his first appearance on screen in Black Panther is one of my most memorable introductions of a villain in the MCU. In that third slot, I'm going with Killmonger, and as my fourth head, my last villain pick is going to Green Goblin from No Way Home, Willem Dafoe, who has such an expressive face he can easily turn into looking like a maniac. And another instance that I thought this would never happen because he came from being the villain in my favorite Spider Man movie of all time with Toby maguire, the original Spider Man, and came back in this movie and I would say quite possibly gave a better performance. And I know he wasn't on screen as much as he was in that movie. There were a lot of callbacks to that performance, so obviously this one wouldn't stand alone without that movie. But maybe it's also because in those almost twenty years he became a better actor. I just think if you sit down and look at the work of Willem Dafoe, who really is a very versatile actor, I would have to put Green Goblin as one of the roles that he was meant to play. There is nobody else I feel could really bring a life to this role, and you think about how important his character was in no way home, very significant and then led to one of my favorite villain fights out of any Marvel movie. I just think Green Goblin as a represents everything Spider Man is trying to fight, and it's his biggest villain in my opinion, because how close he is to him and in no way Holmes case what it would mean to defeat him. He also just looks fantastic. So if I'm looking at this Mount Rushmore from an aesthetic perspective, I'm putting him not as Willem Dafoe's face, but the actual Green Goblin head. I just think that would look good in Stones. So my MCU villain Mount Rushmore is made up of Thanos Loki, Killmonger and Green Goblin Chisel It in boys, is that a chisel or is that duct tape chisel? It in boys? Here we go. All right, let's go over now to my mount rushmore of female heroes. This one was still pretty easy to make. But when you look at all the characters in the MCU, not as many female characters. And I think a lot of these heroes here should have got a movie way earlier on. But it is what it is. Right in my number one slot, it goes to Wanda. And I was saying this back when Age of Ultron came out, that Wanda was a really good character and really going to show her dominance later along the line in all of these movies. So I was a believer of her in that movie, even though she did come out of that weird accent. But not only in the Avengers films, and I'll even take her in Multiverse of Madness. But WandaVision, the TV show is in the MCU, and I believe is the best Marvel series to ever be made. I love that they never try to follow it up with another season of that show. It is perfect in every way, and that series proved to me that a Marvel character could work in episodes and you could flesh them out and it doesn't always have to be in a two hour movie. I love the amount of time you get to know her character and the fact that all those episodes had a different feel, representing different decades of television. So I think that was one of the most creative projects to come out of the MCU. But when you look at her character and how powerful she is, I think she is one of the most powerful Avengers. Maybe when you just look at powers alone, the only person who could rival her is another female hero, Captain Marvel, because she has the ability to cripple any of these superheroes. So I think her powers would probably showcase more on WandaVision than they were in the movies. But she easily goes up there in my number one slot Chiseller in Boys, Yeah, all right, in that number two head, I'm going with Black Widow because she is a constant throughout all of the MCU, going back to the first Avengers movie and how just effortlessly she took out villains in that opening scene when you first see her, and how good she is at her job. Everybody needs a Black Widow on their team, whether you're working in an office, whether you're working out on an oil rig whether you have a lawn service, I don't care what industry you're in. You need a Black Widow on your team who is so reliable, so good at their job, can work circles around anybody. The Avengers or she's just sitting there, looks like she's been captured by these people, but really she is playing them all to get all of their secrets and all of the information she needs to know out of them, knowing that at any point she can break out of that rope and beat everybody's face into the ground. So we all need somebody like Black Widow who is at an elite level of their job and always in control of every situation. That is what I took away from her character, because she doesn't really have superpowers. Aside from the fact that she has such a skilled assassin, has also been through some really traumatic things in her childhood that fuel her. So it's not like she's bulletproof, it's not like she can fly. She is just b a to the core. Everybody should be more like Black wid except everybody should be more like Black Widow, except for the killing part. Don't kill people, Never kill people. I'm