Iconic Movie Memorabilia for Sale + Movie Review: Project Hail Mary in IMAX 70mm + Trailer Park: In The Grey

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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 movie memorabilia because some crazy cool items are going up for auction. I'll tell you how much I think they're going to go for and what movie props from history I would want to own. In the movie review. Oh, I'm so excited for this project. Hail Mary Kelsey and I got to go see it early in Imax seventy millimeter. Was it better than the book? We'll talk about that. And in the trailer park we'll be talking about a new action movie from director Guy Richie called In the Gray starring Jake Gillenhall and Henry Cavill, and I will talk about why I have been unfair to Jake Gillenhall, and I'm gonna apologize. So thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies.

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Speaker 2: Podcast network Movie Mike's Movie Podcast.

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Speaker 1: There's a company called prop Store and they are having their first entertainment memorabilia line auction. It's going down later this month in Los Angeles, and there are some really cool items on this list. Things I have never seen listed for sale before, So I want to get into the list how much they think these movie items are going to go for if for some reason, you just came into some money and you want to buy some of these things, although they are so expensive, I just don't know anybody who actually purchases these items. If I ever won the lottery, I would not tell anybody, but there would be signs because I would start buying things like this from these lists. But before we get into that, let's talk about what is driving up the price of memorabilia, which I think there has been a big boom since twenty twenty when everybody got stuck in their homes. We all started realizing, Man, there's some stuff I have around here that might be a little bit valuable, and the collecting of memorabilia has really exploded. For me, it was Pokemon cards. I have never lost interest in Pokemon cards, but it was twenty twenty where I think a bunch of people realize that, man, let me dig up this whole binder and see what I've had here since my childhood. And then it has been crazy to see how much just that industry has exploded, where Pokemon cards alone have been outpacing the stock market. But let's get into the list. First. Up is an item from Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, which came out back in nineteen eighty. It is a C three PO light up head. Back when they made the movie, this item had an estimated production cost of about two thousand to five thousand dollars, which I think is a pretty good price for something from back in the eighties. And I think a big reason why the movies from that first trilogy really hold up is because they had a lot of practical effects. C three Po was a physical thing that you could touch, which I think is going to be something that is going to change an auction like this in the next twenty to thirty, even forty years. Is how many movies now have physical props like this where it's not just cgi, the character actually exists in the human world. So this is an actual light up head built from fiberglass. You have all the electronics in it, the chrome plating. It is one of the rare surviving light up heads used for C three PO and the only known head from this movie that has hit the market. So it has an estimated auction value of three hundred and fifty thousand could go to upwards of seven hundred thousand dollars. I am only going to allow myself to buy one item in my imaginary world with my imaginary money from this list. I do think this would be really cool because anything Star Wars is iconic. C three po not my favorite character. My favorite character from Star Wars is R two D two, so this is his buddy. It would be cool to have, but I'm not going to spend my imaginary money on this one right now. But I think this one would be really cool, and if I owned it, I would definitely put it on my head and wear it around the house. I don't know if you can actually put it on, but I would find a way to put this thing on. But that is first up on the list. Next up an item from Jaws, which came out back in nineteen seventy five. It is the harpoon gun used by Quint and Hooper. Had a production cost back in the day of three hundred to one thousand dollars to make this, so this isn't one that is a crazy expensive item. If you just saw this thing randomly at a garage sale or in a pawn shop, You probably wouldn't think anything about it, but you have to know the history behind this one, so I don't think necessarily this is one that you put in your house and everybody instantly recognizes. But as soon as you tell somebody that this was used in Jaws, it automatically becomes cool because it was actually used by the actors Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss during that famous shark hunt scene, iconic scenes of all the time, from the first ever summer blockbuster in American movie history, and it was essentially a modified spear gun that they used in the movie. Because if you think back on the actual making of Jaws was made for a relatively modest budget compared to now modern day blockbusters. They had to operate in a way that was cost effective. Even if you think about the character Jaws himself, you don't really see a whole lot of them. And that was the thing that Steven Spielberg made famous of, how you reveal your monsters in movies. You get the glimpses of them at the beginning, You see the Finn more than anything, and it's not until the third act of the movie where you see Jaws in his full glory, and that is what makes it more terrifying, because you build up this suspense in your head of what this giant killer shark looks like, and this is the actual item used to take him down. I would really like to own this one, but I think the fact that it's not instantly recognizable is what would keep me from spending my imaginary money on this. So a really cool one, but I think the fact that you'd have to explain it every single time makes it a little bit less cool. But it has an estimated auction value of a quarter million all the way up to half a million dollars, So pretty good for this one, but still not one I'm adding to my fictional collection right now, but that is sick. Next step is a prop from the movie Castaway, which came out in two thousand. It is the Wilson Volleyball. This is a really fascinating one and maybe a hard sell because the actual production cost for this prop is only about twenty dollars maybe forty dollars, because it is an actual Wilson branded volleyball, so what you're really getting is an actual volleyball. It has the bloodprint on it that at this point is pretty faded but still really distinct. On the front of it has the hole through the top with all of the I think it was like pieces of tree or some kind of brush sticking out to kind of make it look like his hair. But this thing is basically yellow at this point, so it's just a flat volleyball. But this is one that is instantly recognizable. If somebody came over to your house and saw this, they would initially see it and say well Son every single time. And the fact that it only costs about twenty to forty dollars to make and has an estimated auction value of eighty thousand to three hundred thousand dollars is wild, I think because it is associated with such an iconic movie and actor Tom Hanks knowing that he actually used this one on screen, and a previous Wilson sold at an auction for over three hundred thousand dollars, so there are other Wilson's on there. I'm going to put this in my man. This is going in the maybe pile of movie props I'm gonna buy in this episode, So Wilson is right up there above all the other two so far. Next up is a prop from Gladiator, which came out back in two thousand. It is the arena helmet and mask worn by Maximus played by Russell Crowe in the movie during the big arena combat scenes. This had an estimated production cost of about fifteen hundred to five thousand dollars back when this movie was made. This mask looks sick. It is big, It has like those almost fang looking things coming