Franchises with the Most Films + Movie Review: Predator: Badlands + Trailer Park: Scream 7

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast. I am your host Movie Mike. Today, I want to talk about franchises with the most films. I have the top ten how many are in each of the franchises, and we'll talk about dead, Alive or Revive. We're gonna play that game because there's a movie coming out this week, Predator bad Lands, that I did not realize has seven movies inside of it, So I'll give my thoughts on that movie in the spoiler free movie review in the Trailer Park. Speaking of franchises with a lot of movies, Scream seven is coming out next year. We'll talk all about that. Thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies from the.

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Speaker 2: Dustville podcast Network.

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Speaker 1: This is movie Mike's Movie podcas franchises.

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Speaker 2: With the most films.

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Speaker 1: That is what we are here to talk about today because in my research on this week's movie review for Predator bad Lands, I did not realize there were seven Predator movies inside of that franchise. So I have the top ten and we're gonna play Dead, Alive or Revive. Do these franchises need to be dead and call it quits. Maybe they don't have any other new movies on the horizon and they should.

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Speaker 2: Keep it that way. Should they stay alive.

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Speaker 1: Meaning they have maybe a sequel coming out, another movie coming out inside of the franchise, or have they not put out a movie in a while and we need to revive them.

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Speaker 2: So let's get right into the list.

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Speaker 1: At number ten, we have a three way time between Teenage Mutant, Ninja Turtles, the Muppets Franchise, and Mission Impossible. Each of these movies both have eight inside of the franchise. Not each number is going to have multiple franchises inside of them, but they just happen to be all tied with eight movies. So for this one specifically, we'll assign one of these categories to each of them. I'm gonna start with dead because I think Mission Impossible should just be dead. Tom Cruise rode that movie out really went out on a whimper. I know they're gonna inevitably try to revive this franchise, but I think we should block it because I just don't think the excitement is there anymore. As much as I enjoyed part one of the last Mission Impossible movie. I just feel that franchise should be dead because what they're going to try to do is bring somebody back in like a Glenn Powell, which I just saw him out doing the promo for Running Man, him taking his classic picture with Tom Cruise, who Tom Cruise does like to go support big movies like this. It's kind of like that stamp of approval. If Tom Cruise goes to your premiere, that's a sign of like you could be the next guy up. Glenn Powell could be the next face of Mission Impossible. But I just think we should let that franchise rest. So for Mission Impossible, I say dead, just pull the plug.

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Speaker 2: For a revive.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to go with the Muppets. Back in twenty eleven, when the Muppets movie came out, that really made me love all those characters again. I thought that was a fantastic movie. It is the right amount of fun, also the right amount of a movie that works for young kids and also older adults who grew up with the Muppets. I thought that movie was fantastic. They did follow that movie up with Muppets Most Wanted in twenty fourteen. I also love the spinoff TV show that they had in the twenty tens, and since then we have not got another Muppets movie. It's been over a decade now without it. I think it is time to revive this franchise. Let's bring it back to life. There you go, power it up, because I just think that these are characters that need to be on the big screen and need to live on forever. And there are certain franchises that I feel this way about that they should be around forever, Franchises that I grew up with and now are still relevant to kids growing up right now, even maybe ones that when I grew up with them, there was a whole generation before me that had already experienced that franchise as well. I think The Muppets is one of those that need to wan and live forever and can, but it just has to translate into big box office numbers. But now that it's been over a decade, I say, revive it and very much alive is the TMNT franchise.

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Speaker 2: We have it.

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Speaker 1: On the animated front, we have the R rated the Last Ronan movie coming out hopefully soon, maybe in the next two to three years. But that is a very much alive franchise, So all those have eight movies each, Dead, Alive, or revive. At number nine, we have a few movies here tied Rocky, Alien, Planet of the Apes, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre all have nine movies, so I'm not going to go through individually on which ones to keep.

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Speaker 2: Alive, Dead or revive.

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Speaker 1: This is a tough one because I feel all of these are almost similar and where they are as far as us just being tired of them. I feel like all of these franchises have now peaked. Rocky has definitely peaked, not only in the Rocky movies but also in the Creed movies because we did have a comeback Part three. Creed was really good, but I feel like we've seen all the best stories that you can make out of those characters. Alien probably is having the best moment right now with Alien Romulus, so I'll say Alien is very much alive.

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Speaker 2: Planet of the Apes is also.

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Speaker 1: Still kind of alive, even though I didn't really like that last movie. I think it is inevitable that we will get another Nightmare on Elm Street movie, and I think if they do it right, it could be a really cool thing. I think they have to incorporate Robert England in some way.

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Speaker 2: I know he.

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Speaker 1: Probably won't play Freddy Krueger ever again. So I'm gonna go with Reviving a Nightmare on Elm Street just because I think it's almost time for that. And I think Texas Chainsaw Massacre just stays dead the last I mean, they've been fighting over the movie rights for a while now, but the last Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, especially the one on Netflix, have just not been good. I think we need another at least ten years before ever touching another Texas Chainsaw a massacred movie.

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Speaker 2: So Alien is alive, Revive a.

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Speaker 1: Nightmare on Elm Street, and we gotta kill a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie from ever happening.

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Speaker 2: Pull the plug.

