Mike's Top 10 Most Anticipated Summer Blockbusters + Movie Review: Top Gun: Maverick and why it's BETTER Than the Original + Remembering Ray Liotta

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike, and my favorite time of the year has finally arrived. So I want to share with you my top ten most anticipated summer blockbuster movies. I feel like it's gonna be a great summer if you're like me and enjoy watching a movie on the big screen and kicking it all off was Top Gun Maverick, which came out over the weekend, so I have that full spoiler free review coming up for you, and then we'll keep that theme going in the trailer park and talk about the new Mission Impossible movie that's kind of riding the wave of Top Gun and Tom Cruise going into next year. Shout out to the Monday Morning movie crew. You guys, well you already know what this is. Let's talk movies. In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking aud MTV with's glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Networks Movie I've looked forward to the summer ever since I was a kid. For multiple reasons, because it meant the end of school, because growing up I always wanted to go to the Warp Tour, which took place in the summer. But my favorite thing out of all those things was it meant that I could see all the movies I've been looking forward to on the big screen. All the big franchises came out in the summer, and in the last ten years it's been heavily dominated by superhero movies. I feel a little bit of a shift now because only one superhero movie has made my top ten movies this year. But I have selected the ten movies that I feel deserved that big screen experience. And this is the time of year where I just want to completely turn my brain off and not think about anything else. I want big explosions, I want bizarre plot lines, maybe a horror movie thrown in there somebody know, you know, frighten me in the summer. I'll take that. But what I don't want to do is a whole lot of thinking. I'll save that for the fall, whenever Oscar season rolled around and I want to live in my fields a little bit and see something, you know, a little bit more novel. I'll save that for when it's cold out, but when it's summer, I want to go into a cold theater and watch something that's going to completely engulf the entire screen and really make me escape reality. I think that's why I love summer blockbusters so much, is because they are such an escape. I'm not thinking about my normal life when I go watch these type of movies, and I think that's why these movies continue to do so well. I think that's what we all look forward to when we go to the movies. We just want something that doesn't exist in our reality at all. And I think that's why superhero movies have dominated the last decade, because they don't really deal with real life problems. It's all just big explosions and big fun. So that's what I look forward to going into summer blockbuster season. Occasionally, I will settle for a drama, if done well, if there's a little bit more of an outside reason why I want to go watch that, And that's actually what I'm going to start here. At number ten, I put Where the craw Dad's Thing, which is coming out on July, and it is a book adaptation and the movie is produced by Reese Witherspoon, who is really starting to dominate as a movie producer. She is the executive producer on Where the Crawdads Sing. She put this book in her book club, I believe back in the last time she started and produced in a movie that I really enjoyed was Wild, which came out back And aside from that, Daisy Edgar Jones is the star of this movie. It's about a reclusive North Carolina woman who is accused of murder. She's kind of an outsider who lives out in the marsh, so the plot seems interesting to me. I haven't read the book yet, but my wife read it, and it's curious to see how the adaptation goes. But we are both currently also enjoying Under the Banner of Heaven, which Daisy Edgar Jones stars in. And maybe I'm just kind of into a crime drama right now, a little bit more than I was expecting to be. So that's why I put this movie at number ten. Where The Crawdad Thing comes out on July fift At number nine, coming out on June eight on Netflix is Hustle, which stars Adam Sandler. He plays this essentially like a struggling basketball coach who thinks he has found the next great NBA player, and he's trying to recruit players from overseas and bring them to play in the United States, and he thinks he's found this really great player from Spain and has to convince everybody that this player has what it takes to make it in the n b A. I really love seeing Adam Sandler in more of a dramatic role. I think that's where he really kind of flourishes and his acting abilities, which we all kind of just think of him as a comedic, you know, really zany, over the top actor, but he has some really great dramatic chops that I feel will be showcased in this movie. And it's also about a subject that he's really passionate about. I feel like Adam Sandler always finds a way to work his passions into his movies. He works in a way that he is able to do movies with