not encouraging that, but in a fictional world where it's only bad guys. Yes, be more like her. In my third head position, I'm going with Gomora, and Gomora is somebody who really grew on me through all of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and she also has one of the most gut wrenching moments out of any MCU movie coming to us in Infinity War and again looking at this Mount Rushmore. Aesthetically, she has such a distinct look. Shout out to Zola's Eldona for going through an extensive makeup purpose for all of our entertainment. I mean, she's still made millions in the process. I think she's also in Avatar in so many billion dollar movies. I think she set for life, so she earned her key. But I guess by doing that, so I won't thank her too much. But Todilla, it seems like torture to be in makeup for that long. In that third slot, I'm going with Gomora from Guardians of the Galaxy. In that fourth slot, I don't think if it wouldn't have been for the passing of Chadwick Boseman, that she would have entered into this Mount Rushmore. But because of that and her really stepping up in Wakanda Forever. In that fourth slot, I'm going with Shury because, don't get me wrong, she was great in the first Black Panther movie, but rising to the occasion and Black Panther Waconda Forever was something that nobody else in the MCU had to deal with. Nobody really had to replace anybody. I guess in a way, Tom Holland kind of replaced Robert Downey Junior as Tony Stark as being that next one up, but he never really fully took on the position as the role of the leader of the Avengers, but sure he had to do that and did a fantastic job, although she struggled a lot, which obviously who wouldn't struggle with dealing with the death of somebody who was Black Panther and then having the power bestowed onto you. And not only is she fantastic in both of those movies and in the Avengers movies, but by putting her on this Mount Rushmore, I'm also investing that they're going to continue with their character moving forward. So if it wouldn't have been for Waconda Forever, this loot probably would have gone to Captain Marvel, who was great in her first solo movie, also had a huge part in an Endgame, although I wish they would have used her more, but it was probably the Marvels that kept her out of this. So to recap, in my female Heroes of the MCU, we have Wanda, Black Widow, Gomorra, and Shury. We'll finish it out with my mount rushmore of the best MCU movies, and then we'll get into the worst MCU movies. But starting with the positive in that first slot, I would put Infinity War. It is the best in theater experience that I've had from any of the Avengers movies, even more so than Endgame, because Endgame really only has that one big moment that we all know at this point that every theater in America is freaking out. That is a core moment. But I still think overall, the first time I experienced Infinity War left me feeling way different, and it was also more expected. I kind of knew what was gonna happen in Endgame, which was the end result of every Marvel movie that came before it. We all knew what was gonna happen, We all knew what it was building towards there was nothing I got in Endgame that came out of left field, really great moments of fantastastic movie. But when I sit down to watch an Avengers movie, I'm gonna watch Infinity War. I still think it is the best one. So in that number one slot, I'm going with Infinity War at number two. Talking about it more earlier in the episode, it goes to Iron Man being the first MCU movie back in two thousand and eight and one that still holds up. There are not that many movies from Phase one that you can go back and just think that, oh, nothing here has changed a whole lot. Everything still works out. Iron Man is that movie. Aside from probably some references and shots of cell phones from back in two thousand and eight, yeah, maybe those don't hold up. But when it comes to the story and the technology, I would argue some of the visual effects in the first Iron Man look better than some of the MCU movies that have come out in the last five years. This was back when all the VFX artists weren't being worked to the bone and the technology was new at the time, with Transformers being one of the first movies to really use like that photo realism, making things actually look like the surfaces that they are. That was a big deal back in the day. So Transformers was very influential on Iron Man. It got it perfect, it got the suit down so well, everybody benefited from it. At number two, I have Iron Man. At number three, I have Black Panther. Not only because it's such a great movie. Has the fantastic villain, has the fantastic hero. But I would say because this movie looks unlike any of the other MCU movies for a couple of reasons, for the cast, the representation. It just looks different by the people who are represented in this movie, which was huge. We didn't have that. Me as a Mexican American, I didn't get that until well on the DC side, Blue Beetle, but even in Wakanda Forever with our first Mexican villain. But that was important for kids who didn't