Best and Worst Movies of The Last Month with Mike and Kelsey + Movie Review: No One Will Save You (Hulu) + Trailer Park: The Toxic Avenger + First Look: Joker 2

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike, joined this week by my wife and coas Kelsey. How are you.

00:00:06
Speaker 2: I'm great.

00:00:07
Speaker 1: You ready to talk about the movies we've seen in the last thirty days.

00:00:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just feels like hows another month gone by? R els feel like we get to this point in the year and like times, just like flying.

00:00:17
Speaker 1: It's about to just evaporate. But yes, we'll get into all of our best and worst picks of the month. In the movie review, I'll be talking about No One Will Save You, the movie that I feel like infiltrated social media and everybody was going crazy for. So I'll give you my thoughts on that movie. We'll get into the trailer park. We'll do all that. Thank you for listening, Thank you for being subscribed, Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies.

00:00:40
Speaker 3: In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTB with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast Network, this movie Mike Movie.

00:01:03
Speaker 1: All right, our best and worst. We'll be talking about movies that we watched in September, which overall was a pretty slow month for movies. I think out of all the months of us going to the movies, this year was probably the least amount of time we spent there. Yeah. I feel like it's because right at the end of summer, with August, you get all the great movies, all those final summer blockbusters coming out, and then things just kind of slow down. In September, it inevitably becomes a dumb month, which is where studios just put out movies that aren't really anticipated to do very well. So it's kind of like a hodgepodge of here's some random movies to come out and take it for what you will.

00:01:44
Speaker 2: But again, I also wonder why put out a movie you don't think it's going to do well? Are they all tax right offs?

00:01:49
Speaker 3: Not?

00:01:50
Speaker 1: Maybe not do well isn't the way to put it. But it's you put it out at a time where it's less competitive because you have all the summer movies where everybody's just fighting every single weekend, and then when people go back to work, go back to school, back on a normal schedule. In September, it's like, hey, let's put out some movies that we really don't have any other place in the year to put them because we already missed out on the January February window.

00:02:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's weird because then you start like November.

00:02:19
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're about to get into some good stuff.

00:02:20
Speaker 2: And then you like ramp up and then you've got Oscar Contenders. Spring's a little slower, and then you've got summer. Seeah, I guess for a couple months in the spring, and then like a month or so.

00:02:30
Speaker 1: And I's in the fall. I still think my favorite time of the year is summer blockbuster season. I mean, we went to the movies so much this summer.

00:02:37
Speaker 2: I love Summer Blockbuster season. But I also really like all the ones that come out in November December.

00:02:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that's where the really the best movies come out. You get one or two, like really impactful summer movies that everybody loves that I feel like this year only will I guess Barbie and Oppenheimer will be probably in contention for Oscars. But yeah, in that November December window, you get some really great ones. So we're going to talk about our best and worst of September. You want to start it off, I can do that. What was your best movie you saw?

00:03:08
Speaker 2: Okay? Well, it's actually going to be a movie that only I saw. You did not go see it with me.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: Which is a rare occurrence. And I think a question I get a lot is do you go see every single movie.

00:03:17
Speaker 2: With me unless it's scary?

00:03:18
Speaker 1: Yeah? And then this is the first time in a long time where you've gone to seeing a movie without me.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: Yes. I had a friend in town and she loves like a good indie movie as well. She always goes to south By sees all the films that come out. So we went to see Scrapper at the Bellcourt, you know, my favorite place. I always give it a shout up, not an ad, just love it.

00:03:39
Speaker 1: What is it about?

00:03:39
Speaker 2: Okay? So it's about this little girl and her mom passes away and she's like living on her own, trying to raise herself, and her biological dad shows up and is back in the picture. Under our thirty. Not a huge plot line. It just was so cute and well done and heartwarming, and the actress that played the little girl was a and yeah, it was just kind of the story of like, young guy not ready to be a father dips out, the mom passes away, and he's like, I guess I should step up and be a father now, and just kind of them learning to live with each other because this little girl is truly trying to raise herself.

00:04:16
Speaker 1: I think the thing I love about seeing movies at the Bell Court is they always have great trailers. And that was a trailer for whom we went to go see A Believe of Fire. Yes, and I knew immediately that I wanted to see that one as well, but you got to go see it without me, And I feel like that's a movie that just by the trailer, it kind of gives me that vibe of just being a really great, like slice of life story.

00:04:36
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a great way to describe it, a slice of life.

00:04:39
Speaker 1: Like just from the trailer, it kind of reminded me of like a Little Miss Sunshine or Juno. Was it anything like that.

00:04:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say it's in kind of the same vein of like an independence doesn't really have a genre type movie.

00:04:55
Speaker 1: I love just like classic independent movies, even if they are not cliche, but very quintessential indie movie like that. I just love that those movies speak to me.

00:05:07
Speaker 2: The only thing I so. I love seeing it at the Bell Court and it was upstairs in the screening room, which.

00:05:12
Speaker 1: Oh, it's a really small, small room.