all of his friends in very exotic locations. So now I feel like he has taken that passion of basketball, which he is highly known for just going and playing random pickup games in different cities and and basically every movie he goes on he has to find a time to play basketball. Well, now he has this movie about basketball, so he gets to do all those things in one I feel like he is such a smart business person on side of being one of the most famous actors of all time. So I'm really curious to see those two things combine. Trailer looks pretty good, and that's coming out on Netflix on June eighth. At number eight is a movie called Bullet Train, which is coming out on August five. It's an action comedy movie with a lot of heavyweight actors from Brad Pitt to Bad Bunny to Sandra Bullock and Joey King, and the movie is about brad Pitt's character is hired to retrieve this briefcase from this bullet train, and once he gets on board, he finds out that there are five other assassins there who are paid to do the exact same thing, and they are now all trying to kill each other to be the one to take home the briefcase. And this movie has what I see to be everything I'm looking for in a summer blockbuster movie. You have the fun, dumb action, you have the comedic aspect of it, and then you have a list stars like Brad Pitt. So I feel like you can't get any better than that when you want a movie that's gonna make you escape reality for a little bit again. That movie is called Bullet Train, coming out on August five at number seven. Another action movie with no comedy, it's called The Gray Man, which is coming out on Netflix on July fIF This movie has now set the record as the most expensive film in history, and by watching the trailer to this movie, I can see why. But with Ryan Gosling being the good guy in this movie Chris Evans being the bad guy, it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. The movie is about Ryan Gosling's character. He is a skilled c I, a assassin. He finds out some dark secrets within the agency, so then he finds himself on the run from a former colleague played by Chris Evans, who is this well basically a psychopath. So the entire movie is Ryan Gosling has a target on his head and people want him dead trying to retrieve this bounty. The movie also includes Billy, Bob Thornton and another Ottomas in the cast. And the interesting about this movie and some of the other movies on this list is that it has that big summer blockbuster feel, but it's going straight to Netflix. And when you have the Russo brothers directing this movie, who have also done movies like Avengers Endgame and Infinity War and Captain America, you know you're gonna get those big special effects and that big cinematic field. And it's kind of based on whatever viewing system you have at home to be able to take that in, which is interesting because I feel as excited about this movie as I am about the other movies on this list. But the reason I rank it a little bit lower is knowing that I won't have that full big screen experience or have the option to watch it that way or have that same big sound. And part of the thing that I love going to watch a movie in theaters like that is experiencing and feeling that I don't really get that same kind of thing at home. Yes, it is a little bit more convenient, but there's something about the rumble of a movie theater, even when you're just walking down the hall and you hear another movie like in Progress and you're like, oh man, they're at a good part right now. Like that part of the theater experience just really excites me and kind of makes me feel like I'll miss a little bit by not seeing this movie in theaters, But again we don't have the option because it's coming out on Netflix. So that's number seven, The Gray Man, which is coming out on July. At number six, I gotta have my horror movie fix in here. And the movie I've been looking forward to a while is finally coming out on June. It's called The Black Phone stars Ethan Hawk, and the movie follows this young teenager who was abducted by a serial killer and then once he's kidnapped, there is this disconnected phone it allows him to communicate with the previous victims, which just sounds utterly insane. And Ethan Hawk is such a great actor that I really love him when he steps into horror movies, and his character kind of gives me Pennywise from It vibes. And there's just something that excites me about a masked serial killer in a movie that just is reminiscent of all my original favorite horror movies like Halloween, Friday, The Thirteen, Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, Chucky, like all those classics. I feel like when there's a mask involved, it just kind of heightens the level of horror for me. And this movie just looks really creepy. So I'm excited to have that feeling of maybe a movie finally scaring me again in movie theaters. But that is called The Black Phone comes out my birthday weekend on June. I don't know why I had to get that shameless birthday plug in there. Made it now to the top five. At number five, I'm going with Jurassic World Dominion, which comes out on