have a hero that looked like them. And now you have this awesome black superhero who was also noble and smart and quite possibly stronger and more fierce. I mean that has to do a lot with the technology they had, which is so advanced and everybody wants. But it looked different because of the cast and the representation, but aside from that, it was just more cinematic and a direct result of that was it actually getting Oscar nominations, which hadn't happened in the MCU before. So just looking at from a cinematography and a visual perspective, a wardrobe and makeup perspective, it doesn't look like all the other MCU movies, and I love it for that, and number three in that slot, I have Black Panther at number four because this movie changed my life because it felt like my inner kid just having complete joy in the year of twenty twenty one, which this movie single handily probably saved the movie theaters that ye're bouncing back from twenty twenty it is no way home. Aside from what I was mentioning earlier of Infinity War being my overall favorite theater experience for a Marvel movie, this one has my favorite moment, yes even more so than Endgame, my favorite cheer moment, which any good MCU movie has at that moment that we all want to get out of our seats and yell and clap and applaud. This movie did it the best. I will never forget that. So those are my mount Rushmore of the best MCU movies, Infinity War, Iron Man, Black Panther, and No Way Home, Chisela Man Boss. Here we go, all right to close us out, my mount rushmore of the worst MCU movies at number one, And I would say for all of these movies, I've only seen them once, and not only that, I never want to watch them again. And out of all of the thirty three MCU movies, these are the only ones that I would consider bad. There only happens to be four of them, which is pretty good. But in that number one slot, it goes to The Eternals, hands down the worst MCU movie of all time. It tried to do too much, tried to create such a big world, introduced too many characters, tried to be like a more intellectual Avengers. Every element of this movie fell flat. And it wasn't until the Captain America Brave New World trailer that came out that it finally addressed one of the biggest cliffhangers in all of the MCO This big floating rock, Hey, we forgot about that, Let's go back to that. So was so confusing. Characters made no sense. They were oddly emotional for no reason. Had no connection to the story whatsoever. It was a big, big mess and a bad movie. Number one goes to the Eternals at number two. I guess putting a th is a bad sign for MCU movies because number two of the Marvels and I think it was probably do it a tone. It also felt like they didn't have enough story to make a movie. This probably should have been a Disney Plus series. And bre Larson. I love her as an actor, and I think the character is great, but I really feel like she phoned in this performance. And maybe it has to do with doing the majority of this movie in front of a blue or green screen, no cast chemistry. This movie did not work for me. Goes in my number two slot. At number three, it goes to Thor The Dark World, primarily because this movie is so forgettable. And this was also at a time where they really didn't have the Thor character down. Chris Hemsworth still had the long blonde hair. They were making him too mythical. They tried a little bit to bring out the humor and Thor, but Chris Hemsworth didn't really know how to play him just quite yet didn't truly nail it until the next movie Thor Ragnarok, which I was like, oh that store he had to look down to cut his hair, and that led to better Avengers movies. So I think it's just a product of the time. I love the first Thor movie, but this one was not it whatsoever. I never want to see it again. At number three is The The Dark World and in that Ford slot. I think it's because this movie was a little bit of a letdown. It also tarnished how I feel about one of my favorite villains that I was talking about earlier. It is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. For a movie being titled The Multiverse of Madness, they didn't really have much to do with making the Multiverse mad and me being somebody who loves a good horror movie. Having Sam Raimi one of the most beloved horror directors of all time, the product just didn't match his body of work, also being the director of the best Spider Man trilogy. It is also largely cited to being a part of the decline of the MS in a movie we really had to bounce back from. As me being one of the people still fighting for the MCU, I gotta make excuses for this movie, so that is why it put it and I only saw it in theaters once and was never inclined to go back and rewatch it on Disney Plus because I just didn't enjoy it. So in that Ford slot the Multiverse of Madness. Rounding out that list, it is the Eternals, the Marvels for the Dark World, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness being my mount rushmore of bad MCU movies, but again they're only being fo what I would consider bad movies in the MCU that I just would not watch again, not bad, so to