down from it. The level of detail on this helmet is fantastic. You have not really a rusted helmet whatsoever, but it is made to look like it has been through some crap, been through some fights. It has a little bit of wear and tear on the sides. You kind of see some of the paint peeling off on the right side of it. But overall, I think that adds to what this problem actually is and what it represents. I think the fact that it's not in pristine condition actually makes it a bit cooler, and just the fact that it was actually worn by Russell Crowe. I don't care about the imperfections when it comes to this mask, and maybe that means you could get a better deal from it. But this is one that I would buy and instantly put on I would just wear this around the house on a random Tuesday because it looks so cool, and if you look at the inside of the mask where you actually put it on, it looks like it's going to be something that is really uncomfortable to wear. I have to imagine Russell Crowe probably got to a point where he was sick of putting this mask on. I think actors really hate any role that requires a mask, and you even see some people who go on to play superheroes now they don't want to wear one. Anthony mack You did not want to wear a mask when he was doing Captain America, so much so that in some scenes they found a way to put a CGI mask on him. I think you gotta make the sacrifice. If you're getting paid millions and millions of dollars and you were complaining about being uncomfortable, I think you have to fight through that uncomfortability. A lot of actors have done it. I think you get such a better product when you are actually wearing a mask. And with the Marvel movies using nanotech so much now where they just essentially press a button and the entire suit appears, I don't like that trend. I think we need to go back to the trend of putting our actors in actual suits, because then what is that going to do to the memorabilia market. I don't want to buy an NFT of the costume. I want the actual thing. But this one is great. It's historic, it's made of fiberglass and resin, and you have that metal detailing in it. I'm also going to put this one in the maybe pile because I think it's so cool. Even though Gladiator I wouldn't put even in my top twenty five or fifty movies of all time maybe if I was doing a two thousand specific list, But I think this one is really cool, so I'll put that one in the maybe file. Next up, from the turn Terminator that came out back in nineteen eighty four, It is the T eight hundred leather jacket. And even though it's described as being a leather jacket, i'm looking at it now on the site, which they also have it written as the punk jacket, it's not the leather jacket I'm thinking of that I associate with Terminator. This one is khaki and it has some metal chains at the top of it. The collar inside looks to be a bit leather, but I don't really look at this and think this is the leather jacket from Terminator. It has some bullet holes in it with some movie blood around it. You see about three in the chest and maybe one or two in the arms, but it looks really distressed. I don't feel like this is the iconic one that I would expect and want to pay a lot of money for. It kind of just looks like a really old jacket that you would get from the thrift store. But it's still one that is associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Terminator look, and one that he actually wore in the movie. And it cost about three hundred to seven hundred dollars when they made this movie in the eighties, has an estimated auction value of one hundred and twenty thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I really think the only cool thing about this is the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger actually wore it. So while the film is iconic, the actor is iconic, I don't think the item itself is that cool. So I'm not even going to put this in the maybe pile. This is one that I would maybe take a picture of if it was in a museum, maybe want to try it on, But I'm good without this one. Next up from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban that came out back in two thousand and four, it is Marauders Map, which is a hand illustrated folding prop that was used by the students at Hogwarts. Had an estimated production cost of about five hundred to two thousand dollars. This one does look really cool. But when I think about The Prisoner of Azkaban, this would it be one of the items that I would think I would really want that from that movie. Seeing in now, I do remember it, and I think the fact that it looks very hairy potter ish is what really makes it cool. It is pretty big. You look at it and it looks like a giant menu, and it opens kind of from the center where you fold it in and you can read all the text in the front, and then when you open it up, it essentially turns into this big map and you see inside it says Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You see a lot of fine details. You see this map. It essentially looks like a big Treasure map has a lot of wear and tear to it. It looks like a really old document, like if you had the Declaration of Independence right in front of you, and it is pretty big, it opens up really wide. This one just feels like it would be really hard to display to make it cool, because I'm not gonna want to have people come over and touch it and run the risk of ripping it. So therefore I would have to display it like a Declaration of Independence, get some bulletproof glass, and then I would have to worry about Nick Cage coming to my house to steal it because there's some other hidden map on the back that he would expose with lemon juice. I don't want all that. I don't need Nick Cage in my house. So it does look cool. I think anything associated with Harry Potter that was actually used on screen is going to have no problem selling. The estimated auction value is between forty thousand to eighty thousand dollars, so again, not one of the biggest items on this list as far as what it's going to go for. And I think the fact that it's just a piece of paper essentially, and I don't want to reduce a movie prop to just a piece of paper. It's not really just a piece of paper. But if I'm going to spend forty to eighty thousand dollars on something, unless it's an iconic piece of art like the first illustrations from the Books or something like that, I don't think it is worth the money here. So, although it's cool, although anything Harry Potter is going to make a great talking point if somebody comes over to your house to see it, not really one I would need to own, So I'm not putting this one in the maybe pilot. Next up on the list from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which came out in nineteen seventy one, it is Charlie's Golden Ticket. I have never seen one of these for sale before, had a production cost of under fifty dollars under fifty dollars, and it is one of the most recognizable movie props of all time. But it is literally just a piece of shiny paper. I know exactly what this looks like in my head, but if I click into the site, ah, this takes me back. On the top it is written Wonka's Golden Ticket, Greetings to you the Lucky finder of this Golden Ticket from mister Willy Wonka. Present this ticket at the factory gates at ten o'clock in the morning of the first day of October, and do not be late. You may bring with you one member of your own family, and only one, but no one else. In your wildest dreams, you cannot imagine the marvelous surprises that await you. This is so cool, I think the only thing that has distracted me a little bit as I look at this. I know they say this is the actual one you used in the movie. But it's not as shiny as I hoped. It kind of looks like a manilla piece of paper, still cut out like the Golden Ticket. And it's in this really nice glass case that you could easily just put on your wall, which I like that easy to display, which was the issue I had with the Harry Potter prop. This one kind of already has it ready to go for you. But when I think about Charlie unwrapping that chocolate and you just see it peek out, that is such a great movie moment where he has been going the entire time opening all these pieces of candy and nothing, but