00:05:14
Speaker 2: The only problem is the aisles only have one way in and one way out, and there was a couple sitting on the end of an aisle. We asked to go buy them. I put my stuff down and then I had to go back to the bathroom, and they were annoyed every time somebody got up, like to the point where the girl sitting the furthest in would just climb over the seats because we were all scared of this couple. And I did almost pee my pants because.

00:05:34
Speaker 1: I I can't do that.

00:05:36
Speaker 2: Grown woman was scared to go past them because they just give looks. And I was like, I'm sorry. You said on the end, what did you expect here? So I would dog off half a point for the experience for that.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: Overall, what would you rate the movie?

00:05:49
Speaker 2: Four out of five?

00:05:49
Speaker 1: Stolen Bikes Okay, I got to see that when it comes out on streaming. My best of the last month has to be Bottoms So Good. It was the highest rated movie I had at a four point five and even thinking about it now, it still makes me laugh.

00:06:06
Speaker 2: It's available to rint now and I want to watch it again.

00:06:08
Speaker 1: I feel like it has a chance to become an iconic comedy. It's so good because it's for me. It's up there on the list with Like Me and Girls, Super Bad, like all those type of movies that everybody just names their favorite comedies and you always have the same list. This, I feel, is a solid contender that more people need to see. And it was a little bit of a bummer that it came out at a time when the strike was still going on and they didn't fully get to promote it. And also because it is a lower budget, more independent film, I feel like that had stuff going against it as well. But now I just want everybody to see this movie and realize, like there are still great comedies being made right now, which is happening less and less, so whenever one does come out that really moves me in a way of it not only being funny, but being original, having a unique voice. I just think more people need to see this movie.

00:07:01
Speaker 2: I love this movie so much that I'm going to do something you don't even know. I'm about to do this.

00:07:05
Speaker 1: Okay, what is it?

00:07:06
Speaker 2: Okay? So I have decided that I want people to be able to watch this movie. So when you Mike Destro on Instagram, post your reel for the week. Everyone listening, if you want a chance to watch Bottoms, comment a popcorn emoji and we will pick one random winner and we will venmo you the money to rent this movie.

00:07:25
Speaker 1: I love it so good, I love it so yeah. I go comment on my last reel popcorn emoji, popcorn emoji, and I'll randomly pick somebody and venmo you money to watch this movie.

00:07:34
Speaker 2: We will use a random generator on the internet. It will not just be like us with our eyes closed. We will truly randomly and we will send you the money.

00:07:42
Speaker 1: All right, I like that? Give it away a movie on this week's episode. So those are our best movies. Now let's talk about some worst, because since September was a slow month and Bottoms was at the top with a four point five, I feel like we're going to have a pretty low on what the worst was of the month. So you want to kick us off. Was the worst thing you saw in the last month, And again, it doesn't have to be bad, it's just the worst because.

00:08:05
Speaker 2: My least favorite, Hunting in Venice. It just follows a formula. I knew what to expect, similar to Murder on the Nile, Death on the Orient Express, Murder on the.

00:08:14
Speaker 1: Reverse those Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express.

00:08:18
Speaker 2: Okay, there we go.

00:08:18
Speaker 1: There're so generic.

00:08:19
Speaker 2: There's so generic. Yeah, it follows a formula. It's it is what it is.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I also felt like that one was just not as novel as the other two. No, And I think it was because it was trying to be so scary that it made all the other aspects of the movie kind of boring. And then by the time it gets to the end of it, you really don't care who did it. The reveeal happens and you're like, Okay, that's cool. Next thing. And also with all the other movies, there was just more action to them, especially Death on the Nile, because they stop at different locations throughout the entire movie.

00:08:54
Speaker 2: I thing The Nile was so good, so I think I was expecting Hunting in Venice to be equally good. I do. I loved Tina Fey though.

00:09:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, but even her character in the movie was so Yeah, she was the best part.

00:09:05
Speaker 2: She was the best part.

00:09:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with you on that one. It just wasn't. I guess because we had expectations going into it. Maybe we had zero expectations. We would have enjoyed it a little bit more.

00:09:16
Speaker 2: Also, I almost fell asleep, I like reclined. I pulled my hood over my eyes, and I was like, all right, nap time for my.

00:09:24
Speaker 1: Worst of the month. Since you took a hunting in Venice.

00:09:27
Speaker 2: Okay, well you took bottom, so I'm.

00:09:29
Speaker 1: Gonna have to go with my big fat Greek wedding three.

00:09:32
Speaker 2: I knew you were gonna pick that up.

00:09:33
Speaker 3: You did.

00:09:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, you had no interest in watching the franchise anyways, and we.

00:09:37
Speaker 1: Watched every single one. So here are my thoughts on the Yeah, we.

00:09:40
Speaker 2: Watched them all in a week because I tried to get you to watch the first one a year ago and fifteen minutes and you said I'm bored. So you had to watch them all a week.