June tenth. I really enjoyed the Juras Sick World rebooted series here, and this is the final one in this installment. So there's been three of these movies now. And while these movies aren't the most rewatchable, they don't have the same kind of classic feel as the original Jurassic Park movies. But anytime you put dinosaurs on the screen, you can almost fill in all the other gaps that it just makes for an entertaining movie. And I think as a kid, like many other kids, I just had this fascination with dinosaurs. There's something cool about seeing something that we've only seen pictures of, we've never really experienced. There's obviously no real life footage, but having Jurassic Park bring historic creatures to life just creates a really fun movie. And what I'm most excited about is the original o G cast from Jurassic Park coming back in this movie. You have Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and my favorite, the One and Only Jeff Goldbloom who are back to help Chris Pratt's character in this movie, and they're all just trying to save the dinosaurs. However, I do feel like this movie will have a little bit of a cheesy quality to it just by watching the trailer. I don't know how I feel about dinosaurs in the winter environment. I feel like they were just trying to create a new setting to take the Jurassic Park characters in. That felt a little bit different, That felt a little bit new. I don't know if I love that so much, so I can look past the cheesy action in this to be able to relive a little bit of my childhood. But that's coming out on June tenth. So another movie just right around the corner at number four, I am going with light Year, which is coming out on June. It is the quote unquote true story of Buzz Lightyear, who is the person in the Toy Story world that would have inspired the Space Ranger dolls. So if Andy from Toy Story it was a real kid, this would be the movie that he would have seen in theaters and made him want the buzz Lightyear toy. So it's this totally fictionalize the world within the Toy Story universe, but not a Toy Story movie. When you have Chris Evans making another appearance on this list, he's the voice a buzz light Year in this movie, so it's all about his character and kind of his origin story, which I think is interesting and I really love the direction they are taking this character, which they could have easily just made like a buzz Lightyear solo kids movie and that would have been successful. But this feels more like a love letter to sci fi film. It has almost a Star Wars quality to it. The soundtrack looks interesting and for a Pixar Disney movie, it looks nothing like that type of animation. You don't really have those same big like eye qualities, the same kind of bubbly three D animation that we're all used to with Pixar movies. It looks very sleek, very refined, and a little bit more lifelike and realistic with you know, still that little Pixar LM meant with like the cat character in this and the buzz Lightyear suit, having the same kind of specs of the toy, but just having a more kind of realistic approach, which is the cool step for Pixar movies to go. And I really like this whole world they could create of you know, origin stories. Maybe the next one we get is the Woody origin story. This movie just looks like a big, fun adventure and I think one that kids will like and that parents will also enjoy or thirty year olds like me will also be in the theater and lose their minds over at Number three also coming out on June, and I think this movie will easily dominate that weekend at the box office. And it is Elvis, and I've been seeing so many good things about this movie and it has all the qualities that I love in a film set back in the day. It's a biopic, Ya bos Lhrman as the director, Austin Butler who plays Elvis, Tom Hanks playing his manager, Colonel Parker, And with biopics, you always have to wonder if they are going to do the story justice if they are going to cover all of the early aspects of icons lives. And the problem I usually have with biopics is they tend to gloss over some of the grittier details. Sometimes the pacing is off and it goes from them just being young and not famous to all of a sudden super famous. And I get you have to fit a lot into a two and a half hour movie, but I still feel like you need that struggle in the beginning. You need all those early qualities that I just want to learn through the film. I don't want to have to have previous outside knowledge to kind of fill in the gaps. I want to experience that and see that character fleshed out just like any other movie character. Just because we know who Elvis is. We shouldn't have to learn or assume things because of what we just know from history. And why I think that this movie will get into the darker side, or at least tell the whole story of Elvis is that his family has come out saying that it's a great representation of him. They're saying it's nothing short of spectacular, and when it comes to the casting, I feel like that is right on like Austin Butler looks like a young Elvis. He really took this role seriously. He said for two