he immediately knows and sees that little sliver of gold and immediately all his wildest dreams have come true. When Grandpa Joe told him, I know you're gonna find one of those tickets because you want it more. That is such a great moment. You see the excitement on his face from just that little sliver of gold and to own something from this movie to me, one of my favorite movies of all time. I would put it in my top ten. Also, the return on investment for this thing made under fifty bucks and could go for up to fifty thousand, definitely putting this one in my maybe pile, Probably putting it in that top slot right now. I wish it was a little bit shinier, but we will take it for what it is. Up next from twenty eighteen's Black Panther. It is a Black Panther stunt helmet that was created from a life cast of Chadwick Boseman. Marvel movie props just do really well. There was one point that a warehouse in Atlanta who was doing a sale where they were selling off a bunch of props from movies and Marvel TV shows, and I thought, man, I would love to drive to Atlanta to go check that out. And when I saw some of the items, the interesting thing was it was just a lot of random pieces of furniture or like a chair from wa Division, which was kind of cool if you were trying to maybe readeck or ate your house or your apartment and you just wanted a chair or a table with the story. But I just thought that was interesting where it wasn't Captain America's shield or Spider Man's mask. It was just maybe a bench that Loki sat on, or a mug used at the DBA, something like that that is still associated with a Marvel project. But never in a million years is someone going to recognize that. But you think about all these things that they have to get together for movies, and then they just don't have anywhere to store these things, some of these things that are massive, so you just have a sale where you're selling off these really random things. But I also remember going to see Black Panther in La. I was out there. I think Bobby was doing American Idol back in twenty eighteen. We were staying downtown right off Sunset Boulevard, and I went to go see it at the Cinerama Doome right there on Sunset, which is shut down now. It is an iconic theater. I was happy to be able to go see a movie there because even when I went back in twenty eighteen, I didn't realize how iconic it was. If you saw a picture of it, you would probably recognize. It has a really iconic marquee outside of the theater that said Pacific's Cinerama Theater. It kind of looks like a big golf ball, kind of similar to what Epcot looks like. But it was a fantastic place to watch this movie, specifically to go see a movie like this in La on opening weekend, because they had a lot of the black panther props and suits in the lobby, which was so cool that you could just walk around and look at all the things from Wakonda and then go see the movie. But this theater opened back on November seventh, nineteen sixty three, and sadly closed down back in March twenty twenty, just a couple of years after I went to it, and I remember them having an actual black panther suit there. This one would be really cool to own. Had an estimated production cost of about two thousand to ten thousand dollars. It is going to go for at least forty thousand to upwards of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. I think it will go for more than that because it is an iconic movie from an actor who is no longer with us, So obviously anything associated with an actor who is no longer living is going to sell for more. All right, we have a couple more here before we have to make our final decisions. This is essentially when you go to a store and they make that announcement overhead like it will be closing in ten minutes. Please make your final selections and hits a register. That is what we are doing right now. But we have a movie franchise listed from two thousand and three to twenty seventeen, so it looks like they probably use this same prop throughout in this auction is Pirates at the Caribbean, the Curse of the Black Pearl. It is Captain Jack Sparrow's flint lock pistol. It is the hero prop associated with Johnny Depp's character. Had an estimate made a production cost of about five hundred to two thousand dollars. There are a lot of fine details on the gun. When you look on all the parts that's all silver, it looks really worn down in age, so it has that effect to it. But somehow I think the coolest part of this prop is the case that it comes in. It's a soft case for this gun. It has a piece of white tape on it that is written on with sharpie that says Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp, Kennedy, Flintlock, sn JD or maybe O two, so maybe they had a couple of these. And then you also have this other yellow tag on it that just says Pirates of the Caribbean and in quotation marks is Kennedy, Perry London, Johnny Depp. So I think the fact that it actually comes in something that you know was used on set from production just has another layer of oh, this is actually something cool that was used in the movie. Because I think the gun itself isn't one of the most recognizable guns in movie history, So while it looks cool and historic, I don't think it is the coolest to me. I'm not putting this in my maybe pile, but finally on the list, and I say butt finally because it is the mechanical rhino that ace Ventura gave a butt berth in in this sequel back in nineteen ninety five's ace Ventura When Nature Calls, the mechanical rhino was used for the exterior shots. When you see ace Venta spying on a suspect, he is essentially holding a stake out inside of this rhino. You see all the mechanics in there, and then the thing shuts down. He has no ac he has no fan, and he just starts sweating like crazy. He strips all the way down to his underwear, and then you see the underwear go to can't get out of the thing, finds a little hole in the back, and then gives birth to himself by going outside of the butt of this rhino. This family is onlooking thinking they're seeing a rhino give birth, and then they see this big naked man come out. What a great opening scene from such a fantastic comedy. I actually enjoy When Nature Calls more than the original acefin Tura movie. The prop itself is about ten feet long. It's made from fiberglass and styrofoam. They didn't even say on this one how much it actually cost them to make, but this is one that you would have to have some good space in your house to display this thing, because it is pretty big. You can actually see the seat inside. There is also what appears to be a slit in the back, so it doesn't look like it's completely wrecked. It actually looks like it was designed to have a human male go through the backs. They might have even repaired it a little bit, because if you look at some of the textures on the main skin of the rhino to the butt of the rhino, they are two different shades. I'm looking way too it do the details of this thing, but even the nose where the black holes are in the nose, it looks like they have some vents in there, so it is designed for you going to be able to breathe in it. I think the coolest part to me is if you actually look inside, you see what Jim Carrey saw inside of there. You see the metal fan, you see the controls in there. But what are you going to do with this thing? But I'm looking at it on the auction site and at the time of recording this, there are twenty seven bids on it and the current bid is that twenty thousand dollars. They initially thought this thing was only going to go for about four thousand to eight thousand dollars. I think because it is not one of the most memorable Jim Carrey movies, I think more people think about the original, even though this one is my favorite. I think it comes down to what are you going to do with this? Where are you going to put this in your house? Who really has space for a ten foot rhino? But it is one of the coolest I would say on this list, just because it's a funny part. I think the difference here is the shots of ace Venta inside of the rhino were actually completed on a sound stage, so this thing was actually just built for the exterior shots of the rhino. So this one is really cool, But again it is massive. I have nowhere to