those, we carve them and then destroy them out of the stone. So that is my list. We'll come back and finally give my review of dead Pool and Wolverine. Let's get into it now, A spoiler free review of dead Pool and Wolverine, one of my most anticipated movies of the year. I'm a huge Wolverine fan. I would say a moderate Deadpool fan. I get a little bit tired of Ryan Reynolds and his stick when it comes to Deadpool, which I believe changed the game when it first came out with Part one, poking fun at superheroes with the more intense violence with the swearing. I think it was. I think at the time it was a breath of fresh air in the superhero genre. But with Part two, with all the teasers leading up to Deadpool and Wolverine, I get a little bit tired of it. I just find that it becomes a little bit less funny as we're exposed to the same types of jokes over and over again. So going into this movie, I really wanted to see less Deadpool and wanted to see more Wolverine, and I was actually quite pleasantly surprised how much Ryan Reynolds improved as Deadpool, giving us a different side of Deadpool where I feel he grew as a character, and that was largely due to Ryan Reynolds' performance really stepping in it up of not just having the one liners, the breaking the fourth wall, which was an abundance in this movie, but giving us a little bit more to chew on that For the first time, I saw how Deadpool could work outside of this franchise, which is what all superheroes do. They have their solo movies, but they also branch out in the EMCU. So for the first time I really saw Ryan Reynolds how he would be sharing the spotlight with somebody as famous and as beloved as him. So we'll get into more of that, But what Deadpool and Wolverine is all about won't give you any spoilers. For the most part, everything I'll talk about here was already revealed in the first and second trailer, but Deadpool started tooling around with cables travel device, which we learned about in Deadpool two. So to answer some of your questions draft the bat, do you need to see one or two? You don't necessarily have to. I think you could watch this movie and understand some of the plot points, you wouldn't becomempletely lost. But obviously with any superhero movie, they're going to talk about things that happened in part one in part two. You don't necessarily have to see every Marvel movie to understand it, but when you do, you feel a lot more gratification. So I don't think you need to see necessarily part one or two to understand what is going on. But you need to see part one and two to feel the emotional impact of this movie and to know what got weighed Wilson here. So this could be a way for some people that haven't seen one or two want to hop into it because they're fans. With Hugh Jackman and Wolverine, you could do that. You could watch this one and go back and watch it BOT one and two if you enjoy his performance. I really feel like this movie put all the cards on the table and wanted to make a really good movie that would yes, propel the MCU in a way, but also show that we need to hit right now. We're gonna do everything in our ability to give the fans what they want and to bring those back who have straight away from the MCU to return to the theater to pay for tickets to see the next one. So not only does it have a tie in with Part one and Part two of Deadpool, it also ties in with Loki over on Disney Plus. But Deadpool is essentially trying to do something that is larger than himself. He is trying to find his purpose, and at the beginning of the movie we kind of find him not wanting to be Deadpool anymore. After a failed attempt to join the Avengers that leads him to being recruited by the TVA from Loki. They give him a shot at trying to save the world, but in order to do that he needs to find Wolverine. So from there it is Deadpool and Wolverine teaming up together, taking on a new villain, and going on a journey to save the world together. So, like I was mentioning earlier about kind of being over Ryan Reynolds and his shtick is Deadpool, I will have to say that his character did address being a one trick pony. I think he sees some of that criticism of people feeling probably after Deadpool two, that it was kind of along the same lines as Deadpool One, didn't really push anything forward. So a lot of what his character goes through in this movie is wanting to prove to himself and more importantly, to the love interest in his life. He wants to be a part of something bigger and larger, and all the actions in this movie are him working towards that. The first thing that stuck out to me about this movie is how good it looks Deadpool hopping into the MCU. He's using that two hundred million dollar budget. Wild that the first one costs about fifty eight million dollars to make. Part two ballooned up to about one hundred and ten million dollars. This one added another ninety million dollars on top of that, and they use all of that money, and I think a great deal of it went to reviving Deadpool suit, which they do a whole montage of it in the movie. It looks more comic book accurate. The red is brighter, the eyes are