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Speaker 1: At number eight. We also have a three way tie between Spider Man, The Mummy, and King Kong, which each have ten movies each. Interesting situation here because they recently announced that Brendan Fraser is coming back for another Mummy adventure. They're gonna make The Mummy four, so they kind of made my decision for me already right there. Even though it is a revival, I feel it is a very lukewarm revival, but I think that's gonna be one of those franchises that they bring back and are surprised how much people don't care about it. I just think the best days of those movies are behind it. And I'm saying that as somebody who grew up with the nineteen ninety nine movie with Brendan Fraser not even talking about how the Mummy franchise started back in nineteen thirty two, had five movies that followed in the nineteen forties, in the nineteen fifties with Like The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummies Curse. We even had Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy in nineteen fifty four. But I think where they really entered into pop culture, at least in our lifetime, was with the nineteen ninety nine movie Mummy Returns in two thousand and one, and then we had the rock in the Scorpion King with two thousand and two. The only thing I can say about them reviving this franchise now is if you go back and watch the CGI, it is pretty bad.

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Speaker 2: The Scorpion King has some.

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Speaker 1: Of the worst CGI of any movie during that time, so I think that is the only thing it would benefit from now. But I've been so frustrated how worse CGI has been just in the last two years where it should be peak. There are movies that came out in the late two thousands that look better than things that came out in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five. And I think movies are starting to cut corners a little bit, and it's starting to show. But that is the only reason I can see this movie benefiting from coming out Right now, we're reviving The Mummy. I'm gonna say we kill King Kong. The original King Kong movie was released back in nineteen thirty three, was so successful they came out with the sequel Son of Kong, and then it wasn't until the nineteen sixties that King Kong returned to the big screen and King Kong Versus Godzilla in nineteen sixty two. We had King Kong Escapes in nineteen sixty seven. The movies I'm more familiar with were the Peter Jackson King Kong in two thousand and five. Where I really started to enjoy them was with Skull Island in twenty seventeen and then now where we have Godzilla and King Kong fighting each other. But I just think solo King Kong movies should probably be dead. I don't know how much we have left in the tank. Between the plot lines between Godzilla and King Kong teaming up and fighting each other, those movies feel so one dimensional. So I say we have to kill King Kong.

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Speaker 2: And very much alive?

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Speaker 1: Is Spider Man with ten movies didn't get its first movie until two thousand and two. Spider Man Brand New Day is coming out next year in twenty twenty six in the summer. What happens after that? Because it is very much alive right now, it'll continue to be alive with the animated Miles Morales movies. But I don't know in my lifetime do I want to see somebody else play Spider Man. We've had three now will it continue? After Spider Man hangs up the Spidy suit and says, I'm not gonna play this character anymore, what do they do?

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Speaker 2: I think you got to make.

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Speaker 1: Them darker, more street level crime in the same vein of the Punisher, which the Punisher is going to be in Brand New Day, And I think that is something we all have a taste for right now, especially with Daredevil on Disney Plus and Punisher being a part of that storyline Kingpinn being a violent force. I would love to see those two worlds merge in the tone of Daredevil, just a lot of straight ahead fighting and web slinging, butt sweat and tears. I think that is where Spider Man needs to go back to, so very much alive right now, But I think the next iteration of Spider Man has to do what the Batman is doing and make it really dark, which I think is going to be hard because Spider Man has so many young fans who do enjoy the big, bright and colorful and not too intense fighting. But I think that is where that character has to go in order to make sense to revive it again, because then you get people so angry about yet another iteration of Spider Man. But that is number eight on the list, with ten movies in each of those franchises. At number seven, we have a three way tie Harry Potter, Saw and Fast and the Furious. The problem with two of these franchises is that the final movie does not have an official release date yet. They're not canceled, but you still have to count them here because they are confirmed. They're supposed to come out soon, but Saw eleven does not have a release date yet, and The Fast and the Furious is supposed to have its final movie, but there's so much weirdness around that movie even being released, where Vin Diesel is saying one thing, the studio is saying another that they're not paying certain actors.

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Speaker 2: So that movie seems.

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Speaker 1: Like it is in some development hell right now and just is having trouble seeing the light of day, which I think is interesting because the way they pitched Fast in the Furious ten and eleven was that one was going to come out and then the other was going to come out pretty soon behind it. But as we learned, they lied to us and the other movie was not ready to go. It's getting too expensive. There's a lot of creative differences. I think we need to go ahead and finish out that franchise. It is on the cusp of being dead. I think The Fast and the Furious movies probably peaked around Tokyo Drift way back then. Probably around seven was where it met that still being financially successful but also still.

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Speaker 2: Having some integrity to it.

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Speaker 1: After seven, they were still making money, which is why they continue to make these movies, But they went so far off the rails that between eight, nine and ten you can't really tell the difference between those. So Fast and the Furious is a great example of quantity over quality, where if you really want the quality films of that franchise, you got to look at the first three, maybe the first four, but after that you are really just getting quantity With the Saw movies, They're all pretty solid. The entire format of Saw starts to become a little bit repetitive. But when I saw Saw ten in theaters, I was still highly entertained because even though it is the same thing over and over again, they are inventive in the ways that they take out some of these people, so that keeps it interesting. So I think that franchise is still alive for now. It's still has that beating heart, and I will still go watch a Saw eleven in theaters. When it comes to Harry Potter, though, I think those movies are dead because we are getting the TV show that is coming out in twenty twenty seven on HBO Max, and that is going to be a new adaptation of all the books. It's going to be more fleshed out. You can't make that series and still have any of the Harry Potter movies make sense or really gain any interest. I mean, they'd still gain interest because it is Harry Potter, but I think that is where they are shifting their focus. I think that is a franchise that also in that eleven movies count all the Fantastic Beast movies. But because they really transcend pop culture, they almost feel so significant that you can't alter those movies whatsoever. You can't remake them. You can really only do what they did and turn it into the TV show, but you can't really expand on that because you don't have the source material. And that is okay, because we don't need to tarnish the reputation.