put this thing. Even if I had the space, I just could not justify a giant mechanical rhino in my house. So I'm not going to put this one even into the maybe pile. But now it is time to make our final purchase with our imaginary money. In the pile, we have Wilson's volleyball from Castaway, we have the helmet and mask from Gladiator, and we have Charlie's Golden Ticket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I'm gonna go with my heart here, and out of all those movies, the only one I would put in my favorite movies of all time. It is not Castaway. That's not even my favorite Tom Hanks movie. But it is instantly recognizable. But again, it is still just a Wilson volleyball, not the coolest thing to own. Owning that thing would be really no different than me back in the day at the trailer park, just randomly discovering some ball in the creek. But the Gladiator mask it is just so cool looking all the details on it. But again, if I have to go with my heart here, it's not one of my favorite movies. So I think the coolest thing to me that I would actually really want to own if I had the money, it would be Charlie's Golden Ticket. I also think it would make the coolest to display realistically, because it's already in that glass case. You easily just put a nail up on the wall put that thing on there. I think I'm spending my imaginary money on Charlie's Golden Ticket. The estimated cost again was fifteen thousand to fifty thousand dollars. Also probably one of the most affordable things on this entire list. I am a frugal person. Even with my imaginary money. I always think sensibly, so I'm going to purchase Charlie's Golden ticket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. If there was just a list of random movie memorabilia items that I would own no matter what, even if they're not up for auction, I'm talking if I had all the money in the world, this would be my top five. At number five, I would get the wooden mask from The Mask. As a kid, I love that scene and I always wanted the mask from The Mask. I just thought it would be cool to put it on my face, even though I know I'm not going to change into the mask. I always thought that was such a cool movie prop, especially the scene where Stanley Ipkiz first discovers it and you see that cgi like glimmer on it that looks kind of holographic, where he's like, WHOA, what is this? I always thought that was the coolest movie prop. So at number five on movie prop items I would want to own is the wooden mask from the mask. At number four is the briefcase from Pulp Fiction, which I love that detail in that movie, the fact that you never know what is inside the briefcase, even in that scene in the diner where they open it up when they're robbing the place, and the guy robbing the place is like, is that what I think it is? And you still just don't know. It's that mystery of you as the viewer associating what is in there. If they just said it was drugs, if they just said it was a gun, it wouldn't be that cool. You would just know, Oh, it's just some random thing. But the fact that you don't know is what makes it so mysterious. Inside the actual prop, I believe it was just a light bulb to make it look like it was illuminated, and just that glow of the briefcase on the characters' faces throughout the movie I think was so cool. So I would love to own the briefcase from Pulp Fiction. At number three. I would want to own one of the heads of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, any head from any movie, preferably from the first TM and T movie back in nineteen ninety. I would even take one from the sequel. The thing about those heads is they are to tear, and that is sad because now those movies are over thirty years old, which is sad, but sometimes those materials just break down over time. And as much as I would want to put one of those heads on if I ever own one of those things, I just couldn't do it because they are so old and the materials that they made it out of weren't meant to be a thing forever. And you think about the actors wearing those things and sweating in them and doing all of the fight moves in those It just had a lot of wear and tear on those things. So every now and then I will see one of those pop up on an auction site, and it's kind of sad to see because it's like their faces are like chopped off. It looks like they're dead. So part of that is sad. I would just want to preserve those pieces of movie history and knowing that they won't be around forever. So at number three, any of the heads specifically, I would love Rafaelle's head, but would settle for Mi Galangelo's head. Then I'd go Leo and Dona Tello, but first up would be Rafael at number two. I'm going to go with the Spider Man suit from The Amazing Spider Man, which is the Andrew Garfield version. I just think that is the most detailed suit of all the suits, where to me, it is the most comic book accurate from the era of Spider Man that I grew up with in the nineties. I'm talking my favorite comic book artist, Todd McFarlane, who designed the artwork to my favorite Spider Man cover, which is the Tattoo I have. It has the big bug eyes, the great webbing, the fine detail on the suit. A lot of the poses that Andrew Garfield Spider Man did in that movie were based on a lot of his art, making Spider Man very fluid looking. But aside from that, it is just my favorite look of Spider Man in the movies because it has, to me the best eyes. I love the glossy look of it. The color of red and blue that they decided to use on all the parts of that suit I think are perfect, even at times where it has a bit of the the orangish eyes. I love it all. Even though Andrew Garfield's movies are not my favorite Spider Man movies. I just think that suit is the sickest, So I would have that one at number two, But at number one, I would love to have a movie accurate Thanos Gauntlet. And I know Thanos is a CGI character, but Josh Brolin, who played him, actually wore a physical, weighted, detailed prop of the Infinity Gauntlet on the set of Avengers Infinity War, which is my favorite Avengers movie, and he wore it while playing Thanos and doing all of the motion capture. That actual physical prop helped Josh Brolin with the physical performance and it also provided a proper lighting reference for the visual effects team. So you actually need a physical prop to make it feel real to the actor and also to give the team designing all the things going around Thanos in that movie a point of reference how to light the character. It has such great detail. Some of the parts are kind of ripped out of it where you kind of know that they need to have points of reference that they can put CGI graphics over it. But this thing would be on the top of my list of items I would love to own. And unlike how it is really bright and gold and the comics and really shiny, the actual prop was designed to look darker and heavier and more dangerous. It looks like a piece of gold that you would find at the bottom of the ocean from a shipwreck. I learn it, so really this thing was just used for the performance, and the final thing you see on screen is completely different in CGI. Even the Infinity Stones themselves were all added later through CGI, so you don't even get that in this prop. But I don't care. Number one on my list of movie props I would love to own if I had all the money in the world would be Thanos's gauntlet from Infinity War, actually worn by Josh Brolin during the making of this movie. That is the list. I'll come back, Kelsey will join me and we'll give our spoiler free review of Project hill Mary, which we saw in Imax seventy millimeter and we got to see it early. We are so excited to tell you was it better than the book because I finally read a book before seeing a movie again. Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review of Project hail Mary. Joined by my wife and co host Kelsey. On this review, we both read the book going into it. I don't think I've read a book going into a movie since Hunger Games, it's been a minute over a decade. But we saw it in seventy millimeter IMAX, which is what I want to dive into before we even get into our review, because a lot of people were asking me online. First of all, we got to see it early, a week before it came out.