00:09:47
Speaker 1: So here's my thoughts on the entire franchise.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: Hit me with it.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: I thought the first one was gonna be a lot better than it was.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: It was great for its time. It was unexpectedly funny.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: I guess that's why because I knew the movie and was aware of it so much that I thought it was going to be like one of the best rom comms of all time, because just the poster of that movie is embedded in my head from seeing the DVDs so much like Hastings. That is a movie I just remember seeing and people renting and talking about so much. I thought it was gonna be up there on like You've Got Mail or Sleepless in Seat, like those type of rom coms. Is always where I put that in before even watching it, and after watching it with you, I just didn't see why it was so iconic at the time and why people love it so much. And it took me probably until the second movie to really get to enjoy the characters and understand the dynamic and understand the comedy. But I felt like between one and two it kind of took a downturn. But surprisingly, I feel like the third one is the best of the entire franchise because you already know all these characters. The story is a lot more emotional, and I feel like a lot more fun. You don't have the dad, That's true.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: And that's not a spoiler, because he literally in the description.

00:10:56
Speaker 1: He died in real life, and that's the entire premise of the.

00:10:58
Speaker 2: Movie with the wind deck.

00:11:01
Speaker 1: So it took me all the way to the third movie to enjoy them. So I feel like if they made another one, I.

00:11:07
Speaker 2: Hope they don't.

00:11:08
Speaker 1: You don't, really, I didn't even want a third.

00:11:11
Speaker 2: Yeah it is I don't even know that I want a second. I really thought it was a great standalone hit Bridesmaids. They knew they would ruin if they made another one. Sometimes things are better left at one.

00:11:22
Speaker 1: It is an unexpected movie trilogy. I think that's going back to what I was saying is I didn't see how impactful the first one was to require a part two, which the story in that one. I felt it just wasn't the best whatsoever. There was more of a story in three, and a reason to make it because of what actually happened with the actor who plays a dead in real life. So there was something there, and that movie had more of a payoff than the second one.

00:11:44
Speaker 2: But I guess they couldn't go from one to three because a lot of life would have happened.

00:11:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, the entire timeline of the story doesn't. It jumps around. It does from the very all. The other reason about the first movie is because it jumps so much from them meeting to having a kid. There's such a big of a time jump.

00:12:02
Speaker 2: From the first to the second.

00:12:04
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:12:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were like fourteen years in between.

00:12:06
Speaker 1: And then the next one comes and then it's like she's in college, but they like had her in the first, so it just seems like, yeah, that is it's a little bit all like they should have made these all into the two thousands, and it probably would have been better. Maybe I would agree.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: I did love that Joey Fatone was still in it. I love his character. I do like Sister You're great. Do enjoy the fact that they bring back all of the cast, Yeah, and they're really good about that.

00:12:28
Speaker 1: And I think that's important to it. If they just swapped out characters or recasted characters, it would seem even more of a cash grab. But I do enjoy that fact that, a it's all the same characters, so it kind of feels like you're growing with them.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: I also feel like maybe it's different watching it as a woman, because the first one is like she's approaching thirty and her dad's like, Tula, you're gonna be onwed Spinster, you're getting so old no children, and like, man, I know I'm married, but I'm about to be thirty in a few months, and I'm like, cool, thirty sounds awesome. I don't feel old, but I think, yeah, I think that's the part of it that's like makes the first one like unexpected romantic comedy is that it's not the woman putting yourself in this box, like I feel like in a lot of rom comes women they're like, I'm gonna be single forever. But in this case, it's like her Greek dad being like, you must marry and carry on the family legacy.

00:13:13
Speaker 1: And it's also one of the only few movies that I know that really highlights Greek families and their culture. And it is cool to watch a movie and get to know about something I really don't know a whole lot about. And coming from a Mexican background, I kind of feel like there's some similarities there as far as how close you are to your family. They all live next door to yeah, the whole living with each other. Like in Mexican culture, it's normal to live with your parents until you're married.

00:13:39
Speaker 2: I think most cultures, multi generational homes are common except.

00:13:44
Speaker 1: For America House. It's like, hey, you're eighteen, get out of here. It's and it's weird if you are living with your parents and you're in your mid to late twenties or even thirties.

00:13:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. That's a good point.

00:13:54
Speaker 1: I have cousins. They didn't move out, so they were in their forties.

00:13:56
Speaker 2: I joke that my youngest brother's gonna be like that. He's just gonna mak like a little like cave. But I also think he's gonna, I don't know, invest in crypto.

00:14:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's because he wants to chill forever. I do have some honorable mentions. I am going to get to the movie review No One Will Save You, which honestly could have been my best of the month, but I want to have a full dedicated review to that.

00:14:16
Speaker 2: Is that when you watched on TV, it is Saturday morning. Yeah, I was like, doesn't sound familiar. Don't think I tuned in?

00:14:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a horror movie that you would not be interested in. But I'll give you my full thoughts on that here in a bit. And I did want to mention some movies that we've reviewed previously that are now available to stream that everybody.

00:14:32
Speaker 2: Needs to go see Theater Camp.

00:14:34
Speaker 1: Theater Camp is on Hulu, and I think that is one that we both loved and another great comedy of this also.

00:14:41
Speaker 2: I want to watch it again already, and kind of like.

00:14:43
Speaker 1: The same way that Bottoms is. It's very niche.

