Great Movies That Got Bad Reviews! + Movie Review: The Eternals (Marvel) + Trailer Park: Morbius

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie podcast, your go to source for all things movies, and I am your host Movie Mike, and today I want to talk about great movies that actually got bad reviews when they first came out. Now, this is inspired by the new Marvel movie The Eternals that came out over the weekend, which I feel got reviewed bombed, and I'll talk about what that is and why I don't like it, and I'll get into my spoiler free review of that movie. I love Marvel, seeing all the Marvel movies, but I will say at the start of this, wasn't that excited for this one. So I'll let you know my thoughts on that movie in the trailer park. We also have another Marvel movie called Morbius with Jared Letto. We'll talk about the Lady Gaga movie some controversy there. Thanks for being subscribed and listening to the podcast every single week. If you haven't yet, hit that subscribe button, hit that follow button wherever you're listening to this right now and without any further ado, let's get started. In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners never before in a movie podcast a man with so much movie knowledge. He's basically like a walking Audien TV with classes from the Nashville Podcast Network Movie Movie Podagaster. So let's talk about great movies that actually got bad reviews when they came out. And these are all movies that we know to be classics and would never say anything bad about these movies. And if you heard somebody say anything bad about these movies, you would question their judgment. Well, here's the thing about critics, and I don't consider myself a critic. I've said that on the podcast before. I am at the heart of this podcast, just the guy who loves movies. I started out reviewing movies on my Snapchat that moved over to Instagram and it led to me wanting to do my own podcast where I just talk about movies. But I have no agenda here. Like I'm I am in no way influenced by movie studios. I am in no way trying to make these big, bold statements just to get a reaction out of people. I'm literally, if I were your friend at a party, I would tell you about the movie. Is I like tell you about the movies? I don't like. And I think depending on the amount of time you've been listening to this podcast, you kind of know what I end up liking and what I end up don't liking and take that judgment and you know, base what you want to see on yourself. Again, we don't always have to agree on everything when it comes to movies, and I don't expect you to listen to this podcast and be like, oh, he got it right on every single movie. But I'm just telling you exactly how I feel, no filter. That's what this podcast is. But when it comes to critics and why I don't like them, it's sometimes I feel like critics just harshly give these thoughts and give these opinions on movies simply to just bash them. And I don't really like looking at rotn Tomatoes reviews or IMDb reviews like the week before or the week of that a movie comes out that I really want to see for that same reason, because it kind of influences me a little bit, like seeing that number of what a movie gets. It's what's called review bombing, and review bombing is when either a large number of people are a large number of critics just slam the movie and you go online you see all these people slamming this movie. You're like, Oh, there's no way that movie is good. I'm not going to see it. But I feel like you end up missing out on movies that you were maybe thinking about seeing because of some bad reviews. That's why I think this format of a podcast, hearing you know the thoughts about the movie, everything the movie is about, you can kind of determine for yourself whether you're not you want to see it based on what I say. So that's why I like having conversations with people about movies instead of just reading a review. The movies lately that I felt like really got review bombed were Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad, but also movies like Harley Quinn, Captain Marvel, all movies that I left the theater thinking those movies were amazing, and critics just slammed those movies for no other reason that I felt that they just wanted to give a movie like that a bad review. And a lot of that is due now to the over saturation of superhero movies, which I'll get into more when I talk about the Eternals. But I was sitting here thinking about this and wondering, you know what about when classic movies came out, Like, what did people say about those movies? I know there have to be some harsh reviewers on movies that now we watch and no one love, and it become either instant classics or cult classics or just movies we watch around a certain time of the year. But there was probably somebody out there shouting that this movie was terrible. So I pulled some of the biggest movies in cinematic history, and I'm gonna read you some real reviews that these movies got. It's gonna get ridiculous here. So let's start first in nineteen nine, one of the greatest movies and all of cinematic history. I think when I think of a movie, I usually think about this movie in particular, because it changed cinema forever. And is it The Wizard of Oz. We all know what it's about. A tornado sweeps Dorothy and her dog Toto away from Kansas to the magical land of Oz and she's most meet these new friends and foes inter quest to get home. Now to think about The Wizard of Oz, is it really