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Speaker 2: Of all of those movies. They can live forever.

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Speaker 1: They will always hold up, even though maybe if you look back at the first Harry Potter movie, you're like, man, how do we not think that was completely fake? The CGI isn't as good as it is now. But I still think there is so much charm and whimsical, magical energy to those movies that they will never need to be replicated. At number six with twelve movies each we have a two way tie between Friday the Thirteenth and Star Wars. Star Wars is very much alive. We have the new Mandalorian and Grogu movie coming out on May twenty second, twenty twenty six. Then there's another Star Wars movie coming out on December eighteenth, twenty twenty six. And then you have the Ryan Gosling led Starfighter movie which is coming out on May twenty eighth, twenty twenty seven. So Star Wars is very much alive. Unlike what I was just talking about with Harry Potter, there are so many different ways you can go with Star Wars. That is just going to exist forever. It is that big of a franchise, that well known across the world. Friday the thirteenth, on the other hand, it's been a while since we've had a Friday the Thirteenth movie, last rebooted back in two thousand and nine. The first Friday the Thirteenth movie came out back in nineteen eighty, with Part two and Part three coming out in eighty one and eighty two. They were really a staple of the eighties and then just became again more formulaic. Jason was never my go to horror hero. But if you look around at all of the major characters in horror and the fact that he hasn't been around in a movie since two thousand and nine, I think it would be time now if there ever was one to revive Friday the thirteenth, bring them back to life, because I think we are in a place now where there is a director out there who who grew up with those movies in the eighties. That is the perfect age now to bring back what made those first movies great, but just have overall better storytelling. Because of all the major horror icons, I feel like he is the one who has the weakest story. I think if they found a way to really flesh out his story make us more emotionally invested in him Jason Vorhees as a person, I think there is some really interesting avenues you could go down in that franchise where maybe out of all the horror icons, I could find myself rooting for him the most to kill people, just because I think he is the most misunderstood, the most mysterious. Obviously, it is hard when you have a character who does not speak, but I think even the Halloween franchise has given us a better look at Michael Myers as some kind of an I don't want to say, a person, but entity that has a little bit of.

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Speaker 2: Dimension to them.

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Speaker 1: If they could do that same thing with Friday the thirteenth, I think it could be time for a pretty decent revival. At this point at number five, all tied with thirteen movies each, we have X Men star Trek what we were just talking about Halloween, all with thirteen movies. There is an X Men movie with a reported release date of May fifth, twenty twenty eight. This is supposed to be a new phase for the MCU. It's going to be directed by the same guy who did the Thunderbolts movie, going to introduce an entirely new generation of Mutants and be the conclusion of the current saga. So this is going to be post Secret Wars, which is coming out in December twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 2: I am so excited for.

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Speaker 1: An X Men movie, and I think X Men ninety seven on Disney Plus is what made me realize how great these characters are. And because there are thirteen movies in the franchise, I think I got lost somewhere in there in the twenty tens, with first Class. Even though Days of Future pass in twenty fourteen and is a great movie, I think it was a little bit too much with Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, and then you also throw the dead Pole movies in there, Dead Poll ind Wolverine. There's just been a high volume of X Men movies, and I get it. They are great characters, they translate magnificently on the big screen. But I think we need to go back to the basics what made those movies from the two thousands so great. I also, by watching X Men ninety seven, I forgot how great of a leader that Cyclops is because Hugh Jackman as Wolverine really stole the show, where you kind of forget that Cyclops is the leader.

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Speaker 2: He should be the main guy.

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Speaker 1: I think that is where this revival of X Men needs to focus moron and I mean to call him a moron, but focus on more because Cyclops in X Men ninety seven is so sophisticated, He is so well rounded. He has all of these things that he is struggling with internally, with having a kid, all these things that make him the most human mutant. He also has a fantastic power and one of the top suits in Superheroes out of DC and Marvel combined together that blue and yellow would look so good and a comic book accurate version on the big screen. We finally got Wolverine in a comic book accurate movie in Dead Pull and Wolverine. Let's do it again with Cyclops. Star Trek, I think is dead. I was never too interested in all the Star Trek movies because I think as a nerd you kind of have to declare your nerd fandom of what kind of nerd you're going to be Are you gonna be Star Trek or are you're gonna be Star Wars, And whenever that choice came before me, I went Star Wars all day, every day, and I know the show was huge in the nineties. I have friends that would die for Star Trek. For me, my generation's introduction to them was in two thousand and nine with the Star Trek movie. We also had Star Trek Into the Darkness in twenty thirteen, Star Trek Beyond in twenty sixteen. I just never really got into that franchise. Therefore, if they never made another Star Trek movie, I would be fine. And then we have Halloween also with thirteen movies. I just can't bring myself to revive it. I know I have that left here to work through. But with Halloween Ends in twenty twenty two, I was so bored by that movie and so let down after it started so strong in twenty eighteen when they vibe, it's just made revive so much and how many more times can we do Michael Myers chasing after people with a knife? And I know they have a video game coming out soon, and it feels like they would just maybe make one more with Jamie Lee.