years, he didn't exist in the world like he was Elvis. The entire time while filming this movie, he lived and breathed Elvis, and he almost kind of had like a weird emotional snapback once the movie wrapped and he went back to being himself. So if he truly was in the role, I feel like that will greatly play out on the big screen and will really kind of do this movie justice and do elvis story justice. And I hope everything goes in this movie and it's not just a fluffy biopic, which I don't think we're gonna get its, specially with bos Lerman directing this movie, who has also done movies like Mulan Rouge, The Great Gatsby, and Romeo and Juliet. He has this very stylistic approach that will be interesting to see how it applies to Elvis. Again that it's coming out on June. At number two coming out on July, I'm going with a movie called Nope. It is from one of my favorite new directors, Jordan Peel, who also did Get Out and Us and I feel like he is what I go to when I want a modern horror movie, which is what I considered to be a little bit more elevated horror. While I do enjoy the classic slasher films, I like movies that take you a little bit more on a psychological ride. His movies always have like a message or overall lasting kind of like, oh man, that's what he was trying to say in that movie. And I also love that Jordan Peel doesn't really give a whole lot of details about his movie, doesn't reveal a whole lot in the trailer, and it leads this kind of feeling of like mystery, And I like that going into a movie, I don't want to know every single thing after watching the trailer. I want there to be an element of I have to go and see this movie to figure out what it's all about, what is happening in this movie. You give away an entire movie in the trailer. It's probably not that great a movie, and especially when it comes to a horror movie, you don't want the best parts ruin for you. But what I've learned about the plot, it's basically these caretakers at this California Horse Ranch. There's some mysterious force coming from the sky, and it looks like it's going to be a movie about humans and aliens, and maybe by the end of it you believe in aliens. And from the times that I've recommended Jordan Peel's movies to other people, I feel like you either love or hate them, especially if you go into it wanting to be scared. I don't think it will leave you with that. I think they're more of a mind game. They're more of like what is happening in this So if you enjoy movies that kind of leave you with that feeling, I think Nope will probably be that next one for you again. That comes out on July twenty and at number one. The thing I'm excited for every single summer is what is going to be the big Marvel movie. Dr Strange wasn't really it for me, But coming out on July eight is Thore, Love and Thunder, And after seeing this last trailer that just came out last week, I feel like this may be one of the top ten Marvel movies ever. And I feel like four is such an underrated Marvel character, and I feel like Thour is such an underrated Marvel character and his story has really just kind of flourished in the last movie, and I feel like this one is going to have it all. It's going to have the comedy, it's going to have the action. Christian Bale is the villain in this and looks utterly insane, and just think of the level of actor that Christian Bale is. You have Batman coming into the m c U now playing a villain. I couldn't really asked for anything more. On most the thing I'm anticipating the most is seeing him as Gore, the god butcher. But then you have Natalie Portman back. I feel like she kind of got screwed out of being in the m c U being in the early thor movies. Felt like if this character would have been around for the Avengers movies, that would have been amazing. But maybe now it's just the right place at the right time and fitting perfectly into this store installment. So that is the list. Take your pick and do yourself a favor. Go see a movie in theaters this summer. All right, let's get into our movie review now. I'm talking about Top Gun. Maverick. Was it worth the weight? And I posted my initial thoughts online, and you would have thought I said the most controversial thing ever. And all I'm gonna say is Top Gun two was better than Top Gun one, and I'll explain that. But before I get into my full spoiler free review, here's just a little bit of the trailer. You're not my first choice if you were here at the request maadmore Kazanski a k e Iceman. He seems to think that you have something left to offer the naming. What that is, I can't imagine all th you respects her, I just want to manage the expectations. So what you have in Top Gun Maverick. It's Tom Cruise's character Maverick, basically thirty years after the original film, and he is back doing reckless things, pushing the limits being Maverick, and he finds himself back at Top Gun, but this time, instead of flying, he is the one teaching about a dozen young pilots and they're going on this really dangerous mission and basically he is the only one who can get them to this level that they need to be at their most elite. You