00:14:46
Speaker 2: It's so camp, but not like in the way of like actual camp, just like I don't know how else to.

00:14:51
Speaker 1: And the humor is a lot different than that one because it's it's so specific to what it's like to be a theater kid. But even if you're not, it's just a movie.

00:15:00
Speaker 2: And I feel like if you were just a weird kid in any capacity, I think that's why you're the cool popular kid. Maybe you're not gonna get it, but maybe you have like a secret interest in theater and you couldn't pursue it because you were the cool popular kid.

00:15:12
Speaker 1: And that is a movie. I would love to see a sequel too. I rarely say that, but they should make a Theater Camp two.

00:15:18
Speaker 2: I would watch that, like the camp's been up and running again for like two years.

00:15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, just take exactly where it left off and start with a new one. You can introduce new cast member. They're just potential there for it to be another one.

00:15:31
Speaker 2: But that kind of feels like when they started spinning off Pitch Perfect, So maybe not.

00:15:34
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind seeing it, but it probably doesn't need a sequel is the category that that movie falls into. But if you want to check that one out, it's on Hulu, which is my go to for movies right now. Netflix is so much Here is something that you could watch in theaters but at home. With the A list stars, they have more of I guess not necessarily franchises, but they feel like they're making their own franchises, but also Max because they have all the Warner Brothers stuff, but that doesn't really feel like originals to me. It just feels like, hey, they get all the Warner Brothers on their streaming service, but the other ones. To mention Mutant Mayhem. The Ninja Turtles animated movie is now on Paramount Plus, which was one of my favorites of the summer.

00:16:17
Speaker 2: Also great. I loved it, didn't think I would.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: And you are not a Ninja Turtles fan whatsoever. Prior to that, I'm not.

00:16:22
Speaker 2: It was the one thing I just never really got into.

00:16:25
Speaker 1: And then also the Haunted Mansion is now on Disney Plus, which was a movie that we just didn't really have anything else to go watch in theaters, had low expectations, but it is a pretty good family Halloween movie, which the reason they put that out earlier this summer was so now that it kind of matches up with being available in October around spooky season. Very smart of them, And it's a weird thing for Disney to take a hit like that because they did lose some money at the box office, but now we'll maybe make it back up with people streaming it.

00:16:59
Speaker 2: I loved the original Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy. Yeah, that was also an unexpected hit.

00:17:04
Speaker 1: I feel like and I think the Disney model is changing a bit, and it feels like every time a new Disney movie comes out in theaters, it doesn't do as well as it does, but then whenever it goes on to Disney Plus, it has this whole new life. Like Elemental was their most stream movie, but when it first came out, everybody was saying it was a flop.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: Well that's also because some of their new I'm doing quotes are just remakes.

00:17:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, Little Mermaid got streamed a bunch too, Like millions of.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: People you watched it without me. I think I'm gonna set that one up.

00:17:36
Speaker 1: But then they also have Wish coming out later this year. It looks so generic and it just looks like, here's a fairytale movie. So I feel like that's gonna be the same issue there that it's not gonna do so great in theaters. People are complaining about Disney and say they're failing, they're losing money, and then it'll come out on streaming and be their highest stream movie again.

00:17:55
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because you think about it, most parents aren't taking little kids to this.

00:17:58
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:17:58
Speaker 2: One, it's hard to sit. I know a lot of theaters will do like a kid screening of things like on the weekends, where like it's literally your kid can run around and be loud, like that's what the screening's for, because you can't expect a small child to sit there for a couple hours to watch a movie. Also, it's expensive to go to movies. Yeah, I think if you have multiple kids and they all want snacks and tickets.

00:18:18
Speaker 1: And it's way easier to watch it on Disney Plus exactly.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: So I think that's also why they don't do well in theaters.

00:18:22
Speaker 1: I do think there needs to be more of an experience with movie theaters. Okay, like you said the kids only screenings. I also saw whenever the Paw Patrol movie came out, they had dog screenings where you could bring your dog and watch a movie.

00:18:35
Speaker 2: Are you being serious right now?

00:18:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, Paw Patrol head dog screening where you bring your dog.

00:18:39
Speaker 2: Interesting. I would expect that for Blue because if Blue came out with the movie, because Blue is filmed and the colors, the dogs can.

00:18:44
Speaker 1: See Blue has it going on. I need to watch that. I know it's a kid show, but everybody loves it. But I just feel like adding another thing for audiences to have to go to the theater. And it doesn't have to be anything crazy, but even something like that where.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: Their Taylor Swift concert film. You'll be dressing up. I will be wearing my Friendship bracelets, and I probably will be buying the exclusive popcorn bucket and cup for you Guessed It nineteen eighty nine, which.

00:19:09
Speaker 1: Is actually not a bad price. I've wanted to get into collecting the popcorn.

00:19:13
Speaker 2: No, we don't have the space for it exactly.

00:19:15
Speaker 1: That's why I don't, especially because when you look at them, they look so cool. But then you spend I mean some of those are get up to forty fifty bucks.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: You also don't eat popcorn. Let's a lot popcorn to expect me to eat.