wider, and overall just looks way more slick, And I think through the course of this movie, the comic book accuracy was the ode to the nerds, and I talked about earlier this year in an episode addressing how I feel like the MCU should seek out the nerds, pay attention to what they're saying in order to improve the movies. You can only do it so much, because I think this movie walked a really good line on giving us nerds what we wanted when it came to the comic book accuracy, which is something that people in the TikTok comments are always yelling about. We want the characters that we grew up with reading in the comic books seeing in the animated shows. So it's giving us that, but also giving the more common movie goer something that doesn't look too corny and cheeseball. It's a fine line to walk and probably pretty influential early on with the X Men movies in the two thousands, of why they didn't decide to put them all in comic book accurate suits. The leather at that time was also greatly influenced by the Matrix that came out in the late nineties, and they said, we need to put the X Men in leather, and then we never saw a comic book accurate suit really until now for Wolverine, and I was a little bit reluctant to like it, even though it was giving us exactly what we wanted back. Whenever the first image was revealed with Hugh Jackman in the suit, I thought it looked a little bit too much like a motorcross dirt bike soup, and I wasn't the biggest fan of it, and still now, I do believe that the look of it was made more to compliment Deadpool suit than it was just to be a comic book accurate Wolverine suit, So I think in order for them to match on screen. So I think that's the reason why it has some of those textures on it that I'm not the biggest fan of. And for me looking behind me on the set here that Wolverine that X Men ninety seven that I feel would be probably more yellow spandex probably wouldn't look that great on screen, even though that's what I want. And sometimes you can't give fans exactly what they want, and this is probably an example of that. So this is a case that I know I'm being irrational and wanting that because if you gave us that, it probably wouldn't look that good, and then I would still find a way to complain. So I am one of those people who's probably too hard to please on this, And I also know that sometimes it is hard to make a two D image like that, even though that's a figure behind me right now. So if you're not watching on YouTube, you have to go and look at the set. But bringing any two D character, whether it be from a comic book or a TV show, and putting them in the real world, you're gonna have some obstacles that you can't get over. But overall, I think the suit look fantastic for both dead Pool and I grew to love the Wolverine suit, especially the explanation they gave addressing why he is wearing it and really addressing and answering a lot of questions that I had going into this movie. I felt like they knew people were coming in with some hesitationations, and we're gonna wonder a lot about what Wolverine this is and why Hugh Jackman is back playing them, and they laid everything out and I was satisfied with those answers. And the other thing they gave us that I felt was a plus was whenever Deadpool first goes and tries to find and locate Wolverine, they gave us a montage of Wolverine variants. This scene in particular, even though it wasn't even that long, was for all the nerds, which is what I enjoyed that this movie continued to throw in there because there were so many different variants from the comic books, the TV shows, just figures, and even though they were very quick, they were all images and costumes that I just never thought I would see on the big screen. So again walking that line of giving the nerds what they want but also giving just so I think that was a pretty big deal to give the nerds what they want, because I feel like not everybody probably understood all of these variants and what they meant, but oh I was probably one of my favorite scenes out of the entire movie, and that mixed with some really great fight scenes between Deadpool and Wolverine, which is what we had glimpses of in the trailer. But I feel out of all the fight scenes that went down in this movie, those were the ones where I was the most engaged because they do not hold anything back. And what I really loved my probably my favorite detail, and what I really loved, which was probably my favorite detail, was how ferocious they made Wolverine's fighting style. This was the most animalistic he has ever looked like, running on all fours. I feel like Hugh Jackman played this character much differently, which is probably hard to do. He's been playing the character for twenty four years now. This is his tenth movie as Wolverine, and I felt like it was a completely fresh take because it is a different Wolverine from a different timeline, and I can actually feel it in Hugh Jackman's performance that he approached this character differently. He approached the fighting style different that I truly felt like I was watching a different variant of Wolverine of logan