have a lot of the original cast back, which was cool to see, but now Miles Teller is playing Anthony Edwards, who was Goose in the original, and Meg Ryan's son, so there's this whole dynamic of them to not getting along and Maverick having to deal with these from his past all while trying to train them. And I'll preface this review by saying, if you listen to this podcast for any amount of time, you know I'm not the biggest Tom Cruise fan. Just over his career in the movies he's put out, I really gravitate more towards eighties Tom Cruise and more of his dramatic roles. But when it comes to what I look for in an action star, I don't really lean towards Tom Cruise movies. And it's just something about him that I don't really like. And I asked a question online of asking you guys what your favorite Tom Cruise movies were, and hands down, Top Gun came in at number one, So I found that interesting and just yeah, first and foremost, I wasn't the biggest fan of Top Gun one, but I was excited mainly to see how the practical effects played into this movie. I do find it so interesting how much Tom Cruise puts into making it seem as realistic as possible in the process of wanting to do his own stunts and having his co stars do the same. And I have to say that really paid off in the movie. And why I found myself so much more invested in this one is when you have action like this in the air, in these airplanes, it's so much more detailed and you feel so much more inside of that with this style of cinematography, and they really kind of pushed the limits of making it seems so realistic, almost to the point that you forget how hard it would have been to do the same kind of movie back in the eighties, and now just having so many more advances in technology, it really makes you feel like you're in it. And I really loved how they capture that kind of anxiety inducing thrill of a great summer blockbuster movie. So cinematography really lived up to my expectations and made the action that much more entertaining. Because when I watched Top Gun one, I just rewatched it on Netflix a few weeks ago, it almost felt like I was playing like an old big Deo game, and the style of a movie back then was just a little bit disjointed, and I didn't really feel like it was that believable. So now everything in this new one I really loved, and the pacing of this one was just so much better that there were no real lulls in the movie except for a couple of plot points that I didn't love. I didn't really love the romance story thrown in there. I felt like it would have been a completely fine movie without kind of forcing that in there. But when it came to the action, when it came to all the new characters, which I thought was a big part of it. They were able to do something in a movie I haven't seen done this well in a really long time, and it was having a time to give all these side characters kind of their own personality, because that was such a big thing in the original Top Gun movie. You like hearing all their call sign names, and in this movie you're introduced to so many more people, and it really kind of creates this camaraderie among the cast, and it really allows us to feel more connected to the movie because as at the core of it, yes, Maverick is the main character and the one everybody's rooting for, but then you have the other cast that you're like getting to know and maybe you're more of a Hangman person, Maybe you're more of a Phoenix person, maybe you're more of a Bob guy. I just love that they were able to create the supporting cast that I feel could set itself up for a sequel to this movie. And like I said, I'm not the biggest Tom Cruise fan, but I was almost able to set that aside while watching this movie. And I think the reason is because then his other action movies like Mission Impossible or like that Bad Mummy movie he made, it's a little bit more reliant on him as an action star. He always likes to, you know, run around and do things that you know he probably can't really do, and it doesn't really feel unbelievable to me. But while watching this movie, it's a lot more of his mentality that's the driving force and his skill while flying a plane, which just feels a little bit more believable to me. And I just feel like he really becomes Maverick in this role and really feels like he just dominates the screen. And I kind of realized, like that is why he is such a big movie star. I found him charming, I found him oddly the best looking I've ever seen Tom Cruise look in a movie, and I just found overall like he really enjoyed getting back into this character, and it didn't really feel like lessened in any way. It really felt like a continuation thirty years later. So do I think fans of the original Top Gun will be happy with this movie? Absolutely? I think if Top Gun was one of your favorite movies or is your favorite Tom Cruise movie, you're going to love this one. After I posted that about this movie, a lot of people were jumping on me saying like, how in the world could be better than the original war that I was, you know, giving it too much credit. And I would imagine if you grew up in the