00:19:24
Speaker 1: But I just want the I just want the thing. I want the thing to hold it. Because they came out with really cool ones for like Transformers, which was can.

00:19:30
Speaker 2: You buy just the bucket Sands popcorn?

00:19:32
Speaker 1: Exactly?

00:19:33
Speaker 2: Cane.

00:19:34
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, whenever the Post Malone exclusive cups came to Canes, you went to get one for me out of my way because there was only one that I wanted. It was the pink one with his animated character on it.

00:19:45
Speaker 2: I went out of my way during lunch one day to Canes. Parked, walked into Canes, smelled overwhelmingly aggressive, like fried chicken. I stand there in line, I get up there and I just want the cup, and they're like, we can't sell it to you. You have to buy a combo. And I'm like, well, I'm not buying a twelve dollars meal that neither one of us can eat because it's not vegan or gluten free. So I did not get a cup, and I was very annoyed that you have to purchase the Comboat to then upgrade to the cup, and I'm like, can I not just buy.

00:20:09
Speaker 1: The I know yem cup? But luckily my sister got me one. I'm looking at it right now. It's in the studio here. And also my brother got me the Cowboys one with post malone, so I now have two cups. But I think you can just buy the popcorn things by themselves because a lot of people resell them online. So there were some really like the Dark Knight well I guess not the Dark Knight one, but the Batman one was also really cool. But yeah, where am I going to put all this stuff? My space is already we.

00:20:35
Speaker 2: Could start filling up here popcorn container collection. But yes, I agree there needs to be something to movie experiences. So why I like Alamo Drafthouse when they do the like quote alongs.

00:20:46
Speaker 1: I feel like directors. I saw one director recently saying that more movies need to just be made in imax because that's also gives you a reason to go to the theater, which, if you think about our experience with going to see Oppenheimer this summer, like a large driving force of that was the fact that we saw at one of the only seventy millimeters screenings in the entire country, And there's just something to watching something that's actually huge and that you can't have at home because a lot of people now have the money to replicate or get pretty close to the movie theater experience. With a big screen, big sound system, you can get pretty close. And the thing has always been you go to the movies to watch them the way they were intended to. But if you're able to get that experience really close at home, you have to take it up another level and put it in imax on a giant screen and even bigger sound. So I do think there's something of that of just a filmmaking process needs to change a little bit, to go back to creating something that's worthy of the big screen and not just saying see it on the big screen will give us a reason to see it on the big screen.

00:21:52
Speaker 2: Or things that create such buzz and excitement that you end up like a packed theater, like think about like Black Panther a lot. I'm trying to think of another one that we've seen recently. Well, Barbie Oppenheimer Barbe was crazy, So it's like that, Yeah, things that create buzz. I feel like that drives people to want.

00:22:10
Speaker 1: To see it, which is another hard thing to do.

00:22:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Taylor Swift one, I mean she could Taylor Shift could put out a video of her reading the phone book, charge me fifty dollars and say I could only see it in theaters, and well I would.

00:22:23
Speaker 1: Well, all right, anything else you want to say before you go?

00:22:26
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think if we had any TV Honorable mentions, but I feel like we've watched things.

00:22:30
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm just calling out of love with TV shows right now because we have started so many things that I haven't finished. I started one piece on Netflix on my account and I haven't gone back to finish.

00:22:41
Speaker 2: Now my Netflix things that I want to watch anime.

00:22:43
Speaker 1: I haven't started any of the latest Star Wars series, even though people seem to enjoy them. There are so many things I have, like one two episodes down that I just haven't found myself going back to. Like the Morning Show. We do need to catch up on that thum, but I feel like we're going to feel the effects of the strike and things not coming out for a while, so time to hop back into those.

00:23:04
Speaker 2: It's go more girls rewatch season. Oh yeah, start a fall, you just turn it on the.

00:23:11
Speaker 1: TV wise, Okay, my go to speaking of TV shows, in the two thousand me off there, my go to has been My Name is Earl because it's old and comforting. Oh and I love I love that show. When it first came out, it's so annoying. It is not annoying, it is so annoying.

00:23:28
Speaker 2: And every time you turn on an episode, I go in the other room.

00:23:30
Speaker 1: Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.

00:23:32
Speaker 2: Only started on the living room TV. You always somehow claim the living room by just starting my Name is Earl, knowing I won't sit out there with you, but.