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Speaker 3: We did.

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Speaker 4: I randomly got an email from Regal and it said Project Hill Mary seventy milimeter IMAX early access, and I was like, buying tickets. I think I texted you and I was like, got us tickets to see it early. Didn't even ask because I'm buying these now and.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people are wondering what does that even mean. First of all, it's on actual film, which not every movie you go see in theaters is on actual film.

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Speaker 4: You hear the film reels like scroll, not scrolling, what's sort of humming. Yes, you hear the and it also heats up the room.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so that was a big deal, even being able to see it here in Nashville, because there's only like thirteen theaters in the entire country where you can see it. On this it's like the largest format you can see it, but the equipment is so expensive, and the room to cool it down here, like the equipment broke. So whenever Oppenheimer came out, Christopher Nolan actually paid to have our theater here fixed.

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Speaker 3: It's cool, so they could cool the room.

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Speaker 1: But we felt it getting hotter. I don't know if that's exactly what it was or there were just more people.

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Speaker 5: I think it's also just the weather. But about halfway through the movie it got a little warm in there.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you started to sweat. You like did like subtle take your jacket off. You're like rolling up the sleeves of your shirt.

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Speaker 5: I was like, are you goun But it could have been the room where the projector is, because the movie itself is six hundred pounds eleven miles long.

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Speaker 3: It is massive, that's crazy.

00:34:56
Speaker 1: So you were getting so much information on the screen seeing it in this format. So if you're somebody like me who cares about that type of thing, that is why I get so excited about it. I think it's like eighteen K that is really cool, which your TV in your house gets four K and the screen itself is like forty percent bigger than a normal movie theater screen. So you walk in there and seeing it blank is like man that is a massive screen, strigantic, and not only that, the colors are richer where even the stuff that wasn't in space in this movie, the color grading so cinematic, almost like you were taking like your old school like actual film pictures and you get like that quality battle even if you have those disposable cameras back in the day, they had like this crispness and this richness to it. It just feels like real film and it feels alive. That's why I like seeing it. You come alive when you're talking about it's so awesome. And it also sounds better in imax, which a movie like this that is so immersive. That is why it's beneficial to see it like this. So I like this format versus like those RPX or forever where the things like start spraying stuff.

00:36:01
Speaker 3: At you that is too much, that's a lot.

00:36:05
Speaker 1: I just want the immersive experience where the screen is as massive as it can be in the best form, in the highest format that you can watch it in. That is why I get excited about this. Even before the movie ran. If you go see a movie like this, there aren't previews, no, because they don't have the format to fit a projector of this side like a trailer.

00:36:25
Speaker 4: There was a trailer for Odyssey, which the next movie on Imax.

00:36:28
Speaker 1: So that was really cool. That also made me excited for that movie. I don't want to spen too much on that one, but that was cool.

00:36:33
Speaker 3: I didn't think I was gonna be that excited about that one.

00:36:35
Speaker 1: But let's get into talking about the movie. We both read the book. I will say there are some things that are better and some things that are I don't want to say worse, but in my head, while reading the book I enjoyed certain aspects of the story more.

00:36:50
Speaker 3: I'll be honest, I forget some of the little things.

00:36:53
Speaker 4: I read it last fall, and I've genuinely probably read thirty books since then.

00:36:57
Speaker 1: And I finished it probably three weeks ago, two weeks, two weeks ago, but he finished it pretty recently. If you haven't read the book, we won't give a This is a tough review to do because I don't want to spoil stuff from the book. I won't talk in spoilers in regard of the movie. But what the movie is about. You have a school teacher named Ryland Grace who is essentially hired by scientists to save the world. They discover that something is killing the son and he has to find a way to stop that otherwise it's going to wipe out food. We're all going to start revolting. It is his job to figure out what is going on, because he's a really bright mind. He came up with like this they a while back that the head scientist is fascinated with and thinks that is the solution. But essentially he's just trying to save the world, but he's not really cut out for it. I find there were certain things in the book, which my only other point of reference is The Hunger Games, where I think some things just don't translate on screen. A big part of it is he wakes up at the beginning of the story and he doesn't know where he is, why he's in space.

00:37:58
Speaker 3: There's a lot more time spent on that in the book.

00:38:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's like trying to figure it out and like learn his name. All that stuff is not really in the book in the movie, I mean, and I find like that's probably hard to do because a lot of this story is in his head when you're reading it, yes, and it's hard to turn that into a cinema, Like, when there's so many things to explore cinematically, it is hard to spend the time on all of the science stuff.

00:38:23
Speaker 4: Really, one thing that I noticed is there's a point where like kind of the gravity of the ship gets changed and he like can't figure out how to move. They spend a lot more time on that in the book too, and then they just kind of cut to it in the movie, but there's a lot of time of him trying to figure out, like, how do I get about the ship when the gravity is not the gravity I know?

00:38:45
Speaker 1: And I guess the thing I found that some of the action felt more intense in the book to me, And I don't know if it's a result of since I know what is going to happen since I already read it, that it didn't have as much of an impact seeing it on screen. Where there were certain points in the book where like at the end of a chapter you're like, oh man, how's he canna get out of this one? And in the movie it wasn't the exact same way, because I think the pacing is just a little bit different. But I'm trying not to hold that against the movie version is just different. The other thing for me is same thing I experienced in The Hunger Games, where a lot of that story was associated with like Catnus being hungry because of the Hunger Games. His whole struggle with food in this wasn't as intense as it is in the book.