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Speaker 2: Curtis while she's still with us.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: Not that she's sick or dying or anything, but I think even she is a little bit past this franchise at this point. But I think it is such a big property that they're always gonna go back to this well, but with the last movie coming out in twenty twenty two, I really couldn't see them doing anything with this franchise.

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Speaker 2: It would be too early.

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Speaker 1: Even if they did it in twenty twenty nine, towards the end of the decade, so maybe twenty thirty, but at that point, I just don't think there is anything there that they have not already done. So I have two deads here at number four, there's only one franchise with fourteen movies, and that is Superman. I will say it is very much alive that Superman hard is beating, maybe louder than it has in a very long time. And I know there are a lot of people who are Zack Snyder fans and are not a fan of the James Gun version, But I think now is the best time to be a Superman fan because there's a lot of good stuff coming. We have Man of Tomorrow coming out in twenty twenty seven. Before that, we're gonna get Supergirl in twenty twenty six, and I think the way all of these movies are going going to tie into the DC universe is just gonna be more exciting. And I think it's probably going to rival Marvel and become the next go to superhero franchise because I just don't think Marvel is going to have a comparable character. We do have Spider Man, but again, next year we're getting the final film that we're gonna get with Tom holland where do you go from there?

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Speaker 2: In Marvel You're.

00:22:27
Speaker 1: Gonna have the Avengers movies, obviously, but outside of that, what keeps the fire going. I don't think any of those characters are strong enough now that Robert Downey Junior is gonna be Doctor Doom, Chris Evans is moving on, He's not gonna be Captain America anymore. Even if they made another Thor movie with Chris Hemsworth. I think Love and Thunder left a bad taste in so many people's mouths that it would just not have that same impact unless they were able and this will never happen. But then finally get the incredible Hulk, right, I just as much as I love that character, I don't think he's ever going to see that box office success that I want him to. And I'm not going to count teams, so I won't count X men that we were just talking about. I just think singular superhero characters. Superman is going to be king. So Superman, with fourteen movies and counting, is very much alive. At number three is Batman, with the total of twenty movies in the franchise, also very much alive, because the next Batman movie is coming out in twenty twenty seven October.

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Speaker 2: First wishaw Man.

00:23:32
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty five was supposed to be the year that we got The Batman two. This movie has been delayed so much, which if you look back at the start of the franchise, it started in nineteen forty three with the theatrical release of Batman, and then had a follow up in nineteen forty six with Batman and Robin, and then it wasn't until it was brought back up to the big screen with Tim Burton in nineteen eighty nine. But then you got Batman, Returns, Batman Foreverman, The Mask of the Fantasm, and then you also have a lot of direct to video animated projects, which I think is where Batman really thrives, with the Killing Joke, Return of the kpe Crusaders, Batman Versus Two Face. You also have the Lego Batman movies. But I think where it is best right now is in the hands of Matt Reeves. So Batman is very much alive. Am I going to be excited whenever he gets introduced into the new DC universe with James Gunn Right now, I don't really want it to happen. As much as I love Batman, I don't think we introduce him until we get The Batman two.

00:24:37
Speaker 2: Hold him hostage.

00:24:39
Speaker 1: Even though seeing David kornsweat team up with Batman would be amazing.

00:24:44
Speaker 2: I just don't want to see it yet.

00:24:45
Speaker 1: But Batman is very much alive at number two with twenty seven movies. Is James Bond? The next James Bond movie is currently known as Bond twenty six. It's supposed to be coming out in twenty twenty eight, even though they haven't an bounced. Who is going to be the next James Bond? Is it going to be male? Is it going to be female?

00:25:05
Speaker 2: Who knows?

00:25:05
Speaker 1: They haven't said to me, James Bond is dead. I don't think it is dead to most people, but James Bond is dead to me. Franchise started back in nineteen sixty two, where Sean Connery played James Bond in Doctor No. He went on to play him more in movies like From Russia with Love in nineteen sixty three, Goldfinger in sixty four, Thunderball in sixty five, You Only Live Twice in nineteen sixty seven, and then he came back in nineteen seventy one for Diamonds R Forever. First James Bond movie I ever watched was in nineteen ninety five GoldenEye with Pierce Brosnan. To me, he is my James Bond, But I have much more of an affinity for James Bond's GoldenEye on N sixty four, which I think if you grew up in the nineties or early two thousands, that is one of your favorite video games of your childhood. Some of my fondest memories as a kid, the things I wish I could go back and relift, maybe even just one day, was playing En sixty four for hours on end, staying up so late it felt like my eyes wanted to bleed because.

00:26:10
Speaker 2: I was just like, I gotta keep playing this level. I gotta keep playing GoldenEye.

00:26:13
Speaker 1: I gotta make it past this guy, I gotta kill this blurry character, because that was a game that you could play and not look at the clock and just get lost in. Even though if you look back on that first person shooter now, the graphics were terrible compared to the Call of Duties of today. But I have such a relationship and love for GoldenEye the video game that it just never really translated to watching them on the big screen. So unless they decided to go back and remake GoldenEye to have it feel like a video game, adaptation like they are doing now with every single property. I don't have that much interest in it. Even though I do like Daniel Craig as an actor, I like him so much more outside of the Bond franchise than I ever liked him inside of it. So to me, I feel like it's a little bit because I don't care who is going to play James Bond. Out of all the most coveted roles in cinema, I think that is up there, obviously with having twenty seven movies as a top role of any.