00:23:40
Speaker 1: That is my go to show. Right now, that's the best, the worst of the month. We'll come back and talk about No One Will Save You. We'll come back, We'll come back. Let's get into a spoiler free movie review. I have been waiting to talk about No One Will Save You for so long. I watched it the very first weekend it came out and have been marinating with my thoughts because I'm really split on this movie. The movie is about a girl named Brinn who goes out to the home that she grew up in and one night she gets woken up by these strange noises, and those strange noises just happen to be alien, so it is an alien invasion thriller. Brinn is played by Caitlin Dever, who you may know from BookSmart. She was also in Ticket to Paradise last year with George Clooney and Julia Roberts, a really great young actress who I think has a lot of potential. There are so many things I love about this movie, but there are also a lot of things that I just had issues with. So let's dive into it. Without revealing all the details behind the plot of this movie, but essentially what you have. She goes out to this house that she grew up in and you learn a little bit about her backstory of why she is there, and she is very much a recluse, which I really identified a lot with her character with a couple of things, really enjoying not being around a whole lot of people. I think if I could, if I really had the choice, and if me and my wife Kelsey weren't so used to city life at this point, I could see myself going out and living in a house like this, where you're just away from everything, you have no neighbors, You walk out into your front porch and you hear nothing. That part of this movie. I just really enjoyed just having the silence and not having to hear or see anybody, which is kind of my dream scenario. The other thing about her character and really this entire movie is there is very limited dialogue, and I think that creates a very interesting dynamic throughout this entire thing. Usually what you go to watch a movie is to hear the character speak and also see a lot of action depending on the film, but in this case, it is really all action and very very few lines spoken throughout the entire movie. But I find that to be really powerful because a lot of the tension is implied a lot of the scenarios, you as the audience member have to really draw your own conclude usions on exactly what is happening in this movie, and it makes all of her interactions with the aliens throughout this film to be that much more impactful and really creates that feeling of her being alone, which going back to the title of the movie, no One Will Save You. It very much plays into that because there is nobody around her to help her or to save her, and it makes you feel pretty helpless, and I think that is why this movie is creating a lot of buzz, because it really came out at the perfect time. With so much that has been revealed about aliens just this year, I feel they have kind of been soft launch, not only in America but also in different parts of the country, with Mexico saying, hey, look we have a paper mache alien. They exist. So I feel like, right now we're all kind of itching for a movie like this, And it reminded me probably a little bit of an old Twilight Zone episode, but with a much more modern feel to it. And this movie has an interesting road of how it even came to be. The movie was directed by Brian Duffield, who it's actually his second ever feature film, but he is a known producer and writer of movies like Loving Monsters, which is a movie I just quint essentially associate with twenty twenty during the heat of the pandemic, when there were no movies coming out. I thought that movie was a bright spot in my year of being an actual new movie I was being able to watch at home. He was behind that one. He also produced Cocaine Bear, which came out earlier this year, and he actually wrote this movie back out in twenty eighteen, and it was actually supposed to come out earlier after twenty eighth Century Studios bought the rights to it. But then you have a little movie come out called Note from director Jordan Peele, which has to do with what with Aliens, and they were worried that audiences were going to find these two films to be too similar. Therefore, putting one against the other, maybe you get a little alien fatigue and nobody wants to go see this movie because they just watch Nope. And really you don't want to go against Jordan Peele because whatever he puts out is going to get way more attention and dominate at the box office. But this movie finally found its home. It's finally out, which Brian has had such an interesting career of being a writer and being a producer and really just all of his projects being so delayed with the pandemic. So it's really cool to see him now flourish as a director and have a really solid film on his hands. And an alien invasion thriller is something I didn't really know I needed in my life. As much as I love aliens and believe in them. As much as I love horror movies, I really wasn't going into this movie expecting it to have just that kind of feeling. Feels like a horror movie, but instead of a Michael Myers or Freddy Kueger type, the villain is an alien, which to me is way more haunting. I've never really seen an alien shown on screen this much. The first act was so haunting, and I was immediately sucked into this movie. But as the plot developed and as we got to know more about these aliens and they had more interactions, it started to lose steam a little bit for me, especially in the third act, And I just have a thing with movies falling apart in that third act where you build up all this you have me on the horror aspect, you have me on the thriller aspect. But I just really wanted this movie to bring it home. In the end, it bit off a little bit more than it could chew if they would have kept it just a little bit simpler, dumbed it down just a little bit. I felt like it went a little too meta in the third act to try and create this really broad, overarching statement on exactly what happened with Caitlin Devers's character in this movie, it lost me a little bit and took away that excitement I had from the very beginning of the film and faded out there towards the end that it almost would have been a perfect movie for me. And the way I thought about this movie is I love the buzz that it created because this is the type of movie that you tell your friends about who want to watch a thriller because they are so fun to discuss afterwards. It reminds me of some of my favorite horror movies or even the more recent movies like Smiles that have created a buzz. Megan that have created a buzz. It has that same type of feel to it, and I wanted to, like I said earlier, to be my next favorite movie, had all of my favorite things going for it, but it just fell off so hard and let me a little bit disappointed that I thought this could have been it. It's kind of like if you were a coach to a football team and you had a player who was so dedicated would show up on time. You want to put them in the game every single time, for every single play, but they're just not that great at what you really need them to do. They're not going to win you the game, so you have to put in a different player. That is how I felt after watching this movie, as much as I wanted to root for it, as much as I wanted to say all the things about this movie and just let me thinking so close, but now cigar Ah, although it is one of the most dynamic movies I have seen in a long time, to make such a statement, to create some really haunting and unsettling visuals, to give me the feeling that I'm watching something familiar, because it's not an unhurt thing to watch an alien invasion thriller, or even one with a little bit more of a horror element to it. But it still felt novel to me, felt very fresh and new compared to everything else in this space right now. But I still think it's a movie that I still highly recommend, but know that you might not entirely love it if one you don't buy into the idea of aliens, two you're kind of squeamish when it comes to any kind of horror movie. Because if you're somebody who lives alone or lives out in the country like I used to, I could see watching this movie and then having a little bit of trouble going to sleep at night and you hear any kind of sound in the other room, it may freak you out a little bit. But it is one of those movies that you're either gonna love or you're gonna hate, but you have to really watch it and decide for yourself because it's kind of that polarizing of a movie. I just love a movie that creates any kind of a buzz that gets people talking, not a whole lot of marketing, really, any marketing whatsoever. It just popped up on Hulu one day and I thought, I need to watch that, and then I see a lot of people now talking about it on TikTok. So for a movie to come out like that and generate this word of mouth buzz, I think that's really important. And it's going to be a significant film of the year and one that people will probably continue to discover throughout this year. And I hope maybe not a direct sequel, but another movie similar to this. I think the director Brian Duffield has really found an interesting lane here because it's not quite as cinematic as Nope, which he was worried it was going to be compared to but it has its unique style and even though it is a quote unquote streaming only movie, it doesn't really have that direct to video lower budget vibe to it. And it also just reinforces my belief that Hulu has the best original content right now. With everything they are doing and all the things they are scooping up over there with twentieth century studios. I know if I go over to their click on their latest movie, I'm going to watch something interesting. I'm going to watch something compelling. Whether or not I love it completely is up to me, but I know that it's not just going to be like something they throw on Netflix or worse, Amazon Prime. So if you're looking for one streaming service to invest with based on original movies alone, my go to pick is still Hulu. And for no one will save You, I will give it three point five out of five Flying Saucers.