00:39:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't really give that a plot line in the movie.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: Like that was the main plot point. Even him waking up and like having a meal for the first time and his food supplied kind of being an issue throughout the book wasn't really that big of a deal in the movie.

00:39:42
Speaker 4: Listen, they only had two and a half hour a lot. It's like an almost It's like over four hundred pages.

00:39:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a big book for sixty seven I believe because I counted them. But overall, I found that the things that they changed wasn't anything drastic that kept me from thinking, oh, the book was better. I feel like to me, it's one of those where it's pretty on par.

00:40:05
Speaker 3: Just loved it.

00:40:06
Speaker 1: It's slightly different experiences, But I don't think somebody is going to read the book and go see the movie and think they didn't do it justice.

00:40:15
Speaker 3: I don't think you're going to be disappointed.

00:40:17
Speaker 1: All of the space stuff is so cinematic that anything they don't get to from the book, it doesn't even matter.

00:40:25
Speaker 4: And they didn't change the integrity of the book. And there are sometimes where I think, like, you know, an adaptation doesn't need to be the exact same, but this was one where I was like, there are certain things. If they change, it is not going to have the same integrity revolted And they did not disrespect the integrity of the book.

00:40:44
Speaker 3: That's all I'll say.

00:40:45
Speaker 5: How do you feel about Ryan Gosling? Was he the perfect person for this? Couldn't have picked a better person.

00:40:50
Speaker 1: I was trying to think of somebody who could have fit.

00:40:52
Speaker 3: No, he was so so good.

00:40:55
Speaker 4: He has that perfect like cynicism and wit, but it doesn't come up cross like condescending or an act like. He is just so good at being like funny and having those one liners and the sarcasm like.

00:41:09
Speaker 3: Chef's kiss.

00:41:10
Speaker 1: He has the right amount of comedic timing, but you can also still take him seriously, which is I found this character to be a little bit more comical in the movie.

00:41:20
Speaker 5: Then I got from the book, Oh I see, I read the book with because they'd already cast the movie and I read the book, like my inner monologue when I was reading was Ryan Gosling's voice. That was a hard thing for me, is like I already envisioned him, yep, And it was hard for me not to associate Ryan Gosling.

00:41:37
Speaker 4: I think in comparison, is like you think about a character like Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool, m hm, he takes it too far almost and the like has to be comic, doesn't hit the sarcasm in the cynicism, right, And then you go to Gossling in this one nailed it.

00:41:53
Speaker 3: I think one of his best roles.

00:41:55
Speaker 1: I would put that in the top tier of right.

00:41:57
Speaker 4: He is still putting out incredible movies, Like think about twenty years ago, The Notebook Years, Phenomenal Crazy Stupid Love.

00:42:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, phenomenal Drive, twenty eleven.

00:42:10
Speaker 4: Place Beyond the Pines, Like, he is still putting out such good films.

00:42:15
Speaker 1: Because I think the role also requires a lot of range, even when it comes to him getting a little bit of like a lot of emotional yeah, where he has to cry in this movie. So he goes from being a little bit more comedic at the beginning, which some people were having a real good time laughing.

00:42:31
Speaker 3: In our theater a person behind us.

00:42:33
Speaker 1: I didn't find it as laugh out loud funny as some people were, but more power to them for really enjoying those moments.

00:42:38
Speaker 4: You know. I'm like, have fun as long as you're not like disrupting a movie.

00:42:43
Speaker 1: I think, I pu it is hard for me to put this at my favorite Ryan Gossling movie when Drive has been one of my favorite movies for the last fifteen years.

00:42:52
Speaker 4: I think Crazy Stupid Love is my favorite Gossling maybe just because it's so it's just such a good one, but this is I think this is my second favorite.

00:42:59
Speaker 1: I also think for me, hits different because I read the book and I haven't written proud of like this in so long that I felt this emotional attachment to these characters and I just got to see all the things that I didn't exactly know how they looked while reading it. Same because it was a very science heavy book and there were some things that I knew, like I tried to grasp it around my head and I got the actions of it and the results of it. But seeing it actually portrayed on the big screen, I was like, Okay, now I finally get that part. Also, the fact that they didn't use green screen or blue screen in this entire movie.

00:43:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, and this isn't a This isn't a spoiler because this is something on all like spaceships, but the idea of where they like pressurize and depressurize like that like airlock, I couldn't get in my head even though I've watched a lot of space stuff that was part of it. Just seeing that helped me. And I won't give it an me elseway, but that was one that I like just couldn't conceptualize for some reason this movie.

00:43:58
Speaker 1: Also seeing it in imax made me feel like we went to space, like this is as close as I'm going to get to going to outer space. The scenes where it's just him out there with all those stars it for the first time, it really felt like just crazy to me.

00:44:12
Speaker 4: I this is gonna sound like an oxymoron. I felt claustrophobic. Even though there was not much like space, like I can't imagine being out there and they're just being nothing.

00:44:27
Speaker 1: There were some really just beautiful shots, like when they get to a point where like everything is green. It was just like that looks so good. So I think the visuals exceeded my expectation. The performances were great all all throughout the cast. There were just so many, all the characters so well. The storytelling obviously was great because you have a great source material to work with. There was This was one of those movies where even though it was two and a half hours long, I never thought about the runtime. Well, when it comes to Project hil Mary, if you read the book, you have to see the movie in theaters. If there is any form of IMAX around you, I would highly recommend it.

00:45:12
Speaker 4: I also think if you haven't read the book and you still want to, but you also really want to see the movie, I think you could read it after.

00:45:18
Speaker 1: Oh you think so, mm hmmm.

00:45:19
Speaker 4: We were having this discussion in book club because my book club read it last fall and a couple people just didn't have the time to read it, and we were like, I think you could see the movie and then read it. It's not the preferred way, but I don't think it takes away anything, because, like you said, there are different aspects of storytelling.

00:45:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess it's the reverse experience because for me it's hard. It was hard because I knew what was coming to where I wonder how I would have experienced this movie without knowing that.