eighties or just as a kid, you watch Top Gun and loved it, it would be hard to kind of take that down the level as your aver A movie. So I get that. I was obviously born after that movie came out, so I didn't really know and it's heyday. I watched it later in the nineties as a kid, so I don't really have any early emotional attachment to this movie like some other people do. So I just felt like everything that a Top Gun movie could have been back in the eighties really kind of made more sense making this movie now, so that's why I enjoy it more. And I also felt like seeing it in a full theater with a lot of people added to that experience, and I give credit to Tom Cruise for that, for making this a wait to see this in theaters, because I really think that experience heightened the whole thing. So that's how I think it compares to the original. I think this is one of the biggest blockbusters we've had in a very long time that's not a superhero movie, which is also exciting to see. It's the most like packed I've seen the movie theater parking lot. We were in a smaller theater, and even this one was packed. So I really feel like this is getting people out there who maybe haven't seen a movie in two, three or four years to go back and have that kind of experience again. So that part of it I really love. So not only was this my favorite of the top gun movies, but it's probably maybe top three of my favorite Tom Cruise movies. Now, like I said, I don't really like action Tom Cruise. I'm more into eighties drama Tom Cruise, so I leaned towards him and the Outsiders. I leaned towards him in rain Man Like those are my favorite Tom Cruise movies. I also like Into the World stuff with Tom Cruise, So Wore The World's The Edge of Tomorrow. Those are probably my top five favorite Tom Cruise movies now. And I would rank Top Gun Maverick over the original Top Gun, and that's mainly because I don't feel like Tom Cruise made the original Top Gun. There were other people in that movie, like Meg Ryan, like Val Kilmer that were had a bigger role. I would say in that Top Gun movie, like this one is all Tom Cruise. He's the main character. Everybody else is kind of supporting cast. I felt like in the original Top Gun there were several stars in that movie, although I will say Miles Teller had a really strong performance and I was just kind of giving him crab last week of not knowing if he was a great actor or just kind of there, And in this movie I saw a little bit more, so I would say he was the other standout in the cast. Also, John Ham plays a really good guy that you don't really root for in the movie, and I don't want to say too much about it. Even though Tom Cruise has been out talking about how much he fought for Val Kilmer to be a part of this movie. I will say after watching Val Kilmer's documentary on Amazon, it made his role in this movie that much more emotional. To see him back as Iceman felt really special just knowing his story. So I feel like for the original fans of the movie, I think that was just a really cool part to experience. I also just think this is one of the best action movies we've had in a very long time. It wasn't your average just things blowing up movie. There's just something about watching these type of planes like that in the air and the almost anxiety inducing aerial acrobatics just all over the place, and Maverick just kind of pushing those limits. Like I don't know anything about flying, but after watching this movie, it made me want to go and, you know, learn how to fly, which I think is the direct result after Top Gun one is everybody signing up for the Navy so they could fly planes like this. So it's one of the best action movies in a very long time. My really my main criticism was back to them kind of forcing a love story into this. There's also just a little bit of cheese and this to a Top Gun movie, And I think it's because it tries to emulate that eighties style just a little bit where you could be a little bit more cheesy. There's just something about that mentality when you're trying to portray these types of characters that lends itself towards that cheesiness. So I almost felt like the acting was taken down the level, like it was a little bit apparent in some of these scenes that they were acting to me, which was surprising for an actor like Tom Cruise. But maybe it was just the writing in there. Again, I'm not expecting something super deep, But if there was anything that took me a little bit out of the experience was when it tried to be a little bit more dramatic and where it tried to be a little bit more than surface level action. I don't feel like it really flourished in that scene. I don't feel like it really needed to explore that as much as it did, although oddly it did get a little bit more emotional than I was expecting. And this kind of leads me to my next point is do you have to see Top Gun one to watch Top Gun two? And enjoy it. Not necessarily, they do remind you what happened in the original one with all the characters. They kind of set that stage again. But if you haven't seen the first one, I don't feel like some of the emotional moments