and that mixed with his physique looking off the charts, He's turning fifty six this October, and you cannot tell whatsoever. There was even one scene in particular where he's not wearing a shirt, and I was convinced that they brought a stunt double in because it looks like he had a twelve pack, arms were super jacked, and I'm convinced he can play this character for another decade. As I get into now some of the things I didn't like about the movie, I will just say that overall, I loved it. It is a good movie. When it comes to what the MPCU needed, this is it. You're not going to go into this one and feel like you did after watching The Marvels or am Man three. It is a good movie, but I also hold these movies to such a high standard, Wolverine being one of my favorite superhero characters. I went into it thinking it was going to be a top ten movie. Not quite there, maybe top five. But again, that doesn't make it a bad movie. By the way, I did not want this movie to end. It is a crisp two hours, and I could have been in that theater for three hours, so that's indication enough. I had to remind myself that Deadpool is a comedy movie. That is why these movies have been successful. That is what people go to wanting to see out of this character, out of Ryan Reynolds's performance. There were times where I lasted. There were some good jokes in there, but overall, I don't feel like it is a great, straight ahead comedy. I think it's more fun than it is funny, and because it is more of a comedy, I feel like it takes away a little bit from the intensity. When it came to the villain. In Deadpool and Wolverine, there's really not that moment where everything comes to a head with the villain, and I would say overall that took away a little bit of the impact from the third act. And I was talking earlier in this episode about the MCU having a bit of a villain problem. I almost felt like the villain was wasted in this movie. And I think that's probably because with Headpool and Wolverine being such big characters, you want to give them all the screen time. For the majority of this movie, it was Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman battling for lines, even pointing out directly when an extra would get a line like oh, hey, don't let you speak, so I could see their egos coming out of who is going to be dominating this movie more. I think it adds to the fun nature of it then poking jabs at each other's characters, but also at each other's personal lives a little bit with it breaking that fourth wall, with it being so meta, And I would say, I'm somebody who has kind of gotten away from expecting really big cameos in Marvel movies. They become a little bit of a crutch I feel to get people excited. But I really felt this movie did it well keeping it under wraps, and at times I feel like it was kind of needed. It needed that big pop moment and they were really unexpected ones, which is what I enjoy sometimes giving me something that I didn't even know I wanted. So overall, I felt like this movie was a great time. It flew by at two hours, a rare case that I even wanted to stay and watch the post credit scene. But when it comes to rating this movie, I do have to judge it a little bit differently because I have to weigh it among all the movies in the MCU. That is just what happens now. Being the thirty fourth movie, I have to think is it top ten my top ten Marvel movies. I would all put it fives, and that is a tough top ten to break. And as much as I enjoyed all the aspects as much of the things, they got right and gave all the fans just some real gratification of here you've been asking for this, Here it is enjoy I was expecting to leave the same way I left No Way home of just this overwhelming joy, and I didn't really get that from this movie, even though I thoroughly enjoyed it. So without that feeling, I don't think it is a top ten. I also have to think about rewatchability, because I feel like a lot of these jokes have a real small shelf life. They reference things that are very specific to the times, So rewatching this movie in another five years, all those jokes might not land the same way because the entire landscape of the MCU is probably gonna be much different. But for right now, the jokes probably land a lot more. I just think they won't age as well. I give it a four out of five clause, and that is only because I don't think it's top ten, which would be five out of five, I would really really have to consider it putting in the top fifteen, which is what I would consider that four point five at of five rating. But overall, it gives me a lot of hope. I also think of what all had to go right just to get that first Deadpole movie, and now it is a certified franchise, so it definitely just leads me excited of all what's to come with the character, especially now that he's with Wolverine. I do want to do a spoiler version of this review to talk about all the cameos, to talk about more of the plot points, So definitely be on the lookout on the fee for that review. But again I give it four out of five clause.

00:47:05
Speaker 2: It's time to head down to movie mics trailar pause.