00:27:11
Speaker 2: Actor to get.

00:27:12
Speaker 1: I think if you look at roles like James Bond and Batman and the Joker, those are all things that once you play or Superman as well, those are all roles that once you play them, your name gets written into the history books and you will always be known as the person who played an iconic character. But James Bond just ranks so low on my list when it comes to all those other roles. But at number two with twenty seven movies in the franchise is James Bond. At number one, the movie franchise with the most movies, not even American, although it's kind of American. It is now bled into America, but with thirty eight movies, the one the only Godzilla, and Godzilla is very much alive. I did not realize how big of a Godzilla fan I've been my entire life until twenty twenty threes. Godzilla Minus one came out and I went to go see this movie on opening weekend before there was any hype, because I just remember seeing not even the trailer for it, just the poster, and I was like, Godzilla minus one, that is right up my alley. One of the first movies I remember being so excited to see as a kid was Godzilla back in nineteen ninety eight, because I think my mom had just started working at Taco Bell and they did this incredible promotion between Taco Bell and Godzilla where they had this amazing cup where Godzilla was wrapped around the cup and they had toys. And that was the time where I was still getting kids meals, so my mom would bring me home the cups, bring me home the toys, and that made me love that movie. My love for Godzilla grew even more in the twenty tens with the more American versions. In twenty fourteen, and then we had Godzilla, King of Monsters in twenty nineteen, and obviously all the verses movies that we were talking about earlier, but even shin Godzilla in twenty sixteen. And it wasn't until Godzilla Minus one came out that I realized how much this character had been a part of my life growing up, because I was so much like every other kid growing up, infatuated when dinosaurs as a kid, and Godzilla was just like the go to dinosaur if it wasn't Godzilla. I loved Reptar growing up. Jurassic Park always loved me some dinosaurs. But thirty eight movies split into all different eras, different studios, different countries, But they did announce they're going to make a sequel to Godzilla minus one called Godzilla minus zero, but it's also written as Godzilla minus zero.

00:29:47
Speaker 2: Point zero zero point zero.

00:29:51
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty three movie brought a true artistic vision to a character that has been around since nineteen fifty four with movies like Godzilla, Son of Godzilla in sixty seven and all these classic monster movies. But Godzilla Minus one went on to make over one hundred and thirteen million dollars worldwide, also became the first movie in the franchise in its seventy year history to win an oscar, taking home the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It also became the highest grossing live action Japanese movie ever at the North American box office, so it proved that there is a demand for this character when done with an artistic vision. Also made for a relatively low budget for how great and big that movie looked. So one of my most anticipated sequels has to be Godzilla minus zero. It is number one on the list with thirty eight movies in the franchise and counting. Long live Godzilla. Let's get into It now a spoiler free movie review a Predator bad Lands where the hunter now becomes the hunted. This is an interesting time for me to really be getting into the Predator movies because it's from director Dan Trachenberg, who earlier this year also co directed Predator Killer of Killers, which was the animated movie on.

00:31:16
Speaker 2: Hulu that one I just kind of watched on a whim.

00:31:19
Speaker 1: I've never been huge into the Predator or alien movies, and I was like, this is actually really good. There was a lot of emotional depth that I wasn't expecting, some really great action and I was like, all right, I want to see what this live action one is all about, because it kind of changes what we know about the Predator character because he has often been the bad guy, the one hunting down other people, but here he is now the one you are rooting for. He is now the protagonist because what you have in Predator bad Lands is a predator named Deck who is the runt of his klan. He is cast out at the beginning of the movie, goes through something really traumatic. He is now on a hostile planet where everything, no matter where you turn, is trying to kill you. But he is there to kill this creature known as the Callusk, who is this giant creature that can regenerate himself, probably ten, maybe fifteen, even twenty times bigger than Deck is, and he wants to kill that creature, take its skull back to his klan, back to his planet, to prove to his family that he's not the runt, that he can take on the biggest task. And that is what he is trying to do. But he's gonna need some help to get there, because who he encounters first is el Fannings character, who is this android robot that has been split in half automatically. You get a great visual there where it's Deck teaming up with el Fannings character literally carrying her on his back. It is this fantastic kind of banjo kazui type relationship.

00:32:46
Speaker 2: That was really heartwarming.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: And that is what you have in this movie that I wasn't really expecting is all these unlikely characters coming together to take on the big bad and you discover different villains along the way. What I found the most entertaining about this movie is it does not waste any time. The movie is right under one hour and forty minutes and you get dropped into this world that does take a little bit of getting used to because they do speak this entirely different language. It is almost like a foreign language film because they speak yaukcha, I think is how you pronounce it, which was this language developed for this movie. Written Watkins is a linguist who developed this full language for this movie, all the grammar, all the vocabulary for the first time in this franchise. He was recommended by the same guy who created the Navi language for the Avatar movies and Demetria Schuster, who plays Deck in the movie The Predator, had to learn this entire language for this film. So not only did he have to do all of the obstacles and physical stunts that Deck has to do throughout this movie, he also learned an entirely new language to play this character. It's already hard enough for an actor to learn all your lines, but having to learn an entirely different language that on top of the physicality of this role, and also the fact that there are not many human characters at all in this movie.

00:34:05
Speaker 2: So that is really the only hurdle you have.