wasn't a box office success when it first came out made about three million dollars, but it was like a really expensive MOVI me to make at the time, cost about two point seven million dollars, and that's in nineteen thirty nine. That would be a ton of money now. And the film was originally about a loss of one point one million dollars for MGM. But since then it's gone on to be one of the best movies of all time. And here is an actual review from a publication called The New Republic. It says it has dwarves music, technicolor, freak characters, and Judy Garland. It can't be expected to have a sense of humor as well, and as for the light touch of fantasy, it weighs like a pound of fruitcake soaking wet. That is quite the slam for nineteen thirty nine, basically saying that this movie has no substance. And I love that they called out the color in this review. I think one of the best scenes ever is when it goes from being in black and white too. Being in color changed the way we watch movies. And for all the special effects and the Wizard of Oz at that time, all practical effects that they had to do, it's amazing to me that somebody would slam them. But hey, I guess you had to sell newspapers back in nineteen thirty nine. Up next is Star Wars in nineteen seventy seven, the first film released by George Lucas that went on to create the most epic series sci fi saga in all of film. So it's the first time you learned about Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leiah, Yoda, the Galaxy Far far Away. Clearly everybody had to love this movie, right, Well, you'd be wrong. Here's a review from The New Yorker from a writer named Pauline Kale, and the review is simply, It's an ensemble of spare parts that has no emotional grip and epic without a dream. Now I'm just gonna speculate about Pauline here. I think she had something really serious going on in her life and she didn't want to write this review. I just couldn't imagine in nineteen seventy seven and watching a movie like Star Wars, a movie that I watched twenty plus years later after it came out, and I was still surprised by this, Like I still kind of baffled. Me how far ahead they were in making that movie look timeless now. But I think for at the time I'm that that movie came out, it was incredible. I feel like the special effects still hold up. And what do you mean about no emotional grip? An epic without a dream? That movie inspired me to dream, and I think that's what makes the Star Wars movie is great is there's so many just random characters that all work so well together. And a New Hope is my favorite Star Wars movie. I think it's because you see all these characters for the first time and you're just bam put right into this universe. You learn about it as you go, and you accept everything for just what they tell you. I think maybe now people could look back and not love Star Wars or feel like it's a little bit overrated. I just don't know how you give this batter review. Moving on now, jumping into the nineties, Pretty Woman really the best romantic comedy of all time, really set the standard for this genre. I think it's also the most profitable romantic comedy of all time, which we all know the story. It's a modern update on Cinderella. Gotta prostitute a wealthy businessman, they fall in love for each other. They're forming an unlikely pair, simple as that. And here is a review from Time magazine by a writer name Richard Corliss, and it's a simple takedown that says that no one has yet made a romantic comedy in which, say, a toxic waste dumper falls in love with the terrorist hijacker. But Pretty Woman comes close to finding the least admirable characters to build a feel good movie around. I don't know what movie they watched now. I'm not the biggest Julia Roberts fan. I really only like a few of her movies. Again, just a personal preference for me, But I can't deny the fact of how charming Julia Roberts is and how much he just demands the attention when she's on the screen. And I think that greatly shows in Pretty Woman. And I think that's also what's so great about Pretty Woman is it's not your stereotypical romantic comedy. There's so many more layers of this. First of all, she's a prostitute. Nothing about it feels forced in any way. I thought the relationship was well developed throughout the entire movie, and in no way felt like this movie was a waste of my time when I first watched it, and I think that's why this movie has held up so well over the years and still regarded as one of the best romantic comedies of all time. So, Richard, you got that one wrong. Staying in the nineties. Next, one of the biggest movies from Forrest Gump, the story of a simple and kind hearted boy from Alabama falls in love with his best friend Jenny, tries to save her as he becomes witness to some of the most important events in human history, and Forrest Gump is not just seen as one of the best movies of the nineties, but I think if you pulled most of America just has seeing their favorite movies. I feel like a majority of people would have this in their top five because it has all elements of what make a movie great. You've got drama, you've got romance, you've got a comedy, you have special effects that at the time we're really hard to do. And just realizing the magnitude of the things they had to put into getting this movie made and the scale of this movie. I mean, one of the greatest sequences in this entire movie is for us literally running across the entire United States, and we just