will have the same effect on you, so you don't have to. But it's on Netflix right now and you can go watch that before you go see this in theaters and it will take it up a level for you. And I will stand by saying that Top Gun two was better than Part one, but I do recognize what Top Gun one set up. That movie needed to crawl for this movie to be able to get up and run, so it doesn't exist without part one. But I feel the story here is better, the conflict is better, the action is better, and somehow Maverick makes more sense in this role. In this position, it's a little bit more heroic and you kind of get more of a grasp of how good of a pilot he is. So that's why, overall, I just think it's a better movie, and it does leave you wanting more. Like I was saying earlier, it creates this entire new cast that you get to know, and it doesn't really just focus on, you know, building up Tom Cruise is Maverick, A lot of other people have their little moments to shine, especially with Miles Teller, So I could even see it at a point of them making maybe another Top Gun movie with Tom Cruise, but eventually you don't even need him anymore. If you continue to flesh out these characters and put them in more situations where they can exist on their own. I think that's a possibility. To so am I dying for another Top Gun movie? I wouldn't say. I almost think the first one had such a lasting effect on pop culture and this was such a great follow up. Why not just go out on a high note, because I really don't know how you get it any better than this movie. You could probably make the exact same movie again, and we would be cool with that. But I would say, go out on a high note. Everybody seems to be loving it, so why ruin that. If I had to give this movie a rating, I would give it four out of five helmets. Now it's time for the part of the podcast where I break down a movie trailer coming to you very soon in theaters or streaming online. In a segment we call it's time to head down to movie Mike, and this week we are keeping the Tom Cruise steam alive and looking at the new Mission Impossible movie, which I don't like the title. I'll say that right off the top of it. It's called Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part one. It comes out on July Foe. I think they're kind of writing off of the momentum that Top Gun and the moment they are having right now. And I say that because this is a trailer you see right before watching Top Gun in theaters. So here is just a little bit of the new Mission Impossible. Your days of fighting for the so called greater good are for This is our chance and control the truth, the concepts of right and wrong. So I never got two into the Mission Impossible movies after the original one. I was like, Okay, that's enough for me. I know people have really been loving the latest installments of this, and I didn't really give these movies a chance. And this is the seventh installment of all the Mission Impossible movies, and the third in this series that they have going on now, following Rogue Nation and Fallout, which I know a lot of people have been enjoying. I haven't really been able to get into again. I think that's my personal thing of not really liking Tom Cruise movies. But this one looks a little bit interesting to me, even though I don't like the title. I don't like it already setting itself up to have a sequel. While watching this trailer, it looked like such great crazy stunt I candy to me that I couldn't really look away. And there's a moment in the trailer that kind of got me, and I wasn't really considering watching it until I saw Tom Cruise writing on a motorcycle flies off like the edge of a cliff. Fike goes writing and he just goes into a free fall, And in that moment, I realized that that's all I really look for in a good summer movie. And me denying myself of watching that for any other reason of I just have him been a fan of these movies, I was like, I gotta give these a chance. They made so many of them, there has to be something there. Because on the other hand, I'll go and watch every single fast in the Furious movie, which plots make no sense. It's all there for dumb jokes and big you know, races and crashes, so this one at least feels a little bit more refined. Overall, I just feel it's not completely my brand of action. I don't really like to see Tom Cruise just running on screen, which I feel is a lot of what the Mission Impossible movies are. Him running in the field, him running on roofs, you know, jumping into bodies of water. Like that's fine line. But I will give this movie a chance again. That comes out on July Free and then Dead Reckoning Part two comes out on June. So it looks like we're about you have a lot of Tom Cruise in the summer, whether we like it or not. This makes edition of movie bar and I did want to talk about this because ray Leota, as you probably saw, passed away last week. And ray Leota is such a great actor. You probably know him best as Henry Hill and good Fellas, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. When I sit down to make my top ten movies, good Fellas is always hovering around like the