00:47:09
Speaker 1: We are more than halfway through the year, and if I had to call out one specific genre for being the bright spot in twenty twenty four, I think it would have to go to horror.

00:47:22
Speaker 3: Collectively, this year has been a little bit lackluster. It really wasn't until July this month that I felt we had our first really good month for movies. Every movie I've rated so far this month has been a four at least an average, which is great, and there have been some bright spots throughout the year, like Challengers, Love Lies Bleeding, which is on Max now if you haven't seen that movie yet, but I would say collectively they have been few and far between.

00:47:53
Speaker 1: Hopefully going to shape up better towards the end of the year. They did drop another trailer for The Joker. Looks fantastic, but I've already covered that trailer before here on the podcast. So when it comes to just the genre that I feel has been consistently good giving us unique original stories, it has to go to horror, and Neon has been one of the studios doing it the best this year with Immaculate with Long Legs being what I would still consider to be the scariest movie of the year. And now they had this movie coming out with Hunter Shaffer called Cuckoo. I just like saying that name Cuckoo. And when people say that original movies don't get made, you're not looking hard enough. Just look at Neon alone and what they have done in the horror genre just in this year in twenty twenty four, they have been consistently putting out good original stories. Not all of them have been super groundbreaking, but just that studio alone you can find original stories, not even mentioning a twenty four who also does great horror movies, but really can do any genre well, So original stories are getting made. Twenty twenty four just happens to be an unusually high amount of reboots and sequels and franchises, but only one Marvel movie, which you already covered. But this looks good with Hunter Schaeffer as the lead. I saw the trailer again when I went to go watch Long Legs, but sometimes it takes seeing it on the big screen to really be able to appreciate the style of filmmaking that I feel. Cuckoo is going to lean into it very much, has this eighties horror vibe aesthetic even coming across in the soundtrack, And after watching this trailer, you really don't know exactly what the movie is about, even looking at the plot. Her character is a seventeen year old who reluctantly leaves America to live with her father at a resort in the German Alps. She starts hearing a bunch of strange noises, has these weird, bloody visions, leading her to discover this shocking secret that concerns her own family. This movie is coming out soon on August ninth. And before we get into more, here's just a little bit of the Cuckoo trailer. I would you like come on from meat there as one try with you. I wouldn't want to get a hoe even more?

00:50:13
Speaker 2: Why did you bring us here?

00:50:16
Speaker 1: Your family? How along? See that's a weird way to put it. You told the police that you were chased by a woman. They think I'm crazy. I feel like Neon is bringing back really good production of trailers. Had the same feeling after watching the Long Legs trailer, not only the style of editing, but the sound design. Not often do I play a trailer here on the podcast, and it's so visually pleasing, but you hear all those little sounds in there. It creates that sense of urgency that you want in a horror mystery, which is exactly what this movie is. The big scary part in this trailer, which probably will not even be the scariest part in the entire movie, but there's a scene where Hunter Schaeffer leaves her shift. Looks like she is working the front desk at a hotel or a resort, and she's riding her bike at night with these big headphones on, can't hear anything. And there's this one shot in the trailer where you see her shadow riding the bike and then you see the shadow of what appears to be a woman's hand going to grab her. Next scene is her being attacked by this mysterious woman who I can't really tell what is going on with her. I don't know if she's a monster, if she's a ghost, if she's a zombie. They make some references later about a certain species needing help, so maybe it's some weird science experiment gone wrong and has turned these people into these horrific looking, almost mutant like creatures who attack people. Because that's what happens in this scene. She gets attacked, ends up in the hospital, has this big head bandage, this old school looking brace, and is all bloody, bruised and broken, and it looks like that's gonna be the look for her character throughout the rest of this movie, which I feel is already a great costume and depending on how good this movie ends up being, could be the next iconic look for a character. Which another really great thing that Cuckoo did with its promotional materials is they finally got character posters right, and maybe you've seen these on Instagram or Facebook. Usually when a big movie comes out, there's usually the main movie poster, the one that gets printed