watched that as oh, it's you know, here's this one scene he's on the East coast, and this next scene he's on the West coast, and now he's in the desert. But to think of how much they had to travel to get all those shots, and that was really like a crazy operation they did in secret to where they would basically send a really skeleton crew to go and film these scenes of just Tom Hanks running in these different parts of the country, and it ended up being one of the best parts of the entire movie. But here is an actual review from Owen Gieberman writing for Entertainment Weekly. It is glib, shallow, and monotonous, a movie that spends so much time sanctifying its hero that, despite his quote unquote innocence, he ended up seeming about as vulnerable as Superman. I don't think they understood the movie, and I can only imagine how this writer felt after the movie went on to break all kinds of records, one for best Picture. If twitter was a thing back in and he tweeted that he would have clearly pulled that down within about a few months. But also the great thing about the Internet. The things you say last forever, and there'll be some guy on a podcast talking about them years later, keeping it in the nineties. Now, let's move on to nineteen seven Titanic, which we all know the story Rose and Jack falling in love on the ill faded ocean liner. Now, you can say what you want about the love story in this movie, but I actually rewatched it fairly recently, and I always knew how good of a movie Titanic was, but rewatching it now that it was on Netflix, I realized just how much of a piece of art this movie was. But here's an actual review from The l A Times from a writer named Kenneth to ron On. They said, what does two million dollars by the three hour and fourteen minute Titanic unhastily answers not enough, basically saying that this movie was a waste of money. Back to my thoughts. After rewatching this movie, I realized just how large of a scale this movie was, from the massive sets, the cinematography, the acting, and just a little intricacies that it took to get this movie to that status. Yes, it is a long movie, at over three hours. If you watch this movie and owned it back in the nineties. This is what we call a two VHS tape movie. And while this review is criticizing the two million dollars spent on making this movie, I think every dollar was well spent because to me, this almost doesn't feel like a movie. It almost feels like its own entity. And while it's not completely historically accurate and it's more of focusing on the love story, I feel like James Cameron did a really good job of kind of feeling like the Titanic was well represented at this moment in history and creating this movie to where we're never going to forget about that ever again. You also just realize how great everybody acted in this movie, from Kate Winslett to a young Leonardo DiCaprio, the acting, special effects, the costume design, the soundtrack, and watching this movie, I also thought more of what it takes for a director to get their vision right. And when you see a review like this about something that clearly was an entirely huge production, and it's not just the director but everybody else working on this movie, like that's a really hard thing to do, with a really hard task to take on. So considering the money on the line how long it took to make, and how it stood the test of time. This review clearly does not age well. And finally, I'll end with this movie from fight Club, one of my favorite movies of all time. Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, you gotta Underground fight Club that evolves into much, much more. And here's a review from Roger Ebert. He said fight Club is a thrill ride masquerading as philosophy, the kind of ride where some people puke and others can't wait to get on again, basically saying that the movie is smarter than it thinks it is. And this just takes me back to a time where I got all my reviews from Cisco and Ebert and it would come on at night. They go through all the biggest movies and they greatly determine whether or not America would go and see movies, which is astounding to me. And I love that that's evolved from being a primetime television show. So now there's all different avenues where you can get your reviews. YouTube, this podcast, Instagram, Twitter, that's everywhere now that we don't just have to listen to two older guys give their opinions. I think Fight Club is great. I think as a kid, I loved it so much because it felt like something I shouldn't be watching. But even now, I still love going back to watch that movie, even though I know exactly what's going to happen. It's still one of my favorites. And I'll leave you with this is only my point for doing this entire topic and how I've come to evaluate whether or not I'm going to see a movie, which has changed over time because now I do a movie podcast where I have to see all the newest speakers movies so I'm able to talk about them. But before that I would read reviews. But at the end of the day, if you want to see something, go see something. That's the great thing about movies. We can both watch them and have totally different opinions on them. And I just love that debate. I love that back and forth. You like the movie, I didn't like the movie, Let's talk about it. The whole reason I do this podcast is because of that. So I love it when you share your opinions with me too on Instagram and Twitter. Let's keep the conversation going, Let's keep movies alive