00:34:07
Speaker 1: To get over at the beginning of this movie where you are doing a lot of reading. From start to finish, you will do a lot of reading, and you don't really pick up on anything. Because sometimes when I watch maybe movies from South Korea or Japan or Germany or some other country where I don't know the language, I kind of start to pick up on it a little bit. And I always watch a foreign language film with subtitles because I want to hear the original dialect and feel that emotion. That's a little bit harder to do in this movie. So it is a lot of reading and interpreting. But after a while, after the first twenty minutes, you kind of start to get used to it, and once el Fanning's character is introduced and she is the one speaking English, you're like, Okay, that is the character who represents all of us. Since she is a robot, she is able to change what Deck is hearing, so she can speak in English, but to him it sounds like his predator language. So they were very clear about it explaining that, because I know, sometimes movies just kind of start talking English and you're like, why in the world would he know English? But they do explain that, maybe even over explain it, but I'm kind of glad they did address that. But once you get through the language barrier, you really start to appreciate how much action is in this movie where Deck is fighting one battle after another, to quote another recent movie title, because once he is on this planet, literally everything there is trying to kill him. From the moment he steps foot on that planet. Immediately there are things everywhere trying to kill him. From the trees, from the bugs, from the grass, from everything he encounters. It is all designed to kill whoever steps foot.

00:35:44
Speaker 2: On this planet.

00:35:44
Speaker 1: And he quickly learns how many people have failed in this mission that he is set out to so it is hard for him to accept help. But that is kind of the overall message of this movie. Much like a suicide squad or a Guardians of the Galaxy is taking a group of unlikely heroes forcing them to work together. But that is kind of the beauty of it, finding that beauty where it's not supposed to be, finding a family where you don't expect to find that family. The visuals were amazing. My only regret was not seeing this movie in imax. I had the action, and at the core of that was the emotion of this movie was the thing I was probably the most surprised by where I started to feel for all of these characters as I learned all of their history, all of their traumas.

00:36:31
Speaker 2: Where if it were just a straight ahead action.

00:36:34
Speaker 1: Movie and you just had the big sequences, the big explosions, all the crazy things trying to kill Deck, it would have been a fine standard movie and I would have left satisfied. But it was starting to really weigh on me emotionally, and by the end of it, I was just rooting for these characters. I had felt like I had gone to this planet with them, I took this adventure with them. It was much like some of my favorite road trip and it venture movies, where it was pretty clear the mission. They want to go from point A to point B, they want to take down this villain, and they want to go home simple enough. It made me realize that, man, you can do a big sci fi movie like this and cut all the boring stuff out, because my biggest complaint with a lot of the Star Wars stuff recently, and I just had a lot of visions of the last time I watched the Star Wars project, the Alcolyte, where you get introduced to all these new characters and all this backstory.

00:37:32
Speaker 2: There is just so much.

00:37:33
Speaker 1: Dialogue in a Star Wars movie where they try to explain the origins of all these planets. They get into twenty minute conversations that mean nothing, and by the end of it, you're like, Okay, I learned all this stuff, but that really didn't impact me emotionally. Predator bad Lands prove to me that you can make a movie about a planet that cuts all that stuff out and just leaves the things you need to know.

00:37:56
Speaker 2: They didn't overload you with information.

00:37:58
Speaker 1: They cut out all the that showed you what you wanted to see, what you came here for and then got on with it, and then just did a really good job at driving home the emotion more so than all the war, which I think is what Star Wars movies are really trying to build right now, is create all these worlds and just essentially give you a history lesson where it feels like you need to be taking notes the entire time.

00:38:22
Speaker 2: But this was just a highly.

00:38:23
Speaker 1: Entertaining movie that even if you knew nothing, which I am not that familiar with the Predator world, even if you knew nothing, you could hop right into this movie.

00:38:33
Speaker 2: And understand it.

00:38:35
Speaker 1: It would be like jumping into a really cold lake and you'd have to warm your body up a little bit. But once you get through that, you have all the facts you need to know, You have all the tools you need to go on this journey, and it's just a really good time. To me, it felt like one of the best hero origin stories we've had in the last five years, comparing any superhero, comparing anything in the sci fi world where you have this this unlikely hero who goes from zero to hero.

00:39:04
Speaker 2: In any hero.

00:39:05
Speaker 1: Origin story or any superhero movie, the moment where your hero pulls himself up and shows you what it takes to be a hero, where you, as the viewer, get excited because you've seen him hit the lowest of lows, come to a point where you don't think they can pick themselves back up again, where they're not going to be able to complete their mission, and then rise to the occasion. There was a moment in Predator bad Lands where I wanted to get up from my seat because I felt so inspired and also knowing that they gave us everything. They didn't leave any cards on the table when it came to this, but also are building up to sequels that I'm actually interested in, so I also know that the best is still yet to come in this franchise. I think the sequel could be even better than the first one, which is something that rarely happens in a franchise like this, because now that I know these characters so well, I'm ready to go on this journey. And in the next movie, we don't need to build that out anymore. We can test their relationships push them even further. This movie teaches you what it takes to be great and how you can prove some people wrong. So for Predator bad Lands, I give it a strong four out of five Hunters.

00:40:20
Speaker 2: It's time to head down to movie Mike Trey, Lar Paul, Are we really doing this again?

00:40:27
Speaker 1: Stream seven coming out next year February twenty seven to twenty twenty six.