everywhere, gets plastered up outside of the theater. That is the main one. But they also make these character posters with every single actor, and usually that is the one that they post to their Instagram to show, Hey, I'm in this movie, I play this character. But I often have a problem with these because they are so life and tell you nothing about the movie. It almost feels more like a vanity thing of like, here's my character. But I would not really be inspired by any of the previous character posters to go and want to watch these movies. One of the most recent examples is actually a movie starring Hunter Schaefer, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the Hunger Games prequel. They all had their character posters and it was just a big mess because there's so many characters in that they really say nothing about that movie, which she was good in that movie. I feel like I would have been more interested to see a movie about her character in that than what that movie actually was. But again, she's getting these pretty good roles But what Cuckoo did was make the character poster actually tell you something about the character. If you go and look at all the character posters for Cuckoo, it shows you these characters in different situations that give you a little bit of context of what is going on. People screaming Hunter Schaeffer in the head bandage and looking all bloody, just creating some sense of Okay, these are gonna be the different types of people you're gonna have in this movie, doing what a character poster should do, showing you their character. So I feel like more movies should follow suit and do that, especially when it comes to superhero movies that are probably the worst at making movie posters because you always have the floating head cliche and that is the one that gets used everywhere. But when you think about comic book movies, literally coming from one of the best forms of art, the comic book, and we get these lifeless posters that tell you nothing. Step it up, everybody, this is how you do it. So back to Cuckoo, it really doesn't look to me that it's going to be a full on horror movie. And I'm already sold after watching this trailer. But I can tell that It's going to come down to the pacing of this movie because in a two minute trailer it looks so slick, it looks so compelling, But by watching it, I can also tell hell, it's really going to lead into the absurdness of these characters, gonna be kind of a mind trip for the viewer, which probably a lot more mystery than horror. So with a runtime of an hour and forty three minutes, I hope that this movie is able to pack a punch. If Hunter Schaeffer is able to really have success in this role, it could lead to her probably making that list that I was talking about just a couple of weeks ago of being one of the next big bankable A List stars. She obviously has the Euphoria fan base behind her, which is kind of a trend we are seeing here in young Hollywood. She did have a minor role in Kinds of Kindness, so it's really starting to establish a really good body of work. So again, the movie is called Cuckoo and it is coming out on August ninth.

00:55:49
Speaker 2: Head That Bar was next week's edition of Movie Mind Framer.

00:55:53
Speaker 1: Bar and that is gonna do it for another episode here of the podcast. But before I go. I gotta give my listeners shout out of the week. Posted a clip over on TikTok. Last week, Kelsey and I given our review of Twisters. If you missed that review, just go back one episode in the feed. If you want to watch that review in its entirety, check out the YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash mikedistro always all the links on the episode notes of this podcast. This week's listener shout Out of the Week goes to Tracy In, who commented on TikTok and said to me, Glenn Powell is the next Ryan Reynolds. I have not talked to one person who doesn't like him. Thought that was an interesting comparison. In the review last week, I compared him to being part Matthew McConaughey, part Tom Cruise. And even if I was going to compare him to one of the Ryans, I don't think I would go Ryan Reynolds. I think I would go Ryan Gosling obviously. Here, Tracy, I think you're attributing his good looks now being to that of Ryan Reynolds, probably in the twenty tens, where he probably the best looking actor of that decade, but right next to him, I agree is Ryan Gosling. And I think the reason I would compare him to Gostling over Reynolds is because I feel like Glenn Powell is going to take the better roles and also going to have a little bit more of a diversity in his portfolio, which it looks like they are going to make a Top Gun three, being very secretive on how far along they are in that so I know it'll take a lot for him to get to that Ryan Reynolds level, but man, he is climbing. So thank you for that comment. Tracy In you are this week's listener shout out of the week, And thanks to everybody in the movie crew for listening, being subscribed, checking out new episodes every single Monday, and telling a friend And until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.