00:33:17
Speaker 3: It's time to head down to movie Mike Trey Lar Paul.

00:33:22
Speaker 1: I have been waiting for the first look at The Toxic Avenger since this movie was announced. The original one came out in nineteen eighty four and it is my favorite B horror movie of all time. What exactly is a B horror movie. It's a movie that doesn't look that good. The actors can't really act. All of the special effects are practical effects, so they are done very cheaply. Essentially, it's just people throwing blood into a bucket and then throwing it onto the actors. So it's very low budget, very low grade, but there is a charm to that. And I think the reason I love the original so much is because as a kid, I wanted to be a director, and horror movies always just folk to young directors because you could make them on a relatively low budget. So movies like The Toxic Avenger or really any Trauma Film, which is the company that produces Toxic Avenger movies and a lot of other very strange and weird and vile horror movies. They're the ones who told me that I could go online figure out how to make fake blood, which I found out as a kid that corn syrup and food colorings, particularly red dye, makes a pretty convincing looking blood for a really low price. But why I love the Toxic Avenger is because he is an unlikely superhero. His origin story is that of he is a nerd who gets tricked into wearing a tow to two gets chased from a second story and falls into a pit of acid and then turns into this disgusting superhero. And even though he has been bullied and tormented and now has his entire human state change for the worst, he still wants to help people and he is still the of Traumaville And the reason this movie has my curiosity and my interest because normally this isn't a movie I would recommend because it is so low budget, because it is so vile. Really, anything in the Trauma space are some of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen that you really have to be into some low grade humor, into some low grade special effects. But there are some hardcore film fans who do find the charm in these movies. And now it is getting a big studio treatment, which is unheard of because as a part of the cast of this movie, playing the Toxic Avenger himself is the one and only Peter Dinklitch, who you would know from Game of Thrones, and just his name alone being added to this movie makes me feel like it's not just gonna be some RinkyDink b horror movie. You also have Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood who are all a part of this cast. So I think it's gonna be a very fun movie, and by the looks of this trailer, it is gonna have that same campiness that they had back in the eighties. So I don't think these films are gonna be for everybody one because they are so over the top and so disgusting to be quite honest, but also because I feel like when movies play into the campiness that it can turn off a lot of people of thinking this is dumb and this is cheesy. So I think it's gonna be a big treat for the really hardcore fans of the original film like myself, but hoping that the fact that actors like Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon are attached to it and Peter d English of course, that it will open the scope up and allow other people to enjoy the greatness that is a Toxic Avenger film. So, before I get into more details, here's just a little bit of the Toxic Avenger trailer. And there are still no leads as to the identity of the freaky folk here remains at large. Sir, what did you see last night? Her gunshots, soft blood, and just all that had his arm pore off like wet bread and the creature will run off of them. Nine the Toxic Avenger. That's what the kids are calling him.

00:36:58
Speaker 2: I think it's swell.