00:45:46
Speaker 3: Well, my family's going to see it next week. None of them read the book, so we'll ask them.

00:45:49
Speaker 1: But I loved it. If I had to give it a rating, I haven't given a movie a perfect score since twenty twenty three in December when I saw Godzilla minus one. But due to the fact I took no notes, which I always take notes during a movie of like oh, maybe they could have done this better, I always completely immersed the entire time. Ryan Gosling is also one of my top ten, if not top five actors.

00:46:12
Speaker 4: He was so he was on SNL last week and he's such a bad host in the way that he breaks on everything, but it makes him a good host.

00:46:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:46:21
Speaker 3: I just my favorite of the Ryans.

00:46:24
Speaker 1: I liked his style in the entire movie, which I wonder if I wonder if he works with those teams of like, this is what I want the character to look like, because it does feel like very much his personality, his haircut, even like his socks and his shirt, his T shirts throwat glasses. Yeah, I think I have to give this a five out of five spaceships. I rarely hand those out because I find it is hard to find what I consider a perfect movie. But I have to remove all my cynicism, all my little critiques, because this was one where I was just I just felt like I watched it even as a fan, and not as like somebody who has a movie podcast, like I didn't take any notes, I didn't look at the time. I felt excited after the movie, and now I want to see it again to see how I experience it now knowing what's going to happen because I read the book and because I watched a movie. What would you give it?

00:47:19
Speaker 3: Five out of five Hacky sacks five out of five.

00:47:22
Speaker 1: Well, there is our perfect score of Project hill Mary, five out of fives, all the way around.

00:47:27
Speaker 3: Phenomenal.

00:47:29
Speaker 2: It's time to head down to movie Mike Traylor Park, Let's talk about In the Gray, starring Jake Gyllenhall Henry Cavell, directed by Guy Ritchie.

00:47:42
Speaker 1: This is the first time that Jake Gillenhall and Henry Cavill have been in a movie together. And to think in twenty twenty six that you can have two actors on the level of these guys, Why'd I say like that, Like these guys who still haven't worked together. That makes me excited for the future of film, that we can still have unique combinations where we're not watching the same thing over and over again. And I know I'm talking about an action movie that maybe to some feels a little bit formulaic. But I think when you go to Guy Ritchie for action, you know you're going to get something that's a little bit elevated, It's a little bit nicer. It's like whenever I was first updating my wardrobe, the advice I got was just update your basics. If you wear a normal white T shirt that maybe you get at Walmart, a pack of Haynes, elevate that a little bit. Find something a little bit nicer. That is how I feel about Guy Ritchie movies. And after watching this trailer where yes, on the surface, it looks like a shoot them up, turn your brain off action movie with two guys who are essentially the people you call in if you can't call the cops or you can't call the Feds. In this movie, they play two elite operatives who are called on to recover a stolen billion dollar fortune from this bad guy. By the looks of this action, it just has a little bit more style than another movie. I'm probably going to rip here in a minute that it reminded me of where when it comes to the cinematography that angles the camera in a way that feels like you are right there a part of the action, the explosions just have an entirely different look to them. Guy Ritchie knows how to make a captivating explosion, and I think the stories are always solid. So I do want to get into more about his work, about these two actors, and about the movie I just watched on Netflix that it reminds me of that. I'm hoping this is a better version of that. But before I do, here is just a little bit of the in the Gray trailer coming out in theaters on May fifteenth. Manny sallisar He's not really the guy you loan a billion dollars and expect to see it back.

00:49:42
Speaker 3: You think you can recover it.

00:49:44
Speaker 1: You know I can.

00:49:46
Speaker 3: And this job, when mistakes are made, you need insurance. Bronco insid will now solve it.