ten, eleven, twelve slot, and it changes over the years because new movies come out. I shift things around, but good Fellas has always been up there. There was no movie I've ever seen that had me from the opening scene one of the greatest openings to movie I think ever, and when ray Leotis says this, I was like, I'm all in. I don't really care what comes after that, like I am in and ready for this movie. As far back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. That one line that's all you needed, and that pretty much says what Good Fellas is going to be about, and it was sad to see him pass. He was also in movies like Field of Dreams. I really loved him as George Young's father in Blow. Most recently he was in Marriage Story on Netflix. And one of my favorite eighties movies is Something Wild, which I've talked about on this podcast before, and it was just a movie I remember randomly stumbling upon when I was a kid on like Saturday afternoons where they were just ruined random midday matinee and I remember watching that movie from beginning to end, and I was like, what is this kind of action comedy movie with Jeff Daniels, who I knew from Dumb and Dumber and Rayliota, who I only knew from Good Fellas, but That's still one of my favorite movies, and I just have that memory of the first time watching it. So from that, and of course Shootless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams. He also had a really great role in Observing Report with Seth Rogan. But again, I think it all comes back to Good Fellas and him as Henry Hill, and that movie just defined that whole gangster movie genre. It's really the gold standard for any kind of movie like that. It had the commercial success, it also had the critical success, and it received six Oscar nominations and one win back in which is well deserved. And Good Fellas is a movie I've watched so many times I've probably lost count, and it's it's my go to movie that if it's on TV, I'll watch it at any place. So that's really how I can't tell how many times I've watched it. I've seen it edited, I've seen it unedited, and in every version I love it. And the driving force in that movie is ray Lyota from his acting and his performance and how dominant he is as Henry Hill, but also the narration and good Fellows, which I really haven't seen done that well in a movie ever. Again, and how well his voice over carries that entire movie, and how iconic his voices in that, and how that line still lives in my head of as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. Start the movie. Let's go, let's get into this action, just the masterpiece. And it was so sad the way he passed away in his sleep while filming another movie. He does have some movies that will come out now after his passing. February three is a movie called Cocaine Bear with Elizabeth Banks that he'll be in, and that'll be the next time we get to see his work. So really sad to see that passing, and in his honor, you should probably go watch Good Fellows, especially if you've never seen it. So that'll do it for this week's episode. And I gotta get it in because I do it every single week, and it's the listeners. Shout out. If you send me an email movie Mike d at gmail dot com, if you leave a review on Apple podcast or Spotify, I go and read those and shout those people out as well. But today I'm going over to my Facebook page and I was just going through reading some of the comments on my picture that I posted outside of the theater in front of the Top Gun poster, and I wanted to shout out Darcy, who left a comment and said she watched Top Gun, loved it, saw it last night along with the trailer starring Robert Duval, Queen Latifa, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise Again, Tom Hanks, Minion, Sandra Bullock, Adam Sandler, and Elvis. All their movies looked so different and so good. I cannot wait. And Darcy, I feel like you're me and you're excited for all these movies. And I also kind of feel, maybe, Darcy, you and I have this thing in common now is I'm kind of going back to enjoying seeing a trailer in theaters again. It was just cool seeing all the different types of movies show Case, which you know, I ran through the list in this episode, but there's just so many different kind of movies coming out that no matter what kind of movie fan you are, there's something for you. And I think at the core of it, that's what I love about movies, and they are this shared experience. You can't really go somewhere and hop into a TV series like that. It doesn't really have that same kind of camaraderie aspect to it. So whether it's watching a movie trailer like this or watching the entire movie together, I think that's what I'm most excited to see back. So shout out to Darcy for leaving that comment. Thanks for everybody for listening to this week's episode. If you saw a top Gun over the weekend as well, let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear them, especially if you are opposite of me and think the original is better. So I will talk to you next week here on the podcast. Until then, go out and watch good movies and I'll talk to you later