00:37:02
Speaker 1: So the trailer alone is very not safe for work, a lot of bad words, a lot of violence. But you do get the first glimpse of Peter Dinklich who ends up becoming the Toxic Avenger. And it's still very ominous in this teaser, but it just has this very quintessential trouma vibe that I have been looking for in films. But you do get that first look of Peter Dinklich as the Toxic Avenger, and it wasn't really what I had in my mind because it looks like they took an entirely different approach on the look of the character and the thing I was excited to see most because there was an image that came out recently of Elijah Wood in this movie who looks utterly ridiculous. And he is an actor who I just feel like needs to be a part of this movie because he takes so much pride in his roles. He's a really good character actor and I feel a very underappreciated talent in Hollywood. He did so many great movies as a child actor, and the course was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet as a part of the Lord of the Rings franchise. But I feel like he's been more selective in his work and the roles he does take on are ones he has to be passionate about. But I always just see him giving one hundred percent in every single one of his movies. So he is an actor that I pay attention to when he puts out a film. So I'm really excited to see him take on this role in this movie, which just at first look at this reminded me of the first time I saw Colin Farrell as the Penguin and the Batman because he looks pretty unrecognizable. So what this movie is about. You have Peter Dinklitch who plays Winston, who goes on to become the Toxic Avenger, So it looks like he's going to be an older take on the character, who is a teenager in the original nineteen eighty four film. He is a widower struggling to raise a step son and then his job gets taken over by an evil corporate jerk played by Kevin Bacon, who won't pay for their health insurance. Winston fights back and, like it happened in the original, fall into a vat of toxic waste. There is still no official release date on this movie. They're gonna be showing it at some film festivals and kind of gauging audience interest, so hopefully it comes out next year. But if I had to rate my excitement level on this movie two three, four, it is at a five. I am so excited to see this big screen adaptation because the first movie had a budget of half a million dollars half a million dollars, and this movie now has a far far larger budget than that, so much more room to play around with. Although I do love those practical effects in the first one, even though they look pretty bad and sometimes hard to watch in a lot of these movies, I still believe that practical effects age better than special effects. If I go back and watch some practical effects from the eighties or even the seventies, I feel like those hold up so much more than the early days of computers, when people were still trying to figure out how to put special effects in movies. Some of that stuff just looks horrendous. But again, the movie is called The Toxic Avenger, expected to come out next year. Another thing I wanted to mention there is no fool teaser or trailer or anything attached to this one so far, but I have been loving every single image from The Joker Too, which is supposed to come out a year from now. Hopefully that's still the case, but director Todd Phillips posted an image recently of Joaquin Phoenix in the rain with these colored umbrellas around him. There's also a picture of him and Lady Gaga having this like menacing stare into each other's eyes with the Jokers makeup like smeared all across his face. She looks great. Joaquin Phoenix looks as unstable as he did in the first one. So I feel like the sequel is going to be a lot weirder than the first one because it is a musical, which I'm having an easier time now wrapping the thought of that around my brain as I see the images from the movie, and it reminds me of what I love the most about the first one is that you, as the viewer, were questioning all the things that the Joker was going through and whether or not they were actually happening in real life or they were all just happening in his head. So I think that movie is going to play into this as well. Of maybe the more dramatic scenes and straight ahead things will be the things actually happening in real life, and then all of the over the top things that would happen in his head may be portrayed in a musical. That is what I'm taking away from just seeing the stills of this movie, because there's two different vibes. There's the more serious, gritty looks at both of the characters, and there's the others that look a little bit more like a fantasy, a really dark and twisted fantasy, but a fantasy nonetheless. So that is the first look at the Joker wanted to throw that into this segment.

00:41:48
Speaker 2: And that was this week's edition of movie Line.

00:41:51
Speaker 1: Frame or Bar, And that is going to do it for another episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I got to give my listener shout out of the week this week. I'm going going over to my email, which you can reach me at Moviemike d at gmail dot com. Got a really nice email from Michael, who wrote, I am a fairly recent subscriber. I spend a lot of time in my car for work, and your podcast always entertains me. Plus it gives me a lot of insight on movies I may or may not have seen because of your podcast, which I learned about on the Bobby Bone Show. I've also started following you on TikTok at Facebook. I will say, to boost your ego a little. You're the only podcast I follow. Otherwise I wouldn't even listen to a podcast. Otherwise I wouldn't even listen to a podcast because I find them boring. I've been binging all your shows, and the latest one I heard about was your wish to become a Rotten Tomatoes critic. I believe you do enough on your own and don't sell yourself short. Keep doing what you're doing, and you have one more faithful subscriber. I will see you later. Really appreciate that, Michael. It means the world to me that you did literally everything you could possibly do to be subscribed to the podcast, to email in, to follow me on social media. These kind of emails make my day because sometimes I feel like I do these episodes I put them out to the world, and then I think did that even matter? Do people even care? So if one person cares, if Michael, you are the only one, it makes doing this podcast worth it. So appreciate that. And I think I'm going to apply to Rotten Tomatoes one more time next year whenever submissions open up, and I think after that I'm done. I may be done now, I may get to that application next year and think I don't want to do it anymore, because it's true. The relationship I build with you guys here in my honest movie reviews means more to me than being a legit Rotten Tomatoes critic could ever be. I think at this point it's just that I've been wanting to do it for so long, been talking about it for so long. It would just be gratifying to finally have that. But I don't long for it as much as I used to. So again, thank you Michael for this email. You were this week's listener of the week. Thank you listening right now to this podcast, for being subscribed, for telling a friend. And until the next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.