00:49:53
Speaker 1: Their way fame work between the moral and the and moral the block in the way they operate in the Gray. Bonus points for getting the name of the movie in the trailer that is always my favorite thing when I go watch something in theaters and they say the name of the movie, they already said it in the trailer. I will also give bonus points to the fact that they have great names, Bronco and Sid. I think there is a loss art of giving characters memorable names where they could easily just be Hank and Tom and you would be like, Oh, it's that movie with Hank and Tom. But that is so unmemorable, especially when it comes to action movies. When you think about some of the most famous action characters, like a John McClain from die Hard, you remember that name. You remember John McClain, a name like Bronco and Sid. I don't think I'm going to forget, And after watching this movie, I want to be like, that was a cool story about Bronco and Sid because those are two memorable characters. So bonus points there, and bonus points for putting two actors on a screen that I didn't know would it looks so good together. Two actors who compliment and contrast each other in the best way. They were both recently and two other Guy Ritchie films. Jake Gillenhall was in the Covenant in twenty twenty three, which was solid, and Henry cavill was in the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is a title that is a bit of a mouthful that came out in twenty twenty four that I felt was an underappreciated film. Really great story, really great cast. It looked amazing all the scenes they had out on the water. Water is so blue. I don't care if it would kill me. I wanted to leap into the screen and drink it because it looks so delicious. But that movie also starred Alan Richson, who I just watched in War Machine on Netflix, which talking about really solid action movies and talking about really bad action movies. That movie was atrocious, and it was weird that while I was watching war Machine, before I even knew this trailer was going to drop, I immediately went back to Alan Richsion in that movie, and he was so good in that where he played this guy who was a little bit more on the quiet side, but really good at his job because he was so huge and a big, massive muscle. But then I watched him in War Machine and I thought, man, this movie just does not work. It was so predictable, especially in the beginning, and I'm getting a little bit tired on the Netflix formula of trying to suck you in within those first five minutes with a big action scene that I'm starting to feel is just added in there in a very formulaic process to keep you to continue watching on Netflix, rather than it impacting the story in a positive way. But very rarely do I watch a movie that is made worse with aliens. Not even aliens could say in that movie because it was such a generic story, port acting, bad special effects. And I like Alan Richson. I think he is a good actor. He looks the part. I would watch a movie just because he is a spectacle to look at on his own. But that was a really tough watch on Netflix and proves to me that action is not just the easiest genre to do where you think, oh, yeah, you just have this guy and he's going to go through a lot of explosions. The explosions look so weak in that movie. It is a reminder you also have to create some characters that you care about. They can't be flat and two dimensional, and that is what you get in a Guy Ritchie movie. Now, they are nothing that is going to revolutionize the genre itself. But it's kind of like Chipotle, where I'm never super excited to go to Chipotle. I usually just eat it when I'm on a trip or when I'm out of my element. But if I see Chipotle, I'm like, ah, yes, I know I can go there get a solid meal. Chipotle isn't necessarily a place that I would go have my birthday dinner at, but when it hits right, it is perfect. It is never bad. It is always just solid, never really going to WOWU in a way of like, oh man, that was so good lunch, but it comes in clutch. Guy Ritchie is the Chipotle of directors. He is dependable, he is solid, he is tasty, and you know you are gonna get a quality product when you sit down to watch his movie, much like you know you're going to get a quality product when you sit down to eat your Chipotle. Even if they skimp on the beans and the meat a little bit. I don't get meat, but the veggie. Sometimes they're like, ah, I gotta get a little bit more of that. And according to the CEO, if you just kind of give them that little grimace and threaten them a little bit, they'll give you more but aside from that, you were always getting a solid product. Because I felt that way about The Covenant, I felt that way about the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare, so hopefully that will translate into In the Gray. Jake Gyllenhome was also just in The Bride. Had a bit of a smaller role, not a major role, so I didn't even mention him much in the review of that movie last week. But I think if you look at actors who have been working steadily for the last twenty years, Jake Gillenholme, I don't want to calm underrated, but he is somebody who can really do it all. I think he is just so incredibly likable, especially seeing the behind the scenes of him and Julianne Huff working on their dance, which I kind of forgot she was in that movie even during the scene, maybe because I was so focused on him, I forgot that was her and how good of a dancer she is, obviously, but seeing the behind the scenes of them working together on that dance number and you realize he just has chemistry with everybody, and that is really hard to do, which is what you look for in your leading actor. They need to be able to connect with whoever is starring across from them and be able to sell that. And I know that they are in no way a couple, but just watching that behind the scenes, I'm like, oh, man, they are definitely hooking up or something. That is how good she is at her job, and that is how good he is at his job. You don't have that long of a career if you can't do that. And I've been watching him in movies as far back as I can remember, all the way back to October Sky, where I don't know why I've never considered him to be one of my top ten or at least top fifteen actors When people ask me who are your favorite actors? For some reason, maybe unfairly, I never go to Jake Gillenhall, But I think about movies like October Sky, like I just mentioned Donnie Darko, even his most recent work from Spider Man to Ambulance, which was another good action movie that also features some of the casts of that in this movie in the Gray. Now, he has been consistent for decades now, and I know I'm always gonna have at least a three point five out of five experience if I go see a Jake Gillenhall movie in theaters. The movie also stars Isa Gonzalez, who I love representation of Mexican actors in movies. She was also in the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. She was also in that movie I just mentioned with Jake Jillen Hall, Ambulance, Godzilla Versus kong I, Caro Lot and Baby Driver. She seems to be the person and responsible for hiring out Bronco and Sid. This movie will feature their characters going into the Bad Guys Layer invading a private island with their own militia. It looks like towards the end of this trailer you see them on the island going down a zip tie, basically telling their people here's what you do in order to not get hurt and crush your body. It looks jam packed with fast cars, automatic weapons, explosives, everything I have come to expect from a Guy Ritchie movie. So is it going to be the best movie of the year. I don't think so. Will it even be the best action movie of the year. I don't think that either. But I know what I'm gonna get is a high level of entertainment, fun action. So for that reason, I'm all in for In the Gray coming out in theaters on May fifteenth, And that was.

00:57:47
Speaker 2: This week's edition of Movie Mikes Trailer Bars.

00:57:53
Speaker 1: And that is going to do it for another episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta get my listeners shout out of the this week, I'm going over to TikTok, which is just at Mike Distro. You can always find all the links to my socials in the episode notes, but I am shouting out Kim Grant, who said, in response to my Hopper's clip that I posted over there, I can't wait to see it. Thanks for the review. Also, when are they gonna stop making toy story movies? Aren't there enough? Thank you Kim for that comment. Hopefully you do go watch Hoppers. Which sometimes when I am really excited about a movie and I post about it, I dubbed that movie to be the best Pixar movie of the decade. Oftentimes, when I make a claim like that, I am met with a lot of pushback of people saying, you thought this movie was great? What an idiot, It's not better than Inside Out to you, you suck stop doing your podcast. I am always anticipating that feedback but for the first time in a while, my level of excitement was met with that same level of excitement of people who went to go see it and felt the same way about it that I did. Unexpectedly going through some emotional stages after watching it had some lass. So I really think this is one of those movies that most everybody can agree on that it is one of the best Pixar movies in a very long time. Both adults and kids, I feel have that sentiment about this movie. So, Kim, I hope that you don't go watch it and think, man, that movie was overhyped. As for the second part of your comment, Kim, I don't think they are ever going to stop making toy story movies. They should have stopped it three. But when you're Disney and you are in the business of making billion dollar movies and you have this megafranchise on your hands, you're never gonna let it go. I think eventually, maybe after this one, we see the end of these characters where maybe Tom Hanks and Tim Allen don't want to do it anymore, or maybe we get a six and then they eventually get to that point where some of the people start retiring. But I don't think that means Disney will end toy story. Pixar will just create some new characters and we'll go on with a whole new toy story. Forget about Woody, forget about Buzz. You have a whole new set of characters, maybe even change the decade. And sadly, that is just the name of the game in Hollywood. When you have an ip this lucrative, you don't really let it go. So Kim appreciate that comment. Hope you go and watch it and enjoy that movie. And to anybody else listening who still hasn't seen Hoppers, still highly recommended, writing off the hype of that movie. Still, it is a great time to go to the movies right now. And I'm not just saying that because I do it every single week and have a movie podcast. So thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed. You can watch spoiler Free move reviews individually on my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash Mike dstro And until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.