and remember, just because you see it written online doesn't mean that it's true. Let's get into a movie review now, keeping it spoiler free. Talking about The Eternals, the latest movie from Marvel, racked up about seventy one million dollars over the weekend, and I said, when this trailer first came out, I wasn't too excited about it. I didn't really know what it was going to be about when it first was announced. Marvel is in its Phase four now, so they're in a bit of a transition period of not relying on the normal Avengers anymore. So I have a lot of thoughts after watching The Eternals. But if you haven't seen the trailer yet, here's just a little bit of that. We need to find the others. I haven't seen some of them for centuries. I hello, this is what the end of the world looks like, pasically a front row seats. You know what's never saved the planet? Your sarcasm. We've loved these people since the day we arrived. When you love something, you protected, all right, So let me preface this review first. Is, first of all, I've seen every Marvel movie, and I've talked about recently how I haven't been that excited for Phase four of Marvel. All my favorite characters are kind of in different areas of Marvel now, and it's not ever going to be the Avengers coming back anymore. So Marvel is in this period where they're like, all right, we gotta look ahead to the future. And I think earlier this year with Black Widow got me excited again about it, and then with Shane Chi that was really one of my favorite Marvel movies of all time and unexpected hit for me. But when it came to the Eternals, I felt like they originally pitched this as kind of being the new Avengers, this new team of superheroes that's going to go out and save the world. And what the movie is about is all these Eternals and it was their mission to be on Earth and protect the Earth against these Deviants who are basically these big monsters, and they were able to keep them under wraps for years, and now this movie takes place when the Deviants have returned and our wrecking havoc on the world looking to destroy it, and the Eternals us assemble again like one big family and save the world. So let me start first of what I did like about the movie. First of all, the cast was the most diverse cast I've seen in any superhero movie really any movie in recent history. And altogether, when you put these characters on screen, it kind of gave me vibes of the Umbrella Academy. It's all these people with all these different superpowers. They have this history together. They've basically been alive forever and they are all they really know, and they've tried to go on and live their own lives be normal humans as much as they can, being at turnals. So when it came to the characters themselves, I thought they were pretty good. But what I realized upon watching this movie and I'm sitting there, it's almost too many characters to focus in on, and I feel like they never really each get their moment to shine. And I kind of wanted to have just one centralized main character to focus on, which they do in a way. But I think that ended up being what kind of kept me out of the movie is I never really got emotionally, I said, with any of the characters. There was kind of so many to focus in on, and all the stories and the jumping from present day to pass these flashbacks, I felt like this movie was trying to be a little more emotional than it was building up to be. And there were some really great moments of action, these little bits of like all right here these deviants and then really getting to showcase their powers. I thought that part was cool. But this movie really felt unlike any other Marvel movie I've seen before, and I think they did that with you know, great purpose. You bring in Chloe Jowe, who is coming off an Oscar Win with No man Land and now directing this movie. They were obviously going for something different, and her directing style really comes out through the creative vision of This movie feels unlike any other Marvel movie, and I feel like this movie was a great set up for the next movie, which is why I didn't like it that much. It was hard to create this world of the Eternals that somehow also exists in the world of all the other Avengers, and I think I'm getting a little bit burnt out of all the references to the Avengers and trying to keep that alive. Like I think Marvel just has to move on from that. Stop referencing New York, stop referencing the Avengers or anybody like in particular, just be your own movie if you're gonna do that, Like I get, you're trying to keep people like reminded about all the good movies and all the Avengers, But for this movie, I didn't want any memory of that. I wanted to be fully into this, fully into loving these characters, fully into getting to know them, and wanting to see not only another Eternals movies, but maybe a solo movie. And I again felt like no characters shine through to me, and they were all pretty forgettable. So in a way, I felt like this movie created a world too big for itself. And by the time the movie started to get really good and the action was the best, it was already over. And my initial review that I posted on Instagram is that my favorite part of the entire movie was the first post credit scene, And I'll explain that. I mean it's because that was the only scene that really made me feel like I was watching something enjoyable, and I think it was the only time that the movie had like a real fun vibe to it, maybe felt more like