00:40:34
Speaker 2: Nev Campbell is back. Even though she was in five.

00:40:38
Speaker 1: People are making such a big deal about her being back in seven.

00:40:42
Speaker 2: She already made her return, but she dipped out of six because she thought she wasn't.

00:40:48
Speaker 1: Getting paid enough. How dare they not pay Nev Campbell what she is worth? She is what is keeping this franchise alive now that Jenna Wortega is no longer a part of it and Melissa Barrera.

00:40:59
Speaker 2: They brought new blood back.

00:41:01
Speaker 1: Into this franchise, and now this just feels like kicking the dead horse or doing whatever you want with the dead don't do everything you want with the dead horse. But it just feels like a franchise that is trying to squeeze every single penny, every little ounce of blood.

00:41:16
Speaker 2: We're gonna read your nigga, We're gonna make another screen movie.

00:41:20
Speaker 1: Bacon on the Nostalgia and scream was so revolutionary back in the nineties because it brought a genre back from the dead. The slasher genre that it had become so stale by the eighties. It was just like, oh, another slasher movie. But they did it by making it cool in nineties and making it more meta, placing in all these rules on how to survive a horror movie.

00:41:43
Speaker 2: You said, Wes Craven.

00:41:44
Speaker 1: Behind the camera, one of the true horror icon visionaries rip. But now here we are in this trailer, it is essentially doing the same thing they did back in twenty twenty two, and now they're like Nev Campbell is back, Matthew Lillard is coming back. They're also kind of spoiling their own movie by telling you everybody who is going to be in this but now ghost Face looks a little bit more intense, which they did this already do. That is what had me excited about Scream five is in that trailer.

00:42:13
Speaker 2: When I first saw it before going.

00:42:15
Speaker 1: To see the movie, I was like, Oh, ghost Face looks a little bit more menacing. His mask is a little bit worn, he looks a little bit more intense, and the stake seemed higher, the killing seemed a little bit more brutal. So it felt kind of like it was reinventing itself. It coined the term the requel, which is both a reboot and a sequel, which I loved.

00:42:36
Speaker 2: Scream five was good.

00:42:37
Speaker 1: Scream six was okay, But now in Scream seven, it is the cinematic equivalent of your ex texting you you up where I don't want to reply to that text. Not that I even have an ex, but just using this comparison, here, this is the franchise telling me you still want some of this, You still want to come watch these movies. I'm like, no, I shouldn't, But then I watched.

00:43:02
Speaker 2: This trailer, I'm like, oh man, that part was.

00:43:05
Speaker 1: Kind of cool, but what you have in this movie, Sidney Prescott has built a whole new life and then her darkest spear comes to life as she realized her daughter so not her, becomes the next target of ghost Face, and Sydney in this trailer is so just unbothered by ghost Face, doesn't care. She's like, you're just some other dude behind a voice changer. Come at me, bro, But whenever ghost Face goes after her daughter, she's like, oh no, now I gotta kill you. So before we get into more about the Scream seven trailer, which is coming out next year, here is just a little bit of the trailer.

00:43:44
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello Sydney, did you miss me?

00:43:51
Speaker 1: Nice little town you found.

00:43:54
Speaker 2: You and your pretty daughter reminds me of where we grew up. Where is my daughter? I'm gonna burn it all down, mother, That's gonna be fun. I'm gonna burn it old down.

00:44:19
Speaker 1: That is the scene I was referencing that kind of entice me where you see ghost space just before that with a big old thing of gas pouring it everywhere, and then he is walking out of his house just completely engulfed in flames like.

00:44:32
Speaker 2: A superhero almost.

00:44:34
Speaker 1: And that scene alone had me thinking, Okay, maybe I'm gonna have to go to the theater one more time to watch another screen movie, because even though I know it's gonna be exactly beat for beat the last two movies that they did, this also just feels exactly like Halloween that came out in twenty eighteen, where you had Lorie Strode now trying to keep her relationship with her daughter, but then she has.

00:44:59
Speaker 2: To granddaughter in the mix.

00:45:01
Speaker 1: It's gonna be that movie just now in twenty twenty six. But what Scream did back in the nineties was bringing the who Done It into a slash movie, which you didn't get that. With the Michael Myers movies, you knew exactly who the killer was. You didn't get that with Friday the Thirteenth, you didn't get that with a Nightmare on Elm Street, all those killers were known. But that is the thing that will make these movies entertaining no matter what. You just have to figure out who is it, who is behind the mask, why are they doing it? Is it one person? Is it two people? And I think that is what the Scream franchise has that others do not. I know what you did last summer. Tried to bring that back earlier this year, but that movie was a mess.

00:45:44
Speaker 2: Even though I.

00:45:45
Speaker 1: Feel that Scream seven has already revealed who the killer is going to be based upon who they have announced and even teased at the end of the trailer, Matthew Lillard is confirmed to be in this movie. And in that very last line you hear somebody say this is gonna be fun. That sounds exactly like Matthew Lillard.

00:46:04
Speaker 2: Listen to that again, That's gonna be fun. That is him. Here is him from the other screen movies.

00:46:11
Speaker 1: I'll be right back, same voice, And I have to imagine That is what's going to excite people who are fans of this franchise, which there are some very passionate Scream fans who love the lore of this love all the references from Sidney Prescott naming her daughter after one of her friends, all the old Killers coming back. Courtney Cox is still in this movie. David Arquette isn't in these movies, And for the most part, if an old actor.