a traditional Marvel movie, and it got me excited for the next one. But I'm over these teases. I need a really good movie now, and I don't want to keep feeling like they didn't leave everything on the table when it comes to superhero movies. And maybe I'm also just a little bit burnt out on superhero movies altogether. I found myself more and more just caring less about the next Marvel movie. And that's coming from somebody who like, these are my favorite kind of movies. But here's what I'll say about The Eternals. I saw what other people said about the movie. Whatever the people thought about it. Some people love this movie. Some people said they fell asleep during this movie, which I was very close to falling asleep. It was also very long and over two and a half hours. I felt like that was ambitious for a movie like this. We're introduced to all these new characters and trying to keep the attention to people. I felt in this case it hurt the movie because there were unnecessary scenes. There was unnecessary parts to the story that didn't really need to be there. In the end of it, it didn't really matter. And don't go into it expecting the same kind of humor as other Marvel movies. They're just not the same. I don't think I laughed once during this movie. But again, as I review this movie and talk about this movie, and just coming off of talking about review bombing, I won't say that you shouldn't see this movie. And here's why. After watching it and thinking more about it, I realized that this movie just wasn't for me, But it's probably for someone else, somebody who's really wanting something heavy into sci fi, wanting to go back and kind of look more at the origin of all these characters, is into just being immersed in this whole new, big world. So in no way I would ever say this is a bad movie. It's not compared to other movies. It's already a step ahead of anything else out there just by being a Marvel movie at this scale. So I'm rating this only on all the other Marvel movies I've seen this year and in most recent history. I would give this movie three out of five deviants. I do love how ambitious Marvel was in creating something that's totally its own. And maybe it's just that I'm not into big epics, sci fi fantasy movies right now. As we saw that I didn't really like Dune. For me, that just wasn't enough to keep my attention there's very little into me wanting to see another Eternals movie. But I also can recognize that Marvel does have to progress. They can't just keep making the same Iron Man four movies forever and never. People are already getting burnt out by that. So they have to create a world that's entirely different. And that's why you hired this director, that's why you have this cast. And with the seventy one million dollars and made over the weekend, people are going to watch more Eternals movies. What I think Marvel needs to do is kind of change a little bit of not all these Marvel movies existing in the same universe anymore, get away from the little bit, let people who want to see Eternals movies exist just in this world and keep it separate from all the other movies. I think it gets a little too oversaturated when you have all these movies kind of crossing paths and one linking to the other. I think I need to get away from that a little bit. And I get it such a successful way to put out movies because if you see one, you gotta see the other one because you don't understand it. But I think giving us the ability to just watch one movie without having to know all that happened in another movie in the way they connect. I'm a little bit over that. Other times I will tell you that you shouldn't spend your money, you shouldn't waste it on a crappy movie. But I don't think it's a crappy movie. So I say on this one, decide for yourself. If you love Marvel movies, you may get something out of this one. And if not, just go YouTube that post credit scene and watch that because that was awesome. It's that time of the episode now where check out some movies coming to theaters very soon. Let's break down some movie trailers. It's time head down a movie, Mike. All right, we've been talking Marvel here in the last segment, and now there's a new Marvel movie called Morbius with Jared Leto and it's another anti hero movie, so kind of in the same aspect of Venom that came out the new one earlier this year. Morbius kind of exists in that same cinematic universe, and it's a character who has this medical condition makes him unable to walk and goes off to this other country for this experimental treatment. The treatment ends up working, but it also turns him into a half man, half vampire. So before we break it down, here's just a little bit of the Morbius trailer. We haven't anything this could sin set thing in San Francisco. Anything to save a life, but I don't know where I'm capable of. You save lives, you don't take off, I don't. It's Dr Michael more. So here we go another anti hero movie, which I'm kind of into. I think if I had to lean more to a new type of superhero movie that I'm enjoying more and more, it's the anti hero, and that's somebody who you still root for even though they do bad things. And in this case, Morbus is a doctor played by Jared Leto who saves people's lives and tries to do this tream it to cure this rare medical condition he has but turned himself into a vampire and had a vampire survive, they have to drink blood from other people, so therefore he has to kill people while trying to keep himself alive. I think this is an interesting take on the comic. It seems to stay pretty true to it, at least from the trailer. They don't really reveal exactly what the movie is going to be about as far as the plot line, but that's basically what it is. What I broke down from the trailer. It's existing almost in the same world of Tom holland Spider Man. You see some references in the back there of a spray painted Spider Man with the word murderer over it, referencing the new Spider Man movie coming out later this year. You also have Michael Keaton in there reprising his role as Vulture, which also existed in that Spider Man universe, and you also have Tyrese Gibson in this movie. I'm curious to see if a vampire movie like this works because I think vampires can come off a little bit cheesy. Some scenes in this trailer look a little bit cheesy. The flying scene, I somewhat have to give myself into that. Okay, he's flying now. I think where this movie may have success is the actual shots of him looking like a vampire with the teeth in the face. I think that actually looks pretty cool. So I don't have the bar set high on this one, but it is one I'm looking forward to coming out and that comes out at the start of next year on January. Up next to the trailer, park, let's talk about The House of Gucci, which stars Al Pacino, Jared Letto, salmahai A, Jeremy Irons and Lady Gaga and Adam Driver. This movie comes out on November this year. Here's just a little bit of that trailer. I have been life. There's an empire, you can help. Famary is not exciting and everybody knows it. At least that's my name, see ours name. So the premise of the movie, it's said in Italy, spanning three decades of love, betrayal, decadence, revenge, and it depicts the events and aftermath of the murder of Maurizio Gucci, who was an Italian businessman and head of the fashion house Well Gucci, and that murder was by his ex wife, Patricia, played by Lady Gaga. So what I liked about this trailer is it kind of gave me good Fellows vibes from the music, the wardrobe, the dialogue them tackling wealth and also murder. I kind of get that vibe from the trailer of this movie. And then you have some really great actors. I mean heavyweights like al Pacinos, Almahiac, Jared Leto, who looks completely unrecognizable in this role. Of course, Adam Driver, who was an astounding actor, and then Lady Gaga, who I surprisingly like now more for her acting than I do her music, and she went all in on this role, dived into it for three years, spoke with an accent for nine months straight. I did see some drama online of the woman she's portraying, saying that the casting of Lady Gaga bothered her, which if you don't know the story of her and what this movie is portraying is she was convicted of a highly publicized trial of hiring a hitman to kill her ex husband and she was dubbed by the Italian press as the Black Widow. So I'm pretty excited for this movie, definitely on my list to see in the month of November. But that's gonna do it. For this week's episode, and every episode, I always shout out to one of you who listened tweet about the show, call it the listeners shout out of the week. And I'm gonna do something a little bit different this week. But if you follow me on Instagram at Mike Destro. I put up a post I didn't even know I was going to post. It was a little bit vulnerable and speaking about anxiety and depression, which is something I've dealt with since I was a teenager, and it was all of the comments from all of you guys also kind of opening up about how much you've struggled with that too, and that really meant a lot to me to go through all those comments and read everybody kind of showing some support, showing that I'm not alone in the situation, and sharing your own stories of how you've dealt with anxiety and depression. That really meant a lot to me. And I know that I come on here and do this podcast every single week. Probably listened to the Bobby Bones Show and know me from there, and you probably wouldn't think, just by hearing my voice or even if you met me in person, that it's something that I struggle with on a daily basis. Every thing from when I sit down and record this podcast, I think to myself, man, this episode is gonna suck. People are gonna hate me. I'm gonna get told it. I don't need to do it anymore. There's just all these things that kind of factor into dealing with anxiety and depression. So it meant a lot to me. For everybody who commented on that post, it means a lot to me that you listen to this podcast and have been so supportive to me and everything I've you know, taken on, with all the jobs that I do and all the things that I'm a part of. It's comforting to know that you guys are there, and it's not lost on me that I wouldn't be able to do this without you listening, without you following along. So I just wanted to say I appreciate every single one of you listening, appreciate everybody who commented on that post. I really hope you have a good week. And I mean that sincerely and honestly. Because this episode comes out on Mondays. All my episodes come out on Mondays. I know how much of a struggle it is to get through the week, and I hope that maybe this podcast is just a little bit it of any kind of shining light to help you not focus on some of that sometimes. So thank you for listening. We'll be back next week. I have a really awesome interview. I have a really awesome interview next week, I'll leave you with one clue. The boy who lived has to do with that, and until then, later