00:46:46
Speaker 2: Isn't in the news Scream movie.

00:46:49
Speaker 1: It's because well, what else would happens to their character? But then again, there are no rules in the screen franchise because Matthew Lillard, if you remember what happened to him in the first movie, they can make anything up. They can bring anybody back, so there are really no rules that they have to follow. The only real rule they have to follow is can they pay them enough money to get them in this movie. Joe McHale does play Sidney Prescott's husband in this movie. I am very suspicious of his character because what you see in the trailer is him being attacked.

00:47:22
Speaker 2: But if I learned.

00:47:23
Speaker 1: Anything from watching horror movies is you always have to pay attention to the love interests, whether they're just dating whether they're married, especially if they've recently just come into the picture, they are suspect number one in my book. So I would keep my eyes on Joe McHale's character because even though you see him being attacked, I have my suspicions because of how close he is to Sydney. I have to imagine he played a part in them going to this remote town trying to get away from everything. He knows too many details. So even though Scream is not my favorite franchise, I do respect what it has done for the horror genre. If I had to create a mount rushmore of horror icons, ghost Face would be up there because of just how recognizable that face is and how memorable these movies have been over the years, and the fact that this movie will come out in theaters and probably still make some decent money. And boy, did we just have one of the worst Octobers of all time at the box office. We need movies like this. And the crazy thing about October is there were so many original movies, great movies that we talked about here, but they just didn't entice people enough to get them into a theater to pay for a ticket to go.

00:48:41
Speaker 2: And see them.

00:48:42
Speaker 1: On the big screen. But it does open my eyes just a little bit. I'm not giving into the corporations completely, but you can start to see why some of these businesses are investing so much in IP and why they do crank out movies like this year after year, even though we complain about them online, saying we want original ideas. When those original ideas don't get the support that they need, then you start to get your scream sevens.

00:49:11
Speaker 2: And it is a tough thing. I'll compare this to me being vegan.

00:49:14
Speaker 1: Sometimes when I go out to dinner and I go to a restaurant and they have one vegan option, and they expect me to be so excited for that one vegan option. Sometimes I still don't want to eat that one vegan option because it doesn't sound good to me because it's some salad with cherry tomatoes and I hate cherry tomatoes. That is my worst food of all time. I will not eat one. I just can't do it. And you're like, no, but there's one vegan option.

00:49:40
Speaker 2: You're vegan, you need to eat this.

00:49:42
Speaker 1: If somebody along those same lines is saying, oh man, I'm so sick of all these remakes and sequels and reboots. I just want an original movie. Oh hey, well this week there is this new movie out, totally original. You should go check it out. And you look at the title, look at the people in it, and you're like, nah, that doesn't sound good to me. There I heard bad things about it actually, And you're like, what I thought you were just saying that you want an original movie. But now everybody just turned away, Rufman. Everybody turned away the Bruce Springsteen movie. We don't want that. We have to continue to make movies and try to find the audiences. What do people want to see? And sometimes I just start to see why these movies just continue to come out. I mean, the trailer alone came out a week ago and it has over ten million views on YouTube. There is an audience for this. I'm still bummed that Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega will no longer be a part of this franchise. I think, to me, they are what made it different, what made it more exciting.

00:50:40
Speaker 2: It just feels like all.

00:50:41
Speaker 1: The movies now are going to be a retread on things we have already seen before. But I am willing to give Scream one more shot. And I say that now. But then when screammay comes out in like twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty eight, I guess that makes more sense. I'm going to be here having the same conversation because there'll be one little detail ghost face burning up an entire house that'll get me crawling back. But again, Scream seven comes out in theaters on February twenty seventh, twenty twenty six. I don't know why I sound even more dejected now.

00:51:12
Speaker 2: Said that was this week's edition of movie Lie Framer par N.

00:51:17
Speaker 1: 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. This week, I'm going over to my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash Mike Distro. I post individual movie reviews over.

00:51:32
Speaker 2: There on that channel.

00:51:33
Speaker 1: Last week put up my review of Bagonia after Kelsey and I saw it in thirty five millimeter, And this week's listener shout out of the week goes to a comment from Lord Salamie thirteen thirty five. It's always funny when I get a really nice comment and then I'm like, okay, I need a shout out this person, And then I go to their username, and it's always something weird like Lord Salami thirteen thirty five. The contrast is always just entertaining to me. But Lord Salami says saw this at the bell Court this past week as well. Great video. Thank you Lord Salami for checking out the channel on YouTube. I am glad that you have also experienced watching a movie at the Bell Court, which I know if you don't live in Nashville and you hear us talk about that theater so much, it might fall on deaf ears to you. But I encourage you to find your Bell Court, your independent theater in your city, in your area. Maybe you gotta drive thirty minutes to go to it, but I do think you will get a more unique experience. I especially love it for smaller movies like Bagonia, which I was bummed to see. It had a pretty low opening weekend four point eight million in its wide release, has still only made under ten million dollars worldwide, and it costs forty five million dollars to produce. It's just sad to me then a movie that good that'll probably end up in my top ten easily, maybe even my top five of the year, will not make money and do We just need to start making movies cheaper. What is happening here, but support movies like Bagonia. Go to your local theater. Thank you, Lord Salami, thank you for listening. And until next time, everybody a part of the movie crew.

00:53:15
Speaker 2: Go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later